Alistair begg quotes

If we are to say no to covetousness, we must learn to say yes to contentment. This involves learning to be content with what we have (Hebrews 13:5). Much of our discontentment may be traced to expectations that are essentially selfish and more often than not completely unrealistic.

When all a man has is worldly wealth, he is poor indeed.

Do you want to lead, or do you want to be liked?

You need to be in a church where the pastors are urging you, not so much to listen to what they say as to turn to the Bible from which they teach.

When grace begins to rule, then our preoccupation with ourselves begins to leave.

Prayer is the means that God has ordained for the supply of grace that is necessary to be joyful in hope.

How immense God is, that He is able to sweep into His purposes even foolish requests and bad motivations.

God's concern is for His name, His glory, His people, His unfolding eternal purpose and for His Kingdom.

It's all about God. May He forgive us for every time we start to think it's actually all about us.

We find Christ in all the Scriptures. In the Old Testament He is predicted, in the Gospels He is revealed, in Acts He is preached, in the epistles He is explained, and in Revelation He is expected.

Unless the Bible is first taught to our own hearts, then we have no basis from which to teach it to others at all.

Our words and our works are evidence that our profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is true.

The Bible is one story that unfolds in one book, by one author, about one subject. A story that moves from promise to fulfillment.

When a man or woman is born again by the Spirit of God they will give evidence of it in part by striving to live a holy life.

You don’t know who you are until you know God and you don’t know how to live until you've settled the question of how to die.

Consider how Jesus came from a position of glory and consistently reached out to the lowly.

Despite the obvious emphasis of Scripture (in regard to suffering), we are bombarded by suggestions that the 'successful' Christian living takes place in the realm of constant victory, health, wholeness, and financial prosperity. In response to this we are not to pretend that suffering doesn’t exist or that it might be instantly cured. Such notions are the product of empty heads and closed Bibles.

Let us remember the loving-kindness of the Lord and rehearse His deeds of grace. Let us open the volume of recollection, which is so richly illuminated with memories of His mercy, and we will soon be happy.

It is in getting to know my Bible that I get to know Jesus.

It is in the context...of the body in Christ that we understand who we are and where we fit.

Prayer is an acknowledgment that our need of God's help is not partial but total.

People may not be impressed by our theological grasp, but they may be impressed by our expressions of practical godliness.

Many of us are tempted to find the key in doing, but the answer is actually found in being. It is vital that we are routinely humbled by the reminder that Christian life is grounded, not in what we can do, but what has been done for us and what we need done to us.

The only true conqueror who shall be crowned in the end is he who continues until war's trumpet is blown no more.... Christian, wear your shield close to your armor and cry earnestly to God, that by His Spirit you may endure to the end.

Regular expository preaching of the Bible is the staple diet of a healthy church.

There are times in our Christian life when we cannot see beyond the next step and we have to trust God.

We Christians are secure, realizing that even our failures and our sins are under His control.

The Christian will be sure to make enemies. It will be one of his objects to make none; but if doing what is right and believing what is true should cause him to lose every earthly friend, he will regard it as a small loss, since his great Friend in heaven will be even more friendly and will reveal Himself to him more graciously than ever.

The return of Jesus will be personal, physical, visible and glorious.

Our relationship with God will never be right as long as our relationship with others is wrong.

The great need is for us to be taught theologically, not just stirred emotionally.

‎"The best of men are just men at best.

Unfortunately, preachers who distort God's Word are all too common today. Sometimes this springs from a sincere desire to soften hard hearts, but hearts aren't changed by compromise.

The fact that we have to discuss reality as though there were no reality is an indication of the confusion of our times.

The grace of God reaches to the furthest extent to those who are prepared to acknowledge their need.

Father, we long for the clarity of Your truth to dawn upon our minds and for the immensity of Your love to grip our hearts.

We must think ourselves empty when coming to the text of scripture and read ourselves full.

It takes a whole Bible to make a whole Christian.

The Church is where it is today because it has decided that the advertising agents know better than the Holy Spirit of God.

We as [churches] may be lampstands, but all of the light is Christ Himself. We exist in order that He might shine through us.

The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. It happens quietly. It happens inevitably. Don’t underestimate God’s power.

There's a way to preach the Bible unbiblically...You can use the Bible as the springboard for all kinds of ideas, can't you? Look around in here and find something that fits your fancy and then launch a rocket off it. People say, 'That was amazing, wasn't it? Remarkable what he got out of that.' Well of course it is because he put it in before he got it out.

We may be confident in this: that in the pain of our suffering is the presence of a faithful God.

I do not come to God so that Jesus can give me what I want. But I must come to God so that Jesus will grant me what I need.

The reason most preaching is ignored today is that it deserves to be.

Refusal to forgive reveals we have minimized our offense against God and we have maximized a brother's offense against us.

Only when we are captured by an overwhelming sense of awe and reverence in the presence of God, will we begin to worship God in spirit and in truth.

Living at peace with everyone...is not an option, it's an obligation.

Hold material goods and wealth on a flat palm and not in a clenched fist.

Death for the Christian is to fall asleep in the arms of Jesus and waking up and finding out that you're home.

If [the devil has] brought you down, make sure that with Christ’s enabling you stand back up.

A Christian way of thinking is not just thinking Christian thoughts, singing Christian songs, reading Christian books, going to Christian schools; it is learning to think about the whole spectrum of life from the perspective of a mind that has been trained in truth.

If our Christianity doesn’t work at home, it doesn’t work.

A good church is a Bible-centered church. Nothing is as important as this--not a large congregation, a witty pastor, or tangible experiences of the Holy Spirit.

What kind of wonderful God is this who reaches down into the lives of people, picks them up, grants them faith, and changes them!

Endurance is a key indicator of spiritual fitness.

If the law does not lead us to Christ and redemption, it will lead us to despair.

The callings of God never leave you where they find you.

As I am humbled by my difficulties, so I am strengthened by God's grace.

Even the most casual events are connected to God's purpose for His people from all eternity.

Would anyone choose Hell over Heaven? YES! Why? Pride. They don't want to go in the only way you can go in, on your knees. They don't want to admit they are a failure, that their life is a mess.

Our gracious God, we need the ministry of the Spirit of God within our lives so that Your Word may take root within us.

The Bible comes both to warn and to encourage and always to turn us again to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The same Holy Spirit who implants faith within a life implants the boldness to verbalize that faith.

When we turn luxuries into necessities, we jeopardize our ability for contentedness.

The protestant martyrs and their monuments testify to the fact that they died, not on account of ecclesial differences, but because the issue was the way of salvation.

It is in our forgiveness of other people’s sins against us that we reveal the fact that we have been truly forgiven by God.

When we become captive to the Word of God, then we discover true freedom.

There is no intellectual road to God...No, we need God to wake us up to our need of a Savior.

Love reacts with goodness towards those who ill-treat it.

Withhold no part of the precious truth, but speak what you know and declare what you have seen. Do not allow the toil or darkness or possible unbelief of your friends to dissuade you. Let us rise and march to the place of duty, and there declare what great things God has shown to our soul.

To risk reputation and affection for the truth's sake is so demanding that to do it constantly you will need a degree of moral principle that only the Spirit of God can work in you. Do not turn your back like a coward, but play the man. Follow boldly in your Master's steps, for He has made this rough journey before you. Better a brief warfare and eternal rest than false peace and everlasting torment.

Father, write Your Word in our heart; make us men and women who understand Your truth.

Jesus did not come to live as an example of how to die as a martyr, but as a substitute, taking the place that we deserve in order that we might enjoy what we don't deserve. This is good news. Let us tell all our friends!

Those who love the Gospel will love to be stirred by its truth all over again.

The Bible is one book, written by one Author, with one subject: Jesus Christ and the salvation God...provides through Him.

The story line of the Bible is the story line of God taking the initiative in seeking out a people who are His very own.

The mercy of God is an all-embracing mercy and it breaks down the barriers that man erects.

As a result of grace, we have been saved from sin’s penalty. One day we will be saved from sin’s presence. In the meantime we are being saved from sin’s power.

Christianity is not about how to escape from the difficulties of life - it is about how to face the difficulties of life.

Singleness and marriage are both evidences of God’s grace that are to be experienced and sustained purely by the strength which God supplies.

Ladies, [motherhood] is a full-time job. Do not kid yourself that you can be a dental receptionist and a mother; that you can be a typist and a mom; that you can be a Vice President and a mom. One of the two things will win. Now look at your Bible and ask what you have to do.

I never met a hopeful Christian who didn't read their Bible.

You will never have a better friend than a friend who points you to Christ.

I am weaker and more sinful than I ever before believed, but through Jesus Christ I'm more loved and accepted than I ever dared hope.

This is no time for wimpy Christians. It's time for soldiers of Christ to arise!

It is not our believing of the Gospel that makes it true. It exists as independent, true Truth.

The preacher's task is to declare what God has said, explain the meaning, and establish the implications so that no one will mistake its relevance.

God's plan for moving people from the broad road to the narrow road involves you.

We must be willing to say what the Bible says.

The task of the teacher of the Bible is to open up what’s closed, to make plain what is obscure, to unravel what is knotted and to unfold what is tightly packed.

We're to love our children for who they are, not for what we want them to become.

We are not brought by faith into a realm of passivity, but rather, we are brought into the realm of diligent activity.

It's our Christian duty to offer spiritual worship to God that engages our minds, stirs our hearts & flows from our lips

Faith is not a soft option offered to people who need a crutch to get through the rest of their lives. Faith is the supernatural activity of God whereby He opens blind eyes, unstops deaf ears, and a man or a woman says- “I see it now. I get it now. I am going to trust in God. I am going to trust in Jesus.

The Creator of the universe knows me.

There is an old joke that went around- it goes, in the beginning God made man in His own image, and since the fall, man has been seeking to return the compliment.

It is a sin when I place myself deliberately in the place of temptation… either because I enjoy the prospect or because I’m not determined enough in my desire to overcome it.

How do I know that I am in Christ? Because of my trusting, costly obedience to the Word.

Holy Spirit, take the Word of truth as we find it in the Scriptures and bring it home to our lives.

The glory does not lie in our inadequacy, but lies in the adequacy of Christ discovered in our weakness and in our insufficiency.

Sincere love is not as a result of emotional surges - it’s a result of obedience to the Truth.

The main things are the plain things, and the plain things are the main things.

I listen to some of you guys out there, hyper-reformed boys, you're concerned if you preach the gospel to the wrong person, the wrong person might get saved. So you don't want to preach it too good, 'well wait a minute, I don't think you should've been getting saved, I'm not sure you're in the group.' What do you mean in the group! If you breath you're in the group! If you have ears to hear you're in the group! And if you choose not to respond it's your own fault, not God's.

If you live in such a manner as to stand the test of the last judgment, you can depend upon it that the world will not speak well of you.

I only need a mirror to see a sinner.

At best we are but clay, animated dust; but viewed as sinners, we are monsters indeed. Let it be published in heaven as a miracle that the Lord Jesus should set His heart's love upon people like us.

Children should be able to see the Gospel modeled in the way their father loves their mother with a sacrificial love.

When my children hear godliness out of my mouth and they see wickedness in my life, then I point them to heaven and I lead them to hell.

May the spirit of Christ so fill us afresh that we might in turn be a refreshment and an encouragement to one another.

If we do not roll up our sleeves to the task of the Gospel in our days, then we will amount to virtually nothing for God.

If you want to be a wise person, you need a Bible.

To expose our minds constantly to ungodly thinking is a great danger.

I know that a man is converted when he starts to sing

It is impossible to serve God without serving one another.

I once was absolutely useless, and God in His grace has made me useful.

The providence of God does not relieve us of our human responsibility: it doesn't call for inactivity, it calls for activity.

Father, look upon us in Your goodness and kindness, we pray as a church. Help us to love each other.

If truth were told, most of us spend longer each day on personal cleanliness than on practical godliness.

We lose our way around the Bible when we take our eyes off the Cross.

Father, help us to rest our heads on the soft pillow of Your providence.

There is no one insignificant in the purposes of God.

It is imperative that those who name the name of Christ would be instructed in the truth of Scripture.

Gods law has been written on all of our consciences, but only in Christ is it written on our hearts.

God is not counting our sins against us because He is counting our sins against Christ.