Hail to the King

I sometimes have random references floating around my head for a few days. These are things I have heard or read that I keep going back to. Sometimes I don't even remember the content of these references, just that it had impacted me, so I go back to them. Recently the two below have popped into my head.

Two years ago while preparing for a talk I found a sermon transcript titled A Call to Prayer, by J.C Ryle. It pretty much is a kick in the pants for Christians to pray more. Here are a few quotes:

I hold to salvation by grace as strongly as anyone. I would gladly offer a free and full pardon to the greatest sinner that ever lived. I would not hesitate to stand by their dying bed, and say, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ even now, and you shall be saved." But that a person can have salvation without asking for it, I cannot see in the Bible. That a person will receive pardon of their sins, who will not so much as lift up their heart inwardly, and say, "Lord Jesus, give it to me," this I cannot find. I can find that nobody will be saved by their prayers, but I cannot find that without prayer anybody will be saved.

I have looked careful over the lives of God's saints in the Bible. I cannot find one whose history much is told us, from Genesis to Revelation, who was not a person of prayer. I find it mentioned as a characteristic of the godly, that "they call on the Father," that "they call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." I find it recorded as a characteristic of the wicked, that "they call not upon the Lord." 1 Peter 1:17; 1 Corinthians 1:2; Psalm 14:4.

I cannot see your heart. I do not know your private history in spiritual things. But from what I see in the Bible and in the world I am certain I cannot ask you a more necessary question than that before you- Do you pray?

(If your not into reading sermons, someone has read this one out in two parts)

Around Easter time, Kevin DeYoung linked to a youTube video called That's My King. I had never heard of Dr. S. M. Lockeridge before, but just his preacher voice is cool and he seems to right into alliteration. This talk seems to be his most famous one. You can read the full transcript of this bit, or listen to the whole 6 minutes. Below is the edited youTube clip