Divine Sugar Sticks for January  2003

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Sunday, January 19, 2003

I hope that you have enjoyed and been blessed by the Sugar Sticks that Buddy has faithfully sent to encourage and strengthen believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is with very mixed emotions that I write this note to you to inform you that Buddy went home to be with the Lord on Sunday, January 19, 2003

Buddy will definitely be missed, as well as his gracious communication of God’s holy Word. But we know that he is in a better Place with “no more sorrow, no more tears, no more pain, and no more death.” He has gone from Grace to Glory.

A memorial service is tentatively planned for Friday, January 31 at the Veterans’ Association in Houston, TX. If you’d like additional information, please let me know. The family requests that any memorial gifts be given to the VA.

Buddy has written several publications about the home going of a believer. At this time you may want to review them on the Divine Viewpoint web site. They include:

Commanded to Comfort

From Here to Eternity

The Homegoing of a Christian

Cancer to Christ

A Preview of Our Departure

It has been an honor and blessing to be a part of this ministry the past years. I will continue to maintain the Divine Viewpoint web site and will add additional Bible studies previously taught by Buddy as time permits.

May the Lord bless you based on your attitude about His Word.

Remember, Buddy has been creating Sugar Sticks since 1999, so please check out the links to the archived Sugar Sticks pages shown at the top and left side of this page. The Word of God is timeless and applicable to any day of the year. It is alive and powerful, no matter what the date is.

Saturday, January 18, 2003

“Through One Man Sin Entered into the World,” Romans 5:12

All the tears, sorrows, losses, and graves which sin has caused can be traced back to the one sin our first parents committed.

Satan was not long marring the handiwork of God. But the Promise to any sinner is that through the obedience and sacrifice of another Man, myriads have been delivered from the guilt and government of sin.

And because influence is never neutral, each of us is helping others heavenward or hellward.

Is our life a blessing or a blight?

“Fools Make a Mock of Sin,” Proverbs 14:9

Only a fool could be guilty of such mockery. But belittle sin as he may, it ever rises to mock the fool who says,

Mocking or minimizing sin does not do away with it. Satan has deluded some people into believing that he does not exist. If he is non-existent, then someone is carrying on his diabolical work.

Further, if sin is only human frailty, or the just expressions of human nature, then it is a very destructive force.

Sin is sin, and it must be hated and shunned for:

“Be Sure Your Sin Will Find You Out,” Numbers 32:23

Scripture, history, and experience testify to the fact that sin is a “master detective.”

Moses knew what he was writing about for the “detection” of his slaughter of the Egyptian meant 40 years of solitude.

Man may try to hide his sin and the effects of it, but at last it tracks him down. Sooner or later, the chickens come home to roost.

The sinner reaps what he sows. If exposure does not come in time, there is always eternity to reckon with.

“The Soul That Sinneth Shall Die,” Ezekiel 18:30

Personal accountability is among the ethical instructions set forth by Ezekiel.

Eternal death is for the sinner’s own sin, and not another’s. Ezek 31:29-30. Because all have sinned, all must suffer the second death, unless they rest in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Death, Does Not Mean Cessation of Being or Annihilation, Since the Soul is Indestructible

“Death means separation”

In physical death, there is the separation of the soul from the body.

In spiritual and eternal death, there it the separation of the soul from the Lord.

Surely such a terrible separation is a strong enough incentive for soul winning.

Paul makes it clear that every grave is the result of sin. Had there been no sin there would have been no death. Doubtless we would have been translated like Enoch and Elijah.

But through Adam, the federal head of the human race, sin came into the world, and death has come upon all men, for all have sinned.

Friday, January 17, 2003

Another Divine Attribute to Which so Many Blessed Promises Are Related is That of God’s Everlasting “Mercy”

How full the Bible is of tributes to Him as the merciful God.

Grace or mercy spoken of as the unmerited favor of God is the outcome of His love and implies compassion. It also includes forbearance, gentleness, and longsuffering. The word “lovingkindness” is often given for mercy in the original language. See Psalm 136.

Shakespeare Reminds Us That “The Quality of Mercy is Not Strained” and He Writes of it as “an Attribute of God Himself”

It is, of course, at attribute of the Godhead.

God has an inexhaustible depth of mercy. Psa 11:4, Titus 3:5.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Channel of such mercy. 1 Tim 1:2, Mark 5:19, Jude 21.

God the Holy Spirit applies this mercy to the believing sinner. Gal 5:22, 23.

Apart from the abundant, Divine mercy, there is no salvation for the sinner.

The Promise is that God is full of compassion and of great mercy. Psa 145:8.

We All Know How the Tragic Doctrine of Sin Casts its Dark Shadow Over the Whole Bible

From Genesis to Revelation we can trace the trail of the serpent, the parent of all sin.

Yet everywhere there is the bright Promise that:

Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God. The Bible uses four prominent words to describe such disobedience to the Divine law, to make clear what it means to sin:

Transgression, sin, iniquity, evil.

“Transgression”

“Sin”

“Iniquity”

“Evil”

Satan is called “the evil one.”

Thursday, January 16, 2003

Another Bible Doctrine with Which is Associated so Many Rich Promises is That of “Divine Righteousness”

To gather all that is recorded of this Divine righteousness would fill pages. Look at these pearls on such a necklace of Grace and Truth.

The words “just” and “righteousness” or “justice” and “righteousness” are equivalent both in the Hebrew and the Greek. The root meaning of these terms is “straight” or “right,” the quality of being just and righteous in dealing with others.

One of the Titles for the Lord is “JEHOVAH TSIDKENU,” the Lord Our Righteousness

God’s righteousness or justice is His faithfulness in producing His government and laws and in rendering to each person his dues. It is that attribute of God which causes Him always to do right, whether it be in inflicting punishment, or in giving rewards, or in judgment between right and wrong.

In Dealing With Any of the Doctrines, It Will be Found That the Ever-Blessed Godhead are One in the Gracious Gifts Enshrined in the Promises …

All of which come to us from God the Father, through the Lord Jesus Christ, by God the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, God the Father is righteous, God the Son is righteous, and God the Holy Spirit is righteous.

God the Father is Righteous

God the Son is righteous.

God the Holy Spirit is righteous.

The gracious ministry of God the Holy Spirit is to bring the sinners face-to-face with the justice and righteousness of God, and to enable them to realize the sufficiency of a Divine righteousness, which is the only covering for the sinner. God has told us what He thinks of the garment of “self-righteousness” we try to weave in order to hide our nakedness in His sight – fig leaves and filthy rags.

What God Thinks of Self Righteousness

Through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ who came as the personification of Divine righteousness, there was provided for a sinful and sinning race, a perfect covering.

When free Grace awoke me by light on high,
Then legal fears shook me, I trembled to die.
No refuge, no safety, in self could I see,
“JEHOVAH TSIDKENU” my Saviour must be.

Wednesday, January 15, 2003

For an Inner Understanding of the Promised Divine Love, We Must Live Near the Writings of John, the Apostle of Love

Here is the most fascinating form of love. We did not love God. Our natural mind was at enmity with God. Yet in our wicked and rebellious condition, He loved us and manifested His love in the sacrifice at the Cross, Eph 2:4.

John Further Teaches that We Must Emulate the Divine Example and Take the Initiative in Loving the Unloving and Unlovable

If we would be perfect in love, our souls must go out to lost souls irrespective of their condition.

A more effective translation would be, “He loved them to the uttermost.”

What a Promise this is to cheer the mind.

His love is not intermittent, spasmodic. We have an “uttermost love” as well as an “uttermost salvation,” the salvation being the product of the love.

It is Not a Mere Coincidence That the Conception of Judas’ Dark Crime Follows Immediately, Christ Loved the Traitor to the End

Love must have striven to prevent Judas betraying the Lord, but it failed. Is it not blessed to know that even though we disappoint the Lord Jesus Christ, He “never casts us off,” as some parents do their children. His is the love that will not let us go. It is not a love dependent upon human merit or response.

There is Another Aspect of the Divine Promise and Doctrine of Love That Must be Stressed and That Namely, Its Personal Concentration

While it is blessedly true that God loves the world, John 3:16, it is likewise true that He loves each individual in the world.

While I was sitting beneath a blazing sun in Miami meditating on this amazing Truth, the thought came to me, although this sun is for the world, yet here I am, allowing it to expend its fullness on me. The sun is for all, and yet for each. “The Son is for all” and yet for each.

In the Bethany home where Jesus Christ was fond of visiting, there were three persons so distinct in personal traits, yet each was loved by Christ. Are you not overwhelmed that He loves you? Or me?

Like John, Paul Was Ever Practical in the Application of the Truth He Taught

Thus he exhorted the Ephesians, “Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us,” Eph 5:2.

How incumbent upon us to live a life of love, a love generated in the soul by the loving Holy Spirit Himself.

Are we walking in love? We use two feet in walking and take one step at a time. Paul refers to the two feet of love – love in church and love in the home.

Saints are to love one another as saints. And saintly husbands are to love their wives. Eph 5:25.

May Grace be ours to walk as to “leave behind the footprints of love.”

The Bible Also Makes it Clear That Divine Love Liberates

It is Dynamic in its Action

Paul links love to deliverance from “injury,” John from “iniquity.”

The Promise is that the love freeing us from sin will see to our emancipation from all that would separate us from our Saviour.

Once we clasp the Hand of Divine love, no one and nothing can separate us from the love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Tuesday, January 14, 2003

Promises for Christian Doctrines

The Fatherhood of God!

He is the Father of all only in respect to creation. His relationship as Father towards us is based upon the redemptive work of His Beloved Son.

We hear a great deal about the Fatherhood of god and the brotherhood of man. But all too little about the “Saviourhood of the Lord Jesus Christ,” which is the necessary link between the two.

The Foundation of All God’s Promises and Works is His “Eternal Love”

In a past eternity, it was that love which conceived salvation’s plan, and determined all Divine Promises on our behalf.

In his prayer for inner fullness and knowledge, Paul makes it clear that to know the unknowable love of Christ, we must be “rooted and grounded in love.”

To be able to comprehend the breadth, length, depth, and height of the love of Him whose love surpasses that of a woman’s, we must have a heart saturated with such in Divine love.

To know the love of Christ we must know the Christ of love. Further, that knowledge that the apostle refers to is not a mere understanding of the love in question, but an experiential knowledge, a knowledge born of faith.

And the same principle is true of the love of the Spirit.

The Impelling Motive in All Effective Service is the Love of Christ and the Love to Christ

Paul never journeys far from such a double incentive. Gal 2:20, “The love of Christ constraineth me,” 2 Cor 5:14.

Constrained by love! How this destroys all ulterior motives in ministry, love of self, love of crowds, love of applause, love of money. All lesser loves are consumed by the ministering of love, and for, Christ.

Further down in the chapter Paul speaks of beseeching men to be reconciled to God. He could beseech men in Christ’s stead, since he had a heart continually warmed by the love of Him whom he dearly loved.

Monday, January 13, 2003

Promises Related to Christian Doctrines

The separation of the Persons forming the Trinity and a dissertation on all of the attributes of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, respectively, is a task of such magnitude as to make it impossible to be included in the volume of one book.

So we will confine ourselves to many of those that God possesses, realizing at the same time that these same virtues are equally attributed to the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Holy Spirit as the Trinity clearly teaches.

Because of all that God is in Himself, His Promises on behalf of saint and sinner alike are certain of performance. He is greater than even His Promises.

“In the Beginning God,” Genesis 1:1

How full of Promise is this majestic declaration opening the Scriptures.

God stamped His name and His “sovereignty” upon the very forehead of His book. God first! This is surely the keynote of the initial book of the Bible.

God first in everything, in creation, in redemption, in providence, and in personal experience.

We may not know the hidden cares and trials and responsibilities, but He does!

God first in every phase of our life begets the assurance that any need that may arise will receive His close attention.

“Thou, God, Seest Me,” Genesis 16:13

The realization of His “omnipotence” produces comfort for the believer, but conviction to the unbeliever.

The unbeliever tries to hide from His all-seeing eye, while the Christian rejoices that such a compassionate eye is upon him.

“His eye is upon the sparrow” and the saints.

“God is Faithful,” 1 Corinthians 1:9

Divine faithfulness runs like a golden thread through the Bible. As we come to consider some of the Promises related to Gospel Doctrines we know what to expect, for He is “faithful that promised.”

“We Ought to Obey God Rather Than Man,” Acts 5:29

We cannot ask for the redemption of any Promise that God has made unless we are living in obedience to His revealed will.

Multitudes robbed of personal freedom, are forcibly obedient to their Godless leaders. We see this today in the Middle East and China.

Our obedience Godward is one of love. The question is sometimes asked, “Can we obey God and man at the same time?”

The general answer is, only when the commands of men harmonize with those of God. Yet in sad, tragic China, there are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who inwardly obey the Lord and rest in His Promise of preservation.

Sunday, January 12, 2003

Promises for Keeping the First Day

This passage proves the use of the first day, and not the seventh, by apostolic churches. Further we read it was the custom of the early believers to meet together to break bread and hear the Word expounded.

Has not the church departed from the apostolic employment of the Lord’s Day? Simplicity of worship and ministry has been lost amid a great deal of ritualism and professionalism.

Yet one feature still characterizes the Lord’s Day wherever it is observed by Christians independent of their nationality, namely the teaching of the Word of God.

Have you ever stopped to think of the unnumbered hosts of pastors, teachers, evangelists, missionaries, and workers who proclaim the Truth as each Sunday comes around?

“Blessed is the Man That Keepeth the Sabbath From Polluting it,” Isaiah 56:2

In this further Promise of blessing, ethical instructions laid down by God to Israel hold an application for our dispensation of Grace.

Nothing can contribute to our personal happiness, which the word “blessed” means, like a Sunday kept free from worldly pollution.

Spiritual, physical, mental reward is ours as we remember His day, to keep it holy. May all our Sundays be as oases in this desert world. May the Grace of God be ours to guard them against all illegitimate encroachment.

“The First Day of the Week Came Jesus,” John 29:19, Matt 17:1

No matter where the Lord’s Day finds us worshipping, there is always the realization of His presence if He is being worshipped in Spirit and in Truth.

Not only so, worship is not valid if He is not the center of it. Sunday only yields its richest treasures when all our hymns, prayers, readings, thoughts, and messages are fragrant with His name.

How blessed it is to turn from a week and its work and worry and weeping to Him, Whose presence is so gladdening.

Like the disciples of old, we too, are glad as we see the Lord and listen to His voice. May He enable us to make our Sundays Christ-conscious, Christ-honoring days.

“Upon the First Day of the Week ... Lay by ... as God Hath Prospered,” 1 Corinthians 16:2

The universal adherence to the apostolic ways of giving would save the church from financial embarrassment and from doubtful money-raising schemes.

Combining this method of support laid down by Paul, along with the Doctrine of Christian giving, he emphasizes later on in 2 Cor 8:1-6, we learn that each Lord’s Day must witness a double surrender, not a double tithe.

First of all, our gifts to the Lord for the maintenance of His cause must be proportioned as to His prospering.

Then along with our silver there should be ourselves.

Tithes without lives are of little value.

He wants you, not yours.

Because to Him all the silver and gold belongs.

Paul commended the Corinthian Christians because they first gave their own selves unto the Lord.

A dedicated purse accomplishes great things for the Lord when there is a dedicated person.

Saturday, January 11, 2003

“Quicken Thou Me According to Thy Word,” Psalm 119:25

Here the psalmist is pleading the Promise of revival. While the word “quicken” is used of life being given to the dead, it also implies God’s power to raise up and cheer up all who languish.

What is revival but God’s quickening of His own. He finds them cleaving to the dust and He touches them. As branches of the vine, they trail on the ground where the sun and the rain and the air cannot benefit them.

But when the Holy Spirit is abroad in revival blessing the trailing, dust-covered branches are raised to a trellis, where fully exposed to the atmospheric conditions they can become fruitful.

Then it must not be forgotten that all rival comes through the medium of the Word. A revival that is not according to God’s will is not a Heaven-sent one.

The Lord delivers us from Bible-less and therefore, spurious, revival.

“Bring Ye ... and I Will Pour You Out a Blessing,” Malachi 3:10

In this further Promise of revival there are two key words to understand – “bring” and “bless.” What a vital connection between bringing and blessing Malachi emphasizes.

Mark these steps in your Bible.

The church certainly needs the opened windows of Heaven, for parched condition cries out for refreshing rain. Even her orthodoxy is dead and dry.

Tithes are taxes, and free will offerings are Grace giving.

The Creator and His Creation

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Creator.

The Lord Jesus Christ maintains His creation.

The Lord Jesus Christ is a faithful Creator.

Faithful to maintain His creation.

The Creator and His Creation

The Lord Jesus Christ would not create man and leave him alone. A personal God, if He is at all like men in His fundamental characteristics as the Bible says He is, having created a personal being, would most naturally want to have communion and fellowship with the being He had created.

It therefore seems strongly unlikely that God would leave man alone, especially if there were no barrier between the soul of man and the Divine mind.

The Creator and His Creation

Then, too, if God had put men into the world, He must have some purpose for man to work out while he is in the world.

The fact that man is a free agent, would most likely point to the possibility of man’s not living his life in accordance with the plan of the Almighty, and therefore make it even seem probable that God would at least reveal what His purpose was in placing man in the world, even if He did not hedge man’s life about with barriers to prevent him from wrecking God’s plan. It would therefore seem extremely likely that God would make at least this much of a revelation to man.

The Creator and His Creation

It also seems unlikely that man should be left in ignorance of the ultimate destiny of a human soul.

If it is true that there is a Heaven and a Hell, to one of which places every soul will go, then it seems unlikely that God would leave man in ignorance of these momentous facts.

Especially is this true, if the corollary is true that man’s ultimate destiny is decided by his actions upon the earth during a short lifetime and that he will have no further chance after death to redeem his mistakes made during life on earth.

Most of all, if God intended to redeem man’s life from destruction in a definite way, and intended as the Bible teaches, to have this redemption applied to a man’s life through faith in a risen Lord, then He would most certainly tell him about this fact in some way or other.

We thus see that there is a very great possibility, if the God represented in the Bible exists, that He would reveal certain vital facts to man.

Friday, January 10, 2003

The Church Has the Promise of Revival

In her present, confused, divided, and impoverished condition, the organized church is certainly in need of a mighty quickening from above.

How impotent she seems to be in the face of “national evils” and of “international crises,” yet there was a day when she had power to turn “the world upside down.” Let us then look at a couple revival Promises the church can appropriate.

A Revival in the Body of Christ

It is to be hoped that we are not among the number who discredit any hope of revival in these dark days and who argue that the terrible condition of things in a world under the cloud of another world war precludes revival.

How can men concentrate upon the vital necessities of the soul when they have to struggle hard to provide the necessities of life? Then pagan forces predominate in the world and civilization is again at the cross roads. So how can there be any hope of better days?

If the world is to be saved from disaster, then we must have a spiritual revival and that speedily. Church history reveals that in the midst of the darkest years, God breaks out in blessing.

Was it not the mighty revival under John Wesley that saved England from a bloody revolution? Well, we may cry, “O Lord, do it again.”

“Wilt Thou Not Revive Us Again?”

In this Psalm we are encouraged to pray for revival, seeing we have a God Who is willing to forgive our lapses.

The psalmist makes it clear however that once we are quickened, there must be no more relapses.

Revival, of course, is related to the Lord’s people. Anything dead cannot be revived. Life, no matter how low, must be present if revival is to be experienced. Sinners cannot be revived because they are dead in sin.

The word and experience for them is “regeneration” and the impartation of the Divine life. For those who are regenerated but have allowed the sinister influences of the world to rob them of their spiritual power and progress, the reviving Grace of the Lord constitutes the paramount need. How the church needs to have a spark fanned into a glowing flame.

“Thou Wilt Revive Me,” Psalm 138:7, Hosea 6:1-3

When we speak about the necessity of the revival of the church, we must not forget that what God Promises to revive is not churches as buildings, but believers who gather in them.

Without a company of born again men and women within any church, it is only a mere building. Therefore, as the visible church is made up of individuals, there cannot be a collective revival apart from a personal revival. Each and all within the church must come under the sway of God’s quickening power. What a mighty, spiritual, upheaval there would be if only every Christian could pray:

O Lord, send a revival,
And let it begin in me.

“To Revive the Spirit of the Humble and to Revive the Heart of the Contrite Ones,” Isaiah 57:15

The Promise, preparation, and plan of revival are before us in this context.

Going back a verse we find that the stumbling block had to be taken out of the way of God’s people.

How true it is that promised revival only becomes actual as we are willing to remove all hindrances to the manifestation of His power.

Everything alien to His will must be dragged out and humbly confessed. A deep contrition because of our sins and failures must be forthcoming, if we desire God to make us channels of blessing. The difficulty is that we are not broken enough for a God, Who is truly broken over the sins of the men, to use to heal a broken world.

“Will They Revive the Stones Out of the Heaps of Rubbish, Which Are Burnt,” Nehemiah 4:2

Sanballat, in his opposition to Nehemiah's determination to rebuild the city wall, heaped ridicule upon the “feeble Jews” as he called them.

Could they, out of the debris, repair the damaged wall and gates? Tobiah further ridiculed their efforts by saying that if they did rebuild the wall, it would be such a poor job that the light tread of a fox would cause the stones to fall. But the work proceeded and was satisfactorily completed “for the people had a mind to work.”

There is No Doubt About God’s Ability to Revive His “Living Stones” Out of the Rubbish Heap of Carnality

The Promise is that He is well able “to restore the years the locusts have eaten.”

A lot of “rubbish” clings to the church. Worldly compromise has damaged the wall of testimony. The narrow gate of regeneration has been broken down.

May God give us a reviving “to repair the desolations thereof,” Ezra 9:8, 9.

Thursday, January 9, 2003

“They That Turn Many to Righteousness Shall Shine as the Stars For Ever and Ever,” Daniel 12:3

While the entire passage before us is a precious Promise for all soul winners, it has a special application to pastors, seeing they have one of the greatest opportunities of turning souls to Christ.

Wise in the winning of men, Paul knew that he would shine as the brightness of the firmament and this is why he rejoiced over the thought of meeting his Thessalonian converts at the judgment seat of Christ.

Pastors May Not Have the Gifts and Brilliance of Others, and Their Abilities May Not be Conspicuous, and Fame and Fortune Do Not Come to Pastors as to Others ...

But if they are patient and faithful, they have the Promise if they serve the Lord to the limit of their capacity, eternal brilliance will be theirs.

A good many movie and ministerial stars are having all the “shine” they will ever have. But a pastor’s unnoticed work has the Promise of unfading glory.

All Who Are Called to Minister the Word of God Can Easily Discover by Reading 1 Peter 5 How to Make Full Proof of Their Ministry

Preaching the whole Counsel of God at all times, laboring with eternal views in mind, ever alert for the souls of men, these are among the secrets of a fruitful ministry.

“Feed the Flock of God ... The Chief Shepherd Shall Appear,” 1 Peter 5:2, 4

The Promise of the crown of unfading glory can only be claimed by those shepherds who are ensamples to the flock.

The Solemn Warning is That if Proud, Conceited, Domineering, Fond of Filthy Lucre …

Then the undershepherd cannot expect to receive the promised reward from the Chief Shepherd when He appears.

The crown of glory is only for those laid in dust life’s glory dead. If lordly in their office, 1 Pet 5:3, what do they expect from the Lord? Crowned with self glory on earth, they forfeit the right to receive the crown of glory from the hand of the Lord.

How richly blessed the church is with a multitude of pastors all over the world. Although they are unknown, unsung, and unhonored, they toil on day by day so devotedly and unselfishly, living on the Promises of God. These sacrificial shepherds are not affected by circumstances. Their eyes are on the final goal. Are these not among God’s heroes?

Wednesday, January 8, 2003

“Even so Hath the Lord Ordained That They Which Preach the Gospel Shall Live of the Gospel,” 1 Corinthians 9:14

Here we have some Promises especially directed to those who minister.

All who are called to minister the Word of God have need to constantly pray that the Lord will deliver them from mere professionalism. While Sunday is their day for sowing the Seed, Isaiah would have them know that pastors, and in fact, all who profess to be saved, are only thrice blessed as every opportunity is grasped of witnessing to God’s saving Grace and power.

The true sower will not save his seed for set occasions, with a full, prepared basket. He will have a handful of seed to scatter over the soil of any touch he touches.

Day in and day out, in visitation, conversion, and communion, the diligent minister will drop a seed here and there, trusting the Lord of the harvest to guard the sown seed and make it fruitful.

“I Have Laboured in Vain, Yet Surely … My Work With My God,” Isaiah 49:4, 1 Thessalonians 3:5

Isaiah, the evangelist prophet, had a true pastor’s heart. There is probably no other Book so vitally connected with pastoral vision and virtue as Isaiah’s prophecy.

He knows all about the successes and sorrows of a preacher’s task. Often his appeal evoked no response. Faithful in his declarations, at times they seemed to fall upon deaf ears.

Knowing of his rejected witness, we can understand his complaint.

“I Have Laboured in Vain”

Are these lines being read by some discouraged pastor? Pure in your life and positive in your message, you yet find yourself unwanted and unappreciated.

Well, take courage. Let Isaiah’s confidence be yours.

If your life and labour are well pleasing to the Lord, you have His Promise that your witness will not be in vain.

“Even if they don’t hear you, they will know that a prophet was there.”

“I Will Give You Pastors According to My Heart, and Shall Feed You with Knowledge and Understanding,” Jeremiah 3:15

“Promised pastors” were to function as shepherds feeding the sheep. “Pastor and pasture” have a vital connection.

An old, illiterate woman, once spoke of her pastor as “my pasture.” Well, she was not far wrong!

The knowledge and understanding a true pastor provides form the pasture the needy souls feed upon.

A flock is always well-fed when it has a pastor according to God’s own heart.

Too Many Pastors Correspond to the Description Jeremiah Speaks of Who Destroy and Scatter the Sheep, Jeremiah 10:21, 23:1, 2

A modernistic minister is not a shepherd, “giving stones for bread.” How can he feed the hungry? Denying the fundamental Truths of Scripture, how can he claim to be a pastor according to God’s heart?

God-given men believe a God-given message and consequently reap the promised blessing of reward.

“Behold I Have Made Thy Face Strong Against Their Faces,” Ezekiel 3:8

Here is a chapter every pastor should read on his knees. As a watchman, he must warn souls as from God. Ezek 3:17-21.

To witness, however, before those who are impudent and hard-hearted is no light task. But courage is promised, Ezek 3:7. What a heartening word this is for preachers who have a rebellious crowd to deal with.

Determination must be matched. As fearless as are the people in their rejection of a God-given message, the preacher must be just as fearless in his declaration of the Truth the hard-hearted hate. To win through, pastors certainly need Grace, gift, and gumption.

Kindly but firmly he must continue warning the rebellious of their peril.

Food for Thought!

Sin is not an issue in salvation simply because the Lord Jesus Christ died for the sins of the whole world. The issue, therefore, in salvation is the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice what God has done with sin!

God is able to deal with sin because He laid it all on His sinless Son and because He, by His death, bore it away. Isa 53:6, John 1:29.

Tuesday, January 7, 2003

The Church is Promised Union and Communion with the Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ

She is promised punishment for those who defile her.

The Church is Promised a Glorious Consummation

How the true church longs to gaze on her dear Bridegroom’s face and to be with Him for ever.

Is not His glorious advent the pole star of the church.

The Church Has Manifold Promises Upon Faithful Ministers

The above are only a few of the many Bible references in the light of which all who are called to feed the flock of God should walk.

As His representatives in a world of need, He has promised to equip them in every way.

Monday, January 6, 2003

What the Bridegroom Promises the Bride, the Church

She has His promised care.

She has His promised protection and preservation.

His church is invincible, and His petition for her in John 17, assures her that all that the Lord Jesus Christ wishes for her will certainly be granted.

The same applies to prophetical prayers. Gen 49, Deut 3:3.

Crowns and thrones may perish,
Kingdoms rise and wane,
But the church of the Lord Jesus Christ,
Constant will remain.
Gates of hell can never against that church prevail,
We have the Lord’s own Promise and that cannot fail.

Springing From the Heart of the “Eternal One,” the Church Also is Eternal

Men have tried, and are still trying, to destroy her. But invincible, like a mighty army, the true church fights her foes.

She has His promised presence.

Far too often we gather together in a building set aside for the worship of and the service for the Lord all unconscious of His promised presence in the midst of His own.

The Church is Promised Additions to Her Numbers

While it is the Lord who chooses His people and calls them by His Grace, and quickens them by His Spirit, and adds to His church, yet it is to His church that He has committed the task of evangelism. Such evangelism is the constant proclamation of the Gospel in public and private with a view of winning men and women, young people, and children to the Lord Jesus Christ, thereby helping to complete the church, which is His body.

The Church is Promised a Spirit of Unity

Outer unity among those naming the name of Christ is conspicuous by its absence. The manifold denominations and sects confuse the mind of the man in the street outside the pale of the church.

We lustily sing, “We are not divided, all one body we.” But the fact is that we do not work and worship as one body.

This unity won’t happen until “We are all caught up together to meet the Lord in the air.”

Sunday, January 5, 2003

The Church Was Promised Christ as Her Head

Christ is never called a king of the church. Spiritually, of course, He is her sovereign Lord.

King is one of the Divine titles, and the church in her worship joins Israel in exalting, “The King, eternal, immortal, invisible,” Psa 10:16, 1 Tim 1:17.

But Christ’s kingship is future and will be realized when the church reigns with Him. Lord of lords and King of kings.

The Church has Promises Attendant Upon the Observation of Ordinances

The church can appropriate promised gifts.

She has promised completeness in her Head.

She has Christ as her promised Corner Stone.

The Church Has Her Lord’s Promised Love

His underlying love for His church is revealed:

Saturday, January 4, 2003

The Church – “EKKLESSIA”

Because of the spiritual conception of the church, all the Promises are not related to buildings, but to believers.

This can be proved by a study of the various ways by which the true, invisible church is described.

The Church (EKKLESIA) Is a Called-Out Assembly of Believers Only

As God’s Church, she had her eternal origin in Him. Through His sovereign act in Grace, He predetermined an elect body, redeemed by the sacrifice of His Son, Eph 1:4-14.

Because the Church originated in Him, and is the building He is rearing, 1 Cor 3:9, she is dependent upon Him for provision, which is expressed in her being His field.

He it is who cultivates her and augments her fertility.

She is His dearest treasure, the apple of His eye, and His choicest gift in the world.

The Church Foundationally

Foundationally the church commenced with the Lord Jesus Christ, her Foundation, Matt 16:18.

A church before Christ’s death, would have been an unredeemed church.

A church before His resurrection, would have been a church without the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit.

A church before His “ascension,” would be a headless body.

Therefore, the church did not begin in Abraham’s bosom, as some teach.

The Church Historically

Historically, the church commenced at Pentecost, which is spoken of as the church’s birthday, Acts 2.

Through the coming of God the Holy Spirit she grew rapidly as the Book of Acts clearly shows.

By the end of the first century, countless thousands had been added unto her and unto her Lord.

As to the exact nature of the true church, think about this.

What is a church? Let truth and reason speak.
They would reply, “the faithful, pure, and meek.”
From Christian folds, the one selected race,
Of all professions, and of every place.

Promises the Bride Can Claim!

Here is a listing of some of the Promises for all those who are redeemed and regenerated and also form the mystic fabric known as the bride of Christ.

Friday, January 3, 2003

Promises From the Bridegroom to the Bride – Bridal Vows

Promised by the Lord Jesus Christ, Whose death and resurrection brought the church into being, she has abundant Promises at her disposal.

The epistles, both Pauline and general, reveal “the exceeding great and precious Promises,” to which the church of Jesus Christ can lay claim.

While the church He said He would build is not before us in Old Testament Scriptures, nevertheless, there are many Promises therein she can possess, seeing such Scriptures were “written for her admonition.”

Many of the Promises relative to Israel and to Zion are so collective and impersonal, and largely without condition, as for instance the Promises of the Psalms, that they belong as naturally to the New Testament church as to Israel. Psalm 84:1-2.

Promises for the Church

Distinguishing as we do between Israel and “the church,” it is fitting to point out and examine the use of both.

EKKLESIA is a Greek word meaning “a calling out from” and was used among the Greeks of a body of citizens gathered to discuss the affairs of the state.

The Septuagint version uses the same word to designate the gathering of Israel summoned for many different purposes. Or, a gathering regarded as representative of the whole nation. It is used both of Israel and of a riotous mob.

The same word is translated “congregation” in Heb 2:12, instead of the usual rendering “church.”

“EKKLESIA” – Promises for the Church

In the New Testament usage, the word fits into a double application when applied to Christians.

First, to the whole of the company of redeemed men and women.

Second, when in the singular number, the word refers to a company consisting of professing Christians.

Derived, then, from a Greek word meaning “The Lord’s,” the general New Testament term is strictly accurate in describing the church which is the Lord’s body formed of regenerate Jews and Gentiles.

The Divine Promise to Build the Church

The Roman Catholic Church falsely interprets this passage by implying that our Lord Jesus Christ meant that Peter was the “Rock” and that he was the first pope, the foundation of the church.

Well, Peter may be claimed as the founder of the Roman Catholic Church, but he is certainly not the founder of “Christ’s church.”

“Upon This Rock I Will Build My Church”

While “Peter” and “Rock” are one word in the dialect familiarly spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ, there appears to be a play upon the word. Christ is “PETRA,” Peter is “PETROS.”

Christ did not refer to Peter in this magnificent description of His church. In the figurative use of the word “Rock” in the Old Testament it is always used symbolically of God, except when used of false gods in contrast to the “Rock of Israel,” Who is the Living God, Deut 32.

Paul has no hesitation in identifying the Lord Jesus Christ as “the Rock.”

“Upon This Rock I Will Build My Church”

What the Lord Jesus Christ actually meant, then, was that He would build His church, not upon Peter, but upon Peter’s Heaven-given revelation of Christ’s Deity as the “Son of the Living God.”

The church is built upon Himself. “With His own blood He bought her.” And having bought her, after His ascension, He preceded to build her.

The word the Lord employed was one that signified more than the mere act of building. It has within itself the suggestiveness of the formation of a dynasty, or an economy, which is interpreted by the words “My ECCLESIA.”

“Upon This Rock I Shall Build My Church”

This is future from when it was spoken and didn’t happen until Christ ascended and was seated at the right hand of the Father and He sent the Holy Spirit to pick out His bride.

Before we come to a thorough consideration of Christ’s Promises, one further word by way of introduction is necessary, namely, the word “church” is never used of a mere building. The nearest approach to such an application is in 1 Cor 14:19, 28, 35.

“EKKLESIA” in the New Testament, it must be noted, is never used of the building, or home, or assembly, for church buildings were long after the apostolic age.

It means an organized body whose unity does not depend on its being met together in one place. Not an assemblage of atoms, but members in their several places united to one Head, the Lord Jesus Christ and forming one organic whole.

EKLESSIA, church, not building, but body.

The emphasis is on the individual believer, not the building they meet in.

Today the emphasis is on the building not the body.

“EKKLESIA” – The Church, the Body of Christ

We find it hard to rid our minds of the idea that a church in apostolic times consisted of bricks and mortar and that the apostles themselves, when referring to a church, did not have in mind an edifice with pulpit, chancel, pews, stained glass windows, but a congregation or society of men and women, built together like “living stones” who were content to meet in some upper room or private dwelling, like that of Mary’s, mother of John Mark, where Rhoda acted as door keeper.

Paul preached wherever he could get a hearing, if not in synagogues then by the riverside at Philippi, or Mars Hill at Athens, or the Citadel steps in Jerusalem, in a hired house under the shadow of Caesar’s throne.

It was not until years after that money began to be spent on architecture. The apostles never wasted their energies on material shrines.

If only the present day energy to removing large mortgages and debts could be devoted to soul winning, what a mighty spiritual force the church would be.

It is therefore because of the spiritual conception of the church that all her Promises are related, not to buildings, but to believers, as can be proved by a study of the various ways by which the true, invisible church is described, which will follow.

Thought for the Day!

Many believers today are deserting and they are going A.W.O.L. They are leaving the battle field mentally, and leaving the front lines and retreating.

You can hear them all the time saying, “I can’t wait till the Rapture comes. I want to go Home. I have had enough. The world is going to hell in a handbag.” They are giving up.

And yet the Lord Jesus Christ has prayed in the Lord’s prayer in John 17, “That we be not taken out of this world,” so that we can have an impact as the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

Thursday, January 2, 2003

Bible Study Promises Wisdom.

There is a Promise of reward for Bible study.

Bible study gives us a Promise of hope.

In Bible study there is a Promise of life.

The Bible Promises Edification.

Realized discipleship is promised in the Word.

To Appreciate to the Full All the Promises Associated with Scripture, Certain, Definite, Positive Attitudes Toward It Must be Constantly Obeyed

How privileged we are to have such a treasure as the Bible, which like Its Giver, “stand forever,” Isa 40:8.

May Grace be ours to rest in this infallible revelation.

Wednesday, January 1, 2003

The Word of God Promises Us Blessings For the Year 2003.

There is the Promise of a full revelation for the year 2003.

There is the Promise of joy for the year 2003. Happy new year!

2003

Is this the year the Lord will come?
When He will take us to our long-awaited home?
No longer as pilgrims to wander and roam,
To be with those we love of flesh and bone.
No longer to sorrow, suffer, and moan.

To be with the One whose perfected work is done.
To gather us all and not just some.
To share in the victory He has won.
To be with our Saviour, God’s beloved Son.

There is a Promise of Prosperity for the Year 2003.

There is a Promise of witness for the year 2003.

There is the Promise of sufficiency for the year 2003.

There is the Promise of salvation for the year 2003.

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