Shepherds’ Conference 2017
Session 4
Ligon Duncan
John 6
Jesus: The Bread of Life
John here shows us our deepest need, and how we are blind to that need.
We need to study this and believe it for ourselves.
We need to be fed and refreshed by the word.
To feed only to feed others is an occupational hazard.
If we are not satisfied by the bread of life, we will poorly commend the bread of life.
This passage is not about the Lord’s Supper. It is about Jesus.
But the Lord’s Supper is very much about Jesus, and points to this passage.
John 6:22-59
Just fed the 5,000.
Jesus also walked on water.
A crowd pursuing Jesus while spiritually not understanding him
They are seeking, but not seeking for the right reason.
And we have Jesus’ message to them.
He stresses 3 things:
They needed to know what they really needed.
They are seeking him for the wrong reasons.
They are looking to him for the wrong things.
How practical is this?
Jesus in his reply is designed to teach them how to get what they need.
How do they appropriate what they need?
They need to understand who Jesus is, because he is the bread of heaven.
He is the sign.
He is the miracle, a far greater miracle than manna.
Jesus the bread of life is life and gives life by this death, and the life he gives is our deepest satisfaction, our eternal security, our salvation and communion.
3 things:
The bread that perishes in contrast to the bread of life (2-27)
The utter necessity of faith in the bread of life. (28-29)
The glory of Jesus as the bread of life. (30-ff)
The crowd wants another food miracle.
They hint at it in 30-31.
Jesus does not give this crowd what they are seeking.
He explains to them that they do not know what they need.
V26.
You’ve already seen signs.
They are there because they have seen a sign.
And they keep asking for a sign.
There is no lacking in miraculous manifestation in Jesus’ ministry to these folks.
Notice Jesus’ concern for their souls.
Crowds show up.
Jesus does not assume that the presence of crowds means that something good is happening.
How important is that for us?
We are all vulnerable to the calculation that when more come, good things are happening.
Narcissistic people in the ministry feed on this kind of stuff.
Jesus cares about the people’s souls.
He confronts them with their real need and their blindness to that need.
All sorts of people are following Christian ministries because they see Christ and the gospel as a ticket to what they really want, and it is not the bread of life.
This is not just out there in the charismatic world.
That can happen in our own people.
Why are they at church?
They want fellowship?
They want respectability?
V28
The question reminds us of other places where people ask what to do to do the works of God.
What must I do to be saved? Acts 2
Jesus’ answer is remarkable.
He focuses them on faith.
This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.
Belief in him is of divine origin.
Philippians 2:13 stresses that God is at work in us for sanctification.
God must therefore be at work in our justification.
Faith is coming and eating, 2 things.
He who comes to me will not hunger.
He who believes in me will not thirst.
Coming to Jesus is believing in Jesus.
V53
Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life.
That is designed to cause maximal offense.
Eating a sacrifice was not unheard of.
No Jew drank sacrificial blood.
Blood was forbidden.
So, the phrase, “drink my blood,” is designed to offend.
His point is that these are the constituent parts of a blood sacrifice, the flesh and blood.
Unless you put your full trust in me, you die.
We use eating imagery all the time.
We devour a good book.
We drink in a good lesson.
Jesus is saying that we need him more than we need food.
If you do not eat and drink Jesus, if you do not trust in his death, you will die like a starving and thirsting man dies without food and water.
Next, Jesus declares to them who he is.
He displays himself, in his glory, as the bread of life.
V35.
I am the bread of life.
This is very similar to how he described himself to the woman at the well in chapter 4.
The same thing happens in this passage.
They miss the deep level he is going to.
They want a miracle with bread.
He is the bread of life.
They want a miracle.
He is a miracle.
Manna pointed to Jesus.
He already fed 5,000 and walked on water yesterday.
Don’t ask me to show you something.
You have already seen signs and not believed.
You need me.
Why do you need me?
V35
He who comes will not hunger.
Same language as with the woman at the well and water.
This is the language of satisfaction.
The root of every sin is our seeking satisfaction in something other than God.
That is original sin.
Satan convinced Eve that there was something to satisfy outside of God.
The people wanted bread to satisfy apart from Jesus.
Jesus tells them that he is what they are made for.
He is the bread they need.
V37
All the father gives me will come to me. The one who comes, I will certainly not cast out.
V39, I will lose none of what he gives me.
You come to me, you will not be lost. I will not lose you.
Great illustration of Psalm 119,
V1 says the one who follows the word is blessed.
175 verses declare how great it is to follow God.
V176 says I have gone astray and asks the Lord to come get me.
Back to John
V40, v50 a lot of live language.
V50, eat and not die.
Gen 2 and 3, eat and die.
V56, he who eats and drinks abides in me and I in him.
Jesus is the one true sacrifice.
His flesh and blood are given for the life of the world.
He came that we may have life.
How will he give us life?
He will lay down his life for his sheep.
That abiding language is the language of communion, not the ceremony, but real communion.
He tells them he is what they need.
They do not get it.
John 4 the woman starts off missing the point.
But she gets it.
She eats and drinks of his flesh and blood, she receives him, the water of life.
Shepherds’ Conference 2017 Session 3 Notes
Shepherds’ Conference 2017
Session 3
Michael Reeves
John 1:1-3
Familiar sentences are familiar because of how defining they are.
These are revolutionary words.
They set Christianity apart from every other belief system
John is exegeting Genesis 1.
Why was the Spirit of God hovering over the waters?
He was there to anoint the word as he went out to do his work.
God speaks, and on his divine breath, his word goes out.
Light and life and all creation are brought into being.
It is not that in the beginning, the word came into existence.
The word was with God and was God.
We are not hearing here that God just happens to speak.
Other religions have their deity speaking.
But, it is of the very nature of this God to have a word to speak.
This God cannot b wordless.
For the word is God.
God could not ever be anything but communicative.
God cannot be without his word.
He cannot be reclusive.
God cannot be contained.
He is overflowing.
He is not needy but supremely full.
He is a glorious God of grace.
He loves to give himself.
Clearly, Genesis 1 was dominant in John’s mind as he wrote.
In the beginning.
The light shines in the darkness.
John has a Hebrew, Scriptural idea of what the word means.
This is not a Hellenistic import.
What else might have been on John’s mind?
John 1:14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
John used an unusual verb here.
The word tented among us.
Tent and glory are connected here.
John is thinking of the tabernacle.
It was the tent where God was with his people and where his glory was seen.
As the Israelites saw the bright glory cloud over the tabernacle, so the word shows us his glory.
In the inner part of the tabernacle, the Lord is enthroned above the mercy seat on the ark of the Covenant.
1 Samuel 4:4; Lev 16:2
The Ten Commandments were in the ark, the throne of God.
The Ten Commandments are the word of God.
The word belongs as near to God as possible.
The word displays the inner most reality of who God is.
He is the radiance of God’s glory.
He is the exact representation of his being.
He is God himself.
He is God’s Amen, the faithful and true witness.
Early church had to defend the humanity of Christ.
But the biggest battle was to display that Jesus truly is God, the Lord God of Israel.
God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one being with the Father.
Those words are pastoral dynamite.
Owen, Communion with God, explained how many Christians labor under the misapprehension that behind gracious Jesus, the friend of sinners, is a more sinister being.
Is God the Father thinner on compassion and grace, beauty and goodness.?
Is he one we would less like to know?
Since Jesus is God, you can be rid of that horrible idea.
Jesus shows us what the Father is like.
Jesus is the perfect radiance of God.
There is no god in heaven who is unlike Jesus.
One with his Father, the word, the expression, the radiance, the glory of who his Father is.
If you have seen him, you have seen the Father.
Through Christ, I can know what God is truly like.
That upsets all my idols.
Through Christ, we see how much God detests sin.
And through Christ, I see that, like the sinful dying thief, a sinner like me can cry, “Remember me,” for I know how he will react.
I have seen how he has treated such as I.
I know what he is like towards people like me.
He is righteous and gracious.
Stephen Charnock quote
Light without darkness, purity without filth, all excellency to please
True knowledge of the living God is found in and through Christ.
This is deep and transforming.
It can make the dead spring to life.
Nothing of God looks terrible in Christ to a believer.
The sun has risen, shadows have vanished, God walks on the battlements of love.
Justice has left its sting in the Savior’s side.
In Jesus Christ, you exchange darkness for light when you think of God.
He shows us an unsurpassably full and desirable God.
He is a righteous and a Kind God.
God who makes us tremble in awe and rejoice in wonder.
All things were made through him.
Without him was not anything made that was made.
Christ the eternal word is the one through whom all things were made.
But, secular thinking in the west has eaten away at belief in this like acid in the church.
We think he is a Savior.
But, we deny him as Creator of all.
We sing his praises on a Sunday, and believe it.
But, walking home through the streets, past the people, past real life, we do not feel this is all Christ’s world.
It is as if the universe is a neutral place, a secular place essentially.
We act as if Christianity is something you can simply smear on top of secular, real life.
The result is that Jesus is nothing more than a comforting nibble of spiritual chocolate.
He is a nice option alongside other hobbies.
He is an imaginary friend.
The Bible knows of no such laughable little christlet.
But all things were made through him.
Therefore Christians are not playing with a hobby that we can put on one side when we walk out into the world.
He is the agent of creation.
All things bear his stamp.
The heavens cannot but declare his glory in his craftsmanship when they continue to exist and continue to move.
The glory of Jesus is intimately written into the very grain of the universe.
He continues each moment to uphold and sustain the creation he brought into being.
To think against Christ the logos is to think against logic.
To do so is to descend into folly.
In his world, all our faculties work better the more they are harnessed to faith in him.
Trusting in him, we are working with a map of the universe as he intended it.
That makes us able to think, be creative, and to reason rightly.
John 1:14
He is not just God’s eternal word, he is God’s eternal Son.
There is a difference.
Word speaks of his oneness with God.
Son brings out the other element, that he has a relationship with the Father.
This goes against every other belief system in the world.
This is an infinitely superior belief system.
No human mind has ever dreamed of such a thing.
John is saying that God is eternally a Father who has and loves his Son.
John 17:24, you loved me before the foundation of the world.
Every other system has nothingness before the world.
Or they have gods existing who hated each other.
Pagan gods are mean, like to throw their weight around, want slaves and so they create.
Here, at bottom, before anything, we do not see nothingness or chaos or gods exercising arbitrary power; here we see Almighty God who is love.
This God would not be who he is if he didn’t love.
‘To be the Father, he must love the Son.
To be the Father means to love, to beget the Son.
This is why the eternal Sonship is so precious to Christians.
Arius declared that there once was a time when the Son was not.
He had choirs sing his false theology.
Arius thought that God did not want to dirty his hands with creation, so he created the son to do his dirty work for him.
How unbiblical.
If Arius is correct, God is not eternally a father.
In fact, since he just created this thing, he is not a father at all.
And, Arius does not have the Father truly loving the Son.
The Son is just a workman for the Father.
The only way that the Son pleased the Father was by doing good works.
Thus, the way to get to the Father is earning it through good works.
No gospel of grace is available in this system.
Arius also had to miss Philippians 2
If the Son had never sat upon the throne as God, he was motivated to gain a position that he had never had before.
Thus, the motivation for the incarnation and sacrifice would have been for his own gain, not love.
Only with an eternal Son can this not be.
Jesus is eternally beloved and eternally at the Father’s side.
His motivation was not to get a glory he never had before.
He wanted to share with us what he had always enjoyed, sonship.
Who Jesus is entirely shapes what he offers in the gospel.
The person of Christ shapes the work of Christ and the nature of the gospel of Christ.
For the eternally beloved Son comes to share with us the very love that the Father has lavished on him.
He comes to us to bring us into the life that is his.
We are not just forgiven and not just righteous, he shares with us sonship, family, eternal love.
John 1:18, the Son is eternally in the bosom or lap of the Father.
In John 14, he wants believers to be with him where he is.
John 13:23, John was reclining in the bosom of Jesus.
John 17:23, you have loved them as you have loved me.
The Son sharing with us his sonship caps off every aspect of our salvation and sanctification.
The Son shares with us his own sonship.
Without the eternal Son, we don’t get that gospel.
If God is not a Father, he cannot make us his children.
If he does not have eternal fellowship with his Son, does he have fellowship to offer us?
If the Son had not been with the Father eternally, in the bosom of the Father, how could he share closeness with us?
If the Son had never been close, he could not bring us to that children of God relationship.
This would make salvation sound completely different.
John 17:23, love them as you have loved me.
No other deity could do this other than the God of the Bible.
No other deity could bring us so close.
Only this God could teach us to pray, “Our Father.”
The Most High delights to hear us as his children.
The eternal Son enables a hearty, delighted prayer life.
With this God, prayer can be a privilege.
Salvation is about grace from first to last.
If salvation is not about being adopted into the family of God, it is not clear that it is entirely of grace.
If our only problem is sin, we might try to work that out.
But sonship cannot be won by actions.
Effort can have nothing to do with your salvation.
Efforts can make you a slave. No amount of effort can make you a son.
All efforts to produce salvation will only produce slaves.
Sonship is free.
500 years ago, the neglect of the eternal Son and how his person and being shapes the gospel was at the very heart of the problem in the church.
At that time, the identity of Christ did not drive the gospel as people heard it.
Medieval views of grace were like spiritual Red Bull for the lazy.
Grace was there to give you the energy to do what you have to do to earn heaven.
The prize became heaven, not Christ.
Jesus was reduced to being one little brick in the wall in the system.
And, in fact, Jesus was not even necessary to be the one to give you the strength.
The other saints could do it for you.
But in the reformation, a profound truth was rediscovered.
God does not give you a thing called grace to strengthen you to earn heaven.
The eternal Son is the gift from heaven.
You receive him, not a separate thing called grace, and you receive the right to be called children of God.
In him you are adopted as the children of God.
In him you are saved.
In him you are kept to the uttermost.
When the church lost the vision of the sonship of Christ, when Christ became only the deliverer, the church lost the gospel.
Suddenly, merit became the center of the life of the church.
Heaven became the prize, not Christ.
Jesus was reduced to being one little element, one little brick in the wall, of the system.
God does not give us some thing called grace to energize us to do things to earn salvation.
No, we receive Jesus and have the right to become children of God.
It is in him, the Son, we are adopted.
In Him, we are saved and kept.
The reformation helped us to see that Christ is the treasure.
Solas Christos is the center of the solas.
It shapes what the reformers meant when they talked about grace and faith.
Grace alone, not that we are given a thing called grace, but we are given Christ by the grace of God.
Faith is not a thing we do, it is the empty hand that receives Christ.
Scripture, our supreme authority, is about him.
You cannot give God alone the glory without exalting Jesus Christ.
Only through Christ is the living God glorified.
Preach Christ.
There is no gospel without him.
There is no gospel if you do not preach Christ alone.
This is the center we must hold fast to and pledge ourselves to.
We see in him the radiance of the glory of God, so what better center is there to pledge ourselves to.
We preach Christ alone.
We preach him to ourselves, to our people, to the world.
We preach his glorious person and his all-sufficient work.
That is the beginning of all reformation.
This is what will reform lives and reform the church in our day.
When Christ alone is faithfully preached, the world will see his glory, and that is the only light that will drive out and overcome all darkness.
Keeping Up Appearances in Church
It is often wise for us to consider what lies behind an action that we or others take. Quite often, the things we do, the right or wrong things we do, are symptoms of something much deeper in our hearts. Like the fruit on the branches of a tree, our behaviors come from deep down, at the roots of our hearts.
What has my attention as I write this is our behavior in the church. How often do we, if we are not careful, try to shape our actions in the local church to make ourselves look good? Because of the nature of the local church, the community structure, we can sometimes look at the church as a place to get ahead. Some like being a big fish in the small pond of the local body, and we try to get there by acting more spiritual than we really are.
Think of the different tactics we might use. We might pretend to sacrifice more than we are really sacrificing. We might pretend to be more spiritually rich than we really are. We might pretend to be doing well when we are really hurting deeply. We will put on all sorts of masks to try to get others to think we are stronger than we are, more disciplined than we are, or more sanctified than we are.
Sometimes the deception is active, intentionally pretending something you are not. Sometimes the deception is more passive, simply holding back from telling others the truth. But either way, deceiving others in the body, putting on airs, is not wise.
Back in the early church, as growth was taking place in Jerusalem, there was a couple who decided to take an active role in making themselves look spiritual. Ananias and Sapphira sold a piece of property and lied to the church about how much money they got from it. They wanted to pretend that they were giving to the church all of the profits of the sale, when in fact, they were holding back some funds for themselves. If you know the story, you also know that this led to the death of the couple, God striking them down for their actions.
Acts 5: 4-5 – 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.
Here is what is fascinating. In Peter’s words to Ananias, we see the problem. God was not upset that the couple did not want to give 100% of the profits. It would have been fine for them not to sell their land. It would have been fine for them to sell and say, “Here is 75% of what we got.” But what was not fine was for them to pretend they were giving more than they really were. The couple wanted to make themselves look good in the sight of others in the church, and they were dishonest in the process. They lied in their actions, being dishonest before God, and it cost them their lives.
And this all makes me wonder, how close do we come to being like Ananias and Sapphira? When we put on a false face of spiritual maturity when we lack it, are we not lying in much the same way? When we pretend to have given our all in some spiritual activity, but we really barely limped through, are we not lying like this couple? When we pretend to be different than we really are so that others in the church will think we are stronger than we really are, how different is that from Ananias and Sapphira?
Maybe it would be wise for us to consider the dangerous life of honesty, even in the local church. No, I’m not suggesting that every person in the body has to know every detail of your emotions. But, I wonder how much different we would be if being true to the Lord was our first priority instead of being seen by others as good, strong, or as having it together. May we tell the truth. When we are doing well, be honest. When we are doing well, do not exaggerate it. When we are struggling, be honest without exaggeration. When we need someone to pray for us because we hurt, why not say so instead of keeping it quiet? When we present a false face because we want to look better in the eyes of other people, we walk a dangerous line, one that I would bet Ananias and Sapphira would prefer not to have walked.
Shepherds’ Conference 2017 Session 2 Notes
Shepherds Conference 2017
Session 2
Phil Johnson
No Other Gospel
Galatians 1:6-7
Galatia was a region, not a single city.
Paul went through there in Acts 13-14.
Lystra, Derbe, other places were Galatian cities.
False teachers liked to follow Paul and tell the gentile converts that, if they wanted to become real Christians, they must be first converted to Judaism.
Paul showed in Romans that Abram was saved long before he was circumcised.
Acts 15 describes the false doctrine Paul had to battle in Galatians.
Two different words for another gospel in this passage.
Heteros, another of a different kind.
Allos another of the same kind.
They bring another gospel that is not another.
There is no other gospel.
Paul presents a harsh, double curse for those who would offer a different gospel.
You must not miss the significance of the language Paul used here.
Paul does not invite these people to debate with him on the false gospel.
He just calls them heretics and tells the Galatians to have nothing at all to do with them.
The point of not listening to an angel is hypothetical,
Such would never happen.
It is clearly not always right to be warm and welcoming.
Sometimes a curse is required.
That does not mean you should be a full time contrarian.
1 Pet 3:9, no repaying evil for evil.
Bless those who persecute you.
But the problem here is not Paul’s personal honor.
This was an attack on the gospel.
Him who called you is the Lord, not Paul.
These false teachers were turning people against Christ.
That is why Paul fought hard.
He was defending the message, not the messenger.
Many protestants have forgotten the problem with the Roman Catholic gospel.
The prosperity preachers of TBN are offering earthly blessing for money. They are selling indulgences as much as were sold in the 16th century.
We need a generation of men with the spirit of Luther and Calvin.
We need to wage war against false gospels.
The best scholars throughout church history have always been passionate polemicists.
We need clear and uncompromising voices.
V6
First verse after the introduction.
Intro usually has words of praise after Paul’s name.
He even had praise for the believers in Corinth.
Paul thanked God for the Corinthians and for God’s grace on them.
Every one of Paul’s letters has kind things to say to the church except the book of Galatians.
But there is no commendation in Galatians, all through the book.
Paul’s rebuke is passionate.
This book is a strong reprimand.
Paul remains stern and never blunts his voice of rebuke in this letter.
Paul’s opening words in a letter always contain some sort of gospel words.
V4 has the gospel and substitutionary atonement.
In Scripture, people are surprised at how rapidly heresy infected and damaged the churches.
Revelation and Galatians show us this.
This is one reason why we cannot assume that, just because something became a practice, even in the early church, it is what should be our practice today.
Part of being fallen is to desire a different gospel than the one God presents.
The gospel offends our sinful hearts.
An R. C. Sproul story.
A person told him the gospel was primitive and obscene.
Primitive is proper.
God is making the gospel accessible to ordinary, primitive people.
It is obscene.
How else could we deal with the ugliness of the accumulated sin that God will forgive?
Most gospel corrupters do not set out to be heretics.
Most are deceived before they become deceivers.
They are self-deceived.
They think they can fix what is distasteful about the message of the cross.
The desire to fix the gospel and make it not offensive is a sinful desire.
People who think we can be so radically contextualized so as to be cool and popular in our world will always end up compromising the gospel somewhere.
2 Cor 11:3, a main strategy of Satan is to draw us away from the simplicity of the gospel.
Outline
Point 1: An itch for something new.
Why do evangelicals move from fad to fad with such ease?
The people we minister to are far too easily corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
People say we need to follow the styles of popular culture to reach the culture.
Today’s fads will be the brunt of tomorrow’s jokes.
Consider that no person of influence in evangelicalism today is talking about The Prayer of jabez.
That which is true is not new, and that which is new is not true.
Paul was astonished at their jumping for the new stuff.
While he was with them, in person, he already warned them not to buy into a new message.
Acts 17:21, spending your time only talking about and listening for what is new.
That is like the Internet.
There is only one gospel, and it cannot be improved upon.
Some people would rather talk about anything other than the simple content of the gospel.
Sin, righteousness, and judgment are omitted from the pulpits of today in the name of being relevant.
But that is what the Spirit will teach us.
Point 2: An urge to modify.
V7, some want to distort the gospel.
They probably thought they were improving the gospel.
It is not always a love of the new.
The circumcision party wanted to preserve the old.
They wanted to modify the gospel.
The urge to modify is the Bain of many who work in the academic realm
Novelty is required in many dissertations.
Scholars spin out new perspectives and other modified doctrines.
The circumcision party wanted to make a little tweak, a slight change in the ordo solutis.
They wanted to put a good work before justification.
A minimal expression of obedience was something they thought should come before justification.
In many of our worlds, people would not find this enough to disagree about.
Just think of all they agreed on.
Deity of Christ, imputation, faith, resurrection, etc.
But Paul would not compromise.
The circumcision party made justification hinge on a work done by the sinner.
That was enough to lose the gospel completely.
To make any kind of human work instrumental in justification is to destroy the doctrine completely.
When it comes to the gospel, the urge to modify is damnably sinful.
Point 3: A craving for the applause of men.
V10
Paul could have pleased a lot of people had he went along with the circumcision or just ignored them.
Paul knew what it was like to crave the applause of men.
He did that in his former life.
There is no greater impediment to genuine faith than seeking the praise of men.
You cannot faithfully proclaim the gospel if you mince words.
Why the Food Laws?
We have as a people a potentially unhealthy fascination with the motivation of God behind his laws. Many preachers and commentators will go well beyond the boundaries of faithful, biblical interpretation to tell us exactly what was in God’s mind as he gave a certain command. If we are not careful, we will develop an attitude that says to the Lord, “If I can understand why you gave this command, I will obey it. But, if not, I’ll do what I like.”
Take, for example, the way we often try to handle the food laws. In Leviticus 11, we come across the laws relating to clean and unclean animals. Of course, the concept of clean and unclean animals has been in biblical thought from long before the time of Moses. Noah carried different numbers of clean and unclean animals on the ark. But here, we see God instruct the nation and especially the priests with great specificity.
The rules are not terribly complicated. The people can eat land animals that are among the domesticated plant-eaters. They can eat fish with fins and scales, sorry, no shrimp. They can eat birds that are not birds of prey. And, they can eat insects that are hoppers, no crawlies.
Why did God make these rules and these distinctions? Why couldn’t the Israelites eat meat-eating animals? Was it because of the prohibition against eating blood? Was it about health reasons? Was it about pagan religious practices and not looking like the Canaanites?
Here is what God said about why to obey his food laws:.
Leviticus 11:45 – “For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”
God basically tells the Israelites in response to any question as to why not eat pork or owls, “Because I said so.” I think we need to grasp that this is a good, significant answer. God does not need to explain himself to the nation, not at all. Neither does he need to explain himself to us. If, for a season, God told his people, “no bacon,” we need to say, “Yes, Lord.” We can also thank God that we now live in the day when God has lifted that non-baconic legislation.
Mark 7:18-19 – 18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.)
It would be better for us, before exercising curiosity as to the potential rationale behind the commands, to see that God has the right to give such commands for no reason at all other than that he wants to. He might give those commands as a way to make Israel look different from other nations simply because he wanted them to. It could have been about health, about polemics, about blood, or about something else. But what is most important to us is that it was about the will of the Lord and his right to tell us what to do. And, he does not owe us any sort of explanation.
We must grasp that this is also true in the New Testament. For example, we can look behind the regulations for Christian living, and often we can explain why God’s rules are better for human flourishing than are the sinful ways of the world. However, we do not make the commands hang on our understanding of them for the betterment of mankind. No, the biggest reason that marriage is defined by God or that our sexuality is restricted by God or that divorce is regulated by God or that drunkenness is forbidden by God or that any other command is given by God is that God is God, holy, sovereign, and Lord over all. His rules are right and to be obeyed because he is God. His ways are by definition right because of his holiness. If we can understand the benefits of his commands, that is all well and good. If we cannot, we are still required to obey them for his glory, to distinguish ourselves from those who hate him, and to find joy in bringing honor to his name.
Sheperds’ Conference 2017 Session 1 Notes
February 28, 2017
Session 1
John MacArthur
2 Corinthians 4:5
We do not preach ourselves…
2 Timothy 4
Paul anticipated a heavenly reward.
There were no earthly crowds to give Paul praise for his achievements.
Timothy was away.
He was afraid, and perhaps considering bailing out of the ministry.
Everybody has deserted Paul.
There is a loneliness in Paul’s last words.
How do you go through what Paul went through and stay steadfast?
How do you get there?
2 Corinthians 4
V1 and 16
We do not lose heart brackets the section
Weak translation of the phrase.
Paul may be saying that we do not give in to evil.
It is not so much about being cowardly or slipping.
It is about not giving in to evil or acting badly.
We do not sinfully defect.
Paul’s experience at Corinth would drive someone toward defection.
Look at their sin and cruelty, even toward Paul.
Apollos would not stay there.
It was the church nobody wanted to pastor.
Paul wrote them 4 letters.
Somehow, after Letter 1, they opened themselves to false teachers.
Paul visited, felt worse than before, wrote a very strong letter, and went away.
He may not have wanted to return again.
He was attacked and slandered.
Paul was depressed.
Paul was reluctant to write 2 Cor.
He defended his apostleship against the attacks of false teachers.
Chapter 1, Paul talks about comforts
Chapter 2, Paul talks about sorrow.
Paul regularly talks about his pain in this book.
Paul hurt, but he did not give into evil.
He remained faithful right there.
Here, in chapter 4, we see convictions that kept Paul faithful.
Verse 1, An unwavering conviction
Conviction 1: A conviction about the superiority and glory of the New Covenant over the Old one.
The therefore transitions after the last chapter comparing old and new.
Paul did not watch this change from afar.
He was a zealous Jew.
Acts 9 has Paul’s physical conversion.
Philippians 3 has Paul’s spiritual mindset.
All that old zeal became manure.
2 Cor 3:6
New Covenant gives life.
Law kills.
3:7 Old is a ministry of death.
New is a ministry of life.
3:9 New is a ministry of righteousness.
Old was temporary.
New covenant is permanent.
Old had no hope.
3:12 New has hope
New is clear
Old is dark, vailed.
New is Christ-centered v14.
New covenant is empowered by the Holy Spirit.
New moves us from glory to glory.
Paul came out of the Old Covenant.
He came into the New.
He never lost the wonder over the reality of the New Covenant.
We must never forget the privilege of being called into the New Covenant.
If nobody ever believed under Paul’s ministry, if he was mostly an aroma of death to death, it was still the highest of all honors and the greatest of all joys to proclaim salvation in Christ.
Conviction 2: Paul was certain that ministry was a mercy.
Again, v1.
Your ministry is a mercy.
You did not earn it.
You do not keep it because you are qualified.
Paul was amazed to be given this mercy.
You are in ministry, not because you are better than others, but because you demonstrate God’s grace and mercy.
All our ministries are mercy.
You did not earn your ministry.
Conviction 3: The conviction that he needed to have a pure heart
V2 We have renounced the things hidden because of shame.
The enemies in Corinth accused Paul of much corruption: sexual, financial, etc.
Paul does not have a hidden life.
He was not perfect.
But he was open.
Paul renounced hidden things of shame.
This was a continual thing.
Paul’s reputation as a perfect Pharisee showed he was good at hiding his shame.
He renounced that kind of hypocrisy.
In 1:12, Paul declared he had a clear conscience.
He knew he was not perfect.
But he did not cling to his sin and hide it.
We want a clear conscience.
It doesn’t matter what comes at you if your conscience is clear.
How do you keep your conscience clear?
You do so by winning the battle against sin on the inside.
Charles Wesley hymn on the conscience.
Conviction 4: He was certain of the responsibility to accurately preach the word of God.
V2, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God
Paul knows not to adulterate the word of God.
His job is to communicate truth, genuine truth.
No sneaky means used.
Quote
“It is criminal to take the word of God and manipulate it to achieve your ends.”
If you tamper with the word of God, you may make a friend, but you will not change a heart.
You do not have to defend the word of God.
It has a glory all its own.
Changing the word will not work and will not honor God.
Conviction 5: Paul was certain that the results did not depend on him.
The results did not depend on Paul at all.
Altering the message is a declaration that success depends on you.
If the gospel is vailed, it is not the minister’s fault or failing.
They are blinded, really, totally blinded.
Welcome to the ministry.
If the gospel is vailed, then the people are in the category of those who are perishing.
The perishing cannot respond.
When they do respond, it is because of the wondrous work of God.
Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.
The doctrine of depravity is both discouraging and encouraging.
It encourages me that I can’t do anything to awaken the dead sinner. So, let me just be faithful to the manifestation of the truth in the word of God.
All the results come from God.
V6 God said light shall shine out of darkness.
God showed the light of the knowledge and glory of Christ in our hearts.
When God does a miracle like the miracle of “Let there be light” in Genesis 1, then we see the light.
Only God can say into the darkness of a human soul, “Let there be light.”
I’m happy to give up all of the credit for changing lives so that I can also give up the responsibility.
I preach the word and leave the results to the Creator.
Conviction 6: Paul was certain about his own insignificance.
V7, this treasure is in jars of clay.
What treasure?
The treasure of the gospel.
We have that in clay pots.
They said Paul was unskilled.
That was no problem.
That was not amazing.
What was amazing is that God would put the gospel in a container like Paul.
Clay pots are not special.
They may be chamber pots.
Paul saw himself as the least of the apostles.
1 Cor 4:9
Paul says he and the others are a spectacle.
They are the scum of the earth, the dregs of all things.
We are the bottom of the garbage container.
The power of the glorious gospel has nothing to do with us.
We have that treasure in clay pots. We are fragile and ordinary.
But such has nothing to do with the success of the gospel.
How does Paul sustain his faithfulness in the face of hardship?
The convictions.
Conviction 7: He was convinced of the benefit of suffering. V8
2 cor 12:7-ff
Paul had a messenger from Satan attacking.
A person, angolos, is not an illness.
Some of the persons in our church may be there to humble us.
Power is perfected in weakness.
Was that person possessed?
Paul asks for God to stop this person.
God tells Paul no, because Paul must see that his strength is in weakness.
If you don’t embrace your suffering, you are more likely to defect from ministry.
Paul could never be the explanation for his impact.
They saw that he seemed to be nothing.
They tormented him, attacking every way they could.
The power of God came through his weakness.
Conviction 8: He was certain of the need for courage.. v13.
I believe. I spoke.
If I believe it, I say it.
I only think of one thing: Is this what is true?
What would the church be like today if Pastors did this?
I can’t believe something and not say it.
Aren’t’ you afraid you might die?
No, v14.
So what if they kill you.
You will be resurrected.
V15, I do this for your sake so you will be converted and give God thanks.
Conviction 9: Paul was certain that future glory was better than anything this world could offer.
Vv16-18.
Even in the midst of being battered by the struggle, Paul had confidence in an eternal weight of glory.
No human on earth gave him a trophy at the end.
But the reward of the Savior is coming.
You will not lose heart, defect, if you live by these convictions.
Are All Sins Equal?
Have you ever heard the claim that all sins are the same in the sight of God? Perhaps a parent will try to help a child see that their disobedient attitude is a big problem, and they will tell the child that their disrespect is as bad as stealing. Or, perhaps you will hear a Christian trying to prevent hateful actions toward people of certain lifestyle choices, and they will argue that one sin is just as bad as any other—we are all guilty, after all.
But should we assume that all sins are exactly equal? Does God view lying as the same as murder, petty theft as the same as child abuse, starting a quarrel at home as the same as starting a war? The problem is, we have not defined enough terms to answer this question with accuracy. There is certainly a sense in which all sins are equal. But, there is also, most certainly, a sense in which all sins are not even close to equal. And, thus, I would argue that saying with confidence that all sins are the same in God’s sight is a very bad idea.
First, let’s consider how all sins are alike. Since most Christians seem to believe that line, how are they correct? All sins are equal in the sense that all sins violate the law of God and make us guilty of rebellion against God. All sins are alike in that their proper penalty is eternal death and the wrath of God. All sins are alike in that, if they go unforgiven, they will separate us from the Lord forever.
Matthew 5:21-22- 21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.
James 2:10 – For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.
Romans 6:23- For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
When we consider that all sin separates us from God and violates the basic duty that we have to obey and honor God, yes, all sins are the same. To disrespectfully snap at your spouse or to commit murder both treat people in ways that God has commanded against. Both say to God, “I will do things my way and not yours.” Both oppose the Lord and earn his wrath and judgment if not forgiven. And no person can claim innocence before God by pretending that they did wrong, but not the big wrong that actually ought to get them in trouble.
However, there is also a clear pattern of teaching in Scripture that all sins are not equal. This is why certain behaviors in the Old Testament law system merited a time of separation from the community while others carried the death penalty. Or, from Leviticus 4, we can see that certain sins required a different level of sacrifice and a different placement of the sacrifice’s blood than did others. Thus, we can see that God did not view the sins as exactly the same.
In Leviticus 4, we have a set of provisions regarding the sins of people with different levels of influence. If a sin was committed by a high priest (Lev. 4:1-12) or by the community as a whole (Lev. 4:13-21), the offering had to be a bull, a costly sacrifice. The blood was carried into the tent and sprinkled before the screen between the holy place and the holy of holies, getting right up next to the presence of God. The blood of this offering was also to be placed on the incense altar inside the holy place, showing the depth of the need for forgiveness.
However, if the sin was committed by a political leader (Lev. 4:22-26), his offering was to be a male goat, not the bull. If the sin was committed by a common person (Lev 4:27-35), the offering was a female goat or lamb. The blood of these offerings was to be dealt with at the altar for burnt offerings in the court of the tabernacle, not taken into the holy place. And, the priests could actually eat of the meat of these offerings, though God forbad the priests to eat of the offerings whose blood was taken into the holy place (Lev. 6:29-30).
What should we learn from the different standards for offerings in Leviticus 4? Of course, we can see that the Lord is wonderfully gracious, actually forgiving sin. We should learn that the Lord is gracious, lowering the cost of the offering for the weaker and less influential. We should see that, the more authority and influence a person has, the more damage that person can do by sinning. But we must also understand that there is something different about different sins. Sins that do more harm require different treatment.
So, are all sins the same? No, not if you are being silly enough to pretend that an angry word and murder are exactly the same thing, that one is no more significant than the other. That was not the point Jesus was making in the Sermon on the Mount, nor was it the point that James was making when he said to break the law at one point makes us guilty of it all. Different crimes require different punishments.
And, yes, all sins are the same when you realize that every sin, even the smallest, is a violation of our duty to live holy lives before the Lord. He is perfect, and his standard is perfection. For us to violate that standard makes us guilty of rebellion against the holiness of God. Such rebellion earns the wages of sin, death and hell, if we do not come under the grace of God in the perfect sacrifice and resurrection of Christ.
A Promise to Remember
When I think about the issue of the study of the end times, I find two major extremes among fellow Christians. For the most part, I will see people who are either so fascinated with the end times that they focus on almost nothing else, or I find people who have decided that end times thinking is so hard that it simply should be ignored. Neither position, however, fits a biblical point of view.
In Acts 1, Luke shares for us the account of the final earthly conversation between the resurrected Jesus and his disciples. They have all gathered atop the Mount of Olives, and Jesus makes a final promise. The disciples are curious about when Jesus is going to set up an earthly kingdom in Israel (v. 6), and Jesus tells them, basically, that this is not for them to know. Instead, Jesus told the disciples that they would receive the Holy Spirit, and they would then go and be his witnesses all throughout the world (vv. 7-8).
The entire conversation makes some sense. The disciples are expecting Jesus to continue what it looked to many like he was starting during his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. They think maybe he is now going to gather up followers who will be really amazed by his conquering of death. They expect him to head to Jerusalem, become king, and overthrow the Romans.
Jesus, for his part, tells them that they need to be thinking in an entirely different way. They need to be ready to receive the Spirit of God, something new and wonderful in the experience of the people of God. And, they need to be ready to go tell all kinds of people about Jesus. They need to be ready to tell the Jews, the Samaritans, and the world about him. They need to start there in the city, hit the countryside, and expand to a global mission of telling people about the risen Savior.
Then something absolutely amazing happens. Jesus ascends to heaven. He simply is lifted up from the earth and leaves this world.
Acts 1:9-11 – 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
The departure is stunning. Jesus was caught up into the air. It had to remind people, at least a little bit, of the Old Testament story of Elijah, caught up to God in a whirlwind. But this is different. There is no violent storm. Jesus goes up, is hidden by a cloud, and is gone. In the sky, the Savior crossed out of this physical world and entered heaven, the throne room of God, and remains there physically, eternally alive.
Obviously, the disciples marvel at this. They are just staring at the sky. And then, to put the proper teaching close on this event, a pair of angels stand before the disciples with last instructions. The command is for the disciples not to stand there staring at the sky. Instead, the command is to get out there and get to work. The disciples are to obey Jesus’ commands, wait for the Spirit, and then take the gospel to the nations.
However, the angels did not tell the disciples not to think about the return of Jesus. In fact, the angels made it plain that the return of Jesus is a big deal. Jesus is going to come back in just the same way that he left. Jesus will descend to earth from heaven. Jesus will come on the clouds, just as a cloud had hidden him at his departure. Jesus will physically stand again on the Mount of Olives, just as he was physically standing there before his departure. And all this is to comfort the disciples enough to press them on toward obedience.
So, what should we see? Ignoring the end times is foolish. The promise of the physical return of Jesus is critical. That promise is a promise of something to come that is the hope of the church and the fulfillment of promise.
At the same time, to become so fascinated by the end times that we only look at the skies and argue about the order of upcoming events is not helpful. The angels told the disciples that Jesus would return visibly and physically. Then they told the disciples to go and get to work.
What then should we do? We should think about the words of Scripture, because they all matter. To pretend that the prophecies surrounding the return of Jesus and the close of the age do not matter is foolish and is dishonoring to God. To be, however, so fully consumed by that topic that you hurt others by being argumentative and refuse to do the things that God calls the church to do is also foolish. May we strike the proper balance between longing for the return of the Savior and keeping our heads down and doing the work of Christian ministry. May we love thinking about what is to come as we do what needs to be done now. May we find courage to take the gospel to the nations in the fact that the Savior is going to come down from heaven one day to make all things new.
Being Amazed by the Familiar
Over the past couple of months, I did something that some folks consider to be a silly waste of time. I reread through a fiction series that I greatly enjoy. This was not, however, the second time I have worked through this five-book set. In fact, this is probably the fourth or fifth time that I have read these novels.
Think of how silly that is. I already know how the stories will end. I cannot be surprised by the twists and turns in the fight scenes. I can, from time to time, predict the dialogue that will come as familiarity prompts.
But, I keep reading. While some say they cannot rewatch a movie or reread a novel, I, for whatever reason, find it to be great. As I said in a Facebook post about this set, if you can read a book for the fourth time and still feel the same emotions you felt on your first read through, it must be a very, very good book.
I also have to confess that I almost wish that I could press a button and clear my brain’s memory of the novel. I would love to erase my knowledge of what is to come in order to allow myself to again be surprised or afraid without knowing what is coming next. I’d like to be able to laugh at the jokes as if they were the first time that I had heard them.
I also find myself wondering how great it would be to be able, just for a moment, to do the same thing with the Scripture. How neat would it be, for example, to again hear the story of Jesus for the very first time? How crazy would it feel, as an adult, to hear the words of the angel at the tomb speaking to the women?
Matthew 28:5-7 – 5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.”
I wonder how stunned I would be to read that the women, who had just experienced the greatest in let-downs, went to the tomb on Sunday morning to perform burial rights for Jesus. Suddenly, they are met, not by the soldiers they expected, but by a shining angel from God. There is an earthquake. The stone is rolled back, the soldiers pass out. And then, the angel speaks. What message?
The angel tells the woman that he knows why they have come. They want to see Jesus’ body. But, the ladies are wrong. Jesus is not still dead. He has risen. He is alive.
Stop yourself mentally, shift gears, and think of how enormous those words are. Jesus was dead. They saw him die. They saw the blood. They saw the brutality. They saw the soldier’s spear slide up under his rib cage toward his heart. They saw the flow of fluids out that gash in his side that would kill any normal man. But he was already dead. They saw him wrapped up, carried off, and buried. And they knew this from Friday afternoon, over Saturday, and through Sunday morning. Jesus was dead.
Now, as they go to the tomb, weeping and dejected, they see an angel. That is not normal. This human-looking man wore clothes that shined like lightning. He is obviously holy, far different than any human they have ever met—well, other than Jesus. And this angel says Jesus is not here. The angel says Jesus is alive.
Consider the stunning reversal. Jesus was defeated, at least to all physical eyes. But that is reversed. He lives. He breathes. His heart beats. He is again walking around the countryside. If death cannot beat him, what possibly could?
How great would it be for us to learn this glorious truth again for the first time? It would be wonderful to gasp at the unbelievable truth that the dead Savior is now alive, that he is conquered death, that he has fully paid for our sins, and that he is ready to welcome us into his family. Every other great figure of human history died. Every other religious leader from the past is in a grave. But Jesus lives! This is stunning. This is glorious! May we let it surprise us again so that we might experience its beauty, no matter how many times we have heard the story.
The Crucifixion and Psalm 22
Many of us know the story of Jesus on the cross. We know about the crown of thorns, the mocking crowds, and the gambling soldiers. Of course, we know the things that Jesus said while on the cross.
In my read through Matthew 27, I was again struck by the way that Jesus cried to his Father. The desolation in Jesus’ words is so full, so powerful.
Have you ever put much thought, however, into the fact that Jesus is quoting Scripture from the cross?
Matthew 27:46 – And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
I know that, as a young Christian, it was a while before I realized that the words on the lips of the Savior on the cross were also the opening line of Psalm 22. It felt, at that point, like I had uncovered a secret hidden away in the Old Testament. But, a little further thought and education taught me that, no, this was not obscure. This was not something the Savior did that was mysterious and hard to grasp. Yes, some of the crowd around Jesus at the moment did not grasp what he was saying. In verse 47, they ask if he might be crying out for Elijah to come and get him. But, in truth, Jesus, while crying out in agony, also directs people to the word of God to show them that what is taking place is something God told them was coming a thousand years earlier.
For Jesus to cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” was for him to shout to the crowds a familiar reference. Imagine it this way for our culture. Imagine that, in the middle of something, I said to you, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” What would you think of? Would you start working through shepherd imagery, or would you grasp that I am giving you the opening line of Psalm 23. If I were to say in conversation, “For God so loved the world…,” you would know right away that I’m referencing John 3:16 and its surrounding texts.
So, consider that Jesus, on the cross, both cried out in his suffering, expressing his deep and genuine emotions, and he may as well have said to the crowds, “Look up Psalm 22.” Why?
Psalm 22:1
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
David, in Psalm 22, knows that he is suffering at a level that he does not understand, and he wonders why God has not yet put an end to it. The Savior, on the cross, knew why this was happening. However, nobody can possibly imagine the spiritual horror of what the Son felt as the Father poured out on him his wrath for the sins of all he would ever forgive.
Psalm 22:7-8
7 All who see me mock me;
they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
8 “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him;
let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”
David said that people were making fun of him in his sufferings, casting doubt on whether or not God was actually caring for him. Compare that with the crowds around Jesus.
Matthew 27:39-44 – 39 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads 40 and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” 41 So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, 42 “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” 44 And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.
Psalm 22:15
my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.
We recall, of course, Jesus pointing out his thirst from the cross, though that is not recorded directly in Matthew.
Matthew 27:35 – And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots.
Matthew tells us about the soldiers crucifying Jesus. Though he does not describe it, we know this included piercing Jesus’ hands and feet with nails as they hanged him up. Then, the soldiers sat down, and they gambled for his garments by casting lots.
Psalm 22:16-18
16 For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet—
17 I can count all my bones—
they stare and gloat over me;
18 they divide my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.
This could have been written by an eyewitness to the crucifixion, but it was written by King David a millennium earlier.
What, however, is the end of Psalm 22? It is hope in the sovereign salvation of the Lord.
See these verses from Psalm 22:
23 You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him,
and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
24 For he has not despised or abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted,
and he has not hidden his face from him,
but has heard, when he cried to him.
27 All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before you.
28 For kingship belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations.
31 they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn,
that he has done it.
What is the end of Psalm 22? The end is that there is hope. The Lord will reign. He will send out a message of his power and salvation to the nations. And that, of course, is the result of the cross and resurrection.
May we see the glory of the words that Jesus spoke on the cross drawing our minds to Psalm 22. May we see the significance and sufficiency of Scripture to hear such words on the Savior’s lips as he suffered. Yes, that phrase indicates the depth of the Savior’s suffering. But, that phrase also shows us that God knew exactly what he was doing, that the crowds were missing it, and that God would use what Jesus was doing to spread his glory and grace to all nations.
Pastor Travis Peterson 