Resources on Sanctification
On Sunday morning, Lord willing, I shall complete a three month series in 1 Thessalonians. Like many other preachers, my favorite book of the Bible is the one I am preaching. This letter of Paul is no exception. Calvin, Simeon, and Stott were particularly helpful advisors as I worked through the text, and I put their books back on my shelves with thanksgiving for each man’s piety, skill, and wisdom. When in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, the apostle writes: “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” we obtain insight into how Paul the pastor prayed for his congregation.…
Read MoreThomas Brooks reflects on humility: “Labor to be clothed with humility. Humility makes a man peaceable among brethren, fruitful in well-doing, cheerful in suffering, and constant in holy walking (1 Pet. 5:5). Humility fits for the highest services we owe to Christ, and yet will not neglect the lowest service to the [most ordinary] saint (John 13:5) . . . Humility can weep over other men’s weaknessses, and joy and rejoice over their graces. Humility will make a man quiet and contented in the [lowliest] condition, and it will preserve a man from envying other men’s prosperous condition (1 Thess 1:2,3). Humility honors those that are strong in grace and puts two hands under those that are weak in grace (Eph.…
Read More“It is a sad and dangerous thing to have two eyes to behold our dignity and privileges, and not one to see our duties and services. I should look with one eye upon the choice and excellent things that Chris hath done for me, to raise up my heart to love Christ with the purest love, and to joy in Christ with the strongest joy, and to lift up Christ above all, who hath made himself to be my all; and I should look with the other eye upon those services and duties that the Scriptures require of those for whom Christ hath done such blessed things, as upon that of the apostle: ‘What, know ye not that your body…
Read MoreWhen we pray to grow in every grace, the Lord hears and answers, but not in the way we might imagine, much less want. John Newton’s poem is full of personal experience and pastoral wisdom. God grants what we need most, and, in the end, we are satisfied. I asked the Lord that I might grow In faith, and love, and every grace; Might more of his salvation know, And seek, more earnestly, his face. ’Twas he who taught me thus to pray, And he, I trust, has answered prayer! But it has been in such a way, As almost drove me to despair. I hoped that in some favored hour, At once he’d answer my request; And by his love’s…
Read More“If we would have a peaceful conscience in our religion, let us see that our views of saving faith are distinct and clear. Let us beware of supposing that justifying faith is anything more than a sinner’s simple trust in a Saviour, the grasp of a drowning man on the hand held out for his relief. – Let us beware of mingling anything else with faith in the matter of justification. Here we must always remember that faith stands entirely alone. A justified man no doubt will always be a holy man. True believing will always be accompanied by godly living. But what gives a man an interest in Christ, is not his living, but his faith. If we would…
Read More“Faith is at the root of all that is good; and unbelief, of all that is evil. According to our faith will every grace be found within us. Look at a person in a state of departure from his God: to what is his condition owing? There is ‘in him an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.’ Look at persons anxious to attain the highest grace, so as to be able to forgive their brother, not seven times, but seventy times seven: for what do they pray? an increase of love? no; but of faith: ‘Lord, increase our faith.’” – Charles Simeon, Horae Homileticae: Philippians to 1 Timothy (vol. 18; London: Holdsworth and Ball, 1833), 316.
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