Steven Lawson Quotes

Salvation is not a reward for the righteous, it is a gift for the guilty.

We do not merely add Jesus Christ to our lives and continue in the same direction. Following Christ means we stop, turn around, and pursue Him.

As you preach, stay in the text, give honor to Christ and He will use you

If you please God, it does not matter whom you displease. And if you displease Him, it does not matter whom you please.

You cannot have Christ for your Savior unless you also have Him as your Lord.

It matters to God what is preached. And it matters to Him how it is preached. No man is free to preach whatever and however he so chooses.

Expository preaching consists in the explanation and application of a passage of Scripture. Without explanation it is not expository; without application it is not preaching."32

May I beg you carefully to judge every preacher, not by his gifts, not by his elocutionary powers, not by his status in society, not by the respectability of his congregation, not by the prettiness of his church, but by this—does he preach the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation?”43

Every decision and direction must come under this overarching goal of bringing glory to God.

All men of God must take forth the banner of truth, and once more valiantly proclaim the magnificent sovereignty of God in man’s regeneration. May such preaching ring from pulpits today.

A cross without offense in the world is a cross without power in the world.

No preacher, regardless of where he serves, is free to reinvent preaching.

The blessing of heaven will not accompany the preaching that is done in a worldly manner.

The pastor who cares about the spiritual growth of his people must make God and His Word the centerpiece of his ministry.

No man is too weak for God to use, only too strong.

In Christ God loved us, His elect and chosen, before the world began, and reserved us unto the knowledge of his Son and of His holy gospel.30

To be like Christ requires us to be full of joy and gladness.

He who has ceased to learn has ceased to teach. He who no longer sows in the study will no more reap in the pulpit.

The only true reformation is that which emanates from the Word of God.

If we want revivals, we must revive our reverence for the Word of God. If we want conversions, we must put more of God’s Word into our sermons.”8 His gospel preaching was grounded

None of us can ever humble ourselves too much.

The doctrines known as Calvinism are not something that emerged late in church history, but rather are that which takes its origins in the teachings of Jesus.1 —James Montgomery Boice

Souls must be converted here, and if there be not many born to Christ, may the Lord grant to me that I may sleep in the tomb and be heard of no more. Better indeed for us to die than to live, if souls be not saved.

For many years I thought I was a Christian when in fact I was not. It was only later that I came to see that I had never been a Christian and became one.… What I needed was preaching that would convict me of sin.… But I never heard this. The preaching we had was always based on the assumption that we were all Christians.

Miracles of grace must be the seals of our ministry; who can bestow them but the Spirit of God? Convert a soul without the Spirit of God! Why, you cannot even make a fly, much less create a new heart and a right spirit.”48

It is desperately essential in this hour that preachers recover a soaring vision of the supremacy of God. Life-changing, history-altering preaching will come only when pastors reclaim a high view of God's blazing holiness and are overshadowed by His absolute sovereignty. Towering thoughts of God's transcendent glory must captivate preachers' souls.

Lloyd-Jones believed the man who is called to preach comes under a sobering humility. He believed that this person is overwhelmed with a deep sense of his own personal unworthiness for such a high and holy task and is often hesitant to move forward to preach for fear of his own inadequacies.

God does not command what he does not make possible.

God always starts with renewing the mind before he revives the emotions and redirects the will.

In this fallen state, sinful man is unconscious of his desperate need for the gospel. Only the law can awaken him to the ruin of his spiritual condition.

What God has to say to man is infinitely more important than what man has to say to God.

o step into the pulpit is to enter onto holy ground. To stand behind an open Bible demands no trifling with sacred things. To be a spokesman for God requires utmost concern and care in handling and proclaiming the Word. Rightly does Scripture warn, "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness" (James 3:1).

The essence of Christianity is centered upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The sum and substance of being a Christian is trusting Christ with the entirety of one’s being. The height of the Christian life is adoring Christ, the depth of it loving Him, the breadth of it obeying Him, and the length of it following Him. Everything in the Christian life revolves around Jesus Christ. Simply put, Christianity is Christ.

By grace (that is to say, by favor) we are plucked out of Adam, the ground of all evil, and grafted in Christ, the root of all goodness.28   You are chosen for Christ’s sake to the inheritance of eternal life.29

The high ground of Christ & Him crucified must be claimed in our preaching. Any other footing is a slippery slope that inevitably descends downward into vain rhetoric and mere words. To the contrary, every pulpit must present a towering vision of the unique person and saving work of Jesus Christ. All preaching must point to His sin-bearing, substitutionary death for sinners. All exposition must lift up this Sacrificial Lamb who became a sin-bearing Substitute for all who believe. Every message must exalt this Christ, who was raised from the dead, exalted to the right hand of God the Father, and entrusted with all authority in heaven and earth.

Predestination … and salvation are clean taken out of our hands, and put in the hands of God only … for we are so weak and so uncertain, that if it stood in us, there would of a truth be no man saved; the devil, no doubt, would deceive us.23

There is a kind of preaching that God blesses, specifically the proclamation that exalts the crucified Christ by the power of the Spirit. Conversely, there is a kind of preaching that God does not bless, a mere echoing of man’s empty wisdom that is devoid of Christ.

Grace does not diminish our responsibility to the moral requirements of what God requires. Grace does not lower the standard. Rather, grace enables us to meet it. Grace empowers us to fulfill what God requires. Obedience to the word is never optional for the Christian.

What Epaphroditus felt for the Philippians we should feel for one another. Our ministry must be carried out not only with our hands, but with our heart. We must be emotionally connected with others in our service for the Lord. We must seek to feel with them, and feel for them.

We may never say, "I was looking for God, and I found him." We may only ever testify, "I was not looking for any God other than myself—and he found me." You did not work it out. Our seeking never does. He sought you out and he saved your soul, and this is the testimony we all share.

What is most important in heaven is not the streets of gold, nor the gates of pearl. The greatest gain of being in heaven is not even to be reunited with loved ones. The greatest profit will be to stand before Christ and behold him as he is. The glory of heaven is found in Jesus Christ himself.

The law and will of the devil is written as well in our hearts as in our members, and we run headlong after the devil with full zeal, and the whole swing of all the power we have; as a stone cast up into the air comes down naturally of his own self, with all the violence and swing of his own weight.15

The lamp of divine, written revelation reveals the will of God for the believer. Whether it is expressed by biblical command or precept, by scriptural example or principle, the Word illumines the path every believer must take. This divine light in Scripture is not a mere option, but an absolute necessity for every follower of Christ.

All pulpits must passionately declare Christ to be the eternal Son of the living God, the only Savior of sinners. All preaching must boldly announce Him as the reigning Lord of heaven and earth. He must be fearlessly announced as the One before whom every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. All preaching must assert that this Jesus is the final Judge of every human life. To fulfill this sacred duty, every preacher must proclaim the full counsel of God. Every doctrine in Scripture must be delivered. Every truth must be taught. Every sin must be exposed. Every warning must be issued. And every promise must be offered. If God is to bless our preaching, the supreme majesty of Jesus Christ Himself must be expounded in our sermons. All the lines of our preaching must intersect at this highest pinnacle—Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

For Edwards, George Claghorn writes, the “Resolutions” were “neither pious hopes, romantic dreams, nor legalistic rules.”4 Instead, they were intensely positive and practical, comprising “instructions for life, maxims to be followed in all respects.”5 The “Resolutions” reveal Edwards’ “strong sense of duty and discipline, in private and public matters, in intellect and spirituality.”6 Collectively, they form an emphatic statement, Stephen Nichols notes, of how he sought to “chart out his life—his relationships, his conversations, his desires, his activities.”7

This famine in pulpits across the nation reveals a loss of confidence in God’s Word to perform its sacred work. While evangelicals affirm the inerrancy of Scripture, many have apparently abandoned their belief in its sufficiency to save and to sanctify. Rather than expounding the Word with growing vigor, many are turning to lesser strategies in an effort to resurrect dead ministries. But with each newly added novelty, the straightforward expounding of the Bible is being relegated to a secondary role, further starving the church. Doing God’s work God’s way requires an unwavering commitment to feeding people God’s Word through relentless biblical preaching and teaching.

There is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified unless we preach what is nowadays called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the Gospel and nothing else. I do not believe that we preach the Gospel unless we preach the sovereignty of God in His dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah, nor do I think we can preach the Gospel unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of His elect and chosen people which Christ wrought out upon the cross; nor can I comprehend the Gospel which allows saints to fall away after they are called.

Preaching with his whole heart, Whitefield was fully engaged in all that he said. That is why on one occasion he told his listeners, “I shall return home with a heavy heart, unless some of you will arise and come to my Jesus; I desire to preach Him and not myself; rest not in hearing and following me.”54 With that, he begged and pleaded with his listeners to believe upon Christ and be saved. It is this kind of passionate preaching that we need again in this present hour. We could certainly do with fewer stale, exegetical lectures in the pulpit. Save these for the classroom. We could do with fewer frivolous, lighthearted personalities in the pulpit. Instead, what is desperately needed in this day are more intensely urgent pleas and pressing appeals as exemplified by this gifted evangelist, George Whitefield.

The spiritual life of any congregation and its growth in grace will never exceed the high-water mark set by its pulpit.

The fact remains, no church can rise any higher than its pulpit.

The Holy Scriptures, by bearing witness to the incarnation, death, and resurrection of the Son of God, create in man by the Holy Ghost a faith which justifies him.1 —J.H. Merle d

These truth-seeking students gathered at a local pub on the campus of King’s College, called the White Horse Inn, to debate the ideas of Luther.

There shall be in the church a fleshly seed of Abraham and a spiritual; a Cain and an Abel; an Ishmael and an Isaac; an Esau and a Jacob; as I have said, a worker and a believer; a great multitude of them that be called, and a small flock of them that be elect and chosen.31

We owe to the Scripture the same reverence which we owe to God because it has proceeded from Him alone, and has nothing of man mixed with it."14 This was the unshakable foundation of Calvin's preaching-the authority of divinely inspired Scripture. He firmly believed that when the Bible speaks, God speaks.

God is the decider and the determiner of every man’s destiny, the controller of every detail in every individual’s life, which is another way of saying, “He is God.”1 — John MacArthur

What is clear is that a spiritually dead sinner contributes nothing—except his sin—to His salvation, not even his faith.

Spurgeon was once asked how he could reconcile the apparent contradiction between these two truths. He replied: “I never have to reconcile friends. Divine sovereignty and human responsibility have never had a falling out with each other. I do not need to reconcile what God has joined together.”2

Because a sermon is simply an overflow of a preacher's life, the man of God must prepare his heart well. A sermon rises no higher than a preacher's soul before God.

No man will preach the gospel aright who does not wholly believe it.”5

If William Tyndale was anything, he was audacious—a man emboldened to take great risks in fulfilling his dangerous mission for God.

J. C. Ryle writes, “The day of judgment will reveal strange things. The hopes of many who were thought great Christians while they lived will be utterly confounded. The rottenness of their religion will be exposed and put to shame before the whole world. It will then be proved that to be saved means something more than ‘making a profession.’”9

John Owen argues, “Why are not all free from the punishment of all their sins? You will say, ‘Because of their unbelief; they will not believe.’ But this unbelief, is it a sin, or not? If not, why should they be punished for it? If it be, then Christ underwent the punishment due to it, or not. If so, then why must that hinder them more than their other sins for which He died from partaking of the fruit of His death? If He did not, then did He not die for all their sins? Let them choose which part they will.”20

Boice reasons, “If Jesus died for all the sins of all men, unbelief included, then all are saved, which the Bible denies. If He died for all the sins of all men, unbelief excluded, then He did not die for all the sins of anybody and all must be condemned. There is no other position, save that He died for the sin of His elect people only.”19

The Word of God judges the thoughts. The word "judge" means to critique, to be or act as a critic. This is to say that Scripture is able to accurately audit a person's life and size it up for what it is. The Word of God is able to examine the unseen attitudes and motivations, expose the secret ambitions and desires, and then render the divine verdict. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks upon the heart. This sharp, two-edged sword is able to penetrate into the hidden crevices of the heart and judge what only God can see. The Word makes known what we alone know about ourselves - and often what we do not yet know of ourselves. Scripture plunges deep into the unseen places of the human spirit and judges the private matters of the heart. Only the razor-sharp Word of God can do this.

No matter how doctrinally sound we may be, if we are without love, we are "a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal" (1 Corinthians 13:1). Without love for others, regardless of how involved we are in Christian activities, we are "nothing.

False doctrine was threatening to disconnect the Philippian believers from their source of joy in Jesus Christ.

False teaching always does.

The end of your life must be secure before the present can be stable.

For those in Christ, death becomes the means of graduating to glory and gaining access into the presence of Christ. Such a sure hope gives us confidence to live day by day to the fullest.

Take Christ from Christianity, and you disembowel it; there is practically nothing left. Christ is the centre of Christianity, all else is circumference." (Basic Christianity, page 27)

Gain" means to receive a great profit. Paul realizes that death will usher him to a much greater gain. The grave will graduate him to glory.

If we are to be profitable servants, we must be self-denying, and not self-focused. If we are to be a useful instrument to the Lord, we must be large-hearted, just as Timothy was. Ask God to enlarge your heart for others.

There is not one drop of real joy to be experienced apart from him. All joy is in the Lord.

The flesh is always self-reliant, while the Spirit creates Christ-reliance. The flesh always trusts in its performance; the Spirit gives confidence in Christ’s performance.

The greatest display of humility that the world has ever witnessed was the incarnation of Christ, which led ultimately to his crucifixion.

El tema central de toda la Biblia es Jesucristo, el Redentor de todos los que lo invocan

Whitefield was aglow with the glory of God as he proclaimed the gospel of Christ.

neither is there any more power in us to follow the will of God, than in a stone to ascend upward of his own self.]8

Adamantly, Paul said, “You know I did not come tickling your ears like other speakers do. I did not try to exploit you.” The apostle obviously did not buy into the tired mantra that so many chant today—while the message stays the same, the method is free to change.

To be sure, Jesus will not follow you––you are called to follow Him.

They will no longer be the owner of what they have, but merely the trustee. Those who follow Christ become a manager of what has been entrusted to them. Earthly things must now be used for the greater glory of God. Earthly treasures can no longer be used for selfish purposes. They must be invested in what will further the work of the kingdom. Let me make this personal. If you are to become a disciple of Christ, your entire life will no longer be your life. Your whole existence belongs to Him. Your time will no longer be your time. Instead, it will be His time to be used for His purposes. Your talents will no longer be your talents. Rather, they will become His and used for His purposes. Your treasure will no longer be your treasure, but simply entrusted to you for this brief time of your life. You must recognize that all that you have must be seen as His assets.

A disciple may use the things of this world, and even enjoy these things. But they must never capture and control his affections. Chief passions are reserved exclusively for God. This is precisely what Jesus meant: ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also’ (Matt. 6:19-21). A disciple does not live to accumulate possessions in this life. He invests what he has in eternal purposes. Jesus continued: ‘No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth’ (Matt. 6:24). The Lord did not condemn the possession of wealth. Rather, he denounced serving money and putting your trust and security in it.

Jesus saw into his heart and detected his all-consuming love of possessions. Jesus needed to dig deeper and expose his sin of covetousness. Christ saw that money was his idol. He said: ‘If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me’ (Matt. 19:21). Jesus was not saying that he could not possess money. Rather, He meant that money could not possess him. This cost was too high for this rich man. ‘But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property’ (v. 22). This young ruler turned and walked away from Christ. He loved his earthly riches more than a spiritual inheritance. He refused to abandon his old master—money—in order to receive a new Master—Jesus Christ.

A-L urma pe Isus Hristos este cea mai mare aventură a vieții. Ea implică umblarea după scopul cel mai înalt al existenței – gloria care Îi aparține doar lui Hristos. Ea împlinește cea mai mare nevoie a vieții – iertarea păcatelor, pe care doar Isus o poate da. Ea oferă vieții cea mai mare plăcere – bucuria care vine doar din a-L cunoaște pe Hristos. Ea implică cel mai profund parteneriat din viață – părtășia umblării îndeaproape cu Hristos. Ea aduce cea mai mare învățătură a vieții – înțelepciunea pe care doar Hristos o are. Ea infuzează vieții cea mai mare putere – harul lui Isus Hristos, care te face capabil să trăiești biruitor. Ea te conduce către cea mai măreață destinație de după această viață - în prezența imediată a lui Isus Însuși, în cer.

Jesus was guilty of nothing. Yet on the cross, the Father treated Him as if He had committed personally every sin ever committed by every individual who would ever believe. Though He was blameless, He faced the full fury of God’s wrath, enduring the penalty of sin on behalf of those He came to save. In this way, the sinless Son of God became the perfect substitute for the sinful sons of men.

As I wrestled through these issues, I walked into the seminary bookstore one day to browse among the books. On this occasion, I noticed several volumes of sermons by Charles Spurgeon. Curious, I pulled one off the shelf and began reading. Quite frankly, I was not prepared for what I found. As I pored over the pages, I found message after message dripping with the biblical truths of sovereign grace. But at the same time, each message was on fire with evangelistic fervor, as Spurgeon pleaded with sinners to be saved. Never had I read anything like this. These sermons were like an electric current running through my soul. They shocked my senses and enlightened my mind.

While some who do not hold to Spurgeon’s view of the doctrines of grace might wonder how he could be a Calvinist and yet be evangelistic, Lawson clearly demonstrates that the prince of preachers was a bold evangelist precisely because of his Calvinism.

Though he considered himself a staunch Calvinist, Spurgeon asserted, “I believe nothing merely because [John] Calvin taught it, but because I have found his teaching in the Word of God.”2 He further stated: “‘Calvinism’ did not spring from Calvin; we believe that it sprang from the great Founder of all truth. Perhaps Calvin derived it mainly from the writings of Augustine. Augustine obtained his views, without doubt, through the Spirit of God, from the diligent study of the writings of Paul, and Paul received them of the Holy Ghost, from Jesus Christ.”3

The aim of a good teacher, [is] to turn away the eyes of men from the world, that they may look up to heaven.

You will never have a knowledge of sin unless you have a true conception of the holiness of God.

The whole world is now my parish. Wheresoever my Master calls me, I am ready to go and preach the everlasting gospel.

The Doctor lamented the confusion in the church regarding its beliefs. He stressed, “There is an absence of doctrine, there is a lack of clear definition and a readiness to allow anybody to say anything they like.”19 To reverse this decline, Lloyd-Jones asserted: This means that there was never a time when it was more urgently necessary that Christian people should consider together the doctrines of the Bible. We must know the ground on which we stand, and be able to withstand every enemy that comes to attack us, every subtle foe, every ploy used by the devil who comes disguised as an “angel of light” to ruin our souls.20

Un sermón sin Cristo es una cosa horrible, espantosa. Es un pozo vacío; una nube sin lluvia; un árbol dos veces muerto, arrancado de raíz. Es algo abominable dar a los hombres piedras en lugar de pan y escorpiones en lugar de huevos, pero es lo que hacen los que no predican a Jesús. ¡Un sermón sin Cristo es como hablar de un pedazo de pan sin nada de harina! ¿Cómo podría alimentar el alma? Los hombres mueren y perecen porque Cristo no está presente.

This was the chief underlying principle of Calvin's exposition: He was always seeking to discover the "one definite thought" behind what the biblical author wrote. Calvin believed this was the expositor's first duty:

Therefore let us not suppose that men can put themselves forward on their own initiative, for no man can know how to speak one word to the glory of Jesus Christ, except it is given him, and that the Holy Ghost govern his tongue.

He first considered the forest before exploring the individual trees.

Calvin was not a silver-tongued orator, but a Bible-teaching expositor. Above all else, he desired to bring his people to the Scriptures.

The decision to carry your cross is the one you must make. If you decide not to decide, that is a decision not to follow Christ.

The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I will not look up, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I do not have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, love by patience, live by prayer, and labor by power. My pace is set. My gait is fast. My goal is Heaven. My road is narrow. My way is rough. My companions few. My Guide reliable. My mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, deterred, lured away, turned back, diluted, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice. I will not hesitate in the presence of adversity. I will not negotiate at the table of the enemy. I will not ponder at the pool of popularity, nor meander in the maze of mediocrity. I will not give up, back up, let up, or shut up until I have prayed up, preached up, stored up and stayed up the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I must go until He returns, give until I drop, preach until all know, and work until He comes. And when He comes to get His own, He will have no trouble recognizing me. My colors are flying high, and they are clear for all to see. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Are you a disciple of Jesus Christ? Step out of the crowd. Come to Him and receive His salvation. It is a free gift. I must tell you, it will cost you everything. However, you will gain everything—everything you need––both now and forever.