I don't want your empty music anymore

"Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream." - Amos 5:23-24.

These verses make me think back to the time I spent in a kind of broad, wishy-washy, shallow, and worldly Evangelicalism.

Music to stir the emotions was always a big deal, but I think that was just trying to compensate for the lack of real depth and genuine spirituality. It was as if there was an unspoken philosophy that maybe if people's senses are distracted enough with excitement they won't notice the superficiality of it all.

I say this because there was a disinterest in the truth of God, even sometimes an active attempt to keep it vague and unclear. There was an apathy differentiating between right and wrong, and godliness was seen as an optional extra; maybe even inadvisable since it might make the worldlings feel uncomfortable in their worldliness.

Well, whatever they might think, God is not pleased with such hollow worship. He is righteous, and loves righteousness, and demands that we judge between true and false, right and wrong, good and evil. We must set ourselves apart from everything that is against His good and beautiful standard of His own infinite moral perfections, and devote ourselves entirely to Him in loving gratitude for what He has done for us - and especially for Christ's sacrifice for our sins.

If only Scripture was more treasured in the heart:

"Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." - James 4:3-10.

The living God is the covenant God

The following is a excerpt from Herman H. Hoeksema's "Reformed Dogmatics," volume 1. This work is available on the Reformed Free Publishing Association website.

"The truth of the Trinity means that God is the living God.

"As the living God he is the covenant God. The idea of the covenant is not that of an agreement, pact, or alliance. It is a bond of friendship and living fellowship. Friendship is that bond of fellowship between persons, according to which and by which they enter into one another's life in perfect knowledge and love so that mind in knit to mind, will to will, heart to heart, and each has no secrets from the other. It presupposes a basis of likeness, of equality, for only like knows like. On that basis of equality, it requires personal distinction: for without this there is only sameness; there can be no fellowship. Both the equality and the personal distinction are in God because He is triune; the most absolute equality exists between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for these three are one in essence. In Him there is personal distinction between the three persons subsisting in the one essence.

"Thus the three persons of the holy Trinity completely and perfectly enter into one another's life. Their fellowship is infinitely perfect. They have no secrets from one another. There is no conflict between them. Their relationship is one of perfect harmony: the Father knows and loves the Son in the Spirit; the Son knows and loves the Father in the Spirit; the Spirit knows and loves the Father through the Son in Himself. The living God is the covenant God. That is the great significance of the truth that God is triune and that these three distinct persons are the one, only, true, and eternal God."

Faith: the Only Cure for Pragmatism

 (Written to a man defending R.C. Sproul's supposed co-operation with Arminians, who also defended the supposed claim that Whitefield and Wesley co-operated)

"How can two walk together except they be agreed?" By dissimulation, certainly, by dishonesty, and by craftiness indeed, but not in true fellowship. If two believe fundamentally different messages (even diametrically opposed messages, which are not only incompatible, but antithetical to one another), how can they co-operate in the work of spreading such messages? They can only co-operate in spreading one or the other. And always in such attempts to co-operate, it is the truth that is compromised for the sake of lies. Why? Because God is jealous for His glory, and will not share it with another. He will not bless efforts which profane His holy name.

But we serve Jesus Christ alone, and therefore have no need for the co-operation of men. It is God who preserves, defends and spreads His Gospel in order to gather and sanctify His church from every tongue, tribe, and nation. So, if we are His instruments in bearing witness to this Gospel, what aid could we possibly need in addition, since the power of God is with us? The temptation for whatever reason to co-operate in church work (which is primarily the preaching of the Gospel) with those who preach a false gospel ought to be condemned by seeing with the eyes of faith that whatever power or resources they might seem to offer is nothing is comparison the thousands upon thousands of the chariots of God, which we must learn to see by faith.

The sinful compromising philosophy of pragmatism only seems attractive when we take our eyes off Jesus who is reigning at the right hand of the throne of God. The arm of the flesh seems tempting only the eyes of the flesh, not to the eyes of faith, and so there are many today who need reminded of this and exhorted to repent and cast off entirely the help of the wisdom of the princes of Egypt which is no help at all, no matter what it seems.