In 1 John 1:3, the apostle assures those to whom he wrote that the fellowship of believers “is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” The expression he uses speaks with such force that we have rendered it, “Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.”

The outward appearance and condition of the saints in those days was paltry and contemptible. Their leaders were considered the scum of the earth, the offscouring of all things. Inviting others to fellowship with them, and to participate in the precious things that they enjoyed, evoked a number of awkward encounters and objections: “What benefit is there in communion with them? All it brings is sharing their troubles, reproaches, scorns, and all kinds of evils.” To prevent or remove these and similar objections, the apostle lets the believers know in earnest, that despite all the disadvantages of their fellowship, at least to a carnal view, in truth what they had was very honorable, glorious, and desirable. For “truly,” he says, “our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.”

This is so earnestly and directly asserted by the apostle, that we may boldly follow him with our affirmation, “That the saints of God have communion with him.” And a holy and spiritual communion it is, as I will demonstrate. Why this reference to the Father and the Son is distinct between them, must be fully examined later.

Since sin entered the world, no man has had communion with God because of his sinful nature. He is light; we are darkness; and what communion has light with darkness? (2Cor.6:14). He is life; we are dead. He is love; we are enmity. What agreement can there be between us? Men in such a condition have neither Christ, nor hope, nor God in the world, Eph. 2:12. “Being alienated from the life of God through their ignorance,” chap. 4:18. Now, two cannot walk together unless they are agreed, Amos 3:3. So, while this distance between God and man exists, they cannot walk together in fellowship or communion. Our first interest in God was so lost by sin, that no recovery remained in ourselves. We deprived ourselves of all power to return to him. And God had not revealed that there was any way to regain access to him. Nor did he reveal that sinners could approach him in peace for any reason. Nothing that God made, and no attribute that he revealed, provided the least hint of such a possibility.

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This is sermon #46 in the Hebrews series. In this sermon on Hebrews 12:12-17 I preach on Pursuing practical holiness, bitterness, gracelessness, purity and perseverance.

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Join Dr. Brian Cosby as he unpacks the twin pillars of Christian maturity: knowledge and love.  So that we don't become rudderless boats tossed to and fro by the wind, he outlines 13 "winds" from our culture affecting the church today.

Genealogies of oftentimes overlooked when studying Scripture.  But they are as much God's Word as Psalm 23 or Romans 8.  Join Dr. Brian Cosby as he explains the importance of biblical genealogies and how they cry out for a Savior.// < ![CDATA[

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When St. Paul wrote his Epistle to Titus about his duty as a minister, he mentioned young men as a class requiring peculiar attention. After speaking of aged men and aged women, and young women, he adds this pithy advice — “Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded” (Tit 2:6). I am going to follow the Apostle’s advice. I propose to offer a few words of friendly exhortation to young men.

propose to offer a few words of friendly exhortation to young men. I am growing old myself, but there are few things I remember so well as the days of my youth. I have a most distinct recollection of the joys and the sorrows, the hopes and the fears, the temptations and the difficulties, the mistaken judgments and the misplaced affections, the errors and the aspirations, which surround and accompany a young man’s life. If I can only say something to keep some young man in the right way, and preserve him from faults and sins, which may mar his prospects both for time and eternity, I shall be very thankful.

There are four things which I propose to do:

I. I will mention some general reasons why young men need exhorting.

II. I will notice some special dangers against which young men need to be warned.

III. I will give some general counsels, which I entreat young men to receive.

IV. I will set down some special rules of conduct, which I strongly advise young men to follow.

On each of these four points, I have something to say, and I pray God that what I say may do good to some soul.

I. Reasons for Exhorting Young Men

In the first place, what are the general reasons why young men need peculiar exhortation? I will mention several of them in order.

1. For one thing, there is the painful fact that there are few young men anywhere who seem to have any religion.

I speak without respect of persons; I say it of all. High or low, rich or poor, gentle or simple, learned or unlearned, in town or in country — it makes no matter. I tremble to observe how few young men are led by the Spirit, how few are in that narrow way which leads to life, how few are setting their affections upon things above, how few are taking up the cross and following Christ. I say it with all sorrow, but I believe, as in God’s sight, I am saying nothing more than the truth.

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I think it is always wrong to lie (to state what one knows is not true). But my friend John Frame and a number of other theologians make exceptions in extreme cases, such as in war and to save life. The debate includes the classic moral dilemma that arises in the case where Nazi soldiers come to your door, asking whether you are hiding Jews.

Recently Wayne Grudem argued in favor of never lying in the festschift to John Frame; and Frame responded briefly in the same festschrift. This exchange builds on earlier work by John Murray and John Frame. Taken together, these writings lay out the arguments on both sides. Neither side has succeeded in presenting an argument that would convince everyone on the other side. Frame indicates that he has “gone back and forth several times”3 on the issue, which illustrates the difficulty. Is there anything more to be said?

The arguments in favor of lying in exceptional cases include three prongs, which focus respectively on normative, existential, and situational aspects of the issue. I myself think that together these prongs have plausibility. Like Wayne Grudem, I want to stress that I respect John Frame and others who allow exceptions. And yet they have not convinced me. Why not?

I. Scriptural Instruction

The normative prong in favor of exceptions includes positive instances of deceit in Scripture, and the negative observation that nowhere does Scripture directly and clearly prohibit all lying whatsoever. Cases of lying naturally fall under the Ninth Commandment, which says, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Exod 20:16). At its heart the Ninth Commandment focuses on false testimony in court, which is clearly a situation where telling only the truth is mandated. But what about the many other situations in which we find ourselves? Ephesians 4:25 says, “Let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.” This commandment is much broader in scope, but still focuses on fellow Christians, who are “members one of another.” Other verses are more general: “You destroy those who

speak lies” (Ps 5:6); “lying lips are an abomination to the Lord” (Prov 12:22). Grudem lists many other verses that condemn lying, but his opponents may argue that these verses address the same situations covered by the Ninth Commandment and Eph 4:25. That is, they concern saying things that help rather than hurt our neighbors.

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If you are a Christian, God has caused you - by his sovereign grace - to be born again to a living hope!  But what does that exactly mean?  Join Dr. Brian Cosby as he explores the implications of having a living hope, even in the midst of suffering from 1 Peter 1:3-9.// < ![CDATA[

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This is sermon #45 in the Hebrews series. In this sermon on Hebrews 12:4-11 I preach on divine discipline, the love of God, being in God's waiting room and growing through affliction.

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Some people have the idea that God had a marvelous plan for the world but that things went terribly wrong and God had to come up with a costly initiative to sort out the mess. This is not what the Bible teaches.

God is not like the government, responding to unforeseen circumstances and making adjustments for unintended consequences. He is not like a scientist, experimenting to see what works, or a business entrepreneur who succeeds by finding new ideas that respond to emerging needs.

Bringing sinners to eternal life through Christ has always been God’s plan. God promised eternal life “before the beginning of time, and at his appointed season he brought his word to light” (Titus 1:2–3). Before he created the world, God saw the joy that would come from redeeming a vast company of sinners from every circumstance of life, every continent of the world, and every generation of history. And knowing the cost, he determined to do it.

This is why the Bible describes Christ as “the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world” (Rev. 13:8). Christ’s death on the cross was not something that God came up with in response to Satan’s triumph in the garden of Eden or as a last resort when it became evident that men and women couldn’t live up to the Ten Commandments. Redeeming sinners from all nations through Jesus Christ was God’s plan from the beginning.

God’s plan is very different from our plans. When I say, “I’ll meet you for breakfast next Tuesday,” I mean, “Assuming that I’m alive, that I have transportation, that I don’t have some other emergency, and that the restaurant is open and serving breakfast, I will see you on Tuesday.”

Our plans are contingent. They depend on how events unfold and whether we have the ability to bring them about. Many things in life are beyond our control.

But God is sovereign. He fulfills his own plan in his own time by his own power, and no one can stop him. God knows exactly what he is doing at every point in history in every nation of the world and through every event in your life.

This should be a great comfort to you. Nothing you have ever done has taken God by surprise. Nothing that has happened to you has caught him unaware. Nothing you do and nothing that happens to you can stop God from fulfilling his plan or even slow him down. That is what it means for God to be sovereign.

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1 . The Reed and the Bruising

Christ’s calling - How Christ pursues his calling –What it is to be bruised -The good effects of bruising The prophet Isaiah, being lifted up and carried with the wing of a prophetic spirit, passes over all the time between him and the appearing of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Seeing with the eye of prophecy, and with the eye of faith, Christ as present, he presents him in the name of God to the spiritual eye of others in these words:

“Behold my servant, whom I uphold; my elect, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed, he shall not break, and the smoking flax, he shall not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth” (Isa. 42:1 3).

These words are alleged by Matthew to be now fulfilled in Christ (Matt. 12:18 20). In these words are propounded, first, the calling of Christ to his office; and secondly, the manner in which he carries out his office.

Christ’s Calling

God calls him here his servant. Christ was God’s servant in the greatest piece of service that ever was, a chosen and a choice servant who did and suffered all by commission from the Father. In this we may see the sweet love of God toward us, in that he counts the work of our salvation by Christ his greatest service, and in that he will put his only beloved Son to that service. He might well prefix it with “Behold” to raise up our thoughts to the highest pitch of attention and admiration. In time of temptation, apprehensive consciences look so much to the present trouble they are in, that they need to be roused up to behold the one in whom they may find rest for their distressed souls. In temptations it is safest to behold nothing but Christ, the true brazen serpent, the true “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world”, (John 1:29). This saving object has a special influence of comfort to the soul, especially if we look not only on Christ, but upon the Father’s authority and love in him. For in all that Christ did and suffered as Mediator, we must see God in him reconciling the world to himself (2Cor. 5:19).

What a support to our faith this is, that God the Father, the party offended by our sins, is so well pleased with the work of redemption! And what a comfort this is, that seeing God’s love rests on Christ as well pleased in him, we may conclude that he is as well-pleased with us if we are in Christ! For his love rests in a whole Christ, in the mystical Christ, as well as in the natural Christ, because he loves him and us with one love. Let us, therefore, embrace Christ, and in him embrace God’s love, and build our faith safely on a Savior who is furnished with so high a commission.

See here, for our comfort, a sweet agreement of all three persons: the Father gives a commission to Christ; the Spirit furnishes and sanctifies it, and Christ himself executes the office of a Mediator. Our redemption is founded upon the joint agreement of all three persons of the Trinity.

How Christ Pursues His Calling

This is said here to be done modestly, without making a noise, or raising dust by any pompous coming, as princes are accustomed to doing. “His voice shall not be heard.” His voice indeed was heard, but what voice? “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden” (Matt. 11:28). He cried, but how? “Hear, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters” (Isa. 55:1). And just as his coming was modest, so it was mild, which is set down in these words: “A bruised reed, he shall not break, and smoking flax, he shall not quench.”

We see, therefore, that the condition of those with whom he was to deal was that they were bruised reeds and smoking flax; not trees,