The Plowman

What better gift could you possibly give this Christmas than the Gospel; that’s what the messages from these two podcasts are all about.

On Wednesday, Dr. John Piper began a short series around presenting the gospel using the most familiar single verse in the Bible, John 3:16. The first message is entitled The Danger: Perishing, part 1. The gospel presentation centers around what Dr. Piper calls the four D’s: Danger, Design, Duty, and Destination, all found within the one verse. Dr. Piper is in top form, as usual.

Pastor Rod Harris explains that Christmas means nothing apart from the gospel in The Unexpected Gift. This sermon from Genesis 3:15 presents the proto-evangel, or first gospel. Without an adequate understanding of the depths of sin and misery that Adam’s posterity is in, no one can adequately appreciate the coming of Messiah. This message was preached at Trinity Baptist Church, in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Sunday morning last, December 11.

This Christmas, let’s give gifts that have everlasting value; tell somebody about the Christ child, and why He came.

God, reduced to a span.
Incomprehensibly made man.

(Or: I didn’t say that if I can get the post pulled down before you make a hard copy.)

• Movements that contradict themselves in flagrant ways cannot, with regard to the long run, rely on nobody noticing. Douglas Wilson on Ten Reasons For Not Taking Postmodernism Seriously
• I was shocked when the pastor told me, without any remorse, that “if you are really looking to grow as a Christian this isn’t the church for you.” Challies on Evangelism – The Chief End of Man?
• At the risk of stating the obvious, there’s nothing wrong with people acting their age. Maturity comes with…maturity. Steve at Triablogue Notice, Steve didn’t say it comes with age. It doesn’t have to, you know.
• Being a blogger is like living in a fish bowl. More than that, you can’t see your audience, but your audience can see you. So there’s no predicting the reaction you’re going to get. The feedback comes after the fact, at which point it’s too late to take back your words. Steve at Triablogue A scarry thought, no?
• A few years ago our family was visiting a church on the first Sunday of December. The pastor stood up and announced, “Tonight, we will have the hanging of the greens.” I leaned over to my wife and whispered, “I don’t know what the Greens did but it must have been really serious if the punishment is hanging!” Tom at Founder I had a hard time stopping at this brief quote, the whole post was that good. Tom was being uncharacteristicly Wilsonian. Now if we could just get Wilson to be baptistic in return.
• O.K. Now you can start with the ugly comments. Jeremy at Doxoblogy on limited atonement.
• For those who eschew definitions and logocentrism, but who still want to know what emergent is. Douglas Wilson. I never cease to be amazed. Even single-sentence posts from this guy sparkle and spurt like an Independence-day celebration.
• woof, watch out for trucks! You figure out what this means. Hint: This quite is from the very bottom in the comments section, so you need to read the whole post to get the gist. More later on this personal episode in my life. This deserves its own post.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2,4

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:6,7

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10

Late November and early December temperatures have been unusually low this year, with overnight lows in the low teens. I know that isn’t much for those of you in the north, but it is a big deal if you live in Oklahoma. It is not unusual to get a few nickle and dime lows before winter is over, but the teens usually stay away until after the new year. I usually work nights, and although not continually out in the elements, I do have to spend some extended time out of doors. It gets to be a real drag when you have become comfortably warm up in the cab of your tractor, and then have to plung, all at once, out into the dark and cold. It is about this time every year that I look for signs of the coming spring. I know, winter won’t officially begin for another three weeks, but that is just the way I am.

I start work early on Fridays, making a short trip to Muskogee and back to Tulsa before my regular run starts. This time of year the sun is still up when I head out, but not for long. This last Friday I noticed that the sun was shining, low and red, across the expressway in front of me from right to left, and it was lighting up the berries of the Deciduous Holly scattered randomly on the edge of the woods to the northeast. I love Deciduous Holly, Ilex decidua, one of the few North-American native hollies. It doesn’t hold its leaves through the winter, hence the name deciduous. The old timers call it “Possum Haw”, though it is not even closely related to the hawthorns, and I have never seen a possum even near one. When all the leaves drop, millions of pea-sized orange-to-red berries are revealed. The swatches of near-crimson dotted along the easements are not gaudy, but distinct and prominent in an otherwise leafless, fruitless, colorless landscape. The berries are coveted by the song birds later in the dead of winter when all of the grass seeds are beaten down and spent. A flock of Cedar Waxwings is a rare and thrilling sight when they descend to feed upon a tall old clump of Deciduous Holly.

Deciduous Holly is a lot like the severe mercies of God. It is not until the winter of adversity comes into your life to strip you bare, that the fruit that God has formed in you is exposed to view, and even usefull to others. Only when your soul has been brought to the brink of dispair, or when you loose that loved one, or when your health leaves you, do you realize what God has been doing in you and through you. It is after the low times that you are most able to meet the needs of the despairing and lost around you. Only then can you reap the benefits of knowing an all-sustaining God. Only then can you say “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The episode before us, which focuses on the character of of one Talkative, is different from any other episode previously encountered so far in this story. We find here, not an account of the trials or conflicts of our main character, Christian. There is no battle to be fought, no obstacle to be overcome. More than anything, this new character, Talkative, is the personification of a lesson to be learned. There are actually two lessons found herein: 1) a personal warning to be true, to be genuine; not to be two-faced; and 2) an exhortation to be discerning, and consequently to be faithful to our fellow man.

Christian has just come out of the Valley of the Shadow of Death, where at the end of that place, he makes the acquaintance of Faithful. After only a short time, they make fast friends. They have so much in common, so many like experiences that firmly bond the two in no time at all. Now enters a third “pilgrim”, one Talkative.

Throughout this scene there are three men walking, side by side, for as the narrator explains the path at that point is wide enough to do so. Get a mental picture of these three men, with the one in the middle walking close and talking, first to one on the one side, and then to the other on the other, then back to the first, and then back again to the second. It is also interesting to note, looking back over the episode, how Faithful alone engages Talkative. Christian is close at hand, but he hangs back, as it were, to let Faithful get the “full benefit” of the encounter, and Faithful gets an earful, to be sure. I have omitted any passages from this section to save space, but you can read the whole passage at one of the “Bunyan” links on the sidebar to the right. To summarize that encounter, Faithful discovers that Talkative is more than willing to talk about any and all things concerning the Christian faith. Faithful is impressed, and after a time, walks back near to Christian for a brief discussion. At this point, Christian gives him the skinny.

At this point, Faithful returns to Talkative’s side. After considerable discourse to discern Talkative’s true nature and, speaks the truth in love, and is faithful indeed:

And so the scene ends. In addition to our duties listed above, to examine ourselves regularly to see if we be in Christ, and to be faithful to our fellow man, to be sure he has not believed a false gospel; there are other applications as well. We certainly have a duty to be careful in our own idle conversations. We all will one day give an account for every idle word spoken. In this age of instant communication we also have the warning to be on the lookout for, and as for ourselves, not to be Bloggative of Blogging-row. One of the most quoted passages in the Bible is “Judge not. . .”, the world loves it even more that John 3:16. The Christian needs to be reminded of his duty to be discerning. Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment. John 7:24.