The Faithfulness Of God # 1

 The Faithfulness Of God # 1

Unfaithfulness is one of the most outstanding sins of these evil days. In the business world, a man's word is, with exceedingly rare exceptions, no longer his bond. In the social world, marital infidelity abounds on every hand, the sacred bonds of wedlock being broken with as little regard as the discarding of an old garment. In the ecclesiastical realm thousands who have solemnly covenanted to preach the truth make no scruple to attack and deny it.

Nor can reader or writer claim complete immunity from this fearful sin. In how many ways have we been unfaithful to Christ, and to the light and privileges which God has entrusted to us! How refreshing, then, how unspeakably blessed, to lift our eyes above this sense of ruin, and behold One who is faithful - faithful in all things, faithful at all times.

"Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God" (Deut. 7:9). This quality is essential to His being; without it He would not be God. For God to be unfaithful would be to act contrary to His nature, which is impossible; "If we believe not, yet He abides faithful; He cannot deny Himself" (2 Tim. 2:13). Faithfulness is one of the glorious perfections of His being. He is as it were clothed with it: "O Lord God Almighty! Where is there anyone as mighty as You, Lord? Faithfulness is Your very character" (Psalm 89;8). So too when God became incarnate it was said, "Righteousness will be His belt and faithfulness the sash around His waist" (Isaiah 11:5).

What a word is that in Psalm 36:5, "Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, and Your faithfulness reaches into the clouds." Far above all finite comprehension, is the unchanging faithfulness of God. Everything about God is great, vast, incomparable. He never forgets, never fails, never falters, never forfeits His word.

To every declaration of promise or prophecy the Lord has exactly adhered; every engagement of covenant or threatening He will make good, for "God is not man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak, and then not act? Does He promise, and not fulfill?" (Numbers 23:19). Therefore does the believer exclaim, "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness." (Lam. 3:22-23).

Scripture abounds in illustrations of God's faithfulness. More than four thousand years ago He said, "While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." (Genesis 8:22). Every year that comes furnishes a fresh witness to God's fulfillment of this promise. In Genesis 15 we find that Jehovah declared unto Abraham, "Your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them ... But in the fourth generation they shall come here again" (verses 13-16). Centuries ran their weary course. Abraham's descendants groaned amid the brick kilns of Egypt. Had God forgotten His promise? No, indeed. Read Exodus 12:41, "At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord's divisions left Egypt."

Through Isaiah the Lord declared, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. Again centuries passed, but "When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman." (Gal. 4:4).

God is true. His Word of promise is sure. In all His relations with His people, God is faithful. He may be safely relied upon. No one ever yet really trusted Him in vain. We find this precious truth expressed almost everywhere in the Scriptures, for His people need to know that faithfulness is an essential part of the divine character. This is the basis of our confidence in Him. But it is one thing to accept the faithfulness of God as a divine truth, it is quite another to act upon it. God has given us many "exceeding great and precious promises," but are we really counting on His fulfillment of them? Are we actually expecting Him to do for us all that He has said? Are we resting with implicit assurance on these words, "He is faithful who promised" (Hebrews 10:23)?

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 2)

Is America's Conscience Vanishing?

 Is America's Conscience Vanishing?

How can we begin to explain the terrible, outrageous, unrelenting violence we have witnessed over the past months? It seems the more shocking and horrific this behavior becomes, the more passive and indifferent the "social justice" response. At best, the social justice solution seems to want more "dialogue" without any real answers, and doesn't ascribe feelings of guilt to genuine causes, just seeks to either assuage or indulge the feelings.

This kind of response misses the most fundamental question: What kind of person is actually capable of this level of indeterminate, ongoing death and destruction? Where is the conscience of those so disinterested in truth and order that their impulses toward violence are so entirely unrestrained? What is missing in this generation that seems to have been built-in and sufficiently present in prior generations?

Our society has intentionally, systematically deconstructed and removed all restraints to violence and destruction. And not just of cities and statues, but of ourselves. Where is our conscience? Losing our conscience was not a side-effect of the present chaos. We have intentionally repressed and denied our conscience, because we only want to have good feelings. Drugs, therapy, entertainment - they've all been used to silence our guilty conscience.

But the conscience is the key to true freedom.

In 1984 an Avianca Airlines jet crashed in Spain. Investigators studying the accident made an eerie discovery. The "black box" cockpit recorders revealed that several minutes before impact, a shrill, computer-synthesized voice from the plane's automatic warning  system told the crew repeatedly in English, "Pull up! Pull up!"

The pilot, evidently thinking the system was malfunctioning, snapped, "Shut up, Gringo!" and switched the system off. Minutes later the plane plowed into the side of a mountain. Everyone on board died.

When I saw that tragic story on the news shortly after it happened, it struck me as a perfect parable of the way modern people treat guilt - the warning messages of their conscience.

The wisdom of our age says guilt feelings are nearly always erroneous or hurtful; therefore we should switch them off. But is that good advice? What, after all, is the conscience - this sense of guilt we all seem to feel?

The conscience is generally seen by the modern world as a defect that robs people of their self-esteem. Far from being a defect or a disorder, however, your ability to sense your own guilt is a tremendous gift from God. He designed the conscience into the very framework of the human soul. It is the automatic warning system that cries, "Pull up! Pull up!" before you crash and burn!

The conscience, Puritan Richard Sibbes wrote in the seventeenth century, is the soul reflecting upon itself. Conscience is at the heart of what distinguishes the human creature. People, unlike animals, can contemplate their own actions and make moral self-evaluations. That is the very function of conscience.

The conscience has an innate ability to sense right and wrong. Everyone even the most unspiritual heathen, has a conscience.

The conscience entreats you to do what you believe is right and restrains you from doing what you believe is wrong. But don't equate the conscience with the voice of God or the law of God. It is a human faculty that judges your actions and thoughts by the light of the highest standard you perceive. When you violate your conscience, it condemns you, triggering feelings of shame, anguish, regret, consternation, anxiety, disgrace, and even fear.

Conversely, when you follow your conscience, it commends you, bringing joy, serenity, self-respect, well-being, and gladness.

The word conscience is a combination of the Latin words scire ("to know") and con ("together"). The Greek word for "conscience" is found more than thirty times in the New Testament - suneidesis, which also literally means "co-knowledge."

Conscience is knowledge together with oneself. That is to say, your conscience knows your inner motives and true thoughts. It is above reason and beyond intellect. You can rationalize, trying to justify yourself in your own mind, but a violated conscience will not be easily convinced.

The Hebrew word for conscience is "leb," usually translated "heart" in the Old Testament. The conscience is so much at the core of the human soul that the Hebrew mind did not draw a distinction between conscience and the rest of the inner person.

When Scripture speaks of a tender heart (2 Chron. 34:27), it refers to a sensitive conscience. The "upright in heart" (Psalm 7:10) are those with pure consciences. And when David prayed, "Create in me a clean heart, O God" (Psalm 51:10), he was seeking to have his life and his conscience cleansed.

~John MacArthur~

(continued with # 2)

The Contemplation Of God # 3 (and others)

 The Contemplation Of God # 3 (and others)

"At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward Heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified Him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as He pleases with the powers of Heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back His hand or say to Him - "What have You done?" (Daniel 4:34-35).

A creature, considered as such, has no rights. He can demand nothing from his Maker; and in whatever manner he may be treated, has no right to complain. Yet, when thinking of the absolute dominion of God over all, we ought never to lose sight of His moral perfections. God is just and good, and ever does that which is right. Nevertheless, He exercises His sovereignty according to His own imperial and righteous pleasure. He assigns each creature his place as seems good in His own sight. He orders the varied circumstances of each according to His own counsels. He molds each vessel according to His own uninfluenced determination. He has mercy on whom He will, and He hardens whom He will. Wherever we are, His eye is upon us. Whoever we are, our life and everything is held at His disposal. To the Christian, He is a tender Father; to the rebellious sinner He will yet be a consuming fire. "Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." (1 Timothy 1:17).

~A. W. Pink~

(The End)

____________________

Are You As A Bruised Flower?

It is in times of soul abasement that the love, the tenderness, and the grace of the Holy Spirit are better known.

As a Comforter, as a Revealer of Jesus, we are, perhaps, more fully led into an acquaintance with the work of the Spirit in seasons of soul abasement than at any other time. The mode and time of His divine manifestation are thus beautifully predicted. "He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass - as showers that water the earth." (Psalm 72:6).

Observe the gentleness, the silence, and the sovereignty of His operation. "He shall come down as rain." How characteristic of the blessed Spirit's grace!

Then mark the occasion on which He descends. It is at the time of the soul's deep prostration the waving grace is mowed, the lovely flower is laid low, the fruitful stem is broken, that which was beautiful, fragrant, and precious is cut down ... the fairest first to fade, the loveliest first to die, the fondest first to depart.

Then, when the blessing is gone, and the spirit is bowed, when the heart is broken, the mind is dejected, and the world seems clad in wintry desolation and gloom, the Holy Spirit, in all the softening, reviving, comforting, and refreshing influence of His grace, descends, speaks of the beauty of Jesus, leads to the grace of Jesus, lifts the bowed soul, and reposes it on the bosom of Jesus!

Precious and priceless, then, beloved, are the seasons of a believer's humiliation. They tell of the soul's emptiness, of Christ's fullness; of the creatures insufficiency, of Christ's sufficiency; of the world's poverty; of Christ's affluence.

They create a necessity which Jesus supplies, a void which Jesus fills, a sorrow which Jesus soothes, a desire which Jesus satisfies.

They endure the cross of the incarnate God, they reveal the hidden glory of Christ's humiliation, they sweeten prayer, they lift the soul to God.

Are you as a bruised flower? Are you as a broken stem? Does some heavy trial now bow you in the dust? Oh, never, perhaps, were you so truly beautiful; never did your grace send forth such fragrance, or your prayers ascend with so sweet an odor, never did faith and hope and love develop their hidden glories so richly, so fully as now!

In the eyes of a wounded, a bruised, and a humbled Christ, you were never more lovely, and never more precious to His heart than now... pierced by His hand, smitten by His rod, humbled by His chastisement, laid low at His feet, condemning yourself, justifying Him, taking to yourself all the shame, and ascribing to Him all the glory!

~Octavius Winslow~

(The End)

The Contemplation Of God # 2

 The Contemplation Of God # 2

"The saints in Heaven will see God with the eye of the mind, for He will be always invisible to the bodily eye. They will see Him more clearly than they could see Him by reason and faith, and more extensively than all His works and dispensations had hitherto revealed Him. But their minds will not be so enlarged as to be capable of contemplating at once, or in detail, the whole excellence of His nature. To comprehend infinite perfection, they must become infinite themselves. Even in Heaven, their knowledge will be partial, but at the same time their happiness will be complete; because their knowledge will be perfect in this sense, that it will be adequate to the capacity of the subject, although it will not exhaust the fullness of the object. We believe that it will be progressive, and that as their views expand, their blessedness will increase. But it will never reach a limit beyond which there is nothing to be discovered, and when ages after ages have passed away, He will still be the incomprehensible God." (John Dick).

Secondly, from a review of the perfections of God, it appears that He is an all-sufficient Being. He is all-sufficient in Himself and to Himself. As the First of beings, He could receive nothing from another, nor be limited by the power of another. Being infinite, He is possessed of all possible perfection. When the Triune God existed all alone, He was all to Himself. His understanding, His love, His energies - found an adequate object in Himself. Had He stood in need of anything external He would not have been independent, and therefore He would not have been God.

He created all things, and that for Himself (Colossians 1:16) - yet it was not in order to supply a lack - but that He might communicate life and happiness to angels and men, and admit them to the vision of His glory. True, He demands the allegiance and services of His intelligent creatures - yet He derives no benefit from their offices; all the advantage rebounds to themselves (Job 22:2-3). He makes use of means and instruments to accomplish His ends - yet not from a deficiency of power, but oftentimes to more strikingly display His power through the feebleness of the instruments.

The all-sufficiency of God makes Him to be the Supreme Object which is ever to be sought unto. True happiness consists only in the enjoyment of God, His favor is life, and His loving-kindness is better than life. "The Lord is my portion, says my soul; therefore I will hope in Him." (Lamentations 3:24). His love, His grace, and His glory are the chief objects of the saints desire and the springs of their highest sanctification.

"Many are asking: Who can show us any good? Let the light of Your face shine upon us, O Lord. You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound." (Psalm 4:6-7).

Yes, the Christian, when in his right mind, is able to say: "Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vine, even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle bars are empty - yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation." (Habakkuk 3:17-18).

Thirdly, from a review of the perfections of God, it appears that He is the Supreme Sovereign of the universe. It has been rightly said: "No dominion is so absolute as that which is founded on creation. He who might not have made anything, had a right to make all things according to His own pleasure. In the exercise of His uncontrolled power, He has made some parts of the creation mere inanimate matter, of grosser or more refined texture, and distinguished by different qualities, but all inert and unconscious. He has given orgination to other parts, and made them susceptible of growth and expansion, but still without life in the proper sense of the term. To others He has given not only organization, but conscious existence, organs of sense and self-motive power. To these He has added in man the gift of reason, and an immortal spirit, by which he is allied to a higher order of beings who are placed in the superior regions. Over the world which He has created, He sways the scepter of omnipotence. (John Dick).

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 3)

The Contemplation Of God # 1

 The Contemplation Of God # 1

In the previous studies we have had in revew some of the wondrous and lovely perfections of the divine character. From this most feeble and faulty contemplation of His attributes, it should be evident to us all that God is:

First, and incomprehensible Being, and, lost in wonder at His infinite greatness, we are constrained to adopt the words of Zophar, "Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens - what can you do? They are deeper than the depths of the grave - what can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea" (Job 11:7-9). When we turn our thoughts of God's eternity, His immateriality, His omnipresence, His almightiness than our minds are overwhelmed.

But the incomprehensibility of the divine nature is not a reason why we should desist from reverent inquiry and prayerful strivings to apprehend what He has so graciously revealed of Himself in His Word. Because we are unable to acquire perfect knowledge, it would be folly to say we will therefore make no efforts to attain to any degree of it. It has been well said: "Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued, investigation of the great subject of the Deity. The most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ and Him crucified and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity" (Charles Spurgeon).

Let us quote a little further from the prince of preachers; "The proper study of the Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can engage the attention of a child of God - is the name, the nature, the person, the doings, and the existence of the great God which he calls His Father. There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity. It is a subject so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can comprehend and grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self-contentment, and go on our way with the thought, "Behold I am wise." But when we come to this master science, finding that our plumbline cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought - "I am but of yesterday and know nothing." (Sermon on Malachi 3:6).

Yes, the incomprehensibility of the divine nature should teach us humility, caution, and reverence. After all our searchings and meditations we have to say with Job, "Lo, these are parts of His ways; but how little a portion is heard of Him?" (Job 26:14). When Moses besought Jehovah for a sight of His glory, He answered him, "I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you" (Exodus 33:19). As another has said; "The name is the collection of His attributes." Rightly did the Puritan John Howe declare: "The notion therefore we can hence form of His glory, is only such as we may have a large volume by a brief synopsis; or of a spacious country by a little landscape. He has here given us a true report of Himself, but not a full account; such as will secure our apprehensions - being guided thereby from error, but not from ignorance. We can apply our minds to contemplate the several perfections whereby the blessed God discovers to us His being, and can in our thoughts attribute them all to Him, though we have still but low and defective conceptions of each one. Yet so far as our apprehensions can correspond to the discovery that He affords us of His several excellencies, we have a present view of His glory.

The difference is indeed great between the knowledge of God which His saints have in this life - and that which they shall have in Heaven. Yet, as the former should not be undervalued because it is imperfect, so the latter is not to be magnified about its reality. True, the Scriptures declare that we shall see "face to face" and "know" even as we are known (1 Corinthians 13:12). But to infer from this that we shall then know God as fully as He knows us, is to be misled by the mere sound of words, and to disregard the restriction of that knowledge that our finiteness necessarily requires. There is a vast difference between the saints being glorified - and their being made divine. In their glorified state, Christians will still be finite creatures, and therefore, never able to fully comprehend the infinite God.

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 2)

The Scriptures And The Promises # 4

 The Scriptures And The Promises # 4

Thus it was with Abraham: "Who against hope believed in hope...and being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb; he staggered not...through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God" (Romans 4:18-20).

Thus it was with Moses: "Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward" (Hebrews 11:26).

Thus it was with Paul: "I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told to me" (Acts 27:25).

Is it so with you, dear reader? Are the promises of Him who cannot lie, the resting place of your poor heart?

6. We profit from the Word when we patiently await the fulfillment of God's promises. God promised Abraham a son, but he waited many years for the performance of it. Simeon had a promise that he should not see death until he had seen the Lord's Christ (Luke 2:26), yet it was not made good until he had one foot in the grave.

There is often a long and hard winter between the sowing-time of prayer and the reaping of the answer. The Lord Jesus Himself has not yet received a full answer to the prayer He made in John chapter 17, nineteen hundred years ago. Many of God's promises to His people will not receive their richest accomplishment until they are in glory. He who has all eternity at His disposal needs not to hurry. God often makes us tarry so that patience may have "her perfect work," yet let us not distrust Him. "For the revelation awaits an appointed time, it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it lingers, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay." (Habakkuk 2:3).

Various ends are accomplished by God in delaying His execution of the promises. Not only is faith put to the proof, so that its genuineness may the more clearly appear. Not only is patience developed, and hope given opportunity for exercise; but submission to the Divine will is fostered.

7. We profit from the Word when we make a right use of the promises. First, in our dealings with God Himself. When we approach unto His throne, it should be to plead one of His promises. Observe how Jacob pleaded the promise in Genesis 32:12; Moses in Exodus 32:13; David in Psalm 119:58; Solomon in 1 Kings 8:25; and you also, my Christian reader, do like wise.

"Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7:1). That is the effect they should produce in us, and will if faith really lays hold of them. "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great an dprecious promises - that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust" (2 Peter 1:4).

Now the gospel and the precious promises, being graciously bestowed and powerfully applied - have an influence on purity of heart and behavior, and teach men to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly. Such are the powerful effects of gospel promises under the Divine influence as to make men inwardly partakers of the Divine nature and outwardly to abstain from and avoid the prevailing corruptions and vices of the times.

~A. W. Pink~

(The End)

The Scriptures And The Promises # 3

 The Scriptures And The Promises # 3

4. We profit from the Word when we make a proper discrimination between the promises of God. Many of the Lord's people are frequently guilty of spiritual theft, by which we mean that they appropriate to themselves something to which they are not entitled, but which belongs to another. "Certain covenant engagements, made with the Lord Jesus Christ, as to His elect and redeemed ones, are altogether without condition so far as we are concerned; but many other wealthy words of the Lord contain stipulations which must be carefully regarded - or we shall not obtain the blessing. One part of my reader's diligent search must be directed toward this most important point. God will keep His promise to you; only see to it that the way in which He conditions His engagement is carefully observed by you. Only when we fulfill the requirements of a conditional promise, can we expect that promise to be fulfilled to us.

Many of the Divine promises are addressed to particular characters - or, more correctly speaking to particular graces. For example, in Psalm 25:9 the Lord declares that "He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them His way." But if I am out of communion with Him, if I am following a course of self-will, if my heart is haughty - then I am not justified in taking to myself the comfort of this verse.

Again, in John 15:7, the Lord tells us, "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you - then you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you." But if I am not in experimental communion with Him, if His commands are not regulating my conduct - then my prayers will remain unanswered.

While God's promises proceed from pure grace, yet it ever needs to be remembered that grace reigns "through righteousness" (Romans 5:21) and never sets aside human responsibility. If I ignore the laws of health, I must not be surprised that sickness prevents me enjoying many of God's temporal mercies. In the same way, if I neglect His precepts I have only myself to blame if I fail to receive the fulfillment of many of His promises.

Let none suppose that by His promises God has obligated Himself to ignore the requirements of His holiness - He never exercises any one of His perfections at the expense of another. And let none imagine that God would be magnifying the sacrificial work of Christ, were He to bestow its fruits upon impenitent and careless souls. There is a balance of truth to be preserved here. Alas, that it is now so frequently lost, and that under the pretense of exalting Divine grace, men are really turning it into a license to sin.

How often one hears quoted, "Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you" (Psalm 50:15). But that verse begins with "And," and the preceding clause is "Pay your vows unto the most High!"

Again, how frequently is "I will guide you with my eye" (Psalm 32:8) seized by people who pay no attention to the context! But that is God's promise to one who has confessed his "transgression unto the Lord (verse 5).

If, then, I have unconfessed sin on my conscience, and have leaned on ar arm of flesh or sought help from my fellows, instead of waiting only on God (Psalm 62:5) - then I have no right to count upon the Lord's guiding me with His eye - which necessarily presupposed that I am walking in close communion with Him, for I cannot see the eye of another while at a distance from him.

5. We profit from the Word when we are enabled to make God's promises our support and stay. This is one reason why God has given them to us; not only to manifest His love by making known His benevolent designs - but also to comfort our hearts and develop our faith. Had God so pleased He could have bestowed His blessings without giving us notice of His purpose. The Lord might have given us all the mercies we need without pledging Himself to do so. But in that case we could not have been believers; faith without a promise would be a foot without ground to stand upon. Our tender Father planned that we should enjoy His gifts twice over: first by faith, and then by fruition. By this means He wisely weans our hearts away from things seen and perishing, and draws them onward and upward to those things which are spiritual and eternal.

If there were no promises there would not only be no faith, but no hope either. For what is hope but the expectation of the things which God has declared He will give us? Faith looks to the Word promising - and hope looks to the performance thereof.

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 4)