This is surely hard to believe

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.

-William Cowper, 1774


O, that we would believe this!

Spurgeon on the "Black Words" of the Bible

I found this quite eloquent and enlightening.

"So the Lord doth add threatenings to commands; for sometimes a black word will drive a soul to Christ where a bright word would not draw it. Fears of hell sometimes make men flee to Jesus. The weary wing made the poor dove fly to the ark: and the thunderbolts of God's justice are only meant to make thee fly to Christ the Lord."

"Faith Reviving" by Augustus Toplady

I recently read J.I. Packer's A Quest for Godliness and discovered this gem-of-a-text within. It's both a blessing and a challenge. A blessing because it reminds me of the truth that my heart so desperately needs to hear. A challenge because I spend everyday of my life trying to justify myself in the way that this hymn explains Christ has already done.

From whence this fear and unbelief?
Hath not the Father put to grief
His spotless Son for me?
And will the righteous Judge of men
Condemn me for that debt sin
Which, Lord, was charged on thee?

Complete atonement thou hast made,
And to the utmost farthing paid
Whate'er they people owed;
How then can wrath on me take place
If sheltered in thy righteousness,
And sprinkled with thy blood?

If thou hast my discharge procured,
And freely in my room endured
The whole of wrath divine,
Payment God cannot twice demand--
First at my bleeding Surety's hand,
And then again at mine.

Turn then, my soul, unto they rest!
The merits of thy great High Priest
Have bought thy liberty;
Trust in his efficacious blood,
Nor fear thy banishment from God,
Since Jesus died for thee.

"Saved By His Precious Blood"

Recently, I had the great privilege and blessing of re-reading J.I. Packer's article entitled "Saved By His Precious Blood", which is an outlining of the Reformed faith. I believe this was the third time I had read the article, and I could not help but feeling inspired and, dare I say, further sanctified, as I was reading the article.

I doubt that any single article has ever affected my theology, and thus my life, in such a profound and drastic way (thus I exhort you to read this article!). When I first read the article, about 5 years ago, I was struggling with Reformed Theology (or Calvinism) and what the Bible really had to say about the manner in which God brings us to salvation and then to sanctification and glorification. This article was the resource that helped me most in my progression from being Arminian to being Reformed, as it displays a theology that is chiefly about glorifying God. While many Calvinistic arguments are based on arrogance and pride, this piece by Packer is humbly written and Christ-centered. He proposes that we should embrace the theology of God's sovereign grace, not because it communicates a high view of the gospel, but rather because (as Spurgeon once said), it is the gospel!

This essay is far superior to many other articles of a similar nature because it declares that Calvinism extends to far more than 5 points. In fact, Packer points out that the 5 points we commonly accept as Reformed Theology are actually just 1 point, that what Christ accomplished on the cross was completely effective in, not simply provided a way for sinners, but in actually effectually saving those who have been chosen by our sovereign, loving God. Packer cites the 5 points as falling far short of the glory of the Reformed faith, and expounds the wonders of the powerful, effective and saving God of the Reformed faith as compared to the puny, pleading, half-saving God of Arminianism.

If you are a Calvinist, I entreat you to read this article so that you will see the aim of our faith, to exalt God! If you are not a Calvinist, I hardly think you can reject the Reformed faith without reading this powerhouse of an article, which finds all of its potency in the voice of Scripture.

I pray that the Lord uses this article to bless others the way it has, and continues to, bless me.

Letters From the Late Rev. William Romaine to a Friend

"...for Christ does not give us a stock of grace, and expect us to improve it by being faithful to grace give: no, no: that is not his way. Our souls must depend upon him, as our bodies do upon the elements of this world. Every moment we must live by faith upon his fulness, and be every moment receiving out of it grace for grace. And this is our happiness--to have all in Christ. A beggar in myself, but rich with unsearchable eternal riches in him. Ignorant still in myself, but led and taught by his unerring wisdom. A sinner still, but believing in his blood and righteousness. Weak and helpless still, but kept by his Almighty love. Nothing but sorrow in myself, nothing but joy in him. Oh! this is a blessed life. No tongue can tell what a heaven it is, thus to live by faith upon the Son of God." -William Romaine

Spurgeon v. Hyper-Calvinism

I recently read a small book published by Banner of Truth Trust entitled Spurgeon v. Hyper-Calvinism: The Battle for Gospel Preaching. You must know, I am a huge Spurgeon fan. I have grown a great deal from reading his sermons and, over the years, have come to really cling for peace and assurance to some of his wonderful quotes about the greatness of God in meeting our needs as sinners. Therefore, I was very excited to get into this book, which, surprisingly, was very personal in nature, and had a great deal of history on his early years as a preacher and some of his early "differences" with the other Baptist preachers in London.

As the title reveals, the book highlights Spurgeon's lack of acceptance in his early career by the greatest Baptist preachers in his area at the time. This is all due to Rev. Spurgeon's unwillingness to waver in his free offer of the gospel to all sinners. That is to say, while he was unwavering in his defense of the glorious doctrines of grace (a dedicated Calvinist), he refused to take those beliefs to an extreme and unbiblical level which frowned upon the offering of Jesus as saviour to everyone (Hyper-Calvinism). In a nutshell, that was the main battle between Spurgeon as a Calvinist and his Hyper-Calvinist peers.

The book is an easy read, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about Spurgeon, Calvinism, or Hyper-Calvinism. In Reformed circles, we talk and hear a great deal about our differences with our Armenian brothers, but we take little time to articulate why we are not Hyper-Calvinists. After reading this book, I have begun to think about these differences, and have become aware of many dangerous Hyper-Calvinistic pit-falls I believe we have fallen into in certain churches and circles as Calvinists. I am speaking particularly of my experiences here in the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico and (gasp) even the Presbyterian Church in America. I won't go into great detail about these pit-falls here, but I hope that these quotes challenge you to examine your church's position as well as your personal life-style or verbal preaching. I should also add that, while I don't know a single self-proclaimed Hyper-Calvinist, I am confident of this book's importance because, in about 99% of the conversations I have had with Armenian friends, the conversation has included a question about why I don't believe we should evangelize (aka Hyper-Calvinism), followed by my explanation that I do and exactly how that gels with belief in God's sovereignty in salvation.

"Read, write, print, shout,--'Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.' Great Saviour, I thank Thee for this text; help Thou me so to preach from it that many may come to Thee, and find eternal life!' From his own early reading of the Puritans, Spurgeon was convinced that they were no supporters of the beliefs which Hyper-Calvinists claimed-'I have all the Puritans with me-the whole of them without a single exception.'"

"'I am afraid I am not elect.' Oh! dear souls, do not trouble yourselves about that: if you believe in your Christ you are elect: whosoever puts himself on the mercy of Jesus, and who has nothing at all tonight, shall have mercy if he come for it."

"The gospel is 'good news' which God would have proclaimed throughout the world and to 'every creature'. Its message is not simply a statement of facts. It also contains clear, unrestricted general promises, such as, 'He that believeth on him is not condemned' (John 3:18): 'Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be save' (Rom. 10:13); 'Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely' (Rev. 22:17). so the preacher has not done his work when he has spoken of Christ and proclaimed the historic facts of salvation. From there he must go on to urge the reception of Christ upon all men. In the name of God he must assure all of the certainty of their welcome and forgiveness on their repentance and faith. Thus Paul said to all his hearers at Antioch in Pisidia: 'Be it known unto you, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses' (Acts 13:38-9).'"

"...the apostles 'delivered the gospel, the same gospel to the dead as to the living, the same gospel to the non-elect as to the elect. The point of distinction is not in the gospel, but in its being applied by the Holy Ghost, or left to be rejected of man.'"

"'Repent and be battized every one of you,' said Peter. As John Bunyan puts it-one man might have stood up in the crowd and said, 'But I helped to hound him to the cross!' 'Repent and be baptized every one of you.' 'But I drove the nails into his hands!' saith one. 'Every one of you', says Peter. 'But I pierced his side.' 'Every one of you', said Peter. 'And I put my tongue into my cheek and stared at his nakedness and said, 'If he be the Son of God, let him come down from the cross!' 'Every one of you", said Peter. 'Repent and be baptized every one of you.' I do feel so grieved at many of our Calvinistic brethren; they know nothing about Calvinism I am sory to say, for never was any man more caricatured by his professed followers than John Calvin. Many of them are afraid to preach from Peter's text...When I do it, they say, 'He is unsound'. But I do not care for that: I know the Lord has blessed my appeals to all sorts of sinners, and none shall stay me in giving free invitations as long as I find them in this Book."

"I believe the tendency of that preaching which puts the warrant for faith anywhere but in the gospel command, is to vex the true penitent, and to console the hypocrite: The tendency of it is to make the poor soul which really repents, feel that he must not believe in Christ, because he sees so much of his own hardness of heart. The more spiritual a man is, the more unspiritual he see himself to be...Often the most penitent men are those who think themselves the most impenitent."

"The gospel is that you believe in Christ Jesus: that you get right out of yourself, and depend alone in him. Do you say, 'I feel so guitly'? You are certainly guilty, whether you feel it or not: you are far more guilty than you have any idea of. Come to Christ because you are guilty, not because you have been prepared to come by looking at your guilt. Trust nothing of your own, not even your sense of need."

"Sinners, let me address you with words of life: Jesus wants nothing from you, nothing whatsoever, nothing done, nothing felt: he gives both work and feeling. Ragged penniless, just as you are, lost, forsaken, desolate, with no good feelings, and no good hopes, still Jesus comes to you, and in these words of pity he addresses you, 'Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out'".

"'Him that cometh to me:'...the man may have been guilty of an atrocious sin, too black for mention; but if he comes to Christ he shall not be cast out. He may have made himself as black as night-as black as hell...I cannot tell what kind of persons may have come into this Hall to-night; but if burglars, murderers, and dynamite-men were here, I would still bid them come to Christ, for he will not cast them out. No limit is set to the extent of sin: any 'him' in all the world-any blaspheming, devilish 'him' that comes to Christ shall be welcomed. I use trong words that I may open the gate of mercy. Any 'him' that comes to Christ-though he come from slum or taproom, betting-ring or gambling-hell, prison or brothel-Jesus will in no wise cast out."

"These brethren [Hyper-Calvinists] spoke of sinners as people whom God might possibly gather in if he thought fit to do so; but they did not care much whether he did so or not. As to weeping over sinners as Christ wept over Jerusalem; as to venturing to invite them to Christ as the Lord did when he stretched out his hands all the day long; as to lamenting with Jeremiah over a perishing people, they had no sympathy with such emotions, and feared they savoured of Arminianism. Both preacher adn congregation were cased in a hard shell, and lived as if their won salvation was the sole design of their existence."

"Spurgeon believed all the truths commonly called Calvinistic but he did not believe that all the truths commonly so designated had to be presented to sinners in order to their conversion. as noted, he wanted to see both divine sovereignty and human responsibility upheld but when it came to gospel preaching he believed that there needed to be a greater concentraion upon responsibility. The tendency of Hyper-Calvinism was to make sinners want to understand theology before they could believe in Christ, as though 'they cannot be saved till they are through theologians.' But the non-Christian can hear 'the soul and marrow of the gospel', that is, Christ as the Saviour, and see his responsibility to repent and believe, whithout understanding 'the doctrines commonly called Calvinistic'. It is with his responsibility, says Spurgeon, that 'the sinner has the most to do', whereas God's predestinating grace is the subject with which 'the saint has the most to do. Let him praise the free and sovereign grace of God, and bless his name.'"

If you don't know who this man is, you need to...

Francis Shaeffer is well-known for his philosophical and theological thought, his teachings on connecting faith and culture, and the establishment of L'Abri Fellowship, a welcoming retreat-type set-up where people can come to seek honest answers about faith and Christianity. This article is a great introduction to the strides of Shaeffer to spread a thinking, weeping Christianity.

Suffering

One problem in many Christian circles today is the approach to and the ideas surrounding suffering. I was searching through some blogs this morning and found this. It's from a 9/11 address given by Pastor Tim Keller in New York City. If you don't know who he is, I strongly recommend you check him out. You have to buy his sermons, but they are well worth it. Heck, I'll burn you one or send you the file if you've never heard him before.


"One of the great themes of the Hebrew Scriptures is that God identifies with the suffering. There are all these great texts that say things like this: If you oppress the poor, you oppress to me. I am a husband to the widow. I am father to the fatherless. I think the texts are saying God binds up his heart so closely with suffering people that he interprets any move against them as a move against him. This is powerful stuff! But Christianity says he goes even beyond that. Christians believe that in Jesus, God’s son, divinity became vulnerable to and involved in - suffering and death! He didn’t come as a general or emperor. He came as a carpenter. He was born in a manger, no room in the inn.

But it is on the Cross that we see the ultimate wonder. On the cross we sufferers finally see, to our shock that God now knows too what it is to lose a loved one in an unjust attack. And so you see what this means? John Stott puts it this way. John Stott wrote: 'I could never myself believe in God if it were not for the Cross. In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?' Do you see what this means? Yes, we don’t know the reason God allows evil and suffering to continue, but we know what the reason isn’t, what it can’t be. It can’t be that he doesn’t love us! It can’t be that he doesn’t care. God so loved us and hates suffering that he was willing to come down and get involved in it. And therefore the Cross is an incredibly empowering hint. Ok, it’s only a hint, but if you grasp it, it can transform you. It can give you strength. "