Quotes from Mark Dever

Christian proclamation might make the gospel audible, but Christians living together in local congregations make the gospel visible (see John 13:34-35). The church is the gospel made visible.

Evangelism is not imposing anything on anyone; it is simply sharing the truth.

I recognize that not all of us may have the same abilities and talents in sharing the gospel. But I want to keep the heat on all of us for getting the good news out there.

Christian proclamation might make the gospel audible, but Christians living together in local congregations make the gospel visible (see John 13:34–35). The church is the gospel made visible.

When our eyes fall from God to humanity, social ills replace sin, horizontal problems replace the fundamental vertical problem between us and God, winning elections eclipses winning souls.

Briefly, the Regulative Principle states that everything we do in a corporate worship gathering must be clearly warranted by Scripture. Clear warrant can either take the form of an explicit biblical command, or a good and necessary implication of a biblical text.

Local churches exist to display God's glory to the nations. We do that by fixing our eyes on the gospel of Jesus Christ, trusting him for salvation, and then loving one another with God's own holiness, unity, and love.

The preaching of the Word must be absolutely central. Sound, expositional preaching is often the fountainhead of growth in a church.

As the minister speaks to the ear, Christ speaks, opens, and unlocks the heart at the same time; and gives it power to open, not from itself, but from Christ.

The picture of Sibbes—as a Reformer, but a cautious one; as a Puritan, but a moderate one—is consistent with the rest of Sibbes' life and activities in Cambridge and London.36

Lest anyone think that any action, however required or useful, could be a source of pride, Sibbes preached that "it is a sottish conceit to think that we can fit ourselves for grace, as if a child in the womb could forward its natural birth. If God hath made us men, let us not make ourselves gods."107

Morir a uno mismo significa considerar que es mejor morir que tener lujuria; considerar que es mejor morir que decir esta falsedad; considerar que es mejor morir que… [nombra tú el pecado]».

Never leave the impression that you're the hero or the smartest

The natural faculties are not all that compose a person; God has, "in great mercy," left the conscience.1 Sibbes taught that the conscience in man acts as God's "vicar; a little god in us to do his office, to call upon us, direct us, check and condemn us.

The Word is so central and so instrumental because the Word of the Lord holds out the object of our faith to us. It presents God's promise to us—from all kinds of individual promises (throughout the Bible) all the way to the great promise, the great hope, the great object of our faith, Christ himself. The Word presents that which we are to believe.

Giving preachers advice on how to prepare sermons is a little like telling them what "their drink" should be at Starbucks.

A preacher can always improve, no matter how gifted he is.

God created the church, we have said, so that it might increasingly reflect the character of God as it's been revealed in his Word. In keeping with the storyline of the entire Bible, then, church discipline is the act of excluding an individual who carelessly brings disrepute onto the gospel and shows no commitment to doing otherwise.

A healthy church is a congregation that increasingly reflects God's character as his character has been revealed in his Word.

the most basic level of commitment by a Christian to his church is surprisingly substantial.

This book attempts to provide such careful instruction so that we might understand and recover faithfulness to God's Word on something that is not essential for salvation but that is both important and necessary for obedience—what the local church is to be and to do.

As in every other topic, our regular practice as Christians should be to seek God's will in his Word, either by explicit command or by reasoning from principles in the Word. We want to see that the answer is in the Bible.

By direct command, example, implication, or principles, God's Word tells us everything we need to know about every aspect of following him in life—from dating to marriage, from working to grieving, from evangelizing to eating. What should churches do? The answer is in the Bible.

not the writings that come from prophets inspired by the one true God revealed in Jesus Christ, then why do we find those passages as proof of who Jesus is?" In other words, they turned the old argument that had been used in the context of Jewish evangelism around. It's not