It is in vain to teach righteousness by precept, until Christ bestow it by free imputation, and the regeneration of the Spirit.
~John Calvin~
The Institutes of the Christian Religion (Louisville, KY; Westminster John Knox Press; 1974) 2.7.2.
The text leads me to speak to you that are saints as well as to you that are open and unconverted sinners. I need not tell you, that walking with God is not only honourable but pleasant and profitable also. For ye know it by happy experience and will find it more and more so every day. Only give me leave to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance and to beseech you by the mercies of God in Christ Jesus, to take heed to yourselves and walk closer with your God than you have in days past. For the nearer you walk with God, the more you will enjoy of him whose presence is life and be the better prepared for being placed at his right hand, where are pleasures forevermore. O do not follow Jesus afar off! O be not so formal, so dead and stupid in your attendance on holy ordinances! Do not so shamefully forsake the assembling yourselves together, or be so [scanty] or indifferent about the things of God. Remember what Jesus says of the church of Laodicea, ‘Because thou art neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth.’ Think of the love of Jesus and let that love constrain you to keep near unto him. And though you die for him, do not deny him, do not keep at a distance from him in any way.
~George Whitefield~
The Sermons of George Whitefield (Wheaton, IL; Crossway Books; 2012) Sermon 2: Walking With God.
It would be easy to make out a long list of particulars, which a believer would do if he could, but in which, from first to last, he finds a mortifying inability…
He would willingly enjoy God in prayer. He knows that prayer is his duty; but, in his judgment he considers it likewise as his greatest honor and privilege. In this light he can recommend it to others, and can tell them of the wonderful condescension of the great God, who humbles himself to behold the things that are in heaven, that He should stoop so much lower, to afford his gracious ear to the supplications of the sinful worms upon earth. He can bid them expect a pleasure in waiting upon the Lord, different in kind and greater in degree than all that the world can afford. By prayer he can say, You have liberty to cast all your cares upon him that careth for you. By one hour’s intimate access to the throne of grace, where the Lord causes his glory to pass before the soul that seeks him, you may acquire more true spiritual knowledge and comfort, than by a day or a week’s converse with the best of men, or the most studious perusal of many folios. And in this light he would consider it and improve it for himself. But, alas; how seldom can he do as he would! How often does he find this privilege a mere task, which he would be glad of a just excuse to omit! and the chief pleasure he derives from the performance, is to think that his task is finished: he has been drawing near to God with his lips, while his heart was far from him. Surely this is not doing as he would when (to borrow the expression of an old woman here,) he is dragged before God like a slave, and comes away like a thief.
~John Newton~
The Letters of John Newton – To Lord Dartmouth (Edinburgh, Scotland; The Banner of Truth Trust; 2007) p. 89-90.
Opposition to and resistance against this faith of theirs is rife, [in revelation as the Word of God] not just from without, but even much more from within. However much their will has been bent and their intellect enlightened, there remains much in believers that resists the obedience of faith. Faith, since it is the conviction of things not seen, is a continual struggle. The sins of the heart and the errors of the mind gang up on faith and often have appearance in their favor. As long as believers are on earth, there remains in them a dualism, a dualism not of the head and the heart, but of the flesh (σαρξ) and the spirit (πνενμα), of the “old” (παλαιος) and the “new” (καινος) person (άνθρωπος).
~Herman Bavinck~
Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 592.
Let those, therefore, who are thus highly favored, consider more than ever yet they have done, how great that blessing is which God has bestowed upon them of his mere free love and sovereign grace, and not for any worthiness of theirs; and how great obligations they are under to glorify God: and to glorify Christ, who hath purchased this blessing with his own blood. What manner of persons ought you to be! pray consider it! Do you hope that God has thus highly advanced and exalted you? And will you not be careful indeed to live to his glory, and to exalt and magnify his name? Will you dishonor Christ, who has thus honored you? Will you regard him but a little, who has shown such infinite regard to your welfare? Shall the world have your heart, and Christ and his glory be neglected after all? Will you not rather watch against your corrupt, worldly, proud dispositions? Will you not seek opportunities to do something for God, who, as you think, has been thus kind to you? And for that Savior, who has purchased this, at the cost of such extreme sufferings?
~Jonathan Edwards~
Charity and Its Fruits: Living in the Light of God’s Love (Wheaton, IL; Crossway Books; 2012) p. 78
Christ given to us by the kindness of God is apprehended and possessed by faith, by means of which we obtain in particular a twofold benefit; first, being reconciled by the righteousness of Christ, God becomes, instead of a judge, an indulgent Father; and, secondly, being sanctified by his Spirit, we aspire to integrity and purity of life.
~John Calvin~
The Institutes of the Christian Religion (Louisville, Kentucky; Westminster John Knox Press; 1974) Book 3. Chapter 11. Section 1.
Brethren, let us look well to our own steadfastness in the faith, our own holy walking with God. Some say that such advice is selfish; but I believe that, in truth, it is not selfishness, but a sane and practical love of others which leads us to be mindful of our own spiritual state. Desiring to do its level best, and to use its own self in the highest degree to God’s glory, the true heart seeks to be in all things right with God. He who has learned to swim has fostered a proper selfishness, for he has thereby acquired the power of helping the drowning. With the view of blessing others, let us covet earnestly the best blessings for ourselves.
~Charles Spurgeon~
An All Around Ministry (Edinburgh, Scotland; Banner of Truth Trust; 1960) What Would We Be? – Proposal
But mark, wherever the Spirit of God comes, He destroys the goodliness and flower of the flesh. That is to say, our righteousness withers as our sinfulness. Before the Spirit comes we think ourselves as good as the best. We say, “All these commandments have I kept from my youth up,” and we superciliously ask, “What do I lack?” Have we not been moral? No, have we not even been religious? We confess that we may have committed faults, but we think them very venial, and we venture, in our wicked pride, to imagine that, after all, we are not so vile as the Word of God would lead us to think.
Ah, my dear Hearer, when the Spirit of God blows on the comeliness of your flesh, its beauty will fade as a leaf, and you will have quite another idea of yourself. You will then find no language too severe in which to describe your past character. Searching deep into your motives, and investigating that which moved you to your actions, you will see so much of evil that you will cry with the publican, “God be merciful to me, a sinner!”
~Charles Spurgeon~
Spurgeon’s Sermons
Better to be broken in pieces by the Spirit of God, than to be made whole by the flesh! What does the Lord say? “I kill.” But what next? “I make alive.” He never makes any alive but those He kills.
Blessed be the Holy Spirit when He kills me! When He drives the sword through the very heart of my own merits and my self-confidence, then He makes me alive. “I wound, and I heal.” He never heals those whom He has not wounded. Then blessed be the hand that wounds! Let it go on wounding! Let it cut and tear! Let it lay bare to me myself at my very worst, that I may be driven to self-despair and may fall back upon the free mercy of God—and receive it as a poor, guilty, lost, helpless, undone sinner!
May we, by His Grace, cast ourselves into the arms of Sovereign Grace, knowing that God must give all, and Christ must be all, and the Spirit must work all—and man must be as clay in the potter’s hands, that the Lord may do with him as seems to Him good. Rejoice, dear Brothers and Sisters, however low you are brought, for if the Spirit humbles you He means no evil, but He intends infinite good to your soul.
~Charles Spurgeon~
Spurgeon’s Sermons
The Old Guys 
Wolfgang Musculus – Walking Worthy
1 Nov1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called – Eph. 4:1
The Ephesians had been called to the faith of Christ, and so their way of life had to correspond to that calling. For that to happen it was necessary for them to consider what the calling was to which they had been called, who had called them, how he had called them and for what purpose. Without working all that out they would not be able to walk in a way that would be worthy of their calling. They had been called when they were still walking in sin, indeed they were dead in sin, cut off from Christ, from the fellowship of the saints and from God himself. Paul wanted the Ephesians to remember that, as he said to them in chapter 2, “Therefore remember that you were once Gentiles; at that time you were without Christ.” Recalling their former lostness and pagan way of life was an easy way to remind them that after they had been called by grace they were expected to live in a different way from the one they had lived in before.
~Wolfgang Musculus~
Reformation Commentary on Scripture: Galatians, Ephesians (Downers Grove, IL; IVP Academic; 2012) p. 241.
Other Musculus Quotes at the Old Guys
Tags: Reformation Commentary on Scripture, Wolfgang Musculus