Do nothing that you would not like God to see. Say nothing that you would not like God to hear. Write nothing that you would not like God to read. Go no place where you would not like God to find you. Read no book of which you would not like God to say, “Show it to Me.” Never spend your time in such a way that you would not like to have God say, “What are you doing?”
-J.C. Ryle
1816 – 1900
In the past half decade, some of America’s largest evangelical churches have employed worldly gimmicks like slapstick, vaudeville, wrestling exhibitions, and even mock striptease to spice up their Sunday meetings. No brand of horseplay, it seems, is too outrageous to be brought into the sanctuary. Burlesque is fast becoming the liturgy of the pragmatic church.
– John MacArthur
The Bible advocates and demands that we show love for the needy brethren.Right now, because of historical and economical factors that none of us can control, the needy brethren are in Asia. The wealthy brethren are in the United States, Canada, and a few other nations. The conclusion is obvious: These affluent believers must share with the poorer churches.
– K.P. Yohannan
The Bible never says that God is “love, love love.” And it never says that God is “merciful, merciful, merciful.” But it does say God is “holy, holy, holy.” And the repetition is important, very important. You want to know what God is–who God is? God is holy. And if there was ever a message we needed to hear in America today, it’s that.
– Paul Washer
How many things are done continually, which men would never do if they thought they were seen! How many matters are transacted in the rooms of imagination, which would never bear the light of day! Yes, men entertain thoughts in private, and say words in private, and do acts in private, which they would be ashamed of and blush to have them exposed before the world. The sound of a footstep coming has stopped many a deed of wickedness. A knock at the door has caused many an evil to be hastily suspended, and hurriedly laid aside. But oh, what miserable folly is all this! There is an all-seeing Witness with us wherever we go. Lock the door, pull down the blind, turn out the light; it doesn’t matter, it makes no difference; God is everywhere, you cannot shut Him out, or prevent His seeing.
-J.C. Ryle
1816 – 1900
It seems to me that persecution never hurts the Church and prosperity always does.
– Paul Washer
What is the use of praying, “Lord keep me from temptation,” unless you are careful not to run into it and “keep me from evil,” unless you show a desire to keep out of its way?
-J.C. Ryle
1816 – 1900
Father, I want to know Thee, but my coward heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but I do come. Please root from my heart all those things which I have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that Thou mayest enter and dwell there without a rival.
– A.W. Tozer
1897 – 1963
Endeavor, as much as you can, to keep clear of everything which may prove injurious to your soul. People may say you are too conscientious, too particular, and ask where is the great harm of such and such things? But don’t listen to them. It is dangerous to play tricks with sharp tools: it is far more dangerous to take liberties with your immortal soul.
-J.C. Ryle
1816 – 1900
Let us not trifle with God or trivialize His love. We will never stand in awe of being loved by God until we reckon with the seriousness of our sin and the justice of His wrath against us. But when, by grace, we waken to our unworthiness, then we may look at the suffering and death of Christ and say, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the [wrath-absorbing] propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
– John Piper
Worldliness is rarely even mentioned today, much less identified for what it is. The world itself is beginning to sound quaint. Worldliness is the sin of allowing one’s appetites, ambitions, or conduct to be fashioned according to earthly values. . . . Yet today we have the extraordinary spectacle of church programs designed explicitly to cater to fleshly desire, sensual appetites, and human pride–“the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life.”
– John MacArthur
This is the meaning of the word “propitiation” in . . . Romans 3:25. It refers to the removal of God’s wrath by providing a substitute. The substitute is provided by God Himself. The substitute, Jesus Christ, does not just cancel the wrath; He adsorbs it and diverts it from us to Himself. God’s wrath is just, and it was spent, not withdrawn.
– John Piper
If church history teaches us anything, it teaches us that the most devastating assaults on the faith have always begun as subtle errors arising from inside the body itself. Living in an unstable age, the church cannot afford to be vacillating. We minister to people desperate for answers, and we cannot soft-pedal the truth or extenuate the gospel. If we make friends with the world, we set ourselves at enmity with God. If we trust worldly devices, we automatically relinquish the power of the Holy Spirit.
– John MacArthur
Our Lord attracted sinners because He was different. They drew near to Him because they felt that there was something different about Him. . . . And the world always expects us to be different. This idea that you are going to win people to the Christian faith by showing them that after all you are remarkably like them, is theologically and psychologically a profound blunder.
– Martin Lloyd-Jones
1899 – 1981
Some church leaders evidently think the four priorities of the early church–the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer (Acts 2:42)–make a lame agenda for the church in this day and age. Churches are allowing drama, music, recreation, entertainment, self-help programs, and similar enterprises to eclipse traditional Sunday worship and fellowship. In fact, everything seems to be in fashion in the church today except biblical preaching. The new pragmatism sees preaching–particularly expository preaching–as passé.
– John MacArthur
Therefore sin is not small, because it is not against a small Sovereign. The seriousness of an insult rises with the dignity of the one insulted. The Creator of the universe is infinitely worthy of respect and admiration and loyalty. Therefore, failure to love him is not trivial–it is treason. It defames God and destroys human happiness.
– John Piper
Many things broke my heart, especially the condition of American Christians. What had happened to the zeal for missions and outreach that made this nation so great? . . . Here were people of great privilege–a nation more able, more affluent and more free to act on the Great Commission than any other in all of history. Yet my audiences did not seem to comprehend this. . . . While much of the world is concerned mainly about where its next meal is coming from, affluent North Americans spend most of their wages and waking moments planning unnecessary purchases.
– K.P. Yohannan
This is not a mere metaphor, but an accurate analysis of our real spiritual trouble. There is within the human heart a tough fibrous root of fallen life whose nature is to possess, always to possess. It covets “things” with a deep and fierce passion. The pronouns “my” and “mine” look innocent enough in print, but their constant and universal use is significant. They express the real nature of the old Adamic man better than a thousand volumes of theology could do. They are verbal symptoms of our deep disease. The roots of our hearts have grown down into things, and we dare not pull up one rootlet lest we die. Things have become necessary to us, a development never originally intended. God’s gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution.
– A.W. Tozer
1897 – 1963
Shall we say that we have done our duty to God? Shall we say that we have done our duty to our neighbor? Shall we bring forward our prayers?—our regularity?—our amendments?—our churchgoing?—Shall we ask to be accepted because of any of these? Which of these things will stand the searching inspection of God’s eye? Which of them will actually justify us? Which of them will carry us clear through judgment, and land us safe in glory?
None, none, none! Take any commandment of the ten, and let us examine ourselves by it. We have broken it repeatedly. We cannot answer God one of a thousand. Take any of us and look narrowly into our ways—and we are nothing but sinners. There is but one verdict: we are all guilty—all deserve hell—all ought to die. Where-with can we come before God?
We must come in the name of Jesus, standing on no other ground, pleading no other plea than this: “Christ died on the cross for the ungodly, and I trust in Him. Christ died for me, and I believe on Him.”
1816 – 1900
An overpowering surge of ardent pragmatism is sweeping through evangelicalism. Traditional methodology–most notably preaching–is being discarded or downplayed in favor of newer means, such as drama, dance, comedy, variety, side-show histrionics, pop-psychology, and other entertainment forms. The new methods supposedly are more “effective”–that is, they draw a bigger crowd. And since for many the chief criterion for gauging the success of a church has become attendance figures, whatever pulls in the most people is accepted without critical analysis as good.
– John MacArthur
Christ Alone Wyoming 