"The Christian man has been born again,
he has been given a new life and a new nature and has become a child of
God; he has been adopted into a new kingdom... He has proof of this
because God has put His Spirit - His own Spirit - within him; the
'Spirit of Christ', the 'Spirit of God', the 'Holy Spirit'."
Romans - The Sons Of God
|
"You cannot be a Christian without having received the Holy Spirit.
There is no question about that; it is impossible, it is inconceivable."
Romans - Assurance
|
"Are you troubled about the state of the world,
and perplexed that it should be as it is? You should not be, if you are a
Christian." Romans - The Sons Of God
|
"The gift of God, which we have already received, is eternal life. If
you are a Christian you have it now; you are not waiting for it."
Romans - The Sons Of God
|
"There is no second death for the man who has
been regenerated." Romans - The Sons
Of God
|
"As regards my spirit I am saved, as saved as I ever shall be. I have
been quickened with Christ, I have been raised with him, I am seated in
the heavenly places in Christ, my spirit at this moment is alive in Christ
Jesus." Romans - The Sons Of God
|
"The Christian must abstain from sin. It is as
simple and direct as that... You have no right to say, 'I am weak, I
cannot, and temptation is very powerful.' The answer of the New Testament
is, Stop doing it!" Romans - The Sons
Of God
|
"Are you still looking to the statesmen and others to solve all
problems and to put the world right? Do you still believe that some kind
of Utopia is going to come? If you do, you can take it as certain that you
are not being led by the Spirit, that you are not a child of God."
Romans - The Sons Of God
|
"We are aware that we have an antagonist, an
adversary, who often persuades people that they have the Spirit of
adoption when that is not true of them."
Romans - The Sons Of God
|
"There is the very real danger that many who are assumed to be
Christians, and who themselves assume that they are Christians, are not
really Christians at all. That is why the Apostle urges the Corinthians
and others to examine themselves, to prove their own selves, to make sure
that they are in the faith." Romans - The
Sons Of God
|
"We should thank God for every time that we are
disturbed. We should thank God when we are ever forced to examine
ourselves, to make sure whether we are in the faith or not. There is no
greater danger to our highest interests than this kind of easy believism
which is really not the work of the Holy Spirit at all."
Romans - The Sons Of God
|
"It is not true faith unless an element of feeling is involved. If
there is no such element it may be nothing but intellectual assent,
nothing but a kind of historical faith. There is nothing to stop anyone
saying, 'I believe that; I believe that evidence.' That does not make him
a Christian." Romans - The Sons Of God
|
"In every single instance that is given in the
New Testament of people receiving this gift of the Holy Spirit, it is
always accompanied by much and strong feeling, and by the knowledge that
they have received it." Romans - The
Sons Of God
|
"The answer of the New Testament is that when the Holy Spirit came
upon the early Christians they knew it."
Romans - The Sons Of God
|
"A certain teaching tells us to 'take it by
faith' and not to worry about feelings. 'You may feel nothing at all,' it
says, 'but if you believe this Word and its teaching you can take the Holy
Spirit by faith irrespective of any feeling.' The whole of the New Testament
teaches the opposite. So does the subsequent history of the Christian
Church." Romans - The Sons Of God
|
"You cannot be baptized or filled with the Spirit without knowing it.
It is the greatest experience one can ever know. The teaching that assures
us that we may feel nothing at all runs entirely contrary not only to the
teaching of the Scripture but to the recorded experiences of countless
Christians throughout the centuries." Romans
- The Sons Of God
|
"Any teaching which prevents us from examining
and searching ourselves, testing and proving ourselves, condemning our own
superficiality, and from seeking for something bigger and deeper, is of
necessity condemned. And such is the invariable effect of the teaching
which tells us to 'take it by faith and not to worry about our feelings,'
and to thank God for it, because we have taken it, and assume that all is
well." Romans - The Sons Of God
|
"The whole object of the sealing of the Spirit is to give us certainty
about our inheritance. It is an earnest, a foretaste, of good things to
come. It is essentially experimental... though the intensity or the degree
may vary considerably, the experience itself is always unmistakable."
Romans - The Sons Of God
|
"But - and thank God for this - once you have
had it [the sealing of the Spirit], the memory of it will remain with you
as long as you live; you will look back to it as the greatest joy in your
life." Romans - The Sons Of God
|
"Why is it that some have believed? It is because the Spirit has
sanctified them, has set them apart, has called them out. It is the call
of the Spirit; it is the work of the Spirit in conviction, and calling
out, and giving power to believe." Romans -
The Sons Of God
|
"We should never be content with anything less
than what is described as possible to the Christian in the New Testament."
Romans - The Sons Of God
|
"We must with the whole of our being give diligence to make our
calling and election sure, and there is no better way of doing so than by
receiving this testimony of the Spirit with our spirits that we are the
children of God." Romans - The Sons Of God
|
"Faith does not lay hold on the blessing itself,
it lays hold on the One Who gives the blessing, and pleads with Him."
Romans - The Sons Of God
|
"But the highest assurance of all results from the Spirit bearing
witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God... This is
essentially experimental, experiential; and so to tell people that they
can take this, of all blessings, by faith and not to worry about their
feelings, is sheer confusion of thought and a denial of the teaching of
the Scriptures about the highest and the greatest experience possible to
a human being." Romans - The Sons Of God
|
"Apart from justification, apart from that which
has been done for us in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no
peace between God and man." Romans -
Assurance
|
"Nothing is more wonderful than to know that God loves you; and no man
can truly know that God loves him except in Jesus Christ and Him
crucified." Romans - Assurance
|
"Every doctrine is dangerous, and can be - and
has been - abused." Romans -
Assurance
|
"The man who is a true Christian is a man who has had a glimpse of
Hell, and who knows that there is only one reason for the fact that he is
not bound for it." Romans - Assurance
|
"The final perseverance of the saints is
guaranteed by their relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ."
Romans - Assurance
|
"The Christian is a man who should have assurance; it is the business
of every Christian to have assurance... The Roman Catholic Church not only
does not teach the doctrine of Assurance of Salvation, it preaches and
teaches against it. Why? The explanation is quite simple. As long as you
are uncertain, you are dependent upon the Church, you are dependent upon
the priests. If you have assurance of salvation you do not need a priest,
you do not need the help of the Virgin Mary, or the works of
supererogation of the saints; you go directly to God through Christ.
Assurance of salvation militates against the whole policy and activity of
that Church with its teaching about purgatory and need of indulgences and
so on; so they denounce that doctrine. That is, of course, because they
put their own tradition before the Scripture, indeed because they here
deny the plain teaching of the Scripture. They are thoroughly unscriptural
and they can only establish their whole system, and keep it going, in
defiance of the Scriptures." Romans -
Assurance
|
"Over and above your intelligent apprehension of
it, over and above your intelligent and intellectual deduction of it,
there is a direct and immediate assurance given by the Holy Ghost who
sheds abroad the love of God in your heart. You are overwhelmed by it, it
is poured out in your heart, and there is no uncertainty any more... We do
not take it by faith; we know; we have tasted it, we have felt
it... It is a sensibile something; it is experimental; it affects the
emotions and the feelings; it is direct and immediate, not indirect and
mediate. There is surely nothing more precious in the whole of Scripture,
and yet how little we hear about it today. It seems to have dropped out of
evangelical teaching. It is because of that psychological teaching about
taking it by faith and not worrying about your feelings."
Romans - Assurance
|
"No man has ever had the love of God shed abroad in his heart without
knowing it; and it always leads to the shout!"
Romans - Assurance
|
"Our Lord's death on the Cross is the supreme
manifestation of the love of God."
Romans - Assurance
|
"Man is totally incapable, he is without any strength at all in the
matter of his salvation... Man as he is born into this world is totally
unable to please God. His righteousness is but as filthy rags. Man does
not like to be told that, and he does not believe it."
Romans - Assurance
|
"Ultimately it is only the man who feels quite
hopeless about himself who really trusts God."
Romans - Assurance
|
"The universality of sin is only truly explained by the doctrine of
the Fall... It is sin that has brought in death. Sin is the cause of the
infliction of death. Death is penal; it came in as the punishment of sin;
it was not there before." Romans - Assurance
|
"If you say to me, 'Is it fair that the sin
of Adam should be imputed to me?' I will reply by asking, 'Is it
fair that the righteousness of Christ should be imputed to you?'"
Romans - Assurance
|
"There is no blessing that ever comes to man from God without coming
through the Lord Jesus Christ." Romans -
Assurance
|
"Do we delight to talk about free grace and free
gift? Pharisees never do so because they realize that these terms make
them out to be paupers as all others. They like to feel that they have
earned salvation or at least that they have made a contribution towards
it." Romans - Assurance
|
"He who as Son of God had made the Law with his Father put Himself
under it in order to redeem us." Romans -
Assurance
|
"There is no greater sinner in the universe than
the man who has never seen his need of the blood of Christ. There is no
sin greater than that - murder and adultery and fornication are nothing in
comparison with it." Romans - Assurance
|
"There has been no such thing as freedom since Adam fell. Adam was
free. Not a single child of Adam has ever been free... Man's will has been
bound ever since the fall of Adam. By nature man is not free to choose
God." Romans - Assurance
|
"No Christian should be surprised at the state
of the world today; he should expect it."
Romans - Assurance
|
"Grace is in no sense contingent upon or dependent upon what man
does." Romans - Assurance
|
"No man is saved unless he is predestinated and
elected. This is not my statement; it is Paul who says it. There is
nothing accidental about salvation."
Romans - Assurance
|
"Not only is grace irrestible, it must be irrestible. For if grace
were not irrestible no one would ever have been saved... The idea that
grace presents itself to us, but that the final choice remains with us as
to whether we are going to take advantage of it or not, is not only a
contradition of the verse we are considering, it is a contradiction of the
entire biblical teaching concerning the way of salvation."
Romans - Assurance
|
"The restraining power of grace is manifested in
God's people even before their conversion. They are not allowed to sin to
such a degree that they put themselves outside the scope of salvation.
They are never allowed to blaspheme against the Holy Ghost."
Romans - Assurance
|
"The teaching of the New Testament Epistles is directed only and
solely to Christians, to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is utterly
wrong and heretical to take the teaching of any New Testament Epistle and
apply it to the world in general." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"The Church is not an institution, she is
primarily a gathering, a meeting of saints."
Ephesians - God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"We must learn to shed once and for ever the false dichotomy which
Roman Catholicism has introduced at this point. It picks out certain
people and calls them saints... But that is wrong and unscriptural.
Every Christian is a saint; you cannot be a Christian without being
a saint... We have accepted the false idea that only certain
Christians are saints, we have not realized that every Christian is
meant to be separate from the world." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"However much we may delude ourselves, there is
no such thing as a theoretical Christian. It is possible to hold the
doctrine of the faith in the lecture room, to give an intellectual assent
to these things, but that does not make us Christian."
Ephesians - God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"You cannot, you must not try to divide Christ. It is a false doctrine
which says that you can be justified without being sanctified... Holiness
is a characteristic of every Christian, and if we are not holy, our
profession of Christ is valueless." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"Man was never meant to be a god, but he is for
ever trying to deify himself." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"It is because man has an inadequate conception of sin that he has an
inadequate conception of the grace of God." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"Anything which claims to be Christianity
without having Christ at the beginning and the centre and the end is a
denial of Christianity, call it what you will." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"He is Jehovah, but He is also Jesus - the God-man... He is the Lord
Jehovah become Jesus, taking upon Himself our nature, taking upon Himself
our problems, and even our frailties, and eventually our sin." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"The Christian position is always and inevitably
Trinitarian. Christian worship must be Trinitarian if it is true worship." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"There is no such thing as a Christianity which is not experimental." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"Any attempt to equate the teaching of the New
Testament with any one of the political parties, or any other party, is to
do violence to the teaching of Christ... The greatest tragedy in the world
is that the Church, instead of preaching her own message, is preaching an
earthly, human, carnal message. Has the Church nothing better to preach
than an appeal to statesmen to solve problems? That is really a denial of
the Christian faith, and reveals an abysmal ignorance of the heavenly
places." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"The Christian, and he alone, sees God's plan and purpose." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"The teaching is that those who enjoy these
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ do so because they have
been chosen by God to do so... Such is the Apostle's categorical
statement." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"There are many Christian people today, it seems to me, who claim to
be believers in the inspiration of the Scriptures but who nevertheless
quite deliberately avoid large portions of Scripture simply because they
are difficult. But if you believe that the whole of Scripture is the Word
of God, such an attitude is sinful; it is our business to face the
Scriptures." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"Not only does the Bible not argue; it
reprimands us for our arrogance in bringing our difficulties and pitting
them against what God has revealed." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"If we hold that we become regenerate because we have already
believed, then we have to show why we need to be regenerated at all... The
doctrine of regeneration has a great deal to say about election and this
doctrine of divine choice... The natural man hates this doctrine more than
any other." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"People often argue that this doctrine of divine
election and choice leaves no place for evangelism, for preaching the
gospel, for urging people to repent and to believe, and for the use of
arguments and persuasions in doing so. But there is no contradiction here
any more than there is in saying that since it is God that gives us the
crops of corn in the autumn, therefore the farmer need not plough and
harrow and sow; the answer to which is that God has ordained both. God has
chosen to call out His people by means of evangelism and the preaching of
the Word. He ordains the means as well as the end." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"The Bible is a whole, and we have no hope of understanding the New
Testament gospel unless we accept the first chapters of the Book of
Genesis with their account of the Fall of man into sin." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"God's desire for us that we be holy comes
before His desire for our happiness or anything else." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"You cannot be justified before God and decide later on to be
sanctified." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"The man who is not being chastened is a
bastard; he is not a child of God... God, who has chosen you to holiness,
will make you holy; and if the preaching of the gospel does not do so, God
has other means and methods... Antinomiansim is nonsense. If you are
chosen of God unto holiness and to be without blemish, He will bring you
to that condition; and if you defy Him, well then, terrible things may
happen to you." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"Theological and spiritual understanding are clearly as important in
the work of translation as linguistic proficiency, and arguably they are
more important." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"The world knows nothing about true honour and
riches... The glory God gives is an unseen glory, but it is a real glory
because it is given by Him." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"I do not hesitate to assert that there is no teaching which is
finally so inimical to our souls and their salvation as this teaching
about the universal Fatherhood of God." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"Salvation is not according to man's desire or
request. Man by nature, and in sin, does not desire salvation. Salvation
is not a response on God's part to anything in man; it is entirely from
God." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"In our redemption in the Lord Jesus Christ we see the glory of God at
is greatest height." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"There is only one answer to the question as to
why Christ had to die - the holiness of God!" Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"Our Lord did not come to tell us what we have to do in order to save
ourselves; He came to save us... The Christian doctrine of salvation and
redemption is this - that Christ Himself is the salvation." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"Nowhere is sin so brought home to us as at the
Cross of Christ and by the blood of Christ. Before we are forgiven we must
realize something of the enormity of sin, and it is at the Cross that we
do so. We see it as something so terrible, so horrible, such an affront to
God, that it necessitates the Cross. The Cross therefore condemns us
before it sets us free. This is why it is an offence to the natural man...
Sin is so terrible, so foul, and so vile that nothing could deal with it
but the blood of Christ." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"Make sure that you know something of the power of the Holy Spirit
working in you." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"The teaching concerning the kingdom of heaven is a mystery; and He makes it known to disciples only... It is a
mystery in the the sense that man with his unaided, fallen mind and
intellect can never discover and arrive at... The entire New Testament
teaching turns upon this, that believers in Christ have entered into the
secret, have had the mystery revealed to them. SAVING TRUTH is no longer a
mystery to the Christian, it is only a mystery to the non-Christian." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"Men come to the New Testament with all their ability and
understanding and training but they do not see the truth. They can never
do so without the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, and His operation upon us,
are absolutely essential before we can receive the truth and begin to
understand it... Whatever a man may be, and however great his natural
ability may be, if he is not enlightened by the Holy Spirit he will not
and cannot understand the Scriptures. The truth which they reveal is
spiritually discerned." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"To me the greatest tragedy of all at the
present time is that so many Christian leaders, when they try to deal with
this world situation, concentrate on what they think statesmen should do
to resolve the recurring crises and to avert certain dangers... There are
many who believe that it is possible to Christianize the world, and that
the main business of preaching is to try to persuade people to apply
Christian teaching to the affairs of the world. But to expect Christian
behaviour from people who are not Christian betokens a colossal ignorance
of sin and its ways as they are revealed in the Bible. That is not the
message that is revealed here and indeed anywhere in the Bible." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"Christ is central, Christ is essential, and anything which calls
itself Christianity which does not go on repeating the blessed Name is
ultimately a denial of Christianity." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"In spite of the arguments based upon
a philosophic ideal of the love of God, the Scripture draws the ultimate
distinction between eternal salvation and eternal destruction." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"It is particularly interesting to observe that God's way in Christ is
so very different from that which frequently passes as Christianity at the
present time, with all its emphasis on the political and social
application of the gospel." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"All troubles in the world, between nations,
between individuals, stem from a failure at some point in the realm of
relationships... But this does not mean, as so many teach, that what is
needed is the application of the teaching of Christ to modern problems,
and that the Church's business is to tell people how to behave in a
Christian manner and to apply Christian principles. That is not the
teaching of Paul. There is no greater heresy, in a sense, than to expect
Christian conduct from people who are not Christians." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"The Church is largely wasting her time in talking politics, and in
imagining that, if you give people the Christian ethic and urge them to
practise it, the problems of the world will be solved. It cannot be done:
regeneration is essential." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"The kingdom of God and of His Christ is coming;
and nothing can stop it. And we who are in Christ are certain to be
there... Men and women who believe this truth, and who know that it is
true of themselves, are not over-interested in this world and what happens
in it." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"In every view of salvation the place given in it to the glory of God
provides the ultimate test. The proof that it is truly scriptural is that
it gives ALL the glory to God." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"A man cannot be in the kingdom of God unless he
is a child of God; and he cannot be a child of God without the Spirit...
It is God's action, in which He bears witness that we are His children,
that He is our Father, and that we are heirs of God and joint-heirs with
Christ. It is God's authentication of the fact that we really belong to
Him." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"The teaching of the Scripture is that the moment a man is born again
his sanctification has and must have started. The process of making him
holy and separating him unto God has already begun. There is no greater
error than to teach that you can receive your justification by faith and
then later on you receive your sanctification by faith. Sanctification is
not an experience, not a gift to be received: it is a work of the Holy
Spirit in the heart which starts from the moment of regeneration." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"What our Lord promised happened at Jerusalem on
the day of Pentecost as we are told in the second chapter of the Book of
Acts. Yet in spite of the account of the event given there I am asked to
believe that it is non-experimental, that it did not lead to any feelings
or to anything whatsoever in the sphere of consciousness... We are so
afraid of excesses, we are so afraid of being labelled in a certain way,
that we claim the baptism of the Spirit to be something unconscious,
non-experimental, a happening that does not affect a man's feelings. Such
an argument is utterly unscriptural." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"There is nothing in contemporary Christianity which is so dangerous
and so unscriptural as the the teaching that, with regard to each and
every blessing in the Christian life, all that we have to do is to take it
by faith and not worry about feelings... The teaching of take it by
faith is responsible, I believe, for much of the present undesirable state
of the Christian Church." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"Let us be clear in our minds, then, that we do
not receive this blessing in that way and apart from feelings; when we are
sealed with the Holy Spirit of God we shall know it. It is not to be
accepted by faith apart from feelings... When God seals you with the
Spirit you will know it. You will not have to take it by faith
irrespective of your feelings and your condition... You will not have to
persuade yourself; the persuasion will be done by the Holy Ghost." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"When we have this seal of the Spirit we know it, and others know it.
It is the highest, the greatest experience which a Christian can have in
this world." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"The sealing with the Spirit, or the baptism
with the Spirit, is clearly experimental and experiential." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"The Holy Spirit within us gives us what we as Christians should be
enjoying - a foretaste of heaven." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"In this expression - Lord Jesus
- we have the mystery of godliness, namely, that God was manifest in the
flesh, together with all that followed the birth at Bethelem." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"The first commandment to the Christian is not that we should love one
another but that we should believe in the Lord Jesus. We are told about
the early disciples that they continued stedfastly in the apostles'
doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and prayers. Today the
fellowship is put first, and the doctrine is almost regarded as a
hindrance and an obstacle. For this reason the church is in her present
perilous condition. She has departed from the Apostolic order - faith in
the Lord Jesus first, doctrine first; and then love towards all saints." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"Man claims that he wants knowledge. To that
demand the Bible says: If you want knowledge, if you want wisdom, if you
want true understanding, there is only one place in which you can find it
- here it is!" Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"The extent of man's fall is so great and extensive that no man by the
exercise of his own will or understanding can ever save himself or become
a Christian." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"God, through the gospel and by the Holy Spirit,
sends out this general call to the whole world, but He calls certain
people in particular, and no man is a Christian unless he is called in
this special sense... They are people in whom the Word of God has been
made effective; it has come to them in power, it has come as a command
which they find to be irrestible, and they readily respond to it with the
whole of their being." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"Roman Catholics dislike the doctrine of assurance of salvation, and
denounce it. They do not want us to have personal certainity; our
assurance must lie in the Church to which we commit ourselves... But the
essence of Protestantism, as Martin Luther discovered to his great and
eternal joy, is that the individual Christian may know his salvation is
certain; he may defy all devils and hell and Satan himself; the Christian
knows the Christ whom he has believed; his hope is sure; his calling and
election are sure." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"One of the greatest and most practical grounds
of assurance is the doctrine of the new birth, or of regeneration. If I am
born of God, of the Spirit, I cannot fall away; it is impossible." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"No man was more concerned about decent, proper living in this world
than John Calvin. The story of that man and how he reformed the life of
Geneva, has inspired many others who have borrowed his ideas, and this has
been the greatest motive power in the history of democracy." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"The only man who really respects life in this
world is the man who knows that this world is only the antechamber to the
next world." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"Do you know that you are a saint? Are you certain that you are one of
God's people? Make certain of it." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"A Christian is the result of the operation of
God, nothing less, nothing else. No man can make himself a Christian; God
alone makes Christians... A Christian is one who has been created anew;
and there is only One who can create, namely, God. It takes the power of
God to make a Christian." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"The mightiest foes, the devil, death, and hell have already been
vanquished, and the resurrection of Christ is the proof of it." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"Our very believing is the result of
the power of God... There is a strong tendency to talk in a superficial
manner about believing, as if it were an easy thing which any man can do
if he feels disposed to it. How lightly and glibly many talk about
believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, or about believing the gospel... There
is much emphasis on believing and decision; and it is suggested that
anyone who wants to become a Christian can easily accomplish it... There
are two main explanations of this superficial, indeed false, view of
believing. The first is that it is due to an appalling failure on our part
to realize the consequences of sin and the Fall of man... The second is
our failure to realize what is involved in the new birth, or regeneration;
we fail to realize the greatness of the change that is described in those
terms, and what is included in them, and why regeneration is ever
necessary. These are the cause of all glib use of the word believe, and
the tendency to to say that the natural man is able to believe." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"There is a defect even in man's will. Sin has affected the whole of
man. Our failure to appreciate the power of God in our very act of
believing is due to our failure to realize the devastating effect of the
Fall. It marred and defaced God's image in us, with the inevitable
consequences that our minds and wills became defiled." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"When we come to the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ, do we realize that it was the greatest manifestation of the
energy of the strength of God's might that the world has ever known?...
From the moment God puts His hand upon a man and brings him to the new
birth and new life, He continues to exert this power in him... If we are
to understand this power which is working in us we must see it as it is
illustrated in what God has done in Christ, in the power which he wrought
in Christ when he raised him from the dead. What a display of power that
was!" Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"The line between the Church and the world is almost invisible, and
the people of God no longer stand out in their uniqueness as they once
did." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"We recognize no human being as the Head of the
Church; Christ alone is the King and the Head of the Church." Ephesians -
God's Ultimate Purpose
|
"Christianity is not a movement for world reform. The Bible is quite
explicit about this." Romans - The Perseverance
Of The Saints
|
"The Bible has no comfort whatsoever to give to
people who are not Christians - none at all; indeed the exact opposite.
The Bible has nothing to say to such people except to warn them to flee
from the wrath to come. It tells them that the sufferings of this present
hour are not worthy to be compared with the sufferings they are going to
endure, that these are but a foretaste of what is coming to them, that the
account of the Flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all
similar calamities are but faint pictures of the suffering that is going
to come to those who do not belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no
comfort here for an unbeliever - none at all."
Romans - The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"This present world is passing, transient, temporary. The world to
come is the real, the permanent world. That is the one that has substance
and which will endure for ever. And it is coming for certain: nothing can
stop it." Romans - The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"Man is in a totally unsatisfactory position
when he imagines that he can hold on to the doctrines of the Christian
Faith and yet reject the factual, the historical element."
Romans - The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"The Apostle says that you should know that you were saved, and you
should have absolute certainty and assurance concerning it... We should
know the witness of the Spirit with our spirit that we ARE - not that we
are HOPING to be - but that we ARE the children of God, and joint-heirs
with Christ."
Romans - The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"Hope is the measure of true Christianity, which
is through and through other-worldly. Pseudo-Christianity always looks
chiefly at this world. Popular Christianity is entirely this-worldly and
is not interested in the other world. But true Christianity has its eye
mainly on the world which is to come... This is not our world. I am a
stranger here, heaven is my home... Such is the Christian position, such
is the Christian attitude. The world will call it escapism. Let it call it
what it chooses; its language but reminds us of its blindness and
darkness."
Romans - The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"We must examine the world, and see it for what it is. Do not be
mislead by the world, do not be captivated by it. See the rottenness, the
ugliness, the foulness; and do not allow it to monopolize your time and
your attention. You must see through it. Then, having seen through it,
keep yourself from it."
Romans - The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"To tell people to start praying as they are is
virtually to deny the whole of the Christian gospel. The gospel's first
message is to tell us that there is only one way into God's presence, and
the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world, and lived and died to this end,
that he might bring us to God... There is no entry into the presence of
God, and there is no true prayer, except through the Lord Jesus Christ by
the influence and power of the Holy Spirit... This is the way to pray, the
only way, and simply to tell all and sundry, when they are in
difficulties, to start praying immediately and to keep on doing so, is a
denial of the New Testament gospel. It makes the Cross of Christ
unnecessary, and it is ultimately to do despite to the very blood of the
Cross itself." Romans - The Perseverance
Of The Saints
|
"If you bombard God with certain particular, personal,
material requests, there is the possibility that He will let you have
them; and you will bitterly regret it. He may grant you your request; but
because it was not a true request, nor in your best interests, and because
you would not listen to Him and His discouragements, He will let you have
your request but you will find leanness in your soul."
Romans - The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"There are those who teach that the prayer of
faith means that you say to yourself, I believe it.
You try to work yourself up into saying,
Yes, I do believe it; it is the Word of God, I do believe it.
But it means no such thing; indeed, it means almost
the exact opposite... There is a prayer given sometimes by the Spirit
concerning which He tells you that it is going to be answered. That is the
prayer of faith. It is not an experiment, it is not a trying to persuade
yourself, or to work yourself up. It is an
ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY that
is given by the Spirit, and you know, therefore, when you are praying and
making your requests, that your prayer is answered. And it happens because
the prayer was given, and the assurance of it was given, by the blessed
Holy Spirit Himself."
Romans - The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"Any translation of the Bible that does away with the variations in
the styles of the authors is a bad translation."
Romans - The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"The word called - to call - is
used in two main senses in Scripture: the one indicating a general call,
and the other an effectual call... There are some who have misunderstood
the doctrine of the great reformers and who say this should not be done,
that the gospel is only to be offered to those who are chosen and elect.
Many in their IGNORANCE regard that as Calvinism. But it is
hyper-Calvinism. John Calvin taught that the general call, the offer,
SHOULD be made to everyone, to all creatures."
Romans - The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"There are no promises to the effect that all things work together for
good to them who do not respond to the call of the gospel; indeed they are
threatened with the damnation of hell. God's wrath is upon them... It is
only to people who have been effectually called in this way, and who are
thus saints, that this great promise is made."
Romans - The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"Are you aware of this calling of God? All
things work together for good to them who are the called according to His
purpose. Has He laid His hand upon you and arrested you and apprehended
you?... Whether you are or are not a church member, if the truth of the
gospel does not ravish your heart, if you do not feel that it is the most
glorious thing you have ever heard, you have never been called."
Romans - The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"At this point we are face to face with what is called the doctrine of
the final perseverance of the saints... The Roman Catholics, as I have had
occasion to point out before, do not believe this doctrine; they reject it
in toto.There would really be no place
for their church if they believed it to be true, which explains why they
have always fought it with such great zeal."
Romans - The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"The more certain I am that I am going to heaven
and to glory where I shall see Christ, the more concerned I am about
preparing myself for that experience."
Romans - The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"God's purpose came into being before the foundation of the
world... God Himself not only planned the purpose, and thought of it, and
initiated it; it is God ultimately who is carrying it out and putting it into
operation... The purpose of God is carried on and fulfilled through the
work of the Spirit, who applies the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ
to us." Romans - The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"Salvation is not ultimately for our sakes; but
for the glory of God. God in salvation is vindicating Himself, and
manifesting Himself to the whole universe. He is displaying His
everlasting and eternal glory. Hence His purpose cannot and will not
fail." Romans - The Perseverance Of The
Saints
|
"The philosopher believes that he can work out everything in his own
mind; he has a pathetic faith in his own reasoning... Some go so far as to
say that the sole purpose of preaching is to tell people that God loves
them whether they believe in Him or not." Romans
- The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"Our Lord is unique as the only begotten Son of
God. There is no other such Son of God, and there never will be. As the
only begotten Son of God He is co-equal and co-eternal with the Father. He
is God the Son, the second Person in the blessed Holy Trinity." Romans
- The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"A race started in Adam; another race started in Christ." Romans
- The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"The ultimate end and object of salvation is the
glorification of the Son." Romans
- The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"Our ultimate and final salvation is absolutely graranteed; and it is
guaranteed because it is the purpose of God with respect to us. Moreover
God has ordained every single step in this process that is going to bring
us to that ultimate glorification. And one of the steps is this
calling. It means that God causes the
word of the gospel, which is preached to all creatures, to come to these
people whom He has foreknown, with power, the power of the Holy Ghost." Romans
- The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"THe startling fact is that there is a single
Christian in the whole world. The amazing thing is not that most people do
not believe; what is astounding is that anyone believes... What God has
predestined for these people whom He has foreknown would never come to
pass in a single instance were it not that God, in His infinite love and
mercy, quickened us and awakened us by His Spirit through His effectual
calling." Romans - The Perseverance Of The
Saints
|
"It is God who grants repentance. Even repentance is a gift. No man
would ever repent were it not for the effectual call of God." Romans
- The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"If God did not make this call effectual for the
people whom He has marked out they would not believe. This is the way in
which God guarantees their full salavtion and glorification. He calles
them in such an effectual manner by the Spirit that this is what they now
desire above everything else." Romans -
The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"How did he ever become the Apostle Paul? Did he decide to
believe in Christ? Did he decide to accept the message? We know what
happened. The Lord of Glory appeared to him. He saw Him in His glorified
state! And immediately he believed, immediately his will desired Him.
What wilt thou have me to do, Lord? A
perfect picture of the effectual call." Romans -
The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"The change that takes place in all who become
Christians is the change from Saul to Paul - not as regards office, of
course, but as regards nature. It happens to every one of us who is a
Christian, but it would never happen to anyone were it not that the Spirit
reveals these things unto us. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath
prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us -
not to everyone, but unto US." Romans
- The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"There is nothing the natural man hates more than to be told that he
is a sinner, and that his nature is twisted and perverted." Romans
- The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"If we are certain of our calling, we can be
certain of our ultimate glorification. If God has called us it means that
He has justified us, and if He has justified us, it means that He has
glorified us; because if we are in any one of these positions we are in
them all... The one thing that matters, therefore, from our experimental
standpoint is to be sure that we are in the purpose of God. Do we know
that we have been called?" Romans
- The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"The ultimate sin is intellectual pride... There is no point in saying
that you accept the Bible as the Word of God if you are determined to
reject statements which you cannot understand." Romans
- The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"The more you believe in the effectual call the
deeper will be your concern about your soul. The people who are most
careless about their souls and their lives are those who have been most
ignorant of doctrine and who are not aware of these profundities." Romans
- The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"In expounding Scripture we must keep to the Scripture and not go
outside it and begin to reason in terms of our failure to understand. For
the moment you begin to import anything from the realm of philosophy, you
are not only of necessity confusing the issue, but also in a sense denying
the sufficiency of revelation." Romans
- The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"It is possible to spend a lifetime in the
Christian ministry, and at the end to be disapproved as ministers and have
nothing to show for all our labour." Romans
- The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"That was why five of these virgins were foolish. They pick up their
lamps and rush off, but then they feel tired and fall asleep; and so, when
the bride groom comes and the call is given, they suddenly find they have
no oil. They have never troubled about that... That was precisely the
trouble with the foolish virgins - assuming, taking things for granted,
not making sure, not examining, not proving their own selves, not
examining their own selves as the Scriptures tell us to do... If you are
heedless and thoughtless, and never examine yourself at all, and resent
any call to self-examination, then I suggest very seriously that you had
better examine the very foundation as to whether you are a Christian at
all." Romans
- The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"It is possible for the Holy Ghost to influence
us to a certain point and still leave us short of regeneration." Romans
- The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"The cardinal error into which many tend to fall is to think of
ourselves as Christians in terms of our believing and our holding on,
instead of looking at ourselves in the way in which Scripture always
presents the position to us... There has been so much emphasis upon
decision,
receiving, yielding,
being willing,
and giving ourselves
that salvation is regarded almost exclusively in terms of our activity...
Many are in trouble simply because they do not realize the truth concerning
the new birth... Nothing is more glorious than the doctrine of the
rebirth; and this is obviously the work of God in us through the Spirit.
We do not give birth to ourselves, we are not reborn because we believe.
We believe because we are reborn." Romans
- The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"The plan of salvation not only cannot fail, it
will not fail because the glory of God is involved in it. It must succeed.
The proof of this is that the whole of salvation depends upon the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself, the Son of God... God has chosen the people whom He
has given to His Son; and the Son has said that He came into the world to
do this work for them at the behest of His Father... God's own Son is the
guarantee of success. He has conquered all our enemies; and we are joined
to Him." Romans
- The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"You will never find an unbeliever who accepts the doctrine of the
final perseverance of the saints... The same applies to those who are
known as higher critics, or liberals in their theology... St. Augustine
believed this doctrine and that explains why his teaching was the one
light that illuminated the darkness of so much of the dark Middle Ages. It
was also the doctrine of the Protestant Reformers. Martin Luther believed
it with all his soul, as also did John Calvin... George Whitefield, the
greatest evangelist and preacher that England has ever produced, believed
it, preached it, and rested upon it... Charles Haddon Spurgeon preached
it, as all volumes of his sermons testify. He went so far as to say that
he really doubted whether a man who did not believe the doctrine was a
Christian at all." Romans
- The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"The great slogan today, and especially in
evangelical circles, is always be
positive, never be negative. That is
utterly unscriptural; it is the exact opposite of the Apostle Paul's
method... Do not be misled by this spurious notion of love. We must not
only assert the truth; we must attack the evil and the false." Romans
- The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"We are faced with the devil in all his power and malignity. We must
not underestimate the power of the enemy; to do so is no part of the New
Testament teaching." Romans
- The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"There is nothing more foolish or self-defeating
than for a Christian to say that he is not interested in doctrines." Romans
- The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"It was God who ordained the death on Calvary's hill, and not men...
it was God's eternal Son who died there, and not a human martyr." Romans
- The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"When God put our sins upon His own Son He did
not withhold any part of the punishment from Him; He poured it all upon
Him, everything that it deserved. God kept nothing of it back, and the Son
submitted Himself to it willingly. That God delivered Him up for us all
means that He poured all the vials of His wrath against sin upon Him. He
smote Him, He struck Him, He wounded Him, He oppressed Him, He afflicted
Him. He put Him to grief, nothing was withheld." Romans
- The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"Nothing shall be able to separate US
- the Christians - those who are the called according to God's purpose.
God's love is to them, and to them only. God's wrath is against all
others." Romans
- The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"God's character and honour demand that a man
who has been justified should finally be glorified, and His power
guarantees it." Romans
- The Perseverance Of The Saints
|
"The true preaching of the gospel of salvation by grace alone always
leads to the possibility of this charge [antinomianism] being brought
against it. There is no better test as to whether a man is really
preaching the New Testament gospel of salvation than this, that some
people might misunderstand it and misinterpret it to mean that it really
amounts to this, that because you are saved by grace alone it does not
matter at all what you do; you can go on sinning as much as you like
because it will redound all the more to the glory of grace. That is a very
good test of gospel preaching. If my preaching and presentation of the
gospel of salvation does not expose it to that misunderstanding, then it
is not the gospel." Romans - The New Man
|
"While an expert knowledge of Greek is good, it
can also be dangerous." Romans - The New Man
|
"The main trouble with the Christian Church today is that she is too
much like a clinic, too much like a hospital; that is why the great world
is going to hell outside!... What most of us need is not a clinic, but to
listen to the sergeant major drilling his troops, commanding them, warning
them, threatening them, showing them what to do." Romans - The New Man
|
"There are many preachers who never preach
justification by faith at all, because they do not believe it. They regard
the New Testament message as no more than an ethical system, and they are
always exhorting people to live better lives, and to stop doing this and
that. They apply this in a more general sphere, and so are always making
protests to Governments and other powers. They talk unceasingly about
applying the Christian ethic... we can say without any hesitation that
such men are not preaching the Gospel." Romans - The New Man
|
"It is God's purpose that guarantees the final perseverance of the
saints, the final glorification of His people."
Romans - God's Sovereign Purpose
|
"There is no better test of our spiritual state
and condition than our missionary zeal, our concern for lost souls. That
is always the thing that divides people who are just theoretical and
intellectual Christians from those who have a living and a vital spiritual
life."
Romans - God's Sovereign Purpose
|
"If you are clear in your theology and in your doctrine you will know
that no natural man cannot believe the gospel... So if you expect a natural
man to believe the gospel simply because you are putting it to him, you
are denying the gospel; you have not understood it yourself."
Romans - God's Sovereign Purpose
|
"When you talk about covenant as it is used in the Bible, to
say that it is the same as two people arriving at an agreement is not only
an inadequate conception, it is an utterly false conception and entirely
wrong... a covenant in the Bible is a sovereign act of God's grace
in which He pledges Himself to do something... Covenant in the
Bible is always something that is entirely and solely and only from God's
side."
Romans - God's Sovereign Purpose
|
"God brought Isaac into being by His own action
in order that His purpose might be carried out in him and through him. And
as the Apostle argues in Galatians 1 and 4, it is the sole explanation
also of anybody who is a Christian, anywhere and at all times."
Romans - God's Sovereign Purpose
|
"So what is it that makes certain that the word of God will not fall
down but will stand and be firm and secure? Oh, it is, Paul says, that
God's purpose is always carried out through the process of election...
'not of works, but him that calleth'
... It is not of the works of man, so this shuts out once and for ever the
thought that the purpose of God through election is something that works
out simply through God foreseeing that certain people are going to do good
works."
Romans - God's Sovereign Purpose
|
"This purpose of God is worked out through
election entirely as the result of the action and the activity of God
Himself. It is completely independent of anything in us, our birth, our
nationality, our good works or anything else whatsoever... It is God's
free choice, and it is an absolute and a sovereign choice."
Romans - God's Sovereign Purpose
|
"God deliver us from this modern trust in scholarship which does not
hesitate to criticize the writings of a divinely inspired Apostle!"
Romans - God's Sovereign Purpose
|
"God does not create evil or put it there, but
He aggravates what is there for His own great purpose."
Romans - God's Sovereign Purpose
|
"Well, I have already shown you where man's responsibility is; he is
responsible for his damnation, he is not responsible for his salvation."
Romans - God's Sovereign Purpose
|
"Do not talk to me about free will; there is no
such thing. There is no such thing as free will in fallen man. The Bible
teaches that."
Romans - God's Sovereign Purpose
|
"The only man who has ever had free will was Adam, and we know what he
did with it. Since then, we have all been born in sin, we are shapen in
iniquity. And what makes any man a Christian is the purpose and the will
and the choice of God."
Romans - God's Sovereign Purpose
|
"We have no claim upon God at all; we deserve
nothing but punishment and hell. If you think that you deserve anything
else, then you do not know God and you do not know yourself either."
Romans - God's Sovereign Purpose
|
"If you do not believe in God's wrath there is no real need for the
sacrifice on Calvary's hill."
Romans - God's Sovereign Purpose
|
"The Bible is the history of redemption. That is
what it really amounts to. And all the history, all that you have about
other nations, comes in simply because it throws some light upon the
history of redemption... It is always the history of God searching for
lost man. When God, as it were, came down from heaven into the garden of
Eden after Adam and Eve had fallen, that is the beginning of that history,
and all the rest just has reference to that."
Romans - God's Sovereign Purpose
|
"The riches of God's glory are to be seen supremely in the person of
His Son."
Romans - God's Sovereign Purpose
|
"Salvation is always the immediate result of the
action of God Himself. Man does not save himself, nor does he determine
his own salvation."
Romans - God's Sovereign Purpose
|
"A man does not become a Christian by taking a decision. He is made a
Christian by God, who had marked him out before the foundation of the
world and who sees to it that he is born, and sees to it that he
believes."
Romans - God's Sovereign Purpose
|
"We are responsible for our rejection of the
gospel, but we are not responsible for our acceptance of it. That is the
result of the electing grace of God."
Romans - God's Sovereign Purpose
|
"If you say that it is our belief and faith that saves us, then you
have turned believing into a work and a man is entitled to glory and to
boast in that."
Romans - God's Sovereign Purpose
|
"The Lord Jesus Christ is the acid test of the
value of any supposed belief in God... That people say they believe in God
is of no value whatsoever unless they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ;
that people may have very exalted views about life and living does not
matter at all unless they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; that people do
not believe in war, or that they do believe in doing good, does not make
the slightest difference if they do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The fact that people may make great sacrifices for the sake of others and,
as they believe, in order to praise God, is utterly useless unless they
believe on our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."
Romans - God's Sovereign Purpose
|
"If you do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ utterly and absolutely
as your Saviour, what you are really doing is pitting yourself against God
and flinging His own actions back into His face... It is a rejection of
God's own plan and God's own provision."
Romans - God's Sovereign Purpose
|
"There are still people who think of this
country as a Christian country. What utter nonsense! There is no such
thing."
Romans - God's Sovereign Purpose
|
"You can believe in God and still not be a Christian."
Romans - God's Sovereign Purpose
|
"We should have seen very clearly that we must
not rely even upon our belief; even our belief in the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is not my belief that saves me; it is not my |
