The Curse Of The Cross

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" -Matthew 27:45-46

Is there a more heart-wrenching passage in Scripture than the Son of God crying out to His Father: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The cry of the Son to His Father, Father why have you forsaken me? If you know Christ and realize your own sin and the perfection of Christ, the words of Christ are like a punch in the stomach. I can't read them or hear them aloud without getting torn up. I also know that the Father forsaken the Son at that moment means that I will never be forsaken in turn.

This passage came up today and I remembered a talk that R.C. Sproul gave at Together for The Gospel in 2008 on the curse motif of Scripture, specifically the cross. Here is a good summary of the talk:


I was privileged to be in attendance when Sproul gave this talk. It is dead silent in the room, you could have heard the proverbial pin drop. You can listen to the whole talk, it is about an hour long, here. This is the sort of deep, rich thinking that we need more of in the church. Give it a listen, it will enrich your understanding of what Christ did for His sheep on the cross.

The Importance Of Precision

We live in a day of imprecision, an age of ambiguity and sloppiness. From the way we dress to how we communicate, everything we do is marked by a lack of precision and even worse an utter lack of concern. A large percentage of our population is utterly unable to express even a simple thought coherently and many people don't know the difference and don't care about simple things like their, there and they're. Conversations are littered with "like" and "um" because many people don't know what they want to say and even if they do they don't know how to say it. Like so many other ills of our general culture the church suffers from this same lack of precision. The difference is that while lack of precision and indifference to accuracy might make for a frustrating experience ordering a meal at a restaurant, it can mean the difference between a true expression of the Gospel or a incorrect and damning expression of the Gospel.

I have been watching some of the presentations from the recent Together For The Gospel conference and I can't say I am all that excited by the couple I have been watching. It seems a little forced even though the topic is such am important one, a topic (the necessity for and basis of the Protestant Reformation) that is central to so much of what T4G and other groups focus on. I was able to watch one speaker via live-stream, John Piper, and his was the best talk so far. He also said something, sort of an aside that I don't think was part of his prepared comments but when he said it early in the talk I got perked up pretty quickly and I have been waiting for the videos to come out so I can share it. Here is the video:


"The Bondage of the Will, the Sovereignty of Grace, and the Glory of God" — John Piper (T4G 2016) from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

Watch from about the five minute mark to around the 5:30 mark. Really you should watch the whole thing but for purposes of this post watch those 30 seconds because what Piper says is a clarion call that the whole church needs to understand and to heed. I want to highlight a couple of things he says, parsing them down for emphasis.

Every word counts.

Oh yes. This is an age of the disposable. Nothing has value. We toss words out without a thought and with no concern for how they are received. Many of us don't care much for what we say because we assume (rightly) that no one is paying much attention because they are focused on their phone.

My policy has always been simple: Say what you mean and mean what you say. The words we use and how we use them matter and again this is true nowhere more so than in the church. Some might say "Just love Jesus and love people and it will all work out!" but we see in the New Testament, especially in Galatians, how quickly people seeking another Gospel and attempt to add to or take away from the saving truth of Jesus Christ.

I love precision.

Me too! People who are alleged theologians or elders who are sloppy in their study are a huge liability for the church thanks to our subcontracting system of ministry and teaching. I am not talking about locking yourself away in your study to wrangle out how many angels can dance on the head of a pin but Christians should know what they believe and those who teach doubly so and those called to lead as elders triply so. The source material of the Bible is absolutely the most critical information and revelation one will ever encounter, if you are sloppy in handling it what does that say about your concern for the oracles of God?

The abandonment of precision and definition is the gateway to liberalism.

Yes and again I say YES. It seems to me that a lot of people read through the Bible and just sort of skim it until they find something that they like, or worse yet thanks to our myriad methods of directly searching for what you want they just skip reading the Bible as a whole and use it to pick and choose. Errors like universalism, rejecting substituionary atonement, women elders which often leads to embracing homosexual behavior, adopting a modified evolutionary worldview, etc.

Let me reiterate and restate what Piper said. Imprecision in handling the Word of God is the gateway, and not only the gateway but I would say the expressway, to liberalism which to put it simply and succinctly has meant grievous error in every manifestation past and present. 

It takes a long time to be precise, it is hard work.

Exactly, and if there is anything people hate today it is taking their time and working hard. Our world is a world of emojis and memes and twitter and abbreviations because spelling stuff out is so,,like...um....like....HARD, you know? We like our religion in convenient, easy to hear and promptly ignore, sound-bytes. No one wants to read hard books or study the deep questions of the faith or wrestle with the tough parts of Scripture, especially when the Scriptures seem inconvenient to daily life. There is an old saying, anything worth doing is worth doing right.

We are talking about the eternal destiny of the souls of billions of people. We have been given a comprehensive and sufficient Word from God. At the very least we should take the time to know what we are talking about and drink deeply from the well God has provided.

Give Piper's talk a listen. As usual he doesn't fail to deliver. Especially ponder what he says about precision in handling the Word of God, a task for every Christian, because it is the very voice of God preserved for us.

Singing Men (Or Not)

Albert Mohler, posting from Together for the Gospel, makes a point I have long believed.

Men won’t sing in church? Give them songs of conviction and gospel & then listen to the resounding joy. #t4g2016 pic.twitter.com/9hHnz9vvUV

— Albert Mohler (@albertmohler) April 13, 2016

A lot of people assume men won't sing in church but I think the reality is that men will sing "songs of conviction and gospel" rather than sappy, effeminate songs. The same is true with sermons and other forms of teaching. Give a man some lame morality lesson wrapped up in religious jargon and little wonder he falls asleep. Give a born-again brother the unadulterated meat of the Gospel and if he is a believer he will be riveted. The problem is not a lack of interest, the problem is a lack of content, of conviction, of the power of the Gospel, the magnificence of the Kingdom and the glory of Jesus Christ our King and Savior. Give us that and watch us grow!

Together For The Gospel Registration....

...opens tomorrow!

Married White Male Seeking Another Male Or Three To Share A Hotel Room Next April For Together For The Gospel

Advertising on my blog that I am looking for other dudes to share a hotel room in a somewhat unfamiliar city. How could this go wrong?

Eight years after I went to Together for the Gospel I am planning on going again next April. The venue has changed and one prominent voice, C.J. Mahaney, is absent and some new voices are in his place. I am curious to see what the atmosphere is like. When I was there it was laced with a lot of triumphalism, all the cool kids were there and knew stuff that the rest of the church didn't. There was a top secret resource for attendees so we could network together. It all seemed kind of cliquish in retrospect.

As we head for 2016 the Reformed movement has taken some prominent hits and the fervor seems to have cooled a bit. With prominent names getting some bad press, from founder C.J. Mahaney stepping away amidst legal troubles to Mark Driscoll (never a speaker at T4G, to the credit of the conference organizers) stepping down and seeing "his" ministry implode to Tullian Tchividjian stepping down from Coral Ridge after a short and controversial stay as pastor amid revelations of marital infidelity. Much of the Reformed world seems to be victims of their own success, sniping and backbiting becoming prominent. Some perhaps some humility is in place. We will see. The main guys are still there, Mohler, Dever, Duncan, Piper, Anyabwile, MacArthur and that plus the fellowship and "free" books makes it worthwhile. As a bonus I very likely will be able to take some Amish to southern Indiana to help defray the cost of driving.

So anyway, if you are thinking of or definitely going to Together For The Gospel next April and need to split some of the costs, give me a holler. I am willing to split with as many as 3 other guys assuming we can find a couple of air mattresses.

I haven't gone to T4G since the first time I went, partly for monetary and health reasons and largely as a protest against the notion of a "conference for pastors and church leaders" which seemed to be intended to exclude "lay members", although an awful lot of the guys there in 2008 were not clergy. The speakers are generally all defenders of the institutional church status quo and that rubs me the wrong way. None of that has changed but I am secure enough in where I stand in regards to ecclesiology that I can go and just enjoy the teaching, the singing and the fellowship without feeling the need to make some sort of protest statement (like the nutjob charismatic that crashed the stage last weekend while John MacArthur was speaking). I am more hungry and thirsty for solid teaching and comradeship around a common understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ than I am for a protest against a deeply flawed church system. When they are talking about issues of the Gospel rather than church specifics or baptism I am in complete agreement with everything they are saying and I am in agreement with the T4G affirmations and denials (with the exception of article V on the centrality of expository preaching but even there I would prefer expository sermons over any other kind).

So there you go, hit me up if you wanna shack up in Kentucky.

Still My Favorite

In 2008, during a time of spiritual turmoil, I attended Together for the Gospel. I don't really remember much from the talks, although they were excellent. What I do remember is the thunder of thousands of brothers in Christ singing. That comes from someone who hates and is very self-conscious when singing. My favorite hymn of that time was "And can it be that I should gain", a deeply theological and glorious hymn. This is what it sounded like when it was sung:



If you don't know the words, they are below:

1. And can it be that I should gain
   An int’rest in the Savior’s blood?
   Died He for me, who caused His pain—
   For me, who Him to death pursued?
   Amazing love! How can it be,
   That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
   • Refrain:
     Amazing love! How can it be,
     That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
2. ’Tis myst’ry all: th’ Immortal dies:
   Who can explore His strange design?
   In vain the firstborn seraph tries
   To sound the depths of love divine.
   ’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore,
   Let angel minds inquire no more.
3. He left His Father’s throne above—
   So free, so infinite His grace—
   Emptied Himself of all but love,
   And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
   ’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
   For, O my God, it found out me!
4. Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
   Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
   Thine eye diffused a quick’ning ray—
   I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
   My chains fell off, my heart was free,
   I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
5. No condemnation now I dread;
   Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
   Alive in Him, my living Head,
   And clothed in righteousness divine,
   Bold I approach th’ eternal throne,
   And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

A hymn should be great theology first, a good song second. Give it a play and glory in the redeeming and loving sacrifice of Christ Jesus the Lord.

Pilgrimage to Louisville?

In 2008 I attended the Together for the Gospel conference and this morning kicks off the 2012 version. It was a great time in 2008, loved the singing and the teaching and especially the fellowship with some brothers I travelled with and others I met there. Looking back I have no interest in spending the time and money to go back. I am more than a little troubled by the frenzy to buy thousands upon thousands of books in the cavernous book hall. Plus I can listen to or watch the talks later for free. So it was nice to go once but once was enough for me.

Today? It seems to have taken on a life of its own. There are more speakers, a bigger venue and seemingly unlimited hype. Far more than just a conference to encourage, it has become an event where all of the cool kids go. It has even generated a blog post about how to cope if you can't go this year and another post on how to prepare yourself if you are going.

Brothers, can we get a grip here? It is a couple of days of listening to speakers, many that we have listened to dozens or hundreds of times before. If you go, that is fine and dandy but when you come back don't hide away in your office and read the dozens of books you brought back. Go out and preach the Gospel to the lost, serve the least of these in your community, visit the widow and the orphan. Together for the Gospel is not the pinnacle of the life of a disciple.

Best...conference...book hall....EVER

Tim Challies is live blogging T4G and has a video of the book hall, you can't even begin to capture how cavernous it is from his video below. You can get a feel for how big the main hall where the sessions are held is.

Together for the Gospel 2010

T4G 2010 starts today, in fact right now at 1:00 PM EST with Mark Dever leading off. I was planning up until recently to be in attendance, singing badly along with 7000 other guys who can’t sing, listening to great teachers and of course accumulating lots of “free” books. As I mentioned in a prior post, I opted out of spending the time and the money to make the trip to Louisville this year even thought I was looking forward to it pretty much since T4G 2008 ended. As the preeminent event for arm-chair Reformed theologians, a virtual “Reformapalooza”, all the cool kids are going to be there including lots of bloggers I interact with. It should be especially interesting this year with the kerfuffle over Piper inviting Warren to his conference. I would imagine that will be add a little spice and discomfort to the conference. I expect to get at least one reference to it over the course of the next few days.

Even though I did the right thing by not going, I am still kind of bummed. I was especially intrigued by the break-out sessions featuring the second-string speakers, including up and coming local guy Kevin DeYoung. I really wanted to hear Unity, not Uniformity: Diversity in the Body of Christ by Michael McKinley. Hopefully the break-out sessions will be recorded. I can (and will) download and listen to the talks once the conference is over but it doesn’t replace being there in person, especially being in the company of friends and brothers. Last time around I got to spend a lot of time with two brothers, Josh Gelatt and Joe VonDoloski, and I got to meet another brother who has become precious to our family, James Lee. In retrospect, that is what was best about T4G: spending time with brothers outside of “church”, getting to know them and seeing them in real life situations. Just because I am not going to Louisville doesn’t mean that this week is wasted. In place of T4G, tomorrow night I will be gathering with the brethren and praying. Friday I am having lunch with a brother I need to get to know better. I have a couple of brothers I need to call and talk to about some big changes coming up in their lives. I have a family who could certainly use my attention. None of what I am planning on doing this week is going to cost me anything but time. So I may not be going to T4G but there is plenty to keep me busy this week and for a lot less money! I pray that the conference will be encouraging and edifying to those in attendance.

Talk is cheap part 1

April asked the obvious question a few days ago. With all of this talk about eschewing worldliness and being better stewards of our finances and our time, what am I doing about it? That is a fair question and one I expected earlier. Talk is cheap and blogging is doubly so.

The first change I am making is a minor one but a good first step. I am canceling my plans to attend Together for the Gospel next year.

There are a number of reasons why I am nixing the trip to Louisville in 2010. First, it is quite expensive. Gas and perhaps a rental car, several nights in a hotel, three meals a day on the road from Monday evening to Thursday night, not to mention the $200 registration fee. Even splitting the costs with other guys still results in an expensive trip in terms of time and money. I have been justifying the cost to myself because of all of the books you get “free” at the conference. It is a huge haul of books, no doubt (well over twenty in total). Does that make it worthwhile?

Nearly two years after the 2008 installment of T4G, I have read 4 or 5 of the books I brought home from Louisville. It is not that I haven’t read any books in the last two years, rather most of the books I have read didn’t come from T4G. There are several books that I got at T4G ‘08 that I probably will never read because I am just not interested in them. I think I am better off saving the money and picking out books to read on my own. I have literally hundreds of books I am interested in reading that I have saved on Amazon and I already have bookshelves full of books that need to be read (although I despair of ever reading Turretin’s Institutes of Elenctic Theology).

It is also true that the teaching at Together for the Gospel is outstanding. You get some of the great minds in the church together and sit at their feet for three days. Men like Sproul and Piper, Mohler and Dever are the intellectual heavyweights in the church. On the other hand, there is a lifetime of teaching from these men and others available for free online. I can watch or listen to hundreds of talks from Piper and Sproul for free. The volume of material put out is greater than I could ever hope to listen to, coming out faster than I or anyone else could absorb it. The Together for the Gospel talks will be published online as well, so I can listen at my leisure for free. Besides, I already have access to the greatest teachers to ever live in the Word of God. I need to spend more time in there and less in seminars and conferences. Piper and Sproul and MacArthur are great but I need to hear a lot more from Paul and Peter and James and our Lord Himself.

There are other minor issues. In some way Together for the Gospel feeds into an undercurrent of intellectualism in the church that sometimes smacks of elitism. This is especially true among the Reformed wing of the church and that is the target audience for T4G. Many of the talks at T4G 2008 were very academic and Al Mohler's was so complex I wasn't sure what he was talking about. Christianity is a life to be lived, not a subject to be studied. It is a faith of action more than one of contemplation. There is a place for study and academics, but it is not the first priority in the Christian life. Together for the Gospel is also billed as a “pastors conference” and is part of the “trickle down theology” system in the church where ministers go to seminary and conferences to learn and then come back and disseminate that information to the congregation. I think the more Biblical and healthier method is to have the church gather together and study the Scriptures together instead of sending one or a couple of guys to a conference.

Ultimately, Together for the Gospel is a self-indulgent luxury for me. I get a week away to go hang out and listen to men that I look up to talk about theology. My wife stays home with the kids. It is expensive and it burns almost a week of vacation time (granted I get a ton of vacation time, but still). That is time and money that I could and should spend with my family or in service to others somehow. So T4G 2010 is off the agenda for next year. Maybe I will shoot for the 2012 conference but even that seems unlikely.

A minor step? Sure. It is just one step in a quest to see the Christian life lived out in my life.

New for Together for the Gospel in 2010

Looks like during Together for the Gospel 2010 there are going to be eight breakout sessions hosted by eight guys who are kind of a "who's who" of young Reformed pastors (i.e. Joshua Harris, Kevin DeYoung, etc. Sorry Josh Gelatt, you didn't make the list) Should be interesting, here are the breakout sessions:

• Eric Bancroft — Convincing Christianity: The Implications of a Robust Gospel in Marriage
• Tony Carter — Proclaiming the Comfort of the Gospel
• Kevin DeYoung — ‘Tis Mystery All, The Immortal Dies: Why the Gospel of Christ’s Suffering Is More Glorious Because God Does Not Suffer
• Greg Gilbert — What Is the Gospel?
• Brian Habig — Fears of the Minister
• Joshua Harris — Dug Down Deep: Helping Others Build Their Lives on Christ-Centered Doctrine
• Michael McKinley — Unity, not Uniformity: Diversity in the Body of Christ
• David Platt — An Unadjusted Gospel in an Unreached World: Connecting Gospel Theology with Urgent Missiology

Not sure which one I am going to register for, but I need to figure it out soon because the early bird registration savings end October 31st, so if I am going to save $50 I need to register this month. I think this is a good idea, although I am guessing a lot of guys are going to spend the break out session book shopping. Maybe Michael McKinley's session?

Speaking of T4G

The Together for the Gospel page has a sporadic blog (although only Ligon Duncan and Mark Dever ever post anything). A recent post by Ligon Duncan has the following quote from the book Theology in America: Christian Thought from the Age of the Puritans to the Civil War :

Philip Schaff observed, with dismay, the popularity in America of self-educated theologians, unexposed to the traditions of the academy, who presumed to establish themselves as authorities in matters of religious truth. He lamented that “every theological vagabond and peddler may drive here his bungling trade, without passport of license, and sell his false ware at pleasure.”

What do you think of that?

Together for the Gospel 2010

So I know it is a year away, but registration for Together for the Gospel 2010 opens tomorrow! Having learned my lesson from T4G ’08, I went ahead and reserved a hotel room at the Galt House hotel in Louisville this morning. Last time we stayed in a hotel several blocks away, which saved some money but made it hard to hoof back and forth when we got 2-5 books per session and yours truly ended up being the book Sherpa because I had a backpack for my laptop. The Galt House is very nice and is connected to the conference center by a walkway, so we will be able to go back and forth between sessions to check email and drop off the books we get or buy in the cavernous book hall.

There are not tons of details on the conference yet, but the title is The (Unadjusted) Gospel and the speaker line-up is the same as 2008: C.J. Mahaney, Albert Mohler, Ligon Duncan and Mark Dever, joined by John Piper, John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul and Thabiti Anyabwile.

Hear me sing...for free!

You can listen to samples and three full songs from the upcoming CD of singing at Together for the Gospel 2008. Sure there are 4999 other men singing, but if you listen carefully you can hear me. I am the one singing off-key.

Check it out here!

Another great resource from T4G!

One of the highlights of the Together for the Gospel conference was the cavernous hall of books for sale (yes, Baptists can read). Unlike many conferences, the books at T4G were all vetted by the four organizers (Mohler, Dever, Mahaney and Duncan) so every book is a worthwhile read. Now there is a compilation of every book for sale at T4G, so you can see all of the books on one list. I know I scanned most every table but I am not sure I recalled even a majority of the books for sale. This is a handy tool. Click here for the PDF file.

Together for the Gospel 2008

Video Clips

There are a few video clips online already, kind of gives a flavor of the speakers. A few minutes of clips doesn't do them justice, but you see




Thabiti Anyabwile




Ligon Duncan (my favorite clip, that the atoning work of Christ should be reflected in the way we love our wives.)




Mark Dever

I am sure more are on the way!

I'm Back!

And I brought a bunch of books with me!

Back Home From Together for the Gospel

Still working on posting thoughts for the other speakers, but I made it home late last night after 2 jump starts of our rental car for a dead battery, a chance to "witness" to a police officer in Ohio who objected to my speed, a stop at BW-3 for wings for two of us and a bowl of custard for te guy who couldn't handle the wings. A stop in Vanderbilt, a stop in Indian River, dropped off the rental car and home around 12:30 AM. Very tired.

The final tally on free books, counting books given away in the cavernous book shop and the eight books at Band of Bloggers, was 25 (see the picture above). 25 books from the conference, all rock solid and many will be very helpful. My favorite, the one I am most looking forward to, is Pierced For Our Transgressions: Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitution. One of the main themes of T4G was recovering and defending the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement and this is touted as the best recent defense of the doctrine. I was good and only bought one book, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, and I got a decent deal on it. The book room was so massive and has so many books that it was hard to shop effectively!

T4G 2010 is already scheduled for April 13-15, 2010. I am going to make hotel reservations as soon as they will allow so that I can get a room at the Galt House, which is attached to the Kentucky Convention Center, which will make it easier to get back and forth. Regardless, T4G 2010 is exactly two years away, and I already can't wait!

Together for the Gospel 2008

Audio Downloads

Sovereign Grace Ministries has made the mp3 downloads from the talks available for free here. Check out especially MacArthur and Sproul. If you listen to Mohler, make sure you are somewhere quiet where you can concentrate!

Together for the Gospel 2008

Panel Discussions

The panel discussions between the main guys (Mahaney, Mohler, Dever and Duncan) have been pretty cool. The first few not as much, but as they get loose and more into it, it is like they are forgetting the audience is there. Mohler, for example, was much better speaking off the cuff. His prepared remarks, as I will note when I post about it, are way over the heads of most people in the audience, myself included. This is what the conference is all about, godly men getting together and talking about the Gospel, working things out, asking hard questions and getting deeper in the world. T4G has created a cooperation map so that like minded brothers can come into contact with other like minded brothers who live near them, which will be a valuable resource once the conference is over.

Together for the Gospel 2008

Day Two

John MacArthur

So the message from John MacArthur today boils down to this: people are basically good.

Just kidding.

Wow, MacArthur was just methodical. Good stuff but he is like a Calvinist Terminator, just relentlessly marching through the Scriptural evidence that points unfailingly to the total depravity of mankind. I took more notes on MacArthur than I did for any of the other speakers.

MacArthur started off stating that the doctrine of total depravity is the most attacked of doctrines because it is the most despised. It is the most distinctively Christian doctrine because it affirms the inability of man to do anything for his own salvation. MacArthur also stated that, in light of this, lots of people claim to love God, but in fact they hate the true God. False belief systems all affirm man's inherent sufficiency and goodness. That leads to false church growth models. Those who advocate false church growth models nay be Christians, but they are terribly confused.

The Bible speaks of total depravity in terms that evoke the imagery of death. But no one wants to preach that. Pragmatism has swallowed up doctrine in the church. The church's common theology has been replace by a common methodology.

MacArthur went through a litany of Scripture, I am not going to go through all of them but the list includes Ephesians 2, 4:18; Col 2:13; John 1: 12-13; John 3:3; John 5:21; John 8:36; Romans 8:7-8; 1 Cor 12:3, 2 Cor 4:4 and on and on. All in all, just rock solid teaching on a doctrine we all believe in, but MacArthur articulated and defended this doctrine of total depravity as well as anyone I have ever heard. I will definitely download and listen to this talk in particular multiple times.