No Christian can avoid theology. Every Christian is a theologian. Perhaps not a theologian in the technical or professional sense, but a theologian nevertheless. The issue for Christians is not whether we are going to be theologians but whether we are going to be good theologians or bad ones.
Taken from Knowing Scripture by R.C. Sproul. Copyright(c) 1978. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, PO Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515, p. 22. www.ivpress.com.
We go back to creation and we see that man is made in the image and in the likeness of God (Genesis 1:26, 27), not in the sense that God has a body, but in terms of our nature. You are called to be living images that reflect and communicate the character of God Himself.
The Purpose of God, An Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 120.
A few years ago at a Christian bookseller’s convention, with several thousand people present, one Christian group did a survey asking people to define the gospel. A hundred people responded. Those who sponsored the survey looked at the responses, and only one out a hundred qualified as an adequate description of the gospel. People think that the gospel is having a warm relationship with Jesus, or asking Christ into your heart. Those things are important, but that is not the gospel. The gospel has a clear content that focuses on the person of Christ, the work of Christ, and how the benefits of Christ are appropriated into the Christian’s life by faith.
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler, Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. 158.
Christ told his disciples not to be anxious about tomorrow, but he never said not to consider tomorrow. Intelligent problem solving demands careful consideration of the future effects of present solutions.
The Intimate Marriage, P&R Publishing, 1975, p. 67.
The greatest awakening in the history of the church took place when…(preachers) were bold enough to proclaim the Word of God and saw their task to be presenting the unembellished, undiluted, unvarnished Word of God. That is why they pored over the texts of Scripture, being careful of their exegesis before they entered the pulpit. Because that was the center of their task, they were fearless. Their fearlessness, their boldness, their courage came from the conviction that what they were preaching and teaching was the Word of God.
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler, Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. 142-143.
Something terrible has happened to us. We have lost all desire for God. The thoughts and desires of our heart are only evil continuously. The freedom of our will is a curse. Because we can still choose according to our desires, we choose sin and this we become accountable to the judgment of God.
Taken from: Essential Truths of the Christian Faith by R. C. Sproul, Copyright © 1992 (Sproul), p. 180, Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
If the final decision for the salvation of fallen sinners were left in the hands of fallen sinners, we would despair all hope that anyone would be saved.
[We without God have] wills that choose…the problem is that even though we have the power to choose, we are dead to the things of God, and as a result have no desire for the things of God. Rather, we follow a different course. We follow it willfully; we follow it freely, in the sense of doing what we want to do. But with respect to spiritual things, we are dead.
The Purpose of God, An Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 47.
Hope is called the anchor of the soul (Hebrews 6:19), because it gives stability to the Christian life. But hope is not simply a “wish” (I wish that such-and-such would take place); rather, it is that which latches on to the certainty of the promises of the future that God has made.
The Purpose of God, An Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 40.
Not until we take God seriously will we ever take sin seriously.
R.C. Sproul Cosmic Treason, Tabletalk, May 2008, p. 7, Used by Permission.
We notice also that Jesus said that the number of such self-proclaiming believers, who are not really regenerate, is declared to be “many.” This should elicit caution in our assumptions of the success of our methods and techniques of evangelism. We tend to be quite sanguine with our “evangelism statistics” when we assume the conversion of all who answer an altar call, make a “decision for Christ,” or recite the “sinner’s prayer.” These tools can help measure outward professions, but they do not give us a glimpse into the heart. All we can ever see of a person’s profession is his fruit. And even the fruit can be deceptive. God, and God alone, can read the human heart. Our gaze cannot penetrate beyond the outward appearance.
Tabletalk, p. 7, June 2004, Ligonier Ministries, Used by Permission.
It is imperative that the Christian, at the beginning of his pursuit to understand what true worship is, gets it clear that the object of our worship is to be God and God alone.
How Should We Then Worship? Table Talk, Jan. 2005, p. 5. Used by Permission.
Divorce Myths:1. When love has gone out a marriage, it is better to get divorced. 2. It is better for the children for the unhappy couple to divorce than to raise their children in the atmosphere of an unhappy marriage. 3. Divorce is the lesser of two evils. 4. You owe it to yourself. 5. Everyone’s entitled to one mistake. 6. God led me to this divorce.
The Intimate Marriage, P&R Publishing, 1975, p. 103-110.
In hard, cold reality, a person rarely seeks divorce for the well-being of the children. What is distressing about this myth is not so much the fallacy of it as its blatant hypocrisy. If people were really concerned for the well-being of their children, I would think they would move heaven and earth to transcend their false dilemma and move in the direction of responsible parenthood. With the use of this myth as a justification for divorce, humankind exposes its capacity for calling good evil and evil good. Here an act of selfishness is painted or portrayed as a noble act of self-sacrifice for the good of the children.
The Intimate Marriage, P&R Publishing, 1975, p. 106.
In every marriage that ends in disaster, some stupid decisions were made with respect to God’s regulations. If God’s regulations were followed scrupulously, not only would there be no divorces; there would be no unhappy marriages. To violate the regulations of God is not only an exercise in disobedience but also an exercise in foolishness. If you want a happy marriage, the most intelligent thing you can do is to submit to God’s regulations. They are designed to promote and protect your full happiness.
The Intimate Marriage, P&R Publishing, 1975, p. 149-150.
A married person does not live in isolation. He or she has made a promise, a pledge, a vow, to another person. Until that vow is fulfilled and the promise is kept, the individual is in debt to his marriage partner. That is what he owes. “You owe it to yourself” is not a valid excuse for breaking a marriage vow but a creed of selfishness.
The Intimate Marriage, P&R Publishing, 1975, p. 109.
In almost every prayer that Jesus utters in the New Testament, He addresses God as Father… This represents a radical departure from Jewish custom and tradition. Though Jewish people were given a lengthy number of appropriate titles for God in personal prayer, significantly absent from the approved list was the title “Father”… The serious reaction against Jesus by His contemporaries indicated that they heard in His addressing God as Father a blasphemous utterance by which Jesus was presuming, by this term of address, a certain equality that He enjoyed with the Father.
Our Father, Tabletalk magazine, June 2007, Used by Permission.
The law of God was not designed by a capricious tyrant in order to keep his people miserable.
The Intimate Marriage, P&R Publishing, 1975, p. 149.
“Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:22). This is a service and an act of worship that the woman gives to the Lord Himself. It is the Lord’s will that the wife be submissive to her husband, and if she want to honor Christ, then one of the concrete ways she does this is by being in submission to her husband. If a woman is contentious and refuses to follow the leadership of her husband, she is in rebellion, not simply against him, but also against Christ.
The Purpose of God, An Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 135.
To submit to anyone less than Christ is difficult in a marriage. Yet it is Christ who commands women to be submissive to their sinful, fallible husbands. In this sense Christ is the silent partner of the marriage. It is hard for a wife to submit when she disagrees with her husband. But when she knows her submission is an act of obedience to Christ and honors Christ, it is much less difficult.
The Intimate Marriage, P&R Publishing, 1975, p. 48- 49.
The Christian life requires hard work. Our sanctification is a process wherein we are coworkers with God. We have the promise of God’s assistance in our labor, but His divine help does not annul our responsibility to work (Phil. 2:12-13).
Taken from: Essential Truths of the Christian Faith by R. C. Sproul, 1992 (Sproul), p. xix, Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
The most effective churches that I know are churches where the ministerial staff devote many hours in training and mobilizing their congregations to be mighty armies of saints, as they minister to a dying world.
The Purpose of God, An Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 103.
In his systematic theology, Charles Hodge lists eight promises the Father gives to the Son in (the covenant of redemption) made in eternity. Briefly they are: that God would form a purified church for His Son; that the Son would receive the Spirit without measure; that He would be ever-present to support Him; that He would deliver Him from death and exalt Him to His right hand; that He would have the Holy Spirit to send to whom He willed; that all the Father gave to Him would come to Him and none of these be lost; that multitudes would partake of His redemption and His messianic kingdom; that He would see the travail of His soul and be satisfied.
The Blueprint of Redemption, Tabletalk, Feb. 2004, p. 7, Used by Permission.
If God takes our idle words seriously, how much more seriously does He take those words spoken with forethought? And if He takes our normal statements seriously, how much more seriously does He take our promises, especially when those promises are raised to the level of the formal vow?
The Intimate Marriage, P&R Publishing, 1975, p. 158.
To be sure, it is much easier to be loving if you’re in love, but being in love is not intrinsically necessary to being loving – else the Great Commandment is a farce.
The Intimate Marriage, P&R Publishing, 1975, p. 103.
The sweetest fragrance, the most beautiful aroma that God has ever detected emanating from this planet, was the aroma of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus that was offered once and for all on the cross.
The Purpose of God, An Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 121.
The Greek work for church, ecclesia, is made up of a prefix and a root. The prefix is ek – out of. The root is the verb coleo, to call. The church in the New Testament is made up of those who are called out from the world, from darkness, from damnation, from paganism, to become members of the body of Christ.
The Purpose of God, An Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 95.
Claims to special divine revelations are not so much a sign of super-spirituality as they are of evangelical or pietistic megalomania. The days of prophets and apostles, genuine agents of revelation, are past. Such claims today are spurious and exceedingly dangerous. To cloak one’s desires, hunches, or opinions in such claims is to make use of a godless form of persuasion. What does one say to the person who claims, “The Lord told me to do this?” To use such devices is to place oneself above criticism by bathing one’s opinions in divine sanction.
The Spirit of Revival by Archie Parrish, Introduction, Copyright 2000, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. p. 36-37.
It is important for us to make a distinction between the spiritual fruit of joy and the cultural concept of happiness. A Christian can have joy in his heart while there is still spiritual depression in his head. The joy that we have sustains us.
The Dark Night of the Soul, Tabletalk, March 2008, Used by Permission.
[Within the Holy Trinity] we see that in principle the notion of subordination does not carry with it the notion of inferiority… Christ willingly submitted to the Father, without a word of protest. It is precisely that willingness that we are called to imitate in submitting ourselves to authority.
The Intimate Marriage, P&R Publishing, 1975, p. 45.
All authority is under Christ. When we disobey lesser authorities, we are guilty of disobeying Christ. You cannot serve the King and honor His authority by rebelling against His appointed governors. To say you honor the kingdom of Christ while you disobey His authority structure is to be guilty not only of hypocrisy but of cosmic treason.
The Intimate Marriage, P&R, 2003, p. 41.
In America, we have a long history of valuing the concept of the separation of church and state. This idea historically referred to a division of labors between the church and the civil magistrate. However, initially both the church and the state were seen as entities ordained by God and subject to His governance. In that sense, the state was considered to be an entity that was “under God.” What has happened in the past few decades is the obfuscation of this original distinction between church and state, so that today the language we hear of separation of church and state, when carefully exegeted, communicates the idea of the separation of the state from God. In this sense, it’s not merely that the state declares independence from the church, it also declares independence from God and presumes itself to rule with autonomy.
Statism, September 2008, Tabletalk, p. 7. Used by Permission.
Creedal statements are an attempt to show a coherent and unified understanding of the whole scope of Scripture.
Norma Normata – A Rule That is Ruled, Tabletalk, April, 2008. Used by Permission.
If God is able to make everything that happens to us work together for our good, then ultimately everything that happens to us is good. We must be careful to use the word ultimately. On the earthly plane things that happen to us may indeed be evil… Yet God in His goodness transcends all these things and works them out to our good. For the Christian, ultimately, there are no tragedies.
Taken from: Essential Truths of the Christian Faith by R. C. Sproul, Copyright © 1992 (Sproul), p. 50, Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
To solve a marriage problem, you have to talk with each other about it, choosing wisely the time and place. But when accusations and lengthy speeches of defense fill the dialogue, the partners are not talking to each other but past each other. Take care to listen more than you speak. If you still can’t agree on a solution, consider asking a third party, without a vested interest, to mediate.
The Intimate Marriage, P&R Publishing, 1975, p. 68.
The first negative judgment we find in Holy Writ is a judgment on loneliness. God said, “It is not good for man to be alone.”
The Intimate Marriage, P&R Publishing, 1975, p. 43.
The union of believers is grounded in the mystical union of Christ and His Church. The Bible speaks of a two-way transaction that occurs when a person is regenerated. Every converted person becomes “in Christ” at the same time Christ enters into the believer. If I am in Christ and you are in Christ, and if He is in us, then we experience a profound unity in Christ.
Tabletalk, p. 7, June 2004, Ligonier Ministries, Used by Permission.
The visible church may be distressingly and sorely fractured and fragmented into all different kinds of denominations and groups, but the invisible church is the true body of Christ. Everyone who is in Christ, and in whom Christ dwells, is a member of this one universal church.
The Purpose of God, An Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 99.
The visible church refers to the institution called ‘the church’ that has visible participants whose names appear on the roll of a local congregation. In most churches anyone who makes an outward profession of faith (and meets other criteria for membership) is admitted to active fellowship in the visible church.
The Purpose of God, An Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 88.
The excuse that is banished, the excuse every pagan hopes in vain to use, the excuse that is exploded by God’s self-revelation in nature is the pretended, vacuous, dishonest appeal to ignorance. No one will be able to approach the judgment seat of God justly pleading, “If only I had known You existed, I would surely have served You.” That excuse is annihilated. No one can lightly claim “insufficient” evidence for not believing in God.
Classical Apologetics, Zondervan, 1984, p. 46, www.zondervan.com.
True faith will inevitably manifest itself in the performance of works of obedience… The performance of works are the result of faith and the fruit of justification.
The Purpose of God, An Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 56.
When we fail to observe the third commandment, when we fail to honor God as God, and use His name as a curse word, or in a flippant, careless manner, we fail to fulfill this first petition (of the Lord’s Prayer to “hallow” God’s name). Perhaps nothing is more commonplace in our culture than the expression that comes from people’s lips on many occasions, when they say simply, “Oh, my God.” This careless reference to God indicates how far removed our culture is from fulfilling the petition of the Lord’s Prayer. It should be a priority for the church and for every individual Christian to make sure that the way in which we speak of God is a way that communicates respect, awe, adoration, and reverence. How we use the name of God reveals more clearly than any creed we ever confess our deepest attitudes towards the God of the sacred name.
Our Father, Tabletalk magazine, June 2007, Used by Permission.
We are able to persevere only because God works within us, within our free wills. And because God is at work in us, we are certain to persevere. The decrees of God concerning election are immutable. They do not change, because He does not change. All whom He justifies He glorifies. None of the elect has ever been lost.
Chosen by God, Tyndale, 1986, p. 177.
It is important that when we are engaged in admonition or exhortation or confrontation with a brother who is overcome in sin, we call attention to the truth in an extraordinarily compassionate and tender and loving spirit.
The Purpose of God, An Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 107
It is as reasonable for preachers to warn against hell as it would be for a sentinel to warn of an approaching army or a weatherman an approaching tornado.
The Spirit of Revival by Archie Parrish, Introduction, Copyright 2000, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. p. 29.
It is the chief ministry of God the Holy Spirit to bring people to God the Son and apply His work to them. In a true outpouring of the Holy Spirit people are never led to a unitarianism of the Third Person of the Trinity. A preoccupation with the Holy Spirit without a view of Christ is not the desire of the Holy Spirit Himself.
The Spirit of Revival by Archie Parrish, Introduction, Copyright 2000, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. p. 30.
How desperately sad is the fact that the church is known by schism, not unity; ignorance, not knowledge; and indecisiveness rather than maturity. How it must break God’s heart to see us continue in such a poverty stricken condition in light of what He has done, stands ready to do, has the resources to accomplish, and has defined as our calling in Christ.
The Purpose of God, An Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 104
The Bible calls us to be like children in two specific ways: First, Jesus says that unless we approach the kingdom of God as little children, we will never enter it (Matthew 18:3). That is, we are to approach the kingdom of God with a simple, childlike trust in God. The second way in which the Scripture directs us to be children is, “In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults” (I Corinthians 14:20).
The Purpose of God, An Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 105.
It is possible to have a sound theology without having a sound life. But we cannot have a sound life without having a sound theology.
Taken from: Essential Truths of the Christian Faith by R. C. Sproul, Copyright © 1992 (Sproul), p. xxi, Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
For the soul of a person to be inflamed with passion for the living God, that person’s mind must first be informed about the character and will of God. There can be nothing in the heart that is not first in the mind. Though it is possible to have theology on the head without its piercing the soul, it cannot pierce the soul without first being grasped by the mind.
Taken from: Essential Truths of the Christian Faith by R. C. Sproul, Copyright © 1992 (Sproul), p. xx, Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
To announce to people indiscriminately that God loves them “unconditionally” (without carefully distinguishing among the distinctive types of divine love) is to promote a perilous false sense of security in the hearers.
Abundant Love, Tabletalk Magazine, May 2004, p. 7. Used by Permission.
It is axiomatic that to err is human and to forgive is divine. This axiom is so set in concrete that we assume that forgiveness is not merely a divine option, but a veritable prerequisite for divinity itself. We think that not only may God be forgiving, but He must be forgiving or He wouldn’t be a good God. How quick we are to forget the divine prerogative: “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion” (Rom. 9:15).
None Righteous, Tabletalk, April 2004, p. 6, Used by Permission.
The Father did not strip the Son of His eternal glory but the Son agreed to lay it aside temporarily for the sake of our salvation (Jn. 17:1-5).
The Blueprint of Redemption, Tabletalk, Feb. 2004, p. 7, Used by Permission.
Claims to special divine revelations are not so much a sign of super-spirituality as they are of evangelical or pietistic megalomania. The days of prophets and apostles, genuine agents of revelation, are past. Such claims today are spurious and exceedingly dangerous.
The Spirit of Revival by Archie Parrish, Introduction, Copyright 2000, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. p. 36-37.
God has made us with a harmony of heart and head, of thought and action… The more we know Him the more we are able to love Him. The more we love Him the more we seek to know Him. To be central in our hearts He must be foremost in our minds. Religious thought is the prerequisite to religious affection and obedient action.
Revival describes a renewal of spiritual life, while reformation describes a renewal of the forms and structures of society and culture. It is not possible to have true reformation without first having true revival. The renewal of spiritual life under the power of the Holy Spirit is a necessary condition for reformation but not a sufficient condition for it. Therefore, though it is not possible to have reformation without revival, it is possible to have revival without reformation.
The Spirit of Revival by Archie Parrish, Introduction, Copyright 2000, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org, p. 17.
Seeking God? We have totally revised corporate worship services to be sensitive to “seekers.” If worship were to be tailored for seekers, it would be directed exclusively to believers, for no one except believers ever seeks God (Rom. 3:9-12).
None Righteous, Tabletalk, April 2004, p. 7, Used by Permission.
In Romans 3, Paul makes abundantly clear that unconverted people do not seek after God… To the naked eye it may seem that unbelievers are searching for God or seeking for the kingdom of God, while they are in fact fleeing from God with all of their might… People who are unconverted seek the “benefits” that only God can give them, such as ultimate meaning and purpose in their lives, relief from guilt, the presence of joy and happiness, and things of this nature. These are benefits the Christian recognizes can only come through a vital, saving relationship with Christ.
Good Intentions Gone Bad, Tabletalk, October 2007, p. 6. Used by Permission of Ligonier Ministries.
Relativism says this: “truth is what you perceive it to be, and what is true for you may be false for somebody else.” In our present society, you’re perfectly free to believe whatever you like, but the one thing you may not do is to deny its antithesis. You can say, “I believe that this is true.” But you cannot say with impunity that that which opposes it is false. We have a whole generation of Christians who have been brainwashed by the spirit of relativism so they’re completely hesitant to say, “I deny that error over there.” We don’t have heresy trials anymore because, in relativism, there is no such thing as heresy.
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler, Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. 144.
The gratuitous leap of logic comes when church leaders think that because people are searching for benefits only God can give them, they must therefore be searching after God. No, they want the benefits without the Giver of the benefits. And so structuring worship to accommodate unbelievers is misguided because these unbelievers are not seeking after God. Seeking after God begins at conversion, and if we are to structure our worship with a view to seekers, then we must structure it for believers, since only believers are seekers.
Good Intentions Gone Bad, Tabletalk, October 2007, p. 6. Used by Permission of Ligonier Ministries.
One does not structure the church to meet the felt needs and desires of the tares. The purpose of corporate assembly, which has its roots in the Old Testament, is for the people of God to come together corporately to offer their sacrifices of praise and worship to God. So the first rule of worship is that it be designed for believers to worship God in a way that pleases God.
Good Intentions Gone Bad, Tabletalk, October 2007, p. 6. Used by Permission of Ligonier Ministries.
The modern movement of worship is designed to break down barriers between man and God, to remove the veil, as it were, from the fearsome holiness of God, which might cause us to tremble. It is designed to make us feel comfortable.
How Should We Then Worship? Tabletalk, January 2005, p. 7. Used by Permission.
The invisible church refers to those persons who are truly redeemed, truly regenerate and spiritually united with Christ. The invisible church is distinguished from the visible church because no man can read another person’s heart. We look on the outward appearance, but God alone can read the heart.
The Purpose of God, An Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 88.
If indeed Christ provided a propitiation and expiation for all human beings and for all their sins, then, clearly, all persons would be saved. Universal atonement, if it is actual, and not merely potential, means universal salvation. However, the overwhelming majority of Christians who reject limited atonement also reject universal salvation. They are particularists, not universalists.
Biblical Scholasticism, Tabletalk, Oct. 2004, p. 6, Used by Permission.
[People often say], “Christ’s atonement was sufficient for all, but efficient only for some.” What does this mean? The Calvinist would interpret this axiom to mean that the value of Christ’s sacrifice is so high, His merit so extensive, that its worth is equal to cover all the sins of the human race. But the atonement’s benefits are only effective for believer’s, the elect. The non-Calvinistic interprets this axiom in slightly different terms: Christ’s atonement was good enough to save everyone – and was intended to make salvation possible for everyone. But that intent is realized only by believers. The atonement is efficient [or “works”] only for those who receive its benefits by faith.
Biblical Scholasticism, Tabletalk, Oct. 2004, p. 7, Used by Permission.
The real issue was the design, or purpose, of God’s plan in laying upon His Son the burden of the Cross. Was it God’s purpose simply to make salvation possible for all but certain for none? Did God have to wait to see if any would respond to Christ to make His atonement efficient? Was it theoretically possible that Jesus would die “for all” yet never see the fruit of His travail and be satisfied? Or was it God’s eternal purpose and design of the Cross to make salvation certain for His elect? Was there a special sense in which Christ died for His own, for the sheep the Father had given Him?
Biblical Scholasticism, Tabletalk, Oct. 2004, p. 7, Used by Permission.
In the Old Testament the idea of ascending was linked to two activities. First, it described drawing near to the presence of God. The Tabernacle was set on a hill and people went up to it. Later, the Temple was built on a mountain in Jerusalem and there is a section in the Book of Psalms, called the Psalms of Ascent (120-134), which describe the worshippers’ approach to the Temple at the festival periods of Israel. So Jesus, when He ascended, entered God’s presence.
The Purpose of God, An Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 102.
One of the most difficult things to admit or to understand is that there is probably nothing that a man wants more from his wife than her admiration. There is probably nothing that a woman wants more from her husband than his attention, taking her seriously and treating her with the greatest dignity. Here what we are getting at is the question of respect. If I exercise my headship over my wife in a tyrannical way, I am not respecting my wife. If my wife gives slavish obedience to me without any love, she is not respecting me. The whole basis of the relationship is built upon love, cherishing and respecting one another.
The Purpose of God, An Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 139.
Man and woman are one in essence. That is to say, Adam and Eve are equal in dignity, value, and glory. In essential unity there is absolutely no room for inferiority of person. The man and woman are equal in every respect except one – authority. Two different tasks are given to people of equal value and dignity. In the economy of marriage, only the job descriptions are different.
The Intimate Marriage, P&R Publishing, 1975, p. 44.
Rebirth or regeneration is monergistic, not synergistic. It is done by God and by God alone. A dead man cannot cooperate with his resurrection. Lazarus did not cooperate in his resurrection. Regeneration is a sovereign act of God in which man plays no role. After God brings us to life, of course, we certainly are involved in “cooperating” with Him. We are to believe, trust, obey, and work for Him. But unless God acts first, we will never be reborn in the first place. We must also realize it is not as if dead people have faith, and because of their faith God agrees to regenerate them. Rather, it is because God has regenerated us and given us new life that we have faith.
Tabletalk, 1989. Used by Permission.
Our natural prejudgment of reality is against God. To receive the truth of God requires that our “anti” bias be changed. The key work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration is not giving new knowledge to the brain but changing the disposition of the heart. Before the Spirit turns that heart of stone into a heart of flesh, we have no desire for the things of God. We may desire the blessings that only God can give us, but we have no affection for the things of God. At the moment of regeneration, the eyes of the heart are opened somewhat, but this is just the beginning. The whole Christian life involves an unfolding and enlarging of the heart’s openness to the things of God.
The Purpose of God, An Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 40.
1. Regeneration is the divine work of God the Holy Spirit upon the minds and souls of fallen people, by which the Spirit quickens those who are spiritually dead and makes them spiritually alive. This supernatural work rescues that person from his bondage to sin and his moral inability to incline himself towards the things of God. Regeneration, by being a supernatural work, is obviously a work that cannot be accomplished by natural man on his own. If it were a natural work, it would not require the intervention of God the Holy Spirit.
2. Regeneration is a monergistic work. “Monergistic” means that it is the work of one person who exercises his power. In the case of regeneration, it is God alone who is able, and it is God alone who performs the work of regenerating the human soul. The work of regeneration is not a joint venture between the fallen person and the divine Spirit; it is solely the work of God.
3. The monergistic work of regeneration by the Holy Spirit is an immediate work. It is immediate with respect to time, and it is immediate with respect to the principle of operating without intervening means. The Holy Spirit does not use something apart from His own power to bring a person from spiritual death to spiritual life, and when that work is accomplished, it is accomplished instantaneously. No one is partly regenerate, or almost regenerate. Here we have a classic either/or situation. A person is either born again, or he is not born again. There is no nine-month gestation period with respect to this birth. When the Spirit changes the disposition of the human soul, He does it instantly. A person may not be aware of this internal work accomplished by God for some time after it has actually occurred. But though our awareness of it may be gradual, the action of it is instantaneous.
4. The work of regeneration is effectual. That is, when the Holy Spirit regenerates a human soul, the purpose of that regeneration is to bring that person to saving faith in Jesus Christ. That purpose is effected and accomplished as God purposes in the intervention. Regeneration is more than giving a person the possibility of having faith, it gives him the certainty of possessing that saving faith.
5. Regeneration is a gift that God disposes sovereignly to all of those whom He determines to bring into His family.
The New Birth, Tabletalk, March 2007, p. 6-7. Used by Permission of Ligonier Ministries.
The fall left the human will intact insofar as we still have the faculty of choosing. Our minds have been darkened by sin and our desires bound by the wicked impulses. But we can still think, choose and act. Yet something terrible has happened to us. We have lost all desire for God. The thoughts and desires of our heart are only evil continuously. The freedom of our will is a curse. Because we can still choose according to our desires, we choose to sin and thus we become accountable to the judgment of God.
What is meant by the concept of total depravity is not that man is wicked as he could possibly be. Bad as we are, we can still conceive of ourselves doing worse things than we do. Rather, it means that sin has such a hold upon us in our natural state, that we never have a positive desire for Christ.
The Purpose of God, An Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 48.
Your task, O preacher, is to make sure that you are faithful to the text, that you are faithful to the proclamation of that gospel, that you are faithful to set forth the whole counsel of God, and then step back and let it happen.
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler, Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. 159.
There cannot be only one Mediator between man and God. There must be many according to pluralists today. It is equally a truism among pluralists that if there is one way to God, there must be many ways to God, and certainly it cannot be accepted that there is only one way. The exclusive claims of Christianity in terms of God, in terms of Christ, in terms of salvation, cannot live in peaceful coexistence with pluralists.
Twilight of the Idols, Tabletalk, June 2008, p. 6, Used by Permission.
Built into our law system is the idea of the equal toleration under the law of all religions. It is a short step in people’s thinking from equal toleration under the law to equal validity. The principle that all religions should be treated equally under the law and have equal rights does not carry with it the necessary inference that therefore all religions are valid. Even a cursory, comparative examination of the world’s religions reveals points of radical contradiction among them, and unless one is prepared to affirm the equal truth of contradictories, one must not be able to embrace this fallacious assumption.
Twilight of the Idols, Tabletalk, June 2008, p. 7, Used by Permission.
Indeed, it’s a misnomer to call [pluralism] a system, because it is the idea of a consistent, coherent view of truth that is unacceptable to the pluralist.
Twilight of the Idols, Tabletalk, June 2008, p. 7, Used by Permission.
The first thing to understand about anger is that it isn’t always a bad thing. Many people, especially Christians, have the mistaken notion that anger is intrinsically evil. As a result, they feel needless guilt. The idea that a Christian is never allowed to be angry is a demonic myth that tends to produce neurotic anxiety. I’ve had to struggle with this myth nearly all my life.
The Intimate Marriage, P&R Publishing, 1975, p. 71.
If you are of the truth, if you have learned the truth, if you see the sanctity of the truth, then speak truth. We are not called to be deceivers or liars. God is a God of truth, and His people are called to have an enormously high standard of truth.
The Purpose of God, An Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 114.
Perhaps the most difficult task for us to perform is to rely on God’s grace and God’s grace alone for our salvation. It is difficult for our pride to rest on grace. Grace is for other people – for beggars. We don’t want to live by a heavenly welfare system. We want to earn our own way and atone for our own sins. We like to think that we will go to heaven because we deserve to be there.
Suffering and Merit? Tabletalk Magazine, Ligonier Ministries, 1989, p. 5. Used by Permission.
When a person becomes a Christian and has authentic faith, he has a real mystical union with Christ, so that Christ really comes to indwell the believer. When we exercise faith in Jesus Christ, His righteousness is counted towards us and we are justified. At that same moment, Christ, by virtue of the Holy Spirit, comes to dwell inside of us.
The Purpose of God, An Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 85.
Perhaps the reason you feel guilty is because you are guilty. The answer to your guilt problem is not rationalization or self-justification, but forgiveness. The price of forgiveness is repentance. Without it there is no forgiveness and no relief from the reality of guilt.
The Intimate Marriage, P&R Publishing, 1975, p. 127.
The biblical union of two people into one flesh did not involve the annihilation of personal identity. The unity of marriage is not to be monistic but a unity in duality.
The Intimate Marriage, P&R Publishing, 1975, p. 31.
Jim Boice had all the academic credentials a person could ever want to go to the top of the ladder in the academic world, but that was not his call. His call was to be a pastor. For over thirty years he broke open the Word of God in his preaching, in his teaching, and in his writings. Fidelity to Scripture is what drove him, and a more courageous Christian I have never met.