Thomas Boston

TRUE CHRISTIAN OR FAUX?

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HYPOCRITES_2

“The highest principle with the hypocrite is fear of punishment, and hope of reward (Hos 10:11), their highest end is themselves (Hos 10:1)” Thomas  Boston (ref#267).

“To ‘live after the flesh’ is to be in love with sin, to serve it contentedly, to make self-gratification the trade and business of life.  It is by no means limited to the grosser forms of wickedness and crime, but includes as well the refinement, morality, and religiousness of the best of men, who yet give God no real place in their hearts and lives” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p111).

“You know the way of salvation.  You read it in the Bible, you hear it from the pulpit, and it is explained to you by friends; yet you neglect it and therefore, are not saved….Times of refreshing have come from the divine presence, yet you are without Christ….Affliction and prosperity have both failed to impress you.  Tears and prayers and sermons have been wasted on your barren heart” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Dec 31st AM).

“Are you ignorant of the Holy Spirit – unacquainted with his life-giving power?…You are still of the world, and what you need is to have your false peace disturbed, and to be converted to God” Charles Ross (ref#241, p93).

A characteristic of a Christian: “A person who has been born again, or regenerated, does not habitually commit sin.  He no longer sins with his heart and will and whole inclination.  There was probably a time when he did not think about whether his actions were sinful or not, and he did not always feel grieved after doing evil.  There was no quarrel between him and sin; they were friends.  But the true Christian hates sin, flees from it, fights against it, considers it his greatest plague, resents the burden of its presence, mourns when he falls under its influence, and longs to be completely delivered from it” J.C. Ryle (ref#222).

“What brought deliverance to that poor condemned sinner…in his unconverted state?  He felt he could do nothing good of himself….He saw set before him the almighty Saviour and he cast himself into His arms; he trusted himself to that omnipotent love and cried, ‘Lord, have mercy upon me.’  That was salvation” Andrew Murray (ref#272, p22-23).

ELECTION

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CHOSEN

“It pleased God in His eternal purpose, to choose…a company of lost sinners to be saved by and through Christ; therefore, He is said to predestinate them to be conformed to the image of His Son….’That we should be to the praise of his glory’ (Eph 1:12)” Thomas Boston (ref#236, p31-32).

“…you are a chosen race…a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet 2:9 ESV).

It is my due and privilege to return to Him a display of His excellencies that He has created within me.  Thomas Boston (ref#236, p33).

FATHER, thank You not only for choosing me but also giving me what I need to declare Your excellencies.

“…I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds’…I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more” (Heb 10:16-17 ESV).

Also, LORD, thank You not only for carrying out Your work but perfecting it and giving me the assurance of my salvation.  “…the feeblest signs of grace in the soul are indisputable evidences of the inward and effectual call of the Spirit….He who has begun the good work will carry it on and perfect it in glory” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Dec 18th).

FATHER, since I do not know who You save, and who You will not, You have commissioned me to “preach the Gospel” to everyone, for how can they believe if they have not heard (Rom 10:14).  Thank You for the privilege to declare Your excellencies.   I will declare the good news and You save who You will.

SCRIPTURE

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AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE OR AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH?

“If the Word derived its authority from the church, then we would have to hold the church in higher esteem than God Himself.  For whoever gives the credence and emphasis to someone’s words is superior to the person who speaks them.  God has no superior, and therefore no one is in a position to give authority to His words” Wilhelmus a Brakel (ref#247, p29).

Thus, we acknowledge the Word to have divine authority solely because God is the One Who speaks:…(Isa 1:2).  The Church merely functions as a herald” Wilhelmus a Brakel (ref#249, p29).

“If the Scriptures be not clear in themselves to all believers, but that all its perspicuity depends on the interpretation of the church, then our faith is to be ultimately resolved into the testimony of man.  But that cannot be, for human testimony is not infallible and authentic, and therefore cannot [establish] divine faith and an infallible persuasion” Thomas Boston (ref#245, p40).

“…no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of private opinion.  And why?  Because it’s not something concocted in the human heart.  Prophecy resulted when the Holy Spirit prompted men and women to speak God’s Word” (2 Pet 1:19-21 MSG).

“Deny that the Bible is, without any qualifications, the very Word of God, and you are left without any ultimate standard of measurement and without any supreme authority” Arthur W. Pink (ref#245, p1).

SABBATH

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THE SABBATH AND ITS LENGTH

“There is a threefold rest or Sabbath spoken of in Scripture: (1) temporal; (2) spiritual, which is an internal soul-rest in ceasing from sin (Heb 4:3); (3) eternal, celebrated in heaven (Heb 4:9, 11), where the saints rest from their labors. It is the first of these, the weekly Sabbath that is here meant” Thomas Boston (ref#179).

“It was designed to meet the physical, moral, spiritual, and social wants of men’ to afford a suitable time for the public moral and religious instruction of the people and the public and private worship of God; and to afford a suitable period of rest from the wear and tear of secular labor” Archibald A. Hodge (ref#181).

“Our duty with respect to the Sabbath is to keep it holy. God has made it holy, set it apart for holy exercises, and we must keep it holy, spending it in holy exercises” Thomas Boston (ref#179).

“The quantity of time to be observed as a Sabbath of rest [is] a day—a whole day of twenty-four hours, and one day in seven….Our Sabbath is held in memory of Christ’s resurrection, and it is certain that Christ rose early in the morning of the first day of the week…the day to be kept holy is one whole day—not a few hours, while the public worship lasts, but a whole day” Thomas Boston (ref#179).

“I once heard a man say about the observance of the Lord’s Day. He said he had come to the conclusion that the Lord’s Day, like the Lord Himself, was in danger of dying between two thieves, the two thieves being Saturday night and Monday morning! He said that, increasingly, Saturday night was extended and extended and blended into Sunday, and then people started their Monday morning quite early on Sunday evening. Sunday becomes just a few hours during the morning, and then we think, ‘Well, that is enough now; we have been to church once.’ Thus, our Lord’s Day has been lost between two thieves” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#185).

“Rise early, and let your first thoughts and aspirations be directed to heaven. Meditate much and profoundly on divine things, and endeavor to acquire a degree of spirituality on this day which will abide with you through the whole week” Archibald Alexander (ref#175).

“My advice to all Christians is to contend earnestly for the whole day against all enemies, both without and within. It is worth a struggle…” J. C. Ryle (ref#178).