I can’t sleep again, therefore, an excerpt from Spurgeon’s exposition on 1 John 3:1-10

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God.” That is easy to read; but it is not so easy to feel. “Now are we the sons of God.” How is it with your heart this morning? Are you in the lowest depths of sorrow and suffering? “Now are you a son of God.” Does corruption rise within your spirit, and grace seem like a poor spark trampled under foot? “Beloved, now are you a son of God.” Does your faith almost fail you? and are your graces like a candle well nigh blown out by the wind! Fear not, beloved; it is not your graces, it is not your frames, it is not your feelings, on which you are to live: you must live simply by naked faith on Christ. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God.” With all these things against us, with the foot of the devil on our neck, and the sword in his hand ready to slay us—beloved now in the very depths of our sorrow, wherever we may be—now, as much in the valley as on the mountain, as much in the dungeon as in the palace, as much when broken on the wheel of suffering as when exalted on the wings of triumph—”beloved, now are we the sons of God.” “Ah!” but you say, “see how I am arrayed! my graces are not bright; my righteousness does not shine with apparent glory.” But read the next: “It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him.” We are not so much like him now, but we have some more refining process to undergo, and death itself, that best of all friends, is yet to wash us clean. “We know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”

I can’t sleep

Due to a combination of sickness, excessive and uncontrollable coughing, and my innate resilience against Nyquil (and I suppose alcohol in general) I am sharp as a tack at 3:00am.

Now, what to do? I have just finished talking to a young girl coming out of highschool on the topic of Saving faith. Perhaps a little summary on the main points.

The first topic was "how does faith fulfill/uphold the Law?" Good question, The Law demands righteousness from us. It is the standard set forth by God for us to fulfill in order that we might be righteous before Him. However, due to our sinful Nature, we are born sabatoged for this task. We cannot fulfill the Law.

How then can a man be righteous before God? If he cannot fulfill the Law, in and of himself the answer is, he cannot be righteous before God. Through works of the Law no flesh will be justified (declared righteous.) But God.(Eph2) God intervenes with His Son. Jesus Christ offers His Righteousness to us. It is a righteousness apart from works, and really, to state it explicitly, it is a righteousness apart from us. It's not ours. But by faith we receive it.

That's it? We say we believe and the righteousness of the Son of God is ours? Yes! But now, let us take to heart the word "believe". This is no whimsical decision, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, i.e. exhibiting saving faith is something far deeper than a quick prayer a filled out card or a toss of a stone into the campfire. Which leads us to the Four Fundamentals of Saving faith.

1. Get the facts straight!

It's one thing to believe in God, it's another thing to believe in Allah, and another thing to believe that standing on a pillar a hundred feet in the air for the whole of your life will earn you your way into heaven. That's why you need to get the facts straight. Yes you need to believe, but you must believe in the One, the Messiah of God, and the only Savior, Jesus Christ. Sola Christos.

2. Tell me it's true!

Not only do you have to have the facts straight but you've gotta say, hey, this is true, this is real. If you want to walk on the path to heaven you need to believe that your actually walking it. If this is all a dream to you, let me tell you buddy, dreams aren't real, in other words, dreams don't matter!. I for one can testify to that. I have had far too many conversations with people in my dreams only to find out that they have no idea what I'm talking about in real life. Likewise, if you don't really believe all this is real, than what are you doing banking your life, and your eternal state on it? You have got to be crazy.

3. Trust. Put your money where your mouth is

This is the clincher, the lynchpin, what holds it all together. Some people like to use the chair illustration and say that weather you know that there is a chair existing behind you or agree that it is real it is a completely different thing to sit back on it. I dont know if I like that illustration but it conveys the point. If you say, "God I hear you've got a Son who died for me" but continue on with "but I don't know if I can handle putting my trust in Him" If you think your safe from Hell, you've got another thing coming. You are standing on one side of a canyon. There before you stretches a long bridge. You can know about the bridge, and agree that it is there, but until you walk over it you will never reach the other side. We would say to the person who walks across that bridge, he has faith in that bridge. Do you have faith in Christ? Do you believe His righteousness is enough to save you when you stand before the Lord at the Judgment? Well, think about it. It's like failing a test and having your friend take it for you, you know the feeling when you're sure he's good enough to ace it.

4. Treasuring. Do you love it?

Lastly. To seal it all together. I call this the test of the fundamental three. The fourth point is Treasuring. If you really know and trust in the Lord. You will Love Him, you will Treasure Him. Above all else. If hell is real and heaven is real and Christ's blood has just paid for your sin and covered you with divine righteousness so that you are not guilty before the Lord don't you think Christ will become your treasure? Don't you think you will cherish the hand that saves you out of death and into everlasting and ever increasing and ever refreshing life? I do. I do! I have come across many professed Christians who say "Jesus is my Lord and Savior" and live like the world and I want to say "If you only knew what you believed in." if you only KNEW!!! you would call the world trash and Jesus, Treasure! Which leads to the fact that Justifying faith is sanctifying faith, but that's for another day.

So that was my coversation. Hope it was a good reminder of the faith which wraps Christ's righteousness around your shoulders. Boy, my cough is really killing me. I wish I had a tube I could stick in there to bypass all the nerves in my throat. Thankfully, this decaying body will be transformed into perfect health when Christ comes back. I really treasure the thought of "…No sickness"

(NOTICE, none of my assertions are backed by scripture. That is also …for another day.)