Go Back, America! # 1
"If my people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin,and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14).
No one can consider the history of the United States without realizing that we have been blessed of GOD in an extraordinary way. Despite all the faults of our country, the foundation that was laid in our early years - the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the system of checks and balances which characterize the various branches of our government that were introduced y our founding fathers - remains the same. Surely those men who launched the Ship of State two centuries ago were led by GOD! They built far better than they knew.
I think of my own experience in coming to this country from Russia. Having only the equivalent of one year in high school, I found myself at a total loss because of my lack of knowledge of the English language. But the opportunity to learn was open. For me, from that time on, it was a headlong race to get an education. First it was grade school, then preparatory school, then university, then law school. I was filled with an insatiable desire for knowledge. And yet it was not so much for the sake of knowledge as it was "to get ahead." I was living for myself. There was no time for games or vacations - only time for study. And it came rather hard, though teachers helped me. Uniformly kind and patient, they were veritable mines of information. To me, America was a seven days' wonder.
I thought to myself, how did America differ from the old country? Was it in its tremendous land area? But Russia was larger by far, being nearly four million square miles larger than this country. What made it so different? Could it be its resources, its natural wealth, salubrious climate, rainfall, mighty rivers, great lakes, mountains of iron, layers upon layers of coal, gold, silver, flowing rivers of oil? But Russia was rich beyond dreams in all these things.
Was it mechanical skill, inventive genius, a land girdled with lines of commerce, belted with giant industries? But then there was Germany. Germany had the best steel, the best glass, the best precision instruments, plastics, synthetics before we had them, and later on guided missiles! Americans traveled to Germany to polish off their know-how. Surely, I thought, there must e some other reason for the greatness of this golden land.
Then came my own personal conversion to CHRIST, a spiritual upheaval in which my whole outlook changed. Time was taken for reanalysis, restudy, reevaluation of crammed-in-knowledge - so much of it second hand. Then I knew!
What caused these thirteen colonies, in a little over four lifetimes, to achieve such titanic growth? It was this: America was founded on the Atlantic seaboard by men, women, families who sought lebensraum - living room - not so much for their bodies as for their SOULS, not to discover the Fountain of Youth, but to gain the privilege of worshiping the MOST HIGH GOD in freedom and in truth.
Those stalwart people, saturated with the WORD of GOD, recognized the lordship of Jehovah. There was a conviction in their souls that the purpose of man was "to glorify GOD and to enjoy Him forever. With all due respect to the Plymouth Rock, the stone on which America was founded was the Bible. Christianity, the BOOK, the church, prayers, sermons, the salvation of souls, the dedicated lives of Christian believers, meant everything to those early American colonists. Meeting houses were built almost as rapidly as homes. Yet one thing more was needed - a trained ministry. Then those God-fearing ones grouped together, sacrificed their meager funds and started universities like Harvard and Princeton and Yale - for the purpose of training men for the Christian ministry.
Today, unfortunately for us, the Dewey humanist philosophy has taken over our educational system. But in the beginning it was not so. Schools, colleges, universities, technical institutions, far flung across the length and breadth of our republic - these, under GOD, are the factors which, more than other contributory advantages, are responsible for the achievements of our land. Atheists could not have done this kind of job. They never have. Agnostics could never have accomplished this. They never have. Liberals, modernists, rationalists have never even attempted it. Instead, termite fashion, they have crept into our institutions, befouling the nests where they were nursed, undermining the glorious privileges and opportunities which were bequeathed to them.
It was not education alone, to be sure, that helped to make this nation what it is. It was education rooted in GOD, in CHRIST, in the BIBLE, in the CHURCH, in the tenets of Christianity, that brought growth, greatness, and glory to this favored land. What else? How else? What other single reason can be found that has made this western democracy what it is today?
~Hyman Appleman~
(continued with # 2)
Saturday, January 26, 2019
Breaking Through To The Heavenlies # 2
Breaking Through To The Heavenlies # 2
I am just starting to realize a little bit of where God calls me to, how far it is, and how hard it is to get there. The missionary that I mentioned had a wonderful ministry. People used to say, "Oh, he has such a grace. It seems that he just comes and gives God's bounty to us, just flows and the people weep and cry and they are overwhelmed. It's glorious!" But one thing they did not realize was where he had to go to get that. How far he had to go. With all his years of experience, he would spend hours seeking God before an hour meeting! He would come to the meeting having made a long, long, journey. I think many times our problem is that we quit!
THE CHILD OF EARTH HAS GOT TO GO TO HEAVEN IF HE IS GOING TO GET HIS PRAYERS ANSWERED.
I think it was one of the old Puritans, who said words to this effect, "God will not refuse the answer to any man's prayer who goes to heaven with his need."
I've got to get beyond a self-seeking and a self-interest. I've got to get beyond an earthly concept of the thing. If it's a selfish prayer I'll never get to heaven with it. Once I leave the earth, the selfishness which is of the earth stays in the earth.
You follow what I mean? The hang-ups, the complexes, the doubts, the fears, all of those things are of earth. I reach through to heaven. It means I go beyond all earthly things and I get into that place where their influence cannot reach. I get into His presence. This is the challenge that God puts before us. We are called to pray in the Spirit. We are called to reach through to the heavenlies. That is the place where we possess our inheritance.
"Hallowed by Thy name." The Spanish Bible says, "Your name be sanctified." I believe it's practically the same. It means separated. We tend to bring God down and mix Him in with our earthly scene. It says, "Be your name separated."
God's Kingdom and man's kingdom do not mix. God and the devil do not mix. God's nature and man's nature do not mix either.
"Hallowed by Thy name." Be Thy name separated in my thinking. That God's name be set on a high and holy pinnacle unreachable for all else. Separate from every other thing:
All my religious drives, all my religious ambitions. All my desires that God would bless me, that God would work through me. All those things must be set to one side.
Let there be no taint in my life on the name of God. Remember one of the first commandments, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." It's not just swearing or anything of the sort; it's not just sinning in the sense of outward sins. It's taking something of God and not realizing the potential of that which we have taken. It's like having a 200 horsepower car and never exceeding 15 miles an hour. It's in vain to have a motor that can reach 100 miles an hour and never go more than 15 miles an hour. Likewise, it's in vain to take all of heaven and apply it to my poor miserable life, so that I feel free, so that I feel happy, so I don't have hangups, and I'm not condemned dragging a sense of guilt.
You know, we are so limited. We are like the horses with the blinders on. We look in one direction. We see one thing. We follow a path that others have marked out for us. God want to set us free.
We are the painters that paint miniatures - tiny little paintings. Maybe in that little painting they have a whole landscape. They paint hills, mountains, a lake, a village over on the far side, people skating on the lake, birds overhead, rushes, flowers, everything in that tiny little painting. I think that is what we do with God, we try to reduce it all down. "Oh, here is God, all the fullness, look, there are mountains, there are lakes, there...you know."
Or say it another way, we live in a Lilliputian world. You've read the book of Gulliver and Lilliput, the man that went and lived among tiny little people. I think the average Christian is something like that. Tiny little things that are our enemies - we get so fearful. A tiny little enemy and the child of God is going to pieces. On the other hand he has a tiny little victory over a tiny little thing and, "Oh, I feel so good." You've seen these people that hear a new teaching or some little thing and they have a tiny dimension of truth, and you ask, "How are you?" "Oh, brother! Yesterday I learned Jesus loves me." Well, that's great, but we ought to know that and we ought to be going on.
God does not paint miniatures. The dimension of God is universal. I think we are going to find out many things when we get to heaven, but one of the things is that eternity is not only a line that goes on without end. That it's not only ear after year and century after century; it's not a line of time. I think we are going to find out that eternity is as broad as it is long. There is a dimension of fullness that that we can't begin to understand. Paul says to one of the churches that they might understand the length and breadth and depth and height. In everything God does He wants to lead us through to a greater realm of the spirit and give us something beyond.
~Paul Ravenhill~
(continued with # 3)
I am just starting to realize a little bit of where God calls me to, how far it is, and how hard it is to get there. The missionary that I mentioned had a wonderful ministry. People used to say, "Oh, he has such a grace. It seems that he just comes and gives God's bounty to us, just flows and the people weep and cry and they are overwhelmed. It's glorious!" But one thing they did not realize was where he had to go to get that. How far he had to go. With all his years of experience, he would spend hours seeking God before an hour meeting! He would come to the meeting having made a long, long, journey. I think many times our problem is that we quit!
THE CHILD OF EARTH HAS GOT TO GO TO HEAVEN IF HE IS GOING TO GET HIS PRAYERS ANSWERED.
I think it was one of the old Puritans, who said words to this effect, "God will not refuse the answer to any man's prayer who goes to heaven with his need."
I've got to get beyond a self-seeking and a self-interest. I've got to get beyond an earthly concept of the thing. If it's a selfish prayer I'll never get to heaven with it. Once I leave the earth, the selfishness which is of the earth stays in the earth.
You follow what I mean? The hang-ups, the complexes, the doubts, the fears, all of those things are of earth. I reach through to heaven. It means I go beyond all earthly things and I get into that place where their influence cannot reach. I get into His presence. This is the challenge that God puts before us. We are called to pray in the Spirit. We are called to reach through to the heavenlies. That is the place where we possess our inheritance.
"Hallowed by Thy name." The Spanish Bible says, "Your name be sanctified." I believe it's practically the same. It means separated. We tend to bring God down and mix Him in with our earthly scene. It says, "Be your name separated."
God's Kingdom and man's kingdom do not mix. God and the devil do not mix. God's nature and man's nature do not mix either.
"Hallowed by Thy name." Be Thy name separated in my thinking. That God's name be set on a high and holy pinnacle unreachable for all else. Separate from every other thing:
All my religious drives, all my religious ambitions. All my desires that God would bless me, that God would work through me. All those things must be set to one side.
Let there be no taint in my life on the name of God. Remember one of the first commandments, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." It's not just swearing or anything of the sort; it's not just sinning in the sense of outward sins. It's taking something of God and not realizing the potential of that which we have taken. It's like having a 200 horsepower car and never exceeding 15 miles an hour. It's in vain to have a motor that can reach 100 miles an hour and never go more than 15 miles an hour. Likewise, it's in vain to take all of heaven and apply it to my poor miserable life, so that I feel free, so that I feel happy, so I don't have hangups, and I'm not condemned dragging a sense of guilt.
You know, we are so limited. We are like the horses with the blinders on. We look in one direction. We see one thing. We follow a path that others have marked out for us. God want to set us free.
We are the painters that paint miniatures - tiny little paintings. Maybe in that little painting they have a whole landscape. They paint hills, mountains, a lake, a village over on the far side, people skating on the lake, birds overhead, rushes, flowers, everything in that tiny little painting. I think that is what we do with God, we try to reduce it all down. "Oh, here is God, all the fullness, look, there are mountains, there are lakes, there...you know."
Or say it another way, we live in a Lilliputian world. You've read the book of Gulliver and Lilliput, the man that went and lived among tiny little people. I think the average Christian is something like that. Tiny little things that are our enemies - we get so fearful. A tiny little enemy and the child of God is going to pieces. On the other hand he has a tiny little victory over a tiny little thing and, "Oh, I feel so good." You've seen these people that hear a new teaching or some little thing and they have a tiny dimension of truth, and you ask, "How are you?" "Oh, brother! Yesterday I learned Jesus loves me." Well, that's great, but we ought to know that and we ought to be going on.
God does not paint miniatures. The dimension of God is universal. I think we are going to find out many things when we get to heaven, but one of the things is that eternity is not only a line that goes on without end. That it's not only ear after year and century after century; it's not a line of time. I think we are going to find out that eternity is as broad as it is long. There is a dimension of fullness that that we can't begin to understand. Paul says to one of the churches that they might understand the length and breadth and depth and height. In everything God does He wants to lead us through to a greater realm of the spirit and give us something beyond.
~Paul Ravenhill~
(continued with # 3)
Saturday, January 19, 2019
Is This Your Religion?
Is This Your Religion?
"If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing!" (1 Corinthians 13:2).
Love is a grace which many professing Christians think far too little about; but it is of infinite value in the eyes of God. Love is the most characteristic feature of Christ's image in a renewed man. Love is the most precious fruit of grace; and yet the fruit which too many of His professed followers seem to think themselves hardly under any obligation to cultivate.
Christian love is that benevolent disposition or kindness, which consists in good-will to all creatures, and which leads us, as we have opportunity, to promote their happiness.
"Love is patient" and forbearing under injuries and annoyances - and does not revile, revenge, or retaliate.
"Love is kind," not harsh or crude - but ever ready, willing, and pleased by looks, words, and actions, to promote the comfort of others.
"Love does not envy." It does not pine and grieve at the sight of another's superior possessions, fame, happiness, or piety - and dislike him on that account.
"Love does not boast. Love is not proud." It neither boasts its own gifts, achievements, and possessions, nor despises others, nor makes insulting comparisons - but is humble and gentle.
"Love does not behave unseemly." It modestly keeps its place, and does nothing to offend by what is unfitting its rank, station, or circumstances.
"Love seeks not her own." It does not selfishly want to have its own way, or promote its own interest - to the neglect of others.
"Love is not easily provoked." It governs its temper, controls its passions, and is not soon or unreasonably irritable or petulant.
"Love thinks no evil." It is not censorious, nor forward to impute a bad motive to a doubtful action - but is disposed to put the best construction on the actions and words of others.
"Love rejoices not in iniquity - but rejoices in truth." It does not delight in the sins - but in the excellences of an opponent.
"Love bears all things." It does not divulge, proclaim, aggravate faults - but hides them as far as it can, and it is right to do so.
"Love believes all things," where there is not sufficient evidence to authorize belief.
"Love endures all things," bears hardships, sustains labor, makes sacrifices - in order to accomplish its purposes or good will.
Such is love in exercise and act. This is benevolence - this is a regard to the happiness of others. Whoever acts thus, must promote happiness. He must bless all around him. All things smile in his presence.
Beautiful description! Heavenly temper! Godlike mind!
No matter what knowledge you may have of the doctrines of the gospel; what seeming faith you may possess; what zeal you may manifest; what liberality you may exercise - if love is lacking, all this is of no avail.
Nothing can be a substitute for love.
Christianity is love - not a slavish attendance on ceremonies; not receiving the sacraments; not zeal for orthodoxy; not a form of church government; not belonging to any particular church. God's eternal thoughts and purposes in election, Christ's redeeming work upon the Cross, the Spirit's omnipotent agency in regeneration, deliver us from the dominion of selfishness, and place us under the reign of love - and thus make us like God. If an individual is destitute of love, he has no saving religion. He may be zealous for the forms of Christianity, but he is destitute of its living spirit.
And now, my dear friends, let me entreat you to examine yourselves concerning this great essential of the Christian character. Are you experimentally acquainted with this disposition? Is this your religion? Is that one word "love" characteristic of your spirit? Has God's love to you, changed you into its own likeness? Do you know what it is to have pride, passion, envy, malice, selfishness - subdued, repressed, resisted - by a meek, gentle, lowly, forgiving, forbearing, generous, self-denying temper? Are the harshness, hardness, asperity of the fallen nature, displaced by the softness, sweetness, and kindness of true Biblical love?
~John Angell James~
"If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing!" (1 Corinthians 13:2).
Love is a grace which many professing Christians think far too little about; but it is of infinite value in the eyes of God. Love is the most characteristic feature of Christ's image in a renewed man. Love is the most precious fruit of grace; and yet the fruit which too many of His professed followers seem to think themselves hardly under any obligation to cultivate.
Christian love is that benevolent disposition or kindness, which consists in good-will to all creatures, and which leads us, as we have opportunity, to promote their happiness.
"Love is patient" and forbearing under injuries and annoyances - and does not revile, revenge, or retaliate.
"Love is kind," not harsh or crude - but ever ready, willing, and pleased by looks, words, and actions, to promote the comfort of others.
"Love does not envy." It does not pine and grieve at the sight of another's superior possessions, fame, happiness, or piety - and dislike him on that account.
"Love does not boast. Love is not proud." It neither boasts its own gifts, achievements, and possessions, nor despises others, nor makes insulting comparisons - but is humble and gentle.
"Love does not behave unseemly." It modestly keeps its place, and does nothing to offend by what is unfitting its rank, station, or circumstances.
"Love seeks not her own." It does not selfishly want to have its own way, or promote its own interest - to the neglect of others.
"Love is not easily provoked." It governs its temper, controls its passions, and is not soon or unreasonably irritable or petulant.
"Love thinks no evil." It is not censorious, nor forward to impute a bad motive to a doubtful action - but is disposed to put the best construction on the actions and words of others.
"Love rejoices not in iniquity - but rejoices in truth." It does not delight in the sins - but in the excellences of an opponent.
"Love bears all things." It does not divulge, proclaim, aggravate faults - but hides them as far as it can, and it is right to do so.
"Love believes all things," where there is not sufficient evidence to authorize belief.
"Love endures all things," bears hardships, sustains labor, makes sacrifices - in order to accomplish its purposes or good will.
Such is love in exercise and act. This is benevolence - this is a regard to the happiness of others. Whoever acts thus, must promote happiness. He must bless all around him. All things smile in his presence.
Beautiful description! Heavenly temper! Godlike mind!
No matter what knowledge you may have of the doctrines of the gospel; what seeming faith you may possess; what zeal you may manifest; what liberality you may exercise - if love is lacking, all this is of no avail.
Nothing can be a substitute for love.
Christianity is love - not a slavish attendance on ceremonies; not receiving the sacraments; not zeal for orthodoxy; not a form of church government; not belonging to any particular church. God's eternal thoughts and purposes in election, Christ's redeeming work upon the Cross, the Spirit's omnipotent agency in regeneration, deliver us from the dominion of selfishness, and place us under the reign of love - and thus make us like God. If an individual is destitute of love, he has no saving religion. He may be zealous for the forms of Christianity, but he is destitute of its living spirit.
And now, my dear friends, let me entreat you to examine yourselves concerning this great essential of the Christian character. Are you experimentally acquainted with this disposition? Is this your religion? Is that one word "love" characteristic of your spirit? Has God's love to you, changed you into its own likeness? Do you know what it is to have pride, passion, envy, malice, selfishness - subdued, repressed, resisted - by a meek, gentle, lowly, forgiving, forbearing, generous, self-denying temper? Are the harshness, hardness, asperity of the fallen nature, displaced by the softness, sweetness, and kindness of true Biblical love?
~John Angell James~
Breaking Through to the Heavenlies # 1
Breaking Through to the Heavenlies # 1
Matthew 6:6-13 "But thou, when thou prayest..."
It's hard to talk about prayer - there is a tendency to absorb so much with our minds that it hinders our spirits grasping the reality that is beyond the surface.
It's so easy to have the letter about the Spirit and forget that the letter, even if it's about the Spirit, is not the Spirit. The inner essence is beyond the letter, beyond the feelings, beyond the mind, beyond the intellect. The Spiritual essence gives life.
In our scripture, Jesus, responding to His disciple's request, is giving them a way to pray, and He says "after this manner." It's not the words, it's something beyond the words. It's the whole concept, it's the spirit, it's the attitude, it's the steps of prayer that are laid down here.
The Lord has been taking me back to some things that I thought I knew well and showing me that they were not exactly what I thought they were. Prayer is one of those things. The Lord's prayer is one of those prayers.
It's easy to look at it, and as Tozer said, "explain the obvious." Maybe we have to start there, but we have to go beyond that.
"Our Father," It's the beginning of the relationship. I do not think we can overemphasize this. He has to be our Father. God never deal's with us in a cold relationship. There has to be something more than that. There has to be something living; there has to be something warm - a love relationship, a knowledge of who He is.
The One whom I have relationship, The One who is faithful, with the immensity of heaven's fullness, The One who is faithful and true to His purpose in my life.
As He leads me through places that my mind can't understand. As He leads me through places where my feelings cannot follow - and if He is going to lead me He is going to lead me through all those places - then this must undergird.
There are two things we need to know about God: One, that He loves us, Two, that He understands us. He is faithful, He is true - He is our Father.
Some people go all through life understanding in their mind, and it never ever filters down to their heart. Never becomes something that upholds, Never transmits light from within upon the rest of our circumstances, upon the rest of our limitations, upon the rest of our battles.
We must see past the natural. A missionary with lots of years of experience, told me, "Paul, you need to see beyond the second causes. You need to see the spiritual. There is nothing apart from the spiritual. Everything is spiritual!
Beyond a hard meeting, beyond a rebellious child, beyond a difficult work situation, beyond all the earthly things, we need to see the spiritual. Beyond even the need, and the lack, and the want, and the supply, and all those things, we need to see the spiritual! Beyond all things there is a spiritual reason. "The kingdoms of this world," it says at the end of the Bible, "are become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ." Until they do the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of the enemy are warring and there is no other real seat of power. It is either God or the enemy.
"Our Father which art in Heaven." I used to read this and think, "Well, He is a Heavenly Father, He is up above, He's got a realm of power which is above earth." But I think there is something more than that. As the years go by, I am seeing that God, through many circumstances, through tremendous pressures, teaches the soul the enormous distance that there is between earth and heaven. The enormous distance that I must travel if I am going to get to heaven.
Somebody explained once in a meeting, "Well, God's in heaven, man's on earth. God has conquered on the Cross, everything is all right. Just bring your request to God. He knows what you need before you ask, so just say, "Lord, I need this and I need that, and it's done." Well, it's not done - there must be a balance in this whole thing. There is a lot of teaching that would present God as man's helper. The teaching seems to imply, God is here to help you. God is here to lead you. God is here to make sure that your life is a success - "Realizing your potential," "You are loved"... that whole idea. There is a part of that, but as far as I'm concerned, it's very much on the periphery. Just compare it with the magnitude which God wants us to get in the spiritual.
~Paul Ravenhill~
(continued with # 2)
Matthew 6:6-13 "But thou, when thou prayest..."
It's hard to talk about prayer - there is a tendency to absorb so much with our minds that it hinders our spirits grasping the reality that is beyond the surface.
It's so easy to have the letter about the Spirit and forget that the letter, even if it's about the Spirit, is not the Spirit. The inner essence is beyond the letter, beyond the feelings, beyond the mind, beyond the intellect. The Spiritual essence gives life.
In our scripture, Jesus, responding to His disciple's request, is giving them a way to pray, and He says "after this manner." It's not the words, it's something beyond the words. It's the whole concept, it's the spirit, it's the attitude, it's the steps of prayer that are laid down here.
The Lord has been taking me back to some things that I thought I knew well and showing me that they were not exactly what I thought they were. Prayer is one of those things. The Lord's prayer is one of those prayers.
It's easy to look at it, and as Tozer said, "explain the obvious." Maybe we have to start there, but we have to go beyond that.
"Our Father," It's the beginning of the relationship. I do not think we can overemphasize this. He has to be our Father. God never deal's with us in a cold relationship. There has to be something more than that. There has to be something living; there has to be something warm - a love relationship, a knowledge of who He is.
The One whom I have relationship, The One who is faithful, with the immensity of heaven's fullness, The One who is faithful and true to His purpose in my life.
As He leads me through places that my mind can't understand. As He leads me through places where my feelings cannot follow - and if He is going to lead me He is going to lead me through all those places - then this must undergird.
There are two things we need to know about God: One, that He loves us, Two, that He understands us. He is faithful, He is true - He is our Father.
Some people go all through life understanding in their mind, and it never ever filters down to their heart. Never becomes something that upholds, Never transmits light from within upon the rest of our circumstances, upon the rest of our limitations, upon the rest of our battles.
We must see past the natural. A missionary with lots of years of experience, told me, "Paul, you need to see beyond the second causes. You need to see the spiritual. There is nothing apart from the spiritual. Everything is spiritual!
Beyond a hard meeting, beyond a rebellious child, beyond a difficult work situation, beyond all the earthly things, we need to see the spiritual. Beyond even the need, and the lack, and the want, and the supply, and all those things, we need to see the spiritual! Beyond all things there is a spiritual reason. "The kingdoms of this world," it says at the end of the Bible, "are become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ." Until they do the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of the enemy are warring and there is no other real seat of power. It is either God or the enemy.
"Our Father which art in Heaven." I used to read this and think, "Well, He is a Heavenly Father, He is up above, He's got a realm of power which is above earth." But I think there is something more than that. As the years go by, I am seeing that God, through many circumstances, through tremendous pressures, teaches the soul the enormous distance that there is between earth and heaven. The enormous distance that I must travel if I am going to get to heaven.
Somebody explained once in a meeting, "Well, God's in heaven, man's on earth. God has conquered on the Cross, everything is all right. Just bring your request to God. He knows what you need before you ask, so just say, "Lord, I need this and I need that, and it's done." Well, it's not done - there must be a balance in this whole thing. There is a lot of teaching that would present God as man's helper. The teaching seems to imply, God is here to help you. God is here to lead you. God is here to make sure that your life is a success - "Realizing your potential," "You are loved"... that whole idea. There is a part of that, but as far as I'm concerned, it's very much on the periphery. Just compare it with the magnitude which God wants us to get in the spiritual.
~Paul Ravenhill~
(continued with # 2)
The Cross: The Proof Of God's Love # 3
The Cross: The Proof Of God's Love # 3
The Love Which Is Proved by the Death
There is much bearing upon that in my text, which I can barely spare time to draw out. But let us think for a moment of the fact which is thus the demonstration of the love of God and try to realize what it is that, that Cross says to us as we gaze upon the silent Sufferer meekly hanging there. I know that my words must fall far beneath the theme, but I can only hope that you will listen to them charitably and try to better them for yourselves in your own thoughts.
I look, then, to the dying Christ, and I see there the revelation, because the consequence of a love that is not called by any lovableness on the part of its objects. The apostle emphasizes the thought, if we render his words fully, because he says, "God proves His own love." It is a love which, like all that belongs to that timeless, self-determining Being, has its reason and its roots in Himself alone. We love because we discern the object to be lovable. God loves by what I may venture to call the very necessity of His nature. Like some artisan well that needs no pumps nor machinery to draw up the sparkling waters to flesh in the sunlight, there gushs up from the depths of His own heart the love that pours over every creature He has made. He loves because He is God.
In like manner, another word of my text bears upon this matter, for he says, "Whilst we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Oh! brethren, it is only the gospel of a dying Christ that can calm the reasonable consciousness of discord and antagonism that springs up in a man's heart when he lets his conscience speak. It is because He died for us that we are sure now that the black mountain-wall of our sin, which, to our own apprehension, rises separating between us and our God is, if I may say, surged over by the gospel for men that know themselves to be sinners. Is there anything else that teaches it? I know not where it is, if there be.
That dying Christ, hanging there in the silence and the darkness of eclipse, speaks to me too, of a Divine love which, though not turned away by man's sin, is rigidly righteous.
I referred at the beginning of my remarks to the current, easy-going religion that says, "Oh! we do not want any of your evangelical contrivances for forgiveness. God is love. That is enough for us." I venture to say that the thing which that form of thought calls love is not love at all, but pure weakness. Such a king or in a father would be immoral. My brother! Unless you can find some means whereby the infinite love of God can get at and soothe the sinner's heart without periling God's righteousness, you have nothing to the purpose. Such a one-eyed, lop-sided gospel will never work, has not worked, and it never will. But, when I think of my Christ bearing the sins of the world, I say to myself, "Herein is love. By His stripes we are healed," and in Him love and righteousness are both crowned and wondrously brought into harmonious oneness. Is there anything else that will do that?
I want your hearts to be touched, and that Christ shall be not only the answer to your doubts, but the sovereign of your affections. Do you look on the death of Christ as a death for your sin? In the strength of the revelation that it makes the love of God, do you front the perplexities, the miseries of the world, and the raveled skeins of providence with calm, happy faces? And oh! - most important of all - do you meet that love with an answering love?
There are two passages of Scripture which contain the whole secret of a noble, blessed, human life. And here they are: "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). If that is your thought about God, you know enough about Him for time and eternity. "We love Him because He first loved us" (John 4:19). If you can say that about yourself, all is well.
Dear friend, do you believe the one? Do you affirm the other?
~Alexander MacLaren~
(The End)
The Love Which Is Proved by the Death
There is much bearing upon that in my text, which I can barely spare time to draw out. But let us think for a moment of the fact which is thus the demonstration of the love of God and try to realize what it is that, that Cross says to us as we gaze upon the silent Sufferer meekly hanging there. I know that my words must fall far beneath the theme, but I can only hope that you will listen to them charitably and try to better them for yourselves in your own thoughts.
I look, then, to the dying Christ, and I see there the revelation, because the consequence of a love that is not called by any lovableness on the part of its objects. The apostle emphasizes the thought, if we render his words fully, because he says, "God proves His own love." It is a love which, like all that belongs to that timeless, self-determining Being, has its reason and its roots in Himself alone. We love because we discern the object to be lovable. God loves by what I may venture to call the very necessity of His nature. Like some artisan well that needs no pumps nor machinery to draw up the sparkling waters to flesh in the sunlight, there gushs up from the depths of His own heart the love that pours over every creature He has made. He loves because He is God.
In like manner, another word of my text bears upon this matter, for he says, "Whilst we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Oh! brethren, it is only the gospel of a dying Christ that can calm the reasonable consciousness of discord and antagonism that springs up in a man's heart when he lets his conscience speak. It is because He died for us that we are sure now that the black mountain-wall of our sin, which, to our own apprehension, rises separating between us and our God is, if I may say, surged over by the gospel for men that know themselves to be sinners. Is there anything else that teaches it? I know not where it is, if there be.
That dying Christ, hanging there in the silence and the darkness of eclipse, speaks to me too, of a Divine love which, though not turned away by man's sin, is rigidly righteous.
I referred at the beginning of my remarks to the current, easy-going religion that says, "Oh! we do not want any of your evangelical contrivances for forgiveness. God is love. That is enough for us." I venture to say that the thing which that form of thought calls love is not love at all, but pure weakness. Such a king or in a father would be immoral. My brother! Unless you can find some means whereby the infinite love of God can get at and soothe the sinner's heart without periling God's righteousness, you have nothing to the purpose. Such a one-eyed, lop-sided gospel will never work, has not worked, and it never will. But, when I think of my Christ bearing the sins of the world, I say to myself, "Herein is love. By His stripes we are healed," and in Him love and righteousness are both crowned and wondrously brought into harmonious oneness. Is there anything else that will do that?
I want your hearts to be touched, and that Christ shall be not only the answer to your doubts, but the sovereign of your affections. Do you look on the death of Christ as a death for your sin? In the strength of the revelation that it makes the love of God, do you front the perplexities, the miseries of the world, and the raveled skeins of providence with calm, happy faces? And oh! - most important of all - do you meet that love with an answering love?
There are two passages of Scripture which contain the whole secret of a noble, blessed, human life. And here they are: "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). If that is your thought about God, you know enough about Him for time and eternity. "We love Him because He first loved us" (John 4:19). If you can say that about yourself, all is well.
Dear friend, do you believe the one? Do you affirm the other?
~Alexander MacLaren~
(The End)
Saturday, January 12, 2019
The Cross: The Proof Of God's Love # 2
The Cross: The Proof Of God's Love # 2
The Death That Does Prove the Love
How do we know, in our own happy experiences, that love toward us exists in another heart? Surely, by act. Words are well; but we want something more. Paul thinks that mightier than all demonstrations of a verbal kind, in order to establish that fact of love in the Divine heart to men - there must be some conspicuous and unmistakable act that is the outcome of that love. So mark that, when he wants to enforce this great truth - the shining climax of all the gospel revelation of the love of God, he does not go back to Christ's gentle words, nor to His teaching of God as the Father. Paul does not point to anything that Christ says, but he points to one thing that He did, and he says, "There! that Cross is the demonstration."
And, since it has a special bearing on my subject, I wish to emphasize that distinction and to beseech you to believe that you have not got within sight of the secret of Jesus, nor come near tapping the sources of His power if you confine yourselves to His words and His teaching, or even to the lower acts of His gentle life. You must go to the Cross. It would have been much that unparalleded of the love of God. But words, however eloquent, however true, are not enough for the soul to rest its weight upon. We must have deeds, and these are all summed in "Christ died for us."
Now, there are but two things that I wish to say about this great proof of the love of God in act.
First, Christ's death proves God's love, because Christ is Divine. How else do you account for that extraordinary shifting o the persons of my text? "God proves His love because Christ died?" How so? God proved His love because some self-sacrificing doctor went into a hospital and died in curing others? God proved His love because some man sprang into the sea rescued a drowning woman, at the cost of his own life? Would such talk hold? Then I wish to know how it comes that Paul ventures to say that God proved His love because Jesus Christ died.
Unless we believe that Jesus Christ is the Eternal Son of the Father, whom the Father sent, and who willingly came for us men and for our redemption; unless we believe that, as He Himself said, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9); unless we believe that His death was the act, the consequence, and the revelation of the love of God, who dwelt in Him as in none other of the sons of men, I, for one, venture to think that Paul is talking nonsense in my text, and that his argument is not worth a straw. You must come to the full-toned belief which, as I think, permeates and binds together every page of the New Testament - God so loved the world, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for sins; that Son who in the beginning was with God, and was God; and then a flood of light is poured on the words of my text, and we can adoringly bow the head and say, "Amen! God hath, to my understanding, and to my heart, proved and commended His love, in that Christ died for us!"
The second thought about this death that proves the love is, that it does so because it is a death for us. That "for us" implies two things; one, the voluntary act of God in Christ in giving Himself up to the death, the other the beneficial effect of that death. It was on our behalf. Therefore, it was the spontaneous outgush of an infinite love. It was for us in that it brought an infinite benefit. And so it was a token and a manifestation of the love of God such as nothing else could be.
Now, I wish to ask a question very earnestly: In what conceivable way can Christ's death be a real benefit to me? How can it do me any good? A sweet, a tender, an unexampled, beautiful story of innocence and meekness and martyrdom which will shine in the memory of the world, and on the pages of history, as long as the world shall last. It is all that; but what good does it do me? Where does the benefit to me individually come in? There is only one answer, and I urge you to ask yourselves if, in plain, sober, common sense, the death of Jesus Christ means anything at all to anybody, more than other martyrdoms and beautiful deaths, except upon one supposition, that He died for us, because He died instead of us. The two things are not necessarily identical, but, as I believe, and venture to press upon you, in this case they are identical. I do not know where you will find any justification for the rapturous language of the whole New Testament about the death of Christ and its benefits flowing to the whole world, unless you take the Master's own words, "The Son of Man came to minister, and to give His life a ransom instead of many" (Mark 10:45).
Ah, dear friends, there we touch the bedrock. That is the truth that flashes up the Cross into luster before which the sun's light is but darkness. He who bore it died for the whole world and was the eternal Son of the Father. If we believe that, then we can understand how Paul here blends together the heart of God and the heart of Christ, and sets high above nature and her ambiguous oracles, high above providence and its many perplexities, and in face of all the shrinkings and fears of a reasonably alarmed conscience, the one truth, "God hath proved His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Is that your faith, your notion of Christ's death and of its relation to the love of God?
~Alexander MacLaren~
(continued with # 3)
The Death That Does Prove the Love
How do we know, in our own happy experiences, that love toward us exists in another heart? Surely, by act. Words are well; but we want something more. Paul thinks that mightier than all demonstrations of a verbal kind, in order to establish that fact of love in the Divine heart to men - there must be some conspicuous and unmistakable act that is the outcome of that love. So mark that, when he wants to enforce this great truth - the shining climax of all the gospel revelation of the love of God, he does not go back to Christ's gentle words, nor to His teaching of God as the Father. Paul does not point to anything that Christ says, but he points to one thing that He did, and he says, "There! that Cross is the demonstration."
And, since it has a special bearing on my subject, I wish to emphasize that distinction and to beseech you to believe that you have not got within sight of the secret of Jesus, nor come near tapping the sources of His power if you confine yourselves to His words and His teaching, or even to the lower acts of His gentle life. You must go to the Cross. It would have been much that unparalleded of the love of God. But words, however eloquent, however true, are not enough for the soul to rest its weight upon. We must have deeds, and these are all summed in "Christ died for us."
Now, there are but two things that I wish to say about this great proof of the love of God in act.
First, Christ's death proves God's love, because Christ is Divine. How else do you account for that extraordinary shifting o the persons of my text? "God proves His love because Christ died?" How so? God proved His love because some self-sacrificing doctor went into a hospital and died in curing others? God proved His love because some man sprang into the sea rescued a drowning woman, at the cost of his own life? Would such talk hold? Then I wish to know how it comes that Paul ventures to say that God proved His love because Jesus Christ died.
Unless we believe that Jesus Christ is the Eternal Son of the Father, whom the Father sent, and who willingly came for us men and for our redemption; unless we believe that, as He Himself said, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9); unless we believe that His death was the act, the consequence, and the revelation of the love of God, who dwelt in Him as in none other of the sons of men, I, for one, venture to think that Paul is talking nonsense in my text, and that his argument is not worth a straw. You must come to the full-toned belief which, as I think, permeates and binds together every page of the New Testament - God so loved the world, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for sins; that Son who in the beginning was with God, and was God; and then a flood of light is poured on the words of my text, and we can adoringly bow the head and say, "Amen! God hath, to my understanding, and to my heart, proved and commended His love, in that Christ died for us!"
The second thought about this death that proves the love is, that it does so because it is a death for us. That "for us" implies two things; one, the voluntary act of God in Christ in giving Himself up to the death, the other the beneficial effect of that death. It was on our behalf. Therefore, it was the spontaneous outgush of an infinite love. It was for us in that it brought an infinite benefit. And so it was a token and a manifestation of the love of God such as nothing else could be.
Now, I wish to ask a question very earnestly: In what conceivable way can Christ's death be a real benefit to me? How can it do me any good? A sweet, a tender, an unexampled, beautiful story of innocence and meekness and martyrdom which will shine in the memory of the world, and on the pages of history, as long as the world shall last. It is all that; but what good does it do me? Where does the benefit to me individually come in? There is only one answer, and I urge you to ask yourselves if, in plain, sober, common sense, the death of Jesus Christ means anything at all to anybody, more than other martyrdoms and beautiful deaths, except upon one supposition, that He died for us, because He died instead of us. The two things are not necessarily identical, but, as I believe, and venture to press upon you, in this case they are identical. I do not know where you will find any justification for the rapturous language of the whole New Testament about the death of Christ and its benefits flowing to the whole world, unless you take the Master's own words, "The Son of Man came to minister, and to give His life a ransom instead of many" (Mark 10:45).
Ah, dear friends, there we touch the bedrock. That is the truth that flashes up the Cross into luster before which the sun's light is but darkness. He who bore it died for the whole world and was the eternal Son of the Father. If we believe that, then we can understand how Paul here blends together the heart of God and the heart of Christ, and sets high above nature and her ambiguous oracles, high above providence and its many perplexities, and in face of all the shrinkings and fears of a reasonably alarmed conscience, the one truth, "God hath proved His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Is that your faith, your notion of Christ's death and of its relation to the love of God?
~Alexander MacLaren~
(continued with # 3)
The Cross: Proof Of God's Love # 1
The Cross: Proof Of God's Love # 1
"God commendeth His love towards us, in that, whilst we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
GOD COMMENDETH HIS LOVE. That is true and beautiful, but that is not all that the apostle means. We 'commend' persons and things when we speak to them with praise and confidence. If that were the meaning of my text, it would represent the death of Christ as setting forth, in a manner to win our hearts, the greatness, the exceeding excellence, the transcendency, of God's love. but there is more than that in the words. The expression here employed strictly means "to set two things side by side," and it has two meanings in the New Testament, both derived from that original signification. It sometimes means to set two persons side by side, in a way of introducing and recommending the one to the other. It is used in the latter sense here. God not merely "commends," but "proves" His love by Christ's death. It is the one evidence which makes that often-doubted fact certain. Through it alone is it possible to hold the conviction that, in spite of all that seems to contradict the belief, God is Love. And so I wish to take the words of this sermon.
The Need For Proof That God Does Love
To hear some men speak, you would suppose that one of the simplest, clearest, and most indisputable of all convictions was the love of God. People are found in plenty who reject the distinctive teaching of Christianity because they say that the sterner aspects of the evangelical faith seem to them to limit, or to contradict, the great fundamental truth of all religion, as they take it, that God is Love. My friends, such people are kicking away the ladder by which they climbed. I venture to say that instead of the love of God being a plain, self-evident axiom, there needs very much evidence to give it a secure lodging-place amongst our settled beliefs.
Do the world's religions bear out the contention that it is so easy and natural for a man to believe in a loving God? I think not. Comparative mythology has taught a great many lessons, and amongst others this, that, apart from the direct or indirect influences of Christianity, there is no creed to be found in which the belief in a God of love and in the love of God is unfalteringly proclaimed, to say nothing of being set as the very climax of the whole revelation. If this were the place, one could pass in review men's thoughts about God and ask you to look at all that assemblage of beings before whom mankind has bowed down. What would you find? God's cruel, gods careless, gods capricious, gods lustful, gods mighty, gods mysterious, gods pitying with a contempt mingled with the pity their sorrows and follies of mankind. But in all the pantheons that is not a loving God.
Before Jesus Christ there was no such thought, or if it were there at all, it was there as a faint hope, a germ overlaid by other conceptions. Independent of Jesus Christ's influence, there is no such thought now.
Where you find the death of Christ as the proof rejected and the conviction retained, as is often the case, you have only a sign that "the river of the water of life" has percolated to the roots of many a tree that grows far from its banks. It is Christ who has brought the fire of this conviction, in the broken reed of His dying flesh, and lodged it in the heart of humanity. So I say the love of God, as is proved by men's thoughts about Him, surely needs to be established on a basis of unmistakable evidence.
I add that all other evidences are insufficient. Do you appeal, in the fashion of Paley and the natural theologians, to the evidence of God's creation? Ah! you have invoked a very ambiguous oracle that seems to speak with two voices. I say nothing about the modification that argument has necessarily assumed if the theory of evolution is accepted. I do not think it is destroyed, but it is profoundly modified. For if God put into matter the promise and the potency of all these variations, He must lie back of the process, and be conceived of as forecasting, if not guiding, the evolution "which ends in development. So the argument has only changed in its form and is unaffected in its substance.
But, putting aside all that, you speak of the goodness of God around us. What about storms, earthquakes, disasters, contrivances of producing pain, the law of destruction by which the creature live by the slaying of one another - what about all these things? Nature, red in tooth and claw with rapine, shrieks against the creed, that God is love. And if we have nothing but the evidence of nature, it seems to me that there are two voices speaking there: One says, "There is a good God," the other says, "Either His power is limited, or His goodness is partial.
The same ambiguous issue comes from the evidence of human life. Alas! brethren, we have only to look into our own lives and to look around upon the awful sights that fill the world to make the robustest faith in the goodness and love of God stagger, unless it can stay itself against the upright stem of the Cross of Christ. Sentimentalists may talk, but the grim fact of human suffering, of wretched, hopeless lives, rises up to say that there is no evidence broad and deep and solid enough, outside of Christianity, to make it absolutely certain that God is love.
So, for all these reasons I venture to lay it down as a principle, in spite of modern teaching of another sort, that the love of God is not a self-evident axiom, but needs to be proved.
~Alexander MacLaren~
(continued with # 2)
"God commendeth His love towards us, in that, whilst we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
GOD COMMENDETH HIS LOVE. That is true and beautiful, but that is not all that the apostle means. We 'commend' persons and things when we speak to them with praise and confidence. If that were the meaning of my text, it would represent the death of Christ as setting forth, in a manner to win our hearts, the greatness, the exceeding excellence, the transcendency, of God's love. but there is more than that in the words. The expression here employed strictly means "to set two things side by side," and it has two meanings in the New Testament, both derived from that original signification. It sometimes means to set two persons side by side, in a way of introducing and recommending the one to the other. It is used in the latter sense here. God not merely "commends," but "proves" His love by Christ's death. It is the one evidence which makes that often-doubted fact certain. Through it alone is it possible to hold the conviction that, in spite of all that seems to contradict the belief, God is Love. And so I wish to take the words of this sermon.
The Need For Proof That God Does Love
To hear some men speak, you would suppose that one of the simplest, clearest, and most indisputable of all convictions was the love of God. People are found in plenty who reject the distinctive teaching of Christianity because they say that the sterner aspects of the evangelical faith seem to them to limit, or to contradict, the great fundamental truth of all religion, as they take it, that God is Love. My friends, such people are kicking away the ladder by which they climbed. I venture to say that instead of the love of God being a plain, self-evident axiom, there needs very much evidence to give it a secure lodging-place amongst our settled beliefs.
Do the world's religions bear out the contention that it is so easy and natural for a man to believe in a loving God? I think not. Comparative mythology has taught a great many lessons, and amongst others this, that, apart from the direct or indirect influences of Christianity, there is no creed to be found in which the belief in a God of love and in the love of God is unfalteringly proclaimed, to say nothing of being set as the very climax of the whole revelation. If this were the place, one could pass in review men's thoughts about God and ask you to look at all that assemblage of beings before whom mankind has bowed down. What would you find? God's cruel, gods careless, gods capricious, gods lustful, gods mighty, gods mysterious, gods pitying with a contempt mingled with the pity their sorrows and follies of mankind. But in all the pantheons that is not a loving God.
Before Jesus Christ there was no such thought, or if it were there at all, it was there as a faint hope, a germ overlaid by other conceptions. Independent of Jesus Christ's influence, there is no such thought now.
Where you find the death of Christ as the proof rejected and the conviction retained, as is often the case, you have only a sign that "the river of the water of life" has percolated to the roots of many a tree that grows far from its banks. It is Christ who has brought the fire of this conviction, in the broken reed of His dying flesh, and lodged it in the heart of humanity. So I say the love of God, as is proved by men's thoughts about Him, surely needs to be established on a basis of unmistakable evidence.
I add that all other evidences are insufficient. Do you appeal, in the fashion of Paley and the natural theologians, to the evidence of God's creation? Ah! you have invoked a very ambiguous oracle that seems to speak with two voices. I say nothing about the modification that argument has necessarily assumed if the theory of evolution is accepted. I do not think it is destroyed, but it is profoundly modified. For if God put into matter the promise and the potency of all these variations, He must lie back of the process, and be conceived of as forecasting, if not guiding, the evolution "which ends in development. So the argument has only changed in its form and is unaffected in its substance.
But, putting aside all that, you speak of the goodness of God around us. What about storms, earthquakes, disasters, contrivances of producing pain, the law of destruction by which the creature live by the slaying of one another - what about all these things? Nature, red in tooth and claw with rapine, shrieks against the creed, that God is love. And if we have nothing but the evidence of nature, it seems to me that there are two voices speaking there: One says, "There is a good God," the other says, "Either His power is limited, or His goodness is partial.
The same ambiguous issue comes from the evidence of human life. Alas! brethren, we have only to look into our own lives and to look around upon the awful sights that fill the world to make the robustest faith in the goodness and love of God stagger, unless it can stay itself against the upright stem of the Cross of Christ. Sentimentalists may talk, but the grim fact of human suffering, of wretched, hopeless lives, rises up to say that there is no evidence broad and deep and solid enough, outside of Christianity, to make it absolutely certain that God is love.
So, for all these reasons I venture to lay it down as a principle, in spite of modern teaching of another sort, that the love of God is not a self-evident axiom, but needs to be proved.
~Alexander MacLaren~
(continued with # 2)
Saturday, January 5, 2019
The Way of Holiness
The Way of Holiness
"And an highway shall be and a way, way, it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it" (Isaiah 35:8).
This book of Isaiah speaks so much of Christ, gives such a particular account of the birth, life, miracles and passion, and of the gospel state, that it was been called a fifth gospel. In this chapter is contained a glorious prophecy of the evangelical state: We have a description of the flourishing state of Christ's kingdom in the two first verses, in the conversion and enlightening of the heathen, here compared to a wilderness, and a desert, solitary place: The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.
The great privileges and precious advantages of the gospel, in the five following verses wherein the strength, the courage, the reward, the salvation, the light and understanding, comforts and joys, that are conferred thereby, are very aptly described and set forth: Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not; behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert, and the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
The nature of the gospel, and way of salvation therein brought to light. First, the holy nature of it, in the eighth and ninth verses:
And an highway shall be there, and it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for those the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there.
The joyful nature of it. "And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away" (v. 10).
Observations
Observe in our text the subject spoken, that is, the way to salvation: "An highway shall be there, and a way." This highway is the common and only way to heaven, for the way to heaven is but one. There is none ever get to heaven except the walk in this way - some men don't get to heaven one way and others another, but it is one highway that is always traveled by those that obtain heaven. It is the same narrow way that Christ tells us of. Some don't go to heaven in a broad way, and others in a narrow way; some in an easy and others in a difficult way;some in a way of self denial and mortification, and others in a way of enjoyment of their lusts and sinful pleasures; some up hill and others down; but the way to heaven is the same, and it is the highway here spoken of. There is only one highway or common road, and no by-paths that some few go to heaven in, an exception from the rest.
If we seek never so diligently, we shall never find out an easier way to heaven than that which Christ has revealed to us. We cannot find a broader way, but if we go to heaven, the way is so narrow that we must rub hard to get along and press forward. The kingdom of heaven must suffer violence; it must be taken by force, or else it never will be taken at all. If we don't go by the footsteps of the flock, we shall never find the place where Christ feeds, and where He makes His flock to rest at noon.
It appears that the way here spoken of is the way of salvation, by the last verse of the chapter. When speaking of this way, it is said, "the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion". Zion is the common appellation by which, in the Old Testament, the church both militant and triumphant is signified.
In the words observe the holy nature of this way described: first, by the name by which it is called, "the way of holiness". Secondly, the holiness of those that travel in it, and its purity from those that are unclean, or unholy; "the unclean shall not pass over it." No wicked person shall ever travel in this way of holiness. To the same purpose is the next verse, "No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there." That is, none of the wicked men of this world, which are like lions or ravenous beasts more than like men; in their eager raging and lustful appetites and evil affections, or by their insatiable covetousness, are like hungry wolves, are violently set upon the world and will have it, whether by right or by wrong. Or make themselves like ravenous beasts by their proud, invidious, malicious dispositions, which is directly contrary to a Christian spirit and temper. They are more like wild beasts than Christians, that are wrongful and injurious, are all for themselves and the satisfying their own appetites, and care nothing for the welfare of others, their fellowmen that are of the same blood, make a god of their bellies, and therein resemble tigers and wolves.
"Now," says the Prophet, "none such shall go upon this highway to Zion; such unclean and ravenous beasts shall not be found there. No, but the redeemed shall walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion." This way is a way of holiness and not to be defiled by wicked persons. That in Revelation 21:27 will serve well for an explication of these words: "And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life."
~Jonathan Edwards~
(The End)
"And an highway shall be and a way, way, it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it" (Isaiah 35:8).
This book of Isaiah speaks so much of Christ, gives such a particular account of the birth, life, miracles and passion, and of the gospel state, that it was been called a fifth gospel. In this chapter is contained a glorious prophecy of the evangelical state: We have a description of the flourishing state of Christ's kingdom in the two first verses, in the conversion and enlightening of the heathen, here compared to a wilderness, and a desert, solitary place: The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.
The great privileges and precious advantages of the gospel, in the five following verses wherein the strength, the courage, the reward, the salvation, the light and understanding, comforts and joys, that are conferred thereby, are very aptly described and set forth: Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not; behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert, and the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
The nature of the gospel, and way of salvation therein brought to light. First, the holy nature of it, in the eighth and ninth verses:
And an highway shall be there, and it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for those the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there.
The joyful nature of it. "And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away" (v. 10).
Observations
Observe in our text the subject spoken, that is, the way to salvation: "An highway shall be there, and a way." This highway is the common and only way to heaven, for the way to heaven is but one. There is none ever get to heaven except the walk in this way - some men don't get to heaven one way and others another, but it is one highway that is always traveled by those that obtain heaven. It is the same narrow way that Christ tells us of. Some don't go to heaven in a broad way, and others in a narrow way; some in an easy and others in a difficult way;some in a way of self denial and mortification, and others in a way of enjoyment of their lusts and sinful pleasures; some up hill and others down; but the way to heaven is the same, and it is the highway here spoken of. There is only one highway or common road, and no by-paths that some few go to heaven in, an exception from the rest.
If we seek never so diligently, we shall never find out an easier way to heaven than that which Christ has revealed to us. We cannot find a broader way, but if we go to heaven, the way is so narrow that we must rub hard to get along and press forward. The kingdom of heaven must suffer violence; it must be taken by force, or else it never will be taken at all. If we don't go by the footsteps of the flock, we shall never find the place where Christ feeds, and where He makes His flock to rest at noon.
It appears that the way here spoken of is the way of salvation, by the last verse of the chapter. When speaking of this way, it is said, "the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion". Zion is the common appellation by which, in the Old Testament, the church both militant and triumphant is signified.
In the words observe the holy nature of this way described: first, by the name by which it is called, "the way of holiness". Secondly, the holiness of those that travel in it, and its purity from those that are unclean, or unholy; "the unclean shall not pass over it." No wicked person shall ever travel in this way of holiness. To the same purpose is the next verse, "No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there." That is, none of the wicked men of this world, which are like lions or ravenous beasts more than like men; in their eager raging and lustful appetites and evil affections, or by their insatiable covetousness, are like hungry wolves, are violently set upon the world and will have it, whether by right or by wrong. Or make themselves like ravenous beasts by their proud, invidious, malicious dispositions, which is directly contrary to a Christian spirit and temper. They are more like wild beasts than Christians, that are wrongful and injurious, are all for themselves and the satisfying their own appetites, and care nothing for the welfare of others, their fellowmen that are of the same blood, make a god of their bellies, and therein resemble tigers and wolves.
"Now," says the Prophet, "none such shall go upon this highway to Zion; such unclean and ravenous beasts shall not be found there. No, but the redeemed shall walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion." This way is a way of holiness and not to be defiled by wicked persons. That in Revelation 21:27 will serve well for an explication of these words: "And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life."
~Jonathan Edwards~
(The End)
From Burning to Burning! (and others)
From Burning to Burning! (and others)
The Spirit of God, in Scripture, by metaphors of all sorts of things which are dreadful unto sense - sets forth the condition of the damned, and the torments which He has reserved for them in the life to come. Hell's punishments do infinitely exceed all other punishments, that there is no pain so extreme - as that of the damned.
Look! As there are no joys which can compare to the joys of heaven - so there are no pains which can compare to the pains of hell. All the cruelties in the world cannot possibly make up any horror comparable to the horrors of hell. The brick- kilns of Egypt, the fiery furnace of Babylon - are but as a fleeting spark - compared to this tormenting Tophet which has been prepared of old to punish the bodies and souls of sinners with. Hanging, racking, burning, scourging, stoning, sawing asunder, flaying of the skin, etc., are not to be compared with the tortures of hell.
If all the pains, sorrows, miseries, and calamities which have been inflicted upon all men, since Adam fell in Paradise, should meet together and center in one man - they would not so much as amount to one of the least of the pains of hell.
Who can sum up the diversity of torments which are in hell!
In hell there is darkness; hell is a dark region! In hell there are sorrows! In hell there are bonds and chains! In hell there are pains and pangs! In hell there is the worm which never dies! In hell there is the lake of fire! In hell there is the furnace of fire! In hell there are the devil and his demons! And oh, how dreadful must it be to be shut up forever with those roaring lions! In hell there is weeping and gnashing of teeth! In hell there is unquenchable fire - everlasting burnings!
"The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless - Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?" (Isaiah 33:14).
O sirs, the torments of hell will be exceeding great and dreadful - such as will make the stoutest sinners to quake and tremble!
Wicked men, who are now such jolly fellows, shall one day go from burning to burning! They shall go from burning in sin - to burning in hell; from burning in flames of lusts - to burning in flames of torment!
O sirs! in this devouring fire, in these everlasting burnings, there will be no music or merry company to pass time away, nor any dice or cards to pass care away; nor any bottles of wine wherein to drown the sinner's grief! As in heaven there shall be all bodily perfection,so there shall be also in hell all bodily miseries. Whatever may make a man perfectly miserable - shall be in hell. Out of this fiery bed there is no deliverance!
Oh, how terrible will the torments of hell be to the damned! The torments of hell will be universal torments. All torments meet together in that place of torment. Hell is the center of all punishments, of all sorrows, of all pains, of all wrath, of all vengeance.
All the pains, torments, curse, and wrath which were due to the elect - fell on Christ, until divine justice was fully satisfied. "For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. 5:9). Oh, exalt that Christ! Oh, extol that Saviour, who has saved you from that eternal wrath!
~Thomas Brooks~
__________________________
One Puddle, If We Wallow In It
One sin stripped the fallen angels of all their glory. One sin stripped our first parents of all their dignity and excellency. One fly in the box of precious ointment spoils the whole box. One thief may rob a man of all his health. One millstone will sink a man to the bottom of the sea, as well as a hundred.
One puddle, if we wallow in it -will defile us. Just so, one sin allowed and lived in - will make a man miserable forever.
Some will leave all their sins but one. satan can hold a man fast enough by one sin which he allows and lives in - as the fowler can hold the bird fast enough by one wing or by one claw.
satan is content that men should yield to God in many things - provided that they will be but true to satan in some one thing. The devil knows very well, that as one grain of poison may poison a man, and one stab at the heart may kill a man - just so, one sin unrepented of, one sin allowed, retained, cherished, and practiced - will certainly damn a man.
It is horrid hypocrisy, damnable folly, and astonishing impudency - for a man to beg the pardon of those very sins which he is resolved never to forsake.
These things should be frequently and seriously thought of by such poor fools as are entangled by any lust.
~Thomas Brooks~
The Spirit of God, in Scripture, by metaphors of all sorts of things which are dreadful unto sense - sets forth the condition of the damned, and the torments which He has reserved for them in the life to come. Hell's punishments do infinitely exceed all other punishments, that there is no pain so extreme - as that of the damned.
Look! As there are no joys which can compare to the joys of heaven - so there are no pains which can compare to the pains of hell. All the cruelties in the world cannot possibly make up any horror comparable to the horrors of hell. The brick- kilns of Egypt, the fiery furnace of Babylon - are but as a fleeting spark - compared to this tormenting Tophet which has been prepared of old to punish the bodies and souls of sinners with. Hanging, racking, burning, scourging, stoning, sawing asunder, flaying of the skin, etc., are not to be compared with the tortures of hell.
If all the pains, sorrows, miseries, and calamities which have been inflicted upon all men, since Adam fell in Paradise, should meet together and center in one man - they would not so much as amount to one of the least of the pains of hell.
Who can sum up the diversity of torments which are in hell!
In hell there is darkness; hell is a dark region! In hell there are sorrows! In hell there are bonds and chains! In hell there are pains and pangs! In hell there is the worm which never dies! In hell there is the lake of fire! In hell there is the furnace of fire! In hell there are the devil and his demons! And oh, how dreadful must it be to be shut up forever with those roaring lions! In hell there is weeping and gnashing of teeth! In hell there is unquenchable fire - everlasting burnings!
"The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless - Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?" (Isaiah 33:14).
O sirs, the torments of hell will be exceeding great and dreadful - such as will make the stoutest sinners to quake and tremble!
Wicked men, who are now such jolly fellows, shall one day go from burning to burning! They shall go from burning in sin - to burning in hell; from burning in flames of lusts - to burning in flames of torment!
O sirs! in this devouring fire, in these everlasting burnings, there will be no music or merry company to pass time away, nor any dice or cards to pass care away; nor any bottles of wine wherein to drown the sinner's grief! As in heaven there shall be all bodily perfection,so there shall be also in hell all bodily miseries. Whatever may make a man perfectly miserable - shall be in hell. Out of this fiery bed there is no deliverance!
Oh, how terrible will the torments of hell be to the damned! The torments of hell will be universal torments. All torments meet together in that place of torment. Hell is the center of all punishments, of all sorrows, of all pains, of all wrath, of all vengeance.
All the pains, torments, curse, and wrath which were due to the elect - fell on Christ, until divine justice was fully satisfied. "For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. 5:9). Oh, exalt that Christ! Oh, extol that Saviour, who has saved you from that eternal wrath!
~Thomas Brooks~
__________________________
One Puddle, If We Wallow In It
One sin stripped the fallen angels of all their glory. One sin stripped our first parents of all their dignity and excellency. One fly in the box of precious ointment spoils the whole box. One thief may rob a man of all his health. One millstone will sink a man to the bottom of the sea, as well as a hundred.
One puddle, if we wallow in it -will defile us. Just so, one sin allowed and lived in - will make a man miserable forever.
Some will leave all their sins but one. satan can hold a man fast enough by one sin which he allows and lives in - as the fowler can hold the bird fast enough by one wing or by one claw.
satan is content that men should yield to God in many things - provided that they will be but true to satan in some one thing. The devil knows very well, that as one grain of poison may poison a man, and one stab at the heart may kill a man - just so, one sin unrepented of, one sin allowed, retained, cherished, and practiced - will certainly damn a man.
It is horrid hypocrisy, damnable folly, and astonishing impudency - for a man to beg the pardon of those very sins which he is resolved never to forsake.
These things should be frequently and seriously thought of by such poor fools as are entangled by any lust.
~Thomas Brooks~
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