Sermon Quotes: "The Solution to Self-Deception"

“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.” Peter Davids

“As for the man with the mirror, off he goes, but his friends meeting him on the way could tell him that the mirror is not the comb and that without this aid to gracious living his devotion to the mirror itself is without value.” Alec Motyer

“What we believe about the nature of Scripture affects how we use Scripture.” George Stulac

“The law is not some legal code; it is the transformative and living speech of the living God, with whom one has a relationship. So here the gazing into the perfect law of freedom is
not a scholastic analysis of a legal text independent of its author; it is a listening to the redemptive story because it’s the living speech of the author.” Dan McCartney

“Even if we cannot feel God in our darkest and most dry times, he is still there. And so there is no more basic way to face suffering than this: Like Job, you must seek him, go to him. Pray even if you are dry. Read the Scriptures even if it is an agony. Eventually you will sense him again-the darkness won’t last forever. The strength you need for suffering comes in the doing of the responsibilities and duties God requires. Shirk no commands of God. Read, pray, study, fellowship, serve, witness, obey. Do all your duties that you physically can and the God of peace will be with you.” Tim Keller

“Just as we don’t change all at once, so we don’t swallow all of the truth in one gulp. We are simple people. You can’t remember ten things at once. Invariably, if you could remember just one true thing in the moment of trial, you’d be different. When you actually remember, you actually change.” David Powlison

“One bit of Bible prayed over, and bedewed with the Spirit, and made alive, though it be only a short sentence of six words, will profit you more than a hundred chapters without the Spirit.” Charles Spurgeon

“One bit of Bible, bedewed with the Spirit comes to life in one bit of life. You can’t deal with it all at once. Scripture never does. Life goes one step at a time. In a nutshell, connect one bit of Scripture to one bit of life.” David Powlison