Men's Inhumanity To God — Jonathan Edwards

"Men will not bear that others should behave themselves with such pride and arrogance towards them as they do towards God… Men will not bear to be treated by their neighbors with that disregard and contempt with which they treat the Most High… Men will not bear such disobedience in those that are under [their] authority as they are commonly guilty of towards God. When men are vested with authority and command over others, they expect to be obeyed… Men will not endure to be treated by men with such injustice—in withholding and abusing what is committed to their trust—[as] they are guilty of towards God. Men received from God all the faculties of their minds, [their] senses, members, [and] all their worldly possessions: committed to them by God to be improved for him. Lent things require that they be returned, but how is God robbed!… Men commonly treat the Most High with such unfaithfulness as they will not bear one from another… Men will not bear such ingratitude one from another as they are guilty of towards God. Ingratitude is a thing that is in a peculiar manner resented amongst men… Men would exceedingly resent such obstinacy in injuriousness and ill treatment from their fellow creatures as they are guilty of towards God… So that this is really the case, owing to two things: first, a low thought of [God and Jesus Christ]; second, a magnifying [of] themselves. Were it not for these things, men would not object against the justice of that eternal punishment that God threatens… I would hence exhort to praise to God for his patience, forgiveness, and grace to us who have treated him so ill. 'Tis because the Lord is God and not man (Hosea 11:9). Such as are the subject of the saving mercy of God in Christ, you have reason to confess that God's ways of dealing with you are not as your ways, nor his thoughts [as your thoughts] (Isaiah 55:7–9)…"

— Jonathan Edwards, Men's Inhumanity To God

http://edwards.yale.edu/archive?path=aHR0cDovL2Vkd2FyZHMueWFsZS5lZHUvY2dpLWJpbi9uZXdwaGlsby9nZXRvYmplY3QucGw/Yy4yNDoyNC53amVv

righteous in Christ — C. H. Spurgeon

“As Christ was made sin, and yet never sinned, so are we made righteousness, though we cannot claim to have been righteous in and of ourselves. Sinners though we be, and forced to confess it with grief, yet the Lord doth cover us so completely with the righteousness of Christ, that only his righteousness is seen, and we are made the righteousness of God in him. This is true of all the saints, even of as many as believe on his name. Oh, the splendor of this doctrine! Canst thou see it, my friend? Sinner though thou be, and in thyself defiled, deformed, and debased, yet if thou wilt accept the great Substitute which God provide for in the person of his dear Son, thy sins are gone from thee, and righteousness has come to thee. Thy sins were laid on Jesus, the scapegoat: they are thine no longer, he has put them away. I may say that his righteousness is imputed unto thee; but I go further, and say with the text, "Thou art made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).”

— C. H. Spurgeon, The Heart of The Gospel

http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/1910.htm

the doctrine of the call — Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“Is it not one of the great marks of the Christian salvation that God planned it before the foundation of the world? Not only that, he knew us individually before the foundation of the world. Our names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life before we were ever born. This is glorious! This is wonderful! The whole doctrine of the call is involved in this phrase (“And he must needs go through Samaria” - John 4:4). He knows us one by one & knows all about us, & he meets us: “he must needs…” (John 4:4). He knows this compulsion… The Son of God comes to meet us in his own appointed time & way. As we have seen, from our standpoint we never know when. We must always be expectant, always open, always, as it were, anticipating by faith. But he comes!…” — Martyn Lloyd-Jones

The greatness of the love of Christ — Samuel Rutherford

“I find Christ to be Christ, and that he is far, far, even infinite heaven's height above man. And that is all our happiness. Sinners can do nothing but make wounds that Christ may heal them; and make debts, that he may pay them; and make falls, that he may raise them; and make deaths, that he may quicken them; and spin out and dig hells to themselves, that he may ransom them.

Now I will bless the Lord that ever there was such a thing as the free grace of God and a free ransom given for sold souls: only, alas! guiltiness makes me ashamed to apply to Christ, and to think it pride in me to put out my unclean and withered hand to such a Saviour!

But it is neither shame nor pride for a drowning man to swim to a rock, nor for a ship-broken soul to run himself ashore upon Christ. Suppose once I be guilty, need force I cannot, I do not, go by Christ.

We take in good part that pride, that beggars beg from the richer. And who is so poor as we? and who is so rich as He who sells fine gold (Rev. iii. 18)?…

Woe, woe is me, I have a lover Christ, and yet I want love for Him. I have a lovely and desirable Lord, who is love-worthy, and who begs my love and heart, and I have nothing to give Him. Dear brother, come further in on Christ, and see a new treasure in Him; come in, and look down, and see angels' wonder, and heaven and earth's wonder of love, sweetness, majesty, and excellency in Him.”

— Samuel Rutherford