Hubris

There is an engaging story of a Scottish minister on his death-bed. A fellow minister came to see him in order to comfort him in death. The visiting minister asked, "Well, my brother, what are you doing?" "Doing," answered the dying servant of God, "Doing? I will tell you. I am gathering together all my prayers and sermons, all my good deeds and bad deeds, and I am going to throw them all overboard together, and swim to glory on the plank of free grace!"

This preacher rightly understood that our salvation is not about us and what we do, no matter that we have been in the ministry for decades. There is no room for our works, for we earn nothing but condemnation. There is no room for human pride, for self-promotion, for self-boasting, for hubris. It is not about us; it is about the cross of Christ. That is why Paul proclaims, "For we do not preach ourselves, but the Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:5). Therefore, let us not boast in our own works, but let us boast in the cross of Christ and the mercy and grace that come to us through his labors.

Nothing in my hand I bring;
Simply to they cross I cling;
Naked, come to thee for dress;
Helpless, look to thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Savior, or I die.

Responses to the Gospel

Charles Simeon accepted the pastoral charge at Trinity Church in Cambridge, England in 1782. In his early years at the church there was active opposition to him by his new parishioners; they simply did not care for his biblical preaching. In fact, the congregants would often lock the doors of the church on Sunday in order to prevent Simeon from getting to the pulpit to preach the gospel. The minister, however, slowly and gradually won over his congregation, and he remained pastor of Trinity Church for 54 years.
Now my point in this story is not to say that preachers ought not to be locked out of their churches. In fact, I am all for locking a pastor out of his church for not preaching the gospel! Spurgeon's adage that the reason that many preachers do not preach the gospel is because they know it not is a good one. My real point of the story is that there are various responses that people have when they are confronted with the true gospel; and, indeed, we, as Christians and ministers of the gospel, should not be surprised that people react differently to that message. The gospel is divisive, and people respond to it with hostility, with indifference, with joy, and with other emotions and responses. (This, of course, is Jesus' main point in his parable of the sower in Luke 8:4-15.)
So, then, how do we respond? We continue to share the gospel no matter the people's response. We are to share the gospel not because it is easy, and not because it is always pleasant, and not because we may be successful, but because Christ has commanded us to do it. In other words, we do not share Christ because we expect certain results. We evangelize because we have been sent by Christ, and we are ambassadors of the Great King. We are not to be dissuaded by results, but we are to do our duty as good soldiers of Christ.

Good Preaching

A Christian ought to love and desire to hear good preaching. It reminds me of the story of the Scottish minister John Macdonald (born 1779). As a young man he loved to hear solid, biblical preaching. One Sabbath day, he had a great yearning to hear preaching, but it was his day to herd the cattle. In his heart, there was a battle between "hearing" and "herding". So what he ended up doing, ingeniously, was to tie all the cattle together, head to tails, in a circle. In that way, the cattle could only move round and round, and so not be able to get into the corn fields. Macdonald then stole away to the church service to hear preaching, and got back before his household came home. He, indeed, is one who had a deep desire to hear the preached word.
And, of course, that begs the question of each one of us: do we have that longing to hear God's word being ably exposited?

Mark's Musings

AS we were discussing the idolatry of Jeroboam in the men’s morning Bible study, we soon came around to acknowledge the condition of our heart and how deceitfully wicked it is. Pondering this truth brought to mind one of the more arresting passages in Pascal’s Pensees:

“The characteristic of human nature is to love oneself and consider only one’s self. What else can it do? It cannot help its own love being inconsistent and miserable. It wants to be great and sees that it is only small. It wants to be happy but finds it is wretched. It wants to be perfect and sees itself full of imperfections. . .

“Finding itself in this predicament, it reacts in the most unjust and criminal passion imaginable. For it conceives a deadly hatred for the truth that would rebuke it and convince it of its faults. It would like to eliminate this truth, and not being able to destroy it, it represses it as much as it can. . .

“Unquestionably, it is an evil to be so full of faults but it is a still great evil to be full of them and yet not willing to acknowledge them. This results in the further evil of deliberate self-delusion.”

In other words, Pascal intimates that we are our own best dupes. He goes on to say that this is why anyone who desires to be our friend or win our approval and care will often minimize our errors and excuse our failures. “We tend to be treated as we want to be treated for we hate the truth and it is kept from us. We desire to be flattered and so we are flattered; we like to be deceived and we are deceived.”

Moving up the ladder through promotion and advancement can actually shield us further from the truth about ourselves. So Pascal says, “A prince could be the laughing stock and yet the only one who doesn’t know it.” His conclusion? Human life is nothing but continuous delusion. “No one talks about us in our presence as he does in our absence.” Human relationships are based upon this mutual deception.

At first glance, this seems extremely cynical. Yet think how we function in our society today. Imagine political discourse, entertainment in all its forms and advertisement with out deception? And then think how often we tend to feign innocence and think we are an exception to the sins of Jeroboam. The heart, said the prophet Jeremiah, is deceitful above all things.

RE Mark Seeley

Mankind's Thirsty Soul

Carnal man does not understand the solution to a thirsty soul. Man is blind in his sin and groping for the truth, but he cannot see it. The author of Proverbs tells us that "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death" (14:12). Man seeks deliverance, identity, and satisfaction in the things of the world, and he pursues them with all his vain glory. Charles Spurgeon clearly understood this truth, and he applied it to his own life. I have recently read about him in which an American lecture company attempted to engage Spurgeon to come on a preaching tour of the United States. They wanted to book him to speak in the fifty largest cities in America, and they would pay all his expenses, those of his wife, and those of a traveling secretary. In addition, they offered him $1000 per sermon; a total of $50,000, which in those days was a king's ransom. Spurgeon, however, immediately declined the offer, saying, "I can do better. I will stay in London and try to save fifty souls."

Ryle on the Bible

In my sermon on Sunday, I quoted J.C. Ryle, the 19th century Bishop of Liverpool, in regard to his views of the Bible. Some have asked for the quote; here it is:
"Love of the Word has been a prominent feature in the history of all the saints, of whom we know anything, since the days of the Apostles. This is the lamp that Athanasius and Chrysostom and Augustine followed. This is the compass that kept the Vallenses and Albigenses from making shipwreck of the faith. This is the well that was reopened by Wycliffe and Luther, after it had been long stopped up. This is the sword with which Latimer, and Jewell, and Knox won their victories. This is the manna that fed Baxter and Owen, and the noble host of the Puritans, and made them strong in battle. This is the armoury from which Whitefield and Wesley drew their powerful weapons. This is the mine from which Bickersteth and M'Cheyne brought forth rich gold. Differing as these holy men did in some matters, on one point they were all agreed -- they all delighted in the Word." (Practical Religion, pp. 131-2)

In What Do You Put Your Trust?

When the Scottish minister John Row was on his death-bed, the master of the local grammar school came to see him and said to him, "Sir, you have many young children, and alas! You have little money to leave them: what will become of them? I fear they will beg through the country. Sir, you have not been careful to gather money to them." At that point, Rev. Row turned to the wall and prayed. Then he said to the principal: "I think I might and ought to have done more for my children than I have done; but, teacher, I have given over my children unto God and the well ordered covenant, and to his all-sufficient providence. Now, teacher, let me speak to you: you have but one son, and you have great riches to give him, and you make a god of your riches; and you think, well my son will have enough! But, teacher, it may be that when my children, whom I have given over to God's gracious and all-sufficient providence, may have competency in the world, your son may have much need -- for it is God's blessing that makes rich!"
Rev. Row had six sons, and five of them became ministers of the gospel. The teacher's heir was a very profane man, given to drunkenness and many evil vices, and he squandered his money. After his death, the son's wife begged for food and she was often given meat and drink at the house of Rev. William Row, minister in Fife; he was one of the sons of Rev. John Row, minister at Carnock.

All Things To God's Glory

Many of us love the classical music of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). Did you know that when Bach was composing a piece he began by writing at the top of the sheet Jesu Juva, that is, "Jesus, help"? And when he concluded the piece he would write at the bottom of the sheet Soli Deo Gloria which means "to God alone be the glory". This is what grammarians call an inclusio, namely, his work is bounded on both ends by bringing glory to God. Oh, that we all would see our labors on this earth in the same way! Oh, that we would understand that all things are to be brought under the lordship of Jesus Christ! And so as we go to work this day, wherever that may be, may we begin with Jesu Juva, and may we close our day with Soli Deo Gloria.

Principal of LTS to Preach at BPC

Robert Strivens, Principal of London Theological Seminary, will preach at the 11:00 am morning service at Ballantyne Presbyterian Church on May 4, 2008. LTS was primarily the vision of D. Martyn Lloyd Jones for the purpose of training men for the gospel ministry. Following is a short bio of Principal Strivens:
Robert has an MA (University of Cambridge, Corpus Christi College) and a ThM (Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia). He is Principal-Designate and Lecturer in New Testament and Greek, ethics and hermeneutics at London Theological Seminary. Having trained for the pastoral ministry at LTS, Robert pastored an evangelical church in Banbury for 8 years. Prior to training for the ministry, he was a solicitor in private practice, working in London and Brussels. He has been involved in training pastors in French-speaking West Africa. Robert is also chairman of the Board of Directors of Evangelical Press. Currently he is engaged in doctoral research on Philip Doddridge and early 18th century Dissent. He is married to Sarah and they have three sons. He enjoys classical music, Scottish hills and Italian sunshine.

The Most Glorious Day of My Life

Brooks Adams was the grandson of President John Quincy Adams and son of U.S. Diplomat Charles Francis Adams. Brooks’ father was an extremely successful attorney in Boston that was elected to the House of Representatives, ran for the Presidency, received an offer to be the President of Harvard, was the Ambassador to Great Britain, and a close political confidant of President Lincoln. This great political success came at a cost – namely, time spent with his family. So, when Charles asked his son Brooks to go fishing, the young boy was ecstatic! Brooks made this simple entry in his diary that day, “Went fishing with my father… the most glorious day of my life.” So great was the influence of this one day's personal experience with his father that, for 30 years thereafter, he made repeated references to the glowing memories of that day and would tell others about “the most glorious day of my life”. When Charles Francis Adams passed away, his son inherited his father’s journal – with eager excitement Brooks immediately went to that special day to see what sentimental entry his father would have recorded for “the most glorious day of my life”. His father’s entry for that day shed a new light on this shared day as it simply stated, "Went fishing with my son. A day wasted."

Posted by RE Matt Spear

ESV Study Bible

This blog is primarily for the purpose of spiritual encouragement of the members of Ballantyne Presbyterian Church and others. At times, however, we will post blogs that are more informational, but also would help in the Christian walk of believers. With that in mind, I want to let you know that the ESV Study Bible will appear in October 2008, and the publishers have launched a website to promote the study Bible. You may access the site at www.esvstudybible.org This is a top-notch study Bible that includes a number of contributors from Reformed Theological Seminary (Charlotte and Orlando campuses). In my opinion, this study Bible will be a wonderful tool for the believer to understand the word of God in a deeper way.

Self-Sufficiency

Hudson Taylor, the well-known missionary to China during the nineteenth century, was once asked by his wife, "Are you proud of anything?" He answered, "Proud about what?" She said, "The many things you have done and accomplished." Hudson Taylor responded, "I never knew I had done anything." He clearly understood that any success that one might have in the ministry or in the Christian walk is by the power, work, and grace of Jesus Christ. Only Christ is all-powerful and all-sufficient. Taylor lived the words of Charles Spurgeon: "If Christ be anything, he must be everything."
I fear that many of us in the church have a belief in our own self-sufficiency. We often have a lingering pride in who we are and what we can accomplish. But the reality is that the blessings of God do not come to us through human strength or skill or craftiness. They only come through the gracious provision of God to an undeserving people. The truth is that we do not need self-sufficiency; what we need is self-denial. We need to learn to be humble and meek, and to rely on the power of God to work in us and through us.

Encouragement from the Martyrs

Jesus plainly told his followers what to expect in the world. He said, “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake” (Mark 13:13). Christians can count on the fact that the servant is not greater than the master. As the crucifixion of our Lord was bloody, the history of God’s people has been marked always with the distinctive characteristic of Christian blood.

Take for instance the recent April 5th incident in Baghdad. Father Youssef Adel of the Assyrian Orthodox Church was gunned down, after receiving threats to force him to step down from being principal of a mixed Christian and Muslim high school in the Karradah district. Adel was not killed because he was a westerner or because he was white. Adel was killed because his religion taught that Jesus is Lord.

We do see incidents of violence in the United States. The one year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shooting is evidence that the same evil exists in the hearts of men everywhere. Yet, Christians in America and Christians in Iraq have very different levels of concern that their lives are in constant danger. More often in America, Christ is contradicted not by the barrel of a gun, but by being ignored. And because you follow Jesus, you might be considered just as irrelevant as many consider Christ.

What’s the appeal? To pray for the persecuted church? Yes, certainly. But don’t forget to take inventory of how you respond to the persecution you face, whether it be in your family, at work, at the academy, or in the public square. Don’t pity the martyrs, but be encouraged by them to be faithful to Jesus no matter what it costs.

ARG

BPC Intern

Boris Kornfield

In contemplating the paradox of the prosperity of the wicked and the calamities of the righteous during a study Sunday evening on Ecclesiastes 7, I was reminded of a story Chuck Colson tells in Loving God that has never left my memory.

Boris Kornfield was a surgeon and a Jew. One of those “enlightened” Jews – naturalistic and socialist to the core, nevertheless, he was imprisoned at Ekebustuz. His crime was unknown. In the context of a Russian concentration camp while assessing his beliefs, Kornfield became a Christian, a follower of Jesus. Wanting to share his newfound faith and freedom, Korfield confessed to a patient he was tending to in that prison,

“On the whole, you know, I have become convinced that there is no punishment that comes to us in this life on earth which is undeserved . . . if you go over your life with a fine tooth comb and ponder it deeply you will always be able to hunt down a transgression of yours for which you have now received this blow.”

Consider that a persecuted Jew believing in his innocence now confessing that every man deserved his suffering! It is most certainly true.

We know about this story because the patient was Alexander Solzhenitsyn. After making that confession, Kornfield was brutally murdered while sleeping. In a sinful world, pain and suffering is axiomatic. No one should really be surprised about its presence. The question that really baffles me in light of Korfield’s confession is, why so little pain and suffering? Why the abundance of happiness and pleasure in our world?

Posted by RE Mark R. Seeley

True Treasure

John Newton, the famed Reformed hymn writer, was one day called to visit a family that had suffered the loss of all that they had due to a devastating fire. Newton found the pious mistress of the house and he saluted her with the statement, "I give you joy, madam!" Surprised and offended, the woman replied, "What! Joy that all my property has been consumed?" "Oh no," Newton answered, "but joy that you have so much property that fire cannot touch." This allusion to her real treasure checked the woman's grief, and she wiped away her tears. She, as a Christian, knew what Newton said was true.
What is your heart most taken with? What is your chief desire? Do you love something more than Christ? I fear that many of us miss the spires of the heavenly city because we are so busy building our earthly mansions. May we not be like the King of France, who when asked about an eclipse that had occurred, that he said, "I have so much business in the earth that I take little notice of the things of heaven." Rather, may God give us eyes to see the things of heaven, and loosen our grip on this world.

True Praise

There is a story of a group of American pastors who traveled to London to hear the great English preachers of the day. They wanted to learn how to preach from their British brethren. One Sunday they went to hear a well-known London pastor who gave a rousing sermon, and the American pastors came out of the service with great praise: "What a great preacher! What a great sermon!" The next Sunday they went to hear Charles Spurgeon preach. They also came out of that service in exultation. But this time as they walked out the doors of the church they proclaimed "What a Savior! What a Savior!" As we attend church each week may we remember that we go to worship Him and to bring glory and honor to His name. May we not look to any man or to ourselves, but may we look to our Savior.

Loneliness

I recently read Elisabeth Elliot’s book entitled Loneliness. There were a number of things I appreciated in the book – for example, the reminder that sorrow can be the means by which God gets our attention and then teaches us to trust in Him. “Wilderness” experiences can help us learn sufficiency and satisfaction in God alone.

The book also touches on some of the tough issues of faithful Christian living. For example, since loneliness/hardship comes from the hand of God, it is a gift. And so, am I going to accept the gift? That is, will I accept these circumstances as the will of God for now and thank Him for it? Am I, by God’s grace, willing to die to self and walk the way of the cross like our Savior?

Perhaps one of the most intriguing ideas is that we offer our suffering back to God. What does this mean? Well, when Paul says in Romans 12:1 that we are to present our bodies a living and holy sacrifice, he means everything we have is to be offered to God. We may be walking through the valley of the shadow of death and presently have little else to offer but our loneliness and pain. So be it. “What I lay on the altar of consecration is nothing more and nothing less than what I have at this moment, whatever I find in my life now of work and prayer, joys and sufferings…To make that gift an offering may be the most costly thing one can do, for it means the laying down of a cherished dream of what one wanted to be, and the acceptance of what one did not want to be.” Let us offer it up nonetheless. “Let our offering be free, humble, unconditional, given in the full confidence that His transforming energy can fit it into the working of His purposes.” (Elisabeth Elliot) (NC)

The Tinker

John Owen, the great Puritan theologian of the 17th century in England, was a highly trained academic. He was a graduate of Queen's College, Oxford, and he later received a Doctor of Divinity degree from that school. He was advisor to the elite of England: he served as chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, and later as a close counselor to Charles II. He was a dogged writer. The Works of John Owen attest to that truth.
Owen was a friend of John Bunyan and he would often go to hear Bunyan preach. Charles II heard of Owen's attendance at Bunyan's preaching, and he asked him why he went to hear an uneducated tinker like Bunyan preach. Owen replied: "Could I possess the tinker's abilities for preaching, please your majesty, I would gladly relinquish all my learning."

Preaching Nature

Rev. James Hamilton, a Scottish preacher from the 18th century, often brought phenomena of nature to bear on the business of the pulpit. In other words, he would use nature as an illustration of God's common grace and, sometimes, of his special grace to sinners. A poor woman from Dundee once came to his prayer meeting, and he was speaking to the people about a fig leaf which he held in his hand. She could not understand his point, and she protested, "Eh, Mr. Hamilton, to give them fig leaves, when their hungering for the bread of life!"

Peace in a Hectic World

In the concluding chapter of his classic work on justification, The Everlasting Righteousness, Horatius Bonar describes "the holy life of the justified." His comment on the relationship between the believer's justification and the peace that should characterize his life is as relevant in today's hectic and frenzied world as it was 125 years ago: "The life of the justified should be a peaceful one. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God - the God of peace, and the God of all grace. The world's storms have not been stilled, nor our way smoothed, nor our skies brightened, nor our enemies swept away; but the peace of God has come in and taken possession of the soul. We are cheered and comforted. God is for us, and who can be against us? The name of the Lord is our strong tower; we run into it, and are safe. No evil can happen to us; no weapon that is formed against us can propser." May we as Christians take hold of this truth, and never let it go!

Never Beyond the Pale II

As we continue with our theme that no man is beyond salvation if God wills him to be saved, I am reminded of the story of Robert Thomas. The first Protestant missionary venture to Korea was led by Robert Thomas of the London Missionary Society in 1866. He traveled to Korea on an American ship, called the "General Sherman", which was going on a voyage of exploration. As the ship sailed up the Tai Tong River, Thomas shared the gospel and handed out Bibles to people at various places that the ship stopped. When the ship neared the city of Pyonyang, hostilities broke out. The ship was set on fire, and the crew and its passengers jumped into the water and made for shore. There they were bayoneted by soldiers. One of the missionaries, some believe it was Robert Thomas, staggered to shore with his arms full of Bibles. As he was being killed, he handed Bibles to his Korean attackers. Although the authorities tried to gather and burn all the Bibles, some of them were hidden and later read by some of the soldiers and the people of Pyonyang.
Seventeen years later, a Presbyterian minister named Samuel Moffett came to Pyonyang to bring the gospel and to start a church. The missionary found that there were a number of people of the city who knew the Bible, and one of the first members of the church was the son of one of the soldiers who had killed a missionary on the shore of the Tai Tong River. And beginning with that see God brought a large and famous revival to Pyonyang and its surroundings under the ministry of Rev. Moffett. Oh the mystery of the providence of God in salvation!

Never Beyond the Pale

Sometimes I think we wonder whether a person is beyond God's reach or beyond the pale. In this regard, I have recently been reading about a man named John Craig. He was a Dominican Friar who spent a number of years in a monastery in England. He then went to live in a monastery in Bologna, Italy. As he was in the monastery library one day, he ran across a copy of Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. He read it and was converted to the doctrines of grace. Craig went back to Britain and he became a ministerial colleague of John Knox. Later he was the minister to King James (1580-1600). Don't you wonder how Calvin's Institutes made into a Dominican monastery? God's hand can reach anyone at anytime at any place. His hand reached into a Dominican monastery in Italy and plucked John Craig to use him as a light of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. This is encouraging: no one is beyond the pale if God sees fit to shine into one's heart with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Be Strong and Courageous

I am in the process of beginning a commentary on the Book of Joshua. And as I was spending time in chapter 1 of the book and thinking about God's encouragement to his people to be "strong and courageous", I was reminded of the Scottish preacher John Livingstone (1603-72). When he was a young man in his twenties he doubted whether he had a call to the ministry, and he had great fear that God had not set him apart to that work. When he was twenty-seven years old he still had no ministerial charge. A neighboring minister one day engaged Livingstone to preach on a Sunday at his church in Shotts. The morning of the sermon Livingstone had such a fit of fear and panic that he sought to flee before the service. He took heart, however, and courageously went forth and preached on Ezekiel 36:25-26. Five hundred people ascribed their conversion to that sermon.
Indeed, in our Christian walk, we need to be "strong and courageous". As David remarks, "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" (Psalm 27:1)

Studying the Bible

And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God? Mark 12:24

J.C. Ryle commented on this passage (as relayed in a recent article in Banner of Truth magazine) that "We learn . . . from this passage, how much of religious error may be traced to ignorance of the Bible . . . The truth of the principle here laid down, is proved by facts in almost every age of church history. The reformation in Josiah's day was closely connected with the discovery of the book of the law. The false doctrines of the Jews in our Lord's time were the result of neglecting the Scriptures. The dark ages of Christendom were times when the Bible was kept back from the people. The Protestant Reformation was mainly effected by translating and circulating the Bible. The Churches which are most flourishing at this day are churches which honour the Bible. The nations which enjoy most moral light are nations in which the Bible is most known. The parishes in our land where there is most true religion are those in which the Bible is most studied. The godliest families are Bible-reading families. The holiest men and women are Bible-reading people. These are simple facts which cannot be denied."

Never Too Young, Never Too Old

Jonathan Edwards in his treatise A Faithful Narrative of Surprising Conversions tells the story of Phebe Bartlett who was born in 1731. At the age of four she was deeply moved by the spirit, and even at the young age she became serious about Christianity. Her parents noticed that she would pray 5-6 times daily, and on one occasion her mother heard her pray "Pray, blessed Lord give me salvation! I pray, pardon all my sins!" From that day forward there was a deep and lasting change in her life.
In December of 1804, Phebe traveled to the town of Westhampton with her husband to visit her son. She became quite sick. A certain young man named Justin Edwards (no relation to Jonathan) help to nurse her. He was converted as he, in his own words, "saw the dying woman calmly trusting in her savior." He said to himself, "Here is a religion that I have not, and that I must have". Phebe Bartlett died of her illness in January 1805. Justin Edwards became a pastor, and served for years at South Church in Andover, Mass. He later became president of Andover Theological Seminary.
The reality is that the truth burned brightly in the life of Phebe Bartlett from the age of her conversion at four years old until her death at the age of seventy-three. She was a faithful witness for Christ from childhood to tomb. What a great example for us to follow in our walks with Jesus Christ!