God loves His glory more than He loves us, and this is the foundation of His love for us. ~ John Piper, “Brothers We Are Not Professionals”, pg 5
Isaiah 48:9 – 11 (ESV) 9 “For my name’s sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. 10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. 11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. (also: Ezek. 36:22-23, 32)
Ephesians 1:5 – 6 (ESV) 5he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
1 Corinthians 10:31 (ESV) 31So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
It may be easy for you see how repentance has been eliminated from our modern-day gospel message. And for some it may seem as if I have added a work called repentance to the Gospel. Of course you can only come to that conclusion if you take a semi-Pelagian* view and believe that some how out of man’s own perceived inherent goodness he is capable of stirring up a repentant heart. But on the other hand if you see repentance as a gift from God (
“Resolution One: I will live for God. Resolution Two: If no one else does, I still will.” ~ Johnathan Edwards
the wrath and punishment of God, that you are hell-bound. It means that you begin to realize that this thing called sin is in you, that you long to get rid of it, and that you turn your back on it in every shape and form. You renounce the world whatever the cost, the world in its mind and outlook as well as its practice, and you deny yourself, and take up the cross and go after Christ. Your nearest and dearest, and the whole world, may call you a fool, or say you have religious mania. You may have to suffer financially, but it makes no difference. That is repentance. ~ D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, “Studies In The Sermon On The Mount”, Vol. 2, pg 248
It never ceases to amaze me how the Gospel message finds itself under attack in the name of evangelism. While the message is simple it is not simplistic. Just what do I mean by that? Often the Gospel message is boiled down to “Jesus loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life”, or “Ask Jesus into your life and He will forgive your sins and give you eternal life.”. This is a reductive theological gospel message. It is missing a number of critical components and leaves the hearer with an “easy believism” gospel. This kind of gospel message ignores among a number of things, the critical doctrine of Biblical repentance and makes no demands of real fiduciary faith upon the hearer that brings about life transforming results (
The late Dr. A. J. Gordon of Boston used to relate this anecdote. One of the deacons from a negro church in his neighborhood said that the people did not like their new pastor “berry much”; and when Dr. Gordon expressed suprise, saying he had supposed the new pastor to be a fine Bible man, the deacon explained, “Well, I’ll tell yer how it is: he’s de best man I ebber seed to tak’ de Bible apart, but he dunno how to put it togedder agin.” ~ A.T. Pierson
Lacking a sound, biblical, and well-understood theology, evangelicals have fallen prey to the pragmatism and consumerism of our times. Instead of calling God’s people to worship and serve God, and teaching them how to do it, we treat parishioners as the buyers and market the gospel as a “product.” A therapeutic worldview has replaced classical Christian categories such sin and repentance, and many leaders have identified the gospel with such modern idols as a particular political philosophy, psychological views of man and 
I believe with all my heart that standing up for America means standing up for the God who has so blessed our land. We need God’s help to guide our nation through stormy seas. But we can’t expect Him to protect America in a crisis if we just leave Him over on the shelf in our day-to-day living.
The devil is a better theologian than any of us and is a devil still.
Around a year ago, Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Church stopped the religious presses by announcing, “We made a mistake.” Christianity Today even posted an article entitled “Willow Creek Repents” (Oct. 18, 2007). Hybels, the father of the “seeker sensitive” church model, admitted that their ecclesiastical methodology was flawed and did not allow Christians to grow effectively after salvation. CT quotes him saying,
On February 3rd I posted a critical article concerning Radio Bible Class’s radio program called “Discover The Word”. Before I made the post I contacted RBC ministries with my concern and told them I would be posting a critical analysis of that day’s program (see “Authoring Confusion”). I invited them to read and respond to the post. I received a simple email stating that they had forwarded my concerns to their theology department and that they would get back to me within 10 days. Frankly, I thought that they were just blowing me off, as is the usual response by most evangelical ministries. I was surprised to receive today, a short but welcomed response. So I thought in all fairness I would post it for you all to read. While I wished they would have gone further in their response, it is still encouraging none the less. So here it is:
This admonition in our day falls on the deaf ears of the post-modernist. “Test the spirits? What makes you think anyone can test anything and arrive at ultimate truth?”, they argue. But, again, that is the clear command of the Scriptures as we are exposed to false prophets (
A man who is merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the a man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up as a fool , you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. – C.S. Lewis, “Mere Christianity” London: Fontana, 1952, pp 52-53
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