What would you ask for?

What would you ask for?

(Joseph Alleine, "Alarm to the Unconverted" 1671)

"That night God appeared to Solomon in a dream and said: What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!" 2 Chronicles 1:7

If God would give you your choice, as He did to Solomon--what would you ask for?

Go into the gardens of pleasure, and gather all the fragrant flowers there--would these satisfy you?

Go to the treasures of mammon--suppose you may carry away as much as you desire.

Go to the towers, to the trophies of honor--and become a man of renown.

Would any of these, would all of these satisfy you, and make you to count yourself happy? If so, then certainly you are carnal and unconverted.

Converting grace turns the heart from its idols--to the living God. Before conversion, the man minded his farm, friends, pleasures more than Christ. He found more sweetness in his merry company, worldly amusements, earthly delights--than in Christ. 

Now he says, "But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ!" Philippians 3:7-8

Grace levels all distinctions!

"By the grace of God I am what I am!" 1 Corinthians 15:10

The very expression the grace of God implies and denotes that the sinner's condition is desperate to the last degree, and that God may justly leave him to perish; yes, it is a wonder of wonders that he is not already in Hell!

God is sovereign in the exercise of His grace. This of necessity, for grace is favor shown to the undeserving, yes, to the Hell-deserving.

Grace is the antithesis of justice.
Justice demands the impartial enforcement of law.
Justice requires that each shall receive his legitimate due, neither more nor less.
Justice bestows no favors and is no respecter of persons.
Justice, as such, shows no pity and knows no mercy.
But after justice has been fully satisfied, sovereign grace flows forth.

Grace has been defined as the unmerited favor of God.
If unmerited, then none can claim it as their inalienable right.
If grace is unearned and undeserved, then none are entitled to it.
If grace is a gift, then none can demand it.
Therefore, as salvation is by grace, the free gift of God--then He bestows it on whom He pleases.
Because salvation is by grace, the very chief of sinners is not beyond the reach of Divine mercy.
Because salvation is by grace, boasting is excluded, and God gets all the glory.

Grace is a divine provision for those who are . . .
  so depraved, that they cannot change their own nature;
  so averse from God, that they will not turn to Him;
  so blind, that they can neither see their malady nor the remedy;
  so dead spiritually, that God must grant spiritual life.

Grace is the sinner's last and only hope; if he is not saved by grace, he will never be saved at all.

Grace levels all distinctions, and regards . . .
  the most zealous religionist--on the same plane as the most heinous criminal;
  the chaste virgin--on the same plane as the foul prostitute.
Therefore God is perfectly free to save the chief of sinners, and bestow His mercy on the vilest of the vile!

--A.W. Pink

Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins

 "Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins." Psalm 25:18

It is well for us when prayers about our sorrows are linked with pleas concerning our sins--when, being under God's hand, we are not wholly taken up with our pain, but remember our offences against God.  It is well, also, to take both sorrow and sin to the same place. It was to God that David carried his sorrow: it was to God that David confessed his sin. Observe, then, we must take our sorrows to God. Even your little sorrows you may roll upon God, for he counts the hairs of your head; and your great sorrows you may commit to him, for he holds the ocean in the hollow of his hand. Go to him, whatever your present trouble may be, and you shall find him able and willing to relieve you. But we must take our sins to God too. We must carry them to the cross, that the blood may fall upon them, to purge away their guilt, and to destroy their defiling power. The special lesson of the text is this:--that we are to go to the Lord with sorrows and with sins in the right spirit. Note that all David asks concerning his sorrow is, "Look upon mine affliction and my pain;" but the next petition is vastly more express, definite, decided, plain--"Forgive all my sins." Many sufferers would have put it, "Remove my affliction and my pain, and look at my sins." But David does not say so; he cries, "Lord, as for my affliction and my pain, I will not dictate to your wisdom. Lord, look at them, I will leave them to you, I should be glad to have my pain removed, but do as you will; but as for my sins, Lord, I know what I want with them; I must have them forgiven; I cannot endure to lie under their curse for a moment." A Christian counts sorrow lighter in the scale than sin; he can bear that his troubles should continue, but he cannot support the burden of his transgressions.

--C.H. Spurgeon

The Living Son Who Was Dead

Crowder - Come As You Are

Though You Slay Me" (featuring John Piper)

Be ye separate

"Be ye separate."
2 Corinthians 6:17

The Christian, while in the world, is not to be of the world. He should be distinguished from it in the great object of his life. To him, "to live," should be "Christ." Whether he eats, or drinks, or whatever he does, he should do all to God's glory.

You may lay up treasure; but lay it up in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, where thieves break not through nor steal.

You may strive to be rich; but be it your ambition to be "rich in faith," and good works.

You may have pleasure; but when you are merry, sing psalms and make melody in your hearts to the Lord.

In your spirit, as well as in your aim, you should differ from the world. Waiting humbly before God, always conscious of his presence, delighting in communion with him, and seeking to know his will, you will prove that you are of heavenly race.

And you should be separate from the world in your actions.

If a thing be right, though you lose by it, it must be done;

if it be wrong, though you would gain by it, you must scorn the sin for your Master's sake.

You must have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Walk worthy of your high calling and dignity. Remember, O Christian, that thou art a son of the King of kings. Therefore, keep thyself unspotted from the world. Soil not the fingers which are soon to sweep celestial strings; let not these eyes become the windows of lust which are soon to see the King in his beauty--let not those feet be defiled in miry places, which are soon to walk the golden streets--let not those hearts be filled with pride and bitterness which are ere long to be filled with heaven, and to overflow with ecstatic joy.

Then rise my soul! and soar away,

Above the thoughtless crowd;

Above the pleasures of the gay,

And splendours of the proud;

Up where eternal beauties bloom,

And pleasures all divine;

Where wealth, that never can consume,

And endless glories shine.

(C.H. Spurgeon's Morning and Evening)