It's the Gospel: October 28

The Apostles Preaching the Gospel
by Gustave DoreThis is our next to last collection of gospel-themed posts for this gospel-themed month.

At Hiraeth, Kim quotes Jonathan Edwards on the wisdom of God in the gospel and links to the sermon that’s the source of the quote.

Violet of promptings shares one of her own poems. It’s about the black hole of the gospel.

At the Field Stone Cottage, Dorothy show us that the good news of the gospel is foreshadowed in the Old Testement.

Terry Stauffer (New Lumps) loves the gospel. He encourages everyone to

[d]iscover, study and be captivated by the gospel. Live it as the center of your life and you will not only have a sustaining faith, you will know and treasure the One True God who will sustain you with joy - no matter what happens otherwise in your life.

I’ve got a quote from Jerry Bridges about how an understanding of the gospel will get you out of bed in the morning.

At Rebecca Writes, we’ve been celebrating the gospel during the month of October. You have one more opportunity to join us by posting something about the gospel—which, in a nutshell, is the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sin and was raised from the dead, so that through faith, we are united with Christ and receive every blessing merited by his work—by this coming Friday. Then send me the link to your post in an email (You’ll find the address by clicking the contact button in the sidebar.) and I’ll link back to your post(s) in my last gospel round up on Friday, October 31. There are no limits, really, on the form (quote, verse, poem, story, book review, or essay, etc) or number of your post, just the subject. You may want to to contribute a link to a post on someone else’s post, too, and that’s okay by me.

Getting You Out of Bed in the Morning

Here’s a quote from Jerry Bridges in Stand: A Call for the Endurance of the Saints. Bridges’ chapter in this book is titled Four Essentials for Finishing Well. As he lists them, the second essential for finishing well is a daily appropriation of the gospel. When he was a new believer, he says, he thought of the gospel as a message for the unbeliever and did not see his own need for the gospel except as a message to share with unbelievers.

But believers, too, need the gospel, because we still have a natural tendency to try to build our relationship with God by our performance.

…[I]f you do not daily appropriate the gospel, you will drift toward a performance relationship with God. And when you do that, you lead yourself in one of two directions. If you have a very superficial view of sin in your life—that is, if you think of sin in terms of the big gross sins that society outside of us commits—then you will tend toward religious pride because you’re not doing those things. But if you are conscientious and if you’re seeing some of these “respectable” sins, such as gossip and pride, jealousy and envy and a critical spirit and these kind of things, if you’re seeing those in your life and you do not live by the gospel, that can lead you to despair. And so oftentimes people in this second category just kind of slack off because they can’t handle the tension. They can’t handle the difference between what they know they should be and what they honestly see themselves to be. And what resolves that tension is the gospel, which reminds us that our sins are forgiven and that we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. At the same time, that which keeps us from spiritual pride is the gospel, because again the gospel is only for sinners. But we are all sinners, still practicing sinners, even though we’ve been delivered from the guilt and the dominions of sin. …[W]e still sin in thought, word, deed, and most of all in motive because we often do the right thing for a wrong reason or for a mixed reason….And so we come to the Lord and we say, “Lord, I come still a practicing sinner, but I look to Jesus Christ and his shed blood and his perfect obedience, his righteous life that has been credited to me. And I see myself standing before you clothed in his righteousness.”

That will get you out of bed in the morning. That will get you excited about the Christian life, when you see yourself daily clothed in his righteousness. And that will keep you from loving the world. You can’t love the gospel and love the world at the same time. So a daily appropriation of the gospel will keep you from getting off course.

…It is our sinful nature that thinks we must somehow earn God’s favor by our own hard work or our own faithfulness. Now we want to be faithful, we want to work hard, but not in order to earn God’s approval, but because we have God’s approval. And so a daily appropriation of the gospel is essential to enduring to the end.

Sunday's Hymn

During this morning’s church service, we sang this hymn. It’s translated from the Welsh, and our hymnal has the “great Redeemer” translation.

Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah

Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,
[or Guide me, O Thou great Redeemer…]
Pilgrim through this barren land.
I am weak, but Thou art mighty;
Hold me with Thy powerful hand.
Bread of Heaven, Bread of Heaven,
Feed me till I want no more;
Feed me till I want no more.

Open now the crystal fountain,
Whence the healing stream doth flow;
Let the fire and cloudy pillar
Lead me all my journey through.
Strong Deliverer, strong Deliverer,
Be Thou still my Strength and Shield;
Be Thou still my Strength and Shield.

Lord, I trust Thy mighty power,
Wondrous are Thy works of old;
Thou deliver’st Thine from thralldom,
Who for naught themselves had sold:
Thou didst conquer, Thou didst conquer,
Sin, and Satan and the grave,
Sin, and Satan and the grave.

When I tread the verge of Jordan,
Bid my anxious fears subside;
Death of deaths, and hell’s destruction,
Land me safe on Canaan’s side.
Songs of praises, songs of praises,
I will ever give to Thee;
I will ever give to Thee.

Musing on my habitation,
Musing on my heav’nly home,
Fills my soul with holy longings:
Come, my Jesus, quickly come;
Vanity is all I see;
Lord, I long to be with Thee!
Lord, I long to be with Thee!

—William Williams

Watch it sung enthusiastically by a Welsh congregation:

Prefer something in a more contemporary style? Try this.

Other hymns, worship songs, sermons etc. posted today:

• Who Trusts in God, A Strong Abode at Hiraeth
• The Mighty God, The Lord at Field Stone Cottage
• Lord’s Day 43, 2008 at The Thirsty Theologian
• Absent From Flesh! O Blissful Thought at joythruChrist
• Lord, Dismiss Us With Thy Blessing at Conjubilant with Song
• Who Is On The Lord’s Side? at Whatever Things…
• Indescribable at The Happy Wonderer
• Come Thou Fount at Practicing Theology
• “Take Up Thy Cross,” The Saviour Said at Nova Scotia Scott

Have you posted a hymn today and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar and I’ll add your post to the list.