The Wood's Secret Garden

"Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind..." "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." A man does not need to forever walk through life with blinders on in order to gain victory over his unholy lusts. In fact, as his mind and heart are gradually transformed by the Spirit of God through the Word of God, he finds that he can walk through this world with his eyes wide open and the things that were once stumbling blocks will have little to no power over him. In fact, immoral things that once enticed him to sin, he will find as, not only unattractive to him, but actually nauseating. No "accountability group" can accomplish this; no amount of self discipline or behavior modification can accomplish this. Unless there is an inward transforming going on--a renewing of the mind; these "techniques" used to conquer lust will fail miserably every time. Until a man actually hates what used to entice him to sin, he will be a prisone...

One of our most heinous and palpable sins is PRIDE. This is a sin that hath too much interest in the best of us, but which is more hateful and inexcusable in us than in other men. Yet is it so prevalent in some of us, that it inditeth our discourses, it chooseth our company, it formeth our countenances, it putteth the accent and emphasis upon our words. It fills some men’s minds with aspiring desires, and designs: it possesseth them with envious and bitter thoughts against those who stand in their light, or who by any means eclipse their glory, or hinder the progress of their reputation. Oh what a constant companion, what a tyrannical commander, what a sly and subtle insinuating enemy, is this sin of pride. Hence also it is that men do so magnify their own opinions, and are as censorious of any that differ from them in lesser things, as if it were all one to differ from them and from God . They expect that all should conform to their judgment, as if they were the rulers of the Church’s...

I cannot tell you how often I have sat in bible study groups or Sunday School classes where sin was discussed and the conclusion was (basically) that "All sins are equal in the eyes of God". There is such confusion over "sin". I believe that this confusion is a result of not understanding the difference between: 1) the sin (even the most minuscule) that separates us from God and places us in an hopeless eternal condition in need of a Savior in order to be reconciled to God; and, 2) sin in general--whether committed by regenerate or unregenerate persons. Let us listen to Thomas Watson as he helps clarify this topic. (More to come. The following is just a taste): Some sins in themselves, and by reason of several aggravations, are more heinous in the sight of God than others. ‘He that delivered me unto thee, has the greater sin.’ John 19:11. The Stoic philosophers held that all sins were equal; but this Scripture clearly holds forth that there is a gradual difference...

Spurgeon has a word of warning for those who wear Christ's name in public and habitually sin in private (i.e. pornography "addiction" which is the most prevalent, habitual sin those in the church today are engaging in): "Rowland Hill illustrated the folly of sinners, by the story of a butcher who was followed by the swine right into the slaughterhouse. As pigs are not usually in the mind to go where they are wanted, it seemed a mystery how these animals were so eager to follow their executioner; but when it was seen that he wisely carried a bag of corn with which he enticed the creatures onward--the riddle was solved at once. Unsuspicious of impending death--the hogs cared only for the passing gratification of their appetites, and hastened to the slaughter. Just in the same manner, ungodly men follow the great enemy of souls down into the jaws of hell, merely because their depraved passions are pleased with the lusts of the flesh and the pleasures of sin which th...

"...When the soul is exercised to communion with Christ, and to walking with him, he drinks new wine, and cannot desire the old things of the world , for he says “The new is better.” He tastes every day how gracious the Lord is; and therefore longs not after the sweetness of forbidden things,—which indeed have none. He that makes it his business to eat daily of the tree of life will have no appetite unto other fruit, though the tree that bear them seem to stand in the midst of paradise. This the spouse makes the means of her preservation; even the excellency which, by daily communion, she found in Christ and His graces above all other desirable things. Let a soul exercise itself to a communion with Christ in the good things of the gospel,—pardon of sin, fruits of holiness, hope of glory, peace with God, joy in the Holy Ghost, dominion over sin,— and he shall have a mighty preservative against all temptations. As the full soul loatheth the honey-comb,—as a soul filled with carna...

"Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." 1 Corinthians 10:12 The following is an excerpt from a sermon that C.H. Spurgeon preached on the above text. I found it very unusual and quite thought provoking. I have never heard anyone talk about "being proud of grace". Something perhaps we should ponder. Some have the pride of grace. That is a curious fact; but there is such a thing as being proud of grace. A man says, "I have great faith, I shall not fall; poor little faith may, but I never shall." " I have fervent love," says another man, "I can stand, there is no danger of my going astray; as for my brother over there, he is so cold and slow, he will fall, I dare say." Says another, "I have a most burning hope of heaven, and that hope will triumph; it will purge my soul from sense and sin, as Christ the Lord is pure. I am safe." He who boasts of grace, has little grace to boast of. But there are s...

If your child’s throat had been slit with a knife by a mad man; would you want to keep that knife in a drawer in your house so that you could take it out (on occasion) to admire its shiny, sharp blade and feel the smoothness of its handle? If invited to a dinner party and the host informed you that the knife at your place setting was the very knife used to murder your son, would you use it to cut your steak? Sin is that knife. Can one truly love Christ and still desire to hold that knife in their hand; still wish to eat with the very knife that crucified Him?

"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other." Oh, thrice blinded souls, whose hearts are charmed and bewitched with dreams, shadows, feckless things, night-vanities, and night-fancies of a miserable life of sin! Shame on us who sit still, fettered with the love and fondness of the loan of a piece of dead clay! Oh, poor fools, who are beguiled with painted things, and this world's fair weather, and smooth promises, and rotten, worm-eaten hopes! May not the devil laugh to see us give out our souls, and get in but corrupt and counterfeit pleasures of sin? O for a sight of eternity's glory, and a little tasting of the Lamb's marriage supper! Half a swallow, even a drop of the wine of consolation, that is up at our banqueting-house, out of Christ's own hand, would make our stomachs loathe the brown bread and the sour drink of a miserable life. Oh, how witless we are...

Let us talk about the "unregenerate" man--Those who are spiritually blind; those who God has not done a work of grace in their hearts; those who are still in darkness and do not know the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ; those who are operating purely in the "old nature" and have not been "born again". Perhaps some of my readers might shed some light on this subject. Here is what I am struggling with, of late: Among the "unregenerate": 1) What makes some men "givers" instead of "takers"? 2) What makes some men capable of using and defiling as many women as they possibly can--while others have too much respect for the dignity of a women's body and heart not capable of using them to gratify their own sexual needs? 3) What makes one man desire to help an old woman across the street; while another man sits in his car irritated that the old woman is taking too much time to cross the street; thus making him late t...

My best friend works as a "test evaluator". She reads hundreds of answers to standardized essay questions from children in schools throughout the United States and it is her job to score them. The companies philosophy is that "nobody fails". They instead call a failing score, "delayed success". "Self-Esteem" has become the worlds answer. They think that if we feel better and better about ourself we will be happy! The Truth is, that as we feel worse and worse about ourselves we actually find the key to true and lasting happiness-a happiness that the world cannot understand. By nature we are thoroughly in love with ourselves--but as the Divine work of grace is carried forward in our souls, we come to loathe ourselves. Those who have been saved from penalty of sin, are being made increasingly conscious not only of sin's polluting presence, but of its tyrannizing power! How can we explain the fact, that the Christian finds himself growing wor...

"You shall call His name Jesus--for He shall save His people from their sins" Matthew 1:21 Our salvation from the pleasure of sin is effected by Christ's taking up His abode in our hearts, "Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20). Our salvation from the penalty of sin was secured by Christ's sufferings on the Cross where He endured the punishment due our iniquities. Our salvation from the power of sin is obtained by the gracious operations of the Spirit, whom Christ sends to His people. Our salvation from the presence of sin will be accomplished at Christ's second advent, "We are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for Him to return as our Savior. He will take these weak mortal bodies of ours and change them into glorious bodies like His own!" (Phil. 3:20, 21). And again we are told, "We know that when He shall appear--we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2). It is al...

Morality does not prove nor disprove the legitimacy of one's conversion: Among the unregenerate: there is godless morality and godless immorality. Among the saved : there is godless morality and godless immorality. Ask anyone, even most Christian's, "Why should one obey God? Why should one be "good"? Ask yourself the same question. I fear many are religious legalists; some because of ignorance--others because of pride. I found the following statements to be tremendously helpful when sorting this out from God's perspective: The legalist is always a very moral person. In fact, the majority of moral people are legalists because their so-called Judeo-Christian morality inherited from their forefathers does not grow out of a humble, contrite reliance on the merciful enabling of God. On the contrary, for the legalist, morality serves the same function that immorality does for the antinomian, the free-thinker, the progressive, namely, it serves as an expression of ...

I was thinking about both marriage and the Cross today; which led me to ponder the following: Did Christ die so that my sins would be forgiven—or, did Christ die so that I could be reconciled to Him through the forgiveness of my sins? Perhaps that is a "no brainer" for some. But, it made me stop and think. Before I was born-again, it seems to me that most people that told me about Christ focused on the fact that I was a sinner and that in order for God to forgive me, I would need to belief on Christ and belief that He died for my sins. To have our sins forgiven is wonderful. But; if it ends there—if that was the purpose of Christ’s atonement, it would be like having wronged your husband, then having him forgive you verbally, but never feeling his embrace. Forgiveness is the means God uses to reconcile us to Himself. Our sins are forgiven so that we can be embraced by God and embrace God; so that He can guide us; comfort us; chastise us; transform us; sanctify us; and ultimate...

Disclaimer: I hesitated posting this. Please be assured that it is not directed at anyone who reads this blog. I was simply blessed by it because, it affirms that we cannot "detect" a pretender; only God sees the heart. There are some who sit in pews every Sunday knowing full well that the are pretenders. In fact, they are such good pretenders that they fool everyone around them. But, they cannot fool God. Perhaps, if more sermons like this were preached today, the pretenders would not feel as comfortable warming the benches. Perhaps, if more sermons like this were preached today, more pretenders would be genuinely converted by the awesome reality and power of God. "Pretender, you are fair to look upon; your conduct outwardly upright, amiable, liberal, generous and Christian--but you indulge in some sin which the eye of man has not yet detected. But, pretender, we say unto you, you are a fool to think of harboring a secret sin; and you are a fool for this one reason, th...

This is incredibly interesting. We have all been somewhat influenced (if not brainwashed) by the culture and generation we happen to be born into. This brief explanation will make so many passages in scripture so much more meaningful and understandable: Not all emotion is created equal. In fact, the category of emotion itself is fairly novel. It is a category that was created near the dawn of the Enlightenment to describe the experience of humans as mere animals. Premodern thought understood a distinction between kinds of emotion. At the time of the writing of the New Testament, common Greek thought articulated a distinction between the splankna — the chest — and the koilia — the belly . The splankna was the seat of of the affections, things like love, joy, courage, and compassion. The koilia was the seat of the passions, things like appetite, sexuality, fear, and rage. The affections were to be nurtured, developed, and encouraged, and the passions were to be held under control. The...

These are the Words of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the one holding up the mirror and saying to all of us that wear His name, " He who has an ear, let him hear..." This all seems pretty darned important to Him. Whether you "attend" church or not, if you profess Him as your Lord and Savior you are a member of His invisible church and these warnings are for you. Have you looked in the mirror lately? Mirror #1 "I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you...

As I was reading this "Morning Devotion", the thought occurred to me that most of us want to be given the opportunity that Solomon was given. We want the chance to indulge in all of the pleasures that this world has to offer and to make our own assessment as to whether or not they are meaningless and empty. Like a young man who will not listen to his father, when his father tries to warn him not to do this or that; and tells him, " Son, I've been there, done that, and it will leave you feeling empty and miserable and possibly end in pain and suffering ". The son won't heed his father's warning, and the father finally says, " Well, Son, I tried to warn you because I love you, but I guess you will have to find out the hard way ". Let us learn from Solomon's experiment and not feel the need to test it for ourselves. God tells us the end result. Nothing can satisfy the entire man but the Lord's love and the Lord's own self. Some h...

It is sad to find so many professing Christians who appear to regard the wrath of God as something for which they need to make an apology, or at least they wish there were no such thing. While some would not go so far as to openly admit that they consider it a blemish on the Divine character, yet they are far from regarding it with delight, they like not to think about it, and they rarely hear it mentioned without a secret resentment rising up in their hearts against it. Even with those who are more sober in their judgment, not a few seem to imagine that there is a severity about the Divine wrath which is too terrifying to form a theme for profitable contemplation. Others harbor the delusion that God’s wrath is not consistent with His goodness, and so seek to banish it from their thoughts. Yes, many there are who turn away from a vision of God’s wrath as though they were called to look upon some blotch in the Divine character, or some blot upon the Divine government. But what sa...

Can you just imagine sitting in a pew and hearing this being heralded from the pulpit today! How God’s Spirit would move among the people. I can almost hear the “hush” and stillness that would come over the sanctuary. Thank you Lord for the “dead men” who you have used as vessels, throughout the history of the church, to proclaim Your Word and Your Glory! Their sermons are like cool pure water to this parched and thirsty soul. Preached at Zoar Chapel, London, on Thursday Evening, July 8th, 1841, by J. C. Philpot. "A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance." Ecclesiastes 3:3,4. O cursed pride, that is ever lifting up its head in our hearts! Pride, that would even pull down God that it might sit upon His throne. Pride, that would trample unde...

Above every evil, we should consider sin as the greatest evil--as it is the fountain and origin of all evils. Sin is the only target--at which all the arrows of divine vengeance are shot! Sinners are those spiders which weave their own webs--and are afterwards entangled in them! Our own destruction--is but the fruit of our own transgression. There is more real evil in a particle of corruption--than in an ocean of tribulation! The evil of suffering is transient--but the evil of sin is permanent. The consistent Christian will always choose the worst of sorrows--before he will commit the least of sins! The wicked entirely reverse this--for they prefer the greatest sin--to the least sufferings! This is to leap out of the hot pan--into the consuming fire! By seeking to shun an external calamity--they rush into eternal misery! This is as if a man should lose his head--to preserve his hat! As the works of sin are dishonorable; so the wages of sin are deadly! "The wages of sin--...