R. C. Sproul famous quotes

God just doesn't throw a life preserver to a drowning person. He goes to the bottom of the sea, and pulls a corpse from the bottom of the sea, takes him up on the bank, breathes into him the breath of life and makes him alive.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Sea #Alive #Breathe

A god who is all love, all grace, all mercy, no sovereignty, no justice, no holiness, and no wrath is an idol.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Idols #Wrath #Justice

God is not going to negotiate His holiness... in order to accommodate us.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Order #Holiness

I think the greatest weakness in the church today is that almost no one believes that God invests His power in the Bible. Everyone is looking for power in a program, in a methodology, in a technique, in anything and everything but that in which God has placed it—His Word. He alone has the power to change lives for eternity, and that power is focused on the Scriptures.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Life Changing #Believe #Thinking

God did not die. The God who took on Himself a human nature died in His humanity, but the deity did not perish on the cross.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Humanity #Deities #Human Nature

Our prayers cannot force God to do anything, but He uses them as His own instruments to bring about His will.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Prayer #Use #Force

Why do bad things happen to good people? That only happened once and He volunteered.
-- R. C. Sproul

#People #Good People #Bad Things Happen

We have to determine our theology from the Word of God, not from what we feel.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Theology #Feels #Word Of God

The gospel is only good news when we understand the bad news.
-- R. C. Sproul

#News

The principle rule of interpreting Scripture is that Scripture interprets Scripture.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Principles #Scripture

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

#Mistake #Heart #Choices

There are many today who believe that there are people running around this world right now who are performing greater miracles, performing miracles in greater abundance, and actually doing more incredible acts of divine healing than Jesus himself did. I can’t think of any more serious delusion than that...
-- R. C. Sproul

#Running #Jesus #Believe

The failure of modern evangelicalism is the failure to understand the holiness of God.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Holiness #Modern #Holiness Of God

The worst sin against stewardship is to waste your life.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Waste #Stewardship #Sin

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

#Ideas #Irrational

The only thing that we have earned at the hands of perfect justice is perfect punishment.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Punishment #Hands #Justice

It is the Holy Spirit who inspired the Bible. It is the Holy Spirit who illumines the Bible.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Spirit #Inspired #Holy

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

#Christian #Love Is #Marriage Love

The irony of New Testament lordship is that only in slavery to Christ can a man discover authentic freedom.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Men #Slavery #Irony

There is not one piece of cosmic dust that is outside the scope of God's sovereign providence.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Dust #Pieces #Sovereign

If God is the Creator of the entire universe, then it must follow that He is the Lord of the whole universe. No part of the world is outside of His lordship. That means that no part of my life must be outside of His lordship.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Mean #World #Lord

We are secure, not because we hold tightly to Jesus, but because He holds tightly to us.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Jesus

We live in what may be the most anti-intellectual period in the history of Western civilization.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Western

This means that if a person fulfills his or her vocation as a steelmaker, attorney, or homemaker coram Deo, then that person is acting every bit as religiously as a soul-winning evangelist who fulfills his vocation. It means that David was as religious when he obeyed God’s call to be a shepherd as he was when he was anointed with the special grace of kingship. It means that Jesus was every bit as religious when He worked in His father’s carpenter shop as He was in the Garden of Gethsemane.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Religious #Jesus #Father

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

#Argument

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

#Men #Snakes #Ideas

Man’s will is free to follow his inclinations, but fallen man’s inclinations are always and invariably away from God.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Men #Fallen

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

#Desire #Sin #Moments

We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Sin #Sinner

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

#Christian #Self #Church

It is one thing to believe in God; it is quite another to believe God.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Believe #Believe In God

God doesn't need our consent in order to govern us; He made us.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Order #Needs #Made

God's grace is so powerful that it has the capacity to overcome our natural resistance to it.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Powerful #Grace #Resistance

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

#Sovereign #Sin #Authority

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.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Reign #Doe #Vote

At its root, this is what faith is. It is not believing in God. It's believing God.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Believe #Roots #Believe In God

The human dilemma is this: God is Holy and we are not. God is Righteous and we are not.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Holy #Righteous #Dilemma

To solve a marriage problem, you have to talk with each other about it, choosing wisely the time and place. But when accusations and lengthy speeches of defense fill the dialogue, the partners are not talking to each other but past each other. Take care to listen more than you speak. If you still can't agree on a solution, consider asking a third party, without a vested interest, to mediate.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Party #Past #Talking

Right now counts forever.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Christian #Christian Inspirational #Forever

The Word of God can be in the mind without being in the heart; but it cannot be in the heart without first being in the mind.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Heart #Mind #Firsts

We need the church as urgently as a starving baby needs his mother’s milk.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Mother #Baby #Church

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

#Christ #Disciple

Prayer is to the Christian what breath is to life, yet no duty of the Christian is so neglected.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Christian #Prayer #Duty

If you truly have it, you never lose it; and if you lose it, you never truly had it.
-- R. C. Sproul

Reformed theology so far transcends the mere five points of Calvinism that it is an entire worldview.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Calvinism #Theology #Worldview

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

#Strong #Heart #Hands

No unborn baby has ever had the right to choose or deny its own destruction.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Baby #Destruction #Deny

The only works of righteousness that serve to justify a sinner are the works of Christ.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Christ #Righteousness #Justify

If it were left to us, we would all fall away from the faith and perish.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Fall

The sin of fallen man is this: Man seeks the benefits of God while at the same time fleeing from God Himself.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Men #Benefits #Fleeing

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

#Thinking #Arguing #Universe

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

#Glory #Authority #Presence Of God

Though sin often brings immediate pleasure, it gives no lasting joy.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Giving #Joy #Sin

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.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Problem #Word Of God

If you take away the cross as an atoning act, you take away Christianity.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Christianity #Crosses

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

#Son #Suffering

God is serious about how we worship Him, and we must be serious about it, too.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Serious #Worship

Our natural inclination is to hide ourselves from God.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Natural

Christ exposed Himself not only to the unbridled hostility of angry men, but, more significantly, to the unmitigated wrath of God.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Men #Wrath #Christ

If you care about the slaughter of the innocent, then for God's sake, speak up.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Care #Sake #Speak

If God is not sovereign, God is not God.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Sovereign

Advice to aspiring ministers: Get in the Word. Stay in the Word. Master the Word. And for heaven's sake, preach the Word!
-- R. C. Sproul

#Heaven #Advice #Sake

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.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Fall #Grace #Limits

The only righteousness that meets the requirements of the Law is the righteousness of Christ.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Law #Requirements #Christ

Just as the normative standard for the good and for the true is God, so the ultimate standard of beauty is God.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Standards #Standards Of Beauty #Ultimate

We may live in a culture that believes everyone will be saved, that we are 'justified by death' and all you need to do to go to heaven is die, but God’s Word certainly doesn’t give us the luxury of believing that.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Believe #Luxury #Giving

Christ told his disciples not to be anxious about tomorrow, but he never said not to consider tomorrow. Intelligent problem solving demands careful consideration of the future effects of present solutions.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Intelligent #Anxiety #Demand

God’s sovereign will is not at the whim and mercy of our person and individual responses to it.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Sovereign #Mercy #Individual

Men are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance, until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God
-- R. C. Sproul

#Men #Majesty #Conviction

If the final decision for the salvation of fallen sinners were left in the hands of fallen sinners, we would despair all hope that anyone would be saved.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Hands #Decision #Despair

Burning hearts are not nourished by empty heads
-- R. C. Sproul

#Heart #Burning #Empty

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

#Believe #Government #People

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

#Made #Unchangeable

As the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, so the denial of God is the height of foolishness.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Denial #Height #Foolishness

Genuine love for Jesus manifests itself in obedience to His commandments.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Jesus #Obedience #Genuine

Grace and mercy are never deserved.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Grace #Mercy

We talk about predestination because the Bible talks about predestination. If we desire to build our theology on the Bible, we run head on into this concept. We soon discover that John Calvin did not invent it.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Running #Desire #Theology

To despise doctrine is to despise the Word of God.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Doctrine #Despise #Word Of God

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

#Jesus #Touching #Human Nature

The complaint that church is boring is never made by people in awe.
-- R. C. Sproul

#People #Church #Boring

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
-- R. C. Sproul

#Fall #Thinking #Justice

Prayer does change things, all kinds of things. But the most important thing it changes is us.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Prayer #Important #Doe

But the blessing Christ promised, the blessing of great reward, is a reward of grace. The blessing is promised even though it is not earned. Augustine said it this way: Our rewards in heaven are a result of God's crowning His own gifts.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Blessing #Heaven #Grace

Without God man has no reference point to define himself.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Men

Sin can bring pleasure, but never happiness.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Sin #Pleasure

There is nothing in this universe you need more desperately than Christ.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Needs #Christ #Universe

Most Christians salute the sovereignty of God but believe in the sovereignty of man.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Christian #Believe #Men

What is the difference between the Christian God, and the gods of the other religions?" He simply, yet profoundly answered, "The main difference is this: The God of Christianity exists.
-- R. C. Sproul

#God #Christian #Differences

The more faithful preachers are to the Word of God in their preaching, the more liable they are to the charge of hypocrisy. Why? Because the more faithful people are to the Word of God the higher the message is that they will preach. The higher the message, the further they will be from obeying themselves.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Hypocrisy #People #Faithful

The most obscene symbol in human history is the Cross; yet in its ugliness it remains the most eloquent testimony to human dignity.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Dignity #Crosses #Testimony

If there is one single molecule in this universe running around loose, totally free of God’s sovereignty, then we have no guarantee that a single promise of God will ever be fulfilled.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Running #Promise #Molecules

Isn't is amazing that almost everyone has an opinion to offer about the Bible, and yet so few have studied it?
-- R. C. Sproul

#Spiritual #Opinion #Offers

It is fashionable in some academic circles to exercise scholarly criticism of the Bible. In so doing, scholars place themselves above the Bible and seek to correct it. If indeed the Bible is the Word of God, nothing could be more arrogant. It is God who corrects us; we don’t correct Him. We do not stand over God but under Him.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Exercise #Circles #Criticism

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

#Beautiful #Christian #Religious

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

#Giving Up #Able #Doe

For a Christian to be a Christian, he must first be a sinner. Being a sinner is a prerequisite for being a church member. The Christian church is one of the few organizations in the world that requires a public acknowledgement of sin as a condition for membership.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Christian #Organization #Church

Divorce Myths: 1. When love has gone out of a marriage, it is better to get divorced. 2. It is better for the children for the unhappy couple to divorce than to raise their children in the atmosphere of an unhappy marriage. 3. Divorce is the lesser of two evils. 4. You owe it to yourself. 5. Everyone's entitled to one mistake. 6. God led me to this divorce.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Christian #Children #Couple

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

#Christian #Kingdoms #Speak

I think Arminianism is death to Christianity!
-- R. C. Sproul

#Thinking #Christianity

The rapture will not be secret but open and manifest. Its purpose will not be to whisk the elect away from the earth for a while until Christ returns for a 'second' Second Coming. The purpose of the rapture is to allow the saints to meet Jesus in the air as He returns and be included in His entourage during His triumphal descent from Heaven. His coming in this manner will be attended by the general resurrection, the final judgment, and the end of the world.
-- R. C. Sproul

#Jesus #Air #Heaven