"Let your soul be filled with a heart-ravishing sense of the sweetness and excellency of Christ and all that is in him. Let the Holy Spirit fill every chamber of your heart; and so there will be no room for folly, or the world, or Satan, or the flesh."
—Robert Murray M'Cheyne
Glorious Gospel
“Your election, your predestination, your adoption, your inheritance, are owing entirely, freely, gloriously to God’s purpose, God’s will, God’s good pleasure, God’s counsel in eternity, and not to anything in you.” —John Piper
“If we’re going to sustain a heart for prayer, we’ve got to believe and feel that life is war.” —John Piper
“The sins of the saints, the weaknesses and enormities of believers, shall never be brought into the judgment of discussion and discovery; they shall never be objected against them, either in their particular day of judgment, or in the great day of their account.”
—Puritan Thomas Brooks, Works 5:53
Unless we are thoroughly convinced that without Christ we are under the eternal curse of God, as the worst of His enemies, we shall never flee to Him for refuge.
JOHN OWEN
Christianity is not the removal of suffering, but the addition of grace to endure suffering triumphantly.
Thomas Watson
“After ten thousand sins God loves you as infinitely as ever.”
— Charles Spurgeon"We have seen men with money, who were not happy; we have seen men with honour, who were not happy; we have seen persons in power, with the command of empires, who were not happy; but we never saw, and never shall see, the individual who hath Jesus with him, that is not happy."
Charles Spurgeon
[Yet consider that Spurgeon struggle with Depression]
And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. (Matthew 26:37)
The Bible gives us an amazing glimpse into the soul of Jesus the night before he was crucified. Watch and learn from the way Jesus fought his strategic battle against despondency or depression.
He chose some close friends to be with him. “Taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee” (Matthew 26:37).
He opened his soul to them. He said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death” (Matthew 26:38).
He asked for their intercession and partnership in the battle. “Remain here, and watch with me” (Matthew 26:38).
He poured out his heart to his Father in prayer. “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me” (Matthew 26:39).
He rested his soul in the sovereign wisdom of God. “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39).
He fixed his eye on the glorious future grace that awaited him on the other side of the cross. “For the joy that was set before him [he] endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).
When something drops into your life that seems to threaten your future, remember this: The first shock waves of the bomb in your heart, like the ones Jesus felt in Gethsemane, are not sin. The real danger is yielding to them. Giving in. Putting up no spiritual fight. And the root of that sinful surrender is unbelief — a failure to fight for faith in future grace. A failure to cherish all that God promises to be for us in Jesus.
In Gethsemane Jesus shows us another way. Not painless, and not passive. Follow him. Find your trusted spiritual friends. Open your soul to them. Ask them to watch with you and pray. Pour out your soul to the Father. Rest in the sovereign wisdom of God. And fix your eyes on the joy set before you in the precious and magnificent promises of God.
Let us keep our eyes upon the ultimate, let us remember that we are always in the presence and sight of God, and let us live only to please Him.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
"If you can come as a helpless, unworthy sinner, without strength, without righteousness, without any hope but what arises from the worth, work, and word of Christ, this is to come aright. There is no other way of being accept
JOHN NEWTON
"I thought, surely Christ is not willing to save me.
My sins were too many,"For until men recognize that they owe everything to God, that they are nourished by his fatherly care, that he is the Author of their every good, that they should seek nothing beyond him— they will never yield him willing service."
— John CalvinOf all the evidences of the real work of the Spirit, a habit of hearty private prayer is one of the most satisfactory that can be named. A man may preach from false motives. A man may write books and make fine speeches and seem diligent in good works, and yet be a Judas Iscariot. But a man seldom goes into his closet, and pours out his soul before God in secret, unless he is serious.
Without the intercession of Christ we have no hope. But if Christ intercedes for you, you can be assured that He will complete your salvation. Hebrews 7:25 tells us that Christ only intercedes for those who draw near to God through Him. Make it a daily habit to draw near to God through Christ in repentance, confession, thanksgiving, and praise.
John Owen
John Owen, also tells us that it is Christ’s intercession that renders our complete salvation possible. Christ forever pleads with the Father to sanctify us and to have mercy on us... However, Christ forever intercedes for us. When we fail, He asks the Father for mercy on us. He pleads our case with the Father and secures the grace we need to be more and more conformed to His image. And the Father, out of love for us and for His Son, always answers these prayers offered on behalf of His elect.
Worship isn’t about us inviting God but about God inviting us.
God calls us to the Feast!
When the Holy Spirit sanctifies believers, He does a great work in them. He puts into their minds, wills and hearts a gracious supernatural principle which fills them with a holy desire to live to God. The whole life and being of holiness lies in this. This is the new creation.
John Owen
To the doubting:
Christ didn’t say, “Come unto me, all ye who have enough faith.” He said, “Come unto me, all ye who are weary.” The assurance of your salvation doesn’t come from the strength of your grip, but from the strength of His promise.Does God Love Everyone?
Martyn McGeown
Rev. Derek Dunn in the Ballymena Times (15 February, 2006) repeated the myth that God loves everybody. God loves the world but in Scripture that rarely means the entire human race (John 7:4; 12:19; Acts 17:6; I Cor. 11:32). In the Old Testament, God loved only the nation of Israel (Deut. 7:7) but even then not every Israelite, because “they are not all Israel which are of Israel” (Rom. 9:6). In the New Testament, God loves sinners from every nation, hence the term “world.” What is often denied is that God hates some sinners, both them and their sins. For example, God hated Esau (Rom. 9:13) and He “hates all workers of iniquity” (Ps. 5:5).
Christ came to save only those whom God loves, not Judas, Herod, Pilate or any “whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 17:8). Rather Christ came to save those the Father had given Him (John 6:37-39; 17:2). Christ “loved his own which were in the world” (John 13:1), not everybody in the world. In Christ, elect sinners are loved (Eph. 1:4-6) but, outside of Christ, sinners are hated by God, for He has “no pleasure in wickedness” (Ps. 5:4) but “loves righteousness” (Ps. 11:7). Christ in love died for His beloved sheep but He neither died nor prayed for the goats (John 10:26-27; 17:9).
God’s love is effectual. He actually saves the objects of His love. God’s love seeks out those whom He loves and causes the recipients of that love to love Him in return (I John 4:19). Since God is obliged to love nobody but freely chooses to love whom He will, man cannot complain (Rom. 9:13-20). To teach that God loves everyone (even those who end up in hell) is to rob the child of God of comfort and to “strengthen the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life” (Eze. 13:22).
Some may wonder, if God does not love everybody, why the Bible uses universal language such as the Lord is “not willing that any should perish” (II Pet. 3:9) or “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13). Such objections disregard context and show ignorance of language. We often use universal language. When the teacher asks, “Has everybody got a pen?” he only means his class. When a father says, “Everybody get into the car,” he refers only to his own family. Consider Matthew 10:22 (“ye shall be hated of all men”), John 3:26 (“all men come to him”), Acts 19:19 (“they burned [their books] before all men”) and Romans 16:19 (“your obedience is come abroad unto all men”). In these Scriptures, “all men” cannot be taken to mean the entire human race. Similarly, whosoever means “all those who …” It does not mean everybody. “Whosoever believeth” (John 3:16) means all those who believe or “all believers.”
II Peter 3:9 is written as an answer to scoffers and to give comfort concerning the perceived delay of the return of Christ. The Lord has not returned because God is longsuffering to “usward.” God is not longsuffering towards everybody. God does not want His people (“us”) to perish and, since the “longsuffering of God is salvation” (II Pet. 3:15), all those towards whom God is longsuffering shall be saved.
Similarly, “whosoever [i.e., all those who] shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13) does not mean that everybody can or shall call upon the name of the Lord. The Word of God teaches that sinners hate God (Rom. 8:7) and will not call on His name. Isaiah laments “there is none that calleth upon thy [i.e., God’s] name” (Isa. 64:7) and Paul writes, “there is none that seeketh after God” (Rom. 3:11). That some call upon God is the work of His Spirit, who graciously gives faith and repentance unto some (Acts 11:18; Eph. 2:8; Phil. 1:29), but blinds and hardens others (Josh. 11:20; Matt. 11:25; John 12:40; Rom. 9:18).
Christian, it is Satan’s lie that behind a smiling Jesus there hides a frowning Father. The truth is that “the Father himself loves you” (Jn 16:27).
Although I am a sinner, yet I despair not: for Christ, who is my Redeemer and my righteousness, lives. In Him I have no sin, no fear, no sting of conscience, and no fear of judgment: for in Him there is no condemnation. I am indeed a sinner as touching this present life; but I have a righteousness of God which is above this life, who is Christ my Lord. In Him I rejoice!
— Martin Luther
God's device for the sanctification of an unholy world is that sinners unite with Christ and derive holiness from him, whom the Father has constituted the head of sanctifying influences.
Union with Christ is the only way to sanctification. Thomas BostonYou say: “I can’t forgive myself.”
Christ says: “I have forgiven you.” You say: “I am unworthy of Your love.” Christ says: “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” You say: “I deserve punishment.” Christ says: “I took your punishment upon Myself.” You say: “I am haunted by my past sins.” Christ says: “I remember your sins no more.” You say: “I have sinned too much.” Christ says: “Where sin abounded, my grace did much more abound.” You say: “I have hidden sins.” Christ says: “I am faithful and just to forgive.” You say: “I am guilty.” Christ says: “I bore your guilt.” You say: “I feel condemned.” Christ says: “There is now no condemnation to those who are in Me.” You say: “I have failed again.” Christ says: “My mercies are new every morning.” You say: “I am burdened by sin.” Christ says: “Your sins are forgiven.” You say: “I am beyond redemption.” Christ says: “I am mighty to save.” You say: “I have run away from You.” Christ says: “I left the ninety-nine to find you.” You say: “l am a great sinner” Christ says: "I will in no wise cast you out.” No obstacle, no challenge, no objection can hinder the Savior. His plans are steadfast, His promises sure. Trust in Him.