"Do You Believe?" By J.C. Ryle

"God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish—but have everlasting life." John 3:16 Look at the well-known text which heads this page. Its words are probably familiar to your ears. You have very likely heard them, or read them, or quoted them, a hundred times. But have you ever considered what a vast amount of divinity this text contains? No wonder that Luther called it "the Bible in miniature!" And have you ever considered what an immensely solemn question arises out of this text? The Lord Jesus says, "Whoever believes shall not perish." Now, reader, DO YOU BELIEVE? Questions about religion are seldom popular. They frighten people. They oblige them to look within and to think. The insolvent tradesman does not like his books to be searched. The faithless steward does not like his accounts to be examined. And the unconverted professing Christian does not like to be asked home-questions about his soul. But questions about religion are very useful. The Lord Jesus Christ asked many questions during His ministry on earth. The servant of Christ ought not to be ashamed to do likewise. Questions about things necessary to salvation—questions which probe the conscience, and bring men face to face with God—such questions often bring life and health to souls. I know few questions more important than the one before you today. DO YOU BELIEVE? Reader, the question before you is no easy one to answer. Think not to thrust it aside by the off-hand answer, "Of course I believe." I tell you this day, that true belief is no such "matter of course" as you suppose. I tell you that myriads of Protestants and Roman Catholics are constantly saying on Sundays, "I believe," who know nothing whatever of believing. They cannot explain what they mean. They neither know what, nor in whom, they believe. They can give no account of their faith. Reader, a belief of this kind is utterly useless. It can neither satisfy, nor sanctify, nor save.

"Feeding on Christ" The Role of The Lord's Supper in the Church By Shane C. Montgomery

“Feeding on Christ”

The Role of The Lord's Supper in the Church

The primary nature of revelation is God's speaking His Word, which culminates in the word becoming flesh. When the Bible speaks of “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” (John 1:14) like wise, the practice of Word and Sacrament, meaning, the preaching of God's Word followed by the faithful observance of the Lord's Supper in a worship service, leads to the believer hearing God's Word and then that same Word, which is Christ, (John 1:1) becomes flesh in the form of Communion and dwells among the believers, where they then “Eat the body of Christ and drink the blood of Christ.” (John 6:53-5) Thus, a worship service with the preaching of His Word but lacking the observance of the Lord's Supper is then only half of a worship service. Worship is “Word and Sacrament” the preaching of the Word is mandatory and the Sacrament, in this case, “the Sacraments of Sacraments” the Lord's Supper must also be observed and always after the preaching of His Word.

By neglecting to feast on Christ we rob the sheep of their complete nourishment for the week. If we observe this sacrament monthly, or even bi-weekly, we are wasting the worship in between. Each week that Communion is not faithfully observed then becomes a mere practice of worship, a dress rehearsal if you will, an incomplete offering to God, a wasted effort that is only realized as authentic and edifying on the day of the Sacrament.

This practice realizes the Scriptures meaning in hearing the Word (Christ) and then making the Word (Christ) a reality by consuming the Word (Christ) in flesh and blood, so now Christ dwells inside the believer. This gives new meaning to the phrase “You are what you eat,” by feeding on Christ, we do not become Christ, but rather we inherit His divine grace, His blessings and His righteousness, giving us the means to resist temptation and remain Christ-like in spirit, heart and mind. This feeding, is meant to get us through the week, from Lord's Day to Lord's Day unscathed by the world. To enter the week without the spiritual nourishment of the Word (preaching) and the spiritual nourishment of Christ's body (Lord's Supper), a means of grace, we will surely struggle throughout the week. This being said, “Word and Sacrament” is more than a saying in the Reformed Church, it is more than a catch phrase battered about, it is a practice that must be lived out weekly in the Church, in order that the offering up to God is complete and the believer and the entire congregation as a whole can make it through the week, armed sufficiently to endure to the next Lord's Day and the next visit to the Lord's Table to feed upon Christ once again. We would not attempt to enter the week without consuming physical food to sustain our bodies, no one ever claims of eating three square meals a day, and the idea of making it through the week without the nourishment from food would be foolish and unthinkable, so why do we think we can make it without Spiritual nourishment”

“He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.” John 6:56

I ask that you do not confuse what I am saying with the Roman Catholic view known as “Transubstantiation.” The Reformed view is unique and the idea of which may of course differ between believers, most see this Sacrament as merely a “sign or symbol” and not a true means of grace. If the Lord allows, I would like to go a bit further in detail on this at a later date, picking up at John 6:60 where many of His disciples say, “this is a hard saying, who can hear it?” and of course the disciples on the road from Emmaus who do not recognize the risen Savior until they break bread with Him. This should be a hint for us on the importance of this Sacrament.

Be Holy!

Shane C. Montgomery

"Dr. Joel Beeke on Experimental Preaching"

What is Reformed Experimental Preaching? by Joel R. Beeke

Dr. Joel Beeke

‘And Shaphan the scribe shewed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes.‘ 2 Kings 22:10-11

‘So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.‘ Nehemiah 8:8

You probably know that, historically, Reformed and Puritan preaching was ‘experimental’ preaching. But do you understand what is meant by the term experimental or experiential? The term comes from the Latin word ‘experimentum’, derived from a verb which means to ‘try, test, prove, or put to the test’. The same verb can also mean ‘to find or know by experience’, and so gives rise to the word ‘experientia’, meaning ‘trial, experiment’ and ‘the knowledge gained by experiment’.

Christian experience Calvin used experiential (experientia) and experimental (experimentum) interchangeably, since, from the perspective of biblical preaching, both words indicate the need for examining or testing experienced knowledge by the touchstone of Scripture (Isaiah 8:20). Experimental preaching stresses the need to know by experience the truths of the Word of God. It seeks to explain in terms of biblical truth, how matters ought to go, and how they do go, in the Christian life. It aims to apply divine truth to the whole range of the believer’s experience: in his walk with God as well as his relationship with family, the church, and the world around him. We can learn much from the Puritans about this type of preaching. As Paul Helm writes: ‘The situation calls for preaching that will cover the full range of Christian experience, and a developed experimental theology. The preaching must give guidance and instruction to Christians in terms of their actual experience. It must not deal in unrealities or treat congregations as if they lived in a different century or in wholly different circumstances. This involves taking the full measure of our modern situation and entering with full sympathy into the actual experiences, the hopes and fears, of Christian people’.

Preaching Christ, The experimental preaching of the Reformers and Puritans focused on preaching Christ. As Scripture clearly shows, evangelism must bear witness to the record God has given of his only begotten Son (Acts 2:3; 5:42; 8:35; Romans 16:25; 1 Corinthians 2:2; Galatians 3:1). The Puritans thus taught that any preaching in which Christ does not have the pre-eminence is not valid experiential preaching. William Perkins said that the heart of all preaching was to ‘preach [only] one Christ by Christ to the praise of Christ’. According to Thomas Adams, ‘Christ is the sum of the whole Bible, prophesied, typified, prefigured, exhibited, demonstrated, to be found in every leaf, almost in every line, the Scriptures being but as it were the swaddling bands of the child Jesus’. ‘Think of Christ as the very substance, marrow, soul, and scope of the whole Scriptures’, advised Isaac Ambrose. In this Christ-centred context, Reformed and Puritan evangelism was marked by a discriminating application of truth to experience.

Marks of grace Discriminatory preaching defines the difference between the non-Christian and the Christian. Discriminatory preaching pronounces the wrath of God and eternal condemnation upon the unbelieving and impenitent. But it offers the forgiveness of sins and eternal life to all who, by true faith, embrace Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. Such preaching teaches that if our religion is not experiential, we will perish not because experience itself saves, but because Christ who saves sinners must be experienced personally as the rock on whom our eternal hope is built (Matthew 7:22-27; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2:2). The Reformers and Puritans were very aware of the deceitfulness of the human heart. Puritan evangelists in particular took great pains to identify the marks of grace that distinguish the church from the world, true believers from merely professing believers, and saving faith from temporary faith. Thomas Shepard in The Ten Virgins, Matthew Mead in The Almost Christian Discovered, Jonathan Edwards in Religious Affections, and other Puritans wrote dozens of works to differentiate imposters from true believers. That kind of discriminatory preaching is scarce today. Even in conservative Evangelical churches, head knowledge of scriptural truth is often a substitute for heart experience, or (what is equally unscriptural) heart experience is substituted for head knowledge. Experimental preaching calls for both head knowledge and heart experience; its goal, according to John Murray, is ‘intelligent piety’.

Brought home Experimental preaching is ‘Christianity brought home to men’s business and bosoms’, said Robert Burns. ‘The principle on which experimental religion rests is simply this, that Christianity should not only be known, and understood, and believed, but also felt, and enjoyed, and practically applied’. How different this is from most contemporary preaching! The Word of God is often preached today in a way that wiII never transform anyone because it never discriminates and never applies. Preaching is reduced to a lecture, a catering to the wishes and needs of people, or a form of experientialism removed from the foundation of Scripture. Such preaching fails to expound from Scripture what the Puritans called ‘vital religion’: how a sinner is stripped of all his own righteousness; driven to Christ alone for salvation; finds joy in obedience and reliance upon Christ; encounters the plague of indwelling sin; battles against backsliding; and gains the victory through Christ.

Our great need When God’s Word is preached experimentally, the Holy Spirit uses it to transform men, women, and nations. Such preaching transforms because it corresponds to the vital experience of the children of God (Romans 5: 1-11); clearly explains the marks of saving grace in the believer (Matthew 5:3-12; Galatians 5:22-23); proclaims the high calling of believers as the servants of God in the world (Matthew 5:13-16); and shows the eternal destination of believers and unbelievers (Revelation 21:1-9), We desperately need a return to faithful, Reformed experimental preaching today

"Treason Against the Soul" by Richard Baxter

Remember that flesh-pleasing is a great contempt and treachery against the soul. It is a great contempt of an immortal soul, to prefer its corruptible flesh before it, and to make its servant to become its master, and to ride on horseback, while it goes, as it were, on foot. Is the flesh worthy of so much time, and cost, and care, and so much ado as is made for it in the world, and is not a never-dying soul worth more? Nay, it is a betraying of the soul: you set up its enemy before it; and put its safety into an enemy's hands; and you cast away all its joys and hopes for the gratifying of the flesh. Might it not complain of your cruelty, and say, Must my endless happiness be sold to purchase so short a pleasure for your flesh? Must I be undone for ever, and lie in hell, that it may be satisfied for a little time? But why do I speak of the soul's complaint? Alas! it is of itself that it must complain! For it is its own doing! It hath its choice: the flesh can but tempt it, and not constrain it: God hath put the chief power and government into its hands, if it has determined to sell its own eternal hopes to pamper worm's meat, it will act accordingly. You would not think very honourably of that man's intelligence or honesty, who would sell the patrimony of all his children, and all his friends that trusted him therewith, and later sell their persons into slavery, and all this to purchase for himself a delicious feast, with sports and entertainment for a day! And is he wiser or better that selleth (in effect) the inheritance of his soul, and betrayeth it to hell and devils for ever, and all just to purchase the fleshly pleasure of so short a life?