Spurgeon Quote for Today

"I do not believe we can preach the gospel, if we do not preach justification by faith, without
works; nor unless we preach the sovereignty of God in His dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel, unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of His elect and chosen people which Christ wrought out upon the cross; nor can I comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called, and suffers the children of God to be burned in the fires of damnation after having once believed in Jesus. Such a gospel I abhor."

Grace & Peace

A Spurgeon Quote for Today

"It has been said by some one that “the proper study of mankind is man.” I
will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper
study of God’s elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the
Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest
philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the
name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the
great God whom he calls his Father. There is something exceedingly
improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so
vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride
is drowned in its infinity."


Grace & Peace

Christ-Centered Worship by Bryan Chapell

Here is an excellent quote.

"We consider history because God does not give all of his wisdom to any one time or people. Slavish loyalty to traditions will keep us from ministering effectively to our generation, but trashing the past entirely denies God's purposes for the church on which we must build. If we do not learn from the past, we will lose insights God has granted others as they have interacted with his Word and people."

Grace and Peace

Sunday Discussion

I had a conversation in Sunday School about the following verses.

"But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 
 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 
treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 
having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 
For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 
always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. "

2 Timothy 3:1-7

The conversation centered around the fact that the Gospel and the Whole Counsel of God are rarely preached from the pulpit anymore. The following verses also apply.


"I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 
and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths." 

2 Timothy 4:1-4

I seem to be having this conversation more frequently with fellow "believers". Only the real believers are concerned.

Grace and Peace

Justification

The February 2010 issue of TableTalk had various articles in response to two books that N. T. Wright wrote on Justification.

The articles were short. John Piper has written a book in response to N. T. Wright's book "What Saint Paul Really Said". N. T. Wright then wrote a response to John Pipers book.

I have just started Bishop Wrights book. I must say he is very engaging. You really have to pay attention to what he says, how he says it and also what he sometimes does not say.

SDG

Verses about God

He are two really good verses about God from the book of Isaiah.

9 Remember the former things, those of long ago, I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me.
10 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times,
what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.

Isaiah 46:9-10

SDG

A quote from The Vanishing Conscience by John MacArthur

“Christians are rapidly losing sight of sin as the root of all
human woes. And many Christians are explicitly denying
that their own sin can be the cause of their personal
anguish. More and more are attempting to explain the
human dilemma in wholly unbiblical terms: temperament,
addiction, dysfunctional families, the child within, codependency,
and a host of other irresponsible escape
mechanisms promoted by secular psychology.
The potential impact of such a drift is frightening.
Remove the reality of sin, and you take away the
possibility of repentance. Abolish the doctrine of human
depravity and you void the divine plan of salvation. Erase
the notion of personal guilt and you eliminate the need for
a Savior. Obliterate the human conscience, and you will
raise an amoral and unredeemable generation. The church
cannot join hands with the world in such a grossly satanic
enterprise. To do so is to overthrow the very gospel we
are called to proclaim.”

SDG