REVIVAL IN OUR TIME- C.H. SPURGEON

( I couldn't help it! Another worthy Spurgeon piece for you).

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)

What God has done should encourage us to pray that he would repeat like signs and wonders among us. Oh, brothers, what would this heart feel if I could but believe that there were some among you who would pray for revival! People whose faith is large enough and their love fiery enough to lead them from this moment to exercise unceasing intercessions that God would appear among us and do wondrous things here as in former generations. Dear friends, we do not know what God may do for us if we would but pray for a blessing.

The stories of revival should also correct any self-dependence which may have crept into our treacherous hearts. Perhaps we have begun to depend on our numbers and so forth. Now let the stories which our fathers have told us remind us that God saves; that it is not in us to do this, but God must do it all. Place no dependence on the instrument. We shall never get a revival here unless we believe that it is the Lord, and the Lord alone, that can do it.

God alone can know what may come of our prayers if he chooses to bless them. The Word of God may flow and run and rush and get to itself an amazing and boundless victory.

Wrestle in prayer. Meet together in your houses. Go to your private room. Be earnest. Be instant in season and out of season. Agonize for souls, and all that you have heard will be forgotten in what you will see! All that others have told you will be as nothing compared with what you will hear with your ears and behold with your eyes! "Blessed are all they that put their trust in him" (Psalm 2:12).

- from C. H. Spurgeon's Revival Year Sermons; Banner of Truth Trust, London, 1959

PULLING DOWN STRONGHOLDS- C.H.SPURGEON

(Mr.Spurgeon said so many good things in his sermons (which are just about all available online, and in print editions). This is from his magazine Sword and Trowel. Please read and heed!)

PAUL TELLS US that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds. He probably had in his mind's eye the corvus, which the Romans employed in destroying fortifications, and certainly it aptly sets forth the work of Christians when attacking the citadels of error. We must sharply grapple the false doctrine, driving the sharp hook of truth between its joints; we must clearly understand the error, and study the Word of God, so as to be able to controvert it. The great corvus of Scripture is a mighty puller down. Then unitedly with earnest tug of prayer and faithful testimony, we must throw down piece by piece the mischievous system of falsehood, be it never so great or high. Stone by stone the wall comes down, it is long and arduous work to destroy error; many hands and hearts must unite, and then with perseverance all must labor and wait. Tracts, sermons, lectures, speeches, prayers, all must be ropes with which to drag the bulwarks down. God's blessing rests on the faithful endeavors of those who overturn the castles of error, and though their work may not speedily succeed, the great result is sure. A Reformation is as much needed now as in Luther's day, and by God's grace we shall have it, if we trust in him and publish his truth. The cry is, "Overturn, overturn, overturn, till He shall come whose right it is."

Reader, are you doing service in the Lord's war, which he is now waging? You know the errors of Rome, are you doing anything to withstand them? You see the Popery and iniquity of the National Establishment, are you in your measure exposing it? Infidelity is still mighty, do you contend for God and for his Word? Sin still reigns over millions, do you seek their salvation? If not, why not? Are you yourself on the Lord's side? Oh may the grace of God lead you to trust in the great bloodshedding of Jesus, by which he has put away sin; and then may his love constrain you to aid in dragging down the ramparts of evil.
(from Sword and Trowel magazine; tract #24, published 1867).

GOD'S PROPS---RICHARD SIBBES

(Let's look at another excellent thought from the Puritan, Richard Sibbes. A saint and a scholar).

As men cherish young plants at first, and fence them about to keep them from hurt, but when they are grown, they remove them, and then leave them to the wind and weather, so God besets His children first with props of inward comforts, but afterwards exposes them to storms and winds, because they are better able to bear it. Therefore let no man think himself the better because he is free from troubles. It is because God sees him not fit to bear greater.
—RICHARD SIBBES

UPS AND DOWNS OF FAITH--RICHARD SIBBES

RICHARD SIBBES--1577-1635

If believers decay in their first love, or in some other grace, yet another grace may grow and increase, such as humility, their brokenheartedness; they sometimes seem not to grow in the branches when they may grow at the root; upon a check grace breaks out more; as we say, after a hard winter there usually follows a glorious spring.

TO WHOM MUCH IS GIVEN, MUCH IS EXPECTED

Joseph Caryl

(Joseph Caryl, faithful Puritan preacher often had nuggets of wisdom, especially in his 12 volume commentary on Job).

The more outward blessings any one doth receive, the more he ought to serve God, and the more service God looks for at his hands Therefore we find still, that when God hath bestowed many outward blessings upon any, either persons or nations, he chargeth an acknowledgment upon them (Hosea 2:8) "She did not know that I gave her corn and wine and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold which she bestowed upon Baal." You having received this, you ought to have served me with it. You see how God upbraideth David, 2 Samuel 12:7-8 "I annointed thee King of Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hands of Saul, and I gave thy master's house and thy master's wives unto thy bosom, and if this been too little, I would more over have given thee such and such things How is it then that thou hast despised the Commandments of the Lord, to do evil in his sight?" As if he should say, the more I bestowed upon thee the more obligations thou shouldest feel thyself under to obey me faithfully.

(Pp. 110, Volume 1 of his massive commentary on Job)

SEPARATION FROM THE WORLD--J.C. RYLE

(A Favorite of mine from J.C. Ryle)

The subject is one that demands the best attention of all who profess and call themselves Christians. In every age of the Church separation from the world has always been one of the grand evidences of a work of grace in the heart. He that has been really born of the Spirit, and made a new creature in Christ Jesus, has always endeavoured to “come out from the world,” and live a separate life. They who have only had the name of Christian without the reality, have always refused to ‘come out and be separate’ from the world.

The subject perhaps was never more important than it is, at the present day. There is a widely-spread desire to make things pleasant in religion—to saw off the corners and edges of the cross, and to avoid, as far as possible, self-denial. On every side we hear professing Christians declaring loudly that we must not be “narrow and exclusive,” and that there is no harm in many things which the holiest saints of old thought bad for their souls. That we may go anywhere, and do anything, and spend our time in anything, and read anything, and keep any company, and plunge into anything, and all the while may be very good Christians—this, this is the maxim of thousands. In a day like this I think it good to raise a warning voice, and invite attention to the teaching of God’s Word. It is written in that Word, ‘Come out, and be separate.

From Practical Religion, page 184; James Clarke, Cambridge, 1977 (original 1878). By J.C Ryle 1816-1900

DO YOU KNOW CHRIST BY PERSONAL REVELATION?

BY W.F. BELL

“He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona:for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 16:15-17).

The most important question you could ever be asked is simply this: Do you in reality know the living Christ? The question is not, Are you religious? — Are you a church member? — Do you read the Bible? You may be very religious, yet not know Christ in the heart. You may be a loyal church member, a regular reader of God's Word, a person who “says” their prayers, or one who loves to study religious books and doctrine. But, these soul-searching questions still remain — Have you ever seen yourself a lost, vile sinner before a holy God? Have you ever been stripped of your self-righteousness and laid low in the dust of humility? Have you ever viewed by faith the glorious person of the Lord Jesus Christ, all because of a direct and personal revelation to you of God the Holy Ghost?

Sinner friend, I plead with you to not be deceived. Do not rest in your religious creeds, your attendance of religious worship, your so-called righteous acts. Rest only in Christ! Look only to him! Be not content with any religion if Christ is not the center and substance of it! Do not be deceived by man-made religion! Seek that which comes by divine revelation, as that which Simon Peter had in the opening Scripture. Simon was blessed to know who Christ was by a personal revelation to him of God the Father! This must also be true of us.

If Christ Jesus is not known to you by the revelation of the Holy Spirit, he is not known as the very wellspring of blessedness to the soul. If you only know Jesus by no more than the world knows, than the learned among men know, you have not the real blessing. If you only know the Lord of glory by what you have found out yourself, in reading or in talking to others, unaided by the Father's drawing power, you are not blessed with true salvation. If you know no more of Christ than what flesh and blood has revealed to you, you are nothing more than a Pharisee or Sadducee — religious, but lost without God — a separatist or a rationalist, but not a recipient of revelation and regeneration. May the eternal Jehovah reveal to you your true and undone condition before him!

Among the vast religious throngs of this earth there is to be found the true people of God. These chosen of the Father are also redeemed by the Son, and quickened by the Spirit. The elect of God know by deep acknowledgment of their sin that they are blind and ignorant by nature. The true children of God have been made humble; they confess their total dependence upon the grace and mercy of Christ, and place their entire confidence and faith in his meritorious righteousness and shed blood. In the Lord Jesus Christ alone do “We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7).

Reader, what do you know of this once-crucified, yet now living Christ? Does his name bring gladness to your heart? Do you love the fragrance of his person? Is he more than just a religious leader to you? Beware of misty and cloudy views of King Jesus! Beware that you only have a head knowledge of him! Make sure that Christ is your Surety, your Substitute, your Sacrifice, your Savior. Beware of any religion which belittles him, or that does not exalt him as the only way to God.

Do you believe in Jesus by an inward discernment of him? Do you clearly see him as the Son of man and the Son of God? Is he definitely your Lord and Savior, your propitiation (satisfaction) before God? If you know him thus you have not learned this by the instruction of men. You have had a direct and personal revelation made to you and in you by the Father concerning who Jesus Christ really is (Gal 1:16).

It is only when the Lord himself deals with you, taking you in his powerful hand, that you are truly taught who Christ is. You may have heard about Jesus, but you only know him as “the Son of the living God” when illuminated and quickened by God the Spirit. Jesus came forth from God, and the power to know Christ comes forth from God also. If you have Christ, you have the new birth! If you have Christ, you have eternal life! If you have not Christ, you have nothing but dead, lifeless, counterfeit religion! Said our blessed Master: “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him” (John 6:44). May divine power draw you this day, poor sinner! May you see Christ in all his beauty! May you come to worship and serve only him! Christ is to be seen, but in the light which he himself supplies. May that light shine unto you even now, and to our glorious God be all the glory!

(I know we featured this article once before on one of the blogs. But it says so much that I recently sent it to my email subscribers, and I wanted to place it here as well. You can subscribe to our email letters. Email your request to us at graceman@minister.com)
Published by Charles Woodruff