The misery of hell will be so great that no one will want to be there. They will be weeping and gnashing their teeth (Matthew 8:12). Between their sobs, they will not speak the words, “I want this.” They will not be able to say amid the flames of the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14), “I want this.” “The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night” (Revelation 14:11). No one wants this.
When there are only two choices and you choose against one, it does not mean that you want the other, if you are ignorant of the outcome of both. Unbelieving people know neither God nor hell. This ignorance is not innocent. Apart from regenerating grace, all people “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18).
The person who rejects God does not know the real horrors of hell. This may be because he does not believe hell exists, or it may be because he convinces himself that it would be tolerably preferable to heaven.
But whatever he believes or does not believe, when he chooses against God, he is wrong about God and about hell. He is not, at that point, preferring the real hell over the real God. He is blind to both. He does not perceive the true glories of God, and he does not perceive the true horrors of hell.
So when a person chooses against God and, therefore, de facto chooses hell—or when he jokes about preferring hell with his friends over heaven with boring religious people—he does not know what he is doing. What he rejects is not the real heaven (nobody will be boring in heaven), and what he “wants” is not the real hell, but the tolerable hell of his imagination.
When he dies, he will be shocked beyond words. The miseries are so great he would do anything in his power to escape. That it is not in his power to repent does not mean he wants to be there. Esau wept bitterly that he could not repent (Hebrew 12:17). The hell he was entering into he found to be totally miserable, and he wanted out. The meaning of hell is the scream: “I hate this, and I want out.”
What sinners want is not hell but sin. That hell is the inevitable consequence of unforgiven sin does not make the consequence desirable. It is not what people want—certainly not what they “most want.” Wanting sin is no more equal to wanting hell than wanting chocolate is equal to wanting obesity. Or wanting cigarettes is equal to wanting cancer.
Beneath this misleading emphasis on hell being what people “most want” is the notion that God does not “send” people to hell. But this is simply unbiblical. God certainly does send people to hell. He does pass sentence, and he executes it. Indeed, worse than that. God does not just “send,” he “throws.” “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown (Greek eblethe) into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15; cf. Mark 9:47; Matthew 13:42; 25:30).
The reason the Bible speaks of people being “thrown” into hell is that no one will willingly go there, once they see what it really is. No one standing on the shore of the lake of fire jumps in. They do not choose it, and they will not want it. They have chosen sin. They have wanted sin. They do not want the punishment. When they come to the shore of this fiery lake, they must be thrown in.
When someone says that no one is in hell who doesn’t want to be there, they give the false impression that hell is within the limits of what humans can tolerate. It inevitably gives the impression that hell is less horrible than Jesus says it is.
We should ask: How did Jesus expect his audience to think and feel about the way he spoke of hell? The words he chose were not chosen to soften the horror by being accommodating to cultural sensibilities. He spoke of a “fiery furnace” (Matthew 13:42), and “weeping and gnashing teeth” (Luke 13:28), and “outer darkness” (Matthew 25:30), and “their worm [that] does not die” (Mark 9:48), and “eternal punishment” (Matthew 25:46), and “unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43), and being “cut in pieces” (Matthew 24:51).
These words are chosen to portray hell as an eternal, conscious experience that no one would or could ever “want” if they knew what they were choosing. Therefore, if someone is going to emphasize that people freely “choose” hell, or that no one is there who doesn’t “want” to be there, surely he should make every effort to clarify that, when they get there, they will not want this.
Surely the pattern of Jesus—who used blazing words to blast the hell-bent blindness out of everyone— should be followed. Surely, we will grope for words that show no one, no one, no one will wantto be in hell when they experience what it really is. Surely everyone who desires to save people from hell will not mainly stress that it is “wantable” or “chooseable,” but that it is horrible beyond description—weeping, gnashing teeth, darkness, worm-eaten, fiery, furnace-like, dismembering, eternal, punishment, “an abhorrence to all flesh” (Isaiah 66:24).
I thank God, as a hell-deserving sinner, for Jesus Christ my Savior, who became a curse for me and suffered hellish pain that he might deliver me from the wrath to come. While there is time, he will do that for anyone who turns from sin and treasures him and his work above all.
- John Piper
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
How Thoughtful am I?
Some people seem to have a genius for making others miserable. They are continually touching sensitive hearts, so as to cause pain. They are always saying things which sting and irritate. If you have any bodily defect, they never see you except in some crude way, making you conscious of it. If any relative or friend of yours has done some dishonorable thing, they seem to take a cruel delight in constantly referring to it when speaking with you. They lack all delicacy of feeling, having no eye for the sensitive things in others, which demand gentleness of treatment.
Thoughtfulness is the reverse of all this. It simply does not do the things which thoughtlessness does. It avoids the painful subject. It never alludes to a man's clubfoot or humpback, nor ever casts an eye at the defect, nor does anything to direct attention to it or to make the man conscious of it. It respects your sorrow--and refrains from harshly touching your wound. It has the utmost kindliness of feeling and expression. A truly thoughtful person is one who never needlessly gives pain to another.
Thoughtfulness does not merely keep one from doing thoughtless things; it also leads to continued acts of kindness and good will. It everwatches for opportunities to give pleasure and happiness. It does not wait to be asked for sympathy or help--but has eyes of its own, and sees every need, and supplies it unsolicited. When a friend is in sorrow, the thoughtful man is ready with his offer of comfort. He does not come the next day, when the need is past--but is prompt with his kindness, when kindness means something.
Thoughtfulness is always doing little kindnesses. It has an instinct for seeing the little things that need to be done, and then doing them!
There are some rare Christians who seem born for thoughtfulness. They have a genius for sympathy. Instinctively they seem to understand the experiences of pain in others, and from their heart there flows a blessing of tenderness which is full of healing. This is the highest and holiest ministry of love. It is not softness nor weakness; it is strength, but strength enriched by divine gentleness.
Thoughtfulness is one of the truest and best tests of a noble Christian character. It is love working in all delicate ways. It is unselfishness which forgets self, and thinks only of others. It is love which demands not to be served, to be honored, to be helped--but thinks continually of serving and honoring others. He who has a truly gentle heart, cannot but be thoughtful. Love is always thoughtful.
- J. R. Miller
Thoughtfulness is the reverse of all this. It simply does not do the things which thoughtlessness does. It avoids the painful subject. It never alludes to a man's clubfoot or humpback, nor ever casts an eye at the defect, nor does anything to direct attention to it or to make the man conscious of it. It respects your sorrow--and refrains from harshly touching your wound. It has the utmost kindliness of feeling and expression. A truly thoughtful person is one who never needlessly gives pain to another.
Thoughtfulness does not merely keep one from doing thoughtless things; it also leads to continued acts of kindness and good will. It everwatches for opportunities to give pleasure and happiness. It does not wait to be asked for sympathy or help--but has eyes of its own, and sees every need, and supplies it unsolicited. When a friend is in sorrow, the thoughtful man is ready with his offer of comfort. He does not come the next day, when the need is past--but is prompt with his kindness, when kindness means something.
Thoughtfulness is always doing little kindnesses. It has an instinct for seeing the little things that need to be done, and then doing them!
There are some rare Christians who seem born for thoughtfulness. They have a genius for sympathy. Instinctively they seem to understand the experiences of pain in others, and from their heart there flows a blessing of tenderness which is full of healing. This is the highest and holiest ministry of love. It is not softness nor weakness; it is strength, but strength enriched by divine gentleness.
Thoughtfulness is one of the truest and best tests of a noble Christian character. It is love working in all delicate ways. It is unselfishness which forgets self, and thinks only of others. It is love which demands not to be served, to be honored, to be helped--but thinks continually of serving and honoring others. He who has a truly gentle heart, cannot but be thoughtful. Love is always thoughtful.
- J. R. Miller
Words of Truth
Never doubt in the darkness what the Lord has shown you in the light. - Zac Poonen
My business is this-- with all my might to serve my own generation. In doing so, I shall best serve the next generation, should the Lord tarry. I have but one life to live on earth and this one life is but a brief life for sowing, in comparison with eternity for reaping. - George Mueller
Many pastors criticize me for taking the gospel so seriously. But do they really think that on judgment day, Christ will chastise me and say, ‘Leonard, you took Me too seriously’? - Leonard Ravenhill
The real sermon is made in the closet. The man, God's man, is made in the closet. His life and his profoundest convictions were born in his secret communion with God. The burdened and tearful agony of his spirit and his weightiest and sweetest messages were gotten when alone with God. Prayer makes the man, prayer makes the preacher, prayer makes the pastor. - E.M Bounds
The best prayers have often been more groans than words. - John Bunyan
The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith and the beginning of faith is the end of anxiety. - Mrs. Charles Cowman
If you should lose only a limb, a child, or a friend, it would not be so much, but poor man, it is THY SOUL; if it was to lie in hell but for a day, but for a year, even ten thousand years, it would in comparison be nothing. But O, it is for ever! O, this cutting word 'EVER'! What a soul-amazing word will that be, which says, ‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into EVERLASTING fire’!
- John Bunyan
My business is this-- with all my might to serve my own generation. In doing so, I shall best serve the next generation, should the Lord tarry. I have but one life to live on earth and this one life is but a brief life for sowing, in comparison with eternity for reaping. - George Mueller
Many pastors criticize me for taking the gospel so seriously. But do they really think that on judgment day, Christ will chastise me and say, ‘Leonard, you took Me too seriously’? - Leonard Ravenhill
The real sermon is made in the closet. The man, God's man, is made in the closet. His life and his profoundest convictions were born in his secret communion with God. The burdened and tearful agony of his spirit and his weightiest and sweetest messages were gotten when alone with God. Prayer makes the man, prayer makes the preacher, prayer makes the pastor. - E.M Bounds
The best prayers have often been more groans than words. - John Bunyan
The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith and the beginning of faith is the end of anxiety. - Mrs. Charles Cowman
If you should lose only a limb, a child, or a friend, it would not be so much, but poor man, it is THY SOUL; if it was to lie in hell but for a day, but for a year, even ten thousand years, it would in comparison be nothing. But O, it is for ever! O, this cutting word 'EVER'! What a soul-amazing word will that be, which says, ‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into EVERLASTING fire’!
- John Bunyan
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Keeping a Pure Heart
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." - Matthew 5:8
The pure in heart are blessed by seeing God, and those who see God, see all things rightly in his perfect light (Psa. 36:9). It is therefore no wonder that the Word of God emphasizes the vital necessity of men having pure hearts, while those who believe the divine testimony of Scripture find that they have a growing desire to have such hearts. The question then becomes one of how the believer can attain and keep a pure heart.
The best answer to that vital question is that we should consider ourselves to be dead. This does not mean that we cultivate the ascetic passivity of the eastern mystic or the apathy of the stoic. It means that we regard ourselves truly to have been crucified with Christ and raised up with him in new life (Rom. 6:3-11).
Our Redeemer has given us the supreme example of self-mortification when he prayed in Gethsemane, "Not my will but thy will be done" (Matt. 26:39). Our Lord also taught us to pray in the same way when he told us to pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:10).
What this means is that we are to mortify (progressively put to death) our desires, plans, and agendas. If we regard ourselves as dead, it is clear that the dead have no agendas. Yet we are not merely dead-we are united to Christ in his death. Therefore, as Christ submitted his will to the will of his heavenly Father, so we submit our wills to the will of that same heavenly Father. Such submission of our wills to the divine will entails our renouncing our own impure and weak passions for the holy and glorious desires of our God; we renounce our finite and fallible understanding for the infallible wisdom of our Lord; we cease to rely on our weakness and cast ourselves, instead, upon his almighty power; and we forsake the quest after imperfect and changeable human love for the pleasure of our luxuriating in the immeasurable and unchangeable love of our God.
When we fail to renounce our wills and submit, instead, to the Lord's will, we invariably seek such things as personal gain, promotion, and comforts. We would never seek loss, humiliation, and suffering. Yet rarely would our Lord have us to possess the former things, while he usually would have us to accept and even glory in the latter things (2 Cor. 12:9,10). It is no wonder, then, when we pursue our own will without highest regard for the Lord's will for us, that we find ourselves frustratingly groping in darkness rather than walking and serving fruitfully and satisfyingly in the light of the Lord. On the other hand, when with pure hearts, we are sincerely desirous to know and do the Lord's will, we easily see and know the will and way of our God (John 7:17).
We are naturally inclined, however, not to renounce our wills but to promote them. Too frequently we approach a decision with the presupposition that we know what is right and best for all concerned. Yet a little self-examination would reveal to us a remarkable correlation between what we determine to be right and what we desire to be right. With categorical contradiction the Scripture speaks against our smug and self-centered certitude. We are told by wise Solomon not to lean upon the trembling reed of our own understanding, but rather to trust in the Lord with all of our hearts (Prov. 3:5-6).
It is one thing for us to know and even to confess that such absolute and continual trust in the Lord is the right thing for us to exercise; yet it is quite another thing for us actually to acknowledge him in all of our ways. Jesus has told us that without him we can do nothing (John 15:5). His statement is so clear and simple that a child could understand it. Yet few of us believe our Lord's statement in the absolute and categorical sense of the words he has used. Without thinking, we launch ourselves into all sorts of endeavours, failing to acknowledge the Lord and assuming that we can do all sorts of things without him. This is not self-mortification, but is, instead, self-exaltation.
What we are called to do in every detail and decision of our lives is to determine from the light of God's Word what the right thing is for us to think, feel, say, and do in every relationship and in every situation, great and small. Our ability to discern the right way — the way of the Lord — is diminished in direct proportion to the degree that we have and cherish a personal agenda. The one who truly prays, "Not my will but thy will be done", and who seeks to think and act in conformity with and not contrary to that prayer, will find that he has a pure heart and consequent ability, without the obscuring clouds of personal passion, to see God and in his light to see all things, not as we deludedly or deceptively want them to appear, but as they truly are. We do well, therefore, with increasing fervency to pray for, to seek after, and to knock for pure hearts that alone can perceive and receive all that our God would show us and convey to us.
- William Harrell
The pure in heart are blessed by seeing God, and those who see God, see all things rightly in his perfect light (Psa. 36:9). It is therefore no wonder that the Word of God emphasizes the vital necessity of men having pure hearts, while those who believe the divine testimony of Scripture find that they have a growing desire to have such hearts. The question then becomes one of how the believer can attain and keep a pure heart.
The best answer to that vital question is that we should consider ourselves to be dead. This does not mean that we cultivate the ascetic passivity of the eastern mystic or the apathy of the stoic. It means that we regard ourselves truly to have been crucified with Christ and raised up with him in new life (Rom. 6:3-11).
Our Redeemer has given us the supreme example of self-mortification when he prayed in Gethsemane, "Not my will but thy will be done" (Matt. 26:39). Our Lord also taught us to pray in the same way when he told us to pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:10).
What this means is that we are to mortify (progressively put to death) our desires, plans, and agendas. If we regard ourselves as dead, it is clear that the dead have no agendas. Yet we are not merely dead-we are united to Christ in his death. Therefore, as Christ submitted his will to the will of his heavenly Father, so we submit our wills to the will of that same heavenly Father. Such submission of our wills to the divine will entails our renouncing our own impure and weak passions for the holy and glorious desires of our God; we renounce our finite and fallible understanding for the infallible wisdom of our Lord; we cease to rely on our weakness and cast ourselves, instead, upon his almighty power; and we forsake the quest after imperfect and changeable human love for the pleasure of our luxuriating in the immeasurable and unchangeable love of our God.
When we fail to renounce our wills and submit, instead, to the Lord's will, we invariably seek such things as personal gain, promotion, and comforts. We would never seek loss, humiliation, and suffering. Yet rarely would our Lord have us to possess the former things, while he usually would have us to accept and even glory in the latter things (2 Cor. 12:9,10). It is no wonder, then, when we pursue our own will without highest regard for the Lord's will for us, that we find ourselves frustratingly groping in darkness rather than walking and serving fruitfully and satisfyingly in the light of the Lord. On the other hand, when with pure hearts, we are sincerely desirous to know and do the Lord's will, we easily see and know the will and way of our God (John 7:17).
We are naturally inclined, however, not to renounce our wills but to promote them. Too frequently we approach a decision with the presupposition that we know what is right and best for all concerned. Yet a little self-examination would reveal to us a remarkable correlation between what we determine to be right and what we desire to be right. With categorical contradiction the Scripture speaks against our smug and self-centered certitude. We are told by wise Solomon not to lean upon the trembling reed of our own understanding, but rather to trust in the Lord with all of our hearts (Prov. 3:5-6).
It is one thing for us to know and even to confess that such absolute and continual trust in the Lord is the right thing for us to exercise; yet it is quite another thing for us actually to acknowledge him in all of our ways. Jesus has told us that without him we can do nothing (John 15:5). His statement is so clear and simple that a child could understand it. Yet few of us believe our Lord's statement in the absolute and categorical sense of the words he has used. Without thinking, we launch ourselves into all sorts of endeavours, failing to acknowledge the Lord and assuming that we can do all sorts of things without him. This is not self-mortification, but is, instead, self-exaltation.
What we are called to do in every detail and decision of our lives is to determine from the light of God's Word what the right thing is for us to think, feel, say, and do in every relationship and in every situation, great and small. Our ability to discern the right way — the way of the Lord — is diminished in direct proportion to the degree that we have and cherish a personal agenda. The one who truly prays, "Not my will but thy will be done", and who seeks to think and act in conformity with and not contrary to that prayer, will find that he has a pure heart and consequent ability, without the obscuring clouds of personal passion, to see God and in his light to see all things, not as we deludedly or deceptively want them to appear, but as they truly are. We do well, therefore, with increasing fervency to pray for, to seek after, and to knock for pure hearts that alone can perceive and receive all that our God would show us and convey to us.
- William Harrell
Monday, October 26, 2009
Why Are You Mourning?
"Why go I mourning ?" -- Ps. 42:9
Can you answer this, believer? Can you find any reason why you art so often mourning instead of rejoicing? Why yield to gloomy anticipations? Who told you that the night would never end in day? Who told you that the winter of your discontent would proceed from frost to frost, from snow and ice, and hail, to deeper snow, and yet more heavy tempest of despair? Do you not know that day follows night, that spring and summer come after winter? Hope thou then! Hope thou ever! for God fails you not.
- C. H. Spurgeon
Can you answer this, believer? Can you find any reason why you art so often mourning instead of rejoicing? Why yield to gloomy anticipations? Who told you that the night would never end in day? Who told you that the winter of your discontent would proceed from frost to frost, from snow and ice, and hail, to deeper snow, and yet more heavy tempest of despair? Do you not know that day follows night, that spring and summer come after winter? Hope thou then! Hope thou ever! for God fails you not.
- C. H. Spurgeon
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Sovereign Grace Found a Young Man
Many years ago God's sovereign grace found a young man. The Lord, in His ways of saving mercy, showed in awakening grace the danger from sin which threatened the soul of this young man. This 20 year old did not know at that time in his life what was called restraining grace, that grace the apostle speaks of in Rom. 1:24; 26; and 28; but he sensed in his heart that the Lord was holding back the forces of evil in his soul, and if the Lord turned him loose in his sin, he would be dragged down into the utmost depths of sin.
The young man sought in every way to cast off his fears, but the fears clogged him still. In an inebriation on the Saturday night of that week in hell, when he was for a time in his thoughts among the damned, the young man had some mental relief from his fears through the effects of the alcohol. The fears subsided for a brief time, but divine grace was good in His electing mercy and did not release the young man to the demons which sought his soul. He slept that night because of the drunken stupor. On the morrow, however, the old fears were awaiting him, more dreadful than before.
The young man was invited that day to enjoy a home-cooked meal with a neighbor, the young man's parents being away those days. The neighbor was a godly man. In the conversations of that day there was a kind of peace on the heart of the youth, but he was not saved and he knew it. He stayed on through the afternoon, and remained an uninvited guest for the evening meal, and then on into the night, until he knew he must be going. The streetcars would quit running at midnight, and he had to make a transfer to reach the place where he was staying.
And so he left and caught a streetcar and had not ridden more than about 6 blocks until the demonic forces were upon him, more dreadfully than ever before. They continued to press upon his soul the fear that his soul would be utterly taken over to its ruin in sin. The devils were so confident in their delight and glee. They pressed him thus until the streetcar came to the place of transfer. They continued unabated while he waited for the other streetcar. They vaunted over his soul as he sat among the few people on that lonely and dark night, near the midnight hour. Until finally the young man could take it no longer. He made a decision to seek the salvation of his soul.
Peace came with this decision, but he knew that he was not saved.
He went to the place where he was staying. A kind old lady had given him a New Testament some years before, as she had sought to speak to him about his soul. He had not read the New Testament, but he had kept it because he was intellectually curious about books on various subjects. He took out this Testament. He hardly knew where to read, but thought he would begin at Paul's writing. He had some little knowledge of the Bible, for he had been reared in a home where church and Sunday school attendance were expected of the children.
He knew that the first of Paul's letters was Romans. He began there and he read down to where Paul said:
"And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who, knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them."
The young man was now a believer. He knew beyond reasonable doubt that his fears were not due to a disturbed mind which had been too long in its studies. He knew that that gnawing dread that God might turn him over to demonic forces, which would find things in his own heart which they could take hold of and drag him down into utter criminality. Though the young man was now a believer, he knew he was not saved. You ask, "Why?" He would not know, but he did know.
He fell at the feet of Him whom he later came to speak of as Sovereign Mercy. What he said in his prayer, he does not remember. This is the only part of that night's experience that he does not remember. He thinks he might have said, "I surrender," but really he does not remember what he said. He only knows that as he knelt, a condemned sinner, really knelt before the Lord, sincerely seeking deliverance from his sin, a glory swept over his soul which seemed almost physical in its reality.
He was tired, but refreshed in this beauty. He read that night from the New Testament until, in fatigue, he could read no longer. He fell asleep, the first sober sleep he had known for a week, saved and thankful. The next day he read on through the New Testament. He went up town and purchased an entire Bible. Began with Genesis and read through Malachi. He could hardly lay it down.
Did he understand what he was reading? Not too well. Why did he continue this reading? It was the savor of God which he discerned therein. The glory which was in the sacred pages answered to the glory which was in his heart, and he delighted in that glory. Many years have now passed. The young man is now an old man, old in years, but younger in the strength of the Lord. He reads the Bible with better understanding now. He seems to have acquired a better grasp of the terms, an understanding of which is essential to an understanding of the Bible, but he still delights in the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ, as that glory is reflected in the sacred pages.
Without this key - the work of sovereign grace in the soul of man - THE KEY - the gospel of Christ - will never be found of man. "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." Psalm 119:18.
- E. W. Johnson
The young man sought in every way to cast off his fears, but the fears clogged him still. In an inebriation on the Saturday night of that week in hell, when he was for a time in his thoughts among the damned, the young man had some mental relief from his fears through the effects of the alcohol. The fears subsided for a brief time, but divine grace was good in His electing mercy and did not release the young man to the demons which sought his soul. He slept that night because of the drunken stupor. On the morrow, however, the old fears were awaiting him, more dreadful than before.
The young man was invited that day to enjoy a home-cooked meal with a neighbor, the young man's parents being away those days. The neighbor was a godly man. In the conversations of that day there was a kind of peace on the heart of the youth, but he was not saved and he knew it. He stayed on through the afternoon, and remained an uninvited guest for the evening meal, and then on into the night, until he knew he must be going. The streetcars would quit running at midnight, and he had to make a transfer to reach the place where he was staying.
And so he left and caught a streetcar and had not ridden more than about 6 blocks until the demonic forces were upon him, more dreadfully than ever before. They continued to press upon his soul the fear that his soul would be utterly taken over to its ruin in sin. The devils were so confident in their delight and glee. They pressed him thus until the streetcar came to the place of transfer. They continued unabated while he waited for the other streetcar. They vaunted over his soul as he sat among the few people on that lonely and dark night, near the midnight hour. Until finally the young man could take it no longer. He made a decision to seek the salvation of his soul.
Peace came with this decision, but he knew that he was not saved.
He went to the place where he was staying. A kind old lady had given him a New Testament some years before, as she had sought to speak to him about his soul. He had not read the New Testament, but he had kept it because he was intellectually curious about books on various subjects. He took out this Testament. He hardly knew where to read, but thought he would begin at Paul's writing. He had some little knowledge of the Bible, for he had been reared in a home where church and Sunday school attendance were expected of the children.
He knew that the first of Paul's letters was Romans. He began there and he read down to where Paul said:
"And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who, knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them."
The young man was now a believer. He knew beyond reasonable doubt that his fears were not due to a disturbed mind which had been too long in its studies. He knew that that gnawing dread that God might turn him over to demonic forces, which would find things in his own heart which they could take hold of and drag him down into utter criminality. Though the young man was now a believer, he knew he was not saved. You ask, "Why?" He would not know, but he did know.
He fell at the feet of Him whom he later came to speak of as Sovereign Mercy. What he said in his prayer, he does not remember. This is the only part of that night's experience that he does not remember. He thinks he might have said, "I surrender," but really he does not remember what he said. He only knows that as he knelt, a condemned sinner, really knelt before the Lord, sincerely seeking deliverance from his sin, a glory swept over his soul which seemed almost physical in its reality.
He was tired, but refreshed in this beauty. He read that night from the New Testament until, in fatigue, he could read no longer. He fell asleep, the first sober sleep he had known for a week, saved and thankful. The next day he read on through the New Testament. He went up town and purchased an entire Bible. Began with Genesis and read through Malachi. He could hardly lay it down.
Did he understand what he was reading? Not too well. Why did he continue this reading? It was the savor of God which he discerned therein. The glory which was in the sacred pages answered to the glory which was in his heart, and he delighted in that glory. Many years have now passed. The young man is now an old man, old in years, but younger in the strength of the Lord. He reads the Bible with better understanding now. He seems to have acquired a better grasp of the terms, an understanding of which is essential to an understanding of the Bible, but he still delights in the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ, as that glory is reflected in the sacred pages.
Without this key - the work of sovereign grace in the soul of man - THE KEY - the gospel of Christ - will never be found of man. "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." Psalm 119:18.
- E. W. Johnson
Justification by Faith
What does justification by faith mean? This is the doctrine which tells us that God has contrived a way whereby men and women can be saved and reconciled unto Himself. It is all of His doing. It tells us that God, on the basis of what He has done in His Son, our blessed Lord and Saviour, freely forgives and absolves from all their sin, all who believe the gospel.
But it does not stop at that; they are furthermore given the righteousness of Jesus Christ and declared to be just and righteous in God’s sight. It is not only negative, there is this positive aspect also. We are clothed with the righteousness of Christ which is ‘imputed’ to us, ‘put to our account’, and so we stand accepted in the sight of God. As Romans 5:19 puts it, we are ‘constituted’ righteous people in the presence of this holy and righteous God.
Justification does not mean that we are 'made' righteous, but rather that God regards us as righteous and declares us to be righteous. This has often been a difficulty to many people. They say that because they are conscious of sin within, they cannot be in a justified state; but anyone who speaks like that shows immediately that he has no understanding of this great and crucial doctrine of justification. Justification makes no actual change in us; it is a declaration by God concerning us. It is not something that results from what we do, but rather something that is done for us. We have only been made righteous in the sense that God regards us as righteous and pronounces us to be righteous.
- D.M. Lloyd-Jones
But it does not stop at that; they are furthermore given the righteousness of Jesus Christ and declared to be just and righteous in God’s sight. It is not only negative, there is this positive aspect also. We are clothed with the righteousness of Christ which is ‘imputed’ to us, ‘put to our account’, and so we stand accepted in the sight of God. As Romans 5:19 puts it, we are ‘constituted’ righteous people in the presence of this holy and righteous God.
Justification does not mean that we are 'made' righteous, but rather that God regards us as righteous and declares us to be righteous. This has often been a difficulty to many people. They say that because they are conscious of sin within, they cannot be in a justified state; but anyone who speaks like that shows immediately that he has no understanding of this great and crucial doctrine of justification. Justification makes no actual change in us; it is a declaration by God concerning us. It is not something that results from what we do, but rather something that is done for us. We have only been made righteous in the sense that God regards us as righteous and pronounces us to be righteous.
- D.M. Lloyd-Jones
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)