He never did me any injury

‎"Eighty and six years have I served Him, and he never did me any injury; how then can I blaspheme my King and my Savior."
    ~Polycarp

Are we converted ourselves?

Are we converted ourselves? This is the one point to which our attention ought to be directed. Our experience may not tally with that of other believers. But that is not the question. Do we feel sin, hate it, and flee from it? Do we love Christ, and rest solely on Him for salvation? Are we bringing forth fruits of the Spirit in righteousness and true holiness? If these things are so we may thank God, and take courage.

   ~ J.C. Ryle

The fruit of regeneration is...

The fruit of regeneration is faith.”
  ~ Steven Lawson

When you pray

“When you pray, rather let your heart be without words than your words without heart.”
   ~ John Bunyan

Believe in the wrath of God

 “The modern habit throughout the Christian church is to lay this subject down.  Those who still believe in the wrath of God (not all do) say little about it; perhaps they do not think much about it. . . . How often during the past year did you hear, or, if you are a minister, did you preach a sermon on the wrath of God? How long is it, I wonder, since a Christian spoke straight on this subject on radio or television . . . ? The fact is that the subject of divine wrath has become taboo in modern society, and Christians by and large have accepted the taboo and conditioned themselves never to raise the matter.”
    ~JI PACKER

nobody needs a gospel if...

“The power of the gospel is the word of God . . . nobody needs a gospel if there’s no judgment, or law, if God is not a God of judgment.  If there is no such thing as hell, what good is the gospel?”
   ~RC SPROUL

"I Don't Want Free Will"

“I frankly confess that, for myself, even if it could be, I should not want ‘free-will’ to be given me, nor anything to be left in my own hands to enable me to endeavour after salvation; not merely because in face of so many dangers, and adversities and assaults of devils, I could not stand my ground …; but because even were there no dangers … I should still be forced to labour with no guarantee of success … But now that God has taken my salvation out of the control of my own will, and put it under the control of His, and promised to save me, not according to my working or running, but according to His own grace and mercy, I have the comfortable certainty that He is faithful and will not lie to me, and that He is also great and powerful, so that no devils or opposition can break Him or pluck me from Him. Furthermore, I have the comfortable certainty that I please God, not by reason of the merit of my works, but by reason of His merciful favour promised to me; so that, if I work too little, or badly, He does not impute it to me, but with fatherly compassion pardons me and makes me better. This is the glorying of all the saints in their God” 


   ~ Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will (Grand Rapids: Revell, 1957), 313-314.

Even God doesn't have free-will

"Even God doesn't have free-will. He cannot act outside of accordance with His nature." (Titus 1:2)  "in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began"
    ~Michael Horton

Why pray if God is sovereign?

"People ask me, 'Why pray if God is sovereign?' I respond, 'Why pray if He isn't?" 
     ~ Michael Horton

A habitual sight of Him

“What is it to have Christ dwell in the heart by faith?

It is to have Jesus Christ continually in one’s eye, a habitual sight of Him. I call it so because a man actually does not always think of Christ; but as a man does not look up to the sun continually, yet he sees the light of it.
So you should carry along and bear along in your eye the sight and knowledge of Christ, so that at least a presence of Him accompanies you, which faith makes.”
   ~ Thomas Goodwin

The Crown of Glory for the Persecuted

Let us gather comfort from these comfortable promises for all true-hearted servants of Christ. Persecuted, vexed, and mocked, as they are now, they shall find at length they are on the victorious side. Beset, perplexed, tried, as they sometimes are, they shall never find themselves entirely forsaken. Though cast down, they shall not be destroyed. Let them possess their souls in patience. The end of all that they see going on around them is certain, fixed, and sure. The kingdoms of this world shall yet become the kingdoms of their God and of his Christ. And when the scoffers and ungodly, who so often insulted them, are put to shame, believers shall receive a crown of glory that fades not away.

~ J.C. Ryle

The old story of His blood, and righteousness, and substitution

‎"Let us never doubt for a moment, that the preaching of Christ crucified - the old story of His blood, and righteousness, and substitution - is enough for all the spiritual necessities of all mankind." ~ J.C. Ryle

Cease from sin

“Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer” 

 ~ John Bunyan

Adam's evil use of his free will

"It was by the evil use of his free will that man destroyed both it and himself." - Augustine

No such thing as free-will

‎"A natural man hath no such thing as free-will at all, if you take it for a power of doing that which is good and well-pleasing unto God in things spiritual." - John Owen

Ignoramus

“Ah! Mr. Spurgeon, I don’t agree with you about religion; I am an agnostic.” “Yes!” Spurgeon replied, “that is a Greek word, and the exact equivalent is ignoramus; if you like to claim that title, you are quite welcome to.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

The Lessons of Providence by John Newton

Excerpt, The Letters of John Newton (John Newton)

But a Christian is to pursue his lawful calling with an eye to the providence of God, and with submission to his wisdom. Thus, so far as he acts in the exercise of faith, he cannot be disappointed. He casts his care upon his Heavenly Father, who has promised to take care of him. What God gives, he receives with thankfulness, and is careful as a faithful steward to improve it for the furtherance of the cause of God, and the good of mankind. And if he meets with losses and crosses, he is not disconcerted, knowing that all his concerns are under a Divine direction; that the Lord whom he serves, chooses for him better than he could choose for himself; and that his best treasure is safe, out of the reach of the various changes to which all things in the present state are liable.

That price of expiation

 “A sacrifice of expiation is one whose object is to appease the wrath of God, to satisfy his justice, and thereby wipe and wash away the sins, by which the sinner being cleansed and restored to purity, may return to favor with God. . . . And, indeed, it was an astonishing display of the wrath of God that he did not spare even his only begotten Son, and was not appeased in any other way than by that price of expiation.” ~John Calvin

The punishment due to sin is the wrath of God

 “The punishment due to sin is the wrath of God: Rom. 1:18, “The wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness;” chap. 2:5, “The day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;” Eph. 2:3, “Children of wrath;” John 3:36. But Jesus Christ underwent the punishment due to sin : 2 Cor. 5:21, “Made sin for us; “Iniquity was laid upon him;” 1 Pet. 2:24, “He bare our sins in his own body on the tree.” Therefore he underwent the wrath of God.” ~John Owen

Because Christ was good

The Gospel is not that we might be justified if we are good, but that I am justified because Christ was good – R. Scott Clark

The strong Shepherd guards His flock

What if the sheep be weak, yet is the shepherd strong to guard his flock from the prowling wolf or the roaring lion. If the sheep suffer privation because the soil is barren, yet is the shepherd able to lead them into pasturage suitable for them. If they be foolish, yet he goes before them, cheers them with his voice, and rules them with the rod of his command. There cannot be a flock without a shepherd; neither is there a shepherd truly without a flock. The two must go together. They are the fullness of each other. As the church is the fullness of him that filleth all in all, so we rejoice to remember that “of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.” That I am like a sheep is a sorry reflection; but that I have a shepherd charms away the sorrow and creates a new joy.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Sheep And Their Shepherd."

The Life of God in the Soul of Man

[For Paul] everything always ends in Christ and with Christ. He is the final point, He is the explanation of Paul's living and his whole outlook upon life ... Christ is all-sufficient for every circumstance, for every eventuality and for every possibility ... he is introducing us to what in many ways we may describe as the cardinal New Testament doctrine. The Christian life ... is not just a philosophy, it is not just a point of view, it is not just a teaching that we take up and try to put into practice. It is all that, but it is something infinitely more. The very essence of the Christian life, according to the New Testament teaching everywhere, is that it is a mighty power that enters into us; it is a life, if you like, that is pulsating in us. It is an activity, and activity on the part of God ...

[Christians] are not just men who have taken up a certain theory and are trying to practise it; it is God doing something in them and through them ... our highest thoughts, our noblest aspirations, our every righteous inclination is from and of God, is something that is brought into being in us by God Himself. It is God's activity and not merely our activity (Philippians 3: 10) ... You find [Paul] saying exactly the same thing in other Epistles (Ephesians 1:19, 20; 2:10) ... You remember also the great statement at the end of the third chapter: 'He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us'.

Now, that is typical and characteristic New Testament doctrine, and if we have not grasped it we are surely missing one of the most glorious things about the Christian life and position ... We come back again to what I am never tired of quoting, namely, John Wesley's favourite definition of a Christian. He found it in that book by Henry Scougal ... The life of God in the soul of man ... The Christian is not just a good, decent, moral man; the life of God has entered into him, there is an energy, a power, a life in him and it is that that makes him peculiarly and specifically Christian.

~Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression, pp. 291-2

Every Kind of Good Abounds In Him

“We see that our whole salvation and all its parts are comprehended in Christ. We should therefore take care not to derive the least portion of it from anywhere else. If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is of him. If we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, they will be found in his anointing. If we seek strength, it lies in his dominion; if purity, in his conception; if gentleness, it appears in his birth. For by his birth he was made like us in all respects, that he might learn to feel our pain. If we seek redemption, it lies in his passion; if acquittal, in his condemnation; if remission of the curse, in his cross; if satisfaction, in his sacrifice; if purification, in his blood; if reconciliation, in his descent into hell; if mortification of the flesh, in his tomb; if newness of life, in his resurrection; if immortality, in the same; if inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom, in his entrance into heaven; if protection, if security, if abundant supply of all blessings, in his Kingdom; if untroubled expectation of judgment, in the power given to him to judge. In short, since rich store of every kind of good abounds in him, let us drink our fill from this fountain, and from no other.”

~John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion,