On this page you will find timely quotes from saints of the past which I thought were worth sharing. I may update this page once and a while, but here are some of the best quotes I have found so far....
“There is a sentimental notion that makes us make ourselves out worse than we think we are, because we have a lurking suspicion that if we make ourselves out amazingly bad, someone will say, “Oh no, you are not as bad as that,” but Jesus say’s we are worse. Our Lord never trusted any man, “for He knew what was in man” (John 2:24-25); but He was not a cynic for He had the profoundest confidence in what He could do for every man…”
Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)
“Much of our difficulty as seeking Christians stems from our unwillingness to take God as He is and adjust our lives accordingly. We insist upon trying to modify Him and bring Him nearer to our own image. The flesh whimpers against the rigor of God’s inexorable sentence and begs like Agag for a little mercy, a little indulgence of it’s carnal ways. It is no use. We can get a right start only by accepting God as He is and learning to love Him for what He is. As we go on to know Him better we shall find it a source of unspeakable joy that God is just what He is. Some of the most rapturous moments we know will be those we spend in reverent admiration of the Godhead. In those holy moments the very thought of change in Him will be too painful to endure.”
A.W. Tozer (1897-1963)
“It is God who gives repentance unto life, but we may say that repentance comes, like faith itself, by hearing the Word of God. Therefore man is responsible to heed that Word, to face it honestly, and thus allow it to do its own work in the heart and conscience. It is this that brings one to an end of himself and prepares the soul to trust alone in the finished work of Christ and so be saved by free, unmerited grace. To say that because a sinner, whether Jew or Gentile, is dead toward God, therefore he cannot repent, is to misunderstand the nature of that death. It is a judicial, not an actual, death. The unsaved man is identified with sinning Adam by nature and practice, and so is viewed by God as dead in trespasses and sins. He is spiritually dead, because sin has separated him from God. But actually he is a living, responsible creature to whom God addresses Himself as to a reasoning personality, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18). An examination of the previous verses will show that these words of grace follow a very definite call to a change of attitude, to the bringing forth of works meet for repentance.”
H.A. Ironside (1876-1951)
“The Spirit of God never heals [except] He wounds; and if those seeking Christ have not peace, it is because there is still in them some remnant of fancied goodness….There is a counterfeit Confession of Sin; let us beware of this counterfeit. We may be sure the sorrow is not deep if the sin be not subdued….God kills to make alive. He smites men’s consciences to make them judge themselves. The first great step when a man desires to be saved is unqualified self-condemnation. Sin unconfessed is imputed; but sin confessed is blotted out by God. The sinner, coming in the name of Jesus, has a title to life; the ground of that title is the very name and justice of God.”
R.C. Chapman (1803-1902)
“This new life in the people of God discovers itself by conviction….The sinner is made to know and feel that the sin, which was his delight, is a more loathsome thing than a toad or serpent, and a greater evil than the plague or famine….[Previously] he was wont to marvel… what harm it was for a man to take a little forbidden pleasure; he saw no heinousness in it….Now the case is altered, God hath opened his eyes to see the inexpressible vileness in sin….This is the reason why affliction so frequently concurs in the work of conversion….If a man made pleasure his god, whatsoever a roving eye, a curious ear, a greedy appetite, or a lustful heart could desire, and God should take these from him, or turn them into gall and wormwood; what a help is here to conviction!... Try if your…riches or pleasure can help you….Can they….redeem your soul from everlasting flames? Cry aloud to them, and see now whether these will be to you instead of God and His Christ….Now the sinner feels an insupportable burden upon him, and sees there is none but Christ can take it off….Either he must have Christ to justify him, or be eternally condemned;…have Christ save him, or burn in hell for ever….After this deep conviction, the will discovers also its change. The sin, which the understanding pronounces evil, the will turns from with abhorrence….Convinced also, that Christ alone is able and willing to make peace for him, he most affectionately accepts of Christ for Saviour and Lord.”
Richard Baxter (1615-1691)
“From the hour [George Muller] began to serve the Crucified One he entered more and more fully into the fellowship of His sufferings, seeking to be made conformable unto His death. He gave up fortune-seeking and fame-seeking; he cut loose from the world with its snares and joys; he tested even churchly traditions and customs by the word of God, and step by step conformed to the pattern showed in that word. Every such step was a self-denial, but it was following Him. He chose voluntary poverty that others might be rich, and voluntary loss that others might have gain. His life was one long endeavour to bless others, to be the channel for conveying God’s truth and love and grace to them….To one who asked him the secret of his service he said: “There was a day when I died, utterly died;” and, as he spoke, he bent lower and lower until he almost touched the floor- “died to George Muller, his opinions, preferences, tastes and will- died to the world, its approval or censure- died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and friends- and since then I have studied only to show myself approved unto God.”
A.T. Pierson (1837-1911), writing about George Muller (1805-1898)
"Things are wrong between the world and God. The world does not know Him. Its citizens do not love Him. They cannot stand before Him with acceptance. Their sins have separated them from God, and the guilt of sin is bearing them down to deeper sin and a dark eternal hell. But God has sent Jesus Christ to make this right….[Christ] has taken upon Himself man’s sins, man’s obligations, man’s wrongs against God. He has met the issue, and He has paid the penalty…..This is the gospel of salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ".
A.B. Simpson (1843-1919)
“There is no truth more generally admitted among earnest Christians than that of their utter weakness. There is no truth more generally misunderstood and abused. Here, as elsewhere, God’s thoughts are heaven-high above man’s thoughts. The Christian often tries to forget his weakness; God wants us to remember it, to feel it deeply. The Christian wants to conquer his weakness and to be freed from it; God wants us to rest and even rejoice in it. The Christian mourns over his weakness; Christ teaches His servant to say, "I take pleasure in infirmities. 'Most gladly...will I...glory in my infirmities' (2 Corinthians 12:9)." The Christian thinks his weaknesses are his greatest hindrance in the life and service of God; God tells us that it is the secret of strength and success. It is our weakness, heartily accepted and continually realized, that gives us our claim and access to the strength of Him who has said, 'My strength is made perfect in weakness' (v. 9)".
Andrew Murray (1828-1917), from Abide in Christ, pages 219-220 - Available to read online for free.
"Christianity...walks with strong step and erect frame...kindly, but firm...gentle, but honest...decided, but not churlish. It does not fear to speak the stern word of condemnation against error, nor to raise its voice against surrounding evils...[and] does not shrink from giving honest reproof...It calls sin sin, on whomsoever it is found....Both Old and New Testaments are marked by fervent outspoken testimonies against evil. To speak smooth things in such a case...is not Christianity. It is a betrayal of the cause of truth and righteousness....Charity covereth a multitude of sins; but it does not call evil good because a good man has done it; it does not excuse inconsistencies because the inconsistent brother has a high name and a fervent spirit...."
Horatius Bonar (1808-1889)
"God sovereignly decreed that man should be free to exercise moral choice, and man from the beginning has fulfilled that decree by making his choice between good and evil. When he chooses to do evil, he does not thereby countervail the sovereign will of God but fulfills it, inasmuch as the eternal decree decided not which choice the man should make but that he should be free to make it....Man's will is free because God is sovereign.... A God less than sovereign...would be afraid to...bestow moral freedom upon His creatures. God moves undisturbed and unhindered toward the fulfillment of those eternal purposes which He purposed in Christ Jesus before the world began... with infinite wisdom and perfect precision of action. No one can...turn Him aside from His plans. Since He is omniscient [and] sovereign...there can be...no accidents...no breakdown in authority; and as He is omnipotent, there can be no want of power to achieve His chosen ends . . . . Within the broad field of God's sovereign, permissive will the deadly conflict of good and evil continues with increasing fury. God will yet have His way [but] as responsible beings, we must make our choice in the present moral situation."
A.W. Tozer (1897-1963)
"The church that sets out to spiritualize the world will soon find that the world will secularize the church. When wheat and tares compromise, it is the wheat that suffers. Light and darkness, right and wrong, good and evil, truth and error are incompatibles, and when they compromise it is the light, the right, the good, and the truth that are damaged".
William Graham Scroggie (1877-1958), They Knew Their God, Vol 5, 194
"I believe that one reason why the church of God at this present moment has so little influence over the world is because the world has so much influence over the church".
C.H. Spurgon (1834-1892)
"The fall of man is written in too legible characters not to be understood: Those that deny it, by their denying, prove it".
--George Whitefield (December 16, 1714—September 30, 1770, Anglican Protestant minister used of the Lord in the Great Awakening in Britain and especially the North American colonies).
"God-sent ministry, heeded and bowed to, leads to enlargement and blessing; but the Spirit's testimony rejected increases the guilt of him who hardens himself against it, and makes his condition far worse than before. It is ever the case that light refused makes the darkness all the deeper. Hence the need of a tender conscience, quick to respond to every word from God".
-- H. A. Ironside (1876-1951)
"It is hard for a rich church to understand that her Lord was a poor man. Were He to appear today on our city streets as He appeared in Jerusalem, He would in all probability be picked up for vagrancy. Were He to teach here what He taught the multitudes about money, he would be blacklisted by churches, Bible conferences and missionary societies everywhere as unrealistic, fanatical and dangerous to organized religion."
A.W Tozer (1897-1963), The Warfare Of The Spirit
"The victorious Christian neither exalts nor downgrades himself. His interests have shifted from self to Christ."
A.W Tozer (1897-1963)
"If everything that is called Christianity in these days is Christianity, then there is no such thing as Christianity. A name applied indiscriminately to everything, designates nothing".
—B.B. Warfield (1851-1921)
"Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ” does not mean that you accommodate yourself to wrong teaching and doctrine, that you say nothing when falsehood is being propagated…"
—Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones (1899–1981).
"Carrying the cross does mean following in Jesus' footsteps. And in His footsteps are rejection, brokenheartedness, persecution and death. There are not two Christs - an easy going one for easy going Christians, and a suffering one for exceptional believers. There is only one Christ. Are we willing to follow His lead?"
—Hudson Taylor (21 May 1832 – 3 June 1905, British Christian missionary to China, and founder of the China Inland Mission (CIM, now OMF International).