Every moment of our life we are constantly answering the question of whether we will trust in Christ or believe in the lies of the world. God is infinitely worthy of our trust because he knows the future perfectly and will not allow his children to wander forever. He calls us to trust him when we do not know what the future holds instead of fleeing to the false promises of sin. We trust that our life is in his hands as we work to build his kingdom (Ps 31:15). Knowing that God is in control gives us confidence to live for him.
The Suffering of Job
Few men have suffered more than Job has. After losing his children and possessions, his own wife told him to curse God and kill himself (Job 2:9). But Job rebukes her and blesses God instead of cursing him. Job’s suffering began as a kind of bet between God and the devil: “Then Satan answered the LORD and said, ‘Does Job fear God for no reason?’” (Job 1:9). Satan may be saying the same thing about you right now. Is the only reason why you serve God because of the many things he has given you? What if God were to take away your money, health, and family? In your moment of suffering, will you choose to bless the Lord in worship or curse him by turning to sin in an attempt to numb your pain?
The wicked refuse to serve God because they see no benefit in it for themselves: “What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?” and “It profits a man nothing that he should take delight in God” (Job 21:15; 34:9). This was the same complaint of Israel in the days of Malachi: “You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the LORD of hosts?’” (Mal 3:14). When things are going well for the people of God, the world is attracted to the outward prosperity of the church. They think that if they become members of a local church, God will bless them as well. But when it is no longer advantageous to be a Christian, the hypocrites leave their profession of faith.
But Job’s response was much different. He would continue to trust God no matter what happened to him: “Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face” (Job 13:15). But even in the midst of his trust, Job’s view of God was too low. That is why the Lord had to come to him at the end of the book and reveal his glory in all its majesty. As a true follower of God, Job responds with heartfelt repentance: “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6). The purpose for Job’s pain was to grow his faith and demonstrate the sovereignty of God. What Satan intended for evil, God intended for good. As Thomas Brooks writes, affliction refines our trust in God:
“No man lives so free a life, so holy a life, so heavenly a life, so happy a life, as he that lives a life of faith. . . . The Lord, by forsaking of his people for a time, he makes them skillful in the life of faith, which is the choicest the sweetest life in this world.”[1]
Pleasure and Pain
The sweet waters of pleasure and the bitter waters of affliction are used by Satan to turn us from God.[2] John Piper explains how each works in temptation:
“Satan uses pleasure and pain to try and destroy our faith. He wields pleasure to make us doubt God’s satisfying greatness, and pain to make us doubt God’s sovereign goodness.”[3]
But the sweet of sin is always accompanied by the emotional pain of shame.[4] While sin might initially bring pleasure, it soon makes our pain worse. The pleasures of sin are fleeting, momentary, and unsatisfying as Brooks reminds us:
“There is nothing in carnal delights but imagination and expectation; for they can neither fill the heart nor satisfy the heart. O sirs, there is no real pleasure in sin. All the pleasures of sin are counterfeit pleasures; they are but the shapes and shadows of pleasure; they are the seeds of future grief; they are but an earnest laid down for sorrow or ruin.”[5]
God is working in the life of his children to wean us from the world because he is doing a perfect work in our life that will be completed on the day of Christ (Ps 131:2; Phil 1:6). Every time you sin, you are rebelling against God and telling him that your way of living is better than his. But remember, no one has ever rebelled against God and prevailed (Acts 26:14). Turning to sin in your moment of suffering will only increase your suffering. As Charles Spurgeon preached:
“I do not remember reading of a person whose wife or child was sick, who discovered any miraculous healing power in rebellion against the Most High. It is a dark night, but the darkness of your heart will not light a candle for you. It is a terrible tempest, but to quench the fires of comfort and open the doors to admit the howling winds into the chambers of your spirit will not stay the storm.”[6]
The Lord has promised to turn the tears of his people into rejoicing. As David writes, “For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Ps 30:5). If the Lord has given you eternal life, can you not trust him to give you that which you need for each day? If the Father has given you his own Son, can you not trust him with the things of this life? (Rom 8:32). Do not be troubled by your lacking of that which can never make you happy.[7] In the midst of your suffering, you are called to be patient because patience is an expression of our faith (Rom 12:12).
The Never-Ending Battle
The Christian life is a daily battle against sin. It is a war between God and Satan, trust and temptation, life and death, and eternity and the present. Will you live for the passing pleasures of sin or will you deny yourself and follow Christ knowing that your treasure is in heaven and not on earth? God allows his children to be tempted in this fallen evil age in order that he might be glorified when they overcome the temptation. The next time you are tempted to sin, think about how much God will be glorified when you overcome the temptation. Do not waste your temptation. We do this by following the example of Christ and those who follow him. Like Moses, we must choose “to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin” (Heb 11:25). As Brooks reminds us, we must kill sin or it will kill us: “You must pursue your bosom sins to the death, or they will be the death of your souls.”[8]
Faith calls us to believe that the adoration of Christ is more soul-satisfying than the greatest pleasures this world can offer. Every sin is an expression of lack of trust in God and contains a deceitful lie within it. The way to overcome temptation is to identify this lie and expose its deceitfulness. Sin twists God’s good design for creation by questioning his character and wisdom. Every sin is also an expression of pride which pretends as if we know better than God. Sin is inherently self-destructive and deceptive. It promises freedom, but always brings corruption.
The key to overcoming secret sin is secret communion with God and open confession before man (Jas 5:16). Your secret sins show that you fear man more than God who already knows all your sins.[9] It takes faith to believe that the pleasures of God outweigh the pleasures of sin. It takes faith to believe that there is an unseen world of angels and demons who are at war with one another. It takes faith to believe that one day our bodies will be raised from the dead. And it takes faith to believe that Christ has been raised from the dead.
Christ is the one who gives light to those who sit in darkness (Luke 1:79). He sets captives free from their sin (John 8:36). Addiction is enslaving because it robs men and women of the joy they could have been experiencing in Christ. Think of all the money saved, time better spent, friendships made, knowledge learned, and memories made that addiction robs from you. Instead, our minds becomes filled with violence, immorality, profanity, and the absence of God. As Brooks teaches us:
“The conquest and effectual mortifying of one bosom sin, will yield a Christian more glorious joy, comfort, and peace, than ever he has found in the gratifying and committing of all other sins. The pleasure and sweetness which follows victory over sin, is a thousand times beyond that seeming sweetness which is in the gratifying of sin. The joy which attends the subduing of sin is a noble joy, a pure joy, a special joy, an increasing joy, and a lasting joy. But that joy which attends the committing of sin is an ignoble joy, a corrupt joy, a decreasing joy, a dying joy. The truth is, were there the least real joy in sin, there could be no perfect hell, where men shall most perfectly sin, and be most perfectly tormented with their sin.”[10]
The desire for joy must drive self-discipline and self-control. It requires a supernatural taste of heaven’s delicacies to say no to sin. This was the teaching of Richard Baxter:
“A life of sin will not be avoided for inferior motives. When lust and appetite incline men strongly and constantly to their respective objects, what shall sufficiently restrain them, except the motives from things eternal?”[11]
This was the motivation of Paul when he wrote, “But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified” (1 Cor 9:27). There are many who preach from pulpits today who will be in hell tomorrow. A lack of self-control is a sign of someone who may be a reprobate. They do not become reprobates by a lack of self-control, but prove themselves to have been so all along by their unrepentant sin. The joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment before he is unmasked on the day of judgment.
Hope is central to resisting temptation because if we believe that we have no future, then we live for the moment instead of looking forward to the reward. Because we are looking forward to a heavenly city, we can be content without heaven on earth (Heb 13:14). As Piper makes clear, this attitude revolutionizes the way we live:
“The way of love is both the way of self-denial and the way to ultimate joy. We deny ourselves the fleeting pleasures of sin and luxury and self-absorption in order to seek the kingdom above all things. In doing so we bring the greatest good to others, we manifest the worth of Christ as a treasure chest of joy, and we find our greatest satisfaction.”[12]
We will never desire to flee secret sin until we learn that true happiness can only be found in obeying God.[13] Your idols will always let you down and betray you. But Christ never will.
Our Sufficiency in Christ
Christ is the believer’s wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor 1:30). Our identity is in him and what he has done for us. Therefore, Brooks argues, “To run from Christ is to run from all life, peace and joy. It is to run from our strength, our shelter, our security, our safety, our crown, our glory.”[14] His mercy pardons us, his blood cleanses us, his merits justify us, his righteousness clothes us, his Spirit leads us, his grace enriches us, and his glory rewards us.[15] This is why John Flavel can say:
“The study of Jesus Christ is the noblest subject that ever a soul spent itself upon. The angels stoop to look into this deep abyss. The truths discovered in Christ are the secrets that from eternity lay hid in the bosom of God. Studying Christ stamps a heavenly glory upon the contemplating soul. How little do we know of Christ, in comparison with what we might have known? O, how much time is spent in other studies and worldly employments; but how little in the search and study of Jesus Christ? O then, separate, devote, and wholly give yourself, your time, and your strength to this most sweet, transcendent study.”[16]
We have no heaven on earth apart from a life lived in communion with Christ. And where we cannot see his face, we must trust his voice. It is impossible to trust him too much.[17] As Joseph Caryl observed, “The reason why God is trusted so little, is because He is so little known.”[18] To know and love God is the most important activity of life. This, in turn, should lead us to pray: “Help me to know continually that there can be no true happiness, no fulfilling of thy purpose for me, apart from a life lived in and for the Son of thy love.”[19] Do you love Christ more than anything in this world? If there is anything you love more than God, then it has become an idol to you. Matthew Mead reminds us that we have a truer source of joy:
“You will find whatever you over-love to be a cross or a curse. Live above the pleasures of sense; we have a nobler delight. We have God to delight in and Christ to comfort us. What a poor thing it is to satisfy your soul with the delights of brutes. They have no peace with God, no joy in the Holy Spirit, no peace of conscience, and no hope of glory. Is not the greatest ground of joy imaginable to have a name written in heaven? This is a truer cause of rejoicing than anything this world can afford.”[20]
By running after sinful pleasure, you end up destroying yourself. By neglecting God and his ways, you are acting like a fool who has lost his mind. This is why, in the parable of the Prodigal Son, we read: “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!’” (Luke 15:17). Sin is a kind of temporary madness where we act beside ourselves to our own harm. It is madness to refuse the help of God because he is the only physician who has the power to heal us. This is what led Jodocus van Lodenstein to exclaim: “To live without Jesus is worse than not to live at all! Yet the church will risk missing the Lord Jesus in exchange for carnal security and imaginary rest.”[21] It is an imaginary rest because it cannot last. One day, the bubble will burst and we will see sin for what it really is.
Christ has promised to never leave us or forsake us (Heb 13:5). And we know that he will keep his word because he “is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb 13:8). God’s promises rest on his unchangeableness. As Spurgeon once said, “There was never a man yet who dared trust Christ, and yet found that Christ was not equal to his need, or that he did not fully supply all his wants.”[22] It is only when we look to him in faith that we find what we have been searching for all along. This was the message of John Owen:
“The Lord Christ desired that his disciples should see his glory in order that they might be filled with joy and happiness for evermore. Only a sight of his glory, and nothing else, will truly satisfy God’s people. The hearts of believers are like a magnetized needle which cannot rest until it is pointing north. So also, a believer, magnetized by the love of Christ, will always be restless until he or she comes to Christ and beholds his glory. The soul which can be satisfied without beholding the glory of Christ, that cannot be eternally satisfied with beholding the glory of Christ, is not a soul for whom Christ prays. . . . While we are still on earth, faith, beholding the glory of Christ, will give us a foretaste of future glory. There is no glory, no peace, no joy, no satisfaction to be found in this world compared to what we get from that weak and imperfect view which we have of the glory of Christ by faith.”[23]
Love for Christ
Our love for Christ flows from his love for us. As 1 John 4:19 says, “We love because he first loved us.” God’s love is the self-giving of himself for others as seen in his kindness, mercy, and grace. Love expresses itself as a desire for union and oneness with another person. God is eternally loving because he is eternally triune. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit love one another perfectly and eternally. As Jesus prayed in John 17:24: “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” Our love for Christ expresses itself as a desire to be with Christ. You cannot love someone you never spend time with. When Richard Wurmbrand was being pressured to deny the existence of God while suffering in prison for his faith, he cried out to God:
“If You were a myth, I would leave reality and live with You in a dream. If they proved You did not exist, You would receive life from my love. My love is mad, without motive, as Your love is, too. Lord Jesus, find some happiness here. For more I cannot give You”.[24]
Wurmbrand could only say these words because he had experienced the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. He had become a new creation in Christ and could not deny the reality of what had taken place in his life (2 Cor 5:17). This is the case with every true Christian. It is impossible for Christians to curse Christ or deny God’s existence (1 Cor 12:3; Heb 11:6). Johannes Tauler, whose writings had a great influence on the reformer Martin Luther, encountered a beggar with whom he began to speak with. Tauler asked him, “What would you do if you were damned for eternity?” He replied, “I have two arms: humility and love. With these I would embrace Him so mightily that if I had to enter hell, He would have to enter with me. It would be sweeter for me to be with Him in hell than without Him in heaven.”[25] This was the same attitude of Luther who would “rather be in hell with Christ, than in heaven without him.”[26]
This same love for Christ was seen in the example of Bonaventure:
“The devil, tempting Bonaventure, told him he was a reprobate, and therefore persuaded him to drink in the present pleasure of this life; for, said he, thou art excluded from the future joys with God in heaven. Bonaventure’s graces being active, he answered, No; not so, Satan: if I must not enjoy God after this life, let me enjoy him as much as I can in this life.”[27]
We can trust Christ because he has demonstrated his love for us in laying down his life for us. I can trust him because I know he loves me. But a lack of trust in Christ is a sign of a lack of love for him.[28] Is there anything you would not be willing to part with for Christ? Is there anything you love more than him? As Brooks teaches, love for sin and love for Christ cannot exist at the same time: “A man never begins to fall in love with Christ till he begins to fall out with his sins. Till sin and the soul be two, Christ and the soul can not be one.”[29]
Love for Christ expresses itself in love for the commands of Christ. We love his Word because it is his love letter to his bride the church until he returns. As Brooks explains, love for Christ must result in hatred for sin because sin takes us away from communion with him:
“True grace works the heart to the hatred of all sin, and to the love of all truth; it works a man to the hatred of those sins that for his blood he cannot conquer, and to loathe those sins that he would give all the world to overcome (Ps. 119:104, 128). So that a soul truly gracious can say, Though there is no one sin mortified and subdued in me, as it should, and as I would, yet every sin is hated and loathed by me. So a soul truly gracious can say, Though I do not obey any one command as I should, and as I would, yet every word is sweet, every command of God is precious (Ps. 119:6, 119, 127, 167). I dearly prize and greatly love those commands that I cannot obey; though there be many commands that I cannot in a strict sense fulfill, yet there is no command I would not fulfill, that I do not exceedingly love.”[30]
Those who love Christ are willing to follow him to the death (Matt 16:24-26). Love for Christ is the driving force behind the Christian life. As Christ showed compassion for the hurting and the lost, we are called to show the same mercy to those in need. This was the message Spurgeon preached:
“If the Scriptures tell me my Lord is going to fill me with his own glory, and to set me at his own right hand, I can believe it. He who went to the cross for me will never be ashamed of me: he who gave me himself will give me all heaven and more: he that opened his very heart to find blood and water to wash me in, how shall he keep back even his kingdom from me? O sweet Lord Jesus, thou art indeed to us the hope, the pledge, the guarantee of glory. Friend, do you not feel that Christ in you is the dawn of heaven? . . . Go your ways and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and let men see who it is that lives in you. Let Jesus speak through your mouth, and weep through your eyes, and smile through your face; let him work with your hands and walk within your feet, and be tender with your heart. Let him seek sinners through you; let him comfort saints through you; until the day break and the shadows flee away.”[31]
Thomas Vincent gives us one of the most amazing appeals for love to Christ ever written. He calls us to look to Christ alone for our happiness instead of the passing pleasures and riches of this world:
“Be much in contemplation of Christ. Consider often what motives there are of love in Him; press them upon your spirits, and labor to awaken and rouse up your hearts unto the vigorous exercise of this love. Spend time in secret retirement, and there think and think again of the superlative excellencies and perfections which are in Christ’s person; how wonderful and matchless His love is, what heights that cannot be reached, what depths in it that cannot be fathomed, what other dimensions which cannot be comprehended. Meditate often on His benefits, how incomparable His love-token is: and, while you are looking, you may feel your hearts leaping. . . . Get often into the mount of divine contemplation, and there look upwards unto heaven and think with yourselves, ‘Yonder, yonder, above the shining sun, is the more glorious Sun of righteousness. There, at the right hand of the throne of God, is my beloved Jesus, the Son of God, seated and, though He is so high above me, both in place and dignity, yet He thinks upon me, and pleads for me, and many a gift has He sent and, by His Spirit, conveyed unto me; and I can ask nothing of the Father in His name but, if it is really for my good, I have it by His means.’ O dear Jesus, how lovely art Thou in Thyself! The darling of heaven! The delight of the Father! The admiration of angels! O what brightness of glory, what shining luster art Thou arrayed with! Thou art clothed with most excellent majesty and honor! Thou art girded with infinite might and power! The beauty of Thy face is most wonderful! The smiles of Thy countenance are most sweet and delightful! And does this lovely fair one, this fairest of ten thousand, this most excellent and altogether lovely person bear a particular love to me? To such a vile worm as me? To such a hell-deserving sinner as me? O what marvelous kindness in this! What infinite riches of free grace! Does He know me by name? Has He given Himself for me, and given Himself to me, and shall not I give Him my heart? Am I written in His book, redeemed with His blood, clothed with His righteousness, beautified with His image? Has He put the dignity of a child of God upon me, and prepared a place in the Father’s house for me? O wonderful! O admirable! What shall I render? What returns shall I make? Had I a thousand tongues, should I not employ them all in speaking His praise? Had I a thousand hearts, should I not present them all as too mean for a thank-offering unto Him? And yet am I slow, slow of heart to love this dear and sweet Jesus? Awake, O my soul! Awake from your dullness and stupidity! Shake off the sleep which glues your eyelids so close together, shake out the dust of the earth which has gotten into your eyes, and keeps you from the view of your beloved. Arise, O my soul, and lift up yourself; unfetter the feet, unclog yourself, take the wing, and mount up above the sky and visible heavens, even to the place where the lovely and dear Jesus is! Take your leave of the world and all things therein. Bid farewell to the flattering honors, the deceitful riches, the glancing pleasures that are here below; bid adieu to them, and leave them to those who place their chief happiness in them. If earth had your body for awhile, yet let it have your heart and chief affections no more.”[32]
A Jealous God
The Bible tells us that “the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God” (Deut 4:24). But how can God be jealous? Isn’t jealousy a bad thing? God is jealous because he is intensely desirous for his own worship. God loves himself and has a wonderful plan for himself and his people to exalt the honor of his name. He is jealous for us because he loves us and values his glory above all things. He loves us too much to have our worship divided between himself and idols. It is not wrong for God to be jealous because he is the creator of all things and is worthy of the worship of all people. But there are many people who only want Christ for his benefits. Believing the gospel becomes a kind of “get out of hell free” card instead of being motivated by love for Christ.
Because God is jealous for the love of his people, he will smash our idols when they take his place. As Samuel Rutherford once expressed:
“I am most gladly content that Christ breaketh all my idols in pieces: it hath put a new edge upon my blunted love to Christ. I see he is jealous of my love, and will have all to himself.”[33]
God is making us into masterpieces for his glory (Eph 2:10). But the process can be painful. It is painful when the idols we cling to are wrenched from our hands.[34] God’s discipline is difficult to endure, but it is for our good: “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Heb 12:11). To preemptively avoid the painful discipline of God, we must remove everything that hinders our enjoyment of Christ. We do this by trusting that he is more satisfying than sin. In heaven, there will be no sin and the saints will be perfectly happy without the things of this world (Rev 7:14-17).
On that day, the saints will be perfectly conformed to the image of Christ. When sin is taken away, perfect holiness will result in perfect happiness.[35] Sin prevents us from taking joy in the Spirit, hinders our prayers, and destroys our confidence before God.[36] For this reason, God must root out the sin in our life. As Spurgeon relates: “If thou make anything to be thy glory except Christ, God will prepare a worm to eat the root of it. For he will have thee, if thou art his, he will have thee chaste to himself, and thou shalt never have anything to glory in but Christ.”[37] Some of the most convicting words I have ever read come from the pen of Thomas Watson on Christ’s love for us:
“You that are professors, your sins are sins of unkindness, they go nearest to Christ’s heart. Do you live as those who have hope of things to come? Is Christ preparing heaven for you, and are you preparing war against him? Is this your kindness to your friend?”[38]
The Proverbial Fool
One of the most important passages in the Bible on trusting God is Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” The fool in Proverbs is the man who believes that he is wiser than God. Even though he would never dare to utter such words, his actions reveal this is what he really believes. By his actions, he is calling God a liar as if he knows better. The fool trusts in his own understanding instead of in the one true God who is perfect in knowledge (Job 37:16).
The fool expresses his foolishness by his indulgence, inactivity, and passivity. While he might not sin openly and profanely, he tries to see how far he can go without breaking the letter of the law. There is no fear of God before his eyes and the Bible defines fearing the Lord as turning away from evil (Job 28:28; Prov 3:7; Eccles 12:13).[39] Fearing the Lord is a holy adoration of God that leads to action instead of passivity. Solomon warns this fool: “Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?” (Prov 6:27-28). If you play with sinful fire, eventually you will get burned by falling into a greater sin than you expected.
Addiction is an example of pride because it is arrogant to think that you can satisfy yourself apart from communion with God. Pride is the sin that leads to all other sins. Pride was the first sin of Satan (Isa 14:13-16; Ezek 28:12-17). Pride drowns out the worship of God (Ps 10:4). No amount of worldly pleasure can prepare your soul for death. Therefore, do not envy the great sinners of this world (Ps 73:1-28). Our lack of trust in God can only bring wrath, not lasting pleasure (Rom 1:18). Because we have sinned against God, someone must pay the penalty for our sin. And that is why Jesus had to die.
[1]Thomas Brooks, The Mute Christian Under the Rod, in A Mute Christian Under the Rod & Apples of Gold, ed. Jay P. Green (Mulberry, IN: Sovereign Grace Publishers, 2001), 98.
[2]Thomas Watson, All Things for Good (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1986), 71.
[3]See the article “Pain: A Secret Garden of Pride” by Marshall Segal at http://www.desiringgod.org.
[4]Thomas Brooks, Heaven on Earth: A Treatise on Christian Assurance (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1961), 223.
[5]Thomas Brooks, The Crown and Glory of Christianity, in The Works of Thomas Brooks, 6 vols., ed. Alexander B. Grosart (Edinburgh: John Greig and Son, 1866), 4:255.
[6]Charles Spurgeon, “Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled,” in vol. 13 of The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, in The C. H. Spurgeon Collection [CD-ROM] (Rio, WI: AGES Software, 2001), 35.
[7]Thomas Brooks, Smooth Stones Taken from Ancient Brooks, ed. Charles Spurgeon (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 1996), 163.
[8]Brooks, Heaven on Earth, 123.
[9]Thomas Brooks, The Secret Key to Heaven: The Vital Importance of Private Prayer (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2006), 271.
[10]Brooks, Heaven on Earth, 120.
[11]Richard Baxter, Dying Thoughts (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2004), 17.
[12]John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003), 107.
[13]Thomas Brooks, Apples of Gold, in A Mute Christian Under the Rod & Apples of Gold, ed. Jay P. Green (Mulberry, IN: Sovereign Grace Publishers, 2001), 210.
[14]Brooks, Smooth Stones Taken from Ancient Brooks, 196.
[15]Brooks, The Mute Christian Under the Rod, 25.
[16]Richard Rushing, ed. Voices from the Past: Puritan Devotional Readings (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2009), 5.
[17]“We can trust Him too little, but we cannot trust God too much” (Norman P. Grubb, C. T. Studd: Cricketer & Pioneer [Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1982], 138).
[18]Horatius Bonar, ed. Words Old and New: Gems from the Christian Authorship of All Ages (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1994), 171.
[19]Arthur Bennet, ed. The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1975), 23.
[20]Rushing, ed. Voices from the Past, 277.
[21]Jodocus van Lodenstein, A Spiritual Appeal to Christ’s Bride, ed. Joel R. Beeke, trans. Bartel Elshout (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage, 2010), 123.
[22]Charles Spurgeon, “Simeon’s Swan Song,” in vol. 39 of The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, in The C. H. Spurgeon Collection [CD-ROM] (Rio, WI: AGES Software, 2001), 73.
[23]John Owen, The Glory of Christ, ed. R. J. K. Law (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1994), 2, 126.
[24]Richard Wurmbrand, In God’s Underground, eds. Charles Foley and Lynn Copeland (Bartlesville, OK: VOM Books, 2004), 71.
[25]Richard Wurmbrand, The Overcomers (Orlando, FL: Bridge-Logos, 2006), 58.
[26]Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1968), 162.
[27]Brooks, The Mute Christian Under the Rod, 89.
[28]Brooks, Smooth Stones Taken from Ancient Brooks, 172.
[29]Ibid., 262.
[30]Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, 159-60.
[31]Charles Spurgeon, “Christ in You,” in vol. 29 of The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, in The C. H. Spurgeon Collection [CD-ROM] (Rio, WI: AGES Software, 2001), 353-54.
[32]Thomas Vincent, The True Christian’s Love to the Unseen Christ (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 1993), 75-76.
[33]Samuel Rutherford, The Loveliness of Christ: Extracts from the Letters of Samuel Rutherford, ed. Ellen S. Lister (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2007), 86.
[34]As Corrie Ten Boom once said, “Hold everything in your hands lightly, otherwise it hurts when God pries your fingers open.” See the article “40 Powerful Quotes from Corrie Ten Boom” at http://www.crosswalk.com.
[35]Thomas Watson, “A Christian on Earth Still in Heaven,” in The Sermons of Thomas Watson, 2 vols. (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 1990), 1:289.
[36]Brooks, Heaven on Earth, 122.
[37]Charles Spurgeon, “Christ the Glory of His People,” in vol. 14 of The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, in The C. H. Spurgeon Collection [CD-ROM] (Rio, WI: AGES Software, 2001), 571.
[38]Thomas Watson, The Christian’s Character: Showing the Privileges of a Believer, in The Sermons of Thomas Watson, 2 vols. (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 1990), 1:127.
[39]I have written more on the fear of the Lord in my article “What Does It Mean to Fear the Lord?” at https://jamesattebury.wordpress.com.
James Attebury 
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