The Supremacy Of God # 1

 The Supremacy Of God # 1

In one of his letters to Erqasmus, Luther said, "Your thoughts of God are too human." Probably that renowned scholar resented such a rebuke, the more so, since it proceeded from a niner's son; nevertheless, it was thoroughly deserved.

We too, though having no standing among the religious leaders of this degenerate age, give the same charge against the majority of the preachers of our day, and against those who, instead of searching the Scriptures for themselves, lazily accept the teaching of others.

The most dishonoring and degrading conceptions of the rule and reign of the Almighty are now held almost everywhere. To countless thousands, even among those professing to be  Christians, the God of the Scriptures is quite unknown.

Of old, God  complained to an apostate Israel, "You thought I was just like you." (Psalm 50:21). Such must now be His indictment against an apostate Christendom. Men imaging that the Most High is moved by sentiment, rather that actuated by principle. They suppose that His omnipotence is such an idle fiction that satan is thwarting His designs on every side. They think that if He has formed any plan or purpose at all, then it must be like theirs, constantly subject to change. They openly declare that whatever power God possesses must be restricted, lest He invade the citadel of man's "free will" and reduce him to a "machine." They lower the all-efficacious atonement, which has actually redeemed everyone for whom it was made, to a mere "remedy," which sin-sick souls may use if they feel disposed to; and they enervate the invincible work of the Holy Spirit to an "offer" of the Gospel which sinners may accept or reject as they please.

The God of this twentieth century no more resembles the Supreme Sovereign of Holy Writ, than does the dim flickering of a candle resembles the glory of the midday sun. The God who is now talked about in the average pulpit, spoken of in the ordinary Sunday School, mentioned in much of the religious literature of the day, and preached in most of the so-called Bible Conferences is the figment of human imagination, an invention of mushy sentimentality.

The heathen outside of the pale of Christendom form gods out of wood and stone - while the millions of heathen inside Christendom manufacture a God out of their own carnal mind! In reality, they are but atheists, for there is no other possible alternative between an absolutely supreme God, and no God at all. A God whose will is resisted, whose designs are frustrated, whose purpose is checkmated - possesses no title to Deity, and so far from being a fit object of worship, merits nothing but contempt!

The supremacy of the true and living God might well be argued from the infinite distance which separated the mightiest creatures from the almighty Creator. He is the Potter, they are but the clay in His hands, to be molded into vessels of honor, or to be dashed into pieces (Psalm 2:9) as He pleases. Were all the citizens of Heaven and all the inhabitants of the earth to combine in revolt against Him, it would occasion Him no uneasiness, and would have less  effect upon His eternal and unassailable Throne than has the spray of Mediterranean's waves upon the towering rocks of Gibraltar. So puerile and powerless is the creature to affect the Most High. Scripture itself tells us that when the Gentile heads unite with apostate Israel to defy Jehovah and His Christ, "He who sits in the heavens shall laugh!" (Psalm 2:4).

The absolute and universal supremacy of God is plainly and positively affirmed in many Scriptures. "Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the splendor and the majesty, for everything in the heavens and on earth belongs to You. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom, and You are exalted as head over all. Riches and honor come from You, and You are the ruler of everything. In Your hand are power and might, and it is in Your hand to make great and to give strength to all." ( 1 Chronicles 29:11-12).

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 2)

The Scriptures And Sin # 3

 The Scriptures And Sin # 3

4. An individual is spiritually profited, when the Word produces in him a deeper hatred of sin. "You who love the Lord, hate evil" (Psalm 97:10). "We cannot love God without hating that which He hates. We are not only to avoid evil, and refuse to continue in it - but we must be up in arms against it, and bear towards it a hearty indignation" (Spurgeon). One of the surest tests to apply to the professed conversion, is the heart's attitude towards sin. Where the principle of holiness has been implanted, there will necessarily be a loathing of all that is unholy. If our hatred of evil is genuine, we are thankful when the Word reproves even the evil which we suspected not.

This was the experience of David: "Through Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way" (Psalm 119:104). Observe well, it is not merely "I abstain from," but "I hate". Not only "some" or "many", but "every false way." And not only "every evil," but "every false way."Therefore I esteem all your precepts concerning all things to be right, and I hate every false way" (Psalm 119:128).

But it is the very opposite with the wicked: "Seeing you hate instruction, and cast My Words behind you" (Psalm 50:17). In Proverbs 8:13, we read, "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil," and this godly fear comes through reading the Word. Rightly has it been said, "Until sin is hated - it cannot be mortified. You will never cry against it, as the Jews did against Christ. Crucify it, Crucify it! - until sin is really as abhorred as He was!

5. An individual is spiritually profited when the Word causes a forsaking of sin. "Let every one who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity" (2 Timothy 2:19). The more the Word is read with the definite object of discovering what is pleasing and what is displeasing to the Lord, the more will His will become known, and if our hearts are right with Him the more will our ways be conformed therein. There will be a "walking in the truth" (3 John 4).

At the close of 2 Corinthians 6 some precious promises are given to those who separate themselves from unbelievers. Observe there, the application which the Holy Spirit makes of them. He does not say, "Since we have these promises - be comforted and become complacent thereby" - but "Since we have these promises - let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God." (2 Corinthians 2:1).

"Now you are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you." (John 15:3). Here is another important rule by which we should frequently test ourselves: Is the reading and studying of God's Word producing a purging of my ways? Of old the question was asked, "How shall a young man cleanse his way?" and the Divine answer is "by taking heed thereto according to Your Word." Yes, not simply by reading, believing, or memorizing it, but but by the personal application of the Word to our "way." It is by taking heed tosuch exhortations as flee from sexual immorality, flee from odolatary, flees these things - a covetouslove for money, flees also youthful lusts - that the Christian is brought into practical separation from evil; for sin has not only to be confessed, but forsaken. (Proverbs 28:13).

6. An individual is spiritually profited, when the Word fortifies against sin. The Holy Scriptures are given to us not only for the purpose of revealing our innate sinfulness, and the many, many ways in which we come short of the glory of God - but also to teach us how to obtain deliverance from sin, and how to be kept from displeasing God. "Your Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against You" (Psalm 119:11).

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 4)

The Scriptures And Sin # 2

 The Scriptures And Sin # 2

2. An individual is spiritually profited, when the Word makes him sorrow over sin. Of the stoney-ground hearer it is said that he "hears the Word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the Word, he quickly falls away. (Matt. 13:20-21). But of those who were convicted under the preaching of Peter, it is recorded that they were cut to the heart. (Acts 2:37).

The same contrast exists today. Many will listen to a flowery sermon, or an address on "prophecy" that displays oratorical powers exhibits the intellectual skill of the speaker - but which, usually contains no searching application to the conscience. It is received with approhbation, but no one is humbled before God or brought into a closer walk with Him through it.

But let a faithful servant of the Lord (who by grace is not seeking to acquire a reputation for his "brilliance" bring the teaching of Scripture to bear upon character and conduct, exposing the sad failures of even the best of God's people - and though the crowd will despise the messenger, the truly regenerate will be thankful for the message which causes them to mourn before God and cry, "Oh, what a wretched man that I am!"

So it is in the private reading of the Word. It is when the Holy Spirit applies it in such a way that I am made to see and feel my inward corruption, that I am really blessed.

What a word is that in Jeremiah 31:19: "After I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh; I was ashamed, yes, even confounded." Do you, my reader know anything of such an experience? Does your study of the Word produce a broken heart and lead to a humbling of yourself before God? Does it convict you of your sins in such a way that you are brought to daily repentance before Him? The paschal lamb had to be eaten with "bitter herbs" (Exodus 12:8); so as we really feed on the Word, the Holy Spirit makes it "bitter" to us before it becomes sweet to our taste.

Note the order in Revelation 10:9. "So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, "Take it and eat it. It will be bitter in your stomach, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey." This is ever the experimental order: there must be mourning, before comfort (Matt. 5:4); humbling, before exalting (1 Peter 5:6).

3. An individual is spiritually profited, when the Word leads to confession of sin. The Scriptures are profitable for "reproof" (2 Timothy 3:16), and an honest soul will acknowledge its faults. Of the lost it is said, "For everyone who loves evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved" (John 3:20). "God be merciful to me a sinner!" is the cry of a renewed heart, and every time we are quickened by the Word (Psalm 119) there is a fresh revealing to us and a fresh owning by us of our transgressions before God. "He who covers his sins shall not prosper; but whoever confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy" (Proverbs 28:13). There can be no spiritual prosperity or fruitfulness while we conceal within our hearts our guilty secrets; only as they are freely owned before God, and that in detail, shall we enjoy His mercy.

There is no real peace for the conscience and no rest for the heart, while we cherish unconfessed sin. Relief comes when it is fully unbosomed to God. Mark well the experience of David. "When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer (Psalm 32:3-4). Is this figurative but forcible language unintelligible upon you? Or does your own spiritual history explain it? There is many a verse of Scripture which no commentary but that of personal experience can satisfactorily interpret. Blessed indeed is the immediate sequel here: "Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD" - and You forgave the guilt of my sin." (Psalm 32:5).

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 3)