The emotions are disturbed and perverted. Some hearts smolder with constant anger and hatred; others are tormented day and night by senseless fears. Multitudes laugh at things that ought to make them weep, while others burst into tears for no apparent reason. Such are the deep and all-pervasive disturbances to the human personality caused, either directly or indirectly, by sin.
– Charles Leiter
The gospel is unpalatable to the natural man, for it declares him lost and undone. It declares him helpless. It strips him of his boasted good life and exposes his pitiful boast of keeping the golden rule. It leaves him with no hope except to cry out, “God, be merciful to me a sinner.”
– John E. Ashbrook
If we intend to answer man’s greatest problem—his separation from the eternal God—with rice handouts, then we are throwing a drowning man a board instead of helping him out of the water.
– K.P. Yohannan
The difference between believing in Jesus and being born again is like believing in a parachute, and putting one on. The difference will be seen when you jump.
– The Evidence Bible (page 1343)
It has long been my sorrowful conviction that the standard of daily life among professing Christians in this country has been gradually falling. . . . There has been of late years a lower standard of personal holiness among believers than there used to be in the days of our fathers. The whole result is that the Spirit is grieved and the matter calls for much humiliation and searching of heart.
– J.C. Ryle
1816 – 1900
I reckon him a Christian indeed who is not ashamed of the gospel or a shame to it.
– Matthew Henry
1662 – 1714
An ineffably holy God, who has the utmost abhorrence of all sin, was never invented by any of Adam’s fallen descendants! The fact is that nothing reveals more of the terrible depravity of man’s heart and his enmity against the living God than to have set before him One who is infinitely and immutably holy. His own idea of sin is practically limited to what the world calls crime. Anything short of that, man palliates as “defects,” “mistakes,” “infirmities.” And even where sin is owned at all, man makes excuses and extenuations for it. . . . [S]inful man was no more likely to devise a holy God than to create the lake of fire in which he will be tormented forever and ever.
– A.W. Pink
1886 – 1952
The faith which has not a sanctifying influence on the character is no better than the faith of devils. It is a “dead faith, because it is alone.”
– J.C. Ryle
1816 – 1900
Evangelicals who are desperate to follow the culture invariably lag several years behind anyway, somehow managing to look awkward and clumsy by always failing to keep in step, no matter how hard they try. But, then, the church is not supposed to ape the world’s fads or court the world’s favor anyway.
– John MacArthur
Every non-Christian is—in his person—more repulsive to a holy God than he can ever begin to imagine.
– Charles Leiter
God is a holy God, that’s something that the Americans have forgotten. Many of the things that you love to do, God hates. Did you know that? . . . . You’re going to have a youth meeting, you want God to move, but before you go there you watch programs on television that God absolutely despises and then you wonder why the Holy Spirit hasn’t fallen on a place and why you have to create false fire and false excitement.
– Paul Washer
Consider some of the word pictures of God’s wrath in the New Testament. And as you consider them remember the folly of saying, “But aren’t those just symbols? Isn’t fire and brimstone just a symbol?” I say beware of that, because it does not serve your purpose. Suppose fire is a symbol. Do people use symbols of horror because the reality is less horrible or more horrible than the symbols? I don’t know of anyone who uses symbolic language for horrible realities when literal language would make it sound more horrible.
People grasp for symbols of horror (or beauty) because the reality they are trying to describe is worse (or better) than they can put into words. If I say, “My wife is the diamond of my life,” I don’t want you to say, “Oh, he used a symbol of something valuable; it’s only a symbol. So his wife must not be as valuable as a diamond.” No. I used the symbol of the most valuable jewel I could think of because my wife is far more precious than jewels. Honest symbols are not used because they go beyond reality, but because reality goes beyond words.
So when the Bible speaks of hell-fire, woe to us if we say, “It’s only a symbol.” If it is a symbol at all, it means the reality is worse than fire, not better. The word “fire” is used not to make the easy sound terrible, but to make the exceedingly terrible sound something like what it really is.
– John Piper
I am convinced that the first step towards attaining a higher standard of holiness is to realize more fully the amazing sinfulness of sin.
– J.C. Ryle
1816 – 1900
The first baby ever born grew up to murder his own brother. And human history ever since has been one long stream of constant warfare, lust, hate, torture, rape, perversion, abuse, and brutality. It is a blessed thing that we do not know in detail the sins that were committed just last night in our own town or city. Such knowledge would be too defiling to bear.
– Charles Leiter
on 
Way to go Pastor Tchividjian! I’ve always liked Tullian’s preaching and his stance on this controversial issue (in spite of an inevitable backlash) shows that there are still some willing to take a stand.
“We increase our scrutiny of people like Hugh Hefner, and we decrease our evaluation of people like Todd Bentley just because he comes in the name of Jesus,” Tullian Tchividjian told The Good News. “Hugh Hefner is not nearly as dangerous to the church as someone like this.”
Source: Between Two Worlds
“I have no problem going on record and saying this guy is a false prophet … with a capital ‘F,’” says Tullian Tchividjian, grandson of Billy and Ruth Graham and pastor of New City Church in Margate, Fla. “And it shouldn’t surprise any of us because the Bible warns us about this from cover to cover. John Piper once said that Satan does not tempt us with poison, but with apple pie.”
Source: The Good News
Because God is holy He hates all sin. He loves everything which is in conformity to His laws, and loathes everything contrary to them. . . . It follows, therefore, that He must necessarily punish sin. Sin can no more exist without demanding His punishment than it can without requiring His hatred of it.
– A.W. Pink
1886 – 1952
A few apostates are outspoken and aggressive in their opposition to the truth, but most are subtler. Regardless of how friendly, benign, or self-effacing they may appear, these wolves in sheep’s clothing are invariably driven by evil and self-aggrandizing motives—such as pride, rebellion, greed, lust, or whatever (2 Peter 2;10-19). That is not to suggest they always know full well that they are apostates. Many of them are so blinded by their evil desires that they really imagine they are serving Christ when in fact that are opposing Him (John 16:2).
– John MacArthur
The only saving faith is that which casts itself on God for life or death.
– Martin Luther
1483 – 1546
Once let us see that sin is far viler, and far nearer to us, and sticks more closely to us than we supposed, and we shall be led, I trust and believe, to get nearer to Christ.
– J.C. Ryle
1816 – 1900
There is no temple now. Jerusalem is not the center. Christ is. Do we want to see God? Jesus says, “Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Do you want to receive God? Jesus says, “Whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me” (Matthew 10:40). Do we want to have the presence of God in worship? The Bible says, “Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also” (1 John 2:23). Do we want to honor the Father? Jesus says, “Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him” (John 5:23).
– John Piper
Christ Alone Wyoming 