Thomas Brooks (Puritan)

Thomas Brooks on the title page of his book The Riches of Christ.

Courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Brooks_(Puritan)

This post  by Thomas Brooks below merged well with my post on April 12 :  Complete & Effective Dominion

 

I mentioned how important it is to test the spirits. A minister who is not breaking your heart with the word of God almost every time he takes the pulpit, there is a strong chance that he has not been hand picked by Him. A real minister of God will cause you to go home somewhat, if not fully offended every time you hear him. Why? Because it is the nature of the true Gospel it offends unbelievers as much as it offends believers that are not right with Him.

 

Sadly, Satan has worked it so nicely for us to make us comfortable with a half truth, that in the Church, we scream “apostasy” when we are offended by the truth of  the Gospel and in our state of spiritual we have no idea that we are led by Satan to react this way. Satan has done such a great job that we love our mediocre preachers, they make us feel good, we agree with them, we say AMEN, HALLELLUJAH! We get all emotional and drunk on “god”   yet, we go back home with the same compartmentalized lives, wrong attitude toward Him, stubborn hearts,  lack of obedience and our rituals that make us feel good because we found “religion”

 

Even on my death bed, I will keep saying over and over again. The reason we are offended by the preaching, the posts or the books that call for examination of our hearts, or to a deeper life and make us feel inadequate is because we are not where we should be. Deep inside of us, we know something is wrong, but we shut if off and slap our mask on again. For a lot of us, often the subtlety of Satan acts like a snooze alarm we keep pressing the button just so we can get a few more minutes of sleep. Before we know it, time passes us by, we get so deep with Satan, and in our slumber it would take a bulldozer to get us out of our lethargy and laziness. By then, it is easier to say Oh! Well God is good!

 

May God have mercy on us!

Thomas Brooks (1608–1680) was an English non-conformist Puritan preacher and author

Consider carefully what you hear." Mark 4:24"

It is sad to see how many preachers in our days, make 

it their business to enrich men's heads with high, empty, 

airy notions; instead of enriching their souls with saving 

truths. 

Fix yourself under that man's ministry, who makes it his 

business, his work to enrich the soul, to win the soul, and 

to build up the soul; not to tickle the ear, or please the 

fancy. This age is full of such light, delirious souls—who 

dislike everything—but what is empty and airy.

Do not judge a minister . . .

  by his voice, nor

  by the multitude who follow him, nor

  by his affected tone, nor

  by his rhetoric and flashes of wit;

but by the holiness, heavenliness, and spiritualness 

of his teaching. Many ministers are like empty orators, 

who have a flood of words—but a drop of matter.

Some preachers affect rhetorical strains; they seek abstrusities, 

and love to hover and soar aloft in dark and cloudy expressions, 

and so shoot their arrows over their hearers' heads—instead of 

bettering their hearers' hearts. Mirthful things in a sermon 

are only for men to gaze upon and admire. He is the best 

preacher, not who tickles the ear—but who breaks the heart.

"My message and my preaching were not with wise and

 persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's

 power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom,

 but on God's power." 1 Corinthians 2:4-5

I Thought Christ Work On The Cross Provided a Way To Stop Sinning!

I always get annoyed with Christians when I see them writing about Paul’s plague with sin in Romans 7:15-25 as if that’s all the Bible had to say about sin. It seems a lot of Christians, even if they have nothing to say about the Bible, will find something to say about these verses. If this continues, these passages of the Bible will be the most written about next to John 3:16. What I find annoying is that most of them seem to read those verses and stop there. As if everything else God had to say about sin did not matter anymore. Usually after they finish quoting those verses, the whole post or sermon goes on and on about how they do not have a chance with sin since someone like Paul was struggling with it.

My pet peeve is, why on earth would you read about Paul struggle in chapter 7 and stop there? Why it is some bloggers and preachers do not put verses like Romans 6:12-13 side by side with what they read and get the wheels rolling. Be sober minded in your thinking for God’s sake. What about Chapter 8 right next to it which incidentally most of this chapter is about sin’s remedy? What gives?

Could it be you are seeing what you want to see? Have you ever played out in your mind how you are going to convince God that it was not your fault? This idea of feeling helpless about sin right after you read Romans 7:15-25 is nothing more than an attempt to excuse and disguise your enjoyment of sin. When you have this kind of mind, there is no question that your father is the devil and you are doing His bidding. If indeed Christ is in you, and if indeed you are His child, why would you not read further? What in the world makes you think that God would somehow agree with your devilish thinking? Can you see the resemblance between you and Satan’s audacity tempting Christ in the wilderness?   

What kind of distorted God you have concocted in that twisted mind of yours? How do you reconcile the idea of Christ death delivering you FROM sin and this new found license to excuse your behaviour? What makes you think what you have is called Salvation?  If you insist on calling what you have salvation, then my next question would be salvation from what? If you have been Christian upward 10 years and still find solace in Romans 7:15-25 then there is doubt that you ever had a real encounter with the true Salvation of God. If you did have an encounter with Him, then His death on the cross for you has no significance and you have chosen to reject it. Because His Word says: He who began a good work in me will see it to completion, unless He is a liar.

Even me, I went through a period where I did not understand God’s Word. I knew I stumbled on something about me in terms of sin reigning in me after I read Romans 7:15-25. But, I also knew that God did not like sin. In my mind, while I found some breathing room about who I am in the flesh, I still could not take it as a license to excuse my behaviour. In my little pea brain, I knew there was something I was missing and in due time I will understand. Later on, I was floored with everything I found out about me and what I insisted on calling Christianity. Lip service was my game. I found out I was missing out on the other 99.999999 percent of the Bible. I was not really interested in true Christianity according to God because the man-made one did the trick for me. I found out I was not walking in the Spirit. I could not count myself as someone who was IN Christ. I   found out I did not know what it meant not to surrender myself to unrighteousness. I had a one track mind and Romans 12:1-2 escaped me. I found out Christ death had provided a way for me not to keep sinning. In short, I found Christ and I took in the message of the Gospel.  

So, the next time you feel it is important to share Romans 7:15-25 with the flock of Christ in a sermon or in your blog, please do not stop there. Share with them how much Paul moved beyond his struggle with the law to victory over sin IN Him as His Lord! 

Romans 6:12-13

¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ¹³ Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness

Your Spiritual Life Matters To God!