Charles Spurgeon is one of my favorite preachers. He was gentle when needed and quite hard at times too. He wasn’t afraid to get in your face. Yet, he did it in Christian love.
Here is a paragraph from Sermon #5 called “The Comforter” that I was reading a little of today and found it most interesting. What he said is quite needful at times today.
“You may say, “How am I to know whether I am a recipient of the comfort of the Holy Ghost?” You may know it by one rule. If you have received one blessing from God, you will receive all other blessings too. Let me explain myself. If I could come here as an auctioneer, and sell the gospel off in lots, I should dispose of it all. If I could say, here is justification through the blood of Christ—free; giving away, gratis; many a one would say, “I will have justification; give it to me; I wish to be justified; I wish to be pardoned.” Suppose I took sanctification, the giving up of all sin, a thorough change of heart, leaving off drunkenness and swearing; many would say, “I don’t want that; I should like to go to heaven, but I do not want that holiness; I should like to be saved at last, but I should like to have my drink still; I should like to enter glory, but then I must have an oath or two on the road.” Nay, but, sinner, if thou hast one blessing, thou shalt have all. God will never divide the gospel. He will not give justification to that man, and sanctification to another—pardon to one, and holiness to another. No, it all goes together. Whom he call, them he justifies; whom he justifies, them he sanctifies; and whom he sanctifies, them he also glorifies. Oh; if I could lay down nothing but the comforts of the gospel, ye would fly to them as flies do to honey. When ye come to be ill, ye send for the clergyman. Ah! you all want your minister then to come and give you consoling words. But, if he be an honest man, he will not give some of you a particle of consolation. He will not commence pouring oil, when the knife would be better. I want to make a man feel his sins before I dare tell him anything about Christ. I want to probe into his soul and make him feel that he is lost before I tell him anything about the purchased blessing. It is the ruin of many to tell them, “Now just believe on Christ, and that is all you have to do.” If, instead of dying, they get better, they rise up white-washed hypocrites—that is all. I have heard of a city missionary who kept a record of two thousand persons who were supposed to be on their death-bed, but recovered, and whom he should have put down as converted persons had they died; and how many do you think lived a Christian life afterwards out of the two thousand? Not two. Positively he could only find one who was found to live afterwards in the fear of God. Is it not horrible that when men and women come to die, they should cry, “Comfort, comfort?” and that hence their friends conclude that they are children of God, while, after all, they have no right to consolation, but are intruders upon the enclosed grounds of the blessed God. O God, may these people ever be kept from having comfort when they have no right to it! Have you the other blessings? Have you had the conviction of sin? Have you ever felt your guilt before God? Have your souls been humbled at Jesus’ feet? And have you been made to look to Calvary alone for your refuge? If not, you have no right to consolation. Do not take an atom of it. The Spirit is a convincer before he is a Comforter; and you must have the other operations of the Holy Spirit, before you can derive anything from this.”
“And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen strange things today!” - Luke 5:26
I must say that I got a kick out of this passage after I read and meditated on it. It was quite amusing.
Here Jesus heals a paralytic. I have read this passage before probably quite often, but my mind was imagining everything happening as I read it this time.
Jesus is teaching a pretty good size crowd. In the crowd are some Pharisees and teachers of the Law. While He is teaching, there are some men that bring the paralytic on a bed or mat for Jesus to heal him. Okay, that is the background of the story. If you have read the gospel, you are probably somewhat familiar with it since it is in three out of the four gospel accounts.
While I am commenting on this text, I will bring up a point or two that I brought up last Sunday at the Detroit Rescue Mission. I preached out of this text there. One of the main things we see out of this text is that the paralytic and the men carrying Him had tremendous faith. They knew who Jesus was and what He was able to do. They knew about Him so well that they were will to put in extra time and energy to make sure that Jesus was aware of the paralytic’s need. They could have just stopped and felt hopeless when they had seen that they could get to Jesus because of the crowd. How many of us would have just given up? How many of us give up on Him now when things don’t go the way we want? But they didn’t give up. They were determined and they persevered.
Can you imagine carrying someone up to a roof? He was just dead weight they were carrying since the paralytic couldn’t help himself. These men carried the paralytic up to the housetop. That took determination. Even more, it took great faith to know that going through this extra work wasn’t a waste of their time and energy.
The men took apart some of the roof, which was not like the roofs we have today. They took it apart and let the paralytic down through the roof that Jesus might heal him. Jesus had see their faith and healed the paralytic there on the spot. Because of him faith, he received forgiveness of sins. Because of his forgiveness, he found true freedom.
The part I found rather humorous was after Jesus told the man his sins were forgiven. Now, you have to imagine this in your head. Remember when you were a kid you learned about using your imagination? Well, you need to do that here to get the full benefit of the humor behind it. You may have read this quite a few times but never thought about it this way.
Jesus tells the paralytic his sins are forgiven. The pharisees flip out. That is understandable. They ask a reasonable question. “Who is this man? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”, the Pharisees ask. I can understand their questioning. Some want to really throw stones at the Pharisees here. I am not sure about the other gospels, but in the gospel of Luke this is the first confrontation with the Pharisees in Capernium. Jesus had one at Nazareth at the beginning of His ministry.
The funny part is what Jesus asks in response to their questioning. He says, “Which is easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven”, or to say, “Rise up and walk”? Now, think about this question for a moment. Put yourself in the shoes of everybody else that was their listing to the question that Jesus asked. You have heard this man preach like no one else could. You have seen Him do some miraculous things. Maybe He is a prophet. If anything else you are seeing Him as just another person, like the rest of us, but with a special anointing from God, like Jeremiah or Elijah.
Which is easier? To forgive sins or to tell a paralyzed man to get up and walk?
Neither! Both are absolutely impossible.
Not only that, but you can’t see the immediate results of forgiveness. So when Jesus said that the man’s sins were forgiven, it’s impossible to comprehend such a statement by a mere man. But we know He wasn’t just a mere man. Both statement were easy for Him.
He blew them all away after asking that question by letting them know that He does have power to forgive sins and to heal. He told the paralytic to rise up and walk and he did so. The story finishes at verse 26 by saying that “they were all amazed” and said, “We have seen strange things today!” Well, wouldn’t you?
I hope you got a kick out of this passage as I did. If not, read it for yourself and try putting yourself in the shoes of those watching and hearing Jesus.
“So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him.” - Luke 5:11
My focus is on the book of Luke now. I was on Proverbs for a while but thought I’d go back to a gospel. It hasn’t been without some eye opening. For instance, Luke makes the calling of the fishermen (Peter, Andrew, James, and John) make much more sense than the other gospels. It was like a light bulb came on for me. While the other gospels say that Jesus just calls them and they leave everything, Luke, at least to me, brings the circumstances together a little better to show us why they left everything. They may have heard Jesus teaching in the temple in Capernium. Surely, Peter and Andrew, his brother, knew how different Jesus was because He healed Peter’s mother-in-law before Peter was even called to follow Christ. Knowing from Luke that James and John were Peter and Andrew’s partners in fishing shows that they could have known quite a bit about Christ too. Then add the preaching Jesus does in Peter’s boat with the miracle of the caught fish and you have four people that are just awestuck by Christ. No wonder they just left everything they had when Jesus called them to follow Him.
Yes, folks. It is Chris. I am still alive. I have been a tad busy. I was trying to cram a whole bunch of time into my intership I was doing for school. I am finished now an hope to be posting more frequently.
I won’t be typing much tonight but wanted to leave you with something interesting just to let you know I’m still here.
This looks quite wild. I wouldn’t mind trying it at the next men’s retreat I go to. Looks a whole lot better than golf.
“He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.”
This scripture tell us quite plainly that he who has self-control is much more stronger than what we would think as strong. Reflecting on my own life, this is so powerfully true. I think I have heard that D.L. Moody once said that D.L. Moody was his worst enemy or something to that effect. I couldn’t agree with him more. My own worst enemy is myself.
When we often think of someone who is strong we think of prize fighters, wrestlers, or people who can pick up cars and bent steel or those who can benchpress a gazillion pounds. But the real strength is when one can control himself.
It is too easy to get angry. It is not just about our time or our culture. Anger is imbedded in our selfish hearts and has been since the fall. Anyone can be nice when things are going right. But when “our buttons are pushed”, that is where the test comes in. Can we handle it? Can we deal with it? We are told that whoever can deal with it, or who is slow to anger, is much more mighter than the strongest of the strong.
Not only that, but whoever rules his spirit is mighter than one who takes a city. Can you fight any entire city and conquer it? Probably not. But you can be mighter than one who can if you control your spirit. Yet, this flesh we live in is bent on sin. The Apostle Paul said it plainly in Romans chapter 7 that what He wants to do, he doesn’t, and what he doesn’t want to do, he does. If we are regenerate, our spirit is willing to do the will of God, but our flesh is weak and is working contrary to the will of God. Therefore, whoever rules his spirit is mightier than one who can conquer a whole city.
Both of these thing are immpossible for us. If you know yourself, you know that without some help you can’t rule yourself at all. If you think you can, you are either ignorant or decieved. It is only God’s grace that keeps you from falling deep into gross sin. All of the awful things you might see on the news could be done by you if someone just “pushes your buttons” right.
Jesus said in John 15:5 that “without Me you can do nothing.” He is the giver of light and life. Without Him we live in and practice darkness, even if the darkness seems as light. Also, self control is part of the fruit of the Holy Spirit as described in Galatians 5:22. It is not of the flesh but what comes from the Spirit.
So what do we learn from this passage? Only that whoever controls himself is stronger that the strongest of the strong. We know that God is so much stronger than anything and “He is able to keep us from falling”.
Trust in Him and His grace. When you feel overwhelmed by sin and your flesh, cry out to Him. Jesus is our High Priest “who was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)
“In mercy and truth atonement is provided for iniquity; And by the fear of the Lord one departs from evil”
As I said in my first post, Proverbs is a book that someone can easily read through fast without meditating on because the verses are so short. We can easily just fly through the verses without giving them a thought. But when you stop and think upon a verse, it can be a such a source of blessing.
It is in mercy and truth that the Lord has provided all of our atonement for sin, iniquity, and transgression. John 1:14 says that Jesus Christ, the Word,God made flesh, was and is full of “grace and truth”. When we see the life of Jesus Christ as laid out in the scriptures, He was the epidemy of what it is to be absolutely full of grace and truth.
I suppose one of the most compelling examples of Jesus’ fullness of grace and truth is in the story of the woman caught in the act of adultery. (John 8) He showed grace to the woman that was caught. If indeed she was guilty of adutery, The Law of Moses said plainly that she should be stoned to death (along with the man, who seems to be missing from the story). (Levitcus 20:10) But Jesus showed the woman grace and used the situation as a springboard to make the Pharisees see that they are not without sin. Who were they to jump at the chance to stone this woman when they may just as well be the ones being stoned.
Yet, He is not only full of grace. He dosen’t just say, “Oh, that’s okay.” He is also full of truth. God is a God of justice who will bring out everything into the open and judge sin. In the case of this woman, Jesus didn’t just let her go. He said to her, “Go and sin no more.”
Now onto the point of this passage. It isn’t necessarily about Jesus, but about atonement. Yet, we can clearly see the mercy and truth that God shown at the cross of Christ. It was in His mercy and truth that our sins were atoned (paid) for.
We can clearly see His mercy in the cross. It was His grace and mercy that sent His innocent Son, Jesus Christ, to the cross on our behalf. We should have been on that cross. We should have had the full wrath of God poured on us. That is what we deserve. The wrath of God was not just dying on a cross, but Jesus was judged for our sin. He bore the wrath, anger, anquish, and justice of a holy and just God. Only He could because He was innocent of sin. The wrath we deserve would send us to Hell, forever and ever in torment and agony, because we have disobeyed a perfect, just, and righteous God. Anything less than being fully judged for our sin is mercy. He has freely bestowed mercy upon all of mankind, even more upon those who trust in Jesus Christ.
Yet, we also see truth displayed at the cross. Sin is so offensive to God that when His only Son, Jesus, took on Himself our sin, God did not close His eyes, but fully judged His own Son in our place. This should show us the seriousness of sin. God did not spare His own Son, so how can He spare us if we neglect so great a salvation? He promises that those who do not believe on Christ will be sent to Hell. It is not unfair. We fully deserve God’s wrath anyway. He has given us a way for our sin to be atoned for. The atonement happened in the mercy and truth shown at the cross of Jesus Christ.
Lastly, we depart from evil when we fear the Lord. Our culture and some pulpits have taught for a long time a grandfather-type lovey-dovey God. While God is love, He is also holy and just. He is to be feared. It is good to have a fear that we become quite scared to death of God. He is holy, holy, holy. When certain people of the Bible came in contact with God, or sometimes even angels, they fell down as dead men. It is good to have this kind of fear in our hearts for the Lord. When we understand His holiness and our unworthiness and sin, we want to get as far away of sin as possible that we may be pleasing to Him.
May the Lord give us eyes to see His holiness and our sin, that we may fear Him. May we understand His truth and appreciate all the more His mercy. May we give thanks to His for sending Jesus Christ for our atonement of sin in mercy and truth.
Isaiah 38:17b - “But you have lovingly delivered me soul from the pit of corruption. For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.”
Lord, I considered at work today typing out a prayer later about your love for me and asking the question of “why do You love me?” You have lovingly delivered me from my sin, from death, from darkness, from so many things that I don’t even know of or understand right now. You have given me life. You have opened my eyes to who You are even thought I barely know You. I have saved me from the power of sin even though I continue to run to it. You forgive me when I turn my back on you and do my own thing. You pick me up when I stumble and sin against you. You cleanse my heart of wickedness even though sometimes it is of some of the things you have already dealt with me about. You never say to me, “How many times do I have to tell you.”
Lord, why do You love me when all I do is fail You? Why do you put up with me. Oh, God, that You would help me to understand Your love. That I would know the love of Christ - the depth, height, width, and breadth.
Who am I that you even consider me, Lord. What can I ever do for You. I am a worm and not a man. Please forgive me of my sins and lead me in paths of righteousness for Your name sake and glory.
Lord, you have preserved my life. While I am on this earth, let me glorify You. I cannot do it on my own. I will only fail. I need You. I need Your help. I need Your grace.
I don’t know why You love me. I don’t know why You have chosen me and lavished Your mercy and grace upon this horrible sinner. But, I thank You that you have. Let Your will be done in and through me. I am Yours. Do with me as You will. Give me the grace to love You back. Thank you for Your love.
“The preparations of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the toungue is from the Lord.”
I suppose that if I am to comment of scripture, I must also comment on things that may ruffle some feathers. (That is, of course, unless nobody is reading this.) The issue of God being totally sovereign and man having responibility has been an issue of conflict in the Church for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, the conflict can be so deep and hurtful that it destroys relationships and even churches.
With that in mind, I give this disclaimer: “This is my blog. This is not a discussion forum. I am writing my thoughts and things that are on my mind. If you want to argue, this is not the place for you. Actually, if you want to argue, argue with God. It’s His Word, not mine. Search the scriptures and take it up with Him. Thank you.”
Now that that’s out of the way. I must say I find this verse very interesting. The more I read, the more I find verses like this that exalt God’s sovereignty. The Bible is full of these types of verses. But, alas, it is also full of man’s responsibility. We are not robots, but the Lord either allows or does not allow our plans and thoughts to follow though.
This is a good thing, actually. I know that if it wasn’t for the Lord’s grace, I would not be where I am right now. The Lord did not “save” me until I was around 20 years old. Before then, I was caught up in my own sins like everyone else. The question is: Why wasn’t I in deeper sin than I was and how deep would I have gotten if He did save me? While I am not perfect today and no where near where I would like to be, I thank my great Savior Jesus Christ that He did save me and I am not the man I used to be.
I am so happy that God is so gracious and sovereign. We can think of things we want todo. Our flesh can think of things to do as well. If you have been a follower of Christ for any amount of time, then you understand the struggle with sin. Our sinful flesh tugs our hearts constantly toward sin. I have had the experiences where I have been tugged so much to sin that I start pursuing it. But then, the Lord’s grace has kept me from falling. Yet, sometimes He allows me to fall flat on my face.
So, what is my point? Exactly what the passage says. We can think of all the things we want to do and say, but what will the Lord allow? What will He decide to bring to pass?
Matthew Henry said it well in his commentary - “Man purposes. He has a freedom of thought and a freedom of will permitted him; let him form his projects, and lay his schemes, as he thinks best: but, after all, God disposes. Man cannot go on with his business without the assistance and blessing of God, who made man’s mouth and teaches us what we shall say. Nay, God easily can, and often does, cross men’s purposes, and break their measures. It was a curse that was prepared in Balaam’s heart, but the answer of the tongue was a blessing. ”
Here are some other verses in Proverbs to consider that John MacArthur list in his commentary:
Proverbs 3:6
16:2, 9, 33
19:21
20:24
21:1, 30, 31
Consider the awesome power of God. He “is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.
To God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen!” (Jude 24-25)