Post Category: Sunday Sermon Quotes

"GUILT. What a horrendous burden. Sometimes people carry a tremendous weight of subjective guilt-i.e., of felt guilt-when they are not really guilty. Far worse is the situation where they carry a tremendous weight of objective guilt-i.e., they really are guilty of some odious sin in the eyes of the living God-and are so hardened that they do not know it." D.A. Carson "Dav...

"The magnitude of what the Lord offers the Israelites is staggering and must not be overlooked. As fleeing slaves, they find themselves in the middle of the Sinai desert without a land to call their own. The Lord, however, promises them they shall be his 'treasured possession." His exclusive possession among all the nations, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." T. Desm...

"How did ancient slavery differ from modern slavery? Or more specifically, what distinguished Greco-Roman slavery from New World slavery? In the first century, slaves were not distinguishable from free persons by race, by speech, by clothing; they were sometimes more highly educated than their owners and held responsible professional positions; some persons sold themselves...

"They carry another passport; they are on pilgrimage to the city of God." Edmund Clowney "Good deeds, even though they may be misrepresented and defamed for the moment, are still the best answer to the opposition of a hostile world." Robert Mounce "A Christian's obligation to obey the law does not depend upon the moral virtue of the leader." Robert Mounce "The first c...

"It is with cheerfulness that we dismiss our twelves, our twenties, our fifties, to form other churches. We encourage our members to leave us to found other churches. We even seek to persuade them to do it. We ask them to scatter throughout the land, to become goodly seed which God shall bless. I believe that so long as we do this, we shall prosper." Charles Spurgeon "Pau...

"Behold." It is a wonder seldom seen, therefore behold it! It may be seen, for it is characteristic of real saints, therefore fail not to inspect it! It is well worthy of admiration; pause and gaze upon it! It will charm you into imitation, therefore note it well! God looks on with approval, therefore consider it with attention." Charles Spurgeon "There blessing falls by ...

"Jesus does not overwhelm these two disciples by some spectacular revelation of himselfInstead, he interprets the Scriptures for them." David Garland "I should have imagined that the Risen Lord would be independent of the Bible. But no! He cleaves to it with all the old affection. He came up from the grave and hastened to the Holy Book." Dinsdale Young "Jesus did this be...

". . . his identity contracted to the point where the whole truth about him was that he was the sin of the world. He was carrying it, heaven held him answerable for it, and he was it. It was here, all of it, in his body (1 Pet. 2:24), being condemned in his flesh (Rom. 8:3); because of it he was a doomed and ruined man, korban, devoted to destruction. God's pure eyes could...

"All of us treasure the final words of those we love or admire. But Jesus actual final words during his earthly life were not, in fact, collected in one place to form a farewell address. They are scattered in seven different places, three in the Gospel of Luke, one in Matthew and Mark, and three in John. They are not remotely like any other final words ever recorded as bei...

"Which means that Christ, the Son of God in heaven, has been contemplating his suffering and his death for us for centuries. Indeed as far back as the plan of salvation reaches in the mind of God, so far back has Christ been willing and ready to give himself for our sins. You were not loved for just a bloody moment of sacrifice in history. You have been loved for endless a...

"In Greco-Roman eyes this person (a Gentile who had become a follower of Jesus) was rejecting the gods of the community and undermining the welfare of the city, and he had become antisocial ('a hater of humanity') and atheistic. The person was sometimes tolerated but also was often treated according to the local perception of their having become antisocial and thus a threa...

"These words are Paul's legacy to the church. It is impossible to read them without being profoundly stirred." John Stott "So when that Word is re-announced, there is a sense in which God, who revealed himself by that Word in the past, is re-revealing himself by that same Word once again." Don Carson "Preaching is of the very essence of the corporate phenomenon called Ch...

"No man needs better company than the psalms; therein he may read and commune with friends human and divine; friends who know the heart of man towards God, and the heart of God towards man; friends who perfectly sympathize with us and our sorrows, friends who never betray or forsake. Oh, to be shut up in a cave with David, with no other occupation but to hear him sing, and...

"Sometimes bad theology breeds reactionary bad theology. Because Roman Catholicism has gradually added more titles and myths to Mary, Protestants have sometimes reacted by remaining silent about her astonishing character." D.A. Carson "In contrast to the prose dialogue, which is spoken between characters and passively observed by the audience, the songs are often performe...

"Luke's depiction of the wiping, kissing and anointing with imperfect tenses, which he often uses, allows the narrative to run in progression from one act to the next: 'She was wiping, kissing and was anointing.' The impression is that each step took some time. One can imagine the impression it made at the meal." Darrell Bock Our friend Mark Dever writes of a conversation...

"To catch the argument one has almost to pretend that Yahweh is firing questions at the prophet's hearers. 'Was liberation boring? Does release from years of servitude make you yawn? Is the Exodus wearisome? Yahweh makes a point of taking them through this review of grace so that they 'may know the righteous acts of the Lord.'" Dale Ralph Davis "Outwardly the worshipper a...

"Secular writers force us to read the world from within a framework in which God's moral will and saving intentions, his truth and his Christ, are never the criteria of meaning or importance. The biblical authors see everything from a theocentric viewpoint. The biblical writers compel us to read the world from this perspective, to see it in relation to the moral character ...

"For all its orthodoxy and beauty this prayer reveals some of the great defects in Jonah's character." Kevin Youngblood "How perverse Jonah was. Living in a favored nation where spiritual light had been shone only because of the great mercy of God, he had come to assume that Israel deserved grace, whereas others had ill-deserved it. What a perversion! Yet it lies like a h...

"It is to be feared that the Psalms are by no means prized as in earlier ages of the Church." Charles Spurgeon "Apart from biblical illiteracy, there are special reasons for neglect of the psalms. The language of poetry doesn't easily connect in a sound-byte culture. The psalms call for time, not tweets-time to read, ponder, pray, digest. It's easy to be too busy for the ...

"Our personal life is a finite thing: it is limited in every direction, in space, in time, in knowledge, in power. But God is not limited. He is eternal, infinite and almighty. He has us in his hands; we never have him in ours. Like us, he is personal; but unlike us he is great. The Bible never lets us lose sight of God's majesty and his unlimited dominion over all his cre...

"The Bible is predominantly a serious rather than a funny book. Yet it would distort the Bible to suppress the humor that is presentEither to underemphasize its humor or overemphasize it distorts the Bible. Although the Bible is predominantly serious book, one of its points of humanity is its humor. The humor of the Bible is not the rollicking type but the subtle and intel...

"I am convinced that we have drifted from the true focus of God's activity in this world. It is not to be found in the extraordinary, but in the ordinary, the everyday." Michael Horton "Many Christians have an inadequate theology of ordinary life. God conceals Himself, often in things we would least expect--a crucified criminal, a book, water, bread, wineThere is another ...

"We cannot but be struck by the fact that James speaks of the concerned believer as 'bringing back', 'saving' and 'covering' the sins of the one in error. Surely these are things only God can do? Only God forgives sins, saves us from them and gives us the gift of repentance by which we return from our personal far country. How can we do these things? The answer is we canno...

"When James says, 'Do not swear', it is not coarse or vulgar speech he prohibits but invoking God's name to guarantee the reliability of what a person says." Douglas Moo "Heaven's great harbor of refuge is prayer, thousands of weather beaten vessels have found a haven there, and the moment a storm comes on, it is wise for us to make for it with all sail." Charles Spurgeon...

"James doctrine of the Christian life is a doctrine of process or growth, and patience is its central requirement." Alec Motyer "The farmer who prepares a field, sows seed, and then waits for a crop is a very natural illustration of patience. He can do little to effect the outcome but must wait and pray for the right rain at the right time. In Palestine, the farmer was pa...

"He speaks to the non-Christian for the benefit of the Christian." Craig Blomberg "James looks with divine foresight and sees the dark hurricane cloud of the Day of the Lord about to strike them down." Peter Davids "The rich will lose everything they have devoted themselves to and everything they have relied upon. Theirs will be the despair of people who discover their d...

"Men today are just the same as when these words were first written. We still find people saying what they are going to do today, tomorrow, or in six months time, at the end of another year, and perhaps still further. I have no doubt there are persons here who have their own career mapped out before them pretty distinctly, and they feel well nigh-certain that they will rea...

"There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us." Richard Sibbes "James personifies the church as the bride of Christ. At best she has become distracted from and at worst unfaithful to her groom. The audience has the wrong object for a lover--the fallen world system and values of the unregenerate." Craig Blomberg "The intention to be a friend of the world makes a person an...

"One of the joys of biblical ministry comes when you are able to turn on the lights in another person's dark room. People usually don't see their desires and lusts. Souls are cured as the ignorant and self-deceived are disturbed by the light of God's analytic gaze and then comforted by the love that shed substitutionary blood to purchase the inexpressible gift. I have yet ...

"This Christian meekness involves a healthy understanding of our own unworthiness before God and a corresponding humility and lack of pride in our dealings with our fellowmen." Douglas Moo "There is a kind of person who is undoubtedly clever, with acute brain and skillful tongue; but his effect, nevertheless, in any committee, in any church, in any group, is to cause tro...

"Our tongue is only the tip of the iniquity iceberg. The proof that all humans are inescapably flawed is right between our teeth." Douglas O' Donnell "Teachers are more susceptible to judgment than others because they regularly engage in that activity which is the hardest to keep from sin-one's speech." Doug Moo "We ask ourselves how we are to control the powerful forces...

"They are not antagonists facing each other with crossed swords; they stand back to back, confronting different foes of the gospel." Alexander Ross "Paul denounces the idea of salvation by dead works; James rejects salvation by dead faith." J.I. Packer "Both James and Paul view good works as a proof of faithnotthe path to salvation." John MacArthur "James is not arguing...

"The chapter is one of the most remarkable in the New Testament. For grandeur and simplicity, for pathos and solemnity, nothing was ever written like it." J.C. Ryle "Those who Jesus has revealed himself to view themselves first and foremost as loved by him not as those who love him. This is a common feature of those he has loved. They think of themselves as loved by him, ...

"With this exhortation we find ourselves right at the heart of James pastoral concern and v22 is rightly the best known verse in the letter." Doug Moo "No matter how extensive one's scriptural knowledge, how amazing one's memory, it is self-deception if that is all there is. True knowledge is the prelude to action, and it is obedience to the word that counts in the end." ...

"Another reason for a book on the new birth is to help followers of Christ to know what really happened to us when we were converted. It is far more glorious than many think it is. It is also more glorious than I think it is. It is wonderful beyond all human comprehension. The new birth is not a work of man. No human being makes the new birth happen. No preacher and no wri...

"Every trial is also a temptation." Alec Motyer "The stakes are high here. Suffering will either leave you a much better person or a much worse one that you were before. Trials and troubles in life, which are inevitable, will either make you or break you. But either way, you will not remain the same." Tim Keller "The trouble lies in the combustible material that each man...

"Not till we have become humble and teachable, standing in awe of God's holiness and sovereignty, acknowledging our littleness, distrusting our own thoughts and willing to have our minds turned upside down, can divine wisdom become ours." J.I. Packer "Wisdom is the means by which the godly can both discern and carry out the will of God." Douglas Moo "The effect of the gi...

"To count testing as a joy is a truly radical proposal. How can a trial be regarded as a joy? And can it be regarded as 'altogether' or 'all' joy?" Don McCartney "Frankly, many of us would prefer that this passage were not in the Bible. But it may also be one of the most profound and crucial for truly mature Christian living." Craig Blomberg "James is nothing if not real...

"This community lament has some unspecified disaster as its background." ESV Study Bible "It was composed on one of the occasions when the people of God were being struck dead as a judgment on their sin." Eric Lane "He alone is self-existent. God is the only one who can say, 'I am who I am.' The grand difference between a human being and a Supreme being is precisely this...

"About 95 percent of the book of Job is poetry. Chapters 1,2 and part of chapter 42 are prose. Almost all the rest is poetry. But so what? Well, poetry does not speak to us in the same way as prose. Poems 'are always a personal take on something, communicating not just from the head to head but from heart to heart' (J.I. Packer). A poet can often touch us, move us, and uns...

"After nearly 40 chapters of tempestuous poetry, the return to the simplicity of prose and the idyllic setting in which the book had opened rounds off this masterpiece, one may feel, to perfection." Derek Kidner "In some deep way it is necessary for it to be publicly seen by the whole universe that God is worthy of the worship of a man and that God's worth is in no way de...

"Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the Incarnation." J.I. Packer "When God chose a human father for his Son, he chose a man who would be righteous and kind, qualities that reflect God the Father himself." Ligon Duncan "He was saddened and perplexed when he learned that she would become a mother before they had been actually married. Many would have t...

"'Had I been present at creation I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the universe.' Those words are attributed to King Alphonso the Tenth, King of Spain in the thirteenth century, nicknamed 'Alphonso the Learned.' Alphonso was not the first human being to think he could run the universe better than God. The learned and wise Job has come to the c...

"The artistic skill of the author of these chapters in sustaining the tension in Job, and also in preparing us carefully for the final word from the Lord, is unsurpassed." David Atkinson "We have heard Job's passionate last stand. We are waiting for the Lord. These chapters give us space between Job and Yahweh. They illustrate, just by being there, that Yahweh is not forc...

"This is not the question of the armchair religious or philosophical dilettante, enjoying a stimulating debate. This is the agonized question of the wheelchair sufferer who feels he or she desperately needs an answer. In chapter 28 we stand back from the pain and the debates to ask why God will not answer the question, 'Why?'" Christopher Ash "The debate is done. Nothing ...

"Job is forty two chapters long. We may consider that rather an obvious observation... But the point is this: in his wisdom God has given us a very long book, and he has done so for a reason. It is easy just to read or preach the beginning and the end and to skip rather quickly over the endless arguments in between as if it wouldn't much mater if they weren't there. Far fr...

"We might think the testing of Job is over. But alas, there is one final test, perhaps the toughest. Satan slithers away, while Job's closet companions cozy up." Douglas O' Connell "These friends came unto him under pretense of consolation, and yet they tormented him more than did all his sufferings." 1560 Geneva Bible "The theology that underlies all three friends is ve...

"Job 3 is a very important chapter for contemporary Christianity. There is a version of Christianity around that is shallow, trite, superficial, 'happy clappy'. It is a kind of Christianity that, as has been said, 'would have had Jesus singing a chorus at the grave of Lazarus.' We have all met it-easy triumphalism. We sing of God in one song that 'in his presence our probl...

"The book of Job tells the story of a good man overwhelmed by troubles. He is stripped of his wealth, his family, and his health. He does not know why God has done this to him. Only the reader knows that God is trying to prove to the Devil that Job's faith is genuine. Upon this simple plot an unknown writer of superlative genus has erected a monumental work. The most persi...

"It is to be feared, that the Psalms are by no means prized as in earlier ages of the church." Charles Spurgeon "In the Psalms you meet God where you are." David Powlison "None of this Psalm addresses God; all of it brings good news about God to the human listener." John Goldingay "Protection by God, under the watchful eye of God, is the dominant idea of the Psalm." Jam...

"Sharing in suffering probably unites our hearts together in Christ more than any other aspect of fellowship." Jerry Bridges "It will take faith to wait patiently for God's plan to unfold, but the righteous believe that God will accomplish it. The phrase 'but the righteous shall live by his faith' is quoted in the NT to emphasize that people are saved by grace through fai...

"Since it would not be possible for any believer, however experienced, to know for himself all our Lord endured in mental suffering and hellish malice, it is clearly far beyond the preachers capacity to set it forth to you. Jesus himself must give you access to the wonders of Gethsemane; as for me, I can but invite you to enter the Garden." Charles Spurgeon "Nothing in al...

"The Lord's Supper, which was instituted by Jesus, and which is the only regular commemorative act authorized by him, dramatizes neither his birth nor his life, neither his words nor his works, but only his death. Nothing could indicate more clearly the central significance which Jesus attached to his death. It was by his death that he wished above all else to be remembere...

"[Schaeffer's] purpose was to show how ideas, as they have been embraced or discarded, have shaped the rise and decline of Western culture."Richard Phillips "What [people] are in their thought world determines how they act.The results of their thought world flow through their fingers or from their tongues in the external world. This is true of Michelangelo's chisel, and i...

"When it comes to Good Friday the Gospels go into slow motion. They have passed over in silence whole decades of Jesus life, and even when they pick up the threads of the public ministry there are weeks and months of which they say nothing. Our printed Bibles do not, unfortunately, highlight the significance of Mark 14:17, where the evangelist introduces his account of the...

"Though he had the prospect of death approaching, yet he did not abandon himself to a melancholy retirement from all company, but conversed as freely with his friends as usual." Matthew Henry "He recommended this piece of heroic piety to the applause of the church in all ages." Matthew Henry "The deeds and titles of many a king and emperor and general are completely forg...

"The test of liberality is not what is given, but what is left." James Brooks "The scribes are ostentatious and the crowds are rich and extravagant; but by contrast this 'one poor widow' contributes two of the smallest coins in circulation. In purely financial terms, the value of her offering is negligible-and unworthy compared to the sums of wealthy donors. But in the di...

"The duties God requires of us are not in proportion to the strength we possess in ourselves. Rather, they are proportional to the resources available to us in Christ. We do not have the ability in ourselves to accomplish the least of God's tasks. This is a law of grace. When we recognize it is impossible for us to perform a duty in our own strength, we will discover the s...

"How interesting that God didn't select the Sabbath (Israel's holy day) as the resurrection day. Instead he chose the next day to be the new holy day. He chose Sunday to be the day we worship his Son (the Lord's day). Perhaps he chose a new day because a new era was breaking into world history; a permanent cavity was torn in the cosmos to create an eternal eighth day of re...

"The scholars and scribes may have been finished with all their questions for Jesus, but Jesus still had one last question for them. It was really more like a riddle, and its answer unlocks the mystery at the heart of the universe." Phil Ryken "After a day of questions comes the question of the day." Ralph Martin "Jesus is now quietly leading them to the point of confess...

Quotes from C.J.'s sermon on Mark 12:28-34...

Quotes from Rick Holland's sermon on Romans 5:3-5...

"His enemies are relentless and they attack him in waves. Wave upon wave, delegation upon delegation approaching him to attack him publicly, discredit him so he might lose the popular support of the people, while they privately plot and plan how to kill him." Sinclair Ferguson "The point is that belief in the resurrection is absurd since it leads to ridiculously complex s...

"It may be the most famous of all Jesus pronouncement stories." Robert Stein "The statement by our Lord was not only astounding the instant it was uttered, but is even today universally acclaimed to be the single most influential political statement ever made in the history of the world." Kent Hughes "The answer Jesus gave is the most important and influential statement ...

Quotes from C.J.'s sermon on Mark 12:1-12...

Quotes from C.J.'s sermon on Mark 11:11-25....

"Every schoolboy is supposed to know Julius Caesar's famous words before he crossed the River Rubicon, 'The die is cast.' It means that a point of no return has been reached. This was true now for Jesus. There was no turning back. Now his last days had arrived; the climactic activity of his life was about to begin." Sinclair Ferguson "At this time it is apparent only Jesu...

Quotes from C.J.'s sermon on James 5:13....

Quotes from C.J.'s sermon on Mark 10:46-52....

Quotes from C.J.'s sermon on Mark 10:35-45....

Quotes from C.J.'s sermon on 1 Timothy 2:1-7....

Quotes from C.J.'s sermon on Mark 10:32-34...

Quotes from C.J.'s sermon on Mark 10:17-31...

Quotes from C.J.'s sermon on Mark 10:1-12...

Quotes from C.J.'s sermon on Hebrews 3:12-13...

Quotes from C.J.'s sermon on Mark 9:42-50...

Quotes from C.J.'s sermon on Jeremiah 9:23-24...

Quotes from C.J.'s sermon on Mark 9:38-41...

Quotes from C.J.'s sermon on Mark 9:30-37...

Quotes from Brian's message on Ephesians 4:11-26...

Quotes from C.J.'s sermon on Mark 8:31-9:1...

Quotes from C.J.'s sermon on Mark 9:2-13...

During the Sunday sermon, C.J. read two excellent quotes....

Quotes from Bob's message on Revelation 5....

Quotes from C.J.'s sermon on Mark 8:1-9...

Quotes from CJ's sermon this past Sunday on Mark 7:31-37....

Quotations from CJ's sermon this past Sunday on Mark 7:24-30....

Sermon quotes from C.J. Mahaney's message on Mark 7:14-23...

Quotes C.J. used in his sermon on 1 Corinthians 3:18-4:5...

Quotes from Shawn Woo's sermon on Ephesians 2:1-10...

On Sunday, C.J. used several superb quotes to further exposit the passage from Mark's gospel....

Quotes from Mack Stiles message on 2 Timothy 2:14-19...

On sunday, C.J. read two excellent quotes during his sermon. ...

In his sermon on Sunday, C.J. quoted several excellent Bible scholars whose words served to magnify the glory of Jesus Christ. ...

This past Sunday, C.J. read several excellent quotes to expound this passage about Jesus feeding the five thousand. ...

In his sermon for Resurrection Sunday, CJ directed our gaze toward the Risen Lord with several superb quotes. Our church is so blessed to benefit from the wisdom of these Bible scholars....

On Sunday, CJ utilized several outstanding quotes to clarify our understanding and application of the text. How kind of the Lord that we have a wealth of scholars and teachers to aid us in our study of God's Word!...

On Sunday, CJ utilized several outstanding quotes to clarify our understanding and application of the text. How kind of the Lord that we have a wealth of scholars and teachers to aid us in our study of God's Word!...