Holy Ghost

You are currently browsing articles tagged Holy Ghost.

July 19: WSC Q. 36

19 July, 2012 in July 2012 by davidtmyers | No comments

This Day in Presbyterian History:  

Benefits of God’s Grace

Without any historical person, place, or thing found  in Presbyterian history, we turn back to one of the more comforting Shorter Catechisms in our Westminster Standards. Question and answer 36 speaks of those benefits which flow during our lifetime from justification and adoption and sanctification. These latter benefits are the three great foundational benefits.   But God has also given us from them five other benefits in this life. They are: assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance unto the end.  Let’s briefly look at each one.

Assurance of God’s love is promised to believers. All through Scripture we have many precious promises that nothing can separate us from the love of God.  Romans chapter 8 is filled with such promises, especially verses 28 – 39. He assures us of His love by His written word and His wonderful providence in our life. No believer should be content to go through life without the assurance of God’s love.

Peace of conscience is closely associated with the last benefit.  Being assured of God’s love, we know that we are the son or daughter of God, that all judgment against us has been paid by Christ’s own death, burial, and resurrection, that nothing can accuse us successfully, our sins are under the blood of Christ, and we have the promise of eternal life.  If God can be for us, who then can be against us? Answer: No one!  That produces peace of conscience.

Joy in the Holy Ghost or Spirit is the third benefit in this life.  All of the above which is written about the three foundational benefits plus the two above which flow from them causes us to rejoice in the Holy Ghost.  This is a Scriptural expression, found in Romans 14:17, where we read of “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” (KJV)  It is true that being still sinners, though not under its power any more, we still sin.  And that causes sorrow to us.  But the joy of our salvation can be restored to us.  David prayed that in Psalm 51.  And the entire book of First John is to cause us to have joy in the Holy Spirit.

Increase of grace is to be our daily experience.  We are to be growing in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus.  It is true that on some days we may be advancing in grace and other days declining in grace.  It may be one step forward and two steps backwards. But this increase in grace is to be our disposition always.

Last, we are to persevere to the end.  We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.  But at the same time, we as believers must  persevere in holiness.  We must press on to the prize of the high calling of God in salvation.

All these are benefits in this life.

Words to Live By:  What a great catechism for self-examination.  Which of these benefits do we enjoy in this life?  What has occurred in our life that has caused us to lose any of them?  How must we re-possess them?  These questions cannot be answered by anyone else except you?  Pastors may help.  Parents may be a guide.  Close personal friends can encourage.  But essentially it comes down to you, your Bible, prayer, and other means of grace which will help you.  What are you waiting for?

Through the Scriptures: Isaiah 37 – 39

Through the Standards: The significance of father and mothers of the fifth commandment

WLC 124 — “Who are meant by father and mother in the fifth commandment?  A. By father and mother, in the fifth commandment, are meant, not only natural parents, but all superiors in age and gifts, and especially such as, by God’s ordinance, are over us in place of authority, whether in family, church, or commonwealth.”

Tags: , , ,

June 6 : Pray for Your Pastor!

6 June, 2012 in June 2012 by davidtmyers | No comments

An Opportunity for Vindication

The letter is still preserved at the state history building in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  Written to the Rev. William Marshall on June 6, 1786, it states simply that he, the pastor of the Scots Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, had infringed on the rights of several members of the congregation. The letter continued on to state that he had a right to answer their complaints by appearing before these men, and this is the interesting part of the letter, his appearance was “for his own vindication.”

Whether such a meeting ever took place, the records of the church do not say. But we do know that the alleged confrontation between the pastor and several men of the congregation did take place against the backdrop of a schism in that local church. It seems that half of the congregation wished to separate from the mother synod in Scotland and united with the American Presbyterian denomination.  The dissenters who desired the latter must have had the majority as Rev. Marshall and his followers were forced out of the pulpit and pew.  They relocated to another place in Philadelphia and built their church.

The original majority continued on at their place of ministry, seeking fellowship with the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. in 1822. It was said that they desired this union as there would be “more catholicity of communion and more liberty of worship.” As they were closely aligned with the covenanting side of the Scottish Presbyterian church, this contributor assumed that they wished to have more fellowship as well as not being bound by exclusive psalmody.  From 1866 to 1884, the church was without a pastor and for all intents, closed. In 1883, the remaining congregation was merged with the young South Broad Street Presbyterian church, under the Scots Presbyterian name. Pictured at right is the building constructed in 1886 for the recently merged congregation. Eventually this church merged with the Old Pine Street Presbyterian Church, which today now has the oldest pre-Revolutionary Presbyterian building still in use in Philadelphia.  It is associated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Words to Live By: Christians in general need to think twice about how they approach the teaching elder, or pastor of their church with a critical spirit. Scripture is clear on this. Hebrews 13:17 reads, “Obey your leaders, and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls, as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.” (NASB)  And 1 Thessalonians 5:12, 13 reads, “But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another.” (NASB) Pastors need prayer more than criticisms by the congregation. When there are serious, real problems, invest much time in prayer and then follow Matthew 18:15.

For further reading : Scots Presbyterian Church, Old and New, 1766-1887, by John C. Thompson. [copies of this history may be found preserved at the PCA Historical Center (St. Louis); the New York Historical Society Library (New York City); the American Antiquarian Society (Boston); and at the Presbyterian Historical Society (Philadelphia).]

Through the Scriptures: Proverbs 19 – 21

Through the Standards:  The duty and fruits of true assurance

WCF 18:3
“This infallible assurance does not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer may wait long, and conflict with many difficulties, before he be a partaker of it: yet, being enabled by the Spirit to know the things which are freely given him of God, he may, without extraordinary revelation in the right use of ordinary means, attain thereunto.  And therefore it is the duty of every one to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure, that thereby his heart may be enlarged in peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, in love and thankfulness to God, and in strength and cheerfulness in the duties of obedience, the proper fruits of this assurance; so far is it from inclining men to looseness.”

Tags: , , ,

April 29 : WSC Q. 26 – Christ’s Office of King

29 April, 2012 in April 2012 by davidtmyers | No comments

This Day in Presbyterian History:   

Do You Know King Jesus?

We have looked at the two offices of prophet and priest which Jesus executes.  Now we come, in the absence of anything Presbyterian, to Jesus executing the office of king.  Number 25 of the Shorter Catechism reminds us that “Christ executes the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.”

Christ in the past is a king, is One now, and ever will be a king.  His kingdom is a spiritual and invisible one.  He Himself said in the midst of  His arrest to Pilate that “My kingdom is not of this world.  If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews.  But now my kingdom is from another place.” (NIV – John 18:36).  But it is in existence, and we as His people are kingdom-citizens of it.  Paul tells us “he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.” (NIV – Colossians 1:13)

Jesus executes this office of kingdom by subduing us to Himself.  “Thy people,” the Psalmist reminds us in Psalm 110:3 “shall be willing in the day of thy power.” (KJV)  He further rules over us.  “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and ye are not your own?  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (KJV – 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20)  He in addition as king defends us.  When God delivered the Psalmist from the hands of his enemies, David broke out in psalm, singing Psalm 18:1, 2 “I love you, O LORD, my strength.  The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.  He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” (NIV)  Last, He restrains and conquers all His and our enemies.  In a text which has been quoted by His kingdom-citizens in harrowing days of old, to say nothing of the persecuted brothers and sisters all over this world, John the apostle reminds us that “he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” (ESV – 1 John 4:4b)

Words to Live By: As king, Christ’s mediatorial activity is performed in both directions — upward in intercession, and downward in applying the benefits of redemption and administering the affairs of His church.  As king, Christ meets the problem of man’s weakness and dependence, supplying us with power and protection.

Through the Scriptures: Psalms 55 – 57

Through the Standards: The subject, sphere, and ground of adoption

WLC 74  — “What is adoption?
A. Adoption is an act of the free grace of God, in and for his only Son Jesus Christ, whereby all those that are justified are received into the number of his children, have his name put upon them, the Spirit of his Son given to them, are under his fatherly care and dispensations, admitted to all the liberties and privileges of the sons of God, made heirs of all the promises, and fellow-heirs with Christ in glory.”

Tags: , , ,

April 13 : J. Wilbur Chapman

13 April, 2012 in April 2012 by davidtmyers | 1 comment

This Day in Presbyterian History: 

An Effective Pastor of the Flock

Try to think of the most effective evangelists  in  the nineteenth century—men like Dwight L. Moody, Billy Sunday, John Wilbur Chapman. Wait! J. Wilbur Chapman? Who was he, you might ask? And yet this nineteenth century evangelist had the experience of leading thousands to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Even if we don’t know him in particular, all Christians have sung, and many loved what has been called the greatest gospel content song of all time, namely, “One Day.”  He also wrote “Jesus! What a Friend for Sinners!”  So you know him as a hymn writer. Let’s get better acquainted.

John Wilbur Chapman was a Presbyterian pastor and evangelist.  Born in 1859 in a Christian home, he was educated at Lake Forest University and Lane Theological Seminary.  He was ordained on April 13, 1881 by the Presbytery of Whitewater, Ohio.  A few days later, he married Irene Sleddon.

Entering the pastorate, his first charge was a yoked pastorate over two Presbyterian churches in Indiana and Ohio in 1882.  John was able to serve both churches by alternating his preaching first one week at one church and then the next Sunday at the other.

In 1883, he was given a call to the Old Saratoga Dutch Reformed Church in Albany, New York.  This was not a Presbyterian congregation but one which was still very much within the Reformed tradition. In 1885, in the same town, he was called and accepted as pastor to the First Reformed Church.

Under his evangelistic ministry, the church grew from 150 members to 1500 members.  At least 500 conversions took place in those years.

Sorrow struck his family one year later when his wife Irene passed away.  He was left as a single parent with a young daughter. That year, still grieving, he heard a message by the celebrated preacher F.B. Meyer. In speaking of whole-hearted surrender to the Lord’s will, Meyer said “If you are not willing to give up everything for Christ, are you willing to be made willing?”  That one question, Chapman said, “changed my whole ministry; it seemed like a new star in the sky of my life.”

Five years later, J. Wilbur Chapman began the greatest of his four pastorates, at the Bethany Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This was the home church of merchant John Wanamaker.

Soon after he arrived, however, an individual went up to Rev. Chapman and said, “You are not a very strong preacher, but a few of us have decided to gather and pray every Sunday for you.”   That Sunday prayer meeting for the pastor and his ministry at Bethany, grew to over a thousand individuals praying for the effectiveness of the Word of God through J. Wilbur Chapman.  Soon a revival started in the church in which 400 were added to the church rolls.  Two years later, J. Wilbur Chapman left the pastorate to become a full-time evangelist, where he had his greatest ministry to the Lord.

Words to Live By:  Do you, as a member of a Bible-believing, Gospel-preaching church, pray for your pastor?  Do you pray for his preparation of the Word, his evangelism opportunities, his counseling sessions, his home and hospital visitations, his administrative duties, and his  family?  Pray, pray, pray for the pastors of our churches!

Through the Scriptures:   Psalm 7 – 9

Through the Standards:  Limits and certainty of the application of redemption

WLC 57 — “What benefits has Christ procured by his mediation?
A.  Christ, by his mediation, has procured redemption, with all other benefits of the covenant of grace.”

WLC 58 — “How do we come to be made partakers of  the benefits which Christ has procured?
A.  We are made partakers of the benefits which Christ has procured, by the application of them unto us, which is the work especially of God the Holy Ghost.”

WLC 59 — “Who are made partakers of redemption through Christ?
A.  Redemption is certainly applied, and effectually communicated, to all those for whom Christ has purchased it; who are in time by the Holy Ghost enabled to believe in Christ according to the gospel.”

WSC 29 — “How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ?
A.  We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ, by the effectual application of it to us by his Holy Spirit.”;

WSC 30 — “How does the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?
A.  The Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.”

Tags: , , ,

April 4 : WSC Q. 22

4 April, 2012 in April 2012 by davidtmyers | No comments

This Day in Presbyterian History: 

Christ, the Son of God, became Man

Finding nothing of national importance in historic Presbyterianism [you should always feel free to remind us of important people or events], we turn to Shorter Catechism 22 for our devotional today.  It asks the question of the manner of the incarnation of Christ.  In answer, our Westminster divines state, “Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and born of  her, yet without sin.”

While not a historical event in American Presbyterianism, still the contents of this answer sum up the battle in Presbyterianism in the early nineteen twenties and thirties between the theological conservatives and liberals.  Was Christ the Son of God?  Was He conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost?  Was the Virgin Birth true?  All these were issues fought in the proverbial trenches of seminary class rooms and pulpits across the land.

This answer sums up biblical Christianity regarding the incarnation of Jesus Christ.  He, being the Son of God, became man “by taking to himself a true body.”  An ancient heresy was behind the inclusion of these words in this phrase.  Docetism in the early church taught that Jesus took to Himself only the appearance of a body.  Believing that all matter was essentially impure, they taught that our Lord’s body was not and could not be real flesh and blood.  John the apostle fought against this heresy when he wrote in 1 John 4:2, 3 “By this you may know (perceive and recognize) the Spirit of God: every spirit which acknowledges and confesses [the fact] that Jesus Christ (the Messiah) [actually] has become man and has come in the flesh is of God [has God for its source.]  And every spirit which does not acknowledge and confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh [but would annul, destroy, sever, disunite Him] is not of God [does not proceed from Him] is not of God [does not proceed from Him].  This [nonconfession is the [spirit] of the antichrist, [of] which you heard that it was coming, and now it is already in the world.” (Amplified)  The inspired apostle John says clearly that Docetism is heresy.  Our Confessional fathers state that the incarnation or the taking upon Himself a true body is biblical.

He has also taken upon Himself “a reasonable soul.”  Again, unless we have the  struggles of the early church in our mind and hearts, we will not understand the importance of this phrase.  This clause in the catechism was added due to the false teaching of Apollinaris.  He and his followers falsely suggested that Jesus had a body, but not a soul. They could not accept that Christ had human affections and a human will.  Yet every page of Scripture testifies of the reality of our Lord’s humanity.  He could rejoice and He could sorrow.  He could show compassion on the sheep without a shepherd. He had a human will distinct from a divine will, so that He could say with respect to the Father’s will regarding His atonement, “Not my will, but Thine be done.” (KJV – Matthew 26:39)

Then, we have the phrases in catechism number 22 which states, “being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and born of her.”  These two phrases spoke loud and clear regarding the disbelief which was present in the Auburn Affirmation of 1924.  It is why J. Gresham Machen wrote his classic book, “The Virgin Birth of Christ.” Both Matthew 1 and Luke 1 both speak of the supernatural birth of our Lord and Savior.

We cannot miss the last phrase which states, “and yet without sin.”  He escaped being defiled with original sin by being born of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit.  He who knew no sin, became sin for us, as our sins were imputed to Him.

Words to Live By: A memorization of this catechism answer will keep you in the faith and keep you from departing the faith.

Through the Scriptures:  2 Samuel 1 – 4

Through the Standards: The degrees of sin

WLC 150 — “Are all transgressions of the law of God equally heinous in themselves, and in the sight of God?
A. All transgressions of the law of God are not equally heinous; but some sins in themselves, and by reason of several aggravations, are more heinous in the sigh of God than others.”

WSC 83 — “Are all transgressions of the law equally heinous?
A. Some sins in themselves, and by reason of several aggravations, are more heinous in the sight of God than others.”

Tags: , , ,

Newer entries »