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Hebrews 10:23-25
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Hebrews 10:23-25
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
As kids we played games drawn from scenarios of war. When a friend approached we pretended that we were guards. The dialogue was simple: “Halt! Who goes there? Friend or foe?” Our categories left no room for indifferent neutrality. They were restricted to two options, friend or enemy. Those are the only options we have in our relationship with God—nobody is neutral. We are either God’s friends or God’s enemies.
Jonathan Edwards once preached a sermon noscriptd, “Man, Naturally God’s Enemies.” In this sermon Edwards declared: “Men, in general, will own that they are sinners. There are few, if any, whose consciences are so blinded as not to be sensible they have been guilty of sin … And yet few of them are sensible that they are God’s enemies. They do not see how they can be truly so called; for they are not sensible that they wish God any hurt, or endeavor to do Him any.”
Yet despite human protestations to the contrary, Scripture clearly describes natural fallen men as enemies of God. Paul, in speaking of our salvation, wrote, “when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10). Again, “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies [of God] in your mind by wicked works (Colossians 1:21). Also, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”
(Romans 8:7)
Jonathan Edwards once preached a sermon noscriptd, “Man, Naturally God’s Enemies.” In this sermon Edwards declared: “Men, in general, will own that they are sinners. There are few, if any, whose consciences are so blinded as not to be sensible they have been guilty of sin … And yet few of them are sensible that they are God’s enemies. They do not see how they can be truly so called; for they are not sensible that they wish God any hurt, or endeavor to do Him any.”
Yet despite human protestations to the contrary, Scripture clearly describes natural fallen men as enemies of God. Paul, in speaking of our salvation, wrote, “when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10). Again, “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies [of God] in your mind by wicked works (Colossians 1:21). Also, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”
(Romans 8:7)
It is not pleasure that you should fear, but uncontrolled desire.
—Augustine
—Augustine
Get this deep into your soul, 'Christ died for me,'
and you will soon be ready to die for him.
—C.H. Spurgeon
and you will soon be ready to die for him.
—C.H. Spurgeon
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Oh, men and women, pray through, pray through! Do not just begin to pray and pray a little while and throw up your hands and quit; but pray and pray and pray until God bends the heavens and comes down.
—R.A. Torrey
—R.A. Torrey
Scripture is the ongoing rapport between heaven and earth, between Christ and his church, between God and his children.
—Herman Bavinck
—Herman Bavinck
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There is a false tenderness in the world — a tenderness cut off from Christ — that poses as compassion and leads to concentration camps.
—John Piper
—John Piper
Most men forget God all day, and ask Him to remember them at night.
—C.H. Spurgeon
—C.H. Spurgeon
Everybody is concerned about the state of the country, but have you heard anybody talking about the state of the soul and eternal destiny?
—Martin Lloyd Jones
—Martin Lloyd Jones
Think that in every line you read in noscripture, that God is speaking to you.
—Thomas Watson
—Thomas Watson
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I find he is a refuge in every storm, and that he makes poor sinners more than conquerors through his love.
—George Whitefield
—George Whitefield
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The one perfectly divine thing, the one glimpse of God's paradise given on earth, is to fight a losing battle —and not lose it.
—G.K. Chesterton
—G.K. Chesterton
The battle for our Sundays is usually won or lost on the foregoing Saturday night.
—J.I. Packer
—J.I. Packer
If you always enjoy sermons, the minister is not a good steward.
He is not acting wisely who deals out nothing but sweets.
—Charles Spurgeon
He is not acting wisely who deals out nothing but sweets.
—Charles Spurgeon
John 15:1-10
I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
It is not a believing head but a believing heart that makes a Christian.
—John Owen
—John Owen
Hebrews 3:12-15
“Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; while it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.”
We are warned not to allow ourselves to become hardened, because if we look at the whole concept of hardening in its biblical perspective, we see that something happens to us through repeated sins. Our consciences become seared.
The more we commit a particular sin, the less remorse we feel from it. Our hearts are recalcitrant through repeated disobedience.
When God hardens the heart, all He does is step away and stop striving with us.
For example, when I commit a particular sin, my conscience bothers me. In His grace, God is convicting me of that evil. God is intruding into my life, trying to persuade me to stop this wickedness. If He wants to harden me, all He has to do is to stop rebuking me, stop nudging me, and just give me enough rope to hang myself.
We see in Scripture that when God hardens hearts, He does not force people to sin; rather, He gives them their freedom to exercise the evil of their own desires.
“Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; while it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.”
We are warned not to allow ourselves to become hardened, because if we look at the whole concept of hardening in its biblical perspective, we see that something happens to us through repeated sins. Our consciences become seared.
The more we commit a particular sin, the less remorse we feel from it. Our hearts are recalcitrant through repeated disobedience.
When God hardens the heart, all He does is step away and stop striving with us.
For example, when I commit a particular sin, my conscience bothers me. In His grace, God is convicting me of that evil. God is intruding into my life, trying to persuade me to stop this wickedness. If He wants to harden me, all He has to do is to stop rebuking me, stop nudging me, and just give me enough rope to hang myself.
We see in Scripture that when God hardens hearts, He does not force people to sin; rather, He gives them their freedom to exercise the evil of their own desires.
O death, when you seized my Lord, you lost your grip on me.
—Augustine
—Augustine