1830 Be pleased, dear Lord, to grant me during the present year--more of Your gracious presence, more tenderness of conscience and fear of offending You; more humility, stronger faith, and more entire devotedness to Your cause. Enable me to leave my temporal concerns entirely with You, to walk by faith, to have my treasure in heaven, and to manifest by my conduct--that I am Your disciple. Let me not grow cold or lukewarm--but may "I lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset me, and may I run with patience the race set before me, looking unto Jesus. Amen." 1832 "Here I raise my Ebenezer." Thus far the Lord ...

'The world should realize with increased clearness that Evangelicalism stands or falls with Calvinism.' ((B. B. Warfield, quoted in Arthur C. Custance, The Sovereignty of Grace (Phillipsburg, N.J.: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1979), 83-84.)) The great princeton theologian Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield wrote those words a century ago. At the time, Calvinism still had a major influence on evangelicalism, helping to define its theology, shape its spirituality, and clarify its mission. That is no longer as true as it once was. Increasingly Calvinism is defined over against evangelicalism, and while many Calvinists still consider themselves evangelicals, most evangelicals are suspicious of Calvinism. On a first reading, therefore, Warfield's claim seems excessive, and probably false. ...

Let us spend this moment, as Christmas day comes, in reflection of God's infinitely tremendous condescending grace by sending His Son to take up the flesh of sinful man to live among us on this earth, to fulfill the law that we never can and never could, that such righteousness may be imputed to us as our sin be imputed to Him. And in His death He bore the penalty of our sin, the full weight of the wrath of God. And in His resurrection He conquered death for our justification. Let all the saints shout praise for the grace of God has come in the person of His only Son the sting of ...

Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. ---Romans 5:20 Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt! Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured, There where the blood of the Lamb was spilled. Refrain Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that will pardon and cleanse within; Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that is greater than all our sin. Sin and despair, like the sea waves cold, Threaten the soul with infinite loss; Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold, Points to the refuge, the mighty cross. Refrain Dark is the ...

O Maker and Upholder of all things, Day and night are thine; they are also mine from thee – the night to rid me of the cares of the day, to refresh my weary body, to renew my natural strength; the day to summon me to new activities, to give me opportunity to glorify thee, to serve my generation, to acquire knowledge, holiness, eternal life. But one day above all days is made especially for thy honour and my improvement; The sabbath reminds me of thy rest from creation, of the resurrection of my Saviour, of his entering into repose. Thy house is mine, but I am unworthy to meet thee there, and am unfit for spiritual service. When I enter it I come before thee as a sinner, condemned ...

As the Scriptures often call attention to the “heart” or “soul” of a person, Owen argues that such references tend to be shorthand for the various faculties, and thus to deal with sin the whole person must be engaged. Although Owen gives ample attention to each of the faculties, let us focus on the affections as a test case to show the nature of sin and temptation. Far too often Christians working within the Reformed tradition have been guilty of confusing stoic ideals of emotional detachment with maturity in the Christian life. But this Reformed tradition, which Owen self-consciously grows out of, has at its best made significant space for ...

For the law indeed says that it is God’s will and command that we walk in new life. However, it does not give the power and ability to begin or to carry out this command. Instead, the Holy Spirit, who is given and received not through the law but through the proclamation of the gospel (Gal. 3:2, 14), renews the heart. Thereafter, the Holy Spirit uses the law to instruct the reborn and to show and demonstrate to them in the Ten Commandments what is the “acceptable will of God” (Rom. 12:2) and in which good works, “which God prepared beforehand,” they are “supposed to walk” (Eph 2:10). The Holy Spirit ...

Every week, in the tradition of Daily or Weekly dose of Spurgeon's all around the blogosphere, we in New.Demonstration would like to present our own version of it. Every week, once a week, I will be reading chronologically from Charles Spurgeon's Sermon Archive. I will be beginning with his very first published sermon 'till his last, Lord willing, if there are choice excerpts to be taken from each sermon, each week I will post them here in N.D.'s very own "Weekly Dose of Spurgeon". To start off this new series, here is Charles Spurgeon's edifying preface to his published Sermon volume. Preaching of the Word by the chosen servants of the living ...

The dark night of the soul. This phenomenon describes a malady that the greatest of Christians have suffered from time to time. It was the malady that provoked David to soak his pillow with tears. It was the malady that earned for Jeremiah the sobriquet, “The Weeping Prophet.” It was the malady that so afflicted Martin Luther that his melancholy threatened to destroy him. This is no ordinary fit of depression, but it is a depression that is linked to a crisis of faith, a crisis that comes when one senses the absence of God or gives rise to a feeling of abandonment by Him. Spiritual depression is real and can be ...

How sweet and awe-full is the place With Christ within the doors, While everlasting love displays The choicest of her stores! Here every bowel of our God With soft compassion rolls; Here peace and pardon bought with blood Is food for dying souls. While all our hearts and all our songs Join to admire the feast, Each of us cry, with thankful tongues, “Lord, why was I a guest? “Why was I made to hear Thy voice, And enter while there’s room, When thousands make a wretched choice, And rather starve than come?” ’Twas the same love that spread the feast That sweetly drew us in; Else we had still refused to taste, And perished in our sin. Pity the nations, O our God! Constrain the earth to come; Send Thy victorious ...