John Piper shares his thoughts on the holiness of God.
When the object of our delight is moral beauty, the longing to behold is inseperable from the longing to be. When the Holy Spirit awakens the heart of a person to delight in the holiness of God, an insatiable desire is born not only to behold that holiness, but also to be holy as God is holy.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Robinson Crusoe's Text
Charles Spurgeon once preached a sermon on prayer and called it "Robinson Crusoe's Text."
Robinson Crusoe has been wrecked. He is left on the desert island all alone. His case is a very pitiable one. He goes to his bed, and is smitten with a fever. This fever lasts upon him long, and he has no one to wait upon him--none even to bring him a drink of cold water. He is ready to perish. He had been accustomed to sin, and had all the vices of a sailor; but his hard case brought him to think. He opens a Bible which he finds in his chest, and he lights upon this passage, "Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." That night he prayed for the first time in his life, and ever after there was in him a hope in God, which marked the birth of the heavenly life.
Robinson Crusoe's text was Psalm 50:15. It is God's way of getting glory for Himself-----Pray to me! I will deliver you! And the result will be that you will glorify Me!
Spurgeon's explanation is penetrating:
God and praying man take shares....First here is your share: "Call upon me in the day of trouble." Secondly, here is God's share: I will deliver thee." Again, you take a share--for you shall be delivered. And then again it is the Lord's turn---"Thou shalt glorify me." Here is a compact, a covenant that God enters into with you who pray to Him, and whom He helps. He says, "You shall have the deliverance, but I must have the glory..." Here is a delightful partnership: we obtain that which we so greatly need, and all that God getteth is the glory which is due unto His name.
Robinson Crusoe has been wrecked. He is left on the desert island all alone. His case is a very pitiable one. He goes to his bed, and is smitten with a fever. This fever lasts upon him long, and he has no one to wait upon him--none even to bring him a drink of cold water. He is ready to perish. He had been accustomed to sin, and had all the vices of a sailor; but his hard case brought him to think. He opens a Bible which he finds in his chest, and he lights upon this passage, "Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." That night he prayed for the first time in his life, and ever after there was in him a hope in God, which marked the birth of the heavenly life.
Robinson Crusoe's text was Psalm 50:15. It is God's way of getting glory for Himself-----Pray to me! I will deliver you! And the result will be that you will glorify Me!
Spurgeon's explanation is penetrating:
God and praying man take shares....First here is your share: "Call upon me in the day of trouble." Secondly, here is God's share: I will deliver thee." Again, you take a share--for you shall be delivered. And then again it is the Lord's turn---"Thou shalt glorify me." Here is a compact, a covenant that God enters into with you who pray to Him, and whom He helps. He says, "You shall have the deliverance, but I must have the glory..." Here is a delightful partnership: we obtain that which we so greatly need, and all that God getteth is the glory which is due unto His name.
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