For those of you who missed it, last Sunday night Fred Zaspel gave a very helpful exposition of Romans 9, which was followed by a Q&A.  As promised, we’re providing several suggested follow-up resources here for those wanting further study of Romans 9 and the related doctrines of election and predestination.

Entry-level Books on God’s Sovereignty in Salvation:

• Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, by J. I. Packer
• The Doctrines of Grace, by James Montgomery Boice and Philip Graham Ryken
• Putting Amazing Back in Grace, by Michael Horton
• Chosen by God, by R. C. Sproul
• Election and Free Will, by Robert Peterson
• Chosen for Life, by Sam Storms
• Willing to Believe, by R. C. Sproul

John Piper’s Sermons on Predestination and Romans 9:

• Those Whom He Predestined He also Called, Pt 1 and Pt 2
• The Absolute Sovereignty of God: What Is Romans Nine About?
• Unconditional Election and the Invincible Purpose of God
• The Fame of His Name and the Freedom of Mercy
• The Freedom and Justice of God in Unconditional Election
• How God Makes Known the Riches of His Glory to the Vessels of Mercy
• God’s Ultimate Purpose: Vessels of Mercy Knowing the Riches of His Glory

Mark Driscoll’s Sermon Romans 9:

• Sermon Video
• Q&A Video
• Notes

Each of the first four units of Luke 18 can easily be misunderstood; each makes abundant sense when read in conjunction with the others.

The first (18:1-8) is a parable that Jesus tells his disciples “to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (18:1). An unjust judge is badgered by a persistent widow so that in the end he provides her with the justice she asks for. “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?” (18:7). If even this judge eventually puts things right, how much more will God, when his “chosen ones” cry to him? By itself, of course, this parable could be taken to mean that the longer and louder one prays, the more blessings one gets—a kind of tit-for-tat arrangement that Jesus himself elsewhere disavows (Matt. 6:5-15). But the last verse (18:8) focuses the point: “However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” The real problem is not with God’s unwillingness to answer, but with our faithless and lethargic refusal to ask.

The second (18:9-14) parable describes a Pharisee and a tax collector who go up to the temple to pray. Some modern relativists conclude from this story that Jesus accepts everyone, regardless of his or her continuing sins, habits, or lifestyle. He rejects only self-confident religious hypocrites. Certainly Jesus rejects the latter. But the parable does not suggest that the tax collector wished to continue in his sin; rather, he begs for mercy, knowing what he is; he approaches God out of a freely recognized need.

In the third unit (18:15-17) Jesus insists that little children be brought to him, “for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” One must “receive the kingdom of God like a child,” or not at all. Yet this does not commend childlike behavior in all respects (e.g., naïveté, short-term thinking, moral immaturity, the cranky “No!” of the “terrible twos”). But little children do have an openness, a refreshing freedom from self-promotion, a simplicity that asks and trusts.

The fourth unit (18:18-30) finds Jesus telling a rich ruler to sell all that he has and give to the poor, if he is to have treasure in heaven, and then follow Christ. Does this mean that only penurious asceticism will enjoy the blessings of heaven? Is it not Christ’s way of stripping off this particular person’s real god, the pathetic ground of his self-confidence, so that he may trust Jesus and follow him wholly?

Can you see what holds these four units together?

– Excerpted from D. A. Carson’s, For the Love of God, vol. 1, entry for March 4.

Download the whole book for free here or read it day-by-day here.

Last Sunday we looked at the “playing board” of Israel. More specifically, we looked at how a map can help in understanding more of what God wants us to see, learn, and apply in the narrative portions of the Bible.

We learned that it helps to visualize what certain areas of Israel look like. Just like if someone says, in our world, “I’m headed to Taos for the weekend,” we immediately call up certain associations with Taos. It’s a small town, great mountains just outside the city with a well-known ski area, some history with a well-known Pueblo just outside the city and Kit Carson’s roots in the city, has a few classy art galleries, etc.

Yet if we read of Jesus visiting Capernaum, most Christians cannot visualize anything about that place at all. Big city or small? On the coast or inland? In the desert or a fortress on top of a hill?

Second, we looked at routes in Israel. Again, to use a parallel, we know how long it takes to drive to Santa Fe. And we know the feel of the switchbacks going up the east side of the mountains to get to the gift shop at the Sandia Crest.

But do we know how far away Bethany is from Jerusalem, and on what side of Jerusalem Bethany lies? Do we know the three possible ways that the Israelites could have entered Canaan when coming from Egypt?

Many Christians think they already have good tools to do map work, since they have maps at the back of their Bibles. I usually don’t find these maps to be very helpful. The reason is that often one map has to serve a fairly large portion of the Old Testament, hence, a map titled “Israel in the divided monarchy.” The result of this it that these maps tend to be very “busy”: they have a lot of cities, names of regional areas, rivers, etc.

It can actually be discouraging trying to use such maps.

You’ll recall that Sunday I tried to simplify things by showing just a few cities and a few arrows to mark where someone traveled.

Books called Bible Atlases are really the kinds of tools you need to do map work in the Bible. In part because they simplify things and isolate just one journey of one person in the Bible. For instance, instead of “Israel in the divided monarchy” you might see “Jacob’s journey when he returned to Canaan” (which only covers a few chapters in Genesis and would have arrows similar to what I showed on the screen on Sunday).

If you’re interested in atlases, I have three to recommend to you. Perhaps check out all three on Amazon, and pick one to get. There are about two dozen atlases on the market right now. But some are too expensive, and some are too scholarly, and with some I don’t think the maps are very well done.

So again here are my top three picks, with a brief description of each:

Holman QuickSource Bible Atlas: With Charts and Biblical Reconstructions, by Paul W. Wright. (retail $14.99, Amazon $10.19).

This would be my top pick, since it’s a good value for almost 400 pages. Over 100 pages are full-color maps. And the subtitle is accurate, there are charts and reconstructions in addition to the maps. Every page has at least one map or photo/illustration. As an example of a reconstruction, there is a drawing of what Jericho would have looked like in the days of Jesus. Another example is a cut-away drawing of an average first-century Jewish house.

Bible Atlas & Companion, by David Barrett, Christopher D. Hudon, and Todd Bolen (Amazon $9.99).

This is my second pick, with 75 full-color maps and 50 additional photographs or illustrations (175 pages total).

The Kregel Bible Atlas, by Tim Dowley (Amazon $21.99).

This is my third pick, 96 pages total with at least one map or illustration per page. This is a hardback (the other two are paperback), which probably accounts for the higher price.

Here is a great quote from D.A. Carson on prayer in Luke 18, which we’ve been studying recently in our sermon series on Luke:

By itself, of course, this parable could be taken to mean that the longer and louder one prays, the more blessings one gets—a kind of tit-for-tat arrangement that Jesus himself elsewhere disavows (Matt. 6:5-15). But the last verse (18:8) focuses the point: “However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” The real problem is not with God’s unwillingness to answer, but with our faithless and lethargic refusal to ask.  (D.A. Carson, For the Love of God, Vol. 1. March 4)

If you want to read more from Carson, this quote is taken from a devotional that he wrote, titled For the Love of God, Vol. 1.  Each day’s devotional reading is posted online at this blog or you can download the entire book for free by clicking here.

Yesterday, Zach preached on John 3:19-21 about the need for Christians to “come into the light” by confessing their sins to each other.  The following quotes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s, Life Together powerfully illustrate the importance of confession in breaking the power of sin and creating real fellowship among believers.  The final chapter, from which the quotes below are excerpted, is worth the price of the book alone.

He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone. It may be that Christians, not withstanding corporate worship, common prayer, and all their fellowship in service, may still be left to their loneliness. The final breakthrough to fellowship does not occur, because, though they have fellowship with one another as believers and as devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, as sinners. The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everyone must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship. We dare not be sinners. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous. So we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy. The fact is that we are sinners! (p. 110)

In confession a man breaks through to certainty.  Why is it that it is often easier for us to confess our sins to God than to a brother? God is holy and sinless, He is a just judge of evil and the enemy of all disobedience.  But a brother is sinful as we are.  He knows from his own experience the dark night of secret sin.  Why should we not find it easier to go to a brother than to the holy God? We must ask ourselves whether we have not often been deceiving ourselves with our confession of sin to God, whether we have not rather been confessing our sins to ourselves and also granting ourselves absolution. And is not the reason perhaps for our countless relapses and the feebleness of our Christian obedience to be found precisely in the fact that we are living on self-forgiveness and not a real forgiveness?  Self-forgiveness can never lead to a breach with sin.

Who can give us the certainty that, in the confession and forgiveness of our sins, we are not dealing with ourselves, but with the living God?  God gives us this certainty through our brother.  Our brother breaks the circle of self-deception.  A man who confesses his sin in the presence of a brother knows that he is no longer alone with himself; he experiences the presence of God in the reality of the other person. As long as I am by myself in the confession of my sins everything remains in the dark, but in the presence of a brother the sin has to be brought into the light.  But since the sin must come to light some time, it is better that it happens today between me and my brother, rather than on the last day in the piercing light of the final judgment. It is a mercy that we can confess our sins  to a brother. Such grace spares us the terrors of the last judgment. (pp. 115-16)

In confession the break-through to community takes place.  Sin demands to have a man by himself.  It withdraws him from the community.  The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation.  Sin wants to remain unknown.  It shuns the light.  In the darkness of the unexpressed it poisons the whole being of a person.  This can happen even in the midst of a pious community…

The expressed, acknowledged sin has lost all its power. It has been revealed and judged as sin. It can no longer tear the fellowship asunder.  Now the fellowship bears the sin of the brother.  He is no longer alone with his evil for he has cast off his sin in confession and handed it over to God… Now he stands in the fellowship of sinners who live by the grace of God in the cross of Jesus Christ. (pp. 112-13)