Quotes

The Voice of Jezebel

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Concerning the church at Thyatira in Revelation 2, G Campbell Morgan warns, “Through the whole New Testament the call is to separation, to peculiarity, to a clear line of demarcation between the Church and the world. I fear that the voice of Jezebel is yet tolerated, and that the children of God are being seduced. … Read more

Shrinking from the Doctrine of Reward

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Principal Rainy (Robert Rainy 1826-1906), commenting on Philippians 4:15-19, writes,

“We are not to shrink from the doctrine of reward because it has been perverted. It is true the good works of a Christian cannot be the foundation of his title to life eternal. They proceed from the grace of God; they are imperfect and mixed at their best. Yet they are precious fruits of Christ’s death, and of God’s grace, arising through the faith and love of soul’s renewed and liberated.

When a penitent and believing man is found devoting to God what he is and has, doing so freely and lovingly, that is a blessed thing. God sets value on it. It is accepted as fruit which the man brings, as the offering which he yields. The heart of Christ rejoices over it.

Now it is fit that the value set on this fruit should be shown, and the way God takes to show it is to reward the service. Such a man “shall in no wise lose his reward.”

The Grace that Saves

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Matthew Henry
Matthew Henry

“Every converted sinner is a saved sinner. Such are delivered from sin and wrath; they are brought into a state of salvation, and have a right given them by grace to eternal happiness. The grace that saves them is the free undeserved goodness and favour of God; and he saves them, not by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus…” – Matthew Henry

Legalism or Lawlessness?

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This is one of many excerpts I have enjoyed from a book I am currently reading. I’ll share a link to the book in another post. Confusing what the gospel produces with what the gospel requires will lead either to a sterile works-righteousness on the one hand or to lawlessness in the other.” – Voddie … Read more

“True Encouragement”

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In Sidlow Baxter’s daily devotional, “Awake My Heart”, he shares this thought on David’s plight and his response in 1 Samuel 30:

“Afflictions and trials are sometimes allowed to accumulate without intermission, until it seems as though one more ounce of pressure, and our spirit will snap. Then, just at what seems to be the last minute, providential intervention transforms the whole picture; and oh, what lessons in trust we learn! Human help is vain. Heart and flesh fail. The one resort is the flight of the lonely heart to God.”

He Saved in the Power of the Fact He Would Not Save Himself

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G. Campbell Morgan commenting on Mark 15:31

“Though they did not understand it-even the disciples themselves did not understand, but presently the light came, and ever and anon these men who wrote the records reveal in some passing phrase their past ignorance and their new illumination – the truth is this, that all those whom He (Jesus) had already saved, He had saved in the power of the fact that He could not, in that final way, save Himself.

“He had opened blind eyes, He had healed palsied limbs, He had driven fever away, He had restored physical conditions; but He always did these things upon the basis of His passion and His atonement.

“The writers came to know it, I repeat, and one memorable passage comes to mind, in which Matthew tells the secret of a wonderful eventide by the side of the sea. They brought unto Him from all the countryside the sick fold, and He healed them all.

“If Matthew had written his record that night, he would have written with wonder and amazement; but later on the publican saw things as he had never seen them; and in the light of the resurrection, when he wrote his record afterwards, this is what he said: He healed them all, ‘that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our diseases.’

Behind all His physical healing, was the spiritual passion of the Lord. I reverently declare that the Man of Nazareth would never have healed a sick lad or lass, man or woman, but in the power of that hour, when they mocked Him and scorned Him.”

“Striken, Smitten, and Afflicted”

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– by Thomas Kelly 1. Stricken, smitten, and afflicted, See Him dying on the tree! ‘Tis the Christ by man rejected; Yes, my soul, ’tis He, ’tis He! ‘Tis the long-expected Prophet, David’s Son, yet David’s Lord; Proofs I see sufficient of it: ‘Tis the true and faithful Word. 2. Tell me, ye who hear … Read more

Waiting for Revival

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Here are some comments on preparing and waiting for revival by Arthur Augustus Reese: Some short-sighted people imagine that because as yet there has been no great noise amongst us, nothing has been accomplished-but has the farmer done nothing when he has tilled the ground, and sowed the seed? Are all prayers lost that are … Read more

“The Just Estimate of Our Gifts” – A. MacLaren

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The just estimate of our gifts which Paul enjoins is needful in order that we may ascertain what God has meant us to be and do, and may neither waste our strength in trying to be some one else, nor hide our talent in the napkin of ignorance or false humility. There is quite as much harm done to Christian character and Christian service by our failure to recognise what is in our power, as by ambitious or ostentatious attempts at what is above our power. We have to be ourselves as God has made us in our natural faculties, and as the new life of Christ operating on these has made us new creatures in Him not by changing

– Alexander MacLaren on Romans 12:1-3

The Church’s Darkest Days?

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I have no sympathy with people who tell us today that these are the darkest days the world has ever seen. The days in which we live are appalling, but they do not compare with conditions in the world when Jesus came into it. Historians talk of the Pax Romana and make much of the fact that there was peace everywhere, the Roman peace. Do not forget that the Roman peace was the result of the fact that the world had been bludgeoned brutally into submission to one central power.…

Notwithstanding the prevailing conditions, the dominant note of these Letters, revealing the experience of the Church, is a note of triumph. The dire and dread facts and conditions are never lost sight of—indeed, they are there all the way through. The people are seen going out and facing these facts—and suffering because of these facts—but we never see them depressed and cast down, we never see them suffering from pessimistic fever. They are always triumphant. That is the glory of Christianity.

If ever I am tempted to think that religion is almost dead today, it is when I listen to the wailing of some Christian people: “Everything is wrong,” or “Everything is going wrong.” Oh, be quiet! Think again, look again, judge not by the circumstances of the passing hour but by the infinite things of our Gospel and our God. And that is exactly what these people did.

– G. Campbell Morgan

HT – http://www.epm.org/blog/2013/Apr/29/historys-darkest-hour?utm_source=feedly