Churches today are suffering spiritually, both because of false doctrine and because of other doctrine, that is, ideas and activities which are far removed from God’s revealed will. So much of what we hear from modern Christian ministries is not necessarily wrong in itself, but a distraction from the core of the apostolic message, and to the degree it diverts us from the most important truths, it really is “contrary to sound doctrine” (1 Tim. 1:10). Ironically, in the name of relevance, Christian pulpits and presses and media spew forth many things completely irrelevant to the nature of God and man, the plight of sinners without Christ, and the way of salvation through Him. Doctrine itself is generally despised, and an appreciation for accurate gospel doctrine is rare. Weak and sickly churches glory in having no doctrinal statement and being nondenominational, or having one vague enough for every professing Christian to agree. This is not fringe evangelicalism, but its impoverished mainstream.
We desperately need to hear afresh God’s counsel in 1st Timothy, with earnest desires to understand it and resolve to embrace it wholeheartedly, putting it into practice. The theme I discern in chapter one is “the non-negotiable centrality of gospel doctrine,” and the teaching might be summarized this way:
Together, we absolutely must fight uncompromisingly to maintain a steady focus upon gospel doctrine in and from the church.
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Tags: D. Scott Meadows, Scott Meadows
I am convinced that one of our grave defects today, is a most serious diminishing of the good old custom of private reading of the Bible. Between the growth of Christian periodicals and books, I have a strong impression that Bibles are not read as much and as carefully as they were two hundred years ago.
Neglect of the Bible, is like disease of the body–it shows itself in the face of a man’s conduct. It tells its own tale. It cannot be hidden.
I fear that many neglect the Bible–because of the enormous ignorance of true religion which everywhere prevails. There are thousands of professing Christians in this country, who know literally nothing about the Gospel. They could not give you the slightest account of its distinctive doctrines. They have no more idea of the true meaning of conversion, grace, faith, justification, and sanctification–than of so many words and names written in Arabic! And can I suppose that such people search the Scriptures? I cannot suppose it. I do not believe they do!
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Tags: J.C. Ryle, Ryle
It has been said that pride is the oldest sin in the universe and that it shows no signs of growing weaker with age. Pride is the overestimation of our own worth and the inevitable tendency to exaggerate our own accomplishments. If the Bible is clear about anything, it is that ours is a fallen race and that human pride is the inevitable consequence of the Fall. God warned the people of Israel to exercise great care in this regard,
“Lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery…. Beware lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.” (Deut. 8:11-14, 17)
In Romans 1:22, Paul speaks of human pride in these terms: “Claiming to be wise, they became fools.” Because of sin, we suppress the fact that God is the source of all that we have. We see ourselves as far more important than we are. We act as though all of life rises and sets upon our own shadow. Therefore, we are constantly tempted to use God to suit our own sinful ends.
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Tags: Kim Riddlebarger, Riddlebarger
1. To preach the gospel is to state every doctrine contained in God’s Word, and to give every truth its proper prominence.
Men may preach a part of the gospel; they may only preach one single doctrine of it; and I would not say that a man did not preach the gospel at all if he did but maintain the doctrine of justification by faith—“By grace are ye saved through faith.” I should put him down for a gospel minister, but not for one who preached the whole gospel.
No man can be said to preach the whole gospel of God if he leaves it out, knowingly and intentionally, one single truth of the blessed God.
This remark of mine must be a very cutting one, and ought to strike into the consciences of many who make it almost a matter of principle to keep back certain truths from the people, because they are afraid of them.
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Tags: C.H. Spurgeon, Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon
Let no man be deceived with the idea that if he carries out the right, by God’s grace he will prosper in this world as the consequence.
It is very likely that, for a time at least, his conscientiousness will stand in the way of his prosperity. God does not invariably make the doing of the right to be the means of pecuniary gain to us. On the contrary, it frequently happens that for a time men are great losers by their obedience to Christ. But the Scripture always speaks as to the long run; it sums up the whole of life — there it promises true riches. If thou wouldst prosper, keep close to the Word of God, and to thy conscience, and thou shalt have the best prosperity. Thou wilt not see it in a week, nor a month, nor a year, but thou shalt enjoy it ere long.
Hundreds have I seen, and I speak within bounds when I speak of that number, who in different times of dilemma have waited upon me, and asked my advice as to what they should do. I have almost always noticed that those persons who temporize, or attempt to find out a policy of going between, and doing as little wrong as possible, but still just a little, always blunder out of one ditch into another, and their whole life is a life of compromises, of sins, and of miseries; if they do get to heaven they go there slipshod, and with thorns piercing their feet all the way. But I have noticed others who have come right straight out, and rent away the cords which entangled them, and they have said, “I will do the right, if I die for it”; and though they Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: C.H. Spurgeon, Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon
Where can you find that God has ever failed to keep a promise, or that He ever lied to the soul that depended on Him? He calls on blind folk to trust Him, even though they walk in darkness and have no light (Isaiah 50:10). Those who flee to Him for refuge, have His promise and oath for their salvation.
Why should we despair, when we have a God of mercy and a redeeming living Christ! We live in a world that is swarming with promises, where mercy is revealed, where grace reigns, and where the greatest of sinners are privileged with the first offer of mercy. To despair in the face of all this would be to not appreciate Christ’s offer of grace. Despair undervalues the Father’s strength and the Son’s redemption.
Despair is unreasonable!
Despair sets humanity up as God’s judge; it tries to take control of the promise; it contradicts Christ’s offer of mercy; and it makes doubt the administrator of our reason and judgment, when it comes to determining what God is capable of doing and what He is willing to do.
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Tags: Bunyan, John Bunyan
We have been carnal and unspiritual. The tone of our life has been low and earthly. Associating too much and too intimately with the world, we have in a great measure become accustomed to its ways. Hence our spiritual tastes have been vitiated, our consciences blunted, and that sensitive tenderness of feeling has worn off and given place to an amount of callousness of which we once, in fresher days, believed ourselves incapable.
We have been selfish. We have shrunk from toil, difficulty and endurance. We have counted only our lives, and our temporal ease and comfort dear unto us. We have sought to please ourselves. We have been worldly and covetous. We have not presented ourselves unto God as “living sacrifices,” laying ourselves, our lives, our substance, our time, our strength, our faculties, our all, upon His altar. We seem altogether to have lost sight of this self sacrificing principle on which even as Christians, but much more as ministers, we are called upon to act. We have had little idea of anything like sacrifice at all. Up to the point where a sacrifice was demanded, we may have been willing to go, but there we stood; counting it unnecessary, perhaps calling it imprudent and unadvised, to proceed further. Yet ought not the life of every Christian, especially of every minister, to be a life of self sacrifice and self denial throughout, even as was the life of Him who “pleased not himself”?
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Tags: Bonar, Horatius Bonar
I am convinced that one of our grave defects today, is a most serious diminishing of the good old custom of private reading of the Bible. Between the growth of Christian periodicals and books, I have a strong impression that Bibles are not read as much and as carefully as they were two hundred years ago.
