Why Read The Puritans Today?
By Don Kilster
Soli Deo Gloria just reached a milestone for us: we sold our 200,000th volume in January. And I dare say few would have thought that you could make it in publishing selling 300 year old religious books by the Puritans! There are several reasons, I believe, for the resurgence in interest in the Puritans and their writings. One is that people are getting tired of religion offering things it can't deliver. All kinds of promises are being made, but people come out of self-interest and when these things don't come true, they are disappointed. I think they are also tired of shallow, superficial religion.
Most people don't worship God because the God most people hear about really isn't worth worshipping. He is not the "high and lofty one," He is not the "Lord God Omnipotent Who Reigneth Forever and Ever." He is just "my friend," and familiarity surely breeds contempt!
The Puritans, people are finding men who were passionately obsessed with the knowledge of God. I have listed several thing that I think are reasons why we should read the Puritans today, and every one of those reason is directly derived from the Puritans view of God and Scripture.
1. They will elevate your concept of God to a degree you probably never thought possible, and show you a God who is truly worthy of your worship and adoration. Jeremiah Burroughs, in his classic book Gospel Worship, said "The reason why we worship God in a slight way is because we do not see God in His glory." The modern man hears about a God who isn't worth worshipping; why should he worship a God who wants to do good, but can't pull it off because man just won't co-operate, and then who is sovereign? MAN IS!
Let me throw something else in here. You begin reading the Puritans and you will find yourself, in a spiritual sense, somewhat lonely. You will begin to be excited about what you are reading and what you are feeling in your heart, and then you will notice that there aren't a lot of other people who know what you are talking about, and that can be lonely! When you begin having Isaiah's vision of God from Isaiah 6, and you realize that the reality of God is infinitely beyond anything your mind can comprehend, you'll realize that the average man doesn't think much about God at all, much less at the deep level you are thinking.
One of the reasons we think so poorly is because we read so little. Reading helps us to think, and we live in a photographic culture now instead of a typographic culture. Everything is pictures, videos, movies. The work is all done for us, so we don't have to wrestle with concepts. Someone else interprets the matter for us in pictures. In the Puritan day, words were frozen on a page and forced you to deal with the thoughts expressed.
2. Puritans had a "love affair" with Christ, and they wrote much about the beauty of Christ. One of the greatest of the Puritans was Thomas Goodwin, a Congregationalist. Writing about heaven, Goodwin said,
"If I were to go to heaven, and find that Christ was not there, I would leave immediately, for heaven would be hell to me without Christ." Heaven without Christ is no heaven, and if Christ is not there, I have no desire to be there. These people were in love with Christ. James Durham wrote this on Song of Solomon 5:16, in his application of the sermon, "If Christ is altogether lovely, then everything else is altogether loathsome." We don't feel that way about Christ, do we? We want a little of Christ, and a little of a lot of other things. But the true Christian wants Christ and nothing but Christ. Samuel Rutherford wrote this about the beauty of Christ:
I dare say that angels' pens, angel's tongues, nay, as many worlds of angels as there are drops of water in all the seas and fountains, and rivers of the earth cannot paint Him out to you. I think His sweetness has swelled upon me to the greatness of two heavens. O for a soul as wide as the utmost circle of the highest heaven to contain His love! And yet I could hold but little of it. O what a sight, to be up in heaven, in that fair orchard of the New Paradise, and to see, and smell, and touch, and kiss that fair field-flower, that evergreen tree of life! His bare shadow would be enough for me; a sight of Him would be the guarantee of heaven to me."If there were ten thousand thousand millions of worlds, and as many heavens, full of men and angels, Christ would not be pinched to supply all our wants, and to fill us all. Christ is a well of life; but who knows how deep it is to the bottom? Put the beauty of ten thousand thousand worlds of paradises, like the Garden of Eden, in one; put all trees, all flowers, all smells, all colors, all tastes, all joys, all loveliness, all sweetness in one. O what a fair and excellent thing would that be? And yet it would be less to that fair and dearest well-beloved Christ than one drop of rain to the whole seas, rivers, lakes, and fountains of ten thousand earths.
That's someone who loves Christ, isn't it?
3. The Puritans will help us understand the sufficiency of Christ. This comes under great attack in our modern church. You may have Christ to save you, but you need psychology to help you get through life. You may have Christ to save you and help you with your spiritual hurts, but you need something else for those deep emotional pains you are feeling.
There is a title by Ralph Robinson, a contemporary of Thomas Watson in London, Christ All and In All. There is another book by that same title by Philip Henry. Robinson wrote over 700 pages on that one verse in Colossians, (3:11). You see, it is our deficiency in understanding the sufficiency of Christ that is the issue. If Christ is all in all, how can we look to anyone or anything else for answers?
In his book, The Saints' Treasury, Jeremiah Burroughs has a sermon on the Colossians verse. Burroughs makes a statement like this, "Surely Christ is an object sufficient for the satisfaction of the Father." None of us would argue with that, would we? Isaiah tells us that God will see the result of the anguish of His soul and be satisfied. So Christ is enough to satisfy the Father. Then Burroughs continues. "Surely, then, Christ is an object sufficient for the satisfaction of any soul!" Do you get the reasoning? Those Christians who spend their entire life whining about their lot in life as if Christ were not enough; what blasphemy to say that Christ is enough to satisfy God, but He isn't enough to satisfy me!!! Long before there was a Freud, a Puritan had solved the problem of modern psycho-babble that has so charmed the church today.
4. The Puritans help us to see the sufficiency of Scripture for life and godliness. That is what Peter said, isn't it? Scripture gives us the knowledge of God which gives us all things pertaining to life and godliness. You've heard the battle cry of humanity today, haven't you? It goes like this: I'm searching for self-esteem, or, "I just want to feel good about myself."
Christians don't need self-esteem, they need Christ-esteem! Isaiah found out who God was and THEN Isaiah knew who Isaiah was. I remember speaking overseas and being asked to talk about myself. I can't imagine anything more boring than to have you know something about me. In Burroughs' Saints Treasury, his first sermon is entitled "The Incomparable Excellency and Holiness of God," and it is based on the O.T. verse, "Who is like unto Thee, O God, among the nations?" It's about a 35 page sermon; and Burroughs goes on about the splendor of God for half the sermon. Then, he brings in the second half of the verse, "and who is like unto thee, O Israel?" What's the point? Since there is no one like your God, there is no one like you! So you don't need to have self-esteem to feel good about yourself, you need to have Christ-esteem; you need to feel good about God!
If man is created in the image and likeness of God, how could anyone ever have a lack of self-esteem. If you are a Christian, Christ traded His life one-on-one for your life. THAT'S TRUE WORTH, MY FRIENDS! The Puritans were true biblical counselors, and they understood that the best counseling takes place in the pulpit when the Word of God is opened and expounded and applied. Over 300 years ago, Isaac Ambrose wrote in his book The Christian Warrior, which has just been released by Soli Deo Gloria, about the danger of getting counsel from men who are not steeped in Scripture:
The wounded soul, who is seeking for comfort, should never go for advice to unregenerate men; this is not God's appointed way. Alas! such men will think you mad, for they do not know what trouble for sin means. Why, then, reveal your disease to those who are not physicians? Go to Him who heals all manner of diseases, for so does God direct you. When Paul was converted by divine grace, he did not confer with flesh and blood, but instantly obeyed God. So should you do. Does God, by His ministry, convince you of the danger of wicked ways and of your duty to come to Him for safety and comfort? Obey instantly, and consult not with flesh and blood. What your sinful companions offer to you is not suitable for the healing of your sorrowful, sin-sick soul. What can idle companions do to quiet your conscience, forgive your sin, support your spirit, or fill you with spiritual joy? Alas! all their joys "are but the crackling of thorns under a pot;" dreams and vanity from their highest mirth. What agreement is there between carnal mirth and spiritual sorrow? No more than between light and darkness. Away with them all; depart from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be consumed in all your sins.
There is a wealth of godly counsel in the writings of these men. The Puritans understood that spiritual problems needed spiritual solutions. Today's counselors don't think in terms of sin or problems of the soul, even though that is what psychology means: the study of the soul. The problem is that today everyone is a victim of someone else's behavior; but that is not new to today?the blame game started in the Garden of Eden. Eve came from a dysfunctional rib, isn't that how it went? God, who created the soul, and who died to redeem the soul, best knows how to treat the soul; and those men who are most acquainted with God are best able to provide cures for the soul. In fact, the Puritans were called "physicians of the soul." Thomas Watson, in fact, wrote a treatise entitled "Sin is a Soul Disease – Christ is a Soul Physician." You can get that in our book called Sermons of Thomas Watson.
5. The Puritans can teach us is about the heinous nature of sin. Edward Reynolds wrote a book called The Sinfulness of Sin, and Jeremiah Burroughs wroteThe Evil of Evils. There is no doctrine on which it is more important to be orthodox than this one, because if you are off on the doctrine of sin, you are going to be off on every other doctrine. This is the thread that will unravel the entire garment.
Thomas Watson wrote a masterpiece in four short sermons entitled The Mischief of Sin, which we have published. Burroughs goes through 67 chapters on this premise: Sin is worse than suffering; but people will do everything they can to avoid suffering, but almost nothing to avoid sin. Sin is worse than suffering, how ever, because sin causes suffering. In fact, Burroughs makes this point. Sin is worse than hell, because sin caused hell. And the thing which causes is greater than the thing it causes.
Obadiah Sedgwick, a prominent London Presbyterian who was a member of the Westminster Assembly, wrote a searching book entitled "The Anatomy of Secret Sins," an entire treatise on David's plea to be delivered from secret sins, those sins hidden deep in the recesses of our hearts that no one but us and God know are there, but are just as wicked and damning as any other sin.
Jonathan Edwards said this about sin: "All sin is of infinite proportion, and it is more or less heinous depending upon the honor of the person offended. Since God is infinitely holy, sin is infinitely evil." That's why there's no such thing as a small sin, because the slightest sin is an act of cosmic treason committed against an infinitely holy God. You don't hear things like that much anymore, can you?
Simply on its sheer literary value, this material is priceless. When Edward wrote his "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," the imagery is unsurpassed. He compares God to an archer with a bow, that bow is pulled tight, the arrow is pointed right at the sinner's heart, the archer's arms are shaking because the bow is pulled so tightly, and Edwards says that the only thing that keeps God from letting that arrow fly and being drowned in the sinner's blood is the mere good pleasure of a God who is infinitely angry with sin every day. One secular writer who was doing a piece on Edwards was asked by a Christian this question. "You know, if Edwards is right, that arrow is pointed at your heart. How do you sleep at night?" The answer was this, "Sometimes I don't! I just hope to God he's wrong."
6. The Puritans will help us with practical living. Richard Baxter's Christian Directory has been called "the greatest manual on biblical counseling ever produced." Before this century, all counseling was done from the pulpit or during a pastoral visit to the home to catechize the family. Pastors were seen as the physicians of the soul. Interestingly enough, the very word "psychology" means the study of the soul. Suke, from which we get "psyche," from which we get psychology, means soul. But now, what used to be the cure of sinful souls has become the cure of sick minds. That has now been taken away from the pastor, who knows the soul best, and given to counselors, most of whom don't even believe in God. They can't cure spiritual ills. Baxter's Dictionary shows the genius of a man who could apply Scripture to all areas of life. Dr. James Packer calls it the greatest Christian book ever written.
Lewis Bayly's Practice of Piety is a model of a Puritan devotional manual. The idea was that of regulating one's entire day and life by Scripture. Dr. John Gerstner says that this book started the Puritan movement.
There was no area of life that the Puritans believed was not to be regulated by Scripture. Even time alone was to be put to godly use. Nathanael Ranew wrote a fine work titled Solitude Improved by Divine Meditation. This is the classic Puritan work on spiritual meditation. Ranew's premise is that even when alone the Christian can "improve" himself by putting his mind to good use, meditating on God and His attributes. If there were to be an eleventh commandment, it would be: "Thou shalt not waste time."
The Puritans wrote many of these kinds of "manuals." John Preston preached five sermons from 1 Thessalonians 5:17 on prayer, titled "The Saints' Daily Exercise," which is included in The Puritans on Prayer.
R.C. Sproul wrote the foreword to Jeremiah Burroughs' book, A Treatise on Earthly-Mindedness. Here is a book on the great sin of thinking like the world thinks rather than thinking God's thoughts after Him.
7. The Puritans will help us with pastoral counsel. The Puritans were very pastoral, in addition to being very theological. I have found more comfort in their writings than I can ever tell you. Let me read you a quote from my favorite, a man named Christopher Love, about whom I wrote a book entitled "A Spectacle Unto God." We have published the first volume of Love's works. This is from his 15 sermons entitled Grace: Look not so much on your sins, but look upon your grace also, though weak.
Weak Christians look more on their sins than on their graces; yet God looks on their graces and overlooks their sins and infirmities. The Holy Ghost said, "Ye have heard of the patience of Job." He might also have said, "Ye have heard of the impatience of Job," but God reckons His people not by what is bad in them, but by what is good in them. Mention is made of Rahab's entertainment of the spies, but no mention is made that she told a lie when she did so. That which was well done was mentioned to her praise, and what was amiss, is buried in silence, or, at least, is not recorded against her and charged upon her. He who drew the picture of Alexander, with his scar on his face, drew him with his finger on his scar. God lays the finger of mercy upon the scars of our sins, O it is good serving such a master, who is ready to reward the good we do, and is ready to forgive and pass by what is amiss. Therefore, you who have but little grace, yet remember that God will have His eye on that little grace. He will not quench the smoking flax, not break the bruised reed.
Or this from his yet-unpublished sermons on God's pardoning penitent sinners:
Take this for your comfort, O you perplexed conscience: when you are in a corner, none but God and your own soul together, you think no man's sin so grievous as yours. Then take this for your comfort: let your sin be never so great, yet the satisfaction and sufferings of Christ are far greater. "The blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin." The Red Sea did with as much ease drown Pharaoh and all his host as it could do a single man. The red sea of Christ's blood can drown a whole host, and a huge multitude of sins, as well as a small lust. Though you have need to shed more tears for sin in a way of contrition, yet Christ needs not shed more blood for sin in a way of redemption, for "He hath saved them to the utmost that come unto God by Him.
The Apostle, triumphing in the fifth chapter of Romans, means that there is not so much evil in sin to damn us as there is good in the gift, in Christ, to save us, because your sin is the guilt of the creature, and Christ's satisfaction is the satisfaction of God. Your sin is the sin of a finite creature, and His sufferings are the sufferings of an infinite Mediator. Too often we are tempted in our dealings with our parishioners to see problems as either totally physical or totally spiritual. Seldom is this the case. But the Puritans were willing to take close examination into situations rather than look for simple, and too often simplistic, answers to complex problems.
We often want, as do our people, a quick fix to problems. But sin gets complicated, right? And we can't take an approach that says, "Take two verses and call me in the morning," or we will destroy our people. Robert Harris, in his 24 sermons on the Beatitudes, makes these distinctions in dealing with meekness as opposed to anger. And you would notice, if you were able to read these sermons, that it is because the Puritan pastor asked
questions before he made comments. Would that we were willing to do the same!
There are two sorts of anger. one reasonable and warrantable. If a man is justly angry, displeased upon good ground, it need not be any bar to his coming before God in prayer. Nay, a man ought to pray rather that God would sanctify his anger, and that he would make spiritual anger out of natural anger. But if his anger is groundless and unreasonable, he may pray; but how? He is to confess and bewail it in prayer, to complain of it unto God and to crave strength against it. For as long as a man retains a settled resolution of malice, hatred, and revenge in his heart, he is no state to pray; and if he does pray, he has his answer given him beforehand by the prophet in Psalm 66:18: "If I regard iniquity in mine heart, the Lord will not hear my prayer." So that such a one may see by that what he shall trust to, touching his prayers. But if a man, finding himself thus causelessly distempered, shall recall and check himself, and be moved with dislike and detestation of this evil in himself, and so come to God for help and cure, there needs no question be made but he may confidently come into God's presence, coming as a patient to his physician for cure.
Question. But how am I to be angry, and in what sort must I bear myself in my anger toward a friend?
Answer 1. I answer hereunto two ways: first, negatively, and so we must not be angry with anyone; first, for that which is good, for that is the devil's anger; second, not for things merely indifferent, for in these there is a breath and liberty permitted; third, not for infirmities, either natural or ordinary and unavoidable, for these none are without, nor can be. And here, to show ourselves to be angry against others, is to forget ourselves to be men.
Answer 2. Second, I answer positively: we must be angry only for sin, and not simply for sin but as it carries some obstinace, willfulness, and contempt along with it; as that he will not be ruled by counsel, and will take no warning. Here only we have leave and liberty to be angry, for contempt is the proper object of anger, as we showed before.
As you can see, these fine distinctions were not only important, but absolutely necessary in dealing with souls. We would do well to follow their example. And let me help dispel that notion of hard-hearted, stuffy, legalistic, dour old Puritans with this counsel from Christopher Love, in a sermon on Luke 11:28, which has not yet been published, but is in the making at this time. The sermon is on the blessedness of those who hear the word of God and keep it:
But you will say, "If they only are blessed who hear the Word of God and keep it, who practice what they hear, then where is a blessed man to be found? For where is that man alive who can keep, who can live answerably to what he hears? I hear many a sin reproved which I cannot forbear. I hear many a duty pressed which I cannot perform. I hear many a grace persuaded unto which I cannot act. Now how can any man be blessed, seeing he cannot keep what he hears?"
ANSWER. If you indeed lived under a covenant of works, you could never be a blessed man because you can never keep what you hear according to that exactness which a covenant of works requires, for that commands a man to keep the whole law, to keep it perfectly, and to keep it personally. But for your comfort know that you are under a covenant of grace, which does not require a perfect, but a sincere obedience to the law of God; which accepts the will for the deed. Oh, remember that you are not under a covenant of works, but a covenant of grace, which accepts what Christ has done and suffered for you (if you are a believer) as if it were done in your own person.
Though, indeed, that is true which Christ said to the young man, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments" (Matthew 19:17), yet you must know that Christ spoke this unto him because He knew him to be of a pharisaic temper, and that he thought to be saved by his good works. But if Christ should say thus unto any of us, "You shall go to heaven if you keep every command, and you shall never go to heaven if you break any one command," the Lord have mercy on us! We should then all perish to eternity. But Christ said, "Believe and live." Now promise (not work) is the object of faith (Romans 4:16). Therefore Ambrose was wont to say, "Let us hope for pardon as of faith, not of debt."
In a word, make conscience to keep what you hear; bewail your inability to fulfill the law of God; do what you can, and mourn that you can do no better; and then God will say, "Though you cannot keep the law completely, yet My Son has kept it for you. I accept His obedience as your obedience, and His righteousness as your righteousness." Oh, what grace and mercy is here! How may this cheer up your hearts in the midst of all discouragements that lie upon you! Again, for your comfort, know that if in sincerity of heart you endeavor to keep what you hear, in divine acceptance it is all the same as if you had perfectly kept all that you hear. If it is the desire and labor of your soul to obey God's will and observe His commands, in divine acceptance it is looked upon as if it were actually done by you.
It is worth your noticing what is said in Scripture: "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promise, offered up his only begotten son" (Hebrews 11:17). Abraham did not actually do what is said here that he did, but because Abraham did it in the purpose of his heart, because the desire and resolution of his soul was to obey God's command, therefore the Scripture accounts it as done! Oh, take this for your comfort, you who are a child of Abraham, who walk in the steps and faith of Abraham, the very desires and purposes of your heart are looked upon as if they were really and actually done. If you would pray better, hear better, and practice more than you do, in divine account this is looked upon as if you had already done it.
In the covenant of grace, the righteousness of Christ, and the satisfaction made by Christ, are held forth and tendered to the justice of God. The Surety is punished and the debtor is spared. "The Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:3, 5). And, the Apostle says, "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 2:1-2). So here mercy may be found to help and relieve a poor sinner who is lost in the covenant of works. In this covenant of grace, God accepts the will for the deed. He does not stand so strictly upon it as to cast the sinner out of favor for every transgression, but "as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him" (Psalm 103:13). That is, He pities those who are faithful with God in covenant, those who strive to do the will of the Lord and flee to His grace for pardon and acceptance, those who repent of their transgressions and promise and perform upright obedience. For in this covenant there is place for repentance and mercy for the penitent.
Let me give you one more quote from Christopher Love in dealing with a perplexed soul:
Objection. Some discouraged soul will say, "How can I venture to trust that the holy Jesus will perform the part of Savior to me when I know that my iniquities against Him are innumerable and aggravated in an uncommon degree?"
ANSWER. For that very reason you ought to be the more disposed and determined to trust Him for salvation from them. You must permit me to inform you that so far as your desire of salvation from the love and practice of iniquity is sincere, you resolve to rely upon Him for that salvation. Without this resolution, it will be impossible for you to evidence to your conscience the sincerity either of your complaints of sin or of your desires of salvation from it. In proportion as you do not fully resolve and endeavor to trust in the Lord Jesus for salvation from your sins, you love them; and your complaining for the number and greatness of them is hypocritical. Besides, your taking occasion from your innumerable and great transgressions to say, "I dare not trust in the holy Jesus for salvation" shows that you are wishing for some good thing, either in your dreadful prevalence of a self-righteous spirit as well as of unbelief in you. You should consider that the salvation of Jesus Christ is infinitely free, and that the more numerous and the more heinous your sins are, the more need you have of Him and of His salvation, and therefore the greater need to believe in Him.
If you could suppose that the omnipotent Savior never yet performed such a great work as the saving of a sinner from sins so innumerable and so great as yours are, even this could be no just obstacle to your trusting in Him because the depth of His immense love has never yet been sounded (Ephesians 3:18-19), and the greatness of His ability to save has never yet been searched out. He has never yet done the utmost that He can do. Suppose the mountain of your innumerable sins were so high as, with its height, to reach not only the clouds, but the throne of the Eternal Himself; suppose that, and another, and ten thousands of them were piled up, and the whole cast into the abyss of redeeming love and redeeming blood: the waters of that bottomless, boundless ocean would still be as high above them as the heaven is high above the earth (Psalm 103:11).
It is worth your notice what Moses said of the mercy seat "It covered the whole ark wherein the law was kept." This notes that though you are a man or a woman guilty of all the law's breach – not only of one command, but of all the commands – yet the mercy seat covered all the commands, to teach you that the mercy of God can pardon the greatest violation of the law. Therefore the ark wherein the law was kept was all covered by the mercy seat.
8. The Puritans will help us with evangelism that is biblical. Most evangelism today is man-centered, but Puritan evangelism was God-centered. The Puritans had another doctrine which has largely been lost today, and it goes by the name of "seeking," or "preparation for salvation." It was widespread in the English Puritans and the Reformers. It was taught by Jonathan Edwards in his sermon "Pressing Into the Kingdom," and before that by his grandfather Solomon Stoddard. Stoddard wrote A Guide to Christ, which John Gerstner calls the finest manual on Reformed evangelism he knows of. Additionally, you might want to read Thomas Watson's Heaven Taken by Storm.
The doctrine of seeking teaches us that God works through means, and if a man wants to be saved, he ought to avail himself of those means. Let me give you an example. Faith comes by hearing, and men are saved by faith, or more correctly, men are saved by grace through faith. But if I need faith to please God, and I realize that I don't have it in me to believe in God savingly, what should I do?
Here's where "seeking" comes in. If faith comes by hearing, then I ought to hear someone preach an orthodox sermon about Christ. If God is going to save me, His normal means will be through the preaching of the Gospel. God is under no obligation to save me if I hear a sermon, but He is not likely to save me apart from hearing a sermon about God's grace.
The sinner, then, ought to do all in his natural power to soften his heart. He can't earn salvation, but at least he can cooperate with God in this salvation, rather than oppose Him. I'm not making myself pleasing to God by seeking, since I'm doing it out of self-interest, but I am making myself less offensive to God rather than more offensive, and even if God doesn't save me, my punishment in hell will be less. And the Puritans would say, "If you can't go to God with a right heart, then go to God for a right heart." Seek the Lord.
9. Reading the Puritans will help us have right priorities. Second Corinthians 5:9 says, "We have as our ambition . . .to be pleasing to the Lord." One Puritan said it this way, "God's smile is my greatest reward; His frown is my greatest fear." If it is true that we become like the people with whom we spend our time, then it is an investment in eternity to spend your time with the Puritans. Then spend your time with the best! Jeremiah Burroughs' book Gospel Fear is on having the right priority. It is seven sermons on Isaiah 66:2, on what it means to tremble at the Word of God. If God says, "to this man will I look, who . . . trembleth at My Word," then we'd better know what it is to tremble at the Word of God.
10. The Puritans can help us clarify the issue of how a man is made right with God. Another title of Solomon Stoddard's which I would most highly recommend is his masterpiece on imputed righteousness entitled The Safety of Appearing on the Day of Judgment in the Righteousness of Christ. I cannot overemphasize the importance of being sound on this matter of imputed righteousness in this day when so many are not sound on the eternal difference between imputed and infused righteousness. The difference between these two positions is not simply the distance between Rome and Geneva; it is the distance between heaven and hell. I would commend to your reading our book entitled Justification by Faith ALONE for this issue. If you specifically want a Puritan title on the matter, pick up our book The Puritans on Conversion, or, if you think you are ready for the hard stuff, try Matthew Mead's book, which is our best-selling Puritan book, The Almost Christian Discovered. Mead goes through 26 things that a person must do as a Christian, but doing them doesn't prove that he indeed IS a Christian, although NOT doing them would prove he wasn't a Christian! It's not for the faint of heart. This was the 17th century version of The Gospel According to Jesus, 300 years before John MacArthur wrote that fine work.
11. Finally, let's look at the Puritans and the authority of the Word. We know that the Scripture is God speaking to us. The classic verse in Timothy tells us that "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God (literally, God-breathed)" And we know that whatever God says, we must obey. In fact, that was what the Old Testament people of God realized. In Exodus 24:7 they declare, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient." There isn't anything God says that we must no do; and if we don't we are not Christians! It's that simple!
The Puritan divines who were members of the Westminster Assembly in 1643 wrote,
The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed, and obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man, or Church; but wholly upon God (who is truth itself) the Author thereof; and therefore it is to be received because it is the Word of God.
We know that when God speaks we must listen. In fact, a great part of the Great Commission is to teach people to submit to the authority of God's Word - "teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:20).
This is what amazed people when Jesus taught. Matthew 7:29 says that when Jesus taught, the people were amazed. What was the basis for the amazement? "He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes."
That is exactly how preachers are to preach: with authority. It is a command of God that they do that. " These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee." (Titus 2:15). While we affirm that if God were to say something we would obey it, we forget that the faithful minister is God speaking to us today. It is the Reformation view of the pulpit ministry that when a faithful minister is expounding the Word of God, that is God's voice you are haring, not a man's; and that means it is to be obeyed.
But what do you hear after the sermon? At best you will hear, "That's interesting: I'll have to think about it." But God never gave us His Word for our opinion or for us to think about; He gave us His Word to obey.
The Puritan Thomas Taylor wrote:
The word of God must be delivered in such a manner that the majesty and authority of it shall be preserved. The ambassadors of Christ must speak His message even as He himself would utter it. A flattering ministry is an enemy to this authority; for when a minister must sing placebos and sweet songs, it is impossible for him not to betray the truth. To withstand this authority, or to weaken it, is a fearful sin, whether in high or low men; and the Lord will not allow his messengers to be cut off. Hearers must (a) pray for their teachers, that they may deliver the Word with authority, with boldness, and with open mouth; (b) not mistake this authority in ministers as anger or bitterness, and much less madness; and (c) not refuse to yield subjection to this authority, nor be angry when it bears down upon some practice which they are loath to part with; for it is just with God to put out the light of those who refuse the light offered.
Deuteronomy 30:20 equates loving God with obeying his voice; in fact, it says that is how we love God.
Well, that is how the Puritans viewed Scripture. Their high view of God came from their high view of Scripture. and if we want to know God they way they did, we must love His Word the way that they did. And that love will be increased only by diligent, intensive study. And to read the Puritans is the next best thing. In fact, it is like going to school with the finest minds the church has ever had.
Where should you start? I recommend to the beginner the following titles:
The True Christian's Love to the Unseen Christ, Thomas Vincent.
The Mischief of Sin or The Duty of Self-Denial, Thomas Watson
Gleanings from Thomas Watson, a little book of collected sayings.
The Grace of Law, Ernest Kevan; a good book on the role of the Law in Puritan theology. The Puritans on Conversion, The Puritans on Prayer.Two very excellent compendiums that give the reader the best of Puritan thought on the respective subjects.
About the Author:
Dr. Don Kistler, founder of the Northampton Press, was born in California in 1949, the second of five sons of Jack and Faye Kistler. He grew up on a dairy farm in Central California and graduated from Azusa Pacific College in Southern California in 1971 with a double major in public speaking and religion. He holds the M. Div. and D. Min. degrees, and is an ordained minister. Prior to entering the gospel ministry, Dr. Kistler coached high school and college football for over 15 years.
Dr. Kistler pastored a local church for four years. As part of his preaching and teaching ministry, he has spoken at conferences with such notable figures as Dr. John MacArthur, Dr. R. C. Sproul, Dr. D. James Kennedy, Dr. J. I. Packer, Dr. John Gerstner, Elisabeth Elliot, Dr. Sinclair Ferguson, Dr. Michael Horton, Rev. Alistair Begg, Dr. Albert M. Mohler, the late Dr. James Boice, and Rev. Eric Alexander, to name just a few.
Dr. Kistler is the author of the book A Spectacle Unto God: The Life and Death of Christopher Love, and Why Read the Puritans Today? and is the editor of all the Soli Deo Gloria Puritan reprints. He was a contributing author for Justification by Faith ALONE!; Sola Scriptura; Trust and Obey: Obedience and the Christian; Onward, Christian Soldiers: Protestants Affirm the Church; and Feed My Sheep: A Passionate Plea for Preaching.
He has edited over 150 books. He currently resides in Orlando, FL.
Here is what some noted Christian figures have had to say about Don Kistler’s teaching:
“I heartily recommend Don to you. He is a man with a strong love for the Word and a keen desire to teach it. Don’s teaching has resulted in encouraging many to a life of godliness.”
John MacArthur
“Don Kistler is a shrewd, down-to-earth exponent of classical Reformed convictions about Christian belief and behavior. The burden of his ministry is to apply these convictions realistically for the purging and enriching of faith and life today. I commend his ministry to all who care about the matters of his concern.”
Dr. J.I. Packer
“Don’s knowledge of Reformed and, especially, Puritan theology is extensive and precise. In addition, he is an articulate person, lively in communication. Don Kistler is a line-on-line preacher of God’s Word, and many of his one-liners are superb!”
Dr. John Gerstner
“I have been impressed with Don’s teaching ability and the depth of the lessons. He could not have plumbed those depths of spiritual discernment without plumbing some great depths of human suffering first.”
Elisabeth Elliot
“Don Kistler has committed himself to the old way of faithfulness to the Word of God, even though that may be unpopular and out of fashion, and delights in the preaching and teaching of the gospel. I have listened to him with profit to my soul as he opened, explained, and applied the truths of Holy Scripture.”
Dr. John R. DeWitt
Contact Information
PO Box 781135
Orlando, FL 32878-1135
drdon@donkistler.org
www.northamptonpress.org
http://www.donkistler.org/