BVoV
The Valley of Vision paperbacks arrived today. As one of the great classic books, it will make for a great journal. So the books will undergo the slice tomorrow to create the first known “Blank Valley of Vision.” As with the interlinear we will be making one extra (and it may end up in your mailbox for free) …
It is easy, I have found, to fall into a lull in preaching where I forget that souls are eternal and the body is quickly fading. Our country is in need especially of earnest preaching that reminds sinners every week that the temporal life will soon peel back like a stage background to reveal the eternal world (1 Cor. 7:31). Naturally the world and even Christians tend to think more about the temporal world than the eternal. This breads a host of problems and sinful thinking.
So back to John Angell James’ powerful book, An Earnest Ministry. This week we will look at the need of earnestness from the pulpit concerning specific topics of concern. I think it is especially important to note that James is not forgetting the Spirit’s work in all of this. He does not think earnest ministry alone saves and sanctifies. He understands earnest preaching as a type of serious preaching that the Spirit of God answers to and blesses (see pp. 190-191). Here then is the first reason that makes earnest preaching so needful: Worldliness.
“What can be sufficient but an intense devotedness on the part of ministers to make things unseen and eternal bear down the usurping power of things seen and temporal? Who but the man that knows how to deal with invisible realities, and to wield the powers of the world to come, can pluck the worldling from the whirlpool of earthly mindedness, which sucks down so many, or prevent the professing Christian from being drawn into it? If our own minds are not much impressed with the awful glories and terrors of eternity, we cannot speak of these things in such a manner as is likely to rescue our hearers from the ruinous fascinations of Mammon. How we seem to want a Baxter and a Doolittle; an Edwards and a Howe; a Whitefield and a Wesley, to break in with their thunder upon the money-loving, money-grasping spirit of this grossly utilitarian age!”
– John Angell James, An Earnest Ministry: The Want of the Times (Banner of Truth, 1847/1993) pp. 192-193.
“Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you” (Ps. 73:25, ESV).
Download free index to the Works of John Owen (16 volumes)
John Owen [1616-1683] is one of the most significant theologians in church history. Spurgeon said to master Owen is to be a great theologian. For the past few years, I have been accumulating several of the volumes of The Works of John Owen. But only recently have I received the final volume (vol. 16) containing the topical and textual indexes to the entire set. (And if you know me, you know how important these indexes are to effectively use a Puritan like Owen.)
Now that I have the index I want to share it with those who have various volumes of the Banner of Truth 16 volume set but don’t have the indexes. So today I converted the indexes into electronic file. You can store this on
your computer or print it out for reference. These indexes will also help you discover which volumes will be most beneficial in your studies.
Click here to download the 5.9 MB file containing the indexes to The Works of John Owen (16 volumes).
UPDATE: To celebrate the legacy of John Owen, The Banner of Truth is offering 35-percent discount off the purchase of any or all of the 16 volumes (until December 15, 2006 on American orders only). To receive this discount you must do two things. First, call directly (800-263-8085). And secondly, you must tell them you are “a friend of The Shepherd’s Scrapbook.”
Because friends don’t let friends not read Owen.
Part 1: The Delights and Pains of Puritan study
Here begins a several part study on building (and using) a Puritan library of your own. Of all the areas of my library, the Puritan section is the most useful.
The “Puritans” are a group of people I (very) loosely define as faithful Christians of the 16th and 17th centuries, as well as those who carried on the Puritan tradition into the 18th and 19th centuries. My definition includes John Bunyan and John Owen (true Puritans), Jonathan Edwards (post-Puritan), and Charles Spurgeon (who carried the Puritan tradition). Other names you may not be familiar with include Brooks, Boston, Burgess, Sibbes, Flavel, Reynolds, Ames, Manton, Rutherford, Newton and Clarkson. You will become more familiar with the names as we continue on.
This series is based upon two fundamental convictions.
First, the church today benefits most from leaders and preachers who are burdened to present expositional messages – sermons drawn from principles clearly demonstrated in scripture. The preacher is to “preach the Word” by taking every precaution in the name of accuracy and then exhorting and encouraging by earnest application.
Secondly, an efficient and workable library of the best Puritan literature is a great way to faithfully preach and apply scripture to the hearts of your hearers. The Puritans are no substitute for careful exegesis and use of contemporary commentaries. But once the foundational research is complete, the Puritans will open up new threads of understanding and application on your text. Pastors and congregations today truly need the Puritans.
J.I. Packer once wrote, “the great Puritan pastor-theologians – Owen, Baxter, Goodwin, Howe, Perkins, Sibbes, Brooks, Watson, Gurnall, Flavel, Bunyan, Manton, and others like them – were men of outstanding intellectual power, as well as spiritual insight. In them mental habits fostered by sober scholarship were linked with a flaming zeal for God and a minute acquaintance with the human heart. All their work displays this unique fusion of gifts and graces. In thought and outlook they were radically God-centered. Their appreciation of God’s sovereign majesty was profound, and their reverence in handling his written word was deep and constant. They were patient, thorough, and methodical in searching the Scriptures, and their grasp of the various threads and linkages in the web of revealed truth was firm and clear. They understood most richly the ways of God with men, the glory of Christ the Mediator, and the work of the Spirit in the believer and the church. And their knowledge was no mere theoretical orthodoxy…”
The delights of Puritans
I would not be writing this series if I were not personally acquainted with the great fruitfulness of Puritan study. The Puritans have matured my understanding of God, the Christian life, the idols of my heart, marriage and parenting. I have a deeper appreciation for the Cross, grace and the resurrection because of their words.
And here are a few other delightful benefits from the Puritans…
1. Cohesive biblical wisdom. As you can already see, the Puritans are an incredible source of biblical insight and application. They were skilled at seeing the big picture of the Christian life and then breaking that picture down into its various facets and details. Each sermon and every detail was presented in light of the big biblical themes and tied back to God Himself. What you will see in the coming weeks is that (as Packer would say) we “need” the Puritans. Even to this day there are no substitutes for their wisdom and perception in drawing us back to the big picture of God.
2. Well outlined sermons. Typical Puritan sermons provide the greatest help in my expositional research. These sermons are well outlined and very easy to navigate. Typically the whole purpose of the sermon is summarized in one nifty sentence towards the beginning of the sermon. And because these sermons are so well-organized, you can sift through them fairly quickly.
The pains of the Puritans
I won’t mislead you, there are a few pains involved in Puritan research.
1. Old words and Roman numerals. Four hundred year old literature comes with difficulties. There are words that are no longer in use today. And don’t think you can get along without memorizing Roman numerals. These are critical when you are researching Psalm lxxiii and verse 25. Be prepared to read a few sentences two or three times. Patience is important.
2. Puritan sermon style. There are some great Puritan commentaries. But for me, the most useful Puritan literature are the printed sermons (this series will focus specifically on these sermons). A typical Puritan sermon covers just one verse and rarely in the context of a broader book study. So here is the rub: The contemporary researcher (preaching through an entire book like Ephesians, for example) will need to collect and have a proper index to find Puritan literature on a given verse or topic. This is no small challenge and thankfully there are researchers who have given us great resources here (and some for free!). But if you can master this problem, and I will show you how, a library of Puritan sermons will come alive.
3. Errors. We must be on guard against the error of thinking that the Puritans were infallible. The Puritans had their errors. But this is the glory of old books. As C.S. Lewis once said, the errors in old books are easier to see than the errors in new books. Old errors are less deceptive, just as hindsight is 20/20.
For the delights and the pains, there are no substitutes for the Puritans. For every sermon I consult my trusted Puritan friends and grow from their wealth of wisdom and unparalleled seriousness with the bible. They will stretch you, challenge you and keep you accountable. But most importantly, they will cast a stern eye when you feel the pressure to compromise the biblical message.
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Next time… Part 2: The Rules of a Puritan Library
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Click here to access all posts in the The Puritan Study series.
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Martin Luther once said, “This article of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, is the head and cornerstone of the church, which alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves and protects the church. Without it, the church of God cannot subsist but one hour.” He was not overstating this fact. At the heart of biblical Christianity stands the doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ alone. And no Top Ten list of books is complete without volume on this great 
doctrine.
Today, God’s grace has provided Christians with growing depository of excellent books on this issue. The God Who Justifies by James R. White comes to mind, and R.C. Sproul, John Piper and C.J. Mahaney have also contributed excellent contemporary works. But I am frequently drawn back to Horatius Bonar’s brief and devotional work.
Written in 1874 and republished by The Banner of Truth in 1993, The Everlasting Righteousness stands (in my opinion) as the greatest book on the importance of the Cross and our imputed righteousness. It is clear, concise, devotional and beautifully written.
So what does Bonar mean by the phrase, The Everlasting Righteousness?
“We are hidden in Christ. God seeks for us; and when at last He discovers us in our hiding-place, it is not we that He finds, but Christ; so complete is the exchange of persons, so perfect and so glorious the disguise. Yet is is not a disguise which shall ever be taken off, nor of which shall have cause to be ashamed. It remains ours for ever. It is an everlasting righteousness” (pp. 79-80).
For Bonar, however, the importance of the Cross extends beyond the Christian’s conversion. Justification ushers in a Cross-centered life for today and an eternal Cross-centered life to come. This emphasis on the Cross-centered life is where Bonar really shines:
“… never shall the redeemed be independent of the cross, or cease to draw from its fulness” (p. 64).
“The broken body and shed blood of the Son of God form the viands on which we feast; and it is under the shadow of the cross that we sit down to partake of these, and find refreshment for our daily journey, strength for our hourly warfare. His flesh is meat indeed, His blood is drink indeed” (p. 125).
And my favorite quote: “Christ crucified is to be the burden of our preaching, and the substance of our belief, from first to last. At no time in the saint’s life does he cease to need the Cross” (p. 117). The Christian faith and life centers around the Cross. There are no comparable substitutes. We NEED the Cross at every point. (And wouldn’t our lives and sermons be improved if we frequently used the phrase, “need the Cross”?)
Dwelling upon justification as crucial for the Christian life, John Bunyan once wrote, “Think not that to live always on Christ for justification is a low and beggarly thing, – a staying at the foundation. For, let me tell you, depart from a sense of the meritorious means of your justification before God, and you will quickly grow light, and frothy, and vain.”
Because Bonar is clear on the doctrine of justification, he is also clear on related issues like the ugliness and reality of sin, the illustrations of biblical imputation, the necessity of a blood sacrifice and the dangers of wrong views of justification.
If you are looking for a readable book that exalts the Cross-centered life, relishes in the righteousness found only in the substitution of the Lamb, and magnifies the worth and beauty of Christ, turn to a talented hymn writer. Horatius Bonar has given us a clear book of great value on the central doctrine of the church. His poetic style will warm the heart after multiple readings and his clarity will equip the preacher with a lifetime of precious quotes.
The beauty of The Everlasting Righteousness is that it will hold us to our foundation and keep our hearts from growing frothy and vain.
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The Everlasting Righteousness, Horatius Bonar, Banner of Truth, 1874/1993, 0851516556, paperback, 212 pages
I probably don’t need to remind you that I’m not Oprah. But if I had my own book club these would be my top picks. Yesterday I gave you a quick glimpse into my top 20. In the coming days I will give more details on my top five picks. Here then is the first installment…
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#5: The Glory of Christ by John Owen
In a pop-Christian publishing world, it is difficult to find great books exalting the beauty and excellency of Jesus Christ. Yet a study of the person and work of Christ is the most beautiful, rewarding and life-changing study for our souls.
I cherish the writings of Puritan John Owen because he forces me to love what God loves, to cherish what He cherishes and delight in what He delights. It may sound simple, but really the demands here are quite high and the product is very rare.
Owen himself gives us a good summary of the book:
“That which at present I design to demonstrate is, that the beholding of the glory of Christ is one of the greatest privileges and advancements that believers are capable of in this world, or that which is to come. It is that whereby they are first gradually conformed unto it, and then fixed in the eternal enjoyment of it. For here in this life, beholding his glory, they are changed or transformed into the likeness of it, 2 Cor. 3:18; and hereafter they shall be ‘for ever like unto him,’ because they ‘shall see him as he is,’ 1 John 3:1, 2. Hereon do our present comforts and future blessedness depend. This is the life and reward of our souls. ‘He that has seen him has seen the Father also,’ John 14:9. For we discern the ‘light of the knowledge of the glory of God only in the face of Jesus Christ,’ 2 Cor. 4:6” (pp. 287-288).
And this is the theme Owen develops for the reader.
Now, as you saw from the quote above, Owen is not easy to read. But if you are patient and willing to rephrase his concepts into contemporary language, this volume is loaded with a lifetime of sermon quotes and insights on the person and work of Christ. Even worship leaders will find much usefulness in Owen.
The volume concludes with a great and passionate plea for the glory of Christ to be applied to the reader’s heart. A study of Christology is incomplete until the invitation is offered because “wherever there is a declaration of the excellencies of Christ, in his person, grace, or office, it should be accompanied with an invitation and exhortation unto sinners to come unto him” (p. 419).
This is what sets John Owen apart from other books written on the same subject: He calls for a response. John Owen is not content to paint a biblical picture of Christ’s glory and then leave the reader alone to get the point herself. Owen closes with clear, real-life application.
Owen’s understanding of Christology demands a response from the sinner. For Owen, to continue in unbelief is to despise the glory of Christ. Standing on the sidelines and thinking you see the beauty of Christ but do not hold Christ as your own, is to despise Christ’s person and office and the wisdom of God (p. 424). In other words, the more beautiful Christ is, the more important personal faith becomes and the more heinous the sin of personal unbelief.
I love Owen because he cuts it straight. He is an expert biblical exegete but he is a compassionate shepherd of souls, too. If your soul is dry and you need to feed upon the beauty of Christ, pick up a copy of The Glory of Christ and let its truth percolate down through your heart and fuel your Christian life.
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Finding The Glory of Christ by John Owen… Over at the CCEL you can download this book for free. Or you can purchase the clothbound volume published by The Banner of Truth.
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The Glory of Christ, John Owen, Banner of Truth, complete works, 0851511236
Tony Reinke 