God’s Perfect Law Indicts All of Sin ― Charles Hodge

“So long as men judge themselves by themselves, and compare themselves among themselves, they will be in the dark as to their true character. It is not until they judge themselves by the perfect standard of duty contained in the law of God, that they can have any proper knowledge of their real character. It is in his light that we see light. It is only when we look away from the sinful beings by whom we are surrounded, and feel ourselves in the presence of the perfect purity of God, that we are sensible of the extent of our departure from the standard of excellence. It is therefore both the doctrine of the Bible and the experience of the people of God, that the knowledge of sin arises from the apprehension of the divine excellence as revealed in the law.”

- Charles Hodge (1797-1878)
from: The Way of Life, 1841

Reader, are you taught of God?

Reader, are you taught of God?

(James Smith, "Manna in the Wilderness" 1863)

"I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is good for you--and leads you along the paths you should follow."

God teaches all of His people the true nature, and awful consequences of sin--and instructs them "to flee from the wrath to come." His teaching makes them wise unto salvation--and holy in heart and life. Under His instructions, they . . .
withdraw from the world,
enjoy private devotion,
unite with the saints, and
abound in every good work.

"Behold, God is exalted in His power. Who is a teacher like Him?" . The truth which he unfolds to the understanding--He impresses upon the heart. His scholars learn to imitate Him.

Untaught by Him, we are . . .
vain, ignorant, and wicked;
estranged from God, and
hastening to eternal perdition!

To His divine teaching--we owe all that we know of self, sin, salvation, and eternal felicity.

He teaches freely and variously--but always effectually.

His children cry, "Teach me to do Your will, for you are my God. May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing!" . He graciously answers, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go! I will guide you with My eye."

Reader, are you taught of God? Has he taught you . . .
to hate sin--and flee from it,
to know Christ--and love Him,
to discover the beauty of holiness--and pant to possess it?

"Show me Your ways, O Lord, teach me Your paths; guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are God my Savior!"

Are You Depending Upon A Righteousness of Your Own? Your Righteousness Shall Perish With You ― George Whitfield

“To the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” ― Romans 4:5

George Whitfield,

Are any of you depending upon a righteousness of your own? Do any of you here, think to save yourselves by your own doings? I say to you…your righteousness shall perish with you. Poor miserable creatures! What is there in your tears? What in your prayers? What in your performances, to appease the wrath of an angry God? Away from the trees of the garden; come, ye guilty wretches, come as poor, lost, undone, and wretched creatures, and accept of a better righteousness than your own. As I said before, so I tell you again, the righteousness of Jesus Christ is an everlasting righteousness: it is wrought out for the very chief of sinners. Ho, every one that thirsteth, let him come and drink of this water of life freely. Are any of you wounded by sin? Do any of you feel you have no righteousness of your own? Are any of you perishing for hunger? Are any of you afraid ye will perish forever? Come, dear souls, in all your rags; come, thou poor man; come, thou poor, distressed woman; you, who think God will never forgive you, and that your sins are too great to be forgiven; come, thou doubting creature, who art afraid thou wilt never get comfort; arise, take comfort, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of life, the Lord of glory, calls for thee: through his righteousness there is hope for the chief of sinners, for the worst of creatures. What if thou hadst committed all the sins in the world? What if thou hadst committed the sins of a thousand, what if thou hadst committed the sins of a million of worlds? Christ’s righteousness will cover, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ will cleanse, thee from the guilt of them all. O let not one poor soul stand at a distance from the Savior. My dear friends, could my voice hold out, was my strength equal to my will, I would wrestle with you; I would strive with arguments, till you came and washed in this blood of the Lamb; till you came and accepted of this everlasting righteousness. O come, come! Now, since it is brought into the world by Christ, so in the name, in the strength, and by the assistance of the great God, I bring it now to the pulpit; I now offer this righteousness, this free, this imputed, this everlasting righteousness to all poor sinners that will accept of it…You do not know but ye may die before tomorrow. How do ye know, but while I am speaking, a fit of the apoplexy may seize, and death arrest you? O my dear friends, where can ye go? Where will ye appear? How will ye stand before an angry God, without the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ put upon your souls? Can ye stand in your own rags? Will ye dare to appear before a heart-searching God, without the apparel of your elder brother? If ye do, I know your doom: Christ will frown you into hell: “Depart, depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire,” shall be your portion. Think, I pray you, therefore, on these things; go home, go home, go home, pray over the text, and say, “Lord God, thou hast brought an everlasting righteousness into the world by the Lord Jesus Christ; by the blessed Spirit bring it into my heart!” then, die when ye will, ye are safe; if it be tomorrow, ye shall be immediately translated into the presence of the everlasting God: that will be sweet! Happy they who have got this robe on; happy they that can say, “My God hath loved me, and I shall be loved by him with an everlasting love!” That every one of you may be able to say so, may God grant, for the sake of Jesus Christ, the dear Redeemer; to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

taken from: The Righteousness of Christ, an Everlasting Righteousness by George Whitfield

God’s Working All Things Together for the Good of His Own ― Thomas Watson

“You that are Christians, believe that all God’s providence shall conspire for your good at last. The providences of God are sometimes dark, and our eyes dim, and we can hardly tell what to make of them; but when we cannot unriddle providence, let us believe that it will work together for the good of the elect. . The wheels in a clock seem to move contrary one to the other, but they help forward the motion of the clock, and make the larum strike: so the providences of God seem to be cross wheels; but for all that, they shall carry on the good of the elect. The pricking of a vein is in itself evil and hurtful; but as it prevents a fever, and tends to the health of the patient, it is good; so affliction in itself is not joyous, but grievous; but the Lord turns it to the good of his saints. Poverty shall starve their sins, and afflictions shall prepare them for a kingdom. Therefore, Christians, believe that God loves you, and that he will make the most cross providences to promote his glory and your good.”

- Thomas Watson (c.1620-1686)
taken from: A Body of Divinity, Banner of Truth, pg. 125

B.B. Warfield – Living as Justified Sinners

It is the conviction that there is nothing in us or done by us at any stage of our earthly development because of which we are acceptable to God. 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 takes 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.

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.

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.

Throughout the Protestant world, believers confess themselves to be, still as believers, wrath-deserving sinners, and that not merely with reference to their inborn sinful nature as yet incompletely eradicated but with reference also to their total life manifestation which their incompletely eradicated sinful nature flows into and vitiates.

It has not always been easy through the Protestant ages to maintain in its purity this high attitude of combined shame of self and confidence in the mercy of God in Christ.

Thus, through every moment of his life, the believer is absolutely dependent on the grace of Christ, and when life is over, he still has nothing to plead but Christ’s blood and righteousness.

The believer strives against sin all his life and is never without failings. And from his well-grounded fear of sinning arises a powerful ever-present motive to watchfulness and effort. He has nothing to depend on but Christ, and Christ is enough. But that does not relieve him from the duty of cleansing his life from sin but rather girds his loins for the struggle. The necessity for the continuance of the struggle means, of course, the continuance of sin to struggle against.

~B.B. Warfield~

“Miserable Sinner Christianity,” Works of B.B. Warfield Vol. 7 (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Book House; 2001) p. 113ff.

Books by B.B. Warfield

Charles Spurgeon – The Effectual Call of Grace

The effectual call of Grace is precisely similar [to the call to Lazarus to come forth]; the sinner is dead in sin; he is not only in sin but dead in sin, without any power whatever to give to himself the life of grace. Nay, he is not only dead, but he is corrupt; his lusts, like the worms, have crept into him, a foul stench rises up into the nostrils of justice, God abhors him, and justice cries, “Bury the dead out of my sight, cast it into the fire, let it be consumed.” Sovereign Mercy comes, and there lies this unconscious, lifeless mass of sin; Sovereign Grace cries, either by the minister, or else directly without any agency, by the Spirit of God, “come forth!” and that man lives. Does he contribute anything to his new life? Not he—his life is given solely by God. He was dead, absolutely dead, rotten in his sin; the life is given when the call comes, and, in obedience to the call, the sinner comes forth from the grave of his lust, and begins to live a new life, even the life eternal, which Christ gives to His sheep.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Predestination and Calling (Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington) Excerpted From A Sermon Delivered on March 6th, 1859

The Fathomless Ocean Of Christ’s Love by Octavius Winslow

Eternal love moved the heart of Jesus to relinquish heaven for earth—a diadem for a cross—the robe of divine majesty for the garment of our nature; by taking upon Himself the leprosy of our sin. Oh, the infinite love of Christ! What a boundless, fathomless ocean! Ask the ransomed of the Lord, whose chains He has dissolved, whose dungeon He has opened, whose liberty He has conferred, if there ever was love like His!

What shall we say of the ransom price? It was the richest, the costliest, that Heaven could give. He gave Himself for us! What more could He do? He gave Himself; body, soul and spirit. He gave His time, His labor, His blood, His life, His ALL, as the price for our ransom, the cost of our redemption. He carried the wood and reared the altar. Then, bearing His bosom to the stroke of the uplifted and descending arm of the Father, paid the price of our salvation in the warm lifeblood of His heart!

What a boundless, fathomless ocean! How is it that we feel the force and exemplify the practical influence of this amazing, all commanding truth so faintly? Oh, the desperate depravity of our nature! Oh, the deep iniquity of our iniquitous hearts! Will not the blood drops of Jesus move us? Will not the agonies of the cross influence us? Will not His dying love constrain us to a more heavenly life?