GET TO KNOW YOURSELF by Tim Challies

by | Mar 27, 2015 | Tim Challies

“The very heart of the human condition is a faulty assessment of self. We think too much of ourselves, and think of ourselves too much. We overrate our importance and underestimate our depravity. Ultimately, we elevate ourselves to the place reserved for God.

In the face of such insanity, we need to know who we really are. We need to have a right assessment of self.

Who am I? It is a question we have all asked at one time or another, at least in one of its variations. And every man has his own answer. Every philosophy and every religion has its own response.

Most of them tell me to look inside. I am told to look within, to search myself for the truth, to search myself for my own identity. But I never seem to find it. I can’t quite seem to pin it down. The mere conviction that I can find answers within stands as proof of my faulty self-assessment. The simple fact is that I cannot know myself as I really am. I am too blind to see myself, too far gone to find myself.

Here is what I have learned: To know myself, I need to look outside of myself. My best assessment of self does not come from within but from without. It does not originate with me but with God.

The Bible is an inestimable treasure because of what it teaches me about God, but it is equally valuable for what it teaches me about me. It does not reveal only the truth about deity, but also about humanity.

If I want to know who I am, if I want to know why I exist, if I want to know where I’ve gone wrong, if I want to know my deepest meaning and purpose, if I want to properly assess myself, I need to look outside myself. I cannot know these things apart from God speaking through his Word. The Bible is different from every other book in this way: Where I read all those other books, the Bible reads me.*

Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting! (Psalm 139:23-24)

The Bible searches me and tells me where I have erred. It examines me and tells me what I need. It tries me and evaluates my every thought and attitude. Ultimately, it reads me and tells me who I am.

Who am I? I will never know until I open the Bible and ask.

*I think I have heard that phrase, or a similar one, attributed to R.C. Sproul, but I wasn’t able to track it down.”

LESSONS FROM THE SICK-BED By JC Ryle

by | Mar 27, 2015 | JC RYLE

“Men and brethren, when your time comes to be ill, I beseech you not to forget what the illness means. Beware of fretting and murmuring and complaining, and giving way to an impatient spirit. Regard your sickness as a blessing in disguise—a good and not an evil—a friend and not an enemy. No doubt we should all prefer to learn spiritual lessons in the school of ease and not under the rod.

But rest assured that God knows better than we do how to teach us. The light of the last day will show you that there was a meaning and a “need be” in all your bodily ailments. The lessons that we learn on a sick-bed, when we are shut out from the world, are often lessons which we should never learn elsewhere. Settle it down in your minds, that, however much you may dislike it, sickness is not an unmixed evil.”

JESUS CAME TO SEEK AND SAVE HIS LOST SHEEP by Pastor Scott Henry

by | Mar 27, 2015 | Scott Henry

“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10)

 

Why did Jesus come into this world?  Do you know the answer?  If we took a survey concerning this question, I think we would be amazed by the confusion and distortion of many professing Christians, who attend Bible-believing churches, as to the reason why Jesus came into this world.  Yet Scripture clearly answers this question: 1 Timothy 1:15: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”  John 10:10: “Jesus said He came to lay down His life for His sheep.”  John 1:29: “He is the Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world.”  Ephesians 2:16: “He came that He might reconcile sinners to God through the cross.”  Luke 4:18-19: “He came to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”  Matthew 1:21: “Jesus came to save His people from their sins.”

 

And our text tells us another reason why Jesus came into this world.  Luke 19:10: “For the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”  This statement sums up the entire life and ministry of Jesus.  It is a statement that is at the very heart of the Gospel message, and it is a foundational truth the Church of Jesus Christ is built upon.  “The Son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”  There is so much today that would try to turn our attention away from the Gospel, and whenever we find our attention wandering, our faith wavering, or we become confused about the true meaning of Christ’s coming, then we should remember that “The Son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

 

The first thing we need to notice in our text is that it is Jesus who does the seeking.  So many churches today talk about unbelievers seeking the Lord.  We even have a movement in our day of churches being “seeker sensitive.”  That is why men come up with such things as contemporary worship, no pulpit, casual dress, and usually no preaching of sin and the need for faith and repentance.  But Scripture teaches us that we are to worship God in no other way than He has commanded in His Word.  People are saved though preaching … not by toning down the truth and catering to man’s sinful emotions and fleshly desires.  Sinners ought to be uncomfortable when they hear preaching about sin, even as Felix when the Apostle Paul confronted him with truth in Acts 24:25:  “Now as he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and answered, “Go away for now; when I have a convenient time I will call for you.”

 

But what is clear in Scripture is that no unbeliever seeks the Lord.  Romans 3:10-11: “As it is written: There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.”  Seeking after God is the business of the believer and the only reason he seeks after God is because he was first found by Jesus Christ.  Do you trust Christ for the forgiveness of your sins?  Then praise Jesus that He came into this world as the true seeker to seek and save you from your sins.

IS IT ‘UNSPIRITUAL’ TO BE DISCOURAGED? By Sinclair Ferguson

by | Feb 27, 2015 | Sinclair Ferguson

From time to time over the centuries some Christians have taught, sometimes with tragic consequences, that a truly spiritual person never gets discouraged. To be cast down is, by definition, to be ‘unspiritual.’ Unless we are well-grounded in Scripture, it is very easy for us to be overwhelmed, confused, and even more discouraged by such teaching. This teaching certainly seems logical: if the gospel saves us, it must save us from discouragement! It also appears to be wonderfully spiritual. After all, are we not ‘more than conquerors through him who loved us’ (Rom. 8:37)?

 

But this is not biblical logic, nor is it true spirituality. The gospel saves us from death, not by removing death, but by helping us to face it in the power of Christ’s victory and thus to overcome it. So, too, with sin. And similarly with discouragement. Faith in Christ does not remove all of the causes of discouragement; rather, it enables us to overcome them. We may experience discouragement; but we will not be defeated by it.

 

Nor is this the biblical spirituality; it is a false ‘super-spirituality’ that ignores or denies the reality of our humanity. We live in frail flesh and blood and in a fallen world which, John says, ‘lies in the power of the evil one’ (1 John 5:19). There is much to discourage. Jesus felt that. To be free from the possibility of discouragements would be more ‘spiritual’ than Jesus—and therefore not truly spiritual at all. Psalms 42 and 43 teach us the biblical approach to discouragement: we feel it, we recognize it for what it is, and we analyze the reasons for its presence.

GRACE PRODUCES PRAISE by Pastor Scott Henry

by | Feb 27, 2015 | Scott Henry

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ…” (Ephesians 1:3).

 

Immediately after the Apostle Paul gives his opening salutation to the Ephesians and tells them they are saints in Christ who have received grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, he then breaks into a doxology: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  The word “blessed” comes from the Greek word “eulogeo” from which we get our English word eulogy.  A eulogy is a message of praise and commendation; it’s a declaration of one’s goodness.  And since God alone is good (Matt. 19:17), He is the only one worthy of eulogy.  So when we gather together to worship our first and foremost purpose is to give praise, honor, and thanks to our God. This is appropriate behavior for every believer because we have received the grace of God and are now at peace with Him through our Lord Jesus Christ.  The very thought of God’s saving grace coming to people who are utterly undeserving and unworthy of any good thing from God should cause every believer to break forth in wonder, love, and praise to God.  That’s what the realization of God’s grace does — it leads us to doxology.  It leads the redeemed “to praise God from who all blessings flow!”

 

Praising God is the main duty and privilege of every person redeemed by Christ.  Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:6 that we were saved “To the praise of the glory of God’s grace.”  In Ephesians 1:12 we read: “…that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.”  And in Ephesians 1:13-14 the Apostle Paul tells believers that we were sealed with the Holy Spirit “who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”

 

Do you understand that giving praise to God is a fundamental duty and privilege in your life as a believer, or is going to worship on the Lord’s Day to praise the Only Blessed God a burden to you?  When you realize the grace in Jesus Christ that God has extended to you as an unworthy, undeserving, wretched, Hell-deserving sinner does praise, reverence, and thanksgiving to God immediately spring forth from your soul?  You see, the giving of praise and thanksgiving to God is a barometer of the Christian life — no, praise and thanksgiving are not going to be perfect in this life, but these qualities will definitely be the direction of your life.  In other words, if praise and heartfelt giving of thanks to God is not something you delight in and continually practice in your life then you have not experienced the grace of God in Jesus Christ.  Why? Because saving grace always leads to praise as the Apostle Paul demonstrates in our text: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ…” (Ephesians 1:3).  Have you received God’s saving grace?  Then diligently, zealously, and unashamedly practice giving praise and thanksgiving to God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  He alone is worthy of all our worship and praise.