Benjamin Warfield:

“We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all.

This is not true of us only “when we believe.”

It is just as true after we have believed.

It will continue to be true as long as we live.

Our need of Christ does not cease with our believing; nor does the nature of our relation to Him or to God through Him ever alter, no matter what our attainments in Christian graces or our achievements in Christian behavior may be.

It is always on His “blood and righteousness” alone that we can rest.

There is never anything that we are or have or do that can take His place, or that can take a place along with Him.

We are always unworthy, and all that we have or do of good is always of pure grace.

Though blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ, we are still in ourselves just “miserable sinners”: “miserable sinners” saved by grace to be sure, but “miserable sinners” still, deserving in ourselves nothing but everlasting wrath. That is the attitude which the Reformers took, and that is the attitude which the Protestant world has learned from the Reformers to take, toward the relation of believers to Christ.

There is emphasized in this attitude the believer’s continued sinfulness in fact and in act; and his continued sense of his sinfulness. And this carries with it recognition of the necessity of unbroken penitence throughout life. The Christian is conceived fundamentally in other words as a penitent sinner.

But that is not all that is to be said: it is not even the main thing that must be said.

It is therefore gravely inadequate to describe the spirit of “miserable sinner Christianity” as “the spirit of continuous but not unhopeful penitence.” It is not merely that it is too negative a description, and that we must at least say, “the spirit of continuous though hopeful penitence.” It is wholly uncomprehending description, and misplaces the emphasis altogether.

The spirit of this Christianity is a spirit of penitence indeed, but also of overmastering exultation.

The attitude of the “miserable sinner” is not only not one of despair; it is not even one of depression; and not even one of hesitation or doubt; hope is too weak a word to apply to it.

It is an attitude of exultant joy.

Only this joy has its ground not in ourselves but in our Savior.

We are sinners and we know ourselves to be sinners, lost and helpless in ourselves.

But we are saved sinners; and it is our salvation which gives the tone to our life, a tone of joy which swells in exact proportion to the sense we have of our ill-desert; for it is he to whom much is forgiven who loves much, and who, loving, rejoices much.”

The great Lion of Princeton, B.B. Warfield (1851–1921), from his essay, “’Miserable-Sinner Christianity’ in the Hands of the Rationalists,” in The Works of Benjamin B. Warfield, vol. 7, pp. 113-114.

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Do you mortify?  Do you make it your daily work?  Do not take a day off from this work; always be killing sin or it will be killing you.  We must strike it as an enemy until it ceases living.  Sin is laboring to bring forth the deeds of the flesh.  When sin lets us alone, we may let sin alone.  Sin is active when it seems to be the most quiet, and its waters are calm.  Sin is always acting, conceiving, seducing and tempting.  There is not a day but sin foils or is foiled.  There is no safety but in a constant warfare from sin’s perplexing rebellion.  Sin will not only be striving, acting, rebelling, and disquieting if not continually mortified, it will also bring forth great, cursed, scandalous, and soul-destroying sins (Gal. 9:19-20).  When sin rises to tempt, it always seeks to express itself in the extreme.  Every unclean thought would be adultery if it could; every covetous desire would be oppression; and every thought of unbelief would be atheism.  It is like the grave that is never satisfied.  Sin’s advance blinds the soul from seeing its drift from God.  The soul becomes indifferent to sin as it continues to grow.  The growth of sin has no boundaries but the utter denial of God and opposition to him.  Sin proceeds higher by degrees; it hardens the heart as it advances.  Mortification withers the root and strikes at the head of sin every hour.  The best saints in the world are in danger of a fall if found negligent in this important duty.  Negligence of this duty decays the inner man instead of renewing him.  It is our duty to be ‘bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God’ (1 Cor. 7:1), and every day to be growing in grace (1 Pet. 2:2), and seeking to be renewed in the inner nature day by day (2 Cor. 4:16).

John Owen, Works, VI:9-14

J.C. Ryle - Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark p.65-66

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My current stack looks like this:

PASTORAL:
The Trellis and the Vine by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne
A Christian’s guide to leadership for the whole church by Derek Prime

DEVOTIONAL:
Voices from the Past: Puritan Writings
Spurgeon’s practical wisdom (Plain advice for plain people)

BIOGRAPHY:
Contending for our all by John Piper (the lives of Athanasius, John Owen, and J. Gresham Machen)
James Henley Thornwell, His life and letters

So I was wondering if anyone else has read a good book or is planning to read something in the coming year that might inspire a few of us to read it as well.

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Let’s pray for:

1. Safe travel in this storm

2. Rich Chaffin and his teaching

3. Receptive and plyable hearts

4. Honesty and transparency in the men

5. A worshipful atmosphere

6. New Creations coming home to church and family

7. God to be honored above all

Matt 4:23 ESV

The following is taken from John Stott and I hope will serve as a base for some healthy discussion on the topic of miraculous healing today.

“The Gospel writers describe Jesus’ ministry as threefold: teaching, preaching, and healing.  Teaching and preaching are not hard to grasp or to imitate, but how are we to understand the ministry of healing?

Perhaps the place to begin is to affirm the goodness of God’s creation.  That is to say, disease was no part of God’s original intention for the world, and it will be no part of his ultimate purpose either.  In the new universe there will be neither sickness nor pain nor death nor tears (Rev. 21:4).  Since, then, disease and death are alien intrusions into God’s good world, doctors and nurses are right to wage war against them.  Moreover, all healing is divine healing, since God has put into the human body remarkable therapeutic processes.  For example, no sooner has an infection appeared than antibodies are created to fight it.  It is this conviction that led Ambroise Pare, the Huguenot physician, to say, “I dressed the wound, but God healed it.”  The words are inscribed on a wall of the Ecole de Medicine in Paris.

The Gospels make it plain, however, that the healing ministry of Jesus belonged to a different order.  Like changing water into wine, multiplying loaves and fishes, and walking on water, Jesus’ healings were supernatural demonstrations of the kingdom of God.

In trying to understand them, we will be wise to avoid opposite extremes.  On the one hand, it would be absurd to put the Creator in a straightjacket and declare that miracles can’t and don’t happen.  On the other hand, we have no liberty to say (as some do) that performing miracles is the normal Christian life.  For however we define miracles, they certainly belong not to the normal but to the abnormal.  If we claim to be able to heal the sick like Jesus, we need to remember that he healed without the use of medical or surgical means, without delay, degree, or remission, but immediately, completely, and permanently, and that even hostile witnesses said, “We cannot deny it” (Acts 4:16).”