---------------------- ---------------------- By calling it "great joy," he shows us, not only that we ought, above all things, to rejoice in the salvation brought us by Christ, but that this blessing is so great and boundless, as fully to compensate for all the pains, distresses, and anxieties of the present life. Let us learn to be so delighted with Christ alone, that the perception of his grace may overcome, and at length remove from us, all the distresses of the flesh.
- John Calvin on Luke 2:10 ---------------------- The secret formula of the saints: When I am in the cellar of affliction, I look for the Lord's choicest wines. - Samuel Rutherford (on the Puritan Hard Drive)
---------------------- Sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions. - Matthew Henry (on the Puritan Hard Drive)
---------------------- "I will sing of mercy and judgment." - Psalm 101:1, KJV
There is a subject for song even in the judgments of God towards us. For, first, the trial is not so heavy as it might have been; next, the trouble is not so severe as we deserved to have borne; and our affliction is not so crushing as the burden which others have to carry. Faith sees that in her worst sorrow there is nothing penal; there is not a drop of God's wrath in it; it is all sent in love. Faith discerns love gleaming like a jewel on the breast of an angry God. Faith says of her grief, "This is a badge of honour, for the child must feel the rod"; and then she sings of the sweet result of her sorrows, because they work her spiritual good. Nay, more, says Faith, "These light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work out for me a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." So Faith rides forth on the black horse, conquering and to conquer, trampling down carnal reason and fleshly sense, and chanting notes of victory amid the thickest of the fray.
"All I meet I find assists me In my path to heavenly joy: Where, though trials now attend me, Trials never more annoy. "Blest there with a weight of glory, Still the path I'll ne'er forget, But, exulting, cry, it led me To my blessed Saviour's seat." ---------------------- ---------------------- "The Puritan Hard Drive is a tremendous blessing... you can easily do ten hours worth of research in just seconds!" - Pastor Paul Washer, HeartCry Missionary Society, Author, Conference Speaker, etc.
---------------------- "Our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory!" - 2 Corinthians 4:17, KJV
---------------------- ---------------------- Afflictions, But No Broken Bones He keepeth all his bones; not one of them is broken. (Psalm 34:20, KJV) This is great comfort to a tried child of God, and comfort which I dare accept; for up to this hour I have suffered no real damage from my many afflictions. I have neither lost faith, nor hope, nor love. Nay so far from losing these bones of character, they have gained in strength and energy. I have more knowledge, more experience, more patience, more stability than I had before the trials came. Not even my joy has been destroyed. Many a bruise have I had by sickness, bereavement, depression, slander, and opposition; but the bruise has healed, and there has been no compound fracture of a bone, not even a simple one. The reason is not far to seek. If we trust in the Lord, He keeps all our bones; and if He keeps them, we may be sure that not one of them is broken.
---------------------- "I never knew the meaning of God's Word until I came into affliction." - Martin Luther (on the Puritan Hard Drive)
---------------------- "I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." - Isaiah 48:10, KJV
Comfort thyself, tried believer, with this thought: God saith, "I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." Does not the word come like a soft shower, assuaging the fury of the flame? Yea, is it not an asbestos armour, against which the heat hath no power? Let affliction come-God has chosen me. Poverty, thou mayst stride in at my door, but God is in the house already, and he has chosen me.
In that silent chamber of yours, there sitteth by your side One whom thou hast not seen, but whom thou lovest; and ofttimes when thou knowest it not, he makes all thy bed in thy affliction, and smooths thy pillow for thee. Thou art in poverty; but in that lovely house of thine the Lord of life and glory is a frequent visitor. He loves to come into these desolate places, that he may visit thee.
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An amazing series of messages focusing on the sovereignty of God in the Bible, by the man some consider the Spurgeon of our generation. - "If you want to understand Reformed theology the Puritan Hard Drive is unsurpassed, outside the Bible itself." - Pastor Greg Price (Covenanter)
- "It is no novelty, then, that I am preaching; no new doctrine. I love to proclaim these strong old doctrines that are called by nickname Calvinism, but which are truly and verily the revealed truth of God as it is in Christ Jesus. By this truth I make my pilgrimage into the past, and as I go, I see father after father, confessor after confessor, martyr after martyr, standing up to shake hands with me ... Taking these things to be the standard of my faith, I see the land of the ancients peopled with my brethren; I behold multitudes who confess the same as I do, and acknowledge that this is the religion of God's own church." - Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sovereign Grace Sermons, Still Waters Revival Books, p. 170
- Charles Spurgeon: "What is the heresy of Rome, but the addition of something to the perfect merits of Jesus Christ--the bringing in of the works of the flesh, to assist in our justification? And what is the heresy of Arminianism but the addition of something to the work of the Redeemer? Every heresy, if brought to the touchstone, will discover itself here. I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel, if we do not preach justification by faith, without works; nor unless we preach the sovereignty of God in His dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel, unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of His elect and chosen people which Christ wrought out upon the cross; nor can I comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called, and suffers the children of God to be burned in the fires of damnation after having once believed in Jesus. Such a gospel I abhor." (C. H. Spurgeon, The New Park Street Pulpit, Vol. 1, 1856)
Calvinism In the Early Church Fathers: Ignatius (Student of the Apostle John), Cyprian, Augustine, et al. (Free MP3s & More, By William Cunningham, Dr. Matthew McMahon, W.G.T. Shedd, Dr. Curt Daniel, John Calvin, Dr. Kenneth Talbot, Jerome Zanchius, et al.
These four messages make up some of the best teaching you will ever hear on the second commandment, Puritan and Reformed worship, and the regulative principle of worship. - John Calvin: "God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since he condemns by this one phrase, "I have not commanded them," whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions, than that they are not commanded by God: for when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to his commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship, in which they absurdly exercise themselves, would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying his word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The Prophet's words then are very important, when he says, that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind; as though he had said, that men assume too much wisdom, when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew." - John Calvin on the Puritan Hard Drive
God's Will Vs. Man's Will In Worship, Romanism and Arminianism In Worship Are Heresy (The Plausibility Of Will Worship To Worldly Wisdom, Colossians 2:23, the Regulative Principle Of Worship [RPW], Etc.), By Jim Dodson, John Calvin, Greg Price, Westminster Divines, Dr. Steven Dilday, John Owen, Kevin Reed, John Flavel, Thomas Watson, William Perkins and Others (Free Reformed MP3s, Videos, Books, Etc.) - B. Leviticus 10:1-3: Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. So fire went out from the LORD and devoured them, and they died before the LORD. Then Moses said to Aaron, "This is what the LORD spoke, saying: 'By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; and before all the people I must be glorified'" (emphasis added). Carefully note that the nature of the sin committed by Nadab and Abihu was that they offered profane fire before the Lord "which He had not commanded them." God did not say they offered profane fire "which was forbidden them." The fact that He had not commanded the use of the strange fire meant it was forbidden (God's silence in the matter meant an express prohibition of all profane fire). According to Leviticus 16:12 it would appear that the coals for the incense offering were to come from the fire on the altar of burnt offering. The priest then brought the coals from the altar of burnt offering into the Tabernacle, and on the altar of incense he spread the coals out mixing the coals and the incense which then filled the Holy Place. Apparently in a rather spontaneous act of worship (with perhaps "good intentions" cf. Lev. 9:22-24) they took fire from another source to praise God. God had just consumed the burnt offering by a miraculous display of fire, and all the people were in an enthusiastic state of shouting and falling on their faces before the Most High God. Leviticus 10:1 immediately follows with "Then." It may be that in all of the excitement, Nadab and Abihu, quite overcome by the demonstration of God's awesome power took fire from the quickest and nearest source available to them and immediately went into the Tabernacle to offer incense to the Lord God. They took liberties in worship which God had not given them, and they were slain. They added to the worship of God an act that was not specifically authorized by God. They brought their own man-made worship into the house of God, and His anger burned against them. C. Objection: "But God has obviously relaxed His standards for He does not slay people on the spot for taking liberties in worship today. Why be so nit-picky today? We are under grace not law." I would have you remember that neither does God make a habit of immediately slaying those who lie to Him today though He did so to Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. Yet would anyone care to argue that lying to God is not as heinous to God today as it was to Him in Acts 5? Paul teaches, "Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance" (Rom. 2:4). God's kind patience in forbearing with sin is not to be misunderstood as an approval of sin. It is God's objective Word and not my subjective feelings that assure me of God's approval of my worship. - From: FOUNDATION FOR REFORMATION: THE REGULATIVE PRINCIPLE OF WORSHIP by Pastor Greg Price (emphases added), Free Online Book at https://www.swrb.com/newslett/actualNLs/reformation-rpw-gp.htm
- "If it be inquired, then, by what things chiefly the Christian religion has a standing existence amongst us, and maintains its truth, it will be found that the following two not only occupy the principal place, but comprehend under them all the other parts, and consequently the whole substance of Christianity: this is, a knowledge, first, of the mode in which God is duly worshipped; and, secondly, of the source from which salvation is to be obtained. When these are kept out of view, though we may glory in the name Christians, our profession is empty and vain. After these come the sacraments and the government of the church." - John Calvin, The Necessity of Reforming the Church, Presbyterian Heritage Publications, 1544, reprinted 1995, p. 15, free online at https://www.swrb.com/newslett/actualnls/NRC_ch00.htm.
- Colossians 2:8,20-23. The emphasis of the great apostle throughout this chapter is on forsaking the traditions and commandments of men, and rather clinging to Christ and His commandments, for "in Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge... in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power" (Col 2:3,9-10). Dear ones, you are not complete in yourself or in any man-made ceremonies in worship. You are complete, made full and acceptable through His work on your behalf. He is the head of the church, not you or me. He is our Prophet, Priest, and King. He alone directs our worship and presents it acceptable to the Father. Paul infers that to practice any "will-worship" (or "self-imposed religion" Col. 2:23) "according to the commandments and doctrines of men" (Col. 2:22) is to undermine the finished work of Christ (Col. 2:11-23) and to seek to usurp the headship over the church that rightly belongs to Christ (Col. 2:8-10,18-19). Self-imposed worship (i.e. any religious act, gesture, symbol, or ceremony in worship) is expressly condemned by Christ and His apostles. It is in fact false worship which no Christian should tolerate in the house of God without a verbal protest to the leadership and separation from this false worship until there is biblical reformation in worship ("The sins forbidden in the second commandment are, all devising, counselling, commanding, using, and any wise approving, any religious worship not instituted by God himself" (The Larger Catechism, Question 109). - Greg Price, Foundation for Reformation: The Regulative Principle of Worship, free online at https://www.swrb.com/newslett/actualNLs/REFORMATION-RPW-GP.htm
Marxism is nothing more than a repackaging of ancient paganism in a mask of pseudo-science and Godless modernity. - "The idea of millions of years came from the belief that the fossil record was built up over a long time. As soon as people allow for millions of years, they allow for the fossil record to be millions of years old. This creates an insurmountable problem regarding the gospel. The fossil record consists of the death of billions of creatures. In fact, it is a record of death, disease, suffering, cruelty, and brutality. It is a very ugly record. The Bible is adamant though, that death, disease, and suffering came into the world as a result of sin. God instituted death and bloodshed because of sin so man could be redeemed. As soon as Christians allow for death, suffering, and disease before sin, then the whole foundations of the message of the Cross and the Atonement have been destroyed. The doctrine of original sin, then, is totally undermined. If there were death, disease, and suffering before Adam rebelled -- then what did sin do to the world? What does Paul mean in Romans 8 when he says the whole of creation groans in pain because of the Curse? How can all things be restored in the future to no more death and suffering, unless the beginning was also free of death and suffering? The whole message of the gospel falls apart if one allows millions of years for the creation of the world." - The Necessity for Believing in Six Literal Days by Ken Ham. Also hear Six Day Creation and The Eisegesis Problem by Ken Ham (Free MP3) and "The Doctrine Of Original Sin (26 Free MP3s) by Jonathan Edwards.
- As with all links we provide we only agree with that which is in agreement with the Bible at the sites where the URLs point.
Scroll down on landing pages to reach all the free Reformation resources. Mind-Blowing Biblical Prophecy Fulfilled To the Very Hour! God's Omnipotence, Omniscience, Omnisapience, Etc., On Display In the Perfect Historical Fulfillments Of Prophecies, In the Book of Revelation, Regarding the Rise, Expansion and Fall Of Islam and the Papal Antichrist, and Much More, By Dr. Steven Dilday, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, W.J. Mencarow, John Owen, Greg Price, John Calvin, George Gillespie (Westminster Divine), J.A. Wylie, Richard Bennett, John Foxe, David Steele and Others (Free Reformed MP3s, Videos and Books, Scroll Down on Landing Page)
Scroll down on landing pages to reach all the free Reformation resources. - We are never nearer Christ than when we find ourselves lost in a holy amazement at His unspeakable love. - John Owen(Works, on the Puritan Hard Drive)
- "Let no man think to kill sin with few, easy, or gentle strokes. He who hath once smitten a serpent, if he follow not on his blow until it be slain, may repent that ever he began the quarrel. And so he who undertakes to deal with sin, and pursues it not constantly to the death." - John Owen (Works, on the Puritan Hard Drive)
- The most tremendous judgment of God in this world is the hardening of the hearts of men. - John Owen (Works, on the Puritan Hard Drive)
The Remainders of Indwelling Sin: The Nature, Power and Deceit Of It, By John Owen, Dr. Steven Dilday, Jonathan Edwards, Dr. R.C. Sproul, Thomas Watson, Paul Washer, the Westminster Divines, Dr. Joel Beeke, Stephen Charnock, Greg Price, John Calvin, Jim Dodson, Thomas Boston, Bill Mencarow, Arthur Pink, Al Martin, Thomas Ridgeley, Christopher Love and Others (Free Reformed MP3s, Videos, Books, Etc.) - "Neglect of private prayer and meditation comes from a weariness of God, as Isaiah complains (Isa. 43:22). But God alone is the fountain and spring of spiritual life. Any withdrawing from him must bring about a decline, for what we are in private duties, that we are, and no more. If this root fails, all fruit will quickly fail. Just as a tree must decay, wither and droop if the root fails, so must our souls." - John Owen (Works, on the Puritan Hard Drive)
- Dr. Francis Nigel Lee, in John Owen Represbyterianized, also wrote, "The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate that Britain's great Puritan Theologian... John Owen, was essentially not a Congregationalist but a Presbyterian. He first pastored a Presbyterian Church. On his deathbed, he re-affirmed Presbyterianism."
- John Girardeau, in his Instrumental Music in the Public Worship of the Church (pp. 24-25) also writes, "The words of the great theologian, John Owen 'and the British Isles have produced no greater' are solemn and deserve to be seriously pondered: 'The principle that the church hath power to institute any thing or ceremony belonging to the worship of God, either as to matter or manner, beyond the observance of such circumstances as necessarily attend such ordinances as Christ Himself hath instituted, lies at the bottom of all the horrible superstition and idolatry, of all the confusion, blood, persecution, and wars, that have for so long a season spread themselves over the face of the Christian world' (cited in John Owen's A Discourse Concerning Liturgies and their Imposition, see below)."
God's Will Vs. Man's Will In Worship, Romanism and Arminianism In Worship Are Heresy (The Plausibility Of Will Worship To Worldly Wisdom, Colossians 2:23, the Regulative Principle Of Worship [RPW], Etc.), By Jim Dodson, John Calvin, Greg Price, Westminster Divines, Dr. Steven Dilday, John Owen, Kevin Reed, John Flavel, Thomas Watson, William Perkins and Others (Free Reformed MP3s, Videos, Books, Etc.) Why Most Worship Is Actually Idolatry, Which God Hates, According To the Bible (the Second Commandment Or The Regulative Principle Of Worship, RPW) By Jim Dodson, John Calvin, Greg Price, the Westminster Assembly, Dr. Steven Dilday, John Owen, et al. (Free Reformed MP3s, Videos, Books, Etc.) - John Owen was "(arguably) the greatest thinking English Puritan Theologian that ever lived." - Dr. C. Matthew McMahon (A Puritan Mind)
- "We can begin each day with the deeply encouraging realization, I'm accepted by God, not on the basis of my personal performance, but on the basis of the infinitely perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ." - John Owen (Works, on the Puritan Hard Drive)
- "Our next task is to take a view of the idol himself, of this great deity of free-will, whose original being not well known, he is pretended, like the Ephesian image of Diana, to have fallen down from heaven, and to have his endowments from above. But yet, considering what a nothing he was at his first discovery in comparison of the vast giant-like hugeness to which now he is grown, we may say of him as the painter said of his monstrous picture, which he had mended or rather marred according to every one's fancy, 'Hunc populus fecit,' it is the issue of the people's brain." - John Owen, A Display of Arminianism (Canada: Still Waters Revival Books, 1989), p. 114 (Works, on the Puritan Hard Drive)
- "To say that we are able by our own efforts to think good thoughts or give God spiritual obedience before we are spiritually regenerate is to overthrow the gospel and the faith of the universal church in all ages." - John Owen, The Holy Spirit (Works, on the Puritan Hard Drive)
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