Tuesday Evening Service 5/8/2025

Call Yourself A Christian - Part 3

(David Clarkson - Luke 14:27)

Watch the Full Sermon HERE.

Tonight we will conclude our final instalment of the puritan teaching from volume one of David Clarkson’s works, which he has called ‘Taking Up Your Cross’. We have entitled it ‘Call Yourself A Christian’.

To remind us of this puritan: David Clarkson 1662-1686. Born Bradford, west Yorkshire - Graduated from Cambridge university. He was John Owen’s predecessor at Leadenhall St. London.

Clarkson’s base text from his sermon is Luke 14:27, however he does expand his text from verse 25-33.

Let me read the full text:

Luke 14:25-33

Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, “if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘this man began to build and was not able to finish’? Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple.”

Let me read the puritan prayer again tonight before we go into the teaching. Again, we will read the same prayer as last time as it’s so fitting for the topic. Valley of Vison page 330 in the little black one, and 182 of the larger paperback. The prayer is called ‘Vain Service’:

O MY LORD, Forgive me for serving thee in sinful ways— by glorying in my own strength, by forcing myself to minister through necessity, by accepting the applause of others, by trusting in assumed grace and spiritual affection, by a faith that rests upon my hold on Christ, not on him alone, by having another foundation to stand upon beside thee; for thus I make flesh my arm. Help me to see that it is faith stirred by grace that does the deed, that faith brings a man nearer to thee, raising him above mere man, that thou dost act upon the soul when thus elevated and lifted out of itself, that faith centres in thee as God all-sufficient, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, as God efficient, mediately, as in thy commands and promises, immediately, in all the hidden power that faith sees and knows to be in thee, abundantly, with omnipotent effect, in the revelation of thy will. If I have not such faith I am nothing. It is my duty to set thee above all others in mind and eye; But it is my sin that I place myself above thee. Lord, it is the special evil of sin that every breach of thy law arises from contempt of thy Person, from despising thee and thy glory, from preferring things before thee. Help me to abhor myself in comparison of thee, And keep me in a faith that works by love, and serves by grace.

Last time drew from seven points on how we must deny self, in order to bear the cross. Tonight in our last part, I want to simply follow on from that, and share only 3 points from Clarkson on the fears we must overcome in order to suffer the cross.

One thing that seems to be lacking in church today is courage. There seems to be, even from the least, to them in lofty positions, this deep fear of facing pain and uncomfortableness.

What we saw a few years ago during lock down was a huge eyeopener in the church for me, as fear gripped the supposed faithful. They never of course admitted it as fear but fear was a huge factor in the level of compliance.

Fear has also found its way into almost all platforms in church, where safe, unoffensive messages, that leave the believers unchallenged and unshaken is the normal.

I’m astounded at how anyone can possibly become more sanctified by such shallow preaching.

The seeker friendly church, that claims to be loving the community has truly stopped looking at the fear that has, and is calling much of the shots.

Fear guides so much of our lives, yet pride is fear’s shield. Pride can hide fear behind all sorts of reasons and camouflages.

Of course, fear runs deep into our personal life and walk, and choices. And these fears as Clarkson says has caused ‘many a man to sink under them’.

Fear can have such a grip of our lives that it literally dictates and guides every part of our life and being, without us even considering it as fear.

In a world where we are always adding nuance, and causes and effects to our lives and dilemmas, we have lost sight of the crassness of our sin, and the condition of our souls,  because we have found an amazing ability to misdiagnose fear. Which truly is. in the simplest of terms, the complete opposite in action to faithfulness.

The most common used phrase in the whole bible in various forms or another, is ‘be not afraid’, or ‘fear not’.

I will only share one at this time:

2 Timothy 1:7

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Note what Paul says to Timothy: Any fear you have is not the work of God in our lives. And I’m not talking about a holy, reverent fear. But a fleshy human fear.

It’s more of a timidity, a cowardice, a holding back.

‘Δειλία’- ‘dilea’, as opposed to phobos, where we get the word phobia. Both are fear but have branches.

Where Timothy was concerned, it was a holding back, a doubt, a compromise, a second guessing, an intimidation. A fear of the outcome and reaction. A fear of confidence, maybe even some fear of loss.

Okay let me share three of Clarkson’s points, again I won’t be able to share in depth the way he does.
 

One:

Okay first point in which fear affects our ability to face the cross:

Fear makes the cross worse than it is.

Clarkson says:

When we look upon suffering through our fear, it is like a magnifying glass.

Oh how fear truly does make suffering unbearable….Clarkson says:

 Fear makes a mole hill into a mountain.

Doesn’t it just? The fear, not the suffering, calls the shots. The suffering is driven by fear: think how much less you would be suffering in trials, if fear wasn’t the main antagonist?

Hence why Clarkson says:

A man suffers far greater from his fears than he does the suffering he is afraid of.

Have you really truly considered that it’s the fear of the loss, or the fear of the pain that is really what is causing the pain, and not the thing itself?

The Israelites where more frightened of the giants on Anak, based on their lack, way more than the giants stature. Their fear was so great throughout their exile that it took almost nothing and no time to not trust.

Fear is so overwhelming that trust, and faith is defeated before it can even get out the starting blocks.
 

Two:

Okay, point two:

Fear makes a Christian less than he is.

Clarkson adds:

It makes them both unable and unwilling to either take up the cross or bear it.

Again we could add that the lack of self-denial makes the fear greater than the suffering.

Now at this junction it’s important to not confuse fear, or lack of it, with strength.

As Clarkson points out that, and I quote:

A weak Christian, when he has the spirit of courage that he raises above fears, will venture more, and undergo more for Christ, than a Christian who is otherwise strong, but his spirit is sunk under the burden of fear.

It’s not about strength then per say, as fear can railroad strength, and amputate the soul in a moment.

When fear grips us, suffering torments us.

At this point I want to also mention again the wonderful teaching from puritan John Flavel. On ‘Preparations For Suffering’. Where he talks at great length about the gift of grace that equips us and gives us the means to suffer.
 

Three:

Last point: on how fear affects our ability to face the cross.

Fear exposes you to that which is far worse than any cross you can be met with.

Fear truly is way worse than the suffering of that which we would endure for His sake.

I can whole heartly say, to carry the cross of hate, or of slander and of betrayal, and of loss, and do so in a Christlike way, is way, way less painful than the pain caused by fear and anxiety, and re-living the loss and the fear of being hurt again.

I can say without question there is a deep comfort, and almost a joy that goes beyond pain, or loss when we carry our cross.

Fear is just so, so painful, we can’t carry it, it weakens us, it overwhelms us, it engulfs us, I’ve seen people become deeply mentally ill with fear.

In fact, most of the vilest of acts, and the most unloving, unkind, vindictive acts I’ve seen among people come from the deep root of fear - that takes them into a world of darkness and revenge and utter defeatedness.
 

Rather than suffer through faithfulness, they are completely defeated by fear. But sadly, not only defeated by fear, but then driven by fear.

Clarkson writes:

If you are to be unfaithful out of fear to suffer, there is something more to be feared in such a case.

By that, Clarkson is referring to a fear that would make you unfaithful to Christ.
 

How many have made fear a greater thing to worship than that of Christ. Christ has been given over, ignored, pushed aside, in order for fear to manifest and find a means of healing outside of faith.

Clarkson very, very soberly says:

The Lord will dreadfully punish that fear that keeps you from taking up the cross when he calls you to it.

I will conclude with this wonderful verse that truly sums up the whole of what we have taught tonight, yet is so deeply profound that it could only be the God-breathed Word.

Clarkson refences it at this junction of his teaching:

1 John 4:18-19

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us.

Fear is at its root a lack of love, it’s a lack of love for Christ, it’s a lack of gratitude, it’s a loss of memory of the grace in which we have, it’s a enlarging of man and a diminishing of the Lord.

Fear torments, but love protects and covers, and believes, and hopes, and endures.

Fear is the ultimate torment, because it’s a loss of intimacy and union with Christ.

Amen.