Jesus Our Sabbath Rest - Part 1

AUDIO (More Grace For Life audio archives are here.)

Before talking about the Sabbath, or Sabbath-keeping, or Jesus as our Sabbath rest, let me first admit that in America, the Sabbath is no longer considered much by the vast population.

In my home town, Grand Rapids, Michigan, when I was a little kid in the 1950’s, the Sunday Sabbath was not only taught in most churches, but was legislated by the city itself, or forced by the pressure of Christian church groups.

Alcohol couldn’t be sold on Sundays, stores and other workplaces were closed on Sunday, sports were strongly discouraged, and in most neighborhoods one would not even mow their lawn on Sunday, because of peer pressure.

While this may sound to some of you like a documentary about some bizarre religious cult, believe me, this was the tradition of much of America before the ‘60’s, and European Reformed Church influence dating back to the Reformation of the 1500’s.

And I’m well aware that much has changed these days. And yet there are many who still think of Sunday as the Sabbath Day, and practice various levels of abstaining from work, or demanding certain practices on that day, to fulfill religious duty. And there are still Christian sects and cults who teach Seventh Day or Saturday Sabbatarianism even to the point of requiring it for salvation.

So I want to look at Sabbath Keeping in this and one other message. This time we’ll deal with the abolishing of Sabbath Keeping in the New Covenant, and next time dig deeper into the subject of Jesus Christ as our new Sabbath rest.

First, Some Old Covenant Scriptures

Exodus 20:8, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy."

Exodus 20:10, "but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you."

Exodus 20:11, "For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy."

Exodus 31:14, "Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people."

Exodus 31:15, "For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the LORD; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death."

Israel Only

Before we go any further, notice this: you will notice that this was a covenant with the nation of Israel only. There was no universal Sabbath commandment for the nations, the Gentiles.

“Wait a minute”, you might say. “What about in Genesis? Didn’t God say something about the Sabbath after He created everything in six days, and rested on the seventh?”

Well, here is what He said:

Genesis 2:2, "By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Genesis 2:3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made."

No commands here. Certainly nothing about refraining from doing anything on the seventh day. But way back then, God was filtering into our thinking something about this idea of rest. Rest from working.

How Serious Were The Sabbath Commands?

But back to Israel in the book of Exodus.

Was God serious about this Sabbath-keeping for Israel? He sure was. This was part of what we call the Mosaic Covenant, or Old Covenant which God made with Israel at Mount Sinai. And God was VERY serious about the Sabbath. Profane the Sabbath, and you die. That was the Law.

The actual Sabbath commandments for Israel were bad enough. But by the time Jesus walked the earth, the Pharisees were holding up a much tougher bunch of rules that they actually held ABOVE the Law.

For example, the law included detailed regulations regarding what constituted a "burden" that could not be carried on the Sabbath; for example, pieces of paper, horses hairs, wax, a piece of broken earthenware or animal food. Generally a burden was anything as heavy as a dried fig, or a quantity sufficient to be of any practical use (e.g. a scrap of paper large enough to be converted into a note or a wrapper).

It prescribed what might or might not be saved if one’s house caught on fire. Only those clothes that were absolutely necessary could be saved. But one could put on a dress, save it, then go back and put on another. One could not ask a Gentile to extinguish the flames. But if he did so voluntarily, he should not be hindered.

One could eat food on the Sabbath lawfully only if it had been specifically prepared for the Sabbath on a weekday. If a laying hen laid an egg on the Sabbath, it could not be eaten. But if the hen had been kept for fattening and not laying, the egg could be eaten, since it would be considered a part of the hen that had fallen off!

These regulations considered studying the Mishna on the Sabbath more important than studying the Bible. The Hagiographa (the Old Testament "Writings") were not to be read on the Sabbath except in the evening. And there are many other similar examples.

Of special interest to us are the laws regarding harvesting and healing on the Sabbath. Even the slightest activity involving picking grain—removing the husks, rubbing the heads, cleaning or bruising the ears or throwing them up in the hand—was forbidden.

Yet if a man wanted to move a sheaf on his field, he had only to lay a spoon on it; then, in order to remove the spoon, he might also remove the sheaf on which it lay!

Did Jesus Break The Sabbath?

All this is important in order to realize that Jesus never broke the Sabbath. He lived under the Old Covenant, and was expected to obey the Sabbath laws, and He did.

But He did not obey the rules of the Pharisees, and that infuriated them.

Ironically, by adding to the Law of God their own rules, the Pharisees were breaking the Law of God. Listen to Deuteronomy 4:2, "You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you."

Is The Sabbath For Us Today?

Now, what about us? Is the Sabbath for us today?

The clear answer from Scripture is no.

We are under the New Covenant, and the Bible in the Book of Hebrews, Chapter 8, makes it clear that the New Covenant has made the Old Covenant obsolete (Heb. 8:13).

That alone is enough to make it clear that Sabbath-keeping is not for us today.

But let’s look at more detailed reasons why we are not Sabbatarians:

1.We read In Colossians 2:16-17,

16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

Paul clearly refers to the Sabbath as a shadow of Christ, which is no longer binding since the substance (Christ) has come.

2.The Sabbath was the sign to Israel of the Old Covenant (Ezekiel 20:12). Since we are now under the New Covenant (Hebrews 8), we are no longer required to observe the sign of the Old Covenant.

3.The New Testament never commands Christians to observe the Sabbath.

4.The Church met on the first day of the week in the book of Acts (Acts 20:7), and even that is not a command, but merely a practice that sprang up, possibly in honor of Christ who rose from the dead that day.

5.We touched on this already, but nowhere even in the Old Testament are the Gentile nations commanded to observe the Sabbath or criticized for not observing it. That makes it clear that Sabbath-keeping is not meant to be an eternal moral principle.

6.Nowhere in the Bible does anyone keep the Sabbath before the time of Moses, and there are no commandments in the Bible to keep the Sabbath before the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai.

7.The apostle Paul warned the Gentiles about many different sins in his epistles, but breaking the Sabbath was never one of them.

8.In Galatians 4:10-11, Paul rebukes the Galatians for thinking God expected them to observe special days (including the Sabbath).

9.Nothing in Scripture indicates that Sunday has replaced Saturday as the Sabbath. Believers tend to gather on Sunday, which is the first day of the week, but there is no command of Scripture to do so.

Now you may have heard of a book by Jonathan Edwards called “The Perpetuity and Change of the Sabbath”. I once talked with a conference speaker who promoted Sabbath-keeping. And after the conference I went up to him and I said, "Okay, I'm a Realtor. If I go out and show a house on Sunday, am I in violation of the Sabbath, in such a way that the Church should rebuke me and discipline me?"

And he said, "Well...no...it's not that exactly, it's..."

And I said, "Well, how about 10 houses? How about 15 houses?"

"Well, no...it's not exactly..."

And he hemmed and hawed, and I said, "Isn't it true that the Sabbath has been done away with in the New Covenanat?"

He said, "You need to read Jonathan Edwards' The Perpetuity and Change of the Sabbath." Which is supposed to prove that the Sabbath has continued and that it's been changed to Sunday.

And I said, "I have read The Perpetuity and Change of the Sabbath" and I said, "basically it's not a Scriptural teaching at all".

And he became frustrated and said, "Well...", as if to say, "Well, there's just no hope for you if you think Jonathan Edwards is not being Scriptural."

And I said, "Let's examine the Scripture on that."

And all of a sudden he looked at his watch and said, "Uh...I gotta go...uh...I gotta go catch a plane."

And so ended the conversation. Because when brought straight to the Scriptures for the teaching on the perpetuity and change of the Sabbath, it just isn't there.

10.Lastly, Hebrews 4:9-11 makes it clear that the Sabbath was all along meant to be a shadow of Christ who came to be our Sabbath rest.

Now we will be covering this wonderful truth in greater detail in Part 2 of this message, but for now let me say this.

In Him there is a rest for the people of God, wherein they rest from their works.

In the New Covenant, Christ Himself is our Sabbath. He is our rest. We are saved by grace through faith in Him. But not only is our salvation not based on works, but the very love of God for us, His acceptance of us, and His favor on our lives is by grace.

It doesn’t mean we won’t have good works in our lives. God is working those in us through His Spirit. But we rest from our works as the way to earn God’s love and favor. He loves us, period.

Is the Sabbath for today? No, not the legalistic keeping of rules for a special day of the week. But our Sabbath is Jesus, and our rest is in Him, every day of the week, and forever. More in Part 2 next time.

Part 2

Politics And Guarding The Heart

I became politically active in 1964, when Barry Goldwater ran against Lyndon Johnson. I was only 14 years old.

I've campaigned, planted signs, made phone-bank calls, done door-to-door flyers, attended rallies, written speeches.

In the late 60's, while half the country was going Left and anarchic, I went Right and Republican. I attended anti-communist John Birch Society meetings, led by Fred and Ethel [not their real names], a husband and wife who became my good friends.

But politics can't satisfy the heart, and I was lost as lost could be, until 1976, when God reached down and opened my heart to Jesus Christ.

As a new believer, I still took an active interest in political happenings, but the rabid hand-wringing and fighting ceased. I began to see the sovereignty of God in everything. I saw that the history that was unfolding was God's history, and that He was raising up and bringing down men and nations at will.

I began attending a wonderful church in 1976, and lo and behold, there were my friends Fred and Ethel, Christians who had told me about the Lord, but not with the enthusiasm they had for fighting the Communist Conspiracy.We became friends again, but Fred was always distraught about "the state of the Government and the World".

I was now engaged in ministry, and politics took a seat way in the back by comparison. Fred would have none of it. He seemed to truly love the Lord, but his crusade was a political one, seeking to save the world by politics, and it drove him over the edge. In the early 80's, Ethel went home one day and found Fred dead, hanging from a rope.

Devoid of understanding the sovereignty of God in nations, and not understanding that the Kingdom of God is not of this world, Fred thought things had gotten out of God's hand.

He couldn't have been more wrong.

"Seek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness..." That's what's of primary importance to us. And that means that we not only witness of our Lord Jesus Christ, it means we rest in Him and His sovereignty, even while we support our candidates according to our consciences.

And it means that our faith should work itself out in love (Gal. 5:6) . . . Love for Republicans, and Democrats, and political opponents, and other ethnic groups, and immigrants (legal and otherwise), and Muslims, and even terrorists (though the Government doesn't bear the sword for nothing -- Rom. 13:4).

Otherwise, we're just clanging cymbals (1 Cor. 13:1), and our politics has become our God in practice.

Government Intrusion Inevitable Without Morality

By Michele Rayburn

I cannot forget that our second President, John Adams, said, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other." This means that when the people cease to be a moral people, then government intrusion will be inevitable.

"Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness..." Isaiah 5:20

Without the people pursuing God and His righteousness, the inevitable result of having a godless, immoral society is to have the government regulate their behavior, instead of God doing it through their consciences. If the people have no moral restraints of their own, then someone must restrain them.

Ideally, and hopefully soon, God will once again become the Restrainer of our morality. But people have yet to believe that God is the only One Who can restrain us. He does it spiritually. He has to change our "heart of stone" first, as the Bible says, and give us a "heart of flesh".

The only way to end abortion is for people to have a change of heart. That change has to come from God. And those that already know Him must pray for America daily, that He will revive us again.

For many, there is some worry and even some anger as we see these things unfold---an apathetic, increasingly godless nation that seems to be unconcerned about virtually everything, including what is going on in our government.

As long as people go further and further away from the knowledge of the true God, and have no moral foundation or moral restraints, it will become inevitable that we will see the government take over more and more of our lives. They are doing it partly for our safety, but mostly to take advantage of us in their quest for power, ignoring the real solution to our "heart" problem, because they are ignoring God.

But we should look at all these things unfolding like a tapestry, from God's point of view, and trust Him as the Grand Designer. Know that He is in control of this whole situation, and that nothing happening in America escapes His notice or confounds His Master Plan. There is a Plan and Purpose for these events unfolding the way they are. And I just hope that many will find peace of mind in trusting God for the outcome of all these events.

I began studying politics because I wanted to see what God was doing in that arena of life. I find it fascinating and appalling at the same time. If it were not for my faith in the Sovereign God, Who is in control of all things, I would be robbed of my joy. But since I do know Him, I am able to hold onto Him, steadfast in my faith, unable to be moved (spiritually speaking) by the shocking things going on in our country.

It is good and important to know what is going on in our country, and to stand for what is right. But it is vital to not lose sight of the Sovereign God, Who is in total control of all these events---though it may not seem like it most of the time.

That's what faith is.

Mopping Up The Battlefield Of Your Mind (Audio)

Mopping Up The Battlefield Of Our Mind

Grace For Life audio archives are here.

Mopping Up The Battlefield Of The Mind

2 Cor. 10:4,5 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,

We want to look particularly at that last part of the passage, “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ”

But first let’s look a little closer at the first part of this passage.

We won’t go into a great deal about the first part of the passage today, but it’s important. The picture God is painting here is one of storming and conquering a fortress, or castle. There are a lot of aspects to this, like our spiritual armor, prayer, the Word of God itself, faith, and so forth. But the most important thing in this raiding of the Castle of Evil is the Gospel itself.

Where's The Power?

We are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God for salvation to those who believe. (Rom 1:16). Did you get that? Don’t take this lightly. Do you know that you will never really change a person in the core of their being?

You may clean them up and make them look better and make them a better businessman or public speaker, or more successful, or more powerful personally or politically, but may I ask the question the Scripture asks? “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but foreits his soul?”

You see the fortress or castle that we want to pull down is the Kingdom of darkness that has enslaved every man and woman since Adam and Eve. It’s the Kingdom of lies, and the lies are against the One who is the Truth, and the Way and the Life.

And the primary thing that pulls down that fortress, that Kingdom of darkness, is the Gospel, because it not only shines truth in the darkness, it actually has the POWER to change the heart. To grant the free gift of a new spirit, to make a new creation.

But enough on the first part of our passage, let’s look at the real subject of our message today, 2 Cor 10:5 bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

Bring Every Thought Captive

Do you know what a "mopping-up" operation is in warfare?

After a battle is won, the battle is seldom ever totally over. There is always a stray enemy sniper here, an enemy soldier playing possum over there, waiting to jump up and knife you when you walk by, some enemy troops who were out on patrol, and arrive back, not even knowing there was a battle.

Sometimes just those enemies who escape into the hills and never give up. You may have heard of the Japanese soldiers we found on an island, I think it was in the 1960’s. They were cut off from communications, and they never knew that World War II was over.

Anyway, 2 Cor 10:5, bringing every thought into captivity is the mopping-up operation in the battles that the Gospel has already won. Are you a Christian? Then the battle for your soul has already been won.

The Gospel, which is the power of God, won you. The enemy's desire to keep you in his kingdom was foiled. You are a child of God. Your sins are forgiven, you have eternal life, and you are destined to forever be present with your King in heaven.

But there are still some snipers out there, there are still some enemies pretending to be dead, there are still some who don’t even know the battle is won. And they will seek to deceive you, and hinder your walk.

They will seek to deny the Word of God, while you don’t even know they’re denying it. They will seek to make you think things that will hinder you from having the fruit of the Spirit in your daily life, because lies have a way of quenching the Spirit and keeping us from being filled with the Spirit.

The Worst Lies Fall Into Three Categories:

1.Lies about God Himself.

Lies about God may include that He Himself is a liar, or that he may not really love us, or that He may not really judge those who reject Christ with the Lake of Fire, or that He is not just, or that He is not all-powerful, or that He doesn’t know the future, or that He didn’t really raise Jesus from the dead, or that Jesus is not God, and on and on.

These are often the foundations for false religions and cults, but they are not absent from the visible church.

2.Lies about man.

These may include lies like all men are born good, or man is really divine, or man can save himself by his good works. Other lies revolve around the condition of the born-again believer. Like saying that we are just the same as we were before being saved, except forgiven, instead of the truth that we are new creations who love God and hate sin.

Or lies that we are not really righteous, even though God’s Word clearly says that we have been justified, declared righteous, because of Christ’s death on the cross.

3.Lies about the Word of God, the Bible.

If the enemy can get you to doubt the Word of God, even as a believer, he has gained one of his biggest footholds in hindering your spiritual walk.

Especially regarding the New Covenant, and the wonderful love and acceptance that God has for you, because of His grace, His free gift of righteousness and salvation. If the enemy can get you to doubt that, then you will shy away from Jesus in your daily life, instead of fellowshiping closely with Him.

Listen, He is your Daily Bread. He is the Life you feed on, indeed He is your very Life, if you are a Christian.

Anything that leads you away from the sweet communion with Him needs to be speared to death with the TRUTH of the Word of God. Every thought that comes to your mind needs to be measured. It’s a habit.

Get in the habit of measuring every thought by this:

Is it true according to the Word of my Lord and Savior?

Take those thoughts captive. Examine them. Throw the false ones in the garbage. Treasure the true ones. They will fill your heart with love for Jesus.

How Is The Mind The Battleground For Spiritual Warfare?

Often it's said that the battleground of the Devil is the mind. And we’ve seen there is truth to that. But how is the mind the battleground for spiritual warfare?

Follow me here:

Q. What does the mind do?
A. It thinks.

Q. What does it think?
A. It thinks thoughts.

Thoughts may be divided into two classes, truth and lies.


And that is the real "material" of spiritual warfare: truth vs. lies.


That's why the Scriptures speak of "doctrines of demons" (1 Tim. 4:1), because doctrines (teachings) of demons are lies. It's truth that sets us free, and it's lies that put us in bondage of various kinds.

Where Is The Authoritative Truth?

Which leads us to the question, "Where is authoritative truth?"

Well, it's in the Scriptures. That's why we must be transformed by the renewing of our minds. (Rom. 12:1,2)

And the Devil and demons are not our only enemies. There are also the World and the Flesh. Any one of the unholy three (the World, the Flesh, and the Devil) is able to de-rail us, if we are not filled with the Truth of the Word of God.

How are we filled with the Word of God?

I would recommend five ways:

1. Reading the Word, especially the New Testament epistles.

2. Studying the Word, perhaps using good commentaries, word studies, Bible dictionaries, etc.

3. Meditating on the Word. Thinking over each passage, asking questions like Who, What, When, Where, Why?

4. Praying the Word. Asking God to teach us, and equip us with His grace, to understand and be able to live each passage, as it is applied to our lives.

5. Perhaps most important, always relating the Word to Jesus Christ, Who is the Living Word.

He who is our Life, Jesus Christ, Who is one in spirit with us believers, is the Object of the Scriptures. All Scriptures point to Him, and He is Truth personified. Seek Him in every passage. He is our Bread. Feed on Him. Don't view the Scriptures as just some kind of rule book or map. It breathes Christ! Our Savior, our Lord, our Counselor, our Friend!

When you recognize a lie, renounce it. Put it away.

But be sure to replace it with the truth.

Practice the truth. Seek it out. Don't let a lie rest. Root it out. Pray for the Lord to lead you in truth, which does indeed set us free. Stand on the truth. That's what the warfare is about. And taking captive your thoughts is the mopping-up operation.

"It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery." -- Galatians 5:1

An Anniversary Story and the Sovereignty of God

In March of 1981, I was a new employee of the Dallas Times Herald newspaper. I sold advertising in the Classified Advertising Department.

As part of my training, they "tapped" the phones of experienced Classified Ad agents, so that I could listen in and hear the technique.

The first one I got to listen to had a voice that I fell in love with -- "love at first hear". Didn't know who it was, except they said her name was Michele.

A day or two later, on a break in the lunch room, I stood in line at the vending machine for a snack. In front of me was a beautiful girl with long black curled hair. After she got her snack out of the machine, she turned and smiled at me, and said, "Hi".

It was she. The voice.

That smile knocked me back with a rush of wind that blew me through the double doors and out into the street and up past the sky, surrounded by the stars in outer space, my head spinning, wondering where in the Galaxy I was.

Not really.

But something like that.

You'll have to believe me that I was not normally subject to such emotional mental breaks. I was a quite rational person, and had not been quick to make decisions regarding what the world calls love-life. I was, in fact, not looking for a wife, and who knows, might even have been content to remain a bachelor forever.

And that's why I am convinced that in the sovereignty of God, He moved me from Michigan...

...and moved Michele from Long Island, New York...

...to meet at a vending machine in a newspaper lunch room in Dallas, Texas.

The Lord put a love in my heart for Michele that I can only call "at first sight". But "at first sight" or not, I have since come to know her better and better, and that love has grown, as I've come to see more and more what an incredible person she is.

Smart, intuitive, caring, sensitive, soft, tough as nails, weak, powerful, and "completing" me in more ways than I can count.

We didn't stay in Dallas. Nice place, but it was just a rendevous point in Divine Destiny.

In 1984 we were married.

Twenty-eight years later, it's funny (and mysterious) how Michele to me is still that beautiful bride I watched come up the aisle.

And when she smiles, I'm back somewhere in the Milky Way, spinning around in the stars.

Some people think 28 years is a long time. Not me. It's a blink of an eye. I'm just grateful to God that I could spend this blink of an eye with Michele.

Happy Anniversary, Sweetheart.

Keep Your Mind Stayed On Him

By Michele Rayburn

When Christians say that they are against Legalism, sometimes I wonder if they even know what that entails.

The tentacles of Legalism reach deep down into our lives, producing false guilt, self-abasement, and an unhealthy obsession with sin, which results in saying and believing things that indicate that we feel worthless, unloved, unforgiven, and unacceptable to God.

As I said in a previous post, what Christians need to realize and need to appropriate in their lives is who they are in Christ, how to "be" in Christ, and how to "walk by the Spirit". The alternative is to "walk in the flesh".

We need to focus on Him, not focus on our sin.

You've probably heard it said that if you're told to not think of pink elephants, the next thing you know...you're thinking of pink elephants.

So when we are taught about sin, somehow we just can't stop thinking about that sin, and about continuing in that sin, and then about how we are going to resist that sin.

But it's going to be in our own strength, if we're not being told, straight from the Word of God, how to depend on God to deliver us from a particular sin, and if we're not being told how to "walk by the Spirit".

Because these teachings are so neglected, it leaves a spiritual void in people's lives. And that is the reason I believe we have so many legalistic churches, which sometimes leads to false churches, "movements" and cults.

All of them, and some "movements", have one thing in common. In a subtle, man-centered way, they are seeking to earn God's love and favor by what they think they can do for Him, not realizing that it's by His grace alone.

All of the false religions have no risen Savior. But the true Church has a risen Savior. And if we truly want to exalt Him in our lives, then we should be looking to Him, focusing on Him, walking in Him, depending on Him for everything, including the strength to overcome our weaknesses.

Try thinking about your sin and focusing on the Lord at the same time. I think you will find that you can't do that. And yet that is what I think Christians are taught to do.

But the result, I believe, is that we will become "the double-minded man, unstable in all his ways".

The Apostle Paul says in Romans 8:5-6, "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace..."

In Romans 7:25, Paul says, "So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin."

Paul knew the struggle against sin like all of us, and how he could not "serve in the newness of the Spirit" and "in the oldness of the letter [of the law]" at the same time. But he proclaimed that we have been delivered from the law, having died to it. (Romans 7:6)

And he also said, "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace." (Romans 6:14)

And so we should continue to proclaim these truths in the Church today.

Spurgeon, Puritans and Depression

Charles Spurgeon had a distaste for "modern thought".  He said, "We are satisfied with the theology of the Puritans."

Nobody wants to pick on the beloved Spurgeon.  But how much better off he would have been to say, "We are satisfied with the theology of the BIble."

Spurgeon suffered from bouts of depression.

In the reading of many of his sermons and several biographies of his life, I am convinced that the catalyst, if not the cause, of his depression was his immersion in the Puritans.

Whether connected physiologically to his brain chemistry or not, I'm convinced that his depression was brought on by the confusion he was subjected to by the Puritans.

1. His Bible taught him to gaze upon Christ...

...the Puritans taught him to look to himself in introspective examination of his wicked and deceitful heart.

2. His Bible taught him "It is finished"...

...the Puritans taught him that he must "persevere"...or else.

3. His Bible taught him that the New Covenant was unilateral, accomplished entirely by God...

...the Puritans dragged him over the blessing/cursing coals of the Old Covenant, never rightly dividing the Old from the New, a la Hebrews 8.

4. His Bible taught him that he was a Saint who sins...

...the Puritans taught him that he was a Sinner who was also sorta a Saint.

5. His Bible taught him that sin shall no longer be master over us because we are not under law, but under grace...

...the Puritans taught him that he might have been initially saved by grace, but he surely was now under law.

6. His Bible taught him that he had been given a new heart by God, one that loves Christ and hates sin...

...the Puritans taught him that his heart was deceitful and desperately wicked, confusing the regenerate with the unregenerate.

7. His Bible taught him that he could rejoice in the assurance of his salvation...

...the Puritans taught him, "Not so fast, Buster! Do you KNOW you're saved? 100% sure? C'mon, you know what a wretched creature you are! Will you stay till the end? That's the question! Are you properly aware of your sin, such that you daily grovel and weep and mourn for it? I didn't think so! You probably don't even weep and wail for the lost, do you? Huh?! Huh?! And you call yourself a preacher! You may fancy yourself a worker for God, but do you match US? Do you put in 18 hours a day? Do you visit the poor and needy and lost until you're exhausted? I didn't think so. Not so fast, Buster!"

8. His Bible taught him that if he would walk by the Spirit, he would not fulfill the lusts of the flesh...

...the Puritans taught him that if he would not fulfill the lusts of the flesh, he MAY be able to walk by the Spirit.

9. His Bible taught him, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage..."

...the Puritans taught him that if he strived hard enough, he might rid himself of his bondage, though they weren't too sure, since they had not rid themselves of theirs.
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Obviously there were exceptions to the above caricature of the Puritans. They themselves were confused many times, and so it's no surprise that they would confuse others.

But such mingling of Old Covenant and New Covenant means mingling grace and works, freedom and bondage, joy and condemnation, assurance and doubt.

And it's not just Spurgeon. Such confusion is the norm when one immerses themselves in Covenant Theology.

We don't need "modern thought".

We need ancient New Covenant thought.

Discipleship Isn't Salvation (Transcript)

Suppose two guys were to stage a debate. We'll call them Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber.

Here's the debate. Bob says that the tomato is the most nutritious bread you can eat. Larry says, no, the cucumber is the most nutritious bread you can eat.

The debate rages on, and Bob the Tomato pulls out all kinds of evidence. Magazine articles, books, medical studies, scientific inquiries, and case studies, all designed to indicate that the tomato is the most nutritious bread you can eat.

Not to be outdone, Larry the Cucumber has his own sources, which he claims show the cucumber is the most nutritious bread you can eat.

Okay, enough of this silliness. Do you see something ridiculous in this scenario, aside from a tomato and a cucumber debating? Something even more ridiculous than comparing apples and oranges?

Of course. Bob and Larry are arguing which is the most nutritious bread, while they are neglecting the obvious – that neither tomatoes nor cucumbers are “bread” at all. While arguing the merits of nutrition, they are missing the fact that they are dealing with two different classes of food, vegetables and bread.

You may be saying, “Terry, what in the world does this have to do with discipleship and salvation?”

The Lordship Salvation Debate

Well, you may be aware of an ongoing debate in churches and seminaries and dens and living rooms, for many years. It's called the Lordship Salvation debate. And the two debaters we will call Lordship Guy and Free-Grace Guy.

And the debate goes something like this:

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Free-Grace Guy says, “Salvation is entirely by grace alone through faith alone, that is, faith in Jesus' work on the cross.

“He paid for our sins, and if you believe that, and therefore believe that Jesus is your Savior, and that He died on the cross for your sins, and rose again from the dead, you are saved.

“And you are saved forever, even if you never exhibit any fruit in your life, or even if you turn back away from Jesus, and deny Him, and live a life of complete sin. You're still saved forever.”
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Lordship Guy says, “Hold on a minute there, brother, if indeed you are a brother at all with that ridiculous theology. It's not enough to just believe in Jesus as Savior, and believe that He died for your sins and rose again. You must also believe in Him as Lord, and that means that you must do what Jesus said in many places in the Gospels.

"To start with you must 'deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him', Matthew 16:24.

"You must be His disciple, like He said when He said to 'go therefore and make disciples of all the nations', Matthew 28:19. He didn't just say 'go and get decisions for Christ', He said 'make disciples', and we're not worthy to be His disciples unless we obey and follow Him. We need to 'give all that we are for all that He is'. We need to be like the merchant who sold everything he had to buy the Pearl of Great Price, which is the Kingdom of God, which is salvation.”
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Okay, the debaters are squared off, and frankly the average person in the pew, so to speak, can, I believe, be pretty easily convinced of either argument.

Free-Grace Guy sounds like he's really honoring the principle of Grace, and doesn't the Bible say we are saved by grace through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast? Sounds good to me.

But doesn't Lordship Guy sound right when he says that following Jesus as a disciple is really what it's about? After all, wouldn't we be trampling on God's Grace if we just took it and lived however we wanted? That's not salvation is it?

The Bob and Larry Problem: Free-Grace Guy

Free-Grace Guy and Lordship guy are arguing about bread, when the correct argument is about tomatoes and cucumbers.

Here's what I mean.

Free-Grace Guy is missing a key point of Scripture:

He doesn't really realize the point that Jesus is making when He tells Nicodemus in John Chapter 3, “Unless a man is born again, He cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

Jesus is making the point which is expanded on the Epistles, that man is born dead in his sins and trespasses, and remains dead in his sins and trespasses until he is born again, or regenerated. And when he is dead in his sins and trespasses, he can't even “see” the Kingdom of God, let alone believe in its King.

In other words, as Rom. 3:11 puts it, there is no one who seeks God. That is, no one who isn't born again. They can't seek God. They are utterly corrupted by the sinful nature that they inherited from Adam. There is no good in them. They are enemies of Christ (Rom. 5:10). How could they possibly believe in Jesus Christ, when they are spiritually dead enemies of Him?

And the biblical answer is that they can't.

And so the wind of the Holy Spirit of God must “blow” where He wills, and give new life to, we say regenerate, a person. Through the preaching of the Word, the Gospel, that person is now born again. He is given a new heart, a new spirit. And the Holy Spirit comes into his spirit to dwell, and he is a new creation, a new creature.

And now he not only believes in Jesus Christ, he can't NOT believe in Jesus Christ. That's what we mean by Irresistible Grace. Not that God brings us kicking and screaming to Christ, but that He silently changes our heart, gives us a new spirit, a new nature, and with that new heart we simply believe in Jesus.

As Savior, yes, and as Lord.

Were there any works involved in that? Of course not.

But understand this important point: there will be works, good works, to follow. Because a new heart will always bring new works. God is now indwelling that person with His Spirit, and He is at work in us “both to will and to work for His good pleasure”, as Paul told the Philippians.

And so Free-Grace Guy, while he is correct that our salvation is entirely by Grace, not of works, he is nevertheless incorrect to think that a truly born-again person could continue in a life entirely of sin, with no fruit in his life, and even leave Christ. Impossible. We have not merely been forgiven, we have been changed.

The Bob and Larry Problem: Lordship Guy

Again, Lordship Guy, Like Free-Grace Guy, is arguing about bread, when the correct argument is about tomatoes and cucumbers.

Here's what I mean:

Lordship Guy means well, sometimes. He speaks, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, against “cheap grace”. He is appalled by people who say they are Christians, but live like the world. He is appalled by the idea that one can “accept Christ” as Savior and then lead a life of debauchery and unbelief, and still call himself a Christian.

And I can sympathize with Lordship Guy. If we love the Lord, we want people to be disciples and deny themselves and take up their crosses and follow Him, don't we? We want people to walk in obedience to Christ, because He deserves it, and He is glorified by His followers, well, following Him.

And after all, aren't the Gospels filled with discipleship commands and requirements? Aren't the parables of Jesus filled with allegories and symbols of our obedience to Him as Lord? I mean, aren't the Gospels called the Gospels because they contain the Gospel?

Ah, now we get down to a big part of the problem.

Invariably, Lordship Guy attempts to understand the New Covenant of our salvation from the Gospel narratives, which historically record events and sayings that occur before the New Covenant was even ratified and explained.

We need to understand that when Jesus walked the earth, He did so under the Law. That is, He was born and lived as an Israelite under the awful burden of the Mosaic Law. And, of course, He was the only one who ever lived perfectly under that Law. The only one who never sinned, never violated the Law, in spirit or letter. He perfectly fulfilled the Law of Moses, the Law of God.

And while under that Law, He taught us a lot of precious truth. About right and wrong, about the heart of God, about what it means to live under the Lordship of Christ in the Kingdom of God. About how the Kingdom of God is a spiritual Kingdom, and about how a disciple, a learner and follower, of His should think and live. About the beginnings of the Good News, the Gospel, namely the Good News that the King was now here. The Messiah had come.

Okay, the disciples didn't really "get it", until later after His death and resurrection. But at least He opened the curtains somewhat and announced that it was indeed Good News that He had arrived.

However, it wasn't until the end of His life, and His resurrection, that the New Covenant was instituted.

And therefore, it wasn't until after His death and resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Father, that a more complete understanding of the Gospel was to be articulated by the Apostles.

And that's why it is a mistake to try to expound on the theology of salvation, soteriology we call it, from the four Gospels.

And that's why Lordship Guy has missed some important truths.

Lordship Guy has missed the same simple truth that Free-Grace Guy has missed. Except that he's missed it from a different direction. One missed this truth from the East side of the road while he was heading North. The other missed this truth from the West side of the road while he was heading South.

Here's the truth Lordship Guy missed: The New Birth is a package deal. When God regenerates a person, “borns them again”, to put it crudely, they are a New Creation, a New Creature. Under the preaching of the Word, the Gospel, this new creature now believes in Jesus Christ, both as Savior, and as Lord.

He doesn't need to “give all that he is for all that Christ is”, he doesn't need to “deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Christ”, HE DOESN'T NEED TO DO ANYTHING to be saved, declared righteous (justified), sealed forever, forgiven of all his sins, past, present and future, and to receive every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3).

He doesn't need to do anything. He doesn't need to embark on a journey of discipleship and Lordship. He doesn't need to do anything. Not of works, lest any man should boast.

But...and here's where Free-Grace Guy and Lordship Guy need to bend the knee to the Word of God, but...the new believer, the true believer who is born again, this new creation, will be a disciple.

Saved to the uttermost by Grace alone, through faith alone, totally apart from the slightest of works, he will, because of the new heart given him, and the indwelling Spirit of Christ, follow Christ.

That's the glory of the New Covenant, in which God promised He would “cause” us to walk in His statutes, which He has written on our hearts and minds (Ezekiel 36:27; 2 Cor. 3:3).

While Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber ramble on and on, debating about bread, they have clouded the real issue of nutrition.

And while Free-Grace Guy and Lordship Guy have rambled on and on, debating about the “Steps to Salvation”, they have clouded the real issue of the New Birth.

An Important Statement

Now I want to close with an important statement. Some who hear this will categorically reject it, but I challenge you to search the Scriptures to see if it's true. Here's the statement:

Until you understand the simple biblical fact that regeneration, being born again, comes BEFORE faith, and makes a New Creation that can't help but believe in Christ, completely by Grace, with no works, no “giving all you have”, no “selling all and buying” required for salvation, you cannot understand these things.

You will either fall into the ditch on the right, called Free-Grace Salvation, or the ditch on the left, called Lordship Salvation. May God reveal to many the sublime beauty of the sovereign work He has done in us, His new creation, causing us to walk in His ways.

As He lives His Life through us, we will be His disciples, denying ourselves and taking up our cross and following Him. Discipleship is a beautiful thing. In our heart of hearts, we desire to follow Him. He is worth following as our Lord and Savior, the Alpha and Omega, the Creator of the Universe He has blessed us with, Immanuel, God with Us, our Redeemer, and our Friend. Being a disciple of His is a beautiful privilege.

But remember that the salvation freely came first by grace alone.

Discipleship isn't salvation.

Discipleship Isn't Salvation

This week's audio message:

Discipleship Isn't Salvation

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