John Piper

What is at stake in pastoral admonition and in preaching is not merely the Church’s progress in sanctification but its perseverance in final salvation. There is no standing still in the Christian life. Either we are advancing toward salvation, or we are drifting away to destruction. Drifting is mortal danger (Heb. 2:1). If we do not point our people to the inexhaustible riches of Christ so as to stir them up to go forward into more of God, then we encourage drifting downstream where they will make shipwreck of their faith. (1 Tim. 1:19)