Evangelism Attempts By Young Converts

          

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“Equally pitiable is the hand religion of the day, when young “converts” are put to teaching a Sunday school class, urged to “speak” in the open air, or take up “personal work.” How many thousands of beardless youths and young girls are now engaged in what is called “winning souls for Christ,” when their own souls are spiritually starved! They may “memorize” two or three verses of Scripture a day, but that does not mean their souls are being fed. 

How many are giving their evenings to helping in some “mission,” when they need to be spending the time in “the secret of the Most High”! And how many bewildered souls are using the major part of the Lord’s day in rushing from one meeting to another instead of seeking from God that which will fortify them against the temptations of the week! Oh, the tragedy of this hand “Christianity.”

How subtle the Devil is! Under the guise of promoting growth in “the knowledge of the Lord,” he gets people to attend a ceaseless round of meetings, or to read an almost endless number of religious periodicals and books; or under the pretence of “honoring the Lord” by all this so-called “service” he induces the one or the other to neglect the great task which God has set before us:

“keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23).” 

 —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)

Taken from “Practical Christianity” by A. W. Pink (1886-1952)

Laziness In The Pulpit Leads To Demand For Experience and Not Doctrines of Jesus Christ

         

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"During the last two or three generations the pulpit has given less and less prominence to doctrinal preaching, until today, with very rare exceptions, it has no place at all. In some quarters the cry from the pew was, ‘we want living experience and not dry doctrine’; in others, ‘we need practical sermons and not metaphysical dogmas’; and yet others, "Give us Christ and not theology." 

Sad to say, such senseless cries were generally heeded: ‘senseless’ we say, for there is no other safe way of testing experience, as there is no foundation for practicals to be built upon if they be divorced from Scriptural doctrine; while Christ cannot be known unless he be preached (1Cor.1:23), and he certainly cannot be ‘preached’ if doctrine is shelved. Various reasons may be given for the lamentable failure of the pulpit, chief among them being laziness, desire for popularity, superficial and lop-sided evangelism, and love of the sensational'."

~ A.W. Pink (1886-1952)

Truer even more today than in Pink's day! The WOF, NAR, and Reformergents all want experiences, not doctrinal truth. And their lives bear this out; they are so worldly and so impotent that there is no evidence of the Holy Living God residing within them.

Professors vs. Possessors

"He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” The particular design of these verses is to take forth the precious from the vile. In them the apostle describes one of the vital differences which there is between the sheep and the goats. Of the latter it is said, “They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him” (Ti 1:16). They adopt the same language as the saints, believe the same doctrines, claim to be resting on the finished work of Christ, and are quite sure of their sal- vation; yet evince little or no concern for His precepts. They talk glibly, but walk carelessly. This is exceedingly solemn, for those who tread not in the way of God’s precepts are strangers to Him. A man spiritually knows no more than he practices, for spiritual knowledge is radical and influential. It exerts both a restraining and a constraining power, causing its subject to loathe and shun evil and to love and pursue that which is good. Therefore they who keep not God’s commandments have no experiential acquaintance with Him. “We cannot know Him as Lord and Father, without being dutiful children and obedient servants” (Calvin)."

~Arthur Pink, "Exposition of John's First Epistle"

Implications of One's Doctrines

"Few seem to realize the fearful implications which necessarily follow the principles they hold and advocate. To predicate an atonement which fails to atone, a redemption which does not redeem, a sacrifice which secures not the actual remission of sins is a horrible reflection upon all the attributes of God. To make the efficacy or success of the greatest of all God's works dependent upon the choice of fallen and depraved creatures is to magnify man at the cost of dethroning his Maker."

~Arthur Pink, "The Satisfaction of Christ-Studies in the Atonement"

How Is Our Judgment Formed?

              
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"If our judgment be formed or our actions regulated by dreams, visions, or supposed immediate revelations from Heaven, rather than by the plain meaning of the Holy Scriptures, then we slight them and God may justly give us up to our own delusions. If we follow the fashion, imitate our fellows, or take public opinion for our standard, we are but heathen. But if the Word of God is the only source of our wisdom and guidance, we shall be found treading ”the paths of righteousness” (Ps. 23:6)."

~Arthur Pink, "Spiritual Growth"

Profane Swearers

“What shall be said of that vast throng of profane swearers who pollute our language and wound our ears, by a vile mixture of blasphemies in their common conversation!

“Their throat is an open sepulcher… the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness” (Romans 3:13, 14).

It has become almost impossible to walk the streets or to enter mixed company without hearing the sacred Name of God treated with blasphemous contempt. The novels of the day, the stage, and even radio (and more lately television, the cinema, and the press) are terrible offenders, and without doubt this is one of the fearful sins against Himself for which God is now pouring out His judgments upon us.....And He is still the same: “The Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His Name in vain.” Sore punishment shall be his portion, if not in this life, then most assuredly so, eternally so, in the life to come.”

~Arthur Pink, "The Ten Commandments"

The Graduates From Seminaries Won't Listen To Spirit-Taught Laymen

Commenting on John 9:34 –

Alas, how tragically does history repeat itself. These men were too arrogant to receive anything from this poor beggar. They were graduates from honored seats of learning, therefore was it far too much beneath their dignity to be instructed by this unsophisticated disciple of Christ. And how many a preacher there is today, who in his fancied superiority, scorns the help which ofttimes a member of his congregation could give him. Glorying in their seminary education, they cannot allow that an ignorant layman has light on the Scriptures which they do not possess. Let a Spirit-taught layman seek to show the average preacher “the way of the Lord more perfectly,” and he must not be surprised if his pastor says — if not in so many words, plainly by his bearing and actions — “dost thou teach us?” How marvellously pertinent is this two-thousand-year-old Book to our own times! “And they cast him out” (John 9:34).

~AW Pink

Preaching A False Gospel

Any preacher who rejects God's 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. 

~AW Pink

Loyalty To Piper While Disloyal to Christ

I find it so sad to see people be so loyal to a man who promotes heretics and damnable gospels, and therefore be so disloyal to Christ Jesus and His Word. I think he's become an idol to them. Wolves like Warren are counting on this. He knows this better than these blind followers of Piper who are impotant to reject him for some reason.

“Error is like leaven, of which we read, ‘A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.’ Truth mixed with error is equivalent to all error, except that it is more innocent looking and, therefore, more dangerous. God hates such a mixture! Any error, or any truth-and-error mixture, calls for definite exposure and repudiation. To condone such is to be unfaithful to God and His Word and treacherous to imperiled souls for whom Christ died.” - Dr. Harry Ironside, pastor of Chicago’s Moody Memorial Church from 1930-1948


The Gospel of Satan by AW Pink--excerpts

The gospel of Satan is not a system of revolutionary principles, nor yet a program of anarchy. It does not promote strife and war, but aims at peace and unity. It seeks not to set the mother against her daughter nor the father against his son, but fosters the fraternal, spirit whereby the human race is regarded as one great "brotherhood". It does not seek to drag down the natural man, but to improve and uplift him. It advocates education and cultivation and appeals to "the best that is within us". It aims to make this world such a congenial and comfortable habitat that Christ’s absence from it will not be felt and God will not be needed. It endeavors to occupy man so much with this world that he has no time or inclination to think of the world to come. It propagates the principles of self-sacrifice, charity and benevolence, and teaches us to live for the good of others, and to be kind to all. It appeals strongly to the carnal mind and is popular with the masses, because it ignores the solemn facts that by nature man is a fallen creature, alienated from the life of God, and dead in trespasses and sins, and that his only hope lies in being born again.

In contradistinction to the Gospel of Christ, the gospel of Satan teaches salvation by works. It inculcates justification before God on the ground of human merits. Its sacramental phrase is "Be good and do good"; but it fails to recognize that in the flesh there dwelleth no good thing. It announces salvation by character, which reverses the order of God’s Word—character by, as the fruit of, salvation. Its various ramifications and organizations are manifold. Temperance, Reform movements, "Christian Socialist Leagues", ethical culture societies, "Peace Congresses" are all employed (perhaps unconsciously) in proclaiming this gospel of Satan—salvation by works. The pledge-card is substituted for Christ; social purity for individual regeneration, and politics and philosophy for doctrine and godliness. The cultivation of the old man is considered more practical" than the creation of a new man in Christ Jesus; whilst universal peace is looked for apart from the interposition and return of the Prince of Peace.