C J Mahaney on the Doctrine of Sin

"If we do not unveil and apply grace, our emphasis on the doctrine of sin will leave the members of our churches devoid of hope, without joy and aware only of their sin and not of the grace of Christ".

C J Mahaney - "The Pastor and the Trinity" in "For the Fame of God's Name" (Storms and Taylor ed) - Crossway Books (2010) - p393.

C J Mahaney on the Error of Preaching the Gospel

"The other error, one to which many of us are prone, is to teach and apply the doctrine of sin while neglecting grace".

C J Mahaney - "The Pastor and the Trinity" in "For the Fame of God's Name" (Storms and Taylor ed) - Crossway Books (2010) - p392

Terry Virgo on Falling from Grace

"Falling from grace"(Gal 5:4) is not about backsliding; it's about trusting in your law keeping skills".

Reference: Terry Virgo - Twitter - @TerryVirgo - 15th June 2011

Terry Virgo on Law and Sanctification/Justification

"All evangelicals know that they can never be justified by the law, but what they often fail to realise is that they cannot be sanctified by it either. The law ALWAYS condemns".

Terry Virgo - "The Spirit-Filled Church" - Monarch Books, Oxford (2011) - p59.

Rob Rufus on the Cross and the Power of the Gospel

"When the Cross of Christ is not central to all we preach, the power of God stops moving in the church and through the church".

Rob Rufus - "Glory and Grace Conference - Session 2" - Glory and Grace Conference, Hong Kong - Sunday 23rd October 2010.

Thomas Schriener on Christian's Good Works

"The emphasis on good works is seriously misunderstood if such works are conceived as the basis of justification. Believers are justified by grace alone but faith always produces good works and such good works are necessary for eternal life. They function as evidence that one has new life in Christ".

Thomas Schriener - "40 Questions on Christians and Biblical Law" - Kregel Books - 2010 - p146.

Thomas Schriener on the Purpose of the Law

"The purpose of the law is to reveal human sin so that it will be clear that there is no hope in human beings".

Thomas Schriener - "40 Questions about Christians and Biblical Law" - Kregel Books - 2010 - p84.

C H Spurgeon on Sin and the Cross of Christ

"Sin virtually committed suicide when it slew the Saviour, for his death became its death."

Charles Spurgeon

Terry Virgo on Sinner or Saint?

"The Cross amazes me and fills me with wonder and worship, praise and thanksgiving! To insist on still calling myself a sinner could not add value to the Cross for me. Indeed, to call myself essentially a sinner actually dishonours the wonder of the gospel".

Terry Virgo - "Firstline" - Newfrontiers Magazine - January/March 2010 edition.

Adrian Warnock on Christian Hedonism

"The message of Christian hedonism is intoxicating!".

Adrian Warnock - "Pastors Conference - Day One" - Adrian Warnock dot com - February 2nd 2010.

Ryan Rufus on God's Master Plan - Relationship!

"God’s grand master plan is that He would have and create a people that would not relate to Him and have relationship with Him on the basis of their righteousness but He would create a people that would relate to God and have relationship with God on the basis of Christ’s righteousness".

Ryan Rufus - "God's Eternal Covenant" - City Church International, Hong Kong - Sunday 28th October 2008.

Ryan Rufus on God's Master Plan

"What is God’s grand master plan? To have a people clothed in His righteousness. His people – with revelation so that they can come before Him in perfect standing based on what He has done in His glory and His pleasure".

Ryan Rufus - "“God’s Eternal Grace Covenant” – City Church International, Hong Kong – Sunday 27th October 2008.

Rob Rufus on the True Equality of Sin and Gospel

"When we are free from the law and the insanity of performance and trying to impress one another with ourselves and we find grace and the mercy and kindness and grace of God and the majesty of the gospel then it breaks down the dividing walls of prejudice and helps us see that the drunk in the street and the prostitute down the road is loved equally by God and we are as sinful as they are because there is only one standard and it is absolute perfection and anything below it is absolute imperfection. So who wants to be the best sinner?! Because the best sinner in hell is not a great rating to have. No one will get to heaven except by perfection".

Rob Rufus - "We Are God's Workmanship" - City Church International, Hong Kong - Sunday 24th May 2009.

Don Carson on the True Joy and Power of the Gospel

"If you and I, whether we are ministers of churches, simply talking to a neighbour over the fence, leading a choir or teaching a Sunday School Class, lose the joy of our salvation, we have bastardized the gospel. If ever we want simply the power of the gospel, but no longer delight in the simple and profound truth that before the heavens were formed our names were written down in the Lamb's book of life; if ever we want the power of the gospel and the unction of the Spirit of God but do not delight that our sins are forgiven, that endless eons into eternity still we will be trusting the Christ who shed His blood on our behalf - not cut off, not condemned, not confined to eternal perdition, but forgiven, transformed, renewed by the love of God in Christ Jesus - then the proclamation of the gospel degenerates to mere game".

Don Carson - “Rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven" - The Gospel Witness 61:7 (June 17, 1982): 6–7, 26–27.

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the Possible "Abuse" of Grace

"The true preaching of the gospel of salvation by grace alone always leads to the possibility of this charge being brought against it. There is no better way to test as to whether a man is really preaching the New Testament gospel of salvation than this, that some people might misunderstand it and misinterpret it to mean that because you are saved by grace alone it does not matter at all what you do; you can go on sinning as much as you like because it will rebound all the more to the glory of grace".

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones - "Romans; An Exposition of Chapter 6; The New Man" - Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh (1972) - (p8).

Tim Keller on Reaching Unbelievers

"We tend as Christians not to know what to do with non-Christians other than to say; "You're wrong". There are an awful lot of sermons that go like that. Here's how the sermon goes; "We believe this and this. You out there in the world around us don't believe this and this. We are right. You are nowhere near right. Let us pray. And we pray that the Holy Spirit will convict you through my words as negative and as blunt as they are".

There's another way to go here! Every culture has got some things that they appreciate about Christianity and some things they hate about Christianity. The attractive parts are A-Doctrines and the unattractive doctrines are B-Doctrines. Both are true. If you want to preach B-Doctrines in a way that is disarming and engaging then you have got to float the B-Doctrines on a raft of A-Doctrines. If you put the stones together in a river they will sink".

Tim Keller - "Preaching the Gospel" - Newfrontiers Leaders Conference at Westminster Chapel - Wednesday 25th February 2009.

Dr Stanley Jebb on Humour and Jokes in the Pulpit

"A minister needs to preserve a measure of dignity consistent with the importance of the message he proclaims. “Familiarity breeds contempt”. It does not help the cause of the Gospel if the man of God is just one of the lads, always telling jokes and fooling about. That is not to say that a minister will never tell a funny story. There is great value in humour in the right place and at the right time. But if that is what he is mainly known for there is something wrong. Incidentally it goes without saying that a minister should never tell shady or off-colour jokes, nor should he enjoy them when others tell them!".

Dr Stanley Jebb - "Approachability" - Alethinos Reflections - accessed April 27th 2009.

Douglas Moo on the Place of Law

"The entire Mosaic Law comes to fulfillment in Christ and this fulfillment means that this law is no longer a direct and immediate source of, or judge of the conduct of God's people. Christian behaviour rather is now guided directly by the "law of Christ". This "law" does not consist of legal prescriptions and ordinances, but of the teaching and example of Jesus and the apostles, the central demand of love and the guiding influence of the Holy Spirit".

Douglas Moo - "The Law of Christ as the Fulfillment of the Law of Moses" - in "Five Views on Law and Gospel" - Stanley Gundry (ed) - Zondervan (1999) - (p343).

Terry Virgo on the FULL Gospel!

"If the church becomes a static establishment it loses its raison d’être. It ceases to function in line with its God-given calling. We must not forget that we are not only witnesses to his resurrection but are also ourselves resurrected people, co-raised with Christ and seated with him in the heavenlies.

The resurrected and enthroned Christ poured out his Holy Spirit, raising a people from death to life. The dead bones have come alive and come together as a mighty army going to the ends of the earth.
The church, the fulfilment of God’s great plan, is an extraordinary people in the Messiah called from among Jews and Gentiles and going to all the nations. We are the true children of Abraham, a pilgrim people, called to bless all the families of the earth".

Terry Virgo - "Easter meditations (conclusion)" - Terry Virgo's Blog - April 14th, 2009.

Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton on Sin Conciousness

"Religion rubs our noses in the past to keep us humble. Reviewing the sinfulness of our past in order to become humble is a perversion. It actually creates shame and shame is a poor counterfeit of humility. Shame is the fruit of humiliation that works against the truth. To maintain conciousness of our sinful past to help us become more humble is the cruelty of a religious spirit; it requires us to keep something in our minds that isn't in God's. In reality it is much more humbling to live in the liberty of unearned forgiveness. When we are forgiven the King gives us permission to live as though we had never sinned".

Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton - "The Supernatural Ways of Royalty - Discovering your rights and privilidges of being a son or daughter of God" - Destiny Image Publication (2006) - (p52).