Podcasts about english puritan

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Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2023 31:27

Repentance is not optional. It is not left to our choice whether or not we will repent, but it is an indispensable command. God has enacted a law in the High Court of heaven that no sinner will be saved except the repenting sinner, and he will not break his own law. No one can willfully continue in sin and expect to be covered by the blood of Christ. Even if all the angels stood before God and begged for the life of an unrepenting person, God would not grant it. The Lord God, compassionate and merciful, . . . who keeps faithfulness for thousands, . . . will by no means leave the guilty unpunished (Exodus 34:6-7). Though God is more full of mercy than the sun is of light, still He will not forgive a sinner who willfully continues to sin. We have, by sin, wronged God. We have eclipsed his honor. We have infringed upon his law, and we should, reasonably, repent of our old ways. By repentance, we humble and judge ourselves for sin. We agree that God would be righteous if he destroyed us, and so we give glory to God and do what we can to repair his honor. Dying to sin is the life of repentance. The very day a Christian turns from sin, he must require of himself a perpetual fast. The eye must fast from impure glances. The ear must fast from listening to slander. The tongue must fast from cursing. The hands must fast from bribes. The feet must fast from unclean paths. And the soul must fast from the love of wickedness. This turning away from sin implies a noticeable change in the lives of those who truly follow Christ. Therefore let us, while we are on this side of the grave, make our peace with God! About the Author Thomas Watson, a 17th-century English Puritan pastor, served at St. Stephen Walbrook Church in London for 16 years. He married Abigail Beadle and had seven children, four of whom died young. Imprisoned briefly in 1651 for plotting to restore Charles II, he returned to his pastoral duties until 1662 when laws against Nonconformists forced him to preach privately. In 1672, he obtained a license to preach at Crosby Hall, London, where he continued until his health declined. He died in 1686 in Barnston, Essex. Known for works like The Godly Man's Picture and The Ten Commandments, Watson was a devout Christian who faced hardships with unwavering faith.

A Letter to the Reader - The Doctrine of Repentance

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Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2023 5:38

Repentance is not optional. It is not left to our choice whether or not we will repent, but it is an indispensable command. God has enacted a law in the High Court of heaven that no sinner will be saved except the repenting sinner, and he will not break his own law. No one can willfully continue in sin and expect to be covered by the blood of Christ. Even if all the angels stood before God and begged for the life of an unrepenting person, God would not grant it. The Lord God, compassionate and merciful, . . . who keeps faithfulness for thousands, . . . will by no means leave the guilty unpunished (Exodus 34:6-7). Though God is more full of mercy than the sun is of light, still He will not forgive a sinner who willfully continues to sin. We have, by sin, wronged God. We have eclipsed his honor. We have infringed upon his law, and we should, reasonably, repent of our old ways. By repentance, we humble and judge ourselves for sin. We agree that God would be righteous if he destroyed us, and so we give glory to God and do what we can to repair his honor. Dying to sin is the life of repentance. The very day a Christian turns from sin, he must require of himself a perpetual fast. The eye must fast from impure glances. The ear must fast from listening to slander. The tongue must fast from cursing. The hands must fast from bribes. The feet must fast from unclean paths. And the soul must fast from the love of wickedness. This turning away from sin implies a noticeable change in the lives of those who truly follow Christ. Therefore let us, while we are on this side of the grave, make our peace with God! About the Author Thomas Watson, a 17th-century English Puritan pastor, served at St. Stephen Walbrook Church in London for 16 years. He married Abigail Beadle and had seven children, four of whom died young. Imprisoned briefly in 1651 for plotting to restore Charles II, he returned to his pastoral duties until 1662 when laws against Nonconformists forced him to preach privately. In 1672, he obtained a license to preach at Crosby Hall, London, where he continued until his health declined. He died in 1686 in Barnston, Essex. Known for works like The Godly Man's Picture and The Ten Commandments, Watson was a devout Christian who faced hardships with unwavering faith.

Opening Credits - The Doctrine of Repentance

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Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2023 0:11

Repentance is not optional. It is not left to our choice whether or not we will repent, but it is an indispensable command. God has enacted a law in the High Court of heaven that no sinner will be saved except the repenting sinner, and he will not break his own law. No one can willfully continue in sin and expect to be covered by the blood of Christ. Even if all the angels stood before God and begged for the life of an unrepenting person, God would not grant it. The Lord God, compassionate and merciful, . . . who keeps faithfulness for thousands, . . . will by no means leave the guilty unpunished (Exodus 34:6-7). Though God is more full of mercy than the sun is of light, still He will not forgive a sinner who willfully continues to sin. We have, by sin, wronged God. We have eclipsed his honor. We have infringed upon his law, and we should, reasonably, repent of our old ways. By repentance, we humble and judge ourselves for sin. We agree that God would be righteous if he destroyed us, and so we give glory to God and do what we can to repair his honor. Dying to sin is the life of repentance. The very day a Christian turns from sin, he must require of himself a perpetual fast. The eye must fast from impure glances. The ear must fast from listening to slander. The tongue must fast from cursing. The hands must fast from bribes. The feet must fast from unclean paths. And the soul must fast from the love of wickedness. This turning away from sin implies a noticeable change in the lives of those who truly follow Christ. Therefore let us, while we are on this side of the grave, make our peace with God! About the Author Thomas Watson, a 17th-century English Puritan pastor, served at St. Stephen Walbrook Church in London for 16 years. He married Abigail Beadle and had seven children, four of whom died young. Imprisoned briefly in 1651 for plotting to restore Charles II, he returned to his pastoral duties until 1662 when laws against Nonconformists forced him to preach privately. In 1672, he obtained a license to preach at Crosby Hall, London, where he continued until his health declined. He died in 1686 in Barnston, Essex. Known for works like The Godly Man's Picture and The Ten Commandments, Watson was a devout Christian who faced hardships with unwavering faith.

The Nature of True Repentance, Part One (Ch. 3) - The Doctrine of Repentance

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Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2023 49:46

Repentance is not optional. It is not left to our choice whether or not we will repent, but it is an indispensable command. God has enacted a law in the High Court of heaven that no sinner will be saved except the repenting sinner, and he will not break his own law. No one can willfully continue in sin and expect to be covered by the blood of Christ. Even if all the angels stood before God and begged for the life of an unrepenting person, God would not grant it. The Lord God, compassionate and merciful, . . . who keeps faithfulness for thousands, . . . will by no means leave the guilty unpunished (Exodus 34:6-7). Though God is more full of mercy than the sun is of light, still He will not forgive a sinner who willfully continues to sin. We have, by sin, wronged God. We have eclipsed his honor. We have infringed upon his law, and we should, reasonably, repent of our old ways. By repentance, we humble and judge ourselves for sin. We agree that God would be righteous if he destroyed us, and so we give glory to God and do what we can to repair his honor. Dying to sin is the life of repentance. The very day a Christian turns from sin, he must require of himself a perpetual fast. The eye must fast from impure glances. The ear must fast from listening to slander. The tongue must fast from cursing. The hands must fast from bribes. The feet must fast from unclean paths. And the soul must fast from the love of wickedness. This turning away from sin implies a noticeable change in the lives of those who truly follow Christ. Therefore let us, while we are on this side of the grave, make our peace with God! About the Author Thomas Watson, a 17th-century English Puritan pastor, served at St. Stephen Walbrook Church in London for 16 years. He married Abigail Beadle and had seven children, four of whom died young. Imprisoned briefly in 1651 for plotting to restore Charles II, he returned to his pastoral duties until 1662 when laws against Nonconformists forced him to preach privately. In 1672, he obtained a license to preach at Crosby Hall, London, where he continued until his health declined. He died in 1686 in Barnston, Essex. Known for works like The Godly Man's Picture and The Ten Commandments, Watson was a devout Christian who faced hardships with unwavering faith.

The Nature of True Repentance, Part Two (Ch. 4) - The Doctrine of Repentance

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Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2023 51:30

Repentance is not optional. It is not left to our choice whether or not we will repent, but it is an indispensable command. God has enacted a law in the High Court of heaven that no sinner will be saved except the repenting sinner, and he will not break his own law. No one can willfully continue in sin and expect to be covered by the blood of Christ. Even if all the angels stood before God and begged for the life of an unrepenting person, God would not grant it. The Lord God, compassionate and merciful, . . . who keeps faithfulness for thousands, . . . will by no means leave the guilty unpunished (Exodus 34:6-7). Though God is more full of mercy than the sun is of light, still He will not forgive a sinner who willfully continues to sin. We have, by sin, wronged God. We have eclipsed his honor. We have infringed upon his law, and we should, reasonably, repent of our old ways. By repentance, we humble and judge ourselves for sin. We agree that God would be righteous if he destroyed us, and so we give glory to God and do what we can to repair his honor. Dying to sin is the life of repentance. The very day a Christian turns from sin, he must require of himself a perpetual fast. The eye must fast from impure glances. The ear must fast from listening to slander. The tongue must fast from cursing. The hands must fast from bribes. The feet must fast from unclean paths. And the soul must fast from the love of wickedness. This turning away from sin implies a noticeable change in the lives of those who truly follow Christ. Therefore let us, while we are on this side of the grave, make our peace with God! About the Author Thomas Watson, a 17th-century English Puritan pastor, served at St. Stephen Walbrook Church in London for 16 years. He married Abigail Beadle and had seven children, four of whom died young. Imprisoned briefly in 1651 for plotting to restore Charles II, he returned to his pastoral duties until 1662 when laws against Nonconformists forced him to preach privately. In 1672, he obtained a license to preach at Crosby Hall, London, where he continued until his health declined. He died in 1686 in Barnston, Essex. Known for works like The Godly Man's Picture and The Ten Commandments, Watson was a devout Christian who faced hardships with unwavering faith.

Reasons for Repentance (Ch. 5) - The Doctrine of Repentance

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Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2023 9:18

Repentance is not optional. It is not left to our choice whether or not we will repent, but it is an indispensable command. God has enacted a law in the High Court of heaven that no sinner will be saved except the repenting sinner, and he will not break his own law. No one can willfully continue in sin and expect to be covered by the blood of Christ. Even if all the angels stood before God and begged for the life of an unrepenting person, God would not grant it. The Lord God, compassionate and merciful, . . . who keeps faithfulness for thousands, . . . will by no means leave the guilty unpunished (Exodus 34:6-7). Though God is more full of mercy than the sun is of light, still He will not forgive a sinner who willfully continues to sin. We have, by sin, wronged God. We have eclipsed his honor. We have infringed upon his law, and we should, reasonably, repent of our old ways. By repentance, we humble and judge ourselves for sin. We agree that God would be righteous if he destroyed us, and so we give glory to God and do what we can to repair his honor. Dying to sin is the life of repentance. The very day a Christian turns from sin, he must require of himself a perpetual fast. The eye must fast from impure glances. The ear must fast from listening to slander. The tongue must fast from cursing. The hands must fast from bribes. The feet must fast from unclean paths. And the soul must fast from the love of wickedness. This turning away from sin implies a noticeable change in the lives of those who truly follow Christ. Therefore let us, while we are on this side of the grave, make our peace with God! About the Author Thomas Watson, a 17th-century English Puritan pastor, served at St. Stephen Walbrook Church in London for 16 years. He married Abigail Beadle and had seven children, four of whom died young. Imprisoned briefly in 1651 for plotting to restore Charles II, he returned to his pastoral duties until 1662 when laws against Nonconformists forced him to preach privately. In 1672, he obtained a license to preach at Crosby Hall, London, where he continued until his health declined. He died in 1686 in Barnston, Essex. Known for works like The Godly Man's Picture and The Ten Commandments, Watson was a devout Christian who faced hardships with unwavering faith.

Counterfeit Repentance (Ch. 2) - The Doctrine of Repentance

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Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2023 5:24

Repentance is not optional. It is not left to our choice whether or not we will repent, but it is an indispensable command. God has enacted a law in the High Court of heaven that no sinner will be saved except the repenting sinner, and he will not break his own law. No one can willfully continue in sin and expect to be covered by the blood of Christ. Even if all the angels stood before God and begged for the life of an unrepenting person, God would not grant it. The Lord God, compassionate and merciful, . . . who keeps faithfulness for thousands, . . . will by no means leave the guilty unpunished (Exodus 34:6-7). Though God is more full of mercy than the sun is of light, still He will not forgive a sinner who willfully continues to sin. We have, by sin, wronged God. We have eclipsed his honor. We have infringed upon his law, and we should, reasonably, repent of our old ways. By repentance, we humble and judge ourselves for sin. We agree that God would be righteous if he destroyed us, and so we give glory to God and do what we can to repair his honor. Dying to sin is the life of repentance. The very day a Christian turns from sin, he must require of himself a perpetual fast. The eye must fast from impure glances. The ear must fast from listening to slander. The tongue must fast from cursing. The hands must fast from bribes. The feet must fast from unclean paths. And the soul must fast from the love of wickedness. This turning away from sin implies a noticeable change in the lives of those who truly follow Christ. Therefore let us, while we are on this side of the grave, make our peace with God! About the Author Thomas Watson, a 17th-century English Puritan pastor, served at St. Stephen Walbrook Church in London for 16 years. He married Abigail Beadle and had seven children, four of whom died young. Imprisoned briefly in 1651 for plotting to restore Charles II, he returned to his pastoral duties until 1662 when laws against Nonconformists forced him to preach privately. In 1672, he obtained a license to preach at Crosby Hall, London, where he continued until his health declined. He died in 1686 in Barnston, Essex. Known for works like The Godly Man's Picture and The Ten Commandments, Watson was a devout Christian who faced hardships with unwavering faith.

Faith and Repentance (Ch. 1) - The Doctrine of Repentance

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Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2023 10:11

Repentance is not optional. It is not left to our choice whether or not we will repent, but it is an indispensable command. God has enacted a law in the High Court of heaven that no sinner will be saved except the repenting sinner, and he will not break his own law. No one can willfully continue in sin and expect to be covered by the blood of Christ. Even if all the angels stood before God and begged for the life of an unrepenting person, God would not grant it. The Lord God, compassionate and merciful, . . . who keeps faithfulness for thousands, . . . will by no means leave the guilty unpunished (Exodus 34:6-7). Though God is more full of mercy than the sun is of light, still He will not forgive a sinner who willfully continues to sin. We have, by sin, wronged God. We have eclipsed his honor. We have infringed upon his law, and we should, reasonably, repent of our old ways. By repentance, we humble and judge ourselves for sin. We agree that God would be righteous if he destroyed us, and so we give glory to God and do what we can to repair his honor. Dying to sin is the life of repentance. The very day a Christian turns from sin, he must require of himself a perpetual fast. The eye must fast from impure glances. The ear must fast from listening to slander. The tongue must fast from cursing. The hands must fast from bribes. The feet must fast from unclean paths. And the soul must fast from the love of wickedness. This turning away from sin implies a noticeable change in the lives of those who truly follow Christ. Therefore let us, while we are on this side of the grave, make our peace with God! About the Author Thomas Watson, a 17th-century English Puritan pastor, served at St. Stephen Walbrook Church in London for 16 years. He married Abigail Beadle and had seven children, four of whom died young. Imprisoned briefly in 1651 for plotting to restore Charles II, he returned to his pastoral duties until 1662 when laws against Nonconformists forced him to preach privately. In 1672, he obtained a license to preach at Crosby Hall, London, where he continued until his health declined. He died in 1686 in Barnston, Essex. Known for works like The Godly Man's Picture and The Ten Commandments, Watson was a devout Christian who faced hardships with unwavering faith.

Powerful Motivations for Repentance (Ch. 7) - The Doctrine of Repentance

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Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2023 23:47

Repentance is not optional. It is not left to our choice whether or not we will repent, but it is an indispensable command. God has enacted a law in the High Court of heaven that no sinner will be saved except the repenting sinner, and he will not break his own law. No one can willfully continue in sin and expect to be covered by the blood of Christ. Even if all the angels stood before God and begged for the life of an unrepenting person, God would not grant it. The Lord God, compassionate and merciful, . . . who keeps faithfulness for thousands, . . . will by no means leave the guilty unpunished (Exodus 34:6-7). Though God is more full of mercy than the sun is of light, still He will not forgive a sinner who willfully continues to sin. We have, by sin, wronged God. We have eclipsed his honor. We have infringed upon his law, and we should, reasonably, repent of our old ways. By repentance, we humble and judge ourselves for sin. We agree that God would be righteous if he destroyed us, and so we give glory to God and do what we can to repair his honor. Dying to sin is the life of repentance. The very day a Christian turns from sin, he must require of himself a perpetual fast. The eye must fast from impure glances. The ear must fast from listening to slander. The tongue must fast from cursing. The hands must fast from bribes. The feet must fast from unclean paths. And the soul must fast from the love of wickedness. This turning away from sin implies a noticeable change in the lives of those who truly follow Christ. Therefore let us, while we are on this side of the grave, make our peace with God! About the Author Thomas Watson, a 17th-century English Puritan pastor, served at St. Stephen Walbrook Church in London for 16 years. He married Abigail Beadle and had seven children, four of whom died young. Imprisoned briefly in 1651 for plotting to restore Charles II, he returned to his pastoral duties until 1662 when laws against Nonconformists forced him to preach privately. In 1672, he obtained a license to preach at Crosby Hall, London, where he continued until his health declined. He died in 1686 in Barnston, Essex. Known for works like The Godly Man's Picture and The Ten Commandments, Watson was a devout Christian who faced hardships with unwavering faith.

A Brief Biography - The Doctrine of Repentance

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Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2023 2:59

Repentance is not optional. It is not left to our choice whether or not we will repent, but it is an indispensable command. God has enacted a law in the High Court of heaven that no sinner will be saved except the repenting sinner, and he will not break his own law. No one can willfully continue in sin and expect to be covered by the blood of Christ. Even if all the angels stood before God and begged for the life of an unrepenting person, God would not grant it. The Lord God, compassionate and merciful, . . . who keeps faithfulness for thousands, . . . will by no means leave the guilty unpunished (Exodus 34:6-7). Though God is more full of mercy than the sun is of light, still He will not forgive a sinner who willfully continues to sin. We have, by sin, wronged God. We have eclipsed his honor. We have infringed upon his law, and we should, reasonably, repent of our old ways. By repentance, we humble and judge ourselves for sin. We agree that God would be righteous if he destroyed us, and so we give glory to God and do what we can to repair his honor. Dying to sin is the life of repentance. The very day a Christian turns from sin, he must require of himself a perpetual fast. The eye must fast from impure glances. The ear must fast from listening to slander. The tongue must fast from cursing. The hands must fast from bribes. The feet must fast from unclean paths. And the soul must fast from the love of wickedness. This turning away from sin implies a noticeable change in the lives of those who truly follow Christ. Therefore let us, while we are on this side of the grave, make our peace with God! About the Author Thomas Watson, a 17th-century English Puritan pastor, served at St. Stephen Walbrook Church in London for 16 years. He married Abigail Beadle and had seven children, four of whom died young. Imprisoned briefly in 1651 for plotting to restore Charles II, he returned to his pastoral duties until 1662 when laws against Nonconformists forced him to preach privately. In 1672, he obtained a license to preach at Crosby Hall, London, where he continued until his health declined. He died in 1686 in Barnston, Essex. Known for works like The Godly Man's Picture and The Ten Commandments, Watson was a devout Christian who faced hardships with unwavering faith.

Removing the Roadblocks to Repentance (Ch. 10) - The Doctrine of Repentance

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Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2023 17:11

Repentance is not optional. It is not left to our choice whether or not we will repent, but it is an indispensable command. God has enacted a law in the High Court of heaven that no sinner will be saved except the repenting sinner, and he will not break his own law. No one can willfully continue in sin and expect to be covered by the blood of Christ. Even if all the angels stood before God and begged for the life of an unrepenting person, God would not grant it. The Lord God, compassionate and merciful, . . . who keeps faithfulness for thousands, . . . will by no means leave the guilty unpunished (Exodus 34:6-7). Though God is more full of mercy than the sun is of light, still He will not forgive a sinner who willfully continues to sin. We have, by sin, wronged God. We have eclipsed his honor. We have infringed upon his law, and we should, reasonably, repent of our old ways. By repentance, we humble and judge ourselves for sin. We agree that God would be righteous if he destroyed us, and so we give glory to God and do what we can to repair his honor. Dying to sin is the life of repentance. The very day a Christian turns from sin, he must require of himself a perpetual fast. The eye must fast from impure glances. The ear must fast from listening to slander. The tongue must fast from cursing. The hands must fast from bribes. The feet must fast from unclean paths. And the soul must fast from the love of wickedness. This turning away from sin implies a noticeable change in the lives of those who truly follow Christ. Therefore let us, while we are on this side of the grave, make our peace with God! About the Author Thomas Watson, a 17th-century English Puritan pastor, served at St. Stephen Walbrook Church in London for 16 years. He married Abigail Beadle and had seven children, four of whom died young. Imprisoned briefly in 1651 for plotting to restore Charles II, he returned to his pastoral duties until 1662 when laws against Nonconformists forced him to preach privately. In 1672, he obtained a license to preach at Crosby Hall, London, where he continued until his health declined. He died in 1686 in Barnston, Essex. Known for works like The Godly Man's Picture and The Ten Commandments, Watson was a devout Christian who faced hardships with unwavering faith.

Closing Credits - The Doctrine of Repentance

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Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2023 0:19

Repentance is not optional. It is not left to our choice whether or not we will repent, but it is an indispensable command. God has enacted a law in the High Court of heaven that no sinner will be saved except the repenting sinner, and he will not break his own law. No one can willfully continue in sin and expect to be covered by the blood of Christ. Even if all the angels stood before God and begged for the life of an unrepenting person, God would not grant it. The Lord God, compassionate and merciful, . . . who keeps faithfulness for thousands, . . . will by no means leave the guilty unpunished (Exodus 34:6-7). Though God is more full of mercy than the sun is of light, still He will not forgive a sinner who willfully continues to sin. We have, by sin, wronged God. We have eclipsed his honor. We have infringed upon his law, and we should, reasonably, repent of our old ways. By repentance, we humble and judge ourselves for sin. We agree that God would be righteous if he destroyed us, and so we give glory to God and do what we can to repair his honor. Dying to sin is the life of repentance. The very day a Christian turns from sin, he must require of himself a perpetual fast. The eye must fast from impure glances. The ear must fast from listening to slander. The tongue must fast from cursing. The hands must fast from bribes. The feet must fast from unclean paths. And the soul must fast from the love of wickedness. This turning away from sin implies a noticeable change in the lives of those who truly follow Christ. Therefore let us, while we are on this side of the grave, make our peace with God! About the Author Thomas Watson, a 17th-century English Puritan pastor, served at St. Stephen Walbrook Church in London for 16 years. He married Abigail Beadle and had seven children, four of whom died young. Imprisoned briefly in 1651 for plotting to restore Charles II, he returned to his pastoral duties until 1662 when laws against Nonconformists forced him to preach privately. In 1672, he obtained a license to preach at Crosby Hall, London, where he continued until his health declined. He died in 1686 in Barnston, Essex. Known for works like The Godly Man's Picture and The Ten Commandments, Watson was a devout Christian who faced hardships with unwavering faith.

Steps to Repentance, Part One (Ch. 11) - The Doctrine of Repentance

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Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2023 32:17

Repentance is not optional. It is not left to our choice whether or not we will repent, but it is an indispensable command. God has enacted a law in the High Court of heaven that no sinner will be saved except the repenting sinner, and he will not break his own law. No one can willfully continue in sin and expect to be covered by the blood of Christ. Even if all the angels stood before God and begged for the life of an unrepenting person, God would not grant it. The Lord God, compassionate and merciful, . . . who keeps faithfulness for thousands, . . . will by no means leave the guilty unpunished (Exodus 34:6-7). Though God is more full of mercy than the sun is of light, still He will not forgive a sinner who willfully continues to sin. We have, by sin, wronged God. We have eclipsed his honor. We have infringed upon his law, and we should, reasonably, repent of our old ways. By repentance, we humble and judge ourselves for sin. We agree that God would be righteous if he destroyed us, and so we give glory to God and do what we can to repair his honor. Dying to sin is the life of repentance. The very day a Christian turns from sin, he must require of himself a perpetual fast. The eye must fast from impure glances. The ear must fast from listening to slander. The tongue must fast from cursing. The hands must fast from bribes. The feet must fast from unclean paths. And the soul must fast from the love of wickedness. This turning away from sin implies a noticeable change in the lives of those who truly follow Christ. Therefore let us, while we are on this side of the grave, make our peace with God! About the Author Thomas Watson, a 17th-century English Puritan pastor, served at St. Stephen Walbrook Church in London for 16 years. He married Abigail Beadle and had seven children, four of whom died young. Imprisoned briefly in 1651 for plotting to restore Charles II, he returned to his pastoral duties until 1662 when laws against Nonconformists forced him to preach privately. In 1672, he obtained a license to preach at Crosby Hall, London, where he continued until his health declined. He died in 1686 in Barnston, Essex. Known for works like The Godly Man's Picture and The Ten Commandments, Watson was a devout Christian who faced hardships with unwavering faith.

Steps to Repentance, Part Two (Ch. 12) - The Doctrine of Repentance

god jesus christ exodus dying picture repentance doctrine ten commandments essex lord god high court imprisoned godly man though god charles ii nonconformists english puritan

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2023 8:15

Repentance is not optional. It is not left to our choice whether or not we will repent, but it is an indispensable command. God has enacted a law in the High Court of heaven that no sinner will be saved except the repenting sinner, and he will not break his own law. No one can willfully continue in sin and expect to be covered by the blood of Christ. Even if all the angels stood before God and begged for the life of an unrepenting person, God would not grant it. The Lord God, compassionate and merciful, . . . who keeps faithfulness for thousands, . . . will by no means leave the guilty unpunished (Exodus 34:6-7). Though God is more full of mercy than the sun is of light, still He will not forgive a sinner who willfully continues to sin. We have, by sin, wronged God. We have eclipsed his honor. We have infringed upon his law, and we should, reasonably, repent of our old ways. By repentance, we humble and judge ourselves for sin. We agree that God would be righteous if he destroyed us, and so we give glory to God and do what we can to repair his honor. Dying to sin is the life of repentance. The very day a Christian turns from sin, he must require of himself a perpetual fast. The eye must fast from impure glances. The ear must fast from listening to slander. The tongue must fast from cursing. The hands must fast from bribes. The feet must fast from unclean paths. And the soul must fast from the love of wickedness. This turning away from sin implies a noticeable change in the lives of those who truly follow Christ. Therefore let us, while we are on this side of the grave, make our peace with God! About the Author Thomas Watson, a 17th-century English Puritan pastor, served at St. Stephen Walbrook Church in London for 16 years. He married Abigail Beadle and had seven children, four of whom died young. Imprisoned briefly in 1651 for plotting to restore Charles II, he returned to his pastoral duties until 1662 when laws against Nonconformists forced him to preach privately. In 1672, he obtained a license to preach at Crosby Hall, London, where he continued until his health declined. He died in 1686 in Barnston, Essex. Known for works like The Godly Man's Picture and The Ten Commandments, Watson was a devout Christian who faced hardships with unwavering faith.

Speedy Repentance (Ch. 8) - The Doctrine of Repentance

god jesus christ exodus dying picture repentance doctrine ten commandments essex lord god high court speedy imprisoned godly man though god charles ii nonconformists english puritan

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2023 16:42

Repentance is not optional. It is not left to our choice whether or not we will repent, but it is an indispensable command. God has enacted a law in the High Court of heaven that no sinner will be saved except the repenting sinner, and he will not break his own law. No one can willfully continue in sin and expect to be covered by the blood of Christ. Even if all the angels stood before God and begged for the life of an unrepenting person, God would not grant it. The Lord God, compassionate and merciful, . . . who keeps faithfulness for thousands, . . . will by no means leave the guilty unpunished (Exodus 34:6-7). Though God is more full of mercy than the sun is of light, still He will not forgive a sinner who willfully continues to sin. We have, by sin, wronged God. We have eclipsed his honor. We have infringed upon his law, and we should, reasonably, repent of our old ways. By repentance, we humble and judge ourselves for sin. We agree that God would be righteous if he destroyed us, and so we give glory to God and do what we can to repair his honor. Dying to sin is the life of repentance. The very day a Christian turns from sin, he must require of himself a perpetual fast. The eye must fast from impure glances. The ear must fast from listening to slander. The tongue must fast from cursing. The hands must fast from bribes. The feet must fast from unclean paths. And the soul must fast from the love of wickedness. This turning away from sin implies a noticeable change in the lives of those who truly follow Christ. Therefore let us, while we are on this side of the grave, make our peace with God! About the Author Thomas Watson, a 17th-century English Puritan pastor, served at St. Stephen Walbrook Church in London for 16 years. He married Abigail Beadle and had seven children, four of whom died young. Imprisoned briefly in 1651 for plotting to restore Charles II, he returned to his pastoral duties until 1662 when laws against Nonconformists forced him to preach privately. In 1672, he obtained a license to preach at Crosby Hall, London, where he continued until his health declined. He died in 1686 in Barnston, Essex. Known for works like The Godly Man's Picture and The Ten Commandments, Watson was a devout Christian who faced hardships with unwavering faith.

The Testing of Our Repentance (Ch. 9) - The Doctrine of Repentance

god jesus christ exodus testing dying picture repentance doctrine ten commandments essex lord god high court imprisoned godly man though god charles ii nonconformists english puritan

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 30, 2023 14:46

Repentance is not optional. It is not left to our choice whether or not we will repent, but it is an indispensable command. God has enacted a law in the High Court of heaven that no sinner will be saved except the repenting sinner, and he will not break his own law. No one can willfully continue in sin and expect to be covered by the blood of Christ. Even if all the angels stood before God and begged for the life of an unrepenting person, God would not grant it. The Lord God, compassionate and merciful, . . . who keeps faithfulness for thousands, . . . will by no means leave the guilty unpunished (Exodus 34:6-7). Though God is more full of mercy than the sun is of light, still He will not forgive a sinner who willfully continues to sin. We have, by sin, wronged God. We have eclipsed his honor. We have infringed upon his law, and we should, reasonably, repent of our old ways. By repentance, we humble and judge ourselves for sin. We agree that God would be righteous if he destroyed us, and so we give glory to God and do what we can to repair his honor. Dying to sin is the life of repentance. The very day a Christian turns from sin, he must require of himself a perpetual fast. The eye must fast from impure glances. The ear must fast from listening to slander. The tongue must fast from cursing. The hands must fast from bribes. The feet must fast from unclean paths. And the soul must fast from the love of wickedness. This turning away from sin implies a noticeable change in the lives of those who truly follow Christ. Therefore let us, while we are on this side of the grave, make our peace with God! About the Author Thomas Watson, a 17th-century English Puritan pastor, served at St. Stephen Walbrook Church in London for 16 years. He married Abigail Beadle and had seven children, four of whom died young. Imprisoned briefly in 1651 for plotting to restore Charles II, he returned to his pastoral duties until 1662 when laws against Nonconformists forced him to preach privately. In 1672, he obtained a license to preach at Crosby Hall, London, where he continued until his health declined. He died in 1686 in Barnston, Essex. Known for works like The Godly Man's Picture and The Ten Commandments, Watson was a devout Christian who faced hardships with unwavering faith.

Defending the Unifying Gospel

5 Minutes in Church History with Stephen Nichols

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 1, 2023 41:51

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“Truth is now considered malleable, by opinion and by zero-sum endgames…. But the truth, the truth is sacred. Unalterable. Chiseled into the stone and the foundation of our republic.”~Tom Hanks at Harvard's Commencement (May 2023) “Christianity began not as an institution, not even as a creed, but first as an event…. [T]he gospel arrived in history as a kind of convulsive disruption of history….”~David Bentley Hart, philosopher and scholar “The commands of God must outweigh all authority and example of men.”~St. Jerome (d. 420 A.D.), scholar and theologian “There are no men on earth so soon entangled, and so easily conquered by error, as proud souls. Oh, it is dangerous to love to be wise….”~Thomas Brooks (1608-1680), English Puritan minister and author “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what's behind him.”~G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), English writer and literary critic “The same Bible that condemned me held in it the promises that could save me. I just had to believe it.”~Jackie Hill Perry, writer and hip-hop artist “God accepts my imperfect faith as perfect righteousness for Christ's sake….”~Martin Luther (1483-1546) in his Galatians Commentary “Without the Gospel, I am only projecting behavioral modification. Changes of the heart must trump mere change of behavior. Therefore, the goodness of God through the gospel must trump all other philosophies….” “The gospel is supposed to bring people together who wouldn't naturally be together.”~Eric Mason, Philadelphia-based pastorSERMON PASSAGEGalatians 2:1-10 (ESV)Galatians 1 11 For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. 12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. 13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. 19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother. 20 (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) 21 Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God because of me.Galatians 21 Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. 2 I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. 3 But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. 4 Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery— 5 to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. 6 And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. 7 On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised 8 (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), 9 and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10 Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

William Gouge

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 20, 2023 5:00

William Gouge was known by many as a compassionate minister of the gospel. Today, Stephen Nichols tells us about the ministry, writings, and legacy of this English Puritan. Read the transcript: https://www.5minutesinchurchhistory.com/william-gouge/ A donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Donate: https://www.5minutesinchurchhistory.com/donate/

ligonier ministries stephen nichols english puritan william gouge

The Pastoral Ministry of Richard Baxter (with Tim Cooper)

Church Theology

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 6, 2023 58:56

Richard Baxter was a 17th-century English Puritan pastor best known for his rigorous and methodical approach to pastoral care. What can we today learn from Baxter about pastoring, what it looks like to be pastored, and the nature of the Christian life experienced within the church. Church history professor, Tim Cooper, joins Kirk to talk about the legacy of Baxter for the church today.

church baxter pastoral ministry richard baxter tim cooper english puritan

God's Battle Plan for the Mind – David Saxton

Kurt and Kate Mornings

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 28, 2023 15:14

During the 17th century, English Puritan pastors often encouraged their congregations in the spiritual discipline of meditating on God and His Word. But today.. my how things have changed! Many of us are impoverishing our souls as well as not being prepared to fight spiritual battles that inevitably come our way. Pastor and author David Saxton reminds us that meditating on God's Word.. His truth saturating our mind.. is vital to a real, growing, and vibrant walk with Jesus. https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/gods-battle-plan-for-the-mind-the-puritan-practice-of-biblical-meditation-saxton.html See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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5. Pierre Viret

orange pierre swiss king charles lausanne john calvin reformer orbe english puritan

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 17, 2022 43:00

Four preachers from the English Puritan era of the 17th century. The period of King Charles 1 - 11- Oliver Cromwell- William of Orange- the Great Ejection and -Black Bartholomew's Day on August 24 1662.---The final study looks at the ministry of Swiss born Pierre Viret, a close friend of John Calvin. Viret, an outstanding gospel orator but largely forgotten Reformer was born in the Swiss village of Orbe, near Lausanne.

5. Pierre Viret

orange pierre swiss king charles lausanne john calvin reformer orbe english puritan

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 17, 2022 43:00

Four preachers from the English Puritan era of the 17th century. The period of King Charles 1 - 11- Oliver Cromwell- William of Orange- the Great Ejection and -Black Bartholomew's Day on August 24 1662.---The final study looks at the ministry of Swiss born Pierre Viret, a close friend of John Calvin. Viret, an outstanding gospel orator but largely forgotten Reformer was born in the Swiss village of Orbe, near Lausanne.

4. Matthew Henry - The Practice of Prayer

prayer practice orange swiss king charles lausanne john calvin reformer matthew henry orbe english puritan

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 10, 2022 55:00

Four preachers from the English Puritan era of the 17th century. The period of King Charles 1 - 11- Oliver Cromwell- William of Orange- the Great Ejection and -Black Bartholomew's Day on August 24 1662.---The final study looks at the ministry of Swiss born Pierre Viret, a close friend of John Calvin. Viret, an outstanding gospel orator but largely forgotten Reformer was born in the Swiss village of Orbe, near Lausanne.

4. Matthew Henry - The Practice of Prayer

prayer practice orange swiss king charles lausanne john calvin reformer matthew henry orbe english puritan

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 10, 2022 55:00

Four preachers from the English Puritan era of the 17th century. The period of King Charles 1 - 11- Oliver Cromwell- William of Orange- the Great Ejection and -Black Bartholomew's Day on August 24 1662.---The final study looks at the ministry of Swiss born Pierre Viret, a close friend of John Calvin. Viret, an outstanding gospel orator but largely forgotten Reformer was born in the Swiss village of Orbe, near Lausanne.

3. Thomas Brooks

orange swiss king charles lausanne john calvin reformer orbe thomas brooks english puritan

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 3, 2022 43:00

Four preachers from the English Puritan era of the 17th century. The period of King Charles 1 - 11- Oliver Cromwell- William of Orange- the Great Ejection and -Black Bartholomew's Day on August 24 1662.---The final study looks at the ministry of Swiss born Pierre Viret, a close friend of John Calvin. Viret, an outstanding gospel orator but largely forgotten Reformer was born in the Swiss village of Orbe, near Lausanne.

3. Thomas Brooks

orange swiss king charles lausanne john calvin reformer orbe thomas brooks english puritan

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 3, 2022 43:00

Four preachers from the English Puritan era of the 17th century. The period of King Charles 1 - 11- Oliver Cromwell- William of Orange- the Great Ejection and -Black Bartholomew's Day on August 24 1662.---The final study looks at the ministry of Swiss born Pierre Viret, a close friend of John Calvin. Viret, an outstanding gospel orator but largely forgotten Reformer was born in the Swiss village of Orbe, near Lausanne.

2. Thomas Goodwin

orange swiss goodwin king charles lausanne john calvin reformer orbe thomas goodwin english puritan

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 27, 2022 39:00

Four preachers from the English Puritan era of the 17th century. The period of King Charles 1 - 11- Oliver Cromwell- William of Orange- the Great Ejection and -Black Bartholomew's Day on August 24 1662.---The final study looks at the ministry of Swiss born Pierre Viret, a close friend of John Calvin. Viret, an outstanding gospel orator but largely forgotten Reformer was born in the Swiss village of Orbe, near Lausanne.

2. Thomas Goodwin

orange swiss goodwin king charles lausanne john calvin reformer orbe thomas goodwin english puritan

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 27, 2022 39:00

Four preachers from the English Puritan era of the 17th century. The period of King Charles 1 - 11- Oliver Cromwell- William of Orange- the Great Ejection and -Black Bartholomew's Day on August 24 1662.---The final study looks at the ministry of Swiss born Pierre Viret, a close friend of John Calvin. Viret, an outstanding gospel orator but largely forgotten Reformer was born in the Swiss village of Orbe, near Lausanne.

Study 1. Thomas Watson

study orange swiss king charles lausanne john calvin reformer thomas watson orbe english puritan

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 20, 2022 44:00

Four preachers from the English Puritan era of the 17th century. The period of King Charles 1 - 11- Oliver Cromwell- William of Orange- the Great Ejection and Black Bartholomew's Day on August 24 1662.- -The final study looks at the ministry of Swiss born Pierre Viret, a close friend of John Calvin. Viret, an outstanding gospel orator but largely forgotten Reformer was born in the Swiss village of Orbe, near Lausanne.

Study 1. Thomas Watson

study orange swiss king charles lausanne john calvin reformer thomas watson orbe english puritan

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 20, 2022 44:00

Four preachers from the English Puritan era of the 17th century. The period of King Charles 1 - 11- Oliver Cromwell- William of Orange- the Great Ejection and Black Bartholomew's Day on August 24 1662.- -The final study looks at the ministry of Swiss born Pierre Viret, a close friend of John Calvin. Viret, an outstanding gospel orator but largely forgotten Reformer was born in the Swiss village of Orbe, near Lausanne.

Meet the Puritans: William Gouge

The Lives of the Puritans

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 29, 2022 10:09

William Gouge (1575–1653) was an English Puritan clergyman and author. He was a minister and preacher at St Ann Blackfriars for 45 years, from 1608, and a member of the Westminster Assembly from 1643.

puritans westminster assembly english puritan william gouge

God, My Portion by George Swinnock English Puritan 1627-1673

Puritans on SermonAudio

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 21, 2022 2:00

A new MP3 sermon from Mission Africa is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: God, My Portion by George Swinnock English Puritan 1627-1673 Subtitle: Old Paths Readings Speaker: Jim Robinette Broadcaster: Mission Africa Event: Devotional Date: 9/20/2022 Bible: Psalm 139:17 Length: 2 min.

god english bible speaker event psalm broadcaster devotional portion puritan sermonaudio mission africa english puritan jim robinette old paths readings

God, My Portion by George Swinnock English Puritan 1627-1673

Puritans on SermonAudio

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 21, 2022 2:00

A new MP3 sermon from Mission Africa is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: God, My Portion by George Swinnock English Puritan 1627-1673 Subtitle: Old Paths Readings Speaker: Jim Robinette Broadcaster: Mission Africa Event: Devotional Date: 9/20/2022 Bible: Psalm 139:17 Length: 2 min.

god english bible speaker event psalm broadcaster devotional portion puritan sermonaudio mission africa english puritan jim robinette old paths readings

“But Now”

Cities Church Sermons

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2022 40:07

Back in 1656 there was an English Puritan pastor named Richard Baxter who wrote a book for pastors called The Reformed Pastor. And by the word “reformed” he didn't mainly mean Calvinistic, but he meant to be born-again. By “reformed” he really meant “revived.” Because at that time in the 17th century it was not a given that pastors were even truly Christian. And so Baxter, who was burdened for the church in his country, he wrote this book urging pastors to first truly believe the gospel — be changed by the gospel yourself — and then serve others from that. And in one section of the book he says something that has really stuck with me — [and I feel like I've said this before at some point, so maybe you're hearing this again, but it helps me, so bear with me] — but Baxter, speaking of pastors, says: “He preacheth not heartily to his people, that prayeth not earnestly for them.” In other words, if a pastor wants to preach genuinely, effectively, to his church, then he should pray earnestly for them. And I think this actually points to something much more central when it comes to the preaching of a local church, and I wanna tell you. Now this is an unusual way to start a sermon, but I want you to know the purpose for why we do this. Every Sunday at this moment, when it comes to the preaching, we're not doing this just because we think “this is what you do”; we're not just going through the motions; we're not trying to talk at you, but really, we, as your pastors, are preaching for you — which means, we open the Word of God and we want to tell you what God has to say in Christ by his Spirit! And what he has to say to you, church, essentially, is that he loves you. Through your faith in Jesus — not on the basis of your performance, but only because of the atoning death of Jesus in your place — God has fixed his love on you and that will never change. The only thing that can change is how much you come to understand his love, and so we preach for that. Our preaching is for your assurance. It's so that you would “have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth — so that you and me and us!) — it's so that we would know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3:18–19). Because I'm convinced that if we are assured of God's love, then we experience personal renewal that then flows into relational renewal. Hey, do you need help in your marriage? It starts here [pointing to heart]. So personal renewal leads into relational renewal, which then leads to church renewal. And church renewal as it multiplies leads into city renewal — and that's the vision! We're just trying to change a couple cities here. That's why we're called Cities Church. We want to saturate the Twin Cities with the gospel of Jesus Christ that has transformed US … and our relationships … and our church for our joy and the glory of God. We preach for that. That's what we're doing here. And I say all this now because today's passage aims right at the heart of this, and you're gonna see it when when get there, Galatians Chapter 3, verses 15–29. Let's organize the sermon this way. There are just two parts: Part One is THE LAW (verses 15–24); Part Two is THE PROMISE (verses 25–29). So Law and Promise, and then some additional things to say in both of these, and before we get started, let's pray again for God's blessing. Father in heaven, by your grace, we ask that you send your Holy Spirit now to accomplish your will, in Jesus's name, amen. Part One: The Law (verses 15–24) And what we read in these verses is connected back to all that we've seen so far. Remember that Paul is writing this letter to address a problem in the Galatian church. A false teaching had slipped into the church and it was causing confusion about the gospel. The false teaching said that in order to be saved (or justified), “faith in Jesus was not enough, but you also have to keep Jewish law.” And so Paul is writing to demolish that idea. He does his demolition work first by telling a personal story of when he confronted Peter (2:1–21). He explains that we are justified by faith in Jesus alone — that faith in Jesus is both necessary and sufficient for salvation — and to suggest anything else makes the death of Jesus pointless. Then Paul reminds the Galatian Christians of their own origin story — he tells them that their very existence is the because of God, not their works. And to illustrate the point, Paul brings in Abraham. Now we spent several weeks on Abraham back when we preached through Genesis. Remember Abraham started as “Abram from Ur of the Chaldeans.” Abraham was once a lost pagan idolator in the middle of nowhere, but God came to him by absolute grace and promised to bless him and his descendants. And Abraham believed God. Abraham had faith in God and he was justified through his faith in God — and we are too when we have faith in God! — which is a completely different way of life than relying on the law. If you rely on the law for your justification you're under a curse. But see, Jesus died to redeem us from that curse. Jesus took the curse for us so that through faith in him we receive the blessing of Abraham — even if we're coming from a place as lost and pagan and idolatrous as Abraham once was. Paul says all of this to us in Chapter 2, verse 1 to Chapter 3, verse 14. He says all of this to demolish the false teaching. And he does. By this point in the letter nothing is left standing that thinks obedience to the law is needed for justification. Paul had made his point. And he still has more to say, and for this next part, he goes next level. In our passage Paul steps back and he compares the two biggest covenants in the Old Testament, the Abrahamic covenant and the Mosaic covenant. [Y'all ready to see this? Now look, I gotta set it up for a minute. First we need to have an idea about what a covenant is.] What Are Covenants in the Bible? A covenant is simply an agreement between two parties with mutual obligations. And when it comes to the relationship between God and humans, this idea of covenant is central. You could say the whole Bible is a series of different covenants that God makes with humans. The idea of covenant is another way to talk about how God relates to us. And God makes several covenants in the Old Testament, and they're all important, but there are two really big covenants. The first is the covenant God made with Abraham. God came to Abraham and promised to bless him, and God said that through Abraham's offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed (see Genesis 12:3; 22:18). A lot of times this is just called the Abrahamic Promise. The second big covenant is the one God makes with the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai. We just preached through this in the Book of Exodus. The covenant at Sinai was a book of laws for Israel that God gave them through Moses. And it included the Ten Commandments, and then a bunch of other detailed laws that Israel should follow, and blessings and curses if they do or don't. A lot of times this is just called the Mosaic Law. So two covenants: with Abraham there is the promise. With Moses (or Sinai) there is the law. [Everybody tracking?] The Promise Came First Now with that established, look at verse 15: In verse 15, Paul gives a human example on the way covenants work. Paul says that even on just a people level, nobody makes and ratifies a covenant and then annuls it or changes it. Once the covenant is made, it's made. That's the point. A covenant is a settled commitment, and everybody gets this. Then in verse 16, Paul says that God's promise to Abraham (his covenant with Abraham) was also with Abraham's offspring (singular) which is Christ. Look at this: In verse 16 Paul quotes a phrase from Genesis 22:18, which says: “And in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” And Paul says that God made that promise to Abraham and to Jesus, who is Abraham's descendent. Jesus is the offspring in view in Genesis 22. So in the Book of Genesis, God promised to Abraham and Jesus that one day the nations, the Gentiles, will be blessed in Jesus by faith. God promised that by covenant. And in case we're still unsure about what Paul is trying to get at here, Paul says verse 17. He says: Hey, this is what I mean. And I love that Paul says this. He's spelling it out for us. He wants us to track with him. So if we've zoned out a little. If we're confused on how it all comes together, Paul says, Look, this is what I'm saying. God's promise to Abraham came first. The Mosaic law came 430 years later, and it did not cancel out the promise. The promise stands. Verse 18: The fulfillment of the promise, the blessing we have in Christ, our “inheritance” as the children of Abraham by faith, our justification, that comes in the promise to be received by faith. It's not found in the law. Our hope and salvation comes through God's promise, not God's law. And now that brings up a super important question: “Why then the law?” Why the Law? Why do we even have the law? If our hope is not in the law; if our obedience to the law doesn't save us; if God's promise to Abraham still stands, why did God give us the law? Well, Paul is about to tell us! In fact, he's going to tell us three important things about the law. Why did God give the law? #1. The law was added because of transgressions. (v. 19b) Have any of you parents in here ever left your kids unsupervised (like in a totally safe way)? Say, for example, that you gotta run to the hardware store to get a bag of salt. It's a little icy on the front steps, and you need to some more salt; so you tell the kids, Hey, I'm going to be gone for half an hour. That's all you say, and you leave. And you know your kids know you're their dad; they know you exist; and things are stable. However when you get back, and you walk in the front door, and it's just a complete mess. The house is trashed. It looks like a zoo — a dirty zoo. You come back to a situation like that, and you know what you do? You start looking around and you say: Hey, guys, don't eat candy for dinner. Hey, don't throw garbage on the floor. Don't leave the fridge door open. Don't leave the milk out (and where's the top to the milk?) No, don't bake brownies with orange juice. Don't pull your sister's hair. Don't forget to flush the toilet. See what's going on? You're adding rules. And you're adding rules because of transgression. You have to go all Mount Sinai on the kids, and if the kids are really bad — like if the nation is totally depraved — then you'd have to say things like: Don't set yourself on fire. Don't be gross with animals. Don't murder your children. (See Leviticus 18:21–23) God added law because of transgression, verse 19. The law acted like guard rails to keep Israel from self-ruin, because without any prohibition, if they were left to themselves, the nation of Israel would have pranced into destruction like [snap of fingers]. Remember the golden calf? Moses had not even come down from the mountain yet, and the people were gone. The first thing Paul tells us about the law is that the law was added because of transgression. #2. The law was never meant to impart life, but be a guardian. (v. 21) Now we see this in verse 21, but first, what is this about angels and an intermediary (or mediator) in verses 19–20? Quickly here: remember that Paul is making the case that our hope is in the promise, not the law. The Abrahamic promise is superior to the Mosaic law. And to make help make the point, Paul adds at the end of verse 19 that the law was “put into place through angels by an intermediary.” He's saying that the Mosaic law, which was handed down at Mount Sinai, involved some kind of angelic administration and a human mediator, who was Moses. In other words, God did not say the law directly to the people, but the law had creaturely mediation. And what's implied here is that the promise is different! God spoke the promise directly to Abraham. And these covenants are so different it might imply that there's more than one God, but Paul assures us: God is one. There is one God who gave two different covenants, and the promise is superior to the law. But does that mean that law is contrary to the promise? Does the law contradict the promise? No, it does not, because of the law's purpose, verse 21 — the law was never meant to impart life. If the law could give life, then we don't need the gospel. But that's not what the law was for. Rather, Paul says, the law was for: v. 22: imprisoning everything under sin v. 23: holding us captive v. 24: being our guardian And you can see, this is the same idea. Hey kids, I gotta run to the store again to get another bag of salt, BUT I'm leaving this nanny here — who honestly is more like a security guard-bouncer with tattoos on his face, his name is Sinai, and he's got some rules for ya. Look, Sinai is not here to bless you; Sinai is here to keep you from drinking Clorox. The law was never meant to give us life. That's not the purpose. That's the second thing Paul tells us about the law. The third is: #3. The law had a temporary role in salvation history. (v. 19, 23, 24) And really, this point is the most repeated throughout this whole passage. And I mention the salvation history part because, to be clear here, because Paul is not being exhaustive about the law and its uses and what Christians can learn from it. Paul is focusing on the role of the law in the saving action of God throughout history, and Paul says in that light the law is temporary. Notice all the temporal language here: We see first in verse 19: the law was added because of transgression, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made Verse 23: Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, [that is] [we were] imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. Verse 24: So then the law was our guardian until Christ came “Until” “before” “until” “until” — the law's role was temporary. We see that plainly here. So these are three things Paul tells us about the law [right hand]: It was added because of transgression; it was never meant to impart life; it had temporary role. And all of this is setting up verse 25. Verse 25 is the hinge. Verse 25 is the change. This is where we go from Part One on the Law to Part Two on the Promise. [We tracking?] Part Two: The Promise (verses 25–29) The change happens with two simple words, verse 25: “But now.” And it's hard to overstate how big a deal this is for Paul. Because up to this point he's been saying the law is until, until, until. The law was temporary until faith came, until the coming faith, until Christ came. But here in verse 25 he says, Hey, BUT NOW that faith has come … now that Jesus has come … now that the gospel is here — See, this changes everything. It's interesting: if you were to read through the whole letter of Galatians you'd notice that, compared to Paul's other letters, he doesn't say a lot about the Second Coming of Jesus, or our future resurrection, or really, in Galatians Paul doesn't say a lot about the future at all, which is unusual. But the reason is that the Galatians didn't need to be reminded of their Christian future, because they had forgotten their Christian now. Oh how we need to be remember the NOWs of the Christian life! Do you know the NOWs of gospel reality that are true of you in this moment? Think about your life for a minute. Think about the hardest, most difficult thing you have going on right now. [Are you thinking about it?] Well look, it is good news that in Christ your future is bright; in Christ, truly the best is always yet to come — now that doesn't mean that every circumstance is going to go the way you want it to go in this world; sometimes God calls us to suffering and disappointment— but we do hope in the future. We're called to hope. However, we can't begin to imagine our future hope if we don't recognize the grace that God has already given us now. God says something about you now that transcends your circumstance. How do you get through the hard stuff? Yes, you think about what God will do. Yes, we look forward. AND ALSO, we remember what God has done. We look forward and we look back to the cross of Jesus Christ and we embrace the NOW of who God says we are. And I want to tell you what that is. And I know that what I'm about to say you may not feel. But it doesn't matter. In Christ, this is your reality now. Two things: 1. You are a child of God (v. 26) This is verse 26. Verse 25 says “But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,” verse 25: “for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.” The apostle John says the same thing in the Gospel of John, Chapter 1, verse 12: “But to all who receive [Jesus], who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God.” John also says in 1 John 3:1, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” Paul says it again in Romans 8 and Ephesians 5. The New Testament is super clear: Christian, through your faith in Jesus, in Jesus you have become a child of God. And I'm gonna guess that for many of us in here, we've probably heard that before — and we're gonna see it again next week in Chapter 4 — we've read this, we've heard this. We know that in Christ we are the children of God, but do we really get it? I mean, on a daily basis, in our felt reality, do we know what it means to be God's children? Toward the end of last year I had been studying Galatians and meditating on this point, and it was an early morning; everyone's asleep; it's pitch dark outside; I'm in my study, Bible open, lamp on, house is silent — my favorite time of the day. And I'm reading and journaling on Galatians 3 into Chapter 4, and I'm just chewing on this fact that in Christ I am a son of God. And I'm trying to put together that this is a fact not just to be known, but to be practiced. We actually relate to God as his children. It means that we call God Father. And I'm journaling this, still trying to grasp what this means, and as I'm in silence, writing the words in worship “I can call you Father!” — as I'm writing “f-a-t-h” — my study door cracks open, and a little voice on the other side says “father.” I was stunned. Not a normal quiet time. It was Micah and I told him to come in, and I said, “Buddy, that's crazy! I just was calling God Father at the exact same time you said it to me. That's crazy!” And it is crazy … that in the same way my children relate to me, I can relate to God. Because he is my Father, and I am his son through faith in Jesus — and so are you, Christian. Brothers, sisters, in Christ we are the children of God. And that means something vertically, but also horizontally. This is the second NOW of gospel reality. It's that… 2. You are part of a new family (verses 27–28) Verse 27 Paul says, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” And the point of baptism here is the metaphor of incorporation. When you are united to Jesus by faith, baptized into him, you become a new person and you live like a new person — and that new person is part of a new family. That's verse 28: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Now within the Jewish worldview, the major distinctions among people, next to Jewish/Gentile, was slave/free and then male/female. These are the three categories of ethnicity, economic capacity, and sex. And these categories, of course, are still very much active today. These are distinctions among people within our world, but the issue in Jewish thought was not just that these distinctions existed, it was that these distinctions were used as primary markers to determine different degrees of religious access. Under the law, the best-case scenario — the way to have the best standing before God — was to be a Jewish free man. But Paul is saying that in Christ it doesn't work that way. In Christ there is nothing about ourselves that keeps us from God OR brings us to God. Differences among people still exist, but those differences have no bearing on our relationship to God — because our relationship to God is solely based on our union with Christ. We are all one in Christ. Now some have taken verse 28 the wrong way. This does not mean we become androgynes humans and everyone is an exact replica of everyone else. No! We're different people, but NONE of those differences are an advantage or a disadvantage in our standing before God, because all of us can only come to God one way: faith in Christ. By faith in Christ, everyone, no matter where you're coming from, no matter what your story is, by faith in Christ you become a son or daughter of God; in Christ you become part of the family — in the family tree of Abraham, where by faith in Christ we all have the same status and the same access. God is the same kind of Father to all of us because of our union with Jesus. And understanding that union leads to radical unity. In the church, in this new family, we're not competing with one another, but we're encouraging one another. We're building up one another because we're convinced that when my brother and sister are built up, then we're all built up. And so we become this kind of family that is all looking toward and praying toward and working toward one another's good. And what is that good? What is the “good life” in the Christian life? Is it position or status? No. Our good that we seek is our being assured of the love of God. Brothers, sisters, your good is to know more deeply that God loves you. That through your faith in Jesus — not on the basis of your performance, but only because of the atoning death of Jesus in your place — God, your Father, has set his love on you and that will never change. What “good” could possibly be better than that? To be assured of the love of God, for our joy and his glory. This is what we want, Cities Church, and this what brings us to the Table. … The Table … because at this Table, as we take the bread and the cup, we move a little bit closer to comprehending with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of God in Christ that surpasses knowledge. If you receive God's love in Christ, if you put your faith in Jesus, eat and drink with us! His body is the true bread. His blood is the true drink. Let us serve you.

Fishers of Men (Mark Sermon 4) (Audio)

Two Journeys Sermons

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 30, 2022

Mark 1:17 is a message from the Holy Spirit to us to move us, provoke us, challenge us, equip us to become fishers of men - evangelizing the lost. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - Well, take your Bible and turn to Mark chapter 1. And, today we're going to zero in on just one verse. It's not common for me to do this, to preach an entire sermon on one verse, but we're going to zero in on verse 17. Last week, we walked through the whole section that you just heard Dave read, but we're going to zero in on verse 17, in which Jesus says, "Come follow me, and I will make you to become fishers of men." And as I do, I want to give you my sense of the context. I've been here since October of 1998. So in my 22nd year, there is no church I would rather pastor than this church. It's a delight to be in this church. I love this church. This is a healthy church. There is such a joy that we all have of benefiting from one another's spiritual gifts, benefiting from the grace that's at work in each other's lives, to have that rich fellowship that we have, and to enjoy the excellent worship music that we just had. So good. And then the friendships that we make in our home fellowships, all of these things are a delight. But, friends, we are surrounded every day, in this community, in this part of the world, by people who are perishing in their sins. And I believe that this church should do more about that than we're doing. I yearn to see more baptisms in this church, in which the people stand in this baptistery and they testify along this basic pattern. "I was lost. I met a member of this church, and now I'm here today, to testify to my faith in Christ." That basic pattern. I yearn to see lots of those. Don't you? I mean, aren't those times when we get those baptisms, aren't they incredible? The joy that's involved in being part of this eternal work that God is doing, that we actually are co-laborers with Almighty God in building an eternal kingdom, there is nothing like that. The joy is incredible. And I want to be part of that. I want to be part of that joy, that the Father says he shows in the presence of angels over one sinner, whoever repents, he just throws a heavenly feast of joy. "Come celebrate with me because what was lost is now found." And he's actually committed to us the ministry and the message of reconciliation. We have an eternally consequential work to do. And I don't want us, at First Baptist Durham, I don't want us to be complacent. I don't want us to stay within that comfort zone, of being in a healthy church, surrounded by good Christian people and just being happy with that. And so there's a delight there, but there's also a fear for me, as a pastor, that we're going to have to give Christ an account for failure as well as for success. And I just don't want our church to fail. I don't want our church to have to give him an account for numerous gospel opportunities that he went ahead of us and prepared, and we missed it because we were self-focused. So I want to zero in on this one text, "To follow me, come follow me, and I'll make you to become fishers of men." I consider this providential, that we're here now, in this time, in the history of our church, that we get to talk about this now. Now first, I want to give a clear caveat to all of you. Some of you just know the truth about me, but I know almost nothing about fishing. I mean, really, I think in my entire life, I've caught one fish. It was a sun fish in a little pond across the street in Massachusetts. It was not impressive. And no one took a picture of it. So I've never enjoyed, when it comes to fishing, either the process of fishing or the product of fishing. I mean, what do you get after all that work? You get a fish. It's just not impressive to me. I don't like seafood. I'm not going to eat it. Now some of you, however, are hugely into fishing. So I'm a little intimidated by you. I'm going into uncharted waters, so to speak. Sorry about that. Some of you have been out in the open sea. You've done big game fishing—tuna, marlin, swordfish, something like that. Others of you do more of that freshwater fishing where you go out in those shiny sleek boats. And, you fish for freshwater bass or something like that. Others of you, now this is an art form, is that trout fishing with fly fishing, where you tie, you spend like six hours tying a knot that looks like a fly. And apparently, trout are incredibly intelligent. They can tell the difference, so you got to do a good job tying that fly. And then you just get this rhythm going with your wrists. And you kind of just lay the line down just on the surface of the water and the trout strikes and you land a trout. I know nothing about any of that, right? That's just not my area of expertise. But the men that Jesus was calling, in the text that Dave just read, they were professional fishermen. It's what they did, all the time. Now their manner of fishing was using nets, and, apparently, they were kind of circular nets with weights that they would throw out into the Sea of Galilee. And the weights would sink down and someone would dive down and tie them off at the bottom, and then they'd pull up the nets. And this is how they were fishing. And so, he's using a language that they would've understood. he's using basically a daily life parable, perhaps. And he's inviting them into his training school to teach them how to do a different kind of fishing, a fishing with a far greater eternal consequence. "Come follow me and I'll make you to become fishers of men." Now, just before Jesus left the surface of the Earth and went up to heaven, where he will stay until the second coming of Christ, just before he left, he gave in each of the four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—and then also in the book of Acts, a version of what's generally known as the Great Commission, commanding the church that he left behind to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations and to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Spirit, and to teach them to obey everything that Christ has commanded, and that he would be with them, empowering them and enabling them to be witnesses. All four Gospels and the book of Acts. So the questions in front of us, as we look at verse 17, for us to stand under this verse as though he's talking to us and we would hear him say, "Come follow me, and I will make you to become fishers of men." So how do we do that? I. First, Follow Christ And the first step is to follow Christ. "Come follow me," and Jesus said, "and I'll make you to become fishers of men." Jesus is walking beside the Sea of Galilee, as we've said. Peter as Simon and his brother, Andrew, were casting their nets into the lake. Further on, you've got James and John. They're brothers there. All four of them professional fishermen. And Jesus wanted them to become fishers of men. Now essential to their training, as fishers of men, was first be with him. To "Come follow me, be with me." Everything that we're going to see in the Gospel of Mark, if God gives us time to continue through this whole incredible Gospel, 16 chapters, will help us and prepare us to be also what Jesus was, a fisher of men. All of Jesus' healings show his overwhelming compassion for the miseries of our sinful human race. All of Jesus' teachings were, in some sense, ultimately focused on the salvation of souls from sin. All of Jesus' encounters give us some pattern that we can follow. He is our role model in saving souls. He is our mentor in saving souls. He's our teacher and our coach and our trainer and our commanding officer in saving souls. He is the general who leads from the front in saving souls. He is the shepherd who sends out his sheep as among ravenous wolves to save souls. And he's not the hireling that runs away at the sight of the wolf. But he goes out in front and he's willing to lay down his life for the sheep, that they would be so saved. "All of Jesus' healings show his overwhelming compassion for the miseries of our sinful human race. All of Jesus' teachings were, in some sense, ultimately focused on the salvation of souls from sin." And so he's saying, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." And he says, "I will make you to become fishers of men." Not all the translations keep the word become, but it's in there. It's in the Greek. It's in the ESV. And that is, it's a strong statement. "I will make you to become what you are not." So they have to first realize, first and foremost, their own deficiency. This is a key spiritual principle in the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are the spiritual beggars, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." For us, just to be honest and say, "God, I'm not a fisher of men. I really am not. I'm not an evangelist. I don't really lead people to Christ. It's not something I'm doing, God. I'm just not winning lost people." He knows. So zero in on that word become, "I will make you become something you are not." He has that power to do that. And that was true of these four. Simon and Andrew, James and John were not fishers of men at that point. And as the story unfolds, as the Gospels unfold, you see this more and more. They're really not on the same page with him. A clear example of this is in John chapter 4. Take a minute and go over to John 4, if you would. Put your finger here in Mark 1:17 and we'll come back to it. But, if you look at John chapter 4, Jesus is going up, after his Judean ministry, at the beginning of his ministry there, and it says he had to go through Samaria. Well, Jews did everything they could to not go through Samaria. Why did Jesus have to go through Samaria? Well, he had an evangelistic encounter there that had been set up by Almighty God with a Samaritan woman. The disciples separate from Jesus and go into the Samaritan village to buy food, buy provisions. Meanwhile, Jesus has this incredible conversation with a Samaritan woman at the well. It's a paradigm example of evangelism. It's one of the greatest in the Bible. So, if you want to know how to become a fisher of men, look at Jesus' technique with the Samaritan woman. He begins, first, he strikes up a conversation, and he starts talking to her. And she's shocked. She didn't expect him to say anything. It's kind of awkward. Jewish man, she's a Samaritan woman who didn't expect anything. And he spoke to her and asked her for a drink, and she's surprised. And then, Jesus says, in John 4:10, if you look at it, I've called this before, when it comes to being fisher of men, this is a lure with four hooks on it. All right? A lure with four hooks. It's one statement he makes. And it's very provocative, and it's very fascinating. So one basic lesson on evangelism is be interesting. Draw people in to conversation. And so he says to her this, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is who speaks to you, you would've asked him and he would've given you living water." She's never heard anything like that in all her life. What in the world? So she deconstructs it. And she ends up going through each of the four points in different ways in their ensuing conversation. First of all, "What is the gift of God? What does that mean? And who are you? What's so special about you? You don't look special. So why should I be so impressed with who it is that's speaking to me? And thirdly, why should I ask you for anything? You have nothing. You don't have a rope. You don't have a bucket. You don't have anything. So how could you give me anything? And finally, what in the world is living water?" And so she's drawn into this conversation. And by the time they get done, she is 100% convinced that he is the Messiah, the Promised One sent from God. And she leaves her water jar there and runs into the Samaritan village. And by a few things she says, the entire village comes out to meet Jesus. Now meanwhile, the disciples. Oh, here we go. What were they doing? Well, they were buying food. Mission accomplished. Good job. They come back with food. And they say, "Alright, we're here. Let's eat." I wonder what those food buying opportunities were like for them. Like, "What are we doing here? We're in Samaria. We're buying food from Samaritans. Can we just get this done and get out of here?" But they come back and they say to Jesus, "Rabbi, eat something." And he says, "I have food to eat you know nothing about." And in my exegesis and understanding that statement, I stick in an extra word in there—"apparently." So it sounds like this to me, "I have food to eat that you apparently know nothing about." Oh, could someone have brought him food? Oh, no. "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and finish his work. That's my food." Then he said this, "Do you not say four months more and then comes the harvest? I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields. They're ripe for harvest. Even now the harvest is going on." And that woman brought that whole Samaritan village in, and they ended up believing in Christ. Now, I've been convicted by that passage for a long time. I've thought, "How many such empty trips have I made to the supermarket, or my workplace setting or all kinds of things, where God had set up some evangelistic opportunities and I just missed it?" So when it says, "Follow me, and I'll make you become fishers of men," so go back to Mark 1:17, that word become, just be honest, be honest, and say, "Lord, would you make me be something I'm not? I am like the disciples. I don't care about souls. I want to be a fisher of men, but that's what I'm not." Now, before we go on in this whole topic, I think, in order to be a fisher of men, you need to be certain first that Christ has landed you, that you have been caught by Christ's gospel, that you're a Christian, that your sins are forgiven, that you have trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. You can't be a fisher of men unless you yourself have been caught by Christ's Gospel. So be certain that you are born again. And then if you are, then you can come to him and say, "Would you make me like you are? Would you make me like yourself? Make me passionate for souls. Give me, Lord, the same passion for souls you have. Make me single-minded in this matter." Jesus was single-minded. He had to go through Samaria because there's a woman there, and through her, there's a whole village of Samaritans that he wants to save. That's the way Jesus was. Remember that occasion with Zacchaeus, where he is going along and Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector. And he's a short man, remember? And so he climbs up in the sycamore fig tree to get a better view of Jesus. And Jesus stops below the tree and looks up and says, "Come down, Zacchaeus, for I must eat at your house today." There's a must. There's an obligation. "We're going to have a meal together, Zacchaeus." And He ends up leading him to faith in Christ. He ends up saving him. And Jesus said, in Luke 19:9-10, he said, "Today, salvation has come to this house, for the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." Is that why you have come to every place you come to, to seek and to save? You should. Every encounter, to seek and to save, to seek and to save. That's what Jesus came to do. Luke 19:10, purpose statement. What about us? Do we have anything like the same passion for the lost? I truly believe the central lack in my heart, and it may be yours as well, is a lack of genuine love for and compassion for lost people in their lostness, a sense of brokenness over what is going on in their lives because of their sins, a sense of weeping over it and grieving over it. I naturally don't have that feeling. I would say that's true of all of us. Naturally, apart from Christ, we don't really care that sin is shredding the lives of the people around us. It's ruining them from the inside out. It's corrupting them. It's destroying their marriages. It's destroying their family life. It's destroying them through addictions, hidden addictions, or even open addictions. We don't care like we should. So, only as we follow Christ will we be fishers of men. II. Fish Who Delight to be Caught Now, this parable, this analogy, what is simile, metaphor, whatever, "fisher of men," has its limitations. All parables have limitations. And this one does too. Ordinarily, it is disastrous for the fish to be caught. I mean, what happens to the fish? I mean, when the fishermen lands it, in some cases, they get a club and beat its brains in, and then they gut it and eat it. So, Jesus, is that what's going to happen to the fish we catch? No, actually, quite the opposite. They're already getting their brains bashed in, and they're getting gutted and eaten by sin. Jesus is coming to free them. He's coming to give them life and give it abundantly. These are fish who, in the end, will be delighted that they were caught. They're going to spend eternity celebrating that they were caught by the fisher of men. So it's just good for the fish to be caught. III. Basic Fishing Technique Now let's talk of about some basic fishing technique. Fundamentally, we need to understand what evangelism is. Evangelism is tied to the Greek word for the good news, euangelion, the good message, the good news. As Jesus said in Mark 1:15, "the good news of the kingdom." So what is the good news? Well, we, years ago, kind of outlined the gospel message in four main headings: God, Man, Christ, Response. If you're going to evangelize, you need to know the gospel. And these four headings are key. You got to say some things about God. You got to say some things about the human condition. You got to say some things about Christ. And you got to call the people to respond. That's what evangelism is. So what are you going to say about God? Say that he's the Creator of all things, heaven and earth. He made all things. And as the Creator, he is a king. He rules over all things. This is his stuff because he made it. And as the king, he is able to be the law giver. He gives laws and rules by which his empire, his kingdom, should be run. And as the law giver, he is the judge. He evaluates his subjects to see whether they obey his laws or not. And the laws are the Ten Commandments, which we know. Or even easier, the two great commandments which, he has said, summarize all the law and the prophets. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself." So that's the God section. The man or humanity section is, we are created in the image of God to have a relationship with him, a love relationship with him, and be subjects of his kingdom. But we have violated the king's laws. We have broken the laws. And if you're going to evangelize, you need to know the law and do law work on the people and show them, so that they understand that they have sinned. For example, Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not murder.' But if you're even angry in your heart, you're in danger of the fire of hell. And you've heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But if you even lusted at a person, you've committed adultery in your heart and you're in danger of the fire of hell." So you do law work. Talk about the two commandments saying, "Do you love God with every fiber of your being? Do you love your neighbor the way you love yourself?" And, in the end, I've had people say this again and again, "Well, you're expecting people to be perfect." No, I'm not. God is. "You must be perfect as your Heavenly Father's perfect." And wherein you're not, you have sinned and broken God's commandments. And that's our condition, we are under the judgment of God the King, and we couldn't save ourselves. So thirdly, God sent his son, Jesus Christ. He was born of the Virgin. He was fully human, but he was also the Son of God. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, so he’s fully God, fully man. He lived a sinless life. He did amazing miracles. He taught amazing teachings. But most of all, he came to die on the cross in our place. He took the wrath of God and the judgment of God that we deserve on himself. On the cross, he died in our place, the death we deserve to die, so that he could give us a perfect righteousness in which we could stand on judgment day and survive. So you got three points, God, man, Christ. Now you got to call them to respond. And there is no better call than right there on the same page you're looking at, look at Mark 1:15. "The time is at hand. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the gospel." That's what you're calling them to do. They got to turn from their sins, acknowledge that they're sinners, turn from it, and believe the good news, this gospel message. Alright. So that's what this fishing is, that you are sharing that message in the power of the Holy Spirit, and calling on people to repent and believe. Now what fishing isn't, is you don't need to land the fish. You don't have that power. To use another analogy, as he said to Nicodemus, "You must be born again." The landing of the fish into the boat or on the shore is that they're born again. They're made a new creature through the power of the Holy Spirit. You do not have that power. It's not your task. But our task is to proclaim this message, God, man, Christ, response, in the power of the Spirit and leave the results to God. IV. Fishing Equipment Now let's talk a little about our fishing equipment, fishing tackle. And common to all fishing tackle, that fishing equipment, is force. There's a force that the tackle puts on the fish, to take it out of its watery surroundings, and land it, put it on the boat, put it on the shore. There's a force to all fishing tackle. Now the central text for me, on this concept of force on the fish, is in John 6:44. Don't turn there, just listen. Jesus said, in John 6:44, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day." Now that word, "draws," is a forceful word. It's used for a drag net, that fishermen draw through the water. They're pulling it strong through the water. It's also used for drawing a sword out of a scabbard. There's a force being put. Jesus said in John 6:44, "No one can come to me if the Father doesn't draw them, put a force on their souls." No one up and comes to Christ unaided. That never happens, ever. They have to be drawn by the invisible force of the Holy Spirit, of God through the Holy Spirit. He puts a force on their souls and he draws them. And we use the expression that they are coming to Christ. They're coming. It's not a geographical physical movement from point A to point Z. But they are coming spiritually to Christ. Jesus says that cannot happen unless the Father puts a force on you, draws you. "No one up and comes to Christ unaided. That never happens, ever. They have to be drawn by the invisible force of the Holy Spirit, of God through the Holy Spirit. He puts a force on their souls and he draws them." Now, that doctrine is commonly, by some theologians, called the doctrine of irresistible grace. Because again, in John 6:44, it says, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day," meaning you'll be saved. So when the Father puts his force on you, you're going to get saved. No one can say no. Do you not see the good news of that? We are going to fish, and we're going to land fish. It's going to work. Satan is such a liar in this. He's saying, "Ah, it's not going to work. Nobody's going to come," and so many do not come. But we're going to land some fish. Because when the Father puts his force on somebody, Jesus is going to raise him up from the dead on the last day. They're going to get saved. And so, I don't like the term irresistible grace. It gives the picture of people being dragged kicking and screaming into the kingdom. Now I know C. S. Lewis was the most reluctant convert in all England. That was his problem. But he was a convert and he was delighted to come to Christ in the end. No one gets dragged kicking and screaming to Christ. They all want to come. And so I prefer, instead, the term effectual calling. It's more, it's better, effectual calling. So when God puts his force on a soul, it is effective. It's effective. It's like when he says, "Let there be light," there's light. God is powerful. Now, we have some fishing tackle, though, by which we can put force on people's souls and bring them to Christ. So I want to zero in on four in particular. I could have called them the line, like a fishing line, but I'm going with net. So either way, net or line is okay. But there are four: the net of truth, the net of love, the net of fear, and the net of delight, these four. These four are powerful on people. First of all, the net of truth. By this I mean biblical truth, Scripture. First and foremost, the scriptures of the gospel. When Paul says in Romans 1:16, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." The gospel truths, in the Scripture, put a force on people. They can't shake the truths they've heard. It weighs on them, and they think about it. Think about Stephen, who was a tremendous evangelist, in Acts chapter 6, and he's reasoning and debating with some opponents. And it says in Acts 6:9-10, "These men began to argue with Stephen, but they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke." So there's a powerful logic and reasoning and truth to the Scriptures, and it's irresistible. It's powerful. Same thing with the Apostle Paul. In Acts 17, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days, he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that Christ had to rise from the dead. And it was immediately effective. Some Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women. So this is a powerful Word. The Scripture has converting power. When Peter, on the day of Pentecost, under the power of the Holy Spirit, preached a whole bunch of Old Testament prophecies predicting the resurrection of Christ and all that, and making the gospel plain, by these scriptural truths. It says in Acts 2:37, "When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart," cut to the heart, "and said to Peter and the other apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?'" The Scriptures can stick in someone's mind and they can't shake them. I heard a story, from the 18th century, of a man who was a hundred years old. He was a healthy hundred year old farmer, in Colonial New England, around the time of George Whitfield, around the time of the Great Awakening, maybe around the year 1770. But he, at age a hundred, had not trusted Christ, but he's still healthy. He was sitting out in a field, under a tree, and he was thinking about his childhood, long life in his childhood. He went back to his boyhood years in Dartmouth, England, before he sailed for the New World, before he sailed for America. And at the age of 15, he had heard a sermon preached by an English Puritan pastor named John Flavel. And the text was 1 Corinthians 16:22, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. Come, Lord Jesus." One text. 85 years ago, and he's thinking about it and the sermon and the exposition. And Flavel, in that sermon, focused on the horror of dying apart from Christ, and facing the curse and the wrath of God. And sitting under that tree, 85 years later, this man, Luke Short, came to faith in Christ. Now, I think it's best that they not wait 85 years. 85 years of not being a Christian is a long time to waste your life. But at least he came. I've been on the airplane, sharing the gospel. And I get done, and we're preparing to land. We're in that landing pattern. And we've had a good conversation, but the guy hasn't come to Christ yet. And I said to this man, I said, "I'm going to pray tonight, that you will not be able to sleep, and you'll be thinking about the scriptures we've talked about." Now I never find out. They never call that, "Oh, by the way, I wasn't able to sleep. And I came to Christ." Until heaven, I won't know. But I've prayed for that, "Keep them up, Lord. Keep them awake. Make them think about the scriptures that we've talked about." So that's the first, the force or the net of truth. Secondly, the net of love, the net of love. Christian love is a powerful apologetic for the gospel. This world of sin is vicious in its wickedness, vicious. Titus 3:3-5 talks about this kind of viciousness. It says there, "At one time, we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy," listen to this phrase, "being hated and hating one another," being hated and hating one another. "But, when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us." So, into this mass, this pit of viper world that Jesus came into, we were hating and hating each other, being hated and hating one another, and where we lived in malice and envy. And then the kindness and love of God appeared in Christ. Says in Hosea 11:4, "I led them with cords of human kindness." Think about that. Isn't that good for my fishing analogy? Cords of human kindness. So, wrap them up with cords of kindness and love, with ties of love. No one did this better than Jesus. No one ever loved the way this man loved. And his followers did the same. You remember Stephen at the end, when he's being stoned to death, and he's dying under their wrath and malice? Do you remember what he said? He said, "Lord, please do not hold this sin against them." Now, if you're Saul of Tarsus in an unconverted state, and you watch that man die like that, that puts us, the Lord later said, goads into Saul's soul, pushing him to Christ. And so the church should be a community of love, first within ourselves, that we would be a loving community. You walk in here and you feel the love. You walk into a home fellowship and you feel that the people really actually love each other. Jesus said, "By this will all men know that you're my disciples, if you love one another." So that FBC would be a community of love, just because we love each other. But also, it has converting power. Because the people out there, they don't see love like this. They don't know what it's like to be loved like that. Tertullian, a Christian apologist, around the year AD 200, was talking about the effect of that love on lost people. And he said, "These unconverted Romans are watching us, and they're saying, 'Behold, how they love one another. Behold, how they love one another.'" But then, secondly, the love we show to them in particular. Christians have led the way in felt needs ministries, in establishing hospitals and clinics and benevolent ministries all over the world, in the pattern of Jesus, meeting temporal needs, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for orphans and widows. It's just something that Christians have done all along. In the early Roman era, they would go and find babies that had been exposed. They used to just leave them under bridges. And they would pick them up and raise them as their own. All the way to the orphanages established by George Müller and Charles Spurgeon in Victorian England, 19th century England. Or even in that same era, William and Catherine Booth, who ministered to the poorest of London in the early days of the Salvation Army, Christians have displayed sacrificial love. What is God? What needs is God leading our church to meet here in Durham that we're presently not meeting? There are some that we are, but what are some new ministries that God might be laying on your heart, or your heart, or your heart, someone's heart, that could meet a felt need for the purpose of leading lost people to Christ? The nets of love. Thirdly, the net of fear. The net of fear. "'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved." Fear of judgment, fear of wrath, leads people to Christ. They flee the wrath to come. They should be afraid. They should be more afraid of hell than they are. I think that we evangelists, we can fear death and hell on their behalf, because they're not afraid of it. Jesus talked more about hell than anyone that had ever lived before him. In Matthew 10:28, he said, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell." Yes, I tell you, fear him. I was watching the movie Free Solo, about Alex Honnold. Have you seen this movie, where he's climbing the Yosemite rock face with no equipment, just his hands? And he's hanging by fingertips on the side of that rock, thousands of feet up in the air. And I know, from what I've read, that he's an atheist. I know that he's lost, while he's hanging by his fingers by the side on the Yosemite wall. So, I was watching that differently than just a watcher of the movie. It's like, "Do you understand what you're hanging over?" This image was first put in my mind by reading the historical circumstances of Jonathan Edward's sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," that he preached in Enfield, Connecticut, 1741. On the text, "In due time, their foot will slip." And he basically used the fact that the revival had passed Enfield by, and up to that point, most people hadn't been changed by it at all, to say, in a very kind of straight way, "It could be the gospels passing all of you by. And you're under the wrath of God, and you don't understand that you're basically walking on a rotten plank across the open pit of hell." And by the time he got done, the people were crying out, "What must I do to be saved?" They were in terror. Now I know that it's not an easy ministry, that we would stimulate people to be afraid to die, stimulate people to be afraid of hell, but that's part of the job. That's part of the task. And it is one of the reasons it makes evangelism difficult to do. But you think about Pilgrim's Progress, and what was it that caused Christian to begin his pilgrimage? He realized, by reading in the book that he was reading, that he lived in a place called the City of Destruction and he didn't know it. And he knew that he has to get out of town. He's got to get out of the City of Destruction. So the net of fear. And then, finally, the net of delight. Where did Christian flee to? Well, he fled to a place called the Celestial City. The Celestial City, heaven, is a beautiful place. You don't want to miss it. You don't want to miss it. And so the delights of heaven. One of his neighbors, Pliable, runs with him for a little while. I don't know if you remember this. And he says, "Well, tell me the beautiful place you're going. I've heard good things." He's like, "Well," Christian said, "there's an endless kingdom to be enjoyed and everlasting life to be given us, and that we may live in that kingdom forever. And there are crowns of glory to be given us, and garments that will make us shine like the sun in the sky. And there'll be no more crying nor sorrow, for he that is the owner of the place shall wipe all tears from our eyes." And Pliable says, "I'm in. I want to be part of that." It's the ultimate fear of missing out, friends. You don't want to miss this one. But best of all, is the delight in being with Christ, being with Christ, just being with him. I remember, I was sharing the gospel with one individual, and we had been meeting multiple times, going carefully through the book of Romans. There was nothing more to say. We'd gotten through the whole thing. And I was talking to him about the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. And it ends, remember, they're sitting with Jesus and they're sharing a meal. And he's talking to them about the kingdom and all that. And then he breaks bread and disappears from their eyes. And they said, "Were not our hearts burning within us when he opened the scriptures to us?" And this man that I'd been meeting with multiple times said to me, "I wish I had been there." I was like, "All right, stop. You can actually be there forever. What do you say?" "What do I do?" I said, "Ask Jesus to be your Savior." "Like how?" I said, "Ask him, now. Ask him, and he'll save you." And he did. Delight. I want Christ. I want to be with Christ. And I want to be with him forever. And I want to be in that beautiful world. The net of delight. These are the four, these four powerful nets. John Bunyan himself, this is one of the great stories from church history, Bunyan himself was converted, in part, when he overheard the conversation of a couple of unnamed women. He was a tinker, which means he went from place to place, sharpening knives and repairing pots and pans. And he overheard some women. And this is what he said, "I thought they spoke as if joy did make them speak. And they spoke with such pleasantness of scripture language and with such appearance of grace in all they said, that they were to me as if they had found a new world." They didn't even know he was listening. They were just so filled with joy at what their life was going to be like in heaven. He's like, "I'm on the outside looking in. I want in." So do you see these four nets? The net of truth, Scripture truth. The net of love, of cords of human kindness, showing people hospitality, meeting felt needs, doing ministries, the net of love. And the net of fear, that they would understand what will happen if they do not trust Christ, that they're under the wrath of God, and judgment is coming soon and they don't know when. And then the net of delight, the delights of heaven, but especially the delight of being with Jesus. Use that fishing tackle. V. Finding the Fish Now you may say, "Where are the fish? How am I going to find the fish?" Veteran fishermen among you will tell you, "Look, you can have the best equipment and you can be out there. You can go to the same place you’ve been before. You can have the expensive sonar thing that tells you definitely where the fish are, and you can still catch no fish." That happened twice to Peter. You know that? Peter went out and fished all night long and caught nothing. Twice. In Luke 5:5, "We’ve worked hard all night and haven't caught a thing." And then again in John 21:3, they went out, got into the boat, but that night, they caught nothing. Let me tell you something. Jesus knows where the fish are. And better than that, not only does he know where the fish are, he actually has secret power over their little fish brains, to make them make a strong left hand turn and swim into Peter's net. What in the world's going on with that? You remember what happened. He caught so many fish that the boat began to sink. So they're swimming in the Sea of Galilee, just swimming, just living their fish lives. And then, suddenly, they turned and went right into the net. Jesus has the power to make the fish swim into these nets. He has that kind of power. Throughout church history, again and again, God, through the Holy Spirit has led his messengers to go to specific places and do specific ministries, because there are some unconverted people ready to come to Christ. In the Muslim world, you see this with dreams, where people have dreams, and they're told to go to a certain city and a man who will be wearing a red coat and have a certain hat. These kinds of things happen. And God sets up that occasion and they come to Christ. But think about Philip. And an angel of the Lord appeared to him in Acts 8, and the angel told him where to go, "Go south to the road, the desert road, that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." So he goes down there, and what does he find? An Ethiopian eunuch who's reading the book of Isaiah the prophet, but doesn't understand. "Can you explain it to me?" Oh my goodness. Oh, God, give me an opportunity like that. If I can't land that fish, something's wrong with me. "I'm reading Isaiah 53, is the prophet talking about himself or someone else?" "Oh, God," pray that, say, "God, would you give me this week somebody who wants me to explain Isaiah 53 to them?" But that was orchestrated by God. He set it up. He brought Philip to where of the fish were. And along with this, dear friends, we need a single-minded devotion to fishing. Single-minded devotion. Paul said in Acts 20:24, "I consider my life worth nothing to me, my only aim is to the finish race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace." Single-minded. My life is for this purpose. We're distracted by so many things. We're into so many things that have no eternal consequence. Ask God to make you a fisher of men. George Whitfield, who's one of the greatest evangelists in history, speaking before thousands of people, he also was into individual personal evangelism too. And he said, "God forbid that I should travel in a carriage or anywhere else, with anyone for a quarter of an hour and not speak to them about Christ." God forbid. If he gives me 15 minutes with somebody, I'm going to talk to him. D. L. Moody, another traveling evangelist, spoke to thousands of people, made a personal commitment to not go to bed every day if he had not spoken, individually and personally, to somebody about Christ. Many times, he was just about to go to bed and forgot. And he got up and went out in the street and found somebody to talk to. D. L. Moody. VI. A Direct and Urgent Appeal So I'm going to finish by making to you a direct and urgent appeal. I'm going to ask you to hear, in this text today, Mark 1:17, Christ calling on all of us to make us become what we have not been up to this point, fishers of men. That you would realize we have a tremendous opportunity here. Estimates show us that the Triangle region of North Carolina will double in population over the next 25 years. It's already just growing. You can see it. You can see the condominiums that are going up, the houses that are being built. These are commercial developers that think that people are going to pour into this area. Many of them, most of them, will be lost, will be unchurched. It's opportunity for us. It's an opportunity. And for us, I think it begins with the power of the Holy Spirit that comes on us, in answer to prayer. "You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses." So I am calling on all of you, the elders are calling on all of you, to join us in prayer for four consecutive Wednesday evenings, from 6:30 to 7:30, or longer if the Holy Spirit wants us to stay longer. You'll know at the time. If you're there, you'll know we're supposed to stay. But for four weeks, to pray for evangelistic fruitfulness. It's going to start on February 23rd, and it's going to go through March 16th, from 6:30 to 7:30. We'll have childcare as we always do. That's a slot I usually teach the Bible in. We'll be right here in this sanctuary and we'll pray for an hour, for four weeks, for evangelistic fruit and power. Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for the time that we've had to study your word today. I pray that you would just do a supernatural work in us, to make us fishers of others, fishers of human beings, of people, that we can see the gospel work mightily in this Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area. God, give us grace, give us fruit, give us power, give us a heart for the lost. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

america god love jesus christ fear father lord earth bible spirit man england talk mission gospel christians brothers holy spirit creator north carolina romans single satan acts hands jewish scripture greek veterans blessed progress corinthians jerusalem massachusetts jews savior kingdom of god sermon sea muslims old testament connecticut sabbath draw scriptures pentecost gaza iv naturally behold evangelism destruction amen delight new world samaritan repent sinners virgin great commission ten commandments apostle paul pilgrims rabbi hosea book of acts durham triangle heavenly father galilee moody nicodemus zacchaeus ethiopian emmaus in matthew salvation army dartmouth esv ask god almighty god yosemite in luke great awakening in acts estimates fishers of men cords charles spurgeon tarsus free solo enfield victorian england john bunyan judean alex honnold tertullian ordinarily angry god fbc ask jesus george m bunyan pliable celestial city george whitfield john flavel to come colonial new england english puritan raleigh durham chapel hill luke short

The King of Light and Peace

english shadow theology federal alliance substance baptists la mirada james dolezal sam renihan english puritan

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 28, 2021 39:26

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION “It is fatal to let people suppose that Christianity is only a mode of feeling; it is vitally necessary to insist that it is first and foremost a rational explanation of the universe.” “None of us feels the true love of God till we realize how wicked we are. But you can't teach people that – they have to learn by experience.” “If men will not understand the meaning of judgement, they will never come to understand the meaning of grace.” ~Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957), English writer and poet “The more affected we are with our misery, the fitter for Christ's mercy." ~Thomas Manton (1620-1677), English Puritan clergyman “There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.” ~Richard Sibbes (1577-1635), English theologian “The prize of your faithfulness is your God. He is what you will get, he is preparing himself as the reward of his worshippers… He it is who is the reward of your faith and fidelity.” ~Augustine, North African church leader (Carthage, A.D. 419) “My evidence that I am saved does not lie in the fact that I preach, or that I do this or that. All my hope lies in this: that Jesus Christ came to save sinners. I am a sinner, I trust Him, then He came to save me, and I am saved.” ~Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892), famed London preacher “…he would go to Jerusalem not to wield the spear and bring the judgment, but to receive the spear thrust and bear the judgement.” ~Edmund Clowney (1917-2005), theologian and educator, on Jesus SERMON PASSAGE Isaiah 9:1-7 (ESV) 1 But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. 3 You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. 4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. 5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

From Shadow to Substance

Mortification of Spin

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 3, 2021

NOTE: Mortification of Spin--now, a biweekly podcast--returns with a new episode November 10th. Today: from the archives of another Alliance podcast, it's Theology on the Go with Jonathan Master and James Dolezal. What is Federal Theology? Sam Renihan joins our hosts to address this very question. Sam is a pastor at Trinity Reformed Baptist Church in La Mirada, CA and author of From Shadow to Substance: the Federal Theology of the English Particular Baptists. Is it fair to say that Federal theology was the theology of the post-reformation English Puritan? If so, how? Sam focuses his attention on the distinctive features of Federal Theology among particular Baptists, their place in the 17th century literature, and the implications of departing from the English social institutions of long-held beliefs.

Episode 21: Dr. Seth Osborne on Richard Baxter

Voices of Renewal

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 1, 2021 29:59

Richard Baxter was a 17th century English Puritan pastor, poet, and theologian. Throughout his life, Baxter emphasized the necessity of repentance and faithfulness in the life of believers, and his most famous work, The Reformed Pastor, is still in print today and used in training Christian Leaders to Change the World. In this week's episode of Voices of Renewal, Dr. Seth Osborne, an adjunct faculty member for the Regent University School of Divinity, walks us through Baxter's life, ministry, and renewal legacy.

history world church change christianity voices renewal divinity baxter osborne charismatic christian leaders richard baxter regent university school english puritan

Puritan Devotional Sweetness

Sovereign Grace Reformed Church

Play Episode Listen Later May 1, 2021 1:00

English Puritan devotional message by Robert Dingley -1619-1660- - on tasting the sweetness of God. --Proverbs 24-13--My son, eat thou honey, because it is good- and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste--

god proverbs devotional sweetness puritan puritan devotional english puritan

Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Wenatchee First Assembly

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 20, 2020

Pastor Jerry concludes his “Christmas Carol” series this week by looking at a song that was written during a time in the 17th century that the English Puritan parliament had abolished Christmas carols. Charles Wesley is the author of this song that has enlightened and blessed believers for over 200 years by retelling the truths […]

christmas christmas carol hark herald angels sing charles wesley pastor jerry english puritan

Episode 11: John Flavel on the Shorter Catechism

Missions Moment

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 9, 2020 17:18

Aaron and Calvin discuss the life and ministry of John Flavel, an English Puritan minister in the 17th century. One of his last works was an exposition of the Westminster Assembly's Shorter Catechism, which the Krapf Project is preparing for publication in an updated edition. Listen in and get a taste for Flavel's teaching!

shorter catechism john flavel westminster assembly flavel english puritan

Henry Dunster, US, College President

365 Christian Men

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 27, 2020 5:52

August 27. Henry Dunster. Dunster was an English Puritan and a preacher who looked for religious freedom in the New World. Three weeks after he arrived in Boston, the Harvard search committee offered Dunster a job. On this day in 1640, Dunster became the first president of Harvard. During his tenure, the first Harvard buildings […] The post Henry Dunster, US, College President first appeared on 365 Christian Men.

harvard new world christian men college president us colleges dunster english puritan

Episode 42: Why Do Christians Argue So Much? What Can We Do About It?! #Unity, Part 1.

Bible Questions Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 11, 2020 34:07

Greetings to all of the peace-loving and unity-seeking listeners to the Bible Reading Podcast - you guys are the best! And if you are are the kind who likes nothing better than a good argument with other Christians - who takes joy out of showing simpletons how wrong they are, and can't push away from the keyboard when you find somebody wrong on the internet, well then maybe this episode is for you. Cheers! Today's Bible readings begin with Genesis 44, where Joseph initiates his reunion with his treacherous brothers by implicating the youngest in a theft. Job 10 continues Job's gut-wrenching speech from yesterday, containing some of the most honest and most unfiltered commentary in the entire Bible. For those who do not believe a follower of God can be depressed, then Job has something to say about that. (As does Elijah, Moses, David, and many, many other heroes of the faith): “Why did you bring me out of the womb? I should have died and never been seen. 19 I wish I had never existed but had been carried from the womb to the grave. 20 Are my days not few? Stop it! Leave me alone, so that I can smile a little 21 before I go to a land of darkness and gloom, never to return. 22 It is a land of blackness like the deepest darkness, gloomy and chaotic, where even the light is like the darkness.” Job 10:18-22 Mark 14 sees Jesus leading the Last Supper, and experiencing painful betrayal, followed by his arrest at the behest of the Sanhedrin. It also has Mark's retelling of the adoration and worship of Mary of Bethany, which was the subject of episode 26 of this podcast. Our focus passages for today and tomorrow will be Romans 14 and 15, and they are all about unity, agreement and a sincere call to avoid arguments and conflict among followers of Christ. Let's read! Worth remembering that the biblical commands about unity also apply to husbands and wives! Christians are known by many to be argumentative and divisive, which is heartbreaking considering Jesus' prayer for oneness in John 17: 20 “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. 21 May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. 22 I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. John 17:20-23 When Jesus' followers are not in the unity that He prayed for, then we are muffling the communication of the good news to the world and are missing out on an opportunity to let the world know that Jesus was sent by the Father. I believe this hinders our evangelism massively in the U.S. and other parts of the Western world where nonbelievers look around and see hundreds, if not thousands, of denominations and scoff at Christians. Christian unity is essential to Gospel fruitfulness, according to the prayer of Jesus. I love Romans 14 because it gives Christians practical and powerful commands and advice on finding unity. Consider these verses: 1. Accept anyone who is weak in faith, but don't argue about disputed matters. 4. Who are you to judge another's household servant? Before his own Lord he stands or falls. 10. But you, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. 13. Therefore, let us no longer judge one another. 13. Instead decide never to put a stumbling block or pitfall in the way of your brother or sister. 19. So then, let us pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another. 21. It is a good thing not to eat meat, or drink wine, or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble. 21. Whatever you believe about these things, keep between yourself and God. Romans 14 Consider what it would be like if Christians followed just the above commands in Romans 14! No arguments about disputed matters. No judging. Pursuing what promotes peace. No stumbling blocks or pitfalls. Keeping your opinion to yourself on issues that the Bible is not clear on. Consider these awesome words from Pastor Richard Baxter, an English Puritan from the 1600s: Lastly, observe how we sin against the sad experience of the church in all ages, by laying our religion or unity upon these smaller or unnecessary things. What hath distracted the church so much as contendings about their ceremonies and orders, and precedency and superiority! The Practical Works of the Reverend Richard Baxter What wisdom! How many Christians, churches and denominations have divided over SMALL or UNNECESSARY things?! How many Christians and churches have been distracted by arguments over church service orders and other Christian ceremonies? How many Christian groups have splintered over biblically unclear issues like eschatology/last days, the issue of alcohol, the issue of dress, raising hands in worship, music style, Bible translations, the exact nature of communion and more? You might have a firm and clear opinion on some of those matters, and I do too, but we have multiple commands and mandates in Scripture to be in unity, to be one in thought and mind, to be at peace with each other, and we must stop ignoring those commands in the church! I love what Pastor Mark Dever said about this topic in a recent sermon. I beg you to come read these words on the Bible Reading Podcast website so that you remember them well: I think that millennial views need not be among those doctrines that divide us. . . . I am suggesting that what you believe about the millennium—how you interpret these thousand years—is not something that it is necessary for us to agree upon in order to have a congregation together. The Lord Jesus Christ prayed in John 17:21 that we Christians might be one. Of course all true Christians are one in that we have his Spirit, we share his Spirit, we desire to live out that unity. But that unity is supposed to be evident as a testimony to the world around us. Therefore, I conclude that we should end our cooperations together with other Christians (whether near-ly in a congregation, or more at length in working together in missions and church planting and evangelism and building up the ministry) only with the greatest of care, lest we rend the body of Christ for whose unity he's prayed and given himself. Therefore, I conclude that it is sin to divide the body of Christ—to divide the body that he prayed would be united. Therefore for us to conclude that we must agree upon a certain view of alcohol, or a certain view of schooling, or a certain view of meat sacrificed to idols, or a certain view of the millennium in order to have fellowship together is, I think, not only unnecessary for the body of Christ, but it is therefore both unwarranted and therefore condemned by scripture. So if you're a pastor and you're listening to me, you understand me correctly if you think I'm saying you are in sin if you lead your congregation to have a statement of faith that requires a particular millennial view.I do not understand why that has to be a matter of uniformity in order to have Christian unity in a local congregation. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/dever-you-are-in-sin-if-you-lead-your/ I wholeheartedly agree with Dever here, and would count it a privilege to go to church with him and serve alongside him, even though he and I disagree on several of the issues he mentioned (including the Millennium) - but these disagreements PALE in comparison to the dozens of New Testament commands and urgings to pursue UNITY. Note that I am not suggesting that we must never contend for the faith or for clear biblical truth and commands - we must not compromise on that which the Bible clearly commands. There is indeed a time to stand up and contend for clearly revealed biblical truths, but we must avoid contending on 'doubtful issues,' and we must seek the guidance of the Word of God and His Spirit to walk in the wisdom to know the difference. I think Jared C. Wilson captures the crucial balance and wisdom required quite well on this issue, so allow me to close with some words from him: We live in crucial times for the church, especially in the West. There are skirmishes a'plenty, opportunities every day to go to war with our neighbors, with our brethren, with every Twitter rando with an itchy keyboard finger. We are called to wage relentless war on our sin (Heb. 4:12) and the spiritual powers of wickedness (Eph. 6:12). But not every invitation to battle with flesh and blood ought to be accepted. And rarely should such invitations be given.Those in Christian ministry ought to especially take this to heart. Fighting is sometimes necessary. Liking to fight is not. In fact, it is forbidden.Consider whether you are in fact with every caustic tweet chipping away at your qualification for ministry. It is not manly to get up every morning thinking of the brethren as your enemies, not even the ones you disagree with on important matters. “The Lord's servant is not to be quarrelsome” (2 Tim. 2:24). Pastors are forbidden argumentativeness (1 Tim. 3:3).And while the Lord's violent cleansing of the temple may offer some model of holy zeal worth emulating, he said an awful lot more directly about blessing those who hate, praying for those who persecute, and turning the other cheek. Those are direct orders. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/jared-c-wilson/some-men-just-like-the-fight/

Episode 42: Why Do Christians Argue So Much? What Can We Do About It?! #Unity, Part 1.

Bible Reading Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 11, 2020 34:07

Greetings to all of the peace-loving and unity-seeking listeners to the Bible Reading Podcast - you guys are the best! And if you are are the kind who likes nothing better than a good argument with other Christians - who takes joy out of showing simpletons how wrong they are, and can't push away from the keyboard when you find somebody wrong on the internet, well then maybe this episode is for you. Cheers! Today's Bible readings begin with Genesis 44, where Joseph initiates his reunion with his treacherous brothers by implicating the youngest in a theft. Job 10 continues Job's gut-wrenching speech from yesterday, containing some of the most honest and most unfiltered commentary in the entire Bible. For those who do not believe a follower of God can be depressed, then Job has something to say about that. (As does Elijah, Moses, David, and many, many other heroes of the faith): “Why did you bring me out of the womb? I should have died and never been seen. 19 I wish I had never existed but had been carried from the womb to the grave. 20 Are my days not few? Stop it! Leave me alone, so that I can smile a little 21 before I go to a land of darkness and gloom, never to return. 22 It is a land of blackness like the deepest darkness, gloomy and chaotic, where even the light is like the darkness.” Job 10:18-22 Mark 14 sees Jesus leading the Last Supper, and experiencing painful betrayal, followed by his arrest at the behest of the Sanhedrin. It also has Mark's retelling of the adoration and worship of Mary of Bethany, which was the subject of episode 26 of this podcast. Our focus passages for today and tomorrow will be Romans 14 and 15, and they are all about unity, agreement and a sincere call to avoid arguments and conflict among followers of Christ. Let's read! Worth remembering that the biblical commands about unity also apply to husbands and wives! Christians are known by many to be argumentative and divisive, which is heartbreaking considering Jesus' prayer for oneness in John 17: 20 “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. 21 May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. 22 I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. John 17:20-23 When Jesus' followers are not in the unity that He prayed for, then we are muffling the communication of the good news to the world and are missing out on an opportunity to let the world know that Jesus was sent by the Father. I believe this hinders our evangelism massively in the U.S. and other parts of the Western world where nonbelievers look around and see hundreds, if not thousands, of denominations and scoff at Christians. Christian unity is essential to Gospel fruitfulness, according to the prayer of Jesus. I love Romans 14 because it gives Christians practical and powerful commands and advice on finding unity. Consider these verses: 1. Accept anyone who is weak in faith, but don't argue about disputed matters. 4. Who are you to judge another's household servant? Before his own Lord he stands or falls. 10. But you, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. 13. Therefore, let us no longer judge one another. 13. Instead decide never to put a stumbling block or pitfall in the way of your brother or sister. 19. So then, let us pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another. 21. It is a good thing not to eat meat, or drink wine, or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble. 21. Whatever you believe about these things, keep between yourself and God. Romans 14 Consider what it would be like if Christians followed just the above commands in Romans 14! No arguments about disputed matters. No judging. Pursuing what promotes peace. No stumbling blocks or pitfalls. Keeping your opinion to yourself on issues that the Bible is not clear on. Consider these awesome words from Pastor Richard Baxter, an English Puritan from the 1600s: Lastly, observe how we sin against the sad experience of the church in all ages, by laying our religion or unity upon these smaller or unnecessary things. What hath distracted the church so much as contendings about their ceremonies and orders, and precedency and superiority! The Practical Works of the Reverend Richard Baxter What wisdom! How many Christians, churches and denominations have divided over SMALL or UNNECESSARY things?! How many Christians and churches have been distracted by arguments over church service orders and other Christian ceremonies? How many Christian groups have splintered over biblically unclear issues like eschatology/last days, the issue of alcohol, the issue of dress, raising hands in worship, music style, Bible translations, the exact nature of communion and more? You might have a firm and clear opinion on some of those matters, and I do too, but we have multiple commands and mandates in Scripture to be in unity, to be one in thought and mind, to be at peace with each other, and we must stop ignoring those commands in the church! I love what Pastor Mark Dever said about this topic in a recent sermon. I beg you to come read these words on the Bible Reading Podcast website so that you remember them well: I think that millennial views need not be among those doctrines that divide us. . . . I am suggesting that what you believe about the millennium—how you interpret these thousand years—is not something that it is necessary for us to agree upon in order to have a congregation together. The Lord Jesus Christ prayed in John 17:21 that we Christians might be one. Of course all true Christians are one in that we have his Spirit, we share his Spirit, we desire to live out that unity. But that unity is supposed to be evident as a testimony to the world around us. Therefore, I conclude that we should end our cooperations together with other Christians (whether near-ly in a congregation, or more at length in working together in missions and church planting and evangelism and building up the ministry) only with the greatest of care, lest we rend the body of Christ for whose unity he's prayed and given himself. Therefore, I conclude that it is sin to divide the body of Christ—to divide the body that he prayed would be united. Therefore for us to conclude that we must agree upon a certain view of alcohol, or a certain view of schooling, or a certain view of meat sacrificed to idols, or a certain view of the millennium in order to have fellowship together is, I think, not only unnecessary for the body of Christ, but it is therefore both unwarranted and therefore condemned by scripture. So if you're a pastor and you're listening to me, you understand me correctly if you think I'm saying you are in sin if you lead your congregation to have a statement of faith that requires a particular millennial view.I do not understand why that has to be a matter of uniformity in order to have Christian unity in a local congregation. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/dever-you-are-in-sin-if-you-lead-your/ I wholeheartedly agree with Dever here, and would count it a privilege to go to church with him and serve alongside him, even though he and I disagree on several of the issues he mentioned (including the Millennium) - but these disagreements PALE in comparison to the dozens of New Testament commands and urgings to pursue UNITY. Note that I am not suggesting that we must never contend for the faith or for clear biblical truth and commands - we must not compromise on that which the Bible clearly commands. There is indeed a time to stand up and contend for clearly revealed biblical truths, but we must avoid contending on 'doubtful issues,' and we must seek the guidance of the Word of God and His Spirit to walk in the wisdom to know the difference. I think Jared C. Wilson captures the crucial balance and wisdom required quite well on this issue, so allow me to close with some words from him: We live in crucial times for the church, especially in the West. There are skirmishes a'plenty, opportunities every day to go to war with our neighbors, with our brethren, with every Twitter rando with an itchy keyboard finger. We are called to wage relentless war on our sin (Heb. 4:12) and the spiritual powers of wickedness (Eph. 6:12). But not every invitation to battle with flesh and blood ought to be accepted. And rarely should such invitations be given.Those in Christian ministry ought to especially take this to heart. Fighting is sometimes necessary. Liking to fight is not. In fact, it is forbidden.Consider whether you are in fact with every caustic tweet chipping away at your qualification for ministry. It is not manly to get up every morning thinking of the brethren as your enemies, not even the ones you disagree with on important matters. “The Lord's servant is not to be quarrelsome” (2 Tim. 2:24). Pastors are forbidden argumentativeness (1 Tim. 3:3).And while the Lord's violent cleansing of the temple may offer some model of holy zeal worth emulating, he said an awful lot more directly about blessing those who hate, praying for those who persecute, and turning the other cheek. Those are direct orders. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/jared-c-wilson/some-men-just-like-the-fight/

From Shadow To Substance Podcast

Theology on the Go

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 26, 2019 24:56

From Shadow to Substance What is Federal Theology? Sam Renihan joins our hosts to address this very question. Sam is a pastor at Trinity Reformed Baptist Church in La Mirada, CA and author of From Shadow to Substance: the Federal Theology of the English Particular Baptists. Is it fair to say that Federal theology was the theology of the post-reformation English Puritan? If so, how? Sam focuses his attention on the distinctive features of Federal Theology among particular Baptists, their place in the 17th century literature, and the implications of departing from the English social institutions of long-held beliefs. Show Notes · Theologian Casper Olevian · Theologian John Cameron · Minister Benjamin Cox · Unity and Continuity in Covenantal Thought by Andrew Woosley · The Covenantal Theology of John Spilsbery by Matthew Bingham · The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology by Pascal Denault · Divine Rule Maintained: Anthony Burgess, Covenant Theology, and the Place of the Law in reformed Scholasticism by Casselli

english unity shadow federal substance continuity baptists la mirada covenant theology distinctiveness scholasticism baptist covenant theology sam renihan pascal denault english puritan matthew bingham

The Place of Peace

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 24, 2018 35:32

REFLECTION QUOTES “God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform; He plants His footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable mines of never-failing skill, He treasures up His bright designs, and works His sovereign will. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, the clouds ye so much dread, are big with mercy, and shall break in blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust Him for His grace; Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour; The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err, and scan his work in vain; God is His own interpreter, and He will make it plain.” ~William Cowper, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way” “I have held many things in my hands, and have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess.” ~Martin Luther (1483-1546), German theologian, monk, composer “If God be our God, He will give us peace in trouble. When there is a storm without, He will make peace within. The world can create trouble in peace, but God can create peace in trouble.” ~Thomas Watson (1620-1686), English Puritan preacher and author SERMON PASSAGE Psalm 91 (ESV) 1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” 3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. 4 He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. 5 You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, 6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. 7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. 8 You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. 9 Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refuge— 10 no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. 11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. 12 On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. 13 You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. 14 “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. 15 When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

god lord peace deep german judge blind ye almighty martin luther esv most high god moves thomas watson william cowper english puritan

Peter's Faith Purified and Protected

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 26, 2016 41:23

REFLECTION QUOTES “The tempter will make his first and sharpest attack on you…. He has long practiced fighting…against the shepherds, that he might scatter the flock…. Take heed then, for the enemy has a special eye on you. You are sure to have his most subtle insinuations, incessant solicitations and violent assaults.” “Dangers bring fears, and fears more dangers bring.” ~Richard Baxter (1615-1691), English Puritan leader “[Many Christians act] as if we still lived in a Christian culture, a Christian civilization, a society that reinforced the Gospel. No. The honeymoon is over…[but] the news has yet to sink in fully in many quarters.” ~Peter Kreeft, professor of philosophy at Boston College “Now it is not sufficient for anyone, and it does him no good to recognize God in his glory and majesty, unless he recognizes him in the humility and shame of the cross.… [W]ithout a theology of the cross, man misuses the best things in the worst way.” ~Martin Luther (1483-1546), German reformer “We are never so defenseless against suffering as when we love, never so forlornly unhappy as when we have lost our love-object or its love.” ~Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), founder of psychoanalysis “The safest road to hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” ~C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters “Faith indeed tells what the senses do not tell, but not the contrary of what they see. It is above them and not contrary to them.” ~Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), French mathematician and philosopher “Unbelief is the root of all sins, just as faith is the origin and root of uprightness.” ~Martin Luther (1483-1546) SERMON PASSAGE Luke 22 (NASB) 31 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; 32 but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” 33 But he said to Him, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!” 34 And He said, “I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me.” 54 Having arrested [Jesus], [the crowd] led Him away and brought Him to the house of the high priest; but Peter was following at a distance. 55 After they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter was sitting among them. 56 And a servant-girl, seeing him as he sat in the firelight and looking intently at him, said, “This man was with Him too.” 57 But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know Him.” 58 A little later, another saw him and said, “You are one of them too!” But Peter said, “Man, I am not!” 59After about an hour had passed, another man began to insist, saying, “Certainly this man also was with Him, for he is a Galilean too.” 60 But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” Immediately, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. 61 The Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, “Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.” 62 And he went out and wept bitterly. 1 Peter 1 (NASB) 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, 7 so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. John 21 (NASB) 15 …Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My lambs.” 16 He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Tend My sheep.

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