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‎"Yes, my reader, it is possible to work in the name of Christ, and even to preach in His name, and though the world knows us, and the Church knows us, yet to be unknown to the Lord! How necessary it is then to find out where we really are; to examine ourselves to see whether we be in the faith; to measure ourselves by the Word of God and see if we are being deceived by our subtle Enemy; to find out whether we are building our house upon the sand, or whether it is erected on the Rock which is Christ Jesus." ~ A.W. Pink

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Husband and wife must delight in the love and company, and lives of each other. When husband and wife take pleasure in each other, it unites them in duty, it helps them with ease to do their work, and bear their burdens; and is a major part of the comfort of marriage. [Prov 5.18,19]

~Richard Baxter

Beware of Carnal Security and Vain Presumption

Courtesy of A Puritan At Heart

The worldly man will say that the Lord has also made him partaker of all these benefits, and therefore there is no cause, why he should doubt of his love; nor any reason why he should be censured or condemned for his faith. I answer, that he is not reprehended for his persuasion of God’s love, nor for his assurance of God’s promises in Christ; but for his boasting of this faith, persuasion and assurance, whereas there is nothing in him in truth but a dead carcass of faith, carnal security and vain presumption. For true faith purifies the heart, Acts 15:9, and works by love, Gal 5:6. It is plentiful in good works, and provokes us to perform all good duties to God and our neighbours: and it is impossible that we should be truly persuaded of God’s love and not love him again: It cannot be that we love God, if we show no care in glorifying his name, by letting our lights shine before men, nor any desire to perform obedience to his will.  If therefore we live in our sins without repentance, if we make no conscience of our ways, and show no zeal in glorifying God’s name; if our faith be destitute of the fruit of good works, then is our persuasion but fond  presumption; our assurance, carnal security, our faith dead; and like a carcass which breathes not, as James speaks Chap 2:26.

We do not then reprehend any for being persuaded of God’s love, gathering assurance out of  God’s manifold mercies and innumerable benefits bestowed on his Church; Nay, contrariwise, we affirm not withstanding all our sins and unworthiness we are to be persuaded of God’s love in Christ, and to believe against belief, and to hope against hope, when as there is no ground or reason of either in ourselves. But this we maintain, that whoever has this assurance and faith, in the least measure begun in him, does truly love God, and earnestly labours after mortification and newness of life; and whoever is destitute of God’s love, and lives in his sins, without any sorrow for those which are past, or purpose to leave them for the time to come, he may well brag of his faith and assurance of God’s love, but in very truth there is as yet nothing in him but carnal security and vain presumption.

—John Downame

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Courtesy of A Puritan At Heart

After spending some time in private conferences with my people, I discoursed publicly among them from John v1-9. I was favoured with some special freedom and fervency in my discourse, and a powerful energy accompanied the Word. Many wept, and scarcely any appeared unconcerned in the whole assembly. The influence that seized the audience appeared gentle, and yet pungent and efficacious. It produced no boisterous commotions of the passions, but seemed deeply to affect the heart; and excited in the persons under conviction of their lost state heavy groans and tears; and in others who had obtained comfort a sweet and humbling melting. It seemed like the gentle but steady showers that effectually water the earth, without violently beating upon the surface.

The persons lately awakened were deeply distressed for their souls, and appeared earnestly solicitous to obtain an interest in Christ; and in some of them, after public worship was over, in anguish of spirit said, “They knew not what to do, nor how to get their wicked hearts changed.”

—David Brainerd “Journal part II”

Knowledge, Mystery, and Theology

Courtesy of The Old Guys

The theological task also calls for humility. Full comprehension is impossible; wonder and mystery always remain. This must not be identified with the New Testament notion of mystery, which refers to that which was unknown but has now been revealed in the history of salvation culminating in Christ. Neither is it a secret gnosis available only to an elite, nor is it unknown because of the great divide between the natural and the supernatural. The divide is not so much metaphysical as it is spiritual–sin is the barrier.

The wonder of God’s love may not be fully comprehended by believers in this age, but what is known in part and seen in part is known and seen. In faithful wonder the believer is not conscious of living in the face of mystery that surpasses reason and thus it is not an intellectual burden. Rather, in the joy of God’s grace there is intellectual liberation. Faith turns to wonder; knowledge terminates in adoration; and confession becomes a song of praise and thanksgiving. Faith is the knowledge which is life, “eternal life” (John 17:3).

~Herman Bavinck~

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Courtesy of Puritan Heart

Blog Owner’s Note: King James I was called the Wisest Fool in Christendom because he knew the Bible inside out, having been taught by some of the best of the Scots Covenanters.  Yet, he was one of the wickedest kings to rule England, his head knowledge only served for him to have a worse eternal punishment, because the hottest place in heaven the Bible teaches is for those whose great sin was one of spiritual wickedness. i.e. hypocrisy.

1. A man may have great knowledge in the letter of the Scripture, and yet not understand the necessary and saving doctrines in it. The doctrine of regeneration was laid down in the whole Old Testament, though not in that term. Let us take heed how we read the Scriptures; not to trouble our heads with needless and curious questions, but with the main mysteries of religion. What could all Nicodemus his knowledge profit him, if it had been ten thousand times more, without the knowledge of this doctrine, and the experience of it!

2. Nothing is more an enemy to the saving knowledge of gospel mysteries than a priding ourselves in head knowledge. Nicodemus his coming by night was not only from fear, but pride, that he might not be thought ignorant by the people. Humble men have the soundest knowledge: ‘The meek will he teach his way,’ Ps. xxv. 9.

3. How low was the interest of God in the world at that time! How had ignorance and error thrust the knowledge of God out of other parts of the world, when it languished so much in the church! How simple must the poor people be when the students in Scripture were no wiser! It is a thing to be bewailed amongst us, that wrangling knowledge has almost thrust out spiritual. And when Christians meet, their discourses are more about unnecessary disputes than these saving mysteries of Christianity, which might produce elevations of heart to heaven.
—The Works of Stephen Charnock

The Fall of the United States of Rome

Martin Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) offers a sobering warning from the grave:

If the West goes down and is defeated, it will be for one reason only: internal rot . . . If we continue to spend our lives in jollification, doing less and less work, demanding more and more money, more and more pleasure and so-called happiness, more and more indulgence of the lusts of the flesh, with a refusal to accept our responsibilities, there is but one inevitable result—complete and abject failure. Why did the Goths and Vandals and other barbarians conquer the ancient Roman Empire? Was it by superior military power? Of course not! Historians know that there is only one answer: the fall of Rome came because of the spirit of indulgence that had invaded the Roman world—the games, the pleasures, the baths. The moral rot that had entered into the heart of the Roman Empire was the cause of Rome’s “decline and fall.” It was not superior power from the outside, but internal rot that was Rome’s ruination. And the really alarming fact today is that we are witnessing a similar declension in this and most other Western countries. This slackness, this indiscipline, the whole outlook and spirit is characteristic of a period of decadence. The pleasure mania, the sports mania, the drink and drug mania have gripped the masses.

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"I believe it to be a grave mistake to present Christianity as something charming and popular with no offence in it. Seeing that Christ went about the world giving the most violent offense to all kinds of people, it would seem absurd to expect that the doctrine of his person can be so presented as to offend nobody. We cannot blink at the fact that gentle Jesus, meek and mild, was so stiff in His opinions and so inflammatory in His language that He was thrown out of church, stoned, hunted from place to place, and finally gibbeted as a firebrand and a public danger. Whatever His peace was, it was not the peace of an amiable indifference."

 ~ Anonymous

John 2:15  And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables;

Luke 11:39  And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.

Matthew 23:27  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. 

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Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. ~ Ephesians 5:16

Most men spend the greatest part of their time

on things that are that are of little or no value;

as Domitian, the Roman emperor, who spent his

time in catching of flies.

Time would be a precious

commodity in hell, and the use of it most

gainful; where for one day a man would give

ten thousand worlds if he had them.

When men trifle away their precious time, and golden

opportunities, playing and toying with this vanity

and that vanity; we may ask whether these men

have—no Christ, no Scripture, no promises, no

blessed experiences, no hopes of heavenly glories

—to enjoy and take delight in?

~ Thomas Brooks

Fear of Man’s Opinion

“It is terrible to observe the power which the fear of man has over most minds, and especially over the minds of the young. Few seem to have any opinions of their own, or to think for themselves. Like dead fish, they go with the stream and tide. What others think is right, they think is right; and what others call wrong, they call wrong too. There are not many original thinkers in the world. Most men are like sheep, they follow a leader. If it was the fashion of the day to be Roman Catholics, they would be Roman Catholics, if it was to be Islamic, they would be Islamic. They dread the idea of going against the current of the times. In a word, the opinion of the day becomes their religion, their creed, their Bible, and their God.”

~ J.C. Ryle

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Those who understand the nature of the

Gospel, and live under its power, can enter

into its blessed design. All its doctrines,

precepts, and promises, are calculated . . .

to abase the pride of man,

to exalt the glory of Christ,

to reveal . . .

the malignity of sin,

the beauty of holiness,

the vanity of the world,

the bliss of heaven;

to show the sinner his utter helplessness,

to reveal Jesus as an all sufficient Savior.

Pride wants its share of merit in the work

of redemption, but Truth levels the proud

pretension in the dust.

Proud man must be humbled, the

idol SELF must be dethroned!

~ Thomas Reade

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"Sometimes we have seen a model marriage, founded on pure love, and cemented in mutual esteem.

Therein, the husband acts as a tender head; and the wife, as a true spouse, realizes the model marriage-relation, and sets forth what our oneness with the Lord ought to be.

She delights in her husband, in his person, his character, his affection; to her, he is not only the chief and foremost of mankind, but in her eyes he is all-in-all; her heart's love belongs to him, and to him only.

She finds sweetest content and solace in his company, his fellowship, his fondness; he is her little world, her Paradise, her choice treasure.

At any time, she would gladly lay aside her own pleasure to find it doubled in gratifying him. She is glad to sink her individuality in his.

She seeks no renown for herself; his honor is reflected upon her, and she rejoices in it.

She would defend his name with her dying breath; safe enough is he where she can speak for him."

~ Charles Spurgeon

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"People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.

We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith.

We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated."

~D.A. Carson~