A Call To Prayer

by J. C. Ryle
"Men ought always to pray." Luke 18:1 

"I will that men pray everywhere." 1 Timothy 2:1 

These words are from J. C. Ryle so they are not mine. However I used his words because I could not say them better. The practice of prayers that he penned there, I apply them in my life on a daily basis. Is it easy? Not at all. In fact it is a daily striving to constantly be in prayer. But, I know one thing for sure is that if we do not force ourselves to pray and learn to intercede, we are in major trouble and if Christ felt the need to pray without ceasing, I think we need it more.  While those words belong to Ryle, I mean them with all the Agape love that I feel for you in my heart.

Learn to pray everywhere, even in the bathroom, during bath time, while I wash my face, while in the car, while shopping, walking etc. All it takes is a few seconds to talk to God. You purposely turn your face to Him constantly and daily. This doe not mean you need to neglect your morning quiet time with Him though. But, daily you put into practice what you find in this post, I promise you before you know it, you will become a prayer warrior.

I love you all and I am grateful He found us, so let’s pray for those in darkness and bondage as a way to say thank you to our big, merciful, loving and generous God. Let’s not horde Salvation all to ourselves and understand that a lot are in darkness because Satan has them in its grasps. Let’s help them through our prayers.

Let me speak TO THOSE WHO HAVE REAL DESIRES FOR SALVATION, but know not what steps to take, or where to begin.

I cannot but hope that some readers may be in this state of mind, and if there be but one such I must offer them affectionate counsel.

In a journey there must be a first step. There must be a change from sitting to moving forward…….If you desire salvation, and want to know what to do, I advise you to go this very day to the Lord Jesus Christ, in the first private place you can find, and earnestly and heartily entreat him in prayer to save your soul.

Tell him that you have heard that he receives sinners, and he has said, "Him that comes unto me I will in nowise cast out." Tell him that you are a poor vile sinner, and that you come to him on the faith of his own invitation. Tell him you put yourself wholly and entirely in his hands: that you feel vile and helpless, and hopeless in yourself: and that except he saves you, you have no hope of being saved at all. Beseech him to deliver you from guilt, the power, and the consequences of sin. Beseech him to pardon you, and wash you in his own blood. Beseech him to give you a new heart, and plant the Holy Spirit in your soul. Beseech him to give you grace and faith and will and power to be his disciple and servant from this day forever. Oh, readers, go this very day, and tell these things to the Lord Jesus Christ, if you are really in earnest about your soul.

Tell him in your own way, and your own words. If a doctor came to see you when you were sick you could tell him where you felt pain. If your soul feels its disease indeed, you can surely find something to tell Christ. Doubt not his willingness to save you, because you are a sinner. It is Christ's office to save sinners. He says himself, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Luke 5:32.

Wait not because you fell unworthy. Wait for nothing. Wait for nobody. Waiting comes from the devil. Just as you are, go to Christ. The worse you are, the more need you have to apply to him. You will never mend yourself by staying away.

Fear not because your prayer is stammering, your words feeble, and your language poor. Jesus can understand you. Just as a mother understands the first lispings of her infant, so does the blessed Savior understand sinners. He can read a sigh, and see a meaning in a groan.

Despair not because you do not get an answer immediately. While you are speaking, Jesus is listening. If he delays an answer, it is only for wise reasons, and to try if you are in earnest. The answer will surely come. Though it tarry, wait for it. It will surely come.

Oh, reader, if you have any desire to be saved, remember the advice I have given to you this day. Act upon it honestly and heartily, and you shall be saved.


Let me speak, lastly, TO THOSE WHO DO PRAY.

I trust that some who read this tract know well what prayer is, and have the Spirit of adoption. To all such, I offer a few words of brotherly counsel and exhortation. The incense offered in the tabernacle was ordered to be made in a particular way. Not every kind of incense would do. Let us remember this, and be careful about the matter and manner of our prayers.

I commend to you the importance of perseverance in prayer. Once having begun the habit, never give it up. Your heart will sometimes say, "You will have had family prayers: what mighty harm if you leave private prayer undone?" Your body will sometimes say, "You are unwell, or sleepy, or weary; you need not pray." Your mind will sometimes say, "You have important business to attend to to-day; cut short your prayers." Look on all such suggestions as coming direct from Satan. They are all as good as saying, "Neglect your soul." I do not maintain that prayers should always be of the same length; but I do say, let no excuse make you give up prayer. Paul said, "Continue in prayer and, "Pray without ceasing."

He did not mean that people should be always on their knees, but he did mean that our prayers should be like the continual burned-offering steadily preserved in every day; that it should be like seed-time and harvest, and summer and winter, unceasingly coming round at regular seasons; that it should be like the fire on the altar, not always consuming sacrifices, but never completely going out. Never forget that you may tie together morning and evening devotions, by an endless chain of short ejaculatory prayers throughout the day. Even in company, or business, or in the very streets, you may be silently sending up little winged messengers to God, as Nehemiah did in the very presence of Artaxerxes. And never think that time is wasted which is given to God. A nation does not become poorer because it looses one year of working days in seven, by keeping the Sabbath. A Christian never finds he is a loser, in the long run, by persevering in prayer.

 I commend to you the importance of intercession in our prayers. We are all selfish by nature, and our selfishness is very apt to stick to us, even when we are converted. There is a tendency in us to think only of our own souls, our own spiritual conflicts, our own progress in religion, and to forget others. Against this tendency we all have need to watch and strive, and not the least in our prayers. We should study to be of a public spirit. We should stir ourselves up to name other names besides our own before the throne of grace. We should try to bear in our hearts the whole world, the heathen, the Jews, the Roman Catholics, the body of true believers, the professing Protestant churches, the country in which we live, the congregation to which we belong, the household in which we sojourn, the friends and relations we are connected with. For each and all of these we should plead. This is the highest charity. They love me best who loves me in their prayers. This is for our soul's health. It enlarges our sympathies and expands our hearts. This is for the benefit of the church. The wheels of all machinery for extending the gospel are moved by prayer. They do as much for the Lord's cause who intercede like Moses on the mount, as they who fight like Joshua in the thick of the battle. This is to be like Christ. He bears the names of his people, as their High Priest, before the Father. Oh, the privilege of being like Jesus! This is to be a true helper to ministers. If I must choose a congregation, give me a people that pray.

I offer these points for your private consideration. I do it in all humility. I know no one who needs to be reminded of them more than I do myself. But I believe them to be God's own truth, and I desire myself and all I love to feel them more.

I want the times we live in to be praying times. I want the Christians of our day to be praying Christians. I want the church to be a praying church. My Heart's desire and prayer in sending forth this tract is to promote a spirit of prayerfulness. I want those who never prayed yet, to arise and call upon God, and I want those who do pray, to see that they are not praying amiss

Prayer for the Dark Places

After I read today’s headlines in the HUFFINGTON POST at first I was so sad, I wanted to cry but for some reasons I had no tears. Five minutes after I posted on Facebook, the sadness I felt was overwhelming and out of the blue tears were running down my face uncontrollably. I wanted to pray for the darkness that surround us, the darkness that some of us even though we have the Bible in our hands, yet we cannot see, so we too give in to the darkness and walk in it. I wanted to pray simply because way too many are ignorant of the true God.  Another reason why my heart is heavy is because Satan has so many disguise as angels of light right in the leadership of the Church to lead thousands, millions and billions astray.

Through His Grace, I will follow the true path, not matter what it takes! 

While I am dying for His return so that I do not have to witness the mess the Church has become, but it is not about me. Not only that, there are so many that are not ready for His return yet.  

Can I please ask those of you who are willing to let God break your heart with what breaks His heart, to pray with me?  Today’s Huffington’s posts demand that we stop looking at Salvation from our standpoint alone and let God move our hearts to reach out to others.

How can you reach out? You do not have to go around the world, on a mission to reach out. In fact, those who are given to prayers can actually reach more people than the missionaries that are constrained in one place at the time.  We can pray for God mercy to reach those that are ignorant and also pray for Him to open the eyes of people so that they could see Him. Pray for people who are going to read those posts and buy into them. Please pray without ceasing

We owe it to God to go forward with our Salvation through surrender, walking in the Spirit and abide in Him. We need to stop messing around while we take our Salvation for granted and stop being self-centered and ungrateful. Every time I read or see so many that are ignorant of the true God, especially when they are in the Church, I am grateful that He found me and opened my eyes, because it could have been me amongst those who do not know better, in the darkness.

I love you all, and keep up the faith you have received from Him!

Prayer for the Dark Places

James Smith, 1861

What mischief has SIN done in our world! What misery it has introduced! Sin is indeed a fearful evil — full of deadly poison! Wherever we look — we see the terrible effects of sin; and the further we look — the more fearful those effects appear. It is no wonder therefore, if we are often led to cry out with the Psalmist, "Have regard for your covenant, because haunts of cruelty fill the dark places of the land!" Psalm 74:20
 

 

We desperately need you Holy Spirit
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The People's Condition. They are in the dark, therefore their dwellings are called the dark places of the land. They are in a state of ignorance, represented by darkness, gross darkness.

They are ignorant of God — of his nature, which is spiritual.

They are ignorant of his law — which is holy, just, and good.

They are ignorant of his gospel — which is a glorious proclamation of salvation — salvation for the vilest, salvation for all who need it, for whoever will — salvation without money and without price.

They are ignorant of themselves —
of their immortality,
of their sinful and condemned state before God,
of their danger as rebels against God, and
of their need of the salvation which is in Christ Jesus.

They are ignorant of the church of God — it's privileges, happiness, employments, and prospects.

They are ignorant of the nature of the eternal state of the sinner and the saint; they know nothing of a dreadful Hell, nor of a glorious Heaven.

O distressing condition in which to be found!
 

Their Conduct. Cruelty. Ignorance leads to cruelty; the ignorant are generally cruel. It makes men cruel to themselves — inflicting tortures, and putting themselves to terrible pain. It makes them cruel to their relatives — the husband to his wife, the parents to their children, the children to their parents, neighbor to neighbor, rulers to their subjects, subjects to their rulers, tribes to tribes, and nations to nations. What is the history of a heathen country — but the history of cruelty! O the cruel customs, the cruel ceremonies, and the cruel wars, which are still so common! Well may Asaph say, "haunts of cruelty fill the dark places of the land!" Nor is cruelty confined to them — but just in proportion as sinners are in a state of spiritual ignorance — are they unkind and cruel. Let us then join in,
 

The Prayer. "Have regard for your covenant." In God's covenant with Abraham he promised, saying, "In you and in your seed, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." And in the covenant of grace he has said, speaking to his beloved Son, "I the Lord have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and will keep you, and give you for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles." Just the very thing they need, therefore it is repeated in another place. "I will also give you for a light of the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation unto the ends of the earth." Well then may we plead, "Have regard for your covenant," and do as you have said. Fulfill your word where it is written, "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest." Then there will be no longer any dark places of the earth, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

This covenant was ratified, sealed, and confirmed with the blood of Jesus, called "the blood of the everlasting covenant." Of this covenant Jesus is the Surety, the Mediator, and Intercessor — we may therefore pray, "Have regard for the promise of the covenant — to the blood of the covenant, and to Jesus in whom the covenant stands, and who fulfills all its glorious offices."
 

What Is Our Duty? It is to sympathize, and to sympathize deeply with those who reside in the dark places of the earth, and who dwell in the haunts of cruelty. Nor is sympathy enough, we should pray and plead for them with God. Nor is prayer enough, we should use every means in our power to send the gospel to them. Nor is it enough to send them the gospel, we should so live as to stimulate by our example all around us, to engage in this important work.

The knowledge of God, which they need, and we should send them — will civilize them, and teach them industry, civility, mercy, and love. The covenant rightly understood, encourages missionary effort, as it awakens sympathy, reveals God's provision, makes known his gracious promises, and sets before us the glorious end. Be sure then, the man does not understand God's covenant of grace — who shuts up his compassion from the heathen world, neglecting to pray for, and send the gospel to the dark places of the earth. O my brethren, can we read the accounts sent us from time to time of the cruelties practiced in heathen lands, remembering that those who do so, are our brethren and sisters in the flesh. Or can we think of the dreadful consequences of dying in sin, and in ignorance of God — and not from the deepest depths of our souls cry out, "Have regard for your covenant, because haunts of cruelty fill the dark places of the land!"

Are We Following Hard after God?

The doctrine of justification by faith-a Biblical truth, and a blessed relief from sterile legalism and unavailing self-effort has in our time fallen into evil company and been interpreted by many in such manner as actually to bar men from the knowledge of God. The whole transaction of religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless. Faith may now be exercised without a jar to the moral life and without embarrassment to the Adamic ego. Christ may be "received" without creating any special love for Him in the soul of the receiver. The man is "saved," but he neither hungry nor thirsty after God. In fact he is specifically taught to be satisfied and encouraged to be content with little.

The modern scientist has lost God amid the wonders of His world; we Christians are in real danger of losing God amid the wonders of His Word. We have almost forgotten that God is a Person and, as such, can be cultivated as any person can. It is inherent in personality to be able to know other personalities, but full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one encounter. It is only after long and loving mental intercourse that the full possibilities of both can be explored.

All social intercourse between human beings is a response of personality to personality, grading upward from the most casual brush between man and man to the fullest, most intimate communion of which the human soul is capable. Religion, so far as it is genuine, is in essence the response of created personalities to the Creating Personality, God. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."

God is a Person, and in the deep of His mighty nature He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires and suffers as any other person may. In making Himself known to us He stays by the familiar pattern of personality. He communicates with us through the avenues of our minds, our wills and our emotions. The continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemer man is the throbbing heart of New Testament religion.

This intercourse between God and the soul is known to us in conscious personal awareness. It is personal: that is, it does not come through the body of believers, as such, but is known to the individual, and, to the body through the individuals which compose it. And it is conscious: that is, it does not stay below the threshold of consciousness and work there unknown to the soul (as, for instance, infant baptism is thought by some to do), but comes within the field of awareness where the man can "know" it as he knows any other fact of experience.

You and I are in little (our sins excepted) what, God is in large. Being made in His image we have: I within us the capacity to know Him. In our sins we lack only the power. The moment the Spirit has quickened us to life in regeneration our whole being senses its kinship to God and leaps up in joyous recognition that is the heavenly birth without which we cannot: see the Kingdom of God. It is, however, not an end but an inception, for now begins the glorious pursuit the heart's happy exploration of the infinite riches of the Godhead. That is where we begin, I say, but where: we stop no man has yet discovered, for there is in the awful and mysterious deaths of the Triune God neither limit nor end.

Shoreless Ocean, who can sound Thee?
Thine own eternity is round Thee,
     Majesty divine!

To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul's paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too-easily-satisfied religionist, but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart. St. Bernard stated this holy paradox in a musical quatrain that will be instantly understood by every worshipping soul:

We taste Thee? O Thou Living Bread,
  And long teast upon Thee still:
We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead
  And thirst our souls from Thee to fill.

Come near to the holy men and women of the past and you will soon feel the heat of their desire after God. They mourned for Him, they prayed and wrestled and sought for Him day and night, in season and out, and when they had found Him the finding was all the sweeter for the long seeking. Moses used the fact that he knew God as an argument for knowing Him better. "Now, therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight"; and from there he rose to make the daring request, "I beseech thee, show me thy glory." God was frankly pleased by this display of ardor, and the next day called Moses into the mount, and there in solemn procession made all His glory pass before him.

 Excerpt from A. W. tozer: Following Hard After God!

A Four Fold Salvation — Part 7

A Fourfold Salvation

Arthur Pink, 1938 

Ah, my reader, it is this experience which prepares the heart to go out after Christ—those who are whole need not a physician—but those who are quickened and convicted by the Spirit are anxious to be relieved by the great Physician. "The Lord kills—and makes alive; He brings down to the grave—and brings up. The Lord makes poor—and makes rich; He brings low—and lifts up" (1 Sam. 2:6, 7). It is in this way that God slays our self-righteousness, makes us poor, and brings us low—by making sin to be an intolerable burden, and as bitter as wormwood to us.

There can be no saving faith until the soul is filled with evangelical repentance. Repentance is a godly sorrow for sin, a holy detestation of sin, and a sincere purpose to forsake it. The Gospel calls upon men to repent of their sins, forsake their idols, and mortify their lusts, and thus it is utterly impossible for the Gospel to be a message of glad tidings to those who are in love with sin and madly determined to perish rather than part with their idols.

Nor is this experience of sin's becoming bitter to us, limited unto our first awakening; it continues, in varying degrees, to the end of our earthly pilgrimage. The Christian suffers under temptations, is pained by Satan's fiery assaults, and bleeds from the wounds inflicted by the evils he commits. It grieves him deeply—that he makes such a wretched return unto God for His goodness, that he requites Christ so evilly for His dying love, that he responds so fitfully to the promptings of the Spirit. The wanderings of his mind when he desires to meditate upon the Word, the dullness of his heart when he seeks to pray, the worldly thoughts which invade his mind when reading Scripture, the coldness of his affections toward the Redeemer-cause him to groan daily; all of which goes to evidence that sin has been made bitter to him. He no longer welcomes those intruding thoughts which take his mind off God—rather does he sorrow over them. But "Blessed are those who mourn—for they shall be comforted" (Matt. 5:4).

Third, our salvation from the pleasure of sin may be recognized by the felt BONDAGE which sin produces. As it is not until a Divine faith is planted in the heart—that we become aware of our native and inveterate unbelief; so it is not until God saves us from the love of sin—that we are conscious of the fetters it has placed around us. Then it is, that we discover we are "without strength," unable to do anything pleasing to God, incapable of running the race set before us.

A Divinely-drawn picture of the saved soul's felt bondage is to be found in Romans 7, "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. 

For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members" (vv. 18, 19, 22, 23). And what is the sequel? This, the agonizing cry, "Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin!" If that be the sincere lamentation of your heart, then God has saved you from the pleasure of sin.

Let it be pointed out, though, that salvation from the love of sin is felt and evidenced in varying degrees by different Christians—and at different periods in the life of the same Christian, according to the measure of grace which God bestows, and according as that grace is active and operative. Some seem to have a more intense hatred of sin in all its forms than do others—yet the principle of hating sin is found in all real Christians. Some Christians rarely, if ever commit any deliberate and premeditated sins—more often they are tripped up, suddenly tempted (to be angry or to tell a lie) and are overcome. But with others the case is quite otherwise—they, fearful to say—actually plan evil acts. If anyone indignantly denies that such a thing is possible in a saint, and insists that such a character is a stranger to saving grace, we would remind him of David—was not the murder of Uriah definitely planned? This second class of Christians find it doubly hard to believe they have been saved from the love of sin.

Cooperating with the Process

We’ve lived in Colorado now for more than twenty years, but I’ve never really learned to snowboard. I mean, I’ve tried. But it was always a messy, hazardous, hesitant affair. Like a dog on roller skates. There wasn’t a lot of joy in it for me. I was tense, apprehensive. My basic problem was this: I couldn’t get myself to commit, to lean into it. You have to lean forward; you have to lean down slope. If you fight that, you end up constantly battling gravity and balance and the downward pull of things. The good riders just go for it—they commit, they lean into it, and off they go. Then comes the joy. I’ve never known that joy.

I’ve watched friends who are surfers, and it’s the same dynamic. There is a moment when you have to commit; you have to go with the wave or not. Yes, there is some paddling on your part, but when the wave picks you up, your choice is to let it, to go with it, to accept its power and let it hurl you forward. You don’t create the wave; the power is utterly beyond you. Once it has you in its mighty grip, your part is to cooperate. Then the beauty comes.

Holiness works the same way.

What I mean is this: The power is not ours. The power comes from God, from the presence of the living Jesus Christ inside us. He is the wave. If we think we have to paddle fast enough to create the entire experience, we will end up frustrated and exhausted from all the striving. The name for that is Religion. God offers something far better: “Let me be the wave.”

"Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose." (Philippians 2:12–13)

An excerpt from

The Utter Relief of Holiness, Ransomed heart ministry

The Four Fold Salvation — Part 6

The last paragraph of this post is so loaded that I do not even want to start talking about it. Suffice to say that it is a period that we walk with God which resembles to the dark night of the soul.  When the true self is unveiled to us, it is like Pink said: “the veil of delusion is removed.”  This is not something reserved for the few, but rather to all of us claiming to be Christian. However hard this road of discovery of the true self is, we have to walk it. Though this road we find that Christianity is far more than what we signed for, and we realize that God means business.  Anyone of you who has taken this road knows exactly what I mean and still have those invisible scars in the soul as proof that we have been there with Him. 

A Fourfold Salvation

Arthur Pink, 1938 

Let us point out first, that the presence of that within us which still lusts after and takes delight in some evil things—is not incompatible with our having been saved from the love of sin, paradoxical as that may sound. It is part of the mystery of the Gospel that those who are saved are yet sinners in themselves. The point we are here dealing with is similar to and parallel with faith. The Divine principle of faith in the heart, does not cast out unbelief. Faith and doubts exist side by side within a quickened soul, which is evident from those words, "Lord, I believe—help my unbelief" (Mark 9:24). In like manner the Christian may exclaim and pray, "Lord, I long after holiness—help my lustings after sin." And why is this? Because of the existence of two separate natures, the one at complete variance with the other within the Christian.

How, then, is the presence of faith to be ascertained? Not by the ceasing of unbelief—but by discovering its own fruits and works. Fruit may grow amid thorns—as flowers among weeds—yet it is fruit, nevertheless. Faith exists amid many doubts and fears.

Notwithstanding opposing forces from within as well as from without us, faith still reaches out after God. Notwithstanding innumerable discouragements and defeats, faith continues to fight. Notwithstanding many refusals from God, it yet clings to Him, and says, "Unless You bless me—I will not let You go." Faith may be fearfully weak and fitful, often eclipsed by the clouds of unbelief, nevertheless the Devil himself cannot persuade its possessor to repudiate God's Word, despise His Son, or abandon all hope. The presence of faith, then, may be ascertained in that it causes its possessor to come before God as an empty-handed beggar, beseeching Him for mercy and blessing.

Now just as the presence of faith may be known amid all the workings of unbelief, so our salvation from the love of sin may be ascertained notwithstanding all the lustings of the flesh after that which is evil. But in what way? How is this initial aspect of salvation to be identified? We have already anticipated this question in an earlier paragraph, wherein we stated that God saved us from delighting in sin—by imparting a nature which hates evil and loves holiness, which takes place at the new birth. 

Consequently, the real question to be settled is how may the Christian positively determine whether that new and holy nature has been imparted to him? The answer is by observing its activities, particularly the opposition it makes (under the energizing of the Holy Spirit) unto indwelling sin. Not only does the flesh (the principle of sin) lust against the spirit—but the spirit (the principle of holiness) lusts and wars against the flesh.

First, our salvation from the pleasure or love of sin, may be recognized by sin's becoming a BURDEN to us. This is truly a spiritual experience. Many souls are loaded with worldly anxieties—who know nothing of what it means to be bowed down with a sense of guilt. But when God takes us in hand, the iniquities and transgressions of our past life are made to lie as an intolerable load upon the conscience. When we are given a sight of ourselves as we appear before the eyes of the thrice holy God—we will exclaim with the Psalmist, "For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me!" (40:12). So far from sin being pleasant, it is now felt as a cruel tormentor, a crushing weight, an unendurable load. The soul is "heavy laden" (Matt. 11:28) and bowed down. A sense of guilt oppresses, and the conscience cannot bear the weight upon it. Nor is this experience restricted to our first conviction—it continues with more or less acuteness throughout the Christian's life.

Second, our salvation from the pleasure of sin, may be recognized by sin's becoming BITTER to us. True, there are millions of the unregenerate who are filled with remorse over the harvest reaped from their sowing of wild oats. Yet that is not hatred of sin—but dislike of its consequences—ruined health, squandered opportunities, financial straitness, or social disgrace. 

No, what we have reference to, is that anguish of heart which ever marks the one whom the Spirit takes in hand. When the veil of delusion is removed, and we see sin in the light of God's countenance; when we are given a discovery of the depravity of our very nature—then we perceive that we are sunk in carnality and death. When sin is opened to us in all its secret workings—we are made to feel the vileness of our hypocrisy, self-righteousness, unbelief, impatience, and the utter filthiness of our hearts. And when the penitent soul views the sufferings of Christ, he can say with Job, "God makes my heart soft" (23:16).

A Four Fold Salvation — Part 5

One of the reasons why some “Christians” are living the defeated life and have no idea what it means to have their identity anchored in Him is because they have not really received Salvation yet. We have millions of people out there who have been persuaded to say the sinner’s prayer without a true understanding of what being a Christian entails. While I do not have a problem about us asking people to ask Christ into their hearts but I have a problem with the way it’s done. It is purely mechanical, not enough information is given to make an informed decision, in some cases we have intimidation and more often than not, we push people to do it. The first time I received Christ it was handled in one of those ways I described above, and when I realized what he did to me, I was upset for a little while.

However, since I was invited to Church I kept going, every Sunday before I knew it, I was roaming all around the Church participating in all kinds of activities while serving, in the meantime, I was not a Christian yet. Nevertheless, I enjoyed being part of something, I liked the culture and it was like belonging to a nice and exclusive club. During that time, I became curious about Christianity. I know what it means to dread being baptized and you wish you did not have to do it. I know what it means to roam around the Church without being a Christian and I know the difference when Christ enters your heart on His terms and you are sealed with the Holy Spirit.

I thank God that over time I became curious and investigated. But, what about those who never get to meet with Him and instead they fall into a coma in the Church while waiting to go to heaven? Since, true grace from Him changes you in the depth of your being, why is it some professed Christians never changed? Why is it for some of us if it was not for the outward activities our Christianity would be the best kept secret? Why is it some never feel the need to go deeper? Why some are not craving for more of Him?  Why is it we have millions out there with no idea that there is a world of a difference between being saved in your sin and being saved from sin? Why do we have millions of people in the Church still clinging to some vague idea of salvation and some prayer they might have said years ago while having no idea of what intimacy with God means? Attending Church, being baptized and Church membership do not make anyone Christian.

While we are selling some kind of man-made Salvation, we have the audacity to tell people they have been sealed with the Spirit as if we could manipulate the Holy Spirit to be complicit in our deceitful ways. It isn't for nothing we have a whole bunch of famous singers living the Hollywood life, which is our modern version of Sodom and Gomorrah, yet still thinking they are children of God. This is the culture we live in and this is how we are selling Christianity. Sadly, most of the recipients believe what we are selling because it is an easy gig to them—cheap grace.

While you might not be dancing and showing every part of your body to make a buck, but, if you are still sitting in the pews unchanged by the Holy Spirit, on the inside after decades of calling yourself Christian, well, you either have a problem or God is a liar and the New Testament Salvation has no power to change a man. 

A Fourfold Salvation

Arthur Pink, 1938 

What, then, say the Scriptures? So far from God's Word denying that there is any delight to be found therein, it expressly speaks of "the pleasures of sin," yet it immediately warns us that those pleasures are but "for a season" (Heb. 11:25), for the aftermath is painful and not pleasant; yes, Studies in the Scriptures July, 1938 22 unless God intervenes in His sovereign grace, they entail eternal torment. So, too, the Word refers to those who are "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God" (2 Tim. 3:4).

It is indeed striking to observe how often this discordant note is struck in Scripture. It mentions those who "love vanity" (Psalm 4:2), "him that loves violence" (Psalm 11:5) "you love evil more than good" (Psalm 52:3), "scorners delight in their scorning" (Proverbs 1:22), "those who delight in the abominations" (Isaiah 66:3), "their abominations were according as they loved" (Hosea 9:10), "who hate the good and love the evil" (Micah 3:2), "if any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15). To love sin is far worse than to commit it, for a man may be suddenly tripped up and commit it through frailty.

The fact is, my reader, that we are not only born into this world with an evil nature—but with hearts that are thoroughly in love with sin. Sin is a native element. We are wedded to our lusts, and of ourselves no man is able to alter the bent of our corrupt nature any more than the Ethiopian can change his skin or the leopard his spots. But what is impossible with man is possible to God, and when He takes us in hand this is where He begins—by saving us from the pleasure or love of sin. This is the great miracle of grace, for the Almighty stoops down and picks up a loathsome leper from the dunghill, and makes him a new creature in Christ, so that the things he once loved he now hates, and the things he once hated he now loves. God commences by saving us from ourselves. He does not save us from the penalty of sin—until He has delivered us from the love of it.

And how is this miracle of grace accomplished, or rather, exactly what does it consist of? Negatively, not by eradicating the evil nature, nor even by refining it. Positively, by communicating a new nature, a holy nature which loathes that which is evil and delights in all that is truly good. To be more specific.

First, God saves His people from the pleasure or love of sin—by putting His holy awe in their hearts, for "the fear of the Lord is to hate evil" (Proverbs 8:13), and again, "by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil" (Proverbs 16:6).

Second, God saves His people from the pleasure of sin—by communicating to them a new and vital principle, "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit" (Romans 5:5), and where the love of God rules the heart, the love of sin is dethroned.

Third, God saves His people from the love of sin—by the Holy Spirit's drawing their affections unto things above, thereby taking them off the things which formerly enthralled them.

If on the one hand the unbeliever hotly denies that he is in love with sin, many a believer is often hard put to it to persuade himself that he has been saved from the love thereof. With an understanding that has been in part enlightened by the Holy Spirit, he is the better able to discern things in their true colors. With a heart that has been made honest by grace, he refuses to call sweet bitter. With a conscience that has been sensitized by the new birth, he the more quickly feels the workings of sin and the hankering of his affections for that which is forbidden. Moreover, the flesh remains in him, unchanged, and as the raven constantly craves carrion, so this corrupt principle in which our mothers conceived us—lusts after and delights in that which is the opposite of holiness. These things are they which occasion and give rise to the disturbing questions that clamor for answers within the genuine believer.

The sincere Christian is often made to seriously doubt if he has been delivered from the love of sin. Such questions as these painfully agitate his mind—Why do I so readily yield to temptation? Why do some of the vanities and pleasures of the world still possess so much attraction for me? Why do I chafe so much against any restraints being placed upon my lusts? Why do I find the work of mortification so difficult and distasteful? Could such things as these be—if I were a new creature in Christ? Could such horrible experiences as these happen—if God had saved me from taking pleasure in sin?

Well do we know that we are here giving expression to the very doubts which exercise the minds of many of our readers, and those who are strangers thereto are to be pitied. But what shall we say in reply? How is this distressing problem to be resolved? How may one be assured that he has been saved from the love of sin?

A Fourfold Salvation—Part 4

The way the triune God taught me in the wilderness has always been in three fold. He taught me verbally, then showed me, then proceeded to let me experience what He just taught me. Some experiences last few seconds, some few minutes and some few days. He usually takes the experiences away because He does not want our lives to be just about experiencing Him. Nevertheless, it was indeed an intense period at His feet for seven years. Granted, since I came out of the wilderness, things are not as intense as they used to be and the experience part of the process is very far apart. But, I know because I experience Him less, does not mean His pattern has changed. He is truly a God of order. I also learned that this process of His is a pattern that He follows in working out Salvation in our lives. Through it, I also learned why we cannot separate salvation from discipleship, justification and sanctification. They are just one long string of grace as far as God is concerned.

Those steps in our lives like justification, sanctification, etc are just the impartation of what we have received. He showed me in a beautiful way how Salvation and the impartation process is like having all the ingredients to make a specific cake where not one ingredient is missing, but they are all laid out on the table. Then, together we make a beautiful cake that I could not even begin to envision on my own. When you get to know God you know He has a sense of humour. Most of my vision where He is teaching me, He always shows me myself as a seven or eight years old child. Anyway, though we were making the cake together, I have never left His side and my job was limited to sometimes pass the ingredients to Him and sometimes He would let me get involved in the mix up process, but the mixer and the utensil being used to mix up, never leave His hands even though I am involved. Picture making a cake with your child and you ask him or she to press the button of the electrical appliance for you to make the child feels useful. That was the extend of my work.

When we know Him up close and personal, we also know every step we take after Salvation enters our heart, while we take those steps through faith and it seems to be our work, but it is no less the author of Salvation working in us to will and to do.

Now, often times we say that, people are living in defeat because they do not know who they are in Him. You know what? It is true sometimes we are not aware of our identity in Him, as such we cannot live out the blessings this identity has in store for us. We are not able to transfer on a daily basis what we know of Him and process the knowledge into the heart until it takes root within. Make no mistake about the reason why these types of Christians are defeated, because they do not know Him personally. I am not making this up, it turns out that I was there too at one point in my Salvation.

But, we cannot assume that everyone living in defeat is simply because they do not know who they are in Him. If we do not learn to properly diagnose in the spirit, especially if we are called to be Bible study leaders, we will not be able to help those that we are  called to help,  nor we are able to pray for them properly.

Some are living in defeat, especially if they have  called  themselves Christians for a few decades and they have been going to Church, serve and read the Bible etc., yet they are still defeated because they have not really received Salvation yet. Yes - I dare say it, I will expand on it further tomorrow. 

A Fourfold Salvation

Arthur Pink, 1938 

Second, the meritorious cause of salvation is the mediation of Christ, this having particular respect to the legal side of things, or, in other words, His fully meeting the demands of the Law on behalf and in the place of those He redeems.

Third, the efficient cause of salvation is the regenerating and sanctifying operations of the Holy Spirit which respect the experimental side of it; or, in other words, the Spirit works in us what Christ purchased for us.

Thus, we owe our personal salvation equally to each Person in the Trinity, and not to one (the Son) more than to the others.

Fourth, the instrumental cause is our faith, obedience, and perseverance—though we are not saved because of them, equally true is it that we cannot be saved (according to God's appointment) without them.

Our salvation originates, of course, in the eternal purpose of God, in His predestinating of us to everlasting glory. "Who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works—but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began" (2 Tim. 1:9). That has reference to God's decree of election—His chosen people were then saved, completely, in the Divine purpose, and all that we shall now say, has to do with the performing of that purpose, the accomplishing of that decree, the actualization of that salvation.

I. Salvation from the PLEASURE of Sin.

It is here that God begins in His actual  application of salvation unto His elect. God saves us from the pleasure or love of sin, before He delivers from the penalty or punishment of sin. Necessarily so, for it would be neither an act of holiness nor of righteousness, were He to grant a full pardon to one who was still a rebel against Him, loving that which He hates.

God is a God of order throughout, and nothing ever more evidences the perfection of His works, than the orderliness of them. And how does God save His people from the pleasure of sin? The answer is—by imparting to them a nature which hates evil and loves holiness. This takes place when they are born again, so that actual salvation begins with regeneration. Of course it does—where else could it commence? Fallen man can neither perceive his desperate need of salvation, nor come to Christ for it, until he has been renewed by the Holy Spirit.

"He has made everything beautiful in His time" (Eccl. 3:11), and much of the beauty of God's spiritual handiwork is lost upon us, unless we duly observe our "time." Has not the Spirit Himself emphasized this in the express enumeration He has given us in, "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he  predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified." (Romans 8:29, 30)? Verse 29 announces the Divine foreordination; verse 30 states the manner of its actualization. It seems strange, that with this Divinely-defined method before them, so many preachers begin with our justification, instead of with that effectual call (from death unto life—our regeneration) which precedes it. Surely it is most obvious that regeneration must first take place—in order to lay a foundation for our justification. Justification is by faith (Acts 13:39; Romans 5:1; Gal. 3:8), and the sinner must be Divinely quickened before he is capable of believing savingly.

Ah, does not the last statement made throw light upon and explain what we have said is so "strange"? Preachers today are so thoroughly imbued with free-willism that they have departed almost wholly from that sound evangelism which marked our forefathers.

The radical difference between Arminianism and Calvinism is that the system of the former revolves around the creature, whereas the system of the latter has the Creator for the center of its orbit. The Arminian allots to man the first  place, the Calvinist gives God that position of honor. Thus the Arminian begins his discussion of salvation with justification, for the sinner must believe before he can be forgiven; further back he will not go, for he is unwilling that man should be made nothing of. But the instructed Calvinist begins with election, descends to regeneration, and then shows that being born again (by the sovereign act of God, in which the creature has no part) the sinner is made capable of savingly believing the Gospel.

Saved from the pleasure or love of sin. What multitudes of people strongly resent being told that they delighted in evil! They would indignantly ask if we suppose them to be moral perverts? No indeed—a person may be thoroughly chaste and yet delight in evil. It may be that some of our own readers repudiate the charge that they have ever taken pleasure in sin, and would claim, on the contrary, that from earliest recollections they have detested wickedness in all its forms. Nor would we dare to call into question their sincerity; instead, we point out that it only affords another exemplification of the solemn fact, that "the heart is deceitful above all things" (Jer. 17:9). But this is a matter that is not open to argument—the plain teaching of God's Word deciding the point once and for all, and beyond its verdict there is no appeal.

A Four Fold Salvation — Part 3

One of the things I learned from God as He imparts this life in me is that if you cannot rise to the occasion, then you would do well to examine yourself to see exactly what did you receive.  A lot of us loves saying we have received Christ, but what does that mean to us?  Better yet, what does that mean to God and how does it work out with His vision for Salvation?  As He taught me through a lengthy and painful process the act of receiving Him, I found out the true meaning of this verse in 1John 2:19  “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.”

I also found out, although there are a lot of things in the Bible that were written for people living in that time and we cannot interpret the Bible without incorporating this fact.  So, yes 1John 2:19 was also written with context of Acts 15:1, but it was also written for our own good today. None of it will make sense to us if we are bent on going on about Salvation with one or two verses, and our own explanation. We make Christ a liar as He did not need to send the Holy Spirit to teach us His Word and His way. It is His job to take from God, to us.  There are several ways we can depart from the faith. The only proof you have that you have truly received His Salvation is that you keep rising to the occasions and keep going forward with Him no matter what the obstacles or the trials

A.W. Tozer: "The Word of God well understood and religiously obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection. And we must not select a few favourite passages to the exclusion of others. Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian.

A Fourfold Salvation

Arthur Pink, 1938 

It is not that God would bewilder us—but that He would humble us, drive us to our knees, make us dependent upon His Spirit. Not to the proud—who are wise in their own esteem—are its heavenly secrets opened.

In like manner it may be shown from Scripture that the cause of salvation is not a single one, as so many suppose—the blood of Christ. Here, too, it is necessary to distinguish between things which differ.

First, the originating cause of salvation is the eternal purpose of God, or, in other words, the predestinating grace of the Father

The fact is, that the great majority of professing Christians fail to see that "salvation" is one of the most comprehensive terms in all the Scriptures, including predestination, regeneration, justification, sanctification and glorification. They have far too cramped an idea of the meaning and scope of the word "salvation" (as it is used in the Scriptures), narrowing its range too much, generally confining their thoughts to but a single phase. They suppose "salvation" means no more than the new birth or the forgiveness of sins. Were one to tell them that salvation is a protracted process, they would view him with suspicion; and if he affirmed that salvation is something awaiting us in the future, they would at once dub him a heretic. Yet they would be the ones to err.

Ask the average Christian, Are you saved, and he answers, Yes, I was saved in such and such a year; and that is as far as his thoughts on the subject go. Ask him, to what do you owe your salvation? and "the finished work of Christ" is the sum of his reply. Tell him that each of those answers is seriously defective, and he strongly resents your aspersion.

As an example of the confusion which now prevails, we quote the following from a tract on Philippians 2:12, "To whom are those instructions addressed? The opening words of the Epistle tell us—'To the saints in Christ Jesus' . . . Thus they were all believers! and could not be required to work for their salvation, for they already possessed it." Alas that so very few today perceive anything wrong in such a statement. Another "Bible teacher" tells us that "save yourself" (1 Tim. 4:16) must refer to deliverance from physical ills, as Timothy was already saved spiritually. True—yet it is equally true that he was then in process of being saved, and also a fact that his salvation was then future.

Let us now supplement the first three verses quoted and show there are other passages in the New Testament which definitely refer to each distinct tense of salvation.

First, salvation as an accomplished fact, "Your faith has saved you" (Luke 7:50), "by grace you have been saved" (Greek, and so translated in the R.V.—Eph. 2:8), "according to His mercy He saved us" (Titus 3:5).

Second, salvation as a present process, in course of accomplishment, not yet completed, "Unto us which are being saved" (1 Cor. 1:18—R.V.); "Those who believe to the saving (not 'salvation') of the soul" (Heb. 10:39).

Third, salvation as a future prospect, "Sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation" (Heb. 1:14), "receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls" (James 1:21), "Kept by the power of God through faith Studies in the Scriptures July, 1938 20 unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Peter 1:5).

Thus, by putting together these different passages, we are clearly warranted in formulating the following statement—every genuine Christian has been saved, is now being saved, and will yet be saved—how and from what, we shall endeavor to show.

As further proof of how many-sided is the subject of God's great salvation and how that in Scripture it is viewed from various angles, take the following, "by grace are you saved" (Eph. 2:8), "saved by His (Christ's) life" (that is) by His resurrection life (Romans 5:9), "your faith has saved you" (Luke 7:50), "the engrafted Word which is able to save your souls" (James 1:21), "saved by hope" (Romans 8:24), "saved yet as by fire" (1 Cor. 3:15), "the like figure where unto baptism does also now save us" (1 Peter 3:21).

Ah, my reader, the Bible is not the lazy man's book, nor can it be soundly expounded by those who do not devote the whole of their time, and that for years, to its prayerful study. It is not that God would bewilder us—but that He would humble us, drive us to our knees, make us dependent upon His Spirit. Not to the proud—who are wise in their own esteem—are its heavenly secrets opened.

In like manner it may be shown from Scripture that the cause of salvation is not a single one, as so many suppose—the blood of Christ. Here, too, it is necessary to distinguish between things which differ.

First, the originating cause of salvation is the eternal purpose of God, or, in other words, the predestinating grace of the Father

A Fourfold Salvation ─ Part 2

When it comes to salvation, there is no question that the Roman Catholic Church went way too far and they added so much to God’s Word that they resemble to the Pharisees in their interpretation of the law. In the same way, Protestants, to rectify the situation and distance itself from the Roman Catholic, has unquestionably taken out too much of the Word of God that they are left with an empty shell (some sort of mould) that does not quite fit with God’s Word. So, most Protestants when it comes time to prepare a sermon, write a book, read our Bible etc, they start to unravel the gospel according to what they are holding onto so preciously and everything must fit the mould they have been given. What is wrong with the Protestant model is that we are in fact telling God how we want Him to interpret Salvation and we are dictating our terms.

At the end of the day, both groups butchered God’s vision and goal for Salvation. The fact is, when true Salvation comes in contact with a man’s soul, you can see the ugliness within. Now, this is not something we repeat like parrots without ever knowing what it means inwardly. This is not a matter of repeating glibly few verses out of context and without the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

It is a knowledge of ugliness within that causes you to disgust yourself and disgust sin and you know and compute that without Christ you are nothing. You are aware of how desperately you need Him and the sweet preciousness of the cross, because you have come face to face with your helplessness without the work of the cross in your life. This is not an experience reserved for the few as if God unjustly does not show it to other Christians. IT IS SIMPLY THE EFFECT OF SALVATION IN YOUR SOUL. It is the life of Christ within bringing up the contrast between who we are now with His life operating in us as He breathe His life within us.

I would hate to know that you are taking just my word on this or worse, you are screaming apostasy, instead of going directly to Him.

A Fourfold Salvation

By A. Pink 1938

The fact is, that the great majority of professing Christians fail to see that "salvation" is one of the most comprehensive terms in all the Scriptures, including predestination, regeneration, justification, sanctification and glorification. They have far too cramped an idea of the meaning and scope of the word "salvation" (as it is used in the Scriptures), narrowing its range too much, generally confining their thoughts to but a single phase. They suppose "salvation" means no more than the new birth or the forgiveness of sins. Were one to tell them that salvation is a protracted process, they would view him with suspicion; and if he affirmed that salvation is something awaiting us in the future, they would at once dub him a heretic. Yet they would be the ones to err.

Ask the average Christian, Are you saved, and he answers, Yes, I was saved in such and such a year; and that is as far as his thoughts on the subject go. Ask him, to what do you owe your salvation? and "the finished work of Christ" is the sum of his reply. Tell him that each of those answers is seriously defective, and he strongly resents your aspersion.

As an example of the confusion which now prevails, we quote the following from a tract on Philippians 2:12, "To whom are those instructions addressed? The opening words of the Epistle tell us—'To the saints in Christ Jesus' . . . Thus they were all believers! and could not be required to work for their salvation, for they already possessed it." Alas that so very few today perceive anything wrong in such a statement. Another "Bible teacher" tells us that "save yourself" (1 Tim. 4:16) must refer to deliverance from physical ills, as Timothy was already saved spiritually. True—yet it is equally true that he was then in process of being saved, and also a fact that his salvation was then future.

Let us now supplement the first three verses quoted and show there are other passages in the New Testament which definitely refer to each distinct tense of salvation.

First, salvation as an accomplished fact, "Your faith has saved you" (Luke 7:50), "by grace you have been saved" (Greek, and so translated in the R.V.—Eph. 2:8), "according to His mercy He saved us" (Titus 3:5).

Second, salvation as a present process, in course of accomplishment, not yet completed, "Unto us which are being saved" (1 Cor. 1:18—R.V.); "Those who believe to the saving (not 'salvation') of the soul" (Heb. 10:39).

Third, salvation as a future prospect, "Sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation" (Heb. 1:14), "receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls" (James 1:21), "Kept by the power of God through faith Studies in the Scriptures July, 1938 20 unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Peter 1:5).

Thus, by putting together these different passages, we are clearly warranted in formulating the following statement—every genuine Christian has been saved, is now being saved, and will yet be saved—how and from what, we shall endeavor to show.

As further proof of how many-sided is the subject of God's great salvation and how that in Scripture it is viewed from various angles, take the following, "by grace are you saved" (Eph. 2:8), "saved by His (Christ's) life" (that is) by His resurrection life (Romans 5:9), "your faith has saved you" (Luke 7:50), "the engrafted Word which is able to save your souls" (James 1:21), "saved by hope" (Romans 8:24), "saved yet as by fire" (1 Cor. 3:15), "the like figure where unto baptism does also now save us" (1 Peter 3:21).

Ah, my reader, the Bible is not the lazy man's book, nor can it be soundly expounded by those who do not devote the whole of their time, and that for years, to its prayerful study. It is not that God would bewilder us—but that He would humble us, drive us to our knees, make us dependent upon His Spirit. Not to the proud—who are wise in their own esteem—are its heavenly secrets opened.

In like manner it may be shown from Scripture that the cause of salvation is not a single one, as so many suppose—the blood of Christ. Here, too, it is necessary to distinguish between things which differ.

First, the originating cause of salvation is the eternal purpose of God, or, in other words, the predestinating grace of the Father.