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Here’s How to Make Sure You Still See Monergism Books Posts After Facebook Changes the Newsfeed

As many of you know, Facebook has announced that it will soon be changing its algorithms so that you mainly see posts from the users' friends and family, and downgrading some other content from visibility. We understand that even pages that users voluntarily follow may have their content downranked on users newsfeeds. We are not sure yet how this will affect Monergism Books and other ministries but it may make it harder for users to see content from pages you follow — here's how to ensure you continue see posts from Monergism (and others) on your newsfeed:

1) On your newsfeed page, click the drop-down arrow (iPhone) on the toolbar near the notification button at the top of the page. (Note: On Android It is not an arrow but three sold lines)

2) Click on “News Feed Preferences”: (On Android you need to scroll quite a ways down, but it is there)

3) This will display a preferences page, select “Prioritize who to see first”:

On the Right Use of the Law

by J. Gresham Machen

“The truth of Christianity cannot be established by the intellect unless an important part of the argument is based upon the fact of sin which is revealed by the law of God; the beauty of Jesus, which attracts the gaze of men, cannot be appreciated without a knowledge of the holiness upon which it is based; the companionship of Jesus is possible only to those who say first, in deep contrition; “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord”; the example of Jesus is powerless to those who are in the bondage of evil habit, and it is not even a perfect example unless He be the divine Redeemer that He claimed to be. The true schoolmaster to bring men to Christ is found, therefore, now and always in the law of God— the law of God that gives to men the consciousness of sin.

A new and more powerful proclamation of that law is perhaps the most pressing need of the hour; men would have little difficulty with the gospel if they had only learned the lesson of the law. As it is, they are turning aside from the Christian pathway; they are turning to the village of Morality, and to the house of Mr. Legality, who is reported to be very skillful in relieving men of their burdens. Mr. Legality has indeed in our day disguised himself somewhat, but he is the same deceiver as the one of whom Bunyan wrote.

“Making Christ Master” in the life, putting into practice “the principles of Christ” by one’s own efforts these are merely new ways of earning salvation by one’s own obedience to God’s commands. And they are undertaken because of a lax view of what those commands are. So it always is: a low view of law always brings legalism in religion; a high view of law makes a man a seeker after grace.

(J. Gresham Machen, What Is Faith?, p. 141-142)

John Owen on the Holy Spirit

John Owen is among the theologians whose thoughts most closely mirror my own and, apart from the Scriptures themselves, this particular book of his could be called the manifesto of the theology that drives Monergism.com. I can only agree with Sinclair Ferguson when he says, "Whenever I return to read Owen I find myself at least in part wondering why I spend time reading lesser things." I would unhesitatingly put this book up there among Christian classics, and, probably, at least in my opinion, is one of the top ten Christian books ever written. This book will magnify your understanding of the Holy Scriptures and its divine author and make you wonder what ever happened to all the churches who preached from this perspective. Here are among my favorite quotes from the books' abridged edition ...

"To say that we are able by our own efforts to think good thoughts or give God spiritual obedience before we are spiritually regenerate is to overthrow the gospel and the faith of the universal church in all ages."

All men can be divided into two groups. They are either regenerate or unregenerate. All men are born unregenerate (John 3:3-8). ...Spiritual darkness is in all men and lies on all men until God, by an almighty work of the Spirit, shines into men"s hearts, or creates light in them (Matt 4:16; John 1:5; Act 26:18; Eph 5:8; Col 1:13; 1 Pet 2:9). ...The nature of this spiritual darkness must be understood. When men have no light to see by, then they are in darkness (Exod. 10:23). Blind men are in darkness, either by birth or by illness or accident (Psa. 69:23; Gen 19:11; Acts 13:11). A spiritually blind man is in spiritual darkness and is ignorant of spiritual things.

There is an outward darkness on men and an inward darkness in men.

Why is saving grace not bestowed upon all?

QUESTION. Why is saving grace not bestowed upon all?

ANSWER. We must hold with Zanchius that there is always a just reason for God's will. But in particular I answer:

God gives grace to one and denies it to another—to show His sovereignty. God is not bound to give grace to all. Romans 9:15: "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy." Suppose two malefactors were brought before the king; one he will pardon—but not the other. If any demands the reason, he will answer, "It is my prerogative." So God will give grace to one and not to another. He will make one a vessel of mercy, the other a vessel of wrath—and this is His prerogative. The apostle has silenced all disputes in this kind in Romans 9:20-21: "But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?' Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?" If we could suppose a plant to speak, it might ask, "Why was not I made a bird or an animal? Why should I not have the ability to reason?" Just so it is when vain man enters into contest with God and demands, "Why should not I have grace as well as another?" Do not dispute against God's sovereignty; let not the clay contend with the almighty Potter.

God may justly deny His grace to any wicked man, because once he had grace and lost it. If a father gave his son stock to trade with and the son loses it, the father is not bound to set him up again. God gave Adam a stock of grace to begin the world with. Adam lost it and made all his children bankrupt. And God is not obliged to give him grace again.

The Time is Short

by Thomas Watson

A sermon preached July 2, 1676, at the funeral of Pastor John Wells

"But this I say, brethren, the time is short." 1 Corinthians 7:29

The blessed Apostle in these words shows us what our station in the world is, and what all our secular enjoyments are. They are short and transient. "But this I say, brethren, the time is short." The text consists of two parts:

1. A kind address—"Brethren."

2. A seasonable admonition—"The time is short."

1. A kind address—"Brethren." The saints of God are brethren. They are cemented together with the blood of Christ. Then let there be no strife among them, seeing they are brethren (Genesis 13:8). Believers are regenerated by the same Spirit; they suck the same breasts—the promises; and wear the same garment—Christ's righteousness. They sit at the same board—the table of the Lord; and partake of the same glory—the inheritance in light (Colossians 1:12). Should they not love one another? There ought to be no contending among God's people—but as to who would love most.

Satan foments discord and warms himself at the fire of men's passions. If he cannot divide the spiritual members from their Head, he will endeavor to make them smite one against another. If he cannot keep the saints from heaven, he will endeavor to make them fight with one another along the way.

It was ill for Abraham's herdsmen and Lot's to fight with one another, when the Canaanite was in the land (Genesis 13:7). It is an ill time for mariners to be fighting, when the enemy is boring a hole in the bottom of the ship. Take heed that the popish enemy does not enter at your breaches.

Those by persistence in doing good ... He will give eternal life?

God “...will repay each person according to what they have done.” To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism. - Rom 2:6-11
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An Essential Mark of a Sound Conversion

by Joseph Alleine

We turn from our own RIGHTEOUSNESS. Before conversion, man seeks to cover himself with his own fig-leaves, and to make himself acceptable with God, by his own duties. He is apt to trust in himself, and set up his own righteousness, and to reckon his pennies for gold, and not to submit to the righteousness of God. But conversion changes his mind; now he counts his own righteousness as filthy rags. He casts it off, as a man would the verminous tatters of a nasty beggar. Now he is brought to poverty of spirit, complains of and condemns himself; and all his inventory is, 'I am poor, and miserable, and wretched, and blind, and naked!' [Rev 3:17]. He sees a world of iniquity in his holy things, and calls his once-idolized righteousness but filth and loss; and would not for a thousand worlds be found in it!

Now he begins to set a high price upon Christ's righteousness. He sees the need of Christ in every duty, to justify his person and sanctify his performances; he cannot live without Him; he cannot pray without Him. Christ must go with him, or else he cannot come into the presence of God; he leans upon Christ, and so bows himself in the house of his God. He sets himself down for a lost undone man without Him; his life is hid in Christ, as the root of a tree spreads in the earth for stability and nourishment. Before, the gospel of Christ was a stale and tasteless thing; but now—how sweet is Christ! Augustine could not relish his once-admired Cicero, because he could not find in his writings the name of Christ.

A Concise Exegetical Defense of "Particular Redemption" in the Book of John

by John Hendryx

From the beginning to the end of John's Gospel, Jesus has a definitive train of thought regarding whom He came to save. In John 6 (for example) during a discussion about faith with some Jews, Jesus declared, "All that the Father gives me will come to me" (John 6:37) - From this text we understand that all the people that the Father gives to the Son will come to faith in him. It does not read "some" of those given by the Father will come to faith but instead reads "all" those the Father has given the Son will come to faith in Him. Note that it also teaches that the giving to the Son precedes their believing in Him. (also see John 6:63, 65)

Lets make some other connections with this phrase from another part of the Gospel of John:

Why Did Jesus Christ Come to Earth?

by B. B. Warfield

“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” 1 Timothy 1:15

Christ Jesus came to save sinners.

Not, then, merely to prepare salvation for them; to open to them a pathway to salvation; to remove the obstacles in the way of their salvation; to proclaim as a teacher a way of salvation; to introduce as a ruler conditions of life in which clean living becomes for the first time possible; to bring motives to holy action to bear upon us; to break down our enmity to God by an exhibition of His seeking love; to manifest to us what sin is in the sight of God, and how He will visit it with His displeasure. All these things He undoubtedly does. But all these things together touch but the circumference of His work for man. Under no interpretation of the nature or reach of His work can it be truly said that Christ Jesus came to do these things. For that we must penetrate deeper, and say with the primitive Church, in this faithful saying commended to us by the apostle, that Christ Jesus came to save sinners.

Our True Condition Before God

by John Calvin

"Man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God's majesty." - John Calvin

In the following section in Institutes, Calvin lays bare the true condition of our hearts in light of the majesty and holiness of God. He says:

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