DISCIPLE

by J. C. Ryle (1816-1900) Repentance is a thorough change of person’s natural heart, upon the subject of sin. We are all born in sin. We naturally love sin. We take to sin, as soon as we can act and think—just as the bird takes to flying, and the fish takes to swimming. There never was a child that required schooling or education in order to learn deceitfulness, selfishness, passion, self-will, gluttony, pride and foolishness. These things are not picked up from bad companions, or gradually learned by a long course of tedious instruction. They spring up of themselves, even when boys and girls are brought up alone. The seeds of them are evidently the natural product of the heart. The aptitude of all children to these evil things is an unanswerable proof of the corruption and fall of man. Now when this heart of ours is changed by the Holy Spirit, when this natural love of sin is cast out, then takes place that change which the Word of God calls “repentance.” ...

"Let not anyone rise to repeat the old wheeze, "Oh, you can prove anything by the Bible!" To say such a thing is to be guilty of the most arrant nonsense.  It is the equivalent of saying that you can prove anything by the dictionary.  Well you can prove anything by the dictionary if you violate the principles of the dictionary.  Let me take Webster and turn to the second letter of the alphabet.  There I find b-l-a-c-k, "black."  I repeat the process on the word "is" and again on the word w-h-i-t-e, "white."  Then I put them together: Black is white.  I have the authority of the dictionary; I found it there.  But you cry out that I have outrageously violated the method and the principles that underly dictionaries.  They are to be used only within the limits of their purpose; it is not permissible to make a mockery of the dictionary by distorting its usage and violating its principles.  So it is with the Word of God.  It is not p...

by William R. Newell This is the doctrine that Jesus Christ came to reform society (whatever "society" is!); that He came to abate the evils of selfishness, give a larger "vision" to mankind; and, through His example and precepts, bring about such a change in human affairs, social, political, economic and domestic, as would realize all man's deep longings for a peaceful, happy existence upon earth, ushering in what these teachers are pleased to call, "the Kingdom of God."     1. Now, in the first place, Jesus Christ came to save sinners, not "society."  He said, "The Son of Man hath authority on earth to forgive sins." Now, sins are individual transgressions against a personal God; there is no such thing in Scripture as these social-gospellers dream of, - a condition of "society" to be "changed" or "ameliorated."  All that really exists is the guilt of a vast number of really guilty sinners....

Would you rather have been the captain of the Titanic or one of those who helped people into the  lifeboats – captain of a gigantic failure, or oarsman in a little rowboat?     Those who run for political office are in effect volunteering to captain the Titanic.  Politics is a corrupt, Christ-less failure that is leading to the Antichrist, and is soon to go down with the doomed earth. Rather that seek the distinction of holding a proud office and "serving" by doing a few things to better folks stay on the fatal voyage, better to proclaim the gospel and get as many as possible into the lifeboats before the ship goes down. When the Lord comes, and judgment falls on this world, what boast will it be to say, “I was a congressman, or mayor, or president” in that ruined wreck?  All would-be captains of the Titanic, beware!  

by William J. Randolph commenting on Ezekiel 5:5, he writes:      "While placed in this privileged position, Israel became enamored with the ways and the women of the pagan nations to whom she was to be a witness.  Soon Israel's position of privilege became a position of punishment.      "Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD: Behold, I, even I, am against thee, and will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations" (Ezekiel 5:8).  "Moreover I will make thee waste, and a reproach among the nations that are round about thee, in the sight of all that pass by" (vs. 14).      In my very early years, I found myself in a similar situation.  I had a part in a special children's program.  The part assigned to me required a delayed entrance onto the stage.  When I was given my cue and a helping push, I suddenly found myself looking at a sea of adult faces all looking at me....

     "A program of light jazzy religion can equally  stultify spiritual growth.  And too many ministers have not learned that sermonettes by preacherettes make Christianettes.  If you want to have a strong spiritual life, you must spend time on it.  The growth of the soul is a definite thing, and we must obey the rules of spiritual dietetics if we would come into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.      ...What does it mean to import truth from one heart to another?  It should be understood that it is a vertical work and not a horizontal one.  There have been those who have attempted to introduce into the Christian vocabulary the idea of sharing.  There was quite a vogue of this sharing a few years ago.  One man who had been a drunkard would tell another drunkard that he himself had been that way, and that he could share certain experiences with him, and certain knowledge of how to ove...

commenting on Romans 1:22-23, Barnhouse writes:      When man departed from God, there was an immediate way opened back into the presence of God, a way that was guarded by cherubim sent from Heaven with a flaming sword to keep that way open for man. It was the way of the altar, the way of the blood: a picture of the cross of Jesus Christ.  It was not long before Cain took the path of opposition. He did not want to submit himself to God and recognize his own sinfulness.  He killed his brother Abel, who was obeying God by faith in bringing the sin-offering of the lamb.  That murder was a great picture of human brotherhood.  It showed what the brotherhood of man really is: one man killing another who was from the same father and out of the same womb.  Do not prate about the brotherhood of man.  God has condemned all possibility of attaining any solution of the human problem apart from Himself.      Can we proje...

The man or woman of the world is the dreamer, not the Christian. Sinners can never quite be themselves. They must pretend all their lives. They must act as if they were never going to die, and yet they know too well that they will. They must act as if they have never sinned, when deep in their hearts, they know very well that they have. They must act unconcerned about God and judgment and the future life, and all the time their hearts are deeply disturbed about their precarious condition. They must keep up a front of nonchalance while shrinking from facts and wincing under the lash of conscience. The news of a friend's sudden death leaves them shaken with the suggestion that they may be next, but they dare not show this - they must cover their terror as best they can and continue to act their part. All their adult lives, they must dodge and hide and conceal. When they finally drop the act, they either lose their mind, turn to Christ or try suicide.      ...

Sometimes we hear of a politician or other celebrity who is made a "chief" of one or another tribe of American Indians. He is greeted solemnly, powwowed over in guttural tones, invested with a gaudy headdress of eagle feathers, has his picture taken with the big men of the tribe and is from that time on a chief among them.     His self-conscious smirk tells us plainly that he considers the whole thing a joke, but the unsmiling Indians apparently take it all pretty seriously. It requires no great penetration to see that all the ceremonies, beads, feathers and powwows in the world cannot make an Indian out of a white man. At the most he is only an honorary chief, not a real one.     Compare this to many evangelical churches, which have altogether too many members who are Christians by initiation, not by spiritual birth. They have been powwowed over by the local sachems and given the impression that they are Christians in face, when the truth is that ...

this chapter is quoted in its entirety from the e-book:  Cremation: What Does God Think?   by David Cloud. The book may be read on line or downloaded in three different formats from the author's web site. We encourage you to read the entire book: www.wayoflife.org/database/ebook.html  The Bible and Burial      At the outset let me answer an objection sometimes made at this point. The objection is, “Yes, God’s people in the Bible practiced burial. The example is clearly there. But are we bound to follow these examples? They are not direct commands.” The answer is given in Romans 15:4. “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning...” And again in 1 Corinthians 10:11 we read, “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” In these passages God is telling us that we are to follow the Bible’s examples as well...

  “There is a common worldly kind of Christianity in this day, which many have—a cheap Christianity which offends no one, and requires no sacrifice, and costs nothing, and is worth nothing.” J. C. Ryle (1816-1900)     “The preaching of the gospel must come with the understanding the messenger will not be popular and that he will be called to stand where Jesus stood before the world: to be admired by many, loved by a few, and rejected by the vast majority.” A. W. Tozer (1897-1963)  for excellent articles, visit:  http://www.bibleandlife.org/Newsletters

Donald Norbie explains the error of the denominational church organization and government, and shows what is the pattern given us in the New Testament. Church order, including government, is part of apostolic doctrine. We are not free to do as we please. Hebrews 8:5  "See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee..." Today the structure most churches follow is to have a pastor or senior pastor leading the work, supported by a group of deacons or elders. The primary work of preaching and teaching is left to the pastor. The "laymen" are to be generous in giving and faithful in attendance, and to be active in supporting ministries, such as Sunday School. The pastor is viewed as a professional who has had special training and is qualified to teach God's Word. Laymen are not expected to preach to the whole church. And often the pastor is jealous of his position and guards it vigorously, maintaining that laymen are not qualifi...

by A. W. Tozer  After hearing some Christians talk for a while, one begins to sense the presence of health or disease in their souls.  Certain words keep cropping up that tell us more about the speakers than they dream we know, and certainly more than they want us to know. Words are symptomatic.     One such word sometimes used among Christians is "fair," or its unpleasant sister "unfair."  People use these words to describe the treatment accorded them by other people, and on the surface they would seem to be altogether innocent, even indispensable words.  Nevertheless, they indicate an inner attitude that has no place among Christians.  The man who refers to one or another act as being "unfair" to him is not a victorious man.  He is inwardly defeated, and in self-defense he is appealing to the referee to note that he has been fouled.  This gives him an alibi when they carry him out on a stretcher and saves his face while his ...

by A. W. Tozer   ...The movement from orthodoxy to liberalism is usually slow, almost too slow to be perceived... Unbelief enters the soul by a slow seepage; the toxin gets through the walls of the soul by a kind of spiritual osmosis so that the victim is well poisoned before he or she notices it, and the pathological condition that results usually makes it impossible for that person to know what is wrong. I have never known of a single instance where a man or woman accepted modernism as a result of a spiritual experience. Rather it is the lack of such experience that exposes the soul to the in-seepìng of the poison of unbelief. ...The liberal can never be quite sure of anything - it is contrary to his or her whole philosophy to be certain.  Only the true Christian is sure.  He or she has seen the sun rise, and it takes more than the contentions of the pseudo-learned to destroy the brightness of this person's faith. from chapter 33 of This World: Playground ...

by A. W. Tozer The mania after glamour and the contempt of the ordinary are signs and portents in American society. Even religion has gone glamorous. And in case you do not know what glamour is, I might explain that it is a compound of sex, paint, padding and artificial lights.  It came to America by way of the honky-tonk and the movie lot, got accepted by the world first and then strutted into the church - vain, self-admiring and contemptuous. Instead of the Spirit of God in our midst, we now have the spirit of glamour, as artificial as painted death and as hollow as the skull, which is its symbol.      That we now have to deal with a new spirit in religion is not merely a figure of speech.  The new Christianity has clearly introduced new concepts that face us brazenly wherever we turn within the confines of evangelical Christianity. The plain virtues, so dear to the heart of the prophet and apostle and the substance of the solemn and fiery serm...

by A. W. Tozer Only God is self-sufficient. When men boast of being self-sufficient, they are indulging a fiction that can be proven fictitious just by taking a quick look around...      The human body cannot live on itself. To live it must have constant help from the outside.  Though filled with pride and overflowing with self-assurance, men and women must humble themselves to receive aid from the lower creation.  Every monarch must trust the common cow for food.  Every strutting lord of the manor must beg his dinner from the barnyard hen.  The cold prima donna manages to stay alive only by the grace of pigs and fish.  The genius must look to bees, shrubs, seeds and berries.  From these things come the energy without which all people would die, the great as well as the lowly...      The tragic history of the world is, at the bottom line, the record of sinning min trying to live on their own resources and n...

We do not need to be educated to win the lost. What we need are consecrated and Spirit-filled lives.  And we need to love the souls of men so much we will gladly lay down our lives for them.     Paul declared, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth” (Rom. 1:16).  The gospel, not your presentation of it! The gospel, not your wisdom, training, education, talents or gifts, the gospel is the power, the dynamic of God!  Oh, my brethren, let me plead with you, if you have used other methods and relied upon other things, let me persuade you to confess your error and return to the simplicity of the gospel.  Preach the Word!                                                        ...

GOD TAKES IT SERIOUSLY Ex. 20:12    “honor thy father and thy mother” Ex. 21:15    “he that smiteth his father or his mother”  Ex. 21:17    “he that curseth his father or his mother”   Lev. 19:3    “ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father” Deut. 5:16  “honor thy father and thy mother as the                     LORD thy God hath commanded thee” Deut. 21:18-21 “ If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutto...