Christ: No Doctrine More Excellent – J.Flavel

Free Grace Broadcaster – Chapel Library.

Yesterday before services I also did some reading in the Fall issue of The Free Grace Broadcaster which I referenced not so long ago. (See my Nov.6, 2013 post). The Fall issue is devoted to the doctrine of Christ and the opening article is by the Puritan John Flavel. I found these sections to be very instructive and inspiring for studying the Word of God. May you find them so too.

1. The knowledge of Jesus Christ is the very marrow and kernel of all the Scriptures, the scope and center of all divine revelations: both Testaments meet in Christ. The ceremonial law is full of Christ, and all the gospel is full of Christ. The blessed lines of both Testaments meet in Him. How they both harmonize and sweetly concenter in Jesus Christ is the chief scope of that excellent epistle to the Hebrews to discover, for we may call that epistle the sweet harmony of both Testaments. This argues the unspeakable excellence of this doctrine, the knowledge whereof must needs therefore be a key to unlock the greatest part of the sacred Scriptures. For it is in the understanding of Scripture, much as it is in the knowledge men have in logic and philosophy: if a scholar once comes to understand the bottom-principle upon which, as upon its hinge, the controversy turns, the true knowledge of that principle shall carry him through the whole controversy and furnish him with a solution to every argument. Even so the right knowledge of Jesus Christ, like a clue, leads you through the whole labyrinth of the Scriptures.

5. It is the most sweet and comfortable knowledge. What is it to be studying Jesus Christ, but to be digging among all the veins and springs of comfort? And the deeper you dig, the more do these springs flow upon you. How are hearts ravished with the discoveries of Christ in the gospel! What ecstasies, meltings, transports do gracious souls meet there? …A believer could sit from morning to night to hear discourses of Christ: “His mouth is most sweet’ (Song 5:16).

November “Tabletalk”: The Lord Was with Him – David Murray

The Lord Was with Him by David Murray | Reformed Theology Articles at Ligonier.org.

As I continue reading my November issue of Tabletalk, I was able to get to a couple more of the feature articles yesterday. The theme this month is taken from the Westminster Shorter Catechism’s opening Q&A, shortened to: “To Enjoy Him Forever”.

The two articles I read yesterday are “The Holy of Holies” (this article is not yet linked on the Ligonier website) by Rev.Daniel Hyde (URC minister in California) and “The Lord was With Him” by Dr.David Murray (professor at Puritan Reformed Seminary here in Grand Rapids).

Here is the end of Dr.Murray’s article – encouraging for us as we start the new week. Having been in God’s presence in worship yesterday, we need to know God is with us wherever we go in our day-to-day lives as well. That is the heart of the Christmas message (“God with us”!) and the heart of the covenant of grace (“I am with you.”). May we walk with God in this consciousness.

This was a varied experience. Though God never leaves any believer in whom He has come to live, there are times when He withdraws the sense of His presence, the feeling of His nearness. For example, we’re told that God left Hezekiah to test him (2 Chron. 32:31). That cannot mean God was with him one day and gone the next. Rather, it means that at this time Hezekiah did not have the conscious sense of God’s presence. God was there, but He was silent and still. Yes, the Spirit could be grieved under the old covenant, and such painful times taught these men how much they needed God’s active presence in their lives.

It was an everywhere experience. It was not confined to the temple or tabernacle, but God was with His people in building projects, in prison, on the throne, and on the farm. Wherever they went, whatever time of the day, they could enjoy God’s companionship. They could talk to Him, sing to Him, worship Him, enjoy Him wherever, whenever, whatever.

If Old Testament believers experienced this divine “withness”—this divine presence—how much more should we New Testament believers, who see Christ more clearly, who have the fullness of the Spirit’s indwelling, and who have so many other helps in our lives, families, and churches experience it?