two possible attitudes to life — Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“There are two possible attitudes to life in this world: that of faith & that of unbelief. Either we view our lives in terms of our belief in God, & the conclusions which we are entitled to draw from that; or our outlook is based upon a rejection of God & the corresponding denials. We may either ‘withdraw‘ ourselves from the way of faith in God, or else we may live by faith in God. The very terms suggest corresponding ways of life. As a man believes so is he. A man’s belief determines his conduct. The just, the righteous, shall live by faith; or, in other words, the man who lives by faith is righteous. On the other hand, the man who ‘draws back’ is unrighteous because he is not living by faith. Here is the great watershed of life, & all of us are on one side of it or the other. Whatever my political or philosophical views may be, they must have this common denominator; either my life is based on faith or it is not. If it is not, it does not much matter what my views may be, or whether I am controlled by political, social, economic, or any other considerations. What matters is whether I am accepting God’s rule or not.”


— Martyn Lloyd-Jones, From fear to faith

our prayers and God's answers to our prayers - Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“We all tend to prescribe the answers to our prayers. We think that God can come in only one way. But Scripture teaches us that God sometimes answers our prayers by allowing things to become much worse before they become better. He may sometimes do the opposite of what we anticipate. Yet it is a fundamental principle in the life & walk of faith that we must always be prepared for the unexpected when we are dealing with God... If God were unkind enough to answer some of our prayers at once, & in our way, we should be very impoverished Christians. Fortunately, God sometimes delays His answer in order to deal with selfishness or things in our lives which should not be there. He is concerned about us, & intends to fit us for a fuller place in His kingdom. We should therefore judge every event in the light of God’s great, eternal & glorious purpose.”

- Martyn Lloyd-Jones, From fear to faith

Do not neglect so great a salvation — John Piper

“How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” Hebrews 2:3



“It’s not as if he is saying, Don’t neglect your arthritis. Or: Don’t neglect your dandelions. Or: Don’t neglect your spinach. He is saying don’t neglect your salvation. Your great salvation. So it’s as if he said, Don’t neglect your steak dinners. Don’t neglect your cancer-healing therapy. Don’t neglect your sunrises and sunsets. And don’t neglect your Butterfinger Blizzards or your new baby’s smile, or your Rocky Mountains, or your Boundary Waters’ breezes under the full night sky, or your safe warm bed. It’s like that.

Only what is it really — this great salvation? What he’s really saying is: Don’t neglect being loved by God. Don’t neglect being forgiven and accepted and protected and strengthened and guided by Almighty God. Don’t neglect the sacrifice of Christ’s life on the cross. Don’t neglect the free gift of righteousness imputed by faith. Don’t neglect the removal of God’s wrath and the reconciled smile of God. Don’t neglect the indwelling Holy Spirit and the fellowship and friendship of the living Christ. Don’t neglect the radiance of God’s glory in the face of Jesus. Don’t neglect the free access to the throne of grace. Don’t neglect the inexhaustible treasure of God’s promises. This is a great salvation. Neglecting it is very evil. Don’t neglect so great a salvation.

Because if you do, you will perish without escape. So being a Christian is a very serious business — not a sour business, but a serious business. We are simply blood-earnest about being happy in our great salvation. We will not be deflected by this world into the fleeting and suicidal pleasures of sin. We will not neglect our eternal joy in God — which is what salvation is. We will gouge out our eyes rather than be lured away from eternal life.” 


— John Piper, Spoken, Confirmed, Witnessed: A Great Salvation



http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/spoken-confirmed-witnessed-a-great-salvation

God does nothing without reason — John Calvin

“Why is it that men fret so when God sends them things entirely contrary to their desire, except that they do not acknowledge that God does everything by reason, & that He has just cause? For if we had well-imprinted on our hearts “All that God does is founded in good reason” it is certain that we would be ashamed to chase so against Him when, I say, we know that He has just occasion to dispose thus of things, as we see. Now, therefore, it is especially said that Job attributed to God nothing without reason, that is to say, that he did not imagine that God did anything which was not just & equitable… The Holy Spirit wished to tell us that, if we wish to render glory to God & bless His name properly, we must be persuaded that God does nothing without reason. So then, let us not attribute to Him either cruelty or ignorance, as if He did things in spite & unadvisedly, but let us acknowledge that He proceeds in everything & through everything with admirable justice, with goodness & infinite wisdom, so that there is only entire uprightness or equity in all that He does… If we are afflicted we must not think that it happens without reason, but God has just cause to do it. And whenever we are tried & anguished let us run back to Him, let us pray to Him that He will give us grace to acknowledge that nothing happens to us in this world except as He disposes; indeed, & to be certain that He disposes in such manner that everything always comes back to our salvation… There is nothing better than to be entirely subject to the majesty of God & to recognize that if He let us do according to our own desires there would be only confusion; but when He governs us according to His will, it is for our profit & salvation.”



— John Calvin, Sermons from Job, The LORD gave; the LORD has taken away


what the law says to you — Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“Do you know what the law says to you? Shut up! (Galatians 3:23; Romans 3:19). Shut up about your self-righteousness & all your goodness & your great sacrifice. Shut up! Not only do not try to go on doing things like that to put yourself right with God, but stop talking, put your hand over your mouth, get down into the dust and ashes. The most respectable person in the world, the most moral, ethical individual, you, too, get down and put on your sackcloth and ashes. Shut up!”

— Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Law, Our Schoolmaster

Grace is one-way love — Paul F. M. Zahl

“What is grace? Grace is love that seeks you out when you have nothing to give in return. Grace is love coming at you that has nothing to do with you. Grace is being loved when you are unlovable. It is being loved when you are the opposite of loveable…Grace is a love that has nothing to do with you, the beloved. It has everything & only to do with the lover. Grace is irrational in the sense that it has nothing to do with weights & measures. It has nothing to do with my intrinsic qualities or so-called “gifts” (whatever they may be). It reflects a decision on the part of the giver, the one who loves, in relation to the receiver, the one who is loved, that negates any qualifications the receiver may personally hold…

Grace is one-way love. The one-way love of grace is the essence of any lasting transformation that takes place in human experience… It is true in life that grace, one-way love, has the power to turn despair into hope. It is almost always some form of grace, some outside source of unexpected and unhoped for compassion and kindness, that creates the change from discouragement & despair to endurance & perseverance… One-way love lifts up. One way love cures. One-way love transforms. It is the change agent of life…”

Paul F. M. Zahl, Grace in Practice: A Theology of Everyday Life

Living by faith in a world of new realities, views and contemplations — F.W. Krummacher

“And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.” — Acts 16:23-25

“But hark! Although it is past midnight, two persons are singing in the dungeon; their voices, strong and clear, resound through the whole building; and what is it they sing? A lamentation? No; a song of praise: “Blessed be thou, O Lord!” “Hallelujah!” What! Hallelujah in such a situation? – In the probable expectation of a cruel death? – Is it possible? Yes; and it is affecting and surprising – not to be explained on natural grounds. They evidently live in a different world from other people; in a world, where the nature of things is changed, where a prison is not a prison, bonds are not bonds, death is not death: but where everything assumes a different form and aspect. And so it really is. They live in a world of new views and contemplations. All things wear to them a different appearance to what they do to others, a dungeon is to them a house of God, and the Lord is with them there. What the world calls dishonor is their crown. Of ignominy in the service of such a king, they are proud. Bonds to them a relief, not a burden – they are a consoling evidence to them, that, by the grace of God, they have an interest in Jesus, the author of life. A prison? To whom do the prisons belong? Not to men, but to Him, who numbers the hairs of the head, and opens and shuts prisons at His pleasure. In death they recognize the ferryman that conveys them to their home; but of dying, faith knows nothing.

Oh for faith, a living faith in the Word, and Christ its centre! Who can overcome those, in whom it lives and reigns? To such, all things become new; another, a superior world rises within them, and the world around them becomes brighter, richer, and more extended. You walk through woods and meadows; they through the garden of the Lord. You perceive only flowers and singing birds; they meet also with the God of nature, who clothes the one and feeds the other. You look upwards to the stars; they to the glimmering lights of their Father’s house. You live under the government of destiny; they under the guidance of a kind Providence. In history, you read only of the actions of men; in the same narrative, they read the history of God’s government of the world; they hear the sound of His footsteps and the rustling of His garments. You consider your houses only as the places in which you dwell; they account theirs as the habitation of God among men. You think yourselves alone; they never do. You consider your possessions as self-acquired; they, as the gift of God. What is the extent of your acquaintance? – man; their world is not so limited. By whom are you attended? – by your shadow; while they are accompanied by the most powerful safeguard. What is it you experience in distress? – affliction; they, chastening love. What is it you look for in prosperity and benefits? – pleasure; but they discern in them, the kindness and affection of a paternal heart. Where is it you live? – in the world; they live elsewhere, and above it. Where is your house situated? – under the free heaven; over theirs, are spread the wings of mercy. What is your life? – a dream; theirs, a journey homewards in the most agreeable company.

How delightful is a life of faith! How rich in blissful perspective and joyful hope! To all, who by the grace of God attain to it, how is the world enlarged, dignified, and enriched, and that without illusion! They are not enthusiasts and fanatics, they remain at their old occupations, they continue to live in the good old way; but to them, all things assume of themselves, another aspect, when the eyes of the new man are opened; and everywhere they behold God, Christ their king, and glimpses of that glorious world, which lies concealed behind the gross veil of visibility. And yet we are called narrow minded people, whose views are circumscribed and limited, whose life is cheerless and miserable. Oh, what an erroneous opinion! If there be a life that is cold, viewless, circumscribed, and wretched, it is the life of those, who see only with their bodily eyes. But the life of the meanest of believers is rich, I might almost say, perfectly intellectual and poetic. The light of the eternal hills shed a luster over it.”

— F.W. Krummacher, Israel and the heathen

“the LORD has called for a famine” - 2 Kings 8:1

“the LORD has called for a famine” - 2 Kings 8:1 — “This is the Scripture mode of representing those heavy calamities brought upon a land or a single habitation, and which sheds upon the sorrows and distresses of life a peculiar light, that is highly consolatory to the children of God. Viewed in this light, famine, pestilence, and war, and every other calamity, constitute an army, ever ready to come and go, to advance and retreat, at the Almighty’s command, but which, without His permission, can assail none… Sometimes they are employed to punish, and are the instruments of Divine justice; sometimes to awaken, and to restore sobriety to the intoxicated; sometimes to embitter sin, and to force sinners to a throne of grace; sometimes for the trial of the saints, and to kindle around them a refining fire; whatever may be the purpose for which they are employed, they never return, till, like the word of God, they have accomplished the thing whereunto they were sent. No one, therefore, when afflicted, has simply to do with his afflictions, but, above all, with Him who has appointed them; he is not to content himself with complaining, and thinking how they can be removed; but is to consider why they have been sent, and to decipher the obscure handwriting…”

— F.W. Krummacher, The restitution

The literary barricade and the word of God — F.W. Krummacher

“How many thousands in the present day, sit encircled by a wall of paper; by pamphlets, poems, novels, reviews, & travels; & oh! how difficult it is for serious & sacred word of truth to break through this literary barricade! What an effort does it cost, before room can be found for the word of the Lord, in place where fresh streams of human thoughts & glowing imagery are almost hourly flowing!…

Let it not be said, that it is so difficult to believe in this word of God. It carries with it so many marks of its Divinity, that, to upright inquiry, it soon discovers its eternal character. On the other hand, its Divine origin is too unsusceptible of demonstration, according to human principle, to be unhesitatingly embraces by any, except those who are impelled by a sense of need, and a hungering after salvation and grace. It is not addressed to reason, but to the necessitous heart; and requires, in the first place, humility of mind, the consciousness of sin, and an earnest longing after reconciliation. To him, who comes in this way, it proves itself to be, not merely in a general sense, the word of God; but it gently raises him on the light wings of faith, above the difficulties which, to self-satisfied reason, forever remain a stumbling-block!…

We, who are of Zion, have also words at our command that can banish night, and allay the storm. We possess the word that can remove the consciousness of guilt, and tame the passions; the word that can dispel the cares of life, and impart to the gloom of death a festal character. If there be a word that can unravel the mysteries of this world’s history, that can remove the veil from the most distant future, that can open the gates of eternity, deprive the grave of its terrors, and teach the son of earth to walk upon the raging billows, then we possess it. Trample us underfoot if you will; the glory of possessing this word you cannot deprive us of. Cover us with ignominy and contempt; yet the splendor of that crown with which this noble possession adorns us, cannot be tarnished. The world may have many things to boast of; but it can make no pretensions to such a word!”

— F.W. Krummacher, The curse of unbelief