“There is only one thing I know of that crushes me to the ground and humiliates me to the dust, and this is to look at the Son of God, and especially contemplate the cross. ‘When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride.’ Nothing else can do it. When I see that I am a sinner…that nothing but the Son of God on the cross can save me, I’m humbled to the dust….Nothing but the cross can give us this spirit of humility.” -D.Martyn Lloyd-Jones
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Help for our darkest seasons
“In our darkest seasons nothing has kept us from desperation but the promise of the Lord: yea, at times nothing has stood between us and self-destruction save faith in the eternal word of God. When worn with pain until the brain has become dazed and the reason well-nigh extinguished, a sweet text has whispered to us its heart-cheering assurance, and our poor struggling mind has reposed upon the bosom of God. That which was our delight in prosperity has been our light in adversity; that which in the day kept us from presuming has in the night kept us from perishing.”[1]
[1]Charles Spurgeon,Psalm 119:92; Treasury of David, 5:316
The Never-Ending Fight
“When sin lets us alone, we may let sin alone; but sin is always active when it seems to be most quiet, and its waters are often deep when they are calm. We should therefore fight against it and be vigorous at all times and in all conditions, even when there is the least suspicion…Sin is always acting, always conceiving, and always seducing and tempting.” -John Owen, Mortification of Sin, 7
Tranquility is Found in God’s Sovereignty
Charles Spurgeon observed, “Because the Lord has bid the universe abide, therefore it stands, and all its laws continue to operate with precision and power. Because the might of God is ever present to maintain them, therefore do all things continue. The word which spake all things into existence has supported them till now, and still supports them both in being and in well-being. God’s ordinance is the reason for the continued existence of creation.”[1]
Why does the earth remain as it has? Because of the ordinance of God for it to remain. The King has decreed that the sun rise every morning, and so it has been since he gave that order. He has called for the weather to continue its cycles of wind, rain and snow, just as the seasons continue in their order—all because of the King’s commands.
We shouldn’t be surprised. Just as an earthly king’s decrees are obeyed by his human subjects, so too must the heavenly bodies and all of creation obey the Lord God—because as Psalm 119:91 says, “By your appointment they stand this day, for all things are your servants.” (Psalm 119:91, ESV). Our security is not in ourselves, but in Almighty God who stands above creation and in sovereign power over everything.
[1]Charles Spurgeon, Psalm 119:91, Treasury of David, 5:316.
Faith is essentially dogmatic
“…if any one fact is clear, on the basis of this evidence, it is that the Christian movement at its inception was not just a way of life in the modern sense, but a way of life founded upon a message. It was based, not upon mere feeling, not upon a mere program of work, but upon an account of facts. In other words it was based upon doctrine….Faith is essentially dogmatic. Despite all you can do, you cannot remove the element of intellectual assent from it.”
–Machen, J. Gresham. Christianity and Liberalism, Kindle ed. Loc. 289, 1949.
Always Reforming 