Thank the Lord for Charles Spurgeon

If I could pick one person outside of Scripture to spend the day with I, along with countless other believers, would pick Charles Spurgeon. It is amazing how God used this man and continues to use him to this day. This is goes against all types of “blog rules” for me in that, even when I post a link and information from another blog, I try to keep it short - I know that MOST people have better things to do than read and follow my every move and word. However, this is such a wonderful word that I couldn’t find anything to leave out! So I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.


The following excerpt is from "High Doctrine and Broad Doctrine," a sermon preached in Exeter Hall, London.


"All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."—John 6:37.

THESE two sentences have been looked upon as representing two sides of Christian doctrine. They enable us to see it from two stand-points—the Godward and the manward.

The first sentence contains what some call high doctrine. If by "high" they mean "glorious towards God," I fully agree with them; for it is a grand, God-honoring truth which our Lord Jesus declares in these words,—"All that the Father giveth, me shall come to me." Some have styled this side of truth Calvinistic, but while it is true that Calvin taught it, so also did Augustine, and Paul, and our Lord himself, whose words these are. However, I will not quarrel with those who see in this sentence a statement of the great truth of predestinating grace.

The second sentence sets forth blessed, encouraging, evangelical doctrine, and is in effect a promise and an invitation,—"Him that cometh to me I will an no wise cast out." This is a statement without limitation of any kind: it has been thought to leave the free grace of God open to the free will of man, so that whosoever pleases may come and may be sure that he still not be refused.

We have no permission to pare down either sentence, nor is there the slightest need to do so. The first sentence appears to me to say that God has chosen a people, and has given these people to Christ, and these people must and shall come to Christ, and so shall be saved. The second truth declares that every man who comes to Christ shall be saved, since he shall not be cast out, and that implies that he shall be received and accepted.

These are two great truths; let us carry them both with us, and they will balance each other. I was once asked to reconcile these two statements, and I answered, "No, I never reconcile friends." These two passages never fell out: they are perfectly agreed. It is folly to imagine a difference, and then set about removing it. It is like making a man of straw, and then going out to fight with it.

The grand declaration of the purpose of God that he will save his own is quite consistent with the widest declaration that whosoever will come to Christ shall be saved. The pity is that it ever should be thought to be a difficulty to hold both truths; or that, supposing there is a difficulty, we should have thought it our duty to remove it. Believe me, my dear hearers, the business of removing religious difficulties is the least remunerative labor under heaven.

The truest way is to accept the difficulty wherever you find it in God's word, and to exercise your faith upon it. It is unreasonable to suppose that faith is to be exempted from trials: all the other graces are exercised, and why should not faith be put to the test? I often feel a joy within my spirit in having to believe what I cannot understand; and sometimes when I have to say to myself, "How can it be?" I find a joy in replying that it is so written, and therefore it must be so.

In spite of all reasoning stands the utterance of God. Our Father speaks, and doubts are silenced: his Spirit writes, and we believe. I feel great pleasure in gliding down the river of revelation, upon a voyage of discovery, and hour by hour obtaining fresh knowledge of divine truth; but where I come to an end of progress, and see my way blocked up by a sublimely awful difficulty, I find equal pleasure in casting anchor under the lee of the obstacle, and waiting till the pilot tells me what next to do.

When we cannot go through a truth, we may be led over it, or round it, and what matters? Our highest benefit comes not of answering riddles, but of obeying commands by the power of love. Suppose we can see no further into the subject—what then? Shall we trouble about that? Must there not be an end of human knowledge somewhere? May we not be perfectly satisfied for God to appoint the boundary of understanding? Let us not therefore run our heads against difficulties of our own invention, and certainly not against those which God has seen fit to leave for us.

Take, then, these two truths, and know that they are equally precious portions of one harmonious whole. Let us not quibble over them, or indulge a foolish favouritism for one and a prejudice against the other; but let us receive both with a candid, large-hearted love of truth, such as children of God should exhibit. We are not called upon to explain, but to accept. Let us believe if we cannot reconcile.

Here are two jewels, let us wear them both. As surely as this Book is true, God has a people whom he has chosen, and whom Christ has redeemed from among men; and these must and shall by sovereign grace be brought in due time to repentance and faith, for not one of them shall ever perish. But yet is it equally true, that whosoever among the sons of men shall come and put his trust in Christ shall receive eternal life. "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."

"None are excluded hence but those
Who do themselves exclude.
Welcome the learned and polite,
The ignorant and rude."

The two truths of my text are by no means inconsistent the one with the other: they are perfectly agreed. Happy is the man who can believe them both, whether he sees their agreement or does not see it.

I was cruising one day in the western Highlands. It had been a splendid day, and the glorious scenery had made our journey like an excursion to Fairy Land; but it came to an end, for darkness and night asserted their primeval sovereignty. Right ahead was a vast headland of the isle of Arran. How it frowned against the evening sky! The mighty rock seemed to overhang the sea. Just at its base was a little bay, and into this we steamed, and there we lay at anchorage all night, safe from every wind that might happen to be seeking out its prey. In that calm loch we seemed to lie in the mountain's lap while its broad shoulders screened us from the wind.

Now, the first part of my text, "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me," rises like a huge headland high into the heavens. Who shall scale its height? Upon some it seems to frown darkly. But here at the bottom lies the placid, glassy lake of infinite love and mercy: "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." Steam into it, and be safe under the shadow of the great rock. You will be the better for the mountain-truth as your barque snugly reposes within the glittering waters at its foot; while you may thank God that the text is not all mountain to repel you, you will be grateful that there is enough of it to secure you.

Something Different

When I arrived at Trinity one of the things that I said over and over again in several different ways, is that we need to be thinking Christians. We need to think through things Biblically as a church, we need to read solid Biblical authors, we need to get in the Word of God apply it to our day to day life to glorify God. I know we are about a month away, but I wanted to mention that beginning on September 19th we are kicking off our Sunday evening classes again. Depending on what class you take, they begin anytime from about 4:30 to 5:00 and you will have those details as sign up takes place for theses classes. There are several ladies’ Bible studies, there is a “Way Of The Master” training, and several other classes. One that we will be offering is entitled “The Parenting Roundtable” and this class will be led by Brad Walker, Jeff Summers and me. This will be for parents that have children on the way - all the way to parents of middle school students. It will be topical, and we will have group discussions, Q and A times and deal with everything from Family Worship, Dating vs. Courting, views on Santa Clause, to disciplining with Scripture. Many of these topics we will give differing views, and on some of them there may be no clear dogmatic answer. Our goal is to think through these things as a church body. We will bring in some Senior Adults to talk about things they wish they would have done with their children and things they did right with their children. I believe if you have children in your home or expecting one soon, this will be a great opportunity to think Biblically together on hot topics! Look forward to seeing you there.

Parenting Help

There are so many wicked things on the internet, but there are also many things that allow an opportunity to extend grace to other believers. I came across this blog that reinforces so many truths that we have learned through books and in the pulpit at Trinity. When I saw this I had to post it…and I hope it blesses you and reminds you that we teach God’s grace to our children daily and many times our greatest opportunities are when we feel like it the least.

http://www.challies.com/guest-bloggers/using-the-bible-biblically-to-parent-biblically#more

USING THE BIBLE BIBLICALLY TO PARENT BIBLICALLY
Tim Challies
07/16/10

Today’s guest blog comes from my good friend Mark Tubbs. Mark has taken upon himself much of the day-to-day work associated with Discerning Reader and for that I am deeply indebeted to him. Today he writes about marriage and parenting.
*****
Back in May, my wife and I attended an incredibly challenging and inspiring Paul David Tripp conference on marriage, entitled What Did You Expect? Redeeming the Realities of Marriage (there is a excellent CROSSWAY BOOK of the same name). I learned so much about parenting.
Did I say parenting? Yes; I took away manifold parenting insights from this marriage conference. That’s not to say that I didn’t imbibe any marriage insights; I certainly did. I was chastened up and down regarding all the ways I superimpose my failings onto my wife. I was humbled to learn that the secret to our long and successful marriage is that we share a deep and abiding love for me (HT JESS MACCALLUM for that phrase).
It’s no secret that the Bible speaks to parenting, but it may be a surprise to you just how often it does so indirectly. At his conference, Tripp stated, “The Bible isn’t arranged by topic. If you go only to the “marriage” passages, you miss most of what the Bible says about marriage.” In his book, he elaborates in a section entitled “Using the Bible Biblically”:
Part of the problem is the way we use Scripture. We mistakenly treat the Bible as if it is arranged by topic - you know, the world’s best compendium of human problems and divine solutions. So when we’re thinking about marriage, we run to all the marriage passages. But the Bible isn’t an encyclopedia; it is a story, the great origin-to-destiny story of redemption. In fact, it is more than a story. It is a theologically annotated story. It is a story with God’s notes. This means that we cannot understand what the Bible has to say about marriage by looking at only the marriage passages, because there is a vast amount of biblical information about marriage not found in the marriage passages.
In fact, we could argue that to the degree that every portion of the Bible tells us things about God, about ourselves, about life in this present world, and about the nature of the human struggle and the divine solution, to that degree every passage in the Bible is a marriage passage. Every passage imparts to us insight that is vital for a proper understanding of the passages that directly address marriage, and every passage tells us what we should expect as we deal with the comprehensive relationship of marriage.
Ditto with parenting. Perhaps more so with parenting, since each addition of another person to your family multiples the number of social interactions occurring within the family grouping. Tensions, conflicts, and differences are therefore more prevalent than if it were just the two of you coasting blissfully (as if) through married life. If you are anything like my wife and I, you often feel that Sin Personified is having a heyday within your God-given family unit. Where’s the grace?
Grace in all its beauty is found where sin is displayed in all its ugliness, when - and only when - the gospel is being momentarily and actively applied to parenting and the Bible is being used biblically. To lift yet another example from Tripp: if my children wake in the wee hours, start to fight, and I respond by stomping down the hall toward their bedroom with the mantra “inconvenience, inconvenience, inconvenience” running through my head, I am reacting sinfully to their sin. Of course, it’s a fact of life that sinners tend to respond sinfully to being sinned against. “But,” as the Apostle John reminds us in his first epistle, “if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1) That doesn’t only go for the one who is sinning, but for the one faced with addressing the sin. As C.J. Mahaney often says, there is never a moment in which I don’t need a Mediator. Later John goes on to say, “whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked” (I John 2:5). As I am traversing the corridor in the wee hours, abiding in the grace of God means my heart is softening toward my children with every step and I am choosing to view the situation as an “opportunity, opportunity, opportunity” to extend the grace of God through kindness and correction. For ultimately even the corridors and bedrooms of my own house are not my own - they are part of the kingdom of God. And in that kingdom, grace flows in all directions at all times.
To the degree that you use the Bible biblically in your parenting, the grace of the gospel of Christ will be evident to your children, operating as a “trysting place,” in Martin Luther’s words, of personal encounter between your children and your God.
*****
Mark Tubbs moonlights as a book reviewer for DISCERNINGREADER.COM and is a worship leader, care group leader, and occasional preacher at White Rock Baptist Church, near Vancouver, British Columbia. Otherwise he can be found doing his day job as a Bible college registrar. He lives with his wife Cheri and three children - Kenny, Lydia and Leo - with one more on the way, and is currently pursuing an M.Div.

A Great Answer by John Piper

Below is a great question posed to John Piper about confronting sin. I think it is great advice as we live in community with one another. Thank the Lord for men like this.

Question:
When you see sin or damaging behavior in someone else's life, how do you know when to keep quiet and when to speak with them?

Answer by John Piper:
The first principle that Paul lays down for us is, "Who are we to judge those who are outside? It is those in the church that we are to judge." So the first answer is, I'm watching sinful destructive behavior all day in the world. Television, movies, YouTube, on the street, in advertising, people are destroying themselves all day long—neighbors and people all around us.
You don't go to everybody. You are not called to spend 18 hours a day walking up to people saying, "Don't smoke!" or, "Don't drink!" or, "Don't swear!" or, "Don't hit your wife!" or, "Don't fail to discipline your children!"
That's not our job. We preach the gospel to the world, and as occasion arises we might link some destructive behavior to the gospel as a way out.
In the church the question becomes more urgent. In the church, the answer to the question is going to hang on criteria like, how serious is the sin? If it is really serious, immediately urgent, and you know that the person is a part of the church—even if you don't know them personally—you might go and do Galatians 6:2. "If you find a brother taken in a fault, restore such a one in a spirit of meekness lest you too be tempted."
So the mindset is, I've got a log hanging out of my eye. Now compared to a log, this person's behavior is a speck. Or even if it is a log, I've got my own log. I can't go to him with a log hanging out of my eye because the log will hit him on the head and do more damage than if I took my log out first.
So my first job is to take out my own log. Then I see clearly, Jesus says, to take the speck out of my brother's eye. So I've become a successful eye surgeon of the sin speck in my brother's eye by getting the log out of my own eye.
So the criteria is, how serious is the sin, and am I spiritually equipped. And you go in there and try to speak in a way that wouldn't feel condemning—at least at first. You may have to get tough later, but at first you want to win them. You want to create a bubble of grace in which they feel some hope that even though this is sin, they are loved and accepted.
Another criterion would be, how close is your relationship? Are there other people in this person's life? If I saw somebody in your small group doing something, and you are the leader of that little group, I might ask you, "Are you concerned about this kind of thing? You might watch out for it in your group." Because I would rather have someone they know pursue them this way than somebody that has less of a relationship with them.
My final answer would be, have spiritual discernment and spiritual wisdom for the moment about whether this is an auspicious helpful time to talk, or whether another angle would be better.

Speaking the Truth in Love

To many people the idea of “speaking the truth in love” is just saying nice things, or being very tactful - if not vague. But the key to dealing with Scripture is not getting it say what you want it to say, but letting the Word speak in its context. The focal point of this passage is maturity in Christ, or not being “tossed to and from and carried about with every wind of doctrine…..” What we as a church body should be doing is speaking the Word of God to one another - specifically we should be speaking the Gospel to one another. We should be using the Word of God to correct, exhort, rebuke. The truth is not “subjective” and the Word of God is truth. We should be speaking the Word of God to one another and, we should be doing it because we love the people of God. We should care enough to love biblically…we should care enough to not live in our comfort zone, but be willing to speak truth to our brothers and sisters, even in a strong way if necessary. I say all this because of a wonderful quote I came across by Dietrich Bonehoeffer:
“Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons other to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than that severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one’s community back from the path of sin.”
As I read that, I can’t help but think of the society we live in: it seems we are in a day that calls cruelty kindness, and kindness cruelty. May God allow us to be people who love so much that we are willing to be uncomfortable, that we are willing to be broken over a believer that strays, that we “speak the truth in love” to one another as we are running this race that our Lord has placed us in.

Sweet Ladies

This past weekend I had the joy of spending time with some wonderful ladies in our church. I was able to visit for about 15 minutes with some of our ladies as they kicked off their yearly Ladies Ministry Leadership Team meeting. It was so encouraging not only to speak to them, but to hear what they had to say about the direction of our Ladies Ministry. I had two of these sweet ladies catch me Sunday morning and share their desire for ministry and the passion to, in short, “be Titus 2” women. These ladies desire for our Trinity ladies to teach and learn together what biblical femininity is, what biblical beauty is and to do it across all generations! I watched as ladies in their 20’s and in their 60’s have a passion to walk with God and minister to others – together – and it was nothing short of spectacular.

We live in a day that desires to shrink from the Biblical truth of what leadership should look like in the home, what Biblical submission looks like, and even from what the role of older ladies should be to the younger ladies. In fact, there are a great number of Bible studies in your local Christian bookstore, but I will tell you that the subject matter of Titus 2 will be a lot harder to find than most any other study for ladies. I find it sad that the one thing the Word of God makes crystal clear that godly ladies should teach others is in the minority of material available. This is not to discount the great number of studies that are available even at Trinity today - The Precept Classes and many of the other classes that are offered are outstanding! However, if one fails at following the basic truths of Titus 2, they have failed in their speech, their self control, they have not learned to love their husbands or children, their home is not a priority and they blaspheme the Word of God…well I think based on that, they have failed. We must be consistent in teaching the whole of Scripture and I am thankful that this group of ladies is committed to making sure our ladies have plenty of opportunities to study the Word throughout the year.

All this to say, I am grateful that while being in a culture that puts a greater value on what Oprah says you should be than the Word of God, we have ladies who long to teach, learn and be what God expects them to be. Thank you ladies for your hard work and thank you for your incredible service! I can’t wait to see these ministry opportunities up and going, ladies across our church serving one another in Christ’s love, and to see our generations working together to study and serve in the Word! I am really excited to see what God is going to do in the life of our church in the coming years.

I Cannot Add a Thing!

I love the local church! I love preaching about how Christ loves her, I love reading about her, and I love watching one understand what a biblical church looks like. While preaching this series on “The Church” I have not only come across some very good books, but also some very good blogs. I have posted a link below to a very interesting blog. Linked below you will see an outstanding post entitled, “Your Church Might Not Be A Church If…” Great job!

http://gospeldrivenchurch.blogspot.com/

TUESDAY, JULY 13, 2010
Your Church Might Not be a Church If . . .

You never hear the word "sin" there.

You hear the word "sin," but only briefly or redefined as "mistakes."

You can't remember when you last heard the name of Jesus in a message.

The Easter message isn't about the resurrection but "new opportunities" in your life or turning over a new leaf.

On patriotic holiday weekends, the message is about how great America is.

On the other weekends, the message is about how great you are.

There are more videos than prayers.

People don't sing during "worship," but watch.

The pastors' chief responsibilities are things foreign to Scripture.

There is more money budgeted for advertising than for mission.

The majority of the small groups are oriented around sports or leisure, not study or service.

You always feel comfortable there.

Church membership just appears to be a recruiting system for volunteers.

You only see other church people on Sunday mornings at church.

---
If your church meets one or more of these, it might be a spiritual pep rally, a religious performance center, a Christian social club, or something else entirely, but it is probably not, biblically speaking, a gathering of the biblical church.

The Lessons Continue...

4. I am the worse sinner I know. While Michele was in the hospital, we had crazy things going on. We were trying to close on a house we are selling and kids camp was approaching - which meant I would have to get the boys packed (Michele does this usually). And, to top it off, since Michele was over recreation at kids camp, I would have to get all the material to someone who would graciously take her place. All of this along with little sleep and a sin nature, led me to be very short with the boys. I was under conviction about this and told the boys that I had sinned against them. As the three of us laid on the bed and prayed and talked about Mom and the rest of the day, they began to say that "we were all tired". I acknowledged that, but pointed out that our circumstances can't excuse our sin...it is still sin. It made me and them realize that we need God's grace in every moment, and that sanctification is ongoing until we see Him face to face. It is so easy to let our emotions lead to us excusing our sin - I think the only remedy to that is abiding by the cross daily. Thanks be to our Lord and Savior that we have the honor of doing that each day.

Enjoying Our Journey

Wednesday was supposed to be as typical as any of my Wednesday's could be...since it is my day I set aside to do any necessary counseling, you never know what is going to come up. In 16 years of marriage Michele has never called and said she needed me to come home "asap". But Wednesday broke the 16 year record. I came home to a wife who was very sick. Long story short, she ended up in the hospital, and it was here that the Lord taught us some wonderful truths. I just want to highlight a few of them that I hope will be an encouragement to you:

1. It is so good to have a church family. The little things from a texts, calls, and Facebook messages, to taking care of our boys were such a blessing. I could not imagine not being part of a church family. Thank you for your love and kindness.

2. Our difficulties are not just for us. While in the hospital watching Michele in intense pain and trying to comfort her, I get a call from a Pastor's wife who has a friend that has been diagnosed with lupus and wanted Michele to talk with her. (Now a little background: when we were at Mid-America Seminary, Michele was diagnosed with lupus. Since going to Mayo Clinic for the last 7-8 years we have learned it is a "Mixed Connective Tissue" disease which includes lupus and sjogren's - in my terms is a combination of several illnesses so they can't slap a formal name on it.) Regardless, we have been extremely blessed in that there has been very few major health problems she has had. But it has allowed ministry opportunities to others reminding us that even in our infirmities we can minister to others and glorify our Lord.

3. At our most difficult times God is still so good. Each year we go to Mayo we see the same thing we saw in the hospital this week. There are so many others in worse physical shape but even more horrifying - so many who do not know Christ and have no hope. Each year Michele has to get screened for cancer while at Mayo...a few years ago we had to get a PET scan because they saw some problems. As we were waiting for results I thought---"What do people do who don't know Christ when they face this?" All that to say, no matter what news we receive God is still a good, Sovereign God.

Last lesson will be in the next blog....