Saturday, December 29, 2018

The War Between the Flesh and the Spirit # 2

The War Between the Flesh and the Spirit # 2

From the very moment that this principle of spiritual life is put in us, a war commences between the spirit and the flesh. They are contrary to each other and they are continually fighting against each other. Now it is the work of sanctification to carry on that fight of the spirit against the flesh, so that, as it is expressed in another scripture, "By the Spirit ye do mortify (that is, crucify) the sins of the body and put them to death."

The other scripture is in the letter to the Romans, the seventh chapter beginning with the fourteenth verse: "For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin, for that which I do I allow not; for what I would, that I do not; but what I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good (because I say I do not wish to do that). Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not:but the evil which I would not that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"

Now it is utterly impossible for that language to come from the lips of one who is sanctified, soul, body and spirit. And it is equally impossible for that language to come from the lips of one who is not a Christian at all. Why? Because it says, "I consent unto the law that it is good." No unregenerate sinner could say it. He knows he does not delight in it. I would do the Spirit's commandment, I would obey it. There is not that will in the unconverted man.

So then, these two scriptures represent a state in which sanctification has not yet been consummated, but in which regeneration has taken place, in which a war is going on of the flesh against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. As sanctification progresses the spirit triumphs more and more over the flesh. 

Now, let us look at another point. How is the process of sanctification carried on? It is carried on by the growth (mark the expression), by the growth of our spiritual graces. I will not speak of all of them, but I will take some of them to illustrate what I mean. Faith is one of the Christian graces. Now, if our faith is weak our progress in sanctification is slow, but if our faith is strong, and keeps getting stronger, then our progress in sanctification progresses as our faith develops.

In the second letter to the Thessalonians, in the first chapter and third verse, the Apostle Paul says, "I thank God that your faith groweth exceedingly." Now, compare that with the prayer once offered to Jesus: "Lord, increase our faith." Not only by the growth of faith, but by the growth of hope, which rests on faith. If our faith is weak our hope will be weak; if our faith is strong our hope will be strong.

Now, in the fifteenth chapter of the letter to the Romans, and in the thirteenth verse, the Apostle Paul says, "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Spirit." Now, here is an expansion of our hope. It gets clearer, brighter, broader and stronger as our faith get clearer, and brighter, and broader and stronger. Not only, then, with reference to the grace of hope, but with reference to the grace of love.

Take the passage in the third chapter of First Thessalonians, and the twelfth and thirteenth verses:

"The Lord make you to increase and abound in love, one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you, to the end that He may establish your hearts, unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father (listen at this), at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints."

Now here is an unbelievable state of holiness referred to, just like in all the other passages I have read, and the apostle declares one of the principles by which you continually approximate that state of unblamableness in holiness, and he says that the principle is love. That is the process by which they were to reach it, and hence the Apostle Peter at the close of his second letter says, "Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ," showing that it is a growth, that it is a development. Then take what he says, which you have often heard me quote: "Add to or supply with you faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, Godliness, brotherly kindness, charity," and then he goes on to show that this marvelous development is consummated by an abundant entrance into the kingdom of glory. From these scriptures I think you see by what process sanctification is carried on.

Now, very plainly, I want to answer a question: Is sanctification consummated here, so that a man can say, "I am completely sanctified?" So that a man can say, "I am unblamable in my holiness, in spirit, in soul, in body?" That is the question. I am exceedingly sorry that anyone should ever have presumed to say "yes" to that question. I am sorry because it directly and flatly contradicts the most positive declarations of God's Word.

~B. H. Carroll~

(continued with # 3)

The War Between the Flesh and the Spirit # 1

The War Between the Flesh and the Spirit # 1

"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thess. 5:23).

"Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing,; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Ephesians 5:25-27).

These scriptures serve to introduce our text, which is a prayer of the Apostle Paul for the Thessalonians, a prayer that they may be completely sanctified; that the sanctification may touch the spirit, the soul and the body, and that it be so complete as to secure absolute blamelessness and holiness. 

You will understand at once, then, that what I wish to talk to you about this morning is sanctification. I am led to discuss this theme from various conversations reported as held upon the streets of Waco recently, participated in often by young people, and sometimes those who are little informed upon the subject of sanctification. It has been presented to you on the streets and variously and oftentimes in such a way as, in my judgment, to do incalculable harm. And because I so strongly believe this, and because I do believe that there is a sanctification which the Scriptures teach, I have been led to discuss the subject now.

The first thing always is to know what a word means, and this word, like almost every other word, has a variety of meanings, and the particular meaning has to be determined always from the context. You take a passage of Scripture in which it occurs and you determine from that connection which one of its meanings belong to that particular place. But anyone who takes the concordance and groups every place in the Bible where that word occurs, without examination of the connection in which it occurs, will find himself confounding its various meanings so as to have a very unintelligent conception of the word. While it has a great many meanings, I want to call you attention not to two of its most prominent meanings. The first is where it is applied to inanimate things. In that application it means to set apart. The next thing to be determined is, when it starts. It is always best to have the beginning point clearly established. I shall not elaborate anything today, but shall try to speak very plainly and so everybody can understand me.

Sanctification begins in regeneration. A principle, or germ of spiritual life, is imparted to us in regeneration. Our articles of faith say that regeneration consists in giving a holy disposition to the mind. Well, now, in regeneration is implanted this germ of life, and sanctification is the unfolding and developing of the principle of life put in us when we become children of God, when we are born unto God. This is so well understood by all who have ever made any sort of a study of the Bible that I shall not stop here to present any proofs of a proposition so very plain.

The next thought is that as it is unfolding, developing, a bringing to a consummation of the principle of life that is imparted in regeneration, it is necessarily progressive and not instantaneous. Progressive - that is a capital point. When people come to you and claim a sanctification received like justification, that is, instantaneously, you may know that it is not Bible sanctification, no matter what they tell you about it. Justification is instantaneous, because it relates to our legal state. It is a declaration of the law that we are acquitted. But sanctification relates to our internal and spiritual state.

Now, the regeneration may be instantaneous. It takes place at some particular time. But the unfolding and developing of that must be progressive. Therefore, from the days of the Lord Jesus Christ until now, our Baptist people have always held, without any swerving, even a hair's breadth, that sanctification commences in regeneration and that it is progressive; that it is the unfolding and the developing of the principle of spiritual life imparted when we become the children of God.

Now, having made those general statements, I want to call you attention to a state of the Christian in this life. That state is represented by two scriptures Galatians 5:17, and Romans 7:14. If you will have the patience, and I think you ought to have on such a subject as this, suppose we read those two scriptures very carefully. Galatians 5:17: "For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." That is the first scripture.

~B. H. Carroll~

(continued with # 2)

Saturday, December 22, 2018

Unseen Things To Be Preferred To Seen Things # 5

Unseen Things To Be Preferred To Seen Things # 5

This is the bitterest ingredient in the cup of divine displeasure in the future state - that the misery is eternal! Oh, with what horror does that despairing cry, "Forever! Forever! Forever!" echo through the vaults of hell!

Should we consider all the ingredients and causes of future happiness and misery - we would find them all everlasting. The blessed God is an inexhaustible and perennial fountain of bliss! His image can never be erased from the heats of glorified spirits - the contemplation of the great God will always be obvious to them; and they will always exist as the partakers and promoters of mutual bliss. On the other hand, in hell the worm of conscience never dies, and the fire is never quenched! Divine justice is immortal. Malignant spirits will always exist as mutual tormentors, and their wicked habits will never be extirpated.

And now, need I offer anything further to convince you of the superior importance of invisible and eternal things - to visible and temporary things? Can a rational being be at a loss to choose, in so plain a case? Can you need any arguments to convince you that an eternity of the most perfect happiness - is rather to be chosen than a few years of sordid, unsatisfying delight? Or that the former should not be forfeited - for the sake of the latter? Have you any remaining scruples, whether the little concerns and mortifications of a pious life - are more intolerable than everlasting punishment? Oh! It is a plain case! Why then, does the infatuated world, lay out all their concern on temporal things - and neglect the important affairs of eternity?

Will you choose the little sordid pleasures of sin that may perhaps not last an hour, or at most, not many years - rather than everlasting pleasure of the sublimest kind? Will you prefer to endure intolerable torment forever - rather than endeavor to be holy here on earth for a short time? What does your conduct, my friends, answer to these questions? If your tongues reply, they will perhaps for your credit give a right answer; but what does your prevailing disposition and common practice say? Are you not more thoughtful for time - than eternity? Are you not more concerned about visible vanities than invisible realities? If so, you make a fool's choice indeed!

When we pass out of this temporary state - we enter upon an everlasting state. Our souls will always exist, exist in a state of unchangeable, boundless happiness - or misery. It is but a little while ago, that we came out of a state of eternal non-existence, and into being; but we shall never relapse into that state again. These little sparks of being shall never be extinguished! They will survive the ruins of the world, and kindle into immortality! When millions of millions of ages are past - we shall still be in existence! And oh! in what unknown region? In that endless bliss - or of interminable misery? Is this the most anxious inquiry of our lives?

It must be our chief concern to end our present pilgrimage well. It matters but little whether we lie easy or not - during this short night of existence - if so be we awake in eternal day. It is but a trifle, hardly worth a thought - whether we are happy or miserable here on earth - so long as we are happy forever hereafter! Why then - all this hustle and bustle of mankind about the fleeting things of time? Oh, sirs, Eternity! Solemn, all important eternity is the only thing that deserves a thought!

II. The INFLUENCE of Seeing Things Aright

I now come to show the great and happy influence  a suitable impression of the superior importance of invisible to visible things, would have upon us. This I might exemplify in a variety of instances, with respect to saints - and sinners.

When we are tempted to any forbidden pleasures - how we would shrink away with horror from the sinful pursuit - had we a due sense of the misery incurred, and the happiness forfeited by it!

When we find our hearts excessively eager after earthly things, had we a suitable view of eternal things - all these things would shrink into trifles hardly worth a thought, much less our principal concern!

When the sinner, for the sake of a little present ease, and to avoid a little present uneasiness, stifles his conscience, refuses to examine his condition before God, casts the thoughts of eternity out of his mind, and thinks it too hard to attend on all the means of grace - has he then a proper estimate of eternal things? Alas! no! He only looks at the things that are seen. Were the mouth of hell open before him - that he might behold its torments; and had he a sight of the joys of paradise, they would harden him into a general insensibility to all the sorrows and anxieties of this life, and his inquiry would not be whether these things required of him are easy - but whether they are necessary to obtain eternal happiness, and avoid everlasting misery!

Without deep impressions of eternity on our hearts, and frequent thoughtfulness about it - we cannot be prepared for it.

And if we are not prepared for it - oh, how inconceivably miserable is our case! But if prepared, how inconceivably happy!

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen - but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary - but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:18).

~Samuel Davies~

(The End)

Unseen Things To Be Preferred To Seen Things # 4

Unseen Things To Be Preferred To Seen Things # 4

2. Now consider the infinite disparity between the invisible things and the visible things - as to DURATION. This is the difference particularly intended in the text: "For what is seen is temporary - but what is unseen is eternal.

The transitoriness of visible things, implies both that the things themselves are perishable - and they may soon leave us; and that our residence among them is temporary - and we must soon leave them!

And the eternity of invisible things implies quite the contrary: that the things themselves are of endless duration; and that we shall always exist to receive either happiness - or misery from them!

Before we illustrate these instances of disparity, let us take a view of TIME and ETERNITY in themselves; and as compared to one another.

TIME is the duration of creatures in the present earthly state. Time commenced at the creation, and some six thousand years of it have since elapsed. And how much of time yet remains - we know not.

But this we do know: that the duration of the world itself - is as nothing in comparison of eternity. But what is our personal duration, when compared with the duration even of this world? It is but a span, a hair-s breadth; sixty, seventy, or eighty years - is generally the highest limit of human life, and it is by far the smallest number of mankind who arrive to these upper limits. Most people die like a flower blasted in the morning, or at noon; and we have more reason to expect that this will be our fate - than to hope for a long earthly life. The short span of time we enjoy in life - is all the time we really have; we have no more property in the rest of time - than in the years before the flood! Beyond out brief span - is eternity. ETERNITY! We are alarmed at the sound! We are lost in the prospect!

Eternity with respect to GOD - is a duration without beginning - as well as without end. Eternity, as it is the attribute of human nature, is a duration that had a beginning, but shall never have an end. This eternity is inalienably entailed upon us poor, dying worms! Let us survey our inheritance.

Eternity! It is a duration that exceeds all number and computation: days, and months, and years, yes, and ages, are lost in it - like drops in the ocean! Millions of millions of years, as many years as there are sands on the seashore, or particles of dust in the globe of the earth, and these multiplied to the highest reach of number - all these are nothing, when compared to eternity!  They do not bear the least imaginable proportion to it - for these will all certainly come to an end! But eternity will never, never come to an end! Eternity is a line without end! Eternity is an ocean without a shore! Alas! What shall I say of it! It is an infinite, unknown something, that neither human thought can grasp, nor human language describe!

Now place TIME in comparison with ETERNITY - and what is it? It shrinks into nothing, and less than nothing! What then is that little span of time in which we have any present interest? Alas! It is too diminutive a point to be conceived! Indeed, properly speaking, we can call no part of time our own - but the present moment, this fleeting now!

Future time is uncertain - and we may never live it; the breath we now inspire may be our last!

And as to our past time, it is gone - and will never be ours again. Our past days are dead and buried, though perhaps guilt, their "spirit" may haunt us still. And what is a moment when compared to eternity? The disparity is too great to admit of comparison!

Let me now resume the former particulars, implied in the transitoriness of visible things - and the eternity of invisible things.

Visible things are perishable and may soon leave us. When we think that they are ours - they often fly from our embrace. Riches may vanish into smoke and ashes - try an accidental fire. We may be thrown down from the pinnacle of honor - and sink into utter disgrace. Our friends are torn from our bleeding hearts by the inexorable hand of death. Our liberty and property may be wrested from us by the hand of tyranny, oppression, or fraud. In a word, there is nothing which we now enjoy - but we may quickly lose!

On the other hand, our miseries here on earth are temporary. The heart receives many a wound - but it heals again. Poverty may end in riches. A blemished character may clear up, and from disgrace we may rise to honor. We may recover from sickness. And if we lose one comfort - we may obtain another.

But in eternity - everything is everlasting and unchangeable! Happiness and misery are both without end - and the subjects of both well know that this is the case. It is this eternality and perpetuity, which completes the happiness of the inhabitants of heaven; the least suspicion of an end - would intermingle itself with all their enjoyments, and embitter them; for the greater the happiness, the greater the anxiety at the expectation of losing it. But oh, how transporting for the saints on high, to look forward through the succession of eternal ages, with an assurance that they shall be happy through them all, and that they shall feel no change - but from glory to glory!

~Samuel Davies~

(continued with # 5)

Saturday, December 15, 2018

Unseen Things To Be Preferred To Seen Things # 3

Unseen Things To Be Preferred To Seen Things # 3

But oh, when we take a survey of INVISIBLE things - we find them all great and majestic, not only equal, but infinitely superior to the most enlarged powers of the human and even of the angelic nature. In His eternal worlds - the great Invisible dwells, and there He acts with His own direct hand. It is He who directly and personally communicates happiness through the heavenly regions. And it is His direct and personal breath that, like a stream of brimstone, kindles the flames of hell. Whereas, in the present world, He rarely communicates happiness, and inflicts punishment - but by the instrumentality of creatures; and it is impossible that the extremity of either happiness or misery - should be communicated through the instrumentality of creatures. 

This the infinite God alone can do, and, though in the future worlds He will use His creatures to heighten the happiness or misery of each other - yet He will have a more direct and personal agency in them Himself. He will communicate happiness directly and personally from Himself, the infinite fountain of it - into the vessels of mercy! And He will directly and personally show His wrath, and make His power known upon the vessels of wrath.

I may add, that those BEINGS, angels and devils, which will be the instruments of happiness or misery to the human soul in the invisible world - are incomparably more powerful than any in this present world - and consequently capable of contributing more to our pleasure or pain.

And let me also observe, that all OBJECTS about which our faculties will be employed then - will be great and majestic; whereas, at present, we grovel among little sordid things. The objects of our contemplation, will then be either the unveiled glories of the divine nature, and the unveiled wonders of creation, providence, and redemption; OR the unveiled terrors of divine justice, the dreadful nature and aggravations of our sin, the horrors of everlasting punishment, etc.

And since this is the case, how little should we regard the things that are seen - in comparison of those which are unseen? But though visible things were adequate to our present capacities - yet they are not to be compared with the things that are unseen, because:

B. The soul is at present in a state of infancy, and incapable of such degrees of pleasure or pain - as it can bear in the future world. The enjoyments of this present life are like the playthings of children, and none but childish souls would trifle with them, or fret and vex themselves or one another about them!

But the invisible realities awaiting us are manly and great, and such as an adult soul ought to concern itself with. The soul in the eternal world, can no more be happy or miserable from such earthly toys - than men can be happy or wretched in the possession or loss of the baubles of children! In the eternal world, the soul will then necessitate great things to give it pleasure or pain. The apostle illustrates this matter in this manner: "For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child - I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man - I put childish ways behind me." (1 Cor. 13:9-11). How foolish is it then, to be chiefly governed by these childish earthly toys - while we neglect the great and many concerns of eternity - which alone can make our souls perfectly happy or miserable, when their powers are come to perfection!

C. And lastly, All that pleasure and pain which we receive from things that are seen, are intermingled with some ingredients of a contrary nature. In this present world, our good and evil are blended. Our happiness has some bitter ingredients, and our miseries have some agreeable mitigations. But the pleasure and pain which we receive from things that are unseen, are pure and unmingled.

We are never so HAPPY in this world - as to have no uneasiness! In the greatest affluence - we languish for lack of some absent good, or grieve under some incumbent evil.

On the other hand, we are never so MISERABLE in this world as to have no ingredient of happiness. When we labor under a thousand calamities, we may still see ourselves surrounded with, perhaps, an equal number of blessings. And where now is there a wretch so miserable as to endure unmingled misery, without one comfortable ingredient?

But in the invisible world, there is an eternal separation made between good and evil, pleasure and pain; and they shall never more mingle. In heaven - the rivers of pleasure flow untroubled with a drop of sorrow. In hell, there is not a drop of water to mitigate the fury of the eternal flame! And who then would not prefer the things that are unseen - to those that are unseen?

~Samuel Davies~

(continued with # 4)

Saturday, December 8, 2018

Unseen Things To Be Preferred to Seen Things # 2

Unseen Things To Be Preferred to Seen Things # 2

This I shall illustrate in the two comprehensive instances of pleasure and pain. To shun the one, and obtain the other - is the natural effort of the human mind. This is its aim in all its endeavors and pursuits. The innate desire for happiness and aversion to misery - are the two great springs of all human activity! Were these springs relaxed or broken, all business would cease, all activity would stagnate, and universal torpor would seize the world! And these principles are coexistent with the soul itself, and will continue in full vigor in a future eternal state.

Nay, as the soul will then be matured, and all its powers arrived to their complete perfection; this eagerness after happiness, and aversion to misery - will be also more quick and vigorous! The soul in its present state of infancy, like a young child, or a man enfeebled and stupefied by sickness - is capable of very deep sensations of pleasure and pain; and hence an excess of joy, as well as sorrow, has sometimes dissolved its feeble union with the body. On this account, we are incapable of such degrees of happiness or misery from the things of this world - as beings of more lively sensations might receive from them. And much more are we incapable of the happiness or misery of the future world - until we have actually put on immortality.

We cannot see God and live. Should the glory of heaven blaze upon us in all its majestic splendor - it would overwhelm our feeble nature; we could not support such a weight of glory! And one twinge of the agonies of hell would dislodge the soul from its earthly habitation. One pang of hell would convulse and stupefy it - were it not its powers strengthened by the separation from the body.

But in the future world all the powers of the soul will be mature and strong, and the body will be clothed with immortality; the union between them after the resurrection will be inseparable, and able to support the most oppressive weight of glory - or the most intolerable load of torment.

Hence it follows that pleasure and pain include all that we can desire or fear - in the present or future world; and therefore a comparative view of present and future pleasure and pain is sufficient to enable us to form a due estimate of visible and invisible things.

By present pleasure I mean all the happiness we can receive from present things: as from riches, honors, sensual gratifications, learning, and intellectual improvements, and all the amusements and activities of this life.

And by future pleasure,  or the pleasure which results from invisible things, I mean all the fruitions and enjoyments in which heavenly happiness consists.

By present pain, I mean all the uneasiness which we can receive from the things of the present life: as poverty, losses, mental distress, disappointments, bereavements, sickness, and bodily pains.

And by future pain, I mean all the punishments of hell: as banishment from God, and a privation of all created blessings, the agonizing reflections of a guilty conscience, the horrid company and torments of infernal demons, and the torture of infernal flames.

Now let us put these in the balance - and the one will sink into nothing, and the other rise into infinite importance!

CONSIDER:

A. Temporal things are of a contracted nature, and not adequate to the capacities of the human soul; but eternal things are great, and capable of communicating all the happiness and misery which the soul can receive.

B. The soul in its present state is not capable of such degrees of happiness and misery - as it will be in the future, when it actually dwells among invisible realities.

C. All that pleasure and pain which we receive from things that are seen, are intermingled with some ingredients of a contrary nature. In this present world, our good and evil are blended. Our happiness has some bitter ingredients, and our miseries have some agreeable mitigations. But the pleasures and pain which we receive from things that are unseen, are pure and unmingled.

Let's look at these facts in detail:

A. VISIBLE things are not equal to the capacities of the human soul. This little spark of being, the soul, which lies obscured in this prison of flesh, gives frequent discoveries of surprising powers; its desires in particular, have a kind of infinity. But all temporary objects are base and contracted; they cannot afford the soul a happiness equal to its capacity - nor render it as miserable as its capacity of suffering will bear. Hence, in the greatest affluence of temporal enjoyments, in the midst of honors, pleasures, riches, friends, etc., it still feels a painful void within, and finds an unknown something lacking, to complete its happiness.

Kings have been unhappy upon their thrones - and all their grandeur has been but majestic misery! So Solomon found it, who had both curiosity and opportunity to make the experiment; and this is his verdict upon all earthly enjoyments, after the most extensive and impartial trial: "Vanity of vanities" says the Preacher, "vanity of vanities; all is vanity and vexation of spirit!" ( Ecclesiastes 1:2, 13).

On the other hand, the soul may possess some degree of happiness, under all the miseries it is now capable of suffering from external and temporal things. Guilt indeed denies it this support; but if there be no internal broils, no anguish resulting from its own reflections - then not all the visible afflictions can render it perfectly miserable; its capacity of suffering is not put to its utmost stretch. This has been attested by the experience of multitudes who have suffered for righteousness sake.

~Samuel Davies~

(continued with # 3)

Unseen Things To Be Preferred To Seen Things # 1

Unseen Things To Be Preferred To Seen Things # 1

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen - but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary - but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Among all the causes of the stupid unconcernedness of sinners about true religion, and the feeble endeavors of saints to improve in it - there is none more common or more effectual, than their not forming a due estimate of the things of time - in comparison with those of eternity. Our present affairs engross all out thoughts, and exhaust all our activity, though they are but transitory trifles; while the solemn realities of the future world are hid from our eyes by the veil of flesh and the clouds of ignorance. Did these unseen eternal realities break in upon our minds in all their tremendous importance, they would annihilate the most desired vanities of the present state, obscure the glare of all earthly glory, render all its pleasures insipid, and give us a noble resignation under all its sorrows.

A realizing view of these eternal realities, would shock the worldling in thoughtless career, tear off the hypocrite's mask, and inflame the devotion of the languishing saints. The concern of mankind would then be how they might make a safe exit out of this world - and not how they may live happy in their earthly state. The pleasures of sin would strike us with horror as they issue in eternal pain! And our present afflictions, however tedious and severe, would appear but light and momentary - if they work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory!

These were the views which the apostle had of things, and these their effects upon him. He informs us in this chapter of his unwearied zeal to propagate the gospel amidst all the hardships and dangers that attend the painful discharge of his ministry. Though he bore about in his body the dying of the Lord Jesus, though he was always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake - yet he fainted not. And this was the prospect that animated him - that his light affliction, which was but for a moment, would work out for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor. 4:17). When we view his sufferings in themselves, without any reference to eternity - they were very heavy and of many years continuance; and when he represents them in this view, how pitiable is the narrative (2 Cor. 11:23-29).

But when he views them in the light of eternity, and compared with their glorious outcome - they sink into nothing! Then scourging, stoning, imprisonment, and all the various deaths to which he was daily exposed - are but light, trifling afflictions, hardly worth naming! And when he views a glorious futurity, human language cannot express the ideas he has of the happiness reserved for him; it is "a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory!"

It is glory in opposition to affliction! It is a weight of glory - in opposition to light affliction! And to finish all, it is a far more exceeding glory! 

The apostle observes, that he formed this estimate of things, while he looked not at the things which are seen but at the things which are unseen. 

We are to look on these invisible things, and not on those that are seen. Faith is defined by this apostle to be "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). (see particularly Hebrews 11:10, 13, 14, 16, 25, 26, 27).

Hence to look not at visible - but at invisible things, signifies that the apostle made unseen eternal realities, the chief objects of his contemplations, so that he was governed in the whole of his conduct by the impression of eternal things - and not by the present; that he formed his maxims and schemes from a comprehensive survey of futurities - and not from a partial view of things present; and, in short, that he had acted as an expectant of eternity - and not as a fleeting inhabitant of this wretched world. This he expresses in equivalent terms, "We walk by faith - and not by sight" (2 Cor. 5:7).

I. I shall give you a comparative view of visible and invisible things - that you may see the trifling nature of the one - and the great importance of the other. 

II. I shall show you the great and happy influence which a suitable impression of the superior importance of invisible things to visible things would have upon us.

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen - but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary - but what is unseen is eternal (2 Cor. 4:18).

I. A Comparative View of Visible and Invisible Things

1. Consider the infinite disparity between the invisible things and the visible things - as to their INTRINSIC VALUE. In this respect, the disparity is inconceivable.

~Samuel Davies~

(continued with # 2)

Saturday, December 1, 2018

Your Salvation Makes Amends For All His Sufferings!

Your Salvation Makes Amends For All His Sufferings! 

"He shall see His seed! He shall see the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied!" (Isaiah 53:10-11).

Jesus is now exalted to His throne in the highest heavens; and from thence He takes a wide survey of the universe. He looks down upon our world - and beholds kings in their grandeur, victorious generals with all their power, nobles and great men in all their pomp. But these are not the objects that best please His eyes. "He shall see His seed!" He sees one here, and another there, bought with His blood, and born of His Spirit; and this is the most delightful sight our world can afford Him. Some of them may be oppressed with poverty, covered with rags, or ghastly with famine; they may make no great figure in mortal eyes; but He loves to look at them! He esteems them as His children, and the fruits of His dying pangs!

The happiness of His exalted state consists, in a great degree - in the pleasure of seeing the designs of His death accomplished in the conversion and salvation of sinners!

His eyes are graciously fixed upon this assembly today! And if there is one of His spiritual seed among us - He can distinguish them in the crowd. He sees you drinking in His Words with eager ears! He sees you at His table commemorating His love! He sees your hearts breaking with penitential sorrows, and melting at His Cross!

But these are not the only children whom He delights to view; they are not all in such an abject, imperfect state. No! He sees a glorious company of them around His throne in heaven, arrived to maturity, enjoying their inheritance, and resembling their divine Parent!

How does His benevolent heart rejoice to look over the immense plains of heaven - and see them all peopled with His seed! When He takes a view of this numerous offspring, sprung from His blood, and when He looks down to our world - and sees so many infants in grace, gradually advancing to their adult age; when He sees some, perhaps every hour since He died upon Calvary, entering the gates of heaven, having finished their course of education upon earth; I say, when this prospect appears to Him - how does He rejoice!

Now the prophecy in my text is fulfilled! "He shall see of the travail of His soul - and shall be satisfied!" If you put the sentiments of His benevolent heart into language, methinks He would say, "Since My death has been so fruitful of such a glorious posterity - I am well satisfied. I desire no other reward for all My agonies for them. If this end is but answered - I am fully satisfied by My hanging on the tree for them!"

Suppose that He should this day appear to you in that suffering form - sweating great drops of blood, accused, insulted, bruised, scourged, nailed upon the Cross! And suppose He should turn to you with a countenance full of love and pity, and drenched with blood and tears, and address you in such moving language as this: "See! sinners - see what I suffer for you! See at what a dear rate I purchase your salvation! See how I love you! And now I have only this to ask of you in return: that you would forsake those murderous sins which thus torment Me; that you would love and serve Me; and receive that salvation which I am now purchasing with the blood of My heart! This I ask, with all the importunity - of My last breath, of My bleeding wounds, and My expiring groans. Grant Me but this - and I am well satisfied! I shall think of all My sufferings, as well bestowed."

O sirs, must not your heart melt away within you, to hear such language as this? See the strength of the love of Jesus! If you are but saved - He does not begrudge His blood and life for you! Your salvation makes amends for all His sufferings! This He accounts His greatest joy - a joy more than equivalent to all the pains He endured for you! He has full satisfaction for all the sorrows you have caused Him!

But alas! If you are not saved - then you will perish forever under the weight of His righteous vengeance - and He will rejoice over your damnation! He will glorify Himself in your destruction! The flames of hell will burn dreadfully bright - when He will please Himself in the execution of His justice upon you!

Alas! Is the happiness of heaven - the only kind of happiness that you are careless about? Is the salvation of your immortal soul - the only deliverance for which you have no desire? Alas! Have you become so stupidly wicked!

"He shall see His seed! He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied!" (Isaiah 53:10-11).

~Samuel Davies~

(The End)

Saturday, November 24, 2018

The Divine Magnet That Draws With Irresistible Force, Hearts of Steel (and others)

The Divine Magnet That Draws With Irresistible Force, Hearts of Steel! (and others)

"But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself!" (John 12:32).

Whenever and wherever Christ is lifted up, then His power to attract is made plain. The elect of God, drawn by a power they have no ability or will to resist, take their places beneath the Cross. The uplifting of Christ crucified, is God's chosen means to draw to Himself His elect, yet hidden people. The Cross is the divine magnet that draws with irresistible force, hearts of steel. So mighty is its magnetic power, that it attracts those on whom all other means have failed.

We had often been compelled to take our stand before Mount Sinai. But though its lightnings flashed into our every eyes, and its thunders crashed right over head, our heart remained as hard as rock - yes, pride seemed more rampant in that dread storm than ever - we felt we might be broken - but we resolved we would never bend.

There have been moments when hell argued with us, and all its sentences were written in glowing flame! There were moments when eternal damnation forced itself upon our thoughts, and made us dread the death that never dies. But though our knees shook with fright, our flinty hearts remained unmelted.

Sinai and hell both failed. So also did Heaven, for though we read of its glories, and heard tell of its joys, and sometimes had a languid desire at last to find our way there - we still remained unattracted, and reveled in the vain world.

But when a bleeding Saviour hanging on a tree met our sight, then not only were our eyes riveted - but an unseen hand touched every heart-string. We looked - and looked - and looked again - and felt that as we looked, we were being drawn with silken cords nearer, yet nearer still, until we found ourselves as penitents at His blessed feet!

Beautifully has John Newton described this sweet experience as his own:

"In evil long I took delight,
Unawed by shame or fear;
Until a new object struck my sight,
And stopped my wild career!

I saw One hanging on a tree,
In agonies and blood.
He fixed His languid eyes on me,
As near His Cross I stood.

Sure never til my dying breath,
Can I forget that look!
It seemed to charge me with His death,
Though not a word He spoke.

A second look He gave, which said,
I freely all forgive;
This blood is for your ransom paid,
I die, that you may live!"

~Archibald Brown~
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Nothing Escapes His Notice!

What a wondrous Being is the God of Scripture!

"Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account" (Hebrews 4:13).

God is omniscient. He knows everything: everything possible, everything actual, all events, all creatures, of the past, the present, and the future.

He is perfectly acquainted with every detail in the life of every being in heaven, on earth, and in hell. Nothing escapes His notice, nothing can be hidden from Him, nothing is forgotten by Him. His knowledge is perfect. He never errs. He never changes. He never overlooks anything.

God not only knows whatever has happened in the past in every part of His vast domains; and He is not only thoroughly acquainted with everything that is now transpiring throughout the entire universe - but He is also perfectly cognizant of every event, from the least to the greatest, that ever will happen in the ages to come!  God's knowledge of the future is as complete as is His knowledge of the past and the present; and that, because the future depends entirely upon Himself. God has Himself designed whatever shall yet be, and what He has designed, must be effectuated. God's knowledge does not arise from things because they are or will be - but because He has ordained them to be! Yes, such is the God with whom we have to do!

"You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue - You know it completely, O Lord!" (Psalm 139:2-4).

How solemn is this fact: nothing can be concealed from God! "For I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them" (Ezekiel 11:5). Though He is invisible to us - we are not so to Him. Neither the darkness of night, the closest curtains, nor the deepest dungeon - can hide any sinner from the eyes of Omniscience! Men would strip Deity of His omniscience if they could. They wish there might be no Witness of their sins, no Searcher of their hearts, no Judge of their deeds!

~A. W. Pink~

Saturday, November 17, 2018

God In Everything # 2 (and others)

God In Everything # 2 (and others)

In a word, the spiritual mind sees God in everything. The worm, the whale, and the tempest, all are instruments in His hand. The most insignificant, as well as the most splendid agents, further His ends. The east wind would not have proved effectual, though it had been ever so vehement, had not the worm and a scorching east wind could be joint agents in doing a work of God? Yet so it was! Great and small are only terms in use among men, and cannot apply to Him "who stoops down to behold the things that are in heaven," as well as "the things that are on earth." They are all alike to Him "who sits on the circle of the earth." Jehovah can count the number of the stars, and while He does so, He can take knowledge of a falling sparrow. He can make the whirlwind and His chariot, and a broken heart His dwelling place. Nothing is great or small with God.

The believer, therefore, must not look upon anything as ordinary, for God is in everything. True, he may have to pass through the same circumstances - to meet the same trials - to encounter the same reverses as other men; but he must not meet them in the same way, nor interpret them on the same principle; nor do they convey the same report to his ear. He should hear the voice of God, and heed His message, in the most trifling as well as in the most momentous occurrence of the day. The disobedience of a child, or the loss of an estate, or the death of a friend, should all be regarded as divine messengers to his soul.

So also, when we look around in the world, we should see God is in everything. The overturning of thrones, the crashing of empires, the famine, the pestilence, and every event that occurs among nations, exhibit traces of the hand of God, and utter a voice for the ear of man. The devil will seek to rob the Christians of the real sweetness of this thought; he will tempt him to think that, at least, the commonplace circumstances of everyday life exhibit nothing extraordinary, but only such as happen to other men. But we must not yield to him in this. We must start on our course every morning, with this truth vividly impressed on our mind - God is in everything! The sun that rolls along the heavens in splendid brilliancy, the worm that crawls along the path, have both alike been prepared of God, and, moreover, could both alike cooperate in the development of His unsearchable designs.

I would observe, in conclusion, that the only one who walked in the abiding remembrance of the above precious and important truth, was our blessed Master. He saw His Father's hand and heard the Father's voice in everything. This appears preeminently in the season of the deepest sorrow. He came forth from the garden of Gethsemane with those memorable words, "The cup which my Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?" thus recognizing in the fullest manner, that God is in everything.

~C. H. Mackintosh~

(The End)
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God's Most Comforting Attribute!

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose!" (Romans 8:28).

There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God's sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe troubles, they believe that sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that sovereignty overrules them, and that sovereignty will sanctify them all. 

There is nothing for which the children of God ought more earnestly to contend, then the doctrine of their Master ruling over all creation, the kingship of God over all the works of His own hand, the throne of God, and His right to reign upon that throne.

"Our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases!" (Psalm 115:3).

"All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as He pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth." (Daniel 4:35).

"Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns!" (Revelation 19:6).

"To be God and sovereign are inseparable!" (Stephen Charnock).

"Sovereignty characterizes the whole being of God. He is sovereign in all His attributes!" (A. W. Pink).

"God has sovereign right to dispose of us as He pleases. We ought to acquiesce in all that God does with us and to us." (William Carey).

~Charles Spurgeon~

God Is Everything

God Is Everything

But as the ship was sailing along, suddenly the Lord flung a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to send them to the bottom!

Now the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights!

And the Lord God prepared a gourd to grow there, and soon it spread its broad leaves over Jonah's head, shading him from the sun. This eased some of his discomfort, and Jonah was very grateful for the gourd. But God also prepared a worm! The next morning at dawn the worm ate through the stem of the plant, so that it soon died and withered away. And as the sun grew hot, God sent a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah. The sun beat down on his head until he grew faint and wished to die. "Death is certainly better than this!" he exclaimed. (Jonah 1:4, 17; 4:6-8).

Nothing so much helps the Christian endure the trials of his path as the habit of seeing God in everything! There is no circumstance, be it ever so trivial or ever so commonplace, which may not be regarded as a messenger from God, if only the ear be circumcised to hear, and the mind spiritual to understand the message. If we lose sight of this valuable truth, life, in many instances at least, will be but a dull monotony, presenting nothing beyond the most ordinary circumstances. On the other hand, if we could but remember, as we start each day on our course, that the hand of our Father can be traced in every scene - if we could see in the smallest, as well as in the most weighty circumstances, traces of the divine presence - how full of deep interest would each day's history be found!

The Book of Jonah illustrates this truth in a very marked way. There we learn, what we need so much to remember, that there is nothing ordinary to the Christian; everything is extraordinary. The most commonplace things, the simplest circumstances, exhibit in the history of Jonah, the evidences of divine intervention. To see this instructive feature, it is not needful to enter upon the detailed exposition of the Book of Jonah, we only need to notice one expression, which occurs in it again and again, namely, "The Lord prepared."

In chapter one the Lord sends out a wind into the sea, and this wind had in it a solemn voice for the prophet's ear, had he been wakeful to hear it. Jonah was the one who needed to be taught; for him the messenger was sent forth. The poor pagan mariners, no doubt, had often encountered a storm; to them it was nothing new, nothing special, nothing but what fell to the common lot of seamen; yet it was special and extraordinary for one individual on board, though that one was asleep in the sides of the ship. In vain did the sailors seek to counteract the storm; nothing would avail until the Lord's messenger had reached the ears of him to whom it was sent.

Following Jonah a little further, we perceive another instance of what we may term, "seeing God in everything." He is brought into new circumstances, yet he is not beyond the reach of the messengers of God. The Christian can never find himself in a position in which his Father's voice cannot reach his ear, or his Father's hand meet his view, for His voice can be heard, His hand seen, in everything. Thus when Jonah had been cast forth into the sea, "the Lord prepared a great fish." Here, too, we see that there is nothing ordinary to the child of God. A great fish was nothing uncommon; there are many such in the sea; yet did the Lord prepare one for Jonah, in order that it might be the messenger of God to his soul.

Again, in chapter four, we find the prophet sitting on the east side of the city of Nineveh, in sullenness, and impatience, grieved because the city had not been overthrown, and entreating the Lord to take away his life.  He would seem to have forgotten the lesson learned during his three days' sojourn in the sea, and he therefore needed a fresh message from God - "And the Lord prepared a gourd." This is very instructive. There was surely nothing uncommon in the mere circumstance of a gourd; other men might see a thousand gourds, and, moreover, might sit beneath their shade, and yet see nothing extraordinary in them. But Jonah's gourd exhibited traces of the hand of God, and forms a link - an important link - in the chain of circumstances through which, according to the design of God, the prophet was passing. The gourd now, like the great fish before, though very different in its kind, was the messenger of God to his soul. "So Jonah was exceeding glad for the gourd." He had before longed to depart, but his longing was more the result of impatience and chagrin, than of holy desire to depart and be at rest forever. It was the painfulness of the present, rather than the happiness of the future - which made him wish to be gone.

This is often the case. We are frequently anxious to get away from present pressure; but if the pressure were removed, the longing would cease. If we longed for the coming of of Jesus, and the glory of His blessed presence, circumstances would make no difference - we would then long as ardently to get away from those times of pressure and sorrow. Jonah while he sat beneath the shadow of the gourd, thought not of departing, and the very fact of his being "exceeding glad for the gourd" proved how much he needed that special messenger from the Lord; it served to make manifest the true condition of his soul, when he uttered the words, "Take, I beseech You, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live!" The Lord can make even a gourd the instrument for developing the secrets of the human heart. Truly the Christian can say, God is in everything. The tempest roars, and the voice of God is heard, a gourd springs up in silence, and the hand of God is seen. Yet the gourd was but a link in the chain; for "the Lord prepared a worm,  and this worm trifling as it was when viewed in the light of an instrument, was, nevertheless, as much the divine agent as was the "great wind", or the "great fish". A worm, when used by God, can do wonders; it withered Jonah's gourd, and taught him, as it teaches us, a solemn lesson. True, it was only an insignificant agent, the efficacy of which depended upon its conjunction with others; but this only illustrates the more strikingly the greatness of our Father's mind. He can prepare a worm, and He can prepare a vehement east wind, and make them both, though so unlike, conducive to His great designs.

~C. H. Mackintosh~

(continued with # 2)

Sunday, November 11, 2018

The God of Popular Christianity!

The God of Popular Christianity!

"Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth! Yours is the dominion, O LORD, and You exalt Yourself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is power and might" (1 Chronicles 29:11-12).

In these days of man-centered religion, verses like these have been ignored. The pulpits of our land preach a defeated God, a disappointed Christ and a defenseless Holy Spirit. Man has been deified - and God dethroned. God has been relegated to the background.

The God most people believe in has benevolent intentions, yet He is unable to carry them out. He wants to bless men, but they will not let Him. The average church-goer thinks satan has gained the upper hand, and that God is to be pitied rather than worshiped. The god of popular Christianity has a weak smile and a halo! 

To suppose in the slightest that God has failed, or that He has been defeated, is the height of foolishness and the depth of impiety! The religious world needs to get God off the charity list!

The Bible knows nothing of a defeated, disappointed, and defenseless God! The God of the Bible is the "Almighty God" (Genesis 17:1) Who has all power in Heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18). With Him nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37) or too hard (Jeremiah 32:17). His eternal purpose is being worked out. Everything is going according to His plan, and all things are under His control. 

The God of the Bible is the Supreme Being in the universe! He is the most High, higher than the highest. He has no superiors and no equals. God is God. He does as He pleases, only as He pleases, always as He pleases. 

"He is in one mind, and who can turn Him? What His soul desires, even that He does" (Job 23:13). Agreeing with this is Psalm 115:3: "But our God is in the heavens: He has done whatever He has pleased." As the Master of the World He declares: "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure!" (Isaiah 46:10).

God is the Supreme Being and the Sovereign of the universe. He exercises His power as He wills, when He wills, where He wills. "All inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. But He does according to His will in the host of Heaven, and among the inhabitants of earth. No one can ward off His hand or say to Him: What have You done? (Daniel 4:35).

God governs all His creatures and their actions. The events that take place on earth do not take place by chance, or fate, or luck. The so-called accidents are not even incidents with the Master of the World. He numbered the hairs of our head and noted the sparrow's fall in eternity past by His "determinate counsel and foreknowledge" (Acts 2:23).

The Master of the World set the bounds of our habitation on earth. The number of our months is with Him, and our days are appointed!

God is holding the helm of the universe, and regulating all events. The Master of the World "works all things after the counsel of His own will" (Ephesians 1:11). It is God's eternal right to do His pleasure. He is not accountable to any of His creatures. Job 33:13 declares: "He gives no account of any of His matters."

God controls all things - or nothing.
He must either rule - or be ruled.
He must either sway - or be swayed.
He must either accomplish His will - or be thwarted by His creatures.
He is not obligated to leave the affairs of this world to be governed by accident, chance, or the will of sinful men.

If we admit that God absolutely governs all things according to the counsel of His own will, then we admit that He has determined what shall and what shall not transpire in time and eternity. To deny His universal control of all things, is to deny His eternal power and Godhead. If He has the power and wisdom to determine all events - then He can cause all things to work together for good to those who love Him (Romans 8:28).

~Milburn Cockrell~

(The End)

Saturday, November 3, 2018

Quotes From Classic Christian Ministers

Quotes From Classic Christian Ministers



I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief! (Mark 9:24 NLT)

Here is something that you and I must dwell upon. Personally, I am constantly brought to this: I have not yet learnt thoroughly to believe what I believe in! I believe in the finished work of Christ, yet sometimes I am just as miserable about myself as any man could be. I am often almost at the point of giving up because of what a wretched kind of thing I am. If there is anything in this world that would cause me to give up the Christian ministry, it is myself. Do you understand what I mean? Oh, how we are discouraged by what we find in ourselves! And so, we don't believe what we believe in. We believe in the finished work of Christ, and that God puts all that finished work to our account. God does not see us in ourselves – He sees us in Christ. He does not see us, He sees Christ in us. We don't believe that! If we really did we would be delivered from ourselves and would indeed be triumphant Christians.

Of course, that does not mean that we can just behave anyhow. We may speak and act wrongly, but for every Christian there is a refuge – a mercy seat. It has not to be made; it is there with the precious Blood. That has not to be shed; it is shed. There is a High Priest making intercession for us. There is everything that we need. The work is finished, completed. Oh, we Christians must believe our beliefs! We must take hold, with both hands, of the things which are of our Christian faith.

~T. Austin-Sparks~
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You have a heart fit to do the deed!(J.C. Ryle, "The Gospel of Luke")

"But they kept shouting: Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" Luke 23:21 

Let us often pray that we may thoroughly understand the sinfulness of man's heart. 

Christ is never fully valued--until sin is clearly seen. 

We must know the depth and malignity of our disease--in order to appreciate the great Physician.

Few of us, it may be feared, have the least conception of the strength and virulence of the spiritual disease with which we are born! Few entirely realize that "the carnal mind is enmity against God," and that unconverted human nature, if it had the power--would cast its Maker down from His throne and crucify Him! 

The behavior of the Jews before us--is only a picture of what every natural man would do to God, if he only could! 

"If the bosom of God were within the reach of men, it would be stabbed a million of times in one moment! If the bosom of God were now within your reach, and one blow would rid the universe of God--you have a heart fit to do the deed!Robert Murray M'Cheyne
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God's Mysterious Dealings

If God were dealing with us as sinners, that is, if He were dealing with us because of certain personal sins and personal faults, we could quite clearly understand that; but when He is dealing with us in relation to Divine purpose, as His servants, His dealings with us go far beyond our understanding. We are taken out into a realm where we do not understand what the Lord is doing with us, and why the Lord takes certain courses with us. We are out of our depth; we are altogether baffled and we are compelled - that is, if we are going on with God - to believe that God knows what He is doing: we have just to move with Him according to whatever light we may have, and believe that these dealings with us, so far beyond our understanding are somehow related to that purpose with which we are called and that the explanation waits some distance ahead, and we will find it when we get there. God does not explain Himself when He takes a step with us.

~T. Austin-Sparks~
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Sanctify them through Thy truth.
Sanctification begins in regeneration. The Spirit of God infuses into man that new living principle by which he becomes "a new creature" in Christ Jesus. This work, which begins in the new birth, is carried on in two ways-mortification, whereby the lusts of the flesh are subdued and kept under; and vivification, by which the life which God has put within us is made to be a well of water springing up unto everlasting life. This is carried on every day in what is called "perseverance," by which the Christian is preserved and continued in a gracious state, and is made to abound in good works unto the praise and glory of God; and it culminates or comes to perfection, in "glory," when the soul, being thoroughly purged, is caught up to dwell with holy beings at the right hand of the Majesty on high. But while the Spirit of God is thus the author of sanctification, yet there is a visible agency employed which must not be forgotten. "Sanctify them," said Jesus, "through thy truth: thy word is truth." The passages of Scripture which prove that the instrument of our sanctification is the Word of God are very many. The Spirit of God brings to our minds the precepts and doctrines of truth, and applies them with power. These are heard in the ear, and being received in the heart, they work in us to will and to do of God's good pleasure. The truth is the sanctifier, and if we do not hear or read the truth, we shall not grow in sanctification. We only progress in sound living as we progress in sound understanding. "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." Do not say of any error, "It is a mere matter of opinion." No man indulges an error of judgment, without sooner or later tolerating an error in practice. Hold fast the truth, for by so holding the truth shall you be sanctified by the Spirit of God.

~Charles Spurgeon~
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BIBLE MEDITATION:
“Jesus answered and said...if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.” Matthew 21:21
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
When a nation loses its ability to discern morality, it embarks on a slippery slope toward self-destruction, especially when it comes to basic sexual morality.
When a nation turns its back on the commands of God, He will say, “That’s the last step. I wash My hands. You asked for it. You got it.”
America is in crisis, and unless we have a moral rebirth, we will join the graveyard of the nations. The hour is late—it’s time to wake up. Time is passing—it’s time to look up. Jesus is coming—it’s time to sober up. Satan is working—it’s time to amour up. Mountains need moving—it’s time to pray up and pray some mountain-moving prayers.
ACTION POINT:
Ask the Lord to heal our land. Take inventory. What do you need to repent of in your own heart and life? God has said he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:23). Rather than ask God to get rid of them, ask Him to forgive the iniquities of the wicked and bring salvation to their souls.


~Adrian Rogers~