|
|
 |
|
|
CampOnThis
Steve's reformed, biblical, thought-provoking, and exciting blog. Join him today... |
|
|
|
January 7th 2009 - 
J.I. Packer once said,
"Doctrinal preaching certainly bores the hypocrites; but it is only doctrinal preaching that will save Christ’s sheep."
|
|
|
|
"Every wise workman takes his tools away from the work from time to time that they may be ground and sharpened; so does the only-wise Jehovah take his ministers oftentimes away into darkness and loneliness and trouble, that he may sharpen and prepare them for harder work in his service."
ROBERT MURRAY MCCHEYENE |
|
|
|
December 26th 2008 - Merry Christmas from all of us at CampOnThis and AudienceONE Ministries.
May your thoughts be full of the Savior and His blessed incarnation as we focus our hearts and minds on "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." -John 1:14a And as Paul affirmed to the church at Corinth: "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich." -2 Corinthians 8:9
And may this not just be another traditional season of buying presents for each other, but to give ourselves as well to those "neighbors" in need around us.
Peace toward men on whom God's sovereign pleasure rests,
Steve Camp
2 Cor. 9:15
John Owen is not easy, fluffy reading.
He is to be savored, not quickly digested.
Treat yourself to this article this Christmas weekend
and prepare your hearts
for a feast on the rich biblical truth
of the glory of our Lord's incarnation.
read the rest of "THANKS BE TO GOD FOR HIS UNSPEAKABLE GIFT..." |
|
|
|
December 21st 2008 - by A.W. Pink
IMMUTABILITY is one of the Divine perfections which is not sufficiently pondered. It is one of the excellencies of the Creator which distinguishes Him from all His creatures. God is perpetually the same: subject to no change in His being, attributes, or determinations. Therefore God is compared to a rock (Deut 32:4, etc.) which remains immovable, when the entire ocean surrounding it is continually in a fluctuating state; even so, though all creatures are subject to change, God is immutable. Because God has no beginning and no ending, He can know no change. He is everlastingly "the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (Jam 1:17).
First, GOD IS IMMUTABLE IN HIS ESSENCE.
His nature and being are infinite, and so, subject to no mutations. There never was a time when He was not; there never will come a time when He shall cease to be. God has neither evolved, grown, nor improved. All that He is today, He has ever been, and ever will be. "I am the LORD, I change not" (Mal 3:6) is His own unqualified affirmation. He cannot change for the better, for He is already perfect; and being perfect, He cannot change for the worse. Altogether unaffected by anything out-side Himself, improvement or deterioration is impossible. He is perpetually the same. He only can say, "I AM THAT I AM" (Exo 3:14). He is altogether uninfluenced by the flight of time. There is no wrinkle upon the brow of eternity. Therefore His power can never diminish nor His glory ever fade.
Secondly, GOD IS IMMUTABLE IN HIS ATTRIBUTES.
Whatever the attributes of God were before the universe was called into existence, they are precisely the same now, and will remain so for ever. Necessarily so; for they are the very perfections, the essential qualities of His being. Seniper ideni (always the same) is written across every one of them. His power is unabated, His wisdom undiminished, His holiness unsullied. The attributes of God can no more change than Deity can cease to be. His veracity is immutable, for His Word is "for ever.. settled in heaven" (Psa 119:89). His love is eternal: "I have loved thee with an everlasting love" (Jer 31:3) and "Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end" (John 13:1). His mercy ceases not, for it is "everlasting" (Psa 100:5).
Thirdly, GOD IS IMMUTABLE IN HIS COUNSEL.
His will never varies. Perhaps some are ready to object that we ought to read the following: "And it repented the LORD that He had made man" (Gen 6:6). Our first reply is, Then do the Scriptures contradict themselves? No, that cannot be. Numbers 23:19 is plain enough: "God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent." So also in 1 Samuel 15:29, "The Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for He is not a man, that He should repent." The explanation is very simple. When speaking of Himself, God frequently accommodates His language to our limited capacities. He describes Himself as clothed with bodily members, as eyes, ears, hands, etc. He speaks of Himself as "waking" (Psa 78:65), as "rising up early" (Jer 7:13); yet He neither slumbers nor sleeps. When He institutes a change in His dealings with men, He describes His course of conduct as "repenting." Yes, God is immutable in His counsel. "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance" (Rom 11:29). It must be so, for "He is in one mind, and who can turn from Him? and what His soul desireth, even that He doeth" (Job 23:13).
Change and decay in all around we see,
may He who changeth not abide with thee.
God's purpose never alters. One of two things causes a man to change his mind and reverse his plans: want of foresight to anticipate everything, or lack of power to execute them. But as God is both omniscient and omnipotent there is never any need for Him to revise His decrees. No, "The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations" (Psa 33:11). Therefore do we read of "the immutability of His counsel" (Heb 6:17).
Herein we may perceive the infinite distance which separates the highest creature from the Creator. Creaturehood and mutability are correlative terms. If the creature was not mutable by nature, it would not be a creature; it would be God. By nature we tend toward nothingness, since we came from nothing. Nothing stays our annihilation but the will and sustaining power of God. None can sustain himself a single moment. We are entirely dependent on the Creator for every breath we draw. We gladly own with the Psalmist, Thou "holdeth our soul in life" (Psa 66:9). The realization of this ought to make us lie down under a sense of our own nothingness in the presence of Him in Whom "we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28).
As fallen creatures we are not only mutable, but everything in us is opposed to God. As such we are "wandering stars" (Jude 13), out of our proper orbit. "The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest" (Isa 57:20). Fallen man is inconstant. The words of Jacob concerning Reuben apply with full force to all of Adam's descendants: "unstable as water" (Gen 49:4). Thus it is not only a mark of piety, but also the part of wisdom to heed that injunction, "cease ye from man" (Isa 2:22). No human being is to be depended on. "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help" (Psa 146:3). If I disobey God, then I deserve to be deceived and disappointed by my fellows. People who like you today may hate you tomorrow. The multitude who cried, "Hosanna to the Son of David," speedily changed to "Away with Him, crucify Him."
Herein is SOLID COMFORT.
Human nature cannot be relied upon; but God can! However unstable I may be, however fickle my friends may prove, God changes not. If He varied as we do, if He willed one thing today and another tomorrow, if He were controlled by caprice, who could confide in Him?
But, all praise to His glorious name, He is ever the same. His purpose is fixed, His will is stable, His word is sure. Here then is a rock on which we may fix our feet, while the mighty torrent is sweeping away everything around us. The permanence of God's character guarantees the fulfillment of His promises: "For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but My kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee" (Isa 54:10).
Herein is ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER.
"What comfort would it be to pray to a god that, like the chameleon, changed color every moment? Who would put up a petition to an earthly prince that was so mutable as to grant a petition one day, and deny it another?" (Stephen Charnock, 1670). Should someone ask, But what is the use of praying to One whose will is already fixed? We answer, Because He so requires it. What blessings has God promised without our seeking them? "If we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us" (1 John 5:14), and He has willed everything that is for His child's good. To ask for anything contrary to His will is not prayer, but rank rebellion.
Herein is TERROR FOR THE WICKED.
Those who defy Him, who break His laws, who have no concern for His glory, but who live their lives as though He existed not, must not suppose that, when at the last they shall cry to Him for mercy, He will alter His will, revoke His word, and rescind His awful threatenings. No, He has declared, "Therefore will I also deal in fury: Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in Mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them" (Eze 8:18). God will not deny Himself to gratify their lusts. God is holy, unchangingly so. Therefore God hates sin, eternally hates it. Hence the eternality of the punishment of all who die in their sins.
"The Divine immutability, like the cloud which interposed between the Israelites and the Egyptian army, has a dark as well as a light side. It insures the execution of His threatenings, as well as the performance of His promises; and destroys the hope which the guilty fondly cherish, that He will be all lenity to His frail and erring creatures, and that they will be much more lightly dealt with than the declarations of His own Word would lead us to expect. We oppose to these deceitful and presumptuous speculations the solemn truth, that God is unchanging in veracity and purpose, in faithfulness and justice (John Dick, 1850)." |
|
|
|
December 16th 2008 - Three years ago, my 12 year old son, Marshall, (who is now 15) was facing a potentially serious medical situation that the Lord had wonderfully spared him from by giving positive evidence through an MRI of his health being restored.
His medical condition initially involved a slow deterioration of the bone of his left knee due to lack of blood supply to the bone called Osteochondritis Dissecans. Though not a dramatic condition in and of itself, we had a severe set back resulting from Marshall's medical check up that added other factors of concern. Long story short, the threat of bone cancer was made real to us in a profound way. But, by God's grace, this weight had been removed and that he did not have to undergo surgery. Marshall is an incredible young man and he has a tremendous love for the Lord Jesus that became even more evident to us all during those trying days.
In the midst of a few sleepless nights in prayer for my precious son then, the words of this following sermon by Edward's leaped off the page to me. What an encouragement we have as believers in Christ Jesus the Lord that no matter what we are facing in this life, we have the unshakable promise of the glory of heaven. May these words encourage you as they have me.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Steve and all the Kids
Col. 1;9-14
"Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed by My Father, enter the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world'" (Matthew 25:34).
"When a mortal man speaks anything of that eternal blessedness of the Saints in glory, he is like a blind man discoursing about the light which he has never seen, and so cannot distinctly speak anything concerning it." Likewise, for one to write of those things which are only vaguely described in Scripture is similar for a man to write a travel guide for a land he has never visited or seen. It is to attempt to describe the indescribable with words which cannot come close to expressing the glory of heaven. Paul wrote these words: "Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him" (I Corinthians 2:9). Some question whether these words directly refer to heaven: they may not, but from all that we do know, they are certainly true of heaven and of the indescribable nature of that glorious place. Things which eye has not seen: can you imagine it? Men's eyes have seen abundant treasures upon the earth. Men have seen golden thrones, palaces, exquisite diamonds, rubies, and pearls. Men can conceive of handfuls of diamonds, fields of jewels, and buildings of gold, glittering in the noonday sun, but men cannot imagine the glory of heaven. It is beyond our imagination. Such is the task before us: to speak of the glory of heaven using words that cannot describe it; to try to picture for you that which cannot even be conceived by your heart.
read the rest of "The Glory of Heaven" |
|
|
|
December 10th 2008 - “Thy statutes are my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.” –Psalm 119:54
The true sojourner for Christ is never without a song to sing every step of his earthly journey. Though some days our way may be fraught in the valley of trials and affliction, while other days lived on the mountain top of blessing, whatever our earthly state we have a heavenly song to sing to encourage our souls to glory in the Lord. Paul and Silas understood this well as they found themselves in prison, beaten, flogged and put in stocks for spoiling a fortune tellers profit by setting free a young demon-possessed woman. As faithful ambassadors of the gospel of Jesus Christ their incarceration did not dampen their spirits or rob them of their joy. Instead, they sang hymns of praise to the Lord in the night that shook that inner dungeon and led to the salvation of their prison guard (Acts 16:25).
Where does this heavenly song come from that brings comfort in our darkest hour; that strengthens in our every need of each day; that brings grace when sin has raised its ugly head; that stirs our dry hardened hearts where the fallow ground has appeared; that confronts us when compromise sneaks in, or when self-reliance confounds, or where self-esteem deceives; and consoles us when fear overcomes? David tells us, “Thy statutes…” – the Word of God. Think of it beloved, His statutes - our songs, His Word - our music, His theology - our doxology, His Lawbook - our songbook. “Let the Word of Christ dwell richly within you with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs; singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16). “With the statutes of God in your hand and in your heart, you are furnished with a song for every step of your way” says Charles Bridges.
And where is this song to be sung? “… in the house of my pilgrimage.” This world is not our home; we’re just a passing through. We are looking for a better country (Hebrews 11:10, 14-16); a city on a hill (Matthew 5:14), and longing for Christ’s return (Philippians 3:14). Though we are citizens of earth, may we never forget that we are first and foremost citizens of heaven. Pilgrims, sojourners, aliens, foreigners; we are strangers in a strange land, homesick for heaven longing to be with the Lord.
“My heart is steadfast O God; I will sing, I will sing praise with my soul. I will bless the Lord at all times—his praise shall continually be in my mouth” (Psalm 108:1; 34:1). He has given us a “new song” (Psalm 40:3) to sing while making our way through this world; and may we, the redeemed people of God, “say so” (Psalm 107:2). As we are on this journey to the Son, may our daily prayer to the Lord be, “let my tongue sing of Thy word, for all Thy commandments are righteousness’” (Psalm 119:172).
|
|
|
|
|
|
;)
;)
;)
;)
