Latest / Providence Baptist Church - Sermons / Building a Resilient Church Culture: Part 4 – Accurate Histories

Transcript

Building a Resilient Church Culture: Part 4 – Accurate Histories · Providence Baptist Church - Sermons

0:00
Take your copy of God's Word and join me in Psalm 111.
0:08
We are now halfway through a series of sermons, which is a phrase I don't even like saying, series of sermons.
0:17
But all the same, halfway through a series of sermons expressing our need to build a resilient church culture.
0:25
We live in days of growing soft totalitarianism, particularly concerning anthropology, how we came to be, why we exist.
0:36
And we believe that we're going to find ourselves increasingly uncomfortable holding to biblical standards of sexuality, gender, gender roles, etc.
0:45
Now to hear me, soft totalitarianism should be held up and compared to hard totalitarianism, which would be things like communist Russia, the USSR.
0:57
We are not suggesting this morning that we are going to find ourselves in the gulags of Canada.
1:08
Although I wouldn't want to be sent there right now.
1:11
But rather that socially it will get more and more difficult to hold to biblical standards.
1:19
If you're new to this study, I believe you'll be well served by going to our website, finding the recordings of the three previous sermons, and taking some time to consider that.
1:29
We did an overview sermon to begin with where I try to flesh this out a bit more.
1:34
But each week I've begun with three prerequisite statements, and I think that they bear repeating each week that we do this.
1:40
So, once again, before we proceed any further, as a general practice, we preach expositional sermons.
1:49
And even beyond that, our favorite type of preaching is verse-by-verse exposition.
1:54
I look forward in the fall to beginning the book of Romans with you once again.
2:00
So, that means that we typically, right, we open up to a text, and the point or points of the text is the point or points of the sermon.
2:07
We exegete it. We let it speak to us out of the text.
2:10
The opposite of that is eisegesis, reading into a text what you think that it means, and we run a risk of doing that as we preach topically.
2:20
The labor is to not do that, but we run a risk of doing it.
2:24
And so, I just want to say, great concern for this, even as I'm the one preaching, be discerning as people preach topically to you.
2:36
Secondly, we're not trying to be alarmists.
2:40
But we believe, your elders believe, that it's proper for us to be thinking about and to preparing ourselves for greater challenges that we think are coming for the church.
2:51
We care about this because we love you very much, and because we care about the glory of our God.
2:58
And thirdly, six total weeks is not nearly enough time to be talking about this.
3:04
And I know that I swim in different waters than you, where my brain is all week long.
3:09
It's different than where your brain is.
3:12
You'll leave here and begin thinking about tomorrow having to teach or sell insurance or build houses or whatever that may be.
3:20
But I think it's going to be important for us to continue to talk about these types of things together.
3:26
So, I want to encourage you to ask questions.
3:29
Push at me.
3:30
I'd love to hear your thoughts about anything that I say.
3:32
That we might be better together as a church for the glory of our God.
3:39
So, how do we build a resilient church culture?
3:42
One that's going to stand against the rising tide of self-totitarianism.
3:46
It's going to have to be built.
3:47
It's not just going to happen.
3:47
We're going to have to put practices in place and be deliberate about it.
3:51
It's going to have to be a strong thing that we do together, right?
3:54
This tide is going to be a destructive tide.
3:56
We're going to have to stand.
3:58
We're going to have to link arms together.
4:00
I think of the SEAL training where they all lay down in the ocean with their arms linked together and just get washed over by waves.
4:07
But we're going to stand and we're going to take those waves on together.
4:12
It's going to have to be cultural, right?
4:13
It's going to have to seep into everything we are as a church.
4:17
And this morning, we're going to consider the third of the five things that we believe that we need to be working on.
4:25
We've already talked of our need to define and hold to the clear mission.
4:30
of the church.
4:31
That was number one, clear mission.
4:33
And we've also talked about our need to do robust theology, right?
4:38
Knowing what God has commanded and what he has promised and carefully doing the work of theological triage in order to maintain unity in the church
4:49
for the sake of standing firm on matters of first importance.
4:54
Today, we are going to consider the church's need to work on knowing accurate histories.
5:03
This is the one, honestly, that I've most trembled at and with my level of preparation still tremble at.
5:09
That's the one I think most difficult to make a direct argument from the scripture on.
5:14
So as I talk about being discerning, I'm just repeating it again.
5:18
Please be discerning as we consider the need we believe to work on accurate histories.
5:26
So, Psalm 111, verses 2 through 4.
5:34
Before I read it, beloved, let me remind you that this is God's word to us written for his glory and our good.
5:39
And so we would all do well to listen to it in order to believe its promises and obey its commands.
5:46
Verse 2.
5:48
Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them.
5:55
Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever.
6:02
He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered.
6:05
The Lord, the Lord, is gracious and merciful.
6:11
So you see in just these few verses, Psalm 111, right?
6:16
An exhortation, right?
6:18
That if we are those who delight in God, we will delight in his works.
6:22
And therefore, we're being told here that we ought to study them and remember them.
6:28
Because it's in them that our God displays himself as gracious and as merciful.
6:34
There are many in our age who want us to just forget the past.
6:41
They say that everything valuable is found in everything new.
6:45
Newness equals rightness.
6:49
We are to always be progressing, always casting off the old ways for the sake of better ways.
6:55
Others would have us fixate on the particularly positive or particularly negative aspects of history.
7:04
They either always want us acting in response to some evil committed as if we committed the evil ourselves,
7:10
or working to preserve some good as if it was never mixed up with any error.
7:15
Others still would have us altogether ignore the past because who has time to do the careful work of really knowing our history and learning anything from it?
7:28
I suggest to you that none of these are the way forward.
7:32
None of them will help us to build a resilient church culture,
7:35
but rather, we should actively pursue knowing, interpreting, understanding, and teaching accurate histories.
7:46
The word that we use for history comes from a Greek word which means to know.
7:52
The Greek word for a historian means wise man or knowledgeable man.
7:58
So if we are to navigate a troubled age,
8:03
perhaps there is something to be learned from those who have navigated troubled times before us.
8:11
The preacher of the book of Ecclesiastes states in chapter 1 and verse 9,
8:16
What has been is what will be,
8:19
and what has been done is what will be done,
8:22
and there is nothing new under the sun.
8:25
Just because we might experience something to be new doesn't mean that it's new.
8:32
Patterns repeat themselves over and over and over again.
8:37
And so history will serve us.
8:39
It will help us to see how we have arrived where we are.
8:43
Help us to value what we should value and discard that which needs discarding.
8:50
Proverbs 19 and verse 2 says,
8:52
Desire without knowledge is not good,
8:55
And whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way.
9:02
So we need to know who has gone before and how we got here.
9:06
It's going to help us to see more clearly the way to go forward.
9:11
A quotation accredited to a number of men,
9:15
including the Irish statesman Edmund Burke,
9:17
Spanish philosopher George Santayana,
9:20
and my favorite in this lineup,
9:23
Winston Churchill,
9:25
goes something like this,
9:28
quote,
9:29
Those that fail to learn from history are,
9:32
you all know it, right?
9:33
Doomed to repeat it, end quote.
9:35
That's right.
9:36
I believe that a careful study of history will all at once embolden us to stand for the truth,
9:42
as many before us have,
9:44
and humble us,
9:45
as our troubled days are minor compared to the troubles of those preceding us.
9:51
We feel a bit uncomfortable.
9:55
Those who have gone before us experienced much more.
9:59
Now, I say we will need to be actively pursuing,
10:03
knowing, interpreting, understanding,
10:05
and teaching accurate histories,
10:07
because I want to emphasize that I'm not merely contending
10:11
for the careful reading of a good world history textbook.
10:16
Histories, multiple avenues of history.
10:21
I am contending for the careful reading of a good world history textbook.
10:24
So to be clear, that is good.
10:27
But not just that.
10:30
We will need to know, interpret, understand,
10:33
and teach world history,
10:36
and national histories,
10:38
and state histories,
10:40
and local histories,
10:41
and, most importantly,
10:45
church histories.
10:46
We're going to really know who we are
10:48
and the context in which we live
10:50
and know how to stand in it.
10:51
We're going to have to do all of these things.
10:54
We will need to have knowledge of how we arrived here,
10:58
right?
10:59
And especially at how God orchestrated the arrival.
11:05
How is it that God is at work in the midst
11:07
of all the affairs of mankind?
11:11
I believe that the most important way that we can do this
11:13
is through the study of church history
11:15
placed in the context of broader history,
11:18
right?
11:18
To know the narrow in light of the broader history of the world.
11:23
Now, the Bible is not silent on this topic
11:26
as it pertains to knowing God
11:28
and His interactions with and for His people.
11:33
I already read to you Psalm 111, right?
11:37
Great are the works of the Lord.
11:38
Steady by all who delight in Him.
11:40
Full of splendor and majesty is His work,
11:42
and His righteousness endures forever.
11:46
He has caused wondrous works to be remembered.
11:48
The Lord is gracious and merciful.
11:53
That is the Jewish history,
11:56
and it is ours if we're in Christ,
11:59
grafted in to Israel.
12:02
Let's look together at a couple of other Old Testament examples.
12:06
So we're going to Bible drill for just a moment here.
12:09
A couple of texts, just three if I remember correctly.
12:13
Firstly, Deuteronomy chapter 4.
12:15
So if you can turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 4.
12:17
We find in Deuteronomy a restatement of the law
12:40
just before the people go into the promised land.
12:44
Chapter 4, beginning in verse 9 and following.
12:47
God instructs,
12:48
Only take care and keep your soul diligently,
12:53
lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen,
12:57
and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life.
13:01
Make them known to your children and your children's children,
13:04
how on the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb,
13:08
the Lord said to me,
13:10
Gather the people to me,
13:11
that I may let them hear my words,
13:13
so that they may learn to fear me
13:15
all the days that they live on the earth,
13:16
and that they may teach their children so.
13:20
And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain,
13:22
while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven,
13:26
wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom.
13:29
They're called to remember the thing that had happened,
13:33
the thing they had witnessed when the Lord came down
13:35
and met with Moses on the mountain,
13:38
gave to him his law.
13:42
They're to remember it for the sake of their souls,
13:45
for the sake of the souls of their children,
13:48
and for their children's children,
13:50
their grandbabies as well.
13:52
Another text, so turn with me to Psalm 78.
14:00
Beginning in verse 1.
14:04
The psalmist writes,
14:05
Give ear, O my people, to my teaching.
14:08
Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
14:12
I will open my mouth in a parable.
14:14
I will utter dark sayings from old,
14:16
things that we have heard and known
14:18
that our fathers have told us.
14:21
Right? There's the history.
14:22
Things that we have been told.
14:26
We will not hide them from their children,
14:28
but tell to the coming generation
14:30
the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might,
14:33
and the wonders that he has done.
14:35
He established a testimony in Jacob
14:37
and appointed a law in Israel,
14:39
which he commanded to our fathers to teach,
14:41
to their children,
14:43
that the next generation might know them,
14:45
the children yet unborn,
14:46
and arise and tell them to their children,
14:48
so that they should set their hope in God
14:50
and not forget the works of God,
14:52
but keep his commandments.
14:54
And they should not be like their fathers,
14:56
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
14:58
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
15:01
whose spirit was not faithful to God.
15:04
Right?
15:05
So we see again an instruction being given here.
15:07
Right?
15:08
I'm going to tell you things that you need to turn
15:10
and tell to others.
15:11
Right?
15:11
That there would be a generational faithfulness to God,
15:15
that they would know how it is that God has acted on their behalf.
15:19
And at the end of that text,
15:22
so that they would learn how not to act.
15:25
Right?
15:25
They would learn to keep the law,
15:26
and they would also learn that they should not be like their fathers,
15:30
stubborn and rebellious,
15:32
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
15:35
and they were not faithful to God.
15:39
Right?
15:39
So we see these Old Testament texts,
15:40
this commendation to learning and knowing the history of the people of God,
15:46
particularly how God had acted on their behalf.
15:50
Let me give you a New Testament example of the same.
15:54
1 Corinthians chapter 10.
15:56
Let me ask you to join me there.
16:02
You're not used to this.
16:03
You're used to just camping in a text, aren't you?
16:14
Beginning in verse 1,
16:15
Paul writes,
16:16
For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,
16:19
that our fathers were all under the cloud,
16:21
and all passed through the sea.
16:24
Right?
16:24
Here he is talking about the Exodus.
16:26
And all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,
16:30
and all ate the same spiritual food,
16:32
and all drank the same spiritual drink.
16:35
For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them,
16:38
and the rock was Christ.
16:41
Nevertheless,
16:42
with most of them,
16:44
God was not pleased.
16:45
For they were overthrown in the wilderness.
16:48
Now these things took place as examples for us,
16:52
that we might not desire evil as they did.
16:55
Do not be idolaters as some of them were,
16:57
as it is written,
16:58
and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
17:02
We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did,
17:05
and 23,000 fell in a single day.
17:09
We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents,
17:14
nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer.
17:18
Now these things happened to them as an example.
17:22
But they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come.
17:28
So again,
17:30
you see here,
17:30
an encouragement to remember the past,
17:32
that we might learn something from it.
17:35
And so,
17:37
we ought to know our Bibles.
17:39
And this is no surprise to you,
17:41
especially if you're accustomed to the teaching in this church.
17:44
But I just want to carefully emphasize that we are to pay attention to the histories of the Bible
17:50
to learn how our God has dealt righteous judgment to those who do not walk in His ways
17:55
and mercy and grace to those who do.
18:00
This book is full of history,
18:03
which is helpful and instructive to us.
18:07
Now,
18:08
I think at that point the case is simple.
18:10
It's easy.
18:10
I could say to you,
18:11
we ought to know Bible history.
18:13
And y'all would go,
18:14
absolutely.
18:14
We're on board with you.
18:15
I just read to you four texts that make that very point.
18:19
But then I want to say,
18:21
we ought to also go further out and beyond the canon.
18:26
And we have to be careful as we do such a thing.
18:29
But we ought to see how it is that God has worked since the canon was closed.
18:33
How it is He's working amongst His people beyond the record of the Bible.
18:40
This is an important thing.
18:41
It's an important work for us to do.
18:43
And how do we know as we look at history where God has moved and where God hasn't been moving,
18:51
particularly as it concerns the history of the church?
18:53
And we do so as it accords with the Bible.
18:57
Right?
18:58
We see movements of people who go out and do things biblically.
19:03
We can praise God for the way that God has worked amongst those people.
19:09
It's a thing we ought to be about doing together.
19:11
If you don't take up this endeavor yourself with your very limited amount of time,
19:16
at very least notice how important we believe it is as our church gathers.
19:22
So I'm not giving to you a new thing.
19:24
So we're going to begin doing some history together.
19:27
We already do this quite a bit.
19:30
You were handed a bulletin this morning.
19:31
I hope.
19:32
Maybe you weren't.
19:33
But there's a bulletin.
19:34
And there's a quotation on that bulletin.
19:37
And it is very rare that there's a contemporary quotation on the bulletin.
19:42
It's not typical.
19:45
But that's the case.
19:46
Usually, I'm seeking to draw you back to history.
19:51
Right?
19:51
To commend to you somebody that's worth reading and worth paying attention to.
19:56
Right?
19:56
Not perfect people, but people who walked faithfully with our God.
20:01
We are not alone in this faith.
20:03
Praise God.
20:04
It's not just us in this room.
20:06
But we stand on the shoulders of giants.
20:11
I mourned the loss of R.C. Sproul.
20:14
It was a very sad day when the world lost Dr. Sproul.
20:19
But it opened up a ton of quotes for me for the bulletin,
20:21
which is also a very nice thing to be able to do.
20:26
It's also why we use quotations in sermons.
20:29
I want you to know that I'm never quoting somebody old
20:32
because I want to prove to you that I read old things.
20:35
That's not what I'm doing.
20:36
I'm not trying to flex and say that I'm somehow smarter than you at all.
20:40
I'm trying to connect you to a greater faith
20:44
than just the faith that we can observe.
20:47
It is a faith that goes out and beyond us.
20:50
So even if you never read a church history book,
20:53
you can at least participate in that
20:55
and learn some things and know some things
20:56
and chase a couple rabbit trails from time to time.
21:02
But I would commend to you the study of church history.
21:06
And there's some really wonderful resources out there
21:09
as you look at this and you hold it up to the Scripture.
21:13
You think about how God has worked through the history of the church.
21:16
This could be a very important thing for you to do.
21:20
We must not think that every aspect of church history is commendable,
21:25
but much of it is.
21:27
Much of it is.
21:28
God's people walking faithfully with their Lord.
21:34
If we find ourselves holding a position
21:36
not held by those who have walked before us,
21:39
then there's a very good chance
21:40
that we need to rethink our position.
21:43
How have faithful brothers and sisters
21:45
walked through similar times before us?
21:52
I'll commend to you a few things.
21:55
First, a book called Pages from Church History
21:57
by Stephen Nichols.
22:00
It's a short one.
22:01
It's 300-something pages.
22:04
It gives you a quick introduction to church history.
22:08
In addition to that,
22:09
he does a podcast called Five Minutes in Church History.
22:12
So if you have any inclination in yourself
22:14
to learn anything about church history,
22:16
I can guarantee you have five minutes somewhere in your day
22:19
where you're doing nothing.
22:20
You might be moving from one place to another
22:22
or brushing your teeth for some portion of that five minutes.
22:27
Let him be your timer.
22:29
Brush your teeth for five minutes.
22:30
You can listen to five minutes in church history
22:32
and have your soul encouraged
22:34
by those who have gone before you.
22:37
Another good book to commend to you,
22:39
The Unquenchable Flame by Michael Reeves.
22:42
Which is about the Reformation.
22:46
Why are we Protestants?
22:49
That's an important question you ought to be able to answer.
22:52
We are Protestants.
22:54
We are still protesting against the Roman Catholic Church.
22:58
Why?
22:58
What's the issue at hand in this case?
23:03
It's the gospel itself.
23:04
Salvation by grace alone,
23:08
through faith alone,
23:10
in Christ alone.
23:11
To understand that we don't add anything
23:13
to the equation of our salvation,
23:15
but that God saves us by his power
23:17
and keeps us by his power.
23:20
It's expressed in faith,
23:23
but we are saved by God.
23:25
God.
23:28
I was shocked just a number of years ago
23:30
at the 500th anniversary of the Reformation,
23:34
of the day that Luther nailed the 95 Theses
23:37
to the door of the Wittenberg Church.
23:40
How much ecumenicalism started going on in those days.
23:44
Like we needed to restore the relationship
23:46
between the Protestant Church
23:47
and the Roman Catholic Church.
23:48
And I say no.
23:50
It's a day to double down, right?
23:52
To say no, no, no.
23:54
Justification by faith alone.
23:58
Do you know why you're a Protestant?
24:00
Is it just because you were born into a house of a Protestant?
24:03
Or because you believe what the Scripture teaches
24:05
about our salvation?
24:08
If you want to read something more thick,
24:11
more dense,
24:12
2,000 Years of Christ's Power by Nick Needham.
24:16
It's a four-volume set.
24:17
It's a wonderful, wonderful, helpful read.
24:21
We need to be studying church history.
24:23
We need to tap into the past.
24:25
We need to know that we are not new at this.
24:28
We need to be encouraged to not be innovators, right?
24:31
But to see how faithful people have walked in obedience
24:34
to the text throughout the centuries.
24:38
We also need to know the errors of the past.
24:42
It is helpful if you study the old confessions
24:44
to know why those were issues at all to begin with.
24:49
It'll help you recognize error in our day.
24:53
Let me just give you a couple of quick examples.
24:57
If you were familiar with Arianism
24:59
and the great error and heresy that that was,
25:02
perhaps you wouldn't be so drawn in
25:04
to read or watch a book or movie like The Shack.
25:08
You would have heard about it
25:11
and heard what was being said about it
25:12
and we'd go,
25:12
hmm, this sounds a lot like Arianism.
25:14
I maybe need to be careful about this type of media.
25:19
Or,
25:21
Marcionism
25:21
may prevent us from suggesting
25:25
that we need to unhitch our faith
25:27
from the Old Testament.
25:27
Or,
25:30
Pelagianism
25:31
might help us
25:33
give a more careful articulation
25:35
concerning the nature
25:37
of free will.
25:40
These matters have been debated
25:41
biblically in history
25:43
and can be helpful
25:44
to us.
25:47
I'll say just as a side note,
25:49
I think that all of us
25:50
are arrogant beyond belief
25:52
if we think that we're more intelligent
25:54
than the people who have gone before us.
25:55
Just about everybody
25:58
I pick up and read
25:59
who has gone before me
26:01
is much, much smarter than me
26:03
and I have much to learn
26:04
from them.
26:07
Maybe we'd all be a little bit smarter
26:08
if we'd get off Twitter.
26:12
Also, read biography.
26:14
The Lord has shaped me,
26:16
I think,
26:17
through the reading of biography
26:18
than any other book I've read
26:21
apart from the Scripture.
26:23
So,
26:23
hold that up,
26:24
hold that primary,
26:25
but if beyond the Bible
26:26
you're going to read something,
26:27
I would really commend to you
26:29
the reading of biography.
26:33
A wonderful biography
26:35
to commend to you.
26:36
It's actually an autobiography.
26:37
It's put out by
26:38
the Banner of Truth Trust,
26:39
John G. Payton,
26:40
the frontier missionary
26:41
to the New Hebrides.
26:44
I read this biography
26:45
in preparation for a men's retreat
26:48
that we started doing.
26:49
This is,
26:50
we're entering into our
26:51
14th year, I think,
26:53
of doing it,
26:53
and we always do
26:54
a biographical sketch.
26:56
So, I led the charge in that,
26:58
and I knew nothing
26:58
about John G. Payton.
27:00
I thought he sounded
27:00
kind of cool.
27:01
He went to some islands,
27:03
an island chain of cannibals
27:05
as a frontier missionary.
27:07
And so,
27:07
I picked it up,
27:08
and I thought,
27:08
this will embolden
27:09
the men of our church
27:10
to contend for the faith.
27:13
And God did that
27:14
very thing in me.
27:14
He worked in my heart
27:17
a greater firmness
27:19
to stand for the truth.
27:22
We'll read to you
27:23
a brief quote out of that.
27:24
This is Payton himself
27:26
writing about how
27:28
resistant the church was
27:31
to send him to such a place.
27:33
So, he wrote,
27:34
quote,
27:34
John Payton replied
27:49
to this man,
27:51
quote,
27:52
Mr. Dixon,
27:53
you are advanced
27:54
in years now,
27:55
and your own prospect
27:56
is soon to be laid
27:58
in the grave.
27:59
I just love that fullness.
28:01
There to be eaten
28:02
by worms.
28:04
I confess to you
28:05
that I can live and die
28:07
serving and honoring
28:08
the Lord Jesus.
28:09
It will make no difference
28:10
to me
28:10
whether I am eaten
28:12
by cannibals
28:12
or by worms.
28:14
And in the great day,
28:16
my resurrection body
28:17
will rise
28:18
as fair as yours
28:19
in the likeness
28:19
of our risen Redeemer.
28:22
Right?
28:23
How good.
28:25
Right?
28:27
He encouraged the man
28:29
who was telling him
28:30
not to go do missions.
28:31
Right?
28:31
If we could just be faithful
28:33
to our Lord,
28:34
our bodies will be raised
28:36
fair in the likeness
28:38
of our risen Redeemer,
28:40
whether eaten by worms
28:41
or by cannibals.
28:44
Another wonderful biography
28:46
I commend to you
28:46
is the biography
28:47
of George Mueller
28:49
called George Mueller
28:50
of Bristol
28:51
by A.T. Pearson.
28:52
It's put out
28:53
by Kregel Publications.
28:55
It's the best one.
28:57
It's the definitive one,
28:59
I will say.
29:00
And God used this biography
29:01
in a lot of ways.
29:02
My father handed it to me.
29:04
I don't remember
29:05
what we were talking about
29:06
at the time,
29:07
but something in the Bible.
29:08
And my dad said,
29:09
I think you're ready
29:10
to read Mueller.
29:11
And I went,
29:12
what?
29:14
And he handed it to me.
29:17
And praise God,
29:18
at least in some measure,
29:19
I was ready to read Mueller.
29:21
And I said,
29:21
Mueller,
29:22
many of you have heard me
29:24
talk about my belief
29:25
in the sufficiency
29:26
of the Bible
29:27
and saying how that doctrine
29:29
has got concreted
29:30
in my heart.
29:31
It's not going anywhere.
29:32
I believe that the Bible
29:33
is sufficient
29:34
for life and godliness,
29:35
that we don't need
29:36
to look outside of it
29:36
for direction.
29:39
And I will say it
29:42
after that,
29:43
I don't really know
29:43
how that happened,
29:45
like what was going on exactly.
29:47
In thinking this week,
29:48
I can remember
29:49
at least this biography
29:50
was part of that working
29:52
in two ways.
29:54
I'm going to read you
29:54
one quote
29:55
and then tell you
29:55
something else
29:56
that happened
29:56
in George Mueller's life.
29:59
He says this.
30:01
So he goes to a place
30:02
named Tainmouth,
30:05
I hope I'm pronouncing
30:06
that correctly,
30:07
in England,
30:08
because he's sick.
30:09
And he says this,
30:11
a quote,
30:12
Before this period,
30:13
I had been much opposed
30:14
to the doctrines of election,
30:16
particular redemption,
30:17
and final persevering grace
30:18
so much so that,
30:20
a few days after my arrival
30:22
to Tainmouth,
30:23
I called election
30:24
a devilish doctrine.
30:26
I knew nothing
30:27
about the choice
30:28
of God's people
30:28
and did not believe
30:29
that the child of God,
30:31
when once made so,
30:32
was safe forever.
30:35
But now I was brought
30:36
to examine
30:37
these precious truths
30:38
by the word of God.
30:42
End quote.
30:43
He made a practice
30:45
of going through
30:45
the entirety of the Bible
30:47
when there was
30:48
an issue that vexed him.
30:50
When he wasn't sure
30:50
what to think
30:51
about a particular issue,
30:52
he would read
30:53
the entirety
30:54
of the scripture
30:54
with that issue
30:56
in mind.
30:58
Another example
30:58
of this,
31:00
again,
31:00
if you're a guest,
31:01
we are Credo Baptists
31:02
here.
31:04
He spoke boldly
31:05
in a Bible study
31:06
about his belief
31:07
in paedo-baptism,
31:08
the baptism of infants,
31:10
and afterwards
31:11
an old woman said,
31:13
Mr. Mueller,
31:14
have you ever searched
31:15
the scripture
31:15
on this matter?
31:17
And he responded
31:18
to her honestly,
31:20
no, I've not.
31:21
And she said,
31:22
well, then I don't think
31:23
you should speak again
31:24
on it until you have.
31:27
And so he did.
31:29
And he read
31:29
the entirety
31:30
of the Bible
31:30
with a particular doctrine
31:33
of baptism
31:34
in mind.
31:36
And I'm grateful
31:37
to say that he became
31:38
a Credo Baptist.
31:43
Let me also commend
31:44
to you a broader book.
31:45
I think that you'll be
31:45
served by
31:46
21 Servants
31:47
of Sovereign Joy
31:48
by John Piper.
31:50
It's put out
31:51
by Crossway.
31:52
Short,
31:53
condensed,
31:54
very Piperian
31:55
biographies.
31:57
21 of them
31:58
will serve
31:59
your soul.
32:02
So it's good
32:03
for us,
32:04
right?
32:04
It's good for us
32:05
to think about
32:06
the past,
32:07
to be informed
32:07
by the past,
32:09
both to learn
32:10
from its mistakes,
32:11
right?
32:12
And then to stand
32:13
on the shoulders
32:13
of its successes,
32:15
to see the ways
32:17
in which God
32:18
has been at work.
32:20
I have wrongly said
32:22
in the past
32:23
that the church
32:24
always thrives
32:25
in persecution.
32:28
But if we're
32:28
better students
32:29
of history,
32:30
we'll know
32:30
that that's not true.
32:32
The church
32:33
has not always
32:34
thrived
32:35
in the middle
32:35
of persecution.
32:37
It often does.
32:38
The church,
32:39
capital C,
32:40
global,
32:40
will always
32:41
go forward,
32:42
right?
32:42
Nothing will
32:43
prevail
32:44
against it.
32:46
But locally,
32:47
it has not
32:48
always.
32:50
You read the history
32:50
of the Christian church
32:51
in Japan,
32:53
altogether stamped out.
32:55
We need to learn,
32:57
what were those people
32:58
not doing
32:59
or doing
33:00
well
33:01
to preserve
33:03
their ability
33:04
to stand
33:05
in the face
33:06
of such
33:07
opposition.
33:09
So we're going
33:10
to have to have
33:10
a clear mission,
33:11
we're going to have
33:12
to do robust theology,
33:13
and we're going
33:14
to have to pick up
33:15
accurate
33:16
histories
33:17
to run this over,
33:19
to do it again
33:20
and again,
33:20
to think about it
33:21
carefully,
33:22
and apply it
33:23
with wisdom
33:23
in our day.
33:25
So let me read
33:27
in closing
33:27
once again,
33:28
Psalm 111,
33:29
just verse 2.
33:31
Great are the works
33:33
of the Lord,
33:35
studied by all
33:36
who delight
33:37
in them.
33:38
Let's pray together.