Prayer Request

Pastor Robert (Bob) Chappel, of Calvary Chapel of Greece NY, has recently discovered that he has a parasite living in his liver. He is a very sick man. He must go through a period of injesting toxic medicines to kill this thing. He will be in the hospital a long time. Please pray for him and his family.

The Carnal Mind is Enmity Against God pt.7 Spurgeon

Another thought concerning the universality of this statement. The whole of the mind is enmity against God. The text says, “The carnal mind is enmity against God,” that is, the entire man, every part of him—every power, every passion. It is a question often asked, “What part of man was injured by the Fall?” Some think that the Fall was only felt by the affections and that the intellect was unimpaired. This they argue from the wisdom of man and the mighty discoveries he has made, such as the law of gravitation, the steam engine and the sciences.

Now I consider these things as being a very mean display of wisdom, compared with what is to come in the next hundred years—and very small compared with what might have been, if man’s intellect had continued in its pristine condition. I believe the Fall crushed man entirely. Albeit, when it rolled like an avalanche upon the mighty temple of human nature some shafts were still left undestroyed and amidst the ruins you find here and there a flute, a pedestal, a cornice, a column not quite broken—yet the entire structure fell and its most glorious relics are fallen ones, leveled in the dust.

The whole of man is defaced. Look at our memory—is it not true that the memory is fallen? I can recollect evil things far better than those which savor of piety. I hear a ribald song—that same music of Hell shall jar in my ear when gray hairs shall be upon my head. I hear a note of holy praise—alas, it is forgotten! Memory grasps with an iron hand ill things, but the good she holds with feeble fingers. She suffers the glorious timbers from the forest of Lebanon to swim down the stream of oblivion, but she stops all the dross that floats from the foul city of Sodom. She will retain evil, she will lose good. Memory is fallen.

So are the affections. We love everything earthly better than we ought. We soon fix our heart upon a creature but very seldom upon the Creator. And when the heart is given to Jesus it is prone to wander. Look at the imagination, too. Oh, how can the imagination revel when the body is in an ill condition! Only give man something that shall well near intoxicate him. Drug him with opium and how will his imagination dance with joy! Like a bird uncaged, how will it mount with more than eagles’ wings! He sees things he had not dreamed of even in the shades of night. Why did not his imagination work when his body was in a normal state—when it was healthy? Simply because it is depraved. And until he had entered a foul element—until the body had begun to quiver with a kind of intoxication—the fancy would not hold its carnival.

We have some splendid specimens of what men could write when they have been under the accursed influence of ardent spirits. It is because the mind is so depraved that it loves something which puts the body into an abnormal condition. And here we have proof that the imagination itself has gone astray. So with the judgment—I might prove how ill it decides. So might I accuse the conscience and tell you how blind it is and how it winks at the greatest follies. I might review all our powers and write upon the brow of each one, “Traitor against Heaven! Traitor against God!” The whole “carnal mind is enmity against God.”

The Carnal Mind is Enmity Against God pt.6 Spurgeon

And if this applies to children, equally does it include every class of men. There are some men that are born into this world master spirits. They walk about it as giants, wrapped in mantles of light and glory. I refer to the poets—men who stand aloft like Colossi—mightier than we, seeming to be descended from celestial spheres. There are others of acute intellect, who, searching into mysteries of science, discover things that have been hidden from the creation of the world. Men of keen research and mighty erudition—and yet of each of these—poet, philosopher, metaphysician and great discoverer—it can be said, “The carnal mind is enmity against God.”

You may train him up, you may make his intellect almost angelic, you may strengthen his soul until he shall take what are riddles to us and unravel them with his fingers in a moment. You may make him so mighty that he can grasp the iron secrets of the eternal hills and grind them to atoms in his fist. You may give him an eye so keen that he can penetrate the deep secrets of rocks and mountains. You may add a soul so potent that he may slay the giant Sphinx that had for ages troubled the mightiest men of learning. Yet when you have done all this, his mind shall be a depraved one and his carnal heart shall still be in opposition to God. Yes, more, you shall bring him to the house of prayer. You shall make him sit constantly under the clearest preaching of the word where he shall hear the doctrines of grace in all their purity, attended by a holy unction.

But if that holy unction does not rest upon him, all shall be vain—he shall attend most regularly, but like the pious door of the chapel that turns in and out, he shall still be the same—having an outside superficial religion and his carnal mind shall still be at enmity against God. Now, this is not my assertion, it is the declaration of God’s Word and you must leave it if you do not believe it. But quarrel not with me, it is my Master’s message and it is true of every one of you—men, women and children and myself, too—that if we had not been regenerated and converted, if we have not experienced a change of heart, our carnal mind is still at enmity against God.

Again, notice the universality of this at all times. The carnal mind is at all times enmity against God. “Oh,” say some, “it may be true that we are at times opposed to God, but surely we are not always so.” “There are moments,” says one, “when I feel rebellious. At times my passions lead me astray. But surely there are other favorable seasons when I really am Friendly to God and offer true devotion. I have (continues the objector) stood upon the mountaintop, until my whole soul has kindled with the scene below and my lips have uttered the song of praise—


“These are Your glorious works, parent of good,
Almighty, shine this universal frame,
Thus wondrous fair—Yourself how wondrous then!”

Yes, but mark—what is true one day is not false another, “the carnal mind is enmity against God” at all times. The wolf may sleep, but it is a wolf still. The snake with its azure hues may slumber amid the flowers and the child may stroke its slimy back, but it is a serpent still. It does not change its nature, though it is dormant. The sea is the house of storms even when it is glassy as a lake. The thunder is still the mighty rolling thunder when it is so much aloft that we hear it not. And the heart, when we perceive not its boiling, when it belches not forth its lava and sends not forth the hot stones of its corruption, is still the same dread volcano. At all times, at all hours, at every moment, (I speak this as God speaks it) if you are carnal, you are each one of you enmity against God.

The Carnal Mind is Enmity Against God pt.5 Spurgeon

II. Now, secondly, we are called upon to notice the universality of this evil.
What a broad assertion it is! It is not a single carnal mind, or a certain class of characters, but “the carnal mind.” It is an unqualified statement, including every individual. Whatever mind may properly be called carnal, not having been spiritualized by the power of God’s Holy Spirit, is “enmity against God.”

Observe then, first of all, the universality of this as to all persons. Every carnal mind in the world is at enmity against God. This does not exclude even infants at the mother’s breast. We call them innocent and so they are of actual transgression, but as the poet says, “Within the youngest breast there lies a stone.” There is in the carnal mind of an infant, enmity against God. It is not developed, but it lies there. Some say that children learn sin by imitation. But no—take a child away, place it under the most pious influences, let the very air it breathes be purified by piety—let it constantly drink in draughts of holiness. Let it hear nothing but the voice of prayer and praise. Let its ear be always kept in tune by notes of sacred song—and that child, notwithstanding, may still become one of the grossest of transgressors. And though placed apparently on the very road to Heaven, it shall, if not directed by Divine grace, march downwards to the pit.

Oh, how true it is that some who have had the best of parents have been the worst of sons—that many who have been trained up under the most Holy auspices, in the midst of most favorable scenes of piety—have nevertheless become loose and wanton! So it is not by imitation but it is by nature that the child is evil! Grant me that the child is carnal and my text says, “The carnal mind is enmity against God.” The young crocodile, I have heard, when broken from the shell, will in a moment begin to put itself in a posture of attack, opening its mouth as if it had been taught and trained. We know that young lions when tamed and domesticated still will have the wild nature of their fellows of the forest and were liberty given them, would prey as fiercely as others. So with the child. You may bind him with the green withes of education, you may do what you will with him—but you cannot change his heart. That carnal mind shall still be at enmity against God. And notwithstanding intellect, talent and all you may give to boot, it shall be of the same sinful complexion as every other child, if not as apparently evil, for, “the carnal mind is enmity against God.”

The Carnal Mind is Enmity Against God pt.4 Spurgeon

And more, I will summon one other witness to the truthfulness of this act who shall decide the question. It shall be your conscience. Conscience, I will put you in the witness box and cross-examine you this morning! Conscience, answer truly! Be not drugged with the opium of self-security! Speak the truth! Did you ever hear the heart say, “I wish there were no God?” Have not all men, at times, wished that our religion were not true? Though they could not entirely rid their souls of the idea of the Godhead, did they not wish that there might not be God? Have they not had the desire that it might turn out that all these Divine realities were a delusion, a farce?

“Yes,” says every man, “that has crossed my mind sometimes. I have wished I might indulge in folly. I have wished there were no laws to restrain me. I have wished, as the fool, that there were no God.” That passage in the Psalms, “The fool has said in his heart, there is no God,” is wrongly translated. It should be, “The fool has said in his heart, no God.” The fool does not say in His heart there is no God, for he knows there is a God. Rather he says, “No God—I don’t want any, I wish there were none.” And who among us has not been so foolish as to desire that there were no God?

Now conscience, answer another question! You have confessed that you have at times wished there were no God. Now, suppose a man wished another dead, would not that show that he hated him? Yes, it would. And so, my Friends, the wish that there were no God, proves that we dislike God. When I wish such a man dead and rotting in his grave, when I desire that he were non est, I must hate that man—otherwise I should not wish him to be extinct. So that wish—and I do not think there has been a man in this world who has not had it—proves that “the carnal mind is enmity against God.”

But, conscience, I have another question. Has not your heart ever desired, since there is a God, that He were a little less holy, a little less pure—so that those things which are now great crimes might be regarded as venial offenses, as peccadilloes? Has your heart never said, “Would to God these sins were not forbidden. Would that He would be merciful and pass them by without an atonement! Would that He were not so severe, so rigorously just, so sternly strict to His integrity.” Have you never said that, my Heart? Conscience must reply, “you have.” Well, that wish to change God proves that you are not in love with the God that now is, the God of Heaven and earth.

And though you may talk of natural religion and boast that you do reverence the God of the green fields, the grassy meads, the swelling flood, the rolling thunder, the azure sky, the starry night and the great universe—though you love the poetic ideal of Deity, it is not the God of Scripture—for you have wished to change His nature and in that have you proved that you are at enmity with Him. But where do we go from here? You can bear faithful witness if you would speak the truth that each person here has so transgressed against God, so continually broken His laws, violated His Sabbath, trampled on His statutes, despised His Gospel, that it is true, yes, most true, that “the carnal mind is enmity against God.”

The Carnal Mind is Enmity Against God pt.3 Spurgeon

I. First, we are called upon to speak of the truthfulness of this great statement, “the carnal mind is enmity against God.”
It needs no proof, for since it is written in God’s Word, we, as Christian men and women, are bound to bow before it. The words of the Scriptures are words of infinite wisdom and if reason cannot see the ground of a statement of Revelation, it is bound, most reverently, to believe it, since we are well-assured even should it be above our reason, that it cannot be contrary to it. Here I find it written in the Scriptures, “the carnal mind is enmity against God.” And that of itself is enough for me. But did I need witnesses I would conjure up the nations of antiquity. I would unroll the volume of ancient history, I would tell you of the awful deeds of mankind. It may be I might move your souls to detestation if I spoke of the cruelty of this race to itself, if I showed you how it made the world an Aceldama by its wars and deluged it with blood by its fights and murders.

If I should recite the black list of vices in which whole nations have indulged or even bring before you the characters of some of the most eminent philosophers, I should blush to speak of them and you would refuse to hear. Yes, it would be impossible for you, as refined inhabitants of a civilized country, to endure the mention of the crimes that were committed by those very men who now-a-days are held up as being paragons of perfection. I fear if all the truth were written, we should rise up from reading the lives of earth’s mighty heroes and proudest sages and would say at once of all of them,


"They are clean gone mad. They are altogether become unprofitable.
There is none that does good. No, not one.”


And did not that suffice, I would point you to the delusions of the heathen. I would tell you of their priestcraft by which their souls have been enthralled in superstition. I would drag their gods before you. I would let you witness the horrid obscenities, the diabolical rites which are to these besotted men most sacred things. Then after you had heard what the natural religion of man is, I would ask what must his irreligion be? If this is his devotion, what must be his impiety? If this is his ardent love of the Godhead, what must his hatred thereof be?

You would, I am sure, at once confess, did you know what the race is, that the indictment is proven and that the world must unreservedly and truthfully exclaim, “guilty.” A further argument I might find in the fact that the best of men have been always the most ready to confess their depravity. The holiest men, the most free from impurity, have always felt it most. He whose garments are the whitest will best perceive the spots upon them. He whose crown shines the brightest will know when he has lost a jewel. He who gives the most light to the world will always be able to discover his own darkness. The angels of Heaven veil their faces.

And the angels of God on earth, His chosen people, must always veil their faces with humility when they think of what they were. Hear David—he was none of those who boast of a holy nature and a pure disposition. He says, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity. And in sin did my mother conceive me.” Hear all those holy men who have written in the inspired volume and you shall find them all confessing that they were not clean, no, not one. Yes, one of them even exclaimed, “O wretched man that I am; who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

The Carnal Mind is Enmity Against God pt.2 Spurgeon

A few years ago a star was seen blazing out with considerable brilliance but soon disappeared. It has since been affirmed that it was a world on fire, thousands of millions of miles from us and yet the rays of the conflagration reached us. The noiseless messenger of light gave to the distant dwellers on this globe the alarm of, “A world on fire!” But what is the conflagration of a distant planet, what is the destruction of the mere material of the most ponderous orb compared with this Fall of humanity, this wreck of all that is holy and sacred in ourselves? To us, indeed, the things are scarcely comparable, since we are deeply interested in one, though not in the other.

The Fall of Adam was OUR fall. We fell in and with him. We were equal sufferers. It is the ruin of our own house that we lament. It is the destruction of our own city that we bemoan when we stand and see written in lines too plain for us to mistake their meaning, “The carnal mind”—that very self-same mind which was once holiness and has now become carnal—is enmity against God.” May God help me this morning to solemnly prefer this indictment against you all! Oh, that the Holy Spirit may so convince us of sin that we may unanimously plead “guilty” before God.

There is no difficulty in understanding my text—it needs scarcely any explanation. We all know that the word “carnal” here signifies fleshly. The old translators rendered the passage thus—“The mind of the flesh is enmity against God.” That is to say, the natural mind—that soul which we inherit from our fathers—that which was born within us when our bodies were fashioned by God. The fleshly mind, the phronema sarkos, the lusts, the passions of the soul. It is this which has gone astray from God and become enmity against Him.

But before we enter upon a discussion of the doctrine of the text, observe how strongly the Apostle expresses it. “The carnal mind,” He says, “it is ENMITY against God.” He uses a noun and not an adjective. He does not say it is opposed to God merely, but it is positive enmity. It is not black, but blackness. It is not at enmity, but enmity itself. It is not corrupt, but corruption. It is not rebellious, it is rebellion—it is not wicked, it is wickedness itself. The heart, though it is deceitful, is positively deceit. It is evil in the concrete, sin in the essence. It is the distillation, the quintessence of all things that are vile. It is not envious against God, it is envy. It is not at enmity, it is actual enmity.

Nor need we say a word to explain that it is “enmity against God.” It does not charge manhood with an aversion merely to the dominion, laws, or doctrines of Jehovah. It strikes a deeper and surer blow. It does not strike man upon the head but it penetrates into his heart. It lays the axe at the root of the tree and pronounces man “enmity against God.”

Against the Person of the Godhead, against the Deity, against the mighty Maker of this World—not at enmity against His Bible or against His Gospel—though that is true, but against God Himself. Against His essence, His existence and His Person. Let us, then, weigh the words of the text, for they are solemn words. They are well put together by that master of eloquence, Paul. They were, moreover, dictated by the Holy Spirit, who tells man how to speak aright. May He help us to expound, as He has already given us the passage to explain.

We shall be called upon to notice, this morning, first, the truthfulness of this assertion. Secondly, the universality of the evil here complained of. Thirdly, we will still further enter into the depths of the subject and press it to your hearts, by showing the enormity of the evil. And after that, should we have time, we will deduce one or two doctrines from the general fact.

The Carnal Mind is Enmity Against God pt.1 Spurgeon

A SERMON DELIVERED ON SABBATH MORNING, APRIL 22, 1855, BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON, AT EXETER HALL STRAND

“The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be.” -Romans 8:7

This is a very solemn indictment which the Apostle Paul here prefers against the carnal mind. He declares it to be enmity against God. When we consider what man once was, only second to the angels, the companion of God, who walked with Him in the garden of Eden in the cool of the day. When we think of him as being made in the very image of his Creator, pure, spotless and unblemished, we cannot but feel bitterly grieved to find such an accusation as this preferred against us as a race, We may well hang our harps upon the willows while we listen to the voice of Jehovah, solemnly speaking to His rebellious creature:

“How are you fallen from Heaven, you son of the morning!” “You seal up the sun, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You have been in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering—the workmanship of your tabrets and of your pipes was prepared in you in the day that you were created. You are the anointed cherub that covers. And I have set you so—you were upon the holy mountain of God. You have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, till iniquity was found in you and you sinned. Therefore I will cast you as profane out of the mountain of God—and will destroy you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.”
There is much to sadden us in a view of the ruins of our race. As the Carthaginian who might tread the desolate site of his much-loved city would shed many tears when he saw it laid in heaps by the Romans. Or as the Jew, wandering through the deserted streets of Jerusalem, would lament that the plowshare had marred the beauty and the glory of that city which was the joy of the whole earth. So ought we to mourn for ourselves and our race when we behold the ruins of that goodly structure which God has made—that creature, matchless in symmetry, second only to angelic intellect. That mighty being, man—when we behold how he is “fallen, fallen, fallen, from his high estate” and lies in a mass of destruction.

A Small Sample Of Edwards' Treatise on Grace

"We often, in our common language about things of this nature, speak of a principle of grace. I suppose there is no other principle of grace in the soul than the very Holy Ghost dwelling in the soul and acting there as a vital principle. To speak of a habit of grace as a natural disposition to act grace, as begotten in the soul by the first communication of Divine light, and as the natural and necessary consequence of the first light, it seems in some respects to carry a wrong idea with it. Indeed the first exercise of grace in the first light has a tendency to future acts, as from an abiding principle, by grace and by the covenant of God; but not by any natural force. The giving one gracious discovery or act of grace, or a thousand, has no proper natural tendency to cause an abiding habit of grace for the future; nor any otherwise than by Divine constitution and covenant. But all succeeding acts of grace must be as immediately, and, to all intents and purposes, as much from the immediate acting of the Spirit of God on the soul, as the first; and if God should take away His Spirit out of the soul-- all habits and acts of grace would of themselves cease as immediately as light ceases in a room when a candle is carried out. And no man has a habit of grace dwelling in him any otherwise than as he has the Holy Spirit dwelling in him in his temple, and acting in union with his natural faculties, after the manner of a vital principle. So that when they act grace, 'tis, in the language of the apostle, "not they, but Christ living in them." Indeed the Spirit of God, united to human faculties, acts very much after the manner of a natural principle or habit. So that one act makes way for another, and so it now settles the soul in a disposition to holy acts; but that it does, so as by grace and covenant, and not from any natural necessity."

Folks, this is a great read. You can find this treatise, in its entirety, on my blogroll, six links down.

Testimony

I first came to know Jesus as my Lord and Savior in April, 1973. It followed a full year and a half of coming to know that I was a sinner.

It started in November,1971. I began to be aware, somehow, that I wasn't living a life that was pleaseing to God. Over the course of the next several months the realization that I was a sinner began to settle in, deeper and deeper. This was accompannied by a growing desire to read a Bible.

In January and February of 1973 Lake Ontario began to flood over, and the lakeshore residents began to cry out for help sandbagging in order to protect their homes. I thought,'there, If I help sandbag, God will look at this act of mine come judgement day, and all will be well'. A series of events prevented me from getting to the lakeshore, including no transportation. I started to get really scared. Now I could not do anything to earn my salvation. I knew, somehow, that judgement day was coming, and that I was not going to fair well in it.

Then, on March 8, 1973, I met Kevin Bartlett. He was 16 years old just like me. He lived with his twin sister and their mother. What a strange little family. I went to their house, and there, on the wall, was a copy of the 10 commandments. I began to read those commandments and started to squirm. I began to try to justify myself by picking and choosing the ones I hadn't yet broken. As you can imagine, this attempt to comfort myself didn't work very well. Kevin started to tell me that I was a lost sinner, and that my only hope of salvation was in believing in Jesus, that He died for my sins, and was the only way to be saved, just by believing, no works, nothing but faith in Christ alone. Somehow, I knew that he was telling me the truth. His preaching, and the coincident conviction that I was a sinner went on for a whole month. Kevin and his mother made sure to tell me that as I came to Jesus as Savior, He was also to be my Lord. I had no problem with that. I just knew somehow that they were telling me the truth.

On that April 28th night, it was a Saturday, I was at a church service at a Christian retreat house. As the service came to a close I leaned over to Kevin's mom and asked what I must do to be saved. In later times she told me I was shaking at this point. I do not remember that, but I was sure anxious to know what I must do to be saved. She told me to go forward at the end of the service. This I did. I went forward for prayer. I wanted Jesus to save me. I wanted Him as my Lord. The minister asked me if I believed that Jesus was my only hope of salvation. I told him "yes". I knew that no works could save me, just simple faith in Christ, that He died for my sins and rose from the dead three days later. I knew that He was the Son of God. There and then I called upon the name of the Lord. I knew then and there that I was saved. There was no doubt in my mind. I also knew that from that momment on I was to live for Him. How could I not? He had suffered so for my sins.

After I had arisen from my knees, I had this strong desire to tell people about the Savior. I had this deep hunger to devour His word. I wanted to be around Christians. Oh, the joy I had inside! I was cleansed from my sins. I was foregiven. I now had eternal life. What a wonderful night that was--April 28, 1973, at 9:10-9:25 pm.

The Object of Spurgeon's Faith

"We preach Christ crucified". Our creed, our body of divinity, our whole theology is summed up in the person of Christ Jesus. The apostle preached doctrine, but the doctrine was Christ. He preached practice, but the practice was all in Christ. There is no summary of the faith of a Christian that can compass all he believes, except that word "Christ"; and that is the Alpha and the Omega of our creed, that is the first and the last rule of our practice--Christ, and Him crucified. To spread the faith, then, is to spread the knowledge of Christ crucified. It is, in fact, to bring men, through the agency of God's Spirit, to feel their need of Christ, to seek Christ, to believe in Christ, to love Christ, and then to live for Christ.

Taken from Spurgeon's Autobiography, Volume 2, "The Full Harvest", Banner of Truth publishers, page 123

Enquirers and Converts

In the second volume of Spurgeon's Autobiography "The Full Harvest",published by Banner of Truth, page 235, in the chapter entitled "Enquirers and Converts, we read of Spurgeon as he listens to the testimonies of people who have come to Christ at his church. He notes here the same basic themes that these converts testimonies shared. He says,"There are always the same essential marks-death, birth, life, food. Christ in the death, the birth, the life, the food-repentance, faith, joy, the work of the Holy Spirit of God. But it is very sweet to hear the story told in the many different ways in which the converts tell it. The true child of grace is ever the same at heart, although the outward appearance may continually vary".

The Traveler -by Meikle

The difference between the godly & the ungodly

(James Meikle, "The Traveler" June 14, 1758)

There is a wide difference--in both principle and
practice--between the the godly and the ungodly.

The affections of the godly are refined--and their
desires exalted. The inclinations of the ungodly
are corrupt--and their desires groveling.

Sin has but a tottering standing, and a momentary
abode--in the godly. But sin has fixed its throne,
and taken up its eternal residence--in the ungodly.

In the godly, grace and sin struggle for sovereignty.
In the ungodly, sin domineers and there is no struggle.

The godly is deeply concerned about world to come.
The ungodly has no concern about eternal realities.

The speech of the godly is seasoned with grace.
The discourse of the ungodly is insipid and vain.

The godly has his hope fixed on God.
The ungodly has no fear of God before his eyes.

The godly use the world without abusing it.
The ungodly, in using the world, abuse both themselves and it.

The godly confesses God in his daily life, and rejoices
with his whole heart in Him. The ungodly says in his
practice--"there is no God" and wishes in his heart,
that there were no God.

The godly adores the Creator above all else.
The ungodly worships the 'creature' more than the Creator.

The godly uses God's name with profoundest reverence,
and departs from iniquity. The ungodly profanes God's
name with impudence, and adds iniquity to sin.

The godly redeems his time.
The ungodly trifles away his time.

The godly studies his duty in obedience to all God's precepts.
The ungodly shakes himself loose from every command of God.

The godly forgives his foes.
The ungodly lays a snare for his foes.

The godly commits it to God to avenge his wrong.
The ungodly, fiery and tumultuous--seeks revenge.

The godly loves chastity in all things.
The ungodly wallows in uncleanness.

The godly is content with his condition.
The ungodly covets all the day long.

The godly is pure in heart. The heart of the
ungodly is like a cage full of unclean birds.

The godly walks at liberty in the ways of God.
The ungodly is the servant and slave of sin.

The Holy Spirit rules in the heart of the godly.
Satan rules in the heart of the ungodly.

The godly has his conversation in heaven.
The ungodly has his conversation in hell.


As there is such a wide difference in their principles
and practices--so also, in their eternal destinies.
God is faithful--He has promised felicity to the pious,
and threatened vengeance to the wicked. "The wicked
is thrust out in his wickedness; but the righteous has
hope in his death." Proverbs 14:32

The godly are under the blessing of God's love.
The ungodly are under the curse of God's law.

The godly with joy, draw water out of the wells of salvation.
The ungodly shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

To the godly pertain all the exceeding great and precious promises.
To the ungodly pertain all the threatenings of God.

Heaven shall be the palace of the godly!
Hell shall be the prison of the ungodly!

While the godly shall dwell through eternity with God, the
ungodly shall be driven away into everlasting darkness!

Thus, the righteous and wicked are separated in their
life, and divided in their death. They are divided . . .
in their principles,
in their practices,
in their choices,
in their joys,
in their thoughts,
in their company,
in their speech,
in their fears,
in their expectations,
in their death,
and through eternity itself!

The Moment a Sinner Believes

The moment a sinner believes,
And trusts in his crucified God,
His pardon at once he receives,
Redemption in full through His blood.

Taken from "The Full Harvest" C.H. Spurgeon Autobiography Volume 2 page 237

Man's Spiritual Impotence - Spurgeon

Quotes on Man's Spiritual Impotence
Apart from Divine Grace
by C. H. Spurgeon

Unrenewed Man hates the gospel with all his heart!

Spurgeon, "Fire: the Want of the Times"

Brethren, there is nothing in the
gospel, apart from the Spirit of God,
which can save a man, for man
hates the gospel with all his heart!

Though the reasonableness of the gospel
of Jesus ought to make the belief of it
universal, yet its plain dealing with human
sin excites deadly antagonism. Therefore,
the gospel itself would make no progress
were it not for the divine power.

There is an invisible arm which pushes forward
the conquests of the truth. There is a fire unfed
with human fuel, which burns a way for the truth
of Jesus Christ into the hearts of men.

--------------------------------------------------------

The New Heart

God does not promise that He will improve our nature,
or that He will mend our broken hearts. No- the promise
is that He will give us 'new' hearts and right spirits.

Human nature is too far gone ever to be mended--
It is not a house which is a little out of repair, with
here and there a slate blown from the roof, and here and
there a piece of plaster broken down from the ceiling.

No; it is rotten through-out; the very foundations have been
sapped; there is not a single timber in it which is sound; it is
all rottenness from its uppermost roof to its lowest foundation,
and ready to fall. God does not attempt to mend it. He does not
shore up the walls, and repaint the door; He does not garnish
and beautify, but He determines that the old house shall be
entirely swept away, and that He will build a new one.

It is too far gone to be mended. If it were only a little out
of repair, it might be restored. If only a wheel or two of that
great thing called "Manhood" were out of repair, then He who
made man, might put the whole to rights; He might put a new cog
where it had been broken off, and another wheel where it had
gone to ruin, and the machine might work anew.
But no; the whole of it is out of repair; there is not one lever
which is not broken; not one axle which is not disturbed.

"The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the
sole of the foot unto the head, there is no soundness in it;
but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores."

The Lord, therefore, does not attempt the repairing of
this thing, but He says, "A new heart also will I give you,
and a new spirit will I put within you."

--------------------------------------------------------


The Great Heart Changer!

From Spurgeon's, "The Stony Heart Removed"

The heart of the natural man, like marble,
is stone-cold towards spiritual things.

No arguments have power to move a soul so steeled,
so thoroughly stony, hard, and impenetrable.

O rocks of iron and hills of brass,
you are softer than the proud heart of man!

Fallen man is like the deaf adder which will not be charmed,
charm we never so wisely.

Tears are lost on him.

Threatenings are but as the whistlings of the wind.

The preachings of the law, and even of Christ crucified--
all these are null and void and fall hopelessly to the ground,
so long as the man's heart continues what it is by nature--
dead, and hard, and cold.

The heart of man grows harder whether it be the soft sunshine
of love, or the harsh tempest of judgment that falls upon it.

Mercy and love alike make it more solid,
and knit its particles closer together;
and surely until the Omnipotent himself speak the word,
the heart of man grows harder, and harder, and harder,
and refuses to be softened or broken.

Granite may be ground and be broken into pieces,
but unless God gets the hammer in his hand,
and even he must put both hands to it,
the great 'granite heart' of man will not yield in any way.

You may smite a man's heart right and left with death,
with judgment, with mercy, with tears, with entreaties,
with threatenings, and it will not break!

No, even the fires of hell do not melt man's heart,
for the damned in hell grow more hard by their agonies,
and they hate God, and blaspheme him all the more
because of the suffering they endure.

Only Omnipotence itself, I say,
can ever soften this hard heart of man.

Christ is the Great Heart Changer!

"Lord, melt my heart.
None but a bath of blood divine can take the flint away;
but do it Lord, and you shall have the praise."

I've Been Taged

Jeremy Weaver has taged me

1. One book that changed your life (other than the Bible)?
New Covenant Theology by Tom Wells and Fred Zaspel (pictured above). It provided me with a look at the Bible from a new and fresh perspective-a view from outside the box, if you will.
2. One book you've read more than once:
Spurgeon's Autobiography ( The Banner of Truth 2 Volume set)
3. One book you'd want on a Desert Island:
A series actually:The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit
4. One book that made you laugh:
"What Love Is This" by Dave Hunt
5. One book that made you cry (or feel really sad):
"What Love Is This" by Dave Hunt - I laughed so hard that I cried
6. One book that you wish had been written:
I'm no writer, I don't wish such things.
7. One book that you wish had never been written:
Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Linsey. For Two reasons:
1)It teaches people to take their eyes off of Christ and to put them on the events in the Middle East

2)It makes people think that Bible Prophecy unfolds before you when you open the news paper.
8. One Book You're Currently Reading:
Reading and re-reading Grudem's Systematic Theology. Some chapters I have read many times
9. One Book you've been meaning to read:
The above mentioned Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit

10. There aren't 5 people to read here, so I won't pass this on

Coming to Christ - Spurgeon pt.12

III. And, now, we gather up our ends, and conclude by trying to make a practical application of the doctrine; and we trust a comfortable one. "Well," says one, "if what this man preaches be true, what is to become of my religion? for do you know I have been a long while trying, and I do not like to hear you say a man cannot save himself. I believe he can, and I mean to persevere; but if I am to believe what you say, I must give it all up and begin again." My dear friends, it will be a very happy thing if you do. Do not think that I shall be at all alarmed if you do so. Remember, what you are doing is building your house upon the sand, and it is but an act of charity if I can shake it a little for you. Let me assure you, in God's name, if your religion has no better foundation than your own strength, it will not stand you at the bar of God. Nothing will last to eternity, but that which came from eternity. Unless the everlasting God has done a good work in your heart, all you may have done must be unravelled at the last day of account. It is all in vain for you to be a church-goer or chapel-goer, a good keeper of the Sabbath, an observer of your prayers: it is all in vain for you to be honest to your neighbours and reputable in your conversation; if you hope to be saved by these things, it is all in vain for you to trust in them. Go on; be as honest as you like, keep the Sabbath perpetually, be as holy as you can. I would not dissuade you from these things. God forbid; grow in them, but oh, do not trust in them, for if you rely upon these things you will find they will fail you when most you need them. And if there be anything else that you have found yourself able to do unassisted by divine grace, the sooner you can get rid of the hope that has been engendered by it the better for you, for it is a foul delusion to rely upon anything that flesh can do. A spiritual heaven must be inhabited by spiritual men, and preparation for it must be wrought by the Spirit of God. "Well," cries another, "I have been sitting under a ministry where I have been told that I could, at my own option, repent and believe, and the consequence is that I have been putting it off from day to day. I thought I could come one day as well as another; that I had only to say, "Lord, have mercy upon me,' and believe, and then I should be saved. Now you have taken all this hope away for me, sir; I feel amazement and horror taking hold upon me." Again, I say, "My dear friend, I am very glad of it. This was the effect which I hoped to produce. I pray that you may feel this a great deal more. When you have no hope of saving yourself, I shall have hope that God has begun to save you. As soon as you say "Oh, I cannot come to Christ. Lord, draw me, help me,' I shall rejoice over you. He who has got a will, though he has not power, has grace begun in his heart, and God will not leave him until the work is finished." But, careless sinner, learn that thy salvation now hangs in God's hand. Oh, remember thou art entirely in the hand of God. Thou hast sinned against him, and if he wills to damn thee, damned thou art. Thou canst not resist his will nor thwart his purpose. Thou hast deserved his wrath, and if he chooses to pour the full shower of that wrath upon thy head, thou canst do nothing to avert it. If, on the other hand, he chooses to save thee, he is able to save thee to the very uttermost. But thou liest as much in his hand as the summer's moth beneath thine own finger. He is the God whom thou art grieving every day. Doth it not make thee tremble to think that thy eternal destiny now hangs upon the will of him whom thou hast angered and incensed? Dost not this make thy knees knock together, and thy blood curdle? If it does so I rejoice, inasmuch as this may be the first effect of the Spirit's drawing in thy soul. Oh, tremble to think that the God whom thou hast angered, is the God upon whom thy salvation or thy condemnation entirely depends. Tremble and "kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way while his wrath is kindled but a little,"
Now, the comfortable reflection is this:—Some of you this morning are conscious that you are coming to Christ. Have you not begun to weep the penitential tear? Did not your closet witness your prayerful preparation for the hearing of the Word of God? And during the service of this morning, has not your heart said within you, "Lord, save me, or I perish, for save myself I cannot?" And could you not now stand up in your seat, and sing,

"Oh, sovereign grace my heart subdue;
I would be led in triumph, too,
A willing captive of my Lord,
To sing the triumph of his Word"?

And have I not myself heard you say in your heart—"Jesus, Jesus, my whole trust Is in thee: I know that no righteousness of my own can save me, but only thou, O Christ—sink or swim, I cast myself on thee?" Oh, my brother, thou art drawn by the Father, for thou couldst not have come unless he had drawn thee. Sweet thought! And if he has drawn thee, dost thou know what is the delightful inference? Let me repeat one text, and may that comfort thee: "The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." Yes, my poor weeping brother, inasmuch as thou art now coming to Christ, God has drawn thee; and inasmuch as he has drawn thee, it is a proof that he has loved thee from before the foundation of the world. Let thy heart leap within thee, thou art one of his. Thy name was written on the Saviour's hands when they were nailed to the accursed tree. Thy name glitters on the breast-plate of the great High Priest to-day; ay, and it was there before the day-star knew its place, or planets ran their round. Rejoice in the Lord ye that have come to Christ, and shout for joy all ye that have been drawn of the Father. For this is your proof, your solemn testimony, that you from among men have been chosen in eternal election, and that you shall be kept by the power of God, through faith, unto the salvation which is ready to be revealed.

Coming to Christ - Spurgeon pt.11

II. Our second point is THE FATHER'S DRAWINGS. "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him." How then does the Father draw men? Arminian divines generally say that God draws men by the preaching of the gospel. Very true; the preaching of the gospel is the instrument of drawing men, but there must be some thing more than this. Let me ask to whom did Christ address these words? Why, to the people of Capernaum, where he had often preached, where he had uttered mournfully and plaintively the woes of the law and the invitations of the gospel. In that city he had done many mighty works and worked many miracles. In fact, such teaching and such miraculous attestation had he given to them, that he declared that Tyre and Sidon would have repented long ago in sack-cloth and ashes, if they had been blessed with such privileges. Now, if the preaching of Christ himself did not avail to the enabling these men to come to Christ, it cannot be possible that all that was intended by the drawing of the Father was simply preaching. No, brethren, you must note again, he does not say no man can come except the minister draw him, but except the Father draw him. Now there is such a thing as being drawn by the gospel, and drawn by the minister, without being drawn by God. Clearly, it is a divine drawing that is meant, a drawing by the Most High God—the First Person of the most glorious Trinity sending out the Third Person, the Holy Spirit, to induce men to come to Christ. Another person turns round and says with a sneer, "Then do you think that Christ drags men to himself, seeing that they are unwilling!" I remember meeting once with a man who said to me, Sir, you preach that Christ takes people by the hair of their heads and drags them to himself" I asked him whether he could refer to the date of the sermon wherein I preached that extraordinary doctrine, for if he could, I should be very much obliged. However, he could not. But said I, while Christ does not drag people to himself by the hair of their heads, I believe that, he draws them by the heart quite as powerfully as your caricature would suggest. Mark that in the Father's drawing there is no compulsion whatever; Christ never compelled any man to come to him against his will. If a man be unwilling to be saved, Christ does not save him against his will. How, then, does the Holy Spirit draw him? Why, by making him willing. It is true he does not use "moral suasion;" he knows a nearer method of reaching the heart. He goes to the secret fountain of the heart, and he knows how, by some mysterious operation, to turn the will in an opposite direction, so that, as Ralph Erskine paradoxically puts it, the man is saved "with full consent against his will;" that is, against his old will he is saved. But he is saved with full consent, for he is made willing in the day of God's power. Do not imagine that any man will go to heaven kicking and struggling all the way against the hand that draws him. Do not conceive that any man will be plunged in the bath of a Saviour's blood while he is striving to run away from the Saviour. Oh, no. It is quite true that first of all man is unwilling to be saved. When the Holy Spirit hath put his influence into the heart, the text is fulfilled—"draw me and I will run after thee." We follow on while he draws us, glad to obey the voice which once we had despised. But the gist of the matter lies in the turning of the will. How that is done no flesh knoweth; it is one of those mysteries that is clearly perceived as a fact, but the cause of which no tongue can tell, and no heart can guess. The apparent way, however, in which the Holy Spirit operates, we can tell you. The first thing the Holy Spirit does when he comes into a man's heart is this: he finds him with a very good opinion of himself: and there is nothing which prevents a man coming to Christ like a good opinion of himself. Why, says man, "I don't want to come to Christ. I have as good a righteousness as anybody can desire. I feel I can walk into heaven on my own rights." The Holy Spirit lays bare his heart, lets him see the loathsome cancer that is there eating away his life, uncovers to him all the blackness and defilement of that sink of hell, the human heart, and then the man stands aghast. "I never thought I was like this. Oh! those sins I thought were little, have swelled out to an immense stature. What I thought was a mole-hill has grown into a mountain; it was but the hyssop on the wall before, but now it has become a cedar of Lebanon. Oh," saith the man within himself, "I will try and reform; I will do good deeds enough to wash these black deeds out." Then comes the Holy Spirit and shows him that he cannot do this, takes away all his fancied power and strength, so that the man falls down on his knees in agony, and cries, "Oh! once I thought I could save myself by my good works, but now I find that


"Could my tears for ever flow,
Could my zeal no respite know,
All for sin could not atone,
Thou must save and thou alone.'"

Then the heart sinks, and the man is ready to despair. And saith he, "I never can be saved. Nothing can save me." Then, comes the Holy Spirit and shows the sinner the cross of Christ, gives him eyes anointed with heavenly eye-salve, and says, "Look to yonder cross. that Man died to save sinners; you feel that you are a sinner; he died to save you." And he enables the heart to believe, and to come to Christ. And when it comes to Christ, by this sweet drawing of the Spirit, it finds "a peace with God which passeth all understanding, which keeps his heart and mind through Jesus Christ our Lord." Now, you will plainly perceive that all this may be done without any compulsion. Man is as much drawn willingly, as if he were not drawn at all; and he comes to Christ with full consent, with as full a consent as if no secret influence had ever been exercised in his heart. But that influence must be exercised, or else there never has been and there never will be, any man who either can or will come to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Coming to Christ - Spurgeon pt.10

Now, before I leave this statement, let me address myself to you for a moment. I am often charged with preaching doctrines that may do a great deal of hurt. Well, I shall not deny the charge, for I am not careful to answer in this matter. I have my witnesses here present to prove that the things which I have preached have done a great deal of hurt, but they have not done hurt either to morality or to God's Church; the hurt has been on the side of Satan. There are not ones or twos but many hundreds who this morning rejoice that they have been brought near to God; from having been profane Sabbath-breakers, drunkards, or worldly persons, they have been brought to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ; and if this be any hurt may God of his infinite mercy send us a thousand times as much. But further, what truth is there in the world which will not hurt a man who chooses to make hurt of it? You who preach general redemption, are very fond of proclaiming the great truth of God's mercy to the last moment. But how dare you preach that? Many people make hurt of it by putting off the day of grace, and thinking that the last hour may do as well as the first. Why, if we never preached anything which man could misuse, and abuse, we must hold our tongues for ever. Still says one, "Well then, if I cannot save myself, and cannot come to Christ, I must sit still and do nothing." If men do say so, on their own heads shall be their doom. We have very plainly told you that there are many things you can do. To be found continually in the house of God is in your power; to study the Word of God with diligence is in your power; to renounce your outward sin, to forsake the vices in which you indulge, to make your life honest, sober, and righteous, is in your power. For this you need no help from the Holy Spirit; all this you can do yourself; but to come to Christ truly is not in your power, until you are renewed by the Holy Ghost. But mark you, your want of power is no excuse, seeing that you have no desire to come, and are living in wilful rebellion against God. Your want of power lies mainly in the obstinacy of nature. Suppose a liar says that it is not in his power to speak the truth, that he has been a liar so long, that he cannot leave it off; is that an excuse for him? Suppose a man who has long indulged in lust should tell you that he finds his lusts have so girt about him like a great iron net that he cannot get rid of them, would you take that as an excuse? Truly it is none at all. If a drunkard has become so foully a drunkard, that he finds it impossible to pass a public—house without stepping in, do you therefore excuse him? No, because his inability to reform, lies in his nature, which he has no desire to restrain or conquer. The thing that is done, and the thing that causes the thing that is done, being both from the root of sin, are two evils which cannot excuse each other, What though the Ethiopian cannot change his skin, nor the leopard his spots? It is because you have learned to do evil that you cannot now learn to do well; and instead, therefore, of letting you sit down to excuse yourselves, let me put a thunderbolt beneath the seat of your sloth, that you may be startled by it and aroused. Remember, that to sit still is to be damned to all eternity. Oh! that God the Holy Spirit might make use of this truth in a very different manner! Before I have done I trust I shall be enabled to show you how it is that this truth, which apparently condemns men and shuts them out, is, after all, the great truth, which has been blessed to the conversion of men.

Coming to Christ - Spurgeon pt.9

But, again, there is another argument. If the sinner has strength to come to Christ, I should like to know how we are to understand those continual descriptions of the sinner's state which we meet with in God's holy Word? Now, a sinner is said to be dead in trespasses and sins. Will you affirm that death implies nothing more than the absence of a will? Surely a corpse is quite as unable as unwilling. Or again, do not all men see that there is a distinction between will and power: might not that corpse be sufficiently quickened to get a will, and yet be so powerless that it could not lift as much as its hand or foot? Have we never seen cases in which persons have been just sufficiently re-animated to give evidence of life, and have yet been so near death that they could not have performed the slightest action? Is there not a clear difference between the giving of the will and the giving of power? It is quite certain, however, that where the will is given, the power will follow. Make a man willing, and he shall be made powerful; for when God gives the will, he does not tantalize man by giving him to wish for that which he is unable to do; nevertheless he makes such a division between the will and the power, that it shall be seen that both things are quite distinct gifts of the Lord God.
Then I must ask one more question: if all that were needed to make a man willing, do you not at once degrade the Holy Spirit? Are we not in the habit of giving all the glory of salvation wrought in us to God the Spirit? But now, if all that God the Spirit does for me is to make me willing to do these things for myself, am I not in a great measure a sharer with the Holy Spirit in the glory? and may I not boldly stand up and say, "It is true the Spirit gave me the will to do it, but still I did it myself, and therein will I glory; for if I did these things myself without assistance from on high, I will not cast my crown at his feet; it is my own crown, I earned it, and I will keep it." Inasmuch as the Holy Spirit is evermore in Scripture set forth as the person who worketh in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure, we hold it to be a legitimate inference that he must do something more for us than the mere making of us willing, and that therefore there must be another thing besides want of will in a sinner—there must be absolute and actual want of power.