Strength will be found in Christ

In this way, reader, you will find rest for your soul. In your journey to the heavenly world, you will have much to do, much to oppose, and it may be, much to suffer; but by a life of faith on him in whom you first believed, you will find strength equal to your day. Duties will be pleasant, temptations will be overcome, and the sufferings of this present life will work a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

Rev. Andrew Fuller–The Great Question Answered

Letter to Obama concerning abortion

Here is an excellent letter, written by a mother, to the President of the United States; concerning abortion and his speech to ’Planned Parenthood.’

This mother touches on many issues of abortion, of which Obama simply ignores. She makes her case plain and accurate while calling Obama out.

 

Dear Mr. President,

I had a conversation with my kids the other day. We talked about the Gosnell case, as we try to talk about several current events. I tried to spare them of the gruesome details and give just the short version. They had so many questions, though. They wanted to know what abortion was. I explained that some mommies don’t want to grow a baby just then. I explained, and pointed out how much work babies were. I said that when most women have an abortion, the baby is still forming all of the organs, and not all the parts of the body work outside the mother just yet. I talked about how hard being pregnant was sometimes. I did not want to glorify anything.

My kids understood how hard it was. They’ve seen me go through it a few times. They understood the work, as we live it day in and day out as a family. However, the reality of what an abortion is…they thought I was making that up. They could not believe that anyone would do such a thing. They have an easier time believing in the tooth fairy. When I told them I was serious, they sat in horror.

I did not show them pictures. I was determined not to villainize my opposing side of view or seek to give them nightmares. But I want to teach my children how to form ideas. I want them armed with facts. I also told them about my experience with a crisis pregnancy center. I told them what some of the woman were like, and the challenges they faced. I talked about how some were forced into abortions by loved ones. I talked about the ones who faced depression, or were unable to ever have children because of an abortion procedure they had years earlier. I told them some women have abortions, and never feel bad about it.

 

To read the rest of this letter click here.

Sin causes one guilt and fear

Though you be an immortal and accountable creature–as your conscience tells you you are, whenever you consult it, and sometimes when you would gladly shut your ears against it–yet if you had not sinned against your Maker, there would be no cause for alarm. A sinless creature has nothing to fear from a righteous God. The approach of an assize, with all its solemn pomp, does not terrify the innocent; neither would judgment or eternity inspire the least degree of dread, if you were guiltless. But you are a sinner, a corrupt branch of a corrupt stock. God placed, as I may say, a generous confidence in our species, and required nothing in return but love; but we have returned him evil for good. You, for yourself, are conscious that you have done so, and that it is in your very, nature to do evil.

Rev. Andrew Fuller–The Great Question Answered

Let us not forget Christ at Calvary

Now, finish the scene of woe by a view of Calvary. Think of the pierced hands and the bleeding side; think of the scorching sun, and then the entire darkness; remember the broiling fever and the dread thirst; think of the death shriek, “It is finished!” and of the groans which were its prelude. This is the object of memory. Let us never forget Christ. I beseech you, for the love of Jesus, let him have the chief place in your memories Let not the pearl of great price be dropped from your careless hand into the dark ocean of oblivion.

Charles H. Spurgeon—The Remembrance of Christ—A sermon delivered on Sabbath Evening January 7^th 1855

We need to remember Christ in Gethsemane

But you know my chosen theme-the place where I can always best remember Christ. It is a shady garden full of olives. O that spot! I would that I had eloquence, that I might take yolk there. Oh! if the Spirit would but take us, and set us down hard by the mountains of Jerusalem, I would say, see there runs the brook of Isedron, which the king himself did pass- and there you see the olive trees. Possibly, at the foot of that olive, lay the three disciples when they slept; and there, ah! there, I see drops of blood. Stand here, my soul, a moment, those drops of blood — dost thou behold them? Mark them; they are not the blood of wounds — they are the blood of a man whose body was then unwounded, O my soul picture him when he knelt down in agony and sweat, — sweat, because he wrestled with God,-sweat, because he agonized with his Father. “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” O Gethsemane! thy shades are deeply solemn to my soul. But ah! those drops of blood! Surely it is the climax of the height of misery; it is the last of the mighty acts of this wondrous sacrifice. Can love go deeper than that? Can it stoop to greater deeds of mercy? Oh! had I eloquence, I would bestow a tongue on every drop of blood that is there that your hearts might rise in mutiny against your languor and coldness, and speak out with earnest burning remembrance of Jesus. And now, farewell, Gethsemane.

Charles H. Spurgeon—The Remembrance of Christ—A sermon delivered on Sabbath Evening January 7^th 1855

Remember Christ in his daily temptations

Further, I beseech you remember him in all his daily temptations and hourly trials, in that life-long struggle of his, through which he passed. Oh! what a mighty tragedy was the death of Christ! and his life too? Ushered in with a song, it closed with a shriek. “It is finished.” It began in a manner, and ended on a cross; but oh, the sad interval between! Oh! the black pictures of persecution when his friends abhorred him; when his foes frowned at him as he passed the streets; when he heard the hiss of calumny, and was bitten by the foul tooth of envy; when slander said he had a devil and was mad: that he was a drunken man and a wine-bibber- and when his righteous soul was vexed with the ways of the wicked. Oh! Son of God, I must remember thee; I cannot help remembering thee, when I think of those years of toil and trouble which thou didst live for my sake.

Charles H. Spurgeon—The Remembrance of Christ—A sermon delivered on Sabbath Evening January 7^th 1855

God’s Graciousness in Dealing with Adam’s Descendants

I was in a meeting in a town in Texas, and there happened to be in the audience a United States Senator. After hearing me preach, he asked me home with him. He says:

“If you will make one point clear to me, I am ready to accept the Christian religion.”

“Well,” I said, “what point is it?”

“I can’t see the propriety of Jesus Christ dying for me – this idea of substitution, of the innocent suffering for the guilty. I know what the Bible says about it, but somehow or other my mind revolts at that. I do not understand the propriety of it.”

I told him if he would come to hear me I would preach a sermon on that. He said:

“If you make it plain, that very minute I will accept Jesus Christ as my Savior immediately as I remain in my seat.”

I told him that God made angels first, each angel full grown with mature intelligence, without father or mother, without posterity, without brothers or sisters; hence, there being no hereditary bias or room for any other being, nothing concerning posterity to deflect the mind, the angel that sinned could not possibly be restored. It would be improper to introduce a substitute for a sinning angel. But if God made a race in one, the race standing in that progenitor, subject to all the laws of heredity and to be swayed by the action of the ancestor, and if you and I yet unborn died in Adam, there is a propriety that a way of redemption for us should be provided in a Second Adam, a propriety that does not exist at all in the case of an angel, and, as in the case of that first Adam, all died by his one offense, so we are to be saved by the second transaction, through the Second Adam. When I got through, the Senator came up and offered himself for membership. (I refer to Senator Sam Bell Maxey.) He has ever since been a faithful member of the church of Jesus Christ.

B. H. Carroll—Man’s Creation, Fall, and Redemption

Chapter XIX : Of the Law of God

1. God gave to Adam a Law of universal obedience, (a) written in his Heart, and a particular precept of not eating the Fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; by which he bound him, and all his posterity to personal entire exact and perpetual (b) obedience; promised life upon the fulfilling, and (c) threatned death upon the breach of it; and indued him with power and ability to keep it.

a Gen. 1.27. Eccl. 7.29.

b Rom. 10 5.

c Gal. 3.10.12.

2. The same Law that was first written in the heart of man, (d) continued to be a perfect rule of Righteousness after the fall; & was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai, in (e) Ten Commandments and written in two Tables; the four first containing our duty towards God, and the other six our duty to man.

d Rom. 2.14,15.

e Deut. 10.4.

3. Besides this Law commonly called moral, God was pleased to give to the people of Israel Ceremonial Laws, containing several typical ordinances, partly of worship, (f) prefiguring Christ, his graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits; and partly holding forth divers instructions (g) of moral duties, all which Ceremonial Laws being appointed only to the time of reformation, are by Jesus Christ the true Messiah and only Law-giver who was furnished with power from the Father, for that end, (h) abrogated and taken away.

f Heb. 10.1. Col. 2.17.

g 1 Cor. 5 7.

h Col. 2.14,16,17 Eph. 2.14.16.

4. To them also he gave sundry judicial Laws, which expired together with the state of that people, not obliging any now by vertue of that institution; their general (i) equity onely, being of moral use.

i 1 Cor. 9.8,9,10.

5. The moral Law doth for ever bind all, (k) as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof, and that not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the (l) authority of God the Creator; who gave it: Neither doth Christ in the Gospel any way dissolve, (m) but much strengthen this obligation.

k Rom. 13 8,9,10. Jam. 2.8.10,11,12

l Jam. 2 10,11.

m Mat. 5.17,18,19. Rom. 3.31.

6. Although true Believers be not under the Law, as a Covenant of Works, (n) to be thereby Justified or condemned; yet it is of great use to them as well as to others: in that, as a Rule of Life, informing them of the Will of God, and their Duty, it directs and binds them, to walk accordingly; (o) discovering also the sinfull pollutions of their Natures, Hearts and Lives; so as Examining themselves thereby, they may come to further Conviction of, Humiliation for, and Hatred against Sin; together with a clearer sight of the need they have of Christ and the perfection of his Obedience: It is likewise of use to the Regenerate to restrain their Corruptions, in that it forbids Sin; and the Threatnings of it serve to shew what even their Sins deserve; and what afflictions in this Life they may expect for them, although free’d from the Curse and unallayed Rigor thereof. The Promises of it likewise shew them Gods approbation of Obedience, and what blessings they may expect upon the performance thereof, though not as due to them by the Law as a Covenant of Works; so as mans doing Good and refraining from Evil, because the Law incourageth to the one and deterreth from the other, is no Evidence of his being (p) under the Law and not under Grace.

n Rom. 6.14. Gal. 2.16. Rom. 8.1. cha. 10.4.

o Rom. 3.20. chap. 7.7. & c.

p Rom. 6.12,13,14. 1 Pet. 3.8.-13.

7. Neither are the forementioned uses of the Law (q) contrary to the Grace of the Gospel; but do sweetly comply with it; the Spirit of Christ subduing (r) and inabling the Will of man, to do that freely and chearfully, which the will of God revealed in the Law, requireth to be done.

q Gal. 3.21.

r Eze. 36.27.

The 1677/89 London Baptist Confession

Christ Faith was Active on the Cross

On the Cross the suffering Saviour’s faith was active. Wondrously is this brought out in Isaiah 50:8, 9, “He is near that justifieth Me….Behold, the Lord God will help Me; who is he that shall condemn Me?” The ineffably Holy One had been made the Sinbearer. Jehovah had laid on Christ the iniquity of all His people (Isa. 53:6). Though personally sinless, all the sins of God’s elect were imputed to Christ, “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body to the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). Yet even while enduring the curse, and the wrath of God was hard upon Him, our Surety had implicit faith that He would be exonerated—“He is near that justifieth Me.”

Arthur Pink Studies in the Scriptures Volume XI. No10 Oct. 1932

Concerning Death

Death is only a grim porter to let us into a stately palace.

Richard Sibbes