“He that hath slight thoughts of sin never had great thoughts of God.” – John Owen

“We know but little of true Christianity, if we do not feel a deep concern about the souls of unconverted people.” – J.C. Ryle

“When a Christian is weak, and can hardly pray for himself, Jesus Christ is praying for him; and he prays for three things.

First, that the saints may be kept from sin (John 17:15). “I pray that thou shouldest keep them from evil.” We live in the world as in a pest-house; Christ prays that his saints may not be infected with the contagious evil of the times.

Second, for his people’s progress in holiness. “Sanctify them” (John 17:17). Let them have constant supplies of the Spirit, and be anointed with fresh oil.

Third, for their glorification: “Father, I will that those which thou hast given me, be with me where I am” (John 17:24). Christ is not content till the saints are in his arms. This prayer, which he made on earth, is the copy and pattern of his prayer in heaven. What a comfort is this; when Satan is tempting, Christ is praying! This works for good.” – Thomas Watson: All Things for Good, 1663, (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 2008), 23

“If you feel that you are empty, if you feel you are nothing, if you feel you are poor and wretched and blind, if you hate your inclination to sin and have any suspicion of a feeling of self-loathing and hatred, you can take it from me that you have eternal life, for no one ever experiences such things until the life of God comes into his or her soul.” – Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“If, however, you feel and are inclined to think you have made it, flattering yourself with your own little books, teaching, or writing, because you have done it beautifully and preached excellently; if you are highly pleased when someone praises you in the presence of others; if you perhaps look for praise, and would sulk or quit what you are doing if you did not get it—if you are of that stripe, dear friend, then take yourself by the ears, and if you do this in the right way you will find a beautiful pair of big, long, shaggy donkey ears.

Then do not spare any expense! Decorate them with golden bells, so that people will be able to hear you wherever you go, point their fingers at you, and say, “See, see! There goes that clever beast, who can write such exquisite books and preach so remarkably well.” That very moment you will be blessed and blessed beyond measure in the kingdom of heaven. Yes, in that heaven where hellfire is ready for the devil and his angels.” – Martin Luther, LW 34:287-288.

“Whatever works we perform are the results of our justification and in no way the grounds of it or the cause of it.” – R.C. Sproul

“Let God have your life; he can do more with it than you can.” – D.L. Moody

“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” – C.S. Lewis

“The article of justification must be sounded in our ears incessantly because the frailty of our flesh will not permit us to take hold of it perfectly and to believe it with all our heart.” – Martin Luther

“Even the best things we do have something in them to be pardoned.” – J.C. Ryle

“There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist.” – Mark Twain

“The specter of death haunts the symphony of life like a cello. The trumpet, however, herald of the King, will triumph in the end.” – R. C. Sproul, Jr

“No man ever fell into error through being too watchful.” – Charles Spurgeon

“If we could only see our souls as the ten afflicted lepers saw their bodies, we would pray far better than we do.” — J.C. Ryle

“Sanctification is an immediate work of the Spirit of God on the souls of believers, purifying and cleansing of their natures from the pollution and uncleanness of sin, renewing in them the image of God, and thereby enabling them, from a spiritual and habitual principle of grace, to yield obedience unto God, according unto the tenor and terms of the new covenant, by virtue of the life and death of Jesus Christ.” – Daniel Webber, ‘Sanctifying the Inner Life,’ in Aspects of Sanctification (Westminster Conference, 1981), 45; quoting John Owen, Works, 3:386

“I am a lover of the Reformed faith — the legacy of the protestant Reformation expressed broadly in the writings of John Calvin and John Owen and Charles Spurgeon and Jonathan Edwards, and contemporaries like R. C. Sproul and J. I. Packer and John Frame.

I speak of love for this legacy the way I speak of loving a cherished photo of my wife. I say, “I love that picture.” You won’t surprise me if you point out, “But that’s not your wife, that’s a picture.” Yes. Yes. I know it’s only a picture. I don’t love the picture instead of her, I love the picture because of her. She is precious in herself.

The picture is precious not in itself, but because it reveals her. That’s the way theology is precious. God is valuable in himself. The theology is not valuable in itself. It is valuable as a picture. That’s what I mean when I say, “I love reformed theology.” It’s the best composite, Bible-distilled picture of God that I have.” – John Piper, Bloodlines, 129-130

“In the biblical drama, all of our expectations, assumptions, and cherished ideas are thrown into question. God the judge bears the sentence that his own justice demands. The offended party becomes the redeemer, even as he is subjected to further acts of the most heinous violence from those he redeems. The outcasts become royal heirs, the outsiders become insiders and the insiders outsiders, those who thought they were righteous are in fact condemned and those who were beyond any hope of moral recovery are declared righteous. A strange story, indeed.” – Michael Horton, The Gospel-Driven Life (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Baker Books, 2009), 64

“Can you imagine it, that God, who is greater than immensity, whose life is longer than time, that God the all-boundless One, should love you? That He should think of you, pity you, consider you, this is all very well—but that He should love you, that His heart should go out to you, that He should choose you, that He should have engraved you on the palms of His hands, that He should not rest in Heaven without you, that He should not think Heaven complete until He brings you there, that you should be the bride and Christ the Bridegroom, that there should be eternal love between Him and you—oh, as you think of it, lift up your hands with adoring wonder and say, ‘Your love to me was wonderful.’” – C.H. Spurgeon

“The doctrine of justification itself, as preached by an Arminian, is nothing but the doctrine of salvation by works… I do not serve the god of the Arminians at all; I have nothing to do with him, and I do not bow down before the Baal they have set up; he is not my God, nor shall he ever be; I fear him not, nor tremble at his presence…The God that saith today and denieth tomorrow, that justifieth today and condemns the next…is no relation to my God in the least degree. He may be a relation of Ashtaroth or Baal, but Jehovah never was or can be his name.” – C.H. Spurgeon

“Grace is the mother and nurse of holiness, and not the apologist (defender) of sin.” – C. H. Spurgeon

“I must teach what the Bible says is true, not what I want the Bible to say is true.” – R.C. Sproul

“The really wonderful moments of joy in this world are not the moments of self-satisfaction, but self-forgetfulness. Standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon and contemplating your own greatness is pathological. At such moments we are made for a magnificent joy that comes from outside ourselves.” – John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life

“We do not make friends with God; God makes friends with us, bringing us to know him by making his love known to us… The word know, when used of God in this way, is a sovereign-grace word, pointing to God’s initiative in loving, choosing, redeeming, calling and preserving.” – J. I. Packer

“It’s because God is good that there is such a place as hell where He punishes evil.” – R.C. Sproul