Tag Archives: jason dohm

Preface to What May Become a Book

Dear Sovereign Redeemer and other friends,

I currently have the privilege of preaching through the Ten Commandments, and I want to squeeze the last drop of good from our time in this towering section of Scripture. One way to do that is to take the sermons and commit them to writing. I know that will help me, and I hope the output will be useful for others. Time will tell.

The unavoidable consequence is that if I am able to persevere in doing this for all twenty-something sermons, I will essentially have produced a sizable book. But I don’t want to wait until a massive undertaking is completed and refined – something I am not radically committed to achieving – so I have decided to release each chapter (each sermon will be a chapter) as soon as I complete it.

Will it ever be a “real” book you can get your hands on in a paper version? Who knows. For now it doesn’t matter. For now I simply want to start and see how far I can get. If I am able to stay on track, I will release a chapter here every Monday, concluding sometime around Thanksgiving. I might not stay on track. Time will tell.

Here is the very brief preface. Next Monday I will post the first chapter. If you decide to read it, I hope it enriches you.

Your brother,

Jason

The Ten Commandments of Love

Preface

Does the Christian world need another book on the Ten Commandments? I doubt it. Great and godly Christian writers have been writing books for twenty centuries, and the Ten Commandments aren’t exactly niche.

Then why this book? Quite simply, I knew it would be good for me, and I thought it could be edifying to some of the Lord’s people. The discipline of writing will help me be more articulate on this fundamental portion of Scripture, and a closer inspection of these ten laws could help some saints love God and neighbor more – they are laws of love.

This book is little more than the output of sermons preached to Sovereign Redeemer Community Church in Youngsville, NC in the first half of 2020. Preaching those sermons helped me. I trust hearing those sermons helped our church. And I hope you are refreshed, encouraged, and maybe occasionally reproved by the book.

Reprise: “Give Us Youngsville, or We Die!”

Dear Sovereign Redeemer and other friends,

This was originally posted on April 28, 2011, one month into Sovereign Redeemer’s existence. It is truer now than then. Read on!

The great Scottish reformer, John Knox, was overheard by friends laboring in prayer for his country, repeatedly calling out to God, “Give me Scotland, or I die!”

Sovereign Redeemer Community Church is a month old now, and I am praying that God will give us the spirit of this man, the earnestness and urgency of his prayers for the people around him, and his boldness in proclaiming the gospel. Maybe Youngsville is no Scotland, and maybe none of us are a John Knox, but the heart of our King is the same. We may not be “God’s gift to Youngsville,” but Jesus Christ is, and we are some of His happy subjects. Our being here is no accident, and we are under orders.

Ephesians 2:8-10 says this: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

Here we are, the workmanship of God, having nothing to boast in except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, with good works to do which have been prepared for us by God Himself. As we walk in them, our neighbors will see and hear, and they “may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

So whether we feel ready for this calling or not, it is upon us. And maybe the questioning of our readiness can work in our favor by making us hungrier and more fervent in our prayers, so that we find ourselves relying more fully on God who is able.

Church planting is about God taking ground. There is nothing remotely sinister about this, since wherever and whenever the government of God spreads, happiness and every good thing abounds. Jesus is the best King there is, and to be His subject is to know a peace that passes understanding. Youngsville needs this just as much as a thousand other towns.

May it be that God Himself has assembled us for this purpose, and that He will teach us – drive us – to labor in prayer, “Give us Youngsville, or we die!”

Reprise: That Will Never Be Marriage

Dear Sovereign Redeemer and other friends,

I originally posted “That Will Never Be Marriage” a year ago. It is as needful a blast of the trumpet as it was a year ago, and maybe more so. In the post, I said I was setting reminders on my calendar to republish this each year for the next five years, and so I did. So without further ado:

That Will Never Be Marriage

The progress made by the proponents of homosexual marriage is nothing short of breathtaking. If momentum means anything at all, it will only be another year or two until same-sex marriage has been so overwhelmingly accepted in the United States that those who oppose it won’t even have a significant platform for articulating objections. The advocates who have so skillfully advanced it will have the luxury of just shrugging and waving us off with disdain. In my lifetime, we will have switched spots.

Almost forgotten is the God who called all things into existence with only the words of His mouth. He is the One that keeps the debate from being over. God should never, ever be left out of any equation, because no matter what mankind says or does, He always speaks last, and what He says goes. In card playing lingo, every card in His hand is an ace of spades. Always the highest card. Always trump. Always.

And so that will never be marriage, no matter how many people say it is or how long they say it. Two men, no matter what they say or what they do, can never be married. Two women, no matter what they say or what they do, can never be married. Because marriage is God’s, and no amount of momentum can ever change that. It is His institution, given in the first chapter of the book of beginnings. “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it…’” (Genesis 1:27-28a). “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24). This is God’s. This is marriage.

Is there another view to be had in all of Scripture? No. None. The last prophet of the Old Testament is simply representative: “You cover the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping and crying; so He does not regard the offering anymore, nor receive it with goodwill from your hands. Yet you say, ‘For what reason?’ Because the LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously; yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant. But did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.” (Malachi 2:13b-15). Three profound things are learned from the three questions in the text and their answers. God responds when His institution of marriage is dishonored, it is only God who can make two one, and He does so to increase those who honor Him. All three of these truths stand immovably between God’s creatures and any such thing as gay marriage.

And the New Testament seals this truth with stunning clarity. Having spoken at length about how husbands and wives must relate to one another, Paul says this: “This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” (Ephesians 5:32). This is why, just a few verses earlier, he said that husbands must act like Christ and wives must act like the church. Because this institution was created by God to play out the most sacred drama – the gospel drama – before a home and before a world. So Christians can never, ever accept homosexual marriage, because it fundamentally upends the gospel drama. It destroys the gospel picture that God created marriage to be. And so that will never be marriage.

I am setting reminders on my calendar to republish this each year for the next five years, because saying it once won’t be nearly enough. I will need to lay my eyes on these words again and again myself, and I’m guessing you will too. And when we read it, we will remember that God always has the highest card to play, that He always plays trump, and that He will act at just the right moment.

“Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, ‘Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us.’ He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure: ‘Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion.’… Now therefore, be wise, O kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.” (Psalm 2:1-6, 10-12).

Brothers and sisters, our duty is to declare the truth of Scripture, never letting the light of that truth be extinguished by even the greatest multitude, and to pray fervently that when our God acts, it will be to grant repentance and faith to those enslaved to sin, and not to send the judgment we so richly deserve. May we be found laboring tirelessly towards those ends!

Twenty-Three Years of Wedded Bliss

Dear Sovereign Redeemer and other friends,

Outside of the day I was born again by the grace of God, the most important and wonderful day of my life was Saturday, June 29, 1991, the day Janet Mizelle walked up the aisle on the arm of her father and then walked back down that aisle on my arm as Janet Dohm.

Months before that day, I desperately wanted her to agree to marry me, but I’m still not entirely sure why she did. Janet was and is lovely, intelligent, fun, funny, godly, and above all, God-fearing and God-loving. The term “better half” has never been more appropriate. God has been so kind to give us twenty-three very happy years together, and my prayer is that our love for each other would continue to grow as we “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18a).

More on Birthdays

Dear Sovereign Redeemer and other friends,

A couple of years ago I posted some wisdom from John Calvin regarding birthdays. Now some more from J.C. Ryle’s “Holiness” (the chapter on “Assurance”):

I believe it ought to be our continual aim and desire to go forward, and our watchword on every returning birthday and at the beginning of every year should be “more and more” (1 Thessalonians 4:1) – more knowledge, more faith, more obedience, more love. If we have brought forth thirty-fold, we should seek to bring forth sixty; and if we have brought forth sixty, we should strive to bring forth a hundred. The will of the Lord is our sanctification, and it ought to be our will too (Matthew 13:23; 1 Thessalonians 4:3).

Here are the texts he references, with the sections he quotes in italics and underlined:

1 Thessalonians 4:1-8, Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; 2 for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. 7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. 8 Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.

Matthew 13:23, “But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”

Exactly! Our glorious God is worthy of a lifetime of progress in the faith. The sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ is worthy of a lifetime of demonstrated thankfulness. More and more indeed! Not to earn favor, but because we have inexplicably received unearned favor.

What could make for a happier birthday?

Did Santa Really Slap a Jehovah’s Witness at Nicea?

Dear Sovereign Redeemer and other friends,

I obviously decided to end the year on a light-hearted note. Unless you’re Santa. Or a Jehovah’s Witness.

The technical answer is “no” – Santa Claus did not slap a Jehovah’s Witness at Nicea. HOWEVER, the forerunner and supposed inspiration for the modern day myth that is Santa, Nicholas of Myra, is said to have slapped that heretic of heretics and forerunner of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Arius, during the Council of Nicea. Right there in front of Constantine. To the shock and amazement of everyone present. Seems he just couldn’t take another second of the doctrine of the Trinity being perverted and the deity of Christ impugned. Seems downright in tune with the holiday, if you ask me.

Anyway, if you want more (and better) thoughts about Santa, here are some options:

– “The Controversy of Christmas”

– “Why Lie to Your Kids about Santa?”

– And finally, if you just want a good ‘ole belly-laugh: “Slappy Holiday”

There. Don’t say I never gave you anything.

Nuggets from Puritan Preaching

Dear Sovereign Redeemer and other friends,

One of the outstanding messages from the NCFIC “Worship of God” conference included some observations by Joel Beeke about Puritan preaching. I found two to be especially inspiring and helpful:

1. They detested “exposing their learning.”

Most of the Puritan preachers were very learned men. Reading them and gaining a sense of what they themselves had read is very humbling. It isn’t a stretch to say that modern preachers pale by comparison as a whole. But well-studied as they were, and hard as they worked in preparation for preaching, Puritan preachers labored to speak plainly and directly. They worked to pierce the heart, as well as to enlighten the mind. They wanted power in their preaching, not polish or flourish. They wanted to be faithful to the text and to be thoroughly understood, not to be thought smart. Every preacher should aspire to this.

2. They preached that the natural man was sinning with every tick of the clock.

Puritan preachers pressed on their hearers that every person was created by God for His glory, and so every second living for self and unreconciled with God was an utterly sinful second. This allowed them to lift up the remedy – our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ – in a beautiful and unparalleled way. It helped them to batter down the walls of self-satisfaction erected by those outside of Christ who needed to be convinced of their desperate need to fly to the cross for mercy.

Preachers of the gospel, join with me in aspiring to follow our Puritan forefathers by preaching to the heart as well as the mind, and by pressing the sinfulness of the unrepentant state on our hearers. These hearers will be better served as we do.

Bringing the Bible to Bear on Mental Illness

Dear Sovereign Redeemer and other friends,

There are certain sacred cows that you touch at your own peril. One of these is how to approach mental illness, a term never used in Scripture, though obviously the Bible speaks to it. Which brings me to the point: this is an area hijacked by the wise of the world, who are happy to create terms, define them, and tell us what to think of them without once consulting the fount of all truth, the Bible. Christians obviously can’t accept this.

That is why I am so grateful to have been pointed to an article titled “A Biblical Response to Mental Illness and Suicide“. In it, Dr. Abercrombie, founder of the Biblical Counseling Institute, brings the counsel of Scripture to bear on a touchy topic.

I heartily commend it to you. It is well worth the investment of time to read it.

The Secret of Happiness in the Home

Dear Sovereign Redeemer and other friends,

It is hard to find a Scripture text that is the equal of Psalm 128 in terms of describing a happy home and what it takes to have one. It was an honor to have drawn the assignment to speak on this topic during a recent NCFIC “Master’s Plan for Fatherhood” conference in New York City.

My favorite line: “The secret is there is no secret. There is only God. God is the key.”

Happy listening, if you dare!

The Power of a Gospel-Centered Marriage

Dear Sovereign Redeemer and other friends,

Of the talks that I was asked to give at a recent NCFIC conference in New York City, “The Power of a Gospel-Centered Marriage” was my favorite, but just by a nose (“The Secret of Happiness in the Home” was right on its heels).

My favorite line: “If you chase happiness in your marriage, you’ll end up miserable. But if you pursue God, you’ll end up happy. Happiness is a fruit.”

Happy listening, if you dare!