Others May, You CANNOT

If God has called you to be really like Jesus He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility, and put upon you such demands of obedience, that you will not be able to follow other people, or measure yourself by other Christians, and in many ways He will seem to let other people do things which He will not let you do.

Other Christians and ministers who seem very religious and useful, may push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out their plans, but you cannot do it, and if you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.

Others may boast of themselves, of their work, of their successes, of their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing, and if you begin it, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.

Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, or may have a legacy left to them, but it is likely God will keep you poor, because He wants you to have something far better than gold, namely, a helpless dependence upon Him, that He may have the privilege of supplying your needs day by day out of an unseen treasury.

The Lord may let others be honored and put forward, and keep you hidden in obscurity, because He wants to produce some choice fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade. He may let others be great, but keep you small. He may let others do a work for Him and get the credit for it, but He will make you work and toil on without knowing how much you are doing; and then to make your work still more precious He may let others get credit for the work which you have done, and thus make YOUR REWARD TEN TIMES GREATER when JESUS COMES.

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you, with a jealous love, and will rebuke you for little words and feelings or for wasting your time, which other Christians never feel distressed over. So make up your mind that God is an Infinitely Sovereign Being, and has a right to do as He pleases with His own. He may not explain to you a thousand things which puzzle your reason in His dealings with you, but if you absolutely sell yourself to be His love slave, He will wrap you up in Jealous Love, and bestow upon you many blessings which come only to those who are in the inner circle.

Settle it forever, then that you are to DEAL DIRECTLY WITH the HOLY SPIRIT, and that He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes, in ways that He does not seem to use with others. Now, when you are so possessed with the living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this PECULIAR, PERSONAL, PRIVATE, JEALOUS GUARDIANSHIP and MANAGEMENT OF the HOLY SPIRIT OVER YOUR LIFE, then you will have found the vestibule of Heaven.

-G.D.Watson (1845-1924).
SOURCE: Faith, Prayer, & Tract League,
Tract #76; Grand Rapids, MI 49504.

The Heaven of Heaven

“And they shall see His face.” Revelation 22:4.

“They shall see His face.” It is the chief blessing of Heaven, the cream of Heaven, the Heaven of Heaven, that the saints shall there see Jesus! There will be other things to see. Who dares despise those foundations of chrysolite, and chrysoprasus, and jacinth? Who shall speak lightly of streets of glassy gold, and gates of pearl? We would not forget that we shall see angels, and seraphim, and cherubim; nor would we fail to remember that we shall see Apostles, martyrs, and confessors together with those whom we have walked with, and communed with in our Lord while here below. We shall assuredly behold those of our departed kindred who sleep in Jesus, dear to us here, and dear to us still—“not lost, but gone before.” But still, for all this, the main thought which we now have of Heaven, and certainly the main fullness of it when we shall be there, is just this—we shall see Jesus!

C. H. SPURGEON
AUGUST 9, 1868
METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON

Two Things Needed

God has to accomplish two things in us before he can deliver us from our besetting sins: First, God has to cause the sin-bound person to want to be free... He has to come to his wit’s end, where he sees he is being ruined by sin — helpless, wretched, empty, ensnared, laden down with guilt and totally deceived by sin. Second, God has to cause the sin-bound person to see the utter futility of his efforts to set himself free.

David Wilkerson, The New Covenant Unveiled, page 21

I Will Veil Myself In You

Lord, only You can speak to the depths of the soul
I don`t know who this is for but Lord, I`m going to speak
to those who have backslidden
To those, Oh Lord, who have been growing cold & indifferent
to the call of God & the things of Christ.
Oh God, come & speak.

God says, `The word that I`ve sent to you,
I didn`t send it out to be void.
But the word that I have given to you
is going to accomplish the very thing I said it would.`

Lord, I flee to You to hide me (Psalm 143:9).
Folks, the original in that says,
`I will veil myself in You.`

Now you think about it.
You see, our faith now cannot be based on emotion.
Our faith cannot be based on just the testimonies
of others who have been delivered.
They can`t be cliches.
They can`t be just a shout.

We have to have a foundation
for the faith that we`re going to need.
And this has to be laying hold of
God`s own claims of who He is.

This whole things starts out right here.

Oh, hear my prayer, Lord.
Hear my supplication.
In Your faithfulness, answer me
And in Your righteousness.

And here`s a challenge.
God, here`s the basis upon which I come to You.
Not what I`ve heard in the past about people,
but here`s what You told me You are.

You said that You are faithful.
That You are just.
That You are holy.
You cannot lie.
You can`t be God if You aren`t faithful.
You said You are long-suffering.
You said You`re the God of peace.
You said You`re the God of my strength

Now I`m coming to You.
I`m going to lift my hands to You.
I`m going to believe what You said about Yourself.
And I am coming on the merits of nothing I have done,
no righteousness of my own, but on the promise of God.
What You told me.

Remember the word unto Your servant
which You have caused me to hope in.
This is my comfort in affliction.
For You have now quickedned me.

How was he quickened
Lord, God, I have lifted my hands to You.
I have trusted You.
I have claimed Your promises.
You are who You said You are.

From now on, I`m going to veil myself in You.
I`m going to cut myself off from all confidence in the flesh,
or in people, or in anyone else.

I`m going to throw myself at Your mercy.
Your grace! Your power! Your glory!
And I`m veiling myself in Christ.

[David Wilkerson]
Transcribed from audio at the Times Square Church Memorial Service - May 14, 2011

Prone to Wander

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

3. Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.

4. O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

5. O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.


Robert Robinson 1757

A modern day psalm of deliverance

Dear Jesus,

You told me to resist the devil and he would flee from me,
          But I have no resistance.
You have all the power and resistance I’ll ever need,
          So give me the power to resist.
You told me I could move my mountains
          If I had faith even as a mustard seed;
Yet my mountain won’t move
          Even though my faith in you is as great
As I can conceive it.
          You made the heavens and earth;
Please move my mountain.
          You said, “Flee the very appearance of evil!”
So I ran hard,
          But sin overtook me
In my finest hour of effort.
          You have power
Over all the power of the enemy
          With miracles, signs and wonders.
Deliver me from the trap of Satan.
          I don’t even have the strength to put on the whole armor,
So dress me as my armor-bearer.
          Do for me what I know I cannot do for myself.

David Wilkerson

Having known this man, I'm deeply moved that he once penned this modern day variation of Psalm 34:6

This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.

The Use And Advantage Of Faith In A Time Of Public Calamity

You know that, for many years, upon all these occasions, without failing, I have been warning of you continually of an approaching calamitous time, and considering the sins that have been the causes of it. The day is with the Lord, -- the year and month I know not: but I have told you that "judgment will begin at the house of God;" that in the latter days of the church, "perilous times will come;" that God seems to have" hardened our hearts from his fear, and caused us to err from his ways;" and that none knows what "the power of his wrath" will be. In all these things I have foretold you of perilous, distressing, calamitous times; and in all men's apprehensions they now lie at the door, and are entering in upon us. Now I must change my design; and my present work will be, both upon this and, if I live, upon some other occasions, to show how we ought to deport ourselves in and under the approaches of distressing calamities that are coming upon us, and may reach, it may be, up to the very neck.

      What this text teaches us is, that in the approaches of overwhelming calamities, and in the view of them, we ought, in a peculiar manner, to live by faith. That is the meaning of the place.

John Owen, April 9, 1680

Deep Sleep

We lack discernment partly because we are asleep. Jesus prophesied that in the last generation the church would be asleep (Matt.25:5). As you know, three things characterize sleep: (1) we don’t know we were asleep until we wake up; (2) we do things in our dreams we would not do when awake; (3) we hate the sound of an alarm.

Jesus also forecast a midnight cry (Matt.25:6) meaning ‘middle of the night’, which is: (1) the darkest time; (2) when we are the deepest in sleep; and (3) when we are least expectant. Could not this wake-up call come in stages, 9/11 being the first stage? Yes. If the recent economic melt-down is not a further wake-up call I don’t know what is. But the ultimate and final wake-up call will categorically cause the church to discern their true condition, except that for some it will be too late (Matt.25:8-13).

We are in the middle of the night. Right now. It is dark. The church is in a deep, deep sleep. We do things we would not do when awake. Lord, grant us discernment before it is too late!

R.T. Kendall

Lama Sabachthani

"And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?"— Mat 27:46

Our Lord was then in the darkest part of his way. He had trodden the winepress now for hours, and the work was almost finished. He had reached the culminating point of his anguish. This is his dolorous lament from the lowest pit of misery—"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" I do not think that the records of time or even of eternity, contain a sentence more full of anguish. Here the wormwood and the gall, and all the other bitternesses, are outdone. Here you may look as into a vast abyss; and though you strain your eyes, and gaze till sight fails you, yet you perceive no bottom; it is measureless, unfathomable, inconceivable. This anguish of the Saviour on your behalf and mine is no more to be measured and weighed than the sin which needed it, or the love which endured it. We will adore where we cannot comprehend.

Our Lord's heart, and all his nature were, morally and spiritually, so delicately formed, so sensitive, so tender, that to be without God, was to him a grief which could not be weighed. I see him in the text bearing desertion, and yet I perceive that he cannot bear it. I know not how to express my meaning except by such a paradox. He cannot endure to be without God. He had surrendered himself to be left of God, as the representative of sinners must be, but his pure and holy nature, after three hours of silence, finds the position unendurable to love and purity; and breaking forth from it, now that the hour was over, he exclaims, "Why hast thou forsaken me?" He quarrels not with the suffering, but he cannot abide in the position which caused it. He seems as if he must end the ordeal, not because of the pain, but because of the moral shock. We have here the repetition after his passion of that loathing which he felt before it, when he cried, "If it be possible let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" is the holiness of Christ amazed at the position of substitute for guilty men.

C. H. SPURGEON
March 2nd, 1890

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]