Forty Days of Mourning: “I cried through putting her ring on, even as I cry in taking mine off.” – R. C. Sproul, Jr

“What does it cost to be a Christian? I grant freely that it costs little to be a mere outward Christian. A man has only got to attend a place of worship twice on Sunday, and to be tolerably moral during the week, and he has gone as far as thousands around him ever go in religion. All this is cheap and easy work – it entails no self-denial or self-sacrifice. If this is saving Christianity and will take us to Heaven when we die–we must alter the description of the way of life, and write, “Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to Heaven!” But it does cost something to be a real Christian, according to the standard of the Bible. There are enemies to be overcome, battles to be fought, sacrifices to be made, an Egypt to be forsaken, a wilderness to be passed through, a cross to be carried, a race to be run. Conversion is not putting a man in a soft armchair, and taking him pleasantly to Heaven. It is the beginning of a mighty conflict, in which it costs much to win the victory. Hence arises the unspeakable importance of “counting the cost.” True Christianity will cost a man his self-righteousness, his sins, his love of ease, and the favor of the world. A religion which costs nothing –is worth nothing! A cheap, easy Christianity, without a cross, will prove in the end a useless Christianity, without a crown!” – J. C. Ryle

“No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. The pulpit can be a shop window to display one’s talents; the prayer closet allows no showing off.” – Leonard Ravenhill

“I bless the Lord that all our troubles come through Christ’s fingers, and that He casteth sugar among them: and casteth in some ounce weights of heaven and of the spirit of glory in our cup.” – Samuel Rutherford

“So great is the depravity of unregenerate man that, although there is nothing that he needs more than the gospel, there is nothing that he desires less.” – R. B. Kuiper

“If Christ died for many whose salvation He didn’t secure, that doesn’t give me assurance.” – Dr. Sinclair Ferguson

“If He’s not saving you, then He’s not your Savior.” – Dr. Sinclair Ferguson

“To test the genuineness of a diamond, jewelers often place it in clear water, which causes a real diamond to sparkle with special brilliance. An imitation stone, on the other hand, will have almost no sparkle at all. When the two are placed side by side, even an untrained eye can easily tell the difference. In a similar way, even the world can often notice the marked differences between genuine Christians and those who merely profess faith in Christ. As with jewels, there is a noticeable difference in radiance, especially when people are undergoing difficult times. Many people have great confidence in their faith until it is severely tested by hardships and disappointments. How a person handles trouble will reveal whether his faith is living or dead, genuine or imitation, saving or non-saving.” – Dr. John Macarthur

“If you are superficial about sin, then you will also be superficial about salvation.” – Dr. John MacArthur

“The sum of their [Arminians] endeavor is, to prove that the will of man is so absolutely free, independent, and uncontrollable, that God doth not, nay, with all his power cannot, determine it certainly and infallibly to the performance of this or that particular action, thereby to accomplish his own purposes, to attain his own ends. Truly, it seems to me the most unfortunate attempt that ever Christians lighted on; which, if it should get success answerable to the greatness of the undertaking, the providence of God, in men’s esteem, would be almost thrust quite out of the world. The new goddess contingency could not be erected until the God of heaven was utterly despoiled of his dominion over the sons of men, and in the room thereof a home-bred idol of self-sufficiency set up, and the world persuaded to worship it. But that the building climb no higher, let all men observe how the word of God overthrows this Babylonian tower.” – John Owen

“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.” – Martin Luther

“Sin would have few takers if its consequences occurred immediately.” – T.W. Purkiser

“Blessed be God, our calamities are matters of time, but our safety is a matter of eternity.” – C. H. Spurgeon

“No person ever said, at the end of their days, ‘I have read my Bible too much, I have thought of God too much, I have prayed too much, I have been too careful with my soul.'” – J. C. Ryle

More than the Five Points: “If you actually believe that God’s glory and the demonstration of the full spectrum of the glorious attributes of God is the first and foremost principle to be observed and sought in all of life, that has to impact everything else, including your worship, your church order, your preaching… everything, then you are Reformed.” – Dr. James White

“It was I who kept you from sinning against me.” Genesis 20:6. He can stop all acts of sin. And what he permits is wise. – John Piper

“Burning hearts are not nourished by empty heads.” – R. C. Sproul

“People can have all kinds of information in their head. They can score 100% on a system theology exam. The devil could make an A+ on a theology exam, all the while his heart is alienated from Christ and from the things of God.” – R. C. Sproul

And to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. – Romans 4:5

“When it is said that God justifies the ungodly, ’tis as absurd to suppose that our godliness, taken as some goodness in us, is the ground of our justification, as when it is said that Christ gave sight to the blind, to suppose that sight was prior to, and the ground of that act of mercy in Christ, or as if it should be said that such an one by his bounty has made a poor man rich, to suppose that it was the wealth of this poor man that was the ground of this bounty towards him, and was the price by which it was procured.” – Jonathan Edwards, ‘Justification by Faith Alone,’ a sermon series on Rom 4:5 that, Edwards believed, was instrumental in sparking the first local revival of 1734-35; the 100-page sermon series can be found in the Yale edition of Edwards’ Works, vol. 19, pp. 143-242 (here 147)

Jesus, I my cross have taken
All to leave and follow Thee
Destitute, despised, forsaken
Thou from hence my all shall be

Perish ev’ry fond ambition
All I’ve sought or hoped or known
Yet how rich is my condition
God and heav’n are still my own
–Henry Lyte (1793-1847)

“The closer we are to God, the more the slightest sin will cause us deep sorrow.” – R. C. Sproul

“He who tells little lies, will soon think nothing of great ones, for the principle is the same.” – C. H. Spurgeon

“Satan does not care how spiritual your intentions are if only they are determined to be done tomorrow.” – J.C. Ryle

The greatness of God’s love for the world is seen most clearly in the gift that He gave: “his only Son.” – Richard Phillips

“But why is faith the means of justification? Simply because it is the action of union with Jesus Christ. Faith is our coming to Him, our trusting Him, our resting in Him. The moment we are united to Him, we are immediately endowed with all that He has secured for us. We are immediately justified before we have done a single good deed, because we are His and He is God’s. Just as a very poor woman is a very poor woman until the very moment that she marries a wealthy man. But at the moment that she becomes his wife, she becomes a wealthy woman. It is by means of her acceptance that she becomes a wealthy woman, but her acceptance does not make her a wealthy woman; it is her husband’s wealth that makes her so. So faith does not justify; Christ justifies. But faith is the act of union with Christ.” – John H. Gerstner

“Regeneration is an act of sovereign grace. If a tree must be made good before the fruit is good; the goodness of the fruit cannot be the reason which determines him who has the power to change the tree from bad to good.” – Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter XIV

“The Pharisees’ problem was not that they were too concerned with orthodox teaching, but that they had invented their own orthodoxy. Jesus condemned them for replacing and modifying the clear truth of Scripture with their own traditions (Matthew 15:1-9). They were the chief theological miscreants of their day.

So how did Jesus treat them? Did He show them love — i.e., did He obey the Second Great Commandment in His dealings with them? Of course.

What did that love entail? First and foremost, Jesus declared the truth to them. He also frequently delivered public rebukes for the errors that threatened to damn them. He castigated them. He occasionally held them up to public ridicule. He obviously valued their souls more than their feelings. That is what authentic love looks like. In other words, Christ, not Rodney King, is the paragon of perfect love.

The vast majority of Pharisees didn’t heed Jesus’ warnings, of course. The smug or snide ones might have even claimed it was because He didn’t “have a relationship based upon love.” It was nonetheless the right thing for Him to correct their false teaching and warn others of the danger posed by their error.” – Phil Johnson

“No words can express how much the world owes to sorrow. Most of the Psalms were born in the wilderness. Most of the Epistles were written in a prison. The greatest thoughts of the greatest thinkers have all passed through fire. The greatest poets have “learned in suffering what they taught in song.” In bonds Bunyan lived the allegory that he afterwards wrote, and we may thank Bedford Jail for the Pilgrim’s Progress. Take comfort, afflicted Christian! When God is about to make pre-eminent use of a person, He puts them in the fire.” George MacDonald

“Grace finds us beggars but leaves us debtors.” Augustus Toplady

“It always seems inexplicable to me that those who claim free will so very boldly for man should not also allow some free will to God. Why should not Jesus Christ have the right to choose His own bride?” – C. H. Spurgeon

“The church we love is as flawed and messed up as we are, but she’s Christ bride nonetheless. And I might as well have a basement without a house or a head without a body as despise the wife my Savior loves.” (Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck, Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion, page 19)

“The highest form of selfishness is that of the person who is content to go to heaven alone.” – J.C. Ryle

“Make this simple rule the guide of your life: to have no will but God’s.” – Francois Fenelon

“What is the best safeguard against false doctrine? The Bible: the Bible regularly read, regularly prayed over, regularly studied.” – J.C. Ryle

“The doctrine of the gospel takes from men all glory, wisdom, righteousness…and gives the same unto the Creator alone, who made all things of nothing.” – Martin Luther

“Sin is what you do when your heart is not satisfied with God. We sin because it holds out some promise of happiness. The promise enslaves us until we believe that God is more to be desired than life itself.” – John Piper

“God writes with a pen that never blots, speaks with a tongue that never slips, acts with a hand that never fails.” – C. H. Spurgeon

“It should be a priority for the church and for every individual Christian to make sure that the way in which we speak of God is a way that communicates respect, awe, adoration, and reverence. How we use the name of God reveals more clearly than any creed we ever confess our deepest attitudes towards the God of the sacred name.” – R. C. Sproul

“We are subject to many pressing needs, and we are too much inclined to value God, not for His own sake, but only because He can satisfy those needs… [Food, clothing, companionship, and inspiring work] are lofty desires. But there is one desire that is loftier still. It is the desire for God Himself. That desire, too often, we forget.

We value God solely for the things He can do; we make of Him a mere means to an ulterior end. And God refuses to be treated so; such a religion always fails in the hour of need. If we have regarded religion merely as a means of getting things–even lofty and unselfish things–then when the things that have been gotten are destroyed, our faith will fail. When loved ones are taken away, when disappointment comes and failure, when noble ambitions are set at naught, then we turn away from God. We have tried religion, we say, we have tried prayer, and it has failed. Of course it has failed! God is not content to be an instrument in our hand or a servant at our beck and call. . . .

If we possess God, then we can meet with equanimity the loss of all besides. Has it never dawned upon us that God is valuable for His own sake, that just as personal communion is the highest thing that we know on earth, so personal communion with God is the sublimest height of all? If we value God for His own sake, then the loss of other things will draw us all the closer to Him; we shall have recourse to Him in time of trouble as to the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” – J. Gresham Machen, What Is Faith?, 73-74