The Great Gain of Godliness (a.k.a "Religion our True Interest") - Thomas Watson

I am wishing Teampyro's online store had a "Thomas Watson is my Homeboy" t-shirt, because I have found the writings of this man to be wonderful pieces of Christian exhortation and admonition. Some time ago I read Jerusalem's Glory, in which Watson concerns himself with the people of God and what they should be like and lessons we may take from the Scriptures to live true and pure as that people.

Currently, I am making my way through A Godly Man's Picture - essentially a portrait of what a saint should (or must) look like in character and life, in order to be called godly in a Biblical sense.

The latter has so far shown itself to be a commendable work in the study of godliness, which those who have delighted in exploring eusebeia would find beneficial.

But it is the one I have read in the middle, The Great Gain of Godliness, which I wish to discuss here.

We have explored the Scripture from which the title is derived earlier on here, however the title is a modern construction by the editors of the version that I read (published by Banner of Truth Trust). Watson's title was Religion our True Interest and the book is more an exposition of Malachi 3:16-18 than 1 Timothy 6:6.

For your consideration, Malachi 3:16-18 reads:

Mal 3:16 Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.

Mal 3:17 And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

Mal 3:18 Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

It is a concern for many committed Christians today that the fear of God is a topic, which considering its importance, has become much neglected in various circles. Sometimes it is beneficial to go back to something with a bit of "date" to put us back on the right footing. And Watson would certainly be a good option.

Great Gain of Godliness delves deep into this vital aspect of Christianity, observing the difference that the fear of God will make in a person's life and how it will affect their attitude towards other issues.

There is a chapter each on how the godly should speak of God (for the purpose of information, reproof and exhortation) and how they should similarly meditate on God's name and indeed God Himself (for reproof, exhortation and direction).

A great deal of the latter part of Great Gain of Godliness provides comfort for the godly by revealing the promises of the Scriptures. Watson reveals that the deeds of the righteous will be remembered by God and rewarded as surely as the deeds of the wicked will be remembered and judged. Furthermore, the saints are exhorted to look forward to the day when God makes His precious people the jewels spoken of in Mal 3:17. There is also the promise of distinction between godly and ungodly in the final age. It will be a wonderful thing for the saint and a terrible thing for the sinner to observe the great difference between those treasuring eusebeia and those who have no concern for the things of God.

Finally, Watson exhorts the godly to endure afflictions and the discipline of God, noting how God works goodness and kindness to His saints through these unpleasant but necessary occurences of life.

A thoroughly good discourse on godliness, worth digesting if you desire to live a life concerned with eusebeia and thanks to the new edition, readers need not be troubled by the age of the book when they contemplate reading it. Puritan authors may at times be a challenge for 21st century readers, but the benefit that can be gained from their study (especially in the area of godliness and reverence) outweighs any difficulties that may need to be overcome.

Christ Crucified

Stephen Charnock (b. 1628 - d. 1680)

Have been blessed in revelations and insights of the Crucifixion and Atonement by a Puritan writer named Stephen Charnock in the past few weeks, while reading his book Christ Crucified.

Charnock approaches the topic from so many angles, looking chiefly at Christ as a sacrifice and how this was sufficient for the erasure of all the sins of the receiving believer.

The book looks deeply at the fulfilment of various Scriptural types in Christ's sacrifice and the implications of the atonement being carried out by someone of the Most High Divine Nature, as it was by our Lord Jesus Christ.

The popular question of "could" Christ have sinned during His earthly walk, is addressed plainly and directly by Charnock; his conclusion being that God indeed cannot sin. I found this aspect of the book interesting, since many seem to go down the path of holding the possibility of Christ committing sin as something that demonstrates how wonderful His righteous life was ie; His righteousness is so much more amazing because He could have sinned but didn't.

But Charnock's perspective makes so much more sense. Jesus was truly and absolutely God - truly and absolutely Man yes - but completely divine in every way. Therefore, to say that we have a God capable of sinning: well I think you understand the implications...As a result we see that Christ's perfect righteousness and godliness was merely the expression of His nature: the hypostatic union of a perfect Divine Nature with an unblemished, undefiled and wholly consecrated Man's nature. While it may be somehow appealing to promote the idea that Jesus could have sinned but didn't, it is far more comforting to the Christian's soul to know that we belong to a God who can do anything that He sees fit, but never does anything wrong because such a thing would never be in accordance with His will.

It is wonderful to be able to read an author writing on such a central belief of the Christian faith, within a generation or two of the publication of the King James Bible. Both aged language and the centrality of Christ's vicarious death are not appealing to the flesh. But if the Christian's spirit is to be fed, the protestings of the flesh must be put to death and the timeless truths of the faith meditated upon.

John MacArthur - Hard to Believe

Well after a very prolonged gap in posting, I would I would welcome everyone back with a look at a thoughtful and confronting book by one of the most prolific (and doctrinally sound) authors on Christian reading lists, John MacArthur.

(I've told myself I have to stop buying MacArthur books, as this one brought my collection tally to three books, which is more than any other author I can recall off the top of my head).

MacArthur writes in the face of increasing haziness over the "evangelical" (now a term of uncertain usage itself) church about the most basic of issues, from salvation to sanctification. All of these aspects of Christian life centre around the gospel - God's clear communication to the fallen (hu)man on receiving His grace through Jesus Christ instead of His everlasting wrath, which is each person's due reward.

It is precisely the clearness of this message given to us gradually in the Old Testament prophets and explicitly after the Resurrection of Christ through the proclamation of His teachings, which has been eroded by spiritual deception in recent times. This is the very thing I believe MacArthur is getting at in composing this book.

He demonstrates that just as God paid a great price to give us salvation and the gospel, through the sacrifice of His beloved and only begotten Son, so too is there a cost paid by everyone who accepts the Great Message. Indeed, as MacArthur puts it the "high cost" is offset by the "infinite value" of the result.

I bought this book because I was very confronted - as I have been on different occasions - by the "strait gate and narrow way" of Matthew's gospel and the need for us as disciples to be producing fruit if we are truly abiding in the Spirit and the True Vine of God.

If you are having struggles in some areas of your faith, are concerned with the modern methods of "disciple-making" in churches or have put your faith in a gospel that requires nothing of you but road-trip in cruise-control, you need to go back to Scripture and even look through the ages to see what the truth is in the matter.

I think MacArthur has done a good job in pointing us in this direction.

Disciplines of a Godly Man

Have been reading Disciplines of a Godly Man by R. Kent Hughes in the past couple of weeks for a bit of food for thought and to see what challenges it offers for personal godliness.

The launchpad of the book is the Scripture in 1 Timothy that exhorts us to

"exercise thyself unto godliness". Hughes challenges men to break a "holy

sweat" in the area of godliness in their lives.

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He systematically takes the reader through personal areas such as relationships (friendships, marriage etc;) devotion, prayer and purity.

have found it so far (am approx halfway through) to be a blessing, seeing as how I have been thinking a lot about godliness in working here at Eusebeia and also thinking a great deal about manhood in a Christian context.

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Today, I feel we lack adequate training in godliness in many churches and adequate training in manhood in society and the home. It is somehow refreshing to find an attempt at composing a handbook that deals with these deficiencies.
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One of the aims of this site is to combat the ignorance of godliness and highlight it's importance in Christian life & one of my hopes for dealing with young people in the future is to help them grow up properly and not according to the times and systems of the world.

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I do recommend taking a look at this book if you find this site to be helpful in your Christian walk and particularly if you are a man, young or old, striving to be better focused in your relationship with God and with your friends, family and bretheren in the church.

Godly fear

Over the past two nights I have been blessed enough to catch some chilling warnings on the Vision Radio network in the form of Rescued, an audio drama adapted from a John Bevere novel.

Rescued examines the vivid experience of hell and eternal judgement by a pastor during a near death experience. Without going into detail about the plot, the imagery, sound effects & first person narrative of hell, judgement and the lake of fire is a wake up call.

After hearing the first part last night I remarked to a friend that most Christians don't really believe in hell. What I mean is, we give mental assent to the Scriptural teachings on the afterlife, but because hell isn't a nice thing, we don't let it get very far into our theology.

As others with far more talent in communication than myself have expressed, an accurate realisation of hell magnifies both one's reverence for a Holy God who must execute divine judgement and a desperation to prevent one's self and others from meeting this terrible fate.

While the Word tells us to think upon the lovely things, we must at some point in time give serious thought to this unbearably dreadful destination and maintain an appropriate response in our lives. Indeed, what I'm saying is in order to have that eusebeia godliness and correct attitude towards God, we must also have the right attitude towards sin (ie; hatred) and hell (ie; horror).

If we merely condense it to a distant reality where severe heat is a daily occurence and strange fiends run around with pitchforks, godly fear will disappear out the window. Because a theology that points toward a God unable or unwilling to punish sin, eliminates reverence, cheapens grace and emasculates* efforts in evangelism.

You'll no doubt see many posts on godly fear as an aspect of eusebeia here in the future, because the people of Australia, New Zealand, North America and Europe need frequent reminders of this part of Christianity that has been neglected in recent times.

To conclude with another insight provided by Bevere, the attribute ascribed to God the most strongly in the Scriptures is holiness ("Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty") and consequently reverence is one of the most important (perhaps the most important) aspect of our relationship with the King of Kings & Lord of Lords. We hear so much about God's love and His love is of great importance indeed, however I am growing in the opinion that God's great love is also a wondrous expression of His Glory (only a truly Magnificant Deity could love us in the manner that the LORD does). So whenever we rejoice in the greatest love the universe could ever know, we must never deprive the love-giver of the glory he deserves.

*I apologise if any readers find this adjective too strong (or perhaps confusing), however I think it comes close to explaining the state of evangelistic efforts minus the consequence of rejection.

Postscript

After writing this post I began surfing our links and found an amazing correlation at Christian Discernment Ministries' Herescope site:

"The Bible teaches that unbelievers will be condemned to an eternity in Hell (Revelation 20:14-15). If we really believed that, we would be spending much more time on our knees in prayer. And we would be pleading with people to make right with God with a sincerity and conviction that would convince many that we actually believed what we were saying."

So if that's not confirmation, I don't know what is...

More on before...

With Monday's post fresh in my memory I was today making my way through John Bevere's A Heart Ablaze, conveniently borrowed from the co-founder of this blog.

In A Heart Ablaze Bevere quotes an early church leader named Cyprian, who said of worldy entanglements:
"The one peaceful and trustworthy tranquility, the one security that is solid, firm and never changing, is this: for a man to withdraw from the distractions of this world, anchor himself to the firm ground of salvation, and lift his eyes from earth to heaven...He who is actually greater than the world can crave nothing, can desire nothing, from this world (Cyprian's letter to Donatus, sec. 14) [Bevere, A Heart Ablaze p. 83].

Bevere also notes that "...many in the church live materialistic lives in the pursuit of pleasures and treasures of this world. We think nothing of lining up for the same movies, entertainments and amusements that the world pursues" (p. 83).

And..."the early church stressed the importance of a changed heart, which would produce a godly lifestyle" (p. 87).

I found it amazing that in this book I found a similar vein to what had been discussed both here and at culturewatch, while also providing that beautiful insight into what we are exploring here at eusebeia. The changed heart that produces a godly lifestyle is surely a treasure to be sought after from the LORD.

On the subject of entanglements, I thought I would share some trivia that casts some light on the issue. My great-grandfather was a constable in the state police force in the early 20th Century and had to answer a series of background questions when applying to join the force. Apart from being quizzed on whether one was a member of any secret societies or able to ride a horse, applicants were asked whether or not they had any illicit entanglements (with females). I think this is an excellent question to be asking in examining one's own life and dedication to the ways of godliness: do I have any illicit entanglements that prevent me from carrying out my duties as a servant of the LORD?

In relation to the subjects covered above, are you illicitly entangled with the things of the world?
For the Scripture says:
"Love not the world, neither the things [that are] in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." (1 John 2:15)
"No soldier on service entangles himself in the affairs of this life; that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier." (2 Timothy 2:4)
Therefore we must be untangled from worldliness in all it's deceitful forms if we are to be free and on the path to perfection in godliness and purity.