Jason Dollar . Net

Every pastor needs to give the occasional meta-sermon, that is, a message or series of messages reminding the people of God, that God’s ultimate aim in all things is His own glory. It is the “Big Story” in which all the little stories (like Cain and Abel, Noah’s Ark, David and Goliath, Paul’s ministry, you life and mine) fit.

So for the next three Lord’s Day messages, I am going to attempt, in a small and finite way, to lead the folks at Rock Mtn to reflect upon, enjoy, receive, and spread the glory of God. The major points for the first sermon:

• The Bible is essentially the story of how God glorifies Himself.
• Everything that happens in human history, then, is a manifestation of some aspect of the glory of God.
• The glory of God is the absolute moral standard that defines our behavior as good or bad.
• Salvation is the movement of a person from being a secular, man-glorifyer to being a holy, God-glorifyer.

One of my major objectives in these messages is to discuss the difference between the innate glory of God in Himself, and the glory of God as received by a second party (namely, us).

The innate glory of God is that glory which belongs to God in His being. That is, it is Him! He is majestic, splendid, awesome in holiness, and an endless trillion other wondrous realities that our feeble language can’t begin to truly get at! (read Psalm 19)

Let me illustrate. I love Paul Simon, the singer / songwriter. He has written some great classic songs, like Bridge Over Troubled Water, You Can Call Me Al, Graceland, and Sound of Silence. All well crafted songs. He has a measure of innate glory. That is, Simon was endowed with certain gifts and talents, including lyrical and musical composition. These gifts are simply part of his being, or his innate glory (so to speak). The innate glory of God is like that – it is simply who He is.

But there is another way of understanding the glory of a person. The sunshine has innate glory just like Paul Simon does, but that glory shines. That is, the brilliance of the sun emanates off the surface of the sun and proceeds forth. And the beams of glory find other objects (like people). We then, as the son shines on us, have the opportunity to enjoy the glory of the son.

Paul Simon also shines this way. He has a measure of innate glory, but he has taken this and put it into the form of “beams,” like concerts, CDs, DVD’s, and radio waves. These become vehicles through which Simon’s glory is communicated to other beings. And so the glory of Paul Simon can be received, understood, and enjoyed by others, to a greater or lesser degree. We cannot add or subtract from the innate glory of Paul (it simply is what it is), but we can magnify his shining glory better or worse.

God’s glory is the same. His innate glory is unchanging, but His glory shines forth from His being a million ways. His Word, His Son, His Church, His Supper, all of these, and a host of others, are vehicles through which we see the shining of God’s glory. And all of us can receive these “beams” of His light, or reject them. To the degree that we receive them, seek to understand them, enjoy them, and spread them, we are “glorifying God.” Now, of course, we cannot add to His innate glory, which is perfectly and eternally unchanging, but we can magnify His shining glory, as it shines upon our lives!

Our ability to understand this theology is absolutely essential for us in understanding the purpose of our lives. The reason people feel chaotic, sad, out of control, or meaningless, is because we are often not consciously living to magnify the glory of God. We are magnifying the glory of self, or a thousand other earth-based things, and this leads to a malfunction in the human heart. After all, God has created us with the function of glorifying HIM, and so this we must do as our highest duty, honor, and joy, if we are ever to experience true life.

2 Corinthians 3:18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

I hope to see many of you at church tomorrow! Let us behold the glory of the Lord!

Photo by Brandon Robbins

People know where to go online if they want to see pornography. They know exactly where to look, and they can pull it up even on their cell phone in a discreet moment, if that is what they desire. They are also well aware of how to cover their steps by deleting browsing histories, cookies, and the like.

Porn is like a drug, in the sense that many people plan their days around when they intend to inhale the images on the screen.

It is almost like American Culture is a giant pool of hot tar, and in such a place, everyone is going to get burned sooner or later. Even for youth and children, there is nowhere to run and hide where the prostitute of Proverbs 5-6 is not knocking at the door.

Proverbs 5:3-9 For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.  Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol; she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it. And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house.

In such a culture, people who desire sexual purity for the holiness and glory of God are simply not at home. Walking down the mall, driving down the interstate, or clicking on prime time tv, is all one must do to be saturated with sexually suggestive images, communicating the idea that if you are not being satisfied at home, there are plenty of other places you can turn.

The statistics of people who regularly view porn, or read romance novels (porn for women), are overwhelming. The vast majority of men and women, including those who claim the name of Jesus, are seeking out sexual promiscuity in some form or the other, and are not satisfied with God’s plan for pure sexual expression within marriage. Tim Challies recently wrote:

“I read recently of a researcher who wanted to study the effects of pornography on young adult males. He carefully built the structure for the study, determining how he would compare young men who had experienced pornography with a control group comprised of those who had never come into contact it. Tragically this researcher had to cancel his study. He found that he was unable to put together a control group; he could not find young men who had not discovered pornography. The experiment was impossible to conduct.”

The vast majority of teens have been exposed dozens of times to hard core pornography, and in many cases, participate in it with each other.

Given the gravity of sexual sin, even among the Church, I thought it would be fitting to put together a list of free, online resources to help those who want a way out. (AND THERE IS A WAY OUT)! These are the best online works I have found on the issue, and I highly recommend them. It is nice to know that help can be found online, just like harm can be found online.

By way of application, I would suggest reading these writings constantly, praying through them. Perhaps, reading them with a trusted friend can lead to greater accountability.

Ultimately, the reason we engage in sexual sin is because we are not satisfied with the glory and goodness of God. Falling deeper in love with Him, and desiring to live life in the way He has designed it, are the proper positive ways to squelch out sexual sin in our lives.

SERMONS

Fireproof Marriage by Pastor Brian Branam

Let Him Kiss Me by Mark Driscoll

Desiring God National Conference: Sex and the Supremacy of God (Piper, Mohler, Dever and others)

This is the Will of God for You: That You Abstain from Sexual Immorality by John Piper

ONLINE BOOKS

Sex and the Supremacy of God by John Piper and others

Sexual Detox by Tim Challies

Porn Again Christian by Mark Driscoll

ARTICLES

Wired for Intimacy by Tim Challies

When Unclothed Is Unfitting by John Piper

WEBSITES

New Life Ministries

Pure Heart, Pure Mind

Covenant Eyes

Net Nanny

At church, a couple of guys and I are reading through Andrew Murray’s little book called Humility. I am struck by the way in which Murray addresses this topic.

Humility is one of those virtues that is elusive, to say the least. To claim to have it is not to have it! And yet in Christ, we must have it, because of who He is as Creator and Lord, and who we are as created and follower.

Humility is a short book, but it is consuming, because it draws the believer in and creates a meditating heart. To see what I mean, read the first paragraph:

When God created the universe, it was with the one object of making the creature partaker of His perfection and blessedness, and so showing forth in it the glory of His love and wisdom and power. God wished to reveal Himself in and through created beings by communicating to them as much of His own goodness and glory as they were capable of receiving. But this communication was not a giving to the creature something which it could possess in itself, a certain life or goodness, of which it had the charge and disposal. By no means. But as God is the ever-living, ever-present, ever-acting One, who upholdeth all things by the word of His power, and in whom all things exist, the relation of the creature to God could only be one of unceasing, absolute, universal dependence. As truly as God by His power once created, so truly by that same power must God every moment maintain. The creature has not only to look back to the origin and first beginning of existence, and acknowledge that it there owes everything to God; its chief care, its highest virtue, its only happiness, now and through all eternity, is to present itself an empty vessel, in which God can dwell and manifest His power and goodness.

Humility (the book) can be read free online, or can be purchased through Amazon:

The following short editorial appeared in the helpful (and free) online journal Themelios. This journal is produced by the Gospel Coalition and is an appreciated resource for pastors and teachers on a budget, but who want to dig deep nonetheless.

D.A. Carson is a well respected theologian. His work as Research Professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School has been monumental, climaxing in a number of important books and articles. I have learned much from Dr. Carson, but I most admire him for his devotional edge. By this, I mean he seems to genuinely love God! It is sometimes easy for those in the “theology profession” to say many things about God in a broken, unattached (no horse in the race), kind of way. Carson has avoided this error and the short editorial below is one line of evidence that this is the case. I hope you read it.

Most of us have had the experience of drifting, half awake and half asleep, in a gray mist of semi-consciousness, only to be jerked fully awake by some sudden and vivid memory of a shameful thing we have done or said in the past. The action or words are terribly vivid, and we break out in a cold sweat of shame. An inner writhing makes us wish we could relive those moments and behave differently. But in the immortal words of Omar Khayyam,

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

What is striking about these experiences is that the acute shame we suddenly feel is almost invariably with reference to a horizontal relationship—that is, we feel shame for what we have said or done that has wounded a friend or diminished us in the eyes of a family member or colleague. Almost never do we feel such acute shame before God. Why is this?

I suspect that at least one of the reasons is that many of us care rather more for what fellow human beings think of us than for what God thinks of us. To put this in theological language, we do not fall under adequate conviction of sin—conviction that simultaneously makes us feel guilty because we are guilty, and makes us ashamed because we have been so profoundly disloyal to our Maker and Sovereign. What he thinks of us when we act or speak despicably ought to be far more important to us than what anyone else thinks of us. That it is not usually so is itself a measure of our estrangement from the living God.

This common experience of God’s fallen image-bearers, people like you and me, takes on particular hues in specific disciplines. That is why it is worth asking readers of this digital journal what it is that is most likely to induce a sense of shame or embarrassment among theologians young and old, among pastors and teachers.

Would it be unduly cynical of me to suggest that most of us are more likely to feel troubled by something we have said or done that has upset a colleague or parishioner than by something that has dishonored God? Some do not want to be too closely associated with anything the scholarly guild judges old-fashioned or fundamentalist: that, surely, would be shameful. On the other hand, Jesus says some blunt things about those who are ashamed of him and his words (Mark 8:38). The question resolves into something pretty straightforward: Whose approval do we most earnestly desire? Whose approval do we want when we prepare for a lecture (whether to deliver it or to learn from it)? Whose approval do we seek when we preach a sermon? Whose approval matters most when we write a paper or slog away at a dissertation? Whose approval do we hunger for when we choose a vocation, decide how to use our time, take pains to build links of affection and accountability in the local church, exercise, bring up our children, nurture our families, read, lead a Bible study, help a neighbor?

If we do not want God’s approval the most, where does idolatry begin?

Mind you, the really wonderful thing about occasional midnight writhings when the person we have most offended is God is that this God also provides everything that is necessary to cleanse our conscience so that we may once again look boldly into his face. He is “faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). So we return to the cross, and rest once again.

We had a Valentine’s Banquet at RML this past week, and by all accounts, we had a GREAT time! It was a lot of fun, and at times, downright silly. But some of the themes discussed throughout the evening pertaining to marriage need to be taken very, very serious. As a pastor, I desperately want to model and mold strong marriages for the glory of God.

A few weeks ago, I suggested that you listen to Brian Branam’s series of sermons called Smart Marriage. I know that some of you have been following along. There are two sermons that all of us need to hear, and I want to strongly recommend you take some time to listen to them. Both men and women should listen to both sermons. Here are the links:

Be a Man

Be a Woman

The sermon from last Sunday, called Cross that Muddy Jordan, traces the use of the Jordan River throughout Scripture and its application for us today.

Yesterday, the sermon brought particular focus to the practice of confessing our sins, both to God and our fellow believers.

Both of the message found their root in Matthew 3:5-6 Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

These messages can be heard at the Rock Mountain Lakes Baptist Church website.

Here is a book that requires very little introduction, and very little review. In fact, it might be said that Packer’s classic has been reviewed to death. Christians love it. People who read it, usually recommend it and call it a powerful work that helps them “know God” better.

I join the ranks of those who heartily recommend Knowing God to others. It is one of those books that dives into some of the depths of Christian theology, but that is written in such a way that is accessible to most folks, if they give it a good try. Not only that, but it is written to the end that Christians would know God better, and thus is not dead orthodoxy, but rather a tool the living God has used to draw many closer to His heart.

J.I. Packer is one of the best know evangelical theologians writing today. In July, Lord willing, Packer will turn 84 years of age, and continues to speak and teach as Professor of Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. He has written, or co-written, dozens of books and articles, but none better known than Knowing God, which was originally published in 1973, and has easily sold more than 1 million copies worldwide.

Essentially, the book is a collection of articles originally written for a magazine, but that have been brought together by virtue of their similar themes, mostly related to the person of God, and how people might know Him better, and come closer to Him.

The 22 chapters of the book are divided into 3 major sections: Know the Lord, Behold Your God! and If God Be For Us. It might seem obvious where Packer goes in each of these sections, and it is. The strength of the book is not in the uniqueness of the topics covered. Many hundreds, and indeed thousands of books cover these same basic topics. Rather, the strength of the book lies in how Packer discusses each issue. His style is exceedingly readable, and indeed, he has made theology, which has seen some very boring days, into a page-turner.

R.C. Sproul comments on the book: “A masterpiece by a master theologian.” Elisabeth Elliot, wife of martyred missionary Jim Elliot, has said of Knowing God that it “plainly shows us ordinary folks what it means to know God.”

If you are not in the habit of reading your Bible, you should repent, change your ways, and dig into God’s Word. This may not be the book for you if even the Bible does not hold your interest.

But if you are student of God’s Word, and you are longing for the heart of God, this book will only help in the process. Be aware that knowledge, for knowledge’s sake, is not Packer’s goal. So many Christians wrongly seek deeper knowledge just as some form of entertainment, or in order to be smarter than others. Neither Packer’s work, nor biblical truth will allow that. I suggest you read Packer, not because he is a well-known theologian, or a good writer, or to be able to show others how much theology you know, but rather to help you re-focus your attention on the God who lives eternally, and who saves graciously for His own glory.

For many more reviews on Amazon’s website, click the book cover below.