Friday, January 27, 2012


What is Repentance?
I sincerely doubt that any person would get a very enthusiastic response when posing this question to a person. I dare say that probably the majority of people polled with this question would refuse to respond having never heard the word ever used in their lifetime. I can see in my mind already the puzzled looks and confused stares coming from the faces of most people when confronted with this question. Imagine going into some of the country’s finest learning institutions and asking the very educators this question. The unlearned and antagonistic response from worldly people is perhaps understood, but many Christians have no real biblical understanding of what this word truly means.

In order for any person to be saved from sin and eternal damnation in hell, that person must repent of their sin and put their faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, this truth makes the understanding of this word crucial for every human being that will ever live on earth. A mere intellectual knowledge of repentance will not give any person the opportunity to ever see or behold our Lord and Savior. Adam’s disobedience has left every person born into this world enslaved to sin possessing a reprobate and depraved mind. Every adorable little baby born anywhere in this world has this mind with no exception.
The Bible clearly states in Hebrews 11:6, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Faith then is paramount to being able to get right with God. The next question is then, how does someone get faith in God? Do we just ascent to certain facts about God in order to obtain this critical faith? Do we just believe it intellectually? What is the transaction that must manifest in order to have true faith or saving faith? What role does repentance play in this transaction?

Paul teaches us that when Christ humbled Himself to the point of death on the cross a supernatural miraculous transaction took place between God and man that can only be accessed through repentance and faith. When we go to any type of store to purchase something, we don’t get what we want from that store until we give the store clerk money in exchange for the item or goods we desire. We all understand that dynamic completely. If we take something without giving the money for the exchange then we have stolen it and we must face the penalty of the law that prohibits such behavior.
What am I saying here by using this example? Like in the natural an exchange takes place between the consumer and the store or business, in the supernatural work of salvation and redemption a transaction or exchange takes place as well. I am not saying that any sinner comes to Christ with something to buy his/her salvation, not at all. The transaction between Christ and every sinner is like the above example in that we sinners bring to Him our sin (and the willingness to repent = change of mind and turn away from our sin to Him) and immediately like in the natural example above the two parties come to full agreement and both are satisfied. Christ cannot save an impenitent soul at all not because He is unable, but solely because that sole is unwilling to receive Him and be forgiven. Why are so many people gambling their eternal future by denying or neglecting the requirement for true repentance?

The Lord Jesus told the Jews the following parable, Matthew 21:28-31 "Tell me what you think about this: There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first son and said, 'Son, go and work today in the vineyard.' "The son answered, 'I will not go.' But later he decided he should go, and he went. "Then the father went to the other son and said, 'Son, go and work today in the vineyard.' He answered, 'Yes, sir, I will go and work.' But he did not go. "Which of the two sons obeyed his father?" The Jewish leaders answered, "The first son." Jesus said to them, "The truth is, you are worse than the tax collectors and the prostitutes. In fact, they will enter God's kingdom before you enter. John came showing you the right way to live, and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and prostitutes believed John. You saw that happening, but you would not change. You still refused to believe him. ERV
What our Lord was telling these very religious people is that only a true change of mind (repentance) would lead to their forgiveness. He told them that the very people they despised and looked down on heard John in their hearts and they truly wanted God’s forgiveness. The Kingdom of Heaven is not for good people because there are no such people on this earth. The Holy Spirit speaking through Paul told us in Romans that, “There is none righteous no not one.” Also he said, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Our Lord and Savior speaking to some of the same people He spoke to above no doubt said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” There is our word again from the mouth of our Lord and He makes it plain and clear that without “repentance” He cannot be known in a personal and intimate way (which is the only way to forgiveness and heaven). I believe one of the worst things in this life is for a person to not experience a true crushing in their spirit that makes them look up to heaven for deliverance. Christ’s salvation is from sin and it is deliverance from sin into His marvelous light.

Deuteronomy 26:7 And when we cried unto the LORD God of our fathers, the LORD heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression. KJV
Exodus 3:7 And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows. KJV

Job 30:27 My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me. KJV
Psalm 25:18 Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins. KJV

Psalm 88:9 Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.  KJV
Psalm 119:50 This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me. KJV

Psalm 119:92 Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction. KJV
Jonah 2:2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. KJV

When we examine the above Scriptures, we see how affliction is really a blessing from God to mankind. In each of these cases, affliction was a catalyst to change. We don’t have any power within us to cleanse our own hearts. One of the worst things we (as human beings) can do is comparing ourselves to other people. This was the heart of these people and it is also our heart today. I am just like all who follow our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and see ourselves as so inadequate when it comes to His Word and digging into the rich depths of the unsearchable knowledge and infinite wisdom of God. I feel less than a kindergarten student in the School of Christ. However, my heart is open to receive whatever He reveals to me to be His truth.
I sorrow so much when I encounter people who have (for whatever reason) wrongly divided the Word of Truth and thereby made its power of no effect to the people listening to them or reading their literature. The enemy is not and has never been opposed to religion. Religion has no power of the one true God in it and cannot affect change in the hearts of men and women. This is still a very real issue and problem the visible Church faces today. It is dead and it speaks death to those who are already dead spiritually. Repentance is like a man carrying a load on his back up a steep hill and finally realizing that he needs to lay it down in order to preserve his life else he die trying to climb such a steep hill. The weight is a metaphor for our sin. We from the womb carry the overwhelming weight of our sin everywhere we go until the kindness and goodness of God comes to our heart and we finally see that we face certain eternal death unless we lay our sin at the foot of Christ cross. Human beings from the beginning of life are loaded with sin and guilt that will never subsist until we are brought by God the Holy Spirit to true repentance.

I met a man Seminary Educated with a Doctorate in Theology tell me that repentance is not necessary for a sinner to come to saving faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. I tried to humbly present to him what our Lord said, “Unless you repent you will likewise perish” but he knew that Scripture but still is diluted to believe what he does. How is this possible? What can be done to correct these errors that can and will dam souls in hell? I am not revealing something new; our Lord told us that the narrow way is hard. Did Jesus espouse easy believism? Did He promise impenitent souls the hope of forgiveness and heaven? The answer is simply no. A true biblical knowledge and understanding of repentance is essential in seeing true conversion verses false conversion. If a man repents not, then he is saved not.
Well, I’ve said a lot of things but still no deep illumination on what repentance means, what does it look like, and what does scripture tell us. There are two Hebrew words used for our English word repent and they are nacham, naw-kham' a primitive root; properly, to sigh, i.e. breathe strongly; by implication, to be sorry, i.e. (in a favorable sense) to pity, console or (reflexively) rue; or (unfavorably) to avenge (oneself):--comfort (self), ease (one's self), repent(-er,-ing, self). The second Hebrew word found is shuwb shoob a primitive root; to turn back (hence, away) transitively or intransitively, literally or figuratively (not necessarily with the idea of return to the starting point); generally to retreat surely, turn (away, back), withdraw.

When John the Baptist saw some of the Pharisees and Sadducees come out to where he was baptizing, he called them a brood of vipers (translation: children of the devil). Note: These were very religious people (in the synagogue always); some of them were the religious rulers in Jerusalem. They were as lost and dead in trespasses and sins as any Gentile temple prostitute. You see this condition is true of everyman born into this world of sin. They did not know the true condition of their souls and this is true of every man prior to the new birth. He knew that many of these people wanted God and their evil sinful ways at the same time. He cut right through any pretense or hypocrisy that they might bring. He wanted them to know that the one true God sees through religious rituals and ceremonies directly into the hearts of every man, woman, boy, and girl. He wanted all who came out to him for water baptism to know that this was just a symbolic act that pictured what the One (Jesus) coming after him would do in baptizing them with the Holy Spirit for those who from the heart truly repented and believed.
John wanted them to know that they had nothing of value to bring to God for His acceptance. He used graphic language that they would understand when he said the axe was laid at the root of the tree to cut it down if it did not bear good fruit. The tree was symbolic of a person, and the good fruit meant morally excellent and virtuous lifestyle. John spoke to the hearts of three different groups of people. They were the religious Jews (Pharisees and Sadducees), the tax collectors, and finally the soldiers. When each of them asked John what they must do, he spoke to the most visible sin he was aware of for each group of people. How does what he said to them apply to us today? The Holy Spirit convicts every person of the prevailing sin in that person’s heart that would prevent them from receiving Christ forgiveness. For example, when our Lord spoke to the rich young ruler, what was the sin that kept him from forgiveness? It was his covetousness or his love of his money more than wanting Christ forgiveness. Our Lord knows the depths of every human heart and will place His conviction right on the sin we covet. Now it is true we must give up or turn from all of our sin and receive Christ. The act of true repentance (from every sinner) cannot be seen by any human being (only the Lord Jesus sees this) because it occurs in the heart. Turning from sin is one of the results of genuine, faith-based repentance towards the Lord Jesus Christ.


Sincerely in Christ,

Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation. — 2 Corinthians 7:10

Conviction of sin is best portrayed in the words -

"My sins, my sins, my Saviour,
How sad on Thee they fall."
Conviction of sin is one of the rarest things that ever strikes a man. It is the threshold of an understanding of God. Jesus Christ said that when the Holy Spirit came He would convict of sin, and when the Holy Spirit rouses a man’s conscience and brings him into the presence of God, it is not his relationship with men that bothers him, but his relationship with God – "against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight." The marvels of conviction of sin, forgiveness, and holiness are so interwoven that it is only the forgiven man who is the holy man, he proves he is forgiven by being the opposite to what he was, by God’s grace. Repentance always brings a man to this point: I have sinned. The surest sign that God is at work is when a man says that and means it. Anything less than this is remorse for having made blunders, the reflex action of disgust at himself.

The entrance into the Kingdom is through the panging pains of repentance crashing into a man’s respectable goodness; then the Holy Ghost, Who produces these agonies, begins the formation of the Son of God in the life. The new life will manifest itself in conscious repentance and unconscious holiness, never the other way about. The bedrock of Christianity is repentance. Strictly speaking, a man cannot repent when he chooses; repentance is a gift of God. The old Puritans used to pray for "the gift of tears." If ever you cease to know the virtue of repentance, you are in darkness. Examine yourself and see if you have forgotten how to be sorry.

By Oswald Chambers


Thursday, January 26, 2012

The Nature of


We are not to be ignorant of the devices of Satan; therefore, need to understand the nature of religious spirits.
In general, religious spirits are often at work when people use "religion" in defense of their sin.
1. When someone says there is another way to God other than through Jesus.  Acts 16:17 (The woman possessed with a spirit of divination literally declared that Paul was showing "a way" (Greek) to God, implying there were other ways.)  Many people believe that there "many" ways to God such as living a good life, praying to some saint, belonging to some particular church, or becoming a martyr for their religion.

2. When tradition takes precedence over hearing and obeying the Spirit of God.  Colossians 2:8-17.  (The feasts and sacrifices are mentioned here).  Mark 7:9-13 (Jesus said that the Pharisees made void the commandment of God through their traditions.)  Traditions often bring a dullness to hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.  Denominationalism is often takes precedence over the moving of the Holy Spirit.

3. When one uses religion to "control" others.   I Kings 13:18  (The old prophet lied to the young man of God saying that he had heard from God that the young prophet was to stay and eat.)   Personal prophecies should be examined and validated and not accepted just because someone gave them.

4. When the means of worship becomes the object of worship.  Numbers 21:9, II Kings 18:4  (The people began to worship the brazen serpent on the pole which had been used as a means of worship earlier.)  Our churches are often guilty of worshipping the form of worship  (three hymns, offering, prayer, and a three point sermon).

5. When one excuses his sin as a act of worship.   I Samuel 15:15, 23.  (Saul said that he had taken the forbidden spoil to sacrifice unto the LORD.)  I Samuel 2:22 (The sons of Eli had sexual relations with the women who came to worship). It would be like the pastor who says to a woman who comes for counsel, "If you want a real spiritual experience, you will have sex with me."

6. When one incorporates pagan worship into true worship.  Exodus 32:5  (After Aaron carved a mold, made the molten calf, and made an alter for it, then he demanded that the people have a feast unto the LORD.)  The gold calf was a type of Baal worship.  Many churches today incorporate humanism along with Christianity into their church.

7. When one seeks revelation outside of God and His Word.   I Samuel 28:7   (Saul consulted the witch of Endor).  People often go from church to church to get a personal word from God from various prophets.  This is not to say that God does not on occasion speak to individuals, but people may come to depend upon the prophecy rather than God and His Word and become subject to false prophecies.

8. When one demands worship of himself.  Daniel 3:1-6  (Nebuchadnezzar had an image of himself built and demanded that everyone worship it)  (Of course it can also be a false image of one's self, being greater than them are).  John 9:34 (After Jesus healed the blind man some of  the Pharisees questioned him and belittled him by saying, "Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us?" And they cast him out.)  Sometimes even ministers or priests demand worship.

9. When one looked for signs and wonders being the primary source of truth.  (Superstition)  Exodus 32:24 (Aaron implied that the gold miraculously came out of the fire as a calf.)   Revelation 13:13-15 (During the tribulation period, the Satan will use miracles to deceive many people).  Sometimes people think that the church that has the most signs and wonders is the most spiritual.

10. When one tries to gain or maintain his salvation through doing good works rather than relying upon the grace of God found in Jesus.   Matthew 19:16-21  (The rich young ruler had kept the commandments from his youth, but that was not enough). False religions and even churches today often teach that one has to do such and such to be saved or to maintain their salvation.  Hebrews 6:1, 9:14  (Both Scriptures declare that such are dead works).

11. When one has a mystical belief about God, but has not submitted himself to Jesus as his Lord.   Acts 19:14   (The seven sons of Sceva tried to cast out a spirit by the Name of Jesus, but got cast out naked themselves .  The evil spirit said, "Jesus, I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?")  Neither knowledge or rituals make one a true Believer.

by Author Unknown

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

"Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law."

-
Rom_3:31

When the believer is adopted into the Lord’s family, his relationship to old Adam and the law ceases at once; but then he is under a new rule, and a new covenant. Believer, you are God’s child; it is your first duty to obey your heavenly Father. A servile spirit you have nothing to do with: you are not a slave, but a child; and now, inasmuch as you are a beloved child, you are bound to obey your Father’s faintest wish, the least intimation of his will. Does he bid you fulfil a sacred ordinance? It is at your peril that you neglect it, for you will be disobeying your Father. Does he command you to seek the image of Jesus? Is it not your joy to do so? Does Jesus tell you, "Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect"? Then not because the law commands, but because your Saviour enjoins, you will labour to be perfect in holiness. Does he bid his saints love one another? Do it, not because the law says, "Love thy neighbour," but because Jesus says, "If ye love me, keep my commandments;" and this is the commandment that he has given unto you, "that ye love one another." Are you told to distribute to the poor? Do it, not because charity is a burden which you dare not shirk, but because Jesus teaches, "Give to him that asketh of thee." Does the Word say, "Love God with all your heart"? Look at the commandment and reply, "Ah! commandment, Christ hath fulfilled thee already-I have no need, therefore, to fulfil thee for my salvation, but I rejoice to yield obedience to thee because God is my Father now and he has a claim upon me, which I would not dispute." May the Holy Ghost make your heart obedient to the constraining power of Christ’s love, that your prayer may be, "Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight." Grace is the mother and nurse of holiness, and not the apologist of sin.

by Charles Spurgeon

Monday, January 23, 2012

John MacArthur

Have you noticed that no matter how many times charismatic televangelists make outlandish false prophecies, they never lack for followers, and they don't stop claiming the Lord has spoken directly to them?

Benny Hinn, for example, made a series of celebrated prophetic utterances in December of 1989, none of which came true. He confidently told his congregation at the Orlando Christian Center that God had revealed to him Fidel Castro would die sometime in the 1990s; the homosexual community in America would be destroyed by fire before 1995; and a major earthquake would cause havoc on the east coast before the year 2000. He was wrong on all counts, of course.

That did not deter Hinn, who simply kept making bold new false prophecies. At the beginning of the new millennium, he announced to his television audience that a prophetess had informed him Jesus would soon appear physically in some of Hinn's healing meetings. Hinn said he was convinced the prophecy was authentic, and on his April 2, 2000, broadcast, he amplified it with a prophecy of his own: "Now hear this, I am prophesying this! Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is about to appear physically in some churches, and some meetings, and to many of His people, for one reason: to tell you He is about to show up! To wake up! Jesus is coming saints!" Hinn's failed prophesies are more outlandish but nearly as memorable as the notorious claims Oral Roberts began making about three decades ago. In 1977 Roberts said he saw a vision of a 900-foot-tall Jesus, who instructed him to build the City of Faith, a 60-story hospital in south Tulsa. Roberts said God told him He would use the center to unite medical technology with faith healing, which would revolutionize health care and enable doctors to find a cure for cancer.

The building, completed in the early 1980s, was a colossal white elephant from the very start. When the City of Faith opened for business, all but two stories of the massive structure were completely vacant. By January of 1987 the project was saddled with unmanageable debt, and Roberts announced that the Lord had said unless Roberts raised eight million dollars to pay the debt by March 1, he would die. Apparently not willing to test the death-threat prophecy, donors dutifully gave Roberts the needed funds in time (with the help of $1.3 million donated at the last hour by a Florida dog-track owner).
But within two years, Roberts was forced to close the medical center anyway and sell the building in order to eliminate still-mounting debt. More than 80 percent of the building had never been occupied. The promised cure for cancer never materialized, either.

A list of similar failed charismatic prophesies could fill several volumes. And yet, amazingly, the "prophets" who make such fantastic claims now appear to have more influence than ever—even among mainstream evangelicals. And the idea that God routinely speaks directly to His people has found more widespread acceptance today than at any time in the history of the church.
The charismatic movement began barely a hundred years ago, and its influence on evangelicalism can hardly be overstated. Its chief legacy has been an unprecedented interest in extrabiblical revelation. Millions influenced by charismatic doctrine are convinced that God speaks to them directly all the time. Indeed, many seem to believe direct revelation is the main means through which God communicates with His people. "The Lord told me ... " has become a favorite cliche of experience-driven evangelicals.

Not all who believe God speaks to them make prophetic pronouncements as outlandish as those broadcast by charismatic televangelists, of course. But they still believe God gives them extrabiblical messages—either through an audible voice, a vision, a voice in their heads, or simply an internal impression. In most cases, their "prophecies" are comparatively trivial. But the difference between them and Benny Hinn's predictions is a difference only of scale, not of substance.
The notion that God is giving extrabiblical messages to Christians today has received support from some surprising sources. Wayne Grudem, popular author and professor of theology and biblical studies at Phoenix Seminary believes God regularly gives Christians prophetic messages by simply bringing spontaneous thoughts to mind. Such impressions should be reported as prophecy, he says.[1]
Similar ideas have found sweeping acceptance even among non-charismatic Christians. Southern Baptists have eagerly devoured Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby and Claude King, which suggests that the main way the Holy Spirit leads believers is by speaking to them directly. According to Blackaby, when God gives an individual a message that pertains to the church, it should be shared with the whole body.[2] As a result, extrabiblical "words from the Lord" are now commonplace even in some Southern Baptist circles.

Why do so many modern Christians seek revelation from God through means other than Scripture? Certainly not because it is a reliable way to discover truth. All sides admit that modern prophecies are often completely erroneous. In fact, the failure rate is astonishingly high. In my book Charismatic Chaos I quoted one leading "prophet" who was thrilled because he believed that two-thirds of his prophecies were accurate. "Well that's better than it's ever been up to now, you know. That's the highest level it's ever been."[3]

In other words, modern prophecy is not a much more reliable way to discern truth than a Magic Eight-Ball or Tarot cards. And, I would add, it is equally superstitious. There is no warrant anywhere in Scripture for Christians to listen for fresh revelation from God beyond what He has already given us in His written Word. In fact, Scripture unsparingly condemns all who speak even one word falsely or presumptuously in the Lord's name (Deut. 18:20-22). But such warnings are simply ignored these days by those who claim to have heard afresh from God.

And not surprisingly, wherever there is a preoccupation with "fresh" prophecy, there is invariably a corresponding neglect of the Scriptures. After all, why be concerned with an ancient Book if the Living God communicates directly with us on a daily basis? These fresh words of "revelation" naturally seem more relevant and more urgent than the familiar words of the Bible. Is it any wonder that they draw people away from Scripture?

That is precisely why modern evangelicalism's infatuation with extrabiblical revelation is so dangerous. It is a return to medieval superstition and a departure from our fundamental conviction that the Bible is our sole, supreme, and sufficient authority for all of life. In other words, it represents a wholesale abandonment of the principle of sola Scriptura.

The absolute sufficiency of Scripture is summed up well in this section from the Westminster Confession of Faith:
The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men (1.6, emphasis added).
Historic Protestantism is grounded in the conviction that the canon is closed. No "new" revelation is necessary, because Scripture is complete and absolutely sufficient.
Scripture itself is clear that the day of God's speaking directly to His people through various prophetic words and visions is past. The truth God has revealed in Christ including the complete New Testament canon is His final word (Heb. 1:1-2; cf. Jude 3; Rev. 22:18-19).

Scripture—the written Word of God—is perfectly sufficient, containing all the revelation we need. Notice 2 Timothy 3:16-17. Paul tells Timothy:
From childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

That passage makes two very important statements that pertain to the issue we are looking at. First, "All Scripture is inspired by God." Scripture speaks with the authority of God Himself. It is certain; it is reliable; it is true. Jesus Himself prayed in John 17:17: "Your word is truth." Psalm 119:160 says, "The entirety of Your word is truth."
Those statements all set Scripture above every human opinion, every speculation, and every emotional sensation. Scripture alone stands as definitive truth. It speaks with an authority that transcends every other voice.
Second, The passage teaches that Scripture is utterly sufficient, "able to make you wise for salvation ... [and able to make you] complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." What clearer affirmation of the absolute sufficiency of Scripture could anyone ask for? Are extrabiblical messages from God necessary to equip us to glorify Him? Certainly not.
Those who seek fresh messages from God have in effect scorned the absolute certainty and absolute sufficiency of the written Word of God. And they have set in its place their own fallen and fallible imaginations.

If the church does not return to the principle of sola Scriptura, the only revival we will see is a revival of the superstition and darkness that characterized medieval religion. Does this mean God has stopped speaking? Certainly not, but He speaks today through His Word. Does the Spirit of God move our hearts and impress us with specific duties or callings? Certainly, but He works through the Word of God to do that. Such experi­ences are in no sense prophetic or authoritative. They are not revelation, but the effect of illumination, when the Holy Spirit applies the Word to our hearts and opens our spiritual eyes to its truth. We must guard carefully against allowing our experience and our own subjective thoughts and imaginations to eclipse the authority and the certainty of the more sure Word.

Thursday, January 19, 2012


 

Sincerity

"Thou desirest truth in the inward parts."
Psa_51:6

There is a remarkable foreshadowing of the insight of Christ Jesus in these words. They ring with that depth which is so clear a note of Jesus' moral teaching. We have been inclined to think of the Old Testament as dealing with the outward sphere of action; we have been inclined to say that it was Jesus who first ran down the act into the heart. But we must not separate the Old and New by any hard and fast distinctions such as these. They intermingle, both in creed and character. If Abraham saw Christ's day and was glad, David saw Christ's day and was sad. He recognized God's passionate insistence that a man should be thoroughly sincere.

It is worth noting, too, that when David recognized this, he had a broken heart. David had sinned, and David was repentant; and a repentant man sees deeply. There are some hours in life when we are blind; hours when we see nothing and forget everything; and all our past, and all our honor and duty and God, and heaven and hell, fade and are blotted out. But when repentance comes, we see again. We see what we have done and what we are. We touch a sinfulness far deeper than our act. And that was David's case. On ordinary days he might have been content with ordinary sacrifices; but in an hour like this it was "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned," and "Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts."

This, then, is God's insistence on sincerity, and it is always a hard thing to be sincere. Life is so full of little insincerity's that it is often the man who is seriously struggling to be true who feels most keenly how untrue he is. It is always a hard thing to be sincere. But there are times when it is harder than at other times. And it is especially hard today.

The Struggle for Existence

One reason it is so hard to be sincere is the fierce struggle for existence. There is a fierceness in modern competition that makes it very hard for a man to be a man. There are so many interests involved, so many whirling wheels within the wheels, that to be true to self is difficult. Men are not free as the shepherd on the hills is free. Men are combined and interlocked in the great mechanism of modern life until at last, to say what a man thinks and to be what a man is, is one of the quiet heroisms of honesty. Thank God, there are such heroisms!—as worthy of honor as any deed upon the battlefield. But when to be sincere spells heroism, we must not wonder if insincerity is common. Few men are heroes. For one soul that has a passion for sincerity, there are a hundred that have an overriding passion for success. And this, and the great gulf between Monday's warfare and Sunday's worship, and the compliance's and the accommodations and the silences, have tinged our city life with insincerity.

The Pressure of Public Opinion

I think, too, it is harder to be sincere because of the increasing pressure of public opinion. It seems there never was a time when the thought of so many was so quickly voiced and registered. For centuries the people had no voice. They lived and loved and had their griefs and died. But what their thought might be on the great themes mattered no more to their rulers than the thought of brutes. Then came the awakening of knowledge, the dawn of power, the rising of the people like a giant, the vote, the newspaper; until today the thought of the people has been caught and voiced, and public opinion is a dominant power. It is an untold blessing. But the voice of the people is not always the voice of God, and in the tremendous pressure of general opinion, it is harder for a man to be himself. It is a difficult thing to be an individual. I am so apt to be all warped and pressed out of the mental form that God has given me until my life becomes play acting and all the world a stage, and I don't have the courage to think, and I don't have the heart to feel, and I don't have the heroism to be myself. And losing my individuality, I cease to be sincere.

A Time of Transition

But perhaps the deepest cause of insincerity is that we are living in a time of transition. All times to some extent are that. There is never an age, however dull and dead, but the old like a river is watering its plains, and the new like a spring leaps up into the light. But there are some times when the transition is very sharp and clear, and we are living in such a time as that today. Old things are passing away. Old faiths are in the crucible again. Old truths have got to be recast and readjusted. There is not a doctrine, whether of heart or Bible, but earnest minds are trying to reset it in the growing knowledge of these latter days. In one pew a father and a son are sitting; and though the father may never dream of it, there is the space of centuries between the two. For the father, with all the loyalty of his heart, still clings to the great message of the past; and to the son the strain is to reconcile that message of his childhood with the wider horizon that he cannot yield.

That is the pain of a transition time. There can be little question that for many the only antidote for that pain is insincerity. It is impossible, it is utterly wrong, to cast away the past. It has meant too much to us and been too much to us for that. It is impossible, it is utterly wrong, to flout the new. It is the air we breathe. So springs the temptation to be insincere, to join in the worship that was formed and fashioned when faith was an enthusiasm, to sing the hymns that were the music of unclouded souls though the enthusiasm of our faith is gone and there are more clouds than sunshine in the sky.

Insincerity Robs a Man of His Dignity

Insincerity takes all dignity out of life, and makes this world a very low place. We think we can be insincere, and men will be tricked and never find it out. O brethren, God Almighty has His own awful ways of writing a man's insincerity upon the heavens and engraving it as with a pen of iron on the world. All reverence is impossible, all purity is stained, and all innocence rebukes me when I am insincere. If I am false and double, I cannot hear the laughter of my children but what it sends a pang of pain into my heart. Better be excitable, better be inconsistent, better be dead than insincere. Peter was excitable, brimful of inconsistencies; yet if ever a sincere heart beat, it was the heart of Peter—and Jesus was Christ to Peter and heaven was heaven. But Judas, I don't know what his other sins were, was insincere till he came to feel the very sincerity of Jesus was like an insult; and, insincere, he went to his own place.

Insincerity Distorts the Character

Insincerity carries yet another curse. I hardly think that there is any sin that mars and distorts the character like this one. That master theologian Augustine gave us a phrase that has become historic. He spoke of splendid sins. And perhaps there are some sins that in some lights, though not the light of God, have certain elements of splendor in them. But all the insight and all the love of Augustine could never find an element of splendor in the man or woman who had ceased to be sincere. There is no sin that so eats the manhood out of us as insincerity. There is no sin that so robs character of its quiet and restfulness and strength, and leaves it restless, shifty, self-assertive, loud. The nation has often wondered at the sweet equanimity of our revered Queen. And it was Bright who said the Queen was the most truthful being he had ever met. It is the insincere man who exaggerates. It is the insincere who flatters. It is the insincere who plays the coward in the crisis. When I have won something of the sincerity of Christ, I shall know something of His strength and peace.

Insincerity Destroys Our Influence

Surely no sin saps and undermines our influence as insincerity. Perhaps you think you have no influence. You feel yourself a very uninfluential person. Come! humblest woman reading this, it is not so! Most of us think far too much of our abilities and far too little of our influence. We are so interwoven in the web of life that we are making and molding each other every day. In ways mysterious, out of the depths of this mysterious self, we touch and turn each other. And perhaps the men who influence us most are the men who never tried to influence us at all.

Now the one bolt that falls out of the blue to shatter this unconscious influence of character is insincerity. I may be ignorant, and men may not despise me. I may be poor and still command respect. But ignorant or learned, rich or poor, once let men feel that I am insincere and all my influence for good, all my influence for God, is gone. It's a sad hour when a son sees through his father. Sad for the father, twice sad for the son. And even if a minister have the eloquence of Paul, if his people distrust him, there will be no changed hearts. It is God's curse on insincerity. It is the separating, isolating power of that heart-sin. There is no more heart-lonely creature in the world than the man or woman who has grown insincere. And to be heart-lonely forever, that is hell.

The Path to a Renewed Sincerity

First we must win a deeper reverence for ourselves. We must believe in individual possibilities. We must remember there are no nobodies with God. If I am only a leaf tossed by the wind, if I am only a flake carried on the stream, if I am only a light that flashes and is gone, if it will be all the same a hundred years hence, it matters little whether I am sincere or not. I must not mock myself with any self-importance. But if I am a man called into being by an everlasting God, nurtured and bosomed in an eternal love, gifted with faculties that only eternity can ripen, and filled with a ceaseless craving for the truth, to be untrue to self is self-destruction. Therefore, when I am tempted to be insincere, I fall back first upon Bible doctrine. I see my weakness there. I see my fall. But I see there such hopes for me, such possibilities for me, that to be me—myself—becomes a new ambition. And to be myself is to be sincere.

Then we must gain a profound faith in God. There is no choice about it. We simply must. I defy any man to be consciously insincere who lives under these eyes that are a flame of fire. It is because God is distant, hidden in the clouds that are around His throne, that we dare be one man within, another man without. The old religious sculptors, says a writer, who came to their tasks with prayer and meditation on unearthly beauty, would never suffer any imperfect workmanship even though placed where man could never see it. And when one questioned them why the concealed parts of statues removed from human sight should be so exquisitely made, they answered that the eyes of the gods were there. "Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my goings are passed over from my God?" It is a speech like Jacob's that makes insincerity so easy. It is the practice of God's presence which makes it hard.

And we must gain a closer fellowship with Christ. Of all the helps whereby I struggle onwards toward sincerity, there is none like daily fellowship with Him. If it ennobles me to live with noble souls, and makes me purer to have a pure woman for my friend, how will it shame me into a new sincerity to live with the sincerest heart that ever beat! There are some men with whom I could not gossip. There are some men in whose presence slander dies. There is one Man whose very company kills insincerity, and that is Christ. When I am near to Him, and He to me, I am proportionately true. When I have lost Him, banished Him, driven Him from His center and His throne, like a strong tide my insincerity creeps up again.

There is a sad lack of sincerity today, but let us not be blinded to the fact that sincerity is not the only virtue. I am not necessarily good, I am not necessarily right, I am not necessarily saved, because I am sincere. There is a call for new sincerity in every heart, yet that sincerity is but a stepping-stone. I may sincerely believe the earth is flat, and yet for all my sincerity the earth is round. I may sincerely consider my friend to be a hero, and yet in spite of that my friend may be a scamp. I may sincerely be convinced Christ never arose, yet Christ did arise and is at the right hand of God today. Sincerity without humility is the obstinacy out of which fools are made. The truly sincere man is always humble, feels like a child amid God's infinite mysteries and cries in his heart, "Light, light, more light"; till God in His own way leads him there. And the light is light indeed, and the light indeed is love. And neither height nor depth, nor life nor death, nor any other creature, shall, separate him from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
by George H. Morrison

Wednesday, January 18, 2012


WALKING NOT AFTER THE FLESH, BUT AFTER THE SPIRIT

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. That the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."--
Rom_8:1-4 (R.V.).

THE APOSTLE here is dealing with the conditions of a holy life; and the condemnation to which he refers is that caused by the constant failure so graphically described in the previous chapter. From my own experience, I think that the introspection which is often induced by ill-health and weakness makes us very sensitive to the failure and shortcoming of the inner life. We know that we are accepted in Christ, and that our sins are forgiven us for His sake; but we are deeply conscious that in us (i.e. in our flesh) dwelleth no good thing from. Rom_7:18).

The Reservoir of Eternal Life.--"the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus." We perceive what physical life is when a child comes bounding into our room in a very ecstasy of health and joy. We know what intellectual life is as we see the mind developing under the process of education. We know what the moral life of a stoic is, repelling by force of will the appeal of the senses. But above all these, there is Life which is resident in Jesus Christ, stored in Him, abounding in Him, which He longs to communicate to every soul that trusts in Him. This was the witness of those who knew Jesus most intimately in His brief human life--that "God hath given unto us Eternal Life, and this Life is in His Son." "He that hath the Son hath the Life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not the Life." This more than outweighs the down-pull of the self-life. The law of that life makes us free from the law of sin and death, for it has mastered death and the grave.

This Life is communicated and sustained by the Holy Spirit. We must be one with Christ; we must be in Him, as the sponge is in the ocean. We must be in Him, not only in our standing, but also in our daily walk. We must be in Him as the branch is in the vine, and the vine-sap in the branch. And this must not only be a theory, but an hourly experience. We must abide in Him and He in us. But how can this become our daily experience? There is but one way. Through the co-operation of the Holy Spirit, as we walk in Him (
Gal_5:16). He is the essence of the Life which is in Christ Jesus. "The Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."

PRAYER

Almighty God, I beseech Thee to raise me from the death of sin to the life of righteousness by that same power that brought the Lord Jesus from the dead, that I may walk in newness of life through the aid of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
by F. B. Meyer


Evening

"And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king’s house."

-
2Sa_11:2

At that hour David saw Bathsheba. We are never out of the reach of temptation. Both at home and abroad we are liable to meet with allurements to evil; the morning opens with peril, and the shades of evening find us still in jeopardy. They are well kept whom God keeps, but woe unto those who go forth into the world, or even dare to walk their own house unarmed. Those who think themselves secure are more exposed to danger than any others. The armour-bearer of Sin is Self-confidence.

David should have been engaged in fighting the Lord’s battles, instead of which he tarried at Jerusalem, and gave himself up to luxurious repose, for he arose from his bed at eventide. Idleness and luxury are the devil’s jackals, and find him abundant prey. In stagnant waters noxious creatures swarm, and neglected soil soon yields a dense tangle of weeds and briars. Oh for the constraining love of Jesus to keep us active and useful! When I see the King of Israel sluggishly leaving his couch at the close of the day, and falling at once into temptation, let me take warning, and set holy watchfulness to guard the door.

Is it possible that the king had mounted his housetop for retirement and devotion? If so, what a caution is given us to count no place, however secret, a sanctuary from sin! While our hearts are so like a tinder-box, and sparks so plentiful, we had need use all diligence in all places to prevent a blaze. Satan can climb housetops, and enter closets, and even if we could shut out that foul fiend, our own corruptions are enough to work our ruin unless grace prevent. Reader, beware of evening temptations. Be not secure. The sun is down but sin is up. We need a watchman for the night as well as a guardian for the day. O blessed Spirit, keep us from all evil this night. Amen.

by Charles Spurgeon

Monday, January 16, 2012


Matthew 2:12 And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. KJV

Our Lord still Divinely warns us today when our enemy is trying to deceive us into liberalism, license, or legalism and lead us away from our love relationship with Him. Those of us who know and love our Lord so much and mean to do others no harm often find ourselves deceived into thinking that others who we encounter are also of like mind. We can here remember the words of our Lord speaking to our hearts and mind, “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing (humbly, gently, or kindly), but inwardly are like ravenous wolves (jealous, envious, sensual, and, unclean).” He went on to further say, “You will recognize them by their lifestyle.” He does not want us to get caught up into their false vain worship as often the children of Israel were led to do by the many Gentiles that lived in the same land.

Albert Barnes has this to say of this passage of Scripture, “This was done, doubtless, because, if they had given Herod precise information where he was, it would have been easy for him to send forth and kill him. And from this we learn that God will watch over those whom He loves; that He knows how to foil the purposes of the wicked, and to deliver His own out of the hands of those who would destroy them.”

“Those that act cautiously, and are afraid of sin and snares, if they apply themselves to God for direction, may expect to be led in the right way.” Matthew Henry

Matthew 2:15 And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. KJV

And ever since this date, He (God the Father) has been calling His elect adopted sons and daughters out of each of our own personal Egypt’s (which represents our enslavement to sin) delivering us from the power of darkness and conveying us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through Christ Blood, the forgiveness of sins. In the next verse 16, we see a picture of the devil’s response when he sees a soul called out of sin into the liberty with which Christ has made us free and that is extreme anger and rage.

EXPERIENCE OR REVELATION

We have received ... the spirit which is of God; that we
might know the things that are freely given to us of
God.

1 Corinthians 2:12

Reality is Redemption, not my experience of Redemption; but
Redemption has no meaning for me until it speaks the language of my
conscious life. When I am born again, the Spirit of God takes me
right out of myself and my experiences, and identifies me with Jesus
Christ. If I am left with my experiences, my experiences have not
been produced by Redemption. The proof that they are produced by
Redemption is that I am led out of myself all the time, I no longer
pay any attention to my experiences as the ground of Reality, but
only to the Reality which produced the experiences. My experiences
are not worth anything unless they keep me at the Source, Jesus
Christ.

If you try to dam up the Holy Spirit in you to produce subjective
experiences, you will find that He will burst all bounds and take you
back again to the historic Christ. Never nourish an experience which
has not God as its Source and faith in God as its result. If you do,
your experience is anti-Christian, no matter what visions you may
have had. Is Jesus Christ Lord of your experiences, or do you try to
lord it over Him? Is any experience dearer to you than your Lord? He
must be Lord over you, and you must not pay attention to any
experience over which He is not Lord. There comes a time when God
will make you impatient with your own experience - I do not care what
I experience; I am sure of Him.

Be ruthless with yourself if you are given to talking about the
experiences you have had. Faith that is sure of itself is not faith;
faith that is sure of God is the only faith there is.

By

Oswald Chambers

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Daily Reflections from the Word Jan 10, 2012

Galatians 5:17 For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. (NKJV)

General Douglas MacArthur said and I quote, “In war there is no substitution for Victory.” Every true redeemed child of the King currently is in an internal war between the old nature received at physical birth and the new nature received when born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we must choose which nature will prevail victoriously in our every day life. The flesh that Paul hereto refers is not our bodies but it is our corrupt nature. However, I believe that Paul speaking of the spirit is really talking about our dead spirits made alive to God the Father by the new birth.

When you read the Book of Joshua, you see many battles between the Israelites and the pagans still occupying some of the land. God the Father gave His people mighty victories but sin caused some defeats as well. The Book of Joshua pictures the walk of every person who has truly been born again. Every believer through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit must conquer attitudes, propensities, and habits. We must not grieve Him, yet we often times do and in so doing we bring swift destruction upon ourselves in our daily warfare.

Romans 8:6-7 Now the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death [death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter]. But the mind of the [Holy] Spirit is life and [soul] peace [both now and forever]. [That is] because the mind of the flesh [with its carnal thoughts and purposes] is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God's Law; indeed it cannot. (Quick Amplified Bible)

Here we have the greatest of conflicts in all the History of man. The Holy Spirit of God is moment by moment every single day inclining or influencing us to do what His Word declares, but our old fallen nature is at the same time moment by moment every day with the influence from the devil to have us go back to our old unregenerate life.

The nature we feed the most will be the one that influences our actions out of the body the most. It will grow, grow, and become the stronger of the two subduing the other. However, we know that the influence of God the Holy Spirit upon the heart will prevail in every believer who walks closely to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is partly how we are conformed or molded daily into Christ image along with trials and sufferings.

This is a quote from Dr. John Gill (1690-1771) “There is in regenerate men a propensity and inclination to sin, a carnal I, that wills and desires sin, and wishes for an opportunity to do it, which when it offers, the flesh strongly solicits to it; but the Spirit, or the internal principle of grace, opposes the motion; and like another Joseph says, how can I commit this great wickedness and sin against a God of so much love and grace? It is a voice behind and even in a believer, which, when he is tempted to turn to the right hand or the left, says, this is the way, walk in it, and will not suffer him to go into crooked paths with the workers of iniquity; and so sin cannot have the dominion over him, because he is under grace as a reigning principle; and the old man cannot do the evil things he would, being under the restraints of mighty grace. This is the apostle's principal sense, and best suits with his reasoning in the context; but inasmuch as the lusting and opposition of these two principles are mutual and reciprocal, the other sense may also be taken in; as that oftentimes, by reason of the prevalence of corrupt nature, and power of indwelling sin, a regenerate man does the evil he would not, and cannot do the good he would; for he would always do good and nothing else, and even as the angels do it in heaven; but he cannot, because of this opposite principle, the flesh.”

I was spending time in the Word allowing my Lord and Savior Christ Jesus to speak to me, and He showed me in Chapter 23 of the Book of Exodus His Heart for His people Israel. He wanted so much to bless them, heal them, honor them, but He wanted them to understand His hatred for sin and all evil. He counseled them and warned them of the consequences if they would not heed His voice but go along with what they observed in the lives of the pagan people all around them.

It was His desire that Israel be different from these people and in so doing show them the goodness, mercy, and might of their God Yahweh. Because our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the same today, yesterday and forever, He wants the same from us today. His burning desire and His will is to see us daily walk in conquering Victory over sin and our old nature through His grace and power. In so doing we will be able to live blameless lives before those still snared or trapped by sin, darkness, and the devil. We will truly be the light of the world before them showing them that in Jesus Christ and in Him only there is deliverance, victory, and freedom.

Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) said these very penetrating words, “The destined end of man is not happiness, nor health, but holiness. The one thing that matters is whether a man will accept the God Who will make him holy. Never tolerate through sympathy with yourself or with others any practice that is not in keeping with a holy God. Holiness means un-sullied walking with the feet, un sullied talking with the tongue, and un sullied thinking with the mind - every detail of the life under the scrutiny of God. Holiness is not only what God gives me, but what I manifest that God has given me.”

Beloved we are not here to make nice with this world or the earth where we currently reside, but we are here to daily crucify our flesh and allow God the Holy Spirit to conform us into every aspect of Christ image. The loving Christ, the compassionate Christ, and the angry Christ.

One day I stopped at the post office on my bike and this well meaning older lady said to me “Wow that is a great way to go green”, I said, “Dear lady thank you but this is not why I’m on my bike.” I said, “As much as I love the people who want to preserve this earth, I have to tell you that the Bible states clearly that this earth will be destroyed by fire upon Jesus Christ second coming.”

We are not here beloved to preserve this planet or to preserve our lives down here by building our own little kingdoms here, but we must mortify (put to death) our flesh every day as Christ is going to destroy this earth and create a new one. Beloved if you are a new creature in Jesus Christ then live like it daily. Let people say of you that this man or woman does not consider the lust of this world of any allure to them. Stay in daily meditation upon the Word of God and feed the new nature through God’s Word and you will see how big and strong God will grow you spiritually and we will be able to say this and mean it “Sin no longer has dominion over me.”

Sincerely in Christ,

Clifford D. Tate, Sr.
Author, Silent Assassins of the Soul (not yet published; coming soon as the Lord wills)

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Daily Reflections from the Word Jan 7, 2012

"For me to live is Christ."

-
Phi_1:21

The believer did not always live to Christ. He began to do so when God the Holy Spirit convinced him of sin, and when by grace he was brought to see the dying Saviour making a propitiation for his guilt. From the moment of the new and celestial birth the man begins to live to Christ. Jesus is to believers the one pearl of great price, for whom we are willing to part with all that we have. He has so completely won our love, that it beats alone for him; to his glory we would live, and in defence of his gospel we would die; he is the pattern of our life, and the model after which we would sculpture our character. Paul’s words mean more than most men think; they imply that the aim and end of his life was Christ-nay, his life itself was Jesus. In the words of an ancient saint, he did eat, and drink, and sleep eternal life. Jesus was his very breath, the soul of his soul, the heart of his heart, the life of his life. Can you say, as a professing Christian, that you live up to this idea? Can you honestly say that for you to live is Christ? Your business-are you doing it for Christ? Is it not done for self- aggrandizement and for family advantage? Do you ask, "Is that a mean reason?" For the Christian it is. He professes to live for Christ; how can he live for another object without committing a spiritual adultery? Many there are who carry out this principle in some measure; but who is there that dare say that he hath lived wholly for Christ as the apostle did? Yet, this alone is the true life of a Christian-its source, its sustenance, its fashion, its end, all gathered up in one word-Christ Jesus. Lord, accept me; I here present myself, praying to live only in thee and to thee. Let me be as the bullock which stands between the plough and the altar, to work or to be sacrificed; and let my motto be, "Ready for either."
by Charles H. Spurgeon

Friday, January 6, 2012

Daily Reflections from the Word Jan 6, 2012

Matthew Henry's Commentary

1 John 3:4-10

The apostle, having alleged the believer's obligation to purity from his hope of heaven, and of communion with Christ in glory at the day of his appearance, now proceeds to fill his own mouth and the believer's mind with multiplied arguments against sin, and all communion with the impure unfruitful works of darkness. And so he reasons and argues,

I. From the nature of sin and the intrinsic evil of it. It is a contrariety to the divine law: Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also (or even) the law (or, whosoever committeth sin even committeth enormity, or aberration from law, or from the law); for sin is the transgression of the law, or is lawlessness,

1Jo_3:4. Sin is the destitution or privation of correspondence and agreement with the divine law, that law which is the transcript of the divine nature and purity, which contains his will for the government of the world, which is suitable to the rational nature, and enacted for the good of the world, which shows man the way of felicity and peace, and conducts him to the author of his nature and of the law. The current commission of sin now is the rejection of the divine law, and this is the rejection of the divine authority, and consequently of God himself.

II. From the design and errand of the Lord Jesus in and to this world, which was to remove sin: And you know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin, 1Jo_3:5. The Son of God appeared, and was known, in our nature; and he came to vindicate and exalt the divine law, and that by obedience to the precept, and by subjection and suffering under the penal sanction, under the curse of it. He came therefore to take away our sins, to take away the guilt of them by the sacrifice of himself, to take away the commission of them by implanting a new nature in us (for we are sanctifies by virtue of his death), and to dissuade and save from it by his own example, and (or for) in him was no sin; or, he takes sin away, that he may conform us to himself, and in him is no sin. Those that expect communion with Christ above should study communion with him here in the utmost purity. And the Christian world should know and consider the great end of the Son of God's coming hither: it was to take away our sin: And you know (and this knowledge should be deep and effectual) that he was manifested to take away our sins.

III. From the opposition between sin and a real union with or adhesion to the Lord Christ: Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not, 1Jo_3:6. To sin here is the same as to commit sin (1Jo_3:8, 1Jo_3:9), and to commit sin is to practise sin. He that abideth in Christ continues not in the practice of sin. As vital union with the Lord Jesus broke the power of sin in the heart and nature, so continuance therein prevents the regency and prevalence thereof in the life and conduct. Or the negative expression here is put for the positive: He sinneth not, that is, he is obedient, he keeps the commandments (in sincerity, and in the ordinary course of life) and does those things that are pleasing in his sight, as is said 1Jo_3:22. Those that abide in Christ abide in their covenant with him, and consequently watch against the sin that is contrary thereto. They abide in the potent light and knowledge of him; and therefore it may be concluded that he that sinneth (abideth in the predominant practice of sin) hath not seen him (hath not his mind impressed with a sound evangelical discerning of him), neither known him, hath no experimental acquaintance with him. Practical renunciation of sin is the great evidence of spiritual union with, continuance in, and saving knowledge of, the Lord Christ.

IV. From the connection between the practice of righteousness and a state of righteousness, intimating withal that the practice of sin and a justified state are inconsistent; and this is introduced with a supposition that a surmise to the contrary is a gross deceit: "Little children, dear children, and as much children as you are, herein let no man deceive you. There will be those who will magnify your new light and entertainment of Christianity, who will make you believe that your knowledge, profession, and baptism, will excuse you from the care and accuracy of the Christian life. But beware of such self-deceit. He that doeth righteousness in righteous." It may appear that righteousness may in several places of scripture be justly rendered religion, as Mat_5:10, Blessed are those that are persecuted for righteousness' sake, that is, for religion's sake; 1Pe_3:14, But if you suffer for righteousness' sake (religion's sake) happy are you; and 2Ti_3:16, All scripture, or the whole scripture, is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine - and for instruction in righteousness, that is, in the nature and branches of religion. To do righteousness then, especially being set in opposition to the doing, committing, or practising, of sin, is to practise religion. Now he who practiseth religion is righteous; he is the righteous person on all accounts; he is sincere and upright before God. The practice of religion cannot subsist without a principle of integrity and conscience. He has that righteousness which consists in pardon of sin and right to life, founded upon the imputation of the Mediator's righteousness. He has a title to the crown of righteousness, which the righteous Judge will give, according to his covenant and promise, to those that love his appearing, 2Ti_4:8. He has communion with Christ, in conformity to the divine law, being in some measure practically righteous as he; and he has communion with him in the justified state, being now relatively righteous together with him.

V. From the relation between the sinner and the devil, and thereupon from the design and office of the Lord Christ against the devil. 1. From the relation between the sinner and the devil. As elsewhere sinners and saints are distinguished (though even saints are sinners largely so called), so to commit sin is here so to practise it as sinners do, that are distinguished from saints, to live under the power and dominion of it; and he who does so is of the devil; his sinful nature is inspired by, and agreeable and pleasing to, the devil; and he belongs to the party, and interest, and kingdom of the devil. It is he that is the author and patron of sin, and has been a practitioner of it, a tempter and instigator to it, even from the beginning of the world. And thereupon we must see how he argues. 2. From the design and office of the Lord Christ against the devil: For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil, 1Jo_3:8. The devil has designed and endeavoured to ruin the work of God in this world. The Son of God has undertaken the holy war against him. He came into our world, and was manifested in our flesh, that he might conquer him and dissolve his works. Sin will he loosen and dissolve more and more, till he has quite destroyed it. Let not us serve or indulge what the Son of God came to destroy.

VI. From the connection between regeneration and the relinquishment of sin: Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. To be born of God is to be inwardly renewed, and restored to a holy integrity or rectitude of nature by the power of the Spirit of God. Such a one committeth not sin, does not work iniquity nor practise disobedience, which is contrary to his new nature and the regenerate complexion of his spirit; for, as the apostle adds, his seed remaineth in him, either the word of God in its light and power remaineth in him (as 1Pe_1:23, Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever), or, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit; the spiritual seminal principle of holiness remaineth in him. Renewing grace is an abiding principle. Religion, in the spring of it, is not an art, an acquired dexterity and skill, but a new nature. And thereupon the consequence is the regenerate person cannot sin. That he cannot commit an act of sin, I suppose no judicious interpreter understands. This would be contrary to 1Jo_1:9, where it is made our duty to confess our sins, and supposed that our privilege thereupon is to have our sins forgiven. He therefore cannot sin, in the sense in which the apostle says, he cannot commit sin. He cannot continue in the course and practice of sin. He cannot so sin as to denominate him a sinner in opposition to a saint or servant of God. Again, he cannot sin comparatively, as he did before he was born of God, and as others do that are not so. And the reason is because he is born of God, which will amount to all this inhibition and impediment. 1. There is a light in his mind which shows him the evil and malignity of sin. 2. There is that bias upon his heart which disposes him to loathe and hate sin. 3. There is the spiritual seminal principle or disposition, that breaks the force and fulness of the sinful acts. They proceed not from such plenary power of corruption as they do in others, nor obtain that plenitude of heart, spirit, and consent, which they do in others. The spirit lusteth against the flesh. And therefore in respect to such sin it may be said, It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. It is not reckoned the person's sin, in the gospel account, where the bent and frame of the mind and spirit are against it. Then, 4. There is a disposition for humiliation and repentance for sin, when it has been committed. He that is born of God cannot sin. Here we may call to mind the usual distinction of natural and moral impotency. The unregenerate person is morally unable for what is religiously good. The regenerate person is happily disabled for sin. There is a restraint, an embargo (as we may say), laid upon his sinning powers. It goes against him sedately and deliberately to sin. We usually say of a person of known integrity, "He cannot lie, he cannot cheat, and commit other enormities." How can I commit this great wickedness, and sin against God! Gen_39:9. And so those who persist in a sinful life sufficiently demonstrate that they are not born of God.

VII. From the discrimination between the children of God and the children of the devil. They have their distinct characters. In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil, 1Jo_3:10. In the world (according to the old distinction) there are the seed of God and the seed of the serpent. Now the seed of the serpent is known by these two signatures: - 1. By neglect of religion: Whosoever doeth not righteously (omits and disregards the rights and dues of God; for religion is but our righteousness towards God, or giving him his due, and whosoever does not conscientiously do this) is not of God, but, on the contrary, of the devil. The devil is the father of unrighteous or irreligious souls. And, 2. By hatred of fellow-christians: Neither he that loveth not his brother, 1Jo_3:10. True Christians are to be loved for God's and Christ's sake. Those who so love them not, but despise, and hate, and persecute them, have the serpentine nature still abiding in them.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Daily Reflections from the Word Jan 5, 2012

Secret Faults

"Cleanse thou me from secret faults."
Psa_19:12
The secret faults of which the psalmist is speaking in this verse are the faults that are secret from even ourselves. They are the sins and failings in your life and mine of which we are unconscious. There are some faults we can keep secret from the world, and yet they are well known to those at home. The people we meet in the street may not suspect them, but our wives or mothers know them all too well. And there are other sins which a man may do in business so that his name smells rank among honorable dealers, yet the shadow of them may never touch his home nor the innocent faces of his adoring children. Such faults are secret beyond a certain circle. Love casts the mantle of her glorious silence around them. But it is not these of which the psalmist thinks when he cries, "Cleanse thou me from secret faults." He thinks of the faults and sins which in the sight of God we are committing, and yet we are ignorant of them and have never been awakened to them and are not conscious they are there at all.

Now that there are such faults in every one of us may be demonstrated along many lines. Think, for instance, how certain it becomes when we remember what we see in others. Is there anyone known to you, however good or beautiful, on whose faults or failings you could not put your finger? Is there any friend or lover or child or wife or minister whose weakness you have not long ago detected? They may not see it—it never obtrudes on them—they are quite unconscious that it is obvious to you. And so also as our neighbors move among us daily, and we see a hundred faults which they are blind to. Do not exempt yourself, I beg of you, from this general censure of humanity. You are bone of their bone, flesh of their flesh, born with their weakness, tempted with their sin. The very fact that all of us can see the mote that is in our brother's eye is proof that we have one in our own.

The certainty of such faults is proved again by our general ignorance of our own nature. There is not a man or woman whose life is not full of secret possibilities. Let the finger of love but touch a woman's heart, and you shall hardly know that woman by and by. Let motherhood come with all its infinite mystery, and she is enriched to the very heavens. Let a man be converted by the grace of God, as Paul was converted on the Damascus road, and life is expanded into undreamed-of fullness. We all surprise each other now and then, and now and then we all surprise ourselves—when love comes, or some great wave of emotion, or the sound of a trumpet and the call to battle. And if we believe in secret possibilities, on the basis of which Christ wrought from first to last, must we not also believe in secret sins? The fact is we should believe it instantly if it were not for the presence of self-love. Love thinketh no evil of the loved one, even when the loved one is oneself. And so in our secret virtues we believe, and in the hidden possibilities within us, but from our secret faults we turn away. That common attitude is intellectual cowardice. It is a man's first duty to face all the facts. To flatter other men is bad enough, but to flatter one's ownself is far more deadly. And therefore if you believe in hidden heights within you, I ask you also to believe in hidden depths and to cry as David cried, "Cleanse thou me from secret faults."

The Power of Habit
The exercise of a long-continued habit has a deadening power. There are sins which were not secret long ago, but habit and custom have made them secret now.

I well remember when I went to Dundee from the seclusion of my manse in Thurso, and how at first I found it hard to sleep at nights for the incessant noise of the railway and street. In Thurso, when night fell, the quiet was perfect. The countryside might have been wrapped in snow. There was no sound except the northern wind and sometimes the mystical calling of the sea. And then in the city there was the midnight traffic, and the jar and jolt and shrieking of the railway, and I would lie awake repeating, "Sleep no more, Dundee hath murdered sleep." All that lasted for a week or two, and then the clamorous voices became silent. And they died away and were no longer audible and never again disturbed the beatitude of rest. The noise was as loud as ever, and still the train rattled through the dark, but habit had made me oblivious to it all.

For good or for evil in this life of ours, habit is always busy doing that. Things that would wake us once and make us jump with fear are robbed of their power to disturb our slumber. And so the sins that long ago were open, and shocked us and made us blush to think of them, may have become with passing years our secret sins. You would have been very unhappy once, when day was over, if you had flung yourselves down upon a prayerless bed. And yet it may be that you do it now with never a thought that you are grieving God. You would have been miserable once and full of guilty shame had you been cruel, dishonest, or impure. And yet it may be that today you sin these sins without any inward unhappiness at all. My brother and sister, that is Satan's triumph—to take our open sins and make them secret: to take the faults that shamed us long ago and make us habituated and accustomed to them. When a man has ceased to be shamed and shocked by sin, when he does habitually what once he loathed and hated, let him beware for his immortal soul, for final impenitency crouches at the door. "Cleanse thou me, O Lord, from secret faults." They were not secret once in happy childhood. Then they distressed us and sent us out in misery, but they do not distress us for a moment now. So from the pressure of habit and of custom, touching us all into a certain hardness, we may be sure that we need to apply the psalmist's prayer to ourselves as well.

The Most Perilous Sins
And may I say that among all our sins there are perhaps none more perilous than our secret sins. And they are perilous just because in them we have the preparation for our open falls. Our great sins are seldom momentary overthrows. They seldom reach us like bolts out of the blue. These dark and tragic falls that we all know are not isolated and independent things. They reach us by the hidden ways of darkness and out of the silent and interior life, so that on every hour of wreckage and disaster there is the pressure of our secret faults.

For every noble act you ever did, there was a conscious and an unconscious preparation. You were getting ready for it not only when you strove, you were getting ready when you never dreamed of it. By every virtue you clung to in the dark—by every beautiful thought you ever cherished—by the self-denials of each routine morning—you have been getting ready for your nobler hours. That is the road by which we reach our victories, and that is the road by which we reach our tragedies.

Our sudden overthrows, when character was forfeited, are never quite so sudden as we think. Through secret faults—through covetings unchecked—through lusts unbridled when they were still imaginations—a man goes out to his hours when peace is lost and the shame of the vanquished is written on his brow.

Professor Drummond, in his Tropical Africa, tells of the secret ravages of the white ants. He tells of their enormous powers of destruction and how insidiously and secretly they work. He tells how a man may be sitting in his hut, and may think of it as strong as on the day he built it, when suddenly he may discover that there is nothing around him but a shell. Silently the white ants have been at work eating out the heart of every beam: no one has seen them—no one has heard them toiling—no one has had any warning of their presence. And then in a moment comes the revelation when the very pillars of the house tremble, and the secret ravage is revealed.

"Cleanse thou me from secret faults—keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins." Answer that first prayer, our blessed Savior, and in it we shall have our answer to the second. For all those open shames of word and deed that we cannot remember without self-loathing are but the lurid flowering of that nightshade whose roots are in the secret of the heart.

Our Utter Need of Christ
In closing, I am eager to suggest to you that our secret sins have one peculiar benefit. Above all other sins which we commit, they lead us to feel our utter need of Christ. Let me make that plain by a simple illustration. If some beautiful garden that you love is only disfigured by a weed or two, it is quite within your power to pull those weeds out though they may be tough as crabgrass or as venomous as poison ivy. But if the soil is bad—filled through and through with seeds—tangled with root-stocks of pestilential things—then cleaning it out is quite another matter.

My brother and sister, when you come to think of it, that is like the garden of your heart. If all that needs to be rooted out are a few habits, then do it in God's name, for you have power to do it. But when you awake to the appalling certainty that down in your heart there is a world of sin, in that hour you realize your utter helplessness. Not what we know, but what we do not know, is the deepest cry of the human soul to Christ—that world unfathomed beneath the range of consciousness out of which spring adulteries and murders. You cannot reach that world which lies unseen, away deep down in your mysterious being, and yet unless it is reached and cleansed by somebody, you know there can never be victory for you. It is just there that Jesus Christ draws near. He is able to save even to the uttermost. He is able and willing this very day to work a radical cleansing within you.

by George H. Morrison