J.C. Ryle

FAITH

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FAITH IN CHRIST NOT IN THINGS

“…Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…” (Heb 12:2 ESV).

“Would you have more faith?  Then seek to become more acquainted with Jesus Christ” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p196).

“Is there anything in the true Church of God that would…indicate a proneness to substitute for Christ something in the experience of the believer?  Indeed.  Examples are…only too common.  When the act of faith is substituted for the object of faith…Faith is only the channel through which…blessings are received.  And yet, who has not detected in his heart a tendency to look to faith for the evidence of his Christianity instead of to Christ, thus making the act of believing a substitute for the object in which we believe” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, April 29th)?

“…where there is true faith, Christ will always be known and realized, as an actual living personal Friend.  He that knows nothing of Christ as his own Priest, Physician, and Redeemer, knows nothing yet of believing” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p191)!

“We glorify God when our service comes from faith in his strength, because the one who gives the strength gets the glory….1 Pet 4:11” John Piper (ref#220, p212).

FAITH

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SAVING FAITH

“Saving faith is to cast myself and my own soul upon Christ for salvation” Thomas Cole (ref#225, p308).

“Believing in Christ is no mere intellectual assent…Doubtless there must be some knowledge before we can believe.  There is no true religion in ignorance.  But knowledge alone is not saving faith” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p182).

“Believing on Christ…is not mere feeling something about Christ.  This is often no more than temporary excitement…We may be pricked in conscience, and feel drawings toward the Gospel…We may even tremble and weep, and show much affection for the truth…And yet all this time our hearts and wills may remain utterly unchanged, and secretly chained down to the world.  Doubtless there is no saving faith where there is no feeling.  But feeling alone is not faith” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p182-183).

“True saving faith is not the kind of belief in the facts of the gospel that leaves the heart and life unchanged.  If it were, then God’s pleasure in obedience would indeed be bad news.  He would be saying that we are saved by faith, and then, to please him with obedience, we must move beyond faith to something else in order to produce good behavior.  This is not good news.  The good news is that saving faith is by its nature a life-changing power” John Piper (ref#220, p243-244).

“The moment that the conscience is convinced of sin, and the head sees Christ to be the only One who can save, and the heart and will lay hold on the hand that Christ holds out, that moment there is saving faith” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p183).

“…faith expresses itself in works…a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works…” (James 2:21-24 MSG).

FAITH

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UNBELIEF

“’…If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all’” (Isa 7:9 ESV).

“There is a significant difference between amazement and faith.  God doesn’t just want to blow your mind; he wants to rule your heart….You can be amazed by the grand sweep of the redemptive story in Scripture and not be living by faith…You can be amazed by the great worship music you participate in every Sunday and not be living by faith….You can be amazed by the wonderful biblical preaching and teaching that you hear and not be living by faith” David Paul Tripp (ref#190, June 27th).

“There is nothing really mysterious and hard to understand about saving belief.  But the whole difficulty arises from man’s pride and self-righteousness….They cannot understand it because they will not stoop” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p182).

“’…my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him’” (Heb 10:38 ESV).

“…faith…the more it is exercised, the mightier it becomes…God never places His child in any difficulties or throws on him any cross except to call faith to exercise; and if the opportunity of its exercise passes away without improvement, the effect will be a weakening of the principle and a feeble exertion of power in the next trial” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Sept 27th).

FATHER, what scary information—that the less faith I have the less faith I have.  This hits on the subject of obedience.  How many times does my memory tell me of my disobedience?  Please keep me in remembrance of these four words: “disobedience flows from unbelief” The ESV Study Bible (ref#125, p2366, [Heb 3:15-19]).  My disobedience is caused by not trusting You fully.  Oh to have great faith!

“…the real trouble with most Christian people is not so much in the realm of their conduct and practise as in the realm of their belief” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#211, p39-40).  “The commandments of God are only as hard to obey as the promises of God are hard to believe” John Piper (ref#220, p250).

“Nothing more effectually…obscures our view of Christ than the sin of unbelief.  Not fully believing His Word, not simply and implicitly relying on His work, not trusting His faithfulness and love…”  Octavius Winslow (ref#135, May 1st).

“…whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Rom 14:23 ESV).

FAITH

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FAITH IS

“To believe, in the language of the New Testament, is simply to trust….Every one that believes on the Son of God, and trusts his soul to Him, is at once pardoned, forgiven, justified, counted righteous, reckoned innocent, and freed from all liability to condemnation” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p181).

“…doing something by relying on the strength which God supplies simply means doing it by faith” John Piper (ref#220, p245).  “…it is simply going out of yourself and taking up your rest in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Sept 22nd).

“A true faith includes more than a mere belief; it is accepting the gospel…It is something more than a mere assent of the understanding, because it is called obeying the gospel…(1 Pet 4:17)” Jonathan Edwards (ref#229, p93).

“…anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:35 ESV).

“…faith is trusting God and responding to him” ESV Study Bible (ref#125, p2104, [Acts 10:35]).  “Faith consists in two things: in being persuaded of the promises and in embracing them…(Heb 11:13)” Jonathan Edwards (ref#229, p94).

“True belief in Christ is the unreserved trust of a heart convinced of sin, in Christ, as an all-sufficient Saviour.  It is the combined act of the whole man’s head, conscience, heart and will” J.C Ryle (ref#273, p183).  “The belief of an individual involves ‘the mind, emotions and the will’” Josh McDowell (ref#275, p4).

“Faith is likened to looking to Christ, and following Christ, and fleeing to Christ….Faith brings nothing to Christ but an empty hand, by which it takes Christ and all that is in Him” Albert N. Martin (ref#221, p18).

“Faith is the ceasing from all nature’s efforts, and all other dependence; faith is confessed helplessness casting itself upon God’s promise, and claiming its fulfillment; faith is the putting ourselves quietly into God’s hands for Him to do his work” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p83).

SCRIPTURE

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INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE

“The Bible, at first sight, appears to be a collection of literature—mainly Jewish.  If we enquire into the circumstances under which the various Biblical documents were written, we find that they were written at intervals over a space of nearly 1400 years.  The writers wrote in various lands…not only separated from each other by hundreds of years and hundreds of miles, but belonging to the most diverse walks of life” Josh McDowell (ref#275, p17).

“…the Bible itself, fairly examined, is the best witness of its own inspiration” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p4).  The 66 books contained in the Bible “…all tell the same story.  They all give one account of man,–one account of God,–one account of the way of salvation,–one account of the human heart” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p9).

“The Bible alone gives a reasonable account of the beginning and end of the globe on which we live” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p4).

“It boldly handles matters which are beyond the reach of man, when left to himself.  It treats of things which are mysterious and invisible,–the soul, the world to come, and eternity,–depths which man has no line to fathom” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p4).

“It is the book of the world, because He inspired it who formed the world,–who made all nations of one blood,–and knows man’s common nature.  It is the book for every heart, because He dictated it who alone knows all hearts, and what all hearts require.  It is the book of God” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p13).

“Biblical authors spoke on hundreds of controversial subjects with harmony and continuity from Genesis to Revelation.  There is one unfolding story: “God’s redemption of man” Josh McDowell (ref#275, p16).

SCRIPTURE

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BIBLICAL WRITERS

FATHER, now is the time I sit before a large table full of paper slips placed into subject piles all containing quotes about Your Holy Scriptures.  Thank You for the honor to record what Your godly people have said about Your Book.  But, all these quotes are written by men and women who don’t possess the SPIRIT in order to write Your exact words.  Only men who have written the Bible fit that category.

“Sermons, and tracts, and theological writings of all kinds, may be sound and edifying, but they are only the handiwork of uninspired man.  The Bible alone is the Book of God” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p3).

“All the words in Scripture are God’s words” Wayne Grudem (ref#63, p73).  “Its first line, its last line, all its teachings, understood or not understood, are by the same Author…Whoever may have been the writers—whatever their circumstances, their impressions, their comprehension of the book, and the measure of their individuality in this powerful and mysterious operation—they have all written faithfully and under superintendence…under the guidance of the same Master, for Whom a thousand years are as one day; and the result has been the Bible” Louis Gaussen (ref#246, p8-9, “God-breathed Scripture”).

“The apostles and prophets were the people to whom God revealed spiritual truth” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#189, Nov 7th).

“…no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet 1:21 ESV).

“…when these…were written, it was not a case of a man in control of himself, using his natural powers and propensities and abilities, thinking things out and then writing as best he could.  Not at all!  The whole time, he was controlled by…the Spirit…this divine energy.  This divine [creative impulse] came upon him, it held him and carried him, and he was borne along by the Spirit.  And it was as a result of that process that…prophecies and…Scriptures came into being” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#250, p45).

“If the Bible is not inspired in the strictest sense of the word, then it is worthless; for it claims to be God’s Word” A.W. Pink (ref#250, p3, “The Impregnable Rock”).

ASSURANCES

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SPIRIT CHECK

A good way to assure you are truly redeemed is to check yourself with the “Parable of the Sower.”

“…Behold, a sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it” (Mark 4:3-4 ESV).

“…there are some hearers of the Gospel…who hear sermons, but pay no attention to them….they are taken up with thinking of other things….It produces no more effect on them than water on a stone.  And at the end they go away, knowing no more than when they came in.  There are myriads of professing Christians in this state of soul…in this state they…are lost for ever in hell” J.C. Ryle (ref#13, Vol. 1, Mark, p63-64).

“Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil” (Mark 4:5 ESV).

“These are they on whom preaching produces temporary impressions, but no deep, lasting, and abiding effect….They are not careless and inattentive hearers… therefore tempted to think well of their own condition.  They…therefore flatter themselves they must have grace in their hearts….And yet they are thoroughly deceived.…There is no real work of conversion in their inward man….they are actually on the high road to destruction” J.C. Ryle (ref#13, Vol. 1, Mark, p64-65).

“Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain” (Mark 4:7 ESV).

“These are they who attend to the preaching of Christ’s truth, and to a certain extent obey it. Their understanding assents to it. Their judgment approves of it. Their conscience is affected by it. Their affections are in favor of it….But…they stop short….They never come up to the full standard of New Testament Christianity….Without a decided change they will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Christ will have all our hearts” J.C. Ryle (ref#13, Vol. 1, Mark, p64-65).

“And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up…and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold” (Mark 4:8 ESV).

“These…really receive Christ’s truth into…their hearts, believe it implicitly, and obey it thoroughly.  In these the fruits of that truth will be seen…Sin will be truly hated, mourned over, resisted, and renounced.  Christ will be truly loved, trusted in, followed…and obeyed….There will always be visible repentance, visible faith in Christ, and visible holiness of life” J.C. Ryle (ref#13, Vol. 1, Mark, p66-67).

ASSURANCES

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INTOLERABLE SIN

 “…anyone who lives in willful sin…has none of the marks of God’s elect” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p257). “He that minds first the things of the flesh, has no saving faith” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p188).

“The believer who abides in Him [CHRIST] hath a divine assurance for the fulfillment of every promise the covenant ever gave” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p196, brackets mine).

“There is a spiritual treasure-house in the Word…There you will see…the everlasting election of the saints in Christ,—the special love wherewith God loved them before the foundation of the world,—their mystical union with their risen Head in heaven, and His consequent sympathy with them,—their interest in the perpetual intercession of Jesus, their High Priest,—their liberty of daily communion with the Father and the Son,—their full assurance of hope,—their perseverance to the end” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p249).

“The redemption which he enjoys is eternal.  The sense and comfort of it he may lose by his own carelessness.  But the thingitself, after once believing, is his for evermore….Thy faith shall never be allowed entirely to fail” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p279).

“A day must come, if you are ever to be God’s child, when you will cease to trifle with your soul’s interests.  An hour must come when at last you will bend your knee in real earnestness, and pour out your heart before God in real prayer.  A time must come when the burden of your sins will at last feel intolerable, and when you will feel you must have rest in Christ or perish” J.C. Ryle (ref#273, p286).

FATHER, I’m sure everyone reading this post has felt “intolerable sin” or soon will feel “intolerable sin.”  To be humbled, then loved by the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe is our greatest joy. Thank You, FATHER.

SUPPLICATION

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NON CHRISTIAN Pursuers

[We all have friends and family that sit in our churches but only act like they are Christians. It is up to us to pray for their salvation. Here’s an opportunity to pray for them. Fill their name in the blanks.]

THE BOASTINGS OF THE FALLEN NATURE

…FATHER, ____ has heard of You by attending church; (he/she) has read (his/her) Bible, maybe even committed verses to memory, nonetheless Your Word does not produce fruit in (him/her) (Mark 4:19). Even Your truth residing in (his/her) mind is unable to affect (him/her).

It seems ____ is in the business, FATHER, of becoming holy and more holy in (his/her) own strength. Seems (he/she) is working with such intenseness that (he/she) passes over the good news about CHRIST. I think that (his/her) work is so gratifying that (he/she) imagines (he/she) is doing well and getting better and better. But…

 “There are those who are clean in their own eyes but are not washed of their filth” (Prov 30:12 ESV). “This is the way of an adulteress: she eats and wipes her mouth and says, ‘I have done no wrong’” (Prov 30:20 ESV).

“The majority of people have their morality well within their own grasp, they do not sense the need of the Gospel” Oswald Chambers (ref#7, Dec 17th). FATHER, it seems ____ is pursuing You because (he/she) admires righteousness therefore (he/she) is trying hard to act righteously (ref#33, p110). (He/She) may not know that (his/her) natural flesh can perform good as well as produce sin (ref#33, p110). (He/She) may be confusing (his/her) natural fleshly work with Your HOLY SPIRIT’s work. And, the case is that (he/she) is then unable to be a Christian because it is impossible to receive anything unless it is given to (him/her) from heaven (James 1:17).

It is quite natural to fall into the pattern of searching the Scriptures for commands to keep (John 5:39). By keeping only the commands of (his/her) choosing (he/she) does not need a Savior; (he/she) is saving (himself/herself). FATHER, lead ____ to the understanding that whatever “does not issue from waiting upon God, from depending upon the HOLY SPIRIT, is unquestionably of the flesh”  Watchman Nee (ref #33, p 114).

It seems that ____ is set in (his/her) own ways of righteousness, but I know, FATHER, that You can and will work in due season to call Your sons and daughters according to Your purpose (ref#13, Vol 1, p31 [Mark 2:14]). Please, FATHER, I want You to call ____.

SABBATH

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FINDING GOD’S PRESENCE

“It is man’s sinful nature which makes the Sabbath and its proper observance so hateful to him. The Sabbath calls upon us to discipline our lives” C. E. Hunter (ref#171).

GOD sometimes helps us get into His presence but we have to look for Him. Bishop J. C. Ryle suggests, “Arrange your time on Sunday so that you may have leisure for quiet, sober meditation on eternal things. Avoid the company that would lead you to talk only of this world” (ref#167).

It helps immensely to remind ourselves of how truly in desperate need of GOD’s help we are. All during each day we can pray without ceasing, knowing He is there to help us fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants, but Sunday affords opportunity to evaluate our last week’s activities.

There are weekly activities that cause barriers between our FATHER and us. It is our first Sabbath duty to crash through these obstacles.

“…there are certain things that will stand between us and the fellowship that in turn leads to joy. First of all, there is sin—unrighteousness….If we recognize and confess sin, then there is the blood that cleanses, and God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins (1 John 1:7,9). The second hindrance that John talks about in 1 John 2:3 is lack of love for the brethren….You lose contact with the brethren, and you lose contact with God…The third hindrance is a love of the world,…You cannot mix light and darkness. The last thing that interrupts fellowship with God, he tells us at the end of 1 John 2, is false teaching about the person of Jesus Christ. Obviously if the only way to God is through Christ, if I am in any way wrong about my teaching or doctrine concerning Him, then automatically I sever the communion, and again I lose my joy” Marytn Lloyd-Jones, (ref#189, Sept 18th).