Loved To Perfection

                                                   

Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end  (John 13:1).

This fact is essentially a promise; for what our LORD was He is, and what He was to those with whom He lived on earth, He will be to all His beloved so long as the moon endureth. 

Having loved: here was the wonder! That He should ever have loved men at all is the marvel.

What was there in His poor disciples that He should love them? What is there in me? 

But when He has once begun to love, it is His nature to continue to do so. 

Love made the saints "his own"--what a choice title! He purchased them with blood, and they became His treasure. 

Being His own, He will not lose them. Being His beloved, He will not cease to love them. 

My soul, He will not cease to love thee! The text is well as it stands: "to the end."

Even till His death the ruling passion of love to His own reigned in His sacred bosom. It means also to the uttermost.

He could not love them more: He gave Himself for them. Some read it, to perfection. 

Truly He lavished upon them a perfect love, in which there was no flaw nor failure, no unwisdom, no unfaithfulness. 

Such is the love of Jesus to each one of His people. Let us sing to our Well-beloved a song.

~Charles Spurgeon~

JUDGMENT

                                                                     

But we need to comprehend the meaning of that word 'judgment'. We so often limit it to one of its aspects, especially the final one. 

We speak of 'bringing to judgment' - meaning by that, to punishment - the final effect of judgment. 

But judgment in the Bible is a more comprehensive word than that.

It is, to begin with - and this can be clearly seen in terms of fire, or fire in terms of judgment - a trying of things, a putting them to the test.

Now Scriptures will leap to your mind which bear that out. 

Fire tests, the fire tries, the fire finds things out, does it not? 

That is the first effect of fire. 

And that is the first meaning of judgment: to put everything to the test, to try it.

Having done that, it discriminates: that is, it divides; it shows to which category things belong, and it puts them there. 

Fire has that effect. It says: That is of that kind, and it belongs to that kind; it is of that category, or that realm, or that kingdom: this belongs to another. 

Fire finds out: it discriminates and it divides.

And then it relegates finally. It says: that has been found to belong to a certain realm; it has been designated, it has been discriminated; it belongs there, we put it there. 

That is the final effect of the fire.

That is the content of the word 'judgment'. We need always to keep that full meaning in mind when we use the word. We will not dwell upon its application more fully at the moment.

We are told in the Word of God that this judgment - which would come, mark you, with the coming of the Holy Spirit - the effect of Christ's release through the Cross, in the coming of the Holy Spirit was to cast fire.

In other words, the effect of Christ's release would be the coming of the Spirit as the Spirit of fire; and as the Spirit of fire His presence would always be in terms of judgments in this threefold sense of the word. 

The Holy Spirit's presence is like this and it has this effect.

~T. Austin Sparks~

He Is Coming

 Act 1:11  Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

Let us turn our thoughts to the promise of His second coming. 

This is as sure as the first advent and derives a great measure of its certainty from it.

He who came as a lowly man to serve will assuredly come to take the reward of His service.

He who came to suffer will not be slow in coming to reign. This is our glorious hope, for we shall share His joy. 

Today we are in our concealment and humiliation, even as He was while here below; but when He cometh it will be our manifestation, even as it will be His revelation.

Dead saints shall live at His appearing. 

The slandered and despised shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. 

Then shall the saints appear as kings and priests, and the days of their mourning shall be ended.

The long rest and inconceivable splendor of the millennial reign will be an abundant recompense for the ages of witnessing and warring.

Oh, that the LORD would come! He is coming! He is on the road and traveling quickly.

The sound of His approach should be as music to our hearts! Ring out, ye bells of hope!

~Charles Spurgeon~

Without Fear Of Man

And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the Name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of thee" Deuteronomy 28:10.
 
Then we can have no reason to be afraid of them. This would show a mean spirit and be a token of unbelief rather than of faith. 

God can make us so like Himself that men shall be forced to see that we rightly bear His name and truly belong to the holy Jehovah. 

Oh, that we may obtain this grace which the LORD waits to bestow!

Be assured that ungodly men have a fear of true saints. They hate them, but they also fear them. 

Haman trembled because of Mordecai, even when he sought the good man's destruction. 

In fact, their hate often arises out of a dread which they are too proud to confess. 

Let us pursue the path of truth and uprightness without the slightest tremor. 

Fear is not for us but for those who do ill and fight against the LORD of hosts.

If indeed the name of the eternal God is named upon us, we are secure.

For, as of old, a Roman had but to say Romanus sum, I am a Roman, and he could claim the protection of all the legions of the vast empire.

So every one who is a man of God has omnipotence as his guardian, and God will sooner empty heaven of angels than leave a saint without defense. 

Be braver than lions for the right, for God is with you. 

~Charles Spurgeon~

Ambition Right If Selfless

You can call it what you like; aspiration, ambition, wanting to get on, wanting to rise. It is there in the constitution of man, and rightly so; God put it there. “Thou makest him to have dominion” (Ps. 8:6). 

That is not just official, positional. That is the fulfillment of some divine power at work in the very constitution of man that makes him feel he must rise, but it has been perverted. 

It is perverted by the great pervert, who himself was perverted by his own pride when he said, “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High” (Isa. 14:14); and who came down to Eve and said, “Hath God said...? 

Why, God knows that in the day that you eat, you will have the root of the matter in you, you will not be dependent on God for your knowledge, you will not have to obey God, you will have it in yourself!” 

Adam and Eve fell to it, and the race fell with them, and from that day to this that holy thing of aspiration - shall we call it ambition? - that great power in us that makes us know we are born for a destiny, is perverted and tainted by self, by pride.

So that a man has advanced far on the road to holiness who can never be caught along the line of flattery and popularity, to whom the siren charms and voices are as nothing, because he walks so humbly with his God, meek and lowly in heart.

All the prizes and baubles have no attraction for him. I say that is in the HOLY hill of Zion. 

We are touching another thing now, how holiness is inherent in ascendency. But that must wait.

It is not wrong to have ambition, to have aspiration, but it is wrong to have it actuated by personal interest and motive. 

That has to go through the crucible of the cross and be burnt out. 

Here is the paradox, the problem, the difficulty of a true Christian life: to be broken, emptied, humbled, reduced to nothing, and yet at the same time to have a fiery ambition.

How reconcile these two things? I find it in Paul. With the exception of the Lord Jesus Himself, no man was more mastered by the spirit of ascendency and dominion - shall we call it ambition, aspiration? - than he was, and no man was more selfless in it all. 

How he suffered at the hands of those who owed everything to him instrumentally! There is no personal thing here. He is the man who can write, “Love... seeketh not its own, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly - giveth itself no airs”. 

All that is ascendency; not just geographical location, but spiritual ascendency.

Oh, let us ask the Lord to put in us a passionate ambition for His glory, and that we may be kept purified by the cross so that our glory does not force its way in. That will need a lot of the grace of God.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Defended And Covered

Isa 31:5  As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it.

With hurrying wing the mother bird hastens up to the protection of her young. 

She wastes no time upon the road when coming to supply them with food or guard them from danger. 

Thus as on eagle's wings will the LORD come for the defense of His chosen; yea, He will ride upon the wings of the wind.

With outspread wing the mother covers her little ones in the nest. She hides them away by interposing her own body.

The hen yields her own warmth to her chicks and makes her wings a house, in which they dwell at home.

Thus doth Jehovah Himself become the protection of His elect. He Himself is their refuge, their abode, their all.

As birds flying and birds covering (for the word means both), so will the LORD be unto us: and this He will be repeatedly and successfully. 

We shall be defended and preserved from all evil: the LORD who likens Himself to birds will not be like them in their feebleness, for He is Jehovah of hosts.

Let this be our comfort, that almighty love will be swift to succor and sure to cover.

The wing of God is more quick and more tender than the wing of a bird, and we will put our trust under its shadow henceforth and forever. 

~Charles Spurgeon~

CHILDREN OF LIGHT

1Th 5:5  Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
 
1Th 5:6  Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
 
1Th 5:7  For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
 
1Th 5:8  But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
 
1Th 5:9  For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
 
1Th 5:10  Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
 
1Th 5:11  Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.

CAN we think of a more beautiful figure than this...“children of light”?

As I write these words I look out upon a building every window of which is ablaze with light, every room the home of attractive brightness. And my life is to be like that! 

And I look again and I see a lighthouse sending out its strong, pure, friendly beams to guide the mariner as he seeks his “desired haven.” And my life is to be like that! 

And I look once more, and I see a common road lamp, sending its useful light upon the busy street, helping the wayfarer as he goes from place to place. And my life is to be like that!

And if my soul is all lit up in friendly radiance for others, the light will be my own defense. 

Light always scares away the vermin. Lift up a stone in the meadow, let in the light, and see how a hundred secret things will scurry away. 

And light in the soul scares away “the unfruitful works of darkness”; they cannot dwell with the light. 

Light repels the evil one; it acts upon him like burning flame. Yes, we are well protected when we are clothed in “the armour of light.”

But how can we become “children of light,” holy homes of protective and saving radiance? 

Happily, it is not our lot to provide the light, it is ours to provide the lamp. If we offer the lamp the Lord will give the flame.

~J. W. Jowett~

BLESSINGS AND CURSINGS

He read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings~Joshua 8:30,31,32,33,34,35.

WE are inclined to read only what pleases us, to hug the blessings and to ignore the warnings.

We bask in the light, we close our eyes to the lightning. 

We recount the promises, we shut our ears to the rebukes.

We love the passages which speak of our Master’s gentleness, we turn away from those which reveal His severity.

And all this is unwise, and therefore unhealthy. 

We become spiritually soft and anemic. 

We lack moral stamina. We are incapable of noble hatred and of holy scorn. We are invertebrate, and on the evil day we are not able to stand.

We must read “all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings.”

We must let the Lord brace us with His severities.  

We must gaze steadily upon the appalling fearfulness of sin, and upon its terrific issues.

At all costs we must get rid of the spurious gentleness that holds compromise with uncleanness, that effeminate affection which is destitute of holy fire. 

We must seek the love which burns everlastingly against all sin.

We must seek the gentleness which can fiercely grip a poisonous growth and tear it out to its last hidden root. 

We must seek that holy love which is as a “consuming fire.”

~J. W. Jowett~

 

IMPERFECT CONSECRATION

Mat 19:16  And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
 
Mat 19:17  And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
 
Mat 19:18  He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
 
Mat 19:19  Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
 
Mat 19:20  The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
 
Mat 19:21  Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
 
Mat 19:22  But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.

THE rich young ruler consecrated a part, but was unwilling to consecrate the whole. 

He hallowed the inch but not the mile. He would go part of the way, but not to the end. And the peril is upon us all. We give ourselves to the Lord, but we reserve some liberties. 

We offer Him our house, but we mark some rooms “Private.” And that word “Private,” denying the Lord admission, crucifies Him afresh. He has no joy in the house so long as any rooms are withheld.

Dr. F. B. Meyer has told us how his early Christian life was marred and his ministry paralyzed just because he had kept back one key from the bunch of keys he had given to the Lord. 

Every key save one! The key of one room kept for personal use, and the Lord shut out. And the effects of the incomplete consecration were found in lack of power, lack of assurance, lack of joy and peace.

The “joy of the Lord” begins when we hand over the last key. 

We sit with Christ on His throne as soon as we have surrendered all our crowns, and made Him sole and only ruler of our life and its possessions.

 ~John Henry Jowett~

THE BUILDER

The Lord Jesus Christ declares, "I will build My Church." 

The true Church of Christ is tenderly cared for by all the three Persons of the blessed Trinity. 

In the plan of salvation revealed in the Bible God the Father chooses, God the Son redeems and God the Holy Spirit sanctifies every member of Christ's mystical body.

God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, three Persons and one God, cooperate for the salvation of every saved soul.

This is truth, which ought never to be forgotten.

Nevertheless, there is a peculiar sense in which the help of the Church is laid on the Lord Jesus Christ. He is peculiarly and pre-eminently the Redeemer and Savior of the Church. 

Therefore it is, that we find Him saying in our text, "I will build". "The work of building is My special work."

It is Christ who calls the members of the Church in due time.

They are "the called of Jesus Christ" (Romans 1:6).

It is Christ who quickens them. "The Son quickens whom He will" (John 5:21).

It is Christ who washes away their sins. He "has loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood" (Revelation 1:5).

It is Christ who gives them peace. "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you" (John 14:27).

It is Christ who gives them eternal life. "I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish" (John 10:28).

It is Christ who grants them repentance. "Him has God exalted to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance" (Acts 5:31).

It is Christ who enables them to become God's children. "To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God" (John 1:12).

It is Christ who carries on the work within them when it is begun. "Because I live, you shall live also" (John 14:19).

In short, it has "pleased the Father that in Christ should all fullness dwell" (Colossians 1:19).

He is the Author and Finisher of faith. He is the life. He is the head. From Him every joint and member of the mystical body of Christians is supplied. 

Through Him they are strengthened for duty. By Him they are kept from falling.

He shall preserve them to the end, and present them faultless before the Father's throne with exceeding great joy.

He is all things in all believers.

The mighty agent by whom the Lord Jesus Christ carries out this work in the members of His Church, is, without doubt, the Holy Spirit.

He it is who applies Christ and His benefits to the soul. He it is who is ever renewing, awakening, convincing, leading to the cross, transforming, taking out of the world stone after stone and adding it to the mystical building.

But the great chief Builder, who has undertaken to execute the work of redemption and bring it to completion, is the Son of God, the "Word who was made flesh."

It is Jesus Christ who "builds."

In building the true Church, the Lord Jesus condescends to use many subordinate instruments: the ministry of the gospel, the circulation of the Scriptures, the friendly rebuke, the word spoken in season, the drawing influence of afflictions, all are means and appliances by which His work is carried on, and the Spirit conveys life to souls.

But Christ is the great superintending Architect---ordering, guiding, directing all that is done.

Paul may plant and Apollos water but God gives the increase (1 Corinthians 3:6).

Ministers may preach, and writers may write but the Lord Jesus Christ alone can build.

And except He builds...the work stands still. 

Great is the wisdom with which the Lord Jesus Christ builds His Church!

All is done at the right time, and in the right way. Each stone in its turn is put in its right place. Sometimes He chooses great stones, and sometimes He chooses small stones.

Sometimes the work goes on fast, and sometimes it goes on slowly. Man is frequently impatient, and thinks that nothing is happening. But man's time is not God's time. A thousand years in His sight, are but as a single day.

The great Builder makes no mistakes. He knows what He is doing. He sees the end from the beginning. He works by a perfect, unalterable and certain plan.

The mightiest conceptions of architects, like Michelangelo and Wren, are mere trifling and child's play in comparison with Christ's wise counsels respecting His Church. 

Great is the condescension and mercy which Christ exhibits in building His Church! He often chooses the most unlikely and roughest stones, and fits them into a most excellent work.

He despises none, and rejects none on account of former sins and past transgressions.

He often makes Pharisees and publicans become pillars of His house. He delights to show mercy. He often takes the most thoughtless and ungodly and transforms them into polished corners of His spiritual temple. 

Great is the power which Christ displays in building His Church!

He carries on His work in spite of opposition from the world, the flesh and the devil. In storm, in tempest, through troublous times, silently, quietly, without noise, without stir, without excitement...the building progresses, like Solomon's temple. "I will work," He declares, "and who shall hinder it?" (Isaiah 43:13). 

The children of this world take little or no interest in the building of this Church. They care nothing for the conversion of souls. What are broken spirits and penitent hearts to them? What is conviction of sin, or faith in the Lord Jesus to them? It is all "foolishness" in their eyes. 

But while the children of this world care nothing, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God. For the preserving of the true Church the laws of nature have often times been suspended. 

For the good of that Church all the providential dealings of God in this world are ordered and arranged. For the elect's sake wars are brought to an end, and peace is given to a nation.

Statesmen, rulers, emperors, kings, presidents, heads of governments have their schemes and plans, and think them of vast importance. 

But there is another work going on of infinitely greater moment, for which they are only the "axes and saws" in God's hands (Isaiah 10:15). 

That work is the erection of Christ's spiritual temple, the gathering in of living stones into the one true Church.

We ought to feel deeply thankful that the building of the true Church is laid on the shoulders of One that is Mighty.

If the work depended on man it would soon stand still. But, blessed be God, the work is in the hands of a Builder who never fails to accomplish His designs!

Christ is the Almighty Builder. He will carry on His work,  Christ will never fail. That which He has undertaken He will certainly accomplish.

~J. C. Ryle~

Covered And Protected

Psa 91:4  He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

Just as a hen protects her brood and allows them to nestle under her wings, so will the LORD defend His people and permit them to hide away in Him. 

Have we not seen the little chicks peeping out from under the mother's feathers? Have we not heard their little cry of contented joy?

In this way let us shelter ourselves in our God and feel overflowing peace in knowing that He is guarding us. 

While the LORD covers us, we trust. It would be strange if we did not. 

How can we distrust when Jehovah Himself becomes house and home, refuge and rest to us? This done, we go out to war in His name and enjoy the same guardian care. 

We need shield and buckler, and when we implicitly trust God, even as the chick trusts the hen, we find His truth arming us from head to foot. 

The LORD cannot lie; He must be faithful to His people; His promise must stand. 

This sure truth is all the shield we need. Behind it we defy the fiery darts of the enemy.

Come, my soul, hide under those great wings, lose thyself among those soft feathers! How happy thou art! 

~Charles Spurgeon~

Unbelief

What an evil it is that keeps sinners from coming to Jesus Christ?

And that evil is unbelief: for by faith we come; by unbelief we keep away.

Therefore it is that by which a soul is said to depart from God: because it was that which at first caused the world to go off from Him, and that also, that keeps them from Him to this day.

This sin may be called the white devil. . . In its mischievous doing in the soul, shows as if it were an angel of light: yea, it acts like a counselor of heaven. 

1. It is that sin, above all others, that has some show of reason in its attempts. For it keeps the soul from Christ, by pretending its present unfitness and unpreparedness: as want of more sense of sin, want of more repentance, want of more humility, want of a more broken heart.

2. It is the sin that most suits with the conscience. The conscience of the coming sinner tells him, that he has nothing good! . . . that he is a very ignorant, blind and hard-hearted sinner, unworthy to be once taken notice of by Jesus Christ; and will you (says unbelief) in such a case as you re now, presume to come to Jesus Christ?

3. It is the sin that most suits with our sense of feeling. The coming sinner feels the workings of sin, of all manner of sin and wretchedness in his flesh; he also feels the wrath and judgment of God due to sin and ofttimes staggers under it.

Now, says unbelief, you may see you have no grace; for that which works in you is corruption. 

You may also perceive that God does not love you, because the sense of His wrath abides upon you.

Therefore, how can you bear the face to come to Jesus Christ?

4. It is that sin above all others that most suits the wisdom of our flesh...And this wisdom unbelief falls in with.

5. It is the sin above all others, that continually is whispering in the ear the soul, with mistrusts of the faithfulness of God, in keeping promise to them that come to Jesus Christ for life. 

It also mistrusts about Christ's willingness to receive it, and save it. And no in can do this so artfully as unbelief.

6. It is also that sin which is always at hand to enter an objection against this or that promise, that by the Spirit of God is brought to our heart to comfort us.

And if the poor coming sinner is not aware of it, it will by some exaction, slight, trick, or cavil, quickly wrest from him the promise again, and he shall have but little benefit of it.

7. It is that above all other sins, that weakens our prayers, our faith, our love, our diligence, our hope and expectations. It even takes the heart away from God in duty.

8. Lastly, this sin...even now, appears in the soul with so many sweet pretenses to gather safety and security, that it is, as it were, counsel sent from heaven; bidding the soul be wise, wary, considerate, well advised, and to take heed of too rash a venture upon believing. 

Be sure, first, that God loves you; take hold of no promise until you are forced by God unto it; neither be sure of your salvation; doubt it still, though the testimony of the Lord has often been confirmed in you. 

Live not by faith, but by sense; and when you can neither see nor feel, then fear and mistrust, then doubt and question all.

This is the devilish counsel of unbelief, which is so covered over with specious pretenses, that the wisest Christian can hardly shake off these reasonings

~Excerpted from The White Devil by John Bunyan~

~George Mueller~