Divine Sugar Sticks for June 2001

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Friday, June 1, 2001

The Gospel – Titus 2:11-14

“The Grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world looking for that Blessed Hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”

What is said of the nature of the Gospel?

1. The name – “the Grace of God”
2. The subject – “bringeth salvation”
3. The manifestation – “hath appeared”
4. None are excluded from its benefits – “to all men”
5. None are exempt from its appointments – “to all men”

What the Gospel teaches:

1. It teaches us to “deny ungodliness and worldly lusts.”.
2. What it teaches us to do – “to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.”
3. What it teaches us to expect – “Looking for the Blessed Hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”
   

A Christian Family

3 John 4, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the Truth.”

1. Christian parents.
   A. Praying parents
   B. Exemplary parents
   C. Watchful parents
   D. Happy parents
   
2. The children.
   A. They believed the Truth.
   B. They loved the Truth.
   C. They lived the Truth.

The Christian education of children is a duty.

”As we received commandments of the Father,” Deut 6:6-7, it is a very old commandment.

The Church’s Amen – Rev 22:20-21

1. The last testimony.
2. The last prophecy. “Surely I come quickly.”
3. The last prayer – “Amen.”
4. The last blessing – “The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.”
5. The last amen.
   

   

The Redeemed in Heaven – Rev 7:9-10

1. The great number of the redeemed.
2. The extensive variety of the redeemed.
3. The beautiful appearance of the redeemed.
4. The delightful song of the redeemed.

”And after this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb with white robes and palms in their hands.”

”And cried with a loud voice saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb.”

The greatest period of evangelism will take place in the Tribulation.

The Devil’s Work in Humanity – 1 Peter 5:8-9

1. His inspiration is malignant – “a roaring lion.”
   
2. His purpose is destructive – “Seeking whom he may devour.”

The devil’s work counteracted by humanity.

1. Thoughtfulness, “be sober” – mental stability.
   
2. Diligence – “be vigilant.”
   
3. Steadfastness – “Whom resist steadfast in the faith.”
   

   

A Bag With Holes – Haggai 1:6

1. Those persons come under this description who pride themselves on the accumulation and possession of wealth.
   
2. The man is dropping his money “into a bag with holes” who is spending any large proportion of it in things which minister chiefly to pride and vain glory.
   
3. Those persons who put their wealth “into a bag with holes,” that are more concerned about leaving their children a better world than they are of supporting the ministry of the Word of God.
   
4. Those persons who are putting their money into “a bag with holes,” who spend it in the earthly and temporary joys and pleasures.
   

   

Salvation is of the Lord – Jonah 2:9

1. Salvation is wholly of God in its origin with the Father.
   
2. Salvation is wholly of God in its execution by Jesus Christ.
   
3. Salvation is wholly of God in its application by the Holy Spirit.

”But I will sacrifice unto Thee with the voice of thanksgiving, I will pay that that I have vowed, salvation is of the Lord,” Jonah 2:9.

Isaiah’s Solemn Message – Isaiah Chapter One

1. A high charge exhibited in God’s Name against the Jewish assembly and the nation.
   A. For their ingratitude, verses 2, 3.
   B. For their incorrigibleness, verse 5.
   C. For the universal corruption and degeneracy of the people, verses 4, 6, 21, 22.
   D. For their rulers’ perverting of justice, verse 23.
   
2. A sad complaint of the judgments of God which they had brought upon themselves by their sins, and by which they were brought almost to ruin, verses 7-9.
   
3. A just rejection of those shows and shadows of spiritual defection and apostasy, verses 10-15.
   
4. An earnest call to a change of mind setting before them life and death, verses 16-20.
   
5. A threatening of ruin to those who would not be reformed, verses 24, 28-31.
   
6. A promise of a happy reformation at last, and a return to their primitive purity and prosperity, verses 25-27.

And all of this is to be applied to us, not only to a community of which we are a member, or a nation, but to the state of our souls.

As goes the believer, so goes the nation.

“PLEROMA” – “The Fullness of the Gospel”

Rom 15:29, “And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ.”

”PLEROMA” is a Greek word which means to fill full with a quality and to totally possess.

1. The fullness of the Gospel in what it consists:
   A. A full Christ for empty sinners.
   B. A full salvation for lost sinners.
   C. A full assurance for doubting sinners.
   D. A full restoration for fallen sinners.
   E. A full comfort for sorrowful sinners.
   F. A full food for hunger sinners.
   G. A full love, joy, hope, and peace for all.
   
2. What are we to do with this fullness?
   A. Believe it.
   B. Receive it.
   C. Enjoy it.
   D. Live it.
   E. Impart it.
   F. Depart with it.
   

Saturday, June 2, 2001

The Heart of the Gospel

“He made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him,” 2 Cor 5:21.

1. Who was made sin for us?
2. What was done with Him who knew no sin?
3. Who did it?
4. What happens to us in consequence?
   

   

The Ascension of Christ – Luke 24:51

1. Consider the ascension of Jesus Christ as the crowning fact of the life of Christ.
2. Consider Christ’s ascension as His enthronement as King over all.
3. Consider Christ’s ascension in relation to His coming again.

The death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and session of Christ.

God’s Gracious Love – John 3:16

1. Its characteristics.
   A. Eternal “loved” – who can tell when it began?
   B. Compassionate – “the world”
   C. Unspeakable – “So”
   
2. Its manifestation.
   A. Condescending.
   B. Limited – “believeth”
   C. Blessed.
   1. Negative – “Shall not perish”
   2. Positive – “Have everlasting life”

”God so loved the world, that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”

“What time I am afraid I will trust in Thee, in God I will praise His Word, in God I have put my trust, I will not fear what flesh can do unto me,” Psa 56:3-4.

David is saying that whenever he is fearful, he is going to trust in the Lord in that particular time.

Fear of circumstances is evidence that you have lost confidence in the Lord at that time. We should find it just the reverse. It is when we are fearful of circumstances and conditions that we ought to turn to the Lord.

Fear drove David to the Lord. ”What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee.”

Does fear drive you to the Lord? Or does fear drive you away from the Lord?

”I have not given you the spirit of fear, but of love and a sound mind.”

“Thou tellest my wanderings, put Thou my tears into Thy bottle, are they not in Thy Book,” Psa 56

Notice this phrase, “Thou tellest my wanderings.” Our Lord knows all of our sorrows, griefs, and misunderstandings, the bewilderments, heartaches, and the confusion that comes into the souls of His children.

You may be in deep distress and feel that you have reached the end of yourself, and can’t go on any further. It is easy to get that way in this day and age.

You may feel that there is no use in living. Life has disappointed you. Life has failed you.

In fact, you yourself haven’t accomplished the things that you set out to accomplish. You may feel that you are a complete failure.

The Lord knows how you feel. Your tears are in a bottle. Your tears, your sorrows, your heartbreaks, your spiritual agonies are in a Book.

The Lord knows and He is conscious of your need and He wants to help you.

“When I cry unto Thee, then shall mine enemies turn back, This I know, for God is for me,” Psa 56:9

Here is one thing we need to be conscious of, and it is one of the most wonderful truths in the world. Satan and his emissaries are fearful of our prayers.

When we pray meaning business, we know that God will hear us. We find that promise in Psa 145:18, “The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, that call upon Him in Truth.”

The cry of a little child in agony, in pain, in distress, brings the mother and the father to them right away and they pick him up and hold him. You can’t stand to listen to the cry of your child when there is a broken heart, when the child has been hurt spiritually or emotionally and is confused and can’t understand. The sobs of distress touch your heart. If that is your reaction to your child in need, can’t you understand that your cries of sorrow touch the heart of the Lord?

Therefore, when we cry out to Him with a broken and distressed heart, the Lord always comes to us right away.

”We cry, Abba, Father.”

“Jesus, Thou Son of David, Have Mercy on Me”

In the Bible we find many illustrations of the Lord’s concern for those with broken and distressed souls. We see that He always answers those who cried out to Him in need.

The poor, blind beggar, Bartimaeus, when he cried out, our Lord stopped. There was a great multitude around Him, yes, but when he cried out, “Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy upon me,” the Lord stopped. There was a cry of a soul in need.

Just as our Lord responded to the cry of Bartimaeus, He will respond to our cries in need.

Remember the poor woman who had an issue of blood for 20 years? She spent everything she had on physicians and they couldn’t help her. But she heard the Lord was coming. There was a great multitude around Him, and she touched His garment, suddenly the Lord stopped. Why? Because a hand reached out in need and touched Him.

God will stop whatever He is doing to hear your cry and help you. This is the reason that Satan is fearful. David knew that Satan would be afraid and all of his enemies would be fearful when he prayed.

Mary of Scotland said one time that she feared the prayers of John Knox more than all the armies of England. The most powerful thing on Earth today is prayer because it releases the infinite, almighty power of the Lord.

Call upon Me, I will deliver thee glorifying Me.

“It is Well” “It is Well” “It is Well” “It is Well”

2 Kings 4:26, “Run now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say to her,”
”It is well with thee.”
”It is well with thy husband.”
”It is well with the child.”
”And she answered, it is well.”

1. “It is well” – Death is not a calamity to the Christian, “It is well.”
   
2. In view of the unsatisfactory nature of life Paul said, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
   
3. And he yet testified, “To depart and be with Christ is far better.”
   
4. In view of the home prepared for the saved, “I go to prepare a home for you, that where I am ye may be also.”
   
5. It is well with the child of God, even in this life.
   
6. Appeal to the living – “Is it well with your soul?”
   
7. The word in our text repeated four times “well” is the Hebrew word “SHALOM,” which means peace.

To depart is peace, peace, peace, peace. Well, well, well, well.

”Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saint.”

”Absent from the body, face-to-face with the Lord.”

Forbidden Marriages

Ezra 9:12, “Now, therefore, give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth for ever, that ye may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance in your children for ever.”

Forbidden marriages:

1. are contrary to the express command of God, 2 Cor 6:14.
2. are inconsistent with the most sacred aspects and ends of marriage.
3. imperil the salvation of the soul.
4. are inimical to wise and harmonious home relationships.
5. are detrimental to the best interests of the children of the marriage.
   

   

God Protects His People

Job 1:12, “And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold all that he hath is in thy power, only upon himself put not forth thine hand, so Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.”

1. The protection God gives to His people and servants is vexation of Satan and his instruments.
2. Satan, the father of lies, sometimes speaks Truth for his own advantage – quoting Scripture.
3. The people and servants of God dwell in the midst of enemies, in the midst of dangers.
4. God Himself undertakes the guarding and protection of His people.
5. You see how the hedge goeth, not only about his person and household, but about all that he has, his most insignificant things are hedged about.
   

   

Standing at the Foot of the Cross!

On the Cross lifted
Thy face we scan
Bearing that Cross for us
Son of man.

Thorns form Thy diadem
Rough wood Thy throne
For us Thy blood is shed
Us alone.

No pillow under Thee
To rest Thy head
Only the splintered Cross
Is Thy bed.

Nails pierced Thy hands and feet
Thy side the spear
No voice is nigh to say
Help is near.

Shadows of midnight fall
Though it is day
Thy friends and kinfolk
Stand far away.

Loud is Thy bitter cry
Sunk on Thy breast
Hangeth Thy bleeding head
Without rest.

Loud scoffs the dying thief
Who mocks at Thee
Can it, my Saviour, be
All for me?

Gazing afar from Thee
Silent and lone
Stands those few weepers Thou
Callest Thine own.

I see Thy title, Lord
Inscribed above
”Jesus of Nazareth”
King of love.

What, O my Saviour
Here didst Thou see
Which made Thee suffer
And die for me!

Sunday, June 3, 2001

The Joy of Joys!

O joy all joys beyond
To see the Lamb that died,
And count each sacred wound
In hands, and feet, and side.

To give to Him the praise
On every triumph won,
And sing through endless days
The great things He hath done.

Look up, ye saints of God,
Nor fear to tread below,
The path your Saviour trod
Of daily toil and woe.

Wait but a little while
In uncomplaining love,
His own most gracious smile
Shall welcome you above.

”When I awake, I will awake with Thy likeness.”

Homeward Bound!

There is a blessed home
Beyond this land of woe,
Where trials never come,
Nor tears of sorrow flow.

Where faith is lost in sight
And patient hope is crowned,
And everlasting light
Its glory throws around.

There is a land of peace
Elect angels know it well,
Glad songs that never cease
Within its portals swell.

Around its glorious throne
Ten thousand saints adore,
Christ, with the Father one
And Spirit, evermore.

”No more sorrow, no more tears, no more pain, no more death.”

Eternal Conversation!

The following words are taken from the incarnate life of our Lord. They consist of words He heard, prayers He prayed, and quotations from the Psalms which the New Testament writers consider appropriate upon the lips of our praying Lord or in the mouth of the Father.

These expressions of the love of the Father and Son-made-man are surely more than a hint of the “eternal conversation” enjoyed within the glorious life of the Godhead. How Jesus Christ prayed on Earth is a powerful echo of the eternal intercessions of the priest in the Holy Place.

”Thou hearest Me always,” John 11:42.

Christ listening.

”I will be to Him a Father and He shall be to me a Son,” Heb 1:5, 2 Sam 7:14.

”The Father said unto Me ...” John 12:50.

”Thou art My Son, This day have I begotten Thee,” Heb 1:5, Psa 2:7.

”Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Thy Kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity, therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows,” Heb 1:8-9, Psa 45:6-7.

”Sit on My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool,” Heb 1:13, Psa 110:1.

”Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec,” Heb 5:8, Psa 110:4.

”Thou art My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” Mark 1:11.

”This is My Beloved Son, hear Him,” Mark 9:7.

”For He received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a Voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, and this Voice which came from Heaven we heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount,” 2 Pet 1:17-18.

Holy Conversation!

Adoration and Thanksgiving

“I honor My Father,” John 8:49.

”He gave thanks,” Luke 22:19.

”I will declare Thy Name unto My brethren, in the midst of the assembly will I sing praise unto Thee,” Heb 2:12, Psa 22:22.

”Abba, Father,” Mark 14:36.

”Blessed be Thou, O Lord, our God, Eternal King, Who bringeth forth bread from the Earth,” Luke 22:19, Mark 8:6.

The Jewish Grace said before meat, which would be used by our Lord:

”Not that any man hath seen the Father, save Him which is of God, He that seen the Father,” John 6:46.

Holy Conversation!

Fellowship

“Behold I and the children which God hath given Me,” Heb 2:13, Isa 8:18.

”... As His custom was He went into the synagogue,” Luke 4:16.

”Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song, and His praise in the congregation of the saints. Let Israel rejoice in Him that made him. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. Let them praise His Name in the dance. Let them sing praises unto Him with the timbrel and the harp. For the Lord taketh pleasure in His people. He will beautify the meek with salvation. Let the saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand. Praise ye the Lord,” Psa 149:1-6, 9.

”Go to My brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father, and to My God, and your God,” John 20:17.

”Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings ...” Eph 1:3.

“Who Will Show Us Any Good?”

I imagine that there are many Christians over the world today that are asking the question which we find in Psalm 4, “There be many that say, Who will shew us any good?”

Yes, there is a great deal of distress, anxiety, confusion, bewilderment, and disappointment in the souls of may Christians today.And probably there are many who are saying what is the use? Who can help us? Who can show us any good?

But the psalmist goes right on and says, ”Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us.” In other words, let the light of Your face shine on us.

Remember that is the great blessing we find in Num 6:22, “And the Lord spoke unto Moses saying speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel saying unto them, the Lord bless thee and keep thee.” The Lord will bless you and keep you.

We find preservation here in verse 25, “The Lord maketh His face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee.” There is a guarantee of help in time of trouble through God’s Grace.

Remember, “Where sin abounded, Grace did much more abound.” The sin of some may be tremendous, yet the Grace of God can overdo and undo anything that the sins of others might do. There we find help in time of trouble.

In verse 26, “The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee and give thee peace.”

This is perfect peace, a God-given peace, an eternal peace, the powerful, guarding, protecting peace. How true that is.

So we find in Psalm 4,”There be many that say, Who shall shew us any good?” Then the psalmist goes on and says, “Lord lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us.”

Psalm 4:7, “Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.”

You may lose material things. But the Lord has put a greater gladness in your heart than any material wealth can give. Remember this: The spiritual joy is greater than material pleasure.

We need to learn to put our trust in the Lord. We need to be conscious of the fact that His eye is ever upon us.

He is looking over us and wants to help us and will if we only give Him the opportunity by going to Him.

David goes right on and says, “I will lay me down in peace, and sleep, for Thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.”

There is the answer.I know there are heartaches, confusion, distress, anxiety, depressiveness in the minds of God’s children. You may feel “Who will show us any good? Who can help us?” The Lord can. The Lord can give you strength. He can help you in time of trouble.

He can give you perfect peace. Because remember, “For Thou, Lord, only maketh me to dwell in safety.”

“Thou hast put gladness in my heart more then in the time that their corn and their wine increased.”

”The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee and give thee peace.”

”I will lay me down in peace, and sleep, for Thou, Lord, only maketh me dwell in safety.”

The three things that you and I need anywhere, in any walk of life, the Lord alone can give and no man can take from us.

1. He gives contentment. Spiritual joy is greater than material pleasure.
   
2. Restfulness. We can lay down and sleep. We need not only a contented life but a restful soul.
   
3. We need a sense of security. “For Thou, Lord, only maketh me to dwell in safety.”

The three things that man needs to enjoy life God can give you and will give you, regardless of where you are.

No man can take away restfulness from you if it is the restfulness that God gives you.

No man can destroy your sense of security if you will just trust the Lord, put yourself in His hands.

It is wonderful to be a Christian even in time of distress, heartache, disappointment, and loss.

Monday, June 4, 2001

The Confidence That Christians Need!

God deals with man according to man’s faith. “According to thy faith, so shall it be unto you.” “The just shall live by faith.” The word “faith” means confidence. The root word from which we get the words “faith” and “believe” is the Greek word “PISTIS,” which means confidence.

There are five things we need to be convinced of our Lord to have a life of faith.

First, we need to be convinced that He loves us.

1 John 4:16, “And we have known and believed that the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him.”

We have to make a correction here because this is a poor translation, which certainly contradicts thousands of other Scriptures. “Herein has love for us been made perfect.”

This is the perfect love that brought our Lord down from Heaven, made of a woman under the law, He went about doing good and then He gave His life on Calvary’s Cross for our sins.

”Herein ... Because God is love, we believe this, has love for us been made perfect.” Why? That we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as He is, so are we in this world.

”There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.”

If we trust God because of His love for us, we will never fear anything. You may love a person and still be very fearful. Women love their husbands and the more they love their husbands, the more distressed they become. Because they fear that their husband is not true to them. They fear that their husband doesn’t love them.

So, if we are going to walk by faith and remember that “the just shall live by faith,” first you have to be convinced of God’s love for you.

”We love because He first loved us.”

Christian Confidence – Part Two

Second, you have to be convinced of God’s faithfulness to you. We have to be convinced of God’s motives in His acts toward us. Psa 86:15, “But Thou, O Lord, are a God full of compassion and gracious, longsuffering, plenteous in mercy and Truth.”

A God that loves us, a God that is full of compassion, a God that is full of mercy and Truth, a God that is gracious and longsuffering, certainly will be faithful to us and we need to have faith in His motives.

And when we do, we can say with Paul, “For we know that all things work together for good to those that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose,” Rom 8:28.

So, if we are going to walk in faith, we have to have faith in God’s love and in God’s motives.

God is faithful and His compassion is renewed every morning.

The Confidence Christians Need – Part Three

Thirdly, we have to have faith in God’s faithfulness. God is faithful. God wouldn’t gain anything by lying to us. He would lose everything.

”He is not a man who lies, or a son of man who can repent (change His mind).” We find this is the Book of Numbers. “He is faithful that promised.”

Way back there in the dawn of man’s history He promised Adam and Eve a Redeemer. He promised them One whose heel would crush the head of the serpent. Gen 3:15.

It took His Son’s life on Calvary’s Cross to fulfill that. Do we question His faithfulness? Of course not!

He loves us, therefore we know that whatever He does to us or for us or with us it will work out for good because He is faithful.

Confidence Needed by Christians – Part Four

Fourth, we need to have faith in God’s power. He is able to do everything He said He would do. He created the Heavens and the Earth.

The One that came and died on the Cross for us revealed His great love for us. And that love should cast out any fear in our lives.

He is the One who created the Heavens and the Earth. We know God is able to do all things, so we need to have faith in God’s power.

”With God nothing is impossible.”

”Christ is the wisdom and the power of God.”

Christian Confidence – Part Five

Fifth, this is the one I am afraid that causes so much distress today in the minds of many of God’s children.

We need to be satisfied with what God gives us. This is the lesson we have to learn if we are going to enjoy the Christian way of life.

Paul wrote in Phil 4 to the Church at Philippi, thanking them for the help that they had sent, the money they had sent to him. Phil 4:10, “But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last your care of me hath flourished again, wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity.”

He rejoices in the fact that the Philippian Church had sent help to him and he goes on to say, “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need,” or loss.

”I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.”

Paul had learned a great and important lesson, if we are going to walk in faith, and really enjoy the Christian way of life, knowing that God said, “According to thy faith so shall it be unto you.”

First – we have to have faith in God’s love.
Second – we must have faith in God’s motives.
Third – we should have faith in God’s faithfulness.
Fourth – we must have faith in God’s power.
Fifth – we need to be satisfied with what God gives us.

The Advantage of Being a Christian

Have you ever stopped to realize what it costs a person in not being a Christian?

If you have never yet made a decision to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour because you felt it was not important to be a Christian, then let me mention a few things that it has cost you. I hope this will also help Christians in dealing with lost loved ones and friends.

First, it costs you peace of mind. “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

There is nothing in this world that will bring peace in the soul of man outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ we have peace. He is our Peace, and not only do we have peace with God, but we also have the peace of God.

Life is not worth living if you don’t have peace of mind. It is only in Christ we find peace. Failing to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour costs you peace.

”I will keep him in peace, peace, because his mind is stayed on Me.”

”He is our Peace, Who hath broken down the wall of partition.”

”The Prince of Peace”

Advantage of Being a Christian – Part Two

Second, it costs the most over-flowing joy that can be known on Earth. 1 Pet 1:8 speaking of our Lord, “Whom having not seen, ye love, in Whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

It costs you that wonderful joy, the joy that only our Lord can give through trusting Him.

Rejecting Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour costs you not only peace, but joy.

When Christ arose from the grave He said, “Hail,” but the word is “joy.”

The joy of salvation. Unspeakable joy.

Advantage of Being a Christian – Part Three

Third, it costs you hope. Without Christ you have no hope.

Ephesians 2.we find that the Gentiles have no Messiah, no Christ. “They are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”

It costs you hope. Titus 2:13, “Looking for that Blessed Hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”

Hope for the future is much more important than any possession of today. When you reject Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, it has cost you not only peace, but joy and hope.

Hope is the word “ELPIS,” which means an anticipation of something joyous to happen in the future.

Two more advantages to being a Christian will follow, if you follow.

June 6, 1944 D-Day!

The God of war goes forth to war,
A kingly crown to gain.
His blood-red banner streams afar
Who follows in His train?

Who best can drink His cup of woe
Triumphant over pain;
Who patient bears His Cross below
He follows in His train.

The martyr first, whose eagle eye
Could pierce beyond the grave;
Who saw His Lord in the sky
And called on Him to save.

Like Him with pardon on His tongue
In midst of mortal pain;
He prayed for those who did the wrong
Who follows in His train?

A glorious band, a chosen few
On whom the Spirit came;
Twelve valiant saints, their hope they knew
And mocked the Cross and flame.

They met the tyrant’s brandished steel,
The lion’s gory mane;
They bowed their necks, the death to feel
Who follows in His train?

A noble army, men and boys
The matron and the maid;
Around the Saviour’s throne rejoice
In robes of light arrayed.

They climbed the steep ascent of Heaven
Through peril, toil, and pain;
O God, to us may Grace be given,
To follow in their train.

The Good Fight

Fight the good fight with all thy might,
Christ is thy strength, and Christ is thy right.
Lay hold on life, and it shall be
Thy joy and crown eternally.

Run the straight race through God’s good Grace
Lift up thine eyes, and see His face.
Life with its way before us lies
Christ is the Path, Christ is the Prize.

Cast care aside, lean on thy Guide
His boundless mercy will provide,
Trust, and thy trusting soul shall prove
Christ is the Life, and Christ its love.

Faint not nor fear, His arms are near,
He changeth not, and Thou art dear.
Only believe, and thou shalt see
That Christ is all in all to thee.

“I have fought the good fight ...”

Tuesday, June 5, 2001

The Advantage of Being a Christian – Part Four

Fourth, it costs eternal life if you reject Christ.

”God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him shall never perish, but have everlasting life,” John 3:16.

In Romans it says, “That the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.”

You have no eternal life without Christ, and your life consists of only a few years that you live here on this Earth, without Christ, and then you have a Christless eternity.

It costs you eternal life, which means life without our Saviour Lord throughout all eternity. It costs you peace because you are not a Christian. It costs you joy because you are not a Christian.

You have given up any chance for hope because you are not a Christian. And you have given up eternal life.

I don’t think that anybody with any degree of intelligence at all would want to do something that would cost them all of that.

The Advantage of Being a Christian – Part Five

Fifth, it costs you a heavenly home, without Christ, a home through all eternity.

In John 14 Christ said, “Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again, and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, ye may be also.”

Just stop and ask yourself if it is worthwhile to be a Christian. Consider what it has cost you in rejecting Christ as your personal Saviour.

1. You have no peace of mind.
2. You have no overflowing joy.
3. You have no hope.
4. You have no eternal life.
5. You do not have a heavenly home being prepared for you.

So we ask again, is it worthwhile to become a Christian? And we say, “Yes.”

You become a Christian by putting your faith and trust in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection for your salvation.

I think it is a shame that people don’t realize what it is costing them to reject Christ as their personal Saviour. They will not have hope or eternal life or a heavenly home. You do not have One to intercede for you now in your hour of need and weakness.

Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of God the Father, interceding for Christians, and if you reject Him, you have no help for the present.

It is worthwhile to become a Christian? It certainly is.

A Guarantee of the Lord’s Presence!

Psa 16:8, “I have set the Lord always before me.”

The trouble with so many people is that they are in such a hurry that they don’t do what the Lord says. “Be still and know that I am God.”

So few of us get as much out of the Christian way of life as God intends us to because we are in such a hurry. And we don’t think of our Lord, which is the basis for our difficulty.

Remember in this golden Psalm of David, “I have set the Lord always before me.” David kept the Lord ever before him. Just begin today by putting the Lord before you. Be ever mindful of Him.Keep your mind on Him and that will make a great difference in your life.

David goes on to say, “Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.”

The trouble with so many of us today is that we are slaves to problems, slaves to conditions and circumstances. When everything is going good, we feel good. But if something goes badly, we feel bad. If someone says something bad about us we get hurt, if someone compliments us we feel good. We don’t live within ourselves. We are subject to circumstances and conditions and people’s opinions of us. We are moved so easily.

But in this great golden Psalm, David said, “Because the Lord is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” After all, if the Lord is for us, who can be against us? What difference does it make?

Isa 41:10, “Fear not, for I am with thee.”

If we will start out today by putting the Lord before us, remember that He is at our right hand, and depending upon Him, we are going to find out that we will live a stable, calm, rich life.

You may be in difficulties. You may be greatly distressed. You may be confused and greatly hurt. Put the Lord before you and you will have peace.

Omnipotence – the Power of God

It is wonderful to know that we are safe in God’s hands and that God hears us and answers our prayers.

The value of prayer to us depends entirely upon our conception of God. When we pray to our heavenly Father, let us be reminded of God’s Grace, His love and power, and prayer becomes very valuable to us.

The ability to turn a problem over to the Lord depends our conception of the Lord. As we study His attributes, His characteristics, our faith in Him is strengthened. We know He loves us, He is faithful, and He is powerful. Therefore, we can turn our problems over to Him and have peace.

God is omnipotent. God is all-powerful. This knowledge brings great peace and rest into our souls. When we realize the great power of the Almighty God can work for us, we rest in Him. But so few of God’s children seem to remember that God is powerful, or they have never been taught the meaning of God’s power to them personally.

If we are going to be convinced of God’s ability to help us, we must be convinced of His power. When we look around us at the universe and realize that everything was created by Jesus Christ, we realize in a small way the extent of His power. He spoke and the world came into existence.

God’s power is so great that the finite mind cannot begin to grasp its magnitude. Meditate on the power behind creation. God is not limited to tools and materials. He willed and the whole world came into existence.

Until we realize the great power of God, we can never have a true conception of Him. In times of difficulty we may go to a loved one for help. Even though our loved ones want to help us more than anything else in the world, they may be limited and unable to help us.

But there is One who is not limited, One who can help us, One who has all power and that is God our heavenly Father.

Psa 62:11, “God hath spoken once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth to God.”

God is all powerful. He shall work and who shall turn it back?

Wednesday, June 6, 2001

June 6, 1944 D-Day Remembered! Love of Country!

I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above.
Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love.
The love that asks no questions, the love that stands the test,
That lays upon the altar, the dearest and the best.
The love that never falters, the love that pays the price,
The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.

And there is another country, I’ve heard of long ago,
Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know.
We may not count her armies, we may not see her King,
Her fortress is a faithful soul, her pride is suffering.
And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase
And her ways are ways of graciousness and all her paths are peace.

June 6, 1944 Remembered

Brief life here is our portion
Brief sorrow, short-lived care;
The life that knows no ending
The tearless life, is there.

For thee, my dear, dear country
Mine eyes their vigils keep;
For very love, beholding
Thy happy name, they weep,

Their grief is turned to pleasure
Such pleasure as below;
No human voice can utter,
No human soul can know.

And now we fight the battle
But then shall wear the crown;
Of full and everlasting
And passionless renown.

Omnipotence and the Power of God! “Is Anything too Hard For Me?”

Nothing can resist the power of God

All through the Old Testament we find evidence of God’s power. In the New Testament we find our Lord coming to reveal God to man and we see the power of the Godhead in His life.

We see God’s power over the elements, His power in holding back the Red Sea, in destroying the enemies of Israel, in protecting them in their wilderness wanderings. ”Is anything to hard for Me?”

We find the Lord saying to Abraham and Sarah, “Stop and meditate on the power of God.”

Then realize that this great power can be put into effect into your life, you can see the power of God working for you, if you will only believe in Him. “Christ the wisdom and power of God.”

You can see God’s power in your life over sin and the world. You can see God’s power in your life to destroy all doubt, fear, and anxiety.

God’s power can be experienced in your life to give you a peace, so great that it passeth the understanding of human minds.

Omnipotence – God’s Power!

The love of God and the faithfulness of God would be ineffective to help in our lives in bringing peace in time of need, if it were not for the great power of the Lord.

Sometimes we limit God’s power in our life and permit Him from doing for us what He would like to do because of unbelief. ”He could perform no miracle there because of their unbelief.”

When we doubt the omnipotence of God, we limit His power and you are sinning because all doubt is sin. If your conception of God is not as almighty, all powerful, all loving, gracious, righteous, the faithful God, then prayer has little meaning for us.

When you are convinced that God is gracious, that God is faithful, that God is righteous, that God is powerful, that God loves you, you are going to turn your problems over to Him and forget all about them because you know you can depend upon His help.

Because you are convinced that He loves you, you know He wants to help you. He is all-powerful, therefore He can help you. He is faithful, therefore He will help you as He has promised.

The value of prayer to you depends upon your conception of God.

I hope that the power of God will bring you a greater knowledge of the Lord, learning to know Him better, and strengthen your faith. Then you will be able to turn all your problems over to Him and you will have the perfect peace that passeth understanding.

The Faithfulness of God!... “He Abideth Faithful”

There is only one thing in this world that man can absolutely depend upon, and that is the laws of God. A lot of people never give that a thought. They take the faithfulness of God for granted. It is God’s law and not man’s law.

Suppose the Lord removed the law of gravity temporarily. What would happen? Every unattached object in the world would fly off into space. The average human being in ten minutes would be 6,000 feet in the air, if God became unfaithful to His laws.

Then suppose while we were 6,000 feet in the air, going higher, God suddenly put the law of gravity back into force again. Down we would come, and a lot of people would be hurt.

But because the law of gravity is a law of God, we can depend on it. All around us we see the faithfulness of God. Whatever God has ordained is certain.

”God is not a man that He should lie, neither the Son of man that He should change His mind, hath He said, and shall He not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall He not make it good?” Num 23:19.

”Great is Thy faithfulness.”

God’s Faithfulness!

In the life of Abraham we have a wonderful example of God’s faithfulness in His promises.

In Gen 21 we read “And the Lord visited Sarah, as He had said.”
”And the Lord did unto Sarah as He had spoken.”
”For Sarah conceived and bare Abraham a son in his old age.”
”At the set time of which God had spoken to him.”

Here is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Sarah. Here is the faithfulness of God revealed to Sarah.

The Lord did as He had spoken. God always does as He says.

God’s Faithfulness

Psa 33:19, “The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought, He maketh the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations.”

The determinations, agreements of man and counsels of mankind do not mean a thing because God says they are of none effect. But the counsels and determinations and statements of our Lord are certain and continuous.

God is faithful, therefore, we can really depend upon Him. And that is the reason why in verse 12 we have, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord and the people He hath chosen for His own inheritance.”

Because He is faithful, we can depend on Him. There are many people who say that they believe God is faithful, but their lives show that they don’t trust Him. Believing that God is faithful and depending on Him to do everything He said He would do are two different things.

”He is faithful who hath called you.”

Faith in the Promises of God!

When it comes to faith in the promises of God, are you like Sarah or are you like Abraham?

What we need to do is to keep our minds on God’s faithfulness, in waiting for the fulfillment of His promises to us.

God promised Abraham and Sarah that they were going to have a son. Sarah, couldn’t believe God’s promise because she looked at her own body and she felt she was too old to bear children. So she laughed at God’s promise. Abraham was not weak in faith because he did not consider that which might keep God from fulfilling the promise.

Many of us are like Sarah. We believe that God makes His promises, but we take our mind off of His faithfulness in fulfilling them. We look at the things that might keep Him from fulfilling His promise and become impatient. We become unwilling to wait for His set time, His appointed time.

We believe that God is faithful, but we don’t depend upon Him if He doesn’t answer us the moment we pray.

”Wait I say, and again I say, wait on the Lord.”

”Wait patiently for Him.”

June 6, 1944D-Day!

O faith of America taught of old,
By faithful shepherds of the fold,
The hallowing of our nation;
Thou wast through many a wealthy year
The Rock of our salvation.

Arise, arise, good Christian men
Your glorious standard raise again,
The Cross of Christ who calls you.
Who bids you live and bids you die,
For His great cause, and stands on high
To witness what befalls you.

Our fathers heard the trumpet call
Through lowly cot and kingly hall,
From overseas resounding.
They bowed their stubborn wills to learn
The truths that live, the thoughts that burn
With new resolve abounding.

Arise, arise, good Christian men
Your glorious standard raise again,
The Cross of Christ who guides you.
Whose arm is bared to join the fray,
Who marshals you in stern array
Fearless, whatever betides you.

Our fathers held the faith received
By saints declared, by saints believed,
By saints in death defended.
Through pain of doubt and bitterness,
Through pain of treason and distress,
They for the right contended.

Arise, arise, good Christian men
Your glorious standard raise again
The Cross of Christ who bought you.
Who leads you forth in this new age
With long enduring souls to wage
The warfare He has taught you.

Though frequent be the loud alarms
Though still we march by ambushed arms
Of death and hell surrounded.
With Christ for Chief we fear no foe
Nor force nor craft overthrow,
The Church that He has founded.

Arise, arise, good Christian men
Your glorious standard raise again
The Cross wherewith He sealed you.
The King Himself shall lead you on
Shall watch you till the strife be done.
Then near His throne shall find you.

Thursday, June 7, 2001

God’s Faithfulness

Gen 18:11, “Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age, and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. Therefore, Sarah laughed within herself saying, after I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also??”

She questioned God’s promise. But how does God answer? Gen 18:14, “Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life and Sarah shall have a son.” We need to keep our minds ever on this verse when we are waiting for the Lord’s promises to be fulfilled in our life.

Notice first, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
God told Abraham that there was nothing too hard for Him. He could do everything He promised. God is almighty and He can do everything He promises to do. He is all-powerful. Nothing is too hard for Him. God is able to change the laws of nature to fulfill His promises. No obstacle will stand in the way of God when it comes to fulfilling His promises.

Second – Notice what else God said, “At the time appointed I will return unto thee according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”
God was going to do everything that He promised, but He was going to do it in His own time, at the proper time, the set time, the appointed time. In Genesis 21, “And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as He had spoken, for Sarah conceived and bare Abraham a son in his old age at the set time of which God had spoken to him.”

That is the second thing we need to keep our minds on when we are waiting for the fulfillment of God’s promises. God is faithful to do everything He said He would do. Nothing is too hard for God. But His promise will be fulfilled at the set time, the appointed time, the proper time, the time God ordained.

God’s Faithfulness!

In waiting for God’s promises to be fulfilled, we should do as we find in Psa 37, “Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. It is good to both hope and patiently wait for the salvation of the Lord,” meaning, as a believer, to save out of the difficulties and troubles in our lives. A lot of Christians find it difficult to wait for God’s time.

2 Tim 2:15, “If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful, He cannot deny Himself.” Notice this is written to a young man and it is good for all young Christians to be ever aware of.

Impatience is a sign of two things.

1. First – we have not submitted our wills to the Lord.
2. Second – we are spiritually immature.

If we have submitted our wills to God’s will and are willing to do as our Lord did and that is to say, “Nevertheless, Father not My will but Thine be done.”

We will wait patiently for the fulfillment of His promises because we are depending on His faithfulness. We are willing to wait for Him patiently for the fulfillment of His promises to us. Then there will be a high degree of joy, of anticipation, “hope.”

God’s faithfulness can be depended upon. The time might not be right or the thing we asked for may not be good for us, in which case God in His faithfulness will withhold it from us.

We have to learn to depend entirely upon the Lord’s knowledge. Don’t try to subject God’s will to your will. Learn to submit your will to God’s will. When you have perfect confidence in the faithfulness of God, you can be assured that whatsoever He has promised, He is able to perform.

Once we have these Truths in our minds, a change will come into our lives.

The Mid-East Crisis Because Sarah Laughed at the Promise of God

Notice the result of impatience in Sarah’s life – the Mid-East Crisis.

In Genesis 16 we find that Sarah sends her handmaid unto Abraham that Abraham might have a child of the handmaid – an Arab is born.

Sarah felt that God was not able to perform the promise through her. Then she sent the handmaid (an Egyptian) and consequently multiplied her sorrows. When the handmaid conceived, the handmaid despised her mistress. Sarah became jealous, was unfair to her handmaid, and dealt harshly with her.

All through the Old Testament we find the seed of Ishmael, the son after the flesh, and the seed of Isaac, the son after the promise, are at enmity one with another. The Mid-East crisis – same father different mothers. ”The child of the bondmaid persecutes the child of the promise.”

For 14 years, from the time Abraham was fourscore and six, and Ishmael was born, until the time he was a hundred years old, when Isaac was born, the presence of this child brought sorrow to Sarah’s soul. Had she not laughed at and doubted the power of God and had she been willing to wait for God to fulfill the promise instead of trying to bring it to pass of her own efforts, she would not have to bear this burden.

Many of the burdens we bear are of our own making and are the direct result of failure to trust the Lord to do that which He said He would do.

When He does not give us something the minute we ask for it, we try to get it by our own efforts. Then we have to bear the consequences of our acts – sorrow, heartaches, and distress come into our lives.

But notice God’s faithfulness in spite of Sarah’s failure to trust the Lord. He was faithful and merciful.

”At the appointed time Sarah conceived and bare a son.” If Sarah claimed the promise of God, there would be no Mid-East crisis.

At the appointed time Christ came, born of a woman.

Thought For the Day

What caused the Mid-East crisis?

Sarah not claiming the promise of God!!

There is only one thing we are told to fear in the Bible – that is not claiming the promises of God.

It is Amazing That as Children of God We Have to be Reminded Over and Over Again of God’s Faithfulness to Us

Here is another example of God’s faithfulness.

We find it in Abraham’s life when God brought comfort into Abraham’s sorrowing soul.

”And Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking, wherefore she said unto Abraham, cast out this bondwoman and her son, for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac, and the thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight because of his son.”

Sarah does as so many of us try to do. We try to get rid of the things that are unpleasant to us. There is a great deal of sadness in Abraham’s soul because he loved the son, Ishmael.

I imagine it made him very greatly distressed, but notice Abraham’s reaction. ”And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of the bondwoman, in all that Sarah had said unto thee hearken unto her voice, for in Isaac shall thy seed be called, and also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.”Another illustration of the Mid-East crisis.

God answered Abraham’s troubled soul with Divine Grace which was sufficient for his needs. God always answers our problems and difficulties with Grace, and His Grace is always sufficient to meet our needs. God always helps us if we are willing to look to Him in time of difficulty, when we have to make decisions that hurt us, in times when we see we must do things we would rather not do.

Abraham turned to God, and we need to turn to God. When we do, He will not fail to comfort us and give us Divine Grace sufficient for our needs.

”My Grace is sufficient for thee.”

Friday, June 8, 2001

God’s Faithfulness and Wisdom!

“If any man lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God.”

We see that Abraham preferred God’s Word. He was willing to do what God told him to do. Therefore we find God’s wisdom guiding Abraham. God told him to do as Sarah had told him.

God is faithful in giving us wisdom to make every decision we have to face.

”If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

God was faithful in guiding Abraham.

There is one thing that many of us forget, that is, God gives wisdom to those who are seeking it, to those who really want it.

You may have decisions to make, decisions that are hard to make. You don’t know which way to turn. Turn to the Lord in faith and He will show you the right thing to do.

”He guideth thee with His eye.”

The Faithfulness of God and His Immutability!

“God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

Whatever He did for one man, He will do for every man if every man will let Him. God will give you wisdom. His wisdom will guide you.

”Thy Word is a Light unto my path.”

But you must be willing to depend on Him. He knows your mind and soul. If you are willing to depend upon Him, He will guide you. But God cannot guide you unless you trust Him. He cannot give you His wisdom unless you are depending upon Him. He knows your mind. You can’t fool God. He knows whether or not you are sincere.

God is interested in guiding His children because He is our Good Shepherd.

”Jesus Christ, the power and the wisdom of God.”
”The entrance of Thy Word giveth light.”
”Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way, but taking heed thereunto Thy Word.”

God’s Faithfulness and Ishmael

God not only gave Abraham comfort, but He also encouraged him. God encouraged Abraham by telling him that from the son of the bondwoman, God would also make a nation. ”Because Ishmael was also the seed of Abraham” – the Mid-East crisis.

God was not going to forget Ishmael. You can experience God’s faithfulness in encouraging you in time of difficulty.

In Psa 27:13 we find a Truth that all of us need to remember. David said, “I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”

The majority of Christians have put their trust in Christ’s death on Calvary’s Cross for their sins. They believe that when they die, He is going to take them from this Earth to Heaven. But they have been led to believe that they cannot expect His help today, right now. All of the blessings of being a child of God are in the far, far future and nothing is in the present, they feel.

If you are in deep distress, confusion, and heaviness of soul, you have the right to expect Grace from God in your life today. You can expect God to meet your needs now because God has promised and He is faithful to do everything He said He would do.

If you really believe that God is going to do good things for you today, if you really believe that you can see the Grace of God now in the land of the living, then this verse will be your motto. Psa 27:14, “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.”

The Lord encouraged Abraham through His Word, and the Lord encourages us today through His Word.

God’s faithfulness can be experienced in your life if you are just willing to trust Him to do everything He has said He would do. We must keep our eyes on His faithfulness. We must keep foremost in our minds His faithfulness in fulfilling His promises to us. When we do, we are going to know God is faithful, and that this is for our good or it wouldn’t have happened.

We are going to keep depending upon His faithfulness.

”He is faithful who hath called you.”

God’s Faithfulness and Sodom and Gomorrah!

We have another example of God’s faithfulness. One Truth that God’s children must ever be mindful of is that God does hear and answer prayer.

Here we have a marvelous example of God’s faithfulness in answering prayer.

Gen 18:17-22, “And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the Earth will be blessed in Him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken of him.” Train up a child. ”And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto Me; and if not, I will know. And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the Lord .”

In this 18th chapter of Genesis, we find the Lord appearing unto Abraham. Abraham became the host of our Lord, and the Lord said He was going to reveal to Abraham what He was going to do.

Hasn’t the Lord revealed to us through His Word His future plans and purposes? When we study His Word and draw nigh unto Him in prayer, God reveals to us through His Word His great plans and purposes.

”Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the mind of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.”

”But, God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God, for what man knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God, now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God. That we might know the things that are freely given unto us of God.”

When we walk in the Spirit, the Spirit reveals to us the things of God. We find that just as Abraham had communion and fellowship with God, we must have fellowship with God before His plans and purposes are revealed to us.

God told Abraham that He was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.

God’s Faithfulness Regarding Sodom and Gomorrah!

God told Abraham that He was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of their great wickedness.

Now we find a blessed truth regarding intercessory prayer. “And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt Thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city, wilt Thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?”

Notice first – Abraham drew near to God. Everyone can’t do that, but what a blessing it is to know that we have Christ as our personal Saviour Who can draw near to God.

Heb 4:14-16, “Seeing that we have a High Priest that is passed into the Heavens. Jesus Christ the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession, for we have not a High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy, and find Grace to help in time of need.”

We draw near unto God through prayer, and when we pray, God opens the doorway of Heaven and we become into the very presence of the throne of Grace. Prayer draws us close to God.

Psa 34:18, “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”

Every cry from one of God’s agonizing children not only draws that one close to God, but it also draws the Lord close to that one.

God gives to you and me who put our trust in Him the privilege of approaching Him on the throne. And throne of judgment becomes a throne of Grace because our Lord and Saviour is there.

Prayer brings us close to God. We find that first Abraham drew near, and then he prayed.

Jerusalem.... City of Peace ...

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon America’s mountains green?
And was the Holy Lamb of God
On America’s pleasant pastures seen?

And did the countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among those dark satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold.
Bring me my arrow of desire.
Bring me my spear, O clouds, unfold.
Bring me my chariot of fire.

I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In America’s green and pleasant land.

God’s Faithfulness in Answering Prayer!

What did Abraham pray for? Lot, his nephew, was in Sodom. But Abraham didn’t pray for Lot. He prayed for the entire city. This is a blessed truth, and it is good to keep in mind that the Lord is praying for all of His children.

In Gen 18:24-26 we find a definite prayer.

”Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city, wilt Thou also destroy and not spare the place for fifty righteous that are therein. That be far from Thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from Thee. Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right? And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city. Then I will spare all the place for their sakes.”

First Abraham asked for fifty. He had a definite purpose in his prayer. Abraham knew what he wanted and prayed very definitely.

One of the reasons we doubt God’s faithfulness in answering our prayers is that we never pray for anything definite. We ask for things in general and then wonder why our prayers are not answered.

Matt 7:7, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son asketh bread, will He give him a stone? Or if he asketh a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask Him?”

Here we find one asking for fish. A very definite prayer. A definite request. God doesn’t give a stone. When we go to our Heavenly Father in prayer, we should have something definite in our minds, and we should keep in mind that He is only going to give us good things.

Some people question the faithfulness of God in answering prayer because they have prayed for something they haven't received. If it had been good for them, God would have given it to them. God does not promise to give us everything we ask for. He promises only to give us “good things.”

”There is no good thing that He will withhold from them that walk uprightly.”

The Faithfulness of God in Answering Our Prayers

Abraham appeals to the righteousness of God in prayer. “Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right?”

We need to depend upon God’s righteousness. God has promised in the day of trouble He will deliver us if we call upon Him.

Do we depend upon that? Do we depend upon God’s righteousness? If you do, you will have perfect peace and rest for your soul because you know He is righteous. Therefore, you know He will hear and answer your prayer.

If we sin, we are to confess those sins, and “He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness,” 1 John 1:9.

If you are willing to depend upon God’s righteousness, you will have perfect peace and rest. Because He has promised you and He is righteous. You can depend upon His faithfulness.

Notice God’s response to Abraham’s prayer. “If I find, I will spare for their sakes.” God was not going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if He could find fifty righteous people there.

Fifty righteous people would have withheld God’s wrath against those cities ... How does our country stand in lieu of this same principle?

Saturday, June 9, 2001

God’s Faithfulness in Withholding His Wrath – Even in Houston

Abraham appeals to the righteousness of God in destroying Sodom. “Shall the Judge of all the world do right?”

We need to depend upon God’s righteousness. God has promised in the day of trouble He will deliver us if we call upon Him. Now, do we depend upon that? Do we depend upon God’s righteousness? If we do, we will have perfect peace and rest for our souls because we know He is righteous. Therefore, we know He will hear and answer our prayers.

If we sin, we are to confess our sin, as Christians. 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

If you are willing to depend upon God’s righteousness, you will have perfect peace and rest, because He has promised and is righteous. You can depend upon His faithfulness.

Notice the Divine response to Abraham’s prayer. “If I find ... I will spare for their sakes.”

God was not going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if He could find 50 righteous people there. Fifty righteous people could have withheld God’s wrath against those cities.

Have you ever stopped to realize that the only thing withholding God’s wrath today against the nations of the wicked is the righteous in those nations?

There is a day coming when the Lord is going to take His Church home to be with Him. I believe it because He said it and He is faithful. Then God is going to pour out His wrath upon the Earth. But God is not going to pour out His wrath upon this Earth as long as His children, His bride is here. One of the things we are saved from is the wrath to come.

”For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from Heaven whom He raised from the dead.”

”Even Jesus Christ which delivered us from the wrath to come.”

The Faithfulness of God and Persistent Prayers

Abraham was very persistent in prayer. He kept on interceding. First, for 50, and then for 45, then 40, then 20, and then 10. Rom 12:12, “Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation.” “Continuing instant in prayer.”

We are never to stop praying. But we find that Abraham had a limit. “And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet this once, Peradventure ten shall be found there, and He, speaking of God, said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake. And the Lord went His way as soon as He had left communing with Abraham.” When Abraham got down to 10 he gave up, because he felt it was hopeless and helpless.

Notice the contrast in the intercession of men and the intercession of our Lord and Saviour. ”Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.” He ever lives to make intercession for us.

Man has a limit to his endurance in intercession. But thank God our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ does not have a limit. Why? Because He is faithful.

Lam 3:22, “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed. Because His compassions fail not, they are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness.”

God’s Faithfulness and Promise to Abraham Destroying Sodom

Notice how Abraham prayed. First, he drew near to God. Secondly, he interceded unselfishly for the entire city. Thirdly, he prayed for something very definite. Fourthly, he appealed to God’s righteousness. Abraham’s prayer was not based on anything he had done, but he prayed to God appealing to God’s righteousness. Fifthly, he was persistent in prayer. Sixthly, but Abraham had a limit to his intercession.

Now we find God’s faithfulness in answering Abraham’s prayer. The Lord sent two angels to Lot with a Divine message. “And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters which are here, lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.”

Lot didn’t deserve to be delivered. In Gen 19 we find that Lot behaved dishonorably toward his daughters. He would have sacrificed his daughters’ own honor in order to have peace. He associated with the ungodly, the wicked, and “vexed his righteous soul.” What was Lot doing down here with the ungodly, the wicked? He had no business here.

But notice the faithfulness of God. Abraham prayed for the righteous. And God was merciful unto Lot because of Abraham’s prayer,

Notice that Lot held back and had to be dragged out of the city. The angels had to take him by the hand and take him forth out of the city. He lingered. He held back.

Certainly we see not only the faithfulness of God, but also the mercy of God toward this man.

God’s Faithfulness and Grace

We are like Lot, not worthy of anything, but because of our Lord and Saviour in interceding for us and praying for us, we experience the mercy and Grace of God daily in our lives.

God answered Abraham’s prayer. “And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham.And sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt,” verse 29.

Abraham prayed for ten righteous and God saved Lot and his daughters. Abraham had given up, but God remembered His prayer and delivered Lot.

Can’t you see the faithfulness of God in this lesson? God has promised to hear and answer our prayers. God is faithful to do everything He has promised. He is faithful to answer our prayers.

Whenever you pray, remember God’s faithfulness. Never give up, keep on praying. Remember, whatever God does for one man, He will do for every man if the man only will let Him.

Pray for others. God is faithful. He will answer your prayer, because God is faithful. He will not deny Himself.

“He Restoreth My Soul,” Psa 23

Restoration is the means by which a person out of fellowship, a carnal believer, gets back into fellowship, i.e., spirituality. This is for believers only and the key word is “confess,” as used in 1 John 1:9.

1. Jesus Christ was judged for our sins on the Cross.
   A. Old Testament, Isa 53:3-5.
   B. New Testament, 1 Pet 2:24, 2 Cor 5:21.
   
2. Under the law of double jeopardy, these sins cannot be judged again. Jesus Christ does not have to bare our sins again.
   
3. Restoration is the extension of propitiation, literally, satisfaction.
   
4. The blood of Jesus Christ, which speaks of Christ bearing our sins, is the foundation for forgiveness. 1 John 1:7,Heb 9:22.
   
5. The work of the blood of Christ is twofold:
   A. Cleansing at the point of salvation.
   Old Testament, Isa 44:22, Psa 103:12, Gal 3:6-8.
   New Testament, Eph 1:7, Rev 1:5, Heb 9:2,Rom 5:9.
   B. Cleansing in time.
   Old Testament, Psa 32:5, Psa 51:1-5, Isa 43:25-28.
   New Testament, 1 John 17 linked with 1 John 1:9.
   
6. The reason restoration works is that the blood of Christ keeps on cleansing, 1 John 1:7, from all sins.
   A. All sins were paid for at the Cross.
   B. Forgiveness was provided at the Cross.
   C. Restoration results in cleansing. 1 John 1:9.
   
7. Decision to be restored. Let us enter into judgment.
   A. Old Testament, “Let us plead together,” Isa 43:26.
   B. New Testament, “Let a man examine himself,” 1 Cor 11:28, “If we judge ourselves.” 1 Cor 11:31, the communion table.
   
8. Therefore, confession of sin is recognition of:
   A. Old Testament – God knew, omniscience, what would be accomplished at the Cross.
   1 Pet 1:18-29, “winked at sin,” which means He held up judgment of sin until the Cross. Acts 17:30.
   B. New Testament – What was accomplished at the Cross, 1 Pet 2:24.
   
9. This means:
   A. Old Testament – God looked forward to the Cross.
   B. New Testament – Go back to the Cross where sin was judged.
   

   

Biblical References For Believers Being Restored to Fellowship!

1. “Confess,” 1 John 1:9
   
2. “Judge self,” 1 Cor 11:31
   
3. “Yield,” Rom 6:13, 12:1
   
4. “Lay aside every weight,” Heb 12:1
   
5. “Be in subjection of the Father,” Heb 12:9
   
6. “Lift up the hands that hang down,” Heb 12:12
   
7. “Make straight paths,” Matt 3:3, Heb 12:13
   
8. “Arise from the dead,” literally, “stand up again our from deaths,” Eph 5:14
   
9. “Put off the old man,” Eph 4:22
   
10. “Acknowledge thine iniquity,” Jer 3:13
    
11. Old Testament restoration commands. Psa 32:5, 38:18, 51:3-4, Prov 28:13
    

    

The Doctrine of Restoration

1. Restoration must be understood in the light of relationship with God, Jer 3:13, or in the light of positional Truth, Rom 8:1.
   
2. The frame of reference for restoration is the efficacious death of Christ on the Cross, where He paid for our sins. 2 Cor 5:21, 1 Pet 2:24, John 1:7.
   
3. Eternal security is the prerequisite to understanding the restoration technique. Rom 8:38, 39. The believer sins after salvation, but such sin is categorized as “carnality,” not loss of salvation. 1 Cor 3:1-3, 1 John 1:8, 10.
   
4. Restoration means restoration to fellowship with God and the filling of the Holy Spirit. Prov 1:23, Eph 5:14 cf, Eph 5:18.
   
5. The mechanics of restoration is confession of sin, 1 John 1:9. Then forget it, Phil 3:13. And then isolate it, Heb 12:15.
   
6. The alternative to restoration is Divine discipline. 1 Cor 11:31, Heb 12:6.
   
7. The discouragement to restoration is legalism and other Christians, Luke 15:11-32.
   
8. The Grace provision for helping other believers to restoration.
   A. The mechanics, Gal 6:1.
   B. A mental attitude of Grace, Matt 18:23-35
   C. Grace orientation, Col 3:13
   D. Reward for assisting others, James 5:19-20

”He restoreth my soul,” Psa 23

An Exegetical Categorical Study of Restoring Another Believer

James 5:19, “Brethren, if any of you do err from the Truth, and one convert him.”

James 5:20, “Let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins.”

”If” is a third class condition in the Greek. It is potential. You have a choice. You may or you may not.

”Any of you believers do wander from the Truth.” Maybe you will and maybe you won’t, but if you do.

”And one,” a believer, restores or brings him, the believer out of fellowship, back.

”Let him,” the restorer, “know to that which restores or brings back the sinning one, from the error of his way, shall deliver the soul from temporal death, or the sin unto death, and shall cover a multitude of sins.”

The washing of the disciples’ feet in John 13:2-20 speaks again of restoration to fellowship, rather than getting saved.

The context teaches that the one is saved once and for all, but needs many restorations to fellowship.

The analogy is that the bath, washing the whole body, speaks of salvation. The washing of the feet was done many times, referring to the getting back into fellowship via 1 John 1:9.

Sunday, June 10, 2001

Biblical Instructions for Awaiting the Rapture

1. Resting in the promise of the Rapture. 2 Thes 2:1-2, “Now we beseech you brethren, by (concerning) the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto Him (the Rapture). That ye be not soon shaken in mind (know the Word of God) or be
   troubled (emotionally), neither by spirit (demon), nor by word (false teacher), nor by letter as from us (a forged letter), as the day of Christ (day of the Lord), the Second Advent is at hand.”
   
2. Have patience. James 5:7. Continue claiming the Word of God. “Be patient, therefore, unto the coming of the Lord.”
   
3. Have confidence. Phil 1:6. “Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ (the Rapture).”
   
4. Stay in fellowship. 1 John 2:28. “And now little children, abide (stay in fellowship) in Him, that when He shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed (result) before His coming.”
   
5. Get where you can learn the Word of God. James 5:8. “... Be ye also patient, stablish your hearts (minds), for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”
   
   This refers to using the mind as a staging center for transferring the Word by faith. As the believer does this, a spiritual structure is erected ...edification.

Paul in Col 1:9-10 was desiring that the “Colosse pocket” there have a breakthrough, “filled with the knowledge of God.” Isa 33:6, “And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of the times.”

2 Tim 2:15, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.”

A ”workman” is a person who witnesses, making the issue clear. The issue is: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,” Acts 16:31.

Helping Another Believer to Get Back Into Fellowship With the Lord

“Restore such a one,” Gal 6:1.

1. Do not run down a believer out of fellowship or malign them. This does not help them.
   
2. Do not get “carnal” (out of fellowship) when helping others. Remember you have failed, too. Consider the source as per Gal 6:1.
   ”Brethren, if a man be taken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such as one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest thou also be tempted.”
   ”Restore” is a medical term for a setting a broken bone.
   
3. Do not try to be the Lord’s whip. Rom 12:19, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath (step aside, let the Lord work), for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.”
   Give wrath a wide berth. Two angry people cannot communicate.
   
4. Have an attitude of Grace. Matt 18:23 and following. Always deal with a person in Grace. Understand and operate on the principle of Grace. This does not compromise your convictions. Forgive as the Lord Jesus Christ forgave, completely and immediately. Rom 7:14.
   
5. There must be an attitude of fellowship. James 5:19-20.
   ”If” (third class condition) “any of you believers do wander from the Truth (maybe you will and maybe you won’t, but if you do), and one (believer) restores or brings him (believer out of fellowship) back, let him (the restorer) know that he which restores or brings back the sinning one from the error of his way, shall deliver the soul from temporal death or the sin unto death, and shall cover a multitude of sins.”
   
6. The washing of the disciples feet, John 13:2-20, speaks of restoration to fellowship rather than getting saved. The context teaches that one is saved once and for all, but needs many restorations to fellowship. The analogy is that the bath, washing the whole body, speaks of salvation. The washing of the feet many times referring to getting back into fellowship. 1 John 1:9.

Case history – the prodigal son. Once a son, always a son.

Old Testament Restoration Back to Fellowship With the Lord

Isa 43:25, “I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions, for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.”

1. Here is the principle of restoration.
   ”Thy transgressions” – confessed sins.
   ”For Mine own sake” – for the sake of Jesus Christ.
   ”Will not remember thy sins” – unknown sins.
   When we confess the known sins, He blots out the unknown sins. The same as 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins,” the known sins. ”And cleanse us from all unrighteousness,” the unknown sins.
   
2. The mechanics of restoration.
   Isa 43:26, “Put me in remembrance. Let us plead together, declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.”
   ”Put me in remembrance” – cause me to remember to be restored. It is the only hope for me as a believer, and for the nation. The health of the nation depends upon the spiritual life of its born-again individuals.
   ”Let us plead together” – Let us enter into judgment. All sins were judged on the Cross in Christ.
   ”Declare thou” – Confess, name it to God the Father. You do the confessing, acknowledging. You never confess your sins to Jesus Christ.
   ”That” – Result clause, as a result of confessing.
   ”You may be justified” – cleansed, be made experientially righteous.
   
3. The alternative to restoration.
   Isa 43:27-28, “Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against Me. Therefore, I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.”
   
   A. Verse 27, “Thy first father” – King Hezekiah.
   ”Hath sinned” – Reference to the sins of Hezekiah whereby the Assyrians invaded the land. So, starting at the top there had been sin.
   ”Thy teachers have transgressed” – The teachers did not teach the Word of God. Only Isaiah did.
   
   B. Verse 28, “Profaned” – Destroyed, referring to the fifth cycle of discipline as it would come, Leviticus 26.
   ”Given Jacob” – Unbelieving Israel.
   ”To the curse” – Fifth cycle of discipline.
   ”Israel to reproaches” – Believers. Believers suffer with unbelievers in national discipline. The fifth cycle refers to the Babylonian captivity.
   
   The alternative to the Word of God and restoration back to fellowship is Divine discipline. ”Many are weak, sickly, and sleep.”
   
4. Other restoration passages in the Old Testament.
   Psa 32:5, Psa 51:1-5, Psa 38
   

Psalm 23!

Down through the ages the 23rd Psalm has brought joy to many of God’s children. It has been a blessing to all that read it. The secret of the great joy which this Psalm brings is found in the very first verse, “The Lord is my Shepherd.”

To fully appreciate the blessing of this wonderful Psalm, we should first understand what the word “shepherd” means. Secondly, what characteristics of a shepherd are. What does the word shepherd imply?

In the original manuscripts, the word “shepherd” was “JEHOVAH-ROHI.” What does “ROHI” mean? It has several applications which show a little bit more than we usually attribute to the term “shepherd.”

2 Sam 5:2, “Thou shalt feed My people, Israel, and thou shalt be a prince (ROHI) over Israel.” The word “prince” or “captain” is translated from the Hebrew “ROHI,” the same word from which we get the word “shepherd.”

We find another application of “ROHI” in Exodus 33:11, where “ROHI” is translated as “friend.” The word “friend” implies affection and interest. So, the moral attitude is right between the Lord, “our Shepherd” and ourselves.

The “Lord as our Shepherd” not only has complete authority over us, but also, as a “Friend,” He is interested and concerned with us.
More to follow …

“The Lord is My Shepherd” – Part Two

In Psa 78:70 we see in type the work of our Lord as the “Shepherd.” ”He took David ... from following the ewes great with young, He brought him to feed Jacob, His people, and Israel His inheritance.”

Notice, how He fed them. This is the way the Lord feeds and guides us. ”So He fed them according to the integrity of His heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of His hands.”

Because of the integrity of the heart of our “Shepherd,” we shall never have to worry. He does not feed us according to our stalwartness or froward ways. Of course, we do things which prevent Him doing as He would like to do. But that desire to help never leaves the heart of our Lord. He guides according to the skillfulness of His hands, not our understanding.

In Isa 41:10-11 we find the gentleness and kindness of our Lord as “Shepherd.” He is not harsh. He is gentle, kind, and considerate. He will gather the lambs in His arms.

In other words, He will strengthen the weak. He picks them up as a “Shepherd” of great love and carries them in His bosom close to His heart. He is ever ready to help those who are weak and immature. He is gentle to those who are with young.

He feeds His flock with concern and interest. How wonderful to know that we are kept by the power of God and we are in the heart of God. The affection of God’s heart is upon us as His sheep. He loves us just as He loves His Son.

In Ezek 34:11-16, we find that He is devoted to His own. We see His devotion exhibited in His searching and seeking out His own to give them rest.

More to come ….

“The Lord is My Shepherd!”

These passages of Scripture in Psalms and Isaiah are all directed to Israel.Israel is the name for the believing remnant in Israel. Jacob is the name for the unbelievers in Israel. But we know the Lord is the same to all of His children, to all who have been born again.

In John 10 we find our Lord speaking of the Church saying that He had “another flock” which was not of this fold, referring to Israel.

So, we see that everything that a “Shepherd” could do or be to His own sheep, our Lord does for us and is to us.

More to come …

Monday, June 11, 2001

“The Lord is My Shepherd”

In order to have this Psalm do for you what God intended, that is to bring you joy and peace to sorrowing and distressed souls. We must see the characteristics of the Lord as the “Good Shepherd” as well as understanding what the term “Shepherd” implies.

In John 10, we see some of the characteristics of our Lord as our “Shepherd.” John 10:11, “I am the Good Shepherd.”

First, we see that the Good Shepherd gives His life for His sheep. Christ, as Shepherd, thought more of His sheep than He did of His own life. What a great love that is. He willingly gave His life for His sheep.

His love is a love that gives everything one can possibly give. This is a love which we cannot thoroughly understand, but we can accept it and appreciate it. Assurance and a sense of security come into our souls when we realize that our Lord and Saviour thought more of us than He did of His own life.

That is the basis for our faith.
That is the basis for our hope.
That is the basis for assurance and peace.

”Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.”

“The Lord is My Shepherd”

In John 10:27 we find that He knows His sheep. “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”

It is wonderful to know that there is One who really knows us. Sometimes we think that we know our friends, but we really don’t. Our friends feel they know us, but they don’t. All others know about us what we permit them to know. They don’t understand the great strife and trouble within our souls – sorrow of soul – the great grief and sorrow we suffer. They do not know the battle we are having with our weaknesses.

But there is One who knows. Christ knows us just as we are. He knows the desire in our souls to please God, in spite of our weaknesses.

Our friends are more influenced by our mistakes, weaknesses, and failures, than by our virtues. But our Lord knows our virtues as well as our weaknesses. We have a Shepherd who “knows His sheep and loves them.”

John 10:3, “He calleth His own sheep by name and leadeth them out.”

Mary, on the morning of the resurrection, was looking for the Lord. One came to her and asked her why she wept and she did not recognize Him. But as soon as our Lord said, “Mary,” her eyes were opened and she recognized Him. She didn’t recognize Him, but He knew her.

“The Lord is My Shepherd”

“He calleth His own by name and leadeth them out.”

”My sheep hear My voice, and I know them and they follow Me.”

Lazarus was in the tomb. Jesus Christ called, “Lazarus, come forth” and he came out. There is a good picture of the Good Shepherd calling His sheep by name.

One of these days our Saviour is going to call us by name and He will lead us forth.

In John 10:14 we find that the sheep know Him, “I am the Good Shepherd and know My sheep, and am know of Mine.”

Unfortunately some of us do not know Him well enough. We do not know His great love for us, His concern and compassion. Compassion means to suffer with. We do not realize that He wants to meet every need that we have. Every need is an open window through which to bless you, if you will permit Him.

”And when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice.” Tone oriented.

The path we travel, He has already traveled. He knows the pitfalls. He knows all of the obstacles. He guides us. He is ahead of us watching for every enemy. He is going before and we are following.

“The Lord is My Shepherd”

In John 10:28, 29 we find security. “And I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.” ”My Father which gave them Me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand.”

The Good Shepherd gives unto us, His sheep, eternal life and we shall never perish. He is our protection. We are in the hands of God, Father and Son. No one can take us out of our Shepherd’s hands or our Father’s hands.

He is responsible for us.

Isn’t it wonderful to realize that the One who has all power in Heaven and Earth is the One who loves you personally and is responsible for you?

We are in good hands.

“The Lord is My Shepherd, I Shall Not Want”

Now that we have seen some of the characteristics of our Lord as our “Good Shepherd,” can’t you understand why David said, “The Lord is my Shepherd” ... “I shall not want.”

Isn’t it wonderful to be one of our Lord’s sheep? ”I shall not want.”

Notice, this does not say, I shall not be in want. It goes beyond that. Not only shall we not be in want, but there shall be no want. There shall be no yearning or longing from the soul of the man trusting our Lord as his Shepherd. There will be no unfulfilled desires in our souls.

When you read this verse you are always reminded of a Biblical illustration found in Psalm 34.

A little girl was asked to quote Psalm 23 and she said, “The Lord is my Shepherd ... That is all I want.” Yes, when we make the Lord our Shepherd, we won’t want for anything, because He will give us complete satisfaction.

As we go on to study the rest of this Psalm, keep in mind that it is written in the present tense. This Psalm was written for each of us today and can be experienced in our lives now. We do not have to wait for its fulfillment some day in the far future, nor do we mourn because it was only experienced in some past era. It is written for us today and can be experienced in our very lives this very minute.

If you are in want this minute, it is because you have not made the Lord your Shepherd and have not been trusting Him.

”Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.”

”Commit thy way unto the Lord, and He will direct thy path.”

“The Lord is My Shepherd”

“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me by still waters.”

The reason why there “will be no want” in our lives is found in these verses. Here is a restful, peaceful scene. Notice, we find green pastures, or as in the Hebrew, “pastures of tender grass.” The still waters can be translated, “waters of quietness.” Here are pastures of abundance.

John 10:10 we find that Christ said that He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. When we make the Lord our Shepherd, He leads us into the abundant life, which is the rich, full, calm, satisfied life, the life of victory over self.

The Lord guarantees us if we will turn to Him and let Him be our Guide, Comforter, Instructor, the Bearer of our burdens as shepherds are, He will lead us into an abundant, rich, full, satisfying life. Every need will be met in such a way there will be contentment and satisfaction.

There is something as important as the abundant life and that is the restful life.We need the peace that passes understanding. And it is ours if we will only trust Him for it.

We do not have a restless life when we follow Him. We have restfulness in the place of abundance. Lying down speaks of contentment. We are contented in the place of abundant satisfaction.

Every need will be met in such a way that there will be contentment, relaxation, and peacefulness. There will be no fear or distress.

“The Lord is My Shepherd”

“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.
”He maketh me to lie down in green pastures,
”He leadeth me beside the still waters.”

This is the life we all want. And this is the life we all will have if we turn to the Lord and follow Him. Sometimes worry comes into our minds even though we know the Lord tells us through Paul that we are to be anxious for nothing.

At that time it is wonderful to remember that if we turn our problems over to the Lord, He will lead us into the land of plenty, the land of the abundant life. How can we have other than that when we say to the Lord, “You are my Shepherd. Lord, I am going to look to You since You know my soul and everything about me. You know my needs, and I am depending upon You to fulfill them.”

Peace, rest, and satisfaction are guaranteed to everyone who makes the Lord his Shepherd. So let us say with David, “The Lord is my Shepherd. I am not going to be driven or influenced by outside obstacles. I am not going to be disturbed by problems about me, because I know the Lord is leading me the best way possible.”

He is all-powerful. He loves me more than He loves His own life. Therefore, whatever comes into my life is permitted by Him for a purpose. Sometimes the Shepherd leads the sheep up rocky steeps in order to find a cool, refreshing, rich green pasture. While we are traveling the rocky, hard paths, we lose sight of the good pastures awaiting us with tender grass and still waters. Make Him your Shepherd. Trust Him, and He will lead you into green pastures, even though the road may be rough and hard.

The Shepherd loves His sheep and always leads them into a place of plenty or satisfaction. Can you imagine a shepherd who loves his sheep so much that he gave his life for them, permitting his sheep to go in want or be dissatisfied?

What we need to do is to follow our Lord and let Him lead us. He makes us to lie down. That means He is going to assume the responsibility. He brings peace into our troubled minds and gives rest to our tired souls.

You may be resting in a pasture of tender grass and the Good Shepherd may have prodded you out of the place of abundant satisfaction to travel on hard paths. He may be moving you up to a higher, to a safer, even more abundant pasture. Trust Him regardless of the circumstances, realizing He is leading you ever onward and upward.

Tuesday, June 12, 2001

The Lord is My Shepherd!

“He restoreth my soul”

There is joy in being restored to fellowship with the Lord. There are times when the sheep stray from the fold. Lost and lonely, they stand bleating on a distant crag. The loving Shepherd searches and seeks out the lost sheep and brings them back to the fold. The sheep ceases bleating and lies down in peace.

We are often like sheep straying from our Lord. There can be no peace or rest out of fellowship with the Lord.

The sheep that strays continually might have to have a leg broken in order to remind that one not to stray. And we like sheep gone astray often need the gentle, loving correction of our “Good Shepherd” in order to keep us from straying from the fold.

When our Lord brings us back, there is joy in knowing that there is now nothing between Him and us.

”My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before Him?” Psa 42:2.

There is only one way for us to have complete satisfaction and that is to be in complete communion with our Lord. When we look to Him for guidance, when we get self out of the way, and say, “Thy will be done and not mine,” there comes into our souls the wonderful joy of restoration. The soul is satisfied for there is no longer broken communion with God. Here is the result of being right with God.

”Restore unto me the joy of my salvation, and uphold me with Thy free Spirit,” Psa 51:12.

There we find the joy of salvation. If we turn to the Lord regardless of the failing or sense of condemnation from what we have done, and ask Him to be our Shepherd, and tell Him we are going to depend upon Him, we will find there will come a joy into our souls that we have never known.

Then with this joy we will find we can teach others about the ways of the Lord and sinners will be converted. When we are restored to fellowship with the Lord, we are back in communion with Him and in His presence is fullness of joy. There is joy unspeakable and full of glory. Our souls just overflow with joy.

”That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ,” 1 John 1:3.

”And these things write we unto you that your joy may be full,” 1 John 1:4.

”If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness,” 1 John 1:9.

“The Lord is My Shepherd”

“He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake”

At times we are confused as to which path to take, which decision to make, then we can turn to Him for guidance and He guides us in the right way.

Remember, we find that His sheep know His voice.A child of God willing to do God’s will, a child of God desiring God’s will be accomplished in his life above everything else, is a child of God that will hear God’s voice. There will be no confusion as to what he is to do.

He is trusting the Lord as his Good Shepherd, and the Lord directs his path. The paths of God are always paths of righteousness and the paths of righteousness always bring glory to His Name.

It is a wonderful privilege to be able to bring glory to His Name. Have your acts, your behavior, and your words brought glory to the Name of our Lord? Or, have they brought disdain? Have people ridiculed the Lord because of your behavior?

It is a wonderful privilege to be able to bear fruit for His glory. If we follow the Lord as Shepherd, we will find that He will lead us in the paths that are right. The Lord never leads us into any place that is going to dishonor His Name.

Every born-again child of God wants to please God because God has written His Word in our souls and minds. But the flesh is still with us and we succumb to it and do things we regret. But when we confess our sins, He restores our souls to fellowship and leads us in the right way so that His Name will receive the glory.

When we follow Him, we get understanding. We walk the right way. The right way is the righteous way.

”I am the Light of the world. He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of life.” That is, the Light of His life! Be led by Him, not by what you feel, not by your inclinations, or opinions.

”Commit thy way unto the Lord and He will direct thy paths.”

”I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one cometh unto the Father but by Me,” John 14:6.

“The Lord is My Shepherd”

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.”

Here is one of the most calming Truths found in the Word of God. The valley of death is just a “shadow” that we walk through and come out of.

David said, “I will fear no evil.” Not only will there be no evil, but there will be no fear of evil. This is a guarantee that the Lord gives unto all of His children when they come to the “shadow of death.” A shadow has no substance. One can not touch or feel or hear a shadow.

Death is nothing more than a shadow.

We don’t fear the shadow of a stranger on a sidewalk, do we? Neither will we fear the shadow of death when we walk down that valley.

Why will there be no fear of evil? “For Thou art with me.”

If you are near the eventide of your life and feel the Lord is going to take you home soon, we have this promise on the authority of the Word of God – There will be no fear.

It is a short trip into that unseen place where our Lord awaits. There is no fear when we face death because His mere presence banishes all fear. In His presence there is no fear. Rather we are joyful knowing that soon we will be with Him forever, never to be separated again.

”Absent from the body, face-to-face with the Lord,” 2 Cor 5:8.

“The Lord is My Shepherd”

“Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.”

The rod speaks of the power of God. And the staff portrays the Shepherd heart of our Lord.

We will find that the power of the Creator, the power of God, against our enemies will be with us.

The love of God will guard us. There is blessing in the fellowship of the tomb. God’s power which guards His own is our protection. God’s great love is our comfort.

Doesn’t that bring joy and hope into your soul?

“The Lord is My Shepherd”

“Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.”

The Shepherd sustains us. Our Lord prepares a table for us. The Lord feeds His own in the wilderness. He takes care of us to the astonishment of all those around us. God prepares a table of abundance for us in the presence of those that dislike us and would harm us.

The prepared table can also speak of the Lord’s supper, the supper which every born-again child of God has the right to partake of. As we partake of it, we partake of it in faith looking back to His death and showing forth His death till He comes.

As we gather about the Lord’s Table, we know that He is there.

We also know that there are those who can not partake of it, but can only look on. When we partake of the Lord’s Supper in the presence of those that are lost, it is a testimony that they cannot have.

The words “show forth” in 1 Cor 11:26 are literally in the Greek, “to evangelize.” We are evangelizing His death, a witness to the angels also.

Wednesday, June 13, 2001

God Hath Committed All Judgment Unto the Son,” John 5:22

The Father has designated that the One whose blood was shed for a wayward race shall have all the prerogatives of Judge in the coming days towards which the sin-drenched Earth is hastening.

Jesus Christ, the Lord, is the Judge.

God the Father has committed to Him the task. And not only has God appointed the Judge, but He has also “appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He hath ordained,” Acts 17:31.

When the day shall come, that Omniscient One who “shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ear,” Isa 11:3, shall entered upon His preordained task to do the will of His Father.

Our Saviour Himself testified, “My judgment is just because I seek not My own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent Me,” John 5:30. And before that Judge, believers shall have boldness, 1 John 4:17, but sinners shall quail.

Sinners who have spurned the love of the Saviour will find themselves face-to-face with the wrath of the Judge, “the wrath of the Lamb.” The day of opportunity will be gone and the “fearful and the unbelieving and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone,” Rev 21:8.

Yes, it is true our God is a God of love. But our confidence in His love shall not be permitted to blind us to the fact that He is also a God of justice.

“The Lord is My Shepherd”

“He anointeth my head with oil. My cup runneth over.”

Here we find the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the joy that we have, the understanding we have, when we recognize we are safe in God’s hands.

We have a prepared table before us. And the anointing of the Holy Spirit causes our cup to run over with joy. “The fruit of the Spirit is joy.”

This is the joy in knowing the care of the Shepherd that we follow. Certainly there is nothing more we can ask. Our cups run over with joy.

Oil in Scripture is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit was given unto us to empower us to do the work He has set forth for each of His children.

Whatever task the Lord calls you to perform, He gives you the anointing of the Holy Spirit to empower you to accomplish it. 1 John 2:20, 27. Power implies strength, the opposite of weakness.

When we are weak, He strengthens us with His power. Whatever disappointment, sorrow, or tragedy He brings into your life, He gives the power to rise above it. Acts 1:8.

“The Lord is My Shepherd”

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life”

Notice the word “surely.” There is no question, there is no doubt, that God’s goodness and mercy will be with us all the days we live.

This reminds us of the last part of Romans chapter eight. Sometimes when we are in distress, persecution, suffering, or want, we feel that we have been separated from God’s love. Paul said, “I am persuaded that no created thing can separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Knowing this, we can say with David that certainly or surely, goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives. Regardless of the condition we find ourselves in, there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God.

Too many of us are influenced by the conditions of the world. But God loves us with an everlasting love, regardless of what we go through. He will bring goodness and mercy into our lives.

“The Lord is My Shepherd”

“And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever”

The house of the Lord to Israel was the temple of God. To we who are children of God, the house of the Lord is the place referred to in John 14:1-3. This is the place of many mansions prepared for you and me, a place where we will dwell forever. We are sealed in Christ, never to be separated from our Lord.

It is wonderful to be one of His sheep. I hope this 23rd Psalm means a little more to you now. When you read it, recall the meaning of the word “Shepherd.” As a Prince and a Friend, He has authority over us and loves and has a concern for us. He loves us more than He loves his own life. He is kind, gentle, considerate, and compassionate. He leads us. He knows us and calls us by name.

Isn’t it worthwhile to trust Him as our Shepherd? When we do, we will not want for a thing.

Notice how these verses dovetail together portraying His complete fulfillment of every need. He directs us to pastures of tender grass beside quiet waters. There is a place of abundance and rest. Take away the quiet waters and you only have abundance without rest. But in His wisdom, He provides abundance with rest.

We have His guarantee that all the days of our life will be filled with His goodness and mercy and we will dwell in His presence forever.

Can’t you see why the Psalmist said, “The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want.” Won’t you make Him your Shepherd, too?

Christ the Judge!

In Revelation we are told of some of the classes – murderers, whoremongers, and sorcerers, etc. – who shall face condemnation in the coming day of judgment.

But Peter, in his second Epistle, tells us of two chief groups of sinners for whom the merited punishment of God is being especially reserved. The passage is an important one because of its showing us so plainly that there are two types of sin which especially incur the wrath of God.Peter’s inspired words are, “The Lord knoweth how to ... reserve the unjust, the unjustified, unto the day of judgment to be punished, but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise government,” 2 Pet 2:9-10.

The Lord “knoweth how” to reserve all unbelievers unto punishment. But those unbelievers who allow the two sins here named to enter their lives will come under the deadly potency of that illuminating word “chiefly.” The two kinds of sinners who are especially warned of the impending judgment of God are the unclean and rebellious.

What a revelation as to God’s attitude toward the trend of this present age. For we live in an hour when the two sins of which have bound and gagged the largest numbers of men, “sexiness and bolshevism,” are prevalent.

Or, to put it in Peter’s language, “the lust of uncleanness” and “despising of government.” It is those who walk in these two sins, a just, holy, and righteous God has indicated will be punished.

“The Angels That Sinned”

The creation of God falls into two great groups – angels and men.

All were created perfect, because God, being perfect, produces only that which is harmonious with His perfection. For that which is imperfect to spring from a perfect Source is unthinkable.

Not only were the two great divisions of the beings in the universe created perfect, but they all likewise experienced a fall.

The Scripture indicates that the fall of man involved the entire race, but in the case of angels, only part of these unique creatures turned against their Mighty Creator – the balance apparently the overwhelming majority remained true to God.

In viewing the Truth that the angels that sinned were at one time angels of righteousness and glory, we observe three facts in God’s Word.

1. That God created the angels and planed for them a service that was holy and pure and good.
   
2. That some of the angels in Scripture are presented as being evil.
   
3. And that the evil angels are held accountable for their fallen condition.
   

   

“Angels That Sinned”

God created the angels and planned for them a service that was holy and pure and good. The Bible surely does tell, and that most clearly that the angels are declared to be created by God. ”Thou, even Thou, art Lord alone; Thou hast made Heaven, the Heaven of heavens, with all their host, and the host of Heaven worshipped Thee,” Neh 9:6.

What is meant by the “host of Heaven?” In some passages this expression means the stars. In other passages the same expression means angelic beings. A study of the context will reveal the correct meaning in every case.

It cannot mean the stars in this passage from Nehemiah, for the “host of Heaven” is revealed to be sentient beings because they worship God. And these beings who worship Him are declared to have been the product of the mighty creative power of Him whom they adore.

Paul, the mighty apostle of the mystery, which is His body, also declares to us that God is the Creator of the angelic host, although He employs quite different terminology from that employed by Nehemiah.

”For by Him were all things created that are in Heaven, and that are on Earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers all things were created by Him, and for Him,” Col 3:16. Jesus Christ is the Creator.

“Angels That Sinned”

From Nehemiah we learn that the angels worship Him, hence they are set forth as holy.

From Paul we learn that all the denizens of the universe, including angels, were created by the Lord Jesus Christ and for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Since the angels were created for Him, they were created holy. The fact that the Inspired Book presents the angels as righteous beings, employed of God in the working out of His mighty and holy purposes, and operating as messengers of the Most High, is shown in
many passages.

In Gen 24:40, God sends an angel to prosper Eliezer in his unique mission of finding a wife for Isaac.
”The Lord … will send His Angel with thee and prosper thy way.”

In 1 Kings 1:15, the Lord employs an Angel in giving guidance to the prophet Elijah. ”And the Angel of the Lord said unto Elijah, Go down with Him. Be not afraid of Him.”

In Exodus 23:20, it is an Angel who is God’s representative leading the people of Israel to the Promised Land. “Behold I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.”

In Amos 7:53 we learn that angels were active in the giving of the Law. “Ye, Israel, have received the Law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it.”

In Matt 4:11 angels ministered to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, “Behold angels came and ministered unto Him.”

In 2 Chr 18:18, the angels are seen ranged in serried ranks about the throne of God. “I saw the Lord sitting upon His throne. And all the host of Heaven standing on His right hand and on His left.”

These passages and many, many more, reveal the Holy character of angels as set forth in God’s Word. They are indubitably shown to have been Divinely created and created perfect, because they were created “for Him” and their work as planned by God is a holy work, because harmonious with the impeccable purposes of Him who cannot sin. They are holy messengers of a holy God.

“Whom Having Not Seen We Love”

We saw Thee not when Thou came to die,
Forsaken, mocked, and pierced through.
Nor heard the marvel of Thy cry,
”Forgive them, they know not what they do.”
But well we know that Thou did die
The Hero of Thy agony.

Nor ours to see Thy form appear,
In risen power those 40 days.
To find Thy sudden presence near
Or, at Thy parting, Heavenward gaze.
But here today our soul cries
There is no death, since Thou did rise.

We see Thee now in all mankind,
We serve Thee in each little one.
We miss Thee, but when are blind,
With careless webs ourselves have spun.
Lord, from our eyes the hindrance tear
That we may see Thee everywhere.

“The Angels That Sinned”

Some of the angels are presented in Scripture as being evil. That sin, hideous sin, should appear in the ranks of these holy beings, the angels, is deplorable, but nonetheless a fact.

So, we find in the Inspired Book more or less frequent reference to evil angels. In Psa 78:49-51, the Psalmist is describing the plagues which the Lord sent upon ancient Egypt, because Pharaoh would not let God’s people go. The climacteric plague is introduced by the words, “He cast upon them the fierceness of His anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble by sending evil angels among them, and smote all the first born in Egypt.”

The sorrow and just rebuke in the mind of God because of the sin of the angels is suggested in the Book of Job. “His angels He charged with folly,” Job 4:18. That these angels have become irrevocably evil is shown by the fact that their place of eternal punishment has been prepared and designated by the omniscient God who makes no mistakes.

This Truth is set forth by the Words of the Lord Himself concerning the future judgment of the living nations. “Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,” Matt 25:41.

From these passages it becomes clear that God’s Book teaches that sin found an entrance into the holy ranks of the angelic host. Some of the angels are no longer holy.

“The Angels That Sinned”

The evil angels are held accountable for their fallen condition. There have been those who have placed the responsibility for the sinful conditions of the evil angels upon the Creator Himself. But the testimony of Jude shows that this degrading thought is repugnant to the Truth. ”The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation. He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day,” Jude 6.

This passage reveals that the evil angels became so because “they kept not their first estate” – they fell. Consequently they are held accountable and responsible for their wicked action by a Just God, who is reserving them “unto judgment.”

Thus we see that the evil angels were originally holy angels, but that they became perverse and “left their first estate,” plunging into such awful transgression that they were placed in everlasting chains under darkness.”

Those rebel angels sinned willfully, and the fact that they are held responsible and placed in chains for “leaving their first estate” coupled with the Truth that the Lord is declared to have created the angels “for Himself” becomes inescapable demonstration that the now
wicked angels were at one time holy and true, messengers of God and doing His will.

The angels were in the central abode of God Himself, yet evil entered into the breasts of angels, even envy, ambition, pride, and rebellion, and they fell, fell never to rise again.

Thursday, June 14, 2001

“Angels That Sinned”

The angels that sinned were disobedient in the days of Noah. The appalling sin of angels of lawlessness rebellion against the laws and limitations of a Holy God, took place in the days of Noah. Bearing upon this subject, the Holy Spirit has given, through the Apostle Peter, two striking passages.

”The spirits in prison which sometimes were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah,” 1 Pet 3:19-20.

The Scriptures declare that “He maketh His angels spirits,” Heb 1:7 and these spirits are said to have been imprisoned, thus harmonizing with Jude’s declaration concerning “the angels reserved in chains.” We find the very words of Scripture pointing to the conclusion that these spirits are angels.

Confirming the conclusion, we see that Peter says these spirits were guilty of a specific disobedience which he declares took place “in the days of Noah.” The angels were also guilty of a specific infringement upon the law of God, which infringement took place in the days of Noah.

”For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell (Tartarus) and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.”

”And spared not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly,” 2 Pet 2:4-5.

The foregoing verses evidently set forth a terrible condition of sin, out of which God judged the great multitude of participants and delivered Noah. The participants in the awful sin which God here condemns are revealed to be two classes, “the angels” and “the inhabitants of the old world.”

This instantly arrests the attention of the student of God’s Word causing a vitally important question immediately to present itself. The question is, how can angels and human beings sin together??

“The Angels That Sinned”

“God spared not the angels and spared not the old world.”

The Holy Spirit does not here answer the question of man and angels sinning together. But the Holy Spirit here is content to present the simple fact that the judgments of God took place in all who were guilty. We are informed as to the character of the judgments that a wise Judge meted out upon both of these classes who had taken part in this sin.

The angels are “delivered into chains of darkness.” And the judgment on mankind is declared in the words, “Bringing the flood upon the world of the ungodly.”

Could the Scripture statement be more satisfyingly clear?

The passages from Peter’s writings which we have been considering show that angelic beings and human beings went into a partnership of iniquity, that God judged them both for their shameful deeds, and that this unthinkable sin against God that took place in the days of Noah. But by faith Noah refused to participate.

And “being warned of God,” of the impending flood, prepared an ark to the saving of his house,” Heb 11:7.

“The Angels That Sinned Are the Same as the sons of God in Genesis Chapter Six

The passage in Genesis 6 has been for many a long day a theological battleground. However, in the light of the self-interpreting feature of the Scriptures, it seems quite unnecessary that such multiplicity of these theological battles should ever have been waged.

The passage follows:

”And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the Earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the LORD said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the Earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown,” Gen 6:1-4.

The question over which the severest disputation has occurred is “Who are these sons of God?” “Who saw the daughters of men?” “And preceded to marry them?” The answer which has become most familiar is that they are the “sons of Seth” and that the “daughters of men” are the “daughters of Cain.” This startling position presents considerable difficulties. Let us face some of these problems which such an interpretation engenders:

If the sons of Seth were the “sons of God,” does that indicate that the sons of Seth were saved and the daughters of Cain, lost? And if it doesn’t mean that the sons of Seth were saved, then what particular value can be attached to being among the “sons of God?”

And by which Scriptural passage or Biblical law do they prove because Cain was evil, all of his children were evil, too? And if the absurd idea of the godly sons of Seth marrying the wicked daughters of Cain be true, why should their offspring be any different than the offspring of any other marriage?

The passage says their offspring were “NEPHILIM” or giants. Since when has the marriage of believers and unbelievers produce monstrosities? Although God’s Word plainly commands a believer to avoid the unequal yoke of marriage with an unbeliever, there is not the slightest hint either in revelation or experience that should such a marriage take place, the reproductive function would operate so unusually at to produce a family of “NEPHILIM.”

A God-Implanted Desire!

Psa 90:17, “Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us.”

It is the glory and the beauty of His holiness that God wishes to implant. So, this is no idle prayer that the psalmist utters. It is a God-implanted desire and it finds its answer in the words of Peter. “That we are made partakers of the Divine nature through great and precious promises made to us,” 2 Pet 1:4.

It is God’s desire that the man whom He made in His own image, who corrupted that image through sin, should be restored to that image which is righteousness and true holiness, putting on that new man which is after God, Eph 4:24.

When God began a new experiment, so to speak, in His purpose for man’s redemption by first selecting a people, saying, “Speak unto the congregation of the children of Israel, and cry unto them, Ye shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy,” Lev 19:2.

A holy God demands holiness in His people. A God separated from all that is evil, too pure to behold evil, the very antithesis of all evil, requires that the people He chooses also separate from all evil and separate for the purpose for which He chose them.

Hence the emphatic command. First of all, that they serve no other gods but Himself, for a people become like the gods they serve.

Then again, this people was to be apart, separated from all the peoples round about them in order to avoid the contagion of their corruption. All the institutions of ancient Israel’s economy, its whole social and spiritual structure, its ceremonies and rites, the prohibition of certain foods and of intermarriage, were designed to insulate them for a while from the rest of mankind, and to make them the best possible instrument for God’s plan and purpose.

“The Angels That Sinned and the Sons of God”

What is the significance of the expression “sons of God” in the Old Testament? The Holy Spirit does not leave much room for doubt or question. In the one book of Job, the expression occurs three times and in such a connection as to exclude controversy.

The statement in Job 38 in which the expression “sons of God” occurs, sheds much light on the subject. “Who laid the corner stone thereof of the Earth. When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy,” Job 38:6-7.

The answer to this question is, God.. It was God who laid the corner stone of the Earth. God is the Creator, and when did He create the Earth?

Genesis answers the question. God created both the Heavens and the Earth “in the beginning.” This statement is valuable to us because it reveals how exceedingly early was the activity of the “sons of God.”

They were alive and ready to shout “in the beginning” when the Lord laid the corner stone of the Earth.

“The Angels That Sinned and the Sons of God”

Job 38:7, “When the morning stars sang together, and the sons of men shouted for joy.”

Verse seven is a Hebrew parallelism. In the commonest of the forms of parallelism, there are two lines with similar meaning, but employing different words and expressions.

Two or three examples will serve to illustrate this interesting literary form.

”The king shall joy in Thy strength, O Lord.”
”And in Thy salvation, how greatly shall he rejoice.”

”Thou hast given him his heart’s desire.”
”And hast not withholden the request of his lips,” Psa 21:1-2.

”Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed, neither thou be confounded.”
”For thou shall not be put to shame.”

”For thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth.”
”And shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more,” Isa 54:4.

Observing that the outstanding words in the first line of each couplet answers to the outstanding words in the second line. And that the corresponding words are intimately related as to meaning. So, when we turn to Job 38:7, “The morning stars sang together.”
”And all the sons of God shouted for joy.”

The stars “sang” – a rather strained effort has been made to make this singing of the “stars” a reference to the fact that light and sound are produced by the same kind of ether waves. The symbolic significance of “stars” throughout Scripture is “spirit beings.” The “stars that sang” in the first line are the angels and the “sons of God that shouted” in the second line of this beautiful parallelism are the same as the stars in the first line.

Friday, June 15, 2001

The Angels That Sinned – Sinned in the Like Manner to Sodom and Gomorrha

The sin of Sodom and Gomorrha was a horrible uncleanness, a sin in the realm of sex. This sin is described in Jude as “going after strange flesh.”

Here is Jude’s entire statement:
“And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” Jude 6, 7.

There stands the declaration of God’s Word! The corrupt angels fell from their “first estate.” These angels, in plunging into sin, gave themselves over to fornication, seeking sensual gratification in “going after strange flesh.”

This is self evidently a direct reference to the sin of the “sons of God.” These passionate angels who left their “first estate” sinned even as Sodom and Gomorrha and sought wives among the daughters of men, thus going after “strange flesh.”

This is a marvelous instance of the perfect agreement of Scripture, a convincing example of the outstanding fact of all Bible study – The Bible is self-interpreting.

Passages of Scripture Throw Light on Each Other …
… and Become the Inspired Explanation of One Another

In 2 Pet 2:4-5 we are shown that the terrible sin committed in the days of Noah was a sin participated in by both angels and the denizens of the “world of the ungodly.” Then in Jude 6, 7 it definitely states that the angels sinned in like manner to Sodom and Gomorrha.

In the Genesis passage, Gen 6:1-4, it frankly uncovers the awful filth of the angels by the bold daring of its declaration that the angelic beings, called “the sons of God,” took wives from among the daughters of men.

There stands the sin of the angels, in all its hideousness, in the very language of the Scripture. Angels and women sinned together. The sin was unspeakably repugnant to God, so that the record is given most clearly. “He spared not the angels that sinned.” ”And He spared not the old world.”

Comparing Scripture with Scripture for an inspired explanation.

Do Angels Marry??

The objection has been made ... Does not the Scripture teach that the angels are not given in marriage? Yes, there are statements on that subject.

These are simply parallel passages teaching that God’s unfallen angels, which are in Heaven, do not marry. Both passages are so worded as to awake the normal contrasts in the mind. The inescapable conclusion is that resurrected beings are like the angels of God in Heaven. They do not marry.

But if they were to be like the “fallen angels,” the angels which are not in Heaven, they would seek to enter the realm of marriage and that is what the fallen angels did. They sought wives of the “daughters of men.”

But still another might ask, how can this amazing thing be, for women are flesh and angels are spirits? The Word of God simply declares to us the outstanding facts of this execrable miracle which was wrought by these angels of defilement in the days of Noah.

The record is simple. These beings, smut of Heaven, looked upon the daughters of men, desired them, left their glorious habitations, followed the behest of lust, went after strange flesh, cohabited with the women whose beauty had appealed to them, and became the special objects of the judgment of God.

We remember that angels some times took on the appearance of men. For example, the Angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, took on flesh.

Angels are male, not female.

“The Angels That Sinned Became the Progenitors of the Giants”

The giants of the days of old were not imaginary. They were awful realities. The corrupt, sinful, and voluptuous giants which move through the legendary pages of Babylonia, and Greek and Roman mythology as heathen deities have their origin and foundation in fact.

The giants existed. Many of the heathen yarns about them are doubtlessly inventions. But back of the mass of myth, legend, and saga with which this subject is loaded stands the testimony of both archaeology and Scripture that there once trod upon this old Earth a race of beings of stupendous stature, who mysteriously appeared, flourished for a season, in spite of their great size, prodigious strength, and supernatural knowledge, proved finally to be sterile and hence incapable of reproduction.

They simply died out. And when they were gone, the stories of their impure and mighty deeds, artfully expanded and embellished, became the basis for the heathen religions of the ancient days.

Heathen mythology is not 100 percent myth. When traced back to its fountain-head, we find a beginning of solid fact.

The Scripture makes more or less frequent mention of men of abnormal size. To us who believe God’s Word, this fact alone is sufficient proof that the beings called “giants” once lived.

Next time we will note a few of the passages.

“There Were Giants on the Earth in Those Days”

“And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.
“And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight,” Num 13:32-33.

”The Emims dwell therein in times past, a people great and many, and tall as the Anakims (the sons of Anak); Which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites call them Emims,” Deut 2:10-11.

”That also (the land of Ammon) was accounted a land of giants: giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims,” Deut 2:20.

”The region of Argob, with all Bashan, which was called the land of giants,” Deut 3:13.

”And yet again there was war at Gath, where was a man of great stature, whose fingers and toes were four and twenty, six on each hand, and six on each foot: and he also was the son of the giant.
“But when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea, David’s brother slew him.”
“These were born unto the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants,” 1 Chr 20:6-8.

“Giants” and the Original Hebrew Language of the Old Testament

All of our English translations of the Bible, regardless of what they are, only have one word for “giants,” and they never specify, as does the Hebrew language.

The Holy Spirit employs two Hebrew words which mean “giants.” They are “NEPHILIM” and “REPHAIM.” The word “NEPHILIM” occurs three times. It is correctly translated “giants” in every instance. The “IM” in the Hebrew is plural. The word “REPHAIM” occurs 31 times in its several forms. The translators have observed that the word means “giants” and have so rendered it 17 times.

But unfortunately, seven of its occurrences are translated “dead” and it is rendered “deceased” and six times it is simply transliterated, “REPHAIM.”

All these occurrences would have been made much clearer to the average reader if the word had been uniformly rendered “giants.” The combined root meanings of these words constitute a Divine revelation as to the origin and character of the giants.

”NEPHILIM” is derived from an old Hebrew root meaning “to fall,” evidently pointing to the fact that the giants are the offspring of the fallen angels. ”REPHAIM” is also from an old Hebrew root and means “to mend by stitching,” indicating the fact that these giants are the product of a satanic attempt “to stitch together” the nature of angels and the nature of men – thus producing hybrids.

These two Hebrew roots, from which come the two words meaning “giants,” tell us an illuminating story indeed. The giants were the progeny of the fallen ones and were satanic hybrids. Man and angel. Natural and supernatural.

To this conclusion that the giants were the offspring of the fallen angels, the testimony of Genesis 6 is in agreement.

Once again we see the importance of the original languages of Scripture, which not too many in the pulpit are interested in enough to teach and emphasize.

“The Lord Our Righteousness”

The Hebrew word for righteous is “TSIDKENU.” It appears in Jeremiah’s prophecy, Jer 23:5-6.

”A Righteous Branch” and a King who is to appear and this is His Name whereby He shall be called, the Lord our Righteousness.”

I was a stranger to Grace and God.
I knew not my danger and felt not my load,
Though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree,
”JEHOVAH TSIDKENU” was nothing to me.

When free Grace awoke me, by light from 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.

My terrors all vanished before that sweet Name
My guilty fears banished, with boldness I came.
To drink at the fountain, life-giving and free
”JEHOVAH TSIDKENU” is all things to me.

“Food for Thought”

“Shall the dead rise and praise Thee?” Psalm 88:10

The significance of this question has been quite hidden by this unhappy rendering of the word “dead.” I wonder, through the years, how many people have taught this passage and those who have read it and listened to it, really know what this verse really means.

This is one of those verses when in some Sunday School class the teacher will say, “Well Mr. Jones, what does this passage mean to you?” And then Mr. Jones comes up some answer. But it is never the correct answer. Why not?

Because the Hebrew word “dead” here is “REPHAIM” The answer indicated by the context of the questions is an emphatic negative. “The giants shall not rise nor praise Him.” Such praise could only besmirch the glory of God.

But I know that you knew this all along. Right! Once again, the importance of the original languages of Scripture, which no one today cares anything about.

A Passage for Serious Bible Students!

The resurrection of giants!

Lest there should still be a question in the mind of some inquiring soul, the Holy Spirit has made it still more clear that there is no resurrection for the giants.

Isa 26:13-14, “O Lord our God, other lords beside Thee have had dominion over us. But by Thee only will we make mention of Thy Name.”
”They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: Therefore hast Thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.”

Now here is a passage to pass around in a Sunday School class. Isaiah confesses that “other lords” beside the Lord God have had dominion over Israel. The student of Israel’s history knows who the “other lords” were to whom Israel had turned. They were Baal and Ashtaroth. Judges 10:6, 1 Sam 12:10, Judges 2:13. Speaking of these lords, Baal and Ashtaroth, the gods of the heathen, the prophet declares “they are dead, they shall not live.”

”They are deceased.” The word “deceased” is the word “REPHAIM,” giants. “They are giants, they shall not rise.”

This reveals to us that the gods of the Gentile nations are none other than the old giants, the hybrid offspring of the fallen angels and the daughters of men. And then he declares that there is no resurrection for those unclean creatures.

Now I know you knew this. I just wanted to refresh your memory.

Another Giant Passage!

Isa 14:9, Hell (the prison house of the dead) from beneath is moved for thee to meet there at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the Earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.”

Here is a telling prophecy. Isaiah is predicting the overthrow and defeat of the future mighty king of Babylon. The future mighty king of Babylon is the Antichrist. The fall and death of the Antichrist is predicted and the prophet carries the scene from the Earth to Hades, describing the future descent of the Antichrist into the prison house of the dead and the hearty reception he will receive.

The prophet declares that Hades shall stir up “the dead,” “REPHAIM, “giants,” and they shall sarcastically greet the humiliated Antichrist with these words, ”Art thou also become weak as we?” Isa 14:10.

Since these future events find the giants in Hades, it follows that Hades is their present place of abode.

Looking at this verse you would never know it was talking about the giants. So much for translations.

Saturday, June 16, 2001

The Angels That Sinned Particularly Aimed at the Pollution of the Women of the Race

Satan is the guiding spirit of the fallen angels

The Saviour speaks of “Satan and his angels,” showing under whose leadership these fallen ones are operating. This is an important fact to face, because we may be assured that since Satan is their leader, that which they do will be a reflection of the subtle and malign designs that actuate his inmost being. A satanic leadership must of necessity eventuate in the unfolding of a satanic purpose.

Satan heard something in the Garden of Eden which stirred within him, a purpose of unparalleled sinfulness. He heard God say, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed. He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel,” Gen 3:15.

In these words, the Lord is letting Satan know that he is going to be overthrown by a “coming One.” This is not welcomed news. The Lord further lets Satan know that the “coming Victor” is to be the “Seed of the woman.”

Since these words leave man out in the production of the “coming Seed,” Satan’s only possible conclusion would be that “the Seed of the woman” would be made fertile and given life by God Himself.

Thus, the “coming Victor,” who would bruise Satan’s head, was going to be both Divine and human. Since Satan had no power whereby to attack God, he does the thing most normal to do, he plans an attack upon the women of the race.

His purpose is to pollute all the women, so that God cannot find an undefiled virgin through whom there can be given the “promised Seed.”

More to follow ...

The Angels That Sinned Particularly Aimed at the Pollution of the Women of the Race – Part Two

Satan, in order to accomplish this abominable end, gains the assistance of his angels, the beings who had fallen from their position of trust with God. These rebel angels were willing agents of their evil leader. They gladly submitted themselves to the conditions of the awful miracle which called upon them to sin, “even as Sodom and Gomorrha.”

They sinned willfully, and God held them accountable. But they failed in their dastardly effort to defile all womankind. The fact of their failure is plainly recorded.

”Noah was a just man (justified) and perfect in his generations,” Gen 6:9. The family of Noah was not defiled. The particular point at which Noah pleased God was that he was “perfect in his generations.”

The New Testament reveals that Noah’s strength was “by faith.” At once we see the evidence of a Divine intervention. Faith had been Divinely implanted in Noah and his family. Faith has brought victory in that far off day, even as in this present hour.

And although the Earth “was filled with violence,” Noah and his loved ones were walking by faith. Their “generations” are perfect and God orders, “Thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons and thy wife and thy sons’ wives with thee.”

God had succeeded in protecting the women of one family from the seductive and passion-filled blandishments of the evil angels. And it is from this family that the “Messiah,” the “Victor,” the “Seed of the woman” is finally born.

More to come ....

Satan’s Subtle Design in Attempting to Pollute the Women of the Race

Satan’s dark design against the women of the race went further than appears on the surface. He knew the “Victor” would be a “Saviour.” He knew that such a “Saviour” would lead men into victory over satanic and sinful things in their own lives.

Satan was seeking to thwart “the purpose of God in sending His only begotten Son to deliver us from the power of sin.” But despite the attack, artfully planned by the adversary and many others faithfully recorded by the Holy Spirit, in the Word of God, “in due time Christ came born of a woman.”

”God fulfilled His promise and the Lord Jesus Christ was given to redeem a fallen race.”

It is through Him and by Him that the sons of men are saved from the penalty, the power, and the presence of sin. It is through faith in His “finished work” at Calvary that the lost of every nation may find salvation, victory, and peace forevermore.

”There is none other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved,” Acts 4:12.

“JEHOVAH-JIREH”

The Name “JEHOVAH-JIREH” is one of a number of names compounded with “JEHOVAH.”

Naturally, these names owe something of their significance to the name “JEHOVAH” itself, which reveals the eternal, self-existing One, the God of revelation, the God of moral and spiritual attributes of righteousness, justice, love, and therefore of redemption. The God who stands in special covenant relating to Israel, in contrast to the Name “ELOHIM,” the general Name of God in relation to all the nations.

Most of these compound names of God arise out of historical incident and portray “JEHOVAH” in some aspect of His character as meeting human needs.

Historical setting.

The historical setting out of which the name “JEHOVAH-JIREH” rises is one of the most moving and significant in the Word of God. The story is found in Genesis 22. It is the story of the last and greatest crisis in the life of Abraham.

Every event in his life has led up to this supreme hour from the time of his call to a high destiny, through every vicissitude, through every joy, through every trial or failure, through every measure of success, and blessing, through every hope and promise and assurance. All had been in preparation for this event.

The great promise had been fulfilled, the supreme hope of his life realized. He had settled down to live the rest of his life in peace and joyous anticipation of the larger fulfillment of the promise through the centuries and its final spiritual fulfillment.

In this incident “ELOHIM” appears to Abraham with the astounding command to offer up a sacrifice, a burnt offering, his only and well-beloved son, Isaac. Abraham is probably not aware that this is a testing. His feelings can scarcely be imagined. His tremendous faith in view of all the circumstances is probably not sufficiently appreciated. The record reveals not a word of objection or remonstrance on his part.

Faith which enabled him to believe such a staggering promise in the first place is now sufficient for an even more staggering demand. This incident, then, reveals Abraham’s obedience and faith, Isaac’s willing submission and “JEHOVAH’S” gracious provision of a substitute in his place.

Next time we will see the meaning of the name “JEHOVAH-JIREH.”

The Angels That Sinned Are Now Imprisoned in Tartarus Awaiting Judgment

The angels that sinned shall yet be judged. They are now being detained in God’s prison house – Tartarus. To this fact the Scriptures bear clear testimony. “God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell (in the Greek “hell” is Tartarus), and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment,” 2 Pet 2:4.

Their imprisonment must have taken place after the flood, because they repeated their sin. ”And also after that.” The second outbreak of this wretched sin of “celestial fornication” of giants took place after God had swept the first crop of giants from the Earth with the flood.

Since another manifestation of giants took place on the Earth after the flood, it follows that the second sin of angels took place after the flood. Since their second sin did not take place till after the flood, their imprisonment could not have occurred before.

It is evident from the Scriptures, however, that both of their sins took place “in the days of Noah.”

There is a very comforting evidence of God’s Grace toward His creatures, in the fact that Christ Himself bore an appeal to them in the hour of their need.

”Quickened by the Spirit, by which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometimes were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah,” 1 Pet 3:18-20.

The Angels That Sinned Shall be Judged by Believers

It is an astonishing fact that when the angel judgment takes place, they shall be judged by believers of this very age in which we live.

”Know ye not that we shall judge angels, how much more things that pertain to this life,” 1 Cor 6:3.

We are not told how God will organize and handle this judgment. We are simply given the astounding information that fallen angels shall be given over to the believers of this age to judge, along with the judging of nations who despise government.

How appropriate that the humble believers in “the Seed of the woman” should sit in judgment on the putrescent angels who sought to hinder the coming of the “Seed.”

The law of compensation shall function, and one of these days, those saved souls whom the angels sought to prevent from ever knowing the Saviour, shall in the strength and power delegated to them by that Saviour, consign those wicked angels to the place of endless hell prepared for Satan and his angels,” Matt 25:41.

Conclusion of the Fallen Angels

The fallen angels, by their conduct in the days of Noah, have demonstrated that they qualify for God’s chief judgments in that day when judgments shall be meted out. The angels were rebels, hence, “despised government.” The angels plunged into fornication. Hence, they were guilty of “walking in the lust of uncleanness.”

It is the sinners that abandon themselves to those two sins who are chiefly reserved for the just punishment of a holy God.

May the Lord, Who is rich in Grace, use this study of the angels that sinned to awaken some soul to the exceeding sinfulness of rebelling against obedience to authority, or yielding to the lustful tug of passion. Let the believing soul respond with willingness and gladness to the behest of the inspired Word which says, “Obey the voice of the Lord your God,” Jer 26:13.

”Keep thyself pure,” 1 Tim 5:22.

“The Lord is My Shepherd. I Shall Not Want”

The God of love my Shepherd is,
And He that doth me feed,
While He is mine and I am His,
What can I want or need?

He leads me to the tender grass,
Where I both feed and rest,
Then to the streams that gently flow,
In both I have the best.

Or if I stray He doth convert
And bring my mind in frame,
And all this not for my dessert,
But for His holy Name.

Yea, in death’s shady black abode,
Well may I walk, and not fear,
For Thou art with me, and Thy rod,
To guide, Thy staff to bear.

Surely Thy sweet and wondrous love,
Shall measure all my days,
And, as it never shall remove,
So neither shall my praise.

Sunday, June 17, 2001

“JEHOVAH-JIREH” – A Compound Name for the Lord – Part Two

The meaning of the name

Before we discuss the derivation and meaning of this name, it will be well to briefly recall the happenings which occasioned its use. On the way to the place of sacrifice, Isaac can not contain his curiosity about the lamb for the burnt offering. “Behold the fire and the wood,” he said, “But where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Gen 22:7. Abraham’s answer to this question is “God will provide Himself a Lamb.”

It is not necessary to suppose that Abraham thought of an ordinary lamb in this answer, although he may have had some such dim hope in his mind. At any rate, in his instructions to his young men to wait for him he says, “I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you,” verse 5.

It is only at the last moment when Isaac lies bound upon the altar and any such hope he may have entertained is gone, and the knife in the upraised hand is about to descend, that the voice of the Angel of the Lord(Jesus Christ) arrests and stays his hand. And Abraham looks about and sees a ram caught in the thicket by its horns, which he offers up instead of his son.

Then in verse 14 we read, “And Abraham called the name of the place JEHOVAH-JIREH, as it is said to this day, in the Mount of the Lord (JEHOVAH) it shall be seen.”

But instead of “it shall be seen,” it is literally “it shall be provided.”

”In the Mount of JEHOVAH He shall be seen or provided.”

“JEHOVAH-JIREH” – Its Meaning – Part Three

First of all, we must understand that in this name “JEHOVAH-JIREH,” the word ”JIREH” is simply a “transliteration” of a Hebrew word that appears many times throughout the Scriptures and is translated for what it means. Only its unusual significance here, its connection with this remarkable event, and its union with the title “JEHOVAH” has brought it down as a compound name of God. It is simply a form of the verb “to see.”

What connection can there be then between the words see and provide for both of these English words are used to translate the one Hebrew word and certainly seem to be quite distinct in their meaning?

It must be admitted, too, that in the great majority of cases where this word occurs in the Hebrew Bible, it is translated “see” or “appear.” Why then should we translate it “provide” here?

One reason for this no doubt is that with God to see is also to foresee, as the One who possesses eternal wisdom and knowledge, and He knows the end from the beginning. As “ELOHIM” He is all-knowing, all-wise, and all-powerful. From eternity to eternity He foresees everything. But another word for “seeing” is “vision,” from the Latin word “video,” to see.

Thus, with God foreseeing is pre-vision. As the Lord of righteousness and holiness and of love and redemption, having pre-vision of man’s sin, and fall, and need, He makes provision for that need. For provision, after all, is merely a compound of two Latin words meaning “to see beforehand.”

We may learn from a dictionary that “provide” is simply the verb and pre-vision of seeing beforehand. Thus to God prevision is necessary, followed by provision, for He certainly will provide for that need which His foreseeing shows Him to exist.

With Him prevision and provision are one and the same thing. All this is certainly expressed in the term “JEHOVAH-JIREH” and it is quite correct and in its proper significance to translate this name of God “JEHOVAH-JIREH,” “God will provide.”

“JEHOVAH-JIREH” – Its Meaning – Part Four

Another form of the word from which “JIREH” is derived is also used of men in the sense to “foresee.” It is translated “seer” or “prophet.” Several references are made in Scripture to Samuel the “seer” and the book of “Samuel the seer.” 1 Chr 9:22, 26, 28; 2 Sam 15:27, 2 Chr 16:7.

The word is “RO’EH,” which as easily can be seen is much like “JIREH.”

In 1 Sam 9:9 it is stated that the prophet formerly was called a “seer,” even as late as the time of Isaiah 30:10. This was the word sometimes used for a prophet. Here the prophet Isaiah speaks of a people who say to the seer, “See not, and to the prophets, prophesy not unto us right things.”

A prophet is, of course, one who foresees, and since “seer” or “RO’EH” is the same as prophet, it consequently means one who foresees.

Besides this the word “JIREH” is translated in Gen 22:8 as “provide.” Abraham here said to Isaac, “My son, God will provide Himself a Lamb for a burnt offering.” Even if we were to translate here “God will see to it,” or “God will see for Himself a Lamb for a burnt offering,” the meaning would be exactly the same as “provide.”

The importance of the words used here can hardly be over-estimated, and afford striking evidence and conformation of the hand of God in revelation.

”Abraham called the name of the place “JEHOAH-JIREH” as it is said to this day in the Mount of the Lord it is, or He shall be seen.” ”It shall be seen” – “JEROEH” – the same word as “JIREH” – that is, God’s provision shall be seen in the Mount of the Lord.

What was this Mount of the Lord? In Gen 22:2, the command comes to Abraham, “Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee unto the land of Moriah, and offer him there upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.”

The significant word here is “Moriah.” This is a kindred word to “JIREH.” Derived from the same root, its ending is an abbreviated form of the name “JEHOVAH.” Thus it may be rendered “seen or provided of JEHOVAH.”

All of this confirms and justifies our translation of the word “JIREH” as “seeing” or “appearing and providing,” and invests this name of JEHOVAH with a wealth of meaning and significance.

“The Lord Hath Need of Him”

Come, faithful people, come away,
Your homage to your monarchs pay
It is the feast of palms today.

When, Christ the Lord of all, drew nigh
On Sunday morning in Bethany,
He called two loved ones standing by.

”To yonder village go,” said He,
”Where you a tethered ass shall see.
Loose it and bring it unto Me.”

The two upon their errand sped,
And brought the ass as He had said,
And on it’s back their clothes they spread.

They set Him on His throne so rude,
Before Him went the multitude,
And in the way their garments strewed.

Go, Saviour, thus to triumph borne,
Thy crown shall be the wreath of thorn,
Thy royal garb the robe of scorn.

They thronged before, behind, around,
They cast palm branches on the ground,
And still rose up the joyful sound.

”Blessed is Israel’s King, they cry,
”Blessed is He that cometh nigh,
In Name of God the Lord Most High.

Thus, Saviour, to thy passion go,
Pass through the fleeting ebb and flow,
To meet the yet unconquered foe.

Father’s Day!

Heavenly Father, may Thy blessing
Rest upon thy children now,
When in praise Thy Name they hallow,
When in prayer to Thee they bow.

In the wondrous story reading,
Of the Lord of Truth and Grace,
May they see Thy love reflected,
In the light of His dear face.

May they learn from this great story,
All the arts of graciousness,
Truthful speech and honest action,
Courage, patience, steadfastness.

How to master self and temper,
How to make their conduct fair,
When to speak and when be silent,
When to do and when forbear.

May His Spirit wise and holy
With His gifts their souls bless,
Make them loving, joyous, peaceful,
Rich in Grace and gentleness.

Strong in self-control, and faithful
Kind in thought and deed, for He
Sayeth, “What you do for others,
Ye are doing unto Me.”

“We are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”

“JEHOVAH-JIREH” – Part Five

The significance of this name.

1. This name is significant, first of all, because it is a commemoration – a commemoration of a great deliverance.
   
   This was the primary reason for naming the scene of this event “JEHOVAH-JIREH.” It was a constant reminder of the wonderful Grace of JEHOVAH Who had wrought this deliverance.
   
   Now that it was all over, and Abraham had learned the lesson God was teaching him and could see something of God’s glorious purpose in it all, he sought only to magnify the Grace of JEHOVAH.
   
   His magnifying of this Grace was in proportion to the deep and dark perplexity that had filled his soul on the way to the Mount. Had God really spoken to him? Did the ELOHIM mean what He had said? Could He really mean what He said now?
   
   Such may have been Abraham’s thoughts. But his joy and his gratitude were in proportion to his sorrow and despair at the terrible prospect before him, the overwhelming horror that must have flooded his soul at the thought, the very act of plunging the knife of sacrifice into the body of his own son. The son so longed for, hoped for, prayed for, the child of their old age.
   
   What a great and glorious deliverance it was that JEHOVAH’S Grace had provided and how unexpected and dramatic! Man’s extremity is ever God’s opportunity, not only for deliverance, but to teach us also wonderful lessons of His purpose as well as His providence.
   
   Surely out of this experience of JEHOVAH’S delivering Grace there must have come a purer, more spiritual relationship of love between this father and son. This must have been one lesson that the experience was intended to convey.
   
   ”That he should no more love his beloved son as his flesh and blood, but solely and only as a Gracious gift and possession of God, as a good entrusted to him by Him, which he has to be ready to render back to Him at any moment.”
   
   According to the words of the Angel of JEHOVAH, it is fullest proof of Abraham’s faith and obedience “seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me” and he might have added, “Only as I will not withhold My only and well-beloved Son as the great provision for man’s redemption.”
   

   

   The Significance of the Name “JEHOVAH-JIREH” – Part Two

2. A further significance of this name of God lies in the expectation of something yet to come. Even if we were to translate “JEHOVAH-JIREH” as “the Lord doth provide,” rather than “will provide,” it would be Abraham’s testimony to the fact that JEHOVAH is a God who always provides, that as He provided, then He would also provide in the future.
   
   Deliverance from death, “the oil of joy for the ashes of sorrow and mourning,” blessings for obedience, even though obedience be made “perfect through suffering.”
   
   The naming of the place “JEHOVAH-JIREH” was meant to be proverbial of this very thing, “As it is said to this day.” But this meaning of the place was more than proverbial with Abraham. He can hardly emerge from such a remarkable and solemn experience without feeling or realizing that it had far deeper significance than the test of his own faith only.
   
   The profound import of the occasion is strikingly attested by the most solemn language of “JEHOVAH” Himself, calling from Heaven a second time after the Lamb of His provision had been offered and saying, “By Myself have I sworn, saith JEHOVAH.” The word “saith” is the particular word used of JEHOVAH when making the most solemn prophetic utterance.It can be translated “utterance” or “oracle.”
   
   Then follows an emphatic confirmation of the promises to make Abraham a multitude and a blessing to the world “because thou hast done this thing” and “because thou hast obeyed my voice.”
   
   There are various allusions in the New Testament to this great transaction that indicate that Abraham saw far more than the immediate provision and deliverance in it. It was more than proverbial. He saw in it a prediction.
   
   He called the name of the place “JEHOVAH-JIREH,” not merely “JEHOVAH doth provide” but “JEHOVAH will provide.” And then “as it is said to this day” in the Mount of JEHOVAH, “it shall be seen” or “it shall be provided.”
   
   One of the most medieval Jewish commentators also understood this expression to mean, “God will manifest Himself to His people.”
   
   Next, the realization of the name “JEHOVAH-JIREH.”
   

Monday, June 18, 2001

“JEHOVAH-JIREH” – The Realization

What then was the provision that Abraham saw, dimly perhaps, with the eye of faith? What was the reality of which Isaac, and the lamb, were but types?

Certainly Abraham understood the reality of sin, and realized the need for atonement. The numerous altars he built and the offerings he sacrificed attest to that fact. Why then the demand for Isaac as an offering? Was it not to impress upon Abraham more deeply the temporary character of these sacrifices? That it was impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins? Heb 10:4, that they were only shadows of which something infinitely worthier should be the substance and the reality?

Thus Isaac was exhibited as a pattern of one under the judgment of God for sin. Animals cannot take away the sins of men. Animals cannot become consecrated to God instead of men.

”Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering,” Isa 40:16. Only one of like nature, if one worthy enough can be found, can make such atonement and consecration.

Here again in the deliverance of Isaac, as he was about to be offered, Abraham received more than an inkling of the fact that not even Isaac, that none born of flesh alone, is sufficient for that.

For Isaac was offered and received back only in a figure, Heb 11:19, and the Lamb became his substitute also. Surely God was teaching Abraham that the only sacrifice acceptable to Him is the one chosen and appointed by Himself.

”Wherewithal shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the high God?
“Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?”
”Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams ... shall I give my firstborn for my transgressions, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” Micah 6:6-7.

”Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.”

“JEHOVAH-JIREH” – The Realization, Part Two

“In the Mount of the Lord it shall be seen and provided.”That Mount is Moriah, which means appearance or provision of God. It was this Mount Moriah that later became the site of the temple and the center of Israel’s worship, its sacrificial system.

2 Chr 3:1, “Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord (JEHOVAH) at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah, where JEHOVAH appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite.”

It was here, in David’s time, that God in His Grace staved the hand of avenging justice when David offered the sacrifices of substitution. The very heart of Israel’s religion centered in the temple on Mount Moriah, and its substitutionary sacrifices. Gen 22:14, “God will see and choose that very place to cause His SHEKINAH to rest thereon and to offer the offerings.”

But like Abraham, the true and faithful Israelite must have realized that the sacrifice of animals was only a shadow of something to come, JEHOVAH’s Gracious promise to Solomon in 2 Chr 7 to set His heart and eyes and His glory on that place indicate something infinitely nobler than animal sacrifice.

Isaiah and Micah make sublime predictions concerning the mountain of the house of the Lord. Zechariah speaks of the glory of that holy mountain, the mountain of JEHOVAH of hosts.

What was the glory of that mountain? Surely it was no temple made with hands. Surely it was not all the beasts on Jewish altars slain.

”The Abraham who looked not for an earthly city but for one which hath foundations whose Builder and Maker is God” also looked for a better and more enduring sacrifice for the Mount Moriah of which he spoke saying, “In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.”

It became the site of Calvary and the scene of that grand and awesome sacrifice of God’s Only Begotten and Well-Beloved Son, who was put under judgment for sin and became our Substitute.

Maybe Abraham understood better than we realize the wonder of JEHOVAH’s provision for man’s redemption when he said, “In the Mount of JEHOVAH He will appear.”

Was it not this to which the Lord Jesus Christ Himself referred in John 8:56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”

Abraham and Isaac as father and only begotten son, are both types of JEHOVAH’s full and glorious provision for man’s sin and need.

“God so loved the world, that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall never perish but have everlasting life,” John 3:16.

JEHOVAH-JIREH” and Our So Great Salvation!

Paul speaks of God as, “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all,” Rom 8:32. ”Who was delivered up for our trespasses,” Rom 4:25. And John says, “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, in that God sent His Only Begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him,” 1 John 4:9.

On Mount Moriah, JEHOVAH was teaching Abraham what He Himself was prepared to provide. “The Lord will provide Himself a sacrifice.” He was teaching Abraham the awful cost to Himself of the provision of the sacrifice for sin.

”Does it break your heart, Abraham, to give up, to slay by your own hand as an innocent sacrifice, your well-beloved and only son? Then think of the awful and infinite cost to Me of what I am prepared to do for man.”

The thing that Abraham foreshadowed on Mount Moriah was realized and accomplished, when God’s Son upon the Cross cried out, “It is finished.”

Isaac asks, “Where is the lamb?” Abraham answers, “God will provide Himself a Lamb.”

John the baptist announces, “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world,” John 1:29. This was the Lamb provided and slain from the foundation of the world, but manifested on Mount Moriah for us, through the blood of Christ, “as a Lamb without spot or blemish,” 1 Pet 1:18-19.

This Lamb is the center of Heaven’s glory and the object of its adoration. Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands say with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb which was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”

Yes, and every creature will join in saying, “Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever and ever,” Rev 5:11-13.

God will provide Himself a Lamb.

In the Mount of the Lord it shall be seen. It shall be provided. Even Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, our Saviour, our Lord, to Whom be glory forever, and Who is over all God blessed forever.

”TETELESTAI.”

“Christ the Power of God”

It is wonderful to know that we are safe and secure in God’s hands, that God hears and answers our prayers. The value of prayer to us depends entirely upon our conception of God.

When we pray to our Heavenly Father, let us be mindful of God’s Grace and His faithfulness, and power. If we keep our minds on His Grace, on His faithfulness, on His love and power, prayer becomes very valuable to us.

The ability to turn a problem over to the Lord depends our conception of the Lord. As we study His essence, His characteristics, our faith in Him is strengthened.

Therefore, we can turn our problems over to Him and have peace. God is omnipotent. God is all powerful. This knowledge brings great peace and rest into our souls. When we realize the great power of the Almighty God can work for us, we rest in Him. But so few of God’s children seem to remember that God is powerful. Or they have never been taught the meaning of God’s power to them personally.

Why Pride is the Worst Sin Listed in the Bible

1. The first sin recorded was committed by Satan.
   Ezek 28:17,“Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness. I will cast thee to the ground. I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.”
   Isa 14:12-15 – the five “I wills of Satan” – “I will be like ELOHIM.”
   
2. Satan has a platform that attracts members of the human race.
   1 John 2:16, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and pride the pattern of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”
   
3. Listed first on God’s list of the worst sins –
   “A proud look,” Prov 6:17.
   
4. The warning about pride
   ”Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall,” Prov 16:18.
   ”Not a novice, lest being filled up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil,” 1 Tim 3:6.
   
5. God resists the proud.
   ”But He giveth more Grace wherefore He saith God resisteth the proud, but giveth Grace to the humble,” James 4:6.
   1 Tim 5:5, “For God resisteth the proud.”
   
6. A characteristic of the last days.
   ”For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy.”
   
7. Satan blinds the mind to the Gospel which is in Christ.
   ”For by Grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is a gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

People want to boast and be proud that they can save themselves. But there is no boasting when it comes to our so great salvation.

”We are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”

Don’t let pride keep you from Christ. Glory in this that you know Him.

“God is Righteous” – Jesus Christ is Called “A Righteous Branch”

Now let us discuss the meaning of the word “righteous.” The word “righteous” means without prejudice.

Our Lord was crucified by people who were prejudiced against Him. The Pharisees and the Saducees were very prejudiced against Him because He disagreed with them.

Isn’t it strange the way some people are under the impression that if others don’t agree with them in every way, those people who disagree cannot be saved.

Man is saved by the Grace of God. And men becomes partakers of that Grace only through faith in Christ, regardless of what religious system that man belongs to.

There are those who told me that unless a person is a member of their particular group, he cannot be saved. There are others that believe if a person is a member of some particular ecclesiastical body, he cannot be saved.

Those people who believe that make God prejudiced and limit the power of God. God said in Romans 10:13, “For whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved.”

I have more faith in the power of God to save them than I have fear in the power of man to destroy. I believe the power of God is greater to reach past the indifferent pastor, break through any cold, formal, religious service and touch the soul of a hungering soul crying out to Him.

I believe the power of God’s Grace is great enough to break through any shell of error that man may have built up around a certain group, regardless of its source. I believe the power of God is great enough to break through that, smash it, and touch the heart of any one who cries out to God in distress, and cries out for salvation.

The Lord is Not Prejudiced!!!

Psa 145:18, “The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in Truth.”

It does not say that the Lord is nigh to all those who do not belong to some particular church, some ecclesiastical body. If God doesn’t say that, then let us not say it.

Anytime anyone teaches this way he is called a liberal or something else. But what does the Lord say?

How can anyone determine the genuineness of a Bible teacher? “By their fruits ye shall know them.” The Bible tells us very plainly and I believe it because God said it. ”Whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved.” This is found in Rom 10:13. It does not say whosoever calls upon the Name of the Lord and is a member of some particular group shall be saved. Never!

Joel said, “Whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved.” True in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

”The Grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.”

“Fear Thou Not; for I Am With Thee: Be Not Dismayed; for I Am Thy God:”

”I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness,” Isaiah 41:10.

God is righteous, which means He is not prejudiced. You may be greatly distressed because you have been led to believe that you are beyond the pale of God’s Grace, that you have removed yourself from God and now there is no hope in God.

There are many who have come to me through the years and told me that they were beyond helping and being saved. But to those the Lord said this, “The Lord is nigh unto all of them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in Truth.”

The Lord goes to all those who are in need when they call upon Him. Remember Isa 41:10. God is not prejudiced. It doesn’t make any difference what ecclesiastical body you belong to. If you are in great distress and if you will cry out unto the Lord, because God loves you and God is faithful, that cry of yours will bring Him close to you.

Do not listen to people who try to limit or segregate the love of God and the Grace of God. I have more faith in the power of God to save than I have fear of the power of man to destroy.

So, the first thing we find is the word “all.”

”The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him in Truth.” ”He will fulfill the desire of them that fear Him. He also will hear their cry and will save them.”

We see here that God will hear and save all those who call upon Him in Truth.

Psa 50:15, “And call upon Me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.”

That means that all that call upon Him can expect to find help. “A present help in time of need.”

Psalm 145:20, “The Lord Preserveth All Them That Love Him.”

If you are in deep distress, don’t let man distress you. Let God bring rejoicing into your soul by believing Him.

The words “love Him” mean to prefer. When you have turned to Jesus Christ and have accepted Him as your personal Saviour, you automatically turn your back on the world. Everyone who has turned to Christ has turned their back on the world.

The world is one way and Christ is the other. When you turn to the Lord by accepting Christ as your personal Saviour, you automatically turn from idols. We find that in Thessalonians. The Lord says He preserves all those who love Him.

But He also says, “All the wicked will be destroyed.” The word “wicked” here means satanic. Those are the ones who have rejected Jesus Christ.

But all of those who have accepted Him, those who “prefer Him” over the world, He will preserve. It doesn’t make any difference what ecclesiastical body you belong to. If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour and put your trust in His death on the Cross for your sins, then He will preserve you.

God said it. I believe it.

Psalm 62:5, “My Soul, Wait Thou Upon God, For My Expectation is From Him”

Such being the case, what should we do? What does this mean to us? We need to have the same feeling in our souls that David said in Psa 62:5. Because he believed God, he expected God to do the things God said He would do. He knew that God was unprejudiced. He knew that God was a God of love, that love is His essential nature.

The psalmist knew that God was faithful, therefore he told his soul, “Soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from Him.” Stop worrying! David was in a terrible emotional condition. Yet he told his soul to stop worrying and be quiet, to wait upon the Lord. Why did David say this? “He only is my Rock and my Salvation. He is my Defense. I shall not be moved.”

David was not going to be distressed by other people’s opinions. He was not going to be distressed by conditions about him. He knew that God was a God of love. He knew that God was faithful. He knew that God was righteous. Therefore, he depended upon God and Him alone. Because he was depending upon God, he said he was not going to be moved.

So many are on the mountaintops one moment and down in the valley the second. The Lord is not their Rock, the Foundation of their salvation. They are not trusting in the Lord. They are not depending upon the Lord.

When we are waiting on the Lord and our expectation is from Him and Him alone, we won’t pay any attention to anyone else. We know He loves us. He can’t help loving us because love is an essential part of His being.

It is His nature to love. He is faithful. The word “faithful” means to be trusted.God can be trusted. He is righteous, meaning He is without prejudice. God is impartial. Certainly we can go to One like that expecting help in time of need. Then why don’t we? When we do, we will be able to say, “It is wonderful to be a Christian.”

Tuesday, June 19, 2001

Why Did Jesus Christ Heal??

We find the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason with Jesus Christ. Luke 5:21-24, “Who is this Who speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone? But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts? Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk?”

”But” and here it is … “that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon Earth to forgive sins,” (He said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house.”

”That ye may know.” “That” is a purpose clause. He healed the man for the purpose “that you may know the Son of man hath power upon Earth to forgive sins.”

The purpose of miracles was to focus your attention on the Word of God. He healed the material thing that they might know He had power in the spiritual. Our Lord’s healing ministry was a sign.

Weak faith demands signs.
”The Jews seek a sign and the Greeks seek wisdom.”
”But Christ, the power and wisdom of God.”

What Were Tongues For?

“The Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom.”

The Jews required a sign. In those days they wanted a sign. Our Lord came healing, which was a kingdom sign, because in His healing ministry, He was fulfilling the great prophecy to the Jews of the coming of the Messiah, and what the Messiah would do when He came. Unfortunately, we find there were some in the Church during that day who also had weak faith and needed signs, too. And I am afraid that has crept over into this age also.

1 Cor 14:20, “Brethren, be not children in understanding.” In other words, stop being childish in the way you look at things.

”Howbeit in malice, be ye children.” Malice is childish and anyone who gets angry at someone else is childish.

”But in understanding be men.” Understand this thing we are talking about, this unknown tongue situation.

”In the Law it is written, with men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people, and yet for all that will they not hear Me, saith the Lord.”

Notice 1 Cor 14:22, “Therefore, tongues are for a sign.” Jews seek a sign – evidence of a weak faith.

”Not to them that believe” – not for the believers. Tongues were never for believers. It was a sign to the Jews.

”But to them that believe not.” Tongues were for the unbelievers. The Gospel. The Jews no longer were the custodians of the Word of God or the disseminators of the Word of God and the sign was they would now hear the Gospel in another language.

”Therefore, tongues are for a sign.” For whom? ”Not to them that believe, but to them that believe not.”

”Behold I give you a sign, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Child and you shall call His Name Immanuel.”

“Not to Them That Believe, But to Them that Believe Not”

There are some today that have to have some physical sign before they believe in spiritual atonement.

The just shall live by what? Signs? No, by faith. Our Lord’s healing ministry was a sign that He had power in the spiritual.

Then God gave tongues to the Gentiles, strange languages, that it might be a sign to those that didn’t trust His Word, that wouldn’t believe the testimony of his apostles.

They had to have a sign. So God gave them the sign of tongues, even as He gave strange languages to the Jews at the very beginning of the Church on the Day of Pentecost.

Some Gentiles wouldn’t believe that they were saved even though they had trusted the Lord, unless they had some manifestation of the power that the Jews had at Pentecost.

”He said that tongues were for a sign. Not to them that believe, but to them that believe not.”

Unfortunately, signs are in demand today by those who can’t take God at His Word and won’t believe what Christ said. Faith that takes God at His Word honors God.

Wednesday, June 20, 2001

“The Fullness of Joy”

An interesting study on the subject of “the fullness of joy”

John 15:9, “As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: continue ye in My love. If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in His love. These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is My commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My Name, He may give it you. These things I command you, that ye love one another.”

Here we find the Lord’s commandments. He said, “These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy may be full.”

1. First we find the joy of loving.
Eph 5:2,“Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.”

It says, “walk in love.” That is the basis of the Christian walk. It is a walk of love, which is the Spirit-filled life. And here we find that He said, “These things have I said unto you that your joy may be full.”

First we have the joy of loving. The fruit of the Spirit is love.

“The Fullness of Joy”

First we have the joy of loving. Eph 5:2, “Walk in love.” Anyone who looks back in his life and has never loved anybody is the most selfish .the most pathetic person on Earth. A person that has never known what love is, a person who has never experienced love for others, is a very selfish person because his love has been for self.

”In the latter days perilous times shall come. Men shall be lovers of themselves.”

He preferred self above others. Consequently his life is very lean. He has a very lean soul. He is influenced by everything. He is greatly influenced by anything he wants and can’t get. He goes into deep depression conditions. Anxiety, nervousness, and irritability are common conditions to one wrapped up in himself.

My, the joy there is in loving others. “Love one another as I have loved you.” Wouldn’t you hate to live a life and suddenly wake up to realize that you have never loved anybody?

Yes, there is joy in loving. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy ... Walk in love.

The Fullness of Joy –Walk in Love

Love certainly is essential to a well-organized and ordained life. A home that is healthy is a home where everyone loves one another.

I have heard people say I have a boy seven or eight years old, or a girl seven or eight years old. How can I tell him or her about sex? It is a strange thing that so many mothers and fathers are timid in talking to their children and explaining to them the great miracle of life, the great mystery of life. I can’t understand it.

When a home is healthy, when you have a healthy condition in the home, there is no hesitation about telling the children the mystery of life. It is because the home is unhealthy, because there is no love radiating from that home, that there is difficulty.

One of the great joys that God has given man is the ability to love one another.

”Older women teach the younger women how to love their husbands and their children.”
”Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it.”

“The Fullness of Joy” and “Walking in Love”

Another thing we know is that love is the greatest abiding virtue of all. 1 Cor 13:13, “And now abideth three, faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love.” Walking in love and the fruit of the Spirit is love.

How many people pride themselves on the very opposite? They pride themselves on their standing with themselves. They pride themselves on this and they pride themselves on that. But “the just shall live by faith.”

But there is something even greater than that.There is hope. People pride themselves on the blessed hope. And the blessed hope is a wonderful thing. But there is something greater than that.

God says so in 1 Cor 13:13. There is love. Love is the greatest of all abiding virtues. Love is not only the focal point of a healthy home life and a healthy personality. But it is also the greatest abiding virtue today in the eyes of the Lord.

Love is spirituality and the filling of the Spirit and the production of the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Gal 5:22-23.

“The Fullness of Joy and Walking in Love”

“And in that day ye shall ask Me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My Name, He will give it to you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My Name.Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full,”John 16:23.

Notice – address the Father in prayer, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

We find here the joy of answered prayer. Here is the second “that your joy may be full.” We find the joy of answered prayer. There is joy in crying out unto our heavenly Father and having Him answer us.

Our argument to God that He should answer our prayer is as David said in Psa 86 and Psa 88,“Bow down Thy ear to me, and hear my cry, for I am poor and needy. I am in trouble.” “Call upon Me and I will deliver thee.”

There is joy in answered prayer. There is joy in being able to go to our heavenly Father knowing that we have One there at His right hand that handles our prayers first, and then passes them on to Him. The joy there is in that.

“The Fullness of Joy Because of Answered Prayer”

Some have come to me and have said, “Well, what is the value of prayer? What can I get out of it? Is there any profit in prayer?”

Matt 7:11, “If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father, which is in Heaven, give good gifts to them that ask Him?”

We can expect things that are good for us through prayer because God loves us and is not going to give us anything that is not good for us.

Use prayer to protect yourself against yourself. Use prayer to protect yourself against desires that you do not know whether or not they are good for you. They are too many people who don’t. We will find that we will receive things which are good for us. We have the fullness of joy through answered prayer.

”The Lord God is a Sun and a Shield and He gives Grace and glory and there is no good thing that He will withhold from you who walk uprightly.”

“The Fullness of Joy, Walking in Love, Joy of Answered Prayer, and Peace.”

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known unto God and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall guard your heart through Christ Jesus.”

The third thing we find is peace.

The joy there is in answered prayer. To get anything out of prayer we have to realize first that we are “speaking to a Person,” our heavenly Father. We have to know that He loves us. We have to be conscious when we pray to Him of His Grace and power.

We have to know that we can influence Him, that He will be moved with our prayers. He wants us to pray to Him. Prayer glorifies Him. We honor Him when we go to Him, because we are acknowledging that He is the One and the only One that can help us.

We can expect those things which are good for us because God will not give us anything that is not good for us.

If you went out and got something that hurt you, you know that God didn’t give it to you. You got it yourself. When we pray for something and don’t get it, we know it wouldn’t be good for us, at least at that time.

Therefore, God has protected us and we should thank Him because He answered our prayers in the negative. Do you know a Christian like that?

If you will remember that God is only going to give you the things that are good for you, then you are going to have joy in knowing you can depend upon the Lord.

You can have peace. He will give you that wonderful and blessed peace that guards your heart. And you know you don’t have a thing in the world to worry about because you have turned your problems over to Him. You have talked them over with Him and you have left them in His hands.

You want what is best for you therefore, you want His will, because His will is always best for you and me.

When we learn that, we will have the fullness of joy, and the fullness of the joy because of answered prayer.

Thursday, June 21, 2001

“Fullness of Joy”

1 John 1:4, “And these write we unto you that your joy may be full.”

One of the reasons for this epistle, as John says, “is that our joy may be full.” Can you see that? But there is another reason which we find in 1 John 5:13,“These things have I written unto you that believe on the Name of the Son of God, that ye might know that ye have eternal life.”

What do we find? We find the fullness of joy is associated with consciousness of eternal life. The fullness of joy depends upon our knowledge that our sins have been forgiven and that God has given unto us eternal life, the joy of our salvation.

Too many people today permit their lives to be influenced by their failures. That is a strange thing, but it is true. There are many people today who permit their lives to be governed by the failures of others. And we all wonder why?

Why don’t we permit our lives to be influenced and governed by success instead of failure? When you do something wrong, what is the first thing that comes into your mind when you realize it was wrong? Immediately comes the thought, “How can I be saved and do that?”

You may not know why you did it, even as Paul said, “The things I do, I know not.” He couldn’t understand why he did it. You may do something that is wrong and you don’t understand why you did it. After you have done it, you wonder how you could do a thing like that and be saved.

You are permitting doubt to come into your mind because of something you did. You are permitting your failure to influence your life. The first thing you know, you lose the sense of the joy of your salvation. You don’t have the fullness of joy because doubt has come into your mind.

Your failure means more to you than the success of Jesus Christ. You may fail, but Christ cannot fail. He died for us and He arose for our justification and He is seated at the right hand of the Father interceding for us now.

But we permit our lives to be influenced by our failures. How many people are permitting their lives to be influenced by failures of yesterday? Because you sinned yesterday, you question your present today. You permit your life today to be influenced by your sins of yesterday.

What is the Antidote for Allowing Our Failures to Influence the Fullness of the Joy of Our Salvation?

The Lord said that “their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” in Hebrews 10.

Paul said that he was not perfect at all, “but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, I press on,” Phil 3:13.

Are you afraid to take this proper step? Are you afraid to become active in spreading the Word of God? Are you afraid to do something for the Lord because you life today is still being influenced by the memory of your sins of yesterday?

If anybody should forget, it certainly was Paul. Paul was a murderer. Paul persecuted the Church. Paul delighted to see Christians killed. He hated Christ and despised His work. Then He was saved. How could Paul live with himself after what he had done? How could he have possibly have lived with himself if he kept remembering what he had done?

He said, No, “This one thing I do. Forgetting those things which are behind, I press on.”

That is what we need to do. We need to forget because the Lord has.

That is what the word “forgiveness” means. It means to forget.

God has forgotten our failures, our mistakes, and our sins.

“Fullness of Joy and Past Failures”

Of course we sin. Notice – “If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the Truth is not in us.”

If you say you have no sin, you are deceived. The Truth is not in you, John says. “If we say we have no sin,” including himself in “we,” we all have the old sin nature, we can live a miserable life and be terribly distressed if we keep our minds on that.

But there is joy in knowing that we have complete forgiveness and God has forgiven us our sins and cleansed us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9. And what a blessing that is for Christians. Our responsibility after we are born-again children of God is to confess our sins. “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

There is joy in knowing that when we turn our sins of yesterday and our failures of today over to the Lord, He takes care of them. They are forgiven and we are restored back into favor with Him. We are cleansed from all unrighteousness.

Certainly we can see there the joy of the sense of forgiveness of sins. No wonder he said, ”These things write I unto you that your joy may be full.”

Now, what have we seen in this study?

1. First we saw that the Christian life is a walk of love. Eph 5:2. There is joy in loving.
   
2. Second, we found the joy of answered prayer. How wonderful it is to be able to go to our heavenly Father and put our lives in His hands and ask for the things we need. If we need them, and they are good for us, we are going to get them. If they are not good for us, we are not going to get them. He protects us against our selfish desires.
   
3. Thirdly, not only do we see the joy of answered prayer, but we also find the joy of the sense of having our sins forgiven and knowing that we are in a right relationship with Him and have been cleansed from all unrighteousness.

From knowledge of these three things comes the fullness of joy.

Isn’t it wonderful to be a Christian?

“ELOHIM”

The first question asked is “What is the chief end of man?” And the answer is “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”

But we will experience God in such a fashion, we will glorify Him and enjoy Him, only in proportion as we know Him. The knowledge of God is more essential for the Christian and for the whole world than the knowledge of anything else, and of all things together.

The prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ for His disciples was, John 17:3, “And this is life eternal that they should know thee the only true God, and Him whom Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.”

And speaking of this, Christ, our JEHOVAH-Jesus, Paul sums up in Phil 3:10, the great goal of life, “That I may know Him.”

If sin had not entered into the world, the acquisition of the knowledge of God would have been the high occupation of man forever and ever.

It is for a lack of knowledge of God that the prophet Hosea informs his people are destroyed. “The people are destroyed because of a lack of knowledge,” Hosea 4:6. It is from the lack of knowledge of God that many are without spiritual power or life. There is little real knowledge today of the one great God.

There are many ways in which we may study God. The God of old time spoke, “Unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in His Son,” Heb 1:1-2.

And this Son, Jesus Christ, while on Earth said in the great discourse and prayer with God, “I have manifested Thy Name unto the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world,” John 17:6.“And I have declared unto them Thy Name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them and I in them,” John 17:26.

Thus, it is in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ we best see the glory of God. Yet while we are in the flesh we can only know in part at most. And it behooves us to know all we can learn of God.

”All the Scriptures are profitable for us for instruction and edification,” but perhaps not very many people know much about the Person of God as revealed in His Names. Surely a study of these names should be a most profitable way of increasing that knowledge.

“ELOHIM”

When Moses received a commission from God to go to His oppressed people in Egypt and deliver them from bondage, he said, “When I come unto the children of Israel and shall say unto them, the God of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they shall say unto me, ‘What is His Name?’ What shall I say unto them?” Exodus 3:13.

Now, the Word God or even Lord as we see in our English Bibles conveys little more to us than the designation of the Supreme Being and Sovereign of the universe. It tells little about His character and ways. We cannot say all that the mysterious word “God” means to us until we learn more about Him. And we can know little of what the word “God” until we go to the “language” from which the word “God” is translated.

The language which is the first written record of the revelation of Himself, the language in which He spoke to Moses and the prophets. Missionaries and translators have always had difficulty in finding a suitable word for the Hebrew word we translated “God.” Those who have attempted to translate this word into Chinese, for instance, have always been divided and still are as to which word is the best.

One of the greatest of these translations preferred a word which means “Lord of Heaven.”

Now a name in the Old Testament was often an indication of a person’s character, or of some particular quality. But what one name could be adequate to God’s Grace and greatness? After all, a name imposes some limitation. It means that an object or person is this and not that, is here and not there, and if the Heaven of heavens cannot contain God, how can a name describe Him?

What a request of Moses, then, that was. That the infinite God should reveal Himself to finite man by any one name.

We can hardly appreciate or understand Moses himself unless we see him in his many-sided character, of learned man and shepherd, leader and legislator, soldier and statesman, impulsive, yet meekest of men. We can know David, too, not only as shepherd, warrior, and king, but also as a prophet, poet, and musician.

Even so, the Old Testament contains a number of names and compound names for God which reveal Him in some aspect of His character and dealings with mankind.

We will examine these names and their meanings, their significance for ourselves as well as those of old.

“ELOHIM”

The meaning of the word.

In order to gain some idea of the meaning of this name of God, “ELOHIM,” we must examine its origin and note, how, generally, it is used.

It is derived from a root “EL,” which means mighty, strong, and prominent. This word “EL” itself is translated “God” some 250 times and frequently in circumstances which especially indicate the great power of God.

For instance, Num 23:22, God is spoken of as the “EL” who brought Israel up out of Egypt.“He has as it were the strength of a unicorn,” literally, a wild ox.

The Scriptures make very much of God’s mighty Arm in that great deliverance. So, in the next verse follows, “It shall be said of Jacob and Israel, what hath “God,” “EL,” wrought?”

Deut 10:17, “JEHOVAH your ELOHIM is God of gods and Lord of lords. “The God,” or “EL,” Who is great, mighty, and dreadful.”

It is this word “EL” which is used in that great Name “Almighty God,” the Name under which God made great and many promises to Abraham and Jacob, Gen 17:1, 35:11. It is also one of the names given to the Promised Son and Messiah of Israel. Isa 9:6, 7, “God, the Mighty.”

Thus, from this derivation, “ELOHIM” may be said to express the general idea of greatness and glory.

In the name “JEHOVAH,” as we shall see more fully, are represented those high moral attributes of God which are displayed only to rational creatures.

The name “ELOHIM,” however contains the idea of creative and governing power, of omnipotence, and sovereignty. This is clearly indicated by the fact that Genesis 1:1 to Gen 2:4, the word “ELOHIM” alone is used, and that 35 times.

“Elohim” – The Meaning of the Word – Part Two

It is the “ELOHIM” by His mighty power Who creates the vast universe, Who says and it is done, Who brings into being what was not. “By Whose Word the worlds were framed. So that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear,” Heb 11:3.

It is this “ELOHIM” with whose Greek equivalent Paul confronts the philosophers on Mars Hill saying, “He made the world (COSMOS) and all things” and by this very fact is constituted Possessor and Ruler of Heaven and Earth, Whose presence cannot be confined by space, Whose power doesn’t need man’s aid. ”For through His great will and power and agency all things and nations have their very being.”

It is most appropriate by this Name, God should reveal Himself. Bringing COSMOS out of chaos, light out of darkness, habitation out of desolation, and life in His image. This is our ELOHIM..

“This is Your ELOHIM”

There is another word from which the word “ELOHIM” is derived. It is “ALAH,” which is said to mean to declare or swear.

Thus, it is said to imply a covenant relationship. Before examining this derivation, however, it may be will to say that in either case, whether “EL” or “ALAH,” the idea of omnipotence in God is expressed. To make a covenant implies power and the right to do so, and it establishes the fact of “absolute authority in the Creator and Ruler of the universe.”

So, the “ELOHIM” is seen making a covenant with Abraham, and because there is no greater, He swears by Himself. ”By Myself I have sworn.”

Gen 17, we see a combination of both of these derivations. Gen 17:1, “I am the Almighty God,” “EL SHADDAI” walk before Me, and be thou perfect.”

Gen 17:7,“I will establish My covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be to thee “ELOHIM” and to thy seed after thee.” That is, to be with them in covenant relationship.

It is the “ELOHIM” who says to Noah, “the end of all flesh is come before Me.”

But He cannot completely destroy the work of His hands concerning which He has made a covenant and so He continues, “But with thee will I establish My covenant,” Gen 6:18. “And the bow shall be in the cloud and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh,” Gen 9:15,16.

That is your ELOHIM!

“The Meaning of Your ELOHIM”

The “ELOHIM” remembers Abraham when He destroys the cities of the plain and for His covenant’s sake spares Lot.

Joseph on his death bed declares to his brothers, “I die, but “ELOHIM” will surely visit you and bring you up out of this land unto the land which He sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob,” Gen 50:24.

He is the “ELOHIM” who keeps covenant and lovingkindness with His servants who walk before Him with all their heart,” 1 Kings 8:23.

With regard to Israel, over and over again it is written, “I shall be unto you for “ELOHIM” and you shall be unto Me for a people.”

The covenant element in the Name is clearly seen because of God’s covenant relationship to Israel. This is especially brought out in such passages as Jer 31:33 and 32:40 where the name “ELOHIM” is used in connection with the new covenant, an everlasting covenant which God will one day make with His people Israel when He will put His law and His fear within their hearts.

To Israel in distress comes the word, “Comfort ye, comfort ye, My people, said your “ELOHIM,” Isa 40:1, for the eternal God who covenants for and with them and keeps His covenant.

Next time, the plural form of the word “ELOHIM.”

“KURIOS”

My Lord is my Redeemer.
My Lord is a gracious King.
My Lord is a loving Friend.
My Lord is my Brother.

My Lord died for me.
My Lord cares for me.
My Lord intercedes for me.
My Lord will never leave me.

My Lord is coming for me.
My Lord has prepared a place for me.
My Lord has a mansion for me.
My Lord will never forsake me.

My Lord provides for me.
My Lord comforts me.
My Lord loves me.
My Lord upholds me.

What is your Lord like?

“Your ELOHIM” – The Plural Form

There is one other striking peculiarity in the Name “ELOHIM.” It is in the plural. It has the usual ending for all masculine nouns in the plural. The ending is plural, “IM.”

”ELOHIM” is a Name given in the Scriptures for the Trinity by which They represent Themselves, as under the obligation of an oath to perform certain conditions.

According to this definition, “ELOHIM” covenanted not only with the creation, but as the Godhead within Itself concerning the creation. This is seen in Psalm 110 where David says concerning his Lord, the coming Anointed One, or Messiah, “The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent. Thou art a Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

This is, of course, as the Book of Hebrews confirms, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,the First and the Last, the eternally begotten Son of God, the Object of God’s love before the foundation of the world, John 17:24. Who shared God’s glory before the world was, John 17:5. Col 1:16 tells us “That by Him or in Him were all things created.”

But creation is the act of the “ELOHIM,” therefore, Christ is in the “ELOHIM,” or Godhead. The entire creation, animate and inanimate, was, then, not only the work of the “ELOHIM,” but the object of a covenant within the “ELOHIM” guaranteeing its redemption and perpetuation.

Accordingly, “JEHOVAH” is at the beginning of creation called “ELOHIM,” which implies that the Divine Persons had sworn when They created.

It is significant that although “plural” in form, it is constantly accompanied by verbs and adjectives in the “singular.” In the very first verse in Genesis, the verb “create” is singular, and so all through the chapter and indeed through the Bible.

This is your ELOHIM.

Friday, June 22, 2001

“The Plural of ELOHIM”

In many places, as in Deut 32:39, Isa 45:5, 22, we find “singular pronouns.” “I am “ELOHIM” and there is no “ELOHIM” beside Me.” Other places in the Scriptures, 2 Kings 19:4,16, Psa 7:9, 57:2, use adjectives in the singular with “ELOHIM.”

In contrast with this, when the word “ELOHIM” is used of heathen gods, plural adjectives are used, as in Sam 4:8.

Then again, this one “ELOHIM” speaks of Himself as “Us” in Gen 1:26. “Let Us make man in Our image.”

In Gen 3:22, when it speaks of man becoming like one of Us.

In Gen 11:7, God says “Let Us go down and confound their language.”

Gen 35:7, Jacob builds an altar at Bethel calling it “EL BETH EL,” the God of the house of God, because there the “ELOHIM” revealed Themselves to him.

Ecc 12:1, “Remember thy Creators,” plural not singular.

To the sovereign Lord of the universe, the JEHOVAH of hosts, whom Israel saw exalted high up on a throne, is ascribed the threefold holy, and that same One from the throne calls to the prophet, “Whom shall I send and who will go for Us?”

“The Plurality of ELOHIM”

There are some who object to the idea of the Trinity in the word “ELOHIM,” and they say that the plural is only a plural of majesty such as used by rulers and kings. Among them is John Calvin.

But such use of the plural was not known then. We find no king of Israel speaking of himself as “we” and “us.” Besides, the singular pronoun is so often used with “ELOHIM.” To be consistent with that view, we shall always find not “I am your ELOHIM,” as we do find, but “We are your ELOHIM.”

Others call it the plural of intensity and argue that the Hebrew often expressed a word in the plural to give it a stronger meaning. So blood, water, life are expressed in the plural. The use of the plural only implies, even in the plural of majesty, that the word in the singular is not full enough to set forth all that is intended.

With “ELOHIM,” the plural form teaches that no finite word can adequately convey the idea of the infinite Personality of the unity of Persons in the Godhead.

Certainly the use of this word in the plural is wonderfully consistent with that great and precious Doctrine of the Trinity and its use in the Old Testament surely must confirm that idea.

There is blessing and comfort in this great Name of God signifying supreme power, sovereignty, and glory on the one hand for “Thine, “ELOHIM” is the power and the kingdom and the glory.” And on the other hand, signifying a covenant relationship which He is ever faithful to keep.

Thus He says to us, “I will be to you a God (“ELOHIM”), and we may say, “My God (“ELOHIM”), in Him will I trust,” Psa 91:2.

We get a better understanding of Who and What God is by breaking down these compound names of God.

Does Your Faith Keep You Happy?

Psa 137, in the first four verses we see physically what takes place emotionally with Christians today. Here are the Jews in captivity. And they say, “By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down, yea, and wept when we remembered Zion.” In other words, they had been made captive in Babylon. They were in Babylon and not where God wanted them to be.

They were not in Zion. They were remembering Zion. But because they were in Babylon, in a strange place they wept. They said, “We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.”

That which should produce joy, they hung on the willows, which speaks of weeping, the weeping willows. “For there they carried us away captive required of us a song, and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.” Those that had captured them wanted the children of Israel to sing a song of Zion.

Notice what they say. “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” When you are in a spiritual condition or place in which your soul is overwhelmed, where there is no joy, where there is no peace, where there is no refreshing, where there is a void within your soul, and you hunger after something, you are in a strange place for a Christian.

God said if you had believed in Him you would rejoice. If you believed on the Lord you would never thirst.

The reason the captives of Babylon, the Jewish captives, could not sing, the reason they had no joy was that they were separated from where God wanted them to be, from their land. They were in a strange land.

The reason that we can not sing sometimes, the reason we thirst, the reason we hunger, the reason there is no joy, is that we are in a strange land. The strange land of a Christian is any place out of the fellowship with the Lord.

”He that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.”

The joy of believing.

“Hear Me Speedily, O Lord. My Spirit Faileth. Hide Not Thy Face From Me, Lest I be Like Unto Them That Go Down Into the Pit,” Psalm 143:7.

Notice what the psalmist wanted, and what he needed – to get back so there would be joy and peace and assurance in his soul.

In the first verse he said, “Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplication. In Thy faithfulness answer me and in Thy righteousness.” He wanted to be certain that God was watching Him. He wanted to be certain that God was listening to him. He needed that.

Notice in this verse he said, “In Thy faithfulness answer me.” Remember that although we don’t believe, “Yet He abideth faithful. He can not deny Himself.” Our faithlessness does not affect His faithfulness. While we may be faithless, while we may fail the Lord, the Lord will not fail us.

Too many of us, I am afraid, contribute to God the weaknesses of our own selves.

Also David said, “and in Thy righteousness,” not in his righteousness, God answers prayer.

Answered prayer is based upon first, the Grace of God; secondly the justice of God; thirdly, the righteousness of God; and fourthly the faithfulness of God. Let us never forget those. How we need to understand them.

Yes, David said, “Hear me speedily, O Lord, my spirit faileth. Hide not Thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.” David wanted to be certain that God was watching over him. He wanted to be certain that he was under the watchcare of the Lord.

What do we find in 1 Pet 3:12, “For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and His ears are open to their prayers.”

“Depression”

Maybe you are despondent. You might be in a depressive condition. You might feel that all has failed. You have failed yourself. You are conscious of your weakness. You have no one to turn to. You have asked people to help you and they have tried and they have been unable to help you. Why is there this terrible desolate condition within you?

Now wait a minute. Is it something you have done? Your mind is upon yourself. You recognized you have failed. You have failed yourself. You have failed your family. You have failed your friends. And, of course, you have failed God. And now you feel God is going to fail you.

You are a born-again believer. This is addressed to only those who are born again, only to those who are Christians. This does not apply to a lost soul. It is only for the Christian.

A woman was depressed and killed her five children.

When you were born from above, you were born anew. You were created a new creation in Christ, entirely a new creation. You are now sons of God and heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.

You belong to the household of God. You are His son or daughter. He is your heavenly Father. His eye is ever upon you and His ear is ever open to your cry.

But you have to cry out to Him even as David did, realizing and knowing very definitely that He will answer your prayer. He will answer your prayer because He is faithful and righteous. Now can you understand that?

Let us not contribute to God man’s weakness and man’s reaction to other people. When someone does something to us, we sometimes react wrong. We feel hurt. We feel that we are not going to have anything more to do with them. Therefore, when we do something wrong, we feel God does the same things. We feel that God is not going to have anything more to do with us because we have failed Him.

God knows we are but dust. He understands our frame and He knows our weaknesses.

The psalmist wanted to know that God heard his prayer. He wanted to be certain that the Lord was watching him and was concerned about him. ”Cause me to hear Thy lovingkindness in the morning.”

The psalmist wanted to be reminded of God’s love when He began the day. “I will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Me.” ”The peace of God will guard your hearts and minds.”

“Fight the Good Fight of Faith, Lay Hold on Eternal Life, Whereunto Thou Art Also Called, and Hast Professed a Good Profession Before Many Witnesses,” 1 Timothy 6:12.

Literally, “struggle the good struggle of the faith.” Christian warfare.

1. The fight is on.
   A. It is a defensive fight, Eph 6:12.
   B. An aggressive fight, 2 Cor 10:4-5.
   
2. It is a good fight.
   A. Our cause is good, Jude 3.
   B. Our weapons are good, Eph 6:17-18.
   
3. It is a fight of faith.
   A. The source of faith, Rom 10:16-17.
   B. The shield of faith, Eph 6:16.
   

“Cause Me to Hear Thy Lovingkindness in the Morning,” Psalm 143:8.

This is something we all need. The psalmist wanted to reminded of God’s love when he began the day. He wanted to hear of God’s love for him. If there is one thing a Christian needs more than anything else it is to begin each day conscious of God’s love for himself. The psalmist wanted to hear first of God’s love.

How true that is today. If we would just begin each day conscious of the love of God for us, we would be much happier through the day. Wake up in the morning and start off the day conscious of God’s love.

The ministry of the Word of God and the spreading of the Word of God is that we are trying to bring out each morning some factor or feature of God’s love for His children. If we are conscious of His love for us, a great joy comes into our souls.

”Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

“For in Thee Do I trust, Cause Me to Know the Way Wherein I Should Walk, For I Lift Up My Soul Unto Thee,” Psalm 143:8.

He wanted to be reminded each morning of God’s love for him because he was trusting God. You can try to trust somebody, but if they don’t love you, you don’t have any assurance. You just have a blind hope.

For a person to trust the Lord and to have any joy through that trust, he must be conscious of God’s love for him.

”Cause me to hear Thy lovingkindness in the morning.” Why? “For in Thee do I trust.”

He said, I am trusting you Lord. Let me hear more about Your love. Because the more I hear of Your love, the more faith I have, the more joy I have, the more contentment and satisfaction I have instead of worrying.

“Cause Me to Know the Way Wherein I Should Walk, For I Lift Up My Soul Unto Thee,” Psalm 143:8.

Now that he was conscious of God’s love for him, he wanted to walk the way the Lord wanted him to walk. “Walk in love.”

”Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall direct thy paths.” How true that is. ”And shall supply the desires of thine heart.”

Let us never forget that. If we will acknowledge the Lord in our decisions, He will direct our paths the way He wants us to go.

Our heart will be filled with love for the Lord because of His love for us. If you begin each morning conscious that God is concerned about you, that His eye is upon you, that His ear is open to your cry, ever ready to help you, and you will remind yourself each morning to begin the day conscious of God, you are going to find that you will want to walk the way He wants you to walk. And if you want to walk that way, He will certainly show you the right way to go.

But, too many of us are not interested in God’s way. “There is a way that seemeth right unto man. But the ways there are the ways of death.”

Saturday, June 23, 2001

Psalm 143:11, “Quicken Me, O Lord, For Thy Name’s Sake, For Thy Righteousness’ Sake, Bring My Soul Out of Trouble.”

To walk the way God wants us to walk, notice this verse, “Bring my soul out of trouble.” But before his soul could be brought out of trouble, we find this, “Teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God. Thy Spirit is good. Lead me into the land of uprightness.”

There is your answer. He was in a strange land. He was in a thirsty land, a strange land for the psalmist. He wanted to be led into the land of uprightness, and therefore, through the righteousness of God, His soul would be brought out of trouble. The land of uprightness is the land where there is no pretense. There are so many people today living a life of pretense. That is not the land of uprightness.

Walk with your head up high knowing that God loves you, knowing that God is concerned about you. He knows all about your soul. He knows the battle, the warfare within you.

Walk uprightly looking up to the Lord. “The Lord God is a Sun and a Shield and He gives Grace and glory, there is no good thing He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”

”If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness,” 1 John 1:9.

Walking uprightly is walking in fellowship with the Lord.

Is Life Really Worth Living?

Ecc 2:9, “So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem, also my wisdom remained with me, and whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from them. I withheld not my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor and this was the portion of all my labor.”

A lot of people are distressed for the wrong reason. They forget that material possessions of this world do not guarantee a happy life.

We find in this passage that Solomon was a great man. He was a very wealthy man. He was a very wise man. Solomon was the richest man on Earth. Here is a man who obtained everything he wanted. He was greater than anyone. He had more wealth than anyone. He didn’t deny himself anything that he saw that he wanted.

He had everything he could possibly dream of. But we find in Ecc 2:11, “Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor I had labored to do, and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit and there was no profit under the sun.”

And in verse 17, the conclusion, “Therefore, I hated life.” Here was a man that was very wealthy, very powerful. There was no joy that he had not experienced. He didn’t withhold anything from himself. Anything he wanted he took. He could take it and he did.

”I hated life, because the work that it wrought under the sun is grievous unto me. For all is vanity and vexation of spirit.”

We find that our Lord said that “man’s life does not consist of the abundance of the things which he possesses.” The trouble is, we put too much emphasis and two much importance on possessions and not enough on relationship and accomplishment.

For our life to be worth living, we must have a sense of accomplishment. You are a Christian, and for your life to be worth living, we must have a sense of accomplishment.

Don’t you realize that every born-again child of God has achieved the greatest accomplishment that man could possibly attain to in this world? You have accomplished the greatest feat known to man. You have accomplished that which mankind has been searching and seeking and striving for ever since the dawn of history.

”The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ.”

“Is Life Worth Living?”

In Rom 3:23 we find that you and I as children of God have accomplished this. “For all have sinned” – that means to miss the mark – “and come short of the glory of God.” Now here we come to something.

”Being justified” – that means being declared righteous, which means right with. “Freely” is the Greek word “DORIAN,” meaning without cause.

”By His Grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

What do we see here? We find that we who have put our trust in the Lord are in a right relationship with Him because we find in Rom 3:25, “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood.”

Everyone who has trusted the Lord has been declared righteous by God, and to be declared righteous means “righteous with.” We have been pardoned. We have complete pardon. We have been declared right with Him.

Rom 4:5, “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”

Do you see that? You and I are putting our trust in the Lord are now in a right relationship with God. Mankind has been trying to accomplish that from the very dawn of history, yet there is but one way and that is through faith in Jesus Christ.

You are children of God. You who are trusting the Lord, are now in a right relationship with God because God counts faith for righteousness.

The greatest of all accomplishments is a relationship with God.

Christianity is a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.

“Prove All Things, Hold Fast That Which is Good,” 1 Thessalonians 5:21

Many bridges over which the evolutionists have never crossed

1. The bridge of mathematics.
2. The bride of articular speech.
3. The bridge of invention.
4. The bridge of man’s body.
5. The bridge of morphology.
6. The bridge of resurrection.
7. The bridge of moral character.
8. The bridge of conscience.
9. The bridge of man’s influence.
10. The bridge of man’s spiritual nature.
11. The bridge of the new birth.
12. The bridge of immortality.

Details to follow.

Evolutionists Have Never Crossed the Bridge of Resurrection

God has given to man the promise of the resurrection of the body. This is a bridge over which the evolutionists have not crossed. For this promise does not extend to the animal world.

These bodies of ours, though blackened by sin, may, by rearrangement through resurrection power, be “changed into the likeness of His own glorious body.”

In the Book of Revelation, the risen Christ, the One on the throne, “was like unto a jasper,” a translucent stone, symbolic of the pristine holiness of God. ”And every one that hath this hope in Him, purifieth himself even as He is pure.”

There are those who hold to the immortality of the soul, but not necessarily to the resurrection of the body. Modernists in any day, evolutionists in our day, and the Greeks in Paul’s day are all in agreement here. ”And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked,” Acts 17:32.

The resurrection of the body is not the result of biological evolution, but the direct result of the finished work of Christ. Neither do they share in the victory of Christ’s resurrection, for the promise is not to them.

The bridge of the resurrection has never been crossed, except as the power of Christ shall raise us from the dead. What added incentives to purity of life!

Many Bridges Evolutionists Have Never Crossed!

The bridge of morphology

Consider the posture of all animals. They are so constructed that they look to man. But man is so constructed that he looks to God. His knees are bent to pray! Think by way of contrast, of the hind leg of the horse, the cow, the giraffe.

Moreover, man’s hands can fold in prayer. His eyelids close in reverence, as seeing Him who is invisible. The body of man is made essentially to be the temple of the Holy Spirit, and so it is when he is thus indwelt. His body becomes the instrument of the Holy Spirit and obeys the commands of the Holy Spirit.

The word “ANTHROPOS” from which we get the term anthropology, actually means, “the one with the upward look.” Anthropology says, “Man stands erect with his eyes on the horizon.” The Bible-believing man says, “I will look up.”

The bridge of morphology has not been crossed, for to man is given the distinction of spiritual worship. The cat, the dog, the sheep look up to man. The cow, the horse, the mule looks over to man. The elephant, the giraffe, and the eagle look down to man. He is the steward of God’s creation and to him is given “the power to have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all Earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the Earth,” Gen 1:26.

Man’s long swift legs enable him to jump astride a horse, his nimble fingers enable him to milk the cow, his keen ears help him detect the serpent in the bush, his sharp eyes enable him to see the distant fowl.

What if he had been handicapped with the cloven hoof of the ox, the impossible legs of the fowl, an arm like a wing, or a mouth like a beak? The Creator’s power, love, and wisdom is displayed in the very physical endowment He gave to man.

“What is man that Thou art mindful of him?”

The Many Bridges the Evolutionists Cannot Cross

The bridge of man’s spiritual nature

Animals do not sin, but men sin. All men sin. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

If animals evolve, do they evolve to become sinners? Do they evolve to blaspheme? Do they evolve to slay the Son of God?

Sin brought Christ to the Cross of Calvary.

Animals were slain in Old Testament times to foreshadow the Christ on the Cross. And in the typological sense, shed their blood for the sins of men. But no man’s blood was ever shed to atone for the animals’ sins. If all men are sinners, and no animals ever have sinned, why should animals evolve into sinners?

The Truth of the matter is, we must find the Bible’s explanation of sin. Man made in the image of God wandered away from God, and in disobedience brought sin into the world.

Animals suffer because of man’s sin. And God suffers because of man’s sin.

Sunday, June 24, 2001

Many Bridges Evolutionists Can’t Cross

The bridge of man’s influence

This one is in the moral realm. The bridge of man’s influence, however faint, still lives on though the centuries may come and go.

”Abel, being dead, yet speaketh.” Animals being dead, do not speak.

How far reaching in all the world through all ages is not the influence of Abraham? Imagination can hardly sweep that great area. Great religions and historic movements – Judaism, Christianity, Mohammedanism, Zionism – all these are influenced by his mighty life.

What animal ever had such an effect? What part of brute creation can ever get into the realm of man’s influence and rate at all?

Think of the influence of the Lord Jesus Christ. While we stoutly proclaim His Deity and teach His Saviourhood, we are none the less impressed by famous statements that have been made about Him from time to time by men who have regarded His influence as the most outstanding thing in all the world.

In the light of Romans 6:16, think of the examples of Lenin and Stalin on the one hand and of the influence of the servants of righteousness like the apostle Paul on the other hand.

Was there ever a beast or a bird or a fish or a creeping thing of the Earth that influenced anything or anyone?

Rom 6:16, “Know ye not that to whom ye yield your members servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness.”

Many Bridges Evolutionists Cannot Cross

The bridge of the new birth

No animal can cross it. And no evolutionist feels the need to cross it. “Ye must be born again” means the receiving of a new nature, not the evolving of the old nature.

”Old things are passed away, all things are become new.” In evolution, all things do not pass away. Much of the old nature remains.

In evolution, all things do not become new, just a few minor variations so infinitesimally small that it takes millions of years for them to occur. And they cannot be recorded in less than millions of years.

No evolutionist can sing, “O happy day, that fixed my choice.” Because in his way of thinking, choices are just not made in a day. They cover billions of years.

The man who has been “born again” knows that at the moment he received the gift of life in Jesus Christ, that moment “He was a new creature in Christ.” The old disposition, the old ambitions, the old appetites disappear, and the new life in Christ took over.

Many Bridges Evolutionists Cannot Cross

The bridge of conscience

This has been defined as “the voice of God in the soul.”

What conscience dictated to be done
Help me, O Lord, to do
Help me this more than hell to shun
And more than Heaven pursue.

No animal ever prayed that prayer because he is incapable of it. Here is the sensitive governor in a man’s mortal nature that at no price should we allow to slip. We are not saved by keeping our conscience, but we are spared. When conscience no longer speaks, then man becomes a scourge. This is true on any level, but doubly true in public life.

Man, at best, is distinguished from the beast in that God has given him a conscience.

Many Bridges Evolutionists Cannot Cross

The bridge of moral character

Moral beauty is ever more appealing than that which is produced by physical harmony. It is as priceless as it is true, and only man can know it. Only man can break the law. The moral laws of God are as real as his physical laws.

Man’s disregard of the moral law brings unhappiness, misery, and degradation. Only man can display moral courage. This is because to him has been given the quality of moral character, the bridge the evolutionists cannot cross.

Animals do not sin, neither do they practice virtue. They are not immoral, or non-moral.

Theodore Roosevelt had character, but a Judas is too tragic a sight. No animal stoops to the level of a perverted man. Nor does the animal rise to the height of a godly man.

“But to Him That Worketh Not, But Believeth on Him That Justifieth the Ungodly, His Faith is Counted for Righteousness,” Romans 4:5

When you put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are recognizing within yourself your complete dependence on Him. And when you do that, God counts that for righteousness. That means rightness with God. Therefore, He declares you righteous. Therefore, you are in a right relationship with God, which is the greatest accomplishment that man can achieve or ever has achieved since the beginning of the dawn of man’s history.

You talk about the atomic bomb. You talk about nuclear physicists who accomplish great things. What is that? When they die, they close their eyes here, and they leave it all behind.

The greatest thing in the world is for a man to get back in a right relationship with God so that when he passes on out of this old world, he goes straight home to be with the Lord. That is the number one priority – being children of God, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.God watches over us and supplies all our needs.

So, there is a sense of accomplishment. We as children of God have accomplished the greatest of all achievements that man can possibly attain, and that is getting back in a right relationship with the Lord.

”He made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him,” 2 Cor 5:21.

”Abraham believed in God and it was counted unto him for righteousness,” Gen 15:6.

Many Bridges Evolutionists Can Never Cross

The bridge of articulate speech

The bridge over which no crossing is made is the bridge of articulate speech. What kind of world would this be if a dog could talk and tell some of the secrets on his master?

Suppose tortured horses could talk back to their owners or wild game talk back to their huntsman? A wise Creator has made them silent in that respect. That is why we refer to them as dumb animals.

The mimicry sometimes evinced due to muscular reactions in parakeets and parrots has no relation to the gift of speech that marks the human race as different. The vocal gesture which is a characteristic of man which dichotomizes the world of human beings.

The Bible refers to God as a speaking God. Jesus Christ is called the Word of God. Our business as Christians is to get out the Word of God. God has so constructed the universe as to be a vehicle for the conveying of words.

Are we getting the Word out?

Whatever may be said for doves cooing and monkeys chattering, or the larger beasts calling for their mates, none of them have articulate speech, which they can spell, write down in books, translate for other generations to read, nor can they deliver orations, write poetry, or publish a paper.

This is the gift of God to man, made in His image. To think that men will use the wondrous gift of speech to deny the Creator, or to blaspheme His Name, seems the height of ingratitude.

Man not only talks to man, but in prayer he talks to God. Speech is the vocalizing of thoughts. Animals do not think philosophies or dramas or theologies, or meditations, and therefore are not in need of giving expression to such matters.

But man, endowed by His Creator to use his mind for these great ends, is not deprived of ways to communicate them. In this respect, he reflects the image of God.

”God gave the Word and great was the company that published it!”

Monday, June 25, 2001

Many Bridges Evolutionists Never Cross

The bridge of invention

Technology is a science that pertains to man’s inventive genius.

Birds may build nests, and beavers build dams, and foxes have holes into which they creep, but they do not break up the pattern. The robin builds the same kind of nest year after year, so does the wren, so does the meadowlark. But robins do not build new models of nests year after year. Nor does the wren, nor does the meadowlark.

Generations back, there were men on the Nebraska prairies who built sod houses, and later when the railroads came, there were men who changed from using sod to railroad ties, building sturdy walls out of them. It was not long before brick came into use and the old pattern gave way to the new. Today bricks are going out of style being replaced by the more up to date “building blocks” of glass, and what tomorrow’s modern houses will look like is anybody’s guess.

Man with his creative genius can build any sort of device. He can inaugurate new patterns. It has been said, “What man can imagine, man can do.” In other words, not just “necessity,” but imagination is the mother of invention.

The bridge of invention has never been crossed from the animal kingdom to that of the man. A dog may bark over a microphone. But he cannot invent one. The horse may neigh for a tape recorder, or paw for a tape, but he can neither invent the recorder nor the tape.

Man can invent space ships and take photographs of the far side of the moon. He can build freeways and go breezing along at 80 miles an hour until the radar patrol stops him. The whole fantastic world of modern science is due to man’s inventive skills.

Christ is the Creator – and there is a sense in which man reflects something of this in his own nature. Animals are not made in the image of the Creator, neither do they build factories or laboratories or patent offices.

Even the savage Indian made bows and arrows, tomahawks, and feathered headdress, but no buffalo cut out a spear, and no wild turkey ever used a slingshot. They remain as they are endowed and that is all.

”The birds have nests and the foxes have holes, but the Son of man hath no where to lay His head.”

Many Bridges Evolutionists Can’t Cross

The bridge of man’s body

Here is a bridge over which none have crossed, and that is the substance of man’s body. No scientific formula could ever be more than the Scripture which says, “All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds,” 1 Cor 15:39.

The most abominable practice conceivable is that of cannibalism, the eating of human flesh. Only degradation can allow for that, and that in secret. Cannibals do not eat human flesh openly.

In teaching of the Scripture we learn the human race is one. “And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the Earth and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation,” Acts 17:26.

Science teaches us the same thing. The blood plasma bank has taught us that. All human blood is human blood.

The flesh of the cow, the blood of the goat, the chromosome number of the monkey, the blubber of the whale, the temperature of the fish – none of these have any relation to the structure of man’s body. No blood transfusion works between man and beast, fowl, or fish.

In the incarnation, Jesus Christ identified Himself with the human race. “He took upon Himself a human body and a reasonable soul.”

Many Bridges Evolutionists Can Never Cross

The bridge of mathematics

When you think of the mathematical structure of the universe, and are impressed by the thought that a Master Mind must have brought it into being, we remind ourselves that the Bible says that man was made in the image of God.

How would he reflect that image? Certainly by having some of the attributes of his Maker. This mysterious universe speaks of God as the Divine Mathematician. Astronomy is crystallized mathematics.

We read carefully the entire development of the science of mathematics. The best series of volumes issued by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Then there were the mathematical popularizers, such as “mathematics for millions,” or “men and mathematics.” And there are courses in Pythagorean philosophy based on the religion of pure number, and the effects and limitations of languages that were without our roman numeral designations, decimal points, multiplication, and division signs, etc.

It appears more and more wondrous that the mind of man was so marvelously endowed, that long before the present day devices that simplify mathematics, the ancients were actually more profound in their grasps of the meanings of mathematics than many moderns are today. The ancients came within a few miles of measuring the Earth’s size. They calculated calendars, they knew many principles of physics, hoisting stones, building temples without the use of rulebooks.

What animal ever approached anything like this?

The men who go farthest in mathematics go the farthest in science today. No bird or fish or beast or crawling reptiles has any aptitude for this sort of thing.

Here is a bridge between man and animals over which no one crosses.

Finally, the Bridge Over Which No Evolutionist Ever Crosses

The bridge of immortality

Man alone longs for immortality. This is a golden thread woven through the ages of his existence, enabling life, becoming the spur of conscience.

”God has set eternity in their minds.”

The incentive for virtue, evoking nobility of life, hope in the uncertain tomorrow, and providing the basis for faith in reunion with kindred spirits beyond the grave. “This mortal must put on immortality.”

This is the covering glory of the spiritual life of man. Some day the storms of life shall be over for God’s redeemed man. He shall see the light of the eternal dawn break upon his course. The glories of the blissful haven shall enwrap his soul in the splendor of the glow that never fades. “He shall be satisfied when he awakes in the likeness of his Saviour.”

No animal longs for the world of the redeemed. What song of redemption would the brute sing, who never knew redemption? What chord of praise would emanate from created beings who never knew the meaning of Grace?

The true evolutionist does not seek redemption for, according to his views, he has never fallen. If he ever fell, “it was upward.” He has always climbed, though it has taken him a long time to get where he is. How far has he come? Well, he has no authoritative Bible.He has no Divine Redeemer. He has no Gospel. He has no fellowship with the “twice born.”

Plodding always plodding, steadily onward, the true evolutionists has come as far as Julian Huxley, who thinks religion has run its course. He has come as far as Bertrand Russell, who claims he can get along very well without the Christian message.

But just how far have these men come? Actually, they have not advanced, but retrogressed. They have descended to the same level as a former generation whose record is found in Romans chapter one, and whose evil example has been duplicated time and again in human history. Concerning such Paul wrote, “For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the Truth in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known of God is manifested in them, for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,” Rom 1:18-20.

Paul warned in his second letter to Timothy, “For the time will come they will not endure sound Doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the Truth, and shall be turned into fables,” 2 Tim 4:3-4.

The wisdom of man is foolishness with God. And God has said, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” 1 Cor 1:19-20.

How marvelous is the fact that God in His longsuffering still offers salvation to men. “It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe,” 1 Cor 1:21.

”And so we continue to teach Christ crucified, Who is the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

”Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved,” Acts 4:12.

Isaiah 32:17, “And the Work of Righteousness Shall be Peace, and the Effect of Righteousness Quietness and Assurance For Ever”

If life is going to be worth living at all, it must not be influenced by the sins of yesterday. “Forgetting those things which are behind.”

When we realize that we are right with God, that God counts us righteous, then we have this passage in Isaiah. When we realize that in the face of sins, God has declared us righteous, the work of that righteousness should be peace, assurance, and quietness in our souls.

But the trouble is we permit our mistakes of yesterday to influence our lives today.

Heb 10:15-17, “Whereof the Holy Spirit also is a Witness to us, for after He had said before.” Notice it. ”This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”

That means that God has forgotten our sins. He has forgotten them. After you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, as far as God is concerned, you have never sinned.

He has forgotten all of your mistakes, all of your weaknesses, and all of your sins of yesterday. He has forgotten them.

“Not as though I have already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended.”

Now notice this, “But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those these which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus,” Phil 3:13.

Paul said he was not perfect. While he recognized that he wasn’t as he wanted to be, he recognized that he had not achieved all that he wanted to do. So far as his personal life was concerned, he had not laid hold of God as greatly as he wanted to. He recognized that he was not perfect in his life.

He was perfect positionally, but not in his walk, even as you and I know we are not. But he says this, “But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, I press on.”

“Remember Lot’s Wife”

Lot’s wife never did reach safety. She never reached the place that God intended her to. Because of Phil 3:13, “Forgetting those things which are behind.” Because she looked back at the place where Lot’s mistakes and hers were. She looked back.

That is the trouble today with so many of God’s children that they are not enjoying the Christian way of life as they should. They are not getting anything out of prayer. They are not getting anything out of their relationship with God because they keep looking back at the place of their mistakes.

When the children of Israel were delivered across the Red Sea, they whined and cried every time that trouble came in on the horizon. They said, “Why didn’t you let us die in Egypt?” They kept looking back.

Out of 600,000 footmen only two men went into the Promised Land. The ones that looked back never reached the Promised Land.

Let’s stop looking back and look on. Let us look forward. Let us look up. Forget your mistakes. Thank God that He has made it possible for me to forget my mistakes of yesterday so that I can press on.

There can be no joy in the soul of anyone, no one, as long as he looks back. Let us look forward. Do not let your life today be influenced by your sins of yesterday.

Stop longing for the leeks and garlic of slavery.

God Has a Purpose for Each and Everyone of Us

And we find this in Eph 2:8-10, “For by Grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

The phrase “unto good works” should be “for the purpose of good works.” God has a definite purpose for everyone that was saved. What is it? You tell me what your work is and I can tell you.

”Well, I don’t have any work. I am just a housewife.” You don’t have any work? You are just a housewife? I think that is one of the greatest works we have in this world. You can glorify your heavenly Father by raising your children, by guiding them properly with the help of your husband.

Husbands, you can also fulfill God’s purpose for life which we find in Isa 43:7 – that man was created for His glory. You can glorify God in your work by being just in your dealings toward man and being faithful and loyal to your employer.

Children, you glorify God by fulfilling God’s purpose for you in honoring your mother and father.

Man’s primary purpose for life is to glorify God. So, we can see that life can really be worthwhile living if you trust the Lord completely, not only for your eternity but for your present life.

Tuesday, June 26, 2001

“ADONAI”

The name “ADONAI” is translated in our Bibles by the word “Lord” in small letters only, the first of which is a capital, i.e., “Lord.”

Used as a name of God, “ADONAI” occurs probably some 300 times in the Old Testament. It is significant that it is almost always in the “plural” and “possessive,” meaning “my Lords.”

It confirms the idea of the Trinity as found also in “ELOHIM,” and this is still further confirmed by the fact that the same is used of men some 215 times and translated variously “master,” “sir,” and “lord,” but for the most part, “master” as throughout Gen 24, where Eliezer, the servant of Abraham speaks of “my master Abraham.” And over and over again says, “Blessed be JEHOVAH God of my master Abraham.”

It is important to notice, too, that the same word, “ADONAI,” is translated a number of times by the word “owner,” but used of men it is always in the singular form, “ADON.” Only when used of God is it in the plural.

The suggestion of the Trinity in this name is still more strikingly confirmed by its use in Psalm 110 in these words, “The Lord said unto My Lord,” or “JEHOVAH said unto ADONAI, sit Thou on My right hand till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.”

The Lord Jesus Christ in Matt 22:41-45, Peter in Acts 2:34, 35, and Heb 1:13, 10:12,13 refers this striking passage to Himself.

How significant that David speaking of but one Member of the Trinity should use here not only the plural, “ADONAI,” but the singular form, “ADONAI.”“JEHOVAH said unto my ADONAI,” that is to Christ the second Person of the Trinity.

The name “ADONAI,” while translated “Lord,” signifies ownership or mastership, and indicates the Truth that God is the Owner of each member of the human family and that He consequently claims the unrestricted obedience of all.

The expression “Lord of lords” in Deut 10:17 could be rendered “Master of masters,” an illustration of this name as a claim upon man’s obedience. And service is found in Malachi 1:6. “A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master. If I then be a Father, where is Mine honor? And if I be a Master, where is My fear? saith JEHOVAH of hosts.”

In Job 28:28 it is declared that the fear of “ADONAI,” the Lord, the Master, is wisdom.”

Next time, the use of this word in the Old Testament.

“ADONAI”

The use of the word in the Old Testament.

The use of this name “ADONAI” in the Old Testament plainly reveals the relationship which God sustains toward His creatures and what He expects of them.

The first occasion of its use is with the name “EL-SHADDAI,” is with Abraham in Gen 15:2. In the first verse of the chapter it is written “after these things” that is, after his rescue of Lot and his military achievement of the defeat of the four kings and their armies, where it is revealed that Abraham himself was “lord or master,” “ADON” of a large establishment.

”After these things the Word of JEHOVAH came unto Abram in a vision saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy Shield, and thy exceeding great Reward.”

Abram then makes his reply addressing God as “ADONAI-JEHOVAH,” an acknowledgement that JEHOVAH is also Master. Certainly Abram knew what this relationship meant, perhaps better than we nowadays understand it, for those were days of slavery. Lordship meant complete possession on the one hand, and complete submission on the other.

Abraham himself sustained the relationship of master and lord over a very considerable number of souls. Therefore, in addressing “JEHOVAH” as “ADONAI” he acknowledged God’s complete possession of and perfect right to all that he was and had.

But even Abraham, thousands of years ago, understood by this more than mere ownership, more than the expression and imposition of an arbitrary or capricious will. Even in those days the relationship of master and slave was not altogether or necessarily an unmitigated evil.

The purchased slave stood in a much nearer relationship to his lord than the hired servant, who was a stranger and might not eat of the Passover or the holy things of the master’s house, but the purchased slave, as belonging to his master, and so a member of the family, possessed this privilege. Ex 12:43-45, Lev 22:10-11.

The slave had the right of the master’s protection and help and direction. In the absence of seed, a slave, Eliezer, is heir to Abraham’s entire household. So the psalmist well puts it, ”Behold as the eyes of his servant look unto the hands of their master, and as the eyes of the maiden unto the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God,” Psa 123:2.

”The eyes of all wait upon Thee and Thou givest them their meat in due season,” Psa 145:15.

As “ADONAI” or master or lord, God says to Abraham, “Fear not, Abram, I am thy Shield and exceeding great Reward.” He can depend upon the faithfulness of his Master.

And, we are bondslaves of the Lord.

Wednesday, June 27, 2001

ADONAI ... Lord ...

There are many examples of the use of this Name which well illustrate a truth. Moses, when commissioned to go to Egypt to deliver Israel, addresses God as ADONAI, acknowledging thus God’s right to his life and his service when he replies, “O my Lord (that is ADONAI), I am not eloquent ... I am slow of speech,” Exodus 4:10.

And again he says after God’s reply, “O my Lord (ADONAI), send someone else.”

Then God’s anger kindled against him, against a servant who seeks to evade his responsibility of carrying out the will of his rightful Lord. For God who is never a capricious or unjust Master, does not ask what cannot be performed, and never requires a task for which He does not equip His servants. Thus He assures Moses that He will be His sufficiency for the task.

Exodus 4:11, “And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord?”

ADONAI

“As the eye of the servant looks to the master,” so Joshua in defeat and distress looks for direction to the Lord God who is his ADONAI.

When Gideon is called to deliver the children of Israel from the Midianities, he asks, “O my Lord (ADONAI), wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh and I am the least in my father’s house,” Judges 6:15. Then God gives answer, “Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.”

The name ADONAI is found frequently on the lips of David and in one especially significant passage in this connection, 2 Sam 7:18-20, it appears four times in three verses. To David of humble origin, a shepherd lad, and now king of Israel, God comes and promises to establish his dynasty, his throne, forever.

Overcome by this great promise, he recognizes in it also the promise of Messiah who shall come from his loins. David, king and lord of God’s people, calls God his Lord, coupling it with the name “JEHOVAH.” He acknowledges his humble origin, his own unworthiness, and the goodness and the greatness of God, “the ADONAI,” who has exalted him. And he says, “Who am I, O, ADONAI JEHOVAH?And what is my house that Thou hast brought me hitherto?”

”And what can David say more unto thee?” “For Thou, ADONAI JEHOVAH, knowest Thy servant.”

ADONAI

The psalmists, too, make frequent use of the Name in its proper significance. It is JEHOVAH ADONAI Whose Name is so excellent in all the Earth, Who has put all things under His feet,” Psalm 8.

”He is the ADONAI of the whole Earth,” Psalm 97:5.

”The Earth is bidden to tremble at the presence of the ADONAI,” Psa 114:7.

”ADONAI is above all “ELOHIM” or gods,” Psa 135:5.

As Master or Lord, ADONAI is besought to remember the reproach of His servant, Psa 89:50.

”Mine eyes are unto Thee, O God, the ADONAI.” Psa 141:8 says of the psalmist as of a servant to his Lord, “And he asks ADONAI his Master, to take up his cause and defend him against his enemies,” Psa 109:21-28.

When you study these different names for God, you get a much better understanding of Who and what He really is, which enhances your personal relationship with Him.

Oh! To know Him.

ADONAI

The use of this Name by Isaiah the prophet is especially significant. It is the vision of God as ADONAI, which started him out on his prophetic career, one of the most striking portions of Scripture describes this vision.

It is a time of national darkness for Uzziah, Judah’s great king, had died. Uzziah was the prophet’s king, therefore his “lord and master.” And perhaps his hero too, in spite of his tragic end.

It is then that the young man experiences one of the most solemn and significant visions of Scripture. In the sixth chapter he tells us, “In the year king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord (ADONAI).”

His earthly lord and master died, but what does that matter when “the Lord of lords,” the ADONAI in the Heavens lives and reigns?

This ADONAI is seated upon a throne too, but high and lifted up, above all earthly lords and monarchs, for this ADONAI is also “JEHOVAH of hosts, Whose train fills the temple and Whose glory covers the Earth.”

This ADONAI is surrounded by fiery seraphim who not only cover their eyes before their thrice holy Lord, but with their wings are ready instantly to do His bidding.

Then after the prophet’s confession and cleansing, in preparation for his service, he hears a voice saying., “Whom shall I send and who will go for Us?” This call for service comes from ADONAI, for this is the Name used in verse eight.

The Lord Tests the Disciples for Approval and Service

John 6:5, “When Jesus then lifted up his eyes and saw a great company come unto Him, He saith unto Philip, whence shall we buy bread that these may eat?”

He knew what He was going to do. But He wanted to test Philip, so that Philip would know.

Sometimes testing comes into our lives because the Lord is going to use us. God never tests any of His children unless He is going to use them. What object would He have in testing them?

If you are going through a time of great testing and you are disturbed, you are going to come out victorious, because the Lord is going to use you. That is the reason He tested you. He tested Philip.

God Tests for Approval and Service, John 6:5-9

Notice that Andrew said that there was just a small lad with a few loaves and fishes. But what were those among so many? The Lord could have said, “That is right.” But He didn’t. And now He gives the disciples of His an opportunity to be used by Him.

What would have happened if Christ acted according to the faith of His disciples? Suppose He had said, “That is right. There is not enough. These five barley loaves and two fishes are not enough to feed these people.” Then they would have gone away hungry.

But the Lord never pays any attention to the weak faith of man.

You may be in deep distress, and maybe your friends have tried to help you and have only discouraged you. But that doesn’t mean that the Lord can’t do anything.

What does the Lord do? He gives them an opportunity. He gives them a second chance.

Testing the Disciples for Approval and Service

Christ said “Make the men sit down,” John 6:10. They could have said, “Why make them sit down? We can’t feed them.” But He gives them an opportunity to do something for them. He gives them an opportunity to see a great miracle, and He teaches them a great lesson. And that lesson should be taught and received the same as they did.

John 6:11, “And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed to the disciples and the disciples to them that were set down and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, He said unto His disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments that remain that nothing be lost’.”

What was insignificant to man, God used to meet a great need because, “The Lord had compassion on them.”

ADONAI

In the prophecy of Ezekiel, the name ADONAI JEHOVAH occurs some 200 times. It has added significance here in that the Name occurs in the connection with prophecies not only concerning Israel, but concerning the nations round about. And whether they will or not, over all the peoples of the Earth, it is “Thus saith JEHOVAH who is ADONAI,” and again “Ye shall know” and “They shall know that I am JEHOVAH ADONAI,” Ezek 13:9, 23:49, 24:24, 28:24.

It is “ADONAI JEHOVAH who commands the four winds to breathe upon the dry bones and makes them live,” Ezek 37:9.

The use of this Name is especially notable in Daniel 9, where it occurs 10 times in 17 verses. Daniel is living in the land of Israel’s captivity, whose king is lord or “ADON” over many nations. But only JEHOVAH is the ADONAI of Daniel and his people. This is a chapter of confession of Israel’s faithlessness as God’s servant, hence Daniel addresses God as ADONAI in his prayer for forgiveness and restoration of the people and Jerusalem.

”O ADONAI, the great and dreadful God keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love Him, and to keep them that keep His commandments. We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from Thy precepts and from Thy judgments,” Dan 9:4-5.

Since it is God as Lord and Master whose will they have obeyed, it is He to whom they must address their prayers for forgiveness, for acceptance, for restoration.

Thus it is in verse 19, “O ADONAI, hear; O ADONAI, forgive' O ADONAI, hearken and do, defer not, for Thine own sake, O my God.”

Notice this Old Testament confession. We have sinned and committed iniquity, done wickedly, have rebelled. ”Even by departing from Thy precepts and from Thy judgments.”

Adonai

Throughout the Old Testament those who know God as ADONAI, acknowledge themselves as “servants.” Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are thus spoken of. In Exodus 32:13, over and over again we read, “Moses, My servant,” and “Moses, the servant of the Lord.”

In the same significant passage in which he addresses God as ADONAI a number of times, David the king speaks of himself as “Thy servant.” “I am Thy servant. Give me understanding,” says the psalmist. Psa 119:125.

The word translated “servant” is also “slave.” Thus prophets, priests, kings, all God’s people acknowledged themselves His servants, recognizing His right to command and dispose of them according to His will as the Lord of their lives. It is this which is suggested by the name “Lord” or “ADONAI.”

Next, this Name and its use in the New Testament.

Thursday, June 28, 2001

“Owe No Man Anything But Love”

We are obligated to display love to the human race. But it is not our love that we are to display. We are to display the Lord’s love in two areas – the area of salvation and the area of spirituality.

John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Rom 5:5, “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us.”

We owe them the Gospel – the love of the Gospel. We owe them the Spirit-filled life – “the fruit of the Spirit is love.”

“Adonai” and Its Use in the New Testament

The meaning of “ADONAI” as Lord and Master is carried over into the New Testament. Between two and three centuries before Christ, the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek by a group of Jewish translators at Alexandria in Egypt.

It is interesting to note that they translated the word “ADONAI” in Gen 15:2 as “master” and in the Greek it is “despot.”

”And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt Thou give me seeing I go childless and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?”

In the New Testament, too, it is the word used of men as lord and master in relationship to servants.

It is used hundreds of times of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

“Adonai” and Its Use in the New Testament – Parts 1 and 2

1. We are said not to be of our own. “We have been bought with a price. We belong to God who is our Lord and Master.”
   ”We are therefore, bidden to glorify God in our body and our spirit, which are His,” 1 Cor 6:19-20.
   
   Many Scriptures set forth this relationship to God as His servants. “We are exhorted to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God, holy, and acceptable, and this is our reasonable (spiritual) service,” Rom 12:1.
   
   ”We are to understand what is the will of our Lord, our ADONAI,” Eph 5:17.
   
   Peter calls us, “Children of obedience to Him who has called us,” 1 Pet 1:14-15.
   And, “He is the Master who has bought us,” 2 Pet 2:1.
   
   The use of your “ADONAI,” Lord and Master in the New Testament, which brings meaning and definition and purpose into our lives as Christians.
   
2. A striking illustration of this is found in the life of the apostle Paul. He felt himself to be a zealous servant of the “Lord God” of his fathers, even in his first opposition to and persecution of the Church, believing he was doing God great service.
   
   The first words that fall from his lips on his conversion are, “Lord,” Master, what wilt Thou have me to do?” Acts 9:6.
   
   Like a good servant, he tells us when it pleased God to reveal His Son in him that he might preach Him among the nations. “Immediately he conferred not with flesh and blood.” But he went away in complete surrender to be alone with his Lord, to prepare himself as quickly as possible to do His will. Gal 1:16-17.
   
   He seems to take even a little pride in emphasizing the Lordship of Jesus Christ by calling himself His bondservant or slave, and as such, “He bore in his body the marks of his Lord Jesus,” Gal 6:17.
   
   ”Christ Jesus, my Lord, my Master, my ADONAI, counted me faithful, appointing me to His service,” 1 Tim 1:12.
   
   ”I count not my life dear to myself so that I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus,” Acts 20:24.
   
   ”Whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s ... the Master’s.”
   
   Do you know your Lord, your ADONAI, in this way?
   

Church Age Christian Giving!

In 2 Cor 8 and 9 we find the plan that God has set for the Church as far as giving is concerned in this age. Now, notice something in verse 10. “For if there be first a willing mind, is it accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.”

You are only to give if you want to give.

Just give what you want, because God only accepts that which comes from a willing mind.

”As a man thinketh in his mind, so is he.”

”Guard your mind with all diligence, for out it come the issues of life.”

It doesn’t make any difference how much you give, it may be accepted. But the Lord will not accept it unless it was given with a willing mind.

”For if there first be a willing mind, it is acceptable according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.”

Second, don’t give what you don’t have. How can you do that? It is very easy – by making pledges.

When you make a vow saying you going to give God a thousand dollars this year, do you have a thousand dollars in the bank? No, well then, what right have you to give Him something you don’t have, which is what you are trying to do.

Give only what you have.

Christian Giving in the Church Age!

2 Cor 9:1, “For as touching the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you.”

2 Cor 9:6, “But this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.”

You can’t outgive God, the Giver.

2 Cor 9:7, “Every man according as he purposeth in his mind, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.”

Here again we see that giving is a mental attitude.

1. Willing mind.
2. Purpose in his mind.

You are not to give grudgingly. Only give from a willing mind.

Don’t give because you feel that if you don’t, people in the Church are going to talk about you. God is not going to accept that gift.

”Every man as he purposeth in his mind, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver.”

You don’t have to give a dime. That should be taught continuously. You don’t have to give, and when you do give, don’t give any more than you want to give. You don’t have to give anything.

God only accepts that which comes from a willing mind.

Give what you want to give. Don’t give because you have to give, because you don’t have to give anything. Give only what you have now.

If you will follow the Word of God, you will always be right.

Daily Meditations!

“Meditate in the Word day and night, neither turning to the left or the right and thou shall prosper withersoever thou goest.”

”Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence,” Psa 94:17.

The Hebrew word for “almost” should be translated “quickly.”

”Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had quickly dwelt in silence.”

The psalmist was in a deep pit of despair. There was no cry from his soul because his soul was helpless. A helpless, hopeless, person is one that has no hope, no consciousness of help anywhere. So they just keep quiet.

They find words futile. The psalmist said that if the Lord had not helped him, that this is the way he would have felt. He would have been so helpless and hopeless that he would not have said a word. He would have sat down and given up.

Maybe there are some of you who have reached the point where you don’t say anything anymore. It seems that words are futile. You don’t seem to be able to express yourself. You have experienced distress after distress, despair after despair, confusion and heartaches, until you have reached the point where you have given up. There is no use talking about the situation, you feel.

But notice what David goes on to say, “When I said, My foot slippeth, Thy mercy, O Lord, held me up.”

David said if the Lord had not been his help, he would have given up. But, “God’s mercy helped him.” Mercy is Grace in action.

”In the multitude of my thoughts within me, Thy comforts delight my soul.”

In his deep distress, it was the Word of God that brought comfort to him.

In Psa 119 we find “Remember Thy Word unto Thy servant, upon which Thou has caused me to hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, for Thy Word has quickened me.”

”The Word of God is alive and powerful.”

In Isaiah we find “Comfort ye, comfort ye, My people, saith the Lord.”

There is comfort in the Word of God. So you are not without hope.

Daily Meditations

”I will extol Thee (that is, praise Thee), my God, O King, I will bless Thy Name for ever and ever.”

First he said he was going to praise God. Second, he said, I will bless Thy Name for ever and ever.

Notice that there is praise and blessing only for the Lord.

In the third verse he says, “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable,” Psa 145.

David was entirely wrapped up in the Lord. He had the vision of Christ he should have had. And the vision that each and every one of God’s children should have.

If you have been going to Church but you are still distressed, if you have not found the relief that you need, if there is still a void and emptiness in your soul somewhere, and if you have tried it by doing things or listening to people somewhere, if you have not found contentment, it is because you do not have the right picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Don’t permit yourself to become so involved with a particular Truth, the work you or your group are doing for the Lord, that you forget to praise the Lord.

It is good to be missionary minded.
It is good to be orthodox in Doctrine.
It is good to want to help the poor.

But don’t become so involved with those things that you forget to praise the Lord. Praise and blessing for the Lord should always comes first.

”Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added unto you.”

A Whale of a Story

A teacher in elementary school was teaching all about whales. She said that whales had throats so small they could never swallow a man.

A little girl raised her hand and said, “Jonah was swallowed by a whale.” The teacher said that the whale’s throat was too narrow and it couldn’t swallow a man. The little girl said, “When I get to Heaven, I will ask Jonah how he did it.”

The teacher said, “Suppose he is in hell?” And the little girl said, ”Well, then you ask him.”

Three Links to a Golden Chain, Num 6:24-26

1. God the Father – “Bless thee and keep thee.”
   

2. God the Son – “Make His face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee.”
   

3. God the Holy Spirit – “Lift up His countenance upon thee and give thee peace.”

   

Psalm 116:15,“Precious in the Sight of the Lord is the Death of His Saints”

The word “death” used here is from the Hebrew referring to the end of a condition. In other words, David says that it is precious in the eyes of the Lord when the saints have finished their time on Earth.

How could it be precious in the eyes of the Lord? Why should God who loves us, rejoice in the event that brings such sorrow to His children?

First, we know that the Lord loved you and me enough to die for us. His death for us proved His love for us. Knowing that He loves us, it is easy to understand how happy He will be when we are with Him.

You want those you love to be with you, don’t you?

For example, a wife may visit her children in another city and leave her husband at home. After a time, the husband gets lonesome and calls his wife and says, “I wish you would come home, I am getting awfully lonesome.”

The wife answers, “I will be home tomorrow.”

The children beg her not to leave, but she feels she should return to her husband. So the wife gets ready to leave the children, and go home. When the wife reaches the station and gets on the train or the plane, there is a big, empty feeling in the children’s hearts. While it may bring a certain degree of sorrow to them to see her leave, yet the arrival of her plane or train in another city is welcomed with great joy by her husband.

The Lord loves you and me. He gave his life for us. He is watching over us. His ear is open to our cry. Knowing that, can’t you realize how joyful He is when one of His children whom He loves comes home to be with Him? Of course!

It is like the bride walking down the aisle to meet the bridegroom.

Friday, June 29, 2001

“Adonai” and Its Use in the New Testament – Part 3

As in the Old Testament, so in the New Testament, God as Lord is represented as One who bestows gifts upon and equips His servants for their service.

He made some apostles, others prophets, evangelists, pastor-teachers, all for the accomplishment of His purpose and will in the perfecting (literally, equipping) of the saints, the work of the ministry and the edifying of the body of Christ,Eph 4:11, 12.

Having these gifts from our Lord, Paul exhorts us, let us wait on them and minister them, as faithful servants with diligence. Rom 12:6-8. God as Lord is said to protect, to provide for, and sustain His servants.

In the Old Testament ADONAI says to Abram, “I am thy shield.” He is a Rock, a Fortress, a Deliverer. Luke says of Paul, in great danger, the Lord stood by him and said, “Be of good cheer,” Acts 23:11.

Again, “The Lord stood with me and strengthened me,” 2 Tim 4:17.

The Lord delivers His servants from every evil, 2 Tim 4:18.

The Grace of the Lord is continually with His servants. It is the Lord who says to pay. “My Grace is sufficient for thee,” 2 Cor 12:9.

The Lord directs the service of His servants, opening doors, 2 Cor 2:12, and closing them, too, Acts 16:6.

We are exhorted to abound in the work of the Lord, for such work is never in vain, 1 Cor 15:58.

“ADONAI” and the Use of the Word in the New Testament – Part 4

God’s requirements of service and usefulness are clearly set forth in the parables of the Lord Jesus Christ, especially in the parable of the talents. Matt 25:14-30 and the parable of the pounds, Luke 19:11-27.

As Lord, He rewards the faithfulness of His servants and punishes their lack of it. The reward is far more than commensurate with the service rendered.

In the parables, the reward is represented in terms of the material, but the real reward is in the realm the spiritual, of which the material is only a feeble analogy.

Even so, the greatest of our rewards for faithfulness as servants lies in our increasing apprehension and possession of our Lord Himself.

ADONAI said to Abram, “I am thy exceeding great reward.”

Frequently in the Old Testament the Lord is said to be the inheritance and the portion and the possession of His people. Num 18:20, Psa 73:26, Psa 16:5, Ezek 44:27-28.

So, Christ our Lord gave Himself for us and to us. If we are His, He is ours. And He is ours in proportion as we are His.

Apart from this however, there is a day of reckoning for his servants. In the Old Testament, ADONAI renders to every man according to His work, Psa 62:12. Every servant’s work is to be made manifest. The test of fire will prove its worth.

If it stands the test, it will receive a reward, and if not, it will be lost, 1 Cor 3:13-15.“To whomsoever much is given of Him shall much be required and to whom they commit much of Him will they ask the more,” Luke 12:48.

”It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful,” 1 Cor 4:2.

“I Would Not Have You to be Ignorant, Brethren, Concerning Them Which Are Asleep, That Ye Sorrow Not, Even as Others Which Have No Hope,” 1 Thessalonians 4:13

Paul did not want his friends at the Church of Thessalonica to mourn over the departed loved ones as those who have no hope.

What a blessed hope we who are children of God have when the worst of all sorrows comes into our lives, the sorrow of losing a loved one. We know that this great event, which we call death, is coming to all of us if the Lord tarries. We all use the term, “I have lost a loved one.” But, that of course, is due to a lack of knowledge, or the lack of consideration of a knowledge that we may have.

This passage is dedicated to those who have had a loved one taken home to be with the Lord. This is designed to bring you joy, peace, and comfort into your sorrowing soul.

“Shall Never Die!”

What does the Lord call this thing we call death?

In John 11:25 the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to Martha. “Jesus said unto her, I am the Resurrection and the Life. He that believeth in Me though he be dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.”

The word “die” He uses here is the word “THANATOS,” meaning “separated from.” Paul in 1 Thes 4 and our Lord in John 11 refers to death as sleep.

When Jesus Christ received word from Martha and Mary that Lazarus, whom He loved, was sick, He had to tarry there to do some work. In the 11th verse we find “These things said He, and after that He saith unto them, Our friend Lazareth sleepeth. But I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said His disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death, but they thought that he had spoken of taking rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly Lazarus is dead.”

Our Lord called the thing which we call death, sleep. He referred to it as a time of refreshing, a time of rest, and relaxation, a temporary thing.

We See These Letters Wherever We Go!

W.W.J.D. – What Would Jesus Do?

I prefer this:
W.D.J.D. – What Did Jesus Do? He died for you!

ADONAI – How the Word is Used in the New Testament – Part 5

It is the Lord Jesus Christ, however, Who, though He is our Lord and our Master, is the Supreme Example of the True and Faithful Servant. He is the ideal Servant. It is in Him that we realize the full import and blessedness of the relationship that exists between ourselves and God as servants to a Lord.

He is revealed in the Old Testament as the Servant. “Behold My Servant, Whom I uphold, Mine Elect, in Whom My soul delighteth, I have put Spirit upon Him,” Isa 42:1.
”He shall not fail,” verse 4.
”I, the Lord, will uphold Thine hand and keep Thee,” verse 6.

So, the New Testament tells us He “took the form of a Servant,” the same word that Paul uses of himself – a bondservant, a slave.

”He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death,” Phil 2:7-8.
”Lo, I come. In the volume of the Book it is written of Me, to do Thy will, O God,” Heb 10:7.This is the fulfillment of Psa 40:6-8 where He is spoken of as the Slave whose ear is bored, because He loves His Master and elects to serve Him forever, Exodus 21:6.
He said of Himself, “I do always those things that please Him,” John 8:29.
”Even Christ pleased not Himself,” Rom 15:3.
”The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for the many,” Matt 20:28.
”I am among you as He that serveth,” Luke 22:27.
”As a servant, He also suffered, being made perfect through sufferings,” Heb 2:10.

In that wonderful chapter 13 of John He sets Himself forth as our Example of a Servant. ”Ye call Me Master and Lord and ye say well, for so I am,” verse 13.

”I have given you an Example, that ye should do as I have done to you, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord,” verses 15-16.

He exhorted to faithful service to the end, and spoke of the blessedness of those servants whom the Lord, when He comes, will find faithful and watching, Luke 12:36-37.

This study of our ADONAI should give us a much better understanding of Who and What our Lord really is.

Is the Spiritual Life Necessary?

First, the spiritual life is necessary to have the consciousness of our fellowship with the Lord. If you are going to be conscious of fellowship with the Lord, you are going to have the spiritual life, 1 John 1:3-10.

One of the hardest things in the world to do is to get Christians to admit they have sinned. Sin separates us from conscious fellowship with the Lord. When we sin, we are told to “judge ourselves” and “confess our sins.”

After we have judged ourselves as having sinned and confessed that sin to God, “God cleanses us from all unrighteousness,” 1 John 1:9.

He not only forgives us, which means to forget, but He also cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Then we are living in harmony with God.

”If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness,” 1 John 1:9.

”If we judge ourselves, we will not be judged with the world.”

Is the Spiritual Life Necessary?

It is only when we live in harmony with our Lord that we can really understand and appreciate Romans chapter eight.

If we are living in harmony with the Lord, if we have dealt with our sins, if we have judged and confessed our sins to Him, than we can say, “And I know that all things work together for good to them that love God and to them that are called according to His purpose.”

If we love the Lord, we are going to obey Him. He tells us when we sin, we are to confess to Him. Confession is telling Him that we have judged ourselves and we know we have done something wrong and we name it.

When we do that, God forgives us of our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. You confess the known sins and He cleanses us from the unknown sins. Then we are back in harmony with Him.

The spiritual life is necessary to have consciousness of fellowship with Him.

Saturday, June 30, 2001

“Is the Spiritual Life Necessary?”

Psa 16:8, “I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.”

The psalmist keeps the Lord always before him. He was always looking to the Lord. Because the Lord was at his right hand he said, “I shall not be moved.” Because the psalmist kept his mind on the Lord, he knew he would not be moved by circumstances and conditions.

There are many Christians today who are on the mountaintops as long as everything is going well. They rejoice in the Lord, they are happy, and they sing the praises of the Lord. They talk about how wonderful it is to be alive and how happy they are that they are Christians.

The next day they get up. They are the same person, in the same house, in the same city, going to the same job. But something has gone wrong and down to the bottom they go. You never hear them praising anything now. All they say is, “Oh I wish I were dead.” “I wish the Lord would take me home.”

Something has gone wrong.Something doesn’t suit them. Someone has failed them. They are slaves to these problems. They are slaves to circumstances and conditions. They don’t enjoy life. Why? Because they are not conscious of the Lord. They have taken their eyes off of the Lord, and put them on their troubles.

There is only one way to enjoy life and that is to be conscious of fellowship with the Lord. It is only then that you can possibly have fellowship with the Lord.

The psalmist said, “I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.”

He knew he wasn’t going to be moved by circumstances, opinions, disappointments. He wasn’t going to be moved because his mind, his eyes, were upon the Lord. He always set the Lord before him.

Is the Spiritual Life Necessary!

“I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” ”Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth, my flesh also shall rest in hope.”

Assurance for today guarantees hope for tomorrow. He was happy and had a hope that brought joy into his heart for the future. Why? Because he had the abundant life.

Why did he have the abundant life and others didn’t? Because he was always conscious of fellowship with the Lord, and that is only possible with the spiritual life.

”For Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption.” ”Thou wilt show me the path of life. In Thy presence is fullness of joy. At Thy right hand there are pleasures forever more.”

When we put the Lord before us, He will show us the real path of life. Many Christians are really not living. They are merely oxidizing. That is a medical term for people who are just about ready to die. They are just eating and breathing and moving. That is all. There is no life in them.

They get up in the morning, dress, shave, eat a little bite, they rush to their jobs. There they are tense and under pressure. Then they rush home at night, eat, look at TV and go to bed. That is not life.

”Thou wilt shew me the path of life.”

To see the path of life we need to let the Lord show it to us. No other person can show you the path of life.We can receive instructions that the Lord gives. But no one knows which path the Lord would have you take. The Lord is the only One who can help you. The psalmist said, “Thou wilt shew me the path of life.”

God will show you the path of life He will have you take, if you are living the spiritual life.

Is it Necessary to Live the Spiritual Life?

“In Thy presence is fullness of joy.”

It is only when we are in the path that the Lord has ordained for us that we have real joy. When we are in the presence of God, we don’t have a thing to worry about.

It is marvelous to have that consciousness. This is for everyone who wants it. But you can’t have the abundant life as long as there are unconfessed sins between you and your Lord.

This is another reason the spiritual life is necessary.

Is the Spiritual Life Necessary?

You do! How can you?

Deal with your mistakes. Judge yourself in having sinned. If you do that, the Lord said you would never be judged. 1 Cor 11:31, “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged, but when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.”

We don’t get judged for the same thing twice. God is either going to judge you, or you are going to do it yourself.

The spiritual person would want to judge himself. When he has judged himself as having sinned, he confesses that sin. Then God forgives him and cleanses him from all unrighteousness, and he is back in fellowship with the Lord.

Then comes joy, pleasure. Then the Christian life means something to that one. It is for you.Try it, you will have joy in spite of adversary if you are living the spiritual life.

”The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace ...”

Is the Spiritual Life Necessary?

The spiritual life is necessary to have the true vision of God. Prov 29:18, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” The word “perish” means to “go to pieces.”

”Where there is no vision, the people go to pieces.”

That is the trouble today with so many. They don’t have the true vision of God. Why? Because they don’t have the spiritual life, their vision of God is darkened by their opinions. They don’t have the true vision, because they don’t have the abundant life, the life of fellowship with the Lord.

When we have a true vision of God, we see Him as He really is.

What is God? He is a Spirit. That is true. But what are His characteristics?

1 John 4:16, “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love. And he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God and God in him.”

Notice that we find that God is love. That is the most important thing in the world for us to know. God is love.

”Herein is love for us made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world.”

When we are confident of His love, when we are conscious of fellowship with Him, when we know that God is love, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not perfect in love.”

Yes, “perfect love casteth out fear.”

We need the true vision of God.

Is the Spiritual Life Necessary!

Remember God is love. He loves you.

We need that vision. But we can’t have the true vision of God as being a God of love as long as we have sin coming between Him and us. Our vision is darkened by consciousness of our sins.

We only have the Light so that we can have the true vision of God and the true vision of our Lord when we are in fellowship with the Lord. It is only as we have fellowship with Him that we will have the Light that will enable us to have the true vision of Him, that is, God is love.

Children of Light, walk in the Light.

”This is the message which we have heard of Him and declare unto you, that God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” ”If we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the Truth.”

“But if we walk in the Light as He is in the Light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Christ keeps on cleansing us from all sin,” 1 John 1:5-7.

July 4th

What heroes Thou hast bred
America, my country!
I see the mighty dead,
Pass in line.
Each with undaunted heart,
Playing his gallant part,
Making thee what thou art,
America, mine.

Then let me take my place
America, my country!
Amid the gallant race
That is thine.
Ready to hear the call,
Ready to give thee all,
Ready whatever befall,
America, mine.

Is Spiritual Life Necessary?

Spiritual life is necessary to get the most out of life in eternity. Spiritual life does not go unrewarded, you know. What is death to a Christian, is a homecoming.

Paul said, “That to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord, which is better.” When we pass out of this old body, we go straight home to be with the Lord. 2 Cor 5:8, “Absent from the body, face to face with the Lord.”

Now this may contradict a certain group of people of a certain Truth that was put into the Church about a thousand years ago. But this is just what the Lord said. And I believe what the Lord said over what people say.

Paul said twice, “to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord, which is much better,” and I believe it.

When a person passes out of this old body and goes straight home to be with the Lord, that is when eternity, real life begins. Life, real life, begins in eternity. Of course, we have eternity now, but when we get to Heaven, then we will truly begin to live. And how we live there depends a great deal upon how we lived here.

What we have there for our life depends upon how we lived here.

Death is a homecoming.

Life for the Christian begins when he or she goes home to be with the Lord. You haven’t lived until you live in eternity. No matter what kind of a marvelous life you have lived here, it is nothing compared to life in eternity.

Is the Spiritual Life Really Necessary?

Matt 6:19, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon Earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.”

Don’t do that. Don’t sell your future in eternity for things down here that are not going to last very long.

This is not saying that you shouldn’t have drive and ambition. And not that you shouldn’t try to be successful. The Lord needs successes in this world, too.

Some of the most successful men in the world are Christians. But they are not laying up for themselves only. They are using their wealth to spread the Word and help others in need.

”But lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.”

We know something additional about Heaven. There are no moths in Heaven. Nothing rusts in Heaven. And there are no thieves in Heaven. No crime.

”Don’t sell your birthright for a mess of pottage.”

Is the Spiritual Life Really Necessary?

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be.”

A lot of people have prepared themselves to die. Every person that has accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour has prepared himself to die.

But how many have prepared themselves to live? Our Lord tells us we can lay up treasures in Heaven or we can lay up treasures on Earth.

Which is it going to be with you? Which path are you going to take? ”For where your treasure is, there will be your heart also.”

That is the reason we should be laying up treasures in Heaven. To get the most out of eternity, we need the spiritual life today.

The spiritual life is necessary if we are going to be conscious of fellowship with the Lord. Through consciousness of fellowship with the Lord we have the abundant life. We have the true vision of God. We know that God is love.

Through the spiritual life we prepare ourselves for life in eternity. If we have the spiritual life, we are going to lay up treasures in Heaven, not on Earth.

Is the spiritual life necessary? It is to me. I don’t feel that I can afford to lose it. Can you?

The Lord My Righteousness!

I once was a stranger to Grace and God,
I knew not my danger, and felt not my load.
Though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree,
The Lord, my Righteousness, was nothing to me.

When free Grace awoke me, by light from on High,
Then legal fear shook me, I trembled to die.
No refuge, no safety, in self could I see,
The Lord, my Righteousness, my Saviour must be.

My terrors all vanished before that sweet Name,
My guilty fears banished, with boldness I came,
To drink of the Fountain, life-giving and free,
The Lord, my Righteousness, is all things to me.

Jer 23:5-6, “Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the Earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely, and this is His Name whereby He shall be called ... The Lord, our Righteousness.”

July 4th Special – JEHOVAH NISSI! The Lord My Banner (Flag)

Moses built an altar and called the name of it, “JEHOVAH NISSI,” or “JEHOVAH, my Banner,” Exodus 17:15.

Only a few weeks had elapsed from the time the children of Israel left Marah, the place of “bitter waters,” till they reached Rephidim, the scene of JEHOVAH’S revelation of Himself to them as JEHOVAH NISSI, “JEHOVAH, my Banner.”

At Marah, we will recall, in healing the bitter waters of that place He had revealed Himself as “JEHOVAH-ROPHE,”or “JEHOVAH who heals,” the One alone who has the remedy for the sins of mankind. The Balm for the sorrows and sufferings of His people, Who has sweetened the bitter waters of human misery and death through the Lord Jesus Christ, the Tree of life, and the Sweet and Living Waters.

More to follow. You will thoroughly enjoy this study of your Lord as “JEHOVAH NISSI,” the Lord is my Banner.

People Put a Great Emphasis on Death and How a Person Dies and Capital Punishment, Etc.

But death is not the worst thing in this world. Not even close.

The worst thing in this world is being separated from the Lord Jesus Christ throughout all eternity!

But a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ can never be separated from the Lord Jesus Christ, Rom 8:38-39, ever. There is too much emphasis put on death, but it is only a departure. You have the privilege of deciding where you want to spend eternity.

”He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” “He that believeth not on the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth upon him.”

”Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”

Our Departed Loved Ones

What happens when our loved ones leave this body?

First, there is a disrobing, 2 Cor 5:1-8, “For we that are in this house do groan, being burdened, not for that we should be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.”

So, the first thing that we find is that it is a disrobing. We come out of this old body of ours. It is a disrobing. It is like taking off one suit and then putting on another one – one from Heaven. Now what a blessing that is!

Second, it is a departure. 2 Timothy was written when Paul was in prison, expecting any moment to hear the footsteps of his jailers coming down those stone corridors ready to execute him. In 2 Tim 4:6, Paul says, “For I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”

Notice that Paul says, “My departure is at hand.” The word “departure” is a maritime word.

When your loved one closes his eyes in this world, he immediately begins a trip. People stand on the wharf waving to their loves ones standing on a ship leaning over the rail. And there are many with tears in their eyes saying, “There she goes. She is leaving now.” Gradually the superstructure passes over the horizon. They turn away with tears and heavy of heart because their loved one has left them.

But on the other side of the ocean is another group waiting for the same ship, a few days later they gather on the wharf. Soon the superstructure comes over the horizon, and they say, “Here she comes. Here she comes.”

There is joy because they are gaining loved ones. On one hand there is sorrow, but on the other is joy.

So it is with this even which we call death.

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Page updated 06/26/05 04:52 PM.