Divine Sugar Sticks for September 2000

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Saturday, September 30, 2000

For For For

1 Pet 3:18, “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.”

”For Christ” – the word is HOTI, which means “because,” not “for”
”Suffered for sins” – the word is PERI, which means “concerning,” not “for”
”The Just for the unjust” – the word is HUPER, which means “on behalf of,” not “for”

”Because Christ also hath once suffered concerning sins, the Just on behalf of the unjust, bringing us to God.”

The key, “for” is HUPER, which is “on behalf of us” or “as substitute for us.” Salvation is a substitutionary death. He took our place.

”He made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”

“Thou Hast Given a Banner to Them That Fear Thee, That it May be Displayed Because of the Truth,” Psa 60:4

After the victory at Rephidim, Moses built an altar and called the name of it JEHOVAH-NISSI, that is, “the Lord our Banner,” our Flag. And that indeed was the banner of Israel.

The nation existed to display the glory of the Lord before the nations, when in her appointed warfare against the forces of evil she was victorious, that banner was honored. When she was defeated, it was disgraced.

This song was written in a day when the hosts of the Lord had been defeated. The conception of the meaning of the national life of Israel revealed in these words accounts for the anguish of the singer as he contemplates the discomfiture and defeat of the people of God. The sorrow of the singer was caused by the disgrace to the banner by the dishonor done to the Name of the Lord.

This conception accounts also for the change in the Psalm to the note as to the ultimate victory. This sense of responsibility for the Truth about God, for the honor of the Holy Name is the surest guarantee of victory.

When the people of God are overcome by the enemies of God, the ultimate tragedy is not that they are disgraced, but all that they stand for is dishonored. Because it is that so often we forget this that we know defeat, and so wrong God. The body of Christ is the pillar and the ground of the Truth. When she fails, that Truth suffers.

Holding forth the Word of God.

“Make Haste” – Psa 70:1

These words reveal the mental mood of the singer of this Psalm. They have been supplied by the translators as an introduction and these must be omitted. They occur however immediately and they are repeated in our last verse and there reinforced by the words, ”make no tarrying.”

The circumstances were those of suffering. And of that made more poignant by the gloating gladness of enemies, as revealed in their exclamation, ”Aha, aha.” The troubled soul knew that help could only be found in the Lord.

His difficulty was that God did not seem to be acting with sufficient speed. He was at least leisurely when the need seemed pressing. He was not hastening in spite of the urgency.

So, it appeared to this troubled soul and so it has constantly appeared to those who have suffered. One of the supreme glories found in the Psalms is that it gives us a Psalm like this expressing a common human experience. Even though it reveals a mistaken conception of the Lord.

God never needs to be called upon to hasten. He is never tarrying uselessly or carelessly. Through the thick darkness He is hastening, that is, through the very darkness which makes us imagine He is inactive, or unduly delaying His help. Nevertheless, He understands our cry.

We may use any terms in our prayers if they are directed to God knowing that He will understand and interpret our faulty terms by His own perfect knowledge and give us His best answers to our deepest need.

Friday, September 29, 2000

God Understandeth – Job 28:33

These are the strong and central words of this chapter. After his protestation of innocence and passionate revelation of the need of some solution of his sufferings other than that which his friends had suggested, Job discussed the question of wisdom.

He first described man’s ability to obtain possessions of precious things of the Earth. Silver, gold, and iron are mined, and the description of how man does the work is full of beauty.

Having thus declared man’s ability, he asked, ”But where shall wisdom be found?” And the answer is in these words, ”God understandeth.”

The evidence of the Truth of this is to be found in the impossible things which God does.
”He looketh to the ends of the Earth.”
”He makes a weight for the wind.”
”He meted out the waters by measure.”
”He makes a decree for the rain.”

Job arises at his conclusion that for man, “The fear of the Lord,” that is wisdom. And “to depart from evil is understanding.” This is at once our confidence and our comfort.

”God understandeth.”

The things that perplex us do not perplex Him. The mysteries by which we are surrounded, are no mysteries to Him and there is more in the Truth than that ”God understandeth” us also. He knoweth our frame and He remembereth that we are but dust. When our best friends interpret our experiences and therefore misunderstand our complainings, ”God understandeth.”

“But Now” – Job 30:1

The supreme sorrow was that when he cried to God, there was no answer. He claimed that in such suffering as he endured, there was ample justification for all his complaining.

It is impossible to read this section without feeling that protest was approaching revolt in the soul of this man. He did definitely charge God with cruelty, verse 21, and in his question, ”Did not I weep for Him that was in trouble?” ”Was not my soul grieved for the needy?” verse 23.

He was contrasting God’s attitude toward him with his own attitude about suffering men in the days of his prosperity and strength.

How often when ”but now” is the starting point of our thinking, and we contemplate only the things seen and near, we are driven to exactly the same agonized outcries?

Then for our comfort, let us remember that God still watched over His servant, uttered no word of rebuke, but sustained Him even when he was unconscious that He was doing so.

“The Words of the Lord are Pure Words, as Silver Tried in a Furnace on the Earth Purified Seven Times,” Psa 12:6

The Psalm is burdened with the singer’s sense of the darkness of the circumstances in the midst of which he found himself. On every hand he was conscious of dishonesty, deceit, and the power of evil.

The song opens and closes on this note. But its heart consists of an affirmation of faith in the Lord. This faith fastens upon what God has said, and upon the fact that the Words of God are pure Words. That is to say that God is a God of Truth. The affirmation is intended to put the Words of God into complete contrast to those of the men who “speak falsehood,” who speak with “flattering lip and a double mind.”

The figure employed is of the strongest ”silver purified seven times,” it has in it no trace of alloy. So is the Word of God! This is ever the sure resting place of those who know the Lord.

Over and over again hours have come which have seemed to be characterized by the ceasing of godly men, by the failure of the faithful from among the children of men. In all such hours, the soul is assured as to the issue. For the Word of God has clearly declared the will and purpose of God to be that of the triumph of good over evil, of Truth over falsehood, of righteousness over every form of wickedness.

The Word of the Lord is the Word of eternal Truth. It abides forever. In it there is no dissimulation, duplicity, deceit. It is never void. It must accomplish that which He pleases.

Here then in our place of quietness and confidence, whatever the appearances of the hour may be, the Word of the Lord is not to be tested by them. But they are to be tried by the Word of the Lord.

Thursday, September 28, 2000

Christianity is Personal and it is a Personal Relationship with God the Father Through the Lord Jesus Christ. Psa 86:11, ”Unite my heart to fear Thy Name.”

This Psalm is peculiar because it is made up of almost entirely quotations from other psalms. It is singularly individualistic.

There are at least 30 occurrences of the personal pronoun in the first person singular. It is a very interesting exercise to read the Psalm putting special emphasis upon these pronouns.

To do that will reveal that the Psalm alternates between a series of petitions, verses 1-4; first affirmation, verse 5; second series of petitions, verses 6-7; second affirmation, verses 8-10; third series of petitions, verse 15; final series of petitions, verses 16-17.

The occurrences of the personal pronouns are all in the petitions and thus the process of the Psalm is revealed. It is that of a soul in prayer seeking to be brought into personal relationship with the great Truths about God which have general application.

The complete quest of the singer is revealed in the great sentence at the heart of the song. ”Unite my heart to fear Thy Name.”

Here is someone who had intellectual apprehension of the Truth about God. But knew that something more was necessary and that is that the whole personality had to be united in devotion.

And this is only done as the heart, the mind, is united to fear His Name with the mind, then the whole personality is brought under His sway.

”As a man thinketh in his mind so is he.” “With the mind man believeth unto salvation.”

In the Book of John We Are Told the Purpose of the Book

”But these things are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that believing, you may have life in His Name.”

There are four things to meditate upon in this verse: The Root, the Tree, the Blossom, the Fruit.

The root: “But these things are written.”
The signs and wonders which are written in the Book of John are many. There are several fibrous roots found in what had been written.

Here are roots from which the gigantic tree of Truth grows.

The Tree – What is Said of Christ’s Personality is the Tree

It is said, “That Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.”

The, Jesus, of Nazareth is the Sent One and the Saviour of the world, John 3:16-18
He is “The Christ,” the Messiah of the Old Testament, John 4:42
He is the Anointed One with the Spirit, John 3:34

He is the Sent One of the Father and He is also the Son of God, God the Son, in His eternal existence, and as the Only Begotten One in His love and Grace and power, the embodiment of Deity.

The Blossom, the Blossom is Faith

“These things were written that we might believe what is said about Christ.

Faith embodies the assent of the mind, the consent of the will, and the accent of the life. Faith by the act of the will unites us to Christ. It is more than believing Christ. It is believing “into Him.” Faith in Him brings us to God and God to us.

The Fruit, the Fruit is the Life, “Eternal Life”

”His Name” stands for Himself, therefore, believing through His Name puts us in association with Him.

The “life” of what the apostle speaks finds its source in God, its spring in love, and its embodiment in Christ, its power in the Holy Spirit, its sustenance in His Word, its confession in service, its consummation in glory, and its channel in faith.

Wednesday, September 27, 2000

See if you can fathom this verse. Can you imagine the results of this attitude in individuals and in our country? But it probably exists.

Jer 8:9, “Lo, they have rejected the Word of the Lord, and what matter of wisdom is in them?”

Notice the context here carefully. The prophet was dealing with the fact that rendered the situation of Judah so utterly hopeless. That, namely of their fatal and persistent lack of changing their mind about the Word of God. He showed that this was due to the misinterpretation of the scribes. It is of these scribes this statement was made, ”Lo, they have rejected the Word of the Lord.” And this is more arresting in view of the fact that they were saying, ”We are wise and the Word of the Lord is with us,” verse 8.

Here is a situation that startles us into attention. Men had the Word of God and it was their occupation to interpret it, and apply it to the people. Yet they had rejected the Word of God. Sounds like our pulpits. They were rejecting the very thing they were possessing and claiming to teach.

”They were handling the Word of God deceitfully.” Lowering the standard of its requirement to meet the degenerate condition of men, compromising its requirements, devitalizing its message. Than this, there is no more heinous sin. It is the sin of corrupting the streams of life at the source.

The question of the prophet is persistently pertinent. When men reject the Word of God, what manner of wisdom is in them?” James says it is “earthly, sensual, devilish,” James 3:15

Great indeed in its revelation of the manner of the wisdom which rejects the Word of God.

Told Not to Pray! A Time Not to Pray!

Jer 14:11, ”And the Lord said unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.”

Under the figure of the drought, the judgment determined against Judah was foretold and this is followed immediately by the account of controversy in communion between JEHOVAH and Jeremiah.

The prophet urged excuses for the people and cried out for mercy upon them. And that persistently again and again the Lord replied showing His servant the uselessness of all such praying.

In this particular verse, the prophet recorded the command of the Lord that He should not pray for the people for their good. In view of this, there are some principles:

That is in spite of it all, Jeremiah continued to plead for the people. And the Lord permitted him to do so, patiently arguing with him, until at last he brought Him to submission when he cried out, “O JEHOVAH, Thou knowest.”

The other principle is that the Lord did know and it is possible for men to persist in evil so thoroughly and persistently, that God cannot have mercy upon them and that prayer on their behalf, which seeks the exercise of mercy, is unavailing.

The Word of God is Definite in its Claim

Thessalonians illustrates the claims of the Word.

”The Word” in its authority. 1 Thess 1:6, “And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the Word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit.”

”The Word of the Lord” in its message, 1 Thess 1:8, “For from you sounded out the Word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing.” 1 Thess 4:15, “For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.” 2 Thess 3:1, “Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the Word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you:”

”The Word of God” in its power, 1 Thess 2:13, “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in Truth, the Word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”

The Word claims the faith of our obedience and the loyalty of our love and the desire of our hope.

What Thessalonians Says About the Bible

The Doctrine of the Bible

”Our Gospel came not in Word only,” 1 Thess 1:5, “For our Gospel came not unto you in Word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spiri, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.”

”Received the Word,” 1 Thess 1:6, “And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the Word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit.”

”The Word of the Lord,” 1 Thess 1:8, “For from you sounded out the Word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing.”

”The Gospel of God,” “The Gospel,” 2:2, 4, 8-9, “But even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the Gospel of God with much contention.” “But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the Gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.” “So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the Gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us. For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the Gospel of God.”

”The Word of God,” 1 Thess 2:13, “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in Truth, the Word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”

”The Gospel of Christ,” 1 Thess 3:2, “And sent Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the Gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith:”

”The Word of the Lord,” 1 Thess 4:15, “For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.”

The Doctrine of the Last Times in Thessalonians

“Hope,” 1 Thess 1:3, “Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father.”

”Waiting for His Son from Heaven,” 1 Thess 1:10, “And to wait for His Son from Heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.”

”Crown of rejoicing at His coming,” 1 Thess 2:19, “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?”

”The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints,” 1 Thess 3:13, “To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.”

”Them that sleep will God bring with Him,” 1 Thess 4:14, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.”

”Unto the coming of the Lord,” 1 Thess 4:15, “For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.”

”The Lord Himself shall descend,” 1 Thess 4:16, “For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:”

”Dead in Christ shall rise,” 1 Thess 4:16, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.”

”Caught up together,” 1 Thess 4:17, “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

”For ever with the Lord,” 1 Thess 4:17, “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

”Day of the Lord,” 1 Thess 5:2, “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.”

”Salvation,” 1 Thess 5:9, “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.”

”Be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord,” 1 Thess 5:23, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

All these vital and vitalizing Truths were known in the early Church, therefore, knowing when they were written, we can see their importance and significance.

Role Models!

If you would look for the highest example of meekness, you would not look to Moses, but the Lord Jesus Christ because “He was unapproachably meek and lowly in heart.”

If you would look for the highest example of patience, you would not look to Job, but to the Lord Jesus Christ, because “When He was reviled, He reviled not again.”

If you would look for the highest example of wisdom, you would not look to Solomon, but to the Lord Jesus Christ who is “the power and the wisdom of God.”

If you would look for the highest example of soul-consuming passion, you would not look to Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, but to the Lord Jesus Christ “Who wept alone over he ill-fated city of Jerusalem.”

If you would look for the highest example of zeal, you would not look to the apostle Paul, but to the Lord Jesus Christ of whom it is written, “the zeal of Thine house has eaten me up.”

If you would look for the highest example of love, you would not look to John, but to the Lord Jesus Christ, “Who laid down His life for His friends. Greater love hath no man than this.”

The world could not and did not produce Jesus Christ. If it did, He could have produced another, but there is no other Son of God.

If you know of any friends or family who are suffering physically from a fatal disease like cancer, I recommend that you hit our web cite and look for “From Cancer to Christ.” It is a true story of how my wife died of cancer. But before she departed, she made sure that I had become a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. I am not recommending this booklet because I wrote it, but because of the way in which this Christian woman handled her suffering. I think it will be a source of encouragement to you and yours.

”Fear thou not, for I am with thee,”
“Be not dismayed, for I am thy God,”
”I will strengthen thee; yea,”
“I will help thee, yea,”
”I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness,” Isa 41:10

Tuesday, September 26, 2000

Fact and Factor

Everything that happened in our Lord’s life should come to pass in our lives.

1. He died for sin that we should die to sin. 1 Pet 2:4, “To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious.”
   
2. He suffered uncomplainingly that we should follow in His footsteps. 1 Pet 2:21, “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps:”
   
3. He rose from the dead that we should seek those things which are above. Col 3:1-2, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the Earth.”
   
4. He was born for us that we might be born in Him. Gal 4:4, 19, “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law.” “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.”
   
5. He went about doing good that we might do good to all men. Heb 13:16, “But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.”
   
6. He loved us even unto death that we might love one another. 1 John 3:16, “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
   
7. He intercedes for us that we might make intercession for all men. 1 Tim 2:1, “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men.”
   
8. He trusted in God in life and death that He might be the Prince and Pattern of faith within us. Heb 12:1-2, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith; Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
   
9. He lived and died in doing the Father’s will that we might delight to do the same. Psa 40:8, “I delight to do Thy will, O M God: yea, Thy law is within My heart.”
   
10. He gave up all He had to benefit us and He expects the same mind to be in us. Phil 2:4-8, “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.”

”Be ye imitators of God as dear children, beloved.”

The Law of Details

Little things are often of great moment. We are exhorted to yield our members in detail as well as yielding our bodies as a whole. Rom 6:13, 18. Therefore, the Lord calls for:

“I want not yours, but you!!!”

The Law of Resemblance!

The resemblance between the living Word and the written Word both are said to be “sure” “living” “eternal” “wonderful” “perfect.”

The same law holds good in the resemblance between Christ and the believers.

”Be ye imitators of God as dear children, beloved,” Eph 5:1

P.S. The word “followers” is “imitators.”

The Mouth of a Specific Utterance!

Without discussing the general subject of the inspiration of the Scriptures, our attention is called to notice three principles:

1. A Divine impossibility.
   ”That there should precede out of the mouth of the Most High evil and good,” Lam 3:38
   A holy utterance must ever proceeded from Him who is holy.
   
2. A Divine statement.
   Isa 55:11, ”The Word that goeth forth or proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord shall not return unto Him void, but it must accomplish the thing that He has determined.”
   
3. Christ has endorsed the fact that the Word which proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord must be of benefit to those who receive it is by means of it that man lives to purpose.

Matt 4:4, Luke 4:4, “Man cannot live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

Three great verses to preface Bible Study.

God’s Affirmation in His Word That He Has Spoken

There was no doubt in the minds of the prophets and apostle that God had “spoken” to and through them. Peter’s declaration about Christ in His past advent and His future return was, ”And He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you. Whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began,” Acts 3:21

And in his second epistle, Peter is equally emphatic when he charges those to whom he wrote to, “Be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour,” 2 Pet 3:2

So. you turn to the Word of God to see how it affirms the fact that God has definitely spoken to us.

For example, there is a recurring sentence in Matthew’s Gospel and that is: “That which is spoken of the Lord by the prophets saying.”

”By the prophets” — The hinge which causes the door of the sentence to open up with definite meaning is the preposition DIA rendered “by,” which when found with the genitive, signifies something which is accomplished “by means of an active agent.”

The importance of this preposition is seen when Christ speaks of Himself as the Medium through whom we can be saved. John 3:17, 10:9

And when He also says that “No man can come to the Father but by (DIA) Me.” John 14:6. That is “through Me,” “Through the instrumentality of Me.”

What Was Spoken by the Lord Through the Prophets in Matthew!

We have detailed particulars. Here are some of the instances.

We are sometimes told that the prophet made known certain things by use of the preposition DIA, which means “by means of.”

In Heb 9:15, where it is thus translated, puts the prophet on one side and leads us to see that it is the Lord Who is the Speaker, and the prophet is only the instrument through whom He conveys His mind. Heb 9:15, “And for this cause He is the Mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.”

Notice “by means of” ... “through the instrumentality of” death.

”God, who in sundry times and divers manners spoke to the fathers by means of the prophets has in these last days spoken unto us by means of His Son.”

God has spoken. There is no doubt!

“Then Said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the Word of the Lord of Hosts,” Isa 39:5

This brief chapter is full of dramatic force, and it is principally interesting in its revelation of the relation existing between the king and the prophet. It is record of a deflection on the part of Hezekiah due largely to his vanity, and his failure to realize the full meaning of what he was doing. It is the kind of mistake that good men make when they fail in every detail of life to seek for the Light and the guidance and the will of the Lord.

The wrong having been done, Isaiah sought out the king and the conversation between them is revealing. In it we see who in those days was really the representative of the Divine authority. The prophet instituted inquisition and the king responded without questioning. In that the better side of Hezekiah was manifested, and also in his acceptance of the finding of the prophet as he said, ”Good is the Word of JEHOVAH which thou hast spoken.”

This abides in the true function of a prophet. He asks no favor of kings, and accepts no patronage from them. He is the messenger of God and it his work to break in upon all the doings of men whether kings or lords, or commoners, with this self same formula, ”Hear the Word of the Lord of hosts.”

And the answer should be from all of us, ”Good is the Word of JEHOVAH which thou hast spoken.”

That is the way we should feel about the written and the spoken Word.

The Purpose of Peace!

“There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked,” Isa 48:22

These words really stand separate from the chapter and they constitute a conclusion to the first section. We will find them again at the conclusion of the second section, Isa 57:21

In this chapter, the prophetic Word celebrates in a very remarkable way the Grace of God whose majesty and might had already been described and whose manifesto and message had been given. Grace emphasizes the failure and unworthiness of the people of God, who are the house of Jacob, even Thou called by the name of Israel who do swear by the name of JEHOVAH. And talk about the God of Israel. But not in Truth and/or Righteousness.

Their obstinacy is declared to be the reason of the predictive element in prophetic teaching, verses 3-8.

Nevertheless, in spite of all this, for His own sake the Lord spares His people and He laments over their disobedience and their consequent lack of prosperity, but He is their Redeemer and will deliver them, and all this having been said there breaks in this great prophetic announcement. “There is no peace, saith the Lord, to the wicked.”

This is said to believers, not the world, and from beginning to end the motive has been of revealing the purpose of God to bring peace to His troubled people.

Peace for believers is His message.

The Purpose of Peace – Part Two

Isa 57:21, “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.”

The wicked could be the unbeliever, or in this case, the believer. The believer looking for peace apart from “the peace of God which passeth all understanding.” We have seen words similar to this before in Isaiah and they concluded the great prophecy concerning the purpose of peace. And in closing there was a double value.

First, it reveals the reason why we lack peace today.
Secondly, it suggests the only conditions upon which peace can ever come to men.

Now, in our passage we come to the end of the second section, in the process of which can be seen the Prince of Peace, the Servant of the Lord, Who through the travail, passes through to triumph of establishing peace.

And this second closes with a message to men in view of the nearness of salvation and righteousness. And again we find the two notes we found in the previous verse.

First, fierce demonstration of an apostate community, which had given itself to all evil practices in its forgetfulness of God.
Then a message for those of a contrite and humble spirit, who are loyal to the Lord.

In the first verse, the title of God was JEHOVAH and in the second one, it is God. That is ELOHIM. In the section dealing with the purpose of peace, the affirmation is made by JEHOVAH. That is the title of Grace.

In the section dealing with the Prince of Peace, the affirmation is made by ELOHIM, and that is the name of Absolute Might.

God in Grace purposes peace. When He makes it possible through His suffering Servant, His might insists on the terms.

In spite of all of the travail of the Suffering One, men persist in wickedness and there is no way of peace for them, even by the way of that travail.

Phil 4:19, “But My God Shall Supply All Your Need According to His Riches in Glory by Christ Jesus”

The original language reads like this: “And the God of me will fill every need of you according to the riches of Him in glory in Christ Jesus.” “Fill” is PLEROMA, which means to fill full, to completely possess, and to fill full with a quality. ”According to” is the preposition KATA, which is “according to the Divine norm or standard.” “In Him,” “In Christ Jesus.” EN means “in the sphere of Him.”

Now, I must be the slowest, dumbest Christian in all of Christianity. Because if all our need has already been provided for, why is it that we are constantly looking for and working for something that has already been provided?

Illustration: Peace

Every one is crying for peace, and we have bumper stickers crying out and saying ”Visualize World Peace.” It has already been provided, and it will occur at the Second Advent of Christ, when the Prince of Peace returns to this Earth.

And then there’s Christmas “peace on Earth and good will to all men.” The passage doesn’t say that, but it says, ”Peace on Earth to men with whom God is well-pleased.”

Individual peace comes from Christ, who broke down the middle wall of separation and so provided peace with God. That is where peace begins individually and God only deals with individuals. That is salvation peace.

And then for Christians, peace is provided for them in time simply by receiving “the peace of God which passeth all understanding.” That is the Christian way of life. “The fruit of the Spirit is peace.”

Everything has been provided and we are searching for our need when it has already been provided. We just don’t really want peace, because if we wanted peace, we would appropriate the Prince of Peace.

For time and for eternity – “He is our peace.”

Phil 4:19, “But My God Shall Supply All Your Need According to His Riches in Glory by Christ Jesus”

He has provided the Right Man and the Right Woman in marriage. We are not only looking for peace in the wrong places, but we are looking for love in the wrong places. On Mars and Venus ...

God in eternity past provided a Right Man or a Right Woman, one of the opposite sex, for you. He or she has already been provided. But, no, we beat the bushes, or the bars, mars, or computer dating, or Internet chat rooms?

There are over 100 ways in which you can recognize the Right Man or Right Woman God has provided for you in marriage.

But, we don’t want God’s peace and we don’t want God’s choice for us in marriage. You trusted Him for the greatest of all things, your own personal salvation. Can’t you trust Him to supply a partner for you?

While you wait, He will take the place of your partner, till you recognize the one He has designed specifically for you. And you don’t have to buy the book!

Can you imagine people charging to enhance your relationship with the Lord and with each other in marriage? That is surely not a Grace concept and if it is not Grace, it is not God.

Monday, September 25, 2000

When Jesus Christ Visited Hagar!

“BEER-LAHAI-ROI,” Gen 16:14

This was the name given to the well by the site of which Hagar, the bondwoman in Abram’s household and the mother of Ishmael, had been visited and comforted by the “Angel of the Lord,” which is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is significant as revealing her experience. The actual translation must recognize the combination of three words.

”BEER” = a well “LAHAI” = life “ROI” = a seer or a vision

Now, to understand the suggestiveness we need the context. The previous verse shows that she had seen God as the One who saw her. He therefore, was the Living One who cared for her life and comforted her. These, then, were surely the ideas given rise to the name. God was discovered as the Living One who sees. And that vision brought life to Hagar.

This whole incident is most illuminative showing us that God is not unmindful of those who are outside the commonwealth made with the people called to carry out His purpose. He is always the God who sees. And He is ever the Living God who acts according to what He sees.

In many ways which are beyond those of His special covenants with His chosen, He is giving life to those who see Him, however dimly.

This name of a well stands out upon the pages of this ancient story like a great shaft of light in darkness, suggesting great thoughts about God, and His ways with men, and filling the soul with confidence in His justice and in His Grace.

P.S. The Angel of the Lord is the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Surely the Lord is in This Place and I Knew it Not,” Gen 28:16

These were the words of Jacob when he awoke from his sleep, and the record of the result of the revelation that had been granted to him through the dream of the ladder and the ascending and descending angels. The particular tenses of the verbs are interesting.

”The Lord is in this place.” This is a present tense. “I knew it not.” This is past tense.

Through the experience of the night, he had come to the consciousness of an abiding fact the Lord is in this place, of which he had been ignorant when he had gone to sleep. ”I knew it not.”

The fact was of the abiding presence and the constant nearness of God. He did not say that the Lord was in this place as though he had received a visit from God. The revelation that had come to him was far more wonderful and better than that. Those ascending and descending angels had shown him the perpetual nearness of Heaven to Earth and the voice of God which he had heard was the voice of One ever nigh at hand.

He had traveled away from home and from the place of the altar, but he had not traveled away from God, notwithstanding that the journey had been made necessary by his own wrongdoing. Seeking a stone for a pillow in utter loneliness, he had laid him down to rest, not knowing that the God of his fathers was with him yet.

He woke to the realization of the fact and that very place became to him Bethel, the house of God.

“EL ELOHE ISRAEL,” Gen 33:20

The naming of this altar was certainly significant. It will be noticed that the name of God appears three times. EL, ELOHE, ISRAEL. It means “God, the God of Israel,” or if we further translate ”God, the God of the one ruled by God.”

The naming of this altar was Jacob’s act of faith appropriating his new name. ”Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel,” Gen 32:28, but also claiming ELOHIM in the new sense as the God through whom alone he could walk according to his new name. Israel, prince with God.

This is a vital truth and the fundamental of all true life is that we must be ruled by God. But there is a further lesson that needs to be learned, and that is that it is only possible for us to walk according to the Divine rule in the Divine strength. Yielding to God is far more than an act. It is an attitude.

As the act of yielding is ever that of a response to the Divine call, so the attitude of yielding is only maintained in the measure in which we depend constantly and entirely upon the Lord.

Tremendous Grace Verse!

”Esau, the same is Edom,” Gen 36:1

This is a special chapter about Esau’s descendents. He now is to pass out of the story. We read no more about him, but his descendants, remain the people of Edom, persistently in opposition to the descendants of Jacob. They appear again and again, especially in the prophetic writings. One brief but revealing book is Obadiah. In it the judgment of God upon Edom is declared. And the peculiar nature of its sin is described.

It is chiefly remarkable, however, for its closing movement which foretells a day of ultimate redemption even for the mount of Esau, a day when saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge it, a day when the kingdom shall be the Lord’s,” Obadiah 21.

It is good in our study sometimes to glance ahead, for in so doing, we may be guided and helped in our attitude in much that is happening around us. Esau was a profane person who sold his birthright. And from his loins there sprang a profane nation, which filled the cup of iniquity to the brim. Therefore, their judgment was inevitable. But that is not the last word, however.

The last word is one of saviours and salvation within the one and only kingdom of the Lord. Those who watch with God see this always. Sin must work itself out. Punishment is inherent in sin. But God is greater than sin. And His eyes are ever fixed upon the issue and toward that He is ever working.

Those who watch with Him, therefore work with Him and they wait with Him, enduring the travail, assured of the triumph.

A Human Interest Story!

”She called his name BENONI, but his father called him Benjamin,” Gen 35:18

The human elements in these words are very suggestive and full of pathos. Rachel was Jacob’s one love. For her, during the years of his exile, he had served 14 years, seven while waiting for her, and seven in comradeship with her. Now they were back in his own country, and in giving birth to her second son, she died. Before she passed, she expressed her soul as she named him BENONI, son of sorrow.

Because of the love that existed between her and Jacob, she was thinking not of herself, but of him. He would have the son, but at the cost of the mother. And so he would be to him the “son of sorrow.”

Jacob changed the name to “Benjamin,” the son of my right hand and here there seems to be his agreement with Rachel rather than disagreement. Only he emphasized the other side of the Truth. If he was to be bereft of his loved one, Rachel, yet the son born to him would be his comfort and consolation.

The story is that of sorrow, but it is sorrow transfigured by love. Two who have journeyed together in the joy of true love are about to be separated. But amid the deep shadows of death, there is the light of this new life.

Rachel expresses her understanding of what the boy will ever be to his father, the son of sorrow. Jacob understanding also, and desiring to give her comfort as she passed on, reminded her that the boy would be to him a strength in his sorrow, the son of his right hand. The human touch of its first natural meaning is full of beauty.

It reminds me of when Teddy Roosevelt lost his mother and his wife in the same day, while she was giving birth to their daughter.

“When I Found Him Whom My Soul Loveth, I Held Him and Would Not Let Him Go,” S.O.S. 3: 4

This is the language of the bride. It is a part of her account of her memories of those days in which her shepherd lover was wooing her. And in particular, it is the record of a dream. After her beloved had come, 2:8-14, and passed, 2:15-17, the night came and in her dreams she thought she had lost him. She rose and searched the city for him inquiring from the watchmen. At last she found him and then she held him and would not let him go.

On the human level, as a story of love, this is very natural and very beautiful. Love creates a perpetual dread, lest the loved one should be lost. And this dread, often only subconscious in the day time, takes the form of actual experience in the dreams of the night. Then follows the search and the new grip on the loved one when he is found.

This is a poetic and true interpretation of the power of love when it masters a life, when we make the story figurative and interpretative of those highest relationships of the soul. With the Lord Jesus Christ, it becomes a wonderful revelation, the sensitiveness of the life that is really in love with Christ.

We are safe only so long as we dread the loss of our Beloved, that keeps us ever sensitive and watchful. When either in a dream on in reality we lose our sense of His presence, let us search for Him, and then in the finding, with new devotion, let us hold Him and refuse to let Him go.

“I am My Beloved’s and His Desire is Toward Me,” S.O.S 7:10

This is the voice of the bride, following the musing of the bridegroom. It is the full, final, ultimate words of love. It expresses complete satisfaction, absolute rest, the uttermost of contentment and peace.

There are two elements in it. The first is that of complete abandonment. “I am my beloved’s.” The second is that of the realization that the beloved is satisfied. “His desire is toward me.”

There are no words in literature so completely, and perfectly, and yet simply, setting forth the highest experience of human love. And therefore they are words that justify the mysterical interpretation of this song to the full.

This is the language of the soul when it has found final rest and satisfaction in the love of God, both His love for the soul and the soul’s love for Him. This, of course, finds its fulfillment in and through Jesus Christ.

To be able to use these words as defining the relationship between the soul and the Lord is to have found the highest joy, the profoundest peace, the complete experience of love.

We can say without a doubt, wonderful as the fact is, “that His desire is toward us,” but can we say, each personally, “I am my Beloved’s?”

“My Rock,” Psa 28:1 — This is Not Peter

Here these words, ”my Rock,” are directly synonymous with the title JEHOVAH, and they constitute a proper name. In this case, the figure is positively employed as a designation for God.

This then may be an excellent place at which to pause to consider the suggestiveness of this title, “ It is the one figure within the realm of nature that suggests abiding strength and immutability. The story of the rocks, as we are able to read it, is the story of the principle of the complete victory of principle over passion. At last the fixed is reached, the unchangeable, and so the ultimate is strength.

It is a remarkable fact that in all the Old Testament literature ”ROCK” is reserved as a figure of Deity. It is used for false gods, as well as for God, but never for men. Isaiah the prophet declared that a man shall be as a shadow of a rock in a weary land. And that Man is Christ. And this is a prediction of the deepest fact concerning the Person of the Messiah.

All this should be in our minds when we consider the words of our Lord in which He declared that He would build His Church on the Rock.

Notice in this Psalm the conception of the character of God as the Immutable One gave this singer perfect confidence in the midst of grave perils, and inspired his prayer for his people.

“Lead Me to the Rock That is Higher Than I,” Psa 61:2

This is the song of one who was away from the city and the temple of God. It is said that David wrote it when he was an exile for a time, as the result of the rebellion of Absalom. From that distance which seemed to him to be the end of the Earth, he called upon God when his soul was overwhelmed and this was the very heart of his prayer.

”Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.” And once more we have the employment of the “Rock,” not Peter, as symbolic of God. And the reference here being to its strength and to its height, as constituting a place of refuge and security.

The illuminative phase of this petition is that it puts God as a Rock in contrast with self. Peter ...

These were the words of a man who was supremely conscious of his own insufficiency. From the perils and the sorrows in the midst of which he was living, he found neither help nor a hiding place in his own wisdom or strength. His prayer was for elevation above self to God. It was a great cry, and it is one we constantly need to pray.

It is only when we find refuge in the Rock that is higher than ourselves that we are safe from the enemies without or the foes within. There is no such things as self-sufficiency. Our sufficiency is ever of God, our Rock.

“Thy Saving Health,” Psa 67:2

This phrase constitutes a poetic interpretation of the thought of the one word of which it is a translation. The Hebrew word is one, and signifies quite literally ”salvation.” It is salvation in the sense of deliverance, aid, and so nationally of victory.

The conception in its national significance is very beautifully expressed in the phrase “saving health” of the Authorized Version. The Psalm is a brief one, but it breathes the very spirit of a clear understanding of the real meaning of the Hebrew nation, according to Divine purpose. Its opening prayer is that God will bless and cause His face to shine upon His own people in order that “salvation may be known among all nations.”

Its closing affirmation is that God will bless His own people and that as a result, ”all the ends of the Earth shall fear Him.” This is the true interpretation of privilege. The people of God exist for the sake of all the nations. They constitute the illustration of His “saving health.” Their prosperity is due to His aid, His deliverance, His salvation.

Dancing Christians! How About a Dance??

“They that sing as well as they that dance shall say, All my fountains are in Thee,” Psa 87:7

In all of the Psalms, there is no song more perfect than this in its celebration of the ultimate establishment of the kingdom of God on Earth. The city of God is seen as the metropolis of that kingdom. It is the city of the King and so the city of the law. It is the city of the foundation, that is our Righteousness. It is the city in which citizenship at last shall be enrolled even of those who have been the enemies of the people and purpose of God. That is the city of peace.

Therefore, it is the city which inspires all song and dancing. The expression of happiness – that is the city of joy. These are the things of the kingdom of God. Righteousness, peace, and joy.

The first application of this Psalm is earthly and the city it celebrates is a city of men which yet will be the tabernacle of God. There is no doubt that this city will be actually the Jerusalem of the Holy Land. There the dream of men will be realized and that under the rule of our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s anointed King. King of kings!

Salvation is God’s Work!

“His right hand and His holy arm hath wrought salvation for him. The Lord hath made known His salvation,” Psa 98:1-2

In these words at the beginning of the song, two great truths concerning human salvation emerge. The first statement is that salvation is God’s work. “His right hand and His holy army hath wrought salvation for him.” The idea is that salvation was in His purpose. He desired it. He willed it. And that being so, it was imperative that He should provide it. Whatever needed to be done, He must do.

The singer rejoiced that the Lord had provided what He desired. And here the heart of truth concerning salvation, in all the Gospel fullness of the term, is revealed. God desired the salvation of men. Men could not provide salvation. Then He wrought it a mystery of love and holiness and power and so salvation is made possible.

The second statement is that He has made known His salvation. He has revealed to men and in its victories, He makes it known more and more perfectly. Thus the Hebrew singer celebrated a truth, the full value he hardly recognized.

Here we have in the first statement, a declaration concerning those profound activities within the Deity, out of which human salvation is possible. And in the second, a declaration which covers the ground of the life and death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Phil 2:5-11 we have the New Testament light on this passage.

What a passage!

Sunday, September 24, 2000

“Where Sin Abounds, Grace Does Much More Abound”

One of the greatest of all illustrations of this “abounding Grace’ is found in the worst time ever in human history. In the Tribulation, Jacob’s Trouble, with Satan cast out of Heaven to the Earth and knowing that his time is short, it is the worst time in history and a picture of sin abounding.

”But where sin abounds, Grace does much more abound.” How?? In the worst time in history it is the greatest time of evangelism. And God is not willing that any should perish, so He “pulls out all the stops” and not only people are witnessing, but also angels. And the result is the greatest evangelism ever.

Rev 7:9, “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.”

Verse 10, “And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.”

Where sin abounds, Grace does much more abound. You can believe it.

God Speaks to Us in His Word in Many, Many Unsuspected Ways!

The words of Neco, from the mouth of God,” 2 Chr 35:22

This is one of those arresting illustrations which we find in the Old Testament Scriptures. The fact that the nations and the kings outside of the people of the Theocracy were under the government of God, and at some time conscious of the fact.

These words constitute a simple statement which admits to the accuracy of what Neco had himself claimed in the message he sent to Josiah by ambassadors, when he said, ”God hath commandeth me to make haste; forbear with me, that He destroy thee not.”

The fact that Josiah did not hearken to the message cost him his life.

Such a story to say the least, gives us pause and makes us enquire as to how far we are ever justified in refusing to consider a word which is claimed as a Divine message, even when it comes from sources from which we should least expect to receive it.

How do we know that which claims to be Divine authority has any right to make the claim? Well, in this story the answer is plain. Josiah had no right of any sort to be helping the king of Assyria. The only reason for doing so was some political advantage.

A word comes from God forbidding what was already forbidden. It has a weight of moral appeal amounting to certainty. If the message agrees with the Word of God, we do well to heed it, for God may speak in many an unexpected way.

The Word of God is like gold. It has intrinsic value no matter where you find it.

Prayer and Practice

“So I prayed unto the God of Heaven and I said unto the king,” Neh 2:4-5

This is practical and that in both facts. Prayer is always practical for it reaches and apprehends the actual and final forces. Prayer ever demands action which is in harmony with its desire.

Having sought the help of God, he spoke to the king with perfect honesty when the opportunity came. In the presence of the king, the sadness of Nehemiah’s soul could not be wholly hidden. He had not been naturally or habitually a sad man, as he himself
declared, but his sorrow for his country was so real that it was manifest to the king. And when the king evidenced his sorrow, the king was filled with fear.

Yet having audience of God, courage splendidly overcame fear and he told the king the cause of his grief and boldly asked to be allowed to go up and help his brethren. His request was granted, for his prayer was answered, and he took his departure for Jerusalem.

All this is very illuminating … In all our endeavors, prayer is our first and principle line of activity. But more is necessary. God expects our co-operation. He will touch the soul of the king, but Nehemiah must make his venture.

There is a profound truth in the commonplace and hackneyed statement that “God helps those who help themselves.” It is along the line of the use of our reason or common sense that God works for us and with us, for the accomplishment of all that we ask of Him.

A Divine Expression of Unity!

Neh 3:2, “Next unto them.”

This is the first expression in this chapter of this phrase, or its equivalent, ”next unto them” runs on through the first half of it, occurring no less than 15 times. Then another pair of phrases ”after him” and ”after them” emerges and one or the other continues to the end – occurring 16 times.

These phrases mark the unity of the work.

By this linking up of workers, the whole wall was built. The description is in itself orderly and proceeds around the entire enclosure of the city, including all the gates and the connecting parts of the wall. Beginning at the sheep-gate, which was near the temple and through which the sacrifices passed, we pass the fish-gate, in the merchant quarter. Then we go on by the old gate in the ancient part of the city. Then successfully come to the valley-gate, the dung-gate, the gate of the fountain, the water-gate, the horse-gate, the east-gate, the gate of Miphad, until we arrive again at the sheep-gate, when the chapter ends.

All of this is supremely interesting in its revelation of method. The unifying fact was the wall. All were inspired by the one desire and intention to see it completed. In order to realization, the work was systematically divided. Each group was united as to its own workers in the effort to do the particular portion allotted to them. All the groups were united to each other in the effort to complete the wall.

It is a striking picture of unity of diversity and it has its lessons for us. There was no sense of separation. Each worked “next to” or “after” some other. And so the complete union of workers and work was realized.

A Light From God’s Word

Gen 2:7, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”

That statement contains an account of the nature of man from which no Biblical teaching ever departs. In the previous chapter, we were told the fact of his creation, and that he was created in the image of God and placed in dominion over the restored order.

Here we are distinctly told how God did the work. Look for a moment at the last sentence. ”Man became a living soul.” The Hebrew verb rendered ”became” is HAYAH, which is always emphatic, and it means, “came to be, or came into existence.”

The statement is not that man, already existing, was by some act of God changed into a living soul. The words ”a living soul” describe man as God created him. This sentence would be clearer if it was written like this: ”Man became ... a living soul.”

In His creation, God employed dust and ”the breath of lives,” plural.

This man is composed of the material and the spiritual. The physical is not all of him and neither he is complete as a disembodied spirit. His body is of the dust. His spirit and soul is of the Breath of God. Nothing is told here as to the condition of dust when God breathed into it. What processes were included in the forming are not declared. It is a simple statement as to the original material of the physical.

Let it be remembered that dust is also a Divine creation and no particle of it is ever lost, though it may pass through many changes as did the body of our Lord Jesus Christ in resurrection.

Saturday, September 23, 2000

“David Tarried at Jerusalem” – 1 Chronicles 20:1

Every once in a while you come across a passage like this. You may have read it before. It would be interesting to know how many people through the years have read this verse. You know those who read through the Bible once a year, etc.

But there are times in your life as a Christian that something in the Word of God just gets your attention. And it maybe an obscure verse, like this one. But you can’t leave it. It holds your attention, and you don’t want to leave it.

Jesus Christ endorsed every letter of the Word of God and this is more than one letter and the context of this verse shows us once again how gracious and faithful and full of compassion is the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you have never seen the Grace of God or His compassion, or if you think, like some people do, that your sin is so great it is impossible for God to forgive you, this verse is for you. If you think your sin is so bad God can’t forgive you, this verse is for you.

”David tarried at Jerusalem”
This is the “only” reference made in this Book to the greatest sin and failure in the history of David. This is the Lord’s reference to that sin. The insertion of the full story as given, as in 2 Samuel, would not have served the purpose of the writer of this Book, would not serve the purpose of God the Holy Spirit who is its Author. But we ought not to allow ourselves to forget the warning it affords.

The story in Samuel is introduced by exactly the same statement of the tarrying of David at Jerusalem at the times when kings go out to war. This was the first stage in that swift passage of shameful sin.

There is nothing more full of subtle danger in the life of any believer in the Lord Jesus Christ than that he should remain inactive when the Plan of God demanded that he be out on the fields of conflict, at the front.

How many have found the peace of ease, peace at any price, to be that of deadly peril, when the demands of the Divine service were calling for strenuous endeavor?

There is a very old adage and very simple, at perhaps we are inclined to smile. But it is well to remember it. Not only in childhood, but in the end of the pathway it declares that “Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.”

If I ought to be at Rabbah with the army, and U am tarrying at home, in ease, then almost certainly some “Bathsheba will present herself by whom we may be utterly undone.

And that is not to blame Bathsheba. She also sinned and shared the wrong of David. But neither would have been involved had David been in his true place on the battlefield.

P.S. Notice the omission of listing David’s sins.

P.P.S. We remember David’s sins, but God forgives and forgets them.

And all He says is, “David tarried at Jerusalem.” Grace – the faithfulness of the Lord – forgiving Grace and faithfulness. Never mentioning your sins to the public.

“As Well the Small as the Great” – 1 Chr 26:13

David seems to have neglected nothing in his arrangements concerning the temple. Not only Levites, priests and singers, but porters also. And such as had charge of all their stores were set apart for this work. Nothing connected with the house of God was considered in any way as unimportant. Everything was most sacred.

Those who were appointed to these offices were chosen from the sons of highest in the national life as well as from the sons of those less known. In the casting of lots, a principle was observed full of revealing light. The names were selected not with reference to any privilege of position, due to wealth or official standing.

”They cast lots as well the small as the great.” Whatever grading of society into “small and great,” “high and low,” may be inevitable in the arrangement of affairs on the human level.

It ceases to operate when the service of the Lord in any department is in question. ”The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.”

God has chosen the weak, the base.

David’s Final Counsel to His Son Solomon!

“Know thou the God of thy Father, and serve Him with a perfect mind and with a willing mind,” 1 Chr 28:9

These words occur in the final charge of David, the greatest of the Hebrew kings, to his son, Solomon. In this charge, he first makes an impressive declaration of his recognition of the government of God to his own appointment as king, and in that of his son.

Here is revealed the deepest thing in his makeup, his devotion to and his passion for the recognition of Theocracy. Out of that conviction came his charge to his son as to the principles which were to govern him in his rule of the people in the future. In these words, the true attitude toward God is revealed, and the condition of the soul which makes these attitudes possible.

The duty toward God is two-fold. “Know Him and serve Him.” And the condition of the soul making this possible is also two-fold. “A perfect heart and a willing mind.”

To know God is to serve Him. All failure in service is the result of the loss of vision of God, misapprehension of Him due to some distance from Him.

The condition of knowing Him is an undivided soul and a willing mind. And to this attitude we make it possible for God to reveal Himself to us.

Peter followed afar off, so he denied Him.

Solomon’s Prayer!

“That Thine eyes may be open toward this house day and night,” 2 Chr 6:20

Solomon, in this great prayer of dedication, reveals his true understanding of the greatness of God and he said, “Will God in very deed dwell with men on the Earth? Behold Heaven and the Heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee. How much less this house which I have builded.”

Realizing the inadequacy of any houses built by man to contain God, he uttered this suggestive and beautiful petition, that the watching eyes of God might ever rest upon the house he had built.

The vision of the king created his prayer. He saw the temple perpetually watched by the eyes of God, so that whatever worshippers approached, they were seen by the God, Whose help they sought.

That this might be so he prayed. It was a figure of speech, but one full of suggestive beauty. For us, the great ideal has found perfect fulfillment through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, ”Who has passed through the Heavens,” “Now to appear before the face of God for us.”

We draw near with boldness unto the “throne of Grace.” The eyes of God are ever upon him in satisfaction and delight.

So, in our approach, we are ever seen, but we are seen in Him and so accepted.

The Only-Mentioned Principle!

The following verse is chiefly remarkable, for this word of Azariah who uttered it, only appears here ...

He is mentioned nowhere else. “The Lord is with you, while ye be with Him; and if ye seek Him, He will be found of you; but if ye forsake Him, He will forsake you,” 2 Chr 15: 2

But yet it is an introductory word, so brief that it only occupies half a verse in our Bibles. He reveals an inclusive philosophy of life under the control of God.

Suddenly anointed by God the Holy Spirit, this man appeared to the king and in his message gave direction to all his life and reign. If the message was brief, it is indeed weighty. The rest of the message consisted of illustration of the application of the principle.

It declared to the then-existing conditions and of a direct appeal to the king. The principle declared is of perpetual application. Let it be well-considered it represents God as unchanging. All apparent changes on His part are really changes in the attitude of men toward Him.

A man with God finds God with Him. Man forsaking God finds that he is forsaken of God. If a man seeks God, He will be found of that man.

A recognition of these things must at once give direction to life and inspire the soul with courage. It certainly did so in the case of Asa. “Ask and it shall be given unto you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you.” A.S.K. Ask Seek Knock

When the President of a Country Sent Bible Teachers to All the Cities

“Then went about throughout all the cities of Judah, and taught among the people,” 2 Chr 17:9

With the ascension of Jehosphaphat to the throne of Judah, a period of very definite reformation commenced within the kingdom. In this chapter we have first, the account of his own relationship to God, and the resulting blessing that came to him.

Then follows the most interesting account of how he made known the Word of the Lord anew throughout the land. The method adopted was what in these modern times we might describe as the holding of special Bible conferences throughout the cities of Judah for the specific purpose of proclaiming and interpreting “the Book of the law of JEHOVAH.” 2 Chr 17:9, “They taught in Judah, and had the Book of the law of the Lord with them and went about through all the cities of Judah and taught the people.”

Can’t you see this coming from the White House????

Jehoshpaphat put into practice himself and by these Bible teachers, provided for his people to put into practice the principle that Azariah declared to his father.

Coincident with this Bible teaching activity within the kingdom, a remarkable fear of the Lord fell upon their enemies round about so that they ceased to make war upon Jehoshaphat.

Thus God was with the man who was with him. And the result was that there was an opportunity for strengthening of the kingdom within, by building of castles and cities, by commerce, and by the carrying out of many works.

This story has a present value. No better service can be rendered to our nation than that of having Bible classes in cities, towns, villages, and hamlets. By such Bible teaching, the soul of the people may be turned to the Lord and so He will be enabled to do for them all that is in His heart.

To the Unknown Solider or the Unknown Ordinary Believer

Who is Not Ordinary Because of Christ

“A certain man drew his bow at a venture,” 2 Chr 18:33. A very, very interesting story probably lost in history. This is a most suggestive and significant statement, revealing great facts of life that are too often unrecognized by men.

Ahab had done everything he could think of to secure his own safety in the day of battle. In arrant cowardice, he had caused Jehosphaphat to enter into the field in his kingly robes, thus rendering him conspicuous, while he had disguised himself. Like when they painted broad white stripes down your helmet in WW II so the enemy could see you were a officer and pick you off. The ruse was completely successful as far as Syria was concerned. The captains of the king of Syria were deceived.

Ahab was safe, if there were no other eyes than those of men watching him. But he was not hidden from the eyes of the Lord. And one nameless man “drew his bow at a venture,” that is literally “in his simplicity.” So, it was not even a venture in the sense of an attempt, or a gambling against odds in the hopes of killing the king of Israel. It was done in “his simplicity” – that is artlessly, without any special intention other than that of “carrying on” in the ordinary sense of that word.

This man had probably, during the course of the day, shot many arrows and he went on in his simplicity little knowing that this particular arrow was to be guided through all the confusion straight to its mark by the unerring knowledge and power of God.

Yet so it was. Thus it is seen how the refuge of lies never hides from the eyes of the Lord. Men may secret themselves so that other men may not find them. But when their hour of judgment is come, God takes hold upon some ordinary event and makes it the highway upon which he comes to carry out the sentence of His purpose.

”It just happened” says the man of the world. “God did it” says the man of faith.

Friday, September 22, 2000

Greek Grace Gem
TAGMA

The Saints at Christ’s Coming

1 Cor 15:23, “Each in his own order, Christ the First-Fruits, then they that are Christ’s at His coming.”

The Greek word TAGMA means anything arranged in order, as a body of troops that is marshaled in ranks. It is a military term.

The adverb of time “then” indicates the next rank, which includes all who participate in the first resurrection. Rev 20: 4-6.

”The rest of the dead.” The rendering of this text is unfortunate. It is not “then cometh the end.” The word “cometh” is not in the original, as is indicated by the italicized word.

Then the other words are afterwards the last. The word “end: is rendered “finally” in 1 Pet 3:8. The last of what? The “rest of the dead” corresponds to Rev 20:5, 11-13, the last rank in the resurrection of the dead “in the dead.”

The first-fruits are raised before the Tribulation. The next in order are the tribulational saints before the Millennium. And the last rank is the wicked dead who are raised at the end of the thousand years.

“Behold I Show You a Mystery”

Greek word MUSTERION. You can see that it is not translated, but transliterated. MUSTERION was used for Greeks being initiated into a secret society and only the members of the society knew the secrets of the society.

The cause of the believers’ initiation into God’s secrets is because God makes them known by the Holy Spirit in His Word.

There are several mysteries made known in the New Testament. The place where each is mentioned must determine the application.

1. The mystery of Israel’s blindness, which is no mystery regarding the blindness of Israel, but its duration is made known in the fact that it is until the fullness of the number of the Gentiles be gathered in, Rom 11:25
   
2. The mystery of godliness, is that God was made in the flesh, hence His greatness and His glory, 1 Tim 3:16
   
3. The mystery of the Church, is that God in His electing Grace is blessing those who receive Christ and making them, whether Jew or Gentile, one in Him, Rom 16:25, Eph 3:3, 4:9, 5:32, 6:29, Gal 1:26-27, Gal 4:3, 1 Tim 3:9. Hence it is called the mystery of what was kept secret since the world began.
   
4. The mystery of lawlessness, it is the end of hell’s working in the self-will of man which will develop the production of the lawless one, 1 Thes 2:7
   
5. The mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ, is the centralization of everything, whether in Grace government in Christ, and that in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, Eph 1:9, Col 2:2, Rev 10:7
   
6. The mystery of the seven stars, is that Christ holds all those who are in places of responsibility in God’s assembly by His almighty power, Rev 1:20
   
7. The mystery of Babylon, is that behind all that all the abominable mixture of the world's religions and its commercial spirit there is the satanic spirit that governs it, Rev 17:5.
   
8. The mystery about the glorified saints, is that we shall not all sleep, but that we shall all be changed and be make like to our glorified Christ, 1 Cor 15:51.
   
9. The mystery of the kingdom of Heaven, in a general sense is that behind the body of the outward meaning of revealed Truth, there is a soul of secret explanation, Matt 13:11.

You have been initiated into a secret society ... MUSTERION … fraternity.

The Significance of Two Little Letters

“In” are the two little letters, and the Greek is EN, also only two letters. Notice the significance of these two letters. This preposition is found 2,700 times in the New Testament. The whole force of the revelation that we have from God is contained in two Greek letters, EN.

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

”But we are found in Him not having our own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness which is of God by faith in Christ,” Phil 3:9.

To the faithful in Christ, Eph 1:1.

All spiritual blessings in Christ, Eph 1:3.

According as He has chosen us in Him, Eph 1:4.

Made us acceptable in the Beloved, Eph 1:6.

Who first trusted in Christ, Eph 1:12.

When we accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour, God the Holy Spirit placed us in union “in Christ.”

Now that we are “in Christ Jesus our Lord,” nothing can touch us, nothing can get to us. It would have to go through the Rock of Ages first.

Just two little letters: “in” – much better than “out” of Christ.

The Greek Preposition PROS Means Face to Face

2 Cor 5:8, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”

The word translated “present” is the preposition PROS, which means face to face with the Lord. When you depart from this life you are face to face with the Lord. No such thing as Purgatory in Scripture! Purgatory to some means a “cleansing place” after you die. And than it is either a high or a low mass. Purge atory. No, it is a mess.

But there is only one cleansing and it takes place in time. And it is not a place. It is a Person.

”The blood of Jesus Christ keeps on cleansing us from all sin,” 1 John 1:7

”To Him give all the prophets witness, for without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins,” Acts 10:43

But notice the significance of this same preposition PROS. The coming of God the Holy Spirit to the believer is called PROS and it occurs twice in connection with the Holy Spirit, and signifies the coming of one person to another. Just as Nicodemus came to Christ, John 3:2. And Christ said of God the Holy Spirit, “The Comforter will not come unto you (PROS). I will send Him unto you (PROS), John 16:7

So, as the Holy Spirit came face to face with you when you accepted Christ as your personal Saviour, so will you be face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ when your ministry is over and you depart.

God is Love!

The revelation of all revelations is “God is love.”

The religions of the world have no such revelation. Therefore, their light is darkness in the light of Christianity.

The Greeks say, “God is beauty.”
The Romans say, “God is strength.”
Barbarians say, “God is a despot.”
”God is law,” say the Jews.
”God is everything,” says the pantheist.
”God is force,” says the scientist.

But, “God is love,” reveals the Spirit.

“The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes us free from the law of sin and death,” Rom 8:2

The Spirit-filled life is extensive in its meaning. There are several phrases and phases which have to do with a Spirit-filled life.

1. Baptism
   Is the immersing word and denotes the Spirit’s power. Acts 1:5
   
2. Anointing
   Is the qualifying word and speaks of His consecrating Grace. 2 Cor 1:21
   
3. Sealing
   Is the claiming word and avows His proprietary rights. Eph 1:13
   
4. Enduement
   Is the endowing word and proclaims His empowering ability. Luke 24:49
   
5. Earnest
   Is the assuring word and guarantees the coming glory, 2 Cor 5:5
   
6. Full
   Is the sufficient word and tells of His satisfying efficiency, Acts 6:5
   
7. Filled
   Is the overflowing word and represents His constant inflow and overflow in the life and service, Acts 2:4

”Filled in the spirit,” not “with,” is the most extensive word which is used of His ministry.

The preposition EN should read “in” and not “with.”

2 Sam 23:5, “An Everlasting Covenant, Ordered in All Things, and Sure”

According to the chronicler, in these words we have the last which the king spoke. It was the Psalm that he wrote and it is a wonderful song, in that it breathes the consciousness of his own failure and sets forth with confidence the Divine faithfulness.

In verses 1-4 he declares in most exquisite language, the true ideal of the kingship.
In verse 5 he recognizes that he has not retained the ideal but he declares that nevertheless God is faithful to His covenant.
In verses 6-7, in words which must have been full of fire, he announces what the fate of the wicked must surely be.

There is no doubt but that when the man of faith reaches the bound of life where burdens are laid down and looks back over the way he has come. He realizes that the covenant of God with him has not only been kept, ”but it has been ordered in all things and sure.”

In the Divine dealing with us, there is no mistake, no lapse. Nothing has been permitted which has not been made to serve the highest purpose.

This is so even of our failures, if, like David, we have acknowledged our sin.

“This” is a Very Distinctive Word in Scripture

Christ emphasized not only the words, but each letter. “Every jot and tittle,” which was the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, which is JOD, and it means hand, in His hand.

The word “this” in John’s first epistle, and noticing that the same word is translated “herein” and “hereby” if you will notice the associations, you will find it to be a gracious unfolding that is found in distinctive words.

Just notice the Doctrines you can learn from the word “this” here.

There Will be No Dancing Unless it is Absolutely Necessary!

”She despised him in her heart,” 2 Chr 15:29

This is a revealing word. The circumstances were those of the greatest joy of David. Michal, having no understanding of the reasons for that joy, despised her husband for his dancing, which gave expression to his joy.

The ark was brought at last into the city. This account of how this was done shows that David learned the lesson which the death of Uzziah was intended to teach. He declared that the work must be of the Levites only.

After careful preparation of the tent for its reception, the ceremony of bearing it to its resting place was carried out. A company of instrumentalists and singers were appointed and with high jubilatio