“Jesus was not revolutionary because he said we should love God and each other. Moses said that first. So did Buddha, Confucius, and countless other religious leaders we’ve never heard of. Madonna, Oprah, Dr. Phil, the Dali Lama, and probably a lot of Christian leaders will tell us that the point of religion is to get us to love each other. “God loves you” doesn’t stir the world’s opposition. However, start talking about God’s absolute authority, holiness, Christ’s substitutionary atonement, justification by faith apart from works, the necessity of new birth, repentance, baptism, Communion, and the future judgment, and the mood in the room changes considerably.”

~Michael Horton

“God doesn’t need your good works; your neighbor does.” – Martin Luther

“The Reformation leveled the playing field and revealed the janitor is as holy as the Pope.” – Jeff Rose

“[The elect] are gathered into Christ’s flock by a call not immediately at birth, and not all at the same time, but according as it pleases God to dispense His grace to them. But before they are gathered unto that supreme Shepherd, they wander scattered in the wilderness common to all; and they do not differ at all from others except that they are protected by God’s special mercy from rushing headlong into the final ruin of death.” – John Calvin, Institutes, 3.24.10.

“In his unregenerate state man never adequately realizes his utterly hopeless condition. He imagines he is able to reform himself and turn to God if he chooses.” – Lorraine Boettner

“There are no loose threads in the providence of God, no stitches are dropped, no events are left to chance. The great clock of the universe keeps good time, and the whole machinery of providence moves with unerring punctuality.” – C. H. Spurgeon

“There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God.” – Jonathan Edwards

“The human heart has so many crannies where vanity hides, so many holes where falsehood lurks, is so decked out with deceiving hypocrisy, that it often dupes itself.” – John Calvin, A Calvin Treasury. Christianity Today, v. 37, n. 4.

“We must learn where our personal weaknesses lie. Once they are identified, we must be ruthless in dealing with them. Earlier generations called this the “mortification of the flesh,” that is, pronouncing the death sentence upon sin and putting that sentence into daily effect by killing all that sets itself against God’s purpose in our lives.” – Alistair Begg, Made For His Pleasure, Moody Press, 1996, p. 33.

“Sin cannot dethrone God. That is what sin aims to do, but it misses its mark. Sin brings guilt to a man, but it does not bring him one ounce of sovereignty. God rules even when men imagine they are defying Him.” – Tom Wells

“Take this rule: whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.” – Susanna Wesley: The Complete Writings, ed. by Charles Wallace Jr, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 109.
Continue reading →

“It shall greatly helpe ye to understande Scripture, If thou mark Not only what is spoken or wrytten, But of whom, And to whom, With what words, At what time, Where, To what intent, With what circumstances, Considering what goeth before, And what followeth.” – John Wycliffe

“Sin is the dare of God’s justice, the rape of His mercy, the jeer of His patience, the slight of His power, and the contempt of His love.” – John Bunyan

“Your trials, crosses, and conflicts are all temporary.” – J.C. Ryle

“I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages.” – C. H. Spurgeon

“They are all Calvinists there, every soul of them. They may have been Arminians on earth; thousands and millions of them were; but they are not after they get there, for here is their song, ‘Salvation unto our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.'” – C. H. Spurgeon

“Do not then spend the strength of your zeal for your religion in censuring others. The man that is most busy in censuring others is always least employed in examining himself.” – Thomas Lye

“If you refuse to submit to the authority of Christ…you’re taking on the Lord God omnipotent.” – R.C. Sproul

“Prayer will make you leave off sinning, or sinning will make you leave off praying.” – C. H. Spurgeon

“Many men, after a long conversion, see more of the workings of sin in their hearts than ever they did before or at their first conversion. Now, such men have not an increase of sin, but an increase of illumination and light” (Love, The Mortified Christian, 47).

“To steal from one author is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.” – Wilson Mizner

“The promise was between the Father and the Son, from all eternity, concerning your soul in particular.” – Jeremiah Burroughs

“There is always a set of grumblers about who think they could preach better and manage Sunday schools better than anybody else. They are the people who generally do nothing at all.” – C. H. Spurgeon

“He glorifies Himself toward the creature also in two ways: 1. By appearing to their understanding. 2. In communicating Himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in and enjoying the manifestations which He makes of Himself… God is glorified not only by His glory being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart.” – Jonathan Edwards

“True holy water is not that which the pope sprinkles, but is distilled from the penitent eye.” – Thomas Watson

“…the accuracy of our pictures of God is not tested by our orthodoxy or our testimonies but by the truths we count on in real life. It is demonstrated when the heat is on, the chips are down, and reality seems to be breathing down our necks. What we presuppose at such moments is our real picture of God, and this may be very different from what we profess to believe about God.” – Os Guinness

“It is not your hold of Christ that saves, but his hold of you!” – C. H. Spurgeon

“The man or woman who is born of God, who is regenerate, simply does not and cannot continue – abide – in a life of sin. They may backslide temporarily, but if they are born of God they will come back. It is as certain as that they have been born again. It is the way to test whether or not someone is born again.” – Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Great Doctrines of the Bible)

“He that has doctrinal knowledge and speculation only, without affection, never is engaged in the business of religion.” – Jonathan Edwards
Continue reading →

“Subject to none, influenced by none, absolutely independent: God does as He pleases, only as He pleases. None can thwart Him, none can hinder Him.” – A. W. Pink

“True repentance will entirely change you; the bias of your souls will be changed, then you will delight in God, in Christ, in His Law, and in His people.” – George Whitefield

“Grace doesn’t free you from the call to obey, but liberates you from the delusion that you can obey your way into God’s acceptance.” – P. Tripp

“Christians are in themselves no wiser than are other men. What they have, they have by grace. They must be ‘all things to all men.’ But it is not kindness to tell patients that need strong medicine that nothing serious is wrong with them. Christians are bound to tell men the truth about themselves; that is the only way of bringing them to recognize the mercy, the compassion, of Christ. For if men are told the truth about themselves, and if they are warned against the false remedies that establish men in their wickedness, then, by the power of the Spirit of God, they will flee to the Christ through whom alone they must be saved.” – Cornelius Van Til

“In modern day evangelism, this precious doctrine [of regeneration] has been reduced to nothing more than a human decision to raise one’s hand, walk an aisle, or pray a ‘sinner’s prayer.’ As a result, the majority of Americans believe that they’ve been ‘born again’ (i.e., regenerated) even though their thoughts, words, and deeds are a continual contradiction to the nature and will of God.” – Paul Washer

“A soul dead in sin is insensible to any real distress because of sin; a heart destitute of love to God, feels no distress because it does not love Him. A graceless sinner never longs for grace: an unrenewed person never thirsts for holiness, and a dead soul never breathes after life. Take heart, then, O believer, for your soul-sorrow is the prelude to your soul’s eternal joy.” – Octavius Winslow

John 6:37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

“It is a moral and spiritual impossibility for a person to come to Christ apart from the Father’s drawing. What we find now is that it is a moral and spiritual impossibility for the person given by the Father to the Son NOT to come. There is, by Jesus’ verdict, the invariable conjunction of these two diverse kinds of action: ‘All that the Father giveth me shall come to me…’ There is invincible efficacy in the Father’s action, and this means grace irresistible.” – John Murray

Addressing those who convert from a profession of faith in the Gospel to Roman Catholicism, Dr. James White speaks of “… the standard ‘conversionist blindspot’ problems that we have seen over and over again with those who think that jumping into the arms of Romanism will give them the certainty they have come to conclude God’s Word and Spirit are incapable of providing, especially the obvious one: your fallible choice to follow Rome (which is NOT the ‘only game in town’) means that your level of certainty can never rise above the level of your own fallible choice.”

“I’ve noticed that everyone who is for abortion is already born.” – Ronald Reagan
Continue reading →

“Although my memory’s fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.” – John Newton

“The devil is aware that one hour of close, spiritual and hearty converse with God in prayer, is able to pull down what he hath been contriving and building many a year.” – John Flavel

“The shop, the barn, the scullery, and the smithy become temples when men and women do all to the glory of God!” – C. H. Spurgeon

“All who are saved are saved as a result of what God does. All who are lost are lost as a result of what they do.” – Don Fortner

“To the Arminian, Christ can never truly be Savior in this life. At best, He is Probation Officer.” – Dan Phillips

“Some men cannot endure to hear the Doctrine of Election. I suppose they like to choose their own wives, but they are not willing that Christ should select His bride, the Church!” – C. H. Spurgeon

“The doctrine of providence teaches Christians that they are never in the grip of blind forces (fortune, chance, luck, fate); all that happens to them is divinely planned, and each event comes as a new summons to trust, obey, and rejoice, knowing that all is for one’s spiritual and eternal good (Rom. 8:28).” J. I. Packer

“It is a sin when I place myself deliberately in the place of tempatation… either because I enjoy the prospect or because I’m not determined enough in my desire to overcome it.” – Alistair Begg

“A natural faith is sufficient for trusting a human object; but a supernatural faith is required to savingly trust in a Divine object.” – A.W. Pink, Studies On Saving Faith

“When God hardens hearts He gives them their freedom to exercise the evil of their own desires.” – R.C. Sproul

“To sum up, man cannot without sacrilege claim for himself even a crumb of righteousness, for just so much is plucked and taken away from the glory of God’s righteousness. We must hold this as a universal principle: Whoever glories in himself glories against God.” – John Calvin

“The reason the church tries so many other things besides preaching Christ is because it suspects the kingdom can be established some other way. But there is no other way. People will not come into the kingdom because they like the minister, support the children’s program, or enjoy the music. They may come into a church that way, but not into the kingdom. The only way people ever come into God’s kingdom is by hearing His heralds proclaim a crucified King.” – Philip Graham Ryken

“I’ve often reflected on the rather obvious thought that when his disciples were about to have the world collapse in on them, our Lord spent so much time in the Upper Room speaking to them about the mystery of the Trinity. If anything could underline the necessity of Trinitarianism for practical Christianity, that must surely be it!” Sinclair Ferguson, cited in Letham, The Holy Trinity, 375
Continue reading →

I know that I am completely justified.
His blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress.
I want no other garments,
save Jesus’ doings, and his imputed righteousness. – Charles Spurgeon

Francis Schaeffer:

Once I was flying at night over the North Atlantic. It was in 1947, and I was coming back from my first visit to Europe. Our plane, one of those old DC4’s with two engines on each wing, was within two or three minutes of the middle of the Atlantic. Suddenly two engines on one wing stopped. I had already flown a lot, and so I could feel the engines going wrong. I remember thinking, if I’m going to go down into the ocean, I’d better get my coat. When I did, I said to the hostess, “There’s something wrong with the engines.” She was a bit snappy and said, “You people always think there’s something wrong with the engines.” So I shrugged my shoulders, but I took my coat. I had no sooner sat down, than the lights came on and a very agitated co-pilot came out. “We’re in trouble,” he said. “Hurry and put on your life jackets.”

So down we went, and we fell and fell, until in the middle of the night with no moon we could actually see the water breaking under us in the darkness. And as we were coming down, I prayed. Interestingly enough, a radio message had gone out, an SOS that was picked up and broadcast immediately all over the United States in a flash news announcement: “There is a plane falling in the middle of the Atlantic.” My wife heard about this and at once she gathered our three little girls together and they knelt down and began to pray. They were praying in St Louis, Missouri, and I was praying on the plane. And we were going down and down.

Then, while we could see the waves breaking beneath us and everybody was ready for the crash, suddenly the two motors started, and we went on into Gander. When we got down I found the pilot and asked what happened. “Well,” he said, “it’s a strange thing, something we can’t explain. Only rarely do two motors stop on one wing, but you can make an absolute rule that when they do, they don’t start again. We don’t understand it.” So I turned to him and I said, “I can explain it.” He looked at me: “How?” And I said, “My Father in heaven started it because I was praying.” That man had the strangest look on his face and he turned away.

Schaeffer then makes his point:

. . . What one must realize is that seeing the world as a Christian does not mean just saying, “I am a Christian. I believe in the supernatural world,” and then stopping. It is possible to be saved through faith in Christ and then spend much of our lives in [unbelief]. We can say we believe in a supernatural world, and yet live as though there were no supernatural in the universe at all. It is not enough merely to say, “I believe in a supernatural world.”

Christianity is not just a mental assent that certain doctrines are true. This is only the beginning. This would be rather like a starving man sitting in front of great heaps of food and saying, “I believe the food exists; I believe it is real,” and yet never eating it. It is not enough merely to say, “I am a Christian”, and then in practice to live as if present contact with the supernatural were something far off and strange. Many Christians I know seem to act as though they come in contact with the supernatural just twice – once when they are justified and become a Christian and once when they die. The rest of the time they act [in unbelief]. – Francis Schaeffer, ‘The Universe and Two Chairs’

“Though hell is not the same for all, and exists in degrees (Luke 12:47), any unhappiness that lasts forever is unfathomable.” – John Piper
Continue reading →

“It is easier to cry against one-thousand sins of others than to kill one of your own… It is easier to declaim like an orator against a thousand sins in others than to mortify one sin in ourselves; to be more industrious in our pulpits than in our closets; to preach twenty sermons to our people than one to our own hearts.” – John Flavel

“The safest road to Hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” – C. S. Lewis

“Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.” Charles H. Spurgeon

“Before the foundation of the world, it was God’s will that Christ should suffer for our salvation — Can He damn thee, whom He hath redeemed from death, for whom He offered Himself, whose life He knows is the reward of His own death?” – Ambrose (A.D. 380)

“The new birth is the dividing line between Heaven and Hell. In God’s sight there are but two classes of people on this earth: those who are dead in sins, and those who are walking in newness of life… In view of this solemn fact, how momentous is the question, Have I been born again? If not, and you die in your present state, you will wish you had never been born at all.

Tens of thousands of professing Christians are filled with a vain and presumptuous confidence that all is well with them. They delude themselves with hopes of mercy while continuing to live in a course of self-will and self-pleasing. They fancy they are fitted for Heaven, while every day that passes finds them the more prepared for Hell.

The principal device of Satan is to deceive people into imagining that they can successfully combine the world with God, allow the flesh while pretending to the Spirit, and thus make the best of both worlds.” A. W. Pink from Regeneration or The New Birth

“God’s electing a certain definite number is a manifestation of His glory. It shows the glory of His divine sovereignty. God is declaring His absolute sovereignty over His creation. He is showing us just how far that sovereignty extends. In purposely choosing some and passing on others, He shows that His majesty and power are unparalleled. Those who do not see glory and dominion in election simply do not understand God. They are not aware of His greatness, and do not understand grace. Grace is defined in election. God chose His people to happiness and glory long before they were born. He chose them out of the mass of fallen mankind. He loved them before they knew Him. He chose them when they did not deserve to be chosen. That is grace! The doctrine of election shows that if those who received God’s grace had earnestly sought it, it was God’s grace that caused them to seek it. It shows that even their faith itself is the gift of God, and their persevering in a way of holiness unto glory is also the fruit of electing love. Believer’s love of God is the fruit of and because of God’s love to them. The giving of Christ, the preaching of the gospel, and the appointing of ordinances are all fruits of the grace of election. All the grace that is shown to mankind, either in this world or in the world to come, is comprised of the electing love of God.” – Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards volume 2 page 936 Sermon 13 in occasional sermons on 1 Peter 2

“Humanism was not invented by man, but by a snake who suggested that the quest for autonomy might be a good idea.” – R. C. Sproul

“I find it most true that the greatest temptation outside of hell is to live without temptations; if water stands, it rots; faith is the better for the sharp winter storm in its face and grace withers without adversity. The devil is but God’s master fencer to teach us to handle our weapons.” – Samuel Rutherford
Continue reading →