Godly Companions # 1
"I am a companion to all who fear You - to all who follow Your precepts" (Psalm 119:63).
In the above verse we have a description of God's people according to the course of their lives and conduct. They are a people marked by two things: fear and submission, the latter being the fruit of the former. Regenerated souls obey God conscientiously out of reverence to His majesty and goodness, and from a due regard to His will as made known in His Word. The same description is given to them in Acts 10:35, "In every nation he who fears God and works righteousness is accepted with Him." It is a filial fear which is awed by God's greatness, and is careful not to offend Him, which is constrained by His love and is anxious to please Him. Such are the only ones fit to be a Christian's "companions."
A "companion" is, properly speaking, one whom I choose to walk and converse with in a way of friendship. Inasmuch as the companions we select is an optional matter, it is largely true that a person may be known by the company he or she keeps; hence the old adage, "Birds of a feather flock together." Scripture asks the searching question, "Can two walk together except they be agreed?" (Amos 3:3). A Christian, before his conversion, was controlled by the prince of darkness and walked according to the course of this world (Eph. 2:2, 3), and therefore did he seek and enjoy the company of worldlings. But when he was born again the new nature within him prompted new tastes and desires - and so he seeks a new company, delighting only in the saints of God. Alas, that we do not always continue as we began.
The Christian is to have good will toward all with whom he comes in contact, desiring and seeking their best interests (Gal. 6:10). But he is not to be yoked to (2 Cor. 6:14), nor have any fellowship with (Eph. 5:11) those who are unbelievers, nor is he to delight in or have delight toward those who despise his Master. "Should you help the ungodly, and love those who hate the Lord?" (2 Chron. 19:2).
Would you knowingly take a viper into your bosom? "The wicked is an abomination unto the righteous" (Proverbs 29:26).
So said David, "Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and abhor those who rise up against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies" (Psalm 139:21, 22). That holy man could not be confederate with such. Evil company is to be sedulously avoided by the Christian, lest he become defiled by them. "He who walks with wise men shall be wise; but a companion of fools shall be destroyed" (Proverbs 13:20). Now is it only the openly lawless and criminal who are to be shunned - but even, yes especially, those professing to be Christians yet who do not life the life of Christians. It is this latter class particularly against which the real child of God needs to be most on his guard: namely, those who say one thing and do another; those whose talk is pious - but whose walk differs little or nothing from the ungodly. The Word of God is plain and positive on this point: "Having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them!" (2 Tim. 3:5). This is not merely good advice - but a Divine command which we disregard at our peril.
In selecting your "companions" let not a pleasing personality deceive you. The devil himself often poses as "an angel of light," and sometimes his wolfish agents disguise themselves in "sheep's clothing" (Matt. 7:15). Be most careful in seeing to it that what draws you toward and makes you desire the companionship of Christian friends - is their love and likeness to Christ - and not their love and likeness to you. Shun as you would a deadly plague - those who are not awed by the fear of God, that is, a trembling lest they offend Him. Let not the devil persuade you that you are too well established in the faith to be injured by intimacy with worldly "Christians!" Rather "follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart" (2 Tim. 2:22).
"Do not be deceived: Bad company corrupts good character" (1 Cor. 15:33). Evil companionships "corrupt." All evil is contagious, and association with evildoers, whether they are "church members" or "open infidels," has a defiling and debasing effect upon the true child of God. Mark well how the Holy Spirit has prefaced His warning: "Do not be deceived." Evidently there is a real danger of God's people imagining that they can play with fire without getting burned. Not so! God has not promised to protect us when we fly in the face of His danger signals.
~A. W. Pink~
(continued with # 2)
Saturday, August 10, 2019
Saturday, August 3, 2019
The Misery of the Lost # 4
The Misery of the Lost # 4
The state of the lost soul before the judgment, may be compared to that of a criminal confined in prison waiting for his trial. Let me then imagine myself to have died unreconciled and impenitent. At an unexpected time the sound of the last trumpet will be heard; and as it is the last trumpet, so it will be the loudest. The departed spirits confined in prison shall hear it, and their bodies, long crumbled to dust, shall hear it; and I shall certainly hear that awful, deeply penetrating sound, and I shall come forth - coerced by an irresistible power! I shall again be clothed with a body; but O, what sort of body!
Among millions of millions I am forced to appear. O what solemn majesty in the Judge, now coming with all His holy angels - now seated on His great white throne. Solemn moment! The books are opened. There all my crimes of thought, word, and deed, are recorded - sins of omission as well as commission. O for a hiding place under the rocks or caves! But no! I must appear - I must hear my sentence of condemnation and banishment. The misery of an age seems condensed into this moment. The tremendous sentence comes forth, "Depart, you cursed one, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Imagination fails - I can write no more! Experience must teach the rest.
The misery of those who are eternally lost, cannot be adequately conceived, must less expressed. It cannot be exaggerated by any description; and this will be manifest if we consider what they know they have lost.
All the good things which they enjoyed in this life they must leave behind. All their riches, honors, and sensual pleasures are left at death; and for these there will be no substitute in eternity. The wicked cravings of the immortal soul will continue, but there will no longer be any objects to gratify them; for lack of which, like some venomous creatures when wounded, they will turn and prey upon themselves.
A soul with its active powers and passions, must be miserable if depraved of all objects suited to its gratification. We know scarcely any misery on earth more intolerable than a human being perishing for lack of bread or water. Hunger and thirst, if not seasonably gratified, are the sources of most excruciating pain. And the soul can never lose its desire of happiness. How miserable then, must it be when this insatiable desire meets with nothing to gratify it.
Evil passions are in their very nature attended with misery; for as benevolent affections are pleasant - so malevolent feelings are accompanied with misery. Let any person who is totally depraved be abandoned to himself - and he must be miserable! His own passions will become his everlasting tormentors. He will carry a hell in his own bosom!
But of all the feelings of misery, none is so intolerable as REMORSE. The conscience. The consciousness of having done wrong, of having sinned against God, and of being the cause of his own destruction - is a kind of hell as dreadful as any of which we can conceive. The lost soul will forever have the conviction clearly impressed - that it is its own destroyer - and that heaven with all its joys has been lost by its own sinful folly and neglect!
And the bitterest ingredient of all in the cup of misery is despair -black endless despair! Men may here "dream" of a deliverance from hell after a long time of suffering, but the delusion will vanish as soon as they enter eternity. They will then find that the word of God, which denounced eternal destruction on impenitent sinners, was not a vain threat; that God will not spare the guilty, but will punish them with everlasting destruction - just as He said He would.
O my soul, consider now how you will be able to endure such misery as must be experienced by all the lost, but especially by those who enjoyed the light of the gospel. Can you fortify yourself against all this misery? Will you be able to endure it with patience? Only imagine your condition millions of ages hence. Still writhing in anguish - still belching out horrid blasphemies - still covered with the blackness of darkness - still without a ray of hope! Not a moment's ease during this long period. O my soul, will you not make one vigorous effort to escape so great misery? Will you not strive to flee from the wrath to come? Life, eternal life, is still within your reach! Lay hold on the prize! Press on to the kingdom. Take refuge in the Cross, and you will be safe!
"Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God" (Romans 5:9).
"For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ!" (1 Thessalonians 5;9).
~Archibald Alexander~
(The End)
The state of the lost soul before the judgment, may be compared to that of a criminal confined in prison waiting for his trial. Let me then imagine myself to have died unreconciled and impenitent. At an unexpected time the sound of the last trumpet will be heard; and as it is the last trumpet, so it will be the loudest. The departed spirits confined in prison shall hear it, and their bodies, long crumbled to dust, shall hear it; and I shall certainly hear that awful, deeply penetrating sound, and I shall come forth - coerced by an irresistible power! I shall again be clothed with a body; but O, what sort of body!
Among millions of millions I am forced to appear. O what solemn majesty in the Judge, now coming with all His holy angels - now seated on His great white throne. Solemn moment! The books are opened. There all my crimes of thought, word, and deed, are recorded - sins of omission as well as commission. O for a hiding place under the rocks or caves! But no! I must appear - I must hear my sentence of condemnation and banishment. The misery of an age seems condensed into this moment. The tremendous sentence comes forth, "Depart, you cursed one, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Imagination fails - I can write no more! Experience must teach the rest.
The misery of those who are eternally lost, cannot be adequately conceived, must less expressed. It cannot be exaggerated by any description; and this will be manifest if we consider what they know they have lost.
All the good things which they enjoyed in this life they must leave behind. All their riches, honors, and sensual pleasures are left at death; and for these there will be no substitute in eternity. The wicked cravings of the immortal soul will continue, but there will no longer be any objects to gratify them; for lack of which, like some venomous creatures when wounded, they will turn and prey upon themselves.
A soul with its active powers and passions, must be miserable if depraved of all objects suited to its gratification. We know scarcely any misery on earth more intolerable than a human being perishing for lack of bread or water. Hunger and thirst, if not seasonably gratified, are the sources of most excruciating pain. And the soul can never lose its desire of happiness. How miserable then, must it be when this insatiable desire meets with nothing to gratify it.
Evil passions are in their very nature attended with misery; for as benevolent affections are pleasant - so malevolent feelings are accompanied with misery. Let any person who is totally depraved be abandoned to himself - and he must be miserable! His own passions will become his everlasting tormentors. He will carry a hell in his own bosom!
But of all the feelings of misery, none is so intolerable as REMORSE. The conscience. The consciousness of having done wrong, of having sinned against God, and of being the cause of his own destruction - is a kind of hell as dreadful as any of which we can conceive. The lost soul will forever have the conviction clearly impressed - that it is its own destroyer - and that heaven with all its joys has been lost by its own sinful folly and neglect!
And the bitterest ingredient of all in the cup of misery is despair -black endless despair! Men may here "dream" of a deliverance from hell after a long time of suffering, but the delusion will vanish as soon as they enter eternity. They will then find that the word of God, which denounced eternal destruction on impenitent sinners, was not a vain threat; that God will not spare the guilty, but will punish them with everlasting destruction - just as He said He would.
O my soul, consider now how you will be able to endure such misery as must be experienced by all the lost, but especially by those who enjoyed the light of the gospel. Can you fortify yourself against all this misery? Will you be able to endure it with patience? Only imagine your condition millions of ages hence. Still writhing in anguish - still belching out horrid blasphemies - still covered with the blackness of darkness - still without a ray of hope! Not a moment's ease during this long period. O my soul, will you not make one vigorous effort to escape so great misery? Will you not strive to flee from the wrath to come? Life, eternal life, is still within your reach! Lay hold on the prize! Press on to the kingdom. Take refuge in the Cross, and you will be safe!
"Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God" (Romans 5:9).
"For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ!" (1 Thessalonians 5;9).
~Archibald Alexander~
(The End)
The Misery of the Lost # 3
The Misery of the Lost # 3
"If I had not enjoyed the offers of the gospel, if pardon and reconciliation had not been within my reach, and often urged upon me, my anguish would not be so excruciating. But this it is which wrings my heart with unspeakable anguish - that I might have escaped all this misery! Had it not been for my own sin and folly, I might before now have been in heaven. Others who heard the same sermons, and belonged to the same family, are now in eternal glory - while I am tormented in this flame! Oh that I could cease to be; but to fly from existence is impossible.
"Here I am surrounded by wretches as miserable as myself, but their company rather aggravates than mitigates my soul's anguish. I am reproached and cursed by all who were ever led by my counsel or example into the ways of iniquity. They dreadfully scowl upon me.
"And the fiends of the pit, who were my seducers, now combine to taunt me with my folly. They never had the offers of mercy. The merits of a dying Saviour were never offered to them. They seem to entertain a malignant pleasure - if pleasure it can be called - in witnessing my extreme misery. O wretched man, where can I flee? Is there no possible escape from this prison of despair? Can no one ever pass the gulf which separates this dismal abode from the regions of the blessed? None! None!
"Oh, if there could be a suicide of the soul, how happy would I be to escape from existence, and to plunge into the gulf of annihilation, which once seemed horrible to my apprehension, but now desirable. This would be an oblivion of all my misery. But in vain do I seek to die. Death flies from me. And here I see those deluded souls who, by doing violence to their own lives, vainly dreamed that they were escaping from misery; but alas, from a burden which with faith and patience might have been borne - they have leaped into a fiery furnace! They are now convinced of the dreadful sin and folly of suicide, but they cannot repeat the act here!
"May I hope that time will lesson the horrors and anguish of my wretched soul? Will my heart, so susceptible of the emotions of bitter anguish, by degrees become less sensible to these piercing pains, and be more able to bear up under this overwhelming weight of misery? This question can only be solved by experience: let me ask someone who has been suffering for thousands of years.
"Here comes Cain the first murderer, who is known still by having upon him the stain of a brother's blood. Suppose I speak to him - "Tell me, fellow prisoner, who have long endured the pains of this infernal prison, whether by long continuance these miseries become more tolerable?" But why do I ask? the wretched fratricide is evidently writhing in keenest anguish. He is too miserable to speak, and too full of malignity to gratify anyone. His guilt stain - the blood spot - has not been burnt out by the fiercest fires of hell. No! See, he defies the Almighty. He blasphemes the God of heaven. He asks for no mitigation of his punishment now. His malignant, fiery spirit feeds on despair, and challenges his Avenger to do His worst.
"Oh, then, I see there is a progression in wickedness even in hell. This is the most appalling prospect of all - an endless progression in sin, and consequently an increase, instead of a diminution of misery, through the endless ages of eternity!"
Another dreadful point in the existence of the damned, will be THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. Great as is the misery of the lost soul when separated from the body, this is probably small when compared with the exceeding weight of misery which shall overtake it at the day of judgment. I must then endeavor to imagine what will be my feelings if I should be found on the left hand on that dreadful day.
And here in this present world, a large portion of our pleasures and pains are experienced through the body, I know no reason why it should not be so in the future world. Certainly the disembodied spirit is capable of none of these pains or pleasures. It seems reasonable to conclude, therefore, that the bodies of the damned will be so constructed as to be inlets to excruciating pains; just as the bodies of the saints will be instruments of refined, celestial pleasures. The whole person is not complete without the body, and therefore the final sentence of condemnation will not be denounced until the body - the same body - is raised from the dead, and reunited to the soul; that having been partners in wickedness, they may be associated in enduring the deserved punishment of the deeds done in the body!
~Archibald Alexander~
(continued with # 4)
"If I had not enjoyed the offers of the gospel, if pardon and reconciliation had not been within my reach, and often urged upon me, my anguish would not be so excruciating. But this it is which wrings my heart with unspeakable anguish - that I might have escaped all this misery! Had it not been for my own sin and folly, I might before now have been in heaven. Others who heard the same sermons, and belonged to the same family, are now in eternal glory - while I am tormented in this flame! Oh that I could cease to be; but to fly from existence is impossible.
"Here I am surrounded by wretches as miserable as myself, but their company rather aggravates than mitigates my soul's anguish. I am reproached and cursed by all who were ever led by my counsel or example into the ways of iniquity. They dreadfully scowl upon me.
"And the fiends of the pit, who were my seducers, now combine to taunt me with my folly. They never had the offers of mercy. The merits of a dying Saviour were never offered to them. They seem to entertain a malignant pleasure - if pleasure it can be called - in witnessing my extreme misery. O wretched man, where can I flee? Is there no possible escape from this prison of despair? Can no one ever pass the gulf which separates this dismal abode from the regions of the blessed? None! None!
"Oh, if there could be a suicide of the soul, how happy would I be to escape from existence, and to plunge into the gulf of annihilation, which once seemed horrible to my apprehension, but now desirable. This would be an oblivion of all my misery. But in vain do I seek to die. Death flies from me. And here I see those deluded souls who, by doing violence to their own lives, vainly dreamed that they were escaping from misery; but alas, from a burden which with faith and patience might have been borne - they have leaped into a fiery furnace! They are now convinced of the dreadful sin and folly of suicide, but they cannot repeat the act here!
"May I hope that time will lesson the horrors and anguish of my wretched soul? Will my heart, so susceptible of the emotions of bitter anguish, by degrees become less sensible to these piercing pains, and be more able to bear up under this overwhelming weight of misery? This question can only be solved by experience: let me ask someone who has been suffering for thousands of years.
"Here comes Cain the first murderer, who is known still by having upon him the stain of a brother's blood. Suppose I speak to him - "Tell me, fellow prisoner, who have long endured the pains of this infernal prison, whether by long continuance these miseries become more tolerable?" But why do I ask? the wretched fratricide is evidently writhing in keenest anguish. He is too miserable to speak, and too full of malignity to gratify anyone. His guilt stain - the blood spot - has not been burnt out by the fiercest fires of hell. No! See, he defies the Almighty. He blasphemes the God of heaven. He asks for no mitigation of his punishment now. His malignant, fiery spirit feeds on despair, and challenges his Avenger to do His worst.
"Oh, then, I see there is a progression in wickedness even in hell. This is the most appalling prospect of all - an endless progression in sin, and consequently an increase, instead of a diminution of misery, through the endless ages of eternity!"
Another dreadful point in the existence of the damned, will be THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. Great as is the misery of the lost soul when separated from the body, this is probably small when compared with the exceeding weight of misery which shall overtake it at the day of judgment. I must then endeavor to imagine what will be my feelings if I should be found on the left hand on that dreadful day.
And here in this present world, a large portion of our pleasures and pains are experienced through the body, I know no reason why it should not be so in the future world. Certainly the disembodied spirit is capable of none of these pains or pleasures. It seems reasonable to conclude, therefore, that the bodies of the damned will be so constructed as to be inlets to excruciating pains; just as the bodies of the saints will be instruments of refined, celestial pleasures. The whole person is not complete without the body, and therefore the final sentence of condemnation will not be denounced until the body - the same body - is raised from the dead, and reunited to the soul; that having been partners in wickedness, they may be associated in enduring the deserved punishment of the deeds done in the body!
~Archibald Alexander~
(continued with # 4)
Saturday, July 27, 2019
Our Love to God # 2
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)
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)
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)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)