Love Reproving # 3

 Love Reproving # 3

"This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands." (1 John 5:2). Go back to the previous verse for the connection, "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well." We love the brethren, because they have been made "partakers of the Divine nature" - it is that, and nothing pertaining to the old creation, which is the uniting bond. How that lifts us entirely out of the realm of nature, into the spiritual sphere! It is love for God - which produces love for those who bear His image. And what is the touch-stone of my love to God? Not rapturous feelings, nor beautiful words of devotion., nor heartily singing His praises  - but by keeping His commandments - John 14:15, 21, 24; 15:10. The strength of my love for God is to be gauged by the measure of my obedience to His Word. The same principle holds good in my relations with the brethren - love to them will be manifested by efforts to encourage them in the path of obedience - and that necessarily involves rebuking them for disobedience.

To come more immediately to the opening questions. "Is it possible to be too critical of Christians? nowadays?" Why the qualifying "nowadays"? Has God lowered His standard to meet these evil times? Is it permissible or expedient for me to compromise because the present generation is so lax and carnal? Do not the days in which our lot is cast, call for a clearer drawing of the line between the Church and the world? If so, should not this help to determine my conduct toward the individual?

We are mindful that large numbers hold the view that God requires less from people in degenerate times - but we know of nothing in His Word which supports them! Rather are such days the very time when the Christian most needs to show his colors, when shallowness and hollowness marks the religious profession all around, there is greater urgency for us to make manifest the reality that we are "strangers and pilgrims" in this scene. The Scriptures are just as much the Rule - and the sole rule for us to walk by - as they were for our more godly forebears. In the Day to come, we shall be judged by them as truly as they will be. If is never right to do wrong - nor to condone wrong.

John, the apostle of love, began his third epistle with these words, "The elder unto the well-beloved Gaius, whom I love in the Truth." What a needed word is this for today, when so much that passes for love, even in avowedly Christian circles, is nothing but a sickly sentimentality at the expense of the Truth. One of the outstanding cries in the religious world, is to this effect - "though we have differed in our beliefs and practices, let us now sink our differences and come together in love." When I was the pastor of a church in Sidney, I was regarded as a narrow-minded bigot, because on what Rome calls "good Friday" I refused to take part in an "ecumenical Communion service," where Fundamentalists, Liberals, Unitarians, and Evolutionists were invited to gather together, and thereby express "brotherly love" for one another. What a travesty and mockery! The wisdom which is from above is "first pure, then peaceable." (James 3:17). The more I am walking in the Truth and the more my brother is doing the same - the more cause have we to love one another.

It may be helpful to answer the opening question by changing the form of it - Is it possible to be too critical of myself? May I permit myself a certain amount of indulgence, exclude some part of my life from the control of God, be less strict about some matter than others? In the light of such verses as "Catch the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines"; "Grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, even Christ," "whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" - is there any difficulty in answering that question! If not, am I justified in countenancing a lower standard for others than I seek to apply to myself? Am I not required to love my neighbor as myself? And am I doing so - if I gloss over something in him which I know to be against his or her spiritual interests and can only work ill for him? If it is my plain duty to warn him against physical evils - then on what ground am I justified in being silent when I see spiritual danger menacing him?

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 4)

Love Reproving # 2

 Love Reproving # 2

This is one of the inevitable effects of the lopsided preaching of the pulpit, where the love and grace of God wee constantly proclaimed - while His justice and wrath were studiously ignored. God is "light" (1 John 1:5) as well as "love' (1 John 4:8), "holy" as well as "merciful", "severe" as well as "good" (Romans 11:22), and unless the balance is preserved between those two sides of the Divine character, not only will He be grievously misrepresented - but the most serious results will follow!

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God - and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God" (1 John 4:7). Christian love is not a thing of nature - but is entirely supernatural. It is not a part of our "personality" or anything which issues from our "disposition," but is a Divine communication received at the new birth. It is neither a sentiment nor an emotion - but a holy principle which is spiritual in its origin, its nature, its characteristics, and its manifestations.

But alas, many of God's own children are today so ill-taught, so ignorant, and so carnal - that they are unable to recognize true Christian love when they see it in exercise. Their thinking is so much colored by the world, they are so much corrupted by mingling with hollow professors - that they mistake pleasant personality and cordiality - for spiritual love. They forget that some who make no profession at all, are naturally congenial, kind, warm-hearted, courteous, and sympathetic. Christian love is neither the milk of human kindness - nor creature congeniality. Much that passes for Christian love - is merely the amiability and affability of the flesh!

How are we to know when we truly "love one another"? When we feel our hearts drawn out to them because of their affableness, their charming demeanor, their "sweet" ways? NO! for appearances are deceptive. A winsome smile, a hearty hand-shake, a kiss - is no sign of the new nature - as Judas' kissing of Christ demonstrated. Nor does a polite demeanor or honeyed-mouth expressions prove anything to the point - rather does the Christian need to be doubly on his guard in the company of those who flatter him - ponder Proverbs 10:19; 26:28; Psalm 12:3).

Then how are we to know when we "love one another" - and when they love us? When we truly seek their highest good - when we aim at their spiritual well-being. The one who evidences the most spiritual love for me - is he who is ever seeking to promote my eternal interests - by wise counsels, by beneficial warnings, by timely rebukes, by godly encouragements.

And if I am spiritual - I shall love others for their piety, heavenly-mindedness, and faithfulness.

"Open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend - but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful" (Proverbs 27:25, 26). Ah, my reader, as little as you may like it - the one who "wounds" you the most - may be the best friend you have, and who has the most spiritual love for you. But the one who winks at your faults, is silent about your sins, and refuses to rebuke you for what is dishonoring to God - is your enemy and hates you!

Alas, what a low plane even the people of God are now living upon. Many of them are so easily ruffled - that with the least criticism of them - they are "hurt," and offended; which shows they have more self-love than the love of God in them. O for grace to say with the Psalmist, "Let the godly strike me! It will be a kindness! If they reprove me - it is soothing medicine. Don't let me refuse it" (141:5). "Rebuke a wise man - and he will love you" (Proverbs 9:8), how few of the "wise" are now left!

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 3)

Love Reproving # 1

 Love Reproving # 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 2)

The Wrath Of God # 3

 The Wrath Of God # 3

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

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

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

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

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

~A. W. Pink~

(The End)

The Gifts Of God # 2

 The Gifts Of God # 2

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

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

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

Faith and repentance are the first evidence of spiritual life.

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

~A. W. Pink~

(The End)

The Wrath Of God # 2

 The Wrath Of God # 2

First, that our hearts may be duly impressed by God's detestation of sin. We are ever prone to regard sin lightly, to gloss over its hideousness, to make excuses for it. But the more we study and ponder God's abhorrence of sin and His frightful vengeance upon it, the more likely are we to realize its heinousness.

Secondly, to beget a true fear of God in our souls. "Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:28-29). We cannot serve him "acceptably" unless there is due "reverence" for His solemn Majesty and "godly fear" of His righteous anger; and these are best promoted by frequently calling to mind that "our God is a consuming fire."

Thirdly, to draw out our souls in fervent praise for our having been delivered from "the wrath to come." (1 Thess. 1:10).

Our readiness or our reluctance to meditate upon the wrath of God becomes a sure test of our hearts true attitude toward Him. If we do not truly rejoice in God, for what He is in Himself, and that because of all the perfections which are eternally resident in Him, then how does the love of God dwell in us?

Each of us needs to be most prayerfully on his guard against devising an image of God in our thoughts which is patterned after our own evil inclinations. Of old the Lord complained, "You thought that I was just like you" (Psalm 50:21). If we rejoice not at the remembrance of His holiness, if we rejoice not to know that in a soon coming Day, God will make a most glorious display of His wrath by taking vengeance upon all who now oppose Him - then it is proof positive that our hearts are not in subjection to Him, that we are yet in our sins, and that we are on the way to the everlasting burnings!

"Rejoice, O nations, over His people, for He will avenge the blood of His servants. He will take vengeance on His adversaries; He will purify His land and His people" (Deuteronomy 32:43). And again we read, "After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in Heaven shouting: Hallehujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are His judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of His servants. And again they shouted: Halleluhjah! The smoke of her goes up forever and ever." (Revelation 19:1-3).

Great will be the rejoicing of the saints in that day when the Lord shall vindicate His majesty, exercise His solemn dominion, magnify His justice, and overthrow the proud rebels who have dared to defy Him!

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 3)

The Gifts Of God # 1

 The Gifts Of God # 1

A GIVING GOD! What a concept! To our regret, our familiarity with it often dulls our sense of wonderment at it. There is nothing that resembles such a concept in the religions of heathendom. Very much to the contrary; their deities are portrayed as monsters of cruelty and greed, always exacting painful sacrifices from deluded devotes. But the God of Scripture is portrayed as the Father of mercies, "who gives us richly all things to enjoy" (1 Timothy 6:17). It is true that He has His own rights - the rights of His holiness and proprietorship. Nor does He rescind them, but rather enforces them. But what we would contemplate here is something which transcends reason and had never entered our minds to conceive. The Divine Claimer is at once the Divine Meeter. He required satisfaction of His broken Law, and Himself supplied it. His just claims are met by His own grace. He who asks for sacrifices from us - made the supreme sacrifice for us! God is both the Demander and the Donor, the Requirer and the Provider.

1. The gift of His Son. Of old the language of prophecy announced: "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given" (Isaiah 9:6). Accordingly, the angels announced to the shepherds at the time of His advent: "Unto you is born this day... a Saviour" (Luke 2:11). That gift was the supreme exemplification of the divine benignity. "God showed how much He loved us by sending His only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him. This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins" (1 John 4:9-10).

That was the guaranty of all other blessings. As the apostle argued from the great to the less, assuring us that Christ is at once the pledge and channel of every other mercy: "He who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32). God did not withhold His choicest treasure, the darling of His bosom, but freely yielded Him up; and the love which did not spare Him, will not begrudge anything that is for the good of His people.

2. The gift of the SPIRIT. The Son is God's all-inclusive gift. As Manton said, "Christ comes not to us empty handed. His person and His benefits are not divided. He came to purchase all manner of blessings for us." The greatest of these is the Holy Spirit, who applies and communicates what the Lord Jesus obtained for His people. God pardoned and justified His elect in Old Testament times on the ground of the atonement, which His Son would make at the appointed time.  On the same basis He communicated to them the Spirit (Numbers 9:25); Nehemiah 9:20, otherwise none would have been regenerated, fitted for communion with God, or enabled to bring forth spiritual fruit.

But He then wrought more secretly, rather than "in demonstration and in power"; came as the dew, rather than was poured out copiously; was restricted to Israel, rather than communicated to Gentiles also. The Spirit in His fullness was God's ascension gift to Christ (Acts 2:33) and Christ's coronation gift to His church (John 16:7). The gift of the Spirit was purchased for His people by Christ (Galatians 3:13-14 and note carefully the second "that" in verse 14.) Every blessing we receive is through the merits and mediation of Christ.

3. The gift of ETERNAL LIFE. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23). There is a double antithesis between those two things.

First, the justice of God will render unto the wicked what is due them for their sins; but His mercy bestows upon His people what they do not deserve.

Second, eternal death follows as a natural and inevitable consequence from what is in and done by its objects.

Not so eternal life, for it is bestowed without any consideration of something in or from its subjects. It is communicated and sustained gratuitously. Eternal life is a free bounty, not only unmerited but also unsolicited by us, for in every instance God has reason to say, "I am found by those who sought Me not" (Isaiah 65:1). The recipient is wholly passive in regeneration. He does not act, but is acted upon when he is brought from death to life. Eternal life - a spiritual life now, a life of glory hereafter - is sovereignly and freely bestowed by God. yet it is a blessing communicated by Him unto His elect because the Lord Jesus Christ paid the price of redemption. Yes, it is actually dispensed by Christ. "I give unto them (not merely offer) eternal life" (John 10:28).

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 2)