The world has needed surgery and we’ve given them bubble gum

Most of these quotes (which a few additions of my own) are excerpts from a sermon given by Pastor John Kirkwood of Grace Gospel Fellowship, Bensenville, IL.  His sermon was in honor of Pulpit Freedom Sunday, although every Sunday taught by John could be in honor of Pulpit Freedom Sunday.  For the full sermon, see: http://gracebeliever.com/2010/09/september-26-2010-sunday-bible-study/, especially track 1. 

“If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ.  Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”-Martin Luther 

“Through us infinite wrong was brought over many peoples and countries. That which we often testified to in our communities, we express now in the name of the whole church: We did fight for long years in the name of Jesus Christ against the mentality that found its awful expression in the National Socialist regime of violence; but we accuse ourselves for not standing to our beliefs more courageously, for not praying more faithfully, for not believing more joyously, and for not loving more ardently.” The Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt 

“I do not want to have to sign a Washington DC declaration of guilt…we need to stand and say ‘We will not have this.’” Pastor John Kirkwood 

“The world has needed surgery and we’ve given them bubble gum.” Pastor John Kirkwood 

“The ultimate check on tyranny is the Church.” Pastor John Kirkwood 

"Brethren, our preaching will bear its legitimate fruits. If immorality prevails in the land, the fault is ours in a great degree. If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discrimination, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses its interest in religion, the pulpit is responsible for it. If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it. Let us not ignore this fact, my dear brethren; but let us lay it to heart, and be thoroughly awake to our responsibility in respect to the morals of this nation." - Charles Finney 

“Because we honor justice and the common good, we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family. We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar's. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God's.” - The Manhattan Declaration 

“If men will not be governed by God, they will be ruled by tyrants.” William Penn 

“It is when people forget God that tyrants forge their chains.” Patrick Henry 

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” Thomas Paine 

“The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time.” Thomas Jefferson  

Yes, indeed, and He let the whole human race fall because of it. 

Luke 4:18-19:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

     because he has anointed me

      to preach good news to the poor.

   He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners (emphasis mine)

      and recovery of sight for the blind,

   to release the oppressed,

    to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." 

Galatians 5:1: It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. 

“If man lost his liberty, he would be disqualified for membership in the Kingdom of God. Not even God could build a society of love out of puppets or robots.” Kirby Page 

“Without free will, God isn’t God.” Pastor John Kirkwood 

“What do you call forced love? …rape

“What do you call forced servitude? …slavery” Pastor John Kirkwood 

“God has no need of marionettes. He pays men the compliment of allowing them to live without Him if they choose. But if they live without Him in this life, they must also live without Him in the next.” Leon Morris 

“I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful, rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside.” C.S. Lewis 

“All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find.” C.S. Lewis 

"The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and each other in an ecstasy of love and delight compared with which the most rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water. And for that they must be free." C.S. Lewis 

“The right to liberty is fundamental. But it is what a person does with it that tells their caliber and their fiber, and that decides whether they will continue to be free and whether their nation will be prosperous.” Margaret Thatcher