Quote 4733
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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
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
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.
he that would be little in temptation, let him be much in prayerhttps://ccel.org/ccel/owen/temptation/temptation.i.viii.html
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.
He that hath slight thoughts of sin never had great thoughts of God.
He who comes to the Lord's table with faith in Christ, may confidently expect to have his faith increased by receiving the bread and wine. But he who comes without faith has no right to expect a blessing. Empty he comes to the ordinance and empty he will go away.https://gracegems.org/Ryle/l22.htm
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
The Lord's Supper is the most spiritual ordinance ever instituted. Here we have to do more immediately with Christ. In prayer we draw near through Christ; in this ordinance we become one with Him. In the word preached we hear of Christ; in the Supper we feed on Him.
The ordinances are the chariot in which Christ rides, the lattice through which He looks forth and shows His smiling face; here Christ displays the banner of love (Song 2:4). The Lord's Supper is nothing else but a pledge and earnest of that eternal communion the saints shall have with Christ in heaven. Then He will take the spouse into His bosom. If Christ be so sweet in an ordinance, when we have but short glances and dark glimpses of Him by faith, oh then how delightful and ravishing will His presence be in heaven when we shall see Him face-to-face and be forever in His loving embraces?
There are three ways whereby God represents Christ to the faith of believers. The one is by the word of the gospel itself, as written; the second is by the ministry of the gospel and preaching of the word; and the third by this sacrament, wherein we represent the Lord's death to the faith of our own souls.
The sacrament of the Lord's Supper and the very point of death require equal seriousness. A man's spirit should be as deeply solemn and composed at the Lord's Table as upon a deathbed. We should go to that ordinance as if we were then going into another world.
Remembrance, properly, is the return of the mind to an object about which it hath been formerly conversant, and it may so return to a thing it hath conversed with before two ways: speculatively and transiently, or affectionately and permanently. A speculative remembrance is only to call to mind the history of such a person and His sufferings, that Christ was once put to death in the flesh. An affectionate remembrance is when we so call Christ and His death to our minds as to feel the powerful impressions thereof upon our hearts.
All images and idols are set up for no other end but to feign the presence of what really is absent.
In our desires for heaven, if they are regular, we consider not so much our freedom from trouble as from sin; nor is our aim in the first place so much at complete happiness as perfect holiness.
A man may want liberty and yet be happy, as Joseph was. A man may want peace and yet be happy, as David was. A man may want children and yet be blessed, as Job was. A man may want plenty and yet be full of comfort, as Micaiah was. But he that wants the gospel wants everything that should do him good. A throne without the gospel is but the devil's dungeon. Wealth without the gospel is fuel for hell. Advancement without the gospel is but a going high to have the greater fall.
Gospel truth is the only root whereon gospel holiness will grow.
The most tremendous judgment of God in this world is the hardening of the hearts of men.
Special OfferTop Authors
1. Thomas Watson (174)
2. Charles Spurgeon (135)
3. J.C. Ryle (117)
4. John Calvin (107)
5. J.I. Packer (93)
6. Thomas Brooks (89)
7. John Piper (87)
8. George Swinnock (82)
9. John Flavel (81)
10. John Owen (71)
11. A.W. Pink (68)
12. Louis Berkhof (63)
13. William Gurnall (62)
14. Thomas Manton (60)
15. C.S. Lewis (59)
16. B.B. Warfield (59)
17. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (58)
18. R.C. Sproul (55)
19. Heinrich Bullinger (53)
20. Matthew Henry (51)
2. Charles Spurgeon (135)
3. J.C. Ryle (117)
4. John Calvin (107)
5. J.I. Packer (93)
6. Thomas Brooks (89)
7. John Piper (87)
8. George Swinnock (82)
9. John Flavel (81)
10. John Owen (71)
11. A.W. Pink (68)
12. Louis Berkhof (63)
13. William Gurnall (62)
14. Thomas Manton (60)
15. C.S. Lewis (59)
16. B.B. Warfield (59)
17. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (58)
18. R.C. Sproul (55)
19. Heinrich Bullinger (53)
20. Matthew Henry (51)
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1. Sin (216)2. Scripture (152)
3. Prayer (143)
4. Faith (134)
5. Preaching (119)
6. Gospel (112)
7. The Law (108)
8. Suffering (99)
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11. Church (85)
12. Christ (82)
13. Grace (73)
14. Justification (63)
15. Law (61)
16. Truth (53)
17. Death (51)
18. Holiness (47)
19. Love (46)
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22. Sanctification (44)
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24. Theology (43)
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