The Gospel Coalition

“Take.” Matthew 26:26

“Nobody at the table said, ‘Lord, I dare not take.’ But when Jesus said, ‘Take,’ they took. Nobody said, though perhaps everybody felt, ‘I am not worthy to take,’ but as Jesus said, ‘Take,’ they took. . . . .

And I do not suppose that the Master stood holding that piece of bread to Peter for half an hour. He said, ‘Take,’ and Peter took it. ‘Take,’ he said to John, and John took it. ‘Take,’ he said to Philip, and Philip took it at once. . . .

I anticipate that someone will say, ‘Am I then to have Jesus Christ by only taking him?’ Just so. Do you need a Savior? There he is. Take him. Do you desire to be delivered from the power of sin? He can deliver you. Take him to do it. Do you desire to lead a holy, godly life? Here is One who can wash you and enable you to live thus. Take him.

He is as free as the air. You have no more to pay for Christ than you have to pay for the next breath that goes into your lungs. Take him in. Take him in. That is all you have to do.”

C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, 1950), I:363, language slightly updated.

“Let the wise hear and increase in learning.”  Proverbs 1:5

The opening paragraph of Proverbs states the purposes of the book.  Those purposes address both a beginner (“the simple . . . the youth”) and a veteran (“the wise”).  To quote Bridges, Proverbs, page 2: “A truly wise man is one, not who has attained, but who knows that he has not attained and is pressing onward to perfection.”  He cites Paul: “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own” (Philippians 3:12).

Principle: The further we advance in Christ, the more we marvel at his untapped riches.

Corollary: The more we feel people need our opinions, the more obvious it is they don’t.

Another corollary: The more we feel we have to learn, the more we might have to offer.

So, how to become a sage?  “Let the wise hear . . . .”

“We are all prodigal sons, and not disinherited; we have received our portion, and misspent it, not been denied it.  We are God’s tenants here, and yet here, he, our landlord, pays us rents; not yearly, nor quarterly, but hourly and quarterly; every minute he renews his mercy.”

John Donne, quoted in Thomas C. Oden, Classical Pastoral Care (Grand Rapids, 1987), III:285.

“North American Christianity is religion without reverence. . . . We can ask ourselves whether we have been lured into the seats of the moneychangers.  We can ask God to show us the motives in our hearts in any matter where money has to do with the sacred person of our Lord and God.  If the Holy Spirit shows us we are in any way involved in desecration, we can quit.  There may be financial loss.  There may be embarrassment.  But there will be refreshment and renewal in our lives.  We are not ourselves called to plait a whip of cords.  Our rage is not called for, only our repentance.”

John White, The Golden Cow (Downers Grove, 1979), pages 132-135.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.  Revelation 22:1

“This river is the river of God’s pleasures, as it is elsewhere called, and is the Holy Spirit, and therefore proceeds both from the Father and the Son, from the throne of God and the Lamb.  The fountain of all good flows out in this stream.  Christ himself told us what the living water is, or which is the same thing, the water of life, that is, the Spirit of God. . . . ‘Tis the water of life in several respects.  ‘Tis the water that gives life, and wherein the eternal life of the saints consists.  And not only so, but ’tis the living water; ’tis water that is alive.  ‘Tis not passive water, as common water is, but ’tis the Spirit of God, a living divine person.”

Jonathan Edwards, The ‘Blank Bible’ (New Haven, 2006), pages 1245-1246.

“In our quest for the fullness of the Spirit, we have sometimes forgotten that a Spirit-filled intelligence is one of the powerful weapons for pulling down satanic strongholds.”

Richard F. Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life (Downers Grove, 1979), page 183.

“Be careful how you treat God, my friends.  You may say to yourself, ‘I can sin against God and then, of course, I can repent and go back and find God whenever I want him.’  You try it.  And you will sometimes find that not only can you not find God but that you do not even want to.  You will be aware of a terrible hardness in your heart.  And you can do nothing about it.  And then you suddenly realize that it is God punishing you in order to reveal your sinfulness and your vileness to you.  And there is only one thing to do.  You turn back to him and you say, ‘O God, do not go on dealing with me judicially, though I deserve it.  Soften my heart.  Melt me.  I cannot do it myself.’  You cast yourself utterly upon his mercy and upon his compassion.”

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Revival (Westchester, 1987), page 300.

“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.  That is, . . . some few are to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.”

Francis Bacon, “Of Studies,” in David T. Pottinger, editor, English Essays from Bacon to Lucas (New York, 1917), page 2.