Coffee with John Gill

B.A.-“How did you meet your wife?”

J.G.-“I met Elizabeth while I itinerated in some churches.  We were married in 1718.  We would be married for 46 years until her death.”

B.A.-“Any kids?”

J.G.-“Yes. Though regrettably only three of our many children survived beyond infancy, and even one of those three died when she was 13.  I preached her funeral.”

B.A.-“You have influenced many other great saints.  You had a large impression on George Whitefield and John Wesley.  Spurgeon referred to you as ‘the mantle and chair of the Metropolitan Tabernacle’.  Is it true that you were also given the nickname ‘Dr. Volumnious’?”

J.G.-“Unfortunately”.

B.A.-“Would you say that your blockbluster work was The Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity?”

J.G.-“I think that is safe to say it has been an indelible mark on many.”

 
B.A.-“I know you were involved in several controversies, and became a lightning rod for many of those.  Do you care to specify what some you were involved in?”
J.G.-“ I attempted to champion the cause against a moral revelation as a means of salvation.  I defended the doctrines of grace against those who were weak in them.  I sought to refute a deists claims that there was no Messianic prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament.  I also challenged John Wesley on the issue of perseverance of the saints.  Those among other things kept me occupied.”

B.A.-“What were some of your convictions about the church?”

J.G.-“ I believed that a church must have and should use a confession of faith for its own purity and safety.  I was an unwavering Baptist defending the believer’s baptism position even to the point of associating the paedo-baptist position as akin to Catholicism.  I also defended the Baptist belief that a church should have a regenerate church membership.”

B.A.-“What were some of your beliefs related to the gospel?”

J.G.-“ Central to my preaching was the total sinfulness and therefore helplessness of man, and the total power of God to save. I also strongly believed in using the law and the gospel in his salvation messages, making his presentation similar to that of Whitefield.”

Richard Baxter

“The devil’s word is, ‘You may be saved without being born again and converted; you may do well enough without being holy, God doth but frighten you;  he is more merciful than to do as he saith, he will be better to you than his word.’  And alas, the greatest part of the world believes this word of the devil before the word of God; just as our sin and misery came into the world.  God said to our first parents, ‘If you eat you will die’; and the devil contradicted him, and said, ‘You will not die’: and the woman believed the devil before God.  So now the Lord saith, Turn or die; and the devil saith, You will not die, if you do but cry for God’s mercy at the last, and give over the acts of sin when you can practice it no longer.  And this is the word that the world believes.”  (Call to the Unconverted, Evangelical Press 1976 reprint, pp. 42-43)

Spurgeon on the Cross

“Shall we never be able to drive into men’s minds the truth that predestination and free agency are both facts?  Men sin as freely as birds fly in the air, and they are altogether responsible for their sin; and yet everything is ordained and foreseen of God.  The fore-ordination of God in no degree interferes with the responsibility of man.  I have often been asked by persons to reconcile the two truths.  My only reply is-they need no reconciliation, for they never fell out.  Why should I try to reconcile two friends?  Prove to me that the two truths do not agree.  In that request I have set you a task as difficult as that which you propose to me.  These two facts are parallel lines; I cannot make them unite, but you cannot make them cross each other.  Permit me also to add that I have long ago given up the idea of making all beliefs into a system.  I believe, but I cannot explain.  I fall before the majesty of revelation and adore the infinite Lord.” (Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Volume 33, Banner of Truth Trust, 1969 reprint, pp. 198-199).

Nuts and Bolts

A little over a month ago, our church family bid the Hale family farewell.  A few weeks later, we said “goodbye” to Jason and Bettina Gentry.  Jason came to Calvary a little over two years ago as a pastoral intern.  He made such an impression we decided to bring him on as a part time children’s pastor while he finished up seminary.  While here, Jason would come and pine to Dale and myself about a fetching young lady he used to work in the lab with while at MU.  I will never forget the conversation in my study when he was nervous about asking Bettina out on a date.  I replied, “How long will you hold to two opinions?  If Bettina you like, then ask her out.  Faint heart never won fair lady.”  Low and behold, he asked her out and the rest as they say is…I don’t mean to be vain, but I had a responsibility as a friend and fellow pastor.  Besides, I have a pretty good track record when it comes to matchmaking.  Only once in my life did my matchmaking skills not work out initially, and that was when I setup Anita with a friend of mine while we were friend, but alas I will come back to the point.
Jason has been a faithful servant and a sweet spirit while here at Calvary.  Bettina has finished up her PhD in veterinarian pathology and has accepted a position in the lab at Vanderbilt University hence the Gentrys are Nashville bound.
It is always bittersweet, as I will miss their friendship and partnership in the gospel, but I am anxious of how the Lord will use them in the days ahead.  To God be the glory of them.
In other touching news, here is a clip that is getting many hits on YouTube these days.  It is a couple that has been married I believe sixty plus years, and they are in their nineties.  This is an impromptu performance that does remind one of the creed, “the heart is the last to go.”

Warfield on God as Creator

“A God who could or would make a creature whom he could not or would not control, is no God…He would have ceased to be a moral being.  It is an immoral act to make a thing that we cannot or will not control.  The only justification for making anything is that we both can and will control it.  If a man should manufacture a quantity of an unstable high-explosive in the corridors of an orphanage and when the stuff went off should seek to excuse himself by saying that he could not control it, no one would count his excuse as valid.  What right had he to manufacture it, we would say, unless he could control it?  He relieves himself of none of the responsibility for the havoc wrought by pleading inability to control his creation.  To suppose that God has made a universe-or even a single being-the control of which he renounces, is to accuse him of similar immorality.” (B.B.  Warfield, Selected Shorter Writings, edited by John Meeter, Vol.1, Presbyterian and Reformed, 1970, p. 104).

Coffee with John Gill

B.A.-“Tell us when were you born and when did you die?”
J.G.-“My life span was thus, I was born on November 23, 1697 and departed from this life in 1771.  I confess I can’t remember the day since I was not here.”
B.A.-“Okay?  What was your family life like growing up as a boy?”
J.G.-“My father was a member of a union church even though he was unashamedly a Baptist.  Later though his Baptist convictions got the better of him and he soon withdrew when the issue of baptism and communion could not be resolved.  Interestingly, less than a century later, Andrew Fuller would be pastor of the church I grew up in.  When I was a boy, I studied Greek, Hebrew, and Latin.”

B.A.-“What were the events related to your conversion?”

J.G.-“I confessed Christ on November 1, 1716 (19 years old) and was later baptized.  I must say though that the Lord had been convicting me about my soul since as early as age 12 that I can recall.”

B.A.-“After your conversion to Jesus, how did your life progress in Him?”

J.G.-“I was received into the membership of the church the following Sunday (November 4) and later that evening gave an exposition on Isaiah 53.”

B.A.-So that I understand this.  You came to salvation in Jesus one Sunday.  Then you were received into the church the next Sunday, and that evening you preached?”

J.G.-“Correct.”

B.A.-“What happened next?”

J.G.-“I saw how God was using me.  The following Sunday I was asked to speak again this time on the text 1 Corinthians 2:2.”

B.A.-“And that is how you began your preaching ministry almost immediately after your conversion?”

J.G.-“Quite right.  At the encouragement of the church, I pursued my calling.  I preached frequently in surrounding towns and villages but soon consented to settle in as pastor in the church in Kettering.”

B.A.-“How was your first pastorate?”

J.G.-“It was brief.  I was there approximately four years.  I then became pastor at the Horsly-down church in Southwark.”

B.A.-“Horsly-down Baptist Church had an outstanding tradition of solid preaching did it not?”

J.G.-“It did.  This of course was the church of Benjamin Keach and Benjamin Stinton before me.”

B.A.-“And how long were you pastor there?”

J.G.-“I would remain their pastor for the next 51 years until my death.”

B.A.-“In addition to your pastoral responsibilities, you took on other engagements as well correct?”

J.G.-“Yes,  I was asked by several denominations to speak at a Wednesday evening lecture, something I did for 27 years every Wednesday.”  

Trip to Southern

I was at Southern Seminary in Louisville last week for fun and frolic.  Actually I attended a three day seminar called “Graduate Research Seminar” that was required for all incoming PhD students.  It was three days (8am-5pm) of intense seminars on research methods.  We were “baptized by fire” on the proper form and style for submitting work, what is acceptable and unacceptable work, and dozens of different ways to obtain research efficiently.  I feel very much like a retired athlete coming out of retirement to play a sport he hasn’t played in ten years.  It was very grueling and stretching.  Please continue pray for me as I adjust to yet another chapter of my life.  I realize how my life is going to have to change to accommodate this intense time for the next four or five years (or longer).  I am thankful for my family and church that is supportive.  They pray for me and continue to do ministry while I am away.

Happy Birthday Anita

It is my dear wife’s birthday.  And since Sir Paul was in KC recently, I thought I would pull a classic out. 

I do thank God that He gave life to Anita and in giving her to me, He gave me a life.  Much love AJ!

Thomas Watson (not the golfer) on How to Glorify God

“We glorify God by walking cheerfully. It brings glory to God, when the world sees a Christian has that within him that can make him cheerful in the worst times; that can enable him, with the nightingale, to sing with a thorn at his breast. The people of God have ground for cheerfulness. They are justified and adopted, and this creates inward peace; it makes music within, whatever storms are without. 2 Cor 1: 4. I Thess 1: 6. If we consider what Christ has wrought for us by his blood, and wrought in us by his Spirit, it is a ground of great cheerfulness, and this cheerfulness glorifies God. It reflects upon a master when the servant is always drooping and sad; sure he is kept to hard commons, his master does not give him what is fitting; so, when God’s people hang their heads, it looks as if they did not serve a good master, or repented of their choice, which reflects dishonor on God. As the gross sins of the wicked bring a scandal on the gospel, so do the uncheerful lives of the godly. Ps 100: 2. 'Serve the Lord with gladness.’ Your serving him does not glorify him, unless it be with gladness. A Christian’s cheerful looks glorify God; religion does not take away our joy, but refines it; it does not break our viol, but tunes it, and makes the music sweeter.”

(Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity, Banner of Truth Trust, 1975 reprint, p. 14)

Defining and Refinning Doxaholic

Due to my increasingly busy schedule, I am going to cut back on my blog posts for those who regularly read them to five days instead of everyday.  So Monday through Friday, most weeks, you can expect some confessions of a doxaholic.  By the way, many ask me about this rather voluminous (and some would say irritating) name.  Well, ‘doxa’ means “glory” and ‘holic’ is a suffix which means “an abnormal desire” for something, but it can also mean “dependence” which is the what I am referring to so you can put it together.  When I use “confessions” I mean a belief system, as in Augustine’s Confessions.  So I am trying to be transparent with God’s glory that I very much want to be striving and yearning for God.