All of God’s saints have need of comfort. This is because we are born again of the Spirit, and have a righteous nature that hates sin. Yet in each of us still dwells that old man of sin which Paul calls “the body of this death.” Thus we are very troubled by our sin. We are at constant warfare with our own flesh, Satan and this present evil world.

And though we are the children of God we must also suffer the common troubles and afflictions of men (1 Cor. 10:13).

How evil are those false religionist and liars who say that God only wants us to be happy, healthy and wealthy in this world (John 16:33)! They are no comfort to the true saints of God. They rather cause them to doubt and question their salvation because our experience in this life is full of trouble, sorrow, sickness, and poverty.  Therefore, we are often like Rebekah, when the twins struggled in her womb, and she inquired of the Lord, “If it be so, why am I thus?” (Gen. 25:22)

The Holy Spirit, knowing our need of such comfort, has called his preachers and given us a simple command:  Comfort ye, Comfort ye my people saith the Lord.

And this is the comfort we are to give you. That Jesus Christ has accomplished all your warfare. He has taken all the sin of our souls and by His one offering to God has forever purchased our pardon (Heb.9:12; 10:14). So great was His offering that God has counted it as double for all our sins!  Therefore, rejoice in your suffering and sorrow because God’s Justice is satisfied and you are accepted of Him in Jesus Christ!  This will not comfort the world, but it does settle the heart of God’s people.

May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; (Ephesians 3:18)

His Love for us is so broad that is supports all the elect of all time (Matt.16:18). The length of His love stretches from eternity to eternity and there are no gaps of love in time (Jeremiah 31:3). The Love of God is so Deep that Jesus our beloved condescended to be made flesh. He as our substitute was plunged into the depths of God’s Justice as He was made sin for us. And by His one offering, He hath perfected all His people (2 Cor 5:21; Heb 10:14). The Height of God’s love is as High as He is.  For God, having raised up Christ to the throne of Glory, has also raised us up with him in love (Ephesians 2:4-7).

The Gospel is sent from Heaven, proclaimed on earth, heard by sinners, and gladly embraced by those who are ordained to eternal life.

The Gospel informs us that eternal redemption is obtained, a way into the holiest opened, and all condemnation removed from those who believe in Jesus.

The gospel reveals . . .
a Savior, in whom we must trust;
a Sovereign, whom we must obey;
a Priest, on whose atonement we must rest;
a Mediator, through whom we must apply for every blessing which we need;
a Prophet, from whom we must learn;
a friend, in whose love we must confide;
a brother, from whom we may expect;
a father, whose authority we must revere;
an apostle, whose mission we must study; and
an advocate, to whom we must commit our cause.

The gospel . . . flows from the free love, rich grace, and abundant mercy of our God; is founded in the Savior’s person, mediation, and death; becomes efficacious through the revelation, operation, and application of the Holy Spirit. By it, he begets faith, imparts love, and excites hope; and when accompanied by his blessing — it is received in demonstration and power.

The gospel is an everlasting monument of God’s wisdom, grace, and love. O may I feel more of the power, receive more of the light, and manifest more of the spirit of the gospel! O may I find it as sweet as honey, yes sweeter than the honeycomb to my taste! May I be taught to despise everything in compare with it, and say —

Should all the forms that men devise,
Assault my faith with treacherous art;
I’d call them vanity and lies,
And bind the gospel to my heart!

-James Smith

“I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.” (John 6:38)

We all recognize that these are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. They concern His Father’s will in sending Him into this world. He then follows by telling us three things that the Father’s will includes and that He came to do. The Father’s will that he came to do includes:

(1) Not losing one that the Father gave Him. When was He given a people? It was from eternity when He was set up to be the Mediator of the everlasting covenant. He was given a people, whom the Father chose in Him, and God’s will is that he not lose one of them.

(2) Raising up in the last day each and every one the Father gave Him. This meant that He must do for them all that is needed to make them “meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light (Col. 1:12).” He must live and die for them as their substitute and surety; to pay their sin debt and give them a righteousness that God would accept.

(3) Giving everlasting life to everyone who sees and believes on Him. Question: Who would be so foolish to declare that the Lord Jesus failed to do the will of His Father? Answer: Everyone who teaches that Christ only made salvation possible, rather than certain for all those He was given. Everyone who teaches that there are those in hell for whom Christ died, rather than His blood redeeming all those given to Him. Everyone who teaches that salvation is dependent on man’s supposed free will, rather than “on God that showeth mercy.”

-David Pledger, Pastor of Lincolnwood Baptist Church, Houston, TX USA

At that moment the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. (Luke 22:61)

There was a deep meaning in that look.

It was a sermon which Peter never forgot.

The love of Christ toward His people is a deep well which has no bottom! Let us never measure it by comparison with any kind of love of man or woman. It exceeds all other love—as far as the sun exceeds the candle light. There is about it a mine of compassion, and patience, and readiness to forgive sin—of whose riches we have but a faint conception.

Let us not be afraid to trust that love—when we first feel our sins. No man need despair, however far he may have fallen, if he will only repent and turn to Christ. If the heart of Jesus was so gracious when He was a prisoner in the judgment hall—we surely need not think it is less gracious, when He sits in glory at the right hand of the Father!

-J.C Ryle

“Any of you who does not give up everything he has, cannot be My disciple.” Luke 14:33 

I grant freely that it costs little to be a mere outward Christian. A man has only got to attend a place of worship twice on Sunday, and to be tolerably moral during the week — and he has gone as far as thousands around him ever go in religion. All this is cheap and easy work — it entails no self-denial or self-sacrifice. If this is saving Christianity and will take us to Heaven when we die — we must alter the description of the way of life, and write, “Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to Heaven!”

But it does cost something to be a real Christian, according to the standard of the Bible. There are . . .

Enemies to be overcome,

Battles to be fought,

Sacrifices to be made,

An Egypt to be forsaken,

A wilderness to be passed through,
A cross to be carried, and a race to be run.
Conversion is not putting a man in a soft armchair, and taking him pleasantly to Heaven. It is the beginning of a mighty conflict, in which it costs much to win the victory. Hence arises the unspeakable importance of “counting the cost.”
True Christianity will cost a man . . .

his self-righteousness,

his sins,

his love of ease,

and the favor of the world. 
A religion which costs nothing — is worth nothing! 
A cheap, easy Christianity, without a cross — will prove in the end a useless Christianity, without a crown!

– J.C Ryle

In our religious age, many men tell us that it does not matter where you go to church as long as you go somewhere. But this is wrong on many different levels. The first reason that comes to mind is that not everyone that is a preacher is sent of God. Many men have gone out with a message but not with the message. Many churches today are preaching a message that says: “God loves all men and has given them a free will to choose or reject Christ.” This is not the message of the Gospel, and all who attend such a church and agree with such a message are not saved, and will not be saved under such a preacher. Martin Luther was exactly right when he said according to Romans 10: 14-17, that it is absolutely impossible for anyone to do any of the following:

1. Man will not call upon Christ until he believes on Christ

2. Man cannot believe on Christ until he hears the gospel of Christ

3. Man cannot hear the gospel of Christ without a preacher

4. And it is impossible for one to preach the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit until he is sent of God.

And mark it down that a man that preaches a message of free will works religion is not sent of God, because that is not the gospel of Christ, and without the gospel, no man can be saved. Men are not saved by another gospel, but only by the gospel of God’s sovereign grace in Christ Jesus alone. Men are saved only by hearing the message of Jonah:  Salvation is of the LORD!

-F.E.

The LORD is absolutely Sovereign in all things. He is Sovereign in creation, in providence and especially the Salvation of sinners (Isaiah 46:10-13; Psalm 115:3). The scripture says God, in sovereign election, loved Jacob and hated Esau — and this before they were ever born having done neither good nor evil (Romans 9:11-13). This is the doctrine of election that the self-righteous man despises, but it is the doctrine of free Grace that the sinner loves. A sinner is one that has no hope of ever pleasing God and by nature knows if left to himself he would never choose Christ (Romans 3:10-20; John 6:44). Had God not elected there would be no salvation. (Romans 9:29) But God chose, and Christ died for the elect. The Spirit quickens to life, and the elect believe. Therefore those saved by grace love the gospel of Grace.

-Pastor Fred Evans

It has been the distinctive aim, and the sincere desire of my ministry — to make known and to endear the Savior to your hearts.

Oh, how worthy is He of your most exalted conceptions, of your most implicit confidence, of your most self-denying service, of your most fervent love!

When He could give you no more — and the fathomless depths of His love and the boundless resources of His grace would not be satisfied by giving you less — He gave you Himself!

Robed in your nature, laden with your curse, oppressed with your sorrows, wounded for your transgressions, and slain for your sins — He gave His entire self for you!

His redeeming work now finished — He is perpetually engaged in meting out blessings to His people, from the exhaustless treasures of His love! He constantly woos your affection — invites your grief — and bids you repair with your daily trials to His sympathy, and with your hourly guilt to His blood. You cannot in your drafts upon Christ’s fullness, be too covetous; nor in your expectations of supply, be too extravagant! You may fail, as, alas! the most of us do, in making too little of Christ — but you cannot fail, in making too much of Him!

It is utterly impossible to know Christ, and not become inspired with a desire . . . to love Him supremely, to serve Him devotedly, to resemble Him closely, to glorify Him faithfully here, and to enjoy Him fully hereafter!

-Octavius Winslow

An evil is in the ‘professed’ camp of the Lord, so gross in its impudence, that the most shortsighted Christian can hardly fail to notice it. During the past few years, this evil has developed at an alarming rate. It has worked like leaven until the whole lump ferments!

The devil has seldom done a more clever thing, than hinting to the Church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them. From speaking out the gospel, the Church has gradually toned down her testimony, then winked at and excused the frivolities of the day. Then she tolerated them in her borders. Now she has adopted them under the plea of reaching the masses!

First, providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the Church. Where do entertainers come in? The Holy Spirit is silent concerning them. Were the prophets persecuted because they amused the people, or because they confronted them? The ‘concert’ has no martyr roll.

Second, providing amusement is in direct antagonism to the teaching and life of Christ and all His apostles.

When “many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him,” I do not hear Him say, ‘Run after these people, Peter, and tell them we will have a different style of service tomorrow; something short and attractive with little preaching. We will have a pleasant evening for the people. Tell them they will be sure to enjoy it! Be quick, Peter, we must get the people somehow!’

No! Jesus pitied sinners, sighed and wept over them, but never sought to amuse them!

Lastly, the Apostles did not cease from preaching Christ. They had no time for arranging entertainments. Scattered by persecution they went everywhere preaching the gospel. They turned the world upside down; that is the only difference from today’s church. The need of the hour for today’s ministry is earnest spirituality joined with Biblical doctrine, so understood and felt, that it sets men on fire.

Lord, clear the Church of all the rot and rubbish the devil has imposed on her, and bring us back to apostolic methods!

-Archibald Brown (1889)