“Preaching is not men teaching from the Bible; it is God teaching from the Bible through men.” – Iain H. Murray

“In preaching we hold out an expectation that God will act upon His word in power and cause change. This is what separates true Biblical preaching from speeches, talks and lectures.” – Elly Achok Olare

“A sermon without application can still be a life-changing sermon if it causes us to see the glory of God in the face of Christ.” – Kevin DeYoung

“If you are not praying, then you are quietly confident that time, money, and talent are all you need in life…But if, like Jesus, you realize you can’t do life on your own, then no matter how busy, no matter how tired you are, you will find the time to pray.” – Paul Miller

“Prayer and sinning will never live together in the same heart. Prayer will consume sin, or sin will choke prayer.” – J.C. Ryle

“We never completely love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and never fully love our neighbor as ourselves. Each day we deserve God’s wrath, but each day we stand before Him in grace, accepted by Him only through the merit of our Lord Jesus Christ.” – Jerry Bridges

“Where reason cannot wade there faith may swim.” – Thomas Watson

“Faith may swim where reason may only paddle.” – Charles Spurgeon

“I rest solely in His righteousness and in His atonement because I know there is nothing I can do to make up for my iniquity.” – R C Sproul

“‘Follow your heart’ has ended more marriages, mutilated more bodies, destroyed more souls, and ended more lives that the devil could ever have imagined. It is hell’s most effective slogan yet.” – Nate Pickowiez

“The motto of all true servants of God must be, ‘We preach Christ; and him crucified.’ A sermon without Christ in it is like a loaf of bread without any flour in it. No Christ in your sermon, sir? Then go home, and never preach again until you have something worth preaching.” – Spurgeon

“Legalistic remorse says, ‘I broke God’s rules,’ while real repentance says, ‘I broke God’s heart.’” – Tim Keller

“The New Testament is the final revelation of God and final interpreter of the Old Testament.” – Fred Malone

“Racism is nothing more than collective narcissism: I love my group above all others because I love myself.” – Michael Horton

“If you ask, ‘Why is this happening?’ no light may come, but if you ask, ‘How am I to glorify God now?’ there will always be an answer.” – J. I. Packer

Sinful fear sees only the storm; godly fear trusts the One who commands it.

“Christians believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. Atheists believe in the virgin birth of the cosmos. Choose your miracle.” – Glen Scrivener

“You will hear people say, ‘The early Christians believed that Christ was the son of a virgin, but we know that this is a scientific impossibility’. Such people seem to have an idea that belief in miracles arose at a period when men were so ignorant of the course of nature that they did not perceive a miracle to be contrary to it. A moment’s thought shows this to be nonsense: and the story of the Virgin Birth is a particularly striking example.

When Joseph discovered that his fiancée was going to have a baby, he not unnaturally decided to repudiate her. Why? Because he knew just as well as any modern gynecologist that in the ordinary course of nature women do not have babies unless they have lain with men. No doubt the modern gynecologist knows several things about birth and begetting which St Joseph did not know. But those things do not concern the main point–that a virgin birth is contrary to the course of nature. Joseph obviously knew that. In any sense in which it is true to say now, ‘The thing is scientifically impossible’, he would have said the same: the thing always was, and was always known to be, impossible unless the regular processes of nature were, in this particular case, being over-ruled or supplemented by something from beyond nature.

When Joseph finally accepted the view that his fiancée’s pregnancy was due not to unchastity but to a miracle, he accepted the miracle as something contrary to the known order of nature. All records of miracles teach the same thing.” – C. S. Lewis

“The Christ who was born into the world must be born in your heart. Religious sentiment…without the living Christ is a yellow brick road to darkness.” – Kent Hughes

“Remember Jesus for us is all our righteousness before a holy God, and Jesus in us is all our strength in an ungodly world.” – McCheyne

“First, by the obedience of the life of Christ you see what is intended,—his willing submission unto, and perfect, complete fulfilling of, every law of God, that any of the saints of God were obliged unto. It is true, every act almost of Christ’s obedience, from the blood of his circumcision to the blood of his cross, was attended with suffering,—so that his whole life might, in that regard, be called a death; but yet, looking upon his willingness and obedience in it, it is distinguished from his sufferings peculiarly so called, and termed his active righteousness. This is, then, I say, as was showed, that complete, absolutely perfect accomplishment of the whole law of God by Christ, our mediator; whereby he not only “did no sin, neither was there guile found in his mouth,” but also most perfectly fulfilled all righteousness, as he affirmed it became him to do. Secondly, That this obedience was performed by Christ not for himself, but for us, and in our stead.” – John Owen, Of Communion with God, in the Works of John Owen (Carlisle: Banner of Truth, repr. 2009), 2:161–162.

“Hence, it is also manifest that if any good quality or work of ours were made the condition of our justification or title to eternal life, this would turn the covenant of grace exhibited in the gospel into a covenant of works. The covenant of grace revealed and offered to sinners in the gospel is the only covenant according to which a sinner can be justified and entitled to life eternal. It is absolutely impossible that he can be justified according to the broken covenant of works. But were any graces, acts, or works of his the proper conditions of his justification, the covenant of grace would be as much a covenant of works as ever the covenant made with Adam was. The condition of Adam’s covenant was perfect obedience, and according to this imaginary law of easier terms, the conditions of the covenant of grace are sincere faith and sincere obedience.” – John Colquhoun, A Treatise on the Law and Gospel (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books), 102.

“Therefore, we explain justification simply as the acceptance with which God receives us into his favor as righteous men. And we say that it consists in the remission of sins and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness.” – John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 3.11.12.

“In group Bible studies generally, participants are led to look directly for personal devotional applications without first contemplating the writers’ points about the greatness, goals, methods, and mystery of God. In putting together Christian books and magazines for popular reading and in composing, preaching, hearing, and thinking about sermons, the story is the same: it is assumed that our reaction to realities is more significant than any of the realities to which we react. Thus we learn to cultivate a mode of piety that rests upon a smudgy, deficient, and sometimes misleading conception of who and what the God we serve really is. Brought up on this, we now reflect the subjectivist turn of the Western thought-world of more than a century ago: personal guesses and fantasies about God replace the church’s dogma as our authority, a hermeneutic of habitual distrust and suspicion of dogma establishes itself, and dogma becomes a dirty word, loaded with overtones of obscurantism, tunnel vision, unreality, superstition, and mental enslavement.” – J.I. Packer and Gary A. Parrett | Grounded in the Gospel: Building Believers the Old Fashioned Way, 11.

“Suppose some persons laugh. You weep on the other hand for their transgression! Many also once laughed at Noah while he was preparing the ark; but when the flood came, he laughed at them; or rather, the righteous man never laughed at them at all, but wept and bewailed! When therefore you see persons laughing, reflect that those teeth, that grin now, will one day have to sustain that most dreadful wailing and gnashing, and that they will remember this same laugh on That Day while they are grinding and gnashing! Then you too shall remember this laugh! How did the rich man laugh at Lazarus! But afterwards, when he beheld him in Abraham’s bosom, he had nothing left to do but to bewail himself!” – John Chrysostom | The Homilies on the Statues, in Saint Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statues, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. W. R. W. Stephens, vol. 9, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1889), 481.

“I’m not afraid of failure; I’m afraid of succeeding at things that don’t matter.” – William Carey

“Don’t vote for the lesser of two evils. Vote for the one who will lessen evil.”

“The righteous are willing to disadvantage themselves to advantage the community, the wicked are willing to disadvantage the community to advantage themselves.” – Bruce Waltke

“Pain that brings you closer to God will always be better than comfort that keeps you away from Him” – J. C. Ryle

“We have plenty of troubles and trials, and if we like to fret over them, we can always do that; but, then, we have far more joys than troubles, so our songs should exceed our sighs.” – C.H. Spurgeon

“Christian, if you want to be in God’s will, you will do all you can to be physically present and involved as a member of a faithful local church.” – Dan Phillips

“Every man should keep a fair-sized cemetery in which to keep the faults of his friends.” – Henry Ward Beecher

Romans 1:30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 *undiscerning*, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

“Discernment isn’t a gift. It’s a requirement. To be undiscerning is a sin!” – Phillip May

“I rest solely in His righteousness and in His atonement because I know there is nothing I can do to make up for my iniquity.” – R C Sproul

“A lot of people think that Christianity is you doing all the righteous things you hate and avoiding all the wicked things you love in order to go to heaven. No, that’s a lost man with religion. A Christian is a person whose heart has been changed; he has new affections.” – Paul Washer

“Dear fellow, you must not look at yourself, how worthy or unworthy you are, but at your need—your need of the grace of Christ. If you see and feel your need, you are worthy and sufficiently prepared, for he has not instituted the sacrament to act as a poison and to harm us, but to grant comfort and salvation.”

Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 38: Word and Sacrament IV, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 38 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999), 132.

“Election based on foreseen faith implies we are ordained to eternal life because we believe. Yet Scripture declares the reverse: “As many as were ordained to eternal life believed,” (Acts 13:48) not “as many as believed were ordained to eternal life.” – Isaac Abrose

“An Arminian gospel might suffice, if men were just IN darkness. Problem is, they LOVE darkness (Jn. 3:19). Only sovereign grace will save.” – Dan Phillips

“O, what a benefit is this to a poor sinner, that owes to God infinitely more than he is ever able to pay, by doing or suffering; to have such a rich treasure of merit as lies in the obedience of Christ, to discharge, in one entire payment, all his debts to the last farthing?” – John Flavel

“…And we, too, being called by His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, nor by our own wisdom, or understanding, or godliness, or works which we have wrought in holiness of heart; but by that faith through which, from the beginning, Almighty God has justified all men;” – Clement of Rome, 96 AD

“The doctrine of the Covenant lies at the root of all true theology.  It has been said that he who well understands the distinction between the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace is a master of divinity.  I am persuaded that most of the mistakes which men make concerning the doctrines of Scriptures are based upon fundamental errors with regard to the covenants of law and the covenants of grace.  May God grant us now the power to instruct and you the grace to receive instruction on this vital subject.” – C. H. Spurgeon

“Luther said, ‘Whoa, you mean the righteousness by which I will be saved is not mine?’ It’s what he called a ‘justitia alienum’—an alien righteousness, a righteousness that belongs properly to somebody else. It’s a righteousness that is ‘extra nos’, outside of us—namely, the righteousness of Christ. And Luther said, ‘When I discovered that, I was born again of the Holy Ghost, and the doors of Paradise swung open, and I walked through.’” – R.C. Sproul

“I understand that what God really uses to really work in me and to really change me are not the times of sunshine and rainbows but it’s the times of dark clouds and storms and pain and suffering and affliction. Those are the things that God is so sovereign that He takes those things – the very things that we shrink from and He says, ‘I will take those and I will sanctify them to you and use them for your good.’” – Brian Borgman

“Christ is the one eternal High Priest; therefore, those who vaunt themselves as high priests oppose the honor and power of Christ.” – Ulrich Zwingli, Swiss Reformer

“Bring them to church. Saturate their lives with the Word of God. Even if they lay on the floor. Even if they need 437 goldfish and a sucker to be quiet. Even if you stand in the back swaying back and forth holding them. Even when it’s hard. Even when your row looks like a small hurricane just came through. Bring them to church. Let them see you worship. Let them see you pray. Let them see you running toward the Savior … because if they don’t see and learn these things from you, who are they going to learn them from? The world will teach them it’s not a priority. The world will teach them it’s okay to lay out, not to pick up their Bibles. The world will direct them so far off course, confuse them, and misinform them that just being ‘good’ is enough. The world won’t teach them about Jesus. That’s our job.” – Tom Manuel

“Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on Earth.” – John Wesley

“Whenever the Lord shuts his sacred mouth, [the Christian] also desists from inquiry. The best rule of sobriety is, not only in learning to follow wherever God leads, but also when he makes an end of teaching, to cease also from wishing to be wise.” – John Calvin, Institutes, Book 4. Ch 21. Sec 3

“To me, Calvinism means the placing of the eternal God at the head of all things. I look at everything through its relation to God’s glory. I see God first, and man far down in the list . . . Brethren, if we live in sympathy with God, we delight to hear Him say, ‘I am God, and there is none else.’” – Charles Spurgeon from “An All Round Ministry,” 337

“You may spoil the gospel by disproportion. You have only to attach an exaggerated importance to the secondary things of Christianity, and a diminished importance to the first things and the mischief is done. Once alter the proportion of the parts of truth, truth soon becomes downright error! Do this, either directly, or indirectly, and your religion ceases to be Evangelical.” – J. C. Ryle

“If Christ did so buy them, and lay out the price of His precious blood for them, and then at last deny that He ever knew them, might they not well reply, ‘Ah, Lord! was not Your soul heavy unto death for our sakes? Did You not for us undergo that wrath that made You sweat drops of blood? Did You not bathe Yourself in Your own blood, that our blood might be spared? Did You not sanctify Yourself to be an offering for us as [much] as for any of Your apostles? Was not Your precious blood—by stripes, by sweat, by nails, by thorns, by spear—poured out for us? Did You not remember us when You hung upon the cross? And now do You say, You never knew us? Good Lord, though we be unworthy sinners, yet Your own blood does not deserved to be despised. Why is it that none can lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? Is it not because You die for them [Romans 8]? And did You not do the same for us [according to a universal atonement]? Why, then, are we thus charged, thus rejected? Could not Your blood satisfy Your Father, but we ourselves must be punished? Could not justice content itself with that sacrifice…?’” (291) John Owen – The Death of Death in the Death of Christ

“I preach the doctrines of grace because I believe them to be true; because I see them in the Scriptures; because my experience endears them to me; and because I see the holy result of them in the lives of believers. I confess they are none the less dear to me because the advanced school despises them: their censures are to me a commendation. I confess also that I should never think the better of a doctrine because it was said to be ‘new.; Those truths which have enlightened so many ages appear to me to be ordained to remain throughout eternity. The doctrine which I preach is that of the Puritans: it is the doctrine of Calvin, the doctrine of Augustine, the doctrine of Paul, the doctrine of the Holy Ghost. The Author and Finisher of our faith Himself taught most blessed truth which well agreed with Paul’s declaration, ‘By grace are ye saved.’ The doctrine of grace is the substance of the testimony of Jesus.”

[C. H. Spurgeon, C. H. Spurgeon’s Autobiography, Compiled from His Diary, Letters, and Records, by His Wife and His Private Secretary, 1854–1860, vol. 2 (Chicago; New York; Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1899), 87.]

“An over-popular definition of holiness is ‘set apart.’ Ask a group of Christians to define holiness, and many will say just those two words: ‘set apart.’ A better and more full-orbed Biblical definition is, ‘Set apart to the ownership and service of God.'” – Dan Phillips

A good reminder on justification from Obadiah Sedgwick:

Believers have immunity or freedom from being justified by the Law, from all legal judgments for life. Although you are not free from the Law as a guide for life, you are free from the Law as a Covenant of life. While you are not free from the Law as it reflects the good and holy will of God, you are free from the Law as a means of salvation and justification because you are under the Covenant of grace. The Covenant of grace removes you from the court and bar that pronounces life based on your own good deeds and death based on your own evil deeds; Romans 3:28, “We conclude that a person is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law.” Galatians 3:11, “No one is justified by the Law in the sight of God, for the just shall live by faith.”

As the Law demands perfect and personal righteousness of our own, it won’t justify or give life to you unless it finds that righteousness within you; you don’t live if you aren’t perfectly righteous; absolution is pronounced upon your own perfect innocence, and condemnation is pronounced upon any defect or breach. Truly, in this regard, no living person can or will be justified; therefore, there is comfort in knowing that, being in Christ and in this Covenant of grace, you are justified from all things from which you couldn’t be justified by the Law of Moses; see the Apostle in Acts 13:39. Your life doesn’t depend on your own righteousness now, but on the righteousness of Christ; nor does it rely on your own deeds, but on Christ’s obedience. Luther’s expression is excellent: “Though my works have been very good, it is not those but Christ who justifies me; and though my works have been very bad, the righteousness of Christ can and will justify me; my evil deeds will not condemn me, and my good deeds cannot acquit me; it is Christ, it is Christ, and not the Law that justifies me.”

• Obadiah Sedgwick, The Bowels of Tender Mercy Sealed in the Everlasting Covenant (London: Printed by Edward Mottershed, for Adoniram Byfield, 1661), 81.