QUESTION: What may we do to walk with God?
ANSWER 2: If you wish to walk with God, get acquainted with Him: ‘Acquaint now thyself with him’ (Job 22:21). Know God in His attributes and promises. Strangers do not walk together.
~Thomas Watson~
The Godly Man’s Picture (Edinburgh, Scotland; The Banner of Truth Trust; 1992) p. 183.
Charles Spurgeon’s: The Treasury of David
An incredible resource on the Psalms that can be used for sermon prep as well as a devotional help.
From the Publisher:
Spurgeon’s own commentary on every verse of the Psalms is extremely insightful, and by itself it would have been rich enough for posterity. But there’s much more in The Treasury of David. You’ll find a wealth of illuminating extracts and quotes from hundreds of commentators and contemporaries of Spurgeon as well as the great Puritan expositors of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Preachers and teachers will appreciate the homiletical hints on almost every verse, concise sermon outlines, and provocative seed thoughts. Useful bibliographies and an index of authors offer more practical help. Whether you’re teaching on the Psalms, studying them for personal devotions, or simply intrigued by the writings of Spurgeon, you’ll enjoy this splendid classic”
From Spurgeon.org:
“This work was first published in weekly installments over a twenty-year span in the London Metropolitan Tabernacle’s periodical, The Sword and the Trowel. Completed sections were released volume by volume, until the seventh and final volume was released in 1885. Within a decade more than 120,000 sets had been sold. The Treasury of David is a superb literary achievement. Eric Hayden, pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle a century after Spurgeon’s ministry began there, calls this work ‘Spurgeon’s magnum opus.’ Spurgeon’s wife said that if Spurgeon had never written any other work, this would have been a permanent literary memorial.”
Get the three volume set at WTSBooks here.
View it on the web here.
Download a PDF Copy here.
QUESTION: What may we do to walk with God?
ANSWER 1: Get off the old road of sin. He that would walk in a pleasant meadow must turn off the road. The way of sin is full of travelers. There are so many travelers on this road that hell, though it is of a great circumference, would gladly enlarge itself and make room for them (Isa. 5:14). This way of sin seems pleasant but the end is damnable. ‘I have’, says the harlots, ‘perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon’ (Prov. 7:17). See how with one sweet (the cinnamon) there were two bitters (myrrh and aloes). For that little sweet in sin at present there will be a far greater proportion of bitterness afterwards. Therefore get out of these briars. You cannot walk with God and sin: ‘what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?’ (2 Cor. 6:14).
~Thomas Watson~
The Godly Man’s Picture (Edinburgh, Scotland; The Banner of Truth Trust; 1992) p. 182.
E. THERE ARE ONLY A FEW GODLY
They are like the gleanings after vintage. Most receive the mark of the beast (Rev. 13:17). The devil keeps open house for all comers, and he is never without guests. This may prevail with us to be godly. If the number of the saints is so small, how we should strive to be found among these pearls! ‘But a remnant shall be saved’ (Rom. 9:27). It is better to go to heaven with a few than to hell in the crowd.
~Thomas Watson~
The Godly Man’s Picture (Edinburgh, Scotland; The Banner of Truth Trust; 1992) p. 204.
You cannot trifle for ever: a time will come when you must be serious. You cannot put off your soul’s concerns for ever: a day will come when you must have a reckoning with God. You cannot be always singing, and dancing, and eating, and drinking, and dressing, and reading, and laughing, and jesting, and scheming, and planning, and money-making. The summer insects cannot always sport in the sunshine; the cold chilly evening will come at last, and stop their sport for ever. So will it be with you. You may put off religion now, and refuse the counsel of God’s ministers: but the cool of the day is drawing on, when God will come down to speak with you. And what will your end be? Will it be a hopeless one, like that of Lot’s wife?
I beseech you, by the mercies of God, to look this question fairly in the face. I entreat you not to stifle conscience by vague hopes of God’s mercy, while your heart cleaves to the world. I implore you not to drown convictions by childish fancies about God’s love, while your daily ways and habits show plainly that “the love of the Father is not in you.” There is mercy in God, like a river—but it is for the penitent believer in Christ Jesus. There is a love in God towards sinners which is unspeakable and unsearchable—but it is for those who “hear Christ’s voice and follow Him.” Seek to have an interest in that love. Break off every known sin; come out boldly from the world; cry mightily to God in prayer; cast yourself wholly and unreservedly on the Lord Jesus for time and eternity; lay aside every weight. Cling to nothing, however dear, which interferes with your soul’s salvation; give up everything, however precious, which comes between you and heaven. This old shipwrecked world is fast sinking beneath your feet: the one thing needful is to have a place in the lifeboat and get safe to shore. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure. Whatever happens to your house and property, see that you make sure of heaven. Oh, better a million times be laughed at and thought extreme in this world than go down to hell from the midst of the congregation and end like Lot’s wife!
~J.C. Ryle~
Holiness (Darlington, England; Evangelical Press; 1979) p. 173-174.
I suppose there are some persons whose minds naturally incline towards the doctrine of free-will. I can only say that mine inclines as naturally towards the doctrines of sovereign grace. Sometimes, when I see some of the worst characters in the street, I feel as if my heart must burst forth in tears of gratitude that if God had left me alone and had not touched me by His grace, what a great sinner I should have been! I should have run to the utmost lengths of sin, dived into the very depths of evil, nor should I have stopped at any vice or folly, if God had not restrained me. I feel that I should have been a very king of sinners, if God had let me alone.
I cannot understand the reason why I am saved, except upon the ground that God would have it so. I cannot, if I look ever so earnestly, discover any kind of reason in myself why I should be a partaker of Diving grace. If I am not at this moment without Christ, it is only because Christ Jesus would have His will with me, and that will was that I should be with Him where He is, and should share His glory. I can put the crown nowhere but upon the head of Him whose mighty grace has saved me from going down into the pit. It was He who turned my heart, and brought me down on my knees before Him.
~Charles Spurgeon~
A Defense of Calvinism (eBook. http://www.spurgeongems.org) p. 1.
Such is man’s nature, that he is very inactive, any otherwise than he is influenced by some affection, either love or hatred, desire, hope, fear, or some other. These affections we see to be the springs that set men agoing, in all the affairs of life, and engage them in all their pursuits: these are the things that put men forward, and carry them along, in all their worldly business; and especially are men excited and animated by these, in all affairs wherein they are earnestly engaged, and which they pursue with vigor. We see the world of mankind to be exceeding busy and active; and the affections of men are the springs of the motion: take away all love and hatred, all hope and fear, all anger, zeal, and affectionate desire, and the world would be, in a great measure motionless and dead; there would be no such thing as activity amongst mankind, or any earnest pursuit whatsoever. It is affection that engages the covetous man, and him that is greedy of worldly profits, in his pursuits; and it is by the affections, that the ambitious man is put forward in pursuit of worldly glory; and it is the affections also that actuate the voluptuous man, in his pursuit of pleasure and sensual delights: the world continues, from age to age, in a continual commotion and agitation, in a pursuit of these things, but take away all affection, and the spring of all this motion would be gone, and the motion itself would cease. And as in worldly things, worldly affections are very much the spring of men’s motion and action; so in religious matters, the spring of their actions is very much religious affection: he that has doctrinal knowledge and speculation only, without affection, never is engaged in the business of religion.
~Jonathan Edwards~
The Works of Jonathan Edwards (Peabody, Massachusetts; Hendrickson Publishers; 2007) p. 238.
John Calvin’s: Institutes of the Christian Religion
Claimed by many to be the best translation available of one of the best works of theology ever written outside of Scripture.
Here is a brief review of the book by WTSBooks:
Calvin wrote this as an aid to studying the Bible. Written in four books (actually, it comes in several formats), Calvin discusses the knowledge of God as Creator and Redeemer that men possess and he follows that with a treatment of the work of redemption achieved by Jesus Christ and then he discusses how the Holy Spirit applies redemption to the elect through the work of the Holy Spirit in faith-wrought union between the believer and Christ and finally he discusses the church and the role it plays in God’s plan of redemption and the life of the believer. A must read.
Here is what the publisher has to say:
“This is the definitive English-language edition of one of the monumental works of the Christian church. Under Dr. McNeill’s personal supervision labored a whole corps of expert Latinists and Calvin scholars. All previous editions—in Latin, French, German, and English—have been collated; references and notes have been verified, corrected, and expanded; and new bibliographies have been added. The translator and his associates have taken great care to preserve the rugged strength and vividness of Calvin’s writing. They have not, however, hesitated to break up overly long sentences to conform to modern English usage or, whenever possible, to render heavy Latinate theological terms in simple language. The result is a translation that achieves a high degree of accuracy and at the same time is eminently readable.”
Get the two volume set at WTSBooks for $49.16 here.
For the sun to fall from its sphere, and be degraded into a wandering atom; for an angel to be turned out of heaven, and be converted into a silly fly or worm, had been no such great abasement; for they were but creatures before, and so they would abide still, though in an inferior order or species of creatures. The distance betwixt the highest and lowest species of creatures, is but a finite distance. The angel and the worm dwell not so far apart. But for the infinite glorious Creator of all things, to become a creature, is a mystery exceeding all human understanding. The distance between God and the highest order of creatures, is an infinite distance.
~John Flavel~
The Fountain of Life Opened Up (Portland, Oregon; MonergismBooks.com; 2010) eBook. Sermon 18: The Necessity of Christ’s Humiliation
Alas, how much pride have the best of us in our hearts! It is the worst part of the body of sin and death, the first sin that ever entered into the universe, and the last that is rooted out. It is God’s most stubborn enemy!
~Jonathan Edwards~
The Works of Jonathan Edwards (Peabody, Massachusetts; Hendrickson Publishers; 2007) p. 399.
The Old Guys 