Quote 1998
15.6K
Other Quotes from the Author & Topic
Worship is no longer worship when it reflects the culture around us more than the Christ within us.
There is a very evident tendency to stress the fact that the Church is a great missionary agency, and to forget that it is first of all the assembly of the saints, in which those who publicly live in sin cannot be tolerated. It is said that sinners must be gathered into the church, and not excluded from it. But it should be remembered that they must be gathered in as saints and have no legitimate place in the Church as long as they do not confess their sin and strive for holiness of life.Systematic Theology, 601
The church is live a river. If it gets wider instead of deeper it will lose its power.
The man who continues in his rejection of Christ has a pet sin somewhere.
The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints. Unknown
We do not deny that the church has many functions in relation to the Scriptures. She is: (1) the keeper of the oracles of God to whom they are committed and who preserves the authentic tables of the covenant of grace with the greatest fidelity, like a notary (Rom. 3:2); (2) the guide, to point out the Scriptures and lead us to them (Is. 30:21); (3) the defender, to vindicate and defend them by separating the genuine books from the spurious, in which sense she may be called the ground of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15*); (4) the herald who sets forth and promulgates them (2 Cor. 5:19; Rom. 10:16); (5) the interpreter inquiring into the unfolding of the true sense. But all these imply a ministerial only and not a magisterial power.
The church is not a theological classroom. It is a conversion, confession, repentance, reconciliation, forgiveness and sanctification center, where flawed people place their faith in Christ, gather to know and love him better, and learn to love others as he designed.
When the church is absolutely different from the world, she invariably attracts it. It is then that the world is made to listen to her message, though it may hate it at first.
Christians do not stand isolated, each holding his own creed. They constitute one body, having one common creed. Rejecting that creed, or any of its parts, is the rejection of the fellowship of Christians, incompatible with the communion of saints, or membership in the body of Christ. In other words, Protestants admit that there is a common faith of the Church, which no man is at liberty to reject, and which no man can reject and be a Christian.
Certainly when we undervalue mercy, especially so great a one as the communion of saints is, commonly the Lord takes it away from us till we learn to prize it to the full value. Consider well therefore the heinousness of this sin, which that you may the better conceive. First, consider it is against God's express precept, charging us not to forsake the assemblies of the saints (Heb. 10:20, 25). Again, it is against our own greatest good and spiritual solace, for by discommunicating and excommunicating ourselves from that blessed society, we deprive ourselves of the benefit of their holy conference, their godly instructions, their divine consolations, brotherly admonitions, and charitable reprehensions, and what an inestimable loss is this? Neither can we partake such profit by their prayers as otherwise we might, for as the soul in the natural body conveys life and strength to every member, as they are compacted and joined together and not as dissevered, so Christ conveys spiritual life and vigor to Christians, not as they are disjoined from but as they are united to the mystical body, the church.
The church of Christ is a common hospital wherein all are in some measure sick of some spiritual disease or other, that we should all have ground of exercising mutually the spirit of wisdom and meekness.
There are two great ends why Christ did institute a particular church, and they were to express the two great graces and duties that He requires of us. The first end was that his saints together might jointly profess their faith in Him and obedience to Him. And we have no other way of doing it: He hath tied us up to this... The next great end was that we might have a direct exercise of His other great command and of that other great duty, of love to believers.
The church is the garden of God, the doctrine is the flowers of this garden, discipline is the hedge.
A church is a company of those who are called (and this call must be answered or else it is nothing) to the visible profession of faith in Christ and obedience unto Christ, according to the gospel.
For the church is a company of men that are called (1 Cor. 1:24; 10:32), both Jews and Greeks, to the Jews, to the Greeks, and to the church of God. But because the end of calling is faith, and the work of faith is engrafting into Christ, and this union with Christ does bring with it communion with Christ. Hence it is defined, in the very same sense, a company of believers, a company of those who are in Christ, a company of those that have communion with Christ.
The word ekklesia simply means "assembly" -a group of people gathered for secular or religious purposes.Expository Exultation, 40
It is no sin to doubt some things but it may be fatal to believe everything.
We can be in our day what the heroes of faith were in their day - but remember at the time they didn't know they were heroes.
We might be wise to follow the insight of the enraptured heart rather than the more cautious reasoning of the theological mind.
What we think about when we are free to think about what we will – that is what we are or will soon become.
The man who would truly know God must give time to Him.
O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, 'Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.' Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long.
Sometimes I go to God and say, "God, if Thou dost never answer another prayer while I live on this earth, I will still worship Thee as long as I live and in the ages to come for what Thou hast done already. God's already put me so far in debt that if I were to live one million millenniums I couldn't pay Him for what He's done for me.
I can safely say, on the authority of all that is revealed in the Word of God, that any man or woman on this earth who is bored and turned off by worship is not ready for heaven.
God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which He must work. Only to know this is to quiet our spirits and relax our nerves.
Special OfferTop Authors
1. Thomas Watson (142)
2. Charles Spurgeon (134)
3. J.C. Ryle (117)
4. John Calvin (107)
5. J.I. Packer (92)
6. John Piper (87)
7. George Swinnock (78)
8. A.W. Pink (68)
9. John Flavel (66)
10. Louis Berkhof (63)
11. C.S. Lewis (59)
12. John Owen (59)
13. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (58)
14. B.B. Warfield (58)
15. R.C. Sproul (55)
16. Thomas Manton (53)
17. Heinrich Bullinger (53)
18. Thomas Brooks (52)
19. Matthew Henry (51)
20. Gerald Bray (50)
2. Charles Spurgeon (134)
3. J.C. Ryle (117)
4. John Calvin (107)
5. J.I. Packer (92)
6. John Piper (87)
7. George Swinnock (78)
8. A.W. Pink (68)
9. John Flavel (66)
10. Louis Berkhof (63)
11. C.S. Lewis (59)
12. John Owen (59)
13. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (58)
14. B.B. Warfield (58)
15. R.C. Sproul (55)
16. Thomas Manton (53)
17. Heinrich Bullinger (53)
18. Thomas Brooks (52)
19. Matthew Henry (51)
20. Gerald Bray (50)
Top Topics
1. Sin (213)2. Scripture (152)
3. Prayer (139)
4. Faith (120)
5. Preaching (119)
6. The Law (106)
7. Gospel (104)
8. Suffering (99)
9. Salvation (91)
10. Sabbath (88)
11. Church (83)
12. Christ (82)
13. Law (61)
14. Grace (59)
15. Justification (55)
16. Truth (53)
17. Love (46)
18. Children (43)
19. Creation (43)
20. Theology (43)
21. Ten Commandments (42)
22. Heaven (39)
23. Obedience (39)
24. Sanctification (39)
25. Worship (39)
26. Fear (38)