Monthly Archives: August 2012

A Brief Biography of Spurgeon (1)

Posted on by
1

Phil Johnson of spurgeon.org writes:

It is well known that Charles Spurgeon came to Christ when he ducked into a small church to escape a snowstorm and heard the gospel proclaimed. Some wrongly think Spurgeon was thus suddenly converted to Christ out of a life of sheer paganism. Spurgeon himself used to talk about how he had suffered for a long time under the weight of sin before he finally found Christ. Because of the way he described himself as a great sinner utterly in debt to divine grace, many who heard him preach came away with the impression that he was a man who had gone deeply into sin and come to Christ fairly late in life.

But the facts are that Charles Spurgeon was converted to Christ while still in his youth, and he was the product of godly upbringing in a pastor’s home. Spurgeon’s two main role models, his father and his grandfather, both were godly pastors.

Spurgeon was raised in his grandfather’s home from his infancy until he was nearly six years old. Something, possibly economic difficulties, made it necessary for Charles to live with his paternal grandparents, in a village near the one where his parents lived, from the time he was nearly two years old until he was ready to start elementary school. Charles Spurgeon was his grandfather’s constant companion, both in the pastor’s study and when the elder Spurgeon made pastoral visits. Young Charles loved his grandfather’s books. He was a prodigy when it came to reading, and he developed a love for books very early. He especially loved Pilgrim’s Progress.

By the time Spurgeon returned to his parents’ home at age six, he already had three younger siblings, two sisters and a brother. He seemed already to feel very deeply his responsibility as the elder brother to influence them for good. That perspective, which was surely part of his grandfather’s pastoral legacy, made him mature beyond his years. And this was a persistent trait of Charles Spurgeon’s. As a young boy, even before he was a teenager, his hobbies were writing poetry and editing a magazine. Even then he was honing the literary skills that would make him legendary both as a preacher and an author.
Continue reading →

The Sacraments

Posted on by
Reply

From the Ligonier website:

“[Abraham] received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised” (v. 11a). – Romans 4:9–12

God has given us several means of grace through which He strengthens the faith of those who trust in Christ alone. These means of grace include the sacraments, and the definition of a sacrament is taken up in question and answer 66 of the Heidelberg Catechism.

The catechism looks to today’s passage in order to define the nature of a sacrament, which is fitting because Romans 4:9–12 deals with one of the sacraments of the old covenant, namely, circumcision. Circumcision was a sign — a visible act that pointed beyond itself to an invisible reality. This invisible reality was the fact that Abraham was cut out from the world and set apart unto God through faith alone (Gen. 15:6; 17). It was a visible reminder of the Lord’s promise to cut out of this fallen world a people for Himself. Circumcision, Romans 4 also reveals, was a seal. In the ancient world, a seal marked off ownership — people knew to whom an object belonged based on the seal affixed to it. Thus, circumcision was the mark of God’s ownership, tangible proof that those who bore the mark actually belonged to the Lord and would inherit all His promises if they had faith in Him.

As with circumcision, the new covenant sacraments are also visible and tangible ways in which we are reminded of God’s promises and marked off as His people. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper have no inherent power to make us the children of God. That is, the performance of these rites themselves does not benefit us if we have no faith. We can access the grace available in them only if we believe the gospel. In fact, if we receive the sacraments without faith, we call down curses upon ourselves (1 Cor. 11:27–30).

John Calvin writes in his famous Institutes that a sacrament “is an external sign, by which the Lord seals on our consciences his promises of good-will toward us, in order to sustain the weakness of our faith, and we in turn testify our piety towards him, both before himself and before angels as well as men” (4.14.1). Using elements that we can taste, see, and touch, the sacraments help us, as embodied creatures, to understand spiritual realities. In turn, when we participate in the sacraments, we testify to our faith in God’s promises before a watching world.

Coram Deo
We are creatures with both physical and spiritual components. We understand what happens to us physically when we are washed with water and when we eat, and the sacraments portray spiritual realities to us by way of analogies with our physical experience. The Spirit truly washes us clean of sin, and we truly receive necessary spiritual nourishment from Christ. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper help us understand these truths better.

*****

Extreme abuses tend to evoke extreme responses, especially in the history of Christian theology. Roman Catholic sacerdotalism — the idea that salvation is mediated through the priesthood and the sacraments — has long distorted the biblical gospel. So, it is understandable that many Christians have tried to answer this problem by downplaying the importance of the clergy and the sacraments. Modern evangelicals, due in part to our insistence on the biblical truth that salvation demands personal faith in Christ, often view the sacraments as bare memorials. In many circles, baptism and the Lord’s Supper are reduced to ordinances that we do simply because we are supposed to do them, and little thought is given as to why the sacraments exist. Moreover, the idea that the sacraments convey grace in a special way is probably foreign to many evangelicals, at least in America.
Continue reading →

Does Proverbs teach “the Health, Wealth, and Prosperity Gospel?”

Posted on by
Reply

From David Murray

Does Proverbs teach “the Health, Wealth, and Prosperity Gospel?” It certainly contains multiple promises of health, wealth, and prosperity to those who live wisely. However, there’s an eternity of difference between the Prosperity Gospel and Gospel Prosperity. Let me give you five statements that will help clarify that difference.

1. God has provided external Wisdom, in principle and Person form, to correct our sin-caused ignorance, error, and folly.

God made us with knowledge, rightness, and practical life-skills. However, as a punishment for Adam’s sin, God cursed Adam and his descendants with ignorance, error, and folly.

As no amount of research, experimentation, or reasoning will make us spiritually wise again, God has revealed His otherwise inaccessible and unattainable Wisdom to us. In the Old Testament, God reveals that wisdom largely in principle form (e.g. the Moral Law, the Proverbs). However, Proverbs also personifies Wisdom, giving a hint of a future revelation of Wisdom in human form, a revelation we now know is Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:24; Col. 2:3).

2. As Wisdom cannot be attained, retained, or practiced quickly or easily, God has graciously incentivized the diligent pursuit and practice of it with multiple different rewards.

As sinners find it so difficult to seek, keep, and do Wisdom for its own sake, throughout Proverbs God promises spiritual, physical, intellectual, financial, social, relational, and eternal rewards for seeking, remembering, and doing it. Yet even these rewards are of grace, because God is not obliged to reward what we should do anyway, and any spiritual diligence is itself His gift.

3. In the NT era, Wisdom’s rewards are more spiritual and eternal than material and temporary, Gospel prosperity more than the Prosperity Gospel.

The Old Testament manifested spiritual blessings in a much more material form, mainly because the church was still in its infancy. Although God still blesses in material ways, the focus of Christ and His Apostles is much more on spiritual and eternal blessings (e.g. John 7:17; 14:16,21; Rev. 3:7, 11).

The Prosperity Gospel puts prosperity before the Gospel, and seeks prosperity above all else. Gospel prosperity puts the Gospel first and gratefully accepts any spiritual and material blessings as the overflow of a Gospel-centered life.

4. The divinely-ordained connection between godliness and Gospel prosperity is a general maxim, but not without notable exceptions.

There are two kinds of wisdom in the poetic books. Practical Wisdom contains simple, optimistic, popular, and pithy truths. It describes the way things generally ought to be (e.g. the Proverbs). Philosophical Wisdom deals much more with the complexities of life. It reflects on the reality that things do not always go as they ought, that there are sometimes enigmas, mysteries, and exceptions to Practical Wisdom (e.g. Job, Ecclesiastes).

It’s like learning a language. You start by learning all the basic rules and regular patterns (Practical Wisdom), and once you’ve mastered them, then you consider the irregular verbs, the qualifications to the rules, etc., (Philosophical Wisdom).

5. Seek and embrace Wisdom for Wisdom’s sake, not for the rewards He brings.

While the rewards should encourage us to seek and practice Wisdom, it is best to look on them retrospectively rather than prospectively. Don’t predict in the future tense, “If I do this, then I’ll get this.” Rather reflect in the past tense, “I did that, and the Lord has graciously rewarded me.”

A couple of weeks ago I came home from a solo trip to Scotland. Imagine if when I came off my plane, my children grabbed my case and started rifling through it to find their presents, and then walked away leaving me empty-handed with my bags strewn all over the airport!

Don’t seek the gifts but the Giver, not the rewards of Wisdom but the Rewarder who is Wisdom. Remember what God said to Abram: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward” (Gen. 15:1 NKJV).