Christian purity is not the mere avoidance of evil, but the pursuit of good.
– John Piper
Quotes
Quotes (301)
In science we have been reading only the notes to a poem; in Christianity we find the poem itself.
– C. S. Lewis
1898 – 1963
Quotes (300)
We may depend upon it, men will never come to Jesus, and stay with Jesus, and live for Jesus, unless they really know why they are to come, and what is their need. Those whom the Spirit draws to Jesus are those whom the Spirit has convinced of sin. Without thorough conviction of sin, men may seem to come to Jesus and follow Him for a season, but they will soon fall away and return to the world.
-J. C. Ryle
1816 – 1900
Quotes (299)
If I had my way, I would declare a moratorium on public preaching of “the plan of salvation” in America for one to two years. Then I would call on everyone who has use of the airways and the pulpits to preach the holiness of God, the righteousness of God and the law of God, until sinners would cry out, “What must we do to be saved?” Then I would take them off in a corner and whisper the gospel to them. Such drastic action is needed because we have gospel-hardened a generation of sinners by telling them how to be saved before they have any understanding why they need to be saved.
– Paris Reidhead
1919 – 1992
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Were it in anywise possible for something to occur apart from either the direct agency or permission of God, then that something would be independent of Him, and He would at once cease to be supreme.
– AW Pink
1886 – 1952
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Modern man unconsciously holds highest the humanistic ideals of happiness, freedom, and economic, cultural, and social progress for all mankind. This secular view says there is no God, heaven or Hell; there is just one chance at life, so do what makes you most happy. It also teaches that “since all men are brothers,” we should work for that which contributes toward the welfare of all men. This teaching–so attractive on the surface–has entered our churches in many ways, creating a man-centered and man-made gospel based on changing the outside and social status of man by meeting his physical needs. The cost is his eternal soul.
– K.P. Yohannan
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Men will allow God to be everywhere except on His throne. They will allow Him to be in His workshop to fashion worlds and make stars. They will allow Him to be in His almonry to dispense His alms and bestow His bounties. They will allow Him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars thereof, or light the lamps or Heaven, or rule the waves of the evermoving ocean; but when He ascends His throne, His creatures then gnash their teeth, and we proclaim an enthroned God, and His right to do as He wills with His own, to dispose of His creatures as he thinks well, without consulting them in the matter; then it is that we are hissed and execrated, and then it is that men turn a deaf ear to us, for God on His throne is not the God they love.
– Charles Spurgeon
1834 – 1892
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Oh young person, you want to wear the Christian T-shirts, and sing the Christian music, and hang around with Christian friends, but how many of you will wear out a Bible and say “I must know this, else I die?”
– Paul Washer
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Men imagine the Most High is moved by sentiment, rather than by principle. They suppose His omnipotency is such an idle fiction that Satan can thwart His designs on every side. They think that if He has formed any plan or purpose at all, then it must be like theirs, constantly subject to change. They openly declare that whatever power He possesses must be restricted, lest He invade the citadel of man’s free will and reduce him to a machine. They lower the all-efficacious atonement, which redeems everyone for whom it was made, to a mere remedy, which sin-sick souls may use if they feel so disposed. They lessen the strength of the invincible work of the Holy Spirit to an offer of the Gospel which sinners may accept or reject as they please.
– AW Pink
1886 – 1952
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If you’re preaching to consumers rather than disciples you got to keep their attention and that requires constant innovation. They have to have something new and different every time you get together or you’re going to lose them.
– Kim Riddlebarger
(From this episode of the White Horse Inn)
Quotes (291)
With the coming of the Son of God in human flesh, ritual and worship would undergo profound change. Christ Himself would become the final Passover Lamb, the final priest, the final temple. They would all pass away, and He would remain. What remained would be infinitely better. Referring to Himself, Jesus said, “I tell you, something greater than the temple is here” (Matthew 12:6). The temple became the dwelling of God at rare times when the glory of God filled the holy place. But of Christ the Bible says, “In him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9). The presence of God does not come and go on Jesus. He is God. . . . If we would meet God in worship, there is only one place we must go, to Jesus Christ.
– John Piper
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No human being is to be depended on. “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help” (Psalm 146:3). If I disobey God, then I deserve to be deceived and disappointed by my fellows. People who like you today, may hate you tomorrow. The multitude who cried, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” speedily changed to “Away with Him, crucify Him” (Matthew 21:9; John 19:15).
– AW Pink
1886 – 1952
Quotes (289)
I have insisted we recover the genuine Gospel of Jesus–that balanced New Testament message that begins not with the fleshly needs of people, but with the plan and wisdom of God–“born again” conversion that leads to righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Any “mission” that springs from “the base things of the world” is a betrayal of Christ and is what the Bible calls “another gospel.” It cannot save or redeem people either as individuals or as a society.
– K.P. Yohannan
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The idea of cultivation and exercise, so dear to the saints of old, has no place in our total religious picture. It is too slow, too common. We now demand glamour and fast flowing dramatic action. . . . We read our chapter, have our short devotions and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story told by a religious adventurer lately returned from afar.– A. W. Tozer
1897 – 1963
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A Scriptural view of sin is one of the best antidotes to the extravagantly broad and liberal theology which is so much in vogue at the present time. The tendency of modern thought is to reject dogmas, creeds, and every kind of bounds in religion. It is thought grand and wise to . . . pronounce all earnest and clever teachers to be trustworthy, however heterogeneous and mutually destructive their opinions may be.
-J. C. Ryle
1816 – 1900
Quotes (286)
The most dishonoring conceptions of the rule and reign of the Almighty are now held almost everywhere. To countless thousands, even professing Christians, the God of Scriptures is quite unknown.
– AW Pink
1886 – 1952
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“Everything forsooth is true, and nothing is false! Everybody is right, and nobody is wrong! Everybody is likely to be saved, and nobody is to be lost!” The atonement and substitution of Christ, the personality of the Devil, the miraculous element in Scripture, the reality and eternity of future punishment, all these mighty foundation-stones are coolly tossed overboard, like lumber, in order to lighten the ship of Christianity . . . . Stand up for these great verities, and you are called narrow, illiberal, old-fashioned, and a theological fossil! Quote a text, and you are told that all truth is not confined to the pages of an ancient Jewish book . . . . We must charge home into the consciences of these men of broad views, and demand a plain answer to some plain questions. We must ask them to lay their hands on their hearts, and tell us whether their favorite opinions comfort them in the days of sickness, in the hour of death, by the bedside of dying parent, by the grave of beloved wife or child.
-J. C. Ryle
1816 – 1900
More truth on a cup of coffee than many churces offer on a whole Sunday.
Sometimes the culture hits the nail on the head. In this case, it was on a cup of coffee.
A recent trip to Starbucks revealed another great gem of truth from their The Way I See It series (see my previous post on another The Way I See It ).
The following quote–printed on the coffee cup–came from a man named Bernie Brillstein recognized as a film and television producer (so the cup says). It is The Way I See It # 291:
“In a world where celebrity equals talent, and where make-believe is called reality, it is most important to have real love, truth and stability in your life.”
If I didn’t know better I’d think this guy was referring to the current state of the American church. But then again, I don’t know that he wasn’t.
Quotes (284)
Ever since that day in the garden when the serpent tempted Eve, he has relentlessly attacked the truth with lies, using the same strategies over and over to sow doubt and disbelief in the human mind. . . . The form of his evil dialect rarely changes. He questions the truth God has revealed “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1). Then he contradicts what God has said “You will not surely die” (Genesis 3:4). Finally, he concocts an alternative version of the “truth” “God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). The devil’s alternative credo often has a few carefully chosen elements of truth in the mix—but always diluted and thoroughly blended with falsehoods, contradictions, misrepresentations, distortions, and every other imaginable perversion of reality. Add it all up and the bottom line is a big lie.
– John MacArthur
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The heathen outside the pale of Christendom form gods of wood and stone, while millions of heathen inside Christendom manufacture a god out of their carnal minds.
– AW Pink
1886 – 1952
Christ Alone Wyoming 