Thank you, Carl. The fine folks at Woodruff Road Presbyterian Church were a tremendous blessing to me and to our congregation. Many of the churches here represented in this room supported us, supported me in the years after Katrina. I think I arrived, Carl was saying, I was in Virginia Beach. I arrived in Gulfport with, I think, $300,000 in my pocket that was given by churches affiliated with Twin Lakes Fellowship. And so myself, my family, and our church will be in your debt. for years to come. We still have pictures and reminders around the church, our memorial stones, if you will, set up to remind us of what we went through in Katrina and the way churches associated with Twin Lakes stood with us, and so we're thankful for that opportunity, thankful for your partnership and for your love. Let me open this with a word of prayer, and it is my delight to be able to spend some time with you this afternoon talking about a man that I love dearly, that I've spent years getting to know and still think that I'm still getting to know Samuel Rutherford. My wife and my congregation are tired of hearing of Samuel Rutherford because he is in my mind and he's in my heart and he's in my life. But let me open us with a word of prayer. Let's pray. Our Father and our God, how we thank you and praise you for your goodness to us. We come before you as needy sinners. Like Rutherford, we are conscious of the vile abominations that are in our hearts and in our minds. We have not thought the thoughts that we ought to think. We have not said the things that we ought to say. We have not done the things that we ought to have done. We have left unthought and unsaid and undone many things that we ought to have thought and said and done. Father, we confess these things to you this day. We come needing Jesus. We come needing to hear from you. We come needing to see the cross. And so we pray that you would break into our experience, that you'd overcome the weaknesses of the one who speaks, and that you, by your spirit, would speak, that you would show us Christ, that you'd impress upon us the glory of Jesus. Change us, we pray, for it's in Jesus' name we pray it. Amen. You know, I think it is true that we become like what we are around. And so when we spend time in the world, it's little wonder that we become like the world. I am a weak brother. I am conscious of the sin that is in me, and I am not enough like Jesus. And so for me, I need men like Samuel Rutherford. I need to get up close to Samuel Rutherford and men like him. I need to be impacted by their thinking and by the preaching and by the rest. I remember reading A paper that Lloyd-Jones had written about Edwards, Jonathan Edwards, and he argued that the most important thing that happens in the preaching of the word is not the communication of information. How often we think what we say is what really matters. And Lloyd-Jones was arguing that Edwards was arguing that that is not the most important part of preaching. The most important thing that happens in our preaching, Edwards was saying, was the impression that it makes on our hearts and our minds at the moment. There's a story that is told of Samuel Rutherford, actually it's told about Rutherford. It was an English businessman that had made a journey, a business trip into Scotland from England. in the 17th century and he was in his extended business trip and he was able to visit several of the pulpits of the prominent men preachers in Scotland. He was able to sit under David Dixon's preaching and he was able to sit under Robert Blair's preaching and he was also able to sit under Samuel Rutherford's preaching. And after sitting under Rutherford's preaching, he described the flavor, the theme of Rutherford's preaching as a man who showed him the loveliness of Christ. I've thought much of that. And I've often wondered, if you were to ask the men, the women, the children in my congregation, What is the theme of Guy Richard's preaching? I've been there for 12 years, preached week in, week out for 12 years, several times a week. If you were to ask them, what is the theme? What is the main idea you've gotten out of his preaching? What would they say? If members of your congregation, if we were to approach them about your preaching, what would they say is the theme of your preaching for however long you've been where you are? Would they say it's the loveliness of Christ? And I will share with you brothers, that has been my heart's passion, is that people would see the loveliness of Christ in my preaching. We have only a small percentage of Samuel Rutherford's sermons. Something along the lines, and I should have done better research to come in, you can imagine my schedule has been, there's been a few things going on in our life. hitting at the exact same time as Twin Lakes Fellowship when I had agreed a year ago to do a lecture on Rutherford. But we have something like 30 or 40, maybe 50 of Samuel Rutherford's sermons. That's it. For a lifetime of preaching, multiple times a week. I wish we had more of Rutherford's sermons than just that. But we do have his letters, 365 letters that Rutherford wrote to friends and fellow ministers and parishioners in his congregation. How many men here, just by curiosity's sake, how many men here have read Rutherford's letters by show of hand? Okay, maybe a quarter of you have read Rutherford's letters. Well, I'll spend a little bit of time with Rutherford's letters. Let me challenge you, if you haven't read Rutherford's letters, to get a copy and to read them. Listen to what Charles Spurgeon said of the letters. When we are dead and gone, let the world know that Spurgeon held Rutherford's letters to be the nearest thing to inspiration which can be found in all the writings of mere men. Not all about you brothers, but I hold Charles Spurgeon in pretty high regard. And for Spurgeon to say basically that Rutherford's letters were right below the scriptures, in his thinking, is high praise indeed. Richard Baxter, Rutherford's contemporary, said of the letters, hold off the Bible, such a book the world never saw. Rutherford's letters 365 of these letters are filled, saturated with the glory of Christ. Rutherford was a Christ-enraptured man. He had a passion for Christ, and it just oozed out of his pores. One of the things that I pray for continually in my own ministry is that when people meet me, that they would meet Jesus. When people talk to me, that they would hear Jesus. When people see me, or when they come in contact with me, just through the gestures, through the words that I speak, that they would come in contact with Jesus. That is my heart's plea. And I think that was Samuel Rutherford. Samuel Rutherford was a man, when you spent time around him, that was the impression that he made upon your life, your heart, your mind. Listen, let me read you just a few excerpts from his letters to show you the kind of passion this man had for Christ. That soul-delighting, lovely bridegroom, our sweet, sweet Jesus, fairer than all the children of men, the rose of Sharon, and the fairest and sweetest-smelled rose in all his father's garden. There is none like him. I would not exchange one smile of his lovely face with kingdoms. Or this, Jesus is the loveliest person among the children of men. Now if we didn't know better, that would make us as men, and I pride myself on being something of a manly man, right? I don't consider myself a girly man, right? An effeminate man. This is language that makes us a little uncomfortable. To speak of Jesus as the loveliest person among the children of men. But listen to more. Jesus, he says, is that fairest amongst the sons of men. Our sweet Lord Jesus, the fairest, the sweetest, the most delicious rose of all his father's great field. Oh, how will the sight of his face and the smell of his garments allure and ravish the heart. plant of renown, the man called Branch, the chief among ten thousands, the fairest among the sons of men. I would not exchange Christ Jesus for ten worlds of glory. I am swelled up and satisfied with the love of Christ that is better than wine." When's the last time you were able to say that, brothers? When was the last time I was able to say that? That I am satisfied with the love of Christ. And it's better than wine. Maybe to make it more relevant, it's better than bourbon. It's better than our cigars. It's better than our beer. It is a fire in my soul. Let hell and the world cast water on it. They will not mend themselves. I know not a thing worth the buying but heaven. And my own mind is if comparison were made between betwixt Christ and heaven, I would sell heaven with my blessing and buy Christ. O fair sun, and fair moon, and fair stars, and fair flowers, and fair roses, and fair lilies, and fair creatures, but O 10,000,000 times fairer, Lord Jesus. And this one I think is my favorite. Put the beauty of 10,000,000 worlds of paradises, like the Garden of Eden, into one. Put all trees, all flowers, all smells, all colors, all tastes, all joys, all sweetness, all loveliness in one. Oh, what a fair and excellent thing that would be. And yet, it would be less to that fair and dearest well-beloved Christ than one drop of rain to the whole seas, rivers, lakes, and fountains of 10,000 earths. Isn't that amazing? Can you imagine the impression that makes on your heart and your mind to sit under a man who is that caught up in Christ? not only in the work of Christ, and we'll get into a little bit about Rutherford's life, we'll touch on a little bit about who he was and what he did, but I want to spend most of our time looking at kind of the sufferings and the hardships that he went through, but there's no doubt in Rutherford's life he knew he was a sinner. There's great debate about when Rutherford was converted. He was born about 1600. If you're trying to pin him down, he died in 1661. Many, in fact, most people would trace his conversion to a scandal that occurred in his life, and I would agree in terms of where I see Rutherford's own conversion. Some have argued that it was earlier based on some of the things he says in his letters, but I think there was a scandal in about 1626. Rutherford went to the University of Edinburgh He was trained there in 1617. He went as a 17-year-old. He was there for about six years or so. He ended up being appointed a professor, if you will, a regent of humanities. He taught Greek and he taught Latin. In order to get into university in the 17th century, you had to pass basically the ACT test, if you will, for the 17th century. It was a Latin entrance examination. You had to pass a Latin entrance examination in order to get into the university. And Rutherford taught remedial courses, if you will, for those who didn't know their Latin well enough. He also taught Greek and more advanced Latin as well. He did that, I think, beginning in like 1623, and about three years after he was appointed to that position. The interesting thing about why Rutherford was appointed to that position, and I would argue he was not a Christian, but the records of the university indicate that Rutherford was chosen over another candidate because he was of a virtuous disposition, a virtuous character. They saw that Rutherford was a virtuous man, even though, by all indications, he was not a believer. Well, about three years after Rutherford was appointed as Regent of Humanity, he was accused in the town and in the University of fornication. Now there are many people, including our esteemed Dr. Hamilton, I don't know if he's here this afternoon, but I know he has done quite a few lectures on Rutherford and he tends to not believe the charges or actual charges and rather trumped up charges trying to run Rutherford out because of his views, his theological views and the rest. I think there's something to the charges. The charges were that he had some kind of – committed some kind of sexual immorality with his future wife. He ended up marrying this woman. Her name was Euphem Hamilton. I assume no relation to Ian Hamilton. Maybe that's why he doesn't want to – He ended up marrying the woman, but he was removed from his position in the university. And it seems that that point in Rutherford's life, it was a very public scandal. It seems that that point in Rutherford's life is when he was converted. Because from that point in time, about 1626, for the rest of his life until he dies, you see a warm experiential religion. You see a passion for Christ. And so if we trace his conversion to before that time, it leaves you wondering where that kind of experiential love for Christ came from. There's no doubt, if you've been through some kind of a public scandal, if you've been through some kind of Damascus Road conversion, you will know something of the experience of grace. Many people look at the Apostle Peter as being one of their favorites. I, myself, favor the Apostle Paul. because I was converted later in life. I'm a man like Paul in that sense, a man like Rutherford, a man of extremes, and I know well the sins of my life when I wasn't walking with the Lord. And I think that had an impact in Rutherford's life and is one of the reasons why you see such a great passion for Christ. Let me read you one more quote, and I want to look more at the impact on how this played itself out through suffering in Rutherford's life. Oh, who can add to him who is that great all? If he would create suns and moons, new heavens, thousand and thousand degrees more perfect than these that are now. And again, make a new creation, 10,000 thousand degrees in perfection beyond that new creation. And again, still for eternity, multiply new heavens They should never be a perfect resemblance of that infinite excellency, order, weight, measure, beauty, and sweetness that is in Christ. Rutherford had a tremendous passion for Christ. And this was formed, I think, in the crucible, if you will, of that affliction, of his fornication, or whatever that scandal would have involved, that public scandal. But I think it was also nurtured and strengthened in the crucible. Rutherford was, like our Lord Jesus, a man of suffering. and acquainted with grief. He lived in a time of suffering, a time when suffering was not uncommon. But I'll tell you, brothers, as one who's been in the ministry for 12 years, ministry is not always easy. It's not always sunny days. Ministry is quite often discouraging. Our brother, Dr. Payne, touched on that this morning. Ministry is filled with discouragement, both in terms of, and I think one of the greatest discouragements that I face is not being someone else. having to be me. Because you know, there are things I don't like about me. I wish I was John Payne, or I wish I was David Strain, or I wish I was Ligon Duncan, right? But God has made me me, with my gifts. And to be able to say, with the Apostle Paul, by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been in vain, is probably one of the biggest struggles of ministry. to deal with my lack of giftedness in certain areas, to deal with my own perceived, maybe that's better, lack of giftedness, right? Because I am my own worst critic. I think Rutherford was too. But I find great consolation in men like Rutherford who faced adversity. And I want to suggest to you today, in the time that we've got left, that Rutherford knew what it was to face adversity. And he faced three main kinds of adversity in his life. He faced ministry struggles, he faced personal suffering, and he faced persecution from outside. And the passion that he had for Christ endured through all of those, and not merely allowed him, didn't merely allow him to endure, but to rejoice, even through hardship. and pain. In 1627, only a year after this public scandal with Upham Hamilton, Rufford was appointed to a very small, insignificant congregation in the village of Anwath in Scotland. It's in the southwest of Scotland, not too far from Dumfries, if you know about where that is. And he was only a year or so after. I think that's one of the reasons why we have to look at that as being the time of Rutherford's conversion. Because only a year or so after this great scandal, he is appointed to serve as a minister in the church. And so I think it makes good sense if we locate Rutherford's conversion to that point. then obviously it puts the whole scandal in a different light if he was unconverted when he fell in immorality. But in 1627, he arrives in Anwath, a very small, insignificant congregation. Has anyone been to the ruins? The ruins are still standing today. Has anyone seen that? Stephen, I know you have. Yeah, Colin, I know you have too. Mel, you've been there. Yeah, John. I mean, you guys can attest. I've stood inside the ruins, and they say that it's 18 feet wide by 60 feet long. I don't see how that's possible. Because I stood in the middle, and I could almost touch both sides. It doesn't seem like it's much wider than this area here. This was a small, insignificant, rural community. And yet there's a man like Rutherford who's been called the greatest theologian of the 17th century. Now our brother told us a lot about Owen, and most of you have probably read Owen, and many of you have never read Rutherford. Do you realize that Rutherford wrote almost as much as Owen did? If you took everything that we have of Rutherford's that's been published in the 17th century, it would amount to almost exactly, in fact, a little bit more. If you took Owen's 16 volumes and counted up the number of pages in Owen's 16 volumes, it's about 9,200 pages. You count up how much Rutherford has written, just in what we have, it's over 10,000. And yet most of us don't know anything about Rutherford. His writing was very similar to Rutherford's. The theme of his life was, I mean, to Owen's. His theme of his life was very similar to Owen's. But he's been overlooked, I think, and a tremendous impact. And yet he goes and he has a tremendous ministry in a small, out-of-the-way place. How many of us believe that we have to be appointed, we have to be called to a flagship congregation to have an impact in ministry. How many of us, whether we acknowledge it or not, maybe it's an implicit belief, we feel worthless. when we're called small, rural, out-of-the-way congregations. Rutherford is a great encouragement to us brothers, because he served in a small, out-of-the-way congregation that could not have had many people in it at all, and yet he is called the greatest theologian preacher, perhaps, of the 17th century. I find great encouragement in that, and I hope you do as well. But when Rutherford arrived in Anwath, despite his giftedness, Rutherford found incredible ministry difficulty in Anwath. The biggest issue that he struggled with was discouragement. Rutherford had a tremendous work ethic. He was said, and I'll see if I can find you the quote, it was said of Rutherford that he was constantly working. Here we go. It was said of Rutherford that he was always praying, always preaching, always visiting the sick, always catechizing, always writing, and always studying. Most people believe that Rutherford rose each day about 3 AM. And he slept no more than about six hours a night so that he could rise and spend the early hours of the day in communion with Christ. an absolutely astounding man. But when he arrived in Enwath, there was very little visible fruit from his ministry. After two years of preaching, week in, week out, he doubted that there was even one person who had benefited spiritually from his preaching. This is what he said. I see exceeding small fruit from my ministry and would be glad to know of one soul to be my crown and rejoicing in the day of Christ." Isn't that encouraging? It ought to be, right? Because I think in ministry, you and I see so little visible fruit. Praise God that He shows us seasons. There are seasons in our ministries where He does show us visible fruit. And He shows us that we're being, He's using us mightily. But there are many times when we see no visible fruit in our ministries. We've recently announced, after 12 years, that we'll be moving on from Gulfport to Atlanta. And in the last month, I was sharing with some friends last night, just in the last month after making the announcement to the congregation, which has been incredibly difficult, I have gotten more letters, more phone calls, more emails, and more personal conversations, comments from people coming up at the end of a Sunday service or something, to tell me how great of an impact my ministry has had in their lives. I never saw any of that. For 12 years they've been sitting under my preaching and they've not really shared any of that with me. We can labor and labor and labor and not see visible fruit and how encouraging is it to know that a man of Rutherford's gifts and abilities was there too, right? After three years, Rutherford complained about the hard-heartedness of the people of his parish and the daily griefs that it caused him. He perceived little or no love for God's Word among the people and little or no desire to live according to what it said. Even after nine years of ministry, in 1636, he had been there for nine years, Rutherford was still lamenting the fact that he saw precious little fruit from his labors. He said, I fear I have done little good in my ministry. It's at times like that that Rutherford's passion for Christ becomes more impressive. That he was able to hold that kind of a passion for Christ through the ups and downs, and more downs possibly than ups, of ministry. Discouragement is a regular part of ministry, and Rutherford was there and struggled with that kind of discouragement. Rutherford not only struggled with ministry discouragement, though, Rutherford also struggled with personal suffering in his own life. After two years of his ministry in Anwarth, two years after he arrived in Anwarth, he stated that he had already received many and diverse dashes and heavy strokes. one of which was the suffering and the ill health of his wife. You from Hamilton. In 1629, so it'd be about two years or so, two or three years after Rutherford arrived, he complained that his wife was in continual pain. He longed for the Lord to take her to heaven quickly. He says, the Almighty hath doubled his stripes upon me, for my wife is so sore tormented night and day that I have wondered why the Lord tarrieth so long. For 13 months, her disease increased daily. She could not sleep. She did not have the strength to leave the house or even to get out of bed. She cried out incessantly as though she were in the process of giving birth. Rutherford was beside himself during this time. And at one point during this 13-month stretch, again two years after arriving in Anwarth, he said in his letters that life was never so wearisome for him as it was at that time. In June of 1630, three years after arriving in Anwarth, Rutherford's wife died. Now to say this was a difficult time for him would be an understatement. He loved her dearly. He referred to her as the delight of mine eyes. And he said he described the experience of losing her later in his letters as the heaviest worldly sorrow and weightiest burden that ever lay upon one's back. Even four years after his wife died, Rutherford said that the wound from her death was still not fully healed and cured. To make matters worse, the two children that they had together both got sick and died. Just, we don't know exactly, but just before Euphem passed away or just after her loss. So within a window of just a few short months, within three years of arriving in Anwath, he lost his wife and he lost both of his kids. Yet his letters and his preaching seem to still communicate a passion for Christ. How do you preach from the heart when your heart is breaking? That's a struggle, isn't it, men? Week in, week out, to do heart work with God's people, to show them your own heart, to impress upon them the glory of Christ, and to do that when your world is upside down. Rutherford was there. Not long after Rutherford's wife and children died, Rutherford himself became sick. He calls it a tertian fever. For three months, he had this malaria-like disease, and it incapacitated him. He said he was prevented from carrying out his pastoral duties, and he preached only once on Sundays, and that, he says, was with great difficulty. Around this time, Rutherford's mother came to live with him. That may mean that his father had also passed away. So within this short period of time, Rutherford's facing his own ill health, the loss of his father, the loss of his wife, and the loss of two of his children. In addition to the lack of visible fruit and the discouragement that he was seeing in his congregation. No doubt, these things would have been quite difficult for Rutherford to bear. But Rutherford not only suffered in terms of personal or faced personal suffering, Rutherford also faced great discouragement and persecution from outside as well. Not long after arriving in Anwarf, there was what he calls a profligate man in his parish who had apparently trumped up some charges against Rutherford. And as a result, he was made to appear before the Court of High Commission and apparently was exonerated because of the false charges, but nonetheless had to go through all of that legal, if you will, hassle. Not long after that, Rutherford in 1636, after publishing his first book in Latin, Rutherford was again cited to appear before the Court of High Commission. And he was accused of rebelling against the king's agenda to unify the churches in England and Scotland around an Episcopal standard. And as a result, he was removed from his church in Anwarth, and he was exiled to Aberdeen for 18 months. There, it was hoped that he would fall under the influence of more moderate individuals in Aberdeen. He was prevented from preaching. He was prevented from ministering in any kind of a way other than writing letters. And almost two-thirds of Rutherford's letters come from his time of exile in Aberdeen. But when he attended church, he was openly preached against from the pulpit. People looked at him and talked of him, if you will, gasped, you know, as he walked down the street. And Rutherford struggled with loneliness. He struggled with isolation. He struggled with discouragement. He struggled with what he calls his silent Sabbaths. For Rutherford, he longed to preach. And God's word was like a fire in his bowels, is what he says, quite literally. And he longed to preach. And so the greatest trial for him was to be kept silent and prevented from preaching. When the National Covenant was signed in February 1638, Rutherford was released, if you will, about that time, and made his way back to Anwath. But just over 20 years later, Soon after, Charles II was restored to the throne of England and Scotland in 1660. Rutherford's book, Lex Rex, which had been published during the Westminster Assembly in 1644, was cited as being a seditious book in vain against monarchy and laying the ground for rebellion. It was recalled, and it was burned in Edinburgh and St. Andrews. Rutherford was removed from his positions in the church. He was removed from his position as Professor of Divinity at St. Mary's College in St. Andrews, and he was divested of his stipend, and he was placed under house arrest. He was charged with treason, and he was summoned again to appear before Parliament to answer for his supposed crimes. And yet through all of this, Rutherford held fast to the glory of Christ. His last words are well-known. They've formed, if you will, they've provided the material for the well-known hymn, The Sands of Time Are Sinking. Glory, glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's land. There's no doubt that the years leading up to Rutherford's death were filled with some controversy. Rutherford lived in a time of controversy. He didn't live in our 21st century nice day and time. We look back with 21st century eyes and we look at the controversies that Rutherford was embroiled in and we scratch our heads and we say, this man didn't finish well. But didn't he? If we evaluate him by the standards of his own day, he finished well indeed. Glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel's land. Christ was the passion for Rutherford's life through all of the ups and downs of life. Rutherford was a man of great humility, a man of tremendous work ethic. He was a man of great suffering and affliction, and yet through it all, there was this passion for Christ. It is said of Rutherford that when he preached Christ, it looked like he was going to fly out of the pulpit. We've lost something of that today, brothers. In our emphasis upon preaching as communication or as conversation, right? We've lost something of that preaching as an impression. An impression on the heart and the mind. And so it's said that when he would come to talk about Christ, he was so enraptured and so caught up in passion that it looked like he was gonna fly out of the pulpit. I remember reading about Charles Spurgeon, when Spurgeon, at times in his own ministry, preaching ministry, when he would be so impassioned, talking about Christ, would reach over the pulpit and pound the sides of the pulpit as he hammered home the gospel and the good news. Think of the impression that makes. So often, I think we give the impression that we're happy that people have showed up on a Sunday morning. That we've just kinda casually stumbled into the pulpit. Rather than communicating this divine encounter with the glorious Lord Jesus. What's the impression? of your preaching that you leave in the hearts and minds of your congregation. My prayer for my ministry is that men and women, boys and girls will see the glory of Christ, the loveliness of Christ. That's what I've loved and cherished about Rutherford, and I hope that's something that drives you to read his letters for yourself. Let's pray. Father, how we thank you and praise you for the opportunity to spend time thinking on Samuel Rutherford's life, his sufferings in ministry, his passion for the Lord Jesus. And Father, I pray that you would whet our appetites to take and read his letters for ourselves. I pray that we would follow Rutherford insofar as he follows Christ. And that you, Father, would impress upon us his passion, his overwhelming love and desire for the loveliness of Christ. And that you, Father, would so conform us as men to the image of Christ that when we stand and preach, when we speak casually one-on-one, that people would see and hear Christ. And we pray that you would receive all the glory and all the praise. For it's in Jesus' name we pray.