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]