Memorable proverbs
1
What is Faith? Close your eyes to everything visible, and open your ear to God. That is faith.
Bad doctrine leads to bad behaviour.You can learn of a person by reading of that person in a book, but to learn from that person you must be in his company.
Humility is the secret of fellowship, and pride is the secret of division.
If we do not put into practice what we say we have believed, then we have not really believed it.
I think that when near the Lord you look at your mercies, when away from Him at your troubles.
The best way to correct a failing in your brother is to be in yourself the living expression of the virtue he lacks
2
The Bible is always a new book to those well–acquainted with it.
Spiritual work can only be done by spiritual strength.
Every step in faith’s pathway will be contested by the Devil.
It is a poor gain to acquire considerable knowledge of God without its having at the same time a deep moral effect on the soul.
Lot walked “by sight”—he lifted up his own eyes (Gen. 13: 10). Abram walked “by faith” and lifted up his eyes only at the command of Jehovah (Gen. 13: 14).
The great conductor, Reichel, was taking his choir and orchestra through their final rehearsal of Handel’s Messiah. In flawless fashion, the soprano soloist sang her part and all expected the conductor to congratulate her. Instead, he responded, “You don’t know your Redeemer lives, do you?” Embarrassed, she stammered, “I think I do”. “Then sing it so I know you have experienced the joy and power of it”.
3
All the revivals in Christianity have usually been accompanied, if not caused, by a considerable amount of open–air preaching.
The way to be very great is to be very little.
It is only by faith we see our home above that we are proper pilgrims here.
I am a pilgrim here because I am going home; I am a stranger here because I am not at home.
I am often troubled that many seek to know how to know God’s will without really having the heart to do it.
The Lord’s coming was constantly before the mind of the apostles and the early believers, and entered into and coloured all their thoughts, words and actions.
“Occupation with” leads to “likeness to”.
4
Humility is not demeaning ourselves and thinking poorly of ourselves. It is simply not thinking of ourselves at all.
The servant said in his heart— he did not preach it— “my Lord delayeth His coming”
The Christian is not ruined by living in the world, but by the world living in him.
“Search the Scriptures” said the Lord, using the Greek word which implies a strict, diligent, curious search such as men make when seeking gold.
If you do not pray for those whom you do know, you can hardly pray for those whom you do not know.
Reasoning about Christ without affection for Christ, is the road to error.
God loves every one of us as if there were but one of us.
The sealing of the Spirit is I know that I am God's property. The earnest of the Spirit is that I have got property.
5
Not only must something be done to evangelise the millions, but everything must be done “if by any means I may save some” is to be our motto.
May we live more as those who will meet one another in glory!
Life and harmony in the Church depend on subjection to the Head, and on mutual subjection to one another.
If we would lead into God’s truth, we must put our neck into Christ’s yoke.
When teaching ceases to be definite it ceases to be powerful.
A man’s serviceability does not consist of what he knows, but of what he is—he is not effective beyond that.
The believer is a vessel for the display of Christ in this world.
6
Liberality is measured by God in relation to what remains, and not in relation to what is given.
Spirituality and popularity are not compatible.
The communion of the soul is affected by the view we take of the Son of God.
It is not how much we know about the Lord that is important, but how much we know Him.
(2 Tim.1:12)No service for God is insignificant to God.
If we substitute formality for reality we may hoodwink others but not God.
The darkest cloud brings the heaviest showers of blessings.
God is not looking merely for persons who hold the truth but exponents of it too.
7
God has put us in Christ, but we do not always put ourselves where God has placed us.
If we would prevail with men in public, we must prevail with God in private.
Sport for the sportsman, politics for the politician, money for the miser, Christ for the Christian.
Christ in the head is of no value without Christ in the heart.
The Pope’s calendar only makes saints of the dead, but Scripture requires sanctity in the living.
Faith is taking God at his word.
Love for Jesus sets one to work. I know no other way.
The time will soon come when we shall say of all that has not been Christ in our lives and ways, “that was all lost”.
Christians should be different, not odd. Oddness repels people, difference attracts.
8
God is most patient towards mere want of light; but He is intolerant of His saints trifling with the light He has given them
Application of Scripture must be consistent with its explanation.
We accept that the eye cannot do without the hand, (1 Cor. 12: 21), but neither can the eye do the work of the hand.
When the Spirit comes into the believer, He makes Christ dearer, Heaven nearer, and the Word of God clearer.
If Christ is worth having, He is worth sharing.
What is of faith cannot fail.
It is a poor thing to claim to have the Spirit, and be content to serve and live without the power.
One may be busy in works even where the power which once prompted them has largely declined.
9
Apply yourself wholly to the Scriptures, and apply the Scriptures wholly to yourself.
Now is the time to make an investment in eternity.
There is always a correspondence between the character and condition of the teachers and the taught.
Prayer must not be transformed into an oblique sermon. It is little short of blasphemy to make devotion an occasion for display.
We want not simply to know the truth, we want to be ardent about it, so that we make it evident that we really have it.
Christ died rather than allow sin to subsist before God.
The infirmities of our brethren are fair occasions for our patience and long–suffering: let us have grace for each opportunity.
All the trials and all the sufferings of all creatures—were they heaped together—must not be compared with Christ’s sufferings on the cross.
Christ never did anything for Himself.
10
The Holy Spirit enables us to fulfil earthly duties in a heavenly manner.
There is a difference between Christ’s sealing and ours. He was sealed because of what He was in Himself, we are sealed because of what we are in Him.
There is a great difference between being occupied with what you are saved from, and what you are saved to.
A careless reader of the Scriptures never made a close walker with God.
Many believers, though they live in NT times, walk in the OT spirit.
Being a model citizen did not give Lot’s testimony any power—it was as if he jested. Abraham was separate and had all the power of God at his disposal.
I believe the converting of a soul is something greater than the making of a world.
We either leave our mark on the world or the world leaves its mark on us.
11
We must not take our own impressions, however earnestly and piously derived, as necessarily in accordance with the will of God, without testing them by His revealed Word—in short, making our test in each case not subjective feeling, but objective revelation.
The Christian is promised no earthly portion except the cross that He bore.
Love likes to be a servant; selfishness likes to be served.
We are never to give up anything that is of God.
A well–worn Bible is the sign of a well–fed soul.
Our lack of walking in the Spirit often moves others to like negligence.
The deeper the trial the sweeter the song that results.
Faith acts upon God’s word whatever the difficulty.
Christ was the display, at all cost to Himself, of divine love to man.
12
Christ must not be merely prominent, He must be pre–eminent.
It is possible to be strict without being legal, wide hearted without being worldly.
We are the only picture of Christ that some people will ever see.
What is most precious in the sight of God is often least noticed by men.
The so–called innocent amusements of the world are only contrivances to forget God.
Contend for the faith without being contentious.
Grace came down to the bottom because love wanted me at the top.
Faith is that we have the light of God’s things; piety is that we bring God into our own things.
We can be dead right, but dead nonetheless.
The notion that ministry can be both effective and painless is a lie.
13
If we had more “Holy Spirit” prayer meetings, we would have more “Holy Spirit” preachings.
We see what God thinks of man at the cross, and we also see what man thinks of God.
It is the nature of sin to obtain great power by little beginnings.
Study the written Word to know Him who is the Living Word.
The way we view eternity affects the way we live in time.
Faith, like an anchor, holds to the unseen.
We may fail, but He abides faithful, (2 Tim. 2: 13).
Faith without works is dead. Not sickly, not weak, but dead!
The rich are not always godly, but the godly are always rich.
Creation is an outstretched finger pointing to God.
Scripture says that the early Christians "turned the world upside down", (Acts: 17: 6 - AV). In our generation, the world is turning the Church upside down.
14
God is more interested in our worship than our work.
Everyone who finds himself in heaven will have to thank God for it, and everyone who finds himself in hell will have to thank himself.
The devil may be out of fashion but he is certainly not out of business.
Humility is the result of knowing Christ and knowing yourself.
God’s grace cannot be measured, nor adequately defined—it is too great.
Ignorance of the truth is one thing, indifference is another.
Since the Lord may come at any time, we must be ready all the time.
Before Martha’s service can be at its best she must first take Mary’s place.
The joy of the Lord is the only antidote for the pleasures of sin.
When the Spirit comes into the believer He makes Christ dearer, heaven nearer, and the Word of God clearer.
15
The Christian life is not a playground but a battleground.
Abraham took Lot out of Egypt, but he could not take Egypt out of Lot.
All roads in Scripture lead to the Lord Jesus.
God makes more of the dedication of the heart than any outward service that we can render.
Our giving up the world and the world giving us up are two very different things.
When an attempt is made to separate Christians into two classes we may be sure it is almost always evil.
The Lord Jesus always finds service for willing hands.
In small points of obedience are found the best test of the soul’s state.
If we say that we believe something, but fail to act on it, we never really believed it.
16
Our ambition in life should be to glorify Christ. Anything else is unbecoming for a Christian.
The application of a little love heals many a wound amongst brethren.
Many a Christian is eager to serve; few are willing to submit themselves to God’s training.
What is traditional may be easily mistaken for what is Scriptural.
Christ was perfect: it is not only that He did not sin, but that He could not sin.
It is one thing to speak of God as Father; quite another to know Him in that relation.
If God, the great God is for me, who can I fear?
The Bible is the Word of God and should be read as such. It is not just a book, but a channel of communication.
17
May we live as those who will meet one another in glory!
Your morality may keep you out of jail, but it takes God’s grace and the death of His Son to keep you out of Hell.
More evil is done to the cause of Christianity by its adherents than by its enemies.
The Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible.
I do not care for novel interpretations of Scripture. Cream lies on the surface.
The humblest piece of God’s creation is far more wonderful than anything that man has ever made.
It took one day to get Israel out of Egypt; it took 40 years to get Egypt out of Israel.
Occupation with self is distressing. Occupation with others is discouraging. Occupation with Christ is delightful.
18
Earthly friends may come and go, but Christ remains.
If you are what you have always been, you are not a Christian.
The way to arrive at the sense of the immensity of sin is by having a sense of the immensity of the grace that has met it.
It is one thing to hope that God is with me in what I do, quite another to know it.
A doctrine can never be founded upon a type. Instead it is the doctrine that explains the type.
What a man is in his prayer–closet is what he is.
God has put us in Christ, but we do not always put ourselves where God has put us.
The Holy Spirit makes good in me what Christ has done for me.
Following Christ may at times be expensive, but it will more than repay.
19
The same love that shone on His perfect path below shines now on our own imperfect courses.
The truest witness will be the greatest sufferer.
Our place in the world is decided by what His place there is.
We are poor students, but He is a great teacher.
All the sorrows that we are acquainted with in this vale of tears are the sorrows of an imperfect creature. The sorrows of the Perfect One we cannot fathom.
There is nothing we need press on each other in these days more than the need for prayer.
The heart is very prone to stop short of the blessing God proposes for it.
Heaven will be the best and safest place to hear of the results of our work.
20
Indifference towards evil is the greatest evil.
Man’s opinion is no substitute for the Word of God.
Sins may be forgiven; sin is never forgiven.
Extremes usually start with slight deviations.
Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot feel.
Where the Gospel is marginalised, so is Christ.
Out of communion into law. And once in law, into sin—because we can’t keep it.
Every privilege has a responsibility; but every responsibility has a power to carry it out.
It will be found that, where a person systematically misapplies scripture, he destroys some fundamental principle of the Word of God.
It is obedience in a Christian that proves his love to Christ.
It is not equal knowledge that puts us in communion with one another, but the purpose of heart.
There is present loss and loss in the future when we are linked with the world.
21
The Bible may be old, but its truths are always new.
Your life may be the only testimony someone may ever see.
The Lord does not make light of our sorrow. We only know sorrow in an imperfect way, He knows it perfectly.
If you ally yourself with the world, it gives the impression that it isn’t going to be judged.
To act only because our path is clear of difficulty is not faith.
In everything God is just, be it judgement or justification.
The nearer you get to something, it is not you that becomes greater, but the object before you.
We think much of our standard of living, but God is more interested in our standard of giving.
If the heart begins to approve itself because of its intelligence, the sense of need lessens, and piety diminishes.
22
The Christian has given up that which he could not keep for that which he cannot lose.
Lip–service in the things of God is not enough. There must be heart-service.
If repentance does not mark the beginning, there is no depth in the conversion.
Human arrangements hinder divine power.
It is worth a world to have an intimate eternity with Christ.
The state of our souls may be discerned by the effect produced upon us by the name of the Lord Jesus.
Whoever is keeping on terms with the world, is not walking with God.
Wherever there is claim to great spirituality, there is great danger.
For sinners heaven is free; for saints it costs the earth.
23
Before you can properly fill in the detail, you must have the outline of sound words.
The way to kill sin in your life is to feed Scripture to your life.
The sinner hides from God; the saint hides in God.
Abraham outside of Sodom had more influence that Lot within.
Practice without doctrine leads to error; doctrine without practice is hypocrisy.
Behind every scene of our lives lies the hand of the God who loves us.
The Lord is the most important person to be in fellowship with.
Error often rides to its deadly work on the back of truth.
The value of a gift is not how much it benefits the recipient, but how much it costs the giver (see Luke 21: 1-4).
24
Whatever makes Christ more precious to us is of God.
There are no people so hard to teach as those that imagine that they are more advanced than they are.
Great men of God are never such in their own eyes.
Which is more worthy to occupy our thoughts - the littleness of our love, or the fullness of that love which passes knowledge?
It is easier to teach the lessons of Christianity than it is to learn them.
When knowledge enters the head it exalts me; when knowledge enters the heart it humbles me.
It is easier to keep the enemy out than it is to expel him after he has affected an entrance.
Sin cannot flourish where godliness is cultivated.
Scientists are concerned about where man came from; Christians are concerned where man is going to.
25
The way to measure growth is by what we think of Christ.
We are to be ready for the last moment by being ready at every moment.
Our talk must be in accord with our walk.
The way to be in the right state for the Lord’s Supper is to remember whose supper it is.
What you have time for reveals your priorities.
If there was one man who did not need to pray it was Christ-yet he prayed more than any other.
The point about worship is not what I get out of it, but what God gets out of it.
To experience God’s strength we must acknowledge our weakness.
26
In the last days the test of true love is the maintenance of the truth.
As only diamond can cut diamond, so only Scripture can interpret Scripture.
Whatever God is most set for, Satan is most set against.
We are never to seek to vindicate ourselves when it is a personal matter, but when the Lord’s name is dishonoured, then for His glory we may speak.
If we are not in the path of God’s will, we are not in the path of power.
The tendency is to lose dependence when we are enjoying the results of dependence.
Your are of no use to God until your will is broken.
How little we realise the magnitude of the fact that God is our Father. If a man had an emperor for his father he would not go to a peasant to ask for help.
Unconscious testimony is always the most powerful. I often think that at the judgement seat of Christ we shall find a word we have spoken casually, a little sentence dropped, has been more used than all our preaching and lectures.
The right things are not always popular and the popular things are not always right.
Light not acted upon becomes darkness, but light acted upon leads to more light.
27
He is a happy man who cannot please himself without pleasing God.
A dangerous state: great activity without great communion.
I must always look above my path to be able to walk in it.
If God sends the storm, He will also steer the vessel.
The secret of satisfaction with present circumstances is that He is possessed.
Our histories are like a piece of work––one side, the underside, all a tangle. But there is another side––the Lord is working out His own pattern.
Do what you can, where you are, with what you can.
His work for our conscience, His person for our heart.
28
The Bible is too deep for a scholar to master, yet simple enough for a child to read.
The purpose of evolution is not to explain nature, but to explain away God.
Those who fear God most, fear men least.
We are often guided by circumstances. The Lord Jesus was always guided by His Father’s will.
Politicians deal with the symptoms of society’s ills. God can deal with the root.
It is not good works or benevolence, but the link, however feeble, with Christ that excites the world’s hatred.
A soul who is in the secret of the divine mind must be content to be unappreciated and to walk alone.
Which would you rather have: a smooth path, or a path so rough that the Lord is compelled to show His face to you every step of the way?
It is good to be saved and to know it. It is best to be saved and to show it.
29
The nails could not keep Christ on the cross––but love could.
A man does not always receive the truth even when he is reduced to confess that he is in error.
Love is not to be measured by profession or emotion, but by obedience.
God is not only able to save, He is willing and waiting.
All that makes heaven a home to Christ will make it a home to me.
We cannot have power with men if we have not power with God. The greatest mistake any of us can make is to seek to have power before men without having been in the presence of God.
If you do not delight in His word, how can you say that you love God?
There are three distinct attitudes in which the soul may be found in reference to the dealings of God. When the will is broken, there is subjection; when the understanding is enlightened as to the Divine object, there is acquiescence, and when the affections are engaged with God Himself, there is positive rejoicing.
30
To render evil for good is devilish; to render good for good is human; but to render good for evil is divine!
In intellectual argument the Christian may be defeated. The argument of a changed life, however, is unassailable.
The moral change in the saints takes a lifetime, but the physical change when the Lord comes takes place in the twinkling of an eye.
It is not enough to hold the truth––the truth must hold us.
If your Bible is in good shape, it probably means that you are not.
Spiritually the road to Laodicea begins at Ephesus. There they had left their first love.
Shut out the world and you might hear God.
‘New light’ is often old error.
31
It is one thing to speak well of Christ, quite another to give up all for Him.
No one can love his neighbour as himself when he has more than he needs and his neighbour has less than he needs.
We are left here to display Christ. If we are not doing that then we are of no use to Him or to the world.
What we spend time on is proof of what we love.
Very often those who boast loudest are furthest from the truth they claim.
“The Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me” (Gal. 2: 20)––this was the spur that drove the apostle on in untiring service for Christ.
Every servant knows the past of Christ, and many know of His future. What really matters, however, is knowing Him in the present.God fans to get rid of the chaff (Matt. 3: 12); Satan sifts to get rid of the wheat (Luke 22: 31)
32
At Ephesus (Rev. 2: 4), Christ had not got His rightful place. In Laodicea He had no place at all (Rev. 3: 20).
God can deal with your past. He can provide for your future. But He needs your committal now.
Our desire to live piously can be measured by our persecution (2 Tim. 3: 12).
Little is much when God is in it.
We must handle the study of Christ as we would a priceless jewel––with care.
If the assembly’s prime object is Christ, then there will be something for both God and man. If it is not, then there will be a lack in both directions.
The Christian’s compass is the Word of God.
The Christian has an anchor that all the world’s storms cannot shift.
33
The man of God may live on earth, but he banks and trades in heaven.
We are strangers and pilgrims here (1 Peter 2: 11 AV). As strangers we eye the land where we are now; as pilgrims we eye the land to which we are going.
Low thoughts of Christ go with high thoughts of our state.
Worship is for God’s enjoyment––not mine.
The existence of the flesh does not stop communion, but allowance of it does.
Ability, however great, gift, however distinct, are not enough without personal communion.
If ministry is real, it brings God directly to the conscience through the Word, whereas that which is false stands between God and the conscience.
The Christian has a measureless income to live upon––the grace of God.
34
Satan’s patronage is to be more feared than his persecution.
The question for most of us is not how much we devote to Christ, but how much we reserve for ourselves.
Our obedience to God is a measure of our love for God.
Obeying the law was a duty; obeying Christ is a delight.
To be faithful we have not only to love what Christ loves, but to hate what He hates.
The Word of God should not only inform us––it should transform us.
While the Bible has a warning “Be not many teachers” (James 3: 1); there is no corresponding warning “Be not many learners”.
God does not think––man does; but God knows.
35
The higher you climb in this world the closer you are to the god of this world. Why? Because the god of this world is at the top of this world.
Man will settle for an orthodox faith; God demands a living faith.
My purpose here is to obey the Lord and to please God.
God is the only one who can at the same time both satisfy and stimulate.
The truest witness will be the greatest sufferer.
Our place in the world is decided by what His place there is.
I shall only learn the perfect sufficiency of God when I realise the utter insufficiency of self.
What is really profitable for the soul is what is for the glory of God.
36
It is not the quantity of what we do, but the measure in which we present Christ that is the value of our service.
It is on our knees that we defeat the forces of evil.
No one has a true estimate of the things in the world until he goes into the presence of God.
Discernment of what is false depends on knowledge of what is true.
If you stand for Christ, He will stand with you.
The love of Christ is like the blue sky on whose beauty you may gaze, but whose vastness you cannot measure.
For the unconverted, Christ is nothing. For the average Christian, Christ is something. For the committed Christian, Christ is everything.
The great cause of our neglect of the Scriptures is not want of time, but want of heart.
37
When the Holy Spirit communicates heavenly truth to the renewed heart, it always re–ascends in thanksgiving and praise.
It is easier to scribble truth on paper than it is to imprint it on the conscience.
No man can love his neighbour as himself when he has more than he needs and his neighbour has less than he needs.
It does not say the Father seeks worshippers––but such as His worshippers––that is those that worship in spirit and in truth.
Christianity and politics do not mix: they are occupied with different worlds.
If you want to walk with God then you will be out of step with the world.
There is no more humbling truth than this: the Son of God gave Himself for me.
I should be as dependent in prosperity as I am in poverty.
38
Satan has shown more zeal to ruin souls than most of us have had to save them.
It was not Christ’s life on earth that saves us but His death––and if His life could not save us, our life cannot.
Those who minister publicly should be consistent; for what they are may speak so loudly as to drown what they say.
Doctrine that isn’t practised is doctrine that isn’t believed.
Better than he who wipes a tear is he who prevents it from starting.
Adversity often shows our strength––prosperity, often, our weakness.
It often needs ‘more grace’ to be silent than to speak.
To be angry at nothing but sin is the way to “Be angry and sin not” (see Eph. 4: 26).
39
The more truth an error contains, the more dangerous it is.
Faith is to take God at His word.
The best way to correct a failing in your brother is to be in yourself the living expression of the virtue he lacks.
God makes more of the dedication of the heart than of any outward service we can render.
The drunkard and the thief are obviously on the broad road that leads to destruction. The Pharisee seems to be on the narrow way, yet in reality is only keeping to the clean side of the broad road.
There is always light for the pilgrim’s path––even though there may be many dark clouds in the sky.
Faith is like a cable, which though stretched and strained, does not break in the storm.
A very small stain upon the conscience makes a wide breach in our communion with God.
The fact that a Christian has an experience does not make it a Christian experience.
40
Faith sees the invisible, hears the inaudible, touches the intangible.
Some people give according to their means, others according to their meanness.
We must preach a full Gospel––Christ and nothing less, a plain Gospel––Christ and nothing more, and a pure Gospel––Christ and nothing else.
When God measures a man He puts the tape round his heart and not his head.
Our needs are great, but the Lord’s resources are inexhaustible.
You cannot follow Christ if you have never met Him.Don’t expect to be liked if you are like Christ.
Prayer should be a delight not simply a duty.
A child of God should bear a family likeness.
41
The most powerful man on earth will be a praying man.
A church that lives on past glories will have no present power.
The antidote to spiritual pride is a view of divine grace.
There is no love without life, and no life without light.
If the death of Christ does not lead us to worship, then nothing will.
The Father’s house is a prepared place for a prepared people.
The most important ingredient in prayer is reality.
God’s timing is always perfect.
The problem with most of us is not understanding Scripture, but obeying it.
Count your blessings not your problems.
A woman may as well expect to have a child without pain as one can have repentance without sorrow.
42
You can never rise above the object you desire to reach. If your aim is simply to get on in the world, you will never rise above the world - never!
If you let God have your life, He will make more of it than ever you could have done.
Faithfulness in little things is a great thing.
Sins are like weeds––if they are not dealt with they just keep growing.
The Philadelphian thinks nothing of himself; the Laodicean thinks he is Philadelphian.
If what we do is not marked by holiness, then it has nothing to do with the Holy Spirit.
It is a bad time with the Christian when he has what is called a good time with people of the world.
Whether I walk faithfully, or whether I am a back-slider, the Lord always acts towards me in love.
43
For the Christian the Lord’s coming is more certain than death. I may or may not die, but the Lord will come.
Affection amongst saints springs from communion with God.
If the old creation was “very good” (Gen. 1: 31), what of the new?
Gift, if properly used, will always draw attention to its giver.
I cannot make Christ the centre of my efforts if He is not the centre of my thoughts.
There is no equality in an alliance between truth and error, since by this very alliance, truth ceases to be truth, and error does not thereby become truth.
When we are really weak God never leaves us, but when we are not aware of our infirmities we have to learn them by experience.
God cannot and will not turn a blind eye to sin.
44
The man of God may not preach what people want to hear, but he preaches what people need to hear.
Christ died alone but millions live to God on account of His death.
Love at the expense of truth is not love at all.
If we try to cover up sin it will eventually bring us down.
I cannot lose my salvation because it does not depend on me but the Lord.
The moment all seems hopeless is the moment that God delights to come into.
The best part of all Christian work is that part which only God sees.
Lot would not give up God, but he would not give up much for God.
Fire is beneficial, but fire out of control is anything but beneficial. In the same way, the apostle fixes limits on love so that it may not run wild and embrace that which is error (Phil. 1: 9). May our love abound––but in accordance with knowledge and intelligence!
45
If I want the private approval of Christ I must expect the public disapproval of men.
Whatever humbles me helps me.
There is no excuse for sin. No one will plead palliating circumstances before the Judge of heaven and earth.
“Jesus wept” (John 11: 35). O how real was His manhood!
The more I talk about having the Lord’s approval then the more evident it is that I have not got it.
People speak of holding to the ‘Reformed faith’. In actual fact we are to contend for that which preceded it (Jude 3).
We cannot measure the delight God found in the Son––and for that reason we cannot measure the cost of what He gave (John 3: 16).
The moment a man is influenced by what he sees then he is not acting in faith. Faith is simply reckoning on the Word of God.
46
Our talk must be compatible with our walk.
It is a mistake to think that unity can be achieved by imposing uniformity.
The old nature in a saint is as bad as the old nature in a sinner.
There are popes in Protestantism just as much as in Catholicism.
The moment you deny that all Scripture is inspired, then all Scripture becomes uncertain.
The Lord was never too busy to meet souls in their needs.
The state of the prayer–meeting is the state of the church.
The more we love Christ the less we shall feel at home here.
47
We are to believe God’s Word without question, but no one else’s word.
Saul failed to utterly destroy the Amalekites, and it was an Amalekite that finally destroyed him.
The Bible is the most used and misused book of all time.
As a Christian matures spiritually he becomes more dependent.
Order according to man is disorder according to God.
You either have a living hope or a dead religion.
There is a joy that God gives that is independent of any circumstances we may pass through.
In Lot we see how near a man can be to damnation and yet be saved; in his wife we see how near one may be to salvation and yet be lost.
The more I love Christ the more the world will hate me.
Money will buy a bed but not sleep, books but not brains, food but not appetite, finery but not beauty, medicine but not health, luxury but not culture, amusement but not happiness, a crucifix but not a Saviour, a temple of religion but not heaven (see 1 Tim. 6: 10).
48
Christ represents us above; we represent Him below.
Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscle of omnipotence.
Some of us are unbalanced: we have a long doctrinal leg and a short practical leg.
Abraham left all for God, left all with God, found all in God and yielded all to God.
You may travel the sea of life without Christ, but to what port are you heading?
Give up the Bible as a standard and morality is at the mercy of democracy.
Where Christ is accepted, I am accepted; where Christ is rejected, I am rejected.
Before I am ready to serve, I must be ready to obey.
Ability, however great, gift, however distinct, are not enough without personal communion.
49
When praying it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.
There is a great difference between being prepared to speak in the Assembly, and being determined to speak.
The existence of the flesh does not stop communion, but the allowance of it does.
Our toil here is brief, but its reward is eternal.
The worst sin is to reject the sin–purger.
Our old history ends with the cross, our new history begins with the resurrection.
While the Bible has a warning “be not many teachers” (James 3: 1), there is no corresponding warning “be not many learners”.
We may profess much and possess nothing.
50
Faith and God see alike.
Everyone of us is by nature worse than anything we have ever done.
Sin is one word, but what a volume of misery it describes.
God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supplies.
The way to strength is to realise our weakness.
God may turn from His wrath, but He never turns from His love.
What God condemns in the sinner He does not condone in the saint.
As you reverence God so you reverence His Word.
Christianity is conformative not reformative.
What Saul, Abner and Joab dedicated to the house of God was treasured (1 Chron. 26: 28). These men all failed later in their lives. The lesson here is that even if a brother goes wrong, his past service or ministry is still to be treasured.
We must go out to the lost if we expect such to come into blessing.
