Sproul Quotes

Seeking God? We have totally revised corporate worship services to be sensitive to "seekers." If worship were to be tailored for seekers, it would be directed exclusively to believers, for no one except believers ever seeks God (Rom. 3:9-12). ~ R.C. Sproul

The only freedom that man ever has is when he becomes a slave to Jesus Christ. ~ R.C. Sproul

Place in the fall of 1979, with Drs. Geisler, Hoehner, Nicole, and Radmacher in attendance. It was the consensus of those present that we should not undertake to modify a statement that so many people had signed, both at the summit meeting and afterward. But
in order to ward off misunderstandings and to provide an exposition of the position advocated by the ICBI, it was thought desirable to provide a ~ R.C. Sproul

What makes art Christian art? Is it simply Christian artists painting biblical subjects like Jeremiah? Or, by attaching a halo, does that suddenly make something Christian art? Must the artist's subject be religious to be Christian? I don't think so. There is a certain sense in which art is its own justification. If art is good art, if it is true art, if it is beautiful art, then it is bearing witness to the Author of the good, the true, and the beautiful ~ R.C. Sproul

Because we are more adult than actually mature, we tend to take our sins and baptize them, dressing them up as spiritual maturity. ~ R.C. Sproul Jr.

Nothing could be more irrational than the idea that something comes from nothing. ~ R.C. Sproul

When God says something, the argument is over. ~ R.C. Sproul

If God did not act first, no one would be saved. ~ R.C. Sproul

We are able to persevere only because God works within us, within our free wills. And because God is at work in us, we are certain to persevere. The decrees of God concerning election are immutable. They do not change, because He does not change. All whom He justifies He glorifies. None of the elect has ever been lost. ~ R.C. Sproul

We may go to the house of mirth, to a party, where we have fun, kick back, have a good time, and enjoy entertainment. Parties are not all that serious; we don't have to be contemplative in order to enjoy ourselves there. Certainly there is a time to laugh, a time to dance, a time to celebrate-a time to have a party. But how much do we learn in those circumstances? Times of mirth do very little for the good of our souls. ~ R.C. Sproul

I don't always feel His presence. But God's promises do not depend upon my feelings; they rest upon His integrity. ~ R.C. Sproul

God doesn't want us to just feel gratitude, but for us to show it by giving thanks to God with our lives. ~ R.C. Sproul

In Christian marriage, love is not an option. It is a duty. ~ R.C. Sproul

No one was ever called by God to greater suffering than God's only begotten Son. ~ R.C. Sproul

The attention at the beginning of these petitions is on the exaltation of God and His concerns. In the initial phrases of the Lord's Prayer, Jesus fixes our gaze not on ourselves but on God.
People ~ R.C. Sproul

It has been said that nothing dispels a lie faster than the truth; nothing exposes the counterfeit faster than the genuine. ~ R.C. Sproul

What we call "the laws of nature" merely reflect the normal way in which God sustains or governs the natural world. Perhaps the most wicked concept that has captured the minds of modern people is the belief that the universe operates by chance. That is the nadir of foolishness. Elsewhere, I have written more extensively on the scientific impossibility of assigning power to chance, because chance is simply a word that describes mathematical possibilities.* Chance is not a thing. It has no power. It cannot do anything, and therefore it cannot influence anything, yet some have taken the word chance, which has no power, and diabolically used it as a replacement for the concept of God. But the truth, as the Bible makes clear, is that nothing happens by chance and that all things are under the sovereign government of God, which is exceedingly comforting to the Christian who understands it. ~ R.C. Sproul

We have a generation of people who think they can stand before the judgment seat of God despite their sins. ~ R.C. Sproul

Anyone who takes his faith seriously and speaks in behalf of Christ and His kingdom will be accused of fanaticism at some point. ~ R.C. Sproul

Only a true faith that applies God's Word to everything-incl uding economics-will lead to the revival and reformation our culture needs so badly. ~ R.C. Sproul

Prayer is not optional for the Christian; it is required. ~ R.C. Sproul

There are times when we suffer innocently at other people's hands. When that occurs, we are victims of injustice. But that injustice happens on a horizontal plane. No one ever suffers injustice on the vertical plane. That is, no one ever suffers unjustly in terms of his or her relationship with God. As long as we bear the guilt of sin, we cannot protest that God is unjust in allowing us to suffer. ~ R.C. Sproul

Change marriage and you change the world. Convince people that government, not God, lays down the rules for marriage, and they will believe more strongly that they determine right and wrong, that not even the world's rulers are subject to a higher authority. ~ R.C. Sproul

In His tender mercies, God has an incredible capacity to love the unlovely. ~ R.C. Sproul

Even if it cannot be
proven that a fetus is an actual living human person, there is no doubt that it is a potential living human person. In other words, a fetus is a developing person. It is not in a frozen state of potentiality. The fetus is in dynamic process-without interference or unforeseen calamity, it surely will become a fully actualized living human person. ~ R.C. Sproul

Tabletalk Magazine exists to help establish us in the Word to deepen our understanding of God and apply this knowledge to our daily living. ~ R.C. Sproul

Jesus endured His suffering in order to redeem His people. But those He redeemed are not thereby delivered from all pain and misery. Indeed, as we shall see, we His people are called to participate in His suffering. ~ R.C. Sproul

Confession should be a daily activity for the Christian, whose entire pilgrimage is characterized by the spirit of repentance. ~ R.C. Sproul

It is by virtue of the atonement that God can maintain His justice and yet demonstrate His mercy ... ~ R.C. Sproul

Hope is called the anchor of the soul because it gives stability to the Christian life. But hope is not simply a 'wish' I wish that such-and-such would take place rather, it is that which latches on to the certainty of the promises of the future that God has made. ~ R.C. Sproul

The Bible's truth does not depend in any way on whether or not a person believes the truth. ~ R.C. Sproul

Before the Fall Adam was endowed with two possibilities: He had the ability to sin and the ability not to sin. After the Fall Adam had the ability to sin and the inability to not sin. ~ R.C. Sproul

The higher purpose of the cross was that the Father would be glorified by the satisfaction of His justice. ~ R.C. Sproul

The house that is built upon the sand will crumble at the first sign of a windstorm. ~ R.C. Sproul

Because of Christ, our suffering is not useless. It is part of the total plan of God, who has chosen to redeem the world through the pathway of suffering. ~ R.C. Sproul

If I say, "You are wrong for judging people" then by my own standard I am wrong for judging you. ~ R.C. Sproul Jr.

Reformed theology does NOT teach that God brings the ELECT kicking and screaming, against their will, into His kingdom. It teaches that God so-works in the hearts of the Elect as to make them willing and pleased to come to Christ. They come to Christ because they want to. They want to because God has created in their hearts a desire for Christ. ~ R.C. Sproul

It is imperative that the Christian, at the beginning of his pursuit to understand what true worship is, gets it clear that the object of our worship is to be God and God alone. ~ R.C. Sproul

To honor God as God, we must worship Him as He and He alone decrees. ~ R.C. Sproul

The cliche is that misery loves company. Another is that there is fellowship among thieves. But thieves do not seek the consoling presence of the fellowship of police officers. Sinful misery does not love the company of purity. ~ R.C. Sproul

To live coram Deo is to live one's entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the glory of God. ~ R.C. Sproul

Possessing Christ and despising the church is an intolerable contradiction. We cannot have Christ without embracing the church. ~ R.C. Sproul

If the God you believe in is not a sovereign God, then you really don't believe in God. ~ R.C. Sproul

Whenever I read the psalms, I feel like I am eavesdropping on a saint having a personal conversation with God. ~ R.C. Sproul

Cyprian declared, "He cannot have God for his Father who does not have the church for his Mother." We need the church as urgently as a starving baby needs his mother's milk. We cannot grow ~ R.C. Sproul

I am not interested in standing for what I believe in, but in standing for the truth. I and my conscience are liars. God's law is truth. ~ R.C. Sproul Jr.

Creeds are definitions of what it means to be a Christian. They are fences that, albeit imperfectly, seek to separate sheep from goats. ~ R.C. Sproul Jr.

It certainly takes grace to able to find joy in our hearts when people are experiencing joy over a gain that is, in some way, our loss. This involves more than just baseball games. It involves countless things that touch our daily lives. But God enables us as Christians to look at things not just from our own selfish perspectives but from the perspectives of others. ~ R.C. Sproul

Those who understand God's sovereignty have joy even in the midst of suffering, a joy reflected on their very faces, for they see that their suffering is not without purpose. ~ R.C. Sproul

The punitive measures against murder underscore the gravity of the crime precisely because of the value of the victim. ~ R.C. Sproul

The gospel of Jesus Christ must be defended in every generation. It is always the center of attack by the forces of evil. ~ R.C. Sproul

from all other creatures. Jesus is called the monogenes, the "only begotten" of the Father. There is a sense in which Jesus and Jesus alone is begotten of the ~ R.C. Sproul

We break our promises to one another. We break our promises to God. But God never breaks His promises to us. ~ R.C. Sproul

We are cosmic traitors. We must recognize this problem within ourselves if we are to grasp the necessity of the cross. ~ R.C. Sproul

We are all servants. The only question is whom we will serve. ~ R.C. Sproul

We are not doomed to an ultimate conflict with no hope of resolution. The message of the Scripture is one of victory - full, final and ultimate victory. It is not our doom that is certain, but Satan's. His head has been crushed by the heel of Christ, who is the Alpha and Omega. ~ R.C. Sproul

Sin is not simply making bad choices or mistakes. Sin is having the desire in our hearts to do the will of the enemy of God. ~ R.C. Sproul

To be a Christian is to be a theologian - a student of God and his will. The church is where believers should be nurtured in the practice of correct theology. The contemporary disdain for theological content and emphasis on self-image and emotions were not shared by the apostolic church. ~ R.C. Sproul

To know that God knows everything about me and yet loves me is indeed my ultimate consolation. ~ R.C. Sproul

God is the foundation of all authority, He exercises that foundation because He is the author and the owner of His creation. He is the foundation upon which all other authority stands or falls. ~ R.C. Sproul

The problem in the church today is not the profession of faith, but it's possession. ~ R.C. Sproul

Could not God originally have decreed that no one ever would be able to sin, thus ~ R.C. Sproul

You can grieve for me the week before I die, if I'm scared and hurting, but when I gasp that last fleeting breath and my immortal soul flees to heaven, I'm going to be jumping over fire hydrants down the golden streets, and my biggest concern, if I have any, will be my wife back here grieving. When I die, I will be identified with Christ's exaltation. But right now, I'm identified with His affliction. ~ R.C. Sproul

This little expression, 'It doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're sincere,' is a monstrous lie. ~ R.C. Sproul

The moment we think we deserve mercy a little alarm bell should go off in our head because we are not talking about mercy anymore but justice. ~ R.C. Sproul

The utter destruction of our culture isn't just around the corner. It has been here for some time. ~ R.C. Sproul Jr.

Frenzy, the counterfeit of fervency, is a contrived attempt to simulate godly fervor. Those who deliberately manipulate
people's emotions are served warning here. There is something holy, something sovereign, about genuine spiritual fervor that cannot be manufactured artificially. It is easy to confuse frenzy and fervor, but the confusion is deadly. ~ R.C. Sproul

Together my wife and I are building the kingdom of God, exercising dominion, beating back the weeds of stinky dippers, tending the garden God has put us in. This is why my dear wife vacuums the floor, for it is part of the garden she has been called to dress and to keep. But she is doing this not as raw duty, but because she understands that she is exercising dominion over the dust, for the glory of Christ. ~ R.C. Sproul Jr.

To mention something three times in succession is to elevate it to the superlative degree, to attach to it emphasis of superimportance... Only once in sacred scripture is an attribute of God elevated to the third degree. Only once is a characteristic ofof God mentioned three times in succession. The Bible says that God is holy, holy, holy. Not that He is merely holy, or even holy, holy. He is holy holy holy. The Bible never says that God is love, love, love; or mercy, mercy, mercy; or wrath, wrath, wrath; or justice, juatice, justice. It does say that He is holy, holy, holy, that the whole earth is full of His glory. ~ R.C. Sproul

It took every ounce of self-control I could muster to keep my eyes focused on my work and not on you the entire time. All I could see was the way your nose would shrivel slightly when you laughed... The longing in your eyes for a love like that of the bride and groom. ~ Janna Sproul

The sweetest fragrance, the most beautiful aroma that God has ever detected emanating from this planet, was the aroma of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus that was offered once and for all on the cross. ~ R.C. Sproul

Every person needs to feel significant. We want our lives to count. We yearn to believe that in some way we are important and that hunger for significance-a drive as intense as our need for oxygen-doesn't come from pride or ego. It comes from God because he wants each of us to understand how important we are ... We must seek our roots, our origin, and our destiny so that we can know our present value ... We can help each other realize that we are persons of significance being made in the image of God. ~ R.C. Sproul

We cannot change God. God is unchangeable. If changes are to be made, they must be made in us. ~ R.C. Sproul

No sinner has the right to say with impunity, 'God you owe me grace.' If grace is owed, it is not grace. The very essence of grace is its voluntary character. God reserves to himself the sovereign, absolute right to give grace to some and withhold that grace from others. ~ R.C. Sproul

Of Drs. Clowney, Packer, Sproul, Norman L. Geisler, Harold W. Hoehner, Donald E. Hoke, Roger R. Nicole, and Earl D. Radmacher labored very hard around the clock to prepare a statement that might receive the approval of a great majority of the participants. Very special attention ~ R.C. Sproul

It is precisely the presence and help of Christ in times of suffering that makes it possible for us to stand up under pressure. ~ R.C. Sproul

When the gospel is at stake, everything is at stake. ~ R.C. Sproul

We have all heard evangelists quote from Revelation: "I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with Me." Usually the evangelist applies this text as an appeal to the unconverted, saying, 'Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart. If you open the door, he will come in.' In the original saying, however, Jesus directed his remarks to the church. It was not an evangelistic appeal.

So what? The point is that seeking is something that unbelievers do not do on their own steam. The unbeliever will not seek. The unbeliever will not knock. Seeking is the business of believers. Edwards said, "The seeking of the kingdom of God is the chief business of the Christian life." Seeking is the RESULT of faith, not the cause of it. ~ R.C. Sproul

To acknowledge that I am yet a sinner is not to deny that I am a saint but to acknowledge how I became one, by grace. ~ R.C. Sproul Jr.

The more seriously we understand the radical nature of sin, the more it exercises a restraint upon us. ~ R.C. Sproul

People need a consistent explanation of the cross of Christ and what it accomplished. Christ's atoning work is the centerpiece of the gospel and the only solution for humanity's estrangement from our Creator. ~ R.C. Sproul

Loving a holy God is beyond our moral power. The only kind of God we can love by our sinful nature is an unholy god, an idol made by our own hands. Unless we are born of the Spirit of God, unless God sheds His holy love in our hearts, unless He stoops in His grace to change our hearts, we will not love Him ... To love a holy God requires grace, grace strong enough to pierce our hardened hearts and awaken our moribund souls. ~ R.C. Sproul

In the affirmation ofArticle III, the words "in its entirety" are significant. There are those who have claimed that the Bible contains revelation from God here and there, in specified places, but ~ R.C. Sproul

In salvation we are not only saved from sin and damnation; we are saved unto holiness. The goal of redemption is holiness. ~ R.C. Sproul

Why do those who keep insisting Jesus hung out with sinners also keep insisting there's no such thing as sin? ~ R.C. Sproul

Actually, any Christian who has tried to bear witness to others has heard that charge: "Who do you think you are?" The greatest answer to that question that I've ever heard is the old answer, "I'm just one beggar telling other beggars where they can find bread." That's really all I anl, and that's all any of us are. ~ R.C. Sproul

Why would the disciples invent a God whose holiness was more terrifying than the forces of nature that provoked them to invent a god in the first place? ~ R.C. Sproul

Although Clark remains relatively unknown to most Christians today, he has received praise from a range of powerful voices in American theological circles. When asked which twentieth-century theologians will still be read 500 years hence, the well-known American pastor and theologian R.C. Sproul answered, "Gordon Clark." Indeed, ~ Douglas J. Douma

The kingdom of God is not of the people, by the people, or for the people. It is a kingdom ruled by a King, and God does not rule by the consent of His subjects but by His sovereign authority. His reign extends over me whether I vote for Him or not.
'The ~ R.C. Sproul

Touching His human nature, Jesus is no longer present with us. Touching his Divine nature, He is never absent from us. ~ R.C. Sproul

The fundamental loss of a desire for God is the heart of original sin. ~ R.C. Sproul

What about putting Christ back into Christmas? It is simply not necessary. Christ has never left Christmas. ~ R.C. Sproul

We have a tendency to think of GOD being glorified only in the manifestation of his mercy
He is just as glorified by His justice. ~ R.C. Sproul

We live in a time of crisis in the secular culture and in the church with regard to the beautiful. ~ R.C. Sproul

At the moment I sin, I desire the sin more than I desire to please God. ~ R.C. Sproul

Doctrine does matter. ~ R.C. Sproul

It is false to say that what we don't know can't hurt us, especially when it comes to the Bible. If ever there were anything we need to know, it is the very Word of God. That said, what is in all likelihood worse than what we don't know about the Bible is what we do know that just isn't so. ~ R.C. Sproul Jr.

Repentance is something that is brought about in the human heart by the work of God the Holy Spirit. ~ R.C. Sproul

You have to stop thinking logically to argue that the universe came into being by itself, out of nothing. ~ R.C. Sproul

The more I learn about God, the more aware I become of what I don't know about him. ~ R.C. Sproul