The Chief Need of the Church Today

It is being said that the chief need of the Church today is to repent because of its 'lack of unity'...we would suggest that before she repents of her disunity, she must repent of her apostasy. She must repent of her perversion of, and substitutes for, 'the faith once delivered to the saints.' she must repent of setting up her own thinking and methods over against the divine revelation in Holy Scripture. Here lies the reason for her lack of spiritual power and inability to deliver a living message in the power of the Holy Ghost to a world ready to perish.

-Martyn Lloyd-Jones

But This God is Our God!

[writing about Eph 3:18-19] BREADTH, LENGTH, DEPTH, and HEIGHT...They are made use of to shew to the Ephesians, that God with what he is in himself, and with what he hath in his power, is all for the use and profit of the believers. Else no great matter is held out to them thereby. "But this God is our God!" there is the comfort: For this cause therefore he presenteth them with this description of him. To wit, by breadth, and length, and depth, and height: As who should say, the High God is yours; the God that fills heaven and earth is yours; the God whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, is yours; yea, the God whose works are wonderful, and whose ways are past finding out, is yours. Consider therefore the greatness that is for you, that taketh part with you, and that will always come in for your help against them that contend with you. It is my support, it is my relief; it [is] my comfort in all my tribulations, and I would have it ours, and so it will when we live in the lively faith thereof. Nor should we admit of distrust in this matter from the consideration of our own unworthiness, either taken from the finiteness of our state, or the foulness of our ways (Psa 46). For now, though God's attributes, several of them in their own nature, are set against sin and sinners; yea, were we righteous, are so high that needs they must look over us, for 'tis to him a condescension to behold things in heaven: How much more then to open his eyes upon such as we: yet by the passion of Jesus Christ, they harmoniously agree in the salvation of our souls. Hence God is said to be love (1 John 4), God is love; might some say, and justice too: but his justice is turned with wisdom, power, holiness and truth, to love; yea, to love those that be found in his Son: forasmuch as there is nothing fault-worthy in his righteousness which is put upon us. So then, as there is in God's nature a length, and breadth, and depth, and height, that is beyond all that we can think: So we should conclude that all this is love to us, for Christ's sake; and then dilate with it thus in our minds, and enlarge it thus in our meditations; saying still to our low and trembling spirits: "It is high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? the measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea" (Job 11:8,9).

John Bunyan, The Saints' Knowledge of Christ's Love

C. S Lewis and Using the Past

Not that the past has any magic about it, but because we cannot study the future, and yet need something to set against the present, it reminds us that the basic assumptions have been quite different in different periods and that much which seems certain to the uneducated is merely temporary fashion. A man who has lived in many places is not likely to be deceived by the local errors of his native village; the scholar has lived in many times and is therefore in some degree immune from the great cataract of nonsense that pours from the press and the microphone of his own age.

From, Learning in War-Time.

The Importance of the Old Testament

These are quotes taken from a book that I am reading for Preaching 1. The author is Dr. Graeme Goldsworthy.

Basically, the Old Testament is not the history of man's developing thoughts about God, but the whole Bible presents itself as the unfolding process of God's dealing with man and of his own self-disclosure.

The most compelling reason for the Christian to read and study the Old Testament lies in the New Testament. The New Testament witnesses to the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the One in whom and through whom all the promises of God find their fulfillment. These promises are only to be understood from the Old Testament; the fulfillment of the promises can be understood only in the context of the promises themselves. The New Testament presupposes a knowledge of the Old Testament. Everything that is a concern to the New Testament writers is part of the one redemptive history to which the Old Testament witnesses. The New Testament writers cannot separate the person and the work of Christ, nor the life of the Christian community, from this sacred history which has its beginnings in the Old Testament. (page 18-19)


To understand the whole living process of redemptive history in the Old Testament we must recognize two basic truths. The first is that this salvation history is a process. The second is that this process of redemptive history finds its goal, its focus and fulfillment in the person and work of Christ

Failure to Grasp this truth - largely because the proper study of the Old Testament has been neglected, has aided and abetted one of the most unfortunate reversals in evangelical theology. The core of the gospel, the historical facts of what God did in Christ, is often down-graded today in favor of a more mystical emphasis on the private spiritual experience of the individual. Whereas faith in the gospel is essentially acceptance of, and commitment to, the declaration that God acted in Christ some two thousand years ago on our behalf, saving faith is often portrayed nowadays more as trust in what God is doing in us now. Biblical ideas such as 'forgiveness of sins' or 'salvation' are interpreted as primarily describing a Christian's personal experience. But when we allow the whole Bible - Old and New Testaments - to speak to us, we find that those subjective aspects of the Christian life which are undoubtedly important - the new birth, faith, and sanctification - are fruits of the gospel. This gospel, while still relating to the individual people at their point of need, is rooted and grounded in the history of redemption. It is the good news about Jesus, before it can become good news for sinful men and women. Indeed, it is only as the objective (redemptive-historical) facts are grasped that the subjective experience of the individual Christian can be understood. (page 20-21)

From The Goldsworthy Trilogy, by Graeme Goldsworthy.



I had never heard about Graeme Goldsworthy until I cam up here to Boyce. Although, after listening to some of his lectures and reading his book my whole understanding of how to read the Old Testament is changing! I am seeing Christ in the pages of Scripture so much consistently and much more clearly because of Dr. Goldsworthy's works. I highly recommend them to you.

Last spring, Dr. Goldsworthy gave a few lectures here at Southern. here are the links,

The Necessity and Viability of Biblical Theology

Biblical Theology and Its Pastoral Application

A Defeated Foe

Beloved Christian, sin's days are numbered in your life! The ax has already been laid to the root of your sin. Like a tree that has been cut off at ground level, its leaves may still appear green for a while, but the fact is that its life is over. It is only a matter of time until every leaf withers and falls to the ground!

Sin is a defeated foe. The war against sin has already been won. Like the pockets of resistance that sometimes continue to struggle on in ignorance after the treaty of surrender has already been signed, so sin continues to fight on in our lives with no hope of ultimate victory. Though the believer's conflict with sin may at times be fierce, the final outcome of the battle is assured.

For the Christian, sin is but an early summer snow. Such snows fall occasionally even in the warmer climates, but they are only the death throes of a winter that is past. In a day or two they are melted and gone, and they have no power to stop the inexorable advance of summer. Christian, sin does not stand a chance in your life! You can fight against it with the confident knowledge that summer, not winter, is approaching! The remnants of sin that you still face are just the vestiges of what you once were; they are not an expression of who you are now, and they will soon pass away forever!



Charles Leiter in Justification and Regeneration, pp. 88

The Faithful Preacher

I have finished one of Thabiti Anyabwile's books, The Faithful Preacher: Recapturing the Vision of Three Pioneering African-American Pastors. The book was a collection of sermons from three African-American preachers spanning the years of 1780 to 1937. Before the sermons of the specific pastor, Anyabwile gave a brief overview of their ministry and presented what lessons we can learn from the pastor.

The basic thesis of the book is the quote I posted earlier. We as future ministers, ministers, and lay-people serving in a local church should look to the faithful and fruitful ministers that have gone before us . We are constantly presented with a new, fresh way to do ministry. This new way is sure to catch people's eyes and revive excitement. But there is no guarantee that the new technique will be effective. And in Thabiti's word's, "But who really wants to approach shepherding the Lord's sheep by trial and error?" (p. 14) Should we play with men's souls as we constantly seek out new church techniques? Instead, we should learn from those faithful men that have gone before us and have demonstrated a sound and Biblical way to minster.

That is what Anyabwile sets out to do. This is not a "Here's a five step program to how to do church." Instead it a chance to read from ministers from years past and glean the wisdom of ministry they present in their sermons.

here are some quotes from each of the pastors in the book.

Lemuel Haynes -

The solemn account that the faithful minster expects to give on another day will direct him in the choice of his subjects; he will dwell upon those things that have a more direct relation to the eternal world. He will not entertain his audience with empty speculations or vain philosophy but with things that concern their everlasting welfare. Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, will be the great topic and darling theme of his preaching. If he means to save souls, like a skillful physician he will endeavor to lead his patients into view of their maladies and then point them to a bleeding Savior as the only way of recovery. (p. 32)

Daniel A. Payne -

The end of all his studies and research into religion, science, and philosophy is to teach immortal souls and lead them to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. He does not mistake sound sense, any more than he could mistake stones for bread, giving the people the former just because he has not the latter. He is more anxious to make God's people intelligent and wise than to excite their animal feelings and make them shout. He labors not to make them admire and praise himself but to make them angry with themselves, fall out with their sins, and fall in love with Christ. And this he does by all plainness of speech and fitness of simile, by arguments as strong as bars of iron, by illustrations as beautiful as the lily and the rose. (p. 100)

Francis J. Grimke -

The only thing that we need to be concerned about is to see that we carry out faithfully the instructions of the Lord; that we be true to the solemn trust committed to us; that we go on preaching the gospel; that we go teaching His word, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, in season and out of season, and give ourselves no concern about its future. Its future is assured. God is behind it. It cannot fail. (p. 181)

He is so full of love...

"He is so full of love and kindness that he is disposed to nothing but to receive and defend us, if we come to him. Christ is exceedingly ready to pity us, his arms are open to receive us, he delights to receive distressed souls that come to him, and protect them: he would gather them as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings; it is a work that he exceedingly rejoices in, because he delights in acts of love, and pity, and mercy."

-Jonathan Edwards

Heresy in Dead Orthodoxy

My good friend James Riker pointed me to his blog some time ago. I finally got around to visting it and linking to it.

From His blog,

Heresy in Dead Orthodoxy

"Heresy always finds its fattest soil in dead orthodoxy." W.H. Whitsitt, former President, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (1895-99)

So true. May we never lose the wonder and joy of discovering more and more of Christ our Lord!

Hercules Collins: God is the Gospel

A believer who hath the eyes of his understanding enlightened, his judgement and apprehension is [that] God is the chief good and supreme happiness [is] an intrest in God, a conformity to God, the enjoyment of God here and hereafter... As a convetous and a ambitious man, and a man given to carnal pleasure, will go through much difficulty to have their respective desires fulfilled; so will a believing soul suffer the loss of all, so he may win Christ. "None but Christ," saith an illuminated believer. "Whom have I in heaven but thee, or in earth I desire in comparison of thee?"

There are many good objects in heaven and earth beside thee. There are angels in heaven and saints on earth. But, soul, what are these to thee? Heaven, without thy presence would be no heaven to me. A palace without thee, a crown without thee, cannot satisfy me. But with thee can I be content, though in a poor cottage. With thee I am in liberty in bonds...[I]f I have thy smiles, I can bear the world's frowns. If I have spiritual liberty in my soul that I can ascend to thee by faith and have communion with thee, thou shalt choose my portion for me in this world, "for in the multitude of my thoughts within me, thy comforts delight my soul."

He may have gold, silver, wife, children, possessions, but his affections, the best of his affections God hath. He hath those things as the traveler doth his inn to help him to his journey's end.




Excerpts from Hercules Collins. taken from the book, Devoted to the Service of the Temple.

The God Man

“Jesus is God and man in one person: man that he may feel our woes, God that he may help us out of them.”- Charles H. Spurgeon, “Immanuel - The Light of Life” (sermon on Isaiah 9:1,2)

That was today's gospel quote from the blog Of First Importance. I really liked it and wanted to past it on.

Conflict

Conflict

Give me abhorrence of all evil,
As a vile monster that
Defiles thy law, casts off thy yoke,
Defiles my nature, spreads misery.

Teach me to look to Jesus on his cross
And so to know sin’s loathsomeness in thy sight.
There is no pardon but through thy Son’s death,
No cleansing but in his precious blood,
No atonement but his to expiate evil.

May I discern the deadly viper in its real malignity,
Tear it with holy indignation from my breast,
Resolutely turn from its every snare,
Refuse to hold polluting dalliance with it.

Blessed Lord Jesus, at thy cross
May I be taught the awful miseries from which
I am saved,
Ponder what the word ‘lost’ implies,
See the fires of eternal destruction;
Then may I cling more closely to thy broken self,
Adhere to thee with firmer faith,
Be devoted to thee with total being,
Detest sin as strongly as thy love to me is strong
And may holiness be the atmosphere
In which I live

(The Valley of Vision. Page 182-183)

Man's Dependence on God by Jonathan Edwards

Some quotes from Jonathan Edward's sermon I read this morning,


The redeemed have all their objective good in God. God himself is the great good which they are brought to the possession and enjoyment of by redemption. He is the highest good, and the sum of all that good which Christ purchased. God is the inheritance of the saints; he is the portion of their souls. God is their wealth and treasure, their food, their Life, their dwelling-place, their ornament and diadem, and their everlasting honor and the glory They have none in heaven but God; he is the great good which the redeemed are received to at death, and which they are to rise to at the end of the world.


God hath made man’s emptiness and misery, his low, lost, and ruined state, into which he sunk by the fall, an occasion of the greater advancement of his own glory, as in other ways, so particularly in this, that there is now much more universal and apparent dependence of man on God. Though God be pleased to lift man out of that dismal abyss of sin and woe into which he was fallen, and exceedingly to exalt him in excellency and honor, and to a high pitch of glory and blessedness, yet the creature hath nothing in any respect to glory of; all the glory evidently belongs to God, all is in a mere, and most absolute, and divine dependence on the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.


Now whatever scheme is inconsistent with our entire dependence on God for all, and of having all of him, through him, and in him, it is repugnant to the design and tenor of the gospel, and robs it of that which God accounts its luster and glory.


It is the delight of a believing soul to abase itself and exalt God alone.


Let us endeavor to obtain, and increase in, a sensibleness of our great dependence on God, to have our eye to him alone, to mortify a self-dependent and self-righteous disposition.


Hath any man hope that he is converted, and sanctified, and that his mind is endowed with true excellency and spiritual beauty? That his sins are forgiven, and he received into God’s favor, and exalted to the honor and blessedness of being his child, and an heir of eternal life? Let him give God all the glory; who alone makes him to differ from the worst of men in this world, or the most miserable of the damned in Hell. Hath any man much comfort and strong hope of eternal life, let not his hope lift him up, but dispose him the more to abase himself, to reflect on his own exceeding unworthiness of such a favor, and to exalt God alone. Is any man eminent in holiness, and abundant in good works, let him take nothing of the glory of it to himself, but ascribe it to him whose “workmanship we are, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.”