The only fruit that will last is the fruit that grows on the cross

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit. (John 15:16)

On the day after the night in which Jesus spoke these words to the eleven and to you, Glen, he laid himself down on the cross and bought you with his blood. You are now his fruit and his fruit-bearer. The only fruit that will ever endure to eternal life is fruit which grows out of the cross. “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:23, 24). We are Christ’s fruit because he died for us. We are his fruit-bearers if we are willing to take up our cross and die with him. Never forget the setting of your text, Glen. It is no accident that when Jesus had commanded you to go and bear fruit, he went and died. Your call and your ministry must always stand in the shadow of the cross of Christ. The only fruit that will last is the fruit that grows on the cross.

(The quote above is from an Oct. 11, 1981, sermon titled "I Chose You to Bear Fruit: Ordination of Glen Bloomstrom" by John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org)

The work of the Holy Spirit

“It is always the Holy Spirit’s work to turn our eyes away from self to Jesus; but Satan’s work is just the opposite of this, for he is constantly trying to make us pay attention to ourselves instead of to Christ. He insinuates, ‘Your sins are too great for pardon; you have no faith; you do not repent enough; you will never be able to continue to the end; you do not have the joy of His children; you have such a weak hold of Jesus.’ All these are thoughts about self, and we will never find comfort or assurance by looking within. But the Holy Spirit turns our eyes entirely away from self. He tells us that we are nothing, but that Christ is all in all.’” - Charles Spurgeon, Morning by Morning (New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 2001), 188.

(HT: Of First Importance)

The power that frees us from holding grudges

Satan aims to make the cross of Christ look weak and foolish. Notice Ephesians 4:32–5:2. “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children. And walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.” The power that frees us from holding grudges is that in the cross of Christ God satisfied his grudge against us and dropped it. So Paul says, forgive as God in Christ forgave you. When we hold a grudge, we cancel out the cross. We act as though God did a foolish thing on the cross, since he dropped his infinite grudge against us, but we are going to hold on to our little grudge against so and so. And thus Satan brings the cross of Christ into contempt.

(The quote above is from a Dec. 16, 1984, sermon titled "Satan Seeks a Gap Called Grudge" by John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org)

God Enjoyed

Here's a prayer titled "God Enjoyed" from "Valley of Vision: A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions" edited by Arthur Bennett (pages 18-19):

THOU INCOMPREHENSIBLE
BUT PRAYER-HEARING GOD,

Known, but beyond knowledge,
revealed, but unrevealed,
my wants and welfare draw me to thee,
for thou hast never said, 'Seek ye me in vain'.

To thee I come in my difficulties, necessities,
distresses;
possess me with thyself,
with a spirit of grace and supplication,
with a prayerful attitude of mind,
with access into warmth of fellowship,
so that in the ordinary concerns of life
my thoughts and desires may rise to thee,
and in habitual devotion I may find a resource
that will soothe my sorrows,
sanctify my successes,
and qualify me in all ways for dealings
with my fellow men.

I bless thee that thou has made me capable
of knowing thee, the author of all being,
of resembling thee, the perfection of all excellency,
of enjoying thee, the source of all happiness.

O God, attend me in every part of my arduous
and trying pilgrimage;
I need the same counsel, defence, comfort
I found at my beginning.

Let my religion be more obvious to my conscience,
more perceptible to those around.
While Jesus is representing me in heaven,
may I reflect him on earth,
While he pleads my cause, may I show forth
his praise.

Continue the gentleness of thy goodness
towards me,
And whether I wake or sleep, let thy presence
go with me,
thy blessing attend me.

Thou hast led me on and I have found thy
promises true,
I have been sorrowful, but thou hast been my help,
fearful, but thou hast delivered me,
despairing, but thou hast lifted me up.

Thy vows are ever upon me,
And I praise thee, O God.

3 aspects of true faith: notitia, assensus, and fiducia

Michael Patton discusses "three separate yet vitally connected aspects" of saving faith (notitia, assensus, and fiducia) in a recent post at the Parchment and Pen Blog.


Patton has and continues to do all the world, and especially the Church, a great service through Reclaiming the Mind Ministries. If you haven't checked out The Theology Program, I highly encourage you to do so.

Seeking the glory of God and seeking the salvation of the lost are not two distinct goals

I don’t want us to make the mistake ... of separating the desire for people’s salvation and the desire that God be glorified. Think for a moment: What happens when a person who is lost becomes saved? Objectively, they pass from death to eternal life, from condemnation to justification, from alienation to reconciliation with God. Subjectively, they cease to rely on themselves or good works or idols and rely on God’s mercy. They cease to glory in themselves and begin to glory in the cross of Christ and the grace of God. When salvation comes to the lost a new heart is given which glorifies God by trusting in him and enjoying him and obeying him. Do you see what this means? Seeking the glory of God and seeking the salvation of the lost are not two distinct goals. The salvation of the lost is the new creation of persons who glorify God for his mercy. If you love people, you will want for them more than anything else the maximum eternal joy of knowing God as Savior in Jesus Christ. And if you love God, you will want nothing more than that his glory be known and enjoyed and magnified by the salvation of as many people as possible. It is the genius and beauty and wonder of God’s redemption that the pursuit of the lost and the pursuit of God’s glory are one pursuit.

(The quote above is from a Jan. 22, 1984, sermon titled "Tell How Much the Lord Has Done for You!" by John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org)

Summarizing a sermon in one sentence

“I have a conviction that no sermon is ready for preaching, not ready for writing out, until we can express its theme in a short, pregnant sentence as clear as a crystal. I find the getting of that sentence is the hardest, the most exacting, and the most fruitful labour in my study. To compel oneself to fashion that sentence, to dismiss every word that is vague, ragged, ambiguous, to think oneself through to a form of words which defines the theme with scrupulous exactness—this is surely one of the most vital and essential factors in the making of a sermon: and I do not think any sermon ought to be preached or even written, until that sentence has emerged, clear and lucid as a cloudless moon.” — J. H. Jowett, The Preacher: His Life and Work (Harper & Bros, 1912), p. 133.

(HT: Miscellanies)

Tribute to Ralph Winter

Ralph D. Winter died on May 20, 2009. Here is a 16-minute video from the U.S. Center for World Mission telling the story of his life and ministry.

Also see "John Piper’s Personal Tribute to the Late Ralph Winter."

(HT: Desiring God Blog)

A Monergism Books Reader's Guide for the Christian Life

"A Monergism Books Reader's Guide for the Christian Life" is now available in HTML, making it simple to review and purchase each book at the Monergism Books Web site.

Do you have any of the books listed on the Reader's Guide?

My three daughters (ages 17, 15 and 12) chose to read the following books this summer, a few of which aren't on the Reader's Guide:

• Basic Christianity by John Stott
• Bible Overview by Steve Levy
• Christian Beliefs by Wayne Grudem
• God's Big Picture by Vaughan Roberts
• Truth for All Time by John Calvin
• Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung
• Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris (not on the Reader's Guide)
• Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper (not on the Reader's Guide)
• Five Things Every Christian Needs to Grow by R.C. Sproul (not on the Reader's Guide)

What books do I plan to read this summer?

• A Gospel Primer for Christians by Milton Vincent (not on the Reader's Guide)
• Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God by D. A. Carson
• Finally Alive by John Piper
• From Age to Age: The Unfolding of Biblical Eschatology by Keith Mathison (not on the Reader's Guide)
• Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (not on the Reader's Guide)
• Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones (with my first son)
• Reason for God by Tim Keller
• This Momentary Marriage by John Piper (with my wife) (not on the Reader's Guide)

Note: We should never fall in love with our plans -- even reading plans -- but hopefully trust God as he unfolds his plan.

The danger of false assurances

Galatians is God’s reminder ... that we are in constant danger of false assurances. Satan is continuously at work tempting us to think and feel that because we use God-talk, and come to church, and pray at meal times, and avoid gross sins, we are, therefore, under God’s blessing. But the book of Galatians concerns a group of people (called Judaizers) who do all those things and are under God’s curse. None of us should sit easily under the scrutiny of this book. Divine blessing and divine curse are the issue. And the continental divide between the two is not between church people and non-church people, nor is it between those who call Jesus “Lord” and those who don’t. It is between those, on the one hand, who have been crucified with Christ and now in poverty live in continuing reliance on the living Christ, and those, on the other hand, who have never really died to self-reliance and whose religious activity, though “moral” and intense, is all an exercise in self-reformation. The one group glories only in the cross of Christ by which they died to all but God. But the other group extols the powers and potentials of the self and diminishes the grace of God (2:21) and the cross of Christ (5:11). The one group of church members enjoys the blessing of God promised to Abraham and his descendants; the other group of church members is under a divine curse.

(The quote above is from a April 10, 1983, sermon titled "Christ Redeemed Us from the Curse of the Law" by John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org)

Basic Christian Doctrine

Faith Bible Church in Springfield, Illinois, has several resources available at its Web site worth reviewing. Of special note is the page titled "Basic Christian Doctrine." Curt Daniel is the pastor at FBC.

(HT: Between Two Worlds)

Attitude

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.

"Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church … a home.

"The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past … we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude … I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.

"And so it is with you… we are in charge of our attitudes.”

-Chuck Swindoll

(HT: Parchment and Pen)