Nick Roark's Blog, page 32

“The goodness of God in sending a snowstorm” by Charles Spurgeon

“Personally, I have to bless God for many good books; I thank Him for Dr. Doddridge’s Rise and Progress of Religion in the Souls; for Baxter’s Call to the Unconverted; for Alleine’s Alarm to Sinners; and for James’s Anxious Enquirer.

But my gratitude most of all is due to God, not for books, but for the preached Word,—and that too addressed to me by a poor, uneducated man, a man who had never received any training for the ministry, and probably will never be heard of in this life, a man engaged in business, no doubt of a humble kind, during the week, but who had just enough of grace to say on the Sabbath, “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the of the earth.” (Isaiah 45:22)

The books were good, but the man was better. The revealed Word awakened me; but it was the preached Word that saved me; and I must ever attach peculiar value to the hearing of the truth, for by it I received the joy and peace in which my soul delights.

While under concern of soul, I resolved that I would attend all the places of worship in the town where I lived, in order that I might find out the way of salvation. I was willing to do anything, and be anything, if God would only forgive my sin.

I set off, determined to go round to all the chapels, and I did go to every place of worship; but for a long time I went in vain. I do not, however, blame the ministers.

One man preached Divine Sovereignty; I could hear him with pleasure, but what was that sublime truth to a poor sinner who wished to know what he must do to be saved?

There was another admirable man who always preached about the law; but what was the use of ploughing up ground that needed to be sown?

Another was a practical preacher. I heard him, but it was very much like a commanding officer teaching the maneuvers of war to a set of men without feet. What could I do? All his exhortations were lost on me.

I knew it was said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved;” (Acts 16:31) but I did not know what it was to believe on Christ.

These good men all preached truths suited to many in their congregations who were spiritually-minded people; but what I wanted to know was,—“How can I get my sins forgiven?”—and they never told me that.

I desired to hear how a poor sinner, under a sense of sin, might find peace with God; and when I went, I heard a sermon on, “Be not deceived, God is not mocked,” (Galatians 6:7) which cut me up still worse; but did not bring me into rest.

I went again, another day, and the text was something about the glories of the righteous; nothing for poor me! I was like a dog under the table, not allowed to eat of the children’s food.

I went time after time, and I can honestly say that I do not know that I ever went without prayer to God, and I am sure there was not a more attentive, hearer than myself in all the place, for I panted and longed to understand how I might be saved.

I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair until now had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm, one Sunday morning, while I was going to a certain place of worship.

When I could go no further, I turned down a side street, and came to a little Primitive Methodist Chapel. In that chapel there may have been a dozen or fifteen people.

I had heard of the Primitive Methodists, how they sang so loudly that they made people’s heads ache; but that did not matter to me. I wanted to know how I might be saved, and if they could tell me that, I did not care how much they made my head ache.

The minister did not come that morning; he was snowed up, I suppose. At last, a very thin-looking man, a shoemaker, of tailor, or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach.

Now, it is well that preachers should be instructed; but this man was not a public speaker. He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had little else to say. The text was,— “LOOK UNTO ME, AND BE YE SAVED, ALL THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.” (Isaiah 45:22)

He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter. There was, I thought, a glimpse of hope for me in that text.

The preacher began thus:—

“My dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says, ‘Look’. Now lookin’ don’t take a deal of pains. It ain’t liftin’ your foot or your finger; it is just, ‘Look.’ Well, a man needn’t go to College to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man needn’t be worth a thousand a year to be able to look. Anyone can look; even a child can look. But then the text says, ‘Look unto Me.’ Ay!” said he, in broad Essex, “many on ye are lookin’ to yourselves, but it’s no use lookin’ there. You’ll never find any comfort in yourselves. Some look to God the Father. No, look to Him by-and-by. Jesus Christ says, ‘Look unto Me’. Some on ye say, ‘We must wait for the Spirit’s workin’.’ You have no business with that just now. Look to Christ. The text says. ‘Look unto Me.’ ”

Then the good man followed up his text in this way:—

“Look unto Me; I am sweatin’ great drops of blood. Look unto Me; I am hangin’ on the cross. Look unto Me; I am dead and buried. Look unto Me; I rise again. Look unto Me; I ascend to Heaven. Look unto Me; I am sittin’ at the Father’s right hand. O poor sinner, look unto Me! look unto Me!”

When he had gone to about that length, and managed to spin out ten minutes or so, he was at the end of his tether. Then he looked at me under the gallery, and I daresay, with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger.

Just fixing his eyes on me, as if he knew all my heart, he said, “Young man, you look very miserable.”

Well, I did; but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made from the pulpit on my personal appearance before. However, it was a good blow, struck right home.

He continued, “and you always will be miserable—miserable in life, and miserable in death,—if you don’t obey my text; but if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved.”

Then, lifting up his hands, he shouted, as only a Primitive Methodist could do, “Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothin’ to do but to look and live.”

I saw at once the way of salvation. I know not what else he said,—I did not take much notice of it,—I was so possessed with that one thought.

Like as when the brazen serpent was lifted up, the people only looked and were healed, so it was with me. I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard that word, “Look!” what a charming word it seemed to me!

Oh! I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away. There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun; and I could have risen that instant, and sung with the most enthusiastic of them, of the precious blood of Christ, and the simple faith which looks alone to Him.

Oh, that somebody had told me this before, “Trust Christ, and you shall be saved.”

Yet it was, no doubt, all wisely ordered, and now I can say,—

“E’er since by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.”

–Charles H. Spurgeon, C. H. Spurgeon’s Autobiography: Volume 1, The Early Years, Compiled from His Diary, Letters, and Records, by His Wife and His Private Secretary, 1834–1854 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1887/1962), 1: 86-88. Spurgeon was converted to Christ on January 6, 1850.

“From womb to tomb to throne” by Sinclair B. Ferguson

“From womb to tomb to throne, the Spirit was the constant companion of the Son.”

–Sinclair Ferguson, The Holy Spirit: Contours of Christian Theology (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 37.

“He that was ‘with God,’ and ‘was God,’ is also ‘Immanuel, God with us.'” by J.C. Ryle

“Would we know the exceeding sinfulness of sin? Let us often read these first five verses of St. John’s Gospel.

Let us mark what kind of Being the Redeemer of mankind must be in order to provide eternal redemption for sinners.

If no one less than the Eternal God, the Creator and Preserver of all things, could take away the sin of the world, sin must be a far more abominable thing in the sight of God than most men suppose.

The right measure of sin’s sinfulness is the dignity of Him who came into the world to save sinners. If Christ is so great, then sin must indeed be sinful!

Would we know, for another thing, the strength of a true Christian’s foundation for hope? Let us often read these first five verses of St. John’s Gospel.

Let us mark that the Saviour in whom the believer is bid to trust is nothing less than the Eternal God, One able to save to the uttermost all that come to the Father by Him.

He that was ‘with God,’ and ‘was God,’ is also ‘Immanuel, God with us.’

Let us thank God that our help is laid on One that is mighty. (Psalm 89:19) In ourselves we are great sinners. But in Jesus Christ we have a great Saviour.

He is a strong foundation-stone, able to bear the weight of a world’s sin. He that believeth on Him shall not be confounded. (1 Peter 2:6)”

–J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John, Vol. 1 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1869/2012), 1: 3.

“Bruised reeds are very precious in our Lord’s eyes” by J.C. Ryle

“The second thing which demands our notice in this passage, is the encouraging description of our Lord Jesus Christ’s character, which St. Matthew draws from the prophet Isaiah: ‘A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench.’ (Matthew 12:20)

What are we to understand by the bruised reed, and smoking flax? The language of the prophet no doubt is figurative.

What is it that these two expressions mean? The simplest explanation seems to be, that the Holy Ghost is here describing persons whose grace is at present weak, whose repentance is feeble, and whose faith is small. Towards such persons the Lord Jesus Christ will be very tender and compassionate.

Weak as the broken reed is, it shall not be broken. Small as the spark of fire may be within the smoking flax, it shall not be quenched.

It is a standing truth in the kingdom of grace, that weak grace, weak faith, and weak repentance, are all precious in our Lord’s sight. Mighty as He is, “He despiseth not any.” (Job 36:5)

The doctrine here laid down is full of comfort and consolation. There are thousands in every church of Christ to whom it ought to speak peace and hope.

There are some in every congregation, that hears the Gospel, who are ready to despair of their own salvation, because their strength seems so small. They are full of fears and despondency, because their knowledge, and faith, and hope, and love, appear so small.

Let them drink comfort out of this text. Let them know that weak faith gives a man as real and true an interest in Christ as strong faith, though it may not give him the same joy.

There is life in an infant as truly as in a grown up man. There is fire in a spark as truly as in a burning flame.

The least degree of grace is an everlasting possession. It comes down from heaven. It is precious in our Lord’s eyes.

It shall never be overthrown. Does Satan make light of the beginnings of repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ?

No! indeed! he does not. He has great wrath, because he sees his time is short.—Do the angels of God think lightly of the first signs of penitence and feeling after God in Christ?

No! indeed! “there is joy” among them, when they behold the sight.—Does the Lord Jesus regard no faith and repentance with interest, unless they are strong and mighty?

No! indeed! As soon as that bruised reed, Saul of Tarsus, begins to cry to Him, He sends Ananias to him, saying, ‘Behold he prayeth.’ (Acts 9:11)

We err greatly if we do not encourage the very first movements of a soul towards Christ.

Let the ignorant world scoff and mock, if it will. We may be sure that ‘bruised reeds’ and ‘smoking flax’ are very precious in our Lord’s eyes.

May we all lay these things to heart, and use them in time of need, both for ourselves and others. It should be a standing maxim in our religion, that a spark is better than utter darkness, and little faith better than no faith at all.

‘Who hath despised the day of small things?’ (Zechariah 4:10) It is not despised by Christ. It ought not to be despised by Christians.”

–J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Matthew (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1856/2012), 102-103.

“A threefold love of God” by Francis Turretin

“A threefold love of God is commonly held; or rather there are three degrees of one and the same love.

First, there is the love of benevolence by which God willed good to the creature from eternity; second, the love of beneficence by which He does good to the creature in time according to His good will; third, the love of complacency by which He delights Himself in the creature on account of the rays of His image seen in them.

The two former precede every act of the creature; the latter follows (not as an effect its cause, but as a consequent its antecedent).

By the love of benevolence, He loved us before we were; by the love of beneficence, He loves us as we are; and by the love of complacency, He loves us when we are (viz., renewed after His image).

By the first, He elects us; by the second, He redeems and sanctifies us; but by the third, He gratuitously rewards us as holy and just.

John 3:16 refers to the first; Ephesians 5:25 and Revelation 1:5 to the second; Isaiah 62:3 and Hebrews 11:6 to the third.”

–Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, ed. James T. Dennison Jr., trans. George Musgrave Giger, vol. 1 (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1992–1997), 1: 242.

“Christ is the fountain of life and the foundation of all blessedness” by Thomas Adams

“If Christ hath made us kings, why do we live like beggars?

Our diet is manna, the bread of angels.

Our apparel is out of the rich wardrobe of God’s own Son.

Our dwelling (for this is but our pilgrimage) is that glorious court above the starry firmament.

Our revenues be those immortal graces from the treasury of goodness, which can never be wasted.

Our attendance is no meaner than celestial angels.

This blessed Christ is the sole paragon of our joy, the fountain of life, the foundation of all blessedness.

The sum of the whole Bible, prophesied, typified, prefigured, exhibited, demonstrated, to be found in every leaf, almost in every line; the Scriptures being but as it were the swaddling bands of the child Jesus.

Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Samson, David, were all renowned, yet are but meant on the by; Christ is the main, the center whither all these lines are referred.

They were all his forerunners, to prepare his way: it is fit that many harbingers and heralds should go before so great a Prince; only John Baptist was that Phosphorus, or morning star, to signify the sun’s approaching.

The world was never worthy of Him, especially not so early; He was too rich a jewel to be exposed at the first opening of the shop.

Therefore He was wrapt up in those obscure shadows, the tree of life, Noah’s ark, Jacob’s ladder; therefore called ‘the expectation of nations,’ longed and looked for more than health to the sick, or life to the dying.

The golden legend of those famous worthies, Heb. 11, were but so many pictures which God sent before to the church, counterfeits, abridgments, and dark resemblances of the Prince of glory, whom His Father promised to many unto mankind; and ‘when the fulness of time was come,’ Gal. 4:4, He performed it.

Lo! now, all those stars drew in their borrowed light when that sun arose!

To whom, instead of all the rest, Moses and Elias did homage on Mount Tabor, as to the accomplisher of the Law and Prophets.

The best things of the world may be proud and happy to be resemblances of Him. By Him they were made, but for Him they should not continue.

Therefore most willingly they yield all their services to His honour, glad to be as silk and gold, fringe and lace, for the embroidery of His garments.

The sun, the brightest of all stars; wine, the sweetest of all liquors; the rose, the fairest of all flowers; bread, so necessary; water, so refreshing; all emblems to adumbrate some parcels of His infinite perfections.

Were they all compounded into one, the most harmoniously, yet they could not make up an idea of Him.

He is life and light, the sun and the sum, the founder and the finisher of all perfect blessedness.

Christus in imo, Christus in summo; (“Christ in the lowest, Christ in the highest“)

Christ is the root, and Christ is the roof.

With us diverse things have their uses in some cases and places, but to make us righteous before God, to pacify our consciences, to preserve us in this world from sin, and in the world to come from damnation, nothing but Christ!

As for God, He hath so set His love upon Christ, that besides Him, or out of Him, he regards no person, no action. Only look how much there is of Christ in any man, whether imputed or infused, so much he is in God’s books.

Out of that boundless treasury He pays Himself all our debts, and that so sufficiently, that whatsoever God can require for satisfaction, or man desire for perfection, it is all found in Christ.

Now this Christ, as He is our King, govern us; as He is our Prophet, instruct us; as He is our Priest, save us, by the sacrifice of Himself and His own precious merits. Amen.”

–Thomas Adams, “Sermon LXIII: Meditations Upon Some Part of the Creed,” in The Works of Thomas Adams: Being the Sum of His Sermons, Meditations, and Other Divine and Moral Discourses, ed. Thomas Smith, vol. 3, Nichol’s Series of Standard Divines: Puritan Period (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; W. Robertson, 1861–1862), 3: 224–225.

“His banner over you is love” by Hugh Martin

“‘Lo! He is with us always!’ (Matthew 28:20) So may the King’ be ‘held in the galleries‘ (Song of Songs 7: 5). And such are some of the glorious and living transactions which are evermore transpiring there.

In short, the Lord’s revelation of Himself in the days of His flesh, in all its essential features and details, is, by the gospel history which lives and abides for ever, projected on the plane of every generation as it passes.

And when the Spirit is given to take of the things of Christ and show them unto us, the projection starts forth, to the eye of faith, with the stereoscopic, statuesque fullness and solidity of actual reality.

More than that, Jesus— by His Spirit adjoining Himself to His own representation of Himself in His biography, looking out from that true-to-life picture, with His own living countenance of majesty and love, and speaking with His own never-dying word— is truly with us.

Moreover, it is in this light most clearly expedient for us that He should have gone away?

His presence by the Spirit is better than His presence in the body; as in many respects, so in this, evidently; that, present in the body, He could manifest Himself, as in the Galleries, one by one only; successively; His presence in one causing His absence in all the others.

Present by His Spirit, He can manifest Himself simultaneously in them all.

So that, perplexed with guilt, you shall find Him on the cross.

Perplexed with temptation, you shall find Him in the wilderness.

Seeking a testimony of your union with Him and your sonship, you shall find Him at the stream of Jordan.

Longing to hear His gracious words, you shall find Him in the synagogue of Nazareth.

On the day of melancholy, you shall find Him weeping at the grave of Lazarus— weeping also with you.

On the blessed Sabbath-day of high communion, you shall find Him in the large upper chamber— His banqueting house, where His banner over you is love.

The ivory palaces are all open to you, O son and daughter of the King. And you may see the goings of the King in them all (Ps. 45:8; Ps. 68:24).”

—Hugh Martin, The Abiding Presence (Geanies House, Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Heritage, 1860/2009), 59-60.

“Time is charged with the eternity of God” by Herman Bavinck

“Believers are what God has made them, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be their way of life (Eph. 2:10).

In the cause of Christ it is graciously given them not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him (Acts 5:41; Phil. 1:29).

God crowns His own work, not only in conferring eternal life on everyone who believes but also in distributing different degrees of glory to those who, motivated by that faith, have produced good works.

His purpose in doing this, however, is that, on earth as in heaven, there would be profuse diversity in the believing community, and that in such diversity the glory of His attributes would be manifest.

Indeed, as a result of this diversity, the life of fellowship with God and with the angels, and of the blessed among themselves, gains in depth and intimacy.

In that fellowship everyone has a place and task of one’s own, based on personality and character, just as this is the case in the believing community on earth (Rom. 12:4–8; 1 Cor. 12).

While we may not be able to form a clear picture of the activity of the blessed, Scripture does teach that the prophetic, priestly, and royal office, which was humanity’s original possession, is fully restored in them by Christ.

The service of God, mutual communion, and inhabiting the new heaven and the new earth undoubtedly offer abundant opportunity for the exercise of these offices, even though the form and manner of this exercise are unknown to us.

That activity, however, coincides with resting and enjoying.

The difference between day and night, between the Sabbath and the workdays, has been suspended.

Time is charged with the eternity of God. Space is full of His presence.

Eternal becoming is wedded to immutable being.

Even the contrast between heaven and earth is gone. For all the things that are in heaven and on earth have been gathered up in Christ as head (Eph. 1:10).

All creatures will then live and move and have their being in God (Acts 17:28), who is all in all (1 Cor. 15:28), who reflects all His attributes in the mirror of His works and glorifies Himself in them.”

–Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, Volume 4: Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation. Ed. John Bolt and Tr. John Vriend (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 729-730.

“I should be more thankful than I am” by John Piper

“THE GREAT WORK OF GOD: RAIN

A Thanksgiving Meditation on Job 5:8–10:

“But as for me, I would seek God,
And I would place my cause before God;
Who does great and unsearchable things,
Wonders without number.
He gives rain on the earth,
And sends water on the fields.”

If you said to someone: “My God does great and unsearchable things; he does wonders without number,” and they responded, “Really? Like what?” would you say, “Like rain”?

When I read these verses from Job recently, I felt, at first, the way I did on hearing some bad poetry that went something like this: “Let me suffer, let me die, just to win your hand; let me even climb a hill, or walk across the land.”

Even? I would suffer and die to have your hand, and even walk across the land? As if walking across the land were more sacrificial than dying? This sounded to me like a joke.

But Job is not joking. “God does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number. He gives rain on the earth.” In Job’s mind rain really is one of the great, unsearchable wonders that God does.

So when I read this a few weeks ago, I resolved not to treat it as meaningless pop musical lyrics. I decided to have a conversation with myself (which is what I mean by meditation).

Is rain a great and unsearchable wonder wrought by God? Picture yourself as a farmer in the Near East, far from any lake or stream. A few wells keep the family and animals supplied with water.

But if the crops are to grow and the family is to be fed from month to month, water has to come from another source on the fields. From where?

Well, the sky. The sky? Water will come out of the clear blue sky? Well, not exactly. Water will have to be carried in the sky from the Mediterranean Sea over several hundred miles, and then be poured out on the fields from the sky.

Carried? How much does it weigh? Well, if one inch of rain falls on one square mile of farmland during the night, that would be 2,323,200 cubic feet of water, which is 17,377,536 gallons, which is 144,735,360 pounds of water.

That’s heavy. So how does it get up in the sky and stay up there if it’s so heavy? Well, it gets up there by evaporation. Really? That’s a nice word. What’s it mean?

It means that the water stops being water for a while so it can go up and not down. I see. Then how does it get down? Well, condensation happens.

What’s that? The water starts becoming water again by gathering around little dust particles between .00001 and .0001 centimeters wide. That’s small.

What about the salt? Salt? Yes, the Mediterranean Sea is saltwater. That would kill the crops. What about the salt? Well, the salt has to be taken out.

Oh. So the sky picks up millions of pounds of water from the sea, takes out the salt, carries the water (or whatever it is, when it is not water) for three hundred miles, and then dumps it (now turned into water again) on the farm?

Well, it doesn’t dump it. If it dumped millions of pounds of water on the farm, the wheat would be crushed. So the sky dribbles the millions of pounds of water down in little drops.

And they have to be big enough to fall for one mile or so without evaporating, and small enough to keep from crushing the wheat stalks.

How do all these microscopic specks of water that weigh millions of pounds get heavy enough to fall (if that’s the way to ask the question)? Well, it’s called coalescence. What’s that?

It means the specks of water start bumping into each other and join up and get bigger, and when they are big enough, they fall. Just like that?

Well, not exactly, because they would just bounce off each other instead of joining up if there were no electric field present. What? Never mind. Take my word for it.

I think, instead, I will just take Job’s word for it.

I still don’t see why drops ever get to the ground, because if they start falling as soon as they are heavier than air, they would be too small not to evaporate on the way down.

But if they wait to come down, what holds them up till they are big enough not to evaporate? Yes, I am sure there’s a name for that too.

But I am satisfied for now that, by any name, this is a great and unsearchable thing that God has done. I think I should be thankful—lots more thankful than I am.

–John Piper, Taste and See: Savoring the Supremacy of God in All of Life (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 2005), 24–26.

“He loves His spouse” by John Owen

“Christ parted with the greatest glory, He underwent the greatest misery, He did the greatest works that ever were, because He loves His spouse,— because He values believers.

What can more, what can farther be spoken?

How little is the depth of that which is spoken fathomed!

How unable are we to look into the mysterious recesses of it!

He so loves, so values His saints, as that, having from eternity undertaken to bring them to God, He rejoices His soul in the thoughts of it.

And He pursues His design through heaven and hell, through life and death, by suffering and doing, in mercy and with power and He ceases not until He brings it to perfection.”

–John Owen, “Communion with God,” The Works of John Owen, Volume 2 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1684/2000), 2: 139.