More on this book
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
April 28, 2017 - April 13, 2019
If I cannot come to Christ except the Father "draws" me, then my responsibility is to beg the Father to "draw" me.
now that He had pressed upon them their spiritual need, they were offended:
When the Lord’s messenger delivers a word that is distasteful to his hearers, they are not manly enough to come to him and tell him their grievance, far less will they approach him seeking help. No, like the miserable cowards they are, they will skulk in the background, seeking to sow the seeds of dissension by criticizing what they have heard.
God always reverses man’s order of things.
The natural man says, ‘Seeing is believing’; but the spiritual man believes in order to see.
By His actions, He teaches us not to court danger, and unnecessarily expose ourselves before our enemies.
so it is our duty to endeavor by all wise means and precautions to protect and preserve ourselves, that we may have opportunities for further service.
On the one hand, danger should not be courted by us; on the other, when the Word of God plainly bids us follow a certain line of conduct, we are to do so, no matter what the consequences.
Whenever God’s truth is faithfully proclaimed, opposition will be encountered and strife stirred up. The fault is not in God’s truth, but in human nature.
Discussing Him as subject-matter in their minds, they had not submitted to the righteousness of God.
Education is an altar which is now thronged by a multitude of idolatrous worshippers. That, no doubt, is one reason why God’s curse has fallen on almost all our seats of learning. He is jealous of His glory, and anything which enters into competition with Himself He blights and withers.
"I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress: my God, in him will I trust." His reassuring voice answers me: "Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee" (Ps. 91:2, 6, 7).
How different would be our lives if we really began each day with God! Thus only can we obtain that fresh supply of grace which will give the needed strength for the duties and conflicts of the hours that follow.
That problem was how justice and mercy could be harmonized.
But how can mercy be exercised when the sword of justice bars her way? How can grace flow forth except by slighting holiness?
You remind Me of the law! Why, it was My finger which wrote that law! Thus did He show these Pharisees that He had come here, not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. His writing on the ground, then, was (symbolically) a ratification of God’s righteous law.
Do not cite the deep magic to me! I was there when it was written.
None but a holy hand should administer the perfect law.
but when God turns the light on a man’s heart, his moral and spiritual depravity become apparent even to himself, and shame shuts his lips.
the constraint of His love.
If only we realized that everything which enters our life is ordered by God, and we acted in accord with this, then should we maintain our composure and conduct ourselves with unruffled serenity. But
The truth gives spiritual liberty; it frees from the blinding power of Satan (2 Cor. 4:4). It delivers from the darkness of spiritual death (Eph. 4:18). It emancipates from the prison-house of sin (Isa. 61:1).
We need to remind ourselves constantly that the Word of God is a living Word, depicting things as they now are, describing the opposition and activities of the carnal mind as they obtain today, and giving counsel which is strictly pertinent to ourselves.
Tell the sinner that there is no good thing in him, and he will not believe you; but tell him that he is completely the slave of sin and the captive of Satan, that he cannot think a godly thought of himself (2 Cor. 3:5), that he cannot receive God’s truth (1 Cor. 2:14), that he cannot believe (John 12:39), that he cannot please God (Rom. 8:8), that he cannot come to Christ (John 6:44), and he will indignantly deny your assertions.
One who is moved by the Devil is inflated with pride, seeks honor and fame; but Christ sought only the honor of Another, even the Father.
There is One who seeketh, that is, who seeketh My glory. There is One who will look after My reputation. There is One who is pledged in holy covenant to make Me His firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. And He who seeketh My glory, judgeth. He will sit in judgment on your judgment.’
And blindness, like all other bodily afflictions, is one of the effects of sin. Not always so directly, but always so remotely.
Let us learn then to hate sin with godly hatred as the cause of all our sorrows; and let the sight of suffering ones serve to remind us of what a horrible thing sin is.
All suffering is remotely due to sin, for if sin had not entered the world there would have been no suffering among humankind. But there is much suffering which is not due immediately to sin.
Let not the believer be brought into bondage by heeding the mandates of religious legislators, when their rules and regulations have no support from the Holy Scriptures.
The saints of God are a people that "know." They know Whom they have believed (2 Tim. 1:12). They know that their Redeemer liveth (Job 19:26). They know the), have passed from death unto life (1 John 3:14). They know that all things work together for their good (Rom. 8:28). They know that when the Lord Jesus shall appear they shall be like Him (1 John 3:2).
Christianity treats not of theories and hypotheses, but of certainties and realities. Rest not, dear reader, till you can say, "One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see."
Whenever you find men calling their opponents hard names, it is a sure sign that their own cause has been defeated.
It is the Holy Spirit’s office to take of the things
of Christ and to show them unto us. But while we are identified with and lend our support to that which grieves Him, He will not delight our souls with revelations of the excellencies of our Savior.
Luke 11:52: "Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered."
There are no difficult walls which have to be scaled before the anxious sinner can obtain access to God. No, Christ is the "door" into His presence. A "door" may also be contrasted from a long, dreary, circuitous passage—just one step, and those on the outside are now within. The soul that believes God’s testimony to the truth of salvation by Christ alone, at once enters God’s presence.
"I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." Seven things are enumerated in this precious verse. First, "I am the door": Christ the only Way to God. Second "By me if any man enter": Christ the Imparter of power to enter. Third, "If any man enter": Christ the Savior for Jew and Gentile alike. Fourth, "If any man enter in": Christ appropriated by a single act of faith. Fifth, "he shall be saved": Christ the Deliverer from the penalty, power, and presence of sin. Sixth, "he shall go in and out": Christ the Emancipator from all bondage.
...more
When the testing time comes each man reveals what he is by what he does. Conduct conforms to character as the stream does to the fountain.
The Christian acts christianly because he is a Christian; but a man must be a Christian before he can live a Christian life. Christian profession is no adequate test, nor is an orthodox creed. The demons have a creed, and it causes them to tremble, but it will not deliver them from Hell; It is by our fruit that we are known: it is deeds which make manifest the heart.
Character is revealed by our conduct in the crises of life.
This is all very searching. How do you act when you see "the wolf’ coming! Are you terror stricken? Or, does approaching danger, temptation, or trial, cast you back the more upon the Lord?
Not a single one of that favored company given to Christ by the Father shall perish.
From this point onwards the Lord Jesus discourses no more before the religious leaders. His public ministry was almost over.
There are innumerable tokens for the existence of a Divine Creator, sufficient to render all men "without excuse"; yet are these tokens of such a nature as not to have banished atheism from the earth. There are a thousand evidences that the Holy Scriptures are the inspired Word of God, yet are there multitudes who believe them not. There is a great host of unimpeachable witnesses who testify daily to the Saviourhood of the Lord Jesus, yet the great majority of men continue in their sins.
Instead of tracing the cause of unbelief to his own evil heart, the sinner blames God for the insufficiency of convincing evidence.
Eternal life is neither earned as a wage, merited as a prize, nor won as a crown. It is a free gift, sovereignly bestowed.
A believer may fall, but he shall not be utterly cast down (Ps. 37:24).
The "hand of Christ" (verse 28) is beneath us, and the "hand" of the Father is above us. Thus are we secured between the clasped hands of Omnipotence!
First, they are Christ’s sheep, and it is the duty of the shepherd to care for each of his flock! To suggest that any of Christ’s sheep may be lost is to blaspheme the Shepherd Himself. Second, it is said "They follow" Christ, and no exceptions are made; the Lord does not say they ought to, but declares they do. If then the sheep "follow" Christ they must reach Heaven, for that is where the Shepherd is gone! Third, to the sheep is imparted "eternal life": to speak of eternal life ending is a contradiction in terms. Fourth, this eternal life is "given" to them: they did nothing to merit it,
...more
The darker the night, the more manifest the light which illumines it.
