On this day, the fortieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I've included some excerpts from the prepared text of John Piper's sermon, The Baby in My Womb Leaped for Joy (Luke 1:24-45), which was given four years ago, on January 25, 2009, a few days after the inauguration of the Barack Obama to his first term as President...

The aim of this message is to awaken and intensify your joyful, grateful reverence for the gift of human life from conception to eternity. The beginning of human life is a magnificent thing. There is nothing else like it. Only humans come into being day after day, created in the image of God, and live forever—with God or in hell.

There is no compelling evidence in the Bible or anywhere else that any animals come into being with souls, or that they live after they die. There is no compelling evidence in the Bible or anywhere else that angels are being created today. The only being in all the universe who keeps on originating and then living forever in the image of God is man. . . .

A New President, Trapped and Blinded

As everyone knows, our new President, over whom we have rejoiced, does not share this reverence for the beginning of human life. He is trapped and blinded by a culture of deceit. On the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, he said, “We are reminded that this decision not only protects women’s health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters.”

To which I say . . .

• No, Mr. President, you are not protecting women’s health; you are authorizing the destruction of half a million tiny women every year.

• No, Mr. President, you are not protecting reproductive freedom; you are authorizing the destruction of freedom for a million helpless people every year.

• No, Mr. President, killing our children does not cease to be killing our children no matter how many times you call it a private family matter. Call it what you will, they are dead, and we have killed them. And you, Mr. President, would keep the killing legal.

Some of us wept with joy over the inauguration of the first African-American President. We will pray for you. And may God grant that there arises in your heart an amazed and happy reverence for the beginning of every human life.

Wonder in the Womb

This is Sanctity of Life Weekend at Bethlehem, and we are talking about the wonder of human beings in the womb, and the moral question of whether it is right to kill them before they are born. Until recently, there never has been any doubt in the mind of the Christian church that such killing is wrong. Among the earliest sources for Christian thinking outside the New Testament (the beginning of the second century), the Didache and the Epistle of Barnabas both forbid abortion.

You shall do no murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not corrupt boys, you shall not commit fornication, you shall not steal, you shall not deal in magic, you shall do no sorcery, you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill them when born. (Didache 2:2; cf. Epistle of Barnabas 19:5)

Why did the early church, and all succeeding generations of Christians, come to this conclusion—that it is forbidden to take the life of the unborn? We have already seen the root of this conviction: When a human life comes into existence something magnificent has happened—created in the image of God, to live forever. . . .

Nothing Impossible with God

In verses 36–37 [of Luke 1], the angel says to Mary, to encourage her that her impossible pregnancy really can come true, “And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” So be encouraged, Mary, nothing is too hard for God. Witness the pregnancy of Elizabeth. O how often in these circumstances of pregnancy and infertility we need to be reminded, “Nothing will be impossible with God.” He gives, he takes, he provides in abundance, he sustains in loss.

When the angel had gone, and Mary knew what was happening to her, she made a beeline to Elizabeth. What a consultation this would be: two of the most important and impossible pregnancies in the world. Look at verses 39–44:

In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” (Luke 1:39–45)

Now, of course, none of this is being written with abortion in mind. That’s not the point. The point is: How did texts like these shape the way the church thought about the unborn? What were the assumptions here and the implications here?

Notice two things.

1. The Word Baby

First, the word baby in verses 41 and 44. Verse 41: “And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.” Verse 44: “For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” That word baby is not a specialized word for the unborn. It has no connotations of “embryo” or “fetus.” It is the ordinary word for baby (Greek brefos). And what makes this crystal clear and significant is the way it’s used in Luke 2:16. Here in Luke 1, it refers to John the Baptist in the womb. In Luke 2, it refers to Jesus in the manger. Luke 2:16: “And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby (brefos) lying in a manger.” This is exactly the same word for baby.

What the Christian church has seen in this is that what the persons Jesus and John were outside the womb they were already inside the womb. Jesus was the God-man in Mary’s womb. When the Holy Spirit (according to Luke 1:35) caused Mary to be pregnant, she was not pregnant with anything less than the Son of God. The baby inside was the same as the baby outside.

Today science has only made that easier to believe, not harder. Ultrasound technology has given a stunning window on the womb that shows the unborn at eight weeks sucking his thumb, recoiling from pricking, responding to sound. All the organs are present, the brain is functioning, the heart is pumping, the liver is making blood cells, the kidneys are cleaning fluids, and there is a fingerprint. Yet virtually all abortions happen later in the pregnancy than this date.

2. Treated as a Person

The second thing to notice here in Luke 1 is the way the baby in Elizabeth’s womb responded to Mary who was carrying the Son of God. Verse 41: “When Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.” Then in verse 44, Elizabeth interprets that leap like this: “Behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” And Luke says that Elizabeth said this because she was filled with the Holy Spirit. Verses 41–42:  “Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed . . .” In other words, the Holy Spirit prompted her to say that this leap of the baby in her womb was a leap of joy.

To increase the significance of that leap even more, consider what an angel said to Elizabeth’s husband Zechariah before his son was conceived. In Luke 1:14–15, the angel said, “And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.” So that leap is not only a leap of joy but a leap of Holy-Spirit-inspired joy.

Only Persons Are Filled with the Spirit

What shall we make of this? Never in the Bible is any animal said to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Never does the Bible say that a person’s arm or leg or kidney or skin is filled with the Spirit. Tissue is not filled with the Holy Spirit. Only persons are filled with the Spirit.

What Luke is doing—and he is doing it as the spokesman of Christ—is treating this child in the womb as a person. He uses the word baby which he later uses for Jesus in the manger. He uses the word joy, which is what persons feel. He uses the phrase “filled with the Spirit” which is what God does to persons. He simply assumes he is dealing with a human person in the womb.

And therefore so should we.

~ Sermon text by John Piper. ©2012 Desiring God Foundation. Website: desiringGod.org

Inauguration Day: Praying for President Obama
"That could have been me!" ~ a contraceptive advocate
the least of these
I sought ... yet You kept seeking me (Your plans can never be aborted)

Photo credits:

Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Visitation_(Albertinelli).jpg  / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}
Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thinker_little_elf.jpg  / CC BY-SA 3.0

Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

On my birthday last August, in my post "the great & glorious possibilities" ~ "Now therefore, give me this mountain," I wrote of my own experience to press on to seek the Lord –– to receive grace upon grace –– as well as my desire for you to do likewise. Here are some excerpts from that post:

I was saved in November 1982, but only a few years ago, I came to a point in my Christian life when I began to be challenged by the Spirit of God to possess the land, much like what was happening in the book of Joshua...

Joshua 13:1 Now Joshua was old, advanced in years. And the Lord said to him: “You are old, advanced in years, and there remains very much land yet to be possessed. This is the land that yet remains..."

Joshua 18:1 Now the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of meeting there. And the land was subdued before them.  2  But there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes which had not yet received their inheritance. 3 Then Joshua said to the children of Israel: “How long will you neglect to go and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers has given you?

To explain, it wasn't a physical land I was being challenged to go in and possess, but rather a spiritual land – the spiritual inheritance God has given me in Jesus Christ. . . .

. . . as I was reading ["The Memoir of the Rev. W.H. Hewitson," the] phrase: "God's glory in all that is glorious," ... I recalled Moses' prayer to God in Exodus 33 (where Moses asked God to show him His glory), and so I looked up the passage, which I'd read countless times before, had studied in BSF at least a couple times, plus I'd also read Lloyd-Jones' sermons on it (and had listened to some of those as well) –– but that night those words in Exodus 33 came alive to me in a way they hadn't before, particularly verse 13:

Now therefore I pray if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight, and consider that this nation is your people.

I found this mind-boggling and exhilarating... Here is Moses, who has already found grace in the eyes of God. But Moses is not content with that. He's found grace, but there he is asking to find grace! There's that holy discontentment! He's going back to God and importunately pleading: "I want to know You! I want to receive more grace from You!" And then, if you keep reading the passage, God grants Moses his request, but even at that point, Moses doesn't stop, he pleads with God to show him His glory! I can't explain it you, but the Rock just split open for me at that moment. Now the perplexing thing to me, as I said above, is that I'd heard these things all over the place in Lloyd-Jones teachings for a couple years prior to that time, but all of a sudden my heart and my eyes were opened, and now they were made to be real possibilities for ME – much like Paul had been praying for the Ephesians in chapter 1. I found myself embracing those possibilities and promises with all my might. The Spirit blows how, when, and where He wills! O! Rejoice with trembling before this sovereign, good, and gracious God of glory! And then examine the content of the prayers you are regularly praying. How do they compare to Moses' prayer here? How do they compare to Paul's prayers in Ephesians 1 and 3? . . .

My purpose in writing all this to you, and my purpose in much of my writing here, is to tell of God's righteousness and salvation, to declare God's strength and power, that is, to remind you that there are streams of Living Water abundantly available to all the saints. To declare to you that in Christ there is an infinite spring of life (not a limited well) – but all too often we fail to ask, seek, and knock for these things because we don't even understand they are available to us. I see far too many of you hewing and drinking of broken cisterns and strange waters. I am writing to urge you to pray for a holy discontentment such as Moses had and to seek to know and to experience the great and glorious possibilities of the Christian life.

And, dare I say it, and I don't mean to sound unthankful at all, and I don't want to be misunderstood here –– so often we settle for first grace, and we don't press in and onward and upward to ask for more! Jesus Christ gave Himself in our place, and through His body and blood He has made a way for all believers to begin to experience infinite grace, glory, love, light, life, comfort, and joy –– but what are we doing about it? My brothers and sisters, there IS spiritual land to be possessed! Are you being negligent like the Israelites? No wonder so many of you are weary, fainting, and languishing. We can't expect to run the race set before us apart from God's supplies. Can you really expect to flourish in times of famine, to be sustained in the Valley of Baca (the thirsty or weeping valley), to persevere with joy, or to bubble up with living water to a thirsty world if you aren't drinking of Christ and if you aren't seeking to drink deeper and deeper of Him?

Caleb's example to this 54-year old:  Don't stop satisfied!

One of the greatest dangers of the Christian life is for us to stop short of possessing and enjoying all of the spiritual inheritance God has for us. I have a close spiritual friend and one of the exhortations that we constantly bring to one another is this:  "Let us not STOP SATISFIED!" Why do we do that? Because we know that each of us, no matter who we are, no matter our previous experiences, is in grave danger of stopping satisfied. I'm turning 54 years old today, and I love the account of Caleb I've cited below, the man who at 85 years of age is still pressing in and onward and upward for more of Christ. Why? He kept remembering the promises of God and he continued to embrace them –– for a full forty-five years!

Joshua 14:6 Then the children of Judah came to Joshua in Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him: “You know the word which the Lord said to Moses the man of God concerning you and me in Kadesh Barnea. 7 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought back word to him as it was in my heart. 8 Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed the Lord my God. 9 So Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children’s forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God.’ 10 And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as He said, these forty-five years, ever since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, here I am this day, eighty-five years old. 11 As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in. 12 Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said.”

13 And Joshua blessed him, and gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as an inheritance. 14 Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel. 15 And the name of Hebron formerly was Kirjath Arba (Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim).

However long I live in this earthly tent, I am praying for God's grace to continue to abound to me so I might be pressing on in the same way Caleb did! O! God! Let me not stop satisfied! Give me this mountain!

What kind of life are we really living if we stop satisfied? Having received a sight of God's glory, are we not given freedom by the Holy Spirit to go from glory to glory? Having received grace, ought we not to be pleading for more grace? Like Joshua, I am old, and advanced in years compared with many of you, but I am praying God will grant me grace to possess all the land He has yet for me! The thought thrills me, for I am increasingly convinced that, as the Scripture tells us:

... the path of the just is like the shining sun,
That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.
(Proverbs 4:17)

. . .

My deepest desire and prayer is that along with me, you would not stop satisfied, but that God would grant you an enlarged and enhanced understanding of the inheritance He has for you, and along with that, an ever-increasing hunger and thirst to know Him. And I'll tell you this, as God does this for you, He will give you a desire to use it to His glory, for He always blesses us to bless others. As we freely receive, we are called to freely give. . . .

I'd encourage you to go and read that whole post, but I wanted to present that excerpt today in order to set the stage for the words of Susanna Anthony (1726-1791), a young woman who wasn't settling for or stopping satisfied with first grace, but was inflamed with a holy passion and a holy discontentment to seek to receive of His fullness grace upon grace. Miss Anthony prayed like Moses and embraced the promises of God like Caleb. (FYI:  In a previous post, consider ... our ways, the great cloud of witnesses, Susanna Anthony, I included a diary entry written by Miss Anthony about a year before the one I've included below.)

The meditations, prayers and desires of this eighteen-year-old youth put most of us to shame. May God give each of us grace to examine ourselves and our desires and consider our ways, so we don't waste our lives (waste Christ's life!) and squander the spiritual inheritance that is already ours in Jesus Christ. May God give us grace to seek to receive from His fullness grace upon grace as we ought –– for IF we have already found grace in God's sight, ought we not be hungering and thirsting for grace upon grace –– pressing on to know the LORD with a holy boldness, to find grace in His sight and to be shown His glory –– like Moses and Caleb and Susanna Anthony? God forbid we settle for first grace and stop satisfied, and be found negligent or slack in our pursuit of God for "God is the highest good of the reasonable creature, and the enjoyment of him is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied." ~ Jonathan Edwards (HT: http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/taste-see-articles/jonathan-edwards-on-the-pilgrim-mindset).

Oct. 26, 1744. I have now just finished the 18th year of my age. Good God! to what little purpose have I lived these eighteen years! Ah. Lord, thou hast come these many years seeking fruit; but alas! how little hast thou found! How vilely have I requited thy care! and how incorrigible have I been, under all thy cultivations. But, sure I am, these unparalleled instances of ingratitude and rebellion have not stopped the current of thy unbounded goodness. Was ever mortal so favored before! It is too bold an assertion to say, infinite mercy could not go beyond, considered in itself; yet, when I look on it, as relating to me the most ungrateful, unworthy, ill-deserving of all the redeemed race, the chief of sinners, and most helpless of mortals, I am ready to cry out, Never a greater instance of divine mercy! It is two years since I gave myself up to God and his church; and publicly avowed the Lord, for my God. And, though I would lament my vileness, that I have lived so unbecoming one in covenant with a holy God; yet, O, Lord my God, what shall I render to thee for thy preserving and sustaining grace; that I have been enabled to resist most fierce and otherwise irresistible assaults?

   Yea, I will praise him, who has been the health of my countenance, and my God. It has been because thou hast been the health of my countenance, that it has been in any measure healthful, hitherto. Therefore will l still hope in thy mercy. O God of my former revivals, leave me not not. How many months have I passed without any sensible decline of the power of godliness in my soul? For near these two years, more especially, I trust I have made sensible progress in my christian course. This I dare assert, to the honor of free, unmerited grace. To thy name, eternal Jehovah, be the glory. Thy grace hath been cultivated in my soul, notwitstanding all my corruptions. I have been admitted to near converse with thee. Thou hast made such discoveries of thyself, that I have seemed, as it were, to behold thee with open face; and, in some degree, to be changed into thine image. These powerful discoveries have formed my soul to a holy calm and serenity; a deep abasement; holy, solemn, humble awe of the great Jehovah; with holiness to the Lord inscribed on all my powers; not only in holy raptures of joy, with the gracious manifestation of thy most endearing love; but sweetly swallowed up in the opening views and apprehensions of Deity. The glories of Jehovah I cannot describe; or even the sensible transforming power such discoveries of thyself have had on my soul.

   And O, what a despicable worm did I appear to myself, when thou wast pleased to pass before me in the glories of thy nature, and caused me to cry out, "Woe is me! I am undone! I am unclean! I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes."

   Yet, since thou hast been thus gracious, I entreat thee, O God, who art still the same, my almighty and faithful God, to show me thy glory. Lord, give me soul-quickening, soul-humbling, and soul-reviving and transforming views of thyself O Lord God, arise for my help. Entreat me not to leave thee; but suffer me, yea do thou strengthen me to a holy violence, to wrestle with thee, and tell thee, I cannot let thee go, my Lord, and my God. O, now admit me to a near converse with thee. Unveil thy perfections, so far as a mortal worm can bear. Lord, fill a finite vapor. Break in on my soul with divine power. Show me thy glory. I cannot withdraw my petition. Dear, ever gracious, all condescending Savior, condescend to grant my request. Shouldest thou now hold forth thy sceptre, and bid me ask what I would, this should be my immediate request, O give me transforming discoveries of thyself: Show me thy glory. Amen, even so, Lord Jesus. Amen and Amen.

Source: "The Life and Character of Miss Susanna Anthony. Who Died, in Newport, (R I.) June 23, 1791, in the 65th year of her age. Consisting Chiefly in Extracts from Her Writings, with Some Brief Observations on Them." Complied by Samuel Hopkins, Second Edition. (Portland, Maine: Lyman, Hall & Co. 1810), 71-72, underlining mine. (HT for the text: http://books.google.com/books?id=YO0QAAAAYAAJ)

Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Emphasis mine.

Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pierre-%C3%89douard_Fr%C3%A8re_-_Interior_Scene_with_Woman_Praying_-_Walters_371370.jpg by Pierre-Édouard Frère. Released into Public Domain by Walters Art Museum / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}

Related posts:

• consider ... our ways, the great cloud of witnesses, Susanna Anthony
• Amazing Grace . . . upon Grace ~ the 240th anniversary
• birthday reflection: "the great & glorious possibilities" ~ "Now therefore, give me this mountain"
• Advent #1 WHY HAS JESUS COME? that we might have life & life more abundantly
• Advent # 5 WHY HAS JESUS COME? So we might draw near to God | Even a Vapor
• Advent # 7 WHY HAS JESUS COME? So we might be satisfied with Him
• Advent # 8: WHY HAS JESUS COME? "so that [we] might be WITH HIM" ~ Mark 3:14
• Advent # 9 WHY HAS JESUS COME? Adoption: the highest privilege the gospel offers ~ J.I. Packer
• John 3:36a Whoever believes in the Son HAS eternal life (letter 64 on assurance & joy)
• "give me also springs of water" - Will you be an Achsah? (letter 66 on assurance & fighting for joy)
• Where do you go when the world is unlovely? (Psalm 84 & the theology of Biblical counseling)
• As a deer pants ... Is your soul panting for God? (Psalms 42 & 43)
• a little child set in our midst leads us into the New Year
• Phebe Bartlet – a child put in our midst ~ "Do you love Me?"

    In the latter years of Elias’s life, there was a noticeable withdrawal of the powerful operations of the Spirit from the land in general. Writing in 1837, he says, "The light, power, and authority, formerly experienced under the preaching of the word, are not known in these days! The ministry neither alarms, terrifies, nor disturbs the thousands of ungodly persons who sit under it . . . No experimental, thoughtful Christian, can deny but that God has withdrawn Himself from us, as to the particular operations of His Spirit, and its especial manifestations of His Sovereign grace." The explanation Elias gives of this declension illustrates his doctrinal position, and his consciousness that the preservation of the favour of God depended upon their maintenance of the Word in its purity. He believed that nothing so ruined churches or dishonoured God as erroneous teaching:  "It is an awful thing to misrepresent God and His mind in His holy word!" "The Lord," he wrote, "hath favoured us, poor Methodists, with the glorious truths of the gospel in their perfection. Alas! Errors surround us, and Satan, changing himself into an angel of light, sets these pernicious evils before us, as great truths!" These evils, as the following quotation from his diary shows, were the appearance of Arminian errors in Wales in the nineteenth century. "The connexion" (that is, the church, which arose in Wales in the eighteenth century awakening) "was not called Calvinistic Methodists at first, as there was not a body of the Arminian Methodists in the country." But when the Wesleyans came amongst us, it was necessary to add the word Calvinistic, to show the difference. There were, before this, union and concord, in the great things of the gospel, amongst the different denominations of Christians in Wales. The Independents agreed fully with the Methodists in the doctrines of grace. They used to acknowledge the Westminster Catechism, as containing the substance of their doctrine.... All from the least to the greatest, preached very clearly and plainly. The chief subjects of their discourses were these: the fall and total corruption of man; his miserable state under the curse, and the just indignation of God; his total inability to deliver and save himself; free salvation, by the sovereign grace and love of God...." It was a departure from these truths that caused his deep concern. "The great depth of the fall, and the total depravity of man, and his awful misery, are not exhibited in many sermons in scriptural language; it is not plainly declared that all the human race are by nature, 'the children of wrath,'-that none can save himself––that no one deserves to be rescued, and that none will come to Christ to have life. There are but few ministers that fully show that salvation springs entirely out of the sovereign grace of God."

    The Arminian teaching was that Christ has purchased redemption for all, but that the effectual application of that redemption is limited and determined by the will of man. To Elias such teaching involved a denial of the completeness of Christ’s work and offices, it led to an underestimation of the effects of the fall upon man, and therefore to correspondingly low views of the necessity of the Spirit’s Almighty work in conversion. "I do not know," he writes, "how those that deny the total corruption of the human nature, and that salvation as to its plan, its performance, its application, is of grace only, can be considered as faithful ministers... Unsound and slight thoughts of the work of the Holy Spirit are entertained by many in these days, and he is grieved thereby. Is there not a want of perceiving the corruption, obstinacy, and spiritual deadness of man, and the consequent necessity of the Almighty Spirit to enlighten and overcome him? He opens the eyes of the blind; subduing the disobedient, making them willing in the day of His power; yea, He even raises up the spiritually dead! It is entirely the work of the Holy Ghost to apply to us the free and gracious salvation, planned by the Father in eternity, and executed by the Son in time. Nothing of ours is wanted to complete it... Man, under the fall, is as incapable to apply salvation to himself, as to plan and to accomplish it."

     No one saw the dangers which threatened the visible church from these errors more clearly than Elias. Towards the end of his life he writes, "It is a dark night on the church, the depth of winter, when she is sleepy and ready to die.

It is still more awful, if while they are asleep they should think themselves awake, and imagine that they see the sun at midnight!... The watchmen are not very alert and observant. The multitude of enemies that surround the castle walls, bear deceitful colours; not many of the watchmen know them! They are for opening the gates to many a hostile regiment! Oh let it never be said of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, 'Their watchmen are blind.'" He knew of no remedy for such a situation save a restoration of the truth in its purity. "If people are anxious for the favor of God’s presence, as the early fathers in the connexion were blessed with, let them take care that they be of the same principles, under the guidance of the same Spirit.... When the Spirit is more fully poured on people, those precious pillars of truth will be raised up out of their dusty holes; then the things of God shall be spoken in 'words taught by the Holy Ghost,' and the corrupt reasonings of men will be silenced by the strong light of divine truth. May the Lord restore a pure lip to the ministers, and may the old paths be sought, where the road is good, and may we walk in it; there is no danger there."

~ Source:  Iain H. Murray's "John Elias (1774-1841)," included as a Biographical Introduction to "The Experimental Knowledge of Christ and Additional Sermons of John Elias (1774-1841)," ed. by Joel R. Beeke; trans. by Owen Milton (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2006), 10-12. Murray's article was original published in The Banner of Truth, no. 5 (1955), 5-14, and can be found on The Banner of Truth Trust website here: http://www.banneroftruth.org/pages/articles/article_detail.php?940. (Italics original, boldface mine.)

I Samuel 2:6  The LORD killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. 7  The LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up. 8  He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the LORD'S, and he hath set the world upon them. 9  He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail. 10  The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.

Deuteronomy 32:39  See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.

• C.H. Spurgeon's "A Defense of Calvinism"
• John Piper's sermons on unconditional election in Romans 9:6-13, Romans 9:14-18, and Romans 9:23-24, which can be found here:  http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/by-series/romans-the-greatest-letter-ever-written.html?page=2
• John Piper's sermon "I Will Be Gracious to Whom I Will Be Gracious" (Exodus 33:12-19)
  
• John Piper's sermon Faith: Unique & Fruitful Effect of the New Birth
  
• John Piper on the sovereignty of God and human responsibility
• John Piper's article, "Summary of the Sovereignty of God in Salvation"

For more on Welsh Calvinistic Methodism, please visit:  http://www.misterrichardson.com/calvinistic.html

Related posts:

• Silent Night - Not! ~ "Prayer also will be made for Him continually" ... day and night
• "Brother, we are only half awake" ~ Legh Richmond
• Are you storming heaven – or are you sleeping?

• true Calvinism is not
• I can't keep walking on eggshells here (more on Revelife, Calvinism, the Body of Christ and self
• Letter 7 on assurance and fighting for joy (remember His love for us while we were sinners)
• we did not choose, He chose us, worthy the Lamb, solus Christus
• no glory to me, o my Savior ~ only because You chose to favor | a spiritual birthday celebration
• Outcast vine, faithless bride ~ What beauty? What did you see?
• Why preach the Gospel? # 1: Bad men need Good News!
• Why preach the Gospel? # 2: Dead men need Life!

Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

Photo credits:

Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kauriinpuisto.JPG  / CC BY-SA 3.0 / author Ximonic, Simo Räsänen
Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carl_Spitzweg_022.jpg / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}