Isaiah 53:3-7 Song "By His Stripes We are Healed" (Christian Scripture Praise Worship Lyrics)

Song of Solomon 3:6-8

6 Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?

7 Behold his bed, which is Solomon's; threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel.

8 They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night.

Jeremiah 36:19

19 Then said the princes unto Baruch, Go, hide thee, thou and Jeremiah; and let no man know where ye be.

Isaiah 65:17-25

17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.

18 But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

19 And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.

20 There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.

21 And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.

22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

23 They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of theLord, and their offspring with them.

24 And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.

25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.

Joshua 21:43-45

43 And the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein.

44 And the Lord gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; theLord delivered all their enemies into their hand.

45 There failed not ought of any good thing which theLord had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.

ISAIAH 46:11

11 Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.

Matthew 25

25 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

2 And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.

3 They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:

4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

5 While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.

6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.

7 Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.

8 And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.

9 But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.

10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.

11 Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.

12 But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.

13 Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.

14 For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.

15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.

16 Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.

17 And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.

18 But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money.

19 After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.

20 And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.

21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

22 He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.

23 His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

24 Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:

25 And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.

26 His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:

27 Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.

28 Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.

29 For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.

30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Revelation 3: 1-6

3 And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.

2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.

3 Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.

4 Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.

5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

6 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

The Coming of the Kingdom in Power

By T. Austin-Sparks

      Reading: Matt. 16:28; 17:1-7.

      Though we are familiar with this incident of the transfiguration of Jesus, I have always had a feeling that we have not really grasped strongly enough the significance of it. We view it objectively as something that happened in the life of our Lord here, perhaps the most wonderful thing, and we leave it there and fail to realize that there is a tremendous challenge in it, and that it means something of very great importance and significance in the economy of God. Furthermore, we fail to realize that this is the focal point of all the Scriptures. From the beginning of the Bible up to this point, and from this point onwards, everything past and future meets here, is focused upon this, and this therefore contains that which is of tremendous account. The Lord Jesus said with emphasis, "There are some of them that stand here, who shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." Pentecost was the fulfilment of that, but the transfiguration was the meaning and nature of that. The two go together -- the transfiguration and the coming of the Holy Spirit as He came on the day of Pentecost.

A Kingdom Trio

      Now, in order to get right to the meaning of this, let us note that it says -- and Jesus was always very deliberate and quite calculated in what He did, there was nothing casual about Him in word or in deed -- "Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart." Peter and James and John more than any others of the disciples of our Lord were those who had the great Kingdom complex. They were looking for the coming of the Kingdom. They had all the Jewish concept of the Kingdom and all the Jewish expectation of the Kingdom, and from various ejaculations of theirs it is quite clear that they were thinking in terms of the Israelitish kingdom coming in relation to Jesus. "Lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6). That is their mentality, their expectation, their hope. We can say this trio was a Kingdom trio in mentality and concept and expectation. It was as though all this system of truth or teaching about the Kingdom was focused upon and gathered up into those three men.

      An Object Lesson of the Kingdom

And Jesus took them deliberately apart up into the high mountain and was transfigured before them. They were the spectators of this. They were the ones who had this unique experience. Jesus was giving them an object lesson of the Kingdom. If you look at all the features you will see how truly that was so. Jesus had said -- "the Son of man coming in his kingdom". That is the first significant thing. "The Son of man in his kingdom". That is relationship to man, that is man being brought in according to God. This Kingdom is the Kingdom which God intended man to have, to be man's Kingdom. It is the Kingdom of the Son of man as representing man according to God's mind.

      The Kingdom for Man

And so at once we are taken right back to the beginning of the Bible, and we see what God intended regarding the first man -- to give him the Kingdom. "Thou makest him to have dominion" (Psa. 8:6). The Kingdom was the great idea in God's mind in the creation of man, that all things should be under his feet. But that first man missed the Kingdom or lost the Kingdom, and it was not only a matter of government. Why he lost the Kingdom was because he became another kind of man, for this Kingdom belongs to a certain kind of man, and Adam, the first for whom it was intended, changed his nature by disobedience, by unbelief, and so he lost it. Another, the last Adam, comes in and recovers what Adam lost or missed -- the Kingdom.

The Moral Perfection of the Kingdom

      But He shows what kind of a man is the Kingdom man, and you have two things here in this presentation of the transfigured Son of man. One is moral perfection. Here He is presented in all the purity and perfection of moral victory, tested, proved in every way in which a man can be tested and proved, emerging triumphant after all. There is nothing more really to be done as far as He personally is concerned. If He descends the mountain and goes to the cross, that is not on His own account. That is to bring the other men into the Kingdom, but on His own account all is done. He has reached the point of moral perfection, and so perfection is written large in the very description of Him here: His garments and His face, the picture of moral and spiritual perfection.

      The Glory of the Kingdom

The other thing is glory, and when you put those two things together, you know what the Kingdom is. It is spiritual and moral perfection in manhood issuing in glory. That is a word very difficult to understand. Of course, we usually do associate with the word "glory" the accompaniments of this transfiguration -- bright, glistening, fierce light. That is quite true in this sense -- if you find a person who is really by the grace of God overcoming, they are up against something that calls for much grace, maybe in themselves, some difficulty, some handicap, some discouragement, something that is so calculated to make them anything but triumphant Christians; or it may be in some other person with whom they have to live and work, it may be in the home, it may be in the business, it may be anywhere, and these people are an awful trial to them, but if you see these people triumphant through the grace of God over those trials, you do see something about them that is glorious. You can even see it in their countenance. How different they are from the people who are under their troubles. Their face tells whether they are over or under. There is something you recognize there of glory. It is a very faint illustration of this thing. Jesus has triumphed, reached the point of absolute victory on all matters, and the glory follows. I do believe that when we are glorified together with Him, there will be something very light about us -- I do not mean frivolous. We shall be radiant -- that is the word -- radiant people. Heaven is going to be a glorious place in this sense -- that everybody is going to be so radiant.

      Here is Christ the Son of man radiant, and the basis of His radiance is His spiritual life. That is the Kingdom. It was for that that man was created. It was that which he lost. It is that which the last Adam has recovered in His own Person, and here in the transfiguration He gives these three representatives of the great theory of the Kingdom a real object lesson of what the Kingdom really is. "The Kingdom is not you sitting upon thrones and exercising your importance over other people, ordering them here and there and all that sort of thing. This is the Kingdom: the Kingdom is in terms of spiritual victory resulting in spiritual radiance."

      Now when He came in His Kingdom on the day of Pentecost, look how radiant they are. See how so many of those things which had bothered them and troubled them in themselves and with one another up to that point just disappeared. They were a quarrelsome crowd; they could not get on together even when they were with the Lord. They are always spoiling things by their wrong approaches and reactions and interests and ambitions. But see, now there is a mighty victory over all that. We could say it was never before possible for those twelve men to stand up together. They might have done it physically, but to really have stood up together is a mighty victory over temperamental differences and all that sort of thing of the natural man. It is a mighty victory to really be together: one voice, one heart, one mind, one objective. They are together. Lots of things have been transcended now by the coming of the Kingdom. The sovereign rule of the glorified Lord has descended upon them, and that which had been so contrary to the divine idea of the Kingdom has just gone out, and there is radiance there. They are just filled with joy. It is a wonderful picture really of transfigured men, and the church is supposed to be a transfigured church on that basis.

      The Focal Point of History

      This is the heart of the transfiguration. It is the Kingdom, what God meant, what man missed, what Christ has brought in in His own Person and into which He has called us, into His eternal Kingdom. It was a wonderful event. I think the greatest thing that had ever happened in the history of mankind was the transfiguration of our Lord, and yet the newspapers said nothing about it, the world knew absolutely nothing about it, completely ignorant of it for the time being. It is not found in any historical record at all apart from the New Testament, and the greatest thing in the history of mankind, the Kingdom, is always like that. The world cannot appreciate it, cannot understand it, cannot appraise it. The world really does not know anything about this. Its system of values is altogether different from spiritual values and moral perfections, and therefore it cannot appreciate even the joy and the radiance of Christians. The world looks on at a radiant Christian, and says, "I do not know what it is all about, what you are making all the fuss about." It just cannot appreciate this joy and radiance but it is the greatest thing in history.

      The Impact of the Kingdom

      Well, this whole thing needs to be analysed much more thoroughly, but we are not going to be able to do that now. But note, these men, Peter, James and John, as beforehand representatives of that other idea of the Kingdom, and now the nucleus of this new idea of the Kingdom, these men felt the impact of that Kingdom that day. We even had to excuse Peter for, as we say, "putting his foot in it". It was an awful blunder that Peter made, but there you are, you see. When you get an overwhelming experience, you make all sorts of blunders. You get carried away from yourself. And so he blurted this thing out. But the fact is that these men went down under the impact of this thing. This was the Kingdom coming in power, and when the Kingdom comes in power, we go down, we just have to go down. This is the test and the challenge of the Kingdom where we are concerned. We have all the teaching about the Kingdom, we have got a number of different systems of teaching about the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of heaven, and so on. But it is not our teaching, it is not our system, it is the effect that it has upon us, and really to truly hold the truth of the Kingdom means that we are people who have gone down with our faces to the ground before the revelation of Jesus Christ. 

This thing is too much for us, it is overwhelming, it is a tremendous thing. We just fall on our faces; we are like dead people. Is that how the presentation of divine truth comes to us? Do you ever sit in the presence of the presentation of the Lord Jesus, either in a meeting or with your Bible, and as it is going on, you are hearing, or you are reading, you bow your head and say, "It is too big for me, too wonderful, it is overwhelming"? I do not mean intellectually overwhelming, but spiritually. This is tremendous! It touches the heart like that, and unless that is true, there is something lacking in our apprehension of truth. Truth ought to bring us to our knees. The presentation of Jesus Christ ought to humble us and empty us, and we ought to go down on our faces -- yes, if you like, in fear and trembling, anyhow so long as we go down, and that is what happened to them. It came in power, in representation, in the Person of the Son of man that day, and it registered something overwhelming upon them. You know that because it was many years after this event that Peter wrote about it. "This voice we ourselves heard borne out of heaven, when we were with him in the holy mount" (2 Pet. 1:18). Read further what he says about it. "You had better take heed", he says, "as unto a light that shineth in a dark place." Peter never forgot it. It came back to Peter with renewed force and it went through to the end of his life with him.

      Now, we may not have a physical, objective sight of a transfigured Lord, but the Holy Spirit would make the glorified Lord glorious to us. You see, it is borne out all along. When John himself so many years afterwards saw this Son of man, he said, "I fell at his feet as one dead" (Rev. 1:17). When Saul of Tarsus saw the glorified Jesus of Nazareth, he was down on his face, a broken, crushed man, helpless, impotent in his own strength. We need to recover, do we not, this element of the wonder and glory and greatness of the Christ about whom we hear so much, that He should be redeemed from a commonplace, saved from familiarity; on the contrary, our hearts should be deeply moved.

      The Lordship of Christ

      I will say one other thing concerning Peter -- well, we will excuse him. Probably we should do something very much like that in such an experience. "This he said," says another writer, "not knowing what he said" (Luke 9:33). All right: but when he had said it, heaven took serious account of it, and while he was yet speaking, a cloud overshadowed them, a reaction of God from heaven, and a voice came out of the cloud saying, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him". Now then, the whole question and issue of utter subjection to the Lord is brought in at that point. That is the Kingdom. You may talk foolishly, frivolously, impulsively, but look here -- you had better subject all your talking to the absolute domination of your Lord. Don't our tongues want to come under the Lordship of Christ? Therefore they are to be touched by the Kingdom and transfigured. Tongues have got to be delivered from that which is not the glory and purity of the Kingdom of the Son of man, and in every other way. This little phrase -- "Hear ye him" -- don't you go dictating to Him; don't you make suggestions to Him: you listen to Him. That is the law of the Kingdom. Christ is the first and the last. Christ is the only One from whom we are to take our orders, our instructions. We have got to be there where we refer everything to Him, we defer everything to Him, where He is in the place of absolute Lordship.

      The Need of Openness of Heart

Is it not an amazing thing? -- I think it becomes the more amazing when we consider it -- here is the Son of man transfigured and glorified in that brief moment as an object lesson and an example, but look at Him again and consider and contemplate all that that signifies -- a man in the glory, a man glorified because perfected, all that that means. We cannot grasp it. And then listen -- "And killed the Prince of life" (Acts 3:15) -- a terrible thing to contemplate, killed that One. Here He is, look at Him, transformed, transfigured, and then kill Him. He was no other Son of man or Son of God that they crucified than the One on the mount; He was the same One. The point is just this, that we need really to have our eyes opened to the Lord Jesus to save us from making the most awful blunders where His honour and His glory are concerned. They did it because they were blind, and they were blind because they were prejudiced, and see what they did because they were prejudiced. It is not two Christs, the Christ of the Transfiguration Mount, and the Christ hanging on the cross. It is the same Christ, and they can do that as the result of prejudice. They can do that, a thing like that, because their hearts are not willing to have Him as Lord, as King. Oh, what we can do by reason of a closed heart and a closed mind. How necessary it is, then, for us to be in the place of obedience to the Lord and what it will lead us into. Do you get my point? Openness to the Lord will lead us right into that which Adam lost, the glorious Kingdom. Openness to the Lord is the first step back into the Kingdom. Closedness to the Lord, like Jewish prejudice, meant that Israel lost the Kingdom.

Oh, may the Lord give us an open heart, an unprejudiced mind, a pure spirit, transparent inside, and see what it will lead to. It will lead to the Kingdom, and the Kingdom is not just a system of things, although it will become that eventually. It is a nature; it is a spiritual power. It will lead us to glory. There is no glory along the line of a closed heart or a closed mind of prejudice, fear and suspicion. That is the way away from glory. The open heart, submission, subjection to Christ, is the way into the Kingdom.

      A spoken message, 23rd January, 1955

In keeping with T. Austin-Sparks' wishes that what was freely received should be freely given, his writings are not copyrighted. Therefore, we ask if you choose to share them with others, please respect his wishes and offer them freely - free of changes, free of charge and free of copyright.

The Book of Colossians

2 Kings 2:19-22

19 And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught, and the ground barren.

20 And he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him.

21 And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith theLord, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land.

22 So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake.

Elijah's Death Wish-AUDIO

SAM E. WALDRON                     AUDIO: LISTEN HERE  1 KINGS 19                                                                           

INFO

Job 28:28

28 And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.

Saul's Great Sin

With New Testament Eyes: 29 - Saul's Great Sin

By Henry Mahan


1 Samuel 13:1-14

vv. 1-2. Saul had reigned for one full year over Israel and was near the end of his second year when he chose three thousand men of Israel for constant military service and protection. Two thousand were with him and one thousand were with Jonathan, his son. The rest of the men returned to their homes to be summoned if needed.

vv. 3-4. Evidently the Philistines had garrisons and strongholds in the land, and Saul ordered Jonathan to surprise and destroy the garrison of the Philistines near Geba. There must have been some sort of agreement or understanding between Israel and the Philistines; for we are told that, because of this treacherous attack, 'all Israel did stink with the Philistines,' as men void of honesty and trust. Jonathan did it on orders from his father, the king. Knowing that the Philistines would retaliate, Saul sent messengers to call all the people to prepare for war, for his defense and theirs.

vv. 5-7. The Philistines gathered together a great and mighty army 'as the sand on the seashore in multitude' to fight against Israel. When the people heard of the slaughter of the Philistine garrison, of the anger of the Philistines over it, and of the war plans of the enemy, they knew that they and their new king were in deep trouble. Many of them began to hide in caves, rocks, mountains, and pits. Some of them fled across Jordan to the land of Gilead, as far as they could from danger. Those who stayed with Saul in Gilgal 'followed him trembling and afraid.' Saul had not sought the counsel of God's prophet nor the will of God in any of these matters, but all of this trouble was of his own making.

v. 8. When Samuel first anointed Saul (1 Sam. 10:8), he ordered him to tarry seven days in Gilgal, promising that at the end of those seven days, he would come to him, offer sacrifices, and tell him what God would have him do! Perhaps this was a general rule to be observed at Gilgal on all occasions, for Saul was waiting for Samuel as the people scattered from him.

v. 9. Wait on the Lord, wait for the prophet of God to speak for God (Heb. 1:1), and wait for the prophet-priest to offer the Lord's sacrifice. This order Saul broke! He offered the burnt offering.

Ministry to the Lord

By Watchman Nee


Let us note at the outset that there is little apparent difference between ministry to the House of the Lord and ministry to the Lord Himself. Many of you are doing your utmost to help your brethren, and you are labouring to save sinners and administer the affairs of the church. But let me ask you: Have you been seeking to meet the need around you, or have you been seeking to serve the Lord? Is it your fellow men you have in view, or is it Him?

Let us be quite frank. Work for the Lord undoubtedly has its attractions for the flesh. You may be thrilled when crowds gather to hear you preach, and when numbers of souls are saved. If you have to stay at home, occupied from morning to night with mundane matters, then you think: How meaningless life as! How grand at would be if I could go out and serve the Lord! If only I were free to go around ministering! But that is not spirituality. That is merely a matter of natural preference. Oh, if only we could see that much of the work done for God is not really ministry at all! He, Himself, has told us chat there was a class of Levites who busily served in the Temple, and yet they were not serving Him; they were merely serving the House. However, service to the Lord and service to the House appear so much alike that it is often difficult to differentiate between the two.

If an Israelite came along to the Temple and wanted to worship God, those Levites would come to his aid and help him offer his peace offering and his burnt offering. They would help him drag the sacrifice to the altar, and they would slay it. Surely that was a grand work to be engaged in, reclaiming sinners and leading believers closer to the Lord! And God took account of the service of those Levites who helped men bring their peace offerings and their burnt offerings to the altar. Yet He said it was not ministry to Himself.

Brothers and sisters, there is a heavy burden on my heart that you might realise what God is after. He wants ministers who will minister to Him. "They shall come near to me to minister unto me; and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood. They shall minister unto me" (Ezekiel 44:15).

The thing I fear most is that many of you will go out and win sinners to the Lord and build up believers, without ministering to the Lord Himself. Much so-called service for Him is simply following our natural inclinations. We have such active dispositions that we cannot bear to stay at home, so we run around for our own relief. We may appear to be serving sinners, or serving believers, but all the while we are serving our own flesh.

I have a dear friend who is now with the Lord. One day, after we had a time of prayer together, we read this passage in Ezekiel (44:9-26, 28, 31 ). She was very much older than I, and she addressed me like this: "My young brother, it was twenty years ago that I first studied this passage of Scripture."

"How did you react to it?" I asked.

She replied: "As soon as I had finished reading it, I closed my Bible, and kneeling down before the Lord, I prayed: 'Lord, make me to be one who shall minister to You, not to the Temple."' Can we also pray that prayer?

But what do we really mean when we talk of serving God or serving the Temple? Here is what the Word says:

But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me; and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the LORD God (Ezekiel 44:15).

The conditions basic to all ministry that can truly be called ministry to the Lord are drawing near to Him and standing before Him. But how hard we often find it to drag ourselves into His presence! We shrink from the solitude, and even when we do detach ourselves physically, our thoughts still keep wandering outside. Many of us can enjoy working among people, but how many of us can draw near to (God in the Holy of Holies? Yet it is only as we draw near to Him that we can minister to Him.

To come into the presence of God and kneel before Him for an hour demands all the strength we possess. We have to be violent to hold that ground. But everyone who serves the Lord knows the preciousness of such times, the sweetness of waking at midnight and spending an hour in prayer, or waking very early in the morning and getting up for an hour of prayer before the final sleep of the night.

Unless we really know what it is to draw near to God, we cannot know what it is to serve Him. It is impossible to stand afar off and still minister to Him. We cannot serve Him from a distance. There is only one place where ministry to Him is possible and that is in the Holy Place. In the outer court you approach the people; in the Holy Place you approach the Lord.

The passage we ' have quoted emphasises not only our need to draw near to God; it also speaks of standing before Him to minister. Today we always want to be moving on; we cannot stand still. There are, so many things claiming our attention that we are perpetually on the go. We cannot stop for a moment.

But a spiritual person knows how to stand still. He can stand before God till God makes His will known. He can stand and await orders. You who are leaders need to particularly consider this. Can you be persuaded to call a halt and not move for a little while? That is what is referred to here: "stand and minister unto me." Don't you think that a servant should await his master's orders before seeking to serve him? 

The Sin of presumption
There are only two types of sin before God. One is the sin of refusing to obey when He issues orders. The other is the sin of going ahead when the Lord has not issued orders. The one is rebellion; the other is presumption. The one is not doing what the Lord has required; the other is doing what the Lord has not required. Learning to stand before the Lord deals with the sin of doing what the Lord has not commanded. Brothers and sisters, how much of the work you have done has been based on the clear command of the Lord? How much have you done because of His direct instructions? And how much have you done simply on the ground that the thing you did was a good thing to do? Let me tell you that nothing so damages the Lord's interests as a "good thing." "Good things" are the greatest hindrance to the accomplishment of His will. The moment we are faced with anything wicked or unclean, we immediately recognise it as something a Christian ought to avoid, and for that reason, things which are positively evil are nearly not such a menace to the Lord's purpose as good things.

You think: This thing would not be wrong, or That thing is the very best that could be done so you go ahead and take action without stopping to inquire if it is the will of God. We who are His children all know that we ought not to do anything evil, but we think that if only our conscience does not forbid a thing, or if a thing commends itself to us as positively good, that is reason enough to go ahead and do it.

'That thing you contemplate doing may be very good, but are you standing before the Lord awaiting His command regarding it? "They shall stand before me" involves halting in His presence and refusing to move till He issues His orders. That is what ministry to the Lord means.

In the outer court it is human need that governs. Just let someone come along to sacrifice an ox or a sheep, and there is work for you to do. But in the Holiest Place there is utter solitude. Not a soul comes in. No brother or sister governs us here, nor does any committee determine our affairs. In the Holiest Place there is one authority only - the authority of the Lord. If He appoints me a task I, do it; if He appoints me no task, I do none.

But something is required of us as we stand before the Lord and minister to Him. We are required to offer Him "the fat and the blood." The blood answers the demands of His holiness and righteousness; the fat meets the requirements of His glory. The blood deals with the question of our sin; the fat deals with the question of His satisfaction. The blood removes all that belongs to the old creation; the fat brings in the new.

But such ministry is confined to a certain place: "They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table to minister unto me, and they shall keep my charge" (Ezekiel 44:16). Ministry that is "unto me" is in the inner sanctuary, in the hidden place, not in the outer court, exposed to public view. People may think we are doing nothing, but service to God in the Holy Place far transcends service to the people in the outer court.

A DIADEM OF BEAUTY

By Bible Names of God


Isai 28:5 In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people,

Words are but poor things to convey to our minds the glories that await us "in that day" when we shall gaze upon our Lord as a "Diadem Of Beauty." What will it be to see Him then, He whose life here upon earth was spotless and beautiful, whose character was flawless! How can we meditate upon that glorious scene beside which all other scenes of beauty and splendor are colorless, without longing for that day to come when we shall see Him, and --- wonder of wonders, --- we shall be "like Him!"?

Oh, Lord Jesus, our hearts are going out in longing and anticipation. May we seek daily to bring others to Thee that they too may share in that Crowning Day. Amen.

A FRIEND THAT STICKETH CLOSER THAN A BROTHER

By Bible Names of God


Prov 18:24 A man [that hath] friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend [that] sticketh closer than a brother.

What a tie that binds us to Christ, closer than any earthly relationship could ever be! He cleaves to us through all earthly experiences. We are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. We are one -WITH- Him. There is no power on earth or in heaven which can seperate us [against our will] from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We need to sense this fact and then live in the consciousness of it. Live to love Him. Live to honor Him. Live to glorify His name!

Holy Spirit, fill our hearts with love for our Lord Jesus, and guide us in seeking to bring others into blessed fellowship with this "Friend that Sticketh Closer than a Brother". Amen.

Amidst all the changes of this troublous life

(Charles Spurgeon)

"I am the Lord—and I do not change!" Malachi 3:6 

 It is well for us that, amidst all the alterations and vicissitudes of life, that there is . . .

  One whom change cannot affect,
  One whose heart can never alter,
  One on whose brow mutability can make no furrows.

All other things have changed—all other things are changing. The sun itself grows dim with age. Theworld is waxing old—the heavens and earth must soon pass away and perish! There is One alone, who has immortality—of whose years there is no end, and in whose person there is no change. 

The delight which the mariner feels, when, after having been tossed about for many a day, he steps again upon the solid shore—is the satisfaction of a Christian when, amidst all the changes of this troublous life, he rests the foot of his faith upon this truth, "I am the Lord—and I do not change!" The stability which the anchor gives the ship when it has at last obtained a hold-fast, is like that which the Christian's hope affords him when it fixes itself upon this glorious truth.

"With Him there is no variation!" Whatever His attributes were of old—they are now! His power, His wisdom, His justice, His truth, are alike unchanged. 

He has ever been the refuge of His people, their stronghold in the day of trouble—and He is their sure Helper still.

He is unchanged in His love. He has loved His people with "an everlasting love!" He loves them now, as much as ever He did! And when all earthly things shall have melted in the last conflagration, His love will still wear the dew of its youth. 

Precious is the assurance that our God never changes! The wheel of providence revolves—but its axle is eternal love!

God has two fires

(Thomas Watson, "The Beatitudes" 1660)

"I have refined you in the furnace of affliction."
     Isaiah 48:10

"Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal
 fire prepared for the Devil and his demons! And they
 will go away into eternal punishment!" Mt. 25:41, 46

God has two fires—
  one where He puts His gold,
  one where He puts His dross.

The fire where He puts His gold, is
the fire of affliction—to purify them.

The fire where He puts His dross, is
the fire of damnation—to punish them.

Psalm 94:9-15

9 He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?

10 He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?

11 The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law;

13 That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked.

14 For the Lord will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.

15 But judgment shall return unto righteousness: and all the upright in heart shall follow it.

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul?... Hope thou in God." Psa 42:5

  
George H. Morrison - Devotional Sermons

      Hope Thou in God
      
      "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?... Hope thou in God." Psa 42:5
     
      The psalmist here is not talking to an audience. He is talking to himself. "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Hope thou in God." That is one of the habits of the saints, and it is always a highly profitable habit. It means that we look squarely in the face the things that are lurking in the shadows. And very generally when we do that, with the fears and despondencies that haunt us, things prove not so desperate as they seemed. We all know how in the dead of night the slightest noise is apt to startle us. Imagination riots in the darkness. But we smile when we switch on the light and find the footstep is only a creaking board and the knocking only the flapping of a blind.
     
      So also with the soul, formless fears are always the worst fears. Nameless and undefined despondency's are often the most depressing of despondencies. And just to face them and drag them to the light and manfully charge them to declare themselves, is very often the springboard to new tranquility. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Come, my soul, answer me that question! Stand there and be interrogated! Give thy reasons! Why art thou cast down? Very generally when one does that, things prove so much less hopeless than they seemed that the soul descries the glimmerings of morning.
     
      Now many people, when they read these words, are apt to interpret them erroneously. They regard them as a call to trust; but that is scarcely the meaning of the words. When I trust a person, I do more than hope. When I hope, I do less than trust. To hope in God is therefore something different from a feeble and attenuated trust. It is to base every hope that burns within us on the profound recognition that God is. Base your hope, whatever your hope may be--and hopes are of a thousand different kinds--on the recognition that God reigns, and that God, the God of the whole Bible, a Father infinitely loving, has been revealed to us in the Lord Jesus. If that is false, if there is no such Being, our sweetest hopes are mockeries. We have nothing to build on but the sand. Our hopes may come to ruin at any moment. But if God is and we are sure of that, surer than we are of our hands or feet, then there is hope for us and for the world. Hope, my soul, because there is a God--that is what the psalmist really means. Hope, because He reigns. Hope, because He is on the throne. Hope, because He cares for you and loves you; because He cares for all the world and loves the world; because He so loved the world that He gave Jesus.
     
      The Future
      
      Now, let us apply that thought a little in relation to the future of our race. We have many gloomy prophets in the world today who think our race is hurrying to ruin. They study history and find no hope in history. They deny the reality of progress and have lost all hope in civilization. Education, men had hope in that. Civilization, they had hope in that. Increase of dialogue among the nations, men put their hope in that. And then the war came wrecking hopes just as it wrecked cathedrals, and all these rosy, radiant hopes were as houses built upon the sand. What a wise book the Bible is. How it rejects and refuses shallow hopes. It never says to us, "Hope thou in education." It says, "My soul, hope thou in God." Base thy hope on the fact that He is reigning and moving on in His eternal purposes to an end that shall be fair as a perfect day.
     
      Consider the years that lie ahead, hidden in the shadows of the future. For some the prospect is very dark and frightening. Will your health hold out? So much depends on that for yourself and your wife and children. Will your powers hold out, or some day will they give? Will your loved ones all be spared to you? My dear friend, no hope that is worth anything rests upon contingencies like these. It rests upon the certainty of God. He reigns. He knows you and He loves you. In His eyes you are infinitely precious. If you ascend up into heaven, He is there; if you make your bed in hell, He is there. Would it not tarnish the glory of His name if for a single hour in all the future He were to leave you or forsake you? My soul, hope thou in God. Base your hope of the future upon God. Base it on nothing else and nothing less. Everything else and less is but contingency. Build on the sand, and though the sand is made of gold, when the storm comes everything may perish. But who is a rock like unto our Rock?
     
      The Hope of Immortality
      
      Lastly, think of the hope of immortality and of the joy and rest and liberty of heaven when life shall flower into full perfection and we shall meet our loved ones again. That hope is in every human heart, and the question is on what do you base it? Well, you may base it on the inward longing, or on the imperfection of our present being, or on the fact that there is so much on board that is not wanted for the voyage. But when the lights burn low and no argument can silence the questioning, "My soul, hope thou in God." Base your eternal hope on the life and love and promises of God. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. No mother would let death rob her of her child if her power were equal to her love, and with Him, love and power are alike infinite.

Food for the Hungry

By T. Austin-Sparks

      "Give ye them to eat" (Matt. 14:16; cf. Mark 6; Luke 9; John 6).

      It is significant that the feeding of a multitude by Jesus is something recorded by all four writers of the Gospels, even if the two occasions are not reported by each.

      This significance in its general meaning can be easily recognized, although John focuses the occasion upon the particular point of the Person of Christ; that is the statement of Christ - "I am the living bread", and carries upward to the "Father" and right back to Israel in the wilderness.

      There are some points in this universally recorded work of the Lord which are to be noted.

      1. The deep and heartfelt concern of the Lord that people should be fed. "He had compassion on the multitude". John very carefully, meticulously, and fully transfers this, as from the lips of Jesus, to the spiritual life, as of far greater importance than the physical. But the physical necessity is an illustration of the spiritual.

      God has so constituted the human body that its very life, strength, growth, energy, and usefulness depend upon food. The very fact of the New Testament is a powerful declaration that, what is true of the physical body, is - at least - true of the spiritual life in every respect.

      Multitudes of Christians seem to think (if they do think about it at all) that, once they are born again, work is the only thing that matters, and that this can be done without sound, solid, and ample food. Growth does not matter. Energy can be found without feeding. Endurance does not depend upon nourishment. This is a mistake which will find such people out, sooner or later. Jesus did not so think. The very survival of the multitude depended - in His judgment - upon their being fed. It was a precaution against "Lest they faint". Such a possibility and probability gives immense significance to the spiritual food question.

      A weak, feeble, poor, stunted, dissatisfied condition in the life of the Christian is certain to follow - at some time - poverty, scarcity, or meagreness of spiritual food. There was a generation of strong, robust, and fruitful saints, the values of whose lives have come down to us in their written lives and ministries. 

Launch out into the deep

By A.B. Simpson


Many difficulties and perplexities in connection with our Christian lives might best be settled by a simple and bold decision of our will to go forward with the light we have, leaving the speculations and theories that we cannot decide for further settlement. What we need is to act, and to act with the best light we have. As we step out into the present duty and full obedience, many things will be made plain which it is no use waiting to decide. 

Launch out into the deep with a bold plunge, and Christ will settle for you all the questions that you are now debating. More probably, He will show you their insignificance and let you see that the only way to settle them is to leap over them. They are Satan's petty snares to waste your time and keep you halting when you should be marching on. The mercy of God is an ocean divine, A boundless and fathomless flood; Launch out in the deep, cut away the shoreline, And be lost in the fullness of God.

Eternity - Leonard Ravenhill

God's Eternal Thought of Sonship

By T. Austin-Sparks

      Ultimately it is sonship which represents and embodies all God's thought. So the one thing that is constantly reiterated about Solomon is sonship. "Solomon thy son shall build My house and My courts; for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father" (1 Chron. 28:6). "Thy son... My son." David said, "Of all my sons (for the Lord hath given me many sons) He hath chosen Solomon my son" (1 Chron. 28:5) - the inclusiveness of sonship, and in a certain sense the exclusiveness also. 

It is this word "son" that rules where Solomon is concerned. And when we come over to Christ, to the greater Son of David, we find that everything heads up to, and takes its character and its meaning from, His Sonship.

We find that in this matter John and Paul are the great exponents. John presents Christ preeminently as the Son. He sums up all his Gospel in a statement that everything written therein was with one object, that the readers might "believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing they might have life in His Name (John 20:31). John, then, presents Christ as the Son. It is the Person that John has in view.

Paul also represents Christ as the Son, but he goes further. What I mean is this: Paul goes on to open up the content of sonship and to show that there is an aspect of it which is a related matter. By the Holy Spirit we are sons. Christ a first one, the Firstborn; and (leaving out the factor of deity) sonship as a relationship is something into which we are called; and that is Paul's great theme, the meaning of sonship: the content, the explanation, the relatedness, the inclusiveness of it.

I think it is quite patent that the things said by God to and concerning Solomon were not meant to be fulfilled in their entirety and fullness in him. The Lord was speaking with a further thought, with a mind beyond Solomon. He was really, in His own mind, speaking about the Lord Jesus. Solomon would be but a temporary, partial fulfillment of what God said about sonship, and about the kingdom and the house. God was thinking further on. "I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son"; "I will establish his kingdom" - these words were spoken of Solomon, but it is not difficult to see that in the case of the Lord Jesus there is an infinite transcendence. There is something here in connection with Him which goes far beyond anything that was possible in the case of Solomon.