Author: Tony Reinke

Book review: Mark Dever, The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made (1581347170)

Tony Reinke Book reviews, Books, BR > Crossway, Great Quotes, Mark Dever, Old Testament, Reading, spurgeon, Together for the Gospel

I doubt I’m alone when I say the Old Testament in my Bible is largely unknown to me. This is probably due to the fact that it’s not chronologically structured and many overlaps and gaps make things confusing. Such prospects can be despairing for a big-picture reader like myself.

Typically before I begin a book I question the themes and overall direction of what I’m about to read. It’s the basic ABCs of critical thinking, really. However the historical big-picture of the Old Testament is often hard to discern and so the details are often disconnected.

Enter Mark Dever.

I remember my introduction to Mark Dever four years ago as a carpenter finishing a basement drywall project. I was somewhat new to drywalling myself, usually opting to hire an expert (the wise choice). So like an amateur, I made the mistake of applying too much drywall mud on the walls. Thus I sanded and sanded for several painful winter days while me and my .mp3 player were both covered in several layers of fine white dust. Audible amidst the white fog, however, Mark Dever preached on.

Over those days I listened to (and was sustained by) Dever’s entire sermon series on New Testament (now also in print). I was amazed at the clarity of his messages and his uncanny ability to summarize whole NT books into nice packages. And I anticipated a survey of the Old Testament.

At Together for the Gospel in Louisville Dever’s Old Testament survey was available for purchase and I jumped at the chance. Although several hundred of you jumped sooner I guess because they were sold out before I could get my hands on a copy. As soon as I returned home I ordered a copy and have not regretted it!

The book is simply a 960-page collection of sermon manuscripts. But don’t be intimidated by its size. Dever’s summary of the message of the Old Testament is terse and clear. With a broad brush he paints the major movements of the Old Testament to highlight the history of God’s chosen nation. In fact, early in the book he summarizes the history of the Old Testament in about 2 pages! Very helpful for big-picture readers like myself.

This is one of the most helpful and (in a world of redundant publishing) truly original books. This volume will provide great help for preachers and laypersons wanting to unlock the message of the Old Testament.

As an unexpected bonus, wonderful reflection questions conclude each chapter perfectly suited for group study and personal meditation.

The Message of the Old Testament is the perfect balance of two worlds – letting the biblical storyline come alive for readers today AND addressing the pressing issues of our lives from the application of the ancient text. Buy it, read it, cherish it and some day pass it on to your children. It’s one of those rare and priceless volumes that will bless your heart and your ministry.

John Owen: The excellency of genuine Christian faith

Tony Reinke Cross of Christ, Faith, Great Quotes, Humility, John Owen, Obedience to Scripture, Unbelief

“Herein consists the excellency of faith above all other powers and acts of the soul – that it receives, assents unto, and rests in things in their own nature absolutely incomprehensible [Trinity, incarnation, Cross, etc.] … The more sublime and glorious – the more inaccessible unto sense and reason – the things are which we believe; the more are we changed into the image of God, in the exercise of faith upon them … faith which is truly divine, is never more in its proper exercise – doth never more elevate the soul into conformity unto God – than when it acts in the contemplation and admiration of the most incomprehensible mysteries which are proposed unto it by divine revelation.”

– John Owen, The Glory of Christ, Works 1:50

Jonathan Edwards, Princeton Cemetery and an encouraging Friday surprise

Tony Reinke Jonathan Edwards, Photographs, Princeton Cemetery, spurgeon

I received word this afternoon that my photographs taken this Spring at the Princeton Cemetery are featured on the Jonathan Edwards Center blog.

The full website I designed from a trip to Princeton Cemetery can be found here. Thank you to Michael McClenahan and the Jonathan Edwards Center for this wonderful surprise!

Why one church in Minneapolis defines herself as ‘Cross-Centered’

Tony Reinke Churches in Minneapolis, Cross of Christ, God, Gospel, Great Quotes, Sovereign Grace Ministries

After recently listening to a great sermon on the Cross I have been convicted. Convicted because I have not been spending enough time studying the Cross. So over the next few weeks and months I am planning to study through John Stott’s, The Cross of Christ (IVP: 1986). I am a big fan of Stott but admittedly have never read the entire book through (please don’t email, I know the shame of this admission). So for the coming weeks I am going to center my attention and affections upon the Cross through this study.

The quote that brought conviction came from a sermon entitled The Glory of the Cross delivered by Rick Gamache, the senior pastor of a neat church in Minneapolis (April, 2006; Sovereign Grace Fellowship). Itself is a wonderful sermon well worth your time this weekend (listen in .mp3). Here is a short excerpt:

“I want to try and articulate briefly for you why we are very careful to refer to Sovereign Grace Fellowship as a ‘Gospel-centered’ or ‘Cross-centered’ church. If you have been around here for any amount of time you know we don’t refer to ourselves mainly as a ‘God-centered’ church though I definitely use those terms. We use that term on occasion because we are thoroughly centered on God here. But we don’t even use terms to refer to ourselves namely as a ‘Christ-centered’ church. Now, again we sometimes use that phrase because here we are thoroughly centered upon Christ. But we prefer to be even more precise so we use the term ‘Gospel-centered’ or ‘Cross-centered’ church … Because the Cross is the centerpiece of the good news, the Apostle Paul says in Galatians 6:14 that he ‘boasts in’ (‘exults in,’ or ‘rejoices in’ – that one Greek word can have all those meanings), he ‘rejoices in’ nothing except the Cross of Jesus Christ because it’s where our salvation was purchased and where God was revealed in glory. So Martin Luther was correct when he wrote this: ‘The Cross alone is our theology. There is not a word in the Bible which we can understand without reference to the Cross.'”

– Rick Gamache, sermon on The Glory of Christ; April, 2006, Sovereign Grace Fellowship; Minneapolis, MN

(sermon on The Glory of Christ; April, 2006, Sovereign Grace Fellowship; church in Minneapolis, MN)

Spurgeon on earnestness (Pt. 2)

Tony Reinke C.H. Spurgeon, Earnestness, Great Preachers, Great Quotes, Pastoral Ministry, Preaching, Pupit Seriousness

“Those who attend our ministry have a great deal to do during the week. Many of them have family trials, and heavy personal burdens to carry, and they frequently come into the assembly cold and listless, with thoughts wandering hither and thither; it is ours to take those thoughts and thrust them into the furnace of our own earnestness, melt them by holy contemplation and by intense appeal, and pour them out into the mold of the truth. A blacksmith can do nothing when his fire is out and in this respect he is the type of a minister. If all the lights in the outside world are quenched, the lamp which burns in the sanctuary ought still to remain undimmed; for that fire no curfew must ever be rung. We must regard the people as the wood and the sacrifice, well wetted a second and a third time by the cares of the week, upon which, like the prophet, we must pray down the fire from heaven.”

– C.H. Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students

Psalm 14:1 – “No God”

Tony Reinke Atheism, Biblical Quotes, Doctrine, Exegesis, Great Quotes, Sinfulness, Unbelief, Wickedness of the heart

I think many of us know Psalm 14:1 by heart: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” But apparently I did not know the meaning of this verse by heart. Actually the two words, “there is” are not in the Hebrew text. The verse should more accurately be translated: “The fool says in his heart, ‘No God.’” It’s not that the fool does not believe in God’s existence but that for him/her God is unnecessary. As Lawson writes,

“The term is a synonym for sinner, and it describes everyone who has no place for God in his or her life. The fool’s problem is that his heart refuses the knowledge of God. To be sure, he is not an intellectual atheist, denying the existence of God, but a practical atheist, living as if there were no God (Pss. 53:1; 74:18,22; Isa. 32:6).”  [Holman Old Testament Commentary: Psalms 1-75, p. 75]