Charles Spurgeon | Bonnie's Prayer Affair

LET US PRESS ON TO KNOW THE LORD

“When have you been the most fruitless? Has it not been when you have lived farthest from the Lord Jesus Christ. Has it not been when your graces have engrossed your attention instead of your Lord, when you have forgotten where your strength dwells” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Nov 13^th AM)?

“You cannot, without incurring guilt, neglect private prayer, meditation, and self-examination, or public ordinances such as the ministry of the Word, the services of the Church, the assemblies of the saints. Neglect of these, however slight, entails a severe loss to your soul. It is in the way of diligent, prayerful waiting upon the means that the Christian goes ‘from strength to strength.’ Search, oh search, for this living grace. No man shall wait upon the Lord in vain” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Feb 3^rd).

“It is much easier to do something than to trust in God; we mistake panic for inspiration. That is why there are so few fellow workers with God and so many workers for Him. We would far rather work for God than believe in Him” Oswald Chambers (ref#7, June 1^st).

“We must bend our every effort to this goal: that we should not let ourselves be overwhelmed by careless or faintheartedness. [W]e have to wage war against an infinite number of enemies” Doug Newton (ref#166, p71).

“The Christian should be of a courageous spirit, by enduring trials in a heroic manner. If he is fearful and fainthearted, it will dishonor his God. This disease of doubtfulness and discouragement is an epidemic that soon spreads among the Lord’s flock. One downcast believer makes twenty souls sad. Moreover, unless your courage is kept up, Satan will be too much for you” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, May 11^th PM).

“[F]ear of weakness amounts to God-forgetfulness” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, July 6^th).

“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32 ESV).

“[L]et us know; let us press on to know the LORD, his going out is sure as the dawn, he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth” (Hos 6:3 ESV).

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LOOK TO THE LORD ALONE

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight” (Ps 19:14 ESV).

“Blessed is the man whom you discipline” (Ps 94:12 ESV).

“I trust in you, O LORD, I say ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hand” (Ps 31:14 ESV).

“Hold me up that I may be safe and have regard for your statutes continually” (Ps 119:117 ESV)!

“In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear” (Ps 40:6 ESV).

“Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name” (Ps 86:11 ESV).

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart I will be found by you, declares the LORD” (Jer 29:11-14 ESV).

“Remember that you may know the righteous acts of the LORD. With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:5-8 ESV).

“The Christian is independent of man, even in temporal things. For his continued maintenance, he looks to the Lord his God, and to Him alone” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Aug 13^th AM).

“To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (1 Pet 4:11 ESV).

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PUTTING ON THE NEW SELF

“We will take everything that happens as happening to Him, whether it be praise or blame, persecution or commendation” Oswald Chambers (ref#7, Feb 4^th).

“Do we not become members of the body of the divine person of Christ? Yes, the same blood that flows in the head flows in the hand, and the same life that quickens Christ quickens His people, for ‘Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God’ (Col 3:3). As if this were not enough, we are married to Christ. He has betrothed us unto Himself in righteousness and in faithfulness, and he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Sept 16^th AM).

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire” (2 Pet 1:3-4 ESV).

“To live a holy life is to live a life in conformity to the moral precepts of the Bible and in contrast to the sinful ways of the world. It is to live a life characterized by the ‘[putting] off of your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires and [putting] on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness’ (Ephesians 4:22, 24)” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p16).

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (Rom 12:1 ESV).

By calling it a living sacrifice we are to be continually sacrificed to the Lord so that our former life will be destroyed in us. [O]ur work is pleasing and acceptable to God when we devote ourselves to purity and holiness” John Calvin (ref#164, Aug 6^th).

“But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God’s love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. This is the unending life, the real life” (Jude 1:20-21 MSG)!

“[What] pleases him is not our work for him but our need of him” John Piper (ref#220, p215-216).

“The good news of salvation is that as believers in Jesus Christ, and by God’s grace, we are no longer sinners in Adam, we are now righteous in Christ” Denny Johnson (ref#385).

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GOD’S LOVE TO ME

“[T]he highest and most ravishing pleasures, the most solid and substantial delights that human nature is capable of, are those which arise from the endearments of a well-placed and successful affection” Henry Scougal (ref#321, p73).

“You are a welcome guest at the table of the promises, Scripture is a never-failing treasury filled with boundless stores of grace. It is a bank of heaven; you may draw from it as much as you please, without permission or hindrance. There is not a promise in the Word that will be withheld. This is your Father’s love-token. You are free to it at all times” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Sept 19^th AM).

“His love to us is a free love. It is also sovereign love. It proceeds from Himself alone. It is a love fixed on us. It is a love of complacency and delight. It is an immutable and an everlasting love. It was in God’s heart towards us before the world was. It will never cease being in His heart towards us throughout the ages of eternity, the blessings of which we are to enjoy in communion with Him now and forever” Samuel Eyles Pierce (ref#257, p38).

“[W]e will never have [our] will truly free until it is bound in the golden fetters of His sweet love” Charles Spurgeon (ref#320, p26).

“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God” (1 John 3:1 NKJV)!

“[L]et your minds be engaged about the Father’s love to us: on the greatness of it, the eternity of it, the fixation of it, the immensity of it, the blessings contained in it, the continuation of it; on what we shall forever and ever enjoy as the objects and subjects of it, what hath been already bestowed on us, what we have enjoyed and do enjoy out of and from this infinite ocean” Samuel Eyles Pierce (ref#257, p38).

“[L]et us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb 10:22 ESV).

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SHATTERED PRIDE

“As we grow in the Christian life we face increasing danger of spiritual pride” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p72).

“To humble the pride of the flesh, God determined to take away from men any reason for confidence or boasting” John Calvin (ref#164, Jan 9^th).

“It is a very common for God’s people, after they have enjoyed a great deliverance, to find a little trouble too much for them. It is as if the Lord must teach us our littleness, our nothingness, in order to keep us within bounds” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Jan 21^st PM).

“Thank God if you are going through a drying-up experience! The sign that God is at work in us is that He corrupts confidence in the natural virtues. It is the saddest thing to see people in the service of God depending on what they have by the accident of heredity” Oswald Chambers (ref#7, Dec 30^th).

“Weakness is not the big danger to be avoided. What you need to avoid is your delusions of strength” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Feb 17^th).

“Idlers may indulge a fond conceit of their abilities, because they are untried; but the earnest worker soon learns his own weakness. If you seek humility, try hard work. If you would know your nothingness, attempt some great thing for Jesus” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Mar 2^nd PM).

“To be truly in Christ is to stand accepted in His righteousness, to be justified by Him freely from all things; it is to be brought to the knowledge of our own vileness, insufficiency, and guilt; to be made to cast aside all self-dependence and works of human merit, and to come as the thief on the cross came, without any confidence in anything of self, but as a poor, helpless, ruined, condemned sinner, whose hope of pardon and acceptance is only through the free mercy of God in Christ Jesus” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, July 1^st).

“[W]e must die if we are ever going to live. So grace is out to kill us. But in presiding over our deaths, grace gives us life” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Oct 19^th).

“[T]rust the Lord, surrender, and go habitually trusting through all the changes, knowing that his love, purpose, and promise are unchangeable” John Newton (ref#322, p191).

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WHAT GOD DOES TOWARD OUR SANCTIFICATION

“You realize, don’t you, that you are the temple of God, and God himself is present in you? No one will get by with vandalizing God’s temple, you can be sure of that. God’s temple is sacred—and you, remember, are the temple” (1 Cor 3:16-17 MSG).

“Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by was of Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 1:28-31 MSG).

“It is utterly impossible that God should deny his love to a soul wholly devoted to him; and which desires nothing so much as to serve and please him; he cannot disdain his own image, nor that heart in which it is engraven: love is all the tribute which we can pay him, and it is the sacrifice which he will not despise” Henry Scougal (ref#321, p76).

“Those who serve God must serve Him in His own way, and in His strength, or He will never accept their service” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Nov 4^thAM).

“God will empty out all that you have before He will put His own into you. He will first clean out your granaries before He will fill them with the finest of the wheat. The river of God is full of water, but not one drop of it flows from earthly springs. God will have no strength used in His battles but the strength that He Himself imparts” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Nov 4^th AM).

“Take courage, for there must be a consciousness of weakness before the Lord will give you victory. Your emptiness is but the preparation for your being filled” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Nov 4^th AM). Note to me: Embark on something GOD blesses and is way too big for me.

“Our natural affections are not wholly to be extirpated and destroyed, but only to be moderated and over-ruled by a superior and more excellent principle” Henry Scougal (ref#321, p50).

“May God himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (1 Thes 5:23-24 ESV).

“[E]veryone who hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (1 John 3:3 ESV).

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THE SPIRIT’S HELP IN SANCTIFICATION

“For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Eph 2:18-22 ESV).

“God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth” (2 Thes 2:13 ESV).

“[T]he Pentecostal gift of the Spirit is the gift of a God-possessed personality. The gift turns ordinary persons into extraordinary personalities” Samuel Chadwick (ref#195, p87).

“We are encompassed with innumerable sinful infirmities; we have a law in our members warring against the law of our mind, and bringing us into captivity to the law of sin in our members. We are constantly assailed by Satan, and as constantly liable to yield. Oh, with what power and constant acting of faith should we throw ourselves on the Spirit! How ceaselessly should we pray to Him with all supplication, imploring His guiding, teaching, sealing, and comforting grace to help us in every time of need” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Apr 12^th).

“He put His own nature into us. [I]t is acting and manifesting and expressing itself by the Holy Ghost (Rom 5:5)” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#211, p17).

“[A]s the first man Adam was made in the image of God, so we, by the renewal of the Holy Spirit, are in a diviner sense made in the image of the Most High and are partakers of the divine nature” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Sept 16^th AM)

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SANCTIFICATION IS:

“Christ takes us out of the devil’s clutches and puts us into His own kingdom, and the devil cannot touch us. That is what was happening upon the cross. The devil thought he was defeating Christ, but Christ was reconciling us to God, defeating the devil and delivering us out of his clutches. He does it be paying the penalty and putting us right with God. The power of God comes into us, and we are born again, receiving new natures and becoming new people. The Holy Spirit is put within us, and Christ’s presence is ever at hand to help us. [The enemy] can frighten us perhaps, he can shout at us, but he cannot touch us. He thought he was finishing Christ. He was really bringing about his own defeat. Christ has conquered him” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#189, April 13^th).

“He has bestowed His love upon us, implanted Himself, infused or injected His love within us” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#211, p16-17).

“Sanctification is not an experience—it is a condition. It is my relationship to God: I am ‘changed into the same image [of Jesus Christ] from glory to glory.’ Sanctification involves experiences and is helped by them, but in itself it is not an experience. Sanctification is that process of growth and development that starts the moment we are saved, the moment we are justified, the moment we are regenerated’ Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#189, Jan 28^th).

“Sanctification is that condition in which the sin principle is dealt with. Justification does not deal with the sin principle within us; it deals with the sins that we have committed. But after our sins have been forgiven, and sin and guilt have been removed from us, the sin principle will remain within us, and what the New Testament means by this doctrine of sanctification is the process whereby the very principle and the activity of sin within us is being taken out of us and removed” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#189, Sept 29^th).

“Sanctification begins in regeneration. The Spirit of God infuses into man that new living principle by which he becomes ‘a new creature’ (2 Cor 5:17) in Christ Jesus. This work, which begins in the new birth, is carried on in two ways: through mortification, whereby the lusts of the flesh are subdued and kept under; and through vivification, by which the life that God has put within us is made to be a ‘well of water springing up into everlasting life’ (John 4:14)” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, July 4^th AM).

“[T]he LORD will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you a people for himself” (1 Sam 12:22 ESV).

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INTRO TO SANCTIFICATION

Posts on the subject of “Sanctification” start today and will conclude in July, LORD willing. These posts are divided into three categories: (1) GOD’s work in my sanctification, (2) My work in my sanctification, and (3) Our work together in sanctification.

At the beginning of sanctification “Generally there is an awakening of heart and mind in which there comes vision and persuasion. There is a conviction of need and a revelation of grace, a hunger and a search, a process and a crisis an act of faith and an assurance of cleansing. It is as distinctly a second work of grace as regeneration is a new birth” Samuel Chadwick (ref#195, p116).

“[V]ast pieces of your existence are out of your control, beyond your power to alter. But you must not conclude that your life is out of control. Because your story is woven into the fabric of the redemption story, there is meaning, purpose, and direction to every part of it. The inertia of redemption carries your story along. The goal of redemption guarantees your destiny. The future grace of eternity secures for you all the grace you will ever need in between. No, you won’t understand all that you face, and yes, God’s will will confuse you at points, but your story has been infused with meaning and purpose because it’s been included in God’s story of redemption and restoration. He rules over all things so that his grace can finish its work in you unabated” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Nov. 8^th).

“God’s tender love for His servants makes Him concerned for the state of their emotions. [O]ur Master would not have us entangled with fears. He wants us to be free of cares, doubts, and cowardice. Our Master takes our unbelief more seriously than we do. When we are despondent, we are subject to a grievous disease that should not be ignored, but should be taken immediately to the Beloved Physician” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, May 11^th PM).

“Be most engaged in those experiences that have proven to draw you nearest to Christ, because it is from Him that all your fruit proceeds. Any holy exercise that will bring you to Him will help you to bear fruit” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Nov 13^th AM).

“God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears” (Phil 1:3-6 MSG).

Instruct our minds; our wills subdue;

To heaven our passions raise;

That hence our lives, our all may be

Devoted to thy praise” B. Beddome (ref#224, song #434).

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CHRISTIAN SELF-DENIAL

“’As sure as ever a Christian carves for himself, he’ll cut his own fingers’” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Feb 9^th AM).

“It is an ancient and true observation that there is a world of vices hidden in the soul of man, but Christian self-denial is the remedy of them all” John Owen (ref#313, p24).

“The great enemy of the life of faith in God is not sin, but the good which is not good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best. Many of us do not go on spiritually because we prefer to choose what is right instead of relying on God to choose for us” Oswald Chambers (ref#7, May 25^th).

“[A]lthough we have offended our King many times, yet our hearts are loyal to Him after all. ‘Oh precious Jesus, we would obey You and yield submission to every one of Your laws; our sins are not willful or beloved sins. Although we fall, we can truly say that we want to be holy as You are holy, our hearts are true toward Your statutes. Lord, help us to ‘run the way of thy commandments’ (Psalm 119:32)” Charles Spurgeon (ref#320, p26).

“[T]hough we can fall of ourselves, we cannot rise without his help. Indeed every sin, in its own nature, has a tendency toward a final apostasy; but there is a provision in the covenant of grace, and the Lord, in his own time, returns to convince, humble, pardon, comfort, and renew the soul. [W]e begin at length to learn that we are nothing, have nothing, can do nothing but sin. And thus we are gradually prepared to live more out of ourselves, and to derive all our sufficiency of every kind from Jesus, the fountain of grace. We learn to tread more warily, to trust less to our own strength, to have lower thoughts of ourselves, and higher thoughts of him” John Newton (ref#322, p119-120).

“Do not sweep my soul away with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men, in whose hands are evil devices, and whose right hands are full of bribes. But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity; redeem me, and be gracious to me” (Ps 26:9-11 ESV).