Tag Archives: J.C. Ryle

J.C. Ryle on Christ’s Preparation of Heaven

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I may have used this quote before, but it’s worth repeating. It is from J.C. Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: John, concerning John 14:2, Jesus going to prepare a place for us.

“Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people: a place which we shall find Christ Himself has made ready for true Christians. He has prepared it by procuring a right for every sinner who believes to enter in. None can stop us, and say we have no business there. He has prepared it by going before us as our Head and Representative, and taking possession of it for all the members of His mystical body. As our Forerunner He has marched in, leading captivity captive, and has planted His banner in the land of glory. He has prepared it by carrying our names with Him as our High Priest into the holy of holies, and making angels ready to receive us. They that enter heaven will find they are neither unknown nor unexpected.”[1]

I think what struck me about it today is that by the time we get to heaven, we are ready for heaven. God has so worked in the believer’s life that he or she no longer need the trials of this life. They have endured enough and our loving LORD calls us to be home with Him. There are some days in which I wish that day would come more quickly than other days, however, I am trusting in HIM for His timing on my eventual call. May I live as He has called me to until that day.

[1] J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospel: John, Vol. 4, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI., 2007, p. 52

The Need For Christ Crucified — J.C. Ryle

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The following is from J.C. Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, on John 6:1-14 when Jesus fed the 5,000.

Let us never doubt for a moment, that the preaching of Christ crucified, — the old story of His blood, and righteousness, and substitution,– is enough for all the spiritual necessities of all mankind. It is not worn out. It is not obsolete. It has not lost its power. We want nothing new,– nothing more broad and kind,– nothing more intellectual,– nothing more efficacious. We want nothing but the true bread of life which Christ bestows, distributed faithfully among starving souls. Let men sneer or ridicule as they will. Nothing else can do good in this sinful world. No other teaching can fill hungry consciences, and give them peace. We are all in a wilderness. We must feed on Christ crucified, and the atonement made by His death, or we shall die in our sins.

Even today, with all of man’s inventions and technological advances, we still need the same old gospel of Jesus Christ for salvation. Nothing will ever replace that need for mankind because no matter how we rationalize, we are still sinners in need of God’s grace.

Ask Pastor Timothy

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A friend wrote and asked me to respond to the following quote:

“You can not grow spiritually healthy until your are emotionally healthy.  Emotional maturity is necessary for spiritual growth”

Wow! What a burden that places on us to get emotionally healthy, and what a hindrance for the Holy Spirit. This statement is very similar to the statement that was made to a bunch of single friends back in the 1990s: “You will never be married until you are spiritually mature!” Glad we have that going for us. Now that I’m married, I MUST be spiritually mature!

I had to speak to my friend to find out more about the quote before I gave any comment to it. Apparently the pastors of this church are preaching through a book that makes this claim on Sunday mornings. Notice, I said that they are “preaching through a book?” Please notice, they are not preaching from a book in the Bible, but some popular book out there that is supposed to help us become holistically healthy, so that we may go out into the culture and reach people for Jesus Christ.

This type of stuff always sounds great on the surface. “Let’s get you healed up and complete so that you can be used by God, people will see you for being complete and whole and want to come to know Christ too!” The problem with this mindset is that it is contrary to the gospel itself and makes evangelism/spiritual maturity, growth in Christ, all dependent upon us. It is very much like the statement from St. Francis of Assisi: “Preach the gospel always. Use words when necessary.”

This isn’t the gospel at all, but humanism with a gospel dress. It’s an attempt to make those feel like they are in control of their emotions, the gospel, the kingdom, their own spiritual growth. This fails on several levels.

First, please notice that the Apostle Paul never called us to become more Christ-like so that we could preach the gospel, even using words at times. He said just the opposite: 2 Corinthians 4:5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake.

Paul wasn’t preaching himself, but Christ alone. This is the call of the church when it comes to reaching the world. We are not to preach ourselves, or put ourselves on display or even talk about how much we have benefited from being saved. We are to preach Christ. We are to tell of His death and resurrection. We are to point others to the gospel for salvation, not us, or a particular church. It is the gospel that saves, not our conformity to some holistic ministry model.

Secondly, the above quote and assertion assumes that emotional health is something under our control and precedes spiritual maturity. Emotional health may result as we grow in Christ, but it may not. That is not the goal of the gospel and sometimes the LORD leaves a thorn or two in our flesh to keep us dependent upon Him (2 Corinthians 12:7). Some people may always be emotional wrecks, yet, God may use such to help them grow spiritually.

Third, the problem with the quote is that it seems devoid of Christ’s work in our lives through the washing of the water and the word (Ephesians 5:25-26). It is Christ who cleanses us with His word and His Spirit. We don’t mature because we do something or don’t do something, we mature spiritually because He causes the growth and cleanses us and heals us. We are dependent upon Him for spiritual growth.

Now, we may aid in that growth. Just as a child will grow whether we feed him M&M’s and candy bars, or chicken soup and veggies, the child will grow. The question is: will the child be more healthy using a healthy diet, or using candy? Since we know healthy eating helps our children grow in a healthy manner, so too does eating spiritually healthy food aid us in our spiritual lives.

What is spiritual food? The preaching and teaching of God’s word. This is the spiritual food that Jesus commanded Peter to give to His sheep (John 21). If we want to be healthy spiritually speaking and grow spiritually speaking, we must seek out those things that help us grow in that manner: His word, the preached word of God, the sacraments of baptism and communion, prayer and corporate worship.

Isn’t it ironic that the above church that brought all this about is trying to grow their people spiritually but isn’t using the very means that God has given them to do so? Sad. The pastors of this church should truly repent of such foolishness. They are turning to man’s wisdom in order to grow God’s people, yet God has told us to preach Christ crucified in order to do so. Shame on them.

For more on spiritual growth, I commend the chapter on Growth in J.C. Ryle’s book: Holiness. Go here to read it.

Also, if you have a question for me, email me at askpastortimothy   at Gmail dot com. That is in code, so I hope you can figure it out. I wrote it that way so some bot doesn’t discover it and spam me.

The Truth of Christ’s Cross

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For some Sunday morning meditation, the following is from J.C. Ryle:

Let us set fully before our eyes the doctrine of Christ dying in our place – His substituted death, and rest our souls on it. Let us hold on firmly to the mighty truth, that Christ on the cross:

Christ on the cross: Stood in the place of His people

Christ on the cross: Died for His people

Christ on the cross: Suffered for His people

Christ on the cross: Was counted a curse and sin for His people

Christ on the cross: Paid the debts of His People

Christ on the cross: Made restitution for His people

Christ on the cross: Became the guarantee of His people

Christ on the cross: Became the representative of His people

In this way Christ obtained His people’s freedom. Let us understand this clearly, and then we will see what a mighty privilege it is to be made free by Christ. This is freedom which, above all others is worth having.

~ J.C. Ryle

For more on Ryle, go here.

Roundup That Matters

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Just a few things going on that I would like to comment about, but not write an entire post about.

Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church cancels services — this boneheaded idea is that they should cancel Sunday services and spend time doing random acts of kindness. Sounds all gooey and cheesy on the surface, but the most important thing a Christian can do is gather with other Christians and worship God. I think God takes worship quite seriously. After all, in those Ten Commandment thingys, God uses one of those commands in order to set aside a day JUST for worship. Of course, that would be lost on Warren and his “trendy” church. Never let the Bible or God’s word get in the way of a good idea. Maybe we can pray that Warren & Co. will just go ahead and cancel their services… forever. Let the people in his congregation find a true church.

Boycotting Celebs Because of Their Abortion Positions — The writer readily agrees that if we boycotted every star and starlet in the entertainment industry that support abortion, we wouldn’t be able to watch television at all… Hhm? Maybe not a bad idea. But I digress. Kristen Walker does say that we should boycott the worst offenders for their positions. She lists five: Scarlett Johansson, Sarah Silverman, Chelsea Handler, Amy Poehler, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Walker writes of Johansson:

The gorgeous star of Iron Man 2, Lost in Translation, Ghost World, and a bunch of movies I haven’t seen joined an even more irritating actress (see #1, below) for aPSA warning the world that in the event of Planned Parenthood being defunded, poor women would be denied even the most basic health care and forcibly impregnated with Republican babies, which they would then be forced to raise as Evangelicals. Or something like that.

The rest are worth reading. I’m not much for boycotting, especially since I see so few movies, I’ve only heard of Paltrow, but if you want to join Walker, please do so.

Jim Thornton Challenges Faith Healers — This article gets my blood going because I always want to challenge so-called faith healers that if they are truly faith healers, why not go into a hospital and heal everyone inside for the glory of God? In fact, do so and do not ask for any money. If you really have the gift of healing then you shouldn’t have any problem doing this at all. Thornton has a similar line of thinking. He writes:

I have decided to listen to the faith healers and stop my blood pressure medicine and vitamin pills. There are a few conditions however before I stop, I need to see more consistency in these faith healers. First, I want see them stop eating and just trust God for their bodily nourishment. Second, I need to see them avoid the gas stations and trust the Lord to keep their cars running by faith alone. Lastly, I want them to stop asking for our money and just trust the Lord to fill up their bank accounts. Then when I see the faith healers nourished without food, their cars running without gassing up, and their bank accounts so full that they stop asking for money, I will stop using my medicine.

Thornton is on to something.

Another J.C. Ryle Quote — because I needed to read this one and be reminded.

Your trials may be many and great. Your cross may be very heavy. But the business of your soul is all conducted according to an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure. All things are working together for your good. Your sorrows are only purifying your soul for glory; your bereavements are only fashioning you as a polished stone for the temple above, made without hands. From whatever quarter the storms blow, they only drive you nearer to heaven! Whatever weather you may go through it is only ripening you for the garner of God. Your best things are quite safe.

Advantages of Trusting Christ

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J.C. Ryle on the Advantages of Trusting Christ:

“Christ will never be without some servants. If the vast majority of the Jews did not receive Him as the Messiah, there were, at any rate, a few who did. To them He gave the privilege of being God’s children. He adopted them as members of His Father’s family. He reckoned them His own brethren and sisters, bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh. He conferred on them a dignity which was ample recompense for the cross which they had to carry for His sake. He made them sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty.

“Privileges like these, be it remembered, are the possession of all, in every age, who receive Christ by faith, and follow Him as their Savior. They are ‘children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.’ (Gal. 3:26).”[1]

[1] J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: John, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2007, Vol. 1, p. 16.

J.C. Ryle on a Minister’s Duties

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In preaching through the Gospel of John, I came across the following comments by J.C. Ryle. He is applying the aspect of God sending John the Baptist to ministers being sent by God as well. If a majority of the ministers would take their calling as serious as John the Baptist, the church would be far better off. Not that many do not take their calling seriously, but they do not take the Word of God seriously.

Ryle writes:

“Christian ministers are not priests, nor mediators between God and man. They are not agents into whose hands men may commit their souls, and carry on their religion by deputy. They are witnesses. They are intended to bear testimony to God’s truth, and specially to the great truth that Christ is the only Savior and light of the world… Unless a Christian minister bears a full testimony of Christ, he is not faithful to his office. So long as he does testify of Christ, he has done his part, and will receive his reward, although his hearers may not believe his testimony. Until a minister’s hearers believe on that Christ of whom they are told, they receive no benefit from the ministry. They may be pleased and interested; but they are not profited until they believe. The great end of a minister’s testimony is ‘that through him, men may believe.’”[1]

That is my great hope. That as I preach and declare God’s truth, those in the congregation will believe.

[1] J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: John, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2007, Vol. 1, p. 14.

J.C. Ryle on Sanctification and Feelings

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One of my pet peeves in our religion is that so many base what they believe on their feelings and not the truth of God’s word. This is an extremely dangerous thing to do because our feelings are fallen and can truly mislead us. Do you remember the song, If Loving You is Wrong, I don’t Want to Be Right? That was a song that was based upon the feelings of the singer and not the truth of God’s word. He was committing adultery because it felt “right” even though condemned by God’s word. While you may not have heard that song, the error of it has permeated the church.

With that, I would like to share a quote from J.C. Ryle’s Holiness, the chapter on Sanctification.

“True sanctification does not consist in temporary religious feelings. This again is a point about which a warning is greatly needed. Mission services and revival meetings are attracting great attention in every part of the land, and producing a great sensation. The Church of England seems to have taken a new lease of life, and exhibits a new activity; and we ought to thank God for it. But these things have their attendant dangers as well as their advantages. Wherever wheat is sown, the devil is sure to sow tares. Many, it may be feared, appear moved and touched and roused under the preaching of the gospel, while in reality their hearts are not changed at all. A kind of animal excitement from the contagion of seeing others weeping, rejoicing, or affected is the true account of their case. Their wounds are only skin deep, and the peace they profess to feel is skin deep also. Like the stony-ground hearers, they “receive the Word with joy” (Matthew 13:20); but after a little they fall away, go back to the world, and are harder and worse than before… Let us beware in this day of healing wounds slightly, and crying ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.’ Let us urge on everyone who exhibits new interest in religion to be content with nothing short of the deep, solid, sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost. Reaction, after false religious excitement, is a most deadly disease of soul. When the devil is only temporarily cast out of a man in the heat of a revival, and by and by returns to his house, the last state becomes worse than the first. Better a thousand times begin more slowly, and then ‘continue in the Word’ steadfastly, than begin in a hurry, without counting the cost, and by and by look back, with Lot’s wife, and return to the world. I declare I know no state of soul more dangerous than to imagine we are born again and sanctifiied by the Holy ghost, because we have picked up a few religious feelings.”

His words, which were written in 19th Century England, are just as appropriate today as they were when he penned them. This is because Ryle is dealing with the same spiritual truth that has plagued the church in all ages, even in Christ’s day. He is writing about those who get emotional about the gospel, but are not converted by it. They see the gospel as something that is “new” and therefore something to think about, like the philosophers in Greece, sitting around talking about new ideas but never being changed by any of those ideas. Only it’s worse than that. These people demonstrate some emotional exchange that gets everyone in a lather… but the it’s all for nothing because it is JUST emotionalism.

This is one reason why I’m so reluctant to get all emotional when someone I know trusts in Christ. I’ve seen enough say a prayer, make a commitment and get baptized only to fall away after the attention of the church fades. There was no real conversion, only emotions playing on the person in question.

I will say “amen” if someone trusts in Christ. But I will only say “Hallelujah” when they are still walking with Christ year’s later. This means that the were not caught up in the emotions of the moment, but taken by our Savior and made a new man. That is the kind of man that grows in the LORD and is sanctified. That is the kind of man that is fit for heaven, not the man that just carries on as if he were watching a daily soap opera, but one that is made new by the Spirit of God.

On Peter’s Confession

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J.C. Ryle writes concerning the Apostle Peter after he confess “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God:”

“We shall do well to copy that hearty zeal and affection which Peter here displayed. We are perhaps to much disposed to underrate this holy man, because of his occasional instability, and his thrice-repeated denial of his LORD. This is a mistake. With all his faults, Peter was a true-hearted, fervent, single-minded servant of Christ. With all his imperfections, he has given us a pattern that many Christians would do wisely to follow. Zeal like his may have it ebbs and flows, and sometimes lack steadiness of purpose. Zeal like his may be ill-directed, and sometimes make sad mistakes. But zeal like his is not to be despised. It awakens the sleeping. It stirs the sluggish. It provokes others to exertion. Anything is better than sluggishness, luke-warmness, and torpor, in the Church of Christ. Happy would have been for Christendom had there been more Christians like Peter and Martin Luther, and fewer like Erasmus.”

Think about those words dear readers. We often times blast blind zeal that we end up with no zeal at all. Let us encourage those who are encouraged and be encouraged by them. The deadwood does nothing at all for the Kingdom of God. Often times, they are worse than doing nothing in that they prevent others who have zeal. Their sin is not just sin of omission, but commission as well. Where the zealous for the LORD would act, the deadwood stop it with the smirk, the negative attitude, the hopeless outlook and lack of faith. May the Lord remove the deadwood from our churches, from our pews and replace it with those who are alive for the LORD.

The Cross of Doctrine and Practice

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Another J.C. Ryle quote, this time nabbed from the J.C. Ryle Quotes blog:

Salvation is undoubtedly all of grace. It is offered freely in the Gospel to the chief of sinners, without money and without price. “By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God–not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Eph. 2:8, 9) But all who accept this great salvation, must prove the reality of their faith by carrying the cross after Christ. They must not think to enter heaven without trouble, pain, suffering, and conflict on earth. They must be content to take up the cross of DOCTRINE – holding a faith which the world despises, and the cross of PRACTICE – the cross of living a life which the world ridicules as too strict, and righteous over much.

They must be willing to crucify the flesh, to mortify the deeds of the body, to fight daily with the devil, to come out from the world and to lose their lives, if needful, for Christ’s sake and the Gospel’s. These are hard sayings, but they admit of no evasion. The words of our Lord are plain and unmistakable. If we will not carry the cross, we shall never wear the crown.

~ J.C. Ryle

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1985], 169. {Mark 8:34-38}

How true Bishop Ryle’s words truly are. It has been said that many Christians want the glory of the cross without the suffering of the cross. This is true in my life as well. But how many would truly be willing to take on the doctrine’s of the Bible as well? How many are willing to say ‘no’ to the practices of the world and endure the suffering and ridicule from the world?

Not enough, and not me. Given over to the flesh, I would readily jettison the walk of faith for the walk with the world if I were left to myself. Fortunately, I am not left to myself. This is one of the reasons that God, in His infinite wisdom, gave us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works in us to remind us of who it is that we belong to if we endeavor to pursue the things of the world, flesh and devil. Thinking that we will find happiness there, we will not. Those things are opposed to the Spirit, and the Spirit is opposed to those things.

Given that, should we not submit to His leadership, rule and guidance in our lives? Since God has given us such a great gift of salvation, should we not pursue the things of God?

The obvious answer is ‘yes.’ That being the case, let us endeavor to follow the cross of both doctrine and practice all the more. Let the world hate us as Christ said it would. It hated Him too. But I would much rather be one of His children enduring the trials of this life, than to be a child of wrath undergoing the trials of the afterlife. Let us take up our cross and follow Christ in both doctrine and practice.