"It is generally recognized that spirituality is at a low ebb in Christendom and not a few perceive that sound doctrine is rapidly on the wane, yet many of the Lord’s people take comfort from supposing that the Gospel is still being widely preached and that large numbers are being saved thereby. Alas, their optimistic supposition is ill-founded and sandy grounded. If the message now being delivered in Mission Halls be examined, if the tracts which are scattered among the unchurched masses be scrutinized, if the open-air speakers be carefully listened to, if the sermons or addresses of a “Soul-winning campaign” be analyzed; in short, if modern Evangelism be weighed in the balances of Holy Writ, it will be found wanting—lacking that which is vital to a genuine conversion, lacking what is essential if sinners are to be shown their need of a Saviour, lacking that which will produce the transfigured lives of new creatures in Christ Jesus." Studies On Saving Faith |
"The evangelism of the day is not only superficial to the last degree, but it is radically defective." Studies On Saving Faith |
"Those who really receive the “message” which is now being given out from most of the “orthodox” pulpits and platforms today, are being fatally deceived. It is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but unless God sovereignly intervenes by a miracle of grace, all who follow it will surely find that the ends thereof are the ways of death. Tens of thousands who confidently imagine they are bound for Heaven, will get a terrible disillusionment when they awake in Hell." Studies On Saving Faith |
"So far from the Gospel setting aside the Law, it exhibits the Saviour enduring the curse of it. Calvary supplied the most solemn and awe-inspiring display of God’s hatred of sin that time or eternity will ever furnish." Studies On Saving Faith |
"Just as the world was not ready for the New Testament before it received the Old; just as the Jews were not prepared for the ministry of Christ until John the Baptist had gone before Him with his claimant call to repentance, so the unsaved are in no condition today for the Gospel till the Law be applied to their hearts, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Studies On Saving Faith |
"Salvation is a free gift, but an empty hand must receive it, and not a hand which still tightly grasps the world!" Studies On Saving Faith |
"Those who have not bowed to Christ’s scepter and enthroned Him in their hearts and lives, and yet imagine that they are trusting in Him as their Saviour, are deceived, and unless God disillusions them they will go down to the everlasting burnings with a lie in their right hand." Studies On Saving Faith |
"Alas, alas, God’s way of salvation is almost entirely unknown today, the nature of Christ’s salvation is almost universally misunderstood, and the terms of His salvation misrepresented on every hand. The Gospel which is now being proclaimed is, in nine cases out of every ten, but a perversion of the Truth, and tens of thousands, assured they are bound for Heaven, are now hastening to Hell, as fast as time can take them." Studies On Saving Faith |
"It is the bounded duty of every Christian to have no dealings with the evangelistic monstrosity of the day: to withhold all moral and financial support of the same, to attend none of their meetings, to circulate none of their tracts." Studies On Saving Faith |
"It behooves each one of us to make the most diligent and thorough inquiry as to the nature of saving faith. The more so, because all faith does not save; yea, all faith in Christ does not save. Multitudes are deceived upon this vital matter. Thousands of those who sincerely believe that they have received Christ as their personal Saviour and are resting on His finished work, are building upon a foundation of sand." Studies On Saving Faith |
"Now a man may have both illumination and inclination from heaven, and yet not be regenerated." Studies On Saving Faith |
"Until the ungodly are sensible of the exceeding sinfulness of their vile course of self-will and self-pleasing, until they are genuinely broken down and penitent over it before God, until they are willing to forsake the world for Christ, until they have resolved to come under His government—for such to depend upon Him for pardon and life is not faith, but blatant presumption; it is but to add insult to injury. And for one such to take His holy name upon his polluted lips and profess to be His follower, is the most terrible blasphemy, and comes perilously nigh to committing that sin for which there is no forgiveness. Alas, alas, that modern evangelism is encouraging and producing just such hideous and Christ-dishonoring monstrosities." Studies On Saving Faith |
"A natural faith is sufficient for trusting a human object; but a supernatural faith is required to savingly trust in a Divine object." Studies On Saving Faith |
"While observing the methods employed by present-day evangelists and personal workers, we are made to wonder what place the Holy Spirit has in their thoughts: certainly they entertain the most degrading conception of that miracle of grace which He performs, when He moves a human heart to truly surrender unto the Lord Jesus. Alas, in these degenerate times, few have any idea that saving faith is a miraculous thing. Instead, it is now almost universally supposed that saving faith is nothing more than an act of the human will, which any man is capable of performing: all that is needed is to bring before a sinner a few verses of Scripture which describe his lost condition, one or two which contain the word “believe,” and then a little persuasion for him to “accept Christ,” and the thing is done. And the awful thing is that so very, very few see anything wrong with this—blind to the fact that such a process is only the Devil’s drug to lull thousands into a false peace." Studies On Saving Faith |
"Once it is seen that God’s salvation is not only a legal, but also an experimental thing, that it not only justifies, but regenerates and sanctifies, fewer will suppose they are its participants. Once it is seen that Christ came here to save His people not only from hell, but from sin, from self-will and self-pleasing, then fewer will desire His salvation." Studies On Saving Faith |
"Of himself the fallen sinner can no more repent evangelically than he can create a world. “With men it is impossible” rules out of court all special pleading for the power of man’s will. Nothing but a miracle of grace can lead to the saving of any sinner." Studies On Saving Faith |
"No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him." (John 6:44)"Plainly does this language give the lie to the popular theory of the day, that it lies within the power of man’s will to be saved any time he chooses to be. Flatly does this verse contradict the flesh-pleasing and creature honoring idea that any one can receive Christ as his Saviour the moment he decides to do so." Studies On Saving Faith |
"The terrible thing is that so many preachers today, under the pretense of magnifying the grace of God, have represented Christ as the Minister of sin, as One who has, through His atoning sacrifice, procured an indulgence for men to continue gratifying their fleshly and worldly lusts. Providing a man professes to believe in the virgin birth and vicarious death of Christ, and claims to be resting upon Him alone for salvation, he may pass for a real Christian almost anywhere today, even though his daily life may be no different from that of the moral worldling who makes no profession at all. The Devil is chloroforming thousands into Hell by this very delusion." Studies On Saving Faith |
"Whilst saving faith is frittered down to a mere act of the will, blind laymen will continue to be led by blind preachers, only for both to fall into the ditch." Studies On Saving Faith |
"Things are far, far worse even in the orthodox sections of Christendom than the majority of God’s own children are aware. Things are rotten even at the very foundation, for with very rare exceptions God’s way of salvation is no longer being taught." Studies On Saving Faith |
"No verse of Scripture yields its meaning to lazy people." Studies On Saving Faith |
"If nothing more than the fear of death or horror of Hell prompts the sinner to call upon the Lord, he might just as well call upon the trees. The Almighty is not at the beck and call of any rebel, who, when he is terrified, sues for mercy... The only “calling upon His name” which the Lord heeds, is that which issues from a broken, penitent, sin-hating heart, which thirsts after holiness." Studies On Saving Faith |
"Saving faith is not a native product of the human heart, but is a spiritual grace communicated from on High." Studies On Saving Faith |
"God put forth His “mighty power” when He resurrected Christ. There was a mighty difficulty to be overcome, even the vanquishing of the grave. There was a mighty result to be achieved, even the bringing to life One who was dead. None but God Himself was equal to a miracle so stupendous. Strictly analogous is that miracle of grace which issues in saving faith." Studies On Saving Faith |
"Divine power was needed to create, but much greater power is required to regenerate a soul." Studies On Saving Faith |
"The work of the Spirit in us is equally essential as the work of Christ for us." Studies On Saving Faith |
"The presumptuous professor is filled with pride, and having a high opinion of himself, is quite sure that he has been saved by Christ. He disdains any searching tests, and considers self-examination to be highly injurious and destructive of faith. That preaching pleases him best which keeps at a respectable distance, which comes not near his conscience, which makes no scrutiny of his heart. To preach to him of the finished work of Christ and the eternal security of all who believe in Him, strengthens his false peace and feeds his carnal confidence. Should a real servant of God seek to convince him that his hope is a delusion, and his confidence presumptuous, he would regard him as an enemy." Studies On Saving Faith |
"So little does the world attract the genuine child of God, that he longs for the time to come when God shall take him out of it. Alas, that so very few of those now bearing the name of Christ have any real experimental acquaintance with these things. Alas, that so many are deceived by a faith which is not a saving one." Studies On Saving Faith |
"Cry earnestly to God for a new heart, for His regenerating Spirit, for the gift of saving faith. Prayer is a universal duty. Though an unbeliever sin in praying (as in everything else), yet it is not a sin for him to pray." Studies On Saving Faith |
"We are born spiritually blind, and cannot be restored without a miracle of grace. This is thy case, whoever thou art, that art not born again." Studies On Saving Faith |
"Such as have been awakened by the Spirit, shown their woeful condition, convicted of their high-handed and lifelong rebellion against God, and brought to realize their dire need of Christ, and who are truly anxious to come savingly to Him, have found it a task altogether beyond their powers... True, there are not many who pass through such an experience, for God’s flock is but a little one. True, the vast majority of professing Christians claim that they found coming to Christ a very simple matter. But in the clear light of John 6:44 we must assure you, dear reader, that if you found coming to Christ to be easy, then it is proof you have never come to Him at all in a spiritual and saving way." Studies On Saving Faith |
"The Christ of God fills heaven and earth: He is the One by whom all things exist and consist. He is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having all power, dominion, and might. He is made higher than the heavens, and unto Him all principalities and powers are subject. At His presence both the earth and the heavens shall yet flee away. Such a Christ is neither to be offered nor proffered, sold nor given by sinful men. He is the unspeakable Gift of the Father to as many as He has ordained to eternal life, and none others. This Christ, this Gift of the Father, is supernaturally revealed and applied to the heirs of salvation by the Holy Spirit, when, where, and as He pleases; and not when, where, and how men please." Studies On Saving Faith |
"No sinner ever comes to Christ until the Holy Spirit first comes to him! And no sinner will savingly believe on Christ until the Spirit has communicated faith to him." Studies On Saving Faith |
"We have had personal dealings with men whose hearts were filled with covetousness, and whose ways were worldly almost to the last degree, yet who tiraded against modernism and evolutionism, etc., and faithfully preached the Virgin-birth and the blood of Christ as the sinner’s only hope. That these men are natural or carnal, that is, unregenerate, is plain and unmistakable if we measure them by the infallible rule of Holy Writ: it would not only be a contradiction in terms, but blasphemy to say such had been made, by God, new creatures in Christ. Nevertheless, so far from the foundation truths of Scripture being foolishness unto these unregenerate characters, they warmly endorse and ardently propagate them... Let it be carefully noted that it does not say the things of God are foolishness unto the natural man... The things of God these men profess to believe; the things of Christ, they appear to valiantly champion; but the things of the SPIRIT OF GOD they are personal strangers unto; and therefore when His secret and mysterious work upon the souls of God’s elect is pressed upon them, they appear to be so much foolishness unto them—either mysticism or fanaticism. But to the renewed it is far otherwise." Studies On Saving Faith |
"So too there is a natural love for Christ, an ardent devotion for Him, which springs not from a renewed heart. Just as one reared among devout Romanists, grows up with a deep veneration and genuine affection for the Virgin; so one carefully trained by Protestant parents, told from infancy that Jesus loves him, grows up with a real but natural love for Him. There may be a historical faith in all the doctrines of Scripture, where the power of them is never experienced. There may be a fleshly zeal for portions of God’s Truth, as there was in the case of the Pharisees, and yet the heart not be renewed." Studies On Saving Faith |
"Nothing short of the throne of our hearts will satisfy the Lord Jesus. In order to do this, the Holy Spirit casts down our carnal imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and brings into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, so that we freely and gladly take His yoke upon us; which yoke is, as one of the Puritans said, lined with love." Studies On Saving Faith |
"God controls the inward feelings and acts of men without interfering either with their liberty or responsibility." Studies On Saving Faith |
"The demands of Christ are too humbling to our natural pride, too searching for the callous conscience, too exacting for our fleshly desires. And a miracle of grace has to be wrought within us before this awful depravity of our nature, this dreadful state of affairs, is changed." Studies On Saving Faith |
"How many rest on their sound doctrinal views of Christ. They believe firmly in His Deity, His holy humanity, His perfect life, His vicarious death, His bodily resurrection, His ascension to God’s right hand, His present intercession on high, and His second advent. So too did many of those to whom James addressed his epistle, but he reminded them that the demons also believe and tremble. O my reader, saving faith in Christ is very much more than assenting to the teachings of Scripture concerning Him." Studies On Saving Faith |
"The ministry of the Puritans was an exceedingly searching one. While magnifying the free grace of God in no uncertain terms, while teaching plainly that the satisfaction of Christ alone gave title to Heaven, while emphatically repudiating all creature-merits, they nevertheless insisted that a supernatural and transforming work of the Spirit in the heart and life of the believer was indispensable to fit him for Heaven. Professors were rigidly tested, and the results and fruits of faith were demanded before its presence was admitted. Self-examination was frequently insisted upon, and full details given as to how one might ascertain that he was a new creature in Christ Jesus. Christians were constantly urged to make their calling and election sure by ascertaining that they had clear evidence of the same. While conditions were far from being perfect, yet there is good reason to conclude that more deluded souls were undeceived and more hypocrites exposed than at any other period since the first century A.D." Studies On Saving Faith |
"Thousands of souls who give no evidence of being born again are quite confident that Christ has saved them." Studies On Saving Faith |
"On every side are people full of assurance, certain that they are journeying to Heaven... Nevertheless it is the bounden duty of every real servant of God to tell the great majority of them that they are woefully deluded by Satan." Studies On Saving Faith |
"The Holy Spirit Himself moved one of His servants to write a whole Epistle to instruct us how we might know whether or not we have eternal life... Let the really concerned soul read slowly and thoughtfully through this first epistle of John, and let him duly observe that not once in its five chapters are we told We know that we have passed from death unto life because we are resting on the finished work of Christ. The total absence of such a statement ought, surely, to convince us that something must be radically wrong with so much of the popular teaching of the day on this subject." Studies On Saving Faith |
"Regeneration is a work which God performs within us, and as eternal destiny hinges on the same, it behooves every serious soul to take the utmost pains and ascertain whether or not this miracle of grace has been wrought within him." Studies On Saving Faith |
"It is impossible that the Third Person of the Trinity should take up His abode within a soul, without effecting a radical change within him: and it is this which I need to make sure of. It is the Spirit’s work within the heart which is the only infallible proof of salvation." Studies On Saving Faith |
"They who are filled with a carnal assurance, a fleshly confidence, a vain presumption, feel no need for asking the Lord to prove them. So completely has Satan deceived them, that they imagine it would be an act of unbelief so to do. Poor souls, they call evil good, and good evil; they put darkness for light, and light for darkness." Studies On Saving Faith |
"Christ is the Saviour of none until He is welcomed as LORD." Studies On Saving Faith |
"All pretentions unto the present enjoyment of the assurance of faith by those whose daily lives are unbecoming the Gospel are groundless. They who are confident of entering that Eternal Happiness which consists very much in a perfect freedom from all sin, but who now allow themselves in the practice of sin (persuading themselves that Christ has fully atoned for the same), are deceived. None truly desire to be free from sin in the future, who do not sincerely long to forsake it in the present. He who does not pant after holiness here is dreadfully mistaken if he imagines he desires holiness hereafter. Glory is but grace consummated; the heavenly life is but the full development of the regenerated life on earth. Neither death nor the second coining of Christ will effect any radical change in the Christian: it will only perfect what he already has and is. Any, then, who pretend unto the assurance of salvation, who boast of their pardon and present possession of eternal life, but who have not an experience of deep sorrow for sin, real indignation against it, and hatred of themselves because of transgressions, know nothing at all of what holy assurance is." Studies On Saving Faith |
"Nothing but the communication of a new nature, a supernatural work of grace within, can furnish proof that the righteousness of Christ has been placed to my account. Whom God legally saves, he experimentally saves." Studies On Saving Faith |
"It is only in proportion as the Christian manifests the fruit of a genuine conversion that he is entitled to regard himself and be regarded by others as one of the called and elect of God... It is not those who are governed by self-will, but as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God (Romans 8:14)" Studies On Saving Faith |
"We have the same Word to measure ourselves by now as God will judge us by in the day to come." Studies On Saving Faith |
"O what efforts Satan puts forth to keep people from this vitally important and all-necessary work of self-examination. He knows full well that if many of his deceived victims set about the task in earnest, they would soon discover that no miracle of Divine grace has been wrought in them, and that this would cause them to seek the Lord with all their hearts." Studies On Saving Faith |
"It is very evident to one who has been taught of God that the vast majority of present-day evangelists, tract-writers, and personal workers do not believe one-half of what Holy Writ declares concerning the spiritual impotency of the natural man, or the absolute necessity of a miracle of grace being wrought within him before he can savingly turn to Christ. Instead, they erroneously imagine that fallen man is a free moral agent, possessing equal power to accept Christ as to reject Him. They suppose all that is needed is information and coercion: to preach the Gospel and persuade men to believe it... Not only is there practically no definite waiting upon God and an earnest seeking from Him the power of His Spirit, but they sally forth and speak and write to the unsaved as if the Holy Spirit had no existence." Studies On Saving Faith |
"In every instance where God has decreed an end, He has also decreed every means to that end. The One who decreed the salvation of His elect also decreed to work faith in them." Gleanings In The Godhead, Part I |
"God did not elect any sinner because He foresaw that he would believe, for the simple but sufficient reason that no sinner ever believes until God gives him faith, just as no man sees until God gives him sight." Gleanings In The Godhead, Part I |
"The trend of modern theology -- if theology it can be called -- is ever toward the deification of the creature rather than the glorification of the Creator, and the leaven of present-day Rationalism is rapidly permeating the whole of Christendom." The Sovereignty Of God |
"Many of those among our religious leaders who are still regarded as orthodox would, we fear, be found to be very heterodox if they were weighed in the balances of the Sanctuary. Even those who are clear, intellectually, upon other truth, are rarely sound in doctrine. Few, very few, today, really believe in the complete ruin and total depravity of man. Those who speak of man's free will, and insist upon his inherent power to either accept or reject the Saviour, do but voice their ignorance of the real condition of Adam's fallen children. And if there are few who believe that, so far as he is concerned, the condition of the sinner is entirely hopeless, there are fewer still who really believe in the absolute Sovereignty of God." The Sovereignty Of God |
"In the light of Scripture we are compelled to believe that the many are on the Broad Road that leadeth to destruction, and that only few are on the Narrow Way that leadeth unto life." The Sovereignty Of God |
"From what is heard from the average evangelist today, is not any serious hearer obliged to conclude that he professes to represent a God who is filled with benevolent intentions, yet unable to carry them out; that He is earnestly desirous of blessing men, but that they will not let Him? Then, must not the average hearer draw the inference that the Devil has gained the upper hand, and that God is to be pitied rather than blamed?" The Sovereignty Of God |
"Ours is peculiarly an age of irreverence, and as the consequence, the spirit of lawlessness, which brooks no restraint and which is desirous of casting off everything which interferes with the free course of self-will, is rapidly engulfing the earth like some giant tidal wave... And conditions will not improve; instead, the more sure Word of Prophecy makes known to us that they will grow worse and worse... All we can now hope to do is warn our fellow-saints against the spirit of the age, and thus seek to counteract its baneful influence upon them." The Sovereignty Of God |
"It is true that, speaking generally, the material world is regulated by law, but behind that law is the law-Giver and law-Administrator. Man is but the creature. God is the Creator, and endless ages before man first saw the light the mighty God existed, and ere the world was founded, made His plans; and being infinite in power and man only finite, His purpose and plan cannot be withstood or thwarted by the creatures of His own hands." The Sovereignty Of God |
"The God of the twentieth century is a helpless, effeminate being who commands the respect of no really thoughtful man." The Sovereignty Of God |
"To say that God the Father has purposed the salvation of all mankind, that God the Son died with the express intention of saving the whole human race, and that God the Holy Spirit is now seeking to win the world to Christ; when, as a matter of common observation, it is apparent that the great majority of our fellow-men are dying in sin, and passing into a hopeless eternity: is to say that God the Father is disappointed, that God the Son is dissatisfied, and that God the Holy Spirit is defeated... To argue that God is trying His best to save all mankind, but that the majority of men will not let Him save them, is to insist that the will of the Creator is impotent, and that the will of the creature is omnipotent." The Sovereignty Of God |
"To declare that the Creator's original plan has been frustrated by sin, is to dethrone God." The Sovereignty Of God |
"When we say that God is sovereign in the exercise of His love, we mean that He loves whom He chooses. God does not love everybody; if He did, He would love the Devil." The Sovereignty Of God |
"Christ died not merely to make possible the salvation of all mankind, but to make certain the salvation of all that the Father had given to Him." The Sovereignty Of God |
"Grant that the One who died upon the cross was God manifest in the flesh, and it follows inevitably that what Christ has purposed, that will He perform; that what He has purchased, that will He possess; that what He has set His heart upon, that will He secure. If the Lord Jesus possesses all power in heaven and earth, then none can successfully resist His will." The Sovereignty Of God |
"The mission of the Holy Spirit in the world today is to apply the benefits of Christ's redemptive sacrifice." The Sovereignty Of God |
"The new birth is solely the work of God the Spirit and man has no part or lot in it... Personally we have no more to do with our spiritual birth than we had with our natural birth." The Sovereignty Of God |
"It is supposed that the Holy Spirit quickens only those who believe. But this is to put the cart before the horse. Faith is not the cause of the new birth, but the consequence of it." The Sovereignty Of God |
"The mission of the Spirit is threefold; to glorify Christ, to vivify the elect, to edify the saints." The Sovereignty Of God |
"Let it not be forgotten that God's providences are but the manifestations of His decrees: what God does in time is only what He purposed in eternity -- His own will being the alone cause of all His acts and works." The Sovereignty Of God |
"God's decree of Reprobation contemplated Adam's race as fallen, sinful, corrupt, guilty. From it God purposed to save a few as the monuments of His sovereign grace; the others He determined to destroy as the exemplification of His justice and severity. In determining to destroy these others, God did them no wrong. They had already fallen in Adam, their legal representative; they are therefore born with a sinful nature, and in their sins He leaves them." The Sovereignty Of God |
"We can no more persevere without God preserving us, than we can breathe when God ceases to give us breath." The Sovereignty Of God |
"God has access to the hearts of all men and He softens or hardens them according to His sovereign purpose." The Sovereignty Of God |
"Christ came here not to help those who were willing to help themselves, but to do for His people what they were incapable of doing for themselves." The Sovereignty Of God |
"To come to Christ for life, is for the sinner to feel and acknowledge that he is utterly destitute of any claim upon God's favor; is to see himself as without strength, lost and undone; is to admit that he is deserving of nothing but eternal death, thus taking side with God against himself; it is for him to cast himself into the dust before God, and humbly sue for Divine mercy." The Sovereignty Of God |
"Prayer is not the requesting of God to alter His purpose or for Him to form a new one. Prayer is the taking of an attitude of dependency upon God, the spreading of our need before Him, the asking for those things which are in accordance with His will, and therefore there is nothing whatever inconsistent between Divine sovereignty and Christian prayer." The Sovereignty Of God |
"Ah! what needs to be stressed to-day is that God is a God to be feared." The Sovereignty Of God |
"To realize that the Holy Scriptures are a revelation from the Most High, communicating to us His mind and defining for us His will, is the first step toward practical godliness. To recognize that the Bible is God's Word, and that its precepts are the precepts of the Almighty, will lead us to see what an awful thing it is to despise and ignore them." The Sovereignty Of God |
"One of the most popular beliefs of the day is that God loves everybody, and the very fact that it is so popular with all classes ought to be enough to arouse the suspicions of those who are subject to the Word of Truth. God's Love toward all His creatures is the fundamental and favorite tenet of Universalists, Unitarians, Theosophists, Christian Scientists, Spiritualists, Russellites... That God loves everybody, is, we may say, quite a modern belief." The Sovereignty Of God |
"The fact is, that the love of God, is a truth for the saints only, and to present it to the enemies of God is to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs... Risking the danger of being misunderstood, let us say -- and we wish we could say it to every evangelist and preacher in the country -- there is far too much presenting of Christ to sinners today (by those sound in the faith), and far too little showing sinners their need of Christ, i.e., their absolutely ruined and lost condition, their imminent and awful danger of suffering the wrath to come, the fearful guilt resting upon them in the sight of God -- to present Christ to those who have never been shown their need of Him, seems to us to be guilty of casting pearls before swine." The Sovereignty Of God |
"We read the Scriptures in vain unless we come to them earnestly desiring a better knowledge of God's will for us -- any other motive is selfish and utterly inadequate and unworthy." The Sovereignty Of God |
"To declare that God helps those who help themselves, is to repudiate one of the most precious truths taught in the Bible, and in the Bible alone; namely, that God helps those who are unable to help themselves, who have tried again and again only to fail." The Sovereignty Of God |
"One of the most flagrant sins of our age is that of irreverence -- the failure to ascribe the glory which is due the august majesty of God. Men limit the power and activities of the Lord in their degrading concepts of His being and character. Originally, man was made in the image and likeness of God, but today we are asked to believe in a god made in the image and likeness of man... Men claim to be the architects of their own fortunes and the determiners of their own destiny. They know not that their lives are at the disposal of the Divine Despot. They know not they have no more power to thwart Hs secret decrees than a worm has to resist the tread of an elephant." The Sovereignty Of God |
"That the carnal mind is enmity against God, that the unregenerate man is a rebel against the Divine government, that the sinner has no concern for the glory of his Maker, and little or no respect for His revealed will, is freely granted. But, nevertheless, behind the scenes, God is ruling and over-ruling, fulfilling His eternal purpose, not only in spite of but, also by means of, those who are His enemies." The Sovereignty Of God |
"The fulfillment of any single prophecy is but the sovereignty of God in operation. It is the demonstration that what He has decreed He is able also to perform. It is proof that none can withstand the execution of His counsel or prevent the accomplishment of His pleasure. It is the evidence that God inclines men to fulfill that which He has ordained and perform that which He has foredetermined." The Sovereignty Of God |
"God works unseen, but not the less truly, in all the political changes of the day. The astute statesman. the clever diplomatist, is simply an agent in the Lord's hands. He knows it not. Self-will and motives of policy may influence to action, but God is steadily working toward an end -- to exhibit the heavenly and earthly glories of His Son. Thus, instead of kings and statesmen thwarting God's purpose, they unconsciously forward it. God is not indifferent, but is behind the scenes of human action. The doings of the future ten kings in relation to Babylon and the Beast -- the ecclesiastical and secular powers—are not only under the direct control of God, but all is done in fulfillment of His words." The Sovereignty Of God |
"Man -- even though he be a prominent official in the most influential empire of his day -- has no power except that which is given him from above, no power, even, to do that which is evil, i. e., carry out his own evil designs, unless God empowers him so that His purpose may be forwarded. It was God who gave Pilate the power to sentence to death His well-beloved Son! And how this rebukes the sophistries and reasonings of men, who argue that God does nothing more than permit evil!" The Sovereignty Of God |
"Just as the sinner's despair of any help from himself is the first prerequisite of a sound conversion, so the loss of all confidence in himself is the first essential in the believer's growth in grace; and just as the sinner despairing of help from himself will cast him into the arms of sovereign mercy, so the Christian, conscious of his own frailty, will turn unto the Lord for power." The Sovereignty Of God |
"God is not now seeking to convert the world, but in this Age He is taking out of the Gentiles a people for His name." The Sovereignty Of God |
"God's revealed will is made known in His Word, but His secret will is His own hidden counsels... God's revealed will is frequently crost, but His secret will is never thwarted." The Sovereignty Of God |
"It should ever be borne in mind that not only was Adam the father of the human race seminally, but he was also the head of the race legally. When Adam was placed in Eden he stood there as our representative, so that what he did is reckoned to the account of each for whom he acted." The Sovereignty Of God |
"To recognize that God has foreordained all the activities of evil, is to see that He is the Governor of sin: His will determines its exercise, His power regulates its bounds. He is neither the Inspirer nor the Infuser of sin in any of His creatures, but He is its Master, by which we mean God's management of the wicked is so entire that, they can do nothing save that which His hand and counsel, from everlasting, determined should be done." The Sovereignty Of God |
"Had sin never been permitted, how could the justice of God have been displayed in punishing it? How could the wisdom of God have been manifested in so wondrously over-ruling it? How could the grace of God have been exhibited in pardoning it? How could the power of God have been exercised in subduing it?" The Sovereignty Of God |
"Though God is not the Author of sin, and though sin is contrary to His holy nature, yet the existence and operations of it are not contrary to His will, but subservient to it. God never tempts man to sin, but He has, by His eternal counsels (which He is now executing), determined its course." The Sovereignty Of God |
"If Christ is the propitiation for those that are lost equally as much as for those that are saved, then what assurance have we that believers too may not be lost? If Christ is the propitiation for those now in hell, what guarantee have I that I may not end in hell? The blood-shedding of the incarnate Son of God is the only thing which can keep any one out of hell, and if many for whom that precious blood made propitiation are now in the awful place of the damned, then may not that blood prove inefficacious for me! Away with such a God-dishonoring thought." The Sovereignty Of God |
"However men may quibble and wrest the Scriptures, one thing is certain: The Atonement is no failure. God will not allow that precious and costly sacrifice to fail in accomplishing, completely, that which it was designed to effect. Not a drop of that holy blood was shed in vain. In the last great Day there shall stand forth no disappointed and defeated Savior, but One who shall SEE of the travail of His soul and be satisfied... Let others rest on the sands of human speculation and twentieth-century theorizing if they wish. That is their business. But to God they will yet have to render an account. For our part we had rather be railed at as a narrow-minded, out-of-date, hyper- Calvinist, than be found repudiating God's truth by reducing the Divinely efficacious atonement to a mere fiction." The Sovereignty Of God |
"Is it not abundantly clear that in the judgment of the apostle Paul the Scriptures were Divinely inspired even to the most minute expression.?" An Exposition Of Hebrews |
"In no other book of Scripture are the sophistries and deceptions of Romanism so clearly and systematically exposed. So fully and pointedly are the errors of Popery refuted, it might well have been written since that Satanic system became established." An Exposition Of Hebrews |
"Deity is not speechless. The true and living God, unlike the idols of the heathen, is no dumb Being. The God of Scripture, unlike that absolute and impersonal First Cause of philosophers and evolutionists, is not silent. At the beginning of earth's history we find Him speaking." An Exposition Of Hebrews |
"Through the prophets God had given predictions and foreshadowings; in the Son, the fulfillment and substance. The fullness of time had come when God sent forth His Son. He has nothing now in reserve. He has no further revelation to make. Christ is the final Spokesman of Deity. The written Word is now complete. In conclusion, note how Christ divides history: everything before pointed toward Him, everything since points back to Him; He is the Centre of all God's counsels." An Exposition Of Hebrews |
"Christ is the Son of God in two respects. First, eternally so, as the second Person in the Trinity, very God of very God. Second, He is also the Son as incarnate. When He took upon Him sinless human nature He did not cease to be God, nor did He (as some blasphemously teach) empty Himself of His Divine attributes, which are inseparable from the Divine Being. God was manifest in the flesh." An Exposition Of Hebrews |
"It is not only that Christ declared or delivered God's message, but that He HIMSELF was and is God's message. All that God has to say to us is in His Son: all His thoughts, counsels, promises, gifts, are to be found in the Lord Jesus... Through Christ, God is now fully, perfectly, finally revealed." An Exposition Of Hebrews |
"The only place from which we cannot fall is one down in the dust. It is there the Lord brings His own people, weaning them from all confidence in the flesh, and giving them to experience that it is when they are weak they are strong. Such, and such ONLY, are saved and safe forever." An Exposition Of Hebrews |
"In His work of illumination, conviction, conversion, and sanctification, the Spirit uses the Word as the means thereto, but in His initial work of “quickening” He employs no means, operating immediately or directly upon the soul." The Holy Spirit |
"Faith and all other graces are wrought in us by the Spirit through the instrumentality of the Word, but not so with the principle of life and grace from which these graces proceed... Quickening is a direct operation of the Spirit without the use of any instrument: the Word is used by Him afterwards to call into exercise the life then communicated." The Holy Spirit |
"Regeneration is a direct operation of the Holy Spirit upon the human spirit. It is the action of Spirit upon spirit, of a Divine Person upon a human person, whereby spiritual life is imparted. Nothing, therefore, of the nature of means or instruments can come between the Holy Spirit and the soul that is made alive." The Holy Spirit, Quoting W. T. Shedd, Presbyterian, 1889 |
"The unenlightened understanding is unable to apprehend, and the unregenerate will is unable to believe. Vital force is lacking in these two principal factors. What is needed at this point is life and force itself. Consequently, the Author of spiritual life Himself must operate directly, without the use of means or instruments; and outright give spiritual life and power from the dead: that is, ex nihilo. The new life is not imparted because man perceives the truth, but he perceives the truth because the new life is imparted. A man is not regenerated because he has first believed in Christ, but he believes in Christ because he has been regenerated." The Holy Spirit, Quoting W. T. Shedd, Presbyterian, 1889 |
"Under the guise of honoring the written word, many have (no doubt unwittingly) dishonored the Holy Spirit... Many suppose that the Scriptures are quite sufficient of themselves to communicate light to those in darkness and life to those who are dead in sins. But the record which we have of Christ’s life ought at once to correct such a view. Who preached the Word as faithfully as He, yet how very few were saved during His three and a half years’ ministry?!" The Holy Spirit |
"Make no mistake upon this point: the Holy Spirit must first quicken the dead soul into newness of life before the Word obtains any entrance." The Holy Spirit |
"The Word cannot profit any soul spiritually until it be mixed with faith” (Hebrews 4:2), and faith cannot be put forth unless it proceeds from a principle of life and grace; and therefore that principle of life is not produced by it." The Holy Spirit |
"We might as well suppose that the presenting of a picture to a man who is blind can enable him to see, as we can suppose that the presenting of the Word in an objective way is the instrument whereby God produces the internal principle by which we are enabled to embrace it.” The Holy Spirit, Quoting Thomas Ridgley, Presbyterian, 1739 |
"The soul, then, is quickened into newness of life by the direct and supernatural operation of the Spirit, without any medium or means whatever. It is not accomplished by the light of the Word, for it is His very imparting of life which fits the heart to receive the light... No, men are not “quickened” by the Word, they must be quickened in order to receive and understand the Word." The Holy Spirit |
"The Spirit might justly have left everyone of us in the hardness of our hearts to perish forever. In quickening one and not another, in bringing a few from death unto life and leaving the mass still dead in trespasses and sins, the Spirit has mercy on whom He will have mercy. He is absolutely free to work in whom He pleases, for none of the fallen sons of Adam have the slightest claim upon Him." The Holy Spirit |
"This quickening by the Spirit is instantaneous: it is a Divine act, and not a process; it is wrought at once, and not gradually. In a moment of time the soul passes from death unto life... There is no medium between a carnal and a spiritual state: the one is what we were by nature, the other is what we become by grace, by the instantaneous and invincible operation of the Almighty Spirit." The Holy Spirit |
"Under this work of quickening we are entirely passive, by which is meant that there is no co-operation whatever between the will of the sinner and the act of the Holy Spirit... Lazarus co-operated not in his resurrection: he knew not that the Savior had come to his sepulcher to deliver him from death. Such is the case with each of God’s elect when the Spirit commences to deal with them. They must first be quickened into newness of life before they can have the slightest desire or motion of the will toward spiritual things; hence, for them to contribute the smallest iota unto their quickening is utterly impossible." The Holy Spirit |
"In the ecclesiastical realm, thousands who have solemnly covenanted to preach the truth have no scruples about attacking and denying it." Gleanings In The Godhead |
"God has not only told us the best, but also He has not withheld the worst... Not only does His Word abound in illustrations of His fidelity in fulfilling His promises, but also it records numerous examples of His faithfulness in making good His threatenings... Thus it will be with you. Unless you have fled, or flee, to Christ for refuge, the everlasting burning of the lake of fire will be your certain portion. God is faithful." Gleanings In The Godhead |
"Since God has promised to His Son a certain people for His inheritance, to deliver them from sin and condemnation, and to become the participants of eternal life in glory, it is certain that He will not allow any of them to perish." Gleanings In The Godhead |
"God is faithful in disciplining His people. He is faithful in what He withholds, no less than in what He gives. He is faithful in sending sorrow as well as in giving joy. The faithfulness of God is a truth to be confessed by us not only when we are at ease, but also when we are smarting under the sharpest rebuke... God is not only faithful, notwithstanding afflictions, but faithful in sending them... Chastening is not only reconcilable with God’s lovingkindness, but also it is the effect and expression of it. It would quiet the minds of God’s people if they would remember that His covenant love binds Him to lay on them seasonable correction." Gleanings In The Godhead |
"God treats us not on the ground of our merits (for we have none), but for His own great name’s sake." Gleanings In The Godhead |
"The opening sentence of Holy Writ is not to be philosophized about, but is presented as a statement of truth to be received with unquestioning faith." Gleanings In Genesis |
"False systems of theology and philosophy begin with man, and seek to work up to God. But this is a turning of things upside down. We must, in all our thinking, begin with God, and work down to man." Gleanings In Genesis |
"It must be the part of scientists to bring their declarations into accord with the teaching of Genesis 1, if they are to receive the respect of the children of God. The faith of the Christian rests not in the wisdom of man, nor does it stand in any need of buttressing from scientific savants. The faith of the Christian rests upon the impregnable rock of Holy Scripture, and we need nothing more. Too often have Christian apologists deserted their proper ground." Gleanings In Genesis |
"Not all the combined skill of the greatest literary genuii, historians, poets, or philosophers this world has ever produced, could design a composition which began to equal Genesis 1. For reconditeness of theme, and yet simplicity of language; for comprehensiveness of scope, and yet terseness of expression; for scientific exactitude, and yet the avoidance of all technical terms; it is unrivalled, and nothing can be found in the whole realm of literature which can be compared with it for a moment. It stands in a class all by itself. If “brevity is the soul of wit” (i. e. wisdom) then the brevity of what is recorded in this opening chapter of the Bible evidences the divine wisdom of Him who inspired it." Gleanings In Genesis |
"Just as the shining of the light in Genesis I made manifest the desolation upon which it shone, so the entrance of God’s Word into the human heart reveals the awful ruin which sin has wrought." Gleanings In Genesis |
"An external knowledge of Divine truth, as revealed in Scripture, may charm the mind and form ground for speculation and conversation, but unless there is a Divine application of them to the conscience and heart, such knowledge will be of no more avail in the hour of death than the pleasing images of our dreams are of any satisfaction when we awake. How awful to think that multitudes of professing Christians will awaken in Hell to discover that their knowledge of Divine truth was no more substantial than a dream!" Regeneration, or The New Birth |
"Only as God supernaturally enlightens, is any soul made conscious of the awful spiritual darkness in which it naturally dwells." Regeneration, or The New Birth |
"Regeneration is no mere outward reformation, no mere turning over a new leaf and endeavoring to live a better life. The new birth is very much more than going forward and taking the preacher’s hand: it is a supernatural operation of God upon man’s spirit, a transcendent wonder." Regeneration, or The New Birth |
"The new birth is the dividing line between Heaven and Hell. In God’s sight there are but two classes of people on this earth: those who are dead in sins, and those who are walking in newness of life... In view of this solemn fact, how momentous is the question, Have I been born again? If not, and you die in your present state, you will wish you had never been born at all." Regeneration, or The New Birth |
"There are but two states, and all men are included therein: the one a state of spiritual life, the other a state of spiritual death; the one a state of righteousness, the other a state of sin: the one saving. the other damning; the one a state of enmity, wherein men have their inclinations contrary to God, the other a state of friendship and fellowship, wherein men walk obediently unto God, and would not willingly have an inward notion opposed to His will. The one state is called darkness, the other light... There is no medium between these conditions; all are in one of them. Each man and woman now on earth is either an object of God’s delight or of His abomination. The most benevolent and imposing works of the flesh cannot please Him. but the faintest sparks proceeding from that which grace hath kindled are acceptable in His sight." Regeneration, or The New Birth |
"Tens of thousands of professing Christians are filled with a vain and presumptuous confidence that all is well with them. They delude themselves with hopes of mercy while continuing to live in a course of self-will and self-pleasing. They fancy they are fitted for Heaven, while every day that passes finds them the more prepared for Hell." Regeneration, or The New Birth |
"The principal device of Satan is to deceive people into imagining that they can successfully combine the world with God, allow the flesh while pretending to the Spirit, and thus make the best of both worlds." Regeneration, or The New Birth |
"There can be no communion with God without a renewed soul. God is unable on His part, with honor to His law and holiness, to have fellowship with such a creature as fallen man. Man is incapable on his part, because of the aversion rooted in his fallen nature." Regeneration, or The New Birth |
"The chief design of the Gospel is to beat down all glorying in ourselves, that we should glory only in the Lord." Regeneration, or The New Birth |
"Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people." Regeneration, or The New Birth |