Mark Dever Quotes

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

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

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

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.

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

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

We are called to love others. We share the gospel because we love people. And we don't share the gospel because we don't love people. Instead, we wrongly fear them. We don't want to cause awkwardness. We want their respect, and after all, we figure, if we try to share the gospel with them, we'll look foolish! And so we are quiet. We protect our pride at the cost of their souls. In the name of not wanting to look weird, we are content to be complicit in their being lost.

T]he church is not a place. It's not a building. It's not a preaching point. It's not a spiritual service provider. It's a people - the new covenant, blood-bought people of God. That's why Paul said, 'Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her' (Eph. 5:25). He didn't give himself up for a place, but for a people.

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.

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

When a person becomes a Christian, he doesn’t just join a local church because it’s a good habit for growing in spiritual maturity. He joins a local church because it’s the expression of what Christ has made him—a member of the body of Christ.

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

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

As long as quick numerical growth remains the primary indicator of church health, the truth will be compromised. Instead, churches must once again begin measuring success not in terms of numbers but in terms of fidelity to the Scriptures.

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

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 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.

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.

A healthy church is not a church that's perfect and without sin. It has not figured everything out. Rather, it's a church that continually strives to take God's side in the battle against the ungodly desires and deceits of the world, our flesh, and the devil. It's a church that continually seeks to conform itself to God's Word.

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

Correct division should be preferred over corrupt unity.

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

Our fears lie to us about how important they are.

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

The truly changed, truly converted, truly Christian heart can say with John Newton, “I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I wish to be. I am not what I hope to be. Yet I can truly say, I am not what I once was. By the grace of God, I am what I am.