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 servants of God are to “preach the Gospel” (Mark 16:15), which is a proclamation of mercy through Christ. The Gospel is a Divine revelation of the way of salvation by free grace through the Lord Jesus. It announces deliverance from condemnation and the bestowment of eternal life upon all who comply with its terms. The Gospel presents not a system of philosophy, but the person of the God-man as the Object of faith. It makes known how the thrice holy God may be just and yet the Justifier of lawbreaking sinners. The things of our eternal concernment are therein proposed to us. A compliance with this Divine revelation is made of
“repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21).
Remission of sins is freely promised to all who thus comply with it. But it also implies and denounces tidings of the very opposite nature to all who neglect it: “he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:16);
“the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel” (2 Thessalonians 1:7, 8).
Now in preaching the Gospel to a single individual (which is, usually, more difficult than preaching to a crowd) it is in nowise necessary to say to him, Christ died for you, He bore your sins on the Cross. Neither the Lord Jesus nor the apostles adopted such a mode of procedure. Take one pertinent illustration from each of them. In His discourse to Nicodemus, Christ did not say, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so shall the Son of man be lifted up for you, “but” even so shall the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish” (John 3:14), thus pressing the responsibility of His hearer. So too when the Philippian jailer cried, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” but he did not add “who died for you.” It is not until after we have truly believed, that we learn we are among that favored company for whom the incarnate Son shed His precious blood.” —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
Taken from “The Satisfaction of Christ: Studies in the Atonement” by A. W. Pink (1886-1952)
“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).
“How different is this plain, positive and unqualified statement from the tale which nearly all preachers tell today! The story of the vast majority is that Christ came here to make salvation possible for sinners: He has done His part, now they must do theirs. To reduce the wondrous, finished, and glorious work of Christ to a merely making salvation possible is most dishonoring and insulting to Him.
Christ came here to carry into effect God’s sovereign purpose of election, to save a people already “His” (Matthew 1:21) by covenant settlement. There are a people whom God hath “from the beginning chosen unto salvation” (2 Thessalonians 2:13), and redemption was in order to the accomplishing of that decree. And if we believe what Scripture declares concerning the person of Christ, then we have indubitable proof that there can be no possible failure in connection with His mission. The Son of man, the Child born, was none other than “the mighty God” (Isaiah 9:6). Therefore is He omniscient, and knows where to look for each of His lost ones; He is also omnipotent, and so cannot fail to deliver when they are found.” —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
Taken from “The Satisfaction of Christ: Studies in the Atonement” by A. W. Pink (1886-1952)
“Assurance and peace are to be found by resting on the Word of God. The ground of both is outside of ourselves. Feelings have nothing to do with either. Deliverance from judgment is by the Finished Work of Christ, and by that alone. Nothing else will avail. Religious experiences, ordinances, self-sacrifice, Churchmembership, works of mercy, cultivation of character, avail nothing. The first thing for me, as a poor lost sinner, to make sure of is, Am I relying upon what Christ did for sinners? Am I personally trusting in His shed blood? If I am not, if instead. under the eloquence and moving appeals of some evangelist, I have decided to turn over a new leaf, and endeavor to live a better life, and I have “gone forward” and taken the preacher’s hand, and if he has told me that I am now saved and ready to “join the church,” and doing so I feel happy and contented — my peace is a false one, and I shall end in the Lake of Fire, unless God in His grace disillusions me.” —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
Taken from “Gleanings in Exodus” by A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
“The religion of the vast majority in Christendom today is one of tradition, form, or sentiment— destitute of one particle of vital and transforming power. Unless the Spirit of God has regenerated and indwells the soul, not only the most pleasing ritual but the most orthodox creed is worthless! Reader, you may be an ardent “Calvinist,” subscribe heartily to the soundest “Articles of Faith,” assent sincerely to every sentence in the Westminster Confession and Catechism, and yet be dead in trespasses and sins. Yea, such is your sad condition at this very moment, unless you have really been “born of the Spirit” and God has revealed His Son in you (Galatians 1:16).
“A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from Heaven” (John 3:27).
How little is that statement understood by the majority of professing Christians! How unpalatable it is to the self-sufficient Laodiceans of this age, ignorant as they are of their wretchedness, poverty and blindness (Revelation 3:17). Though the wisdom and power of the Creator manifestly appear in every part of His creation, yet when the first Gospel preacher was sent to the Gentiles he had to declare, “the world by wisdom knew not God” (1 Corinthians 1:21). Though the Jews had the Holy Scriptures in their hands and were thoroughly familiar with the letter of them, yet they knew neither the Father nor His Son when He appeared in their midst. Nor are things any better today. One may accept the Bible as God’s Word and assent to all that it teaches, and still be in his sins. He may believe that sin is a transgressing of God’s Law, that the Lord Jesus is alone the Savior of sinners, and even be intellectually convinced that without holiness no man shall see the Lord, and yet be entirely ignorant of God to any good purpose. Until a miracle of grace is wrought within them, the state and experience of all men—spiritually speaking—is,
“Hearing, ye shall hear, and not understand; seeing, ye shall see, and not perceive” (Acts 28:26).
They cannot do so until the veil of pride and prejudice, carnality and selfinterest be removed from their hearts, by God’s grace.
The soul must be Divinely renovated before it is capable of apprehending spiritual things. The careful reader will have noticed that the marginal rendering of John 3:27, is: “A man can take unto himself nothing, except it be given him from Heaven.” He must first be given a disposition in order to do so. What a word was that of Moses to the Israelites:
“Ye have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt… Yet the LORD hath not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day” (Deuteronomy 29:2-4)
—they took not to them the implications of what God had done so as to profit therefrom. Many have “the form of knowledge and of the truth in the Law” (Romans 2:20) in their heads, but are total strangers to the power of it in their hearts. Why is this the case? Because the Spirit has not made an effectual application of it to them: they have received no inward revelation of it in their souls. Let us furnish a specific illustration:
“For I was alive [in my own esteem] without the Law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died” (Romans 7:9).
From earliest childhood Saul of Tarsus had been thoroughly acquainted with the words of the Tenth Commandment, but until the hour of his spiritual quickening they had never searched within and “pricked him in the heart” (Acts 2:37).
Hitherto, that “Hebrew of the Hebrews” was proud of his orthodoxy, for had he not been brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the perfect manner of the Law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God (Acts 22:3)? Conscientious in the performing of duty, living an irreproachable life, “touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless” (Philippians 3:6) in his outward walk, he was thoroughly pleased with himself. But when the Spirit of God applied to his conscience those words, “thou shalt not covet,” his complacency was rudely shattered. When God gave him grace to perceive and feel the spirituality and strictness of the Divine Law, that it prohibited inward lustings, all unholy and irregular desires, he was convicted of his lost condition. He now saw and felt a sea of corruption within. He realized he stood condemned before the bar of a holy God, under the awful curse of His righteous Law, and he died to all self-esteem and self-righteousness. When the Law was Divinely brought home to his conscience in shattering power, it was like a bolt from the blue, smiting him with compunction: he became a dead man in his own convictions, a justly sentenced criminal.
Have you, my reader, experienced God’s Word to be “quick and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit”? Have you found it to be “a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12)—of your heart? You have not merely by the reading of it, nor by the hearing of it. That Word must be applied by an Almighty hand before it cuts a soul to the quick: only then is it “the sword of the Spirit”—when He directs it. It is only by the blessing and concurrence of the Spirit that the Word is made to produce its quickening, searching, illuminating, convicting, transforming and comforting effects upon the soul of any man. Only by the Spirit is the supremacy of the Word established in the soul. It is by His teaching that there is conveyed a real apprehension of the Truth, so that the heart is truly awed and solemnized, by being made to feel the authority and majesty of the Word.” —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
Taken from “The Doctrine of Revelation” by Arthur W. Pink (1886–1952)
“O my reader, be not deceived on this vital matter: to mortify the lusts of the flesh, to be crucified unto the world, to overcome the Devil, to die daily unto sin, and live unto righteousness, to be meek and lowly in heart, trustful and obedient, pious and patient, faithful and uncompromising, loving and gentle; in a word, to be a Christian, to be Christlike, is a task far, far beyond the poor resources of fallen human nature.” —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
Taken from “Studies on Saving Faith” by A. W. Pink (1886-1952)
“Multitudes of those in our churches are ignorant of the most elementary truths of the Christian faith. Experience shows that comparatively few people are clear about even the A. B. C. of the Gospel. Talk to the average church-member, and only too often it will be found that he has nothing more than a vague and uncertain hope about his personal salvation.” —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
Taken from “The Redeemer’s Return” by A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
Filed under: Exposition of The Gospel of John, Faith, Gospel, Grace, Soteriology
“The natural man has a “wine” of his own. There is a carnal happiness enjoyed which is produced by “the pleasures of sin” — the merriment which this world affords. But how fleeting this is! How unsatisfying! Sooner or later this “wine,” which is pressed from “the vine of the earth” (Revelation 14:18), gives out. The poor sinner may be surrounded by gay companions, he may be comfortably circumstanced financially and socially, yet the time comes when he discovers he has “no wine.” Happy the one who is conscious of this. The discovery of our own wretchedness is often the turning point. It prepares us to look to that One who is ready
“to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (Isaiah 61:3).
Unbelieving friend, there is only One who can furnish the true “wine,” the “good” wine, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. He can satisfy the longing of the soul. He can quench the thirst of the heart. He can put a song into thy mouth which not even the angels can sing, even the song of Redemption. What then must you do? What price must you pay? Ah, dear friend, listen to the glad tidings of grace: “Repent ye, and believe the Gospel” (Mark 1:15).” —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
Taken from “An Exposition of the Gospel of John” by A. W. Pink (1886-1952)
Filed under: Evangelism, Gleanings In Genesis, Modern Pulpits, Soteriology, True Conversion
“Before any of us could be born again God had to work a miracle. Make no mistake on this point; regeneration is the direct result of the supernatural operation of God. This needs to be stressed today, for regeneration has been so misrepresented by modern evangelists that to the popular mind the “new birth” signifies nothing more than a process of reformation. But the new birth is no mere turning over of a new leaf and the endeavor to live a better life. The new birth is very much more than going forward in a religious meeting and taking the preacher’s hand; very much more than signing a card and “joining the church.” The new birth is an act of God’s creative power, the impartation of spiritual life, the communication to us of the Divine nature itself.” —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
Excerpt taken from “Gleanings In Genesis” by A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
Filed under: Evangelism, Faith, Modern Pulpits, Soteriology, Sovereignty of God, Spiritual Growth
“The soundest and most faithful preaching in the world will avail nothing else unless the Holy Spirit applies it in quickening power; the most winsome offers and persuasive appeals will be useless until the Spirit bestows the hearing ear. The true prophet knows this, and therefore has he no confidence in his own abilities, but humbly seeks and earnestly prays for the power of the Spirit to rest upon him. But how different is it with deceivers of souls!” —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
Taken from “The Sermon on the Mount” by A. W. Pink (1886–1952)
Real Men Love Pink - A Collection of Quotes by A. W. Pink 