Monday’s Ministry Musing: Preaching on the “Big Sins”

Mike Leake 4 Comments

Recently Trevin Wax shares an illustration given by Matt Chandler at the Desiring God conference. It is an excellent demonstration of the difference between moralism and the gospel:

During my freshman year of college, I sat next to a 26-year-old single mother trying to get her degree. We began a dialogue about the grace and mercy of Christ in the cross. Some other guys and I would go over and babysit her child and try to talk with her. A friend of mine was in a band playing in the area and we invited her to hear him. She agreed. She thought it would be a concert. I knew better. It was shady and she agreed to come.

The minister got up and said, “Today I want to talk to you about sex.” And I immediately thought, Uh oh. He took a red rose, smelled it, showed how pretty it was. Then, threw it out in the crowd and told them to smell the rose. “I want you to smell it and touch it and feel the texture in it.” (There were about 1000 people there.) He then began one of the worst, most horrific handlings of what sex is and isn’t that I ever sat through. It was fear-mongering at its best.

I’m thinking, with Kim beside me, What are you doing? As he wrapped up, he asked, “Where’s my rose?”

Some kid brought the rose back and it was broken. The petals were broken. And he lifts it up. And his big crescendo is to lift up that broken rose and say, “Now who would want this?”

Anger welled up within me and I wanted to say, “JESUS WANTS THE ROSE! That’s the point of the gospel! That Jesus wants the rose. That he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

I can share from personal experience how unhelpful such illustrations are to those that have messed up sexually. Before coming to Christ, and even after, I struggled with sexual immorality. Maybe that’s putting it too nicely; I’ll just say it…I was sexually immoral. After coming to Christ I remember many of these illustrations.

chocolate_cake One such illustration involved chocolate cake. We had a delicious piece of chocolate cake (I guess it was delicious I don’t like chocolate caked). The first person took a bite and we began passing around the cake. Finally, when the cake had been around the circle for a little while the leader commented on how disgusting the cake was. And this is how we are when we give ourselves away sexually. And you know there is a good point in there somewhere. But what was communicated to me; one that had messed up? “You are no longer good for anything in this area of your life, nobody wants you, you are disgusting, you’ve blown it”. Redemption and the love and restorative power of Jesus were not what I was driven to. Instead I was driven to despair—which alongside pride is the only destination for moralism.

So, long before Matt Chandler shared this argument, I have been intentional in how I speak about sexual immorality. I know from experience what it feels like to be that “rose nobody wants anymore”. I do not use such illustrations. I do speak of the damage that sexual immorality does and encourage teenagers to make biblical decisions. But I do not do so apart from the redemptive power of Jesus. I also am careful to remind those that are sexually pure that such a state will remain only through the grace of God. So, I am very thankful that Jesus still wants that rose.

Pastor be careful how you speak on such things. Not just about sexual immorality but abortion, homosexuality, alcohol, gambling, and those other “big sins” that we forbid. Be sure to preach boldly on such things but do so to point to the redemptive power of Jesus and not to make us better people.

UPDATE: The great people at DG have now isolated this part of Matt’s sermon–watch it here:

(HT: Abraham)

Lyric Change??

Mike Leake 5 Comments

In his book, The God I Don’t Understand , Christopher Wright suggests a change to the lyrics of Stuart Townend’s hymn “In Christ Alone”. Wright suggests that it be modified to capture the greater biblical fullness of meaning (132-133).  The original lyric is:

“…till on that cross as Jesus died the wrath of God was satisfied.

Wright suggests that it be changed to:

…till on that cross as Jesus died God’s wrath and love were satisfied”

I disagree with Wright’s suggestion.  I understand that his hope is to recover the idea that God’s wrath and God’s love are “intrinsically connected to one another” (130).  However, I think this change to the lyric would be a tad confusing.  Satisfaction is a propitiation term.  In Townend’s lyric is has to do with the permanency of the wrath of God being removed from us by the cross of Christ; it speaks of finality.  To say that love is “satisfied” in the same context that you are speaking of wrath being “satisfied” would either lower what is meant by wrath being fully taken away or lower the eternal nature of love.  Love is eternal and to speak of it as being “satisfied” in the same way that we speak of wrath being “satisfied” is confusing at best. 
What do you think? 

Charles Simeon’s “Rules for Himself”

Mike Leake

In preparing for a lesson on 1 Corinthians 13 I skipped across this by Charles Simeon out of a Robert Rayburn sermon:

    1. To hear as little as possible what is the prejudice of others; charles_simeon2. To believe nothing of the kind till I am absolutely forced to it; 3. Never to drink into the spirit of one who circulates an ill report; 4. Always to moderate, as far as I can, the unkindness which is expressed toward others; 5. Always to believe, that if the other side were heard, a very different account would be given of the matter.

This certainly would go far in building up the body of Christ if these rules were observed. If you are unfamiliar with the life and ministry of Simeon I would suggest reading John Piper’s excellent biography. You can also buy Piper’s Roots of Endurance book.

Review of The Forgotten Spurgeon

Mike Leake 2 Comments

Author: Iain Murray

Pages: 254 pages

Publisher: Banner of Truth

Price: 8.40

Genre: Biography/Church History/Pastoral

Quick Summary:

In The Forgotten Spurgeon Iain Murray analyzes the three great controversies in Charles Spurgeon’s ministry. The first issue is his stand against the “diluted Gospel fashionable in the London to which the young preacher came in the 1850’s”. The second issue is Spurgeon’s famous Baptismal Regeneration debate in 1864 (comparatively little attention is given to this issue). The third issue is the one that some believe may have killed him: The Downgrade Controversy.

Iain Murray’s hope in this book is to recover the historical Spurgeon; hence it’s title The Forgotten Spurgeon. As Murray tells upon reading much of Spurgeon he discovered, “that Spurgeon of the sermons was a forgotten man and the more I read the more the conviction deepened. By which I mean that despite the modern encomiums bestowed on him as ‘the prince of preachers’ and despite the anecdotes which still survive in the evangelical world about his abilities and his humor, some of the most important aspects of his ministry have been forgotten” (4). And it is these “important aspects” that Murray hopes to recover.

What I Liked:

Perhaps my favorite writer of Christian history is Iain Murray. Some might accuse him of adding his own theology to history; I prefer to think that is what helps Murray make history come alive for us today. In my opinion Murray accomplishes his objective; he does indeed recover some of the important aspects of Spurgeon’s ministry. He also shows how some of these same issues are plaguing our own day. Especially telling are the sections on the Downgrade Controversy. Throughout this work Murray appears to be faithful to history, faithful to Spurgeon, and faithful to Jesus.

What I Disliked:

I tend to agree with Spurgeon on all three of the issues of focus in this book, therefore, I may not be in a position to say what I disliked. Perhaps, someone of a more Arminian bent might rail against some of Murray’s (mostly Spurgeon’s) comments on Arminianism. I personally found the book helpful—others might think Murray did not deal effectively enough with history.

Also, the color scheme on the cover is hideous. I know it’s shallow to say that but it’s really that hideous, it must be mentioned.

Should You Buy It?

If you are interested in Spurgeon then most certainly, but be certain to also purchase Spurgeon V. Hyper-Calvinism. If you are interested in the Calvinism and Arminianism discussions then this book will be of interest to you. Those that study church history will benefit as well. I also think church leaders need to read this book; it is a needed corrective to some of our modern ills.

A little tip on buying it; if you want it new get it here, but you can find a used copy cheap on EBay or Amazon.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

UPDATE: To see the updated edition of this book that Steve refers to in the comments go here. Cover looks much better!