Under Grace

 Living under the grace of God instead of under a sense of duty frees us from a self-serving motivation. It frees us to obey God and serve Him as a loving and thankful response to Him for our salvation and for blessings already guaranteed to us by His grace.

Jerry Bridges

Christ is Strong

 We gather on the Lord’s Day because Christ has not left His people to live from private memory alone.

He summons His church to hear again the public announcement of what is true in Him. The justified sinner still needs the preached Word, not because justification is unstable, but because the believer’s conscience often is. We are forgetful, accused, distracted, tempted, and slow to believe that the righteousness by which we stand before God is not found within us, but given to us in Christ. In gathered worship, the church hears one Word, confesses one faith, receives one promise, and lifts one voice to the God who justifies the ungodly. We gather as those whose standing has been secured by the obedience, blood, resurrection, and intercession of Another. We do not come together to pretend we are strong. We come because Christ is strong for sinners.

God can make the worst thing the best thing.

 “The very worst sin that’s ever been committed was the murder of the Son of God. The very best thing that’s ever happened on this planet was the death of the Son of God. And if God can make the worst thing the best thing, He can make your disappointment, even your sin, even your foolishness, work together for good.”

– Stuart Olyott

God's Love

How many millions of sins in every one of the elect, every one of which is enough to condemn them all, hath this love overcome! What mountains of unbelief doth it remove! Look upon the conduct of any one saint, consider the frame of his heart, see the many stains and spots, the defilements and infirmities with which his life is contaminated, and tell me whether the love that bears with all this is not to be admired. And is not the same towards thousands every day? What streams of grace, purging, pardoning, quickening, assisting, do flow from it every day! This is our Beloved.

John Owen

He first loved us.

 It is that gospel that will melt and renew hearts of stone. It is that sight of the Son of Man, lifted up on the cross, proving the love of His Father, that realigns affections. There we see the full gravity of our sin in what it cost Him. There our blithe hopes of self-righteousness die. And there we see a love in God's heart beyond our wildest fantasies. Where once we had dreaded God as an awful judge and delighted in sin, on the cross we see an entirely unexpected goodness and kindness in God. And it is that revelation that wins us. No longer do we shrink from Him, but seeing His fatherly love, we find our hearts welling up with love for Him in return. We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). The sin that pleased us becomes odious. The God we flinched from becomes entrancing.

Michael Reeves Preaching: A God-Centered Vision

Faith is Spirit-Given

 Faith is not self-generated but Spirit-given. Faith does not arise from fallen human nature (1 Cor. 2:14) but from the life-giving work of the Holy Spirit (John 6:63). The Spirit opens the heart, grants understanding, and creates faith through the gospel. As Calvin states elsewhere, "Faith itself is a singular gift of God." — Institutes 3.2.34

Antinomianism

 Errors of Antinomianism:

1. The law is made void by grace. Justification by faith alone renders good works unnecessary. 2. Since good works are unnecessary, obedience to the law is not required of justified persons. 3. God sees no sin in the justified, who are no longer bound by the law, and is not displeased with them if they sin. 4. God therefore does not chastise justified persons for sin. 5. Nor can sin in any way injure the justified. 6. Since no duties or obligations are admitted in the gospel, faith and repentance are not commanded. 7. The Christian need not repent in order to receive pardon of sin. 8. Nor need he mortify sin; Christ has mortified sin for him. 9. Nor ought he be distressed in conscience upon backsliding, but he should hold fast to a full assurance of his salvation in the midst of the vilest sins. 10. Justifying faith is the assurance that one is already justified. 11. The elect are actually justified before they believe, even from all eternity. 12. Therefore, they were never children of wrath or under condemnation. 13. Their sin, as to its very being, was imputed to Christ so as not to be theirs, and His holiness is imputed to them as their only sanctification. 14. Sanctification is no evidence of justification, for assurance is the fruit of an immediate revelation that one is an elect person. 15. No conviction by the law precedes the sinner’s closing with Christ, inasmuch as Christ is freely offered to sinners as sinners. 16. Repentance is produced not by the law, but by the gospel only. 17. The secret counsel of God is the rule of man’s conduct. 18. God is the author and approver of sin, for sin is the accomplishment of His will. 19. Unless the Spirit works holiness in the soul, there is no obligation to be holy or to strive toward that end. 20. All externals are useless or indifferent, since the Spirit alone gives life. (William Young, Reformed Thought, pp. 61-62)

(from James Dorman on Twitter, from @Alfred Sparks)

Full of God's Promises

 The Bible is full of God's promises - to provide for  us spiritually and materially, to never forsake us,  to give us peace in times of difficult circumstances,  to cause all circumstances to work together for our  good, and to bring us safely home to glory. Not one  of those promises is dependent upon our performance.  They're all dependent on the grace of God given to us through Jesus Christ.

Jerry Bridges

Not by your own Feelings

 Do not measure God's love and favor by your own feelings. The sun shines as clearly in the darkest day—as it does in the brightest. The difference is not in the sun, but in some clouds which hinder the manifestation of the light thereof.

—Richard Sibbes

No rest in our faith

 To the man that makes his faith and his trust his rest, and tries to pacify his conscience by getting up evidence of their solidity and excellence, we say, miserable comforters are they all!

—Horatius Bonar

Nothing New

"Preaching is not designed to teach us something new in every sermon, but to put us in remembrance, to call to mind things forgotten, to affect our passions, and engage and fix our resolutions, that our lives may be answerable to our faith." 

 —Matthew Henry

Inward Despair

 Satan is the Accuser. His work is to turn your eyes in on yourself and despair. 

The Spirit is the Comforter. His work is to turn your eyes to Jesus, the rest for our souls.

Michael Reeves.

Remaining Sin

 The problem of continuing sin in the believer

God's grace is sometimes spoken of as deliverance, when we are freed from the bondage of sin, and sometimes as restitution, when we renounce the old nature and are restored to the image of God. Sometimes it is described as regeneration, when we become new creatures, and sometimes as resurrection, when God causes us to die to self and by his power raises us to life. However, we must understand that deliverance is never so complete that no part of us remains under sin's yoke; that restitution is never such as to efface all traces of the earthly man, or to do wholly away with the old nature. As long as we are confined to this bodily prison, we always carry with us the remnants of our flesh which thus limit our freedom. That is why the believing soul, from regeneration onward, is divided into two continually warring parts. For insofar as it is ruled and governed by God's Spirit, it has a love and yearning for immortality which leads and provokes it to righteousness, purity and holiness. Hence its sole thought is for the blessedness of the heavenly kingdom, and it wholly longs for fellowship with God. But insofar as it retains its natural inclination, it is mired in the earth's slime, entangled in evil desires, and does not know what to aim for or where true happiness lies. It is held captive by sin and is turned away from God and his righteousness.

This produces a conflict which sorely tries the believer throughout his life, because he is raised high by the Spirit but brought low by the flesh.

In the Spirit he yearns fervently for immortality; in the flesh he turns aside into the path of death. In the Spirit he purposes to live uprightly; in the flesh he is goaded to do evil. In the Spirit he is led to God; in the flesh he is beaten back. In the Spirit he despises the world; in the flesh he longs for worldly pleasures. This is no idle speculation divorced from our experience of life; it is a practical doctrine whose truth we experience for ourselves if we are God's children.

So we see that flesh and Spirit are like two combatants laying separate claim to the believing soul, and turning it into a battle-ground. Yet it is the Spirit who wins out in the end. For when it is said that the flesh turns the soul away from God, distances it from immortality, stops it following holiness and righteousness and alienates it from the kingdom of God, we must not think that its temptations are strong enough to overthrow and destroy the Spirit's work and to extinguish his power. God forbid! The truth is that when the flesh strives to pull man down, it burdens the Spirit's work; when it seeks to divert him from his path, it slows and impedes it; when it tries to suppress in him all love of righteousness, it weakens it somewhat; when it contrives to blot it out entirely, it makes it flag a little. In the midst of such difficulties, God's servant must be so roused that his heart's chief wish and inclination is to yearn for God, to endeavour to seek him out and continually to sigh and lament because his flesh does not allow him to press on as he should.

This is the point Paul makes when he says: If we are God's sons, let us not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit (Rom. 8:12-14). When he speaks of conflict he affirms that the Spirit of God is the stronger and that he will win. It is easy, then, to see the difterence between the natural man and the regenerate. The natural man is pricked and goaded by his conscience so that he does not completely slumber in his sins. Nevertheless he is disposed with all his heart to enjoy them, to revel in them and to give them free rein, fearing nothing except the penalty which he knows awaits all sinners. The regenerate man, on the other hand, clings with the chief part of his heart to the righteousness of the law, detesting and loathing the sin which he commits through his weakness. It pains him, he cannot condone it, but instead takes pleasure and delight in God's law and finds it sweeter than all the world's enticements. Moreover he never sins knowingly unless it be against his own inclination, for not only his conscience but part of his feelings are opposed to evil.

–John Calvin

“Institutes of the Christian Religion”

Christ came for you.

 Christ came for you.

Christ lived for you. Christ died for you. Christ rose for you. Christ ascended for you. Christ reigns for you. Christ intercedes for you. Christ will return for you. The whole Christ is yours, and this is good news.

Jeffery Perry

Drive You to Christ

 The law is perfect. It reveals God's holiness, exposes our sin, and leaves the whole world accountable before Him (Rom. 3:19). The weakness is not in the law but in our flesh (Rom. 8:3). Therefore, do not lower God's standard when you fail. Let the law humble you and drive you to Christ, who fulfilled it perfectly and secured righteousness for all who trust in Him.

Monergism.

Bruisest Me

Thou Lord bruisest me, but I am abundantly satisfied, since it is from Thy hand.

--John Calvin.

Marks of a Child

"One of the marks of a child of God is that, although he sins, he does not 'love' sin. He may 'fall' into sin but he is like a sheep which, if it tumbles into the mud, is quickly up again; for it hates the mire. The sow wallows where the sheep is distressed."

 — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Take Away

 "God can take away his people's sorrow and fill them with exultant joy."

— Charles Spurgeon

You are Vexed

 You that are vexed at your own doubts are not to come to the conclusion that the Lord utterly rejects you. He discriminates between the folly of a child and the wickedness of a rebel: he knows what is in your heart, and knows that you are his.

Spurgeon

Unbelief of Anxiety

 "We battle the unbelief of anxiety with the promises of God. When I am anxious about some risky new venture or meeting, I battle unbelief with the promise: “Fear not for I am with you, be not dismayed for I am your God; I will help you, I will strengthen you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). When I am anxious about my ministry being useless and empty, I fight unbelief with the promise, “So shall my word that goes forth from my mouth; it will not come back to me empty but accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).

When I am anxious about being too weak to do my work, I battle unbelief with the promise of Christ, “My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9), and “As your days so shall your strength be” (Deuteronomy 33:25). When I am anxious about decisions I have to make about the future, I battle unbelief with the promise, “I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you” (Psalm 32:8). When I am anxious about facing opponents, I battle unbelief with the promise, “If God is for us who can be against us!” (Romans 8:31). When I am anxious about being sick, I battle unbelief with the promise that “tribulation works patience, and patience approvedness, and approvedness hope, and hope does not make us ashamed” (Romans 5:3–5). When I am anxious about getting old, I battle unbelief with the promise, “Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save” (Isaiah 46:4). When I am anxious about dying, I battle unbelief with the promise that “none of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself; if we live we live to the Lord and if we die we die to the Lord. So whether we live or die we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and rose again: that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living” (Romans 14:8–9). When I am anxious that I may make shipwreck of faith and fall away from God, I battle unbelief with the promise, “He who began a good work in you will complete it unto the day of Christ” (Philippians 1:6). “He who calls you is faithful. He will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:23). “He is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25)."

Sermon, Battling the Unbelief of Anxiety, John Piper.

No Accidents

 "To the child of God, there is no such thing as an accident. He travels an appointed way. The path he treads was chosen for him when as yet he was not, when as yet he had existence only in the mind of God. Accidents may indeed appear to befall him and misfortune stalk his way; but these evils will be so in appearance only and will seem evil only because we cannot read the script of God's hidden providence and so cannot discover the ends at which He aims...The man of true faith may live in the absolute assurance that his steps are ordered by the Lord. For him, misfortune is outside the bounds of possibility. He is not a waif of the wide world, a foundling of time and space, but a saint of the Lord and the darling of His particular care."

~ A.W. Tozer 1897-1963

Give me Strength

 “Give me strength against all my temptations, and patience under all my sufferings. In the midst of all my fears and anxieties, I would give You thanks for Your sparing mercy. I have grievously sinned, O Lord, and merit Your hot displeasure. But I would cast myself wholly upon Your mercy in Christ Jesus. Oh, hear me in the day of trouble. Send help from Your sanctuary, and strengthen me from Zion. Give me grace, O Lord, in remembrance of Your past loving-kindness — so to trust in Your goodness, to submit to Your wisdom, and meekly to bear what You think fit to lay upon me — that I may be brought to say at the last, "It was good for me that I was afflicted!" Grant this measure of grace unto Your servant for Your Son Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.”

~ John MacDuff 1818-1895, “Encouragements to Patient Waiting”

Lead them to the Gospel

 Seeking mortification of sin just to quiet the soul and find relief from the torment of the conscience, all the while neglecting to deal with the root cause of sin, is a result of self-love. Men are diverted from coming to God this way. This is of the most common deception in which men ruin their souls. They seek to apply themselves to victory over the troubling sin but do not allow their conviction to lead them to the gospel. They perish in their “reformation”.

~John Owen

Freed to Love Him

 When our sense of guilt is taken away because our consciences are cleansed by the blood of Christ, we're freed up to love Him with all our hearts and souls and minds…Our love will be spontaneous in an outpouring of gratitude to Him and fervent desire to obey Him.

Jerry Bridges

Struggle Against Joy

 Sinners cannot imagine that the things they love are the very things that keep them from happiness. Their fear of the light and refusal to let go of the darkness is a struggle against joy.

Michael Reeves

Do not Look to Your Faith

"Do not look to your faith, nor to your repentance, nor to your prayers, nor to your works. Look to Christ. If you look to your faith, you will soon have no faith. If you look to your prayers, you will soon have no prayers to present. But if you look to Christ, you will find faith and prayer and everything else coming to you as a matter of course."

-Spurgeon

We Love Something

 The human heart was created to love, and it will never remain empty. If we do not set our affection upon God, we will inevitably give our love to something else, whether the passing pleasures of the world, the deceitfulness of sin, or the idols of our own desires. Yet all these things are unworthy objects of ultimate devotion, for they cannot satisfy the soul, endure the test of time, or save us in the day of judgment. By contrast, God is infinitely lovely, perfectly good, and the source of every true blessing. To love Him is not merely a duty but the highest privilege of man, for in loving God we find the very purpose for which we were created and the only object of affection that can never disappoint, decay, or be taken away. He who loves God most becomes the richest blessing to those around him.

Monergism; (probably elaborating on Thomas Watson).

Thomas Waston.