Quotes

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Quotes (797)

“Be ye separate” – 2 Cor. 6:17

The Christian, while in the world, is not to be of the world.  He should be distinguished from it in the great object of his life.  To him, “to live”, should be “Christ”.  Whether he eats, or drinks, or whatever he does, he should do all to God’s glory.  You may lay up treasure; but lay it up in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, where thieves break not through nor steal.  You may strive to be rich; but be it your ambition to be “rich in faith”, and good works.  You may have pleasure; but when you are merry, sing psalms and make melody in your hearts to the Lord.  In your spirit, as well as in your aim, you should differ from the world.  Waiting humbly before God, always conscious of His presence, delighting in communion with Him, and seeking to know His will, you will prove that you are of the heavenly race.  And you should be separate from the world in your actions.  If a thing be right, though you lose by it, it must be done; if it be wrong, though you would gain by it, you must scorn the sin for your Master’s sake.  You must have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.  Walk worthy of your high calling and dignity.  Remember, O Christian, that thou are a son of the King of kings.  Therefore, keep thyself unspotted from the world.  Soil not the fingers which are soon to sweep celestial strings; let not these eyes become the windows of lust which are soon to see the King in His beauty – let not those feet be defiled in miry places, which are soon to walk the golden streets – let not those hearts to be filled with pride and bitterness which are ere long to be filled with heaven, and to overflow with ecstatic joy.

-C.H. Spurgeon

1834-1892

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Quotes (795)

baxter Consider, is it not better to remember your sins on earth, than in Hell? Before your Physician, than before your Judge? . . . O wretch, that I am! Where was my understanding, when played so boldly with the flames of hell, the wrath of God, the poison of sin! When God stood by, and yet I sinned! When conscience rebuked me, and yet I sinned! When heaven or hell were close at hand, and yet I sinned! When, to please my God and save my soul, I would not hold back a filthy lust, or forbidden vanity of no worth! When I would not be persuaded to a holy, Heavenly, watchful life though all my hopes of Heaven depended on it! I am ashamed of myself; I am confounded in the remembrance of my willful, self-destroying folly! I loathe myself for all my abominations! O that I had lived in poverty and rags when I lived in sin! And O that I had lived with God in a prison, or in a wilderness, when I refused a holy, heavenly life, for the love of a deceitful world!

–  Richard Baxter

1615 – 1691

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Quotes (794)

Stephen Charnock If you take away God, you take away conscience, and thereby all measures and rules of good and evil. And how can any law be made when the measure and standard of them are removed? All good laws are founded upon the dictates of conscience and reason, upon common sentiments in human nature, which spring from a sense of God; so that as the foundation is demolished, the whole superstructure must tumble down. A man then could be a thief, a murderer, an adulterer, and could not in a strict sense be considered an offender. The worst actions could not be evil, if a man were a god to himself, a law to himself.

– Stephen Charnock

1628 – 1680

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Quotes (793)

Our primary mission field today is within the church. The latest survey reveals that 86% of Americans say they believe in Jesus. Yet, a much smaller percentage of people say they are born-again Christians. How can so many people be deceived or deluded? Many of them have been told by misguided pastors or evangelists that repeating a prayer, signing a card, being baptized, joining a church or coming forward in an alter call has made them a Christian. Others have been asked to “accept” a Jesus they don’t even know. It is no wonder the Apostle Paul exhorted his readers to “examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith” (2 Cor. 13:5). We are to test ourselves and encourage others to do the same. The test: have we believed the true Jesus as he is revealed in the Scriptures or a “Jesus” who has been created by the imagination of men?

– Mike Gendron

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Quotes (792)

“When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.”  – 2 Timothy 4:13

We do not know what the books were about, and we can only form some guess as to what the parchments were.  Paul had a few books which were left, perhaps wrapped up in the cloak, and Timothy was to be careful to bring them.  Even an apostle must read. Some of our very ultra Calvinistic brethren think that a minister who reads books and studies his sermon must be a very deplorable specimen of a preacher.  A man who comes up into the pulpit, professes to take his text on the spot, and talks any quantity of nonsense, is the idol of many.  If he will speak without pre-meditation, or pretend to do so, and never produce what they call a dish of dead men’s brains – oh! that is the preacher.

How rebuked are they by the apostle! He is inspired, and yet he wants books!  He has been preaching at least for thirty years, and yet he wants books!  He had seen the Lord, and yet he wants books!  He had a wider experience than most men, and yet he wants books!  He had been caught up into the third heaven, and had heard things which it was unlawful for a men to utter, yet he wants books!  He had written the major part of the New Testament, and yet he wants books!

The apostle says to Timothy and so he says to every preacher, “Give thyself unto reading”.  The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted.  He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains, proves that he has no brains of his own.  Brethren, what is true of ministers is true of all our people.  You need to read.  Renounce as much as you will all light literature, but study as much as possible sound theological works, especially the Puritan writers, and expositions of the Bible. We are quite persuaded that the very best way for you to be spending your leisure, is to be either reading or praying.  You may get much instruction from books which afterwards you may use as a true weapon in your Lord and Master’s service.  Paul cries, “Bring the books” – join in the cry.

-C.H. Spurgeon

1834-1892

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Quotes (791)

“All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk.” – Numbers 6:4

Nazarites had taken, among other vows, one which debarred them from the use of wine.  In order that they might not violate the obligation, they were forbidden to drink vinegar of wine or strong liquors, and to make the rule still more clear, they were not to touch the unfermented juice of grapes, nor even to eat the fruit either fresh or dried.  In order, altogether, to secure the integrity of the vow, they were not even allowed anything that had to do with the vine; they were, in fact, to avoid the appearance of evil.  Surely this is a lesson to the Lord’s separated ones, teaching them to come away from sin in every form, to avoid not merely its grosser shapes, but even its spirit and similitude.  Strict walking is much despised in these days, but rest assured, dear reader, it is both the safest and the happiest.  He who yields a point or two to the world is in fearful peril; he who eats the grapes of Sodom will soon drink the wine of Gomorrah.  A little crevice in the sea-bank in Holland lets in the sea, and gap speedily swells till a province is drowned.  Worldly conformity, in any degree, is a snare to the soul, and makes it more and more liable to presumptuous sins.  Moreover, as the Nazarite who drank grape juice could not be quite sure whether it might not have endured a degree of fermentation, and consequently could not be clear in heart that his vow was intact, so the yielding, temporizing Christian cannot wear a conscience void of offence, but must feel the inward monitor is in doubt of him.  Things doubtful we need not doubt about; they are wrong to us.  Things tempting we must not dally with, but flee from them with speed.  Better to be sneered at as a Puritan than be despised as a hypocrite.  Careful walking may involve much self-denial, but it has pleasures of its own which are more than a sufficient recompense.

-C.H. Spurgeon

1834-1892

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Quotes (790)

Before the mountains were brought forth – or the earth and world were formed, from everlasting Jesus Christ was, like the Father, very God. From the beginning He was foreordained to be the Savior of sinners. He was always the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, without whose blood there could be no remission. The same Jesus, to whom alone we may look for salvation, that same Jesus was the only hope of Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and all the patriarchs; what we are privileged to see distinctly they doubtless saw indistinctly – but the Savior both we and they rest upon is one. It was Christ Jesus who was foretold in all the prophets, and foreshadowed and represented in all the law – the daily sacrifice of the lamb, the cities of refuge, the brazen serpent, all these were so many emblems to Israel of that Redeemer who was yet to come, and without whom no man could be saved. There never was but one road to heaven: Jesus Christ was the way, the truth and the life yesterday as well as today.

– J. C. Ryle

1816 – 1900

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Quotes (789)

“As long as we use the image of our experience, of our feelings, of our answers to prayer, we shall never begin to understand what the apostle Paul means when he says, “It is no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me.”

The whole exercise of humanity’s essential reason is drawing on God as the source of life. The hindrance comes when we begin to keep sensuous images spiritually in our minds. Those of us who have never had visions or ecstasies ought to be very thankful. Visions, and any emotions at all, are the greatest snare to a spiritual life, because when we get them we are apt to build them round our reasoning, and our reasoning round them, and go no further.”

Oswald Chambers
1874-1917

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Quotes (788)

Here’s the great fall out of the evangelical church: “People aren’t getting it [the gospel], let’s make it more understandable.”

“I know, let’s get a neat package we could sell at Life Way. We could call it the ABCs. Surely they could understand that.”

“I know, we’ll do a twelve step formula. Boy, if they get up to the twelfth step then they’ll get it.”

“I know, we’ll write it up in such a way, I know—we’ll sell it to the church—‘How to Share Your Faith Without Fear.’ And we’ll make it real easy where we don’t offend nobody, and it’s not hard for us, and everybody’d be happy, and we’ll all gather ‘round at the end of the service we’ll bow our head and close our eyes, nobody look around, everybody wave your hand, come to the front, pray this prayer, we’ll dunk you in the water, and we won’t see you again till we meet you in Hell.”

-Randall Easter

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Quotes (787)

The thick pollutions of thine abominable [Roman Catholic] church forbid the idea of descent from any apostle but the traitor Judas.

– Charles Spurgeon

1834 – 1892

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Quotes (786)

A few years ago the Moral Majority was the rage. The expressed goals of the group appealed to fundamentalists who were against pornography, homosexuality, and abortion and were for restoring morality, strengthening defense, and opposing communism. Why not join in? Answer: It would not practice biblical separation. Any fundamentalist knows that we are a minority. The world’s way is always to win with a majority. Stop to think for a moment. Can you name any time in Scripture where God followed that policy? . . . The battles of Scripture were always won by an obedient minority, not a diverse majority.

– John Ashbrook

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Quotes (785)

“If we are in Christ the whole basis of our goings is God, not conceptions of God, not ideas of God, but God Himself. We do not need any more ideas about God, the world is full of ideas about God, they are all worthless, because the ideas of God in anyone’s head are of no more use than our own ideas. What we need is a real God, not more ideas about Him.”

Oswald Chambers
1874-1917

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Quotes (784)

People seem to forget that all Christ’s sufferings on the cross were fore-ordained. They did not come on Him by chance or accident—they were all planned, counseled, and determined from all eternity. The cross was foreseen in all the provisions of the everlasting Trinity for the salvation of sinners. In the purposes of God the cross was set up from everlasting. Not one throb of pain did Jesus feel, not one precious drop of blood did Jesus shed, which had not been appointed long ago. Infinite wisdom planned that redemption should be by the cross. Infinite wisdom brought Jesus to the cross in due time. He was crucified “by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. (Acts 2:23)”

– J.C. Ryle

1816 – 1900

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Quotes (783)

“They weave the spider’s web.” – Isaiah 59:5

See the spider’s web, and behold in it a most suggestive picture of the hypocrite’s religion.  It is meant to catch his prey:  the spider fattens himself on flies, and the Pharisee has his reward.  Foolish persons are easily entrapped by the loud professions of pretenders, and even the more judicious cannot always escape.  Philip baptized Simon Magus, whose guileful declaration of faith was so soon exploded by the stern rebuke of Peter.  Custom, reputation, praise, advancement, and other flies, are the small game which hypocrites take in their nets.  A spider’s web is a marvel of skill:  look at it and admire the cunning hunter’s wiles.  Is not a deceiver’s religion equally wonderful?  How does he make so barefaced a lie appear to be a truth?  How can he make his tinsel answer so well the purpose of gold?  A spider’s web comes from the creature’s own bowels.  The bee gathers her wax from flowers, the spider sucks no flowers, and yet she spins out her material to any length.  Even so hypocrites find their trust and hope within themselves; their anchor was forged by their own hands.  They lay their own foundation, and hew out the pillars of their own house, disdaining to be debtors to the sovereign grace of God.  But a spider’s web is very frail.  It is curiously wrought, but not enduringly manufactured.  It is no match for the servant’s broom, or the traveller’s staff.  The hypocrite needs no battery of Armstrongs to blow his hope to pieces, a mere puff of wind will do it.  Hypocritical cobwebs will soon come down when the besom of destruction begins its purifying work.  Which reminds us of one more thought, viz., that such cobwebs are not to be endured in the Lord’s house:  He will see to it that they and those who spin them shall be destroyed forever.  O my soul, be thou resting on something better than a spider’s web.  Be the Lord Jesus thine eternal hiding-place.

-C.H. Spurgeon

1834-1892

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Quotes (782)

Where the Holy Ghost is, there will always be the habit of earnest private prayer. . . . He that knows nothing of real, living, fervent private prayer, and is content with some old form, or with no prayer at all, is dead before God. He has not the Spirit of Christ!

– J. C. Ryle

1816 – 1900

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Quotes (781)

“‘Not called!’ did you say? ‘Not heard the call,’ I think you should say.

Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help.

Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father’s house and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not to come there.

Then look Christ in the face — whose mercy you have professed to obey — and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish His mercy to the world.”

— William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, 1829-1912

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Quotes (780)

“There are hidden perils in our life with God whenever we disobey Him. If we are not obeying God physically we experience a craving for drugs, not only physical drugs out of a bottle, but drugs in certain types of meetings and certain types of company—anything that keeps away the realisation that the habits of the bodily life are not in accordance with what is God’s will.

If in the providence of God, obedience to God takes me into contact with people and surroundings that are wrong and bad, I may be perfectly certain that God will guard me; but if I go there out of curiosity, God does not guard me, and the tendency is to “drug” it over—“I went with a good idea to try and find out about these things.” Well, you plainly had no business to go, and you know you had no business to go because the Spirit of God is absolutely honest.

The whole thing starts from disobedience on a little point. We wanted to utilise God’s grace for our own purposes, to use God’s gifts for our own reasoning out of things in a particular way.”

Oswald Chambers
1874-1917