BECAUSE WE ARE REBORN

from monergism books.

"There has been so much emphasis upon decision, receiving, yielding, being willing, and giving ourselves that salvation is regarded almost exclusively in terms of our activity... [But] We do not give birth to ourselves, we are not reborn because we believe. We believe because we are reborn."

--Martin-Lloyd Jones.

OF HIMSELF

"Of himself, the fallen sinner can no more repent evangelically, believe in Christ savingly, come to Him effectually, than he can create a world. "With men it is impossible" [Mk 10:27] rules out of court all special pleading for the power of man's will. Nothing but a miracle of grace can lead to the saving of any sinner." - A.W. Pink

Oh, my reader, be not deceived on this vital matter; to mortify the lusts of the flesh, to be crucified unto the world, to overcome the Devil, to die daily unto sin and live unto righteousness, to be meek and lowly in heart, trustful and obedient, pious and patient, faithful and uncompromising, loving and gentle; in a word, to be a Christian, to be Christ-like, is a task far, far beyond the poor resources of fallen human nature."

- A.W. Pink,

THE TRUE

But the true Christian hates sin, flees from it, fights against it, considers it his greatest plague, resents the burden of its presence, mourns when he falls under its influence, and longs to be completely delivered from it. Sin no longer pleases him, nor is it even a matter of indifference to him; it has become a horrible thing which he hates.

~~J.C. Ryle

SIRENS AND SMILES

Where one thousand are destroyed by the world's frowns, ten thousand are destroyed by the world's smiles. The world, siren-like, sings us and sinks us.

—Thomas Brooks

SELF-DECEPTION

(lifted entirely from the monergism blog...)

A person may have well balanced theology, and his general views of truth would be considered evangelical and orthodox. And yet, thus far may he proceed in the deepest 'self deception'.

With all this "form of knowledge," this lodgment of the truth in the understanding, this subscription of the intellect to the doctrines of revelation, he is an utter stranger to that 'heart transformation', that inward illumination of the Holy Spirit, without which the soul is spiritually dead, the heart is unrenewed and unholy, and the whole man is unfit for the kingdom of heaven.

In short, we have here the case of one who, while his judgment assents to the truth, his heart entirely rejects it. The Gospel is to him a thing of intellectual subscription, and not of heart experience. Not a single truth of the Bible has become an element of life and holiness in his soul.

(From Octavius Winslow's, "The Coming of the Lord in its Relation to Nominal Christianity")




...

LEAVE BEHIND

"When you come to Christ--you must leave behind you: all your own righteousness, all your own holiness, all your own sanctification, all your own duties, all your own tears, all your own repentings, etc. Oh, this is hard! You must bring nothing but your sins and miseries to Him. Otherwise, Christ is not fit for you--nor you for Christ!"

-- Thomas Wilcox

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ALL GIFTS

"All gifts from God are intended by God to direct our attention to God & create fresh affections for God"- CJ Mahaney

FRESH

"The study of truth in its academic more than in its devotional form has robbed it of its freshness and power, engendering formality and coldness."

~ Horatius Bonar

COMMUNE

"It is not sufficient to commune with the truth, for truth is impersonal. We must commune with the God of truth. It is not enough to study and ponder the contents of religious books, or even the Bible itself. We must actually address the Author of the Bible, in entreaties and petitions" ~W.G.T. Shedd

DESTROYING

"No more soul-destroying doctrine could well be devised than the doctrine that sinners can regenerate themselves and repent and believe just when they please."

~ Charles Hodge (Systematic Theology, vol 2)

Remember

"Remember thy sins, & Christ's pardonings; thy hell-deservings, & Christ's merits; thy weakness, & Christ's strength; thy pride, & Christ's humility; thy many infirmities, & Christ's restorings; thy guilts, & Christ's new applications of His blood; thy fallings, & Christ's raisings-up; thy wants, & Christ's fullness;... thy temptations, & Christ's tenderness; thy vileness, & Christ's righteousness." -Wilcox-

OUR COMFORT

"He that hath Christ for his king and God, let him be assured he hath the devil for his enemy, who will work him much sorrow, and will plague him all the days of his life. But let this be our comfort and great glory, that we poor people have the Lord of life and of death, and of all creatures, clothed with our flesh and blood who ever liveth and maketh intercession for us, defendeth and protecteth us."

~ Martin Luther

UNTIL MEN RECOGNIZE

"For until men recognize that they owe everything to God, that they are nourished by His fatherly care, that He is the Author of their every good, that they should seek nothing beyond Him — they will never yield Him willing service. Nay, unless they establish their complete happiness in Him, they will never give themselves truly and sincerely to Him."

-John Calvin

HIS SUFFERINGS

"God may thunder His commands from Mount Sinai and men may fear, yet remain at heart exactly as they were before. But let a man once see his God down in the arena as a Man--suffering, tempted, sweating, and agonized, finally dying a criminal's death--and he is a hard man indeed who is untouched."

J.B. Phillips, "Your God Is Too Small"

AS FREE AS

"Your will is as free as a frog in a snakes belly."

Don Fortner.

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=819071543340

NEW NEW NEW

2 Cor 5:17) "[The regenerated person] gets not only a new head, to know and understand true religion; or a new tongue, to talk of it; but a new heart, to love and embrace it, in the whole of his/her life."


-- Thomas Boston.

GREATER IMPORTANCE

“To convert one sinner from his way is an event of greater importance than the deliverance of a whole kingdom from temporal evil.”


-- George Smeaton, in his classic work on the atonement observes...

GIFT OF GOD

"Church growth, if it is genuine, is not a human achievement; it is a gift of God. There is therefore no place for rivalry, for jealousy, or for boasting."

Lesslie Newbigin

PRAY WHEN

"If you do not pray except when you feel like praying, you will not pray much, nor pray when you most need it."

---C.H. Spurgeon