The Passing of Religious Opportunity

The Passing of Religious Opportunity
by George W. Truett (1867-1944)

"And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes."

                                                                    —Luke 19:41,42

And now, as I come to the message of this evening, and look over this vast throng, I find my heart touched with the most compassionate interest for the people. There is nothing in the world that so appeals to me as a human face. And what a vast press of faces look up into my face in this gathering of thousands of people. Oh, how I covet you every one for Christ Jesus! What tragedy is comparable to the tragedy of a wasted life! Jesus not only would save the soul, bringing you home to heaven at last, Jesus would save your life here and now, in the flesh, in the earth, and have you positioned properly now. I lift up my voice to beg you, for your own sake, oh, soul, not yet openly positioned for Christ, and then for the sake of lives you shall daily touch, to give heed and face faithfully this biggest question of all...your own right relation to Christ Jesus. I would speak this evening on this ex-ceedingly solemn theme: "The Passing of Religious Opportunity." It is suggested by this solemn text, from the nineteenth chapter of Luke: "And when He was come near, He beheld the city..." the city of Jerusalem... "and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known..." or if thou hadst recognized... "the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes." 

The text suggests the solemn word that I am to leave with you...the passing of religious opportunity. Tears are always touching...genuine and sincere tears. You are of a strange make-up if you should see the genuine tears of a little child, and not be moved by that sight. And how moving is the sight of the tears of a strong man, no matter what the emotion that grips the heart! Here in our text we have a picture of the Savior, our Divine Lord, sobbing out His great heart, as He looks over the city, His own country's fair city, the city of Jerusalem. There must have been a compelling reason why Jesus thus wept, as He looked over the city. There was such a reason, and the text, with its context, faithfully indicates what that reason was! The reason was that many of the people in that city of Jerusalem had allowed their religious opportunity to go by unimproved. They had neglected it. The things of light and leading and love from God had all been overlooked. Jesus had taught and had called, but they had gone on unheeding, and so His compassionate heart overflowed through His eyes, and we have here the picture of Him sobbing over the fact of the passing of religious opportunity. Isn't that a fearful possibility in a human life, that religious opportunity, gracious and precious, may come and may go by, and may be returnless forevermore? Satan does not care if men and women come to the house of God, and to public services such as these, and are attentive and serious and deeply moved, if only they will let the religious opportunity pass, and be unimproved. Oh, dreadful possibility, that religious opportunity may come and pass by, and the highest things of the soul be lost and forfeited forever! 

Jesus, who visited the earth once in the flesh, visits men and women yet, not in His flesh, as of old, but in the person and by the power of His own Divine Spirit. He himself told us that when He went away He would send that Spirit, to teach of the things that He said and says, and show them to the children of men. Jesus says: "It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." The great work of God the Holy Spirit in the world is to comfort and counsel God's people, and to bring to bear conviction upon the human judgment and conscience, that by such light and conviction sinners may be turned into the upper and better way.  

Mark you this, my men and women! Every inclination that the soul has to come to God, every longing in your spirit to be right with God, and to be forgiven of Him, and to be saved by Him, is the direct drawing, the direct work, of God's good Spirit on the human heart. The desire to be right with God does not come from the human flesh. The desire to be right with God, to have one's sins forgiven, to be saved, is the direct drawing of the good Spirit of God himself. And remember this, I pray you, that no rational soul shall ever come to God unless the Divine Spirit shall draw him, shall counsel him, shall convict him of need, and shall himself work that desire to come in the human heart. Jesus yet visits men in the person and power of His Spirit. How does He visit them? 

He comes in early life probably to most people, with the call of heaven, the call of grace, the call of salvation. One of the serious questions for parents and teachers is. How early do our children reach the age of personal accountability, and when do they reach the line of accountability, so that they must personally pass on these questions of right and wrong, of God's light and counsel? Where and when do they reach that line? Blessed is the teaching that our little ones, dying before they reach that line of personal accountability to God, are taken to His home above, through the riches of His own mercy and grace. We are not anxious about our little ones who die before they can personally pass on these big questions of repentance and faith and coming to God. All is well with them. Ye parents, be not disturbed at that point. Our concern is, How old are children when they reach the line of personal accountability, where, if they die unrepentant and unbelieving, they shall die like the adult who dies unrepentant and unbelieving? Very early in life, evidently, God's Spirit comes to many of our children, counseling and calling them in the better and upper way. 

And then very many are the ways which God employs to counsel and call men and women into the upward way. One of God's mightiest ways is to call the people by the right kind of preaching. There can be no substitutes for the right kind of preaching. The Bible tells us so. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. How shall the people hear without a preacher?" The Bible tells us that "it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." He did not say "by foolish preaching." There is untold harm done by foolish preaching. He said: "It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching," by as simple a thing as preaching, by the method of preaching, by a man saved by grace as I am saved, and as these honored men about me are saved, and called by God's Spirit thus to witness for Christ. It pleased 
God by as simple a thing as this, for a man saved by God's grace and set apart by His Spirit to be a preacher, to stand up and call to his fellow-men: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." How marvelous is God's way of turning men and women into the upward way, by preaching! 

But preaching is not His only method. God has many methods to call the people into the upward way! How great is the message and the blessing of the right kind of a teacher, and the right kind of a writer! How much God employs such to bless the world! And how marvelous is God's employment of the modest mother, shrinking and timid, but who puts the serious things of God and His truth into the deepest hearts of her little ones who rest on her breast, and who kneel beside her, as she teaches them to lisp the name of Jesus! How marvelous that instrumentality, the instrumentality of the parent, to bring people in the right way! How marvelous the instrumentality of the friend, who goes out in the right spirit and seeks to turn his friend into the upward way! How God blesses a simple thing like that! How marvelous are God's providences, some of them white-robed, and some of them veiled in black, to turn us and bestir us, and give us to think, and, thinking, to turn to the upward way! And above all and through all, how wonderful is the work of Christ's great witness in the world, namely, the Holy Spirit, as this Holy Spirit takes of the things of Christ, and brings them to bear on men's minds, and consciences. Many are God's messengers for the calling of the people unto himself. 

Now, our text points for us, to-night, the exceedingly solemn truth that the visits of God, in the person of the Divine Spirit, may be resisted. In the case of these men and women of old, in the city of Jerusalem, where Jesus lived and loved, where He preached and prayed, where He wept and died, there many resisted His heavenly influences, and put them all away, and went the downward way. So we are confronted to-night with that awful possibility in human life, that a rational, responsible, human being can say yes or say no to the call of God. The highest dignity of human life is that human life must choose whether you will be for God or against Him. Along with that highest dignity of human life, in which you are allowed to say yes or no to God, and consequent upon it at the same time is the very gravest danger. While you and I may say yes or say no to Jesus, the awful peril is that, though He brings to bear in His own form and wonderful way His light and love. His counsel and goodness, summoning us to come the right road, the fearful possibility is that we will rise up and resist it all, and miss the upward way. One thing is sure: God the loving Father is never at fault that a sinner is lost. Listen to His solemn appeal: "As I live,” and He swears by himself, for He can swear by no higher, "as I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live." And then God himself exhorts: "Turn ye! Turn ye! Why will ye die?" 

It is, indeed, inflexibly certain that Jesus is never at fault that a sinner is lost. See Him here in our text, as He stands weeping over the city of Jerusalem, in which were many people who had turned aside His counsel and missed the road to heaven, and listen to Him as He says: "Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." Jesus is never at fault that a soul rational and responsible misses the way of light and life and salvation. 

But our text brings us on to a still more serious truth, and that truth is that there is an end to God's visits to rational, accountable human beings. When does such end come? I shall make answer to that in two remarks. Mark it, I pray you, oh, my fellow-men and my gentle sisters, listening so deferentially to what the minister says...mark it well. If you should go down into your grave, unrepentant and unbelieving, the battle for your soul is forever lost.  Destiny eternal is settled this side of death. "As the tree falls, so shall it lie." Jesus finally turned upon some men who carped and caviled at His words, and said: "Ye shall die in your sins." That will be the outcome of it all. And then He added: "Whither I go, ye cannot come." Destiny for the soul is determined this side the grave. Christ's words have no meaning, if that is not correct, and the man is a trifler, a trickster with words, if he should essay to offer a rational human soul hope beyond the grave, if such man shall die in his sins. This side the grave is determined the big question of whether heaven is to be your home, or whether it is to be the dark world of waste and night, the name of which is hell. Your destiny for the one or the other place will be decided before you reach death and are laid in the grave. Oh, how serious is that! And since death comes with unexpectedness, times without count, and since there are ten thousand gates to death, and since the easiest thing in all the world is just to die, and since the coming of death is more uncertain than the morning cloud, and since death is transitory and illusory, and the time of its coming is known only to God, how speedily should every rational human being say: "While I have my wits about me, while my mind is clear, while duty comes knocking at the door of my heart, while need is urgent, while danger is consciously imminent and apparent, now I will decide the biggest question of all, calmly and gloriously, by making my surrender to Christ." 

I was preaching in a distant community some months ago, to a throng of thousands, like these thousands here to-night, and one man was seen to be greatly interested, and an earnest Christian standing near him went over to him, and ventured to whisper a word to him, while the last song was being sung. Men and women and children came down the aisles, saying: "The battle is decided. We will surrender to Christ." This Christian man said to the interested man: "You are interested and serious now; you should now end all delay, and publicly make known your surrender to Christ." He said: "No, I will see that man tomorrow. I will talk with him tomorrow. I will find him at his room in the hotel tomorrow, and I will have it out with him. I will not settle it tonight." But when the morning came, in one sharp stroke, with a strange turning that often comes to human life, he was plunged into unconsciousness, and before noonday went away into eternity. Oh, rational, responsible human beings, I summon you, I charge you, I pray you, settle first things first, the supreme things, the one supreme thing, in the day of your health, with your wits about you, calmly, quietly, thoughtfully, grandly, settle this supreme matter 
while you may. 

There is the other answer to be given to the fact that there is an end to God's visits to men. Jesus was looking over a city which He had sought to help, but many had failed of His help, and Jesus was sobbing out His heart, as in effect He said: "Light is gone and opportunity has passed." They were yet alive, and were yet in health. They went about their tasks. But Jesus said: "Religious opportunity, that came, and was clear and strong, has been refused, and now it passes." Opportunity of any sort pauses at one's door, but if that opportunity be not taken hold of, it passes and is returnless. "The mill will never grind again with water that has passed." These men and women had heard and had seen and had felt and had known, and they put away the great claims and counsels of Jesus; which leads me to say that my judgment is fixed deeply from an experience of twenty-odd years in dealing with men and in studying the Word of God, that there is no peril comparable to the peril of resisting religious light and opportunity when they come to the human soul. 

And when opportunity passes, how fearful is the fate of such a soul! And when it does pass, how is that fearful tragedy brought about? The trouble about dealing lightly with religious opportunity and religious light and religious privilege is that men and women in thus dealing lightly, sin against knowledge. If the religion of Jesus Christ be worth a straw, it is worth more than the material world. One soul outranks in value the material universe. Now, to deal lightly with the call of Jesus and the death of Jesus for such soul, is to sin after a most terrible fashion. Men hear and feel and intend and know, and yet put religious calls away, and consequently go the downward way. 

Nor is that all. Men who resist God's call and counsel, sin presumptuously. When they are spoken with candidly and faithfully about the great claims of Christ, they make answer: "Yes, I grant it all, but I will risk it. I will presume. I will wait. I will defer. I will delay." And they loiter on until the little boat takes the fateful plunge over the rapids, and opportunity is forfeited forever. 

Moreover, when men thus sin against light, they sin with the will. The human will is the initial spring of action. Men hear and know and feel and intend and desire, and yet they delay. They sin against the will, and that involves premeditation and decision. Men hear Christ's call, and their judgments and consciences and moral natures say yes. But they go on and say: "Not yet. I will not have Christ to reign over me yet." They go on and say, like one of old said: "Go thy way for this time. When I have a convenient season I will call for thee." And in that way light darkens, and convictions fade, and religious opportunity passes. 

Still again, when men sin against God's clear call to repentance and faith, they sin against God's Spirit, who takes of these great truths and binds them on men's judgments and consciences. When men rise up and say: "Though I know it is right, and though I feel its weight and power, yet I will put it all away," men are sinning against God's great messenger, even God's Holy Spirit, who is wooing and counseling and convicting and drawing, that the people may come to Christ and be saved. And this Divine Spirit, in His wooing power, is God's first, last and supreme messenger to turn the world to Christ Jesus. If men sin against God the loving Father, as they do, there is Jesus, the offered Savior, who is men's proffered helper, if they will only have Him. If men put Jesus away, the Holy Spirit patiently calls and counsels and woos, and they feel it and know it, that God is striving with them. If men put this Holy Spirit away...There is no peril so serious as that. 

Years ago I was preaching in one of our cities on that solemn text: "Ye do always resist the Holy Spirit," and I was making the point that a man may so resist light and counsel from God, that light will at last turn to darkness; that a man may so trifle with conviction of a course that he ought to take, until the conviction gets fainter and feebler, and at last he seems to have no conviction at all. I was making the point that somewhere in its fight against God, the human soul may put away these highest matters, until at last they seem to have no weight, no meaning, no appeal at all. And no sooner had I said that, than a man in the audience, perhaps forty-five years of age, with the gray beginning to tinge his hair, stood in the audience and said: "Preacher man, you are describing my case." I said: "Not consciously; I do not even know you; I am discussing the Word of God." "Very well," he said, "but that is my case; you are describing my case, and if you do not mind," he said, "I will tell you a little about it." I said: "I will be pleased to let you tell us. Maybe we can help you. I want to, if I can."  He said: "Years ago, when I was a young man, I had often heard and felt, concerning religion; I had often been counseled and called, I had often trembled and resolved, but I kept putting the matter off.  And at last, there came a powerful appeal from God's man one day, where all of my mind and conscience and heart and will were aroused beyond words, and I felt: *This is the supreme crisis. This is the hour epochal for my soul." Other men went down the aisles to make known their surrender to Christ, but I held out against it all." And then he looked at me sadly a moment or two and said: "Preacher man, that day I went over the line. That day I passed the day of grace. That day my soul died, and your teaching as to the peril there is in resisting God's Spirit applies, sir, to my own poor case." Quickly did I adjourn the service, and then I sought him out, and for two long hours I brought to bear, as best I could, the glorious invitations of Jesus to sinful men, no matter what their sin or doubt or fear or difficulty. For two hours, I brought to bear these promises and calls of Jesus on this man, and yet he heard me through it all, and said: "Sir, I have had no response at all for years. I have crossed the line, and I know that I have crossed it." 

I cannot discuss the philosophy, the psychology, the deep meaning of this case. I do not know it. I am simply making the point that somewhere the human soul may resist God and His love and light and heavenly leading, so late, so far, so long, that light turns into darkness, and convictions fade, and the highest things are missed and lost. There comes again the old-time hymn, emphasizing this same point of the danger of putting away religious light, religious calls for the human soul, the danger of putting them off until to-morrow.

My fellow-men, if there be interest, if there be an awakening, if there be concern, if there be a wish, however faint, if there be a longing, however feeble and fluttering, it makes its cry in your heart, if it be there, to be right with God, to have your sins forgiven, to be saved, if I were in your place I would tonight make my surrender to Christ, if I had to go through fire and through flame to make that surrender; for if a man passes his day of grace, and when the battle for the soul is finally lost, then spiritual things, this text tells us, are hidden from the eyes of such soul and life. Jesus said: "Oh, men of Jerusalem, who have let your religious opportunity be forfeited and lost, now these religious truths and matters are hidden from your eyes." Hidden! No light now! 

Have you ever been through Mammoth Cave, that wonderful, subterranean cavern yonder in Kentucky? If you have been through there, the guide has shown you fish in those subterranean waters whose eyes look like other eyes in other fish, and yet the guide goes on to tell you that these fish have been so long in the darkness of those underground waters that they cannot see at all. One awful truth stands out from the teaching of this text and many other teachings of Jesus elsewhere in the Bible -that a man can put away religious light so long, so late, so far, so terribly, that at last he may not see at all. 

As men fight the call and counsels and pleadings of God for their souls, they come to the place where feeling grows less and less with every appeal that is made. Less and less does the heart respond, if truth is heard and felt and granted, and yet set aside and put away. It is an awful sentence, there in the Bible, about the conscience being seared as with a hot iron, so that at last the human soul reaches the place, in its conscience, where it is past feeling. If the doctor is summoned to his patient, and the family and the patient explain to the doctor when he comes that the patient has no feeling in part of the body, that part of the body being utterly unresponsive, the doctor shakes his head ominously, for that sign --no feeling-- is the precursor of serious trouble.

It follows, my fellow-men, that the most serious thing in this world is the resistance of the religious light that comes to you. The most serious thing in the world is the putting away of light and feeling when God's gospel is preached, and the soul is sought after, and the soul hears and trembles and feels, and yet puts it all away. That is the most serious and presumptuous risk ever taken by the human soul. I am coming to say a most serious closing word, namely: There comes a last visit from God for the human soul. When is that visit? Certainly, no man is wise enough to know. But there comes a last visit from God, seeking for a rational human soul. When is that visit? Will it be this year? Will it be this month? Will it be this week? Will God's last visit for an intelligent, an awakened, responsive soul to come to Him, be to-night? God alone knows. No man can tell. But when we consider the possibilities of such startling fact, then we may well long to be in prayer to God, that no rational human soul in this place tonight shall be willing to go on, when everything is at stake, and put God's call away into some vague, indefinite hour of the indeterminate future! 

Oh, man or woman or child, in this vast assemblage tonight, wrong with God, I summon you, if you have any degree of desire to be saved, I summon you, act on that desire, act on that light, and make your surrender to Christ. Mark it! Mark it! The great issue confronts you, and what is that issue? You have to make a choice between Jesus and Satan. One or the other is the master of every rational human soul. Which shall your choice be? 

And, remember, whatever may be your difficulties, Jesus is master of any case. Do you tell me: "Sir, my difficulties are terrible, beyond human speech?" I do not mind that. I am not given pause by that. Though your sins be as scarlet, if you will surrender to Christ, He will save you. Though your doubts are like the stars for number, if you will surrender to Christ, He will save you. Though your temptations are fiery with the hot breath from the pit below, if you will surrender to Christ, He will save you. 

As I was leaving Washington City, some time ago, I stood in one of the depots there, and saw a strange mark on the wall, and I asked a policeman what it meant, and he said at once: "You are a stranger?" "Yes." "That is the death mark for President Garfield, who was standing right here when he received the bullet from the man who took his life, and this singular mark is put here on the wall to indicate the place where he met his death." Oh, tonight, I wonder if, standing under the sound of my voice, I wonder if some hesitating soul could know that this shall be the place and the time of the death mark for your human spirit. God forbid, and I pray it from my deepest heart! 

Yonder on the battlefield at Gettysburg, when the awful conflict had passed, an army surgeon came back, looking for the wounded and suffering, if haply he might help them, and he saw the dead on every side. As he rode along he saw a poor fellow lying in a trench. The surgeon reined up his horse, but thought: "I need not dismount; this poor fellow is gone." And then he saw a smile play about the man's face as he lay there in the trench. The surgeon then dismounted and got down in the trench beside the dying man, and every minute or two, he said that smile would play about the dying soldier's face, and he would whisper one little word. The word was, "Here!" Presently, the army surgeon shook the man and rallied him back 
from the gates of death for a minute, and said: "Comrade, what do you mean by saying, 'Here?'" And the dying fellow answered: "Oh, Doctor, they are calling the roll up in heaven, and I was just answering to my name, "Here!" 

Oh, men and women and children, with my last sentence, I beseech you, as this call comes tonight from the great Savior to you, answer Him, and say: "Lord Jesus, I decide, and receive thee as my personal Savior and Master, and by thy grace I am going from this Sunday night with thee, forever!"  

God's Compass for the Heart and Mind (and other devotionals)

God’s Compass for the Heart and Mind

Proverbs 3:7-12

Yesterday we discussed the importance of depending on the Word of God as our compass throughout life. Following the Lord’s directions will change behavior and challenge our thinking, attitudes, and desires. He leads us to think differently about ourselves, our values, and and even the difficulties facing us.

We naturally want to determine our own course in life.It seems like the only logical way to get where we want to go. But being wise in our own eyes is pride. To combat this tendency, the Lord instructs us to fear Him and turn away from evil (v. 7). This “fear” is not a horrified dread of the Father, but an attitude of respect that motivates us to obey Him for both our good and His glory.

We naturally want to keep our money for ourselves. A desire for a better lifestyle or fear of not having enough leads us to hang onto everything we get. But our compass directs us to honor God by giving Him the first part of all we have, trusting Him to provide for our needs (vv. 9-10).

We naturally hate God’s discipline. His painful reproofs seem to prove that He doesn’t care about us. But our heavenly Father says His discipline is the evidence that confirms His love and delight in us as His children (vv. 11-12).

Sometimes in our desire to follow the Lord, we focus on obedient actions—doing what He says—but miss His directions concerning our attitudes and thought patterns. To stay on God’s path for our lives, we must make course corrections not only in our behavior but also in our hearts and minds. 

~Dr. Charles F. Stanley~

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Genesis 1:5

The evening and the morning were the first day.

Was it so even in the beginning? Did light and darkness divide the realm of time in the first day? Then little wonder is it if I have also changes in my circumstances from the sunshine of prosperity to the midnight of adversity. It will not always be the blaze of noon even in my soul concerns, I must expect at seasons to mourn the absence of my former joys, and seek my Beloved in the night. Nor am I alone in this, for all the Lord's beloved ones have had to sing the mingled song of judgment and of mercy, of trial and deliverance, of mourning and of delight. It is one of the arrangements of Divine providence that day and night shall not cease either in the spiritual or natural creation till we reach the land of which it is written, "there is no night there." What our heavenly Father ordains is wise and good. What, then, my soul, is it best for thee to do? Learn first to be content with this divine order, and be willing, with Job, to receive evil from the hand of the Lord as well as good. Study next, to make the outgoings of the morning and the evening to rejoice. Praise the Lord for the sun of joy when it rises, and for the gloom of evening as it falls. There is beauty both in sunrise and sunset, sing of it, and glorify the Lord. Like the nightingale, pour forth thy notes at all hours. Believe that the night is as useful as the day. The dews of grace fall heavily in the night of sorrow. The stars of promise shine forth gloriously amid the darkness of grief. Continue thy service under all changes. If in the day thy watchword be labour, at night exchange it for watch. Every hour has its duty, do thou continue in thy calling as the Lord's servant until He shall suddenly appear in His glory. My soul, thine evening of old age and death is drawing near, dread it not, for it is part of the day; and the Lord has said, "I will cover him all the day long."

~Charles Spurgeon~

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How Do You Handle A Crisis?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“And he [Herod] killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also.” Acts 12:2-3

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

What do you do in times of crisis? One thing we all must do, before we panic or sin against God, is respect the mystery of God’s providence.

Throughout the pages of His Word, you’re going to see the hidden hand of God...working in mysterious ways, in inexplicable ways. God is in the shadows arranging things, moving things people cannot see. That may be true in your life right now. God is working, but you cannot see Him working.

You may be in the middle of chaos right now. Nothing seems to be making sense. Everything you thought you had nailed down is coming loose, and the devil is pulling nails.

Just because it doesn’t make sense to you doesn’t mean it doesn’t make sense. Many of us have questions. As we look at Acts chapter 12, we say, “Well, how could God let a rascal like Herod be the king anyway? Isn’t God, God? If I were God, I’d turn him into a frog. And why should James be killed and Peter released? Does God have favorites? Has God lost control?”

ACTION POINT:

We do not live by explanations. Life is not a problem to be solved; it is a mystery to be lived. Sometimes we must back off and simply see what I call the hidden hand of God. Just because today you cannot see the hand of God working doesn’t mean God is not working.

~Adrian Rogers~

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Evil. God. Good

Life turns every person upside down. No one escapes unscathed. Not the woman who discovers her husband is having an affair. Not the businessman whose investments are embezzled by a crooked colleague. Not the pastor who feels his faith shaken by questions of suffering and fear. We would be foolish to think we’re invulnerable.But we would be just as foolish to think that evil wins the day. The Bible vibrates with the steady drumbeat of faith. God recycles evil into righteousness. Joseph, saddled with family rejection, slavery, and imprisonment emerged triumphant— a hero of his generation. Among his final words to his brothers are these: “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20). It is the repeated pattern in Scripture. Evil–God–Good. Trust God. No…really trust Him! God will make good out of this mess.

Conversion Brings Conflict

There was a man who went duck hunting with the farmhand who worked on his farm. The farmer wasn’t a believer, but the farmhand was. The farmer said to the farmhand, “You are always talking about fighting with the devil. I never have to fight with the devil and I’m not even a Christian.” The farmhand responded, “Boss, if you and I shot two ducks and one was wounded and one was dead, which one would you go after first?” The farmer said, “Well, I guess the wounded duck.” “That’s right. The devil knows you’re a dead duck,” concludes the farmhand. If the devil doesn’t bother you, it’s because you’re a dead duck. He doesn’t have to bother you. You are already one of his. There’s no conflict without conversion. You never really understand the power of Satan until you get saved. If there is no conflict, then you and the devil are traveling in the same direction. You turn around and you’ll have a collision with him. Right now, you are in collusion with him. It’s a false gospel that tells you if you come to Christ, there will be no adversity, no misfortune, no persecution, and no pain. Romans 8:16-17 declares, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.”

You Are Valuable—Because You Are Loved!

“But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 Grace is the most beautiful word in the Bible other than Jesus. Grace is why God loves us when there is nothing lovely about us. We are not loved because we are valuable. We are valuable because we are loved. 1 John 4:10 says, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” That, friend, is God’s amazing grace. We are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. I love Him for His grace. It is all Jesus. It’s not the church. It’s not good deeds. Amazing grace is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He loves you. He died for you. Thank God for the justification you have through Jesus Christ. Thank God for the grace He has abundantly given you.

~Jack Stinson~

God's Right to Govern

God's Right To Govern
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A Sermon Manuscript by Robert L. Cobb
Editor, NewsForChristians Dot Com
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"And Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice?"
                                                                                                       Exodus 5:2

When Moses and Aaron approached the Egyptian pharaoh to make the request of freeing the Israelites, there was set in motion a gigantic battle of authority between the most powerful man on the earth at the time, and the most powerful Being of the Universe.  The Pharaoh was like many in our world today: He did not know or or respect the authority of the God of Israel.  "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go?  I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." These are the words of a haughty authoritarian who knows no higher power than his own. Today we have people in the places of governmental authority who, like Pharaoh, believe all things rise and fall with their words.

This nation was birthed and crafted by men who believed in a Higher Power.  Some of them may not have been practicing Bible Christians, but each of them had a regard for their own place in life.  They knew the largeness of their actions, but also the smallness of their stature.  They were born in --and raised with --- a classical education founded on Bible principles highlighted by the Reformation and taught in all churches, universities and households of the day.  I am not saying every individual Founding Father was a Christian, but Bible Christianity prevailed in the culture they lived in.  Though they had personal rivalries between each other and sought power as politicians today do, they lived in a time of reverence for the wisdom and truths of Christian doctrines.

Contrast with today the politicians who answer to no one.  Our president sends out a doublespeak spokesman who answers questions so vaguely, you are not sure even what the question was.  At this writing (June 2013) we are in the midst of scandals unlike what our country has ever seen.  Government spying on its citizens, the IRS illegally targeting Conservative groups for extra scrutiny, our foreign policy in shambles all across the world because of mishandling situations in Libya, Syria, and the Middle East.  The mind-set of our government today is, "Screw the country!  I'll do what I want!"

We return to the example of the Egyptian pharaoh.  He refused to believe there was an Unseen Higher Power that he must answer to.  There was no 'higher law' for Egypt than himself.  He would not pay homage to this animal herder who comes in from the wilderness the structure of his society.  Pharaoh was rightly proud of his nation; no other people would dare challenge Egypt during this time.  It was the most powerful domain on Earth.  And Pharaoh ruled with an iron fist.  No one challenged him!

But, unknown to the Pharaoh, there is a 'higher power' a 'supreme authority,'  He is King of kings and Lord of lords. What does that mean ? King of kings. He is over the local and national legislative bodies, the courts,  and yes, the Pharaohs and Presidents. He claims the right to dictate to them all , to legislate over them; and if they call in question that right, He will deal with their rebelliousness in due time.

We have local laws, state laws and federal laws, in ascending power.  A state law overrules a local law; a federal law overrules a state and local law.  But God's law sits atop all others.  Some may say "I don't see the evidence of God's law. I don't see any authority there."  But man's law sits astride the months and years, God's Law exists in Eternity.  The Sovereign is not required to answer every challenge by a rebellious humanity every time some person shakes his fist at the heavens.  Imagine the mighty Pharaoh descending from his throne to deal with an insignificant peasant who may speak ill of him to his friends?  That peasant's doubtings and disputings do not affect the Pharaoh on his throne.  He never even takes note of it!  Those who doubt and question God's Authority today are likewise merely dust in a grave in just a few short years!

The story of humanity is a story of questioning God's authority.  Satan openly questioned God's Word when he told Eve, "Has God said, you shall die if you eat of that forbidden fruit, or if you disobey him ? I would pay no regard to his authority. I would eat. I would manage my own affairs. Don't let God dictate to you, be independent,  assert your own rights, have your own way!"   Humanity's way is the way of the flesh and the way of sin.  The battle Eve faced in the garden is the same battle we face today.  Those elected to be our leaders bring us to ruin by ignoring the principles of a Sovereign God.

In considering this text, we shall endeavor to examine and establish God's right to sit at the head of the universe, and govern all humanity;  and the corresponding duty of all men to acknowledge and submit to that authority. 
 

What Is Government?

Webster defines government thus : 1. " Direction; regulation. 2. Control; restraint. 3. The exercise of authority; direction and restraint exercised over the actions of men in communities, societies, or states; the administration of public affairs."  To 'direct' means to 'pilot,'  in our 21st Century language, it means 'to drive.'  A vehicle can have both passengers and a driver.  The driver 'governs' the vehicle, he controls it.  He applies the brakes and the accelerator at a time he determines.  A parent governs his/her children.  The parent is the leader, exercises authority, directs the child.  The policeman governs the highways.  He exercises authority and controls those who travel the roads.  And lastly, our legislative bodies govern by enacting laws to mark out the duties of the citizenry; and enforce the authority of the state by suitable rewards and punishments, to restrain and to influence the populace.  This is  government. It is control or restraint exercised over the thing governed. 
 

What Is To Be Governed?

First, there is the material universe. Under this heading we include all matter, both earthly and universal.  All things proceed according to what we call Natural Law.  Mankind can not control or govern these laws, he can only observe them and quantify them by scientific methods.  We, as a society, are constantly learning more about these laws and using them to better our lives and enrich our nations.  There was a time that most people acknowledged God as the One who controls the universe.  Now we have put science itself on the throne, as if by identifying and observing the material universe somehow qualifies us to claim it as our domain.  According to today's science, the material universe made itself and continues in its own power by itself.  No one made it; it us 'is."  If a Christian gives His God such a description, he is considered foolish and unlearned.  But a scientist can speak on what global climate change will look like in 1000 years, or what the earth was like 200 million years ago, and he is given awards and accolades.  God claims government over the universe, and though we can't see Him, we see the results of His work. "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist."  Colossians 1:16-17

Second, there is humanity, or mankind.  In the garden, God Himself governed.  After the fall, family patriarchs ruled their households and their progeny.  Gradually, human governments developed and ruled over cities and later nations.  A study of the history of the world's governments would show that man is not good at governing.  Most governments have always benefited the few who exercise power over the rest.  Many millions have died as a result of man's governments.  There are many types of government---monarchy, dictatorship, plutocracy, democracy and tyranny. But all of them feature humans exerting power over other humans to some degree. 

We all understand the need for human government.  But we must also understand the inability and imperfection of such government.  I believe the United States of America has the greatest form of government in the history of the world (outside of the future earthly reign of Jesus Christ Himself).  We are a democratic republic.  We are represented by others like ourselves who are supposed to put the interest of  the whole before the interest of a few.  The USA has prospered through the decades under this government.  It hasn't been perfect, but it has been better than anything else.  But we now are straining under new pressures.  Liberalism and progressivism is tearing down, bit by bit, our traditions and our culture.  The question is how long will we endure?
 

A Government Rules by Power.

The power exerted over the population of the USA is derived from the people.  We allow ourselves to be ruled by our government.  Supposedly we elect our leaders and they respect the citizenry from which they themselves come.  But power corrupts----and absolute power corrupts absolutely, the saying goes.  Many who attain office seek more power than warranted.

Power is defined as "The faculty of doing or performing anything. The faculty of moving or producing a change in something; ability or strength.  2. Force ; animal strength."  Government exercises power to direct and control the populace.  We in America do not think of our government in such a way because we are 'a free country.'  But the fact is all governments rule by power.  The powers of the U.S. government are being strained by a lack of restraint and an overreach of that power into aspects of the citizens lives that have always been off-limits.
 

There Are Two Types of Power.

If a government must use power to control its subjects, then what kinds of power are available for the task?  There are but two:  Physical Power and Moral Power.

Physical power is the power of force. This is applicable to move, control, and govern matter. The whole material universe is regulated and governed by the application of this kind of power. God and all other beings, when they wish to control matter, use this kind of power and no other. All the motions and changes of the heavenly bodies are produced by the application of the law of force. Every particle of matter is controlled by this law, and cannot be controlled by any other. Matter is inert ; it has no power in itself of acting or resisting action. If moved or controlled it must be by force. It is passive, perfectly so in its nature. 

Moral power is the power of motive or inducement. This is the power used to control the mind,  or the will of moral agents. Mind is the opposite of matter. To control the mind you must use another kind of power. Moral agents have power to act. They have power in themselves to resist power. To control them, you must gain consent of their wills.
Humans are moral agents, and have the power of choice. To control the will of people, you must use moral power, or the power of motive or inducement.
 

Moral Agents Must Be Governed By Moral Power.

The great misfortune of most ancient and modern governments is their attempt to rule by physical power rather than moral power.  To rule by moral power necessitates a moral leader.  When those without morals are in power, the government must resort to physical power to achieve the results that once came from a moral center.
All past governments which have depended on physical power have fallen.  Look at the Germany of World Wars I and II.  Look at the Soviet Union 0f the 20th Century.  All the dictatorships of the present day have fatal flaws.  Cuba, North Korea and Vietnam are among the most backward countries in the world.   China has benefited from a change to a market economy over the past generation but still cannot overcome its repressive government. If it were possible to secure the holiness and happiness of all by physical power, it would be done. But it is not done,  which settles the question that it could not be accomplished in that way. Physical power cannot force man to be holy. 

Moral power creates free moral agents of its citizens and gives them power.  There could be no moral government without a moral people to hold up as examples.  For moral government to hold sway in a nation, there must be an Omnipotent Moral Power for those moral examples to point to.  Thus the morality of this Omnipotent Power becomes larger than the individuals who possess and defend it.  This morality lives from one generation to another and does its work in each succeeding generation.

This Omnipotent Power is larger than the borders of any country.  It behooves the citizens of each nation to honor and reverence such Moral Power, but the lack of honor does not change the morality itself.  However that lack of reverence does change the fiber of that nation. Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.  (Psalm 33:12)  Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin [is] a reproach to any people.  (Proverbs 14:34)  The wicked shall be turned into hell, [and] all the nations that forget God. (Psalms 9:17)

To destroy a nation, the enemy must destroy the citizens' trust in the morality that binds them. George Washington warned in his Farewell Address of this very thing when he said:

"...Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness--these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."

We see in our day a systematic destruction of morality and religion in America.  The progressives describe it as improvement or betterment of society, but the results are disasterous.  The liberal voice today is the voice of anti-morality and anti-God, and preparing the way for the anti-Christ. 
 

What Is Our Responsiblity as Christians Toward Our Nation?

While the Bible does not teach that Christians are to bring about a theocracy, we do have certain responsibilities to our God and our nation.  A theocracy can be defined as "a government led directly by God."  God is not interested in coming down and taking possession of the Executive Office of the White House.  That would be quite a step down for Him!  We do not owe our God our vote, but we do owe Him our allegiance!  We should be actively engaged in governmental affairs and see to it that our voices are heard in the halls of the legislative bodies.  We should vote for godly candidates who represent godly principles and Biblical truth.  If there are no candidates that represent godly morality, then we must pick the lesser of two evils.  If the candidates are so corrupt and ungodly that it is impossible to make an informed choice, we must still articulate and lobby for our views in the public arena.  We must not expect deference from others, or a place of honor on the dais.  We must not  think that somehow our views must be enacted because of our nation's founding or its history.  We make our moral points because they can stand in their own power; because they are tested and true; because they are correct and right.

We must be able to step into the marketplace of ideas and be confident that we stand and speak alongside a long list of valiant and honorable patriots down through the generations who believed as we do!  We must not slink to the back of the crowd or hush our voices in the face of ridicule and contempt.  There will be those who sneer and deride, but Jesus suffered at the hands of evil men also.  We are certainly not better than Our Lord!
 

We Will Not Usher In God's Kingdom On Earth, But It Will Come!

There are those in the church who teach that our godly morals and Christian principles will usher in the Millennial Reign of Christ, that He will return after the Church has prepared the way for Him!  One only has to observe the world conditions to realize that Christians are not in a situation to bring such a thing to pass.  If anything, we are getting farther and farther from such an opportunity.  The world stage necessitates that the Pre-millennial position will be the accurate position.  But whatever prophetic standard you hold, the Bible teaches that god Himself will one day hold the reins of government on this earth.

"And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it...And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."                  Isaiah 2:2,4

God Himself is most qualified to govern this earth for a myriad of reasons.  He is omniscient.  He knows all hearts perfectly, and how to adapt His government to our needs.  There will be no failed programs in the government of God; there will be no waste, fraud, and abuse!  He will need no cabinet or czars to carry out His will. History tells us of the wisest leaders in times past; Cyrus the Great, Julius Caesar, Marcus Aurelius, Charlemagne, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi....but the wisest is yet to come!

He is omnipresent. He is present in all worlds, and in every part of the universe at the same instant. This is true of him at all times, and not true of any other being. There will be no jealousies among the nations under His Reign, for He will be available to each.  There will be no emergency situation that He will be unprepared for.

He is omnipotent. This power is within himself. It is not derived from others, and cannot be taken away by others. There are a few strong governments on the earth. But what makes them strong ? They combine military strength with economic strength.  They have great minds in science and education.  But the power of the Governing God outshines all strengths of past governments!  There will be no greater king who will come along and defeat Him.  His kingdom is assured!

He is unchangeable."But he is in one mind, and who can turn him?" (Job 23:13)  A fickle government is always unsafe. It advocates one thing as right today, and condemns the same thing as wrong tomorrow. Such a government unsettles the confidence of its citizens. How true this is in America in the early 21st Century. But God being infinite in wisdom, can and does see the right. He takes his position for the right, and against the wrong, and remains there unchangeably for eternity. 

He is holy.  His moral character is perfection itself. While he is infinite in his natural attributes, he is equally  in his moral. He is infinite in justice, mercy, truthfulness, goodness, and every other moral qualification which renders his character infinitely right and lovely. Is he all justice without mercy? No. Is he all mercy without justice? No. Mercy has its place in his government, and justice has its place, and everything else that goes to make up perfection 
in character. He is infinite in his loveliness, holiness, and goodness. He is so perfect in his moral character, that he is infinitely above all temptation to wrongdoing. This is essential to sit at the head of such a vast and sublime kingdom. Government affords many temptations to wrongdoing, temptations to injustice, oppression, and self-aggrandizement. These temptations lead to the sacrifice of public interests to promote private ends.  Men become intoxicated with power, haughty, and overbearing. There is not a government on earth that has not been led into oppressive and wickedness. Place any other being but God at the head of the universe, and his goodness might be overcome by temptation, and he might be led to wield his power for the destruction of public interests, instead of their promotion. But with him we are safe. He is infinitely above all temptation to wrong. 

In this time of celebration of our national birthday, let us remember that our hearts are to be governed by the One and True God of the Universe, and that He will, one day, show this world how government is to be conducted!  So let us pray with the words of the Lord's Prayer, "Thy kingdom come!" 

The Cure for a Troubled Heart

The Cure For a Troubled Heart

by George W. Truett (1867-1944)  The "devout dogmatist," George W. Truett pastored the famous First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas for 44 years.  When he took the pastorate there were 715 members; when he left there were over 7,000.  His preaching was powerful, but seldom expository. He preached extemporaneously, following a very limited outline written on the backs of envelopes. His application and illustrations were especially strong, and his delivery was powerful.  He was adroit at evangelistic preaching and revivals. 
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“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.”

                                            —John 14:1

If you were asked this morning to name the most comforting passage in the Bible, what would you say? It would be interesting to know what your answer would be. Many in this presence, perhaps, would name the Twenty-third Psalm, the great Shepherd Psalm, as the most comforting passage in the Bible. Others would mention that oftquoted verse in the eighth chapter of Romans: “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” But probably more of you would select the fourteenth chapter of John as the most comforting passage to be found in all the Bible. Every one of us ought to know that chapter by heart, even as we ought to know many other Scriptures by heart, because some day we may be blind and be unable to read at all, and then if we had hidden away in our hearts many Scriptures, we could read them even though our sight should be gone.
Listen to the opening sentences of this heavenly chapter:

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also In me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Memorize that fourteenth chapter of John's gospel, all of it. You will need it.

Probably our deepest troubles in this world are occasioned by separation from our loved ones. Jesus had just said to that little group of men about Him: “I am going away. Presently we are to be separated. I am going to die.” And the announcement stupefied them, dazed them, horrified them. “Isn't there some mistake? He has just said He is going away, and, more, He has just said that He must die. Isn't there some mistake?” They are stupefied. They are horrified. The separations from our loved ones wring our hearts to the deepest depths.

Just a few days ago, I was called to say some words at the grave of a dear, faithful mother, and the grief of her children was so terrible that it seems to me I can never forget it. The oldest daughter did her best to quiet and comfort the several younger children, with no success, and presently «he tried a new turn on them. She went up and down the line of children, all bewildered and heart-broken, and said: “Stop your crying, children. Maybe it is all a dream. Maybe we are all at home. Maybe we are in our beds asleep, and will wake up in the morning and find it is just a bad dream, and mother will be with us.” And for a moment she thus quieted them.

Oh, the deep wrenchings of heart when our lovec! ones go away! Jesus had just spoken some words that pierced like arrows the hearts of the twelve men, when He told them: “I am going away.” Then He proceeded to comfort them, to point them to the way of light and life, and then it was He spoke this fourteenth chapter of John, Its opening sentence is the text for this morning: “Let not your heart be troubled.”

Jesus proceeded in these words to point the cure for a troubled heart. How may a troubled heart be cured? That is an old question. It is as old as the human heart. How may a troubled heart be cured? It is the question of all humanity, of all the ages, of all conditions and classes: How may a troubled heart be cured?

All along there have been given various answers to that question. There is the answer of despair. When trouble came upon Job, wave upon wave, and all was swept from him—first his property, and later his children, and later his health, and later his friends—finally his wife said to the husband: “Curse God and die.” That is the answer of despair, and the answer of despair is not a cure for a broken, troubled heart. The poor suicide takes that course—the course of despair.

Different causes make for the despair of the human spirit. Sometimes it is business reverses, and the man's spirit is broken, and down he goes, and he cannot recover himself any more, and despair grips at the throat of his soul. Sometimes despair is occasioned by a shattered confidence. Oh, how terrible a thing it is to have our confidence in somebody fundamentally shattered! Sometimes one's despair comes because of ill health. What weakness men's poor spirits feel when their bodies are in the grip of disease! What allowances we ought to make for those who are sick! What pity and patience and forbearance we ought to exercise towards people racked with pain! Just here is an exhortation every one of us should earnestly heed.

But full many a time the answer of despair follows the course of sin. I was in a Southern city a little while ago, speaking for a half-dozen days, and my host drove me by two beautiful residences—two of the fairest in the city— and told me that in one home had been a mother and in the other had been a father, and these two, because of sin which had made itself known, and was making itself known throughout the city, to the shame of both homes, had entered into a death pact, that they would each at a certain hour take the suicide's course. And they carried out such death pact. Oh, how terrible is the course of despair for a human heart when such heart has grievously sinned!

There is another answer proposed as the cure for a troubled heart, and that is the answer of stoicism. And what is the doctrine of the stoic? The doctrine of the stoic is, to steel your heart against all feeling. The doctrine of the stoic is to put your tears all away and refuse to cry. The doctrine of the stoic is to deaden your feelings, and make your heart like a rock. The doctrine of the stoic is to be sublimely indifferent, no matter what comes. With rigid face, like a stone, go on, steeled against it, indifferent to it, with your heart shutting it all out. That is the doctrine of the stoic, but that doctrine won't cure a broken heart.

If you have read carefully the stories of Darwin and Huxley, those world-famed scientists, you will find the confession, in the latter end of the life of both those notable men, of sorrow that they had so steadfastly steeled their hearts against that which was tender, against that which was gentle, against that which warms the heart, against that which provokes tears, against that which kindles the flames on the altars of emotion and sentiment and the finer feelings. Both of them bewailed the fact that they had pursued that course. The doctrine of the stoic is not the doctrine to cure a troubled heart. Sooner or later the heart will find it out, sometimes in the gathering shadows of old age.

Then, again, Epicureanism is proposed as the cure for a troubled heart, and the doctrine of Epicureanism is: “Forget all your trouble. Plunge into the realm of pleasure. Sound all the depths of pleasure. Go the whole gamut of pleasure. Forget, forget all your troubles. Leap out into the deepest depths of pleasure, and there revel and swim in those depths, and put out of your sight and out of your mind all thought of sorrow. Drown it all in the realm of pleasure.” But that won't cure a broken heart.

When I was preaching awhile ago in another community one day there came to the service a young widow, robed in black, and the minister whispered to me: “That is an unusually sorrowful case. Her husband was assassinated here a few months ago, all unexpectedly and wickedly, and she carries a broken heart. She is a woman of culture and of a noble family, and much appreciation is cherished for her here in this city, but she gropes in the darkness with her broken heart.” And then he went on to tell me that her friends took her, when the awful tragedy fell and smote her heart into the dust, and carried her away to Florida, in that midwinter time, and they said to her: “We will take you down there to one of the beautiful hotels, in the midst of the orange groves. We will take you there where music shall be heard, and where all that is gay and beautiful shall echo and re-echo in your ears, and you will forget all this sorrow in a little while. Come with us and you will forget it all.” And the poor, bruised, broken-hearted woman went with them, but she came back months later with that same broken heart. You cannot cure the heart in any such fashion.

There has been proposed still another answer as a cure for a troubled heart, and that is the answer of denial. There is a fundamentally false philosophy abroad in the land, which proposes to cure a broken heart by denying that there is any brokenness of heart — that there is any trouble at all. Now, that busy, noisy and fundamentally false philosophy simply denies the facts, and proposes to get past the difficulty by denying the facts. It denies the fact of sorrow, the fact of suffering, the fact of sin, the fact of death. It denies them all. But you cannot cure a troubled heart by simply denying that there is any trouble. The facts are here. All about us is the solemn fact of sin, and the fact of suffering, and the fact of tears, and the fact that a black Friday comes ever and anon, and the fact of the long and lonely and sleepless nights, and the fact of bewilderment and confusion, and the fact that all unexpectedly we are again and again beaten down into the dust by the flail of disappointment. We cannot cure the trouble by denying the facts.

Where can we get our trouble cured? Just one way, at just one place, from just one source, and it is stated for us here in the glorious fourteenth chapter of John: “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.” Jesus here states the cure for a troubled heart. Jesus is himself the physician for a troubled heart. Nor is there any other anchorage and re-enforcement and healing and recovery and peace sufficient for any troubled heart, if you reject Jesus and put His counsel and comfort far aside. “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me.” “Put your case in my hands,” says Jesus. “Come, with your sorrows and your vexation and your disappointment and your surprise, and your reverses, and your consuming grief, and the pain of your spirit which never ceases; come to me, and I will cure your troubled heart, and I will unfailingly re-enforce you, if you will come to me.” Christ is humanity's cure for a troubled heart.

Have you a troubled heart? Is there in your life one experience and another and another, every thought of which brings a stab to your heart, or the deathly pallor to your cheeks? Have you a troubled heart? No matter what the occasion, there is one source to get it healed, and that source is Jesus. He is the one mediator between God and us. He is the daysman unto whom we may come, and unto whom we may confide our all, without any hesitation or reserve. Christ is the cure for a troubled heart.

Now, my fellow-men, why should you and I thus stake our all on Christ? If you ask me if I have, I answer you modestly: “I have staked my all on Christ.” Living and dying, and in God's vast beyond forever, God help me, I can do no other. I have staked my all on Christ. Now, why? Why should we stake our all on Christ? He tells us: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me.” Why should we come to the Father by Christ? Why should we accept Christ as our daysman, our umpire, our arbitrator, our mediator? Why should we take Christ as our physician, our leader, to be our friend supreme, and stake our all upon Him?

First, because Christ in His own personality is entirely worthy. Christ has vindicated His claims to our absolute confidence. Christ in Himself attests His own worthiness to our absolute confidence. Can you find any fault in anything which Jesus ever said? Pray, tell me what it is. Did there ever fall from His lips any word that you can gainsay and condemn? You can condemn the sayings of any other from whose lips words have ever fallen. Can you gainsay any word that ever fell from those gracious lips? Can you gainsay any work that Jesus ever did? Did He do anything when He was here in the flesh, and in these nineteen centuries since He went back to His Father has He done anything for the world that you can gainsay and complain of and condemn? Is there anything in the person of Jesus, in the character of Jesus, in the life of Jesus, that you can gainsay and condemn and set aside? Jesus in His own personality is the attestation, the authorization, the corroboration, the demonstration of His claim to human trust and human confidence, without any hesitation or reserve. Christ in His own personality authenticates His absolute right to human trust, without any reserve, from every human life.

And, more. If Jesus shall go away, and we shall set aside His counsel and leading, we are left bewildered utterly and broken in the world in which we live. What that sun is to the vast physical world this midday hour, lighting up the world's darkness everywhere, Jesus is that, and more, in our world of morals, in the needy world of humanity. When He says for himself: “I am the light of the world,” He makes no pretentious and vainglorious claim. Jesus is the light of the world. Will you take the world's big questions and answer them? You are utterly bewildered and in the darkness if you take Jesus away, and if you fail to take His answer. Take the three questions that this hour most baffle and perplex poor humanity, and Jesus gives the only satisfying answer for each of them and all three of them. There is the question of sin, and the question of sorrow, and the question of death. If you take Jesus Christ away and disregard Him, you are left utterly bewildered and baffled and broken in the presence of those blinding and burdensome mysteries — sin, sorrow and death.

What will you do about sin, if Jesus be disregarded and taken away? What will you do about sin? Oh, my fellow-men, the one tragedy in all the world this hour is the tragedy of sin. The one unbearable yoke that is on humanity everywhere is the yoke of sin. The most terrible and obtruding fact this Saturday morning in all the world is the fact of sin. Now, what will you and I do with the fact of sin, if Jesus be disregarded and taken away? No man within himself has moral resources sufficient to meet life like it ought to be met, to live life like it ought to be lived, and to die at last like one ought to die, and to make personal answer to God as each must make such answer in the after world. No man has moral resources within himself sufficient to overcome and be the master of sin. Jesus comes in, the great physician, saying: “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. If you will commit yourself to me, I will make you a new man.” Jesus alone can save us from sin.

Speaking awhile ago in one of our larger American cities, one day friends brought to the service where I was speaking at midday to the busy citizens, an ex-registrar of one of America's largest universities. He had gone into the depths of poverty and failure and shame because of drink. Oh, how I pitied him, and how my heart yearned after him! You do not throw stones at such men, do you? That is not the way to win them. That is not the way to win anybody. Oh, go down to them, and with a brother's hand, and a brother's heart, and a brother's pity, and a brother's patience, and a brother's re-enforcement, seek to win them, not by driving, but by the winning constraints of love. So they brought this man to the service, and when the service was done they tarried behind in a little room, and I was introduced to him, and I could see in a moment how wretchedly he had fallen, and though he was terribly shattered by the down-dragging power of drink, I could see yet the traces of the strong man that he had been, and glimpses of the wonderful man that he could be. There we sat conversing, and he said to me: “Sir, I seem done for. I seem to have lost the battle. I seem unable to extricate myself from the dominant passion of drink in my life.” Does it surprise you to hear that he was the son of the chief justice of one of our highest courts in one of our American states? Superb had been his opportunities. Quite honorable was his record in the university from which he had been graduated. But now he had fallen to the depths. I will tell you what I told him at last. I told him the story that Henry Drummond tells, who won the same sort of a man once, from the depths to the heights, to Christ Jesus. Drummond was resting in a quiet home in the hills of Scotland, after an extended meeting that he had been holding in one of the Scotch universities. When he had been some three or four days in the quiet of that home in the hills, he said to his host and hostess: “I must go now and get the next train for my next engagement.” They said: “We are not going with you to the station”— a journey of three or four miles from the house—”we are going to let you go alone with our driver. Drink has brought our driver to the depths. He is an unusual scholar,” they told Mr. Drummond. “He is a rare gentleman,” they told Mr. Drummond, “and we are going to leave him with you. He is in the clutches of helplessness because of drink, so he tells us. He is in the grip of despair about himself, so he will avow to you. Maybe you can help him, and so we will leave you with him.” Drummond climbed out of the carriage, up on the seat with the driver, just like he should have done, and then, in his own winsome, gentle, gracious way, Drummond made his way to that defeated fellow's conscience and heart. Presently that driver was confessing his weakness, and failure, and lapse, and sin, and downfall, and defeat, and when Drummond had heard it, all Drummond said to him was this: “What if I, who drive beside you, were the finest horseman that ever drove a team of horses; what if I could control the wildest span of horses that ever pulled a carriage, no matter how strong, no matter how restive; what if these horses driven by you were such a span, and they rushed around this mountain road, and you could not restrain them, you could not control them, you were helpless, and I said to you: 'Man, give me the reins and I will control them,' what would you do?” The man saw the point in one moment, and turning to his newfound friend, he said: “Oh, Mr. Drummond, is that what Jesus Christ proposes to do for a man defeated and down? Does He just wish me to give Him the reins to my life?” “That is it,” said Drummond. “Let Christ have the reins; though your sins be as scarlet, He will make them as white as snow. Though your heart and its weakness be poured out like water, He will fortify you with a power which is above men, and you will go your way, clad with a strength which is superhuman.” From that hour that defeated fellow walked in the conscious strength of his Savior, and a little later was at the head of one of the chief places of trust and usefulness in all fair Scotland's borders. Christ was his deliverer from sin. “Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.”

If you are without Jesus, you are left baffled and helpless in the presence of sorrow. You can hear the undertone of sorrow everywhere. You can feel and see the awful reign of sorrow on every side. The other day, one of our young carpenters in my city had me go with him to Oakland, where we put away our dead. He had lived just a little while with his beautiful wife, and they had recently brought to completion a lovely little home, and prospects like some rosy morning gleamed before them, because they were well and industrious, and their hearts were filled with love and hope. In one brief night she sickened and died. He said to me, as we turned away from the freshly-made mound: “Oh, man, I had just got ready to live, and all this has come!” What was I to say to him? What would you have said to him? What should I say to you, if that were your position this morning, and I stood beside you as your friend? “There is one who can turn the very shadow of death into morning. There is one who can take life's tears and attune them to the sweetest music, and His name is Jesus.”

At another time, there in the big hospital, a dear mother died, and I was with the husband and several children. Oh, the grief was heart-breaking! It seems always to be so when a mother dies. And then that little oldest one, twelve years old, mothered all the rest, and went to her utterly broken-hearted father, and put her arms around him and said: “Papa, I will help you. Papa, we must do better than this. Papa, you and I love Jesus. Papa, I will help you take care of these children.” The family was taken home, and the next morning we got ready for the funeral, and that little twelve-year-old girl, the most motherly child for her years I ever saw, mothered all those five little ones through it all. Then we went to Oakland, and the funeral service was had, and the kindly men came to let down the body gently into the grave, and I felt somebody pulling at my coat. I looked, and there was the little motherless twelve-year-old girl, and she said to me, with an agony that would break your heart: “Oh, Mr. Truett, if Jesus loves us, how could He have allowed this?” What could I say? I said: “Little woman, I cannot explain it, but let me tell you, my child, some day when you get to the Father's House above, and you shall sit down by Jesus, He will explain it all to you, and when He explains it, you will know it is all for the best, for He tells you, 'What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.'“ You take Jesus away and we are helpless to comfort or be comforted in the day of broken hearts.

There is one more mystery to baffle you, and it is the chiefest mystery of all. What shall you and I do when we walk down into the valley of the shadow of death, if Christ be taken away? Caesar stood up in the Roman Senate and said: “If there be anything beyond death, I do not know. If there be anything beyond the grave, I cannot tell.” Jesus went down into the grave and explored its every chamber, and then on the third day He came back from the grave with the keys of death and the world invisible swinging at His girdle, and He says to you and to me: “You cleave to me, and you need not be afraid of death and what death can do to you.” The other day I saw a man, not a believer in Christ, bid his little curly-haired girl of six years good-bye, and as he kissed her little face and fingered the curls about her ears for a moment, he turned away with seemingly utter desperation, saying: “Good-bye, little tot, forever!” And then, in a moment more, came the frail little mother, and she stroked the forehead and kissed the little girl's face again and again, and blessed God for the little girl, even though for only a few years. Life was richer and sweeter and better every way because of that child, she kept gratefully declaring. Then she kissed her, and said: “Goodbye, for just a little while, little tot. Mother will see you right soon, and be with you beyond the sunset and the night.” She could say it because of Jesus.

Men and women, Christ is the Light of the world. Let us follow Him! Oh, let us follow Him! Let us follow to-day and forever! Let us sing with the poet:

So, I go on not knowing,
I would not know if I might. 
I would rather walk with Christ in the dark 
Than to walk alone in the light. 
I would rather walk with Him by faith 
Than to walk by myself with sight.

Settle it now as we pray that Christ shall be your light, your Savior and Master, from this hour until death, and beyond forever.

What Did You Pray for This Morning? (and other devotionals)

What Did You Pray For This Morning?

BIBLE MEDITATION:
“Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. And he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. And…he proceeded further to take Peter also…. And…he put him in prison….Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him….And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him….And the angel said unto him, “Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals…and follow me.”… And…he came to the house of Mary the mother of John…where many were gathered together praying….Peter continued knocking: and when they had opened the door, and saw him, they were astonished.” Acts 12: 1-5, 7-8, 12, 16

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Peter was in prison and the church was praying. They had no other recourse. They couldn’t petition the government to release him. They had no political influence, no money to bribe Herod. But they could pray. The world might have laughed, but friend, the devil didn’t laugh.

Someone wisely said, “The devil trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees.” They offered focused prayer to God, and God controls the universe.

Notice that “Prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him” (v. 5). They prayed for Peter not only with intensity but with specificity.

What did you pray for this morning? Many of our prayers, like “Lord, save the lost,” are so vague, if God were to answer them we wouldn’t know it, and if God didn’t answer them we wouldn’t have to admit it.

ACTION POINT:
Stop praying vague, general prayers. Get specific. When they prayed for Peter and the answer came, they knew it was an answer to prayer.

~Adrian Rogers~

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Psalm 103:3

Who healeth all thy diseases.

Humbling as is the statement, yet the fact is certain, that we are all more or less suffering under the disease of sin. What a comfort to know that we have a great Physician who is both able and willing to heal us! Let us think of Him awhile to-night. His cures are very speedy - there is life in a look at Him; His cures are radical - He strikes at the centre of the disease; and hence, His cures are sure and certain. He never fails, and the disease never returns. There is no relapse where Christ heals; no fear that His patients should be merely patched up for a season, He makes new men of them: a new heart also does He give them, and a right spirit does He put with them. He is well skilled in all diseases. Physicians generally have some specialty. Although they may know a little about almost all our pains and ills, there is usually one disease which they have studied above all others; but Jesus Christ is thoroughly acquainted with the whole of human nature. He is as much at home with one sinner as with another, and never yet did He meet with an out-of-the-way case that was difficult to Him. He has had extraordinary complications of strange diseases to deal with, but He has known exactly with one glance of His eye how to treat the patient. He is the only universal doctor; and the medicine He gives is the only true catholicon, healing in every instance. Whatever our spiritual malady may be, we should apply at once to this Divine Physician. There is no brokenness of heart which Jesus cannot bind up. "His blood cleanseth from all sin." We have but to think of the myriads who have been delivered from all sorts of diseases through the power and virtue of His touch, and we shall joyfully put ourselves in His hands. We trust Him, and sin dies; we love Him, and grace lives; we wait for Him and grace is strengthened; we see Him as he is, and grace is perfected for ever.

~Charles Spurgeon~

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"As long as we think we own anything, that thing owns us. As soon as we know that we own nothing, then God owns us" 

~A. W. Tozer~

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"Jesus Christ knows the worst about you. Nonetheless, He is the one who loves you most." 

~A. W. Tozer~

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" What God has revealed to us in His Word is built into the Christian faith. We dare not allow ourselves to take another side and begin debating. The Word of the Lord is not debatable. And the commandments of Christ are not there to be discussed by a panel. God's words are not for me to edit and tinker with, but to believe and obey ! " 

~A. W. Tozer~

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"Paul was overwhelmed with the sense of his indebtedness to Jesus Christ. The greatest inspiration in Paul's life was his view of Jesus Christ as his spiritual creditor. Do I feel that same sense of indebtedness to Christ regarding every unsaved soul? My life's spiritual honor and duty is to fulfill my debt to Christ in relation to these lost souls. Am I doing anything to enable Him to bring His redemption into evident reality in the lives of others?"

~Oswald Chambers~

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There is plenty of good news in the Bible, but there is never any flattery or back scratching.

~A. W. Tozer~

How To Handle Praise

Proverbs 27:21

How do you respond when someone compliments you? Some people absolutely love receiving praise because it lifts their spirits and makes them feel valuable. Others are uncomfortable with it. They look down at their feet or offer reasons why they really don't deserve such praise.

For Christians, there's another dilemma. We're called to be humble, so what are we to do when others say good things about us? Because pride is always waiting to raise its ugly head, we need to be careful not to let praise puff us up. Some believers think that accepting a compliment is a sign of pride, so they make a big show of giving all the glory to God. That's fine, if it's really what's in their hearts, but too often it becomes a rote "Christian" response that's geared to impressing others.

My advice is simply to say, "Thank you very much." Then whisper a prayer in your heart to the Lord, thanking Him for the blessing, recognizing that anything worthy of praise ultimately comes from Him. If you felt encouraged, let the person know how the comment blessed you. If you receive praise for an achievement that was really a group effort, be sure to redirect the compliment to all those who were involved. A blessing is always more enjoyable when it's shared.

Our character is tested by the praise that comes to us. Every compliment that bounces into our ears should quickly rebound up to the Father. If we hold onto it, the poison of pride will begin to infect our hearts. But if we pass the praise to God, humility takes up residence in our souls.

~Dr. Charles F. Stanley~