Heroes of the Faith: C.F. Hogg

Welcome to the Preaching the Cross Radio Podcast, featuring the radio ministry of Pastor James W.

Knox of the Bible Baptist Church of Delaney, Florida.

Our prayer is that these half-hour Bible study programs will bring the lost to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and enable the saved to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior.

Now here's your host, Pastor James W.

Knox.

So very glad to have you on board today for the preaching of the cross radio broadcast.

For the next 30 minutes, we'll do our best by the help of God, by the grace of God, to minister the Lord's truth to your heart, to your soul.

It is only the Word of God that can bless our hearts.

It's the only word of God that can change our lives for the better.

Eternally for the better.

And as we put our faith and our trust in Him, in Jesus Christ, God is able to give us His Holy Spirit without violating his word.

He is able to give us by the entrance of his Holy Spirit light into the truth of his word, and then he can begin to guide our steps, direct our path, mold us, and make us into the people that he would have us to be.

That's God's desire, that's God's will, that you and I live a life that's pleasing in his sight.

But in addition to that, in addition to that, as we live a life that's pleasing in his sight, he can do what pleases him, and that is he can bless us.

He can fill our hearts with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

He can make our days worth living.

And so many people's life just is not worth living.

They're miserable, they're unhappy.

They must uh search that search out that bottle, drink themselves to sleep at night.

They must uh search out that pill bottle and try and take something to either stimulate them or calm them down, whatever the case might be.

I tell you, it's a sad thing.

It's a sad thing to see people in this world just uh blindly stumbling and staggering through life, looking for some joy, some happiness, some satisfaction.

But I'll tell you right now, if you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, it'll change your life.

Not only for time, but for eternity.

For God so loved the world, isn't that great?

Heaven's brightest beam, that he gave his only begotten son, earth's greatest theme, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, God's simplest theme, but have everlasting life, life's purest stream.

Tell me about the master.

I am weary and worn tonight.

The day lies behind me in shadow, and only at evening is light, light with a radiant glory that lingers about the west.

My poor heart is a weary a weary, and longs like a child for rest.

Tell me about the master, of the wrong he freely forgave, of his love and tender compassion, of his love that is mighty to save.

For my heart is a weary a weary, of the woes and temptations of life, of the error that stalks in the noonday, of falsehoods and malice and strife.

Yet I know that whatever of sorrow or pain or temptation befall, the infinite mastereth suffered, and knoweth and pityeth all.

So tell me the old old story that falls on each wound like a balm, and my heart that was burdened and broken shall grow patient and strong and calm.

You see, God's love ever gives, forgives, outlives.

It ever stands with open hands, and while it lives it gives for this is love's prerogative to live and to give and to give and to give.

For God so loved the world that he gave.

Isn't that amazing?

God is so powerful he could demand.

God is so great he could order and decree.

But God so loved the world that he gave.

Have you ever received God's love gift to the world?

His Son, Jesus Christ, as your personal Savior.

I'll tell you it's the most important thing you'll ever do, and it's the best, the best thing you'll ever do is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.

Well, of those that have believed and those that have known him, some have lived lives so exemplary that we have come to refer to them as heroes of the Christian faith.

Not that everyone who is saved isn't great in the eyes of God, greatly beloved, greatly dear to his heart.

But there are those who surrender themselves to his service, who yield themselves to do his will, and as such have made themselves examples to all of us of how we should live if we would please our God, how we should conduct ourselves if we would be a blessing and a benefit to others.

And we like on these radio broadcasts to take a look at these men and women that we call the heroes of the faith, because they really are a blessing to our heart.

They really do challenge us to live in such a way as to please our great God.

On the program today, we'll take a look at a man by the name of C.

F.

Hogg.

C.

F.

Hogg, H.

O.

G.

The CF standing for Charles Frederick.

He lived from 1859 to 1943, and he used his outstanding gifts to raise the standards among the Lord's servants and the church in general.

Born into a godly family in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the year that revival swept that country, he was converted at the age of nineteen.

And soon he was preaching on the streets of that city.

Now, I want to just take a little side trip here just for a moment, as we uh have done so often in studying these heroes of the faith.

We consider some of the bigger pictures.

Over the course of these uh eighty or so stories that we have uh put on tape thus far, we have read of heroes of the faith who are born in poverty and squalor, and we have read of heroes of the faith who are born into wealth and great riches.

We have read of those who were born into pagan families, unbelieving families, and we have born of those read of those who are born into God fearing, Bible believing families.

What makes the difference?

There is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Why do some born in poverty live for Jesus Christ, and others born in poverty fail to do so?

Why do some born in wealth live their lives in bondage to the wealth, and others break free to serve the living God in spirit and in truth?

My friend, it's the heart condition of man.

Some seed fell on good ground, some seed fell on stony ground, some seed fell on rocky ground.

How is your heart today?

We're not concerned with where you came from, we're concerned with where you are right now.

We're not concerned with your past, we're concerned with your present.

What is the condition of your heart?

And then did you notice this young man nineteen years of age, converted, and soon, soon he was preaching on the streets of that city.

Now C.

F.

Hog, no ordinary fellow.

Let's read about him.

Ever a cautious Bible student, he disparaged a sloppy, nonchalant approach to holy things.

How obvious it was to him that conjolding people into a lukewarm profession of Christianity did harm and not good.

Preaching the gospel was more than saying come to Jesus or you'll go to hell.

He labored to present the scope of the true gospel in its glory and grace.

You say he was sort of an intellectual fellow, wasn't he?

Well, uh, yes, matter of fact, he was.

You say he was kind of an intellect, wasn't he?

Uh yes, matter of fact, he was.

You say he he didn't want this one, two, three, repeat after me, quick, easy believism, call on the Lord before you have time to find out who he really is, type situation.

Uh that's true.

That's true.

But his intellect, his learning, his scholarship, his careful devotion to all the truth of the Word of God did not keep him locked up in a study somewhere.

He was preaching on the streets of Belfast.

At the age of twenty-five, he went as a missionary to China under the China Inland Mission to do pioneer work in various provinces, and his missionary labors carried him as far as the borders of Tibet.

The severe climate and conditions wore out many strong men.

C.

F.

Hogg labored on.

He married Miss Sarah Muir in 1887.

Of their six children, three were buried in China.

There may be a there may be a tale, I can't recall reading it.

I have read dozens of accounts of those who did pioneer work with the China Inland Mission.

I can't recall the story of one who did not bury wife or child or children or wife and child or wife and children in the soil of faraway China.

In 1893, Hog moved his family to Xiao, S-H-I-H-T-A-O, in Shantung Province, where he labored in the gospel.

That year he also left China Inland Mission to begin laboring with seven other couples who worked outside any formal mission organization, and that's that's way outside, because the China Inland Mission was operating outside the formal uh bounds of mission boards, and uh they just wanted to serve the Lord, win people to Jesus Christ, establish local churches, and not not be entangled, and I I don't use that word in a bad way.

They just didn't want to be entangled with the missionary society, even a great one like the China Inland Mission.

On the shore of the Yellow Sea, Chitao is at the foot of one of the province's highest peaks, which stands almost six thousand feet, and the region looks like well, like scenic Norway.

But the picturesque setting had not immediately transferred to the hearts of the locals.

The city was to the missionaries like Ephesus before the gospel came.

In this town, there were eighty opium shops, eighty opium shops in one town.

Charles Hogg bemoaned how void of sincerity the citizens were.

He wrote in one letter home, Deceit was the rule without exception, both in theory and in practice.

The missionaries' medical help was welcomed by the people, but their spiritual assistance was often ignored or ridiculed.

In time they discovered that certain vile immoral practices leavened the whole city and the surrounding villages.

It was a hard time there, a very difficult field.

But Hogg stayed there eight years, determined to go on preaching the gospel of love in love to very unlovely people.

That was that was his motto.

Listen to that, listen again to that motto.

Go on preaching the gospel of love in love to a very unlovely people.

Well, in the summer of 1900 came the now infamous Boxer Rebellion.

Most of the martyrdoms of missionaries occurred in Shanxi Province.

In Peking, the most brutal mass slaughter of Chinese believers occurred.

There are only estimates of how many Chinese were murdered.

Of the foreigners, one hundred and thirty five missionaries and fifty-three children died.

For no other reason than they were believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, martyrs all.

Missionaries counting their children, one hundred and eighty eight martyrs for Jesus Christ.

The word slaughter is not used loosely.

Several heads were hung in wooden cages from city walls to warn foreign sympathizers of the foreign devils.

As the Christians died, there are numerous reports that their hearts were torn out and examined, as the Chinese sought to discover the secret of the martyrs' courage.

Now you listen to me.

You've got to die, I've got to die.

You've got to leave this world, I've got to leave this world.

Wouldn't you like to go that way?

With your enemies examining, tearing your heart out of your body and examining that heart to find out how you had such courage.

Tremendous.

How this news affected the missionaries in neighboring provinces.

Co workers, friends, and converts swept away.

When Charles and Sarah Hogg returned to England in nineteen oh one for health reasons, they did so with exhaustion, remorse, and considerable disappointment.

It was at such a time that they discovered how real is the saints undergirding.

We in fact do have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.

Yes, we are we're pressed, we're persecuted on every side, perplexed, not in despair, persecuted, not forsaken, always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.

And the Bible says that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

For the work in Shantung Province, the reaping would be left to national believers, such as the gifted Hai Se Chen Mu.

That's H S I A C H apostrophe E N M U, commonly known as Summertime.

Charles called him the most intelligent preacher of the gospel, as well as the most natural expositor that he had met in China.

Summertime began a hugely successful evangelistic campaign across the whole province of Shantong until his home call in 1923.

One sowed Hudson Taylor in the China Inland Mission.

Another watered the generation of missionaries that came behind him.

And after all our work is done, it is God who gives the increase.

By 1930, an awakening and gospel harvest time swept the prophets.

Charles had done what he could, he authored several Chinese tracts, contributed articles to magazines, and in collaboration with others, brought out a catechism as well as writing a book, The Golden Compass, all of which was written in Chinese for the education and instruction of Chinese believers.

Back in England, he was received as a veteran, an acquaintance of legends such as C.T.

Studd, the British athlete turned missionary, D.

E.

Host, the successor to Hudson Taylor, and from their home at Weston Supermar, Bristol, he worked diligently among local churches preaching and teachings.

C.F.

Hogg's writings were being widely circulated, and still are to this day, thanks to the coattails of a certain schoolmaster named William Edwin Vine, W.

E.

Vine, who lived from 1873 to 1949.

Around the year 1905, Hogg teamed up with Vine to conduct the Exeter Correspondence School of Bible study.

These studies between 1908 and 1911 were later published in commentaries on 1st and 2 Thessalonians and Galatians.

These are the two outstanding commentaries in which Mr.

Vine had a hand.

The two teachers, Hogg and Vine, made an ideal combination.

They were basically agreed in their interpretation of the great Bible doctrines, and when Hogg's theological penetration and command of English, his forceful command of English, were united with Vine's special gifts, the result was hard to match, let alone surpass.

The student of the English New Testament will find these commentaries uh well helpful.

Helpful.

Very insightful.

In fact, Hogg was an incredible writer.

Several pieces of his written ministry are tucked into Vine's collected writings.

W.

Vine, who of course gave us the Expository Dictionary of New Testament words, owes much of his insight to Hogg's fellowship and Hogg's views on the Word of God.

Hogg was his peer, his confidant, his encourager throughout Vine's ministry.

In fact, Hogg and Vine combined on a commentary on Thessalonians and a commentary on Galatians.

Hogg combined with J.B.

Watson to write a book on the Sermon on the Mount, 1933, The Promise of His Coming, combined with Vine and Lewis on the Ministry of Women, an excellent work, touching the coming of the Lord with Vine in 1919, The Church in the Tribulation with Vine in 1937, and then Hogg wrote in 1939 What We Saw in Africa Missionary Notes and Thoughts.

Besides his work in the United Kingdom, Hogg traveled to New Zealand, Australia, made several visits to the US and Canada, to India and Central Africa.

Sarah Hogg went to be with Jesus Christ in nineteen thirty five at their home in Highgate, London.

In early nineteen thirty six, Hogg married Miss Amy Berwick of London.

The last seven years of his life were spent in South Africa.

He went there to visit, but war conditions detained him there, and the local churches in the Cape Town area then received the blessing.

His ministry was fresh, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

It was clear cut and definite.

He once told a young missionary named T.

Ernest Wilson that the three rules of good Bible teaching were number one, accuracy, number two, accuracy, and number three, accuracy.

In nineteen thirty nine he toured Central Africa and wrote the book I mentioned a moment ago, What We Saw in Africa, which was laced with valuable counsel on missionary principles.

One of the missionaries there said, Few visitors have helped us, as Mr.

Hogg has done.

As a Bible student and teacher, he shone.

His zeal for careful statements and his firm grasp of Bible doctrine came out in conversational Bible readings.

Privately was a fatherly counselor that missionaries, elders, and preachers sought out.

What he knew about mission work caused him to strenuously advocate a rigorous inspection of candidates for commendation to the work of evangelism here and abroad.

He said, quote, possibly there would be fewer workers, but compensation in power was And those who are called and fitted would be better furnished.

Four days before his sudden passing, he wrote, quote, Friends in New Zealand urge another visit to them, and a week ago a letter from the USA suggested our returning there with the hope of going to China.

It is no small mercy from God to have so many loyal friends in so many parts.

On November 14, 1943, C.F.

Hogg was taken suddenly ill.

Despite his wife's loving attention, he was soon absent from the body and present with the Lord.

His ministry spanned sixty years and was fresh to the finish line.

Now, C.

F.

Hogg, if you were to find his books and read them, you would find a man who, unfortunately, did not have full and complete confidence in the text of the Holy Bible.

I must tell you that.

He would change a word here.

Amend the verse there.

I don't recommend that.

I wouldn't do it.

He was wrong, and as soon as he entered the presence of the Lord, he knew it.

But I'll tell you this there aren't many commentaries written by street preaching pioneer missionaries.

And I'll tell you something, a man who believes in accuracy, accuracy, accuracy, but then takes that accuracy into the public places, takes that accuracy to the faraway lands of China bordering on Tibet, takes that accuracy to the mission fields of Central Africa is going to offer you something that the men born and raised in the Christian school, promoted to the Christian college, and carefully secluded behind the safe walls of their little havens can never give you.

C.

F.

Hogg is not a hero of the faith because he wrote books.

He's not a hero of the faith because he preached publicly.

He's not a hero of the faith because he was a missionary.

My friend, C.

F.

Hogg is a hero of the Christian faith because he took the talents that God had given him, the ability that God imparted to him, the life that God allowed him to live, and he devoted all of it to the service of his Redeemer, from the time of his conversion at the age of only nineteen, until the time of his death decades later, a faithful servant, a friend to missionaries, a counselor and advisor to ministers, a gospel preacher and evangelist to the lost.

But most of all, most of all, a devoted servant of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

What are you doing with the talents God's given you?

What are you doing with the life that God has imparted to you?

Your breath, it came from God.

How are you spending it?

Your days, a gift from the Lord.

How are they being used?

My friend, there's only one life, will soon be past.

Only what's done for Jesus Christ will last.

Is your life God's life?

Are you dead to the world?

Are you living the resurrection life?

Walking with Jesus Christ, fellowshipping with Jesus Christ, speaking for Jesus Christ.

If not, why not?

If not, what else could you be doing that is anything other than a waste of time?

Live for him, my friend.

Serve him.

He's worthy.

He alone is worthy.

He's deserving.

He alone is deserving.

It's wonderful to be saved.

It's even more wonderful to be saved and sure of it.

And far better is to be saved and sure.

And serving.

How about you?

Will you live for Jesus?

Will you be a hero of the Christian faith?

All right, Brother James here.

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