Classic Christian Quotes from Classic Ministers -2

Classic Christian Quotes from Classic Ministers


 Quotes from Adrian Rogers

Have you ever wondered what a church full of Pharisees would be like?
  1. They would all attend every service.
  2. They would all tithe.
  3. They would all work in the church.
  4. They would all go to Hell!

The man molds the idol, and then the idol molds the man!

Justice is God giving us what we deserve.
Mercy is God not giving us what we deserve.
Grace is God giving us what we don't deserve.

God only wants for us what we would want for ourselves--if we were wise enough to know what is best for us.

Character is what we are in the dark.

The grace of God . . .
  will exalt a person, without inflating him;
  and will humble a person, without debasing him.

Evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.

Serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace amid the storm.

Holiness is not the way to Christ.
Christ is the way to holiness.

Is what I am living for--worth Christ's dying for?
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From such folly deliver us, O Lord!

(Charles Spurgeon)

"I meditate on Your precepts and consider Your ways." Psalm 119:15

There are times when solitude is better than society, and silence is wiser than speech. We would be better Christians if we were more alone, waiting upon God, and gathering spiritual strength for labor in His service through meditation on His Word. We ought to muse upon the things of God, because we thus get the real nutriment for our souls out of them.

Truth is something like the cluster of the vine: if we would have wine from it, we must bruise it--we must press and squeeze it many times. The bruiser's feet must come down repeatedly upon the grapes, or else the juice will not flow and much of the precious liquid will be wasted.

So we must, by meditation, tread the clusters of truth, if we would get the wine of consolation therefrom.

Our bodies are not supported by merely taking food into the mouth, but the process which really supplies the muscles, and the nerves, and the sinews, and the bones--is the process of digestion. It is by digestion that the food becomes assimilated with the inner life.

In the same way, our souls are not nourished merely by listening awhile to this, and then to that, and then to the other part of divine truth. Hearing, reading, marking, and learning, all require inward digesting to complete their usefulness--and the inward digesting of the truth lies for the most part in meditating upon it.

Why is it that some Christians, although they hear many sermons, make but slow advances in the divine life?
Because they neglect their closets, and do not thoughtfully meditate on God's Word.

They love the wheat, but they do not grind it;
they would have the grain, but they will not go forth into the fields to gather it;
the fruit hangs upon the tree, but they will not pluck it;
the water flows at their feet, but they will not stoop to drink it.
From such folly deliver us, O Lord!

May this be our daily resolve, "I will meditate in your precepts.""But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night." Psalm 1:2

"Oh, how I love Your law! I meditate on it all day long." Psalm 119:97

"I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on Your statutes." Psalm 119:99

"Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it." Joshua 1:8
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We are not to expect that God will give us everything we choose to ask for!

(Charles Spurgeon)

"He prayed that he might die!" 1 Kings 19:4

It was a remarkable thing that the man who was never to die, for whom God had ordained an infinitely better lot, the man who would be carried to Heaven in a chariot of fire, and be translated that he should not see death--should thus pray, "Let me die! I am no better than my fathers."

We have here a memorable proof that God does not always answer prayer in kind, though He always does in effect. He gave Elijah something better than that which he asked for, and thus really heard and answered him.

Strange was it that the lion-hearted Elijah should be so depressed by Jezebel's threat as to ask to die--and blessedly kind was it on the part of our heavenly Father, that He did not give His desponding servant what he prayed for.

There is a limit to prayer. We are not to expect that God will give us everything we choose to ask for. We know that we sometimes ask, and do not receive, because we ask amiss.

If we ask for that which is not promised,
if we run counter to the spirit which the Lord would have us cultivate,
if we ask contrary to His will, or to the decrees of His providence,
if we ask merely for the gratification of our own ease,
if we ask without an eye to His glory,
--then we must not expect that we shall receive what we pray for.

Yet, if we do not receive the precise thing asked for, we shall receive an equivalent, and more than an equivalent, for it. As one remarks, "If the Lord does not pay in silver, He will in gold; and if He does not pay in gold, He will in diamonds!" If He does not give you precisely what you ask for, He will give you that which is tantamount to it, and that which you will greatly rejoice to receive in lieu thereof.

Be then, dear reader, much in prayer--but take heed what you ask for!