You can never part with sin soon enough; it is a cursed inmate, that will surely bring mischief upon the soul that harbours it. It will set its own dwelling on fire.Works 7:147
To own and stand up for a hated and despised truth will bring more comfort to our souls than all the pleasure the wicked have in their sensual delights.
As the excellency of his nature giveth him a fitness and a sufficiency for the government of mankind, his creation, preservation, and other benefits give him a full right to make what laws he pleaseth, and to call man to an account whether he hath kept them, yea or no.Works, Volume 10
One great use for which the moral law serveth is to bring men to a sight and sense of their sins and imperfections, and humble them before God: Rom. 7:7, 'I had not known sin but by the law, for I had not known lust except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet;' and to undeceive them of conceits of their own goodness and righteousness. Look into thy bill, what owest thouhttps://www.monergism.com/rich-young-ruler-exposition-mark-1017-27-ebook
To be strangers to the word of God, little conversant in it, and to make little use of it, is a great affront done to God. We should acquaint ourselves not with the letter only, as little children learn it by rote, but with the sense and purpose of ithttps://www.monergism.com/rich-young-ruler-exposition-mark-1017-27-ebook
Let us love God, and love him above all things, for he only is good. Goodness is that which is amiable and desirable; so when God is said to be good, we say he is of such an essence as is most amiable and desirable. Therefore let us love God above all things with our chiefest love, for he is most worthy of our love, and by preferring his glory above all things that are dear to us, being content for his sake to part with all which we have in the world, and also to long and wait for that time when we shall fully enjoy him.https://www.monergism.com/rich-young-ruler-exposition-mark-1017-27-ebook" target="_blank">https://www.monergism.com/rich-young-ruler-exposition-mark-1017-27-ebook
If we would have good wrought in us, let us look up to God. As rivers are supplied from the sea, the gathering together of all goodness is in God: Exod. 31:13, 'I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.' All we have is a derivation from his fulness, and as a candle lighted at a torch doth not diminish the light of the torch, so God doth not lose by givinghttps://www.monergism.com/rich-young-ruler-exposition-mark-1017-27-ebook
God is immutably good; it cannot be diminished or augmented, for in infiniteness there are no degrees; it can never be more than it is, or less than it is; for God actually hath all possible perfection; there can be no addition made to ithttps://www.monergism.com/rich-young-ruler-exposition-mark-1017-27-ebook
God is infinitely good. A creature's goodness is limited, but since the perfection of God is from himself, and not from another, there is nothing to limit it or to give it any measure, and therefore it must be infinite.https://www.monergism.com/rich-young-ruler-exposition-mark-1017-27-ebook
He is essentially good. Not only good, but goodness itself. Goodness in us is an accessory quality, or a superadded gift, but in God it is not a quality, but his essence. The goodness of God and the goodness of a creature differs, as a thing whose substance is gold differs from that which is gilded and overlaid with gold. A vessel of pure gold, the matter itself gives lustre to it; but in a gilded vessel, the outward lustre is one thing, and the substance is another. https://www.monergism.com/rich-young-ruler-exposition-mark-1017-27-ebook
The end of study is information, and the end of meditation is practice, or a work upon the affections. Study is like a winter sun, that shines, but warms not: but meditation is like a blowing upon the fire, where we do not mind the blaze, but the heat.
To humble us in our converses with God. He is good, but we are evil; he is heaven, but we are hell; he is perfect, but we are poor defective creatures. Therefore in all our approaches to him we should come the more humbly to him, and go the more holy from him; for it is sad when we come to the good God, and are never the better. If we go to the fire, we expect to be warm. Oh! when you come to the fountain of goodness, we should come away better.https://www.monergism.com/rich-young-ruler-exposition-mark-1017-27-ebook
The goodness of God cometh under a twofold consideration—there is his goodness in himself, and his goodness to us. The one implies the perfection and excellency of his nature, the other his will and self propension to diffuse his benefits; the one his perfection, the other his bounty.https://www.monergism.com/rich-young-ruler-exposition-mark-1017-27-ebook
They do not love the law that are always full of excuses, and pretend occasions to neglect the service of God; excuses are always a sign of a naughty heart.
It may be said of nominal believers, as Alexander said to one that bore his name, but was a coward, either lay aside the name, or put on greater courage. So either do as Christians do, or do not pretend to be Christians.
Christ's first coming was so obscure, that it was scarce observed and understood by the world. The second will be so conspicuous and glorious as to be seen of all. In the former, he came in the form of a servant, and the contemptible appearance of a mean man; in the second, he cometh as the Lord and heir of all things, clothed with splendour and glory as with a garment.Works, Volume 10
He created us out of nothing; and being created, he preserveth us, and giveth us all the good things which we enjoy. And therefore we are obliged to be subject to him, and to obey his holy laws, and to be accountable to him for the breach of them.Works, Volume 10
He that is not faithful in a little will not be faithful in much, [and] he that giveth entertainment to a small temptation will also to a greater, if put upon it.Works 6:309
Many now deny the obligation of the moral law to believers, as antinomians, [but] as the apostle telleth us, that we 'do not make void the law by faith; yea, we establish the law.'
We lose much tenderness of conscience, watchfulness against sin, much of that lively diligence that we should otherwise show forth in carrying on the spiritual life, when we are at ease, and all things go well with us.
Religion without self-denial… is Christianity of our own making, not of Christ's.
We carve out the easy safe part of religion, and then we call this love to God and love to Christ. No; true Christian love is to love God above all.
The more a man delighteth in God, and in the ways of God, the more he cleaveth to Him, and resolveth to go on in this course, and temptations to sensual delights do less prevail.
The Throne of Grace lieth always open; the more oftener we frequent it, the more welcome. We frown upon one that often troubleth us with his suits, but it is not so with God; we may beg and beg again.Works 7:185