The Wanderer

My friend Martin has cleaned up the text of the pastoral charge given by Professor Murray to which I referred earlier.  Here it is in its restored glory:

“You have been called as minister in this congregation and you have been ordained in pursuance of that call. There are many functions which devolve upon you in that particular capacity, but I want to draw your attention particularly to two of these functions because I believe they are the two main functions which devolve upon the minister of the Gospel. And these two functions are the preaching of the Word and pastoral care.

“Now first of all there is this duty of preaching or teaching the Word. You are to labor in the Word and doctrine. And in connection with that function I want to mention three things.

“First, do not burden yourself and do not allow others to burden you with other business so that you are deprived of the time and energy necessary to prepare adequately for your preaching and teaching administration. The Word of God indeed, in all its richness and in all its sufficiency, is in your hands. It lies before you. But in order that you may discover the richness of that Word and bring forth from its inexhaustible treasure for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for the instruction which is in righteousness, there must be the blood and toil and sweat and tears, the earnest labor, and the searching of that Scripture, and in application to its proper understanding, so that you may be able to bring it forth in a way that is relevant in your particular responsibility.

“The second thing I want to impress upon you is that you realize deeply and increasingly, your complete dependence upon the Holy Spirit for understanding of the Word and for the effectual proclamation of it.

“Now that is not the counsel of sloth. That is not to be an alibi for your earnest labor and the study of the Word of God and your earnest application to effective proclamation, and neither is that a counsel of defeat. Your absolute dependence upon the Spirit of God – this is the counsel of encouragement and confidence. It is the Spirit and the Spirit alone who gives the demonstration and power by which the Word of God will be carried home with effectiveness, with conviction, and with fruitfulness to the hearts and the minds and lives of your hearers. It is He and He alone who produces that full assurance of conviction, and it is your reliance upon the Holy Spirit that in the last analysis is your comfort.

“The Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost. And do not be so God dishonoring as to pray for Pentecost. Pentecost is in the past. Pentecost was a pivotal event in the unfolding of God’s redemptive touch, when the Holy Spirit came. The Holy Spirit abides in the church. He came and He abides in order to perform those functions which Jesus himself foretold: ‘When He, the Spirit of Truth’ is come, He will convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, and that He will also glorify Christ by taking of the things which are Christ’s and showing them unto us.’

“It is necessary, it is indispensable, however, that you earnestly pray for the unction and the power and the blessings of that Holy Spirit. Because it is only if there is that accompanying demonstration of the Holy Spirit and the power that men and women will be arrested and stunned with the conviction of sin. And it is then that they will give expression to the word of another, ‘What shall we do to be saved?’ Likewise, in that particular situation of overruling, overwhelming conviction produced by the demonstration and power of the Holy Spirit, that you will be able, by the understanding given by the Spirit, by the unction imparted by the Spirit, to bring into that conviction of need, that conviction of sin, that conviction of misery, the unsearchable riches of Christ.

“That is my second aspect of this charge. To realize more and more your complete dependence upon the Holy Spirit. It is as you will realize your complete dependence upon the Holy Spirit, that you will be more diligent in the discharge of all the duties that devolve upon you in the understanding of God’s Word and in its effective proclamation.

“Third, I wish to mention, in that precise connection, that you are to think much of the privilege. You are to think indeed of the responsibility, and I have said enough with respect to that responsibility already. I want particularly to impress upon you now the appreciation of your privilege.

“It is yours to be a fellow of the Gospel – of the glorious, the blessed Gospel. It is yours to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ. It is yours to be the ambassador of the King eternal, immortal, invincible. It is yours to be the ambassador of him who is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, of whom you have heard already that He walks among the candlesticks. There is no greater vocation on earth. There is no greater vocation that God has given to any than the vocation of proclaiming the whole counsel of God – proclaiming the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, and proclaiming the unsearchable riches of the Redeemer. Think much of your privilege.

“Now second, you have the pastoral care. That is an all important aspect of a minister’s responsibility and privilege.

“There are likewise three things that I want to mention in connection with that particular function, and the first is this: Shepherd the church of God. I personally cannot understand those men who have been called as pastors of churches who neglect the pastoral care of the people committed to their charge. I cannot understand it. And I’m not expected to understand it, because it is part of the mystery of that iniquity which too frequently has overtaken those who have been called into the ministry.

You do not get your sermons from your people, but you get your sermons with your people. You get your sermons from the Word of God, but you must remember that the sermons which you deliver from the Word of God must be relevant. They must be practical in the particular situation in which you are. It is when you move among your people and become acquainted with their needs, become acquainted with the situation in which they are, become acquainted· with their thoughts, become acquainted with their philosophy, become acquainted with their temptations, that the Word of God which you bring forth from this inexhaustible treasure of wisdom and truth will be relevant and will not be abstract and unrelated.

“Second, in connection with this very same subject of pastoral care I charge you to be ready always to give an audience to your people. I mean an audience to them as individuals, or an audience to them as families. Be in such a relation to them that they will make you their confidant, and take good care that you will be their confidant. And as you will be their confidant, they will pour out to you the bitter experiences of their heart, the bitter experiences of their souls, of their lives. I charge you, my very dear friend, to be the instrument of dispensing, I say the instrument of dispensing the ‘oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness’ to those who are broken in heart and weary in the body.

“Now there is more, of course, involved in that ministration of comfort to the people of God in the temptations and the trials which necessarily overtake them in this life. You must also bring the counsel of God, the whole counsel of God, to bear upon them where they are. And it is just as you bring that whole counsel of God to bear upon them in your pastoral visitation, that you bring it to bear upon them precisely where they are. Remember that there are many who, in accordance with the address which you have heard already tonight, are going astray or are on the verge of going astray, or perhaps have always been astray. And remember the inestimable privilege that is yours, to convert the sinner from the error of his ways, to save a soul from death, and to hide a multitude of sins. ‘Reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and doctrine.’

“Now thirdly and finally, I charge you to remember that you are the servant of Christ in this pastoral care which you will exercise. Oh, be friendly to your people, and be humble. Be clothed with humility for ‘God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble.’ Be clothed with humility in the pastoral visitations and the pastoral duties that you discharge because, if you are not humble, you will not only be offensive to God, but you will soon become offensive to all discerning people. Be friendly, be humble, realize your own limitations and be always ready to receive from those who are taught in the Word as they communicate unto you who teach. But remember that you are the servant of Christ and do not seek to please men, for if you should seek to please men, you are not the servant of Christ. And again, I repeat in that very same connection: Don’t be afraid to reprove, don’t be afraid to rebuke, just as you may not be afraid to exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine.

“I give you these charges, in the humble expectation and the hope that you will become an example, that you will be an undershepherd, realizing at all times, that you will one day give an account to the great Arch-shepherd who himself gave, as the Shepherd of his sheep, His life, ‘that they might have life and have it more abundantly.’

“And I charge you, in constant dependence upon the Holy Spirit to be the minister, the administrator in Christ’s name, of that life which is nothing other than life everlasting.”

- A charge to Wayne F. Brauning, DMin 1993, at his ordination and installation as pastor of the Fifth Reformed Presbyterian Church, Phila., PA on October 13, 1960 by John Murray, prof. of systematic theology at Westminster.

I have seen a few bits and pieces around in the last few weeks about the “two kingdoms” and a Christian’s responsibility as citizens in one and participants in the other.  I have also been asked to preach early next year on a topic which bears some relation to this.  I was therefore struck by a couple of paragraphs in Charles Spurgeon’s excellent book A Good Start: A Book for Young Men and Women (from the chapter ‘The Business Man’s Good Service’, pp. 287-289 of my edition) which gives a little insight into that good man’s perspective on the Christian’s earthly responsibilities.  This, remember, is the man whose secretary estimated him to be at the head of some sixty-six separate institutions, many of them charitable endeavours.  Spurgeon’s heart and money and hand were where his mouth was, and here he urges Christians to pursue righteousness in all their dealings.  Spurgeon never lost sight of the centrality of gospel teaching, but neither did he limit the extent of gospel reaching, and its impact on a man’s life and priorities.

By the phrase “His righteousness” [in Matthew 6.33], I understand that power in the world which is always working, in some form or other, for that which is good, and true, and pure.  Everything in this world which is holy, and honest, and of good repute, may count upon the Christian as its friend, for it is a part of God’s righteousness.  Does drunkenness eat out the very life of our nation?  Do you want men of temperance to battle this evil?  The Christian cries, “Write down my name.”  When the slave has to be freed, the subjects of God’s kingdom were to the front in that deed of righteousness; and to-day, if oppression is to be put down, we dare not refuse our aid.  If the people are to be educated, and better housed, we hail the proposal with delight.  If the horrible sin of the period is to be denounced and punished, we may not shrink from the loathsome conflict.  Let each man in his own position labour after purity; and, as God shall help us, we may yet sweep the streets of their infamies, and deliver our youth from pollution.  Every Christian man should say of every struggle for better things, “I am in it, cost what it may.”  Hosts of your professors of religion forget to seek God’s righteousness, and seem to suppose that their principal business is to save their own souls – poor little souls that they are!  Their religion is barely sufficient to fill up the vacuum within their own ribs, where their hearts should be.  This selfishness is not the religion of Jesus.  The religion of Jesus is unselfish: it enlists a man as a crusader against everything that is unrighteous.  We are knights of the red cross, and our bloodless battles are against all things that degrade our fellow-men, whether they be causes social, political, or religious.  We fight for everything that is good, true, and just.

True religion is diffusive and extensive in its operations.  I see people drawing lines continually, and saying, “So far is religious, and so far is secular.”  What do you mean?  The notion is one which suits with the exploded notions of sacred places, priests, shrines, and relics.  I do not believe in it.  Everything is holy to a holy man.  To the pure all things are pure.  To a man who seeks first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, his house is a temple, his meals are sacraments, his garments are vestments, every day is a holy day, and he himself is a priest and a king unto God.  The sphere of Christianity is co-extensive with daily life.  I am not to say, “I serve God when I stand in the pulpit”; for that might imply that I wished to serve the devil when the sermon was over.  We are not only to be devout at church, and pious at prayer-meetings; but to be devout and godly everywhere.  Religion must not be like a fine piece of mediaeval armour, to be hung upon the wall, or only worn on state occasions.  No; it is a garment for the house, the shop, the bank.  Your ledgers and iron safes are to be made by grace “holiness unto the Lord.”  Godliness is for the parlour and the drawing-room, the counting-house and the exchange.  It can neither be put off nor on.  It is of the man and in the man if it be real.  Righteousness is a quality of the heart, and abides in the nature of the saved man as a component part of his new self.  He is not righteous who is not always righteous.

(If you would like to dig deeper into this rich little book, you can read the first chapter in six instalments: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6)

Seen outside the British Library, in demonstration of the fact that Lewis, though far from reliable at several important points, was commendably orthodox in certain matters of taste:

Iain D. Campbell points us to an outstanding and brief charge given by Professor John Murray to a new pastor by the name of Brauning.  It captures some vital truths for ministers to remember, whether or not we are just setting out.  (Note: it is poorly-edited: does no-one at a Seminary have time to proof-read a couple of pages of one of its most illustrious names?)

Murray’s outline is as follows:

A minister’s first duty is that of preaching or teaching the Word. We are to labour in the Word and doctrine.  Three counsels follow:

First, do not burden yourself and do not allow others to burden you with other business so that you are deprived of the time and energy necessary to prepare adequately for your preaching and teaching administration.

The second thing I want to impress upon you is that you realize deeply and increasingly, your complete dependence upon the Holy Spirit for understanding of the Word and for the effectual proclamation of it.

Third, I wish to mention, in that precise connection, that you are to think much of the privilege.

A minister’s second duty is that of pastoral care. This is an all important aspect of a minister’s responsibility and privilege.  Three further counsels follow:

Shepherd the church of God.

Second, in connection with this very same subject of pastoral care I charge you to be ready always to give an audience to your people.

Now thirdly and finally, I charge you to remember that you are the servant of Christ in this pastoral care which you will exercise.

Fill in the gaps here: it is well worth it.

UPDATE: Martin Downes has produced an edited version, which I will probably steal shortly.  In the meantime, read it here.  Thanks, Martin.

UPDATE: OK – I stole it.

My father put me on to this.  It is taken from John Flavel writing on “The Touchstone of Sincerity: or, The Signs of Grace, and Symptoms of Hypocrisy,” in The Works of John Flavel (London: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1968) 5:599.

Flavel says that sincerity lies at the heart of true religion.  However, it is easy for sensitive Christians to torture themselves unnecessarily.  They imagine that they are far worse than they actually are and therefore fail to recognise the grace and sincerity that God has actually worked in them.  Sin remains in the best of the saints.  Every Christian struggles with particular sins; we tend to be slow and dull in fulfilling our Christian duties; fears and doubts perplex us at times; and, hypocrisy and sinful motives still plague us.  John Flavel suggests that many of our problems about discerning whether we are genuine or not would be resolved if we sat down and in a calm spirit gave an honest answer to each of the following six questions.

1. Do I seek the approval of God as I live out my life, as I pray, as I worship, as I do good works?  Or do I seek principally the approval and applause of men?  Think of Paul whose aim was ‘not as pleasing men, but God’ (1Thes 2.4; Col 3.23).
2. What restrains me from committing sin?  Is it the fact that my sinning would bring shame and reproach on me now and place my soul in danger and bring me distress in the future?  Or is it because I fear God and therefore hate sin because it is against him?  Think of Joseph (Gen 39.9) and compare with Psalm 19.12-13 or 119.113.
3. Do I rejoice to see God’s work advancing in the world and his glory promoted by other men and women?  Or do I have reservations and regrets because I have no share in the credit and honour of it?  Again, think of Paul (Phil 1.18).
4. Although some Christian duties are hard to carry out and require much self-denial, do I nevertheless desire to fulfil those duties?  In my heart do I sincerely desire to do all the will of God, even though I am unable to follow that pattern perfectly?  David was a man whose heart was set on doing all God’s will (Ps 119.4-6).
5. Am I an ‘all-weathers’ Christian?  Am I sincerely determined to pursue Christ and holiness even if I face opposition and adversity?  Or do I conduct myself in such a way that I am overly-concerned to protect myself and play safe?  Is there a secret reserve in my heart that holds me back from hazarding all for Christ?  This is contrary to the practice of the saints (e.g. Ps 106.3; 44.17-19; Rev. 22.11).
6. What is my attitude to secret sins and secret duties?  Do I make no conscience of committing secret sins and neglecting secret duties?  Or am I conscientious in following the rules and patterns of integrity laid out in God’s word?  (See Ps 19.12 again and also Mt 6.5-6).

Flavel concludes: “A few such questions solemnly propounded to our hearts, in a calm and serious hour, would sound them, and discover much of their sincerity towards the Lord.”

I spotted this a few weeks ago, and have had it brewing in the basket ever since, waiting hopefully for it to come down in price.  It isn’t dropping, which is more than a little grievous.

It is especially disappointing given that Sean Lucas has just given Calvin a glowing review.

I hope that this book receives wide notice, not only among Reformation specialists and theological students, but especially among educated laypeople. Many of our people in Reformed and Presbyterian churches are woefully ignorant of Calvin’s contribution; the few that know something about him are as likely to idolize him as to understand him. Bruce Gordon’s Calvin is a marvelous corrective to both faults: informative, accessible, and realistic, it is the book to give to interested church members. And read with the eyes of faith, Gordon helps us move from seeing Calvin as a hero to seeing the True Hero, Jesus himself, whom Calvin loved and served.

If you have been reading up on this man of God, it sounds like you have another volume to add to your wish/reading list (that’s the list of books you wish you had, the list of books you will read, or the list of books you wish you will get round to reading).

“Godliness consists in an exact harmony between holy principles and practices.”

Thomas Watson, The Godly Man’s Picture, 7.

In answering a friend’s question about something, I was reminded of Spurgeon’s musings about minister’s wives:

If I was a young woman, and was thinking of being married, I would not marry a minister, because the position of minister’s wife is a very difficult one for anyone to fill. Churches do not give a married minister two salaries, one for the husband and the other for the wife; but, in many cases, they look for the services of the wife, whether they pay for them or not. The pastor’s wife is expected to know everything about the church, and in another sense she is to know nothing of it; and she is equally blamed by some people whether she knows everything or nothing. Her duties consist in being always at home to attend to her husband and her family, and being always out, visiting other people, and doing all sorts of things for the whole church! Well, of course, that is impossible; she cannot be at everybody’s beck and call, and she cannot expect to please everybody. Her husband cannot do that, and I think he is very foolish if he tries to do it; and I am certain that, as the husband cannot please everybody, neither can the wife. There will be sure to be somebody or other who will be displeased, especially if that somebody had herself half-hoped to be the minister’s wife!

Difficulties arise continually in the best-regulated churches; and the position of the minister’s wife is always a very trying one. Still, I think that, if I was a Christian young woman, I would marry a Christian minister if I could, because there is an opportunity of doing so much good in helping him in his service for Christ. It is a great assistance to the cause of God to keep the minister himself in good order for his work. It is his wife’s duty to see that he is not uncomfortable at home; for, if everything there is happy, and free from care, he can give all his thoughts to his preparation for the pulpit; and the godly woman, who thus helps her husband to preach better, is herself a preacher though she never speaks in public, and she becomes to the highest degree useful to that portion of the Church of Christ which is committed to her husband’s charge.

He had a knack for putting things well, did he not?

A couple of helpful resources, the first of which I found by way of recommendation many moons ago, and the second of which I just found today.

While I would recommend tracking down audio of this material (which I think he has preached at a Banner of Truth Conference in the US), Ted Donnelly has given nine directives (the first version I heard had only six, so he is obviously developing this as he goes) that help us to preach Christ from the Old Testament:

1. Face up to the predispositions.
2. Follow the pattern.
3. Cultivate the perspective.
4. Grasp the plot.
5. Look for the promise.
6. Explore the parallels.
7. Apply the precedents.
8. Watch the pendulum.
9. Love the person.

Sinclair Ferguson has also written a Proclamation Trust pamphlet on this topic, subtitled “Developing a Christ-centred instinct.”  Insisting that you need an instinct for this rather than a formula, he provides four pointers:

1. The relationship between promise and fulfilment.
2. The relationship between type and antitype.
3. The relationship between the covenant and Christ.
4. Proleptic [anticipatory] participation and subsequent realisation.

Having preached yesterday on Exodus 17, I am at once corrected and directed and encouraged by the insights of these masters of their craft.

Declared by Greg Gilbert at 9Marks and demonstrated by Spurgeon (channelled via Phil Johson) at Pyromaniacs.

Charles Spurgeon on the battle fought by Joshua against Amalek as Moses prayed on the mountain:

Unfortunately, in our work for God, we generally fall into one of two blunders. Either we get a lot of machinery and think that we shall accomplish everything by that, or else we are like some whom I have known, who have confided so much in prayer that they have done nothing but pray. Prayer is a downright mockery if it does not lead us into the practical use of means likely to promote the ends for which we pray. I have known friends take medicine when they have been ill and never pray about their sickness. There are some others who pray about their sickness, but never take the proper medicine. They are both wrong. You must have Joshua and you must have Moses, too, in the time of trial. Go before God with your sickness, but if there is an appointed means that has been made useful to others, use it, for God will bless you by the use of means. Try to see two sides of a thing. Do not trust exclusively to either one or the other. It is a very heinous fault to trust the means without God, but, though it is a much smaller fault to trust in God and not use the means, yet still it is a fault. Practical prudence will lead you to do both. It gives to Joshua his sword, that he may make it red with the blood of the enemy and it gives to Moses his rod, that he may go with it up to the top of the hill and hold it up there in the sight of the people – that all may know that the battle is the Lord’s – and that he will deliver the enemy into their hands. God make you wise in these things and enable you to use both the rod of God and the sword of man!

From “Both Sides of the Shield”, MTP 37, 622.

Sermons on the Acts of the Apostles (Chapters 1-7) by John Calvin, trans. Rob Roy McGregor

Banner of Truth, 2008 (688pp, hbk)

In the midst of the proliferation of material related to Calvin being published around the quincentenary you will find scattered a few gems of original Calvin.  One such is this collection of John Calvin’s sermons on the opening chapters of the Acts of the Apostles.  It is sadly incomplete, not only in the sense that we can proceed no further than chapter 7, but also insofar as one or two of the sermons in the series are also missing.  This does not impede the reader so much as it disappoints him.

The translation – at least from the perspective of a reader only in the English – seems rich, even ripe.  The bite and drive of Calvin’s simple vocabulary, plain delivery, and sometimes sarcastic humour are all well communicated.  No hearer of these sermons – and no reader either – is left in any doubt as to what the Word of God says and more, what it means, and further, what it means to and for me right here, right now.  Faithfulness to the text marks each sermon.  Some verses lend themselves to object lessons in particular doctrines or issues, but without disrupting the even flow of regular exposition.  While at points Calvin shows himself a man of his times, one rarely gets the sense that he is forcing anything upon the text.  The reader is stunned (or, at least, this reader was) by the occasional insight into a particular verse that stops him in his tracks and makes him ponder the truth, and where it takes him.

The organisation of the material is also fascinating.  Calvin is not without order and system in his individual sermons, but they are not usually structured in the obvious way we often see in, say, Spurgeon.  There is rather a natural progression in line with the text, with series of points attaching to a particular issue raised rather than framing the whole.

While there are some typical emphases – the accurately low view of man’s heart, the importance of the church, the demand for consistent holiness of life, the demand for faith, the role of the Spirit, the centrality of Christ – the ignorant or prejudiced reader may be surprised at the breadth of Calvin’s reach.  This is the advantage of being governed by the text.  The preacher does not generally come across as riding particular hobby-horses, although – as one would expect – the Roman Catholic communion presents a ready and often-struck target (interestingly, yoked more often that you might anticipate with Islam, as representative of gross spiritual dangers).  Reading Calvin’s pulpit addresses gives one a sense of what Calvin’s ‘Calvinism’ really sounded and looked like, what it looked for and demanded, what it pointed to and exalted.  That is not to deny that a coherent, Scriptural system lies behind the whole, but rather to highlight the range and tone of this attempt to bring into being a full-orbed Biblical Christianity.

There are lessons here for Christians as Christians, in what it means to live in a fallen world.  There are lessons for preachers as preachers: lessons in a natural and easy style, in a close and pointed application of the truth, in the manifestation of one’s own humanity in preaching, and in how to close a sermon with a prayer that captures the nuggets of gold panned in the course of one’s exposition.

In short, this collection will leave you ready for more.  It will leave you regretting the sermons that are missing, and the fact that we have nothing beyond chapter seven.  It might, and should, whet the readers appetite for more of Calvin, and those who – like him – are governed by their Bibles in both the arc and the detail of exposition, seeking after Christ and seeking to make him known in the minds, hearts and lives of those whom they serve.

• Westminster Bookstore
• Monergism Books
• Amazon.co.uk

A friend pointed me to an article by David Wells in this month’s Tabletalk from Ligonier.  Wells gives us a worked-up commentary on his reading of two separate volumes.  He tells us about the emptiness that many are finding in the church of today, the very place where there ought to be substance of the most profound and pressing sought, and then speaks of the depth and richness to be found and enjoyed when God himself is truly present.  Excellent stuff – here it is in full:

I am in the middle of reading two books simultaneously, one at my office today and the other I will resume at home tonight. My day book is Julia Duin’s Quitting Church: Why the Faithful Are Fleeing and What to Do About It. It is a quick, breezy read, though its subject matter is disconcerting. My night book is actually two volumes that somehow passed me by several years ago. Now I am trying to catch up. This is Iain Murray’s twelve-hundred page biography of Martyn Lloyd-Jones. It is a slow read. But if it is slow, perhaps cluttered with too many details, it is nevertheless also deeply satisfying. And this is so not simply because it has conjured up many warm memories of sitting under this extraordinary ministry. I would often walk back to my digs in central London feeling as if I had been renewed enough from that one sermon to last for a lifetime. That aside, this biography is satisfying because here one glimpses a spiritual reality which, flawed as it no doubt was, is something for which people today are yearning and often not finding.

Quitting Church. Duin’s book is a diary of her travels around the evangelical world in which she has recorded the struggles so many recounted to her of trying to live Christianly in the modern world: singles in a highly sexualized culture; people who are perpetual strangers in their own churches; the inability to find answers to life’s most distressing issues such as loneliness, a sense of being connected to nothing; deep dismay over “churchianity,” the superficial Christian subculture that has grown up in the last thirty years; and a faith that is easily consumed but has lost its depth and ability to speak into today’s pains and perplexities. The result is that by the droves, though not everyone and not everywhere, the born-again are dropping out of church because, she says, it has become “too banal, boring, or painful.”

No doubt, some of this is due to the (immature) expectations people bring with them as consumers into church — but haven’t we often pitched Christian faith to them in exactly these terms? As consumers, though, they have not had their every need met and so they leave or continue circulating from one church to another. But I also wonder if many of those who have left, or are circulating, don’t also have a point sometimes. There are too many churches that have created an environment, or a set of expectations, in which God rests inconsequentially on those who come. The result is, as I argued in God in the Wasteland, that now “his truth is too distant, his grace is too ordinary, his judgment is too benign, his gospel is too easy, and his Christ is too common” (p. 30).

Finding Church. In the 1940s and 50s, when Lloyd-Jones was emerging as the preeminent preacher in England, life was not easy either. At the beginning of this period the War was still in full swing. Bombs fell every night on London. Westminster Chapel itself was damaged. On one occasion, bombs fell on an adjoining property while he was praying — but he went on without skipping a beat! There was rationing, travel was difficult and hazardous, ordinary citizens were being killed, and evangelicals were a despised minority. Liberalism was at its peak but evangelicals had none of their own literature or much organization. However, these circumstances, quite as difficult as anything we encounter today in America, did not hinder this profound ministry from coming into glorious bloom.

For six years during the 1960s, I attended Westminster Chapel twice a week. I only went to hear the preaching because I was a part of another church. But it was in those six years that I was deeply transformed. The preaching was magnificent, the prayers lifted one into the heavens, the mind was fed, the imagination was fired, and the will was moved. Yet all of this taken together is not the full answer as to what happened to me during this time. When I went there, I came face to face with God in all of His greatness. I encountered — or, rather, was encountered by — not just an idea, not just a sermon, but by God Himself, in and through that worship with its focus in the sermon.

It is tempting now to think back on this and ask what Lloyd-Jones’ secret was. What was his technique? What programs can we borrow from his time and recreate for our own if we are looking for the same outcomes? Alas, we are barking up the wrong tree. God cannot be packaged. He is not a rabbit that can be pulled out of the magician’s hat on cue.

First Corinthians 1–4, Lloyd-Jones thought, is the most important section of Scripture on preaching. Preaching appears to be stupid, both in the message it delivers regarding Christ, but also in its act. Inconceivable as it may seem, preaching is the ordained means of the church’s blessing and nurture. God, Luther said, lives in the preacher’s mouth.

We who worship and we who preach really do need to humble ourselves before God and ask for a restoration in our country of the kind of preaching that He can really use. If God does not visit us afresh in this regard, I am afraid that our “churchianity” will continue unabated and there will be many who genuinely are asking for something better who will not be able to find it.

Unpacking Forgiveness: Biblical Answers for Complex Questions and Deep Wounds by Chris Brauns

Crossway, 2008 (235pp, pbk)

“I am sorry.”

Sorrow is not repentance, and it does not readily promote forgiveness.  Have you sinned against God?  Then I am also sorry.  Did you sin against me?  If so, I am sorry again.  But what are you going to do about it?  Too often we address sin with vagueness and uncertainty: “I am so sorry if I have offended you in any way.”  It is not ungracious to say, in effect, “Yes, brother, you have offended me, and you have done so by sinning in the following specific way.”  That opens the door for more than mere regret; it opens the door for repentance and ultimately resolution by means of genuine forgiveness.

Forgiveness is a vital cog in the machine of a Christian’s world.  It is a fundamental aspect of his relationship to God, a critical element of his other relationships (perhaps most significantly to his brothers and sisters in Christ), and a clearly-stated facet of his life of godliness: “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you” (Eph 4.32).

The implication of this title is that forgiveness too often remains packed – tucked away, neither opened nor explored nor enjoyed, either in our own relationship with God, nor in our relationships with others.  Unforgiven sins become baggage with which we are loaded down.  Perhaps we fear engagement in the acts of seeking, extending, and receiving forgiveness, seeking to avoid the cost and weight of entertaining such a disposition or entering into such a transaction.

And – make no mistake – forgiveness is both costly and weighty.  We have become accustomed to hearing many sincere people – often professing Christians – declare in the face of all manner of atrocities that they forgive the perpetrators any degree and number of crimes.  There is no transaction, merely declaration.  Others indulge in a therapeutic forgiveness that has to do more with how we feel about reality rather than with reality itself.  It cheapens grace and does not restore broken relationships.  So what does it mean to forgive and be forgiven?

In this book, Chris Brauns unpacks a definition of forgiveness that makes God’s dealings with us the model for our dealings with others.  The author begins with the gospel, and then sets out the divine pattern before applying both to the Christian reader.  Divine forgiveness is “a commitment by the one true God to pardon graciously those who repent and believe so that they are reconciled to him, although this commitment does not eliminate all consequences” and so the Christian’s forgiveness is “a commitment by the offended to pardon graciously the repentant from moral liability and to be reconciled to that person, although not all consequences are necessarily eliminated.”  As is immediately evident, he makes forgiveness an act by the offended party (who is disposed to forgive) conditional upon the repentance of the offending party.  If your instinct is to worry at some of these words and phrases, you should read the book to consider some of the nuances of meaning and context that Braun introduces to the discussion.

Common misconceptions are addressed and common questions (e.g. concerning the prayers of our Lord on the cross and Stephen at his stoning) are answered.  The need to forgive and to be forgiven is urged, and practical counsel given as to how we might go about extending forgiveness to others.  An unforgiving spirit and a bitter attitude are both addressed, as are the matters of dealing with the unrepentant and the difficulty of long memories and painful recollections.

Speaking of pain, Brauns is not afraid to bring in examples that are harrowing to read.  The nature of the illustrations serves the points that are being made, not least by driving home the gulf that a forgiving spirit is ready and willing to cross.  At the same time, certain examples are unpleasant, and some might feel that their use constitutes overkill.  The same point could be made with less extreme examples, and perhaps with a little less detail.  There is a danger of inviting readers to indulge in “forgiveness voyeurism” where the grossness of the sins forgiven becomes more interesting than the matter of forgiveness itself.

In addition, one wonders what perspective lies behind one or two phrases that grate on the ear; perhaps further explanation or more careful wording would help.  There are also weaker sections of the book where the writing comes across as a little light.  Again, there may be foundations to the assertions made, but they are too well hidden to support the tone.

However, it is the conditionality of forgiveness that will offend many: the assertion that God’s forgiveness (and ours after it) is gracious but not free, being dependent on repentance in the offender.  I think that Brauns makes a Scripturally-solid case for his conviction, and to some extent this book shifts the onus on to those who assert an unconditional forgiveness to demonstrate flaws in Brauns’ case and defend their own.

That said, this is a fairly brief, practical and popular treatment of the issue.  There are depths that could be explored which are bypassed; there are questions raised (for example, in the mapping of human forgiveness over the divine pattern) that do not get addressed in the course of the book.  If faith figures in the conditionality of divine forgiveness, why not (or how) in human forgiveness?  Where or how does the sovereign granting of faith and repentance in divine forgiveness figure (or not) in the human model?  What more could be said about the consequences of sin even where forgiveness of sin is absolute?

The fundamental premise of this book is sound; its aim is right and profitable; its honesty is necessary and its straightforwardness helpful.  The lessons of this book would be well heard by many.  I can think immediately of several people whose spiritual health might be immediately improved by reading and responding in righteousness to this book.  I am one of them.

Though the reader might wish for a little more here and there, this is a book that most saints wishing to deal with their own sins and the sins of others, desiring to emulate God in Christ more closely, and looking or needing to ditch the baggage of unforgiven sin, will find exceedingly useful.  It calls us to plant the cross firmly in the centre of our dealings with others, and so to honour the God who has done precisely the same with us.

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The Daily Telegraph tells us about a new craze heading for the UK: Muslim superheroes.  Brought to you by Endemol (of Big Brother infamy), they are part of “a mission to instill Islamic values in children across all faiths.”  Of course, it is not as if we can simply point to Western superheroes as exemplars of so-called “Judaeo-Christian ethics” (as opposed to empty moralism or rampant carnality), even if we wished to do so.  Nevertheless . . . Jabbar the Powerful, anyone?

Al Mohler addresses the creeping normalization of women in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, contrary to Pentagon doctrine and – worse – contrary to every moral norm that ought to dictate such practice.  I do not know what is the situation in the British and European armed forces, but – as Dr Mohler points out – the whole thing reeks of moral and military folly.  It is not about courage, but a matter of right and wrong, of role and calling, of design and capacity, of God-ordained identity and purpose.

HT: Z.

In my edition of Thomas Watson’s Heaven Taken By Storm: Showing The Holy Violence A Christian is to Put Forth in the Pursuit After Glory (how’s that for a title?  So much for today’s recovery of all this Fight Clubby, Wrestlemaniacal, “More hair on my chest than you!” Christian manliness – Watson is there way before us) . . . where was I? . . . oh, yes – in my edition there is an appendix (actually, the second appendix) containing a sermon on Deuteronomy 17.19: “And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them.”  The title of the sermon is “How we may read the Scriptures with most spiritual profit”.

What follows is a digest of his main points.  Please do not be discouraged by the number of suggestions – no-one can put them all into practice at once.  Concentrate on developing over a period of time the habits and attitudes that will help you to profit from Bible-reading.

1. Remove those things that will prevent you profiting: (1) remove the love of every sin; (2) take heed of the thorns that will choke the Word read.  These ‘thorns’ are those covetous cares that keep our minds on material matters when they should be concentrating on spiritual things; (3) take heed of joking with or making light of Scripture.
2. Prepare your hearts before the reading of the Word (1Sam 7.3).  (1) Summon your thoughts to attend to this serious work; (2) cleanse yourself of the unclean affections that take away the desire to read.
3. Read the Scriptures with reverence; think about every line you read; God is speaking to you.
4. Read the Bible with a method, perhaps in order.  Order and method are a help to memory.
5. Get a right understanding of Scripture (Ps 119.73).  Compare texts with each other, talk to others, use other books and helps.
6. Read the Word with seriousness.  It is the savour of life to those who read it with seriousness, for it deals with everything that is most dear to us.  Consider its subject matter – eternal life and death, heaven and hell, the labour of faith.  Who can read these things and not be serious?  Read, therefore, with a solemn and composed spirit.
7. Labour to remember what you read.  Satan will try to steal the Word from our minds; we should guard it jealously.  If we cannot remember what we read, it will not be of use to us.
8. Meditate upon what you read (Ps 119.15).  This means to fix your thoughts upon what you are reading.  Meditation without reading is foolish; reading without meditation is empty.
9. Come to read with humble hearts, acknowledging your unworthiness to have God reveal Himself to you in His Word.  An arrogant man who feels he has nothing to learn is unlikely to gain any profit.
10. Believe that what you read is the very Word of God, that it is all divinely inspired (2Tim 3.16).  All the countless excellencies of Scripture testify that it is of God.  Note the effect that the Bible has upon the hearts of men, now and throughout history.  You will not obey something that you do not believe.
11. Highly prize the Scriptures (Ps 119.72).  Treasure it above all other books.  It contains the things we must believe and do.  It is the breeder and feeder of grace.  A believer is born and fed by the Word of truth.
12. Get a fervent love for the Word.  Prizing (point 11) refers to the judgement of a man, but love means also the affections.  We should delight to be in the pages of God’s Word; we must learn to delight in its comforts and in its reproofs and corrections.
13. Come to read the Word with honest hearts: (1) read with hearts willing to know the whole counsel of God, and not willing to have any truth concealed.  You cannot pick and choose Scriptures; (2) read in order that you might be made better.  The Word is the means of our sanctification.  Go to God’s Word to find the truths that will make you more like Christ.
14. Learn to apply Scripture; take every word as if spoken to yourselves.  When the Word talks of the punishment of sin, it means my sin; when it tells me of duty, it means my duty.
15. Observe the commands of the Word, as well as its promises.  Use the commands to direct you, and the promises to comfort you.  Do not look more to comfort than to duty, or you might find your comforts false.
16. Let your thoughts dwell most upon the most useful parts of Scripture.  Although all parts are excellent, some are more emphatic or vital than others.  Spend more time reading of faith and the new man in Christ, than in the genealogies of dead kings!
17. Compare yourselves with the Word; see how Scripture and your hearts agree.  Is your heart a mirror of the Word?  Is the Word written upon your heart?  By comparing ourselves with the Word, we get to know the true state of our souls, and see what evidences we have for heaven.
18. Take special notice of those Scriptures that speak to your particular case.  Pay careful attention to those paragraphs of Scripture that are most appropriate to your particular situation.  Watson identifies three particular situations – affliction, desertion, and sin – and gives a number of appropriate texts to consider.  In reading, read all the Bible, but mark those verses that apply most to your own person.
19. Take special notice of the examples in Scripture, and make the examples living sermons to yourself.  (1) Observe the examples of God’s judgement upon sinners: they are warnings, lamps to keep us from the rocks; (2) observe the examples of God’s mercy to saints: they are props to our faith and spurs to holiness.
20. Do not stop reading the Bible until you find your heart warmed.  Read the Word not only as a history, but strive to be affected by it.
21. Determine to practise whatever you read (Ps 119.66).  Christians should be walking Bibles, living the truths written.  The Word is not only a guide to knowledge, but a guide to obedience.  A blessed reading of God’s Word results in our fleeing from sins and practising the duties commanded.
22. Make right use of Christ in His prophetic office.  It is one thing to read a promise, another really to know it to be true.  If we would read with profit, we must have Christ as our teacher: when Christ taught, He opened not only men’s eyes, but their understandings (Lk 24.45).
23. Be at all the appointed services of the church, and spend much time in hearing the Word preached.  Be diligent in attending upon a Biblical, faithful ministry.  Ministers are God’s interpreters; it is their work to open up and expound dark places of Scripture.
24. Pray that God would make you profit (Is 48.17).  It is when God’s Spirit joins Himself to the Word that it takes effect in our hearts and minds.

In conclusion:

• Do not be content with simply reading the Scriptures, but labour to find some spiritual benefit and profit.  Get the Word inscribed upon your heart.
• If you do profit from your reading, be sure to adore the grace of God.  Bless God that He has not only given you His Word, but some ability to understand it.

If you struggle to profit from your reading, then take note of the following encouragements:

• You can profit from reading the Scriptures even if you do not attain to the level of others.  Do not judge yourself according to the standard of others.  The Lord called it all good ground, whether it brought forth thirty, sixty or a hundred-fold (Mt 13.8); so you may not get as much profit as others, but the profit you do get is still most worthwhile.
• You can still profit from reading the Word if you are not the most intelligent of people.  Some give up or become discouraged because they are slow to understand.  You may even have weaker judgements but stronger affections.  A weak understanding can keep you from sin, as weak sight can keep a man from falling into deep water.  If you have some vision you cannot be all blind.
• You can profit from reading the Scriptures although you may not have an excellent memory.  You can have a good heart without having a good memory.  Also, even if you don’t remember all that you read, you can remember the most important part.  The lamp burns even when it is not full of oil; our hearts can burn with love when our memories are not full of Scripture.

For those who might be interested, I have been invited back on Revelation TV as a studio guest on another programme.  God willing, the programme will be broadcast live tomorrow (Thu 20 Aug) at 9pm, and therefore goes under the apt title, Live@9 (can you see what they did there?).  The topic is, in essence, Biblical illiteracy among young people.

If you want to watch it will be broadcast on Sky 595 and 585, and I think you can also watch here at Revelation TV.

I am particularly pleased because it gives me another opportunity to give this cartoon of the days before television an airing.

Living the Christian Life: Selected Thoughts of William Grimshaw of Haworth by Paul & Faith Cook

Evangelical Press, 2008 (90pp, hbk)

This brief but excellent little book is well worth having in one’s library.  It opens with a brief explanation as to the nature, purpose and timing of the selection, and then there is a brief biography of this mighty man of God.  There follows selections from three of four surviving manuscripts of William Grimshaw’s sermons, dealing with the character of a Christian, the life of a Christian, and the experiences of a Christian.  These selections consist of generally very short excerpts from the sermons.  There is no obvious arrangement, so one presumes that they are recorded in the order in which they are found.  There is no lack of substance for such brevity of form.  Every so often the reader will be struck and stunned with the insight and penetration of a particular piece.  There is enough breadth and variety here that surely no saint with an eye to his own sanctification can read through without being hit hard and accurately in some necessary part of his life.  There will be rich encouragement, painful honesty, profitable counsel, clear instruction, and vigorous exhortation.

The only marginal disappointment lies in what may be missing.  I do not know the condition and format of the originals, nor of any difficulties with the manuscripts.  My personal preference, if it were possible, might have been to have the complete edited manuscripts of all four sermons made available.  Doubtless the editors and/or publishers had good reason for not going down this route, but I still wonder what I am lacking.  Nevertheless, Mr & Mrs Cook have done us a great service.

In short, if this is the richness of knowing in part, you will be left with an appetite for the character and life of William Grimshaw that will leave you looking for more.

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John Calvin on Luke 1.78-80:

Consider, in addition, how suspicious we are by nature, how lazy and indifferent, and what little real taste we have for the grace which God offers us.  It only takes a fly to pass before our eyes for us to panic, and to make us feel there is no God in heaven to help us.  We tremble like leaves on the bough, or like reeds swaying in the wind.  The slightest incident so fills us with despair that we lose heart, unsure which way to turn. Where would we be if we thought God’s grace too weak to withstand the trials that we face?  The Holy Spirit, then, has something valuable to teach us here.

. . . This is a verse to be applied every time Satan attacks us and fills us with dread and alarm.  Do we feel, for example, that God has left and forsaken us?  Then we must hide ourselves in God’s ‘bowels’, so to speak, in his innermost self.  For God does not confirm with his lips alone the love he has for us; he opens his very heart to us where we may hide, safely guarded against all Satan’s assaults.  With such a shield to defend us we can suffer no harm.  In God we have a sure refuge which is always available to us in time of doubt, distress and trial, as our text shows.

Songs of the Nativity: Select Sermons on Luke 1 & 2, (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2008) 124-125.

Michael Haykin tells us that he is working on a new book on Abraham Booth by Dr Ray Coppenger, to be published by Joshua Press.  The title of the new book — to be shortly released — is “A messenger of grace”: A study of the life and thought of Abraham Booth (1734–1806).  Inspiration for the title — so apt for Booth — comes from these lines of William Cowper’s The Task, Book II, lines 395–407:

Gary Brady informs us that next year’s Aberystwyth Conference should have the following line-up: “Dale Ralph Davies [sic] and Gareth Williams (Bala), (Heresy Huntin’) Martin Downes, Bill James and Stuart Olyott.”

Wilton  L.M.

Psalm 63
O God, my Strength, the early hour
Of every day your praise shall claim.
My soul desires to taste your power,
And see the glory of your name.

Life’s glories fade beside your love,
My lips and hands shall give you praise;
Blessings poured out from stores above
Bring sweet abundance all my days.

I think upon you in the night,
Rest in the shadow of your wing:
You are my help, my soul’s delight,
And of your grace I gladly sing.

My soul will closely follow you;
Your hand upholds and comforts me.
My God shall bear me safely through,
I need not fear my enemy.

Soon shall be stopped the lying voice,
But I shall glory in your grace.
In God, my Strength, I shall rejoice,
All my delight to seek your face.

©JRW

See all hymns and psalms.

Dave Bish highlights a  fairly interesting comment/complaint from Phil Whitall:

I read this morning that Josh Harris is a fan of JC Ryle, which in itself is hardly something to get upset about but it did spark this mini-rant. Good for Josh, Ryle is a worthy hero of the faith. But it seems to me that the Yanks get all excited by CS Lewis, CH Spurgeon, JC Ryle, CT Studd and other guys with initials instead of first names. Lewis and Spurgeon in particular are highly exalted, oh and Dr MLJ of course.

On the other hand, if you pay close attention to the names that are bandied around amongst us Limey’s are John Piper, Bill Hybels, Rick Warren, Mark Driscoll, Tim Keller, Rob Bell and whoever else is leading some very large church.

What you don’t seem to find are Brits talking about dead American Christians of any note and any Americans talking about living Brits of any note (our churches are too small).

The whole thing is fascinating and completely unsubstantiated and has the ring of truth about it (everyone should get hold of this piece of jewellery – useful in so many situations).  You should read it all, not least so that you can argue with it.

Because I beg to differ to a degree.  It depends to whom you are listening.  Yes, most of us – sometimes of necessity – interact with the Pipers, Mahaneys, Driscolls, Mohlers, etc. of the evangelical hypersphere.  Our peers and sometimes the wider church is reading them, listening to them, concerned about them, aping them.  I do think it is often the desire to find what works, to discover what will make us (read, “me”) big and successful.  But there is an undercurrent of men and women who have not entirely abandoned those who have gone before us on these shores.

You will find us quoting, at least occasionally, Charles Spurgeon, John Ryle, Matthew Henry, Robert McCheyne, John Owen, Jeremiah Burroughs, Stephen Charnock, Thomas Brooks, Hugh Latimer, Andrew Fuller, William Carey, John Bunyan, not to mention Flavel, Knox, Traill, Eadie . . . I could go on, and I could come forward to men like Poole-Connor and Lloyd-Jones, and back as far as some of the church fathers.  We love those men who have followed Christ, and whom we now follow in the path of Christian discipleship.  We have not forgotten their lives and their lessons, and – in fact – we sometimes get a little bit troubled at the selective embrace offered by some of our American brothers.  Who knew C. S. Lewis was Reformed until he was co-opted by the New Calvinists and given a fairly robust air-brushing in the process?

If we’re going to make C. S. Lewis our patron saint, we should at least listen when he is talking sense.  This is from the introduction to Athanasius’ On the Incarnation:

Naturally, since I myself am a writer, I do not wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books. But if he must read only the new or only the old, I would advise him to read the old. And I would give him this advice precisely because he is an amateur and therefore much less protected than the expert against the dangers of an exclusive contemporary diet. A new book is still on its trial and the amateur is not in a position to judge it. It has to be tested against the great body of Christian thought down the ages, and all its hidden implications (often unsuspected by the author himself) have to be brought to light. Often it cannot be fully understood without the knowledge of a good many other modern books. If you join at eleven o’clock a conversation which began at eight you will often not see the real bearing of what is said. Remarks which seem to you very ordinary will produce laughter or irritation and you will not see why – the reason, of course, being that the earlier stages of the conversation have given them a special point. In the same way sentences in a modern book which look quite ordinary may be directed at some other book; in this way you may be led to accept what you would have indignantly rejected if you knew its real significance. The only safety is to have a standard of plain, central Christianity (”mere Christianity” as Baxter called it) which puts the controversies of the moment in their proper perspective. Such a standard can be acquired only from the old books. It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones.

If we followed Lewis here, perhaps we would have a little more discretion and discernment in how far we follow others, and which others we follow, and how slavishly?  In fact, when we listen too long and too hard to the old, sometimes the new get a bit annoyed with us, and accuse us of being crusty, hidebound, and reactionary.  Funny, that.

Samuel Davies (American, but with Welsh roots and long dead, so not a bad note to finish on), wrote a few lines that still decorate my study.  They are worth recalling:

I have a peaceful study, as a refuge from the hurries and noise of the world around me; the venerable dead are waiting in my library to entertain me, and relieve me from the nonsense of surviving mortals.

So, Phil, come hang out with us.  We hang out with the venerable dead, often British, although if they followed hard after Jesus we’re happy to see them sitting on our shelves wherever they hail from.  We listen to them, learn from them, engage with them, debate and even argue with them.  We converse across the years, and enjoy the relief they afford us from the nonsense of surviving mortals.

We like dead guys.