April 27, 2009

• needing to keep feeding the white-hot flame of God's gift (John Piper)

  Right now God has put in front of me an opportunity, a test as it were, to show Him I am not ashamed of His Gospel. I find myself shrinking back in fear.

  In his talk Feed the Flame of God's Gift: Unashamed Courage in the Gospel [1] given at the Gospel Coalition Conference, John Piper gave this as the theme of II Timothy 1:1-12 (as well as the whole book of II Timothy):

  Timothy, keep on feeding the flame, the white-hot flame of God's gift in you, namely unashamed courage to speak openly of Christ and to suffer for the Gospel.

  I realized that is exactly what I needed to be doing today. My flame has begun to flicker, it is not quite so hot and shining and bright as it has been some days...I've been feeling timid, fearful and ashamed to speak. I've been anticipating what others will think of me and rather than having unashamed courage to speak openly of Christ and to suffer for the Gospel, I have begun to make my own reputation an idol. I've become fearful of men. Though I won't likely endure physical suffering for the Gospel like Paul did, I do know I balk when I think about my reputation suffering. I like to be liked by people. But honestly, when you present the Gospel, no matter if you could do it with perfect love and grace, you'll be opposed at one time or another. Consider Jesus.
  
  Here are some of my notes on the section of Piper's talk on II Timothy 1:6-7: For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

  "Jesus spits lukewarm preachers out of his mouth...they gag Him." [Keep in mind most of the men attending were pastors or seminary students, yet the warning goes for all of us–our Lord would rather have us hot or cold...]

  KEEP ON: Romans 12:11: "Do not be slothful, but BOIL in the Spirit." Keep on feeding the flame...must be continuous. In Romans 12:11, the verb is present tense: keep on flaming. Don't die in the ministry.

  GOD'S GIFT: God's gift includes fire. On-going existence of the fire requires Timothy's obedience in verse 6. God makes the flame of the gift dependent on Timothy's feeding the flame and feeding of the flame is dependent on God's grace.

  GOD'S GIFT: God's gift includes unashamed courage to speak openly for the Gospel. Not a spirit of fear, but of courage–a spirit that is powerful, loving, self-controlled, therefore, don't be ashamed in speaking about Christ and be ready to suffer.

  Then Dr. Piper asked, "How do we experience, how do we feed this white-hot flame?"

  He read the following Scriptures:

  I Timothy 2:1: You, then my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
  I Timothy 1:2: To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord (also repeated in 2:1).

  Piper reminded us that we need power. Oh, how God has been reminding me of this today. And God's power comes only from God's grace.

  Piper showed us that all of Paul's epistles begin with "Grace TO" and end with "Grace BE." In other words, if we have received the grace of God in Jesus Christ, God's grace will be with us, God's grace will go with us. I love that, don't you? The God who saves us goes with us! The God who has justifies us sanctifies us. The author of our faith is the finisher of our faith. The God who brought us out of Egypt will bring us into the Promised Land. (I had noticed previously that most of Paul's letters began with some variation on "grace and peace," but never noticed the pronoun and never really closely examined the benedictions or compared them with the greetings. God never wastes a single word, does He? The Bible is God's Word after all, isn't it? It's all God-inspired, God-breathed for us, so His life might continue to be imparted to us as we feed on it.)

  Piper reminded us that God's Word mediates God's grace. For example,

  And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. Acts 20:32.

  Amen.

  God's Word mediates God's grace to us. Isn't that's exactly what II Timothy 3:16-17 is all about?

  All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

  So to feed that white-hot flame of God's gift in me, the flame in me that was cooling down, the flame that had begun to flicker a bit (more than a bit) and become less than white-hot, I knew I had to go back into His Word with Him.

  I opened my Bible to Deuteronomy; we've been flying through the book in BSF and though I missed our class last week (since I was in Chicago), I have managed to read/skim most of the chapters I'd missed (that's 26 chapters!).

  I knew there were encouragements to Israel as she was getting ready to enter the promised land and possess it. And in the same way I was feeling a need to fan that white-hot flame once again and keep fanning it so I might enter in and take hold of and possess all God has for me by faith and not shrink back in fear and disobedience as the Israelites had done almost 40 years beforehand.

  I was confessing to God, "Woe is me if I don't preach the Gospel, I know that. But, Lord, I need Your power to do it. I'm fearful here. I'm afraid. I'm afraid of men. I'm afraid of looking foolish. I'm guarding my reputation when I ought not be. I'm shrinking back, I'm not prepared to suffer for Your Gospel as I ought to be. I need to have Your power, a fresh infilling of Your Spirit in me so I might wholly follow You, like Caleb. So I might follow You like Your Son..."

  I know I've seen His power (like the Israelites had, see Deut. 10:21; 11:7), but for a time I'd almost lost sight of it, I'd lost sight of the One who is mighty to save. I need to feed that flame so I might trust by faith that He would be ready to supply His power to me again as I step out in faith. Don't we know that sometimes the power doesn't come until we take that first step of faith into the Jordan?

  I confessed my fear to Him. I felt ashamed that I was ashamed of the Gospel (and of Him) but He reminded me that in Him there is no shame. Yes, He is disappointed in me since He is my Father, but He is never ashamed of me because I am now His child, I have been accepted in the Beloved. His acceptance of me is not based on what I've done or not done. His acceptance of me is through the saving blood of Christ. Period. His blood covers me, covers all my sin, all my guilt and all my shame. Amen. I needed to put that aside before I could go further. Thanks be to God for providing His righteousness to me by faith!

  As I opened the Word of God, here's what was waiting for me in Deuteronomy 20. (I had read these verses a couple days ago, but how much more meaningful and precious they were today to me, when my flame was flickering and fading.)

  When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. 2 And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people 3 and shall say to them, Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, 4 for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.

  I'm going to write this in first person plural...because we are all in this battle together for the Gospel!

  When you go out to war – When, not if: There will be a war; we will have to fight.

  When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own – There is an enemy; the enemy will be quite visible to us and the enemy will be larger than our own forces and strength.

  When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them. –  God knows we will be tempted to be afraid. Isn't that wonderful? Indeed we have a God who can sympathize with our weaknesses. He continues to meet His servants in their fear and reminds us we need not be afraid. He says we shall not be afraid, yes, but how can we really not be afraid? (Keep reading...)

  When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. –  We need not be afraid because the Lord our God is with us; the grace that has come to us to place us into Christ, shall go with us to uphold us so we might walk with and in Christ.

  We need not be afraid because the Lord our God is with us! The Lord God who brought us up out of Egypt, out of slavery to sin and into freedom in Christ. The God who redeemed us will never leave us or forsake us. The God who commissions us always goes with us. Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:4-8. Our Lord never sends us out without His presence and without His power.

  That would have all been precious enough for me. But then I read on ... That was only verse 1! Here's verse 2:

  And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people 3 and shall say to them, Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, 4 for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.

  So we're drawing near to the battle. What's happening now? I didn't see this before until today...

  the priest shall come forward and speak to the people – The priest is coming forward and speaking. Behold him!

  How precious. How amazing! This makes me weep! The priest shall come forward and speak. We're drawing near to the battle and what's happening? When you're seeing the enemy and realizing you have no strength in yourself. Listen, Hear, O Church: Our Priest is speaking to us! Yes, yes. Who is this priest today? It's the King of Glory! It's Jesus! Our Savior and Redeemer! Our Priest is no mere earthly priest! He is not a priest that is fallible. He is not a mere man. No, the Priest who speaks to us is the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ who has overcome sin, Satan and death and is now ascended into heaven and seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us so we might be saved to the uttermost! Our Priest is Immanuel, God with us. It's Jesus who has sent His Spirit to work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure, to equip us for every work He has called us to do for Him. It's Jesus whose Spirit reminds us of all He's said and teaches us all we need to know. It's Jesus whose Spirit helps us be bold and courageous for Him. It's Jesus who has given us His Word which is sharper than any two-edged sword. It's Jesus! He's with us on the battlefield when all hope seems lost. He's with us in the storm when we can no longer navigate. He's with us when we've fished all night and our nets have come up empty. He's with us and we're ready to hear Him only when we come to the end of ourselves! Amen.

  And what does our great High Priest have to say to us?

  Hear, O Israel... – Instead of keeping our eyes fixed on our circumstances, on seeing the horses, chariot and armies, we must hear Him, listen to Him through His Word and prayer.

  
  Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, 4 for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory. – When we go to battle if we are the Lord's we need not fear or panic or be in dread, for it is He who goes with us to fight for us against our enemies, to give us the victory!

  * * *

  Near the end of his message, Piper read II Timothy 1:9-10:

  who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, 10 and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel...

  Don't you have a hard time getting your head around that? Piper unpacked that and closed his message with these words of encouragement (my notes here again):

  The grace of God that saved and called you was given to you BEFORE TIME BEGAN. Your name was written in the Book of the Lamb before the foundation of the world. God Almighty poured out His favor on me to give me courage to speak and suffer before everything was...all according to God's purpose and grace (Romans 9:1-3; 11:5-6; Eph. 2:8-10). God's eternal purpose is to be gracious to us. From eternity God planned to do you good forever.

  Amen. And not just John Piper but each and every one of us who has been born again by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ!

  Through many dangers, toils and snares...
  we have already come.
  T'was Grace that brought us safe thus far...
  and Grace will lead us home.
  
  The Lord has promised good to me...
  His word my hope secures.
  He will my shield and portion be...
  as long as life endures.
  
  From John Newton's "Amazing Grace"
  
  Amen.

  ---

  
  Please see my follow-up to this post:
  

  • Get gnawing, put your nose down in the Book to feed the white-hot flame of God's gift

  
  Related posts:
  

  • Naphtali News: God speaking to me about my failures & the one thing needful
  • Why not pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit?

  Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  [1] You can find the entire text of Piper's prepared message here. I've not checked it, but there are often things he adds to his talks that are not in the text, so that's the plus of watching or listening rather than only reading the text.

  • 5:21 PM
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