An Extract From An A.W. Pink Sermon In Australia In 1927

[Rippon]

These small snippets are from his sermon called : Christian Fools

Beauty is mainly a matter of proportion and this is true of God's Word. It is only as truth is presented in its proper proportions that the beauty and blessedness to it are maintained in the hearts and lives of God's people. The sad thing is that almost everywhere today there is just one feature of truth being disproportionately emphasised.

And listen again! If God's truth is to be presented proportionately and effectively then each truth of God's Word must be presented separately. If I am speaking upon the humanity of Christ, if I am seeking to emphasise the reality of His amnhood, how that He was made like unto His brethern in all things, how that He was tempted in all points as they were --sin excepted --I would not bring into my sermon a reference to His Godhood; and if you were to hear me preach the next twelve Sunday nights on the manhood of Christ and never refer to His Deity in those sermons. I hope none of you brethern would be so foolish as to draw the conclusion, Oh dear me, Brother Pink no longer beieves in the Godhood of our Saviour.

 

[Rippon]

Continued...

Again, if I am preaching on the wrath of God, the holy hatred of God for sin and His vengeance upon it, I would be weakening my sermon to bring in at the close a reference to His tenderness, mercy and love, for in my judgment that would be to blunt the point of the special truth I was seeking to press on the unconverted. And, in the same way, if I am pressing on the unconverted their need, their duty and importance of seeking the Lord, calling upon, coming to and believing on Him for themselves, I would not bring in or explain the work of the Holy Spirit in conversion.

 

[Rippon]

Each truth needs to be presented separately that it may have its clear outline presented to the heart and to the mind. And after all, my friends, we are not saved by believing in Christ. We are not saved by believing in the Spirit, we are saved by believing in Christ. We are not saved by believing in the work of the Spirit within us (no man was ever saved by believing that); we are saved by trusting in the work of Christ outside of us. O may God help us to maintain the BALANCE OF TRUTH. There is something more in this Book, brethren and sisters, beside election, particular redemption and the new birth. They are there, and I would not say one word to weaken or to repudiate them, but that is not all that is in this Book. There isa human side. There is man's responsibility. There is the sinner's repentance. There is the sinner's believing in Christ. There is the pressing of the gospel upon the unsaved; and I WANT TO TELL YOU FRANKLY THAT IF A CHURCH DOES NOT EVANGELIZE IT WILL FOSSILIZE:...This is God's method of perpetuating His work and of maintaining His churches. God uses means, and the means that the Holy Spirit uses in His work is the preaching of the gospel to the unconverted, to every creature. True, the preaching will avail nothing without the Spirit's blessing and application. True, no sinner will or can believe until God has quickened him. Yet he ought to, and is commanded to.

 

[Rippon]

In Conclusion:

O sinner, Christ is saying to you tonight, 'O fools and slow of heart to believe all.' You do believe much as you sit there. There are some of you who believe that Jesus is the Son of God. There are some of you who believe that He is the only Saviour who can save any sinner. You believe that, then why not believe all? Why not believe in Him for yourself? Why not trust His precious blood for yourself; and why not tonight? God is ready to save you NOW if you believe on Him. The blood has been shed, the sacrifice has been offered, the atonement has been made, the feast has been spread. The call goes out to you tonight, 'Come, for all things are NOW ready.' And I say again, the devil will tell you as you are sitting there, 'There is no need for me to come tonight; I will just wait till God gets ready to come and save me.' How do you know that while you are waiting death may not come and smite you down. 'Boast not thyself of tomorrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.' The Holy Spirit saith, 'Today if ye will hear His voice harden not your hearts.' Yes, man can 'harden' his heart: God says so; and God calls to you: 'Harden not your heart.' That is something you do yourself --not the devil --you do it. God is speaking to you through His Word tonight. O may His grace forbid that He shall say our text to any of you after you have left this room ---O God forbid that you should be among those 'fools' who believe not ALL. You do believe that Christ is God's appointed Saviour for sinners, why not your Saviour? O may the Spirit draw you by the cords of love to that One who has said, 'Him that cometh to Me I willl in no wise cast out.'

 

[Van]

The nameless doctrine teaches we are conceived with a hardened heart, unable to respond to the gospel. But God's word says harden not your heart, teaching it does not start out hardened.

A. W. Pink here argues for presenting a distorted cherry picked view of God's word because that he thinks drives home his sermon point more effectively.

Point to ponder, a half truth is not the truth.

 

[Rippon]

Point to ponder, a half truth is not the truth.

And completely false "points" by drive-by Van are made in vain.

 

[Martin Marprelate]

Thanks for posting that, Rippon.
There are those who believe that Pink was some sort of raging hyper-Calvinist who did not believe in the general call to sinners. Those extracts prove the opposite.

 

[Rippon]

There is something more in this Book, brethren and sisters, beside election, particular redemption and the new birth.
Did you notice that? He said "brethren and sisters" back in 1927. That's because using the word "brethren" would have seemed to leave out female believers. You could not fairly say that A.W. P. was influenced by any "feminst lobby" --he was trying to be inclusive because, indeed the body of Christ is composed of both male and female believers. Using the word "brethren" or "brothers" gives an unclear presentation.

 

[Rippon]

Thanks for posting that, Rippon.
There are those who believe that Pink was some sort of raging hyper-Calvinist who did not believe in the general call to sinners. Those extracts prove the opposite.

AWP said:"I am not a hyperCalvinist, but I am a strict and staunch calvinist."

AWP was well-balanced theologically. He got flack from Arminians as well as the extra-Calvinistic folks.

 

[Rippon]

I mistakenly said Pink's sermon was made in 1927. It was actually preached in 1926. And it's not an extract, but extracts.
He directed his message to the members of the Belvoir Street Strict and Particular Baptist Church.
These people were, as I said before, the extra-Calvinistic folks. They needed to hear things that were not
previously taught or neglected.

Here are some more things AWP said in his sermon:

"Yes, but there are many Calvinists who equally come under the rebuke of our text. They believe in the sovereignty of God, but they refuse to believe in the responsibility of man. I read a book by a hyper-Calvinist only a few weeks ago, by a man whose shoelachet the present speaker in many things is not fit to stoop down and unloose --a man of God, a faithful servant of His, one from whom I have learned not a little --and yet he had the effrontery to say, that responsilbility is the most awful word in the English language, and then went on to tirade against human responsibility. They cannot understand how that it is possible for God to fix the smallest and the greatest events, and yet not to infringe upon man's accountability --men themselves choosing the evil and rejecting the good --and therefore because they cannot see both they will only believe in one."

 

[Rippon]

" There are Arminians who have presented the 'free-will' of man in such a way as to virtually dethrone God, and I have no sympathy whatever with their system. On the other hand, there have been some Calvinists who have presented a kind of fatalism (I know not what else to term it) reducing man to nothing more than a block of wood, exonerating him of all blame and excusing him for his unbelief. But they are both equally wrong, and I scarcely know which is the more michievous of the two. When the Calvinist says, All things happen according to the predestination of God. I heartily say Amen, and I am willing to be called a Calvinist; but if the Arminian says that when a man sins the sin is his own, and that I believe the Arminian speaks according to God's truth; though I am not willing to be called an Arminian."

 

[Rippon]

Here's another extract from a message called Blind Bartimaeus

"In some quarters there is so much said about the inability of the natural man to perform acts of grace, there is such a disproportionate emphasis laid upon the helplessness of the creature, that a most deplorable and a tragic lethargy has been fostered and encouraged. And I am afraid there are some present tonight who are so obsessed with this do-nothingism that they sadly need to be shaken up and aroused to a sense of their responsibility."

 

[Rippon]

A.W.P.'s time in Australia for three years, three months 1925-1928 was a highlight of his life.
He had many preaching opportunities In his first eight months in the Sydney area he preached
more than 300 times.

He centered his efforts from the Baptist Tabernacle at Ashfield. But his work was supported by the Baptist Fraternal. In September of 1925 he was released from the Fraternal with a non-endorsement.
He was criticised for denying free-will (man's responsibility). Of course that was completely false.

In March of 1926 Pink became pastor of Belvoir Street Strict and Particular Baptist Church. Two other churches were in fellowship with Belvoir Street. Their church constitutions contained articles that Pink came into a late awareness of. That mesage on Blind Bartimaeus was called a "free-will" sermon. The churches of Ryde and Smithfield had these articles spelled out. As Murray says in his The Life Of Arthur W. Pink, these articles "explicitly and emphatically DENIED human responsibility, categorically repudiating 'duty-repentance' and 'duty-faith'.(p.113)

So AWP got it from both ends of the theological spectrum. He was on solid ground --the Arminans and hyper-Calvinists --not so much.

 

[Jerome]

The rest of the story, from Reformation Today magazine: a church split, repentance, and departure from Australia:

http://www.reformation-today.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/RT_011.pdf

After Mr. Pink resigned from Belvoir Street many of the congregation who supported him gathered around him and it was decided to form an Independent Church at Summer Hill, an inner suburb of Sydney.

On 27.9.27 a meeting was held at the home of Mr. Ted Grice when 26 former members of Belvoir Street met to form a church after the New Testament order with Mr. Pink as pastor. The newly formed church met at the Masonic Hall

As time went on, according to church records, Mr. Pink became greatly concerned regarding the forming of the new church and the split at Belvoir Street

on the Lord's Day 25.3.28 he announced that he would make a statement to the assembly at the close of the evening service. In this statement he confessed that he believed 'the church had been formed in a way that was not glorifying to God

Mr. Pink confessed that he was as much to blame as anyone. The Lord had shown him that the church had been formed in a way distasteful to Himself and he desired to resign as pastor forthwith, although he would preach if requested to do so.

This seemed to be the climax of his oral ministry. On 20.7.28 Mr. and Mrs. Pink sailed for England on the "Ormonde" from Circular Quay, Sydney. From then on Mr. Pink's life was mostly confined to a written ministry.

 

[kyredneck]

....And it's not an extract, but extracts.

...and I thought 'excerpt' would've been the more appropiate word.

 

[kyredneck]

Actually is a matter of preference.

 

[Van]

Half truths are not truths. Cherry picking scripture to distort scripture, is no virtue.

Preachers that leave out inconvenient truths, are to be avoided.

God's word should not be sliced and diced.

 

[Rippon]

Half truths are not truths. Cherry picking scripture to distort scripture, is no virtue.

Preachers that leave out inconvenient truths, are to be avoided.

God's word should not be sliced and diced.

I agree 100% with your post. A.W.P. would be in agreement also.

 

[Van]

A. W. Pink was wrong in the first four posts of this thread? He argued that cherry picking was ok to make a point more emphatically.

We should not present scriptural separately but contextually. Ripping a point out of context to support flawed doctrine is flawed

 

[Rippon]

A. W. Pink was wrong in the first four posts of this thread?

No, he was not wrong, in my estimation. If you disagree with his points get specific and deal with them.

He argued that cherry picking was ok to make a point more emphatically.

Boy, are you ever wrong about that. There's no way that an honest person could come up with that warped interpretation.