The following are some resources that were posted this week that many might find edifying and useful for their studies.
No One Seeks God – Romans 3:9-20 Dr. Timothy Keller
Look to Christ, Not to Self by C. H. Spurgeon
Diligent in Studying the Scriptures by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Amillennialism (Audio/MP3) by Dr. Kim Riddlebarger (interview)
The Distinction Between God’s Punishment and God’s Discipline by A. W. Pink
Boast Not in Your Graces by C. H. Spurgeon
In Christ Jesus by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Why Is Faith Required? by Thomas Manton
A True Understanding of Sin by J. C. Ryle
God’s Unspeakable Love by Thomas Manton
What Is the Gospel Message? by J. I. Packer
God and Natural Disasters by Jerry Bridges
Free from the Fear of Judgment - 1 John 4:18 by David Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981)
Let Him Who Boasts, Boast in the Lord – 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 by Charles Hodge
Irresistible Grace by John Murray
Preaching the Gospel to a Culture Consumed with Self-Love by Dr. John MacArthur
Signs of Backsliding Churches - essay by Joel Beeke
Quotes:
Only God can give you a heart to understand, eyes to see, and ears to hear so that you might love God and live (Deut 29:4, 30:6)
All have gone astray. No one believes the gospel. (Rom 3:11; Jn 5:40, 6:65) Yet God still has mercy on a multitude of ill-deserving sinners that no man can count. "...even when we were dead in our trespasses, [He] made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved." (Eph 2:5) Jesus not only justifies all that come to faith but quickens them from the death of sin in order to to bring them to faith. His salvation is complete.
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep ... you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. (John 10:11, 26-27)
Faith is contrasted with works because it points to the work of another ... but we foolishly make it into a work when we refuse to acknowledge that the wisdom and heart for faith comes from God, and so point back to ourselves. (Eph 2:8,9; 1 Cor 1:29,30; 3:7; 4:7; Gal 6:14)
Is unbelief a sin? If so faith is something we do that pleases God (Heb 11:6) and not MERELY some neutral act like like receiving or rejecting a gift of a trinket. Faith springs forth from a moral disposition of our heart. The only people who believe are those who see the truth beauty and excellency of Jesus Christ ... and only those with a renewed heart (not those with a heart of stone) will do so.
Anyone who confesses the biblical doctrine of salvation by grace alone sees other people's sin in light of their own. They recognize that "but by the grace of God, there I go." It is grace alone which saved us and grace which preserves us. Such a view makes certain that we cannot be like the unforgiving servant who goes out and "chokes" their fellow man (Matt. 18:21-35), when our own [forgiven] debt far exceeds theirs. When we understand grace like this, we can say with conviction that "my sin certainly outweighs that of the most sinners", so in light of God's grace, we only hold out the gospel to them in full awareness of our own sin and weakness. That is what it means to first take the log out of your own eye.
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"As to [salvation's] origin, it is of God. Of him ye are in Christ Jesus [1 Cor 1:29]. . .Your conversion or saving union with Christ is not due to yourselves; it is not because you are wiser, or better, or more diligent than others that you are thus distinguished. This which is the turning point in theology, and therefore in religion, is here most explicitly asserted. And it is not only asserted, but it is declared to be the purpose of God to make it apparent, and to force all men to acknowledge it. He so dispenses his grace as to make men see with regard to others, and to acknowledge with regard to themselves, that the fact that they are in Christ, or true Christians, is due to him and not to themselves." - Charles Hodge