Grace Fellowship Church - Pre-Conference Session 2

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March 7/2025 | Preconference session 2 | Expository sermon by Mack Tomlinson. This is the second session of the preconference dedicated to elders and church leadership.

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The following recording is from our Grace Fellowship Church Conference 2025. Please visit us at graceedmonton .ca
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to learn more about us. You can also find us on Instagram, Grace Church, Y -E -G, all one word, or on Facebook.
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You can also find us on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever else you listen to your favorite podcasts. Please enjoy the following recording.
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Hebrews chapter 11 is our text. We're going to go back further in church history to the 17th century.
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The Brainerds were in the 18th century. We'll go back not to the new world, but to the old world of Scotland and Great Britain in the 17th century.
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This afternoon, which gives us another amazing example of enduring long -term and finishing well, no matter what the cost.
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So Hebrews 11, we're going to read verses 35 through 40.
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Hebrews 11, 35 through 40. Of course, you come into verse 35 and the language has been about the victories of those fathers of the faith.
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That through faith they subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises.
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Now that's a big one, and here's why. The thing that will bring a
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Christian through the hardest times is not your knowledge of the
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Westminster Confession of Faith, or the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, or some catechism that you memorize.
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What will bring through the Christian through the hardest times is knowing here and here the promises of God.
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And when times are the darkest, you can obtain promises from the
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Holy Spirit from this Word that will take you through the dark night of the soul and keep trust in God.
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They obtained promises. Now, the
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Old Testament saints had promises through the prophets right and through Moses and through the
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Scripture being compiled and written.
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But we too obtain promises. We not only have them because we've obtained them, but in difficult times you need to obtain them from God for your heart.
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Have you ever had a promise of God just come alive? Like, trust in the
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Lord with all your heart and do not lean to your own understanding. Suddenly you read that one day and you say, man, that's so good this morning.
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I think I've been leaning to my own understanding too much. This thing
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I'm worrying about, I just need to trust the Lord about it, right? That's obtaining a promise afresh.
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So, these positive statements here, but then it goes on.
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You get down to verse 35. Here's a positive one. Here's a victory. Women received their dead, raised to life again.
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That's a pretty amazing act of faith, isn't it? But notice the transition.
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The next phrase. Not such good news. Not so exciting.
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Not so inviting. Not very attractive. Others were tortured. Now, these were tortured by faith.
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Same faith, different experiences. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance.
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I'm going to talk in this session about a group that would not accept deliverance, and they were tortured in many ways because they would not compromise.
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That they might obtain a better resurrection. Others had trialed of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment.
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They were stoned. They were sawn asunder, that is, sawed in half, were tempted, were slain with the sword.
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They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, and tormented.
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They were living by faith, and it led them to a place of being tormented, of whom the world was not worthy.
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They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth, and these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise,
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God having provided some better thing for us, that they, without us, should not be made perfect.
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Let's pray again. Father, help me. I need Your help physically.
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We need Your help in every level, Lord, for this message and this time to be profitable to our hearts.
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Help us speak, Lord, in my weakness. Speak in spite of me and make this this session just helpful to hearts and minds and to spirits.
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We look to You, Lord, to feed us. In Jesus' name, Amen. So, I want you to imagine two years ago in Canada, if if you then were under a monarchy, you might have felt like you were at times, but, and your prime minister was actually the king of Canada, and, you know, there's not a democratic government under a king, right?
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There's no voting on what the king says. The king's word is law, and so you hear it announced that the king of Canada has decreed that there will be two new state churches in Canada across every province.
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Roman Catholicism is legal, and we'll let the Episcopal church be the second one, because I'm, you know,
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I'm Episcopal. I gotta have my church in there, right? The king says. So, those two churches become the national churches of Canada, and then you find out that if you're a
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Baptist minister or a Presbyterian minister, you have three months to be reordained as a
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Roman Catholic or an Episcopal minister, and if you don't, you lose your church, you lose your home, you lose your income.
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It's all gone. You either comply or you lose it all. This happened in the 17th century.
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The group was the Scottish Covenanters, and if you've never read anything about them, just take a read.
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Fair Sunshine, a small banner of truth, trust book. Give some profiles of the
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Scottish Covenanters and the times. Read it. It'll make you weep, and it'll make you feel very inspired.
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The Scottish Covenanters were basically the difficult years were 1620s to 1688, because in 1688, there was what they called the glorious revolution.
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Charles II had died, and William and Mary were brought over from Europe, and they were
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Protestant, and they restored freedom of worship in all of Scotland. John Knox first brought it when
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God used him to turn Scotland away from being completely
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Catholic to establish a Protestant nation in the first and second reformation.
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They're the years that we're looking at here, 1620 to 1688, the hard years, seven decades of absolute dominant governmental control at every level.
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If you were charged by a crime by the crown, there was no representation. There was no courts.
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There was no lawyers available. You were just arrested and put in jail or house arrest, or you were exiled out of the county or out of the country, and if there wasn't compliance, you faced the severest persecution and suffering.
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So the Scottish Covenanters, when they were told they had to comply, they established in 1638, they had the national covenant, and I don't know if you know the story, but the theologians,
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Westminster divines, and Scottish pastors wrote this document that they were covenanting together, and that they were not going to obey the king's edict.
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Basically, they said, we ain't doing it. Now, that's Texas language. They said, we're not doing it.
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No matter what, we will not give in. Doesn't matter. We've already decided, like Daniel in the lion's den, and faith for Daniel turned that lion's den into a petting zoo.
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They were just quiet the whole time, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
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The flame didn't even touch them, but the covenanters said, no matter what, we will not comply, and they didn't.
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So, it became what was known as the killing years, 28 years, of where the king and his dragoons, the
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Scottish bishops of Episcopi, the Episcopal church, who were very, very wicked, and the bishops often, they had 10 or 12 illegitimate children scattered across the land, and they were vile, vile men, and they worked with the authorities locally in every parish,
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Scottish parish, and so if you wouldn't comply, and it was known, your days are numbered.
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You're either going to flee and run like an outlaw, or you're going to finally be caught unless you compromise, unless you as a
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Baptist decide you're willing to be a Roman Catholic, or an Episcopalian, and you leave your convictions, and for expedient sake, for your family's sake, for the comforts you've known and enjoyed in your liberties, you're willing to compromise so you can maintain your comfortable lifestyle.
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This is what the covenanters face. So for 28 years, when the covenants said we're not going to bow, and they didn't, there was a year, it was called
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Black Sunday in 1662. It was the last day of worship for Presbyterians and Baptists in Scotland and in other other
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British areas, and after that day, those who wouldn't give in and compromise, the next day they had to be out of their homes.
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They were homeless. They had no income. They had to scatter, and they, many of those brethren who they worshiped with for 10, 20, 30 years, they never saw again, ever.
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Their ministers like John Flable, Thomas Watson, and others.
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Samuel Rutherford was there. He was exiled, and he was summoned to appear before the king.
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The king was going to punish him more, and Rutherford replied and said, well, tell the king, you know,
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I have another meeting. I have another summons higher than his, and when the king's summons date comes,
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I will be where few men and kings ever go. Rutherford knew he was going to heaven, and so he didn't have to meet
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King Charles I. So what happened? Well, 28 years, called the
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Killing Years, where 18 ,000 documented Scottish Presbyterians were martyred, imprisoned for life, never seen again by their family, burned at the stake, hung at the neck, shot on sight, murdered and beaten in the woods by dragoons.
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Women and children didn't escape. If you were known to support a covenanting preacher who remained loyal to his protestant doctrine, you could be arrested and imprisoned for life.
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If you supported one of them, if you were caught giving them food or water or shelter, you then become compliant against the king, and you're committing treason.
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So Protestant worship becomes illegal, but did it stop them?
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No. There's a British term, a Scottish term, conventicles. They were illegal worship services, and that's what they were called, and they were made illegal.
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Any worship outside of an Anglican or Roman Catholic church was illegal.
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Well, what happened? The Scottish covenanters began to spread the word where meetings would be in the forests and in the trees and in homes, and those were illegal conventicle worship services.
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And at times there would be 10 ,000 gathered on a sunny Sunday Lord's Day, hidden deep in the woods, worshiping together, five sermons in one day.
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And often the preachers would preach with their saddled horse standing beside them, because if they were warned that the dragoons were coming through the trees, they would say a loud amen, they would mount their horse, and they were gone.
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They were fleeing to escape so they could keep spreading the gospel. They lived this way. No time to study and prepare sermons, and they lived this way for 20 and 30 years as outlaws.
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So it was the severe times. Many of these preachers had to flee, and they never saw their wife and children again.
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Many of the wives were destitute, and they were dependent on people thinking of them and making sure they had bread to eat, milk to drink sometimes.
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And so it became, really what could be called after the first century of the severe persecution of the early church, the
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Scottish covenanters of the 17th century will go down as one of the most severe periods of persecution in all of Christian history, especially that 30 years, 1662 to 1688, a three decades basically.
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But at the same time, as the persecution heated up, and your life could be in danger if you were caught worshipping at a covenant or illegal service, they could kill you if they caught you three times.
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Well, that'll separate the sheep from the goats. That'll separate spiritually the men from the boys and those with courage and those who are cowards.
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But the covenanters, they kept going. They didn't care if they were dying.
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They were not going to compromise. Now, the issue was not the preaching of the gospel, because Episcopal guys in the church that stayed in the church they were preaching
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Protestant doctrine. They were preaching the 39 articles, what came to be called the 39 articles of the
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Anglican communion. They were preaching justification by faith and reform doctrine.
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So that wasn't the issue. The issue was two things for the covenanters. Who's the head of the church, the king or Jesus Christ?
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The king will honor Him in civil matters, but in spiritual matters,
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Christ is king. And we will not submit to King Charles I or II to the edicts that call us to worship against our conscience.
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Who's the head of the church? And the second issue was, connected to it, freedom of worship.
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Freedom of worship. How would you do, brothers, if you were one of those pastors?
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What would you do? If you're facing counting the cost, okay, could
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I stay in? Could I become an
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Anglican? Catholicism is bad, but could I become an Anglican and stay in for the sake of expediency and not violate my conscience?
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What would you guys do? It was what they had to decide.
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And they covenanted together in the 1638 National Covenant.
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And thousands of Scottish Christians across the country signed that covenant. Thousands of them signed the covenant.
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And I'm telling you about them today because they are your brothers and sisters. You will be with them in heaven. And you're joined to them in the true faith of the gospel because we're all a part of the greater universal body of Christ.
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One church, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. And so they lost their churches.
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They lost their freedom to assemble, their homes, their salaries. And many of them lost their lives and their freedom from being able to live in society.
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They were locked away in prisons. Famous prisons in Scotland, the
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Bass Rock. And what the prisons were dungeons with very little fresh air, no clean water.
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And they were the basements of the king's castles. Everywhere all over Scotland. And that's where the covenanters would be in prison.
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And they would be left to rot there. They'd be given red or warm water and they would be mistreated.
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And yet they said, we will not comply no matter what. We will not become
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Episcopal. We will not submit to government tyranny. But we will worship and preach
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Jesus Christ only. No matter what is going on in our culture politically.
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So the times were horrible.
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And you should read about the killing years. Just read an hour on them.
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The killing years of the 17th century among the Presbyterians. Huge fines would be awarded to the bounty hunters.
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Because Charles II in London, through his Scottish rulers and authorities, they were hunting down any covenanter or any supporter of the covenanters to shoot them on sight at one point.
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Or to arrest them, drag them off into the woods. And torture them and leave them for dead.
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And no one would ever know where their loved one was. One young woman, her and her husband, they lived in the country.
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And he was gone in his work. And a covenanter rode up one night. They were friends of the covenanters, this couple.
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And the covenanter stopped for a few moments of a drink and some bread. And he was on his way, fleeing.
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Thirty minutes later, a number of the soldiers arrived. They threatened her. They intimidated her.
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They ransacked the house. They tore it upside down. And they said, you tell us now which way he went.
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She said, I don't know. He was here, yes. I don't know where he went. And she told them the truth.
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To make her an example of intimidating tactics, they drug her out of her house, took her to prison.
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She died in prison. And her husband never knew what happened to her. A young teenage boy was walking through a field at sunset one evening, walking home.
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And some of the soldiers saw the boy walking with a book in his hand. And they said, the lad, he's probably been to a
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Bible reading. He's probably one of them. And one of them rides over, pulls a gun and murders the boy.
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And he falls dead. And they ride on laughing. So the killing years were horrendously bad.
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And the whole nation was torn apart. But simultaneously, to the degree that they were persecuted, to that degree, the power of the
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Holy Spirit began to increase among them amazingly. Now, you know, in our day, there's reformed leaders who think the
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Holy Spirit does nothing today except regenerate and make the Bible come alive when you read it and study it.
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The Scottish Presbyterians said not so. They experienced supernaturally the presence of God, the power of God, the deliverances of God.
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Alexander Paden was called the prophet of the covenant. He was the most famous of them. And they could never catch him.
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In 28 years, they could never catch him. He died at his brother's house after being a covenantor.
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They could never catch him, though they chased him for decades. They were on him one day.
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They were riding up. And Paden said in his Scottish brogue, Father, cover me in thy cloak.
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Just cover me in thy cloak. And a fog set in in the next couple of minutes.
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And it was so thick, he disappeared into the woods. And the dragoons couldn't find him, and they turned away.
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This happened to Paden dozens of times. Miraculous deliverances. Peter says, when you're persecuted, then the
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Spirit of God and of glory rest upon you. Now, that's experiential.
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It's got to be. That's not theory. That's not a seminar teaching.
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That's God coming and being with you and having His hand upon you more.
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The Spirit of God or of grace and of glory is resting on you.
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And that's what happened. As their sufferings increased and were horrible, so the power of the
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Holy Spirit increased and was glorious among them. And there were phenomenal revivals that happened in some of those meetings.
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Hundreds would be saved. A communion season would go for four or five days.
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One of those seasons was at a place called the Kirk or the church.
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The Kirk of Shotts. Shotts was a rural area in Scotland, the town of Shotts.
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And they were having a communion season for a week. Now, look, we're pretty shallow, if I can be so bold.
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Some churches don't even have it once every three months. Some churches have it once a month, some once a week.
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When the Scottish Presbyterians would gather for a communion, they'd have it for a week.
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Three sermons a day for six, five, six days, singing the glorious psalms.
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And then they would conclude with communion all day. And thousands were flocking to those seasons of communion.
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And many were coming to the Lord. There was great revivals happening. All the time, the suffering years were happening.
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Just amazing. So, a couple of stories, and then
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I'm just going to apply this. Some of the greatest heroes among the
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Presbyterians were not ministers. They were what you'd call laymen, or young couples with children, farmers, laborers.
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There was a young man named John Brown and his wife, Isabel. He stuttered. And so he wasn't a preacher, he was a farmer.
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But he was an exhorter, and he discipled men. In fact, the
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Covenantian preachers would send some of them to go live near John Brown. And he would disciple them.
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He would teach them Scottish theology. And he was very deep and solid in the
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Scriptures and in the truth. He was a wanted man at times.
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And increasingly, word got out about him that he was harboring Covenanters.
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And so the dragoons would once in a while ride through the area.
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And one day, he's out in the field working. And here comes about eight soldiers on horseback.
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He sees them coming, and he starts walking up toward the house. They go get his wife out of the house, and he gets there.
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And he had already told her, Isabel, you won't have me long. You probably won't have me long.
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There's coming a day you won't have me. And they let him speak to her.
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And he said to her, Isabel, I told you, here's the day. And they're in the yard.
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They're kneeling down. And a soldier, point blank, blows
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John Brown's brains out. They split her all over young Isabel. And they ride off, mocking her.
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And she holds her husband's body in her arms. And she said to one of the soldiers, who said, what think you of your husband now,
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Mrs. Brown? She said, I've always thought highly of him, but I've never thought more highly than now.
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That was a woman who paid the price, but was glad to because she was following Christ.
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There were two young women in southwest Scotland in a town called
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Wigtown. It was on the coast. The two Margaret's. Margaret Lockson was 65 years old, a widow.
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And Margaret Wilson was a 19 year old.
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They were friends. They worshipped together. And they considered one of the great covenanters,
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James Renwick, as their pastor. And they would always gather. They didn't know a lot.
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But they were arrested for simply attending a service because they had a reputation about it.
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The authorities came to both of their homes, unexpectedly arrested them, drug them out, put them in separate prison cells.
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And daily would make a march through the streets in stocks and chains every day.
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And then the local court sentenced them to be drowned in the bay. And so the day came and they strategized this.
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The tide waters would come in and they planned for these women to drown.
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The older one would drown at the fullest high tide. So they put her stake out further in the water and they put the younger
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Margaret's stake further back. So Margaret, the younger one, would have to watch her dear friend drowned.
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So they could get her, the younger Margaret, to recant. And she wouldn't.
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She was yelled at from the shore. Margaret, just say the words.
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Just say the words. Say them. God saved the king. Just say them. That'll save your life.
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Because that was swearing allegiance, see. And your life would be spared if you would just say the words.
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She wouldn't. And she died heroically singing a psalm as the waters covered her head.
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And she drowned together. Eighteen thousand were put to death for Christ.
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Simply because of their absolute endurance and uncompromising commitment to their church and their
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Savior. So how do we, like the covenanters, how do we keep on no matter what comes?
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Aren't you thankful you don't know what the future holds? You don't know how it's going to become in your country.
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We don't know how it's going to become in America. But we're past the time of North America having any
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Christian culture. We're post -Christian culture obviously now.
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And Canada has been post -Christian,
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I guess, longer than America now. But do you know the history of missions and revivals in Canada?
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There have been amazing revivals in Canada's history. Amazing movements of God. Amazing churches and missionaries going forth from your very country.
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But now you see it the way it is and your heart's sad. And perhaps you're confused or afraid or perhaps you're not.
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But brethren, whatever the case may be, what we have is what we have. It is what it is.
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America's getting worse. And how is the church going to fare?
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Are we going to stay faithful? What are we willing to sacrifice to stay loyal to the
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Gospel? How did the covenanters do it at the end?
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Well, just like the Brainerds had obedience to the truth that they knew, the covenanters did that as well.
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But another thing about the covenanters that stands out in the record, they availed themselves much of the promises of God.
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Both in song and in prayer and in preaching.
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Because the promises of God were the only thing that was encouraging for those 30 years.
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There was nothing encouraging outwardly, except when you could have a worship service with brethren you love and you live to tell it.
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You live to maybe have another one. Those conventical meetings would have been glorious times of encouragement.
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But outwardly, the only thing that kept them were the promises of God.
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There were absolutely two. Now, Peter says something about this. This has been one of my favorite passages of Scripture for 40 years.
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He says, unto you, unto us, have been given exceeding great and precious promises.
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They're not just promises, they're precious promises. They're not just precious promises, they're great and precious promises.
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They're not just great and precious promises, they're exceedingly great and precious promises.
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What are they for? What do you believe today as a Christian? The promises of God that you read in this book that are true.
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What do you believe they're meant to do for you? Just information to have a daily quiet time?
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No. Peter says that by these, we might become partakers of the divine nature.
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And that doesn't mean we become a little god. It means this. The promises of God are taken by the
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Spirit of God, and they are made alive to you, and the work of the
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Holy Spirit wells up in your heart, and suddenly encouragement comes when you've been discouraged.
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Hope springs up when you've felt hopeless. Strength comes when you've been weak.
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Courage rises when you've been afraid. Years ago, I had open -heart surgery.
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I found out one day I had it the next. I found out one day I was going to have to have it. I was scared as you could be.
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I was scared. I was petrified by fear. Struggling very deeply.
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My wife is out of the room, and I'm there that evening briefly.
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She's out a little bit. And nobody's in there, and I just said, Jesus, I'm so scared.
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Lord Jesus, You know I am. I cannot go through this without You carrying me through it.
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And I cried out to Him. Have mercy, Lord. Just come near and help me. I wasn't thinking of anything theological.
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I was thinking of how much I needed Him, and how afraid I was. And I just began to cry out to Him.
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And within five minutes, peace began to come. The fear was gone.
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Courage filled my heart. Not because I was strong and courageous, because God just gave that to me.
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And the thought came to me, okay, my Father has me here.
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He's with me. I can do this. And guess what?
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I lived. I got through it. But it was a promise of God that came to me in that moment.
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What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee. Brethren, how much do you love and treasure and use and pray the promises of God that you read in the
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Bible? They're yours. They're yours for the partaking that you'll have peace come in the midst of the storm.
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Don't read the Bible just intellectually. Don't read it through reform lenses and you're just looking for high doctrine.
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Read it devotionally also. Let your heart feed on it because it will bring you to experience
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Christ and that is what takes
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Christians through the hardest times, the presence of God being real to them.
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Psalm 46 .11 The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge.
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Psalm 48 For this God is our God. He will be our God even to death, even unto death.
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2 Timothy 4 .18 And the Lord will deliver me through every evil work and will preserve me unto
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His heavenly kingdom. Do we believe these things, brethren, when the times are hardest?
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When you've had a child die unexpectedly? 1
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Peter 5 Casting all your care upon Him because why?
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He cares for you. Is Christ real to us really?
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When you're burdened with cares, do you know how to cast them on Him?
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Because you believe He cares for me personally. Therefore, I trust
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Him to unload my burdens on Him. And I love this one too.
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That we are kept by the power of God through faith unto a salvation that's yet to be revealed.
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I'm closing with this. The last two years of my life with Lynn and I, we've been married 47 years.
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I've been in ministry 50 years. The last two years have been the hardest years we've ever had.
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The difficulties, it doesn't get easier. It does not get easier to endure through difficult pastorates.
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I've had churches run me off. It doesn't get easier to deal with carnal church members who would just bug you to death and cause you to pull the rest of your hair out.
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I used to have a full head of hair. It doesn't get easier, brethren. It doesn't get easier.
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The battle is hard. The fire gets hot. And many give up, throw in the towel, and say,
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I'm done. And they stop enduring long term.
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Brethren, don't be among those. Don't be among those. Peter also said this.
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This is a great benediction. That the God of all grace who has called us unto
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His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, make you perfect and establish and strengthen and settle you.
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Every one of you are going to suffer hard things in the future. They're coming.
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They're on the menu. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid of evil tidings.
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Trust in the Lord. The Lord knows. He does not allow any of His children to go through more than they're able to bear.
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That's 1 Corinthians 10 .13. And it's a promise of God. Feed on the promises of God. Seek Christ.
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Walk with Him. Stay deep in the Scriptures. Learn to spend time in prayer where you're crying out to God and you're not just having a little devotional moment in the morning.
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Take refuge in your brethren and draw strength from the people of God. Strengthen one another's hands in God.
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Encourage yourself in the Lord your God. And keep, keep going.
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Because I'll tell you this, Christ will hold you fast.
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You ever seen that? Well, then believe it too. He will hold you fast.
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He's got your back. And He's going to have His purposes done in Canada for the
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Kingdom of God. And He's going to have His purposes done in America for the
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Kingdom of God. He may not preserve our countries, but He's building a
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Kingdom that is not of this world that will last forever and ever and ever.
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And it doesn't need a king or a prime minister or a president to keep
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His Kingdom going. Brethren, trust in the
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Lord with all your heart and serve the Lord with gladness and keep walking with Christ for the long haul.
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Let's pray. That you have been blessed by this recording.