A Word to Non Communing Christians

We have a particular problem in certain parts of Scotland with believers not coming to the Lord’s Table and entering church membership by public profession. Where would you imagine this word of exhortation comes from?  (I have retained archaic grammar and vocabulary.)

WE be come together at this time, (dearly beloved brethren) to feed at the Lord's supper; unto the which, in God's behalf, I bid you all that be here present; and beseech you, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, that ye will not refuse to come thereto, being so lovingly called and bidden of God himself. Ye know how grievous and unkind a thing it is, when a man hath prepared a rich feast, decked his table with all kind of provision, so that there lacketh nothing but the guests to sit down; and yet they which be called (without any cause) most unthankfully refuse to come. Which of you in such a case would not be moved? Who would not think a great injury and wrong done unto him? Wherefore, most dearly beloved in Christ, take ye good heed, lest ye, withdrawing yourselves from this holy Supper, provoke God's indignation against you. It is an easy matter for a man to say, I will not communicate, because I am otherwise letted with worldly business. But such excuses be not so easily accepted and allowed before God. If any man say, I am a grievous sinner, and therefore am afraid to come; Wherefore then do ye not repent and amend? When God calleth you, be you not ashamed to say you will not come? When you should return to God, will you excuse yourself, and say that you be not ready? Consider earnestly with yourselves, how little such feigned excuses shall avail before God. They that refused the feast in the Gospel, because they had bought a farm, or would try their yokes of oxen, or because they were married, were not so excused, but counted unworthy of that heavenly feast. I for my part am here present, and according to mine office, I bid you in the Name of God, I call you in Christ's behalf, I exhort you, as you love your own salvation, that ye will be partakers of this holy Communion. And as the Son of God did vouchsafe to offer up himself by death upon the cross for our salvation; even so it is our duty to celebrate and receive the holy Communion together in the remembrance of his death and sacrifice, as he himself commanded. Now, if you will in no wise thus do, consider with yourselves how great injury you do unto God, and how sore punishment hangeth over your heads for the same; And whereas you offend God so grievously in refusing his holy banquet, I admonish, exhort, and beseech you, that unto this unkindness you will not add any more: which thing you shall do, if ye stand by as gazers and lookers on them that do communicate, and be not partakers of the same yourselves. For what thing can this be accounted else, than a further contempt and unkindness unto God. Truly, it is a great unthankfulness to say nay, when ye be called: but the fault is much greater when men stand by, and yet will not receive this holy sacrament which is offered unto them. I pray you, what can this be else, but even to have the mysteries of Christ in derision? It is said unto all, Take ye and eat, Take and drink ye all of this, Do this in remembrance of me. With what face then, or with what countenance shall ye hear these words? What will this be else, but a neglecting, a despising, and mocking of the Testament of Christ? Wherefore rather than ye should so do, depart you hence, and give place to them that be godly disposed. But when you depart, I beseech you ponder with yourselves from whom ye depart: Ye depart from the Lord's Table; Ye depart from your brethren, and from the banquet of most heavenly food. These things if ye earnestly consider, ye shall by God's grace return to a better mind: for the obtaining whereof we shall make our humble petitions, while we shall receive the holy Communion.

Answer in a later blog!

Balaich a' Bhiobaill/Bible Boys

In an age when we so often feel that the secular cultural is against Christianity, it is refreshing to find the BBC featuring a series on students training for the Free Church of Scotland ministry and doing so in a most sympathetic manner.

For non Gaelic speakers this BBC Alba programme is fully subtitled, so English speakers are not left out.

One word of caution, however.  The series might give those unfamiliar with the Free Church the impression that we are a predominantly Gaelic speaking denomination who only sing metrical psalms.  Neither is true.  The Free Church is a national evangelical church embracing both English speaking and Gaelic speaking congregations. We are culturally diverse, united by a common commitment to the Reformed faith.  In part this is a powerful evidence of the unifying power of the Gospel.  It is natural, however, that the Gaelic language BBC service (Alba) features Gaelic speaking students - I could not see BBC Scotland, (the English language service) making an equivalent series!

Our theological college, the Edinburgh Theological Seminary, also trains ladies, not for the ministry of Word and Sacrament but for other pastoral roles within the church. Thus the female presence in lectures.  We also have non Free Church students who train at the ETS, and its student numbers are growing every year.

I for one will not only be looking to follow this excellent series, but praying that it might have a positive and spiritual benefit for all who watch it:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06cw5wp

The Absolution of Sins

In Reformed worship, should we follow the confession of sin with a declaration of forgiveness and absolution of sin?  Many draw back from this out of a fear of Romanism and a false and shallow assurance given to those who show no real repentance.  Perhaps we are best to avoid the term absolution and instead speak ofthe  assurance of pardon and forgiveness.

However, there is a biblical foundation for the declaration of forgiveness: “ “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld”  (John 20:23)  That declaration is not based on some magical power in the minister enabling him to forgive sin; it is based on an authoritative declaration of the Gospel. Why should we avoid a positive declaration, “Your sins are forgiven”? Why should we be circuitous in declaring the Gospel promise of pardon?

Calvin says “We know that the gate of life is only opened by the Word of God. From this it follows that the key is put into the hand of the ministers of the Word … For Christ, by setting us free by His Gospel from the guilt of eternal death, looses the snares of the curse by which we were held bound. Therefore He declares that the doctrine is appointed for loosing our chains, so that, loosed by the voice and testimony of men on earth we may in actual fact be loosed also in heaven.”  (Commentary on Matthew 16:19)

However, if we are to authoritatively declare forgiveness of sin, what of “if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld”?  Again, this is a declaration based on the Word; it is the dark side of the Gospel, that judgment rests on those who refuse God’s mercy.  The Heidelberg Liturgy of 1563 includes a declaration of judgment on the impenitent:

“But as there may be some among you, who continue to find pleasure in your sin and shame, or who persist in sin against their conscience, I declare to such, by the command of God, that the wrath and judgment of God abides upon them, and that all their sins are retained in heaven, and final;ly that they can never be delivered from eternal damnation, unless they repent.”  

( http://rscottclark.org/2012/08/the-heidelberg-liturgy-1563/)

Interesting, although I have occasionally heard a declaration of Gospel forgiveness in Reformed worship, I have never heard a declaration of judgement on the impenitent.

New Directory for Public Worship (8)

CONFESSION OF SINS

Editor’s Comments: The conclusion of the appendix from The Confession of Sins in "Hermann's Consultation," ed. 1545, on the absolution of sins.  Again, I have modernised where possible and changed bible quotes to the ESV.

Comfortable Words.

Hear the Gospel from John 3:16.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Or from 1 Tim. 1:15.

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners…

Or from John 3:35,36.

The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life…

Or from Acts 10:43.

To Christ all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Or from 1 John 2:1,2.

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins.

When the pastor shall have proclaimed one of these Gospel words to the people, he shall add :

Seeing that our blessed Lord has left this power to His Church that she should absolve from their sins, and restore to the grace of our heavenly Father, all those who repent of their sins, and truly believe in Christ our Lord ; I, as a minister of Christ and of His Church, do now declare to all present here whose sins are grievous [distressing] to them, and who truly believe in Christ our Lord, and desire to follow Him as His disciples, the forgiveness of all their sins, the grace of God, and life everlasting, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Editor: I intend to take up this issue of the authoritative declaration of forgiveness of sin, (absolution), in Reformed worship in a later blog.

New Directory for Public Worship (7)

CONFESSION OF SINS

Editor’s comment: The New Directory is very full in detailing public confession. It does so by giving both seed thoughts and examples of prayers under three headings: our sins against God, against our fellow men, and against the Gospel and the Holy Spirit.

Following these examples (given in a previous posting) the following appendices are included.

I will modernise as far as possible and conform scriptural quotations to the ESV. 

It is sad that this rich liturgical tradition is now all but lost in evangelical presbyterian worship, which owes more to the historical influence of radical Cromwellian influences than to the Scottish Reformation.

APPENDIX. I.

The Reformation Confession of Sins, 1525.

Heavenly Father, merciful and everlasting God, we acknowledge and confess before your Divine Majesty that we are poor miserable [pitiable] sinners, conceived and brought forth in sin and corruption. We are prone to all evil. We cannot, without you, do anything that is good. And we daily, and in many ways, transgress your holy commandments. In doing so we provoke your anger against us, and draw down upon ourselves, by your just judgment, death and destruction.

But, O Lord, we repent and are sorry from our hearts that we have so displeased you. We condemn ourselves and our misbehaviour, and pray that your grace may bring help to our distress and misery.

Be pleased, therefore, to have mercy upon us, O most gracious God and Father. Forgive us all our sins, through the holy sufferings of your dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Forgive us our sins; and grant us now the gifts of your Holy Spirit. Increase these in us from day to day ; so that we, acknowledging with our whole hearts our own unrighteousness, may truly repent of such; that sin may be destroyed in us ; and that we may bring forth the fruits of righteousness and a pure life which are well pleasing to you, through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Historical Note.

This Confession of Sins — "die offne Schuld," as itis called in German-speaking Reformed Churches — is ascribed to Oecolampadius, the friend of Zwingli, and the Reformer of Basel. It appears in the liturgy of the Protestant Church of Zurich, in 1525. It occurs in the French liturgy which was published by Calvin at Geneva, in 1541, but which had been drawn up by him previously, and had been used by Protestant pastors of Geneva for several years before it was printed.

It is the second " Confession of Sins " in the " Book of Geneva," used in that city in the English Congregation of which John Knox was minister. It is first in the Scottish Book of Common Order.

Calvin's Service- book, republished in Latin in 1545, was the chief source from which this Confession passed rapidly into use in  the Reformed Church catholic, and even in several of the Lutheran Churches. It stands, for example, in the present Liturgy of the National Church of Würtemberg as the first Confession of Sins for Days of Fasting, being taken from the Service-book of the Church of the Palatinate.

It appears in English, among other prayers, at the end of an edition of Sternhold and Hopkins' Psalms, in 1566, under the title of "A Confession for all Estates and Times." Some writers have erroneously ascribed it to Beza, who used it in a striking scene at the Colloquy of Poissy, in 1561.

This ancient Confession of Sins is used in the Waldensian Church, both in the Valleys and in Italy. It is repeated in all the various branches of the Church of Holland and of the Church of the Huguenots, both in the Old World and in the New. It stands in all the Swiss, all the French, all the Rhineland Liturgies to this day. For almost four hundred years this Confession has been on the lips and in the heart of the Reformed Church all over the world.

The " General Confession " in the Anglican Communion Service, which appears in the first Prayerbook of Edward VI. (1549), is closely akin to the Reformation Confession of Sins, especially in the form given below, in which it appears in the document known as “Hermann's Consultation." The General Confession in the Morning and Evening Services of the Church of England is drawn, like much else in the Prayer-book, from Presbyterian sources. It comes from Calvin's Service-book of 1545 through the liturgies of Pollanus and Alasco. Comp. (Bannerman, Worship of the Presbyterian Churchy pp. 79, 80, and 1 1 3- 1 1 9, with the references there given. )

II. The Confession of Sins in "Hermann's Consultation," ed. 1545.

" How the Lord's Supper is to be celebrated.''

"When the people are gathered together for this action as it is in accordance with true piety that, as often as we appear before God in his Church, we should before all things acknowledge and confess our sins, and pray for forgiveness ; let the minister who is to dispense the Lord's Supper, when he comes to the altar, make confession in the name of the whole Church, and that in the German tongue, so that all may understand, after this manner :

Almighty, Everlasting God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Maker of all things, Judge of all men, we acknowledge and lament that we were conceived and born in sins, and so are prone to all evil and averse to all that is truly good. We have transgressed your holy commandments without measure and without end,through contempt of you and of your Word, through distrust of your help and trust in ourselves and in worldly things, through evil impulses and actions, whereby we have most grievously offended against your Divine Majesty and against our fellows. We have thus more and more buried ourselves and lost ourselves even unto death eternal. This grieves us to the very heart ; and we pray that you would forgive us for all the things in which we have sinned against you. We plead for your help against the sin that dwells in us, and against Satan who ever stirs it up. Save us from sinning further against you. Cover all our iniquities with the righteousness of your Son. Subdue them in us by your Spirit, and cleanse us thoroughly from them in the end.

Have mercy upon us, O most good and merciful Father, for yourSon our Lord Jesus Christ's sake.

Grant unto us, and increase in us, your Holy Spirit, that he may teach us inwardly and truly to acknowledge our sins, to mourn over them with lively [active] repentance, and to receive and hold fast, with a true faith, the forgiveness of them in Christ our Lord, so that, dying daily more and more to sin, we may serve and please you in newness of life, to the glory of your name, and the profit of your Church.

These things we acknowledge that you justly require of us, therefore we desire to do them. Be pleased, O you our Heavenly Father, who has given us this desire, to grant also that we be diligent to do with our whole heart those things which pertain to our salvation, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

R C Sproul on Apostasy

Given the denial by many that there is denominational apostasy in Scotland, we need to be able to define apostasy.  Some define it in such a way that it is almost impossible for it to occur. Sadly others define it in such a way that it is almost impossible for it to be avoided. Thus you have, on the one hand, those who say that a denomination that accepts homosexual conduct in its members or permits ministers to deny foundational truths is not apostate. On the other hand you have those who say if you don't use the KJV you must be apostate. Sproul with perfect balance shows the possibility of both doctrinal and moral apostasy:

There are at least two ways in which a religious group fails to meet the standards of being a church.

The first is when they lapse into a state of apostasy. Apostasy occurs when a church leaves its historic moorings, abandons its historic confessional position, and degenerates into a state where either essential Christian truths are blatantly denied or the denial of such truths is widely tolerated.

Another test of apostasy is at the moral level. A church becomes apostate de facto when it sanctions and encourages gross and heinous sins. Such practices may be found today in the controversial systems of denominations, such as mainline Episcopalianism and mainline Presbyterianism, both of which have moved away from their historic confessional moorings as well their confessional stands on basic ethical issues.

Genesis 5:24  Enoch Walked with God

Why have we forgotten the bible commentary of Thomas Scott, the 18th century Anglican evangelical whose conversion was much influenced by John Newton.  Here is a sample that I read this week of the devotional style of Scott's comments:

 Genesis 21 24. " Walking with God," is a figurative description of the intimate communion, which subsists between a merciful God and true believers.  "Can two walk together except they be agreed?" Amos 3:3. Without coincidence in sentiment, judgment, and disposition, there can be no cordial union nor harmony.

But man is naturally propense to those things which God abhors and forbids, and averse from those which he loves and commands. Man's understanding is darkened, his judgment perverted, his affections depraved, and his taste vitiated by sin ; so that, in almost everything, his views, his choice, his desires, and pursuits, are the reverse of those which the Scripture requires. Thus he is induced to walk contrary to God, to contract guilt, and merit condemnation.

A sinner's walk with God, therefore, commences with the change of his judgment and disposition by divine grace. Then he begins to repent of his sins, to despise the world in comparison of the favour of God, to "hunger and thirst after righteousness," to seek forgiveness and acceptance in the way of God's appointment, and to devote himself to his love and service, and the pursuit of holiness.

Having been thus reconciled to God, he walks with him by habitual repentance, and "faith in our Lord Jesus Christ ;" in a realizing regard to the presence of God in his whole conduct ; a daily dependence on the promise, providence, and grace of God, for all things needful for soul and body ; and a continual attention to his word, that from thence he may learn his truth and will, and derive the peace and comfort of his salvation ; by pouring out his heart before the Lord in fervent prayer and grateful praise ; by a believing, reverential, and delightful attendance on all the ordinances of his worship, and an open profession of his faith and love ; by a conscientious obedience to all his commandments, without regarding the praise or censure of men ; by submission to his providential appointments ; and finally, by attention to every relative obligation, a careful improvement of every talent, a circumspect conversation, and endeavouring to " adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things," and to recommend religion to all around him.

The Lord, on his part, answers the expectations of those who walk with him. He supplies their wants, interposes in their emergencies, and evidences his care of them : he meets them in his ordinances, teaches them from his word, answers their prayers, accepts their services : he communicates by his Spirit, wisdom, strength, and consolation to their souls, and is indeed then" Guide, Companion, and Counsellor through life : and at length he meets them at death, and takes them into " his presence, "where is fullness of joy."

Thus ends the walk of faith; for thenceforth they walk by sight, and see him as he is; being forever with him, and like him in holiness and felicity.