Eternal Praises – A Hymn Based on Revelation 4.

I wrote the following hymn, Eternal Praises, after meditating on Revelation 4:6-11:

“And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: ⁷ the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. ⁸ And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

⁹ And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, ¹⁰ the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,¹¹“

Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Amen. The Scriptures are enough to stir the soul, but here is the hymn I wrote. I pray it blesses you! SDG.

Eternal Praises (Based on Revelation 4):

“Falling down before Your Throne,

Casting crowns before Your feet;

Singing praises to our God,

Thrice-Holy is His name.

Multitudes that none can number,

Standing before Your Heavenly Throne,

Crying out for endless ages:

“Worthy is the Lamb!”

Worthy are you, our Lord and God,

To receive eternal praises of all things,

For You were slain, and by Your blood,

Purchased a people from all nations.

Lift up your head, afflicted saint,

For our God is in our midst;

He will shepherd, He will guide,

For all eternity.”

(Written by Joshua John Mills, February 16^th, 2019)

**Note: If you seek to use this hymn, please ask for the authors permission.**

February 16, 2019 0

Grace in Winter – Lessons from Samuel Rutherford

Regarding the life and ministry of Samuel Rutherford, C. H. Spurgeon said the following:

“When we are dead and gone let the world know that Spurgeon held Rutherford’s Letters to be the nearest thing to inspiration which can be found in all the writings of mere men.”[1] The question is, what made Rutherford’s ministry so attractive? The attraction to his ministry was not found within himself but in the timeless attraction of Christ. A visiting Englishman said the following about Samuel Rutherford: ‘I heard a little fair man, and he showed me the loveliness of Christ.’ Rutherford was known to continuously tell of the “boundless and unsearchable riches of the saving and sanctifying grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ.” What then can we learn from the ministry of Samuel Rutherford? I will draw three lessons from his life and ministry:

1) The Importance of Union and Communion with Christ:

To begin, Rutherford knew that the heart of Christian experience is in union and communion with Christ. The greatest joy of the Christian is to have a living relationship with the all-majestic, all-glorious God. This relationship, however, comes at a cost. Rutherford was often exiled and imprisoned for his allegiance to the word of God and the God of the word. He suffered greatly in his life, yet his union and communion with Christ sustained him. Rutherford writes:

“O how sweet to be wholly Christ’s, and wholly in Christ; to dwell in Immanuel’s high and blessed land, and live in that sweetest air, where no wind bloweth but the breathings of the Holy Ghost… O for eternity’s leisure, to look on Him, to feast upon a sight of His face! O for the long summer day of endless ages to stand beside Him and enjoy Him! O time, O sin, be removed out of the way! O day! O fairest of days, dawn!”[2]

The union and communion that Rutherford had with the living God was his supreme delight and passion. He found his strength in Christ. Do you? Christian, do you understand the realities that are yours in Christ? Do you understand the privilege that it is to commune daily with the living God? Oh, that we would not take this privilege lightly. May we make it our aim to commune with God before we commune with man.

2) The Supreme Beauty of Christ:

Secondly, Rutherford saw Christ in all his loveliness. He would often say, he is all-together lovely. Rutherford would later write, “I am sure, that if ye see Him in His beauty and glory, ye shall see Him to be all things, and that incomparable jewel of gold that ye should seek, howbeit ye should sell… I would far rather look but through the hole of Christ’s door, to see but the one half of His fairest and most comely face (for He looketh like heaven!), suppose I should never win in to see His excellency and glory to the full, than enjoy the flower, the bloom, and the chiefest excellency of the glory and riches of ten worlds.”[3]

Rutherford saw that Christ was the Chief among ten-thousands. His beauty and loveliness far surpass everything. For that reason, Samuel Rutherford gave his life to beholding the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He longed to see Christ more. He longed to display this all-together lovely Christ to a dying world. He was captivated by the supreme beauty of Christ. Are you? Can you say, “all that thrills my soul is Jesus”?

3) A Proper Perspective on Suffering:

Most of Rutherford’s letters were written through seasons of tremendous trials. Yet, the Lord in his providence used Rutherford’s suffering for a greater purpose, namely, to minister to others. Rutherford shows the believer that their suffering is not meaningless. Rather, it is a means by which the gracious God grows them into Christ-likeness. Rutherford writes: “I think it is a sweet thing that Christ saith of my cross, ‘Half mine;’ and that He divideth these sufferings with me and taketh the larger share to Himself; nay, that I and my whole cross are wholly Christ’s. Oh, what a portion is Christ! Oh that the saints would dig deeper in the treasures of His wisdom and excellency.”[4]

Again, speaking on suffering, Rutherford writes: “The thorn is one of the most cursed, and angry, and crabbed weeds that the earth yieldeth, and yet out of it springeth the rose, one of the sweetest-smelled flowers, and most delightful to the eye, that the earth hath. Your Lord shall make joy and gladness out of your affiliations; for all His roses have a fragrant smell… But, Madam, come near to the Godhead, and look down to the bottom of the well; there is much in Him, and sweet were that death to drown in such a well.”[5]

In our suffering, Rutherford reminds us to look to Christ. Know that our trials are sovereignly ordained by our Heavenly Father for our good. At times, we must go through the fiery furnace of affliction. However, it is in that process where all of our infirmities and pollutants are scraped off, and in the end, we come out purer. Christian, in your afflictions, look to Christ!

In this post, we have seen three things: (1) The importance of union and communion with Christ, (2) the supreme beauty of Christ, (3) a proper perspective on suffering. I will conclude this post with Rutherford’s words as an exhortation to you:

“If those frothy, fluctuating, and restless hearts of ours would come all about Christ, and look into His love, to bottomless love, to the depth of mercy, to the unsearchable riches of His grace, to inquire after and search into the beauty of God in Christ, they would be swallowed up in the depth and height, length and breadth of His goodness. Oh, if men would draw the curtains, and look into the inner side of the ark, and behold how the fullness of the Godhead dwelleth in Him Bodily! Oh! Who would not say, “Let me die, let me die ten times, to see a sight of Him?”[6]

“But O for his insatiable desires Christward! O for ten such men in Scotland to stand in the gap! – men who all day long find nothing but Christ to rest in, whose very sleep is a pursuing after Christ in dreams, and who intensely desire to ‘awake with His likeness.”[7]

May God by his grace give us such men and women like Rutherford. Amen.

**Note: To purchase a copy of The Letters of Samuel Rutherford, published by Banner of Truth, click here.

Citations:

[1] The Sword and Trowel, 1891.

[2] Samuel, Rutherford. Letters of Samuel Rutherford. 1984. Reprint, (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2012), 13 – 15.

[3] Samuel, Rutherford. Letters of Samuel Rutherford, 378, 446.

[4] Ibid, 480.

[5] Ibid, 71.

[6] Samuel, Rutherford. Letters of Samuel Rutherford, 185.

[7] Ibid, 30.

February 8, 2019 0

The Preciousness of Time

¹⁵ Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,¹⁶ making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. (Eph. 5:15-16 ESV)

In 1722 and 1723, during his nineteenth year, Jonathan Edwards wrote his resolutions. These seventy resolutions would later govern his entire life and ministry. Regarding the use of his time, Edwards wrote: “Resolved, never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I can… Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live… Resolved, never to do any thing, which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.” As we look at the life of Jonathan Edwards, we see that he was a man who sought to put Ephesians 5:15-16 into practice. Edwards saw the shortness of life and the length of eternity. As a result, he sought to make the best use of his time, because he knew that his days were sovereignly numbered.

In recent days, the Lord had shown me the shortness of life and the length of eternity. Our days are fleeting. One day you can wake up healthy, and the next day you can wake up sick. The days we have been given do not belong to us. We are simply stewards of God’s time, which he has graciously allotted to us. Will we redeem the time that has been given to us? Psalms 139:16 says, “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” The psalmist shows us that before we took our first breath, every single day that we would ever live was sovereignly ordered by God. Job 14:5 gives us a similar picture: “A person’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.” Every single day that you will ever live has been decreed by the All-Wise and Sovereign God. Where you were born, the family you would grow up in, where you would go to school, whom you would marry, how many children you will, where you will retire, when you will die… it has all been sovereignly ordained perfectly by your Heavenly Father. As George Whitefield once said, “We are immortal until our work on earth is done.”

How should this truth change our Christian lives? How did this truth change the life of Jonathan Edwards? In the sermon titled The Preciousness of Time and The Importance of Redeeming It, Edwards gives us several reasons as to why time is precious and why we must redeem it.

1) Time is precious because eternity hangs on how we spend time:

To those who are not Christians… If you do not find refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ before your time is up, you will be lost forever. You must come to the Lord Jesus Christ today for the forgiveness of sins. And Christians, we must remember 2 Corinthians 5:10: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” We must redeem the time that has been given to us for God’s glory. The decisions we make today as Christians will have an eternal impact. We must live with one eye upon this world and the other eye looking upon eternity. May we, by God’s grace, live with an eternal mindset. Whenever we meet someone, may we think, “Eternity! Eternity! Where will you spend Eternity!”

2) Time is precious because it is very short:

Our life is but a vapour. I am sure that you can testify to the shortness of life. The years seem to slide away, faster and faster. We have a fixed period of time that has been given to us, and it is very short in comparison to eternity. The moment you were born, the clock began to tick. Christian, we must make an eternal investment in this brief life. What we do has an eternal importance. Are you investing in eternal treasures? Are you seeking heavenly things above? Is it your greatest desire to know Christ and make Him known?

3) Time is precious because we do not know how much we have:

Edwards writes: “We know that [time] is very short, but we know not how short… We know not how little of it remains, whether a year, or several years, or only a month, a week, or a day. We are every day uncertain whether that day will not be the last, or whether we are to have the whole day.” The clock is ticking but we do not know when the alarm will sound. Today could be our last day, this second could be our last second.

Edwards sought to live every day as if it were his last. He wanted to live with the mindset that this could be his last hour of life. If it were Edwards’ last hour, would he live in a manner that displeased the Lord? No. As a Christian, if it were your last hour on this earth, your desire would be to live in such a way that would bring God the most glory. Christian, this doesn’t mean that we are to live in fear, for we know that our eternal security rests in the All-Mighty God! None can snatch us from his hand! In John 10:28-29, the Good Shepherd says, “²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” Christian, if you are in Christ, you are eternally secure.

However, there is a call for us to redeem the time that God has given us. There is no time to waste. We are to live with an eternal mindset. Are we preparing ourselves and others for eternity?

May God help us in this matter. How will you invest in this current hour?

**Follow this link to read Jonathan Edwards’ sermons: The Preciousness of Time and The Importance of Redeeming It

December 24, 2018 0

Grace Grows In Winter

It was Samuel Rutherford who once said, “I see grace grows best in winter.” In other words, it is often in the school of suffering where the Christian learns the most. In fact, the greatest seminary course you can take is found within the school of suffering. The All-Wise and Sovereign God often brings his choicest servants through the fiery furnace of suffering in order to refine them and make them more wholly devoted to Himself.

In a time of suffering, it is very easy to seek an “emotional” experience to ease the pain… “Maybe I just need to feel happier.” “Maybe I need to get my emotions all fired up again…” However, if we are seeking some emotional experience, we are seeking that which is fleeting and does not last. Sometimes this “experience” may not even come! Sinclair Ferguson argues that “the foundation of worship in the heart is not emotional… it is theological.” It is as we ponder and meditate upon theological truths that our hearts are transformed. Our call as Christians is to saturate our minds with the glories of God in the face of Jesus Christ. As we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, where do we look? We look to our good shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to think of his all-sufficiency, his beauty, his loveliness. Brethren, give your life to unfolding the glories of Jesus Christ. John Flavel reminds us that eternity itself will never fully unfold Christ. Brethren, we have barely scratched the surface of knowing this all-glorious, all-majestic God. Give your life to the study of God.

When you are entering a season of suffering, look to the all-compassionate Saviour who knows your every trial, struggle, and need. One hymn that has ministered greatly to my soul is Jesus, Jesus, All-Sufficient by William Williams Pantycelyn (1717-1791):

“Jesus, Jesus, all-sufficient, Beyond telling is Thy worth; In Thy Name lie greater treasures, Than the richest found on earth. Such abundance is my portion with my God.

In Thy gracious face there’s beauty, Far surpassing every thing, Found in all the earth’s great wonders, Mortal eye hath ever seen. Rose of Sharon, Thou Thyself art heaven’s delight.”

Brethren, I urge you… Look to the all-together lovely Lord Jesus! He is the all-sufficient King seated on His Throne! There is no one else in his class! He is far superior to all, and above all! He holds the Universe together by His command! He is worthy beyond all telling! No one can fully comprehend the worth of this Glorious Saviour! In Christ lay the greatest treasures in the world! Unfathomable oceans of grace are in Christ for you. Dive deep into the things of God! You will never come to the bottom of its depths. As you suffer trials of various kinds, lift up your eyes to your beautiful Saviour. One glance of him will sustain your soul. He is all-together lovely!

December 22, 2018 0

The Journey Begins

It was on March 20th, 1832, after reading part of the Life of Jonathan Edwards, where Robert Murray McCheyne wrote these words: “How feeble my spark of Christianity appear beside such a sun! But even his was a borrowed light, and the same source is still open to enlighten me.”

As McCheyne reflects upon Jonathan Edwards, a giant in church history, he reminds us that even Edwards had a borrowed light. The same source is still open to us today. We have the same means of grace that Edwards had. These “giants” of the faith were men who dug deep into that unfathomable, never-ending well of love in Christ. They at one time tasted the steams of earth, but it did not satisfy their longing soul. Instead, they went to the true fountain of all life, the Lord Jesus Christ. They drunk deeply from the well of Christ’s never-ceasing love.

John Flavel writes, that it is the study of Christ which “stamps a heavenly glory upon the contemplating soul.” He reminds us that “eternity itself cannot fully unfold him.” How amazing is that? For all of eternity we will be unfolding the glories of Christ. We have barely even scratched the surface on this earthly journey. The response to this glorious truth is to “separate, devote, and wholly give yourself, your time, and your strength to this most sweet, transcendent study.”

This blog post will seek to do just that. It will be a place where I can write about my daily meditations as I seek to drink deeply from that rich storage we have in the Scriptures. I pray that the meditations of my heart might be pleasing to God and beneficial to your soul.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Eternity itself cannot fully unfold him. — John Flavel