ResponsiveReiding

From MacLaren’s sermon on Ephesians 5:15-16 “Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”

Make sure you read the last paragraph.

“To-day is given us mainly that we may learn to know God better, and to love Him more, and to serve Him more joyfully. Our daily duties are given us for the same purpose. But if we go about them without thinking of God or the highest ends which life is meant to serve, then we shall certainly lose the highest ends, and an opportunity will go past us unimproved. But if, on the other hand, whilst we follow our daily business for the sake of legitimate temporal gain, we see, above that, the aspect of daily life as educating in all Christian nobleness and lofty thoughts and purposes, then we shall have given away the lower ends for the sake of attaining the higher.

“You live, suppose, to found a business, to become masters of your trade, to gain wisdom and knowledge, to establish for yourselves a position amongst your fellow-men, to cultivate your character so as to grow in wisdom and purity, apart from God. Or you live in order to win affection and move thankfully in the heaven of loving associations in your home, amongst your children. Or you live for the sake of carrying some lower but real good amongst men. Many of these ends are beautiful and noble, and necessary for the cultivation and discharge of the various duties and relationships of life; but unless they are all kept secondary, and there towers above them this other, life is wasted.

“If life is not to be wasted, they must be bartered for the higher, and we must recognise that to give all things for the sake of Christ and His love is wise merchandise and good exchange. ‘What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea! doubtless, and I count all things but loss that I may win Him and be found of Him.’ You must barter the lower if you are to secure the higher ends for which life is the appointed season….

“One day it will be asked of you and of me, ‘What did you do with the life which I gave you, that you might know Me?’ And if we have only the answer, ‘O Lord! I founded a big business in Manchester—I made a for-tune—I wrote a clever book, that was most favourably reviewed—I brought up a family’—the only thing fit to be said to us is, ‘Thou fool!’ The only wisdom is the wisdom that secures the end for which life was given.“

^{Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Ephesians (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2009), 332–333 & 335.}

A quick Google search reveals that there are no less than 37 current books available at Christian booksellers on people claiming to have gone to Heaven. Each one of them claim to bring back new revelations of what Heaven is really like. In fact, this (what one Youtuber brands) “Heavenly tourism” genre has spawned its own industry. People it seems cannot get enough of stories about Heaven. As I’ve mused before, why in the world anyone would rely on these supposed visits above and beyond what Scripture already contains is beyond me. But, here we are.

The latest installment in the Heavenly Tourism line up is Gabe Poirot’s “18 Days in Heaven.” And it does not disappoint when it comes to ramping up reader’s expectations for new material to fantasize about. For sadly, that is what this is all about – fantasy. Once it goes beyond the revelation of Scripture – it is it’s own animal. But one thing it is surely not – is genuine revelation. And no one should take it as such.

When it comes to people claiming to have extra-Biblical revelation clipped to statements like “Jesus told me” or “Jesus said to me” – we are trafficking in deep and troubling waters. It is needful to demonstrate its absurdity on the face.

If this is the God of the universe speaking – then it is incumbent on all creation to hear and comply. This is no small matter. Such recountings purport to be the very word of God! Downplay it as the authors will – it is nothing less than God speaking so as to make known to us truth He has not previously revealed in His written Word, or in the person of Jesus Christ. We cannot just toss it off if it really is God. And to claim to speak for God when God has not spoken – is serious business. Eternally serious.

As is typical of this genre, there was a crisis which rendered the reporter unconscious, near dead or dead – precipitating his skyward journey. For Gabe Poirot, it was a skate-boarding accident. He suffered severe head trauma, and there appears to be no reason to doubt that part of his story. As a result, he spent 18 days in a coma. Again, that all seems valid. And then the fun stuff begins. For as Gabe says in his introduction “He [God] told me to write this for you.” We are not even into the book proper yet when we find out Gabe has a unique divine mission from God to write this book. And since God told him to write it – we must be responsible to read and accept it. Right? Wrong.

In an interview I’ve seen, Gabe says we don’t need to take anything he says as absolute truth. Kind of take it or leave it. But from this statement, we are left with a critical conflict. If God personally directed him to write it – for me – I truly do not have an option to disregard it. I am required to take in and reverence every word God speaks. Especially when it is commissioned in this way – right?

You see the quandry. You see the danger in these sorts of unguarded statements. We cannot just ignore them. We either take it as God giving a divine directive I am responsible to consider, or not. But it cannot be both divinely directed and no big deal if I ignore it. Here is the cognitive dissonance so prevalent in circles where “God told me…” is spoken with careless abandon. And it is the means whereby the capacity to make sound judgments regarding truth claims is eroded. For such an approach requires me to accept two entirely contradictory stances at the same time. When that happens, truth and our ability to evaluate it goes out the window.

We’re not too far in when we encounter statements that just plain sound – odd. Fishy. Gabe reports that while he is freshly in the hospital: “Nurses spoke of me in the past tense: “He didn’t even write a last will, did he?” (Pg. 22) Seriously? The nurses speculated on his having written (or not) a “last will”? Did they know him? Who would say something like this regarding a 21 year old accident victim? Mmmmm. I won’t judge. I’ll leave it to you.

On page. 32, Gabe recounts God’s throne room. “There were countless beings all around, elders and living creatures (cherubim) and the seven Spirits.” Apparently the “seven spirits” are separate entities, and not a means of referring to the Holy Spirit. Curious. I’ll leave you to do your own homework on that one.

As with so many others, Gabe expostulates on our individual mansions: “There are many mansions in heaven—one for every son and daughter. But they weren’t just plopped down into existence—they were handcrafted and emanating as an extension of the very heart of the greatest Carpenter of all time. He delights in building every centimeter of your home.” (p. 33)

This is such a common misconception based upon a misreading of John 14:2, I thought it hardly worth mentioning. The idea of individual mansions is errant. I would speculate that what he had heard before is simply informing his thoughts now.

It is difficult to reconcile his reference to “endless beaches” with “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.” (Rev. 21) Or the “streets” (plural) of gold rather than the singular street of Rev. 21 – transparent like glass.

Then there are any number of statements that I just cannot make heads nor tails of. When speaking of Jesus he says: “I was cut from the same cloth as Him.” Or “His wrists and nailed eternally to that cross.” Nailed eternally to that cross? It is nonsensical.

On p. 39 Gabe once again repeats a common misconception by some, alluding to Jer. 31:34 (and other places). The idea is that He does not remember our sins AGAINST us anymore. How do we know He remembers all our sins? The Scripture itself eternally records the sins of some of His dearest saints. He is importing ideas he has heard into his “experience.” Gabe actually portrays Christ as mystified that Gabe would bring up his sins since Jesus actually has no remembrance of them at all. Not just that they are dismissed, he belabors that Jesus is befuddled.

It is on page 41 that we begin to get into some really dicey stuff. First, Jesus supposedly tells Gabe to: “reveal to everyone who I really am.”

Wait! What? We do not know who Jesus really is? We do not know what the Scripture has said about Him? Gabe has something more? A new revelation – above and beyond what we can get from the Bible? We do not really know who he is but Gabe is going to tell us?

Seriously, this is utterly astounding. this statement is of such supreme importance we simply cannot just let it go by. We need to grasp this – that Gabe is a newly minted representative to reveal to us who Jesus “really” is, apart from what has already been revealed in his incarnation and in his word. This is a massive, massive declaration. It cannot be passed over lightly. And yet, with this – Gabe never goes on to tell us who Jesus really is! In fact, without even starting a new sentence he appends that Jesus tells Gabe to let us know how much he (Jesus) believes in us!

Beloved if these two things do not cross over into true blasphemy, they come as close as anything can.

I am truly dumbfounded at this point. The implications are staggering. And yet trotted out and moved beyond like they are no big deal.

And so the revelation continues. Again, this is Jesus speaking – according to Gabe Jesus says: “perspective. Jesus told me that as soon as you see Him for who He really is, you will also never accept a counterfeit version of yourself. You will believe in yourself and love yourself just as He loves you.” (p. 42)

So this, is what the world needs – to believe in ourselves and love ourselves just as he does. If this is not a false Gospel above all others I do not know what is. Beloved, this is indeed blasphemous.

Now we descend into even deeper depths of horror. According to Gabe, God dreamed of him. Let’s let him put is in his own words: “Before I was on the earth, and before even the entire universe was created, I literally saw myself existing as a thought and dream the Father had of me. He said, “I will create a son who will lead My family back to me, and he will be full of joy. He will not tolerate the way of the world around him—he will rise and speak My Word. He will be such an amazing husband to his wife and father to his children. He will glorify me through all the sports he plays and books he writes and videos he creates. I can’t wait.” The light from Father God united with the earthly seed from my father and the egg of my mother in that moment, and I began my existence on earth. I was not born just on earth. I was born from the heart of the Father. As a spirit, I came from the Father of spirits.”

Though there is so very much more throughout the book – I must stop here for the sake of time and space. But let me just unpack a few key areas of this last section.

1 – Gabe’s concepts border on the idea (borrowed from Mormonism) of spiritual pre-existence. That he came from the father of spirits and was sent into his mother’s womb. He was not born on earth he says – but first – from the heart of God.

2 – Gabe is God’s anointed one (what else could he be?) who will lead God’s family back to him. Gabe is now our leader to bring us to God. Grasp the grandiosity and profundity of this claim. He is virtually a new Messiah. We need him to lead us back to God. God needs him to lead his family back to him. Apparently, we are estranged from him apart from Gabe’s efforts for us.

3 – God can’t wait for Gabe to write all his books and plays and the videos he will make. God can’t wait.

When it is all said and done, Gabe is one, singular, totally awesome being, that we as the Church absolutely need. And lest we miss the absolute authority with which all of this comes to us – Gabe says Jesus said this on p. 45 “But Jesus said over me, “He will write for Me, and his words will bring My Father great joy. He will not need a ghostwriter, for I will be his own writer, and use his own hands to communicate My heart.”

Need we hear any more? Gabe needed no ghost writer for Jesus himself has written this through Gabe. We have in fact, new Scripture. And its title is: “18 Days in Heaven.”

Reader, have nothing to do with his wicked and deceptive book. However sincere the author may be (and I will not judge his motives) I tell you it is filled not only with untruths, but blasphemy.

As 2 Tim. 2 tells us: “avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene.”

This entire volume is irreverent babble – and ought to be avoided at all costs.

The 4th volume of the Works of John Newton (Hamilton & Adams 1824) contains this most curious heading:

FIFTY EXPOSITORY DISCOURSES,

ON THE SERIES OF

SCRIPTURAL PASSAGES

Which form the Subject of the celebrated

ORATORIO OF HANDEL.

PREACHED IN THE YEARS 1784 AND 1785,

IN THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST. MARY WOOLNOTH, LOMBARD-STREET.

Did you get that? 50 sermons using Handel’s Messiah and the passages Handel was using, as the jumping off point for his sermons. I do not know a single modern preacher who would even conceive of such a plan let alone try to execute it. But such was the singular giftedness and genius of Newton. To be sure, the sermons are rich in Biblical exposition and application. But it is an unusual starting point.

That said, sermon 3 is rooted in the passage cited above as included in the oratorio – Haggai 2:6-7; and it contains the following which I post for your edification. And, with the hope you might be encouraged to read more of Newton. Amazing Grace is but the tiny tip of a gigantic iceberg of spiritual insight, encouragement, wisdom and blessing.

Now one more word: Why cite this? Because I think it has great implications for how we might consider and more deeply analyze the worship music being composed and consumed in our churches today?

Just a day or two ago I watched (as I have any number of times) YouTube videos of people reacting to Gary Brooker’s live performance (Denmark 2006) of Procol Harum’s “Whiter Shade of Pale.”

The song itself (as most will affirm) is deeply moving. The music alone evokes strong emotional responses. It does in me. Many are brought to tears. But that is not due at all to the song’s message. As Keith Reid has stated (the chief lyricist) he was not actually trying to communicate a message per se, but only trying to produce a mood. An atmosphere into which anyone could see or pour their own meaning.

In an interview with Farout Magazine Reid is quoted as saying: “‘A Whiter Shade Of Pale’ was just another bunch of lyrics…I was trying to conjure a mood as much as tell a straightforward, girl-leaves-boy story. With the ceiling flying away and room humming harder, I wanted to paint an image of a scene.”

Now we have to ask ourselves if the “worship” music we are engaging in today might not be cut from some of the same cloth – looking to evoke feelings and moods more than actually focusing the soul on the great truths of Scripture so as to be moved by those as they open up Christ and His glory to us?

As Newton will note – we can be moved by the music, which is only meant to be “an ornament of the words.” But such music (I’ll let him conclude as he does) while evoking an experience, has no power to change the soul. Soul moving concepts gilded or framed by the music is what we really need. And even at that, people can walk away unchanged. There is no substitute for The Word energized by The Spirit.

Here is how Newton expresses it.

“If you put a telescope into the hands of a child, he will probably admire the outside, especially if it be finely ornamented. But the use of it, in giving a more distinct view of distant objects, is what the child has no conception of. The music of the Messiah is but an ornament of the words, which have a very weighty sense. This sense no music can explain, and when rightly understood, will have such an effect as no music can produce. That the music of the Messiah has a great effect in its own kind, I can easily believe. The ancients, to describe the power of the music of Orpheus, pretend, that when he played upon his harp, the wild beasts thronged around him to listen, and seemed to forget their natural fierceness. Such expressions are figurative, and designed to intimate, that by his address and instructions, he civilized men of fierce and savage dispositions. But if we were to allow the account to be true in the literal sense, I should still suppose that the wild beasts were affected by his music only while they heard it, and that it did not actually change their natures, and render lions and tigers gentle as lambs, from that time forward. Thus I can allow, that they who heard the Messiah might be greatly impressed during the performance; but when it was ended, I suppose they would retain the very same dispositions they had before it began. And many, I fear, were no more affected by this sublime declaration of the Lord’s design to shake the heavens and the earth, than they would have been, if the same music had been set to the words of a common ballad.”

2 Cor. 10:3-5 / “For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh. The weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world. Instead, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We tear down arguments and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

It was 1986 when Frank Peretti’s “This Present Darkness” hit the stands – and the impact of the book is truly staggering. The great thing about the book is that it threw a new spotlight on the reality that Christians truly are engaged in a very real struggle against the powers of darkness. That there are indeed demonic forces afoot which seek the demise of humanity as made in God’s image, and – especially seek to defeat and defile those redeemed by the blood of Christ.

The negative aspects of Peretti’s book are several.

1 – It got people imagining that we actually battle demons the way Dr. Strange in the Marvel Universe battles evil entities. A sort of one-on-one, hand-to-hand combat. I do not believe you can find that paradigm in the Bible. Neither Peter nor Paul nor any other Biblical writer encourages us to engage that way. It certainly is not the thrust of Paul’s words cited above. But sadly, many people ran with the idea and started seeing demons behind every bush and seeking to engage them on some sort of a personal level.

2 – It got people thinking more in terms of the evil entities, than on what they actually do. So some people I’ve interacted with began to imagine the imagery Peretti used was actual; that demons were (for lack of a better term) physically weakened by prayer or angelic hosts strengthened. Again, we have nothing in Scripture that quite directs us to enter into spiritual warfare with those kinds of pictures in mind.

Those objections stated – it is still good for Believers to understand we are indeed in a spiritual battle, and good too to have some sense of how to wage that battle. Hence, a brief look at the text heading this post.

Note first that the “strongholds” Paul cites, have to do with arguments and presumptions set up against the knowledge of God. It is vital that we grasp this concept – since it is the underlying principle in all true spiritual warfare.

Let me try to summarize that idea as best I can: Satan and his minions use as their primary tactic against Believers this weapon – the obscuring, distorting or obliterating the right knowledge of God – especially His character.

The strongholds Paul references here are nothing more and nothing less than wrong concepts of the one true and living God. And this – is played out in the following: That there is some form of darkness in God.

This was the first attack in the Garden, and it remains primary. That God has ulterior and nefarious motives behind His dealings with us – that betray something other than His dealing with us in perfect love, power and wisdom.

That His love is not perfect.

That His wisdom is wanting.

That in His providences He either is uncaring at times, unwise in what He allows, unloving in what He ordains, and either has little or refuses to use His power perfectly on our behalf.

In other words – the battle is to fight for abiding in His love.

Alexander Maclaren adds this: “Note, too, how this same principle of the fruitfulness of the light gives instruction as to the true place of effort in the Christian life. The main effort ought to be to get more of the light into ourselves. ‘Abide in Me, and I in you.’ And so, and only so, will fruit come.
And such an effort has to take in hand all the circumference of our being, and to fix thoughts that wander, and to still wishes that clamour, and to empty hearts that are full of earthly loves, and to clear a space in minds that are crammed with thoughts about the transient and the near, in order that the mind may keep in steadfast contemplation of Jesus, and the heart may be bound to Him by cords of love that are not capable of being snapped, and scarcely of being stretched, and the will may in patience stand saying, ‘Speak, Lord! for Thy servant heareth’; and the whole tremulous nature may be rooted and built up in and on Him. Ah, brother! if we understand all that goes to the fulfilment of that one sweet and merciful injunction, ‘Abide in Me,’ we shall recognize that there is the field on which Christian effort is mainly to be occupied. ^{Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Ephesians (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2009), 290–291.}

This Beloved, is how Jesus was able to defeat Satan at every turn – He never doubted His Father’s love and wisdom in all His providential appointments. He could trust His ordaining hand in every minute aspect of it. The people He encountered, the challenges He met, the struggles He faced, the circumstances He was in, the end which was designed and the path to get there.

So it is as He addresses the Disciples the night of His betrayal He can say: ““Look, an hour is coming and has already come when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and you will leave Me all alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.” (John 16:32). And, in a stunning display of this absolute trust in the Father’s love gasps out while on the cross and enduring the Father’s wrath on our behalf – “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” (Luke 22:46)

We make much of saying the Father turned His back on Him – but Jesus’ is undaunted even then. He commits Himself to the Father in the very eye of the storm of His holy judgment upon human sin.

Here is the spiritual battle for you and me Christian – to war against every thought that makes us doubt His love toward us, the indefectibility of His holy character, of His power on our behalf, His wisdom in all of life’s providences and His absolute care for us and the impossibility of any of His promises to us failing.

We must fight every day to bring our thoughts captive to the revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ.

This, is spiritual warfare. And this is how we defeat the powers of darkness – even in the heavenlies. this is victory. This is what Christ has purchased for us.

I am currently reading (along with some other things) the sermons of Alexander Maclaren on Ephesians. Maclaren was a powerful 19th Century expositor and close friend of Spurgeon. The two stood together in the “Downgrade Controversy.”

He tends to be more exegetically focused than Spurgeon and his expositions are exceedingly rich. There are 32 volumes of his expositions to be had – covering 64 of the 66 books of our Bibles. Oh for more time!

I would gladly post his entire sermon on this passage, but so that you get a taste for his balance and clarity – offer just this sweet excerpt. Listen to how he handles the interplay of goodness, righteousness and truth as the fruit of The Light (Jesus) in the life of the Believer.

Enjoy!

“Now, all these three types of excellence—kindliness, righteousness, truthfulness—are apt to be separated. For the first of them—amiability, kindliness, gentle-ness-is apt to become too soft, to lose its grip of righteousness, and it needs the tonic of the addition of those other graces, just as you need lime in water if it is to make bone. Righteousness, on the other hand, is apt to become stern, and needs the softening of goodness to make it human and attractive. The rock is grim when it is bare; it wants verdure to drape it if it is to be lovely. Truth needs kindliness and righteousness, and they need truth. For there are men who pride themselves on ‘speaking out,’ and take rudeness and want of regard for other people’s sensitive feelings to be sincerity. And, on the other hand, it is possible that amiability may be sweeter than truth is, and that righteousness may be hypocritical and insincere. So Paul says, ‘Let this white light be resolved in the prism of your characters into the threefold rays of kindliness, righteousness, truthfulness.’”

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Ephesians (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2009), 292–293.

Vol. 3 of The Works of John Newton _{^{(Newton, John, and Richard Cecil. The Works of John Newton. London: Hamilton, Adams & Co., 1824.)}} contains a work titled: “A REVIEW OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, SO FAR AS IT CONCERNS THE PROGRESS, DECLENSIONS, AND REVIVALS OF EVANGELICAL DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE: WITH A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE SPIRIT AND METHODS BY WHICH VITAL AND EXPERIMENTAL RELIGION HAVE BEEN OPPOSED, IN ALL AGES OF THE CHURCH.”

It sounds imposing but it really isn’t. It is comprised of 2 short “books.”

Book one consists of a very readable recounting of the Gospel narratives as though someone sat down to just tell you the whole story in their own words with some reflections here and there. Newton titles it: “Of the First Period of Christianity.”

Book two – “Of the Second Period of Christianity” recounts all of Acts in the same style. It contains 4 chapters.

Ch. 1 – Covers Acts to the close of the 1st Century.

Ch. 2 – “An Essay on the Character of St. Paul, considered as an Exemplar or Pattern of a Minister of Jesus Christ.” A must read for all who entertain being in ministry.

Ch. 3 – Examines how quickly aberrant doctrines and practices emerged in the early Church. So early, Peter, Paul, James and Jude need to address them in their letters. There is nothing new under the sun.

Ch. 4 – Deals with the heresies which arose even in Apostolic times. Heresies which emerge, sink and re-emerge in every generation.

It is in the 4th chapter that we find the following which I am calling a sketch of the true Christian. I found it so succinct and refreshing as to warrant this post. I pray it will be a blessing to you as well.

If you are Christ’s today, may this serve as a great reminder of just what that means. And if you are not – may this whet your appetite to possess what belongs to all of the heirs of salvation.

“A believer in Jesus, however obscure, unnoticed, or oppressed in the present life, is happy; he is a child of God, the charge of angels, an heir of glory;* he has meat to eat that the world knows not of; and from the knowledge of his union and relation to his Redeemer, he derives a peace which passes understanding,† and a power suited to every service and circumstance of life.‡ Though weak in himself, he is strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus the Lord,§ upon whom he relies, as his wisdom, righteousness, sanctification; and expects from him, in due time, a complete redemption from every evil.|| His faith is not merely speculative, like the cold assent we give to a mathematical truth, nor is it the blind impulse of a warm imagination; but it is the effect of an apprehension of the wisdom, power, and love displayed in the redemption of sinners by Jesus Christ; it is a constraining principle, that works by love, purifies the heart, and overcomes the world; it gives the foretaste and evidence of things invisible to mortal eyes, and, transforming the soul into the resemblance of what it beholds, fills the heart with benevolence, gentleness, and patience, and directs every action to the sublimest ends, the glory of God, and the good of mankind.*

• Rom. 8:14, 17.

† Phil. 4:7.

‡ 2 Cor. 12:9.

§ 2 Tim. 2:1.

|| 1 Cor. 1:30.

• Gal. 5:6; Acts, 15:9; 1 John, 5:4; Heb. 11:1; 2 Cor. 3:18.

John Newton and Richard Cecil, The Works of John Newton (London: Hamilton, Adams & Co., 1824), 295–296.

In volume 3 of the works of John Newton, there is a gem of a somewhat unknown work. He titled it “A Review of Ecclesiastical History.

Chapter 1 recounts the Gospel narratives and Acts like a simple recounting of the facts. It is brilliant.

Chapter 2 is “An Essay on the Character of St. Paul, considered as an Exemplar or Pattern of a Minister of Jesus Christ.” I am going to simply give you his key observations here as encouragement and motivation. On each of the points he expatiates – all of which is so very worth the reading. But here are the capstones to consider briefly as you head into the sacred desk today. May they inspire you to seek the love of God supremely.

I. The characteristic excellence of St. Paul, which was as the spring or source of every other grace, was the ardency of the supreme love he bore to his Lord and Saviour.

II. The inseparable effect, and one of the surest evidences of love to Christ, is a love to his people.

III. St. Paul’s inflexible attachment to the great doctrines of the Gospel is another part of his character which deserves our attention.

IV. But though St. Paul was so tenacious of the great foundation-truths of the Gospel, and would not admit or connive at any doctrine that interfered with them, he exercised, upon all occasions, a great tenderness to weak consciences, in matters that were not essential to the faith, and when the scruples were owing rather to a want of clear light than to obstinacy.

V. Every part of St. Paul’s history and writings demonstrates a disinterested spirit, and that his uncommon labours were directed to no other ends than the glory of God and the good of men.

(RAF – i.e. His focus was never about him or his ministry.)

VI. From the foregoing particulars we may collect the idea of true Christian zeal, as exemplified in our apostle.

VII. Having considered the subject-matter and the leading views of the apostle’s ministry, it may not be improper to take some notice of his manner as a preacher.

Newton expands here: “Instead of vain conjectures,* he spoke from certain experience; he could say, “I received of the Lord, that which I also delivered to you:” instead of accommodating his doctrine to the taste and judgement of his hearers, he spoke with authority, in the name of God whom he served: instead of losing time in measuring words and syllables, that he might obtain the character of a fine speaker, he spoke, from the feeling and fulness of his heart, the words of simplicity and truth.”

VIII. Another observable part of St. Paul’s character, is his unaffected humility.

Having said all this and so much more – he summarizes all these points this way as follows. May it be a sweet reminder for you today.

“Such was our apostle, and the same spirit (though in an inferior degree) will be found in all the faithful ministers of the Lord Jesus. They love his name; it is the pleasing theme of their ministry, and to render it glorious in the eyes of sinners is the great study of their lives. For his sake they love all who love him, and are their willing servants to promote the comfort and edification of their souls. They love his Gospel, faithfully proclaim it, without disguise or alteration, and shun not to declare the whole counsel of God, so far as they are themselves acquainted with it. They contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints; and are desirous to preserve and maintain the truth, in its power and purity. The knowledge of their own weakness and fallibility makes them tender to the weaknesses of others; and though they dare not lay, or allow, any other foundation than that which God has laid in Zion, yet, knowing that the kingdom of God does not consist in meats and drinks, but in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, they guard against the influence of a party spirit: and, if their labours are confined to Christians of one denomination, their love and prayers are not limited within such narrow bounds, but extend to all who love and serve their Master. They have entered upon the ministry, not for low and sordid ends, for popular applause, or filthy lucre, but from a constraining sense of the love of Jesus, and a just regard to the worth and danger of immortal souls. Their zeal is conducted and modelled by the example and precepts of their Lord; their desire is not to destroy, but to save; and they wish their greatest enemies a participation in their choicest blessings. In the subject-matter and the manner of their preaching, they show that they seek not to be men-pleasers, but to commend the truth to every man’s conscience in the sight of God; and when they have done their utmost, and when God has blessed their labours, and given them acceptance and success beyond their hopes, they are conscious of the defects and evils attending their best endeavours, of the weak influence the truths they preach to others have upon their own hearts; that their sufficiency of every kind is of God, and not of themselves; and therefore they sit down, ashamed, as unprofitable servants, and can rejoice or glory in nothing but in him who came into the world to save the chief of sinners.”

John Newton and Richard Cecil, The Works of John Newton (London: Hamilton, Adams & Co., 1824), 247–248.

Luke 5:36-39 (BSB) “He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will tear the new garment as well, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will spill, and the wineskins will be ruined. Instead, new wine is poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’ ”

Jesus did not come to repair or prop up up the old Mosaic system. Its time was over. It had run its course and served it purpose. A new day had come. This was not time to sew a patch on an old rend, nor even to breathe all new life into it. It could not contain what was to be poured out. Only new creatures would do. New wineskins to receive the new wine. New men as well as new life. A new covenant, as well as a new Mediator.

So it is today. All attempts to merge, marry or unite the Old and the New Covenants is out of order. Yes, there is connection. The Old portends the New in astounding and countless ways. But just as a baby is conceived in the womb of its mother, yet the two are just that – two, so for a season they may share one systemic life – and yet they are not somehow merged into one entity. From the moment of conception – they are two.

We might say that the Church was always in utero (in Israel – there was always a believing remnant) until Pentecost. Israel bore her, and they share so much. And yet each is its own when all is said and done. Going back to Old Covenant rites and rituals, days, observances and customs fails to recognize the transition which has occurred. It is the failure to recognize this which causes so much confusion about the Believer’s relationship to the Law. The Law hasn’t changed, we have. And in the change, the entire relationship is also changed.

Christians are not “newized” Old Testament Believers. Out of the two (Believing Jews and Gentiles) He has made one new man (Eph. 2:15). We do not go back to pick this here and that there from the Old Covenant system. We have a new garment of the righteousness of Christ to wear, not the old garment of its picture. We are new wineskins, born again as new creatures, not Old Covenant believers jazzed up. Our covenant has been explicated (Jer. 31; Heb. 8), inaugurated (Luke 22:20), ratified (Heb. 9:16) and is being probated by The Spirit (Eph. 1:14). We no longer live under the old arrangement of signs, pictures, tokens and allegories. Ours is the fulfillment in Christ.

We drink the new wine poured into new wineskins. Some will always go back and say the “old is better.” They want no change. But Christ has come. The new day has dawned. The Kingdom has drawn near. The Spirit has been poured out. Look up – for your redemption draws nigh. Soon, ALL things will be made new. And He will live and reign in His manifest glory before the cosmos.

Hallelujah!