Unction, the Mark of True Gospel Preaching
Speak for eternity. Above all things, cultivate your own spirit. A word spoken by you when your conscience is clear and your heart full of God's Spirit is worth ten thousand words spoken in unbelief and sin. Remember that God, and not man, must have the glory! If the veil of the world's machinery were lifted off, how much we would find is done in answer to the prayers of God's children." Robert Murray McCheyne
Unction is that indefinable, indescribable something which an old, renowned Scotch preacher describes thus: "There is sometimes somewhat in preaching that cannot be ascribed either to matter or expression, and cannot be described what it is, or from whence it cometh, but with a sweet violence it pierceth into the heart and affections and comes immediately from the Word; but if there be any way to obtain such a thing, it is by the heavenly disposition of the speaker."
We call it "unction." It is this unction which makes the word of God "quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." It is this unction which gives the words of the preacher such point, sharpness, and power, and which creates such friction and stir in many a dead congregation. The same truths have been told in the strictness of the letter, smooth as human oil could make them; but no signs of life, not a pulse throb; all as peaceful as the grace and as dead. The same preacher in the meanwhile receives a baptism of this unction, the divine inflatus is on him, the letter of the Word has been embellished and fired by this mysterious power, and the trobbings of life begin - life which receives or life which resists. The unction pervades and convicts the conscience and breaks the heart
This divine unction is the feature which separates and distinguishes true gospel preaching from all other methods of presenting the truth, and which creates a wide spiritual chasm between the preacher who has it and the one who has it not. It backs and impregns revealed truth with all the energy of God. Unction is simply putting God in His own word and on His own preachers. By mighty and great prayerfullness and by continual prayerfullness, it is all potential and personal to the preacher; it inspires and clarifies his intellect, gives insight and grasp and projecting power; it gives to the preacher heart power, which is greater than head power; and tenderness, purity, force flow from the heart by it. Enlargement, freedom, fullness of thought, directness and simplicity of utterance are the fruits of this unction.
Often earnestness is mistaken for this unction. He who has the divine unction will be earnest in the very spiritual nature of things, but there may be a vast deal of earnestness without the least mixture of unction.
Earnestness and unction look alike from some points of view. Earnestness may be readily and without detection substituted or mistaken for unction. It requires a spiritual eye and a spiritual taste to discriminate.
Earnestness may be sincere, serious, ardent, and persevering. It goes at a thing with good will, pursues it with perseverance,and urges it with ardor, puts force in it. But all these forces do not rise higher than the mere human. The man is in it - the whole man, with all that he has of will and heart, of brain and genius, of planning and working and talking. He has set himself to some purpose which has mastered him, and he pursues to master it. There may be none of God in it. There may be little of God in it, because there is so much of the man in it. He may present pleas in advocacy of his earnest purpose which please or touch and move or overwhelm with conviction of their importance; and in all this earnestness may move along earthly ways, being propelled by human forces only, its altar made by earthly hands and its fire kindled by earthly flames. It is said of a rather famous preacher of gifts, whose construction of Scripture was to his fancy or purpose, that he "grew very eloquent over his own exegesis." So men grow exceeding earnest over their own plans or movements. Earnestness may be selfishness simulated.
What of unction? It is the indefinable in preaching which makes it preaching. It is that which distinguishes and separates preaching from all mere human addresses. It is the divine in preaching. It makes the preaching sharp to those who need sharpness. It distills as the dew to those who need to be refreshed. It is well described as:
"a two-edged sword
Of heavenly temper keen,
And double were the wounds it made
Wherever it glanced between.
'Twas death to silt; 'twas life
To all who mourned for sin.
It kindled and it silenced strife,
Made war and peace within."
This unction comes to the preacher not in the study but in the closet. It is heaven's distillation in answer to prayer. It is the sweetest exhalation of the Holy Spirit. It impregnates,suffuses, softens, percolates,cuts, and soothes. It carries the Word like dynamite, like salt, like sugar; makes the Word a soother, an arranger, a revealer, a searcher; makes the hearer a culprit or a saint, makes him weep like a child and live like a giant; opens his heart and his purse as gently, yet as strongly as the spring opens the leaves. This unction is not the gift of genius. It is not found in the halls of learning. No eloquence can woo it. No industry can win it. No prelatical hands can confer it. It is the gift of God - the signet set to his own messengers. It is heaven's knighthood given to the chosen true and brave ones who have sought this anointed honor through many an hour of tearful, wrestling prayer.
Earnestness is good and impressive: genius is gifted and great. Thought kindles and inspires, but it takes a diviner endowment, a more powerful energy than earnestness or genius or thought to break the chains of sin, to win estranged and depraved hearts to God, to repair the breaches and restore the Church to her old way of purity and power. Nothing but this holy unction can do this.
~E. M. Bounds~
(The End)
Friday, February 24, 2017
Friday, February 17, 2017
What Do I Still Lack?
What Do I Still Lack?
What percentage of responsibility for my spiritual maturity is the Lord's, and how much of it is mine? To say that I alone am responsible for my soul's development is conceit. To say that all the responsibility is the Lord's is impudence.
I find it humbling, inspiring an challenging to recognize that the greatest saints who ever lived did not have a bigger Bible than I have. They just knew it better! Indeed, they had far less of the divine revelation. Today we have the complete message of God to man.He has nothing more to say to us. As the old hymn says, "What more can He say to you He hath said?" God has no "P.S." to add to the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
For years the Holy Scriptures were wrapped up in tongues that only the scholars could read. "There was no open vision in those days" (1 Samuel 3:1). Then, blessed day, the whole counsel of God was released in our own tongue. With this unveiling came the glad news of the priesthood of believers - Hallelujah!
Do you wonder that Bishop Walsham said: "How bursts into song about the Holy Word. "It is a golden casket, where gems of Truth are stored. It is the Heaven-drawn picture of Christ, the Living Word." Trees are fascinating to most of us. I like to see the burdened fruit trees showing off their labor. The English like their mighty oaks and the Americans their redwood trees. At the moment, in the area where I write, the peach trees are richly endowed with fruit; but, it does not grow already canned. No! God gave us the fruit; we do the canning. Trees do not grow furniture, even in this scientific age. We have the trees. From them we make the chairs, etc. So it is with the spiritual life. Here is a stunning truth from Second Peter, Chapter one, verse three: "His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness." Paul backs up Peter in this area when he says, "How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32). And to top these precious words, here comes Paul again with s staggering statement: "The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." Stop there? No, add the remainder: "...if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together." (Romans 8:16-17).
With all this limitless resource to inherit in this life, why then, O why, do we settle for minimum spirituality? These scriptures just quoted shatter all our excuses for carnal Christianity and explode all our feeble bumper-sticker excuses on bumper-sticker evangelism: "Christians are not perfect, just forgiven." (Some backslider must have written that.)
Sinning is not permitted to believers. "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin." (1 John 3:9). Not that it is impossible to sin; but it is, by the blood of Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit, possible not to sin. John again shouts the triumphant note, "Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world." (1 John 4:4).
God, then, has made it possible for you and me to have victory over the world, the flesh and the devil!
Here are the Master's commandments to His own. These are not options but imperatives. With His enabling and our striving, we can explore what Lowrey called "the possibilities of Grace." We can leave the playpen in the Spiritual Nursery and "go on unto perfection." (Hebrews 6:1). Here are His commands:
"Little children, keep yourselves from idols (1 John 5:21).
"Building up yourselves on you most holy faith ..." (Jude 20; Romans 10:27).
"Keep yourselves in the love of God ..." (by obedience to His Word) Jude 21.
"Put on the whole armor of God ..." (equipment for beating satan) Ephesians 6:11.
The Scripture is very clear here: "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." (James 4:7).
Christian maturity is not a weekend operation. On the other hand, remember there is no finality to the Christian life this side of eternity. While we are in the flesh, we "press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 3:14).
We hear continually about "Weight Watchers." O that we watched our spiritual growth as carefully!
I believe in instant purity: "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 1:7). I do not believe in instant maturity. Faith in the finished work of Christ is one thing. To add to your faith, as Peter says in 2 Peter 1:5-7, is something else. As a tree must be pruned regularly to bring it to maturity, so we need pruning. It is easy to sing, "And pour contempt on all my pride." If I do that at all, I will do it conveniently protecting myself from and "bleeding." It is when the Lord does it - or worse still when He uses some other human being (less spiritual than I am) to do the pruning - there can I kiss the rod? This is a process in spiritual growth. Can I take it cheerfully when I am slighted, when my name is cast out as an evil thing (though I am totally innocent)? Can I joyfully help to promote another to a position that I would like and which I am more capable of handling?
I heard a preacher asking another if folks came to the altar at his last meeting. He replied, "Yes, but most of them are altar tramps." It's easier to go to the altar than to get on the Cross. There is no magic in a trip to the altar. You will not grow an inch by walking a few yards to the altar, unless there is a total repentance and a holy vow to God that you will not fall into the same hole again.
That holy hand of "Heroes of Faith" in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews staggers me. They had no Bibles, no millions of cassettes as we have, no Bible seminars, no daily radio Bible teaching, and (fortunate souls) no Gospel T. V. preachers whining about lack of funds. (When did the Lord run out of supplies?) Yet what things these folks in Hebrews 11 accomplished: subdued whole kingdoms - (O that some person rich in faith could subdue the worldwide kingdom of the drug trade) -wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions. What miracles, what men, what faith!
These "pattern" folks of our faith did not get to the heights in one leap:
"They climbed the steep ascent to Heaven
Through peril, toil, and pain.
O God, may grace to us be given,
to follow in their train."
Asked why he was used of the Lord so greatly in China, Hudson Taylor replied, "God had looked long for a man weak enough, and He found me." He takes the weak things of the world to confound the mighty. Spiritual wisdom does not come with years; neither does maturity. The key to both is obedience. Whatsoever He saith unto YOU, do it!
An insatiable thirst for God will produce an unquenchable love for holiness (as He is holy), resulting in a passion for the lost.
Remember, friend, you are just as spiritual as you want to be!
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(The End)
What percentage of responsibility for my spiritual maturity is the Lord's, and how much of it is mine? To say that I alone am responsible for my soul's development is conceit. To say that all the responsibility is the Lord's is impudence.
I find it humbling, inspiring an challenging to recognize that the greatest saints who ever lived did not have a bigger Bible than I have. They just knew it better! Indeed, they had far less of the divine revelation. Today we have the complete message of God to man.He has nothing more to say to us. As the old hymn says, "What more can He say to you He hath said?" God has no "P.S." to add to the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
For years the Holy Scriptures were wrapped up in tongues that only the scholars could read. "There was no open vision in those days" (1 Samuel 3:1). Then, blessed day, the whole counsel of God was released in our own tongue. With this unveiling came the glad news of the priesthood of believers - Hallelujah!
Do you wonder that Bishop Walsham said: "How bursts into song about the Holy Word. "It is a golden casket, where gems of Truth are stored. It is the Heaven-drawn picture of Christ, the Living Word." Trees are fascinating to most of us. I like to see the burdened fruit trees showing off their labor. The English like their mighty oaks and the Americans their redwood trees. At the moment, in the area where I write, the peach trees are richly endowed with fruit; but, it does not grow already canned. No! God gave us the fruit; we do the canning. Trees do not grow furniture, even in this scientific age. We have the trees. From them we make the chairs, etc. So it is with the spiritual life. Here is a stunning truth from Second Peter, Chapter one, verse three: "His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness." Paul backs up Peter in this area when he says, "How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32). And to top these precious words, here comes Paul again with s staggering statement: "The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." Stop there? No, add the remainder: "...if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together." (Romans 8:16-17).
With all this limitless resource to inherit in this life, why then, O why, do we settle for minimum spirituality? These scriptures just quoted shatter all our excuses for carnal Christianity and explode all our feeble bumper-sticker excuses on bumper-sticker evangelism: "Christians are not perfect, just forgiven." (Some backslider must have written that.)
Sinning is not permitted to believers. "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin." (1 John 3:9). Not that it is impossible to sin; but it is, by the blood of Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit, possible not to sin. John again shouts the triumphant note, "Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world." (1 John 4:4).
God, then, has made it possible for you and me to have victory over the world, the flesh and the devil!
Here are the Master's commandments to His own. These are not options but imperatives. With His enabling and our striving, we can explore what Lowrey called "the possibilities of Grace." We can leave the playpen in the Spiritual Nursery and "go on unto perfection." (Hebrews 6:1). Here are His commands:
"Little children, keep yourselves from idols (1 John 5:21).
"Building up yourselves on you most holy faith ..." (Jude 20; Romans 10:27).
"Keep yourselves in the love of God ..." (by obedience to His Word) Jude 21.
"Put on the whole armor of God ..." (equipment for beating satan) Ephesians 6:11.
The Scripture is very clear here: "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." (James 4:7).
Christian maturity is not a weekend operation. On the other hand, remember there is no finality to the Christian life this side of eternity. While we are in the flesh, we "press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 3:14).
We hear continually about "Weight Watchers." O that we watched our spiritual growth as carefully!
I believe in instant purity: "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 1:7). I do not believe in instant maturity. Faith in the finished work of Christ is one thing. To add to your faith, as Peter says in 2 Peter 1:5-7, is something else. As a tree must be pruned regularly to bring it to maturity, so we need pruning. It is easy to sing, "And pour contempt on all my pride." If I do that at all, I will do it conveniently protecting myself from and "bleeding." It is when the Lord does it - or worse still when He uses some other human being (less spiritual than I am) to do the pruning - there can I kiss the rod? This is a process in spiritual growth. Can I take it cheerfully when I am slighted, when my name is cast out as an evil thing (though I am totally innocent)? Can I joyfully help to promote another to a position that I would like and which I am more capable of handling?
I heard a preacher asking another if folks came to the altar at his last meeting. He replied, "Yes, but most of them are altar tramps." It's easier to go to the altar than to get on the Cross. There is no magic in a trip to the altar. You will not grow an inch by walking a few yards to the altar, unless there is a total repentance and a holy vow to God that you will not fall into the same hole again.
That holy hand of "Heroes of Faith" in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews staggers me. They had no Bibles, no millions of cassettes as we have, no Bible seminars, no daily radio Bible teaching, and (fortunate souls) no Gospel T. V. preachers whining about lack of funds. (When did the Lord run out of supplies?) Yet what things these folks in Hebrews 11 accomplished: subdued whole kingdoms - (O that some person rich in faith could subdue the worldwide kingdom of the drug trade) -wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions. What miracles, what men, what faith!
These "pattern" folks of our faith did not get to the heights in one leap:
"They climbed the steep ascent to Heaven
Through peril, toil, and pain.
O God, may grace to us be given,
to follow in their train."
Asked why he was used of the Lord so greatly in China, Hudson Taylor replied, "God had looked long for a man weak enough, and He found me." He takes the weak things of the world to confound the mighty. Spiritual wisdom does not come with years; neither does maturity. The key to both is obedience. Whatsoever He saith unto YOU, do it!
An insatiable thirst for God will produce an unquenchable love for holiness (as He is holy), resulting in a passion for the lost.
Remember, friend, you are just as spiritual as you want to be!
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(The End)
Sunday, February 12, 2017
The Burning Bush
The Burning Bush
"He looked, and, behold, the Bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed" (Exodus 3:3)
Wondrous is the sight which here meets our view. It is a bush in flames, but not consumed. Destroying fire fails to destroy. Perishable wood refuses to be fuel. Reader! this surely is no new object to you. But know that it abounds in lessons which your search cannot mine! It must be so. The unsearchable riches of Jesus are in this mine! He, who is the Wonder of Wonders, is the true Wonder of the bush.
Reader! you must see Christ by faith, if ever you would see God and enter heaven. You must know Christ in heart, if ever you would know peace in conscience and hope in death. Ask then the Holy Spirit that He would make the blazing bush to be a blaze of saving light within your soul. The way to the burning bush lies through an avenue of instructive thoughts.
Moses is mercifully rescued from an early grave of waters. Pharaoh's decree dooms to death. But Pharaoh's daughter is the means of life. When God has purposes to work, He can make foes his tools! The oppressor's court becomes the refuge of the oppressed. The Hebrew child is caressed as an Egyptian prince. But the perils of the Nile are scarcely greater to the body; than the perils of the palace to the soul. Worldly pomp is very dazzling. Worldly luxury is very entrancing. Worldly pleasures are very ensnaring. But there is an ark of safety in the flood of vanities, as in the flood of waters. Moses is neither dazzled, nor entranced, nor ensnared. He looks above, and sees a splendor far more bright. He deliberately chooses scorn to be the truest honor - such affliction to be the purest joy - such loss to be the richest gain - such poverty to be the most enduring wealth.
Reader! it is an important principle, that none can tread the world beneath their feet until they see a fairer world above their heads. When the Lord is set before you, your eyes are dim to lower objects. The beauty of the all-beauteous One makes other loveliness unlovely. Moses proves the mighty energy of soul-elevating, soul-purifying faith. This stirring principle turns his whole course from ease and affluence and self, into one stream of daring activities for God. He beholds with aching heart Israel's crushed tribes. He boldly presents himself to avenge their wrongs, and to erect the standard of their freedom. But what is the welcome which awaits him? Alas! he is thrust away with a rejecting taunt, "Who made you a prince and a judge over us?"
Reader! your eyes are open to such pitiable folly. You sigh over a serfdom, which is content to do a tyrant's bidding, rather than defy a tyrant's rage. But such may be your own case. The Gospel, like Moses, approaches men. It tells them that they grind in satan's prison-house. It calls them to arise from the dust, to lift up the head, to burst the fetters, to dare to be free. It shows them Jesus, the Captain of salvation, inviting them to the banner of His Cross. It assures those who this Leader never lost a battle - and never lost a man. It beseeches them to cast off the filthy fetters, and to stride boldly towards the sparkling crown. What answer is returned? Alas! multitudes hate the voice which would arouse them. They hug the bonds which bind them to perdition's cell. They little think how soon each link in that chain will become a deathless scorpion and a quenchless flame!
Then Moses fled at this saying. Reader! take heed. The decree may issue, he is joined to idols; let him alone. An unwelcomed Saviour may depart forever. The wings of love may fly away in judgment.
He was hidden as a stranger in the land of Midian forty years. But the God who was his shield in the crowd, was his "sun" in the desert. It is sad, that the Lord's servant must be earth's outcast. But it is sweet to see how heavenly wisdom can make the hardest usage to yield our choicest blessings. The sweetest honey is from the stony rock. There was work for Moses which required lamb-like meekness with lion-like resolve. He must be calm as the ocean when it sleeps - firm as the rock which smiles at storms. These are the lessons of tribulation's school - therefore, in tribulation he must be schooled. Metal becomes pure by long process in the furnace. The wisdom which is profitable in the busy haunts of busy men, grows in retirement's still shade. In the seclusion of Arabia, Paul drinks calmly of truth's fount. In the wilds of Midian, Moses sits at the feet of God.
At last the appointed time of rescue came. God's works are the reflection of decrees ordained of old. When His purposes were ripe, a marvel startles the shepherd-prophet. A bush blazes before him, each branch, each fiber reddened in the flame. But neither branch nor fiber received hurt. The brittle wood waved an uninjured head. Well might Moses wonder. But wonder deepened into awe, when from the bush a voice was heard, even the voice of God.
Reader! it becomes us now to ask, "What is the Gospel of the burning bush?" Jesus Himself appears in His person, suffering. and all-resisting might.
His Person - He is God, and yet He stoops to be made man. He is man, and yet He continues to be God forever. Withdraw the Godhead, and His blood cannot atone. Withdraw the manhood, and no blood remains. The union gives a Saviour able,and a Saviour fit. Look to the bush! It shows this very union. The wood denotes the poor and feeble produce of earth. It exhibits the tender plant - the "root" out of a dry ground. But it holds God as its inhabitant. The voice out of its midst proclaims, Your God is here.
His Sufferings - Fire wraps the bush. No clearer image can depict the hot assaults of wrath. The life of Jesus knew these well. It was one struggle with keen anguish. Earth was a thorny path. Hell shot its every shaft. Heaven darkened with the horrors of its frowns. All the fierce pains which infinite displeasure could inflict, made Him their prey. He wrung out all, which all the ransomed would have tasted, if hell-agonies had been their doom forever!
His all-resisting might - In vain the fire assailed the bush. It stood unharmed. So every blow recoiled from Jesus. Sustained by His indwelling Deity, He trod all foes beneath His feet. He burst the bands of death. He shivered the grave's gates. He stood victorious on the ruins of hell's empire. He mounted in triumph to the heaven of heavens.
We have next an unquestionable type of the whole family of faith. Persecutions and trials are the fire, which assails them with ceaseless fury. But still they thrive and strengthen and bud and blossom and flourish. How can it be? Deity indwells them! And where Deity resides there must be undecaying life.
The Church's story is a mirror of this truth. How often do we see it as a tiny bark tossed in engulfing waves. The powers of the mighty, the craft of the subtle, the rage of the frantic, have seized it with terrific grasp. Evil men have done their worst - evil spirits have aimed blows - evil fiends have put forth spite. Surely the fragile bush must sink in ruin! But no! It defies all foes. It stands, and will stand forever, verdant and fragrant and fruitful. But the power of resistance is not its own. The Lord is in the midst of it! He has chosen it as His abode forever. They are precious tidings. In the midst of the seven candlesticks is one like unto the Son of man.
It is true that Jesus, as God, holds all space within His hand. His center is everywhere. His circumference is nowhere. But still the Church is the chosen home of His unbounded love. Here His all-protecting might, His all-preserving care, His full delights, repose. He received it from His Father as His spouse - His jewels - His peculiar treasure - His portion - the fullness of His body - the completeness of His mediatorial glory. He is engaged to seat it, as an undiminished family, before the throne. If one member be injured, Christ is marred; if one be absent, Christ is maimed. Hence He is ever with it - all heart to love - all eye to watch - all hand to help - all wisdom to direct - all power to beat back foes. Let then, the fire rage! It must be mightier than Almightiness before the bush can droop to nothingness.
Do these lines meet the eye of one who plots and strives against Zion's (the church's) welfare? Vain man, forbear! The promise ever lives, "Lo, I am with you always." Can you tear the sun from its high seat? Can you beat back ocean with a feather? Can you bind the lightning with a straw? Such task would be easier than to pluck Jesus from the bush. Because He lives there, His people shall live also!
Here, to, another mystery is solved. Grace seems but a tender plant in the believer's heart. It has to contend with nipping frosts and desolating storms. satan's rage burns hot against it. The world brings fuel upon fuel to consume it. The flesh blows fiercely to fan the flame. But grace still thrives! Its roots spread. Its branches rise. Its fruit ripens. Why? Christ walks within His garden - a guardian-God. His hand sowed each seed. The dew of His favor nourishes it. The smile of His love matures it. Hence it overtops all fiery foes, and lifts its head towards heaven.
Believer, think much of the goodwill of Him who dwelt in the bush! Fears then will flee away. If you stood alone, it would be presumption to hope. Because you are not alone, it is offence to tremble.
Look back. Many conflicts are behind, and yet you live. How is it? You reply with Paul, "The Lord stood with me and strengthened me." The bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. Your present fight is hot. But you hear a much-loved voice, "Do not fear, for I am with you." The bush burns with fire, and the bush is not consumed.
You look forward. The horizon is dark with clouds of tribulation. But the same voice cheers, "Do not fear, for I am with you; when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned." The captive youths, a cloud of witnesses, an army of blessed martyrs, wave you forward. They tell that persecuting flames may be divested of all their sting. Rejoice then. The bush shall burn with fire, but it shall not be consumed!
Reader! pause here, and search your conscience. Is your body a temple of Jesus Christ, through the Spirit? Is Christ dwelling in your heart by faith? Is Christ in you, the hope of glory? It it is not so, touch not the comfort of the burning bush. Remember, there are thorns and briers, "whose end is to be burned." No Saviour saves them.Tares must be bound in bundles for wrath's full-heated furnace. A terrible voice wails from the region of the lost, "I am tormented in this flame." The day comes that shall burn as an oven and all the proud, yes, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble. The smoke of their torment ascends up forever and ever.
Reader! here are words by which, through grace, you may be saved. Turn not away to everlasting burnings. If you are so mad, this warning will lie, as a hot coal, upon your soul forever!
~Henry Law~
(The End)
"He looked, and, behold, the Bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed" (Exodus 3:3)
Wondrous is the sight which here meets our view. It is a bush in flames, but not consumed. Destroying fire fails to destroy. Perishable wood refuses to be fuel. Reader! this surely is no new object to you. But know that it abounds in lessons which your search cannot mine! It must be so. The unsearchable riches of Jesus are in this mine! He, who is the Wonder of Wonders, is the true Wonder of the bush.
Reader! you must see Christ by faith, if ever you would see God and enter heaven. You must know Christ in heart, if ever you would know peace in conscience and hope in death. Ask then the Holy Spirit that He would make the blazing bush to be a blaze of saving light within your soul. The way to the burning bush lies through an avenue of instructive thoughts.
Moses is mercifully rescued from an early grave of waters. Pharaoh's decree dooms to death. But Pharaoh's daughter is the means of life. When God has purposes to work, He can make foes his tools! The oppressor's court becomes the refuge of the oppressed. The Hebrew child is caressed as an Egyptian prince. But the perils of the Nile are scarcely greater to the body; than the perils of the palace to the soul. Worldly pomp is very dazzling. Worldly luxury is very entrancing. Worldly pleasures are very ensnaring. But there is an ark of safety in the flood of vanities, as in the flood of waters. Moses is neither dazzled, nor entranced, nor ensnared. He looks above, and sees a splendor far more bright. He deliberately chooses scorn to be the truest honor - such affliction to be the purest joy - such loss to be the richest gain - such poverty to be the most enduring wealth.
Reader! it is an important principle, that none can tread the world beneath their feet until they see a fairer world above their heads. When the Lord is set before you, your eyes are dim to lower objects. The beauty of the all-beauteous One makes other loveliness unlovely. Moses proves the mighty energy of soul-elevating, soul-purifying faith. This stirring principle turns his whole course from ease and affluence and self, into one stream of daring activities for God. He beholds with aching heart Israel's crushed tribes. He boldly presents himself to avenge their wrongs, and to erect the standard of their freedom. But what is the welcome which awaits him? Alas! he is thrust away with a rejecting taunt, "Who made you a prince and a judge over us?"
Reader! your eyes are open to such pitiable folly. You sigh over a serfdom, which is content to do a tyrant's bidding, rather than defy a tyrant's rage. But such may be your own case. The Gospel, like Moses, approaches men. It tells them that they grind in satan's prison-house. It calls them to arise from the dust, to lift up the head, to burst the fetters, to dare to be free. It shows them Jesus, the Captain of salvation, inviting them to the banner of His Cross. It assures those who this Leader never lost a battle - and never lost a man. It beseeches them to cast off the filthy fetters, and to stride boldly towards the sparkling crown. What answer is returned? Alas! multitudes hate the voice which would arouse them. They hug the bonds which bind them to perdition's cell. They little think how soon each link in that chain will become a deathless scorpion and a quenchless flame!
Then Moses fled at this saying. Reader! take heed. The decree may issue, he is joined to idols; let him alone. An unwelcomed Saviour may depart forever. The wings of love may fly away in judgment.
He was hidden as a stranger in the land of Midian forty years. But the God who was his shield in the crowd, was his "sun" in the desert. It is sad, that the Lord's servant must be earth's outcast. But it is sweet to see how heavenly wisdom can make the hardest usage to yield our choicest blessings. The sweetest honey is from the stony rock. There was work for Moses which required lamb-like meekness with lion-like resolve. He must be calm as the ocean when it sleeps - firm as the rock which smiles at storms. These are the lessons of tribulation's school - therefore, in tribulation he must be schooled. Metal becomes pure by long process in the furnace. The wisdom which is profitable in the busy haunts of busy men, grows in retirement's still shade. In the seclusion of Arabia, Paul drinks calmly of truth's fount. In the wilds of Midian, Moses sits at the feet of God.
At last the appointed time of rescue came. God's works are the reflection of decrees ordained of old. When His purposes were ripe, a marvel startles the shepherd-prophet. A bush blazes before him, each branch, each fiber reddened in the flame. But neither branch nor fiber received hurt. The brittle wood waved an uninjured head. Well might Moses wonder. But wonder deepened into awe, when from the bush a voice was heard, even the voice of God.
Reader! it becomes us now to ask, "What is the Gospel of the burning bush?" Jesus Himself appears in His person, suffering. and all-resisting might.
His Person - He is God, and yet He stoops to be made man. He is man, and yet He continues to be God forever. Withdraw the Godhead, and His blood cannot atone. Withdraw the manhood, and no blood remains. The union gives a Saviour able,and a Saviour fit. Look to the bush! It shows this very union. The wood denotes the poor and feeble produce of earth. It exhibits the tender plant - the "root" out of a dry ground. But it holds God as its inhabitant. The voice out of its midst proclaims, Your God is here.
His Sufferings - Fire wraps the bush. No clearer image can depict the hot assaults of wrath. The life of Jesus knew these well. It was one struggle with keen anguish. Earth was a thorny path. Hell shot its every shaft. Heaven darkened with the horrors of its frowns. All the fierce pains which infinite displeasure could inflict, made Him their prey. He wrung out all, which all the ransomed would have tasted, if hell-agonies had been their doom forever!
His all-resisting might - In vain the fire assailed the bush. It stood unharmed. So every blow recoiled from Jesus. Sustained by His indwelling Deity, He trod all foes beneath His feet. He burst the bands of death. He shivered the grave's gates. He stood victorious on the ruins of hell's empire. He mounted in triumph to the heaven of heavens.
We have next an unquestionable type of the whole family of faith. Persecutions and trials are the fire, which assails them with ceaseless fury. But still they thrive and strengthen and bud and blossom and flourish. How can it be? Deity indwells them! And where Deity resides there must be undecaying life.
The Church's story is a mirror of this truth. How often do we see it as a tiny bark tossed in engulfing waves. The powers of the mighty, the craft of the subtle, the rage of the frantic, have seized it with terrific grasp. Evil men have done their worst - evil spirits have aimed blows - evil fiends have put forth spite. Surely the fragile bush must sink in ruin! But no! It defies all foes. It stands, and will stand forever, verdant and fragrant and fruitful. But the power of resistance is not its own. The Lord is in the midst of it! He has chosen it as His abode forever. They are precious tidings. In the midst of the seven candlesticks is one like unto the Son of man.
It is true that Jesus, as God, holds all space within His hand. His center is everywhere. His circumference is nowhere. But still the Church is the chosen home of His unbounded love. Here His all-protecting might, His all-preserving care, His full delights, repose. He received it from His Father as His spouse - His jewels - His peculiar treasure - His portion - the fullness of His body - the completeness of His mediatorial glory. He is engaged to seat it, as an undiminished family, before the throne. If one member be injured, Christ is marred; if one be absent, Christ is maimed. Hence He is ever with it - all heart to love - all eye to watch - all hand to help - all wisdom to direct - all power to beat back foes. Let then, the fire rage! It must be mightier than Almightiness before the bush can droop to nothingness.
Do these lines meet the eye of one who plots and strives against Zion's (the church's) welfare? Vain man, forbear! The promise ever lives, "Lo, I am with you always." Can you tear the sun from its high seat? Can you beat back ocean with a feather? Can you bind the lightning with a straw? Such task would be easier than to pluck Jesus from the bush. Because He lives there, His people shall live also!
Here, to, another mystery is solved. Grace seems but a tender plant in the believer's heart. It has to contend with nipping frosts and desolating storms. satan's rage burns hot against it. The world brings fuel upon fuel to consume it. The flesh blows fiercely to fan the flame. But grace still thrives! Its roots spread. Its branches rise. Its fruit ripens. Why? Christ walks within His garden - a guardian-God. His hand sowed each seed. The dew of His favor nourishes it. The smile of His love matures it. Hence it overtops all fiery foes, and lifts its head towards heaven.
Believer, think much of the goodwill of Him who dwelt in the bush! Fears then will flee away. If you stood alone, it would be presumption to hope. Because you are not alone, it is offence to tremble.
Look back. Many conflicts are behind, and yet you live. How is it? You reply with Paul, "The Lord stood with me and strengthened me." The bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. Your present fight is hot. But you hear a much-loved voice, "Do not fear, for I am with you." The bush burns with fire, and the bush is not consumed.
You look forward. The horizon is dark with clouds of tribulation. But the same voice cheers, "Do not fear, for I am with you; when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned." The captive youths, a cloud of witnesses, an army of blessed martyrs, wave you forward. They tell that persecuting flames may be divested of all their sting. Rejoice then. The bush shall burn with fire, but it shall not be consumed!
Reader! pause here, and search your conscience. Is your body a temple of Jesus Christ, through the Spirit? Is Christ dwelling in your heart by faith? Is Christ in you, the hope of glory? It it is not so, touch not the comfort of the burning bush. Remember, there are thorns and briers, "whose end is to be burned." No Saviour saves them.Tares must be bound in bundles for wrath's full-heated furnace. A terrible voice wails from the region of the lost, "I am tormented in this flame." The day comes that shall burn as an oven and all the proud, yes, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble. The smoke of their torment ascends up forever and ever.
Reader! here are words by which, through grace, you may be saved. Turn not away to everlasting burnings. If you are so mad, this warning will lie, as a hot coal, upon your soul forever!
~Henry Law~
(The End)
Monday, February 6, 2017
Christ's Love For Us # 2
Christ's Love For Us # 2
Had I ten heads, said Henry Voes, they should all be cut off for Christ. If every hair of my head, said John Ardley, martyr, were a man, they should all suffer for the faith of Christ. Let fire, racks, pulleys, said Ignatius, and all the torments of hell come upon me, so I may win Christ. Love made Jerome to say, "O my Saviour, did you die for love of me? - a love sadder than death; but tome a death more lovely than love itself. I cannot live, love you, and be longer from you." George Carpenter, being asked whether he did not love his wife and children, which stood weeping before him, answered, "My wife and children! my wife and children! are dearer to me than all Bavaria; yet, for the love of Christ, I know them not." That blessed virgin being condemned for Christianity to the fire, and having her estate and life offered her if she would worship idols, cried out, "Let money perish, and life vanish, Christ is better than all!" Sufferings for Christ are saints greatest glory; they are those things wherein they have most gloried Your cruelty is our glory,says Tertullian. It is reported of Babylas, that when he was to die for Christ, he desired this favor, that his chains might be buried with him, as the ensigns of his honor. Thus you see with what a superlative love, with what an overtopping love, former saints have loved our Lord Jesus; and can you, Christians, who are cold and low in your love to Christ, read over these instances, and not blush?
Certainly the more Christ has suffered for us, the more dear Christ should be unto us; the more bitter his sufferings have been for us, the more sweet His love should be to us, and the more eminent should be our love to him. Oh, let a suffering Christ lie nearest your hearts; let Him be your manna, your tree of life, your morning star. It is better to part with all than with this pearl of price. Christ is that golden pipe through which the golden oil of salvation runs; and oh, how should this inflame our love to Christ! Oh that our hearts were more affected with the sufferings of Christ! Who can tread upon these hot coals, and his heart not burn in love to Christ, and cry out with Ignatius, "Christ my love is crucified?" If a friend should die for us, how would our hearts be affected with his kindness! and shall the God of glory lay down His life for us, and shall we not be affected with His goodness. Shall Saul be affected with David's kindness in sparing his life, and shall not we be affected with Christ's kindness, who, to save our life, lost His own? Oh, the infinite love of Christ, that He should leave His Father's bosom, and come down from heaven, that He might carry you up to heaven; that He that was a Son should take upon Him the form of a servant; that you of slaves should be made sons, of enemies should be made friends, heirs of wrath should be made heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ; that to save us from everlasting ruin, Christ should stick at nothing, but be willing to be made flesh, to lie in a manger, to be tempted, deserted, persecuted, and to die upon a Cross!
Oh, what flames of love should these things kindle in all our hearts to Christ! Love is compared to fire; in heaping love upon our enemy, we heap coals of fire upon his head. Now the property of fire is to turn all it meets with into its own nature: fire makes all things fire; the coal makes burning coals; and is it not a wonder then that Christ, having heaped abundance of the fiery coals of His love upon our heads, we should yet be as cold as corpses in our love to Him. Ah! what sad metal we are made of, that Christ's fiery love cannot inflame our love to Christ! Moses wondered why the bush consumed not, when he sees it all on fire; but if you please but to look into your own hearts, you shall see a greater wonder; for you shall see that, though you walk like those three children in the fiery furnace, even in the midst of Christ's fiery love flaming round about you; yet there is but little, very little, true smell of that sweet fire of love to be felt or found upon you or in you. Oh, when shall the sufferings of a dear and tender-hearted Saviour kindle such a flame of love in all our hearts, as shall still be a breaking forth in our lips and lives, in our words and ways, to the praise and glory of free grace? Oh that the sufferings of a loving Jesus might at last make us all sick of love! Oh, let Him forever lie between our breasts, who has left His Father's bosom for a time, that He might be embosomed by us forever!
~Thomas Brooks~
(The End)
Had I ten heads, said Henry Voes, they should all be cut off for Christ. If every hair of my head, said John Ardley, martyr, were a man, they should all suffer for the faith of Christ. Let fire, racks, pulleys, said Ignatius, and all the torments of hell come upon me, so I may win Christ. Love made Jerome to say, "O my Saviour, did you die for love of me? - a love sadder than death; but tome a death more lovely than love itself. I cannot live, love you, and be longer from you." George Carpenter, being asked whether he did not love his wife and children, which stood weeping before him, answered, "My wife and children! my wife and children! are dearer to me than all Bavaria; yet, for the love of Christ, I know them not." That blessed virgin being condemned for Christianity to the fire, and having her estate and life offered her if she would worship idols, cried out, "Let money perish, and life vanish, Christ is better than all!" Sufferings for Christ are saints greatest glory; they are those things wherein they have most gloried Your cruelty is our glory,says Tertullian. It is reported of Babylas, that when he was to die for Christ, he desired this favor, that his chains might be buried with him, as the ensigns of his honor. Thus you see with what a superlative love, with what an overtopping love, former saints have loved our Lord Jesus; and can you, Christians, who are cold and low in your love to Christ, read over these instances, and not blush?
Certainly the more Christ has suffered for us, the more dear Christ should be unto us; the more bitter his sufferings have been for us, the more sweet His love should be to us, and the more eminent should be our love to him. Oh, let a suffering Christ lie nearest your hearts; let Him be your manna, your tree of life, your morning star. It is better to part with all than with this pearl of price. Christ is that golden pipe through which the golden oil of salvation runs; and oh, how should this inflame our love to Christ! Oh that our hearts were more affected with the sufferings of Christ! Who can tread upon these hot coals, and his heart not burn in love to Christ, and cry out with Ignatius, "Christ my love is crucified?" If a friend should die for us, how would our hearts be affected with his kindness! and shall the God of glory lay down His life for us, and shall we not be affected with His goodness. Shall Saul be affected with David's kindness in sparing his life, and shall not we be affected with Christ's kindness, who, to save our life, lost His own? Oh, the infinite love of Christ, that He should leave His Father's bosom, and come down from heaven, that He might carry you up to heaven; that He that was a Son should take upon Him the form of a servant; that you of slaves should be made sons, of enemies should be made friends, heirs of wrath should be made heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ; that to save us from everlasting ruin, Christ should stick at nothing, but be willing to be made flesh, to lie in a manger, to be tempted, deserted, persecuted, and to die upon a Cross!
Oh, what flames of love should these things kindle in all our hearts to Christ! Love is compared to fire; in heaping love upon our enemy, we heap coals of fire upon his head. Now the property of fire is to turn all it meets with into its own nature: fire makes all things fire; the coal makes burning coals; and is it not a wonder then that Christ, having heaped abundance of the fiery coals of His love upon our heads, we should yet be as cold as corpses in our love to Him. Ah! what sad metal we are made of, that Christ's fiery love cannot inflame our love to Christ! Moses wondered why the bush consumed not, when he sees it all on fire; but if you please but to look into your own hearts, you shall see a greater wonder; for you shall see that, though you walk like those three children in the fiery furnace, even in the midst of Christ's fiery love flaming round about you; yet there is but little, very little, true smell of that sweet fire of love to be felt or found upon you or in you. Oh, when shall the sufferings of a dear and tender-hearted Saviour kindle such a flame of love in all our hearts, as shall still be a breaking forth in our lips and lives, in our words and ways, to the praise and glory of free grace? Oh that the sufferings of a loving Jesus might at last make us all sick of love! Oh, let Him forever lie between our breasts, who has left His Father's bosom for a time, that He might be embosomed by us forever!
~Thomas Brooks~
(The End)
Friday, February 3, 2017
Christ's Love for Us # 1
Christ's Love For Us
Let us stand still, and admire and wonder at the love of Jesus Christ to poor sinners; that Christ should rather die for us, than for the angels. They were creatures of a more noble extract,and in all probability might have brought greater revenues of glory to God: yet that Christ should pass by those golden, vessels, and make us vessels of glory, Oh, what amazing and astonishing love is this! This is the envy of devils, and the admiration of angels and saints.
The apostle, being in a holy admiration of Christ's love, affirms it to pass knowledge, Ephesians 3:18, 19; that God, who is the eternal Being, should love man when he had scarce a being, Proverbs 8:30, 31, that he should be enamored with deformity, that he should love us when in our blood, Ezekiel 16, that he should pity us when no eye pitied us, no, not our own. Oh, such was Christ's transcendent love, that man's extreme misery could not abate it. The deploredness of man's condition did but heighten the holy flame of Christ's love. It is as high as heaven, who can reach it? It is as low as hell, who can understand it? Heaven, through its glory, could not contain Him, man being miserable, nor hell's torments make him refrain, such was His perfect matchless love to fallen man. That Christ's love should extend to the ungodly, to sinners, to enemies that were in arms of rebellion against Him, Romans v. 6, 8, 10; yes, not only so, but that he should hug them in His arms, lodge them in His bosom, dandle them upon His knees, and lay them to His breasts, that they may be satisfied, is the highest improvement of love, Isaiah 66:11-13.
That Christ should come from the eternal bosom of of His Father, to a region of sorrow and death, John 1:18; that God should be manifested in the flesh, the Creator made a creature, Isaiah 63:4; that He that was clothed with glory, should be wrapped with rags of flesh, 1 Timothy 3:16; that He that filled heaven, should be cradled in a manger, John 17:5; that the God of Israel should fly into Egypt, Matthew 2:14; that the God of strength should be weary; that the judge of all flesh should be condemned; that the God of life should be put to death, John 19:41; that He that is one with His Father, should cry out of misery, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me!" Matthew 26:39: that He that had the keys of hell and death, Revelation 1:18, should lie imprisoned in the sepulcher of another, having, in His lifetime, nowhere to lay His head; nor after death, to lay His body, John 19:41, 42; and all this for man, for fallen man, for miserable man, for worthless man, is beyond the thoughts of created natures. The sharp, the universal and continual sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ, from the cradle to the Cross, does above all other things speak out the transcendent love of Jesus Christ to poor sinners. That wrath, that infinite wrath, that matchless wrath of an angry God, that was so terribly impressed upon the soul of Christ, quickly spent His natural strength, and turned His moisture into the drought of summer, Psalms 32:4; and yet all this wrath He patiently underwent, that sinners might be saved, and that "he might bring many sons unto glory," Hebrews 2:10.
Oh, wonder of love! Love enables Jesus to suffer. It was love that made our dear Lord Jesus lay down His life, to save us from hell and to bring us to heaven. As the pelican, out of her love to her young ones, when they are bitten with serpents, feeds them with her own blood to recover them again; so when we were bitten by the old serpent, and our wound incurable, and we in danger of eternal death, then did our dear Lord Jesus, that he might recover us and heal us, feed us with His own blood, Genesis 3:15; John 6:53-56. Oh love unspeakable! This made Bernard cry out, "Lord, you have loved me more than yourself; for you have laid down your life for me."
It was only the golden link of love that fastened Christ to the Cross. John 10:17, and that made Him die freely for us, and that made Him willing "to be numbered among transgressors," Isaiah 53:12, that we might be numbered among the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, Hebrews 12:23.
Christ's love is like His name, and that is Wonderful, Isaiah 9:6; yes, it is so wonderful, that it is above all creatures, beyond all measure, contrary to all nature. It is above all creatures, for it is above the angels, and therefore above all others. It is beyond all measure, for time did not begin it, and time shall never end it; place does not bound it, sin does not exceed it, no estate, no age, no sex is denied it, tongues cannot express it, understandings cannot conceive it: and it is contrary to all nature; for what nature can love where it is hated? What nature can forgive where it is provoked? What nature can offer reconciliation where it receives wrong? What nature can heap up kindness upon contempt, favor upon ingratitude, mercy upon sin? And yet Christ's love has led Him to all this; so that well may we spend all our days in admiring and adoring of this wonderful love, and be always ravished with the thoughts of it.
See that you love the Lord Jesus Christ with a superlative love, with an overtopping love. There are none have suffered so much for you as Christ; there are none that can suffer so much for you as Christ. The least measure of that wrath that Christ has sustained for you, would have broke the hearts, necks, and backs of all created beings.
O my friends! There is no love but a superlative love that is any ways suitable to the transcendent sufferings of dear Jesus. Oh, love Him above your lusts, love Him above your relations, love Him above the world, love Him above all your outward contentments and enjoyments; yes, love Him above your very lives; for thus the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, saints, primitive Christians, and the martyrs of old, have loved our Lord Jesus Christ with an overtopping love: Revelation 12:11, "They loved not their lives unto the death; "that is, they slighted, contemned, yes, despised their lives, exposing them to hazard and loss, out of love to the Lamb, "who had washed them in His blood." I have read of one Dutch schoolmaster, who being asked whether he did not love his wife and children, answered, "Were all the world a lump of gold, and in my hands to dispose of, I would leave it at my enemies feet to live with them in a prison; but my soul and my Saviour are dearer to me than all. If my father should stand before me, and my mother hang upon, and my brethren should press about me, I would break through my brethren, throw down my father, and tread underfoot my mother, to cleave to Jesus Christ!"
~Thomas Brooks~
(continued with # 2)
Let us stand still, and admire and wonder at the love of Jesus Christ to poor sinners; that Christ should rather die for us, than for the angels. They were creatures of a more noble extract,and in all probability might have brought greater revenues of glory to God: yet that Christ should pass by those golden, vessels, and make us vessels of glory, Oh, what amazing and astonishing love is this! This is the envy of devils, and the admiration of angels and saints.
The apostle, being in a holy admiration of Christ's love, affirms it to pass knowledge, Ephesians 3:18, 19; that God, who is the eternal Being, should love man when he had scarce a being, Proverbs 8:30, 31, that he should be enamored with deformity, that he should love us when in our blood, Ezekiel 16, that he should pity us when no eye pitied us, no, not our own. Oh, such was Christ's transcendent love, that man's extreme misery could not abate it. The deploredness of man's condition did but heighten the holy flame of Christ's love. It is as high as heaven, who can reach it? It is as low as hell, who can understand it? Heaven, through its glory, could not contain Him, man being miserable, nor hell's torments make him refrain, such was His perfect matchless love to fallen man. That Christ's love should extend to the ungodly, to sinners, to enemies that were in arms of rebellion against Him, Romans v. 6, 8, 10; yes, not only so, but that he should hug them in His arms, lodge them in His bosom, dandle them upon His knees, and lay them to His breasts, that they may be satisfied, is the highest improvement of love, Isaiah 66:11-13.
That Christ should come from the eternal bosom of of His Father, to a region of sorrow and death, John 1:18; that God should be manifested in the flesh, the Creator made a creature, Isaiah 63:4; that He that was clothed with glory, should be wrapped with rags of flesh, 1 Timothy 3:16; that He that filled heaven, should be cradled in a manger, John 17:5; that the God of Israel should fly into Egypt, Matthew 2:14; that the God of strength should be weary; that the judge of all flesh should be condemned; that the God of life should be put to death, John 19:41; that He that is one with His Father, should cry out of misery, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me!" Matthew 26:39: that He that had the keys of hell and death, Revelation 1:18, should lie imprisoned in the sepulcher of another, having, in His lifetime, nowhere to lay His head; nor after death, to lay His body, John 19:41, 42; and all this for man, for fallen man, for miserable man, for worthless man, is beyond the thoughts of created natures. The sharp, the universal and continual sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ, from the cradle to the Cross, does above all other things speak out the transcendent love of Jesus Christ to poor sinners. That wrath, that infinite wrath, that matchless wrath of an angry God, that was so terribly impressed upon the soul of Christ, quickly spent His natural strength, and turned His moisture into the drought of summer, Psalms 32:4; and yet all this wrath He patiently underwent, that sinners might be saved, and that "he might bring many sons unto glory," Hebrews 2:10.
Oh, wonder of love! Love enables Jesus to suffer. It was love that made our dear Lord Jesus lay down His life, to save us from hell and to bring us to heaven. As the pelican, out of her love to her young ones, when they are bitten with serpents, feeds them with her own blood to recover them again; so when we were bitten by the old serpent, and our wound incurable, and we in danger of eternal death, then did our dear Lord Jesus, that he might recover us and heal us, feed us with His own blood, Genesis 3:15; John 6:53-56. Oh love unspeakable! This made Bernard cry out, "Lord, you have loved me more than yourself; for you have laid down your life for me."
It was only the golden link of love that fastened Christ to the Cross. John 10:17, and that made Him die freely for us, and that made Him willing "to be numbered among transgressors," Isaiah 53:12, that we might be numbered among the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, Hebrews 12:23.
Christ's love is like His name, and that is Wonderful, Isaiah 9:6; yes, it is so wonderful, that it is above all creatures, beyond all measure, contrary to all nature. It is above all creatures, for it is above the angels, and therefore above all others. It is beyond all measure, for time did not begin it, and time shall never end it; place does not bound it, sin does not exceed it, no estate, no age, no sex is denied it, tongues cannot express it, understandings cannot conceive it: and it is contrary to all nature; for what nature can love where it is hated? What nature can forgive where it is provoked? What nature can offer reconciliation where it receives wrong? What nature can heap up kindness upon contempt, favor upon ingratitude, mercy upon sin? And yet Christ's love has led Him to all this; so that well may we spend all our days in admiring and adoring of this wonderful love, and be always ravished with the thoughts of it.
See that you love the Lord Jesus Christ with a superlative love, with an overtopping love. There are none have suffered so much for you as Christ; there are none that can suffer so much for you as Christ. The least measure of that wrath that Christ has sustained for you, would have broke the hearts, necks, and backs of all created beings.
O my friends! There is no love but a superlative love that is any ways suitable to the transcendent sufferings of dear Jesus. Oh, love Him above your lusts, love Him above your relations, love Him above the world, love Him above all your outward contentments and enjoyments; yes, love Him above your very lives; for thus the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, saints, primitive Christians, and the martyrs of old, have loved our Lord Jesus Christ with an overtopping love: Revelation 12:11, "They loved not their lives unto the death; "that is, they slighted, contemned, yes, despised their lives, exposing them to hazard and loss, out of love to the Lamb, "who had washed them in His blood." I have read of one Dutch schoolmaster, who being asked whether he did not love his wife and children, answered, "Were all the world a lump of gold, and in my hands to dispose of, I would leave it at my enemies feet to live with them in a prison; but my soul and my Saviour are dearer to me than all. If my father should stand before me, and my mother hang upon, and my brethren should press about me, I would break through my brethren, throw down my father, and tread underfoot my mother, to cleave to Jesus Christ!"
~Thomas Brooks~
(continued with # 2)
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Prevailing Intercession
Prevailing Intercession
"As long as Moses held up the staff with his hands, the Israelites had the advantage. But whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites gained the upper hand." (Exodus 17:11)
Alarms soon trouble the advancing host. Amalek attacks their rear. Esau's tribe has evil will against the house of Jacob. The birthright sold, the blessing lost, had deeply laid the seeds of malice. And now occasion ripens hatred into fierce assault. Believer, the race of Cain, of Ishmael, of Esau still lives. Be ready. Their hate is sure. Their wily steps are near. When least expected, they will plot their worst. How shall such foes be met? He who follows Christ must neither flee nor yield nor fear. He must stand fast in faith, and he must kneel in prayer. So Moses teaches. He commands Joshua, "Choose some men, and go out, fight." Haven's crown sits only on a warrior's brow.
But carnal weapons are impotent alone. In fighting, by not fighting, we prevail. So when Joshua struggles in the plain, Moses wrestles on the hill. He seeks the summit, bearing the rod. Prayer brings all heaven to the aid. Thus Israel's hands are strong or weak as those of Moses rise or drop. Large Gospel lessons here expand before us. We may roam up and down this field and find no end in gathering precious fruit. But one special tree calls us to shake its richly-laden boughs. Moses interceding on the hill shows Jesus interceding on the higher heights.
Come then, my soul, with joyful wing fly upward. It is good, it is wise, it is blessed, to be much with Jesus in the suffering valley. Faith visits often the manger, the garden, and the Cross. It seeks all sin's remission in the stripes, the wounds, the agony, the death of the bleeding Lamb. But these amazing truths are but the "porch" of more amazing glories. Hence it delights to follow Jesus in His bright ascent, to gaze undazzled on the throne, to mark His present doings by His Father's side.
What? Is He still engaged in work? Wondrous tidings! Hear, all who call Him Lord - He ever loves you, and ever labors in your cause. His eye is never turned away. His hands cannot hang down. His heavens are the office-chamber of your soul's concerns. Do you ask, "What is His work?" Listen, the Holy Spirit cries, "He ever lives to make intercession." His every day and every hour is ceaseless energy of interceding love.
Do you add, "But what is intercession?" An intercessor stands between two parties, pleading for the one to look with favor on the other. The parties here are God the Father, and poor worms of earth. "If any man sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Before the Father, then, the Mediator pleads. But is not the Father an overflowing ocean of free grace? Is it not His grand delight to crown His sons with all heaven's blessings? Why, then, shall prayers, like constant incense, move Him to give what He is unwilling to withhold? Salvation's scheme is wholly ordered to show forth love in brightest rays. It is to aid this end, that intercession has its place.
Believer, what kindles flames of comfort in your heart? What decks your brow with smiles, when trials and temptations throng? Is it not a view of Jesus pleading at God's right hand? The thought is rapture, peace, and victory. Remove the Advocate, and all your hope goes down in gloom. Christ prays, because He loves so much. He prays, because the Father loves not less. Intercession is the fair fruit of their co-loving heart.
Next, see "for whom" this intercession strives. Imagine a father begging for his much-loved son, a mother for her first-born child, brother for brother, friend for friend, the ardent bridegroom for his darling bride. What cries! What tears! What earnestness! What moving words! What melting arguments! What strong appeals! What fervor of desire! What bold resolve to gain the petition! But all these ties, with all their warmth, converge in Jesus. In Him there is the father's deep affection, the mother's tenderness, the brother's zeal, the friend's devoted sympathy, the bridegroom's burning love. He urges, These are My children - the travail of My soul- the offspring of My wounds - My sister - My spouse - My beloved, around whom My heart has been entwined forever - the bride of My Father's gift, and of My loving choice - My portion - My jewels - My crown - the sheep of My pasture - My wealth - My delight - the members of My mystic body - the very apple of My eye. Such prayer is as the heart-strings strained. Reader! are you one with Christ? Then all day long, and all time long, He wrestles thus for you.
Mark, also "how" Jesus executes this office. Come, see the proceedings of the heavenly court. Jesus appears. This is the opening act. The Spirit teaches, 'Christ has not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.' He presents His person. The Father's eye rests on Him. Oh! with what love, what rapture, what delight! It is His Son, His only begotten Son, well-beloved Son, His elect One, His beauty, His express image, His glory, His treasure, compared with whom the heavens are an empty void, and all worlds' charms a vacant nothingness. It is Jesus - even the Servant, who has performed all His will - who has brought all honor to His attributes - who has ransomed all His people - who has filled heaven with all its song. Jesus Himself appears. O my soul, your cause is in good hands!
Jesus appears. But in what form? A LAMB is seen, 'looking as if it had been slain.' What, then, does He show? His wounds, His bruises, His scars, His pierced hands and feet, His open side. There is no eloquence like the eloquence of a slain Redeemer! There is no argument like the argument of a God-man's death. The blood of Abel cries. Much more the blood of Jesus. It loudly proves that His people are all bought with a worthy price, that their sins are all washed away, that they are all whiter than snow, that the covenant is all fulfilled, and that every grace is their purchased due. Thus Christ appears as "He that lives and was dead." O my soul, your cause is in good hands!
Jesus appears. But by what right? He comes as one whom office and duty bring. He is called and appointed and ordained to this especial work. He comes, because He must be faithful to the trust received. He comes, because it is His privilege to pass the veil. The great day in which atonement must be pleaded has arrived. The High Priest cannot be absent. O my soul, your cause is in good hands!
He comes, also, with "authority". He prays as one who may command. Equal addresses equal. O wondrous thought! what can the language be? 'Father, I will!' Yes! It is even so. 'Father, I will.' 'I will', is God's petition to a granting God. The kingly Priest with king-like power prays. O my soul, your cause is in good hands!
He enters, also, as "Advocate." As such, His intercession had judicial force. He states the laws of the realm, the statutes of the empire, the decrees of the sovereign, the rights of the subject, the justice of the case, the demands of equity and truth. He unfolds the volume of the covenant of grace. He claims a judgment in accordance with well-counseled compact. Righteousness fails, heaven's edicts must be rewritten, if such pleadings be cast out. O my soul, your cause is in good hands!
Believer, perhaps next you anxiously inquire what is the significance of such mighty intercession. You sigh, Oh! that I surely knew what are the blessings which He seeks for me. Draw near. His interceding voice sounds in the Gospel page. He cried boldly and clearly from the Cross. 'Father, forgive them.' He cries as boldly and as clearly from the throne, 'Father, forgive them.' As king He reigns, taking away sin. As quick as the sin-stain defiles, He spreads His wounded hands. Pardon cannot linger. Sins and iniquities are remembered no more.
Listen! He pleads again. It is, that His flock may be "kept". 'Holy Father, keep through Your own name those whom You have given Me.' The prayer is heard. Jehovah's wings become their shield. Omnipotence defends them. Angels encamp around them. All things work together for their good. Each foe is foiled. The chosen seed gets safely to heaven.
His word, also, is gone forth, 'I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth.' The eternal Spirit hastens to comply. He flies with conquering wing into the willing heart. He shows the Cross in its attractive glory. He shines upon the sacred page. He lifts up Jesus to the enraptured gaze. Without Christ's prayer the Spirit never comes. Without the Spirit, there is no faith, no truth, no godliness on earth.
He next gains acceptance for our prayers. What feeble babbling is our holiest worship? But answers come, surpassing our largest hopes. How can it be? The incense of Christ's merits fills the censer. Thus more is granted than the supplicant sought. We coldly plan, we feebly work, to magnify His name. But we succeed, and He is glorified in us. But how? His voice wins help and help we receive. Believer, pray much. Pray more. Think whose prayers are mixed with yours. Work much - work more. Think who obtains for you the strength to prosper.
Will Christ ask more? He surely asks, until God's treasury is drained. He speaks again, 'Father, I will that those also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am.' This is the summit of His love. This is the summit of His people's joy. He has no heaven without them. They have no heaven but with Him. His throne is for them. Their throne is by His side. Believer, mark it, you must ever be with the Lord. This intercession is the golden chain which draws and binds you to Him. It is uttered. It is continued. It is heard. It is granted. His presence is your endless heritage.
It must be so. This intercession must prevail. Mark the ascending steps by which the Spirit leads up to the proof. Read Romans 8:34. Christ's death is full redemption. 'Who is he that condemns? It is Christ who died.' His resurrection rises higher. It manifests in clearer light the acceptance of the finished work. 'Yes, rather, that has risen again.' His ascension soars yet higher. It crowns assurance with a heaven-high crown. 'Who is even at the right hand of God.' But intercession reaches heights more lofty. It consummates, it perfects, it applies, it secures complete salvation.'Who also makes intercession for us.' Blessed death! it reconciles. More blessed life! it much more saves. Blessed blood! it redeems. More blessed intercession! It saves to the uttermost. O my soul, your cause is in good hands.
Let others seek their mediators many, who are mediators none. Let others fly to intercessors many, who are intercessors none. Will not you shout that Christ is enough - Christ is ALL!
~William Law~
(The End)
"As long as Moses held up the staff with his hands, the Israelites had the advantage. But whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites gained the upper hand." (Exodus 17:11)
Alarms soon trouble the advancing host. Amalek attacks their rear. Esau's tribe has evil will against the house of Jacob. The birthright sold, the blessing lost, had deeply laid the seeds of malice. And now occasion ripens hatred into fierce assault. Believer, the race of Cain, of Ishmael, of Esau still lives. Be ready. Their hate is sure. Their wily steps are near. When least expected, they will plot their worst. How shall such foes be met? He who follows Christ must neither flee nor yield nor fear. He must stand fast in faith, and he must kneel in prayer. So Moses teaches. He commands Joshua, "Choose some men, and go out, fight." Haven's crown sits only on a warrior's brow.
But carnal weapons are impotent alone. In fighting, by not fighting, we prevail. So when Joshua struggles in the plain, Moses wrestles on the hill. He seeks the summit, bearing the rod. Prayer brings all heaven to the aid. Thus Israel's hands are strong or weak as those of Moses rise or drop. Large Gospel lessons here expand before us. We may roam up and down this field and find no end in gathering precious fruit. But one special tree calls us to shake its richly-laden boughs. Moses interceding on the hill shows Jesus interceding on the higher heights.
Come then, my soul, with joyful wing fly upward. It is good, it is wise, it is blessed, to be much with Jesus in the suffering valley. Faith visits often the manger, the garden, and the Cross. It seeks all sin's remission in the stripes, the wounds, the agony, the death of the bleeding Lamb. But these amazing truths are but the "porch" of more amazing glories. Hence it delights to follow Jesus in His bright ascent, to gaze undazzled on the throne, to mark His present doings by His Father's side.
What? Is He still engaged in work? Wondrous tidings! Hear, all who call Him Lord - He ever loves you, and ever labors in your cause. His eye is never turned away. His hands cannot hang down. His heavens are the office-chamber of your soul's concerns. Do you ask, "What is His work?" Listen, the Holy Spirit cries, "He ever lives to make intercession." His every day and every hour is ceaseless energy of interceding love.
Do you add, "But what is intercession?" An intercessor stands between two parties, pleading for the one to look with favor on the other. The parties here are God the Father, and poor worms of earth. "If any man sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Before the Father, then, the Mediator pleads. But is not the Father an overflowing ocean of free grace? Is it not His grand delight to crown His sons with all heaven's blessings? Why, then, shall prayers, like constant incense, move Him to give what He is unwilling to withhold? Salvation's scheme is wholly ordered to show forth love in brightest rays. It is to aid this end, that intercession has its place.
Believer, what kindles flames of comfort in your heart? What decks your brow with smiles, when trials and temptations throng? Is it not a view of Jesus pleading at God's right hand? The thought is rapture, peace, and victory. Remove the Advocate, and all your hope goes down in gloom. Christ prays, because He loves so much. He prays, because the Father loves not less. Intercession is the fair fruit of their co-loving heart.
Next, see "for whom" this intercession strives. Imagine a father begging for his much-loved son, a mother for her first-born child, brother for brother, friend for friend, the ardent bridegroom for his darling bride. What cries! What tears! What earnestness! What moving words! What melting arguments! What strong appeals! What fervor of desire! What bold resolve to gain the petition! But all these ties, with all their warmth, converge in Jesus. In Him there is the father's deep affection, the mother's tenderness, the brother's zeal, the friend's devoted sympathy, the bridegroom's burning love. He urges, These are My children - the travail of My soul- the offspring of My wounds - My sister - My spouse - My beloved, around whom My heart has been entwined forever - the bride of My Father's gift, and of My loving choice - My portion - My jewels - My crown - the sheep of My pasture - My wealth - My delight - the members of My mystic body - the very apple of My eye. Such prayer is as the heart-strings strained. Reader! are you one with Christ? Then all day long, and all time long, He wrestles thus for you.
Mark, also "how" Jesus executes this office. Come, see the proceedings of the heavenly court. Jesus appears. This is the opening act. The Spirit teaches, 'Christ has not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.' He presents His person. The Father's eye rests on Him. Oh! with what love, what rapture, what delight! It is His Son, His only begotten Son, well-beloved Son, His elect One, His beauty, His express image, His glory, His treasure, compared with whom the heavens are an empty void, and all worlds' charms a vacant nothingness. It is Jesus - even the Servant, who has performed all His will - who has brought all honor to His attributes - who has ransomed all His people - who has filled heaven with all its song. Jesus Himself appears. O my soul, your cause is in good hands!
Jesus appears. But in what form? A LAMB is seen, 'looking as if it had been slain.' What, then, does He show? His wounds, His bruises, His scars, His pierced hands and feet, His open side. There is no eloquence like the eloquence of a slain Redeemer! There is no argument like the argument of a God-man's death. The blood of Abel cries. Much more the blood of Jesus. It loudly proves that His people are all bought with a worthy price, that their sins are all washed away, that they are all whiter than snow, that the covenant is all fulfilled, and that every grace is their purchased due. Thus Christ appears as "He that lives and was dead." O my soul, your cause is in good hands!
Jesus appears. But by what right? He comes as one whom office and duty bring. He is called and appointed and ordained to this especial work. He comes, because He must be faithful to the trust received. He comes, because it is His privilege to pass the veil. The great day in which atonement must be pleaded has arrived. The High Priest cannot be absent. O my soul, your cause is in good hands!
He comes, also, with "authority". He prays as one who may command. Equal addresses equal. O wondrous thought! what can the language be? 'Father, I will!' Yes! It is even so. 'Father, I will.' 'I will', is God's petition to a granting God. The kingly Priest with king-like power prays. O my soul, your cause is in good hands!
He enters, also, as "Advocate." As such, His intercession had judicial force. He states the laws of the realm, the statutes of the empire, the decrees of the sovereign, the rights of the subject, the justice of the case, the demands of equity and truth. He unfolds the volume of the covenant of grace. He claims a judgment in accordance with well-counseled compact. Righteousness fails, heaven's edicts must be rewritten, if such pleadings be cast out. O my soul, your cause is in good hands!
Believer, perhaps next you anxiously inquire what is the significance of such mighty intercession. You sigh, Oh! that I surely knew what are the blessings which He seeks for me. Draw near. His interceding voice sounds in the Gospel page. He cried boldly and clearly from the Cross. 'Father, forgive them.' He cries as boldly and as clearly from the throne, 'Father, forgive them.' As king He reigns, taking away sin. As quick as the sin-stain defiles, He spreads His wounded hands. Pardon cannot linger. Sins and iniquities are remembered no more.
Listen! He pleads again. It is, that His flock may be "kept". 'Holy Father, keep through Your own name those whom You have given Me.' The prayer is heard. Jehovah's wings become their shield. Omnipotence defends them. Angels encamp around them. All things work together for their good. Each foe is foiled. The chosen seed gets safely to heaven.
His word, also, is gone forth, 'I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth.' The eternal Spirit hastens to comply. He flies with conquering wing into the willing heart. He shows the Cross in its attractive glory. He shines upon the sacred page. He lifts up Jesus to the enraptured gaze. Without Christ's prayer the Spirit never comes. Without the Spirit, there is no faith, no truth, no godliness on earth.
He next gains acceptance for our prayers. What feeble babbling is our holiest worship? But answers come, surpassing our largest hopes. How can it be? The incense of Christ's merits fills the censer. Thus more is granted than the supplicant sought. We coldly plan, we feebly work, to magnify His name. But we succeed, and He is glorified in us. But how? His voice wins help and help we receive. Believer, pray much. Pray more. Think whose prayers are mixed with yours. Work much - work more. Think who obtains for you the strength to prosper.
Will Christ ask more? He surely asks, until God's treasury is drained. He speaks again, 'Father, I will that those also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am.' This is the summit of His love. This is the summit of His people's joy. He has no heaven without them. They have no heaven but with Him. His throne is for them. Their throne is by His side. Believer, mark it, you must ever be with the Lord. This intercession is the golden chain which draws and binds you to Him. It is uttered. It is continued. It is heard. It is granted. His presence is your endless heritage.
It must be so. This intercession must prevail. Mark the ascending steps by which the Spirit leads up to the proof. Read Romans 8:34. Christ's death is full redemption. 'Who is he that condemns? It is Christ who died.' His resurrection rises higher. It manifests in clearer light the acceptance of the finished work. 'Yes, rather, that has risen again.' His ascension soars yet higher. It crowns assurance with a heaven-high crown. 'Who is even at the right hand of God.' But intercession reaches heights more lofty. It consummates, it perfects, it applies, it secures complete salvation.'Who also makes intercession for us.' Blessed death! it reconciles. More blessed life! it much more saves. Blessed blood! it redeems. More blessed intercession! It saves to the uttermost. O my soul, your cause is in good hands.
Let others seek their mediators many, who are mediators none. Let others fly to intercessors many, who are intercessors none. Will not you shout that Christ is enough - Christ is ALL!
~William Law~
(The End)
Thursday, January 26, 2017
Are You Willing to Drink His Cup? # 4
Are You Willing to Drink His Cup? # 4
Ours is all theology. We get a starving man and give him a cookbook. Does it help him? He looks in the cookbook and sees there a dish with potatoes, beef, etc. What do you do? You tantalize him! You say, "Oh, I hope one day you can come to our place. We're going to have this dish, this beef, this turkey, and something else." And yet the poor man is ravenously hungry! We give him a picture, but we don't give him the goods! At the average church on Sunday morning, they give you the menu, but they never give you the meal. They give an outline of theology: This is our precious doctrine." So, most people will be reciting doctrine in Hell!
As I've said before, if you say "where two or three are gathered in His Name," If the living Christ is in your meeting, how in God's Name can you have a dead service?! It's totally impossible.
I remember talking once in Carnegie Hall with Miss Kuhlman. We were talking about the Church, as it is, and various other things. She said, "I talked with some young students the other day. They said, "We go to a certain church. We have a wonderful pastor, and a marvelous choir, and he's a great teacher, but nothing ever happens. We come to see your meetings and there's a power of God there. I was in meetings there where billows of power went over the place! All kinds of miracles were done." What does the pastor say? He says, of course, where two or three are gathered, He's in the midst. Do you know what I said to them? "Well, if He's in the midst,and you believe that He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, why doesn't He do in the midst here what He did in the midst there?" We try and bail God out! The pastor has been to a seminary (or as I say, a cemetery). Our pulpits are full of dead men preaching dead sermons to dead people. But there's going to come an awakening. God Almighty doesn't care if He sends America bankruptcy. He doesn't care if we have to stand in bread lines. He doesn't care if our automobiles rust because we have no gasoline. That could happen very easily.
But again, you see, it is so "expensive." We to have more than believe on the Lord. We have to more than have a blessing just because we feel better, we feel inflated, or we maybe get a gift or something.
You know, I've found that when someone gets a gift of the Spirit, they're more proud after they get the gift than they were before. They're proud of the gift! The indwelling of the Holy Spirit, to me, is the most majestic thing this side of eternity! The Holy Spirit produces holy people. Holy people live holy lives, producing holy fathers and mothers. So here's a question, Answer it for yourself. "Do you want to drink the cup that he drank of?"
Between here and there is a Gethsemane, a Cross. There was a young man in 1904, in a town called Newcastle-Emlyn, Wales. He had about 35 people in the meeting. He put his big hands up and prayed "Bend us, Lord, and then break us." Bend us. Bend the Church. Break the Church.
One night in a crowded meeting, with more than 1200 people, suddenly God came upon him. The writer puts it very beautifully, I think, though terribly. That great preacher who had been captivating crowds and turning cities on fire had a public Gethsemane.
He suddenly crumbled to the ground, as though somebody had squashed him downwards. It wasn't a spectacle. It wasn't a demonstration. It was a personal visitation of the Holy Spirit.He writhed. He groaned. He travailed. Some men at the front said, "Let's go help him." And somebody else said, "Don't put a finger on him."
When he got up his face was transformed as though he needed a veil over it. From there he moved into a new sphere of power, a new sphere of authority.
We're not going to gather people together and cause them to repent. Only God can do that.
Read again Joel 2 today. We quoted it so often. "He's going to pour out his Spirit on all flesh." But wait a minute! The price is tremendous: Lay all night between the altar and the doorpost. I'd love to see a couple dozen preachers who would get together and lay between the altar and the doorpost, two nights a week, for the next three weeks, with the Holy Spirit coming upon them. Not "speaking in tongues" in the sense that so many people think, but speaking with a tongue we've never heard: speaking of travailing!
What you've got in Romans 8 is beyond language.
It cannot be uttered. It's God the Holy Spirit groaning through us. It groaned in Jesus so that He travailed. Are you going to suggest that He didn't groan? Of course, He groaned at Gethsemane.
I believe that Jesus, right now, is groaning in heaven. If He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, don't you think he groans over the Church as it is today?
Pour misbegotten thing that it is?
Powerless, lifeless, without authority?
Most of our people can't keep victory themselves, never mind cast out devils.
We can't pull down strongholds.
But I'm convinced that it is going to come. There's going to be a great turnaround. It won't be inside the denominations, as far as in concerned. Oh it's nice to read Hebrews 13:12, "Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify," that is, "purity, edify, release, transform." That he might do that, "he suffered without the gate." But the next verse says, "Let us go with him outside the camp." Let's be cut off from everything that is organized, manmade, and supervised.
People say, "Ravenhill is a radical. You shouldn't take any note of him. You know, he has no covering." Well, I didn't know that. Pour me! I've been going around the world for the last fifty years without a covering! I didn't know that! But the Lord knew I had it, so He kept me. Who was John the Baptist covering? People knew when John the Baptist came. He did no signs, no wonders, no miracles. But when he spoke, the words were like fire. They burned in the hearts of the people. If a thing doesn't burn in me, why, in God's Name, should it burn in you? I wouldn't listen to a preacher who didn't kindle something in my heart!
You see, I backed away from that rotten cup that woman had. Then forcibly she said, "Drink it." At that moment I remembered a man in a garden saying, "Father, this is the most degrading thing in the history of the world. If it's possible please". The Lord let Him do it. It pleased the Lord to bruise Him.
When it pleases the Lord to bruise you, what do you do? Ring for help? Phone for somebody? Call the church? Or do you get alone with Him Who alone is able to help? With Him Who alone has the balm of Gilead?
You see, God isn't training Boy Scouts. He's training soldiers! No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of life; that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier (2 Timothy 2:4).
There's a smart advertisement that you see on television and other places. You see these smart boys, these cadets: "Were looking for a few choice men." Come and be one of the specials. That's exactly what God does. "I have chosen you and ordained you," so you don't need any other ordination.
Out of the twelve He chooses three: Peter, James, and John.
People say that you shouldn't be selective. God is selective. He always was. He always will be. Out of the three He choose one. God has a process of elimination. He doesn't ask you to drink a cup a week or a month after you're saved, but you gradually move into that area where you realize that this is what He's after.
He's after me going to the Cross! And not just to go to it, but to get on it! "Oh, I'm glad He died for me." Have you died for Him? Isn't that a fair exchange?
I remember when I was a little boy that they announced that an American was coming. He had just written a hymn that was, I think, one of the sweetest hymns ever written, and he played it for us that night.
Out of the ivory palaces and into a world of woe
Only his great eternal love made my Saviour go.
Out of the ivory angels bowed down, and seraphim bowed and men spit on Him
He had all the glory of heaven, but He had no where to sleep at night ... It would take eternity to unveil to us what it meant for Jesus to come. He drank:
A cup of separation from His Father,
A cup of separation from the glory in eternity,
A cup of separation from the worship
because it says in Hebrew that angels are commissioned to worship Him; men didn't worship Him they spit on Him!
He laid it all aside joyfully. He took up a Cross to be battered and bloodied.
I love that hymn, "My Faith Looks Up To Thee." It was written in the old North Church in Boston Common. (I preached there once, and I had them sing that hymn.) The second stanza says:
May Thy rich grace impart
Strength to my fainting heart,
My zeal inspire;
As Thou hast died for me,
So may thy love to Thee,
Pure, warm, and changeless be,
A living fire!
Suppose God were as fickle in the attitude to you as you were to Him? What would happen? The little servant girl says, "I'm on my knees two and a half hours every morning. Every time I strike that match, I say, Lord, as I kindle this fire, kindle Your fire in my heart, the fire of Your Spirit, of God! I've been here for years. I must have lit hundreds and thousands of fires."
She wasn't at the table serving meals with all the celebrities. She's up at the crack of dawn. She's carrying a heavy basket of coal. She's cleaning up the dirt. It's a ritual most people wouldn't have. But she's turned it into a sacrament! She's turned the tables on the devil! When he says, "Well, you could be praying. You could do more than that."
She says, "I would bow there some days, I would just worship. I would see the flames go up and think of the sacrifice that has been made. No, don't pity me. I've got a wonderful job! They pay me to have my devotions! They pay me to sustain my prayer life!" I wish we had a lot more people like that!
Look out, He might bring you up this week and ask you drink of the cup "Can you share my baptism?"
"My baptism is a baptism of sorrow;
a baptism of desertion,
a baptism of pain;
a baptism of loneliness,"
It's all combined.
Well, can you drink it? Or do we try to make some excuses? All He's asking for is obedience. Obedience is the key to everything.
This is serious business. Time is running out fast for all of us.
The greatest revival that swept America wasn't staged. It wasn't advertised. It wasn't financially backed. It didn't have broken down film stars and ex-footballers. It was in the ordinary course of a meeting, when Jonathan Edwards preached his sermon. "Sinners in the hands of an angry God." There was nobody advertised. There was nobody projected.
Jesus says, "How can you receive blessing of God when you receive honor one of another?"
"He resisteth the proud and saveth such as are contrite and of a broken spirit."
There are many who say, "Come down from the cross and save yourself." If you see somebody else saving his neck, and you follow him, you will lose your blessing. You will lose your reward. You will lose your power.
Nobody stood by Jesus.
Maybe nobody will stand by you.
It's a lonely life, but it's a glorious life.
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(The End)
Ours is all theology. We get a starving man and give him a cookbook. Does it help him? He looks in the cookbook and sees there a dish with potatoes, beef, etc. What do you do? You tantalize him! You say, "Oh, I hope one day you can come to our place. We're going to have this dish, this beef, this turkey, and something else." And yet the poor man is ravenously hungry! We give him a picture, but we don't give him the goods! At the average church on Sunday morning, they give you the menu, but they never give you the meal. They give an outline of theology: This is our precious doctrine." So, most people will be reciting doctrine in Hell!
As I've said before, if you say "where two or three are gathered in His Name," If the living Christ is in your meeting, how in God's Name can you have a dead service?! It's totally impossible.
I remember talking once in Carnegie Hall with Miss Kuhlman. We were talking about the Church, as it is, and various other things. She said, "I talked with some young students the other day. They said, "We go to a certain church. We have a wonderful pastor, and a marvelous choir, and he's a great teacher, but nothing ever happens. We come to see your meetings and there's a power of God there. I was in meetings there where billows of power went over the place! All kinds of miracles were done." What does the pastor say? He says, of course, where two or three are gathered, He's in the midst. Do you know what I said to them? "Well, if He's in the midst,and you believe that He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, why doesn't He do in the midst here what He did in the midst there?" We try and bail God out! The pastor has been to a seminary (or as I say, a cemetery). Our pulpits are full of dead men preaching dead sermons to dead people. But there's going to come an awakening. God Almighty doesn't care if He sends America bankruptcy. He doesn't care if we have to stand in bread lines. He doesn't care if our automobiles rust because we have no gasoline. That could happen very easily.
But again, you see, it is so "expensive." We to have more than believe on the Lord. We have to more than have a blessing just because we feel better, we feel inflated, or we maybe get a gift or something.
You know, I've found that when someone gets a gift of the Spirit, they're more proud after they get the gift than they were before. They're proud of the gift! The indwelling of the Holy Spirit, to me, is the most majestic thing this side of eternity! The Holy Spirit produces holy people. Holy people live holy lives, producing holy fathers and mothers. So here's a question, Answer it for yourself. "Do you want to drink the cup that he drank of?"
Between here and there is a Gethsemane, a Cross. There was a young man in 1904, in a town called Newcastle-Emlyn, Wales. He had about 35 people in the meeting. He put his big hands up and prayed "Bend us, Lord, and then break us." Bend us. Bend the Church. Break the Church.
One night in a crowded meeting, with more than 1200 people, suddenly God came upon him. The writer puts it very beautifully, I think, though terribly. That great preacher who had been captivating crowds and turning cities on fire had a public Gethsemane.
He suddenly crumbled to the ground, as though somebody had squashed him downwards. It wasn't a spectacle. It wasn't a demonstration. It was a personal visitation of the Holy Spirit.He writhed. He groaned. He travailed. Some men at the front said, "Let's go help him." And somebody else said, "Don't put a finger on him."
When he got up his face was transformed as though he needed a veil over it. From there he moved into a new sphere of power, a new sphere of authority.
We're not going to gather people together and cause them to repent. Only God can do that.
Read again Joel 2 today. We quoted it so often. "He's going to pour out his Spirit on all flesh." But wait a minute! The price is tremendous: Lay all night between the altar and the doorpost. I'd love to see a couple dozen preachers who would get together and lay between the altar and the doorpost, two nights a week, for the next three weeks, with the Holy Spirit coming upon them. Not "speaking in tongues" in the sense that so many people think, but speaking with a tongue we've never heard: speaking of travailing!
What you've got in Romans 8 is beyond language.
It cannot be uttered. It's God the Holy Spirit groaning through us. It groaned in Jesus so that He travailed. Are you going to suggest that He didn't groan? Of course, He groaned at Gethsemane.
I believe that Jesus, right now, is groaning in heaven. If He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, don't you think he groans over the Church as it is today?
Pour misbegotten thing that it is?
Powerless, lifeless, without authority?
Most of our people can't keep victory themselves, never mind cast out devils.
We can't pull down strongholds.
But I'm convinced that it is going to come. There's going to be a great turnaround. It won't be inside the denominations, as far as in concerned. Oh it's nice to read Hebrews 13:12, "Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify," that is, "purity, edify, release, transform." That he might do that, "he suffered without the gate." But the next verse says, "Let us go with him outside the camp." Let's be cut off from everything that is organized, manmade, and supervised.
People say, "Ravenhill is a radical. You shouldn't take any note of him. You know, he has no covering." Well, I didn't know that. Pour me! I've been going around the world for the last fifty years without a covering! I didn't know that! But the Lord knew I had it, so He kept me. Who was John the Baptist covering? People knew when John the Baptist came. He did no signs, no wonders, no miracles. But when he spoke, the words were like fire. They burned in the hearts of the people. If a thing doesn't burn in me, why, in God's Name, should it burn in you? I wouldn't listen to a preacher who didn't kindle something in my heart!
You see, I backed away from that rotten cup that woman had. Then forcibly she said, "Drink it." At that moment I remembered a man in a garden saying, "Father, this is the most degrading thing in the history of the world. If it's possible please". The Lord let Him do it. It pleased the Lord to bruise Him.
When it pleases the Lord to bruise you, what do you do? Ring for help? Phone for somebody? Call the church? Or do you get alone with Him Who alone is able to help? With Him Who alone has the balm of Gilead?
You see, God isn't training Boy Scouts. He's training soldiers! No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of life; that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier (2 Timothy 2:4).
There's a smart advertisement that you see on television and other places. You see these smart boys, these cadets: "Were looking for a few choice men." Come and be one of the specials. That's exactly what God does. "I have chosen you and ordained you," so you don't need any other ordination.
Out of the twelve He chooses three: Peter, James, and John.
People say that you shouldn't be selective. God is selective. He always was. He always will be. Out of the three He choose one. God has a process of elimination. He doesn't ask you to drink a cup a week or a month after you're saved, but you gradually move into that area where you realize that this is what He's after.
He's after me going to the Cross! And not just to go to it, but to get on it! "Oh, I'm glad He died for me." Have you died for Him? Isn't that a fair exchange?
I remember when I was a little boy that they announced that an American was coming. He had just written a hymn that was, I think, one of the sweetest hymns ever written, and he played it for us that night.
Out of the ivory palaces and into a world of woe
Only his great eternal love made my Saviour go.
Out of the ivory angels bowed down, and seraphim bowed and men spit on Him
He had all the glory of heaven, but He had no where to sleep at night ... It would take eternity to unveil to us what it meant for Jesus to come. He drank:
A cup of separation from His Father,
A cup of separation from the glory in eternity,
A cup of separation from the worship
because it says in Hebrew that angels are commissioned to worship Him; men didn't worship Him they spit on Him!
He laid it all aside joyfully. He took up a Cross to be battered and bloodied.
I love that hymn, "My Faith Looks Up To Thee." It was written in the old North Church in Boston Common. (I preached there once, and I had them sing that hymn.) The second stanza says:
May Thy rich grace impart
Strength to my fainting heart,
My zeal inspire;
As Thou hast died for me,
So may thy love to Thee,
Pure, warm, and changeless be,
A living fire!
Suppose God were as fickle in the attitude to you as you were to Him? What would happen? The little servant girl says, "I'm on my knees two and a half hours every morning. Every time I strike that match, I say, Lord, as I kindle this fire, kindle Your fire in my heart, the fire of Your Spirit, of God! I've been here for years. I must have lit hundreds and thousands of fires."
She wasn't at the table serving meals with all the celebrities. She's up at the crack of dawn. She's carrying a heavy basket of coal. She's cleaning up the dirt. It's a ritual most people wouldn't have. But she's turned it into a sacrament! She's turned the tables on the devil! When he says, "Well, you could be praying. You could do more than that."
She says, "I would bow there some days, I would just worship. I would see the flames go up and think of the sacrifice that has been made. No, don't pity me. I've got a wonderful job! They pay me to have my devotions! They pay me to sustain my prayer life!" I wish we had a lot more people like that!
Look out, He might bring you up this week and ask you drink of the cup "Can you share my baptism?"
"My baptism is a baptism of sorrow;
a baptism of desertion,
a baptism of pain;
a baptism of loneliness,"
It's all combined.
Well, can you drink it? Or do we try to make some excuses? All He's asking for is obedience. Obedience is the key to everything.
This is serious business. Time is running out fast for all of us.
The greatest revival that swept America wasn't staged. It wasn't advertised. It wasn't financially backed. It didn't have broken down film stars and ex-footballers. It was in the ordinary course of a meeting, when Jonathan Edwards preached his sermon. "Sinners in the hands of an angry God." There was nobody advertised. There was nobody projected.
Jesus says, "How can you receive blessing of God when you receive honor one of another?"
"He resisteth the proud and saveth such as are contrite and of a broken spirit."
There are many who say, "Come down from the cross and save yourself." If you see somebody else saving his neck, and you follow him, you will lose your blessing. You will lose your reward. You will lose your power.
Nobody stood by Jesus.
Maybe nobody will stand by you.
It's a lonely life, but it's a glorious life.
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(The End)
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