Pursuing Joy

“A fool’s lips walk into a fight, and his mouth invites a beating.  A fool’s mouth is his ruin, and his lips are a snare to his soul.”

Proverbs 18:6-7

These two verses parallel each other, which is seen in the chiasm “lips, mouth, mouth, lips”.  The general principle is clear.  One of the primary ways a fool is brought down is through his speech.  Bruce Waltke says, “In starting his quarrel he intends to damage others, but in doing so it boomerangs against him.” The fool is a person who runs his mouth for a variety of reasons, but in the end the always come back to haunt him, sometimes right in the kisser!  Another commentator writes, “The effect of his speech is always to alienate himself from public sympathy and to attract feelings of hostility.”  This proverb helps us to understand that usually the fool’s speech not only causes strife in his relationships, putting distance between him and everyone else, but that this distance simultaneously closes due to inflaming animosity toward himself.  These “unexamined words, hasty counsel, uninvited information, unwise promises and other drivel bring about his own ruin.”

But verse 7 escalates the warning beyond the scope of this world.  The fool not only brings harm upon himself because of his mouth, but his speech finally brings him to eternal ruin.  His words entrap his soul, even unto death.  The unguarded tongue can bring down an entire life… even the soul.  Proverbs 18:20-21 says, “From the fruit of a man’s mouth his stomach is satisfied; he is satisfied by the yield of his lips. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.”

The Resurgence, an arm of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, has posted a helpful article outlining John Owen’s On The Moritification Of Sin (you can buy Justin Taylor’s excellent edited version of 3 Owen books combined here, buy the standalone book here or download the original treatise here).  You can also download a 12-page pdf reading summary.  Although Owen is “heavy and hard to read” (JI Packer), it is definitely worth the effort.  Download the reading summary and use the outline to assist as you read through this important work.  It is important because, as Owen says, “Be killing sin, or it will be killing you.”

I can empathize with Jon Acuff in this post.  I hate throwing up… its the worst.  He makes an excellent connection between how our bodies expel toxins and harmful elements, but we hardly take this approach with sin.  His site has a different way of approaching things, most times hilarious, but I usually find his commentaries edifying and encouraging.

“Knowledge about God that doesn’t translate into exalting him in our words, thoughts, and actions will soon become self-exaltation.”

~ Josh Harris, Dug Down Deep, 224

Today is the one year anniversary of Pastor Dan Cummings’ death.  Death is a reality of life because of sin (Romans 6:23) and it is appointed for man to die once (Hebrews 9:27). But the good news of the gospel is that though sin entered the world and death through sin, there is an abundance of grace and a free gift of righteousness through Jesus Christ.  It is through Jesus Christ’s perfect life and death on the cross that sinners find justification by His blood and reconciliation with God.  And it is this truth that leads Paul to say in Romans 5:21, “so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  For the person who puts their faith alone by grace alone in Christ alone for the forgiveness of sins, death is not eternal.  As John Owen wrote, “the Father and his Son intended by the death of Christ to redeem, purge, sanctify, purify, deliver from death”… in Jesus, the death of death has come.  [The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (Book II, Chapter III)]

This reminds me of a song from the album Come Weary Saints (which is on sale this month at Sovereign Grace).  The lyrics are below:

It Is Not Death To Die

It is not death to die
To leave this weary road
And join the saints who dwell on high
Who’ve found their home with God
It is not death to close
The eyes long dimmed by tears
And wake in joy before Your throne
Delivered from our fears

CHORUS:
O Jesus, conquering the grave
Your precious blood has power to save
Those who trust in You
Will in Your mercy find
That it is not death to die

It is not death to fling
Aside this earthly dust
And rise with strong and noble wing
To live among the just
It is not death to hear
The key unlock the door
That sets us free from mortal years
To praise You evermore

We’ve just returned from 3 days in Minneapolis at the Desiring God Conference For Pastors.  It was a refreshing time of learning, listening, pondering and fellowship.  All the audio and video of the sessions can be found here.  Though I am share some other things later, I wanted to share one thing that I found extremely helpful, convicting and encouraging.

“Disobedience will kill our pleasure in Jesus.”    Sam Storms

This sentence is a weapon to wield when facing temptation.  Disobedience will never give you the joy it promises.  In fact, it kills the only joy that will truly fulfill your desires.

“I think I may say, without offence to God or man, that one reason why God made the world was that He might manifest Himself, not only by, but to the works which He made.”

~ John Bunyan, Works, 1:117

God is the first and best of beings.  And being the first and best means that His people not only proclaim to others how great our God is, but they themselves see, taste and experience His greatness.  God created so that we would bear His image AND encounter Him.

“The God of biblical revelation has a character.  Divine action flows from that character.  God is love and He is light.  Moreover, He is righteous in all His ways… it is only as we grasp the righteous holy loving character of the God who has made us that we can begin to grasp in some measure the depths of the human plight outside Eden.  And it is only against that dark backstory that the glory of the cross of Christ is revealed as the centre of God’s plan to bring shalom.”

~ Graham Cole, God the Peacemaker, p. 52

“And I am afraid there are Calvinists, who, while they account it a proof of their humility that they are willing in words to debase the creature, and to all the glory of salvation to the Lord, yet know not what manner of spirit they are of . . . Self righteousness can feed upon doctrines, as well as upon works; and a man may have the heart of a Pharisee, while his head is stored with orthodox notions of the unworthiness of the creature and the riches of free grace.”

Who do you think said that?  Sounds like many contemporary pastors and authors, but you may be surprised! It was John Newton writing a letter in the late 1700s… some things never change and some letters are always relevant.

Today is the 37th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision.  Here are some helpful resources from the past and some that have been posted around the blogosphere:

Overturning and Undermining Roe v. Wade: An Interview with Clarke Forsythe by Justin Taylor

Accusing and Excusing for 37 Years by Kevin DeYoung

How Does Abortion Relate To Spreading The Supremacy Of God In All Things? by John Piper

Like An Electric Current by Kevin DeYoung

Other Resources:

Crossroads Pregnancy Center

Abort73

Desiring God (Pro-Life resources)

American United for Life