Do you love the church? Romans 12:10 tells Christians to “Love one another with brotherly affection.”

The affection and love we’re to have for fellow-Christians is to be based on the work of Jesus Christ for us. It’s not about elitism, it’s not because Christians are better than anyone else, it certainly isn’t because Christians are necessarily more lovable. We love the church because we love the Savior who redeemed the church.

Acts 20:28 tells us that Jesus obtained the church with his own blood. Is this what your love for the church is based on? If it’s anything less, it won’t last long.

* Don’t love the church because of what it does for you. Because sooner or later it won’t do enough.

* Don’t love the church because of a leader. Because human leaders are fallible and will let you down.

* Don’t love the church because of a program or a building or activities because all those things get old.

* Don’t love the church because of a certain group of friends because friendships change and people move.

Love the church because of who shed his blood to obtain the church. Love the church because of who the church belongs to. Love the church because of who the church worships. Love the church because you love Jesus Christ and his glory. Love the church because Jesus is worthy and faithful and true. Love the church because Jesus loves the church.

Excerpted from the sermon “We Are Here to Love the Church” by Joshua Harris.

When God promises to work all things for the good for those who love him he means it.  While we may not verbalize it, oftentimes our hearts wonder if this promise is true.  The book of Ruth reminds us that providence is both sweet and bitter.  God may not always make our path easy, but it is sure to lead to blessing if we love him.

Below is a video of John Piper reading a section from his new book A Sweet and Bitter Providence: Sex, Race, and the Sovereignty of God.  If the book is anything like others of his that I’ve read it will be a blessing to your soul.

“Who are his people? We are eager to know who they are, and we are glad to find that his people need to be saved, and will be saved, for it is written, ‘He will save his people.’ It is not said, ‘He will reward his people for their righteousness,’ nor is it promised that he will ’save them from becoming sinners,’ but ‘He will save his people from their sins.’ . . .

If you are righteous in yourself, you are not one of his people. If you were never sick in soul, you are none of the folk that the Great Physician has come to heal. If you were never guilty of sin, you are none of those whom he has come to deliver from sin. Jesus comes on no needless errand and undertakes no unnecessary work. If you feel yourselves to need saving, then cast yourselves upon him, for such as you are he came to save.”

C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of the New Testament, I:4-5, on Matthew 1:21.

HT: Ray Ortlund

Below, Pastor John MacArthur shares an amazing story concerning the gospel and his football coach.

John MacArthur – Study Video from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

May God give us the grace to share his gospel and live in such a way as to prove its power.

This month, ChristianAudio.com is offering John Piper’s Desiring God audio book for free.  Click here to get it!  You don’t want to miss out on this one.

Here is an excerpt from a great post by Al Mohler:

“We sin against Christ and we misrepresent the Gospel when we suggest to sinners that what God demands of them is moral improvement in accordance with the Law. Moralism makes sense to sinners, for it is but an expansion of what we have been taught from our earliest days. But moralism is not the Gospel, and it will not save. The only gospel that saves is the Gospel of Christ. As Paul reminded the Galatians, ‘But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.’ [Gal. 4:4-5]

We are justified by faith alone, saved by grace alone, and redeemed from our sin by Christ alone. Moralism produces sinners who are (potentially) better behaved. The Gospel of Christ transforms sinners into the adopted sons and daughters of God.

The Church must never evade, accommodate, revise, or hide the law of God. Indeed, it is the Law that shows us our sin and makes clear our inadequacy and our total lack of righteousness. The Law cannot impart life but, as Paul insists, it ‘has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.’ [Gal. 3:24]

The deadly danger of moralism has been a constant temptation to the church and an ever-convenient substitute for the Gospel. Clearly, millions of our neighbors believe that moralism is our message. Nothing less than the boldest preaching of the Gospel will suffice to correct this impression and to lead sinners to salvation in Christ.”

Read the rest here.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 (English Standard Version)
3For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;

Proverbs 29:11 (New International Version)
11 A fool gives full vent to his anger,
but a wise man keeps himself under control.

We are more than our feelings. Our fear, anger, hurt, and sadness do not control us, or, to be more accurate, they don’t have to control us. In truth we often do act on our feelings and allow them control over us, yet, with the power of God, we are able to act as we choose and not as our feelings may dictate. Emotions are fickle and often unpredictable; only a foolish person desires to have such an easily swayed leader. Rather than what we may feel from moment to moment, we chose to allow the will of God to guide our actions.

When I was a young teen my brother and I were exploring near our house when we came across a fire hydrant that had no cap on one side. The hydrate was apparently broken since no water was gushing forth from the opening. Being a young, stupid boy I was immediately overcome with curiosity and stuck my hand inside the open hydrant. I felt downward in the darkness as far as my arm would reach and found nothing of interest. So, I tried the other direction and reached upward; only inches above my hand I hit something spongy. Before I could process the feeling a terrible buzzing erupted from within the dark hole and wasps began pouring out like a hoard of cavalry thundering across the fields of Gettysburg to rain down destruction. I received my first stinging rebuff on the joint of my right thumb and then my brother and I were off. We ran with all the speed we could could manage; slapping, and screaming hysterically as we went. We were thousands of times bigger than any of those wasps and, truth be told, there really weren’t that many of them chasing us. Yes, the stings were painful, but we were in no great danger. We did much worse damage to our pride by running frantically down the middle of the road like crazed lunatics than any physical damage the wasps did to us. I ended up with about three stings and my brother and a few too. Had I thought to pick of the cap lying nearby and thrust it over the opening we would have fared much better in the end. However, it is not unusual in life to find the large and powerful running from the small. A housewife leaping upon a chair as a mouse scurries by or a classroom full of high school students breaking into pandemonium over a spider swinging down from the ceiling are not hard for us to imagine. I once saw a grown man held at bay by a chiwawa. Our emotions are like the wasps, mouse, spider, and chiwawa. They do have the power to hurt us, but we need not cower before them.

I choose to no longer be controlled by what I feel, but by what I know. I know that God loves me and wishes me to live a holy life. I know that God has provided all the strength I could ever need to live a life in accordance with His will. When I do fail to chose right, still I will not be overwhelmed by depression or despair, for I know that God has also provided grace.

*****

Believe God’s love and power more than you believe your own feelings and experiences. Your rock is Christ, and it is not the rock that ebbs and flows but the sea.

–Samuel Rutherford

Where there is no “moral gravity” – that is, no force that draws us to the center – there is spiritual weightlessness. We float on feelings that will carry us where we never meant to go; we bubble with emotional experiences that we often take for spiritual ones; and we are puffed up with pride. Instead of seriousness, there is foolishness. Instead of gravity, flippancy. Sentimentality takes the place of theology. Our reference point will never serve to keep our feet on solid rock, for our reference point, until we answer God’s call, is merely ourselves. We cannot possibly tell which end is up. Paul calls them fools who “…measure themselves by themselves, to find in themselves their own standard of comparison!”

–Elisabeth Elliot
Discipline – The Glad Surrender, Revell, 1982, p. 19-20.

“There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.”

Richard Sibbes, Works, I:47.

(HT: Ray Ortlund Jr.)

Below are the lyrics and a video of the song “All I Have Is Christ” from the Next Conference. Do yourself a favor: read the lyrics and watch the video.

I once was lost in darkest night
Yet thought I knew the way.
The sin that promised joy and life
Had led me to the grave.
I had no hope that You would own
A rebel to Your will.
And if You had not loved me first
I would refuse You still.

But as I ran my hell-bound race
Indifferent to the cost
You looked upon my helpless state
And led me to the cross.
And I beheld God’s love displayed
You suffered in my place
You bore the wrath reserved for me
Now all I know is grace.

Hallelujah! All I have is Christ
Hallelujah! Jesus is my life

Now, Lord, I would be Yours alone
And live so all might see
The strength to follow Your commands
Could never come from me.
Oh Father, use my ransomed life
In any way You choose.
And let my song forever be
My only boast is You.

© 2008 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI), by Jordan Kauflin

All I Have Is Christ from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

HT: Justin Taylor