John Calvin

JESUS

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SIN’S REMEDY

FATHER, You have put us all in the prison of sin.  We all start out in identical conditions (Rom 3:9).  Then You invite all to come to the cross of CHRIST.

“The cross of Christ triumphs only in the hearts of believers over the devil and the flesh, over sin and wickedness, when they lift their eyes to behold the power of the resurrection” John Calvin (ref#313, p82-83)

“…God has imprisoned everyone in disobedience so he could have mercy on everyone”(Rom 11:32 NLT).

“Sin is every human being’s core disease.  It is completely beyond the power of any human being to escape it.  It separates you from God, for whom you were created. It damages every aspect of your personhood.  It makes it impossible for you to be what God created you to be and to do what God designed you to do.  It robs you of inner contentment and peace, and it puts you at war with other human beings. It renders you blind, weak, self-oriented, and rebellious.  It reduces all of us to fools, and ultimately it leads to death.  Sin is an unmitigated, almost incalculable disaster…you and I have no ability whatsoever to escape from the hold that sin has on us.  It is the moral Vice-Grip that has held the heart of every person who has ever lived” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Feb 29th).

“It is the cross of Christ that brings us all down to the same place. ‘All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.’ The differences between nations and groups within them and individuals are nothing when you look at the cross of Christ.  We are all miserable, helpless, hopeless sinners” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#189, April 15th).

“…the eternal Word Who became man, uniting a true human nature to his divine nature…the two natures joined in the one Person forever….if your personal problem of sin is ever to be remedied in a biblical way, it will be remedied only as you have personal dealings with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Such is the unique stand of the Christian faith: the sinner in all his need, united to the Savior in all the fullness of His grace; the sinner in his naked need, and the Savior in His almighty power, brought directly together in the gospel.  That reality is the glory of God’s good news to sinners” Albert N. Martin (ref#221, p10-11)!

JESUS

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JESUS LED BY THE SPIRIT

FATHER, the familiar and habitual life I lead humanly is that of selfish desire which leads to unholy action.  This is my born-with nature—a desire to do what I want to do.

“…the lie of autonomy…tells you that you are an independent human, that your life belongs to you, and that you have the right to live your life as you please” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Nov 30th).

But when I study the life of JESUS on earth, I do not see Him doing what He wants to do, even though He is the Son of GOD!  Instead, He emptied Himself to allow You, FATHER, to give Him the fullness of Your SPIRIT:

“Our Lord’s life was mapped out for Him.  He came to do the Father’s will, and that will was unfolded and interpreted to Him by the Holy Spirit….He was led of the Spirit, taught of the Spirit, and strengthened in the Spirit….He was constantly dependent upon the Spirit…” Samuel Chadwick (ref#195, p79).  “…he was anointed by the Spirit to be a herald and witness of his Father’s grace…” John Calvin (ref#113, p318).

“…the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.  He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge…” (Isa 11:2-4 ESV).

JESUS, the Son of GOD and also the Son of Man, belonged to GOD; I also belong to GOD. “We don’t own our mentality, our spirituality, our emotionality, our psychology, our personality, or our physicality.  We are not independent beings and we do not have a natural right to do with our physical and spiritual selves whatever we desire to do” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Nov 30th).

FATHER, I do not want to judge situations with my own eyes and ears but with the wisdom of the SPIRIT within me.

GOD

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GOD IS LOVE

“…search and rescue impulse is in the very center of God’s heart” Doug Newton (ref#166, p35).

GOD is love (1 John 4:8). He is not just loving.  Love is not one of His attributes, it is what influences His attributes.  Yet, GOD does not love to glorify Himself, His focus is on His people.  “…love does not look at itself—it is absorbed in the object of its love” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#211, p116).

“In enriching us with his gifts, God gains nothing for himself, yet he would have the splendor and beauty of his character manifested in bountifully dealing with us….” John Calvin (ref#164, March 7th).

“I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God”(Ex 29:45-46 ESV).

“…God searches passionately for people who are lost, finds them and does whatever He must to make them His possession” Doug Newton (ref#166, p36).

FATHER, You are absorbed in the objects You love.  And not only in loving me but all Your human creation that I, privileged as Your helper, search also to bring to You.

ASSURANCES

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OVERCOMING THE WORLD

“…people who are truly Christians are those who overcome the world.  They rise above it; they conquer it.  They are in the world, but no longer of it….They may fall into sin, but they do not dally in it…They have been delivered out of this evil world, having been translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of God’s dear Son” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#332, p643).

“ “…Christians…view the world in an entirely new manner.  They see that it is governed by sin.  They have come to regard it as a place in which evil forces are at work…They know that it is something they have to fight, something to withstand, and they realize that unless they do so they will be defeated by it” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#332, p642).

“If a Christian have Christ’s heart…He will give him…His power to help him to overcome the strong enemies that meet him in the way…” Andrew Gray (ref#333 p223).

“We are bound to rejoice in God, and that always, even in tribulation; which no understanding can conceive to be possible, unless the soul be assured of life eternal” Edward Leigh (ref#333, p174).

“Our faith is not true unless it enables us to appear calmly in the presence of God” John Calvin (ref#333, p89).

“The only thing we have really to be afraid of, is fearing anything more than God” Gregory of Nazianzum (ref#333, p24).

“It is a fearful thing to come to a deathbed with a religion so feeble as to leave the poor soul in dreadful doubt as to its state” John Angell (ref#333, p335).

ASSURANCES

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TEST OF RELATIONSHIP

“…prayer!  If there is a single exercise of the soul that places the fact of its regeneration beyond a doubt, it is this” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, June 3rd).

“…Doesn’t that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain that you are not a slave, but a child?  And if you are a child, you’re also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance”(Gal 4:4-7 MSG).

“…the thing the saint wants to know above everything else is that all is well between his soul and the Father….He likes to maintain the contact and communion, to assure his heart before God and in the presence of God….that the contact is unbroken…” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#189, Feb 1st).

“…we are in communion with Christ, we have proof sufficiently clear and strong that we are written in the Book of Life….he admitted us to sure communion with himself, when, by the preaching of the gospel, he declared that he was given us by the Father, to be ours with all his blessings (Rom 8:32)” John Calvin (ref#113, p641).

Prayer is going to You, FATHER often to test the relationship.  It’s vital to make sure of Your willingness and readiness to help.  I am doomed if the relationship is severed.

ASSURANCES

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DESIRING TO GET NEARER TO JESUS

…HEAVENLY FATHER, an evidence of my salvation is a desire to know You better and to draw closer to You (ref#189, Nov 29th).  I not only want to be with You, but I must actually do something, too.  All the promises of GOD I must claim in faith.

Let me ask myself, “Am I growing in holiness?  Am I always attempting to purify myself as CHRIST is pure (1 John 3:3)?”

“If true conversion involves fleeing from our evil desires and corruptions and devoting ourselves obediently to God, it should be our regular practice to examine ourselves to make sure that, by God’s grace, we have indeed done these very things” John Calvin (ref#164, May 7th).

“Is one of the greatest ambitions of your life to draw closer to Him” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#189, Nov 30th)?

ASSURANCES

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SIN MORE REPULSIVE–CHRIST MORE ATTRACTIVE

Another assurance of salvation is sin becoming more repulsive and CHRIST more attractive.

“What a comfort it is to know that God’s forgiveness is deep enough to cover all sin and terrible times of backsliding!  Praise God for this forgiveness and for its purpose: to make sin more repulsive and Christ more attractive” (ref#164, March 4th).

FATHER, instill within me:

“In the worst frame that can affect a true child of God, there is always some indication that the divine life in the soul is not quite extinguished” (ref#135, July 28th).

FATHER, instill within me:

“Those low views of yourself—the brokenness, inward mourning, secret confession, and the longing for more spirituality, more grace, more devotedness, more love—only prove the existence of real growth in God’s work within you” (ref#135, May 18th).

ASSURANCES

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BABES IN CHRIST

“…the Father has entrusted the keeping of His weakest child in Christ’s hands—even your soul, beloved, even though you be the weakest of the weak.  A baby belongs to the family as much as the most oldest member.  It has as strong a place in the parent’s heart and as valid a claim on its share of the family estate.  So it is with the feeblest child of God” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, May 13th).

“Even if your faith is as weak as a single strand of a spider’s web, if that strand is attached to the rock, Christ Jesus, your salvation is absolutely secure” John Calvin (ref#164, Dec 13th).

O FATHER, I believe as much as I am able.  Help my unbelief.  Please constrain me to feel the truth of this week’s questions.

ASSURANCES

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CHRIST – A SUFFICIENT SAVIOR

“Christ…is the faithful interpreter…in regard to our salvation” John Calvin (ref#113, p636).

FATHER, do I depend on the merits of CHRIST? Am I confident CHRIST is a sufficient Savior (ref#63, p803)?

“What the ark was to Noah and the blood of the lamb was to the children of Israel, is what the atoning blood of Christ is to the believing soul. It forms his eternal security….Let the professor of Christ not leave the sealing of his pardon and acceptance to that fearful hour; let him earnestly seek it now, so that when he comes to die he will have nothing to do but die” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Sept 24th).

Do I still have my original confidence in CHRIST (Heb 3:14)?

“Though God’s election is a truth,

Small comfort there I see,

Till I am told by God’s own mouth,

That he has chosen me.

 

“[Sinners, I read, are justified,

By faith in Jesus’ blood;

But when it me that blood’s applied,

‘Tis then it does me good.]” J. Hart (ref#224, #31).

ASSURANCES

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THREE WAYS TO CHECK

“You should be looking at yourselves to make sure that you are really Christ’s….You ought to know by this time that Christ is in you, unless you are not real Christians at all….” (2 Cor 13:5-8 Phillips)

The FATHER has included in His Book many suggestions of how I can assure myself of His salvation. He makes Himself perfectly clear so I can be perfectly clear that I belong to Him.

“The famous Westminster Assembly of the 1640’s concluded that there are three grounds of assurance of personal faith: one primary ground – the promises of God; and two secondary grounds—evidences of grace and the witness of the Spirit” John Calvin (ref#164, Nov 2nd).

The paths of assurance are three entities. And when they all agree they provide firm evidence that I am GOD’s child and always will be.

The three paths are:

The Word of GOD: “…The sure word of God lays down certain signs and marks of true grace, and witnesses these signs to be good evidences…” Puritan Daily Devotional Chronicles (ref#225, p136).

Our conscience: “…or our own spirit, witnesses that these signs are sound…” (ref#225, p136).

GOD’s own HOLY SPIRIT: “…God super-adds the witness of His own Spirit which enables us yet more fully to know the things which are freely given us of God” (ref#225, p136).