John MacArthur on Demonic Counterfeit

"People do not counterfeit what is not valuable. Satan counterfeits the Spirit's gifts because he knows they are so valuable in God's plan".

John MacArthur - "The MacArthur New Testament Commentary - 1 Corinthians" - Moody Bible Institute (1984) - (p281).

John MacArthur on No Trances in Scripture

"God does not bypass men's minds either to reveal or to teach His Word. There were no ecstatic, bizarre, trancelike experiences related to divine action or the prophet, such as occured and occurs with demonic revelation".

John MacArthur - "The MacArthur New Testament Commentary - 1 Corinthians" - Moody Bible Institute, Chicago (1984) - (p391).

John MacArthur on Desiring Spiritual Gifts

"The Corinthians were to stop seeking gifts because to do so is both persumptious and purposeless".

John MacArthur - "The MacArthur New Testament Commentary - 1 Corinthians" - Moody Bible Institute, Chicago (1984) - (p326).

Lydia on the Effects of Confessing Sin in the Christian's Life

"Confessing our sins all the time, will only make us more sin-conscious.....but knowing we are constantly being cleansed forever alll the time.....will keep us forgiveness conscious and knowing we are forgiven will give us great faith and empower us and we can reign in life over all our bad habits and struggles and have victory!!"

Lydia - "Comment left on 'Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones and Rob Rufus!!'" - "Life on Wings" blog - Thursday, June 19, 2008.

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Defining the Law

"The law always works wrath. Now this is a most important statement. He says that what the Law does is to produce wrath; and wrath is the very opposite of the promise of blessing. Wrath means punishment. The promise offers an inheritance and life and joy and glory. Wrath means punishment and suffering ... how does the law work wrath? Law always leads, as he has shown so abundantly to condemnation; and it does that because of our sinfulness. What the Law does is to show us of our weakness and sins.

That was the effect of the giving of the Law. God never gave the law that mean might be saved by it. The business of the Law was to bring out the character of sin that it might show the "exceeding sinfulness of sin" ... The law pin-points sin and therefore aggravates it and thereby works wrath".

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones - "Romans 3:20 - 4:25: Atonement and Justification" - Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh (1971) - (p194).

Dr Lloyd-Jones on Imputed Righteousness

"We become Christians immediately because it is this giving to us, this reckoning to us of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Our iniquities are pardoned, our sins are covered. All this sin will never again be imputed to us and positively and gloriously, we are clothed with a "righteousness divine ... Jesus Thy robe of righteousness, my beauty is, my glorious dress. Bold shall I stand in Thy great day, for who aught to my charge shall lay? Fully through Thee absolved I am, from sin and fear and from guilt and shame".

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones - "Romans 3:20 - 4:25: Atonement and Justification" - Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh (1971) - (p174).

Dr Lloyd-Jones on Justification Being ALL of God

"That is what is meant by justification. It is all God's action. We do nothing at all - we cannot do anything at all. We have no works, our righteousness is as "filthy rags", it is "dung", "refuse". We love nothing at all. We are ungodly. We are helpless. We are hopeless. God does it all. It is entirely God's action. It is what He does with these sins of ours which He puts on Christ and punishes them in Him. It is what He does with Christ's righteousness which He puts on us. It is all done to us and we receive it passively from God".

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones - "Romans 3:20 - 4:25: Atonement and Justification" - Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh (1971) - (p174).

Dr Lloyd-Jones on Our FREEDOM from Sin!

"So let me once again state this great and most blessed doctrine; God does not reckon our sins to us. But you may say how can He do that and still be God? We have committed these sins, how is it possible or God not to reckon them to us though we have committed them and are guilty of them? The answer is that He has reckoned them to His only, begotten Son".

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones - "Romans 3:20 - 4:25: Atonement and Justification" - Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh (1971) - (p177).

Dr Lloyd-Jones on the True Nature of Justification

"Let me put it like this: the man who is truly blessed is the man whose sin is forgiven as debt, whose sin is covered up so that God will never look at it again. He is one to whom it is never going to be imputed as a crime. There is the negative aspect. But it goes beyond that; he is also one to whom God reckons this righteousness of Jesus Christ. That is the doctrine of justification by faith. Here are we - all of us sinners in the sight of God. What does this doctrine tell me?

It tells me that as I stand there on trial my debt is cancelled, my sin is covered. God has cast my sin behind His back. He will never look at it again. He will never see it again. It is blotted out - out of His sight for all eternity. And I shall never be charged with it as a crime. I am completely delivered from it. But over and above that God puts this to my account and reckons to me, this righteousness of Jesus Christ His Son".

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones - "Romans 3:20 - 4:25: Atonement and Justification" - Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh (1971) - (p176).

Dr Lloyd-Jones on the Positivity of Redemption!

"God never leaves us in a negative position. God does not merely forgive us our sins. It is possible for somebody to forgive you and yet to feel rather distant towards you ... Forgiveness is only the negative aspect and God never stops at that. God always goes on. God is never satisfied with anything less than reconciliation".

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones - "Romans 3:20 - 4:25: Atonement and Justification" - Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh (1971) - (p175).

Dr Lloyd-Jones on Imputed Righteousness

"Notice this other interesting statement: "he is a man to whom the Lord will not impute sin, he will not reckon sin to him". What does that mean?". The man has committed sin, how then can he be a blessed man? The answer is that though he has sinned and is guilty of many sins, God will not put down sins to this man's account in His heavenly ledgers. He might do so, He has a perfect right to do so. He does not put them down in the account. He leaves them out. He has sent them away - He has covered them up. He has forgiven them!".

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones - "Romans 3:20 - 4:25: Atonement and Justification" - Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh (1971) - (p175).

Dr Lloyd-Jones on Clothed with His Righteousness

"Let me use the kind of illustration that was obviously in the mind of Count Zindendorf when he composed his great hymn on this theme ... "Jesus Thy robe of righteousness, my beauty is, my glorious dress". This is the picture. There is a man standing in his rags, in his filth. There is the condemned, guilty sinner before God, the prisoner in the dock.

What happens? Well God puts on him this robe of righteousness - He puts on him the white robe of Christ's perfection and now He sees that and nothing else. That is the doctrine of justification. He puts that to our account".

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones - "Romans 3:20 - 4:25: Atonement and Justification" - Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh (1971) - (p174).

Al Mohler on Loving Homosexuals as PEOPLE

"Christians must be the people who refuse to put the period at the end of the sexual sentence. We cannot allow homosexuals to be isolated as a class of people who are beyond the grace of God and exist in some special category of human sinfulness. We must be the people who say to homosexuals; "I am going to love you even more than you love your sin because in this same way, I was loved until I came to kno9w the Lord Jesus Christ. Someone loved me more than I love my sin and this is how I came to know my Saviour".

Al Mohler - "Homosexual Marriage as a Challenge to the Church: Biblical and Cultural Reflections" in "Sex and the Supremacy of Christ" - Justin Taylor and John Piper (editors) - Crossway Books, Illinois (2005) - (pp126-127).

Al Mohler on Rejecting "Labels"

"We cannot allow a homosexual to reduce his identity to being a homosexual. We live in an age of identity politics where people say; "What I do in my sex life is who I am - period". We are the people who know this is nonsense. Sex is a part of who we are - a vitally important and powerful part - but it is only a part of the total human being. Our sexual desires and sexual practices are genuine pointers to our inner reality and our relationship to God, but sexuality is not the end of the story".

Al Mohler - "Homosexual Marriage as a Challenge to the Church: Biblical and Cultural Reflections" in "Sex and the Supremacy of Christ" - Justin Taylor and John Piper (editors) - Crossway Books, Illinois (2005) - (p126).

Al Mohler on Loving Those with Same-Sex Struggles

"This is a tough challenge. We have to be the people who, because we are possessed by a passion to see God's glory in His creation, love homosexuals more than they love their sin. This means that our love has to be tenacious. This will also require that we come to know and establish relationships with those struggling with homosexuality. Armed with an awareness of both the problem and God's provision, we have no right to believe that homosexuals are beyond the grace of God or that any individual is beyond the hope of redemption and transformation".

Al Mohler - "Homosexual Marriage as a Challenge to the Church: Biblical and Cultural Reflections" in "Sex and the Supremacy of Christ" - Justin Taylor and John Piper (editors) - Crossway Books, Illinois (2005) - (p126).

Al Mohler on a Challenge to Heterosexual Men

"No man, not even the most committed heterosexual husband, will be able to say on the Day of Judgement, "My sexual affections, my sexual arousal, was always from the very beginning, only directly towards that which was holy - the covenant of marriage and the wife that I was given". EVERY man struggles with a corrupted affection, and that corrupted affection, given the reality of the male sex drive is often directed towards a desire for fulfillment entirely at odds with the glory of God. Every man bears a different struggle, but every man is engaged in a sexual struggle, and this should give us an attitude of sympathy as we address homosexuals with the truth".

Al Mohler - "Homosexual Marriage as a Challenge to the Church: Biblical and Cultural Reflections" in "Sex and the Supremacy of Christ" - Justin Taylor and John Piper (editors) - Crossway Books, Illinois (2005) - (p122).

Gary Grieg on Functional Atheism

"We, the Body of Christ, need to repent of our being functional atheists - acting as if the supernatural realm, that Scripture clearly portrays, is really not functionally real for us. Meanwhile God is waiting for us to come fully into our inheritance in Christ, so that He can use us to fully preach the Gospel with power to the lost unreached nations and people groups on earth which will then usher in the second coming of His Son".

Dr Gary Grieg - "A Theological Response to Criticism of the Lakeland Outpouring and Todd Bentley" - (p45).

Sam Storms on being In Christ

On "...in Christ at Colossae" (Col 1v2): "Remember... whatever geographical location you call home that you are in Christ. They are true simultaneously. You do not live in Christ only while you are at church, on your knees, or in a home group, then return to being simply in your city when you leave that more holy atmosphere. Your 'in-Christness' is not simply a heavenly reality that obtains only somewhere up there. You are in Christ even when you are in sin, although the reality of the former ought to progressively diminish your experience of the later."

Sam Storms - "The Hope of Glory" - Crossway Books, 2007 - p22

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Justification by Faith

" ... The whole essence of this matter of justification by faith only. It puts that to our account. When we have nothing at all; God puts in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. He imputes it to us; He reckons it to us. He just takes it and puts it there as if it were in our account, and thereby clears our guilt and debt. He does not make us righteous in doing so ... we are left, in this matter of justification, exactly where we were; but God puts this to our account and thereby clears our debt. He pronounces that all His claims against us are satisfied. Let us never forget that justification is forensic, is legal. It does not make us righteous; it declares us to be righteous. And we are declared righteous because the righteousness of God is put to our account".

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones - "Romans 3:20-4:25: Atonement and Justification" - Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh (1971) - (p167).

Rob Rufus on Law and Grace

"The law took the disobedience of Adam and condemned us all - grace took the obedience of Jesus and declared us all to be perfectly righteous in the Father's eyes".

Rob Rufus - "Do Christians Need To Confess Their Sins To God?" - City Church International, Hong Kong - Sunday 8th June 2008.

John Stott Quoting Handley Moule

"In the words of Bishop Handley Moule; "We sinned therefore He suffered, we were justified therefore He rose".

John R W Stott - "BST Series - The Message of Romans" - IVP, Leicester (1994) - (p135).

John Stott on Abraham's Experience of Faith

"Abraham was not unique in his experience of being justified by faith. For this is God's way of salvation for everybody".

John R W Stott - "BST Series - The Message of Romans" - IVP, Leicester (1994) - (p135).

John Stott on Abraham's Faith

"Faith always looks at problems in the light of the promises ... He knew that God could keep His promises (because of His power) and He knew that He would do so (because of His faithfulness). He was fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised. This is why, Paul adds, namely because He belived God's promise; "It was credited to him as righteousness".

John R W Stott - "BST Series - The Message of Romans" - IVP, Leicester (1994) - (pp134-135).

John Stott on the Manifestation of God's Power

"The Creation and the Resurrection were and remain the two manifestations of the power of God".

John R W Stott - "BST Series - The Message of Romans" - IVP, Leicester (1994) - (p133).

John Stott on the Gospel and Abraham

"The promise in mind must still be Genesis 15:5 that Abraham's posterity would be as numerous as the stars. It was a promise without any conditions or requirements attached to it. God's Word came to Abraham as a gratitutious promise - not as law. He simply believed God and was justified".

John R W Stott - "BST Series - The Message of Romans" - IVP, Leicester (1994) - (p130).

John Stott on C H Hodge and the Gospel

"(C H Hodge) To impute sin is to lay sin to the charge of anyone and to treat him accordingly ... similarly to impute righteousness is to set righteousness to one's account and treat Him accordingly"

John R W Stott - "BST Series - The Message of Romans" - IVP, Leicester (1994) - (p127).

John Stott on the Terms of Justification

"The imagery of counting and crediting is financial but that of imputation is legal. Both mean "to reckon something as belonging to someone" but in the former case, this is money, in the latter, innocence or guilt".

John R W Stott - "BST Series - The Message of Romans" - IVP, Leicester (1994) - (p127).

John Stott on the Legal Effects of Justification

"Justification involves a double counting, crediting or reckoning. On the one hand negatively God will never count our sins against us. On the other hand, positively God credits our account with righteousness as a free gift, by faith, altogether apart from our works".

John R W Stott - "BST Series - The Message of Romans" - IVP, Leicester (1994) - (p127).

John Stott on the Gospel in Abraham

"Abraham was not justified by works ... Genesis 15:6; "Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness" ... David says the same thing when he describes the blessedness of the men to whom God credits righteousness apart from works".

John R W Stott - "BST Series - The Message of Romans" - IVP, Leicester (1994) - (p126).

John Stott on the Gospel and Condemnation

"In (Paul's) scheme of salvation the function of the law is to expose and condemn sin and so to keep sinners locked up in their guilt until Christ comes to liberate them through faith. In this way the gospel and the law dovetail with each other since the gospel justifies those whom the law condemns".

John R W Stott - "BST Series - The Message of Romans" - IVP, Leicester (1994) - (p121).

John Stott on the Gospel and No Boasting

"Boasting is the language of our fallen self-centredness. But in those who have been justified by faith, boasting is altogether excluded ... our Christian conviction is that a sinner is justified by faith, indeed by faith alone apart from observing the law. Whether those "works of the law" which Paul had in mind are ceremonial (observing rules for diet and the Sabbath) or moral (obeying God's commandments) they cannot gain the favour or forgiveness of God. For salvation is "not by works so that no-one can boast". It is only by faith in Christ which is why we should boast in Him and not in ourselves".

John R W Stott - "BST Series - The Message of Romans" - IVP, Leicester (1994) - (p119).

John Stott on the Antithesis of Grace

"The antithesis between grace and law, mercy and merit, faith and works, God's salvation and self-salvation is absolute. No compromising mish-mash is possible. We are obliged to choose".

John R W Stott - "BST Series - The Message of Romans" - IVP, Leicester (1994) - (p118).

John Stott on What Christianity Is

"Christianity is not in it's essence a religion at all; it is a gospel, the gospel, the good news that God's grace has turned away His wrath, that God's Son has died our death and bourne our judgement, that God has mercy on the undeserving and there is nothing left for us to do or to contribute.

Faith's only function is to receive what grace offers".

John R W Stott - "BST Series - The Message of Romans" - IVP, Leicester (1994) - (p110).

John Stott on the Place of Faith and Righteousness

"It is vital to affirm that there is nothing meritorious about faith and that when we say salvation is "by faith not by works" - we are not substituting one kind of merit (faith) for another (works). Nor is salvation a sort of co-operative enterprise between God and us in which He contributes to the Cross and we contribute faith.

No, grace is non-contributory and faith is the opposite of self-regarding. The value of faith is not to be found in itself but entirely and exclusively in it's object - namely Jesus Christ and Him crucified. To say "justification by faith alone" is another way of saying; "Justification by Christ alone".

John R W Stott - "BST Series - The Message of Romans" - IVP, Leicester (1994) - (p117).

John Stott on Propitation

"Who undertakes to do the propitiating? The pagan answer is that we do. We have offended the gods so we must appease them. The Christian answer by contrast is that we cannot placate the the righteous anger of God. We have no means whatever by which to do so. But God in His undeserved love has done for us what we could never do by ourselves. God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement ... the love, the idea, the purpose, the initiative, the action and the gifts were all God's".

John R W Stott - "BST Series - The Message of Romans" - IVP, Leicester (1994) - (p115).

John Stott on the Outrage of Grace

"How on earth can Paul affirm that God does what He forbids others to do; that He does what He says He will Himself never do; that He does it habitually and that He even designates Himself, 'the God who justifies the wicked' or (we might say) "who righteous's the unrighteous"? It is preposterous! How can the righteous God act unrighteously and so overthrow the moral order, turning it upside down? It is unbelievable!

Or rather it would be, if it were not for the Cross of Christ. Without the Cross, the justification of the unjust would be unjustified, immoral and therefore impossible. The only reason God "justifies the wicked" (Romans 4:5) is that "Christ died for the wicked" (Romans 5:6). Because He shed His blood in a sacrifical death for us sinners, God is able to justify the unjust".

John R W Stott - "BST Series - The Message of Romans" - IVP, Leicester (1994) - (p112-3).

John Stott on the Paradox of Grace

"If God justifies sinners freely by His grace, on what grounds does He do so? How is it possible for the righteous God to declare the unrighteous to be righteous without either compromising His righteousness or condoning their unrighteousness? This is our question. God's answer is the Cross".

John R W Stott - "BST Series - The Message of Romans" - IVP, Leicester (1994) - (p112).

John Stott on Grace

"Grace is God loving, God stooping, God coming to the rescue, God giving Himself generously in and through Jesus Christ".

John R W Stott - "BST Series - The Message of Romans" - IVP, Leicester (1994) - (p112).

John Stott on the Impact of Justification

"Sir Marcus Loane has written; "The voice that spells forgiveness will say; "You may go, you have been let off the penalty which your sin deserves". But the verdict which means acceptance (sc. justification) will say; "You may come; you are welcome to all My love and My Presence".

John R W Stott - "BST Series - The Message of Romans" - IVP, Leicester (1994) - (p110).

John Stott on Pardon and Justification - the Terms

"Pardon and justification are therefore essentially distinct. The one is the remission of punishment. The other is a declaration that no ground for the infliction of punishment exists".

John R W Stott - "BST Series - The Message of Romans" - IVP, Leicester (1994) - (p110).

John Stott on Justification and Pardon Terminology

"Some scholars maintain that 'justification' and 'pardon' are synonymous ... But surely this cannot be so. Pardon is negative, the remission of a penalty or debt; justification is positive, the bestowal of a righteous status, the sinner's reinstatement in the favour and fellowship of God".

John R W Stott - "BST Series - The Message of Romans" - IVP, Leicester (1994) - (p110).

John Stott on Defining Justification

"Justification is a legal or forensic term belonging to the law courts. It's opposite is condemnation. Both are the pronouncements of a judge. In a Christian context they are the alternative eschatological verdicts which God the Judge may pass on Judgement Day. So when God justifies sinners today, He anticipates His own final judgement by bringing into the present what properly belongs to the last day".

John R W Stott - "BST Series - The Message of Romans" - IVP, Leicester (1994) - (p110).

John Piper on the ULTIMATE Benefit of the Gospel!

"Would it not be better to say that the ultimate benefit of the Gospel, which makes all its other parts good news, is neither being nor seeing but delighting and displaying - that is delighting in and displaying "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ"? In other words, is it not the case that we behold and thus become ... and that we become and thus behold (Matthew 5:8, 2 Cor 4:6) in order that ultimately we might delight in and display God? Becoming and beholding are a means to the end of delighting and displaying".

John Piper - "God is the Gospel" - Crossway Books, Illnois (2005) - (p160).

John Piper on the Glory of God and Us

"The better we see Him, the better we will reflect Him - to all eternity".

John Piper - "God is the Gospel" - Crossway Books, Illnois (2005) - (p158).

John Piper on the True Meaning of Love

"Love is doing whatever you need to do to help people see and savour the glory of God in Christ forever and ever".

John Piper - "God is the Gospel" - Crossway Books, Illnois (2005) - (p153).

John Piper on the Gospel and Glory

"The gospel of God and the love of God are expressed finally and fully in God's gift of Himself for our everlasting pleasure".

John Piper - "God is the Gospel" - Crossway Books, Illnois (2005) - (p147).

Ryan Rufus on Demons Manifesting

"I know this that demons hate the anointing and often are agitated and begin to surface when they come into contact with anointing and glory. Numbers of times in our meeting demons have manifested just because of the atmosphere of God in the place- they can't handle it!"

Ryan Rufus - "Personal Email" - May 24th 2008 - 04:09

Bill Johnson on Theology and Experience

"In the absence of experience, bad theology is formed".

Bill Johnson - "Face to Face with God - The Ultimate Quest to Experience His Presence" - Charisma House Publishing (2007) - (p185).

Bill Johnson on the Grounds of our Theology

"Our theology is not to be built on what God hasn't done. It is defined by what He does and is doing. The will of God is perfectly seen in the Person of Jesus Christ. No one who came to Him was turned away".

Bill Johnson - "Face to Face with God - The Ultimate Quest to Experience His Presence" - Charisma House Publishing (2007) - (p185).

Bill Johnson on Jesus Healing Ministry

"How many people came to Jesus for healing and left sick? None. How many came to Him for deliverance and left His Presence still under torment? None. How many life-threatening storms did Jesus bless? None. How many times did Jesus withhold a miracle because the person came to Him had too little faith? Never. He often addressed their small faith or unbelief but He always left them with a miracle as a way to greater faith. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, perfectly illustrated the will of God the Father. To think otherwise is to put the Father and the Son at odds".

Bill Johnson - "Face to Face with God - The Ultimate Quest to Experience His Presence" - Charisma House Publishing (2007) - (pp184-185).

Rob Rufus on Sin Conciousness

"You do not carry a sin conciousness from sinning - you carry a sin conciousness because of unbelief in who you are in Christ Jesus".

Rob Rufus - "Fully Free from Guilt in Order To Be Fully Covered By the Glory" - City Church International, Hong Kong - Sunday 27th April 2008.