Quotes for the Day

Justification is through faith, not on account of faith.

Author: B.B. Warfield

Set no time to the Lord the creator of time, for His time is always best.--Samuel Rutherford

 "Faith is not our savior. It was not faith that was born at Bethlehem and died on Golgotha for us. It was not faith that loved us, and gave itself for us; that bore our sins in its own body on the tree; that died and rose again for our sins. Faith is one thing, the Savior is another. Faith is one thing, and the cross is another. Let us not confound them, nor ascribe to a poor, imperfect act of man, that which belongs exclusively to the Son of the Living God. Our security is this, that it matters not how poor or weak our faith may be: if it touches the perfect One, all is well. God has asked and provided a perfect righteousness; He nowhere asks nor expects a perfect faith. So a feeble, very feeble faith, will connect us with the righteousness of the Son of God; the faith, perhaps, that can only cry, ‘Lord, I believe; help mine unbelief.’" - Horatius Bonar

YOU HAVE BEEN IN THE FURNACE

"Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows!" John 16:33 

Dear friend,
You have lately been in the furnace--and are now brought safely out. I hope you have much to say of the grace, care, and skill of the great Refiner, who watched over you; and that you have lost nothing but dross. Let this experience be treasured up in your hearts for the use of future times. Other trials will come--but you have found the Lord faithful to His promise, and have good encouragement to trust Him again.

I doubt not, but you will have your share of trials; but when the love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit, it sweetens what bitter things the Lord puts into our cup, and enables us to say, "None of these things move me!" 

Yes, the life of faith is a happy life, and
  if attended with conflicts--there is an assurance of victory;
  if we sometimes get a wound--there is healing balm near at hand;
  if we seem to fall--we are raised again; and
  if tribulations abound--consolations shall abound likewise. 

Is it not happiness--to have an infallible Guide, an invincible Guard, an almighty Friend! to be able to say of the Maker of heaven and earth, "He is my Beloved, my Shepherd, my Savior, and my Husband!"

Oh the peace that flows from believing . . .
  that all events in which we are concerned, are under His immediate disposal; 
  that the hairs of our head are all numbered; 
  that He delights in our prosperity; 
  that there is a need-be, if we are in heaviness, and 
  that all things shall surely work for our good! 

How happy to have such views of God's sovereignty, wisdom, love, and faithfulness--as will enable us to meet every painful dispensation with submission, and to look through the changes of the present life--to thatunchangeable inheritance to which the Lord is leading us, when all evil shall cease, and where joy shall be perfect and eternal! "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away!" Revelation 21:4

THEY SHALL WANDER

"Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord GOD, "when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it." - Amos 8:11-12

SPARE IT NOT

Use sin as it will use you; spare it not, for it will not spare you; it is your murderer, and the murderer of the world: use it, therefore as a murderer should be used. Kill it before it kills you; and though it bring you to the grave, as it did your Head, it shall not be able to keep you there. - Baxter

A HEAVY HEART

The road to the Kingdom is not so pleasant, and comfortable, and easy, and flowery, as many dream. It is not a bright sunny avenue of palms. It is not paved with triumph, though it is to end in victory. The termination is glory, honor, and immortality; but on the way, there is the thorn in the flesh, the sackcloth, and the cross. Recompense later; but labor here! Rest later; but weariness here! Joy and security later; but here endurance and watchfulness – the race, the battle, the burden, the stumbling block, and oftentimes the heavy heart. - Horatius Bonar

ALL THINGS WORK, BY WATSON

(Thomas Watson, "All Things for Good")

"We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28

See what cause the saints have to be frequent in the work of thanksgiving! In this, Christians are defective; though they are much in supplication, yet they are little in thanksgiving. The apostle says. "In everything give thanks!" 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Why so? Because God makes everything work together for our good. We thank the physician, though he gives us a bitter medicine which makes us nauseated--because it is to make us well. We thank any man who does us a good turn; and shall we not be thankful to God--who makes everything work for good to us?

God loves a thankful Christian! Job thanked God when He took all away: "The Lord has taken away--blessed be the name of the Lord!" (Job 1:21). Many will thank God when He gives; Job thanks Him when He takes away, because he knew that God would work good out of it.

We read of saints with harps in their hands--an emblem of praise (Revelation 14:2). Yet we meet many Christians who have tears in their eyes, and complaints in their mouths! But there are few with their harps in their hands--who praise God in affliction.

To be thankful in affliction--is a work peculiar to a saint.
Every bird can sing in spring--but few birds will sing in the dead of winter!
Everyone, almost, can be thankful in prosperity--but a true saint can be thankful in adversity!

Well may we, in the worst that befalls us--have a psalm of thankfulness, because God works all things for our good. Oh, be much in giving thanks to God!

GROWS BY TEARS

The Father is ever training the members of this family for their everlasting abode with Him in Heaven. He acts as a gardener pruning his vines, that they may bear more fruit. He know the character of each of us . . .
  our besetting sins,
  our weaknesses,
  our peculiar infirmities,
  our special needs, 
  our trials, 
  our temptations, 
  and our privileges. 

He knows all these things, and is ever ordering all for our good. He allots to each of us, in His providence, the very things we need, in order to bear the most fruit. He gives us . . .
  as much of sunshine as we can stand--and as much of rain;
  as much of bitter things as we can bear--and as much of sweet.

Trials are intended . . .
  to make us think,
  to wean us from the world,
  to send us to the Bible, and
  to drive us to our knees!

JC RYLE
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"The Christian grows by tears--and withers by smiles. God's vines thrive the better for pruning." (Stephen Charnock)

SECURE

“Precisely because his was an actual, not an imaginary or hypothetical, sacrificial death in which he vicariously bore their curse, paid their debt, endured their judicial rejection by God, as evidenced by his cry of dereliction from the cross, and died their death, Christ actually accomplished and procured everything essential to the salvation of the elect. In sum, he did not simply open the way of salvation to all men and promise to aid them if they would also do something to procure it and keep it their own. Nor did he simply make the salvation of the elect possible. Rather, he actually did everything necessary to the infallible securing of the salvation of the elect, his people, his sheep, his own–even those whom the Father gave to him.“

Taken from A New Systematic Theology Of The Christian Faith [2nd Edition] (pp.667-668)

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Stolen from: Reymond on the Perfection of Christ’s Cross Work

from Cal.vini.st by Nathan W. Bingham

PASSION FOR EVANGELISM, NOT WALLOWING.

I wrote this on a friend's wall in discussion of a "passion for evangelism" ///

I constantly tell myself to "rest", this does not mean that we are inactive, but we cannot let our passion be some paralyzing sorrow. Our hearts do grieve, but only God can save. We are to lovingly and humbly present the truth in word, deed, and life; then we confess that only God gives the increase. Sometimes passion turns into a pitiful wallowing, and that is not a sign of faith nor submission to what God has designed.

DEATH IS DREADFUL

(Thomas Brooks, "A Heavenly Cordial" 1665)

Death is dreadful to the unbelieving sinner, for it puts an everlasting end to all his temporal . . .
  mercies,
  comforts,
  contentments, 
  and enjoyments.

Death will put an everlasting end to all his pleasures of sin. Now the sinner shall never more have one merry day. In Hell there is no . . .
  no singing--but howling;
  no music--but madness;
  no sporting--but sighing;
  no dancing--but wringing of hands 
and gnashing of teeth for evermore!

In a word, now the sinner shall find by woeful experience, that death will be an inlet to three dreadful things: 
   1. To judgment, Hebrews 9:27; 
   2. To an irreversible sentence of condemnation, Matthew 25:41; 
   3. To endless, ceaseless, and remediless sufferings!

EDWARDS ON ARMINIANISM

“There seems to be the utmost danger, that the younger generation will be carried away with Arminianism as with a flood.” 
― Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards: Vol 1

“reason to fear that Arminianism, Arianism, and even Socinianism, in destruction to the doctrines of free grace, are daily propagated in the New England colleges.” 
― Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards: Vol 1

GOD IS OUR ETERNAL DELIGHT

“God will be what will forever entertain the minds of the saints, and the love of God will be their everlasting feast. The redeemed will indeed enjoy other things; they will enjoy the angels, and will enjoy one another; but that which they shall enjoy in the angels, or each other, or in any thing else whatsoever that will yield them delight and happiness, will be what will be seen of God in them.” 
― Jonathan Edwards, Selected Sermons Of Jonathan Edwards

FOR ABRAHAM'S COMFORT

“For when God is said by these things to try men and prove them, to see what is in their hearts and whether they will keep His commandments or no, we are not to understand, that it is for His own information, or that He may obtain evidence Himself of their sincerity (for he needs no trials for His information); but chiefly for their conviction, and to exhibit evidence to their consciences...
So when God tempted or tried Abraham with that difficult command of offering up his son, it was not for His satisfaction, whether he feared God or no, but for Abraham's own greater satisfaction and comfort, and the more clear manifestation of the favour of God to him.” 
― Jonathan Edwards, The Religious Affections

NEVER PRESS PEOPLE TO DECISION

“By the grace of God we will never pluck unripe fruit. We will never press people to decision, because we'll lead them to damnation and not salvation.” 
― Jonathan Edwards

WE CANNOT DRAW A BREATH

“When indeed it is in God we live, and move, and have our being. We cannot draw a breath without his help.” 
― Jonathan Edwards, Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards

I AM UNABLE

“Being sensible that I am unable to do any thing without God's help, I do humbly entreat Him, by His grace, to enable me to keep these Resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to His will, for Christ's sake.” 
― Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 2 Volumes

PRIDE SPEAKS

“Spiritual pride tends to speak of other persons’ sins with bitterness or with laughter and levity and an air of contempt. But pure Christian humility rather tends either to be silent about these problems or to speak of them with grief and pity. Spiritual pride is very apt to suspect others, but a humble Christian is most guarded about himself. He is as suspicious of nothing in the world as he is of his own heart. The proud person is apt to find fault with other believers, that they are low in grace, and to be much in observing how cold and dead they are and to be quick to note their deficiencies. But the humble Christian has so much to do at home and sees so much evil in his own heart and is so concerned about it that he is not apt to be very busy with other hearts. He is apt to esteem others better than himself.” 
― Jonathan Edwards

THEIR FOOT SHALL SLIDE

“That the reason why they are not fallen already and do not fall now is only that God's appointed time is not come. For it is said, that when that due time, or appointed time comes, their foot shall slide. Then they shall be left to fall, as they are inclined by their own weight. God will not hold them up in these slippery places any longer, but will let them go; and then, at that very instant, they shall fall into destruction; as he that stands on such slippery declining ground, on the edge of a pit, he cannot stand alone, when he is let go he immediately falls and is lost.” 
― Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

CONTRIBUTE NOTHING

“You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary.” 
― Jonathan Edwards

KNOW HIM AND TRUST HIM

“Men will trust in God no further than they know Him; and they cannot be in the exercise of faith in Him one ace further than they have a sight of His fulness and faithfulness in exercise.” 
― Jonathan Edwards, The Religious Affections