J.C. Ryle on the Unity of the Old and New Testaments

In J.C. Ryle's commentary on Matthew, when dealing with Matthew 5:17, he writes:

First, let us beware of despising the Old Testament, for whatever reason. Let us never listen to those who tell us to throw it aside as an obsolete, antiquated, useless book. The religion of the Old Testament is the germ of Christianity. The Old Testament is the Gospel in the bud; the New Testament is the Gospel in full flower. The Old Testament is the Gospel in the blade; the New Testament is the Gospel in full ear. The saints in the Old Testament saw many things through a glass darkly; but they all looked by faith to the same Saviour, and were led by the same Spirit as ourselves. These are no light matters. Much unfaithfulness begins with an ignorant contempt of the Old Testament.

p. 29

The Answer is Jesus

Last week I was in Louisville, KY for the Together for the Gospel conference. It was a great conference. The messages were fantastic and the music was too. One of the things I loved was the opportunity to see many old friends, and meet many new ones. My first night there I had a chance to meet Jared Wilson and a few other guys. Jared's post from yesterday (well worth the read!) reminded me of one of my points from my sermon this past Sunday at First Baptist.

I preached Matthew 5:6, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." In this verse, some have argued for a very general application of righteousness. In other words, some have said this is a longing for all kinds of righteousness (including the desire to see righteousness/justice done in our world today). My answer in that sermon was that we are not after changing the way the culture behaves, but rather we are after getting the gospel to those around us, praying the Holy Spirit blows like the wind and opens hearts to believe, and then we will see the culture change. We are not after seeing people 'act' differently, but rather we want to see people changed by the marvelous truth that Christ died for sinners.

A Few Quotes for Sunday

This Sunday I plan to preach Matthew 5:6, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." with FBC. Here are a few helpful quotes for you to think about on this verse and the implications for your life, your church, and the world.

"He means those who desire above all things to be entirely conformed to the mind of God. They long not so much to be rich, or wealthy, or learned, as to be holy." - J.C. Ryle

"If we know our spiritual poverty, if we mourn over our sin, then our hunger for righteousness should lead us to do something to pursue holiness." - Daniel Doriani

"These people hunger and thirst, not only that they may be righteous, but that justice may be done everywhere. All unrighteousness grieves them and makes them homesick for the new heaven and the new earth - the home of righteousness (2 Peter 3:13). Satisfied with neither personal holiness alone nor social justice alone, they cry for both: in short, they long for the advent of the Messianic kingdom." - D.A. Carson

"If this verse is to you one of the most blessed statements of the whole of Scripture you can be quite certain you are a Christian; if it is not, then you had better examine the foundations again." - D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

As I've prepared this message I have realized more and more that I have a long way to go to honor Christ as I should. I pray the Spirit causes me to hunger and thirst for righteousness and that He works in my life to fulfill that desire.

Does this Describe You?

From Matthew Henry:

The meek are those who quickly submit themselves to God, to his word and to his rod, who follow his directions, and comply with his designs, and are gentle towards all men (Titus 3:2); who can bear provocation without being inflamed by it; are either silent, or return a soft answer; and who can show their displeasure when there is occasion for it, without being transported into any indecencies; who can be cool when others are hot; and in their patience keep possession of their own souls, when they can scarcely keep possession of anything else. They are the meek, who are rarely and hardly provoked, but quickly and easily pacified; and who would rather forgive twenty injuries than revenge one, having the rule of their own spirits.

The Sermon on the Mount

This Sunday, God-willing, we'll begin working through the Sermon on the Mount on Sunday mornings at First Baptist. I plan to do an introduction and overview of the Sermon this Sunday, and the following two paragraphs are enough to excite me and to scare me for the journey we're about to take together as a faith family.

There is always a gap between our words and our thoughts, but Jesus' words perfectly represent his thinking. He never had to correct himself or explain what he "meant" to say. Whoever hears Jesus' words hears him. His words perfectly express his convictions; they also represent his character. His thought, his character, and his actions are wholly consistent. If we follow his word, we become like him, and that is a blessed thing (Matt. 5:3-12). That is another reason to accept the authority of his every word (7:28).

The clarity and power of Jesus' teaching is stirring, yet alarming because honest people know they cannot obey it. Some believe that it is also impractical, since it calls disciples to turn the other cheek and to give to all who ask, and these are hardly strategies calibrated for survival in a rough world. Taking the beauty, the authority, and the rigor together, it is no wonder that the church struggles to interpret the Sermon on the Mount.

Daniel Doriani in The Sermon on the Mount: The Character of a Disciple

The Harvest is Plentiful...

God-willing, this Sunday I will conclude our series entitled "Do We Care?" at First Baptist. My first sermon was about ministry to one another. My second sermon was about ministry to our community. This final sermon is about ministry to our world. It will have an international emphasis, but it's not limited to that. I want FBC to consider the numerous ways we can minister to those local and abroad. The several commissioning passages from Jesus make it abundantly clear that it is not an either/or mentality about who we minister to. We do not minister to those either where we are or across the nations. It is a both/and commission.

This coming Sunday (the following if we get as much snow as they're calling for) I plan to preach from Matthew 9:35-38. This is a very familiar passage for many people, especially verses 37-38, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." There are several things to pull out from this text. For instance, we see the need to pray earnestly. It is a reliance upon God to move and to raise up people to go into His harvest. You can also see that God intends to use people to accomplish this. Those are both fantastic truths from this text. And there are others.

As I am wrapping up my preparation for this sermon, however, I thought about a precious truth of encouragement for this. I asked myself the question, "Why is the harvest plentiful?" Here is the answer I believe the Scriptures give in Revelation 5:9, "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation." The reason the harvest is plentiful is because Jesus, through His death on the cross, through His shed blood, through His wrath bearing sacrifice, purchased a people for God. He has guaranteed through His death that people from every tribe and language and people and nation will respond in faith.

I hope to say far more than this on Sunday, but this is a precious truth. The mission is guaranteed to succeed because Christ has accomplished the success through His own blood.