Teaching Resources International

The grand truth of Divine Chastisement is inexpressibly blessed, and one which we can neglect only to our great loss. It is of deep importance, for when Scripturally apprehended it preserves from some serious errors by which Satan has succeeded (as “an angel of light”) in deceiving and destroying not a few. For example, it sounds the death-knell to that widespread delusion of “sinless perfectionism.” The passage which is to be before us unmistakably exposes the wild fanaticism of those who imagine that, as the result of some “second work of grace,” the carnal nature has been eradicated from their beings, so that, while perhaps not so wise, they are as pure as the angels which never sinned, and lead lives which are blameless in the sight of the thrice holy God. Poor blinded souls: such have not even experienced a first “work of Divine grace” in their souls:

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).   “My son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him; for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth” (Hebrews 12:5-6).

How plain and emphatic is that! God does find something to “rebuke” in us, and uses the rod upon every one of His children. Chastisement for sin is a family mark, a sign of sonship, a proof of God’s love, a token of His Fatherly kindness and care; it is an inestimable mercy, a choice new covenant blessing. Woe to the man whom God chastens not, whom He suffers to go recklessly on in the boastful and presumptuous security which so many now mistake for faith. There is a reckoning to come of which he little dreams. Were he a son, he would be chastened for his sin; he would be brought to repentance and godly sorrow, he would with grief of heart confess his backslidings, and then be blest with pardon and peace.

The truth of Divine chastisement corrects another serious error, which has become quite common in certain quarters, namely, that God views His people so completely in Christ that He sees no sin in them. It is true, blessedly true, that of His elect it is stated, “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel” (Numbers 23:21) and that Christ declares of His spouse “Thou art all fair, My love; there is no spot in thee” (Song of Solomon 4:7).

The testimony of Scripture is most express that in regard to the justification or acceptance of the persons of the elect, they are “complete in Him” — Christ (Colossians 2:10); “accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6) — washed in Christ’s blood, clothed with His righteousness. In that sense, God sees no sin in them; none to punish. But we must not use that precious truth to set aside another, revealed with equal clearness, and thus fall into serious error.

God does see sin in His children and chastises them for it. Even though the non-imputation of sin to the believer (Romans 4:8) and the chastisement of sin in believers (1 Corinthians 11:30-32) were irreconcilable to human reason, we are bound to receive both on the authority of Holy Writ. Let us beware lest we fall under the solemn charge of Malachi 2:9, “Ye have not kept My ways, but have been partial in the law.” What could be plainer than this, “I will make Him my Firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. By mercy will I keep for Him for evermore, and My covenant shall stand fast with Him. His seed also will I make to endure forever and His throne as the days of heaven. If His children forsake My law, and walk not in My judgments; if they break My statutes, and keep not My commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless My loving kindness will I not utterly take from Him, nor suffer My faithfulness to fail” (Psalm 89:27-33).

Five things are clearly revealed there.

First Christ Himself is addressed under the name of “David.”

Second, His children break God’s statutes.

Third, in them there is “iniquity” and “transgression.”

Fourth, God will “visit” their transgression “with the rod!”

Fifth, yet will He not cast them off.

What could express more clearly the fact that God does see sin in believers, and that He does chastise them for it? For, be it noted, the whole of the above passage speaks of believers. It is the language, not of the Law, but of the Gospel. Blessed promises are there made to believers in Christ: the unchanging loving-kindness of God, His covenant-faithfulness toward them, His spiritual blessing of them. But “stripes” and the “rod” are here promised too! Then let us not dare to separate what God has joined together. How do we know anything concerning the acceptance of the elect in Christ? The answer must be, Only on the testimony of Holy Writ. Very well; from the same unerring Testimony we also know that God chastises His people for their sins. It is at our imminent peril that we reject either of these complementary truths.

The same fact is plainly presented again in Hebrews 12:7-10, “If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons: for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily, for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness.”

The apostle there draws an analogy from the natural relationship of father and child. Why do earthly parents chastise their children? Is it not for their faults? Can we justify a parent for chastening a child where there was no fault, nothing in him which called for the rod? In that case, it would be positive tyranny, actual cruelty. If the same be not true spiritually, then the comparison must fall to the ground. Hebrews 12 proves conclusively that, if God does not chastise me then I am an unbeliever, and I sign my own condemnation as a bastard.

Yet it is very necessary for us to point out, at this stage, that all the sufferings of believers in this world are not Divine rebukes for personal transgressions. Here too we need to be on our guard against lopsidedness. After we have apprehended the fact that God does take notice of the iniquities of His people and use the rod upon them, it is so easy to jump to the conclusion that when we see an afflicted Christian, God must be visiting His displeasure upon him. That is a sad and serious error. Some of the very choicest of God’s saints have been called on to endure the most painful and protracted sufferings; some of the most faithful and eminent servants of Christ have encountered the most relentless and extreme persecution. Not only is this a fact of observation, but it is plainly revealed in Holy Writ.

As we turn to God’s Word for light on the subject of suffering among the saints, we find it affirmed, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all” (Psalm 34:19).

Those “afflictions” are sent by God upon different ones for various reasons. Sometimes for the prevention of sin: the experience of the beloved apostle was a case in point, “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure” (2 Corinthians 12:7).

Sometimes sore trials are sent for the testing and strengthening of our graces: “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience” (James 1:2, 3).

Sometimes God’s servants and people are called on to endure fierce persecution for a confirmatory testimony to the Truth. “And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name” (Acts 5:41).

Yet here again we need to be much on our guard, for the flesh is ever ready to pervert even the holy things of God, and make an evil use of that which is good. When God is chastising a Christian for his sins, it is so easy for him to suppose such is not the case, and falsely comfort himself with the thought that God is only developing his graces, or permitting him to have closer fellowship with the sufferings of Christ. Where we are visited with afflictions personally, it is always the safest policy to assume that God has a controversy with us; humble ourselves beneath His mighty hand, and say with Job, “Show me wherefore Thou contendest with me” (10:2); and when He has convicted me of my fault, to penitently confess and forsake it. But where others are concerned, it is not for us to judge — though sometimes God reveals the cause to His servants (Amos 3:7).

In the passage which is to be before us, the apostle presents a third consideration why heed should be given unto the exhortation at the beginning of Hebrews 12, which calls to patient perseverance in the path of faith and obedience, notwithstanding all the obstacles, difficulties, and dangers which may be encountered therein. He now draws a motive from the nature of those sufferings considered in the light of God’s end in them: all the trials and persecutions which He may call on His people to endure are necessary, not only as testimonies to the truth, to the reality of His grace in them, but also as chastisements which are required by us, wherein God has a blessed design toward us. This argument is enforced by several considerations to the end of verse 13. How we should admire and adore the consummate wisdom of God which has so marvelously ordered all, that the very things which manifest the hatred of men against us are evidences of His love toward us! How the realization of this should strengthen patience!

O how many of God’s dear children have found, in every age, that the afflictions which have come upon them from a hostile world, were soul-purging medicines from the Lord. By them they have been bestirred, revived, and mortified to things down here; and made partakers of God’s holiness, to their own unspeakable advantage and comfort. Truly wondrous are the ways of our great God.

Hereby doth He defeat the counsels and expectations of the wicked, having a design to accomplish by their agency something which they know not of. These very reproaches, imprisonments, stripes, with the loss of goods and danger of their lives, with which the world opposed them for their ruin; God makes use of for their refining, consolation and joy. Truly He “maketh the wrath of man to praise Him” (Psalm 76:10). O that our hearts and minds may be duly impressed with the wisdom, power and grace of Him who bringeth a clean thing out of an unclean.

“In all these things is the wisdom and goodness of God, in contriving and effecting these things, to the glory of His grace, and the salvation of His Church, to be admired” (John Owen). But herein we may see, once more, the imperative need for faith — a God-given, God-sustained, spiritual, supernatural FAITH. Carnal reason can see no more in our persecutions than the malice and rage of evil men. Our senses perceive nothing beyond material losses and painful physical discomforts. But faith discovers the Father’s hand directing all things: faith is assured that all proceeds from His boundless love: faith realizes that He has in view the good of our souls. The more this is apprehended by the exercise of faith, not only the better for our peace of mind, but the readier shall we be to diligently apply ourselves in seeking to learn God’s lessons for us in every chastisement He lays upon us.

The opening “And” of verse 5 shows the apostle is continuing to present motives to stir unto a perseverance in the faith, notwithstanding sufferings for the same. The first motive was taken from the example of the O.T. worthies (verse 1). The second, from the illustrious pattern of Jesus (verses 2-4). This is the third: the Author of these sufferings — our Father — and His loving design in them. There is also a more immediate connection with 5:4 pointed by the “And:” it presents a tacit rebuke for being ready to faint under the lesser trials, wherewith they were exercised. Here He gives a reason how and why it was they were thus making that reason the means of introducing a new argument. The reason why they were ready to faint was their inattention to the direction and encouragement which God has supplied for them — our failure to appropriate God’s gracious provisions for us is the rise of all our spiritual miscarriages.

The Hebrew Christians to whom this epistle was first addressed were passing through a great fight of afflictions, and miserably were they acquitting themselves. They were the little remnant out of the Jewish nation who had believed on their Messiah during the days of His public ministry, plus those Jews who had been converted under the preaching of the apostles. It is highly probable that they had expected the Messianic kingdom would at once be set up on earth, and that they would be allotted the chief places of honor in it. But the millennium had not begun, and their own lot became increasingly bitter. They were not only hated by the Gentiles, but ostracized by their unbelieving brethren, and it became a hard matter for them to make even a bare living. Providence held a frowning face. Many who had made a profession of Christianity had gone back to Judaism and were prospering temporally. As the afflictions of the believing Jews increased they too were sorely tempted to turn their back upon the new Faith. Had they been wrong in embracing Christianity? Was high heaven displeased because they had identified themselves with Jesus of Nazareth? Did not their sufferings go to show that God no longer regarded them with favor?

Now it is most blessed and instructive to see how the apostle met the unbelieving reasoning of their hearts. He appealed to their own scriptures, reminding them of an exhortation found in Proverbs 3:11, 12: “And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastenings of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him” (Hebrews 12:5).  As we pointed out so often in our exposition of the earlier chapters of this Epistle, at every critical point in his argument the apostle’s appeal was to the written Word of God — an example which is binding on every servant of Christ to follow. That Word is the final court of appeal for every controversial matter, and the more its authority is respected, the more is its Author honored. Not only so, but the more God’s children are brought to turn to its instruction, the more will they be built up and established in the true faith. Moreover, “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope” (Romans 15:4): it is to them alone we must turn for solid comfort. Great will be our loss if we fail to do so. “And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you.” Note well the words we have placed in italics. The exhortation to which the apostle referred was uttered over a thousand years previously, under the Mosaic dispensation; nevertheless the apostle insists that it was addressed equally unto the New Testament saints! How this exposes the cardinal error of modern “dispensationalists,” who seek to rob Christians of the greater part of God’s precious Word. Under the pretense of “rightly dividing” the Word, they would filch from them all that God gave to His people prior to the beginning of the present era. Such a devilish device is to be steadfastly resisted by us. All that is found in the book of Proverbs is as much God the Father’s instruction to us as are the contents of the Pauline epistles! Throughout that book God addresses us individually as “My son:” see Hebrews 1:8, 3:1, 4:1, 5:1, etc. Surely that is quite sufficient for every spiritual mind — no labored argument is needed.

The appositeness of Proverbs 3:11, 12 to the case of the afflicted Hebrews gave great force to the apostle’s citing of it here. That passage would enable them to perceive that their case was by no means unprecedented or peculiar, that it was in fact no otherwise with them than it had been with others of God’s children in former ages and that long before the Lord had graciously laid in provision for their encouragement: “My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of His correction: For whom the Lord loveth He correcteth, even as a Father the son in whom He delighteth,” (Proverbs 3:11, 12). It has ever been God’s way to correct those in whom He delights, to chastise His children; but so far from that salutary discipline causing us to faint, it should strengthen and comfort our hearts, being assured that such chastening proceeds from His love, and that the exhortation to perseverance in the path of duty is issued by Him. It is the height of pride and ingratitude not to comply with His tender entreaties.

But the apostle had to say to the suffering Hebrews, “Ye have forgotten the exhortation.” Forgetfulness is a part of that corruption which has seized man by his fall: all the faculties of his soul have been seriously injured — the memory, which was placed in man to be a treasury, in which to lay up the directions and consolations of God’s Word, has not escaped the universal wreckage. But that by no means excuses us: it is a fault, to be striven and prayed against. As ministers see occasion, they are to stir up God’s people to use means for the strengthening of the memory — especially by the formation of the habit of holy meditation in Divine things.

Thus it was with the Hebrews, in some measure at least: they had “forgotten” that which should have stood in good stead in the hour of their need. Under their trials and persecution, they ought, in an especial manner, to have called to mind that Divine exhortation of Proverbs 3:11, 12 for their encouragement: had they believingly appropriated it, they had been kept from fainting. Alas, how often we are like them! “The want of a diligent consideration of the provision that God hath made in the Scripture for our encouragement to duty and comfort under difficulties, is a sinful forgetfulness, and is of dangerous consequence to our souls” (John Owen).

“Which speaketh unto you as unto children.” It is very striking indeed to observe the tense of the verb here: the apostle was quoting a sentence of Scripture which had been written a thousand years previously, yet he does not say “which hath spoken,” but “which speaketh unto you!” The same may be seen again in that sevenfold exhortation of Revelation 2 and 3, “He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith (not “said”) unto the churches.” The Holy Scriptures are a living Word, in which God speaks to men in every generation. Holy Writ is not a dumb or dead letter: it has a voice in it, ever speaking of God Himself. “The Holy Spirit is always present in the Word, and speaks in it equally and alike to the church in all ages. He doth in it speak as immediately to us, as if we were the first and only persons to whom He spake. And this should teach us, with what reverence we ought to attend to the Scriptures, namely, as to the way and means whereby God Himself speaks directly to us” (John Owen.)

“Which speaketh unto you as unto children.” The apostle emphasizes the fact that God addresses an exhortation in Proverbs 3:11 to “My son,” which shows plainly that His relation to the O.T. saints was that of a Father to His children. This at once refutes a glaring error made by some who pose as being ultra-orthodox, more deeply taught in the Word than others. They have insisted that the Fatherhood of God was never revealed until the Son became incarnate; but every verse in the Proverbs where God says “My son” reveals their mistake. That the O.T. saints were instructed in this blessed relationship is clear from other passages: “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him” (Psalm 103:13). This relation unto God is by virtue of their (and our) union with Christ: He is “the Son,” and being one with Him, members of His body, they were “sons” too.

This precious relationship is the ground of the soul’s confidence in God. “If God speaks to them as to children, they have good ground to fly to God as to a Father and in all time of need to ask and seek of Him all needful blessings (Matthew 7:11), yea, and in faith to depend on Him for the same (Matthew 6:31, 32). What useful things shall they want? What hurtful thing need such to fear? If God deal with us as with children, He will provide for them every good thing, He will protect them from every hurtful thing, He will hear their prayers, He will accept their services, He will bear with their infirmities, He will support them under all their burdens, and assist them against all their assaults; though through their own weakness, or the violence of some temptation, they should be drawn from Him, yet will He be ready to meet them in the mid-way, turning to Him — instance the mind of the father of the prodigal towards him” (W. Gouge).

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Doubtless not a few of our readers wish they had the opportunity for a personal conversation on the subject, so that they could state their difficulties and ask questions on anything that is not yet clear to them.  We have therefore decided to write two further articles in the form of dialogues, introducing widely different characters, who express a desire to discuss the subject.  The first is,

Mr. Carnal Confidence: Good morning, Mr. Editor, I wish to have a talk with you about those articles on “Assurance” which you published in last year’s “Studies.”

The Writer: Be seated, please.  First of all, may we courteously but frankly inform you that our time is already fully occupied in seeking to minister unto God’s dear children, yet we are never too busy to do all in our power to help a needy soul.

Carnal Confidence: O, I am not seeking help, my purpose in calling is to point out some things in your articles where I am quite sure you erred. I consider that in your articles you have made a very difficult and complicated matter out of what is really very simple.  According to your ideas, a person has to go to a lot of trouble in order to discover whether or not he is saved, whereas if a man believes God’s Word he may be sure in a moment.

The Writer: But are all those who believe God’s Word really saved?  Did not the Jews of Christ’s day believe implicitly in the Divine authorship of the Old Testament?  Does not the Devil himself believe the same?

Mr. Carnal Confidence: That is not what I meant: my meaning is that, if I rest upon some verse of Holy Writ as God’s promise to me, then I know He cannot disappoint me.

The Writer: Saving faith is not faith in the authenticity of any verse of Scripture, but rather faith in the Person of Him who gave us the Scriptures, faith in the Christ who is made known in the Scriptures.

Mr. Carnal Confidence: Yes, I know that, and I do believe in God and in His Son, and I know that I am saved because He says so.

The Writer: Where in Scripture does God say that you are saved?

Mr. Carnal Confidence: In John 5:24, in Acts 16:31, and many other places.

The Writer: Let us turn to these passages please.  In John 5:24, the Lord Jesus describes one who has “passed from death unto life.”  He tells us two things about that individual, which serve to identify him.  First, “he that heareth My word.”  That is definite enough.  But of course it means far more than simply listening to His Word with the outward ear.  Returning to John 5:24; the one who has passed from death unto life, says Christ, “is he that heareth My word.”  Let us turn then to other passages where this term is found: “they are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refuse to hear My words” (Jer. 11:10); “because ye have not heard My words, behold I will send and take all the families of the north” etc. (Jer. 25:8,9); and see 35:17, Zechariah 1:4, Matthew 7:24, John 10:27.  In all of these verses, and in many others which might be given, to “hear” means to heed what God says, to act upon it, to obey Him.  So he who “hears” the voice of Christ heeds His command to turn away from all that is opposed to God and become in subjection to Him.

Mr. Carnal Confidence: Well, let us turn to Acts 16:31, that is simple enough.  There is no room allowed there for any quibbling.  God says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”  God says that to me; I have believed on Christ, and so I must be saved.

Writer: Not so fast, dear friend.  How can you prove God says that to you? Those words were spoken under unusual circumstances, and to a particular individual.  That individual had been brought to the end of himself; he was deeply convicted of his sins; he was in terrible anguish of soul; he had taken his place in the dust, for we are told that he “came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas” (Acts 16:29).  Now is it fair to take the words of the Apostles to such a man and apply them indiscriminately to anybody?  Are we justified in ignoring the whole setting of that verse, wrenching it from its context, and giving it to those who have not any of the characteristics which marked the Philippian jailer?

Mr. Carnal Confidence: I refuse to allow you to browbeat me and move me from the simplicity of the Gospel.  John 3:16 say, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  Now I have believed on the Son, and therefore am fully assured that I possess eternal life.

Writer: Are you aware of the fact that in this same Gospel of John we are told, “Many believed in His name, when they saw the miracles which He did but Jesus did not commit Himself unto them” (John 2:23, 24)?  There were many who “believed” in Christ who were not saved by Him: see John 8:30 and note verse 59!  John 12:42, 43!  There is a believing in Christ which saves, and there is a believing in Him which does not save; and therefore it behooves every sincere and earnest soul to diligently examine his “faith by Scripture and ascertain which kind it is.  There is too much at stake to take anything for granted.  Where eternal destiny is involved, surely no trouble can be too great for us to make sure.

Mr. Carnal Confidence: I am sure, and no man can make me doubt.  I don’t claim to be perfect, but I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.

Writer: We didn’t ask if you were perfect; but have you been made a new creature in Christ, have old things passed away, and all things become new (2 Cor. 5:17)?  Are you treading the path of obedience, for God’s Word says, “He that saith I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar; and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4).  It is not the adulation of our lips, but the affection of our souls, which He requires; it is not an intellectual assent, but the heart’s surrender to Him which saves.

Mr. Carnal Confidence: You are departing from the simplicity of the Gospel; you are making additions unto its one and only stipulation.  There is nothing that God requires from the sinner except that he believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Writer: You are mistaken.  The Lord Jesus said, “Repent ye, and believe the Gospel” (Mark 1:15).

Mr. Carnal Confidence: That was before the Cross, but in this dispensation repentance is not demanded.

Writer: Then according to your ideas, God has changed the plan of salvation.  But you err.  After the Cross, Christ charged His disciples, “That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations” (Luke 24:47).  If we turn to the book of Acts, we find that the Apostles preached repentance in this dispensation.  On the day of Pentecost, Peter bade the convicted Jews to “repent” (Acts 2:38).  Reviewing his ministry at Ephesus, Paul declared that he had testified both to Jews and also to the Greeks “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21); while in Acts 17:30 we are told that God “now commandeth all men every where to repent.”

Mr. Carnal Confidence: Then do you insist that if a person has not repented, he is still unsaved?

Writer: Christ Himself says so: “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:5).  So too if a man has not been converted, he is yet unsaved: “Repent ye therefore and be converted, that you sins may be blotted out” (Acts 3:19).  There must be a right-about-face: there must be a turning from Satan unto God, from the world unto Christ, from sin unto holiness.  Where that has not taken place, all the believing in the world will save no one.  Christ saves none who is still in love with sin; but He is ready to save those who are sick of sin, who long to be cleansed from its loathsome foulness, who yearn to be delivered from its tyrannizing power.  Christ came here to save His people from their sins.  It is obvious that if the Holy One indwells me that His presence must have wrought a radical change both in character and in conduct.  Unless this be the case with us, then our profession is vain, and all our talk of trusting in Christ’s finished work is but idle words.

Mr. Carnal Confidence: I consider all you have said to be but the language of a Pharisee.  You are occupied with your own fancied goodness and delighting in your own worthless righteousness.

Writer: Pardon me, but I rather rejoice in what Christ’s Spirit has wrought in me, and pray that He will carry forward that work of grace to the glory of His name.  But we must bring our discussion to a close.  I would respectfully urge you to attend unto that exhortation addressed to all profession Christians, ‘Give diligence to make your calling and election sure’ (2 Peter 1:10).

Mr. Carnal Confidence: I shall do nothing of the sort: I hate the very word ‘election.’  I know that I am saved, though I do not measure up to the impossible standard you want to erect.

Writer: Fare thee well; may be please the Lord to open your blind eyes, reveal to you His holiness, and bring you to His feet in godly fear and trembling.

Excerpted and edited from A. W. Pink, Studies in the Scriptures, September, 1932.

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There are those who misrepresent the doctrine of election in this way: Here I am sitting down at my table tonight with my family to tea.  It is a cold win­ter’s night, and outside on the street are some hungry starving tramps and children, and they come and knock at my door and they say, “We are so hun­gry, Sir, Oh, we are so hungry and cold, and we are starving: won’t you give us something to eat?”  “Give you something to eat?  No, you do not belong here, get off with you.”  Now people say that is what election means, that God has spread the gospel feast and some poor sinners conscious of their deep need come to the Lord and say, “Have mercy upon me,” and the Lord says, “No, you are not among My elect.”  Now, my friends, that is not the teaching of this Book, nor anything like that.  That is absolutely a false representation of God’s truth.  I do not believe anything like that, my friends.

1.  Compel Them To Come In.

Now, then, here is the truth.  God has spread the feast, but the fact is that nobody is hungry, and nobody wants to come to the feast, and everybody makes an excuse to keep away from the feast, and when they are bidden to come they say.  “No, we do not want to,” or “We are not ready yet.”  Now God knew that from the beginning, and if God had done nothing more than spread the feast, every seat at His table would have been vacant for all eternity!  I have no hesitation in saying, there is not one man or woman in this church tonight but who made excuses time after time before you first came to Christ.  You are just like the rest.  You made excuses, so did I, and if God had done nothing more than just spread the feast, every chair would have been vacant; there­fore, what do you read in that parable in Luke 14?  Because the feast was not furnished with guests, God sent forth His “servants.”  Oh, put your glasses on.  It does not say “servants,” it says God sent forth His “servant” and told Him to “compel” them to come in that His feast might be furnished with guests.  And there is not a man or a woman in this church tonight or in any other church that would ever sit down at the marriage-supper of the Lamb unless you had been compelled to come in, and compelled by God.

Well, you say, what do you mean by ‘compelled?’ I mean this, that God had to overcome the resistance of your WILL, God had to overcome the reluctance of your heart, God had to overcome your loving of pleasure more than loving of God, your love of the things of this world more than Christ.  I mean that God had to put forth His power and draw you.  And if any of you know anything of the Greek or have a Strong’s Concordance, look up that Greek verb for “draw” in John 6:44, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.”  It means “use violence.”  It means to drag by force.  There is not a Greek scholar on earth that can challenge that statement—I mean, and back it up with proof.  It is the same Greek word that is used in John 21 when they drew the net to the land full of fishes.  They had to pull with all their might, for it was full of fishes.  They had to DRAG it.  Yes, my friend, and that is how you were brought to Christ.  You may not have been conscious of it, you may not have known inside yourself what was taking place, but every last one of us was a rebel against God, fighting against Christ, resisting His Holy Spirit, and God had to put forth almighty power and overcome that resistance and bring us to our knees; and if any of you object to that strong language, then I am here to tell you, you do not believe in the teaching of this Book on the absolute depravity of man.

Man is lost, and man is dead in trespasses and sin by nature. Listen, it is not simply that man is sick and needs a little medicine; it is not simply that man is ignorant and needs a little teaching; it is not simply that man is weak and needs a little hope: man is dead, dead in trespasses and sin, and only almighty power from heaven can ever resurrect him and bring him from death unto life.  That is the gospel I believe in, and I do not preach the gospel because I believe the sinner has power in himself to respond to it.

Well, you say, then what is the use of preaching the gospel if men are dead? What is the use of preaching it?  I will tell you.  Listen! Here was a man with a withered hand, paralyzed, and Christ says, “Stretch forth thine hand.”  It was the one thing that he could not do!  Christ told him to do a thing that was impossi­ble in himself.  Well then, you say, why did Christ tell him to stretch forth his hand?  Because divine power went with the very word that commanded him to do it—divine power enabled him to do it!  The man could not do it of himself.  If you think that he could, you are ready for the lunatic asylum, I do not care who you are.  Any man or woman here who thinks that that man was able to stretch forth his paralyzed arm by an effort of his own will is ready for the lunatic asylum!  How can paralysis move?

Well, I will give you something stronger than that.  You need something strong today, you need something more than skim-milk; you need strong meat if ever you are going to be built up and grow and become strong in the Lord and the power of His might.  Here is a man who is dead and buried, and his body has already begun to corrupt so that it stank.  There he was in the grave, and Someone came to that graveside and said, “Lazarus, come forth.”  And if that someone had been anyone less than God Himself, manifest in flesh, he might have stood there till now calling, “Come forth.”  What on earth was the use of telling a dead man to come forth?  None at all, unless the One Who spoke that word had the power to make that word good.

Now then my friends, I preach the gospel to sinners, not because I believe the sinner has any power at all in himself to respond to it: I do not believe that any sinner has any capacity in himself whatever.  But Christ said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life,” and by God’s grace I go forth preaching this Word because it is a word of power, a word of spirit, a word of life.  The power is not in the sinner, it is in the Word when God the Holy Spirit is pleased to use it.  And, my friends, I say it in all reverence; if God told me in this Book to go out and preach to the trees, I would go!  Yes sir.  God once told one of His servants to go and preach to bones and he went.  I wonder if you would have gone!  Yes, that has a local application as well as a future interpretation prophetically.

2.  Preach The Gospel To Every Creature.

Now the question arises again, why are we to preach the gospel to every creature, if God has only elected a certain number to be saved?  The reason is, because God commands us to do so.  Well, but, you say, it does not seem reasonable to me.  That has nothing to do with it; your business is to obey God and not to argue with Him.  God commands us to preach the gospel to every creature, and it means what it says—every creature—and it is a solemn thing.

Every Christian in this room tonight has yet to answer to Christ why he has not done everything in his power to send that gospel to every crea­ture.  Yes, I believe in missions—probably stronger than most of you do, and if I preached to you on missions, perhaps I would hit you harder than you have been hit yet.  The great majority of God’s people who profess to believe in missions are just playing at them.  I make so bold as to say of our evangelical denominations today that we are just playing at missions and that is all.  Why my friends, there is almost half of the human race—think of it! — In this 20th century-travel so easy and cheap, Bibles printed in almost every language under heaven—and as we sit here tonight, there is almost half of the human race that never yet heard of Christ, and we have to answer to Christ for that yet!  You have and I have.  Oh, yes, I believe in man’s responsi­bility.  I do not believe in man’s “freedom,” but I do in man’s responsibility, and I believe in the Christian’s responsibility in a double way; and every one of us here tonight has yet to face Christ and look into those eyes as a flame of fire, and He is going to say to us, I entrusted to you My gospel.  It was com­mitted as a “trust” to you (1 Thess. 2:4).  It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.

Oh, my friends, we are playing at things.  We have not begun to take reli­gion seriously, any of us.  We profess to believe in the coming of Christ, and we profess to believe that the one reason why Christ has not come back yet is because His Church, His Body, is not yet complete.  We believe that when His Body is complete He will come back.  And my friends, His “body” never; never, will be complete until the last of His elect people will be called out, and His elect people are called out under the preaching of the gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit; and if you are really anxious for Christ to come back soon, then you had better be more wide awake to your responsibility in con­nection with taking or sending the gospel to the heathen!

Christ’s word, and it is Christ’s Word to us, is “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.”  He does not say “Send ye.”  He says, “Go ye,” and you have to answer to Christ yet because you have not gone!  Well, you say, do you mean by that that every one of us here tonight ought to go out to the mis­sion field?  I have not said that. I am not any man’s judge.  Many of you here tonight have a good reason which will satisfy Christ why you have not gone.  He gave you work to do here.  He put you in a position here.  He has given you responsibilities to discharge here, but every Christian who is free to go, and does not go, has to answer to Christ for it yet.

“Go ye into all the world.”  Well then, you say, Where am I to go?  Oh, that is very easy.  You say, easy?  Yes, I mean it: it is very easy.  There is nothing eas­ier in the world than to know where you ought to begin missionary work.  You have it in the first chapter of Acts and the eighth verse: “Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem [that is the city in which they were] and in all Judea [that is the State in which their city was], and in Samaria [that is the adjoining State], and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”  If you want to begin missionary work, you have to begin it in your home-town; and my friends, if you are not interested in the salvation of the Chinese in Sydney, then you are not really interested in the salvation of the Chinese in China, and you are only fooling yourselves if you think you are!  If you are anxious about the souls of the Chinese in China, then you will be equally anxious about the souls of the Chinese here in Sydney; and I wonder how many in this building tonight have ever made any serious effort to reach the Chinese in Sydney with the gospel!  I wonder?  I wonder how many here tonight have been round to the Bible House in Sydney and have said to the Manager there, “Do you have any New Testaments in the Chinese language, or do you have any Gospels of John in the Chinese language?  How much are they per hundred? Or per dozen?”  And I wonder how many of you have bought a thousand or a hundred, and then have gone round to the houses in the Chinese quarter and have said, “My friend, this is a little gift that will do your soul good if you will read it.”

Ah, my friends, we are playing at missions, it is just a farce, that is all!  “Go ye” is the first command.  Go where?  Those around me first. Go what with?  The Gospel!  Well, you say, “Why should I go?”  Because God has com­manded you to!  Well, you say, “What is the use of doing it if He has just elected certain ones?”  Because that gospel is the means that God uses to call out His own elect, that is why!  You do not know, and I do not know, and nobody here on earth knows, who are God’s elect and who are not.  They are scattered over the world, and therefore we are to preach the gospel to every creature, that it may reach the ones that God has marked out among those creatures.

Preached by A.W. Pink while pastor in Sydney, Australia.

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“But without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Heb. 11:6)—“But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it” (Heb. 4:2).  The linking together of these verses shows us the worthlessness of all religious activities where faith is lacking.  The outward exercise may be performed diligently and correctly, but, unless faith is in operation, God is not honored and the soul is not profited.  Faith draws out the heart unto God, and faith it is which receives from God—not a mere intellectual assent to what is revealed in Holy Writ, but a supernatural principle of grace which lives upon the God of Scripture.  This the natural man, no matter how religious or orthodox he be, lacks; and no labors of his, no act of his will, can acquire it.  It is the sovereign gift of God.

Faith must be operative in all the exercises of the Christian if God is to be glorified and the believer is to be edified.  First, in the reading of the Word: “But these are written that ye might believe” (John 20:31).  Second, in listening to the preaching of God’s servants: “The hearing of faith” (Gal. 3:2).  Third, in praying: “Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering” (James 1:6).  Fourth, in our daily life: “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7); “the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God” (Gal. 2:20).  Fifth, in our exit from this world: “These all died in faith” (Heb. 11:13).  What the breath is to the body, faith is to the soul; for one who is destitute of faith to seek to perform spiritual actions is like putting a spring within a wooden dummy and making it go through mechanical motions.

Now an unregenerate professor may read the Scriptures and yet have no spiritual faith. Just as the devout Hindu peruses the Upanishads and the Mohammedan his Koran, so many in “Christian” countries take up the study of the Bible, and yet have no more of the life of God in their souls than have their heathen brethren.  Thousands in this land read the Bible, believe in its Divine authorship, and become more or less familiar with its contents.  A mere professor may read several chapters every day, and yet never appropriate a single verse.  But faith applies God’s Word: it applies His fearful threats and trembles before them; it applies His solemn warnings, and seeks to heed them; it applies His precepts, and cries unto Him for grace to walk in them.

It is the same in listening to the Word preached.  A carnal professor will boast of having attended this conference and that, of having heard this famous teacher and that renowned preacher, and be no better off in his soul than if he had never heard any of them.  He may listen to two sermons every Sunday, and fifty years hence be as dead spiritually as he is today.  But the regenerated soul appropriates the message and measures himself by what he hears.  He is often convicted of his sins and made to mourn over them.  He tests himself by God’s standard, and feels that he comes so far short of what he ought to be, that he sincerely doubts the honesty of his own profession.  The Word pierces him, like a two-edged sword, and causes him to cry “O wretched man that I am.”

So in prayer—The mere professor often makes the humble Christian feel ashamed of himself.  The carnal religionist who has “the gift of the gab” is never at a loss for words: sentences flow from his lips as readily as do the waters of a babbling brook—verses of Scripture seem to run through his mind as freely as flour passes through a sieve, whereas the poor burdened child of God is often unable to do any more than cry “God be merciful to me a sinner.”  Ah, my friends, we need to distinguish sharply between a natural aptitude for “making” nice prayers and the spirit of true supplication: the one consists merely of words, the other of  “groanings  which  cannot  be uttered”—the one is acquired by religious education, the other is wrought in the soul by the Holy Spirit.

Thus it is too in conversing about the things of God.  The frothy professor can talk glibly and often orthodoxy of “doctrines,” yes, and of worldly things, too: according to his mood, or according to his audience, so is his theme.  But the child of God, while being swift to hear that which is unto edification is “slow to speak.”  Ah, my reader, beware of talkative people; a drum makes a lot of noise, but it is hollow inside!  “Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness; but a faithful man who can find?” (Prov. 20:6).  When a saint of God does open his lips about spiritual matters, it is to tell of what the Lord, in His infinite mercy, has done for him; but the carnal religionist is anxious for others to know what he is “doing for the Lord.”

The difference is just as real between the genuine Christian and the nominal Christian in connection with their daily lives: while the latter may appear outwardly righteous, yet within they are “full of hypocrisy, and iniquity” (Matt. 23:28).  They will put on the skin of a real sheep, but in reality they are “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”  But God’s children have the nature of sheep, and learn of Him who is “meek and lowly in heart,” and, as the elect of God, they put on “mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering” (Col. 3:12).  They are in private what they appear in public.  They worship God in spirit and in truth, and have been made to know wisdom in the hidden parts of the heart.

So it is on their passing out of this world.  An empty professor may die as easily and as quietly as he lived—deserted by the Holy Spirit, undisturbed by the Devil; as the Psalmist says, “There are no bands in their death” (73:4).  But this is very different from the end of one whose deeply-plowed and consciously-defiled conscience has been “sprinkled” with the precious blood of Christ—“Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace” (Psa. 37:37).  Yes, [with] a peace which “passeth all understanding” having lived the life of the righteous, he dies “the death of the righteous” (Num. 23:10).

And what is it which distinguishes the one character from the other—wherein lies the difference between the genuine Christian and he who is one in name only?  This—a God-given, Spirit-wrought faith in the heart.  Not a mere head-knowledge and intellectual assent to the truth, but a living, spiritual, vital principle in the heart—a faith which “purifies the heart” (Acts 15:9), which “worketh by love” (Gal. 5:6), which “overcometh the world” (1 John 5:4).  Yes, [it is] a faith which is Divinely sustained amidst trials within and opposition without; a faith which exclaims “though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him” (Job 13:15).

True, this faith is not always in exercise, nor is it equally strong at all times. The favored possessor of it must be taught by painful experience that as he did not originate it neither can he command it; therefore does he turn unto its Author, and say, “Lord I believe, help Thou mine unbelief.”  And then it is that, when reading the Word he is enabled to lay hold of its precious promises—that when bowing before the Throne of Grace, he is enabled to cast his burden upon the Lord—that when he rises to go about his temporal duties, he is enabled to lean upon the everlasting arms—and that when he is called upon to pass through the valley of the shadow of death, he triumphantly cries, “I will fear no evil for Thou art with me.” “Lord, increase our faith.”

From Studies in the Scriptures, February 1933.

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Mr. Humble Heart: “Good morning, Sir.  May I beg the favor of an hour of your valuable time?”

Editor: “Come in, and welcome.  What can I do for you?”

Humble Heart: “I am sore troubled in spirit: I long so much to be able to call God ‘my father,’ but I fear I might be guilty of lying were I to do so.  There are many times when I have a little hope that He has begun a good work within me, but alas, for the most part, I find such a mass of corruption working within, that I feel sure that I have never been made a new creature in Christ.  My heart is so cold and hard toward God, that it seems impossible the Holy Spirit could have shed abroad God’s love in me; unbelief and doubtings so often master me, that it would be presumptuous to think I possess the faith of God’s elect.  Yet I want to love Him, trust Him, serve Him, but it seems I cannot.”

Editor: “I am very glad you called.  It is rare indeed to meet with an honest soul these days.”

Humble Heart: “Excuse me, Sir, but I do not want you to form a wrong impression of me: an honest heart is the very blessing I crave, but I am painfully conscious, from much clear evidence, that I possess it not.  My heart is deceitful above all things, and I am full of hypocrisy.  I have often begged God to make me holy, and right after, my actions proved that I did not mean what I said. I have often thanked God for His mercies, and then have soon fretted and murmured when His providence crossed my will.  I had quite a battle before I came here to see you tonight, as to whether I was really seeking help, or as to whether my secret desire was to win your esteem: and I am not sure now which was my real motive.”

Humble Heart: “To come to the point, Sir, if I am not intruding.  I have read and re-read your articles on “Assurance” which appeared in last year’s magazines.  Some things in those articles seemed to give me a little comfort, but other things almost drove me to despair.  Sometimes your description of a born-again soul agreed with my own experience, but at other times I seemed as far from measuring up to it as the poles are asunder.  So I do not know where I am.  I have sought to heed 2 Corinthians 13:5 and ‘examine’ myself, and when I did so, I could see nothing but a mass of contradictions; or, it would be more accurate to say, for each one thing I found which seemed to show that I was regenerate, I found ten things to prove that I could not be so.  And now, Sir, I’m mourning night and day, for I feel of all men the most miserable.”

Editor: “Hypocrites are not exercised about their motives, nor troubled over the deceitfulness of their hearts!  At any rate, I am thankful to see you are so deeply concerned about your soul’s eternal interests.”

Humble Heart: “Alas, Sir, I am not half as much concerned about them as I ought to be.  That is another thing which occasions me much anguish.  When the Lord Jesus tells us that the human soul is worth more than the whole world put together (Mark 8:36), I feel that I must be thoroughly blinded by Satan and completely under the dominion of sin, seeing that I am so careless.  It is true that at times I am alarmed about my state and fearful that I shall soon be in Hell; at times too, I seem to seek God more earnestly and read His Word more diligently; but alas, my goodness is ‘as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away’ (Hos. 6:4).  The cares of this life so soon crowd out thoughts of the life to come.  O, Sir, I want reality, not pretense; I want to make sure, yet cannot.”

Editor: “That is not so simple a task as many would have us believe.”

Humble Heart: “It certainly is not. I have consulted several Bible teachers, only to find them ‘physicians of no value’ (Job 13:4).  I have also conferred with some who boasted that they never have a doubt, and they quoted to me Acts 16:31, and on telling them I did believe, they cried ‘Peace, peace,’ but there was no peace in my heart.”

Editor: “Ah, dear friend, it is not without reason that God has bidden us ‘give diligence to make your calling and election sure’ (2 Peter 1:10).  And even after we have given diligence, we still need the Holy Spirit to ‘bear witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God’ (Rom. 8:16).  Moreover, spiritual assurance may easily be lost, or at least be clouded, as is evident from the case of him who wrote the 23^rd Psalm, for at a later date he had to cry unto God, ‘Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation.’

Editor: “Before proceeding further, had we not better ask the help of the Lord?  His Holy Word says, ‘In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths’ (Prov. 3:6).  And now, dear Brother, for such I am assured you really are, what is it that most causes you to doubt that you have passed from death unto life?”

Humble Heart: “My inward experiences, the wickedness of my heart, the many defeats I encounter daily.”

Editor: “Perhaps you are looking for perfection in the flesh.”

Humble Heart: “No, hardly that, for I know the ‘flesh’ or old nature is still left in the Christian.  But I have met with some who claim to be living ‘the victorious life,’ who say they never have a doubt, never a rising of anger, discontent, or any wicked feelings or desires; that Christ so controls them that unclouded peace and joy are theirs all the time.”

Editor: “Bear with me if I speak plainly, but such people are either hypnotized by the Devil, or they are fearful liars.  God’s Word says, ‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us’ (1 John 1:8).  And again, ‘There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not’ (Eccl. 7:20).  And again, ‘In many things, we offend all’ (James 3:2).  The beloved Apostle Paul when well advanced in the Christian life, declared, ‘I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members’ (Rom. 7:21-23).

Humble Heart: “That relieves my mind somewhat, yet it scarcely reaches the root of my difficulty.  What troubles me so much is this: when God regenerates a man, he becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus: the change wrought in him is so great that it is termed a ‘passing from death unto life.’  It is obvious that if God the Holy Spirit dwells in a person, that there must be a radical difference produced, both inwardly and outwardly, from what he was before.  Now it is this which I fail to find in myself.  Instead of being any better than I was a year ago, I feel I am worse.  Instead of humility filling my heart, so often pride rules it; instead of lying passive like clay in the Potter’s hand to be molded by Him, I am like a wild colt; instead of rejoicing in the Lord always, I am frequently filled with bitterness and repinings.”

Editor: “Such experiences as you describe are very sad and humbling, and need to be mourned over and confessed to God.  They must never be excused nor glossed over.  Nevertheless, they are not incompatible with the Christian state.  Rather they are so many proofs that he who is experimentally [by experience] acquainted with the ‘plague of his own heart’ (1 Kings 8:38) is one in experience with the most eminent of God’s saints.  Abraham acknowledged he was ‘dust and ashes’ (Gen. 18:27).  Job said, ‘I abhor myself’ (42:6).  David prayed ‘Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak: O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed’ (Psa. 6:2).  Isaiah exclaimed, ‘Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips’ (6:5).  In the anguish of his heart, Jeremiah asked, ‘Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?’ (20:18).  Daniel once owned, ‘There remained no strength in me, for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption’ (10:8).  Paul cried, ‘O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’ (Rom. 7:24).

“One of the principal things which distinguishes a regenerate person from an unregenerate one may be likened unto two rooms which have been swept but not dusted.  In one, the blinds are raised and the sunlight streams in, exposing the dust still lying on the furniture.  In the other, the blinds are lowered, and one walking through the room would be unable to discern its real condition.  Thus it is in the case of one who has been renewed by the Spirit: his eyes have been opened to see the awful filth which lurks in every corner of his heart.  But in the case of the unregenerate, though they have occasional twinges of conscience when they act wrongly, they are very largely ignorant of the awful fact that they are a complete mass of corruption unto the pure eyes of the thrice holy God.  It is true that an unregenerate person may be instructed in the truth of the total depravity of fallen man, and he may ‘believe’ the same, yet his belief does not humble his heart, fill him with anguish, make him loathe himself, and feel that Hell is the only place which is fit for him to dwell in.  But it is far otherwise with one who sees light in God’s light (Psa. 36:9); he will not so much as lift up his eyes to Heaven, but smites upon his leprous breast, crying, ‘God be merciful to me the sinner’.”

Humble Heart: “Would you kindly turn to the positive side, and give me a brief description of what characterizes a genuine Christian?”

Editor: “Among other gifts, every real Christian has such a knowledge of God in Christ, as works by love, that he is stirred up to earnestly inquire after the will of God, and studies His Word to learn that will, having a sincere desire and making an honest endeavor to live in the faith and practice of it.”

Humble Heart: “I cannot boast of my knowledge of God in Christ, yet by Divine grace this I may say: that I desire no other Heaven on earth than to know and to do God’s will, and be assured that I have His approval.”

Editor: “That is indeed a good sign that your soul has been actually renewed, and doubtless He who has begun a work of grace in your heart, will make the great change manifest in your life and actions.  No matter what he thinks or says, no unregenerate man really desires to live a life which is pleasing to God.”

Humble Heart: “God forbid that I should flatter myself, yet I hope I have often found delight when reading God’s Word or hearing it preached, and I do sincerely meditate upon it, and long that I may ‘grow in grace.’  Yet, at times, I am tempted with vain and vile thoughts, and I strive to banish them, my heart rising up against them; yet sometimes I yield to them.  I loathe lying and cursing, and cannot endure the company of those who hate practical godliness; yet my withdrawal from them seems nothing but pharisaic hypocrisy, for I am such a miserable failure myself.  I pray to God for deliverance from temptation and for grace to resist the Devil, but I fear that I do not have His ear, for more often than not I am defeated by sin and Satan.”

Editor: “When you thus fall in your duty, or fall into sin, what do you think of yourself and your ways?  How are you affected therewith?”

Humble Heart: “When I am in this deplorable condition, my soul is grieved, my joy of heart and peace of conscience gone.  But when I am a little recovered out of this sinful lethargy, my heart is melted with sorrow over my folly, and I address myself to God with great fear and shame, begging Him to forgive me, pleading 1 John 1:9, and humbly imploring Him to ‘renew a right spirit within me’.”

Editor: “And why is it that you are so troubled when sin conquers you?”

Humble Heart: “Because I truly wish to please the Lord, and it is my greatest grief when I realize that I have dishonored and displeased Him. His mercy has kept me, thus far, from breaking out into open and public sins, yet there is very much within which I know He hates.”

Editor: “Well, my dear brother and companion in the path of tribulation, God has ordained that the Lamb shall be eaten with ‘bitter herbs’ (Exo. 12:8).  So it was with the Apostle: ‘As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing’ (2 Cor. 6:10) summed up his dual experience: ‘sorrowful over his sinful failures, both of omission and commission; yet ‘rejoicing’ over the provisions which Divine grace has made for us while we are in this dreary desert – the Mercy Seat ever open to us, whither we may draw near, unburden our heavy hearts, and pour out our tale of woe; the Fountain which has been ‘opened for sin and for uncleanness’ (Zech. 13:1), whither we may repair for cleansing.  I am indeed thankful to learn that your conscience confirms what your tongue has uttered.  You have expressed enough to clearly evidence that the Holy Spirit has begun a good work in your soul.  But I trust you also have faith in the Lord Jesus, the Mediator, by whom alone any sinner can draw near unto God.”

Humble Heart: “By Divine grace, I do desire to acknowledge and embrace the Lord Jesus upon the terms on which He is proclaimed in the Gospel: to believe all His doctrine as my Teacher, to trust in and depend upon the atoning sacrifice which He offered as the great High Priest, and to submit to His rule and government as King. But, alas, in connection with the last, ‘to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not’ (Rom. 7:18).

Editor: “No real Christian ever attains his ideal in this life; he never reaches that perfect standard which God has set before us in His Word, and which was so blessedly exemplified in the life of Christ.  Even the Apostle Paul, near the close of his life, had to say, ‘Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus’ (Phil. 3:12).  But may I ask if you are sensible of how you arrived at the good desires you mentioned?  Do you suppose that such a disposition is natural to you, or that it has resulted from your own improvement of your faculties?”

Humble Heart: “No, Sir, I dare not ascribe to nature that which is the effect and fruit of Divine grace.  If I have any measure of sanctification (which is what I long to be assured of), then it can only be by the gift and operation of God.  I am too well acquainted with my wretched self: I know too well that by nature I am alive to vanity and sin but dead to God and all real goodness; that folly possesses my soul, darkness shrouds my understanding; that I am utterly unable to will or to do what is pleasing in God’s sight, and that my natural heart is set contrary to the way of salvation proposed in the Gospel, rising up against its flesh-condemning precepts and commandments.  I see, I know, I feel that in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing.”

Editor: “Then do you realize what must be the outcome if God were to leave you unto yourself?”

Humble Heart: “Yes, indeed.  Without the assistance of His Holy Spirit, I should certainly make shipwreck of the faith.  My daily prayer is ‘Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe’ (Psa. 119:117).  My earnest desire is that I may watch and pray against every temptation.  There is nothing I dread more than apostatizing, relaxing in my duty, returning to wallow in the mire.”

Editor: “These are all plain evidences of the saving grace of God at work within you, which I beseech Him to continue, so that you may be preserved with a tender conscience, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, and obtain a full assurance of His love for you.”

Humble Heart: “I thank you kindly, Sir, for your patience and help.  What you have said makes me feel lighter in heart, but I wish to go home and prayerfully ponder the same, for I dare not take any man’s word for it.  I want God Himself ‘to say unto my soul, I am thy salvation’ (Psa. 35:3).  Will you not pray that it may please Him so to do?”

Editor: “You shall certainly have a place in my feeble petitions.  The Lord be very gracious unto you.”

Excerpted and edited from A.W. Pink, Studies in the Scriptures, October, 1932.

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