Nick Roark's Blog, page 11

“Our people don’t so much need to have their heads stored, as to have their hearts touched” by Jonathan Edwards

“I don’t think ministers are to be blamed for raising the affections of their hearers too high, if that which they are affected with be only that which is worthy of affection, and their affections are not raised beyond a proportion to their importance, or worthiness of affection.

I should think myself in the way of my duty to raise the affections of my hearers as high as possibly I can, provided that they are affected with nothing but truth, and with affections that are not disagreeable to the nature of what they are affected with.

I know it has long been fashionable to despise a very earnest and pathetical way of preaching; and they, and they only have been valued as preachers, that have shown the greatest extent of learning, and strength of reason, and correctness of method and language: but I humbly conceive it has been for want of understanding, or duly considering human nature, that such preaching has been thought to have the greatest tendency to answer the ends of preaching; and the experience of the present and past ages abundantly confirms the same.

Though as I said before, clearness of distinction and illustration, and strength of reason, and a good method, in the doctrinal handling of the truths of religion, is many ways needful and profitable, and not to be neglected, yet an increase in speculative knowledge in divinity is not what is so much needed by our people, as something else.

Men may abound in this sort of light and have no heat: how much has there been of this sort of knowledge, in the Christian world, in this age?

Was there ever an age wherein strength and penetration of reason, extent of learning, exactness of distinction, correctness of style, and clearness of expression, did so abound?

And yet was there ever an age wherein there has been so little sense of the evil of sin, so little love to God, heavenly-mindedness, and holiness of life, among the professors of the true religion?

Our people don’t so much need to have their heads stored, as to have their hearts touched; and they stand in the greatest need of that sort of preaching that has the greatest tendency to do this.

Those texts,

Isa. 58:1, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins”; and Ezek. 6:11, “Thus saith the Lord God, smite with thine hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, alas, for all the evil abomination of the house of Israel!”—

I say, these texts (however the use that some have made of them has been laughed at) will fully justify a great degree of pathos, and manifestation of zeal and fervency in preaching the Word of God.

They may indeed be abused, to justify that which would be odd and unnatural amongst us, not making due allowance for difference of manners and custom, in different ages and nations; but let us interpret them how we will, they at least imply that a most affectionate and earnest manner of delivery, in many cases, becomes a preacher of God’s Word.”

–Jonathan Edwards, “Some Thoughts Concerning the Revival of Religion in New England,” in The Great Awakening, ed. Harry S. Stout and C. C. Goen, Revised Edition, vol. 4, The Works of Jonathan Edwards (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2009), 4: 387-388.

“We have in Jesus an almighty Friend” by J.C. Ryle

“The truth here taught is full of strong consolation for all true Christians.

We live in a world full of difficulties and snares.

We are ourselves weak and compassed with infirmity.

The awful thought that we have a mighty spiritual enemy ever near us, subtle, powerful, and malicious as Satan is, might well disquiet us, and cast us down.

But, thanks be unto God, we have in Jesus an almighty Friend, who is ‘able to save us to the uttermost.’

He has already triumphed over Satan on the cross.

He will ever triumph over him in the hearts of all believers, and intercede for them that their faith fail not.

And He will finally triumph over Satan completely, when He shall come forth at the second advent, and bind him in the bottomless pit.

And now, Are we ourselves delivered from Satan’s power?

This after all is the grand question that concerns our souls.—He still reigns and rules in the hearts of all who are children of disobedience. (Ephes. 2:3.)

He is still a king over the ungodly.

Have we, by grace, broken his bonds, and escaped his hand?

Have we really renounced him and all his works?

Do we daily resist him and make him flee?

Do we put on the whole armour of God and stand against his wiles?

May we never rest till we can give satisfactory answers to these questions.”

–J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Mark (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1857/2012), 72-73. Ryle is commenting on Mark 5:1-17.

“Jesus can and has and will do all this and more” by Bobby Jamieson

“Ecclesiastes is a quest that does not bring back all the quester hoped to find.

Ecclesiastes is a question. Its pages do not return a full answer; many loose threads dangle.

Qohelet, like a stand-up comic, squinted to bring truths into surprising focus, but what is the whole truth that he not only did not know but could not know?

The philosopher at the party seems full of socially insensitive bad news.

Sure, when you sit with him long enough, you hear some surprisingly good news too.

But is Qohelet’s good news the best we can hear?

Qohelet the photographer captured and chronicled all that he saw, and he claimed to see it all.

But has anything entered the picture since?

One reason for Qohelet’s uncommon common sense is that he is painfully and persistently aware of his and everyone’s limits.

No one can tell the future.

No one can guarantee success or secure gain.

No one can turn away death at their door.

There is nothing new under the sun. To use the hackneyed current vocabulary, these are Qohelet’s priors.

Grant these premises—which are hard to deny—and Qohelet’s conclusions follow with grim necessity.

These premises draw the lines that have confined every human since Adam and Eve took their fatal bites.

Except one. Jesus of Nazareth is a human being.

He is also, mysteriously, much more than a human being.

He is not only a human being but the God who is the judge of humanity.

He is not only a creature; he is also the creator who gives everyone every good gift they ever get.

If you had met him in Judea two thousand years ago, what you would have seen was obviously and unimpressively human, but the one you were meeting is also the sole agent responsible for the existence of all things.

As a man, he was subject to the natural limits of humanity, including, in our post-fall condition, mortality.

As God the Son, he is subject to no limit, not confined by any finitude.

Instead, he is himself full, free, unhindered, and unthreatenable life.

Is there anything new under the sun?

Can any human being turn death away at their door?

Can anyone secure gain or guarantee success?

Who can tell the future?

Jesus can and has and will do all this and more.”

–Bobby Jamieson, Everything Is Never Enough: Ecclesiastes’ Surprising Path to Resilient Happiness (New York: WaterBrook, 2025), 205-206.

“The Son precedes, creates, and outlives the universe” by Bobby Jamieson

“The Son precedes, creates, and outlives the universe.

Transcending the transience and change endemic to creatures, even angels, the Son is the eternal, immutable God.”

-R.B. Jamieson, The Paradox of Sonship: Christology in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2021), 64. Bobby is commenting on Hebrews 1:10-12.

“Your failure need not be final because Jesus is risen” by Sinclair Ferguson

“At this point, it has been less than forty-eight hours since Peter had denied that he even knew Jesus, and he also realized that Jesus had seen and heard him do so.

And I sometimes wonder, “Did anyone apart from Jesus know that Peter had denied Him?” If not, then these words (Mark 16:5-7) take on a special significance, don’t they?

No mention of the details of Peter’s failure, just: “Tell Peter I’m risen. Make sure Peter knows. Make sure he knows that there is still hope for him.”

Simon Peter was given a special role in the disciple band.

He was the first to open the doors of the kingdom to those who believed on the day of Pentecost.

He was the first Apostle to preach the gospel to gentiles in the house of Cornelius.

But on that Sunday, all this lay in an unknown and– he must have felt, at least– hopeless future.

Peter must have been a broken man at this point. So sure of himself, yet so disastrously wrong about himself.

Surely he could still feel the rush of shame that came over him when he realized that Jesus had been watching him across the courtyard and heard him denying that he knew Him.

It’s hardly surprising that Peter fled from the high priest’s courtyard into the darkness of the Jerusalem night to weep his heart out.

Was he another Judas?

That is why the angel’s words must have meant a great deal to him.

Not only was Jesus alive, but He had a special message for him:

“Peter, the Lord you denied is not dead. He has been raised from the dead and will meet His band of disciples again. And He wants you, you in particular, Peter, to know it. Your denying Him may have added to His sorrows, but it has not destroyed His love for you.”

I think I was twenty-three years old and just a very young minister when my senior minister preached a sermon on the book of Jonah.

The title he gave it has lodged itself permanently in my memory banks: “Failure Need Not Be Final.”

That was the message for Peter. Peter’s failure need not be final– nor yours either.

That is the good news that comes to you today from the risen Savior.

So whatever your failure has been, come and tell Him all about it.

Your failure need not be final because Jesus is risen.”

–Sinclair B. Ferguson, Things Unseen: One Year of Reflections on the Christian Life (Sanford, FL: Ligonier, 2024), 146-147.

“Heart-burning preaching” by Sinclair Ferguson

“In many seminaries and training courses for preachers and teachers, this passage has become a proof text for preaching from the Old Testament.

It’s become a major emphasis for pastors to preach Jesus from the Old Testament.

People who speak on preaching to preachers often choose to speak about this, and that is all well and good. There are even books that will tell you how to preach Christ from virtually anywhere in the Old Testament.

But there is a problem, and I think a misunderstanding, that is sometimes evident.

What is often forgotten is that in this passage (Luke 24), it’s the Jesus of the Gospels who’s explaining how the Old Testament bore witness to Him.

I say that because too often, this kind of preaching sounds as though the Old Testament is like a puzzle whose solution is Jesus, and then the sermon stops.

Little or nothing is said about the Jesus who appears in the Gospels.

The result is that in the end, Christ, who is Himself the Incarnate One, is not really preached to us, but the Christ we hear about is simply the solution to the plotline problem.

But it’s the incarnate Christ that we need, not the explanation of the plotline or the solution to a literary riddle.

We need the Christ proclaimed in the Gospels, the flesh-and-blood Christ.

The Christ who was tempted in all points as we are and who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities because He felt them Himself.

We need the Christ who touched lepers, who delivered men and women captured by Satan and in bondage in sin, who loved with a love that drew people to Him.

I sometimes wish that those who teach preaching and teaching in whatever context emphasized the absolute necessity of knowing how to preach Christ from the New Testament.

Because too often, the same preacher who is determined to show how to get to Christ from the Old Testament doesn’t actually seem so determined to get to Christ from the New Testament, particularly from the Gospels.

We should never forget that it was the Christ of the Gospels who helped these two disciples see how the various parts of the Old Testament bore witness to Him.

In fact, in Luke 24, the litmus test that Christ has been preached is not in verse 27, which says, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:27)

Rather, the litmus test is found in verse 32, which says, “They said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?‘” (Luke 24:32)

That is the preaching that we need and the preaching for which we should pray-heart-burning preaching.

So whether we’re preachers or hearers, let’s pray that we’ll hear that kind of preaching.”

–Sinclair B. Ferguson, Things Unseen: One Year of Reflections on the Christian Life (Sanford, FL: Ligonier, 2024), 144-145.

“It’s Christ who saves us” by Sinclair Ferguson

“Jesus explained to Peter why and how he would be saved, and this explanation must have been an anchor to his soul that dark Jerusalem night. Peter was saved because Jesus prayed for him.

In other words, Peter’s salvation was guaranteed not by what was done in him but by what Jesus did for him.

There is a message there for all of us: Our security doesn’t lie in ourselves.

It doesn’t even lie in what God has done in us, wonderful though that is.

It lies in Jesus and His intercession for us.

Remember what Hebrews says: “He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).

Peter was learning a great lesson that we need to learn too.

It’s not by our regeneration that we are preserved.

It’s not even by our faith that we are preserved, though the power of God that keeps us does work through faith.

It’s Christ who saves us- the Christ who died for us, who rose again for us, who is at God’s right hand for us, who makes intercession for us.

That is why nothing can separate us from the love of God, and that is why we can sing the hymn by Charitie Bancroft:

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see him there,
Who made an end to all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died,
My sinful soul is counted free;
For God, the just, is satisfied
To look on him and pardon me.

That is Jesus’ intercession for us. His very presence before God, the Lion-King who became the Lamb who was slain-that is the intercession we need.

Remember that if you’ve stumbled and fallen.

Look to Him, and you will live.”

–Sinclair B. Ferguson, Things Unseen: One Year of Reflections on the Christian Life (Sanford, FL: Ligonier, 2024), 130-131.

“When this Son arose, He kept rising” by Bobby Jamieson

“As Hebrews 1:3 hints, this Son who existed before the ages came to exist as a human. At His incarnation, this Son “for a little while was made lower than the angels,” and in His death He tasted death for everyone (2:9).

He came to share in flesh-and-blood humanity, so He could disarm by His own death the one who had the power of death (2:14–15). In His death Jesus not only defeated the devil but redeemed His people from their sins against God’s first covenant (9:15).

Christ came into the world to do God’s will (10:5–9), ultimately offering the body God had prepared for Him in order to sanctify and perfect His people (10:10, 14). To become a merciful and faithful high priest, Jesus “had to be made like His brothers in every respect” (2:17), which involved not only becoming human but also sinlessly enduring temptation (2:18; 4:15). This Son lived an unmistakably human life.

In anguished suffering He cried out to God and was answered (5:7). “Although He is the Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered” (5:8, my translation). As the “founder” of His people’s salvation, He had to be made “perfect through suffering” (2:10).

After suffering faithfully, Jesus was indeed made perfect, and “he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek” (5:9–10).

The incarnate Son, like the Levitical priests, was mortal (7:8, 23). He lived, suffered, died. But He rose again with life indestructible and so arose as a priest in the likeness of Melchizedek (7:15–16).

When He thus arose, the same one who said to Jesus “You are my Son” also said to Him “You are a priest forever” (Heb 5:5–6; Ps 2:7; 110:4), and so He now “holds His priesthood permanently” (Heb 7:24) and “always lives” to intercede for His people (7:25).

When this Son arose, He kept rising, passing through the heavens (4:14), being exalted above the heavens (7:26), and finally entering God’s dwelling itself, the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle in heaven (6:19–20; 8:1–5; 9:11–12, 23–26).

Like the Levitical high priests who yearly entered the earthly Holy of Holies with blood, in order to offer it there (9:7), Jesus entered the Holy of Holies in heaven through His own blood, in order to offer to God His own blood, body, and self (7:27; 9:11–14, 24–25; 10:10, 12, 14).

After offering to God this singular, sufficient sacrifice, Christ sat down at God’s right hand (1:3; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2), where He reigns over all, and from where He will return to save His people (9:28).”

-R.B. Jamieson, The Paradox of Sonship: Christology in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2021), 5.

“The One who is the radiance of God” by Bobby Jamieson

“The One who sustains all things entered human life in order to set aside sin (Hebrews 9:26).

The One who is the radiance of God sat down next to God after offering Himself to God (Hebrews 9:14).”

-R.B. Jamieson, The Paradox of Sonship: Christology in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2021), 3.

“One whose mighty heart affection knows no bottom” by J.C. Ryle

“Mark the depth and width of our Lord’s sympathies and affections.

The Saviour on whom we are bid to repose the weight of our sinful souls is one whose love passeth knowledge.

Shallow, skin-deep feelings in others, we all know continually chill and disappoint us on every side in this world.

But there is one whose mighty heart affection knows no bottom.

That one is Christ.”

–J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John, Volume 3 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1873), 3: 228. Ryle is commenting on John 19:26-27.