"You needn't fear being a broken servant when you have such a kind and adequate God." So wrote Dr Dale Ralph Davis in his commentary on 1 Kings (p.270).
What great encouragement this brings to any servant of Christ who has been rejected and dumped by his church. Indeed, the same encouragement comes to every Christian who feels the similarly. Our God is kind and adequate. Whatever the depths of our condition, the Lord Who saved us and Who called us, is the same Lord Who keeps and sustains us.
What is it that breaks God's servants? First, the awful spiritual condition of the professing church. No Christian minister can look at the Christian church in her current spiritual state with any measure of complacency. Second, the wide-scale infidelity of the church in many countries. The acceptance of openly immortal people in church membership and in church office is appalling. Third, the doctrinal indifference of many within the professing church. This is seen in the total acceptance of theological liberalism by professing reformed evangelical ministers, ruling elders and Christian members. Fourth, the idolatrous pragmatism of many churches, especially within evangelical churches, where the Word is no longer enough to sustain church attendance and resort has to be made to "the ways of the world" to keep, mainly, the young people interested.
You can tell who God's true servants are because they are the ones who get deeply upset for God's sake because of the state of the professing church in the twenty-first century. No one else will be concerned, and very, very few will articulate what little concerns they have in the public media. Those who do are, like Elijah when the critical scholars are finished with him, psychological basket cases awaiting the 'men in white coats' coming to take them away.
However, true servants are decidedly more concerned about the state and recovery of the church than are many of her ministers who are more concerned about continuing to draw their salaries and get their pensions. Time servers, I call them. Even the presence of time-servers within the church are an offense to God's servants, and this realisation adds to their feeling of brokenness.
"But God." Here is the antidote to such brokenness - the kindness and adequacy of our covenant God and Saviour. Faithful servants feel for what they see around them; but they are encouraged by the One they do not see, the Invisible God. He is sufficient, and we are sufficient in Him.
Tuesday, 18 December 2012
Monday, 17 December 2012
Pulpit "Essay Readers" Need Not Apply
I have said it often, there are far too many 'essay readers' in our pulpits today with the result that they are far more concerned to get something out of our heads rather than get something into the hearts and heads of their hearers. Preaching is about communication, communication of the highest and most exalted order; yet it is here that we fail so lamentably. How sorrowful I am when I think that I used to describe my ministry as "a Bible teaching ministry." This type of ministry is vitally important, but if that is all we are doing, then God be merciful to us. My sinful heart was so full of pride of the worst kind that I blush to even say this. My heart is pained to even admit this travesty.
Is your 'preacher' a mere "essay reader"? Or does he come with a heart burdened with the Word of the Lord for his congregation? Are his sermons so well constructed that they have no room for the life of the Spirit? Is the argument and logic so tight that there is no room in the sermon for Christ? Does your minister come with a fresh message from the living God or with a lifeless message to a lifeless congregation from the living God? If so, there is probably nothing more obscene that such a minister. A minister of what, I might ask? And a minister of Whom?
The Barrenness Of A Busy Life.
One thing I have been well aware of (and its something I have observed more in the breach than in the observance) and that is "the barrenness of a busy life."
Satan works us so hard that we do not do the very spiritual exercises that are needed.
The church also plays into this because she does not want us to be "men of God" in any real and effective sense. So, she puts us on all these committees and commissions with the very purpose of keeping us off our knees. She invites us here and there, all to keep us from fellowship with the Lord. And into the bargain, we become all puffed up with pride and entertain thoughts of how good/great we really are, when in reality we are just unprofitable servants. How much we crave and pursue popularity with men, and neglect being in the special favour of God. Our hearts are so sinful and wicked.
The church knows, in the words of Robert Murray McCheyne, that "what a man is on knees before God, that he is and no more. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God." The last thing in the world that the church wants is a holy minister, a minister who is living close to the Lord. What a handful such a minister will turn out to be. He is living close to Christ, so he knows things about the spiritual state of the church that the church does not want him to know. And what he knows he speaks. And when he speaks these things, the church goes immediately into defensive mode, and behind backs, resorts to underhand ways of silencing such a holy man of God.
One way she does this is to keep him very busy with needless activities. Keep him 'serving the wider church,' and you'll keep him off his knees before God. Keep him as busy as possible, make him think he is indispensable to the future of the church, get him to see his activity as promoting the Gospel through the church, and you've got him. Distract him with 'all kinds of everything,' especially church things, and he'll be no bother to a spiritually look-warm church. Appoint him to represent the church at foreign conferences, and he'll soon get big ideas about himself. Talk nicely to him, and bring him to see what a 'good churchman' he is, and you've nobbled him.
How many good evangelical ministers have been nobbled in just that manner. How many spiritual wrecks litter the church. The church has been, and is, very successful in keeping the Gospel in its place, and that place is not at the front of church life and service. And in so doing, she has neutered many good Gospel-preaching ministries.
Oh, the barrenness of a busy life. Flee it like the plague. Don't yield to its mesmerising appeals. It's a killer. It is Satan's tool to destroy your effectiveness in Christ's Kingdom.
Satan works us so hard that we do not do the very spiritual exercises that are needed.
The church also plays into this because she does not want us to be "men of God" in any real and effective sense. So, she puts us on all these committees and commissions with the very purpose of keeping us off our knees. She invites us here and there, all to keep us from fellowship with the Lord. And into the bargain, we become all puffed up with pride and entertain thoughts of how good/great we really are, when in reality we are just unprofitable servants. How much we crave and pursue popularity with men, and neglect being in the special favour of God. Our hearts are so sinful and wicked.
The church knows, in the words of Robert Murray McCheyne, that "what a man is on knees before God, that he is and no more. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God." The last thing in the world that the church wants is a holy minister, a minister who is living close to the Lord. What a handful such a minister will turn out to be. He is living close to Christ, so he knows things about the spiritual state of the church that the church does not want him to know. And what he knows he speaks. And when he speaks these things, the church goes immediately into defensive mode, and behind backs, resorts to underhand ways of silencing such a holy man of God.
One way she does this is to keep him very busy with needless activities. Keep him 'serving the wider church,' and you'll keep him off his knees before God. Keep him as busy as possible, make him think he is indispensable to the future of the church, get him to see his activity as promoting the Gospel through the church, and you've got him. Distract him with 'all kinds of everything,' especially church things, and he'll be no bother to a spiritually look-warm church. Appoint him to represent the church at foreign conferences, and he'll soon get big ideas about himself. Talk nicely to him, and bring him to see what a 'good churchman' he is, and you've nobbled him.
How many good evangelical ministers have been nobbled in just that manner. How many spiritual wrecks litter the church. The church has been, and is, very successful in keeping the Gospel in its place, and that place is not at the front of church life and service. And in so doing, she has neutered many good Gospel-preaching ministries.
Oh, the barrenness of a busy life. Flee it like the plague. Don't yield to its mesmerising appeals. It's a killer. It is Satan's tool to destroy your effectiveness in Christ's Kingdom.
Sunday, 16 December 2012
Where are the Ministers When Crises Arise?
The country and world in which we live is facing crisis after crisis. Every day brings a fresh crisis. God has set His watchmen on the lookouts to keep watch for His people.
Yet these crises come and no one seems to notice. Certainly the ministers who are the watchmen do not see these crises coming. Nor do they recognise them as crises when they eventually arrive. Are they asleep? Are they mere hirelings - drawing a salary, having an easy time? Today, we see sodomy being made legal and official, but the watchmen have been silent. We see abortion on demand, and still the silence continues. We see marriage under relentless attack, and they are silent. We see the Gospel being perverted by theological liberals, yet God's servants sit back in their relative ease and say nothing. Worse, they do NOTHING.
God's people are discouraged, enraged, disappointed and betrayed. They looked for men who will act as watchmen, but they were asleep while the enemy was entering the fold. They thought they had such a man, but alas, they were deceived. He fought no battles, fronted no campaigns, raised no alarms. And the church of Jesus Christ has been decimated.
God says He will require an answer from that man at the last Day. Indeed, He will require their blood at his hands. He has been unfaithful and the Lord's people have been attacked and scattered. God will require this at the watchman's hand.
One can quite seriously ask, 'Where are the ministers when the flock is being attacked? Why are they not defending the flock? Why aren't they taking a stand against all that it inimical to the spiritual well-being of the flock? Why aren't they raising a massive ecclesiastical row when the Gospel is being denied by not being preached in every congregation?' The church is in crisis. But where are the ministers, the shepherds, who will ward off the prowling wolves who often come in sheep's clothing?
Are they too late?
Perhaps they ought to follow the lead given by Jaques de la Fontaine, the French Protestant minister who rose above and triumphed over many crises that confronted him because he was essentially a pastor of principle. His story will inspire all who read it.
Yet these crises come and no one seems to notice. Certainly the ministers who are the watchmen do not see these crises coming. Nor do they recognise them as crises when they eventually arrive. Are they asleep? Are they mere hirelings - drawing a salary, having an easy time? Today, we see sodomy being made legal and official, but the watchmen have been silent. We see abortion on demand, and still the silence continues. We see marriage under relentless attack, and they are silent. We see the Gospel being perverted by theological liberals, yet God's servants sit back in their relative ease and say nothing. Worse, they do NOTHING.
God's people are discouraged, enraged, disappointed and betrayed. They looked for men who will act as watchmen, but they were asleep while the enemy was entering the fold. They thought they had such a man, but alas, they were deceived. He fought no battles, fronted no campaigns, raised no alarms. And the church of Jesus Christ has been decimated.
God says He will require an answer from that man at the last Day. Indeed, He will require their blood at his hands. He has been unfaithful and the Lord's people have been attacked and scattered. God will require this at the watchman's hand.
One can quite seriously ask, 'Where are the ministers when the flock is being attacked? Why are they not defending the flock? Why aren't they taking a stand against all that it inimical to the spiritual well-being of the flock? Why aren't they raising a massive ecclesiastical row when the Gospel is being denied by not being preached in every congregation?' The church is in crisis. But where are the ministers, the shepherds, who will ward off the prowling wolves who often come in sheep's clothing?
Are they too late?
Perhaps they ought to follow the lead given by Jaques de la Fontaine, the French Protestant minister who rose above and triumphed over many crises that confronted him because he was essentially a pastor of principle. His story will inspire all who read it.
Satan Hates Believers
This is true! The devil hates God's children! He is out to devour them. He wants to discourage them big time.
My wife and I are finding this just now. She was being attacked in her mind by the devil in recent days. On Thursday, 13th Dec 2012, she was feeling a bit sickly and unwell. But she was exposed to attack after attack from Satan. This came in the form of doubts; she is to have more treatment and the evil one said to her that she will never make it. So bad was it that she thought she was going to take heart attack. She thought she was losing her mind. It is also interesting that this has happened to her after each time she witnessed to Christ. These devilish attacks have pounded her.
My wife and I are finding this just now. She was being attacked in her mind by the devil in recent days. On Thursday, 13th Dec 2012, she was feeling a bit sickly and unwell. But she was exposed to attack after attack from Satan. This came in the form of doubts; she is to have more treatment and the evil one said to her that she will never make it. So bad was it that she thought she was going to take heart attack. She thought she was losing her mind. It is also interesting that this has happened to her after each time she witnessed to Christ. These devilish attacks have pounded her.
Let me give you another little incentive to pray. Also this week, my wife came under another strange satanic attack. He tormented her all afternoon, and refused to relent. That is, until about tea-time when she experienced a lifting of her burden, and the rest of the evening was great.
Why did this happen? Because someone, somewhere, perhaps one of you, had been praying for her at that moment. It may have been a Christian friend in Northern Ireland, or England or in far away places like India or Panama. Someone unknown to us had uplifted her in prayer, and God answered.
That's the kind of God He is; and that's the kind of God and Father we have. We can trust Him implicitly.
Victory Over Satan
Our God has had the victory over the prince of darkness at Bethlehem, during His life especially when enduring the temptations of the devil, when He healed the sick and raised the dead back to life; when He quelled the sea and stilled the storms.
Come to Calvary, then to Resurrection Sunday, to the Ascension, and you will see evidence after evidence of the devil’s defeat by the strong Son of God. In all these He proved Himself superior to the devil and defeated Him. We have to rest upon that victory alone for peace of mind. And God comes down and gives that to us. He is the giving God because He is the living God.
Come to Calvary, then to Resurrection Sunday, to the Ascension, and you will see evidence after evidence of the devil’s defeat by the strong Son of God. In all these He proved Himself superior to the devil and defeated Him. We have to rest upon that victory alone for peace of mind. And God comes down and gives that to us. He is the giving God because He is the living God.
Because He Lives
The
words of a beautiful Gospel hymn have been with me for the past days: “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow; because
He lives, all fear is gone.”
What a wonderful truth is the truth of the literal, physical, resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is alive and is alive forevermore. His resurrection means that death and the grave have lost their power and sting. That greatest miracle the world has ever witnessed means that death, for the believer, is the means of entry into God’s nearer presence. It is a move from this old sinful world and into God’s pure heaven. There, all pain and suffering and tears are gone; all darkness expelled and all that offends our Saviour obliterated. It is where God lives and reigns. And that calls for a good reformed ‘Hallelujah’!
What a wonderful truth is the truth of the literal, physical, resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is alive and is alive forevermore. His resurrection means that death and the grave have lost their power and sting. That greatest miracle the world has ever witnessed means that death, for the believer, is the means of entry into God’s nearer presence. It is a move from this old sinful world and into God’s pure heaven. There, all pain and suffering and tears are gone; all darkness expelled and all that offends our Saviour obliterated. It is where God lives and reigns. And that calls for a good reformed ‘Hallelujah’!
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