Great Sermon by D. Martyn Lloyd Jones

Follow this link to Fighting For the Faith and enjoy this sermon about how the Bible alone diagnoses our problems!

A truly devotional description, of a magnificent theological truth!

From the Heidelberg Catechism:

Question 1. What is thy only comfort in life and death?

Answer: That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.

The love of Christ, us, and temptation!

John Owen, on how the love of Christ constrains us in temptation -

A real jem from Spurgeon regarding heaven and the need for regeneration!

I saw this quote by Charles Spurgeon on the Pyromaniacs blog , you can find the rest of it there, but this portion was particularly striking.

"Men by nature need something to be done for them before they can enter Heaven, and something to be done in them, something to be done with them, for by nature they are enemies to God."

That a great change must be wrought in us, even ungodly men will confess, since the idea of the heaven of the Scriptures has always been repulsive, never agreeable, to unconverted men and women.

When Mahomet would charm the world into the belief that he was the prophet of God, the heaven he pictured was not at all the heaven of holiness and spirituality. His was a heaven of unbridled sensualism, where all the passions were to be enjoyed without let or hindrance for endless years. Such the heaven that sinful men would like; therefore, such the heaven that Mahomet painted for them, and promised to them.

Men in general, be they courtly, or be they coarse in their habits, when they read of heaven in the Scriptures with any understanding of what they read, curl their lips and ask contemptuously, Who wants to be everlastingly psalm singing? Who could wish to be always sitting down with these saints talking about the mighty acts of the Lord and the glorious majesty of his kingdom? Such people cannot go to heaven, it is clear; they have not character or capacity to enter into its enjoyment.
From The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, volume 62, sermon number 3,538, "Preparation for Heaven."

Also consider the video posted here from John Piper on the same subject, but from a different, yet parallel perspective.

A great, yet painful quote!

The fact is, the most of us are vastly inferior to the early Christians, who, as I take it, were persecuted because they were thoroughly Christians, and we are not persecuted because we hardly are Christians at all.

Charles Spurgeon

Interesting Quote!

"God has often forgiven sinners, but He never forgives sin; and the sinner is only forgiven on the ground of Another having borne his punishment; for 'without shedding of blood is no remission' (Hebrews 9:22)."

-A.W. Pink

Spurgeon, still speaking God's truth!

I saw this teaching from Charles Spurgeon on the Pyromaniacs blog, it is well worth a read!

“Few are tired of talking, but many are wearied with hearing.”

The text itself says, "Exhort one another daily"; from which I gather two lessons. First, hear exhortation from others; and, secondly, practise exhortation to others. I have known people of this kind, that if a word is spoken to them, however gently, as to a wrong which they are doing, their temper is up in a moment. Who are they that they should be spoken to? Dear friend, who are you that you should not be spoken to? Are you such an off-cast and such an outcast that your Christian brethren must give you up? Surely you do not want to bear that character. I have even known persons take offence because the word has been spoken from the pulpit too pointedly. This is to take offence where we ought to show gratitude.

“Oh,” says one, “I will never hear that man again! He is too personal.” What kind of a man would you like to hear? Will you give your ear to one who will please you to your ruin, and flatter you to your destruction? Surely, you are not so foolish? Do you choose that kind of doctor who never tells you the truth about your bodily health? Do you trust one who falsely assured you that there was nothing the matter with you when all the while a terrible disease was folding its cruel arms about you? Your doctor would not hurt your feelings. He washes his hands with invisible soap, and gives you a portion of the same. He will send you just a little pill, and you will be all right. He would not have you think of that painful operation which a certain surgeon has suggested to you. He smirks and smiles, until, after a little while of him and his pills, you say to yourself, “I am getting worse and worse, and yet he smiles, and smiles, and flatters and soothes me. I will have done with him and his little pills, and go to one who will examine me honestly, and treat me properly. He may take his soap and his smile elsewhere.” O sirs, believe me, I would think it a waste of time, nay, a crime like that of murder, to stand here and prophesy smooth things to you. We must all learn to hear what we do not like. The question is not, “Is it pleasant?” but, “Is it true?”

The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, volume 36, sermon number 2,130, "The Deceitfulness of Sin."

Consider this quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship 

A quote from a man who took the word of Christ and the call of Christ serious and died a victorious martyrs death!

 

Mark 8:35 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. (NKJV)

 

Is this extremism or is this the call to all who will follow Christ? 

 

God grant me the willingness and strength to follow - to Christ be all glory! 

 

"Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

Spurgeon on bigots, by way of Pyromaniacs!

I saw these remarks from Spurgeon on the Pyromaniacs Blog (listed under links I enjoy) and had to pass it along!

Click on this link - Spurgeon on Christian Bigots

Dietrich Bonhoeffer Quote!

The believer is neither a pessimist nor an optimist. To be either is illusory. The believer sees reality not in a certain light but as it is, and believes only in God and God’s power towards all and over all that is seen. (in No Rusty Swords)

This is excellent!

Charles Spurgeon Movie - Enjoy!

Abraham Lincoln Quote

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation. March 30, 1863

Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation.

And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.

And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

That is powerful!

A good question for us to ponder - Should our nation, as it now exists, be expecting God's blessing or God's judgement?

Perhaps some scripture would help you decide - I do not believe there is a direct correlation between OT Israel and the U.S. but as God's character is unchanging we may well take head:

Deut. 8:11 "Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, 12 lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; 13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; 14 when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; 15 who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end— 17 then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’ 18 “And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the LORD your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. 20 As the nations which the LORD destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the LORD your God. (NKJV)

"Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

Charles Spurgeon addressing the church of 2011 - in the 1800's

The church is a separate and distinct thing from the world....

Great attempts have been made of late to make the church receive the world, and wherever it has succeeded it has come to this result, the world has swallowed up the church. It must be so. The greater is sure to swamp the less. They say, “Do not let us draw any hard-and-fast lines. A great many good people attend our services who may not be quite decided, but still their opinion should be consulted, and their vote should be taken upon the choice of a minister, and there should be entertainments and amusements, in which they can assist.”

The theory seems to be, that it is well to have a broad gangway from the church to the world: if this be carried out, the result will be that the nominal church will use that gangway to go over to the world, but it will not be used in the other direction! It is thought by some that it would, perhaps, be better to have no distinct Church at all! If the world will not come up to the Church, let the Church go down to the world—that seems to be the theory. Let the Israelites dwell with the Canaanites and become one happy family! Such a blending does not appear to have been anticipated by our Lord in the chapter which was read just now—I mean the 15th Chapter of John. Read verses 18 and nineteen—“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own: but
because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

Did Jesus ever say—“Try to make an alliance with the world and, in all things, be conformed to its ways”? Nothing could have been further from our Lord’s mind! Oh, that we could see more of holy separation—more dissent from ungodliness, more nonconformity to the world! This is “the dissidence of Dissent” that I care for—far more than I do for party names and the political strife which is engendered by them.

Let us, however, take heed that our separateness from the world is of the same kind as our Lord’s. We are not to adopt a peculiar dress, or a singular mode of speech, or shut ourselves out from society. He did not do so! He was a man of the people, mixing with them for their good. He was seen at a wedding feast, aiding the festivities. He even ate bread in a Pharisee’s house, among captious enemies! He neither wore phylacteries, nor enlarged the borders of His garments, nor sought a secluded cell, nor exhibited any eccentricity of manner. He was separate from sinners only because He was holy and harmless—and they were not. He dwelt among us, for He was of us. No man was more a man than He and yet He was not of the world, neither could you count Him among them. He was neither Pharisee, nor Sadducee, nor Scribe. But, at the same time, none could justly confuse Him with publicans and sinners. Those who reviled Him for consorting with these last, did, by that very reviling, admit that He was a very different person from those with whom they went. We want all members of the Church of Christ to be, manifestly and obviously, distinct persons, as much as if they were of a separate race, even when they are seen mingling with the people around them!

We are not to cut ourselves off from our neighbors by pretense and contempt. God forbid! Our avoiding of pretension, our naturalness, simplicity, sincerity and amiability of character should constitute a distinction. Through Christians being what they seem to be, they should become remarkable in an age of pretenders! Their care for the welfare of others, their anxiety to do good, their forgiveness of injuries, their gentleness of manner—all these should distinguish them far more than they could be distinguished by a particular mode of dress or by any outward signs. I long to see Christian people become more distinct from the world than ever because I am persuaded that until they are, the Church will never become such a power for blessing men as her Lord intended her to be.

It is for the world’s good that there should be no alliance between the Church and the world by way of compromise, even to a shade! it is, or where it can be found. It must be a singular mixture. I know what is meant by a worldly Christian; and I suppose the Christian world must be an aggregate of worldly Christians. But the church of Christ is not of the world. “Ye are not of the world,” says Christ, “even as I am not of the world.”

(from: The Lord’s Own View of His Church And People, Sermon #1957, delivered by C.H. Spurgeon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington)

Another Dietrich Bonhoeffer Quote!

Regarding Jesus' call to follow Him as given to the rich young ruler, the apostles and anyone else who would hear His call!

"Only one thing was required in each case - to rely on Christ's word, and cling to it as offering greater security than all the securities in the world."

The Cost of Discipleship, pg. 79

Dietrich Bonhoeffer Quote

"When we are called to follow Christ, we are summoned to an exclusive attachment to His person. The grace of His call bursts all bounds of legalism. It is a gracious commandment. It transcends the difference between the law and the gospel. Christ calls, the disciple follows: that is grace and commandment in one. 'I will walk in Liberty, for I seek thy commandments': (Psalm 119:45)"

From - The Cost of Discipleship

Dietrich Bonhoeffer quotation:

Earthly possessions dazzle our eyes and delude us into thinking that they can provide security and freedom from anxiety. Yet all the time they are the very source of anxiety. The Cost of Discipleship