Spurgeon on Being Prepared for Death

On my drive home today, I listened to the top of the hour news on the radio. I heard 153 people died, many trampled, in a large Halloween crowd in Seoul, South Korea. There were a few murders. Someone died in a car crash. Someone famous died. I listened with a bit of trembling reflecting on my own mortality. "This could be my last drive home," I said to myself, knowing the Lord was listening in. 

Yet, I also noticed the many homes with Halloween decorations. Death is something cute, something funny. There seems to be no fear nor respect of death in our culture. People die, often met with such gloom and painful grief of heart for loved ones. All while parties mocking death fill a celebratory air in homes around us. 

Then I recalled this sermon by Charles Spurgeon entitled, "Our Last Journey" from Job 16:22 which reads, "For when a few years have come I shall go the way from which I shall not return." Please read with deep consideration of your own soul and be prepared for death:

"May God make you wise unto salvation! To be prepared to die is an immediate duty, will you neglect it? Some imagine that to be prepared to die would involve a life of perpetual gloom. If it did so it were well to face it. When a man comes to die and finds himself prepared, even if he had endured fifty years of perpetual anguish of heart, and had denied himself every worldly comfort, he would think himself well
repaid to have the prospect of a blessed future. Heaven at any price is well secured. A good hope through grace is worth a thousand worlds. But it is a mistake to suppose that melancholy attends upon fitness to die. Why should it? To be unprepared for death, and to know that it may come at any moment, is a fair reason for sadness, but to have that great matter secure must surely be a source of joy. To be prepared to die is to be prepared to live; to be ready for eternity is in the best sense to be ready for time. 

Who so fit to live on earth as the man who is fit to live in heaven? Who hath brightness of the eye? Is it not the man who has looked within the gate of pearl, and seen his place prepared among the blessed? Who hath lightness of heart? Is it not the man who is unloaded of his sin, and has found mercy through the blood of Christ? Who can go to his bed and sleep in peace and wake with joy— who but the man that is reconciled to God by the death of his Son? Who hath the best of this world as well as the world to come? Is it not he to whom death has now become a changed thing, a cherub that has lost its way— no longer destruction, but rather development, and admission into a higher and nobler life? Since readiness for death is peace and happiness, and is above measure needful in prospect of the eternal state, let us see to it at once. We are to be gone so soon let us gird up our loins for our solemn journey. There is no time to spare. The end is drawing near. Every flying moment is hastening on our last hour. It is high time to awake out of sleep, and in earnest make ready to meet the Bridegroom, who is already on his way."

J.C. Ryle on Friendship

I have been richly blessed by God's mercies by surrounding me with precious friends. Friends who not only deeply invest their care into me, but into my wife, children, and other friends in my life. Practical thoughts of friendship from the 19th Century Anglican expositor JC Ryle may serve helpful to us considering and being thankful for Christian friends.

 

“I do advise you to be very careful in your choice of friends. Do not open all your heart to a man merely because he is clever, agreeable, good-natured, high-spirited, and kind. These things are all very well in their way, but they are not everything. Never be satisfied with the friendship of anyone who will not be useful to your soul.

Good friends are among our greatest blessings – they may keep us back from much evil, quicken us in our course, speak a word in season, draw us upward, and draw us on.

But a bad friend is a positive misfortune, a weight continually dragging us down, and chaining us to earth. Keep company with an irreligious man, and it is more than probable you will in the end become like him. That is the general consequence of all such friendships. The good go down to the bad, and the bad do not come up to the good.”

-J.C. Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men, 50-52

“A friend is one of the greatest blessings on earth. Tell me not of money: affection is better than gold; sympathy is better than lands. He is the poor man who has no friends.

This world is full of sorrow because it is full of sin. It is a dark place. It is a lonely place. It is a disappointing place. The brightest sunbeam in it is a friend. Friendship halves our troubles and doubles our joys.

A real friend is scarce and rare. There are many who will eat, and drink, and laugh with us in the sunshine of prosperity. There are few who will stand by us in the days of darkness,—few who will love us when we are sick, helpless, and poor,—few, above all, who will care for our souls.

Does any reader of this paper want a real friend? I write to recommend one to your notice this day. I know of One ‘who sticketh closer than a brother.’ (Proverbs18:24) I know of One who is ready to be your friend for time and for eternity, if you will receive Him. Hear me, while I try to tell you something about Him. The friend I want you to know is Jesus Christ. Happy is that family in which Christ has the foremost place! Happy is that person whose chief friend is Christ!”

–J.C. Ryle, Practical Religion: Being Plain Papers on the Daily Duties, Experience, Dangers, and Privileges of Professing Christians, 317

Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Talking to your Depressed Heart

Spiritual depression, what the Psalmist calls turmoil hearts and downcast souls, has a mighty Deliverer received by faith. Such a faith is not silent, but speaks to our spiritually depressed selves with the assurance of Christ. Consider these words, dear soul, the words of Martyn Lloyd-Jones from his book Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure:

"The ultimate cause for spiritual depression is unbelief. For if it were not for unbelief even the devil could do nothing. It is because we listen to the devil instead of listening to God that we go down before him and fall before his attacks. That is why this Psalmist keeps on saying to himself: 'Hope thou in God for I shall yet praise Him...' He reminds himself of God. Why? Because he was depressed and had forgotten God, so that his faith and his belief in God and in God's power, and in his relationship to God, were not what they ought to be. We can indeed sum it all up by saying that the final and ultimate cause is just sheer unbelief.

There then we have looked at the causes. What about the treatment in general? Very briefly at this point, the first thing we have to learn is what the Psalmist learned - we must learn to take ourselves in hand. This man was not content to just lie down and commiserate with himself. He does something about it, he takes himself in hand. But he does something which is more important still, that is he talks to himself. This man turns to himself and says: "Why art thou cast down o my soul, why art thou disquieted within me?" He is talking to himself, he is addressing himself...

...I say that we must talk to ourselves instead of allowing "ourselves" to talk to us! Do you realize what this means? I suggest that the main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression in a sense is this, that we allow our self to talk to us instead of talking to our self. Am I trying to be deliberately paradoxical? Far from it. This is the very essence of wisdom in this matter. Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man's treatment was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. 'Why art thou cast down, O my soul?' he asks. His soul has been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says, 'Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you.' Do you know what I mean? If you do not, you have but little experience.

The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: 'Why art thou cast down' - what business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: 'Hope thou in God' - instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: 'I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God.'"

Seek Knowledge for the Benefit of Your Souls

What is your motivation to know truth? To some, the secret motive to know a lot is to be honored by people as smart. To others, knowledge is only pursued in order to debate and correct others. The Christian is to pursue knowledge for the benefit of the soul and to practice biblically wise living. Jonathan Edwards has a good thought on this:

"Seek not to grow in knowledge chiefly for the sake of applause, and to enable you to dispute with others; but seek it for the benefit of your souls, and in order to practice.—If applause be your end, you will not be so likely to be led to the knowledge of the truth, but may justly, as often is the case of those who are proud of their knowledge, be led into error to your own perdition. This being your end, if you should obtain much rational knowledge, it would not be likely to be of any benefit to you, but would puff you up with pride: I Corinthians 8:1 'Knowledge puffeth up.'"

 

Merciful Lord, Pardon All My Sins

I love my prayer devotional The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions. Consider this prayer asking the Lord to pardon all my sins (Pages 158-159):

MERCIFUL LORD,

Pardon all my sins of this day, week, year,
      all the sins of my life,
  sins of early, middle, and advanced years,
    of omission and commission,
    of morose, peevish and angry tempers,
    of lip, life and walk,
    of hard-heartedness, unbelief, presumption, pride,
    of unfaithfulness to the souls of men,
    of want of bold decision in the cause of Christ,
    of deficiency in outspoken zeal for his glory,
    of bringing dishonour upon thy great name,
    of deception, injustice, untruthfulness in my dealings with others,
    of impurity in thought, word and deed,
    of covetousness, which is idolatry,
    of substance unduly hoarded, improvidently squandered,
  not consecrated to the glory of thee,
      the great Giver;
  sins in private and in the family,
    in study and recreation, in the busy haunts of men,
    in the study of thy Word and in the neglect of it,
    in prayer irreverently offered and coldly withheld,
    in time misspent,
    in yielding to Satan’s wiles,
    in opening my heart to his temptations,
    in being unwatchful when I know him nigh,
    in quenching the Holy Spirit;
  sins against light and knowledge,
    against conscience and the restraints of thy Spirit,
    against the law of eternal love.
Pardon all my sins, known and unknown,
  felt and unfelt,
  confessed and not confessed,
  remembered or forgotten.
Good Lord, hear; and hearing, forgive.

Thomas Watson on Comfort and Joy

Through Christ, the Christian receives mercies abundant and free. In receiving such comforts by the Holy Spirit, the Christian is both humbled and filled with joy. Consider this portion of Thomas Watson's sermon, "Comfort and Joy: The Mourner's Privilege" :

"The comforts of the Spirit are humbling. The more water is poured into a bucket, the lower it descends; the fuller the ship is laden with sweet spices, the lower it sails. The more a Christian is filled with the sweet comforts of the Spirit, the lower he sails in humility. The fuller a tree is of fruit, the lower the branch hangs. The more full we are of "the fruit of the Spirit, joy and peace" (Galatians 5:22), the more we bend in humility. Those who say they have comfort, but are proud, who have learned to despise others and have climbed above ordinances; their comforts are delusions. The devil is able, not only to "transform himself into angel of light" (II Corinthians 11:14), but he can transform himself into a comforter. It is easy to counterfeit money, to silver over brass and put the king's image upon it. The devil can silver over false comforts and make them look as if they had the stamp of the King of heaven upon them. The comforts of God are humbling. Though they lift the heart up in thankfulness, yet they do not puff it up in pride. The comforts reserved for the mourners are "filling comforts" "The God of hope fill you with all joy . . ." (Romans 15:13). "Ask . . . that your joy may be full" (John 16:24). When God pours in the joys of heaven, they fill the heart and make it run over. "I am exceeding joyful . . ." (II Corinthians 7:4)."

 

Forgive Any Complaint

“Bear with one another and forgive any complaint you may have against someone else. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” –Colossians 3:13

Having put off the old self which held onto anger and used our lips for slander and unclean talk to hurt others (Colossians 3:8), the Christian died to the old self and raised by Christ’s resurrection power to a new self clothed with compassionate hearts (Colossians 3:12). As new creations in Christ, the Christian now receives the command to love one another in the church. One fruit of such love is our bearing with one another and forgiving complaints.

If our souls ponder greatly the love of Christ who forgives us, then our souls will richly produce the fruit of forgiving others. If the weight of our burdens are so graciously carried by our Savior, then our load lightened by the Lord’s mercy has room to bear the burdens of others in His easy yoke.

How easy our Savior’s yoke and burden! We can cast our anxieties on Him, for not only is He strong enough to carry our burdens, but He is compassionate enough to relieve us (I Peter 5:7)! Our Savior’s forgiveness is so abounding, He even forgave those mocking and injuring Him while He hanged on the cross like a criminal (Luke 23:34). Consider Stephen’s forgiveness of those murdering him with his final breath (Acts 7:60). The strength to bear with others and forgive all complaints comes by the same humble posture clothed in a compassionate heart to love your enemies.

Our fallen hearts naturally compile lists of complaints against others. Like a creditor who is owed a lot of money, we compile complaints of good treatment we are owed which haven’t been paid. Like the unmerciful servant forgiven an insurmountable debt who threw a debtor in prison, we take our unforgiving hearts with a posture toward others with a list of complaints (Matthew 18:21-35). We ask Jesus just as Peter did, how many times am I to forgive who wrong me? Seven times seems plenty enough. No, says our Lord. Always.

Loving our enemies means we will have enemies to love. Bearing with others means we will be peeved, inconvenienced, even hurt. To forgive any complaints we may have against others in the local church requires a safe place of confession to one another with an easy path of repentance and reconciliation. Such mercies are only enjoyed in Christ whose death and resurrection reconciles us to a holy God.

Are you a humble, compassionate heart easy to reconcile, bearing with others? Or do you refuse to put off the old self? Sinner, how heavy is your heart? Take it to the Lord Jesus. Take His yoke upon you and learn from Him. The full weight of your burdens He carries. All complaints He has against you is relieved. Our loving Savior is longsuffering toward you and bears with you. In His mercies, you will have strength to follow Him in bearing with others and forgiving any complaints.

Heavenly Father, forgive us for holding grudges and refusing to bear with others as our brother’s keepers. May we embrace by faith Your forgiveness for us in Christ who died a criminal’s death though sinless that criminals like us are reconciled to You. Bless us, O Lord, with humble hearts clothed with compassion, and be glorified in Your works in us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.