my burg

I'm enjoying reading An Exhibition of the Law, the Gospel and the Holy Spirit , by Charles Simeon (1759-1836).  This is a selection of sermon outlines taken from his Horae Homileticae Commentary (21 volumes).  Simeon served faithfully as pastor at Holy Trinity Church in Cambridge (UK) for 53 years.  The many trials and oppositions he faced are related by John Piper in "Brothers, We Must Not Mind a Little Suffering"   Bishop Handley Moule's biography of Simeon can be downloaded for very little cost.  It's a very readable account of the life of Charles Simeon, who is an outstanding example of faithfulness in ministry, as well as, a preacher of great simplicity, clarity, and power.   Here are some highlights from Simeon's teaching on the gospel... It is the pride of the human heart which interposes the great obstacle to men's reception of the Gospel. They are averse to see the extent of their necessities: they will contend for some remnant of goodness ...

"But that is not the way you learned Christ!-- assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus..." (Ephesians 4:20-21 ESV) What does it mean, "you learned Christ"?  Here are some highlights from Martyn Lloyd-Jones' sermon on this passage:  "Christianity is not a vague, indefinite, nebulous kind of feeling or experience; patently it is something which can be defined and described; it is primarily a matter of knowledge." "The Christian therefore, by definition, is a man whose eyes have been opened, while the unbeliever is still blinded by the god of this world."  "How then has it all happened?  There is only one explanation-- this is the work of the Holy Spirit.  Nothing else, nobody else, can do this but the Holy Spirit.  It is His special, His peculiar work.  It is He alone who can remove the veil from the heart." "This truth is the most glorious thing we can ever realize toget...

"Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!"  (Ephesians 4:17-20 ESV) "...and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God."  (1 Corinthians 2:4-5 ESV) "The great philosopher has no advantage over the pagan in this matter of the gospel.  Until both of them come under the influence and the power of the Holy Spirit of God, neither will see it.  But thank God, when the Holy Spirit comes upon both, both will see it; not only the philosopher, ...

"Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart." (Ephesians 4:17-18  ESV)  "Now go through the whole of your Bible and you will find that this is what it says everywhere about man in sin and about man outside Christ.  It describes the kind of life people live, and then it asks its question, Why do they live like that?  There is, says the Bible, only one explanation: the failure is in their minds, their intellects, and their understanding.  The highest faculty in man has become blunted and blinded; he cannot see because of this pall that has descended upon him; he is surrounded by darkness.  But let me put this a little more theologically.  The most disastrous effect that the Fall of Man produced upon man was in his understanding. ...

"The church’s task primarily is to evangelize, and to bring people to a knowledge of God. Then, having done that, she is to teach them how to live their life under God as His people. The church is not here to reform the world, for the world cannot be reformed. The business of the church is to evangelize, to preach the Gospel of salvation to men who are blinded by sin and under the domination and the power of the devil. The moment the church begins to enter into the details of politics and economics, she is doing something that militates against her primary task of evangelism." ~ Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Life in the Spirit in Marriage, Home and Work: An Exposition of Ephesians 5:18 to 6:9 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1973), pp. 318–19.