All Categories

Speaking in Tongues: Is it Gibberish?

9/14/2022

Speaking in Tongues

Teaching #1: Is it Gibberish?

“And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?” - Acts 2:7-8

Do you speak in Tongues? The word tongue literally means language. If you are not speaking in an intelligible and coherent language, then you are not speaking in tongues.

Διάλεκτος (dialektos) = dialect or language

Most charismatic Christians are just speaking gibberish. They are deceived to think that they are speaking in tongues because they were coerced by their Pastor to just let their tongue wiggle loosely and run wild. The result of this is babble! It’s nothing at all really. It’s just noisy nonsense! If these people were speaking an actual language, then their speech would consist of syllables, vowels, and consonants in the sounding-out of real words in the utterance of complex sentences for the expression of deep and sincere thoughts. God created mankind with the unique ability of language because He desires a vibrant relationship with redeemed men and women by this means.

“For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.” – 1 Cor. 14:8-11

Have you heard all these so-called Christians loudly babbling at the Church down the street? They are shouting in gibberish, and therefore no one understands anything that they are saying! In fact, they aren’t saying anything at all. Random sounds and incoherent slurs offered to God in prayer is nothing short of blasphemy. This is obviously contrary to the divine purpose of tongues according to Acts 2:7-8. On the Day of Pentecost, when the Apostles stood up and spoke in tongues, the bystanders heard and understood what was being said because they were hearing about the wonderful works of God in their own native languages, all of which were foreign to the Galilaeans.

“…we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.” - Acts 2:11

This was an observable miracle that glorified God! While no miracle is required for men and women to speak babble! This is a modern invention of devils to trick mankind to behave like animals. Even animals can speak gibberish! Why would God want mankind to behave like animals? This debases mankind and distorts the image of God in which we were created (Gen. 1:26-27). It is offensive to God, humorous to devils, and alienating to people of other religions.

“…will they not say that ye are mad?” – 1 Corinthians 14:23

If perhaps anyone does truly speak in tongues as a miraculous utterance from the Spirit of God, then unbelievers would hear and understand the Word of God in their own languages, or an interpretation would be given and the Word of God would be heard and understood, and God would be glorified (1 Cor. 14:19, 27-28). Those who are unbelievers wouldn’t be driven away from Christianity as a result; they would be drawn to Christianity (1 Cor. 14:22). The Muslims must think that all these tongue-speakers in Churches these days have gone crazy! This is a great reproach to the name of Christ.

0 Comments

Are You Depressed?

9/6/2022

0 Comments

Revival For the Depressed

"To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified." - Isaiah 61:3

The Church on your street corner will tell you that the Book of Job is a philosophical masterpiece on why or how a good God allows so much human suffering to take place in the world. Sitting in the galleries, the Christian Academics of today would have you bow in reverence to such a thesis as this for the Book of Job. Nevertheless, something about it just doesn’t heal the hurt of sad and gloomy Christians (Jer. 6:14, 8:11). What amuses insensitive Scholars in seminaries then abuses suffering sinners who resort to Job for hope and comfort.

"They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace." - Jer. 6:14

"For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace." - Jer. 8:11

Job is popular today, and referenced often by peace preachers, because it seems that people have never been more depressed than in modern times. Of course, they misinterpret Job! So, his story becomes nothing more than a dimly lit candle in the dungeon of despair to help the mourners cope with their misery. No cure is offered through an incorrect interpretation (2 Cor. 1:24). No freedom is granted through false peace. Job needed to repent! “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” (Gal. 4:16). Why else do you think Elihu and Jehovah so sorely rebuked Job in the end of the Book in Job 32-42. Likewise, may a correct interpretation of Job’s misery serve as a wakeup call to the tens of thousands of depressed and impenitent Christians of the modern era, even as they delight to trace their misery in Job’s experience to tell themselves that everything is going to be okay.

Depressed souls like these become sadder at the sound of preaching on repentance. They cannot suffer anyone to tell them about the faithfulness of God – how the LORD would certainly lift their spirits if only they would denounce and totally divorce their secret affection for iniquity. They don’t want anyone to tell them that their sadness is sin! For the record, the bible calls it worldly sorrow (2 Cor. 7:10-11).

"For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death." - 2 Cor. 7:10

Coincidentally, modern readers also believe Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar to be the antagonists of the situation simply because they had a heavy burden for Job and were persuaded that he was in sin. They totally disregard the fact that Job was in total agreement with the doctrine and practice of his friends, even echoing them, and at times excelling them, which shows that these were universally recognized truths among all the saints of the Early Church, namely because they were all learning from the same sources of aged counselors and teachers.

Sadly, the most noble morals of ancient generations are totally disregarded by future generations. The most noble doctrines of former times are totally denounced in latter times. Even so, today, Christians are prone to grossly oversimplify the discourse between Job and his friends because they are totally ignorant of the Early Church in Genesis 1-11.

A Commentary on the Book of Job

A book written about a controversy is bound to be controversial. A situation that confounded the most godly men of the Early Church will no doubt confuse readers today. Doubtful readers of the Book of Job would do well to put aside all preconceived notions, and let the Scripture interpret Scripture without any personal interference.

🎶 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑾𝒂𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑳𝑶𝑹𝑫 🎶 - 𝐶𝑎𝑟𝑜𝑙𝑦𝑛 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑟

𝘍𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦
𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘴𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘴
𝘞𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳𝘴.

𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘴, 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸
𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘫𝘰𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘭𝘢𝘥𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘺𝘦𝘵 𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘧 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘧𝘦𝘸
𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰.

𝘈𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭, 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴
𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘺 𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴
𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘰𝘥.
𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘥

𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘦, 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥
𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥, 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘥.
𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘮𝘶𝘳𝘮𝘶𝘳 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘭𝘰𝘸
𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘰𝘤𝘬 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘸!

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭
𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘭’𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘴
𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘦
𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘫𝘰𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘺𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨.

𝘾𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙪𝙨
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘦
𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘦
𝘔𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴 “𝘠𝘦𝘴 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥!” 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘦.
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘦.

0 Comments

"Rules to Discern a True Work of God" - Jonathan Edwards

8/19/2020

0 Comments

Jonathan Edwards is very celebrated today. However, this wasn't always the case for the renowned American Theologian. When a sovereign move of God broke out among his people, and Edwards saw firsthand the working of the Holy Spirit through preaching to powerfully and suddenly get men lost and saved, something quite "unexpected" happened: PERSECUTION.

It turns out that not all who prayed for a "Revival" leading up the the First Great Awakening were willing to welcome it once it came (Matt. 23:29-30, 1 Jn. 3:13). Many false accusers and slanderers outright denied the work of God that was underway and claimed it was of demonic origin. Therefore, Edwards, in the throes of a work of God in his city, was forced to make a formal defense of what was happening. In writing, he endeavored to establish before all certain biblical rules on how to discern if a work of revival in any location is of the Devil or from the Holy Spirit of God (Jn. 16:8-11). This is the point of emphasis in the following, as a counterargument, when Edwards wrote about "the Spirit that is at work" - in an excerpt taken from Section III from Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God. Furthermore, for simplicity, I have taken liberty to numerically format the argument of Edwards to emphasize 5 primary observations or characteristics that prove a work of religion to be of God by the Holy Spirit.

“As to this work, there are many things concerning it that are notorious (commonly reported and known), and which, unless the apostle John was out (in an error) in his rules, are sufficient to determine it to be in general the work of God.

[1] The Spirit that is at work, takes off persons’ minds from the vanities of the world, and engages them in a deep concern about eternal happiness, and puts them upon earnestly seeking their salvation, and convinces them of the dreadfulness of sin, and of their own guilty and miserable state as they are by nature.

[2] It awakens men’s consciences, and makes them sensible of the dreadfulness of God’s anger, and causes in them a great desire and earnest care and endeavour to obtain his favour.

[3] It puts them upon a more diligent improvement of the means of grace which God has appointed; accompanied with a greater regard to the Word of God, a desire of hearing and reading it, and of being more conversant with it than they used to be.

[4] And it is notoriously manifest, that the Spirit that is at work, in general, operates as a Spirit of truth, making persons more sensible of what is really true in those things that concern their eternal salvation: as, that they must die, and that life is very short and uncertain; that there is a great sin-hating god, to whom they are accountable, and who will fix them in an eternal state in another world; and that they stand in great need of a Savior.

[5] It makes persons more sensible of the value of Jesus who was crucified, and their need of him; and that it puts them upon earnestly seeking an interest in him.” - Jonathan Edwards

This type of discernment is perfectly biblical (Matt. 7:16, 20; Jn. 7:24; 1 Cor. 5:13-14). We, as professors of Christianity, must examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith. This is directly mandated by Paul under inspiration in 2 Corinthians 13:5, speaking to the backslidden Church of Corinth, saying, "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?". Statedly, if the work of God in salvation must be verified through an examination, then there must be a certain way that fallible redeemed men can test and discern the authenticity of a certain work on the basis of concrete grounds. This vindicates what Jonathan Edwards set-out to prove in the First Great Awakening. In slightly different terms, Edwards affirmed the existence of "rules" that "are sufficient to determine" if something is "in general the work of God".

"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." - 1 John 4:1

Prove Ye Every Spirit

1. Prove ye, prove ye ev’ry spirit,
    As the Master did command it;
    Know their works, not words alone,
    Men, as trees, by fruits are known.
    Are their fruits, their works and teaching
    Based on doctrines Christ was preaching?
    Do they love and teach the truth?
    Will their wisdom God approve?

2. Thus their righteousness beholding,
    All in outward form unfolding,
    Inwardly they will appear
    Hostile to Thy children here.
    He who lives in true obedience
    Can discern the voice and presence
    Of such strangers which draw near;
    May we flee when they appear.

3. Though the wolves be ever raging,
    Thou Thy fold art still defending.
    When such spirits do assail,
    We, who know Thee, will prevail.
    Lord, do Thou dispel confusion,
    Erring ones free from delusion.
   Saviour, may Thy fold increase,
    Grant us comfort, joy and peace!

0 Comments

"A Personal Calvary" - Keith Daniel

1/8/2020

0 Comments

Keith Daniel has earned the admiration of Christians worldwide. With an unrivaled capacity to memorize and quote Scripture while preaching, his sermons have mightily impacted devout parishioners from all theological camps and denominations.

Nevertheless, such fame comes with a cost in wicked and adulterous generations (Mk. 8:38). The temptation is strong for preachers to diminish the intensity of what is written, or even apologize for what is demanded, because the masses of Christendom are increasingly intolerant of Biblical Christianity. Tragically, this is exactly what Keith Daniel does in the famous sermon, "Have You Had a Personal Calvary".

Setting the tone of the sermon, before opening in prayer, Keith humorously derides the vanity and foolishness of professional sports, as the people laugh. While acknowledging the fact that sports have "become a god for so many millions of people", and while refusing to be entertained by it himself, Keith says to the people: "I don't blame you if you are fanatical about a game." Keith is careful to tell the people, "Listen, I'm not judging you...". Then he challenges them, saying, "Let me ask you something now? ...when were you so excited about anything of God, how long ago?".

The challenge that Keith delivers to the people is commendable. He is certainly trying to sober the people and direct their hearts into the will of God. However, Keith has no authority to dismiss the people from blame if they are fanatical and idolatrous about sports (2 Pet. 3:14), as the judgment of God is very clear about idolatry (1 Cor. 5:10, 6:9, 10:7, 14; Col. 3:5, Gal. 5:20). As a Preacher (Jas. 3:1), Keith shouldn't be excusing the "lightness" of whoredom rampant among sports fanatics in our generation (Jer. 3:9). Rather, he should be charging the people to subject themselves to the Word of God in however it judges them (Heb. 4:12-13; 1 Cor. 5:12-13; 1 Pet. 4:17-18), whether it accuses or excuses them (1 Cor. 11:31, Rom. 2:13-15).

Sadly, the tone doesn't change for the rest of the evening. To begin the sermon, Keith immediately quotes and expounds John 12:23-26, and then segues into a question that becomes the theme of the sermon: "What could make a man desperately seek God for vital reality in Christianity before he dies?". Of course, Keith will go on to emphasize the need for Christians to "die", as stated in John 12:24, but in order to motivate Christians to "die" Keith preaches a sermon on the pros and cons of having or not having "vital reality in Christianity", in violation of John 12:25. In other words, Keith preaches a sermon on what is to be gained or lost through having or not having "a Personal Calvary", while certainly denouncing the possibility that anyone would suffer the loss of "Life Eternal" (Jn. 12:25).

Keith is very bold to declare to his audience that they are undoubtedly "saved", assuring them that they "will be in heaven" when they physically die, even though it is apparent that they aren't "right with God" for want of having "a Personal Calvary". According to Keith, these people are characterized as follows:

They aren't "desperately" seeking God.
There is no "hope" that God would answer their prayers immediately.
They are a "grief" to God and man.
There are "inconsistencies" and "shallowness" in their Christian lives.
They have not "laid" their "all" on the altar of God.
They have not "fully surrendered" their lives to God.
They do not live "a life of fruitfulness" - such that "is born through a moment of death".
They have refused to "lay down [their] lives no matter what the cost".
They refuse to "seek God with all [their] heart".
They have refused to "put God first before anything".
They are not "desperate" to find a "true walk with God".
They have not "absolutely surrendered" their lives to God.
They are content with "second best" - "Seeing as [they] don't want this cost: a Crucified Life, a Personal Calvary."

Keith isn't even talking about the extraordinary requirements of the call to Preach or the unique sacrifices necessary for becoming a Missionary. The audience understands him to be speaking of "a Mediocre Christian Life" in contrast to a non-Mediocre Christian Life, as the Pastor openly admits in the closing prayer. Statedly, Keith says, "There are only two types of Christians, beloved, those who have had a Personal Calvary and those who have not." Then to drive the point home, Keith questions the people, asking them: "When did you have a Personal Calvary, child of God? When will you have a Personal Calvary?". Howbeit, even if they continue being Cross-less Christians who fight against a Personal Calvary, Keith is careful to assure them with a false peace (Jer. 23:17, Ezek. 13:10, 16, 22-23). Using Jacob as an example, Keith says,

"[Jacob] was saved and would have been in heaven; don't doubt that - you are, you will be in heaven...but what would God have done, if you would stop the fight and had a Personal Calvary?"

In a shocking departure from the fundamentals of the Gospel, Keith preaches a substandard version of Christianity that isn't Biblical. For, according to the Bible, all genuine Christians were truly converted at the instant they were "crucified with Christ" in a Personal Calvary (Gal. 2:20, Rom. 6:1-7, Col. 3:3, Gal. 5:24). This is consistent with what is commonly called, Lordship Salvation, as revealed in Scripture. The Cross is the instrument of execution that liberates the soul in absolute surrender to Jesus Christ as the Lord (Rom. 10:9, 1 Cor. 12:3). Absolute surrender in and through the Gospel is to seek God with all the heart so as to find Him (Jer. 29:13, Deut. 30:6, Col. 2:10-13, Php. 3:3) - all of which is the beginning of a true walk with God made possible by saving faith (Gen. 5:24, Heb. 11:5). This is the clear testimony of Scripture.

"Somebody said, 'It is so easy to get saved.' Yes, all it will cost you is a full surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ. All you've got to do to be saved is to die: that's all it costs to get to Christ." - Rolfe Barnard

"There's only two kinds of people in the world, those who are dead in sin and those who are dead to sin." - Leonard Ravenhill

Marvelously, the best warning that Keith can muster up to tell the people comes in the question, "When will you seek God in a way that you will find vital reality before you die in Christianity?". Keith didn't warn the people of dying outside of Christ. No! Rather, he warned them about the possibility of dying "in Christianity". In respect to the Cross, and the doctrines of Personal Mortification and/or the denial of self, Jesus and the Apostles never warned anyone about dying "in Christianity" (Jesus: Matt. 8:18-22, 10:32-39, Mk. 8:34-38, Lk. 9:22-26, 57-62, 12:49-53; Apostles: Rom. 8:1, 13, Col. 3:5-6, Eph. 5:3-7, Gal. 5:17-25). The New Testament "altar" is the Cross, and it requires "all" or nothing (Php. 3:8), which is why Jesus gravely admonished his followers to count "the cost" by reckoning with the danger of eternal judgment impending overhead (Lk. 14:16-35; Rom. 12:1-2; 2 Thess. 1:4-12).

"Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." - 2 Corinthians 4:1-2

Sadly, irreverent violations of vast portions of biblical doctrine are commonplace today among Preachers. When quoting a term or phrase from Holy Scripture, we must not remove it from its original context - the framework in which it was definitively revealed - or else in giving it another definition, as seems good, we are disguising damnable heresies through promoting biblical terms. Neither should we romanticize the horrifying atrocity of committing sin against God by using modern terms - chalking it all up to be some kind of "second best" offering or experience that's commonplace in Mediocre Christianity. In reality, if God isn't "first", and Christians are satisfied with giving God "second best", they need to own the guilt of the crime being committed: Idolatry. As violators of the 1st Commandment (Ex. 20:3), they don't need a flattering description of outrageously unacceptable sin, such that men think it's just "second best" Christianity.

Inconsistent and shallow Christians, who lack desperation to change, and stubbornly continue without vital reality with God, are those to whom Jesus said, "thou art Lukewarm", but Keith doesn't call it what it is (Rev. 3:14-22). He radically deviates from the biblical motivators presented to backsliders in divine argumentation, eloquently giving the people incentives to get "right with God" contrary to the emphasis of Scripture. Then Keith goes on to characterize what he called "the Crucified Preacher", only making things worse.

"The Crucified Preacher is nailed to the Cross because of love for the lost."
"He loses his life to win the lost for Christ. He denies himself what others call their legal rights."
"He dies daily to things others regard as normal, legitimate, and even essential."
"This world is not his home."
"He lives to lay up himself treasures in heaven."
"He sets his affection on things above, not on things of the earth"
"For him to live is Christ and to die is gain."

All true Christians are "nailed to the Cross". All genuine Christians have lost their lives and denied themselves. Dying daily isn't an optional path, such that only Preachers must do it! According to Jesus, professing Christians who are otherwise minded are forfeiting their souls for what they hope to gain in this life (Lk. 9:23-26, Php. 3:7-21; Rom. 8:13; 1 Cor. 15:30-34). Such men are called "the enemies of the Cross of Christ" in Philippians 3:18. Why? Because feeling comfortable and at home in this world is the essence of apostasy (Heb. 11:8-16, 35-39; 1 Pet. 2:11, Heb. 12:14-15, 2 Thess. 1:4-5)! And apostasy is essentially hatred for God being expressed through loving the world (1 John 2:15-19, Php. 3:19, Col. 3:2, Titus 1:16; Rev. 12:11). Without controversy, those things that are anti-Cross are Antichrist! A love affair with life is adultery against God and war against Heaven (James 4:4-10, Rom. 8:5-8, Lk. 14:26, Rev. 12:11). Laying up for yourself treasures on earth forfeits heaven because it is hatred for God and slavery to mammon (Matt. 6:19-24).

What business does Keith have confounding this matter? God knows. As for me, it is neither right nor safe to keep silent on this matter (Job 32:21-22, Prov. 24:11-12). A lack of clarity here, in what the Bible exhaustively clarifies, is an unforgivable sin in the Pulpit that necessitates an open rebuke. No amount of love and gratitude for Keith, as a brother in Christ, should inspire me to disobey direct orders from God in such circumstances as these. Not even Peter was allowed to confound the Gospel without being openly rebuked before all (Gal. 2:11-14). No doubt the people would begin to desperately seek God if they knew their eternal destiny was on the line.

They do not live "a life of fruitfulness" - such that "is born through a moment of death".

Keith Daniel is preaching about a life of fruitfulness - such that is born through a moment of death - but the conceptual essence of what it means to be fruitful according to the Scriptures is violated by Keith's preaching. Keith fails to deliver to the people the biblical warnings pronounced by God upon those who do not bear fruit. On the contrary, when the word fruit is used in the New Testament, or a derivative thereof, it is employed by God to teach us how to identify or discern TRUE CHRISTIANS from FALSE CHRISTIANS, while focusing on the miraculous and transformational power of true conversion to Christ, and fiercely pronouncing damnation upon those who are fruitless for want of true conversion or because they are backslidden from Christ.

Without controversy, this is the case and point in 15 out of 16 times where the word fruit is used in Matthew (Matt. 3:8, 10, 7:16, 17-20, 12:33, 13:8, 23, 26, 21:19, 34, 41, 43, 26:29), 7 out of 8 times where the word fruit is used in Mark (Mk. 4:7-8, 20, 28-29, 11:14, 12:2, 14:25), 11 out of 15 times where the word fruit is used in Luke (Lk. 1:42, 3:8-9, 6:43-44, 8:8, 14-15, 12:17-18, 13:6-7, 9, 20:10, 22:18), 6 out of 7 times where the word fruit is used in John (Jn. 4:36, 12:24, 15:2, 4, 5, 8, 16), and 17 out of 23 times where the word fruit is used in the Epistles (Rom. 1:13, 6:21-22, 7:4-5, 15:28; 1 Cor. 9:7, 2 Cor. 9:10, Gal. 5:22, Eph. 5:9, Php. 1:11, 22, 4:17, Col. 1:6, 10, 2 Tim. 2:6, Heb. 12:11, 13:15, Jas. 3:17-18, 5:7, 18, Jude 1:12). That amounts to over 50 violations of Scripture in a topic that pervades the New Testament.

"Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear." - 1 Timothy 5:20

Too many voices of extra-biblical Church History have preached a substandard version of Christianity. Insincere parishioners are a plague to the Church (Ezek. 33:30-32). To keep them coming, famous expository Preachers tip-toe around the divine threats of Scripture. If only Keith would have been yoked together in the School of God with other equally gifted men with contrasting strengths and weaknesses, like the Apostles were raised up together, then this could have been prevented. No one is above it. I have long believed that if Leonard Ravenhill, Paul Washer, and Keith Daniel would have united together, and matured in unity, this generation would have seen the greatest revival to date since the 1st Century.

0 Comments

"Some Have Fallen into Spiritual Darkness..." - Robert Murray M'Cheyne

12/23/2019

0 Comments

The decline of spiritual light within true Churches is so glaringly obvious… shouldn't we come to understand its significance? To the dismay of many Neo-Calvinists, Robert Murray M'Cheyne admitted that such was “the case of every Christian Church” in his time. When writing in defense of a move of God that happened in his parish, M'Cheyne was forced to affirm the frequency of backsliders as commonplace among all true Churches of authentic converts. In so doing, M'Cheyne said,

“Some of those converted have now walked consistently for four years; the greater part from one to two years. Some have had their falls into sin, and have thus opened the mouths of their adversaries; but the very noise that this has made, shows that such instances are very rare. Some have fallen into spiritual darkness; many, I fear, have left their first love; but yet I see nothing in all this but what is incident in the case of every Christian Church. Many there are among us, who are filled with light and peace, and are examples to the believers in all things.” - M'Cheyne

Any serious minded believer would agree with M'Cheyne's assessment. They would empathize as those beholden to the same situation in our time. However, in the process, many good men have succumbed to the pressure of a growing tumult of Neo-Calvinists who outright deny that it is even possible for a truly converted individual to fall into spiritual darkness or lose one's first love (Rev. 2:4-5). This is the sad reality. Therefore, I plead for caution to those standing in the crossfire of theological rivalry. I plead for a slow and studious consideration of the subject, rather than a hasty agreement with the norm. I plead for loyalty to the Scripture no matter the outcome! For, as you will soon see (God willing), this subject occupies a large portion of the Bible: Firstly, in describing the transformational experience of salvation in the change from spiritual darkness to spiritual light. Secondarily, in pastoral warnings to true believers that they would walk in the glory of salvific light lest the soul is once again overtaken in spiritual darkness through backsliding into sin.

The Transformational Experience of Salvation in Christ

“To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.” - Acts 26:18 [2 Cor. 4:3-6]

As depicted in Acts 26:18, those who have been born again have been made “meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light" by virtue of God delivering us “from the power of darkness" and translating us "into the Kingdom of His dear Son” (Col. 1:12-13, Jn. 3:3). This translation is a conversion experience that happens by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit resulting in a "regeneration" (Rom. 8:1-11, Titus 3:5). Literally, this results in a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) - a reconciliation of a lost and darkened soul to the Living God (2 Cor. 5:18-19, Heb. 9:14). Therefore, because “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5), a personal reconciliation to God means an illumination of one's darkness and lostness (2 Cor. 4:3-6). In this way we have become, by Spirit, nature, and law: “the Children of Light” (John 12:36, 1 Thess. 5:5, 2 Pet. 1:4); and because we are “the Children of the Day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness” (1 Thess. 5:5).

The moral and spiritual essence of God is light (1 Jn. 1:5); therefore, John said, “in Him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4, Rom. 8:10). This being the case, it is to be expected that “there shall be no night” in the Kingdom of God (Rev. 21:23-25). Why? Because "the glory of God [will] lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof” (Rev. 21:23-25); therefore, all those who “are saved shall walk in the light of it” (Rev. 21:23-25). Anything else is simply inexcusable in the past, the present, or the future. Everything else is unacceptable whether in the Old Testament, the New Testament, or in the Consummated form of the Kingdom of God in the End of the World. For, the spiritual essence of the Kingdom of God is opposed to sin as light to darkness. Therefore, in all ages, the divine mandate forbids darkness from the Church. However, sadly, the backsliders of the Church don't comply with these spiritual laws (Rom. 8:2, Jas. 1:25).

Pastoral Warnings to Walk in the Light

Even the laws of natural creation depict the spiritual rules of the Kingdom. For, at the Genesis of time, it was written, "God divided the light from the darkness" (Gen. 1:4). Even so, now, things are no different (2 Cor. 4:3-6). The voice of our Creator (Ps. 33:6-9, 148:5) is calling souls out of darkness into the light for the goodliness and loveliness of divine affection ("And God saw the light, that it was good..." - Gen. 1:4). Anything else but this is utterly unreasonable and indefensible. Therefore, because these divine ethics of goodness govern the Kingdom of God in Christ, when Paul encountered various transgressors of what is good in the Church, he objected with the question: "...what communion hath light with darkness?" (2 Cor. 6:14-7:1). Contrastingly, Peter affirmed, we “should shew forth the praises of Him Who hath called [us] out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9), which would mean that we are having "no fellowship" with what God forbids (Eph. 5:11). In doing so, we are simply walking in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16).

“For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as Children of Light: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” - Eph. 5:8-11

If we are alive in the Spirit through being born of God, we should walk in the Spirit. Or, as Paul explained, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Gal. 5:25). Harmoniously, according to Ephesians 5:8-11, this is the same thing as walking in the Light. Anything else would mean that we are walking in the flesh and for that we will have to suffer the consequences (Gal. 5:19-21, Rom. 8:13). On the contrary, we are exhorted to “continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel” (Col. 1:23). This is our only hope. We must live, move and have our being in Jesus Christ (John 15:1-7, Rom. 6:1-23). Of course, this is because the Gospel liberates us from the flesh (Rom. 8:1-11) - the life of a normal human being! - making us radically abnormal and saintly in a fallen world of sinners (Heb. 12:14, Lk. 6:20-26).

Therefore, in describing the fallen estate of mankind, Paul warned that we should "henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened", for all such things are a product of being "alienated from the life of God" for want of true salvation in Christ (Eph. 4:17-18). Hence, true Christians are obliged to live on the contrary by virtue of being in Christ (Jn. 16:33, Rev. 2:26-27). This is exactly why Paul exhorted the Christians of Colossae, “as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him” (Col. 2:6). He wanted them to walk in the Spirit by faith in the Gospel instead of the alternative; for, to "walk as men" (1 Cor. 3:3), or, if any true Christian is found out to be a backslider who "walketh in darkness" (1 Jn. 2:11, Num. 32:23), he or she is doomed to suffer the divine verdict: "...if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die" (Rom. 8:13). In other words, according to 1 John 3:14, this is as good as abiding in death (Rom. 8:6). This is why the pastoral epistles make urgent appeals to all such backslidders, saying, "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light" (Eph. 5:14).

The Spirit of God rouses men from the spiritual slumber of human depravity! Howbeit, the spirits of demons will cast men into the deep sleep of fearless disobedience against God. This is exactly what it means to be overcome by "the rulers of the darkness of this world" (Eph. 6:12), or, to be "taken captive by [the Devil] at his will" (2 Tim. 2:25-26, Eph. 2:1-3, 6:12). This miserable condition of spiritual darkness and sleep has been spoken about for ages (Isa. 29:9-10, Rom. 11:7-10). Furthermore, with Babylon approaching and therewith the End of the World, things will only get darker from hereon out (Matt. 25:1-13). Illustriously, and urgently, Paul speaks of this hazardous situation of unprecedented darkness in Romans 13:11-14. We would do well to take heed.

"And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the Day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." - Rom. 13:11-14

Urgently, Paul was speaking as one who was aware that time was running out for those who were walking in darkness. Therefore, with reference to the spiritual warfare at hand, he appealed to all sleepers to wake up and put on the whole armor of God so as to overcome the opposing adversaries of darkness (Eph. 5:8-17, 6:10-18). However, fittingly, in speaking of this in Romans 13:11-14, Paul called the divine vestments of war "the amour of light" (Rom. 13:12). He speaks in the same manner in 1 Thessalonians 5:4-8. For, to put the armor on, and thereby win the war, one is essentially putting on the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 13:14; "The LORD is a Man of War: the LORD is His Name." - Ex. 15:3). In other words, as formerly stated, this is to "walk as Children of Light" (Eph. 5:8). This isn't a secondary issue (1 John 1:5-7).

A day of reckoning is coming for the "Sons of God" sooner rather than later (Php. 2:15-16); and, therein, God will judge the truthfulness of our profession by discerning the blamelessness of our walk before God - whether or not we are truly shining as "lights in the world" (Php. 2:12-16), or whether or not "the salt of the earth" has already lost is savor (Matt. 5:13-16, Rev. 2:1-7). At such a prospect, I bid the reader to soberly reflect upon the following pastoral warnings with a renewed understanding. For, if things are really as bad as Robert Murray M'Cheyne openly confessed, when he said, "Some have fallen into spiritual darkness...", we would do well to look to ourselves and discover if we, like others, have fallen into spiritual darkness.

“But the Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the Day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.” - 2 Peter 3:10-14

“Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the Children of Light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.” - John 12:35-36

“But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that Day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the Children of Light, and the Children of the Day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation,” - 1 Thess. 5:4-8

“For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly He find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.” -Mark 13:34-37

“Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when He will return from the wedding; that when He cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when He cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that He shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if He shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not.” -Luke 12:35-40

0 Comments

"The Unquestionable Progress of Grace to Sin" - John Wesley

12/21/2019

0 Comments

John Wesley actually believed that he could fall from grace (Gal. 5:4). He actually believed that he could become a castaway, and therefore he did what Paul said a man ought to do - “TAKE HEED” (1 Cor. 9:27-10:12). In so doing, Wesley learned to identify and articulate the intricacies whereby a regenerated man goes from “Grace to Sin”. John Wesley called it, “The unquestionable progress of Grace to Sin”. He believed it was a progressive thing not a sudden thing, by which a man falls from grace into a damnable condition – and he was right. Brethren, will you give John Wesley an ear for a moment?

The Calvinistic Community has, under the leadership and admirable efforts of Paul Washer, come to understand the intricacies in which a man goes from “Sin to Grace” at conversion. I applaud this work and give glory to God! But the Calvinistic Community has failed to study the means by which a man goes from “Grace to Sin”. My friends, will you hear it? First, hear Wesley describe going from “Sin to Grace” at the experience of the new birth in Christ. Then, my reader, hear him explain the progress of going from “Grace to Sin”.

From Sin to Grace - The Experience of the New Birth (John Wesley)

“I. 1. First, we are to consider, what is the proper meaning of that expression, "Whosoever is born of God." And, in general, from all the passages of holy writ wherein this expression, "the being born of God," occurs, we may learn that it implies not barely the being baptized, or any outward change whatever; but a vast inward change, a change wrought in the soul, by the operation of the Holy Ghost; a change in the whole manner of our existence; for, from the moment we are born of God, we live in quite another manner than we did before; we are, as it were, in another world.

2. The ground and reason of the expression is easy to be understood. When we undergo this great change, we may, with much propriety, be said to be born again, because there is so near a resemblance between the circumstances of the natural and of the spiritual birth; so that to consider the circumstances of the natural birth, is the most easy way to understand the spiritual.
3. The child which is not yet born subsists indeed by the air, as does everything which has life; but feels it not, nor any thing else, unless in a very dull and imperfect manner. It hears little, if at all; the organs of hearing being as yet closed up. It sees nothing; having its eyes fast shut, and being surrounded with utter darkness. There are, it may be, some faint beginnings of life, when the time of its birth draws nigh, and some motion consequent thereon, whereby it is distinguished from a mere mass of matter; but it has no senses; all these avenues of the soul are hitherto quite shut up. Of consequence, it has scarce any intercourse with this visible world; nor any knowledge, conception, or idea, of the things that occur therein.

4. The reason why he that is not yet born is wholly a stranger to the visible world, is, not because it is afar off; (it is very nigh; it surrounds him on every side;) but, partly, because he has not those senses, they are not yet opened in his soul, whereby alone it is possible to hold commerce with the material world; and partly, because so thick a veil is cast between, through which he can discern nothing.

5. But no sooner is the child born into the world, than he exists in a quite different manner. He now feels the air with which he is surrounded, and which pours into him from every side, as fast as he alternately breathes it back, to sustain the flame of life: And hence springs a continual increase of strength, of motion, and of sensation; all the bodily senses being now awakened, and furnished with their proper objects.

His eyes are now opened to perceive the light, which, silently flowing in upon them, discovers not only itself, but an infinite variety of things, with which before he was wholly unacquainted. His ears are unclosed, and sounds rush in with endless diversity. Every sense is employed upon such objects as are peculiarly suitable to it; and by these inlets the soul, having an open intercourse with the visible world, acquires more and more knowledge of sensible things, of all the things which are under the sun.

6. So it is with him that is born of God. Before that great change is wrought, although he subsists by Him, in whom all that have life "live, and move, and have their being," yet he is not sensible of God; he does not feel, he has no inward consciousness of His presence. He does not perceive that divine breath of life, without which he cannot subsist a moment: Nor is he sensible of any of the things of God; they make no impression upon his soul. God is continually calling to him from on high, but he heareth not; his ears are shut, so that the "voice of the charmer" is lost to him, "charm he never so wisely," He seeth not the things of the Spirit of God; the eyes of his understanding being closed, and utter darkness covering his whole soul, surrounding him on every side. It is true he may have some faint dawnings of life, some small beginnings of spiritual motion; but as yet he has no spiritual senses capable of discerning spiritual objects; consequently, he "discerneth not the things of the Spirit of God; he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

7. Hence he has scarce any knowledge of the invisible world, as he has scarce any intercourse with it. Not that it is afar off: No: He is in the midst of it; it encompasses him round about. The other world, as we usually term it, is not far from every one of us: It is above, and beneath, and on every side. Only the natural man discerneth it not; partly, because he has no spiritual senses, whereby alone we can discern the things of God; partly, because so thick a veil is interposed as he knows not how to penetrate.

8. But when he is born of God, born of the Spirit, how is the manner of his existence changed! His whole soul is now sensible of God, and he can say, by sure experience, "Thou art about my bed, and about my path;" I feel thee in all my ways: "Thou besettest me behind and before, and layest thy hand upon me." The Spirit or breath of God is immediately inspired, breathed into the new-born soul; and the same breath which comes from, returns to, God: As it is continually received by faith, so it is continually rendered back by love, by prayer, and praise, and thanksgiving; love and praise, and prayer being the breath of every soul which is truly born of God. And by this new kind of spiritual respiration, spiritual life is not only sustained, but increased day by day, together with spiritual strength, and motion, and sensation; all the senses of the soul being now awake, and capable of discerning spiritual good and evil.

9. "The eyes of his understanding" are now "open," and he "seeth Him that is invisible." He sees what is "the exceeding greatness of his power" and of his love toward them that believe. He sees that God is merciful to him a sinner, that he is reconciled through the Son of his love. He clearly perceives both the pardoning love of God, and all his "exceeding great and precious promises." "God, who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness, hath shined," and doth shine, "in his heart," to enlighten him with "the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." All the darkness is now passed away, and he abides in the light of God's countenance.

10. His ears are now opened, and the voice of God no longer calls in vain. He hears and obeys the heavenly calling: He knows the voice of his Shepherd. All his spiritual senses being now awakened, he has a clear intercourse with the invisible world; and hence he knows more and more of the things which before it could not "enter into his heart to conceive." He now knows what the peace of God is; what is joy in the Holy Ghost; what the love of God which is shed abroad in the heart of them that believe in him through Christ Jesus. Thus the veil being removed which before interrupted the light and voice, the knowledge and love of God, he who is born of the Spirit, dwelling in love, "dwelleth in God, and God in him."

From Grace to Sin - The Process and Progress of Falling From Grace (John Wesley)

“8. To explain this by a particular instance: David was born of God, and saw God by faith. He loved God in sincerity. He could truly say, "Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth," neither person nor thing, "that I desire in comparison of thee." But still there remained in his heart that corruption of nature, which is the seed of all evil.

"He was walking upon the roof of his house," (2 Sam. 11:2,) probably praising the God whom his soul loved, when he looked down, and saw Bathsheba. He felt a temptation; a thought which tended to evil. The Spirit of God did not fail to convince him of this. He doubtless heard and knew the warning voice; but he yielded in some measure to the thought, and the temptation began to prevail over him. Hereby his spirit was sullied; he saw God still; but it was more dimly than before. He loved God still; but not in the same degree; not with the same strength and ardour of affection. Yet God checked him again, though his spirit was grieved; and his voice, though fainter and fainter, still whispered, "Sin lieth at the door; look unto me, and be thou saved." But he would not hear: He looked again, not unto God, but unto the forbidden object, till nature was superior to grace, and kindled lust in his soul.

The eye of his mind was now closed again, and God vanished out of his sight. Faith, the divine, supernatural intercourse with God, and the love of God, ceased together: He then rushed on as a horse into the battle, and knowingly committed the outward sin.

9. You see the unquestionable progress from grace to sin: Thus it goes on, from step to step. (1.) The divine seed of loving, conquering faith, remains in him that is born of God. "He keepeth himself," by the grace of God, and "cannot commit sin." (2.) A temptation arises; whether from the world, the flesh, or the devil, it matters not. (3.) The Spirit of God gives him warning that sin is near, and bids him more abundantly watch unto prayer. (4.) He gives way, in some degree, to the temptation, which now begins to grow pleasing to him. (5.) The Holy Spirit is grieved; his faith is weakened; and his love of God grows cold. (6.) The Spirit reproves him more sharply, and saith, "This is the way; walk thou in it." (7.) He turns away from the painful voice of God, and listens to the pleasing voice of the tempter. (8.) Evil desire begins and spreads in his soul, till faith and love vanish away: He is then capable of committing outward sin, the power of the Lord being departed from him.

10. To explain this by another instance: The Apostle Peter was full of faith and of the Holy Ghost; and hereby keeping himself, he had a conscience void of offence toward God and toward man.Walking thus in simplicity and godly sincerity, "before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles," knowing that what God had cleansed was not common or unclean. But "when they were come," a temptation arose in his heart, "to fear those of the circumcision," (the Jewish converts, who were zealous for circumcision and the other rites of the Mosaic law,) and regard the favour and praise of these men, more than the praise of God. He was warned by the Spirit that sin was near: Nevertheless, he yielded to it in some degree, even to sinful fear of man, and his faith and love were proportionably weakened. God reproved him again for giving place to the devil. Yet he would not hearken to the voice of his Shepherd; but gave himself up to that slavish fear, and thereby quenched the Spirit. Then God disappeared, and, faith and love being extinct, he committed the outward sin. Walking not uprightly, not "according to the truth of the gospel," he "separated himself" from his Christian brethren, and by his evil example, if not advice also, "compelled even the Gentiles to live after the manner of the Jews;" to entangle themselves again with that "yoke of bondage," from which "Christ had set them free."”

In Conclusion

It is obvious that John Wesley didn't believe in “works salvation”. It is obvious that he had a deep understanding of salvation by “faith alone through grace alone, apart from works”. It is also obvious that Wesley believed in a present-continuous salvation experience - that the respiration and life of a saved man exists by and is expressed in what is commonly called, “the means of grace”. The closing paragraph of this excerpt thrusts at the reader this concluding burden.

It is as if you can hear John Wesley cry to the saints of his day, “USE THE MEANS OF GRACE!” Do you agree? Speaking of such, Wesley wrote, “Let us learn, Lastly, to follow that direction of the great Apostle, "Be not high-minded, but fear." Let us fear sin, more than death or hell. Let us have a jealous (though not painful) fear, lest we should lean to our own deceitful hearts. "Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall." Even he who now standeth fast in the grace of God, in the faith that overcometh the world, may nevertheless fall into inward sin, and thereby "make shipwreck of his faith." And how easily then will outward sin regain its dominion over him! Thou, therefore, O man of God! watch always; that thou mayest always hear the voice of God! Watch, that thou mayest pray without ceasing, at all times, and in all places, pouring out thy heart before him! So shalt thou always believe, and always love, and never commit sin.”

I know that many are confused over what exactly John Wesley believed about sinless perfection. Therefore, I think it is necessary to make a personal statement on this in relationship to the sermon that I have cited, lest my reader misunderstand what exactly I believe. John Wesley preached these excerpts which I have quoted above in the sermon called, “The Great Privilege of Those That Are Born of God”, and it is of noteworthy importance concerning the subjects I have endeavored to defend. However, this sermon has several differences from the former work that Wesley wrote called, “A Plain Account of Christian Perfection”. I am not altogether sure if Wesley’s convictions had “matured” away from his former heresies, but this sermon is not the same burden that he wrote about in “A Plain Account of Christian Perfection”. In this sermon Wesley is exactly aligned with the true teaching of scripture, unlike the deplorable address he formerly wrote, on what he called, “Christian Perfection”. This sermon is blessed, edifying, and accurate, but the former book is grievously erroneous and heretical, though not in a damnable sense.

To be more specific, this sermon is an off-shooting contradiction to John Wesley’s former conviction on “sinless perfection” because here, in this sermon, Wesley is careful to define “doth not commit sin” as a “voluntary” and “outward transgression” of the written word of God, which means that, mind you, he is not maintaining that this scripture, “doth not commit sin”, ascribes to the possibility and actual experience of being free from all inward sin, but in “A Plain Account of Christian Perfection” Wesley is careful to state the contrary, that, according to him, “Christian Perfection” is freedom from all inward and outward sin. This sermon, therefore, is a closer representation of what all saints should ascribe to regarding the actual experience of saving grace and falling from it, relating to the process and progress of falling from it as a regenerated man.

This sermon is of great value and edification because John’s explanation of the “new birth” experience is a well-written and worthy account, and later in the sermon, in the address in which he focuses on falling from grace, the clarity with which he describes the progress in which “the fall” happens does attest to the sudden instance in which, by following the progress, one falls from the security of, and actual experience in, present-continuous saving grace. John explains, in other words, the experience of going from sin to grace at conversion, and, on the contrary, the process and progress by which a saved man can go from grace to sin. This is in accordance to what was written, “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief” (Prov. 24:16).

This means – it happens! – a righteous man does fall into and is temporarily detained by a damnable-force of sin, but “if God permit” (Heb. 6:3) or “peradventure” (2 Tim. 2:25), the man will rise up again! However, remember, if the man falls without recovery therefrom, legally speaking, this is “the mischief” which was “of old ordained” to “the wicked” (Jude 1:4, 1 Pet. 2:8), and thus shall he everlastingly remain (Ezek. 3:20, 18:22, 24, Jer. 23:39, Rev. 3:5). Furthermore, at what point salvation is irreversibly lost (The Doctrine of Reprobation), or at what instant the man becomes a “castaway” (1 Cor. 9:27), is not for us to debate about. This judgment belongs to God ("Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right?" - Gen. 18:25). The instant this irreversible threshold is crossed to wit the fallen man becomes a castaway is a point that is non-formulaic and incalculable to us. God decides based upon circumstances we cannot understand. Moreover, anything we do understand about such events is by way of past examples recorded in inspired Scripture (“those men which have…tempted Me now these ten times” - Num. 14:22; Heb. 4:1).

Oh, my brethren, let us understand the depths of our depravity, yes, but also the inner-workings of grace in relationship to our experiential salvation from our depravity! Vital reality with the Living God causes the saints to shout – “I am eternally secure!” – there is no doubt about this fact and no argument to refute it! But without vital reality with God all security is lost! Therefore, I plead, let us learn this one thing: our salvation is not in a transaction but a Person to whom we are reconciled by a transaction, therefore let us look away from the isolated transaction as a thing in and of itself, for it cannot exist in and of itself, but let us look to the Person of Christ, and as Paul Washer said, let us be terrified to take our eyes off of Him!

“When what I love to hear is, ‘I’m looking unto Him! I’m looking unto Him, and would be
terrified to take my eyes off of Him! I’m looking unto Jesus!” – Paul Washer

0 Comments

A Voice Clarified - Leonard Ravenhill

12/12/2019

0 Comments

Leonard Ravenhill

Multitudes of people have acknowledged Leonard Ravenhill as a prophet sent by God,
but have we really heard what he said?

Dear reader, it was for good reason that Leonard Ravenhill said, "The last words of Jesus to the church (in Revelation) were 'Repent!'" It is startling to consider the last words of Jesus Christ, as seen in Revelation 2-3. These letters were written to true and authentic converts of biblical Churches, and yet Christ's predominant burden was, "Repent!" Approximately 2,000 years have past since then, but I assure you, this very same word is burning upon the heart of the living and ascended Christ! I entreat you that you would listen to the following videos with an ear to understand why...

VIDEO #1: "To the Preacher" - The Idolatry of Intelligence, by Leonard Ravenhill
VIDEO #2: "To the Preacher" - Anointed by God, by Leonard Ravenhill
VIDEO #3: "The Church" - The Arena of God's Immediate Sovereignty, by Leonard Ravenhill
VIDEO #4: "Suffering" - The Marks of God's Approval, by Leonard Ravenhill
VIDEO #5: "To the Calvinist" by Leonard Ravenhill
VIDEO #6: "The Coming Revival" by Leonard Ravenhill

"To the Preacher" - The Idolatry of Intelligence

by Leonard Ravenhill

#1) We call it intelligence, God calls it pride.
#2) My heart is full of Christ, not my head is full of theology! My heart is full of Christ and longs this glorious message to declare!
#3) You don't need know your Bible... You don't need to know the word of God, you need to know the God of the word!
#4) Where is the confrontation of the MEN OF GOD?
#5) Prayer grasps eternity. It doesn't demand a colossal intellect. It doesn't demand a vast vocabulary.
#6) Do you think you can find a Church on earth that fits into that pattern?
#7) We are boasting about something we don't have! ...It's Theology. It's a Phrase. It's a Technique.
#8) Do you know, in those revivals, never once was there an altar call? Do you know, when there's a revival you don't make an altar call?
#9) Listen, there isn't a Pentecostal Church in America today!
#10) There isn't a revivalist in America today... not one!
#11) No mention of the pew, it's all on the pulpit. Let the priests weep... Let them rend their hearts. Let them howl.
But where in God's Name do you get taught to howl in prayer?
#12) If you want to know how popular a Church is, go Sunday morning. If you want to know how popular the preacher is, go Sunday night. If you want to know how popular God is, go to the prayer meeting.
#13) Listen. Forget our seminaries! There's no anointing in them!
#14) Do you know what you do when you go to seminary? You get a swollen head and a shrunken heart.
#15) I say, if your preacher doesn't weep, you weep over the preacher!
#16) Tell me this, do you have a course on weeping for them? And if they graduate, do you have a course on howling?
#17) It originates in God. (Speaking of the Anointing, Gift, and Call to Preach)
#18) Would like to pass your mantle on to me? No, but I'll share you some of my sackcloth... and I never hear from them again.
#19) They were unlearned and ignorant men... the Holy Ghost came upon them. Not intellectuals, bishops, & presidents of colleges.
#20) God's going to bypass organized religion and systems before very long... I believe that many denominations are breathing their last right now.
#21) The Church has become so carnal... the glory of the Lord doesn't fill the Temple!

"To the Preacher" - Anointed by God

by Leonard Ravenhill

#1) WE NEED PROPHETS!
#2) It was in the darkest and most desolate hour that God raised up His prophets!
#3) They see like God, they love like God, they hate like God... they have a holy anger.
#4) I know when He speaks... I know when He breaks my heart... I know when He gives me anger... which I need.
#5) Not a profession... a passion.
#6) What's the condition in America like spiritually tonight? ZERO. Why?
#7) Because we've got blind men coming out of seminaries... as blind men, they lead the blind.
#8) The enemies of the cross of Christ are not in the tavern now... they're in God's House.
#9) I believe God will look down on nearly every Church in America or England this Sunday and say, "Your House is empty."

"The Church" - The Arena of God's Immediate Sovereignty

by Leonard Ravenhill

God's immediate sovereignty, what is it?
"People do not leave the sanctuary for hours."
"You can't explain it, you can't predict it, you can't direct it... God becomes sovereign!"

God's immediate sovereignty is not "Christian Humanism":
"We'll do it, You bless it Lord."
"We put personalities up, just like the world does."
"He said, 'I want to tell you that if God withdrew the Holy Spirit from my church today, it would function tomorrow the same way we wouldn't even know He'd gone...'"
"Come our way..."

God's immediate sovereignty is when, suddenly... God comes:
"When he prayed God just came down as though He jumped into the audience."
"He prayed the whole night for the anointing for the next day."

God's immediate sovereignty is when God is in control and His burden manifest:
"And I just walked forward and sat on the floor - didn't go to the pulpit: ...and I began to weep."
"My spirit just groaned, and he stayed there 50 minutes weeping."

Instead of God's immediate sovereignty we've become carnal and mechanical:
"The Church has become so carnal...
the glory of the Lord doesn't fill the Temple!"
"When did you last tip-toe out of the sanctuary and say, 'Surely God is in this place, and that to bless us!'"
"They don't expect Deity to invade the place. They don't expect to tip-toe out of the holy place..."
"God only had one problem in the Old Testament, and that was Israel. And I believe Almighty God only has one problem in the world tonight, and it's not communism or romanism, it's the Church of the Living God!"
"The Glory has departed!"

What must we do?
"I'd like to see 300 pastors come together, for a whole week and stay prostrate before God."
"TOTAL control by YOU."
"If we stay here it doesn't matter whether we die here."
"Our people don't feed on God, they feed on meetings."
"So I am praying this morning that suddenly God will come."

We must rediscover worship:
"I haven't been in a Church in England where they know how to worship God."
"Sometimes the glory comes down..."
"Maybe before you die, you'll see people coming from foreign countries to show us what New Testament Christianity is all about."
"There's not a flood of revival in America today."
"God is bypassing us, provoking us..."

"Suffering" - The Marks of God's Approval

by Leonard Ravenhill

Are we willing to suffer?
"..we raise our hats to the martyrs, and we thank God for the last drop of their blood but we won't give Him the first drop of ours."

In what circumstance will we suffer?
"What about when God does it with you? In your Church, people begin to ridicule you... but that's the way you make character."

To what end will we suffer?
"If you're going to be a prophet you'll have to preach repentance, and before you start - dedicate your head to heaven."
"You get filled with the Holy Ghost, and watch it, where will you go? You'll go where those other men have gone... they've put them in prison."
"He went to cities and he had one of two things: Revival or Riot"

Who is suffering?
"There isn't a prophet in America today that I know of."
"Immediately he takes up that mantle of prophesy - he gets the full load of the love of God and the full anger of the people."

Will a prophet suffer persecution from the Church, the saints, and godly people?
"Don't care about public opinion. Don't care what godly people say or what the ungodly say: ...till they get a hold of the will of God and they run with it."
"If you stir hell up, the devil will stir everything he can against you: you'll get misunderstood, misrepresented... if you're not mature enough, it will get you down. It's not the contradiction of sinners... It's the criticism of saints that gets you down."

What success can come from suffering?
"The blood of the martyrs is the seed bed of the Church."

Should we expect suffering?
"We are fools for Christ's sake" - 1 Cor. 4:10
"Why do you expect to be accepted?"

Can this suffering be described and specified?
"They were most despised, discredited, disappointed, disillusioned men in the world."
"Pentecost in the New Testament meant to be married to: Poverty, Persecution, Privation, Prisons, Pain."

"People say, 'We want another Pentecost.' I don't believe them for a minute. Pentecost in the New Testament is tied in with persecution, poverty (and) prison!"

"The early church was married to poverty, prisons and persecutions. Today, the church is married to prosperity, personality, and popularity."

"To the Calvinist"

by Leonard Ravenhill

The Major Burdens

The Idolatry of Church History:
"We've too many preachers studying Church History, and too few preachers making history. Studying Church History is an indoctrination which, very often becomes I think... 'brain washing'." (beware of "blind indoctrination")

Is modern Christianity the blood-bought Church?
"He didn't die for this freak of a thing! This powerless thing!This pale, pathetic, powerless, putrid Protestantism that dares to label itself with His Name!"

Is the Holy Ghost always with a man?
"The Holy Ghost may not come back to you...
Some of you preachers are preaching a theology and you're sheltering behind a denomination, and you're scared stiff to preach the revelations God has given you..."
"God's going to do a new thing in this generation."

How does a Saint Backslide?
"Resist. Strive. Grieve. ...when you finish that, He leaves you. You can't get back to God when you want."

Blood Atonement:
"I have to put off the old man.
I have to put on the new man.
I have to renounce this world..."
"We're living in bankruptcy as the Church of Jesus Christ, compared with where we ought to live."
"Paul says, you're to put on the whole armor of God - it's not something automatic you've got to put it on."
(shun over-simplistic definitions of The Atonement)

To the Backslider:
"Tonight, in one act of mercy, He can take your record and cast it behind His back forever..."
"He'll be weeping until you come back. You said no to His blood."
(a backslider is a regenerated man under the guilt of unforgiven sin)

Cleansing From Sin:
"Lord, I'm glad that Fountain is still open tonight..."
(cleansing from sin is a present continuous experience)

We're Going to be Found Out:
"But if I am living now with eternal life, why should I need to change before I get into heaven?"
"'Don't you worry, God will never forsake you... it doesn't matter, you may leave Him but He will never leave you.' That is entirely against the scripture."
"If the Spirit troubles you this morning, thank God He is troubling you... before you go to hell."

What Pastoral Burden?
"You think they'd go in to that sin if they had an eye on the Judgment Seat?"
(that the fallen would be restored by rediscovering the Judgment Seat)

The State of the Church:
"The Church is asleep today."
"God only had one problem in the Old Testament, and that was Israel. And I believe Almighty God only has one problem in the world tonight, and it's not communism or romanism, it's the Church of the Living God!" "The Glory has departed!"
(the Church has fallen asleep... are you awake?)

The Church needs God:
"You're too late, I'm getting rid of you. Your House is left desolate.
You say America needs God, no she doesn't... the Church needs God! If the Church gets God, America would soon feel it - she'd be staggering."
"There's one promise God hasn't kept... I think He's about to do it: He said He'd spew us out of His mouth."

Who's the Bride of Christ?
#1) Him that overcometh.
#2) Those of us who are living in victory
#3) Walking in the Light.
#4) Walking in the Spirit.
#5) No bitterness.
#6) No defeat.
#7) Your living in union with the will of God.
#8) People hate you and despise you.
"You don't want Jesus to come as you are now..."

The State of the Church:
"Your Church has no vision, because you have no vision. The Church has no passion, because you have no passion."
"He's not coming for a limping, lame, ragged woman..."
"The hindrance to His coming tonight is that the Church is impure." "Do you think Jesus died for this dirty, rotten system we call 'Christianity'?" (preacher, have you prepared the Bride?)

A Midnight Cry:
"There is only one reason that the world is going to hell tonight, and that is because of the unbelief of the Church."
"I believe almost (not all), almost every pulpit in the land is an insult to the Lord Jesus today." (will you respond to the cry?)

"The Coming Revival"

by Leonard Ravenhill

#1) He's going to anoint your sons and your daughters, not your bishops sir... No, I'm sorry bishops.
#2) He's going to show us the Church anointed again in the Spirit of the Living God!
#3) When the Church is healthy... hell trembles.
#4) They must be young people.... working class people. Not the elite.
#5) (They will be people like): Fishermen of Galilee, A Tax Collector
#6) We're going to see men in our generation that have never been on the earth.
#7) God's going to raise some super holy men... people aren't ready.
#8) Folk don't want my message anyhow.
#9) There's going to come another "Upper Room". You young men are my hope.
#10) God wants some people crazier than I am.
#11) There's not a flood of revival in America today. God is bypassing us, provoking us...
#12) The Church has become so carnal... the glory of the Lord doesn't fill the Temple!
#13) God's going to bypass organized religion and systems before very long... I believe that many denominations are breathing their last right now.
#14) I am convinced that God's going to do a new work...

The Holy Ghost may not come back to you... [Matt. 13:12]. Some of you preachers are preaching a theology and your shouting behind a denomination, and you're scared stiff to preach the revelations God has given you...

0 Comments

Jonathan Edwards & Charles Spurgeon - Revival, Do You Need It?

1/29/2014

0 Comments

"I remember thee" - GOD

With unspeakable affection God laments for His darling, "I remember thee!". Jeremiah, enamored with the vision, was weeping with God! Do you know the feeling? Jeremiah was divinely-unctionized when he heard the Word of the LORD command him: "GO and CRY in the ears of Jerusalem" (Jer. 2:2)!

"GO and CRY in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD...

-->

I REMEMBER THEE,
the kindness of thy youth,
the love of thine espousals,
when thou wentest after Me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.
Israel was holiness unto the LORD..."
- Jeremiah 2:2-3

Can you hear it? Can you imagine it? Jeremiah's cracking voice CRYING OUT! His syllables long and enunciated, his tones exuding the emotional trauma of a brokenhearted God! In Jeremiah, the Eternal Father was crying out: "I REMEMBER THEE!". Oh, my reader, are you moved to wonder what God was remembering?

The Lord was remembering when Israel, through her liberation and exodus from Egypt, was first espoused to the Lord. This "first espousal" to God was holy-romantic in that then, in the heart of Israel, there was no greater love but God! This first espousal made - God - Israel's "first love" (Rev. 2:4). This "first love" was wrought within Israel's heart by God's saving power, not their own, and they, being "constrained" thereto, were led into "first works" (2 Cor. 5:14, Rev. 2:5) which God recalled as, speaking to Israel, "the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after Me in the wilderness". This love compelled them to GO after God! My reader, what about you? Do you remember how you WENT after GOD?

Do you remember with what "love", with what "kindness", with what tender affection you, at first, were compelled to GO after GOD? These were the days when you were drawn to Christ by His saving power (John 6:44)! And now, my reader, if you are truly regenerate, let Jonathan Edwards remind you of the love of your espousal, the kindness of your youth, when you first went after God, and in so doing, consider this: does God REMEMBER YOU with lamentation and sorrow because, alas, that is how you were and not how you are!?

Jonathan Edwards

"Presently upon this, a great and earnest concern about the great things of religion, and the eternal world, became universal in all parts of the town, and among persons of all degrees, and all ages. The noise amongst the dry bones waxed louder and louder; all other talk but about spiritual and eternal things, was soon thrown by; all the conversation, in all companies and upon all occasions, was upon these things only, unless so much as was necessary for people carrying on their ordinary secular business. Other discourse than of the things of religion, would scarcely be tolerated in any company. The minds of people were wonderfully taken off from the world, it was treated amongst us as a thing of very little consequence. They seemed to follow their worldly business, more as a part of their duty, than from any disposition they had to it;

the temptation now seemed to lie on that hand, to neglect worldly affairs too much, and to spend too much time in immediate exercise of religion. This was exceedingly misrepresented by reports that were spread in distant parts of the land, as though the people here had wholly thrown by all worldly business, and betook themselves entirely to reading and praying, and such like religious excercises.

But although people did not ordinarily neglect their worldly business; yet religion was with all sorts the great concern, and the world was a thing only by the bye. The only thing in their view was to get the Kingdom of heaven, and every one appeared pressing into it. The engagedness of their hearts in this great concern could not be hid, it appeared in their very countenances. It then was a dreadful thing amongst us to lie out of Christ, in danger every day of dropping into hell; and what persons' minds were intent upon, was to escape for their lives, and to fly from wrath to come.All would eagerly lay hold of opportunities for their souls; and were wont very often to meet together in private houses, for religious purposes: and such meetings when appointed were greatly thronged."

"...the town seemed to be full of the presence of God: it never was so full of love, nor of joy, and yet so full of distress, as it was then. There were remarkable tokens of God's presence in almost every house. It was a time of joy in families on account of salvation being brought unto them; parents rejoicing over their children as new born, and husbands over their wives, and wives over their husbands. The goings of God were then seen in the sanctuary, God's day was a delight, and his tabernacles were amiable. Our public assemblies were then beautiful: the congregation was alive in God's service, every one earnestly intent on the public worship, every hearer eager to drink in the words of the minister as they came from his mouth; the assembly in general were, from time to time, in tears while the word was preached; some weeping with sorrow and distress, others with joy and love, others with pity and concern for the souls of their neighbors.

Our public praises were then greatly enlivened; God was then served in our psalmody, in some measure, in the beauty of holiness. It has been observable, that there has been scarce any part of divine worship, wherein good men amongst us have had grace so drawn forth, and their hearts so lifted up in the ways of God, as in singing his praises. Our congregation excelled all that ever I knew in the external part of the duty before, the men generally carrying regularly, and well, three parts of music, and the women a part by themselves; but now they were evidently wont to sing with unusual elevation of heart and voice, which made the duty pleasant indeed." - Jonathan Edwards

My reader, are such experiences as Edwards described but memories of the past? Memories which were, but are not now? Perhaps God is now looking upon you - His darling - with the lamentable cry: "I remember thee"! My reader, He remembers what you have forgotten! Memories which are now dim, can you remember? Oh, how Great a Light has dimmed! How Bright a Light once shined! - the spiritual sweetness that was once so excellent and life-altering that you "suffered the loss of all things", all worldly things and worldly lusts, counting them as an object of vomitous disgust! And now, that which you did count as "DUNG that you may win Christ" (Php. 3:8) has become enjoyable to your taste! That which was so poisonous to the body and vomitious to the taste is now endurable, delectable, and energizing! What happened? How came this great FALL?

The world, like a defiled, disease-saturated harlot lingered in your view... do you remember? She lingered long enough that she caught your eye, and then your glance. She turned your head, and then suddenly, your heart! Woe to you, my reader! You became an adulterer against God (James 4:4)! My reader, if God is saying to you, "I remember thee", then you should remember what He is remembering, and so, "Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent" (Rev. 2:5). You have "FALLEN", my reader! And you need help!

In Christ, let Charles Spurgeon remind you of what it is to FALL from God!
First one must remember, then repent.

"What is Revival?" - by C.H.Spurgeon

"The word "revival" is as familiar in our mouths as a household word. We are constantly speaking about and praying for a "revival;" would it not be as well to know what we mean by it? Of the Samaritans our Lord said, "Ye worship ye know not what," let him not have to say to us, "Ye know not what ye ask." The word "revive" wears its meaning upon its forehead; it is from the Latin, and may be interpreted thus--to live again, to receive again a life which has almost expired; to rekindle into a flame the vital spark which was nearly extinguished.

When a person has been dragged out of a pond nearly drowned, the bystanders are afraid that he is dead, and are anxious to ascertain if life still lingers. The proper means are used to restore animation; the body is rubbed, stimulants are administered, and if by God's providence life still

tarries in the poor clay, the rescued man opens his eyes, sits up, and speaks, and those around him rejoice that he has revived. A young girl is in a fainting fit, but after a while she returns to consciousness, and we say, "she revives." The flickering lamp of life in dying men suddenly flames up with unusual brightness at intervals, and those who are watching around the sick bed say of the patient, "he revives"...

A true revival is to be looked for in the church of God...It is a sorrowful fact that many who are spiritually alive greatly need reviving. It is sorrowful because it is a proof of the existence of much spiritual evil. A man in sound health with every part of his body in a vigorous condition does not need reviving. He requires daily sustenance, but reviving would be quite out of place. If he has not yet attained maturity growth will be most desirable, but a hale hearty young man wants no reviving, it would be thrown away upon him. Who thinks of reviving the noonday sun, the ocean at its flood, or the year at its prime? The tree planted by the rivers of water loaded with fruit needs not excite our anxiety for its revival, for its fruitfulness and beauty charm every one. Such should be the constant condition of the sons of God. Feeding and lying down in green pastures and led by the still waters they ought not always to be crying, "my leanness, my leanness, woe unto me." Sustained by gracious promises and enriched out of the fullness which God has treasured up in his dear Son, their souls should prosper and be in health, and their piety ought to need no reviving. They should aspire to a higher blessing, a richer mercy, than a mere revival. They have the nether springs already; they should earnestly cover the upper springs. They should be asking for growth in grace, for increase of strength, for greater success; they should have out-climbed and out-soared the period in which they need to be constantly crying, "Wilt thou not revive us again?" For a church to be constantly needing revival is the indication of much sin, for if it were sound before the Lord it would remain in the condition into which a revival would uplift its members. A church should be a camp of soldiers, not an hospital of invalids. But there is exceedingly much difference between what ought be and what is, and consequently many of God's people are in so sad a state that the very fittest prayer for them is for revival. Some Christians are, spiritually, but barely alive. When a man has been let down into a vat or into a well full of bad air, yea do not wonder when he is drawn up again that he is half-dead, and urgently requires to be revived. Some Christians—to their shame be it spoken!—descend into such worldly company, not upon such unhallowed principles, and become so carnal, that when they are drawn up by God's grace from their backsliding position they want reviving, and even need that their spiritual breath should as it were be breathed into their nostrils afresh by God's Spirit.

When a man starves himself, continuing for a long time without food, when he is day after day without a morsel of bread between his lips, we do not marvel that the surgeon, finding him in extremities, says, "This man has weakened his system, he is too low, and wants reviving." Of course he does, for he has brought himself by low diet into a state of weakness. Are there not hundreds of Christians—shame that it should be so!—who live day after day without feeding upon Bible truth? shall it be added without real spiritual communion with God? they do not even attend the week-night services, and they are indifferent hearers on the Lord's day. Is it remarkable that they want reviving? Is not the fact that they do so greatly need it most dishonorable to themselves and distressing to their truly spiritual brethren?

There is, a condition of mind which is even more sad than either of the two above mentioned; it is a thorough, gradual, but certain decline of all the spiritual powers. Look at that consumptive man whose lungs are decaying, and in whom the vital energy is ebbing; it is painful to see the faintness which suffuses him after exertion, and the general languor which overspreads his weakened frame. Far more sad to the spiritual eye is the spectacle presented by spiritual consumptives who in some quarters meet us on all hands. The eye of faith is dim and overcast, and seldom flashes with holy joy; the spiritual countenance is hollow and sunken with doubts and fears; the tongue of praise is partially paralyzed, and has little to say for Jesus; the spiritual frame is lethargic, and its movements are far from vigorous; the man is not anxious to be doing anything for Christ; a horrible numbness, a dreadful insensibility has come over him; he is in soul like a sluggard in the dog-days, who finds it hard labor to lie in bed and brush away the flies from his face. If these spiritual consumptives hate sin they do it so weakly that one might fear that they loved it still. If they love Jesus, it is so coldly that it is a point of question whether they love at all. If they sing Jehovah's praises it is very sadly, as if hallelujahs were dirges. If they mourn for sin it is only with half-broken hearts, and their grief is shallow and unpractical. If they hear the Word of God they are never stirred by it; enthusiasm is an unknown luxury. If they come across a precious truth they perceive nothing particular in it, any more than the cock in the fable, in the jewel which he found in the farmyard. They throw themselves back upon the enchanted couch of sloth, and while they are covered with rags they dream of riches and great increase of goods. It is a sad, sad thing when Christians fall into this state; then indeed they need reviving, and they must have it, for "the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint." Every lover of souls should intercede for declining professors that the visitations of God may restore them; that the Sun of righteousness may arise upon them with healing beneath his wings.

When revival comes to a people who are in the state thus briefly described, it simply brings them to the condition in which they ought always to have been; it quickens them, gives them new life, stirs the coals of the expiring fire, and puts heavenly breath into the languid lungs. The sickly soul which before was insensible, weak, and sorrowful, grows earnest, vigorous, and happy in the Lord. This is the immediate fruit of revival, and it becomes all of us who are believers to seek this blessing for backsliders, and for ourselves if we are declining in grace.

If revival is confined to living men we may further notice that it must result from the proclamation and the receiving of living truth. We speak of "vital godliness," and vital godliness must subsist upon vital truth. Vital godliness is not revived in Christians by mere excitement, by crowded meetings, by the stamping of the foot, or the knocking of the pulpit cushion, or the delirious bawlings of ignorant zeal; these are the stock in trade of revivals among dead souls, but to revive living saints other means are needed. Intense excitement may produce a revival of the animal, but how can it operate upon the spiritual, for the spiritual demands other food than that which stews in the fleshpots of mere carnal enthusiasm. The Holy Ghost must come into the living heart through living truth, and so bring nutriment and stimulant to the pining spirit, for so only can it be revived. This, then, leads us to the conclusion that if we are to obtain a revival we must go directly to the Holy Ghost for it, and not resort to the machinery of the professional revival-maker. The true vital spark of heavenly flame comes from the Holy Ghost, and the priests of the Lord must beware of strange fire. There is no spiritual vitality in anything except as the Holy Spirit is all in all in the work; and if our vitality has fallen near to zero, we can only have it renewed by him who first kindled it in us. We must go to the cross and look up to the dying Savior, and expect that the Holy Spirit will renew our faith and quicken all our graces. We must feed anew by faith upon the flesh and blood of the Lord Jesus, and so the Holy Ghost will recruit our strength and give us a revival. When men in India sicken in the plains, they climb the hills and breathe the more bracing air of the upper regions; we need to get nearer to God, and to bathe ourselves in heaven, and revived piety will be the sure result.

When a minister obtains this revival he preaches very differently from his former manner. It is very hard work to preach when the head aches and when the body is languid, but it is a much harder task when the soul is unfeeling and lifeless. It is sad, sad work—painfully, dolorously, horribly sad, but saddest of all if we do not feel it to be sad, if we can go on preaching and remain careless concerning the truths we preach, indifferent as to whether men are saved or lost! May God deliver every minister from abiding in such a state! Can there be a more wretched object than a man who preaches in God's name truths which he does not feel, and which he is conscious have never impressed his own heart? To be a mere sign-post, pointing out the road but never moving in it, is a lot against which every tame heart may plead night and day.

Should this revival be granted to deacons and elders what different men it would make of them! Lifeless, lukewarm church officers are of no more value to a church, than a crew of sailors would be to a vessel if they were all fainting and if in their berths when they were wanted to hoist the sails or lower the boats. Church officers who need reviving must be fearful dead weights upon a Christian community. It is incumbent upon all Christians to be thoroughly awake to the interests of Zion, but upon the leaders most of all. Special supplication should be made for beloved brethren in office that they may be full of the Holy Ghost.

Workers in the Sunday-schools, tract distributors, and other laborers for Christ, what different people they become when grace is vigorous from what they are when their life flickers in the socket! Like sickly vegetation in a cellar, all blanched and unhealthy, are workers who have little grace; like willows by the water-courses, like grease with reeds and rushes in well-watered valleys, are the servants of God who live in his presence. It is no wonder that our Lord said, "Because thou art neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth," for when the earnest Christian's heart is full of fire it is sickening to talk with lukewarm people. Have not warm-hearted lovers of Jesus felt when they have been discouraged by doubtful sluggish people, who could see a lion in the way, as if they could put on express speed and run over them? Every earnest minister has known times when he has felt cold hearts to be as intolerable as the drones in the hive are to the working bees. Careless professors are as much out of place as snow in harvest among truly living Christians. As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes are these sluggards. As well be bound to a dead body as forced into union with lifeless professors; they are a burden, a plague, and an abomination. You turn to one of these cold brethren after a graciously earnest prayer-meeting, and say with holy joy, "What a delightful meeting we have had!" "Yes," he says carelessly and deliberately, as if it were an effort to say so much, "there was a good number of people." How his frostbitten words grate on one's ear! You ask yourself, "Where has the man been? Is he not conscious that the Holy Ghost has been with us?" Does not our Lord speak of these people as being cast out of his mouth, just because he himself is altogether in earnest, and consequently, when he meets with lukewarm people he will not endure them? He says, "I would thou wert cold or hot," either utterly averse to good or in earnest concerning it. It is easy to see his meaning. If you heard an ungodly man blaspheme after an earnest meeting, you would lament it, but you would feel that from such a man it was not a thing to make you vexed, for he has only spoken after his kind, but when you meet with a child of God who is lukewarm, how can you stand that? It is sickening, and makes the inmost spirit feel the horrors of mental nausea.

While a true revival in its essence belongs only to God's people, it always brings with it a blessing for the other sheep who are not yet of the fold. If you drop a stone into a lake the ring widens continually, till the farthest corner of the lake feels the influence. Let the Lord revive a believer and very soon his family, his friends, his neighbors, receive a share of the benefit; for when a Christian is revived, he prays more fervently for sinners. Longing, loving prayer for sinners, is one of the marks of a revival in the renewed heart. Since the blessing is asked for sinners, the blessing comes from him who hears the prayers of his people; and thus the world gains by revival. Soon the revived Christian speaks concerning Jesus and the gospel; he sows good seed, and God's good seed is never lost, for he has said, "It shall not return unto me void." The good seed is sown in the furrows, and in some sinners' hearts God prepares the soil, so that the seed springs up in a glorious harvest. Thus by the zealous conversation of believers another door of mercy opens to men.

When Christians are revived they live more consistently, they make their homes more holy and more happy, and this leads the ungodly to envy them, and to enquire after their secret. Sinners by God's grace long to be like such cheerful happy saints; their mouths water to feast with them upon their hidden manna, and this is another blessing, for it leads men to seek the Savior. If an ungodly man steps into a congregation where all the saints are revived he does not go to sleep under the sermon. The minister will not let him do that, for the hearer perceives that the preacher feels what he is preaching, and has a right to be heard. This is a clear gain, for now the man listens with deep emotion; and above all, the Holy Spirit's power, which the preacher has received in answer to prayer comes upon the hearer's mind; he is convinced of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come, and Christians who are on the watch around him hasten to tell him of the Savior, and point him to the redeeming blood, so that though the revival, strictly speaking, is with the people of God, yet the result of it no man can limit. Brethren, let us seek a revival during the present month, that the year may close with showers of blessing, and that the new year may open with abundant benediction. Let us pledge ourselves to form a prayer-union, a sacred band of suppliants, and may God do unto us according to our faith." - C.H. Spurgeon

Will you confess the truth, my reader? Will you cry out..."I have flirted with the world and it took me! I have become a madman, spiritually insane! I have lusted for swines food and consumed the heaven-hated pleasures of the world, when at one time I was gloriously saved, raptured in Divine-love, and utterly satisfied! Oh God! Forgive me! Redeem me yet again!"

My reader, what you remember now, LAY IT TO HEART! Lay it to heart until holy anguish, "godly sorrow" (2 Cor. 7:10-11), and weeping do prostrate you at the feet of your Jealous Husband - "For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God" (Ex. 34:14). Spurgeon's heart abominated the experience how, for some, the love of God's Bride turns lukewarm, but he was just an ambassador, a written epistle, which exhibited the very heart of God Himself. It is Christ, not Spurgeon, Who cannot endure an adulterous Bride. It is Christ, not Spurgeon, Who will, on the irrevocable high-plane of ETERNITY, vomit and spew out lukewarm Christians into hellfire (Rev. 3:16, Lev. 18:25)! Therefore let us take the more earnest heed! Those sins which Christ will abominate, will you remember them? Will you hate them? Will you answer your Jealous Husband as He sternly CRIES?

"Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God...Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up." (James 4:4, 4:8-10).

0 Comments

The Scottish Covenanters - Mind Zion's Breaches & Mourn With Her

11/11/2013

0 Comments

"This is a Covenant between the LORD and us, to give up ourselves fully to Him, without reserve, soul and body, hearts and affections, to be His children and Him to be our God and Father, if it please the Holy Lord to send His gospel to the land again. And then there is their prayer, 'O LORD, give us real grace in our hearts to mind Zion's breaches, that is in such a low case this day, and make us to mourn with her, for Thou hast said, they that mourn with her in the time of her trouble shall rejoice with her when she rejoiceth..." - Fair Sunshine

My reader, what does it mean for "our hearts to mind Zion's breaches"?

These men were called "the Covenanters", therefore we can expect they had certain biblical insights about what a Covenant is: how it is firstly engaged, and then subsequently, how it is verified or nullified. Let us consider this topic in the following order.

1st) The Abrahamic Covenant
2nd) The Davidic Covenant
3rd) The New Covenant

The Abrahamic Covenant

Motivation and Intent for Salvation

Salvation as a work of God based upon the faithfulness of God

The spoken word of God

The Promise of God

The Oath to their fathers

The Oath to the Exodus generation

-->

-->

-->

-->

-->

-->

“God remembered His Covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob” (Exodus 2:24)

“I am come down to deliver,” “to bring them up out of that land,” “unto the place” [meaning the Promised Land] (Exodus 3:8)

"And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey." ( Exodus 3:17)

"And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as He hath promised, that ye shall keep this service." (Exodus 12:25)

"And it shall be when the LORD shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which He sware unto thy fathers to give thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this month." (Exodus 13:5)

"And it shall be when the LORD shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, as He sware unto thee and to thy fathers, and shall give it thee," (Exodus 13:11)

These are rich and glorious words given to a beloved people (the Exodus Generation)! Nevertheless, what happened to these words, promises, and oaths? What happened to the Exodus generation? My reader, stagger at this! God said - THERE WAS A "BREACH"!

_______________

BREACH
OF
PROMISE
__________

"Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my BREACH of promise. I the LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die." - Numbers 14:28-35

The Davidic Covenant

David Preached to Solomon

David Prayed for Solomon

David said

-->

-->

-->

“serve [God] with a perfect heart” – 1 Chron. 28:6-11

“give unto Solomon my son a perfect heart”–1 Chron. 29:17-19

“I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt Thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart” (Psalm 101:2). David can say, “I will behave” and “I will walk,” nevertheless he knows that he can do nothing by himself. He did always confess, “it is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect” (Psalm 18:32), and again, “The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me” (Ps. 138:8).

A perfect heart strives and presses to obtain (Php. 3:14), fulfill (Rom. 8:4, Gal. 5:14, James 2:23), and lay hold (1 Tim. 6:12, 19) on the promises of God. Do you have this mind toward the promises of God in the New Testament? Saving faith is objectively defined by a carefulness to fulfill the Covenant's conditions. We cannot affirm anyone that he or she savingly believes in God, while yet, the present behavior in which they do walk in is blamed by one of the conditions of the Covenant.

God gave Solomon Conditions of Warning

-->

“IF…THEN will I perform My word with thee” – 1 Kings 6:11-13

Solomon sought after that which was promised to be “fulfilled” and “performed” (1 Kings 8:15-20), as if he had to “lay hold upon” that which was freely promised and freely given to him (1 Tim. 6:12). To lay hold upon the promises of God in the Davidic Covenant, Solomon prayed for that which was “promised” to be “verified”; more specifically, verification means - God does indeed “keep” that which was promised, instead of breaching it (2 Chron. 6:14-16, 1 Kings 8:22-26). Maintaining a “perfect heart” was Solomon’s most vital concern (1 Kings 8:54-66); otherwise, he knew - God would BREACH the promises.

Eventually Solomon fell from grace, or in other words, iniquitous snares did catch him until they "turned away his heart" from God. My reader, this means that "his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God" anymore (1 Kings 11:3-6). Therefore, my reader, the promises given in the Davidic Covenant (2 Sam. 7:4-17) were not completely fulfilled.

-->

“In that day will I raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the BREACHES thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by My Name, saith the LORD that doeth this." - Amos 9:11-12

The verse above does prophesy of a day when God does “build” and “raise up” the Davidic Covenant, because for now, as you can see in Psalm 89, the Davidic Covenant is “fallen”, utterly broken with “breaches” (breaks), and thus... it has crumbled into “ruins” (Amos 9:11-12). The Davidic Covenant is the second major and eternal Covenant that God did breach. When the Abrahamic and Davidic Covenants were breached, the people of God were thrust into a holy bewilderment. Psalm 77 reflects on the salvific work of God in the Abrahamic Covenant, when at that time, all such “favour” (77:7), “mercy” (77:8), “promise” (77:8), and “grace” (77:9) were no more. The psalmist who wrote Psalm 77 exudes the painful experience of when the God of the Bible is overwhelmingly absent. Pressing upon his soul is the overwhelming feeling that God has hidden Himself. Do you ever wonder where the God of the New Testament is?

“I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah. Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled I cannot speak. I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search. Will the Lord cast off for ever? And will He be favourable no more? Is His mercy clean gone for ever? Doth His promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies? Selah." - Psalm 77:3-9

It is a damnable sin for pastors and preachers to fail to say – “Where is the LORD?” (Jer. 2:8). The Spirit-filled psalmist said, “I remembered God, and was troubled,” but most people don’t remember the God of the Bible as He has testified of Himself in the plain accounts of scripture – by doctrine, deed, and historical example. Most people worship an imaginary, self-invented, self-conforming god, a god they made up in their own mind. Children have imaginary friends, and adults have an imaginary god. In Jeremiah 2:8 men failed to say, “Where is the LORD,” because they didn't remember the God of the Bible! In backslidden generations which span for years of time, if all this time is spent in the absence of God’s great glory and promise, it is then that the righteous are troubled and the wicked are at ease. Where is the biblical God of the 1st century today? This is a troubling question… now look carefully at the prayers of this psalmist (written above), and you will see that remembering God is remembering the deeds of His mercy, favor, promise, grace, and tender mercies; thus he recognizes that the absence of God’s famous glory in these wonderful works is the angry casting off of the people of God.

God was confronting the psalmist of Psalm 77, and therefore he was troubled, and when this biblical, hidden, and holy God confronts you, you too will experience the same “enlargement of heart” (Ps. 119:32) with a divinely set hope in the written word (Psalm 119:49). There will be no hope put in men to change the hardness of your heart, but God alone. Under the intense conviction of a Covenant made void, you will cry to the Sovereign for help and hope, “incline not my heart to any evil thing” (Psalm 141:4), “And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in Thee. Deliver me from all my transgressions” (Psalm 39:7-9). “Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned; for Thou art the LORD my God” (Jer. 31:18). “Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for Thou art my praise” (Jer. 17:14). “Turn us again, O God, and cause Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. O LORD God of hosts, how long wilt Thou be angry against the prayer of Thy people? Thou feedest them with bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure” (Psalm 80:3-5). “Return, we beseech Thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine; and the vineyard which Thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that Thou madest strong for Thyself. It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of Thy countenance. Let Thy hand be upon the man of Thy right hand, upon the son of man whom Thou madest strong for Thyself. So will not we go back from Thee: quicken us, and we will call upon Thy name. Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved” (Psalm 80:14-19).

“LORD, Thou wilt ordain peace for us: for Thou also hast wrought all our works in us” (Isa. 26:12). The Covenant is there in word, but the performance thereof is absent. The very means of salvation, the instrumentality of His ways and works, these things are gone. It is impossible to replicate the workings of God. There is subservience in the people under the sovereignty of God. They do recognize that God is the Potter and they are but clay. When a Covenant is breached, the people are rejected of God, and therefore the two are only reconcilable by the free will of God.

Further Applications Which Lead into the New Covenant

After having read the text which I have just written above, I urge you to consider the great length God has taken to teach us (via scripture) about the doctrine: the Breaching of God’s Promises. At first hearing, it sounds so heretical…and yet, are the scriptures being taken into consideration? Like, for example, when God said that He would break His Covenant (Ezek. 16:59, 17:18-19, Zech. 11:10-11). Or, for example, when Jeremiah cried out in desperate prayer, saying, “break not Thy Covenant with us” (Jer. 14:21)! Such scriptural language needs to be added into our vocabulary, or, into our theological lens by which we view potential experiences with God. Why is it that we never pray Jeremiah’s prayer? Do we think we better than he?

Scripture provides vast explanations on how and why God does send retributive deceptions upon the souls of men, deceptions wherein He reflects their unjust deeds back upon them. This reflection (or repayment) is an attribute of justice (see Lev. 24:19-20). Justice is alive horizontally (man-to-man) and vertically (God-to-man). Oh my reader! How pertinent is it for us, that we understand the activity of God’s justice!? We NEED to understand the principles of God-to-man justice (see Psalm 18:25-26, Prov. 1:24-29, 2 Chron. 15:2), and also, with it, the correlating deceptions which accompany it (via deceptions: Psalm 125:4-5, 81:12, Hos. 4:17, Prov. 14:6, 28:5)?

“Therefore He said that He would destroy them, had not Moses His chosen stood before Him in the BREACH, to turn away His wrath, lest He should destroy them.” – Psalm 106:23

God explicitly spoke of breaking His Covenant (as formerly cited), and God specifically breached many Covenants (as formerly cited), but furthermore going on... many other promises of God have been likewise broken (or breached) in the justice of God’s wrath – the Lord being bound thereto because of the trespasses of His people. For example, when God killed Israelites from a particular tribe, the word BREACH was used to describe the annihilation (Judges 21:15, & see also the promises in Deut. 28:3-4). When God killed a good-intentioned man who was seeking the establishment of salvation (so he thought), it was written that a BREACH was made (2 Sam. 6:8, 1 Chron. 13:11, 15:13)... but why? What do these things mean? The manifest action of God’s wrath is, by essence, a hindrance of the promises of God’s mercy, which means that, by operation, it is the accomplishment of the opposite of a promise (a breaking of the promise instead of the performance of a promise). Thus it happened over and over again: a breaching of God's promises of salvation and grace! This happened to promises which pertained to, for example, success and victory at war, and this resulted in great loss and destruction before Israelite enemies. We must understand, my reader, that these losses exist because there was a spiritual BREACH of the promises of God (a breach which could have been filled by the means of intercession, like in Psalm 106:23, but the breaches were left unfilled). Had the promises of God been performed such losses would have been IMPOSSIBLE! The spiritual breach of God’s promises do consequence the physical manifestation of God’s wrath – and this is how the breach of Israel’s defensive fortifications transpired (Ezek. 13:5, 9-10, 11-16, 22:28, 30-31, Isa. 30:13, 5:5, Psalm 80:12, 89:40). We can see how, evidently, in these various ways, the promises of God were being breached (see Chapter 11, section 3, "Life - City & Nation"). It for this reason the word "breach" is used, over and over again.

“And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the BREACH, the restorer of the paths to dwell in.” – Isaiah 58:12

“In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the BREACH thereof; and I will raise up the ruins, and I will built it as the days of old: That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by My Name, saith the LORD that doeth this.” – Amos 9:11-12

So also, looking deeper, the nation of Israel can be viewed in perspective of the Temple (see Chapter 11, the section: "Life - The Temple of God"). So also, the nation of Israel can be viewed in perspective of a single Person (see the subsection of the hyperlink above, called “wound for wound”). By viewing Israel's promises and salvation from these two separate angles, correlating breaches are explicitly or figuratively applied. By following the former link you will find a detailed explanation of “wound for wound” as it relates to the breach of promise, but for now, at the moment, a scripture that serves as an example is: “Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the BREACH of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wound” (Isaiah 30:26). Here, "the breach" and the "wound" are seen as parallel characteristics, communicated by two distinct metaphors.

According to scripture, only false prophets denied that "breaches" were a potential experience for Israelite promises, therefore under their preaching the people never learned to avoid them. A denial of this truth (breaches in their New Testament applications) will turn men into modern day false prophets. A lifestyle oblivious to God’s breaches is the most murderous characteristic active in the work and ministry of Old Testament false prophets (see Lam. 2:6-9, Jer. 30:12-13, Micah 1:8-9, Isaiah 30:26, 1:6-7, Ps. 10:5-6, Jer. 6:7-8, 14, 8:11, 15, Hos. 5:13, Jer. 30:11-18, 33:6-7). If we become like these men were (false prophets), we will not be able to detect the operations of God’s wrath to any degree at all, which means that we will not be able to detect if God's promises have been breached to any degree at all. Therefore, we will live (by prayer or preaching) irrelevant to the dire necessity of intercession: the redemptive act which fills the breaches. All saints are called to the work of intercession by nature of their spiritual vocation as priests in Christ (see Rom. 8:26-27, 1 Pet. 2:9, Mk. 11:17, and "Groaning Which Cannot Be Uttered"). A failure here will result in the modern expression of what was written, “There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines” (Jer. 30:13). Or in other words, God said, “And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the headge (the wall), and stand in the gap (the BREACH) before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. Therefore have I poured out Mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD” (Ezk. 22:30-31). At such a time as this, the Temple of God is destroyed (and the Temple was and is the emblem of salvation, or, the emblem of the promises of God: see Lev. 26:31, 1 Kings 8:27-30, 43, Deut. 12:2-7 [and it was the place where God’s name dwelt: Deut. 14:23, 16:2, 17:8, 18:19, 26:2]). When there was a loss of the promises of God (in their performance), the word BREACH was used (breaches which were physical and spiritual in their manifestations: 2 Kings 22:5, Isa. 58:12, Amos 9:11-12, 2 Chron. 34:8, 10, Lam. 2:13-14). Because BREACHES were characteristic of promises being lost, true prophets agonized over them in great lamentation (see Jer. 4:19-22, Isa. 63:17-18, 64:11, Jer. 10:19-20, Dan. 9:16-19, Neh. 1:3-4, 2 Chron. 29:5-10, Lam. 2:6-9, Jer. 15:18, Hos. 6:1, Jer. 14:17-15:1)... and woe to us if we are utterly without this experience! Woe to us if, in fact, we stand in the modern day expressions of these old-time breaches (only in their New Covenant applications)… and yet we live oblivious to them! Woe to us, for then we are the false prophets of today!

The New Covenant

Breach #1) Stripped of Power and Success at War
Breach #2) Spiritual Famine or Spiritual Desertification

Stripped of Power & Success at War: God blessed the people by giving them unconquerable armies and impregnable fortifications (Lev. 26:6-8, Deut. 28:6-7), and He cursed the people by disarming them of their battle-skills (“The battle is the LORD’S”), and contra-wise He blessed their enemies so that, when they attacked Israel at God’s beckoning, Israelite fortifications were breached and their defenses overthrown (Deut. 11:22-25, 28:25-26, 49-50, 52, 32:30). Now what, oh man, do you disbelieve that God, in His wrath, would leave His New Testament people so that they, being rendered defenseless at God’s absence, are conquered by their enemies who seek their life? (For a detailed address of this biblical reality see Life – City & Nation (chapter 11, section 4) & Personification & Anthropomorphism (chapter 12, section 1)).

Old Testament: 1 Sam. 17:47, Jer. 17:5, & Ps. 31:20, 62:5 [the battle is the Lord’s], Ps. 119;114 [hiding place and shield], Ps. 61:3 [shelter and strong tower], Ps. 18:1, 10 [fortress, buckler, and high tower], Ps. 127:1 [watchmen], Hos. 9:12, Ezek. 21:5, Ps. 17:13-14 [the Lord joining the opposing army which fights against Israel]

New Testament: 1 Pet. 2:11 [war against the soul], Rom. 7:23 [warring], James 4:1 [wars], 1 Tim. 1:18 [warfare], 2 Cor. 6:7 [armor], 2 Cor. 10:3-6 [war, weapons, & strongholds], Rom. 13:12, 1 Thess. 5:8, Eph. 6:10-19, & Rev. 12:11 [armor, weapons, wrestling, & the secret of victory], 1 Cor. 9:26, 1 Tim. 6:12, & 2 Tim. 4:7-8 [the fight is for eternal life], 1 Pet. 4:1 [soldier-like readiness to suffer], 1 Cor. 15:32 [fighting beasts], 2 Tim. 2:3-4 [a soldier-like lifestyle].

Terrifying Conclusion: God has delivered His Old Testament people over to tribute, captivity, and annihilation, and is there no New Testament servitude and captivity to avoid (2 Tim. 2:26, Gal. 3:1, 5:1, 7-8), no war to fight in, no battle to win, or no overthrowing annihilation to escape (Rev. 13:17, Rom. 8:13, Eph. 6:12, 1 Jn. 5:4-5, Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26, 3:5, 12, 21, 21:7)? What? Do you disbelieve that God, in His wrath, will raise up devils to rob us of our weapons of righteousness, inundate us until we remain without skill or success to win the battle, making us tributaries to worldly wisdom (1 Cor. 3:18 [being deceived to think worldly wisdom is true wisdom], 1 Cor. 4:8-10 [being deceived to oppose apostolic doctrines and ways, i.e. normal & scriptural Christianity], James 3:15 [being deceived to fellowship with and walk in devilish wisdom instead of God’s wisdom], James 1:26-27 [being deceived so that our religion is vain])? If we do not recognize the war, learn the skill to fight the battle, reckon the eternal consequence of success or loss, discern the identifiable conditions of temporary defeat, and discover the means to restore success, surely my brethren, we will perish! We must be of the number that “waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of aliens” (Heb. 11:34)! Behold it, oh man, your longstanding foes upon the battlefield! The battle rages, oh man, and the cries of your fallen comrades do sound from the carnage of dead men! “He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches” (Rev. 2:11)! Oh my brethren, “thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment” (Lam. 2:14)! How, you ask? By misapplying promises to the people of God when, at present, they are disqualified from their performance (see Life – City & Nation (chapter 11, section 4)).

Spiritual Famine or Spiritual Desertification: God blessed the land with prosperity by sending rain (Lev. 26:4-5, Deut. 7:12-14, 28:3-5, 8, 11-12), and He cursed the land with famine by withholding rain (Duet. 28:16-18, 23-24, 33, 38-42, 48, 51). Now what, oh man, do you disbelieve that God, in His wrath, will withhold spiritual rain from His New Testament people? Spiritual Famine or Spiritual Desertification (chapter 16, section 3)

Old Testament: Amos 8:9-13 [famine], Isa. 5:6, 44:3 & Joel 2:23 [the Spirit of God is rain], Isa. 41:17-18 [pools and springs], Isa. 35:6-7, 43:19-20, 49:9-10 [streams, pools, and springs invading wilderness’ of dragons], Ps. 46:4 [river], Isa. 13:20-22, 34:10-15 [deserts, the dwelling place of devils].

New Testament: Acts 2:15-21 [the Covenant beginning is an outpouring of rain, this is applied as prophesied in Joel 2:28-32, this is applied in parallel types in Ps. 68:9, 15-20, applied in Eph. 4:7-13, & recollected in 1 Cor. 1:4-8], Heb. 6:7-8 [rain is a present-continuous salvific experience recorded and interpreted in Heb. 6:4-5], John 7:38 [rivers of water invade deserts of dryness], Lk. 10:19 [devils inhabit deserts], Heb. 6:8 [men can become desert-lands of thorns and briers, which is an inviting habitation for devils, see Jn. 13:27], James 5:14-20 [rain-releasing effects can be wrought by effectual prayers of New Testament intercessors, and here, in James 5:17-20, the rain restores the fruitfulness of NT Israelites who were caught in rain-less days, and upon the release of rain the erring brethren, fruitless and inhibited because of a personal spiritual famine, are restored from their “err from the truth”, thus fruitfulness springs forth from their decertified souls; a desert wasteland experiences restoration!].

Terrifying Conclusion: “Nevertheless in those days, saith the LORD, I will not make a full end with you. And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the LORD our God all these things unto us? then shalt thou answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours. Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying, Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not: Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it? But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone. Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you.” – Jer. 5:18-25

"O LORD, give us real grace in our hearts to mind Zion's breaches, that is in such a low case this day, and make us to mourn with her, for Thou hast said, they that mourn with her in the time of her trouble shall rejoice with her when she rejoiceth..." - Fair Sunshine

"'Oh, that preachers would preach repentance, and professors would exhort one another to mourn in secret, and together, because of their sin, and with their mourning would believe, for these are very consistent together...'" - Fair Sunshine

"Do we not need a very much greater conception, of how tremendously valuable a true expression of the Church is to the Lord - it's priceless! May the Lord give us more of this anguish for the Church as a whole, and then it will be precious to Him." - The Revival Hymn

"Your words have been stout against Me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against Thee? Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts? And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon His Name. And they shall be Mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that Day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not." - Malachi 3:13-18

For further studies on how all of this affects the New Covenant, see The Condescension of God; see Chapter 3: The Abrahamic Covenant; see Chapter 6: The Davidic Covenant: Seeking a Performance of the Promises.

RELATED SERMONS:
The Davidic Covenant & The Everlasting Throne - S.M.
The Prophet Like Unto Moses - S.M.

0 Comments

The Presentation of the Bride - Leonard Ravenhill

11/1/2013

1 Comment

Morning "quiet times" were a heartless perusal through scripture for many, that is, until the late generation heard the exasperated cry of Ravenhill! This man was different. He arose to withstand lukewarmness by 8 hours of prayer a day at the height of his ministry! Can you believe it? Hear it in his voice. Ravenhill preached with bitter pain and strong commands, and it made the proudest pastor bow in shame.

Powerhouses of human intelligence were denounced as powerless, seminaries were made to feel cold and godless like as a cemetery is lifeless, and classroom religion felt unclean, appalling, and sour! Why? Men congregated to hear Ravenhill pray, weep, and preach, holding their breath in awe. "I can read the map in the back of my Bible, and weep," he cried! God's people who were divided by theological and doctrinal disagreement could all agree to this: Leonard Ravenhill was a voice sent by God!

A Peculiar Burden

Contrary to most preachers of past generations, he was burdened... not for the lost, merely, but for the Church. Certainly, he prayed for a move of God that would sweep sinners into the Kingdom by the thousands! But he argued that this glory is ordained to come from the lamp - The Church - whose flame is now flickering, sickly, and nigh unto termination. Therefore, in summary, this was Ravenhill's burden: SAVE THE CHURCH and you will SAVE THE WORLD!

"...knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked..." - Revelation 3:17

"The greatest tragedy, ever, is a sick Church in a dying world."

“The Church is blind tonight. Dear God, if we believed in hell this place would be packed out tonight. We’re blind to eternity. We’re blind to the fact that we have an obligation to 5 billion people in the world that we’ll never reach the way we’re going. The Church is wretched and blind - what do you think Jesus feels looking at His Bride tonight? He’s not coming for a limping, lame, ragged woman! He’s coming for a pure Church, a holy Bride.

It’s not that we’ve got a passion for Jesus, that’s a lie from hell, and the hindrance to His coming tonight is because the Church is impure. He’s not coming for an impure Church. He’s not coming for a blind old woman that is creeping around for help…that has no sense of danger, no sense of her obligation, and if she has, what can a blind person do, and wretched in the sight of God!?” – Leonard Ravenhill

"...Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; That He might sanctify and
cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish"
- Ephesians 5:25-27

Ravenhill was most famous for communicating his burden for the Church by addressing her as "The Bride of Christ". Everything that he sought after was often communicated through this spiritual and metaphorical lens. He was obsessed with the promises of God given to the Bride, who will, as scripture states, make "herself ready" (Rev. 19:7), and Ravenhill was utterly persuaded that she was then, for a long time, UNREADY, UNHOLY, and IMPURE!

The Bride's Qualifications

How often do Christians excuse themselves because of their understanding of Romans chapter 7?

Ravenhill preached that Romans 7 was a self-centered funeral march, but Romans 8 was a Christ-centered wedding march! He was grieved with how the “self-pity, self -interest, self-seeking, self-concern, me-first" Christianity was always excusing themselves to sin! He sought to rebuke and alarm them by scathing rebukes, some of which are quoted below:

“There’s only two kinds of people in the world, those who are dead in sin and those who are dead to sin." - LR

"Get rid of this bunkum about 'carnal Christian'. Forget it! If you're carnal, you're not saved." - LR

"Do you think Paul finished out his days, 'Oh wretched man that I am?' He said in Romans 7, 'It's not I but sin dwelling in me.' In Galatians, he said, 'It's not I it's Christ living in me.' You can't have the indwelling Christ who is indwelling carnality - one has to get out of the way! Who preaches salvation? We're preaching forgiveness!" - LR

“We pray that some of us may go to our own funeral tonight, and die to self, and end all the failure and all the weakness” – LR

"When Jesus comes for the Bride, He's not coming for every believer, I'm assured of that." - LR

“Do you think Jesus died for this dirty, rotten system we call Christianity? Not on your life!” – LR

“People say the Church is dead - it isn’t dead! It is worse than dead! She’s poor, and wretched, and naked.” - LR

Leonard had an "understanding" in which God "enlightened" him - with a revelation - and it was of "the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints" (Eph. 1:18), and because he saw this, he felt what was truth, truth which most don't even believe: that it is a crime to be poor when Christ is rich; to be weak with Christ is strong; to be impotent with Christ is "exceeding greatness" of "power" (Eph. 1:19); to be drowning when Christ was overcoming. He understood that these things, and things like them, were purchased by the blood of Christ! Therefore, a life without them is a crime against God! What Ravenhill saw in "the Church" today was an exceeding contradiction to what he saw in scripture.

In Thy Storehouse - by Ravenhill
There are riches in Thy storehouse,
But my Lord we are so poor.
There is power in Thy storehouse,
But the cripple clothes our door.

There is wisdom in Thy storehouse,
But in ignorance we grope.
There's revival in Thy storehouse,
But we've millions without hope.

There is freedom in Thy storehouse,
But Thy people are so bound.
There is glory in Thy storehouse,
But it does not shine around.

There is love within Thy storehouse,
But Thy people are so dry.
There's compassion in Thy storehouse-
Then, my Savior, why, oh, why
Are Thy people stony-hearted
And our eyes so desert dry?

After listening to the two recordings above, can I ask you, my reader, are you serious to answer such a call? God is calling, but have we answered His call? Have you reformed your entire life around seeking after and obtaining a move of God? If we sacrifice ALL to lay hold upon the means of grace which are available to us in Christ, then peradventure God - The Sovereign - would apprehend us! It grieves my soul how Ravenhill did often mingle jokes with the most searing things he preached, but he did not do this in his old age! When he was nearer and nearer, looking death right in the face, he sobered up! He was weary of the jokes, the lies, the games, the facade of lip-service Christianity, all the powerless revival meetings with a purposeless people, going home and sleeping well... people who are heartless, careless, prayerless! God have mercy! My reader, what about you? Are you playing games with the God of Acts? Perhaps you never will wake up from spiritual sleep until you acknowledge - YOU MUST!

The Bridal Qualifications
-Determine-
The Eternal Destiny of Individuals

“The Christian must say 'NO' to the whole world system which is but damnation frosted with the glitter of success and illuminated with scientific luster. He remembers that it is worm-eaten with depravity and has God's sentence of death upon it.” - Leonard Ravenhill

1 Comment

<<Previous

Speaking in Tongues: Is it Gibberish?

Speaking in Tongues

Are You Depressed?

Revival For the Depressed

"Rules to Discern a True Work of God" - Jonathan Edwards

"A Personal Calvary" - Keith Daniel

"Some Have Fallen into Spiritual Darkness..." - Robert Murray M'Cheyne

"The Unquestionable Progress of Grace to Sin" - John Wesley

A Voice Clarified - Leonard Ravenhill

Jonathan Edwards & Charles Spurgeon - Revival, Do You Need It?

The Scottish Covenanters - Mind Zion's Breaches & Mourn With Her

The Abrahamic Covenant

The Davidic Covenant

The New Covenant

The Presentation of the Bride - Leonard Ravenhill

A Peculiar Burden

The Bride's Qualifications

The Bridal Qualifications
-Determine-
The Eternal Destiny of Individuals

What Is Revival?

Archives

Categories

Speaking in Tongues

Revival For the Depressed

The Abrahamic Covenant

The Davidic Covenant

The New Covenant

A Peculiar Burden

The Bride's Qualifications

The Bridal Qualifications -Determine- The Eternal Destiny of Individuals

What Is Revival?

Archives

Categories

The Bridal Qualifications
-Determine-
The Eternal Destiny of Individuals