20 Quotes from Famous Preachers

by | Updated February 18th, 2023

Effective preachers and ministers have a way of touching our souls without saying much. This list of quotes includes gems from well-known preachers and evangelists whose passion for the lost was evident in every sermon they preached. Feel free to use these inspirational quotes in your sermons, lectures, newsletters, and Bible studies.

20 Quotes from Famous Preachers

  1. “Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself.” – Charles Spurgeon
  2. “It’s not our business to make the message acceptable, but to make it available. We are not to see that they like it, but that they get it.” – Vance Havner
  3. “Faith is to rest, not in the best of God’s servants, but in his unchanging Word.” – Henry Ironside
  4. “The first duty of the gospel preacher is to declare God’s law and to show the nature of sin.” – Martin Luther
  5. “Let’s quit fiddling with religion and do something to bring the world to Christ.” – Billy Sunday
  6. “God save us from living in comfort while sinners are sinking into hell.” – Charles Spurgeon
  7. “Happiness is the level of the soul dependent on outward circumstances, whereas joy is a spiritual quality independent of outward circumstances.” – Chuck Smith
  8. “The Jesus that men want to see is not the Jesus they need to see.” – G. Campbell Morgan
  9. “It’s a poor sermon that gives no offense; that neither makes the hearer displeased with himself nor with the preacher” – George Whitefield
  10. “It’s a sad and shocking fact that many religious people are in hell.” – John R. Rice
  11. “We are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to have power. We have a great deal of activity, but we accomplish little. Many services, but few conversions; much machinery, but few results.” – R.A. Torrey
  12. “If you have no joy there’s a leak in your Christianity somewhere.” – Billy Sunday
  13. “The scriptures are given not to increase our knowledge, but to change our lives.” – Dwight L. Moody
  14. “Christ is either Lord of all, or he is not Lord at all.” – Hudson Taylor
  15. “Great truths that are stumbling blocks to the natural man are nevertheless the very foundations upon which the confidence of the spiritual man is built.” – Henry Ironside
  16. “Joy is the gigantic secret of the Christian life.” – G. K. Chesterton
  17. “Nothing is more needed among preachers today than having the courage to shake ourselves free from the trivialities that waste our time and strength, and resolve to continue steadfastly in prayer and in the ministry of the Word.” – G. Campbell Morgan
  18. “Out of 100 men, one will read the Bible, the other 99 will read the Christian.” – D. L. Moody
  19. “We have a God who delights in impossibilities.” – Billy Sunday
  20. “God is looking for broken men who have judged themselves in the light of the cross of Christ. When he wants anything done, he takes up men who have come to the end of themselves, whose confidence is not in themselves but in God.” – Henry Ironside

Want more quotes? Check out 14 Quotes from Vance Havner. The list includes famous sayings from one of the most influential preachers in recent church history, Dr. Vance Havner.


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