Glorifying God: The Heart of Reformation
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To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever, and to be able to do both of these things simultaneously is what I certainly think at the end of the day is going to make an impact on our contemporary world, that is so interested in enjoyment. It’s very rare to hear non-Christians say, "See how these Christians enjoy the glory of God." [00:01:49]
The ultimate and eternal goal of the Reformation is the glory of God. If you were to say, "What is the intermediate goal, or what is the immediate goal of the Reformation?" It was to reform the church, and to reform the church from top to bottom. It was about preaching, it was about music, it was about education, it was about the centrality of Scripture. [00:04:37]
And I do think that the call, and R.C. has signaled this in the last number of years, that the call once again is upon us to believe and preach and proclaim the inerrancy of Scripture, our confidence in Scripture alone. That the answers to all of our questions lies in the written Word of God. So, five hundred years later, we still need that Reformation now as much as then. [00:06:44]
You know an ordinary means of grace ministry is, the thrill from the point of view of those who share in that ministry of the exposition of Scripture in different ways and at different levels, and watching the Word of God work. I’ve become more and more convinced, that the default among us evangelicals is, that we do the work and the Word helps us. [00:09:48]
And as Dr. Lawson said, that means that in trusting God and believing that God is sovereign, we’re believing not only that God ordains the ends of all things, but also that He ordains the means of all ends. And so often people claim to believe that God is sovereign, they believe in the sovereignty of God, but they’re not trusting the means that God has ordained to build His church. [00:13:01]
And so, in ordaining the ordinary means of grace, these are the means by which we grow. These are the means we worship Him and these are the means by which He carries out His Great Commission to the ends of the earth in His mission. And so, it’s trusting them. It means we’re not technique-based, we’re not method-based. We don’t have to constantly drum up new technics and programs. [00:13:21]
And my own feeling is that even if we speak about means of grace ministry, we may not have caught sight of that vision of what’s it like when God’s Word does its work, floors us, prostrates us, transforms us, gives dignity to our lives, and means that what happens in -- under the ministry of the Word is -- becomes visible in the community in the days that follow. [00:10:37]
And you know, we are -- we’re not just a teaching institution. We’re -- the Word of God creates a new kind of community, and so the preaching of the Word without the creation of that new kind of community ordinarily does not make the same evangelistic impact on the world around. But the creation of that community helps people to see that the Word that is preached has illustrations in the life of this new community. [00:19:36]
But I think we need a book entitled something like ‘Embracing Weakness,’ because when we read the end of 2 Corinthians, Paul reminds us that God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness. And when I thought of the struggle of Christians with Islam, and with secularism, and with sin and with trouble all around the world, it reminded me belatedly, that into the end of the day, Jesus builds His church. [00:24:02]
And my observation is that we always have this tendency towards the theology of glory. We want to be bigger, we want to be stronger, we want to be dominant, but we don’t want the cross. Which is what Bob was saying. And we just, I think need to keep reminding ourselves of this, that all the way home we are under the theology of the cross. [00:25:41]
And it must always be in our minds that whatever we do in the life of the church we must always be cautious about this issue; is this helping to build a church that will be able to withstand persecution. Because that’s what it means to live life under the cross. Whether that mean incidental persecution or whole church persecution or the persecution of the church in a nation, life under the cross. [00:25:51]
Remember how Paul says at the end of 2 Corinthians 13, in distinction from the kind of things he seems to say in Philippians 4, "I’m weak, but I can do all things in Christ." He says, "I’m weak in Christ. I’m weak in Christ because of my union with Christ. I live this life in this world always with weakness." [00:26:49]
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The ultimate and eternal goal of the Reformation is the glory of God. If you were to say, "What is the intermediate goal, or what is the immediate goal of the Reformation?" It was to reform the church, and to reform the church from top to bottom. It was about preaching, it was about music, it was about education, it was about the centrality of Scripture. [00:04:37]
And I do think that the call, and R.C. has signaled this in the last number of years, that the call once again is upon us to believe and preach and proclaim the inerrancy of Scripture, our confidence in Scripture alone. That the answers to all of our questions lies in the written Word of God. So, five hundred years later, we still need that Reformation now as much as then. [00:06:44]
You know an ordinary means of grace ministry is, the thrill from the point of view of those who share in that ministry of the exposition of Scripture in different ways and at different levels, and watching the Word of God work. I’ve become more and more convinced, that the default among us evangelicals is, that we do the work and the Word helps us. [00:09:48]
And as Dr. Lawson said, that means that in trusting God and believing that God is sovereign, we’re believing not only that God ordains the ends of all things, but also that He ordains the means of all ends. And so often people claim to believe that God is sovereign, they believe in the sovereignty of God, but they’re not trusting the means that God has ordained to build His church. [00:13:01]
And so, in ordaining the ordinary means of grace, these are the means by which we grow. These are the means we worship Him and these are the means by which He carries out His Great Commission to the ends of the earth in His mission. And so, it’s trusting them. It means we’re not technique-based, we’re not method-based. We don’t have to constantly drum up new technics and programs. [00:13:21]
And my own feeling is that even if we speak about means of grace ministry, we may not have caught sight of that vision of what’s it like when God’s Word does its work, floors us, prostrates us, transforms us, gives dignity to our lives, and means that what happens in -- under the ministry of the Word is -- becomes visible in the community in the days that follow. [00:10:37]
And you know, we are -- we’re not just a teaching institution. We’re -- the Word of God creates a new kind of community, and so the preaching of the Word without the creation of that new kind of community ordinarily does not make the same evangelistic impact on the world around. But the creation of that community helps people to see that the Word that is preached has illustrations in the life of this new community. [00:19:36]
But I think we need a book entitled something like ‘Embracing Weakness,’ because when we read the end of 2 Corinthians, Paul reminds us that God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness. And when I thought of the struggle of Christians with Islam, and with secularism, and with sin and with trouble all around the world, it reminded me belatedly, that into the end of the day, Jesus builds His church. [00:24:02]
And my observation is that we always have this tendency towards the theology of glory. We want to be bigger, we want to be stronger, we want to be dominant, but we don’t want the cross. Which is what Bob was saying. And we just, I think need to keep reminding ourselves of this, that all the way home we are under the theology of the cross. [00:25:41]
And it must always be in our minds that whatever we do in the life of the church we must always be cautious about this issue; is this helping to build a church that will be able to withstand persecution. Because that’s what it means to live life under the cross. Whether that mean incidental persecution or whole church persecution or the persecution of the church in a nation, life under the cross. [00:25:51]
Remember how Paul says at the end of 2 Corinthians 13, in distinction from the kind of things he seems to say in Philippians 4, "I’m weak, but I can do all things in Christ." He says, "I’m weak in Christ. I’m weak in Christ because of my union with Christ. I live this life in this world always with weakness." [00:26:49]
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