R. C. Sproul Quotes

We fall privately before we ever fall publicly.

The world is filled with God's glory. You can't turn without bumping into it.

If the being of God ceased for one second, the universe would disappear.

Cynicism and skepticism are the crudest form of quasi-intellectualism... Let the cynic become cynical of his cynicism and the skeptic skeptical of his skepticism and join the battle.

For a work to be considered good it must not only conform outwardly to the law of God, but it must be motivated inwardly by a sincere love for God.

Worship is not simply a feeling that is experienced; it must also involve understanding and the mind.

It's dangerous to assume that because a man is drawn to holiness in his study that he is thereby a holy man. I am sure that the reason that I have a deep hunger to learn of the holiness of God is precisely because I am not holy.

Was Luther crazy? Perhaps. But if he was, our prayer is that God would send to this earth an epidemic of such insanity that we too may taste of the righteousness that is by faith alone.

The gospel is the proclamation of the person and work of Jesus Christ and how those benefits can be applied to us by faith alone.

Perhaps the most difficult task for us to perform is to rely on God’s grace and God’s grace alone for our celebration. It is difficult for our pride to rest on grace. Grace is for other people—for beggars. We don’t want to live by a heavenly welfare system. We want to earn our own way and atone for our own sins. We like to think that we will go to heaven because we deserve to be there.

When people ask me to name the Ligonier teaching material they should use to help them grow; I tell them, 'You should start with The Holiness of God.'

In Reformed theology, if God is not sovereign over the entire created order, then he is not sovereign at all. The term sovereignty too easily becomes a chimera. If God is not sovereign, then he is not God.

I had actually gone to a church-related college, but I went on a football scholarship, not because of any interest in the church.

It’s dangerous to assume that because a person is drawn to holiness in his study that he is thereby a holy man. There is irony here. I am sure that the reason I have a deep hunger to learn of the holiness of God is precisely because I am not holy. I am a profane man—a man who spends more time out of the temple than in it. But I have had just enough of a taste of the majesty of God to want more. I know what it means to be a forgiven man and what it means to be sent on a mission. My soul cries for more. My soul needs more.

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

The Spirit always communicates that He's for you when He convicts you of your sin.

Your task, O preacher, is to make sure that you are faithful to the text, that you are faithful to the proclamation of that gospel, that you are faithful to set forth the whole counsel of God, and then step back and let it happen.

Faith never requires us to crucify our minds or deny our senses.

When God issues a call to us, it is always a holy call. The vocation of dying is a sacred vocation. To understand that is one of the most important lessons a Christian can ever learn. When the summons comes, we can respond in many ways. We can become angry, bitter or terrified. But if we see it as a call from God and not a threat from Satan, we are far more prepared to cope with its difficulties.

Disciples of Christ abide in His Word. Those who abide in His Word know the truth and are free.

If there ever was a time when absolutely nothing existed, all there could possibly be now is nothing.

Grace, by definition, is something that God is not required to grant. He owes a fallen world no mercy.

When we behold the face of God, all memories of pain and suffering will vanish. Our souls shall be totally healed.

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

I'm afraid that in the United States of America today the prevailing doctrine of justification is not justification by faith alone. It is not even justification by good works or by a combination of faith and works. The prevailing notion of justification in our culture today is justification by death. All one has to do to be received into the everlasting arms of God is to die.

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.

The grand difference between a human being and a Supreme being is precisely this: 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. We are dependent. We are fragile. This is how we differ from God.

I do not want to drive across a bridge designed by an engineer who believed the numbers in structural stress models are relative truths.

The grounds of your justification are the perfect works of Jesus Christ. We're saved by works, but they're not our own.

In the decade of the 1980s, a massive and comprehensive study of religion in American life was undertaken by the Gallup organization. The results of the study were as terrifying as they were revealing. Americans, even evangelical Americans, are woefully ignorant of the content of Scripture and even more ignorant of the history of Christianity and classical Christian theology.

If there is one maverick molecule in all the universe, then God is not sovereign. And if God is not sovereign, He is not God.

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.

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

The question is not, "Why is there only one way to God?" but "Why is there even one way?"

When God's justice falls, we are offended because we think God owes perpetual mercy. We must not take His grace for granted. We must never lose our capacity to be amazed by grace

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.

By definition, the big difference between mercy and justice is that mercy is never ever obligatory.

Humanism was not invented by man, but by a snake who suggested that the quest for autonomy might be a good idea.

When you enter the voting booth, don't leave your Christianity in the parking lot.

I'll retire when they pry my cold, dead fingers off of my Bible.

When there’s something in the Word of God that I don’t like, the problem is not with the Word of God, it’s with me.

Every sin is an act of cosmic treason, a futile attempt to dethrone God in His sovereign authority.

One can have knowledge without having wisdom, but one cannot have wisdom without having knowledge.

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

When God writes our names in the 'Lamb's Book of Life' He doesn't do it with an eraser handy. He does it for eternity.

Before I can call upon Christ as my Savior, I have to understand that I need a savior. I have to understand that I am a sinner. I have to have some understanding of what sin is.I have to understand that God exists. I have to understand that I am estranged from that God, and that I am exposed to that God's judgment. I don't reach out for a savior unless I am first convinced that I need a savior. All of that is pre-evangelism. It is involved in the data or the information that a person has to process with his mind before he can either respond to it in faith or reject it in unbelief.

God’s grace is not infinite. God is infinite, and God is gracious. We experience the grace of an infinite God, but grace is not infinite. God sets limits to His patience and forbearance. He warns us over and over again that someday the ax will fall and His judgment will be poured out.

The worst sin against stewardship is to waste your life.