Don’t settle for sermons that reduce the Biblical narrative to an Idiots’ Guide to everything. The key theme of the Word is redemption from the guilt and power of sin, through faith in Christ, by grace alone, for the glory of God. Everything else is secondary. Pray for preaching that exalts the grace of Jesus and condemns sin for what it is.
True peace of heart is possible only after the cross becomes the standard by which one judges all his circumstances. The most blessed life may be construed as an elaborate trap set to destroy a man, if he does not accept that God has proven unchanging favor by sending His Son to die for him.
The death of Christ was an event of incredible gravity which continues to draw multitudes to it even as the collapse of a colossal star does the heavens, demonstrating more force in its period of darkness than in the time of its first light.
My sin seems an abyss yawning to devour the whole universe. The heavens, they are finite; but my sin comes against the infinite God, and is therefore an immeasurably expansive evil stretching like the elastic jaws of a snake. I shudder and tremble, but then I behold the crucifix spanning even further, resting firmly as a joist sits over a well. From this cross Jesus descended into the watery depths, down and down. Yes, and at the bottom of this pit he left an empty tomb opening like a drain to receive and seal away all my sins, swallowing them into a still larger abyss, a vast and fathomless ocean of mercy. In the resurrection I discover a vacuum stronger than death.
Faith knows God is in our corner even in rounds where we feel ourselves taking a beating; that Christ declares our victory before the bell has even rung.
Faith sees God’s hand over every step of our spiritual race, including any missteps.
The next time you feel hopeless and helpless in your war with sin, remember that Jesus Christ is on your side, and His Spirit will never forsake His post within you.
The worldly wicked prefer pleasures in the present at the expense of future blessedness. They will awake in the life to come with no inheritance stored up, but only judgment and wrath.
Regarding Psalms 17:13-14, “Deliver my soul from the wicked…men of the world whose portion in this life.”
The best defense is providence. After and above all other variables, God is able to deliver whom he wills from trouble.
Letter to a Man on the Brink of Grace
The following was written to a dear friend in the midst of his struggles to comprehend grace, forgiveness, and the Christian’s battle with sin. I pray it is of use to you.
I have spilled my heart to you in this letter. Please interpret its great length as being a measure of my love and concern, rather than mere prolixity. My aim has been to pour you a river of grace; if even a drop splashes effectually upon your ankles from my Jordan correspondence, I shall thank the Lord, though my prayer is that it may go over your head and submerge you entirely in the love of God in Christ.
Friend, I wish to be clear. Perhaps the tremendous difference between your and our experience of Christian life is that you approach God and godliness with a very different concept of what grace is. You affirmed my interpretation of your words, that grace is “the act or state of forgiveness.” But this is hardly what we understand grace to be at all. Forgiveness is one of many things grace does, but is not grace itself. In fact, forgiveness is only one half of justification. Grace as we speak of it is something else entirely.
