Different Gospel Methods, Same Gospel Goal by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

No individual Church on earth has an absolute monopoly of all wisdom, and that people may be right in the main, without agreeing with us. We must learn to be thankful if sin is opposed, the Gospel preached, and the devil’s kingdom pulled down, though the work may not be done exactly in the way we like. We must try to believe that men may be true-hearted followers of Jesus Christ, and yet for some wise reason may be kept back from seeing all things in religion just as we do.

Sick of Your Sins? Then Come to Christ by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

I know not what you may have been in your past life – it matters nothing. You may have broken every commandment under heaven;

Training Your Child To Love God Depends On You by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

“We heavily depend on those who bring us up. We get from them a taste and a bias which clings to us most of the days of our lives. We learn the language of our mothers and fathers, and learn to speak it almost without thinking, and unquestionably we catch something of their manners, ways, and mind at the same time. Time will tell, how much we all owe to early impressions, and how many things in us may be traced back to the seeds sown in the days of our infancy, by those who were around us.

Training Your Child to Love Church by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

“Tell your children of the duty and privilege of going to Church, and joining in the prayers of the congregation. Tell them that wherever the Lord’s people are gathered together, there the Lord Jesus is present in a special way, and that those who are absent must expect, like the Apostle Thomas, to miss out on a blessing.

Beware! The Narrow Way is Dangerous by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Do you want to understand what the times require of you in reference to your own soul? Listen, and I will tell you. You live in times of peculiar spiritual danger. Never perhaps were there more traps and pitfalls in the way to heaven; never certainly were those traps so skillfully baited, and those pitfalls so ingeniously made.

A Splendid Example of Spiritual Diligence by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

“The conduct of the wise men is a splendid example of spiritual diligence. What trouble it must have cost them to travel from their homes to the place where Jesus was born! How many weary miles they must have journeyed!

Forsake Sin and Look to Christ! By J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

That carelessness about sin, that trifling with temptation, that earnestness about the things of time, that forgetfulness about eternity, that readiness to swim with the tide about religion, that unwillingness to become more serious than your neighbors, that fear of being thought righteous overmuch, that love of the world’s good opinion—is this what you call coming out of great tribulation?

The Chief Business of the Church by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Let it be a settled principle in our minds that the first and chief business of the Church of Christ is to preach the Gospel.

The Downward Spiral of Sin by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

“First it [sin] startles him, then it becomes pleasing, then easy, then delightful, then frequent, then habitual, then confirmed! Then the man is impenitent, then obstinate, then resolves never to repent, and then he is damned.”

~ J.C. Ryle

(quoting Jeremy Taylor, Anglican Bishop & Writer, 1617-1667)

Thoughts For Young Men, [Moscow, ID: Charles Nolan Publishing, 2002], 48.

Do Not Starve Your Soul of Nourishment by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Are you indeed Christ’s sheep? Then beware of wandering from the pasture He has provided. The devil and the old Adam would often persuade you there is no need for this diligence in using means of grace:

The Two Sides of Friendship by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

“Good friends are among our greatest blessings – they may keep us back from much evil, quicken us in our course, speak a word in season, draw us upward, and draw us on.

Train your child to a knowledge of the Bible by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Train your child to a knowledge of the Bible

You cannot make your children love the Bible, I allow. None but the Holy Ghost can give us a heart to delight in the Word. But you can make your children acquainted with the Bible; and be sure they cannot be acquainted with that blessed book too soon, or too well.

Ponder the Cross of Christ by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

“Go to the cross of Christ, all you that want to be delivered from the power of selfishness. Go and see what a price was paid there to provide a ransom for your soul.

Bolding Proclaiming God’s Word by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

“Let us pray to be kept from corrupting God’s Word. Let neither fear nor favor of man induce us to keep back, or avoid, or change, or mutilate, or qualify any text in the Bible.

Your Private World Exposed by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

“Men entertain thoughts in private, and say words in private, and do acts in private, which they would be ashamed and blush to have exposed before the world.

No Fickleness in Jesus by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

The Lord Jesus is “a friend who never changes.” There is no fickleness about Him: those whom He loves, He loves to the end. Husbands have been known to forsake their wives;

7 Thoughts on Reading the Bible

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

1) Read the Bible with an earnest desire to understand it.

2) Read the Scriptures with a simple, childlike faith and humility.

A Passionate Hatred Towards Sin by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

How much we ought to hate sin! Instead of loving it, cleaving to it, dallying with it, excusing it, playing with it, we ought to hate it with a deadly hatred. Sin is the great murderer, and thief, and pestilence, and nuisance of this world. Let us make no peace with it. Let us wage a ceaseless warfare against it.

~ J.C. Ryle

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke volume 1, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1986], 209.

The Wrath of the Lamb by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Let no person deceive us with vain words upon this dreadful subject. People have arisen in these latter days, who profess to deny the eternity of future punishment, and repeat the devil’s old argument, that we “shall not surely die” (Gen. 3:4).

Do Not Be Careless! Put On Your Armor! By J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Let me warn all careless members of Churches to beware lest they trifle their souls into hell.

Thank God For Feeling Your Sinfulness by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

He that has any feeling of his own sinfulness, ought to thank God for it.

Do You Have These Marks of a Christian? By J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Are we ourselves people of God? Have we been born again? Have we the MARKS which always accompany the new birth–sense of sin, faith in Jesus, love of others, righteous living, separation from the world? Let us never be content until we can give a satisfactory answer to these questions.

~ J.C. Ryle

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: John, volume 1, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1987], 17.

Christ Suffered, So Shall You by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Let it never surprise us, if we have to endure mockery, and ridicule, and false reports, because we belong to Christ. The disciple is not greater than His Master, nor the servant than His Lord.

Train Your Children in the Habit of Prayer by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Prayer is the very life-breath of true religion. It is one of the first evidences that a man is born again. "Behold," said the Lord of Saul, in the day he sent Ananias to him, "Behold, he prayeth" (Acts 9:11). He had begun to pray, and that was proof enough.

Healthy Preaching = Healthy Churches by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

The importance of preaching is God’s chosen instrument for doing good to souls. By it sinners are converted, inquirers led on, and saints built up.

Coming to Christ With An Empty Hand by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Beware of mistakes as to the manner of coming to Christ. Dismiss from your mind forever all ideas of worthiness, merit, and fitness in yourself.

Take Comfort in Christ by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Are there any among you who have tasted of this blessed change—who have put off the old man which is corrupt, and put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness—

Growing In Holiness by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

“Another mark of ‘growing in grace’ is increased holiness of life and conversation.

The Difficult Road to Heaven by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

You all wish to go to heaven. I know it. I am fully persuaded of it. I am certain of it. There is not one of you, however false may be your views of what you must believe and what you must do, however unscriptural the ground of your hope, however worldly-minded you may be, however careless when you get outside that church door

The Humble New Believer by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

To see a calm-minded young believer, who is not stuck up, self confident and self-conceited, but content with a daily steady effort to grow up into Christ’s likeness, and to do Christ’s work quietly and simply, at home, is really becoming almost a rarity!

~ J.C. Ryle

Practical Religion, “Self-Inquiry”, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1998], 4.

Are You Wasting Your Time? By J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

How are you using your time? Life is short and very uncertain.

Ryle’s Thoughts on His Conversion by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Nothing I can remember to this day appeared to me so clear and distinct, as my own sinfulness, Christ’s preciousness, the value of the Bible, the absolute necessity  of coming out of the world, the need of being born again…”

Pray For Your Pastor

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Do we desire to help forward the cause of pure and undefiled religion in the world? Then let us never forget to pray for ministers, and especially for young men about to enter the ministry.

9 Lessons From God Concerning Sickness by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Sickness is meant…

1. To make us think, to remind us that we have a soul as well as a body – an immortal soul, a soul that will live forever in happiness or in misery – and that if this soul is not saved we had better never have been born.

Look Away From Self and Towards Christ by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Look not to yourselves! You are by nature wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked; you cannot make atonement for your past transgressions, you cannot wipe out a single page on that long black list.

Hold Your Possessions Loosely by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Are you prosperous in the world? Have death, sickness, disappointment, poverty and family troubles passed over your door up to this time and not come in? Are you secretly saying to yourself, “Nothing can hurt me much.

Don’t Add Anything to the Bible by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Let us beware of attempting to add anything to the word of God, as necessary to salvation. It provokes God to give us over to judicial blindness. It is as good as saying that His Bible is not perfect, and that we know better than He does what is necessary for man’s salvation.

God’s View of Man by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Young men, God does not show favoritism or respects the honors bestowed by men. He rewards no man’s heritage, or wealth, or rank, or position. He does not see with man’s eyes.

Living Like a Pilgrim by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

We must beware of thinking too much about our meals, our furniture, our houses, and all those many things which concern the life of the body.

The Blessedness of Christ’s Return by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

True Christians shall alone be found ready at the second advent. Washed in the blood of atonement, clothed in Christ’s righteousness, renewed by the Spirit, they shall meet their Lord with boldness, and sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb, to go out no more.

The Mighty Cost Of Our Freedom by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

“The freedom of Christ’s people has been procured, like all other freedom, at a mighty cost and by a mighty sacrifice. Great was the bondage in which they were naturally held, and great was the price necessary to be paid to set them free. Mighty was the enemy who claimed them as his captives, and it needed mighty power to release them out of his hands.

Exercising Your Faith Diligently by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Would you have more faith? Do you find believing so pleasant that you would like to believe more? Then take heed that you are diligent in the use of every means of grace –diligent in your private communion with God

The Stark Contrast of Believers and Unbelievers by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

There are two points in religion on which the teaching of the Bible is very plain and distinct. One of these points is the fearful danger of the ungodly; the other is the perfect safety of the righteous. One is the happiness of those who are converted; the other is the misery of those who are unconverted. One is the blessedness of being in the way to heaven; the other is the wretchedness of being in the way to hell.

Don’t Undervalue the Old Testament by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Let us beware of undervaluing, or despising the Old Testament. In its place and proportion, the Old Testament is just as valuable as the New.

Are You Elect? Do You Have Fruit? By J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Election can only be known by its fruits. The Elect of God can only be discerned from those who are not Elect by their faith and life. We cannot climb up into the secret of God’s eternal counsels.

The Fruits of Your Public Worship by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

“The best public worship is that which produces the best private Christianity. The best Church services for the congregation are those which make its individual members most holy at home and alone.

How to Walk with God by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

To walk with God is to walk in the light of God’s countenance; to live as people who remember that all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we walk, that the darkness is no darkness with Him,

Do YOU Possess the Marks of the New Birth? By J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Would we know what the marks of the new birth are? We shall find them already written for our learning in the First Epistle of John. The person born of God “believes that Jesus is the Christ,” – “does not commit sin,” – “does righteousness,” – “loves the brethren,” – “overcomes the world,” – “keeps himself from the wicked one.” This is the person born of the Spirit! Where these fruits are to be seen, there is the new birth of which our Lord is speaking. They that lacks these marks, is yet dead in trespasses and sins. (1 John 5:1; 3:9; 2:29; 3:14; 5:4; 5:18).

Bringing Children to Christ by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

We must never allow ourselves to suppose that little children’s souls may be safely let alone. Their character depends exceedingly on what they see and hear during their first seven years.

Getting Beyond Selfish Prayers by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Let us take heed that we pray for others also. Let us beware of selfish prayers – the prayers which are wholly taken up with our own affairs, and in which there is no place for other souls beside our own.

Oh, To Be Pardoned! By J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Where must a man go for pardon? Where is forgiveness to be found? There is a way both sure and plain and that way is simply to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. It is to cast your soul, with all its sins, unreservedly on Christ,

Suffering Savior, Suffering Disciples by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Suffering is a part of the process by which the children of God are made holy. They are chastened to wean them from the world, and make them partakers of God’s holiness. The Captain of their salvation was made “perfect through suffering,” and so are they (Hebrews 2:10; 12:10). There never was a great saint who had not experienced either great hardships, or great persecutions.

Assurance (Sermon)

Assurance
By J.C. Ryle

“I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge,  shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.” 

(2 TIMOTHY 4:6-8)

In the words of Scripture, which head this page, you see the Apostle Paul looking three ways: downward, backward, forward. Downward to the grave,-backward to his own ministry,-forward to that great day, the day of judgment.

I invite you this day to stand by the Apostle’s side a few minutes, and mark the words he uses. Happy is that soul who can look where Paul looked, and then speak as Paul spoke!

Don’t Be A Dim Lighthouse

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Settle it down in your mind that you will aim at the highest degree of holiness, spiritual-mindedness, and consecration to God—that you will not be content with any low degree of sanctification.

Do Not Become Dead to the Gospel

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Men and women who hear the Gospel regularly, I often fear much for you. I fear lest you become so familiar with the sounds of its doctrines, that insensibly you become dead to its power.