Solus Christus Reformed Baptist Church

I couldn't settle on anything to narrate this morning and decided to just speak about some things that were reflections, and recalled a revival story I had read from James Hall and the Revival in North Carolina in 1802. At then end I read from Ruth Bryan's diary, and somehow tied it all together.

Believers may be taught what is the power and effectiveness of that plague of sin that is in and among them by the effects the same plague produces in and among others, the unregenerate—who have not those corrections of its poison and those preservatives from death with which the Lord Jesus Christ has furnished believers. John Owen Indwelling Sin Chapel Library Edition.

Indwelling sin brings men into habitual declension by taking men off from their watch against the returns of Satan. When our Lord Christ comes first to take possession of any soul for Himself, He binds that strong man and spoils his goods; He deprives him of all his power, dominion, and interest. Satan being thus dispossessed and frustrated in his hopes and expectations, leaves the soul, as finding it newly mortified to his baits. Owen, John. Indwelling Sin Chapel Library Edition.

The Law discovers sin. Sin in the soul is like a secret feverish distemper in the body. Its being unknown and unperceived is one great means of its prevalence. Sin in the soul is like traitors in a civil state: while they lie hidden, they vigorously carry on their design. The greatest part of men in the world know nothing of this sickness, yea, death of their souls. Though they have been taught somewhat of the doctrine of it, yet they know nothing of its power. They know it not so as to deal with it as their mortal enemy. John Owen. Indwelling Sin Chapel Library Edition.

chapellibrary org.

Consider the fearful eruptions of actual sin that have been in the lives of believers, and we shall find our position regarding indwelling sin evidenced. Should I go through at large with this consideration, I must recount all the sad and scandalous failings of the saints that are left on record in the holy Scripture. However, the particulars of them are known to all so that I shall not need to mention them, nor the many aggravations with which they are attended in their circumstances. chapellibrary org

The life of the believer is, or ought to be, full of soul blessing, and the pursuit of the believer ought always to be soul-winning.

There are two ways in general by which God thus prevents the bringing forth of conceived sin by working on the will of the sinner. They are a) by restraining grace; and b) by renewing (saving) grace. He does it sometimes the one way and sometimes the other. The first of these is common to regenerate and unregenerate persons, the latter is peculiar to believers. This title is from the Chapel Library, Specially formatted.

Of all of the biographical sketches I have taught in a Sunday School setting, the Life of A W Pink was drawn the largest audience and the most comments. From a life of relative obscurity, this is the story of how his commentaries and topics gained a large audience within 10 years after his passing in 1952.

Whoever therefore resolves to be God's servants, must make account to be his soldiers also; and whilst with Nehemiah's followers, with one hand they perform the works of their callings and Christianity, they must with the other hand hold their weapons to repel their spiritual enemies, who continually labor to hinder the Lords buildings: for no sooner do we become friends to God, but presently Satan assaults us.

This is the text from the Westminster Larger Catechism for the Chapel Library - William Gouge's name is attached as a representative of the entire assembly.

This is the text from the Westminster Larger Catechism for the Chapel Library - William Gouge's name is attached as a representative of the entire assembly. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Exodus 20:7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. This is the text from the Westminster Larger Catechism for the Chapel Library - William Gouge's name is attached as a representative of the entire assembly.

Exodus 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.This is the text from the Westminster Larger Catechism for the Chapel Library - William Gouge's name is attached as a representative of the entire assembly.

Exodus 20:12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. This is the text from the Westminster Larger Catechism for the Chapel Library - William Gouge's name is attached as a representative of the entire assembly.

Exodus 20:13 Thou shalt not kill. This is the text from the Westminster Larger Catechism for the Chapel Library - William Gouge's name is attached as a representative of the entire assembly.

Exodus 20:14 Thou shalt not commit adultery. This is the text from the Westminster Larger Catechism for the Chapel Library - William Gouge's name is attached as a representative of the entire assembly.

Exodus 20 15 Thou shalt not steal. This is the text from the Westminster Larger Catechism for the Chapel Library - William Gouge's name is attached as a representative of the entire assembly.

Exodus 20:16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. This is the text from the Westminster Larger Catechism for the Chapel Library - William Gouge's name is attached as a representative of the entire assembly.

This is the text from the Westminster Larger Catechism for the Chapel Library - William Gouge's name is attached as a representative of the entire assembly.

Exodus 20:17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's.

Q 149, Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God? This is the text from the Westminster Larger Catechism for the Chapel Library - William Gouge's name is attached as a representative of the entire assembly.

when we come down from looking at God's sovereignty to view the workings of the human heart, we see that there were certain instrumental causes which operated on the minds of the one, as there were certain instrumental causes which influenced the wills of the other. Those that "received Him not" were under the influence of certain workings. They knew nothing of divine sovereignty; they had no idea that what they said and did was according to God's "determinate counsel" (Act 2:23). Indoing what they did, they followed the bent of theirown minds; and thus they were seemingly left to theexercise of their own will, while God really orderedevery action, that it might be to His own glory.

Proposing sin as desirable Taking advantage of such seasons, indwelling sin proposes a specific sin as desirable, as exceeding satisfactory to the corrupt part of our affections. It gilds over88 the object by a thousand pretenses that it presents to corrupt lustings. This is the laying of a bait that the apostle in this verse evidently alludes to: "drawn away of his own lust, and enticed"

Mental sloth It is from the deceit of sin that the mind is spiritually slothful, by which it becomes negligent of this duty. The principal discharge of the mind's trust in this matter is expressed by "watching," which is the great caution that the Lord Jesus gave to His disciples in reference to all their dangers from sin and Satan. "I say unto all, Watch" (Mar 13:37). That is, use your utmost diligence and carefulness so that you are not surprised and entangled with temptations.

How unwilling are men to be hedged in! How averse to restraint! The world can bear witness, that they are "as bullocks unaccustomed to the yoke:" and more, that it is far easier to bring young bullocks tamely to bear the yoke, than to bring young children under discipline, and make them tamely submit to be restrained in sinful liberty.

I discovered this work when it was published by the Dutch Translation Society, and I asked if I could provide audio for it. It took awhile but I was given permission. I commenced doing so, but abandoned the project because I will not do it, if in the sharing the audio with others it would be a copyright violation. Monergism published a single sermon by Voetius on Psalm 126 and I told them the story of this book co-written by Johannes Hoornbeeke and if they would publish a digital copy and then I will make it known. It was produced, with the aid of Grok A I, translated from the Dutch to English, and I had it in 24 hours. It is unequaled in the English language to anything I know that I have perused and also narrated. It is a theological science that is just not taught in our Seminaries. I have tried to read it, and will continue to do so, as carefully as I am able. The paperback was printed in 2003. It is out of print. There was no demand for it. By abundantly supplying it for free, the goal is to create the demand. One doesn't demand something that they don't even know exists.

Having thus far treated of the nature of this disease, it remains for us still to point out the remedies. These are: certain preventatives and antidotes, which may be brought under these three heads. First, all hindrances and causes that make this evil greater must be removed; next, one must flee and reject the false means of healing; finally, one must take in hand and use the right means. I. The hindrances which must be removed are all heresies, all sins, and all those things which we have already enumerated under the foregoing and outwardly moving causes, namely: the harmful doctrine of the falling away of the saints, of free will, and of the meritoriousness of good works, etc. Besides these, too great solitude and melancholy, which the man of God Luther not so unjustly calls: the bath of Satan.

When sin is resisted by prayer, it puts forth its deceit in its own defense. It labors to divert and draw off the mind from attending to prayer and similar duties. There are, among others, three ways and means by which sin attempts to accomplish its design. a. Weariness of the flesh Indwelling sin makes advantage of its weariness to the flesh. There is an aversion, as has been declared, in the law of sin toward all direct communion with God.

To vindicate God's severity, in that he not only cut off sinners—but defaced the beauty of the earth, and swept off the brute creatures from it, by the deluge; that as men had set the marks of their impiety, God might set the marks of his indignation, on the earth. (2.) To show the heinousness of their sin, in making the earth, which God had so adorned for the use of man--a sink of sin, and a stage whereon to act their wickedness, in defiance of Heaven.

Spring Clearning, came across a letter sent to my mom on January 16th 1986, forty years ago. Where I was then, what I have reflected on now. And other interesting news and updates. Also a historical sketch of the influence of the book, Human Nature in its Fourfold State, by Thomas Boston and how just reading it in a group of awakened Virginia farmers was a means to the end of the Hanover County Revival.

The ground of this efficacy of sin by deceit is taken from the faculty of the soul affected with it. Deceit properly affects the mind; it is the mind that is deceived. When sin attempts any other way of entrance into the soul, as for example by the affections, the mind—retaining its right and sovereignty—is able to give check and control to it. But where the mind is tainted, the prevalence of sin must be great, for the mind or understanding is the leading faculty of the soul.

When they shall meet together at the day of judgment, it will be far otherwise. They will all meet in an unchangeable state. Sinners will be in an unchangeable state. They who then shall be under the guilt and power of sin, and have the wrath of God abiding on them, shall be beyond all remedy or possibility of change, and shall meet their ministers without any hopes of relief or remedy, or getting any good by their means. And as for the saints, they will be already perfectly delivered from all their corruption, temptation, and calamities of every kind, and set forever out of their reach; and no deliverance, no happy alteration, will remain to be accomplished in the use of means of grace, under the administrations of ministers. It will then be pronounced, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still."

The story of the Payson family is a captivating study in how profound spiritual light can emerge from the deepest valleys of human suffering. Dr. Edward Payson, famously remembered as "Praying Payson," was a towering figure of the Second Great Awakening whose legendary, agonizing intercessions literally wore grooves into his hardwood floors, yet he was constantly bedeviled by physical pain and overwhelming bouts of melancholy. This complex legacy of fierce devotion and raw vulnerability did not end with his early death; it was magnified in the lives of his two brilliant daughters. Louisa, a self-taught intellectual powerhouse, masterfully translated the silent longings of the soul into clear, resonant prose, while her sister Elizabeth—enduring a lifetime of devastating chronic illness and the tragic loss of her own children—penned the immortal hymn More Love to Thee, O Christ and the bestselling novel Stepping Heavenward. Together, this 19th-century family transformed their personal battlefields of grief, doubt, and physical frailty into an enduring literary and spiritual roadmap that continues to guide weary travelers home.