Christ our Prophet

"Christ's prophetic work does not cease, however, with the end of his earthly ministry at his Ascension. As Louis Berkhof notes, Christ'continues His prophetical activity through the operation of the Holy Spirit. His teachings are both verbal and factual, that is, He teaches not only by verbal communications, but also by the facts of revelation, such as the incarnation, His atoning death, the resurrection and ascension.'7 Christ is the one who sends the Holy Spirit, and as the Spirit of Christ, he is the one who'will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment' (Jn 16:8). As Christ is the Word incarnate, and the central figure in biblical revelation, so too we cannot divorce the work of his Spirit from the written word. Since Christ fulfills the office of prophet, and since he continues to speak to us through his word-and only through his word-the Reformed are very reticent to give any credence to supposed'words from God,' or'words of knowledge' from modern day schwärmer such as Pat Robertson or Benny Hinn who repeatedly make such claims to speak forth Spirit-led utterances." -Kim Riddlebarger, The Triple Cure: Jesus Christ - Our Prophet, Priest and King

Ps 102

From the perspective of this psalm we see that God, for some reason has poured out his wrath upon the psalmist. The sufferings culminate with the accusation to God in v10. Where is God in the midst of the frustration of our daily labors and how “under the sun” we find no hope because our bones are, “scorched like the hearth”(v3). God has held back his redemption and allowed the enemies to overrun his people.

The psalmist here, as we are to, calls out to the Lord in his time of suffering for the Lord to remove his wrath both inwardly, and outwardly. However in a more negative example blames God for his suffering, and is possibly complaining about the curse that is upon this world. But this is not the end for the psalmist praises the Lord for his work.

Looking forward the psalmist in v.12 shifts his gaze to the everlasting nature of God. He see’s an appointed time where God will redeem a people for himself from every tribe and nation that a “people yet created may praise the Lord”(v18) so that, “The nations will fear the name of the Lord”(v15). And that when Paul spoke of the “fullness of time” (Gal 4:6) so does the psalmist here in v.13 speak of a appointed time when God will endure forever. The horizon of this psalm and our life collide in the person and work of Christ.

Let us focus upon the last three verses(26-28), but turn If you turn to Hebrews chapter 1, in verse 3 we see that Christ has made “purification for sins” and is the final way that God has spoken to his people. And when he speaks of the superiority of the son in v.8 he then goes on to quote Ps 102:26-28 in Heb 1:10-12. Christ is the salvation that will not wear out. Everything will change but the salvation that remains secure in Christ will never fade away.

For us we can take comfort that no matter how beaten down we get at work or because of our families because life is hard. We have a salvation that is established, firm, and as heaven and earth pass away so the word of the Lord, Christ our King will never pass away.

The Dual Purposes of the Law

"While we are instructing Gods people in the details of the their duty, we may be teaching his enemies the number of their sins." -R.L. Dabney, Lectures on Sacred Rhetoric, pg 62

Simply note the dual purpose of instruction here that Dabney gives to preachers, the law needs to be expounded both to convict, but also to instruct. The point is to be specific when talking about sin. It is not enough simply to tell people they are going to hell but the specific explanation of what they have done wrong and how they have done it needs to be applied as a hammer to their conscience, not just to break but to smash their good deeds. People need to smell the blood on their hands from the murder they have been committing by breaking Gods law. Thankfully we have a high priest who bloodied himself for us. He was numbered for our sins so we did not have to be.

Ps 101

What grips the hearts of wounded soldiers in this psalm is the tension of personal battles and corporate battles. This is the tension that we all feel. The failures that gut us and the hopes that galvanize our souls for service. The personal battles and the communal battles split this psalm in half at v. 5 showing the dual nature of Christian responsibility. The unpredictable nature of battles are shot through with failure. Failures that we as individuals and a community must lament.

This psalm laments the delay of Gods judgment upon the wicked. Both, the temple of our bodies, and the temple of the church built with living stones lament. However; pilgrims, with lamentation comes joy in their journey they near the end. And with joy so the song. The psalm starts in lament, yet also in joy because of the loving-kindness of our God. Because of the faithfulness of Christ, we are now able to depart from sin.

The faithfulness of Christ is found in two areas as the kingship of David is shown in two areas in this psalm. It is both personal and communal. These two sections split the psalm in half at v.5. We know this because he moves from the first person to the third and begins to invoke his rule. The personal aspect first we see in verse one as a lamenting song of joy. Joy in what you ask? The loving-kindness of our God. Songs to who? Songs to our transcendent God who comes near in the immanent humanity of Christ. Keep in mind that this very verbal act of singing separates Gods people from the pagan hordes because we have a basis and a object to sing to out of a pure motive. The basis is the love of God. He calls, he gives, we receive, and thus we sing. The object of our song is not a separated mystical reality, or a narcissistic ‘Song of Myself’ by Mr. Whitman. But our song is to a God who acts in history, who moves the mountains, calms the sea, and radically divorces his people by the power of his voice from their sin through the pilgrimage of the exodus into the promised land. This is the object in this psalm and despite the overflow of wickedness in our world; it is cause for us to rejoice. Sing oh people of God, and sing with joy as the son of righteousness rises on the breath of your prayers and the preaching of his word.

But where then does the church sing? Two places, here and there. Here in the church, and there in heaven. We come and partake of heaven as we invoke the name of the Lord together with the psalmist, “O LORD”! Who has this privilege? None but the saints here and the saints there. The saints in this room and the saints in heaven who are our kin.

But now, back to our psalm, notice here another fact built upon the loving-kindness of our God. The psalmist walks in the integrity of his heart(v2). How? Is this not David the murderer? The adulterer? Yes it is but, because of the grace of God David sought the future grace in Christ and was given what he did not receive, a pardon. A pardon of a new heart. The old was ripped out and the new soldered in by the Holy Spirit.

The final section, 5-8, the king wields his zeal upon those who do not keep Gods law. The language is very brash for our modern tolerant age. But do not be afraid of these harsh ethical encounters such as: “I hate”, “I will destroy”, “to cut off”. We are not to fear these because they show us the ethics of the final judgment of God when Christ comes for war, for restitution, for final peace. It looks forward to this erasure of the curse. In a future hope he will violently remove the curse from this world. This was inaugurated in the coming of Christ.

What part do we play in this grand drama of redemption that is laid out before us? Let us grab and take hold of a threefold cord of application because it is not easily broken. First, we as Gods people have comfort now in the indicative of the Lords loving-kindness (v.1) bestowed upon us in Christ, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). While David was yet a sinner, Christ died for him, and so for us. We also can walk in “integrity of heart” in a world that is eroding away from the inside because Christ has made us alive through the resurrection power at work within us.

Second, our example here is to despise sin and love God and our neighbors. We can now, “set no worthless thing before our eyes”(v.3) but to “look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” Our example here is to buy for ourselves treasures that cannot rust by despising the glories of this world. By losing this world we gain the other.

Third, the hope for tomorrow is that this cursed world is being, “cut off from the city of the Lord” (v.8). Hope is heavenly Zion come upon us with the return of our Lord. Our weakness’s, failures, pains, hardships, and mishaps will all be gone and our faith will become sight.

So, beloved, pilgrims of the Lord, be strong in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ today in the future hope of forest fire purity that comes with our lord as he rides upon the clouds.

Summer Time...

This summer I am an intern a Covenant Reformed OPC in Mt. Airy NC. It is going to be a very exciting time as my pastor has dead bear skins on his walls, head included. This week was full of adventures to say the least I had my first trip to Walmart in the South.

I will be under Pastor Brent Ferry a graduate of Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia. He was an author in the The Law is Not of Faith a book put out by my school. He also recently finished a Th.M. at Westminster Philedelphia's London campus on the history of the use of the mosaic economy in reformed theology. He has also contributed to many magazines and articles. Here is a full list. Read up its great stuff!

This summer should be full of exciting adventure in the South for me. It is already exciting because they have Waffle House in the south, sometimes home to toothless waitress's. This summer should include everything tales of mexican food in the south to my preaching. Stay tuned!

White Horse Inn

One of my professors at seminary has started a radio show called White Horse Inn. They have a blog, I recently submitted and was accepted to have an article posted on the blog.

Enjoy.

https://www.whitehorseinn.org/archives/248.html

Garbage Burning Fail

Garbage Burning Fail: "

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Rawness of This world

Corruption, Filth, Drugs.

My Friends

I love how interesting my friends are. They are truly a blessind and much need encouragement to me all the time. The following transcript is such an encouragement:

me: right..you have nothing to proove. i'll beleive that when i see it
clint: the only thing i lost out on was my pride
me: 'you can live off what people throw away!'
clint: yeah, well thats already been proven
and still is. dude i found a dead deer on the road. and went back at dark to harvest it, and somebody already took it!!!
freshly dead.
me: yeah they are called animal control

I love my friends.

Carl at it again

For all two of you read my blog you should know that I devour most articles that Carl Trueman puts up on the Reformation21 blog. We'll lady and gentleman, he is at it again.

He gives a brief synopsis of what it means to make committed decisions in our world that has elevated the ability to choose as the highest human right. This has many problems but let me just give you a few quotes to stir your appetite for destruction:

"To Lead is to Choose."

"...if it is true that this generation is addicted to the cult of choice and of keeping all options open, is it not the case that this generation is ill-equipped to hold any position of leadership?" And I would ask this as well. Because you have to commit to lead and in a generation that will make no enemies how can this be done?

"Of course, there are many other aspects of our culture which point to this reality of emotional retardation. The compulsive need of some to be liked, to the extent that any criticism of them generates visceral and personal responses speaks of a deeply insecure and immature section in our culture."

"The man who has no enemies has no honour." However, the problem with this Presbyterian saying this, is that he makes excuses not to make reconciliation. It is true what he is saying, but, if we are not careful, our humility will go out the window as our enemies grow.

Read the article, its really good.

Long Time, No Blog

As of late I have been working two jobs, breaking into my new marriage, and trying to study 4 books at once. Therefore, I have not had much time to blog, let alone much else. Despite the such the summer is going quite nicely. I have been thoroughly enjoying my sojourn in Lake Tahoe and it is becoming an ever increasingly special plate to me. Much nostalgia.

Theologically Im just getting more pissed off than ever. Recently people in high positions are making excuses for the church not to be evaglistic, or to use their terms we are only supposed to be a 'witness' and then the officers in the church are supposed to do all the work. Sounds like the catholic church to me, where the priest(officer) does everything.

Along those lines Im trying to figure out myself theologically. There are a lot of discrepancies between the Missional(Mark Driscoll and the church I am going to right now) and the Reformed(old stuffy knowitalls). This is causing a great rift in my brain and will take a bunch of time to sort out. But Im gonna try and stick it out at Westminster Semitary(oops) California, where intelect comes to grow and humilty comes to shrink. At least that has been my observation, because they cant admit that they suck, not even at one thing, which is what we in the working world call arrogance, but in academia your nitch.

However with the daily joys of my personal bible reading(Christ is alive!), my wife, the few times I get to go rock climbing, and failblog all hope is not yet lost.

Here is an encouraging quote by Shakespeare to end this blog(so we can try to be pluralistically positive! Yay for relativism!JK)

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once."

The Dude

30% of all attacks are from the front.

Pyromaniacs

Blowing it up again.

Why go to church? Because like Richard Baxter says our lives are like having one foot in the grave and one foot out. We need the word preached to us to revitalize our souls from their automatic apathy.

Frank Turk reviews a book Im reading right now that is anything but cool, except the cover. Here is my favorite quote so far,

"A lot of guys are patting themselves on the back for being revolutionaries, futurists, and rend shapers. There's nothing really wrong with that, but I just dont want to be one of them. In fact, what we're doing isn't revolutionary at all. It's awfully traditional and old. Feel the excitement." -Ted Kluck, Why We Love The Church, p22.

Just like our beloved Machen, they love their tradition, because it sustains blessed historical orthodoxy.

Get it and read it. Very much worth your money.

Trueman Slams it Again

Some people know me as a very driven person. But I slept in today, got out of bed at 5:30am to read some greek New Testament.

So a long time ago there was a goal that was set in front of me. Not so much like a carrot in front of a rabbit, but more like, I had never accomplished anything in totality in my life at this time and a very honorable goal was set before me that the mistress of fate demanded that I take. It was a great priviledge at the time, something I did not deserve, but was offered out of grace. Rising to the trial by ordeal of manhood, like a soldiers first battle I finnaly realized I had something worth fighting for, values worth dying for, instead of aimlessly wandering around the decadence of America. This goal changed my life by allowing me to be shown that I could attain something by shutting my whining adolescent mouth, working hard, sweating profusely, bleeding incandescently, and walking the line of physical torture. All to attain this goal. So in a more blue collar sense, real men call this hard work, real work. I learned this then, and it changed my life.

However, our world is full of whinny people who victimize themselves into self-aggrandizement at the expense of everyone and to the glory of their own self. One quote from the following article, "...but the tactic is different: to win by seizing the moral high ground that belongs to the professional victim." Ever get jacked out of something by a whiner?


Carl Trueman explains our narcissistic culture much better than I. It is a must read.

Here in this article, Carl Trueman shows where our culture has gone and why it is where it is.

Quit Whining. Go do some hard work. Walk the Ancient Ways.

TABLETALK JUNE 09

It is free to look at on the internet. Some very good articles on John Calvin. Enjoy it!

I used to put up with Mysticism

How can Christians clasp hands with slithering, slimy, pantheistic nightmare angels garbed in light(dead giveaway, read Galatians 1)? I used to put up with mysticism. But now Im gonna have to dust off my flamethrower, again. Weeds growing in the garden, again. Yes, I use a flamethrower for weeding. So did Luther, his flamethrower was his anger, nothing better he said to get the job done and get over depression at the same time.

Time out, let me clarify by what I mean by mysticism. It is anything driven by feelings, emotion, or experience as the primary source. Anytime you hear, "I think the bible says this ________ (no scripture to support, therefore false assumption based only on feelings)". Notice the primary caregive of that sentence. Not I AM but i(lower case for a reason). Going around the text with your own mind and thinking. It is making the 'experience' of God the ultimate reality as opposed to the word driven us to the sacraments(yes I said it). The source by which you understand reality then is only based on your digestion of it, making the pill popper, you, the arbiter of truth. I mean who needs as sieve when you have your life to live? So much to experience. Were talking everything from Mars Volta and Oiuji boards to Evangelical 5 points to get out of debt. Puke on this contextualization. Thats right vomit all over this wretchedness.

Hear me and hear me good. I am NOT SAYING that all experience is bad, but as Christians we must learn to discern(need I say circumcise? Read Lev 19:25-27 first moron) what is right and wrong in this world. The Bible which bears the final authority on how to interpret all data that we are sandblasted with in this information age. Let our experience be modified, need I say governed by, the Word of God and ONLY that. I am NOT SAYING that we dont engage culture or some missional crap. Im saying exalt Christ above all in your daily life and ambitions.

So, I used to put up with mysticism, but after this last insult of one of my favorite bands supporting total anathema literature and exalting love and not the God who is love to the supreme place. Here again we see ana-baptist free will-ism droop into universalism. Whose side are you on? Or is there a side. Is evil a projection or a reality? You might as well shake hands with Depak and call it good.

Machen said it right when, "...for if one thing is clear in the record of Jesus life it is clear that Jesus recognized the justice, as distinguished from the love of God. God is love, according to Jesus, but he is not only love,.."(Christianity and Liberalism, p.131).

And you heard it here first, Dr. Clark predicted this one. Read up on it here.

Once again, read your history, and your Machen.

Give me confessionalism, a Jesuit with a sniper rifle, or a noose. I'd kick the chair holding this neck from bruising but Pete would be mad at my loss of hope.

Art is Beautiful

R.C. Sproul talks about good art here. This is a good article on focusing on the positive(however much I hate it when people say that).

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Oh the memories

Self explanatory if you know me at all.

taken from fail blog give em a visit they are worth it.

Believe it or not...

Nic Lazz makes the heidelblog.