Heavenly Worldliness: John Hall

Showing posts with label John Hall. Show all posts

Lord's Day February 5 2023 Hilperton/Finchley

Because of the wedding in Devon, I did not preach at Childs Hill last Lord's Day. Instead, Eddie Webster from Nottingham preached. What we did was to head for the home of Eleri's sister, Catrin, and her family, in Trowbridge, arriving first at nearby Hilperton, their church, where about thirty gathered to hear John Hall preach on Romans 7 (also in the congregation were Robert Oliver and Josh Williamson, a minister from Australia who I knew of but had not met). It was nice to chat after especially aboutb John's Christian Basics, which I am using with people again in Childs Hill at present. (See here). After lunch, we headed to London and I decided to vsit our friends at the Kensit Church, Finchley, where they were also about thirty in number (good these days for an evening). Spencer was preaching from Gaatians 2. In Hilperton they still use tatty copies of Grace while in Finchley they sang five hymns from screens, some from New Christian Hymns and some from Praise! I didn't feel we gained anything much from the latter effort. Both churches use NKJV, not a translation I have ever been keen on. How encouraging to think of the word being preached like that all over the country in different places. A good day.

For Hilperton see here - https://www.gracereformedbaptistchurch.org.uk/

For Kensit, Finchley (an FIEC church) - https://www.kensit.org.uk/

For Childs Hill Baptist - http://www.childshill.com/index.html

Grace Baptist Assembly 2015 02

We have had an excellent day here in Swanwick. In the morning we were in the hands of Dr John Hall who passionately called on us to stick with our Baptist principles. He reminded us of the elegance and simplicity of the Baptist position, which has never been seriously argued against. Rather, taking other positions merely leads to other expedients not found in Scripture. There was plenty of time for discussion and that proved quite useful.

In the afternoon we had our business session. We were told that a record 148 people have been at the conference (including six day visitors) from 72 churches. Some 62 churches have registered for assembly, some 39 of them represented by a total of 56 messengers. We discussed a statement of Christian ethical standards that may be adopted. We agreed to meet next year May 24-26 here in Swanwick.

Later in the day we had one of the best sessions of assembly, the news time. Jeyakanth spoke about Sri Lanka, Trevor Routley about Argentina and Will Niven about Albania, all of whom had encouraging things to say though not without qualification (Buddhist thuggery and charismania). We then had six reports from different men in Britain, again mostly encouraging though not without a downside. The areas covered were Basildon, Highbury, Leyton, Halifax, Gloucester and Hyde Heath.

Nick Needham preached in the evening session. Another fine exposition of the cross, this time in terms of sacrifice. Such a blessing to hear. Beforehand he spoke of Reformed Baptist work in Scotland, where there are several small churches (Inverness, Perth, Dundee, Penicuik and two in Glasgow as well as some BU churches).

REcordings of the messages should already be up on the GBA website here.

Grace Assembly 2010 09

John Hall was the final speaker. He took us to Isaiah 66 and especially verse 2. Again exploring this matter of the sovereignty of God he reminded us that what matters in the end is what God thinks of us.

He began by instancing the poor examples of the man on the king's arm in 2 Kings 6, Nadab and Abihu, King Saul and Ananias and Sapphira. He moved then to the Lord Jesus Christ who spoke only what the Father commanded in the way he commanded and to the matter of obedience - not an optional matter for us but a heart matter and a salvation matter.
Right at the end of Isaiah he noted is the theme of the new heavens and the new earth. It does not end there , however, but with the question he began with - obedience and disobedience.
He then made three points
1. The foundation for humbling oneself and trembling at God's Word.
It is crucial to see the sovereignty of God and the fact that he is the Creator. These themes are very clear in the chapter.
2. What or who it is that the sovereign Creator God esteems or looks upon
John then spoke about the difficulties of humility and obedience but that we must be determined to seek. Conscious of sin in our lives we should seek to tremble at the Word. If we merely listen to the Word it will only condemn us. It must rather change us. Self-assertion is not the answer. That leads only to misery. Rather, it is the blood of Christ that saves us. Through him we become humble, contrite and yet joyful. Sovereign grace experienced in the heart is the key to obeying God rather than man. People see this as a miserable worm theology but in fact anything self-centred will lead to misery in the end and the only hope for us is the sovereign power of God. What a thing the love of God is. It enables us to see our lameness and the need to cast ourselves on the Lord. If we have never trembled we are not converted. If we are getting older and have trembled we need to keep trembling.
3. The contrast between formalists and compromisers and the one who truly trembles
Choosing our own ways is offensive to God as is ignoring his Word. We see that in evangelical churches today. It's not the beat we need but the Word.
People will not love us for trembling at God's Word but we must be faithful. What joy lies ahead for such in God.
John is a blunt northern Baptist appalled at evangelicalism today and eager to urge preachers to preach the Word with honesty and power. It was good to hear him.

Grace Assembly 09 8

We have now reached the final day of Assembly. We had a short question time last night but there weren't too many questions. The most interesting being former GP and pastor John Hall from Westerleigh who spoke first, on small group work. First, using Luke 16, John outlined the gospel for us, reminding us of the realities of heaven and hell. He spoke also of the great difficulties of winning people to Christ. How do you survive so many failures? We find comfort in the Scriptures and the examples of Paul and others. Small group work is one way of seeking to do biblical evangelism. Paul was energetic in using various methods including discussions in a lecture hall and from house to house. Small group work is useful in preparing people to get more from the regular preaching. It has been used in the history of the church and can be used in all sorts of ways today.

Available courses. The biggest and best known is the Alpha Course. Some 2 million in the UK have attended courses. The problem is not so much the style but the content. The use of manipulation cannot be denied. A better one is Christianity Explored (formerly Christianity Explained). This Anglican course is again Anglican and does not say anything about who God is. It is Arminian and uses a prayer to pray. John has his own course that has gone through various incarnations being simplified on the way. This is now available in booklet form as Christian Basics. It is a systematic presentation (unlike the Biblical theology approach) in 12 lessons. It is available online here. Small group work can be difficult for a small church. There are dangers - psychological pressure, their not coming to church, etc. It is dishonest to use a course you do not agree with. If you are a real Reformed Baptist use that sort of material. The need is obvious. We are living in an age of biblical ignorance. People who don't read especially need help. You may want to do your own course but this is a means. Once again this was a very personal, moving and honest message given with great enthusiasm. One of his best anecdotes was about giving Pink's Sovereignty of God to a woman who went ballistic but was willing to believe what the Bible says. At the close John spoke briefly and warmly of the faith of Christians he knows in Sri Lanka, despite their many troubles.