Month: February 2020

A famous publisher declared, “If you are an articulate person, you utter some 30,000 words each day.”

If these words were put in print, they would amount to a fairsized book a day. These books would, in a lifetime, fill a good-sized college library.

All these books are from the same author. All reflect the life and thoughts of the author, in his own words; and not a book can be taken down from the shelves or withdrawn from circulation.

The thought is a bit frightening. It emphasizes the fearful responsibility that goes with the gift of speech, and also the glorious privilege that is inherent in speech seasoned ” … alway with grace … ” (Colossians 4:6).

Man probably has no greater power for good or for evil than the power of speech. Job had the testimony of his friend that his ” … words … ” (Job 4:4) had kept men on their feet- had kept men from falling. What a rebuke to those whose words have thrown men off their feet-causing ill will, suspicion, alienation, broken hearts!

Probably most of us talk too much, and we seldom realize this until it is too late. Perhaps this was what the psalmist felt when he exclaimed, “Set a watch, 0 LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips”(Psalm 141:3).

An elderly woman, much beloved in her community, was asked for her formula for making and keeping friends. “Well,” she replied, “I stop and taste my words before I let them pass my teeth.”

” … out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Matthew 12:34). Therefore, we read, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23); and ” … every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36).

Men in court have turned pale upon the introduction of recordings of their own speech, and souls will tremble in the judgment upon finding that every utterance, from the first wail of infancy till the tongue was silenced by death, had been noted by the Great Recorder.

Sweeter to our Lord than the melody of music and more important than the oratory of statesmen or the proclamation of kings are the conversations of His children talking together about the things of the Heavenly Father. All is written in His ” … book of remembrance … ” (Malachi 3: 16). ” … they … spake … and the LORD hearkened … ” (Malachi 3: 16). Others also “spake,” and the Lord hearkened. And into the record went every whispered conspiracy, every word of slander, every falsehood, every cutting remark, every obscene utterance, every foul blasphemy.

What a noble attribute is the gift of speech! And what finer tribute to the Giver than to present to the library of Heaven, each day, one clean volume-30,000 words-dedicated to His honour!

Immediately before the last miracle prior to the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt, God gave special directions concerning the judgment about to fall upon that country. In Exodus 11:5, God said that ” … all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die … ” He spoke of the great lament that would be heard all over the land among the Egyptians because of this awful judgment.

“But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel” (Exodus 11 :7). It must be noticed and emphasized that this “difference” between the people of the world and the people of God is a difference God Himself puts there. It is a separation given and enforced by divine decree. It marks the distinction between those who are God’s and those who are not. This instruction from God is worth saying again – the difference itself is the work of God. It was not the work of man, but of God. This difference was made effective by blood. Those homes upon which the blood of the lamb was put escaped the death executed upon those without blood. When the Lord saw the blood, He passed over that house, and no one died (Exodus 12: 13). He looked for the “token”-the blood – the sign – of the separation; and when He saw it, He passed over it, and the household remained safe. The “token” – the blood testified that that house where it was put was a house separated unto God, under His special protection, and different from other houses.

The eternal principle-the separation of God’s people from the world-this “difference” is taught everywhere in the Word of God. This separation is obedience to God, that is, God Himself puts an actual difference that the world sees visibly because of the presence of the blood that is applied. There is no partial obedience in this matter permitted by God. The blood of the Passover Lamb had to be applied in three places: above the door and on the posts at either side of the door.

A compromise plan, such as putting the blood on only two sides, or above the door only, would have been completely invalid. Obedience to God’s specific command made the separation effective; and safety, protection, blessing, and His presence among His people was thus perfectly assured.

But to obtain these blessings a difference had to be established and maintained between the people of God and those who were of the world. It was the blood that made the difference, or separation, evident to the Lord as He passed throughout the land of Egypt that night. And until now, this spiritual law has not changed from what it was so many thousand years ago in Egypt. The redeemed of the Lord must maintain a separation, must give evidence to the world, that the blood has been applied, and that they are therefore set aside in a special way by that difference that God Himself has made.

This difference, as just mentioned, that God put in those ancient days of lsrael ‘s redemption, still abides. Our Lord Jesus restated it in His words given in John 15:18-19. Reading from verse 18, we are told, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” The difference God places between His people and those of the world will bring misunderstanding, conflict, opposition, and even hatred. Therefore attacks will be made against us because of this difference. The only way to get victory over all this is to remember that the difference is of God. He is the One who put the difference there. Let that difference, therefore, testify to the reality of our relation and union with Him, even our Lord Jesus. It is this difference that shows itself in separation-which is obedience to God. The sign of the separation is the blood of Christ. Only those who are born again, chosen of God, are, by God’s direct command, separated ones. The difference is between them and those who are not born again through the blood of Christ.

It is our purpose to emphasize the importance of this kind of separation. We are not interested in a separation that man makes, that is, that which is based upon men’s opinion while ignoring God’s own true separation. Separation based upon the idea that one man is a better person than another, or that his ability is of a finer grade than his neighbor’s, or that he is in a different and better class in society than others, and other such ideas, all of them issuing from the pride of man, are types of separation in which we have no interest and no part.

We stand for a separation marked by godliness of life, based upon the fact that God has made His children for the purpose of fellowship with Him, the holy God; and so He Himself makes a difference that we must acknowledge and respect, and show to the world as something actually true in ourselves. We believe that we should” … have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” reproved back to the Word of God, the standards of which are perfect and whose directions for His children are wholesome and pure, producing fruits of righteousness. The Word of God, its pure doctrines, its divine origin, its message, must be proclaimed and defended against teachers of error and false prophets. (Ephesians 5: 11 ). “Reprove” is not criticism from man’s standards of principles, but rather to direct those reproved back to the Word of God, the standards of which are perfect and whose directions for His children are wholesome and pure, producing fruits of righteousness. The Word of God, its pure doctrines, its divine origin, its message, must be proclaimed and defended against teachers of error and false prophets.

We pray that the difference God has put between you and the world will ever be seen by man to be of God- a difference of life and death procured by the blood of the Lamb of God.

” … that your prayers be not hindered” (1 Peter 3:7).

“Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear” (Isaiah 59: 1-2).

“For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil” (1 Peter 3: 12).

“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Psalm 66: 18).

DAILY, REGULAR ANSWER TO PRAYERS SHOULD BE NORMAL FOR ALL CHRISTIANS

The normal Christian life is a life of regular, daily answers to prayer. In the model prayer, Jesus taught His disciples to pray daily for bread, and expect to get it, and to ask daily for forgiveness, for deliverance from the evil one, and for other needs, and daily to get the answers they sought.

That is the way Jesus Himself lived- in daily unhindered communion with the Father, so that He could say to His Father and our Father, ” .. .1 knew that thou hearest me always … ” (John 11 :42). All the teaching of the Lord Jesus about prayer shows that we too have a normal, day-by-day unhindered intercourse with God, asking and receiving, seeking and finding, knocking and having God open to us. He plainly said, “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:24). When we are told in James 4:2 that ” … ye have not, because ye ask not”, it is proper to infer that God intended asking to be followed by having, and that the Christian in the will of God can live day by day in the fullness of joy of having his prayers answered.

It is perfectly normal for an obedient child to ask for food every meal time and get it, get all he wants, and eat until he is perfectly satisfied. And using that figure, the Saviour said, “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” (Matt. 7: 11).

A depositor whose account is in good condition normally has every check he draws honoured by the bank. Why, then, cannot a child of God day by day draw on the bank of Heaven, have his prayers answered as a matter of course, as a daily business? He can! When a Christian fails to have his prayer-check cashed, he should regard it as proof that something is wrong that needs attention at once.

When I tum faucets on in the bathroom or kitchen, I expect water to pour forth every time. If I turned the tap and water did not come, I would be surprised. I would also know that something radically was wrong, and I would immediately set out to find out why the water did not run. If I press a light switch and the light does not shine, or if I plug in an electric motor and there is no power, I know that something is wrong, dead wrong, that the connection with the powerhouse is broken; and I set out to find what is wrong and to remedy it. Just so, every Christian ought to be in daily communion with God and ought to live the joyful life of answered prayer; and when anything hinders his prayers, the Christian ought immediately to be able to find out what is wrong and get it remedied.

Now the Scriptures above indicate that there are sins which hinder the prayers of Christians, sins that tum God’s face away so that He will not hear, yea, sins which make it so that God cannot, in righteousness, heed the cry of His own child, whom He loves! We are not left in the dark about these sins. God, in His wonderful love, has shown us in the Bible the things that grieve Him, the things that make it so He cannot answer fully our prayers.

Often we pray for daily bread or for other daily necessities, such as money for rent, or for a job, or furniture, or clothes, things for which God tells us to pray; and yet no answer comes. Christians often pray for the conversion of loved ones, pray for revivals, pray for help in temptation; all matters about which every Christian certainly has a right to pray, matters about which God has declared in His Word that He is concerned, and which He is anxious to give us; and yet Christians often do not get the answer to their prayers. Why? The answer is that many a good prayers cannot be answered by a holy God because of sins in the life and heart of the one who prays.

It may be that you have some of your prayers answered, or think you do. The dear Lord, who ” … sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45), and is ” … kind unto the unthankful … ” (Luke 6:35), may give you many things that do not come because He respects your prayers and answers them, but because of His infinite mercy which is poured out even upon the vilest sinners. The God who still gives breath to the murderer, still gives food to the man who never prays, the God who gives all the bounties of nature to a sinning, Christ-rejecting race -that God still loves and cares for His children even when they live in sin and grieve His heart. So perhaps what God has been doing for you when you prayed was not at all the answer to your prayers, but just such mercies as His infinite Love and goodness provide for the most wicked of His creatures.

But whether God hears some of your prayers, or none of them, your prayers are hindered if you do not day by day live in the fullness of answered prayer so that you can sing:

Nothing between my soul and the Saviour, So that His blessed face may be seen; Nothing preventing the least of His favour, Keep the way clear- let nothing between.

Often we are painfully conscious that our prayers are not heard. Last night a man said to me as we parted at the close of the service in a great rescue mission, “Preacher, before you sleep I wish you would pray for me. My prayers never get higher than my head. God won’t hear me.” Is that your case? Do you feel, even as you call on God, that He is not pleased, that He will not hear, that there is no likelihood of your receiving the thing for which you ask? Then, oh, how important it is to clear the line between you and God so He will hear you. How important it is to confess and forsake everything that grieves the dear Holy Spirit and shuts up Heaven to your prayers and stops God’s ears!

The power of a godly home is implied throughout Scripture. Proverbs 31:10-31 is an impressive acrostic, and the unhindered prayers of 1 Peter 3:7 are ever delightful. Indeed the fact that the home relationship is made the background for the display of the love between ” … Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:32) shows us how precious to God’s heart is the fellowship of husband and wife, in holy dependence on Him and His will.

When we think of Adam and his wife, we see the lack of godly order. Eve was not the ” … help meet … ” (Genesis 2: 18) that God intended her to be to her husband. 1 Timothy 2:14 tells us that Eve was deceived, but Adam was not deceived, his was a deliberate transgression and thus his responsibility is the more manifest. We have many illustrations of sad homes in Scriptures.

Solomon was turned aside by his many wives, and so was Ahab ” … whom Jezebel his wife stirred up” (1 Kings 21:25). Thanks be unto God, there have been beautiful contrasts, and the Holy Spirit emphasizes them for our joy, our praise, and our imitation.

Let us look at Abraham – yes, believing Abraham, and was not his wife believing Sarah? “Through faith also Sarah herself received strength … ” (Hebrews 11:11 ), just the same as her husband (Romans 4: 18-20). And the encouraging words are added, ” … she judged him faithful who had promised.” Such a testimony is among God’s many striking declarations concerning godly women. Some of the most impressive examples of holy service are found among them. The Apostle Peter was moved by the Holy Spirit to lay stress on Sarah as one of the” … holy women … who trusted in God … ” (1 Peter 3 :5-6). Godly Christian woman today may be viewed as walking in the same family. Thanks be to God, this family is not extinct.

In Luke, we read of Zacharias and Elisabeth, “And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances ofthe Lord blameless” (Luke 1 :6). In Job, chapters 1-2, note how God makes a contrast between the faithful patriarch and his unbelieving wife. It is a privilege to be a” … help meet … ” which is the reverse of the hindrance, that husband and wife may easily become to one another.

It is refreshing to find that after the birth of John the Baptist, the father and mother were of one mind (Luke 1 :60-63), neither one was turned aside by relatives. Thanks be to God for fixity of character. John’s fidelity shines forth, emphasizing God’s approval of a godly home.

Joseph and Mary set forth a beautiful relationship to one another (Matthew 1:20-25; Matthew 2:20-23; Luke 2:41-52). The Lord Jesus in the perfection of His childhood honoured both. No words are more impressive for children than those of Luke 2:51, “And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them … ” He was the mighty God; yet when He came into this world, He filled every sphere perfectly.

In the book of Acts and the Epistles, we read of Aquila and Priscilla. They are always mentioned together, and there is a remarkable placing of Prisca, or Priscilla, first on three occasions. There should be no rivalry or antipathy or jealously where God appoints or works.

It is good to ponder these graciously recorded examples of godly homes. We praise God for the witness of the unnamed overseers of Christian assemblies, chosen according to 1 Timothy 3:5-6 and 1 Timothy 3: 11-12. Ephesians 5 concerns Christ and the church and sets forth again the beauty of a Christian home. God has set high honour upon the husband and wife who follow the principles of His Word, but the joy of this blessing is not reached by mere desire. There must be a humble walk with God in the enabling of the Holy Spirit. Let us all, who own the Name of the Lord Jesus, married or unmarried, prayerfully seek that walk.