The Terror of the Lord

Knowing ... the terror of the Lord, we persuade men (2 Corinthians v. 11.)

'The Lord is known by the judgment which He executeth,' (Psalm ix. 16.)

The majesty of God's law can be measured only by the terrors of His judgments. God is rich in mercy, but He is equally terrible in wrath. So high as is His mercy, so deep is His wrath. Mercy and wrath are set over against each other as are the high mountains and the deep seas. They match each other as do day and night, as do winter and summer, or right and left, or top and bottom. If we do not accept mercy, we shall surely be overtaken by wrath.

God's law cannot be broken with impunity. 'The soul that sinneth, it shall die.' We can no more avoid the judgment of God's violated law than we can avoid casting a shadow when we stand in the light of the sun, or than we can avoid being burned if we thrust our hand in the fire. Judgment follows wrong-doing as night follows day.

This truth should be preached and declared continually and everywhere. It should not be preached harshly, as though we were glad of it; nor thoughtlessly, as though we had learned it as a parrot might learn it; nor lightly, as though it were really of no importance; but it should be preached soberly, earnestly, tearfully, intelligently, as a solemn, certain, awful fact to be reckoned with in everything we think and say and do.

The terrible judgments of God against the Canaanites were but flashes of His wrath against their terrible sins. People with superfine sensibilities mock at what they consider the barbarous ferocity of God's commands against the inhabitants of Canaan, but let such people read the catalogue of the Canaanites' sins as recorded in the eighteenth chapter of Leviticus (verses 6-25), and they will then understand why God's anger waxed so hot. The Canaanites practiced the most shameless and inconceivable wickedness, until, as God says, 'the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.'

'Fools make a mock of sin ' wrote Solomon (Proverbs xiv. 9), and professedly wise men still lead simple souls astray as the serpent beguiled Eve, saying, 'Ye shall not surely die.' (Genesis iii. 4.)

But men who understand the unchangeable holiness of God's character and law tremble and fear before Him at the thought of sin. They know that He is to be feared; 'the terror of the Lord' is before them. And this is not inconsistent with the perfect love that casteth out fear. Rather it is inseparably joined with that love, and the man who is most fully possessed of that love is the one who fears most -- with that reverential fear that leads him to depart from sin. For he who is exalted to the greatest heights of divine love and fellowship in Jesus Christ sees most plainly the awful depths of the divine wrath against sin and the bottomless pit to which sinners out of Christ are hastening.

This vision and sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin and of God's wrath against wickedness begets not a panicky, slavish fear that makes a man hide from God, as Adam and Eve hid among the trees of Eden, but a holy, filial fear that leads the soul to come out into the open and run to God to seek shelter in His arms, and to be washed in the Blood of 'the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.'

[Samuel Logan Brengle, Love Slaves]

The Leakage of Spiritual Power

There are many ways of letting power leak away. He who wants a meeting of life and power should remember that there is no substitute for the Holy Ghost. He is life. He is power. And if He is sought in earnest, faithful prayer, He will come, and when He comes the little meeting will be mighty in its results.


The Holy Spirit should be earnestly sought, in earnest, secret prayer. Jesus said, "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly" (Matt. vi. 6). He will do it; bless His holy name!

The man who wants power, just when it is most needed, must walk with God. He must be a friend of God. He must keep the way always open between his heart and God. God will be the friend of such a man, and will bless him and honor him. God will tell him His secrets; He will show him how to get at the hearts of men. God will make dark things light and crooked places straight and rough places smooth for that man. God will be on his side and help him.

Such a man must keep a constant watch over his mouth and his heart. David prayed: "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips" (Ps. cxli. 3); and Solomon said: "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life" (Prov. iv. 23). He must walk in unbroken communion with God. He must cultivate a spirit of joyful recollection by which he will be always conscious that he is in the presence of God.

"Delight thyself also in the Lord" (Ps. xxxvii. 4), said the Psalmist. Oh, how happy is that man who finds God to be his delight; who is never lonely, because He knows God, talks with God, delights in God; who feels how lovable God is, and gives himself up to loving, serving, trusting God with all his heart!

Comrade, "Quench not the Spirit" (I Thess. v.59), and He will lead you thus to know and love God, and God will make you the instrument of His own power.
 
[Samuel Logan Brengle, Helps to Holiness]

An Undivided Heart

He who thinks to succeed in this infinite business of saving souls with a heart that is divided as yet knows nothing as he ought to know concerning the matter.

The soul-winner, then, must once and for all, abandon himself to the Lord and to the Lord's work, and, having put his hand to the plow, must not look back, if he would succeed in this mighty business.

Here it is that many fail; they have not a single eye. They make provisions for retreat. They are double-minded ... forgetting Paul's words to Timothy: "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him that hath chosen him to be a soldier." (2 Tim. 2:4.)

If God has set you to win souls, O my brother, make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof. Cut the bridge down behind you. Remember Paul's words to Timothy: "Give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all."

Let your eye be single, make no plan for retreat, allow no thought of it. Remember Paul's "Woe is me, if I preach not the Gospel."

Like Jesus, set your face steadfastly toward your Jerusalem, your cross, your kingdom, your glory, when, having turned many to righteousness, you "shall shine as the stars for ever and ever." (Dan. 12:3.)

You may be ignorant and illiterate, your abilities may be very limited, you may have a stammering tongue, and be utterly lacking in culture, but you can have an undivided a perfect heart toward God and the work He has set you to do, and this is more than all culture and all education, all gifts and graces of person and brain. If God has bestowed any of these upon you, see to it that they are sanctified, and that your trust is not in them. But if He has denied them to you, He yet hath called you to the fellowship of His Son, and to His service. Be not dismayed; it is not the perfect head, but the perfect heart which God blesses. For has He not said, "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him"?


[Samuel Logan Brengle, The Soul-Winner's Secret]

Ask, and it [He] will be given to you

I am being wooed to pursue a fresh filling of the Spirit for personal holiness and service. I've been asking, seeking, and knocking for a new baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Luk 11:9-13 NASB - "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or {if} he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will {your} heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?"

I am being admonished by the Spirit, through the Word, to be heavenly minded.

Col 3:1-2 KJV - If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

Phl 3:7 NASB - But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
Phl 3:8 NASB - More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,

Hbr 10:34 KJV - knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.

They Will Deliver You Up

Mar 13:9 KJV - But take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils;
Mar 13:11 KJV - But when they shall lead [you], and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.

Although I am not gifted in the "fore-telling" aspect of a prophecy, a prolonged and deep self-examination of my spiritual gifts recently reinforced what others have confirmed over the course of my walk with Christ. I tend to bear fruit in the areas of exhortation, admonition, and discernment.

As such, while I am not in a position to say "thus saith the Lord," I feel inclined to write that it will become increasingly common for believer/followers of Jesus Christ to be persecuted and even incarcerated in the United States of America. I'm not speaking of trouble-makers looking to stir up strife and offend people to demonstrate how "spiritual" they are. I'm talking about rank-and-file, committed Christians who wear the name of Christ and want to serve Him. They will be called out for obeying Christ in simple ways that oppose the current wave of anti-Christian sentiment. I do not see this trend changing in the current cultural climate.

While you do not need to "take [any] thought beforehand what ye shall speak", you will nonetheless need to be prepared to face your accusers. If you read the verse carefully, Jesus said "but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye". He commands us to speak what is given to us. He will do the giving, but we must do the speaking. He does not command us to do that which is natural or common for us, otherwise there would be no need to command it. He commands us because there will be a strong tendency to not speak that which He gives us in the midst of this coming trial.

1Pe 3:15 KJV - But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and [be] ready always to [give] an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

You are humbly being admonished and encouraged to count the cost of following Christ before you are delivered up.

Mat 10:37 KJV - He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:38 KJV - And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.

Mat 10:32-33 KJV - Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

I have much more to write on this topic and will try to elaborate in the coming days.

His Commandments Are Not Hard

Pro 13:15 KJV - but the way of transgressors [is] hard.

A transgressor (בגד) is someone who acts treacherously or deceitfully. It means to cover or act covertly.
Hard (איתן) means perpetual, constant, perennial, ever-flowing.

Here we have the picture of a someone who is trapped in an ever-flowing, constant bondage to acting treacherously and covering his sin. Is this you?

treach⋅er⋅ous

1.	characterized by faithlessness or readiness to betray trust; traitorous.

2.	deceptive, untrustworthy, or unreliable.

3.	unstable or insecure, as footing.

If you are treacherous, you have an unstable, insecure footing, of which the Scriptures warns

Deu 32:35 KJV - their foot shall slide in [due] time: for the day of their calamity [is] at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

But you have a Savior who wants to rescue you.

Psa 121:3 NASB - He will not allow your foot to slip;

Psa 94:18 KJV - When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O LORD, held me up.


You can exchange your hard bondage for rest from all your treachery.

Isa 14:3 KJV - And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve

His way, although narrow, is not hard!

1Jo 5:3 KJV - For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous [hard].

grievous (βαρύς) means hard, heavy in weight, burdensome, violent, cruel, unsparing

It is common to think the opposite. It is common to think that God's commands are cruel and burdensome, and that life apart from Him is easy. But this thinking is based on an unstable footing, and your foot will slide in due time.

Deu 30:11 NASB - "For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult [hard] for you, nor is it out of reach.

But passing from the burden of treachery (sin) to freedom (rest) is conditional, as evidenced by the preceding verse:

Deu 30:10 NASB - if you obey the LORD your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law, if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and soul.

If you did not know that His commands are not hard nor out of reach, and want to turn to the Lord your God with all your soul, what should you do next? Here is a command which is not burdensome or hard, and it will give you the rest you are after:

Act 17:30 NKJV - Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.


Lastly, remember:

Mat 11:28-30 NASB - "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

Finney On Service

To serve a person is to be obedient to the will and devoted to the interests of that individual. It is not properly called serving, where only certain acts are performed, without entering into the service of the person, but to serve is to make it a business to do the will and promote the interest of the person. To serve God is to make religion the main business of life. It is to devote one's self, heart, life, powers, time, influence, and all to promote the interests of God, to build up the kingdom of God, and to advance the glory of God.

[Charles G. Finney, False Professors]

All Scripture Is Profitable

2Tim 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable
for teaching [what the way is]
for reproof [how we've left the way]
for correction [how to get back on the way]
for training in righteousness [how to stay on the way]

The Prophet's Whip of Cords

He made the whip himself (John 2:15). Therefore his act of enraged violence was premeditated, not an impulsive outburst. He made a plan and he carried it out. Seizing tables piled with coins he tossed them on their sides. An uproar of protesting and excited voices was heard amid crashes of heavy furniture on stone, tinkling of rolling coins, and the swish and crack of his whip. Sheep bleating, oxen lowing drowned out the muted sounds of the frightened pigeons.

Whether or not the whip bit deep into the flesh of human shoulders we do not know, though I suspect it lashed down on people as well as on animals. Some translations read that he turned over the stools of the pigeon sellers, and as likely as not he unseated some by doing so. They would lie sprawling as the panicked animals stumbled over them.

The miracle is that protests were as feeble as they were vain. He would be sweating and panting with exertion, and there would be a calm purposefulness in his eyes that people could not face. Sheep, oxen, pigeons and people (who would snatch up whatever they had time to) were forced amin the hubbub through the gates.

Nor having done so much did he stop short. Each unsuspecting merchant arriving with more animals would be startled to find his way barred and a whip gripped in the menacing fist of the man with
the unflinching gaze (Mark 11:16).

His controls of the crowd was by a moral force, forged by his total lack of ambivalence and the money changers' uneasy consciences. He was expressing what the common people deep within their hearts had known for years.

What was it about the traffic in coins and animals that offended him so deeply? "A house of prayer" he had called it, not a place of teaching nor yet a place of sacrifice. (He himself was to be the sacrifice.) What was in his mind?

[John White, The Golden Cow]

Our Beloved Sin

Question: How shall we know what our beloved sin is?

Answer 1: The sin which a man does not love to have reproved is the darling sin. Herod could not endure having his incest spoken against. If the prophet meddles with that sin—it shall cost him his head! "Do not touch my Herodias!" Men can be content to have other sins reproved—but if the minister puts his finger on the sore, and touches this sin—their hearts begin to burn in malice against him!

Answer 2: The sin on which the thoughts run most, is the darling sin. Whichever way the thoughts go, the heart goes. He who is in love with a person cannot keep his thoughts off that person. Examine what sin runs most in your mind, what sin is first in your thoughts and greets you in the morning—that is your predominant sin.

Answer 3: The sin which has most power over us, and most easily leads us captive, is the one beloved by the soul. There are some sins which a man can better resist. If they come for entertainment, he can more easily put them off. But the bosom sin comes as a suitor, and he cannot deny it—but is overcome by it. The young man in the Gospel had repulsed many sins—but there was one sin which soiled him, and that was covetousness. Christians, mark what sin you are most readily led captive by—that is the harlot in your bosom! It is a sad thing that a man should be so bewitched by lust, that if it asks him to part with not only half the kingdom (Esther 7:2) but the whole kingdom of heaven, he must part with it, to gratify that lust!

Answer 4: The sin which men use arguments to defend, is the beloved sin. He who has a jewel in his bosom, will defend it to his death. So when there is any sin in the bosom, men will defend it. The sin we advocate and dispute for, is the besetting sin. If the sin is anger, we plead for it: "I do well to be angry" (Jonah 4:9). If the sin is covetousness and we vindicate it and perhaps wrest Scripture to justify it—that is the sin which lies nearest the heart.

Answer 5: The sin which most troubles us, and flies most in the face in an hour of sickness and distress, that is the Delilah sin! When Joseph's brethren were distressed, their sin in selling their brother came to remembrance: "We are truly guilty concerning our brother . . . therefore is this distress come upon us" (Gen. 42:21). So, when a man is on a sickbed and conscience says, "You have been guilty of such a sin; you went on in it, and rolled it like honey under your tongue!" Conscience is reading him a sad lecture. That was the beloved sin for sure.

Answer 6: The sin which a man finds most difficulty in giving up, is the endeared sin. Of all his sons, Jacob found most difficulty in parting with Benjamin. So the sinner says, "This and that sin I have parted with—but must Benjamin go, must I part with this delightful sin? That pierces my heart!" As with a castle that has several forts about it, the first and second fort are taken—but when it comes to the castle, the governor will rather fight and die than yield that. So a man may allow some of his sins to be demolished—but when it comes to one sin, that is the taking of the castle; he will never agree to part with that! That is the master sin for sure.

[Thomas Watson, The Godly Man's Picture]

To please Him in all respects

Col 1:10 NASB - so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please {Him} in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

I have committed this verse to memory. Here is some help from the original Greek:
 
walk: peripateo. to order one's behavior, to conduct one's self.
 
worthy: axios. weighing as much as another thing. "The saints are to see to it that their manner of life, their conduct, weighs as much as the character of their Lord. That is, He is to be their example in life, and the copy must be like the example." [Wuest]
 
work: ergon. that which one undertakes to do. an act, deed, thing done.
 
knowledge: epignosis. a thorough knowlege, a penetrating and gripping knowledge. Here it is not speaking of information, but rather a knowledge of His will for our conduct.

Endure Chastening

Hbr 12:5 KJV - And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
Hbr 12:6 KJV - For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Hbr 12:7 KJV - If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

When God chastens His people for sin, His chastisements are not the fruits of wrath or parts of the curse, for there is no wrath in them; the are not satisfactions for sin; they are not sent in vindictive justice; they are not merely penal, but medicinal; their reason is displeased love, and their purpose is fuller embraces.

[Samuel Bolton, The True Bounds of Christian Freedom]

Unbelief

"Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you, an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." Hebrews 3:12

Unbelief is the prince of sins. As faith is the radical grace, so is unbelief a radical sin,—a sinning sin. As, of all sinners, those are most infamous, who are ring-leaders and make others sin, which is the brand which God has set upon Jeroboam's name, "Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who, sinned, and made Israel to, sin" (1 Kings 14:16), so among sins they are most horrid that are most productive of others, such is unbelief above any other: it is a ring-leading sin, a sin-making sin. The first poisonous breath which Eve sucked in from the tempter, was sent in these words, "Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" (Gen 3:1). As if he had said, Consider well on the matter; do you believe God meant so? Can you think so ill of God, as to believe he would keep the best fruit of the whole garden from you? This was the traitor's gate at which all other sins entered into her heart; and it continues to this day of the same use to Satan, for the hurrying souls into other sins, called therefore "an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God." The devil sets up this sin of unbelief, as a blind between the sinner and God; that the shot which come from the threatening, levelled at the sinner's breast, may not be dreaded by him; and then the wretch can be as bold with his lust as the pioneer is at his work, when he has got his basket of earth between him and the enemies' bullets: nay, this unbelief does not only choke the bullets of wrath which are sent out of the law's fiery mouth, but it damps the motions of grace which come from the gospel; all the offers of love which God makes to an unbelieving heart, they fall like seed into dead earth, or like sparks into a river, they pare out as soon as they fall in.

[William Gurnall, Departing from the Living God]

Christ Known Only by Revelation

(1) God has shut up everything of Himself in His Son.

(2) No one can know anything of that save as it is revealed. "No one knoweth the Son, save the Father, neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him" (Matt 11:27). Revelation can only come by choice of the Son.

The third thing is this. God always keeps the revelation of Himself in Christ bound up with practical situations. I want you to get that. God always keeps the revelation of Himself in Christ bound up with practical situations. You and I can never get revelation other than in connection with some necessity. We cannot get it simply as a matter of information. That is information, that is not revelation. We cannot get it by studying. When the Lord gave the manna in the wilderness (type of Christ as the bread from heaven) He stipulated very strongly that not one fragment more than the day's need was to be gathered, and that if they went beyond the measure of immediate need, disease and death would break out and overtake them. The principle, the law, of the manna, is that God keeps revelation of Himself in Christ bound up with practical situations of necessity, and we are not going to have revelation as mere teaching, doctrine, interpretation, theory, or anything as a thing, which means that God is going to put you and me into situations where only the revelation of Christ can help us and save us.

You notice that the Apostles got their revelation for the Church in practical situations. They never met around a table to have a Round-Table Conference, to draw up a scheme of doctrine and practice for the churches. They went out into the business and came right up against the desperate situation, and in the situation which pressed them, oft-times to desperation, they had to get before God and get revelation. The New Testament is the most practical book, because it was born out of pressing situations. The Lord gave light for a situation. The revelation of Christ, we might say, in emergencies is the way to keep Christ alive, and the only way in which Christ really does live to His own. You understand what I mean.


Now then, that is why the Lord would keep us in situations which are acute, real. The Lord is against our getting out on theoretical lines with truth, out on technical lines. Oh, let us shun technique as a thing in itself and recognize this, that, although the New Testament has in it a technique, we cannot merely extract the technique and apply it. We have to come into New Testament situations to get a revelation of Christ to meet that situation. So that the Holy Spirit's way with us is to bring us into living, actual conditions and situations, and needs, in which only some fresh knowledge of the Lord Jesus can be our deliverance, our salvation, our life, and then to give us, not a revelation of truth, but a revelation of the Person, new knowledge of the Person, that we come to see Christ in some way that just meets our need. We are not drawing upon an 'it', but upon a 'Him'.
 
[T. Austin Sparks, The School of Christ]

The Throne and the Altar

It is ever a serious matter for a sinner to find himself standing before the throne of God with the unanswered claims of that throne bearing down upon his conscience. There are no excuses there — no palliating circumstances there — no qualifying clauses there — no blaming of men or things there. There is but one object seen there — seen in its guilt, its wretchedness and its ruin, and that object is self, and as to that object the tale is easily told. It is all summed up in that most solemn, weighty, suggestive word, "undone." Yes; self is undone. That is all that can be said about it. Do what you will with it, and you cannot make it out to be aught but a hopeless, undone thing; and the more speedily and thoroughly this is understood the better.

All who have ever stood before that throne have given utterance to the same confession, and it will ever be found that just in proportion to our experience of the light of the throne will be our experience of the grace of the altar. The two things invariably go together. In this day of grace the throne and the altar are connected. In the day of judgement "the great white throne" will be seen without any altar. There will be no grace then. The ruin will then be seen without the remedy, and as for the result, it will be eternal perdition. Awful reality! O beware of having to meet the light of the throne without the provision of the altar!

Now in the scene before us we not only see a marvellous favour conferred, but conferred after such a fashion as to let us into the very secrets of the bosom of God. The divine remedy was not only applied to Isaiah's felt ruin, but applied in such a way as to let him know assuredly that the whole heart of God was in the application. "Then flew one of the seraphim unto me." The rapidity of the movement speaks volumes. It tells us distinctly of Heaven's intense desire to tranquillise the convicted conscience, bind up the broken heart and heal the wounded spirit. The energy of divine love gave swiftness to the seraphic messenger as he winged his way down from Jehovah's throne to where a convicted sinner stood confessing himself "undone."

What a scene! One of those very seraphim that with veiled face stood above Jehovah's throne crying, "Holy, holy, holy," passes from that throne to the altar, and from the altar away down to the deep depths of a convicted sinner's heart, there to apply the balmy virtues of a divine sacrifice. No sooner had the arrow from the throne wounded the heart than the seraph from the altar "flew" to heal the wound. No sooner had the throne poured forth its flood of living light to reveal to the prophet the blackness of his guilt than a tide of love rolled down upon him from the altar and bore away upon its bosom every trace of that guilt. Such is the style — such the manner of the love of God to sinners! Who would not trust Him?

Beloved reader, whosoever you are, in earnest desire for the welfare of your immortal soul, permit me to ask you if you have experienced the action of the throne and the altar? Have you ever retired from all that false light which the enemy of your precious soul would fling around you in order to prevent your getting a true insight into your total ruin? Have you ever stood where Isaiah found himself when he cried out, "Woe is me! for I am undone"? Have you ever been brought to own from your heart, "I have sinned"? (Job 33) If so, it is your privilege to enter this moment into the rich enjoyment of all that Christ has done for you on the cross.

You do not need to see any vision. You do not require to see a throne, an altar, a flying seraph. You have the Word of God to assure you "Christ suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3: 18). That same Word also assures you that "all that believe are justified from all things" (Acts 13: 39).

[C. H. Mackintosh, The Throne and the Altar]

In whom I am [already] well pleased

Behold, My beloved Son, in whom I am [already] well pleased. That is the tense it is given to us in. Now Jesus had not done a miracle, hadn't preached a sermon. Had no public ministry. In fact He spent 30 years at home, the majority of those [years] in a carpenter's shop. Somewhere along the way Joseph [his father] died. Jesus grew up under a single mom, not bitter. Walked with God. He hung every door jam straight. He never made out a phony bill when He fixed somebody's window. He never jipped somebody on material. God was saying "What I could not find in the first Adam (because he sinned and turned away) I have found for 30 years in the second Adam. Every day His labor was sacred. Every day and what He did, His heart was on me and on My Word and We communed with one another. This is My beloved Son, in whom I am [already] well pleased." Very important for us because by and large most of you here in this room will not have a public ministry. You will have a ministiry of one sort or another, but by and large not one as Christ did; preaching, healing, but you will have the kind of ministry He had for most of His life. We can find our lives where the majority of His life was spent [without a public ministry yet in fellowship with God.]

[Joe Focht, Pastor, Calvary Chapel Philadelphia]

The Proper Hope

1Th 1:10 KJV - And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, [even] Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

If you had asked a Thessalonian Christian what he was waiting for, what would have been his reply? Would he have said, “I am waiting for the world to improve by means of the gospel which I myself have received? or, I am waiting for the moment of my death when I shall go to be with Jesus?” No. His reply would have been simply this, “I am waiting for the Son of God from heaven.” This, and nothing else, is the proper hope of the Christian, the proper hope of the Church. To wait for the improvement of the world is not Christian hope at all. You might as well wait for the improvement of the flesh, for there is just as much hope of the one as the other.

This, and naught else, is the true and proper hope of the Church of God. “I will give him the morning star” (Rev. 2: 23). “Behold the bridegroom cometh” (Matt. 25). When, we may ask, does the morning star appear in the natural world? Just before the dawning of the day. Who sees it? The one who has been watching during the dark and dreary hours of the night. How plain, how practical, how telling the application. The Church is supposed to be watching — to be lovingly wakeful — to be looking out. Alas! the Church has failed in this. But that is no reason why the individual believer should not be in the full present power of the blessed hope. “Let him that heareth say, Come.” This is deeply personal. Oh! that the writer and the reader of these lines may realize habitually the purifying, sanctifying, elevating power of this heavenly hope! May we understand and exhibit the practical power of those words of the Apostle John, “Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.”

[C.H.Mackintosh, The Lord's Coming]

Prerequisites for Evangelism

Do you want to see sinners converted to Christ? Do you want to teach transgressors the ways of God?
According to Psalm 51, you will need four things:
1. a clean heart
2. a steadfast* spirit
(*to be directed aright, be fixed aright. to be prepared, be arranged, be settled. be ready.)
3. the presence and sustaining of the Holy Spirit
4. the joy of salvation


Psa 51:10 NASB - Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Psa 51:11 NASB - Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Psa 51:12 NASB - Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit.
Psa 51:13 NASB - {Then} I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners will be converted to You.

In the Battle

Jer 30:12 KJV - For thus saith the LORD, Thy bruise [is] incurable, [and] thy wound [is] grievous.


I think we're at a very interesting moment in time in U.S. history. The nation is divided right down the middle - I don't have to tell you that. We may yet, as Christians, lose the righteousness war, or the culture war, in this country, and it may just go headlong into sin. And you know I don't even mind losing that battle on one hand as long as everybody that's supposed to be in the battle is IN THE BATTLE. And I think we are desperately in need today of the prophetic voice from God among his people in this culture, and it begins in the pulpit!
[Damien Kyle, Pastor, Calvary Chapel Modesto, 2009]

Joy

For the Christian, the highest happiness is rooted in God’s unseen work and His promises — promises already fulfilled, and promises yet unfulfilled. We no longer live merely by sight and sound and smell and biological impulse. We live by faith. Joy can freely pulse throughout our lives because God has taken his judgments away from us in the cross. We have been forgiven. Our transgressions have been covered. And we see an approaching day coming when God will judge the earth and separate all evil and sin from his eternal kingdom. As we anticipate that day, we rejoice. We rejoice to follow God’s Word. We rejoice when His Truth leads us into the temple and into the presence of God where we find joy now and the offer of true pleasures forever (Ps 16:11). Despite the cares of life, God continues to offer His joy.
[Tony Reinke]

The Apprehension of Divine Grace

There is nothing in which the narrowness of the human heart is so manifested as in its apprehensions of divine grace. Legalism is that to which we are most prone, because it gives self a place, and makes it something. Now this is the very thing which God will not allow. "No flesh shall glory in His presence," is a decree which can never be reversed. God must be all, fill all, and give all.

When the psalmist inquired, "What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits?" the answer is "I will take the cup of salvation." The way to "render" to God is to "take" yet more largely from His bounteous hand. To be a thankful, unquestioning recipient of grace glorifies God far more than all we could render unto Him.

[C.H.Mackintosh, The Life and Times of David]

He made Intercession for the Transgressors

I've always been fascinated with language. Although I'm not a linguist, I've studied some languages at the university level with varying intensity: German, Romanian, Russian, and Polish. If God gives me length of days, one day I'd like to learn Greek - the declensions and conjugations are far richer than English, and can sometimes really enhance the study of the New Testament.

Today I was musing over

Luk 23:34 KJV - Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.

The verb "said" here is in the imperfect tense (continuous action), active voice, and indicative mood. This means that Jesus did not just say this once, but rather kept on saying "Father, forgive them" while he hung on the cross.

It was prophesied that He would do this. Hebrew verbs can be a little more complicated for a layman like myself, so I won't venture too far, but look at

Isa 53:12 KJV - Therefore will I divide him [a portion] with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Here, "made intercession" is of the Hiphil stem (causative action) with imperfect aspect (future and/or continuous action with possible repetition). It means He caused the intercession to happen, no one else interceded, nor did He intercede because he was told to do so. It fits perfectly with not only what Jesus actually did while on the cross, but also with what He is doing right now...

Hbr 7:25 KJV - Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

Here, the tense and voice of "ever liveth" and "make intercession" simply mean He is really living (right now, and it's a fact), and He's the one doing the interceding.

In each of these three verses, the intercession He is making is for transgressors.

Hbr 7:26 NASB - For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest...

Yes, very fitting. What a wonderful Saviour we have.

The Foundation of Spiritual Education

Mat 11:29 Take my yoke upon you and learn of me.

Before we can ever be apostles, that is sent ones, we have to come under discipline to be desciples, to be taught ones, and that in an inward way.

Every true child of God is brought into the School of Christ under the hand of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the annointing, and there the first great work of the Holy Spirit is to present Christ to the heart as God's object for all the Holy Spirit's dealings with us. Thus Christ is first of all presented and attested by God as the object of His pleasure. "My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

He makes us to know that we are one thing and Christ another. The Holy Spirit takes pains to make all who are under this discipline to know in experience, in an inward way in their own hearts, the altogether "other-ness" of Christ from themselves.

Then the Holy Spirit makes known the Divine purpose in connection with that inward revelation of the Lord Jesus, namely, that we should be conformed to the image of God's Son. He works to bring us to the place where we realize how impossible the situation is apart from miracles of God, that of ourselves we can never be like Christ. It is God's own doing.

We shall never find rest unto our souls until we have first of all learned the utter difference between Christ and ourselves, and the utter impossibility of our ever being like Him by anything that we can find in ourselves, produce, or do. We cannot produce from this nature anything acceptable to God.

The person who really does begin to move [grow] is the person who has had his final despair over himself, and has come to see quite clearly by the Holy Spirit's illumination that it is "no longer I, but Christ."

That is the essential foundation of spiritual growth, spritual knowledge, spiritual education.

[T. Austin Sparks, The School of Christ]

Number our days

Psa 90:12 KJV - So teach [us] to number our days, that we may apply [our] hearts unto wisdom.

The more we number our days—the fewer sins we shall have to number! As a copy is then safest from blotting when dust is put upon it, so are we from sinning when, in the time of our youth, we remember that we are but dust. The tears of young penitents do more scorch the devils than all the flames of hell; for hereby all their hopes are blasted, and the great underminer countermined and blown up. The devil's bids us to tarry—there is time enough to repent. God bids repent early, in the morning of your youth, for then your sins will be fewer and lesser. Well! young men, remember this: he who will not at the first-hand buy godly counsel cheap, shall at the second-hand buy repentance ever dear.

Ah! young men! young men! if you do not begin to be godly early, those sins that are now as jewels sparkling in your eyes, will at last be millstones about your necks, to sink you forever! Among many things that Beza, in his last will and testament, gave God thanks for, this was the first and chief, that God, at the age of sixteen years, had called him to the knowledge of the truth, and so prevented many sins and sorrows that otherwise would have overtaken him, and have made his life less happy and more miserable. Young saints often prove old angels—but old sinners seldom prove godly saints, etc.

[Thomas Brooks, Apples of Gold]

Throwing Spears

From "A Tale of Three Kings" by Gene Edwards

God has a university. It's a small school. Few enroll, even fewer graduate. Very, very few indeed.

God has this school because He does not have broken men. Instead He has several other types of men. All of these He has in abundance; but broken men, hardly at all. Why are there so few students? Because all who are in this school must suffer much pain.

David did not know what to do when a spear was thrown at him. Nor did he make any spears of his own and throw them. Something was different about David. All he did was dodge. He discovered three things that prevented him from ever being hit.

1. Never learn anything about the fashionable, easily-mastered art of spear throwing.

2. Stay out of the company of all spear throwers.

3. Keep your mouth tightly closed.

In this way, spears will never touch you, even when they pierce your heart.

[An allegorical exchange between Joab and David]

Joab: "Many times he almost speared you to death in his castle. Tonight you had him at the end of his own spear and you did nothing!"

David: "Better he kill me than I learn his ways [and] become as he is. I shall not practice the ways that cause kings to go mad. I will not throw spears, nor will I allow hatred to grow in my heart. I will not avenge. Not now. Not ever!"

Verbal Abuse

A brilliant article and must-read on verbal abuse can be found here.

Here are some verses for the victim:

1Pe 2:23 NASB - and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting {Himself} to Him who judges righteously;

1Pe 3:9 NASB - not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.

1Pe 3:10 NASB - For, "THE ONE WHO DESIRES LIFE, TO LOVE AND SEE GOOD DAYS, MUST KEEP HIS TONGUE FROM EVIL AND HIS LIPS FROM SPEAKING DECEIT.

Rom 12:19 NASB - Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath {of God,} for it is written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the Lord.

Rom 12:21 NASB - Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Pro 19:11 NASB - A man's discretion makes him slow to anger, And it is his glory to overlook a transgression.

Psa 142:1 NASB - I cry aloud with my voice to the LORD; I make supplication with my voice to the LORD.

Psa 142:2 NASB - I pour out my complaint before Him; I declare my trouble before Him.

Psa 142:5 NASB - I cried out to You, O LORD; I said, "You are my refuge, My portion in the land of the living.

Psa 142:6 NASB - "Give heed to my cry, For I am brought very low; Deliver me from my persecutors, For they are too strong for me.

Pro 15:1 KJV - A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.


The admonition to love our enemies applies here too.

Here are some verses for the offender:

Mat 12:34 NASB - "You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.

Mat 12:35 NASB - "The good man brings out of {his} good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of {his} evil treasure what is evil.

Mat 12:36 NASB - "But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.

Mat 12:37 NASB - "For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."

Mark 9:42 KJV - And whosoever shall offend one of [these] little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.

Col 3:8 NASB - But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.

He is no fool

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.

[Jim Elliot]

Listen to Jim Elliot sermons

Listen to Frank Drowns tearful discovery of the slain missionaries

Christ Our Satisfaction

When Christ ceases to fill the heart with satisfaction, the soul of man will go in silent search of other lovers.
[Maurice Roberts]

Repentance

That he who now tempts you to sin upon this account, that repentance is easy, will, before long, to work you to despair, and forever to break the neck of your soul, present repentance as the most difficult and hardest work in the world.

[Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices]

Before you sin, he will tell you repentance is easy, but after you sin he will tell you repentance is too hard.

[Paraphrased]

True repentance is never too late — yet late repentance is seldom true.

[Thomas Brooks, Apples of Gold]

Repentance is not a little hanging down our heads...but a working in our hearts to such grief as will make sin [itself] more odious unto us than punishment, until we offer an holy violence against it.

[Richard Sibbes]

Many bloggers give this subject attention, recent examples are here and also here.

More online Thomas Brooks books

A word spoken in due season

A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due season, how good is it!

[Proverbs 15:23 KJV]

The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to [him that is] weary: he wakeneth {Me} morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.

[Isaiah 50:4 KJV]

A word fitly spoken [is like] apples of gold in pictures of silver.

[Proverbs 25:11]