Our Complaints Compared to Christ's Complaints

We find ourselves to be so important. We find our 'rights' to be of great concern to those around us. We desire vengeance on those who make us suffer, hurt, and cry. How often do we think in terms of what Jesus Christ, as the Lamb of God, suffered for his elect. How do you compare when it comes to your trials and afflictions?

Is there any among you that are impatient under your own personal trials and troubles, apt to howl under common afflictions from the hand of God, or swell with revenge under injuries from the hands of men! To such I would say, Behold the Lamb of God! Was Christ a lamb for meekness, and you are a lion for fierceness? Was he silent, not once opening his mouth, when he suffered most vile things from the hands of sinners and can you bear nothing? He suffered patiently, and deserved it not; you suffer impatiently, and have deserved infinitely more. O that you would learn to be more Christ-like in all your trials and afflictions! Let it not be said, that Christ carried it as a lamb when he was tried, and we like swine, grumbling or howling when we are tried. O get a Christ-like temper! -Flavel, Sacramental Meditations vi. volume 6, p.416-7

Sabbath a'Brakel: Thoughts AFTER the Lord's Supper

Reflection [on the Lord's Supper] consists in a continual looking unto and having fellowship with the Lord. "...walk before Me, and be thou perfect" (Gen. 17:1); "And Enoch walked with God" (Gen. 5:24). To that end it is necessary that one views God in Christ as a reconciled Father. Even when spiritual light dissipates, if one falls into sin and if strife comes, one must nevertheless hold fast to the immovableness of the covenant. It is neither your feeling nor your standing or falling which determines the steadfastness or stability of the covenant; rather, it is based on the immutability of God. "For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but My kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee" (Isa. 54:10); "For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed" (Mal. 3:6). Therefore do not succumb so readily; hold fast what you have, be steadfast in faith, and conduct yourself manfully. If, according to your feeling, you cannot conclude the certainty of your state, then make the conclusion judgmentally. Observe this in the following passages: "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:11); "Because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead" (2 Cor. 5:14). Therefore set the Lord continually before you and live in a continual dialogue with Him--at one time pray, then ask for counsel, then express your dependence upon Him, then wait upon Him, then reverently worship Him, then rest in Him, then thank Him, and then again, offer yourself to His service. Acquaint yourself thus with Him (II: 596].

Saturday: The Suffering Servant's Intercession

The most important part of Christ's suffering experientially, is that he suffered for us! Christ interceded on our behalf on the cross and he lives to make intercession for us in heaven. Jesus Christ prays for us! He prays for our conformity to his image. This should bring us great hope as we come to the Lord's table tomorrow. Christ intercedes for us. He who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion!

Isaiah 53:11-12 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

For he IS the intercessor, and he that procured your entering in the way, will carry you on in it. He that procured a sanctified conviction to come in, will complete it! He that procured your justification, and pardon of sin, will also apply it to your conscience, and forth an intimation of it, when he thinks fit and sanctify you thoroughly. And this is indeed a great consolation to a sinner, that he who has begun a great work will perfect it; and he will not leave it; till it be at such a height of perfection, as it can be desired to be no higher! -Durham

Friday: The Suffering Servant's Seed

In the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ, he took comfort in his mission. He took comfort in the fact that he was securing the salvation of his people. He prolonged his days when he saw his seed. Of course, the Scriptures speak of a chaff as well. There are those in the world that do not belong to Christ, but grow alongside the church- but are not his. As we reflect on the sufferings of Christ we need to be mindful of the fact that if we are his seed; then we have a standard of living that we are to live by. We are to reflect the one who bought us. We are to live lives of holiness as the Lord Jesus Christ lived a life of holiness.

He was put to grief for our lives, let us not put him to grief by our lives.

Isaiah 53:9-10 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

They who are Christ's seed, carry along with them the impression of an obligation to, and an acknowledgment of him in whatever good they have gotten. They think themselves much obliged to Christ, and they acknowledge him for their life (as in Mal. 1.6).. A natively and genuinely disposed child acknowledges his father as his father, and reverences and loves his father as his father, but there are many that pretend to being from Christ, who think not themselves in his debt and common for it, and who know not what it is to walk under the conviction of their obligation to Christ for their supposed spiritual life and being. -Durham, Christ Crucified, 41-413.

Thursday: The Suffering Servant's Submission

Yesterday I talked about reflecting on what Christ did for us. Today spend some time in meditation about the submissive spirit of Jesus Christ as he secured our salvation. Are we as submissive to him, as he was for us?

Isaiah 53:7-8 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

Wedndesday: The Suffering Servant's Wounds

We Reformed Christians can become so proud. We often ask ourselves and each other why people cannot see their need for redemption and the necessity of the cross. We become proud and we alienate those to whom the message of salvation by free grace needs to be heard.

We easily forget that it is all of Christ. It is not of us.

It was HIS wounds, it was HIS stripes, it was HIS bruises.

And why?

For OUR sin. For OUR reconciliation. For OUR peace. For OUR iniquity to be healed.

Isaiah 53:5-6 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He again directs us to Christ, that we may betake ourselves to his wounds, provided that we wish to regain life. Here the Prophet draws a contrast between us and Christ; for in us nothing call be found but destruction and death; in Christ alone is life and salvation, he alone brought medicine to us, and even procures health by his weakness, and life by his death; for he alone hath pacified the Father, he alone hath reconciled us to him. Here we might bring forward many things about the blessed consequences of Christ’s sufferings, if we had not determined to expound rather than to preach; and therefore let us be satisfied with a plain exposition. Let every one, therefore, draw consolation from this passage, and let him apply the blessed result of this doctrine to his own use; for these words are spoken to all in general, and to individuals in particular. -Calvin

Tuesday: The Suffering Servant as the Man of Sorrows

Something that is very disturbing in the current evangelical impressions of Jesus Christ was that he was a cheerful and happy man. 10 minutes in any 'Christian' bookstore will reveal posters, paintings, and greeting cards of a happy Jesus with a great smile. This conception of Christ is foreign to the testimony of the Scriptures.

Jesus was the man of sorrows.

The weight of his calling to reconcile sinners to God was so impressed into the person of Christ, that the Scriptures record that he sweat blood during intercessory prayer.

We take the Christ of the Scriptures for granted. We forget the seriousness of the Christian life and the serious nature of our calling to holiness and to reflect Jesus Christ. This is not a call to constant sorrows; but we must remember the difficult life that Christ lived on our behalf. He was sinless, yet lived his whole life with the weight of the knowledge of the sinfulness of sin. This led to a life of real and constant sorrow.

Isaiah 53:3-4 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

His spirit was tender, and he admitted the impressions of sorrow. We never read that he laughed, but often that he wept. Lentulus, in his epistle to the Roman senate concerning Jesus, says, "he was never seen to laugh;'' and so worn and macerated was he with continual grief that when he was but a little above thirty years of age he was taken to be nearly fifty, Jn. 8:57. Grief was his intimate acquaintance; for he acquainted himself with the grievances of others, and sympathized with them, and he never set his own at a distance; for in his transfiguration he talked of his own decease, and in his triumph he wept over Jerusalem. Let us look unto him and mourn. -MH

Monday: The Suffering Servant's Lack of Desirability

For preparation for the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, I will be meditating on Isaiah 53. This week will be dedicated to some thoughts on the Suffering Servant, Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 53:1-2 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

Nothing about Jesus Christ was what the Jews of the day were looking for. They desired a prince to come and rule in Jerusalem and to free them from all of their outward oppression. Little did they know that what they needed above all things was a Christ that would build a spiritual kingdom. I imagine that each one of us, if we were in the same cultural circumstances, would be highly tempted to reject King Jesus, who appeared to be anything than a king. Our king looked more like a pauper.

John Gill said that in Christ there was, "nothing that looks grand and majestic, or like a king; they [unbelieving Israel] not beholding with an eye of faith his glory, as the glory of the only begotten of the Father; only viewing him in his outward circumstances, and so made their estimate of him; they expected the Messiah as a temporal prince, appearing in great pomp and state, to deliver them from the Roman yoke, and restore their nation to its former splendour and glory; and being disappointed herein was the true reason of their unbelief, before complained of, and why they did not desire him, who is the desire of all nations."

Sabbath a'Brakel: An Honest Look at the Mirror Before the Lord's Supper

Many have a wrong perception of themselves; they measure themselves by themselves. They deem themselves to be fit, for they have no disagreement with their neighbor, are baptized, diligently go to hear God's Word, live in such a manner that no one can say anything about them, and believe that Christ is the Savior--one must thus not doubt that one will also be saved and that Christ is also his Savior. Therefore all is truly well--Christ invites and commands us, and I then wish to be obedient to the Lord in this respect. Others add to this the fact that, prior to that time, they refrain from indulging in their bosom sins, read pious books, and pray more frequently. One thus puts himself into a pious mold and peacefully attends, eating and drinking judgment to himself (II: 578).

Reformed Presbyterian International Conference

This July Grand Rapids will overflow with Reformed Presbyterians. There will be RPs from the US, Canada, Japan, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, Cyprus, and other international locations. If you have never been to an international conference it is truly a foretaste of heaven. Imagine over 1500 people singing Psalms acapella in four part harmony. It is great!

Here is the website to check it out... and of course to register! It only happens once every four years!

JG Vos on Christian Worship

JG Vos was an interesting theologian. He was called the 'people's theologian' because he believed that theology was for the common man; not for the ivory towers. I whole-heartily agree. He was also Christian Reformed as a child, and later became a Reformed Presbyterian, after his father began teaching at Princeton seminary (back when that meant something).

Here is his article on Christian worship. He deals with some of the objections to Psalm singing and answers them in a very pastoral and humble way. Our position on worship is not a popular one in today's Christian milieu, which makes it all the more important to use care and a pastoral approach to dealing with these differences. If the position is biblical and offensive to some Christians; then the Scriptures should do the offending, not the messenger. I would recommend that you read it before the Lord's Day.

Sabbath a'Brakel: Persecution for Faithfulness

Join yourself to the godly so that it may become manifest that you are one with them in your support for Christ and your opposition to the world. Remain with the true church and be diligent in attending public worship and in partaking of the Lord's Supper. Thereby one confesses the Lord Jesus. To separate yourself from her and to remain on your own is a quiet denial of Christ and His cause. If shame and injury come upon you due to your confession, rejoice in this, for it is a small beginning of martyrdom (III: 376).

What is a Peacemaker?

Martyn Lloyd Jones gives some great insight on what a peacemaker according to the Scriptures looks like. He stresses the fact that these qualities are not natural characteristics, but supernatural ones. These are part of what the converted man or woman look like. He challenges the Christian who does not fit into this description to examine whether he or she is even a true believer. Here is a summary of what he says:

1. Know when NOT to speak. (James 1.19)
2. Always view every situation in the light of the Gospel. (Ask these questions: What are the implications of the this? What about the Cause? What about the Church? What about the people who are dependent? What about the people who are right outside?)
3. Become positive and go out of your way to look for means and methods of making peace. (Romans 12.19-21)
4. Endeavor to diffuse peace wherever you are. (Be selfless, lovable, approachable, and not standing on your own dignity.) (Phil. 2.1-5)

Give a Warm PT Welcome to the New Kid on the Block

Long time friend, college classmate, and fellow RP, Brett Schutt, has started a blog. He has not seen much action so go give him a hearty welcome to the world of theo-blogging.

We all know how discouraging blogging can become without many comments!


God's Covenant of Grace


Brett is a very bright man and will prove to show a lot of insight into God's dealings with man.

Sabbath a'Brakel: True Compassion

The essence of compassion consists in being inwardly moved to sympathy, which, if it is right, will always be accompanied by an inclination and willingness to help. It does not consist in either fully or partially parting with our belongings. "And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor...and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing" (1 Cor. 13:3). Rather, there must be:

(1) sympathy. Wherever there is love there will also be sympathy when the person being loved is in need.

(2) inner motions of compassion, whereby the veracity and intensity of this sympathy is expressed, this being such that it touches and moves the heart.

(3) an inclination, willingness, and zeal to assist the needy person in accordance with his need: "For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath" (2 Cor. 8:12) [IV: 116].

The Sufficiency of Scripture in Sola Scriptura

I have finished a paper that I have been working on for 4 months on the doctrine of Sola Scriptura. This doctrine is abused in many ways, and has been since the time of the Reformation when the doctrine was fully developed (I say 'fully' because the doctrine is in the Scriptures as early as the Torah.). There are three ways that it is historically abused:

• A doctrine cannot be required to be believed that is not EXPLICITLY found in Scripture.
• Nothing can be done without the warrant of Scripture. (We can't sit in chairs during worship- where is that in the Bible?)
• Traditions and Creeds of the Church are not important because the Bible is all that matters.
  

This third abuse is discussed by Allister McGrath and he does a good job of showing that sola scriptura does not negate our traditions, as long as they are supported by the Word of God.

“A number of points bring out the importance of the sola scriptura principle. First, the Reformers insisted that the authority of the popes, counsels, and theologians is subordinate to that of Scripture. This is not necessarily to say that they have no authority… the Reformers allowed certain councils and theologians of the patristic era genuine authority in matters of doctrine. It is to say however, that such authority is derived from Scripture, and is thus subordinate to Scripture. Luther tends to defend the sola scriptura principle by emphasizing the confusion and incoherence of medieval theology, whereas Calvin and Melanchthon argue that the best catholic theology supports their view on the priority of Scripture.”

---

Allister E. McGrath, Reformation Thought, (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1994), 145.

Sabbath a'Brakel: True Holiness

True holiness springs forth from true faith. Where true faith is absent, true holiness will likewise be absent. Faith receives Christ as Surety unto justification and sanctification (John 1:12). By faith the soul is truly united with Christ (1 Cor. 6:17). By faith Christ, who is their life, dwells in their hearts (Eph. 3:17). Faith purifies the heart (Acts 15:9). Faith worketh by love (Gal. 5:6), and faith causes them to bring forth good works (James 2:18) [II: 35].

Closed Until December 12th

This week is the last week of classes for me at Puritan Seminary for the semester. Next week I have final examinations and some papers to finish up. I am closed until December 12th. (I will reopen about 8am this coming Lord's Day for an a'Brakel post. People seem to enjoy starting their Lord's Day with some a'Brakel.)

See you on the 12th!

First Reformed Presbyterian Church Conference on Practical Theology

First Reformed Presbyterian Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan, welcomes you to join us for the Conference on Practical Theology, to be held at the Puritan Reformed Seminary, 2965 Leonard Street, Grand Rapids, MI on Sat, Feb. 2 from 8:45am - 3:30pm. This year's theme will be Biblical Evangelism.

Our lecturer will be Dr. David P. Murray, professor of Old Testament and Practical Theology at Puritan Reformed Seminary. Dr. Murray comes with much practical experience in biblical evangelism. Dr. Murray also has a depth of biblical knowledge and a mastery of the original languages of Hebrew and Greek.

This conference will prove to challenge your view of evangelism and encourage you to fulfill every Christian's duty to present Jesus Christ to a dying world!

First Reformed Presbyterian Church Conference on Practical Theology

Biblical Evangelism

8:30-9:00 Registration
9:00-9:45 Biblical Evangelism's Motivation
9:45-10:00 Questions and Answers
10:00-10:30 Coffee Break
10:30-11:15 Biblical Evangelism's Message
11:15-11:30 Questions and Answers
11:30-1:00 Lunch Break
1:00-1:45 Biblical Evangelism's Methods
1:45-2:30 Final Questions and Answers
2:30-3:30 Coffee and Fellowship

Join us for this day of great Christian instruction, fellowship, and encouragement!

There will be a nominal fee to cover logistical costs.

If interested, please email Nathan Eshelman at nleshelman@gmail.com to have a flyer mailed. Please encourage friends and family to come!

Sabbath a'Brakel: Spiritual Watchfulness

Spiritual watchfulness consists in watching over our soul in a careful and circumspect manner in order that no evil may befall her. Spiritual life is a precious treasure, desirable to the believer, that far excels the entire world and all that is in it. It has many enemies which lie in wait for it--not to be a partaker of it, but rather to destroy it; they hate it. A Christian must therefore be diligent in preserving this life. "Keep thy heart with all diligence" (Prov. 4:23). The believer knows the value of that life, is acquainted with his enemies and their activities, loves this life, is desirous to preserve and increase it, takes care that it is not injured, and is thus circumspect and always on guard if there is danger approaching from elsewhere. If he becomes aware of something, he is alert and stands ready with his weapons in hand to turn away the enemy, attacking all those who come too close (IV: 11).