Quote 4443
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Love is the only attribute which God hath acted to the utmost. We have never seen the utmost of His power, what God can do, but we have seen the utmost of His love: He hath found a ransom for lost souls (Job 33:24).
He buys his pleasures too dear who pays for them with the loss of his soul.
Faith lays hold on God's power to be kept, and we are kept by the power of God through faith.
Some know but to know. Some know to be known. Some know to practice what they know. Now to know but to know, that is curiosity. To know to be known, that is vainglory. But to know to practice what we know, that is gospel duty. This makes a man a complete Christian; the other without this makes a man almost, and yet but almost a Christian.
Heaven is a freedom from all evil both of sin and suffering, so that a name in heaven entitles us to a blessed redemption from all evil. There is no sin there. Grace weakens sin, but it is glory that abolishes it. Old Adam shall there be put off, never be put on again. The Lord Christ will present His church in that day, "faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy" (Jude 24). There is no affliction there. Sin and sorrow came in together, and they shall go out together.
Many men are changed in a moral sense, and one may say they are become new men, but they are in heart and nature the same men still. They are not changed in a spiritual and supernatural sense, and therefore it cannot be said of them they are become new creatures. Restraining grace may cause a moral change, but it is renewing grace that must cause a saving change. Now many are under restraining grace, and so changed morally, that are not under the power of renewing grace, and so changed savingly.
This calling is by the grace of God. As He graciously appeared to the patriarchs, offered better things to them, and moved upon them by His Spirit, so He allures them that they can say: "Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood." It is grace that draws you to Him and draws you after Him. He constrains His people by a holy violence; being merciful to them, He catcheth hold of them, as He did of lingering Lot. Such is our infirmity, and such a hold the world hath of us, that "the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled" (Luke 14:23).
Effectual calling is the first gathering of men unto Christ, the first making of men to come to Christ, the first putting of a man into the estate of grace. It is the very portal to religion, the very entry into eternal life; it is the first bringing of a man to partake of the Lord Jesus Christ and to have fellowship with Him.
Effectual calling is an act of the grace of God in Christ by which he calls men dead in sin and lost in Adam through the preaching of the Gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit, to union with Christ and to salvation obtained in him.
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1. Thomas Watson (196)
2. Charles Spurgeon (135)
3. J.C. Ryle (117)
4. Thomas Brooks (113)
5. John Calvin (107)
6. John Flavel (96)
7. J.I. Packer (95)
8. William Gurnall (93)
9. George Swinnock (88)
10. John Piper (87)
11. John Owen (74)
12. Thomas Manton (70)
13. A.W. Pink (68)
14. Louis Berkhof (63)
15. C.S. Lewis (59)
16. B.B. Warfield (59)
17. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (58)
18. R.C. Sproul (55)
19. Richard Baxter (54)
20. Matthew Henry (54)
2. Charles Spurgeon (135)
3. J.C. Ryle (117)
4. Thomas Brooks (113)
5. John Calvin (107)
6. John Flavel (96)
7. J.I. Packer (95)
8. William Gurnall (93)
9. George Swinnock (88)
10. John Piper (87)
11. John Owen (74)
12. Thomas Manton (70)
13. A.W. Pink (68)
14. Louis Berkhof (63)
15. C.S. Lewis (59)
16. B.B. Warfield (59)
17. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (58)
18. R.C. Sproul (55)
19. Richard Baxter (54)
20. Matthew Henry (54)
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1. Sin (241)2. Prayer (186)
3. Scripture (166)
4. Faith (134)
5. Preaching (130)
6. Gospel (112)
7. The Law (111)
8. Suffering (104)
9. Salvation (94)
10. Sabbath (91)
11. Church (85)
12. Christ (82)
13. Grace (74)
14. Justification (63)
15. Law (61)
16. Truth (53)
17. Death (52)
18. Love (51)
19. Holiness (49)
20. Sanctification (48)
21. Children (46)
22. Pride (46)
23. Heaven (45)
24. Obedience (45)
25. Creation (43)
26. Theology (43)