The following 8-minute video explains chapter 5 of J C Ryle’s book, Holiness.
This post also contains links to all the other videos on this book that Dr. Mayfield has thus far published, 1-8; and a link to his YouTube church site, which I just discovered today. He is preaching in Hebrews presently.
Video HIGHLIGHT POINTS:
*What it costs to be a true Christian:
*It cost God His Son
*Christians are asked by Christ to make sacrifices such as: giving up your own self-righteousness and depending upon Him for one’s salvation
*Giving up one’s sin – Christ calls His children to fight against sin
*Why is counting the cost important to your soul?
*Many of Christ’s hearers departed
*[Because of the following words of Jesus’: John 6:53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” John 6:60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” John 6:66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.]
*When they discovered that there were hard doctrines to be believed; hard work to be done; hard treatment to be borne, their faith gave way
*That is, not counting the cost made shipwreck of their profession
*Ryle is pushing back against easy believism because it is vague about Jesus’ call on a believer
*The Lord requires work: willing submission to Jesus as Lord, taking daily orders from Him
*Jesus is clearer about Christian duties than most preachers today: Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple
*He required that believers place Him highest in their order of priorities
*Ryle stated that contemporary preachers of easy believism were like an Army recruiter saying to prospective applicants, “You will receive good pay and a nice uniform….” While they did not mention that applicants would be in a war and bullets would be flying at you, they would have rigorous basic training, etc.
*We must tell the good news of free salvation and remind hearers that they will also be required to deny self, as they follow Christ
*Helping people count the cost:
*Noah faced the scorn of his neighbors; he believed that following the Lord was gain
*Moses forsook Pharaoh’s house and suffered with his people
*Paul gave up honor typically given to Pharisees
*By faith, he counted the cost; faith enabled him to believe that carrying the cross of Christ was gain
- Faith is to be had for the asking: …James 4:2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. …James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded
*May the Lord grant us eyes to see the great cost of walking with Him and to see and know that what we gain is far more than what we give up
There are several recent videos in this series on the book Holiness, by J C Ryle, each is linked below.
If you like his work, then subscribe to his site. I have used numerous of his videos to explain difficult topics; in this blog, See CATEGORIES, John Owen; Calvin’s Institutes; Jonathan Edwards; and Thomas Brooks.
Chapter 1: Understanding Sin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8fZ9pZqL90
Chapter 2: Becoming Holy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyWQFoWeqnA
Chapter 3: How To Be Holy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llAKkhLyPlA
Chapter 4: Fight To Be Holy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2yiZY35Cdw
Chapter 6: God Calls Us To Grow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExupYPW6Cnc
Chapter 7: Assurance of Salvation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHWnXwyP4VU
Chapter 8: Deathbed Conversion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_96cgF6yDv8
Narrative from his site, and links for the above video:
In this video we talk about chapter 5 of J.C. Ryle’s book Holiness. Here we think about what Jesus calls us to do in following him.
For the full version of J.C. Ryle’s Holiness*: https://amzn.to/3Fic74N
For the abridged version of J.C. Ryle’s Holiness: https://us.10ofthose.com/holiness-its…
*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
LINK TO THE VIDEO PAGE OF DR. MAYFIELD’S CHURCH SITE AT YOUTUBE:
Stony Hill Baptist Church
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbYVexK7IBL4dCk1OgmWqAQ/videos
Pastor Jeff Mayfield bio from his church site:
Jeff Mayfield has served as senior pastor of Stony Hill Baptist Church since September 2013. Having attended church since birth, the Lord saved him during his second year of college. Soon after he was called into the Gospel Ministry and was prepared for that work through studies at Liberty University (B.A.) and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div. and Ph.D.).
Jeff is the husband of Adrienne and the father of eight children: Jude, Eli, Ava, Belle, Evangeline, Lillian, Phoebe, and Solomon. Jeff enjoys preaching, biblical studies, history, theology, and mentoring other Christians. For fun he likes spending time with his family, hiking, running, biking, roasting coffee, and photography.