The Demon of Worry
"Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?" "Take therefore no thought for the morrow" (Matthew 6:31, 34).
Some of the things that Jesus Christ found in the world seem to have caused Him surprise. We are told that He marveled because of unbelief. That any one should doubt God caused the Son of God not indignation so much as astonishment. He felt, in the face of distrust of divine veracity or of the divine goodness, an emotion of simple amazement. And another fact of the life men live on the earth appears to have struck Him as foolish and unreasonable - the fact that the race of men is an anxious, a worried race.
In the Sermon on the Mount He deals with this fact of worry. He gives to it more space than to adultery or murder. I should not conclude from that, that in the divine estimation worry is a graver sin than adultery or murder, but only that it is far more prevalent.
Wherever Christ looked He saw the unmistakable traces of anxiety. All faces bore that sinister mark. The Sermon on the Mount is the constitution of the kingdom of heaven on earth adn that kingdom excludes worry. God Himself could not make an anxious world happy. Let us see how Jesus Christ proposes to banish worry from His world. First of all, He teaches us that we worry about the wrong things.
"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?" (Matthew 6:25).
In the last analysis we shall find, if we make that analysis fearlessly, that our worry is not about mere food and mere raiment, but about superfluous food and superfluous raiment, and our Lord would call us back to the consciousness that life itself is an infinitely larger thing than the externals of life. The men and women who have touched this life of humanity powerfully and helpfully have always been such as brought the facts of life into the right perspective, counting life too high and beautiful a thing to waste itself in overmuch thought about its mere incidents.
Are we thinking thus nobly about life and life's meanings? Have we thought about life itself, the wonder of it, the deeper meanings of it, the measureless possibilities of even one day of it? Do we habitually think of life as a trust rather than a possession? Do we think of sometime giving an account of our administration of that trust? Do we think of the tremendous investment which God and humanity, and even the mere creature world, has made and is constantly making, just that we may have life?
Then, too, Christ puts over against our causes of anxiety the fatherhood of God.
"Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?" "And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of them. Wherefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith" (Matt. 6:26; 6:28-30).
The Christian is not an orphan in an unfriendly universe. He is a child of the God who feeds the birds and clothes the flowers, making each the subject of His solicitude. It has been estimated that no millionaire on earth could feed God's birds one day. But God feeds them everyday. That is what the Christian's Father does for flowers and birds. Will He not do as much for His dear children? The argument is unanswerable. And it covers the very causes of that anxiety. No demon drives his pitiless grave deeper, nor with more certain stroke, than the hateful demon worry. O, the pity of it. O, the miserable shame of it, that on a face made beautiful by God there should be ignoble worry marks!
Suppose such a one had trusted God about all those causes of anxiety. Suppose such a one had said, "My Father feeds the birds; He clothes the flowers; He will assuredly feed me and mine; He will clothe us," Ah, the happy spirits with the other graver's would have written on that face other lines - line of serenity, lines of happy trust, lines which would have made the face a benediction and a blessed memory!
Thirdly, Christ reminds the anxious one of earth that, after all, worry does no good.
"Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?" (Matthew 6:27).
The waste of it! The uselessness of it! All the worry that ever got itself accomplished in this weary, worrying world; all the sleepless nights, all the burdened days; all the joyless, mirthless, peace-destroying, health-destroying, happiness-destroying, love-destroying hours that men and women have ever in all earth's centuries given to worry, never wrought one good thing. It was all evil and only evil. It shut out the face of God, the loveliness of nature, the joy of love, the compensations of life. It poisoned the peace of others and cast its hateful shadow over other lives. The very point of the sin of worry, the very reason why it is the bassest, most cowardly of sins, is that it darkens the lives we are most responsible to bless - and all for no good, but only to blight and wrong.
The amazing thing about it is that no one is convicted of this mean sin! Good people live in it, and with no sense of the outrage which it involves against the love of a kind, heavenly Father and against the rights of others! A Christian man will not scruple to bring to his home the petty worries and passing anxieties of the day. Christian women - women whose lives are pure, who scorn scandal, who devote life and strength unsparingly to the service of husband and children, will yet shamelessly poison the peace of the home by the sin of worry, and with no apparent sense of the guilt of it! It is one of the mysteries of human nature.
"Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof" (Matthew 6:34).
~C. I. Scofield~
(The End)
Saturday, March 30, 2019
Under The Sun # 2
Under The Sun # 2
Then he thinks he has discovered something really substantial, and so goes to building great works and houses, chief of which is the magnificent temple, still called by his name. It required seven years to build it, and took the combined efforts of one hundred and eighty-three thousand Jews and strangers to do the work. It took ten thousand men eleven years to cut the trees. There were eighty thousand hewers of wood, and seventy thousand burden bearers. There were eighty thousand squared stones, all so perfectly shaped in the quarries that the sound of neither hammer nor mallet was heard in putting them together in the temple.
At the completion of the work there was a feast of seven days at its dedication, and Solomon sacrificed one hundred and twenty thousand sheep and twenty thousand oxen.
The temple was built of white marble, so artfully joined that it appeared like one stone. The roof was of olive wood, covered with pure gold. That is where the idea of covering the domes of many of our capitol buildings with gold leaf originated. When the sunshine fell on the temple its splendor was so dazzling that the eyes were almost blinded.
The temple courts and apartments could house three hundred thousand people. There were fourteen hundred an fifty-three columns of Parian (fine white) marble; twenty-nine hundred and six pilasters or columns. Over three billion dollars worth of gold was used. One billion dollars worth of silver was used on the floors and walls, which were overlaid with gold and silver.
There were two hundred targets of beaten gold, with six hundred shekels of gold in each target. There were three hundred target shields of beaten gold, with three pounds of gold in each shield, and the value of the gold that came to Solomon in one year was about twenty millions of dollars. When the temple was dedicated the glory of God filled it.
Then Solomon turned his great talent and wealth toward making a beautiful Jerusalem, by planting vineyards and laying out gardens that were like Fairyland, and then like a tale of magic he produced orchards, in which he had a great collection of the finest and rarest trees in all the world. Trees from every clime, and flowers of every kind, and all these were kept green and beautiful by irrigation from artificial lakes. It is doubtful if the world had ever seen greater beauty than Solomon with his unlimited power produced in Jerusalem at that time, but even all this pleased his fancy only for a little while, and soon he seems to have nothing but dust in his mouth, and again cries out, "All is vanity!"
But almost immediately he seems to have taken up another whim, and says, "I got me servants and maidens, and also had great possessions of great and small cattle, above all that were in Jerusalem before me. I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings, and of the provinces. I got me men singers and women singers, and the delights of doubt, that he became an art collector, and began to feed on the beautiful, the artistic and aesthetic, somewhat as millionaires are doing now, securing for himself the very best to be had in painting, old china, bric-a-brac, sculpture, musical instruments, singers and performers, and then to float in the air, and drink to the full all he could get out of them in the way of enjoyment.
But presently he is again almost dying with disappointment, and crying out in the same old doleful tone, "All is vanity and vexation of spirit!"
Meaning that there was almost nothing in it all but an empty puff of air that could only fill a bubble for a moment. And then he goes on to say, "So I was great, and increased more than all that there were before me in Jerusalem; and whatever mine eyes desired I kept not from them. I withheld not my heart from joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labor. Then I looked on all the works my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do and, "Behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun!"
And so this wise and honored and wealth man goes on drinking first from one golden cup and then another, only to dash them all away as soon as tasted in bitter disappointment, and then after he has tried them all, to say, "Not one can satisfy!" confirming what his father David had said in the statement, "The young lions do lack and suffer hunger," and just what every millionaire on earth today knows from his own experience.
To find starvation of the most awful kind today, don't go down into the slums, but go to the people who re enormously wealthy. Andrew Carnegie says there are no happy millionaires, and Andy ought to know, for he's got the dough. John D. Rockefeller has about as good as confessed that he got more out of the first thousand dollars he made than out of any ten millions he has made since, and today he is perhaps the hungriest man in all the world.
~Billy Sunday~
(continued with # 3)
Then he thinks he has discovered something really substantial, and so goes to building great works and houses, chief of which is the magnificent temple, still called by his name. It required seven years to build it, and took the combined efforts of one hundred and eighty-three thousand Jews and strangers to do the work. It took ten thousand men eleven years to cut the trees. There were eighty thousand hewers of wood, and seventy thousand burden bearers. There were eighty thousand squared stones, all so perfectly shaped in the quarries that the sound of neither hammer nor mallet was heard in putting them together in the temple.
At the completion of the work there was a feast of seven days at its dedication, and Solomon sacrificed one hundred and twenty thousand sheep and twenty thousand oxen.
The temple was built of white marble, so artfully joined that it appeared like one stone. The roof was of olive wood, covered with pure gold. That is where the idea of covering the domes of many of our capitol buildings with gold leaf originated. When the sunshine fell on the temple its splendor was so dazzling that the eyes were almost blinded.
The temple courts and apartments could house three hundred thousand people. There were fourteen hundred an fifty-three columns of Parian (fine white) marble; twenty-nine hundred and six pilasters or columns. Over three billion dollars worth of gold was used. One billion dollars worth of silver was used on the floors and walls, which were overlaid with gold and silver.
There were two hundred targets of beaten gold, with six hundred shekels of gold in each target. There were three hundred target shields of beaten gold, with three pounds of gold in each shield, and the value of the gold that came to Solomon in one year was about twenty millions of dollars. When the temple was dedicated the glory of God filled it.
Then Solomon turned his great talent and wealth toward making a beautiful Jerusalem, by planting vineyards and laying out gardens that were like Fairyland, and then like a tale of magic he produced orchards, in which he had a great collection of the finest and rarest trees in all the world. Trees from every clime, and flowers of every kind, and all these were kept green and beautiful by irrigation from artificial lakes. It is doubtful if the world had ever seen greater beauty than Solomon with his unlimited power produced in Jerusalem at that time, but even all this pleased his fancy only for a little while, and soon he seems to have nothing but dust in his mouth, and again cries out, "All is vanity!"
But almost immediately he seems to have taken up another whim, and says, "I got me servants and maidens, and also had great possessions of great and small cattle, above all that were in Jerusalem before me. I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings, and of the provinces. I got me men singers and women singers, and the delights of doubt, that he became an art collector, and began to feed on the beautiful, the artistic and aesthetic, somewhat as millionaires are doing now, securing for himself the very best to be had in painting, old china, bric-a-brac, sculpture, musical instruments, singers and performers, and then to float in the air, and drink to the full all he could get out of them in the way of enjoyment.
But presently he is again almost dying with disappointment, and crying out in the same old doleful tone, "All is vanity and vexation of spirit!"
Meaning that there was almost nothing in it all but an empty puff of air that could only fill a bubble for a moment. And then he goes on to say, "So I was great, and increased more than all that there were before me in Jerusalem; and whatever mine eyes desired I kept not from them. I withheld not my heart from joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labor. Then I looked on all the works my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do and, "Behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun!"
And so this wise and honored and wealth man goes on drinking first from one golden cup and then another, only to dash them all away as soon as tasted in bitter disappointment, and then after he has tried them all, to say, "Not one can satisfy!" confirming what his father David had said in the statement, "The young lions do lack and suffer hunger," and just what every millionaire on earth today knows from his own experience.
To find starvation of the most awful kind today, don't go down into the slums, but go to the people who re enormously wealthy. Andrew Carnegie says there are no happy millionaires, and Andy ought to know, for he's got the dough. John D. Rockefeller has about as good as confessed that he got more out of the first thousand dollars he made than out of any ten millions he has made since, and today he is perhaps the hungriest man in all the world.
~Billy Sunday~
(continued with # 3)
How Saints May Help The Devil # 2
How Saints May Help The Devil # 2
I. First, then, it shall be my sad and melancholy business this morning to show certain facts which it were dishonest to deny, namely, that THE ACTS OF MANY OF CHRIST'S FOLLOWERS HAVE BEEN THE CAUSE OF JUSTIFYING AND COMFORTING SINNERS IN THEIR EVIL WAYS.
1. And first I would observe that the daily inconsistencies of the people of God have much to do in this matter. By inconsistencies I do not exactly mean those grosser crimes into which, at sad and mournful periods, many professors fall; but I mean those frequent inconsistencies which become so common indeed that they are scarcely condemned by society.
The covetousness of too many Christians has had this offset. "Look," says the worldling, "this man professes that his inheritance is above, and that his affection is set not on things on this earth, but on the things of heaven but look at him, he is just as earnest as I am about the things of this world; he can drive the screw home as tightly with his debtor as I can; he can scrape and cut with those that deal with him quite as keenly as ever I have done." Nay, beloved, this is not a mere tale; alas! I have seen persons held up to commendation as successful merchants, whose lives will not bear the test of Scripture, whose business transactions were as hard as griping, as grasping, as the transactions of the most worldly. How often has it happened that some of you have bent your knee in the sanctuary, and have said, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," and one hour afterwards your finger has been almost meeting your thumb through the jugular vein of some debtor whom you had seized by the throat! The church of Christ appears to be as worldly as the world itself, and professors of religion have become as sharp in trade and as ungenerous in their dealing as those that have never been baptized into the Lord Jesus, and have never professed to serve him. And now what does the world say? It throws this in our teeth. If it be accused of loving the things of time and sense, it answers, "And so do you." If we tell the world that it has set its hopes upon a shadow, it replies, "But we have set our hope upon the self-same thing in which you are trusting; you are as worldly, as grasping, as covetous as we are; your protest has lost its force; you are no longer witnesses against us - we are accusers of you."
Another point in which the sinner often excuses himself is the manifest worldliness of many Christians. You will see Christian men and women as fond of dress, and as pleased with the frivolities of the age, as any other persons possibly could be, just as anxious to adorn their outward persons, so as to be seen of men; just as ambitious to win the praise which fools accord to fine dressing, as the most silly fop or the most gaudy among worldly women. What saith the world, when we turn round to it, and accuse it of being a mere butterfly, and finding all its pleasures in gaudy toys? "Oh! yes," it says, "we know your cant, but it is just the same with you." Do you not stand up and sing, "Jewels to me are gaudy toys, And gold but sordid dust?"
And yet you are just as fond of glittering as we are; your doctors of divinity pride themselves just as much in their D. D. as any of us in other titles. You are just as punctilious about terms of honor as any of us can be. You talk about carrying the cross; but we do not see it anywhere, except it be a golden cross sometimes hanging on your bosom. You say you are crucified to the world, and the world to you: it is a very merry sort of crucifixion. You say that you mortify your members and deny yourselves: your mortification must be suffered in secret, for it is but very little that we can see of it! Thus the worldling casts back to our challenge, declaring that we are not sincere, and thus he comforts himself in his own sin, and justifies himself in his iniquity.
Look too, at the manifest pride of many professors of religion. You see members of Christian churches as proud as they possibly can be. Their backs are as stiff as if an iron rod were in the center, they come up to the house of God, and it is a Christian doctrine that God has made of one flesh all nations that dwell upon the face of the earth, but the Christian is as aristocratic as anybody else, just as proud and just as stiff. Is the Christian clothed in broad cloth? How often does he feel it a condescension to own a smock frock! And how often do you see a sister of Christ in satin, who thinks it something wonderful if she owns a fellow-member in an unwashable print. It is of no use denying it. I do not thing that the evil is so common amongst us as it is in the some churches and chapels in which a poor man scarcely dares to show his face. The pride of the church surely has become almost as great as the pride of Sodom of old. Her fullness of bread and her stiffness of neck hath brought her to exalt herself; and whereas it is the real glory of the church that "the poor have the gospel preached unto them," and that the poor have received the Word with gladness, it becomes now the honor of the church to talk of her respectability of the dignity and station of her members, and of the greatness of her wealth. What, then, do worldlings say? "You accuse us of pride, you are as proud as we are. You the humble followers of Jesus, who washed his saints' feet? Not you; no, you would have no objection, we doubt not to be washed by others, but we do not thing it likely that you would ever wash ours! You the disciples of the fishermen of Galilee? Not you; you are too fine and great for that. Accuse us not of pride: why, you are as stiff-necked a generation, as we ourselves are."
~Charles H. Spurgeon~
(continued with # 3)
I. First, then, it shall be my sad and melancholy business this morning to show certain facts which it were dishonest to deny, namely, that THE ACTS OF MANY OF CHRIST'S FOLLOWERS HAVE BEEN THE CAUSE OF JUSTIFYING AND COMFORTING SINNERS IN THEIR EVIL WAYS.
1. And first I would observe that the daily inconsistencies of the people of God have much to do in this matter. By inconsistencies I do not exactly mean those grosser crimes into which, at sad and mournful periods, many professors fall; but I mean those frequent inconsistencies which become so common indeed that they are scarcely condemned by society.
The covetousness of too many Christians has had this offset. "Look," says the worldling, "this man professes that his inheritance is above, and that his affection is set not on things on this earth, but on the things of heaven but look at him, he is just as earnest as I am about the things of this world; he can drive the screw home as tightly with his debtor as I can; he can scrape and cut with those that deal with him quite as keenly as ever I have done." Nay, beloved, this is not a mere tale; alas! I have seen persons held up to commendation as successful merchants, whose lives will not bear the test of Scripture, whose business transactions were as hard as griping, as grasping, as the transactions of the most worldly. How often has it happened that some of you have bent your knee in the sanctuary, and have said, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," and one hour afterwards your finger has been almost meeting your thumb through the jugular vein of some debtor whom you had seized by the throat! The church of Christ appears to be as worldly as the world itself, and professors of religion have become as sharp in trade and as ungenerous in their dealing as those that have never been baptized into the Lord Jesus, and have never professed to serve him. And now what does the world say? It throws this in our teeth. If it be accused of loving the things of time and sense, it answers, "And so do you." If we tell the world that it has set its hopes upon a shadow, it replies, "But we have set our hope upon the self-same thing in which you are trusting; you are as worldly, as grasping, as covetous as we are; your protest has lost its force; you are no longer witnesses against us - we are accusers of you."
Another point in which the sinner often excuses himself is the manifest worldliness of many Christians. You will see Christian men and women as fond of dress, and as pleased with the frivolities of the age, as any other persons possibly could be, just as anxious to adorn their outward persons, so as to be seen of men; just as ambitious to win the praise which fools accord to fine dressing, as the most silly fop or the most gaudy among worldly women. What saith the world, when we turn round to it, and accuse it of being a mere butterfly, and finding all its pleasures in gaudy toys? "Oh! yes," it says, "we know your cant, but it is just the same with you." Do you not stand up and sing, "Jewels to me are gaudy toys, And gold but sordid dust?"
And yet you are just as fond of glittering as we are; your doctors of divinity pride themselves just as much in their D. D. as any of us in other titles. You are just as punctilious about terms of honor as any of us can be. You talk about carrying the cross; but we do not see it anywhere, except it be a golden cross sometimes hanging on your bosom. You say you are crucified to the world, and the world to you: it is a very merry sort of crucifixion. You say that you mortify your members and deny yourselves: your mortification must be suffered in secret, for it is but very little that we can see of it! Thus the worldling casts back to our challenge, declaring that we are not sincere, and thus he comforts himself in his own sin, and justifies himself in his iniquity.
Look too, at the manifest pride of many professors of religion. You see members of Christian churches as proud as they possibly can be. Their backs are as stiff as if an iron rod were in the center, they come up to the house of God, and it is a Christian doctrine that God has made of one flesh all nations that dwell upon the face of the earth, but the Christian is as aristocratic as anybody else, just as proud and just as stiff. Is the Christian clothed in broad cloth? How often does he feel it a condescension to own a smock frock! And how often do you see a sister of Christ in satin, who thinks it something wonderful if she owns a fellow-member in an unwashable print. It is of no use denying it. I do not thing that the evil is so common amongst us as it is in the some churches and chapels in which a poor man scarcely dares to show his face. The pride of the church surely has become almost as great as the pride of Sodom of old. Her fullness of bread and her stiffness of neck hath brought her to exalt herself; and whereas it is the real glory of the church that "the poor have the gospel preached unto them," and that the poor have received the Word with gladness, it becomes now the honor of the church to talk of her respectability of the dignity and station of her members, and of the greatness of her wealth. What, then, do worldlings say? "You accuse us of pride, you are as proud as we are. You the humble followers of Jesus, who washed his saints' feet? Not you; no, you would have no objection, we doubt not to be washed by others, but we do not thing it likely that you would ever wash ours! You the disciples of the fishermen of Galilee? Not you; you are too fine and great for that. Accuse us not of pride: why, you are as stiff-necked a generation, as we ourselves are."
~Charles H. Spurgeon~
(continued with # 3)
Saturday, March 23, 2019
Classic Quotes From Classic Christian Ministers # 1
Classic Quotes From Classic Christian Ministers # 1
Bible verses about Honoring Parents
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Why does God want us to honor our parents? The family is the basic building block or unit of society, thus the stability of the community depends on the stability of the families that comprise it. A person's response to government derives from the parent-child relationship. The lessons and principles learned from honoring, respecting, and obeying parents will result in a society stable enough to promote development of the whole person.
John W. Ritenbaugh
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In God's eyes—and in a small child's—a parent stands in the place of God Himself. In the physical sense, parents are the child's creator, provider, lawgiver, teacher, and protector—and sometimes even savior. A child's response to this relationship will greatly determine his later response to larger relationships in society. And it is ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN to affect his relationship with God. Thus, since parents represent God, it becomes their obligation to live lives worthy of that honor. Ultimately, the responsibility for keeping this commandment falls on the child, but it begins with the parents through child training and example. If parents neither provide the correct example nor teach the correct way, they can hardly expect their children to honor them.
John W. Ritenbaugh
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Obedience to this command does not stop at a certain age. Genesis 48:12 reveals the deep respect Joseph had for Jacob when he brought his two sons before him for a blessing: "So Joseph brought them from beside his knees, and he bowed down with his face to the earth." With adulthood, the time may come when it is no longer necessary or right for a person to obey his parents strictly. But God's requirement to honor them never ceases. This duty pays dividends by giving us access to the wisdom of years.
Honor has wider application than obey. It expresses itself in courtesy, thoughtfulness, mercy, and kindly deeds. We would hardly consider one to be honoring his parents who, when they fall sick, weak, and perhaps blind in old age, does not exert himself to the utmost for them and their support in their need.
Just as surely as God requires parents to nourish, defend, support, and instruct the children in their lowest state of infancy, so children in their strength should support their parents in their weakness. Turn about is fair play because the Scripture says, "Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them" (Matthew 7:12). Each of us would want someone to care for us in our time of need.
John W. Ritenbaugh
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Life begins at home and wisdom should begin there too. The home is the primary and most vital factor in a child's development into a mature and stable member of society. Church and school play secondary roles, if only because of the amount of time spent at home and all the personal interaction that takes place there.
In keeping this commandment, the Bible divides responsibility between parents and child, even though the child eventually bears the greater responsibility. It is his responsibility to learn from his parents, not just because they are his human lifegivers, but because the parents have been what the child has not—both young and old.
Therefore, parents should have accrued wisdom from situations the child has not yet experienced. It is the parents' responsibility to create an environment in which they can pass wisdom on so that the child can learn the lessons of life more easily. And so society benefits from the resulting stability of that family unit.
If the child learns these lessons, the wisdom will be an enriching ornament, a sign of honor, and a guide to long life and prosperity. These are the fulfillment of the fifth commandment's promise. The process begun in the home then prepares the way into the Kingdom of God.
John W. Ritenbaugh
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God states no qualifier. He does not tell us to honor them only if they are honorable. Simply because they are our parents, we must treat them with respect. In the New Testament, Paul repeats the command, again without reservation, in Ephesians 6:2-3. Jesus makes it clear several times that He honors His Father (John 8:29, 49; 17:4).
Granted, honoring parents can be very difficult if Father is a drunk or Mother is a lying thief. Their actions may sometimes be dishonorable, but because they are Dad and Mom, they are to be respected. The commandment has no loopholes.
Staff
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The fifth commandment begins the second section of the ten. It is placed, as the first commandment is toward God, first among those commands that govern our relationships with other men. The effect that keeping or failing to keep the fifth commandment has on those relationships is huge. Not only is it chief in importance in this regard, but it also acts as a bridge between the Commandments' two sections. This is vital because, when the fifth commandment is properly kept, it leads to reverence for and obedience to God Himself, the ultimate Parent.
We need to define three important words. The commandment as written in Exodus 20:12 states, "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you." The Hebrew word underlying "honor" suggests heaviness, weightiness, severity, and richness, all in a long-lasting, continuing sense. It implies an important or significant, lifelong responsibility, thus it is used in the sense of honoring, glorifying, imposing, or being weighty. As an adjective, it magnifies the implications of a noun. In English, honor means "to give high regard, respect, and esteem to; give special recognition to; to bring or give respect or credit to; an outward token, sign or act that manifests high regard for."
Two English synonyms help to focus the implications of this commandment. Respect means "to have deferential regard for; to treat with propriety and consideration; to regard as inviolable." Reverence indicates "to show deferential respect." It is respect turned a notch higher because it is combined with adoration or awe, in a good sense, or great shame, in a bad one.
It is helpful further to understand that, though this commandment is primarily aimed at the function of parenting, it is certainly not limited to it. The keeping of this law also includes within its spirit the honor and respect that should be given to civil and teaching figures.
Why does God want a person to honor his parents and other authority figures? First, the family is the basic building block of society. The stability of the family is essential to the stability of the community. The more respectful each family member is of other family members, especially of parents, the greater the degree of respect that will carry beyond the immediate family and into strengthening the community.
The family is also the basic building block of government. The lessons and principles learned from honoring, respecting, and submitting to one's parents result in a society stable enough to promote the development of the whole person.
John W. Ritenbaugh
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How Saints May Help the devil # 1
How Saints May Help the devil # 1
"That thou mayest bear thine own shame, and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a comfort unto them" (Ezekiel 16:54).
It is not a comfortable state to be at enmity with God, and the sinner knows this. Although he perseveres in his rebellion against the Most High, and turns not at the rebuke of the Almighty, but still goeth on in his iniquity, desperately seeking his own destruction, yet is he aware in his own conscience that he is not in a secure position. Hence it is that all wicked men are constantly on the look out for excuses. They find these either in pretended resolutions to reform at some future period, or else in the declaration that reformation is out of their power, and that, acting according to their own nature, they must continue to go on in their iniquities. When a man is willing to find an excuse for being God's enemy he need never be at a loss. He who hath to find a fact may find some difficulty; but he who would forge a lie may sit at his own fireside and do it. Now, the excuses of sinners are all of them false; they are refuges of lies; and therefore we need not wonder that they are exceedingly numerous, and very easy to come at.
One way in which sinners frequently excuse themselves is by endeavoring to get some apology for their own iniquities from the inconsistencies of God's people. This is the reason why there is much slander in the world. A true Christian is a rebuke to the sinner, wherever he goes he is a living protest against the evil of sin. Hence it is that the worldling makes a dead set upon a pious man. His language in his heart is, "He accuses me to my face; I cannot bear the sight of his holy character; it makes the blackness of my own life appear the more terrible, when I see the whiteness of his innocence contrasting with it." And then the worldling opens all his eyes, and labors to find a fault with the virtuous. If, however, he fails to do so, he will next try to invent a fault; he will slander the man; and if even there he fails, and the man is like Job, "perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil;" then the sinner will, like the devil of old, begin to impute some wrong motive to the Christian's innocency. "Doth Job serve God for nought?" said the devil. He could find no fault with Job whatever, his character was untainted and unblemished; but, says he, "he keeps to his religion for what he gets by it." I reckon it to be a glorious accusation when we are falsely charged with being religious for the sake of gain. It shows that our enemies have no other charge that they can bring against us. They have ransacked all the flies of their calumny, and they can find nothing tangible, and this is the last they can bring - an imputation upon the motive of the man who has no other motive in all the world than to glorify his God and win sinners from destruction. In this, then, let us glory. If sinners slander us, it is because we make them uneasy. They see that our lives are a protest against them; and what can they do? They must somehow or other answer the bill which we have filed against them in Heaven's Chancery, and they do it by issuing a rejoinder against us, and bringing us in as defendants in the case. We glory in this, that we are defendants who can prove our innocence, and we are not ashamed to stand before God to have our motives tried. There is much I say to cheer us in the fact of such a libel. We know the work is done. We are sure our shots have told on their armor, when they are driven to return on us their calumnies and the venom of their wrath. Now we know that they feel the might of our arm, now we know that we are not like them, mere drivellings and dwarfs. They have felt our might, and against it they kick, they foam, they forth their wrath. In this, I say, we glory. We have smitten them hard, or else they would not rise against us in this fashion.
Alas! Alas! however, sinners have not always to use calumny and lies. It is too true that the church has given a real bona fide cause to the wicked for excusing themselves in their sin: the inconsistencies of professors, the want of heart in piety, the absence of devout earnestness, have given sad grounds to the ungodly to justify themselves in their sin. It is upon this melancholy subject that I am about to enter this morning, and may God grant unto all His people who shall feel convicted in their consciences, the spirit of mourning and contrition, that they vex themselves before God, and confess this great iniquity that they have done, namely, that they have comforted sinners in their sin by their own inconsistency, and have justified the wicked in their rebellion by their own rebellings and revoltings.
This morning I shall deal thus with the subject. First, I shall point out the fact - the different acts of Christians which have helped to comfort sinners in their sin; and then, secondly, I shall observe the consequences of this evil - how much the world at large has been injured by the deeds of professed followers of Christ; and then I shall come with a solemn warning bringing out the great battering ram, to dash against these refuges of lies and moreover crying with a loud voice to those who are the faithful servants of Christ, to withdraw their hands, and no longer to assist in keeping up the Jericho in which the wicked have entrenched themselves.
~Charles H. Spurgeon~
(continued with # 2)
"That thou mayest bear thine own shame, and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a comfort unto them" (Ezekiel 16:54).
It is not a comfortable state to be at enmity with God, and the sinner knows this. Although he perseveres in his rebellion against the Most High, and turns not at the rebuke of the Almighty, but still goeth on in his iniquity, desperately seeking his own destruction, yet is he aware in his own conscience that he is not in a secure position. Hence it is that all wicked men are constantly on the look out for excuses. They find these either in pretended resolutions to reform at some future period, or else in the declaration that reformation is out of their power, and that, acting according to their own nature, they must continue to go on in their iniquities. When a man is willing to find an excuse for being God's enemy he need never be at a loss. He who hath to find a fact may find some difficulty; but he who would forge a lie may sit at his own fireside and do it. Now, the excuses of sinners are all of them false; they are refuges of lies; and therefore we need not wonder that they are exceedingly numerous, and very easy to come at.
One way in which sinners frequently excuse themselves is by endeavoring to get some apology for their own iniquities from the inconsistencies of God's people. This is the reason why there is much slander in the world. A true Christian is a rebuke to the sinner, wherever he goes he is a living protest against the evil of sin. Hence it is that the worldling makes a dead set upon a pious man. His language in his heart is, "He accuses me to my face; I cannot bear the sight of his holy character; it makes the blackness of my own life appear the more terrible, when I see the whiteness of his innocence contrasting with it." And then the worldling opens all his eyes, and labors to find a fault with the virtuous. If, however, he fails to do so, he will next try to invent a fault; he will slander the man; and if even there he fails, and the man is like Job, "perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil;" then the sinner will, like the devil of old, begin to impute some wrong motive to the Christian's innocency. "Doth Job serve God for nought?" said the devil. He could find no fault with Job whatever, his character was untainted and unblemished; but, says he, "he keeps to his religion for what he gets by it." I reckon it to be a glorious accusation when we are falsely charged with being religious for the sake of gain. It shows that our enemies have no other charge that they can bring against us. They have ransacked all the flies of their calumny, and they can find nothing tangible, and this is the last they can bring - an imputation upon the motive of the man who has no other motive in all the world than to glorify his God and win sinners from destruction. In this, then, let us glory. If sinners slander us, it is because we make them uneasy. They see that our lives are a protest against them; and what can they do? They must somehow or other answer the bill which we have filed against them in Heaven's Chancery, and they do it by issuing a rejoinder against us, and bringing us in as defendants in the case. We glory in this, that we are defendants who can prove our innocence, and we are not ashamed to stand before God to have our motives tried. There is much I say to cheer us in the fact of such a libel. We know the work is done. We are sure our shots have told on their armor, when they are driven to return on us their calumnies and the venom of their wrath. Now we know that they feel the might of our arm, now we know that we are not like them, mere drivellings and dwarfs. They have felt our might, and against it they kick, they foam, they forth their wrath. In this, I say, we glory. We have smitten them hard, or else they would not rise against us in this fashion.
Alas! Alas! however, sinners have not always to use calumny and lies. It is too true that the church has given a real bona fide cause to the wicked for excusing themselves in their sin: the inconsistencies of professors, the want of heart in piety, the absence of devout earnestness, have given sad grounds to the ungodly to justify themselves in their sin. It is upon this melancholy subject that I am about to enter this morning, and may God grant unto all His people who shall feel convicted in their consciences, the spirit of mourning and contrition, that they vex themselves before God, and confess this great iniquity that they have done, namely, that they have comforted sinners in their sin by their own inconsistency, and have justified the wicked in their rebellion by their own rebellings and revoltings.
This morning I shall deal thus with the subject. First, I shall point out the fact - the different acts of Christians which have helped to comfort sinners in their sin; and then, secondly, I shall observe the consequences of this evil - how much the world at large has been injured by the deeds of professed followers of Christ; and then I shall come with a solemn warning bringing out the great battering ram, to dash against these refuges of lies and moreover crying with a loud voice to those who are the faithful servants of Christ, to withdraw their hands, and no longer to assist in keeping up the Jericho in which the wicked have entrenched themselves.
~Charles H. Spurgeon~
(continued with # 2)
Saturday, March 16, 2019
Under The Sun # 1
Under The Sun # 1
"What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun?" (Ecel. 1:3).
This question is asked and answered by King Solomon, and in our language it means about this: "What good does a man get our of life if he lives only for what this world can give?"
If any man has ever been able to give the right answer to this great question, out of his own wisdom and experience, that man was Solomon. If any man ever came into this world with a gold spoon in his mouth, he certainly did. The devil has a mortgage on some people from the cradle, but Solomon had no such handicap, for he was well born. He was the favorite son of one of the greatest and best men who ever lived, for his father, King David, was a man after God's own heart, which means that he just suited the Lord.
Solomon was made king of a great kingdom in his early manhood, while his father was still alive to counsel and help him. From this we see that he had every advantage that high station and boundless wealth and opportunity could give him. He had wisdom, riches, wealth and honor such as no king ever had before him or since.
An invincible army stood ready to do his bidding, and all the power of a great nation that was under the special protection and favor of God was behind him. He had only to command, and it was done; to express a wish, and it was gratified. He had received the best education it was possible to give him, and was called the wisest of men. The fame of his wisdom covered the earth, and caused the Queen of Sheba, with a great retinue, to make a long pilgrimage of weary weeks and months, to sit at his feet in wonder. She looked upon the beauty of his wonderful palace and the magnificent temple he had built. She reviewed his matchless army; considered the numbers of men who served him and the elegance of their livery; then she looked in amazement upon the wealth of gold and precious things that surrounded him, and took her departure, declaring that the half had not been told her.
This is the kind of ability Solomon had with which to answer his own question. He wrote three thousand proverbs and a thousand and five songs, all full of wisdom. If he wasn't qualified to speak as an expert, where can we find one?
Let us see how well qualified he was to know what he was talking about from his own actual experience. Every great pleasure was at his fingertips. If he wanted anything he had only to reach out his soft-jeweled hand and take it. His kingdom had peace and rest from war during all of his reign, so himself he lost no time, for he took about all the degrees and invented a few of his own. He was a thirty-third degree sport.
He lived in a palace, surrounded by courtier who were not spring chickens, and all highbrows themselves. He was honored, admired and flattered as few men have been. No greater honor than his could be known, no greater wisdom found in any books, and no higher station attained. He was so rich that his wealth could not be measured. He had forty thousand horses and twenty thousand horsemen. The high cost of living never troubled him, for his provisions for his household and attendants one day were two hundred and eighty-one bushels of fine flour; five hundred and sixty-six bushels of meal; ten fat oxen out of the stall; twenty oxen out of the pasture; one hundred sheep, besides hart,k roebuck, fallow deer and fatted fowl.
Solomon had no ambition that had not been achieved; no curiosity that had not been satisfied. Like his princely father, he was a close observer, and nothing escaped him, so that he was able to say, "I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, meaning that the world had nothing more to show him or to give him and that was certainly going some.
At some time in our lives we have all envied men of great scholarship and intellectual attainments, and have thought of what a foretaste of heaven it would be to have the time and opportunity to learn all the things we would like to know. We have believed that one of the greatest joys this life could give is the joy of knowing things. Well, Solomon not only drank that well dry, but he pulled out the pump, for he exhausted all the schools and colleges of his day, and gave all his teachers nervous prostration in their vain endeavor to teach him something more than he already knew. And then when he had pumped that fountain dry, he sighed and said, "Go to, now; I will see what I can get out of mirth and pleasure," and then he cut loose on that line, and began to carry on in a way to make a baseball fan at the world's series look like a dummy in a clothing store window.
He got into his golden chariot with the diamond-set wheels and went round the track in a way to send the bleachers crazy. At breakneck speed he galloped over the rose-lined avenues of sensuous pleasure that opened for him in every direction, looking as if they led straight to paradise; but ere long his shining car of delight lost a wheel and he was down in the mud again, and crying out to any who who might be following in his wake, "Go back! Don't come this way, for here all is vanity and vexation of spirit!"
Then he took to wine and the rosiest kind of dissipation. He hit up the booze. He tried a lot of things. He had a great auditorium built was supported by great lions. Then he began to love many strange women, laying hold on folly with both hands. That's where he struck out. He had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines, but soon had to give the same verdict as before, and again cry out, "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity!"
~Billy Sunday~
(continued with # 2)
"What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun?" (Ecel. 1:3).
This question is asked and answered by King Solomon, and in our language it means about this: "What good does a man get our of life if he lives only for what this world can give?"
If any man has ever been able to give the right answer to this great question, out of his own wisdom and experience, that man was Solomon. If any man ever came into this world with a gold spoon in his mouth, he certainly did. The devil has a mortgage on some people from the cradle, but Solomon had no such handicap, for he was well born. He was the favorite son of one of the greatest and best men who ever lived, for his father, King David, was a man after God's own heart, which means that he just suited the Lord.
Solomon was made king of a great kingdom in his early manhood, while his father was still alive to counsel and help him. From this we see that he had every advantage that high station and boundless wealth and opportunity could give him. He had wisdom, riches, wealth and honor such as no king ever had before him or since.
An invincible army stood ready to do his bidding, and all the power of a great nation that was under the special protection and favor of God was behind him. He had only to command, and it was done; to express a wish, and it was gratified. He had received the best education it was possible to give him, and was called the wisest of men. The fame of his wisdom covered the earth, and caused the Queen of Sheba, with a great retinue, to make a long pilgrimage of weary weeks and months, to sit at his feet in wonder. She looked upon the beauty of his wonderful palace and the magnificent temple he had built. She reviewed his matchless army; considered the numbers of men who served him and the elegance of their livery; then she looked in amazement upon the wealth of gold and precious things that surrounded him, and took her departure, declaring that the half had not been told her.
This is the kind of ability Solomon had with which to answer his own question. He wrote three thousand proverbs and a thousand and five songs, all full of wisdom. If he wasn't qualified to speak as an expert, where can we find one?
Let us see how well qualified he was to know what he was talking about from his own actual experience. Every great pleasure was at his fingertips. If he wanted anything he had only to reach out his soft-jeweled hand and take it. His kingdom had peace and rest from war during all of his reign, so himself he lost no time, for he took about all the degrees and invented a few of his own. He was a thirty-third degree sport.
He lived in a palace, surrounded by courtier who were not spring chickens, and all highbrows themselves. He was honored, admired and flattered as few men have been. No greater honor than his could be known, no greater wisdom found in any books, and no higher station attained. He was so rich that his wealth could not be measured. He had forty thousand horses and twenty thousand horsemen. The high cost of living never troubled him, for his provisions for his household and attendants one day were two hundred and eighty-one bushels of fine flour; five hundred and sixty-six bushels of meal; ten fat oxen out of the stall; twenty oxen out of the pasture; one hundred sheep, besides hart,k roebuck, fallow deer and fatted fowl.
Solomon had no ambition that had not been achieved; no curiosity that had not been satisfied. Like his princely father, he was a close observer, and nothing escaped him, so that he was able to say, "I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, meaning that the world had nothing more to show him or to give him and that was certainly going some.
At some time in our lives we have all envied men of great scholarship and intellectual attainments, and have thought of what a foretaste of heaven it would be to have the time and opportunity to learn all the things we would like to know. We have believed that one of the greatest joys this life could give is the joy of knowing things. Well, Solomon not only drank that well dry, but he pulled out the pump, for he exhausted all the schools and colleges of his day, and gave all his teachers nervous prostration in their vain endeavor to teach him something more than he already knew. And then when he had pumped that fountain dry, he sighed and said, "Go to, now; I will see what I can get out of mirth and pleasure," and then he cut loose on that line, and began to carry on in a way to make a baseball fan at the world's series look like a dummy in a clothing store window.
He got into his golden chariot with the diamond-set wheels and went round the track in a way to send the bleachers crazy. At breakneck speed he galloped over the rose-lined avenues of sensuous pleasure that opened for him in every direction, looking as if they led straight to paradise; but ere long his shining car of delight lost a wheel and he was down in the mud again, and crying out to any who who might be following in his wake, "Go back! Don't come this way, for here all is vanity and vexation of spirit!"
Then he took to wine and the rosiest kind of dissipation. He hit up the booze. He tried a lot of things. He had a great auditorium built was supported by great lions. Then he began to love many strange women, laying hold on folly with both hands. That's where he struck out. He had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines, but soon had to give the same verdict as before, and again cry out, "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity!"
~Billy Sunday~
(continued with # 2)
Quenching The Spirit
Quenching The Spirit
"Do not quench the Spirit" (1 Thessalonians 5:19).
All God's gifts, temporal and spiritual - may be used either rightly, or wrongly. He gives us life - we may either waste it, or spend it well. He gives us talents - we may use them either for good purposes, or for evil purposes. He gives us the offers of the gospel - we may reject them. He gives us His Holy Spirit but the Holy Spirit may be quenched. For though it is true that a saving work of grace in the soul cannot finally be destroyed - yet the promptings of the Spirit may be resisted, and His sanctifying power crossed and opposed. We would not find this exhortation, "Do not quench the Spirit" - unless it might be done, and unless there were danger of doing it.
What is meant then by quenching the Spirit? The work of the Spirit is in the heart. There He convinces men of sin, touches the conscience, moves the feelings, applies the word of God, and leads to Christ and to holiness.
Now quenching is doing anything to stop or hinder this work. It is a figure of speech, taken from the quenching of fire. Water will quench fire - either by putting it out, or by making it burn less brightly. A heap of dirt or rubbish thrown on a fire will have the same effect. In like manner the Spirit may be quenched in various ways. Let us consider some of them:
1. By grieving Him. The apostle writes to the Ephesians, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God" (Ephesians 4:30). The Spirit is grieved when we sin against conscience, indulge willfully in any evil habit, or do what we know to be wrong.
This was the charge against Israel; "But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; therefore He turned to be their enemy, and Himself fought against them" (Isaiah 63:10). This is a sure way of quenching the Spirit. God said of old, "My Spirit shall not abide in (or strive with) man forever" (Genesis 6:3). When the Spirit is grieved by willful sin, the conscience becomes blunted, impressions fade away, and the Spirit at length ceases to strive.
2. By neglecting Him. The promptings of the Spirit in the heart are to be diligently attended to - the inward voice is to be listened to and obeyed. We should welcome the Spirit, watch for His presence, and submit ourselves to His leading. Otherwise we quench the Spirit by indifference and neglect.
4. By a lack of watchfulness. If a Christian has found anything to interfere with spirituality of mind in time past - such as any amusement, any company, any pursuit, any book, any train of thought - he must watch against that thing especially. Otherwise he quenches the Spirit. If he lives generally in an unwatchful way, as if there were no snares around him, not keeping guard within and without - then again the Spirit is quenched, and His gracious work is checked.
How often at the close of the day, when we kneel down for our evening prayer and think over all we have done and said and thought, are we deeply humbled because we have quenched the Spirit through unwatchfulness.
We begin the day perhaps with earnest prayer. In the early morning, before entering on the duties of the day, we committed ourselves to God and sought His grace and guidance. We prayed - but we forgot to watch. And so when some sudden temptation came - it prevailed against us, and we fell. We spoke unchristian words, or harbored a wrong feeling, or did a wrong action, or were ashamed of Christ, or gave way to folly. Thus the Spirit was quenched; our peace was broken, and the closeness of our walk with God was interrupted - and we find at the end of the day a ruffled mind and a special need of pardoning mercy.
5. By spiritual idleness. I mean by this - backwardness in prayer, and neglect of the Bible, and of the other means of grace. God usually works by means, and especially the Spirit is promised in answer to prayer. But if we neglect prayer, we do, as it were, stop up the channel by which the Spirit would come to us. Thus we quench the Spirit.
These are some of the ways - but by no means all, in which the Spirit may be quenched. Perhaps conscience may recall others to the mind.
These things are of great importance. In quenching the Spirit, we do ourselves much evil and bring ourselves great loss. For thus we lose spirituality of mind (Romans 8:6).
When the Spirit is quenched - spiritual growth is stopped, for growth is the Spirit's work. The heart becomes cold and dead. It no longer feels and melts and loves. There is no nearness to God, no love of His word, no warmth in prayer.
Many are not conscious of any work of the Spirit in their hearts. Yet the Spirit may have begun to work there. Have you ever convictions of sin, uneasy feelings that all is not right with our soul, some faint desire after better things - fears, misgivings, apprehensions? Do not try to stifle these feelings lest you should thus be quenching the Spirit. These may be the strivings of the Spirit within your heart, the pleadings of God with you to lead you to Himself. Cherish them, yield to them, pray over them. Your greatest misery would be to succeed in driving away all serious thoughts - and to go on in your own way unchecked and undisturbed. For then the Spirit would have left you. Your highest happiness would be to listen to the still, small voice within, to follow that gracious guidance, to draw near to God, to seek and to find Christ the Saviour.
~Francis Bourdillon~
(The End)
"Do not quench the Spirit" (1 Thessalonians 5:19).
All God's gifts, temporal and spiritual - may be used either rightly, or wrongly. He gives us life - we may either waste it, or spend it well. He gives us talents - we may use them either for good purposes, or for evil purposes. He gives us the offers of the gospel - we may reject them. He gives us His Holy Spirit but the Holy Spirit may be quenched. For though it is true that a saving work of grace in the soul cannot finally be destroyed - yet the promptings of the Spirit may be resisted, and His sanctifying power crossed and opposed. We would not find this exhortation, "Do not quench the Spirit" - unless it might be done, and unless there were danger of doing it.
What is meant then by quenching the Spirit? The work of the Spirit is in the heart. There He convinces men of sin, touches the conscience, moves the feelings, applies the word of God, and leads to Christ and to holiness.
Now quenching is doing anything to stop or hinder this work. It is a figure of speech, taken from the quenching of fire. Water will quench fire - either by putting it out, or by making it burn less brightly. A heap of dirt or rubbish thrown on a fire will have the same effect. In like manner the Spirit may be quenched in various ways. Let us consider some of them:
1. By grieving Him. The apostle writes to the Ephesians, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God" (Ephesians 4:30). The Spirit is grieved when we sin against conscience, indulge willfully in any evil habit, or do what we know to be wrong.
This was the charge against Israel; "But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; therefore He turned to be their enemy, and Himself fought against them" (Isaiah 63:10). This is a sure way of quenching the Spirit. God said of old, "My Spirit shall not abide in (or strive with) man forever" (Genesis 6:3). When the Spirit is grieved by willful sin, the conscience becomes blunted, impressions fade away, and the Spirit at length ceases to strive.
2. By neglecting Him. The promptings of the Spirit in the heart are to be diligently attended to - the inward voice is to be listened to and obeyed. We should welcome the Spirit, watch for His presence, and submit ourselves to His leading. Otherwise we quench the Spirit by indifference and neglect.
4. By a lack of watchfulness. If a Christian has found anything to interfere with spirituality of mind in time past - such as any amusement, any company, any pursuit, any book, any train of thought - he must watch against that thing especially. Otherwise he quenches the Spirit. If he lives generally in an unwatchful way, as if there were no snares around him, not keeping guard within and without - then again the Spirit is quenched, and His gracious work is checked.
How often at the close of the day, when we kneel down for our evening prayer and think over all we have done and said and thought, are we deeply humbled because we have quenched the Spirit through unwatchfulness.
We begin the day perhaps with earnest prayer. In the early morning, before entering on the duties of the day, we committed ourselves to God and sought His grace and guidance. We prayed - but we forgot to watch. And so when some sudden temptation came - it prevailed against us, and we fell. We spoke unchristian words, or harbored a wrong feeling, or did a wrong action, or were ashamed of Christ, or gave way to folly. Thus the Spirit was quenched; our peace was broken, and the closeness of our walk with God was interrupted - and we find at the end of the day a ruffled mind and a special need of pardoning mercy.
5. By spiritual idleness. I mean by this - backwardness in prayer, and neglect of the Bible, and of the other means of grace. God usually works by means, and especially the Spirit is promised in answer to prayer. But if we neglect prayer, we do, as it were, stop up the channel by which the Spirit would come to us. Thus we quench the Spirit.
These are some of the ways - but by no means all, in which the Spirit may be quenched. Perhaps conscience may recall others to the mind.
These things are of great importance. In quenching the Spirit, we do ourselves much evil and bring ourselves great loss. For thus we lose spirituality of mind (Romans 8:6).
When the Spirit is quenched - spiritual growth is stopped, for growth is the Spirit's work. The heart becomes cold and dead. It no longer feels and melts and loves. There is no nearness to God, no love of His word, no warmth in prayer.
Many are not conscious of any work of the Spirit in their hearts. Yet the Spirit may have begun to work there. Have you ever convictions of sin, uneasy feelings that all is not right with our soul, some faint desire after better things - fears, misgivings, apprehensions? Do not try to stifle these feelings lest you should thus be quenching the Spirit. These may be the strivings of the Spirit within your heart, the pleadings of God with you to lead you to Himself. Cherish them, yield to them, pray over them. Your greatest misery would be to succeed in driving away all serious thoughts - and to go on in your own way unchecked and undisturbed. For then the Spirit would have left you. Your highest happiness would be to listen to the still, small voice within, to follow that gracious guidance, to draw near to God, to seek and to find Christ the Saviour.
~Francis Bourdillon~
(The End)
Saturday, March 9, 2019
The Cure For A Troubled Heart # 2
The Cure For A Troubled Heart # 2
If you have read carefully the stories of Darwin and Huxley, those world-famous scientists, you will find the confession in the latter end of the lief of both those notable men, of sorrow that they had so steadfastly steeled their hearts against that which was tender, against that which was gentle, against that which warms the heart, against that which provokes tears, against that which kindles the flames on the altars of emotion and sentiment and the finer feelings. Both of them bewailed the fact that they had pursued that course. The doctrine of the stoic is not the doctrine to cure a troubled heart. Sooner or later the heart will find it out, sometimes in the gathering of old age.
Another proposed answer as a cure for a troubled heart, is the answer of denial. There is a false philosophy abroad which proposes to cure a broken heart by denying there is any brokenness of heart - that there is no trouble at all. This denies the fact of sorrow, the fact of suffering, the fact of sin, the fact of death. But you cannot cure a broken heart by simply denying that there is any trouble.
Where can we get our trouble cured? Just one way, at just one place, from one source, and it is stated her in the glorious fourteenth chapter of John: "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me." Jesus here states the cure for a troubled heart. Jesus Himself is the physician for a troubled heart. "I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Me." "Put your case in My hands," says Jesus, "Come, with your sorrows and your vexation and your disappointment and your reverses, and your consuming grief - come to Me, and I will cure your troubled heart, and I will unfailingly re-enforce you, if you will come to me." Christ humanity's cure for a troubled heart.
Have you a troubled heart? Is there in your life one experience and another and another, every thought of which brings a stab to your heart? No matter what your occasion, there is one source to get it healed, and that source is Jesus. He is the one mediator between God and us. Christ is the cure for a troubled heart.
Now, why should you and I stake our all on Christ? If you ask me if I have, I answer you modestly: "I have staked my all on Christ." Living and dying, and in God's vast beyond forever, God help me, I can do no other. I have staked my all on Christ. Now, why? Why should we stake our all on Christ? He tells us: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Me." Why should we come to the Father by Christ? Why should we accept Christ as our arbitrator, our mediator? Why should we take Christ as our physician, our leader, to be our friend supreme, and stake our all upon Him?
First, because Christ in His own personality is entirely worthy. Christ has vindicated His claims to our absolute confidence. Can you find fault in anything which Jesus ever said? Did He do anything when He was here in the flesh, and in the nineteen centuries since He went back to His Farther? Has He done anything for the world that you can condemn and complain about? Is there anything in the person of Jesus, in the character of Jesus, in the life of Jesus, that you can condemn?
And more. If Jesus shall go away, and we shall set aside His counsel and leading, we are left bewildered utterly and broken in the world in which we live. He makes no pretentious and vainglorious claim. Jesus is the light of the world. Will you take the world's biggest questions and answer them? You are utterly bewildered and in the darkness if you take Jesus away, and if you fail to take His answer.
What will you do about sin, if Jesus be disregarded and taken away? No man within himself has moral resources sufficient to meet life like it ought to be met, to live life like it ought to be lived, and to die at last like one ought to die. No man has within himself moral resources within himself sufficient to overcome and be the master of sin. If you will commit yourself to Him, He will make you a new man." Jesus alone can save us from sin.
There is one more mystery to baffle you, and it is the chiefest mystery of all. What shall you and I do when we walk down into the valley of the shadow of death, if Christ be taken away? Caesar stood up in the Roman Senate and said: "If there be anything beyond death, I do not know. If there be anything beyond the grave, I cannot tell." Jesus went down into the grave and explored its every chamber, and then on the third day He came back from the grave with the keys of death and the world invisible swinging at His girdle, and He says to you and to me: "You cleave to Me, and you need not be afraid of death and what death can do to you." The other day I saw a man, not a believer in Christ, bid his little curly-haired girl of six years goodbye, and as he kissed her little face and fingered the curls about her ears for a moment, he turned away with seemingly utter desperation, saying: "Goodbye little girl, forever!" And then, in a moment more, came the frail little mother, and she stroked the forehead and kissed the little girl's face again and again, and blessed God for the little girl, even though for only a few years. Life was richer and sweeter and better every way because of that child,she kept gratefully declaring. Then she kissed her, and said: "Goodbye, for just a little while, Mother will see you right soon, and be with you beyond the sunset and the night." She could say it because of Jesus.
Men and women, Christ is the Light of the world. Let us follow Him! Oh, let us follow Him! Let us follow today and forever! Let us sing with the poet:
So, I go on not knowing,
I would not know if I might.
I would rather walk with Christ in the dark
Than to walk alone in the light.
I would rather walk with Him by faith,
Than to walk by myself with sight.
Settle it now as we pray that Christ shall be your light, your Saviour and Master, from this hour until death, and beyond forever!
~George W. Truett~
(The End)
If you have read carefully the stories of Darwin and Huxley, those world-famous scientists, you will find the confession in the latter end of the lief of both those notable men, of sorrow that they had so steadfastly steeled their hearts against that which was tender, against that which was gentle, against that which warms the heart, against that which provokes tears, against that which kindles the flames on the altars of emotion and sentiment and the finer feelings. Both of them bewailed the fact that they had pursued that course. The doctrine of the stoic is not the doctrine to cure a troubled heart. Sooner or later the heart will find it out, sometimes in the gathering of old age.
Another proposed answer as a cure for a troubled heart, is the answer of denial. There is a false philosophy abroad which proposes to cure a broken heart by denying there is any brokenness of heart - that there is no trouble at all. This denies the fact of sorrow, the fact of suffering, the fact of sin, the fact of death. But you cannot cure a broken heart by simply denying that there is any trouble.
Where can we get our trouble cured? Just one way, at just one place, from one source, and it is stated her in the glorious fourteenth chapter of John: "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me." Jesus here states the cure for a troubled heart. Jesus Himself is the physician for a troubled heart. "I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Me." "Put your case in My hands," says Jesus, "Come, with your sorrows and your vexation and your disappointment and your reverses, and your consuming grief - come to Me, and I will cure your troubled heart, and I will unfailingly re-enforce you, if you will come to me." Christ humanity's cure for a troubled heart.
Have you a troubled heart? Is there in your life one experience and another and another, every thought of which brings a stab to your heart? No matter what your occasion, there is one source to get it healed, and that source is Jesus. He is the one mediator between God and us. Christ is the cure for a troubled heart.
Now, why should you and I stake our all on Christ? If you ask me if I have, I answer you modestly: "I have staked my all on Christ." Living and dying, and in God's vast beyond forever, God help me, I can do no other. I have staked my all on Christ. Now, why? Why should we stake our all on Christ? He tells us: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Me." Why should we come to the Father by Christ? Why should we accept Christ as our arbitrator, our mediator? Why should we take Christ as our physician, our leader, to be our friend supreme, and stake our all upon Him?
First, because Christ in His own personality is entirely worthy. Christ has vindicated His claims to our absolute confidence. Can you find fault in anything which Jesus ever said? Did He do anything when He was here in the flesh, and in the nineteen centuries since He went back to His Farther? Has He done anything for the world that you can condemn and complain about? Is there anything in the person of Jesus, in the character of Jesus, in the life of Jesus, that you can condemn?
And more. If Jesus shall go away, and we shall set aside His counsel and leading, we are left bewildered utterly and broken in the world in which we live. He makes no pretentious and vainglorious claim. Jesus is the light of the world. Will you take the world's biggest questions and answer them? You are utterly bewildered and in the darkness if you take Jesus away, and if you fail to take His answer.
What will you do about sin, if Jesus be disregarded and taken away? No man within himself has moral resources sufficient to meet life like it ought to be met, to live life like it ought to be lived, and to die at last like one ought to die. No man has within himself moral resources within himself sufficient to overcome and be the master of sin. If you will commit yourself to Him, He will make you a new man." Jesus alone can save us from sin.
There is one more mystery to baffle you, and it is the chiefest mystery of all. What shall you and I do when we walk down into the valley of the shadow of death, if Christ be taken away? Caesar stood up in the Roman Senate and said: "If there be anything beyond death, I do not know. If there be anything beyond the grave, I cannot tell." Jesus went down into the grave and explored its every chamber, and then on the third day He came back from the grave with the keys of death and the world invisible swinging at His girdle, and He says to you and to me: "You cleave to Me, and you need not be afraid of death and what death can do to you." The other day I saw a man, not a believer in Christ, bid his little curly-haired girl of six years goodbye, and as he kissed her little face and fingered the curls about her ears for a moment, he turned away with seemingly utter desperation, saying: "Goodbye little girl, forever!" And then, in a moment more, came the frail little mother, and she stroked the forehead and kissed the little girl's face again and again, and blessed God for the little girl, even though for only a few years. Life was richer and sweeter and better every way because of that child,she kept gratefully declaring. Then she kissed her, and said: "Goodbye, for just a little while, Mother will see you right soon, and be with you beyond the sunset and the night." She could say it because of Jesus.
Men and women, Christ is the Light of the world. Let us follow Him! Oh, let us follow Him! Let us follow today and forever! Let us sing with the poet:
So, I go on not knowing,
I would not know if I might.
I would rather walk with Christ in the dark
Than to walk alone in the light.
I would rather walk with Him by faith,
Than to walk by myself with sight.
Settle it now as we pray that Christ shall be your light, your Saviour and Master, from this hour until death, and beyond forever!
~George W. Truett~
(The End)
Not Happy In Heaven? # 2
Not Happy In Heaven? # 2
But now comes a yet more solemn question. Who reigns in Heaven? God. The chief happiness of Heaven will be to be with God, to see Him face to face, to be always in His presence, and to be always doing His will. When the Lord Jesus wished to comfort His disciples, He said, "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also" (John 14:2-3). It was the best comfort they could have - to know that they would see Him again and be with Him forever, because they loved Him.
Do you love Him? If not, you would not be happy in Heaven. For, even here below, to be always with a person whom we do not love - to live with him, to see him all day and every day, to be constantly under his eye and subject to his power - this would be anything but happiness!
How than could you be happy in Heaven, if you do not love God? You would not be happy there - you could not be. The very thing that would fill every other soul with unspeakable joy, would make you miserable. The presence of God that would give them such gladness as they never knew on earth - would only make you tremble. The eye which they would love to have resting on them - would fill you with fear. Like the guilty pair in the garden, you would wish to hide yourself from the presence of the Lord God (Genesis 3:8). Oh, reader, if you have no love to God on earth - then you would have none in Heaven; and then Heaven would be no place of happiness to you.
You cannot deny this. And yet you have a kind of feeling that, somehow or other, death and the resurrection will make such a change in you that you would then be happy in in Heaven - though you could not be happy there as you now are. Have you not some feeling of this sort?
No doubt, death and the resurrection will make a change - but not such a change as you suppose. They who now love God - will love Him better than. They who hate sin now - will then be set free from it; never will it vex or grieve them again. Those who now wish and strive to serve God, will serve Him perfectly in Heaven. And those who delight in public worship and in private prayer and yet are often troubled with wandering thoughts and cold hearts, will have no such troubles in the worship of Heaven. They will be so changed that they will be able to serve Him day and night in His temple" without weariness! They will desire no rest and no relief. They could not serve Him so now.
There will be a change therefore. But what sort of change? Only a change from a little - to a great deal of the same thing; from wishing - to being able; from striving - to doing. The person in Heaven will be of the same mind as he was upon earth; he will care for the same things and take pleasure in the same employments. Only he will be perfect there, and all that he will do and say and think will be good, whereas now he only wishes and strives that it may be so.
But death will not make such a change as to turn people from unholy, into holy people; from people who never cared for God at all, into people who love Him perfectly; from people who loved sin and scoffed at the good and seldom or never prayed, into people who delight in being with God and saints and angels forever. Death will make no change as this! Our Lord said, "Where your treasure is - there will you heart be also" (Matt. 6:21). So if a man's treasure is in Heaven - then his heart will be in Heaven already. If Heaven be the home to which he is going and for which he is longing - then there will be much that is heavenly in his heart and life even now.
No! Do not deceive yourself with any such thought! Death will make a great change - but it will make no such change as you imagine. If Heaven would not be a happy place to you, supposing you to be taken there now, in a moment, just as you are - then you would not be happy there, if at any time you were to die in your present state and find yourself there. No impenitent sinner, no unconverted person - would be happy in Heaven.
You must seek a change now, a thorough change, a new heart. Think no more of being changed somehow at death or after death, so as to be made fit for Heaven - but ask God to change you NOW. Surely you must see that you need a great change. The very fact that Heaven itself would be no place of happiness to you as you are - must show you how greatly you need to be changed. If you were to be save by Christ and your sins should be forgiven, and you should learn to hate sin and to love God and to delight in prayer and praise - then you would begin to be happy even here; and then you would feel and know that Heaven would be a happy place to you indeed.
Oh, be persuaded to seek salvation at once. What you need above all things, is the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart to turn you, change you, convert you, sanctify you. Man cannot do this work; it is the work of God alone.
Jesus came and died on the Cross for sinners! Will you not listen to Him? He alone can make you happy! If you go on refusing His offers, you cannot be saved; and you reach at last the miserable end. Seek Him as your Saviour - then He will indeed be a Saviour to you. He will give you a peace and happiness which the world will never give - and He will take you at last to that place which He has gone ahead to prepare - a place which you will find happy indeed - happy beyond what eye has seen, or ear heard, or heart conceived!
~Francis Bourdillon~
(The End)
But now comes a yet more solemn question. Who reigns in Heaven? God. The chief happiness of Heaven will be to be with God, to see Him face to face, to be always in His presence, and to be always doing His will. When the Lord Jesus wished to comfort His disciples, He said, "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also" (John 14:2-3). It was the best comfort they could have - to know that they would see Him again and be with Him forever, because they loved Him.
Do you love Him? If not, you would not be happy in Heaven. For, even here below, to be always with a person whom we do not love - to live with him, to see him all day and every day, to be constantly under his eye and subject to his power - this would be anything but happiness!
How than could you be happy in Heaven, if you do not love God? You would not be happy there - you could not be. The very thing that would fill every other soul with unspeakable joy, would make you miserable. The presence of God that would give them such gladness as they never knew on earth - would only make you tremble. The eye which they would love to have resting on them - would fill you with fear. Like the guilty pair in the garden, you would wish to hide yourself from the presence of the Lord God (Genesis 3:8). Oh, reader, if you have no love to God on earth - then you would have none in Heaven; and then Heaven would be no place of happiness to you.
You cannot deny this. And yet you have a kind of feeling that, somehow or other, death and the resurrection will make such a change in you that you would then be happy in in Heaven - though you could not be happy there as you now are. Have you not some feeling of this sort?
No doubt, death and the resurrection will make a change - but not such a change as you suppose. They who now love God - will love Him better than. They who hate sin now - will then be set free from it; never will it vex or grieve them again. Those who now wish and strive to serve God, will serve Him perfectly in Heaven. And those who delight in public worship and in private prayer and yet are often troubled with wandering thoughts and cold hearts, will have no such troubles in the worship of Heaven. They will be so changed that they will be able to serve Him day and night in His temple" without weariness! They will desire no rest and no relief. They could not serve Him so now.
There will be a change therefore. But what sort of change? Only a change from a little - to a great deal of the same thing; from wishing - to being able; from striving - to doing. The person in Heaven will be of the same mind as he was upon earth; he will care for the same things and take pleasure in the same employments. Only he will be perfect there, and all that he will do and say and think will be good, whereas now he only wishes and strives that it may be so.
But death will not make such a change as to turn people from unholy, into holy people; from people who never cared for God at all, into people who love Him perfectly; from people who loved sin and scoffed at the good and seldom or never prayed, into people who delight in being with God and saints and angels forever. Death will make no change as this! Our Lord said, "Where your treasure is - there will you heart be also" (Matt. 6:21). So if a man's treasure is in Heaven - then his heart will be in Heaven already. If Heaven be the home to which he is going and for which he is longing - then there will be much that is heavenly in his heart and life even now.
No! Do not deceive yourself with any such thought! Death will make a great change - but it will make no such change as you imagine. If Heaven would not be a happy place to you, supposing you to be taken there now, in a moment, just as you are - then you would not be happy there, if at any time you were to die in your present state and find yourself there. No impenitent sinner, no unconverted person - would be happy in Heaven.
You must seek a change now, a thorough change, a new heart. Think no more of being changed somehow at death or after death, so as to be made fit for Heaven - but ask God to change you NOW. Surely you must see that you need a great change. The very fact that Heaven itself would be no place of happiness to you as you are - must show you how greatly you need to be changed. If you were to be save by Christ and your sins should be forgiven, and you should learn to hate sin and to love God and to delight in prayer and praise - then you would begin to be happy even here; and then you would feel and know that Heaven would be a happy place to you indeed.
Oh, be persuaded to seek salvation at once. What you need above all things, is the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart to turn you, change you, convert you, sanctify you. Man cannot do this work; it is the work of God alone.
Jesus came and died on the Cross for sinners! Will you not listen to Him? He alone can make you happy! If you go on refusing His offers, you cannot be saved; and you reach at last the miserable end. Seek Him as your Saviour - then He will indeed be a Saviour to you. He will give you a peace and happiness which the world will never give - and He will take you at last to that place which He has gone ahead to prepare - a place which you will find happy indeed - happy beyond what eye has seen, or ear heard, or heart conceived!
~Francis Bourdillon~
(The End)
Saturday, March 2, 2019
Not Happy In Heaven? # 1
Not Happy In Heaven? # 1
Not happy in Heaven? You are surprised at reading these words. Not happy in Heaven? Why, is not Heaven a place in which all who get there will be happy? Yes, but there are thousands and thousands who never will get there! They are not in the way to Heaven; and, unless they become quite changed, they will never get to it. And further - even if they did, if they could, they would not be happy there!
Still you are surprised. You have never perhaps thought much about Heaven - what sort of a place it is and what people do there and what makes it happy. But you have never had any doubt that it is happy. You have always heard it talked of as the happy place; you have heard people of all sorts say that they wished to go there when they died, and hoped they would go there. So of course you have always thought it must be a happy place.
If I asked you where you hoped to go when you died, you would answer, "To heaven."
But are you sure that you would be happy there? Are you certain that it would be a happy place to you? Let us look into this matter more closely.
There is no sin in Heaven.
Do you love sin? Is there some one sin to which you are more given than to others, one which you will not leave off - a "bosom sin"? Have you such a sin? You could not keep that sin in Heaven. But you love it. Nothing can make you part from it here on earth. Then how could you be happy without it there in Heaven?
Grant for a moment that you could get to Heaven just as you are: unchanged, unconverted, with all your love for sin still in your heart - how could you be happy there without your sins? You would not be fit for such a place. You would not enjoy it. All your tastes and pleasures would be different from those in Heaven. Heaven would be no Heaven to you!
But what do people do in Heaven? Read here: "Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple" (Revelation 7:15). Would that make you happy? Judge by what makes you happy now. Do you love the house of God? Are you glad when the Lord's Day comes, and you can go there again? Do you take delight in drawing near the throne of grace? Do worship and prayer give you comfort and make you happy? Prayer of all kinds - public prayer, family prayer, private prayer? If not, you would not be happy in Heaven.
What! You who neglect prayer in your family, and seldom bend the knee in private, and think it a burden to go to one service on Sunday, and perhaps do not even as much as that - can you suppose that you would be happy in Heaven, where they "serve Him day and night in His temple?"
Why would you love it there; any more than you do here? Why would not the worship of God in Heaven be as great a weariness to you as His worship on earth is? And then consider - here it comes only now and then; there it will be every day, day and night, always, forever. Would you be happy there?
And who live in Heaven? Not as on earth, people of all sorts, good and bad, serious and careless, holy and unholy - but only the holy. There will be none but holy people there. Do you love such people now? Are you glad to meet them? Do you take pleasure in their company and conversation? Perhaps not. Perhaps you rather dislike them, than otherwise. It may be that you sneer at them; and that (though you have no reason whatever to doubt their sincerity) you are in the habit of calling them hypocrites, and so forth.
If so, how could Heaven be a happy place for you? Heaven is the home of such people - their city, their country, the place to which they are going, and for which they are longing, the place where they will be forever - they, and none but they. If you do not love them now - would you love them then? If you do not like their company below - would you like it any better above? Only consider, you who mock them and jeer at them now - how would you feel toward them then, and how would you like to find yourself alone with them forever, with none of your favorite companions near, none near you but those very people whom you have disliked all your life long? Would you be happy with them?
~Francis Bourdillon~
(continued with # 2)
Not happy in Heaven? You are surprised at reading these words. Not happy in Heaven? Why, is not Heaven a place in which all who get there will be happy? Yes, but there are thousands and thousands who never will get there! They are not in the way to Heaven; and, unless they become quite changed, they will never get to it. And further - even if they did, if they could, they would not be happy there!
Still you are surprised. You have never perhaps thought much about Heaven - what sort of a place it is and what people do there and what makes it happy. But you have never had any doubt that it is happy. You have always heard it talked of as the happy place; you have heard people of all sorts say that they wished to go there when they died, and hoped they would go there. So of course you have always thought it must be a happy place.
If I asked you where you hoped to go when you died, you would answer, "To heaven."
But are you sure that you would be happy there? Are you certain that it would be a happy place to you? Let us look into this matter more closely.
There is no sin in Heaven.
Do you love sin? Is there some one sin to which you are more given than to others, one which you will not leave off - a "bosom sin"? Have you such a sin? You could not keep that sin in Heaven. But you love it. Nothing can make you part from it here on earth. Then how could you be happy without it there in Heaven?
Grant for a moment that you could get to Heaven just as you are: unchanged, unconverted, with all your love for sin still in your heart - how could you be happy there without your sins? You would not be fit for such a place. You would not enjoy it. All your tastes and pleasures would be different from those in Heaven. Heaven would be no Heaven to you!
But what do people do in Heaven? Read here: "Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple" (Revelation 7:15). Would that make you happy? Judge by what makes you happy now. Do you love the house of God? Are you glad when the Lord's Day comes, and you can go there again? Do you take delight in drawing near the throne of grace? Do worship and prayer give you comfort and make you happy? Prayer of all kinds - public prayer, family prayer, private prayer? If not, you would not be happy in Heaven.
What! You who neglect prayer in your family, and seldom bend the knee in private, and think it a burden to go to one service on Sunday, and perhaps do not even as much as that - can you suppose that you would be happy in Heaven, where they "serve Him day and night in His temple?"
Why would you love it there; any more than you do here? Why would not the worship of God in Heaven be as great a weariness to you as His worship on earth is? And then consider - here it comes only now and then; there it will be every day, day and night, always, forever. Would you be happy there?
And who live in Heaven? Not as on earth, people of all sorts, good and bad, serious and careless, holy and unholy - but only the holy. There will be none but holy people there. Do you love such people now? Are you glad to meet them? Do you take pleasure in their company and conversation? Perhaps not. Perhaps you rather dislike them, than otherwise. It may be that you sneer at them; and that (though you have no reason whatever to doubt their sincerity) you are in the habit of calling them hypocrites, and so forth.
If so, how could Heaven be a happy place for you? Heaven is the home of such people - their city, their country, the place to which they are going, and for which they are longing, the place where they will be forever - they, and none but they. If you do not love them now - would you love them then? If you do not like their company below - would you like it any better above? Only consider, you who mock them and jeer at them now - how would you feel toward them then, and how would you like to find yourself alone with them forever, with none of your favorite companions near, none near you but those very people whom you have disliked all your life long? Would you be happy with them?
~Francis Bourdillon~
(continued with # 2)
Quotes From Classic Christian Authors # 1
Quotes From Classic Christian Authors # 1
Basically, there are two paths you can walk: faith or fear. It's impossible to simultaneously trust God and not trust God.
___________________________
Disappointment is inevitable. But to become discouraged, there's a choice I make. God would never discourage me. He would always point me to Himself to trust Him. Therefore, my discouragement is from satan. As you go through the emotions that we have, hostility is not from God, bitterness, unforgiveness, all of these are attacks from satan.
_____________________________
Fear stiffles our thinking and actions. It creates indecisiveness that results in stagnation. I have known talented people who procrastinate indefinitely rather than risk failure. Lost opportunities cause erosion of confidence, and the downward spiral begins.
_______________________
We can be tired, weary and emotionally distraught, but after spending time alone with God, we find that He injects into our bodies energy, power and strength.
______________________
God's plan for enlarging His kingdom is so simple - one person telling another about the Saviour. Yet we're busy and full of excuses. Just remember, someone's eternal destiny is at stake. The joy you'll have when you meet that person in heaven will far exceed any discomfort you felt in sharing the gospel.
____________________
Earthly wisdom is doing what comes naturally. Godly wisdom is doing what the Holy Spirit compels us to do.
________________________
Too many Christians have a commitment of convenience. They'll stay faithful as long as it's safe and doesn't involve risk, rejection, or criticism. Instead of standing alone in the face of challenge or temptation, they check to see which way their friends are going.
_________________________
The best way in the world to deceive believers is to cloak a message in religious language and declare that it conveys some new insight from God.
_________________________
Hope founded upon a human being, a man-made philosophy or any institution is always misplaced because these things are unreliable and fleeting.
__________________________
God will never direct us to be prideful, arrogant and unforgiving, immoral or slothful or full of fear. We step into these things because we are insensitive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
____________________________
To have God speak to the heart is a majestic experience, and experience that people may miss if they monopolize the conversation and never pause to hear God's responses.
_________________________
God will never reject you. Whether you accept Him is your decision.
_______________________
One of satan's most deceptive and powerful ways of defeating us is to get us to believe a lie. And the biggest lie is that there are no consequences to our own doing. satan will give you whatever you ask for if it will lead you where he ultimately wants you!
__________________________
Every test, every trial, every heartache that's been significant, I can turn it over and see how God has turned it into good no matter what.
__________________________
When you become an instrument in God's hands as He transfers someone from the realm of darkness into the kingdom of His Son, you make a difference in the person's eternal destiny. Not only that, but satan also receives a devastating blow.
______________________
There is only one secure foundation: a genuine, deep relationship with Jesus Christ, which will carry you through any and all turmoil. No matter what storms are raging all around, you'll stand firm if you stand on His love.
__________________________
Motherhood is a great honor and privilege, yet it is also synonymous with servanthood. Every day women are called upon to selflessly meet the needs of their families. Whether they are awake feeding a baby, spending their time and money on less-than-grateful teenagers, or preparing meals, moms continuously put others before themselves!
_______________________
The bottom line in the Christian life is obedience and most people don't even like the word.
~Charles F. Stanley~
Basically, there are two paths you can walk: faith or fear. It's impossible to simultaneously trust God and not trust God.
___________________________
Disappointment is inevitable. But to become discouraged, there's a choice I make. God would never discourage me. He would always point me to Himself to trust Him. Therefore, my discouragement is from satan. As you go through the emotions that we have, hostility is not from God, bitterness, unforgiveness, all of these are attacks from satan.
_____________________________
Fear stiffles our thinking and actions. It creates indecisiveness that results in stagnation. I have known talented people who procrastinate indefinitely rather than risk failure. Lost opportunities cause erosion of confidence, and the downward spiral begins.
_______________________
We can be tired, weary and emotionally distraught, but after spending time alone with God, we find that He injects into our bodies energy, power and strength.
______________________
God's plan for enlarging His kingdom is so simple - one person telling another about the Saviour. Yet we're busy and full of excuses. Just remember, someone's eternal destiny is at stake. The joy you'll have when you meet that person in heaven will far exceed any discomfort you felt in sharing the gospel.
____________________
Earthly wisdom is doing what comes naturally. Godly wisdom is doing what the Holy Spirit compels us to do.
________________________
Too many Christians have a commitment of convenience. They'll stay faithful as long as it's safe and doesn't involve risk, rejection, or criticism. Instead of standing alone in the face of challenge or temptation, they check to see which way their friends are going.
_________________________
The best way in the world to deceive believers is to cloak a message in religious language and declare that it conveys some new insight from God.
_________________________
Hope founded upon a human being, a man-made philosophy or any institution is always misplaced because these things are unreliable and fleeting.
__________________________
God will never direct us to be prideful, arrogant and unforgiving, immoral or slothful or full of fear. We step into these things because we are insensitive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
____________________________
To have God speak to the heart is a majestic experience, and experience that people may miss if they monopolize the conversation and never pause to hear God's responses.
_________________________
God will never reject you. Whether you accept Him is your decision.
_______________________
One of satan's most deceptive and powerful ways of defeating us is to get us to believe a lie. And the biggest lie is that there are no consequences to our own doing. satan will give you whatever you ask for if it will lead you where he ultimately wants you!
__________________________
Every test, every trial, every heartache that's been significant, I can turn it over and see how God has turned it into good no matter what.
__________________________
When you become an instrument in God's hands as He transfers someone from the realm of darkness into the kingdom of His Son, you make a difference in the person's eternal destiny. Not only that, but satan also receives a devastating blow.
______________________
There is only one secure foundation: a genuine, deep relationship with Jesus Christ, which will carry you through any and all turmoil. No matter what storms are raging all around, you'll stand firm if you stand on His love.
__________________________
Motherhood is a great honor and privilege, yet it is also synonymous with servanthood. Every day women are called upon to selflessly meet the needs of their families. Whether they are awake feeding a baby, spending their time and money on less-than-grateful teenagers, or preparing meals, moms continuously put others before themselves!
_______________________
The bottom line in the Christian life is obedience and most people don't even like the word.
~Charles F. Stanley~
The Cure For A Troubled Heart # 1
The Cure For A Troubled Heart # 1
"Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in Me" (John 14:1).
If you were asked this morning to name the most comforting passage in the Bible, what would you say? It would be interesting to know what your answer would be. Many in this presence, perhaps, would name the Twenty-third Psalm, the great Shepherd Psalm, as the most comforting passage in the Bible. Others would mention that oft-quoted verse in the eighth chapter of Romans: "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." But probably more of you would select the fourteenth chapter of John as the most comforting passage to be found in all the Bible. Every one of us ought to know that chapter by heart, even as we ought to know many other Scriptures by heart, because some day we may be blind and be unable to read at all, and then if we had hidden away in our hearts some Scriptures, we could read them even though our sight should be gone. Listen to the opening verse of this heavenly chapter:
"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God believe also in Me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto Him, Lord, we know whither Thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me."
Memorize that fourteenth chapter of John's gospel, all of it. You will need it.
Probably our deepest troubles in this world are occasioned from our loved ones. Jesus had just said that little groups of men about Him: "I am going away. Presently we are to be separated. I am going to die." And the announcement stupefied them, dazed them, horrified them. "Isn't there some mistake? He has just said that He must die. They are stupefied. They are horrified. The separations from our loved ones wring our hearts to the deepest depths.
Just a few days ago, I was called to say some words at the grave of a dear, faithful mother, and the grief of her children was so terrible that it seems to me I can never forget it. The oldest daughter did her best to quiet the several younger children, with no success, and presently she tried a new turn on them. She went down the line of children, all bewildered and heart-broken and said: "Stop you crying children. Maybe it is all a dream. Maybe we are all at home. Maybe we are in our beds and will wake up in the morning and find it just a bad dream, and mother will be with us. And for a moment she thus quieted them.
Oh, the deep wrenchings of heart when our loved ones go away! Jesus had just spoken some words that pierced like arrows the hearts of the twelve men, when He told them: "I am going away." Then He proceeded to comfort them, to point to the way of light and life, and then it was He who spoke this fourteenth chapter of John. It's opening sentence is the text for this morning: "Let not your heart be troubled."
Jesus proceeded in these words to point the cure for a troubled heart. How may a troubled heart be cured? That is an old question. It is as old as the human heart. How may a troubled heart be cured? It is the question of all humanity, of all the ages, of all conditions and classes: How may a troubled heart be cured?
All along there have been given various answers to that question. There is the answer of despair. When trouble came upon Job, wave upon wave, and all was swept from him - first his property, and later his children, and later his health, and later his friends - finally his wife said to the husband: "Curse God and die." That is the answer of despair, and the answer of despair is not a cure for a broken, troubled heart. The poor suicide takes that course - the course of despair.
Different causes make for the despair of the human spirit. Sometimes it is business reverses, and the man's spirit is broken, and down he goes, and he cannot recover himself anymore, and despair grips at the throat of his soul. Sometimes despair is occasioned by a shattered confidence. Oh, how terrible a thing it is to have our confidence in somebody fundamentally shattered! Sometimes one's despair comes because of ill health. What weakness men's poor spirits feel when their bodies are in the grip of disease! What allowances we ought to make for those who are sick! What pity and patience and forbearance we ought to exercise towards people racked with pain! Just here is an exhortation every one of us should earnestly heed.
But many a time the answer of despair follows the course of sin. I was in a Southern city a little while ago, speaking for a half-dozen days, and my host drove me by two beautiful residences - two of the fairest of the city - and told me that in one home had been a mother and in the other had been a father, and these two, because of sin which had made itself known, and was making itself known throughout the city, to the shame of both homes, had entered into a death pact, that they would each at a certain hour take the suicide's course. And they carried out such a death pact. Oh, how terrible is the course of despair for a human heart when such heart has grievously sinned!
~George W. Truett~
(continued with # 2)
"Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in Me" (John 14:1).
If you were asked this morning to name the most comforting passage in the Bible, what would you say? It would be interesting to know what your answer would be. Many in this presence, perhaps, would name the Twenty-third Psalm, the great Shepherd Psalm, as the most comforting passage in the Bible. Others would mention that oft-quoted verse in the eighth chapter of Romans: "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." But probably more of you would select the fourteenth chapter of John as the most comforting passage to be found in all the Bible. Every one of us ought to know that chapter by heart, even as we ought to know many other Scriptures by heart, because some day we may be blind and be unable to read at all, and then if we had hidden away in our hearts some Scriptures, we could read them even though our sight should be gone. Listen to the opening verse of this heavenly chapter:
"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God believe also in Me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto Him, Lord, we know whither Thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me."
Memorize that fourteenth chapter of John's gospel, all of it. You will need it.
Probably our deepest troubles in this world are occasioned from our loved ones. Jesus had just said that little groups of men about Him: "I am going away. Presently we are to be separated. I am going to die." And the announcement stupefied them, dazed them, horrified them. "Isn't there some mistake? He has just said that He must die. They are stupefied. They are horrified. The separations from our loved ones wring our hearts to the deepest depths.
Just a few days ago, I was called to say some words at the grave of a dear, faithful mother, and the grief of her children was so terrible that it seems to me I can never forget it. The oldest daughter did her best to quiet the several younger children, with no success, and presently she tried a new turn on them. She went down the line of children, all bewildered and heart-broken and said: "Stop you crying children. Maybe it is all a dream. Maybe we are all at home. Maybe we are in our beds and will wake up in the morning and find it just a bad dream, and mother will be with us. And for a moment she thus quieted them.
Oh, the deep wrenchings of heart when our loved ones go away! Jesus had just spoken some words that pierced like arrows the hearts of the twelve men, when He told them: "I am going away." Then He proceeded to comfort them, to point to the way of light and life, and then it was He who spoke this fourteenth chapter of John. It's opening sentence is the text for this morning: "Let not your heart be troubled."
Jesus proceeded in these words to point the cure for a troubled heart. How may a troubled heart be cured? That is an old question. It is as old as the human heart. How may a troubled heart be cured? It is the question of all humanity, of all the ages, of all conditions and classes: How may a troubled heart be cured?
All along there have been given various answers to that question. There is the answer of despair. When trouble came upon Job, wave upon wave, and all was swept from him - first his property, and later his children, and later his health, and later his friends - finally his wife said to the husband: "Curse God and die." That is the answer of despair, and the answer of despair is not a cure for a broken, troubled heart. The poor suicide takes that course - the course of despair.
Different causes make for the despair of the human spirit. Sometimes it is business reverses, and the man's spirit is broken, and down he goes, and he cannot recover himself anymore, and despair grips at the throat of his soul. Sometimes despair is occasioned by a shattered confidence. Oh, how terrible a thing it is to have our confidence in somebody fundamentally shattered! Sometimes one's despair comes because of ill health. What weakness men's poor spirits feel when their bodies are in the grip of disease! What allowances we ought to make for those who are sick! What pity and patience and forbearance we ought to exercise towards people racked with pain! Just here is an exhortation every one of us should earnestly heed.
But many a time the answer of despair follows the course of sin. I was in a Southern city a little while ago, speaking for a half-dozen days, and my host drove me by two beautiful residences - two of the fairest of the city - and told me that in one home had been a mother and in the other had been a father, and these two, because of sin which had made itself known, and was making itself known throughout the city, to the shame of both homes, had entered into a death pact, that they would each at a certain hour take the suicide's course. And they carried out such a death pact. Oh, how terrible is the course of despair for a human heart when such heart has grievously sinned!
~George W. Truett~
(continued with # 2)
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