Antinomian

It is the greatest folly to part with our interest in God, and Christ, and heaven, for the riches, honors, and pleasures of this world; it is as bad a bargain as his who sold a birth-right for a dish of pottage. Esau ate and drank, pleased his palate, satisfied his appetite, and then carelessly rose up and went his way, without any serious thought, or any regret, about the bad bargain he had made. Thus Esau despised his birth-right. By his neglect and contempt afterwards, and by justifying himself in what he had done, he put the bargain past recall. People are ruined, not so much by doing what is amiss, as by doing it and not repenting of it.
—Matthew Henry in his commentary on Gen 25

What is repentance? Is it what they do at an altar call? Or based on fuzzy warm feelings about God, like much of the charismatic movement, that involves strong emotion, yet little to any heart work?  Whatever, repentance is an essential part of our salvation:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. [1 John 9:10]

Under all dispensations, since our first parents were expelled from the Garden of Eden, God has insisted on repentance. Among the patriarchs, Job said, “I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). Under the Law, David wrote the thirty-second and fifty-first psalms. John the Baptist cried, “Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). Christ’s account of Himself is that He “came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Mark 2:17). Just before His ascension, Christ commanded “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47). And the Apostles taught the same doctrine “testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). So that any system of religion among men which should not include repentance, would upon its very face be false….This doctrine will not be amiss while the world stands.
William Plummer from “Vital godliness”

Jonathan Edwards’  third resolution says thus:

Resolved. If ever I shall fall and grow dull, so as to neglect to keep any part of these Resolutions, to repent of all I can remember, when I come to myself again.

Repentance is an ongoing day by day thing for the believer or should be.  The Bible tells us to keep short accounts with God. This includes daily confession and repentance, and a daily cleansing by the blood of Christ.

God is neither honored by self-righteousness or hypocrisy.

Thomas Watson in his doctrine of Repentance says:

I shall not dispute the priority, whether faith or repentance goes first. Doubtless repentance shows itself first in a Christian’s life. Yet I am apt to think that the seeds of faith are first wrought in the heart. As when a taper (candle) is brought into a room the light shows itself first, but the taper was before the light, so we see the fruits of repentance first, but the beginnings of faith were there before.

That which inclines me to think that faith is seminally in the heart before repentance is because repentance, being a grace, must be exercised by one that is living. Now, how does the soul live but by faith? ‘The just shall live by his faith’ (Heb. 10:38). Therefore there must be first some seeds of faith in the heart of a penitent, otherwise it is a dead repentance and so of no value.

Whether faith or repentance goes first, however, I am sure that repentance is of such importance that there is no being saved without it

We hear alot in our age of self esteem and self-worth, about feeling good about oneself, yet true Biblical Chritianity, is one of self denial, and self abasement, so that one can be left with virtually nothing in the world, be mocked and scourged by men, and still praise and glorify God in a furnace such as that. What does Scripture say is the acceptable sacrifice to God?

Psalms 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Many churches today, however, if seeing someone bereft and distressed over cases of conscience and being awoken to the reality of sin, and hell, will offer a God of love that is all warm and fuzzy to make them feel better about themselves, and they will take away or try to remove the very thing of above that would make them acceptable in God’s sight. If someone is berefet and distraught over cases of conscience especially if in an unconverted state, we should pray for them, but not talk them out of feeling as they do about the actions or choices they have made in their life that has brought them to such a low ebb. We should tell them of the Gospel and the love and mercy of Christ, but also make it clear that without repentance no one sees God, and that you can’t have a warm, fuzzy God, without repentance that will be a Saviour. This is part of what we hear Jesus talking of I believe in Matt 7:22-23;

Together with undivided faith in Jesus Christ there must also be unfeigned repentance of sin. Repentance is an old-fashioned word, not much used by modern revivalists. “Oh!” said a minister to me one day, “it only means a change of mind.” This was thought to be a profound observation. “Only a change of mind”; but what a change (1)!

Another proof of the conquest of a soul for Christ will be found in a real change of life. If the man does not live differently from what he did before, both at home and abroad, his repentance needs to be repented of, and his conversion is a fiction. Not only action and language, but spirit and temper must be changed (2).

True regeneration implants a hatred of all evil; and where one sin is delighted in, the evidence is fatal to a sound hope (3)

There must also be a willingness to obey the Lord in all His commandments (4).

If [presumably, at the time of conversion] the professed convert distinctly and deliberately declares that he knows his Lord’s will but does not mean to attend to it, you are not to pamper his presumption, but it is your duty to assure him that he is not saved (5).
—Charles Spurgeon “The Soul Winner”

Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines Repentance as this:

re•pen•tance \ri-’pent-en(t)s\ n: the action or process of repenting esp. for misdeeds or moral shortcomings syn see PENITENCE

Repentance gives Christ, Lordship of our lives, because being penitent and turning to Christ includes giving up our own will entirely, to self deny all of our own lusts and only agree and do the will of God.

So, let me ask you friends, is your life based on a faith that includes a Biblical and ongoing day by day repentance, which in simple terms means, a turning away from, foresaking sin, (do you have hard thoughts of God? Do you wish things were different in your life so suffer from the plage of discontent? Do you wish you were more like others, and so are covetous? Is there anything or anyone in your life that ihas a higher priority than God and Kingdom work, so you are guilty of idolatory? If so, do you daily confess these things to a forgiving Father, and retake the cleansing blood of Christ to wash yourself clean? Do the sins aforementioned, and any other not mentioned here in your life bring tears from your eyes and anguish in your soul when you pray to God in confession and as a penitent sinner? Or do you have the new faith that has pervaded us all the last years. The prosperity gospel or feel good faith, that is all about how good God makes you feel. How comfortable He keeps you, and a warm fuzzy God that is a nice feeling, but leave out and forget that God is also a consuming fire of wrath? Those who have not repented, and have only a faith based on the feel good factor, should turn or repent from that now, so that they do not one day, feel the real fury of that consuming fire, when repenting will be too late by that time and no longer an option.

Is Christ Lord of your life? And each time you step out of his will do you repent of it and turn away from doing it again? Because faith, true Biblical faith, cannot leave someone unchanged, it is a complete oxymoron. A profession of faith, that does not reach the heart and turn it and change it so that we are the New Creations that Scripture speaks of, is no saving faith. How much of your life has changed, in activities, thoughts, where ones time goes, or any other relevant way you can think of from before you professed to be converted? These are all things we should question and search our hearts, and ask the Lord’s help to help us see how failings and sinful infirmities, in another much neglected doctrine that was big in puritan times, that of self-examination. The puritans were soul winners, the Bible was so Big in their lives, God was so big, that if you read them today, you can still feel it flow from their pens, but they converted souls in a way we do not today. They would be astonished and confouned at things like Altar Calls, and the Benny Hinn style of falling backwards and you’ve been converted, but their teaching searched and reached souls, like few do today. Which is probably why in our day it is estimated that less than 15% of the visible church consistes of true converts, because today, the greater majority wants easy faith and easy believism, that has no warrant from the Word of God. And 85% of the visible church is currently on its way to hell. It is a scary thought isn’t it? Let’s hope that at the final day, you and I, dear reader, do not find we have been deluded and self deceived also, but have Faith and Repentance, that is Biblical, and given by Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

We all seem to in our age, or many of us, to learn more doctrine and theology, than we are able to practice; and what is the use of that? Christianity should be practical, but it is not the case often times. I have known folks in the past, who were so rigid in matter of the law, and so careless towards others in their afflictions, and the favourite battle cry or mentality among the group was “God is all you need,” that when one of them fell into pretty common type of affliction, God wasn’t enough, nor the manifold blessings they also had, but they also needed anti-depressants too! They had all the right doctrine and spiel, but very weak faith when it came to practicing it themself. We are very good at dishing out, what we are utterly unable to practice ourselves, and the most rigid or unloving often comes from those who seem to exalt the law above the gospel and have extra Biblical rules that many others who would group themselves loosely with what they claim to be, yet they go further than Scripture, and what does the Bible say about that, that the law without love, is nothing but a clashing cymbal. As I have said for a long time, doctrine maketh no man, though it may feed our pride, and give us some sense of superiority or exclusivity, and at times, when you meet Christians who you would expect many what would be technically termed children who would be more learned on matters of Scripture yet you get these Christians who just don’t grow and to not do so, is an unbiblical view of true Christianity. WE may grow at different rates, and there will always be weak Christians, but a Christian who remains unlearned in the ways of God, there is something very amiss, IMO. So you get the two extremes. And it seems to me in either extreme, the legalistic pharisees, or the antinomians the cross or the Gospel is what is being neglected.
Doctrine is important of course, as if we hold to some things we will hold to damnable heresy. But we must not build our knoweldge without it entering into our hearts and changing us and pervading the whole man, and not just stay as some lofty, theoretical idea, that when we meet adversity, God will not be enough, no matter how much we have preached that, but we need worldly, unbiblical props also.
We need to get our eyes back on the cross.

When I survey the wondrous cross,
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ, my God;
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.
– Isaac Watts (1674-1748)

I have recently come across a Gospel centred Reformed preacher online, and the Gospel is where we all need to be, and by t that I am not dismissing or negating the value of the law, only that each much have its place and one not be exalted at the cost of the other. If we do not have Christ, we have nothing.

Spirit Empowered Preaching by Art Azurdia who in his sermon called Fix your eyes on the Cross says:

“Fix your eyes on the Cross, and never get beyond it”

It seems that should be something, many of us ought to practice more.

There is a famous quote by puritan Richard Rogers, that goes: “I am so precise, because I serve a precise God.” I have often heard it argued, by both professing Calvinists and non-calvinists alike, that the puritans, the westminster divines, if taken as literally as the neo-puritans take their works today, is too strict, too rigid, it doesn’t tie in with their idea of a gracious and merciful God to have such high standards for holiness, and such high requirements for the Christian life, for them to have the mark, stamp and seal of being true Christians, the seal given by having the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, who enables us to perform with delight and a cheerful heart, what we would otherwise find a burden, and still feel like those of the Old Testament under the yoke or burden of the law, because without the Spirit of God to enable us to meet those high standards and holy requirements of the Christian life, we are left in exactly the same position as those of the Old Testament, never being justified before God, so never given the grace to perform what God requires of us.
God does not leave His elect people, unable to fulfil his requirements and having to do it in their own strength. That falls back to exactly the Old Testament way, because on our own strength we never will live up to the Christian calling or have a hope of entering heaven; only on the strength of Christ’s imputed righteousness, and the work of a thorough conversion by the Spirit of God, working in us, and enabling and wiling us to do God’s will, to obey his moral law to live up to His standard, in our own strength or power we are left hopeless, so the only reserve left to us in that situation is to lower God’s standard to meet our abilities of our own strength, rather than striving after seeking God with all our heart and not giving up knocking at the door till He gives us the grace we need to not have to lower his standard because it is too precise, too strict, for us to ever have a hope of every living a holy life, and the righteous standard, we need to lower God’s standard so our consciences can sleep, because if we lower the standard we may at least pass some semblance of living a holy or righteous life and the Biblical standard.
God is a God of grace and mercy, but the gait is narrow and few will enter in, because his standard is much higher than many professing believers ever believe or will adhere to or even try to seek out the truth for themselves. Those who think that God has lowered his standard on the account of the love of Christ from the Old Covenant to the new, do not know the character of God at all well. He is a God who stands on the small things as well as the big. As Richard Rogers so aptly put it, I am so precise because I serve a precise God.
Now don’t mistake this for perfectionism, as even the best of Christians fall far short of ever being anywhere near perfect, or keeping the law perfectly. But it is for those who strive after doing so, and recognize the standard and just how high God’s standard is, but in our human frailty still mess up and get it wrong, and are disobedient at times, those are the sins that Christ’s blood was shed, for His elect people, because God knew that no mater how hard the most earnest of Christians strive to do HIs will and be obedient children, we will never be perfect in this life, but they do recognize the standard nonetheless and seek and strive after it, but imperfectly. We need Christ’s blood, to cover our imperfections.

Again, like a post last week, this is not a blog post about the fourth commandment, but again I will use it as an example. If setting the whole day aside for religious duties and sanctifying the day completely to God, denying ourselves our livings, (paid labour), our recreations, or doing the things we do on the other six days for our own pleasure and delight, is burdensome, wearisome, and something you say is not a requirement of God, that it is too strict, too precise, we are back again to lowering the standard so that our consciences may sleep, and we may make some semblance of respectability among like-minded Christians. Yet if that is the case, since Heaven is an everlasting Sabbath, how do you think anyone who finds setting one day aside per week for the performance of devotions and praise and religious duties, aside from the works of necessity or mercy, will belong or fit in or enjoy an everlasting Sabbath in heaven, when one has so defiled and despised the Sabbath day in this world?
If God lowers his standard to the standard that would suit many people, then God would be a sinner, his word would be a lie, and there would be no standard of righteousness to meet. But there is.
If you find keeping the whole of the Lord’s Day set aside for religious dutie burdensome, then why would you want to even go to Heaven for the everlasting Sabbath when it is so distasteful to you here? It makes no sense.
And yes, people plead ignorance on the fourth commandment because it is not a clear, thou shalt not do this or that, or thou shalt do this or that command, but then that reflects sloth and lack of diligence on their part; we need to know the mind of God, as much as we can by being diligent in the Word of God. Ignorance will never be an excuse that justifies oneself before God that he gives leave to be “Okay” for the Christian to remain ignorant about the fourth commandment or any other aspect of import in the Christian life.

Joseph Alleine wrote on ignorance:

(Hos. 4:6). O how many poor souls does this sin kill in the dark, while they think verily they have good hearts, and are all set for heaven. This is the murderer that dispatches thousands in a silent manner, when they suspect nothing, and do not see the hand that destroys them. You shall find, whatever excuses you make for ignorance, that it is a soul ruining evil (Isa. 27:11; 2 Thess 1:8; 2 Cor 4:3). Ah, would it not have grieved a man’s heart to see that dreadful spectacle when the poor Protestants were shut up in a barn, and a butcher came, with his hands warmed in human blood, and led them one by one, blindfold, to a block where he slew them one after another by scores, in cold blood? But how much more should your hearts bleed to think of the hundreds that ignorance destroys in secret and leads blindfold to the block. Beware that this is not your case. Make no plea for ignorance; if you spare that sin, know that it will not spare you; and would a man keep a murderer in his bosom?

You see if you have been a Christian many a year, and are still pleading ignorance over the fourth commandment or any other important matters of Scripture, then you have real cause to doubt your conversion, because there is no excuse; ignorance really is a choice; but when ignorance reigns in the heart about what God has left us to tell us how he wants us to live, His standard for the Christian, His Holy Word, it can only be because we chose to spend our time on other things, of much less importance, to spend our time on trvials because they were more pleasing to our flesh than spending the time it takes to seek out what God says, about this subject or that subject, until we are sure in our mind, and have been taught by the Holy Ghost Himself straight out of the pages of Scripture, and have been like the Bereans and searched the Scriptures, not taken what Calvin said, as the last word, or our pastor or learned friends, only what God teaches us Himself by our diligent study of the Bible is living real faith, anything else is the same thing as the implicit faith of the papists, because this man or that man or woman says so we believe it, without knowing what God says about it HImself. Unless our beliefs be firm and sure, and we are convicted that this is what GOD HIMSELF teaches, then we will remain a loose canon who can easily be talked out of such and such a belief by someone else as equally learned as the first person who talked us into the belief in the first place. The patristic fathers, our learned friends are all good helps and aids for our study, but they should never be the final authority, the only final authority should be an appeal to Scripture and what does God say.
Every soul is heaven born, though we all enter this world at enmity with God, we are God’s prized creation for we alone bear his image in us; Yet we live so often in ignorance of what God says and of lowering His standard, to our level, rather than us upping our game to Biblical Christianity and seeking him with all our hearts souls and minds; and what a travesty and tragedy to see the lords of this lower world preferring the husks in the sty like the prodigal, rather than feeding on manna from heaven.
Does anyone believe God left us His written word, and preserved it through all the persecutions of the past, and brought the greatest event since the Apostolic age about in the Protestant Reformation to set it free again, for us to remain ignorant of what He says in it?
Yes, I agree, the Westminster divines, and Calvin’s brand of Calvinism, which is often not the same Calvinism we frequently see today, and the puritans did have strict, precise standards, and it was exactly as Richard Rogers says, that he was so precise, because he served a precise God. Like the true neo-puritans of today, they recognized just what the standard of righteousness and holiness is for us required by God, and did not try to lower it, to meet their humanity, but upped their game as they matured in their faith, to rise higher and higher though still imperfectly, but knowing it was the only rule for righteousness and the only standard acceptable to God.
I shall close this blog post with another quote by Joseph Alleine, on something that he heads as: “A secret Enmity against the strictness of religion.”

Many moral persons, punctilious in their formal devotions, have yet a bitter enmity against strictness and zeal and hate the life and power of religion. They do not like this forwardness, nor that men should make such a stir in religion. They condemn the strictness of religion as singularity, indiscretion, and intemperate zeal, and with them a zealous preacher or fervent Christian is but a wild enthusiast. These men do not love holiness as holiness (for then they would love the height of holiness) and are therefore undoubtedly rotten at heart, whatever good opinion they have of themselves.
—Joseph Alleine

And was not as described like many of the Reformed it has been my dark providence to know who come under the label of the Frozen chosen.  If those folks I Have known, are truly chosen, then they will not remain frozen, if they do, however,  then I fear for their eternal future.

That blog post created some controversy, though I also had some positive feedback about it away from this blog site itself, but it was not my declaration that all Calvinist’s are the frozen chosen, in fact, it was my contention that to be so, is the most uncalvinistic and even more, unchristian outlook one can have. One filled with self and not with God.

Calvin himself, the man of whom Calvinists take their name, though not their faith, but he was the man who after a thousand years of popish darkness set forth the true religion once again, by his immaculate writings that could have only come from the mind of a genius.  From his first edition of the Institutes in 1536, he never varied  from those doctrines, even though he was a young convert at the time.  By the time the last edition was published however, in 1559, he had expanded on them enormously, because his first edition was only six chapters, and he wrote it for the french refugees and Protestants of France as a simple manual or summary of Christian doctrine.  His last edition however,  was more of an introduction to Scripture for any student of God, and particularly of pastors. Since his final edition has over 7,000 Scripture references in it, it can be truly said it is an introduction to Scripture and Biblical doctrine.

I plan to start a series on Calvin, to again debunk many of the myths, fables, and in some cases downright malicious lies that have existed and been handed down the centuries about him, as a monster or the dictator of Geneva.  There is more than ample proof to prove these literary pieces that started the ball rolling in the time of Calvin was nothing more than malicious propaganda and a fulfilling of Isa.:5:20

But going back to my post on Calvinist’s should not be the frozen chosen, the very point of that post is that to be a Calvinist and yet act like the frozen chosen towards the brethren, is an oxymoron. And those who do, shame the name of Calvinism, and it’s noble heritage and this short quote by B.B. Warfield shows how the man himself of who Calvinist’s take their name from was nothing like that.  I have had the dark providence to know many who were not one iota like Calvin, but  I have the good providence in more recent times, to have new Calvinist friends, among many are not like those I formerly knew.

Calvin was a man of letters, no one can dispute that. HIstory bears it out and the works he has left us, about which only half thus far have been translated into English.  But much of his writing comprised of letter writing. The ones that have remained, fill four full volumes of works, and its a sure dunk that many didn’t stand the test of time and got lost. Most of the Reformation itself, and the very real spiritual war that was going on, was conducted by letter.  People who criticize the use of email don’t seem to know their history very well,  as email is just another form of letter, and in those days when it could take a whole year for a single letter to arrive somewhere, it seems to me with the technological tools we have today, we should also be able to conduct our own reformation with much more power because we are not in those primitive times.

B.B Warfield writes:

Of one other product of his literary activity, however,  a special word seems demanded. Calvin was the great letter-writer of the Reformation age. About four thousand of his letters have come down to us, some of them almost of the dimensions of treatises, many of them practically theological tractates, but many of them also of the most intimate character in which he pours out his heart. In these letters we see the real Calvin, the man of profound religious convictions and rich religious life, of high purpose and noble strenuousness, of full and freely flowing human affections and sympathies. In them he rebukes rulers and instructs statesmen, and strengthens and comforts saints. Never a perplexed pastor but has from him a word of encouragement and counsel; never a martyr but has from him a word of heartening and consolation. Perhaps no friend ever more affectionately leaned on his friends; certainly no friend ever gave himself so ungrudgingly to his friends. Had he written these letters alone, Calvin would take his place among the great Christians and the great Christian leaders of the world.
Benjamin B. Warfield Calvin and Calvinism Vol 5 of the Works of B.B. Warfield.

You see Calvin was not the frozen chosen, he knew how to be a friend to those in need. And he accomplished his labours not only in primitive times, but in the worst of circumstances that anyone could have.  And anyone claiming to be a Calvinist who acts like the frozen chosen is an oxymoron. To be the frozen chosen is to be an antinomian, because if you do not love one’s neighbour as oneself, then the whole of the law is broken, and the whole sum of the law, and one’s love to God questionable. As only when we love God aright, will we also love our fellow man aright also.

This is a series that will be continued on Calvin uncovered.

Are you a law student? King David was! Oh how I Love thy law etc, etc. (Psalm 119:97; Psalm 19:17)

The law has become obfuscated in our day and age, of what exactly if any relevance the moral law, the ten commandments has to do with New Testament Christians. You will find all kinds of variances, there is much antinomianism about, and there is still people adding to God’s Word and gong further than Scripture requires.

The order one brings God’s law into having anyone to do with life, at least in sincerity, has a lot to do with this subject. For one to uphold the law as much as we are able, and to attempt to, before we have been justified sinners before God, is legalism, we are trying to work our way to heaven, yet without being justified before God by the blood of Christ and having His righteousness imputed to us, it’s all folly and vanity. Much like the lawyers of the New Testament that Christ called a brood of vipers.

No one will get to heaven, or be true Christians, no matter how much we try to live by the Law of God, without first having gone to the Lord in faith, and had your sins washed clean with His precious blood, and so standing righteous in his sight. The order of things is of import. The first thing in the order of faith is the above.

Any good works before that will not merit anyone out of hell.

But there is a lot of confusion today amongst New Testament Christians about exactly how or if the law applies to us today. To try and follow it to the letter, when justified sinners before God, will often get the call of “Legalist” brought down upon our heads. Yet what is the moral Law as given in the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai? It is a reflection of God’s nature, and it tells us who and what He is above almost anything else.

This is not going to be a blog post about the fourth commandment, but I am using the fourth commandment as an example here because it is the one I hear most often that people do not understand how this applies today. That we are not under law but under grace and that it’s not put down as clearly as the other commandments are. The rest of the commandments say, thou shalt not, or thou shalt. Thou shalt not kill, is quite easy to interpret, same as thou shalt not commit adultery. We can all understand that in an instant. But some parts of Scripture are not all written in the same exacting way.
It took Tertullian to first bring the doctrine of the Trinity to the church, because in Scripture the Word trinity never appears, and it is only indicated at it being so. Tertullian was a study of Scripture, and this seems often where we go wrong today. We want the answers handed to us on a plate without doing the work that all Christians should do on their own behalf to find out what God is saying about any given subject. We ask this person, or that person; we ask as Calvinist’s what Calvin thought. The one place we don’t seem to go though is to appeal to God to illuminate us and go to His Word to put the hours in, the study in, to find out what is meant exactly by, “Remember the Sabbath day, and Keep it holy.”
Is it a symptom of the immediate everything society we live in? Perhaps. It’s also a sign of sloth and of us not delighting in God’s Word if we are not prepared to study it to that extent, to be like the Berean’s and search the Scriptures to see what God is saying and meaning exactly by Exodus 20:8.
In cases like that, we need to go to all of Scripture and find all the places where the subject is brought up, and study all those places together, so that we get a systematic belief that becomes plainer the more systematized it is, and so that we can be left in no doubt. God did not leave us in darkness over the Ten Commandments and what He requires or expects of us. The answers to everything that is not plain in one place can be found by studying the whole of Scripture. Scripture interprets Scripture is an old and very true saying.

Anyone who refuses to do so, but keeps asking this person or that person, instead of going to the source in my opinion has good reason to question their conversion, especially over matters regarding the law. As what was David’s attitude in Psalm 119 that he delighted in the law and meditated on it day and night. In Psalm 19 he calls it perfect. Something perfect is not going to be changed. You cannot improve on perfect, and if the Moral law of God changed, that would indicate that God had changed too, in which case. If He was changeable He would not already be perfect so could not be God.
We read Jesus say: Matthew 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
And he did fulfil the law. The only man since Adam and Eve fell and put a curse on the rest of us who ever had or whoever will by living a sinless life. But by his fulfilling it to the letter, then he re-established it for those who are his people who came after him. Following Christ means being conformed to him and to imitate him. He fulfilled the law perfectly, (which we can never do) but the more we try to do so, the being conformed to Christ we will be becoming. Because first comes justification, then we are followers of Christ and having the moral law as our rule of faith and practice is what makes for the sanctified Christian.
The law each and every one of them, has a lot more meat on the bones of what they actually mean, besides the one or two lines stated in the Old Testament. For instance, I have known folk who thought though shalt not commit false witness, simply meant you shouldn’t perjure yourself in court!! There is a whole lot more to that law than that, but the folk who believe that’s what it teaches were not students of Scripture nor delighted in the law of God like David did, or they would have had after many years of professing faith much more than such a basic simple knowledge as that.
You can’t be saved by the law, by doing works without first being justified by God. But you can’t be saved without the law either. Anyone who is truly justified by and before God will do good works and obey the law of God as much as any human can, as a consequence of saving faith and saving grace. God does not tell us to do what he does not give us the tools to do. What God requires of us, he gives the grace to us to do it with. So if we are not following God, and obeying his rules, yes rules I say, Do this and live, or don’t do this and die, which appear in Scripture can quite justly be called rules, the Law of God. God’s Rules and not man’s rules. But if you mention the word rules to folk at times again you will have the word Legalist come crashing down upon your head. A parent gives its child rules to follow. As long as the child obeys it stays in favour with its parents. Once it disobeys it will be punished and out of favour. And God clearly says in both covenants, do this and live. With every promise comes a threatening and a curse, the promise is for if we do obey , the threatening is what will happen and the curse being pronounced upon us if we don’t and are not ignorant new born babes, there is a very good chance we have had no real conversion. Jesus fulfilled the Law as he states in Matt. 5:17 and his people need to establish it upon the earth as his rule of thumb and it is one way He is glorified, and the more people who do, the more dominion and rule Christ will have upon the earth, because his values and morals will be becoming and more and more established the greater number of professing Christians who live the law out in life and practice.

We will either accept the whole moral law, or we reject it, and if we do that, we reject Christ along with it, because the law is the Revelation of God’s character and nature. And if we try to keep the ones that are desirous and pleasing to us, but not the ones that don’t please our flesh, we break one law, the whole law is broken. (James 2:10)
When we are justified before God, and his righteousness imputed to us, the law leads to our sanctification. The unsanctified Christian does not exist it’s an oxymoron, at least Christians that have professed so any length of time. The law teaches us what is right and wrong and what is meant by being holy. Because the sum of holiness is summed up in those ten commandments, but again, we have to dig a lot deeper to find out the full scope of each law.
Let us be like the Berean’s and search the Scriptures to see what God is saying to us and to testify of Him who perfectly kept and fulfilled the Law. (John 5:39) Ignorance is a choice if we do not. As every bit of Scripture is for our good. 1 Tim. 3:16 The Law is alive the Law is real, and without it, no one will go to Heaven. Because only those who are justified before God will be given the grace needed to obey it and so be sanctified by it.
Obey God by doing His revealed will, and do this and live. It’s the only path a true Christian, one justified before God, can follow.  If the moral law was not still enforce, then no one would need a Saviour.

And let us pray along with Augustine: Grant what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt. Because unless that is fulfilled, we will not see the face of God.

As Walter Marshall wrote:

One cause of these errors, that are so contrary one to the other, is, that many are prone to imagine nothing else to be meant by salvation, but to be delivered from hell, and to enjoy heavenly happiness and glory: hence they conclude, that, if good works be a means of glorification, and precedent to it, they must also be a precedent means of our whole salvation; and that, if they be not a necessary means of our whole salvation, they are not necessary at all to glorification. But though salvation be often taken in Scripture by way of eminency, for its fperfection in the state of heavenly glory; yet according to its full and proper signification, we are to understand by it, all that freedom from evil of our natural corrupt state, and all those holy and happy enjoyments that we receive from Christ our Saviour either in this world by faith, or in the world to come by glorfication. Thus justification, the gift of the Spirit to dwell in us, the priviledges of adoption are parts of our salvation which we take part of in this life. Thus also, the conformity of our hearts to the law of God, and the fruits of righteousness with which we are filled by Jesus Christ, in this life, are a necessary part of our salvation.—God saveth us from our sinful uncleanness here, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost as well as from hell hereafter (Ezek. xxxvi.29; Titus iii.5). Christ was called Jesus, that is a Saviour, because he saved his people from their sins. (Matt i. 21). Therefore it is part of our salvation to deliver us from our sins, which is begun in this life, by justification and sanctification, and perfected by glorification in the life to come.

If any reader has ever read, Bunyan’s Grace Abounding to the Chief of sinners, one of the most annoying things about it, is that you are never sure when he is converted. He seems to go through several conversion experienes, and each one seemed to lead him a little more on the pathway to heaven, but most people do agree of the occassion he spoke of in that autobiography of what was the defining moment of conversion. However, this post is not about Bunyan, so I am not going to quote what seems to have been his defining moment in conversion.
But I also went through a similar path. Of thinking myself converted, wanting to do the right thing, yet always, always failing dismally. I never felt saved, though feelings are never to be trusted wholly. But I confided from the start to my closest friend I didn’t believe I had been converted, even though I had made two professions already by that time at different times. I went through torment and anguish in this spiritual battle, akin to both that of Bunyan and Martin Luther, and it wasn’t a few weeks or months, but six long, hard painful years. The hardest ever of my life. And the last time I made a profession, which would be around 18 months ago, in hindsight I’m still not sure that was my defining moment, but like Bunyan each one led me further on the path to heaven, and I know that sometime in the last 18 months it happened for real. Because the difference I found, in the worst of circumstances and a belly full of afflictions, my perceptions to cope with it, and rise above it in faith, what I always wanted to do, but never could, was suddenly there. YOu cannot be in this much affliction and fake it. But the difference was, when this started to happen, is the power of godliness that Scripture speaks of.

The chains fell off and at once I
was like Bunyan’s Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress:

What a fool I have been, to lie like this in a stinking dungeon, when I could have just as well walked free. In my chest pocket I have a key called Promise that will, I am thoroughly persuaded, open any lock in Doubting-Castle.” “Then,” said Hopeful, “that is good news. My good brother, do immediately take it out of your chest pocket and try it.” Then Christian took the key from his chest and began to try the lock of the dungeon door; and as he turned the key, the bolt unlocked and the door flew open with ease, so that Christian and hopeful immediately came out.—John Bunyan

Bunyan spoke of the often painful experience of conversion in his excellency of a broken heart, And he spoke from experience and it is one I can so relate with. That kind of torment and angush may not be common to everone’s conversion experience but it is to some.

Conversion is not the smooth, easy-going process some men seem to think . . . . It is wounding work, of course, this breaking of the hearts, but without wounding there is no saving. . . . Where there is grafting there is a cutting, the scion must be let in with a wound; to stick it on to the outside or to tie it on with a string would be of no use. Heart must be set to heart and back to back, or there will be no sap from root to branch, and this I say, must be done by a wound. —John Bunyan

Faith, and expeirmental religion, is not just a word its a whole man change and all at once. Yes, someone can be a babe in Christ, and yet the whole man is still changed, and a new convert there most pleasing hours will be spent on meditating on the lovliness of Christ and our best endeavours to please him by being obedient children, will be driving us on to grow in grace and holiness and the power of godliness. Except for it was somewhere in the last 18 months I cannot say when, but I know the change took place. So that my sufferings, and the hauntings of a painful most incredible past, don’t control me, or bring out behavour in me that does not belong in the life of a Christian. The power of godliness is real, and alive, and you cannot fake it in this much affliction, tho that may not be true for most average folks, and even so I still lack assurance, and yet when I read things that is speaking of examining our own hearts, I don’t just feel the checklist kind of thing like I used to do, that never be so blatant for me to say I didn’t pass the questions, there was room for doubt, now even though I am a poor doubting Christian in many respects, I know by every bit of my fibre, that the change God has wrought in me was supenatural and only by the power of godliness could I now rise above this furnace that is seven times hotter to praise God even when in the hottest part of it. Sometimes, despite how ill I am, and how alone in that awful amout of illness, I spend hours thinking about God’s providence and the change he has wrought in me and how he did it. I don’t do it to feel pleased about myself, but his love is so manifest in it, so wondrous to me how he did it, in such extraordinary circumstances, when I did not have the aids, benefits and encouragments or even teaching as other folks get, and with cognitive impairment to boot, I marvel at his works at how wondrous they are, and how nothing can stop him from make those he chose from before the foundation of the world his blessed childen; no hindrances, obstacles, stumbling blocks, or the plagues of our own hearts will stop him, and he will go to extraordinary or unusual means to make this happen if ordinary means are not available. Because God is all powerful and nothing can thwart hsi will. When I think about where I’ve been, what I’ve seen, and lived through, and what a life of terrible affliction I am still left with and yet feel so blessed and so content despite it, that it can only be the power of godliness and I rejoice in my Lord for making it so. I would live a hundred years in this condition if He willed me to, rather than the last six preceding it, where in temporal terms I was actually richer, because God alone is my portion and what a wondrous God he is, to stoop so low to someone like me; the one the world rejected from the day I was born. It makes me weep, but not with sadness, but at the love of a perfect Saviour, for someone who was so rebellious and denied his goodness for so long, because of my afflictons, it makes me weep, that he stooped so low, despite myself. And when the going gets tough, I remember how but for amazing grace, I could be in hell now. Or tomorrow or next week, and remember the wickedness of my own heart and how in such utter torment, I hurt the people I loved most of all. Yes I am forgiven, but I will never forget. Because what such affliction in the middle of the spiritual anguish of never quite closing with Christ had never been part of my personality before, and I loathe what came out of my heart, towards the people who were kindest to me, and least deserving of it. I think its very true that when we are hurting, we really do hurt the ones we love, not because we get pleasure out of it, but because we don’t know how not to.
I was on a roundabout that I couldn’t get off and so wanted it to stop, but I didn’t know how to make it stop, until the power of godliness was put in me by God giving me a through conversion. And yes, this life can be hard, and awefully lonely, but I never weep for my afflictions in any longer without also weeping for my sins.
I had Charles Spurgeon’s Lectures to my student’s come the weekend, and he wrote this:

People go to their place of worship and sit down comfortably and think they must be Christians, when all the time all that their religion consists in, is listening to an orator, having their ears tickled with music, and perhaps their eyes amused with graceful actions and fashionable manners; the whole being no better than what they hear and see at the opera.–not so good, perhaps, in point of aesthetic beauty, and not an atom more spiritual. Thousands are congratulating themselves, and even blessing God that they are devout worshippers, when a the same time they are living in an unregenerate Christless state, having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. He who presides over a system which aims at nothing better than formalism, is far more a servant of the devil than a minister of God.
—Charles Spurgeon

Though aimed at ministers it applies to all professors of Christ. People often make rash judgements over another’s soul on the silliest pretext, yet, sometimes judgements can be made and should be made, righteous judgments. If someone has Christ, they will have the power of godliness. They will be living to serve God and not themselves, and following the commandments he gives us in the moral law to stay within his will and keep his favour. What child likes to displease or be out of favour with a parent? If the power of godliness is not there, and you have someone who practices antinomianism, because they do not have the power of godliness to follow the commands of God required of his chosen people, there is a time for either thinking their profession is in vain, or stepping back and thinking it likely they be unsaved despite their profession, but be in wait and see mode, to see if they grow in godliness and if the power of godliness comes through in their lives. If it doesn’t, then there is little reason or rationale to consider them true believers. The power of godliness is not empty or weak or vain. It’s power is saving, its power is changing, and its a power that the believer will be consumed by, even though we all have our dry seasons or seasons of lethargy.
Let us pray we have the power of godliness and do as much as lies in us, to hold onto it, by caring for our souls as carefully as we should, and not being reckless, as often it just takes one small step out of the right way, for you to find yourself completely out of the way. Let us pray for God to keep us, and to give us the power to do, all we need to do, to be true servants of his, truly joined to him, and not only by a profession, without that power of godliness ruling our lives and God and the authority of Scripture being our first and last measure of eveyrthing in life.

Matthew Henry writes this on 2 Peter 1:3

1. An account of the way and means whereby grace and peace are multiplied–it is through the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ; this acknowledging or believing in the only living and true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent, is the great improvement of spiritual life, or it could not be the way to life eternal, Joh 17:3.

2. The ground of the apostle’s faith in asking, and of the Christian’s hope in expecting, the increase of grace. What we have already received should encourage us to ask for more; he who has begun the work of grace will perfect it. Observe, (1.) The fountain of all spiritual blessings is the divine power of Jesus Christ, who could not discharge all the office of Mediator, unless he was God as well as man. (2.) All things that have any relation to, and influence upon, the true spiritual life, the life and power of godliness, are from Jesus Christ; in him all fulness dwells, and it is from him that we receive, and grace for grace (Joh 1:16), even all that is necessary for the preserving, improving, and perfecting of grace and peace, which, according to some expositors, are called here in 2Pe 1:3 godliness and life. (3.) Knowledge of God, and faith in him, are the channel whereby all spiritual supports and comforts are conveyed to us; but then we must own and acknowledge God as the author of our effectual calling, for so he is here described: Him that hath called us to glory and virtue. Observe here, The design of God in calling or converting men is to bring them to glory and virtue, that is, peace and grace, as some understand it; but many prefer the marginal rendering, by glory and virtue; and so we have effectual calling set forth as the work of the glory and virtue, or the glorious power, of God, which is described Eph 1:19. It is the glory of God’s power to convert sinners; this is the power and glory of God which are seen and experienced in his sanctuary (Ps 63:2); this power or virtue is to be extolled by all that are called out of darkness into marvellous light, 1Pe 2:9. (4.) In the 2Pe 1:4 the apostle goes on to encourage their faith and hope in looking for an increase of grace and peace, because the same glory and virtue are employed and evidenced in giving the promises of the gospel that are exercised in our effectual calling. Observe, [1.] The good things which the promises make over are exceedingly great. Pardon of sin is one of the blessings here intended; how great this is all who know any thing of the power of God’s anger will readily confess, and this is one of those promised favours in bestowing whereof the power of the Lord is great, Nu 14:17. To pardon sins that are numerous and heinous (every one of which deserves God’s wrath and curse, and that for ever) is a wonderful thing, and is so called, Ps 119:18. [2.] The promised blessings of the gospel are very precious; as the great promise of the Old Testament was the Seed of the woman, the Messiah (Heb 11:39), so the great promise of the New Testament is the Holy Ghost (Lu 24:49), and how precious must the enlivening, enlightening, sanctifying Spirit be! [3.] Those who receive the promises of the gospel partake of the divine nature. They are renewed in the spirit of their mind, after the image of God, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness; their hearts are set for God and his service; they have a divine temper and disposition of soul; though the law is the ministration of death, and the letter killeth, yet the gospel is the ministration of life, and the Spirit quickeneth those who are naturally dead in trespasses and sins. [4.] Those in whom the Spirit works the divine nature are freed from the bondage of corruption. Those who are, by the Spirit of grace, renewed in the spirit of their mind, are translated into the liberty of the children of God; for it is the world in which corruption reigns. Those who are not of the Father, but of the world, are under the power of sin; the world lies in wickedness, 1Jo 5:19. And the dominion that sin has in the men of the world is through lust; their desires are to it, and therefore it rules over them. The dominion that sin has over us is according to the delight we have in it. MHWBC

I have heard it said, and I’m sure many of you may have experienced it to some degree, that those within the Reformed faith community can be unloving. Sadly, this is often the case, but it should not be.   Being God’s elect should not make us the frozen chosen.

John Calvin who is quite greivously slandered and misrepresented in death as much as he was in life, made this well known statement:

Doctrine is not an affair of the tongue, but of the life; is not apprehended by the intellect and memory merely, like other branches of learning; but is received only when it possesses the whole soul, and finds its seat and habitation in the inmost recesses of the heart.

Experimental religion doesn’t just appear as good theology, and doctrinal learning, it reaches into every recess of our lives and practices, it affects the whole man in the whole of life. It certainly doesn’t make us blocks of stone, because true Christianity, is about having tender hearts, and having the attributes that God does, though in a less perfect way, some of those ways being compassion, loving-kindness, long-suffering, and a few others I could mention.
This is a subjet that until a short time ago, I could not have written about without it turning into a rant at the cold, discompassionate Christians I have known, who have only sought their own or immediate families welfare, and anyone outside of that doesn’t count, and their soul is not worth nurturing, but now I am detached enough from the hurts I have felt for a very long time, since first being strapped to a sick bed, and left to basically die alone, by Christian “friends” both in my local vicinity and “friends” in the online world, whose faith didn’t extend outside their own four walls, or barely at least. But it is long over-due for saying even so.
In the times of the Reformers and puritans and Scots Covenanters, these people had a deep care and concern for the welfare of their brethren. Calvin never heard of an afflicted church, or someone awaiting martrydom, but he would write them a letter of comfort and consolation even if they were in different countries. He was not one of the frozen chosen.
This was displayed clearly in his concern for Servetus. Forget the fables you have read about that whole case, if you want to read an accurate account of events of Calvin and Sevetus then I may suggest you read an accurate and well researched account I posted some time ago, HERE.
If Michael Servetus at the last, escaped the flames of hell, it would have been because of how God used John Calvin to talk him out of his heresy. And there are some reports that when in the flames the last words he was heard to utter was, “eternal Father, accept my Spirit” I hope that is the case. But Calvin persevered so tirelessly in the case of Servetus because of his concern for his soul. It is why he was so frequent a visitor to him in his prison cell as he awaited execution, because he wanted him to repent before he died. Calvin certain wasn’t one of the frozen chosen.

The Wesminster Directory for the Publick Worship of God says this about visiting the sick:
Concerning Visitation of the Sick.

IT is the duty of the minister not only to teach the people committed to his charge in publick, but privately; and particularly to admonish, exhort, reprove, and comfort them, upon all seasonable occasions, so far as his time, strength, and personal safety will permit.

He is to admonish them, in time of health, to prepare for death; and, for that purpose, they are often to confer with their minister about the estate of their souls; and, in times of sickness, to desire his advice and help, timely and seasonably, before their strength and understanding fail them.

Times of sickness and affliction are special opportunities put into his hand by God to minister a word in season to weary souls: because then the consciences of men are or should be more awakened to bethink themselves of their spiritual estate for eternity; and Satan also takes advantage then to load them more with sore and heavy temptations: therefore the minister, being sent for, and repairing to the sick, is to apply himself, with all tenderness and love, to administer some spiritual good to his soul, to this effect.

He may, from the consideration of the present sickness, instruct him out of scripture, that diseases come not by chance, or by distempers of body only, but by the wise and orderly guidance of the good hand of God to every particular person smitten by them. And that, whether it be laid upon him out of displeasure for sin, for his correction and amendment, or for trial and exercise of his graces, or for other special and excellent ends, all his sufferings shall turn to his profit, and work together for his good, if he sincerely labour to make a sanctified use of God’s visitation, neither despising his chastening, nor waxing weary of his correction.

If he suspect him of ignorance, he shall examine him in the principles of religion, especially touching repentance and faith; and, as he seeth cause, instruct him in the nature, use, excellency, and necessity of those graces; as also touching the covenant of grace; and Christ the Son of God, the Mediator of it; and concerning remission of sins by faith in him.

He shall exhort the sick person to examine himself, to search and try his former ways, and his estate towards God.

And if the sick person shall declare any scruple, doubt, or temptation that are upon him, instructions and resolutions shall be given to satisfy and settle him.

If it appear that he hath not a due sense of his sins, endeavours ought to be used to convince him of his sins, of the guilt and desert of them; of the filth and pollution which the soul contracts by them; and of the curse of the law, and wrath of God, due to them; that he may be truly affected with and humbled for them: and withal make known the danger of deferring repentance, and of neglecting salvation at any time offered; to awaken his conscience, and rouse him up out of a stupid and secure condition, to apprehend the justice and wrath of God, before whom none can stand, but he that, lost in himself, layeth hold upon Christ by faith.

If he hath endeavoured to walk in the ways of holiness, and to serve God in uprightness, although not without many failings and infirmities; or, if his spirit be broken with the sense of sin, or cast down through want of the sense of God’s favour; then it will be fit to raise him up, by setting before him the freeness and fulness of God’s grace, the sufficiency of righteousness in Christ, the gracious offers in the gospel, that all who repent, and believe with all their heart in God’s mercy through Christ, renouncing their own righteousness, shall have life and salvation in him. It may be also useful to shew him, that death hath in it no spiritual evil to be feared by those that are in Christ, because sin, the sting of death, is taken away by Christ, who hath delivered all that are his from the bondage of the fear of death, triumphed over the grave, given us victory, is himself entered into glory to prepare a place for his people: so that neither life nor death shall be able to separate them from God’s love in Christ, in whom such are sure, though now they must be laid in the dust, to obtain a joyful and glorious resurrection to eternal life.

Advice also may be given, as to beware of an ill-grounded persuasion on mercy, or on the goodness of his condition for heaven, so to disclaim all merit in himself, and to cast himself wholly upon God for mercy, in the sole merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, who hath engaged himself never to cast off them who in truth and sincerity come unto him. Care also must be taken, that the sick person be not cast down into despair, by such a severe representation of the wrath of God due to him for his sins, as is not mollified by a sensible propounding of Christ and his merit for a door of hope to every penitent believer.

When the sick person is best composed, may be least disturbed, and other necessary offices about him least hindered, the minister, if desired, shall pray with him, and for him, to this effect:

“Confessing and bewailing of sin original and actual; the miserable condition of all by nature, as being children of wrath, and under the curse; acknowledging that all diseases, sicknesses, death, and hell itself, are the proper issues and effects thereof; imploring God’s mercy for the sick person, through the blood of Christ; beseeching that God would open his eyes, discover unto him his sins, cause him to see himself lost in himself, make known to him the cause why God smiteth him, reveal Jesus Christ to his soul for righteousness and life, give unto him his Holy Spirit, to create and strengthen faith to lay hold upon Christ, to work in him comfortable evidences of his love, to arm him against temptations, to take off his heart from the world, to sanctify his present visitation, to furnish him with patience and strength to bear it, and to give him perseverance in faith to the end.

That, if God shall please to add to his days, he would vouchsafe to bless and sanctify all means of his recovery; to remove the disease, renew his strength, and enable him to walk worthy of God, by a faithful remembrance, and diligent observing of such vows and promises of holiness and obedience, as men are apt to make in times of sickness, that he may glorify God in the remaining part of his life.

And, if God have determined to finish his days by the present visitation, he may find such evidence of the pardon of all his sins, of his interest in Christ, and eternal life by Christ, as may cause his inward man to be renewed, while his outward man decayeth; that he may behold death without fear, cast himself wholly upon Christ without doubting, desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, and so receive the end of his faith, the salvation of his soul, through the only merits and intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ, our alone Saviour and all-sufficient Redeemer.”

The minister shall admonish him also (as there shall be cause) to set his house in order, thereby to prevent inconveniences; to take care for payment of his debts, and to make restitution or satisfaction where he hath done any wrong; to be reconciled to those with whom he hath been at variance, and fully to forgive all men their trespasses against him, as he expects forgiveness at the hand of God.

Lastly, The minister may improve the present occasion to exhort those about the sick person to consider their own mortality, to return to the Lord, and make peace with him; in health to prepare for sickness, death, and judgment; and all the days of their appointed time so to wait until their change come, that when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, they may appear with him in glory.

The whole document can read at one of my sister sites 2. Covenanted Reformation.

William Perkins, who is said to be the father of English puritans, and the first puritan, first  congregation was in a jail in Cambridge. He worked tirelessly with these men, many of them facing execution for their crimes, and he worked often never seeing the wages for his work.  One day however, a young man was awaiting execution at the jail, came to him in great distress about facing death, and his fear of it.  Perkins begged him and pleaded with him in tears, to accept Christ, telling him of the Gospel and how he could be sure of being like the thief on the cross and after execution be with Christ in paradise.  His tears and pleadings so affected the young prisoner that he did accept Christ, and he faced his execution with great courage, and it was a testimony to God’s grace at how bravely he met his death.  William Perkins, was not one of the frozen chosen. Neither were the Westminster divines who penned the Director of Publick Worship.

It is often said of Samuel Rutherford, that his life was one self sacrifice and consisted of: “always praying, always preaching, always visiting the sick, always catechising, always writing and [always] studying.”   Samuel Rutherford, was not one of the frozen chosen.

If you read for any time through Calvin’s letters, you will see his words of comfort and consolation to those facing death, awaiting martydrom, exhorting them to be constant to the end, not only out of his pastors heart, but out of real concern for their souls.

Oliver Cromwell, whatever one may think of him in history, is another one who was deeply moved by the sufferings of the puritans.  Oliver Cromwell was not one of the frozen chosen.

If people are sick, and facing death or uncertain futures, they need to be built up and prepared to die, to be ready to meet their maker, for their souls to matter enough to spend time in trying to get them  to a good spiritual estate.  I was blessed to have one friend who was not one of the frozen chosen.

Richard Baxter in his “The Reformed Pastor” wrote his of ones duties towards the sick and/or dying.

We must be diligent in visiting the sick, and helping them to prepare either for a fruitful life, or a happy death. Though this should be the business of all our life and theirs, yet doth it, at such a season, require extraordinary care both of them and us. When time is almost gone, and they must now or never be reconciled to God, oh, how doth it concern them to redeem those hours, and to lay hold on eternal life! And when we see that we are like to have but a few days or hours more to speak to them, in order to their everlasting welfare, who, that is not a block or an infidel, would not be much with them, and do all he can for their salvation in that short space!
Will it not awaken us to compassion, to look on a languishing man, and to think that within a few days his soul be in heaven or hell? Surely it will try the faith and seriousness of ministers, to be much about dying men! They will thus have opportunity to discern whether they themselves are in good earnest about the matters of the life to come. So great is the change that is made by death, that it should awaken us to the greatest sensibility to see a man so near it, and should so excite in us the deepest pangs of compassion, to do the office of inferior angels for the soul, before it departs from the body, that it may be ready for the convoy of superior angels to the “inheritance of the saints in light.” When a man is almost at his journey’s end, and the next step brings him to heaven or hell, it is time for us, while their is hope, to help him if we can.
—Richard Baxter, “The Reformed Pastor” B.O.T. pp. 102

Richard Baxter was not one of the frozen chosen. But through my pilgrimage through this world in such an afflicted condition the last few years I seem to have sure come across and known and even been friends with alot of the frozen chosen, or as Baxter calls them “blocks or infidels.”
It is not always the case among Calvinists today, but sadly it is too rife and I have seen and experienced that from the sharp end. Doctrine and theology maketh no man. A man with good doctrine and all his theological ducks lined up, and maybe even with the voice of an angel for the holy words he speaks, if his actions say otherwise, it counts not one iota, and the puritans and reformers, of which just a few instances there are above and there could be countless others added to it, were both theologically astute, but also practiced experimental religion and were very self denying and self sacrificing. Their brethren’s sufferings mattered to them, they wept with those who wept, and had concern for their souls.
But finally, what does our good Lord say about the frozen chosen? In Matthew 25:31-46 he says thus which should deter anyone from being so self seeking or self serving only, to not be those mentioned in this passage because of the end that is threatened to them

Matthew 25:31-46 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Faith and religion is not passive, or just holy sounding words. Actions speak far louder than words, and show the inclination of our hearts, much more readily than any amount of holy sound words can ever do. Let us get back to the days of experimental religion. In the above example the whole sum of the law is broken, by not loving our neighboutr as ourself. And if we do not do so, then we do not love God aright either. As only when we love God rightly, we will be able to love our fellow man aright too. It does not only apply to Pastors, because we are all part of the royal priesthood

As some folks maybe aware, Antinomians have bothered me for a while now, because the belief is so unbiblical, and I believe it even maybe damnable heresy. Normally the antinomian will have the standard phrase that makes mine and some other like-minded beleivers, blood chill when they turn out the well-worn phrase, of “We are no longer under the law, but under grace.” It sounds a very Biblical statement doesn’t it, take at face value? That is almost how alll error creeps into the church. By sayings, phrases, that sound credible, even Biblical, and yet at heart, are anything but either. But because they sound credible, and Biblical, it will often be passed off for “old teachings using new teminology” and the Christian not soaked or learned enough about what Scripture teaches on the subject in hand, is likely to feel persuaded, that they are speaking Biblical truth. Knowledge is power in many spheres of life. The Christian life is no exception. As with Biblical knowledge and understanding of what Scripture teaches about this or that, we cannot be so easily decieved, because we will already have formed strong convictions on these subjects from our studying the Bible and getting a Biblical world view. Those who most often say, and seem to think as they say it they are sounding very Biblical and learned, “we are not under law but under grace,” I have found most often do not have a Biblical worldview. They think about almost everything differntly to the believer who does have a Biblical worldview.
Of course we all have to start somewhere. The babes in Christ cannot be reborn with godly knowledge in advance, nor with a Biblical worldview. One of the best ways I know of, to get a Biblical world view is to study, with an open Bible on one’s lap, so you can read the texts of Scripture proofs that go along with it, but to study the Westminster Confession of Faith. The Bible is the map almost of the life of faith. And the much shorter, WCF, acts as the signposts, to point us the right way.
Antinomianism so bugs me, because I Have come across it so often, and it seems rife among today’s church. Even the Reformed church.
Richard Baxter taught that Antinomianism was rooted in gross ignorance and led to gross wickednes, and I don’t think I would argue with that over-all.
J.I. Packer writes of Baxter’s view of Antinomians,

Baxter had no doubt that the impulse and the ttheology behind the Antinomian quest for ‘comfort’ at all costs came from the pit, for its outcome in practice was this; men went to the Antinomians troubled about their sins and all the advice they recieved was to be troubled about them no longer for Christ had taken them away. Where the puritans had said, Put sin out of your life, the Antinomian said, Put it out of youro mind. Look at the law, consider your guilt, learn to hate sin and fear it and let it go, said the puritan. Look away from the Law, and forget your sins and guilt, look away from yourself and stop worrying, said the Antinomian. [J.I. Packer]

How familiar that viewpoint sounds today and how widespread it is among the church. It is of course a recoverable error, a repentable sin, but I still believe if not repented of, that it will lead those who hold to it to the end to the pit of hell.