EFFECTUAL CALLING--THOMAS WATSON

The Lord does not tie Himself to a particular way, or use the same order with all. He comes sometimes in a still small voice. Such as have had godly parents, and have sat under the warm sunshine of religious education, often do not know how or when they were called. The Lord did secretly and gradually instill grace into their hearts, as the dew falls unnoticed in drops. They know by the heavenly effects that they are called, but the time or manner they know not. The hand moves on the clock, but they do not perceive when it moves. Thus God deals with some. Others are more stubborn and knotty sinners, and God comes to them in a rough wind. He uses more wedges of the law to break their hearts; He deeply humbles them, and shows them they are damned without Christ. Then having plowed up the fallow ground of their hearts by humiliation, He sows the seed of consolation. He presents Christ and mercy to them, and draws their wills, not only to accept Christ, but passionately to desire, and faithfully to rest upon Him. Thus He wrought upon Paul, and called him from a persecutor to a preacher. This call, though it is more visible than the other, yet is not more real. God's method in calling sinners may vary, but the effect is still the same.

                                                  

A SPECIAL THOUGHT FOR YOU--CHARLES WOODRUFF

J. Gresham Machen wrote, “Liberalism is totally different from Christianity, for the foundation is different. Christianity is founded upon the Bible… liberalism on the other hand is founded upon the shifting emotions of sinful men.”

YOU THINK TO LIMIT GOD--THOMAS HOOKER

                                   (1586-1647)
 "You think to limit the Holy One of Israel, but that will not be; for his covenant is a covenant of grace, and the Lord, who is free, will not stand bent to your bow or give you grace when you say so; for it is not for us to know the times and seasons... Therefore, hear today, wait tomorrow, and continue in so doing, because you know not when God may bless his own ordinances. Complain not of delays, but wait; for God has waited for you a long time... God gives what, when, and how he will; therefore wait for it." The Poor Doubting Christian Drawn To Christ

IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS

Charles Hodge (1797-1898)
If the righteousness be adequate, and if the imputation be made on adequate grounds and by competent authority, the person to whom the imputation is made has the right to be treated as righteous. And, therefore, in the forensic, although not in the moral or subjective sense, the imputation of the righteousness of Christ does make the sinner righteous. That is, it gives him a right to the full pardon of all his sins and a claim in justice to eternal life. 

That this is the simple and universally accepted view of the doctrine as held by all Protestants at the Reformation, and by them regarded as the cornerstone of the Gospel...has never been disputed by any candid or competent authority. This has continued to be the doctrine of both the great branches of the Protestant Church, so far as they pretend to adhere to their standards.

REAL EASY, WORRIED CHRISTIAN

                  William Gurnall (1617-1679)

Rest easy, worried Christian. The duel is not between the church and Satan, but between Christ and Satan. These are the champions of the two sides. Gather round and watch the all-wise God joust with His crafty opponent. You shall behold the Almighty smite off this Goliath's head with his own sword, and take this wicked knight in the trap of his own schemes. That faith which ascribes greatness and wisdom to God will shrink up Satan's challenge into a thing of nothing. Unbelief fears Satan as a lion; faith treads upon him as a worm.

COMENTS ON REVIVAL--JONATHON EDWARDS

                                           (1703-1758)

COMMENTS ON REVIVAL BY JONATHON

   EDWARDS IN DISTINGUISHING MARKS

It would not be correct to assert that Edwards here spoke with complete impartiality; he did champion the cause of the revival, earnestly pleading its validity and divinity. Yet even in these exciting days of 1741 a power of discrimination is evident in Edwards which later was given fuller and freer expression. In Distinguishing Marks, Edwards dismissed as irrelevant such things in the revival as its extraordinary intensity, its effects "on the bodies of men," its showy, noisy religiousness, its effects upon men's imaginations, and the ir­regularities, disorders, and errors of some who were associated with it.

These things may, we know from Scripture, accompany a divine work; on the other hand, Edwards stated, they have appeared in situations that were not of God's doing. They are then not trustworthy criteria by which one may judge the contemporary religious scene. Arguing closely from his text, I John 4, Edwards presented a positive statement of valid criteria. The "distinguishing marks" were five: a true revival (i) will cause a greater esteem for Jesus (I John 4:2), (2) will operate against the interest of Satan (4:4, 5), (3) will cause a greater regard for scripture (4:6), (4) will lead persons to truth, convincing them of those things that are true (4:6), and (5) "operates as a spirit of love to God and man" (4:7 f). From his "trial of the spirit" then rushing throughout New England, Edwards judged "that the extraordinary influence that has lately appeared causing an uncommon concern and engagedness of the mind about the things of religion is undoubtedly, in general, from the Spirit of God."⁸

Extended among so many places and over so many months, the revival cannot be a pretense or delusion. As far as the Northampton experiences are concerned, "we must throw by all talk of conversion and Christian experience; and not only so, but we must throw by our Bibles, and give up revealed religion; if this |be not in general the work of God."⁹ In view of this judgment, the commencement speaker warned all "by no means to oppose, or do any thing in the least to clog or hinder, the work; but, on the contrary, do our utmost to promote it." In the coldest, darkest corner of New England, by New Light standards, Edwards had defended the Great Awakening and had spoken harsh words to any that tried to thwart it. He was never invited back.

(From THE GREAT AWAKENING IN NEW ENGLAND BY
EDWIN SCOTT GAUSTAD, Quadrangle Books Edition 1968)