Saturday, February 24, 2018

That River Flows


“Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden…now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates” (Genesis 2:9-14; the four place names give us the same sense as our phrase, “the four corners of the earth”).

“By the river on its bank, on one side and on the other, will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither and their fruit will not fail. They will bear every month because their water flows from the sanctuary, and their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing” (Ezekiel 47:12).

“Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations [τῶν ἐθνῶν](Revelation 22:1,2).

There’s a River Flood Warning for a town about ten miles north of where I live. I don’t know whether it’s that or the fact that I’ve been thinking about the Holy Spirit a lot lately, but I woke up with this biblical river on my mind.

I have lived in the desert; I know that sometimes fruit-bearing takes time, and that you celebrate the harvest no matter what.

Still, I long for the harvest from the shores of this biblical river. I desire “they will bear every month” and “yielding its fruit every month.” I pray for “the healing of the nations” – and not the counterfeit that comes through the intentions, devices, and efforts of humanity.

I earnestly hope to see “the healing of the nations.” I wish our English translations would render τῶν ἐθνῶν as “peoples.”

The lower levels of the auditorium in my congregation’s building are below ground level. When it rains like this we are concerned with flooding. I’ve been told that the creek which runs by the front of the building used to run through the auditorium. The man who built it moved the creek to its present location, but it used to run right through where the stage is now. God put it where it was originally, and it ran there for millennia. I guess it still hasn’t fully accepted the new arrangement.

I have a vision for a river, not in our auditorium (please, Lord!), but for this biblical river that heals the souls of all sorts of peoples from all sorts of backgrounds, ethnicities, and cultures.

Ezekiel said the fruit of those trees was continual and healing “because their water flows from the sanctuary” (it comes after the sacrifice of the Prince in Ezekiel 46, but that’s a different post!). The “sanctuary” that provides this river isn’t an earthly building. I know this because Jesus gives us the understanding of Ezekiel’s “visions of God” (40:2).

Jesus, at that well in Samaria so long ago, told the outcast woman, “whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life” (John 4:14). It wasn’t about an earthly sanctuary (“Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father,” 4:21). It was about a gift from Jesus that turns the recipient into a sanctuary.

Jesus says the same later in Jerusalem: “Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, “From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.”’ But this He spoke of the Spirit, Whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:37-39). What we receive from Jesus causes us to be the sanctuary (compare with Isaiah 8:11-14; Ezekiel 11:16) from which flows the river that gives life, that is instrumental in continual, healing fruit. I want this. Not just for me, but for Jesus’ disciples. I want us to be the means by which the Spirit brings eternal healing to all sorts of people.

It will come when we become a people (by His grace) who are passionate about His Word more than worldliness (Psalm 1:1-3). It will flow when we, by the power and authority of that indwelling Spirit, call on the world to “come, and drink” (Revelation 22:17).

Beloved Church, bear this desire with me. Let us desperately beg the Father to do this, through His Son, by His Spirit, drowning our self-centeredness, fear, pride, worldliness, and neglect of His Word in continual, healing, eternal life for many, many peoples.

Saturday, February 17, 2018

One Calming Word


I’ve been reading Sinclair Ferguson’s Some Pastors and Teachers (Banner of Truth Trust, 2017). If you love historical theology, you’d love this book. It is a rich collection of Ferguson’s own meditations on John Calvin, John Owen, and John Murray.

John Owen (1616-1683) came to assurance of his salvation in Christ during a sermon by an unknown guest preacher at Aldermanbury Chapel. The text was Matthew 8:25-27 (Jesus’ stilling of the stormy sea). Owen, meditating later on the assurance he found in that sermon, wrote, “when the Holy Ghost by one word stills the tumults and storms that are raised in the soul, giving it an immediate calm and security, it knows his divine power, and rejoices in his presence” (Works, II:242; Ferguson quotes on pg. 260).

Speaks of the Holy Spirit’s “one word,” analogous to Jesus’ word calming the storm. While the great Puritan may have used this merely as a figure of speech to make a comparison (he never specifies a particular word in his meditation), the Scripture tells us there is a single word the Spirit speaks in us to calm our souls.

“Father.”

It is by the indwelling Holy Spirit that we are able to call upon the Father using the same Name the Son has used for all eternity.

“…all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:14-17a).

“…when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God” (Galatians 4:4-7).

When we trust Jesus alone for a right relationship with God now and forever, we are mystically united to Him by faith through the work of the Holy Spirit He gives to us. All that is the Son’s is ours through the Holy Spirit, including the right to call on the first Person of the Trinity as “Father.” We do not call Him this because we have earned it through our character or actions. This right is ours because it is the Son’s right, and we are united to Him. The right to have this relationship with the first Person of the Trinity does not change, for it is immutably and eternally the relationship between Father and Son as the one true God. The Person of the Spirit, Who dwells in us, speaks out the call upon God as Father because of Who the Son is, not because of how good we are or anything we do. In the storm of our souls, this is the one calming word.

Rest in this.

Friday, February 2, 2018

Be Careful with Those Quotes

I was providing a reference for a ministry student this week to a Bible college. Out of curiosity, I checked the institution’s statement of faith. All seemed well until I got to the section on final things. It appears like this:

We believe in and accept the sacred Scriptures upon these subjects at their face and full value. Of the Resurrection, we believe that Christ rose bodily “The third day according to the Scriptures”; that He ascended “to the right hand of the throne of God”; that He alone is our “merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God”; “that this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven,” bodily, personally, and visibly; that the “dead in Christ shall rise first”; that the living saints “shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump”; “that the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David”; and that “Christ shall reign a thousand years in righteousness until He hath put all enemies under His feet.”
Psalm 72:8;
Isaiah 11:4-5;
Matthew 24:27,42;
Matthew 28:6-7;
Mark 16:6,19;
Luke 1:32; 24:2,4-6,39,51;
John 14:3;
John 20:27;
Acts 1:9,11;
1 Corinthians 15:4;
Philippians 4:20;
1 Thessalonians 4:16;
1 Timothy 2:5;
Hebrews 2:17; 5:9; 8:1; 9:28; 12:2

Do you see it? Every statement in quotes can be connected to a verse in Scripture. Except one. The last phrase, in quotes like the seven Scripture verses before, is not a single passage of Scripture. It is a paraphrased conglomeration of Revelation 20:4,6 (well, close anyway), Psalm 9:8; 96:13; Acts 17:31; Revelation 19:11 (if we replace “judge” with “reign”), and 1 Corinthians 15:25 (this one’s the most accurate). I don’t mind summary statements of biblical doctrine, but don’t put it in quotes like your summary is Scripture, especially when it’s the eighth phrase in quotes and all the others are clearly Scripture! Further, none of the proof-texts for the statement match the final phrase. I can almost ascribe to the phrase: I believe it is happening now (that Jesus is reigning during this Gospel Age, putting His enemies under His feet). Right or not, though, don’t put it in quotes like you are referencing a single verse (as in the case of the previous seven quoted phrases).

I know oversights happen. I also know many people don’t seem to know how to use quotation marks properly. This could be a harmless thing, and I have no trouble granting that.


Here’s the point I want to make about it, though: I believe doctrinal statements/confessions are good things, but don’t equate them with Scripture. Don’t give the impression that your interpretation has even close to equal standing with the Bible itself – especially in areas like eschatology.

Mildly-concerned rant over. Thanks.