Truth is a strong tower and never requires to be buttressed with error. God’s Word will stand against all man’s devices.
~Charles Spurgeon~
Spurgeon’s Sermons
Charles Spurgeon – Truth is not Strengthened by Lies
5 SepCharles Bridges – The Grand Secret for Pastors
2 Sep
Unbelief looks at the difficulty. Faith regards the promise. Unbelief therefore makes our work a service of bondage. Faith realizes it as a “labour of love.” Unbelief drags on in sullen despondency. Faith makes the patience, with which it content to wait for success, “the patience of hope.” As every difficulty (as we have hinted,) is the fruit of unbelief; so will they all ultimately be overcome by the perseverance of faith. To gain therefore an active and powerful spring of renewed exertion, we must strike our roots deeper into the soil of faith. For the work will ever prosper or decline, as we depend upon an Almighty arm, or an arm of flesh. Few, probably, even of the most devoted servants of God, had duly counted the cost before they put their hand to the plough; and from the want of these preparatory exercises of faith, arises that oppressive faintness which gives the enemy such an advantage in distressing our peace, and enfeebling our exertions. But after all, the grand secret is habitually to have eye upon Christ. Peter–looking at the waves instead of the Saviour–“began to sink.” We too–if we look at the difficulties of our work, and forget the upholding arm of our ever-present Head–shall sink in despondency. Believe–wait–work–are the watchwords of the Ministry. Believing the promise, gives the power to wait. Waiting supplies strength for work, and such working “is not in vain in the Lord.
~Charles Bridges~
The Christian Ministry (Edinburgh, Scotland; The Banner of Truth Trust; 1958) p. 166-167.
Samuel Rutherford – A Letter to a Young Man
1 Sep
MY VERY DEAR BROTHER, — I rejoice to hear that Christ has run away with your young love, and that ye are so early in the morning matched with such a Lord; for a young man is often a dressed lodging for the devil to dwell in. Be humble and thankful for grace; and weigh it not so much by weight, as if it be true. Christ will not cast water on your smoking coal; He never yet put out a dim candle that was lighted at the Sun of Righteousness. I recommend to you prayer and watching over the sins of your youth; for I know that missive letters go between the devil and young blood. Satan has a friend at court in the heart of youth; and there pride, luxury, lust, revenge, forgetfulness of God, are hired as his agents. Happy is your soul if Christ man the house, and take the keys Himself and command all, as it suiteth Him full well to rule wherever He is. Keep Christ, and entertain Him well. Cherish His grace; blow upon your own coal; and let Him tutor you.
~Samuel Rutherford~
A Selection From His Letters – To William Livingstone (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Christian Classics Ethereal Library; 2000) eBook. p. 32.
John Owen – Christ Gives Himself to the Soul
31 Aug
Christ gives himself to the soul, with all his excellencies, righteousness, preciousness, graces, and eminencies, to be its Savior, head, and husband, forever to dwell with it in this holy relation.
~John Owen~
Communion With The Triune God (Wheaton, IL; Crossway Books; 2007) p. 156
Thomas Watson – The Very Hinge and Pillar of Christianity
30 Aug
Q: What is Justification?
A: It is an act of God’s free grace, whereby he pardons all our sins, and accepts us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us, and received by faith alone.
Justification is the very hinge and pillar of Christianity. An error about justification is dangerous, like a defect in a foundation. Justification by Christ is a spring of the water of life. To have the poison of corrupt doctrine cast into this spring is damnable.
~Thomas Watson~
A Body of Divinity (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Christian Classics Ethereal Library; 2002) eBook. p. 183. Chapter 6: “The Application of Redemption” Sub-chapter 3: “Justification.”
J.C. Ryle – The True Cure
29 Aug
Men and women are fearfully and wonderfully made. We are not made up merely of brains, and head, and intellect, and reason. We are frail, dying creatures, who have got hearts, and feelings, and consciences; and we live in a world of sorrow, and disappointment, and sickness, and death. And what can help us in a world like this? Certainly not science alone. Nothing can help us but the doctrine of that volume which some people call an old worn-out Jewish book, the Bible. None can help us but He who was laid in the manger of Bethlehem and died on the cross to pay our debt to God, and is now at God’s right hand. None but He who said,” Come unto Me, all ye that labour, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). None but He who has thrown light on the grave, and the world beyond it, and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel and made a deeper mark on the world than all the men of science who have ever lived.
~J.C. Ryle~
The Upper Room: Being a Few Truths for the Times (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Christian Classics Ethereal Library; 2007) eBook. Chapter 1, p. 9.
Charles Spurgeon – The Glory is God’s
27 Aug
“It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves.” [Psalm 100:3b] Shall not the creature reverence its Maker? Some men live as if they made themselves; they call themselves “self-made men,” and they adore their supposed creators; but Christians recognise the origin of their being and their well-being, and take no honour to themselves either for being, or for being what they are. Neither in our first or second creation dare we put so much as a finger upon the glory, for it is the sole right and property of the Almighty.
~Charles Spurgeon~
The Treasury of David Vol. 2 (Peabody, Maryland; The Hendrikson Publisher; 1988) p. 234 – Commentary on Psalm 100.
Jeremiah Burroughs – Laying Hold of the Promises
26 Aug
A carnal heart reads the promises, and reads them merely as stories, not that he has any great interest in them. But every time a godly man reads the Scriptures (remember this when you are reading the Scripture) and there meets with a promise, he ought to lay his hand upon it and say, This is part of my inheritance, it is mine, and I am to live upon it. This will make you contented; it is a mysterious way of getting contentment.
~Jeremiah Burroughs~
The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment (Edinburgh, Scotland; The Banner of Truth Trust; 2009) p. 83.
Herman Bavinck – Apostasy, Sin, & The Faithfulness of God
25 Aug
Whatever apostasy occurs in Christianity, it may never prompt us to question the unchanging faithfulness of God, the certainty of His counsel, the enduring character of His covenant, or the trustworthiness of His promises. One should sooner abandon all creatures than fail to trust His Word.
~Herman Bavinck~
Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 4: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2008) p. 269.
Jeremiah Burroughs – Heaven Within Your Soul
24 Aug
No soul shall ever come to Heaven, but the soul which has Heaven come to it first.
~Jeremiah Burroughs~
The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment (Edinburgh, Scotland; The Banner of Truth Trust; 2009) p. 75.
The Old Guys 