John Owen – The Power and Efficacy of Indwelling Sin (chapter 9)

John Owen – The Power and Efficacy of Indwelling Sin (chapter 9)

Christian Audio Readings by stack45ny playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL742D6D10B1A6F431

John Owen playlist: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=8259C11DFFBFD174

John Owen was by common consent the weightiest Puritan theologian, and many would bracket him with Jonathan Edwards as one of the greatest Reformed theologians of all time.

John Owen – (1616-1683), Congregational theologian

Born at Stadhampton, Oxfordshire, Owen was educated at Queen’s College, Oxford, where he studied classics and theology and was ordained. Because of the “high-church” innovations introduced by Archbishop William Laud, he left the university to be a chaplain to the family of a noble lord. His first parish was at Fordham in Essex, to which he went while the nation was involved in civil war. Here he became convinced that the Congregational way was the scriptural form of church government. In his next charge, the parish of Coggeshall. in Essex, he acted both as the pastor of a gathered church and as the minister of the parish. This was possible because the parliament, at war with the king, had removed bishops. In practice, this meant that the parishes could go their own way in worship and organization.

Oliver Cromwell liked Owen and took him as his chaplain on his expeditions both to Ireland and Scotland (1649-1651). Owen’s fame was at its height from 1651 to 1660 when he played a prominent part in the religious, political, and academic life of the nation. Appointed dean of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1651, he became also vice-chancellor of the university in 1652, a post he held for five years with great distinction and with a marked impartiality not often found in Puritan divines. This led him also to disagreement, even with Cromwell, over the latter’s assumption of the protectorship. Owen retained his deanery until 1659. Shortly after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, he moved to London, where he was active in preaching and writing until his death. He declined invitations to the ministry in Boston (1663) and the presidency of Harvard (1670) and chided New England Congregationalists for intolerance. He turned aside also from high preferment when his influence was acknowledged by governmental attempts to persuade him to relinquish Nonconformity in favor of the established church.

His numerous works include The Display of Arminianism (1642); Eshcol, or Rules of Direction for the Walking of the Saints in Fellowship (1648), an exposition of Congregational principles; Saius Electorum, Sanguis Jesu (1648), another anti-Arminian polemic; Diatriba de Divina Justitia (1658), an attack on Socinianism; Of the Divine Original Authority of the Scriptures (1659); Theologoumena Pantodapa (1661), a history from creation to Reformation; Animadversions to Fiat Lux (1662), replying to a Roman Catholic treatise; Doctrine of Justification by Faith (1677); and Exercitationes on the Epistle to the Hebrews (1668-1684).

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

J.C. Philpot – Crush its Viper Head with the Heel of our Boot

J.C. Philpot – Crush its Viper Head with the Heel of our Boot

J.C. Philpot playlist: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=2DBCE80C70D7A3A5

A Treasury of Ageless,
Sovereign Grace,
Devotional Writings http://www.gracegems.org/

Mark 8:34 When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”

Joseph Charles Philpot (1802 — 1869) was known as “The Seceder”. He resigned from the Church of England in 1835 and became a Strict & Particular Baptist. While with the Church of England he was a Fellow of Worchester College, Oxford. After becoming a Strict and Particular Baptist he became the Editor of the Gospel Standard magazine and served in that capacity for twenty years.

Educated at Oxford University, he was elected a fellow of Worcester College, and appeared to have a brilliant scholastic career before him. But he was brought into solemn concern spiritually and the Lord led him into the ministry. He first preached in the Established Church at Stadhampton (Oxfordshire). In 1835, however, he was constrained, for the truth’s sake, to sever his connection with the Church of England and to resign his curacy and his fellowship. The letter to the provost stating his reasons was published and went into several editions.

The same year, he was baptized by John Warburton at Allington (Wilts). The rest of his life was spent ministering among the Strict Baptists. For 26 years, he held a joint pastorate at Stamford (Lines) and Oakham (Rutland). In addition for over twenty years, he was editor of “The Gospel Standard”, where many of his sermons first appeared. “My desire is to exalt the grace of God; to proclaim salvation alone through Jesus Christ; to declare the sinfulness, helplessness and hopelessness of man in a state of nature; to describe the living experience of the children of God in their trials, temptations, sorrows, consolations and blessings.” – J. C. Philpot

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

To the Dust you will Return – Horatius Bonar

To the Dust you will Return – Horatius Bonar

Horatius Bonar playlist: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=18634AFFD4BC6BEF

Genesis 3:19 “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”

Hosea 13:14 “I will ransom them from the power of the grave;
I will redeem them from death.
O Death, I will be your plagues!
O Grave, I will be your destruction!
Pity is hidden from My eyes.”

Revelation 21:4 “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Horatius Bonar – (1808-1889), Scottish churchman and poet

Horatius Bonar had a passionate heart for revival and was a friend and supporter of several revivalists, He was brother to the more well-known Andrew Bonar, and with him defended D. L. Moody’s evangelistic ministry in Scotland. He authored a couple of excellent revival works, one including over a hundred biographical sketches and the other an addendum to Rev. John Gillies’ Historical Collections bringing it up to date.

He was a powerful soul-winner and is well qualified to pen his brief, but illuminating study of the character of true revivalists.

Horatius was in fact one of eleven children, and of these an older brother, John James, and a younger, Andrew, also became ministers and were all closely involved, together with Thomas Chalmers, William C. Burns and Robert Murray M’Cheyne, in the important spiritual movements which affected many places in Scotland in the 1830s and 1840s.

In the controversy known as the “Great Disruption,” Horatius stood firmly with the evangelical ministers and elders who left the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly in May 1843 and formed the new Free Church of Scotland. By this time he had started to write hymns, some of which appeared in a collection he published in 1845, but typically, his compositions were not named. His gifts for expressing theological truths in fluent verse form are evident in all his best-known hymns, but in addition he was also blessed with a deep understanding of doctrinal principles.

Examples of the hymns he composed on the fundamental doctrines include, “Glory be to God the Father”…..on the Trinity. “0 Love of God, how strong and true”…..on Redemption. “Light of the world,” – “Rejoice and be glad” – “Done is the work” on the Person and Work of Christ. “Come Lord and tarry not,” on His Second Coming, while the hymn “Blessed be God, our God!” conveys a sweeping survey of Justification and Sanctification.

In all this activity, his pastoral work and preaching were never neglected and after almost twenty years laboring in the Scottish Borders at Kelso, Bonar moved back to Edinburgh in 1866 to be minister at the Chalmers Memorial Chapel (now renamed St. Catherine’s Argyle Church). He continued his ministry for a further twenty years helping to arrange D.L. Moody’s meetings in Edinburgh in 1873 and being appointed moderator of the Free Church ten years later. His health declined by 1887, but he was approaching the age of eighty when he preached in his church for the last time, and he died on 31 May 1889.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hope and Holiness – Robert Leighton

Robert Leighton playlist: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=A4852D4961CB4500

1 Peter 1:14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:

15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;

16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

Hope and Holiness

From “A Practical Commentary Upon the First Epistle of St. Peter,” by Robert Leighton

“We need scarcely recommend this truly heavenly work. It is a favorite with all spiritual men.” – Charles Spurgeon

Robert Leighton (1611 1684) was a Scottish prelate and scholar, best known as a church minister, Bishop of Dunblane, Archbishop of Glasgow, and Principal of the University of Edinburgh from 1653 to 1662. He was “noted for his Christian piety, his humility and gentleness, and his devotion to his calling”.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Need to Discriminate – Oswald Chambers

The Need to Discriminate – Oswald Chambers

Oswald Chambers playlist: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=10F140787559EB2B

From “Studies in The Sermon on the Mount,” by Oswald Chambers

Matthew 7:6 Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.

Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) was born July 24, 1874, in Aberdeen, Scotland. Converted in his teen years under the ministry of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, he studied art and archaeology at the University of Edinburgh before answering a call from God to the Christian ministry. He then studied theology at Dunoon College. From 1906-1910 he conducted an itinerant Bible-teaching ministry in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan.

In 1910, Chambers married Gertrude Hobbs. They had one daughter, Kathleen.

In 1911 he founded and became principal of the Bible Training College in Clapham, London, where he lectured until the school was closed in 1915 because of World War I. In October 1915 he sailed for Zeitoun, Egypt (near Cairo), where he ministered to troops from Australia and New Zealand as a YMCA chaplain. He died there November 15, 1917, following surgery for a ruptured appendix.

Although Oswald Chambers wrote only one book, Baffled to Fight Better, more than thirty titles bear his name. With this one exception, published works were compiled by Mrs. Chambers, a court stenographer, from her verbatim shorthand notes of his messages taken during their seven years of marriage. For half a century following her husband’s death she labored to give his words to the world.

My Utmost For His Highest, his best-known book, has been continuously in print in the United States since 1935 and remains in the top ten titles of the religious book bestseller list with millions of copies in print. It has become a Christian classic.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Dr. Alan Cairns Sermon – Divine Restraint on Satan and Sin and the Removal of Those Restraints

Dr. Alan Cairns Sermon – Divine Restraint on Satan and Sin and the Removal of Those Restraints

2 Thessalonians 2:7

New King James Version (NKJV)

7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.

Dr. Alan Cairns Playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB1CE60FC54C57C69

Isaiah 31

1Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!

Dr. Alan Cairns served for 25 years as pastor of Faith Free Presbyterian Church, Greenville, SC, before retiring and being named Pastor Emeritus in 2007. Prior to coming to the United States, he pastored Free Presbyterian churches in Dunmurry and Ballymoney, in Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland. Dr. Cairns also held the position Professor of Theology in the Whitefield College of the Bible in Northern Ireland and lectured in what is now Geneva Reformed Seminary in Greenville. As both an author and expositor, Dr. Cairns is revered for his Christ-centered focus and gifts of scriptural insight.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

J.S. Bach / O Sacred Head, Now Wounded – Christian Hymns with Lyrics ( Classical Music / Choir )

J.S. Bach / O Sacred Head, Now Wounded – Christian Hymns with Lyrics ( Classical Music / Choir )

Christian Hymns playlist: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=BD1B04EAC0152F4B

The hymn is based on a long medieval Latin poem, Salve mundi salutare, with stanzas addressing the various parts of Christ’s body hanging on the Cross. The last part of the poem, from which the hymn is taken, is addressed to Christ’s head, and begins “Salve caput cruentatum.” The poem is often attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), but it first appears in the 14th century.

The last part of the poem was translated into German by the prolific Lutheran hymnist Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676). The German hymn begins, “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden.

The hymn was first translated into English in 1752 by John Gambold (1711-1771), an Anglican vicar in Oxfordshire. His translation begins, “O Head so full of bruises.” In 1830 a new translation of the hymn was made by an American Presbyterian minister, James Waddel Alexander (1804-1859). Alexander’s translation, beginning “O sacred head, now wounded,” became one of the most widely used in 19th and 20th century hymnals.

Another English translation, based on the German, was made in 1861 by Sir Henry Baker. Published in Hymns Ancient and Modern, it begins, “O sacred head surrounded by crown of piercing thorn.”

In 1899 the English poet Robert Bridges (1844-1930) made a fresh translation from the original Latin, beginning “O sacred Head, sore wounded, defiled and put to scorn.” This is the version used in the Church of England’s New English Hymnal (1986) and several other late 20th-century hymn books.

The music for the German and English versions of the hymn is by Hans Leo Hassler, written around 1600 for a secular love song, “Mein Gmuth ist mir verwiret.” The tune was appropriated for Gerhardt’s German hymn in 1656. Johann Sebastian Bach arranged the melody and used it five times in his St. Matthew’s Passion; this arrangement has come to be known as Passion Chorale 7676D. Bach also used this melody in the opening choral and triumphant final chorus of his Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248.

Vocal and pipe organ

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Oswald Chambers – Recognising Him Personally ( Audio Reading with Text )

Oswald Chambers – Recognising Him Personally Audio Reading Text

Oswald Chambers playlist: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=10F140787559EB2B

Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) was born July 24, 1874, in Aberdeen, Scotland. Converted in his teen years under the ministry of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, he studied art and archaeology at the University of Edinburgh before answering a call from God to the Christian ministry. He then studied theology at Dunoon College. From 1906-1910 he conducted an itinerant Bible-teaching ministry in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan.

In 1910, Chambers married Gertrude Hobbs. They had one daughter, Kathleen.

In 1911 he founded and became principal of the Bible Training College in Clapham, London, where he lectured until the school was closed in 1915 because of World War I. In October 1915 he sailed for Zeitoun, Egypt (near Cairo), where he ministered to troops from Australia and New Zealand as a YMCA chaplain. He died there November 15, 1917, following surgery for a ruptured appendix.

Although Oswald Chambers wrote only one book, Baffled to Fight Better, more than thirty titles bear his name. With this one exception, published works were compiled by Mrs. Chambers, a court stenographer, from her verbatim shorthand notes of his messages taken during their seven years of marriage. For half a century following her husband’s death she labored to give his words to the world.

My Utmost For His Highest, his best-known book, has been continuously in print in the United States since 1935 and remains in the top ten titles of the religious book bestseller list with millions of copies in print. It has become a Christian classic.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Praying Pulpit Begets a Praying Pew – E.M. Bounds

A Praying Pulpit Begets a Praying Pew – E.M. Bounds

E.M Bounds playlist: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=1C2D7BDBD4B96BD5

Christian Audio Readings by stack45ny playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL742D6D10B1A6F431

Power through Prayer – E.M. Bounds

“Natural ability and educational advantages do not figure as factors in this matter; but capacity for faith, the ability to pray, the power for thorough consecration, the ability of self-littleness, an absolute losing of one’s self in God’s glory, and an ever-present and insatiable yearning and seeking after all the fullness of God–men who can set the Church ablaze for God; not in a noisy, showy way, but with an intense and quiet heat that melts and moves everything for God.”

Note the factors that are prerequisites in a man that E.M. Bounds say’s “can set the Church ablaze for God” through prayer.

Some relevant verses to meditate on:

John 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

John 9:31 “We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him.”

Psalm 34:15 “The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous And His ears are open to their cry.”

Psalm 66:18 “If I regard wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not hear;”

Yes, remember to pray always…but remember that dying to self and living an abiding life in Christ is what gives prayer its power.

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Can you stand with the apostle Paul in proclaiming, without hesitance, that you too “no longer live, but it is Christ who lives in you?” I ask this not from a seat of judgment, or as one who “has already attained (Phil 3:12),” but rather that I may encourage my brethren to examine themselves always.

Edward M. Bounds – (1835-1913), American Methodist minister and author.

Edward McKendree Bounds was trained and apprenticed as an attorney, but instead of pursuing a legal career, he entered the ministry in his early twenties. In 1859 he was ordained as pastor of the the Monticello Methodist Church in Missouri.

Bounds was a chaplain in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was captured by the Union Army in Franklin, Tennessee and later released. After his release, he strove to build up the spiritual state of Franklin by starting weekly prayer sessions.

Bounds was an associate editor of the official Methodist newspaper, The Christian Advocate, and is best known for his numerous books on the subject of prayer.

“Edward McKendree Bounds did not merely pray well that he might write well about prayer. He prayed because the needs of the world were upon him. He prayed, for long years, upon subjects which the easy-going Christian rarely gives a thought, and for objects which men of less thought and faith are always ready to call impossible. From his solitary prayer-vigils, year by year, there arose teaching equaled by few men in modern Christian history. He wrote transcendently about prayer, because he was himself, transcendent in its practice.

“As breathing is a physical reality to us so prayer was a reality for Bounds. He took the command, ‘Pray without ceasing’ almost as literally as animate nature takes the law of the reflex nervous system, which controls our breathing.” -Claude Chilton, Jr., in the Foreword to Necessity of Prayer.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Charles Spurgeon Sermon – Particular Election

Charles Spurgeon Sermon – Particular Election

Charles Spurgeon Sermon playlist: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=CDB844A9113F938C

Charles Haddon (C.H.) Spurgeon (June 19, 1834 January 31, 1892) was a British Reformed Baptist preacher who remains highly influential among Christians of different denominations, among whom he is still known as the “Prince of Preachers.” In his lifetime, Spurgeon preached to around 10,000,000 people, often up to 10 times a week at different places. His sermons have been translated into many languages. Spurgeon was the pastor of the New Park Street Chapel in London for 38 years. In 1857, he started a charity organization called Spurgeon’s which now works globally. He also founded Spurgeon’s College, which was named after him after his death.

Spurgeon was a prolific author of many types of works including sermons, an autobiography, a commentary, books on prayer, a devotional, a magazine, and more. Many sermons were transcribed as he spoke and were translated into many languages during his lifetime. Arguably, no other author, Christian or otherwise, has more material in print than C.H. Spurgeon.

2 Peter 1:10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

2 Peter 1:11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment