Nick Roark's Blog, page 20

“In silent search of other lovers” by Maurice Roberts

“Ecstasy and delight are essential to the believer’s soul and they promote sanctification.

We were not meant to live without spiritual exhilaration and the Christian who goes long without the experience of heart­warming will find himself tempted before long to have his emotions satisfied from earthly things and not, as he ought, from the Spirit of God.

The soul is so constituted that it craves fulfillment from things outside itself and will embrace earthly joys for satisfaction when it cannot reach spiritual ones.

Not for nothing did Satan draw Eve to see that the forbidden fruit grew on a tree which was ‘pleasant to the eyes’ and on a ‘tree to be desired’.

The believer is in spiritual danger if he allows himself to go for any length of time without tasting the love of Christ and savoring the felt comforts of a Savior’s presence.

When Christ ceases to fill the heart with satisfaction, the soul of man will go in silent search of other lovers.”

–Maurice Roberts, “Christ- The Lover of Our Souls.” The Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 323-324, August/September 1990: 1.

“I will bring you where you can taste truth like honey and be embraced by it as by a bridegroom” by C.S. Lewis

“‘Well, this is extremely interesting,’ said the Episcopal Ghost. ‘It’s a point of view. Certainly, it’s a point of view. In the meantime …’

‘There is no meantime,’ replied the other. ‘All that is over. We are not playing now. I have been talking of the past (your past and mine) only in order that you may turn from it forever. One wrench and the tooth will be out. You can begin as if nothing had ever gone wrong. White as snow. It’s all true, you know. He is in me, for you, with that power. And—I have come a long journey to meet you. You have seen Hell: you are in sight of Heaven. Will you, even now, repent and believe?’

‘I’m not sure that I’ve got the exact point you are trying to make,’ said the Ghost.

‘I am not trying to make any point,’ said the Spirit. ‘I am telling you to repent and believe.’

‘But my dear boy, I believe already. We may not be perfectly agreed, but you have completely misjudged me if you do not realize that my religion is a very real and a very precious thing to me.’

‘Very well,’ said the other, as if changing his plan. ‘Will you believe in me?’

‘In what sense?’

‘Will you come with me to the mountains? It will hurt at first, until your feet are hardened. Reality is harsh to the feet of shadows. But will you come?’

‘Well, that is a plan. I am perfectly ready to consider it. Of course I should require some assurances … I should want a guarantee that you are taking me to a place where I shall find a wider sphere of usefulness—and scope for the talents that God has given me—and an atmosphere of free inquiry—in short, all that one means by civilization and—er—the spiritual life.’

‘No,’ said the other. ‘I can promise you none of these things. No sphere of usefulness: you are not needed there at all. No scope for your talents: only forgiveness for having perverted them. No atmosphere of inquiry, for I will bring you to the land not of questions but of answers, and you shall see the face of God.’

‘Ah, but we must all interpret those beautiful words in our own way! For me there is no such thing as a final answer. The free wind of inquiry must always continue to blow through the mind, must it not? “Prove all things” … to travel hopefully is better than to arrive.’

‘If that were true, and known to be true, how could anyone travel hopefully? There would be nothing to hope for.’

‘But you must feel yourself that there is something stifling about the idea of finality? Stagnation, my dear boy, what is more soul-destroying than stagnation?’

‘You think that, because hitherto you have experienced truth only with the abstract intellect. I will bring you where you can taste it like honey and be embraced by it as by a bridegroom. Your thirst shall be quenched.’”

–C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce: A Dream (New York: HarperOne, 2001), 38–40.

“He could not love you more, He will not love you less” by Charles Spurgeon

“Beloved, the love of God to you has never changed. He could not love you more, He will not love you less.

The Lord’s love will never vary. O, believe it, my brethren, it is still the same.

Whatever may happen to you, or through whatever trials you may pass, with the self-same love wherewith He hath loved you He will love you world without end.

In life, in death, and in eternity, ye are the beloved of the Lord who changes not. That same love which had no beginning shall never know an end.

If it were in my power only to make my brethren realize the fact that they are thus loved it would elevate them, comfort them, and set them all in a blaze with love to God.

Think it over, and then say each one to himself:

“Jehovah, the Eternal, Self-existent One, loves me; Jesus, the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, loves me; the Holy Spirit, the Wonderworker, the Comforter, the Illuminator, loves me; what bliss is this!”

O, you would not want a sermon if you realized this; you would far rather need a place wherein to weep and to sing, and mix tears and songs together as you bathed in unspeakable delight!”

–Charles H. Spurgeon, “Miracles of Love,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 19 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1873), 19: 258.

“Sin made men Godless, Christless, hopeless, and heavenless” by Thomas Brooks

“Remedy (2). The second remedy against this device of Satan is, solemnly to consider of the nature of true repentance. Repentance is some other thing than what vain men conceive.

Repentance is sometimes taken, in a more strict and narrow sense, for godly sorrow; sometimes repentance is taken, in a large sense, for amendment of life. Repentance hath in it three things: The act, subject, terms.

(1.) The formal act of repentance is a changing and converting. It is often set forth in Scripture by turning.

‘Turn thou me, and I shall be turned,’ saith Ephraim; ‘after that I was turned, I repented,’ saith he, (Jer. 31:18). It is a turning from darkness to light.

(2.) The subject changed and converted, is the whole man; it is both the sinner’s heart and life: first his heart, then his life: first his person, then his practice and conversation.

‘Wash ye, make you clean,’ there is the change of their persons; ‘Put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do well,’ (Isa. 1:16); there is the change of their practices.

So ‘Cast away,’ saith Ezekiel, ‘all your transgresssions whereby you have transgressed;’ there is the change of the life; ‘and make you a new heart and a new spirit,’ (Ezek. 18:30); there is the change of the heart.

(3.) The terms of this change and conversion, from which and to which both heart and life must be changed; from sin to God.

The heart must be changed from the state and power of sin, the life from the acts of sin, but both unto God; the heart to be under his power in a state of grace, the life to be under his rule in all new obedience; as the apostle speaks, ‘To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God,’ (Acts 26:18).

So the prophet Isaiah saith, ‘Let the wicked forsake their ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord,’ (Isa. 55:7).

Thus much of the nature of evangelical repentance. Now, souls, tell me whether it be such an easy thing to repent, as Satan doth suggest.

Besides what hath been spoken, I desire that you will take notice, that repentance doth include turning from the most darling sin. Ephraim shall say, ‘What have I to do any more with idols?’ (Hosea 14:8).

Yea, it is a turning from all sin to God: (Ezek. 18:30), ‘Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one of you according to his ways, saith the Lord God. Repent, and turn yourselves from your transgresssons; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.’

Herod turned from many, but turned not from his Herodias, which was his ruin. Judas turned from all visible wickedness, yet he would not cast out that golden devil covetousness, and therefore was cast into the hottest place in hell.

He that turns not from every sin, turns not aright from any one sin. Every sin strikes at the honour of God, the being of God, the glory of God, the heart of Christ, the joy of the Spirit, and the peace of a man’s conscience; and therefore a soul truly penitent strikes at all, hates all, conflicts with all, and will labour to draw strength from a crucified Christ to crucify all.

A true penitent knows neither father nor mother, neither right eye nor right hand, but will pluck out the one and cut off the other. Saul spared but one Agag, and that cost him his soul and his kingdom, (1 Sam. 15:9).

Besides, repentance is not only a turning from all sin, but also a turning to all good; to a love of all good, to a prizing of all good, and to a following after all good: (Ezek. 18:21), ‘But if the wicked will turn, from all the sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die;’ that is, only negative righteousness and holiness is no righteousness nor holiness.

David fulfilled all the will of God, and had respect unto all his commandments, and so had Zacharias and Elizabeth. It is not enough that the tree bears not ill fruit; but it must bring forth good fruit, else it must be ‘cut down and cast into the fire,’ (Luke 13:7).

So it is not enough that you are not thus and thus wicked, but you must be thus and thus gracious and good, else divine justice will put the axe of divine vengeance to the root of your souls, and cut you off for ever. ‘Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewed down and cast into the fire,’ (Matt. 3:10).

Besides, repentance doth include a sensibleness of sin’s sinfulness, how opposite and contrary it is to the blessed God. God is light, sin is darkness; God is life, sin is death; God is heaven, sin is hell; God is beauty, sin is deformity.

Also true repentance includes a sensibleness of sin’s mischievousness; how it cast angels out of heaven, and Adam out of paradise; how it laid the first corner stone in hell, and brought in all the curses, crosses, and miseries, that be in the world; and how it makes men liable to all temporal, spiritual, and eternal wrath; how it hath made men Godless, Christless, hopeless, and heavenless.

Further, true repentance doth include sorrow for sin, contrition of heart. It breaks the heart with sighs, and sobs, and groans, for that a loving God and Father is by sin offended, a blessed Saviour afresh crucified (Heb. 6:6), and the sweet comforter, the Spirit, grieved and vexed.”

–Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, in The Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 1, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1866/1980), 1: 32-33.

“A little sin” by Thomas Brooks

“Remedy (4). The fourth remedy against this device of Satan, is seriously to consider, “That there is great danger, yea, many times most danger, in the smallest sins.”

‘A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump,’ (1 Cor. 5:6)

A little hole in the ship sinks it.

A small breach in a sea-bank carries away all before it.

A little stab at the heart kills a man.

And a little sin, without a great deal of mercy, will damn a man.”

–Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, in The Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 1, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1866/1980), 1: 21-22.

“Adversity hath slain her thousand, but prosperity her ten thousand” by Thomas Brooks

“His first device to draw the soul to sin is,

Device (1). To present the bait and hide the hook; to present the golden cup, and hide the poison; to present the sweet, the pleasure, and the profit that may flow in upon the soul by yielding to sin, and by hiding from the soul the wrath and misery that will certainly follow the committing of sin.

By this device he took our first parents: Gen. 3:4, 5, ‘And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.’

Your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods! Here is the bait, the sweet, the pleasure, the profit. Oh, but he hides the hook,—the shame, the wrath, and the loss that would certainly follow!

There is an opening of the eyes of the mind to contemplation and joy, and there is an opening of the eyes of the body to shame and confusion. He promiseth them the former, but intends the latter, and so cheats them—giving them an apple in exchange for a paradise, as he deals by thousands now-a-days.

Satan with ease puts fallacies upon us by his golden baits, and then he leads us and leaves us in a fool’s paradise. He promises the soul honour, pleasure, profit, &c., but pays the soul with the greatest contempt, shame, and loss that can be.

By a golden bait he laboured to catch Christ, Matt. 4:8, 9. He shews him the beauty and the bravery of a bewitching world, which doubtless would have taken many a carnal heart; but here the devil’s fire fell upon wet tinder, and therefore took not.

These tempting objects did not at all win upon his affections, nor dazzle his eyes, though many have eternally died of the wound of the eye, and fallen for ever by this vile strumpet the world, who, by laying forth her two fair breasts of profit and pleasure, hath wounded their souls, and cast them down into utter perdition.

She hath, by the glistering of her pomp and preferment, slain millions; as the serpent Scytale, which, when she cannot overtake the fleeing passengers, doth, with her beautiful colours, astonish and amaze them, so that they have no power to pass away till she have stung them to death.

Adversity hath slain her thousand, but prosperity her ten thousand.”

–Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, in The Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 1, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1866/1980), 1: 12-13.

“The secret of a blessed and holy life” by Horatius Bonar

‘Christ, our passover, has been sacrificed for us.’ (1 Corinthians 5:7)

“Here we rest, protected by the paschal blood, and feeding on the paschal lamb, with its unleavened bread and bitter herbs, from day to day.

‘Let us keep the feast’ (1 Cor. 5:8). Wherever we are, let us keep it.

For we carry our passover with us, always ready, always fresh.

With girded loins and staff in hand, as wayfarers, we move along, through the rough or the smooth of the wilderness, our face toward the land of promise.

That paschal lamb is CHRIST CRUCIFIED.

As such He is our protection, our pardon, our righteousness, our food, our strength, our peace.

Fellowship with Him upon the cross is the secret of a blessed and holy life.”

–Horatius Bonar, The Everlasting Righteousness; or, How Shall a Man be Just with God? (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1873/2020), 97.

“All the devices of Satan” by Thomas Brooks

“Beloved, Satan being fallen from light to darkness, from felicity to misery, from heaven to hell, from an angel to a devil, is so full of malice and envy that he will leave no means unattempted, whereby he may make all others eternally miserable with himself.

He being shut out of heaven, and shut up ‘under the chains of darkness till the judgment of the great day’ (Jude 6), makes use of all his power and skill to bring all the sons of men into the same condition and condemnation, with himself.

Satan hath cast such sinful seed into our souls, that now he can no sooner tempt, but we are ready to assent. He can no sooner have a plot upon us, but he makes a conquest of us.

If he doth but shew men a little of the beauty and bravery of the world, how ready are they to fall down and worship him!

Whatever sin the heart of man is most prone to, that the devil will help forward.

If David be proud of his people, Satan will provoke him to number them, that he may be yet prouder, 2 Samuel 24.

If Peter be slavishly fearful, Satan will put him upon rebuking and p 4 denying of Christ, to save his own skin, Matt. 16:22; 26:69–75.

If Ahab’s prophets be given to flatter, the devil will straightway become a lying spirit in the mouths of four hundred of them, and they shall flatter Ahab to his ruin, 1 Kings 22.

If Judas will be a traitor, Satan will quickly enter into his heart, and make him sell his master for money, which some heathens would never have done, John 13:2.

If Ananias will lie for advantage, Satan will fill his heart that he may lie, with a witness, to the Holy Ghost, Acts 5:3.

Satan loves to sail with the wind, and to suit men’s temptations to their conditions and inclinations.

If they be in prosperity, he will tempt them to deny God, Prov. 30:9.

If they be in adversity, he will tempt them to distrust God.

If their knowledge be weak, he will tempt them to have low thoughts of God.

If their conscience be tender, he will tempt to scrupulosity.

If large, he will tempt to carnal security.

If bold-spirited, he will tempt to presumption;

If timorous, he will tempt to desperation.

If flexible, he will tempt to inconstancy.

If stiff, he will tempt to impenitency.

From the power, malice, and skill of Satan, doth proceed all the soul-killing plots, devices, stratagems, and machinations, that be in the world.

Several devices he hath to draw souls to sin, and several plots he hath to keep souls from all holy and heavenly services, and several stratagems he hath to keep souls in a mourning, staggering, doubting, and questioning condition.

He hath several devices to destroy the great and honourable, the wise and learned, the blind and ignorant, the rich and the poor, the real and the nominal saints.

One while he will restrain from tempting, that we may think ourselves secure, and neglect our watch; another while he will seem to fly, that he may make us proud of the victory.

One while he will fix men’s eyes more on others’ sins than their own, that he may puff them up.

Another while he may fix their eyes more on others’ graces than their own, that he may overwhelm them.

A man may as well tell the stars (Ps. 147:4), and number the sands of the sea, as reckon up all the devices of Satan.

Yet those which are most considerable, and by which he doth most mischief to the precious souls of men, are in the following Treatise discovered, and the remedies against them prescribed.”

–Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, in The Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 1, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1866/1980), 1: 3-4.

“The useful Thomas Brooks” by Alexander Grosart

“In characterizing Sibbes generally, we selected the epithet universally applied to him, ‘heavenly;’ and in like manner, the word ‘useful’ is the one word which accurately expresses the position of Brooks among his contemporaries.

His slightest ‘Epistle’ is ‘Bread of Life.’

His most fugitive ‘Sermon’ is a full cup of ‘Living Water.’

The very foliage of his exuberant fancies are ‘Leaves’ of the Tree of Life.

His one dominating aim is to make dead hearts warm with the Life of the Gospel of Him who is Life.

His supreme purpose is to ‘bring near’ the very Truth of God.

Hence his directness, his urgency, his yearning, his fervour, his fulness of Bible citation, his wistfulness, his intensity, his emotion, and that fine passion of enthusiasm sprung of compassion, and Pauline accident of choice words or melody of sentence.

His desire is to be ‘useful’ to souls, to achieve the holy success of serving Christ, to win a sparkling crown to lay at His feet, breathes and burns from first to last.

Everything is subordinated to ‘usefulness.’

And while he gathered around him the cultured and the titled– who all but worshipped the ‘good old man’– it was his chief rejoicing that, like his Master, ‘the common people’ heard and read him ‘gladly.’

In loving association with Sibbes and Sheffield, Baxter and Bunyan, Brinsley and Samuel Richardson, his books were well thumbed in the hamlets of his own England, and, in quaint ‘Glasgow’ editions, among the godly peasantry of Scotland, and gained wide and long-sustained welcome in Germany and Holland, as Brooks gratefully acknowledges repeatedly.

May this complete edition of these inestimable Works be used at this ‘later day’ to cause him, ‘being dead, yet to speak’ for that dear Lord Jesus he loved and served so well!”

–Alexander Balloch Grosart, as quoted in Thomas Brooks, The Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 6, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1866/1980), 6: vii–viii

“The weight of the eternal crown of glory” by Samuel Rutherford

“When we shall come home, and enter to the possession of our Brother’s fair kingdom, and when our heads shall find the weight of the eternal crown of glory, and when we shall look back to pains and sufferings, then shall we see life and sorrow to be less than one step or stride from a prison to glory; and that our little inch of time-suffering is not worthy of our first night’s welcome-home to heaven.”

–Samuel Rutherford, “Letter LXXXVIII,” Letters of Samuel Rutherford, Ed. Andrew A. Bonar (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1664/2012), 186.