Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of Luke J.C. Ryle Luke 5:1-26 “In measuring these words of Peter, we must of course remember the time at which they were spoken. He was, at best, but a babe in grace, weak in faith, weak in experience, and weak in knowledge. At a later period in his life he would, doubtless, have said, ‘Abide with me,’ and not, ‘depart.’ But still, after every deduction of this kind, the words of Peter exactly express the first feelings of man when he is brought into anything like close contact with God. The sight of divine…
Sunday Morning Calls to Worship
Call To Worship September 17 2017
Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of Luke J.C. Ryle Luke 3:1-6 We must carefully bear in mind that no repentance can make atonement for sin. The blood of Christ, and nothing else, can wash away sin from man’s soul. No quantity of repentance can ever justify us in the sight of God. “We are accounted righteous before God, only for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, by faith, and not for our own works or deservings.” It is of the utmost importance to understand this clearly. The trouble that men bring upon their souls, by misunderstanding this subject, is…
Call To Worship September 10 2017
Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of Luke J.C. Ryle Luke 2:41-52 JESUS AND HIS PARENTS AT THE PASSOVER These verses should always be deeply interesting to a reader of the Bible. They record the only facts which we know about our Lord Jesus Christ during the first thirty years of His life on earth, after His infancy. How many things a Christian would like to know about the events of those thirty years, and the daily history of the house at Nazareth! But we need not doubt that there is wisdom in the silence of Scripture on the subject. If…
Call To Worship August 2017
We worship our God who created the soul of man, therefore he knows souls perfectly. No matter the depth of despair, God alone ultimately sustains and keeps the souls of every person according to His will. Trusting His will means even during the depths of despondency. Do we really trust that the one who created us and sent His Son to die for us can care for us as well? Will we trust the Son who died for us to tell us how to live our lives? He trusted the Father in the greatest of all times of despair. He…
Call To Worship August 13 2017
Mr. Help, said, “It is not the pleasure of the King that this place should remain so bad (Isa. 35:3-4); his labourers, also, have, by the directions of his Majesty’s surveyors, been, for above these sixteen hundred years, employed about this patch of ground, if, perhaps, it might have been mended; yea, and to my knowledge, said he, here have been swallowed up at least twenty thousand cart-loads; yea, millions of wholesome instructions, that have, at all seasons, been brought from all places of the King’s dominions, and they that can tell, say, they are the best materials to make…
August 6 2017 Call to Worship
“‘And it shall come to pass, that him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay, and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay’ (v. 17). Elijah had wrought faithfully, but Israel had to be dealt with by other agents: the three men whom he was told to anoint would in their turn bring down judgment upon the land. God was infinitely more jealous of His own honour than His servant could be, and He would by no means desert His cause or suffer His enemies to triumph as the Prophet feared. But mark the…
Call To Worship July 30 2017
“In the startling contrasts here presented we have a striking proof of the divine inspiration of the Scriptures. In the Bible human nature is painted in its true colours: the characters of its heroes are faithfully depicted, the sins of its noteworthy persons are frankly recorded. True, it is human to err, but equally true it is human to conceal the blemishes of those we most admire. Had the Bible been a human production, written by uninspired historians, they had magnified the virtues of the most illustrious men of their nation, and ignored their vices, or if mentioned at all…
Call To Worship July 23 2017
“Not a little is said in the Scriptures about rain, yet is such teaching quite unknown today even to the vast majority of people in Christendom. In this atheistic and materialistic age, God is not only not accorded His proper place in the hearts and lives of the people, but He is banished from their thoughts and virtually excluded from the world which He has made. His ordering of the seasons, His control of the elements, His regulating of the weather, is now believed by none save an insignificant remnant who are regarded as fools and fanatics. There is need,…
Call to Worship July 16 2017
“‘Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice.’ Exceedingly blessed, yet unspeakably solemn was this. First, this remarkable incident should encourage weak Christians to put their trust in God, to go forth in His strength to meet the gravest dangers, to face the fiercest enemies, and to undertake the most arduous and hazardous tasks to which He may call them. If our confidence is fully placed in the Lord Himself, He will not fail us. He will stand by us, though none others do; He will deliver us out of the hands of those who seek…
Call To Worship July 9 2017
“’They must repent and turn themselves from their idols, or nothing could avail to avert God’s judgment. Though Noah and Samuel and Job had made intercession, it would not have induced the Lord to withdraw from the conflict. They must forsake their idols and return to Jehovah.’ Those words were written almost a century ago, yet they are as true and pertinent now as they were then, for they enunciate an abiding principle. God will not wink at sin or gloss over evil doing. Whether He is dealing in judgment with an individual or with a nation, that which has…