Book Review: The God Who is There

Welcome back to coffee with a Calvinist. This program is dedicated to helping you better understand the Word of God and the doctrines of grace. The Bible tells us do your best to present yourself to God as one approved a worker who is no need to be ashamed.

Rightly handling the word of truth. Get your Bible and coffee ready and prepare to study along. Here's your host with today's lesson pastor Keith Foskey.

And Welcome back to coffee with a calvinist. My name is Keith Foskey and I am a calvinist today. Is september the 18th? 2020 if you're following along in our daily bible reading which I hope that you are Today we are going to be reading from first peter chapter 5.

And if you'd like a copy of our daily bible reading go to our website sgfcjax .org. Look under posts and under posts you will see the 2020 bible reading program. We are reading one chapter a day through the new testament.

Uh going in the order that we believe approximately That the books were written so a chronological tour through the new testament one chapter a day every day in 2020. So today is friday and friday has become our day for doing book reviews.

A Book Review of *The God Who Is There*

And I have been looking forward to doing this book review for a while. Uh, I read this book. I have really enjoyed this book and I want to highly recommend this book to you especially If you are a new believer in christ or maybe you are someone who is not yet A believer in christ and you're listening to this program and you want to know more about the bible.

You want to know more about who god is? You want to know more about? What the bible says about god and about man? Then my recommendation to you would be to read this book and the book that we're going to be looking at today Is entitled the god who is there?

Finding your place in god's story by D. A Carson now d .a. Carson Is a scholar. He is a tremendous scholar and he is Able to write both on the scholarly level and on the popular level. He's able to write for those in the academy and he's able to write for those who are in the pews.

He is Um emeritus emeritus professor of new testament at trinity evangelical divinity school. And he is the co-founder of the gospel coalition and He has been described as doing the most seminal new testament work By contemporary evangelicals and as one of the last great renaissance men of evangelical biblical scholarship.

I'll tell you what really got my attention about d .a. Carson Was not so much his writing but what someone else said about him. I was watching an interview with d .a. Carson years ago By dr. R. C. Sproul and this was prior to obviously prior to dr. Sproul's passing and dr. Sproul sat down with d .a. Carson and Dr. Sproul said of him that he considered him to be one of the greatest scholars living today.

I think that was the language he used. I may be missing it slightly but basically he said that Carson's work and Carson's writings have been some of the most important work of his generation and so To have somebody like r .c. Sproul speak so highly of dr. Carson is to me a tremendous thing.

I of course as many of you know considered dr. Sproul to be Uh, one of not only one of my favorite pastors, but one of my favorite Christians one of my favorite people he just was. He was a tremendous man did a lot of great things and I was blessed to have met him on several occasions.

And uh, i'm just thankful for the time that I had with him and thankful for the lessons that he taught me about being a Scholar and being a pastor and preacher. And when I hear him give accolades to someone like d .a. Carson that of course got my attention.

Uh even more. I knew of course i've known who Carson is for a long time but uh that that was really just of interest to me and so This book that i'm talking about today is written by d .a. Carson and this book is not written necessarily for scholars but I genuinely can say I think that anyone whether they are a Not yet believer they have not yet come to christ or that they are A seasoned long-time believer even someone who is a bible teacher and bible scholar Would still benefit from this book.

Uh, in fact, i'm going to read a uh, i'm going to read from in the opening we have the uh, The acknowledgements and one of the acknowledgements is from sam chan lecturer in theology preaching ethics and evangelism at sydney missionary and bible college in australia and this is what he says.

He says if you've ever wanted to hear god's story Then this book is for you. If you've ever wanted to come face to face with the god who made loves and rescues. Then this book is for you. And if you've never picked up the bible or wandered into a christian church Then this book is especially for you.

So it kind of tells you what it is and i'll give you an overview of the book having gone through it myself and having Read it. Basically what this is is this is a this is an introduction to biblical christianity.

Um, I guess that's the easiest way to say it and so this book is is great because it it begins at the most basic level of If you've never opened a bible before and you don't understand what the bible is.

You've you've never even considered what is in it. This book starts I mean it even says things like The big numbers are the chapters and the small numbers are the verses. I mean it's it's it's you might think wow.

How how simple but yes, but imagine somebody who's never Never grown up in church. Imagine someone who's never been To sunday school who's never been to church and you might think well, I don't know anybody like that.

Well, there are people like that all over the united states. Who maybe grew up in unbelieving homes or maybe maybe grew up in situations where church was not a priority. Bible reading and bible study was not a priority many of many of the listeners.

I'm sure many of you Uh, maybe near me and you you you're in the what we might call the south the bible belt. And so there you know, a lot of us would wouldn't Wouldn't think to ask those questions because we grew up in sunday school situations where we were always opening our bibles Bibles and having sword drills and things like that, but imagine having someone never never.

Having read the bible. This book takes them on a journey through god's word Understanding from the very basic level and then but the thing is it doesn't stay at the basic level it doesn't it doesn't start with baby food and and and Continue with baby food.

It starts with The simple things and it moves on to the more powerful complex things never straying though from that popular presentation where it's where where I would say carson understands his audience throughout he's talking to people as if they know nothing.

But at the same time he's not talking to them like they're fools. Uh, he or he's talking to them as A respectful scholar is explaining the most important book in the world to to people that he genuinely cares about and wants them to understand that's the key to this book is D. A. Carson wants people to understand the bible and I believe he understands the bible and therefore his explanation is Very very clear and concise and and powerful.

The Structure of the Book’s Fourteen Chapters

I want to read To you. I want to read the chapters to you. Uh as I want to show you how the or explain to you how the book is laid out. The book is laid out with 14 chapters. And it goes as follows. The god who made everything.

That is chapter one. Chapter two The god who does not wipe out rebels. Chapter three The god who writes his own agreements. Chapter four the god who legislates. Chapter five the god who reigns. Chapter six the god who is unfathomable fathomably wise.

Chapter seven the god who becomes a human being. Chapter eight the god who grants new birth. Chapter nine the god who loves. Chapter ten the god who dies and lives again. Chapter eleven the god who declares the guilty just.

Chapter twelve the god who gathers and transforms his people. Chapter thirteen the god who is very angry. And finally chapter fourteen the god who triumphs. I want to say this one of the things I was so thankful About this book.

God’s Justice, Hell, and Eternal Punishment

Is this book does not shy away? From the reality of god's justice and god's Eternal punishment for those who remain in their sins separated from christ. Uh, I bring that up because I think it's important to to mention that so many people have Abandoned a solid theology of eternal conscious torment a solid theology of hell and and have replaced it with either not talking about hell at all or having it be the very last thing in any type of Theology theological lesson or conversation or outright.

Reinterpreting the idea of hell as some type of personal experience of Sin in this world i've heard it recently explained hell is we create hell with our sin and we We hell is what we make and hell is not something created by god even though the bible clearly says that um hell is Uh Something that god created for the devil and his angels.

So the idea that we create hell is to me a Uh, it's a miscommunication of the truth. And I think if you want a good solid understanding of What the bible says about? God's Uh punishment of the wicked I think you can.

You you'll find that in this book d .a. Carson, I think does a great job. In fact, I want to read. And on page 210 of the of the book he says this. He says any christian who teaches on these things without tears is betraying christ.

Um, this is what he's referring to there any any christian who teaches on the subject of god's punishment god's hell. He goes on he says christian faith and thought Are not helped by angry preachers whose tone almost suggests that they take a kind of vicious glee from the tragic end of others.

For a start we christians will be the first to acknowledge as paul understands in ephesians 2 That we are all by nature children of wrath and Starting with us who have become christians if we have come to experience the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation With the living god it is only because of the grace of the gospel.

We are never more than poor beggars telling others where there is bread. We are never more than condemned prisoners who have found pardon and who want others to enjoy the same this again takes a sobering and mature look at the subject of Eternal torment and I think it does so in a way that is god honoring and in a way that is helpful for either a young believer, uh, or someone who is um, As I said new to the faith and trying to learn what the faith says about things like this another part of the book that I wanted to point out is in the later chapters what we find is D. A. Carson is is actually Looking at some of the more deep aspects of the faith um as as we noted when we looked at the the order it he talks about god declaring the guilty just that's the doctrine of Justification and he does a tremendous job of explaining the doctrine of justification so clear in his presentation recently, I was I was thinking about how muddled so many people become especially scholars when it comes to issues like Justification they become so muddled and so confused and this book, uh has a Great understanding and and explains very well the doctrine of justification um, and ultimately the doctrine of Regeneration which we see in chapter Uh eight where he talks about god granting the new birth all of these things are great.

But but in the later chapters what we see is we see What he calls concluding prayers. These are prayers that are written for the person who's reading this book To help them understand how to respond to this truth.

You know You've probably heard as I have many people talk about the sinner's prayer. And how sinners have to say this very specific prayer if they're going to be saved, you know god. I Um, I believe in you I repent of my sin.

I trust in jesus, uh, you know and and Personally, I I don't like the idea of sinner's prayers because I think when a man comes to repentance and faith When he understands the gospel that will pour out of him.

I don't think we have to necessarily give him something to recite such as in islam. There's a certain thing that has to be recited in Arabic for a person to become a muslim. Uh, that's not the way christianity is but there are times when new believers need help Praying and so there are these concluding prayers that are written by carson himself and they are wonderful beautiful prayers, um and Like i'll give you a portion of this one.

This is on the in the chapter the god who dies and lives again the concluding prayer. We rejoice heavenly father in the truth that jesus rose from the dead. Yet we begin to see that this is not simply a truth in the public arena of history to be absorbed quickly and then set To one side for if indeed your dear son the god man rose from the dead then everything Is changed his victory over death Is confirmed and he goes on but the point is This book is great for someone who doesn't know how to pray.

It gives them a model. An example of a seasoned believer writing out a prayer to god. So how would I recommend this book? One I would recommend this book to any believer. No matter where you are in your spiritual walk whether you're very mature or whether you're very new to the faith.

Or maybe you don't know where you are and you are not yet in christ. This book would be very helpful and would would accompany well your personal bible study and devotion. Because it takes you through the story of the bible in Edible bites that you can learn from.

In fact, i'll tell you how how much I like this book. I I currently we we teach At our church. We have sovereign grace academy and I just finished uh Our course on survey of the old testament and i'm currently teaching the survey of the new testament.

And this is a two-year rotational course. So in two years, I will again teach survey of the old testament survey of the new testament. The next time I teach these old testament new testament surveys this book will be part of the required reading.

That's how much I think of this book and how much this book is useful. Um, because it is that well put together. And I will tell you this also I think this would be a great book to give your unbelieving loved ones if you have friends and family who do not believe.

Ask them. Would you be willing to read a book that I give to you and purchase this book and give it to them and I believe it will be very useful. It's it's it's if you want to say it this way. It is a very very hefty gospel tract because it takes somebody from the beginning of creation to the end of revelation and explains to them the The story of god in the bible and it explains our place in that story.

Well, this has been my review of the god who is there finding your place in god's story by d .a Carson highly recommended and I would encourage it to be added to your own personal reading list. I want to thank you for being with me today on coffee with a calvinist.

And again, we have this program every weekday morning at 6 30 a .m. And you can find us on facebook on youtube and on Any of your podcasting outlets. We are on apple podcasts. We're on spotify. And of course we're on facebook as well.

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And I appreciate you being in the audience today. Again, thank you for listening to coffee with a calvinist. My name is keith foskey and I have been your calvinist. May god bless you.

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