Nick Roark's Blog, page 102
June 17, 2020
“The Messiah in the Old Testament” by Stephen Charnock
“The right apprehensions of the promises concerning the Messiah in the Old Testament, what He was to be, what He was to do, cannot let you be ignorant of Him in the New.”
–Stephen Charnock, “A Discourse Of Christ Our Passover,” The Works of Stephen Charnock, Volume 4 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1865/2010), 4: 535.
June 16, 2020
“A zealous man lives for one thing” by J.C. Ryle
“A zealous man in religion is pre-eminently a man of one thing. It is not enough to say that he is earnest, hearty, uncompromising, thorough-going, whole-hearted, fervent in spirit.
He only sees one thing, he cares for one thing, he lives for one thing, he is swallowed up in one thing; and that one thing is to please God.
Whether he lives, or whether he dies,—whether he has health, or whether he has sickness,—whether he is rich, or whether he is poor,—whether he pleases man, or whether he gives offense,—whether he is thought wise, or whether he is thought foolish,—whether he gets blame, or whether he gets praise,—whether he gets honor, or whether he gets shame,—for all this the zealous man cares nothing at all.
He burns for one thing, and that one thing is to please God and to advance God’s glory. If he is consumed in the very burning, he cares not for it,—he is content. He feels that, like a lamp, he is made to burn; and if consumed in burning, he has but done the work for which God appointed him.”
—J.C. Ryle, Practical Religion: Being Plain Papers on the Daily Duties, Experience, Dangers, and Privileges of Professing Christians (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1878/2013), 174-175.
June 15, 2020
“Our Father refreshes us on the journey” by C.S. Lewis
“The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world: but joy, pleasure, and merriment He has scattered broadcast. We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy.
It is not hard to see why. The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and oppose an obstacle to our return to God: a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony, a merry meeting with friends, a bathe or a football match, have no such tendency.
Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.”
–C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1940/1996), 103.
June 12, 2020
“Every command of Christ bears today’s date” by Charles Spurgeon
“First to you that love the Lord, or profess to do so— Christian people— I have to say to you tonight,—the Holy Ghost saith ‘TODAY.’ That is to say, that it is essential to duty that we attend to it at once.
Every command of Christ bears today’s date. If a thing is right, it should be done at once; if it is wrong, stop it immediately.
Whatever you are bound to do, you are bound to do now. There may be some duties of a later date, but for the present, that which is the duty is the duty now.
There is an immediateness about the calls of Christ. What he bids you do, you must not delay to do. The Holy Ghost saith “Today.”
And I would say this with regard to everything. Do you love the Lord? Have you ever professed His name? Then the Holy Ghost saith “Today.”
Hesitate not to take up His cross at once and follow Him,— the cross of Him who was nailed to the cross for you; who by His precious blood has made you not your own, but His. Confess Him before men.”
–Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Call of ‘Today,’” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, Volume 55 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1909), 55: 422. Spurgeon was preaching from Hebrews 3:7.
May 19, 2020
“If you are united to Christ, you are as good as in heaven already” by Dane Ortlund
“Christ died, placarding before you the love of God.
If you are in Christ– and only a soul in Christ would be troubled at offending Him– your waywardness does not threaten your place in the love of God any more than history itself can be undone.
The hardest part has been accomplished. God has already executed everything needed to secure your eternal happiness, and He did that while you were an orphan.
Nothing can now un-child you.
Not even you.
Those in Christ are eternally imprisoned within the tender heart of God.
We will be less sinful in the next life than we are now, but we will not be any more secure in the next life than we are now.
If you are united to Christ, you are as good as in heaven already.”
–Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020), 194-195.
May 18, 2020
“Lord, help me to say, ‘What Thou will, when Thou will, and how Thou will'” by John Newton
“It becomes us to say, ‘It is not necessary for me to be rich, or what the world accounts wise; to be healthy, or admired by my fellow-worms; to pass through life in a state of prosperity and outward comfort.’ These things may be, or they may be otherwise, as the Lord in His wisdom shall appoint.
But it is necessary for me to be humble and spiritual, to seek communion with God, to adorn my profession of the Gospel, and to yield submissively to His disposal, in whatever way, whether of service or suffering, He shall be pleased to call me to glorify Him in the world.
It is not necessary for me to live long, but highly expedient that whilst I do live I should live to Him. Here then I would bound my desires; and here, having His word both for my rule and my warrant, I am secured from asking amiss.
Let me have His presence and His Spirit, wisdom to know my calling, and opportunities and faithfulness to improve them. And as to the rest, Lord, help me to say, ‘What Thou will, when Thou will, and how Thou will.'”
–John Newton, The Works of John Newton, Volume 2 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2015), 2: 228-229.
May 13, 2020
“He is our entire good” by Petrus Van Mastricht
“Let us love God, I say:
(1) By desiring, panting after, and diligently seeking the presence, possession, union, communion, and enjoyment of Him (Ps. 42:2; 63:1), so that we may be as it were cemented to Him (Ps. 63:8; 1 Cor. 6:17), just as He desires and seeks us (Ps. 119:176).
(2) By hanging all our good on Him (2 Cor. 8:5).
(3) By removing all the evil of sin from His sight (Isa. 1:16), that we may please Him (Rom. 12:1-2; 14:18), and that by His goodness He may remove every evil from us (Ps. 103:3).
(4) By resting in His infinite goodness, as in our sole and entire good (Ps. 16:5-6; 73:25-26), that thus we might not desire Him to be more good or less just, for in both we would deny His infinite goodness (Ex. 34:7).”
–Petrus Van Mastricht, Theoretical-Practical Theology: Faith in the Triune God, Volume 2, Trans. Todd Rester, Ed. Joel Beeke (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage, 2019), 2: 337.
May 12, 2020
“God is His own blessedness” by John Gill
“God is His own blessedness; it is wholly within Himself and of Himself: He receives none from without himself, or from His creatures; nothing that can add to His happiness; and He himself is the blessedness of His creatures, who are made happy by Him; whose blessedness lies in likeness to Him; which is begun in this life, in regeneration; when new-born souls are made partakers of the divine nature, is increased by sights of the glory of God in Christ, and will be perfected in the future state, when they shall awake in His likeness, and bear His image in a more perfect manner; and also it lies in communion with God; it is the happiness of saints now, and what they exult in, when they enjoy it, that their fellowship is with the Father, and His Son Jesus Christ; and it will be the blessedness of the New Jerusalem state, that the tabernacle of God will be with men, and He will dwell with them; and of the ultimate glory the saints shall then have, everlasting and uninterrupted communion with Father, Son, and Spirit, and partake of endless pleasures in the divine presence: and it will, moreover, lie in the vision of God: which, because of the happiness of it, is usually called the beatific vision; when they shall ‘see God for themselves, and not another;’ see Him as He is in Christ, and behold the glory of Christ; see no more darkly through a glass, but face to face, and know as they are known.”
–John Gill, A Complete Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity: Or A System of Evangelical Truths, Deduced from the Sacred Scriptures (vol. 1, New Edition.; Tegg & Company, 1839), 1: 179.
“The greatest thing a minister of the gospel or a professor of theology can do for others” by Steven J. Duby
“Finally, that theologia is not immediately practical and certainly not oriented to questions of technique and efficiency is in fact one of its salutary aspects.
Contemporary preoccupation (even in the church and in academic programs preparatory for church ministry) with ‘mission statements,’ ‘measurable outcomes,’ and the like needs to be relativized by the joy of knowing the triune God.
It needs to be relativized by a strong sense of the fact that the greatest thing a minister of the gospel or a professor of theology can do for others is to communicate faithfully about the rich wisdom and goodness and holiness and love of the triune God—and their free and gracious exercise in the economy.”
–Steven J. Duby, God in Himself: Scripture, Metaphysics, and the Task of Christian Theology (Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture; London: Apollos, 2020), 295.
May 6, 2020
“Our need of revival is indeed very great today” by Iain Murray
“Our need of revival is indeed very great today. It may be that a generation of freshly-anointed preachers is already being prepared. Whether that is so or not, when such men are sent forth by Christ we can be sure of certain things.
They will not be identical in all points with the men of the past, but there will be a fundamental resemblance.
They will be hard students of Scripture.
They will prize a great spiritual heritage.
They will see the danger of ‘unsanctified learning’.
While they will not be afraid of controversy, nor of being called hyper-orthodox, they will fear to spend their days in controversy. They will believe with John Rice that ‘the church is not purified by controversy, but by holy love’.
They will not forget that the wise, who will shine ‘as: the stars forever and ever’, are those who ‘turn many to righteousness’ (Dan. 12.3).
They will covet the wisdom which Scripture attributes to the one ‘that winneth souls’ (Prov. 11.30).
But their cheerfulness will have a higher source than their work. To know God Himself will be their supreme concern and Joy.
They will therefore not be strangers to humility.
And their experience will not be without trials and discouragements, not least because they fall so far short of their aspirations.
If they are spared to live as long as John Leland they will be ready to say with him at last: ‘I have been unwearedly trying to preach Jesus, but have not yet risen to that state of holy zeal and evangelical knowledge, that I have been longing after’.
Whether their days be bright or dark they will learn to say with Nettleton that ‘the milk and honey lie beyond this wilderness world’.”
—Iain H. Murray, Revival and Revivalism: The Making and Marring of American Evangelicalism, 1750-1858 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1994), 386-387.
