Quote 4320
Other Quotes from the Author & Topic
No man preaches a sermon well to others who does not first preach it to his own heart.
Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers Chapter 2
There is a very evident tendency to stress the fact that the Church is a great missionary agency, and to forget that it is first of all the assembly of the saints, in which those who publicly live in sin cannot be tolerated. It is said that sinners must be gathered into the church, and not excluded from it. But it should be remembered that they must be gathered in as saints and have no legitimate place in the Church as long as they do not confess their sin and strive for holiness of life.Systematic Theology, 601
Without absolutes revealed from God Himself, we are left rudderless in a sea of conflicting ideas.
Holiness is nothing but the implanting, writing and living out the gospel in our souls
The gospel is most wickedly eclipsed while multitudes of petty "scholars" fret themselves how they might best teach the faith within a rigidly structured, accurate, methodical-philosophical form! A great multitude of errors have swarmed into the church through the reception of philosophy, like Greeks out of the belly of the Trojan horse...The clear fact is that the common, Aristotelian philosophy supplied sufficient materials for an infinity of quarrels and useless disputes. The facts shout out to heaven that our little, witty, chattering sophists, in their endless wrangling over the "articles of faith," are simply raking over the embers of Aristotle's philosophy, and in so doing they irritate the throne of Almighty God with legal quarrels and cheap tricks...It is a result of this that our theological libraries are packed full of weighty tomes, and our disputes are without end, and the most about matters, assertions and terms the Christian world would have done far better never to have heard of -and would not have heard of if they had not happened to enter the fertile brain of Aristotle so long ago! But the full catalog, the great Iliad of evils so produced, this is not the place to try to expound in detail.Biblical Theology: The History of Theology from Adam to Christ
It is not the distance of the earth from the sun, nor the sun's withdrawing itself, that makes a dark and gloomy day; but the interposition of clouds and vaporous exhalations. Neither is thy soul beyond the reach of the promise, nor does God withdraw Himself; but the vapours of thy carnal, unbelieving heart do cloud thee.
It is better that our affections exceed our light from the defect of our understandings, than that our light exceed our affections from the corruption of our wills.Works, Vol 1. 401
The church is live a river. If it gets wider instead of deeper it will lose its power.
A minister may fill his pews, his communion roll, the mouths of the public, but what that minister is on his knees in secret before God Almighty, that he is and no more.
The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints. Unknown
We do not deny that the church has many functions in relation to the Scriptures. She is: (1) the keeper of the oracles of God to whom they are committed and who preserves the authentic tables of the covenant of grace with the greatest fidelity, like a notary (Rom. 3:2); (2) the guide, to point out the Scriptures and lead us to them (Is. 30:21); (3) the defender, to vindicate and defend them by separating the genuine books from the spurious, in which sense she may be called the ground of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15*); (4) the herald who sets forth and promulgates them (2 Cor. 5:19; Rom. 10:16); (5) the interpreter inquiring into the unfolding of the true sense. But all these imply a ministerial only and not a magisterial power.
Lusts that pretend to be useful to the state and condition of men, that are pleasant and satisfactory to the flesh, will not be mortified without such a violence as the whole soul shall be deeply sensible of. https://ccel.org/ccel/owen/pneum/pneum.i.viii.viii.html
[Sin] cannot be killed without a sense of pain and trouble. Hence it is compared to the cutting off of right hands, and the plucking out of right eyes.https://ccel.org/ccel/owen/pneum/pneum.i.viii.viii.html
We do not have the ability in ourselves to accomplish the least of God's tasks. This is the law of grace.
The church is not a theological classroom. It is a conversion, confession, repentance, reconciliation, forgiveness and sanctification center, where flawed people place their faith in Christ, gather to know and love him better, and learn to love others as he designed.
When the church is absolutely different from the world, she invariably attracts it. It is then that the world is made to listen to her message, though it may hate it at first.
One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organization do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team.
Christians do not stand isolated, each holding his own creed. They constitute one body, having one common creed. Rejecting that creed, or any of its parts, is the rejection of the fellowship of Christians, incompatible with the communion of saints, or membership in the body of Christ. In other words, Protestants admit that there is a common faith of the Church, which no man is at liberty to reject, and which no man can reject and be a Christian.
He that hath slight thoughts of sin never had great thoughts of God.
no man preacheth that sermon well that doth not first preach it to his own heart-If the word do not dwell with power in us, it will not pass with power from us
Certainly when we undervalue mercy, especially so great a one as the communion of saints is, commonly the Lord takes it away from us till we learn to prize it to the full value. Consider well therefore the heinousness of this sin, which that you may the better conceive. First, consider it is against God's express precept, charging us not to forsake the assemblies of the saints (Heb. 10:20, 25). Again, it is against our own greatest good and spiritual solace, for by discommunicating and excommunicating ourselves from that blessed society, we deprive ourselves of the benefit of their holy conference, their godly instructions, their divine consolations, brotherly admonitions, and charitable reprehensions, and what an inestimable loss is this? Neither can we partake such profit by their prayers as otherwise we might, for as the soul in the natural body conveys life and strength to every member, as they are compacted and joined together and not as dissevered, so Christ conveys spiritual life and vigor to Christians, not as they are disjoined from but as they are united to the mystical body, the church.
The church of Christ is a common hospital wherein all are in some measure sick of some spiritual disease or other, that we should all have ground of exercising mutually the spirit of wisdom and meekness.
The church is the garden of God, the doctrine is the flowers of this garden, discipline is the hedge.
A church is a company of those who are called (and this call must be answered or else it is nothing) to the visible profession of faith in Christ and obedience unto Christ, according to the gospel.
Special OfferTop Authors
1. Thomas Watson (137)
2. Charles Spurgeon (134)
3. J.C. Ryle (117)
4. John Calvin (107)
5. J.I. Packer (92)
6. John Piper (87)
7. George Swinnock (77)
8. A.W. Pink (68)
9. John Flavel (65)
10. Louis Berkhof (63)
11. C.S. Lewis (59)
12. John Owen (58)
13. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (58)
14. B.B. Warfield (58)
15. R.C. Sproul (55)
16. Heinrich Bullinger (53)
17. Thomas Brooks (52)
18. Gerald Bray (50)
19. Francis Schaeffer (50)
20. Thomas Manton (50)
2. Charles Spurgeon (134)
3. J.C. Ryle (117)
4. John Calvin (107)
5. J.I. Packer (92)
6. John Piper (87)
7. George Swinnock (77)
8. A.W. Pink (68)
9. John Flavel (65)
10. Louis Berkhof (63)
11. C.S. Lewis (59)
12. John Owen (58)
13. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (58)
14. B.B. Warfield (58)
15. R.C. Sproul (55)
16. Heinrich Bullinger (53)
17. Thomas Brooks (52)
18. Gerald Bray (50)
19. Francis Schaeffer (50)
20. Thomas Manton (50)
Top Topics
1. Sin (212)2. Scripture (152)
3. Prayer (139)
4. Faith (120)
5. Preaching (117)
6. The Law (106)
7. Gospel (104)
8. Suffering (99)
9. Salvation (90)
10. Sabbath (88)
11. Church (77)
12. Christ (72)
13. Law (61)
14. Grace (59)
15. Justification (54)
16. Truth (53)
17. Love (46)
18. Children (43)
19. Creation (43)
20. Theology (43)
21. Ten Commandments (42)
22. Obedience (39)
23. Sanctification (39)
24. Worship (39)
25. Fear (38)
26. Heaven (38)