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Mar 8

Sermon Follow-up: “Dying to Live”

2011 | by Trent Hunter | Category: Sermon Follow-Up

In Sunday’s message, “Dying to Live,” Ryan preached from Colossians 3:5-11 to show us how gospel realities work to transform very specific sins. After Paul exhorts us to “put to death therefore what is earthly in [us]” (3:5), he tells us what that kinds of things he has in mind: “sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness…anger, wrath, malice, sander, and obscene talk” (3:5-8).

During the course of his sermon, Ryan quoted from John Owen’s work, The Mortification of Sin, which was originally a series of sermons delivered to Oxford students in 1656. These sermons were an exposition of Paul’s words in Romans 8:13, when he gave a similar exhortation. There, Paul wrote, “if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Owen’s famous warning from this set of sermons is as memorable as it is serious: “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.”

What follows are some helpful notes compiled by Ryan from Owen’s work, some of which he read on Sunday:

The Need for Mortification

  1. Sin is always active
  2. We ought to make it our daily work
  3. Only the Holy Spirit is sufficient for this work
  4. Our life, health, and comfort depends much on this work

The Meaning of Mortification

  1. What Mortification is Not: It is not the total and final the eradication of sin: It is not improvement. It is not mere avoidance. It is not occasional conquests.
  2. What Mortification is: It is the habitual, ongoing weakening of sin. It is the constant warfare against sin. It consists of frequent successes.

General Principles for Mortifying Sin

  1. You must set your faith on Christ
  2. You must rely on the Holy Spirit
  3. You must be truly converted
  4. You must intend universal, not partial, obedience

The Means of Mortification (how)

  1. Consider the dangerous consequences of the sin
  2. Get a clear sense of the guilt, danger, and evil of that sin
  3. Load your conscience with the guilt of that sin
  4. Get a constant longing for deliverance from that sin
  5. Consider whether that temptation is exacerbated by your temperament
  6. Consider the advantages of preventing that sin
  7. Rise mightily against the first step toward that sin
  8. Meditate on your self-abasement and vileness in light of the majesty of God
  9. Listen to what God says to your soul; do not speak peace until God does

The Basis for Mortification (the “general direction for mortification”)

  1. Setting faith firmly on the cross-work of Christ
  2. Putting full dependence on the power of the Holy Spirit

In their book, Overcoming Sin and Temptation, Justin Taylor and Kelly Kapic have edited three of Owen’s works on the subject of sin and temptation, updating Owen’s Old English where necessary.

Mar 4

The Message of the Bible in One Sentence

2011 | by Trent Hunter | Category: Gospel

Last month, Dane Ortlund asked a group of pastors and biblical scholars to summarize the message of the Bible in one sentence and posted the answers at his blog. The purpose of this exercise, of course, was not to be comprehensive, but, as Dane wrote, “to refocus and recenter on the heart of the book that is the greatest earthly treasure to fallen human beings outside of God himself.”

Here’s what Dane collected from these faithful men:

Greg Beale: The OT storyline appears best to be summarized as: the historical story of God who progressively reestablishes his new creational kingdom out of chaos over a sinful people by his word and Spirit through promise, covenant, and redemption, resulting in worldwide commission to the faithful to extend that new creation rule and resulting in judgment for the unfaithful (defeat and exile), all of which issues into his glory; the NT storyline can be summarized as: Jesus’ life of covenantal obedience, trials, judgmental death for sinners, and especially resurrection by the Spirit has launched the fulfillment of the eschatological already-and-not-yet promised new creation reign, bestowed by grace through faith and resulting in worldwide commission to the faithful to extend this new creation rule and resulting in judgment for the unfaithful, unto God’s glory.

Dan Block: God was so covenantally committed to the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him may have eternal life!

Craig Blomberg: God is in the process of recreating the universe which has been corrupted by sin and has made it possible for all those and only those who follow Jesus to be a part of the magnificent, eternal community that will result.

Darrell Bock: The Bible tells how the loving Creator God restored a lost humanity and cosmos through reestablishing his rule through Jesus Christ and the provision of life to His honor.

Mark Dever: God has made promises to bring His people to Himself and He is fulfilling them all through Christ.

Kevin DeYoung: A holy God sends his righteous Son to die for unrighteous sinners so we can be holy and live happily with God forever.

Zack Eswine: Apprenticing with Jesus to become human again.

John Frame: God glorifies himself in the redemption of sinners.

Scott Hafemann: The Triune God is the beginning, middle, and end of everything, ‘for from him (as Creator) and through him (as Sustainer and Redeemer) and to him (as Judge) are all things’ (Rom 11:36).

David Helm: Jesus is the promised Savior-King.

Paul House: The movement in history from creation to new creation through the redemptive work of Father, Son, and Spirit who saves and changes corrupted people and places for his glory and their good.

Gordon Hugenberger: The message of the Bible in one sentence is that genuine truth, unlike every human philosophy, is far too luxuriant, too enthralling, too personal, too all-encompassing, too sovereign, and too life-changing to be reducible to one sentence (or, as Einstein once put it, the challenge is to ‘make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler’).

Kent Hughes: God is redeeming his creation by bringing it under the lordship of Jesus Christ.

Andreas Kostenberger: ‘God so loved the world that the gave his one and only Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3:16).

Phil Long: God, who made us and everything else, loves us and gave himself for us that we might live forever with him as new creatures in a new creation—the news is good!

Sean Lucas: The message of the Bible is the transforming grace of God displayed preeminently in Jesus Christ.

Ray Ortlund: The Lover of our souls won’t let the romance die, but is rekindling it forever.

Grant Osborne: God created mankind in order to love them, but we all rejected his love, so God sent His Son to bear our sins on the cross in order that by believing in His sacrificial atonement, we might have life.

George Robertson: The Bible is the record of God’s promise of and deliverance through Jesus Christ.

Leland Ryken: The message of the Bible is twofold: to show how people can be saved from their sins through faith in Christ’s atonement AND how to live all of life as a follower of God.

Tom Schreiner: God reigns over all things for his glory, but we will only enjoy his saving reign in the new heavens and the new earth if we repent and believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the crucified and risen Lord and who gave himself on the cross for our salvation.

Mark Seifrid: Verbum caro factum est.

Jay Sklar: The first sentence that comes to mind is that of my colleague Michael D. Williams, who describes the Bible’s story about the world as follows: God made it, we broke it, Jesus fixes it!

Erik Thoennes: The main message of the Bible is that the one true God is displaying his glory primarily in redeeming and restoring his fallen creation by fulfilling his covenant promises and commands through the glorious person and atoning work of Christ.

Doug Wilson: Scripture tells us the story of how a Garden is transformed into a Garden City, but only after a dragon had turned that Garden into a howling wilderness, a haunt of owls and jackals, which lasted until an appointed warrior came to slay the dragon, giving up his life in the process, but with his blood effecting the transformation of the wilderness into the Garden City.

Bob Yarbrough: He—God in Christ—shall reign forever and ever; so today if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart but believing the good news take up your cross and follow Jesus.

Dane Ortlund is the Senior Editor in the Bible division at Crossway Books and writes daily at Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology.

Mar 2

Sermon Follow-up: “Malachi”

2011 | by Trent Hunter | Category: Sermon Follow-Up

In Sunday’s message, Malachi, Ron Giese expounded the book of Malachi, which serves as a bridge between the Old and New Testaments. Malachi speaks about a messenger to come named Elijah, whom God says “will prepare the way before me” (3:1; 4:5). Speaking about John the Baptist, Jesus said, “if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come” (Matthew 11:14). In fulfillment of God’s promise through the book of Malachi, John boldly and humbly announced Jesus’ coming: “he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry” … “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Matthew 2:11; John 1:29).

Though we are not the promised messenger of the book of Malachi, we are “ambassadors for Christ,” witnessing to His glory in our time (2 Corinthians 5:20). Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we announce the same good news that John carried to the hearers of his day, albeit on this side of the resurrection of Christ.

To help equip the body for faithful ambassadorship in the world, DSC offers an Ambassador Training series each year. Traditionally, DSC’s Ambassador Training has been offered as a single course. Starting this Spring, it is offered in three parts. The first session, which begins this Sunday, March 6, focuses on the ambassador’s character. The subsequent classes, offered this Summer and next Fall, will focus on the ambassador’s knowledge and  wisdom. Here’s a brief description of the new format:

Ambassador 1 (Fall) – Knowledege: An Accurately Informed Mind.
An Ambassador (Messenger, Herald) has to know what to proclaim. He or she needs to know who and what it is that he represents. If we are to represent God, we must know Him as He is. This also means knowing the message of the sovereign, which is the gospel. What is the gospel and what isn’t the gospel?

Ambassador 2 (Winter) – Wisdom: A Discerning and Artful Approach.
An Ambassador (messenger, herald) has to know something about the delivery of the message. What is wisdom? What is it for? What is an unhealthy substitute for wisdom in our Christian culture? How can we wisely engage our friends and family and neighbors in conversation about our God and His message?

Ambassador 3 (Spring) – Character: A Faithful and Attractive Manner.
For the priests in Malachi, God’s messengers of the Old Testament – their message was being discredited because of their character. The character of God’s messenger is a big part of the book of Malachi.

The following three books will be recommended and referenced throughout the series and are available at the Resource Center beginning this Sunday:

As you may recall, in the opening of his sermon, Ron read the following quotation from Dorothy Sayers concerning England in 1949:

It is fatal to imagine that everybody knows quite well what Christianity is and needs only a little encouragement to practice it. The brutal fact is that in this Christian country not one person in a hundred has the faintest notion what the Church teaches about God or man or society or the person of Jesus Christ…Theologically this country is at present in a state of utter chaos established in the name of religious toleration and rapidly degenerating into flight from reason and the death of hope.

— Creed or Chaos? Why Christians Must Choose Either Dogma or Disaster

It is important to know the times in which we live. But we are of little effect in our ambassadorship if we neglect to know our God and His gospel. With God’s help, this three part Ambassador Training series will help us know both God and our times.

For more information about the Ambassador Training series or to sign up for the Spring session, email the Local Missions Team at local@desertspringschurch.org or contact the church office.

Feb 24

Sermon Follow-up: “Seek Things Above”

2011 | by Trent Hunter | Category: Sermon Follow-Up

In Sunday’s sermon, “Seek Things Above,” Ryan preached from Colossians 3:1-4, where Paul exhorts us to “seek things that are above, where Christ is, not on things that are on earth.”

Ryan quoted a helpful section from Jeremiah Burroughs’, A Treatise of Earthly-Mindedness (1649), where Burroughs expands on Paul’s words in Colossians 3:

Earthly-Mindedness =

  1. When men look upon earthly things as the greatest things.
  2. When their choicest thoughts are busied with earthly things.
  3. When their hearts cleave to the earth.
  4. When their hearts are filled with distracted cares about the world.
  5. When the greatest endeavors of their lives are about earthly things.
  6. When they seek any earthly thing for itself, and not in subordination to some higher and godly good.
  7. When they are earthly in spiritual things.
  8. When they conceive of the most heavenly truth in an earthly way.

A Treatise of Earthly-Mindedness is available for purchase here and download here. If you would like to explore this theme more, consider buying Jason Stellman’s recent book, Dual Citizens: Worship and Life Between the Already and the Not Yet.

Feb 22

Clarus 2011 (April 29-May 1): Now a TGC Regional Conference

2011 | by Ryan Kelly | Category: Clarus 11

We are very pleased to announce that, as of 2011, Clarus will serve as a Regional Conference of The Gospel Coalition (TGC). Several developments have lead to this unique partnership. DSC began this yearly conference, now named Clarus, several years ago. Over the years, by God’s grace, we have been privileged to have some first-rate speakers; thus, interest and participation has steadily grown—both in attendance and on the web. In 2010, an Albuquerque Regional Chapter of TGC was formed. Many of these Albuquerque-area pastors were already in fellowship/partnership, and in many cases through connections made at Clarus. After discussions with TGC’s executive leadership, it seemed natural to tie the existing local/regional conference efforts of Clarus into the broader, national movement of TGC.

For those who have attended Clarus in previous years, it will be clear that this partnership will not change much of the feel and aim of the conference. Our hope is that, now as a Regional Conference of TGC, this event will be able to more broadly serve pastors and other interested Christians in the SW (Phoenix, Denver, El Paso, etc.). We are thrilled to have TGC’s support and to be able to help the gospel-centered resourcing and networking efforts of TGC.

Clarus conference attendees are entitled to a discount to TGC’s National Conference in Chicago from April 12 – 14. Instead of $250, the cost for an adult will be $100. For couples, instead of $350, the cost is $150. If you are attending Clarus and plan to attend the TGC’s National Conference, contact the church office for the discount code.

So we hope you will join us, April 29 – May 1, to hear from guest speakers, G.K. Beale and Carl Trueman on this year’s theme, “Scripture: God Speaks.” Stop by the Clarus site to learn more about Clarus, this year’s speakers, the conference schedule, and how to register.