Is there a way to stand strong in such a frightening world?

For starters today, I’d like to quote the great theologian, Christopher Robin. You won’t find this in The House at Pooh Corner, but it’s from a 1997 Disney video titled Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin. I appreciate these words of encouragement, which were spoken much like a blessing to Christopher’s favorite bear … “Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

Braver than you believe. Stronger than you seem. Smarter than you think.

Did Mr. Robin get it right? From the perspective of one trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, I think that he did. And what I’d like to do is pull some truths from First John 4 and explain to you what I mean. That’s the chapter where we find the marvelous promise (4:4): He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Please take the time to read the entire chapter. You’ll be glad you did.

The first thing I notice in this great chapter is that you and I, and I am referring exclusively to our status in Christ, have the capacity to recognize the forces of spiritual darkness. In fact, we’re instructed (4:1) to test the spirits to see whether they are from God. We live in a day of mega information but little truth. Just because a truth claim is attributed to God does not mean that it comes from God. Exhibit A might be the Koran. Exhibit B might be the Book of Mormon. Exhibit C might be a bestseller promoting the health-and-wealth gospel of prosperity. Exhibit D might be a widely accepted mantra like “God helps those who help themselves.” There are many people out there who (and this is a loose Alistair Begg paraphrase) employ basically correct phraseology, but with false definitions underlying those words. So, in this great chapter, John is attempting to correct our careless naiveté when it comes to claims of eternal importance.

You and I are called to discern wisely, and to distinguish true claims from false claims. Just this morning, I had to know the difference between a small orange pill and a small white pill. Both were in our medicine cabinet, and both were available to me. Had I been under the false assumption that it really didn’t matter which pill I chose, I would have proven that it really did matter. Similarly, the Bible is reminding us to test what we read, hear, see, and think. It matters. It always matters.

We’re not just given an instruction here, but we’re given the promise of an abiding presence (4:9): the love of God was made manifest among us. Sooner or later, every human teacher will let us down. But not Christ! By His Spirit, He is empowering us to overcome the deceptive influences of this world. Spiritual warfare is as real as the air we breathe, but you and I are not alone. We are never alone in the fight. We’ve been issued our spiritual armor for a reason: we need it. If you’ve read the New Testament, you may have noticed that the first ones to recognize the incarnate Christ were not religious Jews. Mark 1:24 and Luke 4:34 record accounts of demons crying out in terror that the Holy One of God had come to rain on their parade. Jesus explained that He was casting out demons by the Spirit of God (Matthew 12:28-29) – and that meant that the kingdom of God was on the move. Jesus was attacking the power of the devil – “binding the strong man” – who had for millennia been keeping the human race in the dark and painful prison of unbelief, sin, and judgment. Until you and I are with the Lord, our commission here on Planet Earth involves helping people escape unbelief, sin, and judgment. And, if we presume that we can do that without fierce opposition, we are terribly misguided. How we need the Holy Spirit! And the good news is that He is ours, and that we are His.

This chapter includes a beautiful description of precisely how, in Christ, we are learning to love. To love others as we’ve been loved by God (4:7): Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. We’re called to do something here which we just can’t do, but Christ can. How can He do that? Because Christ is (4:10) the propitiation for our sins. That word refers to a sacrifice of atonement, and it makes all the difference. The English “propitiation” is from Latin, meaning “favorable, gracious, and kind,” and the first attested use of the term is in a Latin translation of the Bible. The Latin form propitiatorium was employed to translate a Greek word which is found 22 times in the Old Testament. That word, hilasterion, was used in the Septuagint (the earliest extant Greek translation of the Old Testament from the original Hebrew) to translate the Hebrew term “covering” or “mercy seat” – which was the lid of the Ark of the Covenant where the sacrificial blood was placed for the atonement of the sins of the people.

Let me say it another way: Christ is the only Way out of the mess which we have made! And you and I can’t love unselfishly and sacrificially without Jesus. But, because my sins have been passed over by God – this was pictured gloriously in the Exodus – I can now make it my job to pass over the sins of others. The same goes for you, friend. In Christ, we’re learning to love as we’ve been loved.

And it gets even better (4:18): There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. When we think of the “heroes” of the Bible, all of them had to learn to rise above their fears. All of them. Their call was to walk by faith anyway. To walk by faith in spite of their fears. At times, to simply do it afraid.

If you have to, just do it afraid.

In a nutshell, I think that we’re being called to get over ourselves. Appropriate Christian bravery includes recognizing the toxicity of our own pride, and acknowledging that the root of all pride is – ultimately – fear. That pervasive fear looks something like this: “If they really knew me, they would reject me.” What you and I most need, perhaps, is an invasion of love! That starts by our understanding how much we’ve been loved, in Jesus, and that starts by believing the gospel. The gospel is the only picture on earth of perfect love, and perfect love casts out fear.

Beloved in Christ, don’t ever forget that you’re braver than you believe.

Pastor Charles

Fireworks come in all shapes and sizes. You may be aware of the preliminary injunction issued in Louisiana by U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty on Independence Day of this year, just as our nation was celebrating our shared freedoms. The federal court handed down a ruling that government agencies may not work together with social media to censor free speech. If you have an interest in the First Amendment, this development will be of interest to you. Referring specifically to the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, the judge prohibited discussions with social media companies aimed at “encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.”

I won’t get into a lot of the details here, but what caught my attention was the judge’s reference to George Orwell’s 1984. Many of us read the novel in high school and will never forget the power of “doublethink” – the strange ability to hold two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and to accept both of them. I’ll quote directly from Judge Doughty: “Evidence produced thus far depicts an almost dystopian scenario. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a period perhaps best characterized by widespread doubt and uncertainty, the United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth.'” I will note that the action taken by the judge on July 4 was a temporary injunction, and not a permanent ruling.

I think it’s right for us to remember that the Church can flourish in parts of the world where there is no “freedom of speech” as we know it here in America. That being acknowledged, however, I think it’s critical for us to establish that speech itself is what distinguishes us from the rest of Creation. It’s an important dimension of our personhood, and of our bearing the image of our Creator. Speech is sacred in that sense, and in others. I’ll cite just a few examples. God created the world by speech. Adam named the animals, and thus entered into his proper role of dominion, by speech. The Lord revealed His law by speech. The prophets revealed the will of God for His people by speech. Jesus revealed His glorious gospel by speech. And Christ ordained that you and I would share that saving gospel, with the whole world, by speech … So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ (Romans 10:17). I think you’ll agree with me that speech is inherently sacred on multiple levels.

So freedom of speech is a great good. It is an outworking of God’s common grace. It is a blessing that you and I ought not take for granted. As followers of Christ, we are under a covenant obligation to speak the truth in love. It’s a sacred trust among the people of God. And we ought to desire freedom of speech for everyone, and to work for such a cherished liberty on behalf of every other image-bearer – even those with whom we might vehemently disagree. After all, we’ll never know we’re wrong about anything if there are no opposing voices for us to consider. If you’re interested in this subject from history (from Great Britain, specifically), check out John Stuart Mill’s essay from 1859, On Liberty.

As I mentioned in my sermon on July 2, I’m encouraged by a landmark decision handed down (the week prior to the Louisiana injunction) by the U.S. Supreme Court in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, and I’ll quote from the majority opinion: “A commitment to speech for only some messages and some persons is no commitment at all … If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. In this case, Colorado seeks to force an individual to speak in ways that align with its views but defy her conscience about a matter of major significance … But, as this Court has long held, the opportunity to think for ourselves and to express those thoughts freely is among our most cherished liberties and part of what keeps our Republic strong. Of course, abiding the Constitution’s commitment to the freedom of speech means all of us will encounter ideas we consider unattractive, misguided, or even hurtful. But tolerance, not coercion, is our Nation’s answer. The First Amendment envisions the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands.”

These things matter, friends, because the world in which we live – including, sadly, our own American civilization – has married moral relativism and cultural dominance. It’s like we’ve kept the political zeal of the colonists but jettisoned their moral restraints. That leaves us in a very precarious position, humanly speaking.

We do need a ministry of Truth. And we do need a Big Brother. Just not a government one. Come, Lord Jesus!

Pastor Charles

Even in the Bible Belt, we live among a smorgasbord of religious options. Everybody has their take on the road from here to eternity, and the only opinion that seems unwelcome in the public square comes from the person who claims to have found the truth. Any such exclusive claims gets labeled hateful and intolerant. And the unwritten rule seems to be: All beliefs are created equal. (Except the one that rests upon a universal standard of objective truth. That one should be silenced, if not canceled entirely.)

But here’s the strange reality: If I buy into the religious smorgasbord, I must resign myself to a state of spiritual schizophrenia. That’s because, for example …

Buddhists believe that Jesus was a uniquely enlightened teacher, but nothing more.

Hindus believe that Jesus was one god among a plethora of viable gods.

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that Jesus was the first creation among Jehovah’s multiple creations.

Jews believe that Jesus was a rabbi gone rogue who deserved his death sentence.

Mormons believe that Jesus, in the spirit world, became a god. And that we too can become gods and populate planets.

Muslims believe that Jesus was an honored prophet, and that he never died.

Unitaritans and other theological liberals believe that Jesus was a role model, though limited in scope, for ethical behavior.

I’ve barely scratched the surface here, but you get the point. All these belief systems can’t possibly be right, as they directly contradict each other. Their core truth claims compete with each other. Even when they use parts of the Bible to “prove” their diverse and heretical doctrines, they reach wildly different conclusions. And they reach no agreement about the Lord Jesus.

When it’s all said and done, there really are only two options for us when it comes to our understanding of spiritual truth (who we are by nature, and how we can be in right relationship with God) …

Option A is this: You and I are sinners through and through, but Christ has come to rescue us by His life, death, and resurrection. God’s salvation is a free gift, received by faith alone. Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was sufficient, so we can rest in Him.

Option B is this: You and I can work our way to God, earning divine approval by our valiant effort, good deeds, and moral striving. Though we can never be quite certain that we’ve done enough, we can keep trying, and hope for the best.

I think you can see that every group I mentioned is committed to some version of Option B. That’s the basic nature of every “religion” that does not define itself by the gospel of Jesus Christ. You see, friends, the gospel is good news only when we realize that Option B is the epitome of hopelessness and despair. When the religious parade gets finished with their various versions of Jesus, they’ve refashioned him into something far less than fully God and fully man. (On that they do agree.)

It’s always been this way: Jesus is the cosmic deal-breaker! We want a broad way by which “all roads lead to Rome.” But He insists upon a narrow way that leads to eternal life (Matthew 7:13-14). More than that, Christ is the way, thetruth, and the life (John 14:6). Jesus majored on exclusivity, in fact, and such an exclusive claim came from His own mouth. His testimony was unequivocally exclusive.

But I’m happy to report that the Exclusive has come to us. And He has come to us with His arms open wide. It must be love: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Yes, it must be love.

O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Pastor Charles

It’s been recorded that the wife of Czar Alexander III, Maria Fedorovna, once used a comma to save a prisoner from the horrors of Siberian exile. The warrant from Alexander had read: “Pardon impossible, to be sent to Siberia.” Moved by compassion instead, the Empress of Russia relocated the comma as follows: “Pardon, impossible to be sent to Siberia.” The prisoner was released, or so say some historians. As a language nerd, I like stories like that! Or perhaps you’ve heard of the wealthy woman who in 1900 was traveling overseas when she came across an irresistible bracelet in a jewelry store. She sent a cable to her husband: “Have found wonderful bracelet. Price $75,000. May I buy it?” Her husband replied quickly: “No, price too high.” But the cable operator omitted the comma: “No price too high.” The rest is history. I’ve also read another funny account that makes a similar point … There was a sign posted on the gate of a swimming pool: “PRIVATE NO SWIMMING ALLOWED.” With just a few strokes of paint, some eager kids changed the message entirely: “PRIVATE? NO! SWIMMING ALLOWED.”

Sometimes the small details make all the difference. And, when it comes to the veracity and integrity of the Word of God, you and I are building our entire worldview upon the conviction that the Bible is entirely true and trustworthy. That’s what we mean when we say that the Bible is inerrant. Just to be perfectly clear, when we refer to the “inerrancy” of Scripture, we mean simply this: Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact.

We expect unbelievers to question the truthfulness of Scripture. But the Enlightenment, as well as the more recent ramifications of textual “hyper-criticism” and postmodernism, have caused many professing believers to reject (practically if not formally) the historic understanding of inerrancy. Some hold to what is often referred to as “limited inerrancy,” which negates the truthfulness of the Bible in certain key places (or regarding certain key topics). Others deny the trustworthiness of Scripture in wholesale fashion. They may have fond feelings towards the Bible, but they do not live under the conviction that the Bible is perfect, infallible, and sufficient. I don’t have to tell you that such a dangerous position (whether practical or formal) is a slippery slope which we should avoid. Just because you and I can’t understand everything about the Bible does not give us a license to regard it as anything less than God’s authoritative Word.

So, regarding the doctrine of Biblical inerrancy proper, I’ll draw upon the wisdom of Dr. Wayne Grudem, who offers three important points of clarification which I find particularly helpful (and which I’ve attempted to summarize here) …

1. The Bible can be inerrant and still speak in the ordinary language of everyday speech. It was written by real people within the confines of human language, including their peculiar and particular figures of speech. Inerrancy allows for anthropomorphic language, for example, like when the Bible speaks of the sun “rising” and “setting” – though we know from science that it’s actually the earth’s movement that causes those gorgeous “sunrises” and “sunsets” which we enjoy. (Said another way, we all know what those terms mean, and we don’t regard them as deceptive in any way.) Inerrancy also allows for latitude when it comes to the Bible’s inclusion of numbers, measurements, and the like – where exact precision is neither expected nor implied. Inerrancy is all about truthfulness.

2. The Bible can be inerrant and still include loose or free quotations. For example, written Greek at the time of the New Testament did not make use of quotation marks or equivalent punctuation, and the goal of a quote was a correct representation of its content. Finding an inconsistency in this regard does not take away from the Bible’s veracity. By the way, friends, if Christ is the Creator of human language – and He is – then He can certainly utilize human language to communicate perfectly what He desires to communicate. Summarized my way, if you’ll allow me: the word is no problem for the Word!

3. It is consistent with inerrancy to find unusual or uncommon grammatical constructions in the Bible. The Word of God describes all kinds of scenarios and situations, and some of the descriptions are rather rough-hewn linguistically – and may not have passed the inspection of some of our high school English teachers. There are times, for example, when a verse includes a plural verb where the precise rules of grammar would dictate otherwise. This is simply because the Bible (as was pointed out in #1) records real speech by real people. But this makes it no less true. Scripture is pure (Psalm 12:6), perfect (Psalm 119:96; btw stay tuned for our next exciting sermon series!), and utterly true (Proverbs 30:5) – and we’re foolish not to take it at face value (Luke 24:25). I’ll include a direct quote from Grudem: “The Bible itself does not make any restriction on the kinds of subjects to which it speaks truthfully.” Dr. Grudem urges us not to give up the term “inerrancy” simply because some people charge that it denotes an absolute scientific precision that the Bible never claims for itself. He reasons that such challenges to inerrancy result from a lack of understanding the term as it’s been used for well over a century.

Please allow me to share just two more technical terms which will serve us well as we sharpen each other when it comes to the authority of Scripture: we affirm both the “plenary” and “verbal” inspiration of Scripture. Second Timothy 3:16 guides us in this regard. Not just some of the Bible is true – but all of it. (That’s the plenary part.) And the words of the Bible are not just words about God, but they are “God-breathed.” (That’s the verbal part.) As such, every part of the Bible is ipso facto inspired from start to finish. So, when we stand on the Bible, we stand on solid ground.

As a pastor, let me say this to you: I think it’s perfectly O.K. when you and I come to places (or even seasons) in our Bible study that leave us scratching our heads. That’s as it should be when you think about what we’re doing: we’re plumbing the depths of the wisdom of Almighty God! Some of our confusion will be resolved in due time. Some of our confusion may remain unresolved until heaven. It is O.K. to hold certain truths in tension. It is O.K. when there is some unexplainable mystery in the ways of our great and good God. Our job is to remember that the problem is not the Word itself. It’s still perfect.

William Bridge, a seventeenth-century Puritan, wrote extensively on how the serious student of the Bible approaches what appear to be inconsistencies in the text of Holy Scripture. I think his observations are rather timeless: “For a godly person, it should be as it was with Moses. When a godly man sees the Bible and secular data apparently at odds, he does as Moses did when he saw an Egyptian fighting an Israelite: he kills the Egyptian. He discounts the secular testimony, knowing God’s Word to be true. But when he sees an apparent inconsistency between two passages of Scripture, he does as Moses did when he found two Israelites quarreling: he tries to reconcile them. He says, ‘Aha, these are brethren. I must make peace between them.’ And that’s what the godly person does.”

Plumbing with you,

Pastor Charles

When I had that last “magical” birthday, I confessed to some of you that my knees were betraying my age. Sometimes, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason from my perspective, they just don’t work like they’re supposed to! They let me down. They fail.

In fact, most everything around us seems determined to prove right the theory of planned obsolescence. We’ll have to replace it, sooner or later. The old design, or the old model, just won’t last forever. For the record, and totally off-subject, I think that older refrigerators worked much better than the new ones. (But I digress.)

Here’s another place where the Bible really shines: it’s infallible! That means that, when the Bible speaks to its central saving message of the Lord Jesus Christ, it cannot fail. It cannot mislead. It cannot lie. In all matters of faith or practice, the Bible is an infallible source of truth and authority for us. In fact, God has so guarded the integrity of His Word that He has made certain that the Bible transcends the spiritual or material flaws of its writers, its media of communication (like print or preaching), and its readers and hearers. (I would ask you to reread that last sentence. It’s very important.) God uses His written Word, unlike any other, to tell us what we most need to know.

That is not to say that the Bible addresses in detail every subject on Planet Earth, specifically. If we’re learning geometry, the Bible does not explain the Pythagorean Theorem, for example. Your math teacher can help you with that. It doesn’t diagram knee replacement surgery for curious inquiers like me. It doesn’t tell us who will win the Super Bowl. That’s not what the Bible is about. The Bible is about our faith in Christ, and our living out of that living faith.

But how do we know that the Bible is infallible? How have we arrived at that conclusion? A lot is at stake here, and can we know that our trust in the Bible is not misplaced? I used to struggle with these questions, until I was introduced to a man by the name of R.C. Sproul, who is now with the Lord. R.C. taught me that we arrive at the conclusion of the Bible’s infallibility one premise at a time. In other words, we start with something which we believe to be true, and we build from there. If you’ll allow me, I’ll walk you through the main steps of Dr. Sproul’s line of reasoning …

Premise A (this is the one that most of us can accept, particularly if we’ve considered honestly any of the Bible’s history):
The Bible is a basically reliable and trustworthy document.

Premise B (because we accept A, B is not a far leap):
On the basis of this reliable document, we have sufficient evidence to believe confidently that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Premise C:
Jesus Christ, being the Son of God, is an infallible authority.

Premise D:
Jesus Christ teaches that the Bible is more than generally trustworthy; it is the very Word of God.

Premise E:
The Word, in that it utterly comes from God, is utterly trustworthy because God is utterly trustworthy.

Conclusion (we’ve arrived here one step at a time):
On the basis of the infallible authority of Jesus Christ, the church believes the Bible to be utterly trustworthy, i.e., infallible.

I really appreciate the simplicity of this illustration, and I referred to it earlier as a “line of reasoning” because that’s exactly what it is. It’s an entirely linear progression of thought. Careless apologists sometimes try to use circular reasoning (where the conclusion is already present in Premise A) to make their point, but that won’t fly among people who are thinking seriously about these matters.

Some people “out there” think that we, as believers in Christ, have arrived at our respect for Scripture via some blind leap of faith. Not so! Once you consider all the evidence, believing in the Bible’s authority makes perfect sense.

I’ve been traveling, so I’ll be a little shorter today, but I’ll close (more in this series next week) with a quote from Howard Hendricks: “God wants to communicate with you in the 21st century. He wrote His message in a book. He asks you to come and study that book for three compelling reasons. It’s essential for growth. It’s essential for maturity. It’s essential for equipping you … so that you might be an available, clean, sharp instrument in His hands to accomplish His purposes. So the real question confronting you now is: How can you afford not to be in God’s Word?”

I know that you’re as grateful as I for a church, and a church family, that stands upon a firm foundation: the living Word of the living God!

Pastor Charles

I’m enjoying sharing with you some thoughts about why the Bible really matters. Yes, the Bible reflects the individual personalities and temperaments of the human writers. Yes, their individual writing styles are apparent. Yes, the writers were entirely human, and themselves prone to errors of every stripe. But here’s the thing: we believe that the Bible is divinely inspired. 100% divinely inspired! That means that God was absolutely sovereign over how every verse came together (including the entire compilation of the Biblical canon, which I outlined last week). For the most part, God didn’t dictate the words, but He made certain that the words were precisely what He desired to be recorded for us.

The Bible’s words are, ultimately, God’s words. Because they are God’s words, they are without error. By the testimony of the Bible itself, its words are “God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16). That term is the literal Greek translation. It means that God used human agents, but that God spoke the words! 2 Peter 1:21 gives us a little more insight into how this happened: “… men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

And we know from the rest of the testimony of Scripture that what Peter says about the origin of the Old Testament also applies to the New (John 15:26; Acts 1:8; 5:32), because the same Holy Spirit has done it all! I believe that’s the secret to understanding and accepting the inspiration of the Bible as a whole. As God, the Holy Spirit has used people to accomplish exactly what He desired, so that every recorded word is the word that God intended. This is a marvelous thought, friends: God can use our whole being and personality and still cause us to carry out His perfect purposes! Can I get an “amen” on that one? Though it might be hard to wrap our minds around this, God doesn’t destroy or invalidate our will – but He makes us spiritually alive (instead of spiritually dead, which is where we would be without Him; see Ephesians 2:1-10) and bends our will in the direction that we need to go. I’d like to quote a Lutheran scholar, Robert Preus, who is now with the Lord: “It may seem utterly inconsistent that the Spirit of God could in one and the same action provide the very words of Scripture and accommodate Himself to the linguistic peculiarities and total personality of the individual writer so that these men wrote freely and spontaneously. But this is precisely what took place according to the Biblical evidence and data.”

I’m still breathless. What say you?

The more we study the Bible, the more we discover that the Bible testifies loudly of its own authority. Though our Lord’s words were widely disregarded, Jesus spoke clearly of His own death and resurrection at least three times before Calvary. As the baseball pitcher Dizzy Dean quipped, “It ain’t braggin’ if you can do it.” I don’t know about you, but I believe that the same Holy Spirit whispers “Yes!” in your ear and mine when we read the words of Christ (John 5:39): “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.” The power behind the Word is nothing less than Jesus!

And here’s why. When it’s all said and done, the Bible’s words come from more than forty human writers from almost every walk of life, and from many different parts of the known world. Some of the writers were untrained, uneducated, and unsophisticated. Some of the writers penned eloquent poetry. Some were distinguished leaders. Others were kings, celebrated worldwide for their wisdom – or prominent advisors to government officials. A highly educated Pharisee was in the mix. One was brought up as the prince of the most powerful and learned nation on Planet Earth. Some were simple fishermen. Others were goat herders from nowhere. Disobedient Jews. Undeserving Gentiles. Some exposed ruthlessly the flaws of their nation and leaders. Others were seemingly a bit more cheerful in their approach to life. Some were traitors. But the final mix is nothing short of a strikingly beautiful kaleidoscope of soul-stirring contribution, just as our God intended and superintended. The Bible was written over a time span of about 1500 years. Its literary forms include narrative history, drama, biography, letters, poetry, parables, wisdom literature, and narrative stories. Yet the Bible tells one cohesive story, because the Bible ultimately has but one Author.

The story of the Bible is the good news of God’s redeeming grace in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is my story, and this is my song!

Pastor Charles

The more I take in the unsettled nature of our contemporary culture, the more grateful I become that God has given us a sure foundation. Our sovereign Creator has established His unalterable truth, and His truth stands for eternity. Of that we can be certain, and that’s quite reassuring in uncertain times.

God has spoken by His decrees. God has spoken through His prophets. God has spoken through the Scriptures. How blessed we are! All 66 books of our Bible have been given to us with God’s own authority. The Scriptures of Jesus and the early church were the “Old Testament” Scriptures. By the time of the earthly ministry of Jesus, the Old Testament canon had been settled for about 300 years, and Jesus clearly validated the Old Testament as Scripture.

The development of the New Testament Canon began with the writings of the apostles. By virtue of their apostolic office, the apostles had the authority to write the words of Scripture. Their authentic written teachings were accepted by the early church as canonical, and thus as authoritative for all matters of faith and practice. For a book to be accepted into the canon, it was necessary that its divine authorship be established. By the end of the 2nd century, the four Gospels were well-circulated and accepted. By the beginning of the 4th century, the church historian Eusebius compiled a list of books accepted by the church of his day, which included 22 of our 27 books. In 367 A.D., Athanasius released a list that corresponds exactly with the New Testament canon today. Both the Council of Hippo of 393 and the Council of Carthage (St. Augustine) in 397 affirmed the same canon, but those were in many ways ratifications of what the church had essentially practiced for about 200 years. In standing behind and upon the Word of God, you and I rest on a firm foundation.

Many people will try to convince you that your Bible is unreliable, and subject to the same limitations that are common among other sources of “authority” in our world today. After all, they claim, we don’t possess any of the original autographs of any portion of the Bible. But consider this: the Hebrew text was standardized in the 6th century A.D. by the Masoretic Jews, and all other manuscripts were eliminated. The authenticity of the existing copies is supplemented by the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Septuagint, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Targans, and the Talmud. The Hebrew manuscripts surpass all others. This is largely because of the reverence and extreme care which the scribes exercised in order to minimize the possibility of error. The scribal method included counting the number of letters, words, and lines on each page. They also determined the middle letter of the entire Bible. If one mistake was discovered, the entire manuscript was destroyed.

Similarly and wonderfully, there are approximately 5000 Greek manuscripts of all or part of the New Testament in existence today. There are about 8000 Latin manuscripts and about 1000 manuscripts written in other languages. The existing manuscripts of other authors (Plato, Aristotle, Caesar, etc.) range from 1-20, compared to 14,000 of the New Testament. The writings of early Christians and the Church Fathers contain more than 86,000 citations of the Biblical text. The quality of the New Testament is better than most other ancient manuscripts. There is some minor variance among the available manuscripts, but no significant doctrine is affected in any way. The accuracy of the thousands of New Testament manuscripts is about 99.5% compared to 95% and less among other ancient documents. And don’t miss this: the time span between the original and the first copy of ancient secular manuscripts is … Caesar’s Gallic Wars, 950 years … Homer’s Odyssey, 2200 years … the New Testament, 117 years! See my point?

I’ve given you a lot to think about today, so I think I’ll simply break right here and write more on this subject next week. But I do want to offer you just one more gorgeous illustration of the cohesiveness of Scripture itself. In reality, the Bible communicates to us with more precision than we ever imagined! Consider just some of the fulfilled prophecies surrounding our Lord Jesus (often referred to as the Messianic prophecies) …

seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15; Galatians 4:4)
descendant of Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3; Matthew 1:1)
forerunner John (Malachi 3:1; Mark 1:1-8)
born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:18-25)
born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2; Luke 2:1-7)
speaking in parables (Psalm 78:2-4; Matthew 13:34-35)
preaching ministry (Isaiah 61:1-3; Luke 4:16-21)
healing ministry (Isaiah 35:3-5; Matthew 9:35)
triumphal entry (Zechariah 9:9; John 12:12-16)
betrayal price (Zechariah 11:12-13; Matthew 26:14-16)
silence before accusers (Isaiah 53:7; Matthew 27:12-14)
crucified with robbers (Isaiah 53:12; Mark 15:27)
mocked (Psalm 22:7-8; Luke 23:35)
lots cast for clothing (Psalm 22:18; John 19:23-24)
no bones broken (Psalm 34:20; John 19:33)
pierced hands and feet( Psalm 22:16; Luke 24:38-40)
suffered thirst on cross (Psalm 69:21; John 19:28)
pierced side (Zechariah 12:10; John 19:34)
buried with the rich (Isaiah 53:9; Matthew 27:57)
resurrection (Psalm 16:10; Isaiah 52:13; Acts 2:22-36)
ascension into heaven (Psalm 68:18; Acts 1:9)

It’s one book, and it’s one story of grace. That’s because it has one Author. We’ve just scratched the surface, friends, but that alone ought to take our breath away.

God has spoken!

Pastor Charles

I just read that another member of the Duggar Family (as in the once-famous reality show, 19 Kids and Counting) is coming forward with her own version of the “living nightmare” that was growing up in the home of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar. From what I have investigated about the upcoming docuseries on Amazon Prime, Jill Duggar Dillard has no intention of lashing out against Christianity in general, but her hope is to expose the dangers of the kind of harsh legalism which marked her childhood. For about four years, Jill was sexually molested by her older brother, Josh.

I find this fascinating. While reading about the full-speed-ahead promotion by Target (America’s 7th largest retailer) of transgender clothing, swimwear, and school supplies for children via its new “Pride” collection (designed by a Satanist, no less), I’m also reading about the Duggars and their failed attempt at ultra-conservatism. I think that you and I should take note of this current and compelling juxtaposition.

When Jesus began His earthly ministry, He started in Nazareth, where you may remember that He was angrily and forcefully rejected. There in the synagogue on the Sabbath day, Christ stood up and read from Isaiah (Luke 4:18): “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me … He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives …” The world was already imprisoned by sin, and what we needed was freedom, though Christ’s message of freedom was anything other than warmly received.

I want to let you in on a little secret that I have learned after all these years in ministry: the best friend of licentiousness is legalism. Licentiousness and legalism may seem to us like polar opposites, but they’re like two sides of a death certificate. Please let that sink in.

The licentiousness is generally easier for us to spot. For example, we can see what Target is promoting among young people for what it is: misguided, evil, and dangerous. But it’s the legalism in the church that’s often more subtle.

I have no doubt that Jim Bob and Michelle wanted to be good parents. I have no doubt that they worked diligently to raise their children according to the precepts of God’s Word. I have no doubt that they stood strong on moral principles and taught their kids to do the same. But something was dreadfully wrong. Something was wrong at the root that damaged the fruit. From all of the pieces that I have put together regarding the major influencers who shaped the family’s theology, I think that much of what was off-track can be summed up in a single word: legalism.

What is legalism? I’m going to give this my best shot …

Law and gospel become confused

External rule-keeping without internal transformation

Goes beyond Scripture in its moral imperatives

Adds tradition, preference, and opinion as if they were truth

Letter of the law trumps the spirit of the law

Insists upon adherence to nonessential doctrines

Swells the ego, while chilling the heart 

Minimizes the finished work of Christ by adding to it

Here is the universal reality: no matter how good it is, the Law can never save. On its very best day, the Law can only show us our need for a Savior. Only Jesus can save! That’s why it’s vitally important that you and I never add anything to the good news of Jesus …

“We are saved by faith in Christ plus baptism.” Deadly!

“We’re saved by faith in Christ plus keeping the Ten Commandments.” Deadly! (By the way, good luck with that one.)

“We’re saved by faith in Christ plus attending the right church.” Deadly!

“We’re saved by faith in Christ plus (anything).” Deadly!

I am not exaggerating one iota, friends. “Deadly” is the right word. Because, when we add to the gospel of Jesus, we actually take away from it. We diminish it. We destroy it. We lose it. And the gospel of Jesus is our only hope!

And here’s my personal opinion about why legalism is so insidious: it creates a phony religious world for the person trapped in it. And here’s why: deep down in the heart-of-hearts of the legalist, there’s at least a subtle awareness that he or she is not living up to their own standards. (I’m not talking about God’s standards, but I’m talking about the legalist’s extrabibllical standards.) So they try, and fail. They try, and fail. They try, and fail. Finally exhausted, they yield to their worst temptations, but they do so as secretly as possible for as long as they can, because they’re still trapped in (and in some measure committed to) the phony religious world of their own design.

Just as I would warn you to flee licentiousness, I am warning you to flee legalism. It’s a killer. In fact, it’s a gateway to the very licentiousness which it claims to abhor.

The Apostle Paul sounded the same alarm with these words (Galatians 5:1): For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Here’s the good news: Christ has come to rescue us from both licentiousness and legalism. Hallelujah! What a great and gracious Savior is our Lord Jesus!

Pastor Charles

“Follow me.” If we consider ourselves to be followers of Christ, then you and I have sensed a clear call to follow Jesus. That call may have been a long time ago, or it may have been yesterday, or it may have been both. In its simplest form, Christ’s call to His disciples was, “Follow me.” In restoring Peter, the risen Jesus issued the same simple call (John 21:19): “Follow me.” With those words, our Lord asks us for our personal trust in Him. He wants us to identify with Him, to stay close to Him, and to commit ourselves to saying “yes” to wherever He may lead us along the way.

Now, in order to follow Christ, I have to be willing to hold my own plans rather loosely. As you know, that’s easier said than done. I tend to like my plans. That’s why they’re my plans. I tend to think that my plans make perfect sense. After all, they’re my plans. But Jesus has called me to something better. He’s called you too. The path that He has marked out for us is the best path, but you and I won’t always perceive each twist and turn in the road as a welcome detour. It’s really not a “detour,” but it can certainly feel that way on any given day, or during any given season. Can you relate?

John Stott used to refer to our “lesser loyalties” as he described the myriad distractions which plague us. Those personal allegiances always seem to get in the way, don’t they? I don’t even recognize how much power they have over me until Jesus turns me away from them. “Charles, we’re not going that way. We’re going this way.” Charles: “Say what?” By way of a small example, when I lost my taste earlier this year, I suddenly discovered how passionate I am about eating! “Not the lemon icebox pie, Lord. Surely not the lemon icebox pie.” Simon and Andrew had to leave their fishing operation. James and John had to do the same thing, and even leave their dad right there in the boat. Matthew had to bail out on a lucrative tax business. And then there’s Charles, who gets upset about a lemony dessert.

You and I have been called to walk the way of Jesus. It’s His way. “So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:33. Ouch.

And it’s not just an outer surrender to which we’re called, is it? Sometimes the inner struggle is even more real. Will I trust Him with my fear? Will I trust Him with my reputation? Will I trust Him with my lust for being in control? (Sometimes I try to disguise that last one as my pesky little problem with “perfectionism.”)

Christ has called us to radical faith.

Christ has called us to gut-level repentance.

Christ has called us to rock-solid obedience.

Christ has called us to dying-daily-to-self love.

Christ has called us to other-worldly joy.

Christ has called us to embrace every twist and turn along the path as if it came from the gentle hand of God. Because it does. Ultimately, it does. We’re walking a good road to a good place.

And Christ has called us to renounce everything that is in the way. Every. Single. Thing. Because He is the Way.

And I don’t have to tell you: we can’t. Not without Him. We just can’t do any of these things. You and I come from streams of too much dysfunction to thrive on our own. You and I struggle with too much personal sin to rise above it on our own. You and I come from too much of-the-world-and-not-just-in-it kind of thinking to sort it out on our own. We just can’t.

But He can.

If we are in Christ, then His Spirit is already ours. His Holy Spirit. The same wonder-working Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead! Galatians 2:20 is hopeful music for our overwhelmed souls: I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

It is no longer I.

Pastor Charles

As visitors to Boston many times over many years, Eileen and I have centered much of our activity around the Marriott Copley. It’s a beautiful spot right on the harbor, and close to many things we enjoy, like the Italian food in the North End. Eileen graduated from college in Boston, and most of her family live in that neck of the woods, so the city has been an important part of our lives. It’s also central to American history, and we’ve enjoyed taking a number of people to New England to experience not just the natural beauty but the historical landmarks.

As you might imagine, I was disturbed to learn of “SatanCon 2023” that took place right there at the Marriott the last week of April. I dug in just a little to see if I could find some photos, and the one I’m including here is as unsettling as you might expect. This is Minister Rose D’Arc leading an “Unbaptism Ceremony,” apparently in celebration of the Satanic Temple’s tenth anniversary. Pulling from a couple of news sources, I’ll note simply that there were some protests surrounding the event, and also among the crowd some followers of Jesus attempting to share the good news of Christ against the dark backdrop of the spiritual lostness that the conference represents.

This group is not the same as “the Church of Satan,” which we’ve heard about for years, but USA Today called the gathering in Boston “the largest group of Satanists” in history. It was sold out. The group is politically active, and politically “progressive,” and they pride themselves on giving people a connection to “organized religion” without forcing them to support religious leaders with whom they disagree. The theme was “Hexennacht in Boston.” (The H-word is German for “witches’ night”.) I found on their website that the Satanic Temple dedicated “this edition” of their event to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, who they say denied them from delivering a satanic invocation at Boston City Hall. And I intend to end my coverage of the group and the event with that remark, because I don’t want to give them any more exposure than is necessary for this blog posting. And I’m sure you’ve already read enough to turn your stomach.

What are you and I to make of this growing movement? Though we might be tempted to write it off as a bunch of costumed “crazies,” I would urge you not to miss the larger point. Because the Word of God actually predicts what might be the spiritual reality underlying what I’ll call the satanist surge of 2023. Specifically, I’ll refer you to 1 Timothy 4:1-2, where the Apostle Paul warns: Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared.” Whenever I see upside-down crosses and other attempts to “undo” Christianity, I can’t help thinking about the dangers of apostasy which we find in the New Testament. 1 John 2:19 reminds us that professing Christians can abandon the Lord. This might be a surprise to us, but it is no surprise to God: They went out from us, but they were not of us: for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. Those, friends, are sobering words for sobering times.

I think it’s safe to say that some apostates will simply fall away from their profession of faith, and from their outward expressions of worshiping Christ, but I think that we should also expect that some will become blatant worshipers of the demonic. I’m not saying this to frighten you, but to remind all of us that we who are the church must stay vigilant about the faith of our own souls. I think it’s also safe to say that the Bible warns us that, as time marches on toward Christ’s return, you and I can expect a climate marked by more and more widespread spiritual confusion. And I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say that we’re already seeing some signs of that downward spiral.

Never forget: Satan disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), though our enemy and God’s prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). Jesus warned us (Matthew 24:12-13) of an increase in lawlessness and a growing coldness (lovelessness)that will come upon the earth. I believe that I’m personally observing an uptick in those realities even as I write these words, so my heart longs to fortify us in gospel strength and resolve. We need grace for this hour. We need truth for this hour. We need Christ for this hour.

And I don’t want you to miss the fact that, in that very same passage of Scripture, our faithful and sovereign Lord also promises: the one who endures to the end will be saved. Friends, that’s a steadfast word for a slippery day. Not only that, but Christ has given us His own abiding presence and power for the task before us (1 John 4:4): He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world! In Christ, you and I are never alone. Our hope of persevering all the way to the finish line is our confident knowledge that Christ will persevere through us (Philippians 1:6).

Though sometimes we still kick and scream to get our own way, you and I are in the very best of hands. We can pray, as Jesus taught us, “Deliver us from evil,” knowing that our Father will move heaven and earth to make that happen. Even now, He is protecting and sustaining us in about a billion ways that we can’t even imagine. He is faithful and good. Martin Luther nailed it (pun fully intended) …

“A mighty fortress is our God.”

Pastor Charles