For many years in my early Christian walk I would complain to God....'Lord....you have given us so much truth on salvation....on justification....and on glorification....but you haven't given us adequate information on sanctification!' I would read book after book...but the answers were not there....or I at least could not see them. It was frustrating. God's Word was truly wonderful....but really not quite enough. I'm just relating what was going on in my mind.
Well that changed over time. The answers were in God's Word alright....but they encompassed more than the question at hand. I had been looking for the needle in the haystack....instead of focusing on the glory of the Creator of the haystack....and the forests....and the heavens....and the seas....and the mountains....and the meadows!Looking back on this process....the answers were there all along....majestic and wonderful....and they came to me.....(as best as I can tell)....through the preached word....through sermons....(Means of Grace!)....by either....preachers of the past....Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones and Ryle and others....or preachers today....who preached like preachers of the past....John Piper and R. C, Sproul and Michael Horton and MacArthur and many others.
I want my words here to be few. Listen to this eighteen minute message that John Piper gives....on this question....concerning the life of Augustine....and see if it does not explain....well....the title alone says it all....just Google desiringgod.org....and click on the message titled....Transformation Through Divine Intervention.
