"Christian Scholarship and the Defense of the Faith"

The following is from the writings of J. Gresham Machen and thought it relevant to our Saturday morning Bible study as we are getting ready to look at unapologetic preaching.

Men tell us that our preaching should be positive and not negative, that we can preach the truth without attacking error. But if we follow that advice we shall have to close our Bible and desert its teachings. The New Testament is a polemic book almost from beginning to end.

Some years ago I was in a company of teachers of the Bible in the colleges and other educational institutions of America. One of the most eminent theological professors in the country made an address. In it he admitted that there are unfortunate controversies about doctrine in the Epistles of Paul; but, said he in effect, the real essence of Paul's teaching is found in the hymn to Christian love in the thirteenth chapter of I Corinthians; and we can avoid controversy today, if we will only devote the chief attention to that inspiring hymn. 

In reply, I am bound to say that the example was singularly ill-chosen. That hymn to Christian love is in the midst of a great polemic passage; it would never have been written if Paul has been opposed to controversy with error in the Church. It was because his soul was stirred within him by a wrong use of the spiritual gifts that he was able to write that glorious hymn. So it is always in the Church. Every really great Christian utterance, it may almost be said, is born in controversy. It is when men have felt compelled to take a stand against error that they have risen to the really great heights in the celebration of truth. 

 J. Gresham Machen (1881–1937) was born in Baltimore and was graduated with a degree in classics from Johns Hopkins University. He studied at Princeton Theological Seminary under B. B. Warfield and R. D. Wilson.

Attention all Pastors and Teachers!

As preachers and teachers all over the world continue to prepare the message from God's Word. May we remember that we too need to cultivate our own souls and pray and allow the Holy Spirit to internalize the message in our own hearts. The crucible matters from which the Master and message is poured. 

Speak for eternity. Above all things, cultivate your own spirit. A word spoken by you when your  conscience is clear and your heart full of God's Spirit is worth ten thousand words spoken in unbelief and sin. Remember that God, and not man, must have the  glory. If the veil of the world's machinery were lifted off, how much we would find is done in answer to the prayers of God's children.
                                                      - Robert Murry McCheyne

 "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (1 John 3:3)

Charles Haddon Spurgeon on Christ Crucified

I do not believe it is preaching Christ and him crucified, to give our people a batch of philosophy every Sunday morning and evening, and neglect the truth of this Holy Book. I do not believe it is preaching Christ and him crucified, to leave out the main cardinal doctrines of the Word of God, and preach a religion which is all a mist and a haze, without any definite truths whatever. I take it that a man does not preach Christ and him crucified, who can get through a sermon without mentioning Christ’s name once; nor does that man preach Christ and him crucified who leaves out the Holy Spirit’s work, who never says a word about the Holy Ghost, so that indeed the hearers might say, “We do not so much know whether there be a Holy Ghost.”

And I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and him crucified, unless you preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. I have my own ideas, and those I always state boldly. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel, if we do not preach justification by faith, without works; nor unless we preach the sovereignty of God in his dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering, love of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel, unless we base it upon the peculiar redemption which Christ made for his elect and chosen people; nor can I comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called, and suffers the children of God to be burned in the fires of damnation after having believed. Such a gospel I abhor. The gospel of the Bible is not such a gospel as that.

for meditation: To “know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2) may sound very limited. In fact it is a vast and glorious subject upon which everything else should be based and for which God should be given all the glory (1 Corinthians 1:30,31).^[1]

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^[1] C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days With Spurgeon (Volume 1) (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 1998), 49.

Preaching is NOT a game

How should a preacher preach?  2 Timothy 3:16 – 4:2 gives us one of the most, if not thee most lofty COMMANDS in Scripture.  2 Timothy 4:1-2 “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word!...” 

That is quite an astounding introduction to God’s command for those of us who stand up and preach the Word.  This verse tells us that preaching is an exalted and serious charge to preach the word.  This charge is given to us before God.  AND before the Lord Jesus Christ.  AND that He is coming again.  AND when He comes He will judge. AND finally that He will be ruling His kingdom.  That tells me that the stakes are high.  That tells me it’s a serious thing to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.  That tells me that what hangs in the balance is eternal life or eternal death. 

This command proceeds that which is given to us in the preceding verses.  In 2 Timothy 3:16-17 it says, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Our preaching deals with God’s inspired words that he has preserved in what we call the Bible – not my words but his words and his voice.  Thus I’m to preach his word and it is done in the sight of God and in the name of Christ Jesus, who’s coming to judge and who one day I will stand and give an account (Hebrews 13:17).  Not only that, but all teachers of his word will be held accountable and to a higher standard in how they taught the Bible (James 3:1). 

The profound effect that this has on me is that preaching is not a game!  I must remember the seriousness of man’s proclamation and how I’m to expose the voice of God and exalt the greatness of God.  I’m not to tell stories or jokes or give my ideas, or my philosophies or my wisdom.  I am to be an under-shepherd and a spokesman to a flock of people.  I'm to open up the revelation of God’s word and give them a glimpse of his greatness, and his mercy, and his majesty, and his holiness and to say that he is worthy of every bit of our attention and the total surrender of our lives to him. 

Dear heavenly Father, raise up a people that want to see the glory of God and hear and obey your voice.  May they come to hear and desire your word and may we respond with open hearts and minds, and radically changed lives.