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3dfd0cf
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Living in the Spirit means a daily commitment to please Christ and not to please self.
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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b10bc56
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What was injected into Eve's mind and affections during the conversation with the Serpent was a deep-seated suspicion of God that was soon further twisted into rebellion against him. The root of her antinomianism (opposition to and breach of the law) was actually the legalism that was darkening her understanding, dulling her senses, and destroying her affection for her heavenly Father. Now, like a pouting child of the most generous father, ..
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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ea68293
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The human heart" wrote Calvin, "has so many crannies where vanity hides, so many holes where falsehood lurks, is so decked out with deceiving hypocrisy, that it often dupes itself."
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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65b9c52
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Thus the motivation, energy and drive for holiness are all found in the reality and power of God's grace in Christ. And so if I am to make any progress in sanctification, the place where I must always begin is the gospel of the mercy of God to me in Christ Jesus.
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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f18ab37
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When the benefits are seen as abstractable from the Benefactor the issue becomes: 1) For the preacher: "How can I offer these benefits?" and 2) For the hearer: "How can I get these benefits into my life?" But when it is seen that Christ and his benefits are inseparable and that the latter are not abstractable commodities, the primary question becomes: 1) For the preacher: "How do I preach Christ himself?" and 2) For the hearer: "How do I ge..
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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507a549
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Matthew 22:4 ("Everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast"), he addresses the issue of "those to whom the offer is made": It is not one or two, or some few that are called, not the great only, nor the small only, not the holy only, nor the profane only, but ye are all bidden; the call comes to all and every one of you in particular, poor and rich, high and low, holy and profane. Then Durham continues: We make this offer to all of you, t..
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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a0556c4
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In Christ we are no longer dominated by the flesh, but by the Spirit; but we are not yet delivered from the flesh. So long as this eschatological tension exists for the believer, so long will there be--in Calvin's view--a gap between the definition of faith and the actual experience of the believer:
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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659746d
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Repentance then is not the punctiliar decision of a moment but a radical heart transformation that reverses the whole direction of life.
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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8bbf981
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Repentance unto life is an evangelical grace. . . . By it a sinner, out of the sight and sense of the odiousness of sin, not only of its danger, but also of the filthiness and odiousness of his sins, as contrary to the holy nature and righteous law of God, and upon the apprehension of his mercy in Christ to such as are penitent, so grieves for and hates his sins as to turn from them all unto God, purposing and endeavoring to walk with him i..
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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0e516cd
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Repentance is suffused with faith; otherwise it is legal. But then without repentance, faith would be no more than imagination.
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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87a0a9f
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At the end of the day we cannot divide faith and repentance chronologically. The true Christian believes penitently, and he repents believingly.
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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fd6df50
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This same distortion appears when the gospel is preached to the natural man. Boston was all too familiar with the instinct of the awakened individual to say, "I will now try much harder, and I will do better." It seems logical: I realize I have failed. I must reverse this failure by doing better. But it is serpentine logic, for it simply compounds the old legal spirit."
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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3969446
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God's covenant is his sovereign, freely bestowed, unconditional promise: "I will be your God," which carries with it a multidimensional implication: therefore "you will be my people."36 By contrast, a contract would be in the form: "I will be your God if you will live as becomes my people."
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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76e3900
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Jesus did not come to add to our comforts. He did not come to help those who were already helping themselves or to fill life with more pleasant experiences. He came on a deliverance mission, to save sinners, and to do so He had to destroy the works of the Devil (Matt. 1:21; 1 John 3:8b).
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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fb3a6b0
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And, with a disregard for other things, he cherished and experienced That blessed communion with God about which he wrote.
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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c927293
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Faith and repentance are not static, the decision of a moment; they are the lifelong realities of a new heart (8:10; 10:16).
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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392cda1
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pastors need themselves to have been mastered by the unconditional grace of God. From them the vestiges of a self-defensive pharisaism and conditionalism need to be torn. Like the Savior they need to handle bruised reeds without breaking them and dimly burning wicks without quenching them.
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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d6f3f74
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What is a godly pastor, after all, but one who is like God, with a heart of grace; someone who sees God bringing prodigals home and runs to embrace them, weeps for joy that they have been brought home, and kisses them--asking no questions--no qualifications or conditions required?
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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bea584d
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The Marrow Controversy raised a major question about how the gospel is to be preached. But the answer to that question depends on our answer to a more fundamental one: What is the gospel? Contemporary discussion simply underlines how central this question is and the extent to which the answer we give determines how we preach and communicate the gospel.
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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b31f755
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To run, to work, the law commands, The gospel gives me feet and hands. The one requires that I obey, The other does the power convey.
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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f5c2860
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Antinomianism may be couched in doctrinal and theological terms, but it both betrays and masks the heart's distaste for absolute divine obligation, or duty. That
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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46cb61b
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For whenever we make the warrant to believe in Christ to any degree dependent upon our subjective condition, we distort it. Repentance, turning from sin, and degrees of conviction of sin do not constitute the grounds on which Christ is offered to us. They may constitute ways in which the Spirit works as the gospel makes its impact on us. But they never form the warrant for repentance and faith.
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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eea398c
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Then all my servile works were done A righteousness to raise; Now, freely chosen in the Son, I freely choose his ways.
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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4746e5a
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salvation becomes ours in Christ and not merely through Christ.
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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83a1b5e
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By way of contrast he wanted to stress that the gospel's center is found in Jesus Christ himself, who has been crucified for sin and raised for justification, with the inbuilt implication that Christ himself thus defined and described should be proclaimed as able to save all who come to him.
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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You must first have Christ himself, before you can partake of those benefits by him.19
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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59dac63
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Pharisees lived "according to the strictest party of . . . religion."3 The name itself is probably derived from the root "to separate." Pharisaism was essentially a conservative "holiness movement." So"
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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5975260
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But it is serpentine logic, for it simply compounds the old legal spirit. It is the natural instinct of the once-antinomian prodigal who, when awakened, thinks in terms of working his way back into the favor of his father.38
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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af6b79c
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These considerations give us some clues as to why legalism and antinomianism are, in fact, nonidentical twins that emerge from the same womb. Eve
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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7492159
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If the benefits of Christ's work (justification, reconciliation, adoption, and so on) are abstracted from Christ himself, and the proclamation of the gospel is made in terms of what it offers rather than in terms of Christ himself, the question naturally arises: To whom can I offer these benefits?
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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37936c3
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Whatever form, however, Antinomianism may assume, it springs from legalism. None rush into the one extreme but those who have been in the other.
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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5c1ceaf
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This is precisely why the cry, "Abba! Father," is so significant. It expresses, at a point of intense need, an instinct that is absent from the unbeliever's consciousness. At best such a person may (and often does) cry out, "O God!" but not instinctively, "O Father!" That cry is the fruit of the ministry of the Spirit; it is his co-testimony with our spirit; even in the hour of darkness the believer possesses an instinct, a testimony: he or..
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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9755d20
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Notice what this means. Gospel assurance is not withheld from God's children even when they have not shown themselves to be strong. What
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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there are no new heresies, it seems, only old ones masquerading as new.
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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eb6592a
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Thus, for example, fruitful Christian service will encourage assurance; we recognize the work of the Spirit creating new desires and dispositions. We
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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4858df5
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Inconsistent Christian living leads to lack of assurance. At least, it leads to a lack of true assurance (although, alas, not necessarily to a lack of self-assurance). Where there is no actual obedience to Christ, there will be no evidence of present love for him as Savior. Where
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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6d89204
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The real enemy is indwelling sin. And the remedy for sin is neither the law nor its overthrow. It is grace, as Paul had so wonderfully exhibited in Romans 5:12-21, and that grace set in the context of his exposition of union with Christ in Romans 6:1-14.
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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8a96aa3
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Failure to deal with the presence of sin can often be traced back to spiritual amnesia-forgetting our new, true, real identity. As a believer, I am someone who has been delivered from the dominion of sin and who therefore is free and motivated to fight against the remnants of sin in my heart. You must know, rest in, think through, and act upon your new identity-you are in Christ.
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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853ce48
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The Church's Confession of Faith remained unaltered. But it would be naive scholarship that extrapolated from what was professed to what was preached and indeed from what was preached to what was possessed. Every pastor should know this and therefore should never assume that everyone listening to him has been gripped by the wonder of God's grace--even if they have confessed the church's creed.
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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dd60abf
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Only God-the One through whom "all things were made" (1:3, cf. v. 10), in whom "was life" and "light" (v. 4)-can reverse creation's death and dissipate the darkness caused by sin. 2. But since that death and darkness are within creation, within man, the Word must become flesh in order to restore it from within. The Creator must enter His own creation, groaning as it is under the burden of alienation from Him."
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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2e697e6
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This is thought to be Jesus's best-loved parable, usually because our eyes are on the prodigal and his father. But as with jokes, so with parables: there is a principle in both of "end stress." The "punch line" comes at the end. That being the case the alarming message here is that the spirit of the elder brother, the legalist, is more likely to be found near the father's house than in the pig farm--or in concrete terms, in the congregation..
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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1812b3c
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God possesses personal being in a unified, uncreated, eternal, tri-personal manner.
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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f30feff
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There had been occasions when David could have seized position and power by means that would have compromised his commitment to the Lord.
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |
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33950b0
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The offer of the gospel is to be made not to the righteous or even the repentant, but to all. There are no conditions that need to be met in order for the gospel offer to be made.
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Sinclair B. Ferguson |