“Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand.” (2 Corinthians 1:24)
God has not called his pastors to exercise lordship or dominion over his church, but God gave gifts to the church and called men to preach to help the joy of God’s people. We need to have that perspective of the ministry. Preachers are called to aid and help and promote our joy in the Lord by dispensing to the church the word of God.
“Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.” (Hebrews 2:12)
In the Primitive Baptist Church, our worship is very simple: we preach, we sing, we pray. That simplistic worship is actually quite contrary to the complicated manner of worship that is typically in general Christianity today. We want to maintain the simplistic pattern of worship we see in the New Testament scriptures. Actually, we can see from this verse and others in the New Testament that Jesus engaged in the same simplistic worship just like we do today: Christ preached, Christ sang, and Christ prayed in the church.
“Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” (Acts 2:38)
These men here on the day of Pentecost were already “devout men” (pious, godly men; Acts 2:5) and were pricked in the heart and convicted over their sin to such a degree they asked what they needed to do (Acts 2:37). Only a child of God is pricked in the heart by the preaching of the gospel; the preaching of the cross is utter foolishness to the unregenerate (1 Cor 1:21). Peter calls upon those already born again children of God to repent and be baptized.
“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” (1 John 2:16)
The Apostle John is clearly instructing his readers to pursue the commandments and will of God over this world. If we have no desire to follow God’s commands then we have no reasonable basis to attest that we love the Lord. However, the actions that characterize the world are much different and totally contrary to the things of the kingdom and the Father. We must forsake those enticing sins of lust and pride of this world and fully submit to the will and word of God.
“And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.” (2 Thess. 3:5)
God providentially leads, guides, and directs his children every single day. However, God is not abstract or flippant in the direction that he will guide our hearts. Here we are taught that God will direct our hearts unto two conditions that are vital for the child of God: into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.
In July 2019, myself and four other Primitive Baptist ministers – Charles Kitchens, Paul Blair, Silas Ford, and Derrick Kitchens – traveled to Kenya to preach and teach the word of God to hungering disciples of Christ. Brother Charles and Paul then continued on an additional leg of the trip to preach and teach in Tanzania for another extra week. This was a very blessed trip, and this is a brief account of our preaching trip.
My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise.” (Psalm 57:7)
King David was on the run as he penned these words. We know from the notation at the beginning of this Psalm that this was penned as David was fleeing from Saul for his life and hiding in a cave. In spite of such a difficult and challenging situation around him in his circumstances, David did not let that calamity get down into his heart. His heart was still fixed firmly upon the Lord, trusting in his mercy and providence.
“In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him.” (Ecclesiastes 7:14)
One hymn we grew up singing in the church begins with this line, “Mixtures of joy and sorrow, I daily do pass through.” That is the reality of being citizens of a heavenly country passing through a foreign land, a world that’s filled with sin and sorrow. It’s inevitable in this life for us to experience great joy in the days of prosperity, but those good days are always tempered and closely followed with the days of adversity, as Solomon had fully experienced in his life. However, the final result of these contrasting highs and lows in the Christian’s life are “to this end” – that “God also that set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him”.
“Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79)
As Zacharias begins to conclude his prophecy of Christ and then of his son, John the Baptist’s role in the gospel, he introduces Jesus as the “dayspring from on high” come down to visit us. Christ’s first advent was certainly the dawning of a new ray of light for the Jewish community of his day, but in a much more broad sense, Jesus and the light of the good news of the gospel is a light in a dark place for the children of God.
“And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will.” (Acts 13:22)
In the midst of Paul’s sermon here in Acts 13, he describes the former king of Israel, David, in a very unique way – as a man after God’s own heart. What distinguished King David as a man after God’s own heart? It was his commitment to fulfill all the will of God. It should be our desire as well to be men and women after God’s own heart by submitting to and following the will of God in our lives.
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