No one is prepared to sacrifice his life for a truth of natural science or mathematics.
~Herman Bavinck~
Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 523.
Charles Spurgeon – The Culture of the Inner Man
31 Jul
It will be in vain for me to stock my library, or organise societies, or project schemes, if I neglect the culture of myself; for books, and agencies, and systems, are only remotely the instruments of my holy calling; my own spirit, soul, and body, are my nearest machinery for sacred service; my spiritual faculties, and my inner life, are my battle axe and weapons of war. M’Cheyne, writing to a ministerial friend, who was travelling with a view to perfecting himself in the German tongue, used language identical with our own:–“I know you will apply hard to German, but do not forget the culture of the inner man–I mean of the heart. How diligently the cavalry officer keeps his sabre clean and sharp; every stain he rubs off with the greatest care. Remember you are God’s sword, his instrument–I trust, a chosen vessel unto him to bear his name. In great measure, according to the purity and perfection of the instrument, will be the success. It is not great talents God blesses so much as likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God.”
~Charles Spurgeon~
Lectures to My Students (Pasadena, TX; Pilgrim; 1990) p. 2
The Old Guys Book Giveaway!
30 JulStarting today and ending this Friday, August 3rd any who wish will have the opportunity to win a copy of a book written by one of the old guys! We hope to have these giveaways from time to time and our desire is that this will help someone have the opportunity to dive deeper into a specific work by one of our beloved old guys.
The Author:
Jeremiah Burroughs
The Book:
The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
“When times are difficult and God’s people experience loss it is vital that we remember the sufficiency of God our Saviour. Jeremiah Burroughs is a kind of doctor for the Christian soul who points the wounded traveler to the treasure of Christ.” – T. Pruitt
WTS Books describes the book this way:
“Burroughs’ writings, some published before and others after his death, were numerous, but The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment is one of the most valuable of them all. Its author was much concerned to promote:
peace among believers of various ‘persuasions’
peace and contentment in the hearts of individual believers during what he describes as ‘sad and sinking times’.
The Rare Jewel concentrates upon this second aim. It is marked by sanity, clarity, aptness of illustration, and warmth of appeal to the heart. ‘There is an ark that you may come into, and no men in the world may live such comfortable, cheerful and contented lives as the saints of God’. Burroughs presses his lesson home with all the fervor and cogency of a true and faithful minister of God.”
To Win All You Have to Do Is:
1. Leave a comment below and and let me know that you want to be entered.
2. Subscribe to The Old Guys via RSS, Email, Facebook or Twitter!
3. Leave additional comments for each way you subscribe for extra entries.
A winner will be chosen at random and contacted via email.
Herman Bavinck – Needed: The Witness of God
30 Jul
In religion no human being and no creature can stand between God and my soul. To live and die in the comfort and blessing of salvation is not possible so long as I must rest on fallible human testimony. In religion we need not less but much stronger and firmer certainty than in science. Peace can be found only in the witness of God.
~Herman Bavinck~
Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 516-517.
Charles Spurgeon – Christianity: The Bringer of Freedom
27 Jul
Liberty is the heirloom of all the sons and daughters of Adam. But where do you find liberty unaccompanied by religion? True it is that all men have a right to liberty, but it is equally true that you do not meet it in any country save where you find the Spirit of the Lord. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” Thank God, this is a free country. This is a land where I can breathe the air and say it is untainted by the groan of a single slave; my lungs receive it, and I know there has never been mingled with its vapours the tear of a single slave woman shed over her child which has been sold from her. This land is the home of liberty. But why is it so? I take it, it is not so much because of our institutions as because the Spirit of the Lord is here–the spirit of true and hearty religion. There was a time, remember, when England was no more free than any other country, when men could not speak their sentiments freely, when kings were despots, when Parliaments were but a name. Who won our liberties for us? Who have loosed our chains? Under the hand of God, I say, the men of religion–men like the great and glorious Cromwell, who would have liberty of conscience, or die–men who, if they could not reach kings’ hearts, because they were unsearchable in cunning, would strike kings low, rather than they would be slaves. We owe our liberty to men of religion, to men of the stern Puritanical school–men who scorned to play the craven and yield their principles at the command of man. And if we ever are to maintain our liberty (as God grant we may) it shall be kept in England by religious liberty–by religion. This Bible is the Magna Charta of old Britain. its truths, its doctrines have snapped our fetters, and they never can be riveted on again, whilst men, with God’s Spirit in their hearts, go forth to speak its truths. In no other land, save where the Bible is unclasped–in no other realm, save where the gospel is preached, can you find liberty. Roam through other countries, and you speak with bated breath; you are afraid; you feel you are under an iron hand; the sword is above you; you are not free. Why? Because you are under the tyranny engendered by a false religion: you have not free Protestantism there; and it is not till Protestantism comes that there can be freedom. It is where the Spirit of the Lord is that there is liberty, and nowhere else. Men talk about being free: they describe model governments, Platonic republics, or Owenite paradises; but they are dreamy theorists; for there can be no freedom in the world, save, “where the spirit of the Lord is.”
~Charles Spurgeon~
Spurgeon’s Sermons
J.C. Ryle – Jesus, Our Sure Foundation
25 Jul
Would we know, for another thing, the strength of a true Christian’s foundation for hope? Let us often read these first five verses of John’s Gospel. Let us mark that the Savior in whom the believer is bid to trust is nothing less than the Eternal God, One able to save to the uttermost all that come to the Father by Him. He that was “with God,” and “was God,” is also “Emmanuel, God with us.” Let us thank God that our help is laid on One that is mighty. (Psalm 89:19.) In ourselves we are great sinners. But in Jesus Christ we have a great Savior. He is a strong foundation-stone, able to bear the weight of a world’s sin. He that believes on Him shall not be confounded. (1 Peter 2:6.)
~J.C. Ryle~
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels – John (Edinburgh, Scotland; Banner of Truth; 1992) Commenting on John 1:1-5.
Herman Bavinck – Should Scripture Submit to (Darkened) Reason?
24 Jul
If Christian revelation, which presupposes the darkness and error of unspiritual humanity, submitted in advance to the judgments of reason, it would by that token contradict itself. It would thereby place itself before a tribunal whose jurisdiction it had first denied.
~Herman Bavinck~
Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 516.
J.C. Ryle – Is Sin Really That Bad?
23 Jul
Would we know, for one thing, the exceeding sinfulness of sin? Let us often read these first five verses of John’s Gospel. Let us mark what kind of Being the Redeemer of mankind must needs be, in order to provide eternal redemption for sinners. If no one less than the Eternal God, the Creator and Preserver of all things, could take away the sin of the world, sin must be a far more abominable thing in the sight of God than most men suppose. The right measure of sin’s sinfulness is the dignity of Him who came into the world to save sinners. If Christ is so great, then sin must indeed be sinful!
~J.C. Ryle~
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels – John (Edinburgh, Scotland; Banner of Truth; 1992) Commenting on John 1:1-5.
Herman Bavinck – The Blessing of Apologetics
20 Jul
Apologetics cannot precede faith and does not attempt a priori to argue the truth of revelation. It assumes the truth and belief in the truth. It does not, as the introductory part or as the foundational science, precede theology and dogmatics. It is itself a theological science through and through, which presupposes the faith and dogmatics and now maintains and defends the dogma against the opposition to which it is exposed. Thus understood, apologetics is not only perfectly justified but a science that at all times, but especially in this century, deserves to be seriously practiced and can spread rich blessing all around. First of all, it has the immediate advantage of forcing Christian theology to take deliberate account of the grounds on which it is based, of the principles on which it is constructed, and of the content it has within itself. It brings Christian theology out of the shadows of the mysticism of the human heart into the full light of day. Apologetics, after all, was the first Christian science. Secondly, it teaches that Christians, even though they cannot confer faith on anyone, need not hide from their opponents in embarrassed silence. With their faith they do not stand as isolated aliens in the midst of the world but find support for it in nature and history, in science and art, in society and state, in the heart and conscience of every human being. The Christian worldview alone is one that fits the reality of the world and of life. And finally, if it seriously and scrupulously performs its task, it will very definitely succeed in impressing opponents with the truth of Christian revelation, refuting and silencing them. It cannot truly convert people to God. Not even the preaching of the gospel is able to do that; only God, by his Spirit, can accomplish that. But subject to this working of God, and as a means in his hand, apologetics, like the ministry of the Word, can be a source of consummate blessing. For this fact the early centuries of Christianity offer abundant evidence.
~Herman Bavinck~
Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 515.
The Old Guys 
John Calvin – Introducing the Book of Acts
21 JulThose things which Luke sets before us in this place to be learned are not only great, but also of rare profit; for, first, in that he shows that the Spirit of God was sent unto the apostles, he does not only prove that Christ was faithful (and true) in keeping his promise made unto his apostles; but also he certifies to us, that he is always mindful of his, and a perpetual governor of his Church, because the Holy Spirit did descend from heaven to this end; whereby we learn that the distance of place does in no way hinder Christ from being present with those that be his at all times. Now, here is most lively painted out the beginning of Christ’s kingdom, and as it were the renewing of the world; for although the Son of God had gathered together, by his preaching, a certain Church, before such time as he departed out of the world, yet, nevertheless, that was the best form of the Church which began then, when as the apostles, having new power given them from above, began to preach that that only Shepherd did both die and also rise again, that through his conduct all those which were dispersed, far and wide, (upon the face of the whole earth,) might be gathered unto one sheepfold. Here is, therefore, set down both the beginning and also the increasing of the Church of Christ after his ascension, whereby he was declared to be King both of heaven and earth.
~John Calvin~
Calvin’s Commentaries – Acts (Spokane, WA; Olive Tree Bible Software; http://www.olivetree.com) Introduction to the Commentary on Acts. [Some older words rendered clearer]
Books by John Calvin
Biography of John Calvin
Online Books Available
Other Calvin Quotes at the Old Guys
Tags: Calvin's Commentaries, John Calvin