Category Archives: The Gospel

The Story of His Glory

Posted by Dan C. on

The greatest story ever told is a true story, recorded and preserved in the Old and New Testaments, a story which climaxes in Jesus of Nazareth. This story informs everything in your life with significance and meaning.

The Creator God

The story opens: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” By His powerful and creative word, God spoke into existence the Universe and everything in it. This truth defines everything, and its implications are massive.

Your life is not an accident, a mere product of chance. Because God is your Creator, you belong to him. Just as a sculptor is the master of her clay, and an inventor retains the ownership “rights” of his invention, God is the supreme owner of the Universe and everything in it. He created and sustains your life.

Made for His Glory

You were made for God’s purposes and pleasure, and were intended to live for His glory and fame, to display the worth and value of the One who designed you. Like a mirror, you were made to reflect another’s beauty: God’s.

God has revealed to us how we are to reflect His glory. Jesus summarized this in two great commands:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

A life fully defined by love—for God and others—is a God-glorifying life.

Shattered by Sin

But, we have not loved God supremely or loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. We’ve loved and worshiped idols of self, sex, money, power, prestige, and pleasure more than the Creator.

Our problem isn’t merely sinful actions, but sinful hearts:

What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.  For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.

We may have lived respectable and moral lives by human standards, but often this is driven by self-serving motives and tainted with sinful desires. The Scriptures remind us that “Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.” It only takes one drop of cyanide to poison a glass of water, and just one sin leaves us guilty before a holy God.

We have committed mutiny and treason against the Creator-God. We are dead in transgressions and sins; blinded by Satan, the god of this world; and slaves of our passions and desires. Although man is a mirror made to reflect the radiance of God’s beauty and glory, sin has shattered the mirror.

The Covenant God

But the Creator God is also a Covenant God, One who makes promises and keeps them. Even before man sinned, God had formed a plan of rescue. He revealed his plan to a man named Abraham, and promised that through Abraham, all the peoples of the earth would be blessed. Abraham’s descendants became known as the nation of Israel.

God chose Israel to be his special people. He later made another covenant with King David, promising him a son who would be forever enthroned over God’s people. The story of the Old Testament is the outworking of these two promises: the story of God’s glory returning to earth through His chosen people.

This story climaxes in Jesus, who was descended from David and Abraham. Jesus was born of a virgin in fulfillment of God’s promises. He was the ultimate revelation of God’s glory, the true Image-bearer of God on earth:

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus was God himself in human flesh.

The Crucified and Risen Messiah

For thirty years, Jesus lived a quiet life. Then He burst on the public scene, proclaiming the gospel (good news) of the kingdom, the fulfillment of God’s promises to his people. During his ministry, Jesus gathered followers and demonstrated both compassion and great power through many miracles. He taught with authority, appealing to the common people and raising suspicion among the religious and political leaders. He came with a message of hope, offering forgiveness and rest to those burdened and wearied with sin. He claimed divinity and oneness with God, and modeled a life of perfect love to God and man, always honoring his Father and extending mercy and compassion to broken people.

But his claim to be one with God led to his death. Jesus of Nazareth was sentenced to death by crucifixion—the most degrading and agonizing form of capital punishment at that time. A Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, sanctioned Jesus’s execution. He died outside of Jerusalem around 30 A.D., and was buried in the borrowed tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. His disciples were disillusioned and discouraged, and many of them denied and forsook him during the last hours of his life.

But three days later, mourners discovered that his tomb was empty. Jesus had come back to life and risen from the dead! For forty days, he appeared again and again to his disciples and closest friends, comforting them, commissioning them, and promising them the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. Then he ascended into the heavens, with the promise that one day he would return again.

The Good News

The apostles and followers of Jesus emphasize in Scripture not only the fact of Jesus’ death, but also the reason. He died for our sins. The apostles realized that the death of Jesus resulted not just from the insidious plot of wicked men, but from the eternal plan of God to rescue men from their sins. Jesus himself said that he came to give his life as a ransom for many.

The death and resurrection of Jesus was the divine remedy to the problem of sin. God treated his sinless Son, Jesus, as if he had lived a sinful life, so that he could treat sinners as if they had lived the sinless life of Jesus. Through his crucifixion, Jesus absorbed the wrath of God against sin, so that God could be just in forgiving sin and declaring sinners righteous in his sight. By becoming a curse for us, Jesus delivered us from the curse of the law we had broken. The righteous one (Jesus) died for the unrighteous (us), so that we could be restored to a right relationship with God.

Jesus’ resurrection was proof that he had conquered sin and death once and for all. Death could not hold him in its grasp. Jesus destroyed Satan, who had the power of death, delivering those who through fear of death had been subject to lifelong slavery in sin.

Responding to the Good News

Someone once said that there are two kinds of people who go to hell: the unrighteous and the self-righteous. Living a moral life will not rescue you from sin, nor will baptism, confirmation, giving to the poor, or attending church. Religion is simply a more respectable pathway to eternal destruction. The only candidate for salvation is the person who realizes his utter helplessness to save himself. Self-salvation is utterly impossible.

But what is impossible with man is possible with God. The God-man, Jesus of Nazareth, has done for sinners what we cannot do for ourselves. When a jail-keeper asked Paul and his companions, “What must I do to be saved?” they answered, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”

Believing in Jesus includes more than acknowledging the fact of his existence or the truthfulness of his claims. Believing in Jesus is trusting in him. Someone once defined faith this way: F.A.I.T.H. Forsaking All, I Trust Him. In the Apostle Paul’s words:

I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

Trusting in Jesus is the pledge of allegiance to a person. Jesus said:

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

The life of faith is a life of repentance. Trusting in Jesus involves turning–turning from sin and self-righteousness to Jesus as Savior and Lord.

If you are to be rescued from God’s just judgment of your sin and rebellion, you must ask the Lord Jesus to save you. Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. This is God’s promise:

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Repenting of your sins and trusting in Jesus is both God’s invitation and His command: “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.”

Will you obey his command?

From Reviving Our Hearts

"So shall my word. . .accomplish that which I please"

Posted by Dan C. on

"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” – Isaiah 55:11

"So shall my word. . .accomplish that which I please"

Whenever God’s word goes forth, it accomplishes what it is intended to do, in every single instance. Of that I am convinced.

So it is whenever the true gospel is preached. By true gospel I mean that, as Paul stated so clearly, “Christ died for our sins.”

It pleases God to save men, so he sends his spirit to give life to the ‘dead in trespasses and sin’ (Eph 2:1), shows them their condition apart from Christ (deserving of just wrath [Eph 2:3]), offers them the substitute who drank that cup of wrath on their behalf, and they freely and willingly embrace Christ.

I have found nothing in scripture that tells me that God only brings lost men and women half-way,but only that the work he begins in a person, he also brings to completion in Glory.

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. “ – Phil 1:6

The Manger and The Cross

Posted by Dan C. on

The days before Christmas can be a tiring season of preparation, planning, shopping, and wrapping. But I think as we prepare for the Christmas celebrations, dinners, travel, and gift giving, it’s equally important that we pause and prepare our souls for Christmas.

During this time of year, it may be easy to forget that the bigger purpose behind Bethlehem was Calvary. But the purpose of the manger was realized in the horrors of the cross. The purpose of his birth was his death.

Or to put it more personally: Christmas is necessary because I am a sinner. The incarnation reminds us of our desperate condition before a holy God.
Several years ago WORLD Magazine published a column by William H. Smith with the provocative title, “Christmas is disturbing: Any real understanding of the Christmas messages will disturb anyone” (Dec. 26, 1992).

In part, Smith wrote:

Many people who otherwise ignore God and the church have some religious feeling, or feel they ought to, at this time of the year. So they make their way to a church service or Christmas program. And when they go, they come away feeling vaguely warmed or at least better for having gone, but not disturbed.

Why aren’t people disturbed by Christmas? One reason is our tendency to sanitize the birth narratives. We romanticize the story of Mary and Joseph rather than deal with the painful dilemma they faced when the Lord chose Mary to be the virgin who would conceive her child by the power of the Holy Spirit. We beautify the birth scene, not coming to terms with the stench of the stable, the poverty of the parents, the hostility of Herod. Don’t miss my point. There is something truly comforting and warming about the Christmas story, but it comes from understanding the reality, not from denying it.

Most of us also have not come to terms with the baby in the manger. We sing, “Glory to the newborn King.” But do we truly recognize that the baby lying in the manger is appointed by God to be the King, to be either the Savior or Judge of all people? He is a most threatening person.
Malachi foresaw his coming and said, “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap.” As long as we can keep him in the manger, and feel the sentimental feelings we have for babies, Jesus doesn’t disturb us. But once we understand that his coming means for every one of us either salvation or condemnation, he disturbs us deeply.

What should be just as disturbing is the awful work Christ had to do to accomplish the salvation of his people. Yet his very name, Jesus, testifies to us of that work.

That baby was born so that “he who had no sin” would become “sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” The baby’s destiny from the moment of his conception was hell—hell in the place of sinners. When I look into the manger, I come away shaken as I realize again that he was born to pay the unbearable penalty for my sins.

That’s the message of Christmas: God reconciled the world to himself through Christ, man’s sin has alienated him from God, and man’s reconciliation with God is possible only through faith in Christ…Christmas is disturbing.

Don’t get me wrong–Christmas should be a wonderful celebration. Properly understood, the message of Christmas confronts before it comforts, it disturbs before it delights.

The purpose of Christ’s birth was to live a sinless life, suffer as our substitute on the cross, satisfy the wrath of God, defeat death, and secure our forgiveness and salvation.

Christmas is about God the Father (the offended party) taking the initiative to send his only begotten son to offer his life as the atoning sacrifice for our sins, so that we might be forgiven for our many sins.

As Smith so fitly concludes his column:

Only those who have been profoundly disturbed to the point of deep repentance are able to receive the tidings of comfort, peace, and joy that Christmas proclaims.

Amen and Merry Christmas!

____________________________________

C.J. Mahaney leads Sovereign Grace Ministries in its mission to establish and support local churches. After 27 years of pastoring Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland, C.J. handed the senior pastor role to Joshua Harris on September 18, 2004, allowing C.J. to devote his full attention to Sovereign Grace. He serves on the Council of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals and on the board of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.

What Did Jesus Come To Do?

Posted by Dan C. on

To reveal the Father (Matt. 11:27)

“All things have been committed to me by my Father.  No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

To be a ransom for many (Matt. 20:28)

“just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

To serve (Matt. 20:28)

“just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

To save the world (John 3:17; Luke 19:10)

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

To preach the good news of the kingdom of God (Luke 4:43)

“But he said, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.”

To bring division (Luke 12:51)

“Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.”

To do the will of the Father (John 6:38)

“For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.”

To give the Father’s words (John 17:8)

“For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them.  They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.”

To testify to the truth (John 18:37)

“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.   Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king.  In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

To die and destroy Satan’s power (Heb. 2:14)

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil.”

To destroy the devil’s works (1 John 3:8)

“He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.  The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.”

To fulfill the Law and the Prophets (Matt. 5:17)

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

To give life (John 10:10,28)

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full… I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.”

To taste death for everyone (Heb. 2:9)

“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”

To become a high priest (Heb. 2:17)

“For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.”

To atone for sin (Heb. 2:17)

“For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.”

To proclaim freedom for believers (Luke 4:18)

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed.”

To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Luke 4:19)

“to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

To bring judgment (John 9:39)

“Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

To take away sin (1 John 3:5)

“But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.”

To preach (Mark 1:38)

“Jesus replied, ‘Let us go somewhere else — to the nearby villages — so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.'”

To call sinners (Mark 2:17)

“On hearing this, Jesus said to them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.'”

To know who is true (1 John 5:20)

“We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true.  And we are in him who is true — even in his Son Jesus Christ.  He is the true God and eternal life.”

The above list represents only some of the things Jesus came to do. Most of us are familiar with them all, and you might even have a favorite reason among them. Regardless of whether you know them all or not, or which one might be your favorite, they are all wrapped up what the Angel told Joseph about his betrothed, Mary, and in the command given to Joseph:

“She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)

The reason we hold that to be true is because all of the problems of mankind are the result of the first Adam willfully disobeying God and ushering sin into God’s perfect world.

So if, in this Christmas season, or any other time the question “What did Jesus come to do?” comes up, just repeat what the Angel told Joseph. What an opportunity it might bring to share the ‘rest of the story’, and lead a lost soul to the Savior!

What are the essential elements of the gospel?

Posted by Dan C. on

Whenever we talk about the gospel, it is helpful and important to remember the four essentials: God, Man, Christ, Response.

God is both our sovereign Creator and our righteous Judge.

  • You alone are the Lord. You have made the heavens, the heaven of heavens with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them and the heavenly host bows down before You (Neh 9:6).
  • Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy before the Lord, for He is coming to judge the earth; He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity (Ps 98:9).
  • God therefore has the right of ownership over us by virtue of creating us, and he has the right to punish or reward us by virtue of his royal, judicial office. And because God is both our Creator and Judge, we are doubly accountable to Him for all our behavior – word, thought, and deed.

Man was created by God, in God’s image, to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. But man sinned against God by disobeying His holy law. Man therefore separated himself from God’s holy and satisfying presence, and incurred His wrathful displeasure.

  • God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them (Gen 1:27).
  • For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23).
  • For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Rom 1:18).

Jesus Christ’s death was the substitute payment for the penalty that we deserved for our sin. His death is God’s only provision for the forgiveness of man’s sin and the appeasement of God’s wrath against him.

  • All we like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him (Isa 53:6).
  • He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him (John 3:36).
  • And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).

We are called to respond to this good news in repentance and belief – turning away from our sin and self-sufficiency toward God, and trusting in the shed blood of Jesus Christ as the substitute penalty that we deserved for our sin.

  • The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15).
  • Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem (Luke 24:46-47).

Provided by 9Marks.org.

What’s Your Gospel?

Posted by Dan C. on

How many lost souls are going to appear before Christ at the Judgment and say after sentencing, “But I ‘accepted’ Jesus and asked him into my heart! When my friend told me how Jesus could change my life and make it better, I prayed those words!”

And Jesus will say, “Depart from me!

One question: What’s your gospel?

The Old v. The New Gospel

Posted by Dan C. on

The following is a quote from Dr. J. I. Packer, from his Introduction to John Owen’s “The Death of death in the death of Christ”:

There is no doubt that Evangelicalism today is in a state of perplexity and unsettlement. In such matters as the practice of evangelism, the teaching of holiness, the building up of local church life, the pastor’s dealing with souls and the exercise of discipline, there is evidence of widespread dissatisfaction with things as they are and of equally widespread uncertainty as to the road ahead. This is a complex phenomenon, to which many factors have contributed; but, if we go to the root of the matter, we shall find that these perplexities are all ultimately due to our having lost our grip on the biblical gospel. Without realising it, we have during the past century bartered that gospel for a substitute product which, though it looks similar enough in points of detail, is as a whole a decidedly different thing. Hence our troubles; for the substitute product does not answer the ends for which the authentic gospel has in past days proved itself so mighty. The new gospel conspicuously fails to produce deep reverence, deep repentance, deep humility, a spirit of worship, a concern for the church. Why?

We would suggest that the reason lies in its own character and content. It fails to make men God-centred in their thoughts and God-fearing in their hearts because this is not primarily what it is trying to do. One way of stating the difference between it and the old gospel is to say that it is too exclusively concerned to be “helpful” to man—to bring peace, comfort, happiness, satisfaction—and too little concerned to glorify God. The old gospel was “helpful,” too—more so, indeed, than is the new—but (so to speak) incidentally, for its first concern was always to give glory to God. It was always and essentially a proclamation of Divine sovereignty in mercy and judgment, a summons to bow down and worship the mighty Lord on whom man depends for all good, both in nature and in grace. Its centre of reference was unambiguously God. But in the new gospel the centre of reference is man. This is just to say that the old gospel was religious in a way that the new gospel is not. Whereas the chief aim of the old was to teach men to worship God, the concern of the new seems limited to making them feel better. The subject of the old gospel was God and His ways with men; the subject of the new is man and the help God gives him. There is a world of difference. The whole perspective and emphasis of gospel preaching has changed.

From this change of interest has sprung a change of content, for the new gospel has in effect reformulated the biblical message in the supposed interests of “helpfulness.” Accordingly, the themes of man’s natural inability to believe, of God’s free election being the ultimate cause of salvation, and of Christ dying specifically for His sheep, are not preached. These doctrines, it would be said, are not “helpful”; they would drive sinners to despair, by suggesting to them that it is not in their own power to be saved through Christ. (The possibility that such despair might be salutary is not considered; it is taken for granted that it cannot be, because it is so shattering to our self-esteem.) However this may be (and we shall say more about it later), the result of these omissions is that part of the biblical gospel is now preached as if it were the whole of that gospel; and a half-truth masquerading as the whole truth becomes a complete untruth. Thus, we appeal to men as if they all had the ability to receive Christ at any time; we speak of His redeeming work as if He had done no more by dying than make it possible for us to save ourselves by believing; we speak of God’s love as if it were no more than a general willingness to receive any who will turn and trust; and we depict the Father and the Son, not as sovereignly active in drawing sinners to themselves, but as waiting in quiet impotence “at the door of our hearts” for us to let them in. It is undeniable that this is how we preach; perhaps this is what we really believe. But it needs to be said with emphasis that this set of twisted half-truths is something other than the biblical gospel. The Bible is against us when we preach in this way; and the fact that such preaching has become almost standard practice among us only shows how urgent it is that we should review this matter. To recover the old, authentic, biblical gospel, and to bring our preaching and practice back into line with it, is perhaps our most pressing present need.

The Aroma of Christ

Posted by Dan C. on

“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.  For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?” – 2 Cor 2:14-16

The Apostle Paul, in this short passage, tells the Christians at Corinth that they are “the aroma of Christ” to the people around them. Those people are divided into two groups, with the “aroma of Christ” smelling quite differently to each group.

To those who are being saved, that is to those in whom God has done a work of regeneration through the Holy Spirit, the aroma of Christ is a fragrance ‘”from life to life”, from salvation to glorification.

To those who are perishing, that is to those who remain in their unbelief and rejection of Christ, the aroma of Christ is a fragrance “from death to death”, from being dead in sin as they breathe here on earth, to eternal judgment when they die.

It seems easy to understand why the aroma of Christ is a sweet fragrance of life to other Christians, but why does the life of a Christian carry the stench of death to unbelievers? One answer to that can be found in Romans 1:

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.” vv 18-19

Paul then tells us that because of such knowledge, men are ‘without excuse’ before the judgment seat of God. He describes how men are given over to all sorts of sin and degradation because they suppress the truth that they already know. He completes this dire scenario with these words:

“Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” – v 32

Paul is telling the Christians at Corinth, and us today, that the reason that the life of a Christian carries with it the stench of death to unbelievers because they not only know God exists, they know their sin and they know they deserve God’s death sentence! Is it any wonder that the aroma of Christ stinks of death to those who are perishing? I think not.

One question comes to mind in this. Why is it that we have so many churches and so many Christians try to ‘attract’ people to Christ by making Him smell ‘sweet’ promises of a better life here and now, instead of letting the aroma of Christ smell to them like it ought, and in fact needs to smell to them, if they are to come to repentance and faith?

WHY?

“Avoid a sugared gospel. . .”

Posted by Dan C. on

“Avoid a sugared gospel as you would shun sugar of lead. Seek the gospel which rips up and tears and cuts and wounds and hacks and even kills, for that is the gospel that makes alive again. And when you have found it, give good heed to it. Let it enter into your inmost being. As the rain soaks into the ground, so pray the Lord to let his gospel soak into your soul.” Charles Haddon Spurgeon