A.W. Pink

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HOW TO MORTIFY SIN

“’Am I willing to give up a certain practice or habit that is keeping me from holiness’?” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p91).

“The action we are to take is to put to death the misdeeds of the body (Romans 8:13). ‘Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature’ (Colossians 3:5). The King James Version uses the term mortify. According to the dictionary, mortify means ‘to destroy the strength, vitality, or functioning of; to subdue or deaden.’ To put to death the misdeeds of the body, then, is to destroy the strength and vitality of sin as it tries to reign in our bodies” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p84).

“Mortification is a task to which every Christian must address himself with prayerful and resolute earnestness. Nevertheless it is a task far transcending our feeble powers. It is only ‘through the Spirit’ that any of us can acceptably and effectually (in any degree) ‘mortify the deeds of the body.’ He it is who works in us a loathing of sin, a mourning over it, a turning away from it. He it is who presses upon us the claims of Christ, reminding us that inasmuch as He died for sin, we must spare no efforts to die to sin” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p115).

“The believer died to sin once and he has been translated to another realm. It is because we were in this realm of sin, under its reign and rule, that we began to sin from infancy. Because we were slaves we acted like slaves. We developed sinful habits and a sinful character. Even if we were what the world considers ‘good,’ we lived for ourselves, not for God. Our attitude toward Christ was expressed by the words of His enemies: ‘We don’t want this man to be our king’ (Luke 19:14)” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p54-55).

“True mortification consists in weakening sin’s root and principle. True mortification consists in suppressing the risings of inward corruptions: by turning a deaf ear to their voice, by crying to God for grace so to do, by pleading the blood of Christ for deliverance. True mortification consists in restraining its outward actings: ‘denying ungodliness,’ (Titus 2:12)” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p114).

“Because we are dead to sin, through our union with Christ, we are not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p53).

“[P]resent yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instrument for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Rom 6:13-14 ESV).

“Departing from iniquity is the lifelong calling and pursuit of true Christians. Are you intimately involved in this pursuit? Do you long and strive to walk in the King’s highway of holiness on a daily basis” John Calvin (ref#164, Nov 10th)?

TRUE CHRISTIAN OR FAUX?

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HYPOCRITES_4

“The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling has seized the godless: ‘Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire?  Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?’  He who walks righteously…” (Isa 33:14-15 ESV).

“There are two kinds of persons among God’s professing people: the one is those who are truly godly, the other kind consist of sinners in Zion, hypocrites…. hypocrites…make a profession of the true religion; they attend God’s ordinances and make a show of being the worshippers of God, but all is in hypocrisy.  Fearfulness will surprise them.  The wrath of God is in His Word manifested against the wicked, but it is ten times as much manifested against those sinners who make the profession and enjoy the privileges of the people of God….The reasons for this are chiefly these: they sin against such professions and vows, and they sin against so much greater mercy” Jonathan Edwards (ref#229, p59).

“Abstaining from sin.  This abstaining may be from restraining grace, not renewing grace.  Men may leave gross sin and yet live in more spiritual sins; leave drunkenness and live in pride; leave uncleanness and live in malice” Thomas Watson (ref#48, “The Counterfeits of the New Creature”).

“Many a man’s knowledge is a torch to light him to hell.  You who have knowledge of God’s will, but don’t do it, in what way do you excel a hypocrite” Thomas Watson (ref#225, May 23rd)?

“…a mighty supernatural power is needed if I am to come to Him who ‘justifieth the ungodly.’  None but the all-mighty Spirit can lift a stricken soul out of the guilt of despair and enable him to believe to the saving of his soul” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p93).

A characteristic of a Christian is: “He is painfully aware of his indwelling corruption.  He finds an evil principle within himself that is constantly warring against grace and trying to draw him away from God.  But he does not consent to it, though he cannot prevent its presence” J.C. Ryle (ref#222).  “Sanctification is…dependent on God’s continuing action in the believer, and consisting of the believer’s continuous struggle against sin….Sanctification is…human effort dependent on God” The Reformation Study Bible (ref#56, p1650).

O FATHER, how I want to believe that all I pray for, who are unregenerate, are sinning in a way that does not lead to death and that eventually You will give them life.  I pray their sins are not obstinate sins, and thus, incurable.  Matthew Poole (ref#21, p941, [1 John 5:16]).

TRUE CHRISTIAN OR FAUX?

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HYPOCRITES_2

“The highest principle with the hypocrite is fear of punishment, and hope of reward (Hos 10:11), their highest end is themselves (Hos 10:1)” Thomas  Boston (ref#267).

“To ‘live after the flesh’ is to be in love with sin, to serve it contentedly, to make self-gratification the trade and business of life.  It is by no means limited to the grosser forms of wickedness and crime, but includes as well the refinement, morality, and religiousness of the best of men, who yet give God no real place in their hearts and lives” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p111).

“You know the way of salvation.  You read it in the Bible, you hear it from the pulpit, and it is explained to you by friends; yet you neglect it and therefore, are not saved….Times of refreshing have come from the divine presence, yet you are without Christ….Affliction and prosperity have both failed to impress you.  Tears and prayers and sermons have been wasted on your barren heart” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Dec 31st AM).

“Are you ignorant of the Holy Spirit – unacquainted with his life-giving power?…You are still of the world, and what you need is to have your false peace disturbed, and to be converted to God” Charles Ross (ref#241, p93).

A characteristic of a Christian: “A person who has been born again, or regenerated, does not habitually commit sin.  He no longer sins with his heart and will and whole inclination.  There was probably a time when he did not think about whether his actions were sinful or not, and he did not always feel grieved after doing evil.  There was no quarrel between him and sin; they were friends.  But the true Christian hates sin, flees from it, fights against it, considers it his greatest plague, resents the burden of its presence, mourns when he falls under its influence, and longs to be completely delivered from it” J.C. Ryle (ref#222).

“What brought deliverance to that poor condemned sinner…in his unconverted state?  He felt he could do nothing good of himself….He saw set before him the almighty Saviour and he cast himself into His arms; he trusted himself to that omnipotent love and cried, ‘Lord, have mercy upon me.’  That was salvation” Andrew Murray (ref#272, p22-23).

TRUE CHRISTIAN OR FAUX?

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BACKSLIDERS – ENDANGERED SOULS

“…so much as the flesh is gratified, so much is the soul endangered” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p111).

“Remember that, though your love has waxed cold, the love of your God and Father towards you never diminishes; it has never known even a shadow of change….God has never, not even for a moment, turned His back on you, though you have turned yours on Him times without number.  His face has always been toward you…” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Aug 22nd).

“If…children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules,  if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes, but I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness” (Ps 89:30-33 ESV).

“All spiritual declension in the true believer necessarily implies the actual possession of grace….In the lowest condition of the believer, Christ never denies His own work in the soul….” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Oct 10th).

“True grace may suffer a shrewd decay, but not an utter loss.  In temptations it may be sorely shaken; the heel may be bruised, as Christ’s was, but ‘his seed remaineth in him’” Thomas Manton (ref#225, Sept 28th).

“If God says, “Return,” that is sufficient for you.  You need nothing more; if He is willing to receive you back, to pardon your sins, to forget your ingratitude, to heal your backslidings, and to restore your soul, you have the broadest warrant to return…He is on the eager lookout for your first movement towards Him…He sends His own Spirit to work that return in your soul, to break your heart, to waken your slumbering spirit, and to draw you and win you to His arms” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Sept 10th).

FATHER, in the Apostle Paul’s writing to the Corinthian church he calls them all “saints.”  They have much to learn in their walk of sanctification, and despite their unloving activities, Paul is sympathetic toward them.

Paul “…takes them by the hand and goes over all the old ground again, directing them in how to work all the glorious details of God’s saving love into their love for one another” MSG Bible (ref#262, p398, “Introduction to 1 Corinthians”).

TRUE CHRISTIAN OR FAUX?

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ASSURANCE OF SALVATION

In 2018 and 2019 this blog concentrated on “assurances of salvation.”  It is such an important subject it is worth reviewing again.  A.W. Pink has written a most thorough book on the subject.  The below quotes are from his book, The Holy Spirit, (ref#269).  Let’s check ourselves again with his words:

“Our hearts are fearfully deceitful, there are many minglings of faith and unbelief…and grace in us is…feeble” (p140).  But the HOLY SPIRIT helps us to judge the reality of our faith and whether or not we are actually sincere or being wrongly convinced by our heart.

“It is by the Truth that the Spirit…bears witness…it is by revealing to us…the correspondence between the history of our soul and the testimony of the Word that He persuades us we are born again” (p139).

“…when the Spirit increases our faith, rekindles our love, strengthens us with might in the inner man, He enables us to come to a definite conclusion” (p140).  When we search ourselves and note that our inner core focus has changed we know that we are becoming a new person—made over by the SPIRIT.  Can we answer, “Yes” to the following questions?

Do I feel poor in spirit?–“…a pauper dependent upon the charity of God” (p139).

Do I mourn?—“…‘mourn’ over much which gives the worldling no concern whatever” (p139).

Am I meek?—“…so that the rebellious will is, in part, subdued, and God’s will is submitted unto” (p139).

Do I hunger and thirst after righteousness?—“…the best this perishing world has to offer…is unsatisfying…” (p 139-140).

Am I merciful toward others?—“…counteracting that selfish disposition…” (p140).

Am I pure in heart?—“…to pant after holiness and hate that which is vile…” (p140).

“By His own fruit in the soul, the Spirit makes manifest His indwelling presence” (p140).  “…the witness of the Spirit is not so much a revelation which is made to my spirit…as it is a confirmation made in or with my spirit…” (p139).

TRUE CHRISTIAN OR FAUX?

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KNOWLEDGE BUT NO ACTION

“If saving faith were nothing more than a mere mental assent to the contents of John 3:16, then any man could make himself a true believer whenever he pleased—the supernatural enablement of the Holy Spirit would be quite unnecessary” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p82).

“…in the whole question of practicing and living the Christian life, how easy it is to be content only with thoughts and with feelings and with expressions of what we believe and feel, and to fail utterly and entirely to put it into practice.  How easy it is to fall in love with loving instead of actually loving” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#211, p111)! “…the doing, says our Lord, is absolutely vital and essential” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#211, p113)

“…let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18 ESV).

“If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal 5:25 ESV).

“The two most important things in our holy religion are the life of faith and the walk of faith.  He who rightly understand these is not far from being a master in practicing theology, for they are vital points to a Christian” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Sept 18th AM).

“If you’ve forgotten who you are in Christ, what are you left with?…Christless Christianity, which is little more than a system of theology and rules.  And…if all you needed was theology and rules, Jesus wouldn’t have had to come” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, April 12th). 

“Continue in the things revealed in the doctrine of the Gospel, and you shall have a satisfactory experience that they are true, and that they are of God.  Cease not to act in faith regarding them, and you shall enjoy their effects” John Owen (ref#225, Oct 7th).

“With the great blessing of gospel light comes great responsibility to steward that light” John Calvin (ref#164, May 1st).

TRUE CHRISTIAN OR FAUX?

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PUFFED UP CARNAL

You who sit in the pews—who keep GOD from knowing you—commit two evils.  You are more evil than the prodigal son, who committed only one evil by forsaking Me.  But you commit two evils; you forsake Me and fashion Christianity to your choosing.

“The curse of a godless man can sound more pleasant in God’s ears than the Hallelujah of the pious” Martin Luther (ref#28, p9).

“Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me…” (Jer 2:22 ESV).

“…Their lives are perpetual fashion shows…” (Matt 23:4-7 MSG).  “…they make confident assertions” (1 Tim 1:7 ESV).  “These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn’t in it.  They act like they’re worshiping me, but they don’t mean it.  They just use me as a cover for teaching whatever suits their fancy” (Matt 15:3-9 MSG).

“…Christians are too puffed up by a sense of what they suppose they are doing for God, to earnestly study what God has promised to do for and in His people.  They are so occupied with their fleshly efforts to ‘win souls for Christ’ that they feel not their own deep need of the Spirit’s anointing” A.W. Pink (ref#269. P6).

“…a Christian is a person who has faced realistically the problem of his own personal sin…Christianity is…a sinner’s religion” Albert N. Martin (ref#221, p4).

FATHER, we all are so susceptible to being caught in doing instead of being.  The enemy urges us toward “Christian service” projects and human nature jumps at the chance to “serve.”  This is a classic example of the cart before the horse.  Putting ourselves in relationship with You must come first.

“Whatever does not issue from waiting upon God, from depending upon the Holy Spirit, is unquestionably of the flesh” Watchman Nee (ref#33, p114).

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FANATICISM

“Rightly did Jonathan Edwards affirm, ‘Many have been the mischiefs that have arisen from that false and delusory notion of the witness of the Spirit, that it is a kind of inward voice, suggestion, or revelation from God to man, that he is beloved of Him, and that his sins are pardoned—sometimes accompanied with, sometimes without, a text of Scripture; and many have been the false and vain (though very high) affections that have arisen from hence.  It is to be feared that multitudes of souls have been eternally undone by it.’  Especially was this so in the past, when fanaticism made much of the Spirit witnessing to souls” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p138).

Samuel Chadwick defines this as ‘will-worship.”  “…a kind of will-worship, by which man substitutes his own enthusiasms for the will of God” (ref#195, p126).  These thoughts came from a spirit all right, but it was an unholy spirit and not the HOLY SPIRIT.

“…They tripped over what little they knew about him [JESUS] and fell, sprawling….” (Mark 6:3 MSG).

“He who is seldom with Jesus in private will only exhibit, in all that he does for Jesus publicly, the fitful movements of a mind urged on by a feverish and unnatural excitement” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, May 17th).

“Man-made enthusiasm and emotionalism is superficial and cheap.  In real revival emotion is not produced or manipulated by man.  It is a response to the unsought, unexpected, but powerful working of God’s Spirit upon the inner depths of people’s souls” Wesley Duewel (ref#341, p12).

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CARNAL – NOT YET FULL OF THE SPIRIT

“There is a notion today that people can walk up an aisle, pray a little prayer, and do God a favor by making their decision…” Albert N. Martin (ref#221, p17).  “It will not do to say merely, Christ died but now lives, and therefore I shall live also.  There must be a vital union between our souls and him by faith or we must assuredly perish” Charles Ross (ref#241, p103).

“Because of the lack of clear and spiritual views of the freeness of the atonement—the perfectly unconditional bestowment of the blessings of pardon and justification—many are kept, even among those “called to be saints,” from entering fully into the liberty and peace of the gospel.  They have been convinced of their need of Christ; they have been made to hunger and thirst for pardon and acceptance; they may have been brought through a deep law work of the soul to stand as on the very borders of the land that flows with milk and honey; but looking more to themselves, and less to Christ,…waiting for some condition to be performed, some fitness to be experienced, or some price to bring, they are kept back from those rich and untold blessings which a closing in with Jesus the Savior of sinners would assuredly bring into their possession” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Oct 18th).

“…if…we desire to enjoy…the Spirit’s power and blessing, we must give Christ the throne of our hearts and crown Him the Lord of our lives” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p45).

“The…mark of the carnal state is a man’s inability to receive spiritual truths….We give…men spiritual teaching, and they admire it, and understand it, and rejoice in such ministry; yet their lives are not practically affected….we dare not say they are spiritual men, full of the Holy Spirit” Andrew Murray (ref#272, p14).

“Therefore, I say that I must never attempt by any means or method to get to know God or to try to make myself love God except in and through my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  I must avoid every other direct approach to God…” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#189, Nov 26th).

TRUE CHRISTIAN OR FAUX?

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INOCULATED CARNAL CHRISTIANS

Christians who keep GOD at arms length are in much peril.  Satan finds many ways to convince wanta-be Christ-followers that the way he choses to be a Christian is an adequate way.  This satisfaction can be labeled “inoculation” for it makes him feel safe that all will turn out well in the end.  The enemy makes his life pleasant enough.

“It may impart just enough light to the mind to leave its atheism without excuse, but it cannot impart enough light to convince the soul of its sinfulness, guilt, exposure to the wrath of a holy God, and its need of a Savior” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, May 25th).

Carnal Christians have a zeal for GOD but do not walk in tandem with Him.  They consider themselves inoculated and thus not in need of CHRIST the Physician.  “They work for Christ in a certain way, but we can scarcely recognize the true sanctification of the Spirit…” Andrew Murray (ref#272, p14).

“One grain of the truth of God experienced in the heart is more valuable and precious than the whole system in the head only….Welcome whatever makes you more acquainted with God…Welcome the cross, though it may be heavy; welcome the cup, though it may be bitter…welcome the wound, though it may be deep.  Welcome to your heart whatever increases your knowledge of God” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, May 10th).

“The bedrock in Jesus Christ’s kingdom is not sincerity, not deciding for Christ, not a determination to serve Him, but complete and entire recognition that we cannot begin to do it” Oswald Chambers (ref#83, p86).

“No matter what your experience or profession, no matter how certain of your conversion or how orthodox your belief: ‘Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.  For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting’ (Gal 6:7-8).  O the madness of men in courting eternal death rather than leave their sinful pleasures and live a holy life” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p111).