Quote 4658
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A sheep may fall into a ditch, but it is the swine that wallows in it.
He who is his own teacher, is sure to have a fool for his master!
The Christian must always be at war. If he has peace with sin, he is at war with God.
If you allow your love of creature comforts — or even your pleasure in family and loved ones — to outrun your love for the Lord, you cannot be a victorious soldier for Christ.The Christian in Complete Armour, 1:72
The layman has a large field in which he may minister to his fellow man, even if he is not called to full time ministry.Christian in Complete Armour 1:300
The peace which the hypocrite has is built upon the sand; he has not one promise that he can rationally lay any claim to. Nay, the whole Word of God assaults him and tells him how vain his confidence is and that if, for all this, he will speak peace to himself, that he must try shortly whether he can make it good when conscience, Scripture, law and gospel, God and man appear in the field against him. In a word, the cause of his peace is ignorance, hardness, deadness. The god of this world hath blinded his eyes; God is author of the saint's peace and the devil of the sinners (Matt. 7:24; Luke 11:21; Rom. 15:4; Phil. 4:7).
Hypocrisy in religion springs from the bitter root of some carnal affection unmortified…. God is in the hypocrite's mouth, but the world is in his heart, which he expects to gain through his good reputation.
It is sincere faith that is the strong faith, sincere love that is the mighty love. Hypocrisy is to grace as the worm is to the oak, the rust to the iron—it weakens them because it corrupts them.
All lip labor is but lost labor; when men's hearts are not in their devotion, their devotion is mere dissimulation. These hypocrites sought God and inquired early after God, but it was still with old hearts, which are no hearts in the account of God.
Hypocrites love to share with Christ in His happiness, but they do not love to share with Christ in His holiness. They are willing to be redeemed by Christ, but they are not cordially willing to submit to the laws and government of Christ. They are willing to be saved by His blood, but they are not willing to submit to His scepter. Hypocrites love the privileges of the gospel, but they do not love the services of the gospel, especially those that are most inward and spiritual.
A hypocrite may offer sacrifice with Cain and fast with Jezebel, and humble himself with Ahab and lament with the tears of Esau, and kiss Christ with Judas and follow Christ with Demas, and offer fair for the Holy Ghost with Simon Magus; and yet for all this, his inside is as bad as any of theirs. A hypocrite is a Cato without and a Nero within, a Jacob without and an Esau within, a David without and a Saul within, a Peter without and a Judas within, a saint without and a Satan within, an angel without and a devil within.
It is not the presence of hypocrisy but the reign of hypocrisy that damns the soul; that hypocrisy that is discerned, resisted, opposed, and mourned over will never make a Christian miserable. Where the standing frame and general bent of a man's heart is upright, there the presence of hypocrisy cannot denominate a man a hypocrite. All men must stand and fall forever according to the standing frame and general bent of their hearts; if the standing frame and general bent of their hearts be sincere, they are happy forever!
How often have I heard a common drunkard, with tears, cry out against himself for his sin and yet go on in it? And how many gracious persons have I known whose judgments and wills have been groundedly resolved for God and holiness, and their lives have been holy, fruitful, and obedient, and yet could not shed a tear for sin nor feel any great sorrows or joys? If you judge of a man by his earnestness in some good moods and not by the constant tenor of his life, you will think many a hypocrite to be better than most saints.
Humility is a necessary veil to all other graces.
Can a bird fly when one of its wings is broken? Faith and a good conscience are hope's two wings; if, therefore, thou hast wounded thy conscience by any sin, renew thy repentance, that so thou mayest exercise faith for the pardon of it and redeem thy hope.
Hope is a prying grace; it is able to look beyond the exterior transactions of providence. It can, by the help of the promise, peep into the very bosom of God and read what thoughts and purposes are written there concerning the Christian's particular estate, and this it imparts to him, bidding him not to be at all troubled to hear God speaking roughly to him in the language of His providence. "For," saith hope, "I can assure thee He means thee well, whatever He saith that sounds otherwise."
Hope is a supernatural grace of God whereby the believer, through Christ, expects and waits for all those good things of the promise which at present he hath not fully received.
Hope is the handkerchief that God puts into His people's hands to wipe the tears from their eyes, which their present troubles and long stay of expected mercies draw from them
The Holy Spirit is often moving in the consciences and affections of carnal creatures, counseling, rebuking, and exciting them, so that upon His suggestions, some warm affections are raised in them to that which is good, but presently all is quashed and comes to nothing and the Spirit driven away by the entertainment He finds. Again, you cannot know by the common gifts of the Spirit— illumination, conviction, restraining grace, and assistance to perform the external part of religious duties; these are gifts of the Spirit, but such as do not prove he hath the Spirit that hath them. These gifts are beamed from the Spirit of God and show that the kingdom of God is come nigh such an one, but they do not demonstrate that God is come into that soul and hath taken possession of it for His temple.
The Spirit exactly knows the heart of God to the creature, with all His counsels and purposes concerning Him: the Spirit searches all things, the deep things of God (1 Cor. 2:10). And what are those deep things of God the apostle means but the counsels of love which lie deep in His heart, till the Spirit draws them forth and acquaints the creature with them, as appears by verse 9? And also He knows the whole frame of man's heart. It were strange if He that made the cabinet should not know every secret box in it.
Pray not only against the power of sin but for the power of holiness. A wicked man may pray against his sins not out of any inward enmity to them or love to holiness but because they are troublesome guests to his conscience. His zeal is false that seems hot against sin but is cold to holiness. A city is rebellious that keeps its rightful prince out, though it receives not his enemy in.
They that will not love thee because thou art holy cannot choose but fear and reverence thee at the same time for what they hate thee. Let a saint comply with the wicked and remit a little of his holiness to correspond with them, he loses by the hand as to his interest, I mean, in them; for by gaining a little false love, he loses that true honor which inwardly their consciences paid to his holiness. A Christian walking in the power of holiness is like Samson in his strength; the wicked fear him. But when he shews an impotent spirit by any indecency in his course to his holy profession, then presently he is taken prisoner by them and falls under both the lash of their tongue and scorn of their hearts.
Evangelical holiness rather makes the creature willing than able to give full obedience. The saint's heart leaps when his legs do but creep in the way of God's commandments. Mary asked where they had laid Christ, meaning, it seems, to carry Him away on her shoulders, which she was not able for to do; her affections were stronger than her back.
They say smelling of the earth is healthful for the body and taking in the scent of this sulphurous pit, by frequent meditation, cannot but be as wholesome for the soul. O Christian, be sometimes walking in the company of those scriptures which set out the state of the damned in hell and their exquisite torments. This is the true house of mourning, and the going into it by serious meditation is a sovereign means to make the living lay it to heart; and laying it to heart, there is the less fear that thou wilt throw thyself by thy impenitency into this uncomfortable place who art offered so fair a mansion in heaven through faith and repentance.
Many among us, I think, would be content if there were such a law that might tie up ministers' mouths from scaring them with their sins and the miseries that attend their unreconciled state. The most are more careful to run from the discourse of their misery than to get out of the danger of it, are more offended with the talk of hell than troubled for that sinful state that shall bring them thither.
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2. Charles Spurgeon (135)
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12. Louis Berkhof (63)
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15. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (58)
16. B.B. Warfield (58)
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19. Heinrich Bullinger (53)
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