Tag Archives: Sin

We are Poor, Silly Sheep

by Octavius Winslow, 1870

“The Lord is my Shepherd . . . He restores my soul.”  Psalm 23:1, 3.

It is not the least important duty of the Shepherd to go in quest of the stray ones of the flock; the fickle sheep wandering from the fold.

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img credit: publicdomainpictures.net

The spiritual history of the believer is a history . . .
of declension–and revival,
of departure–and return,
of his backsliding–and of the Savior’s restoring.

The regenerate soul is bent upon backsliding from the Lord. The sun does not more naturally decline, than does the believing heart wander from God.

“O Lord, how many and hidden are my soul’s departures from You, You only know! How often my love chills, my faith droops, my zeal flags, and I grow weary, and am ready to halt in Your service. Mine is a sinful, roving heart, as fickle to You as the changing wind; as false to my vows as a broken bow. But You, O Lord, are my Shepherd, and You restore my soul. Pitying my infirmity, knowing my wanderings, and tracking all my steps–You recover, heal, and pardon Your poor, silly sheep, prone to leave Your wounded, sheltering side in quest of that which can be found in Yourself alone.”

Oh, the love of Jesus in . . .
curbing our waywardness,
checking our wanderings,
arresting, healing, and restoring our souls.

He never forsakes His people, though they forsake Him times without number. How can He turn His back upon one bought with His sufferings, groans, and tears? How can He forsake the work of grace wrought in the soul by His Spirit? He may withdraw Himself for a time, gently to awaken us from our slothfulness and slumber–yet He returns again, and our lips gratefully sing, “He restores my soul.”

“I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you!” Hebrews 13:5

Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood!

O to grace how great a debtor,
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above!

O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood-washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace!

Soli Deo Gloria!

The Scapegoat and Jesus – Dealing with Guilt & Shame

This is a wonderful segment from a sermon by David Ward from Redeemer Bible Church that was featured on Wretched Radio‘s April 1 broadcast. It is an outstanding sermon that touches on the importance of right doctrine and glorifying in propitiation to understand how Christians can Biblically deal with shame and guilt over sin. I highly recommend this sermon to you:

Download the mp3.

The Spiritual Nature of the Church

It’s a sad state of affairs when many churches are more concerned about programs and trying to be like and attract the world than being faithful to the Lord of the Word and the Word of the Lord. They see growth in numbers (and love to tout those numbers) but the truth is that they are in great danger of simply herding goats. It was Charles Spurgeon who was quoted saying, “A time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats.” How true is that of so many churches that are so much like the world that it’s impossible to tell them apart from it.

I’ve been reading through a wonderful book on the Sermon on the Mount by the late Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. (One of the finest expositors of the Scriptures.) In his book, the following statement caught my attention and is so true of the state of the church today. We would do well to heed these words:

The Church of God for many a day has been trying to mix certain incompatibles. If it is a spiritual society, then we cannot mix the world with it in any shape or form. It does not matter what the form is. ‘The world’ does not mean gross sin only; it means things which are quite legitimate in and of themselves. It is this constant compromising in the life of the Church that has been her ruination ever since the days of Constantine. Once you have lost the division between world and the Church, the Church ceases to be truly Christian. But, thank God, there have been revivals, there have been people who have seen this truth and who have refused to compromise. It is the only hope for the Church. We have been trying to sustain her by worldly methods, and it is not surprising that she is as she is. And she will continue to be like this as ling as we continue to attempt the impossible. It is only when we come to realize that we are God’s people, and a spiritual people, and that we live in the realm of the spirit, that we shall be blessed and shall begin to see a revival. We can introduce our worldly methods, and we may appear to be having success, but the Church will not improve. No! the Church is spiritual, and her spiritual life must be nurtured and sustained in a purely spiritual manner.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, (Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1976), pg. 373

Soli Deo Gloria!

The Lord, the Restorer of His People

I have been reading through an amazing little book by Octavius Winslow entitled Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul and I must say I have been blessed by the wisdom and searching analysis that is so vacant from most modern day authors. This snippet from the last chapter really made an impact on me not only for the rawness of Winslow’s understanding of the believer’s remaining sinful flesh, but more importantly the covenant love of God to His people in spite of our sin…

“When we are led to consider the uncertainty of the creature, – when we take the history of a child of God, compressed within the short period of a single day, – mark what flaw, what imperfections, what fickleness, what startings aside, what dereliction in principle, what flaws in practice, what errors in judgment, and what wanderings of heart, may up that brief history, – how are we led to thank God for the stability of the covenant! That covenant which provides for full redemption of believers, – which from eternity secures the effectual calling, the perfect keeping, and the certain salvation of every chosen vessel of mercy. With what distinctness and sweetness is this truth thus unfolded by God Himself: “If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail: My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out My lips.” (Psalm 89:30-34)

Truly glorious truth to marvel at.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Our Sufficient Savor

“Jesus Christ, God’s own Son, became like us to be a total Savior, sufficient for the whole range of our need. How hollow, then, ring the world’s complaints against our God. People are saying all the time today, lamenting in this world of woe, ‘Where is God? Why doesn’t he do something?’ Meanwhile, he has done everything, indeed, more than ever we could ask or imagine. God has entered into our world. He has walked through the dust of this earth. He who is life has wept before the grave, and he who is the Bread of Life has felt the aching of hunger in his belly.

Is there anything more lovely in all of Scripture than the scenes of Jesus supping with the weak and the weary, the sinners and the publicans? He has taken the thorns that afflict this sin-scarred world and woven them into a crown to be pressed upon his head. And he has stretched open his arms in love, that the hands that wove creation might be nailed to a wooden cross. Then he rose from the dead, conquering all that would conquer us, setting us free to live in peace and joy before the face of God.”

— Richard D. Phillips (Hebrews: Reformed Expository Commentary, pg. 82)
HT: Of First Importance

 

The Greatest Enemy of True Religion

Is it not true that nothing damages the cause of religion so much as “the world”? It is not open sin, or open unbelief, which robs Christ of his professing servants, so much as the love of the world, the fear of the world, the cares of the world, the business of the world, the money of the world, the pleasures of the world, and the desire to keep up with the world. This is the great rock on which thousands of young people are continually making shipwreck. They do not object to any article of the Christian faith.They do not deliberately choose evil and openly rebel against God. They hope somehow to get to heaven at last, and they think it proper to have some religion. But they cannot give up their idol: they must have the world. And so after running well and bidding fair for heaven while boys and girls, they turn aside when they become men and women and go down the broad way which leads to destruction. They begin with Abraham and Moses and end with Demas and Lot’s wife.

- J.C. Ryle (from Practical Religion pgs. 187-188)

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ

“To the question: what must I do to be saved? The old gospel replies: believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. To the further question: what does it mean to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Its reply is: it means knowing oneself to be a sinner, and Christ to have died for sinners; abandoning all self-righteousness and self-confidence, and casting oneself wholly upon Him for pardon and peace; and exchanging one’s natural enmity and rebellion against God for a spirit of grateful submission to the will of Christ through the renewing of one’s heart by the Holy Ghost.”

J.I. Packer

HT: Truth Matters

The Way to Growth in Grace & Holiness

And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the site of God … (1 Peter 2:4)

“There is no growth in grace or holiness, nor in ability to oppose our corruptions, except we be thus coming frequently to Jesus Christ in whom the fulness of grace is (Col. 1:19), and who is both our righteousness and our strength for all we have to do, (Isa. 45:24); for this coming to Christ here pressed may be looked upon as the means of growth in mortification and every grace…”

- Alexander Nisbet from his commentary on 1-2 Peter

Even the Darkness is as Light in You

The verse below from Psalm 139 is truly a balm for the weary Christian who may be battling anxiety, fear or depression. Our circumstances and even our own wicked sin can cause the darkness to seem to be tangible. Yet the truths of Scripture must always trump our feelings. We rest not in how we feel but in the truths of God’s word which is unchanging and absolute truth. I encourage you to read all of Psalm 139, but this one verse particularly stood out to me this morning in my devotional time:

“If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,’ even the darkness is not dark to You; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with You.” Psalm 139:11-12

Truly there is no shadow in the presence of my King!

Soli Deo Gloria.