Hercules Collins on Preaching

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I have previously commented on contentment as a theme in the new book on 17th Century London Baptist pastor Hercules Collins. In the second half of the book a number of excerpts are drawn from Collins book on pastoral ministry, The Temple Repaired. I am very pleased to hear that Steve Weaver is preparing an edition of this book for publication. Collins has much wisdom for us today on pastoral ministry.

I was amazed at how so many of Collins’ comments spoke directly to our situation today. Take for example this quotation on preaching:

“A good workman in the gospel lays his work well together, or else it wants that profit and beauty that otherwise it would have. Our discourses should hang as it were in a link or chain. Thus it is in all our Savior’s sermons and Paul’s epistles. There is a wonderful coherence and dependence of one thing upon another. When we name a text we should not take our farewell of it, as too many do, and not return to it again in our whole discourse. But we should closely follow the scope and design of the Spirit of God in that text, with that order and connection of the parts, that it may look beautiful and prove profitable.” (93)

We still need such good exhortations for orderly, coherent preaching, especially preaching which follows the flow of thought of the passage at hand. I could not help but smile at Collin’s reference to preachers reading a text and then never coming back to it. I know this is a common problem today but it was interesting to find it so clearly described in the past.

Collins also addresses the common problem of procrastination in sermon preparation:

“We should get the substance of our sermons if possible for the Lord’s day before Saturday, or else we may be at a loss, and have very poor and lean discourses.” (103)

So, pastors struggled with Saturday Night Fever in the 17th century as well!

Collins exhortations are timely, wise, gospel-centered, and God-honoring. I have been helped and encouraged by this book.

The Minute Boys of Lexington

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The Minute Boys of Lexington, Edward Stratemeyer
(1898; Lost Classics Book Company, 1996), pb., 306 pp.
7 and up

This is a fictional account of the battles of Lexington and Concord. The main character is a fictional 16 year old boy who has organized a group of friends as “minute boys” to work alongside the minute men. The story covers just over two days and is jam packed with adventure, danger and bravery. My boys loved it!

The 19th century language has been slightly edited but it can still be a challenge in places. I think it is important- in order to be able to read such books to your children- to be able to update language or substitute words as you go. The book contains a 14 page glossary that is also helpful and is a way to build vocabulary. This can present a bit of a challenge in reading, but it is slight and worth it. The dialogue of two characters is also written in dialect which can be a challenge, but we find it fun.

This is a fun way to get a feel for the beginning of the Revolutionary War. This book is also an example of those books from the past which are intentional in encouraging character, nobility, etc. We enjoyed it and commend it to you.

Spurgeon and the Centrality of Preaching

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Here is a great quote from Spurgeon on the importance of preaching from Kairos Journal.

The pulpit has become dishonored; it is esteemed as being of very little worth and of no esteem. Ah! we must always maintain the dignity of the pulpit. I hold that it is the Thermopylae of Christendom; it is here that the battle must be fought between right and wrong; not so much with the pen, valuable as that is as an assistant, as with the living voice of earnest men, “contending earnestly for the faith once delivered unto the saints.”

For more on this excerpt see here.

Hercules Collins book

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There have been several announcements in the blogosphere about the new book on Hercules Collins edited by Steve Weaver and Michael Haykin. I am now a little over half way through reading the book, and it is really good. The book begins with a brief biographical sketch and the rest of the book is excerpts from his writings. This is a great way to introduce writers from the past who have been largely forgotten. I am not sure I would commit time to starting a lengthy book by someone I don’t know, but it is easy to take up a little book like this. Then, once I discover in these excerpts gems of real spiritual insight and pastoral warmth I am very interested in reading more. This also has made me very interested in the series in general.

One thing I have most appreciated in the book is Collins’ comments on contentment. I find contentment to be one of the most significant issues I deal with in shepherding the flock. Singles find it hard to be content without marriage. Couples who do not yet have children find contentment difficult without children. Those with young children struggle to be content with the labor and limitations that a young family brings. Those who are older may find it difficult to be content with limitations of age. Collins speaks well to this issue, and as one who was persecuted and imprisoned for the faith he speaks with authority. He exhorts us to trust God, to remember that God knows our situation and to see that endurance under trials proves the reality of our faith to a watching world.

“For, as a tree is known by his fruit, so is a Christian by a patient wearing [of] Christ’s cross. This will and hath convinced an adversary, when a bare profession will not. And though a man should make a great profession, or preach with great demonstration of truth, . . . an unsuitable living, or a sinful declining [of] sufferings, may greatly hinder the belief of the truth.” 36

“How much of the presence of Christ have they had to enable them to bear the cross quietly, patiently, contentedly, not like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. And some cannot boast of raptures and ecstasies, yet they have cause to bless God for making good that promise to them, John 16:33, that as in the world they have tribulation, so in Christ peace.” 51

“Thinking people will conclude they must needs be the Lord’s that suffer patiently under such apparent wrong.” 54

“We can never know God as we ought without temptations….  In this school of affliction it is that the soul is taught to suck sweetness out of the Word of God.” 75

This is a great little book, one to read yourself and to pass on to church members.

Tolle Lege

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I just received the latest issue “Tolle Lege” the newsletter/catalogue of Reformation Heritage Books. This issue focuses on children’s books and is a great resource. RHB carries books you won’t find anywhere else- several that have been reviewed right here!.

Here is a good word from Joel Beeke from the cover of this issue. Whether or not you are in the Reformed stream of Christianity this is a good exhortation:

“Church growth books and manuals flood the market. Surprisingly few address internal growth through the Holy Spirit sovereignly blessing the raising of children in covenantal truth. Yet, historically, Reformed Christians have acknowledged that their most solid, genuine church growth has been through the conversion of youth reared in the church. Charles Spurgeon wrote to Edward Payson Hammond, author of The Conversion of Children, “My conviction is that our converts from among children are among the very best we have. I should judge them to have been more numerously genuine than any other class, more constant, and in the long run more solid.”

Andrew Bonar concurred. He also wrote to Hammond, saying, “In awakenings that have been given us, the cases of young people have been as entirely satisfactory as any cases we have had. If conversion be God’s work, in which the Holy Spirit reveals Christ to the soul, surely His work can take place in children as really as in the old.”

Children raised in the church need to hear the gospel, that is, the evangel, every bit as much as adults. They too need to be born again. They too need to be evangelized.”

Preaching Christ from Genesis

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Here is another great new book on preaching from the Old Testament Greidanus, long an advocate for proclaiming Christ from all of Scripture, has written this big book to demonstrate this in Genesis. I appreciate that his goal is sermons, not academic papers. There is nothing wrong with academic papers, but they are not nearly as important as sermons.

Here is one quote. Tomorrow I will plan to post another.

“As Genesis sketches the beginnings of redemptive history, it teaches about God’s coming kingdom, God’s love for his creation and his creatures, God’s judgment of sin, God’s grace for sinners, God’s covenant faithfulness, God’s sovereign providence, and God’s presence with his people. As Ken Mathews puts it “If we possessed a Bible without Genesis, we would have a ‘house of cards’ without foundation or mortar. We cannot insure the continuing fruit of our spiritual heritage if we do not give place to its roots.” The church today needs to get in touch with its roots. After TV, videos, DVDs, pop music, and magazines have bombarded God’s people for a whole week with a worldview that excludes God, God’s people need a ‘reality check’ on Sunday, that is, sermons that expound the biblical worldview. God’s people need to hear more sermons from the book of Genesis.” (p. 7-8)

Carson on Keeping the Gospel Central

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Here is a lengthy quote once more from Carson’s Basics for Believers. It is long, but I think this is a good word for us today when many issues are crying out for our attention. This no doubt speaks to many situations, but I confess I am thinking primarily of my own denomination, the SBC. Far too long we have assumed people “get” the gospel, and we may be tempted therefore to spend the bulk of our time on denominational distinctives, cultural engagement, etc. We must not make the error of assuming the first things. Let us be gospel-people first.

“In a fair bit of Western evangelicalism, there is a worrying tendency to focus of the periphery. I have a colleague in the Missions Department at Trinity whose analysis of his own heritage is very helpful. Dr. Paul Hiebert labored for years in India before returning to the United States to teach. He springs from Mennonite stock and analyzes his heritage in a fashion that he himself would acknowledge is something of a simplistic caricature, but a useful one nonetheless. One generation of Mennonites believed the gospel and held as well that there were certain social, economic, and political entailments. The next generation assumed the gospel, but identified with the entailments. The following generation denied the gospel; the ‘entailments’ became everything. Assuming this sort of scheme for evangelicalism, one suspects that large swaths of the movement are lodged in the second step, with
some drifting toward the third.

What we must ask one another is this: What is it in the Christian faith that excites you? What consumes your time? What turns you on? Today there are endless subgroups of confessing Christians who invest enormous quantities of time and energy in one issue or another: abortion, pornography, home schooling, women’s ordination (for or against), economic justice, a certain style of worship, the defense of a particular Bible version, and much more. The list varies from country to country, but not few countries have a full agenda of urgent, peripheral demands. Not for a moment am I suggesting we should not thin about such matters or throw our weight behind some of them. But when such matters devour most of our time and passion, each of us must ask: In what fashion am I confessing the centrality of the gospel?”

Carson next acknowledges the great cultural work of people like Newton and Wilberforce and others.

“But virtually without exception these men and women put the gospel first. They were gospel people. They reveled in it, preached it, cherished Bible reading and exposition that was Christ-centered and gospel centered, and from that base moved out into the broader social agendas. In short, they put the gospel first, not least in their own aspirations. Not to see this priority means we are not more than a generation away from denying the gospel.” (26-27)

Mr. Pipes Comes to America

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Mr. Pipes Comes to America, Douglas Bond
(Christian Liberty Press, 2001), pb., 194 pp.
Ages 6 and up

My boys were delighted when I told them we were reading another Mr. Pipes book. I have commented on the previous two here and here. In this one Mr. Pipes comes to visit Drew & Annie in America for Christmas. They do some sightseeing in New England and, of course, Mr. Pipes tells them more about hymn writers. A big issue in this book is the much anticipated meeting between Mr. Pipes and the children’s mom and stepdad. Annie desperately desires for her parents to share her faith and hopes Mr. Pipes will be more successful in talking with them than she and Drew have been.

Once again fun stories and history set the stage for substantial discussions of theology and hymns with commentary and critique on the current state of the church. I thought the hymns discussed in this one did not quite live up to those in previous volumes, but it was still a great book. I want my children to see the enduring value of hymns that are good poetry and have substantive, theological content focused on God rather than ourselves. These books are great tools to that end. In fact these books will be great for parents to read and then consider the songs sung in their churches.

We wholeheartedly recommend this book. It connected well with our current study of the Revolutionary War era since several of the early chapters dealt with hymn writers from that time.

Three Dollars Worth of Gospel

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I always recommend to pastors that they purchase all of Don Carson’s little paperback expositions because I think they are some of the best expositional material available. They are models of exegesis, application, and preaching in general.

I just came back across this following quote from Basics for Believers: An Exposition of Philippians . This is piercing application. I am cut to the quick. I know the approach to life he is satirizing not simply by looking out at others but by looking within. I need to hear this word again. And, how we need this word in our churches! All too easily we warp the gospel into a way for securing the “good life” for ourselves.

“I would like to buy about three dollars worth of gospel, please. Not too much – just enough to make me happy, but not so much that I get addicted. I don’t want so much gospel that I learn to really hate covetousness and lust. I certainly don’t want so much that I start to love my enemies, cherish self-denial, and contemplate missionary service in some alien culture. I want ecstasy, not repentance; I want transcendence, not transformation. I would like to be cherished by some nice, forgiving, broad-minded people, but I myself don’t want to love those from different races – especially if they smell. I would like enough gospel to make my family secure and my children well behaved, but not so much that I find my ambitions redirected or my giving too greatly enlarged. I would like about three dollars worth of the gospel, please.” (pp. 12-13)

Brothers, we must preach this searching point. Many will be entirely content for us to “do our sermon”, but when you begin to press the call of the gospel to shape our lives, rebuke our sin, calling for repentance many will rebel. But without this we have failed to discharge our ministries (Col 4:17). Without this we are mere hirelings awaiting rebuke from the Master on the final day. There is no discount version of the Gospel. It is all or nothing. Let us wield the searching sword of the Spirit (Heb 4:12) as those who have first been pierced by it.

The Majesty of God in the Old Testament

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I am currently working on Preaching Magazine’s annual Bible and Bible reference survey article for early Fall, so it is likely that you will find several book notes here in the coming weeks.

Perhaps the main impression I have received so far in seeking to survey all the Bible reference material that has come out since last fall is that there has been a boom in really good material for preaching the Old Testament. I previously commented on Christopher Wright’s book on the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. I will mention briefly in the next several days other really good, new books on this topic.

Here, I’ll mention Walter Kaiser’s The Majesty of God in the Old Testament: A Guide for Preaching and Teaching (Baker). This is a great book for preachers, providing a homiletics refresher as veteran bible scholar and preacher Kaiser walks through the study and preaching of 10 Old Testament texts. Beyond simply giving help for these 10 passages, Kaiser models the preaching of the OT with a concentration on the character of God. He is particularly concerned with the need for us to be teaching our people about the greatness of God. Here are two quotes:

“One of the greatest enhancements that could come to most evangelical teaching and preaching- indeed, the best among the people of God worldwide- is a whole new appreciation for the majesty and greatness of our God as presented in the Scriptures. Unfortunately, one of the best sources for this teaching- the Old Testament- is all too often neglected in our teaching and preaching.” (p. 9)

“Alas, however, much of our teaching and preaching suffers from a mediocre view of God’s majesty. We are too much like those chided in Psalm 50:21 [in which God says, ‘You thought I was altogether like you.'” (p. 10).

The church will benefit greatly if this sort of admonition is heeded and more preaching reflects the glory of god rather than our own navel gazing.