REFORMING YOUR CHURCH ARTICLES | Reformation Scotland

View Details

Why don’t people listen to their pastors?God sends preachers to announce the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ and to warn people of the dangers of their sin. The message that God wants us to hear is both clear and extremely important. So why don’t people listen? The Covenanting preacher John Welch identifies faults on the side of both the preacher and the hearer. Preachers may get frustrated that their hard work bears such little fruit, while hearers may get frustrated when preachers don’t come across as if they themselves grasp the magnitude of their responsibility. Not only hearers but also preachers can forget that the preaching of the cross, which seems such foolishness, both as to method and content, is after all both the wisdom of God and the power of God.Why people should listen to their pastorsFirst, the things they preach are absolutely necessary. It is necessary that you are converted and saved, that you turn, and turn for real, that you embrace Jesus Christ, as He is offered in the gospel, etc. This is how you are to be saved, or else lie in your sins and be eternally damned, and sentenced to everlasting torment. Is not the damnation of immortal soul a thing of weight and momentousness? Therefore, is it any wonder that ministers use all arguments to persuade you to do these things, seeing they are so absolutely necessary that, without doing them, all the world cannot save you from hell and eternal ruin.

Second, they are not only absolutely necessary, but of immediate necessity. They must be done without delay. Now or never! There is no repentance after death, and the longer they are delayed, the more difficult they become.

Third, there are great advantages to doing this. O the advantage of gaining even one soul to Christ! The advantage of confirming and establishing one soul in the moment of temptation! It is worth all the painstaking efforts a minister can make, even if he was to labour all his days. Not to speak of the advantages that come to the soul, and accrue to God’s glory!

Where preachers go wrongAlthough there are so many reasons why ministers should make it their work to persuade people, yet we find it is a work that doesn’t thrive very well in their hands. I shall give you some reasons for this, starting with reasons to do with the ministers whose work it is.

Preachers contradict their own messagePerhaps, although by their words they persuade people to these things, yet their own practice says the opposite. They preach up God and holiness in words, but “in deeds they deny them.”

This kind of preaching will neither profit folk nor persuade them. There is plenty of this kind of preaching in these days we live in. They tell us to believe, repent, be holy, but then look and see what their own life and practice tells you.

Preachers don’t take their message seriouslyThere are many ministers whose lives and behaviours may be neither scandalous nor profane, yet they are not as serious as the matter requires. They do not urge or persuade folk with the ardency and seriousness that matters of such absolute necessity require. Our words come through such cool and drooping lips that they practically freeze in our mouths, and can we then imagine that our preaching will do good or profit others? We deliver our words with such a slow spirit of indifference that it seems it’s something that could be done or not done just as we please.

Preachers don’t target the heartThough sometimes ministers may be somewhat serious and fervent in their work, yet they never lay close siege to the heart. Instead, they handle matters generally and generically. They will tell you that you should repent, but they never tell you what you are to repent of, nor the necessity of it, for example. Where sin is not particularly reproved, nor duty warmly pressed and recommended as a thing of absolute necessity, it will be a long time before that kind of preaching takes effect on the heart.

Where hearers go wrongHearers don’t really believeA great reason why the work doesn’t thrive is the ignorance and unbelief of the hearers. They don’t know the things that we are persuading them of. Nor do they really believe what is preached to them. When we tell them of communion with God, heaven, eternal life, etc, they know nothing about any of these things. When we tell them of the necessity of conversion — that they must be converted or they will be condemned — they do not believe that. If we tell them that hell is opening its mouth to receive them, that wrath is abiding on them, and that there is no escaping but by turning to God in and through Jesus Christ, they don’t believe that either.

Hearers don’t really seeAnother obstruction is that the things we speak of and persuade you of are far out of sight. Heaven, which we tell our hearers to seek, is out of view. Hell, which we tell them to beware of, is far out of sight.

The consequences are inevitableAnother reason comes from the providence of God. This work has such little success in our hands because God has taken away the blessing. He has withdrawn His gracious and comforting presence. Time was, when the arm of the Almighty went along with the preaching of the Word, but now the blessing, power, and efficacy of the gospel is taken away. On us is accomplished that word, “The Word did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that hear it” (Heb. 4:2).

What kind of hearer are you?Now I come to a short word of application. I shall divide all who hear me into the following four or five categories.

Complete strangers to GodSome are altogether strangers to God. “Without God, without Christ, being aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenant of promise.” I imagine that there are not a few in this category here, who are still strangers to God and living in darkness. Numbers of you have lived under the sound of the gospel and are still in your natural state. You used to be ignorant atheists before, and that’s what you still are.

What I would say to you is that my reason for coming to you today is so that you would now look around you, and consider your ways. “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways” (Haggai 1:3). This thing is what the Lord wants you to do. Consider what you are, and what you are doing. Consider what state you are in by nature, and where you will end up, if you continue in the same state. Consider your ways, and turn to the Lord, and live. Seek that the Lord would turn you to Himself. But if you don’t turn, make ready for hell, the place where all torment and woe meet, and a hotter hell than the hell of Sodom. You are heading for torment, an intolerable torment worse than that of Sodom and Gomorrah.

My exhortation to you is, Don’t spend a moment longer in that dangerous condition! Death, hell and damnation are upon you, and all the world, and for that matter, all the angels in heaven, cannot save you from it, while you live in that condition. Without delay, flee out of it to Jesus Christ! Don’t wait a moment longer, for if you die in that condition, all the world cannot save you from hell and destruction.

The half-heartedAnother category of folk here are those who have had some resolutions in the past, and have been half persuaded to reform their ways. They have been almost persuaded to be Christians, but never fully persuaded. You have never come to the point. You remain just where you were.

Well, the thing I would say to you is, either make a thorough work of it. Be thorough in the business, and be persuaded. Otherwise, persuade yourselves (and I, in the name of the Lord, persuade you) that it shall make your case worse, and less hopeful than the case of pagans.

Those who have cooled offAnother sort of folk is those who were once zealous and forward in religion, but now they have turned cold, and fallen from their first love.

A word to you who once appeared hot and zealous for God, and have now turned stone cold. Consider your ways, before it is too late. If you give way to such backsliding courses, your case may at length become desperate. What I want to say to you is, “Remember from whence thou art fallen, repent, and do thy first works.”

GrumblersAnother sort of folk is a company of poor murmuring people. They keep on entertaining hard thoughts of God. What I have to say to you is, Have better thoughts of God! Otherwise you can be sure He will make something crop up in your way that will make you have different thoughts of Him.

The godlyI will say this one word to those who are really godly: Fight it out, friends! Run the Christian race set before you. Run, and run with patience — you will come to the end of it shortly. Be faithful to Him who has called you. Don’t let the world, or your own corrupt hearts, make you flinch from it.

Let me give you some motivations to urge you to steadfastness and constancy in your Christian course.

Because of its uniquenessHold on to your way because it has four properties that no other way has.

It is a pleasant way. “All wisdom’s ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.”

Of all possible ways, this is the only sure and safe way.

It is an honourable way. Much credit and dignity follow on it. It is the most creditable way you’ve ever gone in.

And it is a blessed way. It has the blessing attached to it. It has the promise both of this life, and of that which is to come. Happy, blessed, is the one who walks in it. As the psalmist says, “Blessed is every one that fears the Lord, and walketh in his ways.”

Because of its destinationHold on your way, believers, because it ends in glory. Do not faint, for it is the way that all the worthies have gone in, the ones who have gone before you. The whole cloud of witnesses and sufferers for Christ who are now triumphing in heaven have gone in the same way before you, and they have all been landed safe on the confines of Immanuel’s land, and so freed from all their difficulties. Indeed, it’s likely you will also meet with opposition and crosses in the way, but blessed is the one who wrestles and runs it out. “Blessed is he that endures unto the end, for the same shall be saved.”

May the Lord Himself persuade you to this!

← Escaping the fear of trying too hardFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

Twelve things for preachers to preachOnce people have turned up for a service, preachers have a responsibility to deliver a message which is worth their while hearing. Faced with an assembly of perishing souls on their way to eternity, what can preachers say that won’t just be a wasted opportunity and leave people no better than before? The leading Covenanting preacher John Welch of Irongray (c.1624–1681) was alive to the urgency of the preacher’s task. He caught the note of gravity weighing down Paul’s description of his labours. Labouring consciously under the eye of God, Paul tried to ‘persuade’ his hearers, not of trivial things or of mere moral imperatives or of his own importance, but of things that should really matter to them considering the judgment seat of Christ is ahead of him and them. In the following extract John Welch identifies twelve things which a preacher must aim to persuade his congregation of. If people remain unpersuaded, it shouldn’t be because their pastor never mentioned these things, or never indicated how essential they were.I defy anyone who gets a sight of his need of Christ, and of the excellence that is in Him, and of the recompense of the reward that is laid up for those who love and serve Him, to be a sluggard about his duty, or continue in the neglect of duty.

Paul resolved that his work would be “to persuade men.” What is it that ministers are to persuade people of? The details are not set down in the text, for then it would have run to a great length, so Paul speaks only in general terms. But I find these twelve things mentioned in Scripture, that we as ministers have a commission to persuade you of.

Turn to GodWe are to persuade people to be convinced of sin, and converted to Jesus Christ. We are to persuade the ungodly and profane to turn and live, warning them that if they will not turn, they must burn for ever. “Turn ye, and live! Why will ye die, O house of Israel?” That is one thing we are to persuade you of, that Christ is standing at the door and knocking, and He will take it badly if you refuse to open to Him.

It is a great thing to persuade you of the necessity of conversion, or the new birth, and that unless you are holy, you will never be happy. This is the work of both prophets and apostles. Jeremiah cries, “Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings” (Jer. 3:22). Ezekiel says the same, “Turn ye, turn ye and live, for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” (Ezek. 33:11). Solomon makes this his work also. “Wisdom crieth without, she uttereth her voice in the streets: Turn ye at my reproof” (Prov. 1:30, 23). Jesus Christ Himself makes this His work. “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” So did His apostles after Him.

We are to tell and persuade you to set about the work of faith and repentance (Isa. 1:2; Joel 2:12). We have to persuade you to turn to God, and to warn you of your danger if you don’t. This presupposes that every man and woman has their back to God. We come to you who are still strangers to God, and strangers to His Son Jesus Christ, and strangers to the Holy Spirit and the grace of repentance.

What considerations might persuade you?

Consider that if you will not turn, you will die without grace, faith, repentance, etc. Turn, and you will live, but if not, “ye shall surely die in your iniquities.”
Consider that if you turn to Him, we assure you in His name, all will be well with you. We tell you, He has a fatted calf for you, robes to put on you — He has all that can make you happy. Friends, you will have a life of it here, and eternal life hereafter.
Consider that Christ is in good earnest with you. You’ll wrong yourselves, if you don’t accept the offer. In fact, you will perish eternally.

Turn for realThe second thing we are to persuade people to do is to turn in reality. It is not any old sort of turning that will do. Not every kind of turning has the everlasting advantage. Therefore, the Lord commissions His servants to tell you to make the thing sure, so that you don’t deceive yourselves about your turning. You must turn, and turn with all your heart and soul. Set about a thorough repentance.

Embrace Jesus ChristThe third thing that preachers have to persuade folk to do is to embrace Jesus Christ as He is offered to them in the gospel. We are to persuade you to unite with Him, as He has offered Himself to you. This was the work of Isaiah the prophet, Paul the apostle, and indeed of Christ Himself. “I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him.” That is, take Him for a king, prophet, and priest, as He is offered to you.

To persuade you to this, take the following considerations.

What will you do, if you don’t do this? Don’t you think the day will come when you will wish you had done it? The day will surely come when you will wish you had taken Him up on His offer, even at its worst.
The terms are easy — so easy that it’s only, “Come and drink.” “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye unto the waters; and he that hath no money, come, buy and eat, without money and without price.” Drink and drink fully. Can you want larger terms than these, “He that is athirst, let him come, and whosoever will, let him come, and take of the water of life freely”?
Nothing is so acceptable and well-pleasing to God as this. You’ll make many a sad heart by refusing Him, whereas if you receive Him, it will be well-pleasing to many. It will be the most acceptable thing you ever did, for you will please God, angels, and saints. You will only displease Satan and the wicked. Put these two in the balance. Do the one, and please God, angels and saints; do the other, and you only displease the devil and wicked men, and I don’t know if you owe them anything else.
Consider the disadvantages of refusing Christ, and the advantages of receiving Him. I can tell you, everyone will have their work cut out to get right at death, but some will have more to do than others. I’ll tell you who will have the least to do — those who have been most forward in giving a testimony for the cause of Jesus Christ. They have an open door in heaven to see Jesus.
Your sin and guilt are great, and so your punishment will also be great, and all the more so, because you have sinned against the remedy provided, and against mercy. Do you think those who have done so will be thought worthy? No, “of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy of, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant an unholy thing?” He that despised Moses’ law, you know, died without mercy; and will you escape? I would not be in the place of those refuse Christ for ten thousand worlds.

Get to know GodFourthly, it is part of our duty as ministers to urge you to make your acquaintance with Jesus Christ. Eliphaz sent the message to Job, “Acquaint now thyself with God, and be at peace; thereby good shall come to thee” (Job 22:21). Acquaint yourselves with His mind in His Word, and receive the law from His mouth. Lay it up in your hearts, labour for wisdom, and with all your getting, get understanding. Ignorance and unbelief are the destruction of fools; therefore it is the minister’s work to press them to get acquainted with God. “Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me” (Isa. 27:5).

If you knew the necessity of being acquainted with God, there would be no need to press or persuade you. When you must meet with Him after death, the business depends on you knowing Him now.

Give yourself up to GodThe fifth thing is to persuade people to devote themselves wholly to God by a covenant relationship, without reservation. This is what Paul professes in verse 15. Those who live should not henceforth “live unto themselves, but unto him …”

The thing we are to persuade you of is to make a real resignation of yourselves, and all you have, to Him, so that He may have the command of you, your relations, and all you have, and even your life also, when he calls for them — so that you may say, “I am not my own; my children, my means, etc, and my very life, if He calls for it, are not my own.” Resign it all to God in a full, free and absolute way. You are engaged to do it by the tie of creation, because you are His creatures. But there is also the tie of redemption, or redeeming love, and this is the strongest tie of all.

Be a ChristianPaul persuaded Agrippa “almost” to be a Christian. The great thing we have to do is to persuade you not only almost, but altogether, to be a Christian

Obey all God’s commandmentsThe seventh thing we have a commission to persuade you of is obedience to all God’s commands. This sums up the whole duty which God requires of man. God requires universal obedience to His revealed will. “Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments” (Psa. 119:6).

Be faithful to JesusThe eighth thing is to persuade you to be faithful to Jesus Christ — faithful to His Word, His covenant, His cause, interest, and despised truths.

Expect a cross to carryNinthly, be cheerful under the cross of Christ. The Word says, “Ye shall also reign with him.” That is a fair allowance for suffering.

Make God your delightTenthly, be persuaded not only to do duty under necessity, or by constraint, but make it your delight to serve God. His commands are so far from being grievous that they should be our delight. And yet, do not trust in duty.

Be holy in all your lifeThe eleventh thing to persuade you of is holiness “in all manner of life and conversation.” Be holy in your eating and drinking, your conversations, your buying and selling, and in the whole of your life.

Be clear about Christ’s causeThe last thing we are to persuade men and women to do is to be resolved about the cause of Christ and religion. Do not halt between two opinions. This was what Elijah persuaded the people of Israel of, when he said, “If the Lord be God, follow him, and if Baal, then follow him” (1 Kings 18:21). Ministers should press people to be positive and resolute about the cause of Christ. Christ Himself, when He saw a great multitude following, turned about and said, “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.” Christ wants folk to be resolute in what they are doing.

In this respect, ministers must tell them to beware of loving the world too much. They must, rather, hate it, and count it unprofitable. There is a good reason for this, because the world is an enemy to religion. Many times, it spoils communion with God and His coming to them, and is a source of many a falling out between Him and His people.

← When sin is a consequence of sinDid you hear that thunder? →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

Eight barriers to unityChristians, separated as they are from one another across a variety of denominations and splinter groups, nevertheless generally agree that more unity would be a good thing. While we value the spiritual oneness we have in Christ irrespective of different labels and groupings, Scripture is clear that this spiritual oneness should be reflected in visible oneness. We have to concede that divisions in the church not only harm our gospel witness to the world, they also hinder everyone’s spiritual progress and, even worse, disregard God’s requirement that His people should be one. So why does disunity persist? In a recent publication, James Durham identifies eight things that act as temptations to excuse or justify our ongoing separation from our brothers and sisters. James Durham’s work on church divisions is newly available in a fresh edition from Reformation Heritage Books, The Scandal of Church Divisions: Healing the Wounds of Schism.When people are tempted to perpetuate divisions, what are the various factors which might make the temptation stronger and harder to resist, especially for ministers and elders?

Zeal for God Masking the Desire for a ReputationOnce people are invested in a cause, and their own reputation is at stake for taking sides, then their heatedness and tenaciousness can express itself under other appearances, perhaps under cover of zeal for God’s honor, or respect for the reputation of the ministry and the ordinances. It may not seem to be any personal credit or respect that motivates them but zeal and respect for the Master, as is insinuated when the disciples sought to be avenged by fire from heaven on the place that would not receive Christ (Luke 9:54), and also when they forbade some to cast out devils, even in Christ’s name, because they thought it was not for Christ’s honor (Luke 9:49).

Firm Conviction of the Rightness of Their CauseThe temptation to persist in a division is often accompanied with great confidence about the justness and equity of their own side and about the unreasonableness of their adversaries. There may be in part some good ground for this, where the controversy is some doubtful, disputable thing. How great confidence both Job and his friends had in their debate! Both sides frequently express the desire that God would decide the matter (confident that God would take their side), when in reality God did not fully approve of either of them in either matter or manner. Sometimes also there may be a persuasion which one side finds very satisfying, when yet it is not from God. This was likely how it was on both sides in Galatia, even when they were biting and devouring one another (Gal. 5:8). For we often find in experience that once a disputable thing has been argued about over a period of time, it will become palpably clear and altogether necessary to those who have argued for it. Commitment to the cause bribes the light and perverts even the wisdom of the just. Hence we see that the longer someone argues for something, the more confident they become about it, because his own arguments secretly prevail more with himself than reasons proposed by any others to the contrary can.

Believing the Matter to Be Necessary and ImportantThere is a strength in the temptation to continue in a division when the matter under dispute is not only thought to be just but also necessary and of great importance.

Circumstantial truths are presented as necessaryA question over the most circumstantial truth (if we may speak so) can be regarded as necessary and a thing that cannot be quit. Even those on the side of the error will talk up the controversy as if it were a high point of Christianity. Among the early church fathers, those who maintained the millenarian opinion, and Christ’s personal reign, thought it a point of high concernment. Justin Martyr even said that anyone who thinks differently is no Christian. In later, popish writers, we see how strenuously they argue for the necessity of things like holy anointing oil. The apparent weightiness of such things gives people the impression that they are foundational points of Christianity.

Claims about the good of the church are inflatedIf the dispute is over a matter of fact or a question of government, people think it is so important for the good of the church that they cannot back down without being accessory to the corruption and hurt of the church, or complicit in undermining the church’s authority. Hence the faults and consequences of the other side are so often exaggerated, and canons and constitutions are alleged to be broken, as we may see (among other instances) in the debate between Rome and Constantinople over who should have precedence before Antichrist was revealed, one claiming to have the support of an act of the Council of Nicea, the other an act of the Council of Chalcedon, and Rome claiming to have Saint Peter on their side, and the good of the universal church.

Faults on the other side are exaggeratedIf it is a dispute about personalities, such as who is to be acknowledged bishop or minister, or who has been lawfully ordained or deposed, etc., then those on the other side are conceived to be notoriously heinous, and those on the side they support are believed to be incomparably gifted and eminent. No wonder, then, that they make their point so vehemently, because they believe that so much of the good or evil of the church depends on the admission of these men to office and the rejection of the others. This flows inadvertently from the former differences, because when one side are confident that they themselves are right on such an important point, they necessarily must think that those on the other side are wrong and unspiritual. The hotter the opposition grows, the more they think each other the more inexcusably obstinate.

By this they are also disposed to hear and receive reports and misinformation about their opponents. They end up honestly believing that they are outrageously wrong in every possible way, including in their motives and intentions. The differences that arose first between Luther and Karlstadt, and afterward between Luther and his followers on the one side, and Zwingli, Calvin, and others on the other side, fully demonstrate this. How little these beginnings were at first! And yet even the smallest differences were exaggerated, and the persons on either side were misrepresented, even before these differences came to the height which they did. We may observe also that making such mistakes about people and their actions, and the bitterness that follows, is most ordinarily discernible to be on the side where, in all conscience and fairness, there is least to be said in its defense.

Believing You Have Pure MotivesAdd to these factors people’s conviction that their motives are honest and sincere. They are not aiming for any goal that is actually corrupt, nor do they entertain or approve any palpable dissimulation in their professions. But as they have some confidence of the rightness of their side, so they may regard it as a testimony to their sincerity of heart to maintain their cause. Great strength in the temptation to continue division lies here. For when you believe in your own sincerity and integrity, and, it may be, you have access to God, and liberty to pray, even in reference to such things, it is not easy to stop yourself in that way. And yet it cannot be thought but that among the instances of such divisions as we have given, people on both sides had an honest end and aim and did pray and had access in prayer. Indeed, there is no question but that many of them on both sides would go to heaven with such differences, for they continued zealous in their divisions, even to death. Nor should we find this strange, for the best know only in part and are liable to make mistakes, and their zeal and sincerity are squared according to their knowledge. It was such zeal (that is, not according to knowledge) that made Paul and others, with a kind of sincerity, persecute the church; therefore, proportionally, there may be zeal and sincerity in lesser things when there is ignorance of them.

Fear of Losing Face by RelentingCommitting yourself to taking sides strengthens the temptation to perpetuate the division, because by backing down afterward, it leaves you open to criticism for being so hasty to start with, and your ministry loses impact in other ways, and your followers, who possibly may be more tenacious and zealous than yourself, may be irritated and provoked. These things then look more damaging, even to the work of the gospel, than continuing divided. It is written of Luther that in discussion with Melanchthon and others toward the end of his life, he acknowledged to them that he had been too vehement and peremptory in his writings on the Lord’s Supper. When they urged him then to publish something to this effect, he replied that he was afraid to do so in case it would diminish the authority and weight of other controversies he had appeared in for God, so he declined to do it, although he did allow Melanchthon, after his death, to do about it as he thought fit.

Fear of Losing Credibility in Other AreasSometimes also, the temptation to continue in a division is strengthened by fear of bringing bad consequences on those who side with them. For example, if they make too many concessions in such and such particulars for union, they might make themselves and their cause odious to others who possibly had more respectful thoughts of them because of the stance they took in such things. Luther is said to have given this as a main reason why he kept up the difference over the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper and would not unite with Calvin and others over it. Calvin’s views were generally more hated than Luther’s theory of consubstantiation, and Luther was afraid that uniting would leave the princes and others more open to malice and hatred.

Looking at the Failings of the Other SideIt strengthens the temptation to continue a division when people do not look at the difference simply in itself but comparatively with respect to the principles and behavior of their opponents. By considering things that are displeasing in them and their way, they are made the more tenacious and brought to justify themselves the more. Hence it is in such divisions that the great stress of debates lies in aspersions and accusations, recriminations and counter-recriminations, as if the only vindicating argument was, “The other side are wrong in so many things about their behavior, therefore our way must be right,” or, “therefore we have good reason to divide from them.” Almost necessarily, such recriminations are used in debates where the matter is not of such momentousness and clarity, as in the debates we have mentioned between Jerome and Rufinus, where there was no dispute on either side but recriminations on both. The same thing can be seen in the accusations of the Donatists.

Expecting the Other Side to Concede FirstIn such differences also, each side is ready to think that the other should and will concede to them and will not risk division on so little a thing. Hence, many have been drawn on to division from small beginnings, which they would not have yielded to if they had known what the consequences would be, or if they had not expected that the other side would have yielded. When this expectation is not met, their commitment to their own side becomes stronger, and the division more irreconcilable. It was remarked of Victor that he would not have been so peremptory in the controversy about when to hold Easter, if he had not assumed that the other side would have yielded.

For a more extended discussion on the theme of church unity, a recommended resource is James Durham’s insightful and practical book, The Scandal of Church Divisions: Healing the Wounds of Schism, published by Reformation Heritage Books.

← This is how we know we knowWhere is the progress? →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

Recovering from bad shepherdsFew things are as devastating in the experience of a congregation as a trusted pastor or minister turning out to be guilty of sins which completely disqualify them from the office and invite the contempt of even the world. That one cheated on his wife, that one hit his wife, that one turned to drink, that one interfered with children, that one took advantage of a disabled member of the congregation, that one got involved with young men, that one became addicted to gambling, and all of it was while they continued preaching, soaked up other people’s respect, and made out to everyone that they were godly, faithful ministers. Reeling and bruised congregations wonder what their minister’s reputed doctrinal purity is worth now, or his conservative approach to various topical issues, or his vocal commitment to denominational distinctives. None of these things ever provide any guarantee against catastrophic moral failure, or any comfort in the wake of the exposure of shameful wrongdoing. We realise, too late perhaps, that we were distracted by something secondary, such as gifts or personality, and overlooked the primary qualification of character. But Jesus remains the one shepherd and bishop of our souls. When under-shepherds turn out to be wolves, Jesus remains the good shepherd. In a discussion of Jesus’ teaching on the good shepherd, George Hutcheson points out the various contrasts between Christ and the “thief” and the “hireling” in John 10:10–12. Looking at Jesus allows us to take comfort and remain settled in the gospel in spite of the betrayals of hirelings. It also equips to be better able to identify and exclude from pastoral office those whose character does not match His. Hutcheson explains in the following updated extract.The good shepherd’s work is gifting, not robbingChrist declares in John 10:10 that He is the true shepherd, firstly in opposition to those whom He call “thieves and robbers.” Either they make out themselves to be the Messiah, or they run unsent and bring in false doctrine. These he declares to be enemies and not shepherds, who come only to harm the flock. By contrast, His errand is to give them life, and that in great abundance.

False teachers and seducers make so many attractive claims, and plausible appearances, that the evil of their way is not soon seen. That is why we must make sure to inculcate what it is that the thief comes to do.

Whatever attractive claims these seducers make, and however much people are taken with them, yet in reality they have come for the hurt of the flock. This is how it will turn out, and be seen, in the end. “The thief comes not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy” — that is the whole aim of their work. And this meets with the blind charity of at least some in the flock, who are not so much afraid of being hurt by their errors as they are expecting to get good by their displays of piety.

These false teachers are really nothing but “thieves,” both from the point of view that they only make a prey of souls, taking them away from Christ, stealing away their food in order to give them poison, betraying Christ of His glory, and tricking them out of their happiness; and also from the fact that they do all this in a clandestine and indirect way.

However happy the deluded souls may think themselves, when they have been made a prey to seducers, and deluded with their insinuations, yet all this leads only to their destruction, and to their eternal ruin, if mercy does not prevent it. These thieves are “robbers,” (v. 8), who come to kill and to destroy, as much as to steal.

But Christ is a shepherd who is be so far from destroying His flock that He gives them life, even to those of them who are dead. “I am come that they might have life.”

Christ’s great goal in coming to the world is to purchase and confer life on His own elect. Whatever way He deals with them, yet it is all directed towards giving them life. When they think it is otherwise, that is their own mistake. For Christ not only intends life, but “more abundant life” to His flock.

What does “life more abundant” mean?

Although He gave life to His people before His incarnation, yet He lets it out more abundantly since, to show the difference between the light of the now risen sun of righteousness, and the light that His people had from Him before.
He gives not only the kind of life that will simply supply the basic needs of His people, but such a super-abounding measure of life as testifies to His fullness, and completely refreshes them.
Having conferred this abundant life on them in conversion, He will make it grow more and more while they are on earth (1 Thess. 4:1).
All this life that they enjoy here is but a drop, in comparison of that abundance of life that is reserved for His people in glory.

The good shepherd serves the sheep, not himselfChrist also declares Himself to be the true shepherd in opposition to “hirelings.” These “hired hands” have a lawful calling, and do not come to kill the sheep with false doctrine, but do preach truth; yet they are unfaithful in the carrying out their responsibilities. In verse 11 Christ declares what He is in opposition to these: “I am the good shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep.”

How to identify a good shepherdThese properties of a shepherd, strictly speaking, belong properly and only to Christ. By these characteristics He is distinguished not only from hirelings or seducers, but also from the true ministers who are sent out in His name. But we must also consider that He approves of lawful under-shepherds under Himself, and contrasts Himself here only to hirelings. So, beside the consideration of what is unique to Him, or requires a unique consideration in Him, we may look to these properties as they are taken in a broader sense. In this broader sense, some of these properties do belong also to His faithful servants, in their measure and proportion, and by them they are distinguished from hirelings and false teachers.

One important doctrine to grasp here is that whatever hirelings or seducers infest the church, yet the elect do not lack a shepherd. Christ does employ servants under Him, yet He does not hand over His responsibility for His people, but remains still the “chief shepherd and overseer” to them, to care for them, and supply them with food by His own appointed means. In both these respects, “I am the shepherd,” He says (see 1 Peter 5:4).

Christ eminently deserves the title of a “good shepherd.” He is infinite in knowledge, to discern all the necessities of His flock. He is infinite in pity and wisdom, to deal tenderly with them (see Isaiah 40:11).

Good and faithful shepherds put the good of their flock ahead of even their own life. And as Christ not only gives life to his sheep, but His own life for them, so His faithful servants should not “account their life dear,” but worth nothing unless they fulfil their ministry, and bear testimony to the truth (Acts 20:24). Christ propounds it in general terms that the character of a true shepherd is that he “giveth his life for the sheep,” to indicate that though this was eminently and uniquely true of Him, as the Saviour of His people, yet His servants must be resolved to lay down their lives, not to expiate sin, but in the service of the church’s faith.

How to identify a hirelingBy contrast, Christ identifies what hirelings are. Thinking only of their own gain, and having no interest in nor affection to the sheep, as soon as they catch sight of any danger, whether from seducers or persecutors, they desert their stations and expose the flock to danger (v. 12). From the fact that they flee in this way, Christ concludes that they are “hirelings, and care not for the flock” (v. 13).

It is not enough that someone has an external lawful calling to the ministry, and that they are don’t preach error, unless also they are faithful and single-minded in carrying out their responsibilities. Hirelings, just as much as thieves and robbers, are named by Christ as opposite to the shepherd. They must make the chief goal of their calling to honour God and seek the good of souls.

The sheep are all Christ’s own, by reason of His purchase of them, and lordship over them. Consequently, every true pastor will count Christ’s sheep dear to him, as precious as if they were his own, simply because they are Christ’s. Those who do not respect them in this way prove themselves to be nothing but hirelings. “He careth not for the sheep” (v. 13).

They also show themselves to be hirelings when, in a time of trial, they look more to their own situation, then to the welfare of the flock, and when, to avoid trouble, they desert the flock. The hireling “seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth.” Some may have more light than others, and foresee trials better than others, and yet lack the courage to stay at their post. Those who lack integrity follow Christ and duty only as long as they think it compatible with their own ends.

Wolves in the church catch some of the sheep by error, some by persecution, some by scattering and dividing them and depriving them of mutual fellowship and participation in the gatherings of the church. Although this is all the wolf’s fault, yet it is also put on the hireling’s account, because he opens a gap for the wolf to get in, and exposes the sheep as a prey, and weakens them, by his example in shirking trouble, his withholding from them the encouragement of the truth, and his lack of courage in maintaining the truth.

Anyone who puts their own commodity and convenience ahead of the welfare of the flock, and deserts their duty when the flock is in danger, only prove themselves to be mercenaries and hirelings.

← The comfort that comes from a shared faithThis is how we know we know →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

The comfort that comes from a shared faithEvery pastor, following Paul, aspires to be able to present believers “perfect in Christ Jesus,” or complete and mature, and “comforted” or encouraged in their hearts, through their labours in preaching and teaching (Colossians 1:28–29; 2:1–2). But in a situation where Christians are divided into different denominations and splinter groups, doesn’t this seem hopelessly idealistic? Or at best something that can only be possible on an individual level and not for Christian congregations or the church as a whole? The London preacher John Howe (1630–1705) had to confront the fact that the animosities and divisions among believers in the 1680s were likely to bring the Christian witness to ruin. In a sermon tackling this, Howe notes that in the epistle to the Colossians, Paul speaks of the role of both love and faith in bringing about this maturing and encouragement. After explaining the comfort that comes from Christian love (Nine Ways to Comfort Believers’ Hearts), in the following updated extract Howe now turns to the crucial importance of our shared faith in healing division and bringing comfort and confirmation within the Christian church. Pastors have a responsibility to lead their people in ways that promote the oneness of the Christian body as a whole, as well as within their own local congregations and denominations. When it comes to the faith we confess, Howe encourages us to start by focusing on what we have in common, rather than finding reasons to persist in division.Why is Paul working towards comfort?Paul’s aim in Colossians 2:2 is that believers’ hearts “might be comforted,” or encouraged.

In the preceding verses we see that the avowed design of Paul’s preaching, warning and teaching in all wisdom was that he would “present every man perfect in Christ Jesus” (Col. 1:28). Whereas various arts and endeavours were used to adulterate the Christian religion, and pervert men from the simplicity of it, Paul wanted to lose none, but to his very uttermost make it possible for them all to be presented “perfect in Christ Jesus” at last. This means that they would be all entire, complete, and persevering Christians to the end.

It was for this that he “laboured,” “striving,” according to “his working, which wrought in him mightily” (1:29). All his labour, and the strivings of his soul, were acted by divine power, and by a Spirit greater than his own, and they aimed at this goal.

He tells them too how fervent these strivings of his were. “I wish if only you knew what an agony I endure! how great this my conflict is for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh!” And for what? “That their hearts might be comforted” (Col. 2:2), meaning manifestly the same as he has just said, that they would be complete and confirmed Christians to the last.

How does Paul expect to achieve comfort?The means which the apostle conceives would be most effectually conducive to this blessed purpose are two, mutual love to one another, and a clear, certain, efficacious faith of the gospel. Let us for now consider this faith.

Why is a shared faith so important?Although the word “faith” is not used in this verse, yet it is described in such a way that it may easily be understood — both what it is, and how necessary it is for this purpose.

Faith is described here as “the riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ.”

By this faith, (1) our understandings are duly enlightened, so that our minds will rightly grasp the doctrine of the gospel. We see distinctly the meaning and purpose of this mysterious revelation of God in Christ, and we are fully assured of the truth of it.

By this faith, again (2), our hearts are overcome in such a way that we receive the gospel practically and vitally. We acknowledge and receive it, and resign, entrust, and subject ourselves to God in Christ revealed in it.

How does a shared faith contribute to comfort?How vastly important this is towards our hearts being established, confirmed, fortified and united! and towards our being jointly preserved in our Christian state! We can see its importance in the following ways.

We see the value of the gospel we shareIf we had this faith, we would grasp that the things in which we are to unite are truly great. Union is not like to be firm and lasting, if at its centre is a trifle. The faith in which we unite must be something that is of itself apt to attract and hold our hearts strongly to it. Excessive earnestness in attempting a union in external formalities, which have no value or goodness in themselves, when the difficulty involved is so great, and the advantage so little, would be utterly hopeless and insignificant! But “the mystery of God, even of the Father, and of Christ,” how potently and constantly attractive it would be if rightly understood and acknowledged! Here, we should understand, is our life and our all.

We see our small differences in their rightful placeBy this faith we would realise that, in comparison, all other things are little. And so our differences about little things would languish and vanish. We would not only know, but consider, and feelingly grasp, that we agree in far greater things than we differ in. Then we would be more strongly inclined to hold together by the things in which we agree, than to contend with one another about the things in which we differ.

Our unitedness has powerful effectsOur religion would revive, and become a living and powerful thing, and consequently more pleasing to God, and awe-inspiring to others.

The favour of GodGod is not pleased with the stench of carcases, or with dead displays of religion replacing the living substance. If we were united in the faith we would not be deprived of God’s presence, for we can count on it that He will leave us when we give Him only insipid formalities.

We already know from history what happens to Christianity when Christians manifestly divert from minding the great things of religion to absorbing themselves very busily in little trifling circumstances, or to pursuing worldly advantages and delights.

The attention of othersThen Christianity would make more of an impression on people, even to put some sense of awe on them. Those who are tempted to despise the faint, languid appearances of an impotent, inefficacious, spiritless religion are well able to discern a majesty in the kind which is visibly living, powerful, and productive of suitable fruits.

Think of how the Christian church went into a gradual decline for the 300 years between Constantine and Phocas. Don’t we see there cause both to lament the sin and folly of men, and adore the righteous severity of God? As Christians grew gradually to be loose, wanton, and sensual, and their leaders became contentious, luxurious, covetous, proud, ambitious, and domineering, so the Christian church gradually became forsaken of the divine presence. Just at the time when Boniface obtained from Phocas the title of “Universal Bishop” (in defiance of the severe sentence of his predecessor, Gregory the Great), up sprang the dreadful delusion of Muhammad. It spread itself thorough Asia, Africa, and too considerable a part of Europe, to the extent that where Christians were previously twenty or thirty to one, there was now scarce one Christian to twenty or thirty Muslims, or grosser pagans. And between the Muslim infatuation, and the Popish tyranny, what has Christendom become! when by the one, the very name is lost; and by the other, little else is left but the name!

Our resolve will be strengthenedWe will be enabled most resolvedly to suffer, when we are called to it — when it is for the great things of the gospel (the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ), understood and acknowledged clearly and with assurance. A faith like this will not be without its pleasant relishes.

It is an uncomfortable thing to suffer either for the mere spiritless, uncertain, impotent notions and opinions of religion, or for unenlivened outward forms — things that we never felt to do us good, in which we never tasted sweetness, or felt power — that we were really nothing ever the better for.

But who will hesitate at suffering for things as great as the heart of the gospel, which you have clearly understood, which you are fully assured of, and which you have acknowledged in practice, and embraced, so as to feel the energy and power of them, and enjoy their delicious sweetness in your soul! And even if by such suffering you yourself perish from off this earth, your religion lives! And is indeed spread all the more in the present age, and propagated to the generations to come. This is how seminal and fruitful the blood of martyrs is!

The clearer the gospel, the firmer the unityThis faith has the tendency to produce the best, firmest, and most lasting union among Christians (and consequently the preservation of the Christian interest) even when the “mystery” of the gospel is considered only in general terms. So this tendency would be seen all the more distinctly if we consider the more eminent and remarkable parts of it, especially the mystery of the person of the Redeemer.

The Redeemer!
The Emmanuel, God uniting Himself with the nature of man.
His office, as the reconciler of God and man to each other.
His death, as a propitiatory sacrifice to slay all enmity.
His victory and conquest over it, on which is founded His universal empire over all.
His triumphant entrance into heaven, where He is to collect all who ever loved, trusted and obeyed Him, to dwell and be conversant together in His eternal love and praises.
How directly do all these tend to endear and bind the hearts and souls of Christians to God, and Him, and one another, in everlasting bonds!

What can we do about this?What now remains but that we lament the decay of these two principles of love and faith, and, to our uttermost, endeavour the revival of them.

LamentHow visible the decay of faith and love is! and how destructive to the common Christian interest! It used to be a common saying, “See how these Christians love one another! They don’t even refuse to die for each other!” Now it might as well be, “How they hate! It looks like they’ll die by the hands of one another!”

And what a cloudy, wavering, uncertain, lank, spiritless thing the faith of Christians in this age has become! How little are the ascertaining grounds of it understood, or even attempted to be understood! How few make it their business to see things with their own eyes, to believe, and be sure that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God! How far are we from the riches of the full assurance of understanding! How little practical effect and influence has the faith of the majority! How little it indicates of an acknowledgment of the mystery of God! How very ineffectual it is!

AttemptLet us endeavour the revival of these principles. We need no human laws to be our warrant for this practice of loving one another, and cleaving with a more grounded, lively faith to God and His Christ. Here is no place for scruples of conscience.

As to this love. What if others don’t do their bit to make it mutual? What! Shall we only love those who love us, and be fair to those who are fair to us, and salute those who salute us? Do not even the publicans the same? (Matt. 5:47).

As to this faith. Let us endeavour that our faith would be more thoroughly deep-rooted, so that it may be more lively and fruitful. In the following verses, Paul testifies of his joy for what he understood there was of it among the Colossian Christians (Col. 2:5), and exhorts them to keep going in this way (Col. 2:6–7). What! Do we have to pause the exercise and improvement of our faith in the great mysteries of the gospel till everyone else agrees on the same thing?

Let us do our own part, so that we may be able to say, “It was not my fault.” “If the Christian community moulders, decays, becomes enfeebled, broken, dispirited, ruined, this ruin can’t be laid to my account.”

For a more extended discussion on the theme of church unity, a recommended resource is James Durham’s work, The Scandal of Church Divisions, published by Reformation Heritage Books.

← When God’s way of doing things brings delightRecovering from bad shepherds →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

What legacy are we leaving for our children?What legacy are we building for our children? As one trouble after another crashes down on the Christian church, and with the fabric of society fraying at unthinkable rates, we want to call onlookers to see our distress and mourn with us. Yet more pressing than that, we want others to escape this sorrow and suffering. We want others to avoid making the same mistakes as we did, mistakes which in hindsight were inevitably going to bring moral and spiritual devastation in their wake. Indifference to basic truths about God and salvation, carelessness about morality, bad attitudes towards fellow-believers — surely anyone could have predicted that the church would only bring trouble on itself and end up hopelessly ineffectual as a force for good in society? David Dickson listens to Jeremiah as he mourns in the book of Lamentations. As we see in the following updated extract, our biggest concern should be to hand on intact to our children the best of what God has given us, so that they would never have to suffer the painful consequences we have experienced because of our lack of commitment to the Lord.The recognition of justiceSee how the church stops her mourning for the devastation she sees wherever she looks. It is by acknowledging that all that has come on her is deserved, and that God has acted justly. The best way to stop fretting and murmuring when we are stricken is to look to God’s righteousness and His judgments and our own part in bringing these righteous judgments on ourselves. This is the only bridle which holds us back from maligning God. It’s when a sinner doesn’t see sin and just deservings that he frets and thinks he is harshly treated, whereas if sin and a righteous God are seen, he would be quiet even if the judgment was heavy.

See too how the church wants others to be made wise by what has happened to her. She justifies God in the hearing of all the people where she was. “The Lord is righteous, for I have rebelled against his commandment” (Lamentations 1:18).

Those who are penitent are willing that God would be restored to His honour, even if they smart for it and bear their shame.

They also want others to be made wise by what has stricken them. Indeed, they would be content for as many to know about their repentance as knew about their sin.

The voice of grief“Hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow” (Lam. 1:18). It is as is if she said, “Come and see the heaviest sorrow that any man or woman ever had. Come and be witness of the saddest grief you ever saw, for my virgins and young men, the hope of my posterity, are cut off” (v.18). Her sorrow is such that whatever people or nation sees it, they would be affected by it, and in fact be astonished and wonder at it.

Those who are experiencing grief and sorrow for affliction think that others who hear and see it should feel it as deeply as they do themselves, or at least recognise the weight of the trouble they feel.

In this, we should take note of the opinion of the afflicted, for it one thing to see and hear grief, and another thing to feel it. Those who only hear trouble told rarely take it up, and they don’t take it to heart. But those who feel the trouble have a different view of it. Therefore, don’t be surprised, when you are under heavy sorrow, when others see it and yet don’t grasp the half of it. The way you judge of it has been made more acute by feeling it. Have patience then, even if they don’t pity you, and even if your sorrow is augmented by those who should assuage it, for they are not in your shoes.

If you are in the company of those who are under heavy grief, take your time to weigh their grief, so that you may comfort them for what sharp sense has taught them. Sharp sense may bring the burden to your comprehension, and lead you in to bear the burden with them, and to be a member which shares the feeling in the body of which Christ is the head. Weigh their troubles carefully, so that you may get good yourself. For even if they are none the better of your pity, you may be the better of apprehending their situation, for the situation that is theirs today may be yours tomorrow. This is why Solomon said it was better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting (Eccles. 7:2).

The concern for the following generationWe can learn from the fact that the church counts the captivity of her children and young people the greatest measure of her grief. It wasn’t so much her own present grief that affected her as the misery she saw coming on her children. What does it matter, she thinks, that an old tree is cut down, if a new plantation rises in its place? What does it matter that she is experiencing misery, if things will go well with the church in the time to come? What does it matter, as long as the memory of a church was not to be cut off? But now, with her young men being led into captivity, there is no hope of a church in the time to come, for there is no one to instruct them how to be fit members for another plantation of a new church.

We should be more sorrowful that religion is going to decay before our posterity gets a grip of it, than for any evil that can come on ourselves. Even the worldly hold their posterity dear to them — they go to great lengths to get something to leave to their bairns. Far more, we should be careful that the gospel will be continued to our posterity.

Just think what will become of our children if the gospel is removed, the Bible closed, heresy and error replacing it. The thought should make us fear and lament. Indeed, it is a heavy lamentation and a heavy challenge to this generation that they care so little for their posterity. How many educate their children in the knowledge of the truth of God? the fear of God? They don’t stop to consider that by this failure they murder their children and cut off the hope of a church in the next generation. They don’t realise they are making Satan’s dreams come true and contributing to the demolition of Christianity. Some people amuse themselves by teaching their children ribald jokes and filthy entertainment and sayings, and so send them off as apprentices to Satan, when all their attention should be given to joining them to God. They may even have made a promise in baptism to bring them up in the fear of God, yet when the children reach sixteen years of age, they haven’t taught them the basics of the gospel, or if they’ve gone so far as to teach them the Lord’s Prayer they haven’t told them the meaning of it.

The value of faithfulnessThis grief of the church for the generations to come should be a lesson to all those of us who have any position in the church or society, to keep out by all means the corrupting influences that keep wanting to creep into the church. What you think of as indifferent and tolerable, those who come after may think good and expedient, and so, by what you’ve done, a door is opened to Satan and his followers. Why is it that the faithful ones prefer to expose themselves to any amount of trouble and damage in the world rather than let the least corruption into the church? Because they are thinking of posterity. Because they are afraid of betraying the Lord’s work by their own deeds. Don’t let anyone call them pedantic sticklers, because these ones have a special eye to the Lord’s work, and all they want is that when they are dead and gone, they will be able to pass on the vessels of the Lord’s house with the full weight which they received.

Let us have a care for our posterity and our children, to bring them up in God’s fear, lest they have the grief of seeing them cut off by the sword and going into captivity. If you neglect this, it is only righteous of God that your children will be made not yours, because you haven’t been striving to make them His.

← The features of those who belong to heavenCan we ever escape from falsehood? →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

The features of those who belong to heavenHomesickness is the distress caused by being away from home. When God brings people into His family, their home becomes heaven instead of earth, and they keep longing to get home. Instead of being a child of their time, beholden to the culture and values of this world, the believer can’t help showing by their tastes and mannerisms and colloquialisms that they belong somewhere else. Their thoughts turn frequently to their Father in heaven, their Elder Brother preparing their place there, and their Comforter preparing them for their place. As citizens of a better place, they walk and talk, eat, sleep and breathe heavenly. In the following updated extract, James Durham gives six characteristics of the lifestyle or “conversation” of those who are citizens of heaven.I would like to show you how a Christian may be said to have (and should have) his “conversation” or “citizenship” in heaven.

Our heart is in heavenFirst, in respect of the inward holy frame and divine set of his heart. The Christian should be heavenly in that. Free from those distempering passions that the people of this world are subjected to (even enslaved to and harried with), the Christian should not have his affections dragging along on the earth, nor his delights or desires taken up with things that are earthly. Instead he should be mortified to and weaned from all those things.

Unlike those who are on all occasions tossed up and down with their moods and with every wind of temptation, the Christian should be so calm, composed and sober, settled and fixed in a heavenly frame of spirit that words of reproach would not much trouble him, nor crosses and afflictions much disquiet him. He should have such composure and sedateness of spirit that he would be much above the levity and unstayedness that worldly people are under the power of, and he should endeavour to be purged from those impure mixtures of self-interests that reign in the worldly.

Our work is in heavenSecondly, in respect of our work, as Christians we should and may have our “conversation” in heaven, when we are much in the exercise of those graces, and in the practice of those duties, that we will be occupied with in heaven.

We are to be much in love to God, taken up with delighting in Him.

We are to be much in communion with God, holily impatient when we don’t have Him, or have to live without His company.

We are to be much in the study and searching out of His perfections.

We are to be studying to have the heart fixed, as if it was a pillar in His house, and not to go out from Him.

We are to be much in admiring and adoring the free grace and love of God, and to be in a holy manner ravished with the contemplation of these.

We are to be much in the work of prayer, and much in the work of praise, saying, “Worthy is the Lamb to receive glory, honour, dominion, etc,” joining with the four beasts and four and twenty elders, saying, “Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty!”

We are to be much in prizing and valuing God, in setting out and commending Him.

We are to be in all duties willing and cheerful, doing God’s will cheerfully and with alacrity.

We are to be much in longing for the sabbath, to converse more closely with him, longing often for privacy and quiet opportunities to pour out our hearts before Him.

And we are to do all this with holy coveting to do it better, praying that his will may be done on earth, as it is done in heaven.

Our distinctive character is from heavenThirdly, believers may be said to have their “conversation” (and you are called to have yours) in heaven in respect of a heavenly walk, and as having a heavenly impression on all your lifestyle — to be walking as it were in heaven, and as if “Holiness to the Lord” were written on your foreheads.

This is a very comprehensive point, which includes things like the following.

(1) The heart is fixed in meditating on God and His law, on spiritual and heavenly things. There is a sublime and divine strain of mind, which does not debase itself to pursue vanities, but keeps in a close and constant pursuit after communion with God and conformity to Him. As David says, “When I awake I am still with thee” (Psalm 139), labouring to leave the heart and mind in heaven when you lie down, and seeking to find it there when you rise.

(2) Your affections, love, desires and delights are in heaven, or heavenly.

(3) Your words savour of heaven, “ministering grace to the hearers.” You endeavour to have your words weighty and grave when you are commending God and His grace.

(4) Your hearing of the Word, and your praying, carry much of a heavenly stamp and impression on them. You hear, as if God were speaking to you directly from heaven, and you pray, as if you were actually before His throne.

(5) In your everyday life, as in eating and drinking, and relaxing, and following your lawful callings and employments, even the most menial and laborious of them, you have a different end in view than the people of the world do, for you make your main end to glorify God. And your heavenly and divine way of going about these things is the kind of way that may be convicting, edifying and attractive to onlookers. You are not predominantly influenced by selfish whims, plans or interests, looking only, or mainly, to what may please or profit yourselves, but levelling all at the glory of God, and the edification and good of others, as well as your own.

Our business is in heavenFourthly, we may be said to have our “conversation” in heaven, when we have a holy commerce and trading (as it were) with heaven, the way a man may trade in France or Spain. To have converse in heaven is spiritually to trade there — to have faith and hope exercised in and about heaven, to send many prayers and desires to heaven, as so many empty vessels, and to be in the lively and longing expectation that they will return full and richly laden — and to make many visits to heaven.

It means to be busy in all these, neither seldom, nor transiently, and only by fits and starts, but frequently and with more persistence. Even if they should sometimes return either with seeming loss, or with very little gain, yet you keep up the trade and traffic, seeking to make up our loss by a new voyage there (for not everyone makes profit equally quickly).

Our residence is in heavenFifthly, we may be said to converse in heaven, by our abiding (as it were) in heaven. This is one of the highest steps of a heavenly “conversation.” How it is that a believer, while on earth, can abide in heaven?

By having your heart in heaven, where your treasure is. For, as the Lord says, “where a man’s treasure is, there his heart is.” The man, as it were, dwells there, and if at any time he moves away a little, he leaves the most of his stock there, and leaves his heart as an overseer. So, though the Christian is discoursing, buying, selling, eating, drinking, etc., yet in all these, his heart may and ought in some way to be in heaven.
By having your faith in heaven, and, as it were, never coming out of it.
By having your love in heaven, folding your two arms around the Lamb and Him that sits on the throne, holily reluctant to have them loosed from those sweet soul-solacing and soul-satisfying embraces.
By having your hope in heaven. This is “an anchor cast within the veil,” and makes the soul safe and sure amidst the greatest tempests of outward trouble, as a ship rides safely when she has cast anchor on firm ground, so that there is no fear she will drive.

When these four — the heart, faith, hope, and love — are in heaven, we may say that your best half is in heaven. Your tethering stake is loosed, and much of your tabernacle taken down, and in a good measure you are fit, ready and ripe for your dissolution and for heaven. In this sense you are called and obliged to “have your conversation in heaven.”

Our enjoyments are in heavenSixthly, a believer’s “conversation” is in heaven when his contentment, delight and satisfaction are in heaven — when all that you desire, all that you delight in, all that your soul feeds on, and all that you are comforted with, is in heaven. You don’t have a good day, or even a comfortable good hour, except what is given you from heaven.

This is not only to be abiding with God but to be delighting in God — having the peace of God that passes understanding guarding the heart, and His love shed abroad in it, and having all that sustains life coming from heaven. As it says in Colossians 3:3, “our life is hid with Christ in God.” The believer is affected with nothing, feeds on nothing, and is satisfied with nothing so much as with what comes from heaven. He wakes, he sleeps, he rests there.

This is to live in heaven, and to be heavenly in our conversation. This is what you are called and obliged to. As believers you are of different nature to others, and as believers you are called to a different, more divine frame of soul in your work and walk, in your thoughts and words, in your outward duties, and your inward graces, in your commerce and trading, in your contentment, delight, and satisfaction — to be heavenly in it all.

Why is it so difficult to be heavenly?Does anyone here say, “This is a very hard task!”

I answer, first, Can it be hard to be in heaven? No, it’s the definition of easiness, for Christ’s yoke is easy and His burden is light, and to the extent that our conversation is in heaven, to that extent we have true spiritual rest and repose of soul. It is what we leave behind in the world that makes the difficulty to get our spirits hauled up to heaven, and to be kept there. The difficulty is here, but the more our heart and the mind are there, we have really the more ease.

Second, I ask, will you shift, deny or decline a duty, because it’s difficult and hard? Certainly it’s hard to corrupt nature, yet notwithstanding all the difficulty of it, the Apostle Paul with his fellows and followers managed it to a good degree, and we too may attain it through grace, according to our own capacity. Is not this the way to heaven which our Lord calls “strait,” and which “only few find”? And yet, if we would only give it a try in good earnest, we would find it to be not so very strait or unpassable as we imagine it to be. We would find it accompanied with such delight as would much sweeten any hardness in it, and we would get an insight into the heavenly mysteries, and a look at our names written in heaven and in the Lamb’s book of life, and we wouldn’t lack one hour’s feeding on and being solaced by these delights for all the delights of the men of this world. Since it’s only hard to corruption, it should be something we endeavour and pursue all the harder.

← Six things that hinder fellowshipWhat legacy are we leaving for our children? →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

Six things that hinder fellowshipBeing isolated and feeling a lack of connection with others is widely recognised as a major problem of our times. By nature humans need relationships and social interaction, and as well as lacking something it is actually harmful to be friendless and alone. This also holds true of believers. In His grace, God “sets the solitary in families,” taking a personal interest in each yet drawing each into a family, a fellowship, a community defined by relationship with Jesus Christ. Sin separates and divides, but those who have union and communion with Jesus (in His grace, death, life) are supposed to have union and communion with each other (in each other’s gifts and graces). Self-interest, mutual suspicion and a constant sense of needing to protect yourself from criticism are hallmarks of an assortment of sinners, the opposite of what we should see in a community of saints. Instead, God gives His people to each other to serve and support each other, bring out the best in each other and help each other make progress towards glory. In the following updated extract, Westminster Assembly member Jeremiah Burroughs pleads with believers not to spoil their fellowship. Urging us, “Take heed of the kind of things which will hinder the good you may have in communion with the saints,” he identifies six things that hinder fellowship.Going it aloneThe first thing that I would forewarn Christians against is the sullenness of spirit that makes them love solitariness rather than communion. This exists amongst many who have true grace.

Sometimes it comes from abundance of pride, for they think that if they come among others, they shall expose their own weakness, and rather than risking this, they will deprive themselves of all that good which they might have.

But consider how unfaithfully you deal with God when you act like this. God has given you a talent, and you are not to wrap it up in a napkin, but to use it for God.

Consider, too, how it wrongs the church, for your gifts are not your own, but the church is to participate in them, and therefore you are to use them for their good.

Again (remembering that the communion of the saints is one of God’s ordinances), consider how you do much wrong to the ordinance of God, when you prefer to indulge your own grievances ahead of His ordinance. In Hosea 4, God threatens it as a judgement that He will “feed his people as a lamb in a large place” (Hos. 4:16), that is, scatter them from the fold, so that they have to go one by one, like a lamb bleating alone in the wild wilderness. Take heed you do not bring this on yourselves.

Again, there is a great deal of danger in this solitariness of spirit.

For one thing, spiritual dryness and barrenness of spirit will increase. It is only justice on God’s part to deprive people of gifts, when they do not have hearts make a good use of the gifts that He has given them.

Then, you will be ready to run into error, and strange delusions. If you observe the workings of your hearts, you have strange opinions of things, and think you are sure of them, until you come among other people, and then although you could not see the weakness of your opinions, others quickly can. Whereas if you refuse to come amongst them, but stick rigidly to your opinions, you run into errors.

Again, you will be vulnerable to the temptations of Satan. Immoderate solitariness is joined with immoderate melancholy, and this is the workshop the devil ordinarily uses to forge his temptations in. It is a great evil to keep the devil’s temptations close. Therefore come into communion with the saints!

Making it all about youSecondly, when you do come into communion with the brethren, take heed of pride. The pride which sometimes keeps us away from communion is also a great hindrance to the benefit of communion.

You know how round things only adjoin with other objects at one point, but when you take flat things, they join each other in every point. It’s the same with us. Hearts swollen with pride cannot join with others, except in such tiny details as serve their turn. But if we have plain hearts, we will embrace each other in all things. Blow up a balloon with air, and when you touch it or handle it, it floats away. But when it is pricked, it falls, and then you may handle it easily. So hearts that are swollen with pride will not get as close to their fellows as low humble hearts will.

A swollen limb is fit for nothing, but all the other members of the body must serve it. Like when someone has a gouty leg — all the other members of the body must tend to it, but it is unfit to be serviceable to any. It’s the same with a proud heart — it expects every one to attend to it, but when it comes to be serviceable to anyone else, it is unfit.

Forgetting the wide expanse of graceThirdly, take heed of envying at the gifts and graces of one another. The wicked ones of the world envy one another, because the good they think of as their ultimate goal is so constricted that if one gets very much of it, everyone else must have less.

But the godly don’t need to be constricted like this! Their good is in God, and they have plenty space to spread themselves out in it freely and satisfy themselves. If people are riding or sailing in a narrow passage, they envy the one that is sailing ahead of them, because he is hindering them, but in the sea they don’t even think of them, because they have plenty space for themselves to sail. So, in Christians who place their happiness in God, where there is plenty room, there should not be envy.

Being over-sensitiveFourthly, take heed of being petulant and irritable, obstinate and difficult to deal with, too easily flying into a temper. All things like this darken communion. By contrast, it is the meek spirit which is fit for communion. Moses suffered much for communion with God’s people, and indeed he was fit both to get good and to do good by communion, for he was the meekest man on earth.

Only looking for what you can getFifthly, take heed of self-ends in communion — making self-interest your main aim. When people are so scheming as to revolve around their own goals, and don’t even seem to aim at spiritual things, this hinders the sweetness of communion. Though people like this may manage things for a while so as not to be discerned, yet in the end they will be seen for what they are, only looking out for number one, and all will be shy of them. If you want to have genuinely sweet communion, labour for open hearts to one another, so that you may trust one another.

Failing to look aheadSixthly, labour to use the fellowship you enjoy now in such a way that every time you do enjoy it, it will make your heart spring, putting you in mind of the blessed communion you shall have later on with God and His people in heaven. Think like this: “If we find so much joy in enjoying communion with God’s people here, how much joy there will be in the communion our souls shall have in heaven, when we shall not only have communion with a few of God’s servants, but with all of them, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets and apostles!”

The Roman scholar Cicero spoke of the happiness of his death, “O famous day, when I shall go from this rout of people, and go and converse with those famous men!” But for us, brethren, we can think that, through God’s mercy, we have communion with God’s people here already, and also shall in the future enjoy communion with the saints of God for ever!

What isn’t worth enduring in order to reach this?! If it were only the enjoying of communion with Moses alone, it would be worth all you have endured! Therefore comfort yourselves for the present in what you already have, and let your hearts be raised in hope of better things afterwards, when you shall have them perfect.

For now, we rejoice that we are with God’s people if they are so much as conferring about any thing to do with God and Christ. But hereafter, we shall see nothing but God in His saints! We shall see the full glory of God shining in them — even the very bodies of the saints shall shine more glorious than the sun, and how glorious their souls shall be then!

Then there shall be no more danger of fallings out, or headstrong, quarrelsome behaviour — no more jealousies and suspicions. Instead we shall see the image of God perfectly in them, and we shall have perfect love to rejoice as much in the salvation of any as in your own salvation. Then we shall be with them in all holy exercises.

It is good to be with God’s people to do everyday business with them, but better to be with them to pray with them, to receive the sacraments with them, etc — the better the activity, the better it is to be with them. If so, then, what will it be like to enjoy perfect communion with them, and to be always in holy exercises with them, always singing praises to the Lamb, and giving glory to Him that sits on the throne for evermore, blessing God for the great mystery of the gospel?

Therefore make a good use of your communion here, so as not only to put you in mind of your communion hereafter, but to prepare and fit your souls for it.

← Where to turn when things keep getting worseThe features of those who belong to heaven →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

How holy does a church member have to be?It’s the state of our hearts that tells whether we are saved or not. But only God knows for sure what our hearts are like. When someone is being assessed for whether or not they should be accepted as a church member, it is essential that they know it’s their heart that counts. But the church can’t make a decision on membership based on investigating their heart — only by looking at humanly observable information. Pastors and elders have the responsibility of maintaining the highest standards in belief and practice among church members, but they are not required to pass judgment on people’s hearts for the purpose of granting or withholding church membership. When a popular English preacher published a piece arguing the opposite, the Covenanter James Wood (d.1664), Professor of Theology at St Andrews University responded with his own pamphlet. In the following updated extract, Wood explains the careful distinctions we must make in order that those with responsibility for overseeing church membership will be able to carry out their work with integrity.What is required for someone to meet the qualifications to be a member of the visible church? There is a difference of opinion between us and the independent brethren. They say that people must be truly converted in God’s eyes, as far as others who are converted are able to discern.

This seems resolve the matter into ‘the judgement of charity.’ Yet this does not sufficiently to salvage the situation, for technically it expresses only the means by which persons with the necessary qualification (i.e., they are truly converted) are to be identified, rather than expressing anything about the objective qualification of the matter of a visible church.

Different senses of “required”For membership of a visible church, the term “required” has a double sense. It could either mean (a) what is incumbent on an individual himself by way of duty before God, or it could mean (b) what is requisite in him by way of qualification in the outward church court (i.e., the basis on which the church may and ought to admit him to the external communion of the church).

In the first sense, I confess that none are qualified for membership of a visible church except those who are (not only so far as the most spiritual people can discern or judge, but also in reality) true converts and believers. It is every individual’s duty, in professing Christianity and adjoining himself to the church of Christ, to believe with his heart as he professes with his mouth. Otherwise he is not approved, not allowed, by God.

But I believe it’s another thing to enquire what is required in the second sense.

Visible vs invisibleFor consider that this controversy is not about the members of the mystical, invisible church, i.e., the church according to its inward state, but about the members of the visible church, as such, i.e., the church according to its external state.

The mystical, i.e., the invisible church, i.e., the church according to its inward state, is the society of those people who have been effectually called into saving communion with Christ. To them belong, in the intention and purpose of God, all the promises of spiritual blessings pertaining to life and salvation.

The visible church, i.e., the church considered according to its external state, is the society of people who profess true Christian faith and religion, for communion in the outward exercises of the worship and ordinances of God.

The work of admitting members into the invisible church belongs to God. He does this by the working of the Holy Spirit in effectual calling and ingrafting people into Christ.

The work of admitting members into the visible church is committed to the pastors and overseers of the church. They are men, and so do not see the inward constitution and condition of people’s hearts. So, in carrying out this work, they must look at things which are obvious to the senses. This is how it comes about that someone may be in admitted as a member of the visible church in an orderly and lawful way, even though that person is not a member of the invisible church.

“The right to” vs “the use of” visible church ordinancesWe are to distinguish membership of the visible church in actu primo, and in actu secundo. I must beg your permission to use these Latin terms, and I’ll now explain what I mean by them.

By the actus primus of visible church membership, I mean the state and condition of a person which means that now he is not to be looked on by the church, pastors or professing believers, as ‘outside’ — not as a stranger and alien, but as a brother (1 Cor. 5:11–12). Consequently, that person may and ought to be (a) overseen, cared for, and fed by the pastors and elders of the church, as a part of the flock, and (b) interacted with in duties of Christian fellowship by church members according to their and his capacity.

The actus secundus of visible church membership is the actual enjoyment and use of church privileges, ordinances, and acts of outward Christian fellowship.

This distinction is necessary. For it is certain that someone may be actually a member of the visible church in actu primo, and yet not actually enjoy the use and exercise of all and every church privilege and ordinance to which church membership gives him a right.

This is because, in order to get the benefit of the actual exercise of some privilege and ordinance, a special condition may be required, which perhaps somebody may lack through some physical incapacity, or some moral defect.

For example, under the Old Testament, persons who were undoubted members of the visible church of Israel might nevertheless for some ceremonial pollution (such as an issue of blood, or touching a dead body, etc.). be debarred from the public assemblies of the church and the sacrifices for a time, until they were cleansed from the pollution.

So also, someone who is an acknowledged member of the visible church may be overtaken with a fault that causes reproach and stumbling, and submits himself to church discipline. He may be kept from the actual exercise and use of some ordinances, until the fault is sufficiently removed, yet still, as is acknowledged on all hands, he continues a church member in actu primo. Again, it has constantly been held by orthodox theologians (until Anabaptists arose), that children who are born in the Christian church are, even while under the years of discretion, members of the visible church, even though they are not capable of the actual use and exercise of all church privileges and ordinances.

Therefore, it is one thing to enquire what is requisite to constitute someone capable of church membership in actu primo; and another to enquire what is requisite to make someone immediately capable of the actual use and exercise of all and every church privilege and ordinance to which church membership entitles him.

God’s judgment vs church judgmentWe must differentiate between (a) what is required of someone by way of duty in God’s judgment, in order that he may join himself to church communion, and participate in ordinances in such a manner as is necessary for his own salvation, and approving himself to God; and (b) what is required of him by way of qualification in the judgment of the church, in order that the church may in a lawful and orderly way admit him to their external communion, and thereafter respect, account, and deal with him as amongst these that are ‘within.’

The reason for this distinction is clear, because the duty of an individual that wants to join himself into the communion of the church in a way that is requisite for salvation, and for approving himself in it to God, without a doubt reaches the inward man (its frame and acting) formally and directly. But the qualification requisite in the church court, on which the church is to proceed in admitting or acknowledging people church members, consists (formally and directly, at least) only in something which is outward and apparent to other people.

Adherent holiness vs inherent holinessThere is a holiness which is relative and adherent, and a holiness which is absolute and inherent.

Relative and adherent holiness consists in a thing being separated from a common use and dedicated to some holy use or end. In this sense, even the stones which the temple was built out of are called ‘stones of holiness’ (Lam. 4:1). Likewise the children born of at least one parent who is a believer, i.e., someone who professes the Christian religion, are called holy, because they are included in the covenant made with and embraced by the parents for themselves and theirs, and so are to be esteemed as among Christians separated from profane people, and dedicated to God (1 Cor. 7:14).

Absolute or inherent holiness consists in the qualities or actions of a person which are agreeable to the law of God.

Inward vs external holinessAgain, holiness is either inward and true, or external.

Inward holiness consists in the inward renovation of the soul — faith, hope, love and other supernatural habits and their acts.

External holiness consists in making a profession of the true and orthodox religion, and a lifestyle which is ordered according to the rule of God’s commands, as far as can be known, and as far as is competent to human weakness (i.e., without bringing reproach on Christ or causing stumbling to others, or, at least, without contumacy and obstinacy in relation to such faults). It also includes in it that relative/adherent holiness just mentioned.

It is worthy diligent observation here, that when we say the church is ‘a society of visible saints,’ this itself may be understood in a double sense. The epithet ‘visible’ may either be taken as signifying not so much the form itself as the manifestation of it before other people. If we take it in that description, ‘visible saints’ are those who, by outward, manifest and evident signs and tokens, are perceived and acknowledged to be endued with true inward holiness and the grace of regeneration.

← The wrong kind of looking backThe books to bypass in the search for God →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

The challenge of cost-free church attendanceFrom time to time in the experience of the Christian church, it becomes extremely dangerous to gather with other believers for worship. This kind of threat surely sharpens our minds as to the purpose and benefit of assembling for worship. In his opening remarks to a sermon preached in 1671, the Covenanter Michael Bruce (1635–1693) confronts his hearers with the risks of attending his preaching in order that they would confront their own motivations for being there. How can it be for anything trivial? Bruce’s point in the following updated extract poses its own challenge to preachers to ensure that what they preach is worthwhile for people to turn out for, while hearers are reminded to look beyond their current circumstances — whether church attendance is currently dangerous or cost-free — to the great spiritual realities which should dominate our thinking and living. The risksFrom the fact that you’re here, it would seem that you are convinced it is good for you to seek the Lord in His own ordinance. Your coming here to hear His Word, at such risk to yourself in a time like this, weighs more with you than any danger you may be in of suffering for it. Your coming here presupposes that it’s better for you to come and take the risk of suffering than to stay away, however safe and free from suffering you would be.

Truly, I think that if you are not of this mind, you are fools to come here. You poor soul, to come here in a time like this, when you may find by experience that doing so may cost you the loss of all things that are dear to you in the world, and yet you do not see that there is something you can have which is worth the risk of losing all these things! I say you must be a fool if you don’t see this, and risk the suffering without having anything in mind to compensate for it.

God forbid that any of you would be saying in your heart, “If it looks like I have to suffer for this, I’ve got a way to get myself free from suffering.” What sort of way is that? “Oh, the last time I begged mercy and I confessed I’d done wrong and I promised never to do it again, and that’s how I’ll get off with it again.” Well, when all is said and done, you have made a fool’s bargain. You come here at hazard to yourself, and plan to sin in order to avoid the hazard. That is much worse than what you fear losing.

Therefore, so that you don’t come here like fools, but like wise folk, I beseech you to consider why you come, and either come for something or don’t come at all.

The reasonsWill you tell me, then, why you’ve come? Christ had a question for the people who flocked to John, “What went ye out into the wilderness for to see?” So I ask, “What did you come here for, poor body, can you tell?” Do you have any errand that you came here for?

Maybe you have many errands, but I’ll tell you one that you should come for, and that should conclude the rest (and if you haven’t come for this, I fear you’ll get nothing). The great errand you should come for, is for God.

What is you are seeking, poor thing? Are you seeking light in darkness, light for dark cases? Are you seeking to be established in this time of wavering? Or for mastery over your lusts, or reparation to decayed grace, or the decayed work of God within you? Are you seeking that? Then seek God, and if you get God you will get all the rest in Him. For then you are seeking rightly, and such a seeker is welcome. I can tell you something more than, “Seeker, you will find,” and that is, “You will find all this, and God too, for He never said (and never will say) to any of the house of Jacob, ‘Seek ye me in vain”.”

Take that word, “He that seeks shall find,” and bring your hearts when you are seeking, for those who seek with all their heart shall find. Bring it back from its gadding about, and bring it with you.

The realitiesMake sure that you’re not coming only to seek a preaching and see a preacher, and hear him speak. Seek what you should seek, and do not beguile yourself by seeking the wind, for (with reverence to His ordinances, and with respect to His ministers), ordinances and ministers are only wind. Even if you had the ablest minster of the gospel, you will be beguiled, if your expectation is of man. Therefore, never mind us, and don’t go about to burden and wrong the ordinance of God, or your ministers, by hanging your dependence on instruments who can do no good to their own souls, far less to yours.

If only you would come saying, “Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God!” For in vain is salvation waited for from the hills and from the mountains.

You would do well to pray to Him for a word, and send up your cries through sense of need to Him who is able to supply, and is as willing as He is able, i.e., to Him who has promised to supply our need, and is faithful and righteous to perform.

← Explaining the change that Jesus makesTen things to look forward to →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

A letter to someone who doesn’t love JesusBelieving in Jesus goes hand in hand with loving Him. As soon as we know Him well enough to trust Him, we can’t help loving Him too. Yet some people who have heard of Jesus somehow don’t fall in love with Him. What can we possibly say to our friends and family members who haven’t yet embraced Jesus for themselves? Do we have any advice for the people who sporadically turn up at church for occasional services and are wondering whether there may be something in Christianity after all? Thomas Doolittle (1633?–1707) pastored several congregations in London for around 50 years right up until his death and wrote several popular works with a pastoral and evangelistic emphasis. He was deeply impressed by Paul’s words, “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha” (1 Corinthians 16:22). The following updated extract is from the urgent letter Doolittle wrote to anyone who doesn’t love the Lord Jesus Christ, highlighting the danger of this lovelessness and identifying the compelling reasons for loving the lovely Saviour.Dear friend,

The glorious person who is both Lord, and Jesus, and Christ, has suffered and done and promised just the kind of things that might win the love of sinners to Himself. By these things He pleads with sinners to set their affections on Him.

Think of who competes for your loveIn opposition to Him stand the world and sin, competing with Him for the love of our hearts. Christ calls, “Sinner, love me!” Sin and the world shout aloud, “Love us!” The Spirit, the Word, ministers, mercies, and a well-informed conscience press hard for us to love Christ. The devil and the flesh are rooting for us to love sin and the world.

Love we have, and one of these we will love. Both we cannot love at the same time, with a predominant love, for either we will hate the one and love the other, or else we will hold to the one, and despise the other. “Ye cannot (love and) serve God and mammon” (Matt. 6:24). Predominant love to the one is incompatible with predominant love to the other. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).

Who can avoid grieving, and who can abstain from floods of tears and bitter lamentation, when they see that the love of man — such a noble affection in itself — is set so much on sin, which is so bad in itself, and so bad to those who love it? and set on the world, which proves a vexation to those who are so fond of it? They love and are vexed. They are vexed by it, and yet still continue and increase their love to it. Their vexation by it does not abate their inordinate love to it. Meanwhile, Christ, who is the primary, principal, and most delightful object of love, is slighted by so many, even by the majority.

Realise how irrational it is not to love JesusBlind sinners! You love sin so vile, and the world so contemptible, and not Christ, who is so altogether lovely and desirable! What perverseness is this, that Christ, who is best in Himself, and best for you, is refused, and sin, which is worst in itself, and worst to you, is embraced! What folly and madness is this, that Christ is kept out, standing at the door, when sin and the world are let in, and lodged, and kindly entertained in the chief room in your hearts!

When sin should have no love, will it get all? When Christ should have all, does He get none? Why is disgusting sin so lovely, and a precious Christ so unlovely in your eyes?

Have you considered what sin is, and what Christ is, when you have greater love to the work of the devil than to God’s own Son? And even when sin is so bad and vile that, as sin, it cannot be loved even by the worst of people unless it is first disguised and dressed up with the appearance of good — yet Christ is so good that, as Christ, He is to be loved most of all!

When you are called, invited, and charged, in the name of God, by the ministers of Christ, showing you God’s call, invitation and charge to love this lovely Jesus, why do you retort and say, “What is your beloved above another beloved, O ye ministers of Christ?” How long will you keep saying, “He hath no form nor comeliness, we see no beauty in Him that we should desire Him”?

How long will Christ complain of you, that you hate both Him and His Father? And is not this complaint the more grievous when you hate Him without a cause, and do not love Him when there is so much cause and reason why you should? What has sin and the world done for you, and what has Christ ever done against you, that you love your sorest enemies, and hate Him who would be your surest friend?

Consider what good can come of itHas sin given you pleasures? But how long will they last? And what will you do when the pleasures of sin are past and fled away, and the pains and punishment for sin have come, and shall never, never pass away?

Has the world allowed you its profits? But whose shall these be, when you are dead and lodged in the dust? What profit is there in all your profits, if you gain them and lose your soul? Won’t your gain be your everlasting loss?

Christ is the admiration of the angels, but the target of your derision. They adore Him, and you despise Him. Holy saved souls in heaven delight and joy in their love to Him, and in His love to them, yet you turn away your love, and alienate your heart from Him, and love sin, and rejoice in your love of sin. Saved souls around you say, “Whom have we in heaven but Christ? Or what is there on earth that we desire, like or love in comparison with Him?” Yet you prefer your sins and fleshly pleasures and worldly profits above Him.

Alas for you! Call the mourners, to bewail your sin and misery with flowing tears. Why your sin? Because you do not love Christ. Why your misery? Because you must be “anathema maran-atha,” accursed when the Lord comes. Let angels blush, let the heavens be ashamed, let good people weep, let the earth mourn, let all the creation of God sigh, and sob, and groan, that the Son of God is not beloved by so many of the sons of men!

Grasp the danger of lovelessness and actBut is it enough for you, you who do not love Christ, that others lament your woeful situation, while you yourself spend your time and waste your days in sinful love, and carnal delights, and sensual joy? If you were convinced of your present sin, and could see your future approaching misery, you couldn’t be so full of mirth, on the very borders of the place where there is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Could you laugh and sing so near the bottomless pit, where your laughing shall be turned into mourning, and your mirth into everlasting sorrow?

Won’t you grasp your danger and say, “Alas! What shall I do when sickness comes, and death comes, and the Lord Himself comes, and I have no love for Him? How shall I die, and after death stand at the tribunal of someone I never loved? How dreadful, to leave all that I ever did love, and go to be judged by Him who (woe is me!) I never did love! What was I thinking, giving to my pleasures, and my riches, and my family, the love I should have given to Christ? Seeing I never loved Christ, I sinned like the devil, and my sentence now is to be condemned for that sin, and in hell suffer with and as the devil.”

Yet all this may be prevented. So, won’t you try it? — How? By calling off your love from other things, and placing it predominantly on the Lord Jesus. By faith in Him and love to Him, you may escape the curse and obtain the blessing.

Would you rather be condemned than love Christ? Is your enmity to Him so much that you would rather be miserable for ever than place your affections on Him? Are you not willing to forsake your old love, and get new love to Christ?

Come and fix your love on JesusIf only you would clearly see, steadfastly believe, and distinctly grasp the transcendent excellence, the attractive beauty, the invaluable worth of the Lord Jesus! Then you would prize Him more than gold and pearls and costly jewels, and love Him more than all! How is it that, when you hear those who love Him most, complain of the smallness of their love, you don’t reflect on yourself, and say, “What a sinner I must be, when I have no love at all to Him, and yet I’m not troubled about not loving Him?”

For my own part, I do complain that I cannot love this blessed Jesus with the strength of love I ought, and I earnestly desire and endeavour to grieve more because I love Him no more. I want others to make up what I lack, and be enlarged, and abound in the love I’m so defective in. The degrees of love I cannot teach, I want others to attain to, so that while I mourn for the smallness of my own love, then I could rejoice in the greatness of the love of others for this lovely Jesus. Yet all this is less than He is worthy of! So I get some joy into my grieved soul by remembering that in heaven, saved souls and angels love Him with a perfect and eternal love. So though I cannot love as they do, yet I may rejoice on earth that there are ten thousand times ten thousands, and thousands of thousands in heaven, rejoicing in the fullness of love which is in them to Him!

I pray that God might move your heart to fix your love on Christ. I do not aim at the vain applause of dying men, but to win your heart, and hearty love. Let the prayers of all who truly love Christ meet, so that their number may be increased! Amen.

— Thomas Doolittle

← Seeing things with the wisdom of true humilityShowing and sharing the Messiah →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

Remembering atrocities with purposeTimes of relative peace for God’s people are always eventually broken by the hostility of evil forces and people who, one way or another, would prefer no trace of God’s presence and promises to exist. God’s people, until Jesus came, were more or less identified with the people of Israel. Now that Jesus has come, God’s people are defined in spiritual rather than ethnic terms (Philippians 3:3), yet as Christians we still owe ethnic Israel our respect and gratitude (Romans 3:2) and our love (Romans 11:28). When the wicked forces of barbarism attack, as happened on 7 October 2023, we recognise the ages-old struggle of evil against the word and work of God and we react with horror against the brutality and savagery inflicted on Jewish people simply for being Jews. We denounce the increasing incidence of appalling anti-Semitic attitudes and actual violence, even in the UK, as seen in the recent deadly attack at a Manchester synagogue. Many of the Psalms memorialise previous similar incidents in history and provide a framework for us to bear witness to the atrocity while appealing to God for help, both in the sense of bringing justice and deliverance from evil and also help to become more devoted to God and godliness. In the following updated extract from his commentary on the Psalms, the Covenanter David Dickson (who knew that Christians can also be the subjects of barbaric and unreasoned persecution) takes us through Psalm 74, a psalm of lamentation and appeal arising in the aftermath of enemy attack.There are three parts to Psalm 74. The first is the pitiful lamentation presented to God because of the destruction of Jerusalem and the burning of the temple by the Chaldeans (v.1–11). Next is the strengthening of the faith and hope of God’s people, that God would send a deliverance (v.12–18). In the third, there are various petitions for the relief of His people, the restitution of His own work, and the suppression of His enemies (v.19–23).

Lamenting towards GodThe psalm opens in v.1–2 with lamentation and prayer for relief in general. In all judgements, inflicted by whatsoever instruments, the Lord’s people must look first to God. Even when wrath, and fear of utter wrath, stare them in the face, they must make their appeal to God, however angry He seems to be.

The Lord does not want His people to yield to oppressive thoughts of being “cast off”. Instead, He allows us to question everything that might hint at this, and to debate that point with him, and not to endure it. We are permitted to say, “Why hast thou cast us off for ever?”

Although by our sins we have provoked the Lord to fall upon us, as if we were His enemies, yet we must not quit the least connection we have with Him, not even the external covenant. Instead we must make use of it for supporting of our faith in Him. Here, they call themselves “the sheep of thy pasture,” reminding Him that He has taken on the care of them, as a shepherd over his flock. Whatever the Lord does to His people, they must pray to Him, and make use of all the ties that bind Him and them. “Remember thy congregation,” they pray, “which thou hast purchased” by price and conquest, and “of old,” from a long time ago. He has measured them out, and they are His inheritance, not to dispose of or put away (“the rod of thine inheritance”). They remind Him that He has granted them deliverances out of terrible trouble before (“which thou hast redeemed”), and that He had taken up residence among them in His public ordinances (“this Mount Sion, wherein thou hast dwelt”).

Testifying against the enemyAmong all the calamities of Gods people, nothing afflicts them so much as the insolent profanation of the worship and name of God among them. In the first petition of their prayer (v.3), they lament how the enemies have spoiled the temple, and dwell most insistently on this, “Even all that the enemies have done wickedly in the sanctuary.”

When the wicked are let loose on God’s people, they are most insolent, cruel and savage in how they treat them. “Thy enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations” (v.4). It is not enough for these enemies to insult God’s people, but they will insult their way of religion, and the God whom they worship. “They set up their ensigns” (v.4), displaying their banners on the ruins of God’s temple, as signs of their victory over that religion which is professed there, and over God’s worship there.

When the Lord is provoked by His people’s evil behaviour towards Him, it is only justice if He permits them to be maltreated by enemies. Yet the Lord’s purpose is only to correct His people, by letting them see the sinfulness of how they have provoked Him. The enemies whom He uses as instruments in their correction, however, have in mind their utter destruction. They want them rooted out of the world. “They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them” (v.8).

Praying for justice to be doneOur patience is much shorter than God’s long-suffering and forbearance. The suffering people here ask, “O God, how long shall the adversary reproach?” (v.10), when with God it is not yet time to act against them.

Yet the Lord’s long-suffering patience greatly hardens the adversaries in their insolent mocking of God’s people.

The godly can endure their own troubles better than they can bear the open dishonouring and blaspheming of God which arises out of their trouble. “Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?”

Worldly wisdom may imagine that God is idle when He permits His enemies to trample on His people and on His glorious name. Yet faith will not admit of such a thought, but goes and appeals to God by prayer to let His strength and power be displayed, so that the world will not think that He is keeping His hands in His pockets. “Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? Pluck it out of thy bosom.”

Fortifying faith and hope in GodRelations between God and His people (especially the fact that He has made Himself their “king,” v.12), are pledges that God defends His kingdom and His injured subjects, and punishes His enemies. And the more time has passed since God avowed Himself king of His church (“God is my king of old”), the more confident later generations may be to find new evidences of His royal actions for them and against their enemies.

New troubles must not make us forget old mercies. Instead, we should call them to memory, to make use of them afresh as pledges that what He has done before, He will do again. The deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, and the destruction of the Egyptians, is a pledge to God’s people in every subsequent age that God will destroy their enemies, however strong and terrible they may be, and will deliver His church (v.13–15).

Faith is so thrifty that it will not even let the works of creation and common providence pass by, without making use of them (day and night, light and darkness, summer and winter, v.16–17).

Redoubling prayer for deliveranceAlthough sins, and especially the persecution of God’s people and blasphemy against God, are not punished immediately, yet they shall not be forgiven. “Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O Lord” (v.18). All sins, and especially blasphemy against God’s name, are aggravated by the folly of the sinner, and the excellency of God (“Remember that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name,” v.18).

In comparison with her many and strong enemies, the church of God is like a solitary, weak, desolate turtle-dove, harmless, meek, lowly, patient in desolation, easing her grief by sighing, and exposed to a multitude of ravenous birds. “O deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the multitude of the wicked!” (v.19).

Yet however weak the church is, and however many and strong the enemies are, they all cannot all devour the church, unless the Lord were to deliver them over into their hands. Against which the church may confidently pray, “O deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the multitude of the wicked!” for He has given His people wings, and a hiding place too, to use.

Although the Lord’s people deserve to be excluded many times over from the covenant of grace, yet the Lord will never debar them from their right to it, when in their need they draw near to Him and plead for the benefit of it, “Have respect to the covenant” (v.20).

Places which lack the light of the Lord’s presence in His ordinances are dark and uncomfortable places, where it is no less dangerous for the people of God to remain than for sheep to be in the midst of the dens of cruel lions and ravenous beasts. When God casts His people into such places, there is much need to make use of God’s covenant for preservation.

When supplicants come to God, especially when over-loaded with troubles, they shall find comfort, and shall not be disappointed (v.21). The sense of need and emptiness is the best disposition for prayer, and the best preparation for praises also. Those who are poor in their prayers shall be rich in their praises. “Let the poor and needy praise thy name” (v.21).

Remembering who will win in the endThe church’s cause is the Lord’s cause. The wicked do not malign the godly for their sins, but for their righteousness, and so the quarrel is the Lord’s. He will and must maintain her, even if He seems to sit still a while. “Arise, O Lord, plead thine owne cause” (v.22).

The Lord’s enemies are all foolish people; for they beat out their brains on the church’s bulwark. Because the Lord holds off from responding for a time, they go on to blaspheme Him daily to His face, but they shall find at length that God has all their reproaches on record. “Remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily” (v.22).

Every sin is fearful, and especially enmity against God and His church. But openly glorying in it is worse, and God will take knowledge of this, and punish it. “Forget not the voice of thine enemies” (v.23).

Sin, and especially persecution gloried in, grows daily more and more. Yet the growing of sin, and especially of persecution, only hastens the deliverance of the godly, and the destruction of the enemies. “The tumult of those that arise against thee increaseth continually” (v.23).

← Why we need Christians as well as Christian valuesFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

Why we need Christians as well as Christian valuesVoices on the political right-wing have become louder recently in calling for more respect to be given to Christian values. This is positive as far as it goes, although God is not there to be co-opted into any political cause whether left or right wing, and using Christian words and imagery must be more than virtue-signalling. “Christian values” are not some nebulous form of niceness which coincides with nostalgia for a less complicated Britain of some decades back. The real value of “Christian values” appears when distinctively Christian truths are lived out in a distinctively Christian lifestyle, i.e., when devotion to the one living and true God expresses itself in the pursuit of godly living. It is when Christians are flourishing in godliness that the nation will be able to see real benefits in both the temporal (political, financial, social) and spiritual domains. This point was made by John Collins (1632?–1687), a fellow of Harvard who was appointed to preach in Scotland in the 1650s before pastoring in London (when he was ejected in 1662, he preached a powerful farewell sermon which was later published). In the following updated abridgement of a sermon on Isaiah 6:13, Collins draws on the metaphor in Isaiah’s prophecy which pictures a nation as a tree, and the Lord’s people in it as its solid trunk.What kind of people count as Christians?The really righteous of a nation are, under God, the strength of it — I mean those who have these features.

As far as doctrine goes, they keep to the only foundation which God has laid, the Lord Jesus Christ. They hold as much truth as is ncessary to the life of faith and power of godliness, and maintain no false doctrine which is inconsistent with these.

As far as practice goes, they fear God and work righteousness. They not only believe in Christ, but live in obedience to Him.

All true religion consists in faith and holiness — it glorifies God by believing and obeying.

Clearly, this excludes atheists (who have no religion), idolaters, heretics, and those who follow a false religion.

It also excludes:

those who don’t know the first thing about Christian teachings, and don’t understand what they say they believe,
those who lead profane lives, despise those who are good, and persecute powerful godliness,
those who claim to be Christians, but only for worldly reasons.

In a word, it excludes all who lack true faith and real holiness, and indulge themselves in any known sins, whether more often and obvious, or more private and hidden.

What features do Christians have?Isaiah decribes them as “the substance” or “stock” of a tree (Isa. 6:13). What does this mean?

Firm and durableThe stock of a tree is its most firm and durable part. The leaves may be shaken off, the branches dry and withered, and even lopped off, yet the stump still continues, and lives. It keeps its place and retains its sap.

When hypocrites and part-time believers fall away and stop taking an interest in Christianity, yet the godly shall continue, and hold their own, and keep their standing. They are all united to Christ, who is like the root of the tree, as well as to each other, as all part of the same stock, and so preserved in life by sap they derive from the root.

GrowingThe stock propagates itself. Cut off all the branches, but the stem will shoot out again, and send out new leaves and fruit and seed, from which other trees will come.

The godly propagate their righteousness. They pass it on to others, beget children to God, are spiritual parents, and have spiritual offspring. Many are affected by their instruction, won over by their example, awakened by their warnings, overcome by their persuasion.

How are Christians beneficial to a nation?It is common in horticulture for the tree to be spared for the sake of the stock. If the gardener finds a cluster or two of grapes on a vine, by those few he perceives that there is life in the tree, and some hope of more fruitfulness to come, and therefore he does not cut it down. “So will I do,” says the Lord, “for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all” (Isa. 65:8). He spares the rest — he does “not destroy them all, for his servants’ sakes,” — i.e., for the sake of the righteous among them.

In fact, the gardener looks after the tree for the sake of the stock. As long as there is life in the stock, he not only doesn’t dig it up, but he prunes it, and bestows on it whatever cost and labour it needs.

Many a blessing, both temporal and spiritual, comes to a nation for the sake of the godly in its midst.

Temporal blessings. God blessed Laban, even though he was an idolater, for Jacob’s sake (Genesis 30:30), and heathen Potiphar for Joseph’s sake (Genesis 39:5). God may give a people peace and plenty, so that His own servants may have their share in it, to encourage them in holiness. The reason why Babylon had such a long time of peace before its downfall was so that God’s people in it would have peace (Jeremiah 29:7).

Spiritual blessings. God gives the means of grace to a people — His Word and ordinances and the offers of salvation — especially for the sake of those who belong to Him. It is no small mercy to have an external gospel call, an offer of Christ. If people neglect their opportunities, forsake their own mercies, lose the benefit of the good they have had, it is their own fault — the privilege is no less in itself. But where God has nobody to call effectually, He does not usually send the gospel. Paul was forbidden to preach in Asia and was prevented from going into Bithynia (Acts 16:6–7), because God did not have any people there who were as yet to be called by His grace. But he was sent into Macedonia (v.10), because there God had work for him, several who were soon to be converted by his ministry. If Gd had not had a seed among the Macedonians, they might have still continued in the same darkness that others were in.

How are Christians the “strength” of a nation?On what account are the Christians in a nation said to be its strength? What influence do they have on the welfare and security of a people?

They are precious to GodThey are God’s favourites, His children, His jewels (Mal. 3:17), His treasure (Ex. 19:5), His portion (Deut. 32:9). They are the most closely related to Him, and most dearly beloved by Him.

Just as people will save their bags and boxes, which are of little worth, if their jewels are in them, so God will show the same concern for His people. Happy is that society where God has many friends, if the people are only wise enough to be friendly to them! It is a pity if the ones who are favoured by heaven are not also favoured by them!

They speak to God for their nationChristians make use of their relationship with God for the people. They intercede with God for them by prayer. Moses interposed with God for Israel (Psalm 106:23), and Abraham prayed for Abimelech’s household (Genesis 20:17), and Samuel prayed for the Israelites (1 Samuel 12:23). The Christian part of a people are the praying part of them, and so they are the ones who do the most for them.

Grace will always out-pray nature. The prayer of others is only the voice of nature or conscience, but in the true believer it is the language of grace. Others make prayers; only believers pray prayers. Others pray in set forms, or with their gifts, but only believers pray “in the Holy Ghost” (Jude 20).

They have faith behind their pleas. They are indeed the only persons who have true faith, and it is faith especially that makes anyone plead with God, and make use of whatever arguments God’s Word warrants. The goodness of prayer is not to be judged by the artistic merit of its composition, or the elegance of its style, or the fervency of its expression, but by the workings of faith.

They do not participate in the wickedness which brings judgmentChristian people in a nation are often a means of stopping the current of wickedness which is ready to overflow a land with judgments, and to bring swift destruction on it. It is the sin of a nation which lays them open to wrath. If you want to keep off wrath, you must endeavour to keep out sin — if you want to hinder the effect, you must obviate the cause. It is the devil’s damnable policy to draw people into sin, so that he will expose them to punishment. The greatest enemies to a people, who go the quickest way to ruin them, are those who draw them into sin, and so into God’s displeasure.

Who is that most hinders sin, and prevents the place being inundated with sin, but the Christians in a nation? They speak against it, they bear testimony against it, if they have any authority they suppress it, and by their example they discourage it. None are so active, none so zealous, in opposing sin as those who are most holy. They not only fear sin in themselves, but labour to prevent it in others.

To prevent sin is their first priority, but if that cannot be, they lament it and mourn over it, and “sigh and cry for the abominations” of a land (Ezekiel 4:4). David “beheld the transgressors, and was grieved” (Psalm 119:158); “rivers of waters ran down his eyes, because they kept not God’s law” (v.136). Jeremiah “wept in secret places” for the pride of his people (Jeremiah 13:17). This does not directly stop the course of sin in a land, yet it is a kind of check to it.

While in this way they lay to heart the sins of others, they are not themselves partakers of these sins, nor do they share in the guilt. These sins are not universal in the nation, when there are at least some who testify their dislike of them by their sorrow for them. The more universal sin is, the more dangerous it is, and it is all the more likely to bring on judgments when the godly themselves become guilty, not exactly by committing it, yet by not mourning over it (which is a degree of fellowship with it). When they mourn for the sin committed by others, they free themselves from the guilt of approving or conniving at it or fellowshipping in it, and in this way they are instrumental in keeping off more general judgments.

They spread goodnessThe Lord’s people not only inhibit the progress of sin in the nation, they propagate goodness to others, as well as promoting it in themselves. They do this by advice, warnings, and example. They make it their business not only to do good themselves but to make others good — to bring them to holiness as well as to keep them from sin.

Grace, wherever it is, is communicative. It spreads itself as far as it can. Those who love God see so much loveliness in Him that they long to persuade others to love Him too. Those who walk in God’s ways like them so much, and find so much peace and pleasantness in them, and know there is such a reward at the end of them, that they take every care to get others into the same ways. They know that the one they serve is generous enough and rich enough.

← Inviting the Lord to returnRemembering atrocities with purpose →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

Are Christians any better than others?Christians are not always the good guys. Plenty Christians are petty, dishonourable or unreliable while non-Christians can be compassionate neighbours and colleagues of integrity. So is pursuing the ways of God really necessary, or worth the effort? Can we be good without God? Are the failings of individual Christians this a valid reason to reject Christianity? The Covenanting minister John Carstares discusses this problem in his introduction to James Durham’s sermons on “the great gain of godliness” (1 Timothy 6:6).One groundless prejudice against godliness is that those who have made a big noise about being Christians, and made big claims for Christianity, have many great and gross failings and faults. They are as worldly, as pedantic, as peevish, as proud, as hot-tempered, as vindictive, as vain, as selfish, as those who never professed to be Christians. Are they not therefore all a pack of hypocrites? There are a few things to say about this.

Some are Christians in name onlyAmong those who claim to be Christians there are always some who are not really godly. They “have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof” (2 Timothy 3:5), and in doing so, they disgrace godliness as far as they can, and destroy their own souls. But why should their faults be attributed to godliness, when it’s the lack of godliness that actually causes them?

Undeniably, Christians have failingsIt is not to be denied, but freely and honestly confessed, with sorrow and regret, that all the godly have their own failings, weaknesses and faults. They are not sinless angels, nor perfected saints. No believer on this earth has been so beautifully godly as to be without any blots and blemishes whatsoever. “In many things,” said the Apostle James, speaking of himself and other godly people, “we offend all” (James 3:2).

Yet these failings are reflected on with grief and sorrow of heart by the godly, when in any measure they analyse the situation, and to that extent, they always proceed from and are caused by their not being seriously and suitably, consistently and constantly exercised to godliness. We cannot in the least blame godliness for these failures, because godliness makes the godly censure themselves more severely, chide themselves more sharply, and judge themselves more seriously for these failures than anyone else reasonably can.

Christians have good pointsThere are many good, commendable things worth emulating in the godly, which are not found in others. Why should these be overlooked and passed by entirely, only to scrutinise and exaggerate the few failings in all (or the bigger faults in some) of the godly, when those who are judging are entirely destitute of those many other good things which the godly have? Surely this is not dealing fairly. It is very like the disposition of the insects which can fly over a whole meadow full of fragrant sweet-smelling and pleasant flowers, and sit down on a little dung and enjoy it!

God has reasons for permitting His people to be imperfectIn His sovereign, holy and spotless providence, God may permit some of the godly to mess up badly, for various reasons. By doing so, He chastises and humbles them, and also warns others to beware in case they fall, and “not to be high-minded, but to fear, and to watch and pray, lest they enter into temptation” (Romans 11:20; Matthew 26:41).

Also, in His righteous judgement, He leaves those who are prejudiced against Him, and gives them up to their own hearts’ lusts. They hold on to this deep-rooted prejudice against godliness and the godly, dismissing them as a pack of hypocrites and deceivers, and in doing so they stumble and fall and break their own necks, because they have drawn their conclusions from the failures of a few individual Christians, and imputed them to all Christians as such, and against godliness itself.

In fact, in every society, city and countryside, some failure or another on the part of a godly person is talked about and industriously spread around. Then, when the example and practice of the godly looks like reproving and convicting the ungodly, they always have these few failures to talk about, to ensconce themselves against the otherwise irresistible force of these convictions, and save them from reformation. They always have something ready at hand so that they can say, “They may have a reputation for godliness, but he has done this, and she has done that, and he messed up in this way, and she that way.”

This is something that believers should bear in mind, so that they would be more motivated to “walk circumspectly,” and lead exemplary convicting and edifying lives. Surely they ought to seriously pursue the mortification of their own sin, self-denyingly and self-sacrificially, since the consequences of causing such stumbling run so dreadfully deep.

Some Christians do lead a very blameless lifeIt cannot be denied that though lesser or greater faults and failures are visible in the godly, yet there are some believers who live very inoffensively, and whose blameless lives in a great measure adorn the doctrine of God and the profession of godliness. These not only have the form of godliness, but they also display the power of godliness, not contradicting or belying their profession by their practice. Impartial onlookers cannot but think and say that these are truly godly persons, and “God is in them of a truth.” Why then does not the blameless behaviour of many encourage as much respect for godliness as the blameworthy behaviour of a few others in some things detracts from its reputation? This exposes the deeply though unjustifiably rooted prejudice they have against godliness and the godly.

Christianity as a whole should not be tarred with the same brushWhat reason is there for imputing these faults and failures of a few Christians to all Christians in general and to Christianity itself, and in this way endeavouring industriously to bring them and it into disgrace and contempt, so as to be disapproved, disowned and so utterly rejected with such disdain and detestation? Is any other group, of any profession, science, art, or trade in the whole world, treated in the same way? Where is any society of any profession or craft or calling, utterly renounced and abandoned with the profession itself, on account of the failures of a few of their number, or because some were not so good at the trade as others in the group? What group or occupation could stand this? Why then should godliness, and the godly as such, be the only ones to be treated in this unique and unusual manner? Especially when these mistakes are confessed with shame and sorrow by the guilty persons themselves, and not at all owned or justified or extenuated or condoned by the rest of the godly, but disclaimed and condemned? And when all the followers of this religion are taught by their own principles to “deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, to lie soberly, righteously and godly in this present world” (Titus 2:12)?

The biggest critics of Christianity are the biggest hypocritesThose who are so ready to notice and speak out against Christians, and Christianity itself, because of the failings, faults and mistakes of some of the godly (of which there are, sadly, admittedly, too many), are at the same time conniving at the same, or worse, in others and in themselves, and quietly indulging themselves with liberty and latitude in them! Why do they not amend them? Why do they not make the effort to out-strip them in all manner of godly living? Where would they find any Christian finding fault with them for doing so? But they not only do the same things, or worse, themselves, but they make allowances for others who do so, or find no great fault in them for it (at least nothing like what they accuse Christians of), and they point the finger at Christians, and decry and disgrace Christianity itself. This betrays pure dislike of godliness, and most unfair and irrational prejudice.

← Why family prayer mattersThe advantage of having a Father to pray to →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

Why does God allow false teachers in the church?Truth is so important to Christians. Ours is the living and true God and the God of truth. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. The Spirit sanctifies us through the truth. The church is the pillar and ground of the truth. Yet the Christian church is constantly having to resist erroneous doctrines, false teachings, and heresies. Why does God allow such dangerous untruths and half-truths to continue even within His church and among those who profess to be His people? A large part of the answer is that it provides an opportunity for those who love the truth to make this clearly apparent. Paul explains to the church of Corinth, “There must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you” (1 Corinthians 11:19). In the way same way as the furnace makes it obvious what is precious metal and what is dross, so when heresies crop up, they test the quality of church members as to whether they resist or accept the false teaching. In the following updated extract, George Gillespie offers some reflections on Paul’s explanation.Why must there be heresies?The point I want to make here that God in His most wise and sovereign providence can and does make a good use of heresies, “so that they which are approved may be made manifest.”

“They which are approved” means those who are true and sincere saints, approved and accepted of God, or (as the Reformed theologian Bullinger puts it) the “truly godly.” The same word is used in this sense in Romans 16:10; 2 Corinthians 10:18; 2 Timothy 2:15, etc. The word is basically means good money, or well-refined silver, and it refers to saints with special reference to their mortification, i.e., their being refined from the dross of their corruptions. The opposite is “reprobate,” something to be rejected or thrown away, like dross (1 Corinthians 9:27; 2 Corinthians 13:5–6).

How is it that by heresies the godly are made manifest? Clearly the authors and followers of heresies are not the godly ones, for the apostle calls heresy a “work of the flesh” (Galatians 5:20) and wants heretics to be rejected, as those who are self-condemned (Titus 3:10). Rather, those who are approved are known by this, as one of their characteristics, that they hate, avoid, and resist heresies, and earnestly contend for the faith. They hold fast the truth of Christ without wavering.

Those who introduce or adhere to heresies are by that very fact known to be un-approved, like reprobate silver. So, anyone who sides with heresies or heretics, or commits themselves to them — anyone who does not stand fast in the faith — ipso facto declares that he is not included in the group Paul regards as godly. This is how contrary the Holy Ghost’s language is to the tone of the sects in our times.

Not only in this Scripture, but in various other Scriptures, the Holy Ghost distinguishes those who are approved by God, (a) from those who turn away from the truth after false doctrines, and believe seducing spirits, as well as (b) from those who live an ungodly life. In Deuteronomy 13:3, when a false prophet arose, and the sign or wonder he prophesied came to passe, what was God’s meaning in permitting this? “The Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul.” Anyone who hearkened to the false prophet, even when his sign or wonder came to pass, made it known about themselves that they had not been loving God with all their heart.

Similarly, in Matthew 24:24, those who are elect are not deceived by false christs and false prophets. Conversely, those who are deceived by them, and go on in their error to the end, are not elect but reprobate (Galatians 5:20–21).

Heresy is a work of the flesh, and is included among the things which render a person incapable of inheriting the kingdom of God. Therefore, those who walk in the Spirit, and not in the flesh, and are made ready to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, are not only not heretics themselves, but they resist and oppose heresy, as a work of the flesh. Those who are Christ’s “disciples indeed” continue in His word: those who do not continue in His word are not his “disciples indeed” (John 8:31; see also 1 John 2:24 with 2 John v.9).

The wonder of providenceJustin Martyr, a theologian from the 2nd century, responded in one of his books to those who questioned God’s providence, saying, “If God has taken away the idolatries of the heathen and also abolished the Jewish worship, why has He allowed heresies to enter the Christian church?”

He gives this solution, that although heresies come into the church through people’s negligence and slothfulness (while men slept, the enemy sowed the tares among the wheat, Matthew 13:25), yet the providence of God is in no way slothful in this. God foresaw and foretold that heresies would come, and has given plain warning of it in His Word. He adds that the same God who has destroyed heathenish worship and abolished the Jewish religion will also destroy heresies, after He has permitted them for a time.

Even if we had no distinct knowledge of what God intends to bring out of heresies, yet we ought not to censure providence, but humbly and reverently adore God’s most wise and most holy (though secret and unsearchable) ways of working. If we saw some deadly poison among some drugs which a skilled and qualified physician is using, we would not rashly criticise the physician, for he knows how to disabuse that which is in itself poisonous, and to make it one of the ingredients in a most effective medicine.

Or if we came into the workshop of a skilled craftsman, and saw some ugly-looking instruments, which we think can serve no good, yet it would be deeply foolish to censure the craftsman, who knows to make an excellent good use of these things, though we don’t.

How much more foolish and sinful it is, to allow thoughts to rise in our hearts against the wisdom and providence of God, just because we do not know what He intends to work out of such things! And all the more inexcusable to accuse His providence, when He has made known to us in His Word that He is using heresies in order to make manifest who are and are not approved! As Chrysostom says, God permitting heresies to arise will not hurt you, if you are among the approved, for this will be the means of making you more manifest!

The inexcusableness of hereticsYet all this cannot excuse either the heretics or schismatics themselves, or these who connive at them. What Christ says of scandals in general is true of heresies in particular. “It must needs be that heresies come, but woe to him by whom they come!” I add, “and woe also to him who does not work towards extirpating them, according to his place and calling!”

The text 1 Corinthians 11:17 does not have reference to the will of God’s commandment (which is the rule of our duty), but to the will of God’s decree, i.e., the secret counsel of His will. It is God’s purpose to permit heresies, and to overrule them so that His graces in His children may shine forth more, and that, contrary to the intentions of Satan and heretics, even heresies may make manifest who are approved, namely (as Tertullian says), those who cannot be corrupted by them.

Can God’s people be taken in by heresies?Is it possible for someone who has been chosen and justified, and is regenerate, be drawn away, and infected with heresy through the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive?

I would reply that it is possible for a regenerate person to be tempted and drawn into heresy, just as he may be tempted and drawn into other great sins. Heresy is as inconsistent with the state of grace in any person as the other “works of the flesh,” such as adultery, fornication, drunkenness, or the like. We must think of an elect and justified person poisoned with heresy in the same way as we think of an elect and justified person lying in some great sin (for instance, Noah, Lot, David, Peter).

But then, that person, being elected, justified and regenerate, cannot be supposed to live and die in that sinful state. God will certainly heal his backslidings, and rescue his soul out of the snare of the devil by repentance, for the elect cannot be deceived in such a way as to continue and die in a heresy (Matt. 24:24). And, while he continues in such a gross sin or heresy, you may truly say that for that time, he is “unapproved,” or like dross, and unrefined silver. He is unapproved, greatly reproveable, to be rejected and cast away to the furnace like drossy and unrefined silver. And no wonder, for in that state he is not exercising his graces but his corruptions, and by his great sin he extremely grieves and dangerously quenches the Holy Spirit once given to him.

What if unbelievers resist heresies?Is it possible for those who are not approved of God to be preserved from being infected with heresies, and indeed be forward in resisting them?

I would reply that we must remember it is not the aim of this text to give us the distinguishing features between these who are “approved,” and all counterfeit Christians (“unapproved”), but between these who are approved, and these who foment or follow heresies. Those who are approved of God will continue in the truth of Christ, grounded and settled, and will stand fast in the faith and contend for it, and this is one of the characteristics found in all who are approved. Meanwhile, anyone who turns away from the truth, and from the doctrine of Christ, and turns aside after heresies, in doing so infallibly declares themselves to be unapproved, whatever profession or show of holiness they have. Whatever happens to the white mark of those who are “approved,” most certainly, this black mark cannot fail on the side of the “unapproved.” It is impossible for anyone who is of a heretical belief and faction to be holy, spiritual, mortified, and “approved,” or one who “walks in the Spirit, and not in the flesh.”

I do not doubt, but by the heresies and schisms of these times .God is exposing many unapproved, unmortified nominal Christians, who only claim to be pious. I may apply to our time what Chrysostom observed of his own day. “How many who are clothed with a shadow and show of godliness, and who have a counterfeit meekness, and who were thought to be some great ones, have been quickly manifested in this time, when so many fall away. Their hypocrisy has been detected, and they have appeared as they are, not what they feigned themselves to be.”

This is no small matter, but very much for the profit and edification of those who will observe it, to know distinguishingly those who are clothed in sheep’s clothing, and not to include hidden wolves indiscriminately among the true sheep. This time has become a furnace which exposes the false copper coin, melting the lead, burning up the chaff, and making the precious metals more manifest.

← How sinful leaders bring the people down with themHow can we live life to the full →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

How sinful leaders bring the people down with themAlthough there are plenty deep-seated problems in society it can sometimes seem that the ruling classes are operating on a different plane. There is a top-down imposition of progressive policies which are not only out of tune with the electorate’s concerns but also from a moral and ethical point of view not in the nation’s interests. Multiple scandals in the UK in recent years have contributed to a deep disillusionment with both elected and unelected authorities and a feeling that successive governments can work with striking efficiency in their own interests but are aimless and incompetent when it comes to the citizens they ostensibly serve. Church leadership is not much different and many people who retain some respect for Christian values and ideals write off the institutional church as rotten and venal. The prophet Micah had the courage and perseverance to challenge both state and church authorities for their sins. In the following updated extract, George Hutcheson explores Micah’s critique and the culpability of those who hold office in church and state.Leaders in church and state are culpableIn chapter 3, verses 9 to 11, Micah speaks faithfully to all sorts of rulers, both civil and ecclesiastical, conjointly. He sets before them their sin, and how they had procured the ruin of Zion. He accuses the state authorities because although they ought to have been patrons of justice, they abhorred and perverted it. Instead of adorning the holy city with justice and judgment, all they cared about was stately buildings, and they raised funds for that by cruel oppression. Micah accuses them all generally of perverting justice through bribery and covetousness. The churchmen were mercenary, and made their calling subservient to their gain. Yet all of them were carnally confident, and presumptuous about having God’s favour and presence among them, assuming that they would be exempt from judgment.

When people in eminent places have become accustomed to sin, they are usually deaf to what the Lord says. They must be called often to “hear” (v.1, v.2, v.9). The messengers of the Lord must not give up when their message is not received. They must announce it until either they are listened to, or they have delivered their own souls. “Hear, I pray you,” Micah repeats. Yet, when faithful ministers reprove the faults of rulers, they must give evidence that they do not despise their authority when they do so. They must not be lacking in giving any signs of respect which are due to them.

God particularly hates perversityThe Lord’s quarrel against people is not so much for sins of ignorance or infirmity, as for sins that flow from a perverse disposition. They go wrong, because they love to do so, and they hate what is right. Micah accuses them of “abhorring judgment, and perverting all equity” (v.9).

Then the Lord tolerates no pretences to palliate any sinful deed. It is no excuse to claim they are building Zion, if they are doing so “with blood and iniquity,” or with goods taken by bloody oppression from the poor. On the contrary, this kind of excuse only makes things worse, defiling all the more what they are endeavouring to cleanse.

The Lord allows those who are employed in public office in church or state to have their maintenance. But to receive payment or gifts so as to judge partially, because of the gifts received, is gross iniquity. “The heads judge for reward” is the Lord’s quarrel with them. “Judging for reward, teaching for hire, and divining for money” comes to the same thing as false judgment, erroneous teaching and erroneous divination, for it is a true saying, “a gift blindeth the wise,” etc (Exodus 23:8).

Presumption makes things much worsePresumption will feed people with delusion under very gross sins, and even when judgment is near. “Yet will they lean upon the Lord” (v.11). The external privileges of the church, and external reformation of worship, are ordinarily turned by complacent sinners into a snare or plague to themselves. These things make them dream of being in God’s favour, and of peace, when wrath is upon them, and trouble at hand.

But external privileges will not exempt profane sinners from deserved judgment, nor will external reformation. Rather it will make them ripen for judgment the faster. God will approve of no “faith” but the kind that is fruitful, and stirs people up to purify and cleanse their hearts and ways. Micah challenges them because, when they are continuing in all their iniquities, they claim to “lean on the Lord,” and say, “Is not the Lord among us?” (v.11).

But the Lord threatens that, for their sins, the stately buildings of the holy city would be made desolate heaps. The ground it was situated on, especially the kingly palace, would become arable land, and be ploughed as a common field, and Mount Moriah, the mountain on which the temple stood, would become wild and uninhabited, like a forest (v.12).

No place or visible church has any privilege, but sin will make it desolate. No place had the promises that Zion, Jerusalem, and Mount Moriah had, yet these judgments were coming their way.

We are all implicated in the sins of our contextThe servants of God must be bold and faithful like Micah, not only in speaking against the sins of the rulers, but even against a church with great privileges when she is found in transgression. Jeremiah quotes this passage as an evidence of Micah’s faithfulness (Jeremiah 26:18).

It is our duty to look at sin and be affected with it, not only because it brings down judgments on ourselves, but especially as it plays a part in drawing down calamities on the church and kingdom where we live. This is what Micah tells them. “For your sake,” all of these things will come (v.12).

Universal defection in a land, especially in rulers and teachers in their offices and judicatories, will bring on speedy desolation, unless repentance prevents it (as happened in Hezekiah’s days; Jeremiah 26:18–19). Leaders in church and state, through their corruption, were chiefly responsible for procuring this ruin, and could not but involve the people in their defection, in a way that hastened the judgment.

The inevitable connection between sin and judgmentJudgments are most severe and sharp on a backsliding church, even if they are moderated towards the elect. Treating with contempt the mercy offered to the church is such a great sin that nothing less is threatened here than being “ploughed as a field, made into heaps, and made like the forest.” When this warning was first made, in Hezekiah’s time, the threatened judgment was lifted when they repented. Then, it does not seem to have been accomplished at the first destruction of the temple. Yet secular history informs us that when the temple was destroyed the second time, the Romans did, according to their custom, plough up the very ground where the temple had stood, as a sign of perpetual desolation.

This is how infallibly certain the word of God is. The threatening was delayed after repentance, and then after many troubles they had been delivered, and so might think they had done with it. Yet when they sinned anew, and renewed their provocations, they find that the sentence against them still stands, and eventually it takes effect.

← Is Jesus really the Saviour for me?Why does God allow false teachers in the church? →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

Unchanging truths about our unchanging GodThe year 2025 marks the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed, arguably the most important creed ever written, and almost certainly the most significant theological anniversary of our lifetimes. If we are Christians, who is the Christ we confess? If we are God’s people, who is the God we belong to? The Nicene Creed (produced in AD 325) is the creed which provides the baseline for a biblically safe way for all believers to talk about who God is (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and who the Lord Jesus Christ is. Every Reformed theologian is gratefully indebted to the Nicene Creed and relies on it unhesitatingly in articulating what the Bible teaches about the Trinity and about Christ. Edward Leigh (1602–1671), a lay member of the Westminster Assembly, is an example of this. In the following updated excerpt from his systematic theology, Leigh rehearses the basic truths about our great God and Saviour, closing with some suggested devotional responses.Our need for humilityGod may be known by light of nature, but we cannot by the light of nature know the mystery of the Trinity, nor the incarnation of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 2:7–8). As Aquinas says, it is impossible by natural reason to come to the knowledge of the Trinity of the divine persons.

When one of the Church Fathers was meditating on the mystery of the Trinity, there appeared to him a child with a shell, ladling the sea into a little hole, and he asked what the child was doing. “I intend,” said the child, “to empty the ocean into this hole.” “That is impossible,” said the Father. “As possible,” said the child, “as for you to comprehend this profound mystery of the Trinity in your shallow capacity.”

Although the word “trinity” basically refers to any three things, yet in theological discussions it means the three Persons in the Trinity. This does not mean that God consists of three parts. There is a great difference between “trinity” and “triplicity.” Trinity is when the same essence has different ways of subsisting; “triplicity” is when one thing is compounded of three parts. The persons are three not in respect of essence, or divine attributes, but three in respect of personal properties. That is, the Father is of none, the Son is of the Father, and the Holy Spirit is of both — three Persons but one God.

The acts of the PersonsThe acts of the Persons in the Godhead are of three sorts.

Essential. All the Persons have equal hand in these acts. Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa (“The external works of the Trinity are indivisible”). The outward works (which concern created things) belong to as much to one Person as the other, e.g., to create, to govern.
Proper. The personal properties, or internal works, are distinguished: the Father begets, the Son is begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.
Appropriated. These are acts of office, more uniquely attributed to one Person than another (Ephesians 4:7). So the Father is said to “give” the Son, the Son is said to “redeem the world,” to be “made flesh,” and the Holy Spirit is the bond of union. God’s plan in the work of redemption was not only (some say) to exalt the attributes of His nature, but to glorify the Persons distinctly according to their appropriated acts.

Describing the differencesThere is in the Trinity alius & alius (“another and another”), but not aliud & aliud (“another thing and another thing” (as there is in Christ)). The Father is another Person from the Son, but yet they all have the same nature and essence. They do not differ in their natures, as three men or three angels differ. Men differ in such a way that one may exist without the other, but the Father cannot be without the Son, nor the Son without the Father, such that there is the same numerical essence.

Though there is no inequality in the Persons, yet there is an order — the Father in the Son by the Holy Spirit. This is not as if there were so many partial causes, much less as if the Father were the principal cause and the others instrumental causes, but only mere order. A Person is a different way of having the same essence.

The Persons in the divine nature are distinguished from each other by some special or personal property. The personal property of the Father is to beget, that is, not to multiply His substance by production, but to communicate His substance to the Son. The Son is said to be begotten, that is, to have the whole substance from the Father by communication. The Holy Spirit is said to proceed, or to be breathed forth, to receive His substance by proceeding from the Father and the Son jointly (He is called both “the Spirit of the Father” and “the Spirit of the Son”). Only the Father begets, only the Son is begotten, and only the Holy Spirit proceeds (and both procession and generation are ineffable).

In the manner of working they differ. The Father works of Himself, by the Son, and through the Holy Spirit. The Son works from the Father by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works from the Father and the Son by Himself. There is one God such that there are three Persons in that one Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Something is attributed to one in the Scripture that cannot be said of all. The Son was made flesh, and the Son is begotten — this cannot be said of the others. The Son and the Spirit are sent — but this cannot be said of the Father. The Persons are each of them infinite, as each of them is God, yet there are not three Infinites nor three Gods (as per the Athanasian Creed, in use from around the sixth century AD). A Person is the divine nature distinguished by an incommunicable property, and though we cannot express the manner of this great mystery, yet we should believe it.

Jesus is God the SonThat Christ is God, is proved by Scripture and by reasons drawn from Scripture.

Clear texts of Scripture affirm this truth in so many words“This is his name by which you shall call him: Jehovah, or The Lord our Righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:16), “The mighty God” (Isaiah 9:6). Paul refers to Him as “God over all, blessed for ever” (Romans 9:5). John says, “This is very God” (1 John 5:20). “Great is the mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16). Thomas confesses, “My Lord, and my God” (John 20:28).

Evident reasons are drawn from ScriptureDivine names and titles are given to Christ. He is “the only blessed Potentate” (1 Timothy 6:15), “the King of Kings” (Revelation 1:5) and “Lord of Lords” (Revelation 17:14; 19:16). He is called “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15); “the brightness of his glory” (Hebrews 1:3); the “wisdom” of the Father (Proverbs 8:12 and 9:1); the “Word” of God (John 1:1; Acts 20:28; 1 Timothy 3:16); “the great God” (Titus 2:13); “the true God” (1 John 5:20); “God over all,” or “Blessed above all” (Romans 9:5); “the Most High” (Luke 1:76); “Lord” (John 20:28); “the only Lord” (Jude 4);. “the Lord of all” (Acts 10:36); “the Lord from heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:48); “the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2:8); the Lord of “heaven and earth” (Matthew 28:18).

The works of God are ascribed to Christ, even the principal and most eminent of all, which are proper to the Lord only. For example, the work of creation (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:10–12); the work of preserving and governing all things (Hebrews 1:2); the working of divine miracles (John 6:54 and John 5:21); redeeming mankind (Luke 1:68; Matthew 20:28; Ephesians 1:7; Revelation 1:5); sending the Holy Spirit (John 21:22 and 14:16). He forgives sins. He gives eternal life.

The principal and incommunicable attributes of God are given to Him. These include omniscience (John 2:24–25; John 21:17); omnipotence (Revelation 1:8; 4:8; 11:17; Philippians 3:21); eternity (John 17:5; Revelation 1:18; John 1:1; Isaiah 9:6); omnipresence (Matthew 18:20); unchangeableness (Hebrews 1:11–13; 13:8).

The worship due to God is ascribed to Him (Hebrews 1:6; Revelation 5:13) We are commanded to call on His name, to believe and trust in Him (John 14:1, 3:16, 6:40), to hope in Him (Isaiah 11:10). We are baptised in His name (Matthew 28:19; Acts 8:16).

The Gospel of John was written chiefly to prove the deity of Christ. Christ there gives a resolute and constant testimony of Himself, that He was the Son of God, and very God.

He is God by natureMany heretics have denied the God-head of Christ, including Ebion, Cerinthus, Arius. Arians say that Christ is a creature. Arians and Socinians are more hostile to Athanasius than anyone else. Athanasius stood against three hundred bishops in a council (at Milan, in AD 355), and maintained the divinity of Christ against the Arians. He also wrote most copiously against the Arians, and solidly refuted their arguments.

Christ is God, not by office, nor by favour, nor by similitude, nor in a figure (as sometimes angels and magistrates are called “gods”), but by nature. By nature He is equal and co-essential with His Father. He is not God in any secondary or inferior manner, but in the very form of God is equal to Him, as the Godhead of all the three Persons is one and the same. The first Council of Nicaea was called in order to suppress the heresy of Arius, and the Nicene Creed was made.

The difference between Arius and the Council of Nicaea was one letter — whether Christ was homoiousios “similar in essence” or homoousios “same in essence” with the Father. The Arian heretic demands that Augustine shows where we read the word homoousios in Scripture. Augustine asks in reply, “What is homoousion if not, ‘I and my Father are one’?”

The Holy Spirit is GodThe Holy Spirit is also God.

The names and titles of God are given to Him. Three times the apostle calls the Holy Spirit God (1 Corinthians 3:16–17). Taking the shape of a dove, and of tongues of fire, are acts of a distinct Person (Acts 5:3–4; compare Acts 1:16 with Acts 4:24–25; and Numbers 12:6 with 2 Peter 1:21). He is called the Spirit of Glory (1 Peter 4:14).

Divine attributes are given to Him. For example, omniscience (1 Corinthians 2:10–11; John 14:26), omnipresence (Psalm 139:7; Romans 8:9; John 14:26), omnipotence (Hebrews 3:7), eternity (Hebrews 9:14).

The works of the true God are given to Him. These include creation (Job 26:13; Psalm 33:6), the preservation and sustaining of all created things (Genesis 1:2; Zechariah 4:6); the work of redemption (1 Corinthians 2:10), the power of working miracles (Matthew 12:28; Acts 2:4), the power to raise the dead (Romans 8:11), the distribution of graces as He pleases (1 Corinthians 12:4), instructing the prophets (2 Peter 1:21), governing the church and making apostles (Acts 13:2, 20:28).

Divine honour and worship is given to Him. We are baptised in His name, as well as in the name of the Father and Son (Matthew 28:10). We are commanded to believe in Him, and call on Him. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall never be forgiven (Matthew 12:31), therefore He is no less to be worshipped than the Father and the Son.

The first Constantinopolitan Council (AD 381), which numbered 150 bishops, was assembled against Macedonius, who denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit.

A truth to adoreThis is a wonderful mystery to be adored and admired. Every one is bound to know it, with an apprehensive knowledge [grasping the truth of it], though not with a comprehensive knowledge [understanding it fully]. We must worship the Unity in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, as it is in the Athanasian Creed.

All the three Persons have a special hand in the salvation of a sinner, and every believer has a special interest in the promises of the Persons (John 5:19). The order of working in the Persons is suitable to the order of their subsisting (the Father is first in order therefore first in working, etc). Therefore adoption is reckoned by some theologians as the first of spiritual benefits, then redemption and sanctification.

We should walk in the love of them all (1 John 4:16; see John 5:9, 14:23, 16:27) and fear to offend them all, not only the Father, but the Son (Ezekiel 21:10) and the Spirit (Ephesians 4:30).

We should praise God for revealing this mystery to us in His Word, and be assured that whatever He promises or threatens shall be accomplished, being confirmed by three witnesses.

← When troubles worsenIs Jesus really the Saviour for me? →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

When troubles worsenIn stark contradiction of God’s requirement to care for the vulnerable and carry one another’s burdens, the month of June 2025 has seen Westminster vote in favour of legalising assisted suicide and decriminalising abortion up to birth. How can we fail to mourn? Meanwhile there is small hope that those responsible for the grooming gangs scandal will be dealt with justly, while another month of Pride has perpetuated the normalisation and celebration of a variety of perverted behaviours. The church is muted and slow to point out obedience to God’s ways in response to any of these instances of moral decay, limping on in our own religiosity and underestimating how much we need to humble ourselves before God. Yet some of this sounds familiar when we look in the Book of Lamentations. In a situation of multiple devastating judgements, Jeremiah has somewhere to turn. He tells God all about it and asks God for mercy. Jeremiah’s laments are God-facing. David Dickson, exploring Lamentations in the context of the Thirty Years War and persecution of the Covenanters, finds echoes in his own time of the miseries experienced by Jeremiah’s people. In the following updated extract from Dickson’s comments on Lamentations 5, we see that, far from inducing apathy and a resigned shrug, the penitent acceptance of God’s just judgments means an energetic kind of patience, which never gives up on confessing guilt and appealing to God for relief and restoration.A place to turn in troubleIn Chapter 5, Jeremiah closes the Book of Lamentations by laying out the miseries of the church before God in prayer. When they have grieved their fill, he lets their pitiful state lie before the Lord. This lets us see that God is the first and the last and the surest refuge of the distressed in their trouble, and there is no true relief for a sorrowful soul except in Him.

Do not lament needlessly in trouble, but fly to God. One says, “I have terrible problems in my marriage.” Another says, “I have wicked children.” Another says, “I have terrible problems at work.” Another complains of bad neighbours, another of sickness, another of physical pain, another of the sense of God’s wrath.

In all these, go to God. He is the only refuge. And let your prayer lie there, for prayer should be how you close your lamentation. Any worldly person, in sore trouble, will take a worldly courage, and cheer himself up, and take whatever comes his way. But that is not the right way to respond to trouble. Go and pour out your heart before God, and quietly and patiently wait for His time for deliverance. If some new reason for grief comes, mourn over again in His bosom, because there is no deliverance except in Him.

A detailed listThe prophet counts out the miseries which the church was experiencing. Misery is a small thing to hear of, but hard to be borne.

“Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens” (verse 2). Jeremiah complains that their houses and lands were taken by strangers who had paid nothing for them. The housing and property markets are in unprecedented turmoil in our times [when Dickson was writing].

“We are orphans …” (v.3). The sword, famine and pestilence have made so many children fatherless, so many wives widows, so many a doleful mother sonless. Those who are left alive are left in misery, when those who could have been a comfort to them are taken away.

“We have drunk our water for money …” (v.4). Time was when they had wine enough of their own to drink and paid nothing for it, but now they labour hard all day and only earn a penny, and they are forced to spend it on water.

When people abuse what God has given, it is righteous with God to take it from them and punish the abuse of plenty with poverty. You who can now wear nicer clothes and have nicer food than your neighbour, be sober with it and use God’s gifts appropriately. You who spend lavishly now, beware of coming poverty. Do you think these things will last for ever? That you will always have wine for carousing and money for a flutter? You spend more money at the bookies than you would give to charity in half a year. Let the poor members of Christ’s body get the benefit of your disposable income instead of indulging yourself, in case you end up forced to buy the essentials which you now get cheaply.

“We have given our hand to the Egyptian …” (v.6). This could mean ratifying subservience to foreign powers, or begging aid from them. It is justice with God to make those who refuse to serve Him or depend on Him serve their enemies and beg their bread from them. They refused to be in God’s debt for His gifts — now they are forced to be in debt to those they love least.

“Our fathers have sinned, and are not” (v.7). Many, when they see their parents getting away unpunished in this world for being drunkards, oppressors, deceivers, think they will follow in their footsteps and also escape. Well, possibly your fathers escaped, but what assurance do you have that you will get similar mercies? Maybe they sinned in ignorance, while you are sinning wilfully and contrary to light?

“We got our bread with peril of our lives …” (v.9). Soldiers waited in the wilderness to catch people trying to escape to seek bread by night. They had been well clothed and well fed at home, drinking their wine from bowls, singing to the viol and harp, lying on beds of ivory (Amos 6:4–6), and now for their abuse of these benefits, they cannot get hold of a bit of bread. Those who will not be won to God by gentle dealing may expect to have to fend for themselves in harder conditions.

“They ravished the women in Zion” (v.11). The profane soldiers took them and abused them, and when they fled to the temple, they abused them in the temple. See how many evils come with the sword, which cannot be imagined till it comes. Goods, children, heritage are taken away by sword, and lives, wives, daughters exposed to the soldiers’ villainy, when an army comes in like a flood.

“The elders have ceased from the gate” (v.14). There is no judge sitting in the seat of justice, so anybody could wrong you and nobody would intervene — there was no magistrate to complain to. It is a heavy plague to lack a magistrate, or to have a magistrate who is ineffective.

“The young men have ceased from music” (v.14). Before now, they never knew what distress meant. They gave themselves to recreation and delighting in music, in which is something lawful, although the excess is a fault. When these recreations are taken away, and sorrow is given instead, it is a token of God’s anger.

An expression of guilt“Woe to us, for we have sinned” (v.16). They grant that sin is the cause of all their misery and disgrace. With misery lying hard on them because of sin, now they curse their sins. Every sinner will be forced to curse their sins either sooner or later, whether they repent or not.

“Woe to us that we have sinned,” they say, and not, “woe to us that we are miserable.” Sin is a greater evil than any misery, if we only realised it, for we may blame ourselves and our sins for all our misery and the feeling of misery. Misery should make us turn all our grief on our sin. You who cry, “Woe is me for my affliction,” change it to, “Woe is me for sin!” Be more sorry for sin than for the judgment it has brought on.

An appeal to GodEventually the prophet lifts up his heart and refreshes himself a little in the midst of his grief with the consideration, “Thou, O Lord, remainest forever” (v.19). Although Zion, the temple and all is gone and the commonwealth decayed, yet the Lord remains for ever to right all wrongs and take reparations from all oppressors. He can still set in order everything that is out of order.

After such a long lamentation, Jeremiah taking this view of God’s goodness, mercy and unchangeableness (lest he should be swallowed up by too much despair and sorrow) shows us that even when the church itself provokes God to change her from prosperity to adversity, yet He remains still unchangeable and as kind and loving to those who seek to Him as He ever was. Change in the church demonstrates no change in God. He remains the same, both when He plagues sinners and when He pities them. God’s unchangeableness is a basis of hope that the church will be restored and changed from a worse condition to a better.

“Wherefore dost thou forget us forever?” (v.20). Although the captivity was only newly begun, the Lord’s wrath began 12 years before city was taken, and before that there was a great decay. God has been saying a long goodnight to them, and it makes them think He has forsaken them for ever. Also, a short time in trouble seems long. When God forsakes, a short time seems a lifetime. Supposing the trouble was never so short, we cannot help finding it long if God withdraws. Resolve then to bear it patiently.

Jeremiah pours out this matter to God and tells God that he thinks God has forsaken them. When we think God has forsaken us, we may tell Him, and pray Him to help.

“Renew our days as of old” (v.21). When God gives repentance to an afflicted church, or person, He can make their condition as good as it ever was. God can repair all the church’s ruins and wash the dirt off her face and rub away her shame.

A sad note to end on“But thou hast utterly rejected” (v.22). Jeremiah closes up his lamentation with sorrow, as if to say, “We must take it as a given that the time appointed for our trouble must expire before God restores us. We need not think that God will look upon us for the time being.” Maybe, in his grief, Jeremiah is expressing his own fear of being rejected. Like him, David and Jonah feared, “I am cut off” (Lamentations 3:54; Psalm 32:22; Jonah 2:3–4).

Or we may take it that Jeremiah is confessing, not a rejection of the Lord’s people’s full salvation, but a rejection of their natural prosperity. God may and will reject a people or a person in a particular state about a temporal benefit, and yet will not forsake them about their salvation. God will not reject a prayer for salvation, even if He rejects a prayer for a temporal benefit.

Mourn before God as you like. His decree about the temporal judgment will continue in force. This people did not need to think that God would restore them to their previous condition of prosperity for the time being, because He had a special anger at them.

If God has resolved to let temporal trouble lie on us all our days, we should yield, stoop and submit to Him, and bear the indignation of the Lord until He is pleased to send relief. Jeremiah says, “I don’t need to say any more. God has rejected this people and He will not restore us till the appointed time. I will stop here, and we will sit still and mourn all our days.”

Having drawn down a great blow from God’s hand, stoop and bear it. Be quiet and do not fret. Drink what you have brewed, for God will not hear you asking for removal of the temporal judgment. Pray that if He is going to let the trouble lie on you, that He would still keep your soul from perishing, and not take His loving kindness from you.

← When salvation is difficultUnchanging truths about our unchanging God →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

What can Christianity offer?What can Christianity offer? In the last few years, an increasing number of younger people, especially young men, are turning to church in a trend some are calling the ‘quiet revival.’ For the age groups labelled Gen Z and Millennials, atheism is not such a cool or edgy option as openness to religion, including Christianity. There is a feeling that life is unsatisfactory, and whereas in the past few decades it would have felt silly to turn to God for help, people here and there are increasingly trying Christianity to see whether God can help with the emptiness and inexplicable miserableness they are experiencing. But can our churches compete with everything else on offer from other religions, alternative forms of spirituality and secularist scams which counterfeit true happiness? In the following updated extract, James Durham acknowledges the spiritual bankruptcy in human experience and the gnawing thirst for something more and better than what we have. Identifying sin as the root problem, Durham presents salvation from sin through Jesus Christ as what will comprehensively meet our need. If the free forgiveness of sins is on offer, will there be any takers?God the Father and God the Son have made a good and grace-filled bargain, which is wholly mercy, and they bring it to market and put it on sale on exceedingly easy terms, suited to bankrupt sinners. It is set out in Isaiah 55:1–3: “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.”

The offerMay we briefly and in a few words sum up what is in this bargain?

All things that contribute to peace with God, and remove the quarrel between God and the sinner.
All things that relate to or are needful for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:4).
All things that belong to the comfort and consolation of believers (“strong consolation,” it is called in Hebrews 6:18). There is no need so great, but there is a supply for it here, no situation so sad, but there is a comfort for it here, when you flee to Christ for refuge.
All that is needful for the joy and complete happiness of those who heartily accept it.

If God and Christ, grace and mercy are in it, is anything missing? May I not very confidently ask you, is it not a good bargain? If the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, grace, heaven and glory are a good bargain, then this is most certainly a wonderfully good, matchless, and unique bargain.

Is not this gospel, which brings all these great things to the market, good news? Take heed then that you do not receive this grace in vain. These wares are worthy of all possible acceptance and welcome — do not leave them there unbought!

The buyersYou would have readily thought that such goods would be restricted to mighty monarchs, great statesmen, learned philosophers, or holy prophets and apostles. Yet the grace of God ordinarily comes in a lower way. The proclamation is to “every one that thirsts, and he that hath no money.”

Is there anyone who lacks what will make them happy, which they would love to have? Is there anyone who needs to make their peace with God? Is anyone unclear or unsure whether Jesus belongs to them? Is anyone wrestling with a body of death, and groaning under it? Does anyone long to have their sin pardoned and subdued? Does anyone want grace, heaven and glory?

And is there anyone who has nothing to give in exchange for all of these, or any of them, and who has spent many years of labour in vain trying to come by them?

It’s to you, even to you, that all these rich wares and rare commodities are in a special manner offered, in this market of free grace that has been announced!

This call and offer comes to you irrespective of what kind of sinner you are. Maybe you are senseless and complacent? To you the gospel says, “How long, ye fools, will ye love simplicity? And how long will ye sleep, O sluggards?” (Proverbs 1:22 and 6:9). This offer is made to those who “have no bread,” and have been “bestowing their labour on that which satisfies not,” gorging themselves with the world, or wrapping themselves up in the groundless conceit of their own righteousness. “How long will ye spend your labour for that which is not bread?”

Or, maybe, you are in some way bothered by your sin, feeling guilty and convicted, with something stinging or fiery in your conscience, and consumed with apprehension about the wrath and terrors of God? To you the offer is, “Ho, every one that thirsts, come!” and we bid you earnestly to come. If you say, “My conviction has no edge to it, it is not deep enough for me to be included in this invitation,” we answer, “Let him that hath no money come.” If you have completely given up all hope of making your peace with God by your own prayers and other performances, and have in that respect utterly renounced your own righteousness, and so “have no money, no price,” then, even though you may not be pricked at the heart under the sense of sin and deserved wrath as you think you ought, yet come, please come!

Or maybe you have accepted the facts about your sin and lostness, and are in some measure, though only faintly (at least to your own perception) stirring towards Christ, and are longing to get to Him? Up you get, for to you the offer most kindly says, “Hear, and your souls shall live! Eat and be satisfied!”

These wares are not brought out and laid before you, only for you to quibble about the price, but mainly so that you would buy them, eat them and feed on them. The gospel does not so much offer to a bargain with you, as it offers you the benefit of a bargain already made, i.e., with Christ.

The termsThe terms on which all these goods are offered for sale turn out to suit the buyer wondrously well. “Come,” says the Lord, “buy without money and without price! Hear and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you.” Speaking with reverence, there is not a wallet opened or a penny paid in this bargain. A very great, very costly and dear price has been paid, but it was paid by Christ. When Christ came to buy these mercies for His people, the market was very high and the prices were up. But when believers come by the covenant of grace, the prices have fallen wonderfully low. What cost Him dear is to be had by them gratis, completely freely — for nothing!

The first term is “Come.” People leave their present standing place and posture, and move towards the marketplace.

The second term is “Buy.” A price is put on the wares, you value it, and you transact to make it yours.

The third term is “Hear, incline your ear,” i.e., to God and His Word. Believe it and receive it, “and your souls shall live.”

The fourth term is, “I will make an everlasting covenant with you.” There is a commitment by covenant to be the Lord’s, after hearing His Word, shaking hands and concluding the bargain.

And it is all without you offering money or price, money or money’s worth, without offering or giving anything, small or large, in compensation.

The advertisingHow does the gospel put all this to the market. Where it comes, those who are called must either take the bargain, or be at fault.

First, it proclaims the market to all around. There are these things on offer, at this price — the rarest and richest commodities, and at the cheapest rates you ever heard of.

Second, it not only proclaims, but invites, and doubles the invitation to come.

Third, it not only invites, but drives the invitation home in such a way that people must either pay the price (so to speak — as there is in effect no price!) and buy, or refuse the bargain. If they won’t make the effort to come into the shop, as it were, it brings out the wares and lays them out in the market-place, and (as it were) stands in the street calling, “Come, buy! Come and enter the covenant freely!” It makes a frank offer, by earnest and persuasive inviting, and by the easy conditions it proposes for the bargain. The gospel stands effectively with arms stretched out, ready to receive all comers entirely freely, whatever their poverty, lack, and needs be. It asks nothing more but that we willingly take what He offers to put in our hand. “The righteousness of faith saith not, Who shall ascend to heaven, or who shall descend to the depth?” There is nothing now to be suffered, nor to be purchased by any more suffering, “but the word is near thee, in thy heart and in thy mouth” (Romans 10:6–8) It places the wares on our very doorstep (as it were), so that we have no more to do, but to stoop down and pick it up. We only have to say the word heartily, and it is a bargain.

← Four things that magnify the grace of GodAn idol-free heart →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

How God’s revelation stretches us to keep learningTeachers tend to worry when children don’t make progress in the classroom, and will put in extra support to ensure that they don’t fall behind. But as learners in Christ’s school, do we notice when we fail to grow? What extra steps do pastors take when they notice members of the congregation getting stuck at the first principles of the doctrines of Christ? It’s not as if the gospel is a shallow subject or the Bible something superficial. In the following updated extract, Westminster Assembly member William Gouge discusses the criticism made in the letter to the Hebrews, which mentions learning about Christ, the believer’s high priest, “of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God …” (Hebrews 5:10–12).The revelations of Scripture are profoundThe previous chapters of Hebrews have been discussing the doctrine of Christ’s priesthood, which contains many profound mysteries. Christ’s priesthood is the main ground of our salvation. Most of the profoundest points of our Christian religion must be known in order to attain the knowledge of this, including the distinction between Father and Son, the distinction between the two natures of Christ (and how in both natures He was our priest — God, for works of authority and dignity; man, for works of service and suffering), as well as the union of those two natures in one person (because the perfection of all the things which Christ did as our priest did consisted in this).

It can be no wonder that so many heresies have started up in all ages about the priesthood of Christ. Most of the heresies of the Roman Church, especially those that are most fundamental, are about Christ’s priesthood. For there are two parts to Christ’s priesthood — the offering of His sacrifice, and His continual intercession — and most of their capital heresies are against these two. These include, for example, the sacrifice of the mass (which they say is a true, real, propitiatory sacrifice for the living and dead), their sacrificing priests, their doctrines of merit, of supererogation, of intercession of saints and angels, and most of their errors about the sacraments.

From this, we can see how necessary it is to be well instructed in the priesthood of Christ. Ministers should be stirred up to study and to preach Christ’s priesthood, as well as other doctrines. The people also should be stirred up to attend to it patiently and diligently.

We should be keen to understandThe Greek word translated “dull” properly signifies slow, or slothful.

They who are ready, willing, and forward to hearken to a thing are said to be “swift to hear.” Contrarily, they who are negligent and careless are said to be “slow in their ears,” or “slow in hearing.” By this we see that their lack of knowledge is through their own fault, as the dullness of understanding, which people bring on themselves by their own slothfulness, makes the mysteries of the Word to be more difficult than otherwise they would be.

This is what prompted Christ to reprove His disciples for not understanding what He spoke (Matt. 15:16, 16:9; Luke 24:25; John 3:10), and the apostles spoke similarly (1 Cor. 3:1; 2 Pet. 3:16). Those who do not understand the Word, and the mysteries it contains, should be humbled by this, for it shows that they have been slothful and careless about exercising themselves in God’s Word, and so made themselves dull in hearing, dull in understanding. Let them therefore lay the blame, not on God’s Word, but on themselves. Take away dullness from people’s understanding, and Scripture will be much easier than it appears to many!

The phrase, “hard to be uttered,” shows that hearers’ dullness keeps ministers from a full and clear expression of the mysteries of the Word. They don’t know how to speak to their hearers (1 Cor. 3:1). This forces them to pass over various mysteries, or to express them in simplistic terms, which suit dull capacities but are not very appropriate for divine mysteries. This in turn further exacerbates people’s dullness.

Preaching should have the effect of instructing peopleThis phrase, “for the time,” implies that these Hebrews had had the gospel preached to them for many years. By preaching they had been called into the Christian church, and made scholars in Christ’s school, and given Christ’s ministers to be their instructors, and the holy Scriptures for their books.

Our proficiency ought to correspond to how long we have continued sitting under the ministry of God’s Word. Christ reproves Philip for failing in this. “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?” (John 14:9). It aggravated the sin of the Israelites that they had been tutored in the wilderness for forty years, “Yet,” Moses says, “the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day” (Deut. 29:4). Jeremiah similarly complained that for 23 years in a row he had spoken to them the word of the Lord, but they had not hearkened (Jer. 25:3).

The continuance of the means of knowledge among us is a great aggravation of our people’s ignorance; for who among us have not been born and brought up under the light of the gospel? Are there any now who were born before Queen Elizabeth’s days? [Elizabeth I began to reign in 1558.] But from the beginning of her days till these days of ours [the 1650s], the gospel has been preached in this land. The truth of God’s Word has all this time been publicly preached and strongly maintained. A shame, therefore, it is for people to be dull in hearing the mysteries of the Word. Believers have a responsibility to learn thoroughly.

Believers should assist each other to growSeeing the Hebrews had enjoyed the continuance of the means, they should have attained to a measure of knowledge which would have enabled them to instruct others. The word translated “teachers” signifies someone who has learned in such a way as to be able and fit to teach others. Sometimes it is used for one who has an office of teaching (Eph. 4:11; 1 Cor. 12:28); sometimes for one who has ability to teach (Rom. 2:20). The second sense is how we take it here (as it does not follow that all who are able to instruct others should take on the ministerial teaching office: all who have the office of teacher must have the ability of teachers, but all who have the ability need not have the office).

The word translated “ye ought” signifies a bounden duty. It was fitting for them, and it was their duty, to make use of the means of knowledge that had been so long afforded to them in this way. In this respect the apostle requires aged women to be teachers of good things (Tit. 2:4). So Aquila and Priscilla instructed Apollos (Acts 18:26).

By such proficiency, both God, His Word, and His ministers are much honoured. Indeed, in this way the church may be much increased, and they themselves made able to do much good to others, and to themselves. What then should we think of those who do all they can to keep people from knowledge, and to nuzzle them up in ignorance?

This may be a spur to such as think they have gone great lengths, if they have so much as attained to some fundamental principles. Are they fit to be teachers? Where is the fullness of knowledge (Col. 1:9), and abounding in knowledge (2 Cor. 8:7), which is required of Christians?

If it is the duty of ordinary Christians to be able to instruct others, how much more is it the duty of ministers, heads of families, parents, and those who have responsibility for others? What a shame it is for them to be unable to be teachers!

It becomes us therefore to give the more earnest heed to the things we hear (Heb. 2:1), so that we may profit the more by them, and still more and more grow in knowledge, till we come to be able teachers.

Pastors should be patient teachersThis phrase, “ye have need,” is brought in as a reason why the apostle has forborne to handle deep points — they had need of other kind of instructions.

People are to be instructed according to their need. “Ye are not able to bear such and such doctrines,” Paul said (1 Cor. 3:2); “I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now,” Christ said to His disciples (John 16:12). It is expressly said that He spoke the word to them “as they were able to bear it” (Mark 4:33). Christ would not press on His disciples the austere discipline of much fasting, while they were but novices. He declares the equity of this in two familiar comparisons, one taken from putting a piece of new cloth into an old garment; the other, from putting new wine into old bottles, which He says no one will do (Matt. 9:14–15, etc.).

It is therefore a special point of wisdom in those who have responsibility for others, to observe carefully what they have need of. It’s as if Paul said, “At your first entrance into Christ’s school, you were ignorant of its mysteries, and needed to be instructed in the first principles of Christian religion. But notwithstanding the long time that you have enjoyed such great means of knowledge, you remain the same as you were in the beginning. So it is needful that we begin from scratch all over again!”

Where need requires it, the same things are to be taught again, and again. “To write the same things, is for you safe,” says the apostle (Phil. 3:1). The prophet agrees. “Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line” (Isa. 28:10). This is how we deal with our friends. If we observe that by reason of weakness they need to be fed with the same kind of sustenance as they ate in their childhood, we will give them the same again. Should we not be equally wise for people’s souls as for their bodies?

Believers should strive to move beyond the basicsWhat the Hebrews needed to be taught again is called “the first principles of the oracles of God.” All the arts have their distinct principles, which learners are first taught. So Christians have their principles, in which those who desire knowledge of the Christian religion are first instructed.

To show what kind of principles he means, the apostle adds, “of the oracles of God.” He means the principles which God makes known in His Word. For example, the laws which Moses declared from God are called “oracles” (Acts 7:38), as are the precepts committed to the Jews (Rom. 3:2), and in general the whole Word of God (1 Pet.4:11).

In particular, these are called “the principles of the doctrine of Christ,” (Heb. 6:1).

In this case, to be ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, is a great shame (2 Tim. 3:7). God Himself is much dishonoured by this, and His Word and ministers disgraced. This is of direct concern to those who have been church members and hearers of God’s Word for a very long time. Adversaries are ready to open their mouths in criticism against them, to blaspheme the name of God (Rom. 2:21). They are also easily made a prey to every seducer (Eph. 4:14). Take heed therefore how you hear.

← Ten features of fellowshipHow to walk in good works →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

What will make believers pursue peace?Some people are expert at identifying disagreements and upsets and then probing continually to keep the difficulty at the forefront of everyone’s minds. This is not the honest interest of wanting to arrive at a settled view of a doubtful question in their own minds, but comes from a darker motivation that finds some kind of satisfaction in seeing other people at loggerheads. Yet this is the opposite of what a Christian should be like. When there are disagreements between Christians, fellow believers should do all they can not to make things worse, and everything possible to bring reconciliation and harmony. In the following updated extract, Westminster Assembly member Jeremiah Burroughs offers a series of considerations to help us prioritise peace between Christian and Christian.Think of how far we can agreeWe differ in this way and that way, but what do we agree in? Do we not agree in enough things that we may spend all the days of our lives and all the strength we have in glorifying God together?

Many love to be altogether busied about their brethren’s differences. Their discourse, their pens, and all their ways are about these. But it is not to heal the breaches, but rather to widen them. You do not hear them speak of or get involved with their agreements; their strength is not bent to heighten and strengthen agreement. If at any time they do take notice of their agreements, it only to render their disagreements the more odious, or to strengthen themselves in what they differ from them. They desire to get in men, and to get from them, only what will serve their own interests. This is an evil spirit.

Pliny tells us about the famous painter Apelles, who was drawing the face of King Antiochus, who only had one eye. In order to hide this deformity, Apelles came up with the idea of painting him with his face slightly turned away. From him, says Pliny, came the invention of concealing the defects and blemishes of the face. But the painters of our time do things quite differently. If there is any deformity or defect on any side, they will be sure to paint that side in all its detail, and set it forth fully to the view of all. Indeed, if it may be made to look more ugly and monstrous than it is, then that is what they will use all the skill they have to do.

But, my brethren, this ought not to be! God does not treat us like this. He takes notice of the good of His children, and conceals their evil. There was only one good word in what Sarah said to Abraham, in what was otherwise a speech of unbelief (Gen. 18:12), yet when the Holy Ghost speaks of her afterwards, He conceals all the evil in it, and mentions only the respectful title she gave to her husband, commending her for it (1 Pet. 3:6). This is what we should do, and if we had peaceable hearts, it is what we would do. All the good of our brethren we would amplify to the utmost, and what is evil, so far as we could with a good conscience, we would conceal.

Realise that what we gain by contention will never be worth the costA merchant thinks it a bad venture, if when he comes to do his accounts he finds that the cost of his voyage exceeds his income. If you can calmly sit down and look at your accounts truly, and set down in one column what good you got by such and such contentions, and in the other column add up what hurt you have done, what sin has been committed, what evil has got into your spirit, I fear you will have little gain to rejoice in.

“To be freed from the expense that comes in by strife, is not a little gain,” says Ambrose. In strife you will find there is a very great expense of time, of gifts and of abilities. Many men have good gifts given by God, and might have proved shining lights in the church, but by reason of their contentious spirits, they prove nothing but smoking firebrands. It may well be that, even with all the fuss you stir up, you will never get your own way; but even if you do, it will not exceed the cost. What you have spent on it, comes to much more than it is worth. God deliver me from having things my own way at such a dear rate!

Watch out for the work of the devilWhen people provoke us, we are ready to flare up against them, looking no further than the people with whom we are displeased. But if you look a little further, perhaps you may see the devil hiding over there, and he may be the chief agent in the business.

Augustine says that when a fowler sets his net to catch birds, he sets it at a distance from the hedge, then he takes stones and throws them at the hedge. This makes the birds fly out, and flutter about. The fowler does not intend to damage the hedge, neither does he plan to hit any birds with his stones, but his eye is on the net on the other side of the hedge, and he drives the birds in there.

So, says Augustine, the devil prepares his net, then he raises up contentions, and causes much trouble in churches and among brethren, and you think all the evil is in the trouble of your present contentions. Oh no! The devil is behind the hedge, and he intends to bring you into some great sin by these upsets. When you are troubled and vexed by such contentions, the devil sees you fit for a temptation. “Now,” he says, “I shall get him to do such and such things, which otherwise I could never have got him to.” When we find contentions stirring, we should consider, “Is there not a temptation in them?”

Remember what we are called toGod has called us to peace (1 Cor. 7:15). The apostle mentions this call to peace in the context of a situation as difficult to preserve peace in as any that can occur in anyone’s life. It was the case of man and wife unequally yoked — one is a believer, the other an infidel. Yet as they are man and wife, the apostle says that the believer must be content to live with the unbeliever, as is becoming in a wife or a husband, unless he or she of themselves chooses to depart. But they should give the unbeliever no reason to depart, but rather by their holy, humble way of life they should seek to convert them.

Unquestionably this is a hard task, but it must be, says the apostle, and the reason is, “for God hath called us to peace.”

There is another case, almost as difficult as this, where patience and quietness of spirit is very much tried, and that is when a servant meets with a harsh, rugged, cruel master, who abuses him very injuriously. If anything would put someone’s spirit into a rage, you would think this would. “No,” says the apostle, “you must have such command over your spirit that you patiently bear this,” and this is the reason he gives, “For hereunto were ye called …” (1 Pet. 2:21–22).

You might object, “I grant that husbands and wives should live at peace, though they suffer one from another, and servants should put up with wrongs from their masters, yet it does not follow that similar patience should be required in us when we are wronged by our equals, or by those to whom we have no such bond of relation.” But yes, the argument from our calling is strong in this case also. “Love as brethren, be courteous, not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railings, but contrariwise, blessing, knowing that ye are thereunto called” (1 Pet. 3:8–9).

Think what account we can give to Jesus Christ for all our divisionsWhen Christ comes, are you going stand before Him with scratched faces and black eyes? “The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one towards another, and towards all men,” the apostle says, and to what end? “To the end he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints” (1 Thess. 3:12–13).

It will be a sad thing to be found in our divisions at the coming of Jesus Christ. In Matthew 24:50, the coming of Christ is mentioned as a terror to those who so much as begin to smite their fellow-servants. We may wrangle and stand out one against another in our contentions now, but it will not be so easy to answer Jesus Christ as it is to answer back to one another.

In the name of Jesus Christ I speak to you now, and indeed, as from Him I charge you. Let no reason move you to contend with, differ from or separate from your brethren, but that which you are persuaded in your conscience (after due and serious examination) will stand before — in fact, will be approved of — by Jesus Christ at His coming.

Take to heart our mortalityWe only have a little time to live. Will the greater part of it — actually, why should any part of it? — be snarled up with contentions and quarrels? Virgil says that if swarms of bees meet in the air, they will sometimes fight, as if in a set battle, with great violence. But if you throw a little dust on them, they will all go quiet. Sprinkle on your hearts the meditations of death, the thought that within a while this flesh of yours will be turned to dust, and this will quiet you.

Reflect on the life of heavenThere is and will be perfect agreement in heaven. Here, we are like bees, flying up and down from flower to flower all day, but at night all the bees come into the same hive. That is a place where Luther and Zwingli well agree. Considering that from all eternity God has ordained us to live co-heirs in heaven, to join together in praises there, shall we not agree together here on earth?

← The misery of dying without ChristTen features of fellowship →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

When churchmen defile the churchJustin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has recently resigned over failures in his handling of one of the Church of England’s worst child abuse scandals. A damning report found a conspiracy of silence around the sadistic abuse of young boys both in the UK and in Africa, perpetrated by John Smyth, a prominent evangelical in the Church of England, and left unchallenged by bishops and others in church leadership. Several commentators have noted how church leaders can remain aloof from on-the-ground pastoral concerns and instead use their platforms for airing their own views on issues of little concern to local congregations. The daily spiritual needs of people’s souls are low in their priorities and when genuine wrongs are perpetrated, victims are easy to ignore. In perhaps less heinous cases, this picture is very recognisable in other churches too. When we drill down to the essential features of this situation, we find that God has already spoken His utter opposition to this kind of wickedness in the church. Long ago, He expressed His disgust at the prophets who brought defilement into His church by their conspiracy of cruelty and selfishness. Westminster Assembly member William Greenhill explains in the following updated extract from his commentary on Ezekiel.Multi-faceted wickednessTaking together the 25th and 28th verses of Ezekiel 22, you have expressed the sins of the prophets which defiled the land, making it to be called “The Uncleansed Land.” These sins are: conspiracy, cruelty, soul-murder, covetousness, inhumanity, and flattery.

Jerusalem was the holy city, the city of God, the place where God’s name was recorded, a type of the church of God in all ages. Yet there, even there, were wicked and false prophets. It shows us clearly that there will always be false prophets in the church of God. They were there in Christ’s time: “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing” (Matt. 7:15). They were there in Paul’s time: “there was one Bar-Jesus, a Jew, and a false prophet” (Acts 13:6). They were there in John’s time: “Many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). So many have gone out that there is a generation of them here to this day, and they will not cease as long as the Lord has His church in the world. There will be false prophets around even at doomsday.

Unhealthy consensusEzekiel says there was “a conspiracy of her prophets.” They combined together, all of one heart and mind. The evil prophets met in Jerusalem and consulted, and they consented to prophesy the same thing, and none of them should prophesy otherwise. If anyone did, they would cry them down, along with any who might follow them. Thus they “made a conspiracy” against the true prophets, and those who were truly religious, opposing God and godliness. Read for yourself how they set themselves against Jeremiah (Jer. 26:8), and stirred up the princes and people against him (Jer. 26:11), and how they prophesied the same things (Jer 13:17 and 6:14).

Threatening wordsThese prophets are “like a roaring lion ravening the prey.” Lions are fierce and cruel, especially when hungry. Just as lions first roar, to scare people and other animals, before they then hunt their prey, so wicked prophets roared against the true prophets and their followers. “This man is worthy to die,” they said about Jeremiah (Jer. 26:11) — not to be silenced, or imprisoned, or banished, but “to die.” Nothing but death would suffice them. They were greedy of the prey, and said he should “surely die” (Jer 26:8).

Destructive policies“They have devoured souls.” “Souls” means “people,” by a figure of speech called synecdoche, where the part stands for the whole. These prophets preached dreams and visions out of their own heads, whereby they seduced and ruined multitudes (Eze. 13:10; Jer. 14:13; Jer 13:13).

When prophets fail to warn the people about their sins, they destroy them (Eze. 3:18), and it is the same when they present their own fancies instead of God’s word (Jer. 23:22 and 32). If only they had delivered the word of God, they would have turned people from evil ways, but by their lies and dreams they made them err.

Ambitiousness“They have taken the treasure and precious things.” These prophets were false, and would not do the work of a prophet unless the people gave to them — and gave them the best things. Micah said the same thing: the prophets teach for money (Mic. 3:11), and prepare war for those who refuse to put into their mouths (Mic. 3:5). They did not necessarily take the people’s treasure by force, or steal away their precious things, but the way they behaved was that the people must give. They were not content with what was their stipend, but they had ways, arts, devices, to get more.

Note that an alternative meaning for the Hebrew word is glory, or honour. The sense then would be that these false prophets were ambitious, aspiring to high place and the glory of popular acclaim.

Highly incongruous wickednessIt was the men who should have openly declared against sin, who openly committed sin. “There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof.” They roared like lions, not caring who heard or saw them; they made many widows in the very midst of Jerusalem. They sinned notorious sins, and were not ashamed of them. “Both prophet and priest are profane; in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the Lord” (Jer. 23:11). In the temple, the most public place of worship, there they set up their idols and detestable things (Eze. 7:20).

When prophets and men in near relations to God are bad, they proceed from sin to sin, from degree to degree of the same sin, till they become impudent. These prophets conspired against those who were good in Jerusalem. They were cruel, murderous, covetous, inhumane, and all that even in the midst of Jerusalem. They did not blush at any or all these sins, only proceeded in their covetousness so that they got the treasure and precious things the people had.

Seen wickednessGod takes special notice of the sins of prophets. They are mentioned first in the general corruption that affected all sorts. There were priests’ sins, princes’ sins, and people’s sins, but the prophets are set in the front. They provoked God greatly. They did the most hurt. “From the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land” (Jer. 23:15). They were the corrupt springs, which corrupted the whole Jewish earth with the streams of their false doctrines, and the example of their sinful practices.

Their sins are spoken of in great detail in the Word, and set on record. God takes note of it all. They dealt falsely (Jer. 6:13). They “belied the Lord” (Jer. 5:12). They “taught rebellion against the Lord”’ (Jer. 28:16; 29:32). They “strengthened the hands of evil-doers,” so that no one returned from his wickedness (Jer. 23:14). They were “light and treacherous” (Zeph. 3:4). They deluded the people, and murdered their souls (Jer. 8:11; Eze. 13:10). They were exceedingly covetous, and greedy of gain from every quarter (Isa. 56:11; Mic. 3:5). They made the people forget the name of the Lord (Jer. 23:27). They were sly like foxes (Eze. 13:4).

When the prophets were defiled with such sins, they defiled the land with them, kindled the indignation of the Lord, and made Him say concerning them, “Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall” (Jer. 23:15), and that He would consume them by sword and famine (Jer. 14:15).

← Sympathetic encouragement to persevere through persecutionFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

The honour of being God’s servantMoses, the great leader of God’s people in the Old Testament, was characterised above all by his meekness. His brave leadership in exceedingly testing circumstances was marked neither by harshness nor self-aggrandizing. Although it subverts worldly ideas of what a strong leader looks like, those who want to be the greatest in Christ’s church have to be servants, and serve God by serving others. In the following excerpt from one of his sermons, the godly pastor Alexander Wedderburn explores the huge dignity that belonged to Moses when God called him, after his death, simply, “My servant.”Commendations for God’s servantsThe great testimony of God to Moses is, “my servant.” It is the highest commendation of a man after his death, that in his life he was God’s servant. It is true, all the creatures are in their kind subservient, and God’s greatest enemies do His work. But to be “His” by way of distinction or propriety, as Moses is said to be, is a man’s greatest eulogy in death.

In Scripture, “servant” is the name given to the most eminent saints as their title of greatest honour. Think of “Abraham my servant,” “Job my servant,” “Jacob my servant,” “David my servant.” The greatest prophets and apostles glory in it; Paul, for example, prefixes it to some of his epistles, “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ.” This name is also given to the greatest princes, such as Nebuchadnezzar, head of the Assyrian empire (Jer. 25:9) and Cyrus, head of the Persian empire (Isa. 45). It is given to the excellent martyrs (Rev. 19:2), to the saints in glory (Rev. 22:3), and to the blessed angels (Rev. 19:10). Lastly, this name is given to Jesus the Mediator, “Behold my Servant …” (Isa. 42:1). When you see all these uses of the name laid together, it shows what an eminent testimony of honour it is.

Many things are fixed on in the world, as things which commend people after their death, according to the diversity of their lives. Some have been commended for their honour, some their courage, some their wisdom, some their riches. Where there is a concatenation of these, how eminently commendable that person must be! Well, in spending your life in service to God, a multitude of these concur. How deservedly then is a servant of God commended!

There is wisdom in being God’s servantIt is the highest wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and a good understanding have all they that do His commandments. Moses is brief in determining what wisdom consists in. “Keep his statutes, for this is your wisdom” (Deut. 4:6). Yea, where His service is absent, the Scripture speaks of men as fools. Since they have rejected the word of God, what wisdom is in them? (Jer. 8:9) The foolish virgins are foolish indeed, to make no provision for the time to come. Though they should be able, with the philosophers, to dispute de omni re scibili (about every knowable thing), or, with Solomon, to traverse nature from the cedar to the hyssop (1 Kings 4:33), yet he who does not walk circumspectly is a fool (Eph. 5:16).

There is honour in being God’s servantThere is no trade of life so honourable as to serve God. “The way of life is above to the wise” (Prov. 15:24). There are four things which show how honourable a service it is.

First, they are taken up with the noblest objects. Philosophers call their metaphysics the most noble science, because it deals with the highest beings. God’s servants, like Caleb, constantly follow Him (Num. 14).

Next, they act from the noblest principles. Love constrains them, and indeed, by regeneration, they partake of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1), which elevates the spirit far above what the most famous among the Greeks or Romans could ever reach.

Then, they aim at the noblest ends, such as the glory of God, the good of His church, the salvation of their own souls. Others, like men of low spirits, have low designs. “Who will show us any good? is that which many say” (Psa. 4).

And they receive the noblest reward. “Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of immortal glory.” “Blessed is that servant whom his Lord shall find waiting; verily, I say unto you, he shall make him ruler over all that he hath.” What more can be imagined?

There is gain in being God’s servantAs it is honourable, so it is truly gainful to be His servants. “Godliness is great gain, for it hath the promises of this life, and that which is to come.” Like ships that go to a far country, they keep a trade with heaven, where they have wine, and milk, and honey, and white linen, and eye-salve, without money and without price.

No sooner do His elect children, though they were prodigals before, come to their father’s house, but they are clothed with the best robe, and fed on the fatted calf, and given a ring on their hand, and shoes on their feet. Granted, that which usually goes under the name of riches is not their portion, but their gain is more noble, and they lay up to themselves where the moth cannot enter.

There is enjoyment in being God’s servantAs it is gainful, so it is exceeding pleasant to be God’s servant. We may say, as the Queen of Sheba said of Solomon’s servants, “Blessed are those servants who stand by and hear the wisdom of thy words.”

Their walks are sometimes to green pastures, sometimes to the fields, sometimes to the gardens, to see if the pomegranates bud, sometimes to the banqueting house. It is true, they also sometimes walk down to the wilderness (Hosea 2:14), but there they are allured, and a door of hope is opened to them.

What excellent company they have in these walks! Enoch walked with God (Gen. 6). If to walk with the wise is, in Solomon’s eyes, so great a privilege (Prov. 13:2), what must it be to walk with the only wise God?

What sweet fellowship they have in these walks! Sometimes they sit down under His shadow, sometimes He kisses them with the kisses of his mouth, sometimes He eats with them, sometimes He takes them in His bosom (Isa. 40:11). How pleasant a life must this be! The apostle simply calls it “the life of God” (Eph. 4:18).

They live the sweetest life. Satan can say to God of Job, “Hast thou not set a hedge about him, and about all he hath?” “About all he hath,” is saying a lot. “Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?” Who? It is like the expression that Ahasuerus used with Esther, “Who is he, or where is the man, that durst presume to do this?” It is the highest act of boldness that ever the creature attempted, to be a persecutor of those who have salvation for walls and bulwarks, and are sheltered under the faithfulness of God, as a bird under the feathers of the mother hen (Psa. 71).

Lay all this together and see if it is not a high eulogy to be His servant!

Appropriate responses from God’s servantsRespectIf it is so great a privilege to be God’s servant, then this reproves those who undervalue the privilege. Some disdain His service as a bondage, even though they call Him master and lord, but David preferred the lowest employments in His service to dwelling in the tents of wickedness. Some, like Canaan, are “servant of servants” (Gen. 9:25), and despise their own mercy. Rectify your opinion of his service, since it is the honour of angels, who are in Scripture referred to more often by their service than their nature, though their nature is most pure and excellent spirit.

ConsolationHere is consolation for His servants. Though their service is never so low, yet their privilege is great, and especially since they are friends, as well as servants.

In fact, one who does the will of Christ, he is His father, His mother, His brother, His sister. Rejoice in your privilege, even when it has a mixture of the cross with it.

StrivingIf it is such a great privilege to be His servants, then they should strive to do His service acceptably. These are the qualifications required in His servants if they are to serve acceptably.

Loyalty. They cannot serve two masters, for they must cleave to the one, and leave the other. You must give up on lusts, Satan, and the world, and you must not serve others in opposition to Him. These opposites send many out of His servants, and like Gideon’s 22,000, they return to their tents (Jud. 7:3).

Responsiveness. A servant cannot stand on his own rights, but must be at the beck of his master. If the centurion said to one, “Go!” he had to go. You must not stand and dispute your duty — His will is reason enough, even if His will is that you are to suffer for righteousness’ sake. Supposing His will was that we should walk on a sea of trouble, we ought to say with Peter, “Master, if thou wilt bid me, I will come unto thee.”

Cheerfulness. His service must be done cheerfully (Psa. 110:3). It is true, we are to serve him with reverence, and godly fear (Heb. 12:28), yet this is not inconsistent with cheerfulness. He does not love to have service wrung out of us, as if to an austere and rigorous master, as the man who had the one talent called him; but we are to rejoice in trembling.

Assiduousness. We must labour to do Him service in every thing. Servants are to obey their masters, as the servants of Jesus Christ, directing and referring to His honour their most ordinary employments.

Selflessness. We must not lay stress on our service, as if it deserved our hire. When we have done all, we are unprofitable servants. Indeed, though He say, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” yet our reply ought to be, “When saw we thee hungry, and fed thee?”

← Seven reasons why pastors need to be holyFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

We need to give the true God true worshipWhen we worship the true God, it is fundamentally not about what we get out of it, but rather glorifying Him. Yet as we worship Him, we are gradually being conformed more and more to His image. This benefits us as well as being honouring to Him. Meanwhile, our understanding of what God is like cannot but shape the manner in which we worship Him. When we have a true grasp of who He truly is, the consequence for our worship will be that it truly reflects what He is like. The way we worship God should tell a story about the kind of God He really is. These interconnected themes stand out in the following excerpt from Hugh Binning’s discussion of John 4:23–24 (“… true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth…”).Our worship should correspond to the God we are worshippingThe right manner of worshipping God is so as our worship carries the stamp of His image on it, such that it is like a mirror in which we may behold God’s nature and properties.

What He Himself is, that is what He wants to be acknowledged to be, and I think it would really be true worship if it had engraved on it the name of the true and living God, and if it proclaimed of itself: God is, and He is a rewarder of them that seek Him diligently.

Most part of our service speaks of an unknown God. Its inscription is, “To the unknown God.” There is so little reverence, or love, or fear, or knowledge in it, that it’s as if we did not worship the true God at all, but an idol. I fear that our worship is sometimes such that no one could conclude from it that it had any relation to the true God!

But this is true worship, when it renders back to God His own image and name. In water from a pure and clean fountain, you may see your reflection distinctly, but a troubled or muddy water, he cannot see himself. So, pure worship is worship which receives and reflects the pure image of God, but impure and unclean worship cannot receive it and retain it.

Christians, please consider this, for the Father seeks a certain kind of worshipper —and why? Because in them He finds Himself (so to speak) — His own image and superscription is on them, His mercy is engraved on their faith and confidence, His majesty and power are stamped on their humility and reverence, His goodness is to be read on the soul’s rejoicing, His greatness and justice in the soul’s trembling.

O, how little true worship there is, even among them whom the Father has sought out to make true worshippers! We stay at the first principles of religion, and do not go on to build on the foundation. Sometimes our worship has a stamp of God’s holiness and justice, in the fear and terror of such a majesty which makes us tremble before Him — but where is the stamp of His mercy and grace which should be written in our faith and rejoicing? Tremble and fear indeed, yet rejoice with trembling, because there is mercy with Him. Sometimes there is rejoicing and quietness in the soul, but it quickly degenerates into carnal confidence, and makes the soul turn grace into wantonness, and think of itself above what is right, because it is not counterpoised with the sense of His holiness and justice.

O, to have these jointly written on the heart in worship — fear, and reverence, and confidence, and humility, and faith! That is a rare thing. It is a divine composition and temper of spirit that makes a divine soul. For the most part, our worship reflects nothing of God, neither His power, nor His mercy and grace, nor His holiness and justice, nor His majesty and glory. A complacent, faint, formal way, void of reverence, of humility, of fervency, and of faith!

I beseech you, let us consider, as before the Lord, how much effort and time we lose, and how we please no one but ourselves, and profit no one at all! Stir up yourselves as in His sight! For it is the fixed and constant meditation of God and His glorious properties that will beget the resemblance there should be between our worship, and the God whom we worship, and imprint His image on it. Then it would please Him, and profit you, and edify others.

Our worship should be spiritualOur worship must have the stamp of God’s spiritual nature, and be conformed to it in some measure, else it cannot please him. There must be a conformity between God and souls. This is the great purpose of the gospel, to repair the image of God which was originally on man, and make him like God again.

Now, this is the way that Jesus Christ repairs this image, and brings about this conformity with God. As the soul worships God in a way that is suitable to His nature, it is the more and more like God, and happy in that likeness. “God is a Spirit, therefore,” says Christ, “you must worship him in spirit and truth.” The worship of saints must be of a spiritual nature, so that it may be like the immortal divine Spirit. It is such worshippers the Father seeks. He seeks souls to make them like Himself, and this likeness and conformity to God is the very foundation of the soul’s happiness, and eternal refreshment.

This is a point of great consequence, and I fear, not much laid to heart. The worship must be like the Worshipped. It is a spirit that must worship the Eternal Spirit. It is not a body that can be the principal and chief agent in the business.: What communion can God have with your bodies, while your souls are removed far from Him, any more than He can with beasts? All society and fellowship must be between those that are like one another. A human being can have no comfortable company with animals, or with stones, and trees: it is people that can converse with people; and a spirit must worship the self-existent Spirit.

Our worship should involve our whole personDo not, however, make a mistake on this point, as if in New Testament times we are not called to an external and bodily worship, and services to which our outward body is instrumental. This is one of the deep delusions of this age, into which some have fallen, that there are no external ordinances, but that Christians are called to worship all spirit. This is one of the “spiritual” teachings (as they would call themselves) which you must not receive, for it is neither the Spirit of God, nor of Christ, that teaches this — nor, indeed, the Spirit of God the Creator, because He created the whole man, body and soul, and so must be worshipped by the whole man. He created man with the capacity to offer up external actions in a reasonable manner with the inward affections.

Thus, as the Lord created us, so we should serve Him, every member, every part in its own capacity — the soul to precede, and the body to follow; the soul to be the chief worshipper, and the body its servant employed in the worship. True worship has a body and a soul as well as a true human being. As the soul separated is not a complete person, so neither is the soul separated a complete worshipper without the body. The external ordinances of God is the body, the inward soul affection is the spirit, which, joined together, makes complete worship.

Our Lord Jesus taught us to offer up our bodies and spirits both, in a reasonable service (Rom. 12:1–2). The sacrifice of the bodily performance, offered up by the spiritual affection and renewed mind is “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable and reasonable:” The spirit which dwelt in Christ above measure, did not think it was too base to express itself in the way of external ordinances! He was indeed above all, above the law, yet He willingly came under them — to teach us, who have so much need to come under them. He prayed much, He preached, He sang and read, to teach us how to worship, and how much need we have of prayer and preaching.

The spirit which Christ promised to His disciples and apostles breathes most lively in the use of the external ordinances all their days. “The hour is come, and now is,” said Christ, “in which the true worship of God shall not be in the external ceremonies of the Old Testament church, or in rites void of all life and inward sense of piety.” The true worship of God shall be made up of a soul and body, of spirit and truth — of the external appointed ordinances according to the Word of truth and the Spirit of truth, and of the spirit and inward soul-affection and sincerity which shall quicken and actuate that external performance. Worshippers who had no use of ordinances were never envisaged. Christ was not that kind of worshipper, His disciples were not that kind of worshippers, and therefore the idea that we can do without ordinances is a “new gospel,” which we ought not to receive.

As it is certain then, that both soul and body must be employed in this business, so it is sure that the soul and spirit must be the first mover, and chiefest agent in it. That is because it is a spiritual business, and relates to the Fountain Spirit, who has the most perfect opposition to all false appearances and merely external shows. The part of man that comes nearest to God must draw near in worshipping God, and if that is removed far away, there is no real communion with God. Man judges according to the outward appearance, and can reach no further than the outward man, but God is an all-searching Spirit, who tries the heart and reins, and therefore He will pass a different judgement on your worship then other people can do, because He observes all the secret wanderings and escapes of the heart out of His sight. He misses the soul when you present attentive ears, or eloquent tongues. There is no dallying with His majesty. Painting will not deceive him: His very nature is contrary to hypocrisy and dissimulation.

O consider, my beloved, what a one you have to do with! It is not other people, but the Father of spirits, who will not be pleased with what pleases others of your own flesh, but who must have a spirit to serve Him!

Alas! what are we doing with such empty names and shows in religion? Busied in the outside of worship only, as if we had no one to do with but others who have eyes of flesh, all that we do in this way is lost labour, and will never be reckoned as true worship!

Many make religion merely a matter of outward fashion and external custom. Even your very thoughts and minds are removed from this business. You have nothing present but an ear, or an eye, and your minds are about other business. Your desires, your fears, your joys, your delights, your affections never did run in the channel of religious exercises, but all your enthusiasm is for other things. You have no sense of God, His mercy, or justice, or wrath, or of your own misery and need. You sorrow in other things, but have no sorrow here — none for sin. You rejoice for other things, but you cannot rejoice at the gospel. Oh, be not deceived! God is not mocked.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

Seven reasons why pastors need to be holyMoral failure in high-profile ministers is exceptionally ruinous to the good they may have previously done in their ministry and can be devastatingly destabilising to the faith of those who had benefited from their work. It underlines how essential it is for ministers to be genuinely holy and actually godly from the heart outwards. Personal holiness is a gospel issue since it affects the conviction with which the gospel is declared and also its credibility if the messenger fails to live up to the message. The souls of many are at stake. The conduct of a negligent minister has eternal consequences (1 Tim. 4:16). Ministers are engaged in the most important, and most holy, work there is. In an essay on the qualifications of a minister, James Durham mentions learning, gifts, and grace. Most of the essay is devoted to grace as a qualification. His definition of grace includes not only saving grace but also godliness. The following extract from Durham’s essay has recently been republished in a book titled, Preventing Ministry Failure. It provides seven ways in which holiness is necessary for ministers.Holiness in the ministry is necessary by precept, for holiness is a qualification alongside things like ability to “convince gainsayers” in the list in Titus 1:8–9.

Holiness in a minister is also useful and necessary in many respects as a means to an end.

Holiness is necessary for the minister himselfHe cannot be confident in his calling, or in a sense of being approved of God in this calling, without being holy. Though he may be called by the church, yet if he is not holy he cannot act as someone who has been called by God, and so he will inevitably be greatly incapacitated.

Holiness is necessary for the work of the ministryIt is in the nature of the ministry that it requires communion with God and standing in His counsel (Jer. 23:18, 22). Without this, it may be accounted a stealing of His Word without acknowledging of Himself (v. 30). Although it is necessary in any calling to have communion with God and stand in His counsel, yet the nature of the ministry makes these things uniquely necessary for this work.

Holiness is necessary for boldness in the work of the ministryWithout holiness, there cannot be boldness in the message, especially where difficulties occur.

Holiness is necessary when it comes to the application of truths, especially to the spiritually wearyIt comes more naturally to a holy minister to take up the spiritual cases of others and apply a gracious remedy to them, and sympathize with them, by bringing to others the same consolation with which they have been comforted themselves (2 Cor. 1:4). This is, after all, one of the main ways by which God fits His ministers experimentally for their work. Even Christ, the head of the church, was in some senses qualified in this way. This is why Luther said that these three things are requisite in a minister, not only meditatio and oratio (meditation and prayer) but also tentatio (temptation). Anyone who lacks this holiness is certainly exceeding defective.

Holiness is necessary for genuine fruitfulnessThe Lord often blesses holy ministers with great fruit yet gives only little fruit to ministers who may be very gifted but have less personal holiness. We can see from Paul’s example that hearers profit not simply from good preaching but in answer to a minister’s prayers joined with his preaching. But what can the unrenewed minister do here? Can he weep between the porch and the altar and plead with the Lord for His people (Joel 2:17)? Can he strive without ceasing in prayer to God for them? If there is no grace in his heart, he will be incapable of having success in his ministry.

Holiness is necessary if a minister is to have much credibilityIt is requisite that a minister is “of good report,” even to those “which are without” (1 Tim. 3:7). Otherwise, his word will not have much weight. But what will gain a good report without holiness? Hypocrisy is usually not very convincing, neither does it continue over time, but holiness adorns the gospel even in people’s ordinary callings, and much more in a minister, who is a city set on a hill and cannot be hid (Matt. 5:14).

Holiness is necessary for the church to seekHoliness is a qualification that a congregation is right to look for when they choose someone to call as their pastor and when a presbytery is considering whether to ordain someone into the ministry. This is clear:

From the many directions that are given to ministers concerning this one thing in the epistles of Paul to Timothy and Titus and the fact that congregations and presbyteries are expressly limited in their proceeding to this, that he be holy (1 Tim. 3:2, etc.; Titus 1:8). This holiness is not only described negatively (he must be “blameless…not given to wine,” etc., vv. 6, 7) but also positively, that he must have a good name, be sober, just, and holy.
Even a deacon is to be examined as to these qualifications (1 Tim. 3:10), which presupposes that a minister is much more to be examined. Only then let him use the office, if he be found (that is, after examination) to be blameless. The qualification of holiness is as much to be verified as the others.
Novices (that is, those who are only recently brought in to the faith) are excluded from the office of a minister, either because they are not yet able to bear it or because it is not yet well known how they might turn out. Those who should be ordained as ministers should have a well-established profession.
The instruction in 1 Timothy 5:22, “Lay hands suddenly on no man,” and so on, confirms that congregations and presbyteries should choose ministers carefully. The risk is not only that the man does not have gifts but that through lack of spiritual sensitivity or maturity he will put his gifts to a bad use. In all the epistles, when Paul is recommending ministers, he always gives some evidence of their sanctification and in this way lets us know how truly weighty this qualification of holiness is when men are to be commended for the ministry and recommended in the ministry.

Since it is such a great trust to be entrusted with the oracles of God and with the souls of people, can someone be thought fit to endeavor to save the souls of others if he makes no conscience of taking heed to his own? This is the apostle’s reasoning, “If a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?” (1 Tim. 3:2–5). This is proposed by way of a question to show the unanswerableness of that reasoning by which he presses observing the former qualifications. And certainly, these two are not put together without weighty reasons: “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to the flock” and “unto the doctrine” (Acts 20:28; 1 Tim. 4:16). It shows that he who cares not for the one will never natively and naturally care for the other. The words that follow should especially be considered, “for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.” This intimates that carelessness in his own walk may not only mar his own salvation but also the salvation of his hearers, seeing these two ordinarily go together. Can people dispense with this so as to have only a form of ordinances, not caring whether their ministers have fruit amongst them or not? Or not caring that the profit should be to many or few? Much cannot be expected (whatever God may do sovereignly) from a man that does not stand in God’s counsel (Jer. 23:22) and therefore does not turn many from their iniquity. Neither can any expect that the Lord will approve that one should be made a steward in His house and an under-father to His children who cannot with any charitable grounds be accounted a child himself. And what confidence can there be that a man not esteemed to be gracious shall either conduct himself in a Christian way in the outward form of religion or keep soundness in the faith? And will those who endanger so much by giving such great responsibility who are not worthy of any such trust not be an accessory to these evils?

Ministers should therefore be very careful about this. Holiness should be carefully prioritized in the instruments which we hope the Lord will use, in proportion as we expect the Lord to set before them an open door (Rev. 3:8) and grant them success in their ministry.

The book, Preventing Ministry Failure, is published by Reformation Heritage Books. It contains material from both James Durham and James Guthrie.

← Reasons why ministers must be diligent in their ministryFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

Reasons why ministers must be diligent in their ministryLittle is known about the minister called Archippus. Perhaps he was a colleague of Epaphras in Colosse, or maybe pastor of the church of Laodicea. All we know is that while Paul was in prison in Rome, writing to the church of Colosse, he identified Archippus as someone who needed one piece of advice, “Take heed to your ministry” (Colossians 4:17). There are after all many reasons why a minister could slack off and become lax in his work. The people he pastors may not show the growth he would like to see after all the labour he has spent on them, or they may actively oppose and undermine him. His own indwelling sin could be getting the upper hand in his soul, and there could be too much love of the world. All these are factors identified by the Covenanting minister William Veitch (1640–1722). Nevertheless, as a pastor himself, Veitch urges his fellow ministers to maintain diligence in their ministry. In the following updated excerpt from his sermon on Colossians 4:17, Veitch gives several reasons why this is so important. These also give material for church members to pray for their pastors.The preciousness of the workIt is a great trust, far above any other trust in this world, when immortal souls are committed to us. These are the souls about which the thoughts of the Most High have been concerned from eternity, and for whose redemption God manifested in the flesh shed His precious blood, and for whose espousing He has put us unto the ministry.

I think we should never go this errand, without praying like Abraham’s servant (Gen. 24:12). We should pray, “O Lord God and Father of my master Jesus Christ (who has promised Him a great backing and a numerous seed, upon which He may see the satisfaction of the travail of His soul), send me good speed this day, and put forth thy power in the preached gospel, that Thy people may be a willing people!”

O, but it is a high and a great calling to trade about the saving of souls, one of which is a more precious jewel than the whole world can purchase or redeem! (as Christ tells us out of His own mouth; Matt. 16:26.)

Surely of all other persons, ministers should be most diligent, seeing they have both their own souls to save, and others!

The difficulty of the workThe second reason why we must take heed to our ministerial work is because it is a difficult work.

It is difficult partly from the various and numerous enemies that oppose it. Satan, that roaring lion and restless enemy of the Church is standing at our right hand (Zech. 3:1). Also what principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places, and what rulers of the darkness of this world we have to wrestle against! (Eph. 6:12) Indeed, what opposition from those among whom we live, some with open violence breaking down as far as they can the carved work (Psa. 74:6); others with vigour make a pretence of building with us, but like the false apostles, intending nothing less than to bring us back to corruptions which had been abandoned in the house of God.

The work is also made difficult partly from our own ignorance. This disables us from managing this trust to the best advantage. How hard is it for ministers to speak aright to the various cases and conditions of their people, and to find fit words to hold forth the evil of sin, the loveliness of Christ, the beauty of holiness, the danger of living carelessly and unconcernedly under the means of grace, and repeated offers of the gospel!

The danger of going wrongThe third reason why ministers need to take heed to their ministry is that there have been ministers in the Church (and we have had sad instances of it in our days) making a high profession and high claims for Christ and the pure work of reformation, yet who afterwards, when the opportunity and temptation offered, have betrayed the cause, exposed their rottenness, and ruined the Church and work of God, as far as they could. Some of them were betwitched and enticed into doing so by the riches of the world (like Judas and Demas); others by the honours of the world (like Diotrephes). And O! how many are Archippus-like even in the best of times, and are lukewarm and remiss in this great work!

The greatness of the LordWe must take heed to our ministry, when we consider what a great Lord and master we have received it from. His eye is always on us, to see how we manage this trust, as it was on the angels of the seven churches. The fact that He wrote to them after He ascended, exposing their failures and shortcomings, and the punishments due to them, should be a warning to ministers in all succeeding ages of the Church, to take heed to their ministry.

The weight of a minister’s accountabilityWe need to take heed to our ministry when we consider what a severe certification our great Lord and master added to it when He committed it to us. “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman to the house of Israel; therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, ‘Thou shalt surely die,’ and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thy hand” (Eze. 3:17–18).

Ministers need to take heed to manage their trust aright, seeing a severe account will be required of them. It is a stewardship that must be reckoned for, and none of us know how soon that message may be sent unto us, “Give an account of thy stewardship!” (Luke 16:2). Whether we have received more or fewer talents, we would always remember to be laying them out, and improving them, as those that must give an account (Heb. 13:17).

The blessedness of the rewardLastly, the ministers who have been heedful and faithful shall be greatly rewarded. “They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever” (Dan. 12:3). “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, that he shall make him ruler over all his goods” (Matt. 24:45–47). “Be thou faithful unto the death, and I will give thee a crown of life” (Rev. 2:10).

We who believe in such a reward as this should keep constantly and closely to this work, and prosecute it with the greatest diligence — it will eternally recompense all the labour and toil of this world.

We should also frequently consider what severe punishments shall be inflicted on the heedless and slothful servant. “But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, ‘My lord delayeth his coming;’ and shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 24:48–51).

← The rights and wrongs of swearing oathsSeven reasons why pastors need to be holy →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

The solution for self-glory in church leadersWhen the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus asking a favour, her request was that her two sons would be allowed to sit on either side of Jesus in His kingdom (Matthew 20). As the conversation proceeds, it becomes clear that for several reasons, this was a very inappropriate request. Yet it expresses an aspiration that is still familiar in the church today. The desire for a place of honour in Christ’s kingdom can too often come from a spirit of competitiveness, one or two striving for preeminence over the other brothers. It mistakenly conflates spiritual greatness with earthly, worldly prominence, so that the glory of struggling and suffering is eclipsed by the glory of recognition and other people’s acclaim. In his commentary on this episode, David Dickson exposes this ambitiousness, and identifies the solution which Jesus provides. An updated excerpt is as follows.The lengths people will go to get aheadFrom this request to Christ for preferential treatment for the two apostles, James and John, we can learn, for one thing, how hard a thing it is to be rid of the love of this world, and of pleasant dreams about it. The apostles and their friends were still dreaming of an earthly kingdom of Christ, and of worldly honour for His servants, even though Christ told them the opposite so often, and was careful to prepare them rather for the cross in this world.

How necessary it is, too, for all to watch over their hearts, so that the love of the honour of this world does not creep in on them, when a bait presents itself! In hope of prevailing by means of their mother’s intervention, these two chiefe apostles are thus tickled and entangled with a vain and corrupt lust.

What means and instruments people will employ, to gain any earthly thing which they love! They would even play on their mother’s natural relationships to get her to make suit, and, for fear of being refused if she makes her specific request to start with, she opens with a general preface to oblige Christ first. “I desire a certain thing of thee,” she says, “Grant that these my sons may sit …” (Matt. 20:20–21)

The little they know of Christ’s waysBut Jesus answered and said, “Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” (v.22)

Christ’s answer shows us that when ministers of the gospel hunt for high places in the world, they do not know what they are doing, nor how foolish they are in so doing. Christ says here, “Ye know not what ye ask.”

But they replied to Him, “We are able.” It’s those who are least acquainted with the cross who are the most confident about taking it on.

Instead, the promotion and the kingdom which we must set our hearts on is another world — and we must prepare ourselves for the cross with Christ, before we come into the kingdom with Him.

Christ puts them in mind of suffering, rather than reigning — and of suffering in this world, before they could reign in the world to come.

Those who suffer for Christ, suffer no other thing but what Christ suffered also. “Ye shall drink,” He says, “of my cup.” A certain measure of affliction was fitted and measured out for Christ and His followers, and Christ esteemed it to be only light, and of the shortest endurance. He calls it “a cup,” soon drunk up, a dipping, or a sprinkling with affliction, a baptism, as the original means.

The disproportionateness of any rewardJesus said, “To sit on my right hand and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father” (v.23). It was not part of Christ’s commission, when He was sent into the world, to appoint what degrees of reward every believer will have in glory, in comparison one of another, or who shall have less, and who shall have more. This does not appertain to Christ. Again, it is not His without the Father. “It is not mine to give, save to those for whom it is prepared of my Father.” He said this likewise, speaking as a man, more closely related to one than to another (as here He was looked on), or as if at His own pleasure, for gratifying of friends, He might distribute degrees of glory in heaven, “It is not mine to give …”

The Lord does not deny that there shall be degrees of glory in heaven, comparable to sitting on the right hand to some, and on the left hand to others; rather He implies it in manner of His answer. However, these degrees of glory shall not be distributed with respect to people’s works or deservings, or anything in the persons to be glorified, but merely according to the good pleasure of God, and His decree, preparing and predetermining what shall be every individual’s measure. “It shall be given to them for whom it is prepared.” In this sort of distribution, Christ does not deny that it belonged to Him to give degrees of glory in that He was one in substance and government with the Father, but says, “It is not mine to give, save to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.”

Christ’s solution for ambitiousness in the churchWe see next that the rest of the apostles were no less ambitious than James and John on this point, yet they were angry with them. “When the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren” (v. 24).

People will be angry at others for a fault for which they themselves are guilty, and be nothing grieved for it in themselves. That is how diversely sin is shaped in our own persons, and in others.

But Jesus called them to Him and said, “Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them … ” (v.25) Our Lord takes the opportunity to beat down and root out this wicked weed of prelacy [or any form of preeminence in the church].

Isn’t it hard to root out the seed of a beloved sin! and especially the root of ambition for power in the church. It cannot be drawn out till it is repented of, for it is hard to put it out of even the apostles’ hearts.

What our Lord saw as a fit means of cutting off strife was, to take away all domination in the church, and all ranking among the men of one office in His house. “Whosoever shall be great among you, let him be your minister, and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant” (v. 26–27). Where there is no higher place, where no greater power belongs to one than to another, then all strife for the place of more power ceases.

Although the Lord allows dominion, and principality, and greatness, and the exercising of authority, in the civil state, He will not allow it among the ministers of the gospel. Granting the exercise of domion among princes and civil governors, He says, “It shall not be so among you.”

It is not the abuse of power which our Lord forbids in His ministers, but simply and absolutely He excludes all greatness of jurisdiction of one over the rest. He curbs the very wish and will to be great among their fellow ministers, speaking to every one of His ministers, saying, “Whosoever will be great among you …”

Christ’s insistence on His servants servingSo far must the apostles and ministers of the gospel be from affecting state, and positions of power over the rest, that, as they would please our Lord, they must set themselves to serve the rest of their brethren. Each is to promote the work of Christ done by the others’ hands, by each maintaining the credit of the others’ ministry. “Let him be your minister, or servant.”

Not only does our Lord forbid all positions of power among the apostles and among the preachers of the gospel, but also all stately primacy, or dignitary priority. He forbids all “chiefness,” even without jurisdiction (such as a constant and unchangeable precedence in church assemblies). He prescribes for any inclination to this by requiring them to put effort into mutual submission, each man serving the rest, for the furtherance of the common work.

If this command does not prevail with someone who is ambitious, but simply has to act on his ambitious desires, then the rest of the ministers are warranted to diminish that man’s estimation, and to account the less of him, correspondingly as he is ambitiously inclined to a position of superiority over the rest. “Let him be your servant,” i.e., esteemed your servant, and no more than that.

Christ’s own exampleOur Lord supports His doctrine by His own example, showing them how He humbled Himself for the public good. “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (v.28).

The example of our Lord’s humiliation of Himself serves to curb all ambition in His ministers. If it does not prevail with them, it shall shall bear witness against them.

Christ did not come to take up an earthly dominion, or a stately pre-eminence, as His disciples imagined. Instead, He came in the shape and state of a servant, and behaved Himself in such a way that He was ready, for the good of His disciples, to wash their feet. He did not come to reign in a worldly manner, but to serve in the outward ministry of the gospel.

Ministers should not only quit prelacy and seeking pre-eminence for the good of the church, but they should quit their life also, if need be. Christ, out of love to our salvation, not only emptied Himself of stately dominion, but also emptied Himself of liberty and life, “gave himself a ransom for many.”

← Five comforting promises for the troubled churchFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

Five comforting promises for the troubled churchWith the church in a period of decline, it is hard to know whether the bigger threat comes from within or without. The short and often overlooked prophecy of Obadiah seems to focus largely on external threats. As George Hutcheson notes in his commentary on Obadiah’s prophecy, the first part of the prophecy exposes the futile self-confidence of those who were hostile to the Lord and explains what severe consequences will follow their opposition and violence against the Lord’s people. But even while surrounded by problems and enemies, the Lord’s people are sustained by the faithfulness of the Lord. Hutcheson identifies five comforting promises which Obadiah announces for the troubled church. Whatever partial fulfilments of these promises we may identify in the experience of the church so far, Hutcheson is looking ahead to a comprehensive fulfilment in times to come.A promise of restorationFrom verse 17 to the end, this prophecy contains comforting promises to the church now in trouble. Although Judah had some taste of the fulfilment of these promises at their return from captivity and afterwards, and although the New Testament church has a continual fulfilment of them in a spiritual way, yet at least some of these promises seem to point more especially at the time of the conversion and saving of “all Israel,” as the apostle calls it in Romans 11.

In verse 17 the church is promised three kinds of things — deliverance and relief from her troubles; holiness and the privileges she had previously enjoyed; and the restitution of their previous possessions. This is promised not only to the Jews, in reference to what they were deprived of by the captivity, but to the whole “house of Jacob,” in reference to what was given them by the covenant, made with their fathers, which is yet unaccomplished.

Although in the time of the church’s trouble, the Lord withholds from her the possession of her pleasant things, yet His thoughts and purposes of love are still as large and sure to her as ever. She may read this from the Word, even though she does not see it in providence. That is why the time of Judah’s trouble is a time when He makes many promises.

DeliveranceEven in the church’s greatest afflictions, not only are there some who will escape (it being impossible that she should totally perish), but she may expect complete deliverance from all her evils in due time. “Upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance.”

HolinessHoliness is the inseparable companion of deliverance, and is also a means of bringing deliverance to the church, for when there is deliverance, there shall be holiness. Holiness is both an evidence that God dwells in the church (and He will establish His own habitation), and a token that God will preserve them as His consecrated people, and not permit them to be profaned and polluted by the invasion of enemies as they have been. In this way, holiness is also sometimes to be taken as the fruit of the holy Lord dwelling among them, and setting them apart for Himself, and as the free reward of their pursuit of holiness (Joel 3:17; Isa. 52:1).

Holiness is not only the church’s duty to pursue, but the Lord’s promise to fulfil. He undertakes to work it in her. “There shall be holiness” is a promise that they shall be a holy people, and enjoy God’s presence in holy ordinances, and be preserved from the violence of enemies.

RestitutionThe mercies of the church, whether spiritual or temporal, insofar as God has promised them and they need them, are sure, and these mercies will be restored to them after they have been suspended from the comfort and use of them for a long time. “The house of Jacob shall possess their hereditary possessions” (as the word is) after long captivity and exile.

A promise of victoryThe next promise (verse 18) is of the utter ruin of Edom, and of all the most inveterate enemies (such as Edom was) of the church, and especially of the church of converted Israel, who shall be the occasion and cause, if not also the instruments, of their enemies’ destruction.

The church of God will never be short of inveterate and cruel enemies, nor difficulties, while she is in the world. For, not only Judah in the time of their captivity, but the church in her restoration by Christ, and “the house of Jacob and Joseph” (which takes in all Israel, and the ten tribes expressly), when they share of this deliverance, have a “house of Esau” against them. There is no time in which the church has corruptions, but she is to expect difficulties in it.

Yet, the opposition of enemies against the church only contributes to making way for God to let out many proofs of His love in helping and delivering her.

Opposition to the church is a certain pledge of the utter destruction of those who oppose her, and the Lord is able (when He pleases) to make His weak people strong to bring it about. This promise that “Jacob shall be a fire” etc., indicates not only that Edom shall be utterly consumed, as a flame consumes stubble, but that their meddling with the church shall be cause of their ruin. It’s as if stubble, endeavouring to put out a fire, was burnt up itself.

The Word of God, and the omnipotence and fidelity of God who speaks it, is sufficient to confirm the church’s faith in the certainty of highly improbable things. Whatever unlikelihood there may be in this promise, it is removed by this, “For the Lord hath spoken it.”

A promise of expansionIt is further promised (verses 19 and 20) that the church shall not only have restitution but the enlargement of their possessions. They will enjoy all their own, and possess what had belonged to their enemies.

The promise teaches us that the afflictions of the church, through God’s blessing, contribute towards her advantage and gain. The captivity are to get not only their own land, but also “the mount of Esau and the Philistines,” and what they did not have before their captivity.

Christ in His church will gain ground on His enemies. He will possess and reign over them, either by their voluntary conversion, or by violent subjection and destruction. Meanwhile, the privileges of the people of God are irrevocable and inevitable, and will burst out in comforting fruits even after long and sad interruptions. “Israel shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and Samaria, and Benjamin with Gilead (as the original has it)” of which they have been so long deprived.

The Lord notices every distress and captivity of his people, and what becomes of them, and may manifest much of His goodness to those whom He has sore afflicted and brought down with corrections. Although the captivity were sent away in much ignominy, and were carried far off, yet the Lord notes that they are the captivity, and where they are, and promises that He will restore them to their possessions, and cause them to possess the gates of their enemies.

A promise of preachersThere is a further promise in verse 21 — of fit instruments, who will be raised up in the church to deliver her, and to manage the cause of God against enemies, just like long ago, when the Lord raised up judges to deliver Israel. We are to understand this not only spiritually (that Christ will send the church His apostles and messengers, who instrumentally save the elect (1 Tim. 4:16) by holding forth Christ in the Word of salvation, and by their doctrine do condemn the world): but that in all ages, and especially in the church of converted Israel, God will raise up instruments of deliverance to the church, as He also did in the times between the captivity and the coming of Christ.

The church of Christ will not lack fit instruments to promote her happiness, for, “saviours shall come up on Mount Zion.” The allowance of the church of God is salvation, both eternal and temporal also, in so far as is fit for her to receive. This is why the instruments sent to her are called “saviours,” i.e., in an instrumental way.

The doctrine of the gospel in the mouth of Christ’s servants, reproves, judges and condemns the world, and all the enemies of Christ, and this judgement is reinforced with spiritual (and sometimes temporal) plagues, till the day comes when they shall receive a complete recompense.

As the Lord is sovereign in all the world (even over his enemies), so, when He raises up instruments for the church’s good, He will bless them, and by them He will bring His enemies to account, and will execute His sentence against them.

A promise of Christ’s reignThe last and great promise is (verse 21b), that God in His Christ shall have a kingdom in His church, and among their enemies, for their benefit.

Where Christ sets up His church, there He sets up His kingdom also, and will be acknowledged as such. “The kingdom shall be the Lord’s.” No dominion or sovereignty is to be acknowledged in the true church, but Christ’s only. He alone has power to make laws binding the conscience, to institute ordinances, enjoin censures, appoint officers, and by His own courts to judge His own house, etc. All other “saviours,” or instruments of deliverance, must serve Him, and His officers must content themselves with His ministry.

The kingdom of Christ is matter of comfort to the true church and the godly, as it is sweet to live under his yoke and protection. Christ holds His kingdom by a certain and firm tenure. It is made sure to Him by the infallible promise of God, as here recorded in Holy Scripture. On this ground the church, notwithstanding all opposition, may expect the day when “the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Rev. 11:15).

← Guidance for getting rid of sinThe solution for self-glory in church leaders →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

Six things which combine to make a false opinion a heresyJust as it is unhelpful to label as heretical any opinion we happen to disagree with, so it is unhealthy to dismiss the spiritual threat of heresy altogether. The Lord Jesus hates error in His church and it pleases Him when false teachings are resisted. But what kinds of error are significant enough to be called heresy? In the following updated extract, George Gillespie explores what Paul meant in 1 Corinthians 11:19 when he wrote about the “heresies among you.” He lists six features which co-occur to make an error so bad as to be classified as heresy.The apostle says (1 Corinthians 11:19), “There must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.”

By “heresies” here some understand no more but divisions and sects, and conceive that heresies in point of opinion or doctrine, are not meant here. If so, then the very divisions and sects themselves will expose who are “approved,” and who not, before it comes to heretical opinions. Sectaries are not approved, and these who are indeed approved, are none of theirs, but those who keep themselves unspotted, and free from them. So the word “heretic” in Titus 3:10 is understood as an “author of sects,” for example. Sometimes the word “heresy” is used in the New Testament for a sect, yet we may note that it is used only for the kind of sect which either was in reality, or was esteemed to be, of some heretical opinion (e.g., Acts 5:17; 15:5; 24:5; 26:5; 28:22).

The apostle uses the word “heresy” twice in his epistles, and in both places he makes some distinction between heresies, and divisions, or strifes and variance (1 Cor. 11:18–19; Gal. 5:20). For not every division, strife, or variance, is heresy.

Therefore in the text which I now speak to, 1 Corinthians 11:19, I understand “heresy” to be somewhat more than division. The Arabic translation of this verse repeats the word “schisms” out of the preceding verse, reading “for there must arise schisms and heresies among you …” It seems that those who take the word “heresies” to mean only divisions do not observe the flow of the apostle’s argument, for after he has spoken of their schismatic divisions, contrary to the rule of love, he adds, “for there must also be heresies among you.” He is saying in effect, “I partly believe it, that there are divisions among you, for there must be not only schisms, but, worse than that, there must be heresies also!”

So, what is heresy? I answer with two things that are not heresy, before giving six positive identifications.

Two things which are not heresyNot every unscriptural error is a heresyHeresy is to be understood neither so broadly as to include every error which may be confuted by Scripture (even if perhaps that error is maintained too tenaciously), nor so narrowly that it includes only errors which are destructive to some fundamental article of the Christian faith, if a “fundamental article” means a truth without which, if you do not know and believe it, it is impossible to get salvation.

When Peter Martyr Vermigli defines heresy, he makes no mention of a fundamental error, but speaks of an error “contrary to the Scriptures.” Likewise Calvin understands heretics to be those who make a division in the church by false doctrines. Walaeus [a Dutch theologian who contributed to the Canons of Dort] says that heretical churches err either in the foundation, or in some other things built upon the foundation. When Peter speaks of the heresies which take away the very foundation, Jesus Christ, he thinks it too little to call them simply heresies, but he calls them “damnable heresies.”

But you might understand fundamental truths to be all the chief and substantial principles of Christianity — not meaning only the first rudiments, or ABC of a catechism, which we first of all put to new beginners, but I mean all such truths as are commonly put in the confessions of faith, and in the fuller and larger catechisms of the Reformed churches, or all such truths as all and every one who lives in a true Christian Reformed church are commanded and required to learn and know, as they expect in the ordinary dispensation of God to be saved — in this sense, I may agree that heresy is always contrary to some fundamental truth.

It is one thing to dispute about the absolute sovereign power of God, and what are the truths, which, if someone doesn’t believe them, it is absolutely and altogether impossible that they can be saved. I don’t really think this is a question which Scripture provides an answer for, and I don’t know what edification there is in canvassing it. I’m only sure it is a question much abused.

It is another thing to dispute what are the truths which, in a church where the gospel is truly preached, all and every one who has come to years of knowledge and discretion and who has the means and opportunities to learn, ought to know and (according to the revealed will and ordinary dispensation of God) must learn, as they desire or expect to have a true fellowship with Christ in the sacrament of the Lord’s supper, or to be accepted of God, and saved eternally.

Something can be heresy without being condemned (yet) by the churchWe must not think that no one is a heretic but one who has been formally admonished by the church, and then continues pertinaciously in his error. For when it says in Titus 3:10, “a man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject,” it implies that he is a heretic before such admonition.

Six things which concur to make a heresyHeresy is an error held by someone in the churchHeresy is an error held by some minister or member of a church, by which I mean either a true church or an assembly claiming and professing to be a true church. Both Peter and Paul, where they foretell that heresies are to come (in 2 Peter 2:1 and 1 Corinthians 11:19). they add “among you,” i.e., among you Christians. (See also Acts 20:30: “Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things.”) Therefore the Scripture does not give the name of heretics to those who are altogether outside the visible church — those are called by the names of heathens or unbelievers, or “they that are without,” or the like.

And held voluntarilyHeresy is an error voluntarily and freely chosen, both in the first invention and broaching of it (which is what heresiarchs do, i.e., the arch-heretics who invent heresies and lead heretical sects), and in the maintaining of it or adhering to it (which is done by all heretics). This I collect from the very name which the Scripture gives to it, for hairesis “heresy” comes from aireomai, “I choose.” Therefore we do not give the name of heretics to Christians who are compelled in time of persecution to profess this or that error, which would perhaps be formally a heresy, if professed voluntarily and without compulsion. They ought indeed to prefer to die, and to endure the greatest torments, before they profess what they know to be an error, but this sin is not properly called heresy.

In this respect, Tertullian thinks that an heretic is said to be “condemned of himself” (Tit. 3:10), because he has of himself chosen that which condemns him. The apostle has just commanded us to reject a heretic. “But if I reject him,” someone might say, “then I will lose him, I destroy his soul.” “No,” says the apostle, “his perdition is of himself, for he has chosen his own ways, and his soul delights in his abominations.” This interpretation is much surer and safer than to say that a heretic is called self-condemned because he goes against his own light, and against the principles received and acknowledged by himself, an interpretation which is accompanied with many dangerous consequences.

And replaces the truthHeresy is a choosing of error which is accompanied with a rejecting of truth. A heretic puts light for darkness, and darkness for light; good for evil, and evil for good. He chooses error as truth, and refuses truth as error. Those who “give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils,” do also “depart from the faith” (1 Tim. 4:1), “resist the truth” (2 Tim. 3:8), and “turn away their ears from the truth” (2 Tim. 4:4). Their trajectory has a terminus a quo as well as a terminus ad quem (a starting point as well as an endpoint).

And ensnares othersHeresy is an error which is professed and maintained, and which by that means becomes a scandal (stumbling block) and snare to others. For although there may be heresies (just as much as other kinds of sin) lurking and hidden in the thoughts, yet that belongs to God’s judgement only, not to man’s. The heresies which are spoken of in 1 Corinthians 11:19 are certainly known and clearly distinguishing to other people. And heretics are scandalous persons who must be avoided and rejected (Rom. 16:17; Tit. 3:10), which could not be the case if their errors were not known.

And contradicts some chief truthHeresy is an error which is contradictory to some chief and substantial truth, grounded on, or by necessary consequence drawn from, the Holy Scripture. There was never yet a heretic in the Christian world who contradicted something that is literally there in black and white in Scripture. The most damnable heretic will offer to subscribe to the Scripture instead of a Confession of Faith, yet they will not subscribe to all the truths which necessarily follow from the words of Scripture.

But I do not call heresy every error which is contrary to some consequent truth, grounded upon Scripture. Just as Scripture does not reckon all who sin to be “workers of iniquity,” so it does not reckon not all who err to be heretics. Although no sin and no error is insignificant in its own nature, yet not every sin is a gross and heinous sin, and not every error is heresy. Heresies are mentioned as greater evils than schisms (e.g., 1 Cor. 11:18–19), but this could not be so, if every error was a heresy.

And is divisiveHeresy is an error which is maintained factiously, or contentiously, in a way which involves dividing the church, and drawing away disciples after it. “I may err,” said Augustine, “but I shall not be a heretic.” Heretics are deceivers and seducers who endeavour to pervert others, and to overthrow their faith (2 Tim. 3:13; Acts 20:30; 2 Tim. 2:17–18; Rom. 16:17–19; 2 Pet. 2:2). All known and noted heretics are also schismatics, who make a rupture, and strengthen their own grouping by drawing disciples and followers after them (to the extent that, as we have seen, the word “heresy” is often used for a sect). Heresy as carries schism with it in its bosom. Calvin says that the breaking of church communion and the making of a division is a thing common both to heretics and schismatics, for heretics break one bond of church communion, i.e., consent in doctrine, while schismatics break another, i.e., love, though sometimes they agree in doctrine.

From all these scriptural observations we may make up a description of heresy like this. Heresy is a gross and dangerous error, held voluntarily and maintained divisively, by some person or persons within the visible church, in opposition to some chief or substantial truth or truths grounded on and drawn from the Holy Scripture by necessary consequence.

← How remembering leads to refreshingHow and why to run the Christian race →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

Why pastors should lead with love rather than fearAlthough the church in general currently has little influence in wider society, this does not eliminate the problem of ministers and pastors striving for power and influence within their own smaller circles. Sometimes there is seeking for pre-eminence among their brother ministers, sometimes it is a domineering attitude towards the people in the pews. Although this may go hand in hand with sound doctrine and other forms of usefulness, it is the opposite of the spirit of meekness and gentleness which the Lord Jesus Christ models for His servants. As Thomas Manton pointed out in one of his sermons, pastors should lead by light and love, not with force and fear. In the following extract from a sermon on 2 Thessalonians 2:3–4, Manton diagnoses the basic problem as lack of Christ-like humility and sounds the warning that pride in the church is the defining characteristic of what it means to be anti-Christ.Humility makes ministers Christ-likeThat which is most remarkable in Christ, and should be in all his followers, is humility. He expressed a wonderful contempt of the riches and greatness of the world, and all the honour which is of man, taking the form of a servant, and making Himself of no reputation, and living a mean, inferior life. He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many (Matt. 9:28). He kept no state, nor affected pomp of attendants. Though He was Lord of all, yet He became poor, to make us rich (2 Cor. 8:9).

But even if this was appropriate for Him, does He also expect it from His servants and officers in the church? Yes. This is the grace He has recommended to all his followers: Mat. 11:29, “Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly” (Matt. 11:29). But especially He recommends it to the ministers of the gospel. Because our Lord foresaw what spirit would work in them, therefore He forewarned them of pride and lordliness: Mat. 20:25, 26, “Ye know that the princes of the earth do exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them; but it shall not be so among you but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister” (Matt. 20:25–26). Among Christ’s servants, he that is chief must be chief in service, even as a servant to all: “He that is chief, as he that doth serve” (Luke 22:26).

Domination, greatness, principality and power, is allowed in the civil state, for there it is necessary, yet it is excluded in the church. This pretentious taking on of pre-eminence and chiefness is the bane of the church — it is taxed as a great sin in Diotrephes (3 John 9) — whether it is pre-eminence either over their fellow-labourers, or the people of the Lord.

You see how tender the apostles were in this point. Everywhere they disclaim this affectation of lordship: “Not that we are lords of your faith, but helpers of your joy” (2 Cor. 1:24). Peter says to his fellow-elders, “Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being examples to the flock” (1 Pet. 5:3). And if the apostles would not assume lordship, who may?

It is true, there is a government in the church, and the people are to obey their guides (Heb 13:17), and to “have them highly in honour, for their works’ sake” (1 Thess 5:13), but yet the pastors of the church should govern by light and love, not by pomp and force, and not be known by such pomp and authority as begets fear.

Signs of an un-Christ-like spirit in the churchWell, now, let us see the opposite state. If humility and meekness be in the very essence of Christianity, and woven throughout the whole frame of it, then it is anti-Christian to be lordly and proud, especially in those who claim to be successors of Christ and His apostles.

With some, all their business is to get power. What schemes they have for getting ahead! How studiously they pursue promotion! They blush not to say so openly before angels and men. This worldly ambition to rise higher and higher is their design and trade of life.

Within the church, they presume to exercise supreme authority. But it is the unique and incommunicable property of Christ to be Lord and lawgiver to the church. “The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us” (Isa. 33:22). God alone has such interest in His people as to prescribe supreme or universal laws to them, and we are His subjects. “There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy” (James 4:12). Now anyone who makes laws that immediately bind the conscience, invades Christ’s sovereignty. This is spiritual tyranny, and the worst sort of tyranny, to arrogate a power over the subjects of Christ and their consciences as lord of their faith. Likewise, it is an exercising an authority no less than divine, to take upon oneself to absolve others from their duty to God, or the penalty which sin has made his due. To do this as of right, is to sit in the church of God as God.

How Christ’s church should operateHow then should things carry on in the true and reformed Christianity?

With meeknessWith such meekness, modesty, and mortification, that our religion may be known to be established by a crucified Lord, whose doctrine and example do visibly and eminently hold forth the contempt of the world. The pride and ambition of the pastors of the church hath been the cause of all the evil in it; therefore nothing so unsuitable to the gospel as a domineering spirit. We, that are to preach heavenly-mindedness and self-denial, should not affect the greatness of the world, lest our lives contradict our doctrine.

With respect towards civil authoritiesHow eminent and exemplary we should be in our obedience to magistrates! For this is the opposite of anti-Christian pride. God is very tender of the honour of civil powers and authorities, and wants every soul to be subject to them: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God” (Rom. 13:1), and again, “Submit to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether it be to the king as supreme, or to governors, as them that are sent by him” (1 Pet. 2:13). Great respect and submission is due to them for God’s sake, and so that we may commend religion to the profane world, and live down the reproaches of the gospel. Those who were not afraid to speak evil of dignities, who despise government in their own hearts, or weaken the esteem of it in the hearts of others by their words, are branded as wicked (2 Pet. 2:10), ‘But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanliness, and despise government; presumptuous are they, self-willed; they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.’

With reverence towards the LordWhat a wickedness it is to usurp divine honours! We do so when we take to ourselves the praise and admiration which is only due to God. “And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our power or holiness we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus, &c. and his name, through faith in his name, hath made this man strong, whom we see and know; yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all” (Acts 3:12).

← Three signs of Spirit-given prayerHow remembering leads to refreshing →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

Four Reasons Why People in Power Should Glorify GodWhile we wait for the dust to settle after the General Election, we are both comforted and challenged by the truth that the Lord is still in power and looking after the whole of human history for His own glory. This is not merely a platitude for Christians to use to soothe themselves after unwelcome election results. It is an understanding that should shape everything, including when things are going the way we would like. Those who are now in power in the nation must take account of this too. The gospel requirement remains in force, that whoever we are and whatever position we hold, we must all trustingly and penitently acknowledge the Lord in His glory sitting king for ever. As David Dickson shows in the following extract from his comments on Psalm 29, the gospel confronts those in positions of authority, the “mighty” and the “potentates” in our nation.In Psalm 29, David directs his exhortation to the potentates of the earth, “O ye mighty,” in order that they may humble themselves before God, and give Him the glory of all power, and authority, and excellency, above themselves, and above all other creatures.

Although princes should be most careful of all people to glorify God, yet it is most rare to see them humble themselves before Him. Natural corruption is as strong in them as in others, and their education breeds them to high and stately thoughts of themselves, while their riches and power puff them up, and the flatterers who ordinarily attend them make them forget themselves and God also. Therefore they are thrice exhorted here to give glory to God (v1–2).

It is most necessary that potentates humble themselves before God, and be singled out to be challenged to do so, because their example and authority prompt many outwardly to submit to God. That is why David speaks to them in their grandeur, “Give glory to God, O ye mighty” (v.1).

To the extent that men are great in the world, they are ready to think much of their own strength, of what their power is able to reach to, and what honour is due to them. But if they reckon right, strength and glory belong to God. And according as He is above them in power and excellency, so should He proportionably be magnified. “Give unto the Lord glory and strength, and give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name” (v.2).

The glory which God wants is what He has prescribed in His own ordinances, given forth in His Word to His church. “Worship him in the beauty of holiness,” that is, in the glorious sanctuary, the place of public meeting, beautiful indeed, not so much for timber or stones, but because there are the holy and beautiful means of grace to us, and God’s worship showing forth His glory.

Because He has more power and majesty than themDavid’s proof for the claim that strength and glory belong to the Lord is just the one single work of thundering (v.3–9).

Though the standing works of creation speak most of God, yet such is our foolishness that we apprehend least what is seen daily, and a lesser work which occurs more rarely will move more people, as for example, the thunder, or the eclipse of the sun or moon.

No work of the Lord is rightly grasped till He Himself be looked to as the immediate worker of it. This is why David points out the sound of the thunder, as the voice of the Lord upon many waters.

Though the Lord should be observed as the worker of every work, yet He is not at first seen in His work to any purpose, till by often reviewing His operation about it, we become somewhat affected with His glory and power in them. David repeats the second time, “the God of glory thundereth,” and the third time, “the Lord is upon many waters” (v.3–4).

When the thunder (or any work of God) is well considered, some invisible thing of God will appear in it; as for example, His power and majesty (v.4).

Then David goes into more detail on the subject, and shows the effects of God’s voice on trees (v.5), mountains (v.6), the lightning (v.7), the waste wilderness (v.8), the animals and the woods which are their habitat (v.9).

Human senselessness is greater than that of the brute creatures. They are all more moved with the thunder than are human hearts, for the most part. Yet one work of God that you dwell on, shows more of God than many of His works which you looked at slightly and pass over. Indeed, one sensitive and understanding person will discover more of God in one work of God, than will many in their ordinary mood, either in that work, or in any other, or in all His works.

Because He shows His glory best in His churchDavid gives a second reason for his exhortation to the mighty to worship God in the beauty of holiness, because “in his temple every one doth speak of his glory” (v.9).

Although the glory of the Lord is displayed in all the earth, and in all His works, yet it is in His temple, in His church, that His works are displayed expressly and fully. For there, by His Word, His counsel is opened, and His holiness, His goodness, justice, mercy, and all His attributes are declared.

Outside the church, people are compelled to acknowledge His glory now and then, but in His church, people declare His glory distinctly and willingly. “In his temple doth every one speak of his glory.” All there confess His praise, and everything in the temple holds out something of Christ and His benefits, to the glory of God’s mercy. This is more than the world can understand.

Because He reigns supremeA third reason to motivate princes to give to God glory and strength, is, because His kingdom reaches to the ruling of the waters (“the Lord sits on the flood”), and because He is a king immortal (“the Lord sits king for ever”) (v.10).

As the strength of the Lord appears in all His works, so it is especially apparent that He rules the raging sea. Once He drowned the world with it, and now He binds it up, that it should never do so again. No king is king over every kingdom and king, but God is King above all kings. No king is of long continuance, but the Lord is the everlasting king. Every mighty one should do Him homage, as his king, his lord, and his supreme superior.

Because He will bless His peopleFourthly, those who humbly submit themselves to the Lord, and worship Him as His people should do, shall be equipped with abilities for every good work, and shall be abundantly blessed (v.11). Potentates should be motivated to give all glory to God, and to join with His people in glorifying him, because of the blessedness of His people, who worship Him in His holy temple.

The power of the Lord is not against His people, but for His people, against His and their enemies. “He gives strength to his people,” i.e., against their enemies, and to equip them to every part of His service He calls them to. The Lord’s people give the glory of power and strength to the Lord, and the Lord will give strength to his people.

The true worshippers of God, whatsoever may be their exercise in the world, may be sure of reconciliation with Him, and of true blessedness, for the Lord will bless His people with peace (v.11).

← What kind of king does the church have?FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

What kind of government do we want anyway?As the country prepares to go to the polls, it is worth reflecting on what exactly we are entitled to expect from the government. What is the basis of secular government and what is it supposed to achieve in the nation? Does it matter if people holding office in our country are Christians or not? During the Second Reformation, much thought was given to the nature of civil authority, mainly in terms of how it was related to and contradistinguished from churchly authority. George Gillespie set out a series of propositions which differentiated civil from ecclesiastical power. The following abridged piece extracts his descriptions of civil power.The civil power and the ecclesiastical ought not by any means to be confounded or mixed together.

Both powers are indeed from God and ordained for His glory, and both are to be guided by His Word, and both are included under the precept, “Honour thy father and thy mother.” So that we ought to obey both civil magistrates and church office-bearers in the Lord.

But notwithstanding the many things in which they agree, yet they are distinguished from each other by marvellously vast differences. Here are eight ways of distinguishing them.

Civil power is founded on the law of natureFirst of all, they are distinguished in respect of their very foundation and institution. Civil or political power is grounded on the law of nature itself, and for that cause it is common to infidels along with Christians. Ecclesiastical power depends immediately on the positive law of Christ alone.

Civil power belongs to the universal dominion of God the Creator over all nations, whereas ecclesiastical power belongs to the special kingdom of Christ the Mediator, which He exercises in the church alone, and which is not of this world.

Civil power is occupied about earthly thingsThe second differences in the objects about which they are concerned. The civil power is occupied about the outward man, and civil or earthly things — about war, peace, upholding justice and good order in the commonwealth.

Its objects also include the outward business or external things of the church. These are things which are indeed necessary to the church, or profitable, as touching the outward man, the external state and condition of the ministers and members of the church. Yet they are not properly and purely spiritual, for they do not reach to the soul.

As far as ministers and members of the church are citizens, subjects, or members of the commonwealth, it is in the power of the magistrate to judge, determine and give sentence concerning the disposing of their bodies or goods. The same applies to the maintenance of the poor, the sick, the banished, and others who are afflicted in the church.

It is also within the magistrate’s powers to regulate (as far as it concerns civil order) marriages, burials, and other circumstances which are common both to holy and to civil societies; and to afford places fit for holy assemblies, and other external helps by which the sacred matters of the Lord may more safely, commodiously, and more easily be performed in the church.

It is also within the magistrate’s powers to remove the external impediments to divine worship or ecclesiastical peace, and to repress those who exalt themselves against the true church and her ministers, and raise up trouble against them.

In such external matters of the church, although all magistrates will not, yet all (even heathen magistrates) may and ought to aid and help the church. By the command of God, prayers are to be made even for heathen magistrate, that the faithful under them may live a quiet life with all godliness and honesty (1 Tim. 2:1–2).

However, the object of ecclesiastical power is very different. It says nothing about people’s bodies, goods, dignities, civil rights, etc., but takes to do only with the soul, the inward man. Ecclesiastical power is merely and purely spiritual. It is exercised therefore about the preaching of the Word, the administration of the sacraments, public prayer and thanksgiving, the catechising and instructing of children and ignorant persons, the examination of those who are to come to the holy communion, church discipline, the ordination and deposition of ministers, the settling of controversies around faith and cases of conscience, canonical constitutions concerning the treasury of the church and collections of the faithful, as also concerning ecclesiastical rites, or indifferent things, to do with keeping decency and order in the church, according to the general rules of Christian love and prudence contained in the Word of God.

Civil power is lordlyThen, these powers are distinguished in respect of their forms.

Civil power is lordly and magisterial. Ecclesiastical power is indeed furnished with authority, yet that authority is more fatherly than kingly, and it is also purely ministerial (it is not lawful to ministers of the church to have dominion over the flock). Emperors, kings, and other magistrates are indeed appointed fathers of the country, but they are at the same time lords of their people. Not that they are permitted to issue commands at their own will (for they are the ministers of God for the good of their subjects), yet it belongs to their power truly and properly to exercise dominion, to hold principality, to proceed imperiously.

Civil power is endued with authority to compel. But it does not belong to the church to compel the disobedient. Compulsion is not in the nature of ecclesiastical power. The very most which the church can do with the most shameless or malicious person is to excommunicate them. But the magistrate has on standby a jurisdiction of compulsion and external force, whereby stubborn, rebellious and undaunted pride may be externally repressed.

The power of the magistrate works only politically, or civilly. According to the nature of the sceptre or sword, he makes and enforces civil laws, which sometimes also he changes or repeals, and other things of that kind.

The same sin therefore in the same person may be punished one way by the civil power, and another way by the ecclesiastical power. Someone may be punished by the civil power under the formality of a crime, with corporal or pecuniary punishment (such as death, banishment, forfeiture of goods, imprisonment), and also by the ecclesiastical power, under the notion and nature of “scandal” [i.e., hindering people’s spiritual wellbeing and bringing dishonour on Christ’s church], with a spiritual censure.

Civil power aims at the good of the nationThe immediate nearest end of civil power is that the good of the commonwealth may be provided for and procured, whether it be in time of peace, according to the rules of law and counsel of judges, or in time of war, according to the rules of military prudence, so as to procure the temporal safety of the subjects, and preserve or restore external peace and civil liberty.

But the chief and ultimate end of civil government is the glory of God the Creator, so that when those who do evil are restrained or punished, and those which do good get praise, the people may all the more shun impiety and injustice, and so that virtue, justice and the moral law of God (as touching the eternal duties of both tables, which are obligatory on all of Adam’s posterity) may remain in strength and flourish.

So, whereas a Christian magistrate will wholly devote himself to promoting the gospel and kingdom of Christ, and direct and bend all the might and strength of his authority to that end, this does not proceed from the nature of his office or function (which is common to him with an infidel magistrate), but from the influence of his ordinary Christian calling on his particular vocation.

For every member of the church (including the faithful and godly magistrate) ought to order his or her particular vocation, faculty, ability, power and honour to the end of promoting the kingdom of Christ, and cherishing and defending the true religion. So the advancement of the gospel and all its ordinances is indeed the end of the godly magistrate, yet not of a magistrate simply; or (if you prefer) it is not the end of the office itself, but of him who executes the office piously.

By contrast, the end of ecclesiastical power, and indeed of the ministry itself, is that the kingdom of Christ would be set forward.

Civil power brings about safety and liberty in the nationThe proper effect of the civil power is the temporal safety of the commonwealth, external tranquillity, the fruition of civil liberty, and of all things which are necessary to human civil society. As a by-product, it also brings about the good of the church, i.e., in so far as by executing justice and good laws, some of the impediments that usually hinder and disturb the course of the gospel are avoided or taken away. By consequence it comes about by God’s blessing that the church is defiled with fewer scandals, and has more freedom and peace.

But the proper effect of the ecclesiastical power, or keys of the kingdom of heaven, is wholly spiritual. The act of binding and loosing, of retaining and remitting sins, reaches to the soul and conscience itself (which cannot be said of the act of the civil power). And as unjust excommunication is void, so ecclesiastical censures applied according to Christ’s will are ratified in heaven (Matt. 18:18), and therefore ought to be esteemed and acknowledged as applied by Christ Himself.

Civil power can be held by a wide variety of personsCivil power is committed sometimes to one, sometimes to many, sometimes by right of election, sometimes by right of succession. But under the New Testament, ecclesiastical power is competent to none by the right of succession — the one who has it must be called to it by God and the church to it. Neither was it given by Christ to one single pastor or elder (far less to a prelate), but to the church, hence ecclesiastical censures ought not to be inflicted by one but by many (2 Cor. 2:6).

Civil power reaches to everyone in its territoryGod has commanded that every soul should be subject to the civil power, i.e., all members of the commonwealth, of whatever condition and estate. Not even the clergy are free from the yoke of the civil magistrate. However, ecclesiastical power extends itself only to those who are called brethren, i.e., members of the church.

Civil power can operate where church power fails, and vice versaIf either power fails to do its duty, that does not prejudice the exercise of the other power. If the magistrate neglects to punish with secular punishment some malefactors who are church members by profession, it remains in the power of the church to curb those people by the bridle of ecclesiastical discipline (indeed, by virtue of their office they are bound to do so). Equally, the magistrate may and ought to punish in life and limb, honours or goods, even if the offender has repented or been reconciled with the church.

Neither power is obliged to cast out or receive those who the other casts out or receives. The ecclesiastical ministry is chiefly to do with repentance to salvation, and gaining the sinner’s soul. It therefore embraces all kinds of wicked people repenting, and receives them into the bosom of the church. The magistrate has another and very different remit, for he is to punish even repenting offenders, both to satisfy justice and the law, and also as a deterrent to others. Absolution from church censures does not at all free a delinquent from civil judgement and the external sword.

← How can we expect things to get better?FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

What kind of king does the church have?When earthly power is within reach, people vie for it with enthusiasm, competing sometimes ruthlessly to be able to lord it over others. In our nation although we have seen how some in power can act with integrity, genuinely in the public interest as they see it, yet there are plenty examples of those who are merely venal, using their position and privileges for manifestly self-serving reasons. This is so different from the lordship and reign of Jesus Christ in His own church. Although all power in heaven and earth belongs to Him, the way He treats us is in keeping with Him being meek and lowly in heart. David Dickson finds this principle illustrated in Christ’s last journey to Jerusalem before His death. His triumphant entry into Jerusalem was not on a splendid war horse but on an ordinary donkey. In the following extract from his writings on Matthew 21, David Dickson demonstrates that as Jesus was on His way to sacrifice Himself to gift His people with salvation, His greatness is seen in the care He shows for the little ones.Christ is resolved to lay down His life, and now, the nearer He draws to His suffering, the more He reveals himself to be the promised Messiah, in whom the promises were accomplished. Also, lest anyone made a mistake about the nature of His kingdom, He gives evidence in His poverty that His kingdom is not of this world, borrowing an ass to ride on (Matthew 21:1–11).

He wants His people’s willing loyaltyJesus has the right to use whatsoever it pleases Him to make use of, as He shows in commanding the disciples to “loose the ass and her colt, and to bring them to him” (v.1–3). Also, whatsoever impediment can occur to any of His servants in the course of their obedience to Him, He foresees it, and provides for it to be removed. “If any say ought unto you …” etc. He knows that the owner of the ass will be there, and what he will say, and foretells how He shall dispose his will, and move him to let them go without any more ado, for the hearts of kings and all are in His hand.

In this way He lets His disciples see a glimpse of His Godhead, saying, “Straightway he shall send them.” Yet although He is Lord of all, yet He wants to make use of what His friends have with their own consent, so that they may be reasonable servants, bestowing with good will what He calls for.

Also, He is not ashamed both to profess Himself Lord and Master, and yet to be so far emptied as to have need of the service of an ass. “Say,” saith he, “the Lord hath need of them.”

He is true to His promisesMatthew then makes an observation on this passage from Zechariah, “Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy king cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass” (v.4–5). From this we learn that our Lord will see to it that all things written of Him shall be fulfilled. He is the promise-maker, and the promise-performer also. That is why it says, “This was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet.”

It is not our deserving, but God’s purpose and promise, which is the cause of our Lord’s gracious behaviour toward the world. For now, as He is about to be killed in Jerusalem, yet He rides in as king, to accomplish promises made to the church by the prophet Zechariah. To know of Christ, and of His coming to His people, is the very essence of the church’s joy and gladness. Whatsoever their grief may be, this is sufficient to be their comfort. The Spirit says for comfort, “Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy king cometh.” It doesn’t matter how the world fares, it is “the daughter of Zion,” the company of the blessed and believers in Jesus, whose comfort God has a care for.

He makes Himself accessible to the least deservingHowever, not only the dull multitude, but even the daughter of Zion is asleep to the gracious tidings of the gospel, and needs to be stirred up by a “Behold!” to observe the Messiah coming. “Behold thy king!” Our Lord is a king, however lowly He looks – in fact, the Lord of lords, and King of kings.

The church has a special interest in Christ, and He has interest in His church as His own special subjects, for whose good He governs all the matters of the world. “Thy King cometh unto thee.” This is the glory of His crown, that He is so gentle and merciful to us that He will not forsake the work of our redemption, neither for our mis-deservings and provocations, nor for the injuries done to Him by His adversaries because of us. He is “meek.” The manner of His kingdom is spiritual, not like the pomp of this world, for He sits on no stately horse, but “on an ass’s colt,” so that the poorest of His subjects should not be deterred or debarred from access to Him.

He accepts the little things His people do for himMatthew then notes the disciples’ obedience and success. “And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, and brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon” (v.6–7).

When we have a clear call, our part is ready obedience, without troubling ourselves what may be the success of the outcome. It is our part to honour Christ, as far as we can — and to lay aside our ornaments to glorify Him, like they put their clothes on the ass and the colt. Christ is content with any state which is to keep in His kingdom here on earth, with what His disciples can provide for Him. “They set him thereon,” and so He rode.

“And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way. Others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way” (v.8). The people are moved, and do honour unto Christ. However base our Lord’s kingdom may seem to spectators, yet He can bring to Himself as many subjects as He pleases, and so purchase Himself glory, not only before a spiritual eye, but also in the sight of the world. “Great multitudes spread their garments in the way.” It is each one’s part to honour our Lord, and promote His kingdom as they are enabled, some one way, some another, some spreading their garments, others cutting down branches of trees, and strawing them in the way.

He makes ordinary people fearless about confessing HimThe multitudes (v.9) took in their mouths words of Psalm 118, where it is prophesied of the coming of Christ, to shew himself king.

The Lord can open the eyes of whomsoever He will, to see His glory, and to give Him honour as the true king of Israel, and to perceive the predictions of prophecies to be accomplished in him.

Usually the more insignificant sorts of people are the ones whom the Lord chooses to set forth His glory, and to trumpet His praise. When those who ought to know Christ and honour Him, do not, God can raise up others to glorify Him. Here the church-men mis-regard Christ, and God stirs up the multitudes to confess Him.

When it pleases Christ to display His kingly power, He can cause the meanest of His subjects avow him, and set forth His glory, even in the faces of His raging enemies. Here (without fear of the corrupt church-men’s excommunication) the people make joyful acclamation to His honour, they pray for the prospering of His kingdom, and they confess that salvation is its fruit (for “Hosanna” in the Hebrew means, “Give now salvation, we pray”). They acknowledge Christ to be the promised Messiah, “the son of David,” to be sent by God, and in God’s name, into the world, to be the Blessed, and the fountain of blessing, to His subjects. “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord!” (v.9).

His glory will be unavoidably obvious to His enemiesSo Christ enters openly, in state, into Jerusalem (v.10).

When it pleases Christ to take to Him His kingdom, He will avow Himself king in the midst of His enemies, just as He here rides in this glory into Jerusalem.

Yet, where the greatest show of religion is, it is no new thing to see Christ to be least known. The city of Jerusalem asks, “Who is this?” (v.10). Where He is minded to honour Himself in suffering, He shows Himself so evidently that even His enemies must take notice of Him.

← What to do in a minorityFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

How can we expect things to get better?With election season ongoing in the UK and the USA, it provides opportunity to analyse the state of the nation and decide whose vision for the future we prefer. An honest evaluation from the perspective of God’s law can only conclude that over the past few decades, society and leaders have conspired together to encourage each other to abandon God’s ways. The result has not been greater human flourishing but more disregard for the vulnerable and the resurgence of various forms of oppression through for example the cost of living crisis, widening access to abortion, carelessness about predatory men gaining access to children and women, and failures in social care disadvantaging the elderly and those with disabilities. Can anything much be salvaged from the wreckage, though, if we are not on God’s side and while God withholds His approval? The prophet Micah brought urgent warnings from the Lord for rulers in particular. George Hutcheson discusses Micah’s words in the following updated extract from his commentary. Although God certainly holds each individual responsible for their own sins, Micah also insists that the ruling classes are themselves accountable to God for how they (mis)use their power in the nation. This holds equally true for those seeking to remain in power and those seeking to win the election. When rulers become oppressors and turn a blind eye to the miseries of the poor, there is something fitting about God refusing to help them in their own time of need.In the opening two chapters of his prophecy, Micah has faithfully exposed the sins of the body of this people, and denounced God’s judgments because of sin. Now in chapter 3 he comes more particularly to reprove the rulers of both church and state, especially in Judah, and to threaten them with the consequences of their sins.

He does this firstly by distinct groupings, in relation to their own particular punishments. The princes, who ought to know right and wrong, and walk accordingly, were yet the most perverse and inhumane in oppression (Micah 3:1–3). Micah warns them that in their time of difficulty they shall not be acknowledged by God (v. 4). The false prophets, who deluded the people, and preached in whatever way would be most subservient to their base ends (v.5), are threatened with such confusion as would make them ashamed of their trade (v.6–7), whereas Micah, a faithful man, would faithfully persist in his duty (v.8).

He also deals with the rulers conjointly, in relation to the judgement which by their sin they had procured to come on the church of God. The rulers perverted justice (v.9), and built the holy city with goods taken by oppression (v.10). Generally, both rulers in the state and teachers in the church were corrupted with bribes, and love for gain, and yet would presumptuously rely on God (v.11). He therefore warns that for their sake Sion would be laid desolate (v.12).

The ruling class should know the law“Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel, is it not for you to know judgement?” (v.1) Micah challenges the rulers in peace and war, for affected ignorance of the law of God. He lays the basis for showing how aggravated their wickedness was, in that they should be concerned to be even better acquainted than others with the will of God in the matter of justice and equity. Although they ought to be exemplary in their knowledge and obedience, (knowledge including consequent affection and practice), in their practice they proved that they either were ignorant of the law, or else they despised it.

When a land in general is culpable of defecting from God’s ways, rulers in church and state have their own eminent guilt in it. This is implied in the general theme of what Micah says, as, having reproved the whole body of the people, he now comes to challenge the rulers in an especial manner. “Hear, O heads of Jacob.”

Micah’s practice shows us that faithful ministers ought not only to inveigh against sin in general, or the sin of the common people only, but they ought in particular to reprehend the sins of every rank, even of rulers. Those of greatest eminency are bound to hear God speaking by His messengers, and to receive what messages are sent to them, as being under the law just as others are.

As rulers especially are unwilling to be brought to an account for their ways by the ministry of the Word, so ministers are bound to omit no point of discretion, and tender persuasiveness, which would be consistent with their fidelity and zeal against sin, and which may be instrumental to make the word take, and not be stumbled at. We can see this from Micah’s way of entreaty, “Hear, I pray you,” which indicates both that the rulers were averse to hearing, and that Micah tenderly reached out in order that they would hear.

Beside the general obligation lying on all (especially within the visible church) to know and obey the will of God, it is especially incumbent on rulers and great ones among the Lord’s people to do so. By reason of their education, means, encouragements, leisure, offices, etc., they are enabled with advantages, and bound to know more than others, and to put their knowledge into practice, in order that they may be examples to others.

However opposed people may be to the challenges of ministers in the matter of affected ignorance, or wilful neglect of known duties, yet these excuses will not satisfy their own consciences, when they are seriously put to it. That’s why Micah confronts them with a question which they could not deny. “Is it not for you to know judgement?”

Their knowledge should be put into practiceThe Lord does not reckon that people know anything, when the truth they know has no place in their heart, and they make no endeavours to put it into practice. That’s how Micah explains that they “do not know judgment” — it was that they “hated the good” (v.2), and oppressed the people (v.2–3).

The Lord notices chiefly the disposition and affection of people’s hearts towards good or evil. It is a desperate condition, when not only your practice is out of course, but your affections also are alienated from God and inclined to evil. “You hate the good, and love the evil.”

Whatever oppressors may claim to be the cause of their cruelty toward those they oppress (e.g., they stood in need, and needed to live of their own, etc.), yet the Lord sees it to flow from their perverse and corrupt affections. That’s why He says of oppressors, “Ye hate the good, and love the evil.”

God sees it when they oppress the peopleIn opposition to what the rulers ought to be, Micah sets forth their disposition and practice. They abhorred what was good, and loved what was evil. They oppressed and undid the Lord’s people so cruelly, by taking away the very means of their subsistence and livelihood, that it was as if they had flayed their skin from off them, eaten their flesh, and broken their bones to boil them for meat, the way butchers and cooks do with animals for food (v.2–3).

The greatest perversity is usually found in those who ought, and may, and will not, or neglect to make use of such means as might promote piety and justice. All this perversity is in “the heads of Jacob,” who had means and opportunity to set them doing otherwise.

Oppression is, in God’s account, inhumane butchery, and murder, in a degree far above simple slaughter, while the oppressed pine away for want, and the oppressors (like barbarians, or wild beasts) eat that which is the very life and flesh of the poor.

However, although magistrates and great ones think themselves to be above all law, yet they have no right to oppress a people (especially if they are God’s people) and deal with them simply as they wish. Rather, they are accountable for how they have treated them. Here they are challenged by God for how they are oppressing His people. The oppressed — or others — perhaps do not dare to challenge them for their injurious dealings, yet there is a God who will lay it to their charge.

God will disown them in their time of crisisThe sentence which will be particularly passed on them is by way of retaliation. As they had oppressed the poor and turned a deaf ear to their cries, so they will meet with judgment without mercy or compassion. God will not pay attention to them, even if (out of a sense of their trouble) they seek Him.

For it says, “Then shall they cry unto the Lord” (v.4). They will be forced to seek God, whom they otherwise disregarded. Even the greatest, and those who most wickedly forget God, shall at one time or other be conscious of God’s reverence, and will send their errand His way. Natural (unspiritual) people may make some show of seeking God in trouble — not in faith, or out of love, but out of sense of trouble. The general calamities which were previously threatened, or their own particular corrections for their sin, press down on them, and “then shall they cry.”However, it is righteous with God not to heed this crying of the wicked in their trouble, because of their previous wickedness and ongoing unsoundness, and in particularly, so that He may recompense them for not hearkening to the cry of the poor who they had oppressed. “They shall cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them.”

“He will hide his face from them at that time” of trouble. It is extreme misery to be deserted totally by God in trouble, and to lack His favour and sense of reconciliation, which would support them in any extremity.

“He will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings.” Although God sometimes in a sense hides His face from His own children, in order to test their faith, His intention, when He disregards the wicked in trouble, is so that wickedness would be seen and lamented as the cause of it.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

What to do in a minorityToday’s church finds itself not only exiled from places of prominent usefulness, but also under attack from multiple sources. At the same time, it is itself beset with many vulnerabilities. Low levels of commitment and spirituality within its members and leaders, coupled with inarticulateness in proclaiming the gospel message, mean that the church is ill equipped for the pressures and assaults of an increasingly aggressive secular society. Although unlike Covenanting times, when the threat of armed physical violence was real, there remain ways in which our situation today echoes David’s experience in Psalm 86, where he describes many strong enemies assembling against his small forces and poised to destroy him. “O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul …” (Psalm 86:14). In a sermon on this prayer of David’s, the blind Edinburgh preacher Archibald Skeldie brings God’s perspective to bear. In the following updated excerpt, Skeldie discusses the significance of the numerousness of David’s enemies in God’s sight, before offering suggestions as to how to respond as a threatened minority.David says that his enemies “assemble themselves together.” He mentions their “assembling” for two reasons.

The numerousness of enemies is no match for God’s powerFirst, for the glory of God’s power. The weaker the defending side, and the stronger the assailing force, the more obvious is the power of one who defends the weaker against the stronger. The power of God Almighty is manifested, when His saints and servants are brought to such extremity that they can neither help themselves, nor find help from others, against their many and mighty persecutors. He who manifested His power in Paul’s weakness in the hour of temptation, declares His power by protecting His saints in time of persecution. As one commentator says, “The Lord will not deny His safeguard to His saints while they are straited with necessity.” Instead He graciously helps them.

Remarkable is the example of Hezekiah and his people. The army of the Assyrians was known to be great, Hezekiah was conscious of his weakness, and that weakness was not unknown to his enemy, who told him that he had neither riders for horses, nor counsel for war. The power of God who protected Hezekiah was manifested, not only in promising him security, but likewise in actually ensuring his safety in the destruction of his enemy. Hezekiah, so weak in the sight of Sennacherib, seemed foolish in holding out a walled city against him. He would have judged him mad, if he had ventured to come in open field against him. Yet the power of God was magnified, whose bridle was always in Sennacherib’s lips, so that he could not go beyond His permission, just like a horse can only go where his rider wishes. The church of God complains in the 83rd Psalm of the confederacy of many enemies, who not only sought the ruin of God’s people, saying, “Let us root out Israel from being a nation,” but broke out in pride against the Lord Himself, saying, “Let us take for our possession the mansions of God.” The church requests their destruction by humble prayer so that God would be magnified in His glorious power.

The numerousness of enemies is an opportunity to trust God more fullyThe second reason for David to mention the “assembling” of his enemies is to declare his trust and confidence in God. The multitude of his enemies is so far from chasing him away from God, that it maketh him run all the more to God, by earnest prayer and settled confidence. As by His power He is able to protect him, so by His mercy He will compass him (Psalm 32:10).

David well knew how powerfully this argument would prevail with God, that the one who is pursued by many enemies, and trusts in God, should be protected by the power and mercy of God. Basic humanity will teach people not to betray but rather to protect to the utmost of their power those who commit their lives to their care. Much more will the tender mercy of our gracious Lord move Him graciously to protect all those who “put their trust under the shadow of his wings.”

How to respond to being outnumbered by enemiesVarious things are set out in Scripture for us to take note of.

Every one of God’s people should well observe what unique experiences they have had of God’s favourable protection. What makes David unafraid of the multitude of his enemies is when he considers how he has previously been delivered from the fury and rage of his enemies. Basil summarises David’s position in a similar psalm (Psalm 27), “Because I have received so great experience and proof of divine help, then, albeit twice or thrice so many press to overwhelm me, yet being guarded by this hope, I will withstand all those evils with invincible courage.”

The Lord Himself exhorts His people to trust in Him, with a promise of security and safety. “Trust in the Lord, and ye shall be established; believe his prophets, and ye shall prosper” (2 Chronicles 20:20).

Don’t be deceived by appearances. If we look at the experience of His saints, it may justly be said, “None of them that trust in him, shall be desolate,” because those who trusted in Him were always delivered: “Our fathers that trusted in him were not ashamed.” We must not withdraw our confidence from God, when we see no appearance of help at the hands of men! Instead we should all the more rely on Him, with trust and confidence. He usually sends His relief when there is least appearance of it.

Mutual enemies can agree in opposition against God. Although the enemies of David were proud, and their pride and ambition caused them dissensions and strife amongst themselves, yet they can combine themselves to be David’s persecutors. It is the nature of proud men, so far as they are proud, to presume on their own worth, and think all others contemptible. They presume on their own wisdom, so they think nothing done well other than their own words and works, or else what somehow or other takes their fancy. They are so concerned about their own honour and wealth that they care nothing if others are brought to ruin and disgrace. It is a wonder then that they can assemble with others for one united purpose! Yet we see that though Pilate and Herod were mutual enemies, they can be friends when Christ is to be crucified. Though there is mutual hatred betwixt the Pharisees and Sadduces, they can conspire together when Christ is persecuted. The proud persecutors of the saints of God are set to work by Satan for one end, to destroy the kingdom of Christ, even though those who have a hand in the business all have their own worldly, devilish and other motivations, ambition, cruelty, and covetousness.

How to act in view of imminent threatWhen the Covenanters of Britain and Ireland hear of the assembling of enemies from various quarters, there are three things which they should earnestly lay to heart.

Carefully strive to keep peace amongst yourselvesFirst, Covenanters should labour to be of one mind in the essentials of religion, and in the service and worship of God. They should mutually defend one another, according to thair Covenant. They should remove from themselves all excuses which may hinder them from advancing the cause of Christ — none who has power should claim to be weak, nor should those who have wealth claim poverty, but every zealous Christian should count it his honour and happines that God has furnished him with ability, and by His providence offered him opportunity, to honour Christ and advance His kingdom.

Christians are called to peace, in one body. They should let the peace of God rule in their hearts at all times, but especially when their peace is troubled by cruel persecutors. Abraham thought it not time to argue with Lot, when they were in the land of the Amorites. The Athenians and Thebanes had their mutual jealousies, yet they packed up all their dissensions when they were invaded by Philip, King of Macedonia, the enemy of the liberty of all Greece. This is especially important when you remember that usually distraction is a dolorous omen of destruction. Union makes strength, but division brings weakness. If we are true to ourselves, and keep that peace which we have sworn in our Covenant, and which is required of the disciples of Christ, we will have less need to worry about all the enemies of the cause of Christ.

Do what you can to hinder enemies assemblingSecondly, when the people of the Lord hear of their enemies assembling, they should labour as much as in them lies, to hinder them coming together. It was wise of the Romans to fight with the army of Hasdrubal before the army of Hannibal. It is a great deal safer to deal with the individual parts of an army than the complete body. In the time of Edward I of England, one of the Scottish noblemen, with 8,000 of our people, vanquished in one day 30,000 of the English, who were divided into three bands. It would have been more difficult, if they had all been joined together.

Humbly entreat the Lord to be here to helpThirdly, when we hear of the assembling of various people from various quarters, our humble prayer should be to the Lord, “That he would be present in the assembly of his saints,” that so they would be protected and defended against the assemblies of their cruel enemies. “If God be one our side, who is against us?” Abijam was more encouraged that God was with his people than he was afraid of the huge number of Jeroboam’s army against his people.

But while we entreat the Lord by prayer, we must look well to two things.

For one thing, we should not be excessively afraid, or fainthearted, when we are fewer in number, seeing it makes no difference to the Lord to vanquish by few or by many. There are frequent passages to this effect in the Book of Judges, and in the Books of the Kings.

The other thing is, even if in God’s providence our numbers are greater, yet we must not lean on the strength of man, but to the help and assistance of God. Neither the greatness of number, nor the goodness of the cause for which they fight, will make people prevail aginst their enemies if they have greater confidence in their own strength than in the help of God. I actually think that when Jehosaphat was threatened by his enemies, he could have raised a greater army than all the kings who were his enemies, and yet he says, “Lord, we know not what to do, but our eyes are towards thee.” “Chariots and horses may run to the battle, but the Lord of hosts giveth victory.” If we find access to God by prayer, then any time we are threatened by our enemies, we may expect His protection and deliverance, according to David’s observation, “When I cry, then mine enemies shall be turned back; this I know, for God is for me.”

← Accurately valuing God's ordinancesFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

Accurately valuing God’s ordinancesGod has provided many ordinances as means for Him to show us His grace, including preaching, prayer, Christian fellowship, etc. The New Testament also has two special ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s supper, known to the Covenanters and others as sacraments to distinguish them among the other ordinances. These are the Lord’s gifts to His people to help us in our faith along the way, and the spiritual significance of participating in these particular ordinances is immense. The spiritualness of both baptism and the Lord’s supper can, however, mean that we distort their importance, either overlooking their value altogether, or investing far too much in them. While we do not want to ungratefully undervalue their significance, neither do we want to superstitiously exaggerate them. In the following brief updated excerpt, James Durham guides us between these extremes.Giving excessive respectWe place too much weight on the sacraments if we think that they are absolutely necessary in order to salvation — or if we imagine that they confer grace by themselves (just when people partake of the outward elements of water, bread, wine, without faith) — or if we rest on simply the outward receiving of the elements, as if that made us in some way acceptable to God.

Sometimes, people superstitiously and blindly prefer the sacraments to all the other ordinances, so that they disparage the others. They will go for a long time neglecting preaching and praying, but they simply must have baptism and communion.

It is also excessive when we prefer the outward ordinance to Christ and the thing signified by the ordinance. For example, if we are more interested in the baptism of water then the baptism of the Spirit, or more interested in the external communion than the inward. Then, anything of heaven that is to be found in the ordinances is left neglected, and people are more upset about going without the sacrament once, than about missing Christ often and long.

We should also beware of coming and going from ordinances while neglecting Him who gives the blessing, yet thinking that all is well enough, seeing we were present at the ordinance.

Too much is made of the sacraments when people travel a great distance in order to partake of a sacrament when this means they are unable to fulfil necessary moral duties called for at that time. Likewise when people place more value on the sacraments than on works of mercy and charity, or dote on the sacraments to the neglect of such works.

It is also too much esteem when the sacraments are accounted so holy that they may not be administered where Christ permits, or as if they are somehow spoiled when they are not administered in some “consecrated” place.

Finally, also excessive is adding to Christ’s institution, in the way of administration, as if what He has appointed (because it is common and ordinary), is base, and too low for them.

Giving too little respectOn the other hand, the sacraments get too little esteem when people use them as bare and empty signs, without respect to their due ends.

They are disrespected when God is not reverenced in them as He ought to be according to His command, when we are going about such holy and solemn pieces of worship. Also when people can carnally, and without preparation and observation, treat them as common things.

Too little respect is shown in the failure to admire and bless God’s grace and goodness in stooping down in them to us, the failure to ponder and study them, failing to delight in them, and being careless as to whether we have them or go without them.

Likewise, corrupting the Lord’s institution in our manner of going about a sacrament, either adding to it, or diminishing from it, or changing it, as if this is something that humans had the right to do.

We do not value the sacraments highly enough when we have little zeal to keep them pure, as well as when we neglect them on those occasions where we needed to make more of an effort to get them.

It is disrespectful when we account them better when administered by one minister rather than another, or we think the less of them when they are administered by certain men (who are also lawful ministers) — as if men added any worth to the ordinance of God. Also when we assume that their efficacy depends on the one who administers them, or the grace of those who participate alongside them.

We give the sacraments too little respect when we never actually lay weight on any of them, or draw comfort from them. When we don’t wish and pray for others to get good from them. When we are unafraid that they are used wrongly by multitudes of those who partake of them, and rather than endeavouring to improve the situation, we are content for them to be made available to all indifferently. Also when we have little zeal against the errors that wrong them.

Finally, people show insufficient respect when they are not afraid that they might break the commitments and engagements they made in the sacraments.

← The energetic activity of waitingWhat to do in a minority →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

What makes the Christian ministry special?All of Christ’s people are called to be His witnesses, and speak His truth into the situations and relationships they find themselves in. There is one body, and each member its own place and usefulness. Yet not all are called to be preachers or hold the office of minister in Christ’s church. John Brown of Wamphray explains the distinctiveness of the Christian ministry in the following updated extract. After showing that it is not unspiritual to value the forms and order of Christ’s church, he points to a large number of Scripture references which demonstrate that some but not all are called to be ministers. It is when people follow the Scripture pattern in preference to the promptings of their own spirits that God the Holy Spirit is genuinely honoured and will add His blessing.Church order is more than empty formalism[Our opponents in this controversy are prone to] accuse us of adhering to externals, devised by human wisdom, because we cleave to the rules and methods and orders prescribed by Christ to be followed in His house. On the other hand, they see themselves as the ones who follow the Spirit and are led by His direct help and influence.

The problem is that they end up accusing the Holy Spirit of leading them in a method and order that is not prescribed in the Word, but is only the invention of their own brains, blasphemously attributed to the leading of the Spirit of God. There is no basis to imagine that the Spirit of God will lead anyone in courses opposite to, and reflecting on, what Christ has instituted, because He is the Spirit of Christ, and sent by Him from the Father, with the work of testifying to Him, and not working at cross-purposes to Him, or trampling on what He has appointed.

Although there are differences of opinion about the order to be observed in the house of God, there is no warrant for our opponents to reject all order. They seem to want to bring in the confusion of Babel instead of the beautiful and edifying order which Christ, the supreme head and king of the Church, has appointed, and signally blessed, for His own glory and for promoting the good and edification of His subjects.

According to our opponents, it was not the mind of Christ “that Christians should establish the shadows and form of officers, without the power, efficacy and Spirit of Christ.” However, the power, efficacy and Spirit of Christ, is not in Christian’s power to establish (the Spirit bloweth where He listeth; John 3:8). I am not familiar with the Spirit which can be established by men — it is not the Spirit of God who is so under their power that He can be established by them as they please.

Also, although we are not trying to make a case for shadows and forms, yet we acknowledge (and desire to observe) the ordinances which Christ has appointed to continue in His Church, “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4:11–13), even to “the end of the world” (Matt. 28:20). We have no ground to think that all these offices and officers were appointed only for that time and age, seeing the work is of the same necessity now as it was then. It is true, there was a special piece of work called for then; i.e., the founding and settling of gospel churches, and of gospel order and ordinances, and special, extraordinary officers were called, qualified and empowered then, which are not now necessary.

Now that the foundation has been laid, no is more required but a continual building on that foundation, for which, ordinary officers, and a standing ordinary ministry, are sufficient and necessary, in order that the ordinances of perpetual use may be administered, according to Christ’s appointment, for the constant edification of the Church. When the Church is denuded of her officers and watchers, she becomes easier prey for these grievous wolves who now enter in, not sparing the flock, and speak perverse things to draw away disciples after them.

The Christian ministry is a distinct officeOur opponents argue that there were no distinct office-bearers, particular individual persons, separated and set apart for the work of the ministry in the days of the apostles. However, the opposite is true. There were apostles, there were evangelists, and there were the other ordinary officers ordained and settled in the churches. See Acts 6:1–6; Acts 14:23; 1 Cor. 12: 28–30; Eph. 4:11; Phil. 1:1; Phil 4:3; Phil 2: 25; Col. 4:7, 12, 17; 1 Thess. 5:12–14; 1 Tim. 3:1–15; 1 Tim. 4:14–16. 1 Tim 5: 17, 22; 2 Tim. 2:2; 2 Tim. 4:1–2; Tit. 1:5–9; Heb. 13:7, 17; Jam. 5:14; 1 Pet. 5:4; Rev. 1:20; Rev. 2; Rev. 3.

Declaring that there is no such thing as office-bearers established in the house of God, distinct from other church members, destroys the whole order of the ministry. It contradicts what is taught in Rom. 12:6–8; 1 Cor. 12; Acts 15:4, 6; Acts 21:18; 2 Cor. 5:18–19. It contradicts what is evident in the titles, or particular designations which are given to individual persons set over others in the New Testament, such as “pastors” (Eph. 4:11; 1 Pet. 5:20; Acts 20:28), “doctors” (1 Cor. 12:28; Eph. 4:11), “stewards” (1 Cor. 4:1; Tit. 1:7), “preachers” (Rom. 10:14), “overseers” (Acts 20:18; 1 Pet. 4:15; 1 Pet. 5:2), “angels” (Rev. 1:20, etc), “stars” (Rev. 1:18), “ambassadors” (2 Cor. 5:19–20), “such as are set over others” (Heb. 13:17); and “rulers” (1 Cor. 12:28; 1 Tim. 5:17).

The same thing is also evident from:

the special work given to them, not only included in the fore-mentioned titles, but expressly mentioned, such as preaching the gospel, administration of sacraments, care of the poor, exercise of discipline, etc. (see Matt. 28:19; 1 Cor. 9:16–17; 10:16; Rom. 12:6–8; 2 Cor. 12:15; 1 Tim. 4:13–16; 3:5; 2 Tim. 2:25; 4:2; Acts 6:2, 4).
the duties required of others, in reference to them (1 Thess. 5:12; Gal. 6:6; 1 Tim. 5:17; Heb. 13:7, 17).
the qualifications required in them (1 Tim. 3:2; 2 Tim. 2:2–6; Tit. 1:5–9).
the orders given about examining and ordaining them (Acts 6; 1 Tim. 3:10; 5:11–12).
the special commands and injunctions laid upon them, to mind their work aright (1 Tim. 3:5. 1 Pet. 5:2, 3. 1 Tim. 4:14, 15, 16. Act. 6:2, 4. 2 Tim. 4:2. & 2:25. 1 Cor 9:16, 17 2 Cor. 12:15. Heb. 13:17).
the promises of God’s presence and assistance in the discharge of this work (Matt. 28:20; Rev. 1:1).
God’s approbation of them in it (Matt. 16:19; John 20:23; Matt. 10:40; Luke 10:16; John 13:20; 1 Thess. 4:8).
In this way, the work which God has committed specifically to these officers, is made common.

The Spirit is a God of order and uses ordinary meansSome even go as far as to say that everyone, according as his own spirit (falsely called the Spirit of God) moves him, may take on this work (although for the sake of order they may allow something like a call from the people). But the Lord has restricted this work, ordinarily, to specific officers. Any encroachment is expressly prohibited (e.g., Rom. 12:3, 6, 7, 8; 1 Cor. 12; 1 Cor. 7:20; 1 Thess. 4:11).

That God is free to call whom He will, we know; but He has told us by His servant Paul, that He will not call women to this public ministry. Seeing He has appointed an ordinary and settled way whereby persons are to enter into this work, we have no warrant to think that those who do not come in by the door that He has set open, but creep in at windows, or suchlike unlawful ways, are called of the Lord. Rather, they run unsent, in contempt of God and His established order.

Some argue that anyone who is moved by the Spirit may instruct, teach, and exhort, when the saints are gathered together. This does not refer to private admonishing and exhorting, but the teaching which is ministerial, and is to have ministerial authority, when given by persons clothed with the authority of the ministerial office. This work is unique to the office, and ought to be performed only by those who are clothed with the office.

Also, in ordinary cases, God moves no one to violate the order established in His own house. Because of this order which Christ has established, we judge that all those persons who suppose themselves moved by the Spirit to teach publicly in the assemblies of the saints, are moved by their own spirit, and not by the Spirit of God, who is a God of order, and not the author of confusion; or rather by the spirit of Satan, in contempt of Christ’s order.

It is small wonder that their brethren, who are under the power of the same delusion, receive them, hearken to them and honour them. Yet this is more a confirmation of their delusion, than an argument evincing the lawfulness of their way.

Some argue that it is wrong to exclude from the ministry those who are not educated for it. But why does it offend them, that men put effort into being instructed and qualified for this work? Why does it offend them that only those who are qualified should be admitted into the office? It seems that the work of the ministry is a light business with them, and may be carried out by those who have no learning or qualifications. But the Lord qualified His apostles by teaching them for several years, as well as by extraordinary infusion of knowledge. Are we supposed to wait for such miracles now? Experience tells us that the Lord does not work in this way now, so why are they offended when we use ordinary means to attain knowledge? The work of the ministry is something that will take up the whole man, and his whole time, if he is faithful and diligent.

← How preaching is necessary for conversionFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

How preaching is necessary for conversionNot even the Word of God will convert souls unless the Holy Spirit blesses it. Does this mean that preaching is pointless? Absolutely not, says Samuel Rutherford. Interacting with writers in his own time, Rutherford concludes emphatically that preaching the Word is necessary for people to be converted. As seen in the following updated and abridged excerpt, Rutherford is clear on the one hand that the Word is only an instrument, and also on the other hand that it is a real instrument. The Word — read and especially preached — is God’s chosen method of winning souls to Himself.Preaching the Word is necessary as an instrumentThe Word preached is the instrument of the Holy Spirit in our conversion, not the author of it, or its “efficient cause.”

The Word (written or preached) is a created thing, not the formal object of our faith. It is not the objectum quod [the object which] but the objectum quo [the object by which], the intervening means or medium of our faith. The Word, like all instruments, must be elevated above its nature, to bring about more than a “letter” impression of Christ believed in.

The writing, speaking, and conveying of Christ to the soul in the preached Word may be human and by the letter, but the thing signified by the Word, Christ, is divinely supernatural, and the way of it being conveyed to the soul, in regard of the higher operation of the Spirit (above the actings and motions of the letter), is divine, heavenly, supernatural.

The action of the Holy Ghost, in begetting faith, is “immediate.” The Word only prepares and informs the external man, but the Spirit cometh after, and, in another action, distinct from the Word, infuses faith. Then the Spirit of regeneration is not said to work with the Word, but there is a more common operation of God, which begets literal knowledge, or some higher illumination. Also, the Spirit works with the Word, so as in one and the same act, the Spirit opens the heart to hear and receive what is carried along in the letter of the Word, and so the Spirit works mediately, not immediately.

In the infusion of the new heart, and the habit of the grace of God, we are merely passively acted on, and put forth no cooperation with God, any more than a dead person cooperates to bring itself to life (Eph. 2:1–2), or the withered ground cooperates to receive the rain (Isa. 44:3–4). Though the Word goes before the Spirit’s work, and the Word may be preached during the time while the Spirit is working, yet the act of infusing the new heart is a real action by God, received by us by no subordinate activity of the mind, or act of the will. In this formal act of infusion, what the Word does, other than by way of disposing or preparing, I must profess my ignorance, although it is certainly true that “faith cometh by hearing,” and, in the very meantime whilst Peter was still speaking, “the Holy Ghost fell on them which heard the Word” (Acts 10:44).

Then if we take conversion in the sense of the humbling self-despairing of a sinner and all preparatory acts, going before the infused life of Christ, and in the first operations flowing from this infused life, the Word is an instrument of conversion. But I cannot see how it is an active or moral instrument when the soul is undergoing the Lord’s act of infusion of the life of Christ, unless you call it a passive instrument, because it does not persuade the soul to receive the new life, nor is the soul, being merely passive, an apprehending, knowing, choosing, or consenting faculty. This is an act of omnipotency, the Lord pouring in a new heart. The Word is the instrument as far as the Spirit works in us the same habit of new life, and the same Spirit of grace and supplication that is promised in the Word (Isa. 44:3–4; Zech. 12:10; Eze. 36:26–27), and the same Spirit that the Scripture says Christ purchased by His merits (John 1:16–18; John 12:32; Rev. 1:5; Heb. 10:19–22).

So we conclude that the Word preached is the means which instrumentally concurs with the Spirit for the begetting of faith. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:14–17). It is clear that he is speaking of the external Word because in v. 14–16 he is speaking of the word that a sent preacher carries, also called the glad tidings that messengers on the mountains bring (v.15), and a “report” which they all hear even if they do not all believe (v.16).

Preaching the Word is a powerful instrumentThe Word preached, of itself, is not a dead letter, as some call it. Paul does call the law a “dead letter,” but that is because, while it teaches what we should do, it does not promise the Spirit of grace to obey, as the gospel does. As Augustine says, the law makes us know sin, but not eschew it. But the gospel is not a dead letter of itself (even though the letter of it is void of the Spirit), except incidentally, in the same sense that it is the savour of death unto death, and a rock of offence — i.e., to those that stumble at the Word.

The gospel, in its letter and in its literal sense, offers a way or means of reconciliation to those who believe. But the law, as the law, in no sense can either offer or give life. Rather, seeing that all have sinned, the proper use of the law, to all under the law, is to give out a sentence of condemnation, in the literal sense of it. If the law leads anyone to Christ, that is done by a higher Spirit than that which speaks in the letter of the law. It’s true, it’s the same infinite Spirit, the Lord, who speaks in all Scripture, but in the law He says nothing but, “Either perfectly do all or die eternally.” But in the law He condemns and convinces, in order that we may flee to the Surety of a better covenant (Heb. 7:22).

In this sense, law and gospel called the Word of God, is not a dead letter in itself, for, “the law of the Lord converteth the soul, etc.” (Psa. 19:7); “the gospel is the power of God to salvation to every one that believeth” (Rom. 1:16). The Word externally preached has power in itself to destroy, and, when it is accompanied by the Spirit, it has power to convert, and so is an instrument of the Spirit both ways.

The Lord uses preachers of the WordThe Lord has made and sanctified a ministry, and ministers, to be fathers of the second birth and instruments to save themselves and others (1 Cor. 4:1; 1 Tim. 4:16). “Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, and read of all men. Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in the fleshy tables of the heart” (2 Cor. 3:2–3) (see also 1 Thess. 2:19–20).

Some have argued that the Word by which Christ saves us is not the Word outside us, but the Word within us. So, for them, the preaching of the gospel is not the Word by which souls are converted, and faith does not come from outward hearing as an instrument. Their argument runs like this. “The Word outwardly preached can never convert the soul, because it is only a mere sound, therefore it is not an instrument of conversion; it’s only the Word within us that matters.” But I utterly deny the consequence. Put a pen to paper a thousand times, and it will never write, unless the hand of a writer draws the characters. Will we then conclude that, ergo, the pen is not an instrument of writing? It doesn’t follow! It’s an unjust consequence, and destroys all ordinances, natural and spiritual. The only thing that follows is, “Ergo, the Word without us is not a principal cause of conversion, it can do nothing except the Spirit empowers and animates and co-works with the Word.”

Furthermore, whereas they argue that the preached word is merely a sound and a letter, I answer that it is not an ordinary sound, like you get from reading the odes of Horatius or the epistles of Seneca. In itself, it is a sound filled with majesty — power — heaven. Every word is pregnant with grace and life. Even if you separate the Word from the Spirit, in the style, conveyance, method of it there is still so much divinity, majesty, holiness, life, and gravity that it betrays its origin to be heaven and its author to be God. Some might call it a “dead letter,” referring to the paper and ink and printed characters, but that’s not how to think of it. The words connote and involve the things they signify, the precious promises, and what the Lord calls “the great things” of His law. In this sense they are not dead letters, but the instrument, chariot, and means of conveying Christ and the Spirit to the heart.

Of course the Word doesn’t work without the Spirit. No instrument, no tool, no hammer, no axe can build a house without the mason and carpenter moving them. But it doesn’t follow that they are not instruments at all! All that follows is, “God does not work faith by the preached Word alone, but by the omnipotency of grace going along with it.” Although the preached Word, in its sound, is physical, literal, bodily, yet in its power, majesty, and the things it signifies, it is spiritual, lively, heavenly.

The Word must be preached to everyoneThose who argue against the instrumentality of the preached Word end up also arguing that the gospel shouldn’t be preached to anyone except those who already have the Word and Spirit in their hearts (because, they say, these are the only ones who can receive it by faith). In effect, they take away the Word, ministry, ordinances, preaching, and dismiss them as mere delusions. They are arguing that there is no need of Scripture, preaching, sacraments, hearing of or doing any duties to each other.

But you see how false it is that the gospel is not to be preached to any but to those that are converted. It is contrary to Christ’s express commands to His apostles, “Go teach all nations” (Matt. 28:19–20). Likewise Paul preached to the obstinate Jews (Acts 13) and to the scoffing Athenians (Acts 17).

← Why we should pray about everything and hide nothingWhat makes the Christian ministry special? →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

Six features of an attentive ministerThe work of the ministry requires constant care and attention. Yet there are plenty reasons why a pastor might lose heart in the work of the ministry, since discouragements are many, and personal corruptions are active. The Covenanting minister William Veitch (1640–1722) was aware of these burdens. He identified Archippus as a minister who seems to have flagged and even become lazy in the work. Paul sends Archippus a brief word of exhortation in his letter to the Colossians: “Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it” (Col. 4:17). Veitch, speaking as a minister to fellow ministers, deduces that great attentiveness is required in ministers if they are to carry out their ministerial responsibilities rightly. In the following updated extract, Veitch gives six features of the attentiveness which Paul urged Archippus to show in his work.WisdomThe first thing necessary to enable a minister take heed to his ministry is wisdom and knowledge, not only in the doctrinal but also the practical part of religion. I think both of these are needful to make a minister “apt to teach,” or else his ministry will be more art-work than heart-work. The ministers of Christ must be men of knowledge, for they are watchmen, and watchmen must have eyes in their head. They are to point out to the people their way, their danger, and their duty. If they are blind, what hurt comes to the church! “The leaders of this people cause them to err, and they that are led of them are destroyed” (Isaiah 9:16).

Ignorance causes error, and error destruction. That is why the apostle said to the elders of Ephesus, “Take heed to yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost made you overseers, to feed them,” i.e., with knowledge and understanding, so that they may be soundly principled and right in the faith. The reason is, “for grievous wolves will enter in among you, speaking perverse things to corrupt your people, and to draw disciples after them” (Acts 20:28–30).

Ministers should be like the creatures around Christ’s throne, full of eyes within and without, before and behind. Within, looking to the frame and constitution of their own hearts. Without, to the duties they ought to perform and the snares and dangers they must beware of in following their duty. Before them to God, for counsel and direction. Behind them, to the flocks which they lead. “The priest’s lips should keep knowledge,” says Malachi, and so every minister is (as it were) the treasurer of the place where he is. If ministers lack this treasury of spiritual knowledge and wisdom, they will not be able to distinguish rightly between truth and error, sin and duty. They cannot instruct the ignorant, resolve doubts, quiet the troubled conscience, feed the hungry, and comfort the discouraged. Let Antichrist have blind and ignorant watchmen: our Lord Jesus Christ should have ministers who are thoroughly furnished for every good work.

DiligenceFor a minister to discharge his office rightly, he needs painstaking diligence. Knowledge must flow into action . Ministers are called “angels,” and angels are not only full of eyes, but also full of hands and wings (Eze. 1:5). Therefore, “they rest not day nor night” (Rev. 4:8). They know much, therefore they act much.

The heathen could tell us that unpractical knowledge signifies nothing. The Egyptians painted a tongue with a hand under it, to show that knowledge was good when practiced. The blessing is not promised to the bare knowledge of commanded duties, but to the practice of them. “If ye know these things, happy are ye if you do them” (John 13:17). “Blessed are they that do his commandments , that they may have right to the tree of life, and enter in through the gates unto the city” (Rev. 22:14). Ministers are spiritual harvesters, and the crop is very precious. If it is lost by our sloth, we will pay dear for it.

FaithfulnessHow much we need to take heed that we do our ministerial work faithfully! Faithfulness is a proportioning of our obedience to the command, or being impartial in all the ministrations of the house of God. See what a charge the Apostle Paul gives Timothy. “I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing of partiality” (1 Tim. 5:21). We see that the one who is partial cannot be faithful. An unfaithful minister is perfidious both to God and man. It says in Zephaniah 3:4, “their prophets are light and treacherous persons,” and “treacherous persons” means prevaricating persons who violate the trust due to God and the people alike. It is the highest treachery that can be, to be false to God and rob Him of people’s souls. What is recorded in Ezekiel 3:20 is worthy of our attention. “Because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, but his blood shall I require at thine hand.” If a minister may perish for not warning sinners, much more for encouraging them to sin, by corrupt doctrine, and a lewd life, for if there is death in an omission, much more must it be things that are positively evil.

Let me add one word more on this point. A faithful minister must be a fearless minister. He must not be afraid of the faces of men, when he is to deliver the truths of God. Four times in one verse, the Lord forbids the prophet to fear: “Son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briars and thorns be with thee , and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house” (Eze. 2:6).

PrudenceIf we are to “take heed to our ministry,” we also need prudence. This is necessary to direct us in the dexterous management of all the parts of our work, and especially as to the methods by which, and the times in which our work may be done to the best advantage. Of all the parts of our ministerial work, none requires more prudence in order to handle it rightly than reproof, i.e., to do it so as it may be accepted as a kindness by the person reproved, and as an excellent oil that will not break the head, as the Psalmist expresses it (Ps. 141:5). For while faithfulness and wisdom ponder the necessity of the duty, prudence considers the fittest time, and the best manner of application with respect to the person. See in 2 Samuel 12 the prudence and dexterity with which Nathan prepared David in the parable, from verse 1 to verse 6, before he comes to touch him in the quick with “Thou art the man!” in verse 7.

EarnestnessWe must be sincere and serious (Eccles. 9:10). It is not likely that we will seriously press gospel truths and holiness home on others, until we know the sweetness and good of them ourselves. The apostle tells us that sincerity in our work and walk will be no small ground of our rejoicing, when our consciences within, and observers without, can testify that we endeavoured sincerely and carefully to manage this trust committed to us (2 Cor. 1:12).

Ministers need to take heed to this, since their work has to do with spiritual things, and so they are more apt to be deceived by hypocrisies creeping in both to their hearts and their duties. Many a time the frequency of these duties almost takes away the fervency of them. Ministers should therefore often think of what Paul said, to keep themselves diligent at their work, “Lest when I preach the gospel to others, I myself be a castaway” (1 Cor. 9:27).

PerseveranceThis “take heed” includes constancy and perseverance. We must not imagine we can do this work by fits and starts, nor be like these foolish Galatians, who began in the spirit, and ended in the flesh. We must not put our hand to the plough and look back, for you know what Christ says of those who do so, “They are not fit for the kingdom of God.” They are not fit for managing His kingdom aright in this world, and if they don’t do that, they may have reason to fear being shut out of His kingdom in the next world.

← How to be guided by conscienceWhat is our honest reaction to the gospel? →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

When pastors become predatorsShepherds are God’s gift to the church, given because He wants His dear flock to be well looked after. But sometimes the shepherds turn rogue and instead of caring for God’s flock, they put their own interests first. Pastoral ministry becomes all about their own position and prestige and what they can get out of it. The needs of the flock are left unmet and instead they suffer spiritually at the hands of those supposed to nurture them. As the Westminster Assembly member William Greenhill noted, this may be endemic in a church culture, and daring to speak out against it may be penalised. While we are familiar with high-profile scandals in evangelicalism in recent years, this is not a new problem. Nor do things have to reach extremes of financial, emotional or sexual abuse in order for pastors to be guilty of flouting their responsibility to feed the Lord’s flock. Harshness, neglect and a multitude of little ways of lording it over the Lord’s heritage belong to the same category of un-shepherdlike behaviour. Yet as Greenhill points out in his remarks on Ezekiel 34, when the sheep suffer, God notices, and He will ultimately intervene to rescue His maltreated people.Ezekiel has already reproved the people and threatened the judgments of God against them for their sins. Now he comes chapter 34 to deal with their ‘shepherds,’ whose fault it was that the people had become so wicked. The first ten verses are God’s reproof of the shepherds, and the judgment He will bring on them.

The behaviour of the shepherdsThe ‘shepherds of Israel’ (v.2) were the chief rulers, whether in church or state. A ‘woe’ or general judgment is threatened against them — a variety of evils, not just one but several sad judgments will come on them.

The shepherds should have been ‘feeding’ the people, leading and teaching them. But here was their sin — they ‘fed themselves, not the flock.’ Those who are shepherds in the church, are set up for the good of the people, to benefit and advantage them, not to seek themselves, to draw from the people what they can to make themselves great. They should be content with their allowance, and give themselves fully and wholly for the good of those who are committed to their trust. This interrogative, ‘Should not the shepherds feed the flock?’ highlights the heinousness of their sin, and the indignation of God against it. ‘What? You are shepherds, and you don’t feed the flock? You are perverting the course of nature, and violating the order which God has set!’ That is intolerable, and God will treat them severely for it.

Office-bearers should care like shepherdsThose who are set over the people in the church are shepherds, and ought to act like shepherds do towards their flocks. They should govern them gently, protect them constantly, provide for them carefully, feed them faithfully, and seek their good diligently.

God who is the great Shepherd does this. ‘He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young’ (Isaiah 40:11). ‘The Lord is my Shepherd,’ meaning He provided green pastures and still waters for him, and for all his (Psalm 23). He gave them David for a shepherd, ‘to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance;’ and he ‘fed them according to the integrity of his heart’ (Jeremiah 5:7).

Ministers should be like to God in all these ways. Yet few of those who are over God’s flock in the church prove to be what they ought to be. The political rulers were wicked, and so were the ecclesiastical rulers. They are called shepherds, but they did not do the work of shepherds. The shepherds of Israel did not feed the flock! From Ezekiel 22:25–28 you may see what the prophets, priests, and princes were like — not a true shepherd amongst them.

The three defining characteristics of wicked shepherds in the church are given here.

They feed themselves. They are covetous, self-seekers. They eat the fat, clothe themselves with the wool. They kill them that were fed, full of fat and flesh, they made a prey of the rich and wealthy. See how butchers deal with oxen and sheep, killing, flaying, chopping in pieces, breaking their bones, selling some parts, and eating others, and whatever they do is for their own interest. The shepherds in the church were selfish and covetous. ‘They are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand; they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter’ (Isaiah 56:11). One’s gain comes from one quarter, a second’s from another quarter, a third’s from a third, and their eyes were upon their gain and nothing else. ‘The heads of Jerusalem judge for reward, the priests teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money’ (Micah 3:11). They all sought themselves, and so declared what they were.

They do not feed the flock. A good shepherd’s care and delight is to feed his flock. He shows his care by strengthening the weak, by healing the sick, by binding up the broken, by bringing back those that have gone astray, and seeking out those who are lost. These shepherds did none of these things.

They treat the flock harshly and cruelly. ‘With force and cruelty have ye ruled them’ (v.4). These shepherds did not distinguish between the weak and strong, the healthy and sick, so as to rule them wisely, gently, compassionately. Instead they were rough, rigid, bitter, and cruel to them. As the political shepherds were out for dishonest gain (Ezekiel 22:27), so the ecclesiastical shepherds also ruled after their own wills. The prophets were roaring lions ravening the prey — they devoured souls, they took the treasure and precious things, they made many widows in the midst of Jerusalem. The priests violated the law of God, and so wronged the people (v.25–26). The prophets and priests conspired together to tyrannize over the people, who were so accustomed to it, that they were content to have it so (Jeremiah 5:31). ‘My people hath been lost sheep; their shepherds have caused them to go astray’ (Jeremiah 50:6).

God notices the behaviour of bad shepherdsGod’s flock here needs shepherds to look after it. Some in God’s flock are diseased or infirm, some sick, some broken, some driven away, some straggling and in danger of getting lost. God’s sheep are vulnerable to many evils, diseases, and dangers. These could be ‘vain customs’ (Jeremiah 10:3); being bruised and broken (Jeremiah 6:14); being hunted by wild animals (Ezekiel 13:18); being beaten and ground to pieces (Isaiah 3:15); being devoured (Psalm 14:4); errors, heresies, corrupt opinions and practices (Matthew 24:5; 2 Peter 2:2); backsliding (Jeremiah 8:5); mistakes and all sorts of evils (Isaiah 5:20).

It is mercy, indeed, great mercy, that God has appointed shepherds for His flock, to make provision for the weaknesses, maladies, and dangers of the soul. Where the shepherds are wicked, it is bad for the flock. If they are selfish, negligent, or harsh, the flock will suffer.

O pray to God earnestly, that He would give us good shepherds! There is a wonderful promise or two in Jeremiah. ‘I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking’ (Jeremiah 23:4). And, ‘I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you according to knowledge and understanding’ (Jeremiah 3:15) These promises speak of good shepherds for the church. Let us put these promises to a good use, and urge God to fulfil them.

In fact, wicked ministers, in God’s account, are effectively not ministers at all. He says His flock were scattered, ‘because there is no shepherd’ (v.5). There were many shepherds in the church, yet as good as none, because they were wicked, self-seeking, did not feed the flock, but ruled with cruelty. When shepherds degenerate so far as to be contrary to what they should be, then they are as non-shepherds before God. In Zephaniah 11:17, they are called ‘idol shepherds,’ and idols are nothing. When things are like this, then the sheep are scattered.

Yet God eyes the ones in positions in the church, and He deals impartially with them. He observed what the ministers did in their places, and, seeing them selfish, negligent, and cruel, he threatens them all: ‘Woe to the shepherds of Israel.’ He saw they were all guilty of grievous sins, and they did not amend after His had shown them long forbearance, and therefore without respect He denounces judgment against them. God is greater than the greatest. He has no fear of the faces of princes or prophets. Let them cover their ways with whatever pretence they wish, the Lord discerns them. However terrifying they are to the people, the Lord will be a terror to them. However long they continue in their wickedness, God will eventually be avenged on them.

The Lord is against bad shepherds‘Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord’ (v.7, v.9). Great indignation was in the breast of God against these shepherds. ‘Hear the word of the Lord, shepherds: He is vehemently displeased with you, and can hold back no longer.’ As surely as He is the living God, He will punish the shepherds who treat His flock like this (v.8), making laws, imposing burdens, finding out ways to enrich themselves and impoverish the people.

Verse 10 enumerates the punishments of these shepherds. The first is God’s enmity against them. They were so great that they kept all in such awe that no one dared to say or do anything against them. If any did, they were soon crushed. So the Lord says, ‘ Behold, I am against the shepherds’ — ‘I, that am the Governor of nations, the Lord of heaven and earth, the dread Sovereign of princes, priests, and prophets, I am against them.’ The Hebrew means, ‘I come to set myself against them;’ the Vulgate puts it, ‘I am above them;’ others translate it, ‘I am against them.’

Secondly, ‘I will require my flock at their hand.’ ‘Not only will I demand an account from them, what is become of My flock, but I will have recompence for every one that is wounded, weak, lost, or slain. I will require at your hand limb for limb, blood for blood, and life for life.’

Thirdly, He will displace them. ‘I will cause them to cease from feeding the flock.’ Some were cut off by the hand of justice (e.g., Jeremiah 52:10–11, 24–27; Lamentations 5:12). Others were carried away captive, and held in chains and bonds.

Fourthly, ‘Neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more.’ They will be deprived of the opportunities they had to enrich themselves. They made a prey of the flock, using it to their own advantage, but they would not do so any longer.

The sins of ministers in seeking themselves, and neglecting and wronging the flock, greatly provoke God, and bring certain and severe judgments upon themselves.

God will eventually put things rightGod promises, ‘I will deliver my flock from their mouth’ (v.10). Like a shepherd rescuing a lamb out of a lion or bear’s mouth, so God will pull His flock out of these predators’ mouths, so that they will no more be violated and devoured by these tyrants.

Instead God will relieve them, make them safe and set them at liberty. Many years His flock had been molested by wicked princes, priests, and prophets. They had eaten up many of His flock, and the rest were in danger of being devoured. The poor sheep could not withstand their violence; these shepherds were like young lions among the flocks, going through, treading them down, and tearing them in pieces, and none can deliver (Micah 5:8). But though the sheep had no one able to deliver them from these lion-like shepherds, yet God was able to do it, and did it. He was a lion to these lions, and tore them in pieces, rescuing his flock. He will do it eventually.

← The danger of wavering on gospel basicsFacing death with clarity and anticipation →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

The danger of wavering on gospel basicsNew ideas and teachings are constantly cropping up in and around the church. Although believers, and the church as a whole, are meant to grow in knowledge, it has to be knowledge of the truth. The truth of the gospel is what we stake our souls on for eternity, and we cannot afford to be enticed into wavering on the gospel basics and swallowing false teachings. George Gillespie was particularly earnest in emphasising the duty of remaining loyal to the truths which God has plainly revealed in Scripture. In the following updated excerpt, he provides several reasons why instability is so dangerous.Fluctuating and wavering over those things which God has revealed for us either to believe or do, is a sin, while to be firm, fixed and established in the truth (to “hold fast the profession of it,” to “stand fast in the faith”) is a duty commanded. It is good theology to maintain this.

The value of being committed to the truthWe see the value of steadfastness from the very light of nature. “Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods?” (Jer. 2:11). The heathen Greeks used to say that he who goes wrong in his religion is drinking out of a cup that is full of holes. How firm and constant the heathen philosophers were in maintaining their opinions! They could not only displease their friends, but suffer the heaviest things for their opinions.

But set aside the light of nature. Every one of the earliest churches, to which the apostles wrote epistles, was expressly warned, either to stand fast in the faith, and to hold fast their profession, or to beware of and to avoid false teachers, and not to be carried about with diverse and strange doctrines.

It must be not only a truth, but a most special and necessary truth, when the apostles thought fit to impress it on the churches in all their epistles (see Rom. 16:17-18; 1 Cor. 16:13; 2 Cor. 11:3-4; Gal. 1:6-8; Eph. 4:14; Phil. 3:2, 18; Col. 2:6-8; 2 Thess. 2:2-3; Heb. 10:23; 13:9; Jam. 5:19-20; 2 Pet. 2:1-3; 3:16-18; 1 Jn. 4:1; Jud. 3-4). All these verses are full and plain on this point, and most worthy of our frequent thoughts and observations, especially at a time when this corner of the world is so full of new and strange doctrines.

The dangers of wavering on the truthThwarting ScriptureIf we are not steadfast and unmoveable in the profession of our faith, we frustrate (as far as we are concerned) the reason why the Scriptures were written. Luke gives this reason to Theophilus, why he wrote the story of Christ’s birth, life and death, “That thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed” (Luke 1:4). When Peter hath mentioned the voice which came from heaven concerning Christ, he adds the certainty of the Scripture as a greater certainty. “We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place” (2 Pet. 1:19). A voice from heaven is more likely to deceive us, than the written word of God.

Looking like a false churchMaintaining and professing the true faith is one — indeed, the principal — mark of a true visible church. Christ Himself gives us this mark of His sheep (John 10:4-5).

Embarking on worse errorsIf once we forsake the way of truth, and go into an erroneous way, we shall not know where to find our paths. We shall wander from mountain to hill, and forget our resting place. As one wave comes after another, so one error comes after another. Error spreads like a canker (2 Tim. 2:17). “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:13). This has already made some (and I hope will make more), who were at first too susceptible to the new doctrines and practices of false teachers, now move away from them, seeing they increase to more ungodliness and more error, endlessly. One error breeds a hundred, and a hundred will breed ten thousand.

Missing out on gospel promisesIf we waver, and are led about with diverse and strange doctrine, then the prophesies which have gone before of the true church shall not be made good in us. It was promised of the church and kingdom of Christ, “The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge …” (Isa. 32:4-5). Those who were simply and rashly led about with every wind of doctrine shall (according to the promise) be so wise and knowing as to distinguish between truth and error, and between virtue and vice (see also Isa. 33:6).

Losing what we have gainedInstability and forsaking the way of truth makes us lose much that we had gained (2 John 8). All the comfort we enjoyed, all the good our souls ever received of such a truth, such a cause, such a ministry, and all that ever we did or spoke or suffered for the truth, we lose when we turn aside into an erroneous way.

Reducing gospel comfortWavering greatly hinders our spiritual comfort and contentment. To be “knit together in love” is one means, and to “have all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of gospel truths,” is another means, by which the apostle wishes the hearts of Christians to be comforted. It adds much to Paul’s comfort that he could say, “I have kept the faith…” (2 Tim. 4:7-8).

Risking our soulsWe put our souls and our salvation greatly in jeopardy when we turn aside from truth to error. It is said of the unstable that they wrest the Scriptures “unto their own destruction” (2 Pet. 3:16), like a man who has fallen into quicksand, and the more he wrestles to get out, the more he sinks. When the apostle has spoken of Christ purchasing our reconciliation, justification and sanctification, he adds an “if” (Col. 1:23): “If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard.” Not that our persevering in the faith is a condition in Christ purchasing these blessings, but it is a condition without which we cannot possess and enjoy what Christ has purchased. He who falls away from the true doctrine of the gospel proves himself to have no part in the benefits of Christ.

Some errors are in their own nature damnable, and inconsistent with the state of grace, or fellowship with God (2 Pet. 2:1). “Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God” (2 John 9). Surely it may be said of Arians, Socinians, Romanists, Libertines, “they have not God,” because they do not abide in the doctrine of Christ (Gal 5:4).

There are also other errors, which may comparatively be lesser, yet impenitency, and continuing in them, condemns those who hold them. This is why the Apostle James reckons the one who errs from the truth to be in a way of death and danger of damnation (James 5:19-20).

← Five things which do not necessarily indicate a call to preachWhen pastors become predators →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

Five things which do not necessarily indicate a call to preachThe work of preaching, and the office of preacher, are exceptionally important in the church. But sometimes, when people grasp the importance of preaching, they may make mistakes about what qualifies someone to become a preacher. John Brown of Wamphray wrote against various misconceptions that were becoming popular in his time, views which may well sound familiar to us today. In the following adapted excerpt, Brown tackles the issue of what we can rely on and promote as sure indicators of a call to the ministry.Grace in the heart is non-essentialI dare not say that a necessary qualification for the ministry is to be able to demonstrate the existence of real grace in the heart. Grace, and the saving workings of the Spirit, are latent, hidden in the heart, and there is no outward sign and evidence by which others can certainly or infallibly discern and judge these in others. They are hidden in such a way that even a person who has grace, will not always be in a position to discern it in his own heart, even though one is more acquainted with his own spirit and heart than others can be. So I dare not say that having the reality of grace is such a qualification that the lack of it renders a man no minister, and all his performances null before God, or man; though the person, being a real stranger to grace, can expect no acceptance of God through Jesus Christ for what he does. This is verified by Christ’s employing of Judas in the ministry.

The wish to teach others is non-essentialI deny that all who understand the truth of the gospel, and are able to instruct others, may or have a right to teach. Qualifications are no call. And, not every inclination to tell others what we know of the things of God, is a call to the work and office of the ministry. Private persons, in their private capacities, may and ought to seek to promote the edification of others (Psalm 66:16; 1 Pet. 4:10-11). Telling what you have found in your own experience, moreover, is not the whole work of the ministry. That also includes the preaching of the gospel, and the dividing of the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15), speaking, exhorting and rebuking with all authority (Tit. 2:15), beseeching, as ambassadors, in the name of God, and in Christ’s stead (2 Cor. 5:19-20).

The inward work of the Spirit is non-essentialThe inward work of the Spirit is necessary to make a man a real, upright and sincere Christian, or true member of the invisible church, and it is also necessary to make a man a sincere and upright minister before God, and approved by Him in what he doth. But it is not simply and absolutely necessary, in order to make one a minister before others, for others cannot certainly know this, nor do they walk by an infallible rule in judging this. What is necessary to make a man a member of the visible church, a professing Christian, I grant is also necessary to make one a minister, both before God and others; for others can judge of this, and have a certain and fixed rule to use to judge whether the profession is true or not, although not to judge whether it is sincere or not.

The call of the Spirit is non-essentialWe can identify someone who has been called by the Spirit by the fact that they are gifted with the gifts of the Spirit, fitting for preaching of the gospel. These include the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge (1 Cor. 12:4, 7, 8, 11), whereby they are apt to teach (1 Tim. 3:2) and fit to take care of the church (v.5). These gifts, considered in themselves, are different from true and saving grace, and yet come from the Spirit, and are given to profit with; and so must be used to edification, according to the way prescribed in the gospel.

But some, speaking of being “called by the Spirit,” mean something like a personal word of inspiration saying to the man that he must go and preach. We reject all such fancies, even though some depend on them; we account them plain delusions (Matt. 24:24; 2 Thess. 2:9; Deut. 13:1; Gal. 1:8-9). No one can show any good basis warranting us to look for such immediate calls — there is no promise for this, or any command to expect it.

For what is this testimony of the Spirit, by which everyone may know who is truly called of God, and who not? Does the Spirit, when He calls one to this work, speak to the senses of all beholders, and witness also to them that this one is indeed called? This is not necessary even to make a Christian, never mind a minister. I would only say that if no one can know by the Scriptures that he, in particular, is called to be a minister, and must therefore fall back on an inward and immediate testimony of the Spirit, then we must also say that no one can know that someone else is a minister, without the inward and immediate testimony of the Spirit. Therefore they cannot be offended at us for not believing that they are sent by God, because we have no inward and immediate testimony of the Spirit about it. Although the Scriptures do not particularly and expressly tell us that “Mr So-And-So” is a false teacher and ought to be avoided, it says enough to warn us. The whole Scripture, which points out and declares the truth, and condemns errors, is as good to us as an immediate testimony saying, “Those ones are deceivers” — indeed, better, and more sure.

Appreciative hearers are non-essentialSome say that a preacher’s inward call from the Spirit is made manifest in the minds of their brethren, who sense the life and virtue in them and are edified by their words. But I cannot accept this. Is this manifestation always at every sermon, or only sometimes? Is it on the hearts of all who hear, or only some? Perhaps “their brethren” are disposed to recognise them, but the signs of Paul’s apostleship were among strangers, whom he converted, and brought in to the faith. If this manifestation is always and on all present, we would have to question Christ’s apostleship and calling, for everyone knows that His preaching did not always have this effect. Nor did Paul’s and Barnabas’. We would have to say that Ezekiel, who was sent to a rebellious people, who refused to hear, had no true and substantial call, nor Moses, when he was sent to Pharaoh. Yet those who are a “savour of death unto death” to some, may yet for all that be successors to the apostles.

Holiness is essentialHoliness is required of gospel ministers. The apostle tells us that the minister must be “a lover of good men (or “of good things,” as it is in the margin) sober, just, holy, temperate” (Tit. 1:8). He must be blameless (Tit. 1:7), “vigilant, sober, and of good behaviour” (1 Tim. 3:2). Therefore, all who are employed in the examination and trial of ministers should be careful in searching after this, as well as examining their gifts and other qualifications. When clear and manifest evidences appear of their hatred of good things, and of the godly, of their insobriety, injustice, unholiness, intemperance, lack of vigilance, and of their evil behaviour, they ought to be laid aside from that holy function, just as well as when their lack of gifts and of other requisite qualifications is clearly apparent. Indeed, if there are no positive evidences of this love, and of seriousness in the matters of God, giving fair and reasonable grounds for concluding that they are faithful men, they ought not to commit the Word to them.

← Four good responses to the good newsThe danger of wavering on gospel basics →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

Nine ways to protect yourself from false teachingSouls are saved, settled and sanctified through the truth. When there is so much false teaching around, it brings spiritual damage and it is dishonouring to God. Those who are susceptible to false ideas need to be established in the truth. False teachings can be very enticing, but we need to resist them. Stability in the truth and opposition to false teaching are clear and recurring priorities in the writings of the Apostles. Indeed, the purpose of Scripture is to give us certainty in the truth (see, e.g., John 20:31). The theologian George Gillespie had a great concern to protect souls from error. In the following updated excerpt from one of his treatises, Gillespie gives nine positive ways in which we can protect ourselves against false teaching. He calls them “preservatives against wavering, and helps to steadfastness in the faith.”Grow in knowledge and discernmentDo not be simple, as “children in understanding”. There is such a thing as the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. That is how the apostle describes those who spread diverse and strange doctrines (Eph. 4:14). In Romans 16:18 he warns us that “by good words and fair speeches they deceive the hearts of the simple.” You therefore have need of the wisdom of the serpent so that you will not be deceived, as well as the simplicity of the dove, so that you yourself would not be a deceiver (Phil 1:9-10). Do not rashly commit yourself to any new opinion, much less get involved in spreading it. With the well-advised is wisdom. Pythagoras wanted scholars only to hear, and not to speak, for five years. Be swift to hear but not to speak or commit yourself. Prove all things, and when you have proved, then be sure to hold fast that which is good (1 Thess. 5:2; Matt. 7:15-17). There was never a heresy yet broached, but under some attractive, plausible pretence, “beguiling unstable souls,” as Peter puts it (2 Pet. 2:14). “The simple believeth every word” (Prov. 14:15). Do not be like the two hundred who went in the simplicity of their hearts after Absolom in his rebellion (2 Sam. 15:11).

Grow in grace and holiness, and the love of the truthThe stability of the mind in the truth, and the stability of the heart in grace, go hand in hand together (Heb. 13:9). David’s rule is good, “What man is he that feareth the Lord? Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose” (Psa. 24:12; see also Jn. 7:17; Deut. 11:13, 16). Similar to how Elisha healed the unwholesome waters of Jericho by throwing salt into the fountain (2 Kings 2:21), so must the bitter streams of pernicious errors be healed by the salt of mortification, and true sanctifying grace in the fountain.

Cling to your teachers who are faithful and soundThe sheep that follow the shepherd are best kept from the wolf. I find that the exhortation to stability in the faith is joined with the fruitful labours of faithful teachers (Phil. 3:16-17; Heb. 13:7-9). Likewise, in Ephesians 4, the apostle moves from the work of the ministry (v. 11-13) to draw the consequence “that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (v. 14). The Galatians were easily seduced, as soon as they were made to take against Paul.

Watch against the first beginnings of decliningBe vigilant against the first seeds of error. It was while they slept that the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and when he had done, went his way (Matt. 13:25). Therefore, “watch ye” and “stand fast in the faith” go hand in hand together (1 Cor. 16:13).

Avoid and withdraw from those who start and spread heresies and dangerous errorsThis is clear from Romans 16:17; 1 Timothy 6:5; 2 John 10-11; Philippians 3:2. Those who want to be godly should not usually be in ungodly company, and those who want to be orthodox should not usually be in heretical company. Chrysostom in various places warns his hearers how much they endangered their souls by going into the Jewish synagogues, and there was a great zeal in the early church to keep Christians who were orthodox away from the assemblies and company of heretics.

Get church discipline established and duly exercisedChurch discipline is ordained to purge the church from false doctrine (Rev 2:14-20).

Do not depend on your own reason“Lean not to thy own understanding, and be not wise in thine own eyes” (Prov. 3:5-7). Let reason be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5). What made the Anti-Trinitarians and Socinians fall away from believing in the Trinity of persons in the Godhead, and the union of the two natures of God and man in the person of Christ, was because their reason could not comprehend these articles of the faith. Their own reason is the basis of their opinions they profess. When I say reason must be captive, I mean that the eyes of my understanding must be opened by the Holy Spirit so that I may know that this doctrine is presented in Scripture to be believed, and therefore I do believe that it is true, even if my reason cannot comprehend how it is.

Count the cost of discipleshipCount the cost to yourself, and be well resolved beforehand what it will cost you to be a disciple of Christ, and to be consistent in professing the truth (Lk. 14:26-34). “Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). This is safer than to confirm ourselves in the hopes of a golden age of prosperity in which we shall feel no affliction.

Search the ScripturesThis advice is given in John 5:39 (see also Acts 17:11). Do not take new light on trust from anyone, be they never so eminent for gifts or for grace, but go to the law and the testimony.

ConclusionThe upshot of all this is that we ought to hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, and be steadfast and even unmoveable in the truth, and not give place to the adversaries, no, not for an hour (Gal. 2:4-5). I do not mean perverse obstinacy in the least error, nor a vain, presumptuous, overweening conceit of our knowledge, to make us despise any light which others may give us from Scripture. Obstinacy is an evil on the one hand, and holding too tenaciously to our own opinions. But fickleness, inconstancy, or wavering is an evil on the other hand. “Be not soon shaken in mind, etc” (2 Thess. 2:2). Fickleness is an epidemic among the sectarians of this time. Their word is “yea and nay,” not unlike what Sallust accused Cicero of, “He says one thing sitting, and another thing standing!”

Yet it may be sometimes observed that those who are the greatest sceptics in reference to the common and received tenets, are the most obstinate and tenacious in tenets invented by themselves. Socinus set at nought the church fathers, church councils, and the whole current of ancient and modern interpreters of Scripture, yet vainglory made him stiffly and tenaciously maintain any opinion or invention of his own, as if he had been infallible.

People are drawn from truth sooner than they are drawn from error. Yet some are unstable in the truth, and unstable in error too. They are of a new faith, and a new religion, every year, if not every month. Remember Reuben’s reproach, “Unstable as water, thou shall not excel” (Gen. 49:4). Indeed, there are even some who do not commit themselves to believing any thing, but are known by believing nothing. These pass now under the name of “seekers,” but we might as well call them atheists.

← What do we need elders for?When idolaters are better at devotions than believers →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

What do we need elders for?The elders in a congregation are primarily there to watch over the flock, and their work includes both engaging with people one-to-one and collaboratively working with fellow elders. In his helpful treatise on elders and deacons, James Guthrie sets out what responsibilities elders have. As shown in the following excerpt from a recent edition of his treatise, Guthrie makes no attempt to play down the weightiness of the work, but highlights for us the importance of having the right people in office.The duties of a ruling elder are watching over and ruling the flock, and they are of two sorts. Some duties they are to perform by themselves alone, and so may be regarded as more ‘private’ duties. Other duties they are to perform jointly with the rest of the overseers of the household of God, which may be called more ‘public.’Elders acting individuallyThe duties of their calling which they should perform by themselves individually are all the duties which all Christians, office-bearers or not, are required to perform to each other by the law of charity and love.

To instruct one another (John 4:29; Acts 18:26).
To exhort and stir up one another, to provoke each other to love and good works (Hebrews 10:24-25).
To admonish and rebuke one another (Leviticus 19:17). We should first speak to an offending brother or sister privately, and if they will not listen, then before witnesses. If they still will not listen, then we are to tell the church; and if they will not hear the church, then let them be to us as heathens and publicans (Matthew 18:15-17).
To comfort the afflicted, and to support the weak (1 Thessalonians 5:11).
To restore those who have fallen (Galatians 6:1).
To reconcile those who are at variance (Matthew 5:9).
To pray one for another (Jude 20).
To visit the sick, and those who are in bonds and distress (Matthew 25:36).

All these duties elders are to perform towards the various individual members of the congregation, by virtue of their calling. The Scriptures expressly mention some of them as incumbent on elders, namely, admonishing those whom God has set them over (1 Thessalonians 5:12), visiting and praying over the sick (James 5:14), and feeding the flock by instruction, exhortation, rebuke, and comfort in such a way as is competent to their station (Acts 20:28).

The rest we may warrantably gather by analogy and proportion from these. If individual Christians who are not office-bearers are obliged to do certain duties, much more are Christian elders in a special way obliged to do them, considering they have the responsibility of caring for souls. These things are expressed well in the sixth chapter of the Second Book of Discipline.

From what has been said concerning the duties of ruling elders acting individually, these three things follow.

Firstly, elders ought to be men who are in some measure able to instruct, exhort, admonish, rebuke, comfort, pray, and do these duties we have mentioned.
Secondly, elders need not only to have some measure of ability for these things, but also to have some measure of dexterity, wisdom, experience and tenderness in carrying them out.
Thirdly, elders ought to be well acquainted with the condition of the congregation and its members. They should therefore be careful to observe how they live their lives, and frequently visit and evaluate what progress families are making, so that they may instruct the ignorant, exhort the negligent, admonish the slothful, rebuke those who walk disorderly, comfort the afflicted, establish those who waver, visit the sick, encourage these who do well, promote piety and godliness in families, and see every one edifying each other in love, walking in the fear of the Lord, and the comfort of the Holy Ghost.

In order that elders may more conveniently discharge their duty it is convenient that the congregation should be divided into so many parts and that some competent part be assigned to the more peculiar care and inspection of every elder — yet in such a way as he would not neglect to take heed to all the flock of God, over which the Holy Ghost has made him an overseer.

Elders acting jointlyElders also have duties which they are to perform jointly with other elders. These duties lie on them in the assemblies or courts of the church which are made up of preaching elders, teaching elders, and ruling elders.

These assemblies are of four sorts in our church.

Assemblies of the elders of particular congregations. These are known as the church session or the kirk session.
Assemblies of the elders of more than one congregation from the same geographical area. This is known as the presbytery.
Assemblies of the elders of more than one presbytery. These are known as the provincial synod.
Assemblies of the elders commissioners from all the presbyteries in the land. This is known as the general or national assembly.

To these we may add a fifth sort, namely, the assemblies which are made up of elders from all or many different nations professing the faith of Jesus Christ. This is known as a council.

When we speak of the elders of which the assemblies of the church are made up, we mean all sorts of elders: ministers, doctors and ruling elders. However, it is true that, in the congregations of our church, there are few or no doctors or teaching elders distinct from pastors or ministers (who perform the duties both of the preaching elder, and of the teaching elder). Doctors or teaching elders tend to hold office only in seminaries or theological colleges.

In all assemblies of the church, ruling elders have power to sit, write, debate, vote, and conclude in all the matters that are handled.

The things which are handled in the assemblies of the church are either matters of faith, matters of order, matters of discipline, or that which concerns the sending of church office-bearers. Accordingly, church assemblies have a fourfold power.

Dogmatic. By this power an assembly judges truth and error in points of doctrine, according to the Word of God only.
Diatactic (relating to external order and policy). By this power an assembly discerns and judges the circumstances of things that belong to the worship of God, like times, places, persons, and all the details in ecclesiastical affairs which are not explicitly determined in the Word. The assembly judges in these matters according to the general rules of the Word, i.e., its rules concerning order and decency, not causing stumbling, and doing all to the glory of God and the edifying of the church.
Corrective (or critical). By this power, an assembly gives out censures on those who cause stumbling and who obstinately refuse the admonition of the church, and the assembly readmits those who are penitent back into to the ordinances, fellowship and society of the church.
Exousiastic (wielding authority). By virtue of this power an assembly sends, authorises and gives power to church office-bearers to serve in the household of God.

Not all these assemblies are to exercise all these powers, but they are to keep themselves within their due bounds, with lower courts leaving things that are of wider concernment to the higher courts. But in all these powers ruling elders have a share, and they exercise these powers according to the measure that belongs to the assembly of which they are members. However, some decrees of church assemblies, such as the imposition of hands, pronouncing the sentence of excommunication, readmitting penitents, deposing ministers, and such like, belong to ministers alone.

If these are the duties and powers of ruling elders in the assemblies of the church, it is requisite that elders should be endued with the abilities and qualifications which are needful in order to exercise them.

Nevertheless, in particular congregations it may happen that men may be chosen as elders even though they do not have a large measure of all these qualifications. This is because all ruling elders are not always called to sit in all these assemblies. Instead it is sufficient to have one elder from every session for the presbytery and provincial synods, and a few from every presbytery and from larger congregations or burghs in that place for the general assembly, as also a few from the whole church throughout a nation would be sufficient for a more universal council.

Therefore, although it is to be wished and endeavoured that all elders would have the due qualifications for all these things, and although special care is to be taken everywhere to choose the most qualified, yet in particular congregations men may be chosen as elders even when they lack a large measure of all the requisite qualifications, as they are otherwise men of blameless and Christian walk, and they have a measure of knowledge and prudence which is fit for governing that congregation, and judging the things that are handled in its session (which for the most part will be disciplinary cases, and examining and admitting penitents).

But if there are any who are not of a blameless and Christian conversation, and do not have some measure of the qualifications required by the Word of God in a ruling elder, no congregation ought to choose someone like that to be their elder. Nor should any session or presbytery admit them to the charge of elder, for it is not seemly that the servants of corruption should have authority to judge in the church of God. And if any men like this have been admitted to the office of elder, the session or presbytery should endeavour to remove them from office, knowing that they do not want to partake of their sin, and be found guilty before the Lord of the blood of souls, for souls cannot but be disadvantaged through the negligence or bad guiding of such men.

This updated excerpt is taken from the book titled Ruling Elders and Deacons, by James Guthrie, published by Reformation Press (2017).

← When our words about each other attack GodNine ways to protect yourself from false teaching →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

Five reasons God gave us the sacramentsGod has added signs to all the covenants He has made throughout history. In the New Testament, the covenantal signs are the two ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s supper, also known as sacraments. As well as being signs (like the rainbow was a sign of the covenant He made with Noah), sacraments are seals — things which confirm the truthfulness of what God has promised in the covenant. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are therefore not so much statements that we make as believers, as confirmations that God gives to reinforce His word. In the following updated extract, James Durham identifies five reasons why God gave us the sacraments. Keeping the focus on Christ and His benefits, Durham explains that the sacraments confirm to us the same things as we have in God’s Word, but more clearly and tangibly, and in a way that is even more suited to our weakness and need as believers.The sacraments of the New Testament, in God’s appointment and our use, have three main ends and two further ends.

To give a clear picture of the covenantThe first end of the sacraments is to represent clearly the nature of the covenant and the things promised in it. These include the washing away of sin, Christ himself in his death and benefits, and the way we come to the application of all these, i.e., by faith, freely, putting on Jesus Christ for taking away guilt, and strengthening us to a holy walk.

In all these, the sacraments (that is, the signs, and word of institution added) fully and clearly hold forth — firstly to the ears, secondly to the eyes, and thirdly to our other senses of feeling, etc. —not only hold what is offered, but also our way of closing with and accepting of that offer. It’s as if God, who by preaching lets us hear Him speak (inviting us to be reconciled to Him) is in the sacraments letting us see Him tryst and close that bargain with us by His ambassadors.

In this respect, the sacrament may be called the symbol and token of the covenant, as in Genesis 17.

This way too, the sacraments have a teaching use. They bring to our remembrance Christ, and His sufferings and benefits, as well as our state, what it was without Him, and before our closing with Him.

All this is represented to us by the word and elements, with the actions concurring, as if it was being acted out before our eyes, so as to make the way of the gospel as clear as can be to the minds and memories of people like us, who either take up these spiritual things senselessly or sluggishly forget them. The Lord, who sometimes makes use of parables and figurative expressions, or similitudes, to set forth spiritual things, to make them resonate with us the more, has chosen this way to make use of external signs and actions for the same ends also.

To seal and confirm what God has saidThe second main end of the sacraments is to seal and confirm God’s mind and revealed will to us, and to put us out of question of the truth of His promises, so that we may have a further prop to our faith, and on this basis may draw all the stronger consolation from the promises of the covenant.

In this respect the sacraments are called “seals” (Rom. 4:11) of the righteousness by faith; that is, not the righteousness of Abraham’s faith, but of his obtaining righteousness by it, and not by works. They are seals of the covenant which offers and promises righteousness to those who believe. In the same way the tree of life [in the garden of Eden] was a confirmation to Adam of the promise of life. So was circumcision a seal and confirmation to Abraham of the promises of the gospel, as God’s oath was (Heb. 6:18).

This confirmation may be looked at three ways. It confirms (a) the proposition, (b) the minor premise, and (c) the conclusion of a practical syllogism, by which the believer concludes from the gospel that he shall be saved.

(a) The proposition (or major premise) is, Those who believe shall be saved. By the sacrament this is simply confirmed as a truth that one may lean on. The believer’s conscience in the faith of that subsumes, “I will then take me by faith to Christ.” “Seeing that is a sure truth, I will rest on Him and hold me there.” Or more clearly, “I do believe in him.”

(b) The minor premise of the syllogism, I have faith, is not confirmed simply by the seal, for the sacrament is to be externally applied by church officebearers who can say no more than that they charitably judge this or that person to have faith. Yet we may say that it is confirmed in the case of someone whose faith doubts, who may by this be encouraged to rest on Christ, and quiet himself on Him. So faith is confirmed while it is helped towards this assertion, though the man may be not clear that he has does have faith. Likewise, if someone has, according to God’s command, cast himself on Christ, and according to His institution, taken the seal, then that person may conclude from the seal, as well as from the promise, that he is accepted (just as someone having prayed may conclude that they have been heard, as they have done it according to God’s will in the name of Christ).

(c) The conclusion of the syllogism is, Therefore I shall be saved. Again the sacrament does not confirm that simply to us, any more than it did to Adam (who afterwards broke the covenant of works, and so did not attain the thing promised). Yet it seals it conditionally. If you believe, you shall be saved. The minor premise ‘I have faith’ must be made out by searching the conscience before the conclusion can receive any confirmation by the sacrament. Yet, by strengthening the major proposition, ‘Those who believe shall be saved,’ it strengthens the conclusion also, for if the proposition was not true, then my having faith, or flying to Christ, would be no great comfort. So consequently it has influence on the believer’s comfort in the conclusion, as God’s oath and seal confirmed the promise made to Abraham, and also strengthened his faith in believing that it would be fulfilled to him (Rom. 4:11).

Again, it is to be considered that the sacrament seals particularly. It seals not only as it says, “All who believe shall be saved,” but also as it says, “You, in particular, if you will believe, shall be saved.” The seal is appended to that offer in such a way that the covenant stands sure not only in general to all believers, but to me, particularly, when I close with it, as if God were particularly singling me out to make the offer to me, and to take my engagement, and to put the seal in my hand. Faith is more particularly helped and strengthened by this than by the Word alone. There is great use therefore of the sacraments, in that by them we get faith quieted in believing that God will lay by His controversy, and keep His covenant, and make forthcoming His promises to those who flee for refuge to Jesus Christ, according to His oath and seal.

Thus He seals the major proposition simply, the minor conditionally (‘if you believe’) but particularly. We may imagine God speaking to us from the covenant like this. “He to whom I offer Christ may receive Him; and all that believe, and receive the offer, shall obtain the blessing offered. I offer Christ to you in particular, therefore you may and should receive Him; and if you accept the offer, you shall obtain the blessing offered, and be saved. In this way the major and the minor premises are sealed simply, but the conclusion is sealed conditionally. Or to put it this way, the sacrament seals the offer simply, but the promise as it is applied to such and such a particular person conditionally (if he receives the offer), so that no one needs to question God’s offer, nor Christ’s performance, on our acceptation.

This is how the sacraments may be called testimonies of God’s grace to us, because particularly they seal that offer of His grace unto us, namely Christ, and salvation by Him, and His being content to give Him on condition of our believing.

To exhibit and apply Christ and His benefits to believersThe third main end and use of the sacraments is to exhibit and apply Christ or His benefits to believers. In the sacraments we put on Christ, and eat Christ. This is not done by any physical union of Christ or His benefits with the signs. Rather, it is just as happens in the Word — Christ communicates Himself when the Spirit goes along with the promises, and the hearers bring not only their ears but also their hearts and faith to that ordinance. So by the sacraments Christ is communicated to us, when we come not only with ears, eyes, taste, etc., but with faith exercised on Christ in the sacrament with respect to His institution of it, and He comes by His Spirit with the elements and Word. On this account the union with Christ is so much the more near and perceptible, as it has on the one side so many and great external helps in the means appointed by God, and on the other side, a proportional blessing promised to go along with His ordinance by the operation of His Spirit.

Hence it is that all this communion is spiritual, conferred by the Spirit, and received by faith, yet it is most real. It has a real ground and cause, and real effects following, not by virtue of the sacraments in themselves (any more than by the Word or prayer considered in themselves), but by virtue of the promises being laid hold on by faith. When Word and sacraments are joined together, they concur the more effectually for bringing forth the ends intended in the covenant.

To give consolation to believersThere is a fourth end which results from these, and that is the believer’s consolation (Heb. 1:6, 8). By the strengthening of faith, and the beholding of Christ in that ordinance, and being confirmed in the hope of His coming again, &c. this consolation proves very sweet, and corroborates the soul so much the more, because it is there that He trysts often with the believer, and by it communicates Himself to the believer’s sense and spiritual feeling.

To display the mutual commitment between God and His peopleFinally, the sacraments hold forth a mutual engaging between God and His people. God holds out the contract, the covenant and offer. We by our partaking declare our acceptance of that offer on those terms, and commit accordingly to make use of the righteousness held forth there for our justification, and of the wisdom and strength offered there for our direction and sanctification. In this respect our taking of the seal is called our covenanting. Anyone who lacked the seal of God’s covenant was to be punished (Gen. 17).

Thus our accepting and receiving refers to the Word which holds forth the terms, and God seals and confirms on these terms the particular promises of righteousness and strength to these ends, so that our faith may be strengthened in making use of them.

SummaryThese are the main and principal ends of the sacraments, though they also serve to make an outward distinction between God’s people and all other societies and persons.

In sum, the Word offers Christ and His benefits, the hearer accepts Him on the terms on which He is offered, and consents. Both of these things are assumed to precede the sacraments, though (as we may see in the jailor, Acts 16, and others) it may be but by a very short time. In the order of nature at least, they are prior. Then come the sacraments, which have in them, 1. a clear view of the bargain, so that we may accept it distinctly, and know what we are getting in it; 2. a solemn confirmation on God’s side of the covenant and the particular offer He makes in it; 3. a furthering of us in part, and helping us to believe, and conferring of something offered; 4. a comforting of those on whom the blessings are conferred; 5. the solemn and public engagement to God of those who receive the sacraments, that they shall observe and make use of all these.

← Six ways that sin disguises its powerHow effectively do we tell the difference between right and wrong? →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

Can arguing about theology ever be helpful?Assuming that there is such a thing as truth versus error, how can we ever distinguish them? Some are afraid of discussing theology because it’s so easy to be taken in by subtle arguments, or because they believe it’s too difficult to explain sacred things to ordinary people. Others at the opposite extreme will argue about everything, even things as pointless as how many angels can dance on a pinhead. The Westminster divine John Ley of Solihull, Warwickshire went into print on multiple controversial issues as well as contributing to the discussions at the Westminster Assembly. He also wrote a discourse ‘On Disputations’ where he conceded that there is wisdom in avoiding religious disputes and highlighted the risk of being addicted to arguing for its own sake. Yet, as shown in the following updated and abridged excerpt from this discourse, he insisted that out of concern for people’s spiritual welfare, it is unloving to leave them to be choked with the chaff of error instead of ensuring that they get the finest wheat to feed on spiritually.Some are too averse to disputesThere is a danger that disputations in religion will be inconsiderately undertaken, or indiscreetly managed. As [the scholar] Ludovicus Vives put it, “The truth by too much scratching and alteration may be lost; and error by artificial arguments and ornaments may have such a glorious flourish and varnish set upon it, as to make it to be taken for the truth.”

This is not unlikely, for copper (he says) can sometimes have a more glorious lustre than true gold. Nothing, as Cicero observes, is so incredible, but by eloquence it may be made to appear probable; nothing is so horrid, but by a garnish of words it may be made to shine. This imposture is easily put on simple, ordinary people; for it is very easy with volubility of tongue to deceive. What people do not perceive with understanding, they receive with admiration; nor can they put a due difference betwixt garrulity and authority.

Ordinarily too, people are more affected by what is said by those who contradict solid and long-believed truth under pretence of new discoveries of truth, and more taken with error than with what has warrant from the Word of God and the consent of all the Christian churches of the world of both ancient and later times. Sometimes the fallacy is all the more attractive because these promoters of novel doctrines make an impressive profession of self-denial, refusing the advantages of a comfortable living, which their opponents enjoy, and they position themselves boldly against authority.

It is therefore wiser to be unwilling to give too much leeway to religious disputations (or rather, disputations of religion), partly because of the subtilty of some of unsound principles and partly because of the naivety of others of a better belief. They suspect no deceit, and they have confidence in the strength of truth, and so they are easily entangled with invitations to dispute. This brings the greatest disadvantage to their cause, for they do not forethink how their adversaries may be equipped for assault, and what liberties they will take when they report the outcome, either to make show of victory, or to shadow a foil.

There are also two great groups, which are opposites to each other, and which are too opposed to all disputations, namely the Muslims and the Pope.

Mohammed (that famous impostor and false prophet, the founder of that impious and impure sect of the Muslims) not only forbids all disputes about the religion of the Koran, but if any are disposed to dispute, he instructs his deluded disciples to answer them like this. “Say unto them,” says he, “‘God alone knows all thy acts, and at the last day will discuss all controversies.’ Again, to incredulous men say, ‘I follow not your law, nor you mine; therefore let me alone with that which is mine, and I will let you alone with yours.’”

Meanwhile, Pope Gelasius decreed against disputing with those who are of another communion, and Azorius the Jesuit in his Moral Institutes says that it is not lawful for laymen to dispute publicly about the faith. If there are any disputes of matters of faith between Catholics and heretics published in any mother tongue, they are forbidden in their Index of prohibited books.

Some are too addicted to disputesOthers are diverse from and contrary to these, in that they are too much addicted to disputation. They are too forward to make or accept offers to debate, and too ready to multiply needless and presumptuous questions in matters of religion.

Some have such a high opinion of their own giftings for knowledge and communication that they think their eminence cannot be sufficiently known, nor they enough admired and honoured, without public ostentation in a polemical debate. Perhaps by the imitation of heathen philosophers, or perhaps by natural corruption, various Christians been puffed up to high degrees of vain glory. They are proud of those preeminences for which (according to the apostle’s caution) they should rather be humble and thankful (1. Cor. 4:6). Paul expostulates with pathos with those who think too well of themselves, and disdain others: “Who maketh thee to differ from another, and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why boastest thou as if thou hadst not received it?” (v. 7), that is, as if it were your own of yourself, without being beholden to another — especially to God, who could just have easily made the one you despise glorious, and you contemptible.

Felix, the Manichean heretic, was so forward as to provoke Augustine to public dispute. But he was so unqualified for it that the one who published the report of the debate wondered which was more astonishing, the impudence of Felix braying rather than disputing, or the patience of the people, hearing his absurd arguings without tumult, or the stomach of Augustine, who so patiently continued to long to address his unlearned follies!

Said a wise and learned statesman, “The itch of dispute is the scab of the church.” Ludovicus Vives uses a similar expression: “When you scratch an itch too much, you draw blood, and the momentary relief is succeeded by raw soreness. So, those who scratch the truth too much by disputation, wound it, and only put it in need of further curing and healing.”

As some have itching ears (in the apostle’s words, 2 Tim. 4:3), so some have itching tongues, and some itching fingers and pens. The Scholastics, for example, multiplied the number of needless questions far beyond the limits of sober, reasonable and respectful inquiries in religion. The early church father Gregory Nazianzen accused some of being so wretchedly affected that they make it their delight to make trifling disputes over divine matters, and are just as presumptuous in resolving their curious questions as they are rash in putting them forward for debate. Such precipitateness and temerity Gregory thought needed to be bridled and restrained.

They are “men of corrupt minds,” too prone to perverse disputings, and the apostle reproves them for this (1 Tim. 6:5). By their disputings, questioning and resolving, they aim to be wise above what is written (1 Cor. 4:6), and so betray their egregious folly to all the world. They are neither as wise nor as holy as they should be. Not so holy, because they are so bold as to put up for debate undoubted principles of divinity, lacking the humility which is essential to true holiness. And not so wise, because the extent of your pride is the extent of your folly.

Disputes may still be profitableDisputations on matters of religion are however warrantable by Scripture and reason, and not only lawful, but sometimes also expedient and profitable.

For the undoubted duties of morality, the apostle prescribes present and prompt obedience, “without murmurings or disputings” (Phil. 2:14). Yet for matters of faith and conscience he requires no such thing either in affection, or in fact. Instead he gives leave, and advice, to Christians to bring both people’s spirits and their speeches to the test (1 John 4:1; 1 Thess. 5:21). He requires of Christian believers that they be “ready always to give an answer to every one that asketh a reason of the hope that is in them” (1 Pet. 3:15). If this is required of a Christian, much more of a minister, who should be “able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince the gainsayers” (Tit. 9:11), just as Apollos “mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, showing by the Scripture that Jesus was Christ.” This may stop the mouths of some adversaries, in the same way that if a light is hung over the lake where there are frogs, the frogs will stop croaking.

Nevertheless some are so contumacious against the truth, and so malicious against those who powerfully plead for the truth, that they prefer to use violence to stop the mouths of those who have overcome them by the power of truth (like they did with Stephen; Acts 7:54, 57, 59), rather than confess themselves convinced or satisfied with the clearest evidence produced in the plainest cause that can be debated. This is not the fault of disputation itself, but the perverseness of the disputants, who persist in disputing though they do not have one wise word to say in favour of their foolish and false opinions. We must, said the ancient great theologian Hilary of Poitiers, “not flee from erroneous doctrines, as afraid to encounter them, but must repel and conquer them by disputations.”

As the philosopher Picus de Mirandula said, “Dispute is the sieve to separate the fine flour of truth from the coarse bran of error.” This is for the honour of the truth and, at least equally, for the benefit of those who embrace it, for when truth and error are clearly distinguished, it is not only more beautiful to the eye, and more pleasant to the taste, but more nutritious, because it provides better and purer nourishment to the soul. As it is a duty of love that those who have the responsibility of caring for souls are to feed them with the finest of the wheat and to satisfy them with honey out of the rock (Psalm 81:16), so is it also an act of love not to allow these souls to be choked with the bran of error and heresy, which many are too forward to force down the throats of poor people who don’t know any better.

Indeed, being seduced into heresy is even more dangerous than that, for the apostle said of heretics such as Hymeneus and Philetus that “their speech will eat like a canker, or gangrene” (2 Tim. 2:17), which is easy to catch, and hard to cure. We know that canker and gangrene are very dangerous diseases, and those who are spiritual physicians ought out of love to do their best to keep their flocks from such infective and destructive mischiefs. If debate is a means of doing so (as it can be, when done wisely), it may be expedient that way to curb and discourage heretics from corrupting the flocks, and may serve also for an antidote to preserve them from the venom and poison of heretical tongues, which, if they are left without opposition, will go on to subvert “whole houses” (Tit. 1:11).

← What makes an ideal elderSix ways that sin disguises its power →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

What makes an ideal elderIf it is dangerous to any church to have ministers who are not called and qualified for their office, we must be equally concerned to have qualified elders. Zeal for the Lord’s honour and the gospel, love to souls and fear of the Lord’s judgment will make this a priority. One of the key elements contributing to discipline, peace and orderliness in congregations (and the wider community) is an effective eldership. Yet many elders are either unaware of the responsibilities of their office or not conscientious about fulfilling them. To address this, James Guthrie wrote a treatise on elders and deacons. The following excerpt from a recent edition of his treatise presents his explanation of the qualifications of a ruling elder.The qualifications of a ruling elderThe qualifications of a ruling elder are of two sorts. Some are personal and relate to his way of life as a Christian. Others are official and relate to how he rules as an office-bearer in the household of God.

His personal qualifications, or the duties of his way of life are the same as the apostle requires in a minister (1 Timothy 3:2–7; 1 Timothy 6:11; Titus 1:6–8). In these passages, under the name of episkopos ‘overseer,’ Paul includes all the office-bearers who have the oversight and charge of souls, and sets down what manner of persons they should be in regard to their walk and lifestyle.

It is beyond question that the ruling elder ought to have a blameless and Christian way of life. However, to make it clear what the Holy Spirit requires of ruling elders, I shall show from these passages, first, what Paul says they should not be, and secondly, what he says they should be.

What a ruling elder should not beA ruling elder must not be given to wine. He must not be a lover nor a follower of strong drink, nor go to excess in reckless debauchery, nor tipple away time in ale-houses and taverns.

He must not be a striker nor a brawler, nor given to quarrelling and contentions.

He must not be covetous, nor greedy of filthy lucre. The love of money is the root of all evil: which while some covet after, they err from the faith, and pierce themselves through with many sorrows (1 Timothy 6:10).

He must not be a novice, or one newly come to the faith, lest he be puffed up with pride, and fall into the condemnation of the devil. The spirits of novices are not yet well ballasted, nor have they been brought low enough by frequent exercises of the cross, and so they come to be more easily puffed up. The ruling elder needs to be an exercised soldier of Jesus Christ, someone who has been taught by experience to know the wiles of the devil, and who is able to endure hardship.

He must not be self-willed. He must not adhere obstinately and unreasonably to his own opinion, refusing to listen to the views of his brethren, even when their views are sound and wholesome.

He must not be soon angry, either for real or perceived causes of provocation.

What a ruling elder should beThe elder must be blameless. He must be someone who walks without offence towards God and others.

If married, he must be the husband of one wife. He must be the kind of person who shuns all immoral lusts, satisfying himself with, and keeping himself within the bounds of the remedy provided by God.

He must be vigilant. He must be watchful over his own soul, so that no temptation will prevail on him, and he must be watchful for every good duty, to take hold of every opportunity of well doing.

He must be sober, and temperate, of a sound and humble mind. He must moderate his own appetite and affections, and satisfy himself with a moderate use of created things and the things of this world.

He must be of good behaviour, or modest. He must act in a dignified and respectable, yet friendly and considerate manner, neither light or vain so that he loses his authority and makes himself contemptible, nor sullen and self-important so that the flock are discouraged and scared away by his needless distance and severity.

He must be given to hospitality. He must be ready to receive strangers to his house, especially the poor, and those who are of the household of faith.

He must be apt to teach. He must be a man of knowledge, able to instruct others, someone who has a ready and willing mind to teach others. This does not mean that it is requisite for the ruling elder to have the gift of exhortation and instruction which is competent to the pastor and teacher, or that he may or ought to employ himself in that work. It means rather the fitness and ability to teach that is competent to his calling, which he must be ready and willing to exercise to the extent that teaching is part of his work.

He must take a balanced approach to things. He must not be rigorous or determined to exact the full penalty of the law in his dealings, but be flexible and willing to meet people half way, especially when it comes to his own personal interests, and willing to waive things instead of demanding strict justice.

He must be patient, one who without wearying perseveres in his duty, notwithstanding difficulties, and bears the delays, intractableness, and injuries of others.

He must be someone who rules well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. The apostle adds this reason for this requirement, ‘If a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?’ The church of God has a larger extent than one family, and the duties to be performed in it are of greater eminence and difficulty, and require more skill, wisdom and courage than the duties to be performed in a family. To rule his own house well means not only that he has the ability to do it, but also that he makes conscience of it, and actually performs the duties which are required in order for a Christian family to be rightly and well ordered. For example, he must teach and instruct his children and all who belong to the household in the knowledge of God. He must take care about how they sanctify the Lord’s day, and make progress in godliness, and seek God, and regulate their behaviour and lifestyle. He must read the Scriptures, and sing psalms, and pray in the family. With his whole household, he must exhort, admonish, rebuke, and comfort, as each one’s condition requires. For if these duties lie on all heads of families who profess the gospel, then in a special way they lie on elders, who are appointed to stir up others and go before them in performing them.

He must have a love for good men. He must be someone whose soul cleaves to those who fear God, esteeming them above all others, cherishing them, and conversing ordinarily and familiarly with them.

He must be just. He must be someone who is straight and upright in all his dealings with others, deceiving no one, defrauding no one, withholding nothing from any one that is due to him, but giving to every one their due.

He must be holy, careful to express the life of religion and power of godliness in all his conversation.

He must be someone who holds fast the faithful Word that he has been taught. He must be stable in the faith, holding fast the truth of God, without wavering or turning aside to error.

Lastly, he must be someone who has a good report from those who are outside the church, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. He must be the kind of person whose blameless manner of living, and sober and Christian walking extorts a favourable testimony even from those who do not know God — someone who by well-doing puts to silence the ignorance of the foolish, so that if any speak evil of him as of an evil doer, they may be ashamed for speaking falsely against his good way of living in Christ. The apostle summarises all this in two sentences: ‘Be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation behaviour, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity’ (1 Timothy 4:12), and, ‘follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness’ (1 Timothy 6:11).

← When public prayer becomes sinfulCan arguing about theology ever be helpful? →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

When public prayer becomes sinfulPrayer is central to the life of the church. Although typically only one person will pray aloud at a time, everyone present should be able to hear their own desires expressed, and be able to add their own ‘amen’ to what is said. Yet even the holy ordinance of public prayer is liable to be spoiled, perhaps because we neglect some aspects of the duty, and/or we go about it in a wrong manner. In the following updated extract from his commentary on the ten commandments, James Durham goes into great detail on the many specific ways in which the second commandment can be broken in public prayer. This makes for uncomfortable reading as it confronts us with the many ways we are sinfully careless about this ordinance. We can turn every accusation of breaking the commandment into an exhortation to take the opposite way in order to keep the commandment. Later in the commentary, Durham will remind his readers of the need for humility, always, before God. Meanwhile, he ends this list of sins with the implicit recognition that the blood of sprinkling is sufficient to pardon these sinful defects in public prayer.The second commandment can be broken in public prayer. Public prayer is a part of worship, and it very directly concerns the glory of God. Certainly, when the glory of God is wronged through the unsuitable discharging of this duty, the second commandment is in a special way broken.

I shall not look at everything to do with prayer, but especially to what concerns public prayer. Indeed, we also fail in personal prayer, and in giving thanks, both alone and in our families. Slighting personal and family prayer is a clear breach of the second commandment, as well as neglecting public prayer. So is sneering at prayer to others, reproaching it, calling it hypocrisy, and referring to those who pray as hypocrites. So too is mocking the Spirit’s work in prayer.

Failures before prayingBefore we come to prayer, we can sin in several ways.

By not watching to keep our heart in a frame for praying always.
By not watching over every opportunity that we may have for prayer, hence letting many occasions slip.
By not longing for opportunities for prayer.
By not stirring ourselves up to seriousness when we are about to pray.
By letting the heart run loose when we are busy with other things, in a way which indisposes us for prayer.
By having a self-centred goal in view in our prayers.
By how little we appeal to God for strength and fitness, and how little we look to Him for His Spirit to help us in prayer, or those who are to speak before us.
By how little we examine ourselves so that we would know what to pray for, and what distinctly to confess.
By not meditating on what we are to say, so that we may as to the matter of our prayers speak in Faith.
By aiming more to find and exercise our gifts, then to have grace acting in us.
By rushing rashly into such a weighty and spiritual duty.

Failure on the speaker’s partOn the speaker’s part there are diverse ways by which the second commandment is broken.

Attitudes

Rashness and senselessness, not exercising the spirit but the mouth, reciting our prayers as a tale without life.
Praying in our own strength, without looking after the influence of the Spirit.
Not drawing near to God by faith in Christ, but leaning too much on our prayers, from a secret false opinion that we will prevailing more with many words well put together, than by exercising faith on Christ, and resting on Him, as if God were persuaded with words.
Uttering ill-advised petitions and expressions without understanding.
Not praying humbly and with soul-abasement.

Requests

Not praying solely to please God, but having others in view, seeking expressions that are pleasant rather than heartfelt.
Saying many things we don’t really think, not being touched with the weight of sin when we confess it, nor with the desire of holiness when we mention it. Sometimes we counterfeit liberty and boldness in prayer, sometimes restraints and complaints, more than the reality.
Limiting God in particular requests.
Coldness in what is of greatest concernment.
Lack of reverence and holy fear.
Lack of a right impression of a present God.
Not praying for others, and having little thought for the condition of those we pray with. Or if we do pray for others, either we do it coldly, and so as to keep up appearances, or else, if we show more apparent zeal and seriousness for others, we are not careful to ensure that we are not aiming to flatter and please them rather than to obtain spiritual blessings for them.
Desiring things for satisfying ourselves more than for God’s honour.

Commitment

Finishing our prayer before we come to liveliness and liberty, having begun lazily and without life.
Not insisting on wrestling with God when we are under difficulties.
Allowing our words to tumble out before our heart ponders them, or our affections are warmed.
Rushing through it, as duty, only for the fashion, without respect to God, or love for the exercise, or driving at any spiritual profit by it.
Wearying in prayer and not delighting in it.
Not aiming at God’s presence, or conscious manifestations in it, or at getting a hearing from God in what we pray for.
Being more desirous of liberty in public than in private.
Fretting when we are put or kept under restraints.
Growing vain and light when it goes well with us, and turning carnal and unwatchful when we get liberty.

Expressions

Making use of Scripture words impertinently, either ignorantly or vainly.
Secretly expecting something for the sake of our prayer, and so resting on doing the work, as if there were merit in it.
Using expressions not easily understood.
Using extravagant gestures, and scurrilous expressions.
Not observing God’s dispensation to us, nor His dealing with our souls in the time of prayer, so that we may conform our petitions accordingly (as we find many of the saints have done, when they end in songs after they had begun sadly).
Not praying with fervency for Christ’s kingdom, and for Jews and Gentiles.
Exercising gifts rather than grace, when we pray.

Failure on the hearer’s partNext, consider the sins of those who join [who do not pray out loud but concur with what is being said by the person praying out loud]. Beside what is general and common in the duty of praying, we fail often in the specific responsibility of joining.

Engagement

When we think that when someone else prays we need not pray, but let the speaker be doing it all alone.
When we pay no attention to what is spoken, so that we may go along with what is being prayed for, and fail to be on our watch so that we may join in with the prayer in judgment.
When our mind wavers, and we hear, but don’t pray.
When we censure the words or gestures of the speaker.

Attention

When we fix our eyes or minds on some other thing, and give way to other thoughts that are likely to divert us from joining.
When we sleep in the time of prayer.
When we are confused, and do not distinctly join with what refers to ourselves and our own case, nor with what refers to others so as to join with it for them.
When we are more cold and indifferent in what concerns others, than in what concerns ourselves.
When we are more careless of the prayer being heard and answered when we are not speaking, as if we were less concerned in that case, thinking it enough to be present without participating in heart. Then, being unaffected with the prayer of others, nor acting faith in it, we soon grow weary when others pray.
When we are not edified by the praying of another, neither taking up our sins in his confessions, nor our duty in his petitions.

Commitment

When we have much hypocrisy, seeming to be joining, but doing nothing.
When we do not endeavour to have affections suitable to what is spoken stirred up in us.
When we do not pray that the speaker would be suitably guided and helped in bringing forth petitions that would correspond to our needs.
When we are indifferent that the one who is speaking as mouthpiece for the rest lacks liberty, compared to when we are put to speak ourselves, even though it is God’s ordinance.

Wholeheartedness

When we are not rightly touched with any expression we cannot join with, but rather stumble at it.
When we remain ignorant of the meaning of many expressions through our own fault, so that we cannot join in with them.
When we mutter words of our own, not joining in with what is said.
When we are indistinct in consenting or saying “Amen” at the close.
Failures after praying

After prayer, both speaker and hearers fail.

They do not watch over their hearts, but soon return to other things, as if now that the prayer is ended they might take liberty.
They do not wait for an answer, nor observe whether prayers are answered or not.
They are not thankful for answers when they come.
They do not plead and press for an answer if it be delayed.
They do not reflect on their failings, whether in speaking or joining.

Need for prayerfulness

We do not remember what we have uttered in prayer, but straight away return to behaviour that is very unlike those things we have been saying before the Lord.
We do not keep up a frame for new opportunities of prayer.
We do not press after a constant walk with God in between times of prayer.
We rest on our prayers after we have finished, thinking something of it if we seem to have been helped to pray.
We are carnally heartless and displeased, if we didn’t seem to have had help from the Lord to pray.

Need for a gospel spirit

We are not humbled for the sinfulness and defects of our prayers.
We do not have recourse by faith to the blood of sprinkling for pardon of these sinful defects. ← Is there any hope of peace in the Middle East?What makes an ideal elder →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford
George Gillespie
James Durham
Alexander Henderson
David Dickson
Alexander Nisbet
Donald Cargill
Andrew Gray
George Hutcheson
Hugh Binning
Westminster Assembly
The Covenanters
James Fergusson
James Fraser of Brea
James Guthrie
William Guthrie
James Renwick
John Brown of Wamphray
John Livingstone
Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

In the life of the church, if it isn’t scriptural, it’s probably superstitious – so how then can we identify a religious superstition?

View Details

Why is preparing for the Lord’s Supper such a serious duty?Not many people associate illness and death with being unprepared when participating in the Lord’s Supper. But that is exactly what Paul does when he reforms the communion services in Corinth. Not being suitably prepared, or worse still, not being really converted at all, and going ahead and participating in this blessed Christian ordinance, is a serious life and death issue for professing Christians. Believers everywhere are seriously cautioned against partaking “unworthily” which really means to be unprepared and to act unsuitably to the sacredness of the duty and privilege. The personal remedy involves serious self-examination.The following updated excerpt is from a sermon James Durham preached in Glasgow about preparation for the Lord’s Supper. Durham was himself converted at a Saturday preparation sermon preached in South Queensferry. Preaching to his own congregation years later from 1 Corinthians 11:29, “For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body” Durham, paraphrased the text in striking terms. “You had need to look well to the examination of yourselves, for if you neglect or miscarry in that duty, your hazard and danger is dreadfully great through unworthy communicating. If you would escape, then make conscience narrowly and carefully to examine yourselves.”We cannot be ultimately accountable for others, any more than we can examine others. But if, like in Corinth, the Church comes under some spiritual judgement, there is encouragement here for those who sincerely examine themselves before participating, that they will personally escape the hazard. If not, they are sure to be affected in some way by the Lord’s chastisement of the Church. The special dignity and excellence of the Lord’s Supper is also a strong motive to the duty of self-examination. As Durham explains, communion with Christ in the Supper is the closest that His people come on earth to the communion they will enjoy with Him in heaven, and how then can we fail to approach His table with the greatest reverence and love?How is the Lord’s Supper uniquely solemn?In the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper there is a special eminence, excellence, dignity and worth. To put it another way, this ordinance is of a unique, solemn nature.

All the ordinances of the Lord are excellent. If all His works be excellent, then much more the gospel ordinances are a step above these. Yet the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper seems dignified with an eminence and excellence above them all.

In reference to what it sets out and exhibits. They all set out love, but this sets out love in an eminent degree, for it sets forth the Lord’s death, where the most eminent step and degree of His love shines. In fact, this ordinance sets out His actual dying, and so sets out His love in its liveliest colours, and its great masterpiece.
In reference to the excellent benefits communicated in it. It is true that, as to matter, it communicates only the same as what is communicated in the Word and baptism. Yet if we look at the words, “Take ye, eat ye, this is my body,” they hold out Christ Jesus not so much giving any particular gift, as actually conferring Himself in his death and suffering. The main scope of this ordinance is to confer Christ and all that is in Him to the believer.
In reference to the manner in which our Lord Jesus makes Himself over to us. I don’t mean only the clearness of it (for in this ordinance there is the clearest view of a slain Saviour, and of covenanting with God, and often the most comfortable manifestations of love go along with it), but also that there is here a clear glance of heaven on earth. Jesus Christ and His people are mixing and being familiar together — He condescends not only to keep company with them, but to be their food and refreshment. He gives them not only the word to their faith, but himself (as it were) to their senses (in so far as the means by which He communicates Himself is more sense-able, although of course it is by His Spirit that the means is made effectual). The very firstfruits of heaven are communicated, as it were, to the very senses of the believer. “I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of the vine, until that day I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matt. 26 29). He seems to point out a more special way of keeping communion with His people in this ordinance, in resemblance to that which He will have with them in heaven. This ordinance seals up a special union and communion between the head and members, a type of what there will be in heaven.

What more could Christ have given us?This lets us see how much we are obliged to Christ Jesus. What more could He have given than Himself? And what could have been invented, that could have more confirmed and warmed the hearts of His people than this, such a lively representation and commemoration of His blessed body?

Very likely we might come to discern His body better, if there we had a more high estimation of this ordinance. Not that there is any efficacy in the ordinance of itself to communicate grace, yet in view of the fact that it is Christ’s own institution, it is a most lively means of grace. There is not a circumstance in all the action but it is to be wondered at. It was instituted the same night He was betrayed, for example, and after the Passover, when the traitor Judas was going to bring the band of soldiers to take Him, and He warrants us to take it, and in it we have sweet communion amongst ourselves. Every thing in it ought to draw us to admire His sufferings, and the great love they came from, and their notable effects for us.

What frame of mind and heart should we have approaching it?All of this should stir us up to make the effort to be in a solemn, divine, heavenly frame of soul for such a solemn, divine, heavenly activity as this is. We should thoroughly examine ourselves, to see that all things are in good order, like to a bride who is going to be married tomorrow, trying on her wedding dress, and seeing that everything is just right.

Without going into detail, I will only point out in general what frame is called for from you ahead of participating in the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper.

It should be how you would desire to be, if Christ was coming personally and visibly to marry you tomorrow. Consider what frame we would wish to be in, if we were to meet with Him, and clasp hands with Him personally and visibly. Pursue that kind of frame!
It should what we would desire to have if we were about to die, when all earthly things will be insignificant and of little worth to us — if our eternal peace and happiness were depending on this critical point. That would be a night of making our will, and adjusting our accounts with God, and bringing things to a point between Him and us, so that our debts would not grow any greater, otherwise it would not be so easy for them to be discharged.
It should be the kind of frame we would desire to be found in, if the day of judgement were to be tomorrow. How humble we would strive to be, how abstracted from the things of the present world, and how confirmed in the faith of God’s love, if the voice of the archangel and the last trumpet were sounding, and a solemn meeting of all before the tribunal of Christ was about to take place! What frame would you desire to be in, if that was the case? That is what you should strive to be in tonight — just as you would desire in that day. It will be a sting in many a conscience on that day, that they were so unconscientious about being in a suitable frame for this ordinance!
It should be a heavenly and divine frame, because this is what a heavenly and divine action calls for. How abstracted your heart should be from the world, and from your carnal delights! How much your heart should be in heaven and conversant with God! What a pitch your communion with God should be raised to, in apprehending Him, and meditating on Him, and considering and admiring at the sufferings of Christ and the love they came from, and tasting that He is good, and even delighting and solacing yourselves in His love! This is what the Lord grants His people, when they go about the action of the ordinance humbly and reverently.

← The willingness of the Lord Jesus to be our RedeemerFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

What should we do when the Lord seems to be ignoring the plight of the church?

View Details

What can we learn from how Paul handled the sensitive subject of original sin?

View Details

Preaching should be informative, but what if it (and we) are always missing the point?

View Details

Feeding the sheep means loving the sheepPastors are commissioned by the Lord Jesus Christ to care for the spiritual welfare of the flock. Yet pastors are themselves fallen and frail sinners, with many disappointing missteps in their past. When they have themselves slipped up so badly so many times, can Jesus really have any more use for them in His ministry? Looking at the case of Peter, George Hutcheson says that restoration after a terrible fall is difficult, yet certainly possible. In the following updated exposition of John 21, Hutcheson shows how Christ’s prime requirement in His ministers is that they love His flock, the little lambs and older sheep who He loves and wants fed. The love of a restored believer for Christ does not erase the memory of their painful falls, but the memory of what they have been rescued from gives shape and depth to their love for Christ and His people as they move forward in humble service.In John 21:15–17, on profession of his love to Christ, Peter is restored to and confirmed in his apostolic office which he had forfeited by his foul and gross fall. Christ’s threefold question about Peter’s love is only intended to draw out a threefold answer from Peter, so that his professed repentance would be as frequent as his denial. Consequently, we are not to look on Christ’s threefold injunction to Peter as three distinct commands requiring diverse things, but only as one command three times repeated.

Restoration to ministry is difficultIn general, this teaches that apostacy and denial of Christ, though even out of weakness in a time of strait, is full of hazard. It brings disciples to a loss not easily recovered. Peter, by reason of his fall, needs a kind of restitution, and a confirmation anew in his office and dignity.

At the same time, when Christ puts His people on service, and calls for evidences of their love to him, He first goes before them with proofs of Himself – His power, love and care – in order to engage them to their duty. His enquiry about Peter’s love, and His engaging him to service, was not till after He had given proof of Himself by the miracle, “when they had dined,” and after their bodies were refreshed by Him.

Love is essential in the servants of ChristChrist’s question to Peter, and the triple way of propounding it, teaches that love to Christ is the Christian’s badge. Anyone who deserts that standard is a runaway. This is what Christ tests Peter by: “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?”

Ministers who are called to take charge of Christ’s children and flock need much love to Him. No service they may offer can be approved, if instead of flowing from love to Christ, it is undertaken for some hidden agenda. Nor, without this love, is there any possibility of enduring the many blasts they will meet with in their calling, or the much toil they will have, even with and from the flock itself. The inquiry, “Lovest thou me?” is premised as a needful qualification for discharging the trust committed to the minister.

Yet whatever love for Christ people may warrantably claim to have, it does not allow them to swell in their own eyes because of it, or because of any dignity conferred on them as those who love Christ. Saints, in their repenting for their failings, should look back to the low estate from which Christ has raised them, so that they will see all the more clearly their ingratitude, in back-sliding or forsaking Him. That is why He guards all these questions with this designation, “Simon” (not “Peter,” the name He gave him; John 1:42), and “son of Jonas,” a poor fisherman. It is so that Peter, as he professes his repentance and renewed love, will let his heart be affected with thoughts of the low estate from where he was exalted, and to which Christ might justly debase him again, and leave him as He found him, “Simon, son of Jonas.” In professing his love, and embracing this charge, he should still remember his origins.

Our love should not exclude but be enhanced by the memory of what we have doneThe sense of the Lord’s people’s backslidings should be a whet-stone to sharpen their love to Christ, and to make them not content to return to a formal way of profession after their foul slips, but to move forward with a new edge on them, to recover their losses, and prevent falling again in a similar way in the future. This is why Christ enquires particularly at Peter, “Lovest thou me?” because if he has been truly recovered, he ought to be eminent in love, and have it more deeply rooted in his heart, partly so that he will not slide again, and partly in testimony of his sense of Christ’s kindness, who looked on him after his fall.

True repentance should, and will, not only be sincere and real, but just as eminent in its effects as the sinner’s fall was. Peter’s threefold profession of love to Christ corresponds to his threefold denial of Christ.

Those who have fallen grossly in the time of temptation, and have through mercy been recovered again, should still be suspicious of themselves, as having grossly given the lie to their former professions. Christ wants for Peter not to easily trust himself, considering what big claims he had made before, when he gone and fallen so badly.

Christ initially puts the question in comparative terms. “Lovest thou me more than these?” That is, “more than any of the rest love me?” He is not so much saying that someone who has fallen and been restored should strive to out-strip the next one in the grace of love. Rather He wants Peter to reflect on his former conceit of himself, and his unique undertaking (Matt. 26:33), and maybe also his recent forwardness in coming out of the ship (John 21:7) and testing whether, because of that, he would boast of any unique love to Him. And so, with the offer of accepting his sincere love, and calling for it, He rips up Peter’s former conceit of himself.

This teaches us, partly, that the evil of a saint’s apostasies and defections will never be thoroughly cured by any returning out of one particular evil course, unless the fountain, cause and root of their evils is cured, and continually abhorred and watched over. Christ presents Peter with what had occasioned his former fall, to see what he thinks of it, and if it continued with him. Partly too it teaches us that Christ allows His people to season their bitter thoughts of their own evils with the offer of His love and acceptance of what is good and sincere in them. He propounds this indirect challenge in such a way that He also guards it with an offer of His present acceptance of Peter’s love.

Peter modestly declines in his answer to make any comparisons. So in the second and third questions, Christ omits the comparison, and puts the question simply, “Lovest thou me?” He covers and passes by infirmities when He sees us convinced of them.

The connection between restoration, humility and loveWe need not curiously distinguish between the different Greek words that Peter uses in his answers to Christ’s questions, signifying greater and lesser degrees of love. If any distinction should be made between these expressions, the fact that Christ uses both shows us that He takes notice of, and is willing to accept of, lesser degrees of sincere love as well as greater. He interrogates concerning both, implying (a) that He will accept either, and also (b) that those who are sober and dare not profess an eminent measure of love to Christ still need to examine if they are sincere and real even in the weaker degree they profess.

Whatever the exact signification of these words, yet there are several things we may learn from Peter’s answers.

It is very possible for fallen saints to recover their feet, and attain to love again.
Someone who truly loves Christ may humbly avow his love before Him as often as He enquires about it. “Yea, Lord, I love thee.”
If we sincerely love Christ, our falls will teach us sobriety, and not to boast of ourselves above others. Peter makes no comparisons in answer to Christ’s first question, but simply ranks himself among those who do love Him.
Those who want to prove themselves to truly love Christ must not only satisfy themselves in the matter, but should appeal to His knowledge, and be sure that He knows and approves of them as such. “Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.”
Those who want to approve themselves to Christ should think of Him as knowing all things, and remember that therefore He will not be deceived with performances. “Thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.”
Our sight of the grace of God in us, after our back-slidings, should be joined with the sense of our falling. When Peter was grieved, Christ puts him in mind of how his former sliding had justly rendered him suspect, so that the awareness of this would accompany his profession of love.

Service includes the memory of what we have doneChrist commissions Peter, repeating it three times. Christ is able to make good use of saints who fell foully in a time of temptation, and can raise them up again, to do Him eminent service in their generation. Fallen Peter is again entrusted with the charge of Christ’s sheep and lambs.

The moment a saint loves Christ, Christ extends that love to all His people, so that anyone who truly loves Him will show kindness to them. As soon as Peter professes love to Christ, He directs him, “Feed my lambs.” A great evidence of reality of love to Christ is to have a care of Christ’s lambs.

Ministers ought to think of Christ’s people as very seriously recommended to them, and therefore they should very seriously mind their work for them. The threefold charge signalled this for Peter.

Those who want to be faithful in a ministerial charge ought to look on the people of their charge as really Christ’s people, and people who Christ is in a close relationship with. Christ calls them “My lambs, my sheep.” These people are loved by Christ, committed to the minister’s charge by Christ, and Christ wants the minister to win them to Christ.

Ministers ought to keep in mind the variety of personalities, and degrees of strength, which are in the people committed to their charge, so they may interact with them and care for them accordingly. There are both weaker lambs, and stronger sheep. Remember Isaiah 40:10–11, “Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand …. he shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.”

Feeding is a major part of the minister’s work. Ministers are to feed Christ’s people with sound and wholesome doctrine, and to dispense it in such a way that reaches the capacity of the weakest. Christ’s first command is to give food, and specifically to the lambs.

Yet it is not sufficient that ministers be able to feed the people in their charge unless they also govern and rule them, and do every other duty of a good shepherd unto them. And even the strongest ought to subject themselves to this government. In Christ’s second repetition of the charge the word is different from the previous one, “Feed, or govern, and play the shepherd, and that even for the sheep.”

Not even the strongest believers will ever come to a time when they have reached such a height of perfection and sanctity that they have out-grown Christ’s ordinances, which include the ministry. Ministers are obliged to deal with them accordingly. In the third repetition of the charge, Christ goes back to the word He first used, “Feed, or provide food,” and that even to “my sheep,” as well as to lambs.

← Four Ways To Keep Your Conscience UneasyFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

Discerning a call to secular serviceThere are various resources which can be used by those who are wondering whether they have a call to preach. Perhaps less is available for those who are discerning that they do not have a call to the gospel ministry. It can sometimes seem as though, if a young man has a pressing desire to serve the Lord, the only way to do this is to preach. However we still need to recognise the validity and the value of secular callings and the work that can be done for the Lord outside of the gospel ministry. Someone who initially struggled to recognise their calling was Archibald Johnston of Wariston. A gifted young lawyer who desperately longed to devote his whole life (and death) to the Lord’s service, he wrestled earnestly with the problem of whether he was being called to the gospel ministry or to continue in the legal field. He kept a detailed diary of his spiritual and psychological turmoils, including how he came to the clear view that his calling was not the gospel ministry. The various aspects of his decision-making process are still appropriate today, as can be seen from the following updated extracts from his diary for August 1633. Setting aside time for prayer and fasting, he coordinated the advice of wise friends, helpful contemporary writers, and the teaching of Scripture in his analysis of his own inclinations and gifts and the requirements of a gospel minister. Wariston went on to have a stellar career in law and politics, making huge contributions to the good of the Scottish church. In the end he was executed by hanging for remaining true to his principles. My brother-in-law exhorted me to settle my resolutions concerning my calling, and gave me reasons to continue in what I had begun, letting me see my impatience for catechising on the one part, and on the other part the possiblity of serving God and doing good as an advocate.

MondayOn Monday, after praising and praying, I resolved to keep a private fast to God all this week for my deliverance from my troubles, fears and perplexities, and for God assisting me against temptation and directing me in my confusions, chiefly concerning my calling. In this I prayed the Lord of heaven that He would direct me in choosing my calling, and bless me in what He made me to choose, and enable me in and by it to glorify Him, edify His servants and my friends, and the poor people, and to work out my own salvation with fear and trembling. (Lord, hear and direct for Christ’s sake!) I remembered how last Saturday night the Psalm which happened to be read was Psalm 127, “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it,” and I applied this to my calling.

ThursdayOn Thursday I heard Rev Henry Rollock preach on Genesis 2:2, where he argued that we should imitate God’s example and rest on the Sabbath day, “but,” he said, “it is most commendable to labour in our particular calling all the week.”

After the sermon I looked at William Perkins’s treatise on Callings (having first prayed to God to direct me and settle me in my calling, and reiterating all my vows to Him) [Perkins, A Treatise of the Vocations or Callings of Men (1603)]. When I read Perkins, and finding my mind much settled by it, I resolved to follow his rules of choosing a calling, and to examine myself by his signs. Perkins directs us to examine what calling God calls us to, 1st, by our affection and inclination, and 2nd, by our gifts.

Then I spent all afternoon testing by both tests whether I should apply myself to the ministry or to law.

First, I found that I truly respected and honoured more in my mind the ministry than law, but that my affection and resolution constantly carried me to the law. This was partly because I saw that my mind could not be bent to religious exercises constantly, but fainted if it was not sometimes diverted to secular things, and partly also because I did not dare to take on the burden of more souls than my own – for I found it genuinely difficult for my own soul alone to work out its salvation in fear and trembling. So I found that my inclination was always to serve God in this, fearing lest I would be diverted from it to something else.

Secondly, I found my gifts not so fitted for the ministry as for law. My gift is dialectic rather than didactic – fitter for disputing pro and contra than for teaching solid grounds. Also neither my invention, judgment nor memory was in favour of handling such deep mysteries. Again, in the judgment of all, I have no gift for speaking, and would have no utterance at all in preaching. I was never a good linguist, either in Scots, French or Latin. However, the main point of the calling to the ministry lies in catechising, and this I am utterly incapable of, due to my natural hastiness, crossness and impatience.

As for law. My affection. My continual resolution since my childhood. My plying of my studies to that end. The manifold opportunities of making progress in it. My gifts being disputative, and therefore naturally fitting me for it. Also, chiefly, the warrant of the apostle, commanding me to remain in the calling in which I was called (1 Corinthians 7:20); the commentators Bolton, Pareus, and Perkins on that text all advise against an unnecessary or rash change of calling.

All of this greatly settled my mind, and made me resolve that, having craved God’s direction in my choice and then His blessing on my choice, I would fall to my book next week.

My resolution was confirmed by reading Genesis 3:19 (“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread …”) and Matthew 25 (about the servants who received the talents). Also Mark 6:3, “Is not this the carpenter?” from which Perkins says that Christ used carpentry as His particular calling, and Exodus 20, “Six days shalt thou labour,” which according to Perkins is a command. Also 1 Corinthians 12:28, “God hath set some in the church, first apostles, gifts of healings, helps of governments.” Ephesians 4:28, “Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.” Colossians 3:22, “Servants, obey in all things your masters, and, whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ.” 2 Thessalonians 3:10, “This we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. Now them that work not at all, but are busybodies, we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work and eat their own bread.”

My mind was strongly prompted by these passages to be settled in a calling, and was then confirmed in my first resolution by Perkins’ rules of examination, but especially by 1 Corinthians 7:20, and I blessed God heartily for settling my mind so well.

ReflectionsI remembered how I had presented to God as my greatest request that He would be well-pleased to settle me in a particular calling, in which I could glorify Him, edify His servants, and work out my own salvation with fear and trembling. This made me confident of the general principle that assuredly God would bless me in my calling. I also remembered how, having craved God’s direction concerning my choice of a calling, I got the same passage, 1 Corinthians 7:20, brought to my memory in my prayer as an answer.

Also, God answered all the objections that I could bring against my calling to law. The first objection was that God seemed to thwart me in the study of this calling. Answer: It was because I had not till now sought God’s direction and blessing so urgently. Now, after being so urgent with God, I can say with David, “The Lord hath delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the jaws of the bear, he will deliver me also out of the hand of this Philistine.” So the Lord who protected me in my travels [to France] and directed me in my marriage, will bless me also in my choosing and in my calling. All the more so, since on the one hand what I am praying for now tends more to His glory and the good of His servants and my salvation, and on the other hand the manner of my praying is [by His help] more humble, more frequent, and more fervent than before.

My second objection was that I would shame myself by something I said. Answer: That would be to distrust God’s assistance, which He will not refuse to any who truly desires it, not only in divine discourses, but also secular discourses tending to His glory and the good of the commonwealth.

Thirdly, I had a doubt about the distractions associated with law. Answer: My devotion, not being continually bent [towards spiritual things] would be the benter when it was [from time to time] employed in God’s service.

Fourthly, I had a doubt about the temptations associated with law. Answer: Those temptations are less dangerous than either medicine or theology, for there they endangered either the soul or the body, but with law they only endanger the purse. Also, those temptations would be like so many pricks in my side to keep me awake all the time, and to hold God’s graces in exercise, and to maintain my tenderness of conscience (which, if never stirred, would grow obdurate).

Then, for my greater confidence of a blessing, I remembered how all my prayers run on this line, that God would glorify Himself both in my life and in my death, and that He would send either life or death as He thought fittest to His glory, the best interests of church and commonwealth, and my own salvation. So that, seeing God now sends life, I may be confident that He has some work to do with me yet for His glory, the wellbeing of His servants, and my own good.

Thereafter I spent that night in confessing, praying, and praising for all His mercies, and in particular for settling my mind so well that day in my particular calling. Blessed by His name for it, for now and for evermore!

Archibald Johnston of Wariston kept a diary for many years. Extracts have recently been republished in a book titled, ‘For Christ and Covenant: The Spirituality of Archibald Johnston of Wariston,’ edited by Ruth E Alcalay.

← Two ways we argue with GodFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

How the Word of God gives us words for GodEvery so often the suggestion is made that we should use gender-neutral language to refer to God. There is certainly a need for carefulness in how we speak about God, so that we don’t inadvertently make Him seem inaccessible or unavailable to specific groups of people. Yet this should not be driven by our perceptions of what might make God unappealing to sinful preferences, or by the demands of certain groups that God should fit the mould they want Him to fit. God has actually chosen to make Himself known to us in His Word – in human language. Yet human language fails almost before it starts to express the greatness of God. We must therefore confine ourselves to speaking about God in ways that He legitimises (in that He has used these terms Himself in the Scriptures) while constantly realising that even these words are not adequate. God is so great that He cannot be confined in any way – not the whole universe can contain Him – and certainly He cannot be reduced to the kind of creature whose identity changes in the eye of the beholder according to which are currently the preferred pronouns, as dictated by sinful imaginations or to suit self-serving human interests. Our job is not to conform God to our political agendas or passing ideological fixations, but to conform ourselves to Him. As the following updated extract from a textbook by Hugh Binning makes clear, we can only ever know and speak of God on His own terms.“God is a Spirit, and they who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). Something of the nature of God is pointed out to us here, as well as something of our duty towards Him. “God is a spirit,” is His nature; and “we must worship him,” is our duty, and “in spirit and in truth” is the right manner of doing our duty. If these three were rightly pondered, till they sink in to the depth of our spirits, they would make us real Christians.

We need to know accurately who God isIt is presupposed for all Christian worship and walking, to know what God is. This is indeed the primo cognitum of Christianity, the first principle of true religion, the very root out of which springs and grows up walking suitably with and worshipping appropriately a known God.

In too much of our religion we are like the people of Athens, who built an altar to an unknown God, and the Samaritans, who worshipped they knew not what. Such a worship, I don’t know what it is, when the God worshipped is not known!

True knowledge of God is not comprised of many notions and speculations about the divine nature, or high and strained conceptions of God. Some people speak of these mysteries in some unique way, using terms far removed from common understandings, which neither themselves nor others know what they mean. But this only shows that they are presumptuous, self-conceited, knowing nothing as they ought to know. There is a knowledge that puffs up – a knowledge that only makes people swells up, it doesn’t make them grow. It’s only a rumour, full of air, a vain and empty and frothy knowledge, that is neither good for edifying others, nor saving themselves. A knowledge that someone has, so as to ascend on the height of it, and measure himself by the degrees of it, is not the true knowledge of God. The true knowledge of God doesn’t know itself, doesn’t look back on itself, but looks straight towards God, His holiness and glory, and sees our baseness and misery. Therefore it constrains the soul to be ashamed of itself in such a glorious presence, and to make haste to worship, as Moses, Job and Isaiah did.

We cannot worship God without knowing accurately who He isThis definition of God, if we truly understood it, could not but transform our worship.

God is a spirit. Many people form in their own mind some likeness and image of God, who is invisible. They imagine to themselves some bodily shape. When they conceive of Him, they think He is some reverend and majestic person, sitting on a throne in heaven. But I beseech you, correct your mistakes about Him! There is outward idolatry as well as inward. There is idolatry in action, when people paint or engrave some similitude of God, and there also is idolatry in imagination, when the fancy runs on some image or likeness of God. The latter is too common among us. Indeed it comes to much the same thing, whether to form similitudes in our mind, or to engrave or paint them outwardly. The God whom many of us worship is not the living and true God, but a painted or graven idol. You do nothing more than fancy an idol to yourselves when you conceive of God under the likeness of any visible or tangible thing. Then whatever love, or fear, or reverence you have, it is all but mis-spent superstition, the love and fear of an idol.

God is beyond the reach of our sensesKnow then that God is a spirit, and therefore He is like none of all the things you see, or hear, or smell, or taste, or touch. The heavens are glorious indeed, the light is full of glory, but God is not like that. If all your senses were to make an inquiry, and search for Him throughout the world, you would not find Him, even though He is near at hand to every one of us. Your eyes and ears and all your senses could travel the length of the earth and breadth of the sea, and would not find him, even as you might search all the corners of heaven before you could hear or see an angel. If you cut a person into pieces, and resolved him down into atoms of dust, yet you could not perceive a soul within him. Why? Because these are spirits, and so beyond the reach of your senses.

God is beyond the capacity of our languageIf God is a spirit, then He is invisible, and dwells in light inaccessible, which no man hath seen or can see. Then our poor narrow minds, which are immersed (as it were) in bodies of clay, and receive all knowledge from the senses, cannot frame any suitable notion of His spiritual nature. We cannot even conceive what our own soul is, except when some tangible activity flows from it. The height that our knowledge of ourselves amounts to, is only the dark and confused conception that the soul is some inward principle of life and sense and reason. How then is it possible for us to conceive rightly of the divine nature, as it is in itself?

In a dark and general way, we guess at His majesty by the glorious emanations of His power and wisdom, and the rays of it which He displays in all the works of His hands. From all these concurring testimonies and evidences of His majesty we gather at best the notion of Him that He is the fountain of life, the self-independent being, the very life and light of men, who makes all things visible, and He Himself is invisible.

This is the reason why the Lord speaks to us in the Scripture of Himself in terms of His face, His right hand and arm, His throne, His sceptre, His back parts, His anger, His fury, His repentance, His grief and sorrow. None of these are properly in His spiritual, immortal and unchangeable nature. He speaks in this way because of our dullness and slowness in apprehending spiritual things. It is almost beyond the comprehension of the soul while in the body, because the soul is almost addicted to the senses of the body. The Lord therefore accommodates Himself to our terms and notions. Like a father babbles with his babbling children, He speaks to us in our own dialect, but at the same time He wants us to realise that He is not really like this, but infinitely removed in His own being from all these imperfections.

So when you hear these terms in Scripture, O beware that you do not conceive God to be such a one as yourselves! In these expressions so below His majesty, learn your own ignorance of His glorious majesty, and your dullness and incapacity, when the Holy One must come down as it were in some bodily appearance, before you can understand anything about Him.

God is most powerfulIf God is a spirit, then He is most perfect, and most powerful. All imperfection, infirmity and weakness in the creature is founded in its material part of it. A body, when the soul and spirit is out of it, has no more virtue nor efficacy than so much clay, though when it had the presence of its spirit, it was active, agile, swift, strong and nimble. Consider then what a one the God of the spirits of all flesh must be – the very fountain-spirit, the self-existent spirit. When the soul of a human being – or even the spirit of a horse – has so much virtue as to stir up a lump of earth and enliven it to so many different kinds of activities, even though that soul and spirit did not and indeed could not make that piece of earth they dwell in – then what must be the power and virtue of Him who made all these things?

God is immenseIf God is a spirit, then He is not circumscribed by any place; and if He is an infinite spirit, then He is everywhere. No place can include Him, and no object can exclude Him. He is within all things, yet not included or bounded within them, and He is outwith all things, yet not excluded from them. As you know, every object has its own bounds and limits circumscribed to it, and it shoots out all other objects out of the same space. But a spirit can pass through all of them, and never disturb them. A legion of spirits may be in one man, and have plenty space. How much more the maker of all spirits fills all in all! The thickness of the earth does not keep Him out, nor does the largeness of the heavens contain Him.

O, how narrow thoughts we have of His immense greatness! How often, I wonder, do you reflect on His immensity? God is near at hand to every one of us. Who among us think of a divine majesty nearer us than our very souls and consciences? For “in him we live and move and have our being.” How is it that we move, and do not think with wonder of the first mover, in whom we move? How is it that we live and persevere in being, without continually considering the fountain-being in whom we live and have our being? We go about all our business as if we were self-existent, and independent of anyone, never thinking of the all-present, quickening spirit, who activates us, moves us, speaks in us, makes us to walk, and eat and drink! Who of us believes this all-present God? We imagine that He is shut up in heaven, and takes no notice of what is going on below, but certainly, He is not so far from us.

God’s understanding is unsearchableIf God is a spirit, then, as He is incomprehensible and immense in being, so also there is no comprehension of His knowledge. He is an all-knowing spirit, an all-seeing spirit, as well as all-present. “There is no searching of his understanding” (Isa. 40:28, and Psalm 147:5). “Who hath directed his spirit, or being his counsellor hath taught him?” (Rom. 11:34; Isa. 40:1).

O that you would always set this God before you – or rather, set yourselves always in His presence, in whose sight you are always! How it would compose our hearts to reverence and fear in all our actions, if we really did believe that the judge of all the world is an eye-witness to our most unobserved and secret thoughts and doings! If any other human being was as privy to your thoughts as your own spirit and conscience, you would blush and be ashamed before him. If every one of us could open a window into one another’s spirits, I think this assembly would disperse as quickly as when Christ invited those who were without sin to cast a stone! We could not so much as look one upon another. O then, why are we so little apprehensive of the all-searching eye of God, who can even declare to us our thought before we think it? God “knows our down-sitting and up-rising, and understands our thoughts afar off, and is acquainted with all our ways” (Psalm 139). O, how we would ponder our path, and examine our words, and consider our thoughts beforehand, if we set ourselves in the view of a spirit who is within us and outside us, before us and behind us!

← Blessings, boundaries and the churchThe cold comfort of a changeable God →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

Blessings, boundaries and the churchThe Church of England recently voted in favour of allowing blessings for same-sex couples although with assurances that the church’s doctrine of marriage will not change. To many this seems incoherent, and it exposes a lack of clarity on the boundaries between what is and is not acceptable in the realm of sexuality and marriage. In the New Testament model, the church and the world are on different sides of a clear line of demarcation and the church has no need to feel pressurised into adopting the agenda and mores of the world. In the early days of the church of Corinth the pressure was real and the church in some significant ways capitulated to societal expectations. The boundary markers in these ways collapsed and the apostle Paul needed to write more than once to reinstate them. Particularly in the area of sexual ethics the divergence needed to be crystallised between how the surrounding culture regarded people’s behaviour, and how Jesus’ apostles expected the church to react. Immorality of any kind, including same-sex relationships, is not something for the church to bless, but to help people avoid. As David Dickson’s commentary on Paul’s letter to the Corinthians draws out in the following updated extract, Paul teaches both that sexual immorality has no place within the church, and that forgiveness is available.Indifference to sexual purity is a pagan attitudeLike the other Gentiles, the Corinthians regarded sexual immorality as a “thing indifferent,” neither right nor wrong in itself. But in 1 Corinthians 6, Paul rejects this point of view. Anticipating and forestalling that their excuse would be, “All indifferent things are lawful for us now that we are Christians!” Paul makes several counter-points.

Firstly, in verse 12, he qualifies their major assumption, “All indifferent things are lawful!” by limiting it to “lawful as far as they are beneficial,” i.e., helpful, and, “lawful as long as our sinful desires do not win the mastery over us,” for by the intemperate use of our liberty we can sin even in the use of indifferent things.

Then in verse 13 he also challenges their secondary assumption, that fornication is something indifferent. He says in effect, “Granting that food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, there is a big difference between food and fornication!” It is lawful to eat any kind of food, because God has ordained food to be a natural good. Yet we have to reckon with the fact that God will destroy both food and the stomach, at least as far as its current functions are concerned. So for the sake of our stomach we must not endanger our eternal salvation, or the salvation of others, by eating in a way that causes others to stumble. However, the big difference is that sexual immorality is never lawful. It is simply a sin, and to be avoided.

The body is simply not made for immorality – it is not in any way comparable to how food is ordained for the stomach and vice versa. The body is ordained to be a member of Christ our Lord, who is ordained to be the head, to govern the whole body, so that it would be kept holy. In fact, in the resurrection our bodies will be raised as glorious bodies, just as the body of Christ was raised. Therefore they ought not to be defiled with fornication.

Paul goes on to refer to what should have been an obvious, known fact about marriage: the two become one flesh. The members of Christ are not to be made by fornication the members of a prostitute (verses 15-16). For “he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (verse 17). Believers are members of Christ, because they are united to Him by faith, and are one mystical body with Christ – one spiritual body, or one spirit with Christ.

Paul then provides an exhortation. “Flee fornication!” (verse 18). Returning to his argument, he draws a comparison with other sins. Other sins misuse something or other that is external to the body, but sexual immorality abuses its own body, and for that matter dishonours the body more than any other sin (verse 18).

Especially considering that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, they ought not to be polluted with sexual immorality. Additionally, believers are not their own – they have been purchased with the blood of Christ. They must therefore take heed that they do not defile themselves with immorality, but rather by a holy way of life both in body and soul they should endeavour to glorify God their Redeemer, whose they are.

Sexual impurity has no place in the churchTowards the end of chapter 4, Paul has been warning the church of Corinth that formal church censures would come their way if they continued in their schismatic and divisive ways. Lest they should think these are empty words, he tells them at the start of chapter 5 that they must excommunicate a certain individual who had committed a certain type of sexual sin. “It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you” (1 Corinthians 6:1-2).

Paul here reprimands the church because they ought long ago to have grieved for this great offence, and excommunicated the wicked person from fellowship, instead of excusing his fault by minimising it, or making a joke of it, or glorying in it as if they were impressed with what he had done.

One reason for excommunicating this individual is because he was defiled by heinous wickedness. Even the Gentiles would not so much as speak of this sin without detestation.

Paul recognises that as a church, they have the power to excommunicate a wicked person like this. But now he adds his additional apostolic authority to the situation. “For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Corinthians 6:3-5).

“Truly,” he is saying, “you have my opinion and authority concerning that wicked person. Therefore, when you are gathered together, be fortified by this letter, which comes with apostolic authority, and by the authority of Christ, in whose name the censures of the church should be given, and excommunicate this wicked person.”

Paul uses the expression, “Deliver him to Satan,” because when anyone’s outward status is that they have been rejected and cast out of the church, and excommunicated from the privilege of the fellowship of the saints, then as far as their outward status is concerned, they are declared to belong instead to the kingdom, slavery, and power of Satan. To be a citizen of the kingdom of God (that is, the church) even outwardly, is a greater honour than to reign outside of the church. To be excommunicated is to lose your reputation and honour and dignity, and be reckoned as belonging to the subjects of the devil.

Having said this, the actual purpose of excommunication is to be a means of repentance and salvation. Truly by the censure of excommunication the pride of the flesh should be mortified, and the new creature will be saved in the day of judgment.

Impurity is a contagionPaul continues in verse 6, “Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?” The risk was that the whole church would be infected and polluted by the contagion of so great a wickedness, just as a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough. That is why they needed to excommunicate the wicked person. Continuing with the metaphor, Paul says that the Christian church must be purged from things which bring reproach on Christ and cause others to stumble – and the hearts of Christians must be purged from all the corruption of their old nature – with at least the same diligence as the houses of the Jews were purged from literal leaven before the Passover. Doing this would have the beneficial effect “that ye may be a new lump,” a new and holy society, new creatures really and indeed (verse 7).

The church should be a place where holiness flourishesConfirming his argument, Paul explains that the thing signified in the Passover – the sacrifice of Jesus Christ – commits Christians to have a care that holiness would flourish in us and in the church. Putting away malice and wickedness both from ourselves and from the church will mean that we can worship and serve the Lord cheerfully and in a holy way, in sincerity and truth. We cannot live in a holy and righteous way (as the meaning of the feast of the Passover lamb requires of us) unless the leaven of our past life and our wicked practices are purged away out of us and out of the house of God, and unless we endeavour to keep sincerity and truth in us and in the church.

The church should not judge the world, but itselfPaul wraps up his argument by referring to a previous letter he had written to the church of Corinth, in which he had told them not to have fellowship with fornicators (verse 9). By consequence they should have understood that fornicators were to be excommunicated from the church, and much more so those who committed incest.

Of course, this gives them no excuse for thinking that this instruction about immoral persons referred only to those who were in the world, or outside of the church. That would have been to command something impossible, because they must necessarily either live amongst such wicked persons or else go out of the world (verse 10). They lived in Corinth, after all, where the majority remained pagans. Paul clarifies that he means they must not keep fellowship with anyone who claims to be a Christian, or a brother, who commits sexual immorality. That brother is to be excommunicated, if after the church has convinced him of his sin he remains wicked and impenitent (verse 11).

Neither the apostle nor the church had the right to impose church censures on those who were outside the church. Those outside the church are left to the judgment of God. But the conclusion they ought to have drawn from this is that judging members of the church certainly is part of the church’s work – this power does belong to the church. That is why their responsibility was to put away or excommunicate that wicked person from among them.

← Breaking the cycle of intergenerational perversityFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

Breaking the cycle of intergenerational perversityA failing health service, the social care timebomb, disregard for the safety of women and children, economic stagnation, the aftermath of the pandemic, immigration woes, a crisis in law and order, the deficiencies of our energy policy – yet even the boldest politicians seem to offer little more than sticking plasters, if not proposals that will positively make things worse. Even secular commentators are talking in terms of Britain’s “fall from grace” and expressing frustration at how little yield there is for our efforts. We seem to have inherited problems from the previous decades and generations which we cannot solve, while inheriting opportunities which we fail to exploit to our advantage. At the national level it is as if something is preventing us from achieving what we could.Yet this is not a new experience. In the 1600s commentators such as William Guthrie were keen observers of national trends and their analysis moved beyond the political and economic to also take into consideration the spiritual dimension. In Guthrie’s view, national stagnation and failures were the price the nation paid for collectively forsaking the Lord and loosening their commitment to His ways. In the 1700s Thomas Boston, sharing essentially the same outlook as Guthrie, elaborated further on the perversity of his generation. It was a perversity which seemed to actively incite God to thwart their attempts to better themselves.The following pair of updated extracts from their writings show Guthrie’s self-accusation of the nation and Boston’s earnest exhortations to “save yourselves from this untoward generation.” Although politicians will always disappoint us with the limited solutions they can offer to the nation’s problems, it is not inevitable that we keep sinking into ever worsening decline. If we accept Guthrie’s and Boston’s analysis and advice, we can break out of the cycle of intergenerational perversity and thrive under God’s blessing.God is right to be angry with us when we refuse to be humbled by His chastisementsBy William Guthrie

We have responded with deep-rooted complacency, impenitence, obstinacy and incorrigibleness under all the dreadful chastisements of God.

Although God has visited us with dreadful chastisements, we have responded with complacency and incorrigibleness. God has also given us tokens of his indignation against us because of these attitudes, yet our attitudes do not change. So while he continues to smite, we are so far from humbling ourselves and turning to him that we grow worse and worse, and sin more and more.

This is surely undeniable. We only need to observe the condition of the land, and the present character and behaviour of the people. Virtually everyone is crying out for their afflictions, but almost no one is mourning for his sin.

What kind of generation is this?By Thomas Boston

“Save yourselves from this untoward generation” is part of Peter’s advice to his hearers in his sermon in Acts 2. What kind of generation was this?

A generation that has become impervious to the means of grace and the glorious gospel of Christ.

And is not this the case of the present generation? We have long enjoyed the gospel, and now we are like those who are made deaf by the continual sounding of many waters. To whom shall preachers now speak? Who now believes the report of the gospel? Some who once trembled at the Word, now sit like brazen walls against it. Some whose consciences were once touched, are now apparently seared with a hot iron. What can be expected, but that God will change his messengers, and try sharp rods after a slighted word?

A generation in which corruption of life and manners is become universal, having overspread all ranks of society

Alas! is not this our very case? Is not profaneness and wickedness like a flood gone over all its banks? If we look at the congregation, what profane swearing, drunkenness, biting and devouring one another, and uncleanness abound among us, even in the midst of gospel-light! Is this the fruit of plenty, fulness, and thriving in the world? If we look abroad through the nations, religion is truly fallen under contempt. Looseness and licentiousness are become fashionable, the flood-gates of debauchery are set open, and there is no stemming of the tide. The generation has not stopped at ordinary crimes, but they have proceeded to an open defiance of heaven by atheism and blasphemy. What prodigious blasphemies have been heard of, of late! The foundations of Christianity are sapped by damnable heresies. The principles of true religion are in hazard of being lost, not only among people, but pastors. What a dreadful conjuncture this is, when in England and Ireland the supreme Godhead of Christ, and His equality with the Father, is denied, while in Scotland legalism, by which the purity of gospel-doctrine is corrupted, prevails and is countenanced so much!

A generation deaf to the calls of providence, who are not drawn by mercies, and not driven to repentance by lesser strokes

Our generation has met with a great variety of providences. Uncertainty as to who the new monarch would be – but God gave us King George and not another Stuart monarch. Civil unrest in the Jacobite Rising of 1714 – but God stopped it from filling the whole land with blood. Impoverishment following the failure of the Darien Scheme. The threat of pestilence, which rages in France – but so far God has averted it from us. What is the fruit of all these mercies, strokes, deliverances, and long-suffering? Are we bettered by them? So far from it, that we are visibly growing worse and worse. We take one bad step after another, so that the reasons why God is angry are still multiplying.

A generation resistant to check, control, or reproof in their sinful courses, but determined to have their own way

People cannot endure reproof. Church discipline is despised. Personal interventions are apt to incense the reproved against the reprover. Ministers challenging people in the preaching of the Word, people are not able to bear, if they are too close to the bone. Everyone cares more about reputation than conscience.

How can we save ourselves from this generation?As a first step, we must open our eyes, and look.

Look around you, and observe the generation, and consider seriously the way they are going, and the perversity which this manifests. Otherwise you will never bestir yourself to save yourself from it.
Look above you, to God. Take notice how the course of the untoward generation is displeasing to Him, how it dishonours Him and robs Him of the glory that is due to his name. God is the governor of the world, and He is not an idle spectator of what people do on earth. Since He looks to us, let us look up to Him.
Look within you, and see what perversity exists within your own heart, and appears in your own life and way (Isaiah 6:5). Nobody saves themselves from an untoward generation without beginning here.

More particularly:

Return to God by Jesus Christ, in the way of the everlasting covenant held out to you in the gospel. “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts 2:39). Be stiff-necked no longer, but yield yourself to the Lord. Take salvation closely to heart now at last, and enter into the covenant, if you are still a stranger to Christ. And if you are the friend of Christ, renew your covenant, give a renewed consent to the marriage-covenant between Christ and your soul.
Endeavour to walk closely with God in your personal capacity, as Noah did (Genesis 6:9). Strive to be acquainted with the life and power of religion in your own souls. When the church is going through a dark and cloudy day, it is hard to keep fast to a religion you don’t feel. When the winds of error and delusion are left to blow, they will hurt anyone who doesn’t know God. In a time of general calamity, anyone who cannot live by faith will find it hard to live.
Beware of and stand at a distance from the sinful ways and courses of the untoward generation. “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11). Let it not encourage you to sin, that you see others take liberty to themselves to do so, for that way you only enter into the conspiracy against God with the multitude. If you are ever to save yourselves from this untoward generation, you will be instructed of God (as Isaiah was), that he “should not walk in the way of this people” (Isaiah 8:11).
Mourn over the sins of the untoward generation, as well as over your own, otherwise you are not free of them (Ezekiel 9:4; Psalm 119:136). “Rivers of waters run down mine eyes,” said David, “because they (the wicked) keep not thy law.” God is dishonoured, His name is profaned, His ways, truths, and ordinances are trampled on by this untoward generation – and we stand by as unconcerned spectators, or else join in! What? is God our Father? is Christ our elder brother? are we on heaven’s side or are we not?
Make the welfare of Christ’s church a matter of your own personal concern. Take a personal interest in how it fares with the church of Christ in this untoward generation.

There has been much contending in Scotland, even unto blood, for all the parts of our covenanted reformation. Few of the Covenanting generation remain now, but in this current generation the work is at risk of going to wreck at our hands. It is much to be lamented that church members generally are very easy and complacent about the matter. They do not see the danger, they do not perceive the weight of it, and they are not inclined to take much interest in it. Hence no wonder they are not busy wrestling with God about it. But you are called to bestir yourself on Zion’s behalf. Our Lord takes notice how people behave in times when His interest is sinking. He will look after His own interests Himself in due time, but those who stand aloof from it are in a dangerous position, according to what Mordecai told Esther, “For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place, but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed” (Esther 4:14).

Now is the time to save yourselves. God is still on a throne of grace. He is calling to you, however far you have gone on with the untoward generation, to save yourselves now from this generation.

← The wrong kind of fearFURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

Why love is one of God’s commandmentsThe love between God’s children is a stronger bond than mere niceness, it is something definite, active and fruitful. It is also something that God commands His children to show to one another, and it is pleasing to God when they do walk in obedience to this commandment. In the following updated extract, Hugh Binning outlines some of the reasons why God likes love enough to command it, based on 1 John 3:23: “this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.”The relationship between love, lifestyle and faithI wish you to rightly observe this conjunction, that these are inseparably knit together, love to God and love to other people – delight to do His will – to love Him and live to Him. Do not deceive yourselves with vain words. If you do not find the doctrine of grace laying this restraint on your heart, you are yet in your sins. This is the reasoning of a believing soul: “Shall I, who am dead to sin, live any longer therein? Shall I not delight in those commandments, when Christ has delivered me from the curse of the law?” Although that person falls and comes short, yet the pressure of their heart is in that direction.

At the same time, pay attention to the order. You must first believe on the Son, and then love Him, and live to Him. You must first flee to His righteousness, and then the righteousness of the law shall be wrought in you.

Therefore do not weary yourselves to no purpose. Do not wrong your own souls by seeking to reverse this order, which was established for your joy and salvation. Know that you must first meet with satisfaction in all the commands of Christ, before your obedience to any of them can be accepted. Then, having met with that, know that the sincere endeavour of your soul, and the affectionate impulse of your heart towards your duty, is accepted.

And if you find yourself afterwards surcharged with guilt and inconsistent walking, yet you know that the way is to begin at this again, to believe in the Son. This is the round you must walk, as long as you are in the body. When you are defiled, run into the fountain, and when you are washed, strive to keep your garments clean, but if defiled again, get your hearts washed from wickedness.

How far-reaching love isNow love is a very comprehensive command. It is the fulfilling of the whole law (Romans 8:10, Matthew 22:37–38. It is indeed the true principle and pure fountain of our obedience unto God and men. All fruits of the Spirit are moral virtues that grow out of the believer. Whether pleasing to God, or refreshing to other people, they are all virtually in the root of love. That is why the apostle names one for all, i.e., brotherly love, as the bond of perfection (Colossians 3:14).

Love is a bundle of many divine graces, a company or society of many Christian virtues combined together. They are named bowels of mercies, long suffering, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, forbearance, and forgiveness, all which are tied to the believer’s girdle by charity. So where love is, every good comes. After love comes a troop of so many sweet endowments and ornaments, and where love is lacking (as truly it is the epidemic disease of the time), many sins abound, for when iniquity abounds, “the love of many shall wax cold” (Matthew 24:12).

Oh! that is our temperament, or rather our distempered nature — our love is cold, and our passions are hot! When charity goes away, out come the wild and savage beasts of darkness, i.e., bitter envying and strife, rigid censuring and judging, unmercifulness and implacableness of spirit towards others’ failings and offences. Self-love keeps the throne, and all the rest are her attendants. For where self-love and pride is, there is contention, strife, envy, and every evil work, and all manner of confusion. They lead one another as in a chain of darkness (Proverbs 13:10; James 3:16).

Do not think that love is a mere compliment, an idle feeling. It more real than that, more vital. It has bowels of mercy, which move when others are moved, and which bring their neighbour’s misery into the inmost seat of the heart, and make your spirit a companion in their misery. It is also exercised in forbearing and forgiving. Charity is not easily provoked — therefore it can forbear, it is easily appeased — therefore it can forgive, it is not soon displeased, or hard to be pleased, “forbearing and forgiving one another in love.”

How helpful love isFocus more then on this grace of love. See it to be the fulfilling of the law, for “the end of the commandment is charity, out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith unfeigned.” The end of the law is not strife and debate, nor the intricate and perplexed matters which bring endless questions and no edification.

Though people claim to be motivated by conscience and scripture, yet they violate charity, the great end of both, which mainly strives for edification in truth and love. It is a violent perversion of the commandment to love, to overstretch every point of conscience, or every point of difference, so far as to rend Christian peace and unity. All these names of war, and all these fiery contentions among us, what have they been kindled by if not the lack of charity? What James says of the tongue, I may likewise say of uncharitableness and self-love — they set on fire the course of nature, and they are set on fire of hell.

True zeal and the love of God is a fire that in its own place has a temperate heat, and does not burn or consume what is round about it. But our zeal is like fire that is mixed with some gross material, a preying, devouring, and consuming thing, zeal down in the lower region of man’s heart, where it is mixed with many gross corruptions, which are as oil and fuel to it, and gives it an extreme intemperate destroying nature.

How significant love isBut then consider that this commandment of love is our Lord and Saviour’s last testamentary injunction to His disciples (John 13:34–35). “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

It is Christ’s last will, and it is given us as a token and badge of discipleship. Every profession has its own signs and rules, every order has its own symbol, every rank its own character. Here is the differential or unique character and identification of a Christian — brotherly love. “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

I remember a story of a dying father who called his sons to him on his death bed. Having sent for a bundle of arrows, he tested them one by one if they could break them, and when they had all tried this in vain, he caused them to untie the bundle, and take the arrows one by one, and so they were easily broken. By this he gave them to understand that their stability and strength would consist in unity and concord, but if love and charity were broken, they were exposed to great hazard.
I think our Lord and Saviour gives such a precept unto his disciples at his departure out of this world (“A new command I give unto you,” John 13:34) to show them that the perfection of the body, into which they were all called as members, consisted in that bond of charity.

Indeed love is not only a bond or bundle of perfection in respect of graces, but in regard of the church too. It is that bond or tie which knits all the members into one perfect body (Colossians 3:14–16). Without this bond, everything will necessarily be tears, rags, and distractions.

How pleasing love is to GodTruly believing in the Son must be gratifying to God, not only from the general nature of obedience to His will, but also because this does the most honour both to the Father and to the Son. The Father counts Himself much honoured when we honour the Son, and there is no honour the creature can be in a capacity to give Him like this, to cast all our hope and hang all our happiness on Him (John 5:23–24), to set to our seal that He is true and faithful (John 3:33), which is done by believing.

But most of all, it is pleasing in His sight because the Father’s good pleasure centres on the same point as the soul’s good pleasure, that is, on the well beloved Son, Christ. Therefore faith must needs be well pleasing to the Father, for what else is faith but the soul’s delight and satisfaction in the Son. As the Father is already well pleased with His death and sufferings, so He holds him out in the gospel, that you may be as well pleased with Him as He is. This is believing indeed, to be pleased with Him as the Father is pleased, and this pleases the Father too.

Oh that you could understand this! The gospel is not brought to you so that you would reconcile God, and bring about a change in His affection, but instead, to beseech you to be reconciled to God, to take away all hostility out of your heart. This is the business which preachers have to do, to persuade you that the Father holds Himself abundantly contented with His Son. “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And to move you to be as well contented with Him as He is, he says, “Hear Him!” “I hear Him for you, now you hear Him for Me! I hear Him interceding for you, now you hear Him beseeching you!”

This serves to take away all ground of suspicions concerning our welcome and acceptance with God. It cannot but be an acceptable and pleasing thing to God, when the affection and desire of your soul falls on and gathers into your bosom with His good pleasure Christ His Son!

How harmonious love is with God’s loveAnd then, it is well-pleasing to God that we love one another, not only because He sees His own image and likeness in our love (for there is nothing in which the Christian more eminently resembles their Father, or more evidently appears to be a child of the Highest, than in free loving all, especially the household of faith, and forbearing and forgiving one another, and so God cannot choose but like it well), but especially because your love centres on the same objects as His love — these whom the Father so loved that He gave His only begotten Son for them, and the Son so loved them, that He gave Himself for them. If these are your delight, and you show forbearance to them as the Father and the Son has done, that concentration of affections into one point cannot but be pleasing to Him.

← How to defy discouragementsThe heavenly wisdom of a soft answer →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

What should a minister pray for?The apostle Paul prayed a beautiful prayer for the church at Ephesus. As well as showing all believers what we can aspire to and what we should pray for on our own account, some additional further advice can be gleaned specifically for ministers. Preachers and pastors have the responsibility of caring for the souls of those who are to feed from the Word they preach, and this includes praying with them and for them. But how should ministers approach God when they pray? What features of the flock should shape the requests they make in prayer for them? Why does it even matter that ministers should pray for their people? In this updated extract from his commentary on Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3, James Fergusson picks out some pointers for ministers. In turn, believers who observe this advice should remember that as we are all members of God’s family, there should be no desire to exclude any of the family from the blessings of salvation, and there should be willingness to help rather than hinder our minister’s prayers for us.Praying with purposeIn this part of the chapter Paul gives a summary of his fervent prayers to God for the believers at Ephesus, that they would persevere and grow in the faith and experiential knowledge of the doctrine of salvation (Eph. 3 from v14 onwards). In doing so he not only gives an evident testimony of his sincere affection and endeavours for their salvation, but he also strives to stir up a similar ardency of affection in them. Indirectly at least, though most effectively, the example of his prayers prompts them to persevere and make progress in the experiential knowledge of and communion with Jesus Christ.

Paul states what has occasioned his prayer (i.e., that these people were already built by faith on Christ). He also expresses the humble, reverent frame of his heart in prayer (“I bow my knee,” Eph. 3:14). He also shows that he is directing his prayer to God the Father.

God the Father is described first from His relation to Jesus Christ (“the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”) and secondly, from His relation to His church (“God … of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named”) (Eph3:14). He is the Father by adoption of the whole church of those who are regenerate, whether triumphant in heaven or militant on earth, whether Jew or Gentile. The church is here called a “family,” and it is said to have its name from God. They are His family, His children, those who are at home in His household.

In the context, there is a particular relevance why Paul describes God in this way. The Jews wanted the whole church to be named after (and contained within) the Jewish nation, excluding the Gentiles. But at all points Paul makes the Gentiles equal sharers of participation in God along with the Jews. So Paul by using the term “God … of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named” he is breaking down this arrogance, and at the same time showing his warrant to pray for perseverance and growth in grace from God even to the Gentiles.

Ministers must pray for their flockAs we know, it is the duty of Christ’s ministers to teach and instruct the people of God committed to their charge (2 Tim. 4:2). But we learn from Ephesians 3:14 that it is every bit as much the minister’s duty to pray to God for their people.

Ministers must pray for their people, not only in public with them, when they are as it were the mouth of the people to God (Joel 2:17), but also in private. All their efforts cannot profit without the Lord’s blessing (1 Cor. 3:6). Ministers ought therefore fervently to seek the Lord’s blessing from God by prayer, otherwise they have no ground to expect it (Ezek. 36:37).

Why people need their minister to pray with and for themIt is of no small advantage to the Lord’s people to have a minister who is able to pray, and who accordingly does pray pertinently, spiritually, and fervently with them and for them.

By him, as by their mouth, they may have their various cases made known to God more distinctly than many of them can express by themselves.
Additionally they themselves are edified and instructed how to pray with similar affection and fervency (1 Cor. 14:19).
By their minister’s affectionate prayers to God for them, a blessing is drawn down from heaven to make the Word preached effectual in them (James 5:16), and they themselves are roused up to seek after those good things that their minister prayed for them to have.
They can also be comforted and encouraged to know that their minister is speaking to God for them, including when he is absent from them, and cannot speak to them (Phil. 1:4), and when they through some reason or another cannot deal with God for themselves, at least in any measure satisfactory to themselves (James 5:14–15).

People should be able to take their lead from their ministersWhy did the apostle tell them what and how he prayed for them? Not to win their applause (because that is condemned, Matt. 6:5), but to stir them up to pray for themselves and to endeavour to obtain the good things he sought for them. The more earnest and laborious others are for bringing about our spiritual good (whether they are our ministers, parents, friends, neighbours), all the more we should be provoked into diligence about the same thing ourselves.

Ministers should pray for more grace for their peopleIf you pray to God for others, especially if you are a minister praying for your flock, your prayers should be prompted not only by their needs, afflictions and sinful infirmities (James 5:14–15), but also by the grace and good things of God they have already received. Pray that they would persevere and grow in these graces and good things, and be preserved from abusing them, seeing the graces of the best are only imperfect (1 Cor. 13:9), subject to decay (Rev. 3:2), and may be abused (2 Cor. 12:7). Paul prays for these Ephesians because of the good they have already received, i.e., that they are built on Christ already (v22).

Ministers should pray with reverence and confidenceWe ought, especially in prayer, to draw near to God with deep reverence and high esteem or His majesty of God, joining this with low and mean thoughts of ourselves, because of our baseness and unworthiness, seeing God honours them who honour Him (1 Sam. 2:30) and gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). Paul evidenced such a frame of heart by bowing his knees when he prayed.

Deep reverence of heart towards the sacred majesty of God in prayer is fully consistent with faith and confidence in approaching to God as a reconciled father. These both ought to be joined together in prayer, and indeed, when they are sincere and not counterfeit, they both strengthen one another. The more we put our trust in Him, the more our hearts will fear and adore Him (Psalm 130:4). The apostle exercised not only reverence in his prayer, as is already shown, but also confidence, while he takes up God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the whole family of believers through Him.

The warrant for praying for the church is God’s fatherly careAs there is but one church universal, comprehending all the elect in all times and places, whether in heaven or earth, so all within the church are of one kindred and linage, descending from one common father. Paul designates the church “one whole family in heaven and earth.”

The near relations, under which God stands towards His church, are founded on Jesus Christ: and all the benefits flowing from these relations are conveyed to the church through Him. Outside of Jesus Christ, God is a consuming fire to sinners, and in Jesus Christ, He is a reconciled father to believers.

The near relation which God has to His church, and His church to Him, is sufficient ground and warrant for faith to rest on Him, and plead with Him for the supply of all grace, and of every needful thing. Shall He not provide for His own children, when He has said that human fathers who do not provide for their children are worse than infidels? (1 Tim. 5:8). This is why the apostle makes this a ground of his confidence that he will be answered by God in what he sought on behalf of these Ephesian believers, i.e., God’s fatherly interest in them.

← What makes the Bible special?How grace takes us by surprise →FURTHER READINGRead more articles from the blogAUTHOR MENU* Samuel Rutherford * George Gillespie * James Durham * Alexander Henderson * David Dickson * Alexander Nisbet * Donald Cargill * Andrew Gray * George Hutcheson * Hugh Binning * Westminster Assembly * The Covenanters * James Fergusson * James Fraser of Brea * James Guthrie * William Guthrie * James Renwick * John Brown of Wamphray * John Livingstone * Richard Cameron READ MORELIKE THISSubscribe to our weekly newsletter and receive an updated article every week.

Success!First Name

Last Name

View Details

When a believer asks Jesus for advice, where does He tell them to turn?

View Details

When not everyone sees the same truths with the same clarity, how should these differences of opinion be handled in the church? Is there a way to reduce the fuzziness and sharpen the focus?

View Details

When our sins make punishment seem inevitable, is despair the only option? Is it really safe to hope? Read more of how hope is possible even when things look very bleak.

View Details

Luxury, threat, boring technicality – just some reactions to church government. But if church government is spiritual, it is something that deserves our thankful respect and can help us grow spiritually.

View Details

There seem to be problems in the church everywhere we look. But repentance and renewal are things we can ask the Lord to gift the church.

View Details

After the period of Covid disruption many Christians and churches feel a sense of being adrift. Things are not how they were spiritually as well as in other ways. How can we remedy this?

View Details

It is easy to go wrong in understanding and explaining the trinity. There are new challenges. But this is not merely a theological debate, it has an impact on our devotion.

View Details

It is all too easy to overlook the issue of half truths but it is bigger than we realise.

View Details

It's a very contemporary question. It could become a criminal offence to seek to turn people (even in the most loving way) from certain sins. What should we do?

View Details

We all know things are not what they used to be or should be in the church and society. But how should we respond? Denial? Lament? Here is a better way.

REFORMING YOUR CHURCH ARTICLES | Reformation Scotland: Recent Episodes

REFORMING YOUR CHURCH ARTICLES | Reformation Scotland