Too much interest in the best of us

Pride. That serious and seductive sin that would separate us from God and man. This excerpt is one in which Richard Baxter, Puritan pastor, address and undresses this terrible and tyrannical transgression in the ministers of the gospel. But we would all do well to listen. Pride is not prejudiced; it putrefies all people.


One of our most heinous and palpable sins is PRIDE.

This is a sin that hath too much interest in the best of us, but which is more hateful and inexcusable in us than in other men.

Yet is it so prevalent in some of us,
that it inditeth our discourses,
it chooseth our company,
it formeth our countenances,
it putteth the accent and emphasis upon our words.

It fills some men’s minds with aspiring desires, and designs: it possesseth them with envious and bitter thoughts against those who stand in their light, or who by any means eclipse their glory, or hinder the progress of their reputation.

Oh what a constant companion,
what a tyrannical commander,
what a sly and subtle insinuating enemy,
 is this sin of pride!

It goes with men to the draper, the mercer, the tailor: ‘it chooseth them their cloth, their trimming, and their fashion.

Fewer ministers would ruffle it out in the fashion in hair and habit, if it were not for the command of this tyrannous vice. And I would that this were all, or the worst.

But, alas! how frequently doth it go with us to our study, and there sit with us and do our work!
How oft doth it choose our subject, and, more frequently still, our words and ornaments!
God commandeth us to be as plain as we can, that we may inform the ignorant;
and as convincing and serious as we are able, that we may melt and change their hardened hearts.

But pride stands by and contradicteth all, and produceth its toys and trifles. It polluteth rather than polisheth; and, under pretense of laudable ornaments, dishonoreth our sermons with childish gauds: as if a prince were to be decked in the habit of a stage-player, or a painted fool.

It persuadeth us to paint the window, that it may dim the light: and to speak to our people that which they cannot understand; to let them know that we are able to speak unprofitably.

If we have a plain and cutting passage, it taketh off the edge, and dulls the life of our preaching, under pretense of filing off’ the roughness, unevenness, and superfluity.

When God chargeth us to deal with men as for their lives, and to beseech them with all the earnestness that we are able, this cursed sin controlleth all, and condemneth the most holy commands of God, and saith to us, ‘What! will you make people think you are mad? will you make them say you rage or rave? Cannot you speak soberly and moderately?’ And thus doth pride make many a man’s sermons; and what pride makes, the devil makes; and what sermons the devil will make and to what end, we may easily conjecture.

Though the matter be of God, yet if the dress, and manner, and end be from Satan, we have no great reason to expect success.

(Baxter, Richard. The Reformed Pastor. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2001. Print. 137-8, line breaks mine)

What a charge

 Richard Baxter to his fellow ministers of the gospel:

It is the Church of God which we must oversee – that Church for which the world is chiefly upheld, which is sanctified by the Holy Ghost, which is the mystical body of Christ, that Church with which angels are present, and on which they attend as ministering spirits, whose little ones have their angels beholding the face of God in heaven.
 

Oh what a charge is it that we have undertaken! 

And shall we be unfaithful to it? 

Have we the stewardship of God’s own family, and shall we neglect it? 

Have we the conduct of those saints that shall live for ever with God in glory, and shall we neglect them? 

God forbid!

Baxter, Richard. The Reformed Pastor. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2001. Print.

Oft upon the same things

Why must we continually emphasize Christ, the cross, and the gospel? Why must those topics be foremost in our reading, thinking, and conversation? Why? Because, they matter. And they matter in such a way that they are preeminent in importance and thus predominate our life. Richard Baxter, in his book on the ministry called The Reformed Pastor, discusses the role that necessity plays in the pastor's life. The pastor focuses on the things mentioned above because they are dictated to him by necessity.

I confess I think NECESSITY should be the great disposer of a minister’s course of study and labor. If we were sufficient for everything, we might attempt everything, and take in order the whole Encyclopaedia: but life is short, and we are dull, and eternal things are necessary, and the souls that depend on our teaching are precious. I confess, necessity hath been the conductor of my studies and life. It chooseth what book I shall read, and tells me when, and how long. It chooseth my text, and makes my sermon ... Hence it is, that a preacher must be oft upon the same things, because the matters of necessity are few. We must not either feign necessaries, or fall much upon unnecessaries, to satisfy them that look for novelties, though we must clothe the same truths with a grateful variety in the manner of our delivery.

Let's not get distracted on peripheral issues, but rather keep the main things the main things!

Certainties and uncertainties

In The Reformed Pastor, Richard Baxter indicates the importance of unity among the churches writing, " ... we must be very studious of union and communion among ourselves, and of the unity and peace of the churches that we oversee. We must be sensible how needful this is to the prosperity of the whole, the strengthening of our common cause, the good of the particular members of our flock, and the further enlargement of the kingdom of Christ." This, of course, is a difficult task. nevertheless, Baxter makes many suggestions to help us, one of which he states clearly, "We must learn to distinguish between certainties and uncertainties, necessaries and unnecessaries, catholic verities and private opinions; and to lay the stress of the Church’s peace upon the former, not upon the latter."

Note, Baxter does not say that we must have peace in the churches at any cost. Not at all. He says our peace must rest on the certainties, which really exist, and not on the uncertainties. We must choose the right hills to die on. But, we fight, and die if needs be, together!

The ministerial work

The ministerial work must be carried on diligently and laboriously, as being of such unspeakable consequence to ourselves and others.

We are seeking to uphold the world,
to save it from the curse of God,
to perfect the creation,
to attain the ends of Christ’s death,
to save ourselves and others from damnation,
to overcome the devil,
and demolish his kingdom,
to set up the kingdom of Christ,
and to attain and help others to the kingdom of glory.

And are these works to be done with a careless mind, or a lazy hand? O see, then, that this work be done with all your might!

The passage above is from Richard Baxter's classic work entitled The Reformed Pastor. Baxter, throughout the book, raises our awareness as to the importance of the ministerial role. This passage indicates the significance the calling of pastor has in the mind of this Puritan. And we should regard the office no less. We should expect our pastors to engage their work with the seriousness that is commiserate with the job list above. But, we should also regard them as such who do this work. We should regularly pray for them, encourage them, and love them. Let's hold them accountable and let's hold them close to our heart.

Engage them to read!

Richard Baxter, in his classic work on pastoral work, The Reformed Pastor, gives a clear endorsement to reading outside of the Bible:

See that in every family there are some useful moving books, beside the Bible. If they have none, persuade them to buy some: if they be not able to buy them, give them some if you can. If you are not able yourself, get some gentlemen, or other rich persons, that are ready to good works, to do it. And engage them to read them at night, when they have leisure, and especially on the Lord’s day.

It would be interesting to learn what types of 'useful moving' books he had in mind. Was he speaking of classic works of fiction? Did he have in mind spiritually directed books of the non-fiction variety? The descriptor 'useful' seems to point to non-fiction, but perhaps the term 'moving' points back to fictional stories. Then, again, to read when one has leisure might point towards fictional works whereas reading on the Lord's Day seems to indicate religious works.

I'm not sure what Baxter had in mind, but my suggestion is that you read both as often as you can. I have been focusing on Russian fiction this year having read from Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and Chekov. I have some Solzhenitsyn that is in the cue as well. I also enjoy non-fiction and read more of that than I do of fiction. But I encourage you; READ!

The honour of the church

From Richard Baxter as it appears in The Reformed Pastor:

The strength of Christians is the honor of the Church.

When they are inflamed with the love of God,
and live by a lively working faith,
and set light by the profits and honors of the world,
and love one another with a pure heart fervently,
and can bear and heartily forgive a wrong,
and suffer joyfully for the cause of Christ,
and study to do good,
and walk inoffensively and harmlessly in the world,
are ready to be servants to all men for their good,
becoming all things to all men in order to win them to Christ,
and yet abstaining from the appearance of evil,
and seasoning all their actions with a sweet mixture of prudence, humility, zeal, and heavenly mindedness

– oh, what an honor are such to their profession!

What an ornament to the Church;
and how serviceable to God and man!

Men would sooner believe that the gospel is from heaven, if they saw more such effects of it upon the hearts and lives of those who profess it.

(line breaks mine)

A very sad thing

It is a very sad thing for Christians to be weak:

1. it exposeth us to dangers;
2. it abateth our consolations and delight in God, and taketh off the sweetness of wisdom’s ways;
3. it maketh us less serviceable to God and man, to bring less honor to our Master, and to do less good to all about us.

We get small benefit in the use of the means of grace.
We too easily play with the serpent’s baits, and are ensnared by his wiles.
A seducer will easily shake us, and evil may be made to appear to us as good, truth as falsehood, sin as duty; and so on the contrary.

1. We are less able to resist and stand in an encounter;
2. we sooner fall;
3. we hardlier rise;
4. and are apter to prove a scandal and reproach to our profession.

We less know ourselves, and are more apt to be mistaken as to our own estate, not observing corruptions when they have got advantage of us.

We are dishonorable to the gospel by our very weakness, and little useful to any about us. In a word, though we live to less profit to ourselves or others, yet are we unwilling and too unready to die.

Some warmth imparted

I love this advice that Richard Baxter gives to pastors. I think that it is great advice for all of us. Consider:

But, besides this general course of watchfulness, methinks a minister should take some special pains with his heart, before he is to go to the congregation: if it be then cold, how is he likely to warm the hearts of his hearers? Therefore, go then specially to God for life: read some rousing, awakening book, or meditate on the weight of the subject of which you are to speak, and on the great necessity of your people’s souls, that you may go in the zeal of the Lord into his house. Maintain, in this manner, the life of grace in yourselves, that it may appear in all your sermons from the pulpit, – that every one who comes cold to the assembly, may have some warmth imparted to him before he depart.

We don't often get much in the form of comments on this blog, but I would be interested in hearing if you have a particular author or book that you find 'rousing' and 'awakening'. Is there a book or author that warms your heart?

Two authors that 'impart warmth' for me come to mind; one living and one dead. I find Sam Storms writes in a way that is motivating to my inner man. He is the living one in case you are unfamiliar with him. The dead guy who stirs me is Octavius Winslow. There is something about his style and substance that fans the flames of my heart.

If I wanted to listen to someone whose words were compelling and courage-inducing, my first choice would be John Piper.

How about you?

Content not yourselves ...

"Content not yourselves with being in a state of grace, but be also careful that your graces are kept in vigorous and lively exercise ..." Richard Baxter in The Reformed Pastor.

Take a moment this morning to consider if indeed you are keeping your graces in a vigorous and lively manner. Are you pursuing Christ in the myriad of means He has made available to you? Are you devoting your time to the cultivation of your inner man? Are you reading, thinking, talking, and singing about the glorious gospel? Find ways, be they ever so brief or seemingly insignificant, to exercise and inflame the work of God in your life. Today is a good day for that!

Take heed of yourselves

From The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter:

See that the work of saving grace be thoroughly wrought in your own souls. Take heed to yourselves, lest you be void of that saving grace of God which you offer to others, and be strangers to the effectual working of that gospel which you preach; and lest, while you proclaim to the world the necessity of a Savior, your own hearts should neglect him, and you should miss of an interest in him and his saving benefits. Take heed to yourselves, lest you perish, while you call upon others to take heed of perishing; and lest you famish yourselves while you prepare food for them.

A quick lesson in productvity

In The Reformed Pastor, Richard Baxter gives us an insight into godly productivity; a tidbit of wisdom to help us to what we are called to do. In speaking of the work of catechizing his congregation, Baxter confesses,

I was long convinced of it, but my apprehensions of the difficulties were too great, and my apprehensions of the duty too small., and so I was long hindered from the performance of it.

I think we often react to jobs and work in a similar way. One, we exaggerate the difficulties until the chore looks overwhelming. Second, we downplay the importance of the work, downgrading it from essential, to necessary, to optional. Thirdly, we don't do it.

A precious word of wisdom to take heed of from one of the Puritan eras great pastors. Let's evaluate the work with wisdom and honesty, and then get to it in the grace of God.

Baxter, Storms, Jeremiah, and PRIDE

I love it when God orchestrates my sanctification through multiple avenues. For some reason, this captures my attention and helps me process and progress the lesson at hand. I am even learning to like it when it comes with a punch to my pride and a sidekick to my selfishness.

Last night I was roasting coffee and reading The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter. A lengthy tirade against pride in the clergy caught my attention. It is a long excerpt, but well worth the read.

One of our most heinous and palpable sins is PRIDE. This is a sin that hath too much interest in the best of us, but which is more hateful and inexcusable in us than in other men. Yet is it so prevalent in some of us, that it inditeth our discourses, it chooseth our company, it formeth our countenances, it putteth the accent and emphasis upon our words. It fills some men’s minds with aspiring desires, and designs: it possesseth them with envious and bitter thoughts against those who stand in their light, or who by any means eclipse their glory, or hinder the progress of their reputation. Oh what a constant companion, what a tyrannical commander, what a sly and subtle insinuating enemy, is this sin of pride! It goes with men to the draper, the mercer, the tailor: ‘it chooseth them their cloth, their trimming, and their fashion. Fewer ministers would ruffle it out in the fashion in hair and habit, if it were not for the command of this tyrannous vice. And I would that this were all, or the worst. But, alas! how frequently doth it go with us to our study, and there sit with us and do our work! How oft doth it choose our subject, and, more frequently still, our words and ornaments! God commandeth us to be as plain as we can, that we may inform the ignorant; and as convincing and serious as we are able, that we may melt and change their hardened hearts. But pride stands by and contradicteth all, and produceth its toys and trifles. It polluteth rather than polisheth; and, under pretense of laudable ornaments, dishonoreth our sermons with childish gauds: as if a prince were to be decked in the habit of a stage-player, or a painted fool. It persuadeth us to paint the window, that it may dim the light: and to speak to our people that which they cannot understand; to let them know that we are able to speak unprofitably. If we have a plain and cutting passage, it taketh off the edge, and dulls the life of our preaching, under pretense of filing off’ the roughness, unevenness, and superfluity. When God chargeth us to deal with men as for their lives, and to beseech them with all the earnestness that we are able, this cursed sin controlleth all, and condemneth the most holy commands of God, and saith to us, ‘What! will you make people think you are mad? will you make them say you rage or rave? Cannot you speak soberly and moderately?’ And thus doth pride make many a man’s sermons; and what pride makes, the devil makes; and what sermons the devil will make and to what end, we may easily conjecture. Though the matter be of God, yet if the dress, and manner, and end be from Satan, we have no great reason to expect success.

Pride is an oft-encountered obstacle in my walk with God. Baxter's keen writing caught my attention and caused me to contemplate my corrupted confidence ill-placed on myself.

This morning I read the devotional on 2 Corinthians by Sam Storms entitled a Sincere and Pure Devotion to Christ. In the third devotion, Storms considers 2 Corinthians 1:8-11 which reads,

For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

Of this passage of Scripture Storms suggests that "as overwhelming, excessive, and burdensome as this brush with death was for Paul, he knew that God was in it!" (32). Paul realized that there was a point behind the tribulation, and that the point was to "make us not rely on ourselves." The crystal-clear clarion call was the second step in my recent sanctification.

The process was continued as I read in Jeremiah this morning, chapter 44 to be precise. In chapter 44 Jeremiah prophesies to the remnant of Israel who have traveled to Egypt, contrary to Jeremiah's instructions, for fear of the Chaldeans. Jeremiah urges, repeatedly, the remnant to stop whoring after their idols. However, the people reject his God-backed rebuke and aver that they will continue to worship their gods and goddesses. This passage also spoke loudly to me; let me put it all together.

Baxter reminded me that I am a prideful person prone to promote myself. Storms sought to show me that one area in which my pride surfaces is in self-reliance in struggles. Jeremiah's jolting of the Jews helped me realize that my continual returning to relying on my own means in the midst of difficulties was akin to the vulgar ignorance and conceited indifference that the Israelite remnant displayed when they refused to refrain from worshiping their idols.

God help me to rely on you and refrain from returning to my idol of self-reliance. Use your rod of discipline, particularly in my current difficulties, to cure me of whoring after the glorifying of self. Your love is evident in this as true joy can only be found when I glorify you and recognize your rightful place; first and foremost. Thank you for your teachers, dead and alive, who help to point me in this direction. Thank you most of all for your Word, which contains Your words, and leads into truth.

Baxter on forgiveness

Richard Baxter writes,

If we be so tender of ourselves, and so loath to confess, God will be the less tender of us, and he will indite our confession, or his judgements shall proclaim our iniquities to the world.

There are several things from this quote that resonate with me. First, Baxter's disdain with being tender with oneself in the face of sin strikes a chord with me. I want to be honest, and ruthless if needs be, with sin in my own life; I don't want to be a self-coddler. Second, the idea he puts forth that the loathing of confession should pale in comparison to the loathing one should have for displeasing God. That is a powerful contrast if we put our minds on it and consider our lives in light of it. Finally, I want a heart that confesses sin quickly. If fear of exposure helps that, though perhaps not the best motivation available, then I want to keep that in mind and leverage my confession should I be recoiling from it.

Praying for a Revival...

Richard Baxter to the ministers of Great Britain:

Will you show your faces in a Christian congregation, as ministers of the gospel, and there pray for a reformation, and for the conversion and salvation of your hearers, and for the prosperity of the Church; and when you have done, refuse to use the means by which all this must be effected?

There is a curious practice of attending church, praying for 'revival' or 'reformation' to happen and then ...leaving church with no change in our actions. I'm not sure if it's just Google-lore or truth, but Einstein is purported to have defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results". I think Baxter and Einstein would have agreed on this definition if they were talking about "doing the same thing over and over" as really meaning "doing nothing over and over" when it comes to Christian renewal. Pray yes, but don't refuse to use the means by which this must be effected.

What is the "means" by which this must be effected. According to Baxter, we ought to be

...catechizing, and instructing individually, all that are committed to their care, who will be persuaded to submit thereunto.

Perhaps some parallels to another book we read recently...The Trellis and The Vine.

Baxter expounds the objectives of this 'means'

... this is the work that, through the grace of God, which worketh by means, must reform indeed; that must expel our common prevailing ignorance; that must bow the stubborn hearts of sinners; that must answer their vain objections, and take off their prejudices; that must reconcile their hearts to faithful ministers, and help on the success of our public preaching; and make true godliness a commoner thing than it has hitherto been. I find that we never took the best course for demolishing the kingdom of darkness, till now.

I think that's a great goal - making true godliness a commoner thing than it has hitherto been.

As Jude said...git'er done.

Git er done!

In the dedication to his book The Reformed Pastor, Richard Baxter confesses that he procrastinated in starting the work of meeting with his congregants. He felt overwhelmed by the task at hand and figured the obstacles would too daunting to overcome. He writes,

I wonder at myself, how I was so long kept off from so clear and excellent a duty. But the case was with me, as I suppose it is with others. I was long convinced of it, but my apprehensions of the difficulties were too great, and my apprehensions of the duty too small, and so I was long hindered from the performance of it. I imagined the people would scorn it, and none but a few, who had least need, would submit to it, and I thought my strength would never go through with it, having so great burdens on me before; and thus I long delayed it, which I beseech the Lord of mercy to forgive.

It seems, not only did he find the difficulties loomed overly large, but the importance of the undertaking was undervalued. Fear of man also worked into the mix of the muddled musings of his mind. However, he went through with his plans and adds, "Whereas, upon trial, I find the difficulties almost nothing (save only through my extraordinary bodily weakness) to that which I imagined; and I find the benefits and comforts of the work to be such, that I would not wish I had forborne it, for all the riches in the world."

Once endeavored, the difficulties seemed small and the performance of the duty were beneficial and comforting. We need, I need, some gospel-initiative and gospel-ambition in my life to begin tasks I'm called to and to persevere in employments I have already begun.

In reading this passage, I was reminded of something Mark Dever said. I do not remember the exact quote, and cannot cite the source, but it was something to the effect of, "Young men over-estimate what they can accomplish in the short-term and under-estimate what they can accomplish in the long-term." That is another sound piece of advice.

To 'git er done', remember that if you have been called to something, the difficulties are never so great and the reward will exceed expectations. And hard work over a long period of time will pay off.

Online Confession

So in light of a new Catholic Confessional app. that can be found on the market for Apple products, I thought I'd confess a sin of mine through this medium! But first some context.

My fellow bloggers and I (Jude, Rich, and Nate) try to go through a book together a few times a year. I've been blessed with the various titles we've covered and from the dialogue between one another from the readings. This past week we have started reading Richard Baxter's The Reformed Pastor. We've only just read the introductory notes (well I should only speak for myself because I'm pretty sure Jude doesn't actually have a job and that he stays home all day reading....he's probably already finished!) but the Holy Spirit has already convicted me.

In J.I. Packer's intro to the book he lists some less than flattering details about Baxter's life and theology:

Baxter was a big man, big enough to have big faults and make big errors.

In theology, for instance, he devised an eclectic middle route between the Reformed, Arminian and Roman doctrines of grace: interpreting the kingdom of God in terms of contemporary political ideas, he explained Christ's death as an act of universal redemption (penal and vicarious, not not substitutionary)...

Again, Baxter was a poor performer in public [...] his combative, judgemental, pedagogic way of proceeding with his peers made failure a foregone conclusion every time.

[...] his lifelong inability to see that amoung equals a triumphalist manner is counter productive was a strange blind spot.

As a pastor, however, Baxter was incomparable, and it is in this capacity that he concerns us now.

Richard Baxter had a lot of short comings; so do I. The conviction came when I began to think of how many pastors, teachers, and authors there are in the world, who's works I won't touch with a ten foot pole because of the few things I disagree with them on. It would seem like throwing the baby out with the bath water is somewhat of a specialty of mine!

I'm reading Baxter because this book was chosen by someone who I highly trust and because the guy is a Puritan...lets be honest! But I wouldn't give the same thought to some other authors, like say N.T. Wright. I've heard his work on the resurrection is a juggernaut but because I don't agree with his standing on justification I haven't touched it (plus I heard it's approximately a billion pages.... again Jude's probably already finished it.). The point is that I need to change my mindset.

This confession doesn't mean that I'm throwing discernment out the window and I'm going to read everything and anything; there's a lot of garbage out there. It just means that I'm going to try to check my biases at the door and approach some of these works honestly; letting them tell me what they're saying instead of me telling them what I think they're going to say. If I can give Baxter the benefit of the doubt, maybe some of these others guys deserve it too.

The Spirit's Witness

The Spirit of holiness in us is God's seal upon us signifying that we are his. He is the earnest of the glory to come.

Be sure you do not mistake the movings of the Holy Spirit with those of Satan or your own passions, pride, or fleshly wisdom.

When you are sure it is the Spirit of God indeed knocking at your door, do not behave as if you did not hear. (I.) Obey him speedily: delay is a temporary unthankful refusal and a kind of denial. (2.) Obey him thoroughly: half-obedience is disobedience. Do not put him off as Ananias did only giving half of what is required. (3.) Obey him constantly: not hearkening to him sometimes, and more frequently neglecting him. Do not neglect the means which the Spirit has appointed for your help. Pray, meditate, hear, read, do your best, and expect his blessing. Though your ploughing and sowing will not give a harvest without the sun, and rain, and the blessing of God, yet the sun and rain will not bring a crop unless you plough and plant.

Lessons in Holiness

Holiness consists not in a mere forbearance of a sensual life, but principally in living unto God. The principle or heart of holiness is within, and consists in the love of God, his Word, his ways, his servants, his honour, and his interest in the world. It consists in the soul's delight in God, and the ways of God. It is inclined towards him, and seeks after him to please him. It hates to offend him. The expression of it in our lives consists in a constant, diligent exercise of the internal life, according to the directions of the Word of God.

Do you think that God will have servants, and have nothing for them to do? Will one of you commend or reward your servant for doing nothing, and take it at the year's end for a satisfactory answer or account, if he might say; 'I have done no harm?' God calls you not only to do no harm, but to love and serve him with all your heart, and soul, and might.

If you are true believers, you have no laid up your hope in heaven; seek it, as worldlings set themselves to seek the world.

Richard Baxter

A Christian Directory

Why Not Deliver Me

Indeed, he may resolve to save you, not from affliction and persecution, but in it, and by it.

Richard Baxter

A Christian Directory