“Aye, fight and you may die. Run, and you’ll live… at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin’ to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take… OUR FREEDOM!” – William Wallace (Braveheart)

“What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry

“Any man who thinks he deserves heaven is not a Christian. But for any man who knows he deserves Hell, there’s hope” – Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“When the preferences of the church members are greater than their passion for the gospel, the church is dying.” – Thom Rainer

?”God did not elect any sinner because He foresaw that he would believe, for the simple but sufficient reason that no sinner ever believes until God gives him faith, just as no man sees until God gives him sight.” – A.W. Pink

“There is no way more proper to build and establish faith, than when we hear and undoubtedly do believe that our election…consisteth not in ourselves, but in the eternal and immutable good pleasure of God.” – John Knox

“It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.” – C.S. Lewis

“I am not what I ought to be — ah, how imperfect and deficient! I am not what I wish to be — I abhor what is evil, and I would cleave to what is good! I am not what I hope to be — soon, soon shall I put off mortality, and with mortality all sin and imperfection. Yet, though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be, I can truly say, I am not what I once was; a slave to sin and Satan; and I can heartily join with the apostle, and acknowledge, “By the grace of God I am what I am.”” – John Newton

“It is a cheap zeal that reserves its passions to combat only the sins and temptations of others.” – D.A. Carson

“The wrong inference from God’s transcendence is that he is too great to care; the right one is that he is too great to fail.” – Derek Kidner: quoted in Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary (IVP, 1993), 307

“After a minister had spoken strongly against sin one morning, one of his members said, “We don’t want you to talk so plainly about sin because if our boys and girls hear you mention it, they will more easily become sinners. Call it a mistake if you will, but do not speak so bluntly about sin.”

The minister went to the medicine shelf and brought back a bottle of strychnine marked POISON. He said, “I see what you want me to do. You want me to change the label. Suppose I take off this ‘poison’ label and put on some mild label such as ‘peppermint candy.’ Can’t you see the danger? The milder you make the label, the more deadly the poison.”

During the last few years we have been putting a mild label on sin. We’ve called it “error,” “negative action,” and “inherent fault.” But it is high time that we put a POISON label back on the poison bottle and not be afraid to be as plain as the Bible is about the tragic consequences of sin.” – Billy Graham, Introduction to Freedom From the Seven Deadly Sins (Zondervan, 1966).

“Here I must take counsel of the gospel. I must hearken to the gospel, which teacheth me, not what I ought to do, (for that is the proper office of the law), but what Jesus Christ the Son of God hath done for me: to wit, that He suffered and died to deliver me from sin and death. The gospel willeth me to receive this, and to believe it. And this is the truth of the gospel. It is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine, wherein the knowledge of all godliness consisteth. Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually.” – Martin Luther

“The spiritual battle, the loss of victory, is always in the thought-world.” — Francis Schaeffer

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” – Henry Ford

“The essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man.” – John Stott

“Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man’s power ends.” – George Mueller

“Life’s real failure is when you do not realize how close you were to success when you gave up.” – Thomas Edison

“It is better to get wisdom than gold. Gold is another’s, wisdom is our own; gold is for the body and time, wisdom for the soul and eternity.” – Matthew Henry

“Nothing gives believers more joy than to see God glorified.” — R. C. Sproul

“While in seminary I had a card on my desk that read: You are required to believe, to teach, and to preach what the Bible says, not what you want it to say.” — R.C. Sproul

“We fear men so much, because we fear God so little. One fear cures another. When man’s terror scares you, turn your thoughts to the wrath of God.” — William Gurnall

“Ignorance of the Scriptures is the root of all error.” — J.C. Ryle

“Whatever tribulation comes on the world, God’s elect are safe. May we never rest until we know that we are of this blessed number!” – J.C. Ryle

“Those whom God has chosen to salvation by Christ, are those whom God specially loves in this world. They are the jewels among mankind. He cares more for them than for kings on their thrones, if kings are not converted. He hears their prayers. He orders all the events of nations and the issues of wars for their good, and their sanctification. He keeps them by His Spirit. He allows neither man nor devil to pluck them out of His hand. Whatever tribulation comes on the world, God’s elect are safe. May we never rest until we know that we are of this blessed number! There breathes not the man or woman who can prove that he is not one. The promises of the Gospel are open to all. May we give diligence to make our calling and election sure!” – J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Matthew, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1986], 320. (Matthew 24:15-28)

“How is God’s desire for his own glory reflected in the gospel?

Firstly, the gospel of forgiveness of sins through Christ is predicated on our needing forgiveness, and further, our inability to provide restitution to merit such pardon. So the gospel’s presupposition is mankind’s lack of glory. Sin in fact is defined as to “fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Secondly, though, Christ the God-Man makes this restitution for us himself on the cross, which gives God the glory (the credit) for salvation. Thirdly, he goes to the cross willingly; nobody murders him except that he has allowed them to, which takes the infamy of blame off of the perpetrators and transfers it to the credit of the sacrifice. Fourthly, the God-Man doesn’t stay dead but rises on the third day through the power of the Spirit with a glorified body. Ergo, even more glory for God. Then he ascends into heaven, giving himself even more glory. He sends the Spirit to grant us the gift of faith in receiving Christ’s work, so that he would get even more glory in the gospel’s acceptance. He sees that the gospel spreads into the farthest reaches of the earth, because he wants even more glory. And finally, he will return again to establish his kingdom once for all (lots of glory there), judging the quick and the dead (even more glory), and replacing the sun with the radiance of God’s glory (Heb. 1:3) as the literal light of the new heavens and new earth (glory saturation approaching 100%).

At each point in the gospel’s design, implementation, application, and forecast, God is at the very center taking the credit and establishing his own centrality. Indeed, we could say that God is himself God-centered, and while the gospel is for our salvation, it is chiefly for God’s own glory.” – Jared Wilson