Great Commandment

The biblical logic is clear. You can’t keep the second Great Commandment unless you are first keeping the first. Only in bowing before God and submitting his desires can we really turn to one another in peace and love.

- Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands, 88.

Centrality of the Gospel, Methodology

The apostles of Jesus Christ prize truth above style and quietly refuse to endorse any form that may prove so attractive, diversionary, that the centrality of gospel truth is jeopardized.

- D.A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry, 88-89.

Worship, Adoration

The admonition to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart…and with all thy mind” (Matthew 22:37) can mean only one thing. It means to adore Him. I use the word “adore” sparingly, for it is a precious word. I love babies and I love people, but I cannot say I adore them. Adoration I keep for the lonely One who deserves it. In no other presence and before no other being can I kneel in reverent fear and wonder and yearning and feel the sense of possessiveness that cries “Mine, mine!” They can change the expressions in the hymnals, but whenever men and women are lost in worship they will cry out, “Oh God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee” (Psalm 63:1). Worship becomes a completely personal love experience between God and the worshiper. It was like that with David, with Isaiah, with Paul. It is like that with all whose desire has been to possess God.

This is the glad truth: God is my God.

- A.W. Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship, 88-89.

Genuine Salvation

So unfathomable are the counsels of divine wisdom contained in it, that all the angels of heaven are searching into it with a thirst that is insatiable. Such is its efficacy, that nothing can withstand its influence. By this then, my brethren, you my judge whether you are Christians in deed and in truth, or whether you are only such in name…For a nominal Christian is content with proving the way of salvation by a crucified Redeemer. But the true Christian loves it, delights in it, glories in it, and shudders at the very thought of glorying in anything else.

- Charles Simeon, Quoted in John Piper's Roots of Endurance, 113.

Bitterness

So how do we know if we have become bitter? If we habitually review the offender’s wrong, if we replay the episode over and over in our minds, if we wallow in self-pity or withdraw our affection – chances are we have succumbed to bitterness. And we cannot pursue a sincere desire for our families’ happiness when bitterness blocks the way.

- Carolyn Mahaney, Feminine Appeal, 108.

Sin, Inability

Sin renders us incapable of doing what God has ordained us to do. This inability colors every situation and relationship or our lives. It is not just that I don’t want to do God’s will, or that I think my way is better, it’s that even when I have right intentions, I can’t pull it off. I always fall short of God’s standard.

- Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands, 15.

Feelings

Scripture is clear that he primary purpose of our feelings is to enjoy and glorify God.

- Carolyn Mahaney, Feminine Appeal, 64.

Self-Sufficiency

Satan’s wisdom places peoples’ lives in their own hands, so that they rely on their own ability to think, interpret, understand, and apply. The Serpent is selling Eve the most attractive and cruelest of lies, the lie of autonomy and self-sufficiency. He offers her wisdom that does not need to bow the knee to God.

- Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands, 47.

Prophecy, Revelation

It is possible that God may make new revelations to particular persons about their particular duties, events, or matters of fact, in subordination to the Scripture, wither by inspiration, vision, or apparition, or voice; for he hath not told us that he will never do such a thing. As to tell them, what shall befall them or others; or to say, Go to such a place, or, Dwell in such a place, or, Do such a thing, which is not contrary to the Scripture, nor co-ordinate, but only a subordinate determination of some undetermined case, or the circumstantiating of an action.

- Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor

Giving Up Your Rights

Rather, the strong believer is exhorted to give up his rights for the sake of others. The appeal, finally, is love for brothers and sisters in Christ. Strong Christians may be right on a theological issue, but unless they voluntarily abandon what is in fact their right they will do damage to the church and thus “sin against Christ”(8:12).

- D.A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry, 125.

Baptism of the Spirit

"Differing exegesis and theological debate must not be allowed to obscure the primary truth: that the Spirit of the living Christ seeks to enrich, enable, empower, and use Christians in every generation...How we describe the experience is less important than that we open mind, heart, and will to the power and joy which the Spirit offers to confer. The contemporary church and the modern world sadly need Christians baptized with the Spirit."

- R.E.O. White, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 122.

Revelation, Christianity

“Everything we know about Christianity has been revealed to us by God…If we wish to know Him in truth, we must rely on what He tells us about Himself.”

- R. C. Sproul

Proverbs and Counseling

Proverbs captures this dynamic well. From the wise words of a father to his son, to the life-complicating advice of the fool, Proverbs depicts life as one huge counseling forum. Within that forum are two sectors, the counsel of the wise and the counsel of the fool. You and I receive wise and foolish counsel every day. The different voices compete for your attention. They influence you thoughts, desires, choices, and actions. The counsel comes to you in words of a friend, the content of a TV show, and the Sunday sermon. There is counsel in the rebuke of a parent and the opinion of a spouse. People counsel people. It is inescapable.

- Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands, 46.

How little we know of the Spirit of God.

We must be very careful in these matters. What do we know of the realm of the Spirit? What do we know of the Spirit falling on people? What do we know about these great manifestations of the Holy Spirit? We need to be very careful 'lest we be fund fighting against God,' lest we be guilty of 'quenching the Spirit of God'. -D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, When the Spirit Comes With Power, P. 13

Holy Spirit, dead?

These effects on the body were not owing to the infulence of example, but began...when there was no such enthusicastical season as many account this, but it was a very dead time through the land. - Jonathan Edwards, When the Spirit Comes With Power, P.13

Judging, Judgmentalism

Prohibitions directed against judging have in mind self-righteous people who want to protect their turf. These people are usually fairly legalistic, have all the right answers desperately want to elevate their “in” group above all others, and are constantly in danger of usurping the place of God. By contrast, biblical injunctions to be discerning or to judge well in some circumstances or other are directed against those who are careless and undisciplined about holy things, especially about the words of God. Such people regularly fly with the crowd rather than thinking through what allegiance to God and his truth entails in some particular context.

- D.A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry, 100.

Love

Phileo is not a dutiful love: it is to be characterized by joy and delight. We should prefer their company above all others. We should find genuine pleasure in serving them, and we should take an interest in what they enjoy.

- Carolyn Mahaney, Feminine Appeal, 36.

Christian Living

Peter tells us what will happen when we start living out of our identity in Christ (vv.5-8). It will change the way we live. We will not settle for a little bit of Christian character. We will not see our relationships and situations as dangers to be avoided, but as opportunities to experience what already belongs to us in Christ. We will be expectant and active because we have a progressive growth paradigm for life. We will not give in to patterns of avoidance, escape, or defense. We will not settle for a slightly better marriage, or marginally honest relationships. Each day we will want to experience more of the resources that are ours as children of God.

- Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemers Hands, 265-266.

Needs

Perhaps no word is used more poorly and improperly than the word need. As James reminds us, it quickly surfaces in our relationships. When my heart is ruled by the desire for a certain thing, it cannot help be effecting my relationship to you. Need inevitably produces expectation (“You should”). If I am convinced I need something and you have said that you love me, it seems right to expect that you will help me get it. The dynamic of (improper) need-driven expectation is the source of untold conflict in relationships.

Eventually I will come to accept the logic of my neediness. I will find it painful to live without the thing I desire. I
will think it is appropriate to do everything in my power to get it. It becomes my right. This powerful expectation will not only shape my relationships with people, but with God as well. This is an “I love you and I have a wonderful plan for your life” view of relationships. My plan for our relationship is that it would meet my needs.

- Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemers Hands, 87.

People are Meaning Makers

Paul’s review of change involves process as well as content, the manner as well as the message. It involves teaching with my life as well as with my words. As I incarnate the character of the Lord I am calling people to trust and obey. In effect, Paul is saying, “If you are going to teach and admonish one another, you must first put on Christ.” God changes people not simply because you have spoken the truth to them, but because those words were said with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and love.

- Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemers Hands, 41.

Change

Paul’s review of change involves process as well as content, the manner as well as the message. It involves teaching with my life as well as with my words. As I incarnate the character of the Lord I am calling people to trust and obey. In effect, Paul is saying, “If you are going to teach and admonish one another, you must first put on Christ.” God changes people not simply because you have spoken the truth to them, but because those words were said with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and love.

- Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemers Hands, 135.

Biblical Thinking

Our thinking conditions our emotions, our sense of identity, our view of others, our agenda for the solution of our problems, and our willingness to receive counsel from others. That is why we need a framework for generating valid interpretations that help us respond to life appropriately. Only the words of the Creator can give us that framework.

- Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemers Hands, 43.

Modern Religious Sentiment

Our generation multiplies religious sentiment long on “self-ful-fillment” and “personal need” and painfully short of thoughtful examination of what it cost Almighty God to pursue rebellious human beings and win them to himself.

- D.A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry,17.

Depression

On one occasion when Martin was extremely depressed and indifferent to encouragement, Katharine donned mourning attire. Her husband asked her, “Katharine, why are you dressed in mourning black?” “Someone has died,” she replied. “Died?” said Luther. “I have not heard of anyone dying. Whoever can have died?”

“It seems,” his wife replied, “that God must have died!”

- Carolyn Mahaney, Feminine Appeal, 126.

Knowledge of God

O pray for me that I may have a right temper of mind towards the ever blessed God! That knowledge of God that does not produce a love to him and a desire to be like him is not a true knowledge. God has enabled me to trust in him and rely upon him-and tis my comfort and joy that he will be glorified what ever becomes of me. I think God has been Near to me this eve- O how good tis to get near the Lord! I long to live near him always- nor is it living unless I do… O that the Lord would be near to me this day and give me some sense of his glory and beauty as he is revealed in the gospel of his dear Son! I feel as dead as a stone – I have no zeal for God or his service - Jonathan Edwards, Quoted in Ian Murray's Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography, 348.

Biblical Ministry

Need-driven, self-focused, solution-defined ministry may use the Bible, but it is not truly biblical. It distorts what the Bible was meant to do.

Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemers Hands, 25.

True Religion

My grand objection to the religious system still held by many who declare themselves orthodox Churchmen…is, that it tends to render Christianity so much a system of prohibitions rather than of privilege and hopes, and thus the injunction to rejoice, so strongly enforced in the New Testament, is practically neglected, and religion is made to wear a forbidding and gloomy air and not one of peace and hope and joy.

- William Wilberforce, Roots of Endurance, 150.

Women's Roles

Much of the world would agree that being a housekeeper is acceptable as long as you are not caring for your won home; treating men with attentive devotion would also be right as long as the man is the boss in the office and not your husband. Caring for children would even be deemed heroic service for which presidential awards could be given as long as the children are someone else’s and not your own.

- Dorothy Patterson, Feminine Appeal, 90.

Prophecy

“Prophecies which tell other people what they are to do – are to be regarded with great suspicion.”

- Michael Harper (Anglican Charismatic Pastor) The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today, 322.

Serving, Pride, Laziness

“Of some departments of our work, however, we are apt to say—‘I have no gift, no talent for it.’ But surely dependence upon the promise of heavenly wisdom would obtain a competent measure to meet the demand. Or should it even be withheld, how profitable would be that humbling exercise of faith—‘most gladly to glory in our infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon us!’ But nothing is more paralyzing to faith—nothing more clogs the wheels of exertion, than repining indolence [fretful laziness] indulged under the cover of humility.”

- Charles Bridges

Arminian

The Arminian holds that Christ, when he died, did not die with an intent to save any particular person; and they teach that Christ's death does not in itself secure, beyond doubt, the salvation of any one man living... they are obliged to hold that if man's will would not give way, and voluntarily surrender to grace, then Christ's atonement would be unavailing.

Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon, p. 77

Redemption

'The doctrine of Redemption is one of the most important doctrines of the system of faith. A mistake on this point will inevitably lead to a mistake through the entire system of our belief.'

Charles Spurgeon, The Forgotten Spurgeon, p. 77

Eternal Security

'He has punished Christ, why should he punish twice for one offence? Christ has died for all his people's sins, and if thou art in the covenant, thou art one of Christ's people. Damned thou canst not be. Suffer for thy sins thou canst not. Until God can be unjust, and demand two payments for one debt, he cannot destroy the soul for whom Jesus died.'

Charles Spurgeon, The Forgotten Spurgeon, p. 75

Eternal Security

In His Person He has fully satisfied the demands of God's holiness and law, so that now, on the grounds of justice, the Divine favour has been secured for those in whose place the Saviour suffer and died.

Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon, p. 74

Arminianism: Free Will

...it makes Christ's mystical body to be of no shape whatever; it gives Christ a bride whom he does not know and does not choose, and it puts him up in the world to be married to any one who will have him; but he is to have no choice himself.

Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon, p. 73

Arminianism: Election / Grace

You may if you please put a yound believer to college for years, but unless you shew him this ground - plan of the everlasting covenant, he will make little progress, because his studies do not cohere, he does not see how one truth fits with another, and how all truths must harmonize together. Once let him get a clear idea tht salvation is by grace, let him discover the difference between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace; let him clearly understand the meaning of election, as shewing the purpose of God, and its bearing upon other doctrines which shew the accomplishment of that purpose, and from that moment he is on the high road to become an instructive believer. He will always be ready to give a reason of the hope thatis in him with meekness and with fear. The proof is palable.

Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon, p. 72

Arminianism

Firstly, Spurgeon held that Arminianism does not merely affect a few doctrines which can be separated from the gospel, rather it involves the whole unity of Biblical revelation and it affects our view of the whole plan of redemption at almost every point. He regarded ignorance of the full content of the gospel as a major cause of Arminianism, and the errors of that system then prevent men from graspingf the whole divine unity of Scriptural truths and from perceiving them in their true relationships and in their right order. Arminianism truncates Scripture and it militates against that wholeness of view which is necessary for the glory of God, the exaltation of Christ and the stability of the believer.

Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon, p. 70

Arminianism: Conversion

When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me. I do not think the young convert is at first aware of this. I can recall the very day and hour when first I received those truths in my own soul - when they were, as John Bunyan says, burnt into my heart as with a hot iron; and I can recollect how I felt that I had grown on a sudden from a babe into a man - that I had made progress in Scriptural knowledge, through having found, once for all, the clue to the truth of God.

Charles Spurgeon, The Forgotten Spurgeon, p. 68

Arminianism

I believe that very much of current Arminianism is simply ignorance of gospel doctrine.

Charles Spurgeon, The Forgotten Spurgeon, p. 68

Doctrine

Spurgeon did not attack Arminianism because he believed those errors meant that a person holding them could not be a Christian; he did not believe any such thing. Indeed he held that a man may be an evangelical Arminian, like John Wesley or John Fletcher of Madeley, and live 'far above the ordinary level of common Christians,; he knew that a man may be earnest for election and 'be as proud as Lucifer', while other Christians may live humble and useful lives who do not see these truths: 'Far be it from me even to imagine that Zion contains none but Calvinistic Christians with her walls, or that there are none saved who do not hold our views.' In other words Spurgion saw - what we need to see - that a distinction must be drawn between errors and persons. All that are within the circle of Christ's love must be within the circle of our love, and to contend for doctrine in a manner which ignores this truth is a rending of the unity of that Church which is His Body. Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon p. 65

Biblical Counseling

Many Christians simply don’t understand what the Bible is. Many think of it as a spiritual encyclopedia: God’s complete catalog of human problems, coupled with a complete list of divine answers. If you turn to the right page, you can find answers for any struggle. A more sophisticated variation views the Bible as a systematic theology textbook, an outline of essential topics you must master to think and live God’s way. In either case, we tend to offer each other isolated pieces of Scripture (a command, principle, a promise) that seem to fit the need of the moment. What we think of as ministering the world is little more than Spiritual cut-and-paste system. This kind of ministry rarely leads to lasting change because it does not bring the power of the Word to the places where change is really needed. In this kind of ministry, self is still at the center, personal need is the focus, and personal happiness remains the goal. But a truly effective ministry of the Word must confront our self-focus and self-absorption at its roots, opening us to the vastness of a God-defined, God-centered world. Unless this happens, we will use the promises, principles, and commands of the world to serve the thing we really love: ourselves. This may be why many people read and hear God’s word regularly while their lives remain unchanged. Only when the rain of the word penetrates the roots of the problem does lasting change occur. - Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemers Hands, 24-25.

Fruit of the Spirit: Self-Control

Man may talk of self-control, as if the reins were in his own hands. But he who has been “born of the Spirit,” and taught, “to know the plague of his own heart,” is made to feel that effective self-control is divine grace, not his own native power…. Have not repeated defeats taught us the need of calling in better strength than our own?

- Charles Bridges

Loving Your Husband

Loving our husbands – as biblically defined – is a learned response through the grace of God. The good news is that God is eager to teach us this love.

- Carolyn Mahaney, Feminine Appeal, 28.

Heaven

Let no one apologize for the powerful emphasis Christianity lays upon the doctrine of the world to come. Right there lies its immense superiority to everything else within the whole sphere of human thought or experience… We do well to think of the long tomorrow.

- A.W. Tozer, In Light of Eternity, 6.

Leadership

Leaders in the church suffer the most. They are not like generals in the military who stay behind the lines. They are the assault troops, the front line people, who lead by example as much as by word. To praise a form of leadership that despises suffering is therefore to deny the faith.

- D.A. Carson, The Cross in Christian Ministry, 108.

Justification

"Justification bestows on us a righteous standing before God. When God justifies sinners, he is not declaring bad people good, or saying that they are not sinners after all; he is pronouncing them legally righteous, free from any liability to the broken law, because he himself in his Son has borne the penalty for their lawbreaking."

- John Stott

Nature of God

"His essence is incomprehensible; so that His divinity wholly escapes all human senses.”

- John Calvin

Worship: Spirit and Truth

It must be by the Holy Spirit and truth. We cannot worship in the spirit alone, for the spirit without truth is helpless. We cannot worship in truth alone, for that would be theology without fire.

Worship must be in spirit and in truth! It must be the truth of God and the Spirit of God. When a person, yielding to
god and believing the truth of god. Is filled with the Spirit of God, even his faintest whisper will be worship.

- A.W. Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship, 46.

True Conversion

It is with professors of religion, especially such as become so in a time of outpouring of the Spirit of God, as it is with blossoms in the spring; there are vast numbers of them upon the trees, which all look fair and promising; but yet many of them never some to anything…It is the mature fruit which comes afterwards, and not the beautiful colours and smell of the blossoms, that we must judge by.

- Jonathan Edwards, Quoted in Ian Murray's Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography, 251.

Judgment and Forbearance

It is utterly disastrous to appeal for judgment when forbearance is called for, or to prohibit all judgment when judgment is precisely what is needed. Both errors seriously damage the church and usually reflect a mind that is unwilling to think its way carefully through the balance and sanity of the Word of God.

- D.A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry, 100.

Building the Church

It is possible to “build the church’ with such shoddy materials that at the last day you have nothing to show for your labor. People may come, feel “helped,” join in corporate worship, serve our committees, teach Sunday school classes, bring their friends, enjoy “fellowship,” raise funds, participate in counseling sessions and self-help groups, but still not really know the Lord. If the church is being built with large portions of charm, personality, easy oratory, positive thinking, managerial skills, powerful and emotional experiences, and people smarts, but with out the repeated, passionate, Spirit-anointed proclamation of “Jesus Christ and him crucified,” we may be winning more adherents than converts.

- D.A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry, 80.

Prophecy

It is my hope that the church may yet come to a balanced understanding of this gift as something valuable yet never equal to Scripture in authority, and always to be tested. Then the church may yet enter into a period where this gift is neither rejected, nor disdained, nor trusted a infallible, nor blindly followed, but earnestly desired and expected according to 1 Corinthians 14; 1, 39, and regularly tested according to 1 Corinthians 14:29 and

1 Thessalonians 5”19-21; and where it may then function as God intended, for people’s “up building, and
encouragement, and consolation” (1 Cor. 14:3).

- Wayne Grudem, The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today, 351.

Christian Life

It is immensely important that Christians know who they are as children of the living God, what is expected of them, where they may be flexible, and where they must be as rigid as tensile steel.

- D.A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry, 121.