Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
J.C. Ryle
Read between
March 18 - March 26, 2019
If it tells us few of our Lord's SAYINGS, it is eminently rich in its catalogue of His DOINGS.
We should always read the Old Testament with a desire to find something in it about Jesus Christ.
The principal work of every faithful minister of the Gospel, is to set the Lord Jesus fully before His people, and to show them His fullness and His power to save.
The next great work He has to do, is to set before them the work of the Holy Spirit, and the need of being born again, and inwardly baptized by His grace.
Repentance and faith were the foundation stones of Christ's ministry. Repentance and faith must always be the main subjects of every faithful minister's instruction.
And yet their knowledge was not unto salvation.
"The life of Christianity," says Luther, "consists in possessive pronouns." It is one thing to say "Christ is a Savior." It is quite another to say "He is my Savior and my Lord." The devil can say the first. The true Christian alone can say the second.
If He who was "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners," thus prayed continually, how much more ought we who are compassed with infirmity?
By preaching, the Church of Christ was first gathered together and founded, and by preaching, it has ever been maintained in health and prosperity.
The sermons that we listen to may be weak and poor. But after all, preaching is God's grand ordinance for converting and saving souls. The faithful preacher of the Gospel is handling the very weapon which the Son of God was not ashamed to employ.
Men are not lost, because they are too bad to be saved, but because they will not come to Christ that He may save them.
"From hardness of heart, good Lord, deliver us."
Thousands can say like David, "It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes." (Psalm. 119:71.)
Without a divine call no one can be saved. We are all so sunk in sin, and so wedded to the world, that we would never turn to God and seek salvation, unless He first called us by His grace.
The Pharisees would probably have found no fault, if the disciples had been guilty of some offence against the moral law. They would have winked at covetousness, or perjury, or extortions, or excess, because they were sins to which they themselves were inclined. But no sooner did they see an infringement on their man-made traditions about the right way of keeping the Sabbath, than they raised an outcry, and found fault.
the faithful minister ought to be a preacher. This must ever be his principal work, and receive the greatest part of his thoughts. He must place it above the administration of the sacraments. (1 Cor. 1:17.) He must exalt it above the reading of forms. An unpreaching minister is of little use to the church of Christ.
He must strive to be known as the comforter, the counselor, the peacemaker, the helper, and the friend of all. Men should know him, not as one who rules and domineers, but as one who is "their servant for Jesus' sake." (2 Cor. 4:5.)
Never, never may we forget, that there are three ways of hearing without profit, and only one way of hearing aright! Never, never may we forget that there is only one infallible mark of being a right-hearted hearer! That mark is to bear fruit. To be without fruit, is to be in the way to hell.
By affliction He teaches us many precious lessons, which without it we should never learn. By affliction He shows us our emptiness and weakness, draws us to the throne of grace, purifies our affections, weans us from the world, makes us long for heaven. In the resurrection morning, we shall all say, "It is good for me that I was afflicted."
There are lessons of profound wisdom in these words. The place that Christians wish to be in, is not always the place which is best for their souls.
Happy is he who is not ashamed to say to others, "Come and hear what the Lord has done for my soul." (Psalm. 66:16.)
Of all the Christian graces, none is so frequently mentioned in the New Testament as faith, and none is so highly commended.
No grace brings such glory to Christ. Hope brings an eager expectation of good things to come. Love brings a warm and willing heart. Faith brings an empty hand, receives everything, and can give nothing in return.
Sickness is a great leveler. It makes no distinction.
We see, in the first place, how apt men are to undervalue things with which they are familiar.
It is an dreadful truth, that in religion, more than in anything else, familiarity breeds contempt.
We never ought to despise others, because they are poor. It is disgraceful to be a gambler, or a drunkard, or a covetous man, or a liar; but it is no disgrace to work with our own hands, and earn our bread by our own labor.
We can never be too much on our guard against unbelief. It is the oldest sin in the world.
No prayer is so important as that of the disciples, "Lord, increase our faith."
"they went out and preached that men should REPENT."
They are angry when they are told the truth. The prophet Elijah was called a "man that troubled Israel." The prophet Micaiah was hated by Ahab, "because he never prophesied good of him, but evil." The prophets and faithful preachers of every age have been treated in like manner. They have been hated by some, as well as not believed.
Prayer is the main secret of success in spiritual business. It moves Him who can move heaven and earth.
The question we should ask about a new minister, is not merely "Can he preach well?" but "Does he pray much for his people and his work?"
Leadership
The whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible, must be our rule of faith nothing added and nothing taken away.
The man who never speaks to God about his own soul, can know nothing of praying for others.
Let us pray for all--the worst, the hardest, and the most unbelieving.
He can give the chief of sinners a hearing ear. He can make him delight in listening to the very Gospel which he once ridiculed and despised. Here also we are meant to see our Lord's power to heal the spiritually dumb.
In all His works God is a sovereign. He gives no account of any of His matters.
They must be content to take up the cross of DOCTRINE, and the cross of PRACTICE--the cross of holding a faith which the world despises, and the cross of living a life which the world ridicules as too strict, and righteous overmuch.
A religion which costs nothing, is worth nothing.
