Saturday, June 03, 2006
from "Christians- A peculiar people' by Jonathan Edwards
'We see here a reason why Christians are of so different a nature and temper from the rest of the world. The truly godly are very different in their disposition from others. “They hate those things that the rest of the world love, and love those things for which the rest of the world have no relish; insomuch that others are ready to wonder that they should place any happiness in a strict observance of the self-denying duties of religion; they wonder what delight they can take in spending so much time in meditation and prayer, and that they do not place happiness in those things which themselves do. 1 Peter iv. 4. “Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot; speaking evil of you.” But the reason is, they are of a different race, and so derive different dispositions.
It is ordinary to see those who are of different families, of a different temper. The natural temper of parents is commonly in some degree transmitted to their posterity. Indeed, all agree in many things, for all are of the same blood originally; all are descended from the same Adam, and the same Noah. But Christians are born again of another stock, different from all the rest of the world; and therefore they are of a temper by themselves, wherein none of the rest of the world agree with them. Rev. i. 6. “And hath made us kings and priests unto God, and his Father: to him be glory and dominion, for ever and ever.”
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It is ordinary to see those who are of different families, of a different temper. The natural temper of parents is commonly in some degree transmitted to their posterity. Indeed, all agree in many things, for all are of the same blood originally; all are descended from the same Adam, and the same Noah. But Christians are born again of another stock, different from all the rest of the world; and therefore they are of a temper by themselves, wherein none of the rest of the world agree with them. Rev. i. 6. “And hath made us kings and priests unto God, and his Father: to him be glory and dominion, for ever and ever.”
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Friday, June 02, 2006
from 'The New Birth' vol 3 of the works of Stephen Charnock
From 'The Nature of Regeneration.'
'From, The excellency of your birth. It is a birth of heaven, a resemblance to God; do nothing below it or unworth of it. It is fit for you to lie amoung the pots and smut yourselves? The consideration of the relation you bear to God should inspire you with the heroic resolutions for his glory. You are the only persons to keep up God's honour in the world, and his final anger from it. Whenever you are tempted, reflect upon yourselves, as Nehemiah: 'Should such a man as I' do this? Or as Joseph to his mistress 'Behold my master hath commited al that he hath to my hand;' behold God hath put his divine nature in my heart and 'shall I do this wickedness?' Consider in every action what that God you call Father by regenerating grace that Christ who is the great examplar and copy of the image in you, would do in such cases and circumstances. How unworthy is it for living man to do dead works! As your life springs from the highest principle, let it be employed for the highest ends. Was every any prince ashamed of his honor? And shall any new creature be ashamed of the paticular badage of heaven upon it; or that any righteousness which is the true nobilitly of his nature? Holiness is the beauty of an intellectual and rational creature; it must then be your highest honor to live comformably to the diginity of your nature.'
p. 158
We should live like we have been regenerated. We should live to a higher standard than the world lives by.
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'From, The excellency of your birth. It is a birth of heaven, a resemblance to God; do nothing below it or unworth of it. It is fit for you to lie amoung the pots and smut yourselves? The consideration of the relation you bear to God should inspire you with the heroic resolutions for his glory. You are the only persons to keep up God's honour in the world, and his final anger from it. Whenever you are tempted, reflect upon yourselves, as Nehemiah: 'Should such a man as I' do this? Or as Joseph to his mistress 'Behold my master hath commited al that he hath to my hand;' behold God hath put his divine nature in my heart and 'shall I do this wickedness?' Consider in every action what that God you call Father by regenerating grace that Christ who is the great examplar and copy of the image in you, would do in such cases and circumstances. How unworthy is it for living man to do dead works! As your life springs from the highest principle, let it be employed for the highest ends. Was every any prince ashamed of his honor? And shall any new creature be ashamed of the paticular badage of heaven upon it; or that any righteousness which is the true nobilitly of his nature? Holiness is the beauty of an intellectual and rational creature; it must then be your highest honor to live comformably to the diginity of your nature.'
p. 158
We should live like we have been regenerated. We should live to a higher standard than the world lives by.
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From 'A Christian Directory' by Richard Baxter
If the men that we speak to be regardable, words are regardable. For words are powerful instruments of their good or hurt. God useth them by his ministers for men's conversion and salvation; and Satan useth them by his ministers for men's subversion and damnation. How many thousand souls are hurt every day by the words of others! some deceived, some puffed up, some hardened, and some provoked to sinful passions! And how many thousand are every day edified by words! either instructed, admonished, quickened, or conforted. Paul saith, 2 Cor 10:4 "The weapons of our warfare are mighty through God." And Pythagoras could say, "tongues cut deeper than swords, because they reach even to the soul." Tongue sins and duties therefore must needs be great.
Our tongues are the insturments of our Creator's praise, purposely given us to "speak good of his name," and to "declare his works with rejoicing." It is no small part of that service which God expects from man, which is performed by the tongue; nor a small part of the end of our creation: the use of all our highest faculties, parts, and graces, are expressively by the tongue: our wisdom and knowledge, our love and holiness, are much lost as to the honor of God, and the good of others, if not expresse. The tongue is the latern or casement of the soul, by which it looketh out, and shineth unto others. Therefor the sin and duty of so noble an instrument is not to be made light of, by any that regard the honour of our Maker.
p. 342
Baxter was right. The words that we speak say a lot of what we are inside. In the heat of the moment words can show what we think.
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Our tongues are the insturments of our Creator's praise, purposely given us to "speak good of his name," and to "declare his works with rejoicing." It is no small part of that service which God expects from man, which is performed by the tongue; nor a small part of the end of our creation: the use of all our highest faculties, parts, and graces, are expressively by the tongue: our wisdom and knowledge, our love and holiness, are much lost as to the honor of God, and the good of others, if not expresse. The tongue is the latern or casement of the soul, by which it looketh out, and shineth unto others. Therefor the sin and duty of so noble an instrument is not to be made light of, by any that regard the honour of our Maker.
p. 342
Baxter was right. The words that we speak say a lot of what we are inside. In the heat of the moment words can show what we think.
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Thursday, June 01, 2006
from 'Religious Affections' by Jonathan Edwards
To spiritually understand Scripture means we correctly understand the Scripture's objective content; it does not mean we creat some new meaning for it. Scriptural enlightment allows us to see what we would have otherwise been blind to- but in this case, no one could see this obscure new meaning blind or not, for it was nevert there before man's circumstances occured. The spirtiual enlightment of which the Bible speaks means that our eyes are opened to what has always been there; "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law" (Psalm 119:18). This verse implies that the meaning was there all along, but that the psalmist's eyes were shut; the psalmist does not indicate that he hopes to discover some new meaning that never existed prior to his prayer.
When we create a new meaning for the Scripture, it is the same as if we were making a new Scripture; it is adding to the Word, which the Bible warns us not to do. True spirtual enlightment does not discover private meanings hidden in the Bible; it does, however, perceive the sweet, bright revelation of Christ and the excellence of salvation. Real spirtual enlightment enables us to understand that Christ is the sum of our heart's need, and spirtual light shines on the Bible's promises, making them glow with meaning. All this was always in the Bible; there are no new meanings meant for individual persons.
p. 162-163
Edwards words are still true today. We should not be looking to the Bible to find new teachings that no one else has ever found.
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When we create a new meaning for the Scripture, it is the same as if we were making a new Scripture; it is adding to the Word, which the Bible warns us not to do. True spirtual enlightment does not discover private meanings hidden in the Bible; it does, however, perceive the sweet, bright revelation of Christ and the excellence of salvation. Real spirtual enlightment enables us to understand that Christ is the sum of our heart's need, and spirtual light shines on the Bible's promises, making them glow with meaning. All this was always in the Bible; there are no new meanings meant for individual persons.
p. 162-163
Edwards words are still true today. We should not be looking to the Bible to find new teachings that no one else has ever found.
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Wednesday, May 31, 2006
from the ' Manual of Theology' by J.L. Dagg
The doctrine of final perseverance, properly understood, gives no encouragement to sluggishness or negligence in duty; much less does it lead to licentiousness. He who takes occasion from it to sin against God, or to be indololent in his service, not only misunderstands, and misapplies the doctrine, but has reason to fear that his heart is not right before God. Perseverance in holiness is the only infallible proof the heart is right; and he who ceases to persevere, on the presumption that his heart is right, believes without the proper evidence, and is woefully hazarding his eternal interests on his persumption. The doctrine is, that grace in the heart will produce erseverance to the end; and where the effect is not produced, the cause does not exist. Every man, therefor, whatever his past professions and attainments may have been, the greater is the occasion for alarm; because his case, if he falls away, will so much the more resemble that in which renewal to repentance is impossible.
To reject the doctrine of final perseverance, tends to fix the hope of salvation on human effort, and not on the purpose and grace of God. If, in God's method of salvation, no provision has been made, which secures the safe keeping of the regenerate, and their perseverance in holiness, their salvation is left dependant on their own efforts, and their trust must be in that on which success depends. All that God has done for them, will fail to bring them through, if this effort, orginating in themselves, be not superadded; and the eye of hope is necessarily directed to this human effort, as that on which the momentous issue depends. Thus the denial of the doctrine draws off the heart from simple trust in God, and therefore tends to produce apostasy. The just shall live by faith. Simple trust in God, is necessary to preserve the spiritual life; and to trust in man, and make flesh our arm, is to all under curse, and draw back to perdition. In our first coming to Christ we renounce all confidence in self, and put our entire trust in the mercy and power of God: and in the same faith we began, we must persevere to the end of our course. Worldy wisdom may encourage self-reliance, and regard it as necessary to success: but the wisdome that is from above teaches us to renounce and avoid it as runious to the soul.
p. 298-299
Dagg was a preacher in what became the Southern Baptist convention. He held to the doctrines of grace know as Calvinism.
He did not preach what today is know as cheap grace.
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To reject the doctrine of final perseverance, tends to fix the hope of salvation on human effort, and not on the purpose and grace of God. If, in God's method of salvation, no provision has been made, which secures the safe keeping of the regenerate, and their perseverance in holiness, their salvation is left dependant on their own efforts, and their trust must be in that on which success depends. All that God has done for them, will fail to bring them through, if this effort, orginating in themselves, be not superadded; and the eye of hope is necessarily directed to this human effort, as that on which the momentous issue depends. Thus the denial of the doctrine draws off the heart from simple trust in God, and therefore tends to produce apostasy. The just shall live by faith. Simple trust in God, is necessary to preserve the spiritual life; and to trust in man, and make flesh our arm, is to all under curse, and draw back to perdition. In our first coming to Christ we renounce all confidence in self, and put our entire trust in the mercy and power of God: and in the same faith we began, we must persevere to the end of our course. Worldy wisdom may encourage self-reliance, and regard it as necessary to success: but the wisdome that is from above teaches us to renounce and avoid it as runious to the soul.
p. 298-299
Dagg was a preacher in what became the Southern Baptist convention. He held to the doctrines of grace know as Calvinism.
He did not preach what today is know as cheap grace.
Continue reading!
From 'A Treatise of Effectual Calling and' by Christopher Love
From sermon 6.
First, because there are many gradual changes which do not amount to a saving change or alteration of the heart of man. There is change from a pagan to a Christian. Julian was changed, yet he was a man never called by Jesus Christ. There is a change from being a persecutor to being a counternacer of religion. So we read that Valerius Mexminus was changed who was the vilest persecutor of all men in his time. The hand of God lay so sore upon him for that sin that his very bowels totted within him, and the very worms crept out of him; and in horror of conscience he cried out to his nobles around him, persuading him by his example to take heed never to persecute the Christians more. Now both of these are changes, and yet they are but gradual changes, and leave men abudendantly short of those saving changes that God works in those who are effectually called.
There is a change from profaneness to profession, and yet this is a step below a saving change. There is a step from profession to sincerity, and to a real profession of Jesus Christ. Now those first three steps fall short of a saving change, and therefore every change of life does not argue a man to be effectually called, because there are many gragdual changes that do not amount to so high a pitch as to be savingly changed.
Second, there may be a great change in the life when there is no change in the nature or the heart. In Matthew 23:25, they may "wash the outside of the cup, when within it is full of pollution." The life may be changed, the external acts and course may be changed, when the heart my not be changed and the nature is the same.
p. 114-115
Love wrote in this sermon how not all changes are real. A person may change from persecuting christians and still not be saved. They may change because God punishes them for what they do and that is why they stop what they are doing.
A person may stop commenting outward sins and still not have a new heart.
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First, because there are many gradual changes which do not amount to a saving change or alteration of the heart of man. There is change from a pagan to a Christian. Julian was changed, yet he was a man never called by Jesus Christ. There is a change from being a persecutor to being a counternacer of religion. So we read that Valerius Mexminus was changed who was the vilest persecutor of all men in his time. The hand of God lay so sore upon him for that sin that his very bowels totted within him, and the very worms crept out of him; and in horror of conscience he cried out to his nobles around him, persuading him by his example to take heed never to persecute the Christians more. Now both of these are changes, and yet they are but gradual changes, and leave men abudendantly short of those saving changes that God works in those who are effectually called.
There is a change from profaneness to profession, and yet this is a step below a saving change. There is a step from profession to sincerity, and to a real profession of Jesus Christ. Now those first three steps fall short of a saving change, and therefore every change of life does not argue a man to be effectually called, because there are many gragdual changes that do not amount to so high a pitch as to be savingly changed.
Second, there may be a great change in the life when there is no change in the nature or the heart. In Matthew 23:25, they may "wash the outside of the cup, when within it is full of pollution." The life may be changed, the external acts and course may be changed, when the heart my not be changed and the nature is the same.
p. 114-115
Love wrote in this sermon how not all changes are real. A person may change from persecuting christians and still not be saved. They may change because God punishes them for what they do and that is why they stop what they are doing.
A person may stop commenting outward sins and still not have a new heart.
Continue reading!
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
from 'Christolgia' by John Owen
Our goodness extends not unto God; we cannot profit him by any thing we are, or can do. Wherefore, his love unto us hath not respect originally unto any good in ourselves, but is gracious, free act of his own. He doeth good for no other reason but because he is good. Nor can his infinite perfections take any cause for theri originial actings without himself. He wants nothing that he would supply by the enjoyment of us. But we have indigency in ourselves because our love to seek an object without outselves. And soh his goodness- with the mercy, grace, and bounty included therein- is the cause, reason, and object of our love. We love them for themselves; and because we are wanting and indigent, we love them with a desire of union and enjoyment- wherein we find that our blessdness doth consist. Love in general unites the mind unto the object- the person loving unto the thing or person beloved. So is it expressed in an instance of human, temporary, changeable love, -namely, that of Jonathan to David. His soul "was knit with the soul of David, and he loved him as his own soul," 1 Samuel 18:1. Love had so effectually united them, as that the soul of David was as his own. Hence are those expressions of this divine love, by "cleaving unto God, following hard after him, thirsting, panting after him," with the like intimations of the most earnest endeavours of our nature after union and enjoyment. p 153
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