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Sanctification isn't optional Christianity — it's God's will for every believer. Ryle said it's as necessary as justification. The question isn't 'Am I pursuing holiness?' It's 'Am I cooperating with God's own will for my life?'
Youth is wet cement. The habits you form now will harden into the person you become. Ryle told young men: 'You cannot stand still in the affairs of your souls.' Neither can you. What is setting in you right now?
Ryle said the most neglected verse in the Bible might be Proverbs 22:6. We love the promise but skip the work. Train — not hope, not wish, not expose. Train. What are you specifically doing?
Ryle said diligence in prayer is the secret of eminent holiness. Those who are most holy pray most. Those who pray least are least holy. Three words: Do you pray?
Holiness is not optional Christianity. Hebrews says no man shall see the Lord without it. Not no sinners — no man. The question is not are you perfect, but is your direction genuinely toward God?
You're justified in a moment. You're sanctified over a lifetime. Both are necessary. A vine is genuinely a vine from planting day — but the work of growth is just beginning. Are you still growing?
You cannot truly value the cross until you honestly face what made it necessary. Ryle said a shallow view of sin produces a shallow Christianity. How seriously do you take your own?
Millions say 'I believe in the forgiveness of sins' every Sunday without knowing what it means. The cross didn't reduce your debt — it cancelled it. Completely. Has your soul received that?
An idol isn't just a carved statue. Ryle said it's anything you love, fear, or trust more than God. By that definition, the respectable middle-class life is full of them. What's on YOUR throne?
The disciples panicked in a storm while Jesus was in the boat. He was asleep — not absent, not indifferent, but completely untroubled by what was terrifying them. He is still in your boat.
There are two ways to miss heaven: living with no religion at all, or living with the wrong kind. Ryle said the second is more common and more dangerous. Does your religion have Christ at its actual centre?
Lot's wife had a godly husband, knew Abraham, received a divine rescue — and was lost. You can be the closest person to real Christianity and never actually have it. Privileges don't save. Grace does.
Conversion is Scriptural, real, necessary, possible, happy, and visible. Ryle said even church-going people desperately need it. Do you have the real thing or a very convincing imitation?
Being decent and churchgoing is not the same as being alive. Ephesians 2 says we were dead — not sick, not tired, dead. The good news is that God raises the dead. Has He raised you?
Belonging to a church doesn't make you born again, any more than standing in a garage makes you a car. Ryle identified 6 specific symptoms of new life from 1 John. Do you have them?
