Chris Armstrong, (in “The Future Lies in the Past,”) chronicles the recent preoccupation of Evangelicaldom with the patristic church, and, to give due credit at the outset, let us trumpet the late Robert Webber’s long, lonely, but now successful trek — Ancient-Future Faith he liked to call it — to invite evangelicals to take church history seriously, not as a peculiar museum piece but as an authentic source of truth and as a guide for the church. Armstrong’s sympathetic report, even in a magazine such as Christianity Today, whose very name does not, shall we say, exactly inspire confidence an Ancient-Future Faith, is nonetheless welcome in, as Armstrong himself observes, an “Emergent” era intentionally unfettered by trifles like the past and its stale orthodoxies.

Dear Friends,

Thanks for your question. We are not an emergent church. We are thankful for how the Lord is working in many of these churches. However, COTK is too consciously committed to visible continuity with historic orthodoxy; to authoritative, exegetical, grammatical-historical preaching; and to the glory of God as an end in itself to be "emergent."

"Missional" can be a good or bad word. It derives historically from the conviction that God's heart is to win the world to His Son and that the church IS God's mission in the world, participating with Him. The problem comes when "mission" -- rather than the glory of God -- is seen as an end in itself. We are happy to be missional in the sense that the church carries on God's mission of bringing all things under the loving authority of His Son Jesus, but this is not what most emergents mean by the term "missional." To us, the emergent vision of "missional" is too narrow, too impoverished.

I surely hope this helps. If not, please write back. God bless you and your family!


Yours and His,


P. Andrew Sandlin

CHURCH OF THE KING Corpus Christi, Texas July 17-19 For additional information, including special hotel rates, call 361-852-1810 COME JOIN US! Speakers: Brett Becker (St. Paul Evangelical Church): "Sola Gratia" Jack Carter (Church of the King-Corpus Christi): "The Church: The Authority of the Holy Spirit" Rob Clayton (Christ's Covenant Church): "Sola Scriptura" S. Michael Craven (Center for Christ and Culture): "Creedal and Catholic Christianity" Craig Dumont (Okemos Christian Center: "The Kingdom and the Church" Richard Hanner (Redeemed Community-LaGrange): "Sola Fide" Dave Lescaleet (Church of the King-Corpus Christi): "A Call to Victory" Mike McKirk (L2 Church): "The Church: Fidelity and Relevance" Ron Lewis (Redeemed Community-Dallas): "Worship: Our First Priority" P. Andrew Sandlin (Church of the King-Santa Cruz): "Why the Fellowship of Mere Christianity?" Ron Smith (Church of the King-McAllen): "Soli Deo Gloria" Brad Stephens (Immanuel Baptist Church): "Solus Christus"

Introduction
A. No sermon today, but vital message (informal, conversational)
B. Every church (including new folks) needs to know core distinctives
1. Elders been laboring and praying about plan 2008
2. Not theological statement; not a game plan (that will come later)
3. Church cannot be all things to all men
C. After our Lord Himself, theology always comes first

Global Warming: A Christian Assessment and Response Saturday, July 7, 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. The University Inn & Conference Center, Santa Cruz 611 Ocean Street, Santa Cruz 888-289-1579 Do humans stand on the verge of global environmental catastrophe? Are claims of human contribution to global warming accurate or vastly exaggerated? What is the Christian approach to this global issue? Screening former Vice President Al Gore’s Oscar-Winning film “an Inconvenient Truth” and the controversial film “The Great Global Warming Swindle” Guest Speaker: Dr. Rick Oliver, Ph.D., Evolutionary Biology, M.S., Biology – University of California, Irvine M.A., Education – Calif. State Univ., Fullerton Co-Sponsored by Church of the King-Santa Cruz and Center for Cultural Leadership For more information call 831-476-4877

(Rom. 6:1-10)

Paul has just been teaching that Jesus is running up the score on the Devil. Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. In other words, where there’s lots of sin, God not just forgives that sin (if we repent, of course) but showers His grace and obliterates that sin.

But people might get the idea that, since lots of our sin elicits a shower of grace, why not sin more and more so that God can shower His grace more and more? “This grace is so great, let’s just keep sinning so we can get more grace.” Then, sin might end up being a good thing after all, since it highlights God’s grace.

Paul’s answer (v. 1 ) is, well … no. God’s grace overwhelms our sin, but please understand one important thing: God’s grace isn’t designed just to forgive sin; God’s grace is designed ultimately to get rid of sin. Paul’s whole point early in Romans is how God gets rid of man’s sin. God’s not just trying to forgive sin; His objective is to destroy sin. Sin destroys man, and God — by His grace — destroys sin. The goal of grace is to destroy sin, not just forgive it.

We read in Titus 2:11-12: “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age . . . .”

So, if there’s anybody that says, “Well, I know sin is bad, but I can keep sinning since God’s grace will always forgive me,” he or she is on the road to destruction. That’s not grace; that’s a disgrace. “Shall we sin that grace may abound? May it never be!”

And in saying no, Paul brings up one of the most remarkable truths in all the Bible. It’s this: that when Jesus died on the Cross and rose from the grave, in some sense we died and rose with Him. Remarkable. What does this mean? Paul is saying that what died when Jesus died was the power of sin over Jesus, and what came alive when Jesus rose was the great new power of righteousness (vv. 6 and 10). And we died to sin and we rose in righteousness right along with Him.

Paul is outlining for the Romans “The Gospel worldview,” and as such he needs to account for the Jews. After all, the Jews were God’s chosen people, God’s covenant people. Of all the nations of the earth, God especially chose Israel with whom to covenant. God wasn’t saying by this action that He didn’t care about the other nations (it’s clear from the OT that He did). But the Jews alone were His covenant people. He gave them glorious promises about their seed and their land. He was a God to them in a unique and intimate way.

But the Jews had largely apostatized, from Moses’ day right on down to Jesus’ time. They had forgotten their God and His covenant and His law, so He unleashed His judgments on them — just as He’d promised in the book of Deuteronomy and elsewhere in the OT.

Despite this apostasy (or perhaps because of it), the Jews by Jesus’ time had become proud and haughty in their tradition and heritage and lineage. They looked down on all other races and people. We encounter this pride in the Gospels. The Pharisees boasted about being the children of Abraham. But Jesus countered they were not the true seed of Abraham — that is, if they really were Abraham’s children, they would believe in Jesus, just as Abraham did (Jn. 8). Of course, they hated Jesus for statements like this.

(Rom. 1:16-32)

I’d like to draw your attention to parallel statements in vv. 17 and 18 —the righteousness of God is revealed and the wrath of God is revealed. We had better understand this parallel, because in one way or another it occupies about the entire first half of this letter.

It may seem strange that Paul says that the Gospel is the revelation of God’s righteousness and wrath, not His grace. Isn’t the Gospel also about grace? Of course it is (3:23). But Paul is intent here to point out what the Gospel reveals at its root — the righteousness and the wrath of God.

(Rom. 1:1-6)

Romans is considered by some people the most important book in the Bible. All of the Bible is God’s Word, but all of it doesn’t contain equally important information. The book of Genesis is more important than Lamentations, Hebrews than Jude. The book of Romans contains some of the most important information in the Bible. We had better know what this book is saying.

(Ps. 149; 1 Jn. 2:15-17)


We might be perplexed by Psalm 149:6-9. What does singing the praises of God — worship — have to do with executing God’s vengeance on His enemies? This seems like a huge incongruity.

For that matter, why is the psalmist talking about vengeance against the nations at all? After all, isn’t God a God of love? You’d better believe He is. We’d never be saved without that love poured out at Calvary in Jesus Christ.

But there can’t be love without hate — the right kind of hate, of course. If I love God, I must hate God’s enemies. That’s just what Psalm 139 says.