Iain Murray encourages all evangelicals to read the 1994 Catholic Catechism. Mr. Murray quotes Pope John Paul, who when in Australia speaking to priests, said, ‘Jesus did not want a church without priests. If priests are lacking, then Jesus is lacking in the world, as is his Eucharist and his forgiveness... We share in the work of Christ, the eternal High Priest.’ Murray says, 'Men and women died rather than assent to such teaching.'
It is always interesting to read and hear such things from catholic leaders, especially the pope, since Jesus Himself said, regarding His work when He was upon the cross, "It is finished!"
Jesus said His work is finished, yet the pope, John Paul, 2000 years later says it is lacking without human priests. Every catholic ought to be honest, thinking long and clear on this one--Jesus and the pope don't agree-- I wonder who is right? There's no wondering.
One of the most grievous things about this in our day is that there are thousands of professing "evangelical" catholics that sincerely believe they are Bible believers and at the same time are devoted to the catholic church and catholic faith. But you cannot be both-- it is either one or the other but not both. Either Jesus Christ and the Bible are right, thus leaving Catholici sm wrong and in error, or Catholicism is right and the Bible is not true. You cannot have both, even though nice, sincere people say they believe both.
You can't have a long, short trip; or a clear sunny, cloudy day, or a hot and cold cup of tea, or a tall, short man; neither can you have a biblical catholicism. Simply impossible, because you cannot have a Saviour who said, "It is finished" and then have a Saviour, of whom the pope says, "If priests are lacking in the world, then Jesus is lacking in the world, as is his Eucharist and his forgiveness... We share in the work of Christ, the eternal High Priest." Utter falsehood, pure and simple. Which Jesus is lacking? The catholic Jesus obviously, but not the Jesus of the New Testament. The fact is, the catholic Jesus is lacking but the Jesus revealed in the pages of the Bible is not lacking because they are not the same.
- Mack T.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
Iain Murray's Winter Travels
It is a strange thing to tear pages off on our calendars and to find one has moved from January to April, but that was the position this morning when we got home from Australia. We had been away since Jan. 23. Our travels started with a memorable week at John MacArthur’s church in Sun Valley, California. It was a privilege to be there at the time of his 40th anniversary at Grace Community Church; his ministry is a most heartening evidence that real usefulness requires no concession to the popular culture of the day. Serious preaching that honours Scripture, backed by a praying people, will gather hearers and build churches. While sovereignty determines the measure of blessing, the biblical principle remains sure. John MacArthur’s ministry is a great encouragement to many of us. One of the things I valued most on this visit to Sun Valley was the opportunity to meet with numbers of the church members ; the part they play in=2 0the continuance and fruitfulness of their senior pastor’s ministry is vital. The Lord’s Day begins with a large number of elders on their knees at 8 am. And both in Britain and Australia I meet or hear of people of all ages who are gaining help and strength from Dr MacArthur’s broadcast ministry.
From California we crossed the Pacific to Sydney, arriving in some of the hottest weeks of the southern hemisphere’s summer. As many of you know, in the State of Victoria bush fires were to burn out of control for five weeks, destroying 2,000 homes, and taking an estimated 173 lives. Like poor Britain, Australia now has little time for any public recognition of God, and such public mourning as there was made no reference to the penitence to which such events call us all. In that connexion I have been listening to recorded sermons of S. Lewis Johnson on Hosea, preached some years ago (hear them on http://www.sljinstitute.net/). They reminded me of how Scripture, truly preached, is relevant to every situation, and what a great thing it is to preach it in a day when God is shaking confidence in man.
Our first purpose for being in Aus tralia was to see family, and to meet with friends. The pleasure anticipated was more than fulfilled, and we are thankful.
Again we were given reminders of how the providence of God enters into the very details of all our lives. One of our most valuable experiences was the loan, while we were there, of some 19 ring-binding files compiled by Dr J.Graham Miller who died last year. These were his personal records, covering a great part of his 94 years, and tracing events through New Zealand, the New Hebrides, and Australia. Getting into these bulging files was like entering a rich and vast quarry, and it was soon apparent to me, that with minimal editorial work they contained a most valuable autobiography. All that it called was something similar to what I did on the Diary of Kenneth MacRae a long time ago. (Thirty years ago I first preached in Graham Miller’s pulpit in Hurstville, Sydney, little knowing that I was to succeed him there).
So hours, days and weeks went into this projected book, and it was also no accident that in Sydney I was with others who equally revere Graham Miller’s memory. They were able to help in important ways. It is due to20the kindness of his friends, Richard and Rob yn Phillips, that Jean and I have a Sydney ‘second home’. Robyn has looked after Banner interests in Australia in various ways since 1985, and is taking a main part in assisting the preparation of the book. Jean was also free to help me and Don Jamieson, another friend of Dr Miller’s, had all the expertise to deal with photographs. We cannot promise any publication date – it may not be this year – but we are sure the result with be an uplifting testimony to the goodness of God in the lives of Graham and Flora Miller. So highly were they regarded in Vanuatu (the former New Hebrides) that a time of national mourning was appointed by the government on his death.
In Sydney we also had many healthy hours walking and swimming (where better to swim!). Sundays were mostly spent at St Giles, Hurstville and at Rivesby Presbyterian Church. Kevin Murray is now minister of the former and Peter Barnes at the latter. It was a privilege to preach in my former pulpit again. Our Australian time ended with six days in Perth, WA, where I had four commitments. Here also we enjoyed being with old friends. On the fine War Memorial, in King’s Park, we found the name of Jean’s uncle who died with Australian pr isoners in Burma. Western Australia is eight times the size of Britain and the growth in Perth is very impressive. The preachers find that affluence and glorious weather do not commonly lead to spiritual hunger, but a witness is being maintained and the Christian fellowship is a blessing as it is everywhere.
Some of you remember us regularly in prayer and we are deeply grateful. We shall not know in this world the part that intercession has played in the real history of the church. Coming up are conferences that we pray will prove important. The Youth Conference meets at Leicester, April 24-27, to be followed by the Ministers’ (27-30). May there be conversions and lives changed through the Youth Conference! Then we expect to be in the States, May 20-June 22, for various things, after that hope is for quiet weeks in my study and garden. We all need to be preserved from giving out more than we take in.
With much attention now being given to Calvin, I hope why the Reformation was necessary will be understood afresh. We need the martyr spirit back again, and discrimination between brotherly love and only tepid20reaction to God-dishonouring error. All evangelicals should read the 1994 Catholic Catechism. Pope John Paul, when in Australia speaking to priests, said, ‘Jesus did not want a church without priests. If priests are lacking, then Jesus is lacking in the world, as is his Eucharist and his forgiveness... We share in the work of Christ, the eternal High Priest.’ Men and women died rather than assent to such teaching.
I am thankful that, after many years, I at last got into print ‘Charles and Mary Colcock Jones’ in the new Banner title Heroes. If you don’t read anything else in that book I hope some of you may read that and come to admire these two Christians as we have long done. Among recent reading, MacArthur’s The Truth War (Jean indebted to his Extraordinary Women); Tentmaker’s reprint of John B. Adger’s Autobiographay, and the paperback life of C.H. Nash (Melbourne Anglican evangelical). In Sydney it was encouraging to see the work of Reformers’ Bookshop in Stanmore, ably led by David Hann. Such book shops are not common these days and need our support. Too few churches recognise sufficiently the life-changing power of good books. Whatever our si tuation, our common need is for higher views of the Person and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. How needless our petty concerns would become if we but saw Him more clearly!
- Iain Murray
From California we crossed the Pacific to Sydney, arriving in some of the hottest weeks of the southern hemisphere’s summer. As many of you know, in the State of Victoria bush fires were to burn out of control for five weeks, destroying 2,000 homes, and taking an estimated 173 lives. Like poor Britain, Australia now has little time for any public recognition of God, and such public mourning as there was made no reference to the penitence to which such events call us all. In that connexion I have been listening to recorded sermons of S. Lewis Johnson on Hosea, preached some years ago (hear them on http://www.sljinstitute.net/). They reminded me of how Scripture, truly preached, is relevant to every situation, and what a great thing it is to preach it in a day when God is shaking confidence in man.
Our first purpose for being in Aus tralia was to see family, and to meet with friends. The pleasure anticipated was more than fulfilled, and we are thankful.
Again we were given reminders of how the providence of God enters into the very details of all our lives. One of our most valuable experiences was the loan, while we were there, of some 19 ring-binding files compiled by Dr J.Graham Miller who died last year. These were his personal records, covering a great part of his 94 years, and tracing events through New Zealand, the New Hebrides, and Australia. Getting into these bulging files was like entering a rich and vast quarry, and it was soon apparent to me, that with minimal editorial work they contained a most valuable autobiography. All that it called was something similar to what I did on the Diary of Kenneth MacRae a long time ago. (Thirty years ago I first preached in Graham Miller’s pulpit in Hurstville, Sydney, little knowing that I was to succeed him there).
So hours, days and weeks went into this projected book, and it was also no accident that in Sydney I was with others who equally revere Graham Miller’s memory. They were able to help in important ways. It is due to20the kindness of his friends, Richard and Rob yn Phillips, that Jean and I have a Sydney ‘second home’. Robyn has looked after Banner interests in Australia in various ways since 1985, and is taking a main part in assisting the preparation of the book. Jean was also free to help me and Don Jamieson, another friend of Dr Miller’s, had all the expertise to deal with photographs. We cannot promise any publication date – it may not be this year – but we are sure the result with be an uplifting testimony to the goodness of God in the lives of Graham and Flora Miller. So highly were they regarded in Vanuatu (the former New Hebrides) that a time of national mourning was appointed by the government on his death.
In Sydney we also had many healthy hours walking and swimming (where better to swim!). Sundays were mostly spent at St Giles, Hurstville and at Rivesby Presbyterian Church. Kevin Murray is now minister of the former and Peter Barnes at the latter. It was a privilege to preach in my former pulpit again. Our Australian time ended with six days in Perth, WA, where I had four commitments. Here also we enjoyed being with old friends. On the fine War Memorial, in King’s Park, we found the name of Jean’s uncle who died with Australian pr isoners in Burma. Western Australia is eight times the size of Britain and the growth in Perth is very impressive. The preachers find that affluence and glorious weather do not commonly lead to spiritual hunger, but a witness is being maintained and the Christian fellowship is a blessing as it is everywhere.
Some of you remember us regularly in prayer and we are deeply grateful. We shall not know in this world the part that intercession has played in the real history of the church. Coming up are conferences that we pray will prove important. The Youth Conference meets at Leicester, April 24-27, to be followed by the Ministers’ (27-30). May there be conversions and lives changed through the Youth Conference! Then we expect to be in the States, May 20-June 22, for various things, after that hope is for quiet weeks in my study and garden. We all need to be preserved from giving out more than we take in.
With much attention now being given to Calvin, I hope why the Reformation was necessary will be understood afresh. We need the martyr spirit back again, and discrimination between brotherly love and only tepid20reaction to God-dishonouring error. All evangelicals should read the 1994 Catholic Catechism. Pope John Paul, when in Australia speaking to priests, said, ‘Jesus did not want a church without priests. If priests are lacking, then Jesus is lacking in the world, as is his Eucharist and his forgiveness... We share in the work of Christ, the eternal High Priest.’ Men and women died rather than assent to such teaching.
I am thankful that, after many years, I at last got into print ‘Charles and Mary Colcock Jones’ in the new Banner title Heroes. If you don’t read anything else in that book I hope some of you may read that and come to admire these two Christians as we have long done. Among recent reading, MacArthur’s The Truth War (Jean indebted to his Extraordinary Women); Tentmaker’s reprint of John B. Adger’s Autobiographay, and the paperback life of C.H. Nash (Melbourne Anglican evangelical). In Sydney it was encouraging to see the work of Reformers’ Bookshop in Stanmore, ably led by David Hann. Such book shops are not common these days and need our support. Too few churches recognise sufficiently the life-changing power of good books. Whatever our si tuation, our common need is for higher views of the Person and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. How needless our petty concerns would become if we but saw Him more clearly!
- Iain Murray
Thursday, April 9, 2009
He Did Have Some Wisdom
- Here's my strategy for the Cold War: 'We win, they lose'.
- The most terrifying words in the English language are: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
- The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so
much that isn't so.
- Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U. S. was too strong.
- I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run
them through the U. S. Congress.
- Government is like a baby: its an alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of
responsibility at the other.
- The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program.
- It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking
resemblance to the first.
- Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it; if it keeps moving, regulate it; if it stops moving, subsidize it.
- Politics is not a bad profession; if you succeed, there are many rewards; if you disgrace yourself, you can always write a book.
- No arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is as formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.
- If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.
- RONALD REAGAN
- The most terrifying words in the English language are: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
- The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so
much that isn't so.
- Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U. S. was too strong.
- I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run
them through the U. S. Congress.
- Government is like a baby: its an alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of
responsibility at the other.
- The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program.
- It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking
resemblance to the first.
- Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it; if it keeps moving, regulate it; if it stops moving, subsidize it.
- Politics is not a bad profession; if you succeed, there are many rewards; if you disgrace yourself, you can always write a book.
- No arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is as formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.
- If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.
- RONALD REAGAN
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Present Day Idolatry
We pity the poor heathen who adore a god of stone and yet worship a god of gold! Where is the vast superiority between a god of wood and one of flesh? The principle, the sin, the folly is the same in either case; only that in our case, the crime is more aggravated because we have more light--and sin in the face of it. The heathen bows to a false deity, but he has never known the true God. But we commit two evils, inasmuch as we forsake the living God and turn unto idols! May the Lord purge us all from this grievous iniquity!
"The dearest idol I have known,
Whatever that idol be;
Help me to tear it from Thy throne,
And worship only Thee!"
- C. H. Spurgeon
Idolatry becomes factual and present when we put anything at all before our relationship with the living God.
- Mack T.
"The dearest idol I have known,
Whatever that idol be;
Help me to tear it from Thy throne,
And worship only Thee!"
- C. H. Spurgeon
Idolatry becomes factual and present when we put anything at all before our relationship with the living God.
- Mack T.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Rise Up and Come Away
"My Beloved spoke and said to me, Rise up, my love, my beautiful one and come away!" -- Song of Solomon 2:10
Lo, I hear the voice of my Beloved! He speaks to me! He bids me "Rise up!" and well He may, for I have long enough been lying among the pots of worldliness. Why should I cleave to the dust? From lower loves, desires, pursuits, and aspirations, I would rise towards Him.
He calls me by the sweet title of "My love" and regards me as beautiful! This is a good encouragement for my rising. If He has thus exalted me, and thinks me thus lovely, how can I linger in the dark tents of Kedar and find congenial associates among the world?
He bids me "Come away!" Come away further and further from everything selfish, groveling, worldly, and sinful! He calls me from the outwardly religious world which knows Him not, and has no sympathy with the mystery of the godly and holy life.
"Come away" has no harsh sound to my ear, for what is there to hold me in this wilderness of vanity and sin? O my Lord, would that I could come away; but I am stuck among the thorns and cannot escape from them as I would! I would, if it were possible, have neither eyes, nor ears, nor heart for sin!
You call me to Yourself by saying "Come away!" and this is a melodious call indeed. To come to You is to come home from exile; to come to land out of the raging storm; to come to rest after long labor; to come to the goal of my desires and the summit of my wishes! But Lord, how can a stone rise, how can a lump of clay come away from the horrible pit? O raise me, draw me--and I will run after You! Your grace alone can do it. Send forth Your Holy Spirit to kindle sacred flames of love in my heart and I will continue to rise until I leave life and time behind me, and indeed come away!
- C. H. Spurgeon
Lo, I hear the voice of my Beloved! He speaks to me! He bids me "Rise up!" and well He may, for I have long enough been lying among the pots of worldliness. Why should I cleave to the dust? From lower loves, desires, pursuits, and aspirations, I would rise towards Him.
He calls me by the sweet title of "My love" and regards me as beautiful! This is a good encouragement for my rising. If He has thus exalted me, and thinks me thus lovely, how can I linger in the dark tents of Kedar and find congenial associates among the world?
He bids me "Come away!" Come away further and further from everything selfish, groveling, worldly, and sinful! He calls me from the outwardly religious world which knows Him not, and has no sympathy with the mystery of the godly and holy life.
"Come away" has no harsh sound to my ear, for what is there to hold me in this wilderness of vanity and sin? O my Lord, would that I could come away; but I am stuck among the thorns and cannot escape from them as I would! I would, if it were possible, have neither eyes, nor ears, nor heart for sin!
You call me to Yourself by saying "Come away!" and this is a melodious call indeed. To come to You is to come home from exile; to come to land out of the raging storm; to come to rest after long labor; to come to the goal of my desires and the summit of my wishes! But Lord, how can a stone rise, how can a lump of clay come away from the horrible pit? O raise me, draw me--and I will run after You! Your grace alone can do it. Send forth Your Holy Spirit to kindle sacred flames of love in my heart and I will continue to rise until I leave life and time behind me, and indeed come away!
- C. H. Spurgeon
Monday, April 6, 2009
Take Sorrow and Sin to the Same Place
"Look upon my affliction and my pain--and forgive all my sins!" Psalm 25:18
It is well for us when prayers about our sorrows are linked with pleas concerning our sins; when, being under God's hand, we are not wholly taken up with our pain--but remember our offences against God. It is well, also, to take both sorrow and sin to the same place. It was to God that David carried his sorrow. It was to God that David confessed his sin.
We must take our sorrows to God. Even your little sorrows you may roll upon God, for He counts the hairs of your head. And your great sorrows you may commit to Him--for He holds the ocean in the hollow of His hand. Go to Him, whatever your present trouble may be--and you shall find Him able and willing to relieve you.
But we must also take our sins to God. We must carry them to the cross, that the blood may fall upon them, to purge away their guilt, and to destroy their defiling power.
The special lesson of the text is this--we are to go to the Lord with sorrows and with sins in the right frame of heart. Note that all David asks concerning his sorrow is, "Look upon my affliction and my pain." But the next petition is vastly more express, definite, decided and plain, "Forgive all my sins!"
Many sufferers would have put it, "Remove my affliction and my pain--and look at my sins." But David does not say so--he cries, "Lord, as for my affliction and my pain, I will not dictate to Your wisdom. Lord, look at them--I will leave them to You. I would be glad to have my pain removed, but do as You will. But as for my sins, Lord, I know what I want with them--I must have them forgiven! I cannot endure to lie under their curse for a moment!"
A Christian counts his sorrow lighter in the scale than his sin. He can bear that his troubles should continue, but he cannot support the burden of his transgressions.
- C. H. Spurgeon
It is well for us when prayers about our sorrows are linked with pleas concerning our sins; when, being under God's hand, we are not wholly taken up with our pain--but remember our offences against God. It is well, also, to take both sorrow and sin to the same place. It was to God that David carried his sorrow. It was to God that David confessed his sin.
We must take our sorrows to God. Even your little sorrows you may roll upon God, for He counts the hairs of your head. And your great sorrows you may commit to Him--for He holds the ocean in the hollow of His hand. Go to Him, whatever your present trouble may be--and you shall find Him able and willing to relieve you.
But we must also take our sins to God. We must carry them to the cross, that the blood may fall upon them, to purge away their guilt, and to destroy their defiling power.
The special lesson of the text is this--we are to go to the Lord with sorrows and with sins in the right frame of heart. Note that all David asks concerning his sorrow is, "Look upon my affliction and my pain." But the next petition is vastly more express, definite, decided and plain, "Forgive all my sins!"
Many sufferers would have put it, "Remove my affliction and my pain--and look at my sins." But David does not say so--he cries, "Lord, as for my affliction and my pain, I will not dictate to Your wisdom. Lord, look at them--I will leave them to You. I would be glad to have my pain removed, but do as You will. But as for my sins, Lord, I know what I want with them--I must have them forgiven! I cannot endure to lie under their curse for a moment!"
A Christian counts his sorrow lighter in the scale than his sin. He can bear that his troubles should continue, but he cannot support the burden of his transgressions.
- C. H. Spurgeon
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Showers of Blessing
"I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing." Ezekiel 34:26
Here is sovereign grace, "I will send down showers." Is it not sovereign, divine mercy--for who can say, "I will send down showers," except God? There is only one voice which can speak to the clouds, and bid them beget the rain, "Who sends down the rain upon the earth? Who scatters the showers upon the green herb? Do not I, the Lord?" Grace is the gift of God--and is not to be created by man.
It is also needed grace. What would the ground do without showers? You may break the clods, you may sow your seeds--but what can you do without the rain? As absolutely needful, is the divine blessing. In vain you labor--until God bestows the plenteous shower, and sends the needed grace down!
Then, it is plenteous grace. "I will send down showers." It does not say, "I will send them drops," but "showers." So it is with grace. If God gives a blessing, He usually gives it in such a measure that there is not room enough to receive it. Plenteous grace! Ah! we need plenteous grace . . .
to keep us humble,
to make us prayerful,
to make us holy,
to make us zealous,
to preserve us through this life,
and at last to land us in heaven!
We cannot do without saturating showers of grace!
Again, it is seasonable grace. "I will send down showers in season." What is your season this morning? Is it the season of drought? Then that is the season for showers. Is it a season of great heaviness and black clouds? Then that is the season for showers. "I will send down showers in season."
And here is varied grace. "I will give you showers of blessing." The word is in the plural. All kinds of blessings God will send. All God's blessings go together, like links in a golden chain. If He gives converting grace, He will also give comforting grace. He will send "showers of blessing."
- C. H. Spurgeon
Here is sovereign grace, "I will send down showers." Is it not sovereign, divine mercy--for who can say, "I will send down showers," except God? There is only one voice which can speak to the clouds, and bid them beget the rain, "Who sends down the rain upon the earth? Who scatters the showers upon the green herb? Do not I, the Lord?" Grace is the gift of God--and is not to be created by man.
It is also needed grace. What would the ground do without showers? You may break the clods, you may sow your seeds--but what can you do without the rain? As absolutely needful, is the divine blessing. In vain you labor--until God bestows the plenteous shower, and sends the needed grace down!
Then, it is plenteous grace. "I will send down showers." It does not say, "I will send them drops," but "showers." So it is with grace. If God gives a blessing, He usually gives it in such a measure that there is not room enough to receive it. Plenteous grace! Ah! we need plenteous grace . . .
to keep us humble,
to make us prayerful,
to make us holy,
to make us zealous,
to preserve us through this life,
and at last to land us in heaven!
We cannot do without saturating showers of grace!
Again, it is seasonable grace. "I will send down showers in season." What is your season this morning? Is it the season of drought? Then that is the season for showers. Is it a season of great heaviness and black clouds? Then that is the season for showers. "I will send down showers in season."
And here is varied grace. "I will give you showers of blessing." The word is in the plural. All kinds of blessings God will send. All God's blessings go together, like links in a golden chain. If He gives converting grace, He will also give comforting grace. He will send "showers of blessing."
- C. H. Spurgeon
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