Reformation Sunday

300 Quotations for Preachers from the Puritans Winter the Best Season for Planting Grace

Not only does true grace grow best in winter, but winter is the best season for planting grace.… It is not a speculation, it is a personal experience that hundreds here can testify to, that the Bible, the Sabbath, the Supper, all became so many means of grace to them after some great affliction greatly sanctified.

SAMUEL RUTHERFORD

300 Sermon Illustrations from Charles Spurgeon Even a Needle Looks Rough under the Microscope (Isaiah 64:6; Romans 5:20)

Even a Needle Looks Rough Under the Microscope

Isaiah 64:6; Romans 5:20

Preaching Themes: God: Grace, Good Works, Prayer, Scripture, Sin

Did you ever examine one of your own prayers? Did you ever look at it critically after it was finished? Shall I tell you what it was like? It was like something that man had manufactured, and that, when observed by the naked eye, looked very beautiful. Put a microscope over it and look at it. Take a needle if you like, for that seems to be one of the most polished pieces of metal conceivable; and as soon as you place it under the microscope, you say, “Why, I have got a rough bar of iron here! Surely it cannot be a needle.”

Yes it is, but you are looking at it now with a power far beyond your ordinary sight. And, in like manner, when the grace of God opens a man’s eyes to see his best actions as they appear in God’s sight, he sees that those actions are marred by sin. There is not anything he has done that appears to him to be what it ought to be when he looks at it the right way in the light of God’s word.

300 Quotations for Preachers from the Puritans Grace Enables Us to Accept Rebuke

Grace Enables Us to Accept Rebuke

Psalm 141:5; Proverbs 10:17; 13:1, 18; 19:20; 25:12; 27:6

Preaching Themes: Contentment, Discipline, Grace of God

Grace will teach a Christian contentedly to take those potions that are wholesome, though they be not toothsome.… Faithful reproof is a token of love, and therefore may well be esteemed a kindness.

GEORGE SWINNOCK

Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations 5157 Tetzel’s Boomerang

5157 Tetzel’s Boomerang

That shameless trafficker in indulgences, Tetzel, in one instance at least, was caught in his own trap. He sold a gentleman an indulgence for sins to be committed—a free pardon—and the purchaser waylaid the inquisitor in a wood, and after giving him a mild chastisement with a stick, carried off Tetzel’s chest of money.

The injured man took his cause before the authorities; but when the Elector saw the document which the offender possessed, the case was dismissed.

Grace received, grace given

Johann Tetzel and the start of the Reformation

The problem that indulgences exposed was already there

Man, by nature, loves such easy ways out of guilt and obligation to God

If only they worked

“all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus…”

Since we have received grace, how shall we live? Let’s be like Jesus:

Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Colossians 3:13 Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

When Tetzel died