Love Reproving # 1

 Love Reproving # 1

Some time ago we received the following inquiry from one of our readers, "Do you think it possible to be too critical of Christians (?) nowadays? The reason I put a question mark after "Christians" was because I wondered if some of them really are born again of the Spirit. We cannot always tell, can we? Are we not, at all events, to speak the Truth in love? This is a very practical question with us just now."

It is a practical question for all who (by grace) really desire to conduct themselves according to the revealed will of God and follow the example which Christ Himself has left us. The wording of these questions indicates that the inquirer does not have in mind the matter of how I should act toward one who has wronged me personally - but rather, what is my duty unto professing Christians with whom I come into contact and whose ways grieve me and whose walk causes me to doubt their regeneration? As others of our readers may be exercised upon these points, we will here amplify the answer given to our friend.

First, let us turn the light of Holy Writ upon this matter, "Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly - so you will not share in his guilt" (Lev. 19:17). There are three things which call for our prayerful response.

First, this is a plain precept bidding us to rebuke an erring brother - it is not optional but obligatory; this duty must not be omitted under any pretense. God requires His people to uphold the demands of righteousness. He will not wink at sin - nor must they.

Second, God would also correct our innate self-centeredness. We are so occupied with our own well-being as to be in danger of neglecting the good of our neighbor. This verse plainly denotes it is a lack of love for others - if we seem them commit sin with indifference, and make no effort to bring them to repentance and forsake their evil course. A mild, plain, and seasonable reproof is the best way of expressing our solicitude for an erring brother, though it is distasteful to us and unwelcome to him.

Third, "So you will not share in his guilt" means that you become not an accessory of the act. Silence gives consent - if I don't rebuke him - I condone evil and share the guilt.

The basic issue which is here raised narrows down to this - what is it for a Christian to "act in love" towards others, particularly the wayward?

Few words have been used more inaccurately and loosely in recent years, than has "love." With a great many people it is but a synonym for moral laxity, weakness of character, a taking the line of least resistance, a quiet tolerating of what is felt to be wrong. Multitudes of parents have supposed they were treating their children "lovingly" when they overlooked their folly, make excuses for their wildness, and refused to discipline them for disobedience. They have prided themselves on being "kinder" toward their children than the "stern measures" which were meted out to themselves in their own youth. But it is laxity - and not love - which allows a child to have its own way. "He who spares his rod hates his son - but he who loves him, chastens him early" (Proverbs 13:24). Let those of our readers who have young children ponder Proverbs 19:18; 22:15; 23:123, 14; 2915, 17, and remember those are the words of Him who is love!

That which we have referred to in the above paragraph has been by no means confined to home life - the same evil has held sway in the "churches." Leniency and weakness have overridden righteousness and faithfulness. Instead of maintaining and enforcing the discipline which God's Word enjoins - the great majority of the "churches" have winked at even glaring sins, refusing to deal with those who walk disorderly. This reprehensible laxity is misnamed "love." A maudin sentimentality which shrank from 'hurting the feelings" of others - ousted all concern for the glory of Christ and the honor of His "house."

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 2)

The Wrath Of God # 3

 The Wrath Of God # 3

"If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" (Psalm 130:3). Well may each of us ask this question, for it is written, "the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment." (Psalm 1:5).

How sorely was Christ's soul exercised with thoughts of God's marking the iniquities of His people when they were upon Him! He was deeply troubled and distressed (Mark 14:33). His awful agony, His bloody sweat, His strong cries and supplications (Hebrews 5:7), His reiterated prayers, "If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me." His last dreadful cry, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" - all manifest what fearful apprehensions He had of what it was for God to "mark iniquities." Well may poor sinners cry out, "Lord, who shall stand" when the Son of God Himself so trembled beneath the weight of His wrath! If you, my reader, have not "fled for refuge" to Christ, the only Saviour, "how will you do in the swelling of the Jordan?" (Jeremiah 12:5). 

"When I consider how the goodness of God is abused by the greatest part of mankind, I cannot but be of his mind who said, "The greatest miracle in the world is God's patience and bounty to an ungrateful world." If a prince has an enemy surrounded in one of his towns, he does not send them in provisions, but lays close siege to the place, and does what he can to starve them. But the great God, who could wink all His enemies into destruction, bears with them, and is at daily cost to maintain them. Well may He command us to bless those who curse us, who Himself does good to the evil and unthankful. But think not, sinners, that you shall escape thus; God's mill goes slow, but grinds small. The more admirable His patience and bounty now is, the more dreadful and unsupportable will that fury be which arises out of His abused goodness. Nothing smoother than the sea - yet when stirred into a tempest, nothing rages more. Nothing so sweet as the patience and goodness of God, and nothing so terrible as His wrath when it takes fire!"

Then, "flee," my reader, flee to Christ! "Flee from the wrath to come" (Matthew 3:7) before it is too late. Do not, we earnestly beseech you, suppose that this message is intended for somebody else. It is to you! Do not be contented by thinking you have already fled to Christ. Make certain! Beg the Lord to search your heart and show you.

A Word to Preachers: Brethren, do we in our teaching ministry preach on this solemn subject as much as we ought? The Old Testament prophets frequently told their hearers that their wicked lives provoked the Holy One of Israel, and that they were treasuring up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath. And conditions in the world are no better now than they were then! Nothing is so calculated to arouse the careless and cause of carnal professors to search their hearts, as to enlarge upon the fact that "God is angry with the wicked every day" (Psalm 7:11). The forerunner of Christ warned his hearers to "flee from the wrath to come" (Matthew 3:7). The Saviour bade His hearers, "Fear Him, who after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say unto you, Fear Him!" (Luke 12:5). The Apostle Paul said, "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men" (2 Corinthians 5:11). Faithfulness demands that we speak as plainly about hell - as about Heaven.

~A. W. Pink~

(The End)

The Gifts Of God # 2

 The Gifts Of God # 2

4. The gift of SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING. "And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true." (1 John 5:20). What is communicated to the saint when he is born again, is wholly spiritual and exactly suited for taking in the Scriptural knowledge of Christ. It is not an entirely new faculty which is then imparted, but rather the renewing of the original one. It consists of an internal illumination, a divine light that shines in our hearts, enabling us to discern the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6).

5. The gift of FAITH. The salvation of God does not actually become ours until we believe in, rest upon, and receive Christ as a personal Saviour. But as we cannot see without both sight and light, neither can we believe until life and faith are divinely communicated to us. Since salvation is by grace, it is superfluous to add that it is "not of yourselves." But because "faith" is our act, it was necessary - so that the excellency of it should not be arrogated by the creature, but ascribed unto God - to point out that faith is not of ourselves. God must give me faith before I believe.

6. The gift of REPENTANCE. While it is the bound duty of every sinner to repent (Acts 17:30) -for ought he not to cease from and abhor his rebellion against God? Yet he is so completely under the blinding power of sin that a miracle of grace is necessary before he will do so. A broken and a contrite spirit, are of God's providing. It is the Holy Spirit who illuminates the understanding to perceive the heinousness of sin, the heart to loath it, and the will to repudiate it.

Faith and repentance are the first evidence of spiritual life.

7. The gift of GRACE. "I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given to you by Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:4). Grace is used there in its widest sense, including all the benefits of Christ's merits and mediation, providential or spiritual, temporal or eternal. It includes regenerating, sanctifying, preserving grace, as well as every particular grace of the new nature - faith, hope and love. Therefore we have no cause to be proud or boastful. Whatever grace we have to resist the devil, patiently bear affliction, or overcome the world - is from Him. Whatever obedience we perform, or devotion we render Him, or sacrifice we make - is of His grace. Therefore must we confess, "But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? For everything comes from You, and we have given You, only what comes from Your own hand." (1 Chronicles 29:14).

~A. W. Pink~

(The End)