Month: May 2023

“But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.” Luke 14:13-14

Jesus has a persistent way of showing again and again the great gulf that is fixed between the ways of earth and the ways of Heaven. We simply do not operate with the motives and compulsions by which God operates, but we ought to, and we can!

The Pharisee-host to whom our Lord was speaking probably profited little from this lesson on heavenly etiquette, but there is an eternally valuable truth to be gleaned here. Man’s natural motivation is to perform most of his so-called charities with an eye to a return in kind on his investment – and even the budgets of churches can show the same tendency, but God’s way is just the opposite.

We should not be surprised, therefore, when we encounter a natural reluctance among men to give sacrificially for the sole purpose of sending the Gospel message to the ” … the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind” (Luke 14:13), who in the darkness of some distant pagan land hunger for a life-giving taste of the Word of God. We should not be surprised; no, but we can heed the Word of God here and now, and take fresh stock of our own lives to make sure our investments are made with an eye to heavenly values.

Let it be a forever settled conclusion that for the individual Christian or for the church that truly enters by faith into the God-given task of sending forth the Gospel to the lost world, the investment is going to be of a nature that cannot in this life be recovered. Such giving therefore lacks the fleshly appeal that can be incorporated in a “drive” for funds for a new organ, added comforts in the pews, or for the building of yet another church, and the chalking up of another statistic for our denomination.

But wait- isn’t that precisely what Jesus warns against in the text? What He is saying is that the highest possible motivation in Christian giving is the fact that ” … they cannot recompense thee … ” The Son of God speaks words here that are utterly foreign to man’s natural thinking.
But note well the promise that He utters in the same breath, ” … thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:14). You will be repaid all right- and with currency of an eternal and unchanging value!

Here in a very real sense, then is an invitation – and an opportunity- to ” .. .lay up … treasures in heaven … ” (Matthew 6:20). But all too few, we fear, will display the joyous discernment voiced by the enlightened soul of Luke 14:15, who cries out, ” … Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.”

How true! But if we would partake of that bread there and then, we are going to have to learn to let go of it gladly here and now, and send it on ahead in faith – by giving it where there is absolutely nothing in it for us, to those who” … cannot recompense … “

“… as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious …” (Mark 14:3).

This woman could have gotten a vase that would not have cost so much as those made of alabaster. She might have brought perfume that would have cost only fifty pence; this cost three hundred. As far as I can understand, her whole fortune was in it. She might have been more economical; but no – she got the very best box, and put in it the very best perfume, and poured it all out on the head of her Redeemer.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, the trouble is that we bring to Jesus too cheap a box. If we have one of alabaster and one of earthenware, we keep the first for ourselves and give the latter to Christ.

We owe Jesus the best of our time, the best of our talents, the best of everything. Is there an hour in the day when we are wider awake than any other, more capable of thought and feeling? Let us bring that to Christ. We are apt to take a few moments in the morning when we are getting awake or a few moments at night when we are getting asleep for Jesus; but if there be an hour in the day when we are most appreciative of God’s goodness and Christ’s pardon and Heaven’s joy, oh, that is the alabaster box to bring to Jesus.

We owe Christ the very best years of our lives. When the sight is the clearest, the hearing the acutest, the arm the strongest, the nerves the steadiest, the imagination the brightest, let us come to Jesus. Let us not wait until our joints are stiffened and the glow is gone out of our temperament and we arise in the morning as weary as when we lay down at night.

The passage I am going to draw your attention to is without question one of the most terrible warnings in the Bible. I am convinced every time I dare face it in a serious way. It forces upon me a picture of myself standing before the judgment seat of Christ with the blood of multitudes dripping from my hands. It charges home upon me the awful sin of omission, and I cannot escape. Let us examine it now.

“Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul. Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul” (Ezekiel3: 17-21).

It is the fearful sin of omission, the sin of withholding the glad tidings. So important does God consider it that twice He gives the same warning, for it is found again in the thirty-third chapter of the same book. It lays upon me the obligation of telling others. And to fail in my duty is to put my own life in peril.

Naturally we think first of the heathen lands where darkness reigns, and where Christ has never been preached. And well we may. Has not God commanded us? Did He not bid us go and take the Gospel to all the world? And have we any excuse? And yet nineteen hundred years have passed and still the larger portion of the world has never yetheard the message.

There are the closed lands and the far away lands where no Christian has ever set foot. Such great cities as Mecca and Medina in Arabia; Herat, Cubul, and Khandahar in Afghanistan; Thassa in Tibet and Bokhara have never yet seen the face of a preacher of the Gospel, for these cities are officially closed. They still wait untouched, unreached.

But let us come closer home. What about the souls in our own land? How tragically many there are who, in spite of all our religious work, have never yet heard the Gospel!

But let us come still nearer home. There is the city, town, or village in which we live. Can we point to any tangible effort that we have put forth for its evangelization? Dare we stand before God and say we have done what we could to warn the people? For if not, mark you, their blood is upon us.

Oh, yes, you say, we have prayed, and wherever we have gone men and women have felt the influence of our silent Christian testimony. Very frequently we have spoken to them of Christ. Yes, and is that all?

No, we have built a great church, a large tabernacle, into which we have invited them to come and hear the Gospel. And many, very many, have accepted the invitation. Well, and is that all? Is that all? Why, what do you mean? What more do you expect?

My friend, what about the multitudes that have never come? And what about the foreigners, the Jews and Chinese, the Fin landers and Poles, the strangers within our gates? And what about the Roman Catholics and all those who believe in salvation by works? Yes, and what of the rich who would never deign to darken our door, and the poor who feel we do not want them? What of the prostitutes who walk our streets, and the frequenters of questionable houses? Yes, and the inmates of our jails and prisons, our reformatories and hospitals? In a word – what about the multitudes who will never come to us, whom we can never hope to meet, but who are perishing because they have never heard the warning?

Did God ever tell us to build churches and then expect sinners to come to them? Never! His Word is not “Come,” but “Go.” Again and again He emphasizes it. “Go out” is His order; “Go ye,” His command. And if we don’t, if we fail, if we disobey- ” … his blood will I require at thine hand” (Ezekiel 13:18).

Responsible we surely are.”… this day is a day of good tidings …”, cried the lepers of Samaria, “… and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell …” (2 Kings 7:9). Could they keep it to themselves? Of course not, and neither can we if we are to be clear of the blood of all men.

Think of such cities as Chicago and New York. How many, do you suppose, in spite of all the missions and churches, in spite of the thousands of Christian people, preachers, and evangelists, have ever heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ? ” .. Go ye … and preach the gospel…” (Mark 16:15).

Objection is often raised, even by some sound in the faith, regarding the exposure of error as being entirely negative and of no real edification. Of late, the hue and cry has been against any and all negative teaching.

The brethren who assume this attitude forget that a large part of the New Testament, both of the teaching of our blessed Lord Himself and the writings of the apostles, is made up of this very character of ministry – namely, showing the Satanic origin and, therefore, the unsettling results of the propagation of erroneous systems which Peter so definitely refers to as ” … damnable heresies … ” (2 Peter 2:1).

Our Lord prophesied, “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:11). Within our own day, how many false prophets have risen; and, oh, how many are the deceived!

Paul predicted, “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to drawaway disciples after them. Therefore watch … ” (Acts 20:29-31).

My own observation is that these ” … grievous wolves … “, alone and in packs, are not sparing even the most favoured flocks. Undershepherds in these ” ••• perilous times … ” (2 Timothy 3:1) will do well to note the apostle’s warning, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers …. ” (Acts 20:28). It is as important in these days, as in Paul’s -in fact, it is increasingly important – to expose the many types of false teaching that, on every hand, abound more and more.

We are called upon to ” … earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3), while we hold the truth in love. The faith means the whole body of revealed truth, and to contend for all of God’s truth necessitates some negative teaching. The choice is not left with us. Jude said he preferred a different, a pleasanter theme, “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:3-4).

Paul likewise admonishes us to ” … have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11). This does not imply harsh treatment of those entrapped by error quite the opposite. If it be objected that exposure to error necessitates unkind reflection upon others who do not see as we do, our answer is, it has always been the duty of every loyal servant of Christ to warn against any teaching that would make Him less precious, or cast reflection upon His finished redemptive work and the all sufficiency of His present service as our great High Priest and Advocate.

Every system of teaching can be judged by what it sets forth as to these fundamental truths of the faith. ” … What think ye of Christ? … ” (Matthew 22:42) is still the true test of every creed. The Christ of the Bible is certainly not the Christ of any false “ism.” Each of the cults has its hideous caricature of our lovely Lord.

Let us who have been redeemed at the cost of His precious blood be” … a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 2:3). As the battle against the forces of evil waxes ever more hot, we have need for God-given valour. There is constant temptation to compromise, but “Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach” (Hebrews 13:13). It is always right to stand firmly for what God has revealed concerning His blessed Son’s person and work. The “father of lies” deals in half-truths, and specializes in most subtle fallacies concerning the Lord Jesus, our sole and sufficient Saviour.

Error is like leaven, of which we read, ” … a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (1 Corinthians 5:6). Truth mixed with error is equivalent to all error, except that it is more innocent looking, and, therefore, more dangerous. God hates such a mixture! Any error, or any truth-and-error mixture, calls for definite exposure and repudiation. To condone such is to be unfaithful to God and His Word, and treacherous to imperiled souls for whom Christ died.

Exposing error is most unpopular work, but from every true standpoint, it is worthwhile work. To our Saviour, it means that He receives from us, His blood-bought ones, the loyalty that is His due. To ourselves, if we consider ” … the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt … ” (Hebrews 11 :26), it ensures future reward, a thousand-fold; and to souls caught in ” … the snare of the fowler. .. ” (Psalm 91:3)-how many of them God only knows it may mean light and life, abundant and everlasting.

“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39

This is a great eternal security passage. It can also be used to expose the fallacy that “God loves everybody.” God’s love is not universal; it is “in Christ Jesus our Lord.” He so loved (past tense) the world (at Calvary) that he gave his Son. Those who reject His Son also reject his love and receive his wrath instead (John 3:36). “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

“For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” Romans 10:3

That’s what people are doing: seeking to establish their own righteousness instead of submitting to God’s righteousness.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:9-10

Here’s another couple verses from the Roman’s Road group.

“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:13

The Lord really has a way of simplifying salvation. How can anything be more simple than calling on someone? No good works, no baptism, no church membership—just asking.

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17

Faith isn’t blind. Faith is based on God’s word. So, since it takes faith to be saved (Eph. 2:8-9, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:  Not of works, lest any man should boast.”), it takes God’s word to be saved (1 Pet. 1:23, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”). The proper order is fact, faith, then feeling.