The Gospel of Jesus Christ Leads to a Perfect Delirium of Joy!
HT: Joseph Randall
Charles Spurgeon wrote:
Some years ago, I was deeply depressed. I knew whom I had believed, but I could not get comfort from the truth I preached. I even began to wonder if I was really saved.
While on vacation, I went to a Wesleyan chapel. The sermon was full of the gospel and tears flowed from my eyes. I was in a perfect delirium of joy. I said, “Oh yes, there is spiritual life within me; the gospel can still touch my heart and stir my soul.”
When I thanked the good man for his sermon, he looked at me and could hardly believe his eyes. He said, “Are you not Mr. Spurgeon?”
I replied, “Yes.”
“Dear, dear,” said he, “that was your sermon I preached this morning.”
I knew it was, and that was one reason why I was so comforted. I realized that I could take my own medicine. I asked the preacher to my inn for dinner. We rejoiced that he was led to give the people one of my sermons that day, that I could be fed from my own kitchen.
I do know this. Whatever I may be, there is nothing that moves me like the gospel of Christ.
“For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.” (2 Tim. 1:12).
Do you feel this way?
Charles Spurgeon, Beside Still Waters, Ed. Roy H. Clarke (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1999), 299.
As High As The Heavens Are Above The Earth…
Psalm 103:10-14
(10) He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
(11) For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
(12) as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
(13) As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
(14) For he knows our frame;
he remembers that we are dust.
My Soul Rejoiced With Joy Unspeakable
The following comes from The Life and Diary of David Brainerd by Jonathan Edwards (p. 69-70):
I had been thus endeavoring to pray, though as I thought, very stupid and senseless, for near half an hour; then, as I was walking in a dark thick grove, unspeakable glory seemed to open to the view and apprehension of my soul. I do not mean any external brightness, for I saw no such thing. Nor do I intend any imagination of a body of light somewhere in the third heavens, or anything of that nature; but it was a new inward apprehension or view that I had of God, such as I never had before nor anything which had the least resemblance of it.
I stood still, wondered, and admired! I knew that I never had seen before anything comparable to it for excellency and beauty; it was widely different from all the conceptions that ever I had of God, or things divine. I had no particular apprehension of any one Person in the Trinity, either the Father, the Son, or the Holy Ghost; but it appeared to be divine glory. My soul rejoiced with joy unspeakable to see such a God, such a glorious Divine Being; and I was inwardly pleased and satisfied that He should be God over all for ever and ever. My soul was so captivated and delighted with the excellency, loveliness, greatness, and other perfections of God, that I was even swallowed up in Him. At least to that degree that I had no thought (as I remember) at first, about my own salvation, and scarce reflected there was such a creature as I. Thus God, I trust, brought me to a hearty disposition to exalt Him and set Him on the throne, and principally and ultimately to aim at His honor and glory, as King of the universe. I continued in this state of inward joy, peace, and astonishment, till near dark, without any sensible abatement; and then began to think and examine what I had seen; and felt sweetly composed in my mind all the evening following. I felt myself in a new world, and everything about me appeared with a different aspect from what it was wont to do.
At this time, the way of salvation opened to me with such infinite wisdom, suitableness, and excellency, that I wondered I should ever think of any other way of salvation; was amazed that I had not dropped my own contrivances, and complied with this lovely, blessed, and excellent way before. If I could have been saved by my own duties, or any other way that I had formerly contrived, my whole soul would now have refused it. I wondered that all the world did not see and comply with this way of salvation, entirely by the righteousness of Christ.
Husbands and Wives
EPHESIANS 5:21-33
Out of respect for Christ, be courteously reverent to one another.
Wives, understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ. The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing. So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewise submit to their husbands.
Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting. Christ’s love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness. And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They’re really doing themselves a favor—since they’re already “one” in marriage.
No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That’s how Christ treats us, the church, since we are part of his body. And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become “one flesh.” This is a huge mystery, and I don’t pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church. And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband.
The Message, Eugene Peterson
Like this:
In His Hands
‘Twixt gleams of joy and clouds of doubt
Our feelings come and go; our best estate is tossed about in ceaseless ebb and flow. No mood of feeling, form of thought is constant for a day; but thou, 0 Lord, thou changest not: the same thou art alway.
I grasp thy strength, make it mine own, my heart with peace is blest; I lose my hold, and then comes down darkness, and cold unrest. Let me no more my comfort draw from my frail hold of thee, in this alone rejoice with awe—- thy mighty grasp of me.
Out of that weak, unquiet drift that comes but to depart, to that pure heaven my spirit lift where thou unchanging art. Lay hold of me with thy strong grasp, let thy almighty arm in its embrace my weakness clasp, and I shall fear no harm.
Thy purpose of eternal good let me but surely know; on this I’ll lean—let changing mood and feeling come or go— glad when thy sunshine fills my soul, not lorn when clouds o’ercast, since thou within thy sure control of love dost hold me fast .
John Campbell Shairp
The Garden of Gethsemane
(This picture and many more can be found here)
Matthew 26:36-46
Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”
In this garden, Jesus prayed. In this garden, Jesus was suffered alone. In this garden, Jesus saw the infinite suffering that was in front of him, and he said, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”
He said yes to the suffering so that the Father could say yes to you.
Christ Is The Most Beautiful!
HT: Joseph Randall
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Charles Spurgeon commented on this verse:
Whatever there may be of beauty in the material world, Jesus Christ possesses all that in the spiritual world, in a tenfold degree. Among flowers, the rose is deemed the sweetest—but Jesus is infinitely more beautiful in the garden of the soul—than the rose can in the gardens of earth. He takes the first place as the fairest among ten thousand. He is the sun—and all others are the stars; the heavens and the day are dark—in comparison with Him, for the King in His beauty transcends all.
“I am the Rose of Sharon.” This was the best and rarest of roses. Jesus is not “the rose” alone, He is “the Rose of Sharon.” Just as He calls His righteousness “gold,” and then adds, “the gold of Ophir” that is—the best of the best. He is positively lovely, and superlatively the loveliest.
There is variety in His charms. The rose is delightful to the eye, and its scent is pleasant and refreshing; so each of the senses of the soul, whether it be the taste or feeling, the hearing, the sight, or the spiritual smell—finds appropriate gratification in Jesus. Even the recollection of His love is sweet. Take the rose of Sharon, and pull it leaf from leaf, and lay the leaves in the jar of memory, and you shall find each leaf fragrant long afterwards, filling the house with perfume.
Christ satisfies the highest taste of the most educated spirit to the very full. The greatest amateur in perfumes is quite satisfied with the rose—and when the soul has arrived at her highest pitch of true taste, she shall still be content with Christ; nay, she shall be the better able to appreciate Him. Heaven itself possesses nothing which excels the Rose of Sharon. What emblem can fully set forth His beauty? Human speech and earth-born things, fail to describe Him. Earth’s choicest charms added together, feebly picture His abounding preciousness. Blessed Rose, bloom in my heart forever! (Morning and Evening, May 1)
Death In His Grave
HT: Bryan Morris
A More Satisfying Experience
The following comes from Jonathan Edwards’ A Narrative of Surprising Conversions (p. 14-15). In this paragraph, Edwards gives us a picture of what God was doing in the hearts of men during the Great Awakening. I hope that we too will have our doubts removed by a more satisfying experience, and have more clear discoveries of God’s love.
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In all companies, on other days, on whatever occasions persons met together, Christ was to be heard of, and seen in the midst of them. Our young people, when they met, were want to spend the time in talking of the excellency and dying love of Jesus Christ, the glory of the way of salvation, the wonderful, free and sovereign grace of God, his glorious work in the conversion of a soul, the truth and certainty of the great things of God’s word, the sweetness of the views of his perfections, etc. And even at weddings, which formerly were mere occasions of mirth and jollity, there was now no discourse of any thing but religion, and no appearance of any but spiritual birth. Those amongst us who had been formerly converted, were greatly enlivened, and renewed with fresh and extraordinary incomes of the Spirit of God; though some much more than others, according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Many who before had laboured under difficulties about their own state, had now their doubts removed by more satisfying experience, and more clear discoveries of God’s love.
