Nick Roark's Blog, page 7

“It is a gracious and loving Father they need to know” by Sinclair Ferguson

“Confessional orthodoxy coupled with a view of a heavenly Father whose love is conditioned on His Son’s suffering, and further conditioned by our repentance, leads inevitably to a restriction in the preaching of the gospel.

Why? Because it leads to a restriction in the heart of the preacher that matches the restriction he sees in the heart of God! Such a heart may have undergone the process that Alexander Whyte described as “sanctification by vinegar.”

If so, it tends to be unyielding and sharp edged. A ministry rooted in conditional grace has that effect; it produces orthodoxy without love for sinners and a conditional and conditioned love for the righteous.

In the nature of the case there is a kind of psychological tendency for Christians to associate the character of God with the character of the preaching they hear—not only the substance and content of it but the spirit and atmosphere it conveys.

After all, preaching is the way in which they publicly and frequently “hear the Word of God.” But what if there is a distortion in the understanding and heart of the preacher that subtly distorts his exposition of God’s character?

What if his narrow heart pollutes the atmosphere in which he explains the heart of the Father?

When people are broken by sin, full of shame, feeling weak, conscious of failure, ashamed of themselves, and in need of counsel, they do not want to listen to preaching that expounds the truth of the discrete doctrines of their church’s confession of faith but fails to connect them with the marrow of gospel grace and the Father of infinite love for sinners.

It is a gracious and loving Father they need to know.

Such, alas, were precisely the kind of pastors who gathered round poor Job and assaulted him with their doctrine that God was against him. From their mouths issue some of the most sublime discrete theological statements anywhere to be found in the pages of the Bible.

But they had disconnected them from the life-giving love of God for his needy and broken child Job. And so they too “exchanged the truth about God for the lie.”

This will not do in gospel ministry. Rather, pastors need themselves to have been mastered by the unconditional grace of God. From them the vestiges of a self-defensive pharisaism and conditionalism need to be torn.

Like the Savior they need to handle bruised reeds without breaking them and dimly burning wicks without quenching them.

What is a godly pastor, after all, but one who is like God, with a heart of grace; someone who sees God bringing prodigals home and runs to embrace them, weeps for joy that they have been brought home, and kisses them—asking no questions—no qualifications or conditions required?

In these respects the Marrow Controversy has a perennial relevance to all Christians. But it has a special relevance to gospel preachers and pastors.

It raises the question: What kind of pastor am I to my people? Am I like the father?

Or am I, perhaps, like the elder brother who would not, does not, will not, and ultimately cannot join the party?

After all, how can an elder brother be comfortable at a party when he still wonders if his once-prodigal brother has been sorry enough for his sin and sufficiently ashamed of his faults?””

–Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016), 72-73.

“What a book” by James Hamilton

“One day I hope to offer to John my congratulations and appreciation. I fully expect him to direct all praise to God in Christ through the Spirit, as he should, but I hope he also feels encouraged that we appreciated the difficulty of what he undertook, the profundity with which he accomplished it, and the elegance and beauty that by God’s grace he gave the world. What a book.

And it goes without saying but must be said: As good as the Gospel of John is, the master whose story it tells is even better.

John has produced a book that brings together the world-historical import of a Genesis with the reflective depths of an Ecclesiastes. His is a book that radiates as much glory as the Psalter even as it scales theological heights with ease comparable to Isaiah, with the urgent passion and love of Deuteronomy joined to the symbolic power of Hosea.

John was a man who meditated on the Scriptures, and in his beautiful book we read the words of someone shaped by them, a man who knew what it was to be loved by their fulfillment, a man who followed in the footsteps of his master and made God known to men.”

–James Hamilton, In the Beginning Was the Word: Finding Meaning in the Literary Structure of the Gospel of John (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2025), 13.

“In a little while you will meet in heaven” by John Newton

“As to your opponent, I wish, that, before you set pen to paper against him, and during the whole time you are preparing your answer, you may commend him by earnest prayer to the Lord’s teaching and blessing. This practice will have a direct tendency to conciliate your heart to love and pity him; and such a disposition will have a good influence upon every page you write.

If you account him a believer, though greatly mistaken in the subject of debate between you, the words of David to Joab, concerning Absalom, are very applicable: “Deal gently with him for my sake.”

The Lord loves him and bears with him; therefore you must not despise him, or treat him harshly. The Lord bears with you likewise, and expects that you should shew tenderness to others, from a sense of the much forgiveness you need yourself.

In a little while you will meet in heaven; he will then be dearer to you than the nearest friend you have upon earth is to you now. Anticipate that period in your thoughts; and though you may find it necessary to oppose his errors, view him personally as a kindred soul, with whom you are to be happy in Christ forever.

But if you look upon him as an unconverted person, in a state of enmity against God and His grace, (a supposition which, without good evidence, you should be very unwilling to admit,) he is a more proper object of your compassion than of your anger. Alas! “he knows not what he does.”

But you know who has made you to differ. If God, in His sovereign pleasure, had so appointed, you might have been as he is now; and he, instead of you, might have been set for the defense of the Gospel. You were both equally blind by nature. If you attend to this, you will not reproach or hate him, because the Lord has been pleased to open your eyes, and not his.”

–John Newton, The Works of John Newton, Volume 1 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1988), 1: 268-270.

“His heralds must woo for Him” by Michael Reeves

“Inside the pulpit in London where I learned to preach was a little inscription meant only for the eyes of the preacher as he stepped up to his task: “SIR, WE WOULD SEE JESUS.”

Those words from John 12:21 (KJV) made clear what I was there to do. Yet simple as the message was, it was not shallow. Indeed, it reflected the deepest wells of Christian thought.

For Jesus Christ is the truth and glory of God; in Him the grace and life and wisdom of God is found. In His face, we see “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God” (2 Cor. 4:6).

He is the revealing Word sent forth by the Father, and the One about whom the Spirit of truth testifies.

Indeed, God breathes out the Scriptures through the Spirit precisely so that through the Word of Christ we might be made “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15).

That is why the law finds its fulfillment in Him (Rom. 10:4) and why the prophets, the apostles, and all the Scriptures testify about Him (Luke 24:27, 44-46; John 5:39-40, 46).

He is the Lord of Israel, the rock of Moses, the commander of the Lord’s army, the suffering servant, the end of the law, the true temple, and the promised Messiah.

He has always been the one true object of saving faith, for He is, exclusively, the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Him (John 14:6).

He is the “one mediator between God and men” (1 Tim. 2:5), so that “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

He is the beginning, the middle, and the end of our salvation. He is the one we were made for.

He is not the peddler of some other truth, reward, or message, as if through Christ we get to receive the real blessing, whether that be heaven, grace, life, or whatever.

“Life” is not something to which He merely points the way. No! He is the Living One: the life and wisdom of the Father now shared with us in the Spirit. He is life, and life is to be found only in Him.

For the preacher, the application is straightforward: if the desire of the Father, the work of the Spirit, and the purpose of Scripture is to herald Jesus, then so must the faithful preacher.

If the Son’s great and eternal goal is to win for Himself a bride, then His heralds must woo for Him.

They are like Abraham’s servant in Genesis 24, commissioned to find a bride for his master’s son. Only when we take our eyes off ourselves and herald Him will we truly glorify God.

But when we do that, we may be sure that our preaching will always be evangelistic and, at the same time, always edifying to the saints.”

–Michael Reeves, Preaching: A God-Centered Vision (Bridgend, UK: Union, 2024), 47-49.

“He has not left us as orphans” by Sinclair Ferguson

“Sonship is characterized now by the tension between what has already been accomplished for us in Christ and what is yet to be accomplished. We already possess the adoption as sons and the presence of the Spirit of adoption.

But precisely because of that, we long for its consummation. Those who have the Spirit of adoption (the ‘firstfruits of the Spirit’) groan, says Paul (Rom. 8:23). Why?

Because enjoying the privileges of sons now, we anticipate the glorious liberty of sons in the future when we receive the ‘adoption as sons’ which Paul describes variously as ‘the redemption of our bodies’ and ‘the freedom of the glory of the children of God’ and being ‘glorified with Him’ (Rom. 8:23, 21, 17).

Sonship, then, has a retrospective and a prospective dimension. It recognizes what has already been accomplished: we have been adopted into God’s family and experience the access and liberty of grace.

But it also recognizes that more is still to be accomplished: we look forward to eschatological adoption, and the access and liberty of glory. The omega-point of Christian experience has not yet come for us. But it will; the fact that we are already children of God is the guarantee.

Sonship, however, is also centered in Jesus Christ. It is because he has entered our family that we enter the family of God (Heb. 2:5- 18). Only because he is not ashamed to call us brothers may we call his Father, ‘our Father’ (cf. John 20:17).

Indeed it can be argued that in Pauline thought the resurrection of Christ is viewed as his ‘adoption’— not in the sense that he became Son of God in the resurrection, but insofar as he was ‘declared to be [marked out as] the Son of God in power… by his resurrection’ (Rom. 1:4). He was ‘firstborn from the dead’, brought into the family of the new age by resurrection.

Through union with Christ, in which we are ‘raised into newness of life’, we too are adopted into that family. It is, therefore, only in Christ, in the family fellowship we have with him, that we are adopted children of God.

He has not left us as orphans, after all (John 14:18). He has given us the Spirit of adoption as sons (Rom. 8:15).”

–Sinclair Ferguson, “The Reformed Doctrine of Sonship,” in Some Pastors and Teachers: Reflecting a Biblical Vision of What Every Minister is Called to Be (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2017), 586-587.

“Jesus is still sympathizing” by J.C. Ryle

“Our Lord Jesus Christ, as God, has almighty power. We see Him in these verses doing that which is impossible. He speaks to the winds, and they obey Him. He speaks to the waves, and they submit to His command.

He turns the raging storm into a calm with a few words,—“Peace, be still.” Those words were the words of Him who first created all things. The elements knew the voice of their Master, and, like obedient servants, were quiet at once.

With the Lord Jesus Christ nothing is impossible. No stormy passions are so strong but He can tame them. No temper is so rough and violent but He can change it. No conscience is so disquieted, but He can speak peace to it, and make it calm. No man ever need despair, if He will only bow down his pride, and come as a humbled sinner to Christ.  Christ can do miracles upon his heart.

No man ever need despair of reaching his journey’s end, if he has once committed his soul to Christ’s keeping. Christ will carry him through every danger. Christ will make him conqueror over every foe.

What though our relations oppose us? What though our neighbours laugh us to scorn? What though our place be hard? What though our temptations be great? It is all nothing, if Christ is on our side, and we are in the ship with Him. Greater is He that is for us, than all they that are against us.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is exceedingly patient and pitiful in dealing with His own people. We see the disciples on this occasion showing great want of faith, and giving way to most unseemly fears. They forgot their Master’s miracles and care for them in days gone by. They thought of nothing but their present peril. They awoke our Lord hastily, and cried, “carest thou not that we perish?”

We see our Lord dealing most gently and tenderly with them. He gives them no sharp reproof. He makes no threat of casting them off, because of their unbelief. He simply asks the touching question, “Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?”

Let us mark well this lesson. The Lord Jesus is very pitiful and of tender mercy. “As a father pitieth his children, even so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.” (Psalm 103:13) He does not deal with believers according to their sins, nor reward them according to their iniquities. He sees their weakness. He is aware of their short-comings. He knows all the defects of their faith, and hope, and love, and courage.

And yet He will not east them off. He bears with them continually. He loves them even to the end. He raises them when they fall. He restores them when they err. His patience, like His love, is a patience that passeth knowledge. When He sees a heart right, it is His glory to pass over many a shortcoming.

Let us leave these verses with the comfortable recollection that Jesus is not changed. His heart is still the same that it was when He crossed the sea of Galilee and stilled the storm. High in heaven at the right hand of God, Jesus is still sympathizing,—still almighty,—still pitiful and patient towards His people.”

–J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Mark (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1859/2012), 67-68. Ryle is commenting on Mark 4:35-41.

“He has always been a haven to preserve us” by Stephen Charnock

“God is a perpetual refuge and security to His people.

His providence is not confined to one generation; it is not one age only that tastes of His bounty and compassion.

His eye never yet slept, nor has He suffered the little ship of His church to be swallowed up, though it has been tossed upon the waves.

He has always been a haven to preserve us, a house to secure us.

He has always had compassions to pity us and power to protect us.

He has had a face to shine when the world has had an angry countenance to frown.”

–Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God, ed. Mark Jones, Updated and Unabridged, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2022), 1: 412.

“Meditate often on the patience of God” by Stephen Charnock

“Meditate often on the patience of God.

The devil labours for nothing more than to deface in us the consideration and memory of this perfection.

He is an envious creature, and since it hath reached out itself to us, and not to him, he envies God the glory of it, and man the advantage of it.

But God loves to have the volumes of it studied, and daily turned over by us.

We cannot without an inexcusable willfulness miss the thoughts of it, since it is visible in every bit of bread, and breath of air in ourselves, and all about us.”

–Stephen Charnock, “A Discourse on God’s Patience,” The Works of Stephen Charnock, Volume 2 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1865/2010), 2: 538.

“Not all tears are an evil” by J.R.R. Tolkien

“The Third Age was over, and the Days of the Rings were passed, and an end was come of the story and song of those times. With them went many Elves of the High Kindred who would no longer stay in Middle-earth; and among them, filled with a sadness that was yet blessed and without bitterness, rode Sam, and Frodo, and Bilbo, and the Elves delighted to honour them.

Though they rode through the midst of the Shire all the evening and all the night, none saw them pass, save the wild creatures; or here and there some wanderer in the dark who saw a swift shimmer under the trees, or a light and shadow flowing through the grass as the Moon went westward. And when they had passed from the Shire, going about the south skirts of the White Downs, they came to the Far Downs, and to the Towers, and looked on the distant Sea; and so they rode down at last to Mithlond, to the Grey Havens in the long firth of Lune.

As they came to the gates Círdan the Shipwright came forth to greet them. Very tall he was, and his beard was long, and he was grey and old, save that his eyes were keen as stars; and he looked at them and bowed, and said: ‘All is now ready.’

Then Círdan led them to the Havens, and there was a white ship lying, and upon the quay beside a great grey horse stood a figure robed all in white awaiting them. As he turned and came towards them Frodo saw that Gandalf now wore openly on his hand the Third Ring, Narya the Great, and the stone upon it was red as fire. Then those who were to go were glad, for they knew that Gandalf also would take ship with them.

But Sam was now sorrowful at heart, and it seemed to him that if the parting would be bitter, more grievous still would be the long road home alone. But even as they stood there, and the Elves were going aboard, and all was being made ready to depart, up rode Merry and Pippin in great haste. And amid his tears Pippin laughed.

‘You tried to give us the slip once before and failed, Frodo,’ he said. ‘This time you have nearly succeeded, but you have failed again. It was not Sam, though, that gave you away this time, but Gandalf himself!’

‘Yes,’ said Gandalf; ‘for it will be better to ride back three together than one alone. Well, here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the Sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middle-earth. Go in peace! I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.’

Then Frodo kissed Merry and Pippin, and last of all Sam, and went aboard; and the sails were drawn up, and the wind blew, and slowly the ship slipped away down the long grey firth; and the light of the glass of Galadriel that Frodo bore glimmered and was lost. And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed on into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.

But to Sam the evening deepened to darkness as he stood at the Haven; and as he looked at the grey sea he saw only a shadow on the waters that was soon lost in the West. There still he stood far into the night, hearing only the sigh and murmur of the waves on the shores of Middle-earth, and the sound of them sank deep into his heart. Beside him stood Merry and Pippin, and they were silent.

At last the three companions turned away, and never again looking back they rode slowly homewards; and they spoke no word to one another until they came back to the Shire, but each had great comfort in his friends on the long grey road. At last they rode over the downs and took the East Road, and then Merry and Pippin rode on to Buckland; and already they were singing again as they went. But Sam turned to Bywater, and so came back up the Hill, as day was ending once more. And he went on, and there was yellow light, and fire within; and the evening meal was ready, and he was expected. And Rose drew him in, and set him in his chair, and put little Elanor upon his lap.

He drew a deep breath. ‘Well, I’m back,’ he said.”

–J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings: Illustrated Edition (New York: HarperCollins, 1954/2021), 1029-1031.

“Eternal sunshine!” by John Newton

“Yes, we hope for a transition in due time, from a throne of grace, to stand upon a throne of glory; to see Him who sitteth upon it, the Lamb that was slain, who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood!

Him, whom having not seen, we have obtained grace to love.

Indeed, He is to be seen now, but only with the eye of the mind.

He is the sun of the soul, and without him we should be like the earth if deprived of the light of the sun in the firmament.

There is a spiritual sunshine of which I can speak but faintly from experience.

But I would be thankful for daylight, by which I can see my way, and get a glimpse of my journey’s end.

Hereafter there will be a morning without clouds, a noon without night, a long, an everlasting day. Eternal sunshine!

In the mean time, I would retreat under the thought that the Lord reigns. He has wise reasons, though often inscrutable to us, both for what He appoints, and for what He permits.

Hereafter we shall know more.”

–John Newton, “Letter 109,” One Hundred and Twenty Nine Letters from the Rev. John Newton to Josiah Bull, Ed. William Bull (London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co., 1847), 261, 263.