“The gospel is not, “Give your hearts to Christ, and you shall be saved.” The gospel is, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,”- that is, trust him, “and thou shalt be saved.” When you do that, you will be sure to give him your heart by-and-by, if not at once. Salvation is not by your giving anything to Christ, but by Christ giving something to you. I am glad that you have given your heart to Christ; but have you learnt first this lesson, that he gave his heart for you? We do not find salvation by giving Christ anything. That is the fruit of it; but salvation comes by Christ giving us something - something, did I say? - by Christ giving us everything, by his giving us himself. I used to notice that a good deal of Sunday-school teaching to the children was, “Dear child, love Jesus.” That is not the way of salvation. The way of salvation is to trust Jesus. The fruit of salvation is that the dear child does love Jesus; but that is not the way of salvation. The way of salvation is to take Christ, to trust Christ. When you are saved, the proof of it will be that you will give your heart to Christ; but do not let us turn things upside down lest, beginning with a little blunder, we should go on to some great error, and set up again the ruinous doctrine which once sank the world in darkness, the doctrine of an imaginary salvation by our own works.”
Charles H. Spurgeon, Sychar’s Sinner Saved
http://www.monergism.com/directory/link_in_frame.php?link=22500
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
grounds of assurance - D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
“but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” Romans 5:8-10
“Apostle Paul wants these people to rejoice in their salvation and ‘the hope of the glory of God’, and He show that they will only rejoice in it as they understand and grasp God’s great love to them. That is why I say that this demonstration, this proof of the love of God, is one of the profoundest sources of assurance that one can ever have.
How does this gratuitous element in our salvation provide me with grounds of assurance? Let me put it like this. Imagine what the position would be if our salvation were not entirely of grace. If, for instance, I believed that Christ had died for me because I loved God, and because I was trying to please God, and because I was a good man who was striving to keep the Law, and who had succeeded up to a point, if I believed that my salvation was the result of the fact that I was such a good man, then the inevitable corollary would be, that I would say to myself, “What if in the future, sometime or another, I should love God less, what if I failed to keep His Commandments, what if I failed to seek God and to please Him and to live for Him as I have been doing in the past? If my salvation depends upon what I am, and what I have done, and what I desire, if it in any sense depends upon me, what security have I got? I may change, I may falter, I may fail.’
If our salvation depended in any sense, or to any extent at all, upon ourselves, our position would always be precarious. We might fail at any moment and would then lose all. But, thank God, says the Apostle, that is not the position. Our salvation in no respect at all depends upon ourselves, it is entirely dependent upon the love of God. And because my salvation depends upon the love of God and on that alone, and on nothing in me, I am sure of it, I am certain of it. Why? Because God does not change, and cannot change, and if I am within the ambit and the scope of the love of God now, I always shall be. The love of God, the gratuitous character of my salvation, my realization that I was without strength, that I was ungodly, a sinner, and that it is entirely in spite of me that Christ died for me, these are the ultimate ground of my assurance. And on this ground I am assured, not only that I am saved now, but that I shall remain saved, that because I am justified I am also glorified, and therefore I rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
- D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans: Assurance, Exposition of Chapter 5
“Apostle Paul wants these people to rejoice in their salvation and ‘the hope of the glory of God’, and He show that they will only rejoice in it as they understand and grasp God’s great love to them. That is why I say that this demonstration, this proof of the love of God, is one of the profoundest sources of assurance that one can ever have.
How does this gratuitous element in our salvation provide me with grounds of assurance? Let me put it like this. Imagine what the position would be if our salvation were not entirely of grace. If, for instance, I believed that Christ had died for me because I loved God, and because I was trying to please God, and because I was a good man who was striving to keep the Law, and who had succeeded up to a point, if I believed that my salvation was the result of the fact that I was such a good man, then the inevitable corollary would be, that I would say to myself, “What if in the future, sometime or another, I should love God less, what if I failed to keep His Commandments, what if I failed to seek God and to please Him and to live for Him as I have been doing in the past? If my salvation depends upon what I am, and what I have done, and what I desire, if it in any sense depends upon me, what security have I got? I may change, I may falter, I may fail.’
If our salvation depended in any sense, or to any extent at all, upon ourselves, our position would always be precarious. We might fail at any moment and would then lose all. But, thank God, says the Apostle, that is not the position. Our salvation in no respect at all depends upon ourselves, it is entirely dependent upon the love of God. And because my salvation depends upon the love of God and on that alone, and on nothing in me, I am sure of it, I am certain of it. Why? Because God does not change, and cannot change, and if I am within the ambit and the scope of the love of God now, I always shall be. The love of God, the gratuitous character of my salvation, my realization that I was without strength, that I was ungodly, a sinner, and that it is entirely in spite of me that Christ died for me, these are the ultimate ground of my assurance. And on this ground I am assured, not only that I am saved now, but that I shall remain saved, that because I am justified I am also glorified, and therefore I rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
- D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans: Assurance, Exposition of Chapter 5
Sunday, January 3, 2010
“Bombard God. Bombard heaven until the answers come." - Martyn Lloyd-Jones
“Bombard God. Bombard heaven until the answers come.
We have the authority of our Lord for this, have we not? In Genesis 32 we read that Jacob did something like that: ‘I will not let Thee go,’ he said.
The man wrestled with him & said, ‘It is the dawn, it is the breaking of day, let me go.’
‘But I will not let Thee go, said Jacob. ‘I’m not letting go until you give me my request’ – wrestling Jacob…
And our Lord has taught us to pray like this. It is one of the most glorious, & wonderful statements even he ever made about God & God’s relationship with us. He said, ‘you know, you must not just pray fitfully, you must become importunate. You must be like that man who suddenly is visited by a friend late at night. He has no food to give him, so he says, ‘oh, my friend up the street will have some loaves.’ So he goes and hammers at the door.
But the friend shouts and says, ‘I cannot come down, I am in bed and my children are with me.’
‘No,’ says the man, ‘you must give me something, I know you have got bread & I’ve got a stranger here, I can’t let him go without a meal.’ He goes on hammering.
‘I can’t,’ says the man, ‘I’m in bed.’
But the suppliant goes on and on, until at last the man gets up and gives him the bread.
The man in the bed, in our Lord’s illustration, is none other than God Himself. Because of his neighbor’s importunity he arose and gave him the bread. And if we, who are earthly, sinful, evil fathers, know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more shall our Father which is in heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? (Luke 11:5-13). He will not mock us.
But, like a father, He seems to keep us waiting. He seems to say ‘no’ at first, that we may go on asking, and we must become importunate.”
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Revival
We have the authority of our Lord for this, have we not? In Genesis 32 we read that Jacob did something like that: ‘I will not let Thee go,’ he said.
The man wrestled with him & said, ‘It is the dawn, it is the breaking of day, let me go.’
‘But I will not let Thee go, said Jacob. ‘I’m not letting go until you give me my request’ – wrestling Jacob…
And our Lord has taught us to pray like this. It is one of the most glorious, & wonderful statements even he ever made about God & God’s relationship with us. He said, ‘you know, you must not just pray fitfully, you must become importunate. You must be like that man who suddenly is visited by a friend late at night. He has no food to give him, so he says, ‘oh, my friend up the street will have some loaves.’ So he goes and hammers at the door.
But the friend shouts and says, ‘I cannot come down, I am in bed and my children are with me.’
‘No,’ says the man, ‘you must give me something, I know you have got bread & I’ve got a stranger here, I can’t let him go without a meal.’ He goes on hammering.
‘I can’t,’ says the man, ‘I’m in bed.’
But the suppliant goes on and on, until at last the man gets up and gives him the bread.
The man in the bed, in our Lord’s illustration, is none other than God Himself. Because of his neighbor’s importunity he arose and gave him the bread. And if we, who are earthly, sinful, evil fathers, know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more shall our Father which is in heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? (Luke 11:5-13). He will not mock us.
But, like a father, He seems to keep us waiting. He seems to say ‘no’ at first, that we may go on asking, and we must become importunate.”
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Revival
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