The premise of the sermon can best be summarized by O. Palmer Robertson’s quote on Deuteronomy 18:

Every possible word describing a method by which men might attempt to determine, control or predict the future is designated as an abomination to the Lord. Any proposed substitution for the revelatory word of God that comes through his prophet must utterly be rejected (qtd. from The Final Word: A Biblical Response to the Case for Tongues and Prophecy Today).

In light of all of the talk today of “seeking God’s will” by promptings and leadings of God’s Spirit, we must remember that the task of seeking God’s will in the Bible was supremely the task of understanding God’s revealed will, not his secret will. To be “led by the Spirit” according to Scripture, is to be led in righteousness, fruit, and greater sanctification. To be “led by the Spirit” is not to be led by promptings, nudges, or signs which the Spirit may give us in facing decisions. When Paul speaks of being “led by the Spirit,” he is always speaking of growth, sanctification, and fruit (Romans 8:13-15; Galatians 5:18-23).

Here are some links to just a few additional articles that may help your understanding of a profoundly misunderstood aspect of the Christian life.

The Ministry of the Spirit in Discerning the Will of God, by J.I. Packer

The Task of Seeking God’s Mysterious Will, by Sinclair Ferguson

Finding God’s Will, by Robert Rayburn

In this last article Robert Rayburn recounts the tragic story of a Christian friend of his who was struck with a fatal disease.

The person shared with me and others that the Lord had revealed by means of a strong impression that healing would take place. Even as severe physical deterioration gave us every indication that the doctors’ prognoses were correct, my friend continued to act and speak as though healing would occur.

The death of this individual came about, contrary to what the so-called guidance he had indicated. As I look back on this event, I see how this view of guidance prevented my friend from a significant work in the Christian life - namely to die well, giving glory to God who gives and takes away, and to leave this world confessing before all that “the Judge of all the earth does right” and that , in Christ, “to die is gain!”

I can’t help but think of many of the couples at the Christian college I attended. For many of these couples one partner was “led” by God to end the relationship, and the other had the exact opposite “leading,” to continue in the relationship. This means that either one of the partners misinterpreted God’s true leading, a possibility I suppose; or that God actually led them in different directions, an impossibility we know; or it means that God never “led” them one way or the other. In light of the fact that God’s people are never commanded to seek the secret will of God, in light of the fact that no one in Scripture is ever “led” by a fallible urging, nudging, prompting, or feeling from God’s Spirit, and in light of the fact that God’s people are expressly forbidden to look into the future and the secret things of God (Deut. 18:10; 29:29), I would suggest that it’s not God’s normal practice to lead Christians in this way.

God does indeed lead Christians by his Spirit. But inevitably, that leading is directly to life in Christ and growth in sanctification!

Romans 8:11, 14-15 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you…. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

In part I relied on a definition offered by J.I. Packer in his introductory essay to the John Owen work, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. There Packer describes the biblical gospel as “always and essentially a proclamation of Divine sovereignty in mercy and judgment, a summons to bow down and worship the mighty Lord on whom man depends for all good, both in nature and in grace.”

Packer’s essay on the gospel is a tremendous treasure, well worth the read. It is perhaps the best short essay on the gospel that I have ever read, and I commend it to you for your reading.

J.I. Packer’s Introduction to The Death of Death in the Death of Christ.

While listening to Jones I saw Mark Driscoll’s book, Vintage Jesus, will be published at the end of February. Driscoll is the pastor of Mars Hill Church - and some may consider him the shock-jock of Reformed Christianity. The book, I’m sure, promises to be excellent - and shocking.

Here’s one of the opening paragraphs:

Roughly two thousand years ago, Jesus was born in a dumpy, rural,
hick town, not unlike those today where guys change their own oil,
think pro wrestling is real, find women who chew tobacco sexy, and
eat a lot of Hot Pockets with their uncle-daddy. Jesus’ mom was a poor,
unwed teenage girl who was mocked for claiming she conceived via the
Holy Spirit. Most people thought she concocted a crazy story to cover
the “fact” she was knocking boots with some guy in the backseat of a
car at the prom. Jesus was adopted by a simple carpenter named Joseph
and spent the first thirty years of his life in obscurity, swinging a hammer
with his dad.

If you’re offended, keep in mind the book is endorsed by some folks you probably would be careful not to offend.

J.I. Packer, a theological heavyweight says, “This book reveals Mark Driscoll as a highly powerful, colorful, down-to-earth catechist, targeting teens and twenty-somethings with the old, old story told in modern street-cred style. And Professor Breshears ballasts a sometimes lurid but consistently vivid presentation of basic truth about the Lord Jesus Christ.”

And, Matt Lindland, an Olympic silver medalist in wrestling and top-ranked mixed martial arts fighter says, “This book presents an honest view of Jesus without giving in to the pressure to soften him up. I had to grapple with the real vintage Jesus. This is a Savior worth fighting for.”

I wouldn’t want to offend either of those guys.

Today, John Piper issued an excellent response to this dialog expressing profound disappointment with the Christians who have affirmed this common ground. Piper’s response is well worth listening to.

In reading through some of the “Common Word” documents, it seems more and more clear to me that the greatest threat Islam brings to Christianity is not violence, but peace… the kind of peace that denies the absolute uniqueness of Christ as mankind’s only hope of salvation. While it is certainly right for us to call for and pray for and hope for peace, we do not embrace peace at all costs.

Rick Phillips’ comments are particularly helpful:

I suppose that a survey of the history of religion and war would show that in times of great violence there is usually an impulse to downplay important religious differences so as to soften inter-religious anger and hatred. But it is always distressing to see Christians so willing to downplay the most central and vital aspects of our faith in pursuit of some “higher” end. I am sure that the signatories of the Christian response mean well. But for Christians there must never be a higher end that the glory of God as revealed in his Word and the spread of the biblical gospel with clarity, love, and courage. At the very moment when increasing numbers of people have concluded that “all religions believe the same thing,” the very worst thing Christians could do — the least loving and ultimately the least peaceful — is to foster the idea that one’s understanding of God need not embrace Jesus Christ as the unique revelation of God and as the Savior-Son God has sent as the only hope for a sinful world.

You can listen to the interview at their website - just click here.

Watch a segment of “The Red Green Show,” easily my favorite television show ever.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1220

(click “Full Episode” in the middle left)

One of the things I’ve been trying to work on recently is my guitar playing. Since I’m not a good singer, I would like to one day be able to hold my own as a guitar player - but that day is a long way off.

Anyway, I always laugh when I hear this lesson in one of my guitar instruction books/cds.

18-dan-crary-wabash-cannonball.mp3

Maybe “a long way off” is farther than I think.

For something advertising a series of science-fiction children’s books, this was fascinating.

So I bought the books and read them.

What I found, of course, was a very well told story that ultimately serves as a (ill-reasoned) polemic against Christianity in general, and the Christian God in particular. Perhaps most fascinating of all I discovered these unapologetically anti-Christian books at the same time that Harry Potter was taking a real beating from many evangelicals, yet I never heard a word about Pullman.

Having read these books, it seems to me that the real danger is not that Pullman wants to kill God off. His depiction of God as a weak, corrupt, decaying old man is quite ridiculous. Perhaps I’m naive, but no reasonable person, whether Christian or atheist, will put any stock in Pullman’s description of who he thinks God actually is. We must remember, this God that Pullman so desperately wants to kill off is the same God he doesn’t believe in. If Pullman himself doesn’t believe in the God that he is describing, neither will his readers. Although he tries, Pullman has nothing substantial to say about God himself. As I said in my previous post, the God Pullman kills off and so hates is certainly not the God of the Bible.

The real danger is that Pullman wants to liberate mankind from every authority, and in particular, from the authority of God. This is a dangerous idea. This is the temptation of all temptations. This is where Pullman will find resonance with sinful man. In our sinful nature we are bent, not on destroying God, but on replacing his rightful reign with our own rebellious reign. This is the temptation Adam and Eve fell into. And the power of this temptation cannot be underestimated. Pullman writes with the goal of liberating mankind from all divinely imposed constraints. Pullman writes for freedom from God.

Ultimately, Pullman’s desire to liberate man from the reign of God will inevitably lead to a the reign of a truly harsh and ultimately deadly taskmaster, sin.

John 8:31-36 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Romans 6:17-23 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

For more on the idea of human freedom in Pullman’s books, see my paper, Original Sin, Human Freedom, and His Dark Materials.