Quote 696
Let me tell you something, if you could lose your salvation, you would.
John MacArthur
Shepherds Conference 20122.7K
Other Quotes from the Author & Topic
Salvation cannot be accomplished by a bath. John 4:2 says Jesus baptized no one. If baptism were a condition of salvation, He would have been baptizing people; after all, He came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10).The Gospel According to Jesus 3e(54)
We should not be entertained by the sins for which Christ died.
The true gospel is a call to self-denial. It is not a call to self-fulfillment.
It is hard to see how a doctrine which assures the believer of a perseverance in holiness can be an incentive for sin. It would seem that the certainty of success in the active striving for sanctification would be the best possible stimulus to ever greater exertion.Systematic Theology, Chapter XI
Salvation always results because God first pursues sinners, not because sinners first seek God.Gospel According to Jesus 3e(86)
if it was considered an honor to be the slave of one of the Caesars, it is infinitely more so to be the slave of ChristSlave (97)
Children are born sinful, and that sinfulness manifests itself not because of what parents do, but because of what they don't do.
the proof or validation of genuine conversion is that the one who professes faith in Christ perseveres in that faith and grows in sanctification throughout the full course of his life. If a person professes faith in Christ and yet falls away or makes no progress in godliness, it does not mean that he has lost his salvation. It reveals that he was never truly converted.
For the faithful, Spirit-filled Christian, every place becomes a place of prayer.
Sixteen of the thirty-eight parables of Jesus deal with money. One out of ten verses in the New Testament deals with that subject. Scripture offers about five hundred verses on prayer, fewer than five hundred on faith, and over two thousand on money. The believer's attitude toward money and possessions is determinative.
A true Christian does not see God's promise of forgiveness as a license to sin, a way to abuse His love and presume on His grace. Rather, he sees God's gracious forgiveness as the means to spiritual growth and sanctification. He continually thanks God for His great love and willingness to forgive.
If I could simplify the Christian life to one thing, it would be obedience.
It wasn't a potential atonement actuated by the sinner, it was an actual atonement initiated by the savior.
The cross is proof of both the immense love of God and the profound wickedness of sin.
Scripture does what psychoanalysis can't do-it pierces the heart, penetrates deep into the soul and judges the motives. To see yourself in the light of Scripture, is to see yourself as you really are.
Prayer is not an attempt to get God to agree with you or provide for your selfish desires, but that it is both an affirmation of His sovereignty, righteousness, and majesty and an exercise to conform your desires and purposes to His will and Glory
You can't confuse childlike faith with childish thinking.
Why is discipline important? Discipline teaches us to operate by principle rather than desire. Saying no to our impulses (even the ones that are not inherently sinful) puts us in control of our appetites rather than vice versa. It deposes our lust and permits truth, virtue, and integrity to rule our minds instead.
remember that our salvation goes back even before the beginning of our faith, into eternity past. Salvation begins in election. This is an even more ultimate reason why we will persevere. In chapter 11, I quoted Romans 8 at some length. Note there how the apostle Paul connects election and perseverance. Paul sees a golden chain: from God's foreknowledge and predestination in eternity past, to calling and justification, to glorification. Those who are predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ cannot fail to be glorified. So we hear the language of perseverance.Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Kindle Locations 25705-25709). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.
other passages put the point even more strongly: we have eternal life here and now, not only in the future: "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him" (John 3:36 ); "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life" (John 5:24);Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Kindle Locations 25705-25709). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Notice also John 10:27-29: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." Nobody can snatch a believer out of God's hand. These verses speak of eternal life in the future for those who believe today.Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Kindle Locations 25705-25709). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.
It is maintained that the life of regeneration and the habits that develop out of it in the way of sanctification can never entirely dissapearSystematic Theology, Chapter XI
God does, indeed, by his grace and through his Spirit, work to preserve his people so that they will be vindicated in the judgment; but, at the same time, God's people are responsible to persevere in their faith if they expect to see that vindicationThe letters to the Colossians and to Philemon (p. 144). Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.
Perseverance may be defined as that continuous operation of the Holy Spirit in the believer, by which the work of divine grace that is begun in the heart is continued and brought to completion. It is because God never forsakes His work that believers continue to stand to the very end.Systematic Theology, 546.
Those believers who spend their lives in temporal and worthless pursuits should expect minimal reward from Christ.slave 184
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