Why Christ Is Not Esteemed

Why Christ Is Not Esteemed
by Charles H. Spurgeon

CHARLES H. SPURGEON (1834-1892)

Spurgeon was a one-of-a-kind preacher.  There was never a preacher like him before or since. His story is truly unique in the history of preaching.  He started preaching at sixteen and had preached over 1000 times by the time he was 21 years old.   Almost immediately, he was a master with word pictures and illustrations.  His delivery was like music or poetry and his written word remains as powerful today as it was during his life.  Unbelieveably, Spurgeon had no formal education, but he was very well-read in Puritan theology, natural history, and Latin and Victorian literature. His lack of a college degree proved to be no hindrance to his remarkable preaching career. Spurgeon began publishing shortly after he started preaching. In January 1855,  the "Penny Pulpit" began, publishing one sermon every week; the series continued until 1917, a quarter-century after Spurgeon's death. Every year these sermons were reissued in book form, first as The New Park Street Pulpit (6 volumes, 1855-1860) and later as The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit (57 volumes, 1861-1917). Spurgeon published scores of religious books in addition to his sermons...During his ministry, he edited a periodical, The Sword and the Trowel, in which he dealt with both theology and politics. Three hundred million copies of his printed works have been in circulation, mostly his sermons.  His book on preaching, Lectures to My Students, has had over 500,000 copies printed.  His  two-volume commentary on Psalms, the Treasury of David, is sitting on the shelves of over 150,000 libraries. His sermons are still being printed today and sell as well or better than any contemporary preacher.  Though not an expositor in the style of Maclaren, he was thoroughly Biblical in his messages.  His thought process was deep, but his preaching was understandable to even the most simple minds.  It has been said that his hearers listened as one who was hearing a will read or hearing his sentence given by a judge. 

 
"We esteemed Him not."   —Isaiah 53:3

This must be the universal confession of the human race. From the highest monarch to the meanest peasant, from the loftiest intellect to the most degraded mind, from the admired of all men to the unknown and insignificant, this one confession must come—"We esteemed Him not." Whether we examine the sensualist rioting in the delights of the flesh or the formalist starving his body to fatten his pride, the merchant laboring to acquire wealth or the spendthrift recklessly scattering gold with both his hands, the profligate black with profanity, the moralist rejoicing in his goodness, or even the devoted Christian, we shall make them all acknowledge that either now or at some past period, they esteemed not Jesus! We make no exception, for even the holiest of God's saints, those who now are— 

"Foremost of the sons of light, Nearest the eternal Throne"— 

those who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb—even they once "esteemed Him not." And the brightest saints still upon the earth, those who are most earnestly and faithfully serving the Savior, at one time "esteemed Him not." I am going, first, to prove that this was true. Next, to dive deeper and try to find out the reasons why we esteemed not Jesus. And, afterwards, I want to remind you of the emotions which this fact ought to create in our minds—the fact that at one time—and in the case of many of us it was true not many years ago that "we esteemed Him not."

I. First, then, I have TO PROVE THAT THIS WAS TRUE. 

Look, then, my Friends, first, at the overt acts of your transgression against the Lord Jesus Christ. Go back in imagination to the scenes of your youth and recollect your former transgressions. Some of you have your heads covered with the snows of many a winter and you have been for 40 or 50 years wearing the harness of the soldiers of Jesus Christ. You have fought the good fight ever since you enlisted under the bloodstained banner of the Cross, yet you can never forget some things that happened before that happy day when you first sang from your heart—

"Tis done! The great transaction's done— I am my Lord's, and He is mine." 

It might not be profitable to mention in detail those sins of long ago, yet some of you have a very vivid remembrance of them and, although the Lord has graciously forgiven them and blotted them out of His Book of Remembrance, your own conscience will not let you forget them. 

There are others of you who were, either by your early associations, or by the restraints of Sovereign Grace, kept from openly sinning against God as many others did, yet you know that your lives were not in accordance with the Law of God. You were, in comparison with many of your fellows, moral, upright, amiable, yet, as far as Christ was concerned, you "esteemed Him not." Your friends and companions could find no fault with your character, but you know, now, that all the while there was a fatal flaw which was plainly manifest to the eyes of God. In the case of some, the apparent excellence was all on the surface, but, underneath there was a mass of rottenness and sin of which they can only think now with shame and sorrow. That, too, has all been forgiven and forgotten by God—yet it lingers in their own remembrance in a most salutary fashion, for it makes them hate all forms of iniquity and turn from them with utter loathing.

Besides the overt acts of sin which some of you committed—and the less public but none the less deadly evils of which others of you were guilty—there was further evidence thatyou did not esteem Christ in the fact that you did not esteem His Word as you should have done. Possible, just to quiet your conscience, you read a chapter from it in the morning and another in the evening, or you listened to it while your parents read it at family prayer. But how dull and dry it seemed to you! You could revel in a novel and be completely fascinated with fiction, but the Inspired Truth of God was a weariness and a burden to you. I must honestly confess that before I knew the Lord, or was seriously seeking Him, although I found the historical parts of the Bible interesting, a great portion of the Scriptures appeared to me to be dull and meaningless. As for anyone reading the Word as a treat, I could no more understand how that could be done than a blind man could appreciate the beauties of the scenery that could be discerned by sightseers on the top of a mountain! I might perhaps be mentally charmed by some beautiful passages in the Bible, but as to its hidden spiritual meaning, I had no true perception. If I were sick and in fear lest I was about to die, down would come my Bible and I would read it diligently for a while! But as for taking it as my everyday companion—that idea never occurred to me until the Holy Spirit began to work conviction in my heart. And then I was glad enough to turn to the neglected Book to find an answer to the all-important question, "What must I do to be saved?" If you, my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, could each one relate your own experience, I expect you would, many of you, have to join with me in saying, "We esteemed Him not, for we did not hold in proper esteem the Sacred Scriptures in which He had been revealed to us." 

Another proof that we did not esteem Christ was the fact that we did not esteem His people. We may have thought that, as a class, they were a harmless set of enthusiasts, or we may have reviled them as hypocrites and deceivers although we had no reason for applying such titles to them. As for myself, from my earliest days I had the priceless privilege of being associated with those who practiced what they professed and I had such gracious examples set before me, both in my father's house and while I was at my grandfather's, that I ought to have appreciated Christian people at their true value, as I do now, when I delight to sing, with good Dr. Watts—

"My soul shall pray for Zion still, While life or breath remains. There my best friends, my kindred dwell, There God my Savior reigns." 

But why need I linger over the minor matters when you know, and I know, that we did not esteem Christ Himself? This is proved from the fact that we were so long before we sought Him as our Savior, before we came to Him and trusted Him as our All-in-All. How many years some of us lived without really praying to Him, or communing with Him! His name was not melodious to our ears, not entrancing to our heart. In those days, we might have adopted the Prophet's language as our own—"He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised and we esteemed Him not." "O You adorable Jesus!" a Christian will say, "my life, my hope, my joy, my light, my way, my end, my all! There was a time when Your groans in Gethsemane, Your agonies in Gabbatha and even Your death on Calvary's Cross seemed to be things of no account to me. You were no more to me, then, than was Barabbas! And had I mingled among the crowd that surged around Pilate, I might have cried with the mad mob, 'Away with Him! Crucify Him! Crucify Him!' I heard Your Gospel preached, but it was only like a tale to which I had so often listened that it no longer had any interest for me. O Jesus, You wondrous Incarnation of the Grace of God to guilty men, how could You so long endure the neglect and enmity of him who now, with shame and confusion of face, confesses that he esteemed You not?"

Ah, Brothers and Sisters! I feel that I cannot preach as I gladly would upon such a theme as this which touches me in the very depths of my soul. If I could, by any means, bring the Truth of the text home to your hearts. If the Holy Spirit were but poured upon you so that you would all inwardly confess, even if you did not audibly say, "We esteemed Him not," my objective would be gained and I would have proved the Truth of Isaiah's utterance. 

II. Now, in the second place, we are TO TRY TO FIND OUT WHY WE DID NOT ESTEEM THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 

The first reason that I would mention why we esteemed not Jesus is because we esteemed ourselves so highly. Self-esteem naturally keeps Jesus out of the heart. And the more our self-esteem increases, the more firmly do we fasten the door against Christ. Love of self prevents love of the Savior! The sinner sets up an idol-god—himself—on the throne where God alone ought to sit! Hear this, O you heathen, and blush for the wickedness of men who live in this land of many privileges, in this enlightened age—and some of whom even profess and call themselves Christians! Instead of bowing down to blocks of wood and stone, or worshipping the sun, moon and all the host of heavenly bodies, they are worse heathens than even you are, for they prostrate themselves before themselves and adore their own merits, their own good deeds, their own charity, and so on! Christian, was not this the reason why you did not esteem Christ—because self was everything to you in the days of your unregeneracy? If anyone had then told you that your heart was corrupt to its very core, what would you have replied? You would have answered, "I feel that I am as good as anyone else whom I know and better than most of those I see around me." If you had been informed that all your good works were but varnished sins and that the very best of them were foul and full of faults, would not your blood have boiled with indignation? Or if someone had told you that your best righteousness was only like a heap of filthy rags, fit for nothing but to be burned, you would surely have replied, "I have a righteousness of which I have no reason to be ashamed. And although I do not say that it is perfect, yet I hope I shall have as good a chance of standing before God's Throne as anybody else will have." 

"Such were some of you" and, as long as you thus highly esteemed yourselves, of course you did not esteem the Lord Jesus Christ! Does the man who is in perfect health esteem the physician? If all were always well, who would care for the doctors? Would they not laugh them to scorn? Does the man who is rich hold in high esteem the one who would give him alms? "No," he says, "give your alms to those who need them. I do not require them." Will a man who has the proper use of his limbs care for crutches? "No," he says, "hand them over to the lame. I have no need of them." In like manner, we did not esteem Christ because we felt that we had no need of Him. We thought that we could do very well without Him, at least for the present. There might come a time when He might be able to give us a lift over a fence, or if we came to a muddy place in the road, He might be willing to lay His cloak down for us to step on so that we might not soil our feet. But as for the rest of our journey, we thought we could get on very well by ourselves, though we might be glad for Christ to help us into Heaven at the last. Perhaps no one of us would have put the matter quite so plainly as I have done, but that would have been the practical effect of our self-esteem—and that is why we did not esteem Christ, for self-love had completely engrossed our hearts. Self and the Savior can never live in one heart. He will have all, or none. So, where self is on the throne, it cannot be expected that Christ should meekly come and sit upon the footstool. 

Another reason why we esteemed not Jesus was because we esteemed the world so highly. We were like the man of whom John Bunyan tells us, who was quite willing that others should have the joys of the world to come so long as he could have all that he wanted in the present life. The worldling still says, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush," and to him this present evil world is the bird in the hand—and he thinks of all the bliss of Heaven as though it were but a bird in the bush. "Let me live while I live," he says, "and have all the happiness that I can here. And let them have the next world who can win it." With some of us, it is not very long ago since we also talked like that—and scorned the glories that are everlasting! And we put far away from us Jesus Christ and His great salvation. "We esteemed Him not" because we loved the earth and all its follies, because we were so busy gathering its poisoned dust into heaps, or delighting ourselves in its unsatisfying pleasures. It is not until the rope is cast loose that the balloon can soar above the clouds—and it is not until the cord that binds us to the things of this earth has been cut that our soul can hope to mount towards the things which are unseen and eternal! Until we have been weaned from the world, we shall never esteem Jesus as the chief among ten thousand, the altogether lovely One in whom is all our delight! 

A third reason why we did not esteem Christ was because we did not know Him. It is true that we knew a great deal about Him, but we did not know HIM. We had read what the Evangelists had recorded concerning Him. We knew much concerning His doctrines. Perhaps we had even tried to keep some of His precepts, yet we did not personally and savingly know Him. There is a great distinction between knowing about Christ and knowing Christ Himself—between knowing what He did and knowing Who and what He is—really knowing Him in the sense in which He used that expression when He said, in His great intercessory prayer to His Father, "This is life eternal, that they might know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." Yet it is only through Him, by the Infallible instruction of His ever-blessed Spirit, that we can thus know Him! As the Apostle John writes, "We know that the Son of God is come and has given us an understanding that we may know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life." The poet was right when he wrote— 

"His worth, if all the nations knew, Surely the whole world would love Him too."

And Rutherford said, "Surely, my Lord, if the whole world could see You, the whole world must love You. If You would but open only one of Your eyes and look upon them, they must run unto You, ravished with delight, for You are so fair, my precious Jesus, that You only need to be seen to be loved." But the worldling has never seen Christ, so he does not know Christ and does not love Christ! Ah, poor worldling! If you had but seen my lord as I saw Him in the hour when He said to me, "I, even I, am He that blots out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins"—if you could, with the ear of faith, have heard that Divine declaration, sweeter even than the music of the harps of Heaven— in a single moment you would have loved the Lord Jesus with such an ardent passion that the bonds of life would scarcely have been strong enough to keep you in this clay tenement, but you would have longed to fly away and be with your beloved Lord forever! And, Worldling, could you have such a visit from Jesus as, now and then, the Believer is privileged to have—if you could experience but five minutes of the bliss that a Christian has, "Whether in the body, I cannot tell. Or whether out of the body, I cannot tell. God knows"—if you could thus be "caught up to the third Heaven" and hear unspeakable words, which it is not possible for a man to utter. If you could once behold our blessed Savior, you would be compelled to love Him, for He is so lovely, so gracious, so glorious that you could not any longer think unkindly of Him! Those who think wrongly of Christ have never known Him. And we who do know Him, confess with shame that the reason why, for so long "we esteemed Him not," was because we then knew Him not. 

The last reason I will mention is the very core of all the other reasons. There need be no surprise that we did not esteem Christ, for we were spiritually dead. I will suppose that there sits, away yonder, a man over whom I want to exert a certain influence. I will further imagine that I am a skillful musician and that I touch the strings of my harp in such a manner as to bring forth the most delightful melody, yet the man takes no notice whatever of it. Then I turn to an instrument of quite another sort—a cornet or a bugle—and blow a blast that startles all of you—yet that one man still gives no heed to the sound! Why is it that, charm we ever so wisely, he is like the deaf adder and regards neither the sweetest nor the shrillest or loudest noise? I try to attract his attention in another way. I place before him the daintiest dish that the cleverest cook in all England can prepare, or I bring some rare delicacy from a distant land— but he regards the food no more than he did the music. I will try another plan to reach his senses. I will bring Him— 

"The choicest flowers that were ever grown Since Eden's joys were blasted." 

I will hold them close to his face and let their fragrance ascend to his nostrils. Yet he heeds not! What will awake him? Let Heaven's thunder peals roll like the drums in the march of some mighty war-lord, but the man moves not. Let the lightning flash all around us till it seems as though the end of the world had come, but the man stirs not. What shall I do to awake him? Shall I beat him with a whip, or strike him with a sword? All is in vain and, at last, I perceive that the man is dead and that all my efforts have been wasted! Now the riddle is solved, the secret revealed, the knot untied—the man is dead. And so I wonder no longer that he esteemed not music, or food, or flowers. Or that he feared not thunder, lightning, or the sword. And, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, though the Holy Spirit has quickened us, there was a time when we were "dead in trespasses and sins" and, like Lazarus in his grave, we were becoming more and more corrupt as every moment passed! 

III. Now, having proved the Truth of the text, and given you various reasons why we did not esteem Christ, let me, in conclusion, ask WHAT EMOTIONS OUGHT THIS FACT TO CREATE WITHIN OUR SOULS?

 First, I think that the recollection of this Truth of God, that "we esteemed Him not," ought to produce in us the deepest penitence. I cannot understand that Christian who can look back upon his past life without a tear. If he can turn to the black pages of his history, which not only have no record of goodness, but are full of entries concerning his sins against his present Lord and Master, and yet not weep at the remembrance of them, surely he can never have learned the true nature of sin! O Christian, it would be becoming on your part to catch the spirit, if not literally to imitate the action of that "woman in the city, who was a sinner," of whom we read that, "when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house," she, "brought an alabaster box of ointment and stood at His feet behind Him weeping, and began to wash His feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with the ointment." Our Lord's explanation of her conduct was that "she loved much." Is it because you love your Lord so little that you do not manifest your grief over your past sin as that poor woman did? Recollect that although you did not esteem Him, He had loved you with an everlasting love and He had purchased your soul's redemption at the great price of His own most precious blood! He stood before you, holding in His pierced hands the roll of the Eternal Covenant which set your soul at liberty and gave you a full discharge! Yet you did not esteem Him. O Christian, will you not weep even at the remembrance of the way in which you did treat the best Friend you have ever had? Recollect that you did virtually nail Him to the tree and pierce Him to the heart. Dr. Watts spoke for all Believers when he wrote the selfcondemning words— 

"'Twas you, my sins, my cruel sins, His chief tormentors were! Each of my crimes became a nail, And unbelief the spear. 'Twas you that pulled the vengeance down Upon His guiltless head— Break, break, my heart, oh burst my eyes! And let my sorrows bleed." 

And now, beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, having for a while allowed our penitential sorrow thus to find suitable expression, let us strike a higher note and, remembering that there was a time when we did not esteem Christ, let us now rejoice in the great salvation which He has procured for us. It is true that we have great reason for sorrow that we should ever have been so vile as not to esteem Him to whom we owe everything for time and for eternity. Yet we have much more reason to adore the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of that love of Christ which passes knowledge and which carried out to completion the wondrous plan whereby all our iniquities have been blotted out and we have become "accepted in the Beloved!" It was right that we should weep at the remembrance that we were numbered among the fallen, yet it is equally right that we should rejoice over the fact that we have been reclaimed! And what should be the very key-note of our song of rejoicing? 

Should it not be the Sovereign Grace of God? The reason why the Lord chose us unto salvation was certainly not because we esteemed His Son, Jesus Christ, more than others did, for, "we esteemed Him not." If you ask me why God chose His people, I can only answer that it is for the same reason that Christ gave concerning the things that were hidden from the wise and prudent, but revealed unto babes, "Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Your sight." 

There is one other emotion which every true Christian should feel— that is hope for his fellows. If I feel sorrow for my sin and joy for my deliverance, I ought also to have hope for other people! Perhaps someone here is saying, "I have brought my son to the House of Prayer time after time and I used to hope that God would have mercy upon him, but now I have given up all hope." Stop, my Brother! Do not talk like that! Do you not remember the time when it might have been said, concerning you and me, that we did not esteem Christ and, although your son does not now esteem Him, is that any reason why he should not yet do so? On the contrary, is not the manifestation of Divine Grace in your own case an encouragement to you in hoping for your son's conversion?

"Oh," says another venerable father, "I have long prayed in vain for one of my children. These hands, which are now palsied with age, have been lifted up year after year to the God of Grace, but I have lost all hope of my child's salvation." But, my hoary-headed Friend, think not that your prayers have failed, even though they still remain unanswered! They are all filed in Heaven and when the required number shall be complete, when that petition which God has determined shall be the "effectual" one shall be presented, your child shall be saved! But why should you despair concerning your dear one? You know that for many years you did not esteem Christ, yet He is "altogether lovely" to you now! Then why should not your experience be repeated in the case of your child? "Ah," says another, "I live in such-and-such a district among many of the worst people in London. I have tried to bring them under the sound of the Word of God, but cannot induce even one of them to come! I feel as if I must give up even hoping for their salvation. They seem to me to be too bad to ever be saved." But, my dear Friend, you and I at one time did not esteem Christ—and if we really know what was in our own hearts, we shall say that these people are not much worse than we were! Yet suppose they are as bad as you think they are—remember that striking saying of Whitefield's—"Jesus Christ is willing to receive the devil's castaways." A very fastidious lady who heard that he said that, complained to the Countess of Huntingdon and said how sad it was that he should talk in such a vulgar way! The Countess said, "Mr. Whitefield is downstairs. I will send for him and let him answer for himself." When he came up and heard the lady's remark, he simply replied, "I had just been talking to a poor, sinful woman who had been to hear me preach, and the one thing that comforted her was the sentence to which this lady objects, 'Jesus Christ is willing to receive the devil's castaways.'" "Ah," said Lady Huntingdon and others who agreed with her, "That is quite sufficient justification for you." 

I can testify from my own experience that God often blesses some of our rough expressions more than our highly-polished ones. I have seen so many souls saved through some of the odd and singular sayings that I have felt moved to utter that I intend, God helping me, to go on in the same style, even though some people may continue to find fault with me for doing so. I can certainly endorse Mr. Whitefield's remark, "Jesus Christ is willing to receive the devil's castaways." However vile and foul a sinner may be, I always feel, "That is just what I would have been but for the Grace of God." Therefore, instead of imitating the priest and the Levite who left the poor wounded traveler to die so far as they cared, I feel anxious to go to the very worst of my fellow men and to say to them, "Why, my dear Brother, there was a time when I did not esteem Christ, so I will not be angry with you because you say that you are not religious. I will not scold you because you do not read the Bible, or pray to God, or go to a place of worship. But I will try to win your esteem for my Master by telling you of His great love to sinners just like you. Though He was reigning with His Father in Heaven, He gave up all His Glory and came down to earth to live just as any other poor man might have lived, only that He was without sin. He went about doing good, healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, raising the dead and, at last, He willingly gave Himself up into the hands of wicked men and died, 'the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.'" 

So I would try to make the Gospel very plain to my poor friend and tell him what the Lord had done for my soul—and assure him that, having saved me, there was no limit to His Grace and mercy! I always admire the argument of Charles Wesley in those familiar lines— 

"His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me." 

That was the same kind of argument that Paul used when he wrote, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for the pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting." Christian men and women, as you retire from this building, I leave these thoughts with you. At one time you did not esteem Christ, so now you have no right to be proud of your position as His followers, but should give to Him all the glory for your salvation! And you should hope for the salvation of others, even the very worst of your fellow creatures— 

"While the lamp holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may return." 

You may go to the very worst haunts of sin and vice in this city or anywhere else and, trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit, you may proclaim the Gospel of Christ to be the most abandoned men and women whom you can find, knowing that He is able "to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them."  

Another Divine Helper (and other devotionals)

Another Divine Helper

John 14:16-18

Have you ever wished you had a 911 number that rang in heaven whenever you had a need? Well, I have good news for believers. We all have divine assistance that’s even closer than a phone call: our Helper dwells within us. But if we are unaware of Him, we’ll miss many opportunities to benefit from the greatest asset in our Christian life—the Holy Spirit’s presence.

Christ knew that when He left the earth, His disciples would be totally inadequate for the task He was giving them—to evangelize the world. Though they’d spent three years with Jesus, all they had seen and learned would still not sufficiently equip them for what lay ahead. They needed supernatural help, and so do we—someone who will come to our aid, empower our service, and transform us from the inside out.

The Holy Spirit is the only one who can achieve all this. Consider His qualifications:

1. He is a personal Helper, not some inanimate force. God’s Spirit is a member of the Trinity and coequal with both the Father and Jesus Christ.

2. He is a practical Helper who involves Himself in every aspect of our lives.

3. He is an adequate Helper because He’s omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.

4. He is an available Helper who permanently lives within us.

Do you have any need that requires more power than omnipotence? Are you facing a decision that requires more knowledge than omniscience? Nothing we encounter is bigger than the omnipresent One who lives within us. Be calm and confident. No matter what challenges you face, He can help.

~Dr. Charles F. Stanley~

____________________________

The deep says, ‘It is not with me.’ And the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’ (Job 28:14)

I remember a summer in which I said, “It is the ocean I need,” and I went to the ocean; but it seemed to say, “It is not in me!” The ocean did not do for me what I thought it would. Then I said, “The mountains will rest me,” and I went to the mountains, and when I awoke in the morning there stood the grand mountain that I had wanted so much to see; but it said, “It is not in me!” It did not satisfy. Ah! I needed the ocean of His love, and the high mountains of His truth within. It was wisdom that the “depths” said they did not contain, and that could not be compared with jewels or gold or precious stones. Christ is wisdom and our deepest need. Our restlessness within can only be met by the revelation of His eternal friendship and love for us.
—Margaret Bottome

“My heart is there!

’Where, on eternal hills, my loved one dwells

Among the lilies and asphodels;

Clad in the brightness of the Great White Throne,

Glad in the smile of Him who sits thereon,

The glory gilding all His wealth of hair

And making His immortal face more fair

THERE IS MY TREASURE and my heart is there.

“My heart is there!

’With Him who made all earthly life so sweet,

So fit to live, and yet to die so meet;

So mild, so grand, so gentle and so brave,

So ready to forgive, so strong to save.

His fair, pure Spirit makes the Heavens more fair,

And thither rises all my longing prayer

THERE IS MY TREASURE and my heart is there.”

—Favorite poem of the late Chas. E. Cowman

You cannot detain the eagle in the forest. You may gather around him a chorus of the choicest birds; you may give him a perch on the goodliest pine; you may charge winged messengers to bring him choicest dainties; but he will spurn them all. Spreading his lofty wings, and with his eye on the Alpine cliff, he will soar away to his own ancestral halls amid the munition of rocks and the wild music of tempest and waterfall.

The soul of man, in its eagle soarings, will rest with nothing short of the Rock of Ages. Its ancestral halls are the halls of Heaven. Its munitions of rocks are the attributes of God. The sweep of its majestic flight is Eternity! “Lord, THOU hast been our dwelling place in all generations.”
—Macduff

“My Home is God Himself”; Christ brought me there.

I laid me down within His mighty arms;

He took me up, and safe from all alarms

He bore me “where no foot but His hath trod,”

Within the holiest at Home with God,

And bade me dwell in Him, rejoicing there.

O Holy Place! O Home divinely fair!

And we, God’s little ones, abiding there.

“My Home is God Himself”; it was not so!

A long, long road I traveled night and day,

And sought to find within myself some way,

Aught I could do, or feel to bring me near;

Self effort failed, and I was filled with fear,

And then I found Christ was the only way,

That I must come to Him and in Him stay,

And God had told me so.

And now “my Home is God,” and sheltered there,

God meets the trials of my earthly life,

God compasses me round from storm and strife,

God takes the burden of my daily care.

O Wondrous Place! O Home divinely fair!

And I, God’s little one, safe hidden there.

Lord, as I dwell in Thee and Thou in me,

So make me dead to everything but Thee;

That as I rest within my Home most fair,

My soul may evermore and only see

My God in everything and everywhere;

My Home is God.

—Author Unknown

~L. B. Cowman~

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The Prayer of Agreement

In the last two devotionals, we have learned about the prayer of dedication and the prayer of faith. Today I want to help you understand the prayer of agreement.
This prayer is found in Matthew 18:19, where Jesus says,

"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven."

When I pray with other people, nine times out of ten this is the prayer that I pray with them. And most of the time I will quote this verse to them.

I remember working for a ministry years ago and praying with the folks who called on the phone.  When I prayed with someone, I would walk them through this verse before we prayed.

The steps I pointed out were simple:

• There needs to be at least two of us praying.
• We need to agree.
• We need to be on earth (I usually got a laugh out of this one).
• What we are asking God for needs to come under the category of "anything" (which their request always did).
• God will do it.

The only part people ever got hung up on was the agreement.  "What does it mean to agree?" they would ask.  I would say, "Simple, to agree means to agree."  Don't over-spiritualize it.  If we decide to get lunch together at a certain time at a certain place, and you say, "Ok, see you there," we have just agreed.
To agree in prayer is no different.

Read this verse again.  Look at it step by step, and follow it—in all its simplicity.  If we do our part, God will do His.

~Bayless Conley~

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Hidden from the Wise, Revealed to the Humble

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in His presence.” 1 Corinthians 1:27-29

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

What wisdom is there in dying on a cross? The Greeks couldn’t understand it, and yet that is the wisdom of God.

God is so wise that the person with the highest IQ cannot figure Him out. If you could come to God with your intellect, then God is not fair because all of the smart people would have a head start and the rest of us would be left standing in the shadows. Your spirituality would be based upon your intellect.

I’m so glad that God has “hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes” (Matthew 11:25).

ACTION POINT:

It’s not that God is so high that few can figure Him out; it is that God has placed Himself at such a level that few of us will get down low enough to see God revealing Himself to us. 

~Adrian Rogers~

The Cross and the City of God - Chapter 4

The Cross and the City of God  by T. Austin-Sparks Chapter 4 - The City of Light "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might." Eph. 1:17-19. This leads to Light, the second thing is a question of Light. Strength and Light are always related in the Word of God, spiritual strength is linked with spiritual light, illumination or revelation. Here we find Light and Strength related to "knowledge of Him". And in Eph. 3:16,18,19 "Strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man... that... ye may be strong to apprehend". Not to do, but to know. Revelation in Relation to Power We stand by revelation, "God who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." "God... called me through grace to reveal His Son in me." - Gal. 1:16. How are we going to be made to stand, to be established? How is this endurance going to be put in us? By knowing the Lord Jesus in this inward way, by revelation. The people who are going to stand are those in whom this thing has become a living revelation; "God hath shined in our hearts," this is one side. The other is, "pressed on every side, perplexed, pursued, smitten down... yet not unto despair" - 2 Cor. 4:6-10. We are troubled and pressed down... why? "That the LIFE of JESUS might be made manifest in our mortal bodies" - 2 Cor. 4:11. Is not that endurance? Pressed on every side yet not strangled! "In pressure Thou hast enlarged me" - Ps. 4:1. What was meant to be "pressed down," God has made for enlargement. Cast down, yet a wonderful rising up. Why? How? It is "God who hath shined in our hearts... in the face of Jesus Christ," therefore you can go through and survive. Nothing can carry us through but the revelation of the Lord Jesus by the Holy Spirit in our hearts; an inside knowledge of Him - not mental assent to a creed or a doctrine, but a living, vital reality in our very being. For strength to overcome and press on, only a revelation by the Holy Spirit in us can suffice - but it can! A revelation that is within one's spirit and not a mental appreciation of truth even though it is truth about God. Oh, the power to be able to say "I KNOW," not I have heard or read, but "I KNOW". It is an experience nothing can rob us of. It is absolutely essential to have this revelation by the Holy Spirit because we have to meet forces of evil against which nothing can stand save that which is of God. "In pressure Thou hast enlarged me." How? Because of the constant uprising of THE LIFE within. Trouble, trial, sorrow... we are subject to these things, they are common to all men, but we rise above them through the "strength of His might" within. We are strong because of the Light given in the knowledge of God - Eph 1:19. This is a growing revelation. Paul is writing to the Ephesian saints, and what a wonderful history these had! See Paul's words to them in parting (Acts 20:17-38). To such he says, "that ye may be strengthened to apprehend," showing the necessity for the mighty power of God in bringing through revelation. The enemy mightily withstands revelation; to mar or hinder that, he'll stop at nothing! Light and Strength go together; endurance is by revelation, "I know". Establishment in the truth by revelation of the truth, this brings an impact on Satan and his hosts; light leading to might. When the Lord opens eyes you see what happens, "the eyes of your heart being enlightened, that ye may know" this is the result of opened eyes. "Knowing that He that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also with Jesus" - 2 Cor. 4:14. "I send thee to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God" - Acts 26:18. Paul was sent by the Lord Jesus with a message to open the eyes of the people that would turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to their inheritance in God; this, the inheritance of eyes being opened. Sovereignty follows opened eyes. The City of Divine Government Revelation chapter 21 is the very embodiment of Divine government in man, everything in the chapter is talking about the number twelve in something or other! Twelve is the Biblical number of government, and signifies perfection of government. And the City is that; a sharing of government, dominion. We find here throne authority from center to circumference, thus constituting the city a sovereign city; "and he showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the midst of the street thereof" - Rev. 22:1,2. By sharing the Lamb Life we also share the Throne Life, but the throne life is only possible where the Lamb life is shared; to sharethen we must know it now in our experience, and this is not a mental knowledge. All authority was given to the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, on the ground of His obedience to the will of God even unto death - Phil. 2:5,11. Even so He is able to give us authority over all the power of the enemy, as we too are obedient. We have got to learn sovereignty now, we are called into throne fellowship now, and have got to learn to reign now; this, is spiritual ascendancy. But how can we live and reign in spiritual ascendancy? It begins by a revelation of the Lord Jesus in your heart by the Holy Spirit, and this strengthens our inner man unto ascendancy in the midst of pressure; it is in the daily test. Are we going under or rising up and taking position in spirit? The Lord never delivers out of, until our spirit is on top; we are not meant to be beneath, "thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath" - Deut. 28:13. Look at Moses; "Jehovah said... lift thou up thy rod and stretch out thy hand over the sea and divide it" - Ex. 14:16. In other words, take a position in the name of the Lord and then you discover the way through. We learn to take everything in spirit, and having dominion in spirit, then, and only then, can we lift up the rod of authority. When a thing comes from the Lord, grace comes with it; but take the thing out of its time, then the Lord is not in it. See how Moses was able to lift up the rod of authority where Pharaoh was concerned and with triumphant power; but only at the word of the Lord. "Behold I give you authority... over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you" - Luke 10:19. "Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" - Matt. 16:18.

Mending the Bible

Mending the Bible

by T. DeWitt Talmage (1832-1902)

"If any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city . . ." Rev. 22:19



You see it is a very risky business, this changing of the Holy Scriptures. A pulpit in New York has recently set forth the idea that the Scriptures ought to be expurgated (strained, distilled, purified), that portions of them are unfit to be read, and the inspiration of much of the Bible has been denied. Among other striking statements are these: 1. The book of Genesis is a tradition of creation, a successive layer of traditions thought out centuries before. 2. Moses' mistakes about creation were the mistakes of his age. 3. That there are many systems of theology in the New Testament. 4. That Paul had all the notions of the rabbinical schools of his time. 5. That Job winds up his epilogue in genuine fairy-tale style. 6. That Revelation is a long array of misshapen progeny in the apocalyptic writings, tracing themselves back to Daniel. 7. That Revelation comes To a madman, or leaves him mad. 8. That what he calls the abominable lewdness of some things in the Old Testament is not fit to be read. 9. That it is an abominable misuse of the Bible to suppose the prophecies really foretell future events. 10. That the book of Daniel is not in the right place. 11. That Solomon's Songs are not in the right place, and he seems to applaud the idea of someone who said that the book of Solomon's Songs ought not to be in anyone's hands under thirty years of age. 14. He intimates that he does not believe that Samson slew a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass. 15. That the whole Bible has been improperly chopped up into chapters and verses. He does not believe the beginning of the Bible, and he does not believe the close of it, nor anything between as fully inspired of God, and he thinks the Book ought to be expurgated, and there are those who re-echo the same sentiment.

THE HYPOCRISY OF MINISTERS ATTACKING THE BIBLE! 

 Now, I believe in the largest liberty of discussion, and there are halls and opera houses and academies of music where the Bible and Christianity may be assaulted without interruption; but when a minister of the Gospel surrenders the faith of any denomination, his first plain, honest duty is to get out of it. What would you think of the clerk in a dry-goods store or a factory or a baking-house, who should go to criticizing the books of the firm and denouncing the behavior of the firm, still taking the salary of that firm and the support of that firm, and doing all his denunciation of the books of the firm under its cover? Certainly, a minister of the Gospel ought to be as honest with his denomination as a dry-goods clerk is honest with his employers. The heinousness of finding fault with the Bible at this time by a Christian minister is most evident. In our day the Bible is assailed by scurrility, by misrepresentation, by infidel scientist, by all the vice of earth and all the venom of perdition, and at this particular time ministers of religion fall into line of criticism of the Word of God. Why, it makes me think of a ship in a September equinox, the waves dashing to the top of the smokestack, and the hatches fastened down and many prophesying the foundering of the steamer, and at that time some of the crew with axes and saws go down into the hold of the ship and try to saw off some of the planks and pry out some of the timbers because the timber did not come from the right forest! It does not seem commendable business for the crew to be helping the winds and storms outside with their axes and saws inside. Now this old Gospel ship, (what with the roaring of earth and Hell around the stem and stern, and mutiny on deck,) is having a very rough voyage, but I have noticed that not one of the timbers has started, and the Captain says He will see it through. And I have noticed that keelson and counter-timber knee are built out of Lebanon cedar, and she is going to weather the gale, but no credit to those who make mutiny on deck. When I see ministers of religion in this particular day finding fault with the Scriptures, it makes me think of a fortress terrifically bombarded, and the men on the ramparts, instead of swabbing out and loading the guns and helping fetch up the ammunition from the magazine, are trying with crowbars to pry out from the wall certain blocks of stone, because they did not come form the right quarry. Oh, men of the ramparts, better fight back and fight down the common enemy, instead of trying to make breaches in the wall.

THE GOD OF THE BIBLE COULD DO ANYTHING: A GOD OF MIRACLES

 While I oppose this expurgation of the Scriptures, I shall give you my reasons for such opposition. "What!" say some of the theological evolutionists, whose brains have been addled by too long brooding over them by Darwin and Spencer, "you don't now really believe all the story of the Garden of Eden, do you?" Yes, as much as I believe all the roses that were in my garden last summer. "But," say they, "you don't really believe that the sun and moon stood still?" Yes, and if I had strength enough tom create a sun and moon, I could make them stand still, or cause the refraction of the sun's rays so it would appear to stand still. "But," they say, "you don't really believe that the whale swallowed Jonah?" Yes, and if I were strong enough to make a whale, I could have made very easy ingress for the refractory tenant. "But," say they, " you don't really believe that the water was turned into wine?" Yes, just as easily as water now is often turned into wine with a mixture of strychnine and logwood! "But," say they, "you don't really believe that Samson slew a thousand with the jawbone of an ass?" Yes, as I think that the man who in this day assults the Bible is wielding the same weapon! There is nothing in the Bible that staggers me. There are many things I do not understand, I do not pretend to understand, never shall in this world understand. But that would be a very poor God who could be fully understood y the human. That would be a very small Infinite that can be measured by the finite. You must not expect to weigh the thunderbolts of Omnipotence in an apothecary's balances. Starting with the idea that God can do anything., and that He was present at the beginning, and that He is present now, there is nothing in the Holy Scriptures to arouse skepticism in my heart. Here I stand, a fossil of the ages, dug up from the tertiary formation, fallen off the shelf of an antiquarian, a man in the latter part of the glorious nineteenth century, believing in a whole Bible from lid to lid.

THE BIBLE MIRACULOUSLY PRESERVED

 I am opposed to the expurgation of the Scriptures in the first place because the Bible in its present shape has been so miraculously preserved. Fifteen hundred years after Herodotus wrote his history, there was only one manuscript copy of it. Twelve hundred years after Plato wrote his book, there was only one manuscript copy of it. God was so careful to have us have the Bible in just the right shape, that we have fifty manuscript copies of the New Testament a thousand years old, and many of them fifteen hundred years old. This Book, handed down from the time of Chirist, or just after the time of Christ, by the hand of such men as Origen in the second century, and Tertullian in the third century - men of different ages who died for their principles. The three best copies of the New Testament in manuscript in the possession of three great churches - the Protestant Church of England, the Greek Church of St. Pertesburg, and the Romish Church of Italy. It is a plain matter of history that Tischendorf went to a convent in the peninsula of Sinai, and was by ropes lifted over the wall into the convent, that being the only mode of admission and that he saw there in the wastebasket for kindling for the fires a manuscript of the holy Scriptures. That night he copied many of the passages of that Bible, but it was not until fifteen years had passed of earnest entreaty and prayer and coaxing and purchase on his part that that copy of the Holy Scriptures was put into the hands of the Emperor of Russia - that one copy so marvelously protected. Do you not know that the catalog of the books of the Old and New Testaments, as we have it, is the same catalog that has been coming on down through the ages? Thirty-nine books of the Old Testament thousands of years ago. Thirty-nine now. Twenty-seven books of the New Testament, sixteen hundred years ago. Twenty-seven now. Marcion, for wickedness, was turned out of the Church in the second century, and in his assult on the Bible and Christianity, he incidentally gives a catalog of the Books of the Bible - that catalog corresponds exactly with ours - testimony given by the enemy of the Bible and the enemy of Christianity. The catalog now, just like the catalog then. Assulted and spit on and torn to pieces and burned, yet adhering. The Book today, in three hundred languages, confronting four-fifths of the human race in their own tongue,. Three hundred million copies of it in existence. Does not that look as if this Book had been divinely protected, as if God had guarded it all through t he centuries? Not only have all the attempts to detract from the Book failed, but all the attempts to add to it. Many attempts were made to add the apocryphal books to the Old Testament. The Council of Trent, the Synod of Jerusalem, the bishops of Hippo all decided that the apocryphal books must be added to the Old Testament. "They must stay in," said those learned men, but they stayed out. There is not an intelligent Christian man that today will put the book of Maccabees or the book of Judith beside the book of Isaiah or Romans. Then a great many said, "We must have books added to the New Testament," and there were epistles and gospels and apocalypses written and added to the New Testament, but they have all fallen out. You cannot add anything. You cannot subtract anything. Divinely protected book in the present shape. Let no man dare to lay his hands on it with the intention of detracting from the Book or casting out any of these holy pages.

ALL THE BEST CHRISTIANS WANT THE BIBLE SACREDLY KEPT:
INFIDELS WANT IT CHANGED

 I am also opposed to this proposed expurgation of the Scriptures for the fact that in proportion as people become self-sacrificing and good and holy and consecrated, they like the Book as it is. I have yet to find a man or a woman distinguished for self-sacrifice, for consecration to God, for holiness of life, who wants the Bible changed. Many of us have inherited family Bibles. Those Bibles were in use twenty, forty, fifty, perhaps a hundred years in the generations. This afternoon when you go home, take down those family Bibles and find out if there are any chapters which have been erased by lead pencil or pen, and if in any margin you can find the words, "This chapter not fit to read." There has been plenty of opportunity during the last half century privately to expurgate the Bible. Do you know any case of such expurgation? Did not your grandfather give it to your father, and did not your father give it to you? Expurgate the Bible! You might as well go to the old picture galleries in Dresden and in Venice and in Rome and expurgate the old paintings. Perhaps you could find a foot of Michel Angelo's "Last Judgement" that might be improved. Perhaps you could throw more expression into Raphael's "Madonna." Perhaps you could put more pathos into Rubens' "Descent from the Cross." Perhaps you could change the crests of the waves in Turner's "Slave Ship." Perhaps you might go into the old galleries of sculptures and change the forms and postures of the statues of Phidias and Praxiteles. Such an iconclast would very soon find himself in the penitentiary. But it is worse vandalism when a man purposes to refashion these masterpieces of inspiration and to remodel the moral giants of this gallery of God.
Now let us divide off. Let those people who do not believe the Bible and who are critical of this and that part of it, go clear over to the other side. Let them stand behind the Devil's guns. There can be no compromise between infidelity and Christianity. Give us the out-and-out opposition of infidelity rather that the work of these hybrid theologians, these mongrel ecclesiatics, these half-and-half evoluted pulpiteers who believe the Bible and don't believe it, who accept the miracles and do not accept them, who believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures and do not believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures - trimming their belief on one side to suit the skepticism of the world, trimming their belief on the other side to suit the pride of their own heart and feeling that in order to demonstrate their courage they must make the Bible a target, and shoot at God.

There is one thing that encourages me very much
and that is that the Lord made out to manage the
universe before they were born, and will probably be
able to make out to manage the universe a little while
after they are dead. While I demand that the
antagonists of the Bible and the critics of the Bible
go clear over where they belong, on the Devil's side, I
ask all the friends of this good Book to come out
openly and aboveboard in behalf of it. That Book, which
was the best inheritance you ever received from your
ancestry, and which will be the best legacy you will
leave to your children when you bid them goodby as you
cross the ferry to the Golden City.

The Prayer of Dedication (and other devotionals)

The Prayer of Dedication

Yesterday we began a journey to understand the different kinds of prayer for the different circumstances we face in life.  The first kind of prayer I want to point you to is the prayer of dedication.   

Mark 14:32, 35-36 helps us understand this type of prayer,

Then they came to a place which was named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, "Sit here while I pray."…He went a little farther, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him.  And He said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for You.  Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will."

Here we find Jesus dedicating and consecrating Himself to the will of the Father.  He is in agony; He is in distress.  This is the eve of His crucifixion.  And Jesus is saying, "Lord, if we can redeem humanity some other way, God, please!  But Your will is what is important.  So I am consecrating Myself to Your will, Father."

This prayer of dedication and consecration is one that believers should pray.  In fact, I believe every Christian should pray this prayer in a general sense after they get saved.  Just like the apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, "Lord, what would You have me to do?"

Also, when you come to specific crossroads as you follow God, if you are unsure of God's will, or you feel He may be leading you into a specific area that will require sacrifice, reestablish that consecration and dedication to God through this kind of prayer.

Christ was dedicated to do the will of the Father, and yet He reaffirmed that dedication as He prayed, "I am willing to submit Myself to You." 

Pray it.  Vocalize it.  Submit yourself to His will as He reveals it.

~Bayless Conley~

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Shut up to faith (Gal. 3:23).

God, in olden time suffered man to be kept in ward by the law that he might learn the more excellent way of faith. For by the law he would see God's holy standard and by the law he would see his own utter helplessness; then he would be glad to learn God's way of faith.

God still shuts us up to faith. Our natures, our circumstances, trials, disappointments, all serve to shut us up and keep us in ward till we see that the only way out is God's way of faith. Moses tried by self-effort, by personal influence, even by violence, to bring about the deliverance of his people. God had to shut him up forty years in the wilderness before he was prepared for God's work.

Paul and Silas were bidden of God to preach the Gospel in Europe. They landed and proceeded to Philippi. They were flogged, they were shut up in prison, their feet were put fast in the stocks. They were shut up to faith. They trusted God. They sang praises to Him in the darkest hour, and God wrought deliverance and salvation.

John was banished to the Isle of Patmos. He was shut up to faith. Had he not been so shut up, he would never have seen such glorious visions of God.

Dear reader, are you in some great trouble? Have you had some great disappointment, have you met some sorrow, some unspeakable loss? Are you in a hard place? Cheer up! You are shut up to faith. Take your trouble the right way.

Commit it to God. Praise Him that He maketh "all things work together for good," and that "God worketh for him that waiteth for him." There will be blessings, help and revelations of God that will come to you that never could otherwise have come; and many besides yourself will receive great light and blessing because you were shut up to faith.
--C. H. P

Great things are done when men and mountains meet,
These are not done by jostling in the street.

~L. B. Cowman~

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God Sees Both the End and the Beginning

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”Romans 8:29 

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

God’s wisdom is supreme. Now, we know after the fact, but God knows before the fact. The word “foreknow” is from the Greek word proginosko. God’s foreknowledge can best be illustrated like the viewing of a parade.

If you watch a parade from the ground level, you will see the floats as they come past one at a time. But suppose you could go up in a 30-story building and look down upon the parade? Then, you would not only see the float directly in front, but quite possibly the first and last float. You now have a different vantage point.

ACTION POINT:

We live in history. We see events as they come by one at a time. But God dwells in eternity. And He sees the beginning, the end, and everything in between. And God knows everything.

~Adrian Rogers~

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The Prayer of Faith

Yesterday we learned about the prayer of dedication.  Today I want to help you understand the prayer of faith.  This kind of prayer is found in Mark 11:22-24,

So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God.  For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.  Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."

With the prayer of faith, at the moment you pray you are to believe that you receive what you pray for.  Not when the circumstances look different, not at some point in the future, but when you pray.  The Amplified Bible says, Believe that it is granted to you.

When you pray, believe that God hears you and that He has sent the answer, whether you feel differently or not.  Before you ever get up off your knees, believe that heaven has sent the answer.

1 John 5:14-15 says it this way,

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

The prayer of faith is prayed when you know and understand God's will.  Friend, the Bible is a revelation of the will of God.  Prayer will not reach beyond the will of God, and God's Word reveals His will to us.

So pray the prayer of faith according to His will, and you can be assured He hears you and heaven has sent the answer to your prayer.

~Bayless Conley~

The Cross and the City of God - Chapter 3

The Cross and the City of God  by T. Austin-Sparks Chapter 3 - Strength, Stability, Light, Sovereignty In the earlier chapters we have seen some of the characteristics of the "City of God." 1. A spiritual people with a heavenly nature. "According to the Eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Eph. 3:11. 2. The glory of God in the people of God; the revelation and realization of His own nature in a people; "He hath granted unto us His precious and exceeding great promises; that through these ye may become partakers of the Divine nature." - 2 Peter 1:4. 3. Elevation and holiness; ascendancy is a feature of the people of God after His own heart; "His foundation is in His holy mountains." - Ps. 87:1. "Like as He who called you is holy, be ye yourselves holy in all manner of living, because it is written, be ye holy for I am holy." - 1 Peter 1:4. Babylon is of the earth; Zion of the heights. 4. Life. The "River of Life," clear as crystal. This denotes transparency. The "Tree of Life," twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, Rev. 22:2 A.R.V. (Marg.) and the leaves of the tree for the maintenance of health in the nations; a life triumphant over death. Christ has conquered death; this "Life"within to be a feature of His people, beginning now and increasing day by day. To that we are called and in that "life" we should be moving. 5. The fullness and greatness of the city, "he measured the city, twelve thousand furlongs... the city lieth foursquare... the length and the breadth... and the height thereof are equal." - Rev. 21. You could not find land space for twelve thousand furlongs each way in the Western Hemisphhere in which to place the city: we turn to the Ephesian letter, 3:17,19, and read again the prayer of the Apostle Paul, "that ye may be strengthened with power through the Spirit... that ye being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fullness of God," the fullness and greatness of this City of God - a people filled unto the fullness of God; here we find the realization of the Apostle's prayer; and unto that we are called. 6. The feature of transparency; everything that makes up this city is said to be clear as crystal, transparent. So the people of God are to approximate to this thought of God, and transparency is to characterize their spiritual life now. We now come to consider the characteristics of Strength, Stability, Light, Sovereignty. The foundations of this city, this people of God, are very solid; the foundations are tried stones, and the wall is great and high. All this speaks of strength and stability. The throne is central, and is the manifestation of the might of God in weakness - the "Little Lamb" in the midst of the throne is greater than all the might of hell and sin; the Lamb hath conquered, and the Lamb in the midst of the throne is the LIFE that hath triumphed over death in all its range and depth, in every realm; a strength out of weakness, a strength that endures from eternity to eternity. And the people of God, who are the called according to His Eternal purpose are a people possessing this eternal life in Christ Jesus. As God's people, ours is an eternal calling, unto an eternal purpose possessing an eternal life; a life that lasts out and triumphs in all and over all; "They overcame... by the Blood of the Lamb." - Rev. 12:11. "God has given unto us eternal life and this life is in his Son, he that hath the Son hath the Life." - 1 John 5:11,12, A.R.V. John 6:53-56. "The Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God; her light was like unto a stone most precious, as it were a jasper stone clear as crystal." - Rev. 21:10,11. "The city hath no need of the sun... for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." - Rev. 21:23. Her light as a stone most precious, no need of the sun - the light was over all in its sovereign power. These features all blend and are all related to one another, strength and stability are related to light and all three lead to sovereignty; thus we are given to understand the nature of sovereignty. "His foundation is in the holy mountains, Jehovah loveth the gates of Zion... glorious things are spoken of thee O city of God... the Most High Himself shall establish it." - Ps. 87. This - in relation to the City of God - is a key to a tremendous unfolding of the strength, stability and sovereignty of this city. See the significance of the Name of God which the Holy Spirit chooses to use here "Ey-Elyon" the Most High God Possessor of heaven and earth. Turn to Isa. 14:12-14. - "How thou art fallen from heaven, O Lucifer Son of the Morning... for thou hast said in thy heart, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God... I will be like the most High." Yes, it was the Most High God, Possessor of heaven and earth whom Lucifer challenged; it was his aspiration to possess heaven and earth. The Lord Jesus, when on earth, referred to Satan as the Prince of this world; and in Eph. 6 the church of God is shown her warfare is in the heavenlies. The establishment of the city of God is by El-Elyon, the Most High God and is unto the casting down to hell of all the powers of Satan; Satan and his sovereignty cast down for ever. Trace the word "to establish," through the Scriptures. "The Most High Himself shall establish her." - Ps. 87:5. "He brought me out of a horrible pit, (Heb. a pit of destruction). He set my feet upon a rock and established my goings." - Ps. 40:2. "Beautiful for situation - (beautiful in elevation, A.R.V.) a joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion... the city of the great King... God will establish it for ever." - Ps. 48:2,8. "He shall build a house for my Name and he shall be my son... and I will establish the throne of his kingdom... for ever." - 1 Chron. 22:10. "I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, thy seed will I establish for ever and build up thy throne to all generations." - Ps. 89:3,4. "He is the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises." - Heb. 8:6. "Sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and offerings for sin Thou wouldst not... lo, I come to do Thy will O God; He taketh away the first that he may establish the second." - Heb. 10:8,9. "Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God even our Father... establish you in every good word and work." - 2 Thess. 2:17. "It is good that the heart be established by grace." - Heb. 13:9. A.R.V. "Now to Him that is able to establish you." - Rom. 16:25. A.R.V. "Rooted and built up IN HIM and established in your faith." - Col. 3:7. "Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." - 1 Cor. 15:58. "Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to Him be glory, majesty, dominion and power both now and for ever, Amen." - Jude 24,25. All these passages and many others teach us that this work of establishing is a working principle. Today the Lord's people need establishing, for on every hand there is going on a great falling away because of the pressure of the enemy. This could not be if the people were properly established in the Lord. Lack of assurance on the part of the people of God generally is the devil's weapon in his great campaign of error, false teaching, counterfeit, suspicion, etc.  Uncertainty, a Master-stroke of Satan.  To prevent assurance of faith is the devil's own work, it is his aim to get the Lord's people unsettled; and doubt is one of his most subtle means of working. It was so in the beginning, "hath God said?" - Gen. 3:1, and it is still his method. The way, and the only way, to frustrate this is by being established in the faith, Acts 16:5; Col. 2:7. "Stand fast in the faith." - 1 Cor. 16. "A true heart in full assurance of faith." Heb. 10:22. "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith." - 1 Peter 5:8,9. "I know... where thou dwellest even where Satan's seat (throne, A.R.V.) is... and thou holdest fast my name and hast not denied my faith." - Rev. 2:13. The great need of God's people is to be established in the faith, not just established in doctrine, in an orthodox gospel, or by acquiring knowledge of fundamental truth, but established by an inward knowledge of our standing in the Lord Jesus on the ground of His finished work and complete triumph over the devil and all his works. So many of the Lord's children lack this assurance of their position in the Lord; yet it is written: "God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world... in love having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto Himself." Eph. 1:4,5. "There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." - Rom. 8:1. "He hath made us accepted in the Beloved." Eph. 1:6. This acceptance has to do with warfare, all things in our "so great salvation" are related to God's Eternal purpose in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Eph. 3:11. "Thanks be to God who leadeth us from place to place in the train of His triumph to celebrate His victory over the enemies of Christ." 2 Cor. 2:14. The people of God are robbed of their fighting power when the enemy has got them to doubt and question their standing in Christ. God must build His city in certainty, and we must stand in the full assurance of faith. "The foundations of the wall of the city were furnished with all manner of precious stones." - Rev. 21:19. "The trial of your faith being much more precious than gold... though it be tried by fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." - 1 Peter 1:7. Get the internal troubles settled, then you can get on with the work. To be established in the faith with full assurance enables us to strike a blow at Principalities and Powers; but the devil and his hosts have much power where there is uncertainty, doubt, question. When the believer knows the power of the personal "I know" because of full assurance in the Word of God, then that very knowledge is a weapon of defence against the enemy; hence he desires to prevent assurance by inserting doubt whenever he gets a chance. Stand on God's facts and not on the quicksands of your own feelings. Some are doubting simply because of feelings! Salvation is not a matter of feeling, it is God's fact - "It is written" - God hath said. The word of God is "no condemnation". "There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus." - Rom. 8:1. We are perfect in Christ the day we are born anew, that is as to our standing, we have good reason to be sorry for our state; but the word is "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" - 2 Peter 3:18. "My little children of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you" - Gal. 4:19 A.R.V. Yes it is to be a day by day growing in grace. Salvation seems for so many of God's children to be a matter of feelings, therefore there is no fighting force that counts against the enemy; (they have not put on the whole armor of God so as to be "able to stand against the wiles of the enemy"). "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward" - Heb. 10:35. Your great reward! - that ye might be filled into all the fullness God." - Eph. 3:19. There is an assurance of faith which sets us free from all the power of the enemy and self as well; enabling us to endure and be strong in the Lord. Having the ground of our salvation settled, we now have ground from which we can wield sovereignty in the Lord. Here we are passing through trial, adversity, sorrow, suffering, and we are tempted to think the Lord has given us up; the enemy presses in on every side with accusation, condemnation, question, doubts, fears. "Be ye steadfast, unmovable," for beloved, this is the establishing principle at work, our faith is being exercised. We know anguish, travail. Remember the establishing work is done while our eyes are unto Him; when things are against us, seeking to press us down, then we look off unto Jesus now in the presence of God for us, having all authority in heaven and on earth, and a NAME that is above every other name, a title of Sovereignty above every other title of sovereignty. "The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give unto you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened (full of light), that ye may know HIM... and what the exceeding greatness of HIS power to usward who believe according to that working (in-energizing) of the strength of His might which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenlies, far above all rule and authority and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come; and He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things to the Church, which is His Body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all." - Eph. 1:17-23. This is the ONE unto whom our eyes are. Faith is thus exercised and enables us in the very midst of pressure and contradictory circumstances to rise upward and stand in Christ Jesus in the position He has given us, "seated together with Him in the heavenlies." "Ye are made full in Him in Whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form." - Col. 2:9. So through trial, the establishing work is done; it is the manifestation of His Victory over all the power and pressure of the enemy, "God who giveth us The Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." - 1 Cor. 15:57. Yes, it is HIS victory, a life that has conquered death - 1 Cor. 15:54. The City of God is being built, and its very nature is Eternal life, indestructible life, this holds when we break down. He abides faithful. He still holds on because He is Eternal, unchangeable. There is that with us that persists, that goes through, "in all these things things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us" - Rom. 8:37. It is the same with service; the conflict so great, the experiences through which we pass so strange and weird, so inexplicable, everything seems upside down, promises do not seem to be taking effect. Abraham in the land... yet the very promises given him of God seeming to be denied. Was Abraham mistaken? Are we not sometimes bewildered with the Lord, and are not His ways past finding out? It all looks such a muddle, but as faith holds on, one day we shall praise Him, as we see the reason for it all afterwards; "the path of the just... shineth more and more unto the perfect day." - Prov. 4:18. Note "PATH" not things! These mysteries of the way contain some secret mystery of God; and are they not another opportunity to show forth His wisdom and power? When all seems gone, the conflict so great, the experience so strange and there is no key to the situation; we are tempted to question whether the promises were even of God; everything is so contrary to what we expected, we begin to wonder if we are all wrong! Just then, is the time for us to stand fast in the Lord and maintain that stand in faith. After all, our experiences are very much alike. There is perplexity, there is apparent contradiction, there is conflict; the forms of experience may vary, but it comes to all of us in some way or another - still "He abideth faithful". How does this establish us? By the very helplessness of the situation, and ourselves, which causes us to cast ourselves upon Him, and it is then we prove Him. You are coming to the place where you know the mystery of God, and it is a glorious opportunity for Him to show His wisdom and so you are established. It is all a matter of endurance.