Now to my mentor in the faith,
John Gill, scholar, pastor. Now, my first point is that the
good work of 18th century Baptist is often overlooked, and John
Gill lived 1697 to 1771. So often when speaking about
the work of the Holy Spirit, which infused the churches with
new life in the 18th century, mention is made of Church of
England stalwarts such as Whitefield, Harvey, Toplady, and Romaine. The works of these men, through
God's sovereign grace, cannot be praised enough, but the fact
that recent biographers have highlighted their activities
has tended to give the impression that other denominations, such
as the Baptists, were quite inactive during this period. This is by
no means the case. As the testimonies of John Gill,
John Brine, John Ryland, John Noble, John Moore, John and John
Ripon Show. Have we any Johns here in the
congregation? Oh, there's a John over there.
Well, you're in good company, Brother John. And I pray that
you will live like these great Baptist Johns of bygone years. And may God give you the power
to do so. Now the best known of these great
men, John Gill, was born in 1697 in Kettering, Northampton, the
son of Edward and Elizabeth Gill, nay, Walker. The Gills ran a
small textile business and were in membership at a local dissenting
church called the Great Meeting. He was called the Great Meeting
because it was packed full and it was great. That's just logical
then, isn't it? It was founded in 1662 at the
restoration of the monarchy after the rebellion. Originally, particular
views of the ordinances was not a condition of membership. as
the church was deeply influenced by John Bunyan's message that
baptism was no bar to communion. However, a firm confession of
faith was required of new members. Elder Edward Gill, John Gill's
father, was occasionally asked to preach by his pastor. Another elder, William Wallace,
became convinced that a church needed to be as united on baptism
as it was on other doctrines. This caused some disturbance,
so it was amiably agreed that Wallace and his followers should
form a church of their own on Baptist principles. Notice I
say it was amiably agreed. The churches continued to work
together in intimate fellowship. Thus the Little Meeting, the
Great Meeting, the Little Meeting, was formed at Bailey's Yard Kettering
with Wallace as its first pastor. The members now called themselves
Particular Baptists. to emphasize that they believed
in the Reformed doctrine of particular atonement, as opposed to the
general Baptists who stressed a universal saving sufficiency
in the atonement. The Church prospered and grew. Holding first to open communion,
because they had come from a church which had no set rules about
the form of baptism, but they changed to closed communion in
1768 during the modern question debate on duty faith. So this modern gospel of duty
faith and associated with what they wrongly called the free
offer came up, let's say, towards the end of the 18th century. It was not an issue in the church
before then. Now Edward Gill was elected as
a deacon and he is recorded as possessing a good witness because
of his grace, his piety, and holy conversation. It's good to have a parent like
that. During the unrest leading up to the founding of the particular
Baptist church, Edward met, wooed, and won his Elizabeth, and the
two were married. When Elizabeth told Edward that
she was expecting a child, her husband was immediately convinced
that Elizabeth would bear a son who would become a household
word amongst the Baptists. What father hasn't had such thoughts? This fond thought was strengthened
on the very day that the child was born. It was indeed a sun
and Edward could not contain himself and ran into the street
in great joy proclaiming the good news to anyone and everyone. I told a congregation the other
day that I must confess I did the very same thing when my eldest
son, Mark, was born. Not that Mark, but my son is
also called Mark. The first person he met was Chambers,
the woodsman, who was unloading a supply of logs in the yard. Edward began to tell him the
good news at the top of his voice when a complete stranger passed
by and overheard the joyful tones. The man came over to the exuberant
father and said sagaciously, yes, and he will be a scholar
too, and all the world cannot hinder him. Then the stranger
continued on his way and was never seen again. John indeed
soon surpassed in learning even pupils much older than himself. Before he turned eleven, John
was so proficient academically that he was the wonder of the
neighbouring clergy and literati, who encouraged him with almost
paternal pride. They were almost fighting with
each other to get little John Gill in their hands so that they
could teach him more and more and more. And the more they taught
him the more he just gulped it down. Gill was seen every market day
sitting in the local bookshop reading whatever instructive
books he could lay his hands on. and discussing points of
style and grammar with the Northamptonshire academics. This picture so left
its mark on Kettering that when a person wished to emphasise
that anything was true, he would say, it is as sure as John Gill
is to be found in the bookseller's shop. In other words, perfectly
sure. He was always there. One minister who encouraged Gill
was Richard Davies, 1658-1714, pastor of the independent church
at nearby Rothwell. Gill could have had no better
instructor than this wise man who combined academic acumen
with an earnest desire to spread Christ's kingdom. In 1748, Gill
said of Davies, his memory has been always precious to me,
particularly on account of his great regard both for my education,
for which he was heartily concerned, and also for my spiritual and
eternal welfare." Davies urged Gill never to neglect the one
thing needed. and told his young friend, if
you know Christ well, it is no matter though you are ignorant
of many other things. If you are ignorant of Christ,
other knowledge will avail but little. And I am very much for
homeschooling, and I feel that is the first point in any homeschooling
curriculum. Whatever you learn, it will be
no good to your eternal soul if Christ and the Scriptures
are not made the center. Gil praised Davis' very powerful
and evangelistic ministrations, I'm quoting him, with his zeal
for soul winning. Davis evangelized eleven counties
founding churches wherever he went, training weavers, carpenters,
tailors, and farmers to go out into the highways and byways
to bring sinners to Christ. In so doing, he earned the animosity
of many sleepy pastors in an 80-mile radius of his Northamptonshire
church. who woke up to find that Davis
was doing their work for them. And to tell you the truth, it
was good that they were asleep, because a Davis did it far better
than any of them could have done it. It was Davis who laid the
foundation stone of the work of the Spirit in Olney Bucks,
where Anglican's Moses Brown, William Cooper, John Newton and
Thomas Scott, Baptists John Sutcliffe and William Carey and Independent
Samuel Greatheed afterwards laboured, all providing their contributions
to what has become known as the Olney Revival. Read about the
Olney Revival, it will thrill your heart. I must sadly add
that Davis, with all the great Johns I have already mentioned,
are slandered nowadays by many so-called reformed Baptists,
I say so-called, as hyper-Calvinists who refused to preach to sinners. How they can say such things,
well, God only knows. John Gill's grammar school days
were soon numbered. John's schoolmaster, a Church
of England man, took his religion seriously and encouraged his
pupils to attend prayers at the local parish church during weekdays. Baptist parents, however, believed
that this well-meant act might one day prejudice their own children
against their own denomination. After a good deal of debating,
the Baptist parents decided they must withdraw their children
from the school, no matter what disadvantage they might incur
because of this move. The more affluent Baptists boarded
their children out with private tutors or in private dissenting
schools. The clergy of all denominations
in and around Kettering came to the assistance of John's parents
and strove to find him such a means of furthering his education. So the Anglicans and the Baptists
and the other denominations were all trying to find a new school
for this brilliant boy. Applications were made in London,
and specimens of John's work were sent off in the hope that
they would earn a scholarship for the young protégé. John's
youth and learning, however, proved a stumbling block, as
such bursaries were only available for boys who had not yet reached
John's proficiency, though they were much older. You see here is a brilliant boy
who has refused admittance to college because he was way beyond
their college graduates before he ever started on the college's
education plan. And so they couldn't accept him. He would have made a mess of
every teacher's lectures. He would probably have known
more than the teachers. So Edward Gill had, however,
not given up hope that his son would one day become a notable
Baptist minister, but the dissenting academies and colleges he applied
to argued that John was already far too advanced for them, and
they envisaged difficulties if John were placed amongst less
talented students. There was no hope of John's finding
an early place at a university, as such institutions were closed,
sadly, to dissenters. For about 150 years, the great
universities of Oxford and Cambridge refused to accept Baptists. Happily, as you see by my tie,
which is the tie of Regents College Baptist, Regents Park Baptist
College in Oxford. The Baptists' protests were so
large that Oxford opened a special college for Baptists, and this
is the tie they now wear at this college, taking part in all the
university's examinations and taking the same degrees. In Guildsday this was not possible. So the words of the stranger
at John's birth that the world might wish to hinder John's progress
were thus coming true. For the next eight years, John
worked in his father's business, but his understanding parents
gave him every opportunity to learn autodidactically. For the children, that means
he taught himself. John improved in Latin and Greek
and purchased Buxthorff's grammar and lexicon so as to learn Hebrew. He then tackled logic, rhetoric,
moral philosophy and science. Languages proved to be his greatest
delight and through reading the Latin writers he developed a
great interest in theology. Now his conversion and baptism. Young John often felt pangs of
horror and fear in his breast because of besetting sin and
a sensitive conscience. At other times he would experience
deep insight into spiritual truths which blessed his soul. When
John was 12 years of age, he heard Mr. Wallace preach on Genesis
3.9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Adam,
where art thou? During the following weeks and
months, John was constantly reminded of this question. Where art thou? Art thou lost? Art thou found? And he saw that he was in a wretched
state spiritually, fearing that he would die unconverted. John turned to his pastor for
help and a ray of hope following conviction entered his life. Wallace died soon afterwards
but John's parents and the church members helped John on towards
a sound experimental faith in Christ. John Gill was greatly
loved by the members of his church and the change in his life did
not go unnoticed. Thomas Wallace took over the
pastorate from his father, but only on a part-time basis. After a few years, the members
realized that young Gil was being called of God to assist Wallace,
though John had not yet testified openly to a saving work of Christ. believing that he ought to do
this first at baptism after ample evidence that he was truly converted. Hill also believed that once
he started to make a public confession of Christ, he should continue
to do so as a minister of the gospel. At the age of 19, Gill
was satisfied that such a time had come. Thus, on the first
day of November, 1716, he was baptized in the local river. Already proficient at writing,
John composed the hymn to be sung as he passed through the
waters. You can download that hymn from
my website, it's to be found all over the world wide web. On the following Sunday, 4th
of November, Gill was formally admitted into membership of the
Kettering Particular Baptist Church and invited to take part
in the Lord's Supper. During the same evening, he wasted
no time, at a private house meeting, he opened his Bible at Isaiah
53, read the text, and expounded the verses. After this, friends
told Gil of their conviction that he was called to be a minister
of the Word, and asked him to preach a full sermon at the same
place on the following Sabbath evening. The text Gil turned
to was, For I determined not to know anything among you, save
Jesus Christ and Him crucified, 1 Corinthians 3, 2, which Gil's
first biographer records ushered in a charming season to the godly
people. After preaching for several weeks
in this way, Gill was officially asked to assist Wallace in his
work as co-pastor and was soon preaching regularly both at his
own and other church meetings. Like teenager Charles Haddon
Spurgeon over a century later, who you might know took over
Gill's church, Gill now quickly gained a reputation as a fine
preacher and was soon well known and loved for miles around and
even in the capital. Soon young Gill was called to
pastor the prestigious Gopiach Church, in London. He zoomed
at 19 from being a co-pastor in Northamptonshire to being
the pastor of the most prestigious Baptist church in Britain. So
again you can compare him with Spurgeon. Now Gill's new church
had formerly been pastored by Benjamin Keech and Benjamin Stinton. And then, as soon as he got there,
he introduced sound Baptist principles. You say, oh, wasn't it a Baptist
church before that? Yes, but wait and see what was
happening. Gill soon realised that the doctrines
and methods of church government in his new church needed reforming. Too much emphasis was placed
on the supervisory rights of extra-church affiliations which
robbed local churches of their sovereignty. A clique of clergy
who met regularly at a coffee house of all places had set themselves
up as joint elders of the sum total of the particular Baptist
churches in London claiming the sole right to ordain pastors
and deacons. Indeed, an influential minority
in the churches there, in the particular Baptist churches,
maintained that they had relinquished rights to appoint church officers
to the coffeehouse fraternal. what came to be known as the
Baptist Union was here in its infancy, a parachurch body that
bosted over the local congregations. Gill denounced the assumed powers
of the coffeehouse club and thought to it that his church chose and
ordained its own deacons. Confronted with much anti-creed
opposition, he bravely drew up a statement of faith which was
thoroughly evangelical in its scope and thoroughly reformed
in its doctrine. This step was necessary as along
with Lack's ideas of church government, doctrine was being downgraded
and heresies containing the Trinity and the eternal Sonship of Christ
were being fostered in the churches. If you read Philpott of the Gospel
Standard Churches, he wrote a book on this controversy, the Sonship
controversy, which sadly split the Baptist churches. Once Gill
put his church back on a biblical footing, membership at Goat Yard
grew by leaps and bounds, and the church, which moved to Carter
Lane for larger premises, became one of the most influential congregations
in the country. Now, Gill's gifts as an evangelist, Look at me in astonishment, but
Gil was no evangelist. He only preached to believers.
Don't you believe that? The brethren at Horsley Down,
another name for the Goat Yard Church, had been drawn to Gil
because of his evangelistic gifts. And now Gil began to systematically
evangelize the Southwark area. He divided the district into
four parts and assigned two brethren to each sub-area who were to
visit and instruct the people there. Of course they visited
the members first, but then any sinner who was living there,
whether he was a safe sinner or not, he told the people to
take the gospel to every creature. What started as a work amongst
his own flock soon spread thus to a wider work and evangelical
ministers of all denominations gave Gil their support. Anglican
pioneers of the revival such as James Harvey and Augustus
Toplady were full of praise for the help they received through
Gil's sermons and publications. They were not ashamed to stand
up with Gil and preach the word from the same platform. Read Aaron Seymour on this and
he'll put you straight if you think John Gill had nothing to
do with the great awakening of the 18th century and the work
of Harvey and Whitfield. Harvey was particularly fond
of Gill as he taught the sinner's need of the imputed righteousness
of Christ and Toplady loved Gill for the way he convicted Armenians
of their faulty view of man. It was Gill who encouraged Toplady
to write his translation of Zanki on election and predestination. Harvey wrote of Gill, who presents
us with such rich and charming displays of the glory of Christ's
person, the freeness of his grace to sinners, and the tenderness
of his love to the Church. Now, what better report could
be given of any Christian evangelist? In order to give Gil more access
to a wider field of hearers, denominational leaders begged
him to give a weekly lecture at Great East Sheep. This series, which was to last
almost 30 years, and John Bryan continued them after Gil, This
series was opened in 1729 by Gill preaching on Psalm 71-16. I will go in the strength of
the Lord God, I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of
thine only. He wasn't interested in any righteousness
except that of the Lord Jesus Christ, which, imputed to us,
makes us righteous too. Now many of these sermons form
the basis of Gill's fine book, The Cause of God and Truth. The Great East Cheap Experiment
proved a huge success and soon Baptists, Anglicans and Independents
were subscribing to hire other halls so that Gill could give
regular lectures there. Now, Gill is recognised generally
as an ardent evangelist. Contemporary evangelical authors,
authors of his day, looked on Gill's work with admiration,
writing how his message of joyful Christian experience spread far
and wide amongst the Baptists, and even influenced, as one missionary
minded contemporary put it, all the evangelical denominations
at home and abroad. He was talking about John Gill's
worldwide reputation as an evangelist of note. This was to be expected,
as Gill had worldwide evangelism as his main goal. Two of Gill's
favorite texts were Isaiah 24, 16, look unto me and be ye saved,
all ye ends of the earth. I sent this verse to a major
critic of Gil, a well-known Baptist writer, who told me that Gil
did not believe in preaching the Gospel to the ends of the
earth. And I sent him this. I thought he'd be convinced.
He wrote back and said, oh, those were Christ's words, those were
scriptural words, sorry, and not the words of Gil. But he
maintained his position that Gil himself didn't believe that. Well, why did Gil say it? I believe
he believed it. And 2 Chronicles 16, 9. For the eyes of the Lord run
to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong
in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him. Preaching
at the induction of John Davis, Gill told him, souls sensible
to sin and danger and who are crying out, what shall we do
to be saved? You are to observe and point
out Christ, the tree of life, to them and say, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. He went on to say,
your work is to lead men under a sense of sin and guilt to the
blood of Christ, shed for many for the remission of sin, and
in his name you are to preach the forgiveness of them. Well,
you can't be clearer than that, can you? He preached, be faithful,
labour to show the one and the other their wretched state by
nature, the necessity of repentance towards God and faith in our
Lord Jesus Christ." I put that in a book and this man wrote
a review of my book. In fact, he published a whole
book against George Eller's theology and everywhere I said repentance
towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, he cut out
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and quoted me as only preaching
repentance but not faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Right, Wesley's clash with Gill,
this was inevitable concerning Christ's righteousness. So it
was inevitable that John Wesley would clash with Gill and their
debate on the question of the perseverance of the saints filled
several books on both sides. Wesley claimed and I'm quoting
directly for him, although people say I misquote Wesley, I take
me straight from his works, I believe a saint may fall away that one
who is holy or righteousness in the judgment of God himself
may nevertheless so fall from God as to perish everlastingly. He further stated that he who
is a child of God today may be a child of the devil tomorrow."
So highly did he think of God's everlasting grace to the ones
whom he has rescued from sin. Gill answered him by saying,
those who are truly regenerated, effectually called and really
converted and internally sanctified by the Spirit and grace of God,
shall preserve in grace to the end, and shall be everlastingly
saved, or shall never finally and totally fall, so as to perish
everlastingly." Now, because Wesley showed great weakness
in his doctrine of imputation, Gill quotes Job 17.9, the righteousness
also shall hold on his way. In other words, keep to his path. And tells Wesley, by the righteous
man is one that is made truly righteous by the righteousness
of Christ imputed to him and which he receives by faith. in
consequence of which he lives soberly and righteously, and
by his way is meant Christ the way in which he walks as he has
received him as the Lord his righteousness. Hill explains
that even if the righteous one slips, falls, or stumbles because
of the inner fight within all Christians, he cannot slip or
fall or stumble out of fellowship with Christ, as it is Christ
who maintains that fellowship, not the man himself. It is, after
all, Christ who is our righteousness, not our own works. Fellow sinners, that is our hope
of glory. Now, the holiness of the law
and good works. Dr. Abraham Taylor argued that
Gill could not possibly, as a Calvinist, believe in the holiness of the
law and in good works. Though the principal of a theological
college, he had no idea what the doctrines of grace really
were. Hill told him, though we say
that works are not necessary to salvation, do we say that
they are not necessary to anything else? Do we say that they are
not necessary to be done in obedience to the law of God? Do we say
that the commands of the law are not to be regarded by men? That there are things indifferent
that may be done or not done? No. We say none of these things,
but all the reverse. Do we make void the law through
this doctrine? God forbid. Yea, we establish
the law as it is in the hands of Christ, our lawgiver. to which
we desire to yield a cheerful obedience to show our subjection
to him as king of saints and to testify our gratitude for
the many blessings of every kind we receive from him." Now, Gil
and Arminianism, think of the picture of Gil where he looks
as though he's just chewed a sour lemon. Gil's emphasis on the
insensitivity of the unsaved to his own state and his spiritual
inability angered many an Arminian. Once Gil preached on the total
depravity and spiritual inability of man. A hearer became deeply offended
and told Gil, you have degraded man and laid him much too low. Gil responded, pray sir, how
much do you think men can contribute towards their own conversion
and salvation? The man then gave Gil a long,
long list of all that man could do to vouchsafe God's eternal
favour. Gil listened patiently and then
said, have you done all these things for yourself? No, I cannot
say that I have, the man replied. Gill looked at him with some
surprise and said, if you really have all these things in your
power and have not done them for yourself, you deserve to
be doubly damned and are but ill qualified to stand up for
that imaginary free will which, according to your own confession,
has done you no good at all. However, after you have made
yourself spiritually whole, if ever you find yourself able to
do it, be kind enough to come and let me know how you went
about it, for at present I know but of one remedy for human deprivation. namely, the efficacious grace
of him who worketh in men both will and do of his own good pleasure. Now, efforts made to silence
Gill. Great efforts was made to silence
Gill by a number of free willers, and he was even cautioned by
his own people, his own church, to be less rigorous when preaching
the truth. Spurgeon says of his eminent
predecessor, Spurgeon's name for Gill, Dr. Gill was told by a certain member
of his congregation who ought to have known better, that if
he published his book, The Cause of God and Truth, he would lose
some of his best friends and that his income would fall off. The doctor said, I can afford
to be poor, but I cannot afford to injure my conscience. Spurgeon then added, and he has
left his mantle as well as his chair in our vestry. Sadly, the downgrading of doctrine
in the Baptist Union churches got out of hand. and Spurgeon's
fight against it proved in vain. There is nothing new under the
sun, and the follies of Gill's times, as those of Spurgeon's
days, are with us again, or rather with us still. This speaker must
confess that in reading Gill he has found a compendium of
sound theology second to none which serves as a God-given armour
against the downgrading going on in our reformed evangelisation
of today. Now, a dying man's dependence
on the everlasting love of God. That's the sad thing in one way
about writing biographies. You've got to come to the end
of your story sometime. So if you'll bear with me, I'm
at the end now. Gil's very last preaching wish
was to expound the song of Zacharias going on through Luke up to the
Nunc dimittis of Simeon in chapter 2. Now let thy servant depart
in peace according to thy word. The Old Scholar preacher did
not get that far, but ended his 51 years in the ministry by preaching
on the text to give knowledge of salvation unto his people
by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our
God, whereby the Dayspring from on high hath visited us." What
better note could a true evangelist end on? He was now racked with
violent pains in his stomach and he lost his sense of taste,
eating nearly out of duty. Erasmus Middleton, the Church
of England man who wrote about his dear Baptist mentor, records
how he bore his visitation with great patience, composure, and
resignation of mind to the divine will, without uttering the least
complaint, without ever saying to God, what doest thou? During
such bodily discomfort, Gil's nephew of the same name, also
a Baptist minister, asked his uncle how he was feeling. How
many of us would have taken the opportunity to moan in self-pity? Oh, it hurts here. Oh, it hurts
there. Oh, I'm feeling awful, etc.,
etc. Instead, as an answer, Gil preached
a regular sermon to his dear one, outlining his hope in the
Lord, saying, I depend wholly and alone upon the free, sovereign,
eternal, unchangeable, and everlasting love of God, the firm and everlasting
covenant of grace, and my interest in the persons of the Trinity,
for my whole salvation, and not upon any righteousness of my
own, nor anything in me, or done by me. believe that I am under the influence
of the Holy Spirit who is working in me to preserve me, not upon
any services of mine which I have been assisted to perform for
the good of the Church, but upon my interest in the persons of
the Trinity, the person of blood and righteousness of Christ,
the free grace of God, and the blessings of grace streaming
to me through the blood and righteousness of Christ as the ground of my
hope. These are no new things with
me, but what I have been long acquainted with, what I can live
and die by, And this you may tell to any of my friends, I
shall not be long here." To other inquirers, Gill was more brief.
When one visitor asked him of his well-being shortly before
he passed away, Gill merely replied, I have nothing to make me uneasy,
and quoted a verse from Isaac Watts, He raised me from the
depths of sin, the gates of gaping hell, and fixed my standing more
secure than t'was before I fell." This has been misunderstood by
many biographers. What Gill and Watts are saying
is that righteousness which we had in perfect Adam is nothing
compared to the righteousness which we have in Christ. Adam
failed, Christ never fails and we have a never failing righteousness. This again showed how steadfast
to the last Gil was in stressing the need for a better covenant,
bringing with it a better hope. and a better righteousness which
he faithfully believed God had made with him. Thus, when the
time came for John Gild to depart and be with his Lord, he went
without a sigh or a groan, with a look of inward joy and peace
on his face, and the words, O my Father, my Father, on His lips. Blessed are they.