What is God Without Truth?

“What is God without truth? And what is all the goodness of the goepel without truth? And what is all the fabric of man’s salvation without truth?  Truth is, as it were, the pin, the clasp, the knot that ties all.  Pull out that, untie and break that, the excellencies of God, the glories of Christ, the sweetness of the promises, the souls of men, the salvation of men’s souls, all are dashed, are broken, are gone.  And such work heresy makes.  It dissolves the bond of all glory, yea, it resolves God into worse than nothing.  No God is better than a false god.  There is an open or secret blasphemy in all heresies.  No man can condemn the Truth of God, but it that he must likewise condemn the God of Truth.”

Obadiah Sedgwick, from his “The Doubting Believer”, P192

Pride

“Men are proud of everything.  All natural excellencies, acquired endowments, and external enjoyments are fuel to pride.  Men are proud of their duties and graces, yea, proud of their sins too.  They are proud of the mercies that God bestows on them, and proud of the afflictions that they have or have had.  Pride is deeply rooted in the heart of man; and hence it is that he is so addicted to seek salvation by his own righteousness…Proud man would rather be the author of his own happiness than to have it in a way of free gift.”

-Solomon Stoddard, Ibid, P.174-175

Holy Inclinations

“God works all holy inclinations in the will by convincing us, and making us believe those truths that are the grounds of them.  We believe and love, believe and repent, believe and fear, believe and submit, believe and so venture on Christ.  God convinces us of the truth of the gospel, that there is sufficient righteousness for us in Christ, and so we come to Him.”

-Solomon Stoddard, From his ‘The Safety of Appearing on the Day of Judgment in the Righteousness of Christ”, P.6-7

God’s Sovereignty

“The doctrine of the sovereignty of God is derogatory to the pride of man; it lays all his high notions of independence in the dust, and reduces him, when acknowledged, to a sense of his utter helplessness and misery.   Happy, nevertheless, are they who have learned this lesson, for it is one which flesh and blood cannot teach, but only our Father which is in heaven. 

-Robert Haldane, from his commentary on Romans,P.498

The Cross

“Thus the glory of Heaven revolves around the cross, and every object on which the eye lights in the celestial city will remind us of the cross and carry us back to Golgotha.  Never shall we get beyond it, or turn our backs on it, or cease to draw from it the divine truth which it contains.”

_ Horatius Bonar, From “Not What My Hands Have Done”, P.53

Bend Your Mind

“Could men once be brought to believe that it is better to have their minds bend to the crook in their lot than to force the crook to their minds, they would be in a fair way to bring their matters to a good account.

-Thomas Boston, From his “The Crook in the Lot”, P.68

Eternal Joy

“The completeness of the sacrificial work on Calvary will be matter for eternal contemplation and rejoicing long after every sin has been, by its cleansing efficacy, washed out of our being forever.”

-Horatius Bonar, From “Not What My Hands Have Done”, P.53

Our Love and Trust

“God is jealous of two things; of our love, and of our trust.  He is jealous of our love, lest we love the creature more than Him, therefore He makes it prove bitter; and of our trust, lest we should place more confidence in it than in Him, therefore He makes it  prove unfaithful.  Outward comforts are given us as food  by the way to refresh us, not as crutches to lean on.  If we make the creature an idol, what we make our trust, God will make our shame. 

-Thomas Watson, from his Body of Divinity, P.68

Faith

“Faith is the firm assent of the soul to the divine revelation and every part of it, and sets to its seal that God is true.

-Matthew Henry, from his commentary, P.2397

Infinite Goodness

“Infinite Goodness, rightly apprehended, would dull our desires after other things and sharpen them with a keener edge after that which is best of all.”

-Stephen Charnock, From his The Existence and Attributes of God, P.351

Trial by Fire

“Trial by fire improves gold; it frees it from all debasing alloy, but it does not render it indestructible.  Refine gold as you will, it is, after all, a perishing thing.  But the trial of the faith of the Christian has a nobler result.  Purified and strengthened by the trials it is exposed to under the influence of the Holy Spirit, faith, with all the graces which grow out of it, survives the wreck of all material things, and at the ‘revelation of Jesus Christ is found to praise, and honor and glory’.  The results of all the trails to which they have been exposed in the present state , will be found in that character of perfect conformity to the image of God, in which consist at once their perfect holiness and their perfect happiness”.

-John Brown, from his commentary on 1Peter, P.73

True Refreshment

“The blood of Jesus Christ is of a very refreshing and cooling nature.  When the soul is heated with temptations, parched with the fiery wrath of God in the conscience, when it lies sweating and sweltering under guilt, one draught of Christ’s blood taken down by faith, yea, one drop of it sensibly falling upon it, doth cool and refresh it again.”

_Ralph Robinson, From his Christ All and in All, P.29

More Willing

“Our holy performances, do not render God more willing than He is already to show mercy or give grace to us;  but they are means of rendering ourselves more and more willing to receive His mercy and grace.  We must, then, never depend on our own good works, but always on the spotless righteousness of Christ, and on the gracious promises of God, for all the effects of His mercy and favor.”

_John Colquhoun, From his Treatise on the Law and the Gospel, P.290

True Self-Knowledge

“‘O wretched man that I am’.  This then is the language of a regenerate soul.  It is the confession of the normal (undeceived and undeluded) Christian….  Bishop Berkeley wrote, “I cannot pray, but I sin; I cannot preach, but I sin; I cannot administer, nor receive the holy sacrament, but I sin.  My very repentance needs to be repented of; and the tears I shed need washing in the blood of Christ” (1670AD)… Augustus Toplady wrote, “Upon a review of the past year, I desire to confess that my unfaithfulness has been exceedingly great; my sins still greater; God’s mercies greater than both” and also, “My short-comings and my mis-doings, my unbelief and want of love, would sink me into the lowest hell, was not Jesus my righteousness and my Redeemer”.

Quoted from A.W.Pink’s “The Christian in Romans 7″

Our Utter Helplessness and God’s Grace

“The first Attempt to render spiritual obedience will quickly convince us of our utter helplessness.  We might as soon create a world, as create in our hearts one pulse of spiritual life.  And yet our inability does not cancel our obligation.  Shall God lose His right, because sin has palsied our ability?…The obligation therefore remains in full force.  Our inability is our sin, our guilt, and our condemnation….In this view are brought together the supreme authority of the Lawgiver, the total insufficiency of the creature, the full provisions of the Savior, and the all-sufficiency of the ‘God of grace’.  We pray for what we want; we are thankful for what we have; we trust for what is promised.”

- Charles Bridges, from his commentary on Psalm 119, P.9-10

The Law Used Lawfully

“‘But we know that the Law is good, if a man use it lawfully’ (1Ti.1:8).  The Law is used unlawfully, when sinners rest on their imperfect obedience to it as the ground of their acceptance by God.  So, too, believers use it unlawfully, when they obey its precepts out of servile fear.  But used lawfully, the Law is good….To use the Law lawfully is to regard it as the unchanging expression of the Will of God, and therefore to “delight” in it.  To use the Law lawfully is to receive it as the corrector of our conduct.  To use the Law lawfully is to “fulfill” it in love.”

A.W.Pink, From his The Law and the Saint, located here: http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Law/law.htm