Anchored in Grace: A Blog Series

Anchored in Grace, a 15-Part Blog Series by Jeremy Walkerby Jeremy Walker/

Today we introduce a blog series featuring every word (very slightly adapted) of Anchored in Grace: Fixed Points for Humble Faith, by Jeremy Walker. Enthusiastically endorsed by Paul Washer, Joel Beeke, Conrad Mbewe, Derek Thomas, Brian Croft, and others, Anchored in Grace has already been translated into Farsi by The Gospel Coalition for use as a tool for both evangelism and discipleship in Iran and among the Persian diaspora. We consider it a largely undiscovered gem of a book. Enjoy!

Read all the posts published to date in this 16-part series.

INTRODUCTION

In his great treatment of spiritual warfare, The Christian in Complete Armour, the Puritan author William Gurnall speaks of what he calls “catechize-points.” These, he says, are “truths necessary to be known and believed.”[i] The truths upon which I wish to focus in these posts provide us with a stunning display of grace. They are truths which with Christians need to be thoroughly acquainted, truths with which pastors must thoroughly acquaint the people whom they serve. These are the paths to walk so that you do not miss your way to heaven, nor fail to honor the Lord God along the way. These are the anchors of the faith that mature Christians need to point out to the generations following us. These are spiritual realities to reckon with. These are the gospel verities that must be defended against the errors and heresies that repeatedly threaten to undermine or overwhelm them, either by force or by fraud.

These are central truths. They cannot be pushed to one side or downplayed without restricting our views of God and twisting our views of self. They are determinative, in large measure, for our views of Christian experience, life, duty, and joy. They help to define our gospel witness as the church of Jesus Christ. Get these wrong and so much else will be immediately and persistently skewed.

These are humbling truths. They strip away the boasting to which proud and rebellious man is inclined. With searing honesty they make us face the facts about our own sinful hearts, our spiritual need, and our utter dependence on the mercies and favors of God acting freely and graciously in accordance with his glorious character and infinite being. They are truths that necessarily empty us of self before they fill us with Christ.

These are saving truths. These things are the ground of our hope. Fail to reckon with these things and there is no deliverance for our souls and bodies. Again, there is a holy progression and a divine logic at work. Like a sick man, we must acknowledge the disease in order to pursue the physician. We must accept the diagnosis in order to obtain the medicine. With regard to our souls, we will not flee to Christ as Savior until we are brought to acknowledge the salvation we need as found in him alone. Then, and only then, do we run to him and hide ourselves in him and find all our joy.

Read More

Promoting the Gospel in Farsi

Anchored in Grace in Farsiby Kevin /

We’re thrilled and honored to be part of The Gospel Coalition’s first “language landing site,” a website entirely in Persian/Farsi. As Bill Walsh of TGC International Outreach has said,

We’ve labored for a long time to get solid, biblical resources translated into this key language for sharing with Iranian Christians and the Persian diaspora around the world. Our hope is to…have [the site] serve as a prototype for other languages such as Arabic. The Internet has enormous capacity for reaching some of the hardest places to spread Christian content.

The site is currently offering seven foundational books in Farsi, one each from John Piper, R.C. Sproul, David Platt, Mark Dever, Kevin DeYoung, Chris Bruno, and our own Jeremy Walker (Anchored in Grace: Fixed Points for Humble Faith). If you haven’t yet checked out Anchored in Grace, you really should.

What Is Unique About Do Ask, Do Tell, Let’s Talk?

What is unique about the book Do Ask, Do Tell, Let's Talk?

by Brad Hambrick/

This is Brad’s Hambrick’s third post on his book, book, Do Ask, Do Tell, Let’s Talk: How and Why Christians Should Have Gay Friends. The first two are here and here.
These two paragraphs from the introduction are why I believed a book like Do Ask, Do Tell, Let’s Talk was needed:

Churches have articulated their position on a conservative sexual ethic. Churches have re-examined the key biblical texts that are challenged in defense of a progressive sexual ethic. As important as these things are, however, they do not equip everyday Christians to develop meaningful friendships with people who experience same-sex attraction or have embraced a gay identity.

In the absence of relationship, our theology becomes theory.

Being right is not the same thing as being helpful. This is not to say that being wrong can be helpful, but in the midst of a culture war, there are many in our churches who experience unwanted same-sex attraction (SSA) and are learning the church is rarely a safe place for them. Why? Because while their principal life struggle may often be debated, it is rarely if ever ministered to.

Think about it. Conservative churches regularly emphasize that God designed marriage to be between one man and one woman for life. At the same time, few such churches foster an environment where those who experience same-sex attraction can develop meaningful friendships in which their struggle can be understood. These churches are unintentionally sending a message to those who experience same-sex attraction.The message essentially says, “Live alone. Live unknown. Live a secret.”[tweet “Don’t let culture war pressure us to withhold care from those who experience same-sex attraction.”]

Consider this excerpt from the opening chapter of Do Ask, Do Tell, Let’s Talk:

Read More

4 Reasons God’s Providence is a Mystery

4 Reasons God's Providence is a Mystery, by Jerry Bridgesby Jerry Bridges /

Read all the posts published to date in this 9-part series on God’s Providence from Cruciform’s good friend, the late Jerry Bridges. This was a teaching Jerry was presenting in the months leading up to his fatal heart attack in March, 2016.  

GOD’S PROVIDENCE, PART THREE OF NINE

Whenever we encounter a difficult episode in our lives we are inclined to want to ask God the question, Why? And when we do this, we seldom get even an inkling of an answer. Here are four reasons God’s providence is a mystery so much of the time.

      1. God usually works through what we call secondary causes. For example, your flight was an hour late, causing you to miss your connection. Why was it an hour late? Turns out the scheduled pilot woke up sick and the airlines had to find another pilot. That is the secondary cause for your delay. But God was the primary cause, controlling everything as it were “behind the scenes.” We tend to attribute outcomes to surface, secondary causes. But ultimately we should recognize God is in control of everything. Exactly how he does it is a mystery.
      2. God works through the free choices that we make. God works through our wills, not upon our wills. Proverbs 21:1 says, “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will” (also see Ezra 1:1-2). Exactly how God puts thoughts and desires into the hearts of humans is mysterious. And yet the Bible offers many examples, such as when God hardened Pharaoh’s heart (Exodus 10:20).
      3. God’s ways of working are beyond our understanding. In Isaiah 55:8-9 the LORD tells us, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (also see Romans 11:33). There’s a sense in which trying to figure God out is futile.
      4. God never explains. For example, he did not give Job an explanation for the providential events that took place in his life. The same is true of Paul and his thorn in the flesh. We must beware of demanding that God give us an explanation. Even if he did, we probably wouldn’t understand it in a way that satisfies us.

      Read More

      Providence and Miracles

      Providence and Miracles, by Jerry Bridgesby Jerry Bridges /

      Read all the posts published to date in this 9-part series on God’s Providence from Cruciform’s good friend, the late Jerry Bridges. This was a teaching Jerry was presenting in the months leading up to his fatal heart attack in March, 2016.  

      GOD’S PROVIDENCE, PART TWO OF NINE

      Before we get further into this subject, it’s important to know the difference between the providence of God and a miracle of God. A miracle is God’s working outside of His creation laws. Providence is God’s working through His creation laws.

      Example: Wine is produced from grapes going through a natural process (fermentation) that was designed by God and is controlled by God. It is a part of God’s providence. By contrast, Jesus turning water into wine was outside of God’s ordinary process; it was supernatural. It was a miracle.

      Sometimes we observe an unusual act of God’s providence and we mistakenly call it a miracle.

      Example: The metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly is a fascinating process. But it is not a miracle. From the very beginning of creation, God designed the butterfly to morph from a caterpillar. That metamorphosis is an expression of God’s providence.

      In Matthew 17:27, when Peter cast a hook into the sea and caught a fish with a shekel in its mouth to pay the tax, was it a miracle or an act of God’s providence? It could be either. If God materialized a shekel out of nothing and placed it in the fish’s mouth, then it was a miracle. But what if someone dropped a shekel into the water, and a fish grabs it thinking it is food, but it’s too large to swallow and gets stuck in its mouth? If it happened to be swimming right where Peter casts the hook, then God was guiding the entire process and we’d be correct in calling it an act of God’s providence.

      Read More

      Nine Marks of a Prolife Church

      Nine Marks of a Prolife Churchby John Ensor /

      This is the last of three posts on abortion this week by John Ensor. The first two are here and here. On Thursday, each attendee at the Evangelicals for Life Conference in Washington, DC, received a copy of John’s book, Innocent Blood: Challenging the Powers of Death with the Gospel of Life.
      1. They know the Word. The people are taught the Scriptures regularly and repeatedly regarding the intrinsic value of human life, the inviolability of shedding innocent blood, and the call to cherish and defend innocent human life, including the preborn.
      2. They fear God and let their babies live. More than half of American women having abortions self-identify as Catholic or Protestant. The problem is not “out there,” but in our midst. So is the solution. The prolife church creates an environment where no matter how embarrassing or difficult a pregnancy is, abortion is no more acceptable than killing a two-year old.
      3. They love their pregnant neighbor. The prolife church hears sufficient testimonies to understand that pregnancy often presents itself as a crisis; for some mothers a pregnancy feels like a death sentence and abortionists look like saviors. The prolife church responds as a Good Samaritan, providing direct, practical, life-saving help.
      4. They hold true, but link arms. Without compromising theological convictions, the prolife church intentionally cooperates with other churches, even those that differ in meaningful ways, to establish and sustain a pregnancy-help organization that identifies and assists those in pregnancy-distress in their communities.
      5. They articulate the case for life. From teenagers to grandparents, the prolife church is trained to make the case for life to our secular culture. They know how to use the science of fetal development and our common philosophy of human rights to show that if the unborn are human beings, then abortion is the intentional killing of an innocent human being, and therefore unjust.
      6. They affirm the administration of justice. The prolife church encourages Christians to seek out positions of authority and leadership in every area of society and to use their authority to protect or advance human dignity. Whether as headmaster, police chief, corporate CEO, or a civic or political leader, those who “enforce justice” (Hebrews 11:33) promote life.
      7. They practice citizenship. The prolife church respects governmental authority and submits to just laws, even as they advocate, organize, and vote for new leaders and laws that protect human life and well-being. They take full advantage of living in a democratic republic.
      8. They bring the gospel to the guilty. They bring the atonement of Christ to the anguish of mothers and fathers who have chosen abortion. They proclaim the cross as full payment paid for full punishment due: innocent blood for innocent blood. They offer the cleansing power of God’s Spirit, which turns the secret shame of abortion into glorious testimony.
      9. They pray for the end of abortion. Concerted, public prayer protects them from making peace with death. It prevents elective abortion from becoming settled law. It acknowledges our limited power to affect change, but confesses God’s almighty power to so work in us that future generations may one day look back on abortion the way we look back on slavery. It fuels enduring strength to say with Wilberforce, “Never, never will we desist till we have…extinguished every trace of this bloody traffic, of which our posterity, looking back to the history of these enlightened times, will scarce believe that it has been suffered to exist so long a disgrace and dishonor to this country.”

      John EnsorJohn Ensor, an ordained Evangelical, is President of PassionLife, a leader in the prolife movement, and author of several books, including Innocent Blood: Challenging the Powers of Death with the Gospel of Life.

      Of Poplars and Petri Dishes

      Of poplars and petri dishesby John Ensor /

      This is the second of three posts on abortion this week by John Ensor. The first is here, and the third will run on Saturday. Today, each attendee at the Evangelicals for Life Conference in Washington, DC, will receive a copy of John’s book, Innocent Blood: Challenging the Powers of Death with the Gospel of Life.

      Between 1882 and 1968, nearly 3,500 Black Americans were lynched in the United States. Among them were Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, murdered in Marion, Indiana on August 7, 1930. The night before, they had been arrested and charged with the armed robbery and murder of a white man and the rape of a white woman. The case was never solved, partly because, with thousands in attendance, the men were hung from a tree in the town square on the night of their arrest.

      Studio photographer Lawrence Beitler was there with his camera equipment and captured what has become the iconic image of lynching in America. (For this post, we chose to emphasize from that larger image the astonishing callousness of the onlookers). The photograph helped inspire the poem and song, “Strange Fruit,” by Abel Meeropol. Billie Holiday sang it with such gripping lamentation that her rendition is now part of the iconic history of civil rights.

      Black bodies swingin’ in the Southern breeze
      Strange fruit hangin’ from the poplar trees…

      What is God’s response to the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith? Whom shall he hold accountable for their lifeblood? I’m not asking who should feel guilty. I’m talking about final judgment. Whom shall he hold liable for this blood-guilt on the Great Day? “For he who avenges blood is mindful of them; he does not forget the cry of the afflicted” (Psalm 9:11).

      Read More

      The Whoopi Doctrine

      The Whoopi Doctrineby John Ensor /

      With the annual March for Life taking place on Friday, this is the first of three posts this week on abortion. The others will appear on Thursday and Saturday. Also on Thursday, each attendee at the Evangelicals for Life Conference in Washington, DC, will receive a copy of John Ensor’s book, Innocent Blood: Challenging the Powers of Death with the Gospel of Life.

      On the occasion of Pope Francis’ arrival in the U.S. last summer, Whoopi Goldberg raised the question of abortion and the Bible. While many Americans do not acknowledge the Bible as an authoritative source, many of us do. And you can be sure that if the Bible affirmed abortion in any way, it would be quoted by secularists quite often. So the matter of what the Bible says about abortion is important.

      Whoopi stated on The View, “Well, there’s nothing in the Book that says anything about abortion.” And I agree! If she means that nowhere in the Bible can you find the word “abortion,” she’s right on the money.

      In saying this, she is echoing how a number of Christian clergy give their blessing to elective abortion. For example, Tom Davis, former Professor of Religion at Skidmore College, founding member of the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion, and author of Sacred Work: Planned Parenthood and Its Clergy Alliances, recently affirmed his position, saying “There is no law against abortion in the Bible….So when you don’t have a specific guidance on something, you look at what is the most human thing to do in a situation, what is most helpful and sometimes abortion is indicated.”

      Interesting logic. Come to think of it, the Bible has “no law against” domestic violence, gay-bashing, lynching, or genocide, either. Are we to conclude, then, that in the absence of “specific guidance” these could be “sometimes indicated” as “the most human thing to do”?

      Read More

      The God of Providence

      The God of Providence, by Jerry Bridgesby Jerry Bridges /

      Read all the posts published to date in this 9-part series on God’s Providence from Cruciform’s good friend, the late Jerry Bridges. This was a teaching Jerry was presenting in the months leading up to his fatal heart attack in March, 2016.  

      GOD’S PROVIDENCE, PART ONE OF NINE

      Human birth is usually accompanied by difficulty, pain, and suffering. The same is often true of the process of dying. And in-between, every life will have moments that are traumatic and heartbreaking. This is inevitable, even for those of us who have been adopted into the family of God through Christ.

      This is precisely why every one of us needs to have a clear understanding of the scriptural resources that can be grouped together under the phrase, the providence of God.

      A Definition

      Like trinity, the word providence never appears in the Scripture, but again like trinity, the concept occurs throughout the Bible. So what do we mean by the providence of God?

      The providence of God is his constant care for, and his absolute rule over,
      all creation for his own glory and the good of his people.

      In his providence, God rules over all things, directs all things, and orchestrates all things to accomplish his purposes. Nothing is left to chance. A sparrow cannot fall to the ground apart from his will. Even the hairs of your head are numbered.

      Read More

      Is There Weeping in the Sermon Notes?

      Reminded of tears (Hell) (1)by Thor Ramsey /

      I’m going out on a limb here, but I would bet (if only there were a biblical precedent) that the readership of this site doesn’t need to be convinced that eternal damnation is a longstanding biblical doctrine, that there will be a separation of the sheep and the goats, and that people who don’t repent and believe will suffer a Christ-less eternity. But if a preacher is truly convinced of the reality of hell, how should that affect his preaching? How should that affect the tone of our witness as Christians?

      If there were evangelical action figures (and there probably are—I just haven’t been to my local Christian bookstore lately), I would have a 12-inch-tall Martyn Lloyd-Jones displayed on my bookshelf, wooden pulpit to scale included, robes sold separately. Plastered on the wall in front of my desk is the next best thing, though, a customized Fathead filled with MLJ quotes, one of which says: “The apostle Paul tells us himself that he preached with tears.” Lloyd-Jones believed in the urgency of preaching because hell is real. “Nothing can be so terribly urgent,” he reminds us. Or at least he reminds me every day of the week, because there it is—right in the middle of that Fathead poster!

      [tweet “”I don’t need to be reminded of the reality of hell. I need to be reminded of tears.””]

      It’s not that I need to be reminded of the reality of hell. I need to be reminded of tears. But I don’t come from a family of huggers. We’re Germanic. We might salute each other, but we’re not about to hug. I’ve never seen anyone from my dad’s side of the family cry, and we’ve attended funerals together. My relatives are more apt to bean bunnies over the head with shovels than wiggle their noses at them.

      Read More…