Alistair Begg's Thoughts for Pastors

Last week I was blessed to attend a luncheon for pastors hosted by WLQV Faith Talk 1500. This is an annual event I enjoy greatly, and this year was my favorite yet, as the guest speaker was one of my favorites: Alistair Begg. In his message he suggested (with a tip of the hat to Owen and Warfield) that faithful preachers MUST have the following:

1) Spiritual wisdom and understanding about the mystery of the gospel

If we are to preach faithfully, we must above all else understand that "in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation." And, "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:19, 21). God has come to do for us what we could never have done for ourselves. This is the very heart of the gospel.

2) The experience of the power of truth in our own souls

This is not just a theoretical set of truths that we are expounding. Our congregation is asking, "Is he offering bread he has never tasted, or that bread by which he himself has been nourished?"

3) Skill in rightly dividing the word of God

It is not enough to merely be "a nice man." We would not accept it in any other field. Even if they were "nice men" you would not fly in an airplane if the pilot had never been in a cockpit or undergo cardiothoracic surgery performed by a man who'd never held a scalpel. People everywhere are dying under the preaching of "nice men." Let Scripture always be the source of our message. As preachers, we serve the Bible; it does not serve us.

4) Spiritual discernment of our congregation

Preach to the congregation you have, not to the congregation you wish you had. God has entrusted these very real souls to your care, not some other hypothetical ones.

 5) A zeal for the glory of God and genuine compassion for the souls of men and women.

John Murray spoke of preaching as "a personal, passionate plea." 2 Corinthians 5:19 and 21 were mentioned earlier. Verse 20, of course fits in between them is: "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." Preaching is not just a sharing of the facts presented in the Bible. It goes one step further to imploring people to be reconciled to God on account of those facts.

Richard Baxter once proclaimed, "I seldom come out of the pulpit but my conscience smiteth me that I have been no more serious and fervent." We should similarly be convicted that we could have done more, but at the same time be comforted by the fact that "a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench" (Isaiah 42:3), knowing that he is pleased to place his "treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us."

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...B.B. Warfield on the Presence of the Trinity in the Old Testament

"The Old Testament may be likened to a chamber richly furnished but dimly lighted; the introduction of light brings into it nothing which was not in it before; but it brings out into clearer view much of what is in it but was only dimly or even not at all perceived before. The mystery of the Trinity is not revealed in the Old Testament; but the mystery of the Trinity underlies the Old Testament revelation, and here and there almost comes into view. Thus the Old Testament revelation is not corrected by the fuller revelation which follows it, but only perfected, extended, and enlarged."

B.B. Warfield

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all. This is not true of us only when we believe. It is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be true as long as we live. Our need of Christ does not cease with our believing; nor does the nature of our relation to Him or to God through Him ever alter, no matter what our attainments in Christian graces or our achievements in behavior may be. It is always on His “blood and righteousness” alone that we can rest.

B.B. Warfield, Works, 7:113

We All Need the Gospel...Continually

Tullian Tchividjian, Senior Pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, posts the following quote today from B.B. Warfield:

There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all. This is not true of us only when we believe. It is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be true as long as we live. Our need of Christ does not cease with our believing; nor does the nature of our relation to Him or to God through Him ever alter, no matter what our attainments in Christian graces or our achievements in behavior may be. It is always on His “blood and righteousness” alone that we can rest.

This quote is in the same vein as a post from Tullian a couple weeks ago which spoke of our ongoing need for the Gospel. I highly recommend his blog, On Earth as it is in Heaven, as his Gospel-exalting, Christ-centered theology constantly deepens my appreciation for the grace of God.