Nothing in us

 Martyn Lloyd-Jones | Romans

Nothing 𝘪𝘯 𝘶𝘴 determines whether we are saved or whether we are not.

It is the choosing and the calling of God alone that matters.

9.292

Darrell B. Harrison

 

VALLEY OF DEATH

 "Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff will give me breath. ” Psalm 23:4.

————————————————

Charles Spurgeon

Checkbook from the Bank of Faith.

————————————————

These words that describe the security experienced on our deathbed, are very sweet. How many people have repeated them with intense delight in their last hours! But the verse is equally applicable to the agonies of the spirit in the midst of life.. Some of us, like Paul, die daily because of a tendency to darkness of soul. On his pilgrimage, Bunyan puts the Valley of the Shadow of Death long before the flowing river at the foot of the heavenly hills. Some of us have walked through the dark and dreadful gorge of the “shadow of death” several times, and we can testify that only the Lord enabled us in the midst of their wild thoughts, their mysterious horrors and their terrible of pressures. The Lord has sustained us and kept us above all real fear of evil, even when our spirit would have been overwhelmed. We have been wrinkled and beaten down, yet we have lived, for we have felt the presence of the Great Shepherd, and we have had the confidence that his fall would prevent the enemy from delivering a deadly blow to us.

If the present time were darkened by the raven’s wings of great affliction, we must glorify God through quiet trust in Him.

FAITHFULNESS OF GOD BY A.W. PINK

 A.W. Pink,  The FAITHFULNESS OF GOD

There are seasons in everyone’s life when it isn’t easy, even for Christians, to believe that God is faithful. Our faith is greatly tested, our eyes are filled with tears, and we can no longer distinguish the work of His love. Our ears are distracted by the noises of the world, harassed by Satan's atheist whispers, and we can no longer hear the sweet accents of his still, peaceful voice. Longed plans have fallen apart, friends we trusted have failed us, someone who professed to be a brother or sister in Christ has betrayed us. We're dumbfounded. We wanted to be faithful to God, and now a dark cloud hides him from our sight.

 

It is difficult for us, yes, even impossible for reasons carnal, harmonize your severe providence with your grace-filled promises. Oh, you feeeling soul, fellow pilgrim who has been harshly tested, seek grace to heed what Isaiah 50:10 says: “Who is there among you that feareth the LORD, and heareth the voice of his servant? He who walks in darkness and lacks light, trusts in the name of the Lord, and rely on his God

 

When you are tempted to doubt God’s faithfulness, cry out, “Get back, Satan.” Although you cannot harmonize the mysterious dealings of God with the declarations of His love, wait on Him until you receive more light. At the right time it will be seen clearly. “What I am doing, you do not understand now; but you will understand later” (John 13:7). What will come next will prove that God has not abandoned or deceived His son. "But the Lord will wait to have mercy on you, and therefore he will be exalted having mercy on you: for the Lord is the God of judgment: blessed are all that wait for him" (Isa. 30:18).

 

Do not judge the Lord with the weakness of senses, Instead, trust that he will make you the object of his grace, Behind a providence that frowns the frown Hides a smiling face.

 

Saints that you fear, weapons of new courage, The clouds that terrorize you so much, They are full of mercy, and they will break in pouring blessings upon your heads. "

The mere pleasure of God

 

Drowned in Sin, before drowned in Water.

 

A grave with Christ is a Comfortable Place

“A grave with Christ is a comfortable place.”

— John Flavel

LOOKING UNTO JESUS

 

JIM ELLIOT QUOTE

 

JIM PRAYED TEN DAYS

 “Jim devoted ten days largely to prayer to make sure that this was indeed what God intended for him. He was given new assurance, and wrote to his parents of his intention to go to Ecuador. Understandably, they, with others who knew Jim well, wondered if perhaps his ministry might not be more effective in the United States, where so many know so little of the Bible's really message He replied: "I dare not stay home while Quiches perish. What if the well-filled church in the homeland needs stirring? They have the Scriptures Moses, and the prophets, and a whole lot more. Their condemnation is written on their bank books and in the dust on their Bible covers.”

~Elisabeth Elliot, Through Gates of Splendor

Every Situation

 

You are mine, You shall be mine. I claim you for myself.

 

The Word is a Lamp

 The Word is called a lamp, to direct us; a medicine, to heal us; water, to wash us ; fire, to inflame us; salt, to season us; milk, to nourish us; wine, to rejoice us; rain, to refresh us; a treasure, to enrich us; and the key, to unlock heaven-gates unto us.

— Henry Smith

Bring Heaven to Us

 

It would fall infinitely short

 “If every leaf and spire of grass, nay, all the stars, sands, and atoms, were so many souls and seraphims, whose love should double in them every moment to all eternity,

“yet would it fall infinitely short of what is due to his worth and excellency.

“Suppose a creature composed of all the choice endowments that ever dwelt in the best of men since the creation of the world, in whom you find a meek Moses, a strong Sampson, a faithful Jonathan, a beautiful Absalom, a rich and wise Solomon, nay, and add to this, the understanding, strength, agility, splendor, and holiness of all the angels,

“it would all amount to but a dark shadow of this incomparable Jesus.”

— A “Mr. Jenkin,” cited in Flavel’s Fountain of Life

JOHN FLAVEL ON ASSURANCE

 John Flavel, on the believer pleading for assurance on the ground of the preciousness of Christ’s blood:

“Lord, I am not only thy creature, but thy redeemed creature; one that thou hast bought with a great price: O, I have cost thee dear! for my sake Christ came from thy bosom,

“and is it imaginable, that after that thou hast in such a costly way, even by the expense of the precious blood of Christ, redeemed me, thou shouldst at last exclude me? Shall the ends of both creation and redemption of this soul be lost together?

“…will [God] be content, when sin has marred the frame, and defaced the glory of [the soul], to recover it to himself again, by the death of his own dear Son, and after all this, cast it away as if there were nothing in all this?

“‘Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit:’ I know thou wilt have a respect to the work of thy hands; especially to a redeemed creature, upon which thou hast expended so great sums of love, which thou hast bought at so dear a rate.”

Judas heard all of Christ's Sermons

 Judas heard all Christ’s sermons. — Thomas Goodwin

Flavel on Judas: Never was a dead branch watered so much.

(Found online)

Faith is not dry dead Orthodoxy

 “Faith in Christ is not the reception of a dry, dead orthodoxy—to believe in Jesus is not simply to be a sixteen-ounces-to-the-pound Calvinist.

Saving faith is not the mere reception of a creed or form of any kind. To believe is to trust and no man truly believes—in the New Testament meaning of the word—until he is brought to trust in Christ, alone, and takes his whole religion upon trust, relying not on what he sees, nor on what he is, but on what is revealed in God’s Word—not on what he is, or can be, or shall be, nor on what he does or can do, nor on what he feels or does not feel—but relying solely on what Christ has done, is doing and shall yet do.”—1901, Sermon #2737 ~~Charles H. Spurgeon~~

Pink on Regeneration

 A.W. Pink,

A summary of what has been before us may be helpful to some.

1. Repentance is an evangelical duty, and no preacher is entitled to be regarded as a servant of Christ's if he be silent thereon (Luke 24:47).

2. Repentance is required by God in this dispensation (Acts 17:30) as in all preceding ones.

3. Repentance is in nowise meritorious, yet without it the gospel cannot be savingly believed (Matt. 21:32; Mark 1:15).

4. Repentance is a Spirit-given realization of the exceeding sinfulness of sin and a taking sides with God against myself.

5. Repentance presupposes a hearty approval of God's law and a full consent to its righteous requirements, which are all summed up in “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart

6. Repentance is accompanied by a genuine hatred of and sorrow for sin.

7. Repentance is evidenced by a forsaking of sin.

8. Repentance is known by its permanency: there must be a continual turning away from sin and grieving over each fall thereinto.

9. Repentance, while permanent, is never complete or perfect in this life.

10. Repentance is to be sought as a gift of Christ (Acts 5:31).

You have no right sir.

 You have no right, sir, to let your despair [on account of personal sin] triumph over the promise of God.

—Charles Spurgeon, Sermon: The Sinner’s Refuge, 3:114

If Temptation isn't feared, it will conquer.

 

God takes Particular Notice of our Thoughts

 

Prone upon every turn

 Christians are prone, upon every turn, to judge themselves miserable, & to conclude that they have no grace, because they cannot feel it…

…as if it were not one thing for a man to 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 grace, & another thing to 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 he hath grace. —Puritan Thomas Brooks, Works 3:56

Rule of Life is not a Rule of Acceptance

 It is true the [moral] Law as a ‘rule of life’ does not require obedience for justification; but yet this corrupt nature [in those justified by faith alone in Jesus] is prone to turn to the old bias, & to turn the ‘rule of obedience’ into a ‘rule of acceptance.’

—Ralph Erskine

Do not depend on Emotional Excitements

 For so long as we permit the ‘forgiveness of sins’ to depend entirely or in part upon the emotional excitements which we enjoy, & upon the good works which we do [instead of upon Christ alone] we continue to live more or less in dread & fear.

—Herman Bavinck, Wonderful Works,448

RELYING ON PROMISES OUTSIDE OF US

 Westminster Divine Anthony Burgess argued that it “is a more noble & excellent way” to find assurance of faith by relying on God’s bare promises in Christ 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘶𝘴 than it is to come to assurance by seeing the evidences of grace 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯 us.

(See RST, 3:774)

Best Duties Have Stains

 If you do not see so much weakness and corruption, so much deadness and distraction, attending your best duties, as to convince you of the absolute need of the blood of Jesus, it is evident that you are not yet come off from Mt. Sinai Law as a covenant.

—Ebenezer Erskine

Never Expect Strength by Looking to Your Faith

 Never expect strength by looking at your faith; look to Christ.

-- Dustin Benge.

Biography Note on Luther's Death

 On this day, February 18, 1546, 476 years ago, Martin Luther (1484-1546) died from a stroke, having delivered his last sermon only three days prior. As is true of all of us, Luther was not perfect. He had his faults. But God still used this godly man to set in motion the Reformation, preserving the integrity of His Word and the way of Salvation....by grace alone through faith alone.

"One aspect of Luther is often overlooked. Before Luther went to the monastery, he had already established himself as one of the brightest young minds in the field of law. Some heralded him as a legal genius. Once he applied his legal mind to the law of God, he saw things that most mortals miss.

Luther examined the Great Commandment, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself.” He concluded that if the Great Commandment was to love God with all the heart, then the Great Transgression was to fail to love God with all the heart. He saw a balance between great obligations and great sins.

Most people do not think that way. None of us keeps the Great Commandment for five minutes. We may think that we do in a surface way, but upon a moment’s reflection it is clear that none of us loves God with our whole heart or our whole mind or our whole strength. No one loves his neighbor as he loves himself. Our comfort is that nobody is perfect. We all fall short of perfect love for God, so why worry about it? If God punished everyone who failed to keep the Great Commandment, He would have to punish everyone in the world. The test is too great, too demanding; it is not fair. God will have to judge us all on a curve.

Luther didn’t see it that way. He realized that if God graded on a curve, He would have to compromise His own holiness. To count on God doing so is supreme arrogance and supreme foolishness as well. God does not lower His own standards to accommodate us. He remains altogether holy, altogether righteous, and altogether just. But we are unjust and therein lies our dilemma.

Luther’s legal mind was haunted by the question: How can an unjust man survive in the presence of a holy God? Where everyone else was at ease in the matter, Luther was in agony. He wrote about others who so easily dismissed their sin: “Don’t you know that God dwells in light inaccessible?

Lesser minds went merrily along their way enjoying the bliss of ignorance. They were satisfied to think that God would compromise His own excellence and let them into heaven. They thought that surely God must grade on a curve.

Two things separated Luther from the rest of men: First, he knew who God was. Second, he understood the demands of the Law of that God. He had mastered the Law. Unless he came to understand the Gospel, he would die in torment.

Luther would look at the Law of God and its demands of perfection and he would analyze himself in light of the holy Law of God and he couldn't stand the result. He kept evaluating himself not by comparing himself to other human beings but by looking at the character of God, the righteousness of God, and he saw himself so awful in comparison of the righteousness of God.

One night while preparing his lecture for his students, he was reading Romans chapter one..."the righteousness of God is revealed by faith, and the just shall live by faith." Suddenly, the concept burst upon his mind. What this passage was teaching about was the righteousness that God provides for you and me, freely to anyone who puts their trust in Christ. Anyone who puts their trust in Christ receives the covering in the cloak of the righteousness of Christ.

Luther said that for the first time he realized his justification is established not on the basis of his own naked righteousness which will always fall short of the demands of God but solely on the righteousness of Jesus Christ which we receive through trusting faith. He said, "For the first time I understood the Gospel, the doors of Paradise swung open and I walked through. The just shall live by faith alone."

“The just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11). The idea that justification is by faith alone, by the merits of Christ alone, was so central to the Gospel that Luther called it “the article upon which the church stands or falls.”

Once Luther grasped the teaching of Paul in Romans 1:17, he was reborn. The burden of his guilt was lifted. The crazed torment was ended. This meant so much to the man that he was able to stand against pope and council, prince and emperor, and, if necessary, the whole world.

I pray that the Gospel will not be eclipsed, that we may understand that in the presence of a holy God, we who are unjust may be justified by the fact that God in His holiness, without negotiating His holiness, has offered the holiness of His Son as a covering for our sin. Whoever puts their trust in Him will not perish but will have everlasting life (John 3:16). That is the Gospel for which Luther was prepared to die."

~ R. C. Sproul 1939-2017, “The Holiness of God - Luther's Insanity"

The Zeal of God's Love toward us

 

Daily Grace is Needed

 Beloved Christian reader, in matters of grace you need a daily supply. You have no store of strength.

Day by day you must seek help from above. It is a very happy assurance that you are provided with a regular allowance.

In the Word, through the ministry, by meditation, in prayer, and waiting upon God you will receive renewed strength.

In Jesus everything you need is provided for you. So enjoy your continual allowance. Never go hungry while the daily bread of grace is on the table of mercy.

Charles H. Spurgeon...

HOGS COME IN THE OPEN GATES

 He who prays and watches not, is like him that sows a field with precious seed — but leaves the gate open for hogs to come and rout it up!

-- William Gurnall (1616 – 1679)

We are not constrained

 Let us open our mouth wide, since Christ is so ready to fill it. We are not constrained in his love, but in our own hearts.

Sibbes

Salvation is like God

 Our salvation is like God, from everlasting to everlasting, from 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 [in eternity past] to [future] 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘺.

—Puritan Richard Sibbes, Works 7:62

HIM WHO MY SOUL LOVETH

 

FAITH IS A GIFT FROM GOD

 

LOOK ONLY UNTO CHRIST

 God calls us to look off from all other things; look off from the law, look off from self, look off from sin,—look 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 unto Christ.

John Owen

INFINITE LOVE

 The fountain of the grace and mercy of Christ is infinite. Whom he loves, he loves unto the end. His love is such as never had a beginning, and shall never have an end.

John Owen, on John 13:1; voices from the past, vol 2

WE PREACH AND PRAY

 We preach and pray, and you hear; but there is no motion Christ-ward until the Spirit of God blows upon them.

John Flavel

NOT A LEGAL SANCTIFICATION.

 This sanctification of the believers must then be properly understood.

It must not become a legal sanctification [by the terrors of Law] but is and must remain an evangelical sanctification [by the comforts of the Gospel]. —Herman Bavinck, Wonderful Works of God, Pg. 461

NO FAITH IN MY FAITH

 

We do not Rely

 

V

TOTALLY OF GOD'S DOING

 

God Guarantees the Success

 

For I am Nothing

For I am nothing and can do nothing without God.   

-- George Whitefield.

CONTEMPLATION OF CHRIST

 When faith is lacking the antidote is not introspective self-examination but contemplation of the object of

our faith: Jesus the Lord, our sufficient Saviour. —Graeme Goldsworthy, Prayer and the Knowledge of God, Pg. 71

GRASP THE TOTALITY OF THEIR DEPENDENCE

 A Christian who rarely prays has yet to grasp the totality of their dependence on God in all things. Without God, you will not take your next breath; yet you think you will raise your children, be a good spouse, even do ministry work without seeking Him? --Jeff Bys.

God did not wait

 God did not wait for a change of heart on our part. He made the first move. Indeed, He did more than that. He did all was necessary to secure our reconciliation, including our change of heart. Even though He is the One offended by our sin, He is the One who makes amends to Himself through the death of Christ.

Jerry Bridges

Jesus must intercede

 

I have prayed earnestly

 “No one can believe how powerful prayer is and what it can effect, except those who have learned it by experience. Whenever I have prayed earnestly, I have been heard and have obtained more than I prayed for. God sometimes delays, but He always comes.” ~ Martin Luther

Fervency in Prayer

“Prayer is a lifting up of the mind and soul to God, which cannot be done rightly without offering violence to one's self. The names given to prayer imply violence. It is called wrestling (Genesis 32:24), and a pouring out of the soul (I Samuel 1:15), both of which imply vehemency…. That we may offer violence to ourselves and by fervency feather the wing of prayer, let these things be duly weighed. Consider the majesty of God with whom we have to do…. Nothing will sooner make God's anger wax hot than a cold prayer. Prayer without fervency and violence is no prayer; it is speaking, not praying…. [I]f anything may excite prayer and carry it in a fiery chariot up to heaven, it is when we know we pray for nothing but that which God is more willing to grant than we are to ask…. How then should we ply this oar and by a holy violence stir up ourselves to take hold of God! It is only violence and intenseness of spirit in prayer that has the promise of mercy affixed to it, ‘Knock, and it shall be opened’ (Matthew 7:7). Knocking is a violent motion.” ~Thomas Watson, Heaven Taken by Storm 

Pray about Everything

 

P

CONVINCED OF THEIR NEED OF GOD'S POWER

 For men have no taste for [God’s power] till they are convinced of their need of it and they immediately forget its value unless they are conditionally reminded by awareness of their own weakness.

John Calvin

Life of David

 "Many are the afflictions of the righteous" (Ps. 34:19): some internal, others external; some from friends, others from foes; some more directly at the hand of God, others more remotely by the instrumentality of the devil. Nor should this be thought strange. Such has been the lot of all God’s children in greater or lesser degree. Nor ought we to expect much comfort in a world which so basely crucified the Lord of glory. The sooner the Christian makes it his daily study to pass through this world as a stranger and pilgrim, anxious to depart and be with Christ, the better for his peace of mind. But it is natural to cling tenaciously to this life and to love the things of time and sense, and therefore most of the Lord’s people have to encounter many buffetings and have many disappointments before they are brought to hold temporal things with a light hand and before their silly hearts are weaned from that which satisfies not.”

~ Arthur Pink 1886-1952, “The Life of David”

AN EMPTY VESSEL

 Prayer of Martin Luther (1483-1546)

"Behold, Lord, An empty vessel that needs to be filled. My Lord, fill it. I am weak in faith; Strengthen thou me. I am cold in love; Warm me and make me fervent That my love may go out to my neighbour. I do not have a strong and firm faith; At times I doubt and am unable to trust thee altogether. O Lord, help me. Strengthen my faith and trust in thee. In thee I have sealed the treasures of all I have. I am poor; Thou art rich and didst come to be merciful to the poor. I am a sinner; Thou art upright. With me there is an abundance of sin; In thee is the fullness of righteousness. Therefore, I will remain with thee of who I can receive But to whom I may not give. Amen."

I MUST TELL THE STONES