Saturday, June 17, 2006
'Gospel Worship' by Jeremiah Burroughs
'It would be excellent if every Lord's Day, and at other times, you came as hungry to the Word as you ever went to your dinner or supper. The Word of God should be more to you than your appointed food, and then you are likely to grow by it and to sanctify God's name in it.
Pray beforehand that God would open your eyes and your heart and accompany His Word. Thus did David; "Open mine eyes O Lord, that I may understand the wonders of Thy law." You know what is said of Lydia: "The Lord opened her heart to attend to the Word tha was spoken." Now seeing it is an ordinance, you expect more good from it than what it, of its own nature, is able to convey. You need to pray, "Lord, I go to such an ordinance of Thine, and I know there is no efficacy in itself. It is not able to reach such effects as I expect, that is, to have my eyes opened, but Lord, open my eyes and my heart. Lord, my heart is naturally locked up against Thy Word. There are such words in my heart that, unless Thou art pleased to put in a key that may fit my heart, it will never open. Man is not able to know my heart, and therefore he cannot fit a key to ansewer every ward, to resolve doubt, to silence every objection, but Lord, Thou canst do it. Lord, therefore fit Thy Word this day to meet with my heart. Lord, I have gone often to Thy Word and the key has stuck it in and has not opened; but Lord, if Thou wouldst but fit it and turn it with Thine own hand, my heart would open."
Oh, come with such a praying heart to the Word, and thereby you shall sanctify the name of God in hearing His Word. This is to come to hear the Word as to the Word of God. You must not come to hear the Word as to hear a speech or an oration, but come in such a preparation as this, and so God will be glorified and you will be profited.'
p. 167-168
The Word of God is important to us. It is the most important book you can read and learn from. You need God to open your heart to what it says.
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Pray beforehand that God would open your eyes and your heart and accompany His Word. Thus did David; "Open mine eyes O Lord, that I may understand the wonders of Thy law." You know what is said of Lydia: "The Lord opened her heart to attend to the Word tha was spoken." Now seeing it is an ordinance, you expect more good from it than what it, of its own nature, is able to convey. You need to pray, "Lord, I go to such an ordinance of Thine, and I know there is no efficacy in itself. It is not able to reach such effects as I expect, that is, to have my eyes opened, but Lord, open my eyes and my heart. Lord, my heart is naturally locked up against Thy Word. There are such words in my heart that, unless Thou art pleased to put in a key that may fit my heart, it will never open. Man is not able to know my heart, and therefore he cannot fit a key to ansewer every ward, to resolve doubt, to silence every objection, but Lord, Thou canst do it. Lord, therefore fit Thy Word this day to meet with my heart. Lord, I have gone often to Thy Word and the key has stuck it in and has not opened; but Lord, if Thou wouldst but fit it and turn it with Thine own hand, my heart would open."
Oh, come with such a praying heart to the Word, and thereby you shall sanctify the name of God in hearing His Word. This is to come to hear the Word as to the Word of God. You must not come to hear the Word as to hear a speech or an oration, but come in such a preparation as this, and so God will be glorified and you will be profited.'
p. 167-168
The Word of God is important to us. It is the most important book you can read and learn from. You need God to open your heart to what it says.
Related Tags: Jeremiah Burroughs,
'Gospel Worship', Word of God,
Lord's Day, praying heart
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Friday, June 16, 2006
From 'Precious remedies against Satan's devices' by Thomas Brooks
'Device 10. By working them to be frequent in comparing themselves and their ways with those that are reputed or reported to be worse than themselves. By this device the devil drew the proud pharisee to bless himself in a cursed condition, 'God I thank thee that I am not as other men are extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican (Luke 18:11). Why saith Satan, you swear but pretty oaths, as 'by your faith and troth,' but such swear by wounds and blood; you are not and then a little wanton, but such and such do daily defile and pollute themselves by actual uncleaneness and filthiness; you deceive and overreach your neighbors in things that are but toys and trifles, but such and such deceive and overreach others in things of greatest concernment, even to their ruin and undoings; you do but sit, and chat, and sip with the drunkard; you are only a little proud in heart and habit, in looks and words.
Remedy (1). The first remedy against this device of Satan is, solemnly to consider this, That there is not a greater nor a cleaner argument to prove a man a hyprocrite, than to be quicksighted abroad and blind at home, than to see 'a mote in another man's eye, and not a beam in his own eye' (Matthew 7:3-4); than to use spectacles to behold other men's sins rather than looking-glasses to behold his own; rather to be allways holding his finger upon other men's sores, and to be amplifying and aggravating other men's sins than mitigating his own.
Remedy (2). The second remedy against this device of Satan is, To spend more time in comparing your internal and external actions with the Rule, with the Word, by which you must be judged at last, than in comparing of yourselves with those that are worse than yourselves. That man that, compareing his self with others that are worse than himself, may see to himself and others, to be an angel; yet comparing himself with the word, may see himself like the devil, year a very devil. 'Hath not I chosen twelve, and one of you is a devil?'(John 6:70). Such men are like him, as if they were spit out of his mouth.
Satan is called 'the god of this world' (2 Cor. 4:4), because as God at first did but speak the word, and it was done, so, if the devil doth but hold up his finger, give the least hint, they will do his will, though they undo their souls for ever. Ah, what monsters would these men appear to be, did they but compare themselves with a righteous rule, and not with the most unrighteous men; they would appear to be as black as hell itself.
p. 89-90
We like to compare ourselves to the people who are around us. We think we are not as bad as they are. We should remember to compare our lives to the standard from the Word of God.
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Remedy (1). The first remedy against this device of Satan is, solemnly to consider this, That there is not a greater nor a cleaner argument to prove a man a hyprocrite, than to be quicksighted abroad and blind at home, than to see 'a mote in another man's eye, and not a beam in his own eye' (Matthew 7:3-4); than to use spectacles to behold other men's sins rather than looking-glasses to behold his own; rather to be allways holding his finger upon other men's sores, and to be amplifying and aggravating other men's sins than mitigating his own.
Remedy (2). The second remedy against this device of Satan is, To spend more time in comparing your internal and external actions with the Rule, with the Word, by which you must be judged at last, than in comparing of yourselves with those that are worse than yourselves. That man that, compareing his self with others that are worse than himself, may see to himself and others, to be an angel; yet comparing himself with the word, may see himself like the devil, year a very devil. 'Hath not I chosen twelve, and one of you is a devil?'(John 6:70). Such men are like him, as if they were spit out of his mouth.
Satan is called 'the god of this world' (2 Cor. 4:4), because as God at first did but speak the word, and it was done, so, if the devil doth but hold up his finger, give the least hint, they will do his will, though they undo their souls for ever. Ah, what monsters would these men appear to be, did they but compare themselves with a righteous rule, and not with the most unrighteous men; they would appear to be as black as hell itself.
p. 89-90
We like to compare ourselves to the people who are around us. We think we are not as bad as they are. We should remember to compare our lives to the standard from the Word of God.
Related Tags: Thomas Brooks, 'Precious remedies against Satan's devices', pharisee, Satan, Word of God, sin
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Thursday, June 15, 2006
From 'The Godly Man's picture' by Thomas Watson
'In this sense, a godly man does not indulge sin. Though sin is in him, he is troubled at it and would gladly get rid of it. There is as much difference between sin in the wicked and the godly as between poisin being in the serpent and in a man. Poison in a serpent is in its natural place and is delightful, but poison in a man's body is offensive and he uses antidotes to expel it. So sin in a child of God is burdensome and he uses all means to expel it. The sin is trimmed off. The will is against it. A godly man enters his protest agaisnt sin: 'What I do I allow not' (Romans 7:15). A child of God, while he commits sin, hates the sin he commits (Romans 7). In particular there are four sorts of sin which a godly man will not allow himself:
1 Secret sins. Some are more modest than to commit gross sin. That would be a stain on their reputation. But they will sit brooding upon sin in a corner: 'Saul secretly practised mischief' (1 Sam. 23:9). All will not sin on a balcony but perhaps they will sin behind the curtain. Rachel did not carry her father's images like a saddle cloth to be exposed to public view, but she put them under her and set on them (Gen. 31:34).
But a godly man dare not sin secretly:
(i) He knows that God sees in secret (Psalm 44:21). As God cannot be decieved by our subtlety, so he cannont be excluded by our secrecy.
(ii) A godly man knows the that secret sins are in some sense worse than others. They reveal more guile and atheism. The curtain-sinner makes himselfe believe that God does not see: 'Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, for they say, The Lord seeth us not' (Ezek. 8:12). Those who have bad eyes think that the sun is dim. How it provokes God, that man's atheism should give the lie to his omniscience! 'He that formed the eye, shall he not see? (Psalm 94:9).
(iii) A godly man knows that secret sins shall not escape God's justice. A judge on the bench can punish no offence but what is proved by witnesses. He cannot punish the treason of the heart, but the sins of the heart are visible to God as if they were written upon the forehead. As God will reward secret duties, so will he revenge secret sins.
p. 146-147
Watson was a puritan preacher. His works are good and should be read. His works are not as hard to read as John Owen's.
God sees all of our sins. Nothing we do is hidden from Him.
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1 Secret sins. Some are more modest than to commit gross sin. That would be a stain on their reputation. But they will sit brooding upon sin in a corner: 'Saul secretly practised mischief' (1 Sam. 23:9). All will not sin on a balcony but perhaps they will sin behind the curtain. Rachel did not carry her father's images like a saddle cloth to be exposed to public view, but she put them under her and set on them (Gen. 31:34).
But a godly man dare not sin secretly:
(i) He knows that God sees in secret (Psalm 44:21). As God cannot be decieved by our subtlety, so he cannont be excluded by our secrecy.
(ii) A godly man knows the that secret sins are in some sense worse than others. They reveal more guile and atheism. The curtain-sinner makes himselfe believe that God does not see: 'Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, for they say, The Lord seeth us not' (Ezek. 8:12). Those who have bad eyes think that the sun is dim. How it provokes God, that man's atheism should give the lie to his omniscience! 'He that formed the eye, shall he not see? (Psalm 94:9).
(iii) A godly man knows that secret sins shall not escape God's justice. A judge on the bench can punish no offence but what is proved by witnesses. He cannot punish the treason of the heart, but the sins of the heart are visible to God as if they were written upon the forehead. As God will reward secret duties, so will he revenge secret sins.
p. 146-147
Watson was a puritan preacher. His works are good and should be read. His works are not as hard to read as John Owen's.
God sees all of our sins. Nothing we do is hidden from Him.
Related Tags: God, Thomas Watson, godly man, sin, omniscience, Puritan
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Tuesday, June 13, 2006
From 'The works of Jonathan Edwards vol 2'
From the sermon 'Temptation and Deliverance'
'I said, that persons should avoid things that expose to sin, as far as may be; because it is possible that persons may be called to expose themselves to temptation; and when it is so, they may hope for divine strength and protection under temptation.
It may be a man's indispensable duty to undertake an office or work, attended with a great deal of temptation. Thus ordinarily a man ought not to run into temptation of being persecuted for the true religion; lest the temptation should not be too hard for him; but should avoid it, as much as may be: therefore Christ thus directs his disciples, Matthew 10:23 "When ye be persecuted in one city, flee to another." Yet, the case may be so, that a man may be called not to flee from persecution; but to run the venture so such a trial, trusting God to uphold him under it. Ministers and magistrates may be obliged to continue with their people in such circumstances; as Nehemiah says, Neh. 6:11 "Should such a man as I flee?" So the apostles. -Yea, they may be called to go into the midst of it; to those places where they cannot reasonably expect but to meet such temptations. So Paul went up to Jersualem, when he knew beforehand, that there bonds and affliction awaited him, Acts 20:23'
p. 227.
Edwards shows how we should try to avoid putting ourselves in a place that leads to temptation. But when we can not avoid it to trust God to help us.
Related Tags: Jonathan Edwards, God, sin, Christ, Ministers, persecution, affliction, temptation
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'I said, that persons should avoid things that expose to sin, as far as may be; because it is possible that persons may be called to expose themselves to temptation; and when it is so, they may hope for divine strength and protection under temptation.
It may be a man's indispensable duty to undertake an office or work, attended with a great deal of temptation. Thus ordinarily a man ought not to run into temptation of being persecuted for the true religion; lest the temptation should not be too hard for him; but should avoid it, as much as may be: therefore Christ thus directs his disciples, Matthew 10:23 "When ye be persecuted in one city, flee to another." Yet, the case may be so, that a man may be called not to flee from persecution; but to run the venture so such a trial, trusting God to uphold him under it. Ministers and magistrates may be obliged to continue with their people in such circumstances; as Nehemiah says, Neh. 6:11 "Should such a man as I flee?" So the apostles. -Yea, they may be called to go into the midst of it; to those places where they cannot reasonably expect but to meet such temptations. So Paul went up to Jersualem, when he knew beforehand, that there bonds and affliction awaited him, Acts 20:23'
p. 227.
Edwards shows how we should try to avoid putting ourselves in a place that leads to temptation. But when we can not avoid it to trust God to help us.
Related Tags: Jonathan Edwards, God, sin, Christ, Ministers, persecution, affliction, temptation
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Jonathan Edwards online
I have added Jonathan Edwards online to the Christian Links. I also added a link to the blog.
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From 'Gospel Worship' by Jeremiah Burroughs
There is not any action which comes from you that comes to be accepted to eternal life until your persons are accepted by God, and therefore there must be a sanctifying of the heart before there can be sanctifying of the name of God in the duties of His worship. Therefore, when you cometo perform any duties of God's worship, you should consider this: "Is my heart santicfied? I must sanctify God's name, and how can I do this unless my heart is santctified?"
Second our hearts must be sanctified because the Lord looks more to principle from whence a thing comes than to the thing itself. Were our hearts as right as they should be, then we would not so much regard what all the good things that come to us from God are as what the principle is from whence they came, that is, whether what we enjoy from God is from the love of God in Christ Jesus or not, whether it is from the general bounty and patience of God or from the special love of God in Jesus Christ. Our hearts would regard that most if we were spirtual.
Now then, as a godly man is not satisfied with enjoying any good thing from God unless he knows it comes from a principal of love to Him in Jesus Christ, so God is not pleased with anything that comes from us unless He knows that it comes from a principal of love, grace, and holiness in the heart.
Third, according as the heart is, so will the service be. Certainly if the heart is unclean, the duty will be unclean. Perhaps the words may be fine and brave, but if there is an unclean heart the duty will be unclean. Suppose a man with the plague makes a brave oration. His breath is still infectious. So it is in our services with God. If our hearts within us have the plague, then certainly the breath that comes from us, all of our duties, will be unclean. And, therefore, that is the first thing that we are to look for in sanctifying God's name in holy duties. Look to have your heart sanctified and consider from what principle it comes. It is for lack of this that thounsands of our duties are cast aside and God never regards them. But this is the first particular, there are many more to speak of.
p. 90-91
Burroughs was a great preacher. His words of worship are important. God looks on our hearts to see why we do what we do. Our heart is what leads us in how we live.
Related Tags: Jeremiah Burroughs, God, worship, Jesus Christ, grace, dutites, sanctified, holiness
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Second our hearts must be sanctified because the Lord looks more to principle from whence a thing comes than to the thing itself. Were our hearts as right as they should be, then we would not so much regard what all the good things that come to us from God are as what the principle is from whence they came, that is, whether what we enjoy from God is from the love of God in Christ Jesus or not, whether it is from the general bounty and patience of God or from the special love of God in Jesus Christ. Our hearts would regard that most if we were spirtual.
Now then, as a godly man is not satisfied with enjoying any good thing from God unless he knows it comes from a principal of love to Him in Jesus Christ, so God is not pleased with anything that comes from us unless He knows that it comes from a principal of love, grace, and holiness in the heart.
Third, according as the heart is, so will the service be. Certainly if the heart is unclean, the duty will be unclean. Perhaps the words may be fine and brave, but if there is an unclean heart the duty will be unclean. Suppose a man with the plague makes a brave oration. His breath is still infectious. So it is in our services with God. If our hearts within us have the plague, then certainly the breath that comes from us, all of our duties, will be unclean. And, therefore, that is the first thing that we are to look for in sanctifying God's name in holy duties. Look to have your heart sanctified and consider from what principle it comes. It is for lack of this that thounsands of our duties are cast aside and God never regards them. But this is the first particular, there are many more to speak of.
p. 90-91
Burroughs was a great preacher. His words of worship are important. God looks on our hearts to see why we do what we do. Our heart is what leads us in how we live.
Related Tags: Jeremiah Burroughs, God, worship, Jesus Christ, grace, dutites, sanctified, holiness
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