“And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favor in thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by experience that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake. And he said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it.” (Genesis 30:27,28.)
The above words of Laban deserve to be noticed. This was a remarkable confession of Jacob’s uncle — “The Lord hath blessed me for thy sake.” Laban was not blessed for his own sake, nor on account of any good deeds he had done; but he was blessed “for the sake” of another. Was not God here setting forth under a figure the method or principle by which He was going to bless sinners, namely, for the sake of another who was dear to Him? Do not these words of Laban anticipate the Gospel? and point forward to the present time when we read “God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32), and again in 1 John 2:12 “your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.” Yes, this is the blessed truth foreshadowed in Genesis 30:27: God blessed Laban for Jacob’s sake. So again we read in Genesis 39:15 concerning Potiphar, “The Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake.” And again we have another beautiful illustration of this same precious fact and truth in 2 Samuel 9:1:
“And David said, Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake.”
Reader, have you apprehended this saving truth? That for which we are accepted and saved by God is, not any work of righteousness which we have done, nor even for our believing — necessary though that be — but simply and solely for Christ’s sake.” —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
Excerpt taken from “Gleanings In Genesis” by A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
“Finally, we are told,
“And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God. And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house, and of all that Thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto Thee” (Genesis 28:20-22).
How true to life this is! It was not only characteristic of Jacob personally, but typical of us representatively. Jacob failed to rise to the level of God’s grace and was filled with fear instead of peace, and expressed human legality by speaking of what he will do. Oh, how often we follow in his steps! Instead of resting in the goodness of God and appropriating His free grace, like Jacob, we bargain and enter into conditions and stipulations. May the God of Grace enlarge our hearts to receive His grace, and may He empower us to magnify His grace by refusing to defile it with any of our own wretched additions.” —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
Excerpt taken from “Gleanings In Genesis” by A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
“The face of error is highly painted and powdered so as to render it attractive to the unwary.” The false prophets, whether of the papist or the Protestant order, make a great show of devotion and piety on the one hand, and of zeal and fervor on the other, as did the Pharisees of old with their fasting and praying and who “compassed sea and land to make one proselyte” (Matthew 23:15). They are diligent in seeking to discredit those truths they design to overthrow by branding them “legal doctrines” and denouncing as “Judaizers” those who are set for the defense of them.
“With good words and fair speeches they deceive the heart of the simple” (Romans 16:18).
They speak much about “grace,” yet it is not that Divine grace which “reigns through righteousness” (Romans 5:21), nor does it effectually teach men to deny “ungodliness and worldly lusts” (Titus 2:11, 12). With “cunning craftiness” they “lie in wait to deceive” (Ephesians 4:14) souls who have never been established in the Truth and beguile with “enticing words” (Colossians 2:4), making a great show of quoting Scripture and addressing their converts as “beloved brethren.”
Many of the false prophets of Protestantism have popularized themselves by granting their deluded followers the liberty of preaching. As any reader of ecclesiastical history knows, it has been a favorite device of false prophets in all ages to spread their errors through the efforts of their converts, flattering their conceits by speaking of their “gifts” and “talents”: by multiplying lay preachers they draw after them a host of disciples. Such incompetent novices are themselves ignorant of the very A B C of the Truth, yet in their egotism and presumption deem themselves qualified to explain the deepest mysteries of the Faith. A great deal safer, and more excusable, would it be to put an illiterate rustic into a dispensary to compound medicines Out of drugs and spirits he understands not and then administer the same unto his fellows, than for young upstarts with no better endowment than self-confidence to intrude themselves into the sacred office of the ministry: the one would poison men’s bodies, but the other their souls.
“But such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel, of light” (2 Corinthians 11:13, 14).
In all opposition to the Truth there is an agent at work which it belongs to the office of the Spirit of Truth to discover and unmask. If “another gospel” (<Galatians 1:6) be preached rather than the Gospel of Christ, it is the fruit of satanic energy, the minds and wills of its promulgators being led captive by the Devil. Satan is the arch-dissembler, being the prince of duplicity as well as of wickedness. When he had the awful effrontery to tempt the Lord Jesus he came with the Word of God on his lips saying, “It is written” (Matthew 4:6)! Though Satan’s kingdom be that of darkness, yet his craft is the mimicry of light, and thus it is that his agents work by deception. They claim to be the “apostles [or “missionaries”] of Christ,” but they have received no call or commission from Him. Nor should we marvel at their pretense when we remember the hold which the father of lies has over men.
“Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11:15).
They are “deceitful workers,” for they pose as champions of the Truth and as being actuated by a deep love for souls. As sin does not present itself to us as sin nor as paying death for its wages, but rather as something pleasant and desirable, and as Satan never shows himself openly in his true colors, so his “ministers” put on the cloak of sanctity, pretending to be dead to the world and very self-sacrificing. They are crafty, specious, tricky, hypocritical. What urgent need, then, is there to be on our guard, that we be not imposed upon by every mealy-mouthed and “gracious” impostor who comes to us Bible in hand. How we should heed that injunction, “Prove all things” (1 Thessalonians 5:21). Certain it is, my reader, that any preacher who rejects Gods Law, who denies repentance to be a condition of salvation, who assures the giddy and godless that they are loved by God, who declares that saving faith is nothing more than an act of the will which every person has the power to perform, is a false prophet, and should be shunned as a deadly plague.” —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
Taken from “The Sermon on the Mount” by A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
“To merely present a God who is willing to be reconciled to sinners is a wretched and wicked perversion of the Gospel.” —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
Taken from “The Satisfaction of Christ: Studies in the Atonement” by A. W. Pink (1886-1952)
Filed under: Grace, Pride, Sanctification, Spiritual Growth, True Conversion
“Blessed are the poor in spirit.” What is poverty of spirit? It is the opposite of that haughty, self-assertive, and self-sufficient disposition that the world so much admires and praises. It is the very reverse of that independent and defiant attitude that refuses to bow to God, that determines to brave things out, and that says with Pharaoh,
“Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice?” (Exodus 5:2).
To be poor in spirit is to realize that I have nothing, am nothing, and can do nothing, and have need of all things. Poverty of spirit is evident in a person when he is brought into the dust before God to acknowledge his utter helplessness. It is the first experiential evidence of a Divine work of grace within the soul, and corresponds to the initial awakening of the prodigal in the far country when he “began to be in want” (Luke 15:14). —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
Taken from “The Beatitudes” by A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
Filed under: Divinty of Scripture, Gleanings In Genesis, Glory of Christ, The Bible
“Christ is the key which unlocks the golden doors into the temple of Divine truth.” —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
Excerpt taken from “Gleanings In Genesis” by A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
“Behold, I am vile.” Though grace has entered his heart, his native depravity has not been expelled. Though sin no longer has dominion over him, it rages and often prevails against him. There is ceaseless warfare within between the flesh and the spirit. There is no need for us to enlarge on this, for every Christian, because of the plague of his heart, groans within himself, “O wretched man that I am!” —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
Taken from “Man’s Totaly Depravity” by Arthur W. Pink (1886–1952)
“Beware, my reader, if you despise God’s Truth you will fall into love with Satan’s lies.” —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
Taken from “The Sermon on the Mount” by A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
Filed under: Altar Call, Deceived, Evangelism, Soteriology, Sovereignty of God
“A preacher may induce a man to believe what Scripture says about his lost condition, persuade him to bow to the divine verdict, and then accept Christ as his personal Savior. No man wants to go to hell, and fire is assured intellectually that Christ stands ready as a fire escape, on the sole condition that he jump into His arms (“rest on His finished work”), thousands will do so. But a hundred preachers are unable to make an unregenerate person realize the dreadful nature of sin, or show him that he has been a lifelong rebel against God, or change his heart so that he now hates himself and longs to please God and serve Christ. Only the Spirit can bring man to the place where he is willing to forsake every idol, cut off a hindering right hand or pluck out an offending right eye.” —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
Taken from “Gleanings in the Godhead” by A. W. Pink (1886-1952)
“The preacher who most honors Christ is not the one who produces the largest “visible results,” but he who sticks the closest to His commission and preaches the Word most faithfully.” —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
Taken from “Gleanings in Joshua” by A. W. Pink (1886-1952)
Real Men Love Pink - A Collection of Quotes by A. W. Pink 