Where are your affections?

It is not that those empty professors who call themselves Christians are all (though many probably are) conscious hypocrites, rather are they deceived souls, and the tragic thing is that in most places there is nothing in the preaching which is at all calculated to un-deceive them; instead, there is only that which bolsters them up in their delusion. There is a large class in Christendom today who are satisfied with a bare profession. They have heard expounded some of the fundamentals of the Christian faith, and have given an intellectual assent thereto, and they mistake that for a saving knowledge of the Truth. Their minds are instructed, but their hearts are not reached, nor their lives transformed. They are still worldly in their affections and ways. There is no real subjection to God, no holiness of walk, no fruit to Christ’s glory. Their “faith” is of no value at all; their profession is vain.” —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)

 “The Doctrine of Justification”

Thus let us endeavor to make the name of God glorious and renowned. If God seeks our good, let us seek His glory. If He makes all things tend to our edification, let us make all things tend to His exaltation.


~Thomas Watson~

The Christian Duty of Forgiving

There are few Christian duties which are so frequently and strongly dwelt upon in the New Testament as this of forgiveness. It fills a prominent place in the Lord’s prayer. The only profession we make in all that prayer, is that of forgiving “those who trespass against us.” It is a test of being forgiven ourselves. The person who cannot forgive their neighbor the few trifling offences they may have committed against them, can know nothing experimentally of that free and full pardon which is offered to us by Christ. (Matt 18:35; Eph. 4:32)

Not least, it is one leading mark of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The presence of the Spirit in the heart may always be known by the fruits He causes to be brought forth in the life. Those fruits are both active and passive. The person who has not learned to bear and forbear, to put up with much and look over much, is not born of the Spirit. (1 John 3:14; Matt 5:44, 45)

~ J.C. Ryle

Trials....

The true Christian in the present day must never be surprised to find that they have constant trials to endure. Sinful human nature never changes. So long as they serve the world, and walk in the broad way, little perhaps will be said against them. Once let them take up the cross and follow Christ, and there is no lie too monstrous, and no story too absurd, for some to tell against them, and for others to believe. But let them take comfort in the thought that they are only drinking the cup which their blessed Master drank before them. The lies of their enemies do them no injury in heaven, whatever they may on earth. Let them bear them patiently, and not fret, or lose their temper. When Christ was reviled, “He reviled not again” (1 Peter 2:23). Let the Christian do likewise.

~ J.C. Ryle