Hope in the Shadowlands

Discouragers go about among men, and, by their gloomy, pessimistic words—they make life incalculably harder for them. They put out the lamps of cheer and hope which shine in men’s homes. They quench the very stars that burn in the sky above men’s heads. They take the gladness out of hearts. They see only the dark shadows of life, never the sunshine; and they prate wherever they go of gloom and doom. They never bring us a message of cheer. We are never stronger, braver, happier, or truer—for meeting them. –J.R. Miller, 1896

If you want to be Mr. Discourager you have plenty of material to work with.

We do, after all, live in what C.S. Lewis dubbed the Shadowlands. It is here that “the sun is always shining somewhere else. Round a bend in the road. Over the bough of a hill.” When you live in the Shadowlands it doesn’t take a work of grace to point out all of the dark shadows.

Grace sees beyond the shadow. Grace gives birth to hope. And hope sets its eye on the sunshine that is just over the horizon.

I want to be the guy that tells everyone, with a gleam in my eye, “Take heart, the sun is rising!” What value is there in pointing out dark shadows in a land of shadows? Nobody needs that preacher. What men and women need—what my own soul needs—is to be captivated by the hope of another land where the sun is always shining.

Take heart friends…we’ve only seen the cover and the title page. Some day we will “at last [begin] Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read:  which goes on forever:  in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

It All Comes Back to Jesus

I was reminded this morning of the VBS theme from a few years ago. All I remember was something about a boomerang express, a kangaroo, and the fact that it all comes back to Jesus.

I also remembered this quote from Christopher J.H. Wright:

“Ultimately all that will be there in the new, redeemed creation will be there  because of the cross.  And conversely, all that will not be there (suffering, tears, sin, Satan, sickness, oppression, corruption, decay and death) will not be there because they will have been defeated and destroyed by the cross.  That is the length, breadth, height and depth of God’s idea of redemption.  It is exceedingly good news.  It is the font of all our mission.

So it is my passionate conviction that holistic mission must have a holistic theology of the cross.  That includes the conviction that the cross must be as a central to our social engagement as it is to our evangelism.  There is no other power, no other resource, no other name through which we can offer the whole Gospel to the whole person and to the whole world than Jesus Christ crucified and risen.”  (Christopher J.H. Wright, The Mission of God, pages 315-316)

It really is all about the pre-eminent Christ.

Did John Knox Deny the Pre-Existence of Christ

For one of my classes I was tasked with reading The Person of Christ by Donald Macleod. (Which has been a pretty good read so far). In his chapter on the pre-existence of Christ, Macleod quotes John Knox as saying:

Belief in the pre-existence of Jesus is incompatible with a belief in his genuine normal humanity…We can have the humanity without the pre-existence and we can have the pre-existence without the humanity. There is absolutely no way of having both.

This shocked me. John Knox is one of my bearded heroes. He’s the same guy who refused to back down from biblical convictions as he stood face to face with Queen Mary (also known as Bloody Mary). I was shocked that he didn’t hold to the pre-existence of Christ.

Then I looked up the source and realized that there is another John Knox. This guy was a more liberal scholar in the 20th century that was, I believe, also beardless. The lesson here is to be careful when reading quotes. Be sure that it’s the same guy that you think it is. When one guy thinks of John Knox he thinks of a somewhat liberal biblical scholar and the other guy thinks of a bearded Scottish Reformer.

Kind of reminds me of this guy:

 

Can you think of any other people with the same name but totally different theologies?

Feeding Sheep, Even If They Don’t Want to Be Fed

This is too good not to share. William Still brings it to a group of pastors:

If you think that you are called to keep a largely worldly organization, miscalled a church, going, with infinitesimal doses of innocuous sub-Christian drugs or stimulants, then the only help I can give you is to advise you to give up the hope of the ministry and go and be a street scavenger; a far healthier and more godly job, keeping the streets tidy, than cluttering the church with a lot of worldly claptrap in the delusion that you are doing a job for God. The pastor is called to feed the sheep, even if the sheep do not want to be fed. He is certainly not to become an entertainer of goats. Let goats entertain goats, and them out in goatland. (Still, The Work of the Pastor, p10, emphasis mine)

Shepherds are called to help sheep die to themselves and find true life in Christ. That isn’t always popular. Yet our call remains “feed the sheep, even if the sheep do not want to be fed”.

Still’s book is phenomenal and a very quick read. It is one that every pastor ought to read and heed. You can get it here.

The Devotional Side of Calvinism

“Real Calvinism is all about joy”, says Greg Forster. In his book of The Joy of Calvinism he hopes to defend that statement. He believes that Calvinism is a wonderful path to rejoice in the Lord always. Calvinists have gotten a bad rap and a good amount of that is our fault. But at it’s heart Calvinism is about joy.

I’ll review the book on Friday, but in the meantime I want to give you a taste.

The trouble is that people outside the Calvinistic tradition only hear the formulas and technicalities. They don’t hear what we say ‘within’ Calvinism; they only hear what we say about Calvinism. So while Calvinists produce reams of positive, spontaneous, and devotional religious writings, the outside world never knows. If it hears our devotional voices at all, it never associates that devotion with our Calvinism; it thinks we’re pious in spite of our Calvinism, not because of it. “Calvinism” to the outside world means only the formulas, technicalities, and negations.

I pray along with Forster that this changes. A good place to start is by giving this book a read. It’s actually on sale this week for under 5 bucks.

The End of Biblical Theology

About five years ago I was introduced to the discipline known as biblical theology. It is a way of reading the Scriptures as a narrative whole. Biblical theology seems to be the “in” thing right now. I am glad about that. I also appreciate statements like this:

One would hope that when biblical theology is grasped as a way of thinking about the God of the Bible, which in turn generates a way of reading the Bible, ‘biblical-theological’ Old Testament preaching will not so much ‘tell the gospel story’ as ‘tell the gospel-shaped God’. The proper end of biblical theology is not narrative but theology.

Those are words from Andrew G. Shead in his book A Mouth Full of Fire: The Word of God in the Words of Jeremiah. It is an interesting book that I intend to review on Friday.

What are your thoughts on Shead’s statement? Is the “proper end of biblical theology” not a narrative but theology?

Christ is Sweeter Than All Time-Eaten Pleasures

Confined to prison for preaching the gospel Samuel Rutherford writes of his sufferings and his hope of their result:

It is my aim and hearty desire that my furnace, which is of the Lord’s kindling, may sparkle fire upon standers-by, to the warming of their hearts with God’s love. The very dust that falleth from Christ’s feet, His old ragged clothes, his knotty and black cross, are sweeter to me than king’s golden crowns, and their time-eaten pleasures…Oh that men were taken and catched with his beauty and fairness! they would give over playing with idols, in which there is not half room for the love of one soul to expiate itself. And man’s love is but heart-hungered in gnawing upon bare bones, and sucking at dry breasts. (From the Letters of Samuel Rutherford)

Evil Doesn’t Make Sense

It’s Monday.

We’ve mourned through the weekend the tragedy of Newtown, CT. On Monday people will begin giving solutions. We will offer suggestions for change. We will map out strategies for preventing such actions from happening again. We will continue to ask questions, but on Monday we will begin trying to solve them. Today we will try to make sense of this madness.

And it is with such resolve to make sense of evil that I am reminded of these words from Christopher J.H. Wright:

“God, with his infinite perspective, and for reasons known only to himself, knows that we finite human beings cannot, indeed must not ‘make sense’ of evil.  For the final truth is that evil does not make sense.  ‘Sense’ is part of our rationality that in itself is part of God’s good creation and God’s image in us.  So evil can have no sense, since sense itself is a good thing.”

“Evil has no proper place within creation.  It has no validity, no truth, no integrity.  It does not intrinsically belong to the creation as God originally made it nor will it belong to creation as God will ultimately redeem it.  It cannot and must not be integrated into the universe as a rational, legitimated, justified part of reality.  Evil is not there to be understood, but to be resisted and ultimately expelled.  Evil was and remains an intruder, an alien presence that has made itself almost (but not finally) inextricably ‘at home.’  Evil is beyond our understanding because it is not part of the ultimate reality that God in his perfect wisdom and utter truthfulness intends us to understand.  So God has withheld its secrets from his own revelation and our research.”

“Personally, I have come to accept this as a providentially good thing.  Indeed, as I have wrestled with this thought about evil, it brings a certain degree of relief.  And I think it carries the implication that whenever we are confronted with something utterly and dreadfully evil, appallingly wicked, or just plain tragic, we should resist the temptation that is wrapped up in the cry, ‘Where’s the sense in that?’  It’s not that we get no answer.  We get silence.  And that silence is the answer to our question.  There is no sense.  And that is a good thing too.”

“Can I understand that?  No.  Do I want to understand that?  Probably not, if God has decided it is better that I don’t.  So I am willing to live with the understanding that the God I don’t understand has chosen not to explain the origin of evil, but rather wants to concentrate my attention on what he has done to defeat and destroy it.” (42-43, The God I Don’t Understand)

Wright’s entire book is a great reflection on the tough questions of our faith. It is one of the best books that I have read on the topic. You can buy it today.

More Pious than the Bible

I am working on the finishing touches of my book, Torn to Heal: The Good Purpose of God in Suffering.  One of the difficulties that I am having is in determining how strong to use language in relation to God’s sovereignty over suffering.  I find great comfort and encouragement from D.A. Carson:

Some theologians are shocked by and express bitter reproach against other theologians who speak of God ‘causing’ evil in any sense.  At one level, they are to be applauded: everywhere the Bible maintains the unfailing goodness of God.  On the other hand, if you again scan the texts cited in this chapter, it must be admitted that the biblical writers are rather bolder in their use of language than the timid theologians! 

Little is gained by being more ‘pious’ in our use of language than the Bible is, and much may be lost.  By being too protective of God, we are in fact building a grid out of only a subset of the biblical materials, and filtering out some of what is revealed in the Bible about the God who has so graciously disclosed himself.  The result, rather sadly, is a god who is either less than sovereign or less than personal, either incompetent and frustrated or impassive and stoical.  But the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is utterly transcendent and passionately personal.  These are among the ‘givens’ of Scripture, and we sacrifice them to our peril. (How Long O Lord?, 199-200)

Pray for me as I continue writing this book.  Pray that the Lord would rescue me from being a timid theologians that attempts to be more pious and wise than the Bible itself.  Pray that the Lord would help me to trust the sufficiency of His Word and to point people to the only means of healing for suffering there is; namely, the Lord Jesus Christ.  People will not be helped by neat theology.  Nor will they be helped by muddy theology.  People will only be helped by theology that exalts Christ and leads to union with Him. 

What If Christ is False?

An article I wrote awhile back, “Going All-In”, posted this morning to SBC Voices.  While preparing for the sermon this Sunday on The Good Purpose of God in Suffering I was struck by how suffering relates to setting our hope fully on the Lord.  Reading through a section of Desiring God another picture of “going all-in” emerged.  In reflecting upon 1 Corinthians 15:19, Piper says:

…Christianity as Paul understands it is not the best way to maximize pleasure if this life is all there is.  Paul tells us the best way to maximize our pleasures in this life: “If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’” (1 Corinthians 15:32).  He does not mean something as naive as sheer Epicureanism or debauchery.  That is not the best way to maximize your pleasures, as anyone knows who has followed the path of alcoholism and gluttony.  Drunks and gluttons are to be pitied just like Christians if there is no resurrection. 

But what he does mean by the phrase, “Let us eat and drink” is that without the hope of the resurrection, one should pursue ordinary pleasures and avoid extraordinary suffering.  This is the life Paul rejected as a Christian. Thus, if the dead are not raised, and if there is no God and no heaven, he would not have pummeled his body the way he did. He would not have turned down wages for his tent-making the way he did. He would not have walked into five whippings of 39 lashes. He would not have endured three beatings with rods. He would not have risked his life from robbers and deserts and rivers and cities and seas and angry mobs. He would not have accepted sleepless nights and cold and exposure. He would not have endured so long with backsliding and hypocritical Christians (2 Corinthians 11:23-29). Instead he would have simply lived the good life of comfort and ease as a respectable Jew with the prerogatives of Roman citizenship.

When Paul says, “If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink,” he does not mean, “Let’s all become lechers.” He means, there is a normal, simple, comfortable, ordinary life of human delights that we may enjoy with no troubling thoughts of heaven or hell or sin or holiness or God — IF there is no resurrection from the dead. And what stunned me about this train of thought is that many professing Christians seem to aim at just this, and call it Christianity.

So if we get to the end and come to find out the Christianity is false and there is no resurrection of the dead, do you say with Paul, “what a waste”?  Or is your model of Christianity such that it’s a means to a better life now? 

That quote by Piper and the truth therein has me on my knees this morning as I ponder the good purpose of God and even the call of God to suffer. 

The Blinding Effect of Woundedness

In Tim Keller’s book on marriage, The Meaning of Marriage, he explains the effect that woundedness has on us.  It makes us self-absorbed.  It’s easy to think of other people when reading this quote.  But truth is, it’s pointing right at me:

Woundedness makes us self absorbed…This is not hard to see in others, of course. When you begin to talk to wounded people, it is not long before they begin talking about themselves. They’re so engrossed in their own pain and problems that they don’t realize what they look like to others. They are not sensitive to the needs of others. They don’t pick up the cues of those who are hurting, or, if they do, they only do so in a self-involved way. That is, they do so with a view of helping to “rescue” them in order to feel better about themselves. They get involved with others in an obsessive and controlling way because they are actually meeting their own needs, though they deceive themselves about this. We are always, always the last to see our self-absorption. Our hurts and wounds can make our self-centeredness even more intractable. When you point out selfish behavior to a wounded person, he or she will say, ‘Well, maybe so, but you don’t understand what it is like”. The wounds justify the behavior.  (Keller, The Meaning of Marriage)

This applies to far more than just marriage.  I’m convinced that the only way out of such a self-absorption is to fervently turn our heads away from our wounds and believe that these little deaths are swallowed up in the victory won by the stripes of the Suffering Servant. 

His wounds and not mine are what define me. 

Are You Prone to the Prosperity “Gospel”?

David W. Jones and Russell S. Woodbridge have served the church well by writing Health, Wealth & Happiness.  It is probably no secret to my readers and those within my church community that I absolutely abhor the prosperity “gospel”.  It’s not just some little error to be trifled with, it’s dangerous heresy that breaks people and churches.  I was even more convinced of this after reading the work of Jones and Woodbridge. 

One of the most helpful things in their book is in the conclusion they give five questions to diagnose our openness to the prosperity gospel:

1. Why does God exist and what does He control in the world?  Does God exist to serve us and grant our wishes?  Or is He about His purposes in the world?  Do I control my own future?  Or does God direct my steps?
2. What is the purpose of suffering and how do I react when I suffer?  Do you see suffering as your failure to utilize divinely designed means of blessing?  Or do you see suffering as the good purpose of God?
3. What do I deserve in life?  Do you believe you are entitled to a good life, good health, and overall success?  Or do you see that everything beyond condemnation is grace? 
4. Why did God save me?  Does He need you on His team?  Did He save you to fulfill your dreams and longings?  Or did God save you so that you might enjoy Him and extend His glory? 
5. Why do I give to God?  Do you give to get something?  Do you give out of guilt?  Or do you give out of love? 

I plan on reviewing this book tomorrow.  I can tell you today though that when I review it I am going to encourage you to buy it.  So, you can go ahead and purchase it today. 

5 Ways to Seek Revival

Andrew Fuller lived in a period in Baptist history much like ours.  Numbers were declining, controversies were stirring, souls were neglected, and the cultural climate was very rocky.  Fuller believed that one thing sorely needed was a revival.  To this end he listed 5 ways that those in his day could pursue revival

1. Prayer
2. Cultivation of Christianity in the home
3. Witnessing to unbelievers
4. Self-examination
5. A spirit of generosity for those in need

Honestly, I find Fuller’s list interesting.  I would probably add something about the ministry of the Word.  Yet, I am very encouraged by the presence of cultivating Christianity in the home and having a spirit of generosity for those in need.

What do you think of Fuller’s list? 

This list was originally published in a little different format in The armies of the Lamb edited and introduced by Michael Haykin.

Wrestling and Genuine Trust

I’m reading through The Wounded Heart by Dan Allender.  I’m finally on the section of the book that provides steps for growth and shines the light on redemption in Jesus.  I found this statement really helpful and wanted to share it with you:

It is frighteningly easy to appear trusting when in fact one is simply dead (in denial of wounds, hunger, or struggle of the heart)…Genuine trust involves allowing another to matter and have an impact in our lives.  For that reason, many who hate and do battle with God trust Him more deeply than those whose complacent faith permits an abstract and motionless stance before Him.  Those who trust God most are those whose faith permits them to risk wrestling with Him over the deepest questions of life.  Good hearts are captured in a divine wrestling match; fearful, doubting hearts stay clear of the mat.

I’m very grateful for a God that doggedly pursues me even when everything within me is screaming out “leave me alone”!  He’s too good to do that, and I’m grateful. 

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On a side note if you have ever experienced abuse or have loved ones in your life that have then Dan Allender’s book The Wounded Heart: Hope for Adult Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse is a good read. 

The Soul of the House

The wisest of women builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down (Proverbs 14:1)

Commenting on this passage Charles Bridges says:

…the wife [is] a blessing or a curse to her husband.  Such is she to his house.  Her wisdom may supply many of his defects; while all the results of his care and prudence may be wasted by her folly.  The godly matron is the very soul of the house.  She instructs her children by her example, no less than by her teachings.  She educates them for God and for eternity; not to shine in the vain show of the world, but in the Church of God…

But mark the foolish woman—her idleness, waste, love of pleasure, want of all forethought and care, her children’s wills allowed, their souls neglected, their happiness ruined!  We see her house plucked down in confusion.  A sad issue, if an enemy had done this!  But it is the doing, or rather undoing, of her own hands.  In proportion to her power and influence is the capability of family mischief…

In other words the influence of the woman is very great as it concerns the spirit of the home.  It’s no wonder then that Bridges went on to say, “What responsibility then belongs to the marriage choice, linked with the highest interests of unborn generations!” 

Wives, pursue wisdom and drink deeply from the fountain of grace.  Husbands, nurture your wives.  Future wives, don’t wait for marriage to get wisdom.  Pursue it now.  Future husbands, look for a woman that is pursuing God and His wisdom.  

Treading on MY High Places

    Though the fig tree should not blossom,
        nor fruit be on the vines,
    the produce of the olive fail
        and the fields yield no food,
    the flock be cut off from the fold
        and there be no herd in the stalls,
    yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
        I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
    GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
        he makes my feet like the deer's;
        he makes me tread on my high places.
    To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.
(Habakkuk 3:17-19 ESV, emphasis mine)

There are few better examples of faith in all of Scripture.  Though his eyes do not see victory Habakkuk is going to keep hanging on.  And I don’t think this should necessarily be interpreted through our 21st century-everything-is-gonna-work-out-in-this-life lenses either. I think the redemption that Habakkuk is looking for is one that he will not see fully in his own lifetime.  Just like us real redemption will be found another day.

In reading through this passage earlier today I noticed something about the text that I have never noticed before.  I have not found any commentaries or any other places that have really commented on this and so I’m a tad fearful of throwing out something new fangled that is nothing close to Habakkuk’s meaning.  Yet, I will venture on because even if it was clearly shown that this cannot be proven from this verse I believe it’s sound theologically. 

Notice in the bold section that Habakkuk says he makes me tread on “my” high places.  The use of the possessive there is what caught my attention.  Habakkuk did not simply say “high places” but my high places.  Habakkuk’s high places may be different than my high places.  For some merely lifting your head in the morning and being able to go the grocery store is a great victory and “treading on my high places”.  For others their “high place” is far more lofty.

This reminds me of some very wise words by Jared Wilson in his book Gospel Wakefulness:

No two people feel the same way.  Some of us are more emotive than others; some are naturally more reserved; some are naturally more excitable…What gospel wakefulness presupposes is that wherever a person tops out emotionally, they do so at the gospel…what should move you most is the reality that Christ died and rose for you.  (147-48)

Habakkuk isn’t called to tread on my high places.  Gospel-infused faith causes him to tread on his high places not necessarily mine. 

We have to minister to people where they are and not necessarily where they ought to be.  For some people growth in grace might mean working up enough nerve to make a phone call to order a pizza.  For others such a task is nothing close to a definition of treading on high places.  Both ought to be celebrated as blood-bought faith! 

We Had Rather You Would Fight Yourselves

This parable comes from Andrew Fuller, via a Scotch Baptist*:

In one of the new Italian republics, two independent companies are formed for the defense of the country.  Call the one A. and the other B.  In forming themselves, and learning their exercise, they each profess to follow the mode of discipline used by the ancient Romans.  Their officers, uniforms, and evolutions, however, are after all somewhat different from each other.  Hence disputes arise, and B. refuses to march against the enemy with A. as being disorderly.  A. gives his reasons why he thinks himself orderly; but they are far from satisfying B., who not only treats him as deviating from rule, but as almost knowing himself to do so, and wilfully persisting in it.

A., tired of jarring, marches against the enemy by himself.   B. sits at home deeply engaged in studying order and disicpline.  ‘If your form and rules,’ says A., ‘are so preferable to ours, why do you not make use of them?  Discipline is a means, not an end.  Be not always boasting of your order, and reproaching others for the want of it; let us see the use of it.  It is true, like the Quakers in 1745, you have bought waistcoats for our soldiers, and we thank you for them; but we had rather you would fight yourselves.

The application here is vast.  So, I will leave you to think through it and apply it to your own situation. 

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*That is a Baptist from Scotland—and not one that likes to drink Scotch. 

How Lamenting and Assurance Fit Together

Carl Trueman is, in my opinion, one of the best writers of our time.  It is not surprising then, that I am thoroughly enjoying his book Reformation: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.  I received this book (originally written in 2000) free while attending this years T4G.  It was one of the first books of the thirty free ones that I picked up to read.  I am not disappointed. 

Here Trueman is defining assurance and considering how we can lament and have assurance at the same time.  Enjoy:

Assurance is…backward looking with regard to its foundation but forward looking in its orientation.  In essence, assurance is being certain that God is who he says he is—and that is derived from our knowledge of his great saving acts throughout history as they culminate in Christ—and therefore being sure that he will bring us to glory, that he will complete that good work within us which he has started.  We live in the present, at a time when we know that one day we will see God in glory but only see him now by faith.  In the meantime, the world is a dark and hostile place; and our souls are in many ways still darkened and frequently tending to hostility towards God.  Therefore, there will be times when, either because of external or because of internal factors, we do not see or feel God smiling upon us.  At such times we can indeed lament our sorry condition.  It is right and proper, and pastoral good sense, that we do so, because to do otherwise is to fool nobody, not even ourselves, and thus to store up trouble for later on; but as we do so, we should also remind ourselves that it is not what we feel now that determines our status, but who God was, is and always shall be.  Thus, the lamentation should be set, as it almost invariably is in the psalms, within the context of God’s larger redemptive acts and purposes.  (From Reformation, 124-25)

I would encourage you to read through that again and really chew on what Trueman is saying.  If you like this paragraph chances are you will greatly benefit from the entire book.  You can purchase it here for under 10 bucks.  You can read more from Trueman here. 

Why You Can’t Scare People Into Heaven

I am reading through Matt Chandler’s first book, The Explicit Gospel.  I am almost finished and Lord willing I will post my review on Thursday or Friday.  One particular section that highlights not only Chandler’s writing skills but also his gospel presentation concerns the inadequacy of “scare tactics” in evangelism. 

Knowledge of and belief in hell—as important as they are—are unable to create worshipers.  Yet misunderstanding this reality is historically how the doctrine of hell has been abused and misused by so many men in the name of God.  You cannot scare anyone into heaven.  Heaven is not a place for those who are afraid of hell; it’s a place for those who love God.  You can scare people into coming to your church, you can scare people into trying to be good, you can scare people into giving money, you can even scare them into walking down an aisle and praying a certain prayer, but you cannot scare people into loving God.  You just can’t do it.  You can scare them into moral acts of goodness.  But that’s not salvation.  It’s not even Christian.  (Matt Chandler, The Explicit Gospel, 49)

If you are familiar with Chandler’s hard-hitting and gospel-centered preaching style that is what you get in this book.  If you do not want to wait for the review you can go ahead and buy yourself a copy today: The Explicit Gospel.

Idol Destruction 101 Part 7

When in doubt just quote Spurgeon.  If you’ve gotten lost in anything I’ve said in the past 6 articles on idol destruction this quote by Spurgeon sums it up nicely:

It is ever the Holy Spirit’s work to turn our eyes away from self to Jesus; but Satan’s work is just the opposite of this, for he is constantly trying to make us regard ourselves instead of Christ. He insinuates, “Your sins are too great for pardon; you have no faith; you do not repent enough; you will never be able to continue to the end; you have not the joy of his children; you have such a wavering hold of Jesus.” All these are thoughts about self, and we shall never find comfort or assurance by looking within. But the Holy Spirit turns our eyes entirely away from self: he tells us that we are nothing, but that “Christ is all in all.” Remember, therefore, it is not thy hold of Christ that saves thee—it is Christ; it is not thy joy in Christ that saves thee—it is Christ; it is not even faith in Christ, though that be the instrument—it is Christ’s blood and merits; therefore, look not so much to thy hand with which thou art grasping Christ, as to Christ; look not to thy hope, but to Jesus, the source of thy hope; look not to thy faith, but to Jesus, the author and finisher of thy faith. We shall never find happiness by looking at our prayers, our doings, or our feelings; it is what Jesus is, not what we are, that gives rest to the soul. If we would at once overcome Satan and have peace with God, it must be by “looking unto Jesus.” Keep thine eye simply on him; let his death, his sufferings, his merits, his glories, his intercession, be fresh upon thy mind; when thou wakest in the morning look to him; when thou liest down at night look to him. Oh! let not thy hopes or fears come between thee and Jesus; follow hard after him, and he will never fail thee.

Yep, that about sums it up. 

Idol destruction does not happen through a morbid introspection that tries to cast down idols and give them to the Lord.  Idol destruction happens because God is radically dedicated to your joy in Him.  This destruction happens because it is the work of Jesus to overthrow the works of the devil.  Idols are cast down because that is what God does through His gospel.  We work to expose their emptiness in light of His fullness. 

Though it sounds too simple and too passive the way to idol destruction (as has been shown in the previous articles) is to aggressively and believingly trust in what Christ has already accomplished.  Idols are empty but until they are seen in light of the gospel they look appealing and they look strong.  But once idols are viewed in light of the unblushing promises that we have been “blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing” they soon melt like wax.

Expose their Emptiness by Exalting His Fullness.  That’s the key.