The Only Right Response: WORSHIP
(Mark Kielar)
March 30, 2008
Posted by Lane in : What is the Gospel?, Holiness, Mark Kielar, Worship , add a comment
On the Road Again…… March 27, 2008
Posted by brian in : Suffering , 3comments
Tomorrow at 12:00 I am packing the wife, son, daughter, dog and cat and traveling the 2927 miles from Monterey, CA to Yorktown, VA. Prayers for patients are requested to sustain the barrage of “Are we there yet?” I’m going to have to endure. What was I thinking???
The Lord Our Righteousness March 26, 2008
Posted by brian in : Spurgeon , add a commentThe Lord Our Righteousness
Look at the Canyon, Who reigns in the Castle? March 26, 2008
Posted by brian in : John Piper , 1 comment so far
From John Piper:
First, then, I see verses 12-14 as the description of a great conflict or battleground in the life of a typical believer. This is you and me here. Not an unbeliever. So who and what make up this conflict? Let’s describe the situation here. I see eight things in the warfare of these verses. I’ll mention them, and then come back and make some brief comments about them in relation to our lives.
1. There is a kingly throne or reign. Verse 12: “Do not let sin reign.” There is a reign that is being contested in this passage. A throne. The word “reign” is simply the verb form of the word for king.
2. There is a challenger to this throne, a revolutionary, a rebel who wants to take over the kingdom, namely, sin. “Do not let sin reign.” He is in revolt and mutiny and means to lead a coup and gain the throne. And you are called to resist.
3. There are a town and castle that are under attack by the challenger to the throne, namely, your body. “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body.”
4. There are servants in the castle who may become deceptive secret agents of the rebel leader and use their inside servant role to seduce and capture parts of the castle. These servants are called “desires.” “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires.” The word is neutral. They may become “evil desires” or “lusts,” but not if the rebel sin does not capture them.
5. Incremental surrender is possible. That’s what the word “obey” signals in verse 12. “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires.” If sin, the leader of the revolt, takes some desire captive and sends it in behind the castle walls with a deceptive promise of immunity and reward for capitulation, the obedience to that desire would be the surrender of part of the castle.
6. There are weapons in the castle that may be captured and turned around and used by the enemy for his unrighteous purposes. These weapons are the parts of your body – your eyes and ears and tongue and hands and feet and sexual organs. Verse 13: “Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as weapons of unrighteousness.” The word, o[pla (hopla), in all its four other uses in the New Testament (three in Paul and one in John 18:3) means “weapons,” not just instruments. In other words, I am not just making up this battle imagery. Paul is pointing to it. Don’t let the rebel, sin, capture the members of your body and turn them into weapons against the true King.
7. There is a true king over the realm, namely, God. Verse 13b: “Do not surrender the members of your body to sin – the rebel contender for the throne – so he can make them weapons of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as weapons of righteousness to God.” So the true King is God. Sin is the rebel and the insurrectionist. Stay loyal to the true King with all your weapons and all your servants – all your desires and all your members.
8. Finally, there is the constitutional authority of the kingdom, namely, grace, not law. Verse 14: “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
Do Not Let Sin Reign in Your Mortal Body Part 1
If Jesus is Not Risen, Our Faith is Worthless March 23, 2008
Posted by brian in : Paul Washer , 1 comment so far
