Cheap Christianity

Here’s a couple of interesting quotes by J.C. Ryle regarding today’s superficial Christianity…

“There is a COMMON, WORLDLY kind of Christianity in this day, which MANY HAVE – a CHEAP CHRISTIANITY which OFFENDS NOBODY, and requires no sacrifice – which costs nothing, and is WORTH NOTHING.”
~ J.C. Ryle

…and stagnant believers:

“They hate the Devil, but they often appear to tempt him to come to them…They know the time is short, but they live as if it were long…They know they have a race to run, yet they often look like people SITTING STILL.” ~ J.C. Ryle

Although Ryle is quoting this from the 1800’s he’d be amazed how Christians today are no different.

It Is Grace

Speaking of Armenians, Whitfield said, “We are all born Armenians.”

It is grace that turns us into Calvinists, grace that makes Christians of us, grace that makes us free, and makes us know our standing in Christ Jesus.

Charles H. Spurgeon

Great Advice for Today’s Preachers

“The trouble with some of us is that we love preaching, but we are not always careful to make sure that we love the people to whom we are actually preaching. If you lack this element of compassion for the people you will also lack the pathos which is a very vital element in all true preaching. Our Lord looked out upon the multitude and ‘saw them as sheep without a shepherd’, and was ‘filled with compassion’. And if you know nothing of this you should not be in a pulpit, for this is certain to come out in your preaching.”

― D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers

Decide For Christ?

“[The] term ‘decide’ has always seemed to me to be quite wrong…A sinner does not ‘decide’ for Christ; the sinner ‘flies’ to Christ in utter helplessness and despair saying —

Foul, I to the fountain fly,
Wash me, Saviour, or I die.

No man truly comes to Christ unless he flies to Him as his only refuge and hope, his only way of escape from the accusations of conscience and the condemnation of God’s holy law. Nothing else is satisfactory. If a man says that having thought about the matter and having considered all sides he has on the whole decided for Christ, and if he has done so without any emotion or feeling, I cannot regard him as a man who has been regenerated. The convicted sinner no more ‘decides’ for Christ than the poor drowning man ‘decides’ to take hold of that rope that is thrown to him and suddenly provides him with the only means of escape. The term is entirely inappropriate.”

― D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers

Nothing More Hateful

“There is nothing more hateful than a man who deliberately tries to play on the surface and superficial emotions of people. I have no interest in that except to denounce it.”

― D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers

Self-Sufficiency and Arrogance

“What the Arminian wants to do is to arouse man’s activity: what we want to do is to kill it once for all—to show him that he is lost and ruined, and that his activities are not now at all equal to the work of conversion; that he must look upward. They seek to make the man stand up: we seek to bring him down, and make him feel that there he lies in the hand of God, and that his business is to submit himself to God, and cry aloud, ‘Lord, save, or we perish.’ We hold that man is never so near grace as when he begins to feel he can do nothing at all. When he says, ‘I can pray, I can believe, I can do this, and I can do the other,’ marks of self-sufficiency and arrogance are on his brow.”

C. H. Spurgeon

Manufactured God

Beware of manufacturing a God of your own; a God who is all mercy but not just. Such a God is an idol of your own.

J.C. Ryle

How to Deal with Doubt

Great quote from John MacArthur:

“Jesus doesn’t condemn you when you have doubts. Instead, He gives you His Spirit, His Word, and the fellowship of His people to encourage and strengthen you. So commune with the Spirit in prayer, know the Word well, and never forsake the fellowship of believers. That’s how to change your doubts into hope!”

– J. MacArthur

Don’t Fool Yourself; God Gets Angry

We must never flatter ourselves that God cannot be angry. He is indeed a God of infinite grace and compassion. But it is also written, that He is “a consuming fire.” (Heb. 12:29.) His spirit will not always strive with men. (Gen. 6:3.) There will be a day when His patience will come to an end, and when He will arise to dreadfully judge the earth. Happy will they be who are found hidden in the ark, in the day of the Lord’s anger! Of all wrath, none can be conceived so dreadful as “the wrath of the Lamb.”

~ J.C. Ryle | Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke volume 2 , [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1998], 328.

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Many churches today would like you to believe that God is all love and no anger. Professing Christians like Rob Bell wrote a best-selling book titled “Love Wins,” in his book he elaborates on this all-loving god that is definitely more palatable for sentimental and naive believers.

Truth is, although the Creator of the Universe is full of compassion and grace we cannot ignore the fact His wrath will be poured upon all those who live carnal lifestyles; who resist following Christ in order to gain the world; who ignore the warnings and live their lives wallowing in sin and lukewarm superficial Christians who has a form of godliness yet deny His power (cf. 2 Tim. 3:1-5).

His judgement will separate those who will enter Heaven and those who will burn with Satan in Hell. Question is: Where will you be when that time comes?

If we fall for the lie that God does not get angry towards sin and rebellion, then we are only fooling ourselves and broadening our chances of an eternal torment. However, repentance and turning away from sin is always an option.

Think About It.

In Christ,
Marc

Why do churches differ so much?

“Why then do churches differ so much in what they teach? Some of it comes from inadequate study or lack of diligence. Some is from unexamined tradition. The fundamental problem, though, is our humanness—we are fallen, fallible people, and that can color our understanding of Scripture. That’s why it’s so important we not hold too tightly to “our brand” of Christianity, but instead always think matters through biblically and discuss them courteously.”

John MacArthur