Tuesday, May 26, 2009

SAVED FROM SIN

"Christ will be Master of the heart, and sin must be mortified. If your life is unholy then your life is unchanged, and you are an unsaved person. The Saviour will sanctify His people, renew them, give them a hatred of sin, and a love of holiness. The grace that does not make a man better is a worthless counterfeit. Christ saves His people, not IN their sins, but FROM their sins. Without Holiness, no man shall see the Lord."

-Charles Spurgeon


Thursday, May 21, 2009

NEVER COME

He will never come to Christ!

(Arthur Pink, "The Sovereignty of God") (taken from gracegems.org

"You will not come to Me--that you might have life." John 5:40

"No one can come to Me--unless the Father who sent Me draws him." John 6:44

Why is it, that no one can come to Christ unless he is 'drawn'? The answer is, Because his wicked heart loves sin--and hates Christ! The heart of the every man is so "desperately wicked" that if he is left to himself--he will never come to Christ!

For the sinner to come to Christ that he might have life, is for him . . .
to realize the awful danger of his situation;
to see that the sword of Divine justice is suspended over his head;
to awaken to the fact that there is but a step between him and death, and that after death is the 'judgment'! And in consequence of this discovery, to earnestly strive . . .
to flee from the wrath to come,
to cry unto God for mercy, and
to agonize to enter in at the 'strait gate'!

To come to Christ for life, is for the sinner . . .
to feel and acknowledge that he is utterly destitute of any claim upon God's favor;
to see himself as 'without strength,' lost and undone;
to admit that he is deserving of nothing but eternal wrath, thus taking side with God against himself;
to cast himself into the dust before God, and humbly sue for Divine mercy.

To come to Christ for life, is for the sinner . . .
to abandon his own righteousness;
to disown his own wisdom--and be guided by Jesus;
to repudiate his own will--and be ruled by Jesus;
to unreservedly receive the Lord Jesus as his Savior and Lord, as his All in all.

Such, in part and in brief, is what is implied and involved in "coming to Christ." But is the sinner willing to take such an attitude before God? No! For in the first place, he does not realize the danger of his situation, and in consequence makes no earnest attempt to escape. Instead, men are for the most part at ease, and whenever they are disturbed by the alarms of conscience or the dispensations of providence, they flee to any other refuge but Christ!

They will not acknowledge that all their 'good works' are as filthy rags but, like the Pharisee, will thank God they are not as bad as other heinous sinners.

They are not ready to receive Christ as their Lord--for they are unwilling to part with their idols! They had rather hazard their soul's eternal welfare--than give them up!

Hence we say that, if left to himself, the natural man is so depraved at heart--that he has no moral and spiritual ability to come to Christ!

"The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God!" Romans 8:7, 8

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

KILL SIN

Let no man think to kill sin with few, easy, or gentle strokes. He who hath once smitten a serpent, if he follow not on his blow until it be slain, may repent that ever he began the quarrel. And so he who undertakes to deal with sin, and pursues it not constantly to the death.

John Owen

ABIDE IN PRAYER

If we do not abide in prayer, we will abide in temptation. Let this be one aspect of our daily intercession: "God, preserve my soul, and keep my heart and all its ways so that I will not be entangled." When this is true in our lives, a passing temptation will not overcome us. We will remain free while others lie in bondage.

John Owen

FIT OBJECT

A "god" whose will is resisted, whose designs are frustrated, whose purpose is checkmated, possesses no title to Deity, and so far from being a fit object of worship, merits nought but contempt.-A. W. Pink

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

TIME WITH

"some of us need to spend less time with the work of the Lord and more time with the Lord of the work."

Saturday, May 16, 2009

EVERY SECOND

Every second we are desiring something, is it Christ and Him glorified. Every second we are honoring something, is it Christ and Him enthroned. Every second we are serving someone, is it Christ, or self. Every moment we are pleasing to someone, is it Christ and your new heart in Christ, or the old nature of sin.

Friday, May 15, 2009

FINALLY ALIVE

Religious fakes were no surprise to Jesus. They do not contradict the new birth. They confirm it. Reformation cannot change vipers. They need regeneration.

A paraphrase of John Piper's "Finally Alive" book. page. 191. Great Book!!! Highly Recommended.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

FIXED EYE

"Some of you have truly been brought by God to believe in Jesus. Yet you have no abiding peace, and very little growth in holiness. Why is this? It is because your eye is fixed anywhere but on Christ. You are so busy looking at books, or looking at men, or looking at the world, that you have no time, no heart, for looking at Christ. No wonder you have little peace and joy in believing..."

- Robert Murray M'Cheyne

Monday, May 4, 2009

MADE ALIVE

"No man ever made himself to live. No preacher, however earnest, can make one hearer to live. No parent, however prayerful, no teacher, however tearful, can make a child live unto God. “You hath HE quickened,” is true of all who are quickened."

- C. H. Spurgeon

ONLY MATERIAL

Writing Christian materials and studies is wonderfully rewarding, yet looking back at the paper and ink, it can NEVER satisfy or fulfill the Christian, which only comes through knowing and praising King Jesus, full of Glory, Honor, Majesty, Holiness, and Grace.