Jul 16
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“A man cannot be a faithful minister, until he preaches Christ for Christ’s sake — until he gives up striving to attract people to himself, and seeks only to attract them to Christ!” Robert Murray M’Cheyne
The heavenly runner
“Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” Hebrews 12:1, 2
The heavenly runner looks wholly to the incarnate Son of God. Jesus draws him onward with His invincible grace—and as he runs and looks—and looks and runs—every fresh look gives renewed strength! And every time we view His beauty and glory we see more to believe, to admire, and to love Him. Every glance at His beauteous Person renews the flame of holy love! And every touch of His sacred finger melts the heart into conformity to His suffering image. This is the life of a Christian—daily to be running a race for eternity—and, as speeding onward to a heavenly goal, by continually breathing forth the yearnings of his soul after divine realities, and to be pressing forward more and more toward the Lord Jesus Christ as giving him a heavenly crown when he has finished his course with joy.
But as he runs he is bowed down with weights—many trials and sorrows—many cares and wearying anxieties—many powerful temptations—many bosom sins—many inward idols—many doubts and fears—many sinkings and tremblings—many hindrances from his felt coldness and darkness—hang upon him and press him down—so that at times he is utterly unable to move a single foot forward. But in spite of hindrances from without and within, every now and then he sees Jesus at the end of the race holding out the crown—and seeing Him, he is encouraged and enabled once more to run looking unto Him—that he may derive strength and virtue out of His fullness.
He cannot run the race with any hope of success but as he looks unto Jesus—and derives supplies of strength and power out of His fullness. Though faint, be still pursuing. Run on and run through every difficulty. The blessed Jesus, who is drawing you on by looks of love, will never let you go—nor cease His gracious work upon your heart! He will maintain the faith and hope He has given to you—and will never allow you to fall out of the race—but will certainly bring you off a winner, and crown you with eternal victory! J.C.Philpot
The servant of the Lord.
The servant of the Lord, especially the minister of the Word, ought not to strive and contend about words to no profit. He ought to strive for the faith of the gospel. To be quarrelsome and contentious over mere words, customs, and doctrines to show his intelligence, mastery, and piety is to defeat the very purpose of his office. He is to be kind, mild-tempered, and gentle to all men preserving the bond of peace. He must be a skilled and suitable teacher, patient, and willing to bear reproach.
Let the minister learn to correct with courtesy and gentleness those who oppose the word of God, and in turn “oppose themselves” for any man who opposes truth does so to his own ruin and unhappiness.
We must be firm in the truth but tender in the spirit with our opponents in the hope that God will grant to them repentance and an understanding of the word. Don’t build a wall so high between you and an opponent that he is prevented from repenting and returning without embarrassment and humiliation. It is only by God’s grace that we stand. Pastor Henry T. Mahan.
True or false professors
There is a distinguishing difference between a true child of God and a false professor. The Bible is filled with illustrations of this truth – Mt 7:22-23; Mt 23:27; Mt 25:32; John 14:21; 1John 3:14. This discernible difference is characterized from an inward presence of the indwelling Spirit of God which is produced and manifested by the love of God in the true believer, and is absent in the false professor. The child of God, by his grace, loves God, loves his Son, loves his Gospel, loves the brethren, and loves his work.
Although this inward nature can be imitated outwardly by the false professor for awhile, to some degree, it can never be counterfeited in the heart. What a person loves and gives himself to is, at some point, revealed in his life – For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also Luke 12:34. There are those who profess their allegiance and love to Christ and His Church, yet can never bring themselves to a commitment to the same. They remain their own person, not Christ’s.
The true children of God have a new nature, the Divine nature, which continually causes them to give themselves to the things of God. The truth is that the distinguishing difference is LIFE and DEATH. To those who know him, he is their life. Those who only profess to know him, their life consists of themselves, which is death.
It is of a truth that the true believer’s life revolves around Christ, and that to the false professor Christ revolves around his life. It is comforting to know that God has a people, in this world of falseness and deception, and that they, having the divine nature, live for his glory.
No, they are not perfect in themselves! But they are perfect in him and seek to honor him and his cause by his distinguishing grace. WHICH ONE OF THESE PROFESSORS ARE WE? Tommy Robbins.
Are you Faithful.
Throughout scripture, God’s people are described as faithful. When the Lord describes the commendation the believer will receive upon entering glory, He says His words shall be, “well done, thou good and faithful servant.” What is faithfulness? Here is the most simple definition. Faithfulness believes, and can be believed.
In the passive sense, faithfulness can be believed, trusted, and relied upon. Faithfulness is very predictable. You are in for no surprises with the faithful because there is a consistency of character. Remember Paul’s words, “It is required in a steward that a man be found faithful.” The best example of a steward is the executor of a will. If you want your will executed properly, what do you look for in a person to do it? Talent? Genius? Charisma? In reality, not only are those things not needed, they may be a hindrance. What you want is faithfulness! This is what God requires of all of His children: Faithfulness!
In the active sense, faithfulness believes! What do “believers” do? They believe! They believe God! They believe everything God says! If any portion of God’s Word is presented to me, and I say, “I don’t believe that”, then I am an unbeliever. A believer believes all that God says. Are you faithful? Do you believe? Can you be believed? If you are a believer, the answer is yes to both of these questions. If the answer is no, what is the only conclusion that can be drawn? You are an unbeliever. Believers believe and can be believed! Lord, make me faithful. Todd Nibert.
No child’s play!
Spurgeon, A BLAST OF THE TRUMPET AGAINST FALSE PEACE
“Peace, peace, when there is no peace.” — Jeremiah 6:14.
MINISTERS are fearfully guilty if they intentionally build up men in a false peace. I cannot imagine any man more greatly guilty of
blood than he who plays jackal to the lion of hell, by pandering
to the depraved tastes of vain, rebellious man.
The physician who should pamper a man in his disease, who should
feed his cancer, or inject continual poison into the system,
while at the same time he promised sound health and long life–
such a physician would not be one half so hideous a monster of
cruelty, as the professed minister of Christ who should bid his
people take comfort, when, instead thereof, he ought to be
crying, “Woe unto those that are at ease in Zion: be troubled,
you careless ones.”The work of the ministry is no child’s play!
Much prayer we need that we may be kept honest,
and much grace that we may not mislead the souls
whom we are bound to guide.
The pilot who should pretend to steer a ship toward its proper
haven, but who should meanwhile occupy himself below with
boring holes in her keel that she might sink, would not be a
worse traitor than the man who takes the helm of a church,
and professes to be steering it towards Christ, while all the while
he is ruining it by diluting the truth as it is in Jesus, concealing
unpalatable truths, and lulling men into security with soft and
flattering words.
We might sooner pardon the assassin who stretches forth his
hand under the guise of friendship, and then stabs us to the
heart, than we could forgive the man who comes towards us with
smooth words, telling us that he is God’s ambassador, but all the
while foments rebellion in ours hearts, and pacifies us while we
are living in revolt against the majesty of heaven.
In the great day when Jehovah shall launch his thunderbolts, I
think he will reserve one more dreadful and terrible than the rest,
for some arch-traitor to the cross of Christ, who has not only
destroyed himself, but led others into hell.
The whole apparatus of religion
J.C.Philpot
“I perceive that you are very religious in all things.” Acts 17:22
Religion, in some shape or other, is indispensable to the very existence of civilized society. There is a natural religion—as well as a spiritual religion. Natural conscience is the seat of the former—a spiritual conscience the seat of the latter. One is of the flesh—the other of the Spirit. One for time—the other for eternity. One for the world—the other for the elect. One to animate and bind men together as component members of society—the other to animate and bind the children of God together as component members of the mystical body of Christ. True religion is what the world does not want—nor does true religion want the world. The two are as separate as Christ and Belial.
But some religion the world must have! And as it will not have, and cannot have the true—it will and must have the false. True religion is spiritual and experimental, heavenly and divine, the gift and work of God, the birthright and privilege of the elect, the peculiar possession of the heirs of God. This the world has not—for it is God’s enemy, not His friend—walking in the broad way which leads to perdition, not in the narrow way which leads to eternal life.
Worldly religion cannot exist without an order of men to teach it and practice its ceremonies. Hence come clergy, forming a recognized priestly caste. And as these must, to avoid confusion, be governed, all large corporate bodies requiring a controlling power, thence come bishops and archbishops, ecclesiastical courts, archdeacons—and the whole apparatus of clerical government. The ceremonies and ordinances cannot be carried on without buildings set apart for the purpose—thence churches and cathedrals. As prayer is a part of all religious worship, and carnal men cannot, for lack of the Spirit, pray spiritually—they must have forms of devotion made ready to their hand, thence come prayer-books and liturgies. As there must be mutual points of agreement to hold men together, there must be written formulas of doctrine—thence come articles, creeds, and confessions of faith. And finally, as there are children to be instructed, and this cannot be safely left to oral teaching, for fear of ignorance in some and error in others, the very form of instruction must be drawn up in so many words—thence come catechisms.
People are puzzled sometimes to know why there is this and that thing in an established religion—why we have churches and clergy, tithes and prayer-books, universities and catechisms—and the whole apparatus of religion. They do not see that all these things have sprung, as it were, out of a moral necessity, and are based upon the very constitution of man—that this great and widespread tree of a human religion has its deep roots in the natural conscience—and that all these branches necessarily and naturally grow out of the broad and lofty stem. The attachment, then, of worldly people to a worldly religion is no great mystery. It is no riddle for a Samson to put forth—or requiring a Solomon to solve.