Here are pictures of the roof repair of our church plant meeting place in Pamuhatan and pictures of the pastors from Pamuhatan who attended the mini-conference at Ernie’s home/church building. The conference focused on aspects of understanding New Covenant Theology and was based on a conference I taught on Samal Island last April.You will notice a small home with an extension to the front in one picture. That was the original meeting area for the church meetings. The new structure needing repair is on a neighbor’s property which was given to us for the church to put up a larger structure. We secured the property with a gift to the family. They did not want to sell it.
[new covenant theology]
Category: Worldview
New Covenant Events in Davao
Last week Ernie was able to visit Pamuhatan and fix the roof. The damage was from heavy rains caused by the typhoons up north in Manilla a few weeks earlier. Pictures will posted once I get them.
I had my weekly chat with Ernie this morning.
Here is an update on how things are moving along with Ernie, the pastors mini-conference at his home this past week ( he translated all of the seminars on aspects of New Covenant Theology that I taught last year into Bagobo for this conference), church planting hopes and ideas for further pastor training and a conference in the Philippines this year, Lord willing. Our church planting efforts are as Sovereign Grace Baptists committed to a continued understanding of New Covenant Theology as a biblical theology .
jenefaed: hello Joe.
josephkrygier: Hello my brother.
jenefaed: how are you brother?
josephkrygier: I am well and looking forward to hearing about the time with the men.
jenefaed: Dorcas and Ian are with me now. By God’s grace we finished the meeting yesterday with joy in our hearts.
josephkrygier: :Hi Dorcas and Ian
jenefaed: hello brother joe..this is ian….i am with my father i did not go to work today so i have the time to come with him… GOD bless.
jenefaed: hello brother joe. this is dorcas. this is my first time to come with ernie in your chat time. please say my hello to deborah and please do hug her for me. GOD BLESS YOU AND I MISS YOU BOTH.
jenefaed: By God’s grace the meeting was succesfully done wwith the help of our Awesome God. there were only 7 of the ten who attended the meeting because the other pastors didn’t shown up.
josephkrygier: I will do so when Deborah gets home.She just left for work.
josephkrygier: Seven is still a good number for the purpose we hoped for.
josephkrygier: One of our pastor friend is trying to see if his church can raise some funds for us to visit again this year as we discussed, in early July. I’ll will keep you updated.
josephkrygier: How did the men respond to the teaching?
jenefaed: 5 of them decided to join our ministry for the Tribal church planting ministry. That is the reason why they decided to join us because of the good teaching we have, they really appreciated the lessons from our seminar last April.
josephkrygier: That is an answer to prayer.
jenefaed: Brother Joe, as I look forward to our ministry it is going to grow with God’s blessing. There are some opportunity to plant new churches in different places in Mindanao.
josephkrygier: We are praying for that. Pray for me as I develop more of our ministry training studies for you.
jenefaed: As of now my heart’s desire is to start a new work in Cagayan de Oro but I’m still praying for more budget for this plan.
josephkrygier: . Is that where your mom is? What kind of budget is needed to start? By the way, in 2-3 weeks I will start a series on Ephesians at our fellowship. Right now in Sunday School I am doing some thematic studies in Acts.
jenefaed: yes, it is the place where my mom lives. the budget I need is for transportation and for my food as I stay in CDO, in my brother’s house. I would appreciate if you can send me some copies of your new lessons.
jenefaed: The pastors who attended the meeting decided to meet again in February and they want to have a regular meeting once a month for training. I don’t know if I can do this because of the insufficiency of funds.
josephkrygier: Ok. How many times a month would you like to get Cagayan de Oro? Figure a budget for the travel and food. I will send you lessons via email as they develop. I have added 3 messages to the Who Do Men Say I am series I have sent you. When I finish this I will send the final ones. I think you have the first 18.
jenefaed: yes I have and I put them in a book bind files. I started to study them so I can use it for our next meeting with the pastors.
josephkrygier: Ok. Budget me the cost for the five men for a monthly pastors training meeting. We will pray. Then perhaps we can at least plan for a couple of months ahead and see how God continues to provide once we start. We have another brother who has given us some funds for NCBF Davao to use as we decide what is most important.
jenefaed: I think it would be good that I can get to CDO once a month or twice a month depends upon the development of the studies.
josephkrygier: I will also be developing the studies you requested on church leadership and so on. These we will be on dvd and I will send them when completed. I will also record the Ephesians and Acts studies for you. If I am able to come this year I want to do the Sermon on the Mount for a pastors meeting as we discussed last April, but if I cannot, I will record and send it.
josephkrygier: At this time if I can come, do you think it would be better to do a conference for whoever could come like last time or focus on the pastors who will be working with us and a few others who really benefited from our last confererence?
jenefaed: thanks, but I am very optimistic that the Lord will provide all you need for our seminar this year. You are really needed that you can come. I have to choose those pastors who attended last year and we will invite the pastors who are really committed to work with us because we will continue establish a new covenant church here in Davao, the one in Pamuhatan and beyond.
josephkrygier: When you get some time, get some information on a place for a conference that would be convenient and thinking about having some of the expenses possibly on a scholarship like last year but charging something for those who could contribute, if we do something with a larger group.
josephkrygier: We could also plan another ladies seminar if Deborah is coming along.
jenefaed: I would suggest if you agree with me that we will make our seminar in CDO this year if we have a good result of our Bible study there.
josephkrygier: Agreed.
jenefaed: okey, next week I will be in CDO to start a new bible study and I will let you know what will be the development.
josephkrygier: Excellent. Also, remind me of when school registration fees are due. We have a couple studying at seminary who want to support a student for next school year.
jenefaed: yes I will but most probably we offer the scholarship to the unbelievers because this is a ministry for the lost.
josephkrygier: I sent you an email concerning a mens retreat where i will be teaching in february where some of our think tank brothers are elders.
jenefaed: ok thanks.
josephkrygier: Yes. Will we have some guidelines like last time?
jenefaed: yes I will make some guidelines.
josephkrygier: ok.
josephkrygier: I saw your pictures with Dorcas on Facebook in your traditional clothes. Very nice.
jenefaed: It is the clothes of the Bagobo Tribe. I will let you know the budget for food and travel to CDO later.
josephkrygier: I thought so from pictures you have sent with Pastor Bosay and others in the pictures at the meetings in Pamuhatan.
jenefaed: the church building in pamuhatan is now temporarilly roofed with plastic trapal, I will send the pictures of it and our meeting activity.
josephkrygier: thank you. you did mention you got there last week to do the repairs.
jenefaed: I will send pictures tomorrow and Ian will do it for me.
josephkrygier: He will appreciate that. I will post them on the websites.
jenefaed: I want to talk with you more but my eyes is already “lowbat” tired.
josephkrygier: Understood. Rest them. Talk to you next week. We have much to pray and plan for, for Christ’s glory.
jenefaed: bye for now and our love to all the saints in your church family and to Deborah.
josephkrygier: Bye.
[new covenant theology]
New Covenant Thoughts on Social Justice/Olympics
Mr. President, forget the Olympics!
I recently posted a comment about our President and social justice in this country on Facebook after watching a video on CNN about our homeless people in many cities.This issue has been skirted for years.
Tent cities similar to those during the great depression are growing in a number of communities.
Christians have an obligation to be at the forefront of social justice issues. I don’t mean this in a political sense or that if we are truly bible believing Christians that we mimic the “liberal” brand of Christianity and preach a social gospel rather than one that makes the idea of sin, repentance, God’s wrath and God’s forgiveness through the Gospel of Jesus Christ very clear.
Books can be, have been and are being written on this subject.
It needs to be in the forefront of a truly Christian witness.
When mega-churches are spending thousands to provide Starbucks like coffee bars in their lounges and multi-media experience centers in their sanctuaries and false evangelists, TV or otherwise, are raking in millions of dollars and spending it on planes, mansions and other assets, some smaller churches with little resources are attempting to do more for the poor and the hurting.
The government should not take the place of the church and we should not be advocating a theocracy but both the government and the church have an obligation to be engaged in the issue.
Let’s look at an often misused verse of Scripture that for some, advocates a Christian Theocracy in the US.
Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. Proverbs 14:34
While v. 34 makes righteousness the key to a nation’s greatness, a recipe that has nowhere been majoritively evidenced, its converse (34b) has often been proven. For such a society, mercy and justice would be an ideal foundation, Legal justice will also be of key importance to it if you read 14:25).
Leaders are only as significant as their people; v 28 points to the pressures on leadership in society. That explains something of the high stakes involved in working for them and the need to know how to handle the relationship wisely.
In a multitude of people is the glory of a king, but without people a prince is ruined. Prov. 14:28
America is not a Christian nation. What a misnomer. It never was. Yes, Christianity’s influence was a strong one but we were never a Christocentric Theocracy nor will we ever be.
That is not the goal established for us by Christ in the Gospel.
I am not embarking on a lengthy tome about the Sermon on The Mount, and the Kingdom of God ( I do have a series on it on our website in the Sermons section and we addressed some aspects at our think tank this year, also on our website on the Conferences page) but I would like to point out a few ideas about righteousness and what I believe it means in regards to this issue of social justice from a biblical view.
Proverbs was written during the Golden Age of Israel under Solomon’s reign.
Proverbs must be understood in the context of creation, the fall and redemption. The creation narratives in Genesis 1–2 depict Adam and Eve’s being addressed by God, whose word sets the boundaries of their existence (Gen. 1:28–30). Being created in the image of God and having dominion over the rest of the creation implies the use of rational faculties, as does the task of naming the animals (Gen. 2:19). The serpent tempts the couple to reject the authority of God’s word and thus to dismiss his interpretation of reality. Human rationality and intelligence are misused when humans interpret the world of experience apart from the revelation of God. The result is a different and erroneous view which may work well at the mundane and pragmatic level of human wisdom but which is ultimately self-destructive.
Proverbs points to the redemptive revelation of God to which humans must respond with ‘fear’, i.e. awe, reverence and faith. Within this framework of revelation they are able to learn from experience about the good life. When Solomon the wise forsook the fear of the Lord, the ultimate result of his apostasy was the destruction of the nation, Jerusalem and the temple. During the period of decline the prophets predicted another son of David who would be filled with wisdom. The vocabulary associated with wisdom in Proverbs 1:1–7 and 8:12–15 is similar to that used in Isaiah 11:1–5. In Israel wisdom was limited; in the new Israel it is established fully by the one who is greater than Solomon. Luke sees Proverbs 3:4 as being fulfilled in the boy Jesus (Luke 2:52). As an adult, Jesus uses the wisdom forms of proverb and parable for much of his teaching. He is not only the truly wise man, but he is the wisdom of God itself. The framework for true human empirical wisdom is the revealed wisdom of God in the gospel (1 Cor. 1:18–2:7). The fear of the Lord now includes faith in and intellectual apprehension of the gospel.
Proverbs, and the wisdom literature in general, counter the idea that being spiritual means handing all decisions over to the “leading” of the Lord. The opposite is true. Proverbs reveals that God does not make all people’s decisions for them, but rather expects them to use his gift of reason to interpret the circumstances and events of life within the framework of revelation that he has given. Yet when they have exercised their responsibility in decision-making, they can look back and see that the sovereign God has guided. Ultimately, to learn wisdom is to choose life, while a life of folly is a deliberate choice of destruction.
So how does righteousness exalt a nation?
All through the Scriptures, especially in the Old Testament, righteousness has embedded in it’s meaning the ideas of mercy and justice.
Any nation will be exalted when these two attributes are predominant.
Why?
Righteousness is ultimately a revealing of the very nature of God and it can as a shared attribute of Creation be expressed in those whom He has created.
As God gave man dominion over the earth, this is expected of man, regardless of the fall into sin. God sets up and brings down nations as He so wills. He has demands that are to be met because in the non-spiritual aspect they can be.
For the New Covenant Church this takes on an added dimension.
Jesus said if you want to be his disciple then your righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees, the religious hypocrites, and any others who are engaged in the theater of piety. In our natural state of sin this is impossible. The only way it can be accomplished is in Christ for we are the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ, we represent the mercy and justice of God in all of its aspects because we are salt and light according to Jesus’ own words.
What we should and can do should exceed what the government can do at least in principle, with honest effort.
So Mr. President, as I wrote on my Facebook wall, forget the Olympics and put some resources towards social justice and mercy. Regardless of what you say your “faith” view is, as the leader of a nation you can urge others with proverbial wisdom and practical decisions to care for the poor.
(Note: It looks like I will have to write a bit more……)
[new covenant theology]
New Covenant Goings On in Davao City, Philippines
I am using this opportunity to mention some of the wonderful things that the Lord is doing with our sister churches in the Philippines.
This link contains a quickie page with some photos taken last week at the property in Pamuhatan where Pastor Bosay is shepherding the congregation. https://www.ncbf.us/NewCovenantBaptistFellowshipEvansNY/Clearingland.html
It is adjacent to where we met as a gathering point for our evangelistic work while there in April. You can find reports about that at our website.
(New Covenant Theology – A Christ Centered hermeneutic)
It was donated by a family living on the property and we were able to send them a small gift to help the family.
I will also be adding pictures of the visitation and evangelistic work in Pamuhatan and Seabreeze soon at our website. Video will also be added.
The previous post has the link for the conference on Samal Island.
(New Covenant Theology – A Christ Centered hermeneutic)
The property in the pictures is being prepared for a larger meeting place. The small home we used as our meeting area was also being used as the first church meeting place after our meetings there. It has become too small. The church has grown to 35 in attendance.
This is an excerpt from my chat with Ernie last Friday.
I talked to a carpenter last week about the cost of materials needed and he gave me a rough estimate. We are praying for this needs. Here is the materials needed and the estimated cost; Lumber; we need 692 board feet @ 30.40/board foot, G.I. sheets; 68 pcs. @200 each, Plain sheet 6 pcs @268 each, steel 10 mm 32pcs @ 118 each, 8mm 50 pcs. @ 68 each, hollow blocks; 450 pcs @ 8.50 each, Sand and Gravel; 4 loads @ 3,500/load, tie wire 3 kls @ 60/kl, cement; 50 bags @200/bag, Plywood 20 pcs @250 each. We need your prayer for this need. Our plan to errect this building will be next year as the Lord provides. (NOTE:funds are in Philippine Pesos. Current exchange rate is for example 250 pesos=$5.13)
This Saturday September 5, 2009, the Pamuhatan and Davao Fellowships will meet together in Davao at the ocean for a baptism service. 13 from Pamuhatan and 2 from Davao.
We have set up an account number for personal support for Pastor Ernie Daasin (this is a hidden page on our website that we have put together and are getting ready for full publication) or support for the work in general through Christian Aid.
“THEOS DOULOS Church Planting Movement” is the branch of Christian Aid that will receive contributions. Whenever you wish to contribute to Ernie’s ministry, please use the giving code that is set up for him. It is 801THDO.
Distribution is as follows:
They would email Ernie each month his donor list. Every odd-numbered month, they would send the funds to him. (The funds received in September and October will be sent in November and so on.) There are NO processing fees. Every penny goes to the account. Christian Aid is unique in this. They receive nothing for providing this service.
Checks are sent to : Christian Aid Mission · P.O. Box 9037 · Charlottesville, VA 22906
Christian Aid Mission is wonderful organization that funnels aid to indigenous pastors, churches and organizations.
Regardless of your overall doctrinal convictions they are worth investigating. If you have any question contact me at ncbfevans@gmail.com
Also, if you would, pray for us that the Lord will be gracious to allow us to sell our property. As a new church plant we inherited a good church building and parsonage that we can no longer afford to maintain. The sale would allow us to do much more “ministry” focus with resources we cannot raise at the present time and we do so want to be a vital component of the work begun in the Philippines. I have been bi-vocational as the pastor since we began and continue to do so but the job market here in Buffalo is not very good as I am currently seeking employment.
Thanks for reading and praying.
[new covenant theology]
New Covenant People: The Life of an Alien – Part 2
Living as aliens in the world is the only pathway to heaven. If you choose to be at home in the world and love the things of the world, you will perish with the world. John said, “The world is passing away and its desires, but the one who does the will of God abides for ever” (1 John 2:17).
So the question of how to keep our alien identity is not an idle question. It is utterly important. Our eternal destiny hangs on it.
Paul wrote in 2Ti 2:12 If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us;
There is no way that we are true believers if we do not endure to the end. To believe less is to deny the purpose of God for His adopted ones in Christ. He who began a good work in you is faithful to complete it. All of the promises in Him are yea and Amen.
God has purposed it for us to be aliens. As such we see our sufficiency in him. The world is not sufficient for us. The world and all of its wisdom, power and deceit will be put under the feet of Christ and in essence already is. He is the king of kings and Lord of Lords. Men just do not acknowledge it yet. But they will even unto their own condemnation.
Yet, there are many who are forsaking the way of the alien to be popular.
Today we have the Purpose Driven Church and the Emerging Church both of which are sacrificing the gospel and preaching messages that are focused on felt needs and problem solving in practical terms without applying biblical doctrine.
Dr. D. A Carson writes about the Emerging church and says,
“At the heart of the Emergent Church movement—or as some of its leaders prefer to call it, the “conversation”—lies the conviction that changes in the culture signal that a new church is “emerging.” Christian leaders must therefore adapt to this emerging church. Those who fail to do so are blind to the cultural accretions that hide the gospel behind forms of thought and modes of expression that no longer communicate with the new generation, the emerging generation. One reason why the movement has mushroomed so quickly is that it is bringing to focus a lot of hazy perceptions already widely circulating in the culture. It is articulating crisply and polemically what many pastors and others were already beginning to think, even though they did not enjoy—until the leaders of this movement came along—any champions who put their amorphous malaise into perspective.”
Here are eight points from a book on missions from an Emerging Church believer’s book on missions: Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission. His name is David Bosch.
“1. Accept co-existence with different faiths gladly, not begrudgingly. It is not their fault if they are alive. 2. Dialogue presupposes commitment to one’s position, so it is surely not a bad thing to listen well. Dialogue should be congruent with confidence in the gospel. 3. We assume that the dialogue takes place in the presence of God, the unseen Presence. In such dialogue we may learn things, as Peter does in Acts 10–11. Similarly, Jesus learns from his interchange with the Syrophoenician woman. 4. Missional dialogue requires humility and vulnerability. But that should not frighten us, for when we are weak, we are strong. It is surely right, for instance, to acknowledge earlier atrocities committed by Christians, even as we remain careful not to disparage those earlier Christians. 5. Each religion operates in its own world and therefore demands different responses from Christians. 6. Christian witness does not preclude dialogue. 7. The “old, old story” may not be the true, true story, for we continue to grow, and even our discussion and dialogues contribute to such growth. In other words, the questions raised by postmodernism help us to grow. 8. Live with the paradox: we know no way of salvation apart from Jesus Christ, but we do not prejudge what God may do with others. We must simply live with the tension.”
Let me define post modernism for you.
It is a worldview that emphasizes the existence of different worldviews and concepts of reality, rather than one “correct or true” one. (ie. the absolutes of Christianity for example are meaningless) Whereas modernism the predecessor of postmodernism emphasized a trust in the empirical scientific method, and a distrust and lack of faith in ideologies and religious beliefs that could not be tested using scientific methods; postmodernism emphasizes that a particular reality is a social construction by a particular group, community, or class of persons. (In other words whatever you or a group want to believe about anything is the truth. The bible calls that each man being right in his own eyes and we know what that led to.
Now I want to ask Mr. Bosch what did Jesus learn from the Syrophoenecian woman?
What different response am I to give to a Muslim, a Hindu, a Mormon, a Jehovah’s witness, a Catholic, a Jew, a Buddhist and so on concerning the absolute truth of Jesus Christ and that He is the way the truth and the life.
Yes, I may use a little different tactic with each to get them to where they need to think about sin and a personal redeemer but in the end it is the same absolute truth that is found in Christ and Christ alone.
Now you may ask why bother with all this intellectual nonsense.
Brethren we are to have a Christian worldview and it must stand the test of the times in which we live. Christians are to be thinkers. Biblical doctrine requires sound reasoning with the help of the Holy Spirit to lead us into truth. We must work at understanding the Scripture. We are to labor at it otherwise we do come off like mean spirited, narrow-minded bigots.
To be an alien in the land does not mean to be ignorant of the land and those who inhabit it. Post-modernism is the mainstream philosophy against which we fight the good fight of faith in the secular realm. This is the thinking of the newer generation and those who have leapt from one philosophy to another just to be relevant to the times.
It is all in the name of tolerance and cultural pluralism.
There are those who have called themselves Christians who now believe in Universalism, meaning that as long as a man in some way proves to love God, he will go to heaven.
Sadly we have those who call themselves Christians who are not living like aliens but are living like the world around them and accomodating the world in Christ’s church.
If we are truly aliens we should be longing for the consummation of the kingdom in the return of Christ. There are many things in this world that should make us uncomfortable.
We should not forget that once we were alienated from God, without help and without hope. But by His grace we have been helped and we have the greatest hope even as Peter later writes, “we are born again unto a living hope.”
As aliens we are sanctified unto obedience. This is the will of God for us. This is the purpose for us. Our lives are to show a desire for Christ above all other things.
We are to be seeking the beauty of our New Covenant as it is found in the person of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ and savor every moment that we can in the joy of Christ and Christ alone.
We are the elect of God for no other reason than the fact that He loved us so that we could love Him. By His grace and who we are in Christ Jesus we are no longer God haters but we have become incurable lovers of God who can obey the commands of God because they are not burdensome.
We have our rest in Christ and no matter what trials will come our way as aliens in a strange land we will endure by the grace of God unto the glory of God if we are truly Christ’s.
New Covenant People: The Life of an Alien
1* ¶ Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2* , an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5* who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6* ¶ In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, 7* so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 8* and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9* obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.
Peters’ purpose in writing this letter seems to be based on clearly making it known to his readers about the heavenly inheritance. He also follows Christ’s example, if we would reflect back to the Sermon on the Mount and other passages where Jesus guarantees persecution for the believer, to give consolation to the persecuted, and to prepare them for a greater approaching ordeal. Peter exhorts all by letter’s end – husbands, wives, servants, elders, and people to live as good citizens wherever they are, so as to give no reason for the enemy to reproach Christianity or the Gospel of Christ. Rather he would hope that they would win them to it, reminding them that they are established in the faith and others can be as well:
1Pt.5:12 Through Silvanus, our faithful brother (for so I regard him), I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it!
1 Pet.5:12 refers to Peter’s exhortations throughout the Epistle grounded on testimony which he bears to the Gospel truth, already well known to his readers by the teaching of Paul in those churches. They were already introduced “into” (so the Greek, 1Pe 5:12) this grace of God as their safe standing-ground. Paul writes in 1Co 15:1, “I declare unto you the Gospel “wherein ye stand.” As we stand in the Gospel we stand in Christ for we are placed in Him and He is the good news, He is the living Word.
Therefore Peter does not, in this Epistle, set forth a complete statement of this Gospel doctrine of grace, but falls back on it as already known by those he is writing to.
Those to who he is writing understand the doctrines of grace: total depravity, unconditional election, particular atonement, irresistible grace and the perseverance of the saints. As they stand in this grace they are considered to be aliens.
Vs.1 who reside as aliens
All Christians, if they rightly consider their calling, must never settle themselves here in this temporal place and kingdom, but see themselves as travelers, sojourners and as pilgrims waiting for the consummation of Christ’s kingdom to come in His person unto the praise of His glorious grace. Jesus taught us “My kingdom is not of this world”. Yes we are members of His kingdom, but it is not of this present world or its system. The kingdom of God is within us and where ever we are there exists the kingdom of God, in small tracts as it were, as we gather as bodies of believers throughout this world. We should live as aliens and many times brethren we are made to be aliens in many lands and many places. We are not wanted. However we are God’s chosen.
Vs.1 who are chosen
We are the chosen, the elect (KJV, NKJV, ESV) of God if we are standing in the grace of the gospel. The word chosen comes from -eklektos –to elect, to show favor, to select out from, which is synonymous with being the blessed of the Sermon on the Mount. We are the favored of God if we have genuinely repented and believed in Christ and have the promise of the kingdom of heaven as our own. “Many are called but few are chosen”, said Jesus. And we are chosen,
Vs. 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father
There is great misunderstanding of this word among many Christians. Inherent in this knowledge of God is a loving of the object of His knowledge.
Foreknowledge here signifies the free favor and good will of God, which is the fountain from whence the decree of election proceeds; and then we are to take elect in the sense, and so elect according to the foreknowledge of God, as being eternally designed unto eternal life, according to, or out of, that free grace and love which God did from eternity bear towards them, which was the only motive he had for his choosing them.
The father had an intimate relationship with the Son,
1Pe 1:20* For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you.
Now this election is a work of the Holy Spirit.
Vs.2. by( in or through) the sanctifying work of the Spirit,
The “election” of God is realized and manifested “IN” their sanctification. Believers are “sanctified through the offering of Christ once for all” (Heb 10:10). “Thou must believe and know that thou art holy; not, however, through thine own piety, but through the blood of Christ”, Martin Luther
So we must determine what is sanctification?
Sanctification is the Spirit’s setting apart of the saint as consecrated to God. It is the execution of God’s choice (Gal. 1:4). God the Father gives us salvation by gratuitous election; the Son earns it by His blood-shedding; the Holy Spirit applies the merit of the Son to the soul by the Gospel word as Jesus meant when He said “you are washed by the Word”. We must hear the gospel and respond with repentance and faith to show we have been regenerated and washed by the word. We are sanctified
(this is not all of what sanctification is but it is the germaine idea in this context)
Vs.2 , to obey Jesus Christ
There is no other reason to be set apart by God for God’s purposes.
Paul wrote that we are saved to do the works God has ordained for us.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10, NAS95).
Heaven is not our good works it is a benefit of being the elect unto God’s glory.
We are not saved to go to heaven, although we are going to be in the kingdom forever. We go to heaven because we are saved.
So much of our preaching the gospel is result oriented rather than Christ centered.
The purpose of the gospel is for God to call His elect from the corners of the world for His purposes.
And that is revealed in that we are called
unto obedience-the result or end aimed at by God as respects us, is the obedience which consists in faith, and that which flows from faith; as Peter writes “obeying the truth through the Spirit” (1Pe 1:22); as Paul writes, Ro 1:5, “obedience to the faith,” We must show the fruit of faith in our obedience. We are aliens. The language and values and customs and expectations of this world feel foreign to us. Something really radical has happened to us. Peter says in verse 3: God has caused us to be born again to a living hope—for another world, another, greater kind of existence. Paul put it this way: “You have died and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you will appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:3-4). Jesus called us to live like aliens—to fix our minds on radically different priorities than the nations:
Mt. 5:31 “Do not be anxious then, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘With what shall we clothe ourselves?’ 32 “For all these things the nations eagerly seek (that’s the way people live whose citizenship is here in this world); for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.
God will supply your needs in the foreign land of the world if you orient your life on the kingdom of God and his values and purposes and righteousness.
We are aliens. And living like aliens is utterly necessary. O, what a tragedy when an alien falls in love with the world. In Colossians and Philemon Paul called Demas his fellow worker along with Luke and Mark. But in the last letter 2 Timothy, he wrote these terrible words, “Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.” This is a great tragedy when a professing believer throws away his faith and hope in the future world, renounces his citizenship there, and lives for “this present world.”
When professing Christian aliens are absorbed into the world and give up walking by the constitution of the kingdom and give up loving the King and give up pursuing the cravings of the kingdom, then they have no warrant for thinking that they will inherit the kingdom. “They went out from us,” John said (1 John 2:19), “but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us.” to be cont’d.
Christ, The New Covenant Inteperets The Old Covenant
“It is, in other words, that all the law and all the prophets point to Him and will be fulfilled in Him down to the smallest detail. Everything that is in the law and the prophets culminates in Christ, and He is the fulfillment of them. It is the most stupendous claim that He ever made.” D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, on Matt. 5:17, 18
So then, how do we interpret the bible? Or let me say it another way. How do we understand the text, the printed page that we hold in our hands in light of who Christ is as the Living, Eternal Word of God.? This is an aspect of New Covenant Theology.
If we understand that Jesus is the Living Word and that means that He is the Word incarnate, then we can understand that the first way to understand Scripture is to understand Christ because that is the priority of Scripture from Genesis to The Revelation. If we do this we can say that the text we read was lived by Him. So, what we read about Him all through Scripture as God, as Jesus, and as The Holy Spirit, reveals to us His completeness as a person with all of His attributes and as we understand that and how He has acted before He was incarnate and how He lived as the God/man then we can more easily understand the things He says with His words because His life and His words are indicative of who He is and the imperatives- the commands He gives us – once we are in Him, are rooted or established first in Him and who He is then in us and who He has made us to be. We have the Living Torah, The Living Word, the Inscription of God. When we read Romans 12:1,2 this should give us a better understanding of why and how we understand the Word of God.
“1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:1, 2, NAS95.
For us the will of God in essence is growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord.
Romans 12:1-2 can be seen, as some may say, as a way and others would say the means of doing this.
In the first verse, Paul speaks of a call to worship that all Christians will and must embrace to some degree or there is no work of the abiding Holy Spirit and a changed heart.
Paul speaks of the literal human body as a sacrifice unto God. Instead of taking a lamb to slaughter as a sacrifice for God, as Israel did before Jesus died on the Cross, Paul offers up visual imagery to allow the reader to better understand that Christians should offer their bodies unto Christ. This use of sacrificial language by Paul is important to mention. Literal sacrificial worship at this time was very vivid in the minds of most ancient religions, including Judaism. Using metaphors to describe this sacrificial act of worship were vastly understood by the Roman culture that he originally wrote the book of Romans to (Moo 73). Therefore, this usage of language was not foreign to the people that he wrote this specific letter to. This mention of a so-called spiritual sacrifice is considered an act of worship. Paul displays this sacrificial speech in symbolic and cultic terms in these verses (Moo 750). Instead of a literal slaughter of the human body, Christians should offer the body to be used by God for his discernment and will. The word “urge” or beseech in this verse is a translation of the Greek word parakaleo. This word is designed to deliver the correct meaning and usage of the word, which has moral undertones within it. The word parakaleo was often used when signaling a shift in conversation in the Greek language (Moo 73). Therefore, when a slight subject change was to be noted in text, this is a common word to include in usage to signal this change in conversation. This verse is designed to ask for dedication from Christians unto God, without demanding this act. Because the act of giving the body to Christ is an act of worship, this act cannot be forced but one who is truly regenerated does not need to be forced because we possess the desire to do so, albeit the conflict of the remnant of the old man may at times cause a struggle within us. . This worship is, however, a worship that not only involves the mind, the heart meaning the total being of who we are in Christ.
The second verse of this passage speaks of God’s ability to transform an individual. The transformation is a life long enterprise as we are seeking the prize and the goal of Christ our Lord. Paul here is not referring, although some tend to believe so, to the church to stop conforming to the world, but is saying be continually being transformed into the likeness of Christ, into who you are. This is a direct reference to the theology of Romans chapter 5-8. Not being conformed to the world, the age that produces what we were. Here in Romans 12, because of the work that has been accomplished for us by Christ from justification to sanctification to the indwelling of the Spirit we are now to be who we are according to the renewing process that keeps transforming us into the likeness of Christ. To be transformed is having the mind of Christ in a growing way, in a maturing way, in knowing the Living Word and His words and walking in the Spirit. Knowing the will of God does not first come from obeying some external standards of law like the Decalogue. We are bound to the Law of Christ which includes all that Jesus has taught us and that which has been taught us by His apostles, all that is Jesus’ teaching preserved in the teaching of the NT writers (This was Jesus’ own plan: John 16:12; John 14:25, 26; John 15:26, 27; 16:12-15). This includes how they interpreted the Old Testament Scriptures in light of Christ, which then gives us the proper understanding of how to understand the Old Testament Scriptures as they are fulfilled in Christ. In this way we know that all Scripture is given to us by Christ and therefore is inspired and we learn what is for teaching by way of illustration from the Old Testament and what can be applied in light of Christ in the New Covenant. For example, we do not follow the dietary laws of the Old Covenant but they teach us about the holiness of God’s people and how they were meant to be set apart as different. We see in all the sacrifices, which we do not make, that they pointed to Christ and are all fulfilled in Him. This informs and instructs us but we don’t do those things.
But the Law of Christ is Christ Himself and His law is written on our hearts. That Law is there because by His Spirit, His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ we are internally driven to outwardly show who we are and a means of that is the desire to obey the imperatives-the commands- the written laws that reveal the standard of Christ for His New Covenant people. We are not shaped by the imperatives but by what Christ has made us to be and is making to be. I am not who I am in Christ because of what I do I do what I do because of who I am, even though in this life it will be imperfect.
We should not be saying, as Steve Fuchs has written, “that Jesus is the guy we need to obey and imitate.”
“We should be saying that ‘Jesus is causing us to act RIGHTLY’. It’s no longer about obedience to codes, but anticipation for being fully ruled.
It’s about taking our eyes off of what we need to do in sanctification, fixing them instead on what we are/are becoming by his sanctifying work and fixing them on the glory of what is in store for us and longing for Him to speed up the procession being excited to be ruled (driven) entirely by Him in every act and thought.
We are still under a Law, but it’s a law of a different nature. His nature is Spirit, not code. Codes tell, but Spirit causes. This Spirit who causes us to think and act righteously is not conforming us to the list of imperatives in the NT anymore than to the Decalogue alone or the whole of Law and Prophets
This Law of Christ is everlasting in the forward AND backward sense.
He existed from the beginning even while He was only revealed in the shadows of Law and Prophets. He was always the true substance of Righteousness.
The True Covenant didn’t change so much as His substance became fully visible and exposed the shadows to be mere shadows (Col 2 uses the word ‘mere’ ).
None-the-less, among the shadows the faith of OC believers trusted that He would perfect them by ruling their very thoughts and desires with His own Spirit.
Our hope should not long for how much we’ll obey codes.
Our hope should be fixed on the Righteousness He is fulfilling in us…ruling our thoughts and desires to be perfect as the Father is perfect.”
As the living Word is eternal and as His people we are eternal then His words and the result of them will never pass away.
[new covenant theology]
Pass the salt and Piper
It is a wonderful thing to be able to use the resources of the internet to further our studies and to come and love Christ more. It has enabled those who are inclined to do so to participate in bible conferences via audio and video in a way that was just not possible a few years ago.
Often, a person, including me, may not have had the resources to go to that one conference that might benefit their maturing in Christ. Equally there may not have been the resources to buy the tapes or cd’s or dvd’s.
It’s not that we cannot grow without a bible conference. We probably would grow more with less. More of our study would be first hand not second hand.
But of course, we all benefit from men whom God has gifted with certain areas of understanding that we have not yet discovered.
I mention this because we have been using John Piper’s teaching on Don’t Waste Your Life, not from the book, but hearing him teach it in person at the 2008 Conference, http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/ConferenceMessages/ByConference/40/
We are viewing this a part of a study time on Sunday morning before our larger meeting. Being bi-vocational, not only does this periodic use of technology help me prepare some other studies but I benefit from it as much as anyone else and it makes it a live event for all of us. We can say we “attended” the conference together, which probably would never occur in real time.
The use of technology for the advancement of the kingdom is a reality today. There are many pastor’s who long for the fellowship of the brethren and have never even been to a pastor’s conference.
As I prepare to teach a pastor’s conference in the Philippines over Easter, this is something that really is on my heart.
When I think of what one computer, a video projector and internet access could mean to a group of pastors in under resourced areas of the world who are attempting to keep up their studies, I get really excited.
Using a tool like WebEx ( or others), you could teach a conference from your church building or your home to as many people as could be assembled on the other side of the world in a room and with a monitor and a microphone have compete interaction using powerpoint or any other teaching tools.
Most of us know that online education is the present reality for even some of the top schools in the world. In a day of uncertain economics and political unrest, the training of national pastors and missionaries can take on a whole new dimension. That does not exclude personal contact periodically, but rather than getting together once a year or less frequently this could be done more frequently depending on how the resources are set up on the other end.
I am amazed at how much money needs to be raised to send one family as missionaries when using technology (in many places) and using nationals once trained, that same money could support ten times as many national workers.
Mission agencies have not caught on to this yet. But local churches could do so much more by developing relationships with nationals and then using technology afterwards. I am convinced we could send out hundreds if not thousands more pastor/ missionaries in this way. Mission agencies could become a thing of the past with a few churches partnering together to do what they are attempting to do.
So pass the salt and Piper ( or whoever else can provide Christ centered teaching for all of us) via the dinner table of the internet so that we can see the kingdom advance for the glory of our Lord and Savior.
An ar-rest room incident
Just how far do we go to run away from the real issues in our society has been clearly evidenced in the current “toilet sting” involving Senator Craig.
First of all, the man pleads guilty to something he says he did not do, believing it would be politically expedient.
Secondly, homosexual senators, which Craig claims he is not, have been caught in all kinds of compromising circumstances over the years and to no loss of support from their constituents. Barney Frank from Massachusets is an example. So, what was Craig thinking?
Thirdly, Sen Craig’s children were interviewed on GMA and Diane Sawyer asked them if it would bother them if their father was a homosexual – her term was gay. They responded that it would not matter. He was still their father and he was still their kids grandfather.
They love their father unconditionally. Some Christians have a lesson to learn here.
However, it seems to me that the question that should have been asked was,
“Would it have bothered you, if it is true, that your father was soliciting sex in a public place and it may have been a teen or underage person that he was unknowingly approaching?”
It is obvious that homosexuality is not an issue here. One does not have to be a homosexual to engage in lewd solicitations even if same sex. There is a lot of experimentation that goes on today.
If I were Diane Sawyer I would have asked Sam Champion, the weather guy, who is openly homosexual and public about it, if soliciting males in public toilets is acceptable to him as a homosexual. That would have been an answer to wait for.
It is obvious that from a world view that does not accept the Word of God as being true or having anything to do with addressing the morality of people that homosexuality is firmly entrenched in the culture as normative sexuality.
In Canada for example, Bill C-250, authored by New Democratic Party Member of Parliament Svend Robinson, had come under fire from Focus on the Family and some other religious groups based on the argument that it prohibits the preaching of various Scripture condemning homosexuality. Supporters of the bill reject this argument due to provisions that they say protect religious groups from prosecution if religious believers criticise homosexual behavior in a way that does not promote hatred.
The problem here is who will interpret the criticism when “conservative” bible believers are universally condemned as being “homophobic” already. And if I say God hates sin and homosexuality is a sin, where does that lead? And if I am even more biblical and say God hates those who sin then I am really in for it.
5:1 ¶ Give ear to my words, O LORD, Consider my groaning. 2 Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God, For to You I pray 3 In the morning, O LORD, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.4 For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You. 5 The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity.
The Family As Witness
¶ O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.¶ I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Roman 11:33-12:2The Family is the central unit of God’s ordained plan for humanity. This does not mean that those who are not married or will not marry are any less important.But we can see that after God created man, He gave him a helpmeet, a more than suitable helper. And in the context of the first family unit, male and female, Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve, God had a purpose for this unit to glorify God.Through the process of sublte temptation through Satanic dialogue and willingness on Adam and Eve’s part, found in Gen 3:1-13, some terrible things occured; things that continue to this day and will continue until God ends time and humanity as we know it. – These things are: doubting the word of God, devalueing the word of God, distorting the word of God, denying the word of God, denouncing the word of God and finally, distrusting the Word of god .The sin of one family member affected and infected the rest of the family and ultimately the entire human race.The same truth is spoken of in James 1:8-16. James reveals to us 5 downward steps in the integrity of man.”A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished bringeth forth death.”James 1:8-15 KJV.Doublemindedness, desire, deception, disobedience and death.This first family unit , by its ordained head, Adam, was responsible for man falling from His perfect position in God’s creation, and then realising spirtual death and ultimately physical death, because God did not receive the glory that was due Him. And because of Adam’s sin, all have fallen short of giving God the glory due Him for He alone is worthy to be praised because of his excellent greatness.This family unit was expected to produce children who would be nurtured in the ways and the admonitions of the Lord, with the express purpose of being a witness to the glory of God, but notice, the fall of Adam occured before there were children.The family as witness for the glory of God begins with the head and then to the mother and then to the children, and take note: that children have no personal witness to the glory of God until they, like any other sinner have been saved by the grace of God.The failure of the first human family to glorify god is no different than our families today, failing to glorify god as we should. Sin is the root cause of our failure, but our failure is not final. the grace and mercy of our lord were avaolable to adam and eve and they are to his adopted children today.However, the same sublte temptation and satanic dialogue to cause God’s true children and families to defect from the sure and pure of word is ever present.Today it does not manifest itself through the lips of a serpent.But, the deliverers of the lies and Satanic dialogues are just as dangerous.It may come in the form of Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Shintoism, Hinduism, Secular Humanism, Mormanism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, or New Age religions and philosophies in its myriad of manifestations.It comes from the host of untruths that we are subjected to in the media, in the workplace and in our schools.We are bombarded with the lies of secularism, behavioral psychology and evolutionary teaching and to some degree you have no control over this attack. There is a disease or a disorder to explain every action of every little disobedient brat and every immoral adult who is immersed in their sinful behavior. There is an excuse or someone to blame it on or a pill to control the symptoms.The world says do not use the rod or you will destroy the child. the world says your sexual appetites are natural animal tendencies, so have it your way. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life are what you need to be healthy and wealthy and worldly wise, so get your instant gratification, but do it safely and legally when ever it is possible.The world says be full of yourself. Get Self esteem, seek self improvement, discover self actualization.But God says deny yourself, apart from me you cannot do anything of eternal value, and know Me and My will.So brethren, in light of such seemingly overwhelming circumstances, how do families become a witness in this wicked world of condemned sinners? How do we as pilgrims on a temporary journey uphold the eternal truths as God’s adopted children knowing that our Father has provided for us all spritual blessings in Christ Jesus and daily blesses us with benefits? We do it by acknowledging the the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! We do it by not forgetting that For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. “Not only all things in nature and providence, he being the Maker and cause of things, and the preserver and supporter of them … and to whose glory they are all designed and directed; but all things in grace owe their origins to him, as their first cause; they are produced by him, and make for his glory; they all spring from his sovereign will, are brought about by his almighty power, and tend to the glory of his grace; as does every thing in election, redemption, and regeneration: particularly the counsels and purposes of God respecting men… which all rise out of his own heart, without any motive or inducement to them in the creature; are accomplished by his divine power,notwithstanding all the opposition of men and devils; and all issue in his glory, even such of them as may seem to carry in them severity to some of his creatures: and since this is the case, the following doxology, or ascription of glory to God, is justly and pertinently made, and which will be given to him by angels and men to all eternity, for the perfection of his being, the counsels of his will, and the works of his hands, both of nature and grace;” John Gill