THE WHOLE WORK IS HIS

"Faith is the acknowledgment of the entire absence of all goodness in us, and the recognition of the cross as the substitute for all the want on our part. The whole work is His, not ours, from first to last."

Horatius Bonar

LEANING ON YOURSELF???

"Indeed, the generality of men that are trained up in a Protestant country will tell you that they do not expect to be justified by their own righteousness, but by the righteousness of Christ. But alas! How few are there that do really and actually submit unto this righteousness. There is a cursed bias in the heart of man to lean to something in himself. Is not this the language of thy heart many 

times? O! If I had such a frame, such a melting of heart, such love, such a degree of humility and obedience, then I think God would accept of me, and love me on that account. But, Sirs, let me tell you, it is not on account of anything wrought in you, or done by you, but only on the account of the doing and dying of the Son of God.”

Ebenezer Erskine

PREACHING GRACE SANCTIFIES

‎"It's the role of grace in sanctification that sometimes troubles us...People worry that emphasizing grace undermines obedience. Consistently preaching the necessity and the proper motivation for holiness may be the most difficult task evangelical preachers face because we culturally define grace as license rather than the biblical power of holiness...Grace is the power of obedience not the antidote to obedience."

Bryan Chapell;

Jesus Delivers Us

(Author unknown)

"Hold me up--and I shall be safe!" Psalm 119:117

"For you, O LORD, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling!" Psalm 116:8

Christ has completely and perfectly delivered all His people from the condemnation of sin, as He suffered the wrath of God for us on the cross, having our sins charged to His account. 

But His deliverance of us does not end there. He is still delivering us and keeping us from all that would harm or destroy us. 

He continually delivers us . . .
  from the power of sin which still plagues, corrupts, and contaminates us;
  from the influence of the world;
  from the force of temptation;
  from the deceitfulness of our own hearts;
  and from the designs of all our foes!

"The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!" Psalm 18:2 

from gracegems

THE HAND THAT HOLDS THE ROD

"Grant that I may be salted with suffering, with every exactment tempered to my soul, every rod excellently fitted to my back, to chastise, humble, break me. Let me not overlook the hand that holds the rod, as thou didst not let me forget the rod that fell on Christ, and drew me to him." -from "Christian Calling" (page 50)

VALLEY OF VISION

SANCTIFICATION EXCERPT

A.W. PINK writes,

Like "salvation" itself—according to the use of the term is Scripture (see 2 Tim. 1:9, salvation in the past; Phil. 2:12, salvation in the present; Rom. 13:11, salvation in the future) and in the actual history of the redeemed—so sanctification must be considered under its three tenses. There is a very real sense in which all of God’s elect have already been sanctified: Jude 1; Hebrews 10:10; 2 Thessalonians 2:13. There is also a very real sense in which those of God’s people on earth are daily being sanctified: 2 Corinthians. 4:16; 7:1; 1 Thessalonians 5:23. And there is also a real sense in which the Christian’s (complete) sanctification is yetfuture: Romans 8:30; Hebrews 12:23; 1 John 3:2. Unless this threefold distinction be carefully borne in mind our thoughts are bound to be confused. Objectively, our sanctification is already an accomplished fact (1 Cor. 1:2), in which one saint shares equally with another. Subjectively, our sanctification is not complete in this life (Phil. 3:12) and varies considerably in different Christians, though the promise of Philippians 1:6 belongs alike to all of them.

Though our sanctification be complete in all its parts, yet it is not now perfect in its degrees. As the newborn babe possesses a soul and body, endowed with all their members, yet they are undeveloped and far from a state of maturity. So it is with the Christian, who (in comparison with the life to come) remains throughout this life but a "babe in Christ" (1 Pet. 2:2). We know but "in part" (1 Cor. 13:12), and we are sanctified but in part, for "there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed" (Josh. 13 :1). In the most gracious there remains a double principle: the flesh and the spirit, the old man and the new man. We are a mixture and a medley during our present state. There is a conflict between operating principles (sin and grace), so that every act is mixed: there is tin mixed with our silver and dross with our gold. Our best deeds are defiled, and therefore we continue to feed upon the Lamb with "bitter herbs" (Ex. 12:8).

Holiness in the heart discovers itself by godly sorrowings and godly aspirations. "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted" (Matt. 5:4): "mourn" because of the swellings of pride, the workings of unbelief, the surging of discontent; "mourn" because of the feebleness of their faith, the coldness of their love, their lack of conformity to Christ. There is nothing which more plainly evidences a person to be sanctified than a broken and contrite heart—grieving over that which is contrary to holiness. Rightly did the Puritan John Owen say, "Evangelical repentance is that which carrieth the believing soul through all his failures, infirmities, and sins. He is not able to live one day without the constant exercise of it. It is as necessary unto the continuance of spiritual life as faith is. It is that continual, habitual, self-abasement which arises from a sense of the majesty and holiness of God, and the consciousness of our miserable failures." It is this which makes the real Christian so thankful for Romans 7, for he finds it corresponds exactly with his own inward experience.

The sanctified soul, then, is very far from being satisfied with the measure of experimental holiness which is yet his portion. He is painfully conscious of the feebleness of his graces, the leanness of his soul, and the defilements from his inward corruption. But, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness" (Matt. 5:6), or "they that are hungering and thirsting" as the Greek reads, being the participle of the present tense; intimating apresent disposition of the soul. Christ pronounces "blessed" (in contrast from those under "the curse") they who are hungering and thirsting after His righteousness imparted as well as imputed, who thirst after the righteousness of sanctification as well as the righteousness of justification—i.e., the Spirit infusing into the soul holy principles, supernatural graces, spiritual qualities, and then strengthening and developing the same. Such has been the experiences of the saints in all ages, "As the hart panteth after the waterbrooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, 0 God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?" (Ps. 42:1, 2).

DO YOU LOVE JESUS

"Simon son of John, do you love Me more than these?"
    John 21:15

Do you love Me . . .
  More than these creature claimants?
  More than these earthly honors?
  More than these worldly riches?
  More than these domestic comforts?
  More than parent, child, brother, sister, friend?

Do you love Me . . .
  singly,
  supremely,
  above all,
  amid ten thousand suitors for your heart?

Do you love Me . . .
Does My beauty charm you?
Does My love win you?
Does My grace draw you?
Does My cross attract you?
Have My sufferings and My death subdued
  you to penitence, faith, and love?
Am I dearer to you than earth's dearest attractions?
Am I more precious than the heart's most precious treasure?
Can you part with all, and every one, for Me?


"Do I love You, O my Lord?
 Behold my heart and see;
 Gently dislodge each idol thence,
 That seeks to rival Thee."

"You know I love You, dearest Lord;
 But, oh, I long to soar;
 Far from the sphere of mortal joys,
 And learn to love You more!"

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW

Valley of Vision

O Lord,

I am a shell full of dust, but animated with an invisible rational soul and made anew by an unseen power of grace; Yet I am no rare object of valuable price, but one that has nothing and is nothing, although chosen of thee from eternity, given to Christ, and born again; I am deeply convinced of the evil and misery of a sinful state, of the vanity of creatures, but also of the sufficiency 

of Christ.

When thou wouldst guide me I control myself, When thou wouldst be sovereign I rule myself.

When thou wouldst take care of me I suffice myself.

When I should depend on thy providings I supply myself, When I should submit to thy providence I follow my will, When I should study, love, honour, trust thee, I serve myself; I fault and correct thy laws to suit myself, Instead of thee I look to a man’s approbation, and am by nature an idolater.

Lord, it is my chief design to bring my heart back to thee.

Convince me that I cannot be my own God, or make myself happy, nor my own Christ to restore my joy, nor my own Spirit to teach, guide, rule me.

Help me to see that grace does this by providential affliction, for when my credit is good thou dost cast me lower, when riches are my idol thou dost wing them away, when pleasure is my all thou dost turn it into bitterness.

Take away my roving eye, curious ear, greedy appetite, lustful heart; show me that none of these things can heal a wounded conscience, or support a tottering frame, or uphold a departing spirit.

Then take me to the cross and leave me there.

—Valley of Vision: Man a Nothing, p91

HATE THEIR SIN

ONLY GOD CAN TEACH AND TRANSFORM

It is extremely easy for me to have the mindset of: "find a lot of audio exposition and video exposition, and take it all in...with an implication of : What does prayer have to do with anything, I'm learning right??? How vain and foolish. All the audio and video in the world, no matter how solid the exposition is powerless without the grace and power of God to transform the mind and heart.

THRIVING

Which do I desire most? A thriving online ministry, with many videos, mp3s, articles, forums, all getting traffic and feeback. -- or -- a thriving prayer life with many praises, thanksgivings, supplications, all getting grace and mercy.

FAITH IS LIKE NOT CARING

My statement following is extremely over-simplified, but this came to mind: Apathy is not caring, and Faith is not caring. Apathy is not caring because one simply doesn't care. Faith is not caring, because one knows that God is wise, good, sovereign, and worthy. Obviously apathy and faith are entirely opposite terms, and even with faith we do "care" and are "concerned". Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac and he cared about Isaac and would be painful to have him die at his own hands; but when it came down do it, He cared more about trusting God, knowing God could raise him from the dead or provide a substitute...more than caring about 'his own understanding and preferences'. I hope no one lives in apathy, but I hope your life is filled with faith, that whatever thy lot God has taught thee to say, "it is well, it is well with my soul."

Do we recover a nation, any nation?

Is it true, that: the reason america is in such bad shape, morally, is because the church has failed, and we need to go out and be the difference in life, word, and deed?

Well, there are many tares in the church, true enough. Yet, Noah's culture was not going to be changed by some "improvement in Noah" Sodom was not going to be changed by some "improvement in Abraham" Egypt was not going to be changed by some improvement in Joseph or Moses. Canaan was not going to be changed by some improvement in Joshua or David. And the same can be said of all the prophets to national Israel or the disciples and apostles. I personally cannot undo all the damage that someone like Billy Graham has done, when at times God has sent false prophets to those who love a lie and suppress the truth. Today there are Arminian congregations and denominations working with millions of dollars, and thankfully God is not intimidated for thwarted by such opposition; however, God's sheep do not have to live under a taskmaster like Pharaoh to "recover America" -- an agenda that God has never given us.

AFRAID OF MY OWN HEART

I am more afraid of my own heart than of the pope and all his cardinals. -- Martin Luther

THIS POOR WORLD IS NOT YOUR REST

(James Smith; via gracegems)

Your trials, though many, painful, and tedious--are but proofs of your heavenly Father's love! They are sent in mercy--to convince you that this poor world is not your rest.
Your Father's wisdom chose them,
His love sent them, and
His mercy will sanctify them to you!

Tried believer--are you looking to Jesus? He can hush the storm, and still the tempest. He is always near in trouble. Is your eye fixed upon Him? Does your heart repose on His tender love and faithful Word?

Do you recognize your heavenly Father's hand in your trials? His hand is in them, whether you see it or not. He sends, bounds, and removes them--as He wisely desires. And it has often comforted the saint to realize that the hand of God is in every trial, trouble, and disappointment.

Do you sweetly acquiescence in God's will, in faith that whatever He permits in our life, is right and best for you?

to know grace

To know Christ, is to know grace. If you cannot proclaim Biblical grace, then you cannot proclaim the Christ of the Bible. Beware of those who preach "another Christ" by preaching "another grace" when there is no other grace (Christ) than the one Paul preached.

REVERENCE HIS HAND

"Affliction does not rise out of the dust or come to men by chance; but it is the Lord that sends it, and we should own and reverence His hand in it." - Thomas Boston

Where Arminians agree

Important to note: classic Arminianism and Calvinism actually agree that God choose not to save everyone.-Michael Horton

BEST WORK

Quote from Scott Price's sermon I posted...
Satan does his best work in the pulpit; thanks CDO

Our Heart Our Desire

Our heart our desire
Is to see the nations worship
Our cry our prayer
Is to sing Your praise to the ends of the earth
That with one mighty voice
Every tribe and tongue rejoices
Our heart our desire
Is to see the nations Worship You:  Don Moen

Scripture is about Christ.

The whole of Scripture is about Christ.

The NT is contained in the OT.
The OT is explained in the NT.
The NT is concealed in the OT.
The OT is revealed in the NT.
The OT anticipates the NT.
The NT authenticates the OT.
In the OT the NT lies hidden.
In the NT the OT lies open.
The OT foreshadows the NT.
The NT fulfills the OT.
In the OT they were always seeking.
In the NT they found.
The OT predicts a Person.
The NT presents that Person.
And the Person is the Lord Jesus Christ
Who fully validated the OT.
The Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible)
presents Figures os Christ.
The Psalms present the Feelings of Christ.
The Prophets present the Foretellings of Christ.
The Gospels present the Facts of Christ.
The Epistles present the Fruits of Christ.

by ROY GUSTAFSON

PRESS ON

If it were me, and my frail mind, and I saw the crowd of John 6 turn away and walk with me no more, I would be sorely sorely depressed. Why read another book, why write another sermon, why pray another prayer, why witness to another soul, why bother, why embrace more rejection and "let down", why rejoice, smile, and be happy, why care.

Yet Jesus knew even before His Incarnation that such would be the case throughout His life. A crowd which follows then falls away. Lepers who come for healing and who leave forgetting. Pharisees who give compliments, and continue plotting. Peter who makes promises, but denies Him thrice. Those disheartened on the road to Emmaus even though He, risen, yet ate with them. May the grace and power of God grant us the mind of Christ, and that it may put to death what is earthly in us.

 

 

Luke 18:7

Shall GOD not avenge HIS OWN elect who cry out day and night to HIM, though HE bears long with them ? (Luke 18:7)

 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.
(Exodus 2:23-25 ESV)

ALL OF CHRIST

If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is “of him.”
If we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, they will be found in his anointing.
If we seek strength, it lies in his dominion;
if purity, in his conception;
if gentleness, it appears in his birth. For by his birth he was made like us in all respects that he might learn to feel our pain.
If we seek redemption, it lies in his passion;
if acquittal, in his condemnation;
if remission of the curse, in his cross;
if satisfaction, in his sacrifice;
if purification, in his blood;
if reconciliation, in his descent into hell;
if mortification of the flesh, in his tomb;
if newness of life, in his resurrection;
if immortality, in the same;
if inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom, in his entrance into heaven;
if protection, if security, if abundant supply of all blessings, in his Kingdom;
if untroubled expectation of judgment, in the power given to him to judge.

In short, since rich store of every kind of good abounds in him, let us drink our fill from this fountain and from no other.

from Calvin's Institutes.

REMEMBER THE INCARNATION

Man’s maker was made man,
that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother’s breast;
that the Bread might hunger,
the Fountain thirst,
the Light sleep,
the Way be tired on its journey;
that the Truth might be accused of false witness,
the Teacher be beaten with whips,
the Foundation be suspended on wood;
that Strength might grow weak;
that the Healer might be wounded;
that Life might die.

- Augustine of Hippo (Sermons 191.1)

Peace in His Plan

I am no longer anxious about anything, as I realize the Lord is able to carry out His will, and His will is mine. It makes no matter where He places me, or how. That is rather for Him to consider than for me; for in the easiest positions He must give me His grace, and in the most difficult, His grace is sufficient.

~Hudson Taylor

You Shall Come

"Oh! I love God's "shalls" and "wills." There is nothing comparable to them. Let a man say "shall," what is it good for? "I will," says man, and he never performs; "I shall," says he, and he breaks his promise. But it is never so with God's "shalls." If he says "shall," it shall be; when he says "will," it will be. Now he has said here, "many shall come." The devil says "they shall not come;" but "they shall come." Their sins say "you can't come;" God says "you shall come." You, yourselves, say, "you won't come;" God says "you shall come." 

~ Spurgeon

God's Provision

God will meet all your needs

"And my God will meet all your needs according
to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus." Phil. 4:19

Until we are brought into the depths of poverty,
we shall never know nor value Christ's riches.

If, then, you are a child of God, a poor and
needy soul, a tempted and tried believer in
Christ, "God will meet all your needs."

They may be very great.

It may seem to you, sometimes, as though there
were not upon all the face of the earth such a
wretch as you—as though there never could be
a child of God in your state . . .
so dark,
so stupid,
so blind and ignorant,
so proud and worldly,
so presumptuous and hypocritical,
so continually backsliding after idols,
so continually doing things that you
know are hateful in God's sight.

But whatever your need be—it is not beyond the
reach of divine supply! And the deeper your need,
the more is Jesus glorified in supplying it.

Do not say then, that . . .
your case is too bad,
your needs are too many,
your perplexities too great,
your temptations too powerful.

No case can be too bad!

No temptations can be too powerful!

No sin can be too black!

No perplexity can be too hard!

No state in which the soul can get, is beyond
the reach of the almighty and compassionate
love, that burns in the breast of the Redeemer!

PEARLS FROM J.C PHILPOT

utterly beyond

"God has surely promised His grace to the humbled, that is, to those who mourn over and despair of themselves. But a man cannot be thoroughly humbled till he realizes that his salvation is utterly beyond his own powers, counsels, efforts, will and works, and depends, absolutely on the will, counsel, pleasure and works of Another - God alone."

-Martin Luther

CIRCULAR REFERENCE

This illustration came to mind last night; A bird sees the writings of Shakespeare, and after bobbing around it, begins to rip out the paper and turns it into shreds to build a nice nest. Of course, how resourceful this intelligent bird is. So likewise another branch of evolution, monkeys to mankind studies astronomy, chemistry, biology, physics, and morality, continually assuming that their "facts and theories" are all reliable uses of the materials around them; when in reality they have perverted the real purpose of the resource. Man can no more expect to properly and accurately understand chemistry and we can expect a bird to understand Shakespeare, just as the bird is the circular reference to his application, so man is the circular reference to his application, and both are wrong.

CONFIDENCE IN SELF???

How confident are you that if you were born in the Amazon Jungle 2000 years ago that your free-will could cause your regeneration considering you would never hear/read a solitary verse of Scripture in your life. General Revelation leaves men without excuse, but it is not sufficient to regenerate; If you disagree you have destroyed any basic significance or purpose in evangelism, and have placed faith and confidence in the sinner's mind, instead of the Savior's mercy (Romans 9 mercy).

POWERFUL LOVE

"A man may love another as his own soul, yet perhaps that love of his cannot help him. He may thereby pity him in prison, but not relieve him; bemoan him in misery, but not help him; suffer with him in trouble, but not ease him. We cannot love grace into a child, nor mercy into a friend; we cannot love them into heaven, though it may be the greatest desire of our soul. … But now the love of Christ, being the love of God, is effectual and fruitful in producing all the good things which he wills unto his beloved. He loves life, grace, and holiness into us; he loves us also into covenant, loves us into heaven."
-- John Owen, "Works" (London, 1826), 2:63

Fix your eyes on Jesus

Remember the rejected Christ, remember the risen Christ, remember the returning Christ, remember the reigning Christ, remember the redeeming Christ, remember the rejoicing Christ. He rejoices over the Bride that He purchased and cleansed with His own blood. Fix your eyes on Jesus, be done with all lesser things, Fix your eyes on Jesus, while , Holy, Holy, Holy the angels sing.

Do you credit God

Do you credit God for your faith, or do you credit your self?  Do you credit God for the application of your faith on the proper person and object, or do you credit your self?  Was you regeneration based upon a condition that you were able to meet, or solely based on the grace of God found in the person and blood of Jesus Christ?

Can God save someone physically before He saves them spiritually? Yes, and He does so often. Can God save a man before He glorifies them eternally? Yes, and He does so often. Can God save someone before they believe? Yes. What is regeneration? A salvation from a stony heart to a heart of flesh, salvation from spiritual blindness, to spiritual sight, salvation from spiritual deafness to spiritual hearing, salvation from spiritual insanity to that of a sound mind. 

 Romans 10 itself, like Romans 1-9, is EXTREMELY FULL of the man's rejection of God. Romans 10 is replete with how the Jews did not have faith in God. So those born as Gentiles who were born without a clue of the Hebrew Language, Hebrew Text, who did not see Jesus heal, speak, and minister, must have a mountain of pride to assert, "those Jews made the wrong decision to believe Jesus, but it makes sense to me, and I cannot credit God with my faith, I have got to credit myself for believing; which therefore was prior to my salvation. May we never credit our self for either "our faith and believing" or the "application of faith"; either the Father granted me faith on the grounds of Jesus and the merit of His Blood, or the Father granted me the new birth on the grounds of something I contributed, namely "my faith" being the pivotal linchpin to meet God's condition for regeneration; in this case regeneration is no longer of grace, but of works, and one will have reason to boast not only before other unbelieving Jews, but even before God Himself. Look at me, my faith my the distinguishing difference; I cannot imagine that Isaac was born to Abraham instead of Pharaoh because Isaac did something future his conception; likewise for John the Baptist leaping in the womb;

OUR HOLINESS IS HIS WORK

"Our Holiness is His Work"...

... Ichabod Smith Spencer shares how he dealt with a man inquiring about God’s election while refusing to come to Christ in repentance and faith.... Spencer gives three purposes why the Bible presents the doctrine of predestination. The first purpose is to teach men the character of God; the second is to repress the audacity of the wicked; and the third is to comfort God’s people.

Spencer’s words about such a comfort is quite powerful, and thought the quote is a bit lengthy, let me encourage you to read it all. It is a good word we all need to hear.

The third main purpose of this doctrine [of predestination] is, as I suppose, to comfort God’s people. The grand trial of a life of religion is a trial of the heart. We have sins, we have weaknesses and temptations, which tend to a dreadful discouragement. Sin easily besets us. We easily wander from God. Holiness is an up-hill work. Our feet often stagger in the path of our pilgrimage, and tears of bitterness gush from our eyes, lest such weak, and tempted, and erring creatures should never reach heaven. Devils tempt us. The world presents its deceitful allurements, and more deceitful and dangerous claims. What shall cheer us when our heart sinks within us? Whither shall we fly for comfort, when our hearts are bleeding, when our sins are so many, when our gain in holiness is so little, when our light goes out, and the gloom of an impenetrable midnight settles down upon our poor and helpless soul? We cannot, indeed, mount up to the inner sanctuary of God, open the seven-sealed book, and read our names recorded in it by the pen of the Eternal. But we can know that such a book is there; and that the pen of our Father has filled it with his eternal decrees, not one of which shall fail of accomplishment, as surely as his own throne shall stand. And when we find in ourselves, amid our tearful struggles, even the feeble beginnings of holiness, we know that God has commenced his work for us,–a work which he planned before the world was; and that he who has ‘begun a good in work in us, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ,’ carrying into effect his eternal plan. Just as well as we know our likeness to God, we know our election to God. We know that our holiness is his work, a work which he purposed from the beginning. If he had purposed it but just when he began it,–if it were a work undertaken from some recent impulse, then we should have good reason to fear that some other impulse would drive him to abandon it. But when we know it from a part of his eternal counsels, and is no sidework, no episode, no interlude, or sudden interposition not before provided for—then we are assured that God is not going to forsake us; and deep as is our home-bred depravity, and many and malignant as are our foes, we are cheered with the assurance, that God will bring us off victorious, and ‘the purpose according to election shall stand.’ We love to see our salvation embraced in the eternal plan of God; and we know it is embraced there, if we are his children by faith in Christ Jesus. We cannot read his secret counsels; but we can read his spiritual workings in us. We know the counsels by the evidence of the workings; and then we are cheered and encouraged amid our trials, by the idea that God will no more abandon us than he will abandon the eternal plan which his wisdom formed before the foundation of the world. ‘Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?’ He had their names in his book before they had shed a tear, before a devil existed to tempt them.

- Ichabod Smith Spencer, A Pastor’s Sketches: Conversations with Anxious Souls Concerning the Way of Salvation vol. 1 (Vestavia Hills, AL: Solid Ground Books), 237-39.

THE FATHER IS SATISFIED

If evangelism is focused on seeing sinners saved, then we are likely to miss the glory of God in it all; however if evangelism is focused on the glory of God in it all, then our joy will be an eternal constant no matter what we "see". Too much today is focused on "seeing" the response of sinners, when rather we should be savoring the Father's satisfaction in the Son as we proclaim.

TWO BY SPURGEON

“Solid arguments are lost on shallow minds. Yet what else are we to use? We are bound to give them reasons; but we are not called upon to give them understanding." ~Charles Spurgeon

"Remember that the man who truly repents is never satisfied with his own repentance." - C.H. Spurgeon;

 

IN CHRIST ALONE

No one is loved by God but in Christ alone.
No one is chosen by God but in Christ alone.
No one is accepted by God but in Christ alone.
No one is redeemed by God but in Christ alone.
No one is pardoned by God but in Christ alone.
No one is justified by God but in Christ alone.
No one is made righteous by God but in Christ alone.
No one is regenerated by God but in Christ alone.
No one is sanctified by God but in Christ alone.
No one is preserved by God but in Christ alone.
No one is glorified by God but in Christ alone.
No one is saved by God but in Christ alone... 

[source: Robert B.]

Stumbling Block

The Sovereignty of God is the stumbling block on which thousands fall and perish; and if we go contending with God about His sovereignty it will be our eternal ruin. It is absolutely necessary that we should submit to God as an absolute sovereign, and the sovereign of our souls; as one who may have mercy on whom He will have mercy and harden whom He will" 

(Jonathan Edwards)

Brevity of Life

Below is a list of 60 famous people who died before the age of 40. 


Taken from:  http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/va-news-articles_2011-11-30?vaid=f222704b9650980c81ea4491dbac158e


The world was shocked and saddened when Princess Diana died in 1997 at the age of 36.



1. Jessica Dubroff (7)
Pilot -- Plane crash -- 1996

2. Heather O'Rourke (12)
Child actor -- Bowel obstruction -- 1988

3. Anne Frank (15)
Dutch-Jewish author -- Typhus in concentration camp -- 1945

4. Ritchie Valens (17)
Rock 'n' roll singer -- Plane crash -- 1959

5. Eddie Cochran (21)
Rockabilly musician -- Auto accident -- 1960

6. Aaliyah (22)
R&B singer -- Plane crash -- 2001

7. Buddy Holly (22)
Rock 'n' roll singer -- Plane crash -- 1959

8. Freddie Prinze (22)
Comedian/actor -- Suicide -- 1977

9. River Phoenix (23)
Actor -- Drug overdose -- 1993

10. Selena (23)
Mexican-American singer -- Homicide -- 1995

11. James Dean (24)
Actor -- Auto accident -- 1955

12. Otis Redding (26)
Soul singer -- Plane crash -- 1967

....Randy Rhoads (26)  (December 6, 1956 – March 19, 1982) (26)
Guitarist for Ozzy.--1982.

13. Brian Jones (27)
British rock guitarist -- Drug-related drowning, possibly homicide -- 1969

14. Janis Joplin (27)
Rock/soul singer -- Heroin overdose -- 1970

15. Jim Morrison (27)
Rock singer -- Heart attack, possibly due to drug overdose -- 1971

16. Jimi Hendrix (27)
Rock guitarist/singer -- Asphyxiation from sleeping pill overdose -- 1970

17. Kurt Cobain (27)
Grunge rock singer/guitarist -- Gunshot and lethal dose of heroin, presumed suicide -- 1994

18. Reggie Lewis (27)
Basketball player -- Heart attack -- 1993

19. Brandon Lee (28)
Actor -- Accidental shooting on the set of The Crow -- 1993

20. Shannon Hoon (28)
Rock singer -- Drug overdose -- 1995

21. Hank Williams (29)
Country musician -- Heart attack, possibly due to an accidental overdose of morphine and alcohol -- 1953

22. Andy Gibb (30)
Singer -- Heart failure due to cocaine abuse -- 1988

23. Jim Croce (30)
Singer/songwriter -- Plane crash -- 1973

24. Patsy Cline (30)
Country music singer -- Plane crash -- 1963

25. Sylvia Plath (30)
Poet and author -- Suicide -- 1963


Alexander the Great

  (32) died in   

323 BCE aged 32 from Malaria, Possibly Poisoned


26. Brian Epstein (32)
Beatles manager -- Drug overdose -- 1967

27. Bruce Lee (32)
Martial arts actor -- Possible allergic reaction -- 1973

28. Cass Elliot (32)
Singer -- Heart attack brought on by obesity -- 1974

29. Karen Carpenter (32)
Singer and musician -- Cardiac arrest from anorexia nervosa -- 1983

30. Keith Moon (32)
Rock drummer -- Overdose of medication -- 1978


Bon Scott  
died in   

1980 aged 33 from Suffocation on His Own Vomit After Drinking Binge

hard-rock singer (AC/DC) Australian

31. Carole Lombard (33)
Actor -- Plane crash -- 1942

32. Chris Farley (33)
Comedian/actor -- Overdose of cocaine and heroin -- 1997

33. Darryl Kile (33)
Major League Baseball pitcher -- Coronary heart disease -- 2002

34. Jesus Christ (33)
Founder of Christianity -- Crucifixion -- A.D. 30

35. John Belushi (33)
Comedian/actor -- Overdose of cocaine and heroin -- 1982

36. Sam Cooke (33)
Soul musician -- Homicide -- 1964

37. Charlie Parker (34)
Jazz saxophonist -- Pneumonia and ulcer, brought on by drug abuse -- 1955

38. Dana Plato (34)
Actor -- Prescription drug overdose -- 1999

39. Jayne Mansfield (34)
Actor -- Auto accident -- 1967

40. Andy Kaufman (35)
Comedian/actor -- Lung cancer -- 1984

41. Josh Gibson (35)
Negro League baseball player -- Stroke -- 1947

42. Stevie Ray Vaughan (35)
Blues guitarist -- Helicopter crash -- 1990

43. Bob Marley (36)
Reggae musician -- Melanoma that metastasized into lung and brain cancer -- 1981

44. Diana, Princess of Wales (36)
British royal -- Auto accident -- 1997

45. Marilyn Monroe (36)
Actor -- Barbiturate overdose -- 1962

46. Bobby Darin (37)
Singer/actor -- Complications during heart surgery -- 1973

47. Lou Gehrig (37)
Major League Baseball player -- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) -- 1941

48. Michael Hutchence (37)
Rock singer -- Hanged, possibly suicide -- 1997

49. Sal Mineo (37)
Actor -- Homicide -- 1976

Felix Mendelssohn died in 1847 aged 38 from a Stroke composer German 50. Florence Griffith Joyner (38)
Olympian/sprinter -- Possible asphyxiation during epileptic seizure -- 1998

51. George Gershwin (38)
Composer -- Brain tumor -- 1937

52. Harry Chapin (38)
Singer/songwriter -- Auto accident -- 1981

53. John F. Kennedy, Jr. (38)
Journalist/publisher -- Plane crash -- 1999

54. Roberto Clemente (38)
Major League Baseball player -- Plane crash -- 1972

55. Sam Kinison (38)
Comedian -- Auto accident caused by drunk driver -- 1992

56. Anna Nicole Smith (39)
Model/actor -- Accidental prescription drug overdose -- 2007

57. Dennis Wilson (39)
Rock 'n' roll drummer -- Drowning due to intoxication -- 1983

58. Malcolm X (39)
Militant civil rights leader -- Assassination -- 1965

59. Martin Luther King, Jr. (39)
Civil rights activist/minister -- Assassination -- 1968

60.  Fats Waller (39) -  Pianist during the 1930s.

THE BEST WORKS

“Even the best works of men, antecedently unto the purging of their consciences by the blood of Christ, are but dead works.” - John Owen

OUR BEST DUTIES

Our best duties are as so many splendid sins. Before you can speak peace in your heart, you must not only be made sick of your original and actual sin, but you must be made sick of your righteousness, of all your duties and performances.... There must be a deep conviction before you can be brought out of your self-righteousness; it is the last idol taken out of our heart... The pride of our heart will not let us submit to the (imputed) righteousness of Jesus Christ... George Whitefield

STAINS IN OUR BEST

"Our prayers have stains in them, our faith is mixed with unbelief, our repentance is not so tender as it should be, our communion is distant and interrupted. We cannot pray without sinning, and there is filth even in our tears."

~C.H. Spurgeon

CHRIST ON EVERY PAGE

Once we truly grasp the message of the New Testament, it is impossible to read the Old Testament again without seeing Christ on every page, in every story, foreshadowed or anticipated in every event and narrative.

Michael Horton

His appointments

"Yes, give thanks for "all things" for, as it has been well said "Our disappointments are but His appointments." ~A.W.Pink

REBUKE AND GRACE

How is it then that miserable men dare to be proud, either of their free will, before they are freed, or of their own strength, if they have been freed? They do not observe that in the very mention of free will they pronounce the name of liberty. But “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. ” If, therefore, they are the slaves of sin, why do they boast of free will? For by what a man is overcome, to the same is he delivered as a slave. But if they have been freed, why do they vaunt themselves as if it were by their own doing, and boast, as if they had not received? Or are they free in such sort that they do not choose to have Him for their Lord who says to them: “Without me ye can do nothing;” and “If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed?” 

– Augustine, On Rebuke and Grace, Chp. 52

Did God get much

When you go out of a Church meeting and say, "I didn't get much out of that meeting tonight." That's not the point! How much did God get out of it? Did He get worshipped? Did He get adoration? Our only business on earth is to glorify GOD
You don't worship God standing up... you worship God on your belly....worship is speechless adoration! How much time have you spent with Jesus today? When is the last time you've gone to Him and said, "I'm not going to ask you for a thing... I come to worship you in spirit and in truth." via. K.S.R.

PAGAN GODDESS

"The free will is a pagan goddess that the Church has worshipped for far too long." ~ Steve Lawson

ESSENTIALLY ATHEISM

"Opposition to divine sovereignty is essentially atheism." ~ Charles Spurgeon

GOD PRODUCES ALL

In efficacious grace we are not merely passive, nor yet does God do some and we do the rest. But God does all, and we do all. God produces all, we act all. For that is what produces, viz. our own acts. God is the only proper author and fountain; we only are the proper actors. We are in different respects, wholly passive and wholly active.---Jonathan Edwards

WHO IS WITH ME

I am keeping the incarnation, perfection, substitution, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, reigning, returning, and exaltation of God in the public discussion. Who is with me?

GOD IS ETERNAL

"Since nothing but God is eternal, nothing but God is worth the loving." - Stephen Charnock

WONDERFUL WORDS OF JESUS

I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful; but I have never read in either of them: "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden." ~Augustine

Puritan Prayers

Grant me never to lose sight of The exceeding sinfulness of sin, The exceeding righteousness of salvation, The exceeding glory of Christ, The exceeding beauty of holiness, The exceeding wonder of grace.
~The Valley Of Vision~Prayers of the Puritans

ALL OUR THOUGHTS

All our thoughts concerning Christ and his glory should be accompanied with admiration, adoration, and thanksgiving. For this is such an object of our thoughts and affections as, in this life, we can never fully comprehend,—an ocean whose depths we cannot look into. If we are spiritually renewed, all the faculties of our souls are enabled by grace to exert their respective powers towards this glorious object.

~John Owen

NORMAL OR STRANGE

"Worldliness is what any particular culture does to make sin look normal and righteousness look strange." ~ David Wells

UTTERLY PASSIVE

Arminians...

A [g]ospel which teaches that the difference between the man in heaven and the man in hell is something that the man in heaven did on his own steam and apart from the grace of God is a blasphemous parody of the True Gospel. The man in hell simply did not use his Almighty Will properly and the man in heaven did.... this is a man-centered works-based [g]ospel which is not good news at all.

Man does not find it within himself to properly coordinate his decisions and thus choose to save himself. A man is only saved if the LORD gives him the gift of faith. Arminians teach that faith is what man does independent from God and that God is waiting on man to straighten up and fly right. Scripture teaches that man is dead, in need of new life, and thus unable to help himself. Scripture also teaches that faith is a gift from God and not something that man must locate within his thoroughly wretched self. One [g]ospel is all about what man does and that system hates the fact that faith is given to man as a gift. The True Gospel is about what God gives to man as a gift, not what man chooses to do as an independent agent. One is works-righteousness and one is salvation by grace alone. The reason that faith is not a work is because it's not something that man does, but rather something that man receives as a gift. The rebel sinner who is guilty of high treason and who lives on death row has one option: receive mercy. Man is utterly passive in salvation, lest any man should boast.

In Christ,

Dennis Keesee

ALL THINGS WHATEVER ARISE

"All things whatever arise from, and depend on, the divine appointment; whereby it was foreordained who should receive the word of life, and who should disbelieve it; who should be delivered from their sins, and who should be hardened in them; and who should be justified and who should be condemned." - Martin Luther

PREPARING

While Jesus is in heaven, preparing a place for His people, the Spirit is on earth, preparing His people for that place- Winslow

SHOULD BE ABANDONED

"The cliché, God hates the sin but love the sinner, is false on the face of it and should be abandoned. Fourteen times in the first fifty Psalms alone, we are told that God hates the sinner, His wrath is on the liar, and so forth. In the Bible, the wrath of God rests both on the sin (Romans 1:18ff) and on the sinner (John 3:36)." - D. A. Carson

CORNER-STONE, STONE OF STUMBLING.

Grace is only given to the sheep; The death angel was a blessing to jews, to be the final basis for their release. The death angel was a curse for the Egyptians, to be the demise of their evil. The same event, two different effects. Grace to one, judgment to the other. I think one Puritan made the same observation about the Red Sea, a means of life for the Jews, a means of death for the Pharaoh....one miracle, a purpose of grace, a purpose of judgment, God glorified in both.

 Noah's boat saved his family, and condemned the World. (Hebrews 11);

Jesus is the corner-stone, and a stone of stumbling.

Jericho's wall fell, a miracle for the Jews, a curse for the residents. 

NO SENSE TO ELECT

Arminianism cannot make sense out of God's election. If God elects individuals based on His knowledge of those creatures choosing Him, there is no sense for God to elect anyone; since those creatures will choose Him anyway.

ULTIMATE TRAGEDY

"The ultimate tragedy of man's self-understanding is that he believes himself to be free, has all the feelings of a free agent, but does not realize that he is a slave to sin and serves the will of Satan." ~Sinclair Ferguson

WHATSOEVER

God determines whatsoever comes to pass:

Proverbs 16:1, 4, 7, 9, 33; 20:24; 21:1, Jeremiah 10:23, Lamentations 3:37, 38, Amos 3:6, Acts 17:26-27, Daniel 2:21; 4:35, Psalm 139:16, Ephesians 1:11, Romans 11:36 John 3:27, Job 12:9-10; 14:5

UNITED TO CHRIST

"We can no more unite ourselves to Christ, than a branch can incorporate itself into another stock; it is of Him, of God, His proper and alone work." John Flavel

NO BOX OF CANDY

"Grace is not like a box of candy that you can send back if you don't want it. Grace is divine favor, an attitude of God's own heart. We cannot stop him from loving us, if he chooses to do so. Nor can we stop him from giving us blessings of salvation: regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification, glorification. His purpose in us will certainly be fulfilled, Phil. 1:6, Eph. 1:11." ~John Frame

WHO CHANGED YOUR HEART

Diagnostic Q: Who changed your mind? Who changed your heart? Who changed your nature? Who changed your will? #1. These are not about "general influence", but real change. Do you credit God and His Grace or your self?

SELF-PRESERVATION COWARDS

Open Theism Again

If the Arminian is consistent, it is also "impossible for the elect to be lost" because God supposedly foresees down the corridors of time; and so why does the Arminian witness, I mean if I don't witness, God must have foresaw another dude witnessing to him; Arminians should admit how they hold hands with Open-theism.

ALL OF THE SPIRIT

As Christians grow in holy living, they sense their own inherent moral weakness and rejoice that whatever virtue they possess flourishes as the fruit of the Spirit.
D.A. Carson

POWERLESSNESS

Believing the Gospel doesn't make you powerful. Believing the Gospel expresses your powerlessness.-- Jeff Holder.

DUSKY COLORS

God often lays the sum of His amazing providences in very dismal afflictions; as the limner first puts on the dusky colors, on which he intends to draw the portraiture of some illustrious beauty.--Stephen Charnock

SONGS ARMINIANS SHOULD SING

Your will put Jesus on the cross, and yet you trust it as the principle cause of your regeneration and salvation? How about writing a hymn with those lyrics and singing a solo before your congregation...."My will put Jesus on the cross, but my will can cause my regeneration." (everybody clap and shout Hallelujah now.); What a disgrace.

JOHN NEWTON GREAT MATERIAL

1. I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith and love and every grace
Might more of His salvation know
And seek more earnestly His face

2. Twas He who taught me thus to pray
And He I trust has answered prayer
But it has been in such a way
As almost drove me to despair

3. I hoped that in some favored hour
At once He’d answer my request
And by His love’s constraining power
Subdue my sins and give me rest

4. Instead of this He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart
And let the angry powers of Hell
Assault my soul in every part

5. Yea more with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Cast out my feelings, laid me low

6. Lord why is this, I trembling cried
Wilt Thou pursue thy worm to death?
“Tis in this way” The Lord replied
“I answer prayer for grace and faith”

7. “These inward trials I employ
From self and pride to set thee free
And break thy schemes of earthly joy
That thou mayest seek thy all in me,
That thou mayest seek thy all in me.”

Sarcastic Book

New book, "How to ensure that the Holy Spirit regenerates your child without fail."  Learn how you the sinner can be competent enough to guarantee your child's salvation.  If you would like to send a gift copy to the Arminian god so he can read it and become more successful in saving the humans he created, let us know.

TAUNT GOD

An Arminian man taunts me saying with ridicule...that my ministry to my 3 year old may all be in vain if God has not elected him; Which I think is odd. After all, this Arminian is completely fine with God's "ministry" to billions of sinners ending up all in vain. Yet it is somehow a tragedy if a sinner's ministry to another sinner be in vain. Why doesn't this Arminian mock God for trying to save billions and failing to accomplish what He intended. This Arminian should tell his god, "too bad you spent 74 years trying to save that sinner and he ended up rejecting you anyhow, didn't you know your efforts were going to be in vain." The Arminian thinks somehow he should retire the Holy Spirit, so his own sinful soul can take His place and secure a child's salvation by his own parenting.

Of course it matters

What does it profit if one says.
" God is." = (theism). 
"Jesus is God." = (Incarnation.);

yet say, "Jesus failed; thus, God failed." = (Impotence = atheism).
and say, "Our view of the atonement is irrelevant" = (Our view that God failed to save = Impotence = our atheism is also irrelevant"); 

Of course one's view of the atonement is relevant, of course one's atheism via idolatry is relevant.

EXCITEMTENT NOT DETACHMENT

My 3 year old boy is excited about his toy and is beaming to have me share that excitement. A good example of how we are to proclaim the Glory and Grace of God. No, it is not solely an emotional context, but witnessing the mount of transfiguration was not a detached informational documentary for Peter; The same could be said of Peter's swim to the shore. John 21:7.

TRUST ME

God says "trust me." The Arminian says, "I trust myself"

Does Providence Exist

If I am suddenly in the mood for coffee, and I decide to check out a coffee shop that I've never visited instead of settling for a home brew, and upon arriving I get into a discussion about the gospel, and God grants that person repentance and faith in Christ; Should the person say, "God better be glad you had a interest in coffee tonight, because it was purely your hunch to come, and purely God's fortunate turn of events, so there is no point in crediting God for the crossing of our paths. God gave a general call to evangelize, but all the specifics should not be counted as God's providence."

Arminians either do not have a doctrine of Providence, or else it is extremely bizarre, and can ultimately be distilled as "Man's Providence for God."

 

 

DIRECTLY INVOLVED

How directly, intimately, and personally involved was God in providing, securing, arranging, and determining your very first exposure to Scripture, and every solitary exposure thereafter?  Now, How directly, intimately, and personally involved was God in providing, securing, arranging, and determining the Amazon tribesman of 35 A.D. get exposure to Scripture?  Why the disparity on God's part? 

Genesis 6 Selective

Genesis 6:8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.; Why didn't all of Noah's neighbors find grace in the eyes of the Lord? Why does Noah need grace in the eyes of the Lord, can't Noah just up and decide to build a sturdy boat by his own choice?

 (Really???) God did not select Noah to build the Ark; God had made offers to everyone, and finally (luckily) found someone who would make a choice in line with God's hopes. Hopefully, one day God can find someone who will agree to play the role of virgin mother, and if it is not too much to ask, someone in the line of David. Still looking down the corridors of time hunting for her; rumor has it that some gal name Mary may say yes. fingers crossed.

 

EMBARRASSED?

Did the Father, Son, and Spirit try with all the Divine sovereign power, wisdom, grace, and effort--- to save the reprobate and fail? Why did the Triune God try to save the reprobate if He knew He would fail in His attempt to save them? When did it dawn on God that His Sovereign power, wisdom, grace and effort would fail? After He tried, during his attempt, or before his attempt? Is the triune God embarrassed that He tried to save and failed?

FOOLISH PRIDE

Is this your position?

"Before time began, God selected no one for heaven and no one for hell. Thus God creating preceded His purpose to elect and reprobate. It matters if we resist God's purpose for us, because our resisting or non-resisting is the determining factor if we go to heaven or hell. It matters what WE DO on earth. If we want to go to escape hell all our repentance and faith, etc. will get us to heaven. If we want to escape heaven all our unrighteousness will prevent God and God's grace from saving us from His eternal wrath. Thus since we are told to be righteous, we can be righteous all we want and that would be the logical conclusion to this philosophy. If God does not want to save anyone, but merely make salvation a possibility, and He has, there is no sense in missions or prayers, etc, because God will not save anyone no matter what; Just make it possible, which He has, and there is nothing more for Him to do, the rest is up to man to make the ultimate difference, a difference that God will not make."

(I hope not.)

BY DEFINITION

Arminians have no right to use the word "atonement" because their usage is one of ZERO effect. There is no such thing as "no applied atonement" that is an oxymoron and impossible by definition, it would be like saying an immaterial incarnation, where Jesus' birth made a physical incarnation possible, but now it is just a general incarnation and will become physical if Jesus decides to apply it to his birth.

 Exo 29:36  and every day you shall offer a bull as a sin offering for atonement. Also you shall purify the altar, when you make atonement for it, and shall anoint it to consecrate it.   

[NOT IN THE BIBLE--> 37. Let the altar know atonement was made available and then discern if the altar accepts my offer.  Tell the altar that the atonement will be applied to its impurity only if it accepts what I made available.  For I have made its atonement a possibility.]

LUCKILY FOR GOD???

(Really???) Luckily for God Noah agreed, Abram agreed, Isaac agreed, Jacob agreed, Moses agreed, Joshua, Samuel, David, the 13 prophets, the virgin Mary, John the Baptist, the 13 apostles--- luckily for God these all agreed to cooperate. What an insane message. There is no good news. There is only sinful vanity.

SEE THE DEAD RISE

When we shall see the dead rise from the grave by their own power, then may we expect to see ungodly sinners of their own free will turning to Christ. It is not the word preached, nor the word read in itself; all quickening power proceeds from the Holy Ghost. ~Spurgeon

Dispositions

- “Christians should be grave and serious, though cheerful and pleasant. They should feel that they have great interests at stake, and that the world has too. They are redeemed—not to make sport; purchased with precious blood—for other purposes than to make men laugh. They are soon to be in heaven—and a man who has any impressive sense of that will habitually feel he has much else to do than to make men laugh. The true course of life is midway between moroseness and levity; sourness and lightness; harshness and jesting. Be benevolent, kind, cheerful, bland, courteous—but serious. Be solemn, thoughtful, deeply impressed with the presence of God and with eternal things—but pleasant affable and benignant. Think not a smile sinful; but think not levity and jesting harmless. “ ~ Albert Barnes

TABLE INTO A SNARE

"Whatever poison Satan produces, God turns it into medicine for his elect." John Calvin commenting on Gen 50:20"...yet... [God] turns the food of reprobates into poison, their light into darkness, their table into a snare, and, in short, their life into death. If human minds cannot reach these depths, let them rather suppliantly adore the mysteries they do not comprehend, than, as vessels of clay, proudly exalt themselves against their Maker." via. Manuel K.

THE SOLE CAUSE

Calvinists insist that the sole cause of regeneration or being born again is the will of God. God first sovereignly and efficaciously regenerates, and only in consequence of that do we act. Therefore, the individual is passive in regeneration, neither preparing himself nor making himself receptive to what God will do. Regeneration is a change wrought in us by God, not an autonomous act performed by us for ourselves. Man’s status in regard to regeneration is that of a recipient, not a contributor. Man is spiritually, in relation to regeneration, what Lazarus was physically, in relation to resurrection: dead, passive, unable to do anything at all, wholly subject to the will of Him who gives life and breath to whomever He desires.

- Sam Storms

HEART OF FLESH

He doesn't say, "I will remove their will of stone from their flesh and give them a will of flesh," but rather, Ezekiel 19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh;

The will in a heart of stone is bound by the nature of stone, the will in a heart of flesh is bound by the nature of flesh

Amos 8:11

(Amos 8:11) Behold, the days come, says the Lord Jehovah; that I will send a famine in the land; not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water; but of hearing the Words of Jehovah.

DQ3- Is God trying to save everyone by this act?

VIOLATION AND CAUSATION

The erroneous doctrine of "prevenient grace" as it is, would ALSO violate the supposed, "free-will" of man by turning it from "unable to trust" to "enabled to the possibility to trust" without the consent of the individual's will. So they teach an "irresistable-effectual prevenient grace" which is forced on a man's will who otherwise had no desire for this prevenient grace to be given him; So they laud, "violation and causation" upon the sinner's will when it comes to the "prevenient grace" but decry, "violation and causation" when it comes to saving grace; [yes, I know, God owns His creation, and thus in either case it is never a violation when He has Sovereign rights over it.]

ELECTION IN THE COMMON LANGUAGES

“At the very announcement of the text some will be ready to say, “Why preach upon so profound a doctrine as election?” I answer, because it is in God’s word, and whatever is in the Word of God is to be preached. “But some truths ought to be kept back from the people,” you will say, “lest they should make an ill use thereof.” That is Popish doctrine, it was upon that very theory that the priests kept back the Bible from the people, they did not give it to them lest they should misuse it.

“But are not some doctrines dangerous?” Not if they are true and rightly handled. Truth is never dangerous, it is error and reticence that are fraught with peril. “But do not men abuse the doctrine of grace?” I grant you that they do; but if we destroyed everything that men misuse, we should have nothing left. Are there to be no ropes because some fools will hang themselves? And, must cutlery be discarded and denounced, because there are some who will use dangerous weapons for the destruction of their adversaries? Decidedly not.

Besides all this, remember that men do read the Scriptures and think about these doctrines, and therefore often make mistakes about them; who then shall set them right if we, who preach the Word, hold our tongues about the matter?”

– C. H. Spurgeon, from sermon entitled, Election: Its Defenses and Evidences

FIRST THINGS FIRST

 “It [Election] probably ought to be the first thing you teach a young believer. Now that you’ve come to Christ, this is what I want you to know, you were saved by the sovereign grace of God who stepped into your life in the midst of your death and blindness and gave you life and sight and picked you up and brought you into His Kingdom. Sheer grace has done this for you. That, I think, is the first thing you should say to a new convert. This is, if in fact, you are faithful to the confession you have made, if in fact your love for Christ and desire to honor, to worship and to obey Him continues to grow, this will be an ongoing evidence that God has wrought a miracle in your life. And because of that, you need to know, this is really important, that you should live a life of gratitude for a work has been done in you which you did not deserve and did not earn.”

-- John MacArthur, Answering the Key Questions About the Doctrine of Election (Interview):

(source: monergism.com)

NOBODY HAS A CHANCE

Often, when discussing the issue of election, the question is raised: "Doesn't everybody have a chance?".  The answer is NOBODY has a chance apart from divine election. 

-Greg Crouse

Enemies

"The friends of free-will are the enemies of free-grace." - John Trapp

Beliefs, or Christ, or Both.

People often say to the affect, "Salvation is not from our beliefs, but from Christ"; While this is true, the writer must inherently identify "which Christ" he is writing of, and is making his assertion based on a particular "belief in-or-about Christ"; The truth is, a Mormon claims to "look to Christ" and yet has erected a false Christ, and the Mormon's belief evidence such; There is no profit to make a vague Christ, which is obscured by the generalities you proclaim; Thus to truly preach Christ is to preach specifics, and those specifics entail a set of beliefs. Ironically, the writer is saying "focus on Christ, not beliefs." and yet that statement in itself is a belief.

NONE SEEK HIM, NO NOT ONE

"If there is to be a rescue operation for us children of Adam, aimed at bringing us to anything like God meant us to be, it has to overcome not only our sin and depravity, but the fact that sin makes us utterly uninterested in the solution. In fact, we would be repelled by it. C.S. Lewis spoke for us all: 'Amiable agnostics will talk cheerfully about man's search for God. To me . . . they might as well have talked about the mouse's search for the cat." 

Dan Phillips, The World Tilting Gospel.... via Scott F

IT ALREADY IS

Ligon Duncan on 2 Tim. 3:16,17 -- "Put in popular terms, the apostle Paul is saying that the Bible is inherently practical. It is not your pastor's job to make it practical. It already is. It's the most practical book in the world. And the only reason we think it's impractical to hear the Word of God expounded is that we're interested in other questions and other things. But I want to tell you this: it is the questions addressed and the things spoken of in the Word of God that are truly practical. And if we are interested in other questions and other things, we're interested in the wrong things, because there is nothing impractical in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation." (via. Scott F.)