Paul David Tripp

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GRACE TO BE HONEST ABOUT OUR SIN

“I am not really that excited about grace. Why? Because I have convinced myself that I don’t really need the rescue and forgiveness that grace offers. And to the degree that I am able to work myself into believing that I am righteous, I have less esteem for the perfect righteousness of Christ, which is the only righteousness with which I can stand before God. [S]elf-righteousness stands in the way of that grace having functional and transformative value in my life” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, May 18th).

“Here was my functional theology of my life as a child of God: I knew that by grace I had been granted God’s forgiveness and I knew that I had been graced with an all-inclusive pass into eternity, but I thought that between now and then, my job was to just gut it out. It was my responsibility to identify sin, to cut it out of my life, and to give myself to living in a much better, more biblical way. I tried this, trust me; I tried it and found it didn’t work” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Jan 7th).

“How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort” (Gal 3:3 NLT).

“[I]t is a right affection if we desire to do well; if we hate sin, though we falter, seeing our purpose is good; and if we strive to go forward in the fear of God and in obedience to his will. Jesus Christ then accounts us as though we were just; he frees us from all our faults and does not charge them to our account. The faithful, though they are not entirely perfect and though they have many sins, are considered to be God’s children. Jesus Christ considers it no dishonor that they are called by his name, for he causes the goodness that is in them and through his grace makes them acceptable to God” John Calvin (ref#164, Nov 10th).

“We must keep going back to His grace. Only the grace of God revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ will give us the courage to get up again and keep on going even after we have failed for the umpteenth time. It is only grace that will allow us to be as honest about our sin as David was about his” Jerry Bridges (ref#192, p206).

 “[J]ust as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification” (Rom 6:19 ESV).

“Here is one of the most beautiful fruits of grace—a heart that is content, more given to worship than demand and more given to the joy of gratitude than the anxiety of want. It is grace and grace alone that can make this kind of peaceful living possible for each of us” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Jan 6th).

“Make no allowance for sin, frame no excuses for inactivity, shrink from no cross, be disheartened by no difficulty, give place to no temptation, yield to no excessive grief” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Mar 28th).

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SINNERS SAVED BY GRACE

“Grace has given you a fleshy heart, one that is moldable by transforming grace. [W]hen you sin your conscience bothers you. [O]r you can erect some system of self-justification that makes what God says is wrong acceptable to your conscience. We are all so good at doing this. We are good at pointing to something or someone who justifies what we have done. What is deadly about this is that when you convince yourself that you are righteous, you quit seeking the grace that is your only hope in life or death. We are all in daily and desperate need of forgiving, rescuing, transforming, and delivering grace” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, March 30th).

“The battle with indwelling evil is still waged, the loving chastisement of a Father is still experienced, self-condemnation is still felt yet ’No condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus’ (Rom 8:1). The freedom of the believer is just what it is declared to be—entire exemption from condemnation” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Nov 5th).

“Today you are not alone against temptation because the One who is your Savior is also your fortress, your hiding place, and your defense. [Y]ou live in a world that has been dramatically broken by sin and does not function the way God intended. Because the world you live in isn’t operating as per God’s original design, it presents you with temptations everywhere you live. These temptations play to the sin and weakness that still lives inside you and that is being progressively eradicated by God’s transforming grace. [E]ven though we are God’s children, we lack the power on our own to fight the spiritual battles in which the world of sin and temptation engages us. As we face our vulnerability and weakness, there are things you and I should pray for regularly. We should pray for purity of desire, wisdom to recognize the enemy’s tricks, and strength to fight the battles we can’t avoid. [W]e need protection, not just from external temptation but from our own blind eyes and wandering hearts. [W]e are never, ever alone. God is with us He provides the safety we could never provide for ourselves. He fights on our behalf even when we don’t have the sense to resist” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Feb 2nd).

“We know that none of the God-born makes a practice of sin—fatal sin. The God-born are also the God-protected. The Evil One can’t lay a hand on them. We know that we are held firm by God; it’s only the people of the world who continue in the grip of the Evil One” (1 John 5:18-21 MSG).

“Your sins and mine do not any longer belong to us; they have been taken from us; He has made Himself responsible for them. He is bearing away my sins and yours” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#211, p55).

“[H]e walked through my death. And he didn’t simply die. He was condemned. He didn’t simply leave heaven for me; he endured hell for me. He, not deserving to be condemned, absorbed it in my place—I, who alone deserved it. That is his heart” Dane Ortland (ref#382, p192).

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THE NEW BIRTH

“for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed our cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jer 2:13 ESV).

“How wonderful is the love of God in giving his Son to die for such wretches! And how strong and absolute is the necessity of a new birth, if we would be happy. The propensities of fallen nature are not eradicated in the children of God, though by grace they are made partakers of a new principle, which enables them, in the Lord’s strength, to resist and mortify the body of sin, so that it cannot reign in them. [E]vil is latent in the hearts of the best men” John Newton (ref#322, p111).

“[W]e know that we are children of God when we are deeply aware of sin within. Next there is a desire for God and a desire for the things of God and a desire to walk in the ways of God” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#211, p28).

“[T]hough believers still have this indwelling propensity to sin, the Holy Spirit maintains within us a prevailing desire for holiness (1 John 3:9). The believers struggles with the sin God enables him to see in himself” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p60).

“[P]ut off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph 4:22-24 ESV).

“In every believer’s heart there is a constant struggle between the old nature and the new. The old nature is very active, and it loses no opportunity of plying all the weapons of its deadly armory against newborn grace; while on the other hand, the new nature is ever on the watch to resist and destroy its enemy. Grace within us will employ prayer, faith, hope, and love to cast out the evil. It takes to it the ‘whole armour of God’ (Eph. 6:11) and wrestles earnestly” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, June 2nd AM).

“The spiritual healing of the Great Physician is only ever esteemed by those who acknowledge that they still suffer from the spiritual disease of sin” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Feb 24th).

“[P]ut on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Rom 13:14 ESV).

“For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” Dane Ortland (ref#382, p190).

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FORGIVEN SINNERS

“Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit” (Ps 32:1-2 ESV).

“[T]he psalm is about forgiven sinners, not about perfect people. [T]he righteous and the upright are not perfect. They are persons who confess their sin, hate it, and trust God for forgiveness and help” (ref#200, p214).

“Because I am a sinner, I need mercy, and because God is merciful, I can face the reality of my sin. Maybe it’s a thoughtless word, a selfish act, a prideful thought, a moment of envy, a flash of lust, a willing act of disobedience, an attitude of vengeance, or a minor moment of thievery. [W]e all give daily proof to the truth that sin still lives inside us. [I]t’s only when you admit how deep and comprehensive your problem is that you get excited about the rescue that only God’s mercy can supply” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Jan 16th).

“The knowledge that we are sinners should not keep us from fighting for God’s truth. If the accusation of sin was enough to silence God’s children, no one would be left to herald his truth. Having confessed our sin we should not be afraid of calling our cause righteous and go forward in God’s strength” John Calvin (ref#164, Jan 27th). “[W]e are vindicated in the eyes of God” John Calvin (ref#164, Jan 28th)!

“[Y]ou must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom 6:11 ESV).

Description: Macintosh HD:Users:geraldfaurote:Desktop:Screen Shot 2021-10-18 at 9.47.25 AM.png“[S]alvation through Jesus Christ has given us complete separation from the oppressive dominion of evil. We may be people who can still sin and most certainly do, but not because we are still in the grip of sin. We no longer live where we are forced to do what we do not want to do. If we often feel that way it is only because we have not learned how by faith to count ourselves as ‘dead to sin.’ Nor have we learned to no longer offer our bodies to sin, but to be slaves of righteousness.” Doug Newton (ref#166, p84).

“But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification” (Rom 6:17-19 ESV).

TRUE CHRISTIAN OR FAUX?

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SPIRIT CHECK_5

“Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness” (Luke 11:35 NLT).

Am I willing to consider ideas about Christianity that are not spelled out in the Bible?

 “Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind” (Col 2:18 ESV).  “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls….” (Jer 6:16 ESV).

Do I compare myself to other people?

“…I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers…” (Luke 18:11 NIV).  “…’None is righteous, no, not one…no one does good, not even one.’” (Rom 3:10,12 ESV).

Do I let GOD guide me all day long?

“God fills the whole universe; therefore, there is no room for another god.  If He reigns in my heart, there will be no space for another reigning power….If this is not the case, O Lord, pardon my sad offense and unite my heart to fear Your name” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Nov 14th AM).

Do I really “know” CHRIST or just know of Him?

“I am not asking whether you believe certain things; that is possible intellectually. Rather, I am asking have you life, are you in the realm of life, do you know God, do you know the Lord Jesus Christ?…When you pray, do you know that you are speaking to God” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#211, p90)?

Is serving GOD more important than loving everyone around me?

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels…If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge…if I have a faith that can move mountains…If I give all I possess to the poor…but have not love, I gain nothing” (1 Cor 13:1-3 NIV).

“If your faith does not reshape your life, it is not true faith” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Oct 5th).

TRUE CHRISTIAN OR FAUX?

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KNOWLEDGE BUT NO ACTION

“If saving faith were nothing more than a mere mental assent to the contents of John 3:16, then any man could make himself a true believer whenever he pleased—the supernatural enablement of the Holy Spirit would be quite unnecessary” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p82).

“…in the whole question of practicing and living the Christian life, how easy it is to be content only with thoughts and with feelings and with expressions of what we believe and feel, and to fail utterly and entirely to put it into practice.  How easy it is to fall in love with loving instead of actually loving” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#211, p111)! “…the doing, says our Lord, is absolutely vital and essential” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#211, p113)

“…let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18 ESV).

“If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal 5:25 ESV).

“The two most important things in our holy religion are the life of faith and the walk of faith.  He who rightly understand these is not far from being a master in practicing theology, for they are vital points to a Christian” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Sept 18th AM).

“If you’ve forgotten who you are in Christ, what are you left with?…Christless Christianity, which is little more than a system of theology and rules.  And…if all you needed was theology and rules, Jesus wouldn’t have had to come” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, April 12th). 

“Continue in the things revealed in the doctrine of the Gospel, and you shall have a satisfactory experience that they are true, and that they are of God.  Cease not to act in faith regarding them, and you shall enjoy their effects” John Owen (ref#225, Oct 7th).

“With the great blessing of gospel light comes great responsibility to steward that light” John Calvin (ref#164, May 1st).

TRUE CHRISTIAN OR FAUX?

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RULE-KEEPING

“…you can never make yourself a Christian…” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#211, p92).

“…there are…two ways of seeking holiness…The one is the carnal way, in which we put forth our utmost efforts and resolutions, trusting Christ to help us in doing so.  The other the spiritual way, in which, as those who have died, and can do nothing, our one care is to receive Christ day by day, and at every step to let Him live and work in us” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p190).

“Rather resolve to trust on Christ…They…think to tame the flesh, and to subdue and root out its lusts, and to make their corrupt nature to be better-natured and inclined to holiness by their struggling and wrestling with it…” “…they trust in the grace of God through Christ to help them in all such resolutions and endeavours.  Thus they endeavor to reform their old state, and to be made perfect in the flesh, instead of putting it off and walking according to the new state in Christ” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p191).

“…The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him.  Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you….Rule-keeping does not naturally evolve into living by faith, but only perpetuates itself in more and more rule-keeping…” (Gal 3:11-12 MSG).

“If you only preach the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ not only do you not solve the problem of mankind, but in a sense you aggravate it.  You are preaching nothing but utter condemnation, because nobody can ever carry it out….” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#189, April 2nd).  FATHER, what needs to be preached is CHRIST crucified and the meaning of that event. (ref#189, April 2nd)

“Stop trying to earn something from God.  Stop trying to gain more of his acceptance.  Stop trying to earn his favor.  Stop trying to win his allegiance.  Stop trying to do something that would pay for his blessing.  Stop trying to morally buy your way out of his anger.  Stop trying to reach a level where you will know lasting peace with him.  Just stop trying.  Just stop….It simply cannot work” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, July 3rd).

“…what we do is only the manifestation of what God is doing in us!  The establishing in Christ is His work:  He accomplishes it by stirring us to watch, and wait, and work.  But this He can do with power only as we cease interrupting Him by our self-working” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p82).

TRUE CHRISTIANS OR FAUX?

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SATISFIED CHRISTIANS

Satisfied Christians are “static Christians.”  “…there is a carnal root ruling…they are living more after the flesh than after the Spirit” Andrew Murray (ref#272, p16).

FATHER, being satisfied is such a dangerous position.  Instead of being spiritually united to CHRIST some are outwardly attached to Him, possibly only by a one-time profession of His name and a halfhearted attempt to adhere to His cause (ref#241, p120).  I pray for anyone who sees himself in the following words:

“We’re satisfied with a little bit of biblical literacy.  We’re satisfied with occasional moments of ministry.  We’re satisfied with manageable debt that allows us to put a few coins in the plate.  We’re satisfied that we’ve been married for a while and it doesn’t look as if we’ll break up soon.  We’re satisfied with a bit of a grasp on the theology of Scripture.  We’re satisfied with faithful attendance at the weekend services of our churches.  We’re satisfied with quick morning devotions. We’re satisfied with a little ministry experience.  We’re satisfied that we don’t act out most of our lust and we don’t communicate most of our envy.  We’re satisfied that in our disappointment with God, we don’t walk away.   We’re satisfied that we can harness a good bit of our fear of man.  We’re satisfied to use most of our material resources to make and keep ourselves comfortable.  We’re satisfied to be mere consumers of the work of the church rather than committed participants in it.  We’re satisfied with hearts that occasionally wander and with thoughts that contradict what the Bible says is good and true.  We’re satisfied with the amount of conflict we have in our lives.  We’re satisfied” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Oct 25th).

FATHER, we are creatures that long to be satisfied.  I think of the tract I have that reads on the front: “How to go to hell.”  On the inside it is blank.  If it were up to us we would tread the Christian waters until our strength failed and we would sink into hell.  But, praise be to You, FATHER for You make a way for us to swim and not drown.

“…we serve a dissatisfied Redeemer.  He knows we still need the transforming work of his powerful grace.  Isn’t it wonderful that, in gracious dissatisfaction, he will not relent until every microbe of sin is removed from every cell of every one of the hearts of his children” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Oct 25th)?

PRAYER

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IMPORTUNITY IN PRAYER

“I tell you, although he will not get up and supply him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his shameless persistence…he will get up and give him as much as he needs.  So I say to you, Ask and keep on asking and it shall be given you; seek and keep on seeking and you shall find; knock and keep on knocking and the door shall be opened to you.  For everyone who asks and keeps on asking receives; and he who seeks and keeps on seeking finds; and to him who knocks and keeps on knocking, the door shall be opened” (Luke 11:8-10 AMP).

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing” (1 Thes 5:16 ESV).  “…pray…day and night, continually.  Take no rest, all you who pray to the LORD” (Isa 62:6 NLT).

The definition of importunity in prayer is: “…the condition of being troublesome or persistent because of a deep sense of urgency” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Nov 13th).  “…the earnest, persistent, believing prayer that will not take no for an answer…” Ruben Archer Torrey (ref#212, p89).  “…an importunity that persists and insists in spite of discouragement…with strong cries and tears” Samuel Chadwick (ref#4, p107).

“…it is very much for our interest to be constantly supplicating him; first, that our heart may always be inflamed with a serious and ardent desire of seeking, loving, and serving him…secondly, that no desires, no longing whatever, of which we are ashamed to make him the witness, may enter our minds, while we learn to place all our wishes in his sight, and thus pour out our heart before him…” John Calvin (ref#113, p564-565).

“Of all the mysteries of the prayer world, the need of persevering prayer is one of the greatest.  That the Lord, who is so loving and longing to bless, should have to be supplicated time after time, sometimes year after year, before the answer comes, we cannot easily understand.  When after persevering supplication, our prayer remains unanswered, it is often easiest for our slothful flesh…to think that we must now cease praying, because God may have His secret reason for withholding His answer to our request. It is by faith alone that the difficulty is overcome….When…faith has taken its stand upon God’s word, and the Name of Jesus…it need not be discouraged by delay” Andrew Murray (ref#19, SIXTEENTH LESSON).

“The things we ask for are precious, but we do not realize their preciousness until we have sought for them earnestly” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Feb 19th AM).

PRAYER

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ABIDING IN CHRIST  I

“The great need of God is for intercessors” Samuel Chadwick (ref#4, p114).  “God looks for men who will stand in the gap (Ezek 22:30)” Samuel Chadwick (ref#4, p82).

“Because of what prayer really is, prayer is not natural for us.  It’s not natural for us to embrace our sin, weakness, and failure.  It’s not natural for us to be comfortable depending on the mercy of another.  It’s not natural for us to surrender our hope and dreams to the better vision of another.  It’s not natural for us to surrender our wisdom and control to someone greater than us.  It’s not natural for us to think that we need grace” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, March 3rd).

“And it is this the Father wills: He seeks daily intercourse with His children in listening to and granting their petitions.  He wills that I should come to Him day by day with distinct requests…” Andrew Murray (ref#19, FIFTH LESSON).

“The rightness of the asking goes down to the rightness of the asker….Patriarchs and Psalmists fall back on their integrity as an argument with God, and their plea is admitted….It is the praying of the righteous man that is of great force.  Faith is no substitute for right living….There is no condemnation, but an assurance in the will of God that gives ‘boldness toward God…” Samuel Chadwick (ref#4, p107).

“It is no use praying unless we are living as children of God” Oswald Chambers (ref#7, Aug 24th).

“If the name of Christ is to be wholly at my disposal, so that I may have the full command of it for all I will, it must be because I first put myself wholly at His disposal, so that He has free and full command of me.  It is the abiding in Christ that gives the right and power to use His name with confidence” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p138).  “…the abiding in Christ teaches the believer in prayer only to seek the glory of God” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p137).