Mark Dever Quotes

Pride causes us to care more about what our non-Christian friends think of us than what God will do to them in their sin.

A gospel that in no way offends the sinner has not been understood.

God’s Word has always been His chosen instrument to create, convict, convert, and conform His people.

Avoiding the doctrine of Hell is one step away from denying it altogether.

The gospel of Christ has never needed the gimmicks of man to effect conversion in the soul

Your plans are fine, as long as you realize God has the right to change them.

Friend, the church finds its life as it listens to the Word of God. It finds its purpose as it lives out and displays the Word of God. The church’s job is to listen and then to echo.

We do not fail in our evangelism if we faithfully tell the gospel to someone who is not subsequently converted; we fail only if we do not faithfully tell the gospel at all.

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.

Correct division should be preferred over corrupt unity.

Our examples of enduring hardship are often more powerful than our stories of success and triumph.

Worldliness in the church is a lot more pervasive than a lack of passion for evangelism. Nevertheless, one of the results of worldliness is a waning enthusiasm for evangelism.

The church arises only from the gospel. And a distorted church usually coincides with a distorted gospel.

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

Membership is the church's corporate endorsement of a person's salvation.

For a Christian, our fears about the future are rooted in those places where our will differs from God's will.

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.

The church is the gospel made visible.

Forgetfulness of God's grace is one of the greatest tools in the enemy's war against our souls.

We do live best in this world when we keep the next in mind.

God's eternal plan has always been to display his glory not just through individuals but through a corporate body.

If you have no interest in actually committing yourself to an actual group of gospel-believing, Bible-teaching Christians, you might question whether you belong to the body of Christ at all!

We mustn't be content to just sit around pointing out the errors in others; we actually need to be sharing the gospel and praying for people to be converted.

Today is what the Lord has prepared you for.

Christians are defined not by our heritage, but by our mission; not by our blood, but by His.

Sin claims to free but in fact it kills.

If you are not offending people, then you are not an evangelist.

By the grace of God I am what I am

If joy or urgency are missing from our presentation of the gospel, then our testimony to Christ will be missing that sort of fullness that we find in the New Testament.

An evangelist no more imposes his views on others than a pilot imposes his views on his passengers when he lands a plane on a runway. I bet the passengers are glad!

Prayer is the preview of God's action.

Humility is not an 'added extra,' one of the lesser Christian virtues. If you don't have humility, you may be lost.

We should want to evangelize because of the joy that God puts in our hearts. Ultimately, that's the best reason for sharing our faith.

If you are not a member of the church you regularly attend, you may well be going to hell.

We can't know at any given time how God will bless our faithful witness. So the apparent numerical growth of the church is never a good guide to how faithful we have been in evangelism.

Some believers are faithful in the way that they live, but at the end of the day, they will not share the gospel with as many people as someone else who has special gifts from God.

I guess I tend to see divine appointments everywhere. I am always on the alert for opportunities. So I prefer to err on the side of witnessing too often than not enough.

What really concerns me is for Christians to understand the fundamentals of evangelism in a way that is helpful in the contemporary scene.

If we feel that our ministry has come to an end in one place, then it seems reasonable to move on.

People forget that there is a big difference between coercion and persuasion. The idea that evangelism is coercive is nonsense.

There is no gospel without the offence. This is God's wisdom. It never seems sensible to us in our flesh.

I think it's unhelpful to suggest that the task of evangelism is essentially the responsibility of ministers.

I'll tell you what's more important than all the commentaries in your library: prayer.

God can use even stray, honest comments to bring people to himself.

Suffering can serve us. Suffering tests our trust in God's promises. And we have a great interest in knowing the truth about our trust in Him.

Sometimes we have to wait a long time to see conversions.

Unbelief is like gravity, it's always pulling down on the authority of Scripture.

From the time of Cain until the last believer before Christ's return, we are all fundamentally in the same boat. We suffer the same spiritual afflictions and tendencies.

If you need wisdom and guidance, then pray to the Lord to guide you.

Discipling involves instruction and imitation.