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Charles Spurgeon: Are You Eager For Real Joy?

22 Feb

If you are eager for real joy, such as you may think over and sleep upon, I am persuaded that no joy of growing wealthy, no joy of increasing knowledge, no joy of influence over your fellow-creatures, no joy of any other sort, can ever be compared with the rapture of saving a soul from death, and helping to restore our lost brethren to our great Father’s house. Talk of ten thousand pounds reward! It is nothing at all, one might easily spend that amount; but one cannot exhaust the unutterable delights which come from the gratitude of souls converted from the error of their ways.

~Charles Spurgeon~


The Soul Winner (Rosshire, Scotland; Christian Focus; 2008) p. 199-200

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John Calvin – Follow God, Not Your Heart

21 Feb

[3 Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!
4 Do not let my heart incline to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds – Psalm 141:3-4]

For the two things stand connected the being silent, and the being free from the charge of evil thoughts. It is very possible that although he observed silence, he had many ungodly thoughts, and these are worse than vain words. We have simply alluded in passing to this foolish notion, as what may convince the reader of the possibility of persons running away with a word torn from its connection, and overlooking the scope of the writer. In committing himself to the guidance of God, both as to thoughts and words, David acknowledges the need of the influence of the Spirit for the regulation of his tongue and of his mind, particularly when tempted to be exasperated by the insolence of opposition. If, on the one hand, the tongue be liable to slip and too fast of utterance, unless continually watched and guarded by God; on the other, there are disorderly affections of an inward kind which require to be restrained. What a busy workshop is the heart of man, and what a host of devices is there manufactured every moment! If God do not watch over our heart and tongue, there will confessedly be no bounds to words and thoughts of a sinful kind, — so rare a gift of the Spirit is moderation in language.

~John Calvin~


Calvin’s Commentaries – Psalms (Spokane, WA; Olive Tree Bible Software; http://www.olivetree.com) Commentary on Psalm 141:3-4.

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John Bunyan – God to the Christian

20 Feb

Sinner, thou thinkest that because of thy sins and infirmities I cannot save thy soul, but behold my Son is by me, and upon him I look; and not on thee, and will deal with thee according as I am pleased with him.

~John Bunyan~







The Works of John Bunyan Vol. 1: Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (Edinburgh, Scotland; Banner of Truth Trust, 1991) No. 258

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Thomas Watson – Are You a Fair-Weather Christian?

17 Feb

To be holiest in evil times, is an indication of the truth of grace.
To profess religion when the times favor it, is no great matter. Almost all will court the Gospel Queen when she is hung with jewels. But to own the ways of God when they are decried and maligned, to love a persecuted truth–this evidences a vital principle of goodness. Dead fish swim down the stream–living fish swim against it. To swim against the common stream of evil, shows grace to be alive.

~Thomas Watson~



The Great Gain of Godliness (Edinburgh, Scotland; The Banner of Truth Trust; 2006) Introduction. eBook. http://www.monergismbooks.com

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Herman Bavinck – Without It There is No Comfort in Life or Death

16 Feb

A historical, i.e., a human and fallible authority is not sufficient. Because religion pertains to our salvation and is related to our eternal interests, we can be satisfied with nothing less than divine authority. We must not only know that Scripture is the historical record of our knowledge of Christianity and that it most accurately contains and reproduces the original Christian ideas, but in religion we must know that Scripture is the word and truth of God. Without this certainty there is [for us] no comfort either in life or death. And not only does every Christian need this assurance, but the church itself as institution cannot dispense with this certainty either. For if a minister is not convinced of the divine truth of the word he preaches, his preaching loses all authority, influence, and power. If he is not able to bring a message from God, who then gives him the right to act on behalf of people of like nature with himself? Who gives him the freedom to put himself on a pulpit [a few feet] above them, to speak to them about the highest interests of their soul and life and even to procalim to them their eternal weal or woe? Who would dare, who would be able to do this, unless he has a word of God to proclaim? Both the Christian faith and Christian preaching require divine authority as their foundation. “Faith will totter if the authority of the divine Scriptures begins to waver.”

~Herman Bavinck~


Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 461.

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Jonathan Edwards – All the Good We Have Is In Christ

15 Feb

All the good that [we] have is in and through Christ; He is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. All the good of the fallen and redeemed creature is concerned in these four things, and cannot be better distributed than into them; but Christ is each of them to us, and we have none of them any otherwise than in him. He is made of God unto us wisdom: in him are all the proper good and true excellency of the understanding. Wisdom was a thing that the Greeks admired; but Christ is the true light of the world; it is through him alone that true wisdom is imparted to the mind. It is in and by Christ that we have righteousness: it is by being in him that we are justified, have our sins pardoned, and are received as righteous into God’s favor. It is by Christ that we have sanctification: we have in him true excellency of heart as well as of understanding; and he is made unto us inherent as well as imputed righteousness. It is by Christ that we have redemption, or the actual deliverance from all misery, and the bestowment of all happiness and glory. Thus we have all our good by Christ, who is God.

~Jonathan Edwards~






The Works of Jonathan Edwards Vol. 2 (Peabody, MA; Hendrickson Publishers, Inc; 2007) p. 3. God Glorified in Man’s Dependence

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Martin Luther – Christ, Our Great High Priest

13 Feb

“But Christ having come a high priest of the good things to come.” – Hebrews 9:11

The former priesthood was a material one, with material adornment, tabernacle, sacrifices and with pardon couched in ritual; material were all its appointments. The new order is a spiritual priesthood, with spiritual adornments, spiritual tabernacle and sacrifices- spiritual in all that pertains to it. Christ, in the exercise of his priestly office, in the sacrifice on the cross, was not adorned with silk and gold and precious stones, but with divine love, wisdom, patience, obedience and all virtues. His adornment was apparent to none but God and possessors, of the Spirit, for it was spiritual.

~Martin Luther~


The Sermons of Martin Luther Vol. 7 (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Books; 2000) p.163-164

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Charles Bridges – Love In the Preaching of the Gospel

11 Feb

Love is the life, power, soul, and spirit of pulpit eloquence; entreating rather than denouncing the character of our office; and it is the delivery of our Master’s message with the looks and language of his own manifested tenderness, that attracts and triumphs over the hearts of a willing people. We wonder not at the Apostle’s success, when we read, that at Ephesus (which doubtless was an instance of his general course of Ministry) he “ceased not for three years to warn every one of them night and day with tears.” The most honoured Ministers have been men, distinguished, not for the brightest talents, but for an humble and affectionate spirit. Some eminent servants of God, from the want of this spirit, alarm rather than persuade; confirm prejudice rather than remove it; and consequently the effectiveness of their labours falls below many of their brethren, of far inferior gifts. ‘ The Christian Pastor, of all men in world, should have an affectionate heart. When he preaches, it is the Shepherd in search of the strayed sheep; the father in pursuit of his lost child.

~Charles Bridges~


The Christian Ministry (Edinburgh, Scotland; The Banner of Truth Trust; 1958) p. 337-338.

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Martyn Lloyd-Jones – The Spirit or the Bible?

10 Feb

The Bible suggests, therefore, that the Holy Spirit normally speaks to us through the Word. He takes his own Word, he illumines it, and takes our minds and enlightens them, and we are thus made receptive to the Word…. It is not right, therefore, to speak of the Spirit or the Word, but rather of the Spirit and the Word, and especially the Spirit through the Word.

~Martyn Lloyd-Jones~






Historical Theology (Grand Rapids, MI; Zondervan; 2011) p. 97. Excerpted from Authority (Chicago: InterVarsity, 1958), 63-64

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John Bunyan – Whose Righteousness Allows Us to Stand Before God?

9 Feb

That this righteousness [the imputed righteousness of Christ] still resides in and with the person of Christ, even then when we stand just before God thereby, is clear, for that we are said, when justified, to be justified ‘in him.’ ‘In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified.’ And again, ‘Surely, shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness,’ &c. (Isa 45:24,25). And again, ‘But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us – righteousness’ (1 Cor 1:30). Mark, the righteousness is still ‘in him,’ not ‘in us,’ even then when we are made partakers of the benefit of it; even as the wing and feathers still abide in the hen when the chickens are covered, kept, and warmed thereby. For as my doings, though my children are fed and clothed thereby, are still my doings, not theirs; so the righteousness wherewith we stand just before God from the curse, still resides in Christ, not in us. Our sins, when laid upon Christ, were yet personally ours, not his; so his righteousness, when put upon us, is yet personally his, not ours. What is it, then? Why, ‘he was made to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of 3 God in him’ (2 Cor 5:21).

~John Bunyan~







The Works of John Bunyan Vol. 1: Justification by An Imputed Righteousness (Edinburgh, Scotland; Banner of Truth Trust, 1991)

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