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

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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