The Gifts of the Spirit

Now, let me just briefly say something about Dr. Hagen had the opportunity yesterday to meet him for the first time and talked with him on the phone for a couple of times. He's one of those kind of people you sort of become a fan of him by reading his books and reading his blog is an excellent blog if you have an opportunity to read that. And let me just tell you a little bit about him as his parents. First of all, his father was an Iraqi Kurd. His mother, Irish, and so he has an interesting heritage. At the age of 12, his family moved to Canada. He was not a believer, wasn't raised in an evangelical Christian home. As a 20 year old working in a pizza parlor while he was a student, university student, he met a young woman who invited him to church and that lady, Alison, later became his wife. He was converted, felt almost simultaneously a call to ministry, went to an Anglican school where he did his theological degree and a PhD in patristics. I said, he is a polymath. He knows the patristics. He knows, as you saw last night, has a great recall of particularly 18th century Baptist history. and just has a broad range of knowledge. I was just I've been amazed. I just like have you read this book, that book? Yes, he's read it. He knows about it. He knows a little something about it. So God gifts the church with men like this. Not all of us have the time or the inclination or the abilities to do what I think that this brother can do. And so we're thankful for these gifts intellectually that the Lord has given him. But also, I think you saw last night just experientially. what the Lord has given him, because the intellect is not enough. We've got to place a mile away from here that knows a lot about knowledge, but not a lot about wisdom. And so we're thankful for this. He also has two children. He has a daughter, 18, who's in university. And he he has a son, 16, who's still in school and back in Canada. So this is our introduction for Brother Haken. So come and we hear you gladly. Well, let me thank you for the welcome that you've shown me over the past day or so, and the privilege it is to be with you again and to Think today about the whole area of the gifts of the Spirit, and I want to begin with the reading of a text familiar, I'm sure, in the book of Romans, Romans 12. There are a number of passages in Holy Scripture that speak of the gifts of the Spirit that God has given to the church. This is one, Romans 12, reading from verse 4 down to verse 8. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. If prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness. The thinking about the Holy Spirit and his work in the life of the church in the 20th century, there were a number of historians who, looking back on the previous two, three, four hundred years argued along the following line, that the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, particularly when it comes to the gifts of the Spirit, has been so lightly touched upon that really the Holy Spirit and his doctrine is what they call the Cinderella of theology. That doctrine is the sister, if you remember the story of Cinderella, who was overlooked and ignored. The historians who argued along these lines were generally of a Pentecostal persuasion. Here's one author, Stanley Horton. A good deal of church history shows a neglect of the third person of the Trinity. Very few books were written about the spirit in the 1700s and 1800s. Many of the writers of systematic theologies had very little to say about them. Again, it's amazing when you read a statement like that, you wonder how much they have actually read in the history of the church in the 17th and 18th century. The biggest book ever written on the Holy Spirit was written in the 17th century by John Owen, and no Pentecostal author has yet to write as large a volume, or we would want to say as biblical a volume, in terms of the doctrine of the Spirit as John Owen. And the truth of the matter is that there has been a great interest in both that tradition we call Reformed, but also the Wesleyan Methodist tradition, a great interest in the spirit in both the 1700s and the 1800s. Here is some words from Benjamin Warfield speaking about John Calvin and the Calvinist tradition. Warfield could say, the formulation of the doctrine of the work of the spirit And the key word there is work, not person, but the work of the spirit waited for the Reformation and for Calvin. And the further working out of the details of this doctrine and its enrichment by the profound study of Christian minds and meditation of Christian hearts has come down from Calvin through the Puritans. It is only the truth to say that Puritan thought was almost entirely occupied with loving study of the work of the spirit and found its highest expression in dogmatic expositions of several aspects of it. Indeed, for a century and a half afterwards, and now he's thinking of well into the 1700s, this topic formed the hinge of the theology of the English nonconformists. By that he means English Presbyterians, no particularly sorry, English Baptists and Congregationalists. In other words, then the idea that certain 20th century writers had that the work of the spirit and study of the work of the spirit was an ignored topic in the period following the Reformation is fallacious, deeply fallacious. Now, in that tradition that comes down from Calvin are the Calvinistic Baptists, or as they would more likely call themselves, English Particular Baptists. And it's in that tradition that I want to think about this topic of the gifts of the spirits. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to go through the number of confessions, the First London Confession, and then a confession called the Somerset Confession, and then the 1689 Confession, and highlight a number of points that they make about the gifts of the spirit. Two in particular, one that deals with the issue of ministry, God's call on the lives of certain men to be involved in pulpit, and pastoral ministry, and then the fact that there was a sense in these early confessions, Baptist confessions, that every believer has a gift, and every believer is therefore called to use that gift within the body of Christ. So, those are the two themes that come out of that. And some of it, again, will be detailed in relation to the larger background, the Quakers and their arguments for the restoration of extraordinary gifts. And then I want to focus on one man, and his name occurs in that list in the signatories of the Second London Confession of Faith, the first name there, Hansard Knowles. And his name should be pronounced Knowles. We know that because Hansard Knowles conducted the wedding of a man further down the list, Benjamin Keech. And when Benjamin Keech married his second wife after the death of his first wife, that wedding document that was signed, the man who signed it signed the name of the conducting minister, he spelled his name K-N-O-W-L-E-S. The same man, Hansard Knowles, spelt somewhat differently, but in that period of time, people normally spelt the way they heard. And the very tight rules of spelling, which we follow today, are more a product of the 19th century. Some of us, not necessarily including myself, but some of us would like to be back in that period when spelling was much looser. And so that's how we know that Hansard Knowles' name was Knowles and that the pronunciation, because the way this man heard it, he spelt it and thus indicated way that his name should be pronounced. And I want to spend a little time looking at Hansard Knowles and his argument against both Quakers and an amorphous group that preceded Quakers called the Seekers. And many of the people who were Seekers ended up as Quakers. And I'll say a little bit more about that. And then I want to end with a surprising element in Knowles' life and a couple of the other men on this list, in particular William Kiffin, and that relates to a number of occasions in which they prayed for the healing of individuals. And then I want to draw some conclusions. What I did yesterday was a very brief overview of the background of the Second London Confession of Faith. And I mentioned in going through that what was known as the First London Confession of Faith. And the First London Confession of Faith, just to kind of retread that ground, was published in 1644. And it was the product of seven churches, Calvinistic Baptist churches, that had emerged in London in the 1630s. Five of those churches came out of one church. That church is known to history. They must have called themselves something different than this. It's known to history as the Jacob Lathrop Jesse Church. And Henry Jacob was a Puritan who, around 1616, came to the convictions that the idea of a state church was unbiblical. And he left the state church, formed an independent congregation in the heart of London. However, he maintained friendly relationships with Puritans within the state church, and he found himself on occasion actually attacked by two sides, the Puritans who stayed in the state church, who felt that he was wrong to break with the state church. And then there were separatists, men like John Robinson. who had gone even further, and they would have nothing to do with Puritans within the state church. In fact, they said anybody who stayed in the state church, be they Puritan or otherwise, was guilty of fellowship with the daughter of the Whore of Babylon. The language could be very, very strong. But Henry Jacob did not believe in a state church. God led him to congregationalist principles. But he didn't believe that he could break fellowship with these Puritans who were still within the state church, who therefore still believed in episcopacy, or at least some sort of episcopacy, and he would have fellowship with them. Henry Jacob suffered greatly and eventually left England, came here to Virginia in the 1620s, and was succeeded by a man named John Lathrop. And he too suffered persecution, and he too came to Virginia in the 1630s. And he was succeeded by Henry Jesse. And it was during the time of Henry Jesse that people raised the question, is the baptism, because some of the people adjoined the church from the state church, is the baptism that our children received in the state church valid? If the state church is not valid, is the baptism of our children valid? Well, as soon as you start to go down that road and begin to look at scripture, it's not surprising that some of them were led to the conviction that infant baptism is not valid at all, and we need to be committed to believer's baptism. And in fact, in that church, under Henry Jesse, he was quite amicable to this discussion going on, and between 1638 and 1644, about five different groups came out of that church. One of them is 1638, the first particular Baptist church that we know of, first Calvinistic Baptist church, founded by a man named John Spilsbury in London. It still exists at a place called Walthamstow, and it's still a Calvinistic Baptist church. And math has never been a strong point of mine. You can do the math. 1638 to the present day, and it's still holding to the doctrines of grace and evangelical in all of that length of time. And that was the first of about five that came out of Jesse's congregation. And Jesse was a remarkable pastor, allowed this discussion to go on through those years. And eventually Jesse himself became a committed to Baptist principles. But he, unlike the five churches that came out, he was an open membership Baptist. And that is, he did not require believers' baptism for membership in his local church. The five churches that came out required believers' baptism for membership. And joined with two other Baptist churches, particular Baptist churches, those seven churches in 1644 issued what we know as the First London Confession of Faith. They did so because there were all kinds of rumors. By this time, Baptists had also emerged in England who were Arminian, theologically. They are known as General Baptists, and they first make their appearance in the 16 teams. And they were in a minority in being Arminian, but there were many who were Puritans within the state church who got the two groups mixed up. And thus, these particular Baptists wanted to clear it up that they were clearly distinctly Calvinist. They were part of that great, if I could use the term that's often used of the Marxist international, they were part of a great Calvinist international spread throughout Europe, Western Europe. And these Calvinistic Baptists saw themselves holding the essentials of the doctrines of grace with Puritans within the Church of England, outside of the Church of England, Calvinists in Holland, in Geneva, in France, in Germany, Poland, Hungary, and you name it. And so they issued the confession of faith to indicate, number one, they are Calvinists. Number two, they are not Anabaptists. And that would take us very far afield as to Baptist links to Anabaptists. Suffice it to say that our Baptist forebears in this period of time did not see themselves as linked to the Anabaptists. They didn't see themselves rooted in the Anabaptists. They had come to similar convictions regarding state and church and believers' baptism by reading scripture, not by any sort of organic link back to the Anabaptists. And so they issued this Statement of Faith, 1644, and in it there are a couple of statements about the issue of the gifts of the Spirit. Here's one of them and it deals with an article dealing with ecclesiology. Christ hath here on earth a spiritual kingdom which is the church. Thither ought all men to come of all estates that acknowledge him to be prophet, priest, and king to be enrolled among his household servants. And all his servants are called thither to present their bodies and souls and to bring their gifts God hath given them. So being come, they are here by himself, bestowed in their civil order, peculiar place, due use, being fitly compact and knit together, according to the effectual working of every part, to the edification of itself in love. And you'll be very aware that that last part obviously is drawn directly from Ephesians 4, following Ephesians 4.11 where it talks about God is given to the church and the listing of five gifts that the risen Christ has given to the church. The key point here in this little statement is that every believer has a gift. All his servants are called to be members of a local church and bring their gifts. Our early Baptist forebears did not know, and this based on scripture, they did not know of believers who were not enrolled in a local body of believers. They were not committed to a local body of believers. And part of that commitment meant that they were to use their gifts, and every believer has a gift, to build up the body. A later article in the First London Confession of Faith develops this. In particular, one gift. Such to whom God hath given gifts, being tried in the church, may and ought, by the appointment of the congregation, to prophesy according to the proportion of faith. And that's directly from Romans 12, 6. And so teach publicly the word of God for the edification, exaltation, and comfort of the church. It would appear that these Baptists, following the thinking of John Calvin, would argue that when we read in Holy Scripture, in the New Testament, the word prophesy, often that is to be interpreted as preach. And actually there are those who would be strongly critical of that today. But I think if you examine carefully the word prophecy and prophet in the New Testament, frequently it is the role in which they're involved is a teaching role, a preaching role. And so they would see here then that there are certain individuals who would be tested by the church and then by the appointment of the congregation will be set aside to preach. and for the edification, exhortation and comfort of the church. Those are the only two real mentions of gifts of the spirit in that first Lennon confession of faith. A second confession of faith is called the Somerset Confession. This was printed in the 1650s. It's not that well known today. The man who drew it up is a man named Thomas Collier. C-O-L-L-I-E-R, who died in 1691. The date of his birth is very obscure. In his latter years, Collier would renounce his commitment to Calvinism. But in the 1640s, 1650s, he was a highly gifted Calvinistic Baptist preacher and planted a variety, probably anywhere up to 15 or 20 churches in the West Country. That is the area of England known as Somerset, Wiltshire, Devon, which is going down into the bit of the Southern England that juts out into the Atlantic. One man, a man named Thomas Edwards, who was a Presbyterian and Puritan, described Collier this way. This Collier is a great sectary in the west of England, a mechanical fellow, which means he hasn't gone to university and is a tradesman. A great dipper who goes about Surrey and Hampshire and those counties preaching and dipping. And one of the ways in which Baptists were referred to in this period was dippers. and usually by their opponents. And I'm sure if the Baptists had adopted that name, we'd be quite happy with the word dipper. But looking back at this point, I'm glad that they didn't adopt the name. And we're not dippers, but be that as it may. Anyway, in the Somerset Confession, Thomas Collier could mention a couple of times the whole area of gifts. In one of them, One of his articles in the Confession says, Christ by spirit has given, quote, gifts to his church for the work of the ministry and edifying the body of Christ, end of quote. In other words, it reaffirms what the First London Confession emphasizes is that the calling of men into pulpit ministry is a gift and pastors and preachers are a gift that God gives to the church. Another article also emphasizes, though, that every believer has a gift. And in Article 25 in this confession, among the commandments of the Lord Jesus is that of 1 Peter 4.10, which deals with the responsibility of all believers to administer, quote, one to another according to the gift received, whether it be in spiritual things or temporal things. And again, a recognition that every believer is called to play a role in the body of Christ. The third confession of faith is the second London that I want to look at, which is this one. We looked again last night at a little bit of the background. This was originally printed in 1677. It was published anonymously because of the persecution of the time. Two men were probably involved in drawing it up, William Collins and Nehemiah Cox. C-O-X-E. Both of them were pastors of a church called Petit France Baptist Church in London, England. Cox had actually been called to ministry in the Church of John Bunyan in Bedford. William Collins, we know very little about his background. He had been a doctor at one point in his life. He is not related, as far as we know, to Hercules Collins, who I talked about last night. And then it was published again in 1688, 1689, and you can see the list of the signatories at the back of this edition of the man who signed it. There are two parts in this that deal with the gifts of the Spirit. The first one is in Article 26, which deals with the Church. Article 26 and verse 11, here dealing with the whole area of God calling pastors as gifts and giving pastors as gifts to the church. Although it be incumbent on the bishops or pastor of the churches to be instant in preaching the word by way of office, yet the work of preaching the word is not so peculiarly confined to them, but that others also gifted by the Holy Spirit for it and approved and called by the church may and ought to perform it. One of the glories, and I stress that word, glory, of the Baptist heritage has been the recognition that God can raise up and equip men who have not had formal education, formal learning. Other traditions coming out of the Puritan movement emphasize that only those who had had formal learning, a university education, could be pastors. Baptists, and I think rightly so on the basis of the New Testament, recognize that while that may be a benefit, it is not necessary for God's raising up of men to preach. And you might think this curious for somebody who spent most of my Christian life in theological education, but it's certainly true as you look back on our heritage. If I were to ask you to name three prominent English Baptists, probably the names John Bunyan, William Carey, Charles Spurgeon would all come to mind, at least I hope they would. And you may know, I hope you know a little bit about each of those men, 17th century, 18th century, 19th century. None of them had education really beyond the age of about 14. Spurgeon would have had the most. Cary's formal education was over by around the age of 11 or 12, Bunyan probably a bit earlier, Spurgeon a bit later than that. None of them went to a theological seminary, let alone a university, and yet all three of them are remarkable men of God. Please know what I'm not saying. I'm not saying that, therefore, one should go out and try to avoid formal theological education. I think for most of us, some of it, formal theological education is a good thing. But we're simply recognizing that God can raise up men and equip them. And one thinks even in the 20th century, I could have added, I didn't think of this at the time when I was going through those three names, Martyn Lloyd-Jones. who you may not know was a Baptist. He was a Baptist in his theology by the end of his life and would not baptize babies, but would have been open membership and would have baptized by pouring. And Martin Lloyd Jones also never had formal theological education. Of course, he did have a university education. And here is this recognition here that God can raise up men and gift them and equip them for the ministry in the life of the local church. And then the other statement in this document comes in chapter 27, where in chapter 27, paragraph 1, we read this. All saints that are united to Jesus Christ are led by a spirit and faith, although they are not made thereby one person with him, have fellowship in his graces, sufferings, death, resurrection, and glory. And being united to one another in love, they have communion in each other's gifts and graces, and oblige the performance of such duties, public and private, in an orderly way, as do conduce to their mutual good, both in the inward and outward man." Again, a recognition that every believer has a gift. There is no believer that can say, I don't have a gift, or if I do have a gift, my gift is coming on Sundays and sitting in the pew. And New Testament, nor do our Baptist forebears recognize that as a legitimate gift. Every believer is called to play a role in the body of Christ. It may not be in the limelight, so-called, may not be publicly seen, but every believer has a way of serving the body of Christ. And the confessions of faith, which we've seen, bring this out very, very clearly. And then one final point regarding these confessions, what we looked at last night regarding the inspiration of Holy Scripture and its infallibility and its efficiency, again, also relates to this whole area of gifts. Look at chapter one, this is page three, chapter one, six. And then I'm going to read the first paragraph in chapter 1-6 and then jump down to chapter 1-10. The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith and love is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the Holy Scripture onto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelation of the Spirit or traditions of men. And then chapter 10 over the page. the supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, private spirits are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest can be no other but the Holy Spirit, Holy Scripture, delivered by the Spirit, into which Scripture so delivered our faith is finally resolved." And those two statements are emphasizing that the gift of Prophecy understood to mean new revelation that is part of the New Testament period. The apostles were given new revelation that that gifting has ceased. Once Holy Scripture is finished, there are no more apostles or prophets who are vehicles of new revelation. Those gifts have ceased definitively. And yet, in another sense, those gifts are still with us because the gift of apostle is with us in the form of the New Testament. And so our churches, if they are rooted in the New Testament, are apostolic churches. And so this is the last point then that needs to be made regarding these confessions in terms of spiritual gifts. This last point, obviously, being very much an important issue in that day because of the Quakers and the claims to new revelations. It's an issue that has come up in the 20th century and is still very much so in our own day. In England, for example, there are significant numbers of groups who are known as restorationists. And they would argue, at least some of them would, that just as there were first-time apostles, so there are end-time apostles. And you must be in submission to an apostle to be in a right relationship to God. And there are various individuals in England who are regarded as apostles and the argument, therefore, that the gift of apostle has been given back to the church at the end of the church's history. So it's a weird argument, because if you look at the New Testament, Ephesians chapter 220 and then Ephesians 3.5, it's quite clear in the use of the term apostle and vehicles of new revelation, prophets, that these are part of the foundation of the church. I've always loved architecture and sometimes I've told my wife that if God hadn't called me into being a historian in the church, that I would love to have been an architect. She always points out to me, Michael, you're terrible in math. You just wouldn't have made it as an architect. But I know this much about architecture, that once you build the foundation, you don't halfway up the building lay the foundation again and at the top of the building lay another foundation. The apostles are part of the foundation of the church. They set the structure. and the shape of the church, and you're not adding another layer of foundation, the apostles, that is, halfway up or at the top of that building. Now, one of the men that we want to look at, and a man who was involved in the drawing up of the First London Confession, And then signed this one is Hansard Knowles, and his name there is in page 43. He was the pastor of a church at the time meeting at a place called Broken Wharf in London. The church that he pastored had a continuous history down into the 19th century, but disbanded in the 19th century prior to the time of Spurgeon. Hansard Knowles was unlike many of the men, and we could go through a lot of those men's names there. Very few of those men had formal education. William Kiffin was a glover involved in leather working. Hercules Collins was a tradesman of various sorts. Benjamin Keech, I forget exactly what he was, but again, didn't go to university. Hansard Knowles was an exception. He had gone to Cambridge University. He was born in 1599. He would die in 1691. And thus his life spans most of the 17th century. And he went to Cambridge University was where he came into contact with the Puritans. And he could say later in his autobiography that I prayed daily, heard all the godly ministers I could, read and searched the Holy Scriptures, read good books, got acquainted with gracious Christians, then called Puritans. After graduation in the early 1630s, late 1620s rather, he was ordained as a minister in the Church of England and eventually by 1631 was in an area of England called Lincolnshire. It was there that he began to have problems with the idea of a state church. And by 1635, he had broken with the state church, came over to New England for a year or two. But when he came to Massachusetts, he was on his way to thinking about believers' baptism. And this got him in problems in Massachusetts. And he ended up having to leave and go back to England. And by 1640, he held to Baptist principles and became the pastor of a Calvinistic Baptist church that signed the First London Confession. He was a very well-known preacher in his day, and in his congregation, we have reports made by spies from the state church that there were anywhere, sometimes be up to 2,000, 2,500 that would go in here and preach on a Sunday morning. Obviously, not all of the members. but very well known as a Baptist preacher. In the 1640s, he engaged in a number of theological controversies with a group of people called Seekers. The Seekers were people who argued, let me back up a little bit, in the 1640s, when the Puritans ended up finding themselves at war with the king. In 1642, the king declared war, actually the king declared war on Parliament. and the Puritans had no choice but to fight him. That war ranged up and down, initially, England. It would eventually spill over into Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Civil war is, of all the wars, in some respects, the most horrendous, because it pits brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor, sometimes father against son. It was enormously destructive of human life in England. The Civil War was fought on a very brutal scale in this period of time, and it was socially, deeply socially disruptive. One writer has described this period as the world turned upside down, taking that little phrase from the Book of Acts. And in that social upheaval, there was much searching of mind and heart going on. It's also a period of revival. It's often often during war that God forces men and women to realize that they have no safety, no safe place in this world, but must seek one that is to come, or must seek Christ. And war often is used by God as a time of spiritual awakening. It was in this period. But there were some who came to the conviction, the state church is an apostate church. We're leaving her. But where to go? And a number of these people, who are known to history as seekers, didn't necessarily gather themselves in the congregations. They were waiting for men who would be like the apostles to come with the same array of gifts as the apostles. These men would be able to form New Testament congregations. One of these men was a man named William Urbery, E-R-B-E-R-Y. Urbery was a Puritan, Welsh Puritan, who started up It started his ministry as a Puritan minister in the state church, finally became disgruntled to the state church and left it. He could argue. The spirit of God has withdrawn from the church. Why do we know that? Well, we know that because we don't have the power of the spirit that the early church had. How do we know that? We don't have the gifts of the spirit that the early church had. When the Baptist emerged, he was very critical of the Baptist. He said the Baptist had no right to baptize believers because they were not proper administrators. One of the great issues in this period of time, we don't normally think of it today, is we normally think of the issue of baptism. Who should be baptized? And how should baptism be done? And then what does baptism mean? Those three questions were very prominent in the 17th century, but there was a fourth question is who can baptize? John Smith, you may know the story of John Smith, the founder of the General Baptists. When he confronted those questions, the last question was the most important for him. Who can baptize? He didn't know anybody who was a baptized believer who could baptize him. And so, as you know, if you know the story, he baptized himself. and then baptized his congregation. William Urbery, though, had a different spin on it. William Urbery said the apostles could baptize believers because they had the manifestation of the Spirit in manifold gifts. But what a manifestation of the Spirit have any of the churches this day? And thus he told the Baptist, you are not in a capacity to baptize or be baptized. There is no true administrator, nor a man sent of God with power from on high. And because the Baptist congregations have not the appearance of the Spirit from on high, this is Burberry, the Lord will roar in them and make every one of them to tremble because they disobey the command of Christ. They tell their disciples, you must be dipped because you must obey the command of Christ. I say going forward to baptize or be baptized without the baptism of the Spirit on the church is not the command of Christ. It's very interesting, when you read some of this material, some of the arguments of Pentecostals in the 20th century, they're nothing new. It's a retreading of these arguments. Very interesting, within two years of Herbery's death, either his widow or his daughter, Dorcas Herbery, had joined the Quakers. And she claimed that one of the leading Quakers, a man named James Naylor, had raised her from the dead. She claimed she had died and he had laid hands on her and raised her from the dead. The same James Naylor who rode into Bristol in 1656 on a horse with Dorcas Urberry, William Urberry's either his daughter or his widow, and other women throwing down branches of trees in front of Naylor proclaiming, Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And Naylor was arrested by Parliament for blasphemy. He claimed it was a visible sign he was doing that Jesus was about to return. And Parliament was not convinced, and against the wishes of Roald of Cromwell, they imprisoned him and branded a bee on his forehead for being a blasphemer. The Seekers, then. John Hansard Knowles writes a book against Urbery and another seeker named John Saltmarsh who maintained the same idea. How did Knowles respond? Well, Knowles emphasized the following. Baptists, you judge it meet for any brother to baptize. Baptists do not judge it mean for any brother to baptize or minister other ordinances, unless he have received such gifts of the Spirit as fitteth or enables him to preach the gospel. Those gifts being first tried by and known to the church, such a brother is chosen and appointed thereunto by the suffrage of the church." In other words, those men who are called to pastoral ministry, they were the ones whom God had equipped to baptize. Yes, he said. They didn't have the extraordinary gifts, but those extraordinary gifts, Knowles emphasized, were for bringing the word of the gospel into the world, for glorifying Christ's first coming. Hebrews 2, 3 and 4, John 20, 29 to 31. And if you look at those two passages, see what he's arguing there is that the gifts, the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, that the apostles had were given in the first century to authenticate the gospel. They were part of the confirmation of what God was doing in that day. Here's another argument, another statement. This comes from a group of churches known as the Abingdon Association of Baptist Churches. We do not now expect the gift of tongues and of working miracles. which were given in the Apostles Day for the publishing and confirmation of the truth and conviction of unbelievers or the leaving of them the more inexcusable. In other words, how did how did Knowles respond to to Urbery and this other man named John Saltmarsh, both of whom are seekers? Well, his response was we can baptize believers. Because God has called fourth men to plant churches. These men are equipped with gifts. They may not be the same array of gifts as the first century church, but we don't need that array of gifts as the first century church had, namely the gift of working miracles and tongues. Those were given for the confirmation of the gospel in that period of time. Knowles would go on to say, though, the following, that Baptists did find their proclamation to be accompanied by miracles, the miracle of regeneration. So often as the gospel comes to any soul, not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Spirit, there is a miracle wrought in them that receive the gospel. And they then receive the Spirit with His gifts and graces. So then we need not wait for a ministry of miracle, being we have a word with miracle. In other words, we don't need to wait until we have men like the apostles restored to the church who have the same array of gifts. That was for that period of time the establishment of the scriptures and the establishment of foundation of the church. What we do have though is a word that when it is preached, produces a greater miracle than any of the miracles done in the early church that are extraordinary in the sense of raising the dead physically or healing. It is the raising of the spiritually dead to life. Thomas Adams, he wasn't a Baptist, he was a Puritan, would say, even today God works miracles, though we take no notice of them, that our hearts should be converted. This is a miracle. that our faith shall believe above reason. This is a miracle. If he does not fetch water or rock, yet he fetcheth repentance out of sin and makes the stony heart gush out tears." Now, we might dispute the use of the word miracle as the proper use of this point, but you see the point he's making. And thus, Knowles could say, although we have no gifts in our churches but what we have received, And we have not received any gifts of the Spirit to boast of them, yet I must bear this testimony. We come behind in no gift. What we have received we are bound to bless God for, and desire to honor Christ our head with all the gifts which we have received from him." In other words, these Baptists were quite convinced that God had called them to plant churches. They were biblical, apostolic churches because they were rooted in Scripture. And they want to enter these churches by believers' baptism. Believers, baptism could be rightly performed, and because of those that God had called to ministry in that church, and God had gifted these individuals with gifts of preaching and serving the body of Christ, they did not need the gift of miracles that were found in the early church. Now, going through that argument doesn't prepare one, though, for a couple of instances one finds in Knowles' autobiography. In his autobiography, The Life and Death of that Old Disciple of Jesus Christ, the Eminent Minister of the Gospel, Mr. Hansard Knowles, the title was given by William Kiffin after Knowles' death. Knowles noted a couple of things in it that were quite extraordinary. One occasion he said, some healing power of God was put forth upon the sick and infirm bodies of several persons through his ministry who were suddenly restored to health immediately in time of prayer of them. by and through faith in Jesus Christ, especially in the city of London, and of the sickness called the plague, both in former years and in the year 1665. Not to me, but to God be glory given and praise for in his name, through faith in his name, they were healed. And he mentions twice in the autobiography healing. One time took place early on in his ministry when there was an elderly widow who was in his congregation who was sick. And the doctor called, gave her over and said she was going to die. and godly ministers, he writes, from friends and relations that take leave of her as a dying woman. Knowles also expected her to die and began to prepare a funeral sermon for her. As he was finishing his sermon, he recalled this, and I'm now quoting from Knowles. The devil said upon me with a violent suggestion, the scriptures are not the word of God. He had suggested this temptation to me in diverse times of war, but he prevailed not. Now the tempter has assaulted me with this argument. Whatever you ask in the name of Christ, God will do it. But that scripture was not true. And if I would put it now upon trial, I should find it not to be true, for if I would ask a woman's life in the name of Christ, God will not grant it. And therefore I should know the Scriptures are not true, nor are they the word of God, for his word is true. To which I answered, Satan, thou art a liar. a deceiver and a false accuser. The Holy Scriptures are the Word of God, and the Scriptures are truth. And seeing thou hast often tempted me in this kind, and now dost assault me again, that I may forever silence thee, thou wicked lying devil, I will trust in God, act faith in the name of Christ, in that very word of his truth, which thou hast now suggested. I will leave my study, go and pray for her, and believe that God will hear my prayers, through the intercession of Jesus Christ, and restore her life and health, that thou mayest be found a liar." And Knowles went and prayed for the woman, And the Lord, in his mercy, raised her up from what would appear to be her deathbed. Knowles later reflected on this and said, The Lord has done it for his own glory to silence Satan, who has never suffered to tempt me in that kind afterwards. God bruised Satan under my feet. My Lord Jesus Christ made conquest of him, gave me the victory and helped me to give him the glory of it. On a later occasion, this is the second occasion in the autobiography, Knowles mentioned in 1670, he was seized with a sharp and violent distemper in my bowels called the griping of the guts. Those are his words. That word guts has gone through interesting changes over in the English language and today it's not a necessarily polite term. In the period of time, in that period in the 17th century, it was not an impolite term and you could use it in a sort of public company. Anyway, he was taken ill with a sharp and painful disemperor in my bowels called the griping of the guts and he brought me near the grave. Knowles went to two physicians, he says in his autobiography, and they couldn't help him. Finally, he says, in obedience to James 5, 14 and 15, he called William Kiffin and Vavasor Powell, both of them Baptist ministers, to come and pray over him and anoint him with oil. And Knowles continued, Lord did hear prayer and heal me. Those are two instances mentioned in his autobiography. A third instance, which we know from another context, is when Benjamin Keech, was dying in 1689, at least he thought he was dying in 1689. Knowles had married him about 15 years earlier, and Keech, again, medicine couldn't help him, he called Knowles to come and pray for him. And Knowles came, prayed, and as Knowles was praying by his bedside, he stood up after he'd finished his prayer and said, Brother Keech, The Lord is going to raise you up. He will give you the same number of years as he gave to Hezekiah, and I'll be in glory before you." That was 1609. Knowles died two years later, and Keech died exactly 15 years later, the same amount of time that the Lord gave to Hezekiah. Now, how do you reconcile these three incidents with the emphasis that God has not restored the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit? I think the answer that has to be given is the recognition that James 5, 14 and 16 is not something reserved for the apostolic era. That God can and still does in answer to prayer, not always, but on occasion, He heals men and women from illnesses. But this is not an extraordinary gift that God gave to the apostles. It's quite different. Those extraordinary gifts have ceased with the apostolic era. But it's quite clear that these men believed that God could and still heal in answer to prayer, although they didn't see this as central to the ministry. They didn't make a ministry out of it, but was part of their obedience to the word of God, James 5, in this particular account. It's also interesting, they never refer to these healings as miracles. And there's a recent study done on this study by a woman named Jane Shaw called Miracles in Enlightenment England. And she notes a long chapter on the Baptists and the accounts I'm looking at and some others. And she says they never called them miracles. Others who were opposed to the Baptist said that these men are trying to practice miracles, but they never did. Four remarks to close. First of all. There is an emphasis in these early Baptists on what we might describe today as every-member ministry. Every believer is called to ministry in the body of Christ. In this sense, every believer has a gift. No believer is devoid of gifts. Every believer has a part to play in the body of Christ. An authentic church life, therefore, is dependent on the exercise of these gifts. Secondly, there is a consensus that the extraordinary gifts that were present in the first century have been withdrawn. The the Baptist in this period do not expect a restoration of the apostles or the extraordinary things that took place in that period of time. They do not regard the ministry of those extraordinary guests in the early church as a regular feature of the church's ministry. Thirdly. And I didn't develop this in any length, really. But thirdly, there is a consistent emphasis. The fruit of the spirit is more important than the gifts of the spirit. The fruit of the spirit is evidence of saving grace. The gifts of the spirit may be present in the reprobate. And one thinks in scripture of Judas or Jesus' statement in Matthew, when on that last day, some will come and say, did we not cast out, did we not prophesy in thy name? And Jesus will say, apart from me, I never knew you. Finally, there is evidence that, and I would argue that despite the fact that these men on occasion prayed for healing and God answered their prayers in terms of healing individuals, that they are cessationists. There is no evidence that this cessationist perspective on the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit did anything to diminish a hunger and desire for the Spirit's presence. And I want to read a statement. This comes from Thomas Collier, who I mentioned earlier, the author of the Somerset Confession. And this is a letter written in September, on September the 28th, 1655. And he's talking about the importance of praying for the outpouring of the Spirit. The promise of the Spirit is the promise of the Father, as Christ calls it, Acts 1.4, and it's honored above many other promises. The great thing Christ so much commended to his disciples before his departure, is it not the Spirit? Read John 14, John 16. The waiting for the Spirit must therefore not be grievous to us. Oh, awake, awake! It is high time to seek the Lord, who is ready to rain down upon you with His holy, sweet, and blessed Spirit. Having tasted a little of this honey, we've been made to say, Oh, how our eyes are enlightened, our hearts united, enlarged, quickened, greatly comforted. And this we have purposed. That our meeting, which is to be at Wells, a town in England, next spring to spend four days, two of them seeking the Lord for the pouring out of the spirit and those gifts which the work of God calls for. And so the recognition that. The gifts of the spirit, the extraordinary gifts of the spirit that were given in the early church were not part of the church's arsenal down through time. Nonetheless, did not lead to a diminishing or diminution of the fact that. We need the spirit's power. In the ministry of the word. And the spending of time, and again, what I've given you is one little example there, that final quote, of probably 15 or 20 that can be found in association records during the 1650s, of the longing for God to come in power, by His Spirit, and equip the word with power and drive it home with conviction to men's hearts and bring about conversion of sinners and the building up of the church. There's much to be learned from this period of time. One of the reasons why we study church history is, as was mentioned last night, we don't want to reinvent the wheel. And we can recognize that some of the arguments that are trundled out today, why if we are to have the spirit's presence, we have to have all this array of gifts, that those arguments are being answered. And we can go back and look at church history and see that God has given his spirit with power. And so many of the times a revival, there's no evidence at all of these extraordinary things that we we see in the in the first century, those things given for the establishment of the word of God. And what we have now is a word with miracle, the miracle of regeneration. Amen. Thank you again, Dr. Hagen, our offertory.