Do you admire Christ? - Horatius Bonar

“And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.” - John 21:25

“The sentiment like this comes well from the pen of John. It is the utterance of his admiration for His Lord. He writes as one lost in exulting amazement at the matchless glories of Him whose love he had so richly tasted, & whose Divine perfections he had so fully seen. He is closing the wondrous history of the “Word made flesh”; & in looking back upon that record, he feels that the half has not been told, nay, cannot be told. It is too long, too large, too marvelous, too glorious a story for earth. And this thought, pressing upon his soul, calls up the deepest feelings of his nature, so that, in summing up the Divine record, he cannot but give vent to these feelings in one solemn burst of triumphant admiration! (John 21:25)

Ah! Is this intense, this absorbing, this rapturous admiration, ours? Do we not greatly lack it in these days? Is there not a most unaccountable failure here? It is not love I speak of, it is not reverence, it is admiration —admiration for the Person & works of Jesus! We confess Christ, but do we admire Him? We make use of Him, we draw on Him, we honor Him, we love Him,—but do we admire Him? Where is there in us the Apostle's admiration for His glorious Person and marvelous works?

It is from the unwritten wonders of the Lord that the Apostle's admiration springs. On the written wonders of His life, faith rests itself; as we read, "These are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God" (John. 20:31); but it is at the thought of the unwritten wonders of His life that admiration rises to such a height. The recorded wonders are but a specimen, a sample, no more. They are but one beam of the marvelous radiance that streamed from this "day-star," when here below; and if one gleam be so bright, what must the full effulgence be, —what must be the orb from which the effulgence comes? They are but one leaf of the wondrous tree, "the Plant of Renown"; and if one leaf be so fair and excellent, what must that tree be from which it has been plucked ?

Even were that which is recorded all He did and spoke, He would be marvelous and loveable indeed. How much more when these are but specimens of His exceeding wisdom, and power, and glory! Perfect, beyond all our ideas of perfection; good, beyond all our ideas of goodness, must He have been!”

Horatius Bonar, The Unwritten Wonders of the Grace of Christ

“The Lord Jesus - a precious stone” – F.W. Krummacher

“The Lord Jesus resembles a precious stone which has various points of radiancy, & from which many different lights of consolation & joy proceed. According to the necessity of the circumstances in which we are placed, sometimes one side & sometimes another appears preeminently lovely; & there is no situation & no emergency in which we do not find Jesus efficacious in one of His aspects. For example, to the bruised heart we would represent Christ as the Friend of sinners; to the weak & timid soul we would show Him as a Hero ready to overcome all their enemies; to the sick & afflicted He is the unwearied Physician; to the maimed & crippled, the tender Nurse; & to those trembling ones, who know not how they are to stand at the judgment seat of God, we should exhibit Him as the Man who is our Righteousness. Thus, if I may so express it, the Heavenly Father turns Christ as a precious stone before the eyes of the people of Israel, according to their necessities; & in the mirror of His revelations makes His colours be reflected, & His lights beam forth, sometimes from one side, sometimes from another.”

– F.W. Krummacher, The Martyr Lamb,
sermon entitled “Moses Wish”

"Divine Illumination in Conversion” – Jodocus van Lodenstein (1620 – 1677)

“For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” - 2 Corinthians 4:6

“First, observe the benefit of the light of the knowledge of God’s glory. This light has to do with the supernatural illumination of the heart, without which repentance cannot follow. It also has to do with the light whereby man is rendered fit to illuminate others by his instruction, for in the preceding verses Paul referred to himself as an apostle & teacher. He thus expounds the last part of the preceding verse.

He states further that this light was of the knowledge of the glory of God. Thus, it does not pertain to some earthly skills, but to God’s perfections. It pertains to the most glorious mysteries whereby the Lord is glorified. It pertains particularly to God’s counsel regarding man’s salvation & glory.

Therefore, the soul first beholds God’s glory, as well as the fact that everything exists for Him (Rev. 4:11). The soul then beholds God’s all-sufficiency (Gen. 17:1), & the more he reflects on this, the more he loses himself in wonder & awe. The beholding of God’s all-sufficiency & His infinite glory constitutes our felicity (John 17:3, Matt. 5:8).

The greater our knowledge of God’s glory & worthiness, the more we see that all creatures must exist for God, & that it is God alone of whom & to whom we live & have our being (Rom. 11:36). This understanding powerfully influences man daily to turn more & more from self – from his own profit, ease, pleasure, & advantage. By heavenly light, the soul learns to see that God alone is worthy. Hereby the soul perceives within himself as great an inclination toward God’s glory as to his own salvation – two things that are inseparable from each other. It is then that the illuminated soul is truly happy.

The soul does not behold God’s all-sufficiency only in Himself, but also for & to the benefit of His creatures – especially rational creatures. When a soul begins to know God in this fashion, he begins to know God as He is, and that constitutes the salvation of the soul…

We must be taught by the Lord (Isa. 54:13). The anointing of the Holy Spirit teaches us all things (1 John 2:27). ‘Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me,’ the Lord said (John 6:45). The Lord gives such illumination & instruction to whomever He wills according to His good pleasure. Without this illumination, one may speak of the letter that ‘kills’, though ‘the spirit gives life’ (2 Cor. 3:6). If someone were to possess great intellectual knowledge without love, he would be but ‘as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal’ (1 Cor. 13:1). All such intellectual knowledge will neither change nor sanctify his heart.”

– Jodocus van Lodenstein (1620 – 1677), A spiritual appeal to Christ’s bride,
sermon entitled “Divine Illumination in Conversion”

“Dead Hearts” – Jodocus van Lodenstein (1620 – 1677)

Sermon text is from Ezekiel 37:7-10

“…Added to this is the notion that, after the fall, man still possessed the ability to turn to the Lord of his own volition. We are of the opinion that we are capable of something and we do not consider that our doctrine teaches that we are dead in sins and trespasses (Eph. 2:1-3, 5) and are unable to make ourselves alive (John 15:4-5). If, by way of this sermon, I could help you to see your own inability toward any spiritual good in your soul so that you view yourself as being spiritually dead, I would judge that I have received much from God.

What then must we do? Shall we depart in despair? No, that is not my intent in saying this. What then?
First, we must give God the honor of all the good that is found in us or may yet be found in us. Second, we must humbly wait until it pleases the Lord to come in order to give us the Spirit of life – just as Ezekiel had to wait until it pleased the Lord to blow His Spirit into the dead bodies so that they might live (Ezekiel 37:9-10).

This waiting on the Lord is lacking among us. We rely too much on our own strength, thereby burrowing ourselves to death and accomplishing nothing.

The Lord Jesus did everything in His power to show in the gospel that man is not capable of anything. He expressed this in John 9:41: “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.” On another occasion, He preached about those who hunger and thirst, and those who are poor in spirit (Matt. 5:3, 6). Oh, if only we were to recognize that we are dead indeed! If only I could bring you to the point that you would see how wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked you are (Rev. 3:17); then together we would cry out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Luke 18:38). The Lord would surely come and give us sight.

Oh, that this would be the day ordained of God to give life to the dead and that the Babylon of this sinful walk would fall! Amen.”

– Jodocus van Lodenstein (1620 – 1677), A spiritual appeal to Christ’s bride (classics of Reformed Spirituality),
sermon entitled “Dead Hearts”

renew your faith daily in point of justification - Jeremiah Burroughs

“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” - 1 Corinthians 15:56-57

“The strength of sin is the Law. God’s justice in the Law giving men up unto sin, there lies the strength of sin. But now God through Christ, coming to men in the grace of the Gospel, gives deliverance from the strength of sin. Perhaps some of you have lain under the burden and power of sin, and you have thought the only way to get victory has been to resolve and strive against it. And you have done so, and yet you cannot get power over your sins. I remember one wrote to Luther, telling him that he had vowed and covenanted against his sin, and yet his sin prevailed against him until he understood the grace of the Gospel. And so maybe have you done, and yet your sin prevails because you take not this course.
Try the work of faith in point of justification. Renew your faith in God for the forgiveness of your sin through Jesus Christ. That’s the ready way; try that course. You who have tired of laboring against corruption, you have resolved and prayed and shed tears, and yet that will not do. Try this way: Renew your faith daily in point of justification by laying hold of the infinite riches of the grace of Christ in the gospel for pardon, for healing power to come in to help you against that which holds you, and this will not hinder your duties. You may pray, resolve, and fast as much as before, but be sure your great care is to renew your faith in point of justification, and there will come more healing in your souls by that than by anything else. Once you can touch Christ, the bloody issues of your sins that ran before come to be dried up, which you could not dry up, though you spent your time and pains and did all you could do. Here is a great difference between God’s forgiveness and man’s: a king may forgive but he cannot change and heal. But when God forgives, He heals and takes away that evil disposition from you that so weakened you for all good. When Christ comes, He comes with healing in His wings. Now blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven, for there follows deliverance from the power of sin and a healing of the soul.”

- Jeremiah Burroughs, Gospel Remission

http://www.ligonier.org/store/gospel-remission-hardcover/

“life cannot separate us from the love of God” - Robert Murray M’Cheyne

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?...For I am sure that neither death nor life…nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” - (Romans 8:35,38-39)

“The age in which this epistle (to the Romans) was penned, was fruitful of suffering to the church of God. And if any period, or any circumstances of her history threatened a severance of the bond which united her to Christ, that was the period, & those were the circumstances. But, with a confidence based upon the glorious truth on which he has been descanting, the security of the church of God in Christ, & with a persuasion inspired be the closer realization of the glory about to burst upon her view, and with the most dauntless courage, he exclaims, ‘For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Rom. 8:38-39). Let us briefly glance at each of these things which may threaten, but which cannot succeed in separating us from the love of God, & from our union with Christ…

Life cannot. I remember reading of one of Brainerd’s converts, who, when brought to a full sense of the love of God, cried out, ‘Oh, blessed Lord, take me away; do let me die, & go to Jesus Christ. I am afraid if I live I shall sin again.’ She feared that life would separate her from the love of God. But no, life cannot, ‘neither death nor life’. The hope of life is meant. The apostle wrote, as we have remarked, in a peculiarly suffering era of the church, an age of fiery persecution for the gospel’s sake. Under these circumstances, life was not infrequently offered on condition of renouncing the gospel & denying the Saviour. This was a strong temptation to apostasy.

When, in suffering times, in full view of the rack, the cross or the stake, life, precious life, with all its sweet attraction & fond ties, was offered, & when a simple renunciation of the cross, & a single embrace of the crucifix, would purchase it back – to some who were weak in faith, such a temptation might be well-nigh irresistible. But it shall not succeed in separating the suffering Christian from the love of Christ.

Nor shall anything connected with life, its trials, its vicissitudes, or its temptations, sever us from God’s affection. Thus both life & death shall but confirm us in the assurance of our inalienable interest in the love of God, ‘For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s’ (Romans 14:8). Are you in Christ? Do not fear to live. The love of God will still be poured into your heart, & the Spirit of God will be given to you. ‘I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one’ (John 17:15). Neither death, nor life, can separate us from the love of God.”

- Robert Murray M’Cheyne, New Testament Sermons

http://www.heritagebooks.org/products/New-Testament-Sermons.html

http://www.solid-ground-books.com/search.asp?searchtext=THE+SERMONS+OF+ROBERT+MURRAY+M%27CHEYNE

do not assume, do not take it for granted the blood of Calvary & the death of Christ - Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.” - Ephesians 2:18

“Furthermore, the Holy Spirit does the work which our Lord Himself says is His most special and peculiar work of all, namely that He keeps our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord said that the Holy Spirit would glorify Him: ‘He shall glorify me’ (John 16:14). That is His supreme task and purpose. And that is exactly what He does. Having shown us our utter sinfulness and helplessness and smallness, and the glory of God, He leads us to the Lord Jesus Christ. He makes us see Him in all the glory and wonder of His Person, an all the glory and the wonder of His work. We see Him as the Mediator. Let me put that in the form of a question. Do we always realize, when we pray, our utter, absolute dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ and His atoning work? We would all have to confess, surely, that thousands of times as we have prayed, we have ‘taken it for granted’. This is what we take for granted. The most glorious fact in history we take for granted. We do not thank God for it, we do not meditate upon it, we do not think of it until our hearts are ravished. We assume it. Is there anything more terrible, or, in a sense, verging more upon the blasphemous, that to assume the blood of Calvary and the death of Christ? The Holy Spirit will never allow us to do that. He will reveal the Lord Jesus Christ to us in all His glory, and, thank God, in His all-sufficiency. So that as you are there in the presence of God, and terribly conscious of your sinfulness, your unworthiness, your uncleanness, your vileness, and your weakness, the Holy Spirit will reveal to you that it was ‘when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly’ (Rom. 5:6); it was ‘while we were enemies’ (Rom. 5:10) we were saved by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is then that the Spirit will remind you that Christ said ‘I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance’ (Luke 5:32)…When you engage in prayer, have you those exalted views of the Person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ? That is the test whether you are praying ‘in the Spirit’. You cannot pray in the Spirit without being led to see Him and to realize Him in a manner that you have never done before…”

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, God's Way of Reconciliation: An Exposition of Ephesians 2

http://www.logos.com/products/details/2818

http://www.mlj-usa.com/mlj.nsf/(PRODUCTS-BYCODE-WEB)/MLJ.MP01EC

Prison meditations on Psalm 51 - Girolamo Savonarola

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to the greatness of your mercy: not according to the mercy of humans, which is small, but according to your mercy which is great, which is beyond measure, which is beyond comprehension, which surpasses all sins to an immense degree: according to that great mercy of yours, by which you “so loved the world that you gave your only begotten Son” (John 3:16). What greater mercy could there be? What greater charity? Who then can despair? Who not have confidence? God became man and was crucified for us. Have mercy on me then, O God, according to this great mercy of yours by which you handed over for us your Son, by which you took away the sins of the world through Him, by which you enlightened all men through His cross, by which you restored through Him “the things which are in heaven & which are on earth” (Eph 1:10). Wash me, O Lord, in His blood, enlighten me in His humility, restore me in His resurrection. Have mercy on me, O God, not according to your little mercy, for your mercy is little when you lift men from their bodily miseries but great when you forgive sins and you lift up men through your grace above the heights of the earth. So have mercy on me, O God, according to this great mercy of yours, that you turn me towards you, so that you blot out my sins, so that you justify me through your grace…

This is my first desire. My sins are my greatest tribulation: from it all the rest of my tribulation comes forth. Take away my sins, Lord, & I am free from all tribulation, for tribulation & anguish come from the fountain of the heart: for all sadness grows out of love…

Your grace is your justice, Lord; & grace would not be grace if it were given because of merits. Therefore deliver me from my sins not in my justice but in your justice, or certainly deliver me in your justice, that is, in your Son, who alone among humans is found just…

Do not attribute it to my rashness, O Lord, if I desire to teach transgressors your paths. It is not I, the transgressor in disrepute and in chains, who desires to teach transgressors, but I to who you have given back the joy of your salvation. If you strengthen me with a willing Spirit, if you set me free, then will I teach transgressors your ways. This is not something difficult for you, who can raise up children of Abraham from stones. Neither can my sins stand in your way if you want to do this; indeed, “where sin abounds, grace also abounds even more” (Rom. 5:20)…

Tell me: who raised your heart from the ground up to God? Who led you to pray? Who caused sorrow over your sins & tears? Who gave you hope? Who left you happy during prayer & after it? Who strengthened you daily in your holy determination? Was it not the Lord, who brings about everything in all beings?...

O God, give me a spirit that loves you, a supreme spirit that adores you (Ps. 51:10).”

- Girolamo Savonarola, Prison Meditations on Psalms 51 & 31

“Christ is the living Bible” - Thomas Manton

“Observe, that God's glory is much advanced in Jesus Christ. In the scriptures there is a draught of God; as coin bears the image of Caesar, but Caesar's son is his lively resemblance. Christ is the living Bible; we may read much of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We shall study no other book when we come to heaven. For the present, it is an advantage to study God in Jesus Christ. The apostle hath an expression, 2 Cor. 4:4, 'Lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.' Christ is the image of God, and the gospel is the picture of Christ, the picture which Christ himself hath presented to his bride. There we see the majesty and excellency of his person; and in Christ, of God. And ver. 6, the apostle saith, 'To give the light of the excellency of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ.' In Christ, we read God glorious; in his word, miracles, personal excellencies, transfiguration, resurrection, we read much of God. There we read his justice, that he would not forgive sins without a plenary satisfaction. If Christ himself be the Redeemer, justice will not bate him one farthing. His mercy; he spared not his own Son. What scanty low thoughts should we have of the divine mercy if we had not this instance of Christ! His truth in fulfilling of prophecies: Ps. 40:7, 8, 'Then said I, Lo, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, 0 my God; yea, thy law is within my heart.' This was most difficult for God to grant, for us to believe; yet rather than he would go back from his word, he would send his own Son to suffer death for a sinful world. All things were to be accomplished, though it cost Christ his precious life. God had never a greater gift, yet Christ came when he was promised: he will not stick at anything, that gave us his own Son. His wisdom, in the wonderful contrivance of our salvation. When we look to God's heaven, we see his wisdom; but when we look on God's Son, we see the manifold wisdom of God, Eph. iii. 10. The angels wonder at these dispensations to the church. His power, in delivering Christ from death, and the glorious effects of his grace; his majesty, in the transfiguration and ascension of Christ. Oh! then study Christ, that you may know God. There is the fairest transcript of the divine perfections; the Father was never published to the world by anything so much as by the Son.”

- Thomas Manton, sermon upon John 17; sermon 1

A little book of three pages - William Mason

“I have read of a godly man who was once very dissolute. When converted, his former companions sought to bring him back to his former wicked courses. But he told them, "I am deeply engaged in meditating on a little book, which contains only three leaves; so at present I have no leisure for other business." Sometime after, being asked again, if he had done with his book, he said, "No; for though it contains only three leaves, yet there is so much comprised in them, that I have devoted myself to read therein all the days of my life.
The first leaf is red. Here I mediate on the passion of my Savior, His shedding His precious blood as an atonement for my sins, and a ransom for my soul, without which I must have been a damned sinner in hell to all eternity.
The second leaf is white. This cheers my spirit with the comfortable consideration of the unspeakable joys of heaven, obtained for me by Christ, and of being forever with Him.
The third leaf is black. Here I think of the horrible state of the damned, and the perpetual torments they are suffering in hell. O this excites thankfulness to my Savior, for His wonderful love and rich grace, in snatching me as a brand out of the fire, and saving me from eternal destruction!"
Here is a good man, a good book, and a good example for you and me. "Let us go and do likewise." Constantly meditate upon Christ; upon the wrath He has saved us from, and the glory He has saved us to.”

- William Mason, The believer's pocket companion or the one thing needful to make poor sinners rich and miserable sinners happy

faith in Christ and the evidences of salvation - C.H. Spurgeon

“unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord” - Psalm 27:13

“Most people see to believe, but in David’s case the process was reversed, and put into gospel order: he believed to see and this is the key-note of our discourse. The prayer of my heart is, that some may be led to believe to see, and that those who have been trying to see in order to believe, may now come and trust in Jesus, and believe and see the grace of God…

I hear another objection, one which is very frequently made indeed. Someone says, “But I want to see in myself the evidences of salvation; I know that when a man is saved, there very soon appear in his character certain signs and tokens which mark the work of the Holy Spirit, and I cannot believe that I am saved on the mere word of God; I want to see the evidences of it…

Let me point you to the thirty-sixth verse of the third of John: “He that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life;” and to the eighteenth verse of the same chapter, “He that believeth on him, is not condemned.” Are not these words quite sufficient, though as yet no other evidence can be seen? But sometimes I have heard persons saying, “Well, but we must have evidences; we cannot trust Christ without them:” and consequently they try to manufacture signs of grace, whereas, be it never forgotten, that evidences are the product of faith, and not the cause of faith...

It is as though you had a piece of ground, and you said to yourself, “Well, now, here are these trees; they produce very little fruit-if I could secure a large crop that would be evidence that the soil is good. I must put fresh fruit on the trees, and then that will prove that the ground is fertile.” Not at all so. Make the soil good, and then the fruit will come naturally. So with your faith. Faith is the soil in which the fruits of faith must grow. Do not be thinking about the evidences. Think about the faith that will grow the evidences. Seek to go to Christ, and trust in him, and you will get the signs of grace soon enough. Your main business is with Jesus, not with evidences. Rest in him-his finished work and ascension power-and, if you depend there, without evidences, you will soon have plenty of them; but, if you look to external or other signs, in order to get faith, you look, as I have already told you, in the wrong quarter, and reverse the order of grace...

The fact is, that strong faith is the great sanctifying agent through the power of the Holy Spirit, & the application of the precious blood of Jesus. Thou wilt never overcome thy sins by doubting Christ. Thou wilt never get sanctification by putting thy holiness into the place of Christ’s righteousness...There is no holiness, no true holiness apart from faith. It is not by doubting that we come to be holy. I never could overcome a sin by saying, “I am afraid I am not a child of God.”

C.H. Spurgeon, Believing to See

http://www.spurgeongems.org/vols13-15/chs766.pdf

double failure of Christians - Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Eph. 2:4-7

“We most therefore all admit as we read the first seven verses of this chapter (Eph. 2) that most of our troubles are due to the fact that we are guilty of a double failure; we fail on the one hand to realize the depth of sin, & on the other hand we fail to realize the greatness & the height & the glory of our salvation. We may admit that we are not perfect, we may say that we occasionally do things that we should not do, & we think that that is sin, & that is a consciousness of sin. But when we read these 1^st three verses (Eph. 2:1-3), we really are given to see what sin is, & how deeply involved in sin we all are, & how fallen our nature is as a result of the original transgression of Adam. We don’t realize, I say, the depth of sin. But on the other hand do we not all fail to realize the greatness & the height & the glory of our salvation. Oftentimes we are content to think of our salvation merely in terms of the forgiveness of sins. Not that one wants to depreciate that, for there is nothing more wonderful or more glorious. My point is that to stop at that is surely tragic. And I verily believe that the whole condition & state of the Church today is largely due to the fact that we fail at both points. It is because we never realize the depth of the pit out of which we have been brought by the grace of God that we do not thank God as we ought. And then there is our failure to realize the great heights to which He raised us. That is what the apostle is dealing with now. He is telling us about the deliverance, the salvation. Here, of course, the apostle is not so much concerned about the way in which we are saved. At this point, he is not interested in evangelism; that is something that has already happened; he is writing to people who are already Christians, & he wants them to realize & to understand what is really true of them as Christian people. He wants them to know ‘the exceeding greatness of God’s power to us-ward who believe’, and so he expounds it.”

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, God's Way of Reconciliation: An Exposition of Ephesians 2

A test whether one loves and accepts the way and method of grace – C.H. Spurgeon

“Do you seem inclined to accept the way and method of grace? Let me test you. Some men think they love a thing and yet they do not, for they have made a mistake concerning it. Do you understand that you are to have no claim upon God? He says, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” When it comes to pure mercy, then no one can possibly urge a claim; in fact, no claim can exist. If it he of grace it is not of debt, and if of debt it is not of grace. If God wills to save one man, and another be left to perish in his own willful sin, that other cannot dare to dispute with God. Or if he do, the answer is- “Can I not do as I will with my own? “Oh, but you seem now as if you started back from it! See, your pride revolts against the sovereignty of grace. Let me beckon you back again. Though you have no claim, there is another truth, which smiles upon you; for, on the other hand, there is no bar to your obtaining mercy. If no goodness is needed to recommend you to God, since all must be pure favor which he gives, then also no badness can shut you out from that favor. However guilty you may be, it may be God may show favor to you. He has in other cases called out the chief of sinners; why not in your case also? At any rate, no aggravation of sin, no continuance in sin, no height of sin, can be a reason why God should not look with grace upon you; for if pure grace and nothing else but grace is to have sway then the jet black transgressor may be saved. In his case there is room for grace to manifest its greatness. I have heard men make excuse out of the doctrine of election, and they have said, “What if I should not be elected?” It seems to me far wiser to say, “What if I should be elected?” Yea, I am elected if I believe in Jesus; for there never was a soul yet that cast itself upon the atonement of Christ but what that soul was chosen of God from before the foundation of the world.

This is the gospel of the grace of God, and I know that it touches the heart of many of you. It often stirs my soul like the sound of martial music, to think of my Lord’s grace from old eternity, a grace that is constant to its choice, and will be constant to it when all these visible things shall disappear as sparks that fly from the chimney. My heart is glad within me to have to preach free grace and dying love: I can understand why crowds met at dead of night to hear of the grace of God. I can understand the Covenanters on the bleak hills listening, with sparkling eyes, as Cameron preached of the grace of the great King! There is something in a free-grace gospel worth preaching, worth listening to, worth living for, and worth dying for!”

C.H. Spurgeon, A Gospel Worth Dying For

http://www.spurgeongems.org/vols28-30/chs1734.pdf

What is evil? - John Piper

"What is evil? What is ultimate evil according to Jeremiah 2:13?

Be appalled, O heavens at this; be shocked, be utterly [dismayed]...for my people have committed two [great] evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:12-13)

That's evil. So what is evil? Evil is to be presented by the Living God with a fountain of water that will carry you into eternity and satisfy your heart forever and ever—never ending—and then to turn your nose at it! Then you turn around and take a little shovel and start digging in dry dirt, putting your mouth to it, trying to get something satisfying out of it. That's evil!

This means that to do good — the opposite of evil—is to be a hedonist. Go to the Fountain! The opposite of coming to the fountain is evil. The essence of coming to the fountain is drinking and drinking until it satisfies your soul, and you say, "Ah!" And then you begin to commend it in Indonesia, Pakistan, China, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Cuba, and Vietnam at cost to your life.”

John Piper, Let Your Passion Be Single

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/ConferenceMessages/ByDate/1999/1814_Let_Your_Passion_Be_Single/

Salvation belongs to the Lord - exposition by C.H. Spurgeon

“Salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people! Selah” Psalm 3:8

“This verse contains the sum and substance of Calvinistic doctrine. Search Scripture through, and you must, if you read it with a candid mind, be persuaded that the doctrine of salvation by grace alone is the great doctrine of the word of God: "Salvation belongs unto the Lord." This is a point concerning which we are daily fighting. Our opponents say, "Salvation belongs to the free will of man; if not to man's merit, yet at least to man's will;" but we hold and teach that salvation from first to last, in every iota of it, belongs to the Most High God. It is God that chooses his people. He calls them by his grace; he quickens them by his Spirit, and keeps them by his power. It is not of man, neither by man; "not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy." May we all learn this truth experimentally, for our proud flesh and blood will never permit us to learn it in any other way. In the last sentence the peculiarity and speciality of salvation are plainly stated: " Your blessing be on your people." Neither upon Egypt, nor upon Tyre, nor upon Ninevah; Your blessing is upon thy chosen, Your blood-bought, Your everlastingly-beloved people. "Selah:" lift up your hearts, and pause, and meditate upon this doctrine. " Your blessing be on your people." Divine, discriminating, distinguishing, eternal, infinite, immutable love, is a subject for constant adoration. Pause, my soul, at this Selah, and consider thine own interest in the salvation of God; and if by humble faith thou art enabled to see Jesus as thine by his own free gift of himself to thee, if this greatest of all blessings be upon thee, rise up and sing —

"Rise, my soul! adore and wonder!

Ask, `O why such love to me?'

Grace hath put me in the number

Of the Saviour's family:

Hallelujah!

Thanks, eternal thanks, to thee!"

- C.H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David

"God's Works of Providence" - J. Gresham Machen

“The Bible plainly teaches that God works His will just as surely through the free actions of personal beings including man as He does through the courses of the heavenly bodies or the silent ripening of the grain…God, according to the Bible, is master of the heart of man just as much as He is master of the impersonal forces of nature, and from man’s heart man’s actions come.
Even the wicked actions of men serve God’s purposes and it is by His works of providence that He permits those wicked actions to be done.
Just pass in review, my friends, the history of Bible times. Nation after nation rises on the scene – Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Rome. Wicked nations are these – cruel, hard and proud. Yet how does the Bible represent them? How does the Bible represent even the cruel devastations that they carried on amid the people of God? As defeating God’s eternal purpose, as contravening His governance of the world? No, my friends, the Bible represents those wicked nations as unwitting instruments in God’s almighty hand.
Take also the wicked acts not of nations but of individual men. Were they accomplished without the providence of God; did they defeat His governance of the world? The Bible tells us, No. ‘You thought’ – said Joseph to his wicked brothers – “you thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive” (Gen. 50:20). Even the supreme crime of all the ages, the crucifixion of Jesus our Lord, was not brought about apart from the providence of God. ‘For truly’ says the Book of Acts, ‘ in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place’ (Acts 4:27,28).
No, my friends, there are no exceptions here. Everything that is done in the whole course of the world – by forces of nature or by the free actions of men good and bad – everything has God as its great Cause.
But though God brings all these things to pass, He brings them to pass in widely different ways. He does not bring to pass the free actions of personal beings in the same way as the way in which He brings to pass the ripening of the grain. He brings to pass the actions of personal beings in a way that preserves their freedom and their responsibility to the full.
Shall that be accounted a thing inconceivable? We persuade our fellow men, yet their freedom is preserved when they do what we persuade them to do. Shall not then God be able to do with certainty what we with our little power do with uncertainty? Does not God who made the soul of man know how to move it in accordance with its own nature so that its freedom shall not be destroyed?
Shall He not be able even to use the evil actions of men for His own holy purposes? The Bible tells us plainly that He does so use those evil actions. Even they do not lie beyond His governance as the great First Cause. Yet the Bible tells us with equal plainness that He is not the author of sin that sin is ever hateful in His eyes. Why He allowed sin to enter is the mystery of mysteries, but that He did so we are plainly told, and that He did so for some high and holy end.”

- J. Gresham Machen, The Christian View of Man

"...the Bible regards it as surprising that any are saved...” J. Gresham Machen

“The Bible clearly teaches that when some men are saved and others are lost, neither of these two things come as a surprise to God, but both come to pass because they both stand in God’s eternal plan.
The Bible lays the chief stress upon the former of these two things; it lays more stress upon the fact that the saved are predestined to their salvation than it does upon the fact that the lost are predestined to their eternal retribution.
Why does it do that? Does it do it because it seeks to obscure in any way the predestination of the lost? Certainly not. On the contrary, it teaches that latter doctrine in certain passages in the clearest possible way. Why then does it lay the chief stress upon the predestination of the saved to salvation?
I think I can tell you at least one reason why it does so. It does so because it regards the salvation of the saved and not the eternal loss of the unsaved as the really surprising thing. We are prone to look at the matter in exactly the opposite way. The thing that we regard as surprising is that any members of the human race, any of those excellent creatures known as men, who are supposed to be doing the best they can and be guilty, at the most, of merely trifling and thoroughly forgivable faults, should ever fall under the divine displeasure. But the thing that the Bible regards as surprising is that any of those fallen creatures known as men, all of whom without exception deserve God's wrath and curse, should be received into eternal life. We regard it as surprising that any are lost: the Bible regards it as surprising that any are saved. Naturally, it is the surprising or unexpected thing upon which the stress is laid. It is for that reason, or at least partly for that reason, that the Biblical doctrine of the predestination is concerned chiefly with the predestination of the saved to their salvation rather than with the predestination of the unsaved to their eternal loss. The latter side of the matter is less extensively expounded simply because it is everywhere presupposed. It forms the dark background upon which the wonder of God’s purpose for those whom He has chosen for salvation is thrown into glorious relief.”

- J. Gresham Machen, A Christian View of Man

“All truly united to Christ are united to Him in His death..." - Robert Murray M’Cheyne

"You must look on Christ and all that cleave to Him as one great body of which He is the head and we the members. This is the very way in which God speaks of us in the Bible. ‘For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.’ (1 Cor. 12:12). ‘Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it’ (verse 27). Again, God ‘gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all’ (Eph. 1:22-23). And Paul speaks of ‘the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God’ (Col. 2:19).

Just as it pleased God to unite us to Adam as members of one body, so that when he sinned we sinned, when he fell we fell, so it has pleased God to unite those who believe to Christ, so that when He obeyed we obeyed, when he died we died, when He was buried we were buried with Him. The moment a poor guilty sinner cleaves to Christ, he is reckoned by Jehovah a member of Christ’s body; so that when Christ was nailed to the tree, we were nailed; when the cup of God’s wrath was poured out to Him it was poured out to us; when His blood streamed from His wounds it covered us, for we were His members.

This explains the true meaning of Galatians 2:20, ‘I have been crucified with Christ’; and Colossians 2:20, ‘If with Christ you died…’; Colossians 3:3, ‘For you have died.’ When paleness spread over the dying frame of Immanuel, it spread over us. When the last drops of blood were oozing from His wounded hands and feet, that was our life blood. When He bowed His head in agony, crying, ‘It is finished’, that was out head that bowed. It was the curse due to our sins that was finished in that awful hour. And further still, when they laid Him in the rocky sepulcher, pale, cold, motionless, where He continued under the power of death for a time, we were buried with Him.

Let us learn from this how completely believers are freed from the curse of sin. ‘For one who has died has been set free from sin’ (Rom. 6:7). When a malefactor suffers the last punishment of the law, when his dead body is cut down from the gibbet and hurried to the malefactor’s grave, the law has no more vengeance to pour out upon him. So it was when Christ died. On the cross He was in the hands of justice. But when He rose from the grace the curse was all gone. He left sin behind Him like the grave clothes, or the napkin that was about His head! So free are you from the guilt of sin, believer in Jesus! You have left all your sins in the rocky sepulcher. Sin and you are quits. ‘You are crucified’, ‘you also have died to the law through the body of Christ’ (Rom. 7:4)…

Often you despair of ever reaching a sinless world. Ah, there is one blessed way. If you are united to Christ, then God engages to make you walk in newness of life. He has pledged His glory that He will do it. His truth & covenant faithfulness, His honour & justice, His holiness & love are all pledged that He will raise you up by the almighty power of His Holy Spirit, that you may walk in newness of life! Greater is He that is for you than all that can be against you. He engages His Word & glory to give a new heart, a new mind, a new life. Be not afraid, only believe.”

- Robert Murray M’Cheyne, New Testament Sermons

“Delighting in God, rejoicing in God, and profiting from the Scriptures” - A. W. Pink

“That in which a man most delights is his "god." The poor worldling seeks satisfaction in his pursuits, pleasures and possessions. Ignoring the Substance, he vainly pursues the shadows. But the Christian delights in the wondrous perfections of God. Really to own God as our God is not only to submit to His sceptre, but is to love Him more than the world, to value Him above everything and everyone else. It is to have with the Psalmist an experiential realization that “all my springs are in you.” (Psa. 87:7). The redeemed have not only received a joy from God such as this poor world cannot impart, but they "rejoice in God" (Rom. 5:11); and of this the poor worldling knows nothing. The language of such is "the Lord is my portion" (Lam. 3:24).
Spiritual exercises are irksome to the flesh. But the real Christian says, "It is good for me to draw near to God" (Psa. 73:28). The carnal man has many cravings and ambitions; the regenerate soul declares, "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord" (Psa. 27:4). And why? Because the true sentiment of his heart is, "Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you." (Psa. 73:25). Ah, my reader, if your heart has not been drawn out to love and delight in God, then it is still dead toward Him.
The language of the saints is, "Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation." (Hab. 3:17,18). Ah, that is a supernatural experience indeed! Yes, the Christian can rejoice when all his worldly possessions are taken from him (see Heb. 10:34). When he lies in a dungeon with back bleeding, he can still sing praises to God (see Acts 16:25). Thus, to the extent that you are being weaned from the empty pleasures of this world, are learning that there is no blessing outside of God, are discovering that He is the source and sum of all excellency, and your heart is being drawn out to Him, your mind stayed on Him, your soul finding its joy and satisfaction in Him, are you really profiting from the Scriptures.”

A. W. Pink, Profiting from the Word

http://www.biblebelievers.com/Pink/pink_profiting02.html

Pleading the Atonement - Isaac Watts

“Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed!” Psalm 84:9

“Father, God, who seest in me
Only sin and misery,
Turn to Thy anointed One,
Look on Thy beloved Son;
Him, and then the sinner see;
Look through Jesus’ wounds on me.

Heavenly Father, Lord of all,
Hear, and show thou hear'st my call!
Bow Thine ear, in mercy bow,
Smile on me a sinner now!
Now the stone to flesh convert,
Cast a look, and melt my heart.

Lord, I cannot let Thee go,
Till a blessing Thou bestow;
Hear my Advocate divine,
Lo! to His, my suit I join;
Join'd with His, it cannot fail:
Let me now with Thee prevail!

Turn, from me, Thy glorious eyes
To His bloody sacrifice,—
To the full atonement made,
To the utmost ransom paid:
And, if mine, through Him, Thou art,
Speak Thy mercy to my heart.

Jesus, answer from above,
Is not all Thy nature love!
Pity from Thine eye let fall;
Bless me whilst on Thee I call:
Am I thine, thou Son of God?
Take the purchase of Thy blood.

Father, see the victim slain,
Offer'd up for guilty men:
Hear his blood-prevailing cry;
Let Thy bowels then reply!
Then through Him the sinner see;
Then, in Jesus, look on me!”

- Isaac Watts

“The Ironies of the Cross: The Man Who Is Utterly Powerless Is Powerful” ~D.A. Carson

Matthew 27:32-40

“…Yet here was Jesus, glibly talking about destroying & building a temple in three days…What kind of supernatural power would that take? Yet here Jesus hangs, utterly powerless, on a Roman cross. The sting of mockery turns on this bitter contrast between Jesus’ claims to power & his current transparent powerlessness. Once again, the mockers think they are indulging in fine irony. Jesus claimed so much power, so very much power; now witness his powerlessness…
But the apostles know, & the readers of the Gospels know, & God knows, that Jesus’ demonstration of power is displayed precisely in the weakness of the cross…
Under the terms of the old covenant, the temple was the great meeting place between a holy God & His sinful people. This was the place of sacrifice, the place of atonement for sin. But this side of the cross, where Jesus by His sacrifice pays for our sin, Jesus Himself becomes the great meeting place between a holy God & His sinful people; thus He becomes the temple, the meeting place between God and His people… It is in Jesus’ death, in His destruction, & in His resurrection three days later, that Jesus meets our needs & reconciles us to God, becoming the temple, the supreme meeting place between God & sinners…
Here is the glory, the paradox, the irony; here, once again, there are two levels of irony. The mockers think they are witty & funny as they mock Jesus’ pretensions & laugh at his utter weakness after he claimed he could destroy the temple & raise it in three days. But the apostles know, & the readers know, & God knows, that there is a deeper irony: it is precisely by staying on the cross in abject powerlessness that Jesus establishes Himself as the temple & comes to the resurrection in fullness of power. They only way Jesus will save Himself, & save His people, is by hanging on that wretched cross, in utter powerlessness. The words the mockers use to hurl insults & condescending sneers actually describe what is bringing about the salvation of the Lord. The man who is utterly powerless – is powerful.”

D.A. Carson, Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus

http://www.christianity.com/home/christian%20living%20features/11628400/page1/

http://theresurgence.com/a-day-with-dr-don-session-5-video

taken aside from the multitude - Robert Murray M’Cheyne

“When Christ begins a work of grace in a soul He takes that soul aside from the multitude. As long as a man is in the midst of a merry crew of wicked companions he cannot hear the still small voice of Jesus. The jarring strife of the political discussion or the giddy laugh of wanton revelry often drowns altogether the Word of Jesus, so that when He visits a soul in mercy He draws it aside from the multitude. By some sickness He brings the soul into the loneliness & gloom of a sick room. Or He brings in the hand of death, & the bereaved soul sits alone & in silence. Lover & friend are put far from him & his acquaintance into darkness.
This world is like a busy auction room, crowded in every part. One thing after another is put up for sale, every eye is fixed. One bids, & then another bids higher, all is noise & bustle & confusion. If you would talk to a man you must take him out of the sale room. You say, ‘Come aside with me. I have somewhat to say to thee.’ Just so does Jesus. Unconverted souls are plagued in the busy bustling sale-room of the world. All eyes are fixed on worldly goods, all voices raised to bid for them.
But Jesus draws some men aside & says, ‘Come aside with Me. I have somewhat to say unto thee.’ Christ has done this with some of you. You have been drawn aside, some of you have been brought into the loneliness of the sick room, some into the chamber of death. You have been alone with Christ. Now I have a question to ask you: What has Christ said to you in your loneliness? And what have you said to Him?”

Robert Murray M’Cheyne, Be Opened!

"Lay hold on eternal life" - Charles H. Spurgeon

“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called…” - 1 Timothy 6:12

“According to the text, you have to “Fight the good fight of faith.” Every now and then you will get an ugly knock, a bruise, a bleeding wound from your enemy. What are you to do? Always lay hold on eternal life again, and it will strengthen you, stanch your wounds, and make you once more strong in the day of battle. I would have you think much of this.

If you believe in Christ, there is a life within you, like the life of God, which will never die; a life within you which will bring you to stand before the glorious throne of Christ, “without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.” Do not, therefore, ever give up hope. Do not be staggered by what you may have to suffer here. In the midst of all the agony of the way, stay your heart upon God, and upon the gift He hath given you. “Lay hold on eternal life.” If between here and heaven you could be burned as a martyr every day, it would be worth your while to bear it, laying hold on eternal life.

If between here and heaven you had nothing to bear but the cruelty of men, and the unkindness of the enemies of Christ, you should bear it right manfully, and even joyfully, because you can say, “I know in myself that I have in heaven a better and an enduring substance." Even here I have a life which the world did not give me, and cannot take from me; therefore I hold to it still, and I comfort myself with this sweet thought, that it is mine, the gift of God to me. It bears me up amid seas of grief. ‘My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever’ (Psalm 73:26)”

- Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Lay hold on eternal life

http://www.spurgeongems.org/vols37-39/chs2226.pdf

Definition of the term 'faith' or what a saving, justifying faith believes in? – John Calvin

“We need to have a clear definition of the term ‘faith’, for without it this teaching will be of no value to us…
When Paul speaks of faith, he does not mean having a vague sense that there is a God reigning in heaven, but of knowing God to be our Father. We can be assured of this because of the promises He has made. We can be joined & united to the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that all He has is ours & that we have share in it because we are members of His body…

There is, however, a point here which will be of great help to us, & that is to know how Abraham believed in God. Which this, we conclude. If Abraham had simply believed that there was a God in heaven, this could not have justified him, for the pagans believe as much. Or, if Abraham had simply believed that God was the Judge of all the earth, it would not have sufficed. But God said to Abraham, ‘Abram, I am thy shield, & thy exceeding great reward’, and ‘I will be a God unto thee, & to thy seed after thee’, and He also said that all nationts would be blessed in him (Gen. 15:1; 17:7). God spoke thus with Abraham & testified that He counted him a member of His family, one of His own children, & that He would be his God. When Abraham accepted this promise, he was justified. How is this? Well, when God presented Abraham with His bounty & grace, Abraham believed & accepted God’s Word. Thus, his salvation was completely secure.

Now we have a much clearer idea of what it means to be justified by faith. It does not mean we possess a vague notion that God exists, but rather, that we know Him as our Father & our Saviour, since He reveals Himself thus in His Word, & grants us a guarantee of it in the Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him, we are united & joined to God. Although we are wretched creatures, full of wickedness, He will still accept us as His own & find us pleasing in His sight. This is only possible because our Lord Jesus Christ mediates between God and man. Having such a promise, we must rest upon it entirely and not doubt that God will be favorable to us to the end. When we call upon Him, we must find all our refuge in Him, leaving the world behind us and pressing on in the hope of eternal life. This is having faith, & this is being justified! This is how our father Abraham believed. Without this, we cannot be Christians. For until we know what the gospel is really about (as Paul says in Rom. 10:14), we cannot call God our Father. We cannot, he says, call upon a God we have not heard of or believed in. And how can we possibly know Him unless He is revealed to us? Thus, we need faith to go before us. And how do we get faith? By hearing, says Paul (Rom. 10:17). Therefore, we need to be taught the gospel, otherwise we cannot have faith.”

– John Calvin, the true children of Abraham
John Calvin’s sermons on Galatians

The doctrine of human depravity and the love of God - Dr. Ichabod Spencer

“We love Him because He first loved us.” – 1 John 4:19

“The doctrine of human depravity has been called gloomy & dreadful. Aside from the gospel so it is. And unbelievers under the gospel (simply because they were unbelievers) have recoiled from its conviction, from coming down to the humble place it assigns to them. But with the gospel, if our hearts will only believe it, this truth about our entire depravity has a most glorious bearing. It helps to explain to us the love of God. He did not love us because we deserved it. He did not love us because He saw among the defilements of our character some lingering traces of holiness, some spots of light & promise, which won Him to our relief…

God loved us in our depravity, in our entire depravity. When we see this, the glorious truth brings us up to a vast elevation above the groveling of such sentiments as attribute the love of the Deity for us to His discernment of some excellencies in us which deserved His love. He made no such discovery. He loved us without it. He loved like a God…God loved us – not from the lingering attractions of our character, but from the adorable grace of His own kindness. We believing in the entire depravity of man, have this high idea of God. We carry out His love to a different thing, to an altogether different sphere of action. We make His love itself a different thing – heaven-high above all the conceptions of it which a man can ever entertain who believes that God loved us because He saw something in us to be loved. It is foundation of this love of God, on this fixed & settled conviction of its unequalled nature, that believers love Him.”

- Dr. Ichabod Spencer, We love Him because He first loved us,
The life and sermons of Dr. Ichabod Spencer, volume Three

“We love the saints because we know where they are going” – Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“A Christian is a man who has a new test for everyone and everything. When he meets a person for the first time he does not look at his clothing, he does not look at his general external appearance. That is the carnal way of judging people. He does not ask himself, Where has he come from, what school has he attended, what is his bank balance? Those are no longer his questions or his tests. He is interested in one thing only now. Is he a child of God, is he my brother in Christ? Are we related?

A good story is told in connection with Philip Henry, the father of Matthew Henry the Commentator. He and a certain young lady had fallen in love with each other. She belonged to a ‘higher’ circle of society than he did, but the young lady had become a Christian, and therefore social standing no longer counted with her or constituted any kind of obstacle to their marriage. Her parents, however, were not pleased, and expostulating with her they said, ‘This man Philip Henry, where has he come from?’, to which she gave the immortal reply, ‘I don’t know where he has come from, but I know where he is going’. We love the saints because we know where they are going. They and we are marching together to Zion. We belong to the same Father, to the same household, to the same family; we are going to the same home and we know it. Some of us are very difficult and very trying, and very unworthy, but, thank God, because we are God’s children we are travelling together towards our heavenly home; and we know that the day will come when all our faults and blemishes and spots and wrinkles will disappear and we shall all be glorified and perfected together, enjoying the same glorious eternity.”

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, sermon ‘Tests of Christian Profession’; sermon text: Ephesians 1:15,16;
an Exposition of Ephesians, volume 1: God’s Ultimate Purpose

http://www.mlj-usa.com/mlj.nsf/(PRODUCTS-BYCODE-WEB)/MLJB.2720

http://www.mlj-usa.com/mlj.nsf/(PRODUCTS-BYCODE-WEB)/MLJ.MP01EC