I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know.... (Ephesians 1:18 NIV)

OPEN WINDOWS

T. AUSTIN SPARKS

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know.... (Ephesians 1:18 NIV)

The Holy Spirit's illumination concerning the church is a thing so difficult to explain to any who may not have experienced it. But to those who have seen it, it needs no explanation. It makes such a difference on all these matters. You will be able to preach Ephesians, Colossians, Romans; preach all about the church as the Body of Christ; you may read it all in books, and still there may be no real expression of it. Then one day it is as though the heavens opened and the thing broke upon your spirit, and you saw it; and all kinds of adjustments became necessary in life. You can say – I saw that the church was no denominational or national thing; I believed in the oneness of all believers. Yes, you can say all that! And yet there is something more. That something can only come by revelation. You can have the other, and it will just take you so far. But get that something more, and it will take you a long way ahead. It brings you into the realm of the conflict and cost, but you are out in an altogether new realm. It is necessary to God’s end.

It is one thing to say these things and point them out and emphasize them; you say: "How do you get it? We see what you mean, it is all quite clear, but we have not got it!" Well, if you really are of the undivided heart, if your heart is wholly set upon the Lord and you see as far as you can see these things, and have very definite dealings with the Lord about it; (it may not be in a day, it may be slowly, steadily, quietly) you begin to move into a new realm of understanding. And you find that your point of view changes; your standard of values changes; your insight changes. It may take months, but at the end of the time you say: "I am changed! Something has happened to me. I can no longer accept what I used to accept!" It may be like that, or it may come in a flash. How it comes does not matter very much, the fact is the importance of this thing – spiritual illumination. The apostle prayed that these to whom he wrote might have it. Let us pray that we might have it, and that all the Lord’s people might come into that.

By T. Austin-Sparks from: Filled Unto All the Fullness of God - Chapter 2 

The Time Of Relapse

By Oswald Chambers


'Will ye also go away?'
John 6:67

A penetrating question. Our Lord's words come home most when He talks in the most simple way. We know Who Jesus is, but in spite of that He says - "Will ye also go away?" We have to maintain a venturing attitude toward Him all the time.

"From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him." They went back from walking with Jesus, not into sin, but they relapsed. Many to-day are spending and being spent in work for Jesus Christ, but they do not walk with Him. The one thing God keeps us to steadily is that we may be one with Jesus Christ. After sanctification the discipline of our spiritual life is along this line. If God gives a clear and emphatic realization to your soul of what He wants, do not try to keep yourself in that relationship by any particular method, but live a natural life of absolute dependence on Jesus Christ. Never try to live the life with God on any other line than God's line, and that line is absolute devotion to Him. The certainty that I do not know - that is the secret of going with Jesus.

Peter only saw in Jesus Someone to minister salvation to him and to the world. Our Lord wants us to be yoke-fellows with Him.


v. 70. Jesus answers the great lack in Peter. We cannot answer for others.

Isaiah 51:12-16

12 I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass;

13 And forgettest the Lord thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?

14 The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.

15 But I am the Lord thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The Lord of hosts is his name.

16 And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.

Where Christendom Has Gone Astray

Where Christendom Has Gone Astray 
by T. Austin-Sparks

"Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father... But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:20,21,23,24).


Where does everything begin in relation to God, and therefore, in relation to the enemy in his counterfeit? It begins in the realm of worship. The beginning of everything is worship, in relation to God. That is, God having the central and supreme place of recognition, acknowledgment, of government. In our complete obedience, surrender, in every part and phase of our being, God having supreme right. Worship begins there. It is a relationship, not only an exercise. It is not something that we do in specified ways and methods. It is some attitude of the life, some place which God has in the entire consciousness. That is worship.

Now if Satan is to counterfeit and take God’s place, worship is his objective. With the first Adam that was his objective; to draw man away from giving God the supreme place, that he might take God’s place. He supplanted God in the reverence and the acknowledgment and the obedience of man and captured worship and became “the god of this age”. When the last Adam, the Second Man, came and entered officially, publicly upon the great work that He had come to do, the one thing that the adversary sought to capture was His worship. “All these will I give thee if thou wilt worship me.” He has betrayed himself; he has shown his hand. If he could do the same with the last Adam as he did with the first, he has defeated the object of a new race.

Now it is just here that we have got to have light. We have read John 4 from the twentieth verse. The woman is saying “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem men ought to worship.” Jesus said unto her, “Woman, the hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, will men worship the Father. Believe Me, the hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.” In spirit — a small “s”, not a capital “S”. Oh, what is this? This represents a new regime, a new order. This is the crisis of the Cross in the realm of worship, the basic thing. But what has happened? Jerusalem was definitely, divinely ordained as the seat of honour and worship. The Samaritans imitated with temple and mountain the system which was at Jerusalem and worshipped the same God. But God had brought into the world that system of worship at Jerusalem; He had projected that. It was a temple, a building, a piece of elaborate ecclesiastical architecture with priests, with robes and vestments, burning incense, offering sacrifices, making prayers, reading Scriptures, and many other things. Yes, God had brought that in, and now the Lord Jesus was setting the whole thing aside, and in so doing, implying as clearly as anything could be implied, that this is not true worship. It is a comparison which is almost invidious. “Neither in this mountain, nor at Jerusalem, will men worship the Father. But true worshippers shall worship in spirit and in truth.” “God is a spirit.”

Where Christendom is Astray

What has happened, then, if this is not the truth, what is the truth? That is where Christendom has gone astray. That is the divide between soul and spirit. Not something which was but a type, an illustration, a set of symbols. God never intended that to be the final thing, never intended man to make that a thing in itself, never intended that that thing should go on indefinitely. It was brought in to illustrate and represent something else and its time for duration was until the Lord Jesus came. It all pointed towards Him, led up to Him, spoke of Him and His Cross in which that which was merely of the soul would pass, and that which was of the spirit would come in. What is the spiritual life in the matter of worship? Oh, it is not ecclesiastical architecture, it is not vestments, it is not ordinances, it is not rites. They pass out with Calvary. The perpetuating of anything like that is a contradiction of Calvary. See where we are today. The maintenance of that sort of thing, beloved, is because of a failure to perceive what the Lord Jesus has brought in.

What, then, is spiritual worship? It is getting back behind all that and seeing the spiritual meaning. Those sacrifices which were brought and sacrificed were looked into and most carefully turned over, if peradventure there might be a flaw, a blemish, a taint, an inconsistency, a double element, two colours, two kinds. If any such mark could be found the whole thing was rejected. When, however, after careful inquiry and investigation not a flaw or a blemish could be found, and God’s representative with the keen eyes of an expert could pronounce over them the familiar “Tetelestai” — “It is perfect”, then they were offered to God. And the truth embodied in the type was this, that the only fellowship with God is on the basis of the spiritual perfections of the Lord Jesus.

Worship is no longer bringing of animal sacrifices but bringing up from the heart an appreciation of the perfection of Christ. That is worship. The vestments of old were only types and figures and illustrations. The priestly apparel was speaking all the time in type of a righteousness and beauty and glory which is the nature of the God-Man, the Lord Jesus. It is given, imputed and imparted to the one who by faith apprehends Christ. We who are in Christ, in the sight of God, are wearing garments of beauty and glory and holiness. Why, then, perpetuate a system? The Lord Jesus put all that away in His Cross, it is all gone. That is what He means by worshipping in spirit and in truth.

The temple and the tabernacle were only types, speaking of that spiritual fellowship of the saints as joined to an exalted Head, one Body, the Temple of God. The boards of the tabernacle tied together by the bands only speak of saints with the imputed righteousness and holiness and glory of God laid upon them, bound together in one spirit, one Body, with the “joints and the bands”. The fitting together of the stones of the temple wrought in the quarry and brought together without the sound of hammer or axe, silently fitted in, only speaks in foreshadowing of the living stones built together for a spiritual habitation. God now indwells not temples made with hands, but a spiritual body, the members of Christ joined to Him.

Why, then, perpetuate a thing which God has dismissed in the Cross, and keep to the lower, fail to reach the higher, the fact that “we who are many are one body”? Do you see where things are astray today? I know how sweeping this is, but all this has to do with worship.

THE UNCHANGING GOD

THE UNCHANGING GOD
John H. Paterson

For I am the Lord, I change not;
therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
Malachi 3:6

THE other day, I was driven to the dictionary, as most of us are at times, to check the spelling of a word. It was 'changeable' -- that 'e' in the middle was the difficulty! After I had looked it up I was led, by a train of thought that any Bible reader can share, to recall various Scripture references to people and things that are changeable, and others that are not. One such reference is the verse in Malachi which stands at the head of this article.

It is one of the Bible's surprise verses; that is, it is one of those verses that take us by surprise because they say the opposite of what we probably expect. There are plenty of others; indeed the Lord Jesus, when He was here preaching and teaching, constantly surprised His audiences with these opposites "Ye have heard it said ... but I say ..." [86/87]

So, if you have read Malachi's prophecies up to this point, with their almost continuous denunciation of God's remnant people for their short-comings, you would not expect what you read here. You would, I am sure, expect Malachi 3:6 to read something like this: "I am the Lord, I change not; therefore as long as you go on behaving like this I shall go on punishing you, as I have done in the past." But that is not what it says!

Now I must be frank with you, and recognise that scholars are not absolutely sure what it does say. The all-important word "therefore" is not actually in the original Hebrew. But the Authorised, Revised and Revised Standard Versions all translate it this way, not to mention several modern versions. And if they are right to do so, what a tremendous "therefore" this is! It is because the Lord does not change that His people are secure. The converse of that is, obviously, that if God ever did change, the people would be consumed.

All believers are familiar with Bible assurances that the Lord does not change. How often we have comforted ourselves with those reminders: "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). But this verse in Malachi stands a little apart from those other references. Their message is consoling: "How wonderful that God doesn't change; He's always there to help me when I need Him!" The message from Malachi, on the other hand, is challenging: "What a good thing that God doesn't change, for our security, our very survival, depends on His not doing so!"

Malachi's Complaint

Let us now relate this verse a little more closely to its context in Malachi's prophecy. Throughout an incredibly up-and-down history as a nation of God's people, Israel had been preserved by one thing alone: God's unchanging character and His refusal (I almost wrote "His inability", but that might sound strange) to act in any way out of keeping with it.

Not that Israel understood this: on the whole they preferred to think of themselves as being owed favours by God, and they paid little attention -- and that hostile -- to the prophets whom He regularly sent to remind them of the true situation. They regarded themselves as privileged people -- which indeed they were, though not in the sense they imagined. They traded largely on the way in which, time and again, He had apparently let them off, and still held out to them the same promises which He had made to Abraham and the Fathers long ago. Little did they realise how fragile was their ground of confidence, how delicately-balanced their status, for the slightest tremour of change in Him and they would all have been consumed.

Isaiah's Psalm

ON THE WAY UP (16)

Isaiah's Psalm
(Chapter 12)

SOME of the prophets wrote songs which have no place in our Book of Psalms. This is a notable one. It is to be sung "In that day", a phrase often used by the prophet in his predictions. It frequently refers to some event in this history of God's earthly people, but since here it follows the announcing of the Child born and the Son given (Isaiah 9:6) and the Spirit-endowed Branch (11:1-2), we can confidently apply it to our times, the day of grace, and sing in celebration.

1. A Day of Comforting Forgiveness. The nearer we get to the Lord, the more we can feel of His anger against sin. Indeed, quite apart from God's feelings, we are angry with ourselves. Thank God, though, the anger has passed for ever, and His gracious comfort is sweet to our souls.

2. A Day of Saving Protection. To be fearful of the unknown future is natural enough and is a healthy matter of concern to those who know nothing of God's salvation. For us, however, who have found shelter under that very wonderful name of the LORD JEHOVAH, the Saviour Jesus, there need be no more fear. I will trust, and I will sing as I trust, but fear has no place in the lifestyle of a believer.

3. A Day of Joyful Renewal. God's grace is likened to a well, or more accurately to "wells of salvation". Even if we fail to let down our bucket, the water is there waiting for us. However empty the bucket may be when I let it down, it always comes up full, and even running over. I understand that Jacob's well is the one absolutely certain landmark in Israel. The Samaritan woman said, "The well is deep" (John 4:11). It needed to be to have lasted all these centuries. Christ's well is eternal and it is bottomless. It provides a joy that no man can take from us (John 16:22). But we must keep on drawing up its waters.

4. A Day of Triumphant Witness. "Let this be known in all the earth". Joy shared is joy multiplied, and to us is given the privilege of letting others know of these wells of salvation, and to sing as we do so. We are not here to proclaim how needy people are. By the aid of the convicting Spirit they can discover that for themselves. Our great privilege is both to call upon the Lord's name and to make known His doings among the peoples. His name is indeed exalted, but it is our glad task to mention that fact to all who will listen.

5. A Day of Glorious Indwelling. References to "The Holy One of Israel" abound in Isaiah's writings, but this song of his ends with appreciation of the wonderful fact that this Great One actually lives within us. "In that day", Jesus Himself affirmed, "In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you" (John 14:20). It is something to cry aloud and shout about! It is also something to be lived out in daily life. Isaiah has already said that the LORD JEHOVAH is not only his strength but also his song (verse 2). Even the least musical of us can have a part in the heavenly symphony, since the Lord Jesus lives in our hearts.

----------------

BAFFLED BELIEVERS

BAFFLED BELIEVERS

John H. Paterson

WHEN it comes to dealing with spiritual things, there is a great difference believing and understanding. I mean this not only in the sense that, when things become difficult for the Christian, he or she will say, "I don't understand, but I believe the Lord means it for good, and I trust Him." Many of us know that experience. Rather I mean that it is quite possible to believe in the Lord Jesus, and yet totally mis-understand His ways.

In recently re-reading the Gospels I have been struck by the truth of that statement where Jesus' disciples were concerned. They provide the best example of how one could have a growing faith, culminating in the acknowledgement that Jesus was indeed the Son of God and the Messiah, and even have a daily contact with Him, but without any real grasp of the meaning of the events and the words which they witnessed.

This was apparent, in the first place, in the questions which they asked Jesus, sometimes cutting right across His train of thought and teaching to do so. For example, in those last, precious few moments which the Lord had with them, and which John recorded in chapters 13-17 of his account, their persistent questioning betrayed an ignorance of what it all meant that must have been intensely saddening to the Lord. A lesser man would have shouted at them, or thrown up his hands in disgust, and asked "Haven't you understood anything that I've taught you?" The Lord Jesus, sad though He may have been, went patiently on, answering their silly questions and then returning to what He wanted to say.

These questions, while they give us some measure of the disciples' ignorance, were at least a frank admission of what they did not understand. What I find particularly interesting, however, is the frequency with which they thought they did understand -- but were wrong! Time and again they acted, or made suggestions for action, evidently confident that they would meet with Jesus' approval, only to be rebuked, or disregarded, or put right.

They must sometimes have felt utterly baffled like children who think their parents will be pleased when they pick all the flowers in father's garden, and are astonished that their offering is not appreciated! What the disciples were reduced to was trying to guess: would He be pleased with them or not? [73/74]

Mistaken Ideas

Let me refer to a few examples of this guessing game that went wrong. There was the time (Luke 9:52-56) when Jesus and His disciples were not welcomed in a Samaritan village, and James and John wanted to call down fire to avenge the insult to their Master. "But he turned and rebuked them, and said, ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." In the next chapter (Luke 10:17-20), we have the story of how the seventy whom He had sent out to preach "returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name." Surely, they could be happy about that? No! "In this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven."

Then there was the occasion (Matthew 19:13-15; cf. Mark 10:13-14) when little children were brought to Him, and the disciples were doing a splendid job of shielding the Lord from unnecessary pressure. They were doing what good secretaries nowadays are supposed to do -- making sure that the manager's time is not wasted by visitors who are not bona fide customers! But they were wrong again: He wanted the children to come.

Then there was the sternest of all His rebukes recorded in three Gospels, when Peter took it upon himself to tell Jesus His own business: "Peter took him, and began to rebuke him saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee" (Matthew 16:22, etc.) Peter obviously felt that, if Jesus did not know what was good for Him then he, Peter, would see to it that He learned!

The Seen and the Unseen

The Seen and the Unseen 

by T. Austin-Sparks

(The 1928 Motto)

Faith is the victory that overcometh and "faith is the conviction of the reality of things not seen."

If this is true then the secret of victory is the capacity for and the deliberate persistence in looking - not at things seen but at the "things not seen." So it has always proved to be in the history and experience of God's people. Paralysis, defeat, disaster have always been consequent upon judgment after the sight of the eyes (the eyes of the natural senses). Victory has always issued sooner or later from someone's assurance of and discernment of the Divine resources and realities behind all else.

How often this twofold issue upon this one principle is seen in the scriptural record of the experience of men. How often deliverance was because someone was given spiritual and moral ascendency because in their close walk with God their inner eyes refused the tyrany of their outer and were given to a spontaneous "LOOKING OFF"! How often the effect of the Divine admonition by which triumphant emergence came was negatively "NOT AT THINGS SEEN," and positively "BUT AT THE THINGS NOT SEEN." And when "things" were hidden for faith's purifying, the sum total of all the things was "HIM Who is invisible."

What, could ye not watch with me one hour?--Mat 26:40

 
George H. Morrison - Devotional Sermons

      The Cry for Companionship     
      What, could ye not watch with me one hour?--Mat 26:40
     
      The Closest Disciples Sleep Most Often     
      The scene was the Garden of Gethsemane, and all three disciples were asleep. It is not the first time in the Gospel story that we have found these three disciples sleeping. When the Lord was transfigured on the mountain these same disciples were asleep, and neither there nor here was it a light and evanescent drowsiness. We are told that in the former narrative, and here, the moment Jesus ceased to speak they relapsed into their heavy slumber. One would have thought that the word of Jesus to them would have stabbed them wide awake. It evidently did nothing of the kind. The last syllable was scarcely uttered, when they were sunk again in profound sleep.
     
      As a Man, Jesus Craved Companionship     
      One recognises in these words of Jesus His passionate yearning for companionship. In His hour of travail and of agony He craved the companionship of men. One might have conjectured that in such an hour the Master would have longed to be alone. Had He left His disciples in Jerusalem one could have understood that perfectly. And the very fact that He took these three disciples, and set them where they were not far away, shows how He craved for human sympathy and needed the companionship of men. Our blessed Saviour was no stoic. He leaned hard on loving hearts. He yearned for the fellowship of men as intensely as they yearned for His. And if today He is "the very same Jesus," unchanged by death and resurrection, then He still craves, with an unaltered longing, for loving human companionship.
     
      He Craved for Their Companionship although He Knew It Would Be Inadequate     
      It should be noted that He craved this fellowship when it was utterly inadequate. How little could these disciples fathom all that was transacting in the darkness! There He was bearing sin upon His spirit, as on Calvary He bore it in His body. There He was giving Himself utterly to God's will in the redemption of mankind. Even had the disciples been awake, how little could they have understood--yet He craved an imperfect sympathy like that. What an exquisitely human touch that is! An old and faithful family retainer may know nothing of what her master has to bear. To her his troubles may be as great a mystery as the troubles of Jesus to His three disciples. Yet the loving sympathy of that old servant, even though she does not understand, is strangely helpful to her master's heart. Perhaps at the best all we can give to Christ is a sympathy like that of the old servant. There are depths in His being, His death, His endless life, that no human heart can ever fathom. And yet He wants our loving close companionship, just as, in the Garden of Gethsemane, He wanted that of these three sleeping men.
     
      He Asked Them to Watch But One Hour     
      Another thought that meets us is how often it is in lesser things we fail. In order to fully appreciate that I ask you to put the accent on one hour. Had He asked them to watch through the livelong night with Him, that might have been a high and arduous service. But to ask their vigilance for sixty minutes surely was a very small demand, yet it was there that the disciples failed. In the last great service Peter did not fail Him, for Peter was crucified for Christ. James, too, laid down his life for Him, and John went to exile in the Isle of Patmos. Where they all failed was in the lesser thing, in the duty that was comparatively small--what, could ye not watch with Me one hour?
     
      And perhaps it is there most often that we fail in our loving companionship with Christ. Perhaps it is there that love most often fails. In our fellowship with the Lord Jesus we may be ready and eager for the greatest sacrifice, and yet we cannot watch with Him one hour. In those infinitesimal self-denials which are possible with every passing day, in patience and appreciative sympathy within the shelter and secrecy of home, in the rendering of those little kindnesses which are more to many hearts than gold or silver, how often we fail as those disciples did. Great services reveal our possibilities; little services reveal our consecration. Jesus places the emphasis of heaven on him who is faithful in the least. Had these disciples watched for that one hour they would have rendered a service far beyond their dreams. That is true of everyone of us.

Itching Ears

By A.W. Tozer


In the church many are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. If you do not like what I am saying, I want to ask you something. Think about the company you run with. What do they talk about most? God and the love of God, or other things? You decide that. Many Christians today will not endure sound doctrine. Paul described these people as having "itching ears" (2 Timothy 4:3). They did not like sound doctrine, but they were Christians. They called themselves Christians, but their ears were itchy. 

A commentator I read some years back explained this. In Paul's day the pigs had a disease called "itching ears." The symptom was that their ears got inflamed and itched terribly. The only way they could get relief from these inflamed ears was to go to a pile of rocks and rub their ears earnestly and vigorously. The stones scratched their ears for the time being. Paul saw that, smiled a sad smile and said, "I am running into Christians here and there who are just like that. They love pleasure more than God and will not endure sound doctrine. They have itching ears so they will be eager for something else beside the sound docrine and holy ways. They will pile up teachers everywhere and rub their ears for dear life." That is a most dramatic and colorful illustration. 

A lot of so-called Christians have to have piles of rocks to rub their ears. They will not endure sound doctrine. I think that is a description of the churches, Protestant and evangelical. In the light of New Testament predictions, teachings and standards, is what I just said about the prevailing religious mood untrue? Is what I have said about the prevailing religious mood uncharitable? Is it extreme? I do not think it is, but I only ask you to do one thing: Look around you and look in your own heart. See which of these pictures describes the churches you know.

Charles Spurgeon Sermon - The Loved Ones Chastened

STRONG IN THE DAY OF BATTLE

STRONG IN THE DAY OF BATTLE
[Harry Foster]

"Only be strong and very courageous, to observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest have good success whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not affrighted, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest" (Joshua 1:7-9).

"Thou therefore, my child, be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things which thou hast heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier on service entangleth himself in the affairs of this life; that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier. And if also a man contend in the games, he is not crowned, except he have contended lawfully. The husbandman that laboureth must be the first to partake of the fruits. Consider what I say; for the Lord shall give thee understanding in all things. Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, of the seed of David, according to my gospel" (2 Timothy 2:1-8).

THERE is a very striking similarity between the exhortations found in the second letter to Timothy and the charge given to Joshua: "Be strong and of a good courage" -- 'Thou therefore, my child, be Strong ...'. Joshua was not a child, but he was the child, the successor, of a previous generation. The words in this first chapter were not spoken actually by Moses. In Deuteronomy 31 there are very similar words in the charge which Moses himself gave to Joshua. This was a new generation, not called upon to begin a new work, but to finish a work which had been begun.

Now, passing over into the New Testament, nor is Timothy a child, and I suppose by the time this letter was written to him he was not exactly what we would call a young man, but he too represented a new generation, a succession. Paul looked to him, and to those who were like him, to carry through the work, the testimony, that had been begun. And if you read on to chapter 3 you will immediately find the scope of this charge reaching right into the last days.

So this letter is written for all saints, but it has a special emphasis and a peculiar message to those who find themselves called upon to be a new generation, to be the instrument of pursuing a purpose [28/29] already begun, and of carrying it right through unto the last days. So the whole thought bound up with these two charges, the one to Joshua and the other to Timothy, has special reference to us who find ourselves, as undoubtedly we are, in the last days.

THE DAY OF BATTLE

The first thing that we look at for a moment is to see the circumstances which surround them, the characteristics of the time. In Joshua's case, of course, there was only one issue, only one occupation at that particular time. He was the leader of a fighting nation; and Paul, writing to Timothy, lays special emphasis on this same fact, that one of the characteristics of the hour is to be conflict, and he makes no apology for taking up as a metaphor the wars which men pursue and the occupation of a soldier -- "a good soldier of Jesus Christ". There is a battle on, nay, more than a battle. You will have noticed, if you have an Authorised Version, that it says: "No man that warreth." But the Revised Version speaks of "No soldier on service" -- no soldier on active service. There are two words used in Scripture about conflict in this military sense. One speaks of a battle, one decisive engagement fought through to a finish and then it is over, but the other (and this is the word which is used here) speaks of a campaign -- if you like, a war -- with its many phases and its many aspects, and it is that which is typical of the whole age in which we live and peculiarly characteristic of the last days. Conflict, not a straightforward 'ding-dong' battle, but with all the skirmishing, the subtlety, the long drawn-out endurance of a campaign. We are in that, but the difficulty is (and I speak for myself in this case) we so often forget what we are in. Every step that we take, especially when it has something of special value to the Lord in it, every movement, is fraught with opposition, not necessarily of the straightforward brutal kind, but opposition as of the skill, the cunning, the guiles and the force of a whole army. That tremendous army is not ranged against us alone, but we are in the battle and we very often become focal points round which it rages.

Now our difficulty is just this: we think something has happened to us, and we often get offended about it, and do not recognize, or recognize only too late, that that circumstance -- it may have been some small, irritating thing -- is only a part of a great conflict. If we hug to ourselves our own particular grief or grievance, and wonder why this has happened to us, or why we are here and why others are not in our position, we come to an absolute standstill and virtually, on that particular front, there is defeat. If we rise up and realize that this sorrow, however crushing, or this problem, however acute, or this irritation, however annoying, is just a part -- but a very real part -- of a great world-wide, nay, universal, battle, it makes it so much easier. We realize that it is not that we are being hardly dealt with by the Lord, but we have been entrusted with a definite position to hold for Him. It revolutionizes your mental outlook. For lack of that many of us have failed very badly.

And so conflict is one of the great features of the time. It will come in any kind of way, most particularly in the way which we do not expect and which we do not desire. We do not expect the enemy to choose out that particular trial that we could bear best; if we do, we have mistaken his nature. I speak out of my own heart. How true it is that we are blind and forgetful and taken off our guard again and again because we regard incidents and circumstances as things in themselves, and fail to realize that the whole scene as it is now set is one of a great, complicated campaign, and we are soldiers in the ranks.

ENDURE HARDSHIP
The next note that is sounded so much in this letter is that of suffering. If you go through the second letter to Timothy there is no cloaking of the fact, no attempt on Paul's part to make light of his own experiences, or in some cheap optimism to encourage Timothy. On the contrary, it is, again and again, to bear in mind the sufferings of his great predecessor, and himself to be prepared to suffer, as it is all a part of the campaign. Some natures can enjoy a good 'ding-dong' fight, and there is an appeal even in the word 'conflict' when it is looked upon in certain aspects. Get down to pray and deal with the thing, and you may find some satisfaction in feeling you have given the enemy a bad time. Well, that may be a part of the battle, but so often our fighting is suffering, and a case of enduring the hardness of a long drawn-out, and to us, very mysterious campaign. You cannot expect the One who is Himself at the head of His forces to take us into His confidence as to the whole of the thing that He is doing, or even, perhaps, as to our little part in it.

Things which the angels desire to look into

RICHES of J. C. PHILPOT

(Choice devotional selections
 from the works of J. C. Philpot)

Things which the angels desire to look into

"Things which the angels desire to look into." 1 Peter 1:12

To the carnal, earthly, debased, degraded mind of man—the mystery of the Person of Christ, of the cross, of the sufferings, blood-shedding, and death of Jesus, whereby He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself—is foolishness. He sees no beauty, blessedness, or glory in the Person of the Son of God—nor any wisdom or grace in atoning blood and dying love.

But not so with these bright and pure beings! They see in the Person and work of Christ not only the depths of infinite wisdom in the contrivance of the whole plan of redemption, and of power in its execution and full accomplishment—but they see such lengths, breadths, depths, and heights of love as fill their minds with holy wonder, admiration and praise. They see in His incarnation, humiliation, sufferings, blood-shedding, and death—such unspeakable treasures of mercy and grace as ever fill their minds with wonder and admiration.

What shame and confusion should cover our face that we should see so little beauty and glory in that redeeming blood and love, which fills the pure minds of the angelic beings with holy and unceasing admiration—and that they should be ever seeking and inquiring into this heavenly mystery, that they may discover in it ever new and opening treasures of the wisdom, grace, mercy, truth, and love of God—when we who profess to be redeemed by precious blood, are, for the most part, so cold and indifferent in the contemplation and admiration of it.

ON COURSE

ON COURSE
[W. E. Thompson]

"That ye may put difference between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean"(Leviticus 10:10).

"Ye shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth, neither shall ye make yourselves unclean with them, that ye should be defiled thereby. For I am the Lord your God: sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that moved upon the earth. For I am the Lord that brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. This is the law of the beast, and of the fowl, and of every living creature that moveth in the waters, and of every creature that creepeth upon the earth: to make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the living thing that may be eaten and the living thing that may not be eaten" (Leviticus 11:43-47).

"And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment; so that ye may prove the things that differ; that ye may be sincere and void of offense unto the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God" (Philippians 1:9-11).

LOST in space could have been the fate of Apollo 13. This small craft, manned by its three occupants in a completely alien environment, depended almost entirely on external forces to which it was related to bring it safely home. Here we saw a massive combination of the knowledge centred in 'Mission Control' and the responsive judgment and actions of those within the craft. The one supreme objective was to keep it on course, which was essential to its safe arrival home.

The drama and suspense were heightened by the possible breakdown in the transmission and receiving of a mass of detail upon which action was to be based. Contact in a number of realms, moral and electronic, was vitally essential to the course being maintained.

Herein lies an important parable for the Church today. We live in a dangerous atmosphere of dishonest enquiring: 'Why should I?' 'Why shouldn't I?' 'What does it matter?' 'Who says [80/81] this is important?', etc. For the Apollo astronauts such an attitude towards 'Mission Control', or to the importance of details -- much of which they might not have understood! -- would have meant a losing of the way and a consequent death in a wilderness of space.

God has provided for us against this. In Exodus He acts; the 'blast off' is by His power alone. He delivers His people by a mighty hand. Against the humanly insuperable, gravitational pull of Egypt they are thrust forth by His power alone. But in Leviticus -- now launched -- God demands . The onus for action shifts to the vessel -- to men in an alien atmosphere destined for the place where they belong. To be kept on course means action based on an external, concentrated source of knowledge and power. 'In Him' -- the Lord Jesus Christ -- 'are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge' (Colossians 2:3).

It is for this reason that the Book of Leviticus, with its massive concern for detail, is vital to the purpose of God. For those who doubt its validity or relevance, we find it quoted forty times in the New Testament. It is a fount of spiritual knowledge and truth. Cowper regarded it thus:

"Israel in ancient days

   Not only had a view

Of Sinai's blaze,

   But learned the Gospel too.

The types and figures were a glass

In which they saw the Saviour's face."

A powerful New Testament summary of its content and purpose is found in Philippians 1:9, concentrated in those three key words: 'knowledge ' (external detail), 'discernment' (inward moral choice based on knowledge), 'proving the things that differ' (putting to the test, doing the things judged to be right).

What, then, does Leviticus contain and mean?

(A) A MASSIVE CONCERN FOR DETAIL
Concerning the 'whole man', his spiritual worship and soul salvation: Chapters 1 - 4; his social behaviour and conduct: Chapter 5; his property: Chapter 6; his food: Chapter 11; his health and hygiene: Chapters 13 - 15; his family and progeny: Chapter 18; his security: Chapter 19: and so on, throughout the book.

(B) A DISTINCT RECOGNITION OF PRIORITIES
It begins where all relationships with God begin -- with true worship. This is the governing core of attitude and behaviour. This explains the God of the meticulous -- He is altogether different from His creatures. This explains the vast amount of detailed instruction as to how He is to be approached and worshipped, which relieves man of any ground for his own imagination. All must proceed from God, and this alone is found in Christ who is one fullness of the Godhead bodily, and who alone meets all the Divine requirements. Worship or prayer which disregards the Divine detail is 'strange fire' which is as destructive as the true fire is effective.

To what purpose is this waste?--Mat 26:8

 
George H. Morrison - Devotional Sermons




Today's Devotional

      Love's Wastefulness
     
      To what purpose is this waste?--Mat 26:8
     
      A Strange Deed Lives Forever
     
      The scene was Bethany, and the time was near the end. A few more days and the earthly life of Jesus would be over. Jesus and His disciples are seated at their evening meal, when a woman, whom from other sources we learn to have been Mary, did this strange deed that is to live forever. It is not always true that "the evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones." The harm that Mary did, if she did any, lies sleeping with the other gossip of the street of Bethany. This deed still lives, like a choice framework for her heart and hand. 'Tis one of those countless actions of the just, that smell sweet and blossom in the dust.
     
      A Simple Act to Express Love
     
      And the deed, however unforeseen, was very simple. It was the breaking of an alabaster box, and the pouring of the ointment on the feet of Christ. How much this Mary owed to Jesus, perhaps we shall never know. We cannot tell what a new peace had stolen upon her heart, and what a new glory had fallen upon her world, when first this guest entered her brother's home. But when her brother died, and Jesus came, and called him from the dead, and gave him back to Bethany and to Mary, why then, by any passionate thankfulness we have felt in getting back our kindred from the gates of death, we can touch the fringes of the gratitude of Mary. And that was the motive and meaning of her act. She loved Him so, she could not help it. Christ's love had broken her alienated heart. Now let it break her alabaster box. The best was not too good for Him, who had given her a new heart and a new home.
     
      This Was a Deed Only Christ Could Understand
     
      But there are deeds so fine only Christ can understand them. There are some actions so inspired, that even the saintliest disciple, leaning on Jesus' bosom, will never interpret them aright. And this was one of these. Peter, and James, and John--they understand it now, but they did not understand it then. They were indignant. It was a shocking extravagance of an impulsive woman. What need to squander so a year's wages of a working man--for the ointment never cost a penny less. If it were not needed now for Lazarus, it might have been sold and given to the poor.
     
      You call them narrow? And you are irritated by their lack of insight? Stay, brethren, there were some noble features in their indignation. And had you and I been lying at that table, I almost hope we should have fallen a-fretting too. These men could not forget, even at the feast, the gaunt and horrid form of destitution that sits forever in the chamber of the village pauper, crying aloud for clothing and for bread. It may be, too, that at their evening worship they had been reading that he who gives to the poor lends to the Lord. And had they not had it from their Master's lips that He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister? Till in the light of that, and in the remembrance of the woes of poverty, their hearts began to burn with a not so dishonourable indignation. And each began to ask his fellow, "To what purpose is this waste?"
     
      Her Wastefulness Was the Expression of Her Love
     
      But these disciples had forgotten one thing. They had forgotten that this woman's wastefulness was the native revelation of her love. There is a wasteful spending that is supremely selfish. There is a lavish giving that is disowned in heaven, because the giver is always thinking of himself. But God suspends the pettier economies, and will not brook a single murmur, when He detects the wastefulness of love. It is the genius of love to give. It is love's way to forget self and lavish everything. And Mary's way was love's way when she brake the box and poured the ointment on the feet of Christ. And being love's way, it was God's way too.

"There they dwelt with the King for His work" (I. Chron. iv. 23).

 
Days of Heaven Upon Earth Today's Devotional

      "There they dwelt with the King for His work" (I. Chron. iv. 23).
     
      It is easy for water to run down from the upper springs, but it requires a divine impulse to flow up from the valley in the nether springs. There is nothing that tells more of Christ than to see a Christian rejoicing and cheerful in the humdrum and routine of commonplace work, like the sailors that stand on the dock loading the vessel and singing as they swing their loads, keeping time with the spirit of praise to the footsteps and movements of labor and duty.
     
      No one has a sweeter or higher ministry for Christ than a business man or a serving woman who can carry the light of heaven in their faces all day long.
     
      Like the sea fowl that can plunge beneath the briny tide with its beautiful and spotless plumage, and come forth without one drop adhering to its burnished breast and glowing wings because of the subtle oil upon the plumage that keeps the water from sticking, so, thank God, we too may be so anointed with the Holy Ghost that sin, sorrow and defilement will not adhere to us, but we shall pass through every sea as the ship passes through the waves, in, but above the floods around us.

I the Lord, which Sanctify you. Lev 21:8, Lev 21:15, Lev 21:23

 
Our Daily Homily

Today's Devotional

      I the Lord, which Sanctify you. Lev 21:8, Lev 21:15, Lev 21:23
     
      This chapter is full of restrictions and cautions against anything that might defile the priests, the sons of Aaron. The holiness of God was set in a clear light by the care that there should be no ceremonial pollution or personal defect in those who ministered before His presence. What Aaron and his sons were in the ancient typical worship, that Jesus and His people are in the spiritual dispensation which has taken its place. "Ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession."
     
      How holy we should be "in all manner of living"! What may be innocent and natural for others would be wrong and inconsistent in us. Even the pointing of the beard after the fashion of the nations around, and for appearance' sake, was forbidden them; and contact with death in the home of domestic mourning. These, with many such like cautions, indicate that our spiritual separation for the service of God must enter into the minutest details. The clothes we wear, the books we read, the amusements we engage in, the details of the home-life - will all be affected by the thought, "I have been set apart for God; the anointing of the Spirit is on me; I am called to offer Him the bread of a holy life; I may not do as others, who have not realized the sacredness of life, as I do; and who may permit without compunction what I forego."
     
      This is a high ideal; and it is only practicable to those who realize the thrice-made announcement of our text, that God will sanctify us: setting us apart for Himself - by the precious blood of Christ, by the anointing of the Spirit, and by the separation of our thoughts, and aims, and practices.