Come Down, Lord!

I have received lots of private correspondence about Romans 13, so here is a brief answer to some of those concerns. Gavin Beers has said that public worship "is the holy convocation of saints with the peculiar promise of His presence and blessing." He then added that that holy convocation "is issued by a divine call through the Church not the State." So w hat ought to be the State's attitude toward the Church?  They are in the words of Beers to "promote and encourage the fulfillment of that call."    They are as Samuel Slater ( Puritan Sermons, vol. 4 ) explained, to "contribute what in them is to the promoting of the true religion, the power of godliness, and a scriptural reformation, together with a hearty and vigorous suppression of profaneness!"  Note carefully the words of the WCF: "The civil magistrate may not assume to himself the administration of the Word and sacraments, or the power of the keys of the kingdom of he...

Leonard Ravenhill offered this definition of revival in America is Too Young to Die .  There are other good definitions out there, but this one has a prophetic ring to it.   "Revival is the act of the Spirit upon believers who have lost their first love. Revival is the restoration of true doctrine.  Revival is the rekindling of the power of prayer in individuals and in groups. Revival is seeing that God must be vindicated either by His mercy in pardoning - or by judgment! Revival is the ascendancy of the spiritual over the material . Revival is the Spirit's passion within the believer to know and to obey the total will of God. Revival is the willingness to forsake all - that God might be all-in-all to the individual and to the Church. Revival is the "no-time-limit" operation of God on the saints, resulting in a moving of God among the sinners. Revival is the redeemed, sobbing with broken hearts over a nation of broken lives from breaking the comman...

A friend asked me the other day, "do you regret it?"  He had heard that my open letter to the Church had stirred up controversy and that I might be in trouble.  My answer was immediate.  No , I didn't regret it.  I believed (and still believe) it needed to be said.   In fact, as time has passed and I have prayed over the matter my feelings and my resolve have grown stronger not weaker.   God has tried us to see what is in us, and we have been found out.  We aren't the lion hearts we thought we were.  We are strong on theology and confessions and ecclesiastical procedure, but we aren't so strong in the day of adversity (Proverbs 24:10). But my friend's question raises an interesting question.   First, why would I  regret what I had written?   My friend was assuming that the events that had transpired since the letter was first written had somehow changed my mind.  He was wondering if maybe the trial had...

The following are the notes I took from Rev. Gavin Beers' (FCC) webinar presentation on April 27. My comments are in italics. The following must be borne in mind in the current debate over whether the Church should or shouldn't submit to the magistrate when the magistrate limits gatherings. A. Biblical relationship between Church and state The Church and State are two independent governments, but both are under Christ.   The Church has the keys of kingdom The State has the sword of justice Neither is to encroach on the jurisdiction of other - Everyone agrees the government shouldn't meddle in the sacraments or church discipline, but we seem to have lost sight of the fact that when the government limits gatherings to 5 it is meddling in the things of religion in the most fundamental sense. They are not simply telling the Church what to do when she gathers, they are telling her she cannot gather at all. She is telling us, in effect, to set us aside the first four commandmen...

Do you remember? Do you remember when you were as - John Flavel put it - "restless and impatient… in His absence!"  O you could bear anything but that. Sickness you could bear. Pain and temporal losses you could endure.  But His absence was unbearable. You couldn't stand to go on without the sense of His dear smile. You longed to walk and live and breathe in the light of His countenance. Do you remember when “Divine withdrawments were to you as the hell of hell (Flavel).”  Those seasons when God seemed to hide His face from you, when He was distant, and there wasn't that familiar communion and fellowship in the prayer closet were to you as hell.  You wept and you groaned and you cried for His return. You stirred yourself to take hold of God (Isaiah 6:7), you wrestled with Him as you told Him you would not let Him go. Do you remember when the world was a burden to you?  Do you remember a time when if it weren't for your sense of duty you would have gladly and...