“God employs his people to encourage one another. He did not say to an angel, ‘Gabriel, my servant Joshua is about to lead my people into Canaan—go, encourage him.’ God never works needless miracles; if his purposes can be accomplished by ordinary means, he will not use miraculous agency. Gabriel would not have been half so well fitted for the work as Moses. A brother’s sympathy is more precious than an angel’s embassy. The angel, swift of wing, had better known the Master’s bidding than the people’s temper. An angel had never experienced the hardness of the road, nor seen the fiery serpents, nor had he led the stiff-necked multitude in the wilderness as Moses had done. We should be glad that God usually works for man by man. It forms a bond of brotherhood, and being mutually dependent on one another, we are fused more completely into one family. Brethren, take the text as God’s message to you. Labour to help others, and especially strive to encourage them. Talk cheerily to the young and anxious enquirer, lovingly try to remove stumblingblocks out of his way. When you find a spark of grace in the heart, kneel down and blow it into a flame. Leave the young believer to discover the roughness of the road by degrees, but tell him of the strength which dwells in God, of the sureness of the promise, and of the charms of communion with Christ. Aim to comfort the sorrowful, and to animate the desponding. Speak a word in season to him that is weary, and encourage those who are fearful to go on their way with gladness. God encourages you by his promises; Christ encourages you as he points to the heaven he has won for you, and the spirit encourages you as he works in you to will and to do of his own will and pleasure. Imitate divine wisdom, and encourage others, according to the word of this evening.”

- Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)
taken from: Morning and Evening, evening devotion for September 17.

- Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)
taken from: The Fatherhood of God, Sermon No. 213, September 12, 1858.

Can you imagine rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls—as recorded in Nehemiah—under modern leadership models?

You could go with the What-do-you-think? leader. He would hold a meeting to determine what the majority opinion was on design options and choice of building materials.

You could choose the I-don’t-care-what-you-think leader. He would make his decisions in a vacuum, leaving the inevitable problems to others.

And there’s always the I-need-time-to-think leader. His indecisiveness would delay progress and frustrate those trying to help.

Of course, none of these leadership models are unique to our time. Indeed, they were around-in one form or another—in Nehemiah’s day.

However, Nehemiah was no such leader. He was not passive, arrogant, or indecisive. Good leaders never are. They don’t ask others to do what they are unwilling to do themselves. Nehemiah rolled up his sleeves and worked as diligently as anyone else. “We labored in the work,” Nehemiah said (4:21). He wasn’t afraid to get his own hands dirty. . . .[Continue reading at Grace to You]

See also:

• “Who Do You Want to Follow?”
• “Leadership 101″

John MacArthur is the pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, president of The Master’s College and The Master’s Seminary, and featured teacher with the Grace to You media ministry. Grace to You radio, video, audio, print, and website resources reach millions worldwide each day.

A.W. Pink,

In fellowship we reach the climax of grace and the sum of Christian privilege. Higher than fellowship we cannot go. God has called us “unto the fellowship of his Son” (1 Cor. 1:9). We are often told that we are “saved to serve”, and this is true, but it is only a part of the truth and by no means the most wondrous and blessed part of it. We are saved for fellowship. God had innumerable “servants” before Christ came here to die —the angels ever do His bidding. Christ came not primarily to secure servants but those who should enter into fellowship with Himself.

That which makes heaven superlatively attractive to the heart of the saint is not that heaven is a place where we shall be delivered from all sorrow and suffering, nor is it that heaven is the place where we shall meet again those we loved in the Lord, nor is it that heaven is the place of golden streets and pearly gates and jasper walls – no, blessed as those things are, heaven without Christ would not be heaven. It is Christ the heart of the believer longs for and pants after – “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee” (Ps. 73:25). And the most amazing thing is that heaven will not be heaven to Christ in the highest sense until His redeemed are gathered around Him. It is His saints that His heart longs for. To come again and “receive us unto himself” is the joyous expectation set before Him. Not until He sees of the travail of His soul will He be fully satisfied.

These are the thoughts suggested and confirmed by the words of the Lord Jesus to the dying thief. “Lord, remember me” had been his cry. And what was the response? Note it carefully. Had Christ merely said, “Verily I say unto thee, Today thou shalt be in Paradise” that would have set at rest the fears of the thief. Yes, but it did not satisfy the Saviour. That upon which His heart was set was the fact that that very day a soul saved by His precious blood should be with Him in Paradise! We say again, this is the climax of grace and the sum of Christian blessing. Said the apostle, “I have a desire to depart, and to be with Christ” (Phil. 1:23, emphasis added). And again, he wrote, “Absent from the body” – free from all pain and care? No. “Absent from the body” – translated to glory? No. “Absent from the body… present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8, emphasis added). So, too, with Christ. Said He, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you”; yet, when He adds, “I will come again” He does not say “And conduct you unto the Father’s house”, or “I will take you to the place! have prepared for you”, but “I will come again, and receive you unto myself (John 14:2-3, emphasis added). To be “ever with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:17) is the goal of all our hopes; to have us for ever with himself is that to which He looks forward with eager and gladsome expectation. Thou shalt be with Me in Paradise!

- A.W. Pink (1886-1952)
taken from: The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross, Baker Books, Grand Rapids, pp. 53-54.

• This book can also be read online, or downloaded for mobile device, at the Arthur W. Pink Archive.

See also:

• Mankind’s Greatest Need — A.W. Pink
• Learning to Look on No One as Beyond the Reach of Prayer — A.W. Pink
• Seeing Ourselves In the Thief on the Cross — A.W. Pink

Our society often judges people by what they do, not by their character. When it comes to choosing heroes and leaders, style often outweighs substance. Sordid personal lives and all sorts of off-the-field antics are commonly overlooked—it is performance, not principle, that counts.

Sadly, that pragmatic outlook has even infiltrated the church. Pastors, for example, are too often evaluated by the outward trappings of success—the size of their congregations, their success as fund-raisers, the extent of their radio and TV ministries, how well their books sell, or their influence in the public arena.

But such external criteria (by which many false teachers and cult leaders could be judged successful) do not impress God. Unlike “man [who] looks at the outward appearance, . . . the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

The seventeenth-century Puritan John Owen said pointedly, “A minister may fill his pews, his communion roll, the mouths of the public, but what that minister is on his knees in secret before God Almighty, that he is and no more” (cited in I.D.E. Thomas, A Puritan Golden Treasury [Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1977], 192).

The noble nineteenth-century Scottish pastor Robert Murray McCheyne reminded. . . .[Continue reading at Grace to You]

John MacArthur is the pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, president of The Master’s College and The Master’s Seminary, and featured teacher with the Grace to You media ministry. Grace to You radio, video, audio, print, and website resources reach millions worldwide each day.

I love the idea of unity built on a gospel foundation, but the success or failure of that idea hinges on our understanding of and commitment to a true, unadulterated, biblical understanding of the gospel. We know from both Scripture and the hard-fought lessons of church history that not everyone who says he is committed to the gospel really is. Not everyone who claims to stand with us in affirming gospel truth is really interested in doing the work of the Great Commission. Not everyone who signs an evangelical confession of faith actually preaches the gospel.

Some people who use a lot of gospel words actually peddle a different gospel that is nothing like the apostolic message. Invariably, the very same people who openly advocate (re)imagining Christianity also seek mainstream acceptance. The Emergent(ing) Church Movement melted down as a movement, but it hasn’t gone away. Multitudes who thought the emergents’ New Kind of Christianity was a Truly Great Idea have simply been dispersed back into the large shallow end of the evangelical community—where hardly anyone is willing to engage in any kind of controversy to stanch their influence.

But if we truly want any kind of gospel-based unity, we have to be willing to defend the gospel together. The gospel is not only the ground on which we unite with other believers, it is also ground we must earnestly defend against false teachers. You cannot achieve true unity unless you vigorously pursue both of those goals.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

Phil Johnson is the Executive Director of Grace to You, and an elder at Grace Community Church. He also pastors the  GraceLife fellowship, blogs regularly at the Pyromaniacs blog, and runs The Spurgeon Archive, The Hall of Church History, and Phil Johnson’s Bookmarks. All wonderful sites. Article posted here with permission.

A glance around the evangelical landscape today offers a wide variety of leadership models and styles: entrepreneurs, kings, rock stars, motivational speakers, armchair psychologists, and modern-day monks. You would have to look much harder to find a simple servant.

Christ’s views on leadership are conspicuously out of step with the conventional wisdom of our age: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:25–28).

According to Jesus, then, the truest kind of leadership demands service, sacrifice, and selflessness. A proud and self-promoting person is not a good leader by Christ’s standard, regardless of how much clout he or she might wield. Leaders who look to Christ as their Leader and their supreme model of leadership will have servants’ hearts. They will exemplify sacrifice.

I realize those are not characteristics most people associate with leadership, but they are essential qualities of a biblical approach to leadership, which is the only kind I’m interested in.

Notice, by the way, that Jesus was expressly teaching Christians to approach leadership in a different way and from a radically different point of view than the leaders of this world. It’s folly for Christians to assume (as these days many do) that the best way for Christians to learn leadership is from worldly examples. . . .[Continue reading at Grace to You]

John MacArthur is the pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, president of The Master’s College and The Master’s Seminary, and featured teacher with the Grace to You media ministry. Grace to You radio, video, audio, print, and website resources reach millions worldwide each day.

Binding: Paperback
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Christian Focus
ISBN#: 9781845505455

Many view the Puritan writers as too distant, too divorced from the world in which we now live, relics of an irrelevant age. What can they offer? I mean seriously, I got problems! What do they know about depression, and anxiety, and worry? Mark Deckard, the author of Helpful Truth in Past Places: The Puritan Practice of Biblical Counseling, states, however, “despite our modern prejudices, their problems were not all that different than our own.”(pg. 14) In fact, many of these men suffered banishment, imprisonment, ridicule, and untimely death.

A.W. Pink used to say that he felt he was born 300 years too late. I have felt that way, which is why the bulk of my reading is in past writers. Newer books often lack connectedness to the church of the past. Novelty is typically the order of the day. Through constant innovation and capitulation to the world around we lose much that makes us distinctly Christian. In this book, however, the author carefully avoids all of that.

Deckard looks at a number of issues: contentment, fear, anxiety, depression, worry, etc…and does so through the writings of John Flavel, Jeremiah Burroughs, John Owen, John Bunyan, Jonathan Edwards, William Bridge, and Thomas Brooks.

To begin with, let me say that weak doctrine produces weak Christians. Robust doctrine, assimilated and obeyed, produces strong stable Christians. Nowhere is this more evident than in Chapter 2 on God’s providence. What you believe about this issue will dramatically affect how you live your life.

Providence is normally defined as the unceasing activity of the Creator whereby, in overflowing bounty and goodwill (Psalm 145:9, cf. Matthew 5:45-48), He upholds his creatures in ordered existence (Acts 17:28; Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3), guides and governs all events circumstances and free acts of angels and men (Psalm 107, Job 1:12, 2:6; Genesis 45:5-8), and directs everything to its appointed goal, for his own glory (cf. Ephesians 1:9-12). (pg. 20)

Is God in control? Is He sovereign in the only meaningful sense of the word? I don’t see how Arminians sleep at night. Or how they can claim the promise of Romans 8:28. Only when you know that God is sovereign. That He providentially guides history even down to the number of hairs on your head (Luke 12:7; Matt. 10:30) Then, when the whole world is caving in around you, you can go forth in peace, knowing that He is in control and that He knows best. You “may be blind at times but God sees both sides of the tapestry and even sees the finished product (Rom. 8:29-30).” (pg. 23)

Chapter 4 addresses the Christian’s battle with sin using John Owen’s Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers. Mortification is simply a fancy term for the ongoing work of “putting to death sin” in our lives. This is vitally important.

Do you battle sin? One writer has stated that the difference between a true Christian and a false professor is seen at this point. It is not that a believer will be perfectly sinless. That can never be this side of heaven. But, in the case of the true Christian the battle goes on till death. The true Christian hates sin, fights sin, and mourns over sin. In fact, the longer a Christian lives, and the more he grows in Christlikeness, the more acutely aware of his sin he becomes.  The false professor has no such scruples, no conviction and no discipline from God (Hebrews 12:8).

This chapter shows what mortification is, and in true Puritan style, “what [it] is not” (pg. 83), effective ways of mortification and ineffective ways. One such “not” of mortification: you are not battling sin if you say, “Well, I will just sin. No big deal! I will just ask God’s forgiveness after I sin.” That is not mortification. That’s sinful presumption. (pg. 89) That approach to sin, “seeks to take advantage of the grace of God to forgive and forgets the terrible price that Christ had to pay upon the cross to bring us that grace of God.” (pg.90)

But, this book is hopeful, and so lest we become discouraged John Owen reminds us that mortification is ultimately not so much our work, but rather the Holy Spirit’s work. He ‘only is sufficient for this work; any ways and means without him are as a thing of naught.’ (pg. 81)

Other issues the book addresses are contentment, ‘Contentment does not come from my purposes or my wants but from denying myself to instead seek to focus on loving God and loving others’ (pg.65), depression, anxiety, fear, and so on.

I am thankful that Christian focus published this book. It was convicting. It showed me, and is still showing me areas of my own life that need to change. This book was heavy, but hopeful. You won’t be discouraged. You will be encouraged. I didn’t agree with everything I read, but there is so much gold here. In fact Mark Deckard’s insights drawn from his counseling experience are some of the best in the book. Buy a copy. You will be glad you did, and you will be better equipped to counsel others, including yourself. I know I was.

- John Angell James (1785-1859)

(HT)

- Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)
taken from: A Basket of Summer Fruit, Sermon No. 343, October 28th, 1860.