Men With Chests

“Faith is the acceptance of a gift at the hands of Christ. … It is a very wonderful thing; it involves a change pf the whole nature of man; it involves a new hatred pf sin and a new hunger and thirst after righteousness.  Such a wonderful change is not the work of man; faith itself is given us by the Spirit of God. Christians never make themselves Christians; but they are made Christians by God.

…It is quite inconceivable that a man should be given this faith in Christ, that he should accept this gift which Christ offers, and still go on contentedly in sin.  For the very thing which Christ offers us in salvation from sin -not only salvation from the guilt of sin, but also salvation from the power of sin.  The very first thing that the Christian does, therefore, is to keep the law of God; He keeps it no longer as a way of earning his salvation – for salvation has been given him freely by God –  but he joyously as a central part of salvation itself.  The faith of which Paul speaks is, as Paul himself says, a faith that works through love; and love is the fulfilling of the whole law…. The faith that Paul means when he speaks of justification by faith alone is a faith that works.[1]

-J. Gresham Machen

[1] From: “Faith Works; The Gospel According to the Apostles, Macarthur,pg. 37; J. Greshem Machen, “What is Faith?,” New York: Macmillan, 1925, pg. 203-4

So, just how do we define the Sovereignty of God? The answer to that question is daunting indeed.  And no definition or set of definitions can fully bring complete understanding simply because the answer goes to the very heart of who an infinite, all-knowing, all-powerful God is in His nature and person and puts a full and complete understanding out of the reach of finite, fallen man. Such great theologians such as Augustine, Calvin and Melanethon, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, and Ralph Erskine, Andrew Fuller, A.A. Hodge, Robert Haldane have all written extensively on this subject.  Contemporaries, such as the late Arthur Pink, John Piper and Desiring God Ministries, R.C. Sproul and Ligonier’s Ministries, J.I. Packer, and other systematic works such as Grudem’s, have made helpful and strong arguments for a Biblical view on the Sovereignty of God.  It is also to be noted that the modern “Reformed Movement,” crossing denominational lines, has made great strides to proclaim a Biblical view of God’s Sovereignty. So, with being said, this article should be seen as a modest attempt to define the sovereignty of God. Continue reading →

Reading “dead men,” especially when it comes to trends, and error can lead a person to some very valuable lessons.  One of the greatest being what Solomon understood;

Ecclesiastes 1:9-11 (ESV) ⁹  What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. ¹⁰  Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us. ¹¹  There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.

So, read  on, you will no doubt pick up some wisdom and avoid pit-falls and mistakes that have already been made in the past.

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“Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheap jacks’ wares…

Cheap grace is no the kind of forgiveness that frees us from the toils of sin.  Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves.

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”[1]

– Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“You cannot receive Christ as your justification only, and then, later, decide to refuse or not accept Him as your sanctification.  He is one and indivisible, and if you receive him at all, at once He is made unto you ‘wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”  You cannot receive Him as your Saviour only, and later decide to accept or refuse Him as your Lord; for the Savior is the Lord who by His death has [bought] us and therefore owns us. Sanctification is nowhere taught and offered in the New Testament as some additional experience possible to the believer.  It is represented rather as something which is already within the believer,  something which he must realize more and more and in which he must grow increasingly.”[2]

– Martin Lloyd Jones

“In the Scriptures be the fat pastures of the soul; therein is no venomous meat, no unwholesome thing; they be the very dainty and pure feeding. He that is ignorant, shall find there what he should learn.”

– Thomas Cranmer

“The difference between true and false repentance lies in this: the man who truly repents cries out against his heart; but the other, as Eve, against the serpent, or something else.”

– John Bunyan

[1]Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “The Cost of Discipleship,” New York: Collier, 1959, pp. 54-47

[2] Cited in Iain H. Murray, “D. Martin Lloyd Jones: The First Forty Years,” Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1982, pg.375

I have been sick for the last several day and am still recovering.  It has left me fatigued, with a headache and blurred vision from time to time.  But I am on the road to recovery!  I found I was unable to keep my thoughts organized so I have not written the last several days.  Tomorrow I should be back at it.  In the mean time, I would like to leave you with some really great quotes from some great “dead men.”

“The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven’t yet come to the end of themselves. We’re still trying to give orders, and interfering with God’s work within us. ”
― A.W. Tozer

“Moses spent forty years in the king’s palace thinking that he was somebody; then he lived forty years in the wilderness finding out that without GOD he was a nobody; finally he spent forty more years discovering how a nobody with GOD can be a somebody.”
― Dwight L. Moody

“You and I cannot be useful if we want to be sweet as honey in the mouths of men. God will never bless us if we wish to please men, that they may think well of us. Are you willing to tell them what will break your own heart in the telling and break theirs in the hearing? If not, you are not fit to serve the Lord. You must be willing to go and speak for God, though you will be rejected.”
― Charles Spurgeon

“A truly humble man is sensible of his natural distance from God; of his dependence on Him; of the insufficiency of his own power and wisdom; and that it is by God’s power that he is upheld and provided for, and that he needs God’s wisdom to lead and guide him, and His might to enable him to do what he ought to do for Him.”
― Jonathan Edwards

“If we once get above our Bibles and cease making the written Word of God our sole rule both as to faith and practice, we shall soon lie open to all manner of delusion and be in great danger of making shipwreck of faith and a good conscience.”
― George Whitefield

“Only those who have learned well to be earnestly dissatisfied with themselves, and to be confounded with shame at their wretchedness truly understand the Christian gospel.”
― John Calvin

“The world doesn’t want to be punished. It wants to remain in darkness. It doesn’t want to be told that what it believes is false. If you also don’t want to be corrected, then you might as well leave the church and spend your time at the bar and brothel. But if you want to be saved-and remember that there’s another life after this one-you must accept correction.”
― Martin Luther