For Lord’s Day, August 17, 2025

Dear Saints,

Recently I heard two similar comments the same week that were both pithy and profound and which I’d like to share with you with our last Lord’s Day evening sermon in view, “We are Blessed to Belong with the Losers.”

In a dedication video to the life and ministry of Dr. John MacArthur who recently went to be with the Lord, this faithful SoCal minister was said to say that

“Pastors are not called to be clever, but called to be clear.”

This quote reminds me of the following Scriptures:

• 1 Corinthians 1:17-18: For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
• 1 Corinthians 2:1-5: And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
• 1 Corinthians 2:13: Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

Beloved, thank you for being the kind of worshippers who seek and pray for plain Biblical preaching with the unction of the Holy Spirit.  I indeed never cease to give thanks for you in my prayers, and that 2 Timothy 4:3-4 cannot be said of you here in what you want to hear: For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

Dearly beloved, you continue to support what is noted in this document on the Puritan preaching style of this church for those with Puritan hearts: “Collected Thoughts on The Manner of Direct Preaching with Fire and Heat, In Response to Objections On Occasion Over the Years Against it in Our Pulpit, With a Few Important Disclaimers Included.”

The second quote I heard by a radio/podcast host of The World and Everything in It, reminiscent of the one by MacArthur above, is that

“Christians are not called to be famous but faithful.”

Thank you for being faithful servants of our Lord Jesus Christ, in and out of season, including this Lord’s Day when I will be out of town serving the saints at our denomination’s church in Sheboygan, WI.  I trust your hunger and thirst together for Christ and His righteousness will be satisfied with the clear preaching in the video sermons that Elder Maxwell, who will lead our services, has selected.

Semper Reformanda,

Pastor Grant

PS: if you weren’t able to listen to my interview on KPRZ’s “Tentmakers” radio program about keeping the Sabbath related two work earlier this week, here is its posted podcast: