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Saturday, July 22, 2017

Order of Worship 07-23


Good Morning, Calvary! Thanks for spending another Lord’s Day with us, together. If you are a visitor here please remember to fill out a visitor card & let us know anything we can be praying about, for you. Announcements can be found at the back of your Order of Worship, here are just a couple: the Greeting Team is looking for a few more volunteers as a way to welcome visitors & serve your fellow church members & there is an upcoming Ladies event a Lunch & Swim Aug 13th, all ladies are welcome but please sign up in the foyer for it so they can plan that out. Calvary, let’s get up & welcome one another & then we’ll come together & worship.  
Call to Worship Worship Leader: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts: Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
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Trinity Hymn
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We just sang about our Wonderful, Merciful Savior. Once you’ve come the realization that you need a Savior one of the 1st things you will do is Repent & Confess your sin, follow along with me as we all join together in confession of sin found in Psalm 14 – “The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. [But] all have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, [no] not even one.”

And lets be reminded of our Forgiveness of sin through Christ from the Valley of Vision which says, “Holy Trinity, all praise to you for electing me unto salvation, by foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, to obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. It is not the feeling of the Spirit that proves my saved state but the truth of what Christ did perfectly, for me.”
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Hymn of Assurance  
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As the servers come forward to receive our offerings let’s take a few moments as a family to share any good news or thanksgivings we can praise God for today.
I’ll start, most of my youngest girl’s life we’ve struggled & stressed as a family over her frequented tumors, I am quite happy to say since you prayed over her that she’s had at least 3 follow-ups so far since her last surgery without any regrowth to be concerned about. Praise God. Anyone else? (Wait, be patient)
Great! We’ll let’s thank God today not just with our words but also with our deeds & with our generosity. Amen?
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Benediction – from
Rom. 15:5-6 - May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Go in Peace!

Friday, July 21, 2017

the Great JC Ryle - as awesome as it is convicting

Richard Hobson spoke of JC Ryle's greatness in these terms, after Ryle's death:
"[He] was great through the abounding grace of God. He was great in stature; great in mental power; great in spirituality; great as a preacher and expositor of God's most holy Word; great in hospitality; great in winning souls to God; great as a writer of Gospel tracts; great as an author of works which will long live, great as a bishop of the Reformed Evangelical Protestant Church of England of which he was a noble defender, great as the first Bishop of Liverpool. I am bold to say that perhaps few men in the nineteenth century did so much for God, for truth, for righteousness, among the English speaking race and in the world as our late bishop."

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

1 hour Bio & a few Beliefs of C H Spurgeon!


Question: "Who was Charles Haddon Spurgeon?"

Although C H Spurgeon lived for less than 60 years he was a highly influential Baptist preacher from England in the 1800s. Spurgeon remains even today a highly influential among Christians of various denominations, among whom he is known as the "Prince of Preachers".

Spurgeon was the son and grandson of Congregational ministers. He came to faith in 1850 while listening to a Methodist Preacher. Brian has told us that story of how he was caught in a snowstorm & went into the Methodist church merely to escape the cold & came out a Convert (that’s Sovereign Grace, guys).
On his way to a scheduled appointment, a snowstorm forced him to cut short his intended journey and to turn into a Primitive Methodist chapel in Artillery Street, Colchester where, he claimed, God opened his heart to the salvation message. The text that moved him was Isaiah 45:22 – "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else." Later that year on 4 April 1850, he was admitted to the church at Newmarket. His baptism followed on 3 May in the river Lark, at Isleham.

Later that same year he moved to Cambridge, where he became a Sunday school teacher. He preached his first sermon in the winter of 1850–51 in a cottage at Teversham while filling in for a friend. From the beginning of his ministry his style and ability were considered to be far above average. In the same year, he was installed as pastor of the small Baptist church at Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire, where he published his first literary work, a Gospel tract written in 1853. In 1854, before he was even 20 years old, he became the pastor of the New Park Street Chapel, a Baptist church in London.

Within a few weeks, many conversions resulted from Spurgeon’s preaching, and the church building could not accommodate the crowds. The congregation also outgrew several other venues until finally the Metropolitan Tabernacle, which seated 6,000, was built specifically for this purpose. Spurgeon preached there from 1861 to 1891, shortly before his death. His sermons were printed in the London papers weekly. Spurgeon also wrote prolifically (his collected sermons fill 63 volumes, which is the largest set of books by one author in the history of Christianity).
Many of his sermons were transcribed and were translated into many languages & scattered all over the world. Spurgeon produced powerful sermons of penetrating thought and precise exposition. His books Lectures to My Students and Commenting and Commentaries were the result of his work with pastoral students and both are still on the reading lists in many modern seminaries. Spurgeon also published the Sword and Trowel magazine regularly.

Spurgeon’s sermons were powerful and direct, but also contain elements of humor. Spurgeon was a pastor, an evangelist, and a careful expositor of Scripture. His sermons are still popular today and are noted for their combination of eloquence and down-to-earth applications. His Treasury of David (an exposition of Psalms) is one of his most popular works, as is his devotional Morning and Evening. Most of Spurgeon’s material is still in print and highly recommended.
Immediately following his fame came criticism. The first attack in the press appeared in the Earthen Vessel in January 1855. The complaint was against his preaching, although not revolutionary in substance, it was a plainspoken and contained a direct appeal to the people, using the Bible to provoke them to consider the teachings of Jesus Christ. Critical attacks from the media persisted throughout his life. The congregation quickly outgrew their building, and moved to Exeter Hall, then to Surrey Music Hall. In these venues Spurgeon frequently preached to audiences numbering more than 10,000. At 22, Spurgeon was the most popular preacher of the day.[6]

Charles Spurgeon was unashamedly both a Calvinist and a Baptist. He did not shrink from controversy and was outspoken against false teaching and hypocrisy when it arose. He attacked both hyper-Calvinism and Arminian theology. He accused evangelical Anglicans of hypocrisy for continuing to use the Anglican baptismal service found in the Book of Prayer, even though they did not believe in baptismal regeneration. During the “Downgrade Controversy,” (that Brian mentioned last week) Spurgeon accused fellow Baptists of teaching liberal theology, and he eventually withdrew from the Baptist Union over this issue.

Spurgeon died in 1892. In his nearly 40 years of pastoring, it’s estimated that he had preached 3,500 sermons to about 10 million people, and he reached even more through his written works. Spurgeon has left a continuing legacy of love for Christ and God’s Word that still influences pastors and laymen today.
On 7 October 1857, he preached to his largest crowd ever – 23,654 people – at The Crystal Palace in London. But Spurgeon noted a more important event:
In 1857, a day or two before preaching at the Crystal Palace, I went to decide where the platform should be fixed; and, in order to test the acoustic properties of the building, cried in a loud voice, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." In one of the galleries, a workman, who knew nothing of what was being done, heard the words, and they came like a message from heaven to his soul. He was smitten with conviction on account of sin, put down his tools, went home, and there, after a season of spiritual struggling, found peace and life by beholding the Lamb of God. Years after, he told this story to one who visited him on his death-bed.
Spurgeon is a power example to us today as a believer, a saint, a preacher & a man of God. 
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Any questions or comments before we move along?
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 So what I wanted to do was talk just a bit about a few points of believe that I feel Spurgeon himself would have stressed to us from everything I’ve read of the man.
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1st is Believe like a Christian - 1689 Spurgeon’s Confession
Spurgeon was a strong figure in the Reformed Baptist tradition, defending the Church in agreement with the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith understanding, and opposing the liberal and pragmatic theological tendencies in the Church of his day.
Spurgeon loved the 1689 Confession of Baptist faith; this would be a great resource to read a section of in your quiet time daily or before you went to bed & as you drifted off thinking through all the implications that it teaches on anything from Christian Liberty to the Sabbath, to Saving Faith to Adoption. I think being reminded of the old faith is a great way to be encouraged about your faith today & you’ll probably learn something new, I know I often do when coming back to it.
Read the 1689 Spurgeon intro & pass it around for them.
**Anyone ever read the 1689, how bout the BF&M? That is this churches confession of faith. Anyone ever used a confession for personal study before?
2nd is Confess like a Christian – on Calvinism
In Dr. Steven Lawson’s small but wonderful book, The Gospel Focus of Charles Spurgeon, Dr. Lawson argues that not only was Spurgeon a Calvinist, but his fervent commitment to the doctrines of grace actually “sharpened” his “gospel focus.”
So I wanted to give you a few of his quotes on this matter so you could see what he felt about Calvinistic doctrine rather than tell you what I think…J
 “It is no novelty, then, that I am preaching; no new doctrine. I love to proclaim these strong old doctrines, that are called by nickname Calvinism, but which are surely and verily the revealed truth of God as it is in Christ Jesus.”  
 On free-will Spurgeon says, “If God requires of the sinner, who is dead in sin, that he should take the first step, then he requires just that which renders salvation as impossible under the gospel as it was under the law, since man is as unable to believe as he is to obey.” Simply put, Spurgeon believed that no human will is entirely free. It is either a slave of sin or a slave of Christ, but never wholly free.
On Sovereign Grace Spurgeon said, “Difficulty is not a word to be found in the dictionary of heaven. Nothing can be impossible with God. The swearing reprobate, whose mouth is blackened with profanity, whose heart is like a very hell, and his life like the reeking flames of the bottomless pit—such a man, if the Lord but looks on him and makes bare His arm of irresistible grace, shall yet praise God and bless His name and live to His honor.”
On Perseverance Spurgeon said, “I must confess that the doctrine of the final preservation of the saints was a bait that my soul could not resist. I thought it was a sort of life insurance—an insurance of my character, an insurance of my soul, an insurance of my eternal destiny. I knew that I could not keep myself, but if Christ promised to keep me, then I should be kept safe for ever; and I longed and prayed to find Christ, because I knew that, if I found Him, He would not give me a temporary and trumpery salvation, such as some preach, but eternal life which could never be lost.”  
**Any thoughts on Spurgeon’s love for Calvinism or Calvinism in general?
The 3rd point is to Act like a Christian – On Charity, good works & opposition to slavery –
In addition to pastoring his church, Spurgeon started a pastor’s college and an orphanage, which are both still in operation today. In 1867, he also started a charity organization, which is now called Spurgeon's Children’s Charity and even today works globally.
Also Spurgeon spoke out so strongly against slavery that American publishers of his sermons began deleting his remarks on the subject.
Spurgeon strongly opposed the owning of slaves.[26] He lost support from Southern Baptists, and sales of his sermons dropped to a few, (Brian even mentioned last week many of his works were burnt in the South) and he received scores of threatening and insulting letters as a consequence.[27]
Not so very long ago our nation tolerated slavery in our colonies. Philanthropists endeavored to destroy slavery; but when was it utterly abolished? It was when Wilberforce roused the church of God, and when the church of God addressed herself to the conflict, then she tore the evil thing to pieces. I have been amused with what Wilberforce said the day after they passed the Act of Emancipation. He merrily said to a friend when it was all done, "Is there not something else we can abolish?" That was said playfully, but it shows the spirit of the church of God. She lives in conflict and victory; her mission is to destroy everything that is bad in the land.
The Best Warcry, March 4th, 1883'[26]
**Anything you wanna add to this section on acting like a Christian & not merely believing?
Spurgeon is a great example of not mere preaching & teaching but in acting, giving, caring & fighting for the Truths of Christianity, which leads us to …..
#4, which is to Defend Doctrine like a Christian – on the Downgrade Controversy
A controversy among the Baptists flared in 1887 with Spurgeon's first "Down-grade" article, published in The Sword & the Trowel.[17] In the ensuing "Downgrade Controversy," the Metropolitan Tabernacle became disaffiliated from the Baptist Union, thereby effecting Spurgeon's congregation as the world's largest Independent church. Spurgeon framed the controversy in this way:
Believers in Christ's atonement are now in declared union with those who make light of it; believers in Holy Scripture are in confederacy with those who deny plenary (absolute) inspiration; those who hold evangelical doctrine are in open alliance with those who call the Fall a fable, who deny the personality of the Holy Ghost, who call justification by faith immoral, and hold that there is another probation after death (Purgatory)... It is our solemn conviction that there should be no more pretense of fellowship. Fellowship with known and vital error is participation in its sin.[18]
The Controversy took its name from Spurgeon's use of the term "Downgrade" to describe certain other Baptists' outlook toward the Bible (i.e., they had "downgraded" the Bible and their principle of sola scriptura).[19] Spurgeon alleged that an incremental creeping of the Graf-Wellhausen hypothesis (which doubts the creditability of Moses’ Genesis record as based off prior oral history), along with Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, and other concepts were weakening the Baptist Union.[20][21][22] Spurgeon emphatically decried the doctrine that resulted:
Assuredly this New Theology can do no good towards God or man; it, has no adaptation for it. If it were preached for a thousand years by all the most earnest men of the school, it would never renew a soul, nor overcome pride in a single human heart.[23]
The standoff caused division amongst the Baptists and other non-conformists, and is regarded by many as an important paradigm.[a][20][24][25]

** Finally any thoughts about being bold in standing for Christian doctrine?
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Well I hope that in about an hour I’ve given you enough Spurgeon quotes to get a feeling for the man himself. He was brilliant, divinely gifted, and devoutly faithful & someone I wish you & I was more like. 

We’ll end with his Closing quote…

“Christ in us the hope of glory. Christ for us our full redemption. Christ with us our guide, and our solace; and Christ above us pleading and preparing our place in heaven. Jesus Christ Himself is our Captain, our armor, our strength and our victory! We inscribe His name upon our banner, for it is hell’s terror, heaven’s delight, and earth’s hope. We bear this upon our hearts in the heat of the conflict, for this is our breastplate and coat of mail” (Charles Spurgeon, Sermon #1388, preached December 9, 1877). Spurgeon leaves us with all praise, honor & glory given to NOT to him, but to Christ, a great reminder for us all.