PRESBYTERIAN THOUGHTS

I would like to finish the impromptu series on preaching with a quote. I believe that others are able to answer questions better than me, so I will leave this to a professional on the topic of preaching. If any are interested in further study on the topic of preaching and what preaching looks like in the scriptures, I would recommend, Feed My Sheep edited by Don Kistler. The need is so great for preaching to be founded in the scriptures, and the need is even greater for the people who are called by the name of God to reclaim the book of the Bible and to devour it and to fall in love with it. Preaching is the means by which men and women of God are able to eat the Words of the Lord.

“Perhaps that is why [expository preaching] is so rare. Only those will undertake it who are prepared to follow the example of the Apostles and say, ” It is not right that we should give up preaching the Word of God and serve tables…We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the Ministry of the Word (Acts 6.2,4). The systematic preaching of the Word is impossible without the systematic study of it. It will not be enough to skim through a few verses in daily Bible reading, or only study a passage when we have to preach from it. No. We must daily soak ourselves in the Scriptures. We must not just study, as through a microscope, the linguistic minutiae of a few verses, but take out our telescope and scan the wide expanses of God’s Word, assimilating its grand theme of Divine sovereignty in the redemption of mankind. “It is blessed,” wrote CH Spurgeon, “to eat into the very soul of the Bible until, at last, you come to talk in Scriptural language, and your spirit is flavored with the words of the Lord, so that your blood is Bibline and the very essence of the Bible flows from you.'”

John RW Stott, The Preacher’s Portrait, pp30-31

I find it to be expedient in the light of the last post (see post below) to allow the Apostle Paul, the New Testament theologian, to give his insights on preaching and the necessity of preaching well. Paul’s view was that people would not BE SAVED without preaching (from a sent preacher)! If this is the case, and I believe that it is, then we should, as preachers and hearers of preachers, be careful to know what scripture says about preaching:

Romans 10.13-15

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

* There were a variety of questions in the last post that I will address this Sabbath evening.

There are very few preachers who preach good biblical sermons today. The Christian minister should preach sermons that are exegetical in nature and give the congregation an understanding of what the text means, its historical context, as well as ways in which to apply the sermon to living out the Christian life. This is the pattern that is found within scripture- the preachers of scripture open the law and gospel and give the hearers its meaning as well as its application.

Here are a few unbiblical ways in which preachers preach today. We discussed these in Homiletics and they are quite fun (although they should be avoided):
Hobby horse sermons:
The minister relates every sermon to their favorite secondary or tertiary doctrine. (Examples: Satan, the Millennium, the Nation of Israel, Evangelism, etc.)
Rocket sermons:
This type of sermon is begun from the text but quickly launches into space and goes off on tangents that no-one can follow.
Heart on the sleeve sermons:
The sermon is preached with such great emotion that the hearers are moved to great emotional highs or lows….but they do not know what the text was about.
Sky scraper sermons:
Patchwork quilt of entertainment and other things. They are one story piled on top of another. The text is never really developed but the stories and illustrations are piled high as the sky.
Grasshopper sermons:
A preacher takes a text and he finds a theme and then hops all through the bible making the listener try to follow in their Bibles. It is a string of texts that are connected with a few sentences. (A child with a concordance can preach like this).
Sherlock Holmes sermons:
The preacher wows everyone with the depths and the mystery of the Bible but never really tells you anything about what the text means.

I think that all preachers tend to lean in one way or another to one of these errors. As a Calvinist I have heard some of these from time to time. Although I believe in the doctrines of grace whole-heartedly (and would die defending them) I do not think that every page of the Bible is talking about unconditional election!

Hypocrisy is when one claims to hold a belief that they do not really possess. The term hypocrite was used in Old French as a play-actor; someone pretending to be something that they were not. Hypocrisy has its roots in Greek and was someone who wore a mask; someone pretending to be someone that they were not or someone that had “two faces” concerning a belief.

Many non-Christians see the hypocrites in the church and they are rightly disgusted. Hypocrites make up a number of the members of the church; but these people are not genuine professors of religion, merely frauds playing the role of the Christian. The hypocrites are what the Bible calls tares and Jesus is quite content with allowing the tares to be in the Church. These hypocrites have always been a part of genuine religion, and they will remain a part of genuine religion until the day of judgment when the wheat is separated from the tares. Jesus speaks of this in the Gospel according to Saint Matthew:

Another parable put he [Jesus] forth unto them [his disciples], saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

What does this all mean for you and for me? How does this apply to our lives?
-If you are a genuine Christian, someone who has professed faith in Christ’s atoning sacrifice for sins and are being renewed by the power of the Holy Ghost, then you should strive to be more and more conformed to the image of Christ. We should never allow the unbeliever to blaspheme Christ and his bride on account of our carelessness in sanctification.
-If you are not a Christian, then it is my Christian duty to warn you that your fate is the same fate of those tares. Hypocrisy and unbelief will be eternal bed-fellows in the fires of hell. Hypocrite: flee to Christ for redemption. Unbeliever: flee to Christ for redemption.

“Tell me, you vain professor [of Christianity], when did you shed a tear for the deadness, hardness, unbelief, or earthliness of your heart? Do you think that such an easy religion can save you? If so, we may invert Christ’s words and say, ‘Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to life.'” -JOHN FLAVEL

“Knowledge without repentance will be but a torch to light men to hell.”
-THOMAS WATSON

Earlier this month I gave the English Puritan, Richard Greenham’s suggestions on how to read the Scriptures with diligence. (See: 4 Jan. 2006) I would like to give another Puritan, Thomas Boston (1676-1732) on how to profit from the reading of the scriptures. Thomas Boston was a Scottish Presbyterian and he was best known for his aid in the Marrow Controversy. Boston gives nine ways to improve on the reading of the scriptures:

1. Follow a regular plan in reading of them, that you may be acquainted with the whole; and make this reading a part of your private devotions. Not that you should confine yourselves only to a set plan, so as never to read by choice, but ordinarily this tends most to edification. Some parts of the Bible are more difficult, some may seem very barren for an ordinary reader; but if you would look on it all as God’s word, not to be scorned, and read it with faith and reverence, no doubt you would find advantage.

2. Set a special mark, however you find convenient, on those passages you read, which you find most suitable to your case, condition, or temptations; or such as you have found to move your hearts more than other passages. And it will be profitable often to review these.

3. Compare one Scripture with another, the more obscure with that which is more plain, 2 Pet. 1:20. This is an excellent means to find out the sense of the Scriptures; and to this good use serve the marginal notes on Bibles. And keep Christ in your eye, for to him the scriptures of the Old Testament look (in its genealogies, types, and sacrifices), as well as those of the New.

4. Read with a holy attention, arising from the consideration of the majesty of God, and the reverence due to him. This must be done with attention, first, to the words; second, to the sense; and, third, to the divine authority of the Scripture, and the obligation it lays on the conscience for obedience, 1 Thess. 2:13, “For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.”

5. Let your main purpose in reading the Scriptures be practice, and not bare knowledge, James 1:22, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” Read that you may learn and do, and that without any limitation or distinction, but that whatever you see God requires, you may study to practice.

6. Beg of God and look to him for his Spirit. For it is the Spirit that inspired it, that it must be savingly understood by, 1 Cor 2:11, “For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.” And therefore before you read, it is highly reasonable you beg a blessing on what you are to read.

7. Beware of a worldly, fleshly mind: for fleshly sins blind the mind from the things of God; and the worldly heart cannot favour them. In an eclipse of the moon, the earth comes between the sun and the moon, and so keeps the light of the sun from it. So the world, in the heart, coming between you and the light of the word, keeps its divine light from you.

8. Labour to be disciplined toward godliness, and to observe your spiritual circumstances. For a disciplined attitude helps mightily to understand the scriptures. Such a Christian will find his circumstances in the word, and the word will give light to his circumstances, and his circumstances light into the word.

9. Whatever you learn from the word, labour to put it into practice. For to him that has, shall be given. No wonder those people get little insight into the Bible, who make no effort to practice what they know. But while the stream runs into a holy life, the fountain will be the freer.

If feminism was defined as women having equal worth before a Triune God as well as equal worth before humanity than I can accept that as a definition. Feminism has gone well beyond its original intentions. Feminism was not intended to give women an authority over their own body that God does not even grant under his law.

In what the evangelical world calls “Sanctity of Life Sunday” may we pray that the Lord would serve justice as an estimated 40 million children have been slaughtered from the womb. (This is over 6 times the numbers of people murdered in the Holocaust.)

“When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit.”
-Elizabeth Cady Stanton

“The woman is awfully guilty who commits abortion…It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death.”
-Susan B. Anthony

For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
-Psalm 139.13-17 (NASB)

A tour of the Westminster Assembly’s place of work is something that many Reformed Christians attempt to do in their life. The last time that a whale took this historic tour was in 1913.

Whale On the Thames

If one used one out of seven days to focus whole-heartedly on their relationship with Jesus Christ they would benefit greatly. Many Christians want to deny the Sabbath and say that it is rooted in the Mosaic law. This is untrue. The Sabbath day is a creation ordinance. Man was created to work six days and to spend a whole day in relationship with his maker. This is what Adam and Eve did, and this is what we are to do as well. The Sabbath is a perpetual obligation to the Christian– Paul said in Hebrews that “there remains therefore a Sabbath for the Christian”. We, as followers of Christ are in Sabbath in Christ, we look forward to our eternal Sabbath in glory, and we are to call the Sabbath a delight while here on earth being a testimony to the unbelieving world around us.

Q. 1. In what sense is the Sabbath to be sanctified?
A. As it is dedicated by God, for man’s sake and use that he may keep it holy to God.
Q. 2. In what manner should he keep it holy to God?
A. By a holy resting, and by holy exercises.
Q. 3. What should we rest from on the Sabbath?
A. Even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days; or, which is the same thing, from all servile work, Neh. 13:15-23.

Q. 17. Is not the Sabbath a festival, or feast day; and consequently may not our conversation on it be cheerful and diverting?
A. It is, indeed, properly a feast day, but of a spiritual, not of a carnal nature: we may refresh our bodies moderately, but not sumptuously; and our conversation ought to turn wholly upon spiritual and heavenly subjects, or such as have that tendency, after the example of our Lord, Luke 14:1-25.
Q. 18. What should be the principal end of our six days’ labour?
A. That it be so managed as in no way to discompose or unfit us for a holy resting on the Sabbath, or meeting with God on his own day.
Q. 19. What is a holy resting?
A. Not only an abstaining from our own work, or labour, but an entering by faith (in the use of appointed means,) into the presence and enjoyment of God in Christ, as the only rest of our souls, Heb. 4:3; that having no work of our own to mind or do, we may be wholly taken up with the works of God.
Q. 20. Why called a holy resting?
A. Because we should rest from worldly labour, in order to be employed in the holy exercises, which the Lord requires on this day; otherwise, as to bare cessation, our cattle rest from outward labour as well as we.
Q. 21. What are the holy EXERCISES in which we ought to be employed on the Lord’s day?
A. In the public and private exercises of God’s worship.
Q. 22. What are the public exercises of God’s worship in which we should be employed?
A. Hearing the word preached, Rom. 10:17; joining in public prayers and praises, Luke 24:53; and partaking of the sacraments, Acts 20:7.
Q. 23. What is included under the private exercises of God’s worship?
A. Family and secret duties.
Q. 24. What are the duties incumbent on us in a family capacity on the Lord’s day?
A. Family worship, and family catechising, together with Christian conference, as there is occasion, Lev. 23:3. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your DWELLINGS, or private families; and therefore God is to he worshipped in them on that day.
Q. 25. What is family worship?
A. It is the daily joining of all that are united in a domestic relation, or who are dwelling together in the same house and family, in singing God’s praises, Acts 2:47 reading his word, Deut. 6:7, and praying to him, Jer. 10:25.
Q. 26. How do you prove family worship to be a duty daily incumbent upon those who have families?
A. From scripture precept, and from scripture example.
Q. 27. How is family worship evinced from scripture precept?
A. Besides that this commandment enjoins every master of a family to sanctify the Sabbath within his gates, that is, to worship God in his family; there are also other scriptures, inculcating the same thing, by necessary consequence; such as, Eph. 6:18 — “Praying always, with ALL prayer and supplication;” 1 Tim. 2:8 — “I will therefore that men pray EVERY WHERE. “If with all prayer, then surely with family prayer; if EVERY WHERE, then certainly in our families.
Q. 28. What are the examples of family worship recorded in scripture for our imitation?
A. Among others, there are the examples of Abraham, Gen. 18:19; of Joshua, chap. 24:15 — “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord;” of David, 2 Sam. 6:20; or Cornelius, Acts 10:2; and especially the example of our blessed Lord, whom we find singing psalms, Matt. 26:30, and praying with his disciples, who were his family, Luke 9:18.
Q. 29. What should be the subject matter of family catechising?
A. What they have been hearing through the day, together with the principles of our religion, as laid out in the Shorter Catechism, with the helps that are published upon the same, which masters of families ought to use for their assistance in this work.
Q. 30. What are the proper seasons of Christian conference on the Sabbath?
A. At meals, and in the interval of duties: our speech should he always, but especially on the Lord’s day, “seasoned with salt,” Col. 4:6.
Q. 31. What are the secret duties in which we ought to he exercised on the Lord’s day?
A. Secret prayer, reading the scriptures, and other soul-edifying books, meditation upon divine subjects, and self-examination.
Q. 32. With what frame and disposition of soul should we engage in the public and private exercises of God’s worship?
A. With a spiritual frame and disposition, Rev. 1:10 — “I was IN THE SPIRIT on the Lord’s day.”
Q. 33. What is it to be in the Spirit on the Lord’s day?
A. It is not only to have the actual inhabitation of the Spirit, which is the privilege of believers “every day,” Ezek. 36:27; but to have the influences and operations of the Spirit “more liberally let out,” Luke 4:31, 32, and his graces in “more lively exercise,” than at other times, Acts 2:41.
Q. 34. What moral argument have we from the ceremonial law, for offering a greater plenty of spiritual sacrifices to God on the Sabbath, than upon other days?
A. The daily sacrifice, or continual burnt offering, was to be doubled on the Sabbath, Num. 28:9; intimating, that they were bound to double their devotions on that day, which was consecrated to God to be spent in his service.
Q. 35. How much of the Sabbath is to be spent in the public and private exercises of God’s worship?
A. The WHOLE of it, from the ordinary time of rising on other days, to the ordinary time of going to rest; “except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy.”
-From James Fisher’s Catechism (on the fourth commandment)

Saint Augustine (354-430AD) is one of the greatest Christian thinkers of all time. He fought the fight for the true understanding of justification against the heretic, Pelagius. If Pelagius would have won the justification controversy the Christian understanding would be that man’s will is free to choose God and with right training one can become a Christian. Augustine argued that man’s will is in bondage to sin because of the fall in Adam and in order for man to be converted to Christ, his heart would have to be changed by Christ.

Augustine understood what has come to be known as irresistible grace. Augustine as a young man hated God and he did all he could to run away from the need that God had placed on his heart. Augustine was attempting to run from his own sinful heart. This is seen in the following Confession. While meditating upon this section from his writings, any converted sinner has to see himself in these words. Do you see yourself?

And what is there in me that could be hidden from thee, Lord, to whose eyes the abysses of man’s conscience are naked, even if I were unwilling to confess it to thee? In doing so I would only hide thee from myself, not myself from thee. But now that my groaning is witness to the fact that I am dissatisfied with myself, thou shinest forth and satisfiest.

Thou art beloved and desired; so that I blush for myself, and renounce myself and choose thee, for I can neither please thee nor myself except in thee. To thee, then, O Lord, I am laid bare, whatever I am, and I have already said with what profit I may confess to thee. I do not do it with words and sounds of the flesh but with the words of the soul, and with the sound of my thoughts, which thy ear knows. For when I am wicked, to confess to thee means nothing less than to be dissatisfied with myself; but when I am truly devout, it means nothing less than not to attribute my virtue to myself; because thou, O Lord, blessest the righteous, but first thou justifiest him while he is yet ungodly.

My confession therefore, O my God, is made unto thee silently in thy sight–and yet not silently. As far as sound is concerned, it is silent. But in strong affection it cries aloud. For neither do I give voice to something that sounds right to men, which thou hast not heard from me before, nor dost thou hear anything of the kind from me which thou didst not first say to me.

-Saint Augustine, Confessions, 10.2