Truths We Confess Quotes

“Regeneration occurs through the direct and sovereign work of the Holy Spirit when He calls a person inwardly in the creative way in which He called the world into existence outwardly. Analogously, Jesus called to Lazarus with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” That is the effectual call of the Lord, the power through which Lazarus was raised from the dead. Lazarus was physically reborn as a result of that. Effectual calling is the Holy Spirit’s work of bringing about a change in someone. The change that is brought about in and through the effectual call is regeneration.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“The basic stance of modern America is not that we owe God but that He owes us. He owes us a good and happy life, where nothing ever goes wrong. We don’t really grasp what happened at the cross or what Christianity is all about. We say, “Forgive us our debts,” but we do not really understand the extent of that debt. Every time we sin, our debt increases. The Lord Jesus sacrificed Himself and satisfied the justice of His Father on the cross for His own glory, and for the benefit of the elect.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“God is a covenant-keeper and we are covenant-breakers. No one, apart from Jesus, has ever kept the covenant that God made with His people. One reason we lack faith, have crises of faith, and are assailed by doubts about our future is that we project on God our own cavalier attitude toward vows, oaths, and promises. We forget that God has never once broken a promise. When He swears a covenant, He keeps it forever. His promise will not fail.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“How many times have we heard it said, “Christianity is not a bunch of rules and regulations; it is about a personal relationship”? That is a false dichotomy. Christianity is certainly not rules and regulations alone. At its heart, it is a personal relationship. But that relationship, because it is a covenant relationship, is defined by rules and regulations. It is based on promises and conditions: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“God works all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will. There is a difference between according to His will and willy-nilly. Willy-nilly has no purpose or principle and is chaotic or irrational. God’s will, on the other hand, is immutable because it is eternal and is based on His most wise and righteous counsel. What would cause God to change His plan?”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“God hears our prayers and sometimes answers yes, but at other times He answers no. Either way, we receive an answer. We should rejoice in His response, for He answers our prayers according to His own counsel, righteousness, and omniscience. We should always pray with the assumption that God knows best.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“The purpose of prayer is not to change God’s mind but to change ours, to bring us into communion with Him, to come to our heavenly Father and tell Him what is on our hearts. He invites us—no, He commands and encourages us—to do that. He asks us to come into His presence and recount our afflictions and stories, but not for His information or guidance. God uses a person’s prayers as He was determined to do before the person ever prayed. God uses our prayers as a means to accomplish His plan. So when we are praying to God, we are part of His plan. God is being gracious to make use of our prayers. Yet Scripture tells us that “the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16). When we are praying, we should consider two things: who we are and who God is. Remembering who He is, we acknowledge that God orders all things according to His will.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“An attack on absolutes is an attack on the ultimate absolute, God Himself. There is nothing relative about Him; in His being, He is objective, eternal, and absolute.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“In doing so, the church distinguished between God’s external righteousness and His internal righteousness. External righteousness refers to His behavior, His actions—what He does. It always flows out of and is in accord with His internal character. God’s behavior is contingent on no external law or force imposed on Him from without. It is determined by His own character. God acts according to what He is. In His nature, He is righteous, sovereign, and free. These concepts combine as the idea that God is most absolute.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“Humans seek autonomy, unlimited freedom, desiring to be accountable to no one. In a real sense, that is what happened in the fall. Satan enticed Adam and Eve to reach for autonomy, to become like God, to do whatever they wanted with impunity. Satan was introducing a liberation movement in the garden to free human beings from culpability, from accountability to God. But He alone has autonomy.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“That attribution of greatness and goodness to God can be summed up as “He is holy,” because holiness incorporates both greatness and goodness.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“It compels us to live righteously—to know and do the right thing. At times, we lack this wisdom, but God, the source of supreme wisdom, promises to give it to us liberally. Who is this God whom we worship? We keep coming back to who He is. If we considered only His wisdom, that would be enough to keep us worshiping Him forever.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“He will do, He can do. He is able to do what He says He is going to do because He is almighty. Because of His perfect moral character, He will keep His word. Nothing in the universe can prevent God from doing what He promises to do for His people.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“God never answered Job’s theological questions. He simply revealed Himself to Job in His power, greatness, and majesty. This manifestation was enough for Job. His questions meant nothing because God revealed Himself in unspeakable power. He is the One who overpowers.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“When we say that God is all-powerful, almighty, omnipotent, we mean that His power surpasses everything in the universe. Nothing can resist His power or overpower Him.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“We then project that onto God, as if we can come into His presence in a cavalier spirit of familiarity, the kind of familiarity that breeds contempt. It is true that we are given access to God by virtue of the work that Christ has accomplished for us, but our justification does not change God’s character. The fact that He has saved us and adopted us into His family does not mean that He has stopped being holy or eternal, or that He has stopped dwelling in light inapproachable. If anyone should understand the glorious majesty of God, it is the believer. We should not be cavalier or casual when we come to him. When we see the inapproachable light, we should react as Isaiah did.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“If we reflect on a being who is eternal, who generates the power for everything else that exists, including ourselves, we should be moved to worship Him.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“hermeneutics, which refers to the proper rules of interpreting the Bible. One basic principle is that the implicit is always to be interpreted in light of the explicit, not vice versa.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“Coherence and unity are present everywhere and are necessary in the revelation that comes from God. If we find what we think is a contradiction, the problem is with our sight, not with the Word of God. Contradiction is the hallmark of error.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“Those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded, and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“Concerning all things necessary for his own glory. That is the soli Deo gloria of the Reformation. What we do will be measured by how faithfully we have manifested the glory of God and exalted him.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“The text teaches that Christ died only for believers, and the only ones who believe are the elect. Atonement was not made for the sins of unbelievers. Had their sins been atoned for, God would be unjust to punish them. This is a very difficult doctrine, one over which people often stumble. A preacher’s mandate, however, is to be faithful to the text and to the whole counsel of God. Since this text is part of the whole counsel of God, there is no choice but to proclaim it.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“From all eternity, God had a plan to save some, and to accomplish that plan He sent His Son into the world. God gave to His Son a certain number of people, and Christ laid down His life for them. The atonement is efficacious only for those whom the Father gives to the Son.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“Holy Spirit does not speak with a forked tongue. He never grants us the right to disobey what His inspired Scriptures instruct us regarding our duty. The Spirit works with and through the Word, never apart from or against it.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“Spirit’s work of changing the obstinate, recalcitrant hearts of sinners by inwardly changing the disposition of their souls. That is what the confession is talking about here: God melts our hearts and makes us fully persuaded and assured of Scripture’s infallible truth and divine authority.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“The Spirit’s internal testimony does not give the believer private, esoteric knowledge or information that is unavailable to anyone else.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“That eternity should be born; that He who thunders in the heavens should cry in the cradle; that He who rules the stars should suck the breasts; that the Prince of Life should die; that the Lord of Glory should be put to shame; that sin should be punished to the full, yet pardoned to the full; who could ever have conceived of such a mystery, had not the Scripture revealed it to us?”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“A person will not be fully persuaded or assured that the Bible is the Word of God unless and until God the Holy Spirit does a work in his heart, which is called the internal testimony of the Spirit.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“Throughout church history, the supreme attack of the world, the flesh, and the devil against godliness has been an attack on the authority of God’s Word.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith

“General revelation is not sufficient to give us the knowledge necessary for salvation; special revelation is sufficient for that purpose.”
― R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith