Sermon Quotes: "A Common Lie"
“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 realize it all. We are like the men of the past; and this Book, though it has been written so long, might have been written yesterday, so exactly does it describe human nature.” Charles Spurgeon
“For a believer to leave God out of his plans is an arrogant assumption of self-sufficiency, a tacit declaration of independence from God. It is to overlook reality. Whether men recognize it or not, they ‘will live and do this or that’ only ‘if it is the Lord’s will.’” Donald Burdick
“Apart from God I cannot exist; apart from me God does exist. God does not need me in order for Him to be. I do need God in order for me to be. This is the difference between what we call a self-existent Being and a dependent being. We are dependent. We are fragile.” R.C. Sproul
“To James the sin of presumptuousness is so important, so basic, that it is as if the category of sins of omission had been deliberately devised in connection with it. We might consider it a small thing, a passing feature of life, if we forget how dependent we are and act in mere self will. He sees it as the hard core of vaunting pride which is the mark and curse of fallen man. Here, above all places, we cannot afford to fall into the sin of omission…In other words, when even in little, secret, almost unrecognized ways we forget how frail we are, and stop short of conscious dependence on our God, it is an element of the proud, boastful, vaunting human spirit, flaunting its supposed independence and self-sufficiency.” Alec Motyer
“Take one step at a time, every step under Divine warrant and direction. Ever plan for yourself in simple dependence on God. It is nothing less than self-idolatry to conceive that we can carry on even the ordinary matters of the day without his counsel. He loves to be consulted. Therefore take all thy difficulties to be resolved by him. Be in the habit of going to him in the first place-before self-will, self-pleasing, self-wisdom, human friends, convenience, expediency. Before any of these have been consulted go to God at once. Consider no circumstances too clear too need his direction. In all thy ways, small as well as great; in all they concerns, personal or relative, temporal or eternal, let him be supreme.” Charles Bridges
“We live in a culture of control. Either we have control or we want control of everything around us-from the television in front of our eyes to the weather over our heads. But sometimes the world doesn’t submit to our control. The television remote doesn’t work. The weather won’t cooperate. It would be better however if everyone acknowledged that ‘God the great Creator of all things doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence, according to His infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of His own will, to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy (WCF).’ Put differently, it would be better if we acknowledged that God is in control. What then should we do? Under the sunlight of God’s sovereignty we should be holy and happy. Rejoice in the Lord. Obey Christ’s commands. Do good to others. Eat your roast-beef sandwich. Sip your scotch. Smile, God loves you. Seriously.” Douglas O’ Donnell
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