Our Love to God # 2
Love to God is not to be determined by its degree. Some writers have insisted that nothing but unselfish love is worthy of the name - that God must e loved for what He is, and our neighbor as His creature. But there is a love of gratitude as well as of delight, which makes a thankful return unto Him for His great love in Christ. This is expressly stated in 1 John 4:19, "We love Him - because He first loved us." Not only did God's love precede ours, being set upon us when we were entirely loveless - but it is the cause of ours. Not only as the divine power created it in us, but as the motive which we are conscious of in our love.
If our hearts had never been deeply affected by that transcendent love which moved God to give His own Son to die for such hell-deserving wretches as we know ourselves to be - would we have ever had any affection unto Him? No, indeed. Nor is there anything "legalistic" in this, if David hesitated not to leave it on record, "I love the LORD, because He has heard my voice and my supplications" (Psalm 96:1). I need not be ashamed to own that I love Him because He heard my cry for mercy and washed my sins away by the blood of the Lamb.
Love to God is not to be measured so much by its sensible stirrings or lively acts - as by its solid esteem and settled constitution. Some Christians are naturally more emotional and lively, and therefore more easily stirred. Nor is love to God be be gauged by our feelings - but determined by our purpose of heart and sincere endeavors to please God. Partly because the act may be more lively, where the affection is less firm in the heart. The passions of suitors may be more ardent than the love of husbands - yet not so deeply rooted, nor do they so intimately affect the heart. Straw is soon enkindled, and its heat quickly spent - but coals burn longer and more constantly. And partly because the objects of sense do more affect and urge us in the present state. While the flesh remains in the believer, he will be more sensibly stirred by the things which agree with his carnal nature.
We very much doubt if any regenerated person ever loved God for His essential goodness, before he loved Him for His beneficial goodness. The first thing which consciously awakens our love to God is a sense of favors received from Him - because the Father gave His Son for me, because the Son shed His blood for me, because the Holy Spirit quickened me. Later, as we grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord - there comes the realization that He is to be loved for what He is in Himself.
Love to God consists in a well-pleasedness in having Him as the soul's all-sufficient portion, of a delight in Him, of satisfaction in Him. Sometimes it is expressed in longings after and yearnings for Him. "At night my soul longs for You. Indeed, my spirit within me seeks You diligently!" (Isa. 26:9). Sometimes it is declared in speaking well of Him to others (Psalm 34:1-3). Often it is breathed forth in prayer and in praise. Occasionally it is revealed in exclamations of wonderment (1 John 3:1). It is manifested in sincere efforts to please Him, making His glory the purpose and end of our actions. It appears at its best when, in a time of sore trial and temporal straitness, its possessor "rejoices in the LORD" (Hab. 3:17-18).
Here are a few TESTS of true love to God:
1. Have you been convicted of and made to mourn over your natural enmity against God, that not only was your heart dead as a stone toward Him - but filled with antagonism to and disrelish of Him?
2. Do you love God for His holiness as well as His grace? Has it wrought in you a filial fear of displeasing Him, so that you jealously watch your heart lest it lead you away from Him? (Heb. 12:28)
3. Does love to God regulate your life, influence your walk, and move you to obedience?
4. Is it weaning you from the creature, separating you from the world, delivering from the things opposed to sincere love for God?
5. Do you love His truth? Some pretend to love all preachers and preaching alike - incapable of distinguishing error from truth.
6. Does it cause you to entertain good thoughts of God when His dispensations cross your will, moving you to place the best construction of the same and attributing them to His wisdom? For "love thinks no evil" (1 Corinthians 13:5).
7. God is truly loved above all others, when no affection for the creature can draw us deliberately to sin against Him.
8. God is truly loved, when we gladly incur and endure the displeasure and frowns of our fellows. God is truly loved when we make it our principle concern to please Him, rather than gratify the flesh or promote our worldly interests.
9. God is truly loved when the heart is wounded and grieved at the dishonor done to Him all around us (Psalm 119:53).
If your love has waned and you long for it to be revived - do not doubt God's love for you (for that will further weaken it), but look again at Christ on the Cross. The best food for our love - is to feed on His love!
~A. W. Pink~
(The End)
Saturday, July 27, 2019
The Misery of the Lost # 2
The Misery of the Lost # 2
To describe the extreme misery of lost souls is painful, both to the writer and the reader. If we would give way to our sympathies and compassionate feelings, we would not only exclude this awful subject from our discourses, but from our creed. Indeed, it must be acknowledged that it occasions a conflict to reconcile our reason to the reality of such intense and interminable sufferings as are described in the Word of God; and plausible arguments, derived from the goodness of God, might be constructed against the doctrine of so great future misery. But all such arguments would operate equally against the existence of sin and misery in this world, which, alas, are known too well to be facts which none can deny, and of which every individual is a witness.
When God speaks, human reason and sentimental feelings should be silent. He knows what justice demands, and what can be done consistently with His attributes; but man is of yesterday, and knows nothing. Suppose a child of five or six years old should undertake to sit in judgment on the acts of government, and to decide whether its penal laws were just or unjust, and whether capital punishments ought to be inflicted on murderers, or whether a war was just and necessary; who would expect a correct judgment from an infant? But such a child is better qualified to decide on the most complicated schemes of human policy, than man to judge of the propriety of the divine administration.
Impenitent men are apt to harden themselves against the awful denunciations of divine wrath contained in the Bible, and to cherish unkind and authoritatively the doctrine of the New Testament on this subject. And it cannot be denied, that some preachers denounce the terrors of the law against transgressors in a style and manner adapted rather to irritate than to convince. They speak almost as if they took pleasure in these awful threatenings, and as if they had nothing to fear for themselves. No doubt many a zealous preacher has passed sentence on himself, and has actually suffered those torments which he denounced against others!
I am therefore disposed to present this subject in a light which cannot give offence. Instead of representing the danger to which others are exposed, I will make the case my own. It behooves me to "tremble at the word of the Lord," as much as others; and as I am a sinner, and therefore naturally subject to the penalty of the law, and liable to be misled by the deceitfulness of my heart to cherish false hopes, I will endeavor to realize to myself the feelings which I shall experience, if it should be my unhappy lot to die out of the favor of God.
It would seem that the first moment after death must be one of unparalleled misery. My first reflection would be, "I am lost forever - all hope of happiness or relief is gone from my miserable soul! The blackness of darkness is round about me! No ray of light dawns on my wretched soul! Despair, terrible despair has now seized upon me, and must blacken every prospect to all eternity! While in the world, I could contrive to turn away my thoughts from the disagreeable subject; but now, my misery, like a heavy burden, presses on me, and is ever present - go where I will, do what I will.
"While in the body, and engaged in secular pursuits, I entertained a secret hope that there might be some mistake respecting the extreme misery of the damned, or that there might possibly be some way of escape not revealed; but now all these idle notions have fled like a dream when one awakes. I find hell to be no fable, but a dreadful reality. I find that the preachers, so far from exaggerating the misery of the lost, had no adequate conception of the wretchedness of a soul cast off from God forever, and doomed to dwell in everlasting burnings! Oh horrible! Horrible! I am then undone - forever undone! In all former distresses I could cry for mercy; but now I have passed beyond the reach of mercy!
"For the sake of momentary enjoyments, and worthless riches and honors, I have bartered away my soul. Accursed folly! What benefit can I now derive from these earthly pleasures and possessions? They only serve as fuel to the flames which consume me. O for one drop of water to cool my tongue! But for this I beg in vain. The time for prayer and for mercy has gone by, and my soul is lost, lost, lost! And through eternity I must expect no deliverance, no relief, nor even the slightest mitigation of my misery! Woe, woe, woe is me! It had been infinitely better for me never to have been born!
~Archibald Alexander~
(continued with # 3)
To describe the extreme misery of lost souls is painful, both to the writer and the reader. If we would give way to our sympathies and compassionate feelings, we would not only exclude this awful subject from our discourses, but from our creed. Indeed, it must be acknowledged that it occasions a conflict to reconcile our reason to the reality of such intense and interminable sufferings as are described in the Word of God; and plausible arguments, derived from the goodness of God, might be constructed against the doctrine of so great future misery. But all such arguments would operate equally against the existence of sin and misery in this world, which, alas, are known too well to be facts which none can deny, and of which every individual is a witness.
When God speaks, human reason and sentimental feelings should be silent. He knows what justice demands, and what can be done consistently with His attributes; but man is of yesterday, and knows nothing. Suppose a child of five or six years old should undertake to sit in judgment on the acts of government, and to decide whether its penal laws were just or unjust, and whether capital punishments ought to be inflicted on murderers, or whether a war was just and necessary; who would expect a correct judgment from an infant? But such a child is better qualified to decide on the most complicated schemes of human policy, than man to judge of the propriety of the divine administration.
Impenitent men are apt to harden themselves against the awful denunciations of divine wrath contained in the Bible, and to cherish unkind and authoritatively the doctrine of the New Testament on this subject. And it cannot be denied, that some preachers denounce the terrors of the law against transgressors in a style and manner adapted rather to irritate than to convince. They speak almost as if they took pleasure in these awful threatenings, and as if they had nothing to fear for themselves. No doubt many a zealous preacher has passed sentence on himself, and has actually suffered those torments which he denounced against others!
I am therefore disposed to present this subject in a light which cannot give offence. Instead of representing the danger to which others are exposed, I will make the case my own. It behooves me to "tremble at the word of the Lord," as much as others; and as I am a sinner, and therefore naturally subject to the penalty of the law, and liable to be misled by the deceitfulness of my heart to cherish false hopes, I will endeavor to realize to myself the feelings which I shall experience, if it should be my unhappy lot to die out of the favor of God.
It would seem that the first moment after death must be one of unparalleled misery. My first reflection would be, "I am lost forever - all hope of happiness or relief is gone from my miserable soul! The blackness of darkness is round about me! No ray of light dawns on my wretched soul! Despair, terrible despair has now seized upon me, and must blacken every prospect to all eternity! While in the world, I could contrive to turn away my thoughts from the disagreeable subject; but now, my misery, like a heavy burden, presses on me, and is ever present - go where I will, do what I will.
"While in the body, and engaged in secular pursuits, I entertained a secret hope that there might be some mistake respecting the extreme misery of the damned, or that there might possibly be some way of escape not revealed; but now all these idle notions have fled like a dream when one awakes. I find hell to be no fable, but a dreadful reality. I find that the preachers, so far from exaggerating the misery of the lost, had no adequate conception of the wretchedness of a soul cast off from God forever, and doomed to dwell in everlasting burnings! Oh horrible! Horrible! I am then undone - forever undone! In all former distresses I could cry for mercy; but now I have passed beyond the reach of mercy!
"For the sake of momentary enjoyments, and worthless riches and honors, I have bartered away my soul. Accursed folly! What benefit can I now derive from these earthly pleasures and possessions? They only serve as fuel to the flames which consume me. O for one drop of water to cool my tongue! But for this I beg in vain. The time for prayer and for mercy has gone by, and my soul is lost, lost, lost! And through eternity I must expect no deliverance, no relief, nor even the slightest mitigation of my misery! Woe, woe, woe is me! It had been infinitely better for me never to have been born!
~Archibald Alexander~
(continued with # 3)
Saturday, July 20, 2019
Our Love To God # 1
Our Love To God # 1
That there is such a thing as a human creature exercising love to God is clear from Scripture, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God" (Romans 8:28). And they are identified in the remainder of that verse, "to those who are the called according to His purpose" - those who are effectually called from death unto life in consequence of God's eternal decree. So too we read of "the things which God has prepared for those who love love" (1 Corinthians 2:9).
Divine love is always reciprocal. In due time, God sheds abroad His love in the hearts of those whom He has loved from everlasting - so that they in return love Him. As another has said, "When love has descended from Heaven to earth, it has finished half its course; but when it ascends from earth to Heaven again, then the circle is completed." Our love to Him is but a small stream that flows from and runs back to the ocean of God's love. This love is not of natural kindling, but from the supernatural operation of the Holy Spirit. Then the understanding is made to perceive, the judgment to esteem, the will to choose, and the whole soul to delight in God. The renewed person now sees there to be nothing in Heaven or earth, to be desired in comparison with Him.
This is one of the essential characteristic features of all the regenerate. They differ considerably in gifts and attainments, but one thing they have in common - they are all lovers of God. Never has a single individual been born into the kingdom of God, which was destitute of affection for Him, "every one who loves is born of God" (1 John 4:7). Some are but "babes," weak in faith; some are "young men", strong in the Lord; others are "fathers," of long experience and spiritual maturity. But one and all love God. Once they were as their fellow sinners - at enmity with God; but now they bear Him good will. The spirit of adoption has taken captive their hearts, and they love God with a little child's fervent, adoring, confident affection. They love Him for His infinite perfections, His wisdom, grace, faithfulness, holiness. They love Him as He is revealed in Christ - the Image of the invisible God. They love Him for His merciful overtures to them through the Gospel. They love Him for what He has done for them, and for what He has promised yet to do. "We love Him - because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). Gratitude is not a base virtue, but a noble endowment, and supplies the most powerful of all spiritual motives unto a godly walk.
Love to God is a sure evidence of saving grace in the soul. As saving faith is a fruit of effectual calling, so also is affection for God - the two cannot be separated, for faith "works by love" (Gal. 5:6). Nevertheless, no Christian, when in his right mind, will ever boast of his love. Rather will he be strongly inclined to doubt if he has any, and certainly he will be ashamed of the small degree of it. This writer truly is. As he thinks how feeble, how fickle, is his affection for God, and how little genuine obedience it produces - he is confounded. Yet, by grace, he can say with poor Peter, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you" (John 21:17) - though my conduct, through the weakness of the flesh, appeared to give the lie thereto - You perceive that the beating of my heart is toward You.
Since there is the recognition and realization in His people that they love God, because He first loved them; that His love was free and sovereign, of mere grace, unattracted by anything amiable in them - there will necessarily be a sense of utter unworthiness in their love to Him. And thus the Christian's love to God is a very lowly and humble affection.
Love is as needful for the spiritual life, as blood is for the natural life. In neither case can the one exist without the other. Yet, though all the regenerate have love to God, not all of them are equally aware of the fact, nor are all Christians sensible of it in the same way at all times. But a personal persuasion of our love to God is most desirable. Those things which the more deeply concern us, ought the more seriously to affect us. None should deny its existence, simply because they are dissatisfied with the degree or intensity of their love.
God is indeed to be loved above everyone and everything else, and loved with all our being and strength - yet the best of His people sadly fail to render unto Him that which is His due. To find the heart going out more to a near relative, than to God; or to grieve more over some temporal loss, than for an offence against the Lord - must occasion great concern to a conscientious soul. Nevertheless, such an experience is not, of itself, a proof that we have no love to God, especially if devotedness to our family does not cause us to neglect Him.
~A. W. Pink~
(continued with # 2)
That there is such a thing as a human creature exercising love to God is clear from Scripture, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God" (Romans 8:28). And they are identified in the remainder of that verse, "to those who are the called according to His purpose" - those who are effectually called from death unto life in consequence of God's eternal decree. So too we read of "the things which God has prepared for those who love love" (1 Corinthians 2:9).
Divine love is always reciprocal. In due time, God sheds abroad His love in the hearts of those whom He has loved from everlasting - so that they in return love Him. As another has said, "When love has descended from Heaven to earth, it has finished half its course; but when it ascends from earth to Heaven again, then the circle is completed." Our love to Him is but a small stream that flows from and runs back to the ocean of God's love. This love is not of natural kindling, but from the supernatural operation of the Holy Spirit. Then the understanding is made to perceive, the judgment to esteem, the will to choose, and the whole soul to delight in God. The renewed person now sees there to be nothing in Heaven or earth, to be desired in comparison with Him.
This is one of the essential characteristic features of all the regenerate. They differ considerably in gifts and attainments, but one thing they have in common - they are all lovers of God. Never has a single individual been born into the kingdom of God, which was destitute of affection for Him, "every one who loves is born of God" (1 John 4:7). Some are but "babes," weak in faith; some are "young men", strong in the Lord; others are "fathers," of long experience and spiritual maturity. But one and all love God. Once they were as their fellow sinners - at enmity with God; but now they bear Him good will. The spirit of adoption has taken captive their hearts, and they love God with a little child's fervent, adoring, confident affection. They love Him for His infinite perfections, His wisdom, grace, faithfulness, holiness. They love Him as He is revealed in Christ - the Image of the invisible God. They love Him for His merciful overtures to them through the Gospel. They love Him for what He has done for them, and for what He has promised yet to do. "We love Him - because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). Gratitude is not a base virtue, but a noble endowment, and supplies the most powerful of all spiritual motives unto a godly walk.
Love to God is a sure evidence of saving grace in the soul. As saving faith is a fruit of effectual calling, so also is affection for God - the two cannot be separated, for faith "works by love" (Gal. 5:6). Nevertheless, no Christian, when in his right mind, will ever boast of his love. Rather will he be strongly inclined to doubt if he has any, and certainly he will be ashamed of the small degree of it. This writer truly is. As he thinks how feeble, how fickle, is his affection for God, and how little genuine obedience it produces - he is confounded. Yet, by grace, he can say with poor Peter, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you" (John 21:17) - though my conduct, through the weakness of the flesh, appeared to give the lie thereto - You perceive that the beating of my heart is toward You.
Since there is the recognition and realization in His people that they love God, because He first loved them; that His love was free and sovereign, of mere grace, unattracted by anything amiable in them - there will necessarily be a sense of utter unworthiness in their love to Him. And thus the Christian's love to God is a very lowly and humble affection.
Love is as needful for the spiritual life, as blood is for the natural life. In neither case can the one exist without the other. Yet, though all the regenerate have love to God, not all of them are equally aware of the fact, nor are all Christians sensible of it in the same way at all times. But a personal persuasion of our love to God is most desirable. Those things which the more deeply concern us, ought the more seriously to affect us. None should deny its existence, simply because they are dissatisfied with the degree or intensity of their love.
God is indeed to be loved above everyone and everything else, and loved with all our being and strength - yet the best of His people sadly fail to render unto Him that which is His due. To find the heart going out more to a near relative, than to God; or to grieve more over some temporal loss, than for an offence against the Lord - must occasion great concern to a conscientious soul. Nevertheless, such an experience is not, of itself, a proof that we have no love to God, especially if devotedness to our family does not cause us to neglect Him.
~A. W. Pink~
(continued with # 2)
The Misery of the Lost # 1
The Misery of the Lost # 1
The soul of man is susceptible of an intense degree of unhappiness. Even in this world much misery is endured; but in the world to come, hope is a stranger, and there are no alleviating circumstances.
The misery of the damned has by theologians been divided into that of loss and that of sense - the one produced by the loss of good possessed or once attainable, the other arising from the positive infliction of punishment. But though this distinction has a foundation as it relates to the cause of the sinner's misery, yet, as it regards the feeling itself, there is no reason for making any distinction. All misery is felt according to its nature and intensity, and therefore is pain of sense, or sensible pain, whatever may be its cause. So the question whether the fire of hell is a material fire, is of no importance; for if I feel a pang of misery at any moment, it matters nothing whether it is produced by a material or immaterial, by a privative or positive cause.
Under the general name of misery, many species of suffering are included; all, however, agreeing in this, that the sensation is painful. The feeling of fear is a very painful emotion, but in its nature very different from remorse. Excessive pain, in our present state, may be experienced through the nerves of sensation; but even here these sufferings differ, not only in degree, but in kind. The headache, toothache, and rheumatism, are all, severe pains, but they are not the same; and these bodily pains differ exceedingly from the feelings of remorse, or despair.
Our capacity of pain seems to bear an exact proportion to our susceptibility of pleasure. Indeed, the same faculties and affections which are the sources of our happiness when the objects suited to them are possessed, become the cause of our misery when deprived of those objects. By the same faculty we perceive the beauties and the deformities of the most exalted and soul-satisfying pleasure, and of the most intolerable anguish of which the soul is capable. Every affection and appetite affords pleasure when duly exercised on its proper object; but deprived of this, becomes a source of intense pain.
Though the nature of future misery to all lost souls is the same, yet the degree may differ to an extent which no man can estimate. Some divines have maintained that the future happiness of the righteous will be equal, as eternal life is the free gift of God; but none, I believe, have ever held that the punishment of the lost will be equal. The Scriptures abundantly teach that every man will be judged according to the deeds done in the body; and as the sins of different individuals are immensely different in guilt, justice demands that their punishment should be proportioned to the demerit of the sinner. Our Saviour most explicitly teaches this doctrine when He says, "That servant who knew his master's will, and prepared not himself, shall be beaten with many stripes; but he who knew not his master's will, and yet committed things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes."
The guilt of sin is not measured merely or principally by the external act, but by the light and advantages enjoyed by some above others. The difference between sins against light and sins of ignorance, is a matter concerning which common sense gives a judgment consonant with the rule laid down by our Lord. It does not appear that the cities of Galilee, where Christ spent most of His time, and where He wrought most of His beneficent miracles, were remarkable for external acts of immorality; and yet their sins were greater than those of cities proverbial for their wickedness, and consequently their punishment would be greater. His words should never be forgotten: Then He proceeded to denounce the towns where most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent: "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes long ago! But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to hell. For if the miracles that were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until today. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you." (Matthew 11:20-24).
These are words of dreadful import, and are as applicable to neglectors of the gospel and impenitent sinners now, as to those devoted cities. Many, because their external conduct is decent and moral, persuade themselves that their punishment will be light; but in view of the words cited above, it will be far more tolerable for the vilest of the heathen than for them, if they continue in their impenitence and neglect of the great salvation. Certainly gospel-neglectors, however decent in their external behavior, will sink very deep into the abyss of misery. Among these, however, there will be a great difference. Some, alas, who sinned malignantly against light, will sink to the lowest gulf in hell.
~Archibald Alexander~
(continued with # 2)
The soul of man is susceptible of an intense degree of unhappiness. Even in this world much misery is endured; but in the world to come, hope is a stranger, and there are no alleviating circumstances.
The misery of the damned has by theologians been divided into that of loss and that of sense - the one produced by the loss of good possessed or once attainable, the other arising from the positive infliction of punishment. But though this distinction has a foundation as it relates to the cause of the sinner's misery, yet, as it regards the feeling itself, there is no reason for making any distinction. All misery is felt according to its nature and intensity, and therefore is pain of sense, or sensible pain, whatever may be its cause. So the question whether the fire of hell is a material fire, is of no importance; for if I feel a pang of misery at any moment, it matters nothing whether it is produced by a material or immaterial, by a privative or positive cause.
Under the general name of misery, many species of suffering are included; all, however, agreeing in this, that the sensation is painful. The feeling of fear is a very painful emotion, but in its nature very different from remorse. Excessive pain, in our present state, may be experienced through the nerves of sensation; but even here these sufferings differ, not only in degree, but in kind. The headache, toothache, and rheumatism, are all, severe pains, but they are not the same; and these bodily pains differ exceedingly from the feelings of remorse, or despair.
Our capacity of pain seems to bear an exact proportion to our susceptibility of pleasure. Indeed, the same faculties and affections which are the sources of our happiness when the objects suited to them are possessed, become the cause of our misery when deprived of those objects. By the same faculty we perceive the beauties and the deformities of the most exalted and soul-satisfying pleasure, and of the most intolerable anguish of which the soul is capable. Every affection and appetite affords pleasure when duly exercised on its proper object; but deprived of this, becomes a source of intense pain.
Though the nature of future misery to all lost souls is the same, yet the degree may differ to an extent which no man can estimate. Some divines have maintained that the future happiness of the righteous will be equal, as eternal life is the free gift of God; but none, I believe, have ever held that the punishment of the lost will be equal. The Scriptures abundantly teach that every man will be judged according to the deeds done in the body; and as the sins of different individuals are immensely different in guilt, justice demands that their punishment should be proportioned to the demerit of the sinner. Our Saviour most explicitly teaches this doctrine when He says, "That servant who knew his master's will, and prepared not himself, shall be beaten with many stripes; but he who knew not his master's will, and yet committed things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes."
The guilt of sin is not measured merely or principally by the external act, but by the light and advantages enjoyed by some above others. The difference between sins against light and sins of ignorance, is a matter concerning which common sense gives a judgment consonant with the rule laid down by our Lord. It does not appear that the cities of Galilee, where Christ spent most of His time, and where He wrought most of His beneficent miracles, were remarkable for external acts of immorality; and yet their sins were greater than those of cities proverbial for their wickedness, and consequently their punishment would be greater. His words should never be forgotten: Then He proceeded to denounce the towns where most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent: "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes long ago! But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to hell. For if the miracles that were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until today. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you." (Matthew 11:20-24).
These are words of dreadful import, and are as applicable to neglectors of the gospel and impenitent sinners now, as to those devoted cities. Many, because their external conduct is decent and moral, persuade themselves that their punishment will be light; but in view of the words cited above, it will be far more tolerable for the vilest of the heathen than for them, if they continue in their impenitence and neglect of the great salvation. Certainly gospel-neglectors, however decent in their external behavior, will sink very deep into the abyss of misery. Among these, however, there will be a great difference. Some, alas, who sinned malignantly against light, will sink to the lowest gulf in hell.
~Archibald Alexander~
(continued with # 2)
Saturday, July 13, 2019
The Devil's Boomerangs ! 1
The devil's Boomerangs # 1
"Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment" (Ecc. 11:9).
You can always get the truth out of the Bible.
Of course you can always find truth elsewhere, but never from so clear a source. Nothing was ever printed more true than "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he reap."
God will not coerce and attempt to force any man to be a Christian. When he dies, however, he will be judged for his sins. He must face the day of judgment.
Do as you please. Lie, steal, booze, fight, prostitute. God won't stop you. Do as you please until the undertaker comes and puts you in a coffin and then the Lord will have His way. Lives of pleasure shall have an end, the wicked shall not live half their days.
If I sat in the pew and you were up here preaching there are four questions I would ask that you answer satisfactorily before you could win me.
First, Are you kindly disposed to me? Second: Do you want to help me? Third: Do you know what you are talking about? Fourth: Do you practice what you preach?
No man can say I am not kindly disposed to him. I do want to help every man and woman. I have read and studied and everything I preach comes from the Bible. What I say this afternoon is based on indisputable facts. I have no ambition except to alleviate the misery and suffering that comes through sin. I'll not pump you full of hot air, and what I preach I'll practice. If I didn't practice what I preach I'd leave this platform and never try to speak to an audience again.
If sin wasn't so deceitful it would not be so attractive.
The devil doesn't let a man stop to think what he is doing, that in every added indulgence in a drink he grows weaker. Some people think that to be a Christian means to be a weakling sort of a sissified individual. When I played baseball and was serving the devil, I circled the bases in fourteen second from a standing point, and I believe I can do it now. No man has ever beaten that. Han Lobert and some of the rest may have equaled it, but none have ever beaten it. I used to be handy with my dukes, too, before I became a Christian, and I can go so fast now for five rounds you can't see me for dust.
When I was with the Chicago Y.M.C.A, I did the saloon route for a time handing out invitations to men's meetings in Farwell Hall. One day I met a young man I had known in Iowa. He was half drunk and a broken down, drunken bum came along. I told my friend that if he persisted in drinking he would become a bum. He laughed and said he would never be a drunkard. One year later he was down and out, his job gone and his home wrecked.
No man ever started out with the intention of becoming a drunkard. Line up all the drunkards on earth and ask them and they will all tell you they never intended to be drunkards. They all started as moderate drinkers.
Christianity is capital and capital is character. Your character is what you do business with and there's a big difference between character and reputation. Reputation is what people think about you, and character is what God, your wife and the angel's know about you.
For a man to preach and practice the gospel of Jesus Christ makes him trustworthy. There was a time when people wouldn't trust me to hold a yellow dog fifteen minutes.
Many men live only for money. They care for nothing else, but I believe they are in the minority. You cannot measure a man's success by the rattle of the cash register. All some men have is money. Subtract $50,000, booze and women from some men and you have nothing left.
I haven't a word to say against the rich man who got his wealth honestly and is trying to do good with it. The Bible doesn't have a thing in it against a man because he's rich. Look at Solomon. He was worth about $6,000,000,000, according to our standard of gold and silver. Yet he was a Godly man.
But there's a lot of good-for-nothing lobsters who think they are called by God to go up and down the country harping for a limitation of wealth and cussing and damning the rich man for every dollar he has, while they sit around and cuss and damn and never work.
If you want to use your genius and ability to get all you can and use the surplus over your own needs for the good of humanity, I hope you all will be millionaires. If you want to get all you can, and can all you get, I hope you'll all go to the poorhouse.
When Commodore Vanderbilt who was worth $200,000,000, died, he called in a minister and asked him to sing for him that old song Vanderbilt's mother used to sing in Moravia, "Come ye sinners, poor and needy!"
~Billy Sunday~
(continued with # 2)
The Lamb of God # 1
The Lamb of God # 1
"The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said: Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29).
"The sin of the world!" Sin? What is sin? Do you see that holy law? Radiant with God's own purity and bright with a divine benignity, it stands on earth a pillar of light and glory, a specimen of God to tell us that He Himself is holy, just and good. Sin defaces that monument, dilapidates it, and cast filth on what it cannot destroy.
Do you see that God of love? Bending over the earth fresh fashioned and beaming on it those looks of delight which hallow while they bless; and behold Him concentrating those regards of love and joy on His own image, man, which was hailed, "Very good" - and presently see man shaking the fist of defiance and darting the glance of estrangement and hostility at the God of love, and you see another aspect of sin.
Look at this man - made up of divers lusts and passions! Pride, ambition, envy, vanity, resentment, anger, covetousness, license, cruelty - these and many evil appetites and emotions besides, flow through all his nature in fierce and malignant currents, and are his very being's poisoned blood and fevered pulse! They break out in oaths and curses, in fightings and violence, in debauchery and orgy; in spoken falsehood and acted lies, in words of lewdness and deeds of shame; in the sanctuary forsaken, the Bible tossed aside, and prayer neglected or shammed over.
When, goaded by conscience, he makes an effort to amend - when, to clear the cloud from affection's brow or reconcile him to himself, he makes a desperate struggle and seeks to rend off some besetting sin - he finds he cannot. This evil habit, he cannot tear away; for like the poisoned mantle, it has grown into himself, and to tear it off is to tear fibers and nerves asunder and to lacerate the quivering flesh. This guilty affection he cannot pluck out, for his heart is at its roots, and nature could not stand the self-mortification. In this pervasive canker, this virulent and festering plague - you see sin in its malignity!
And look to this pure region, this holy paradise of radiant Heaven. And what is this blot on the brightness, this shadow on the splendor? What is it which attracts so many eyes in wonder, and repels them again in horror? What is it that they are expelling in amazement and disgust? Rather, what is it which, from under Jehovah's burning eye, dark and dastardly, slinks away to its own place? What is it which, when confronted with infinite sanctity, would gladly seek refuge in the deepest cavern of the pit - and from a region of light and elevation would gladly flee to hide its hideousness and pollution in the dungeon of despair? Words cannot paint it. It is only in the light of the great white throne or by the flames of hell or in the revealing light of the Holy Spirit - that anyone can see the real character of sin. Sin is the enemy of God, the transgressor of His law, the great soul-poison and heart-plague, the only thing which really defiles man, pollution, misery, guilt, incipient hell, the only thing to which we can give, in its fullest sense, the emphatic name of EVIL!
But just as sin is earth's great burden and humanity's deforming blot, the design of the incarnation was to do away with this mighty evil for a goodly number. For this end the Son of God was manifest, that He might destroy the works of the devil; and in the case of a multitude whom no man can number, the Saviour finished transgression and made an end of sin. And though here He is called the Lamb of God, there is one aspect in which the Lamb was wrathful and His strength was lion-like. There was one vindictive feeling which, like an oven. burned in His holy bosom, and one object toward which He was filled with exterminating fury. On sin He could not look without abhorrence, and the sight of that cursed thing which had insulted His heavenly Father and filled a happy world with woe and horror kindled His zeal and revenge; and while the Lamb's gentleness encouraged the sinner, the Lion's fury still flashed upon the sin.
~James Hamilton~
(continued with # 2)
"The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said: Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29).
"The sin of the world!" Sin? What is sin? Do you see that holy law? Radiant with God's own purity and bright with a divine benignity, it stands on earth a pillar of light and glory, a specimen of God to tell us that He Himself is holy, just and good. Sin defaces that monument, dilapidates it, and cast filth on what it cannot destroy.
Do you see that God of love? Bending over the earth fresh fashioned and beaming on it those looks of delight which hallow while they bless; and behold Him concentrating those regards of love and joy on His own image, man, which was hailed, "Very good" - and presently see man shaking the fist of defiance and darting the glance of estrangement and hostility at the God of love, and you see another aspect of sin.
Look at this man - made up of divers lusts and passions! Pride, ambition, envy, vanity, resentment, anger, covetousness, license, cruelty - these and many evil appetites and emotions besides, flow through all his nature in fierce and malignant currents, and are his very being's poisoned blood and fevered pulse! They break out in oaths and curses, in fightings and violence, in debauchery and orgy; in spoken falsehood and acted lies, in words of lewdness and deeds of shame; in the sanctuary forsaken, the Bible tossed aside, and prayer neglected or shammed over.
When, goaded by conscience, he makes an effort to amend - when, to clear the cloud from affection's brow or reconcile him to himself, he makes a desperate struggle and seeks to rend off some besetting sin - he finds he cannot. This evil habit, he cannot tear away; for like the poisoned mantle, it has grown into himself, and to tear it off is to tear fibers and nerves asunder and to lacerate the quivering flesh. This guilty affection he cannot pluck out, for his heart is at its roots, and nature could not stand the self-mortification. In this pervasive canker, this virulent and festering plague - you see sin in its malignity!
And look to this pure region, this holy paradise of radiant Heaven. And what is this blot on the brightness, this shadow on the splendor? What is it which attracts so many eyes in wonder, and repels them again in horror? What is it that they are expelling in amazement and disgust? Rather, what is it which, from under Jehovah's burning eye, dark and dastardly, slinks away to its own place? What is it which, when confronted with infinite sanctity, would gladly seek refuge in the deepest cavern of the pit - and from a region of light and elevation would gladly flee to hide its hideousness and pollution in the dungeon of despair? Words cannot paint it. It is only in the light of the great white throne or by the flames of hell or in the revealing light of the Holy Spirit - that anyone can see the real character of sin. Sin is the enemy of God, the transgressor of His law, the great soul-poison and heart-plague, the only thing which really defiles man, pollution, misery, guilt, incipient hell, the only thing to which we can give, in its fullest sense, the emphatic name of EVIL!
But just as sin is earth's great burden and humanity's deforming blot, the design of the incarnation was to do away with this mighty evil for a goodly number. For this end the Son of God was manifest, that He might destroy the works of the devil; and in the case of a multitude whom no man can number, the Saviour finished transgression and made an end of sin. And though here He is called the Lamb of God, there is one aspect in which the Lamb was wrathful and His strength was lion-like. There was one vindictive feeling which, like an oven. burned in His holy bosom, and one object toward which He was filled with exterminating fury. On sin He could not look without abhorrence, and the sight of that cursed thing which had insulted His heavenly Father and filled a happy world with woe and horror kindled His zeal and revenge; and while the Lamb's gentleness encouraged the sinner, the Lion's fury still flashed upon the sin.
~James Hamilton~
(continued with # 2)
Saturday, July 6, 2019
The Sacredness of the Redeemed Life
The Sacredness of the Redeemed Life
There is embedded in an unpromising Bible chapter, like a gem in a hard rock or growing like a delicate flower on a bare, cold crag - a beautiful incident which teaches a valuable lesson.
David and his men were in the cave of Dullam. They were shut in, fierce Philistines holding them in a sort of siege. Homesickness came over David. He thought of the scenes of his boyhood, not far away from where he then was. He was thirsty, too, in the burning heat, and there came memories of a cool spring which bubbled up by the gate of Bethlehem at which in his happy youth he used to drink. "David longed for water and said: "Oh that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!" (2 Samuel 23:15).
By his side stood three men who loved their leader and feared no danger. Hearing David's words they drew their swords, and, breaking through the lines of the enemy, made their way to the well, and having drawn of its sweet water they bore it back to David and presented it to him. David's heart was thrilled by this proof of loyalty and love. In his thirst, too, he longed, too, he longed to drink the water. But when he thought through what peril his men had brought it to him, he refused even to put it to his lips. "Far be it from me, O Lord, to do this!" he said. "Is it not the blood of men who went at the risk of their lives?" And David would not drink it." Therefore he poured it out as a sacred offering unto the Lord. It had cost too much to be used for any common purpose or for mere personal gratification; the only fit thing to do with it was to devote it to God.
The incident has its suggestions. As a general principle it teaches us that whatever comes to us at great cost should be sacred in our eyes, and should not be devoted to any common, selfish or sinful use but should be dedicated to the Lord.
A most obvious application is to our own redeemed lives. We know how the blessing of spiritual life come to us. Jesus broke through the lines of enemies and brought water fresh from the costly well of salvation. All the blessings and joys of our Christian faith, reach us through the suffering and sacrifice of Christ. Can we devote these gifts and abilities of our lives, ransomed at such cost, to any common end or use? Can we do otherwise with them than as David did with the water - make them holy offerings to God? Is any other use in keeping with their sacredness?
This self-devotedness to God must be kept pure and clean. An old commentator says, "Let the eye look upon nothing evil, and it becomes a sacrifice unto God. Let the tongue say nothing foul, and it becomes an offering unto God. Let the hand do nothing unlawful, and it becomes a recompense unto God."
An artist chiseled in marble a wonderful statue of Christ. He always believed and asserted that it was an actual vision of the Saviour that had come to him and which he had carved in stone. So full of tender grace was the statue that when the artist called a child into his studio, and, pointing to the marble, asked, "Who is that?" the child looked in silence for some moments at the wondrous figure, and then in reverent tones replied, "Suffer the little children to come unto me." Untaught, the child-heart recognized in the radiant figure the features that must belong to the Redeemer.
After this the artist's name became famous, and he was asked to make statues of heathen deities for ornamental use. But he refused, saying, "A man who has seen Christ would commit sacrilege if he would employ his art in carving a pagan goddess. My art is henceforth a consecrated thing." He would never let his hands, which had fashioned the features of Christ in marble, touch any but sacred subjects.
This illustrates the true ideal of devotion to God. "The Lord has set apart the godly man for Himself." The hands which take the sacramental emblems, must do no unholy work. The lips that speak the vows of love and the words of prayer, must utter no bitter words, no evil or impure words. The eye that is lifted up to look upon the suffering Lamb of God and upon the holy beauty of the exalted King, must not linger an instant on anything that defiles. The heart that has been warmed by the consciousness of the love of God, must not open to any foul thought or evil desire or unholy imagination. The life that has cost the blood of Jesus, must be used to honor God and bless the world. It is too sacred to be devoted to any but holy service.
When we think deeply of this matter we see that every blessing we have is sacred, because of its cost. All along the ages whatever is good and beautiful and worthy, has been the fruit of pain.
Civilization has advanced through wars and struggles. What we are today in our happy country, we are as the result of long centuries of weary toil, of sad failure, of heart anguish, in those who have gone before us.
We are reaping now the harvests of the tears which others sowed. If we would sow anything for those to reap who follow us - then we must go forth weeping. We may not sit still in comfortable ease and feed on the blessings which others in pain and sorrow have won for us. The cup of sweet life that is before us, we may not take and lightly drink, merely to quench our own thirst; it is the blood of those who before us went in jeopardy of their lives to win it, and we must treat it as sacred, pouring it before God in consecrated offering to bless other lives.
~J. R. Miller~
(The End)
There is embedded in an unpromising Bible chapter, like a gem in a hard rock or growing like a delicate flower on a bare, cold crag - a beautiful incident which teaches a valuable lesson.
David and his men were in the cave of Dullam. They were shut in, fierce Philistines holding them in a sort of siege. Homesickness came over David. He thought of the scenes of his boyhood, not far away from where he then was. He was thirsty, too, in the burning heat, and there came memories of a cool spring which bubbled up by the gate of Bethlehem at which in his happy youth he used to drink. "David longed for water and said: "Oh that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!" (2 Samuel 23:15).
By his side stood three men who loved their leader and feared no danger. Hearing David's words they drew their swords, and, breaking through the lines of the enemy, made their way to the well, and having drawn of its sweet water they bore it back to David and presented it to him. David's heart was thrilled by this proof of loyalty and love. In his thirst, too, he longed, too, he longed to drink the water. But when he thought through what peril his men had brought it to him, he refused even to put it to his lips. "Far be it from me, O Lord, to do this!" he said. "Is it not the blood of men who went at the risk of their lives?" And David would not drink it." Therefore he poured it out as a sacred offering unto the Lord. It had cost too much to be used for any common purpose or for mere personal gratification; the only fit thing to do with it was to devote it to God.
The incident has its suggestions. As a general principle it teaches us that whatever comes to us at great cost should be sacred in our eyes, and should not be devoted to any common, selfish or sinful use but should be dedicated to the Lord.
A most obvious application is to our own redeemed lives. We know how the blessing of spiritual life come to us. Jesus broke through the lines of enemies and brought water fresh from the costly well of salvation. All the blessings and joys of our Christian faith, reach us through the suffering and sacrifice of Christ. Can we devote these gifts and abilities of our lives, ransomed at such cost, to any common end or use? Can we do otherwise with them than as David did with the water - make them holy offerings to God? Is any other use in keeping with their sacredness?
This self-devotedness to God must be kept pure and clean. An old commentator says, "Let the eye look upon nothing evil, and it becomes a sacrifice unto God. Let the tongue say nothing foul, and it becomes an offering unto God. Let the hand do nothing unlawful, and it becomes a recompense unto God."
An artist chiseled in marble a wonderful statue of Christ. He always believed and asserted that it was an actual vision of the Saviour that had come to him and which he had carved in stone. So full of tender grace was the statue that when the artist called a child into his studio, and, pointing to the marble, asked, "Who is that?" the child looked in silence for some moments at the wondrous figure, and then in reverent tones replied, "Suffer the little children to come unto me." Untaught, the child-heart recognized in the radiant figure the features that must belong to the Redeemer.
After this the artist's name became famous, and he was asked to make statues of heathen deities for ornamental use. But he refused, saying, "A man who has seen Christ would commit sacrilege if he would employ his art in carving a pagan goddess. My art is henceforth a consecrated thing." He would never let his hands, which had fashioned the features of Christ in marble, touch any but sacred subjects.
This illustrates the true ideal of devotion to God. "The Lord has set apart the godly man for Himself." The hands which take the sacramental emblems, must do no unholy work. The lips that speak the vows of love and the words of prayer, must utter no bitter words, no evil or impure words. The eye that is lifted up to look upon the suffering Lamb of God and upon the holy beauty of the exalted King, must not linger an instant on anything that defiles. The heart that has been warmed by the consciousness of the love of God, must not open to any foul thought or evil desire or unholy imagination. The life that has cost the blood of Jesus, must be used to honor God and bless the world. It is too sacred to be devoted to any but holy service.
When we think deeply of this matter we see that every blessing we have is sacred, because of its cost. All along the ages whatever is good and beautiful and worthy, has been the fruit of pain.
Civilization has advanced through wars and struggles. What we are today in our happy country, we are as the result of long centuries of weary toil, of sad failure, of heart anguish, in those who have gone before us.
We are reaping now the harvests of the tears which others sowed. If we would sow anything for those to reap who follow us - then we must go forth weeping. We may not sit still in comfortable ease and feed on the blessings which others in pain and sorrow have won for us. The cup of sweet life that is before us, we may not take and lightly drink, merely to quench our own thirst; it is the blood of those who before us went in jeopardy of their lives to win it, and we must treat it as sacred, pouring it before God in consecrated offering to bless other lives.
~J. R. Miller~
(The End)
Family Worship # 2
Family Worship # 2
Family worship should be conducted reverently, earnestly and simply. it is then, that the little ones will receive their first impressions and form their initial conceptions of the Lord God. Great care needs to be taken lest a false idea be given them of the Divine Character, and for this, the balance must be preserved between dwelling upon His transcendency and immanency, His holiness and His mercy, His power and His tenderness, His justice and His grace. Worship should begin with a few words of prayer invoking God's presence and blessing. A short passage from His Word should follow, with brief comments thereon. Two or three verses of a Psalm or hymn may be sung. Close with a prayer of committal into the hands of God. Though we may not be able to pray eloquently, we should pray earnestly. Prevailing prayers are usually brief ones. Beware of wearying the young ones.
The advantages and blessings of family worship are incalculable.
First, family worship will prevent much sin. It awes the soul, conveys a sense of God's majesty and authority, sets solemn truths before the mind, and brings down blessings from God on the home. Personal piety in the home is a most influential means, under God, of conveying piety to the little ones. Children are largely creatures of imitation, loving to copy what they see in others.
"He issued His decree to Jacob; He gave His law to Israel. He commanded our forefathers to teach them to their children, so the next generation might know them - even the children not yet born - that they in turn might teach their children. So that each generation might put their confidence in God and not forget God's works, but keep His commandments" (Psalm 78:5-7).
How much of the dreadful moral and spiritual conditions of the masses today, may be traced back to the neglect of their fathers in this duty? How can those who neglect the worship of God in their families - look for peace and comfort therein? Daily prayer in the home, is a blessed means of grace for allaying those unhappy passions to which our common nature is subject.
Finally, family prayer gains for us the presence and blessing of the Lord. There is a promise of His presence which is peculiarly applicable to this duty, "Where two or three are gathered together in My name - I am there among them." (Matt. 18:20). Many have found in family worship, that help and communion with God which they sought for with less effect in private prayer.
~A. W. Pink~
(The End)
Family worship should be conducted reverently, earnestly and simply. it is then, that the little ones will receive their first impressions and form their initial conceptions of the Lord God. Great care needs to be taken lest a false idea be given them of the Divine Character, and for this, the balance must be preserved between dwelling upon His transcendency and immanency, His holiness and His mercy, His power and His tenderness, His justice and His grace. Worship should begin with a few words of prayer invoking God's presence and blessing. A short passage from His Word should follow, with brief comments thereon. Two or three verses of a Psalm or hymn may be sung. Close with a prayer of committal into the hands of God. Though we may not be able to pray eloquently, we should pray earnestly. Prevailing prayers are usually brief ones. Beware of wearying the young ones.
The advantages and blessings of family worship are incalculable.
First, family worship will prevent much sin. It awes the soul, conveys a sense of God's majesty and authority, sets solemn truths before the mind, and brings down blessings from God on the home. Personal piety in the home is a most influential means, under God, of conveying piety to the little ones. Children are largely creatures of imitation, loving to copy what they see in others.
"He issued His decree to Jacob; He gave His law to Israel. He commanded our forefathers to teach them to their children, so the next generation might know them - even the children not yet born - that they in turn might teach their children. So that each generation might put their confidence in God and not forget God's works, but keep His commandments" (Psalm 78:5-7).
How much of the dreadful moral and spiritual conditions of the masses today, may be traced back to the neglect of their fathers in this duty? How can those who neglect the worship of God in their families - look for peace and comfort therein? Daily prayer in the home, is a blessed means of grace for allaying those unhappy passions to which our common nature is subject.
Finally, family prayer gains for us the presence and blessing of the Lord. There is a promise of His presence which is peculiarly applicable to this duty, "Where two or three are gathered together in My name - I am there among them." (Matt. 18:20). Many have found in family worship, that help and communion with God which they sought for with less effect in private prayer.
~A. W. Pink~
(The End)
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