I do not understand how a man can be a true believer unto whom sin is not the greatest burden, sorrow, and trouble.
– John Owen
1616 – 1683
I do not understand how a man can be a true believer unto whom sin is not the greatest burden, sorrow, and trouble.
– John Owen
1616 – 1683
After many years of listening to non-sequential, topical, doctrinal sermons, most of which are based on isolated texts, many church members still do not know the Bible as one book. Often repeated verses and some doctrines may be known; but the Scriptures, according to their divinely-given historical structure, are seldom understood. This is equally true in most Sunday schools. Children are usually taught stories from the Bible out of chronological order, and large portions of God’s Word are never taught to them at all. Even a faithful Sunday school pupil is unlikely to graduate with an overall knowledge of the Bible.
– Trevor Mcllwain
Repentance is taking sides with God against ourselves. It is the unsparing judgment of ourselves because of our high-handed rebellion. It is a ceasing to love and tolerate sin, and to excuse ourselves for committing it. It is a mourning before God because of our transgressions of His holy Law. Therefore, Christ taught, “Except ye repent, ye shall likewise perish” (Luke 13:3), for He would not condone evil. He came to save His people from their sins, and not in them.
– A.W. Pink
1886 – 1952
During the year 2009, the eyes of the world will turn to remember the anniversaries of the birth of the two most influential men of the last one thousand years—the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin, and the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. No two men of the millennium have done more to shape the thoughts of mankind or to affect the political and social destiny of nations than Calvin and Darwin—the former for the glory of God, and the latter for unimaginable evil. . . . Where Calvin taught the inadequacies of the fallen mind of man, the supremacy of the law of God, and the sufficiency of Holy Scripture, Darwin’s Theory led to the supremacy of man’s reason, the rejection of Scripture, and to widespread distrust in the Bible as an accurate record of Earth history. The children of Calvin and the Reformers gave us the rise of nation states that embraced Republican representative government. The children of Darwin gave us Marxism and totalitarianism. Calvin’s legacy included respect for life, a defense of the biblical family, and the rule of law under God. Darwin’s philosophical progeny introduced the world to the horrors of eugenics and legalized widespread abortion on demand.
– Doug Phillips
Many Christians believe the best thing they can do for their family is provide them with more stuff. So we continue to accumulate as though accumulation is the answer. All the while our children are screaming at us from beneath the piles of untouched toys and unworn clothes begging for a few minutes of our time. Time we simply don’t have because we are too busy trying to find that one thing we can add to the pile that will make the screaming stop.
– Voddie Baucham
People fall into serious error and sin when they exalt their own authority over God’s authority or when they suppress the truth of God’s Word to promote their own self-serving agendas. The Roman Catholic religion has done this by establishing its traditions and teachings to be equal in authority with Scripture (Catechism of the Catholic Church par. 82).
– Mike Gendron
Driven by vivid recollection of their own childhood, [some parents] are preoccupied with Billy’s and Suzie’s psychological adjustment. Books and magazines pander to these parents. They promote the latest pop psychology—all tailored to insecure moms and dads. These gurus promise to teach you how to build self-esteem in your children. Have you noticed that no books promise to help produce children who esteem others?
– Tedd Tripp
If [the local church was] to draw the masses, like the televangelist did, it apparently could best be done by wrapping the faith in the package of entertainment—for the people, having now been trained to be consumers, have also been taught that the ultimate sin is to be bored. Hence the birth of the market-driven church that caters to the insatiable appetite for amusement in society in general.
– Gary Gilley
The doctrine of justification itself, as preached by an Arminian, is nothing but the doctrine of salvation by works.
– C.H. Spurgeon
1834 – 1892
Right views concerning Christ are indispensable to a right faith, and a right faith is indispensable to salvation. To stumble at the foundation, is, concerning faith, to make shipwreck altogether; for as Immanuel, God with us, is the grand Object of faith, to err in views of His eternal Deity, or to err in views of His sacred humanity, is alike destructive. There are points of truth which are not fundamental, though erroneous views on any one point must lead to God-dishonoring consequences in strict proportion to its importance and magnitude; but there are certain foundation truths to err concerning which is to insure for the erroneous and the unbelieving, the blackness of darkness forever.
– J.C. Philpot
1802 – 1869
I’m not trying to say that it is necessarily wrong for children to play organized sports . . . . [but] being a member of an organized traveling baseball squad at age ten doesn’t add a single day to one’s life. In fact, many of these activities get in the way of much loftier pursuits. People turned boys into men and girls into women for most of recorded history without dragging them around town with their tongues hanging out in an effort to keep up with their overachieving, undereducated, theologically illiterate peers as they try to win trophies that will eventually gather dust in a basement somewhere. If I teach my son to keep his eye on the ball but fail to teach him to keep his eyes on Christ, I have failed as a father.
– Voddie Baucham
To complain against the partiality of grace is suicidal. If the sinner insists upon bare justice, then the lake of fire must be his eternal portion. His only hope lies in . . . casting himself on the mercy of God, and stretching forth empty hands to avail himself of the grace of God made known to him in the Gospel.
– A.W. Pink
1886 – 1952
Jude’s command “to contend earnestly for the faith” is not merely being neglected in the contemporary church; it is often greeted with outright scorn. These days anyone who calls for biblical discernment or speaks out plainly against a popular perversion of sound doctrine is as likely as the false teachers themselves to incur the disapproval of other Christians. That may even be an understatement. Saboteurs and truth vandals often seem to have an easier time doing their work than the conscientious believer who sincerely tries to exercise biblical discernment.
– John MacArthur
No matter how great your sins may be, they are nothing compared to the infinite worth of Christ’s blood!
– Charles Leiter
While some are satisfied with a miserably low degree of attainment, and others are not ashamed to live on without any holiness at all—content with a mere round of churchgoing and chapel-going, but never getting on, like a horse in a mill—let us stand fast in the old paths, follow after eminent holiness ourselves, and recommend it boldly to others.
– J.C. Ryle
1816 – 1900

Campus Crusade’s “Four Spiritual Laws” . . . . give a diluted presentation of the gospel designed [to] be non-offensive. Who could fail to be attracted to, “God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life.”? It is not false, but it is not the gospel as preached by Peter or Paul. It is an accommodation to the way the natural man thinks about himself. It produces an easy-believism in which every man is saved but lives just as he did before. With this accommodation of the message to the natural man came an accommodation in the way of presenting the message. The historic method has always been what Scripture calls, “the foolishness of preaching.” The new method became the selling of the gospel by the use of sports heroes, beauty queens, and famous people.
– John Ashbrook
God’s grace cannot be faithfully preached to unbelievers until the law is preached, and man’s corrupt nature is exposed. It is impossible for a person to fully realize his need for God’s grace until he sees how terribly he has failed the standards of God’s law.
– John MacArthur
Too much time is spent developing methods and theories for Bible teaching, and insufficient time is given to simply teaching the Scriptures as they have been written.
– Trevor Mcllwain
. . . Roman Catholics . . . preach a “Jesus” who does not save sinners completely and forever. They say Catholics must do their part by expiating and making satisfaction for their own sins through penance (CCC, 1459). In this way they attain their own salvation through good works (CCC, 1477). The Catholic Jesus offers conditional life, not eternal life (CCC, 1035). This counterfeit Christ is said to return physically to Catholic altars over 200,000 times each day to be a sin offering for the living and the dead (CCC, 1367).
– Mike Gendron
Our children are not falling away [from the Christian faith] because the church is doing a poor job—although that is undoubtedly a factor. Our children are falling away because we are asking the church to do what God designed the family to accomplish. Discipleship and multi-generational faithfulness begins and ends at home. At best, the church is to play a supporting role as it “equips the saints for the work of ministry” (Ephesians 4:12 ESV).
– Voddie Baucham