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Honesty in the Pulpit

I have a friend (if you read this you know who you are) who says that one of his favorite traits of a certain preacher is his honesty. It’s not that most preachers are liars. Rather, it’s that they don’t deal with the real, nitty-gritty stuff that the Bible speaks of all over the place. They don’t want to make the applications of Scripture that often need to be made. They don’t want to admit their own limitations, nor the limitations of the people who are listening to them. And they don’t want to deal with the sheer ugliness of life (not that life is always ugly) and difficulties of the Bible.

I’ve come to church, knowing that the preacher was going to be dealing with a tough passage, looking forward to seeing how he handles it, ready to have my toes stepped on. And then I leave, the issue never having been resolved, perhaps barely being brought up. My toes are just fine.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones said of Jonathan Edwards,

He was an original, suddenly shot forth, a mighty intellect, accompanied by a brilliant imagination, amazing originality, but above all by honesty. He is one of the most honest expositors I have ever read. He never evades a problem; he faces them all. He does not skirt around a difficulty (The Puritans: Their Origins and Successors, p. 355).

I may not have his intellect or imagination, but I pray that I would have his honesty.

Family Worship: Biblical Examples

I picked up Thoughts on Family Worship, by J.W. Alexander from the church library today. In the opening chapter he gathers evidence for the practice of family worship/family religion (though the word ‘religion’ is much maligned these days) in the Bible (as well as in church history). In this post I have collected some of the texts he used as examples, for my own future reference, along with a few texts I have added and some introductory comments. And as if that weren’t enough, I throw in a relevant Jonathan Edwards quote that I think summarizes the biblical picture of family worship well.

1. Noah led his family into the ark:

  • Genesis 7:7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood.

2. Abraham was commanded to teach his family ‘to keep the way of the LORD’:

  • Genesis 18:19 For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”

3. Isaac ‘not only renews the fountains which his father had opened, but keeps up his devotions, building an altar at Beersheba’ (J.W. Alexander, Thoughts on Family Worship, p. 13):

  • Genesis 26:24 And the LORD appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham’s sake.” 25 So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the LORD and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac’s servants dug a well.

4. ‘The book of Deuteronomy is full of family religion; as an example of which we may specially note the sixth chapter (Ibid, pp. 13-14)’:

  • Deuteronomy 6:6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

5. Not Joshua alone, but all those under his authority, in his house, will serve the LORD:

  • Joshua 24:15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

6. Job’s faith led him to consecrate his children to the LORD, and offer up sacrifices for them habitually, even when sacrifice had not yet been explicitly commanded:

  • Job 1:5 And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.

7. David not only pronounced benediction upon the people of Israel but saved a special benediction for his family:

  • 2 Samuel 6:18 And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of hosts 19 and distributed among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, a cake of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins to each one. Then all the people departed, each to his house. 20 ¶ And David returned to bless his household.

8. Perhaps David had learned the importance of family worship from the practice of his own parents:

  • 1 Samuel 20:6 If thy father at all miss me, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Bethlehem his city: for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family.

9. God calls families to his solemn assembly:

  • Joel 2:15 Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; 16 gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.

10. When God brings Israel to repentance over the death of the Messiah, he will do so by families:

  • Zechariah 12:10 ¶ “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. 11 On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land shall mourn, each family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; 13 the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves; 14 and all the families that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves.

11. Parents brought their children to Christ to receive his blessing:

  • Luke 18:15 ¶ Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.

12. Believing spouses and parents have a sanctifying effect on all those in their house:

  • 1 Corinthians 7:14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

13. The ‘household’ passages of the New Testament demonstrate household religious practice:

  • Acts 16:15 And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.
  • 1 Corinthians 1:16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)
  • Acts 18:8 Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household.
  • Acts 10:1 ¶ At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, 2 a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God.

14. Aquila and Priscilla, ‘Paul’s “helpers in Christ Jesus,”…were able to teach a young minister the way of God more perfectly…You will find that one reason for their familiarity with the Scriptures was that they had a “church in their house” (Alexander):

  • 1 Corinthians 16:19 ¶ The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord.

A Jonathan Edwards quote comes to mind, so with it I close this post:

Every Christian family ought to be as it were a little church, consecrated to Christ, and wholly influenced and governed by his rules. And family education and order are some of the chief means of grace. If these fail, all other means are likely to prove ineffectual. If these are duly maintained, all the means of grace will be likely to prosper and be successful (reference coming).

Resolutions

I think resolutions can be a good thing, or a bad thing. The questions is, what is the purpose, for who’s glory? I have made a habit of reading Jonathan Edwards’ Resolutions every year as the new year begins. I want to encourage others to do the same.This time around I was struck by his desire to not speak evil of anyone unnecessarily, and to consider his own sins when speaking to, and about, others. Here are a few examples:

8. Resolved, to act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been so vile as I, and as if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings as others; and that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God.

31. Resolved, never to say anything at all against anybody, but when it is perfectly agreeable to the highest degree of Christian honor, and of love to mankind, agreeable to the lowest humility, and sense of my own faults and failings, and agreeable to the golden rule; often, when I have said anything against anyone, to bring it to, and try it strictly by the test of this Resolution.

70. Let there be something of benevolence [or good will], in all that I speak.

And so, with Edwards, I am resolving to put Ephesians 4:29 into practice:

  • Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

My resolution: Resolved, to speak in a way that fits each situation I find myself in. In every situation to speak in a way that will build up whomever I am speaking to. To receive the grace of God, and to speak grace – in with grace and out with grace in my communications.

It’s a quick read, why don’t you read it for yourself HERE.

PS: I love resolution 15: ‘Resolved, never to suffer the least motions of anger to irrational beings.’ I think Edwards was maybe prone to get angry with his horse. I like the idea of striving not to get mad at inanimate objects, like a guitar that doesn’t agree with me or the door when I break my toe on it (like a did a couple of months ago).

The Light of the World (2): Always Winter and Never Christmas

I have been reading a good bit of Jonathan Edwards lately. At the same time my family and I have been reading the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (again). I am not aware of anywhere in his writings that C.S. Lewis interacts with the writings of Jonathan Edwards. But time and time again I have discovered significant overlap in their thought (I may post on this in the future). I came across one such overlap this week, and a helpful one at that.

Let me say few things to set the stage. When I began reading Lewis, as well as Tolkien, I was struck by an element of seriousness in their writing. Call it a certain ‘melancholy.’ Yet in their melancholy, a certain joy is still evident. They both, but Tolkien especially, had the ability in their writing to make the happiest events seem sad and the saddest events seem happy. It’s hard to describe. It’s a mood more than anything else. You pick it up if you read enough of them.

I am not a big fan of the recent Narnia movies, but there are a few things the movies do well. One relates to the mood I’m speaking of. In the closing scene of Prince Caspian, the image of the Pevensie children walking away from Aslan in Narnia into a crowded train station in the ‘real world’ is striking. I remember, after seeing the movie for the first time, telling my wife that that scene perfectly captured my weekly mood transitioning from Sunday to Monday. Sunday is my favorite day of the week. It’s like Narnia in its brightness and glory. But then on Monday morning I face the real world. Yet Sunday is the real world to me, not Monday. Aslan tells the children later in the Chronicles that they must get to know him in their own world by another name. Narnia is just a glimpse, just one manifestation. In the humdrum of the train station is where they will truly get to know him.

I digress, but this captures the mood I’m speaking of. It’s like a joyful sadness, a happy mourning. I wrote about it HERE and, using Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ expression, called it ‘serious happiness.’ (If you are a regular reader of mine and haven’t read that post, I’d encourage you to do so. That post is as clear an expression of my thinking as anything I’ve ever written).

In Narnia, in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the land is bewitched so that it is ‘always winter and never Christmas.’ That is, until Aslan returns and the thaw of spring begins. In Jonathan Edwards sermon on John 8:12, where Jesus says, ‘I am the light of the world,’ he expresses he same idea about the return of Christ:

Is Christ Jesus the light of the world? What glorious times will those be when all nations shall submit themselves to him, when this glorious light shall shine into every dark corner of the earth, and shall shine much more brightly and gloriously than ever before. It will be like the rising of the sun after a long night of darkness, after the thick darkness had been ruling and reigning over all nations and poor mankind had been groping about in gross darkness for many ages. When this glorious morning comes, then those that never saw light before shall see it and be astonished at its glory. Then the world, which has been in a kind of dead sleep for this many ages, shall rouse up and begin [to] open their eyes and look forth to behold this glorious light of the world; then will the sweet music of God’s praises begin to be heard.

Then will Christ say unto his spouse, as in Isaiah 60, at the beginning:

“Arise, shine; for thy light is come, for the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For the Gentiles shall then come unto her light, and kings to the brightness of her rising.” Now, indeed, darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people, but the Lord shall arise upon his church and his glory shall be seen upon her. Then shall “the light of the moon be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold” (Isaiah 30:26). The world has had a long winter of sin and ignorance; for many ages has the Sun of Righteousness been in the Tropic of Capricorn; but when this time comes the world will enjoy a glorious spring: then holiness and God’s kingdom shall revive as the fields and trees revive in spring. Then shall the time come when all creatures shall praise the Lord, and the mountains shall break forth into singing and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands…

The light that is Christ is already shining in this world. The thaw of spring has already begun. Dark, blind, cold, dead sinners are already having their eyes opened, are being warmed by the love of Christ, are coming alive by his Spirit. We see him, and we see that he is light. But we wait for a day when that light will shine so brightly as to swallow up all the darkness. And so we pray, ‘Come, Lord Jesus.’ Then the melancholy will disappear, but joy will be more serious than ever.

The Main Benefit Obtained by Preaching is…Not from Note-Taking!

The Doctor, and Jonathan Edwards, didn’t think we should be taking notes during a sermon. Martyn Lloyd-Jones quotes Edwards:

The main benefit obtained by preaching is by impression made upon the mind at the time, and not by an effect that arises afterwards by a remembrance of what was delivered. And though an after-remembrance of what was heard in a sermon is oftentimes very profitable; yet, for the most part, that remembrance is from an impression the words made on the heart at the time; and the memory profits, as it renews and increases that impression (Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 1, p. 294, Quoted in Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Puritans: Their Origins and Successors, pp. 359-360).

Lloyd-Jones then comments,

I would add that I have often discouraged the taking of notes while I am preaching. It is becoming a custom among evangelical people; but it is not, as many seem to think, the hallmark of spirituality!

The first and primary object of preaching is not only to give information. It is, as Edwards says, to produce an impression. It is the impression at the time that matters, even more than what you can remember subsequently…It is not primarily to impart information; and while you are writing your notes you may be missing something of the impact of the Spirit. As preachers we must not forget this (The Puritans: Their Origins and Successors, p. 360).

The main point, I think, for a preacher to take from these quotations is this: What are you aiming at in your preaching? Are you aiming to simply educate people, or are you aiming to rouse people, to enliven people, to see people changed on the spot?

Take this quote from Lloyd-Jones:

Thomas Cartwright…said, ‘As the fire stirred giveth more heat, so the Word, as it were, blown by preaching, flameth more in the hearers than when it is read.’ That is, to me, a very striking and most valuable statement. It tells us, incidentally, something of the purpose of preaching. The real function of preaching is not to give information, it is to do what Cartwright says; it is to give it more heat, to give life to it, to give power to it, to bring it home to the hearers…He is to inspire them, he is to enthuse them, he is to enliven them and send them out glorying in the Spirit (Ibid, pp. 376-377).

And that quote is reminiscent of Edwards:

I should think myself in the way of my duty, to raise the affections of my hearers as high as possibly I can, provided that they are affected with nothing but truth, and with affections that are not disagreeable to the nature of the subject (From Thoughts on Revival, Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol 1. p. 391).

His Doctrine was all Application and His Application was all Doctrine

John Frame has convincingly made the case that doctrine and application (or the meaning of a text and its application) cannot be neatly separated (See his Doctrine of the Knowledge of God). The great preacher Jonathan Edwards understood this. And so it was said of him (by ‘Rabbi’ John Duncan):

[He is a preacher] whose doctrine is all application, and his application is all doctrine.

We do well to follow the model that Edwards (and many of the Puritans) set, not only in preaching, but in all our study, meditation, and conversation.