More Water to Draw Out Of

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"Are you all about book reading now? What about your ministry?"

It is the very spirit of sound piety to confess that the Christian walk is, most assuredly, not about ministry—not as the world defines that labor, nor even as the Church often vainly boasts! No! Our walk is entirely and eternally about our covenantal God! The majestic foundation of our faith is His finished work in the Lord Jesus Christ , a work which now manifests in the powerful, sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, whose divine purpose is to gather and perfect a people unto Himself through the bonds of that eternal covenant of grace.

And what, then, is this thing called ministry—this ceaseless striving and earthly labor? It is, merely the earthly, dot-sized fruit of that deep and foundational truth! It is the faint echo of the Covenant's reality, not the reality itself. We must cling to the very words of our Blessed Redeemer, who reminds us of the true object of our existence: "I have come that they may know thee," says the Lord, "and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." The knowledge of God—this is our life! This is our glorious end!

Furthermore, the Holy Writ doth wisely warn us against the vanity of mere outward religious performance, declaring that: "To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice." What, then, is our highest calling? It is to mirror the very attributes of God as Christ lives and breathes within our surrendered souls! This sacred work of inward Christ-likeness is of far greater worth, far greater spiritual substance, than all our ceaseless toils and visible labors before the eyes of mere men. Let the soul seek, not the fleeting applause of the world, but the eternal, quiet Commendation of God! For only the latter is true reward, and only the latter endures the refining fire.

Ah, my dear brother/sister in Christ, what a sorrowful error you uncover, and yet, what a glorious Truth is revealed in its place! It is a mournful testimony to the frailty of our fallen nature that we do so often elevate what our poor, feeble hands are able to do for God—this restless activity called Ministry—far above that which God Himself wills and works in us—the deep, quiet operation of Sanctifying Grace unto genuine Holiness! We mistake the fleeting shadow for the Eternal Substance! This grievous misplacement springs from a profound Ignorance of the root, the progression, and the divine faithfulness of the Covenants of God. We conceive of the Christian Walk as a mere effort, a fearful balancing act: "If I go to the sanctuary this day, and perform this labor for the Lord, then shall I be counted worthy!" Any perceived lacking on either side, we imagine, doth sadly affect our standing before the Almighty God. Therefore, we find ourselves in perpetual confusion regarding how God truly beholds us. 

Our anxious heart whispers, "Have I been good enough this day? Alas, what of those countless moments when the thought of God was utterly absent from my mind?" Beloved, consider the sacred marriage covenant! Do those bound together by the solemn vows of love and fidelity ask one another: "Is my marriage still in effect if I do not perfectly live up to every expectation of my spouse in every waking hour?" No, never! For the marriage bond is a covenant, secured by an oath and rooted in a singular, irrevocable act of faithfulness! It is only the Christian, ignorant of the immutability of His covenants and the absolute certainty of His Faithfulness therein, who so tortures his soul with such a question concerning his God! We doubt the faithfulness of the Bridegroom because we mistake the covenant for a mere contract of works. Rest, therefore, in this glorious certainty: The covenant of grace is built not upon your trembling performance, but upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the very surety of the bond! 

The institution of marriage, so divinely ordered, is a sacred glass through which we ought to behold the very character of the God who ordained it. And what a tragic consequence it is when a soul harbors a low, trifling view of the marriage vow! Such a one doth surely descend into a distorted and shallow relationship, wherein the spouse is beheld as merely the person married on a single day, perhaps for the sake of a ceremony and a certain temporal companionship. This is but a profane and base understanding. They forget that solemn, sacred vow, spoken before the very presence of God, to cleave one unto the other in steadfast faithfulness until death! Just so, you have identified the grievous pitfall of the misguided soul: until we grasp God as the immutable God of the Covenants—a God who binds Himself by eternal, self-executing promise—our Christian walk shall be nothing more than a perpetual, wobbling positivism! We are left to rely upon the hollow utterance of mere scripture mantras or the frantic exercise of our own weak wills. But where, oh where, is the true anchor of the soul in such a state? It is lost, alas, because we lack the profound, settled assurance that comes only from recognizing God's absolute, unshakable faithfulness to His pact with His only begotten Son! The comfort of the saint is not found in the strength of our grasp, but in the certainty of His unfailing Covenantal hand!

In the last part of the movie National Treasure, they make their way down an old and deep cavern where there is a staircase that leads to a supposed treasure room down below. Hidden behind a wall within a wall, was a huge theater that held vast amounts of treasure. This is similar to learning that God is a God of the covenants, and the triune God authored it from eternity past, and is faithful to it. The Christianity I knew previous to this discovery was only up to the heels, not even past the ankles.

It is wise to know about God, but it is a taste of heaven on earth to begin to understand Him.

God To Us 

When the Lord becomes our God and we become his people we are in covenant with each other. Covenant theology is the study of God's unchanging purpose to secure a people to Himself for His Son.

It's a redeeming purpose that unfolds throughout Divine revelation and redemptive history from the eternal, intra-Trinitarian counsel of the Godhead to its historical consummation in the New Heavens and the New Earth. God to Us explains the purpose and work of the covenant in detail so our knowledge of God may deepen, our relationship with Him become richer as we grow into living as His people.

1. A History of Covenant Theology
2. The Covenant of Works
3. The Counsel of Peace
4. The Covenant of Grace
5. The Covenant of Grace Announced
6. The Noahic Covenant
7. The Abrahamic Covenant
8. The Mosaic Covenant
9. The Mosaic Covenant in the New Testament
10. The Davidic Covenant
11. The New Covenant
12. Covenant Theology in the New Testament
13. Covenant Theology and the Church

 

The Reformation of the Church

The nature and life of the church is one of the most crucial issues facing Christians in the closing years of the twentieth century. Questions of ministry and liturgy, authority and freedom, appear in a wide variety of guises throughout the world-wide church. Relativism and uncertainty seem to be as common in the church as in the world. Many Christians wonder whether there is any way forward.

In this context, The Reformation of the Church is an invaluable aid. An anthology of documents, drawn largely but not exclusively from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it presents in a readily accessible form the finest thinking of the reformed fathers on authority and freedom, the need for reformation, the nature of the government, unity and membership of the church of Jesus Christ. Warmly welcomed when first published in 1965, and widely use since then, these documents provide invaluable material for ministers, elders, leaders, students and all Christians who are concerned to see Christ's church fulfill her God-given role at a critical juncture in her history.

The nature and life of the church is one of the most crucial issues facing Christians in the closing years of the twentieth century. Questions of ministry and liturgy, authority and freedom, appear in a wide variety of guises throughout the world-wide church. Relativism and uncertainty seem to be as common in the church as in the world. Many Christians wonder whether there is any way forward.

INTRODUCTION
SECTION I - THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH
SECTION II - THE RULE FOR REFORMATION – THE WORD OF GOD

  1. Liberation from Human Authority by Martin Luther
  2. The Reformers and the Regulative Principle by William Cunningham
  3. The Regulative Principle and Things Indifferent by John Hooper     
  4. The Abolition of Vestments by John a Lasco
  5. Scripture and the Ordering of Worship

SECTION III - THE NEED OF REFORMATION

  1. The Necessity for Reformation: The Admonition to Parliament 1572 by Thomas Wilcox
  2. Concerning a National Church by William Ames
  3. The Relation of Church and State by Charles Hodge
  4. Episcopacy: The Petition for the Prelates Examined
  5. The Grounds of Nonconformity by Edmund Calamy     

SECTION IV - NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH GOVERNMENT

  1. The Book of Discipline 1587
  2. A True Description of the Visible Church 1589 by Henry Barrow
  3. The Form of Presbyterial Church Government 1645 by Westminster Divines
  4. The Cambridge Platform 1648
  5.  The Savoy Platform 1658
  6. The Difference between Independency and Presbytery by Jeremiah Burroughs
  7. A Presbyterian View of the Difference with Independency 
  8. The Heads of Agreement 1691    

SECTION V - THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH     

  1. The Way to Peace by Walter Cradock    
  2. What We Are to Bear with in Others by Jeremiah Burroughs
  3. Union among Protestants by John Owen
  4. The Scandal of Division among the Godly by James Durham    

APPENDICES

  1. The Church Membership of Children by Thomas Shepard
  2. Episcopalian Writers on Church Government

The Diary & Journal of David Brainerd

The Diary and Journal of David Brainerd is of much more than merely historical interest. The first internationally recognized biography ever to be published, it has had a profound impact on successive generations of Christians around the world. Few books have done so much to promote prayer and missionary action, and it is not without good reason that it has remained in print since the great New England pastor and theologian Jonathan Edwards first published it in 1749.

Between 1742 and his death in 1747 David Brainerd took the gospel to the North American Indians of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. He willingly ran any risk and accepted any hardship to fulfill his calling as a missionary. The amount of work which he achieved in such unpromising and difficult circumstances now seems almost incredible. Moreover his total dedication to the cause of making Christ known inspired the finest of missionaries who followed in his footsteps.

VOLUME ONE
INTRODUCTION
JONATHAN EDWARDS’ PREFACE
THE DIARY OF DAVID BRAINERD

  1. From His Birth, and during His Preparation for the Ministry
  2. His Experience and Religious Exercises until the Time he was Licensed to Preach
  3. From the Time of His Appointment to His Entering on the Work of the Mission
  4. From the Time of His Examination to His First Entrance on the Business of His Mission
  5. From His first Beginning to Instruct the Indians at Kaunaumeek to His Ordination
  6. His Removal to Crossweeksung, where He Had His Most Remarkable Success
  7. His Return to Susquehanna, and Last Illness
  8. The Return to Boston, and the Circumstances of His Death

VOLUME TWO

  • PREFACE
  • THE JOURNAL OF DAVID BRAINERD
  • PART ONE: Mirabilia Dei inter Indicos; or, The Rise and and Progress of a Remarkable Work of Grace amongst a Number of the Indians in the Provinces of New Jersey and Pennsylvania
  • PART TWO : Divine Grace Displayed; or, The Continuance and Progress of a Remarkable Work of Grace among the Indians
  • THE FIRST APPENDIX TO THE JOURNAL
  • THE SECOND APPENDIX TO THE JOURNAL
  • THE REMAINS OF DAVID BRAINERD
  • A Dialogue between the Various Powers and Affections of the Pious Mind
  • Desponding Thoughts of a Soul under Convictions of Sin
  • Signs of Godliness, or the Distinguishing Marks of a True Christian
  • Letters
  • SOME REFLECTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRECEDING MEMOIRS OF DAVID BRAINERD, by Jonathan Edwards

 Book Descriptions from Banner of Truth

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