Great Christian Biographies with John Piper: David Brainerd 1

The following message is by pastor John Piper more information from desiring.

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Bless the Lord of my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name

Bless the Lord of my soul and forget not all his benefits Who forgives all your iniquity who heals all your diseases?

Who redeems your life from the pit? Who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy?

Who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the Eagles?

the Lord works vindication and justice to all who are oppressed He made known his ways to Moses his deeds to the people of Israel.

The Lord is merciful and gracious Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love

He will not always chide Nor will he keep his anger forever

He does not deal with us according to our sins nor requite us according to our

Iniquities as high as the heavens are above the earth So great is his steadfast love towards those who fear him as far as the east is from the west

So far does he remove our transgressions from us as a father pities his children

So the Lord pities those who fear him He knows our frame

He remembers that we are dust father

David Brainerd was just dust What dust he was and you have encouraged me so much through what you did with this dust

I Want you Lord God to come and sustain the dust in this room

Breathe life into the dust in this room Awaken and make

Ministers who persevere out of the dust in this room Through Christ I pray

David Brainerd, I wish everybody had the opportunity to Spend a week or two just immersed in the 18th century

In the journals and diaries of David Brainerd some people couldn't stand it and others of us simply find glory everywhere

He was born in 1718 in Haddam, Connecticut John Wesley and Jonathan Edwards were 14 years old when he was born

He was to see both waves of the Great Awakening firsthand in the in the mid 30s and early 40s of the 1700s and then die at the age of 29 in 1747 in the house of Jonathan Edwards His father was named

Hezekiah and he died when he was 9 years old when Brainerd David Brainerd was 9 years old and I've Reflected on that because I've had three sons now and Lord willing will have a fourth who turned 9 and of all the

Ages, I would choose not to die on my boys It would be 9 because at 9 they cling and love and need so badly

I perceive But he lost his father when he was 9. He lost his mother when he was 14 and Then he went to visit her live with his 18 year old sister who'd married in a nearby town on top of an austere father and Losing his father and mother.

He inherited probably a constitutional disposition towards depression

A man named Thomas Brainerd writing hundred years later 1865 wrote about his family

In the whole Brainerd family for 200 years There has been a tendency to morbid depression

Akin to hypochondria He wrote when he was young.

I think it was just before his conversion About this issue in his youth.

He says I was I think from my youth something sober and inclined rather to melancholy than the other extreme

Which is an understatement. I think it you all know that melancholy is the old -fashioned word for depression

He moved in with his sister then when he was 14 and lived with her for five years and wrestled with God He hated the doctrine of original sin.

He hated the divine law in its strictness He hated the sovereignty of God and he wrestled and wrestled

He was however very punctilious in his religious efforts to break through he read the Bible Through twice a year as a rule while he was in that house with his sister

Jerusha Interesting name correlation there between the woman. He will probably fall in love with But he he wasn't converted.

He was very very legalistic he said But then the day came and let me read you the account of his conversion

And if you understood this account you would understand his theology It is

Edwards theology they write almost the same when it comes to salvation and the nature of true and saving faith as I was walking in a dark thick grove.

He's 21 years old now Unspeakable glory seemed to open to the view and apprehension in my soul

It was a new inward apprehension or view that I had of God Such as I never had before nor anything that I had the least remembrance of so that I stood still and wondered and admired my soul was so captivated and delighted with the excellency the loveliness and the greatness and the other perfections of God that I was swallowed up in him at least to that degree that I had no thought as I Remember at first about my own salvation or scarce that there ever was such a creature as I Thus the

Lord I trust Notice the diffidence with which these old fellows spoke about their own standing and thus the

Lord I trust Brought me to a hearty desire

To exalt him to set him on the throne and to seek first his kingdom

That is principally and ultimately to aim at his honor and glory as the king and sovereign of the universe

Which is the foundation of the religion of Jesus I felt myself in a new world

Lord's Day, July 12 1739. He was 21 years old a few months later, he entered

Yale and The hardships in those first years were terrible

He had to be sent home the first year because he began to cough up blood So he already had in 1739 the disease of which he would die eight years later tuberculosis

The students were carnal there was immense disinterest in spiritual things that year

He went home with measles again It was an awful thing in those days and when he came back in November of 1740 his second year everything was different because George Whitfield had been there and Had preached and there was a great moving now among the students spiritual awakening was happening and there was a division among the faculty who were not

Following along with what they would have called enthusiasm, but which brainer discerned to be genuine awakening the fans were flamed by Gilbert Tenet and Ebenezer Pemberton and James Davenport as they came through the college and fired the students up and Created tremendous problems for the faculty and the the staff the way they decided to deal with these problems in the fall of 1741 was to call

Jonathan Edwards to come preach the sermon at the graduation ceremony to straighten out the students and Save the faculty from these enthusiasts and Edwards preached a message

Brainerd was in the audience Message is called the distinguishing marks of the work of the Spirit of God and he totally disappointed the faculty and the

Powers that be because he argued that this awakening was a real work of God No matter how many excesses know how many no matter how many weird things were happening

It was real now to understand the poignancy of this moment

You have to understand that on the morning of this address the trustees gathered together of Yale College and passed a

Resolution that read like this if any student of this college shall directly or indirectly

Say that the rector either of the trustees or the tutors are hypocrites Carnal or unconverted men he shall for the first offense make public confession in the hall and for the second offense be expelled

Now you keep those words in mind And you hear Edwards preaching and he comes to the conclusion of his message and says this

It is no evidence that a work is not the work of God if many that are subjects of it are

Guilty of so great frowardness as to censure others as being unconverted

It was a direct attack on the trustees and One can't help but wonder

With Brainerd sitting in the audience whether Edwards felt some responsibility for what happened the next term

Brainerd came to Chapel and One of the faculty members one of the tutors named

Chauncey Whittlesley Prayed in what was called a most pathetical manner which

I think means full of excessive pathos and The hall cleared three people were left with Brainerd a

Freshman was walking by the door One of the students said to Brainerd What do you think of Whittlesley's prayer?

and he said I think Whittlesley has no more grace than a chair and It was also reported that he said he wondered why the rector did not drop down dead

For fining students for their evangelical enthusiasm and Brainerd was summarily expelled and It broke his heart

He could never get back in he tried again and again to get back in he rode miles through the wilderness even after he'd become a

Missionary to plead with the officers to give him another chance. He apologized profusely and they never let him back in Now I'm moved to reflect at this moment on the sovereignty and providence of God Because had this not happened

This man with tuberculosis would have finished Yale and taken a pastorate that was his settled purpose and He would have died and nobody would have heard of David Brady.

No impact upon the missionary movement Would have happened he was cut off in the middle of his dream

Because you see a law had just been passed in Connecticut that said no established minister may be

Installed in Connecticut who has not graduated from Harvard Yale or a European College and so he was undone as far as he was

Concerned and there's a tremendous lesson here namely that God for his glory and for the good of his church works through those moments when the best intentions of his servants are dashed and Brainerd couldn't know it and I think hopefully came to see it before the end of his life that this

Careless word I've thought about it with people like Johnny Erickson one dive on one

Sunday afternoon a sudden moment and Everything changes

Manila was different 12 years later as she led 4 ,000 of us in song

Lifting her hands like this He blind behold your Savior come and leap

Elaine for joy. So there's a great lesson here

In fact, I'm tempted to speculate that the modern missionary movement

Wouldn't have happened if brain hadn't been expelled from Yale University, but that's speculation

November 25th 1742 now after a summer of agony

He is examined for his fitness to the missionary service I won't go through the long process that drug in that direction

But one very dear friend Jonathan Dick Dickinson who was a part of the Commissioners for the

Society of Scotland For propagating Christian knowledge said you should be a missionary to the

Indians and he said, all right I will pray about it and he prayed and he was commissioned

So He went to count a meek which was a little village just north of Stockton where brain?

Oh Edwards was going to become a missionary to the Indians in a few years after he got kicked out of his church And in April 1st 1743.

He began his year of preaching among the Indians in Counting me. He lasted one year there although he learned the language in that year translated some of the

Psalms into the Indian language and Started a school left it behind and the

Indians came down and were ministered to by a sergeant there in in Stockbridge his second assignments was to the forks of the

Delaware a little northeast of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and At the end of a month there.

He rode down to New York and was ordained by the New Jersey Presbytery the

New York and the New Jersey Presbytery were on his side and on the side of the students and the Great Awakening Against Yale and we're going to hear the implications that for the founding a new school when we're done and Brainerd's role in that So he was ordained in 1744 now he's going to die keep in mind in 47

He preached to the Indians then at the forks of the Delaware for a year Gathering a few of God's people and then he was assigned to Cross Weeksville in New Jersey and He went there and there is where the great blessing came

God poured out the Holy Spirit on the Indians in Cross Weeks in New Jersey in an incredible way and within a year

He had about a hundred and thirty solid believers He describes it I could give a whole talk on the way

God came upon the Indians through the weight of truth as David Brainerd kept discussing it the weight of truth

Came upon them and they'd fall off their seats and weep for hours seeking rest and peace

For their consciences God did a mighty work through these through a

Brainerd among these Indians He moved them from Cross Weeks in May of 1746 up to Cranberry and There they built a little village and got land for the

Indians so that they could have their own little reservation like in their own Church building and he had a little hut there and then his sickness

Got so bad that he spent four months in Elizabethtown with Jonathan Dickinson and then on March 20th 1747 he said his last farewell to the

Indians went up to Jonathan Edwards house There's not much evidence to go on but almost everybody agrees.

He was in love with Jerusha His 17 year old daughter Edward 17 year old daughter

She nursed him for the last 19 weeks of his life and he died in Jonathan Edwards house,

October 9 1747 a short life 29 years 5 months and 19 days 8 years a believer 4 years a minister a missionary

Why then was Brainerd's life So powerful. Why has it made the impact?

That it has of course practically, the first reason is that Jonathan Edwards was overwhelmed with this man's piety as he met him and lived with him for 19 weeks and He took the diaries and wrote the life of Brainerd that book has been the most

Republished book of Edwards. The book has never been out of print to my knowledge It has exerted an absolutely enormous impact upon the modern missionary movement

Why did John Wesley say let every preacher read carefully over the life of David Brainerd?

Why was it written of Henry Martin? Perusing the life of David Brainerd his soul was filled with a holy emulation of that extraordinary man

And after deep consideration and fervent prayer He was at length fixed in a resolution to imitate his example

Which has a sweet irony about it because he died almost at the same age and of the same disease in Perth Why did

William Carey regard Edwards life of Brainerd as a sacred text and have it with him along with sermons of Edwards in India?

why did Robert Morrison and Robert McChane of Scotland and John Mills of America and Frederick Schwartz of Germany and David Livingston of England and Andrew Murray of South Africa and date

Jim Elliott of modern America all of them count Jonathan, I mean

David Brainerd a teacher and Model and stand in awe of him and find inspiration from him

Gideon Hawley was another missionary that went out inspired by Jonathan Edwards And he wrote about the struggles that he had in the wilderness of New England.

I Indeed Greatly need something more than human to support me.

I read my Bible and Mr. Brainerd's life The only books

I brought with me and from them I have a little support

Now why why did this life have this extraordinary impact or let me ask a more manageable question

Why has it had an impact on me and then maybe? Maybe it will transfer to these others

Why? the answer in summary form

I think is that Brainerd's life is a vivid Powerful testimony to the truth that God can and does use weak sick discouraged beat -down

Lonely struggling saints who cry to him day and night to accomplish amazing things for his glory

And so what I want to do now in the time we have is to talk about the struggles that he had seven of them the

The way he pressed on in these struggles and thirdly the effect of his life

First in his struggles Number one

Brainerd struggled with almost constant sickness He had to drop out of college as I said several times he began to cough up blood in 1740 in 1744 he wrote

Rode several hours in the rain through the howling wilderness Although I was so disordered in body that little or nothing, but blood came from me

He would write things like this again and again in the afternoon my pain increased Exceedingly and was obliged to betake myself to bed was sometimes almost

Bereaved of the exercise of my reason by the extremity of the pain

August 46 Having lain in the cold sweat all night I coughed much bloody matter this morning and was under great disorder of body and not a little melancholy

May of 47 a Jonathan Edwards House the doctor said your disease is incurable you will die of consumption in a matter of weeks or months in The last couple of months of his life.

His suffering was absolutely incredible. You know, there were no pills in those days Nothing to relieve what we what we say must be relieved today.

Nothing September 24. This is two weeks before he died in the greatest distress that ever

I endured Having an uncommon kind of hiccup which either strangled me or threw me into a straining to vomit

Edwards comments in the last week He told me it was impossible for any to conceive of the distress.

He felt in his breast He manifested much concern lest he should dishonor

God by impatience under the extreme Agony, which was such that he said the thought of enduring it one minute longer was almost insupportable and Just before he died.

He said to those around him. It is another thing than people imagine

To die the thing that strikes you about the suffering of Brainerd is not simply the severity of it

But the consistency of it he always Always suffered

From the time he was a student He never had relief for any significant amount of time.

It was a relentless sickness and He pressed on in his work second

Brainerd struggled with relentlessly recurring depression

He came to understand this a little I think Edwards said that at first he attributed far too much to Spiritual desertion and far too little to the disease of melancholy.

That's their phrase the disease of Melancholy and so his later judgments about what was happening in his blackest moods

Were a little more balanced than his earlier ones, but it was a horrendous thing nevertheless

And this was his greatest torment not the tuberculosis He did say that he detected a very profound difference in the melancholy after his conversion and the melancholy before his conversion as though a great

Rock had been inserted underneath his life So that he never despaired of the electing love of God After his conversion a great gift to him in his darkest

Days, he would say repeatedly Black God is gone But I do not doubt his love things like that a

Few words of his own to give you a flavor of what he experienced Much of it was owing to his intense hatred for the remaining sin in his life

November 442 tis distressing to feel in my soul that hell of corruption which still remains in me and His sense of unworthiness was so intense that it sometimes just paralyzed him

January 23rd 43 Scarce ever felt myself so unfit to exist as now

I saw I was not worthy of a place among the Indians Where I am going

None knows but those that feel it what the soul endures that is sensibly shut out from the presence of God Alas tis more bitter than death in fact

Again, and again, he compared it to death and I wrote down 22 places where he longed and pleaded that he would die would die

Sunday February 3rd 1745 my soul remembered the wormwood and the gall

I might almost say the hell of Friday night Last and I was greatly afraid

I should be obliged again to drink of that cup of trembling which was Inconceivably more bitter than death and made me long for the grave unspeakably more than for hidden treasures

Sunday 44 December 16 was so overwhelmed with dejection that I knew not how to live

I longed for death Exceedingly my soul was sunk in deep waters and the floods were ready to drown me

I was so much oppressed that my soul was in a kind of horror What compounded this experience for Brainerd was that the depression began to infect and lame his devotional exercises and his ministry of preaching

March 943 road 16 miles to Montauk and had some inward sweetness on the road

But something of flatness and deadness after I came there and had seen the

Indians Withdrew and endeavored to pray but found myself awfully deserted and left

It was immobilized sometime in his distresses September 46 was scarce ever more confounded with the sense of my own unfruitfulness and unfitness of my work

Than now. Oh what a dead heartless barren unprofitable wretch

Did I now see myself to be my spirits were so low my bodily strength?

So wasted that I could do nothing at all at length being much overdone

Lay down on a buffalo skin and sweat much of the whole night but Brainerd pressed and did not quit