day no. 17,482: luciferian presumption

"That a man's servant may be wiser than his master, that he may be more just than his master, that he may see what is more profitable and necessary to be done than his master, as commonly happens: and therefor he may have some apparent cause to alter or break his masters commandment. But to say that any creature is, or that any creature would seem in word or deed, to be more wise than God, more just than God, more prudent and circumspect than God, or knows what is better for the creature than the Creator Himself (as it must be said, that He does, that takes upon himself to break or dispense with God's will and commandment) what a horrible blasphemy is it? What Luciferian presumption is it?" — John Ponet, A Short Treatise on Political Power

No earthly authority is absolute. It is easy to imagine a command you cannot in good conscience obey or a prohibition you must in good conscience break. Anyone can see the caveats when saying things like, "Children, obey your father and mother," (unless they command something God forbids or forbid something God commands), "Wives, obey your husbands," (unless they command something God forbids or forbid something God commands), and "Servants, obey your masters," (unless they command something God forbids or forbid something God commands).

So, why is it hard for some to see the same logic when it comes to the magistrate? He can see the caveats when he surveys the landscape, but misses them when it comes to himself. He should not be obeyed without exception. He should only be obeyed inasmuch as he is commanding what God commands and forbidding what God forbids, but if he gets out of his lane, he should not be obeyed. He is not God and He is not a priest or a prophet. Kings are not owed unquestioned allegiance, and to Ponet's point, neither should they expect, or even worse, demand it. That is the kind of presupposing that rivals only Satan.

day no. 17,481: a rocky start and a rockier ending

"Of the popes power (who believes himself one, yes, the chief of these kind of gods, yes, above them all, and fellow to the God of God's) we mind not now to treat: no other is a requisite. For all men, yes half women and babes can well judge, that his power is worthy to be laughed at: and were it not bolstered and propped up with the sword and faggot, it would (as it will notwithstanding) shortly lie in the mire, for it is not built on the Rock, but on sand, not planted by the Father of Heaven, but by the devil of hell, as the fruits manifestly declare." — John Ponet, A Short Treatise on Political Power

All men, most women, and some kids can see that the pope is a joke. The only reason they did not laugh at him back then was because he had the sword and the flame at his disposal. Now that he no longer holds them within his power, everyone is free to laugh.

The papacy is not built on the Rock of Christ, but on the traditions of power hungry men taking advantage of the ignorance of humble men. When Jesus nicknamed Peter the Rock, He did not mean that the church would be built on him. There is only one foundation and that is the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus, who is the Chief cornerstone of the teaching of the prophets and apostles.

day no. 17,354: golf claps and thunder claps

“No reformation worth having was ever accomplished to the sound of polite applause in the background. There will be smoke, and thunder, and yelling, and all the rest of it.” — Douglas Wilson, No Such Thing as Bad Words

Reformation is not revolution, but it is not painless. Revolutions are more spasmodic and eruptive, but they are not more violent than reformations. The violence of reformation is more controlled and less ejaculatory, but it is violent nevertheless. You cannot change long standing problems without causing a few problems.

Hebrews 12:26-27

He hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

God sometimes take the rug out back to beat the crud out of it. What looks like violence toward the rug, is actually love of the rug. For the love of the rug, it is beaten, seemingly without mercy. It is for the removal of the dust that it is whacked to severely. That which isn't rug falls to the ground, but the rug remains. That which can be shaken falls apart when God gives the whole things a good shake. 

Reformation is God shaking the rug out. 

Revolution is man setting the rug on fire. 

Reformation wants to return to the cleaner rug. 

Revolution wants to see what might rise from its ashes. 

Reformation is a return to the first form of God. 

Revolution is a hope in the next evolution of man. 

Reformation is being formed into the image of Christ. 

Revolution is being deformed into chaos.

Golf claps do not often accompany great feats. Thunder claps are often required in order to change the landscape.

day no. 17,182: prayer warriors

“I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe" — Mary, Queen of Scots

The power of God supersedes any and all power of man. A man is never stronger than when his Father's shadow covers him. Knox was feared because God is fearful. The Queen of Scots, for all her faults, at least acknowledged that the power of God is to be feared more than the militias of men.

James 5:16

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Great men can only accomplish so much. Good men with God in their corner conquer the world.

"One man with God is always in the majority.” — John Knox

The man who walks and talks with God is in a better position to topple the towers of the wicked than the man (or woman) who wears the crown who doesn't.

day no. 17,181: reformation sunday 2025: semper reformanda (exhortation outline)

Christ Church Leavenworth

Reformation Sunday

October 26, 2025

Semper Reformanda

INTRODUCTION

Good morning and Happy Reformation Sunday! This weekend we as a church have invested a great deal of time, energy, and resources into remembering and celebrating the anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, an event which is now well over 500 years in our rearview mirror. But why? With everything going on in our world today, why make so much effort to revisit a world that no longer exists? Well, as we are reminded every time we drive, objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are. So, if a reformation was needed back there and then, perhaps another one is needed here and now? As A.W. Tozer said, "If revival means more of what we have now, we most certainly do not need revival.”

The text this morning is Romans 12:1-2. These are the words of God. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”

Reformed types like us are always eager to present our brains to God. We get really excited about loving God with all of our minds. We have our mental houses well swept and all the books organized on its shelves. And by “all the books,” I do quite literally mean, ALL THE BOOKS. We love our books. But we must not be content merely to have our mental libraries well organized and all our doctrines arranged nice and tidy like a bunch of dead butterflies pinned to a posterboard. They might look nice and orderly like that, but they are still dead. So, we must not only present our creeds and confessional statements to God, we must also present our cares, concerns, calendars, checkbooks, and conduct to Him as well.

In short, we must be nothing short of living sacrifices. The problem, however, with living sacrifices is that they often squirm around on the altar. There is a lot of opportunity to second guess and grow impatient as you lay there on the altar waiting. But remember, Christianity did not conquer the Roman Empire by abandoning the altar. It subdued Caesar by loving God, going to church, getting married, having kids, keeping covenant, and carrying on. But that takes time and that means most of those Christians died before they saw Rome under the footstool of Christ. Christopher Dawson once observed that, "The Christian faith lives in the light of eternity, and can afford to be patient." If you want to see the kingdom, you are going to have to walk by faith and for a long time.

So, what does that look like? Remember our text: “Do not be conformed to the world” around you. Do not fall into the form of the world around you. Do not let current events determine your starting point for your day or your standards for living. Read the Word before you try to read the world. Hebrews 2:1 says it this way, “we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” So, are you paying any attention to the Word of God? Good. Pay more. Much more, in fact. Are you hearing the Word of God? Good. Listen closer. Why? If you don’t, you might drift away from it. Drift is the default setting of the human heart. You do not have to do anything to drift. You can simply do nothing and the drift will begin. In fact, doing nothing is a great way to start drifting away. 

The lazy river of life invites you to float along for a bit. “You deserve it. You’ve been working hard. You deserve a break, right?” No, you need a break from being an earnest Christian like your heart needs a break from beating. Christianity does not come with cruise control. Faith is never content to float along. But the current does not discriminate. It will carry anyone, including a reformed Christian like you, downstream. But that kind of progress, as Chesterton once observed, is more like a funeral procession than a victory march for even "a dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it." The river never reforms. It only conforms to the next obstacle and that is why it always wanders. The easy path is what makes rivers and men crooked.

A popular phrase produced by the age of the reformers may come in handy here: semper reformanda, that is “always reforming.” The full phrase is “ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda” or "the church reformed, always reforming.” In other words, we must always be paying much closer attention to what it has heard lest it drift away from it. Reformation is not a one time fix for anyone. The reformers looked back in order to show us the way, not so that we would simply look back to them and stop there. We need to look back to what they looked back to. We need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. It is not enough to honor them for having renewed theirs. That is a good start and it is a great application of our duty to honor our fathers and mothers in the faith, but we do not honor them by simply tipping our hats to their reformation and throwing a party once a year, we honor them by reforming ourselves. We must not just build monuments to their work, we must do what they did. And that means we must be reformed. And by that, I mean more than adopting the WCF or becoming a member of good standing in a reformed church, I mean you must personally, daily, root and branch, reform.

“Always reforming” means constantly returning to the form. As Chesterton once said, "It is futile to talk of reform without reference to form… reform means that we see a certain thing out of shape and we mean to put it into shape." Practically speaking, that means cruciform. Resurrection is the rule of the world and Christ is King. So, if we want to live, we must die to ourselves.

Reform in our day has become synonymous with change in general. So, when something needs to change, we say it needs to be reformed, like tax reform, welfare reform, campaign finance reform, etc… But change is not necessarily reform. You can change something without any reference to its original intention or design. Recent events have demonstrated that reality in gruesome detail. Things can go wrong in any number of ways, but they only go right when they turn back to the source and form of all rightness. Therefore, with that in mind, let us make every effort to look to the Form of forms that we may no longer be conformed to the patterns of this world and be transformed in the renewing of our minds.

So, take time to remember the Reformers as we’ve done this weekend, yes, and amen, but more than that, be like the reformers. Obey on the altar where you have been placed and never stop reforming. For you were born for such a time as this to die to yourself in such a time as this. So, live in such a way that your great great grandchildren, 500 years from now, celebrate what you did in your lifetime. Make it easy for them to honor you then by honoring your God today.

 

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.

CALL TO CONFESSION

Well, since we are often more excited to recognize the reformations of our fathers than we are to reform ourselves and more motivated to celebrate our ancestor’s achievements than we are to achieve anything worthy of our descendant’s praise, we are reminded of our need to regularly confess our sins, whether they be these or others. So, if you are able, please kneel with me and confess your sins, first privately and then corporately using the prayer found in your bulletin.

CORPORATE CONFESSION

Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your steadfast love; according to Your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be justified in Your words and blameless in Your judgment. Cleanse me, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

DECLARATION OF PARDON

Arise and hear the Good News! Our assurance of pardon today is Romans 4:4-8 which says, “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.’”

God has not treated us as our drifting deserves. Instead, He has provided an anchor for the soul in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Pay much closer attention to this: you are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone and in Him, your sins are forgiven…thanks be to God!

Now let us ascend to the presence of God in all worship and praise.

day no. 17,178: of fundamentalists and fun-haters

"Whatever Protestants were, they were not sour, gloomy, or severe; nor did their enemies bring any such charge against them… Protestantism was not too grim, but too glad, to be true.” — C.S. Lewis, English Literature in the Sixteenth Century Excluding Drama (1954)

The fundamentalists have not always been the fun haters. While many modern fussbudgets come by the epithet honestly, the original wearers of the Word did not. They went back to the Word of God and found the joy of the Lord.

Nehemiah 8:10

Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

For those who see the Word of God as a feast, their hearts and souls are fat and satisfied, not fat and sassy. They are full of good things, not full of themselves. This is the way. Word-centered wonder and warmth will keep the fire going until Christ returns.

day no. 17,177: world changes and Word keepers

“God raised up a ne’er-do-well tchotchke-maker to pave the way for a spiritually tortured monk, and his successors, to reclaim the word of God and reset the history of redemption.” —  Rick Segal, The Accidental Reformer

What Gutenberg meant for profit, God meant for prophets. Gutenberg meant to make some money and God used it to make disciples. As the Bible was rediscovered in the days of Josiah, it was rediscovered in the days of Luther. God preserved it and in plain sight and then provided a prophet to read it and a printing press to reproduce it. The history of redemption is always marked by a return to the Word of God. He keeps it safe in its purity and then unleashes it in its danger. God gives us world changers as He raises up Word keepers. The Word changes the world and it always will until the world is conformed to the commands of Christ and delivered by Him to His Father. 

day no. 17,175: the protestant reformation

Today, the sons and daughters of the Protestant Reformation will invest a great deal of time, energy, and resources into remembering and celebrating the anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, an event which is now well over 500 years in our rearview mirror. But why? With everything going on in our world, why take the time to remember a world that no longer exists? In other words, “Why are we bringin’ up old stuff?”

Hebrews 2:1 answers that question. “We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” So, are you paying attention? Good. Pay more. Are you looking to the Word of God? Good. Look closer. Why? Because if you don’t, you might drift away from it. If you are not anchored in the Word of God, you will float away on the current of current events. Drift is the default position of the human heart. The only thing you have to do in order to drift is nothing. The lazy river of life does not discriminate. Anyone can get caught up in its undertow. And that current never revisits the same place twice. It has no memory. It never doubles back. It is only concerned with forward progress. But as Chesterton once observed, that kind of “progress” is more like a funeral procession than it is like a victory march. "A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it."

So, today we remember the Protestant Reformation and the men and women who gave so much in order to give us so much, like the Bible in our own language, congregational singing, the end of the sacred/secular distinction with respect to lawful vocations, pastors with wives and children, beards behind the pulpit, and most importantly, the recovery of the doctrine of justification by grace through faith in Christ alone to the glory of God alone according to His Word alone.

But if we were to pay much closer attention to what the reformers said in order to avoid drifting away from it, what would we hear them say? What words would we hear echoing to us from 500 years ago? We would hear, “We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” The reformers were not trying to win a special place in history for the 15 and 1600s, they were trying to recover a special place for the Word of God for all times and places. One of the rally cries of the Reformation was ad fontes, or to the sources. This included a return to all source materials, but most emphatically it meant a return to the Bible itself as the standard of doctrine and conduct. So, if you had been alive at the time of the Reformation, you would have been surrounded by people who were not looking to their own time and place, but people looking back to the Word of God in order to understand and operate in their particular time and place. The timeless Word of God provides timely instruction for whoever you, wherever you are, whenever you are. The Reformers were simply saying what we have been fond of saying, which is, “By what standard?” So, they studied the Bible and they learned Greek and Hebrew in order to make sure they understood what the words actually were and what that text actually said. They always wanted to go as far back as they could in order to find the firmest foundation possible off which to go forward.

So, when we look to the reformers we see them looking back to the original text. So, what does our text say? “We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” So, even if we look all the way back to the first century church we find them urging us to look back even further. In the immediate context of the book of Hebrews that would mean looking back to 1:1 which says this, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” That is what we must pay much closer attention to lest we drift away from it. The Word of God that was in the beginning, that was with God, that was God, and became flesh and dwelt among us. He is the rock on which we must build. When we build on Him and His Word we find a rich history of materials with which to work and a solid foundation already laid.

1 Corinthians 3:11,10

For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Therefore, let each one take care how he builds upon it.

day no. 17,156: revival is by resurrection, not revolution

“If revival means more of what we have now, we most certainly do not need revival.” — A.W. Tozer

Reformation is fueled by a love of form. It loves the standard and works hard to conform the present to the vision of the past in order to secure a better future. It is not revolutionary. It is not willing to do any thing in order to bring about a particular outcome since the outcome is only part of the solution. How you get there is as important as what you get once you arrive. 

"The Christian faith lives in the light of eternity, and can afford to be patient." — Christopher Dawson

The ends do not justify the means. The means must match the ends. You cannot conquer the Canaanites by acting like Canaanites. You merely displace them and supplant their version of paganism with your own preferred brand. But principles do not fight like that. They live and die for the standard, come what may. They long for and fight for the day where wisdom is justified by her children and they refuse to compromise their principles in order to see their team succeed. They do not want to win with ill-bred orcs. They want their principle to prevail, not just their jersey. Their team is the principles. They refuse to play according to the world's scoreboard. They do not seek to score points by any means possible. They do not cheat or take shortcuts. They love the game which means they love the rules of the game. They demonstrate their fidelity by refusing to win by any other means. That would change the game and they don't want that.

Revival is by resurrection, not revolution.

day no. 17,108: christening the kingdom

"A Reformed understanding of the gospel, of worship, of education, of politics, and so on, is incoherent apart from a commitment to Christendom.” — Douglas Wilson, Mere Christendom

You cannot say, "Christ is King" without being committed to Christendom. 

Revelation 11:15

The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

If you refuse to say, "Christ is King" because you are committed to resisting Christendom, you are at odds with God. Kings have kingdoms. Christ has Christendom.

Revelation 17:14

These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

You cannot contradict Christ. His Word will stand. He is, after all, the Word of God.

Revelation 19:13-26

And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King Of Kings, And Lord Of Lords.

God gets the final Word. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. His kingdom shall reign forever and ever, world without end, and amen.

day no. 17,106: reformed catholics

“The Reformation is the Protestant phenomenon. This was not something that Protestants created, but rather a series of glorious events and movements within medieval Christendom that created the Protestants. Let me say that again. Protestants didn’t rise up and replace medieval Catholicism with Protestantism. Medieval Catholicism produced a vast array of faithful sons and daughters who loved the ship and thought we needed to scrape the barnacles off.” — Douglas Wilson, Where Was Your Face Before You Washed It?

Christendom is not a hydra that grows two new heads for each one that is cut off. There is only one Head and you cannot cut Him off. (Col 1:18) Protestantism did not cut off the Catholic head in order to grow two new denominations. Rome was not and is not the head of the Church. This belief has, however, always been a temptation (Rom 11:18) Protestantism is fresh face not a new head. Instead of looking into the perfect mirror of God and leaving the muck that it saw, Protestantism sought to wash it off. And so a new face was born, not a new person. Protestantism is not as much a protest as it is a reaffirmation of the testimony, as in pro-testament. The faith once for all delivered to the saints was confirmed and embraced, not rejected and replaced.

The Church is the bride of Christ and He is not a polygamist. Protestantism is merely the admission that perhaps Christ deserves a wife who washes up before the wedding night instead of one who shows up content to look like she has been drug through the mud. Reformed Catholics (aka Protestants) are not a headless body of believers. They are the wife of Christ.

day no. 17,075: while we wait for the fire to fall

“Reformation and revival are the result of the fire of God falling from the sky. What is within our power to do (by the grace of God, always) is the arranging of flammable material. As we labor and pray for reformation and revival, in the meantime we should also be splitting and stacking a lot of tamarack, which burns nicely. That is not the same thing as reformation, but it is a nice anticipation of it. Preparing for the fire to fall is not the same thing as the fire falling, but it shows good sense. We pray for the fire to fall, and we want to prepare as though we believe it is going to. But A.W. Tozer once said that. ‘if revival means more of what we have going on now, we most emphatically do not need revival.’ If the fire of God today were to fall on the evangelical church of North America, we would witness a continent-wide Kleenex fire. It wouldn’t last that long, but it would be really something while it lasted.”  — Douglas Wilson, Where Was Your Face Before You Washed It?

Worship is waiting and working for the Lord.

“Be sure to have your sail up. Do not miss the gale for want of preparation for it.” — C.H. Spurgeon

Waiting on the Lord is not standing still and working for the Lord is not impatience. We wait on the Lord as a waiter, not as one wasting away in line at the DMV. We work for the Lord as servants, not as usurpers.

Psalms 37:34

Wait on the LORD,

and keep His way.

Keeping the ways of God is the best way to wait for Him.

Patience is persevering in plowing while you wait in hope for the harvest.

We must keep the altar ready as we wait for the fire to fall.

day no. 16,483: TULIP time!

TOTAL DEPRAVITY

Total depravity is not the belief that everything is as bad it could be, but that nothing is as good as it should be. 

Total depravity does not insist that there is no good in anything, but that there is a bit of bad in everything.

Isaiah 64:6

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.

Christianity is not unique among world religions in insisting that sin exists, it is unique in insisting that even our very best is still sinful. Our righteousness is ridiculous. Our cleanest living is corrupted.

We should not be surprised to discover that our best efforts are merely filthy rags, but that our rags contain any good in them at all. The shock should not be in realizing that God sees our best as offensive, but in realizing that He looks for good even in our offenses.

Philippians 3:7-9

What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.

All that to say, we should not be shocked to discover how much shit God puts up with, but how much good He is willing to find in so much shit.

“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good... We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it." ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Only those who love and pursue the standard can see how far short of it they fall.

“A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is alright. This is common sense really. You understand sleep when you are awake, not well you are sleeping.” ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Christianity is a waking up to the fact of sin in general and a realizing of the need of salvation regardless of the individual resume.

UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION

The Pelagian assumption is dependent upon a zero sum game that begins with a tabula rasa (blank slate); but the Bible puts forward the idea of us being conceived as debtors and daily adding new debts to the ledger as we grow. In other words, Pelagianism is grounded on a neutral that does not exist. Nothing is neutral. Claiming neutrality is, in fact, a common military formation of one of the two sides party to the conflict. Neutrality, then, is a weapon; and only one side deploys it.

Doug Wilson recently pointed out that the Pelagian impulse is to cry, "inability limits obligation." In other words, if you can't do something, you can't be obligated to do it. It is akin to proposing that if you had no choice in the matter, you can't be held accountable for your choices. You can only be held accountable for things over which you had free choice, or so the story goes. You can't sentence someone or judge someone guilty for impulses over which he had no say is the high watermark of modern logic. The same high watermark those exhibited in the days of Noah.

Genesis 6:5

And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

The argument proceeds as follows,

"I want to do sinful things, but I didn't choose to want to do sinful things. I never remember making a conscious decision to be a sinner, I just wanted to sin and saw sin as attractive. It was always the case. I have no responsibility, therefore, for the way I feel. And if I cannot be held responsible for how I feel, then why should I be prohibited from acting upon my feelings? If the feelings can't be counted as wrong, then how can the actions that flow from those feelings be any less wrong?"

This sounds right in way... right? But only in a way and only because we're indoctrinated in worldly catechisms in which we have all been trained and led astray. We collectively, impulsively identify the unfairness in it and relate to the plea-bargainer's reply, of "How can I be fined for breaking regulations I had no ability to obey? How can I rightly be held accountable for feelings I didn't ask to feel?"

But this is where the divergence between Augustinian Christianity and Pelagian Christiahhhh....ehhhhh.....errrrrr....nity is most obvious.

Scripture reveals that we are all born in Adam. We have a genetic marker that compels us to follow his example and sin. We are sinful because we are sinners, not the other way around. We are not counted sinful because of our sins, we can count our sins so easily because we are sinners and so good at what we do that you can count on it.

We are commanded by God to die to ourselves. We are commanded to go against our impulses. We are not given vague impulses as excuses for disobeying clear commands. We know what we are to do and how we are commanded to feel about our feelings. You can appeal to thine own self staying true, but it will not hold up in God's court. He has gone on record as to what He requires and what He condemns. If you find yourself, by nature, feeling attracted to things He has declared abominations or feeling repulsed by things He has declared attractive, the problem lies in you and your obligation in response to that is to forsake your feelings and follow Christ.

Because we are all born into Adam, each one of us must die to ourselves on some points and go against our natural inclinations if we are to follow Jesus. No one follows Jesus and feels warm fuzzies about His commands without being regenerated from our old nature into a new nature provided by God.

God does not choose anyone because of something they did or for anything He foresaw that they would do. The conditions of our election are nowhere to be found in us. The condition is located in His loving kindness. His initiative is our confidence. Our initiative towards Him is merely our response to His initiative in us. We live, move, and have our being because He lives, moves, and is.

Romans 9:9-13

For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son. And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, "The elder shall serve the younger." As it is written, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated."

Paul goes out of his way to point out that the unborn sons had not yet done anything good or bad to deserve favor or discipline. It was at this point that God promised the blessing to the younger. This was not merely a statement of God's preference, but an example of His purposes in election.

A woman once reportedly said to Charles Spurgeon, “I cannot understand why God should say that He hated Esau.”  Spurgeon replied, “That is not my difficulty, madam. My trouble is to understand how God could love Jacob.”

The sticking point is often Esau, right? But that math should not be too hard to wrap your head around. The real head scratcher is God's mercy to Jacob. There is no math for something like that. It is unconditional and cannot be summarized. It is a product of the grace of God in making life not fair.

LIMITED ATONEMENT

"I would rather believe a limited atonement that is efficacious for all men for whom it was intended, than a universal atonement that is not efficacious for anybody, except the will of men be added to it." -- Charles Spurgeon

If someone has a sticking point when it comes to the so-called, "5 Points of Calvinism," it's almost always just the one particular point on which they are stuck... limited atonement.

Unless you have a universalist approach that assumes everyone is going to heaven when they die, you limit atonement somehow. The question is not IF you limit it, but HOW.

You must either limit its efficacy or its ubiquity. That is to say, you must either limit its power or its promiscuity. Which does it lack: surety or scope? Because it must lack one of these. It cannot be all powerful for everyone without being universal. So, is it all powerful for some or potentially powerful for all?

What Spurgeon is quoted as saying above assumes that the atonement is limited in quantity, not quality. That is, it saves to the utmost everyone that it saves. It does not kind of save everyone or definitively save everyone. It only works for those whom it goes to work. But by this definition of the atonement, it's scope is limited or reduced from everyone in the entire world, to those elected out of the world. Rest assured, all kinds of people will be elected: red and yellow, black and white, rich and poor, men and women, old and young, sick and healthy, etc... But not each and every one from each and every kind will be elected. In other words, no kind of person is exempt, but some of each kind will be.

Many find this discrimination distasteful and opt for a more broad-minded approach saying, "the atonement made it possible for each and every individual regardless of race, nation, tongue, gender, etc... to be saved." In this arrangement, the scope is broadened to include everyone ubiquitously, however, the efficacy has now been limited. In this understanding, everyone CAN make it to heaven, but no one assuredly WILL. In this case, at least in theory, everyone could reject salvation and the atonement and heaven could end up vacant. God would still be good, but Christ would have died for no one in particular. Granted, the benefit, in this formation, would be that everyone could do it, but the fact would remain that no one assuredly would and those who have previously done it should fret that perhaps they didn't do it quite enough or must do it again later just to be safe.

Limiting atonement's scope is the only measure of providing any security to anyone's salvation. While it does mean that some will most assuredly not be saved, it also promises that some most assuredly will. 

John Owen put it this way...

The Father imposed His wrath due unto, and the Son underwent punishment for, either:

1. All the sins of all men.

2. All the sins of some men.

3. Some of the sins of some men.

In which case it may be said: 

That if the last be true, all men have some sins to answer for, and so none are saved.

That if the second be true, then Christ, in their stead suffered for all the sins of all the elect in the whole world, and this is the truth.

But if the first be the case, why are not all men free from the punishment due unto their sins?

You answer, Because of unbelief. I ask, Is this unbelief a sin, or is it not? If it be, then Christ suffered the punishment due unto it, or He did not. If He did, why must that hinder them more than their other sins for which He died? If He did not, He did not die for all their sins!

In other words, we are left with 4 options, Christ died for:

All of the sins of all men

All of the sins of some men

Some of the sins of all men

Some of the sins of some men

If Jesus died for all of the sins of all men, everyone is going to be saved, but Jesus Himself said some will go to hell (goats, bad fish, weeds, etc...) So, universalism is heresy.

If Jesus died for some of the sins of all men, all men still have some sins for which they must  themselves atone and all would be damned.

If Jesus died for some of the sins of some men, all men still have some sins for which they must atone and some still have all their sins left to atone for in which case, all are damned.

But if Jesus died for all of the sins of some men, then some men will actually be saved — not because of works, lest any of them should boast, but by grace through faith, which is itself a gift flowing from the finished work of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

IRRESISTIBLE GRACE

Matthew 22:14

For many are called, but few are chosen.

All who are called come and all who stay are chosen. Some come and go. Some come incorrectly. Some come for something else. Those who are called, come correctly according to the summons. They come by grace through faith in Christ alone and live by faith according to His rule and reign.

No one who is drawn up by God hopes for holes in the bucket. None come to Him eyeballing the exits. No one is dragged to Heaven against his will. He is converted against his will precisely because his will is the thing that needs converting. Once converted and regenerated, his will does not long for its former life, it longs for the next one. This does not mean that it cannot be tempted by old longings, but that it cannot ignore the new ones. It cannot shake the desire for sanctity, nor does it want to. The will's wants have all been reorganized while some sinful ones may have been abandoned entirely and the ones that remain have been defrocked from their previous priestly positions. They no longer direct the worship service of the soul. As affections, they have either been vanquished or court marshaled. Inordinate affections have all been rounded up and reordered according to the commands of Christ. He keeps our cares corralled according to their kind and to their proper proportion.

God does not fail. He does not have unfulfilled desires with respect to His will of decree. In that regard, what He says goes and what He calls comes. His will of desire is communicated to us through the Law and the Gospel. This can be resisted or ignored. We can resist or grieve the Spirit in this respect, but not with respect to our spirits. We are not sovereign over our souls. We do not possess the ability to lock God out. There is not a PIN He does not know or a lock for which He doesn't possess the key. He cannot be kept at a distance by a restraining order. He provides both the inspiration to ask and the answer. There is not a move toward Him which did not originate in His moving the mover to move. 

The kindness of God is His Kingness. He is good and in charge and good at being in charge. He demands what is divine and inspires in His elect that which delivers them from death. He is no one's Plan B. He cannot be had as an afterthought. He does not accept seconds. He is not forced to receive any He does not want and there is no one who wants Him who won't be received. He provides the "want to" and the "will do" because the "all done" has been accomplished in Christ.

John 19:30

When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished:" and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. (emphasis mine)

PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS

"When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, 'Repent' (Mt 4:17), He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance." -- Martin Luther, 95 Theses, #1

The saints persevere primarily in repentance. They never cease turning to Christ. They are not sinless, but they do sin less. But in their sinning, the sin of unrepentance is absent. A saint is not one who never sins again, but one who repents again and again. It's not that they never fail, but that they never fail to ask for forgiveness. That is the handiwork of Christ in keeping His saints. They endure difficulty for the sake of Christ and endure humility in constantly confessing their ongoing need for His intervention and intercession.

The word commonly translated, "persevere," in the New Testament is hypomonḗ which is a compound word made up from hypó, "under" and ménō, "remain, endure." In other words, persevering is a matter of "remaining under." This can apply to remaining under difficulties for as long as they might last, in which case we say the man persevered, or to remaining under submission to God regardless of the circumstances. Whatever stands around you are your circumstances (circum "around" and stances "standing"). Perseverance is standing with God regardless of whoever stands against you or whatever stands around you. Whatever stands up, you don't stand down. You possess steadfastness and endurance because in Christ, by the power of His Holy Spirit to will and work in you, you are like Him who endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him.

Hebrews 12:2-3

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

Jesus remained under (hypomone) the cross. He remained under the mockery of sinners. He did get out from under His cross. He did not abandon His post to get back at sinners. He endured. He persevered and by His grace and through His Spirit, we, like Him, remain under whatever stands around us so that we might stand confident in Christ before His Father.

Ephesians 6:13

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

We stand in Christ against sin. We stay put where He has placed us. We endure the conditions He requires and in the manner and by the means He has commanded.

Hebrews 4:16

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

We come at all because He called us. We come humbly because of who we were when He called. We come boldly because of Who it is that called us. We come joyfully because of Who we go to. We come with confidence because of Whose we are. We come and we stay because of Christ sat down.

John 18:9

Of them which thou gavest Me have I lost none.

We cannot be lost because God cannot lose in any sense of that word.

day no. 16,153: reformation requires resurrection

John 12:24-26

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

Until we decide to die, we are defenseless and out maneuvered. However, once we decide to die, we begin fighting like those who could win and dying like those who have already won.

Reformation requires resurrection.

Decay must die.

day no. 16,149: truth is not a registered trademark

Truth does not belong to the State. It doesn’t need its papers notarized. It does not need to conform to any Federal rules and regulations committees. It is not a commodity. It cannot be bought or sold. It cannot be taxed or tariffed. It is an authority on its own. The State needs to register with it. Truth is the standard by which the State shall be judged, not the property of the State to define or package as they see fit.

"But since I have made this criticism of the modern view of the family more than once before, both in connection with the modern view of marriage and the modern view of education, I will try once more to explain to my critics and correspondents what I mean; and since I cannot be subtle, I will try to be simple. There are two human relations which modern rulers are everywhere disposed to dissolve.... that of man and wife or mother and child. A man can desire a woman as thing of beauty, or woman can desire a baby as thing of beauty. These two relations are the only two recognised combinations founded on natural satisfaction with the thing itself. They are also the only two recognised combinations in capitalist civilisation which that system has set out to destroy... Divorce and the destruction of parental control therefore are the two main modern reforms, because they both express distrust of the two natural emotions that can in some reasonable degree be trusted." -- G.K. Chesterton, Is The Parent A Paradox, 1921

The love of a man for a woman manifested in marriage is a threat to a State with no sense of self-control. The love of a parent for their child exhibited in education is another threat. The Christian family is founded on both of these, and as such, is the greatest threat an out-of-control State will ever face. This is why so much of their time, energy, and economic resources are aimed at dissipating its sway.

The State goes to great lengths to annex marital and parental responsibilities. It seeks to provide and protect those for whom husbands and fathers are responsible by first supplementing what they seek to ultimately supplant. In other words, they come along side in order to box out. Practically speaking, this leads to things like no-fault divorce laws and less stigmatization of those who pursue them for any and every reason. It also takes the form of government schooling becoming cheesier and more mandatory; and the more mandatory, the more layers of cheese that are added.

The State cannot compete with a responsible husband. The State cannot endure a happy homemaker. Free men and women make for free thinking citizens who raise free range Christian children, fed on the grace of God and the freedom of His Spirit. So, the State seeks to supplant the existing men through *Baalfare and to hamstring the rearing of future men through *Feducation. 

Truth is not a registered trademark.

----

Baalfare: a system of distribution predicated upon the notion that the State not only has the authority to dispense the rain, but the ability to produce it.

Feducation: a system of indoctrination predicated upon the notion that the State not only owns the trademark on truth, but also the means of production and distribution.

day no. 16,058: getting hammered for God

In France, there is a monument to the Huguenots who died as martyrs for the cause of Christ. These words are inscribed on the monument...

Hammer away, ye unregenerate hands.

Your hammer breaks, God’s anvil stands.

The Word of God outlives all its critics.

Luke 20:17-18

And he beheld them, and said, "What is this then that is written, 'The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner?' Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder."

The Word of God made flesh outlived all His critics.

Those who fall upon Him live while those who refuse fall prey to Him.

"The anvil breaks a host of hammers by quietly bearing their blows."

-- Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening