Persecution is coming—that seems certain; what is not
certain is whether we are ready for it.
Not everyone can or should preach, but we can all
shine our light before men (see Matt. 5: 16).
Anyone can read a newspaper. Only the Christian sees
God’s hand behind the reports.
The Christian is an upside–down tree: fruits on
earth, roots in heaven.
Men worry about the future; God also requires the
past.
Unbelief sees obstacles. Faith removes them (see
Matt. 17: 20).
We must look
up to heaven for
guidance and encouragement; we need to look
down from heaven, as
it were, in order to get a proper perspective on our situation here.
We must look
up to heaven for
guidance and encouragement; we need to look
down from heaven, as
it were, in order to get a proper perspective on our situation here.
Get into the Scriptures and the Scriptures will get
into you.
102
True Christianity is living down here in relation to
the Man up there.
Worldly religion embraces everything and condemns
nothing—except wholeheartedness for Christ.
The Bible is either absolute or obsolete.
At “the time of the end … knowledge shall be
increased” (Dan. 12: 4), but “the god of this world has blinded the
thoughts of the unbelieving” (2 Cor. 4: 4).
We have a natural tendency to be obsessed with gift.
It takes something unnatural to be obsessed with Christ.
The fashions of Christendom change as often as those
in the world. The Bible is unchanging.
The Christian ought to have but one ambition: to be
more like Christ every day.
When there is something in the Bible that worldly
Christians don’t like they call it legalism.
103
If your pathway is smooth it is also likely to be slippery.
Atheism is a religion. It has a god (Darwin), it has a belief
system (evolution) through which everything must be interpreted,
and it has evangelists (Dawkins etc.) to proclaim its message.
The world has many problems, but men will not go to the Man with
the answers.
Being “[the] most miserable of all men” (1 Cor. 15: 19) is playing
Christianity in this world, without hope in the next; Being
“sober in all things” (2 Tim. 4: 5) is taking account of things
here as God sees them, while having real hope in another world.
Levitical service is the portion of every Christian: all ought to
be occupied with carrying what is of Christ through this world.
You may be able to train a pastor to be a better pastor, but you
cannot train to
be a pastor.
Appeal to the head and you may win the argument. Appeal to the
heart and head, and you may win a soul.
Follow the Bible and you may be seen as out of date—but it ought
never to mean that you are out of touch.
104
First confess your sins to God; second, confess your Saviour to
men.
The Devil is a master-copier – and we are often the unwitting dupes
of his imitations.
If my Lord has prepared me a place
there (see John
14: 2, 3), how can I ever think of seeking a place
here?
Christ in all the Scriptures (see Luke 24: 27), but not
Christianity in all the Scriptures!
Paul’s Christianity involved
overabounding in
joy under affliction (see 2 Cor. 7: 4). In all honesty,
what do we know of this?
How lightly we think of error is but another way of saying how
lightly we value truth.
Boasting of the past is evidence of weakness in the present.
The saints may fail in zeal and earnestness, the Enemy will not.
105
In the garden, the Devil implied that God was holding something
back from man (see Gen. 3: 5). Romans 8: 32 is the divine answer
to this lie: “He who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but
delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him
grant us all things?”
You are a reflection of the company you keep. If you are not much
like Christ then you have not been much in His company.
It’s a poor thing not to be evangelical—and it is a poor thing to
be only evangelical.
We must have right relations with the Lord before we can have right
relations with one another.
“God is light” (1 John 1: 5)—and so we are to “walk as children of
light” (Eph. 5: 8). “God is love” (1 John 4: 16)—and so we are
to “walk in love” (Eph. 5: 2).
Money is a universal provider for everything but happiness, and a
universal passport to everywhere but heaven.
He took my place so that I might have a place with Him.
Every Christian is in full–time service: “Whatsoever ye do, labour at it
heartily, as [doing it] to the Lord, and not to men” (Col. 3:
23).
106
Ezekiel in Chebar, Daniel in Babylon, Paul at Lystra, and John in
Patmos—how near these men were to God, despite the times of
persecution and scattering in which they lived!
The
shipwreck in Acts 27
had
its roots in not listening to Paul (see vs 11, 21)—and yet how
often we hear it said “That’s only Paul”?!
‘Easy come and easy go’ reception makes the Assembly a hotel and
not the house of God.
That
history
repeats itself is no less true
in ecclesiastical circles than it is in the world.
Looking for the
Lord’s coming is as much a question of the heart as it is of the
head.
Anyone can read
a sermon; only those who have been with God can deliver a
message from heaven.
Read the
Scriptures,
not as a duty, but because you cannot do without them.
A shallow ministry will never produce persons able to swim in deep
water or rough seas.
107
We help
other souls just so far as we put them in contact with Christ.
There
is no such thing as enjoying the heavenly portion of the Church
without conflict with the Enemy.
Some
things can be measured; God’s grace is beyond measure.
Ignorance
can be addressed and opposition can be dealt with, but
indifference to the truth is the most difficult of all
situations to meet.
We need
to live in hope—not as if there were any question about it, but to
live out now the bright prospect we have before us.
Jonathan strengthened David’s hand
in God (see 1 Sam.
23: 16). Whatever else may be said of him, that was an admirable
service, and one, sadly, we see little of.
If we
are drifting, we are in danger of shipwreck for there is no
intelligent guidance of the vessel.
The
more I feed the more I want—such is the effect of reading God’s
Word.
108
Abraham had power with God in relation to men; Lot had no power
with men in relation to God.
God not only counts our actions but
weighs them (see
1 Sam. 2: 3)— He observes quality as well as quantity.
In all ages, the people love to move with the tide. If the tide is
flowing in the right direction (as in Josiah’s revival) many will go
with it—outwardly (see Jer. 3: 10). If, however, the
tide is flowing in the wrong direction, then the mass will go with
it eagerly.
“Come with me, and see my zeal for Jehovah” (2 Kings 10: 16)—a true
servant of the Lord does not speak in this way.
Faith, love and hope (see 1 Cor. 13: 13)—how these things must
shine in a world of unbelief, hatred and hopelessness.
Prayer and Bible–reading need to be in balance—in the one I speak
to God, in the other He speaks to me.
Many are prepared to serve. Fewer are prepared to allow God to
prepare them for service.
Human dignitaries are addressed using specific reverential terms—
‘Your Majesty’, ‘Your Honour’ and so on. Innovation in this area
inevitably implies a lack of respect. In a similar way God ought to
be addressed in the terms He has set out in Scripture.
109
When
all you have is the Lord, then you have all.
“Better is as meal of herbs where love is, than a fatted ox and
hatred therewith” (Prov. 15: 17).
Opening the floodgate to the world by a crack is easily done;
shutting it is quite another matter.
Clubs
and societies write their own constitutions; the Assembly’s is
already written.
The more I look into them, the greater and more wonderful my
blessings are. This is indeed ‘Glad Tidings’!
However many books men write, they all shrivel into irrelevance
before the one book that God has written. The Bible stands alone.
The
simplest believer can appeal to Scripture. Any other ‘authority’,
living or written, is really only a form of popery.
What you spend your time on and what you devote your energy to shows
you where your heart is.
110
It is to Paul’s kinsmen “according
to flesh” to whom
pertain “the promises” (Rom. 9: 3, 4, my emphasis). This nullifies
the prevalent idea that the Church has inherited Israel’s promises.
The faults of some brethren are maximised in the telling, while
others are minimised. How does this honour the Lord we profess to
serve?
Christ has come out of heaven; He has come out of the grave; He
will yet come out of Zion
(Rom. 11: 26).
‘I once was lost’—awful condition. ‘But now am
found’—a blessing that cannot be put into words.
There is a difference between being governed by Scripture and being
governed by a tradition with which Scripture agrees. The authority
of the first is Scripture, the authority of the second is tradition.
I shall pass through this world but once. Any good thing therefore
that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being,
let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way
again.
Sound doctrine must go hand in hand with sound living.
111
If God has called you to it, then you can live by faith in the
office or the factory just as much as on the mission–field or in the
pulpit.
The land was the same. Unbelief saw walled cities “very great”,
faith saw a “very, very good land” (Num. 13: 28; 14: 7).
He has done great things—and yet we are so often preoccupied with
little things!
The sheep have been scattered, but they still need feeding. Do what
you can—minister Christ to them.
The man of God cannot help being
distressed by what
he sees around him, but he is not disturbed. The Book
predicted these things long ago. Surely the Master cometh!
Playing church is often followed by the lesson of humility.
Everything that has ever happened in history, and everything that
will ever happen, is as nothing when compared to the fact that the
Christ of God was made sin at Calvary.
The knees must be used before the tongue, the eyes shut in prayer
before the mouth opened.
112
The sinner who has the greatest sense of sin has the greatest sense
of the grace which forgives sin.
Christ is sight to the blind, bread to the hungry, water to the
thirsty, and clothes to the naked.
Sin entered the scene of innocence, grace has entered the scene of
ruin.
Christ is a saviour, indeed,
the
Saviour, but is He your Saviour?
The Bible is more fervently loved, and more intensely hated, than
all the rest of the world’s books put together.
We may know forgiveness, and like Martha, be engaged with “much
serving” (Luke 10: 40), but what about sitting at His feet?
Man will believe anything,
apart from what God has said about
him.
The Scriptures are the only light we have with regard to the
knowledge of God, and we must either take them as they are, or
reject them altogether.
Get heaven’s view-point—only then will you begin to appreciate the
extent of God’s work today. The soldier can see the battle, the
general sees the war.
‘Lost’
speaks of my will; ‘found’ speaks
of His will.
113
It is one thing to accept the Spirit’s order and pray for Him to
work in His own way; it is quite another to set up our order and
then pray for Him to work according to our arrangement.
Christ is the only one who delivers up His kingdom (see 1 Cor. 15:
29). All others have their rule taken away from them.
2 Tim. 3:
16 proves that Scripture
comes from God; Rom. 15: 4 that it
comes to us.
The weakness is in ourselves, not in the truth.
Unbelievers may not listen to your preaching, but they can do
nothing about your prayers.
If you do what God wants you to do, you will not have time for what
He does not want you to do.
Why do some Christians grow faster than others? It’s simple really:
they devote more time to feeding on Christ.
If there’s little heart for the Gospel, then there’s little heart
for Christ; if there’s little heart for the Church, then there’s
little heart for Christ.
114
The proof that I am not governed by tradition is that I am prepared
to heed the hard sayings of Scripture.
Your soul is only ever progressing or regressing.
Israel is the key player on the prophetic and political stage—all
others are being moved by an unseen hand in relation to her.
My personal relationship with Christ underpins everything—neglect
Him, and everything else will begin to crumble.
Nations scarcely out of barbarism are being blessed in the Gospel,
while nations with a long history of blessing are scrabbling back
from whence they were delivered!
There are no God–honouring compromises with regard to the
truth—only surrenders.
Foolish jesting by the preacher means the world is in the pulpit.
Believing on Christ is good, following Christ is better, but being
devoted to Christ is best of all.
115
In this world’s darkest hour, God’s love shines
out like never before.
The more worldly we are,
the less effective our evangelisation.
How much should we love the saints? “He
has laid down his life for us ... we ought for the brethren
to lay down [our] lives” (1 John 3: 16).
If our relationship with Christ is right, then our
relationships with each other will be right too.
Daniel’s friends were government ministers of the
empire but over and above that, they were servants of the Most High
God (see Dan. 2: 48; 3: 26). Nebuchadnezzar might make proclamation,
but all that mattered was that God had already spoken.
We are almost too–familiar with some divine
truths. Stop and think, and you will regain that sense of wonder at
all that God has done.
Evidence by itself will never turn a man to God.
No one will be converted without there first being a work of God in
the soul.
116
We grow in wisdom by being content to take the
place of having none.
What can break the
seal of the
Spirit? Nothing!
Worldliness does not simply relate to
what we do—it is an attitude
of mind. Thus it is impossible to preserve oneself against
worldliness by legalism—a list of do’s and don’ts.
The only One in the universe who can condemn the
sinner (see John 5: 22) is the crucified of Calvary, and He is now
sitting on the throne of God as Saviour.
One of the saddest results of spiritual weakness
among Christians is the rarity of restoration.
We cannot earn our salvation, but neither can we
lose it.
Doctrinal differences should never be made
personal, and personal differences should never be made doctrinal.
Get out of communion with Christ and you will seek
to maintain what you have lost by legal means.
It is a very solemn thing to turn the back on
God. It is said of Jeroboam that he cast God behind his back (see 1
Kings 14: 9), while the people themselves cast His law behind their
backs (see Neh. 9: 26). Judgment followed on both the king and on
the nation—God will not be so treated. Yet God is not willing that
any should perish—even those who have turned their backs on him. If
man uses his back to spite God, God uses His with man’s blessing in
mind. As to Christ it says prophetically, “I gave
my back to smiters,
and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair” (Is. 50: 6, my
emphasis), and His suffering is the means whereby God can
righteously cast all the sins of the repentant sinner behind
His back (see Is. 38: 17).
