Extracts from The Almost Christian Discovered

Regarding the reader or hearer of the message taking personal offense at the message or the messenger.

"It is a book of dissections, in which every department of the Christian character is skillfully divested of its covering, and laid open to impartial survey; and although it would be too much to say, that in the performance of a task, which exhibits such diversity, and requires such a nicety of spiritual discrimination, nothing has been done to disturb the peace of a saint; yet the instances in which its author is chargeable with this, we take to be very few; while perhaps there is not one of them in which the pain produced, if rightly improven, is not salutary in its tendency, or fails to lead on to more exalted enjoyment. But supposing that instances do occur, in which the peace of conscience is unduly disturbed, or that a sentiment, here and there, has dropped from the pen of the author, which tends to a false or injurious alarm, still it is better that a reparable injury should be suffered, than that a delusion which is irreparable should remain undetected. It is the lot of the messenger, who either lifts up his voice or his pen to publish the counsel of God to man in the present complex state of society, that he cannot sound an alarm to the wicked, without putting some of the righteous in fear; nor can he minister consolation to the latter, without at least the hazard of having his message misapplied by the perversity of the latter." (Pg. xvi )

by Matthew Mead published in 1856, reprinted Diggory Press.

What It Is That Saves A Soul

The following is an excerpt from a publication offered by Chapel Library. Check out their material at : http://www.mountzion.org/

WHAT WE ARE SAVED FROM J C Philpot

But if we wish to know WHAT IT IS THAT SAVES A SOUL, we must know what that state is out of which it is saved. If we have not the beginning, we cannot have the middle nor ending. But our modern professors and preachers never had a beginning to their religion. They were pious from childhood; or they had the advantage of religious parents; or they were brought up at the Sunday School; or they sat under a gospel minister; or a good book fell into their hands and made them pious; or they became serious, and impressed with the necessity of religion; or they married a religious wife, or husband, and so they became religious, too. Such, and similar accounts, are daily given to the public in pious periodicals, related in conversation, or given in at church meetings, and implicitly received by universal charity as a true experience and as a genuine work of grace. But where is one to be found out of a thousand who can tell how the Lord began with him, and what were his feelings under His divine teachings? Who can describe the path by which he has been led, the ups and downs which he has experienced, the changes through which he has passed, the vessels from which he has been successively emptied, and the conflicts in which he has been engaged?

Who of a thousand professors, can speak feelingly of the wormwood and the gall of sin, the poisoned stings of guilt, the arrows of God in the conscience, the mire and filth of a desperately wicked heart, the strugglings, sinkings and wrestlings, the alternate hopes and fears, the beams of light and the shades of darkness, the short-lived confidence and the soon-returning despondency, and all the varied experience of an awakened soul? Self-loathing and self-abhorrence in dust and ashes, gloomy forebodings of eternal punishment, cries unto God out of the pit of guilt, succeeded by fits of sullen silence, alternate repentance and hardness of heart, being now overcome by sin and now mourning and sighing over his weakness against it - such exercises as these, how few speak of with that feeling, unction and power, which show that they have passed through them! Or, again, the heavy burden of sin, the daily weight of evil, the floods of infidelity and atheism, the torrents of filth, lust, and obscenity, the sudden rushings in of blasphemous thoughts, dreadful imaginations, foul ideas, horrible cursings, and all the heavings up of the filthy bed of a sensual and devilish heart - what minister in a thousand carries any evidence in his preaching that such a track has been trodden by him?

But if salvation implies a previous state from which it is a deliverance, then I say that it is childish folly to talk of being saved if we know nothing experimentally of WHAT WE ARE SAVED FROM. If a man ask me, then, "What is it which saves a soul" I answer, "Why do you ask that question? Before anything about salvation can be known, there is a previous lesson to be learned. If you have not learned this, you have nothing to do with the other. You might as well think of learning vulgar fractions without first learning to read. But what is your motive for wishing an answer to this question? To learn a few notions, to inform your judgment, to adopt a sound creed? If this be your motive, my business lies not with you. You have to go and first learn another lesson, and until you have been taught this, I can give your question no answer."

Salvation is a gift, the choicest and richest gift which the hands of a Triune God, Whose name is Love, can bestow. It is a portion, an inheritance, an estate, a treasure, and eternal reality. The full possession, the entire enjoyment, the complete acquisition of this predestinated weight of glory, is indeed reserved until a future state; but the earnest, the first-fruits, the early ripe clusters, the first dew-drops of this eternal inheritance, are given to the elect while upon earth. The everlasting enjoyment of the presence and glory of Christ is often compared in Scripture to a wedding. Thus we read ( Rev. 19:7) of "the Lamb's wife," and of "the marriage of the Lamb." So the church is said to be "brought unto the King in raiment of needlework," as the bride in eastern countries was brought by the father (Gen.29:23) to the bridegroom. But we read of "espousal" also, which always preceded the celebration of the marriage. "I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals" (Jer. 2:2). "I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ" (II Cor.11:2). So Joseph was espoused to the virgin Mary, before they came together (Matt. 1:18); that is, before they became man and wife.

Now this espousal as a necessary prelude to marriage, though it was not the same thing. And, therefore, a betrothed virgin was punished as an adulteress by the Levitical law ( Deut. 22:24), if she was unfaithful to her espoused husband. To be betrothed had the nature of marriage in it, though it was not the same as marriage. The parties did not live together, and were not put in possession of each other. Thus, it is in this life that the spiritual betrothment takes place, and the spiritual marriage in the life to come. "I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies; I will even betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord" ( Hosea 3:19-29).



Joseph Charles Philpot (1802 – 1869) was known as "The Seceder". He resigned from the Church of England in 1835 and became a Strict & Particular Baptist. While with the Church of England he was a Fellow of Worchester College, Oxford. For 26 years, he held a joint pastorate at Stamford and Oakham. In addition for over twenty years, he was editor of "The Gospel Standard", where many of his sermons first appeared.

"My desire is to exalt the grace of God; to proclaim salvation alone through Jesus Christ; to declare the sinfulness, helplessness and hopelessness of man in a state of nature; to describe the living experience of the children of God in their trials, temptations, sorrows, consolations and blessings." - J. C. Philpot

New Year's Eve

I'm feeling a little better now so I thought I'd update you on our New Years Eve event held at the church.

We had a very good turn-out with some new faces and some that haven't visited for a while. Our special event of the night began with the showing of a new video on Pilgrim's Progress. It is a modernized version, which gave me some trepidation earlier, but was well done. Bunyan could certainly drive home spiritual truth with his allegorical characters. Some guests had to leave immediately after the showing and we hope to follow up with them. The remainder enjoyed some table and group games with numerous snacks and treats. My wife and I left shortly before midnight (that's the longest I've stayed up for years). The pastor and his family stayed the night as did several others. My wife and I met them at the church the next morning for a Brianna breakfast (pancakes, sausages, farm fresh eggs, etc. prepared by one of the young ladies who attend church). She did a very good job.

All-in-all I think everyone had a good time. I know I did.

For me personally New Years Day holds a special place on my calendar as I mark my conversion from that day in 1977. That day was a culmination of many providential events leading up to me repenting of my sin and placing my trust and my life in The Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and I've never looked back.

To you who know the Lord, continue on the narrow path as with those other pilgrims who have went before us and continue with us. To you who have not repented and placed your life in the Lord Jesus Christ.....an eternity in hell waits for you unless you find the Savior. Ask, seek, knock (Matthew 7:7ff).

And by the way,

Happy New Year!

Another Passing Era

For some of you that have kept up with this post you are aware of my father's death last year. On early Tuesday morning my mother also passed away.

My wife and I were called at about 1:15 a.m. by the nursing home staff and informed of her death. When we arrived at the nursing home we were met by the head nurse and ushered in mom's room. Mom had been ill for some time with congestive heart failure. The nurse stated mom seemed to be feeling better due to a medication change and she spoke with her often during the evening. The nurse said she stayed with mom through the evening but when she left to check on other residents and returned mom had died.

My sisters have been given the task of funeral arrangements and as of this posting nothing has of yet been determined.

I'd appreciate your prayers especially for the ability to speak to my siblings and friends about the hope in the Lord Jesus Christ that overcomes the grief associated with death.

UPDATE

For those interested, a memorial service is scheduled for mom at the Grace Bible Church in Bruce, Wisconsin, on Saturday, January 24, 2009, at 1 p.m.

Medieval Mistakes

The following article is taken from the Founders Journal · Winter 2002 · pp. 27-29, by Sinclair Ferguson.

Although provoked by the indulgences peddled by Johannes Tetzel, the very first proposition which Luther offered for public debate in his Ninety Five Theses put the axe to the root of the tree of medieval theology: "When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said 'Repent,' he meant that the entire life of believers should be one of repentance." From Erasmus' Greek New Testament, Luther had come to realize that the Vulgate's rendering of Matthew 4:17 by penitentiam agite ("do penance") completely misinterpreted Jesus' meaning. The gospel called not for an act of penance but for a radical change of mind-set and an equally deep transformation of life. Later he would write to Staupitz about this glowing discovery: "I venture to say they are wrong who make more of the act in Latin than of the change of heart in Greek!"

Is it not true that we have lost sight of this note that was so prominent in Reformation theology? We could well do with a Luther redivivus today. For a number of important reasons evangelicals need to reconsider the centrality of repentance in our thinking about the gospel, the church and the Christian life.

One of our great needs is for the ability to view some of the directions in which evangelicalism is heading, or perhaps more accurately disintegrating. We desperately need the long-term perspective which the history of the church gives us.

Even within the period of my own Christian life, the span between my teenage years in the 1960s and my forties in the 1990s, there has been a sea-change in evangelicalism. Many "position" which were standard evangelical teaching are now, after only three decades, regarded as either reactionary or even dinosauric.

If we take an even longer-term view, however, we face the alarming possibility that there may already be a medieval darkness encroaching upon evangelicalism. Can we not detect, at least as a tendency, dynamics within evangelicalism which bear resemblances to the life of the medieval church? The possibility of a new Babylonian or (more accurately, following Luther) the Pagan Captivity of the Church looms nearer than we may be able to believe.

Consider the following five features of medieval Christianity which are evident to varying degrees in contemporary evangelicalism.

1. Repentance

Repentance has increasingly been seen as a single act, severed from a life-long restoration of godliness.

There are complex reasons for this--not all of them modern--which we cannot explore here. Nevertheless, this seems self-evident. seeing repentance as an isolated, completed act at the beginning of the Christian life has been a staple principle of much of modern evangelicalism. It is sad that evangelicals have often despised the theology of the confessing churches. It has spawned a generation who look back upon a single act, abstracted from its consequences, as determinative of salvation. The 'alter call' has replaced the sacrament of penance. Thus repentance has been divorced from genuine regeneration, and sanctification severed from justification.

2. Mysticism

The canon for Christian living has increasingly been sought in a 'Spirit-inspired' living voice within the church rather than in the Spirit's voice heard in Scripture. What was once little more than a mystical tendency has become a flood. But what has this to do with the medieval church? Just this. the entire medieval church operated on the same principle, even if they expressed it in a different form: the Spirit speaks outside of Scripture; the believer cannot know the detailed guidance of God if he tries to depend on his or her Bible alone.

Not only so, but once the 'living voice' of the Spirit has been introduced it follows by a kind of psychological inevitability that it is this living voice which becomes the canon for Christian living.

This view--inscripturated Word plus living voice equals divine revelation--lay at the heart of the medieval church's groping in the dark for the power of the gospel. Now, at the end of the second millennium we are on the verge--and perhaps more than the verge of being overwhelmed by a parallel phenomenon. The result then was a famine of hearing and understanding the Word of God, all under the guise of what the Spirit was still saying to the church. What of today?

3. Sacred Powers

The divine presence was brought to the church by an individual with sacred powers deposited within him and communicated by physical means.

Today an uncanny parallel is visible wherever cable TV can be seen. Admittedly it is no longer Jesus who is given by priestly hands; now it is the Spirit who is bestowed by physical means, apparently at will by the new evangelical priest. Special sanctity is no longer confirmed by the beauty of the fruit of the Spirit, but with signs which are predominantly physical.

What we ought to find alarming about contemporary evangelicalism is the extent to which we are impressed by performance rather than piety. The Reformers were not unfamiliar with similar phenomena. In fact one of the major charges made against them by the Roman Catholic Church was that they did not really have the gospel because they lacked physical miracles.

4. Spectators

The worship of God is increasingly presented as a spectator event of visual and sensory power, rather than a verbal event in which we engage in a deep soul dialogue with the Triune God.

The mood of contemporary evangelicalism is to focus on the centrality of what 'happens' in the spectacle of worship rather than on what is heard in worship. Aesthetics, be they artistic or musical, are given a priority over holiness. More and more is seen, less and less is heard. There is a sensory feast, but a hearing famine. Professionalism in worship leadership has become a cheap substitute for genuine access to heaven, however faltering. Drama, not preaching, has become the 'Didache' of choice.

This is a spectrum, of course, not a single point. But most worship is to be found somewhere on that spectrum. There was a time when four words would bring out goose-bumps on the necks of our grandfathers: 'Let Us Worship God'. Not so for twentieth-century evangelicals. Now there must be colour, movement, audio-visual effects, or God cannot be known, loved, praised and trusted for his own sake.

5. Bigger means better?

The success of ministry is measured by crowds and cathedrals rather than by the preaching of the cross and the quality of Christians' lives.

It was the medieval church leaders, bishops and archbishops, cardinals and popes, who built large cathedrals, ostensibly Soli Deo Gloria--all this to the neglect of gospel proclamation, the life of the body of Christ as a whole, the needs of the poor and the evangelism of the world. Hence, the 'mega-church' is not a modern, but a medieval phenomenon.

Ideal congregational size and specific ecclesiastical architecture thankfully are matters of indifference. That is not really the central concern here. Rather it is the almost endemic addiction of contemporary evangelicalism to size and numbers as an index of the success of 'my ministry'--a phrase which can itself be strikingly contradictory. We must raise the question of reality, depth and integrity in church life and in Christian ministry. The lust for 'bigger' makes us materially and financially vulnerable. But worse, it makes us spiritually vulnerable. For it is hard to say to those on whom we have come to depend materially, 'When our Lord Jesus Christ said "Repent!" he meant that the whole of the Christian life is repentance.'

Newsletter from Guyana

The following is a newsletter from our friend John Hunter who, with his wife Kathy, has been ministering in Guyana, South America. John is "filling in" for Pastor Almond Katryan who is on a sabbatical in the U.S. and is expected to return to Guyana sometime this year.

Greetings from Guyana,

The new year is here as a gift from God! Happy New Year to you! We here in Guyana had a joint service between the three major groups New Year's eve: #57 Baptist Mission, Roadside Baptist Church and the Corriverton Baptist Church hosted by Corriverton Baptist. The evening was one of our high points in our time here. The service was well attended. We sang and had 3 specials through the evening. Two from Ellen White and Katie Matthews from Rhinelander, Wisconsin. I spoke from Acts 1:9-11 on the duty of Christians to be witnesses until Jesus returns. Some seemed greatly moved by the message of God's Word. We also had some speak of what they wanted the Lord to do in the New Year as well as some special prayer requests, all of which we then carried to the Lord in prayer. After that we all went downstairs for a typically American meal of spaghetti, home-made dinner rolls, cookies and watermelon. Katie and Ellen worked all day with the help from friends to prepare it. Most really enjoyed the meal. We played games until the New Year and then we took many of the folks home which gave us more opportunities to speak of Christ's power to forgive and give strength to live for His glory. I could hardly ask for a better New Year's Eve. Katie and Ellen are proving to be a real hit with the people and a great help to Kathy and I. Everyone loves them although they make quite a stir in the market; two very tall, very white girls.

The Churches want to have evangelistic meetings in the late January or early February as soon as the rainy season is over. They would like me to speak. Please pray that the Lord would be pleased to bless us with souls for whom He died. It is sure He has a people and we long to be a means in His hand to the salvation of some of these people.

The building at #57 Village is going on well, but prices seem to go up constantly. We have spent over $4,000,000 Guyana dollars which is $20,000 US and will probably need another $10,000 US before we are done. The building is 50' x 22' because of the narrowness of the lot but that is quite common here. We would have liked to go wider but were unable. The people at #57 have had a real spirit of cooperation in the project for which we give God praise. Our deceased Brother Sonny would have been pleased. He had a real heart for this project and we miss him. But Christ be praised; He does all things well.

The Lord seems to be moving among His people. Please pray that what we desire might prove to be true and much more as the Lord pleases.

Kathy says the girls have taken Guyana by storm and are ambitious and enthusiastic in their desire to serve the Lord any way possible while they are here. They have a real heart for seeing souls saved and being as busy as they can be. Her knees have begun to bother her more but not to the point of needing to return to the States. By God's grace, we will be able to stay until our flight out in April. The Katryans want us to stay until they return the first week of May so we can discuss everything. That would be a major expense as we got our tickets in 2 sections, so it would be 4 penalties plus any change in the cost of the flights. We continue to seek the Lord about our future. We look forward to meeting the newly called Pastor at Sovereign Grace Baptist in Anniston, Jon Cardwell from California.

Happy New Year again. May you be found with a renewed determination to serve Him. Join some here who are reading the Bible through in a year. May Jesus Christ be King in all our lives as He deserves and commands.

In Christ,

John Hunter

THIS JUST IN.......

Ellen White and Katie Matthews have posted some of their experience in Guyana at the following blogsite:

http://ellenandkatieinguyana.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html

Enjoy.

No New Post Today

I generally like to post something at the beginning of the week and at mid-week but today I'm feeling pretty bum due to a head cold. It's hard to concentrate and function properly with the continually blowing and coughing and difficulty in focusing on any subject.

I'm hoping to give everyone an update on our New Years Eve festivities....maybe by Wednesday.

Don't neglect assembling together, pray for the church and the pastor.