Sinclair B. Ferguson Quotes

We best defend the Lord's glory by speaking first TO Him about unbelieving men rather than speaking first ABOUT Him to unbelieving men.

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“The foundation of worship in the heart is not emotional ... it is theological.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“True faith takes its character and quality from its object. Its strength therefore depends on the character of Christ. Even those of us who have weak faith have the same strong Christ as others!”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“Man's insulting God is not reversed by our insulting man.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“The knowledge of our union with Christ ... gives us confidence in prayer. It was when Jesus had begun to expound the closeness of this union that he also began to introduce the disciples to the true heart of prayer. If Christ abides in us and we abide in him, as his word dwells in us, and we pray in his name, that God hears us (Jn 15:4-7). But all of these expressions are simply extensions of the one fundamental idea: If I am united to Christ, then all that is his is mine. So long as my heart, will and mind are one with Christ's in his word, I can approach God with the humble confidence that my prayers will be heard and answered.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“My security as a Christian does not reside in the strength of my faith but in the indestructibili ty of my Savior.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“Appearances can be deceptive. The fact that we cannot see what God is doing does not mean that He is doing nothing. The Lord has His own timetable. It is we who must learn to adjust to it, not vice versa. When God's time comes nothing will stand in His way. We can therefore wait for Him with this happy confidence: "As for God, His way is perfect" (2 Samuel 22:31).”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“If you are justified, you can no more be unjustified than Christ can be pulled down from heaven.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“God's promises are not fortune cookies. We do not use them in order to get a spiritual "fix" for the day.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

We [should not] make the mistake of thinking that marriage will provide the ultimate satisfaction for which we all hunger. To assume so would be to be guilty of blasphemy. Only God satisfies the hungry heart. Marriage is but one of the channels He uses to enable us to taste how deeply satisfying His thirst-quenching grace can be.

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“Thinking that I deserve heaven is a sure sign I have no understanding of the gospel.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“It's the centrality of the Word and not the person who preaches it that's important.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“Our thinking about who we are as Christians should not begin with what we can discover about ourselves by self-analysis. Rather, it begins with what God says about those who trust in Christ.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“True discernment means not only distinguishing the right from the wrong; it means distinguishing the primary from the secondary, the essential from the indifferent, and the permanent from the transient. And, yes, it means distinguishing between the good and the better, and even between the better and the best.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“The weakest faith gets the same strong Christ as does the strongest faith.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

The Father did not require the death of Christ to persuade Him to love us. Christ died because the Father loves us.

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“You do not become a master musician by playing just as you please, by imagining that learning the scales is sheer legalism and bondage! No, true freedom in any area of life is the consequence of regular discipline. It is no less true of the life of prayer.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“For worship is, essentially, the reverse of sin. Sin began (and begins) when we succumb to the temptation, "You shall be as gods." We make ourselves the center of the universe and dethrone God. By contrast, worship is giving God his true worth; it is acknowledging Him to be the Lord of all things, and the Lord of everything in our lives. He is, indeed, the Most High God!”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“God can be trusted even when he cannot be seen or understood.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“There is a difference between a well-instructed congregation and a well-nourished one.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

If you desire anything less for yourself than absolute obedience to God, a life of total devotion to the Lord, a life of absolute sin-less-ness - if you desire anything less, you are fighting against God's desire for you.

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“No short-cut that tries to bypass the patient unfolding of the true character of God, and our relationship to him as his children, can ever succeed in providing long-term spiritual therapy.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“Humility is not simply feeling small and useless - like an inferiority complex. It is sensing how great and glorious God is, and seeing myself in that light.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“There is a difference between going to a service "for the worship" and going to a service "to worship the Lord." The distinction appears to be a minor one, but it may imply the difference between the worship of God and the worship of music!”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

Every day we need our gaze redirected from ourselves to God.

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

Probably no theologian in English language has ever rivaled Owen stressing the absolute centrality of Christ's penal substitution and therefore his as Priest ... For that reason alone The Priesthood of Christ is worth all the time it takes to read it with humility, care, and reflection.

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“God's guidance will require patience on our part. His leading is not usually a direct assurance, a revelation, but His sovereign controlling of the circumstances of our lives, with the Word of God as our rule. It is therefore, inevitable that the unfolding of His purposes will take time - sometimes a very long time.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“Spiritual growth depends on two things: first a willingness to live according to the Word of God; second, a willingness to take whatever consequences emerge as a result.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“The Son of God came to dwell in human flesh for us in order that He might come to dwell in us by His Spirit.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

The determining factor of my existence is no longer my past.

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“Christianity is Christ because there isn't anything else. There is no atonement that somehow can be detached from who the Lord Jesus is. There is no grace that can be attached to you transferred from Him. All there is, is Christ and your soul.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

When the New Testament speaks about the fullness of grace which we find in Christ, it does not mean only forgiveness, pardon and justification. Christ has done much more for us. He died for us, but he also lived for us. Now he has sent his own Spirit to us so that we might draw on his strength. He grew in grace, and when we draw on his power we shall likewise grow in grace.

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“It is God who gives us the spirit of worship (Psalm 133:3), and it is what we know of God that produces this spirit of worship. We might say that worship is simply theology, doctrine, what we think about God, going into top gear! Instead of merely thinking about Him, we tell Him, in prayer and praise and song, how great and glorious we believe Him to be!”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“We are far too good at analyzing what is wrong with the culture and far too myopic at analyzing what is wrong in the church.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“Without the spirit of the Lord Jesus, we will look upon 'the least of these' simply as the least.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

When man became the measure of all things what was lost was man.

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

Don't tell me that you have a Reformed Church in the tradition of Calvin until you have the preaching of the Word every day of the week, devote Wednesday's to prayer and have the church gather together for prayer.

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“Repentance is a characteristic of the whole life, not the action of a single moment.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“The only thing of my very own which I contribute to my redemption is the sin from which I need to be redeemed.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“Christians have a new identity. We are no longer 'in Adam' but 'in Christ'; no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit ...”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“Remember that you are not saved by increased levels of holiness, however desirable it is that you should reach them ... It is Christ who saves us-through faith. Your faith is a poor and crumbling thing, as is your spiritual service. Jesus Christ alone is qualified and able to save you because of what He has done.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“The foundation of our love for the Lord lies in the recognition of His holiness, our sinfulness, and His grace.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“Marriage, and the process of coming to it, is not heaven! It is the bonding together of two needy sinners in order to make a partnership which is substantially greater than either of them alone.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“Christian contentment, therefore, is the direct fruit of having no higher ambition than to belong to the Lord and to be totally at His disposal in the place He appoints, at the time He chooses, with the provision He is pleased to make.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“Anyone who comes to grips with the issues raised in The Marrow of Modern Divinity will almost certainly grow by leaps and bounds in understanding three things: the grace of God, the Christian life, and the very nature of the gospel itself.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“The goal of theology is the worship of God. The posture of theology is on one's knees. The mode of theology is repentance.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“Thoughts for Young Men abounds in reliable counsel and says - with a rare combination of seriousness and graciousness - the very things we need to hear. Young men, for whom it was written, will find it invaluable; but all Christians, men or women, young or old, can read it with lasting benefit. It deserves to be widely read and circulated, and will do spiritual good to every reader.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“The true church is too different for the world to tolerate it.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

“Regeneration, however it is described, is a divine activity in us, in which we are not the actors but the recipients.”

— Sinclair B. Ferguson

I began to read for myself and realised that here was somebody who could teach me profound biblical theology, get inside my heart with his spiritual analysis, and help me to become a minister of the gospel, which is what I wanted to be.

— Sinclair B. Ferguson