For just over a couple weeks now, I've been out of state helping out a relative. Prior to leaving home, one of my friends shared with me Psalm 86:6 in the ESV. I didn't remember reading it before in that translation:

How wonderfully the LORD has listened to and heard my plea, and poured out grace upon grace! One of the ways God has poured out His grace while I've been away from home is through my being warmly welcomed into the fold of a local church here.

Many of you know I love the doctrines of grace, i.e. - Calvinistic doctrine. And I confess I struggle at times with being gracious and humble about the doctrines of grace! Well, this particular church is of the Wesleyan persuasion... (I want to clarify that this congregation is not at all a part of that modern, specious imitation which denies the great doctrines of the Bible, and turns its back on the wonderful heritage of blood, sweat, tears, and the work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope which was found in the lives and the ministries of John and Charles Wesley.)

During one of the weeks I've been here, a visiting preacher presented the local pastor with a John Wesley bobblehead... no kidding.

Gotta share this video I found from the Asbury Seminary Bookstore...

I was aware of the doctrinal differences going in, but I still felt strongly that I should visit this particular church  ... and I can't express to you the multiple blessings, the grace upon grace that God has had in store for me through this congregation. And I can't imagine how much poorer I would have been had I not stepped through those church doors. I've been humbled as I experienced anew and afresh what it means to be part of "the communion of saints." In God's inscrutable and mysterious ways, we know that God Himself sets the members in the Body as HE wills –– members who hold to Calvinistic doctrine as well as members who hold to Wesleyan Arminian doctrine:

I Corinthians 12:12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many.

15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? 18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. 19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be?

My first Sunday in worship, after already having been blessed through some spiritual conversation and prayer with some of the members, not long into the service, I had to turn in my Bible to David's words from Psalm 31, and I basked in them as I was basking in God's goodness and mercy to me following me all the days of my life, and bringing me to this particular place:

Psalm 31:21 Blessed be the LORD, For He has shown me His marvelous kindness in a strong city.

I had felt myself to be somewhat a stranger in a strong city. Though I was with family, I was away from my family at home, and away from my Christian brothers and sisters at home, and yet the LORD took me in through this particular assembly of His saints, a group of poor and needy sinners, who along with the Wesleys, along with John Calvin, and along with myself are wholly leaning on Jesus' name and are saved by grace through faith by the New Covenant in the Lamb's precious blood.

Psalm 50:5 "Gather My saints together to Me, Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice."

Every week, this congregation reads through the Apostles' Creed. My times of fellowship with them have helped me to know in greater measure what it means when we say that . . .

In Proverbs 8, we read how the Godhead delighted in one another, and yet the Father, Son, and Spirit also delight in the sons of men, particularly in those whom God chose in Christ before the foundation of the world. (HT for the reference to Proverbs 8:30-31 from Dafydd Morris' message "Why Should Jesus Send His Spirit? Part 2," available at http://www.reformationandrevival.org/pastconferenceaddresses.html)

Proverbs 8:30-31
Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman;
And I was daily His delight,
Rejoicing always before Him,
Rejoicing in His inhabited world,
And my delight was with the sons of men.

Here's a portion of Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on this passage:

His [God's] gracious concern he had for mankind, 31. Wisdom rejoiced, not so much in the rich products of the earth, or the treasures hid in the bowels of it, as in the habitable parts of it, for her delights were with the sons of men; not only in the creation of man is it spoken with a particular air of pleasure (Gen. i. 26), Let us make man, but in the redemption and salvation of man. The Son of God was ordained, before the world, to that great work, 1 Pet. i. 20. A remnant of the sons of men were given him to be brought, through his grace, to his glory, and these were those in whom his delights were. His church was the habitable part of his earth, made habitable for him, that the Lord God might dwell even among those that had been rebellious; and this he rejoiced in, in the prospect of seeing his seed. Though he foresaw all the difficulties he was to meet with in his work, the services and sufferings he was to go through, yet, because it would issue in the glory of his Father and the salvation of those sons of men that were given him, he looked forward upon it with the greatest satisfaction imaginable, in which we have all the encouragement we can desire to come to him and rely upon him for all the benefits designed us by his glorious undertaking.

Just as the Lord Jesus delights in all the saints, those who belong to Christ must do likewise. How can we do any less since we are united to Christ and have Christ's very nature indwelling us through the gift of His Holy Spirit?

Psalm 16:1 Preserve me, O God: for in You I put my trust.
2 O my soul, You have said to the LORD, "You are my Lord,
My goodness is nothing apart from You" ––
3 And to the saints that are in the earth,
They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight."

Having been born again of incorruptible seed, along with our Savior, we too must delight in, rejoice in, love, and extend goodness to all the saints. How can we not? Are we not all one family? Have we not all been redeemed with the same precious blood of the Lamb of God, made alive from the dead through the operation of the same Spirit, and adopted by the same heavenly Father into the family of God?

Ephesians 4:4  There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

Once again, here are Matthew Henry's words on those verses in Psalm 16 (boldface mine):

3. If God be ours, we must, for his sake, extend our goodness to those that are his, to the saints in the earth; for what is done to them he is pleased to take as done to himself, having constituted them his receivers. Note, (1.) There are saints in the earth; and saints on earth we must all be, or we shall never be saints in heaven. Those that are renewed by the grace of God, and devoted to the glory of God, are saints on earth. (2.) The saints in the earth are excellent ones, great, mighty, magnificent ones, and yet some of them so poor in the world that they need to have David's goodness extended to them. God makes them excellent by the grace he gives them. The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour, and then he accounts them excellent. They are precious in his sight and honourable; they are his jewels, his peculiar treasure. Their God is their glory, and a diadem of beauty to them. (3.) All that have taken the Lord for their God delight in his saints as excellent ones, because they bear his image, and because he loves them. David, though a king, was a companion of all that feared God (Ps. cxix. 63), even the meanest, which was a sign that his delight was in them. (4.) It is not enough for us to delight in the saints, but, as there is occasion, our goodness must extend to them; we must be ready to show them the kindness they need, distribute to their necessities, and abound in the labour of love to them. This is applicable to Christ. The salvation he wrought out for us was no gain to God, for our ruin would have been no loss to him; but the goodness and benefit of it extend to us men, in whom he delighteth, Prov. viii. 31. For their sakes, says he, I sanctify myself, John xvii. 19. Christ delights even in the saints on earth, notwithstanding their weaknesses and manifold infirmities, which is a good reason why we should.

Valentine's Day is coming up in just a few days, and I'd like to close with some of the apostle John's words from chapters 3-5 of his first epistle. These are some of the toughest and most challenging words in all the Scripture when it comes to Christ's commandment that we love one another as He has loved us (John 13:31-35; see also John 17:20-26). John's words serve to demolish any and all lame and feeble excuses we (I) might raise, and they turn all our (my) puny, fleshly, and fluffy conceptions of what love is on their heads. Love all the saints! Rejoice in all the saints! Delight in all the saints! Show goodness to all the saints! How?! Wholly impossible with man! Wholly impossible with Karen! But possible with God! Our God is the God all the saints! And our God is the One who works in us to will and to do His good pleasure. And what is God's good pleasure:  that we love and delight in and rejoice in and extend goodness to the saints –– all the saints. May the resurrection power of Christ work in us to keep His commandments. Hebrews 13:20 Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

I John 3:10 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. 11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, 12 not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.

13 Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. 15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?

18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. 19 And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. 20 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. 22 And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. 23 And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment...

I John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another...

20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?  21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also...

I John 5:1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Thank You and bless You, LORD, for listening to and answering my pleas for grace and showing me grace through Your Body. Thank You for encouraging my heart and knitting me together in love with these dear saints. I continue to find that Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds, Your mercies are new every morning, and Your grace abounds to this chief of sinners, and along with David Brainerd, You never fail to raise up friends in every place You have called me in Your perfect way and in Your appointed time:

"O how kind has God been to me! how has he raised up friends in every place, where his providence has called me! Friends are a great comfort; and it is God that gives them; it is he makes them friendly to me. 'Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.'"

God of grace, continue to grant me grace upon grace so I might treasure and hold a catholic Spirit, and delight in, rejoice in, love, and extend goodness to all the saints, just as you treat me... not as my sins deserve!

• Reasons for Thanksgiving - part 6: Christian friends
• we are a wilderness and a desolation today (lack of love in the Church | Isaiah 64:10-11)
• "Lord, please send a brother or sister to help me." (The Good Samaritan parable redux)
• May the mind and word of Christ dwell in us so we might arise as one man
• forgive us for dividing Your Son, our Lord
• ALL God's people singing, "He reigns" (Letter 28 on assurance & joy)
• Behold, how good and pleasant it is when we dwell in unity!
• I can't keep walking on eggshells here (more on Revelife, Calvinism, the Body of Christ and self)
• an "ici" good-bye | a lesson in warm catholicity
• Lent IV.-"If you love Me you will love the church"
• a prayer for my sister in Christ
• Do you love the saints . . . ALL the saints? (reflections on church hurts)

Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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

Photo credit: Image grabbed from the YouTube video, found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB2uqLY9eRw

  

We're almost a full month into 2013 now, and perhaps you've done that very same thing this year . . .

The 400 men who felt their need of David

The other night I was in a Bible study of I Samuel, and I shared how I LOVE the account of the 400 men who gathered themselves to David (I Samuel 22:1-5). Why do I love this account? Because David himself was an Old Testament type of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the meek and lowly posture of those men is exactly the position poor and needy sinners find ourselves as we first come to Christ, as well as the position we must remain in as we continue to abide in Christ and let His words abide in us –– as we live as branches seeking to draw vital sustenance from the True Vine day by day, and moment by moment ~ John 15:4  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing... Songs 8:5 Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?).

I Samuel 22:2  And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men.

Have you felt your need of the Son of David?

In like manner, every one who comes to Jesus must acknowledge and confess from the heart that he is in distress, in debt and discontented –– or, using Joseph Hart's words, you must come to feel your need of the Son of David.

"The Son of David is ready to receive distressed souls, that will appoint Him their captain and be commanded by Him. He receives all who come unto Him, however vile and miserable..."

Isn't that a marvelous truth?! The only begotten Son of God is the Son of David, and He is ready to receive distressed, indebted and discontented souls! Jesus Christ receives all who come unto Him! What Good News that is to all who have known such distress, debt and discontentment... however vile and miserable we might be! Look through the Gospels and see how tax collectors and sinners drew near to eat with Him! See how women and children flocked to the arms of the Good Shepherd! All you who are distressed today, come to Him, however vile and miserable you might be! Remember, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ delights in showing mercy (Micah 7:18) –– He delights in lavishing love, mercy and grace upon the chief of sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ! Whosoever will may come to the True Bread and the Living Water to eat and drink, so you might never hunger or thirst!

O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood,
    to every believer the promise of God;
    the vilest offender who truly believes,
    that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.

(from Fanny Crosby's "To God Be the Glory")

In First Samuel 22, each and every soul who came to David had been filled with a holy distress. In the exact same way, every soul who ultimately comes to Jesus also shares in that same holy distress. That holy distress is the precious gift of God, and it is wholly necessary, for without a sense of holy distress, we will neither despise nor cast off our own fleshly confidence, our hard-hearted, stubborn sufficiency, and deadly self-reliance. And only as we come to see that any and every thing that comes from our own flesh and any and all help we might receive from the arm of man is all vanity and dung (as the apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:1-11), will we humble ourselves in the sight of God and cast ourselves wholly upon the God who is rich in mercy to save us. Christ must save, and Christ alone!

Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

(from Augustus Toplady's "Rock of Ages")

• Unless and until you see you are not fit in and of yourself, unless and until you feel your need of Him, you will never come to Jesus Christ, the only fitting Savior for sinners.

Until we cry out with Peter, "To whom shall we go?..." (John 6:68), until we see that there is no salvation in any other, until we admit our spiritual bankruptcy, until we own that we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away (Isaiah 64:6-7), then we will not approach the mercy seat for the gift of salvation which is available through Christ alone.

Acts 4:12  Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Unless and until we feel our need of Him ... unless we see our true spiritual condition, unless the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, righteousness and judgment (John 16:8-11), our spiritual position is no different than the rich man in the parable of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus:  a great gulf fixed exists between ourselves and Christ (Luke 16:19-31); we are infinitely far away from the fitness He requires.

 
And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed:
so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot;
neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.
(Luke 16:26)

If you're not aware of it, the name Lazarus is Greek for the Hebrew Elazar, meaning "God has helped." If you're familiar with Robert Robinson's hymn "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing," you know the line:

"Here I raise my Ebenezer..."

(based on I Sam. 7:12:  Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Eben–ezer, saying, Hitherto hath the LORD helped us)

The Hebrew root word "ezer" means help. Notice how the name Elazar contains the root "azar" ("ezer"), plus the name of God ("El"). How blessed are helpless beggars like Lazarus whom God has helped! Blessed are men, women, boys and girls whom Christ is calling from every tongue, tribe and nation –– poor and needy souls who come to see their helplessness and feel their need of Christ. Blessed are those who have come to the end of themselves and can do nothing but appeal to God for mercy and grace through Jesus Christ, to seek the LORD for His help and to praise Him for His help poured out from the throne of grace. Blessed are those who proclaim the joyful song:  "I could do nothing. I could not help myself. But I was enabled to feel my need of Him, and this poor soul cried out to the Lord, and He heard my cry! God has helped! God has been my Helper, and He will continue to be my Helper till the end! He is able to help me and save me to the uttermost!"

• Have you owned that you are helpless? Have you received a spiritual sight of your need of the Son of David?

O! for the moment we feel our need of Christ: –– blessed heavenly fitness! –– we flee to Jesus Christ (just as those men gathered to David), and as we cling to and follow hard after Him, as we embrace our Savior and make Him our Captain, here are some of the exceeding great and precious promises we can embrace along with Him:

Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4  Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. 5  Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. 6  Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

Those 400 men had come to see they had no fitness in and of themselves. They were in debt, and they knew it, and they freely acknowledged they had come to the end of themselves and their own supplies, and they gathered to David.

Along with those men, have you been blessed to see your own poverty of spirit, and come to the Son of David? Have you been given a true spiritual sight of your own spiritual bankruptcy and come to Jesus? Have you been convicted of sin and seen that you have fallen short of the glory of God? Have you seen that there is a sin debt which you could never pay in and of yourself? Has your mouth become stopped as you have seen that your are rightly judged as guilty before God? Have you seen that your sin and your guilt needs to be covered and forgiven and washed away by the blood of the Lamb? Have you seen that in order to stand unashamed in the presence of a holy God you need a righteousness that far exceeds that of the Pharisees? Have you had a view of the thrice Holy God and become undone? Have you seen a glimpse of God's just wrath that rightly judges sinners, and that the wrath of the Lamb cannot be satisfied by anything else but the blood of the Lamb shed on Calvary's cross? Have you mourned your own sinfulness and your sin? Have you seen the Lord Jesus was crucified in your place to take away your record of debt? Have you seen that you are a debtor to mercy alone? Have you cried out for a new, soft heart to replace your heart of stone? Have you humbled yourself in the eyes of the Lord? Are you hungering and thirsting for a righteousness than you in your own best efforts can never produce? In other words . . .

• Unless you come to a spiritual sight that you have no fitness in and of yourself, you will never come to the only fitting Savior for sinners!

About that word discontented, Albert Barnes writes:

"Discontented... The phrase here denotes those who were exasperated by Saul's tyranny."

In their exasperation, those 400 men keenly felt their need of a new sovereign. As a result, they sought out David and joyfully cleaved to David and willingly submitted themselves to Him as their captain. Have you been brought to see your own inability and your own lack of fitness? Unless you do so, you cannot feel your need of Jesus Christ, the Son of David. Know this, He is only a Captain to those whose eyes have been opened their own vileness and lack of fitness and to those who have become exasperated by the tyranny of their own flesh, the devil and the world. How do we show we have made Him Captain? We rejoice with trembling as we kiss the Son (Psalm 2), we cast off our idols and bow to Christ and Christ alone as the King of kings and Lord of lords, and willingly offer ourselves to follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Having been freed from slavery to sin, the devil and the world, having been united to Christ and raised with Christ, through His resurrection power at work in us, we seek to mortify the deeds of the body by the Spirit, we put on the whole armor of God and walk circumspectly so we might guard against the wiles of the devil, we take every thought captive, and we walk in the light as He is in the light and we reject the darkness of the world.

John Elias:  a sinful, vile and miserable man who saw himself as nothing and felt his need of Christ

Most of you know how much I love reading Christian biography. I'm currently reading a book about  the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist minister, John Elias (1774-1842). Elias was a man who felt his need of Christ and showed himself to be one of the company who gathered to Jesus Christ. Near the end of his life, Elias penned the words below. Like the Psalmist (Psalm 45), Elias' heart overflowed and his tongue was the pen of a ready writer, as he freely and openly and joyfully confessed his own lack of fitness and unreservedly expressed his utter need of Christ and happily exulted in God's sufficiency and fullness and fitness that overflowed to him from the throne of grace and overflows to every poor and needy sinner who comes boldly to the great High Priest, Jesus, the Son of God.

"I have written a brief account of my life from infancy till now (sixty-seven years of age), of the Lord's goodness towards me, and a review of his work amongst the Calvinistic Methodists. I have written this in my sick room, not knowing but that I am on the plains of Moab, on the brink of Jordan. I wrote a few lines now and then, in sorrow and through difficulty considering myself as writing every line in the presence of God, and writing perhaps that which will be read when I shall be quiet in the grave. I have nothing to say of myself, but of my sinfulness, vileness, and great misery; but I would be happy to speak of God's goodness, mercy, and grace towards me. 'This is the poor man that was raised out of the dust, and the needy man that was lifted out of the dunghill, and set with princes, even with the princes of his people'. If any good has been done by my imperfect labour, God in his grace has performed it. To him belongs the glory; I was as nothing."

~ John Elias, in "John Elias: Life, Letters and Essays" by Edward Morgan (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1973, revised edition published in one volume), 179, boldface mine

If you have never felt your need of Jesus Christ, if you consider yourself fit and sufficient in and of yourself, if you are continuing to put confidence in your own flesh (see Philippians 3), I plead with you to pray to God for His Holy Spirit to enlighten you, to impart to you a true sense of your need of Him, that you might join the apostle Paul, John Elias, those 400 men who gathered themselves to David, along with millions and millions of saints, and come to experience the spiritual fitness that God requires.

Advent #3 WHY HAS JESUS COME? not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance
First Week of Advent: The Most Scandalous Bailout Ever
Bible Reading: Luke--God's Kingdom Economy: Losers Who Win, or Grace Is Amazing Only to Those Who See Themselves as Wretched....
Why not pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit
trusting the eagles' wings (reliance on the Holy Spirit)
Blessed dependence ~ "Leaning upon her beloved"
Birthday reflections ~ "Keep me an infant" (Isaiah 46:1-4)
by my God I can leap over a wall (Psalm 18:29b)
Can two walk together... Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit...
the poor & needy & joy ~ Psalm 35:9-10 | letter 105 on assurance & fighting for joy
at death and in life "there is only one thing that matters" (Lloyd-Jones' last days)
Outcast vine, faithless bride ~ What beauty? What did you see?
Surely none is righteous, no, not one ~ The Pharisee's Warning (Ecclesiastes 7:20, Romans 3:9-10)

Photo credits:

Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fitness_Center.JPG  / CC BY-SA 3.0

Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HK_Wong_Chuk_Hang_%E5%8C%85%E7%8E%89%E5%89%9B%E6%B8%B8%E6%B3%B3%E6%B1%A0_Pao_Yue_Kong_Swimming_Pool_31_Weighing_scale_May-2012.JPG  / CC BY-SA 3.0

Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gustave_Dore_Lazarus_and_the_Rich_Man.jpg / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}

Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Roos_-_John_Elias_(1839).jpg  / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}

Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

On this day, the fortieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I've included some excerpts from the prepared text of John Piper's sermon, The Baby in My Womb Leaped for Joy (Luke 1:24-45), which was given four years ago, on January 25, 2009, a few days after the inauguration of the Barack Obama to his first term as President...

The aim of this message is to awaken and intensify your joyful, grateful reverence for the gift of human life from conception to eternity. The beginning of human life is a magnificent thing. There is nothing else like it. Only humans come into being day after day, created in the image of God, and live forever—with God or in hell.

There is no compelling evidence in the Bible or anywhere else that any animals come into being with souls, or that they live after they die. There is no compelling evidence in the Bible or anywhere else that angels are being created today. The only being in all the universe who keeps on originating and then living forever in the image of God is man. . . .

A New President, Trapped and Blinded

As everyone knows, our new President, over whom we have rejoiced, does not share this reverence for the beginning of human life. He is trapped and blinded by a culture of deceit. On the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, he said, “We are reminded that this decision not only protects women’s health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters.”

To which I say . . .

• No, Mr. President, you are not protecting women’s health; you are authorizing the destruction of half a million tiny women every year.

• No, Mr. President, you are not protecting reproductive freedom; you are authorizing the destruction of freedom for a million helpless people every year.

• No, Mr. President, killing our children does not cease to be killing our children no matter how many times you call it a private family matter. Call it what you will, they are dead, and we have killed them. And you, Mr. President, would keep the killing legal.

Some of us wept with joy over the inauguration of the first African-American President. We will pray for you. And may God grant that there arises in your heart an amazed and happy reverence for the beginning of every human life.

Wonder in the Womb

This is Sanctity of Life Weekend at Bethlehem, and we are talking about the wonder of human beings in the womb, and the moral question of whether it is right to kill them before they are born. Until recently, there never has been any doubt in the mind of the Christian church that such killing is wrong. Among the earliest sources for Christian thinking outside the New Testament (the beginning of the second century), the Didache and the Epistle of Barnabas both forbid abortion.

You shall do no murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not corrupt boys, you shall not commit fornication, you shall not steal, you shall not deal in magic, you shall do no sorcery, you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill them when born. (Didache 2:2; cf. Epistle of Barnabas 19:5)

Why did the early church, and all succeeding generations of Christians, come to this conclusion—that it is forbidden to take the life of the unborn? We have already seen the root of this conviction: When a human life comes into existence something magnificent has happened—created in the image of God, to live forever. . . .

Nothing Impossible with God

In verses 36–37 [of Luke 1], the angel says to Mary, to encourage her that her impossible pregnancy really can come true, “And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” So be encouraged, Mary, nothing is too hard for God. Witness the pregnancy of Elizabeth. O how often in these circumstances of pregnancy and infertility we need to be reminded, “Nothing will be impossible with God.” He gives, he takes, he provides in abundance, he sustains in loss.

When the angel had gone, and Mary knew what was happening to her, she made a beeline to Elizabeth. What a consultation this would be: two of the most important and impossible pregnancies in the world. Look at verses 39–44:

In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” (Luke 1:39–45)

Now, of course, none of this is being written with abortion in mind. That’s not the point. The point is: How did texts like these shape the way the church thought about the unborn? What were the assumptions here and the implications here?

Notice two things.

1. The Word Baby

First, the word baby in verses 41 and 44. Verse 41: “And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.” Verse 44: “For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” That word baby is not a specialized word for the unborn. It has no connotations of “embryo” or “fetus.” It is the ordinary word for baby (Greek brefos). And what makes this crystal clear and significant is the way it’s used in Luke 2:16. Here in Luke 1, it refers to John the Baptist in the womb. In Luke 2, it refers to Jesus in the manger. Luke 2:16: “And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby (brefos) lying in a manger.” This is exactly the same word for baby.

What the Christian church has seen in this is that what the persons Jesus and John were outside the womb they were already inside the womb. Jesus was the God-man in Mary’s womb. When the Holy Spirit (according to Luke 1:35) caused Mary to be pregnant, she was not pregnant with anything less than the Son of God. The baby inside was the same as the baby outside.

Today science has only made that easier to believe, not harder. Ultrasound technology has given a stunning window on the womb that shows the unborn at eight weeks sucking his thumb, recoiling from pricking, responding to sound. All the organs are present, the brain is functioning, the heart is pumping, the liver is making blood cells, the kidneys are cleaning fluids, and there is a fingerprint. Yet virtually all abortions happen later in the pregnancy than this date.

2. Treated as a Person

The second thing to notice here in Luke 1 is the way the baby in Elizabeth’s womb responded to Mary who was carrying the Son of God. Verse 41: “When Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.” Then in verse 44, Elizabeth interprets that leap like this: “Behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” And Luke says that Elizabeth said this because she was filled with the Holy Spirit. Verses 41–42:  “Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed . . .” In other words, the Holy Spirit prompted her to say that this leap of the baby in her womb was a leap of joy.

To increase the significance of that leap even more, consider what an angel said to Elizabeth’s husband Zechariah before his son was conceived. In Luke 1:14–15, the angel said, “And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.” So that leap is not only a leap of joy but a leap of Holy-Spirit-inspired joy.

Only Persons Are Filled with the Spirit

What shall we make of this? Never in the Bible is any animal said to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Never does the Bible say that a person’s arm or leg or kidney or skin is filled with the Spirit. Tissue is not filled with the Holy Spirit. Only persons are filled with the Spirit.

What Luke is doing—and he is doing it as the spokesman of Christ—is treating this child in the womb as a person. He uses the word baby which he later uses for Jesus in the manger. He uses the word joy, which is what persons feel. He uses the phrase “filled with the Spirit” which is what God does to persons. He simply assumes he is dealing with a human person in the womb.

And therefore so should we.

~ Sermon text by John Piper. ©2012 Desiring God Foundation. Website: desiringGod.org

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Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated 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.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.