Time Is Short!
"What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives, should live as if they had none, those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away" (1 Corinthians 7:29-31).
In these words there is:
1. A statement made: "The time is short," and again: "This world in its present form is passing away!" The time to be spent in this world is very short; it is but an inch of time - a short half-hour. In a very little while, it will be all over. All that is here, is changing - the very hills are crumbling down - the loveliest face is withering away - the finest garments rot and decay! "This world in its present form is passing away."
2. A lesson drawn from this: Believers should sit loose to everything here on earth. Believers should look on everything in the light of eternity. Value nothing any more than you will do then. Sit loose to the objects, griefs, joys, occupations of this world - for you must soon change them for eternal realities!
DOCTRINE. The shortness of time should make believers sit loose to all things under the sun.
1. The shortness of time. This is true in two respects.
2. The time a believer has to live in this world is very short.
A. The whole lifetime is very short. From the cradle to the grave is but a short journey: "The length of our days is seventy years - o"r eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away!" (Psalm 90:10).
The half of men die before the age of twenty. Even when men lived for many hundred years, it was but a short life - a moment compared to eternity. Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and he died. "All flesh is as grass," and "the grass withers, the flower fades; because the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it." (Isaiah 40:7). "For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away!" (James 4:14).
B. Much of our time is already passed away. Most believers spent their first days in the service of sin.
C. The time of this world's continuance is short. "The end of all things is at hand." A little while, brethren, and the day of grace will be over - preaching, praying will be done. Soon we will give over wrestling with an unbelieving world - soon the number of believers shall be complete, and the sky open over our heads, and Christ shall come! Then we shall see Him "whom having not seen, we loved." A little while, and we shall stand before the great white throne. A little while, and the wicked shall not be - we shall see them going away into everlasting punishment. A little while and the work of eternity will be begin. We shall be like Him - we shall see Him day and night in His temple - we shall sing the new song, without sin and without weariness forever and ever. In a little moment, brethren, all this shall be reality!
2. The believer should learn from this, to sit loose to all things under the sun.
A. Sit loose to the DEAREST objects of this world. "From now on those who have wives, should live as if they had none." Marriage is honorable in all. Husbands should love their wives, even as Christ loved the Church. "So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies." Still it must not be idolatry. A married believer should be, in some respects, as if he were unmarried.
"Honor your father and mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God gives you." You cannot be too kind, too gentle, too loving, to the parents whom God has given you - yet be as though you had none. Parents, love your children, and bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord - yet feel that the time is short. They are only a loan from the Lord. Be not surprised if He takes them. Esteem your ministers highly in love, for their work's sake - yet be as if you had none. Lean as entirely on Christ as if you had never seen or heard a minister.
Brainerd mentions an instance of one woman, who, after conversion, was resigned to the divine will in the most tender points: "What if God should take away your husband from you - how do you think you would bear that?" Se replied: "He belongs to God, and not to me. He may do with him just what He pleases." When she longed to die, to be free from sin, she was asked what would become of her infant; she answered, "God will take care of it; it belongs to Him - He will take care of it."
Rutherford says: "Do not build your nest upon any earthly tree; for God has sold the forest to death, and every tree whereon we would build, is ready to be cut down, to the end we may flee and mount up, and build upon the Rock, and dwell in the cleft of the Rock."
2. Sit loose to the GRIEFS of this world. "Those who mourn, as if they did not." This world is the valley of tears. There are always mourning. No sooner is the tear dried up on one check - that it trickles down another. Those who are in Christ should weep as though they wept not, "for the time is short." Do you weep over those who died in the Lord? It is right to weep: "Jesus wept." They are not lost, but gone before. The sun, when it sets, is not lost; it is gone to shine in another hemisphere. Just so, have believers gone to shine in a brighter world. It is self-love that makes you mourn for them; for they are blissfully happy. Why do you mourn for them when they are with the sinner's Friend? "They shall hunger no mare, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light upon them, nor the heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto fountains of living waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes!"
Do you weep over those that died out of the Lord? Ah! there is deeper cause for weeping here - and yet the time is short, when all this will be explained to you, and you will not be able to shed a tear over the lost. A little while, and you will see Jesus fully glorified, and you will not be able to wish anything different from what has happened. When Aaron lost his two sons, he remained silent. When we get to the presence of Jesus, all our griefs shall look like children's griefs! A day in His presence will make you remember your miseries no more. Therefore, take courage, and run with patience.
3. Sit loose to the ENJOYMENTS of this world. It is quite right for a believer to use the things of this world, and to rejoice in them. Still, he should "rejoice as though he rejoiced not, and use this world as not abusing it;" for "the time is short." In a little while you will be at your Father's table above, drinking the new wine with Christ! You will meet with all your brothers and sisters in Christ. You will have pure joy in God through ceaseless ages! Do not be much taken with the fleeting joys of this poor world.
4. Sit loose to the OCCUPATIONS of the world. It is right for Christians to be diligent in business. I often wonder how unconverted souls can be so busy - how, when you are bustling along, filling up all your time with worldly things, it never occurs to you that there will be none of this in eternity. How can I be so busy for my "body", when my poor soul is unprovided for? But those in Christ may well be diligent. They have a good conscience, and they love their Lord!
C. What the UNCONVERTED should learn from the shortness of time. Learn your folly in having lost the past. God has given you time to save your soul - and you have spent it in ruining your soul. God gave you time to flee to Christ - and you have spent it in fleeing toward hell! Oh! brethren, be wise. "Why do you stand idle all the day?" Your unconverted head is grey - your feet are tottering. You are condemned already - your days are numbered - you are hanging by a thread over the mouth of hell! And yet you are cutting and slashing at the hand that holds you! In a little moment it will be all over. Throughout the never-ending ages of eternity, you will remember the few days we spent together. Ah! the remembrance will add fuel to the flame, and be a never-dying worm in you poor soul!
~Robert Murray M'Cheyne~
(The End)
Saturday, September 22, 2018
Saturday, September 15, 2018
The Old Cross and the New
The Old Cross and the New
ALL UNANNOUNCED AND MOSTLY UNDETECTED there has come in modern times a new cross into popular evangelical circles. It is like the old Cross, but different: the likenesses are superficial; the differences, fundamental.
From this new cross has sprung a new philosophy of the Christian life, and from that new philosophy has come a new evangelical technique - a new type of meeting and a new kind of preaching. This new evangelism employs the same language as the old, but its content is not the same and its emphasis not as before.
The old Cross would have no truck with the world. For Adam's proud flesh it meant the end of the journey. It carried into effect the sentence imposed by the law of Sinai. The new cross is not opposed to the human race; rather, it is a friendly pal and, if understood right, it is the source of oceans of good clean fun and innocent enjoyment. It lets Adam live without interference. His life motivation is unchanged; he still lives for his own pleasure, only now he takes delight in singing choruses and watching religious movies instead of singing bawdy songs and drinking hard liquor. The accent is still on enjoyment, though the fun is now on a higher plane morally if not intellectually.
The new cross encourages a new and entirely different evangelistic approach. The evangelist does not demand abnegation of the old life before a new life can be received. He preaches not contrasts but similarities. He seeks to key into public interest by showing that Christianity makes no unpleasant demands; rather, it offers the same thing the world does, only on a higher level. Whatever the sin-mad world happens to be clamoring after at the moment is cleverly shown to be the very thing the gospel offers, only the religious product is better.
The new cross does not slay the sinner, it redirects him. It gears him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self-respect. To the self-assertive it says, "Come and assert yourself for Christ." To the egotist it says, "Come and do your boasting in the Lord." To the thrill seeker it says, "Come and enjoy the thrill of Christian fellowship." The Christian message is slanted in the direction of the current vogue in order to make it acceptable to the public.
The philosophy back of this kind of thing may be sincere but its sincerity does not save it from being false. It is false because it is blind. It misses completely the whole meaning of the Cross.
The old Cross is a symbol of death. It stands for the abrupt, violent end of a human being. The man in Roman times who took up his cross and started down the road had already said good-by to his friends. He was not coming back. He was going out to have it ended. The Cross made no compromise, modified nothing, spared nothing; it slew all of the man, completely and for good. It did not try to keep on good terms with its victim. It struck cruel and hard, and when it had finished its work, the man was no more.
The race of Adam is under death sentence. There is no commutation and no escape. God cannot approve any of the fruits of sin, however innocent they may appear or beautiful to the eyes of men. God salvages the individual by liquidating him and then raising him again to newness of life.
That evangelism which draws friendly parallels between the ways of God and the ways of men is false to the Bible and cruel to the souls of its hearers. The faith of Christ does not parallel the world, it intersects it. In coming to Christ we do not bring our old life up onto a higher plane; we leave it at the Cross. The corn of wheat must fall into the ground and die.
We who preach the gospel must not think of ourselves as public relations agents sent to establish good will between Christ and the world. We must not imagine ourselves commissioned to make Christ acceptable to big business, the press, the world of sports or modern education. We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum.
God offers life, but not an improved old life. The life He offers is life out of death. It stands always on the far side of the Cross. Whoever would possess it must pass under the rod. He must repudiate himself and concur in God's just sentence against him.
What does this mean to the individual, the condemned man who would find life in Christ Jesus? How can this theology be translated into life? Simply, he must repent and believe. He must forsake his sins and then go on to forsake himself. Let him cover nothing, defend nothing, excuse nothing. Let him not seek to make terms with God, but let him bow his head before the stroke of God's stern displeasure and acknowledge himself worthy to die.
Having done this let him gaze with simple trust upon the risen Saviour, and from Him will come life and rebirth and cleansing and power. The Cross that ended the earthly life of Jesus now puts an end to the sinner; and the power that raised Christ from the dead now raises him to a new life along with Christ.
To any who may object to this or count it merely a narrow and private view of truth, let me say God has set His hallmark of approval upon this message from Paul's day to the present. Whether stated in these exact words or not, this has been the content of all preaching that has brought life and power to the world through the centuries. The mystics, the reformers, the revivalists have put their emphasis here, and signs and wonders and mighty operations of the Holy Spirit gave witness to God's approval.
Dare we, the heirs of such a legacy of power, tamper with the truth? Dare we with our stubby pencils erase the lines of the blueprint or alter the pattern shown us in the Mount? May God forbid! Let us preach the old Cross and will know the old power.
~A. W. Tozer~
(The End)
ALL UNANNOUNCED AND MOSTLY UNDETECTED there has come in modern times a new cross into popular evangelical circles. It is like the old Cross, but different: the likenesses are superficial; the differences, fundamental.
From this new cross has sprung a new philosophy of the Christian life, and from that new philosophy has come a new evangelical technique - a new type of meeting and a new kind of preaching. This new evangelism employs the same language as the old, but its content is not the same and its emphasis not as before.
The old Cross would have no truck with the world. For Adam's proud flesh it meant the end of the journey. It carried into effect the sentence imposed by the law of Sinai. The new cross is not opposed to the human race; rather, it is a friendly pal and, if understood right, it is the source of oceans of good clean fun and innocent enjoyment. It lets Adam live without interference. His life motivation is unchanged; he still lives for his own pleasure, only now he takes delight in singing choruses and watching religious movies instead of singing bawdy songs and drinking hard liquor. The accent is still on enjoyment, though the fun is now on a higher plane morally if not intellectually.
The new cross encourages a new and entirely different evangelistic approach. The evangelist does not demand abnegation of the old life before a new life can be received. He preaches not contrasts but similarities. He seeks to key into public interest by showing that Christianity makes no unpleasant demands; rather, it offers the same thing the world does, only on a higher level. Whatever the sin-mad world happens to be clamoring after at the moment is cleverly shown to be the very thing the gospel offers, only the religious product is better.
The new cross does not slay the sinner, it redirects him. It gears him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self-respect. To the self-assertive it says, "Come and assert yourself for Christ." To the egotist it says, "Come and do your boasting in the Lord." To the thrill seeker it says, "Come and enjoy the thrill of Christian fellowship." The Christian message is slanted in the direction of the current vogue in order to make it acceptable to the public.
The philosophy back of this kind of thing may be sincere but its sincerity does not save it from being false. It is false because it is blind. It misses completely the whole meaning of the Cross.
The old Cross is a symbol of death. It stands for the abrupt, violent end of a human being. The man in Roman times who took up his cross and started down the road had already said good-by to his friends. He was not coming back. He was going out to have it ended. The Cross made no compromise, modified nothing, spared nothing; it slew all of the man, completely and for good. It did not try to keep on good terms with its victim. It struck cruel and hard, and when it had finished its work, the man was no more.
The race of Adam is under death sentence. There is no commutation and no escape. God cannot approve any of the fruits of sin, however innocent they may appear or beautiful to the eyes of men. God salvages the individual by liquidating him and then raising him again to newness of life.
That evangelism which draws friendly parallels between the ways of God and the ways of men is false to the Bible and cruel to the souls of its hearers. The faith of Christ does not parallel the world, it intersects it. In coming to Christ we do not bring our old life up onto a higher plane; we leave it at the Cross. The corn of wheat must fall into the ground and die.
We who preach the gospel must not think of ourselves as public relations agents sent to establish good will between Christ and the world. We must not imagine ourselves commissioned to make Christ acceptable to big business, the press, the world of sports or modern education. We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum.
God offers life, but not an improved old life. The life He offers is life out of death. It stands always on the far side of the Cross. Whoever would possess it must pass under the rod. He must repudiate himself and concur in God's just sentence against him.
What does this mean to the individual, the condemned man who would find life in Christ Jesus? How can this theology be translated into life? Simply, he must repent and believe. He must forsake his sins and then go on to forsake himself. Let him cover nothing, defend nothing, excuse nothing. Let him not seek to make terms with God, but let him bow his head before the stroke of God's stern displeasure and acknowledge himself worthy to die.
Having done this let him gaze with simple trust upon the risen Saviour, and from Him will come life and rebirth and cleansing and power. The Cross that ended the earthly life of Jesus now puts an end to the sinner; and the power that raised Christ from the dead now raises him to a new life along with Christ.
To any who may object to this or count it merely a narrow and private view of truth, let me say God has set His hallmark of approval upon this message from Paul's day to the present. Whether stated in these exact words or not, this has been the content of all preaching that has brought life and power to the world through the centuries. The mystics, the reformers, the revivalists have put their emphasis here, and signs and wonders and mighty operations of the Holy Spirit gave witness to God's approval.
Dare we, the heirs of such a legacy of power, tamper with the truth? Dare we with our stubby pencils erase the lines of the blueprint or alter the pattern shown us in the Mount? May God forbid! Let us preach the old Cross and will know the old power.
~A. W. Tozer~
(The End)
Saturday, September 8, 2018
Today's Sleep Giant # 2
Today's Sleeping Giant # 2
If the church is going to attain to her potential in this last hour, it is apparent that we are going to have to dust off an old word that many of us have forgotten is in the English language - DISCIPLINE! To some, this word discipline will have a monastic flavor, for it smells of the Middle Ages or throws onto the screen of the mind a picture of an unwashed hermit or a hollow-eyed anchorite. Be not deceived. Every smart "top brass military expert has arrived there because he wore the harness of discipline. This brings to mind the words of the poet: "The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward through the night!"
In a brilliant sermon called "Discipleship," G. Cambell Morgan says, "Jesus Christ could speak to the sorrow-burdened heart of humanity words so full of mother-love and father-love as to make men crowd and press round Him. On the other hand, He could suddenly speak words that flashed and scorched and burned until men drew back in astonishment." Bracketed in the last group would be these two commands: "Take my yoke upon you" and "My disciple, take up your cross and follow me." Both of these words imply discipline.
When we sing in a sunlit church "Oh to be like Thee; Oh to be like Thee," we get weepy and feel an emotional lift. But permit this simple challenge: Do we really mean "Oh to be like Thee" - like the Christ of God, who was a man of discipline? Do we really mean "Oh to be like Thee" - fasting alone in the desert? Do we mean "Oh to be like Thee" to touch the depths of prayer that make us cry, "All Thy billows are gone over me." Do we mean "Oh to be like Thee" - to become habituates of the prayer chamber? Do we mean "Oh to be like Thee" - in a will like His, for He said, "I always do the will of my Father." Is that not discipline?
The religious sentimentalist who sings "Just a closer walk with Thee" but walks close to the ungodly and sits with the blasphemers, is not taken seriously in either heaven or hell. Be very sure, friend, that this vile world is not "a friend to grace to hep on to God." We need to pray the Father to put some blood into this "water" that runs through our veins. Our Simon-like natures need the Upper Room fire to clean us out and the discipline of the Spirit to shape us into soldiers.
Twenty-five years of discipline in a crows-nest of an office up behind his church in Chicago brought about a Dr. A. W. Tozer, who produced a book, The Pursuit of God." This in turn produced on the ocean of spiritual teaching waves that lap their way to the ends of the earth.
Today, immediately when one gets out of step with a nearby Christian, he is considered a legalist. Just remember, in "that great day of judgment" when we must all stand before His throne, no man will be ashamed he was dubbed over-spiritual, though many will weep, groan, and "suffer loss" because of lack of discipline. Discipline is a harness by which we enable the Spirit to get the best out of our frail humanity. The Apostle Paul was a disciplinarian like his Master: He disciplined his body: I keep my body under." He disciplines himself to loneliness: "All men forsook me." To scorn: "We are fools for Christ's sake." To poverty: "We suffered need." To rejection: "We are despised." To death: "I die daily." To suffering: "Persecuted but not forsaken." May this be our prayer: "Oh Lord, I bow my neck to Thy yoke!"
Ambrose Fleming called the resurrection of Jesus Christ "the best attested fact in history". Yet at Easter time, vain effort is made to rationalize the stupendous event of the Resurrection in order to try to save face before pseudo-intelliectualism, which boggles at the fact that the Lord of glory died and rose again, triumphant over death, over hell, and over the grave. Who, then, can dispute the following biting statements of Murdo MacDonald in his book, The Vitality of Faith, "Ever since the Renaissance, men have been trying to water down the Christian creed. Give us a religion purged of everything that defies logic, a religion stripped of the supernatural and emptied of miracle, a religion that is smooth and palatable and rationally acceptable - this has been the popular cry". Surely, the church, weak in heart and courage, has gone out of the way to oblige.
The doom of this decaying civilization is spelled out in our crowded divorce courts, our all-time high of alcoholics and drug addicts, the number of illegitimate births or the number of abortions. A Gallup poll shows that these days most people accept lying as part of everyday business. Virtue is scorned!
TRUTH LIES FALLEN IN THE STREET!
Somewhere in the archives of the British Admiralty, they have the record of a fine piece of maritime strategy. Ships of five nations were anchored in a bay in the South Pacific. A fierce storm was gathering offshore. The British captain decided to run, not away from the storm but into it. Everything available was battened down. Out crashed the ship into the boiling seas-pitching, tossing, rolling, and shuddering. Indeed, she did everything but go down. A couple of days later, buffeted but not broken, she returned to the port to find the ships of the other nations piled up on the beach.
The storm of the ages is about to break. Let the church call its crew to a new dedication. Remembering that Christ is at the helm, and with Christ's crest as our ensign, let us run into the storm. After the storm, we, too, shall return to see upon the shores of time the battered, piled, wrecked, hell-inspired ideologies of the hour.
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(The End)
If the church is going to attain to her potential in this last hour, it is apparent that we are going to have to dust off an old word that many of us have forgotten is in the English language - DISCIPLINE! To some, this word discipline will have a monastic flavor, for it smells of the Middle Ages or throws onto the screen of the mind a picture of an unwashed hermit or a hollow-eyed anchorite. Be not deceived. Every smart "top brass military expert has arrived there because he wore the harness of discipline. This brings to mind the words of the poet: "The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward through the night!"
In a brilliant sermon called "Discipleship," G. Cambell Morgan says, "Jesus Christ could speak to the sorrow-burdened heart of humanity words so full of mother-love and father-love as to make men crowd and press round Him. On the other hand, He could suddenly speak words that flashed and scorched and burned until men drew back in astonishment." Bracketed in the last group would be these two commands: "Take my yoke upon you" and "My disciple, take up your cross and follow me." Both of these words imply discipline.
When we sing in a sunlit church "Oh to be like Thee; Oh to be like Thee," we get weepy and feel an emotional lift. But permit this simple challenge: Do we really mean "Oh to be like Thee" - like the Christ of God, who was a man of discipline? Do we really mean "Oh to be like Thee" - fasting alone in the desert? Do we mean "Oh to be like Thee" to touch the depths of prayer that make us cry, "All Thy billows are gone over me." Do we mean "Oh to be like Thee" - to become habituates of the prayer chamber? Do we mean "Oh to be like Thee" - in a will like His, for He said, "I always do the will of my Father." Is that not discipline?
The religious sentimentalist who sings "Just a closer walk with Thee" but walks close to the ungodly and sits with the blasphemers, is not taken seriously in either heaven or hell. Be very sure, friend, that this vile world is not "a friend to grace to hep on to God." We need to pray the Father to put some blood into this "water" that runs through our veins. Our Simon-like natures need the Upper Room fire to clean us out and the discipline of the Spirit to shape us into soldiers.
Twenty-five years of discipline in a crows-nest of an office up behind his church in Chicago brought about a Dr. A. W. Tozer, who produced a book, The Pursuit of God." This in turn produced on the ocean of spiritual teaching waves that lap their way to the ends of the earth.
Today, immediately when one gets out of step with a nearby Christian, he is considered a legalist. Just remember, in "that great day of judgment" when we must all stand before His throne, no man will be ashamed he was dubbed over-spiritual, though many will weep, groan, and "suffer loss" because of lack of discipline. Discipline is a harness by which we enable the Spirit to get the best out of our frail humanity. The Apostle Paul was a disciplinarian like his Master: He disciplined his body: I keep my body under." He disciplines himself to loneliness: "All men forsook me." To scorn: "We are fools for Christ's sake." To poverty: "We suffered need." To rejection: "We are despised." To death: "I die daily." To suffering: "Persecuted but not forsaken." May this be our prayer: "Oh Lord, I bow my neck to Thy yoke!"
Ambrose Fleming called the resurrection of Jesus Christ "the best attested fact in history". Yet at Easter time, vain effort is made to rationalize the stupendous event of the Resurrection in order to try to save face before pseudo-intelliectualism, which boggles at the fact that the Lord of glory died and rose again, triumphant over death, over hell, and over the grave. Who, then, can dispute the following biting statements of Murdo MacDonald in his book, The Vitality of Faith, "Ever since the Renaissance, men have been trying to water down the Christian creed. Give us a religion purged of everything that defies logic, a religion stripped of the supernatural and emptied of miracle, a religion that is smooth and palatable and rationally acceptable - this has been the popular cry". Surely, the church, weak in heart and courage, has gone out of the way to oblige.
The doom of this decaying civilization is spelled out in our crowded divorce courts, our all-time high of alcoholics and drug addicts, the number of illegitimate births or the number of abortions. A Gallup poll shows that these days most people accept lying as part of everyday business. Virtue is scorned!
TRUTH LIES FALLEN IN THE STREET!
Somewhere in the archives of the British Admiralty, they have the record of a fine piece of maritime strategy. Ships of five nations were anchored in a bay in the South Pacific. A fierce storm was gathering offshore. The British captain decided to run, not away from the storm but into it. Everything available was battened down. Out crashed the ship into the boiling seas-pitching, tossing, rolling, and shuddering. Indeed, she did everything but go down. A couple of days later, buffeted but not broken, she returned to the port to find the ships of the other nations piled up on the beach.
The storm of the ages is about to break. Let the church call its crew to a new dedication. Remembering that Christ is at the helm, and with Christ's crest as our ensign, let us run into the storm. After the storm, we, too, shall return to see upon the shores of time the battered, piled, wrecked, hell-inspired ideologies of the hour.
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(The End)
Today's Sleeping Giant # 1
Today's Sleeping Giant # 1
Solemnly and slowly, with his index finger extended, Napoleon Bonaparte outlined a great stretch of country on a map of the world. "There," he growled, "is a sleeping giant. Let him sleep! If he wakes, he will shake the world." That sleeping giant was China. Today, Bonaparte's prophecy of some one hundred and fifty years ago makes sense.
Today lucifer is probably surveying the church just as Bonaparte did China. One can almost behold the fear in his eyes as he thinks of the Church's unmeasured potential and growls, "Let the Church sleep! If she awakes, she will shake the world." Is not the Church the sleeping giant of today?
As today's Church thinks about the day of reckoning that is surely coming, of that a holy fear would come upon her (even if it drives her to extremes) in order to arouse her from her present paralysis!
Consider Samson's fall. He didn't get drunk; he didn't commit murder; he didn't steal. Samson fell simply because he succumbed to the natural, and fell asleep. That one small act put him into captivity, made a false god popular, and scattered the forces of the true and living God.
If even yet you feel a hangover of the old interpretation that the Samson of the Bible is a distant relative of Hercules or Atlas (famed in mythology for carrying the world on his back), then think again. Samson was no human monstrosity. He was no super-edition of a Goliath. If Samson had been a colossus, they why did Delilah ask the question, "Wherein lieth thy great strength?"
Let the final word be from the Word of God itself, for in telling the story of men mighty in faith, the writer of Hebrews says: Time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson...who through faith...stopped the mouths of lions" Heb. 11:32-33). Only two men in Scripture stopped the mouths of lions - Daniel and Samson. But no giant could single-handedly, as Samson, "put to flight the armies of the aliens," or toy with opposing armies. Here, Samson slays a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass; there, he kills another thirty men. Here, he takes the gates of Gaza for a ride; there, he tears a lion like paper. To add insult to injury, the Spirit's comment is "he had nothing in his hand."
Note well, yea, read for yourself the whole story of the secret of this mighty exploiter, this more-than-conquering believer: "The Spirit of the Lord rested mightily upon him." Everything in the story adds up to this staggering fact: Supernatural power was upon Samson.
Alas that today there is more evidence of religious sensation before our eyes than evidence of spiritual regeneration and supernatural phenomenon! Not many Christians today can forget the fact that the devil goeth about as a roaring lion, but we seem to have lost sight of the fact that the Lion of the tribe of Judah had defeated the roaring lion of hell, and therefore every anointed Samson or Gideon or church can also slay the lion of hell! Though wicked men are doing wickedly, God's promise to us is that "the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits" (Daniel 11:32).
God pity us that after years of writing, using mountains of paper and rivers of ink, exhausting flashy terminology about the biggest revival meetings in history, we are still faced with gross corruption in every nation, as well as with most prayerless church age since Pentecost!
This is a plea for the return of the supernatural; but I must also give this a word of explanation. For a decade, all over this land there has been a ministry of the miraculous (more or less), and thank God for all who honor Him and remain faithful. But having said that, here is a plea for sane thinking and a spiritual evaluation of the evangelistic field. To a large degree, have we not substituted seeing for hearing? In Acts, Philip the evangelist could have transferred the Ethiopian eunuch to a city seething with revival fever where the eunuch could have seen "the lame leap like an hart and the tongue of the dumb sing." Instead, he pitched right into the Word of the living God, and beginning at the same Scripture preached unto him Jesus. We need the miraculous but we also need Christ-centered teaching. Our crucified, exalted Christ must have preeminence over all other slants of truth, for while the Church is languishing, the world is perishing. "Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord..." (Isaiah 51:9).
Again let me say, Samson's size was not the secret of his strength. The fact that he was the same size after he backslid negates the idea that he was a giant. His only external peculiarity was his long locks, uncut because he was a Nazarite. Nor had his long hair in itself any abnormal power. Samson's secret was obedience. As long as Samson trod the straight and narrow path of obedience, he was invincible.
Let us remember, too, that Samson, who began in the Spirit, fell into the flesh, and so had a prison term to bring him to his senses. Finally, by one last mighty miracle, he finished in the Spirit. Backslider, this is a word for your recovery, for God can restore the years that the cankerworm and the caterpillar have eaten. He who is able delights in mercy.
Samson's final act of power was the crowning achievement of a spectacular lifes work. After he had slipped out from under the harness of obedience, he was forced into separation from the world in a prison. Once an army trembled at his very sight; later a single boy came to lead the blinded Samson into the temple of Dragon, the fish-god. How the mighty had fallen! Yet now, God took this "weak thing" into a temple full of lords of the Philistines and set him between the pillars. "Samson took hold of the pillars...the one with his right hand and the other with his left...and he bowed himself with all His might" (Judges 16:29-30). Holy jealousy gripped him. Mighty as he had been in other things, Samson now proved mightiest in prayer: "Lord, strengthen me...this once!" Would to God that every professed believer in the whole of Christendom would borrow this prayer and mean it! Then with dramatic conclusion, Samson sealed the doom of many more of the enemies of God in his dying than in his living.
Is this the dying hour of this dispensation? Many say it is. Some Christians have already hung their harps on the willows, and yet others seem to delight in speaking of the Church's present lapse as a proof of divine inspiration. But I myself believe that if the Church will only obey the conditions, she can have a revival any time she wants it. The problem of the Church is the problem in the garden of Gethsemane - sleep! For while men sleep, the enemy, sows his seed through his cults. Lest men sleep the sleep of eternal death, Oh arm of the Lord, Oh Church of the living God, awake!
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(continued with # 2)
Solemnly and slowly, with his index finger extended, Napoleon Bonaparte outlined a great stretch of country on a map of the world. "There," he growled, "is a sleeping giant. Let him sleep! If he wakes, he will shake the world." That sleeping giant was China. Today, Bonaparte's prophecy of some one hundred and fifty years ago makes sense.
Today lucifer is probably surveying the church just as Bonaparte did China. One can almost behold the fear in his eyes as he thinks of the Church's unmeasured potential and growls, "Let the Church sleep! If she awakes, she will shake the world." Is not the Church the sleeping giant of today?
As today's Church thinks about the day of reckoning that is surely coming, of that a holy fear would come upon her (even if it drives her to extremes) in order to arouse her from her present paralysis!
Consider Samson's fall. He didn't get drunk; he didn't commit murder; he didn't steal. Samson fell simply because he succumbed to the natural, and fell asleep. That one small act put him into captivity, made a false god popular, and scattered the forces of the true and living God.
If even yet you feel a hangover of the old interpretation that the Samson of the Bible is a distant relative of Hercules or Atlas (famed in mythology for carrying the world on his back), then think again. Samson was no human monstrosity. He was no super-edition of a Goliath. If Samson had been a colossus, they why did Delilah ask the question, "Wherein lieth thy great strength?"
Let the final word be from the Word of God itself, for in telling the story of men mighty in faith, the writer of Hebrews says: Time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson...who through faith...stopped the mouths of lions" Heb. 11:32-33). Only two men in Scripture stopped the mouths of lions - Daniel and Samson. But no giant could single-handedly, as Samson, "put to flight the armies of the aliens," or toy with opposing armies. Here, Samson slays a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass; there, he kills another thirty men. Here, he takes the gates of Gaza for a ride; there, he tears a lion like paper. To add insult to injury, the Spirit's comment is "he had nothing in his hand."
Note well, yea, read for yourself the whole story of the secret of this mighty exploiter, this more-than-conquering believer: "The Spirit of the Lord rested mightily upon him." Everything in the story adds up to this staggering fact: Supernatural power was upon Samson.
Alas that today there is more evidence of religious sensation before our eyes than evidence of spiritual regeneration and supernatural phenomenon! Not many Christians today can forget the fact that the devil goeth about as a roaring lion, but we seem to have lost sight of the fact that the Lion of the tribe of Judah had defeated the roaring lion of hell, and therefore every anointed Samson or Gideon or church can also slay the lion of hell! Though wicked men are doing wickedly, God's promise to us is that "the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits" (Daniel 11:32).
God pity us that after years of writing, using mountains of paper and rivers of ink, exhausting flashy terminology about the biggest revival meetings in history, we are still faced with gross corruption in every nation, as well as with most prayerless church age since Pentecost!
This is a plea for the return of the supernatural; but I must also give this a word of explanation. For a decade, all over this land there has been a ministry of the miraculous (more or less), and thank God for all who honor Him and remain faithful. But having said that, here is a plea for sane thinking and a spiritual evaluation of the evangelistic field. To a large degree, have we not substituted seeing for hearing? In Acts, Philip the evangelist could have transferred the Ethiopian eunuch to a city seething with revival fever where the eunuch could have seen "the lame leap like an hart and the tongue of the dumb sing." Instead, he pitched right into the Word of the living God, and beginning at the same Scripture preached unto him Jesus. We need the miraculous but we also need Christ-centered teaching. Our crucified, exalted Christ must have preeminence over all other slants of truth, for while the Church is languishing, the world is perishing. "Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord..." (Isaiah 51:9).
Again let me say, Samson's size was not the secret of his strength. The fact that he was the same size after he backslid negates the idea that he was a giant. His only external peculiarity was his long locks, uncut because he was a Nazarite. Nor had his long hair in itself any abnormal power. Samson's secret was obedience. As long as Samson trod the straight and narrow path of obedience, he was invincible.
Let us remember, too, that Samson, who began in the Spirit, fell into the flesh, and so had a prison term to bring him to his senses. Finally, by one last mighty miracle, he finished in the Spirit. Backslider, this is a word for your recovery, for God can restore the years that the cankerworm and the caterpillar have eaten. He who is able delights in mercy.
Samson's final act of power was the crowning achievement of a spectacular lifes work. After he had slipped out from under the harness of obedience, he was forced into separation from the world in a prison. Once an army trembled at his very sight; later a single boy came to lead the blinded Samson into the temple of Dragon, the fish-god. How the mighty had fallen! Yet now, God took this "weak thing" into a temple full of lords of the Philistines and set him between the pillars. "Samson took hold of the pillars...the one with his right hand and the other with his left...and he bowed himself with all His might" (Judges 16:29-30). Holy jealousy gripped him. Mighty as he had been in other things, Samson now proved mightiest in prayer: "Lord, strengthen me...this once!" Would to God that every professed believer in the whole of Christendom would borrow this prayer and mean it! Then with dramatic conclusion, Samson sealed the doom of many more of the enemies of God in his dying than in his living.
Is this the dying hour of this dispensation? Many say it is. Some Christians have already hung their harps on the willows, and yet others seem to delight in speaking of the Church's present lapse as a proof of divine inspiration. But I myself believe that if the Church will only obey the conditions, she can have a revival any time she wants it. The problem of the Church is the problem in the garden of Gethsemane - sleep! For while men sleep, the enemy, sows his seed through his cults. Lest men sleep the sleep of eternal death, Oh arm of the Lord, Oh Church of the living God, awake!
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(continued with # 2)
The Great Separation # 5
The Great Separation # 5
4. Let me show you, in the last place, the portion which remains for all who are not Christ's people.
The text at the beginning of this paper describes this in words which should make our ears tingle - "Christ shall burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire!"
When the Lord Jesus comes to purge His threshing floor - He shall punish all who are not His disciples with a fearful punishment. All who are found impenitent and unbelieving - all who have held the truth in unrighteousness - all who have clung to sin, stuck to the world, and set their affection on things below - all who are without Christ. All such shall come to an awful end! Christ shall "burn up the chaff!"
Their punishment shall be most SEVERE. There is no pain like that of burning. Put your finger in the candle flame for a moment, if you doubt this, and try. Fire is the most destructive and devouring of all elements. Look into the opening of a fireplace - and think what it would be to be there. Fire is of all elements most opposed to life. Creatures can live in air, and earth, and water - but nothing can live in fire! Yet fire is the portion to which the Christless and unbelieving will come. Christ will "burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire!"
Their punishment shall be ETERNAL. Millions of ages shall pass away, and the fire into which the chaff is cast, shall still burn on. It is "unquenchable fire" - it shall burn on and on. They are a part of that Scripture which is all profitable, and they ought to be heard. As painful as the subject of hell is - it is one about which I dare not, cannot, must not be silent. Who would desire to speak of hell-fire - if God had not spoken of it? When God has spoken of it so plainly - who can safely hold his peace?
I dare not shut my eyes to the fact, that a deep-rooted infidelity lurks in men's minds on the subject of hell. I see it oozing out in the utter apathy of some - they eat, and drink, and sleep - as if there was no wrath to come! I see it creeping forth in the coldness of others about their neighbors' souls - they show little concern to pluck brands from the fire. I desire to denounce such infidelity with all my might. Believing that there are terrors of the Lord, as well as the recompense of reward - I call upon all who profess to believe the Bible, to be on their guard.
I know that some do not believe there is any hell at all. They think it impossible there can be such a place. They call it inconsistent with the mercy of God. The devil of course rejoices in the views of such people. They help his kingdom mightily. They are preaching up his favorite old doctrine, "You shall not surely die!"
I know furthermore, that some do not believe that hell is eternal. They tell us it is incredible that a compassionate God will punish men forever. He will surely open the prison doors at last. This also is a mighty help to the devil's cause. "Take your ease," he whispers to sinners - "if you do make a mistake, never mind, it is not forever."
I know also that some believe that there is a hell - but never allow that anybody is going there! All people with them are "good" as soon as they die - all were sincere - all meant well - and all, they hope, got to Heaven. Alas, what a common delusion is this! I can well understand the feeling of the little girl who asked her mother where all the wicked people were buried, "for she found no mention on the gravestones of any except the good." There are others who see no profit in talking about hell, and are rather shocked when it is mentioned. This also is an immense help to the devil. "Hush, hush!" says satan, "say nothing about hell." The fowler wishes to hear no noise when he lays his snare. The wolf would like the shepherd to sleep while he prowls round the fold. The devil rejoices when Christians are silent about hell!
There is only one point to be settled - "What says the Word of God?"
Do you believe the Bible? Then depend upon it, hell is real and true. Disbelieve hell - and you unscrew, unsettle, and unpin everything in Scripture! You may as well throw your Bible away at once. From "no hell" to "no God" there is but a series of steps.
Hell will have inhabitants. The wicked shall certainly be turned into hell, and all the people that forget God. They shall go away into everlasting punishment. The same blessed Saviour who not sits on a throne of grace, will one day sit on a throne of judgment - and men will see there is such a thing as "the wrath of the Lamb!"
Hell will be intense and unutterable woe. Oh, beloved, the miseries of mind and conscience, are far worse than those of the body! The whole extent of hell, the present suffering, the bitter recollection of the past, the hopeless prospect of the future - will never be thoroughly known, except by those who go there!
And where is there warrant for saying that hell can ever change a heart, or make it fit for heaven? Hell must be eternal, or hell would cease to be hell altogether. Give a man hope - and he will bear anything.
FOREVER is the most solemn word in the Bible! Alas, for that day which shall have no tomorrow! That day when men shall seek death, and not find it, and shall desire to die. Who shall dwell with devouring fire! Who shall dwell with everlasting burnings!
Hell is a subject that ought not to be kept back. Truly it may well be doubted whether we ministers speak of it as much as we ought. I cannot forget the words of a dying hearer of Mr. Newton's - "Sir, you often told me of Christ and salvation; why did you not oftener remind me of hell and danger?" I fear that thousands are on that broad way that leads to it, and I would sincerely arouse them to a sense of the peril before them. What ought to be said of us as ministers, if we call ourselves watchmen for souls, and yet see the fires of hell raging in the distance - and never give the alarm? Call it bad taste, if you like, to speak of hell. Call it charity to make things pleasant, and speak smoothly, and soothe men with constant lullaby of peace. From such notions may I ever be delivered! My notion of charity is to warn men plainly of danger! My notion of taste in the ministerial office, is to declare ALL the counsel of God. If I never spoke of hell - I would think I had kept back something that was profitable - and would look on myself as an accomplice of the devil!
I beseech you, in all tender affection, beware of false views of the subject on which I have been dwelling. Beware of new and strange doctrines about hell and the eternity of punishment. Beware of manufacturing a God of your own; a God who is all mercy - but not just; a God who is all love - but not holy; a God who has a heaven for everybody - but a hell for none; a God who can allow good and evil to be side by side in time - but will make no distinction between good and evil in eternity. Such a God is an idol of your own imagination! He is not the God of the Bible. Take heed, there is a fire for the chaff! Take heed, lest you find out to your cost too late! You must take the Bible as it is. You must read it all, and believe it all. Dare not say, "I believe this verse, for I like it. I reject that, for I do not like it. By what right do you talk in this way? Surely it were better to say over every chapter in the Word, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening!" If men would do this, they would never deny hell, the chaff, and the fire!
I have shown you the two great classes of mankind - the wheat and the chaff. I have shown you the separation which will one day take place. I have shown you the safety of the Lord's people. I have shown you the fearful portion of the Christless and unbelieving.
I commend these things to your conscience, as in the sight of God. And now, reader, let me say four things in CONCLUSION, and then I am done.
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 6)
4. Let me show you, in the last place, the portion which remains for all who are not Christ's people.
The text at the beginning of this paper describes this in words which should make our ears tingle - "Christ shall burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire!"
When the Lord Jesus comes to purge His threshing floor - He shall punish all who are not His disciples with a fearful punishment. All who are found impenitent and unbelieving - all who have held the truth in unrighteousness - all who have clung to sin, stuck to the world, and set their affection on things below - all who are without Christ. All such shall come to an awful end! Christ shall "burn up the chaff!"
Their punishment shall be most SEVERE. There is no pain like that of burning. Put your finger in the candle flame for a moment, if you doubt this, and try. Fire is the most destructive and devouring of all elements. Look into the opening of a fireplace - and think what it would be to be there. Fire is of all elements most opposed to life. Creatures can live in air, and earth, and water - but nothing can live in fire! Yet fire is the portion to which the Christless and unbelieving will come. Christ will "burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire!"
Their punishment shall be ETERNAL. Millions of ages shall pass away, and the fire into which the chaff is cast, shall still burn on. It is "unquenchable fire" - it shall burn on and on. They are a part of that Scripture which is all profitable, and they ought to be heard. As painful as the subject of hell is - it is one about which I dare not, cannot, must not be silent. Who would desire to speak of hell-fire - if God had not spoken of it? When God has spoken of it so plainly - who can safely hold his peace?
I dare not shut my eyes to the fact, that a deep-rooted infidelity lurks in men's minds on the subject of hell. I see it oozing out in the utter apathy of some - they eat, and drink, and sleep - as if there was no wrath to come! I see it creeping forth in the coldness of others about their neighbors' souls - they show little concern to pluck brands from the fire. I desire to denounce such infidelity with all my might. Believing that there are terrors of the Lord, as well as the recompense of reward - I call upon all who profess to believe the Bible, to be on their guard.
I know that some do not believe there is any hell at all. They think it impossible there can be such a place. They call it inconsistent with the mercy of God. The devil of course rejoices in the views of such people. They help his kingdom mightily. They are preaching up his favorite old doctrine, "You shall not surely die!"
I know furthermore, that some do not believe that hell is eternal. They tell us it is incredible that a compassionate God will punish men forever. He will surely open the prison doors at last. This also is a mighty help to the devil's cause. "Take your ease," he whispers to sinners - "if you do make a mistake, never mind, it is not forever."
I know also that some believe that there is a hell - but never allow that anybody is going there! All people with them are "good" as soon as they die - all were sincere - all meant well - and all, they hope, got to Heaven. Alas, what a common delusion is this! I can well understand the feeling of the little girl who asked her mother where all the wicked people were buried, "for she found no mention on the gravestones of any except the good." There are others who see no profit in talking about hell, and are rather shocked when it is mentioned. This also is an immense help to the devil. "Hush, hush!" says satan, "say nothing about hell." The fowler wishes to hear no noise when he lays his snare. The wolf would like the shepherd to sleep while he prowls round the fold. The devil rejoices when Christians are silent about hell!
There is only one point to be settled - "What says the Word of God?"
Do you believe the Bible? Then depend upon it, hell is real and true. Disbelieve hell - and you unscrew, unsettle, and unpin everything in Scripture! You may as well throw your Bible away at once. From "no hell" to "no God" there is but a series of steps.
Hell will have inhabitants. The wicked shall certainly be turned into hell, and all the people that forget God. They shall go away into everlasting punishment. The same blessed Saviour who not sits on a throne of grace, will one day sit on a throne of judgment - and men will see there is such a thing as "the wrath of the Lamb!"
Hell will be intense and unutterable woe. Oh, beloved, the miseries of mind and conscience, are far worse than those of the body! The whole extent of hell, the present suffering, the bitter recollection of the past, the hopeless prospect of the future - will never be thoroughly known, except by those who go there!
And where is there warrant for saying that hell can ever change a heart, or make it fit for heaven? Hell must be eternal, or hell would cease to be hell altogether. Give a man hope - and he will bear anything.
FOREVER is the most solemn word in the Bible! Alas, for that day which shall have no tomorrow! That day when men shall seek death, and not find it, and shall desire to die. Who shall dwell with devouring fire! Who shall dwell with everlasting burnings!
Hell is a subject that ought not to be kept back. Truly it may well be doubted whether we ministers speak of it as much as we ought. I cannot forget the words of a dying hearer of Mr. Newton's - "Sir, you often told me of Christ and salvation; why did you not oftener remind me of hell and danger?" I fear that thousands are on that broad way that leads to it, and I would sincerely arouse them to a sense of the peril before them. What ought to be said of us as ministers, if we call ourselves watchmen for souls, and yet see the fires of hell raging in the distance - and never give the alarm? Call it bad taste, if you like, to speak of hell. Call it charity to make things pleasant, and speak smoothly, and soothe men with constant lullaby of peace. From such notions may I ever be delivered! My notion of charity is to warn men plainly of danger! My notion of taste in the ministerial office, is to declare ALL the counsel of God. If I never spoke of hell - I would think I had kept back something that was profitable - and would look on myself as an accomplice of the devil!
I beseech you, in all tender affection, beware of false views of the subject on which I have been dwelling. Beware of new and strange doctrines about hell and the eternity of punishment. Beware of manufacturing a God of your own; a God who is all mercy - but not just; a God who is all love - but not holy; a God who has a heaven for everybody - but a hell for none; a God who can allow good and evil to be side by side in time - but will make no distinction between good and evil in eternity. Such a God is an idol of your own imagination! He is not the God of the Bible. Take heed, there is a fire for the chaff! Take heed, lest you find out to your cost too late! You must take the Bible as it is. You must read it all, and believe it all. Dare not say, "I believe this verse, for I like it. I reject that, for I do not like it. By what right do you talk in this way? Surely it were better to say over every chapter in the Word, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening!" If men would do this, they would never deny hell, the chaff, and the fire!
I have shown you the two great classes of mankind - the wheat and the chaff. I have shown you the separation which will one day take place. I have shown you the safety of the Lord's people. I have shown you the fearful portion of the Christless and unbelieving.
I commend these things to your conscience, as in the sight of God. And now, reader, let me say four things in CONCLUSION, and then I am done.
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 6)
Had I A Thousand Lives, A Thousand Souls (and Others)
Had I A Thousand Lives, A Thousand Souls (and others)
"My meditation of Him shall be sweet!" (Psalm 104:34).
It is the tendency of love - to excite in the mind, many thoughts about the beloved object. A right knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, will fill the mind with thoughts and meditations concerning Him - so as to excite the affections to cleave to Him with delight. A discovery of the glory of His Person, of the perfection of His atoning sacrifice, and of the fullness of His grace - must inspire the heart with love to Him! "Yes, He is very precious to you who believe!" (1 Peter 2:7).
It is much to be lamented - that those who profess a sincere attachment to the Redeemer, should have their thoughts so little employed about Him. Where a multitude of worldly cares, desires, fears and hopes prevail in the mind - they cumber and perplex it - so as to bring on a great disinclination to spiritual meditation.
The advice of the apostle Paul is of great importance in this case. "If you then are risen with Christ - seek those things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Set your affection (your mind, your thoughts) on things above, not on things on the earth." But earthly and sensual affections fill the hearts and heads of men, with multitudes of thoughts concerning those objects on which they are fixed,so as to leave no room, nor any inclination for spiritual and heavenly thoughts.
"Shall not my thoughts," says the believer, "be frequently employed in meditating on the love of that infinitely glorious person, to whom I am indebted for deliverance from the greatest misery - and for all the hope I have of being one day advanced to everlasting glory and felicity! He poured out His holy soul in agonies, under the curse of the avenging law - to make me a partaker of eternal blessedness! He perfectly fulfilled the precepts of that holy law, that I, by His obedience, might be made righteous!"
This glorious and adorable Redeemer, thought upon us long before the foundations of the world were laid. He bore us on His heart when He hung on the Cross; when He was torn with wounds, and racked with pain; when He poured out His dying groans, and spilt His blood.
He remembers us now, when He is exalted at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens; and will never, never forget us, through all the ages of eternity! Surely then, we ought to think of Him! Impressed with a sense of His everlasting kindness - we should be ready to say, "If I forget you, O blessed Jesus - let my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I fail to remember You, if I don't make You my highest joy!"
What holy transports of soul, what divine delights - have many Christians experienced, in meditating on the glories of the Redeemer! Ascending the mount of contemplation, their souls have taken wing - and explored the height and depth, the length and breadth of the love of Christ, which passes knowledge! They have seen by the eye of faith - that He is infinitely lovely in Himself, that He is the admiration of angels, the darling of heaven, and the delight of the Father! They have viewed Him in the brightness of His ineffable glory, clothed with indescribable majesty and honor! They have been transported with the smiles of His countenance, and said of Him, "He is the chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely!"
They have also considered their own unworthiness, and said, "Can such a wretch as I - be the object of His love? So vile a worm, so unprofitable a creature, so great a sinner, one so deserving of His everlasting abhorrence! Has He loved me, so as to give Himself for me? O what marvelous kindness is this! Is my worthless name written in His book of life? Am I redeemed by His blood, renewed by His Spirit, beautified with His loveliness, and clothed in His righteousness? O wonder of wonders! How can I forbear to love this adorable Saviour? Can I withhold my choicest affections from Him? Ah no! Had I a thousand lives, a thousand souls - they would all be devoted to Him! You tempting vanities of this base world; you flattering honors, you deceitful riches - Adieu! Jesus is my All! He is my light, my life, my unfailing treasure, my everlasting portion! Nothing below the skies, is deserving of my love! Precious Redeemer, in You the boundless wishes of my soul are filled! I long to leave this tenement of clay, and to rest in the bosom of Your love forever!"
"My meditation of Him shall be sweet!" (Psalm 104:34).
~John Fawcett~
________________________
What More Can Any Christian Desire?
"As for me, God forbid that I should boast about anything except the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6:14).
There is enough in a suffering Christ, to fill us and satisfy us to the full. He has the greatest worth and wealth in Him. Look, as the worth and value of many pieces of silver is to be found in one piece of gold; just so, all the petty excellencies which are scattered abroad in the creatures - are to be found in a bleeding, dying Christ! Yes, all the whole volume of perfections which is spread through heaven and earth - is epitomized in Him who suffered on the Cross! A man cannot exaggerate, in speaking of the glories of Christ. Certainly it is as easy to contain the sea in a sea shell - as to fully relate the transcendent excellencies of a suffering Christ!
O sirs! there is in a crucified Jesus - something proportionate to all the straits, needs, necessities, and desires of His poor people. He is...
bread to nourish them,
a garment to cover and adorn them,
a physician to heal them,
a counselor to advise them,
a captain to defend them,
a prince to rule them,
a prophet to teach them,
a priest to make atonement for them;
a husband to protect them,
a brother to relieve them,
a foundation to support them,
a head to guide them,
a treasure to enrich them,
a sun to enlighten them, and
a fountain to cleanse them!
What more can any Christian desire - to satisfy him and save him; and to make him holy and happy in time and eternity?
~Thomas Brooks~
"My meditation of Him shall be sweet!" (Psalm 104:34).
It is the tendency of love - to excite in the mind, many thoughts about the beloved object. A right knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, will fill the mind with thoughts and meditations concerning Him - so as to excite the affections to cleave to Him with delight. A discovery of the glory of His Person, of the perfection of His atoning sacrifice, and of the fullness of His grace - must inspire the heart with love to Him! "Yes, He is very precious to you who believe!" (1 Peter 2:7).
It is much to be lamented - that those who profess a sincere attachment to the Redeemer, should have their thoughts so little employed about Him. Where a multitude of worldly cares, desires, fears and hopes prevail in the mind - they cumber and perplex it - so as to bring on a great disinclination to spiritual meditation.
The advice of the apostle Paul is of great importance in this case. "If you then are risen with Christ - seek those things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Set your affection (your mind, your thoughts) on things above, not on things on the earth." But earthly and sensual affections fill the hearts and heads of men, with multitudes of thoughts concerning those objects on which they are fixed,so as to leave no room, nor any inclination for spiritual and heavenly thoughts.
"Shall not my thoughts," says the believer, "be frequently employed in meditating on the love of that infinitely glorious person, to whom I am indebted for deliverance from the greatest misery - and for all the hope I have of being one day advanced to everlasting glory and felicity! He poured out His holy soul in agonies, under the curse of the avenging law - to make me a partaker of eternal blessedness! He perfectly fulfilled the precepts of that holy law, that I, by His obedience, might be made righteous!"
This glorious and adorable Redeemer, thought upon us long before the foundations of the world were laid. He bore us on His heart when He hung on the Cross; when He was torn with wounds, and racked with pain; when He poured out His dying groans, and spilt His blood.
He remembers us now, when He is exalted at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens; and will never, never forget us, through all the ages of eternity! Surely then, we ought to think of Him! Impressed with a sense of His everlasting kindness - we should be ready to say, "If I forget you, O blessed Jesus - let my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I fail to remember You, if I don't make You my highest joy!"
What holy transports of soul, what divine delights - have many Christians experienced, in meditating on the glories of the Redeemer! Ascending the mount of contemplation, their souls have taken wing - and explored the height and depth, the length and breadth of the love of Christ, which passes knowledge! They have seen by the eye of faith - that He is infinitely lovely in Himself, that He is the admiration of angels, the darling of heaven, and the delight of the Father! They have viewed Him in the brightness of His ineffable glory, clothed with indescribable majesty and honor! They have been transported with the smiles of His countenance, and said of Him, "He is the chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely!"
They have also considered their own unworthiness, and said, "Can such a wretch as I - be the object of His love? So vile a worm, so unprofitable a creature, so great a sinner, one so deserving of His everlasting abhorrence! Has He loved me, so as to give Himself for me? O what marvelous kindness is this! Is my worthless name written in His book of life? Am I redeemed by His blood, renewed by His Spirit, beautified with His loveliness, and clothed in His righteousness? O wonder of wonders! How can I forbear to love this adorable Saviour? Can I withhold my choicest affections from Him? Ah no! Had I a thousand lives, a thousand souls - they would all be devoted to Him! You tempting vanities of this base world; you flattering honors, you deceitful riches - Adieu! Jesus is my All! He is my light, my life, my unfailing treasure, my everlasting portion! Nothing below the skies, is deserving of my love! Precious Redeemer, in You the boundless wishes of my soul are filled! I long to leave this tenement of clay, and to rest in the bosom of Your love forever!"
"My meditation of Him shall be sweet!" (Psalm 104:34).
~John Fawcett~
________________________
What More Can Any Christian Desire?
"As for me, God forbid that I should boast about anything except the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6:14).
There is enough in a suffering Christ, to fill us and satisfy us to the full. He has the greatest worth and wealth in Him. Look, as the worth and value of many pieces of silver is to be found in one piece of gold; just so, all the petty excellencies which are scattered abroad in the creatures - are to be found in a bleeding, dying Christ! Yes, all the whole volume of perfections which is spread through heaven and earth - is epitomized in Him who suffered on the Cross! A man cannot exaggerate, in speaking of the glories of Christ. Certainly it is as easy to contain the sea in a sea shell - as to fully relate the transcendent excellencies of a suffering Christ!
O sirs! there is in a crucified Jesus - something proportionate to all the straits, needs, necessities, and desires of His poor people. He is...
bread to nourish them,
a garment to cover and adorn them,
a physician to heal them,
a counselor to advise them,
a captain to defend them,
a prince to rule them,
a prophet to teach them,
a priest to make atonement for them;
a husband to protect them,
a brother to relieve them,
a foundation to support them,
a head to guide them,
a treasure to enrich them,
a sun to enlighten them, and
a fountain to cleanse them!
What more can any Christian desire - to satisfy him and save him; and to make him holy and happy in time and eternity?
~Thomas Brooks~
Saturday, September 1, 2018
The Great Separation # 4
The Great Separation # 4
3. Let me show you, in the third place, the portion which Christ's people shall receive, when He comes to purge His threshing floor.
The verse at the beginning of this paper tells us this in good and comfortable words. It tells us that Christ shall "gather His wheat into His barn."
When the Lord Jesus comes the second time, He shall collect His believing people into a place of safety. He will send His angels, and gather them from every quarter. The sea shall give up the dead, and the graves the dead that are in them - and the living shall be changed. Those who have laid hold on Christ by faith- none of them shall be overlooked in that company. Not one single grain of wheat shall be missing - when judgments fall upon a wicked world.
Ah, it is a sweet and comfortable thought, that "the Lord cares for the righteous." But how much the Lord cares for them, I fear is little known, and dimly seen. They have their trials, beyond question - and these both many and great. The flesh is weak. The world is full of snares. The cross is heavy. The way is narrow. The companions are few. But still they have strong consolations - if their eyes were but open to see them.
Bear with me, while I try to tell you something about Christ's care for poor sinners who believe in Him. We live in a day of weak and feeble statements. The danger of the state of nature is feebly exposed. The privileges of the state of grace are feebly set forth. Hesitating souls are not encouraged. Disciples are not established and confirmed. The man outside of Christ is not rightly alarmed. The man in Christ is not rightly built up. Truly this is a sore disease, and one that I would gladly help to cure.
The Lord takes pleasure in His believing people. though filthy in their own eyes - they are lovely and honorable in His! They are altogether beautiful - He sees no spot in them. Their weaknesses and shortcomings do not break off the union between Him and them. He chose them, knowing all their hearts. He took them for His own, with a perfect understanding of all their debts, liabilities, and infirmities - and He will never break His covenant and cast them off. When they fall, He will raise them again. When they wander, He will bring them back.
Their prayers are pleasant to Him. Their services are pleasant to Him. The Lord is pleased with the weak attempts of His people! Oh, reader, it is a blessed thing to be God's wheat! The Lord cares for all His people throughout their entire lives.
The Lord cares for His believing people in their deaths. Their times are all in His hands. The hairs of their heads are all numbered. They are kept on earth until they are ready for glory - and not one moment longer. When they die like Moses - according to the word of the Lord - at the right time and in the right way. And when they breathe their last, they fall asleep in Christ, and at once carried into paradise.
And the Lord will care for His believing people in the dreadful day of His appearing. The flaming fire shall not come near them. Sleeping or waking, living or dead, or standing at the post of daily duty - believers shall be secure and unmoved. They shall lift up their heads with joy, when they see redemption drawing near. They shall be changed, and put on their beautiful garments, in the twinkling of an eye. They shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Jesus will do nothing to a sin-laden world - until all His people are safe. Ah, reader, it is a blessed thing to be Christ's wheat!
I often wonder at the miserable faithlessness of those among us who are believers. Next to the hardness of the unconverted heart, I call it one of the greatest wonders in the world. Christ and His bride have been once joined in an everlasting covenant, and they shall never, never be put asunder!
Can you suppose the Lord Jesus Christ is less merciful, or less compassionate to not save His flock? Can you think He would suffer on the Cross and die for you, and yet leave it uncertain whether you would be saved? Can you think He would wrestle with death and hell, and go down to the grave for our sakes - and yet allow our eternal life to hang on such a thread as our poor miserable endeavors?
Oh, no! He does not do so. He is a perfect and complete Saviour. Those whom He loves - He loves to the end. Those whom He washes in His blood - He never leaves nor forsakes. Where He begins a work - there also He finishes. All whom He quickens by His Spirit - He will also bring with Him when He enters His kingdom. There is a barn for every grain of the wheat. All shall appear in Heaven with God.
If you have not taken up the cross and become Christ's disciple, you little know what privileges you are missing. Peace with God now - and glory hereafter; the Everlasting arms to keep you along the way - and the barn of safety in the end; all these are freely offered to you. You may say that Christians have tribulations - you forget that they have also consolations. You may say they have peculiar sorrows - you forget they have also peculiar joys. You see the outward part of Christianity - you see not the hidden treasures which lie deep within. Oh, judge not by outward appearances! Remember the barn and the crown! Are you wheat or are you chaff?
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 5)
3. Let me show you, in the third place, the portion which Christ's people shall receive, when He comes to purge His threshing floor.
The verse at the beginning of this paper tells us this in good and comfortable words. It tells us that Christ shall "gather His wheat into His barn."
When the Lord Jesus comes the second time, He shall collect His believing people into a place of safety. He will send His angels, and gather them from every quarter. The sea shall give up the dead, and the graves the dead that are in them - and the living shall be changed. Those who have laid hold on Christ by faith- none of them shall be overlooked in that company. Not one single grain of wheat shall be missing - when judgments fall upon a wicked world.
Ah, it is a sweet and comfortable thought, that "the Lord cares for the righteous." But how much the Lord cares for them, I fear is little known, and dimly seen. They have their trials, beyond question - and these both many and great. The flesh is weak. The world is full of snares. The cross is heavy. The way is narrow. The companions are few. But still they have strong consolations - if their eyes were but open to see them.
Bear with me, while I try to tell you something about Christ's care for poor sinners who believe in Him. We live in a day of weak and feeble statements. The danger of the state of nature is feebly exposed. The privileges of the state of grace are feebly set forth. Hesitating souls are not encouraged. Disciples are not established and confirmed. The man outside of Christ is not rightly alarmed. The man in Christ is not rightly built up. Truly this is a sore disease, and one that I would gladly help to cure.
The Lord takes pleasure in His believing people. though filthy in their own eyes - they are lovely and honorable in His! They are altogether beautiful - He sees no spot in them. Their weaknesses and shortcomings do not break off the union between Him and them. He chose them, knowing all their hearts. He took them for His own, with a perfect understanding of all their debts, liabilities, and infirmities - and He will never break His covenant and cast them off. When they fall, He will raise them again. When they wander, He will bring them back.
Their prayers are pleasant to Him. Their services are pleasant to Him. The Lord is pleased with the weak attempts of His people! Oh, reader, it is a blessed thing to be God's wheat! The Lord cares for all His people throughout their entire lives.
The Lord cares for His believing people in their deaths. Their times are all in His hands. The hairs of their heads are all numbered. They are kept on earth until they are ready for glory - and not one moment longer. When they die like Moses - according to the word of the Lord - at the right time and in the right way. And when they breathe their last, they fall asleep in Christ, and at once carried into paradise.
And the Lord will care for His believing people in the dreadful day of His appearing. The flaming fire shall not come near them. Sleeping or waking, living or dead, or standing at the post of daily duty - believers shall be secure and unmoved. They shall lift up their heads with joy, when they see redemption drawing near. They shall be changed, and put on their beautiful garments, in the twinkling of an eye. They shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Jesus will do nothing to a sin-laden world - until all His people are safe. Ah, reader, it is a blessed thing to be Christ's wheat!
I often wonder at the miserable faithlessness of those among us who are believers. Next to the hardness of the unconverted heart, I call it one of the greatest wonders in the world. Christ and His bride have been once joined in an everlasting covenant, and they shall never, never be put asunder!
Can you suppose the Lord Jesus Christ is less merciful, or less compassionate to not save His flock? Can you think He would suffer on the Cross and die for you, and yet leave it uncertain whether you would be saved? Can you think He would wrestle with death and hell, and go down to the grave for our sakes - and yet allow our eternal life to hang on such a thread as our poor miserable endeavors?
Oh, no! He does not do so. He is a perfect and complete Saviour. Those whom He loves - He loves to the end. Those whom He washes in His blood - He never leaves nor forsakes. Where He begins a work - there also He finishes. All whom He quickens by His Spirit - He will also bring with Him when He enters His kingdom. There is a barn for every grain of the wheat. All shall appear in Heaven with God.
If you have not taken up the cross and become Christ's disciple, you little know what privileges you are missing. Peace with God now - and glory hereafter; the Everlasting arms to keep you along the way - and the barn of safety in the end; all these are freely offered to you. You may say that Christians have tribulations - you forget that they have also consolations. You may say they have peculiar sorrows - you forget they have also peculiar joys. You see the outward part of Christianity - you see not the hidden treasures which lie deep within. Oh, judge not by outward appearances! Remember the barn and the crown! Are you wheat or are you chaff?
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 5)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)