Sola Scriptura

 

Thy Word, our great authority

All claims by it we weigh

None else can bind our hearts and minds

No matter what they say

 

No Popes, no creeds, nor councils great

Dare stand above Thy Word

What Thou hast written there for us

Must first and last be heard

 

Sola Gratia

 

No merit can be found in man

Commending us to God

And all pretentious goodness claims

At root are sinful fraud

 

Since Adam’s fall and ours in him

Sin barred us from God’s face

And naught can bring us back again

But solely God’s free grace

 

Sola Fide

 

Nor can our striving labors plied

However noble thought

Though infinitely multiplied

Sincere and tireless wrought

 

Can bring us one mite closer to

Salvation from God’s wrath

But faith alone in Christ alone

There is no other path

 

Solus Christus

 

T’was Christ alone was crucified

On Him our sin was laid

And by His blood alone we’re cleansed

No other means was made

 

In Him alone we’re made complete

No sacerdotal means

Can add to Jesus’ cross-work done

None other intervenes

 

Soli Deo Gloria

 

All glory, praise and honor be

To God the three in one

Salvation by His arm was wrought

By Him alone was done

 

No man can claim the least of praise

Our guilt was all we brought

But to His just and endless praise

We by His blood were bought

Lamb of God,

For sinners slain

Healing Balm,

For all sin’s pain

Crucified,

But ris’n again

We lift our hands to You.

Christ The Lord

The cosmos’ King

Sovereign God

O’er everything

Savior, Friend

To You we sing

We lift our hands to You.

Come breathe afresh

Still make us new

Change every grain

Save through and through

Break, and shape and mold anew

Till all – is gloried You.

Son of God

And son of man

Sum of all

The Triune plan

Finish all

Thy hand began

Come make us more like You

Purge all sin

And cleanse each stain

By Thy blood

Let nought remain

Spirit work

Christ, all our gain

Come make us more like You.

Come breathe afresh

Still make us new

Change every grain

Save through and through

Break, and shape and mold anew

Till all – is gloried You.

Fill with love

Of holiness

All our frame

In pow’r possess

Christ’s own form

In all fullness

Come make us all like You.

I am struck that Jesus used barley bread when feeding the 5,000. As commentators note, this was the bread of the poor. It was not the best quality. Jesus gave them only plain bread – not a lobster and steak dinner. And He certainly could have. It was already a miracle. But miracles are not usually the stuff of gold dust and flash.

But in His hands it is sufficient.

It was not plentiful, but in His hands, it is sufficient.

It was even borrowed, but in His hands, it is sufficient.

What an encouragement to preachers:

We do not have to possess the eloquence of Chrysostom or Spurgeon.

We need not the voluminous mental capacities of Luther and Calvin.

We may not have an original thought in our heads – the simple Word will do.

In the Master’s hands, the plain Word will do.

And it will be more than sufficient for those who hear, and beyond.

And now a word for congregants:

Your preacher may not be an orator or one who possesses great style, if, by the Spirit, he is breaking the Bread of Life to you.

He may not have a towering intellect that delves into and unpacks all the mysteries of life and how to respond to and deal with all the complexities of all the issues which face us in the world today – if he is faithfully giving you God’s Word.

He may not be inventive, creative, entertaining, provocative, edgy, hip, woke or anything else – if he simply teaches you God’s will as plainly expressed in His Word.

If he preaches Christ and Him crucified – and you will have it – you too will go away satisfied.

The truth is that there is no “norm” in God’s work. He calls some to white harvests and notable “success.” He calls others to faithful labor with little or no visible reward. Still others live in a day of cold, hard hearts, in which the lack of faithfulness of God’s people can only result in disaster for the church, unless God graciously sends revival. Sometimes he chooses not to send revival, and a church dies. In the short term, even if not in the long term, the possibility is real that church history may indeed be a record of tragedy—of missed opportunities, of fatal choices, of conclusive and irrevocable defeats. We may need to learn how to lament and weep before the Lord and recognize our sins and those of our fellow Christians that have caused God to depart from our midst. In the midst of the pain of our lamentation, however, our confidence may yet be placed in God’s faithfulness. As Lamentations 3:22–24 puts it:

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,

for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;

therefore I will wait for him.”^[1]

^[1] Iain M. Duguid, Ezekiel, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1999), 251–252.

You may be written down and registered among God’s people; you may be reckoned in the number of the saints; you may sit for years under the sound of the Gospel; you may use holy forms, and even come to the Lord’s table at regular seasons;—and still, with all this, unless sin be hateful, and Christ precious, and your heart a temple of the Holy Ghost, you will prove in the end no better than a lost soul. A holy calling will never save an unholy man.^[1]

^[1] J. C. Ryle, Living or Dead? A Series of Home Truths (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1851), 61.

The saddest road to hell is that which runs under the pulpit, past the Bible, and through the midst of warnings and invitations.^[1]

^[1] J. C. Ryle, Living or Dead? A Series of Home Truths (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1851), 66.

Many of you are so like true Christians, that the difference can hardly be seen. You are no opposers of true religion. You have no objection to the preaching of the Gospel, and often take pains to hear it. You can enjoy the company of believers, and appear to take pleasure in their conversation and experience. You can even talk of the things of God as if you valued them. All this you can do.

And yet there is nothing real about your religion,—no real witnessing against sin,—no real separation from the world,—no peculiarity,—no warfare. You can wear Christ’s uniform in the time of peace, but, like the tribe of Reuben, you are wanting in the day of battle. Times of trouble prove that you were never really on the Rock. Times of sickness and danger bring out the rottenness of your foundations. Times of temptation and persecution discover the emptiness of your professions. There is no dependence to be placed upon you.—Christians in the company of Christians, you are worldly in the company of the worldly. One week I shall find you reading spiritual books, as if you were all for eternity,—another I shall hear of your mixing in some earthly folly, as if you only thought of time. And so you go on, beating about in sight land, but never seeming to make up your mind to come into harbor; showing plainly that you have an idea of the way of life, but not decided enough to act upon your knowledge.^[1]

^[1] J. C. Ryle, Living or Dead? A Series of Home Truths (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1851), 69–70.

No man ever came back from the narrow way, and reported that he was sorry for his choice.^[1]

^[1] J. C. Ryle, Living or Dead? A Series of Home Truths (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1851), 78.

I believe there never were so many lukewarm saints as there are now;—there never was a time in which a low and carnal standard of Christian behavior so much prevailed;—there never were so many babes in grace in the family of God,—so many who seem to sit still, and live on old experience,—so many who appear to have need of nothing, and to be neither hungering nor thirsting after righteousness, as at the present time. I write this with all sorrow. It may be too painful to please some. But I ask you, as in God’s sight, is it not true?^[1]

^[1] J. C. Ryle, Living or Dead? A Series of Home Truths (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1851), 82.

Let us reckon it a painful thing to go to heaven alone,—let us endeavor, as far as we can, to take companions with us. Let us no longer be silent witnesses and muffled bells. Let us warn, and beseech, and invite, and rebuke, and advise, and testify of Christ, on the right hand and on the left, according as we have opportunity,—saying to men, “Come with us, and we will do you good,—the light is sweet, come and walk in the light of the Lord.”^[1]

^[1] J. C. Ryle, Living or Dead? A Series of Home Truths (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1851), 98–99.

John Corrie identifies the following trends as typical of postmodern culture:

It is a culture characterized by freedom of choice in which we are invited to “pick’n’mix” our own philosophy of life. Furthermore … it is hedonistic and materialistic; it generates a breakdown of respect for authority, confusion on moral absolutes and a fierce individualism which destroys community values. It is a culture in search of meaning, significance and purpose, since it breaks down any unified sense of reality, creating anonymity and atomization.

Ezekiel has some hard words for such a generation that has institutionalized and glorified rebellion under the banner of “choice.” It summons a people who think that the world revolves around themselves to a Copernican change in their thought: We are called to accept the truth that the world rather revolves around God.^[1]

^[1] Iain M. Duguid, Ezekiel, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1999), 266–267.

We are surrounded by a generation of seekers, who assume that God can be found whenever and wherever they choose to seek him. For them, “seeking” is another word for “shopping.”^[1]

^[1] Iain M. Duguid, Ezekiel, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1999), 268.

Two simple presuppositions govern [Richard] Baxter’s view of the ministry: (1) every flock should have their own pastor (one or more), and every pastor his own flock; and (2) flocks must be no greater regularly and ordinarily than we are capable of overseeing or taking heed of. “God will not lay upon us natural impossibilities. He will not bind men to leap up to the moon, to touch the stars, to number the sands of the sea.… Will God require one bishop to take charge of a whole county, or of so many parishes or thousands of souls, as he is not able to know or to oversee? Then woe to poor prelates! This were to impose on them a natural or unavoidable necessity of being damned.… O happy Church of Christ, were the labourers but able and faithful, and proportioned in number to the number of souls!”^[1]

^[1] J. A. Caiger, “Richard Baxter’s Reformed Pastor,” in Puritan Papers: 1965–1967, ed. J. I. Packer, vol. 4 (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2004), 250–251.

The pastor must be addicted to pleasing God, and making Him the center of all his actions, living to Him as his God and happiness.^[1]

^[1] J. A. Caiger, “Richard Baxter’s Reformed Pastor,” in Puritan Papers: 1965–1967, ed. J. I. Packer, vol. 4 (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2004), 251.

“He that delighteth not in holiness, hateth not iniquity, loveth not the unity and purity of the Church, abhorreth not discord and divisions, and taketh not pleasure in the communion of saints and the public worship of God with His people, is not fit to be a pastor of a church.”^[1]

^[1] J. A. Caiger, “Richard Baxter’s Reformed Pastor,” in Puritan Papers: 1965–1967, ed. J. I. Packer, vol. 4 (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2004), 251.

If we did but study half as much to affect and amend our hearts, as we do our hearers, it would not be with many of us as it is! We do little for their humiliation, but I fear it is much less that some of us do for our own. Too many do somewhat for other men’s souls, while they seem to forget that they have any of their own to regard.…^[1]

^[1] J. A. Caiger, “Richard Baxter’s Reformed Pastor,” in Puritan Papers: 1965–1967, ed. J. I. Packer, vol. 4 (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2004), 253–254.

[Richard Baxter on Church unity] He labors to convince his brethren of the sinfulness of schism—in themselves, and in their congregations. They must demonstrate their hatred of division by joining together with their true brethren whenever this is possible, doing as much of God’s work as they can in unanimity and concord: and when they become conscious of schismatic influences at work in their congregations they must seize every opportunity of a moderate, gentle opposing of the errors, remembering that it is easier to chide a sectary in the pulpit, and to subscribe a testimony against him, than to play the skillful physician for his cure.^[1]

^[1] J. A. Caiger, “Richard Baxter’s Reformed Pastor,” in Puritan Papers: 1965–1967, ed. J. I. Packer, vol. 4 (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2004), 265.

We must learn to difference well between certainties and uncertainties, necessaries and unnecessaries, catholic verities and private opinions; and to lay the stress of the Church’s peace upon the former and not upon the latter.^[1]

^[1] J. A. Caiger, “Richard Baxter’s Reformed Pastor,” in Puritan Papers: 1965–1967, ed. J. I. Packer, vol. 4 (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2004), 266.

I originally did this as an exercise in helping me memorize Scripture. I pray it might be useful for you too.

From Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ

Of James, a brother son

To those Beloved in Father God

And kept for Christ The Son

 

May mercy multiply to you

May peace be greater still

And love o’er flow your hearts as well

‘Tis this my prayerful will

 

In eagerness I longed to write

Of our salvation shared

But bound by need appeal to you

To let your arm be bared

 

To fight and strive, contending for

The faith we have believed

The once-for-all delivered faith

That we by faith received

 

For some have crept in secretly

Whose end has been foretold

A condemnation fitting such

Who dare to be so bold

 

Ungodly, they pervert God’s grace

As license still to sin

Denying Jesus Christ as Lord

In serving self, not Him

 

Christ always leads us out from sin

From bondage sets us free

Just as He did with Israel

From Egypt’s slavery

 

But those who proved they disbelieved

In judgment He condemned

They perished in the Wilderness

And met their bitter end

 

And even angels who rebelled

And left their proper place

Remain e’en now in dark and chains

Awaiting judgment day

Or think of all in Sodom’s plane

Whose immorality

Brought fire upon their wicked heads

Then and eternally

 

And yet like those are some with you

Relying on their dreams

Defile, reject authority,

And glorious ones blaspheme

 

Imagining exaltedness

They haughtily defame

And mock the fallen angels now

Beyond their right domain

 

Ignoring even Michael sent

For Moses lying dead

Refrained from using judging words

“The Lord rebuke you” said

 

But these, who do not understand

Serve instincts of their flesh

And are destroyed accordingly

By lusts left unaddressed

 

No word but “woe” belongs to them

They’ve walked the way of Cain

And given themselves over to

The vile pursuit of gain

 

Abandoned up to Balaam’s ways

And Korah’s lust for pow’r

Each perished in their wicked ways

Condemned in judgment’s hour

 

Like hidden reefs just out of sight

Their danger sight unseen

They fearlessly join fellowship

Not knowing what it means

 

They pose as shepherds to Christ’s flock

But feed themselves alone

As useless and as weightless, they

As rainless clouds are blown

Fruitless, like out of season trees

Twice dead, uprooted, bare

Like agitated, foaming waves

With only shame to wear

 

Like wand’ring stars without a course

With no God given path

The gloom of utter darkness waits

Their doom in Heaven’s wrath

 

Were we not warned? Indeed we were

The ancient Enoch wrote

Their words and deeds ungodly done

Our holy God did note

 

And when He comes to judge at last

With all His angels there

Each grumbling, restless, boasting one

Will find their shame laid bare

 

So you beloved, don’t forget

The Lord’s apostles told

Ungodly scoffers would arise

Divisive, fleshly, bold

 

Devoid the Spirit of our Christ

And married to the world

The wrath of God umixed in time

At them will sure be hurled

 

Be busy building yourselves up

In The most holy faith

By praying in the Holy Ghost

While for His mercy wait

 

Keep all yourself in heart and mind

Immersed in God’s great love

In mercy tend to those who doubt 

Keep pointing them above

 

And those enkindled by false truths

Pluck burning from the fire

Whilst fearing lest you too be singed

And sooted by the Liar

All praise to Him whose pow’r to keep

From stumbling as to fall

That blameless we might be in Him

According to His call

 

Presenting each with greatest joy

Before God’s gloried face

To God, our Savior, Jesus Christ

Be endless, highest praise

 

For majesty, dominion’s reign

Supreme authority

From all time and forever more

Let all praise rise to Thee.