“What shall I do to
inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25).

     The question was framed
by a professional theologian to test the orthodoxy of the great Rabbi of
Nazareth. Evidently it was rumored that the new Teacher was telling the people
of a short road to heaven.

     The answer given was
clear:eternal life is the reward and goal of a perfect life on earth—perfect
love to God and man.

This being so, no one but a
Pharisee or a fool could dream of inheriting eternal life. The practical
question that concerns every one of us is whether God has provided a way by
which men who are not perfect, but sinful, can be saved. The answer to
this question is hidden in the parable by which the Lord silenced his
interrogator’s quibble, “Who is my neighbor?”

     Here is the story from
Luke 10:30-35:A traveler on the downward road to the city of the curse
(Jericho) fell among thieves, who robbed and wounded him and flung him down,
half dead, by the wayside. First, a priest came that way, and then a Levite,
who looked at him and passed on. Why a priest and a Levite? Did the Lord intend
to throw contempt upon religion and the law? That is quite incredible. No, but
He wished to teach what, even after 19 centuries of Christianity, not one
person in a thousand seems to know, that law and religion can do nothing for a
ruined and dead sinner. A sinner needs a Saviour, and so the Lord brings
the Samaritan upon the scene.

     But why a Samaritan? Just
because “Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans” (John 4:9). Except as a
last resource, no Jew would accept deliverance from such a quarter. Sin not
only spells danger and death to the sinner, but it alienates the heart from
God. Nothing but a sense of utter helplessness and hopelessness will lead him
to throw himself, with abject self-renunciation, at the feet of Christ.

     It is not that man by
nature is necessarily vicious or immoral. It is chiefly in the spiritual sphere
that the effects of the Eden Fall declare themselves. Under human teaching the
Fall becomes an adequate excuse for a sinful life. But the Word of God declares
that men are “without excuse” (Rom. 1:20). Although “those who are in the flesh
cannot please God” (Rom. 8:8), they can lead clean, honest, and honorable lives.
The “cannot” is not in the moral, but in the spiritual sphere. For “the
mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of
God” (Rom. 8:7,8).

     This affords a clue to
the essential character of sin. In the lowest classes of the community sin is
but another word for crime. At a higher level in the social scale it is
regarded as equivalent to vice. In a still higher sphere the element of impiety
is taken into account. But all this is arbitrary and false. Crime, vice,
and impiety are unquestionably sinful; but yet the most upright, moral, and
religious of men may be the greatest of sinners upon earth.

     Why state this
hypothetically? It is a fact; witness the life and character of Saul of
Tarsus. Were the record not accredited by Paul the inspired apostle, we might
well refuse to believe that such blamelessness, piety, and zeal were ever
attained by mortal man. Why then does the apostle call himself the chief of
sinners? In the presence of those to whom he was well known, he could say, “I
have lived before God in all good conscience until this day” (Acts 23:1). With
reference to his past life, he could write, “As touching the righteousness
which is in the law, found blameless” (Phil. 3:6).

     Was this an outburst of
wild exaggeration of the kind to which pious folk of an hysterical turn are
addicted? No, it was the sober acknowledgment of the well-known principle that
privilege increases responsibility and deepens guilt.

     According to the
“humanity gospel,” which is today supplanting the Gospel of Christ in so many
pulpits, Paul was a model saint. In the judgment of God he was a model sinner.
Just because he had, as judged by men, attained preeminence in saintship,
divine grace taught him to own his preeminence in sin. With all his zeal for
God and fancied godliness, he awoke to find that he was a blasphemer. And what
a blasphemer! Who would care a straw what a Jerusalem mob thought of the Rabbi
of Nazareth? But who would not be influenced by the opinion of Gamaliel’s great
disciple?

     An infidel has said that
“Thou shalt not steal” is merely the language of the hog in the clover to warn
off the hogs outside the fence. And this reproach attaches to all mere human
conceptions of sin. Men judge of sin by its results and their estimate of its
results is colored by their own interests. But all such conceptions of sin are
inadequate. Definitions are rare in Scripture, but sin is there defined for us.
It may show itself in transgression, or in failing to come up to a standard.
But essentially it is lawlessness. This means, not transgression of law, nor
absence of law, but revolt against law—in a word, self-will. This is the very
essence of sin. The perfect life was the life of Him who never did His own
will, but only and always the will of God. All that is short of this, or
different from this, is characterized as sin.

     Here it is not a
question of acts merely, but of the mind and heart. Man’s whole nature is at
fault. Even human law recognizes this principle. In the case of ordinary crime
we take the rough and ready method of dealing with men for what they do. But
not so in crime of the highest kind. Treason consists in the hidden thought of
the heart. Overt acts of disloyalty or violence are not the crime, but merely
the evidence of the crime. The crime is the purpose of which such acts give
proof. Men cannot read the heart; they can judge of the purpose only by words
and acts. But it is not so with God. In His sight the treason of the human
heart is manifest, and no outward acts are needed to declare it.

     The truest test of a man
is not conduct, but character; not what he does, but what he is. Human judgment
must, of course, be guided by a man’s acts and words. But God is not thus
limited. Man judges character by conduct; God judges conduct by character.
Therefore it is that “what is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the
sight of God” (Luke 16:15).

     This brings us back to
the case of Paul. Under the influence of environment, and following his natural
bent, he took to religion as another man might take to vice. Religion was his
specialty, and the result was a splendid success. Here was the case of a man
who really did his best, and whose “best” was a record achievement. But what
was God’s judgment of it all? What was his own, when he came to look back on it
from the cross of Christ? Surveying the innumerable hosts of the sinners of
mankind, he says, “of whom I am chief” (1 Tim. 1:15). Because his
unrivaled “proficiency” in religion had raised him to the very highest pinnacle
of privilege and responsibility, this proved him to be the most wicked of men.

     But “I obtained mercy,”
he adds. He was twice granted mercy, first in receiving
salvation, and next in being called to the apostleship. The mercy of his
salvation was only because “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”
(1 Timothy 1:15). He had no other plea.

     The apostle Paul’s case
only illustrates the principle of divine judgment, as proclaimed by the Lord
Himself in language of awful solemnity. The most terrible doom recorded in Old
Testament history was that which engulfed the cities of the plain. Yet the Lord
declared that a still more dire doom awaited the cities which had been
specially favored by His presence and ministry on earth. The sin of Sodom we know. But what had Capernaum done? Religion flourished there. It was “exalted to
heaven” by privilege, and there is no suggestion that evil practices prevailed.
The exponents of the “humanity gospel,” now in popular favor, would have deemed
it a model community. They would tell us, moreover, that if Sodom was really
destroyed by a storm of fire and brimstone, it was Jewish ignorance which
attributed the catastrophe to their cruel Jehovah God. The kind, good Jesus of their
enlightened theology would have far different thoughts about Capernaum!

     “But I say unto you,”
was the Lord’s last warning to that seemingly happy and peaceful community, “it
shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for
you” (Matt. 11:24).

     What, then, we may well
ask, had Capernaum done? So far, as the record tells us, absolutely nothing.
Had there been flagrant immorality, or active hostility, the Lord would not
have made His home there; nor would it have come to be called “His own city”
(Matt. 4:13; 9:1; Mark 2:1). Had there been aggressive unbelief, the “mighty
works” which He wrought so lavishly among its people would have been
restrained. Thoroughly respectable and religious folk they evidently were. But
“they repented not”; that was all.

     That such people should
be deemed guiltier than Sodom, and that the champion religionist of His own age
should rank as the greatest sinner of any age, here is an enigma that is
insoluble if we ignore the Eden Fall—the teaching of Scripture as to the
essential character of sin. It was not that these men, knowing God, rejected
Him, but that they did not know Him. “He was in the world, and the world was
made by Him, and the world knew Him not.” “But,” the record adds, “as many as
received Him, to them gave He the right to become children of God.” On
receiving Him, or, in other words, on believing on His name, they were “born of
God” (John 1:10-13).

     If sin were merely a
matter of wrong-doing, if it were not “in the blood,” if our very nature were
not spiritually corrupt and depraved by it, a new birth would be unnecessary. A
blind man does not see things in a wrong light; he cannot see them at all. And
man by nature is spiritually blind. He “cannot see the Kingdom of God,” much less enter it. He must be born again.

     But there is more in sin
than this. It not only depraves the sinner, but it brings him under judgment.
Guilt attaches to it. Salvation, therefore, must be through redemption, and
redemption can only be by blood.

_________________________________________________________________

 

     On the cross hung the
one spotless, blessed Man, yet forsaken of God. What a fact before the world!
No wonder the sun was darkened—the central and splendid witness to God’s glory
in nature, when the Faithful and True Witness cried to His God and was not
heard. Forsaken of God! What does this mean? What part have I in the cross? One
single part—my sins! It baffles thought, that most solemn lonely hour
which stands aloof from all before or after.

                                                    J.N.
Darby

 

  The glories of the Lord
Jesus are threefold—personal, official, and moral. His personal glory He
veiled, save where faith discovered it, or an occasion demanded it. His
official glory He veiled likewise; He did not walk through the land as either
the divine Son from the bosom of the Father, or as the authoritative Son of
David. Such glories were commonly hid as He passed through the circumstances of
life day by day. But His moral glory could not be hid:He could not be less
than perfect in every thing. From its intense excellency it was too bright for
the eye of man; and man was under constant exposure and rebuke from it. But
there it shone, whether man could bear it or not. It now illuminates every page
of the four Gospels, as it once did every path which the Lord Himself trod on
this earth of ours.

  It is the assemblage or
combination of virtues which forms moral glory. For example, the Lord Jesus
knew, as the apostle Paul speaks, “how to be abased, and … how to abound”
(Phil. 4:12)—how to use moments of prosperity, so to call them, and also times
of depression. In His passage through life, He was introduced to each of these.

  At the time of His
transfiguration, the Lord was introduced for a moment in His personal glory,
and a very bright moment it was. As the sun, the source of all brightness, He
shone there. But as He descended the hill, He charged those who had been with
Him not to speak of it. And when the people, on His reaching the foot of the
hill, ran to salute Him (Mark 9:15), He did not linger among them to receive
their homage, but at once addressed Himself to His common service, for He knew
“how to abound.” He was not exalted by His prosperity. He sought not a place among
men, but emptied Himself and quickly veiled the glory that He might be the
Servant.

  But He knew “how to be
abased” also. Look at Him with the Samaritan villagers in Luke 9. At the outset
of that action, in the sense of His personal glory, He anticipated His being
“received [or raised] up.” And in the common, well-known style of one who would
have it known that a person of distinction was coming that way, He sent
messengers before Him. But the unbelief of the Samaritans changed the scene.
They would not receive Him. They refused to cast up a highway for the feet of
this glorious One, but forced Him to find out for Himself the best path He
could as the rejected One. But He accepted this place at once, without a murmur
in His heart. He immediately became again the Nazarene, seeing He was refused
as the Bethlehemite (the heir to David’s throne). Thus He knew “how to be
abased” as well as “how to abound.”

  There are other
combinations in the Lord’s character that we must look at. Another has said of
Him, “He was the most gracious and accessible of men.” We observe in His ways a
tenderness and a kindness never seen in man, yet we always feel that He was a
stranger. How true this is! He was a stranger as far as the rebelliousness
of man dominated the scene, but intimately near as far as the misery and
need of man made demands upon Him. The distance He took, and the intimacy
He expressed, were perfect. He did more than look on the misery that was around
Him; He entered into it with a sympathy that was all His own. And He did more
than refuse the pollution that was around Him; He kept the very distance of
holiness itself from every touch or stain of it.

  Notice how He exhibited
this combination of distance and intimacy in Mark 6. The disciples returned to
Him after a long day’s service. He cared for them. He brought their weariness
very near to Him, saying to them, “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert
place, and rest awhile” (Mark 6:31). But when the multitude followed Him, He
turned with the same readiness to them, acquainting Himself with their
condition. And having taken knowledge of them, as sheep that had no shepherd,
He began to teach them. In all this we see Him very near to the varied need of
the scene around Him, whether that need be the fatigue of the disciples, or the
hunger and ignorance of the multitude. But the disciples soon resented His
attention to the multitude, and urged Him to send them away. However, this
would in no wise do for Him. There was immediate estrangement between Him and
them which shortly afterwards expressed itself by His telling them to get into
the ship while He sent the multitude away. But this separation from Him only
worked fresh trouble for them. Winds and waves were against them on the lake;
and then in their distress He was again near at hand to help and secure them!

  How consistent in the
combination of holiness and grace is all this. He is near in our weariness, our
hunger, or our danger. He is apart from our tempers and our selfishness. His
holiness made Him an utter stranger in such a polluted world; His grace kept
Him ever active in such a needy and afflicted world. And this sets off His
life, I may say, in great moral glory:for though forced, by the quality of the
scene around Him, to be a lonely One, yet was He drawn forth by the need and
sorrow of it to be the active One.

  Along with exhibiting these
beautiful combinations of virtues, with equal perfectness the Lord Jesus
manifested wisdom in distinguishing things. For example, He was not
drawn into softness when the occasion demanded faithfulness, and yet He passed
by many circumstances which the human moral sense would have judged it well to
resent. He did not attempt to win the hearts of His disciples by means of an
amiable nature. Honey was excluded as well as leaven from the meal offering
(Lev. 2:11); neither was Jesus, the true meal offering, characterized by that
honey of human civility and friendliness any more than He manifested that
leaven of sin in His holy life. It was not merely civil, amiable treatment that
the disciples got from their Master. He did not gratify, and yet He bound them
to Him very closely; and this is power. There is always moral power when the
confidence of another is gained without its being sought; for the heart so won
has then become conscious of the reality of love. Another has written:“We all
know how to distinguish love and attention, and that there may be a great deal
of the latter without any of the former. Some might say, attention must win our
confidence; but we know ourselves that nothing but love does.” This is so true.
Attention, if it be mere attention, is honey, and how much of this poor
material is found with us! If we are amiable, perform our part well in the
civil, courteous social scene, pleasing others, and doing what we can to keep
people on good terms with us, then we are satisfied with ourselves and others
with us also. But is this service to God? Is this a meal offering? Is this
found as part of the moral glory of perfect man? Indeed it is not! It is one of
the secrets of the sanctuary that honey was not used to give a sweet savor to
the offering (Lev. 2:11).

  Further, the Lord did not
pass judgments on persons in relation to Himself—a common fault with us all. We
naturally judge others according as they treat ourselves, and we make their
interest in us the measure of their character and worth. But this was not the
Lord. God is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed. He understands
every action fully. In all its moral meaning He understands it, and
according to that He weighs it.

  In this regard let us refer
to Luke 11. There was the air of courtesy and good feeling towards Him in the
Pharisee who invited Him to dine. But the Lord was “the God of knowledge,” and
as such He weighed this action in its full moral character. The honey of
courtesy, which is the best ingredient in social life in this world, did not
pervert His taste or judgment. He approved things that are excellent. The
civility which invited Him to dinner was not to determine the judgment of Him
who carried the weights and measures of the sanctuary of God. As soon as the
Lord entered the house, the host acted the Pharisee, and not the host. He
marveled that his guest had not washed before dinner. And the character he thus
assumed at the beginning showed itself in full force at the end. The Lord dealt
with the whole scene accordingly, for He weighed it as the God of knowledge.
Some may say that the courtesy He had received might have kept Him silent. But
He could not look on this man simply as in relation to Himself. He was not to
be flattered out of a just judgment. He exposed and rebuked, and the end of the
scene justified Him:“And as He said these things unto them, the scribes and
the Pharisees began to urge Him vehemently, and to provoke Him to speak of many
things, laying wait for Him, and seeking to catch something out of His mouth,
that they might accuse Him” (Luke 11:53,54).

  Very different, however,
was His way in the house of another Pharisee who in like manner had asked Him
to dine (Luke 7). This man, like the one in Luke 11, displayed pharisaical
tendencies. He silently accused the poor sinner of the city, and his guest for
allowing her to approach Him. But appearances are not the ground of righteous
judgments. Often the very same words, on different lips, have a very different
mind in them. And therefore the Lord, the perfect weigh master according to
God, though He rebuked Simon and exposed him to himself, knew Simon by name and
left his house as a guest should leave it. He distinguished the Pharisee of
Luke 7 from the one of Luke 11, though He dined with both of them.

  As another aspect of the
moral glory of the Lord Jesus, He knew how to answer every man with words which
were always to his soul’s profit. He perfectly fulfilled that which the apostle
Paul urged upon the Colossian believers:“Let your speech be always with grace,
seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man” (4:6).
Thus, in answering inquiries, He did not so much purpose to satisfy them as to
reach the conscience or the condition of the inquirer.

  In His silence, or refusal
to answer at all, when He stood before the Jew or the Gentile at the end,
before either the priests, or Pilate, or Herod, we can trace the same perfect
fitness as we do in His words or answers. He witnessed to God that at least One
among the sons of men knew “a time to keep silence, and a time to speak” (Eccl.
3:7).

  Great variety in His very
tone and manner also presents itself in all this; and all this variety added to
the fragrance of His perfect life before God. Sometimes His word was gentle,
and sometimes peremptory; sometimes He reasoned, and sometimes He rebuked at
once; sometimes He conducted calm reasoning up to the heated point of solemn
condemnation. It was the moral aspect of the occasion He always weighed.

  Matthew 15 has struck me as
a chapter in which this perfection may be seen. In the course of it the Lord
was called to answer the Pharisees, the multitude, the poor afflicted stranger
from the coasts of Tyre, and His own disciples, again and again, in their
manifestation of either stupidity or selfishness. And we may notice His
different style of rebuke and of reasoning, of calm, patient teaching, and of
faithful, wise, and gracious training of the soul. We cannot help but feel how
fitting all this variety was to the place or occasion that called it forth.

  In a similar way we marvel
at the beauty and the fitness of His neither teaching nor learning in
Luke 2:46, but only hearing and asking questions. To have taught then would
not have been in season since He was a child in the midst of His elders. To
have learned would not have been in full fidelity to the light which He
knew He carried in Himself, for we may surely say that He was wiser than the
ancients and had more understanding than His teachers (Psa. 119:99,100). He
knew in the perfection of grace how to use this fullness of wisdom. Strong in
spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God upon Him, is the description
of Him then as He grew up in tender years; and when a man conversing in the
world, His speech was always with grace, seasoned with salt, as of One who knew
how to answer every man. What perfection and beauty suited to the different
seasons of childhood and manhood are displayed in this!

  Let me close by saying that
it is blessed and happy for us, as well as part of our worship, to mark the
characteristics of the Lord’s way and ministry here on the earth. All that He
did and said, all His service, whether in the substance or the style of it, is
the witness of what He was, and He is the witness to us of what God is. And
thus we reach God, the blessed One, through the paths of the Lord Jesus
recorded in the pages of the four evangelists. Every step of that way becomes
important to us. All that He did and said was a real, truthful expression of
Himself, as He Himself was a real, truthful expression of God. If we can
understand the character of His ministry, or read the moral glory that attaches
to each moment and each particular of His walk and service here on earth, and
so learn what He is, and thus learn what God is, we reach God in certain and
unclouded knowledge of Him. We reach God through the ordinary paths and
activities of the life of this divine Son of Man.

 

    Some people speak of the
worship offered to God by “poor sinners.” Many hymns never bring the soul
beyond this condition. But what is meant by “sinner” in the Word of God is a
soul altogether without peace, a soul that feels its want of Christ, without
the knowledge of redemption. It is not truthfulness to deny what saints are in
the sight of God. If I have failed in anything, will taking the ground of a
poor sinner make the sin to be less, or give me to feel it more? No! If I am a
saint, blessed with God in His beloved Son, made one with Christ, and the Holy
Spirit given to dwell in me, then I ought to feel and say, “How terrible that I
have failed, and dishonored the Lord, and been indifferent to His glory!” If I
feel my own coldness and indifference, it is to be hated as sin. On the other
hand, to take the ground of a “poor sinner” is really to make excuses for evil.
Which of the two ways would act most powerfully upon the conscience? Which
humbles man and exalts God most? Clearly the more that we realize what God has
made us in Christ, the more we will feel the dishonor of our course if walking
inconsistently. But if we keep speaking about ourselves merely as a sinner, it
may seem lowly to the superficial, but it becomes a kind of palliative of our
evil, and never causes the thorough humbling that God looks for in the child of
faith.

    (From Lectures on the
Epistle to the Galatians.)

 

      “I believe in the
communion of saints,” many repeat from the Apostles’ Creed, who but little
enter into its Scriptural meaning. First, “communion” is what we have in common,
both to enjoy from God and to hold as a trust for Him in the midst of all
opposing forces. Then it is the “communion of saints,” and saints are
God’s saved ones, “holy brethren” (Heb. 3:1), called out of the world to
Himself. Further, it is “a communion of saints” we are said to “believe in,”
and so are not to treat it as a holiday matter, for now and then, but as an everyday
one of which we seriously assume the responsibilities, as we would enjoy the
privileges.

      There is, at present,
much talk about fellowship with all Christians. However, as a matter of
fact, none are in fellowship with all Christians, and as a matter of
obedience to Scripture, none certainly should be. Christians are found
walking in all sorts of unholy ways, holding all manner of heresies, and in all
kinds of evil associations. Hence, in the measure that we really “believe in
the communion of saints,” we shall endeavor, not only to be in fellowship with
saints (a first consideration), but also as saints who are “holy brethren,” and
are by that fact held responsible to maintain what is consistent with it, both
in themselves and in their fellowship. Some say that “a circle of fellowship”
is not of God; but perforce there can be no fellowship without it being
in a circle, or having its limits, whether they be true or false. We realize
that in the maintenance of such a circle, there is call for great watchfulness
against a sectarian spirit and ways. The apostle Paul teaches “a
circle of fellowship” in 1 Cor. 7:17; 11:16; 12:26; and 14:33; were he here
with us today, we believe he would help us to sacredly regard the Scriptural
lines he then laid down as the minister of the Church, amid the evils of our
own days. He would not be in fellowship with all Christians, we know,
from his attitude toward the brother put away at Corinth, and the assembly that
for the time being was defiled by his presence.

      We cannot go to
all, that is plain if we would obey 2 Tim. 2:19-22, which is not yet obsolete.
But neither can we receive all, for the simple rule of Scripture is two-fold:
“Receive one another … to the glory of God” (Rom. 15:7), and “let all things be done unto edifying” and “decently and in order” (1
Cor. 14:26,40). These terse words put the bars up against the ditches on the
sides of both extremes. We are to receive one another because we
are the Lord’s; but we are to receive to the glory of God, and this does
not mean receiving all Christians. Christ receives sinners as such, when
it is a question of salvation, but God receives His people as they walk in ways
of obedience and separation to Himself (2 Cor. 6:17). We would regard fully
the word, “Of some have compassion, making a difference” (Jude 22),
knowing that we are to “love mercy” as well as “do justly” (Mich.6:8). But to
hold the door of fellowship open to all Christians is to do worse by God’s
house than we do by our own. Likewise, to wink at the corruptions and evils of
an apostate Christendom will not help the beloved souls who are groaning in
bondage there. “A true witness delivers souls” (Prov. 14:25), and this calls
for both the maintenance of Scriptural fellowship and the teaching to others of
what this involves.

      (From Seed for the
Sower, No. 123.)

 

Review

  In Part I of this article,
we considered examples of righteous anger expressed by God, by the Man Christ
Jesus, and by other persons in the Bible. We then gave a number of examples of
people in the Bible who expressed sinful anger and looked at the main reasons
for this anger. We noticed that often this sinful anger was in response to
people who were simply carrying out the will of God.

Sinful Anger in Response to Sin

  There are also a few
examples in the Bible in which anger was directed at a person who had sinned.
For example:

  Esau was angry with Jacob
for stealing the blessing from their father Isaac (Gen. 27:23,41).

  Jacob was angry with his
wife Rachel because she was sinfully complaining (Gen. 30:1,2).

  Simeon and Levi were angry
with Shechem for raping their sister. Their anger was justified at the outset,
but it degenerated into sinful retaliation (Gen. 34:2,7,25,26).

  Moses was angry with the
children of Israel because they were sinfully complaining against God; Moses’
anger led to his sinful misrepresentation of the character of Jehovah before
the Israelites (Num. 20:1-12).

  If a person sins against me
and I respond in anger, does the fact that it is a response to sin
automatically make my anger righteous? Not necessarily. In each of these
examples there is evidence of wounded pride; the anger is not used to make a
godly appeal to the person to repent of his/her sin, but to attack and/or get
even with the sinner. Perhaps you firmly believe that you have a right before
God to become angry every time you perceive that someone has sinned against
you. There are several things wrong with this idea:

  1. Your perception may be
wrong; you may have misunderstood or misinterpreted the person’s words or
actions; thus your anger would be totally wrong.

  2. Your perception may be
correct, but if your anger is only for the purpose of punishing the person, it
is wrong, because you are to leave vengeance in the Lord’s hands (Rom. 12:19).

  3. God may sometimes want
you to “pass over a transgression” (Prov. 19:11). (We will discuss this in more
detail later.)

  4. You may be confusing sin
as defined in God’s Word with the fact that you personally have been
embarrassed or inconvenienced by another’s misfortune. For example, suppose
your young child graciously asks if he can help dry the dishes. After you come
out of your faint, you hand him a dish towel. He tries to be very careful, but
because of his small hands and lack of coordination, he drops one of your best
china plates. If you get angry at your child for something like this, it is you
who are sinning, and not the child!

Anger as a Means of

Controlling Others

  There is one more example
of anger in the Bible that we need to look at more closely. This is Peter’s
anger at the time of the crucifixion of Christ when people kept insisting that
they recognized him as a disciple of Jesus. The people were right and Peter was
lying to them. So why did he get angry? As a means of control, I suggest. The
situation was getting out of control, and he feared for his life. So he used
anger as a means of getting the people to back off. This is a very common use
of anger—for controlling other people and getting them to do what I want them
to do. I have seen it happen many times, and probably have done it myself.
There is absolutely no warrant for it, no Scriptural support for it:it is a
result of pride and selfishness through and through.

How Is Anger Expressed?

  How is anger manifested and
expressed? We most often think of people losing their temper, blowing up,
shouting, and so forth. But there are other ways. Here is an example from
Scripture:“Ahab spoke unto Naboth, saying, Give me your vineyard, that I may
have it for a garden of herbs…. And Naboth said to Ahab, The Lord forbid it
me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto you. And Ahab came
into his house heavy and displeased … and he lay down upon his bed and turned
away his face and would eat no bread” (1 Ki. 21:1-4). Ahab was angry because he
was not getting his own way even though he was king. He did not blow up in
anger; rather he went off and pouted, and perhaps became depressed. I remember
a brother making the observation that depression often results from suppressed
anger—not always, but often. Much of what people today call “stress” is due to
going on day after day with suppressed anger and holding grudges.

  Another way anger is
manifested is the silent treatment. Some people sort of realize that losing
one’s temper is wrong, so they express their anger by being silent, not
communicating with the ones who make them angry. I remember reading about two
sisters who lived together in the same house. They had a falling out, and lived
the last 20 years each keeping to her side of the house, and never once
speaking to the other. How awful! How stressful!

  Then there are those whose
motto is:“I don’t get angry; I just get even.” Surely that is wrong because
the Bible says, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord” (Rom. 12:19,20).
But are not all these other forms of anger, including the silent treatment,
also a form of vengeance? A variation of this is using cutting or mocking
words. For example, I remember a high school teacher of mine who, when a
certain boy misbehaved in class, called him “Butterball.” If, in our anger, we
attack or make fun of the person (in this case, the physical appearance of the
person) rather than using the energy derived from our anger to attack and
resolve the problem (in this case, his misbehavior), then we are really taking
vengeance into our own hands.

  Finally, some people use
the gunny sack approach to expressing irritation and anger. Here’s how it
works. Consider a married couple:we will call them George and Sally. Sally
goes to brush her teeth and finds the tube of toothpaste squeezed in the
middle. She thinks to herself, “I just hate it when George squeezes the
tube in the middle,” and she drops it in the gunny sack—figuratively, not
literally. Then she goes to the bedroom and finds George’s pajamas strewn on
the floor. Again, she thinks bitter thoughts about George and … drops the
pajamas in her gunny sack. She goes down to the kitchen and the morning paper
lying on the table reminds her of how her husband never pays attention to her
at the breakfast table … and she drops the paper in her gunny sack. And so it
goes until Saturday when she catches George slicing bread on the kitchen counter
without using the bread board. She blows up, and out comes the gunny sack. She
berates him, not just about scarring the kitchen counter, but also about the
toothpaste and the pajamas and the newspaper. The verses “Let not the sun go
down upon your wrath” and “It is his glory to pass over a transgression” apply
here.

Biblical Instruction

Concerning Anger

  Let us now briefly explore
some Biblical instruction concerning anger. The first one we have considered
already:

  We are to be angry, but
without sinning. “Be angry and sin not:let not the sun go down upon your
wrath:neither give place to the devil” (Eph. 4:26,27). In other words, there
is a kind of anger that is not sinful. There are occasions in which we should
express righteous anger, following the example of Christ. But at the same time,
we must be very careful not to allow righteous anger to degenerate into sinful
anger. We are to keep short accounts with God and with other people; therefore
we should make sure that our anger has been resolved before the sun goes down.

  We are to stop our
sinful anger. “Cease from anger, and forsake wrath:fret not yourself in
any wise to do evil” (Psa. 37:8).“Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and
clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice” (Eph. 4:31;
also Col. 3:8; Gal. 5:19-21). We shall come back to the very important question
of how to deal with our problem of anger.

  We are to consider the
effects and consequences of our anger. “A wrathful man stirs up strife”
(Prov. 15:18). “Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous” (Prov. 27:4). “Whoever
is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment:
and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the
council:but whosoever shall say, You fool, shall be in danger of hell fire”
(Matt. 5:22). “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest
any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled”
(Heb. 12:15). “For the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God” (Jas.
1:20). “If you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and
lie not against the truth” (Jas. 3:14).

  We are to be slow to
anger. “He who is slow to wrath is of great understanding” (Prov. 14:29).
“He who is slow to anger appeases strife” (Prov. 15:18). “He who is slow to
anger is better than the mighty; and he who rules his spirit than he who takes
a city” (Prov. 16:32).“Love suffers long [or is long-tempered] … is not
easily provoked” (1 Cor. 13:4,5). “I will therefore that men pray everywhere,
lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting” (1 Tim. 2:8). (Engaging in
public prayer while nursing an angry, bitter spirit in private is gross
hypocrisy.) “A bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not
self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker” (Tit. 1:7).
“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak,
slow to wrath” (Jas. 1:19).

  We have the privilege of
passing over some transgressions. “The discretion of a man defers his anger;
and it is his glory to pass over a transgression” (Prov. 19:11). The deferring
of one’s anger here does not mean putting it in your gunny sack to bring out
later. Rather, I believe it means that we stop and consider and pray about the
matter to find out how God wants us to respond. The second part of the verse
says that God may sometimes want us to pass over a transgression. Husbands!
wives! before you lash out at your spouse for some trivial misdeed (like
squeezing the tube of toothpaste in the wrong place), pray! Ask God and ask
yourself if it is worth bringing conflict and disharmony into your marriage
over such a matter as this. Also ask God to remind you of the many times your
spouse has passed over your transgressions.

  The apostle Paul might have
whammed the Philippians for engaging in petty conflicts, but instead he gave
them—and us—the wonderful ministry of Chapter 2, verses 5-11 concerning the
humility and subsequent exaltation of Christ Jesus. And in the Old Testament,
Moses was out of touch with God’s thoughts when he expressed anger at the
people’s sin while God wanted to win the people’s hearts by an expression of
grace. For this inappropriate expression of anger toward the people’s sin,
Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land (Num. 20:1-12).

  “It is his glory to pass
over a transgression.” I would include under this verse the annoying habit of
some to “nit pick”—constantly correcting their children or spouse or even
parents with respect to grammar or pronunciation or details of a story they are
telling.

  How we are to deal with
other people’s anger. “A soft answer turns away wrath” (Prov. 15:1). If
your two-year-old is having a temper tantrum, try whispering in his/her ear.
“Wise men turn away wrath” (Prov. 29:8). “A gift in secret pacifies anger:and
a reward in the bosom strong wrath” (Prov. 21:14; see Gen. 43:11,12; Matt.
5:44).

  We are to avoid stirring
up anger in others. “Grievous words stir up anger” (Prov. 15:1). “Fathers,
provoke not your children to wrath:but bring them up in the nurture and
admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). “Fathers, provoke not your children to
anger, lest they be discouraged” (Col. 3:21). If a member of our family has an
anger problem, the other members should be much in prayer and in the Word to
discover any behaviors on their part that may be helping to kindle the anger of
the other. This does not at all excuse one’s anger. “The devil made me do it”
or “my parents drove me to anger” does not cut it with God. But at the same
time, the more reasons and excuses we can remove from the path of angry
persons, the greater the possibility of helping those persons with their
problem of anger.

  (To be concluded.)

 

 

 

Introduction

      The definition and
description of so-called assembly meetings has been presented very clearly by
David Johnson in the preceding article. These are very special meetings in that
there is to be total dependence upon the leading of the Holy Spirit as to the
order and conduct of the meetings. In the present article I wish to address a
number of aspects of the conduct of such meetings, including the following
questions:

      1. Who is permitted to
participate in such a meeting?

      2. How can each brother
and sister prepare for such a meeting?

      3. Is there to be a
specific theme for the meeting?

      4. Is a particular
order to be followed?

      5. What can be done
about long periods of silence that may occur during such a meeting?

      6. What about the
opposite problem of not enough silence?

      7. What if a particular
brother does not edify the assembly by his ministry?

      8. How long should a
message be?

      9. How is such a
meeting to be concluded?

      Reference will be made
in this article to three types of assembly meetings—the remembrance meeting (or
Lord’s supper), prayer meeting, and meeting for ministry of the Word of God.

Who Is Permitted to Participate?

      It is clear from 1 Cor.
14:34,35 that the sisters are not permitted to participate verbally in such
meetings:“Let your women keep silence in the churches:for it is not permitted
unto them to speak;… it is a shame for women to speak in the church.” 1 Tim.
2:11,12 goes along with this:“Let the women learn in silence with all
subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the
man, but to be in silence.” The reason for this prohibition seems to have to do
with the God-ordained headship of the man over the woman, and is not intended
to imply that women are less spiritual, less gifted, or less able to
participate.

      It also seems clear
from 1 Cor. 14 that neither are men to participate verbally, unless they
are led by the Holy Spirit to do so, and unless they have something to
give that will edify the assembly (verses 12,15,26). The assembly meeting is
not a place for man to show off his intellect, skills in oratory, spiritual
gift, knowledge of the Word of God, or himself in any way. The Holy Spirit is
to be in charge; the brothers are to be instruments through whom the Spirit
either ministers the Word to the assembly or expresses the assembly’s prayers
and praises to the Lord. For this reason, a brother who has a so-called “public”
gift, such as teacher or evangelist, needs to be especially careful that it is
the Holy Spirit Himself and not his spiritual gift per se that motivates him to
participate in the assembly meeting.

How Can We Prepare?

      It may be thought that
since only the brothers are permitted to speak, only they have to be concerned
about preparing for an assembly meeting. This is not at all the case. The
“success” or value of an assembly meeting depends as much on the sisters coming
properly prepared as the brothers. One aspect of this preparation is prayer and
communion with the Father. We must pray that we will all—brothers and sisters
alike—be in a proper spirit to receive what the Lord has to give us (if it is a
ministry meeting) or to give what is worthy of the Lord (if it is a prayer or
worship meeting). We must pray also that the Spirit will have liberty to use
whomever He wants to minister the Word, pray, give out a hymn, or worship. This
means that those who are naturally timid and reluctant will be encouraged to speak
if the Holy Spirit leads, and that those who are naturally forward and gifted
will be restrained from speaking unless the Spirit moves them.

      Another way we can
prepare is to be often engaged in individual meetings—just ourselves and the
Lord—of the same character. What do I mean by this? We best prepare for the
assembly prayer meeting by being often alone with the Lord in prayer (Matt.
6:6); for the remembrance meeting by thinking of the Lord and His death often
during the week; and for the ministry meeting by regular personal reading,
studying, and meditating on God’s Word. (The Spirit is not likely to lead a
brother to expound the 24th chapter of Jeremiah if he has never read and
meditated on it before.)

      In my judgment, it is
not amiss for the brothers to ask the Lord in advance of the meeting to give
them specific Scripture portions or topics to meditate on and organize in their
mind. However, one should never go into a meeting with the thought that “I am
going to give out hymn such and such or read chapter such and such from the
Bible.” We must seek to be totally yielded to the guidance of the Spirit that
He might use the brothers of His choice to give the hymns, prayers,
readings, or teachings of His choice at each particular meeting.

      We should arrive at the
meeting in harmony and peace with one another if we expect to receive a
blessing from the Lord. “If you bring your gift to the altar, and there
remember that your brother has ought against you, leave there your gift before
the altar, and go your way:first be reconciled to your brother, and then come
and offer your gift” (Matt. 5:23,24).

      And finally, we should
make every attempt to arrive at the meeting early so we can get settled in our
seats and have a few minutes of silent prayer before the meeting begins. In
these meetings we are acting upon the truth of Matt. 18:20:“Where two or three
are gathered together in [unto] My name, there am I in the midst of them.” Just
think of it:we are gathered together to meet with the Lord, with Himself in
our midst! Should this not lead us to gather in a spirit of eager, but sober
anticipation? All too often, especially at Bible conferences, people come into
the building talking and laughing with one another and this continues right up
to the appointed hour for beginning the assembly meeting. These things ought
not to be, dear brothers and sisters!!

Is There to Be a Specific Theme?

      In 1 Cor. 14:23,26,29
we read:“If therefore the whole church be come together into one place …
every one of you has a psalm, has a doctrine, has a tongue, has a revelation,
has an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying…. Let the
prophets speak two or three, and let the others judge.” The assembly meeting
described here seems to have been of a rather general character, including both
worship and ministry. In addition to this, there seems to be Scriptural warrant
for more specialized assembly meetings, particularly those for prayer (Matt.
18:19,20; Acts 4:31) and for remembering the Lord in His death (1 Cor.
11:17-29). I have also heard of assembly meetings being held in times past for
the purpose of public confession concerning the low spiritual state of the
local assembly and the Church in general.

      In the assembly meeting
described in 1 Cor. 14 prophesying plays an important role. Prophesying does
not primarily refer to prediction of future events but means literally
“speaking on behalf of another”—in this case on behalf of God, or “as the
oracles of God” (1 Pet. 4:11). The one who prophesies gives a message from God
based on the Holy Scriptures. This may be a development of a Scriptural
doctrine or teaching (1 Cor. 14:26), or a word of comfort, encouragement, or
exhortation (verses 3,31). It may even, on occasion, be a gospel message suited
to an unsaved person present (verses 24,25)—a message used by the Holy Spirit
to convict him and manifest to himself the “secrets of his heart,” leading him
to fall “down on his face” and “worship God.”

Is a Particular Order to Be

Followed?

      An observer who
regularly attends the remembrance meeting at a particular assembly may get the
impression that there are certain rules to be followed as to the order of the
service. For example, the meeting may always open with a hymn and close with a
prayer, and the giving of thanks for the bread and the wine invariably takes
place during the latter half of the meeting. The reading of Scripture, if done
at all, usually occurs just before or just after the passing of the bread and
the wine. Such regularity of order may well indicate that the assembly has
fallen into a rut of tradition rather than maintaining the freshness of waiting
on the Holy Spirit to lead and direct.

      A sister once remarked
to me, “I think it is so nice when the remembrance meeting closes with a
prayer.” And I have heard of assemblies where it was held that the remembrance
meeting had to conclude with a prayer. But is that up to us to
decide? I would appeal to all such that we try not to put God in a box. Let us
not limit the Spirit’s control by imposing our own rules and order on such a
meeting. If the Holy Spirit so leads, a remembrance meeting may open equally
with a hymn, a prayer, a reading of Scripture, or with the giving thanks for
the loaf and the cup; and it might close in any of these ways. Similarly, let
us guard against traditions such as always opening a prayer meeting with a hymn
(or two hymns), and opening a ministry meeting with a hymn and a prayer.

      Nevertheless, Scripture
does give us a few rules for the assembly meetings:(1) No more than
three brothers should minister the Word or read the Scriptures at a particular
meeting (1 Cor. 14:29); (2) the brothers should speak one at a time, not more
than one in different parts of the room as may have happened in the assembly at
Corinth (verse 31); and, as mentioned earlier, (3) the women are to “keep
silence in the churches” (verse 34).

What About Periods of Silence?

      Assembly meetings can
be agonizing experiences for some people. This is because they cannot tolerate
the quiet periods that may occur between hymns, prayers, Scripture readings,
etc. If one has brought a neighbor to the meeting, it may be a particular
embarrassment to have a long period of silence. Worse yet, the longer the
period of silence becomes, the more likely it is that one of the brothers will
act in the flesh—for example, giving out a hymn just to do something— rather
than continue waiting to be led by the Holy Spirit. What are the causes of long
periods of silence and what can be done about them?

      I would suggest four
possible reasons for long periods of silence during an assembly meeting; no
doubt there are others besides. First, the believers—brothers and sisters
alike—may not have come prepared in spirit. One family may still be upset from
an argument during the drive in; others may have difficulty getting their minds
off the ball game they were listening to just before the meeting; and others
may have been so occupied with their job or home responsibilities that they had
not given a bit of thought to the meeting before sitting down.

      Second, a brother may
have been led by the Holy Spirit to speak on a certain topic, but needs time to
locate the appropriate Scriptures and organize his thoughts.

      Third, the Holy Spirit
may have given a word to a brother who is naturally timid and reserved and thus
is resisting the Holy Spirit or else may be waiting for more definite assurance
that the Spirit really wants him to get up and speak.

      Fourth, if the period
of silence follows a Scripture reading or meditation already given, the Holy
Spirit may want to give the entire assembly an extended period of quietness
simply to meditate upon and assimilate the Word that has just been given to
them.

      How should we behave
during such periods of silence? First, brothers, do not panic and go ahead of
the Holy Spirit. Second, sisters, do not sigh, clear your throats, look
disgusted, look at the clock, or in any other way try to convey to your
brothers that things would be a lot better if you were in charge. Such behavior
only deepens the sense of panic (see above) and further distracts the brothers
from seeking the leading of the Holy Spirit. It will be far more profitable to
continue the period of silence than to have it interrupted by one speaking from
himself and not from the Holy Spirit.

      Third, in accordance
with Matt. 5:24 and 1 Cor. 11:28, all should take this time to examine
themselves as to whether there is anything in their own behavior or
relationships with others in the assembly that may be hindering the Holy Spirit
in this meeting.

      Fourth, put this quiet
time to good use, just as you would a period of quiet at home. Use it to pray
(first of all that the Holy Spirit will maintain control of the present
meeting), read the Word, or meditate on a portion you have read recently. You
might even (I speak now to the sisters) ask the Lord to impress a portion from
His Word on your heart as if you were free to participate in the meeting. Who
knows? Perhaps the Lord is at the same moment preparing a brother to expound on
this very portion of Scripture. And if not, you will still be blessed with what
the Lord has given you personally.

      A brother once told me
of a time when he was in an assembly with only one other brother besides
himself, but still they had periodic assembly meetings for ministry of the Word
and worship as described in 1 Corinthians 14. On at least one occasion, he
related, neither he nor the other brother spoke throughout the entire meeting
(though perhaps there was a hymn or a prayer). “What a waste of time,” some
might exclaim, if this were to happen in their assembly. However, others who
come in the proper spirit might very well exclaim that it was one of the most
precious hours they have ever spent.

What About the Absence of

Periods of Silence?

      The opposite problem of
not enough silence may also occur, particularly at Bible conferences. Let us
take care to leave time for meditation on the hymn just sung or the Word just
ministered before giving out another hymn or ministering on a different portion
of Scripture. Let us be sure to leave room for the Holy Spirit to do His
perfect work in leading whom He wishes in such meetings. Sometimes it
appears that brothers are afraid they might not have an opportunity to speak if
they don’t jump up as soon as there is an opening. But this is not giving room
for the Holy Spirit to lead.

      As stated earlier,
Scripture imposes a limit on the number of “prophets” (that is, those who read
or minister the Word), namely “two or three” (1 Cor. 14:29). So those who would
stand up to minister the Word without the clear leading of the Spirit create
two problems:(1) they are not giving out what the Spirit intended for that
audience at that time; and (2) they may well deny the opportunity for one who does
have a word from the Lord to speak. So let us take seriously our responsibility
to have the clear leading of the Holy Spirit when participating in an assembly
meeting.

What If There Is No Edification?

      As noted previously,
according to 1 Corinthians 14 the purpose of the assembly meeting is edification
of the saints. But suppose a particular brother who participates rather
frequently in the assembly meeting repeatedly fails to edify. Let me suggest a
few things to consider in this regard.

      First, the problem may
be in me and not in the speaker. I may be harboring some unjudged ill feelings
toward that brother that effectively blocks my spirit from receiving any
ministry that the brother may give.

      Second, it is well to
keep in mind that the people attending an assembly meeting often cover a wide
range of ages and of spiritual maturity. A brother’s ministry may be
unprofitable to me because it typically covers lessons I learned long ago; but
the lessons may be just what are needed by some of the younger ones present.
And rather than be bored by it all, I should be praying that those to whom the
message is directed will receive it and live it. Further, it will not do me any
harm to challenge myself whether the truths that are being presented are as
fresh, and real, and living in me as they once were. (If I find them boring,
perhaps they are not as real to me as they ought to be!) And finally, if I pay
close attention, I may get some pointers as to how better to present simple
truths to young believers.

      Third, it may be that
the person is acting in the flesh and not in the Spirit, and is truly edifying
nobody. If, after talking with several other brothers and sisters of all ages,
I find that all are agreed that they are not edified by the brother’s ministry,
it is Scriptural for other brothers to go to him, in a spirit of meekness (Gal.
6:1), and tell him the problem and seek to help him to become more attuned to
the leading of the Holy Spirit. “Let the prophets speak … and let the others
judge” (1 Cor. 14:29).

How Long Should a Message Be?

      The apostle Paul said,
“In the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my
voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue”
(1 Cor. 14:19). It is generally found that the shorter and more succinct a message
is, the higher the likelihood the main points will be remembered by the
hearers. The unknown tongue, while referring to a foreign, unintelligible
language in the case of the Corinthians, could apply to speakers who try to
cover Genesis to Revelation and all major (and some minor) doctrines in one
message. In general, the messages should have one or two key themes or points
to impress upon the audience, and care should be taken not to ramble all over
and get off on many different tangents while trying to make those main points.
Dependence on the Holy Spirit does not end with standing up to speak.
There should be equal—if not greater—dependence on the Spirit while giving the
message in order to stick to the main point the Spirit wants you to bring out
and in order to know when to stop and sit down. Verse 30 of 1 Cor. 14
seems relevant in this regard, though it is difficult to know exactly how to
carry it out in practice:“If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by,
let the first hold his peace.” I would suggest that if the brother who is
speaking continues to look to the Holy Spirit for guidance while he speaks, the
Spirit will make it plain to him when he should conclude and “hold his peace”
so that another brother can minister what the Spirit has given to him.

How Is an Assembly Meeting

Brought to a Close?

      This is perhaps the most difficult of our questions to
answer. I can easily tell you from personal experience how such meetings
traditionally are ended. The weekly remembrance and prayer meetings generally
are announced for a specific time period (say, one hour). At the appointed
time, Bibles and hymn books are put away and the Holy Spirit is dismissed, as
it were.

      No doubt it would be
more in keeping with the character of these meetings—that is, assembly meetings
with the Holy Spirit in full control—to allow more flexibility to go
over the appointed hour if the Spirit so leads. If another meeting, such as
Sunday school, is scheduled to start immediately after the remembrance meeting
is scheduled to end, this severely limits the flexibility of letting the
Spirit—rather than the clock— bring the meeting to a close. So it would be wise
to schedule a break between the two meetings if the remembrance meeting is
first.

      On the other hand, if
several families are missing (due to bad weather, vacations, etc.) and there
are only one or two brothers left, there is no reason a remembrance meeting
need necessarily last a whole hour. It need not be more than the giving of
thanks for the bread and wine and perhaps a hymn or two—of course, all
according to the Spirit’s leading. Even when several brothers are present,
allowance must be given to the Spirit to close the meeting early, perhaps to
allow the assembly the final few minutes to silently meditate upon the thoughts
already expressed.

      In the case of an
assembly meeting for ministry of the Word, the length of the meeting is defined
in part by the number of prophets—that is, those who read and/or expound the
Scriptures—who have spoken. “Let the prophets speak two or three” (1 Cor.
14:29). No doubt this restriction, imposed by the all-wise God, takes account
of man’s inability to take in and retain more than a few main ideas in a single
sitting. Even after the third speaker has sat down, allowance should still be
given to the Holy Spirit to lead in additional hymns, prayers, and worship.

Conclusion

      To conclude this topic,
I would say that the brothers have an awesome responsibility to carry out with
regard to the assembly meetings. It is not an easy thing to wait upon the Holy
Spirit to lead in an assembly meeting. It is often difficult to discern the
voice or prompting of the Spirit and to distinguish it from the prompting of
Satan or the flesh. It is difficult to sit through long silences without doing
something—anything! The sisters should not be envious of the public place given
to the brothers, and should gladly support the brothers with their prayers and
encouragement.

      On the other hand, let
us not allow the sense of this awesome responsibility, and the intense
spiritual exercise required by it, to hinder us from conducting assembly
meetings. A great deal of blessing and spiritual edification awaits those who
desire to gather together as an assembly to wait upon the Spirit alone, letting
Him draw out our prayers and praises and allowing the omniscient, all-wise God
to minister to current spiritual needs of the assembly as He sees them.

 

      The Lord has given
specific instruction in His precious Word as to how we can be saved and know we
are headed for heaven. Also He has given instruction as to the gatherings of
His people here on earth. We find in the Word that there are special meetings
that we will call “assembly meetings” where He promises His presence when
gathered as a local church or assembly. We find also that there are different
types of assembly meetings specially called for in the Word.

      It is important to
distinguish between “assembly meetings” and all other gatherings of God’s
people. Some meetings of God’s people are organized and led by one or a few
members of the local assembly. Usually these meetings are characterized by the
exercise of the gift of a particular brother or brothers. For example, when the
gospel is presented, the evangelist exercises his gift in individual dependence
on God. In the Bible study, the teacher’s gift is helpful and refreshing. Or
one gifted as a teacher or a pastor may hold a series of lectures in which he
is responsible, as before the Lord, to bring forth suited ministry to the
Lord’s people. The assembly may decide to have outreaches using gifts as the
Spirit leads. Sunday school work may be the exercise of individuals as led of
the Lord as well, and may or may not necessarily be sponsored by the assembly.

      Assembly meetings, on
the other hand, are gatherings that satisfy the following two criteria. First,
the believers must be gathered unto the Name of the Lord Jesus as members of
the “one body.” This we see from Matt. 18:20:“For where two or three are
gathered together unto My Name, there am I in the midst of them” (JND). The
object of each one at such a gathering is “unto” His Name. His “Name”
represents all He stands for as revealed in His Word. It is not merely “in” His
Name (as in the King James Version), but “unto” or in honor of Him. Also, it is
with a real sense in our souls that He is in the midst of His people and we are
gathering “unto” or around Himself. “Are gathered” is important too. The power
for gathering is doubtless the Holy Spirit who gathers by the Word, and the
Word owns no body of believers but the “one body” of which all believers are a
part. This expression “are gathered” is also found in other passages of
Scripture, especially in the epistles of Paul; such passages give us further
direction as to assembly meetings, as we soon shall see. So this verse in
Matthew 18 assures us of the presence of the Head of the Church when we are
thus gathered.

      The second criterion
for an assembly meeting is that those gathered together must own that the
Spirit, who has baptized us into one body (1 Cor. 12:13), must be free to lead
whomsoever He will to take part publicly. “I will pray with the spirit and I
will pray with the understanding also; I will sing with the spirit, and I will
sing with the understanding also” (1 Cor. 14:15).

      Let us consider some verses
now that give directions for assembly meetings. In conjunction with Matt. 18:20
quoted above, we have verses 17 and 18:“If he [that is, the brother who has
sinned] shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church; but if he neglect
to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican.
Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in
heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
These verses give direction for an assembly meeting for discipline. In the
following verse (19) we read:“If two of you shall agree on earth as touching
any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is
in heaven.” This verse seems to give direction primarily for an assembly
meeting for prayer, for it links directly with verse 20, “For where two or
three are gathered together unto My Name, there am I in the midst of them.”

      We find the expressions
“gathered together” or “come together” in connection with the assembly and they
seem to define the assembly meeting in Scripture. “When you come together …
into one place” is direction regarding the meeting for the Lord’s supper (1
Cor. 11:20). In 1 Cor. 14:23-32 the same expression is found twice regarding a
meeting for the ministry of the Word through “prophets” who, in dependence upon
the Spirit, give a word from the Lord suited to the needs of the assembly for
the present time. In 1 Cor. 5:4 we read of the assembly “gathered together” to
administer discipline to a “wicked person.” And in Acts 4:31 we find the saints
“assembled together” for a prayer meeting. Thus, we find four kinds of
Christian gatherings in the New Testament that seem to fall under the heading
of “assembly meetings”:the remembrance meeting, 1 Cor. 11; open meeting for
ministry of the Word, 1 Cor. 14; prayer meeting, Matt. 18 and Acts 4; and
meeting for discipline, Matt. 18 and 1 Cor. 5.

      As mentioned earlier,
spiritual gifts of individual members of the assembly are prominent in the
first category of meetings considered (that is, evangelistic and teaching
meetings, Bible studies, Sunday schools, and the like). In fact, all believers
have different gifts through the Spirit who divides “to every man severally as
He will” (1 Cor. 12:11). The gifts are for the “perfecting [or equipping] of
the saints” in view of the work of the ministry, which “the whole body” is
doing as directed by the Head (Eph. 4:12-16). However, in the meetings
specifically designated “when you are gathered together” (or similar terms), we
do not find spiritual gifts emphasized.

      The remembrance meeting
is designed for the worship of Christ, and there is no gift for worship. All
the redeemed can do this. Similarly, there is no gift for prayer, for it is the
very breath of every believer. While the Lord may be pleased to use different
gifts in the ministry meeting, this is not necessarily the case. All brothers
in the assembly are free to prophesy if the Spirit gives them a word:“You may all
prophesy one by one” (1 Cor. 14:31). The guiding principle is, “If any man
speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it
as of the ability which God giveth” (1 Pet. 4:11). Often it is the “five words”
(1 Cor. 14:19) of exhortation or encouragement given by a brother with little
evident public gift that has the greatest, most lasting impact on the
listeners. And with regard to a meeting for discipline, although we value any
gifts of government and efforts of oversight and care of older brethren at such
a meeting, the final action is by all in the assembly “when … gathered
together” (1 Cor. 5:4,5).

      It should be noticed
that the women are to “keep silence” in the assembly meetings (1 Cor. 14:34).
The word for “keep silence” means “not to address publicly.” The women are,
however, privileged to audibly sing with the rest and say “amen.”

      In review, an assembly
meeting is one where we are gathered unto Christ’s Name alone by His Word and
dependent upon the Spirit alone to lead whomever He will to pray, announce a
hymn, minister the Word, and so forth, whatever may be appropriate for the
particular meeting. Each assembly meeting has a specific purpose:remembrance
meeting—worship; discipline meeting—order; ministry meeting—edification; prayer
meeting—dependence. Also, there can rightly be other gatherings besides
so-called assembly meetings. But the conduct of these is more the
responsibility of pre-designated individuals, generally those with appropriate
spiritual gifts.

      It should be evident by
now why we, along with others, have applied the term “assembly meetings” only
to the one class of gatherings. It is these meetings that particularly
exemplify the truth of the assembly or church, which is the body of Christ,
with all of the believers in the local assembly unitedly waiting upon the Holy
Spirit to lead in the order and conduct of the meeting. The other types of
gatherings, such as Bible studies and gospel meetings, are very proper and
helpful and needful as well. But since the order of these meetings, the
Scripture portion to be studied, etc., are decided in advance by those
responsible for the gatherings, they do not so much exemplify the truth of the
assembly, the one body of Christ.

      Finally, it seems in
keeping with the ministry of the Spirit of God on this subject to close with
the plea that is linked with our privilege “to enter into the holiest by the
blood of Jesus”:“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the
manner of some is; but exhorting one another:and so much the more, as you see
the day approaching” (Heb. 10:19,25). The greatness of the privilege we have of
gathering in His very presence is, at best, little realized by us, I believe.
But it is so special to God and His Son and the Holy Spirit. The veil at the
entrance of the holiest of all has been rent at Calvary, and those whose sins
are remembered no more are graciously invited to “draw near with a true heart
in full assurance of faith” (Heb. 10:22). There is responsibility linked with
this privilege to “hold fast the profession of our faith” and “consider one
another.” Such responsibility we may well count a great privilege too, in view
of His soon return and our presence there in the glory with Him eternally. “He
is faithful,” and so can we be through His strength and a sense of His grace.
Assembly meetings are indeed special. They are special to Christ as He is
there, and we should not “forsake” them, but be there with adoring hearts,
filled with gratefulness to Him “who loves us, and has washed us from our sins
in His blood” (Rev. 1:5 JND).

 

  Abortion is defined as
“induced termination of pregnancy before the fetus is capable of survival as an
individual.” The controversy that currently rages with respect to the legality
of abortion centers on the question of whether life as a person begins
at conception. All are agreed that a fetus in the womb of a human mother is
living, but many believe that the human fetus does not become a “person” until
birth. To the minds of those who believe this, abortion is not murder, but
merely the destruction of tissue.

  There are several passages
in the Bible that affirm that life as a person begins at conception, not birth.
First, the same Hebrew and Greek words are used in the Bible for a child in the
womb and a child after birth (compare Exod. 21:4 with 21:22 and Luke
1:41,44—“babe”—with Acts 7:19—“young children”).

  Second, Jeremiah was
sanctified by God as a prophet before he was born (Jer. 1:5; see also Isa.
49:1-5). Thus if Jeremiah’s mother had decided to have an abortion she would
have put to death God’s prophet. Third, we might ask, “When did the eternal Son
of God take up residence in His human body? Was it at His conception or at His
birth?” In Matt. 1:20 we read, “The angel said to Joseph, Fear not to take unto
thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.”
What had the Holy Spirit conceived in Mary? Was it just a bunch of tissue (as pregnant
women are advised today) or was it the Person of the eternal Son of God?

  Finally, we consider two
passages in the Psalms that identify personhood with conception or with the
fetus. “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me”
(Psa. 51:5). “Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst weave me in my
mother’s womb…. My frame was not hidden from Thee when I was made in secret,
and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. Thine eyes have seen my
unformed substance, and in Thy book they were all written, the days that were
ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them” (Psa. 139:13-16, NASB).
The Bible does not speak of fetal life as a mere chemical activity or growth
and development of living tissues. Rather, the psalmist vividly describes the
fetus in the mother’s womb as being formed, woven, made, and skillfully wrought
by the personal activity of God. Just as God formed Adam from the dust of the
earth, so He is actively involved in fashioning the fetus in the womb. If
everyone realized this wondrous truth, who would dare terminate purposely God’s
creative activity in the womb by abortion?

  Thus it appears that
Scripture implicitly condemns abortion as another form of murder, and we do
well to condemn it openly as well. But, some may ask, are there not special
cases where abortion should be permitted? What if the mother’s life is
endangered? What if it is determined that the child is likely to have a serious
birth defect? What if the pregnancy is a result of rape? Nowhere in Scripture
is there a hint that abortion should be condoned in such special cases. The
whole tenor of Scripture is opposed to the notion.

  The first question about
the mother’s life being in danger may be pretty much an academic question. A
former Surgeon General of the United States and longtime pediatric surgeon, Dr.
C. Everett Koop, has reported that in his 36 years of medical practice he has
never encountered a case where abortion was necessary to save the life of the
mother. There were always other alternatives.        What about potential birth
defects? No doubt a number of our readers, along with the writer himself, would
not be alive today if abortion of all fetuses showing evidence of serious
physical defects was in practice. However, this is not an adequate answer to
the question. Let us turn to Scripture and listen to what the Lord Jesus
Himself has to say about this:“And as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was
blind from His birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, Master, who did sin,
this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither has
this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made
manifest in him” (John 9:1-3). Yes, God sometimes allows babies to be born with
deformities. While the parents may tend to view this as a great inconvenience,
perhaps greatly interfering with their lifestyle, yet God may have allowed it
in order that His works might be displayed in that deformed or defective
child. If we are desirous of dedicating our lives to the Lord, presenting
ourselves a living sacrifice to God (Rom. 12:1), then we should be willing to
accept whatever God is pleased to give us in the way of either healthy or
deformed babies as with all the other circumstances of life. Just as we would not
think of killing our child because he or she incurred a physical defect or
debilitating injury after birth, neither should we give the slightest thought
to killing our unborn baby because of a potential defect detected before birth.

  Finally, what about pregnancy
due to rape? First of all, it is exceedingly rare for rape to result in
pregnancy, and less than 3% of the abortions currently performed are due to
conception from rape or incest. Scripture refers on different occasions to rape
and incest but never hints at the possibility of abortion or death of children
that might be produced in this way. Surely it is true that becoming pregnant in
this way can be quite traumatic and a severe trial to the woman. Indeed, such
an incident surely calls forth from us all of the emotional, spiritual,
physical, and financial support that we as Christians can offer, both during
the pregnancy and after the child is born. If we know of such a person, let us
offer all the encouragement and support we can for her to carry her baby to
birth. The Lord is able to bring much blessing out of a conception and birth
resulting from rape or incest. His blessing upon and care for the mother and
the child can certainly be counted upon as a reward for her faithfulness and
obedience to His Word.

  If it would be a great
difficulty for the mother to provide and care for the child, it might be wise
to explore with her the possibility of putting the baby up for adoption. There
are a great many families seeking to adopt children, and there are adoption
agencies that attempt to place children in homes of born-again Christians.

  Let us seek to be alert
equally to the great needs of those who, because of their own sin
(particularly, pre-marital intercourse), may be in a situation where there may
be much internal and external pressure and temptation to get an abortion. It
requires great delicacy and spiritual wisdom to be able on the one hand to help
such a woman to face up to her sin, and on the other hand to help her through
the grief, distress, guilt, loneliness, and rejection that might tend to propel
her into getting an abortion. May God grant us the needed wisdom (Jas. 1:5),
care, and concern for such.

 

  “God will not suffer you to
be tempted above that you are able to bear” (1 Cor. 10:13).

 

For a time the way seemed
easy,

   Oh, my soul!

Peace and joy were all
unhindered,

   Happy soul!

Little did I think that still

Lurked within my breast a
will

Which would soon with sorrow
fill

   All my soul.

 

With the confidence of
childhood,

   Thou, my soul,

Fearless in thy strength,
petitioned

   [Poor, weak soul!]

That the Lord would
straightway

     prove thee;

For I knew, Lord, Thou didst
love me,

And I thought that naught
could move

     thee,

   Oh, my soul!

 

Little knew I what I asked
for—

   How would roll

Conflict after conflict over

   Thee, my soul.

Peter-like, I loved my Lord;

But He took me at my word—

Sent a sharp and piercing
sword

   Through my soul.

 

All-enticing came the
tempter,

   Ah, my soul!

Fierce the struggle, in my
longing

   To control

All my being for His Name.

Yielding, I was put to shame—

Found my treacherous heart
the same,

   Faithless soul!

 

Ah! I never thought to grieve
Him

   Who could save

My poor soul from lasting
ruin

   And the grave.

But I did not know my heart—

That it was the counterpart

Of all others; but the dart

   Pierced it well.

 

Sinned against the God who
loved me!

   How I groan

Over that which brought Thee,

     Saviour,

   From the throne,

In Thy love, to die, to
bleed,

Live for me, and intercede!

Such surpassing grace,
indeed,

   Lord, I own.

 

Weak and wavering, still thou

      trustest,

   Oh, my soul!

Christ thy strength—He will

     sustain thee,

   Fainting soul.

Let me all my weakness feel,

Then Thy strength Thou wilt
reveal—

By Thy might, in woe or weal,

   All control.

 

Then Lord, ever, in
temptation

   Let me plead

All Thy strength in all my
weakness,

   For my need;

And beneath Thy sheltering
wing

All my heart’s deep trial
bring,

And Thou’lt teach me there to
sing

   Praise indeed.

 

  Such deep exercise as is
expressed in the above lines is not, as is frequently supposed, the result only
of some gross, outbreaking sin. What by many would be esteemed a small sin, has
often caused a sensitive soul the deepest anguish and severest self-judgment.
Would to God we had always a tender conscience about all sin! Sin is hateful
and hideous to God, in whatever shape or degree. We are apt to measure it by
its immediate consequences, or the disgrace attaching to it, such as
drunkenness, etc. But this is not God’s way. He would teach us, first, that all
sin is against Himself, against His holiness.

  Every sin being the fruit
of our sinful nature, comes under the sentence of God’s wrath, even the cross
of Christ, and must needs come under the severest judgment of the believer, if
he would walk with God. He cannot go on with unholiness, however small it may
seem; and if we do not judge the first approach of sin, our consciences will
soon cease to be our faithful monitors, and who can tell to what lengths we may
go? Oh, to shudder at the very approach of sin! but alas, how easily we are
caught in the enemy’s trap, if the shield of faith is down!

  May the Lord help us, that
we abuse not the grace of God, nor do despite to the cross of Christ, that we
may not have to weep the bitter tears of Peter, nor cry with David, in his
sorrow and humiliation, “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned!” (Psa. 51:4).
Yet, if we will have our own way, He lets us have the sorrow of it. But blessed
is he who, through the discipline thus incurred, reaps the peaceable fruits of
righteousness.

  (From Help and Food,
Vol. 13.)

 

 

Dealing with the Problem

of Sinful Anger

  It is easy to say, “Stop
your sinful anger,” but many people, including Christians, really struggle with
the problem of uncontrolled anger. It may seem like the anger just flashes out
before the person knows it is happening. What advice can we give to such
people?

  1. First of all, take an
inventory of all the excuses you have given yourself for your anger problem. Do
you say, “That’s just the way I am,” or “That’s the way God made me,” or “I’m
only human,” or “I’m just a sinner like everyone else,” or “All the males in my
family have anger,” or “I have a short fuse but I get over it quickly,” “I
often wake up on the wrong side of the bed”? Not a single one of these excuses
is valid, because as a Christian you are a new creation in Christ:“old things
are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).

  2. Check your thought life.
Do you often have angry thoughts toward certain people? Does your mind go
through scenarios in which you are engaged in an angry argument with someone?
When this happens, do you catch yourself, confess your sin to God, and ask Him
to help you to deal with that person in a loving, Christ-like way? “Be not
hasty in your spirit to be angry” (Eccl. 7:9).

  3. Do you have a “gunny
sack” problem? First of all, confess as sin your letting “the sun go down upon
your wrath.” Then memorize Prov. 19:11, “It is a glory to pass over a
transgression.” Commit all of the items that used to fill your gunny sack to the
Lord. Pray that the Lord will help you to accept your spouse or child or parent
for what he/she is—warts and all—and that the Lord will help him/her to be more
considerate of you. Meanwhile, count it as an opportunity to show love to the
offending person by overlooking the transgressions and, where possible, finding
creative solutions to the problems. By creative solution I mean, for example,
getting all the persons in the house their own individual tube of toothpaste
which each one can squeeze however he or she likes.

  4. Memorize Matt. 5:44:
“Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, etc.” We may not think of
applying this verse to the present situation of a family member who has
irritating habits and behaviors. But if we are to love and bless and do good to
those who are our sworn enemies, how much more ought we to do these
things to those who are our close friends and loved ones!

  5. If you have a problem
with angry words “popping out” before you know it, pay attention to whether
this ever happens when you have company over or are in the presence of other
Christians in the assembly or your next door neighbor or your boss at work or
while you are talking on the telephone with the head of the local gossip
society. If you can control yourself under certain circumstances, then you can
control yourself under all circumstances by simply keeping in mind that
the entire Trinity dwells in us if we are God’s children (Rom. 8:9,11; 1 Cor.
3:16; Eph. 3:17; 2 Tim. 1:4; 1 John 4:12,15,16). Surely we want to have self-control
in the presence of our blessed Saviour. The “fruit of the Spirit is …
temperance [or self-control]” (Gal. 5:22,23), so we are not slaves to the lack
of self-control that is part of our old, sinful nature.

  6. Memorize Phil. 4:8 and
meditate upon it often. If you find a tendency to have angry, vengeful thoughts
concerning a particular person, whenever you find yourself thinking such
thoughts about a person, replace those thoughts with thoughts of that which is
true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy
about the person. For example, instead of thinking about spreading falsehoods
or evil reports in vengeance against that person, think rather about that
person’s character traits that are virtuous or worthy of praise. “Whatsoever
things are lovely” means those things that tend toward making friends. so
replace your angry thoughts with thoughts about how you and the other person
can become better friends.

  7. Just keeping the anger
bottled up inside us is not the solution to our problem. This will tend
to create other problems such as depression, stress, and physical illness. You
need either to turn the whole thing over to the Lord and let Him deal with it,
or else in a prayerful, loving, Christ-like manner go to the person with whom
you are angry and seek to resolve the problem. “Be not overcome of evil, but
overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:21). J.N. Darby wrote, in connection with
this verse, “Let not my bad temper put you in a bad temper.” And George
Washington Carver said once, “I will never let another man ruin my life by
making me hate him.”

  8. “Surely the wrath of man
shall praise Thee:the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain” (Psa. 76:10).
What does this mean? God turns man’s wrathful fury into ultimate blessing for
man. Nowhere is this better seen than at the Cross of Calvary. Also, there is a
saying that goes something like:“The persecution of the saints is the seed of
the Church.” Satan and man have joined together in repeated attempts to destroy
God’s people from off the face of the earth. But the Scriptures assure us that
God puts great limitations upon man’s wrath. He will only permit that which
will ultimately bring praise and glory to Himself; the rest He will restrain.
One of the implications of this verse is that God, as part of His program of
discipline for His children, permits the anger and sinful behaviors of men and
women as tests of faith for His own people, just as the unjust charges that
Job’s so-called “comforters” brought against him turned out to be a bigger
challenge to Job’s faith than the loss of all things brought about by Satan’s
hand. When the Lord tests His own, it is in view of our passing the test
in the strength and ability that He gives to us. So, let us consider those
people or things that cause us to become angry to be tests from God. And let us
remember that “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tested above that
you are able; but will with the testing also make a way to escape, that you may
be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13).

Concluding Comments

  Let us summarize the chief
lessons to be drawn from this treatise on anger:

 

1. The Christian is commanded
to “be angry” at serious sin against God or other people, following the example
of Christ.

  2. The energy from this
“righteous indignation” is to be directed toward helping the sinning one to be
delivered from the sin, and must not degenerate into a sinful anger.

  3. We should seek in prayer
and study of God’s Word to be very clear as to the difference between righteous
anger and sinful anger.

   4. Most sinful anger
centers around me—people not doing what I want them to do, or
treating me unfairly, or disrespecting me, or daring to criticize
me.

   5. Sometimes our sinful
anger is directed toward those who are consciously seeking to carry out God’s
will.

   6. We sometimes use our
anger as a tool for controlling others.

   7. Anger may be expressed
in ways other than “blowing up,” such as using the silent treatment, taking
vengeance by spreading false reports, making fun of the person, or “gunny
sacking.”

   8. We must be in prayer
about the appropriate occasions for passing over a transgression.

   9. We must become aware of
ways in which we provoke others to anger.

  10. We must throw away all
of our excuses for our anger problem.

  11. We must bring under
control and judge anger in our thought life and replace the angry thoughts with
what we find in Phil. 4:8.

  12. We must realize that “the
fruit of the Spirit is … self-control,” and depend upon the Holy Spirit to
give us the victory through continually refocusing our heart and mind on the
Person of Christ.

     13. It may help us to
know that things or people that make us angry are a part of God’s tests in
disciplining and chastening us, and He will give us all the power we need to
pass the tests.

  There are two kinds of
temptation spoken of in Jas. 1:2,14. The same word in the original is used for
both for the reason that it is a test in both cases:in the first, the
test is from without, and may be rejected; in the second, it is allurement from
within, and shows a nature that is evil. That our Lord’s temptation was only
from without is instantly seen if we quote Jas. 1:14:“Every man is tempted
when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” What horrible
blasphemy it would be to say this was true of Him!

  This confines all His
temptations to the trials from without, and which met with no response whatever
from Him. The response they meet with from men’s hearts is the “lust” of the
14th verse.

  And yet He “suffered being
tempted” (Heb. 2:18). What was the nature of the sufferings?

  (1) Was not the very presence
of evil cause of the most acute pain to the nature that had but one
characteristic—the love of God. So, for Him, His being in a world away from God
could only cause Him pain. Nothing here could give Him joy but faith,
repentance, and trust on the part of those who had been drawn by the grace of
God.

  (2) To be personally approached
with suggestions that were not the will of God would add to His suffering—just
as, in a certain measure, a pure-minded person would recoil from the invitation
of an evil person to indulge in some sin with him.

  (3) To refuse the
temptations offered meant, in a world like this, to go on in the path of
suffering. Faithfulness and obedience to God, where everything was
unfaithfulness and disobedience, could only mean suffering—deprivation,
dishonor, and sorrow. To refuse to turn the stone into bread meant, for the
time, hunger, and it was a sort of prophecy of His whole path of
poverty:“The Son of Man has not where to lay His head” (Matt. 8:20). To refuse
to cast Himself down from the pinnacle meant to lose the acclaim of popularity
which such a miracle would have brought. It is not that such popularity had the
slightest attraction for Him, but it meant, prophetically, the whole path of
rejection, shame, and scorn which, for a nature that was love, would be
suffering. He would not tempt God as if He needed to prove His care. To refuse
to worship the god of this world was to ensure the active enmity of the whole
world, with the cross at the close. All this only shows that suffering was a necessity
for Him in a world like this. The very refusal to be anything else than
perfectly righteous involved Him in constant suffering, and this was because
He was perfectly holy. The reason why there is so little suffering now is
because there is so little of that which is like Him. Yet where there
are true-hearted witnesses for Him, there will be the suffering that goes with
it.

  Every other temptation
appeals to the flesh, or is the flesh enticing one into an easy path.
Therefore the being “touched with the feeling of our infirmities” (Heb. 4:15)
refers not to our failures or sins, but to the trials of the way. Are we
poor? He was more so. Are we despised? He was a reproach of men. Are we exposed
to Satan’s malice? None was ever so much so as He was.

  Patient holiness must
suffer in the presence of sin. And whatever brought out that perfect holiness
would bring out the suffering. For one to yield and go on with the evil,
even in thought, is to prove himself unholy.

  (From Help and Food,
Vol. 26.)

* * *

Yield not to temptation,

  For yielding is sin;

Each victory will help you

  Some other to win;

Fight manfully onward,

  Dark passions subdue,

Look ever to Jesus,

  He’ll carry you through.

 

To him that o’ercometh

  God giveth a crown,

Through faith we shall
conquer,

  Though often cast down;

He, who is our Savior,

  Our strength will renew,

Look ever to Jesus,

  He’ll carry you through.

 

Ask the Saviour to help you,

Comfort, strengthen, and keep
you;

He is willing to aid you,

He will carry you through.

                                              
H.R. Palmer

 

  “And confessedly the
mystery of piety is great. God has been manifested in flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16 JND).

  “And the Word became flesh,
and dwelt among us” (John 1:14 JND).

  “Awake, O sword, against My
Shepherd, even against the Man that is My Fellow, saith Jehovah of hosts”
(Zech. 13:7).

  Only three times in the
account in Genesis 1 is creation spoken of:the heavens and the earth (verse
1); the living SOUL—the animal creation (verse 21); and man, who is SPIRIT, as
well as soul (verse 27).

  Man was created in the
image of God and is HUMAN spirit, soul and body (see 1 Thess. 5:23). He is a
PERSON, or human being. It is the possession of a spirit that sets man apart
from animal life as created in the image and likeness of God. By virtue of his
spirit man has reasoning power, creativity, conscience, responsibility, moral
qualities, and ability to know and believe the invisible God.

  How far above plants and
animals in the scale of being is a man! And how infinitely far above a man is
THE Man, Christ Jesus! Man—Adam—was a figure of Him who was to come. He who
came after Adam is God’s final realization of what THE ideal Man is according
to His thoughts and eternal purpose. We look at ourselves among all of God’s
creatures and ask:Is this the most that God had in mind when He created man in
His own image—man, who brought only dishonor and reproach upon Him? But when we
look at Christ we have the answer that silences every question and satisfies
the longing of every heart. Then we look at the redeemed ones who stand upon
the foundation of His atoning work, and see the glory of His grace. We see THE
man “come of David’s seed according to flesh, marked out Son of God in power” (Rom. 1:3,4 JND). We see God and Man thus brought together in eternal union in His One
glorious Person, and God’s new creatures in eternal relationship with Him,
Christ Jesus, in whom they have been created and with whom they are identified
in “new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17).

  1 Corinthians 15 plainly
teaches that the spiritual was not first, “but that which is natural, and
AFTERWARD that which is spiritual” (verse 46). Adam was the first man, and head
of the first race of man. He was first in order of time, NOT in position and
preeminence. The second Man was after Adam in order of time, the preeminent Man. He is the “Last Adam,” a “Quickening Spirit” (verse 45), Head of the second race of
men that will live and abide in Him eternally. His humanity had beginning in
time:“The Word became flesh.” He took part (Greek, metecho—see Heb. 2:14)
in it in incarnation. He was born, HUMAN spirit (Luke 23:46), soul (John
12:27), and body (1 Pet. 2:24).

  There are many evidences in
Scripture that our blessed Lord Jesus was fully human. He was conceived (Luke
1:31); He was born (Luke 2:7); He was circumcised (Luke 2:21); He increased in
wisdom and stature (Luke 2:52); He slept (which He could not do if He were God
alone and not Man; see Psa. 121:4 and Mark 4:38); He hungered (Matt. 4:2); He
thirsted (John 4:7; 19:28); He ate (Luke 24:43); He drank (John 19:30); He was
weary (John 4:6); He wept (John 11:35); He died (Matt. 27:50); He was buried
(Matt. 27:60). He was, and is now and eternally, perfectly human; and without a
question or doubt He is God at the same time. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday
[His beginning as Man], and today, and to the ages to come.” (Heb. 13:8 JND).

  Then we have the words of
Jesus Christ Himself:“He who overcomes, to him will I give to sit with Me in
My throne; as I also have overcome and have sat down with My Father in His
throne” (Rev. 3:21). Why the distinction between His throne and His Father’s
throne? The answer is clear. Jesus Christ alone in His absolute deity has the
right to sit down in the Father’s throne with Him, something we creatures can
never do. But we who are identified with Christ in new creation will sit with
Him, the Man, Christ Jesus, in His throne. The Son of Man has linked Himself
with humanity:the divine-human One of the Scriptures will establish His throne
in righteousness on the earth and will give us the right to sit with Him in His
throne and share His reign. He is not upon HIS throne apart from being God, but
does that exclude His being a real Man, perfectly human, with whom we share the
glory of His reign?

  Our blessed Lord is not
truly God apart from being Man, in the human, personal sense. It is His Person.
We cannot divide Him. If you take away His true humanity you also take away His
true divinity. He is one Person, one personality, both divine and human. As Man
He is God; as God He is Man. You cannot have His true divinity without His
humanity. Therefore, it is just as wicked not to bring the doctrine of the true
humanity of Christ as it is not to bring the doctrine of His deity (1 John 4:2;
2 John 7).

  The great enemy, Satan,
whom our Lord, in Manhood, met and defeated in the power of the words, “Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by EVERY WORD that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4), still seeks to deceive by a one-sided teaching and
wrong emphasis on the deity of Christ. How much, in fact, would he cleverly
concede on this side, if by so doing he could destroy the proper balance of
truth and take away the humanity of Christ—and with it the atonement, and every
fundamental aspect of the Christian faith that subsists in the essential and
surpassing truth of God and Man in one Person. Without both the deity and true
humanity of Christ the Throne of God falls and the framework of the universe
collapses. Serious indeed is the error of such a doctrine that does not confess
“Jesus Christ come in flesh” (1 John 4:2).

  Who shall deny Him the
place it has pleased Him to take for the glory of God and the eternal blessing
of men:“Christ Jesus, who, subsisting in the form (Greek, morphe) of
God … emptied Himself, taking a bondman’s form (same Greek word, morphe).”
Behold the radiance of His incarnation, the glory of His humility, and
condescending grace in taking His place among us, sin apart. He is our
Kinsman-Redeemer who has brought us back to God, with our sins washed away, as
new creatures patterned after Himself, in the new creation which stands
eternally in Him, the Creator and Head—the Man Christ Jesus.

  When we contemplate the
glory of the humanity of Christ we are filled with deep reverence and holy
worship. The infinite God has come so near. He has won the confidence of our
hearts. There is a feeling of being in the presence of God in perfect peace and
security. We are conscious of His perfection, His deity; still He is a Man, and
we say, this is what God the Son is like. God is not far away:He is right
here, and, in the Person of His Son, He is just the Man in whose presence we
feel perfectly at home. There is no timidity, no fear, but rather the freedom
of love and holy intimacy. Does this closeness to Him produce a sense of
equality? Does it lower Him? Far be the thought! But neither does it produce a
sense of inferiority that would cause us to shrink from the greatness of His
Person. When Thomas put his hand into the side of the Lord Jesus was there a
doubt in his mind that the loving, tender, compassionate Person before him was
perfectly human, with feelings and inclinations proper to a (sinless) Man? Was
there a shadow of unbelief that He was God? Was there the faintest suggestion
of a thought that He was two Persons, as his overflowing heart responded in
worship, and acknowledged Him, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28)? Thomas saw
and believed. Ours is the blessed portion of those “who have not seen and have
believed,” and who “exult with joy unspeakable” in the presence, through faith,
of the same divine-human Person, who loved us and gave Himself for us.

  (Adapted By Edwin C. Read
from an article written by his father, Edwin M. Read, in New York City in
1928.)

 

    In the opening of
Leviticus 10 we see an example of man’s great transgression and dishonor of God
in the presence of God’s glory and grace. The elder sons of Aaron fell because
they despised the burnt offering, and God’s fire which had come down in
acceptance of it. As a result, Aaron and his two remaining sons were instructed
to guard against the expression of grief or the allowance of excitement. In
these things others might indulge, but not those who had the privilege of
drawing near to His sanctuary. They were also instructed as to the eating of
the meal offering and the sacrifice of peace offerings. There remained the
solemn injunction that the priests should eat the sin offering. Their failure
in this respect closes the chapter, deeply appealing to us who, though of a
heavenly calling, are no less apt to forget what it speaks to our souls and
means before God.

    “And Moses diligently
sought the goat of the sin offering, and behold, it was burnt:and he was angry
with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron who were left alive, saying, Why
have you not eaten the sin offering in the holy place, seeing it is most holy,
and God has given it you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make
atonement for them before the Lord? Behold, the blood of it was not brought in
within the holy place:you should indeed have eaten it in the holy place, as I
commanded” (Lev. 10:16-18).

    Thus we see that the rest
of the priestly house, though not guilty of the error fatal to Nadab and Abihu,
broke down in a weighty part of their obligations; and all this was, sad to
say, at the very beginning of their history. How humiliating is God’s history
of man everywhere and at all times!

    Perhaps it would not be
possible to find a more wholesome warning for our souls in relation to our brethren.
God requires us to identify ourselves in grace with the failures of our
brethren, as they with ours. It is a fact that we all and often offend; and we
are exhorted to confess our sins or offenses to one another. Is this all? Far
from it! We have to fulfill the type before us, to eat the sin offering in the
sanctuary, to make the offence of a saint our own, seriously, in grace before
God, to behave as if we ourselves had been the offenders.

    In this same way the
Lord, when indicating by His symbolic action in John 13 the gracious but
indispensable work He was about to carry on for us upon departing to the
Father, let the disciples know that they too were to wash one another’s feet.
But here we are as apt to fail through ignorance or carelessness as Peter did
doubly on that occasion.

    The apostle Paul had to
censure the insensibility of the Corinthian saints in 1 Corinthians 5, but
later on had the joy of learning that they were made sorry according to God, as
he expressed it in 2 Cor. 7:9. Again, to the Galatian saints he wrote, “Bear
one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2), instead of
meddling with the law of Moses to the hurt of themselves and of each other.
Individual responsibility remains true:each shall bear his own burden; but
grace would bear one another’s burdens.

    Intercession with our God
and Father is a precious privilege which it is our shame to neglect. It keeps
God’s rights undiminished, and exercises the heart in love to our brethren. Let
us never forget that grace condemns evil far more profoundly than law ever did
or could.

    (From The Bible
Treasury, Vol. N3.)

_________________________________________________________________

 

    When Daniel confessed his
sin and the sin of his people (Dan. 9:1-20), he was surely eating the sin
offering. And such an identification of ourselves with the sins of God’s saints
is greatly needed for all of us. This will be realized more among us as we grow
in our knowledge of the cross. Alas! the slight knowledge of God’s grace may allow
a light treatment of sin, or else, perhaps, a bitter judgment of it. But a real
eating of the sin offering makes one equally serious and tender. Who can
harshly judge when Christ has borne the judgment? At the same time, who can
treat lightly what brought Him to the cross?

     F.W. Grant

    “What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we who
are dead to sin live any longer therein?” (Rom. 6:1,2).

    In Romans 5 we find
unfolded the character of the triumph of grace over sin. The apostle now, in
the beginning of chapter 6, is anxious that those who are participators in this
triumph should be preserved from what is a common abuse of his doctrine.

    Enemies of the doctrine
of grace have sought to discredit it by charging it with making sin a
necessity. There are those who understand the doctrine to mean that it permits
going on still in sin. Flagrant violations of holiness have been defended by
the plea that it is allowable under grace to continue in sin, to indulge the
lusts of the flesh. In many places it is taught that victory over sin is not to
be counted on as long as we remain in our earthly life. It is said by some, “We
have not yet received our sinless body, and as long as we have the old sinful
body, sin must have at least a certain measure of rule over us.”

    But the apostle will not
allow those who are in Christ to draw such unholy deductions from his doctrine
of grace. He asks the searching question (if we might paraphrase his words),
“Does the doctrine of grace allow one to go on still in sin? Do we take the
view that grace abounding over sin implies that sin is justifiable as
furnishing occasion for the triumph of grace?”

    How indignantly the
apostle refuses the thought! Such a thought would destroy the true character of
grace; it would rob it of the reality of its triumph; it would mean serious
damage to souls. Such a view is to be wholly condemned. While it is true that
we still have our old sinful body, we cannot allow that we must
therefore sin. That, indeed, would not be deliverance from the dominion of sin.

    If it be said, “Our
future deliverance is secured but present deliverance is impossible,” the
apostle teaches otherwise. He teaches and insists on a present deliverance
from the dominion of sin. Our Lord in John 8:34 said, “Whoever commits sin is
the servant of sin.” The doctrine of the apostle is the same. With him, being
under grace and under sin is an impossibility. Those who are subjects of grace
should regard bondage to sin as incompatible with subjection to grace.

    Those laid hold of by
grace which is by Jesus Christ have become His seed (Isa. 53:10). As thus
sprung from Him, they are sharers in the eternal life which is in Him and they
are of the position in which He is.

    What then is His
position? Here we must remember that Christ, in grace, once took our position
under sin. He was not personally under it, but in grace entered into the
position of being under sin on the behalf of those who were personally in that
position. Having thus in grace taken the position, He died—death being the
penalty of sin, and that which was the due of those in that position. It was a
vicarious death; He could die in no other way. Having died thus making
atonement for the victims of sin, He has risen again and has taken up a new
position. He is thus dead to the former position under sin which in grace He
had taken for those under sin.

    Now, as we have already
said, as sprung from Him we are of Him in His new position. We are of the
position in which He is, and therefore dead to sin.

    It is to this blessed
fact that the apostle appeals in beginning his discussion as to our right to be
practically delivered from the dominion of sin. His argument is this:Sin
having had its reign over us to its legitimate end in death, and Christ having
taken our place in subjection to it, we who have been laid hold of by His grace
have passed out of that position from under sin. We are subjects of grace, and
as such dead to sin. We have the right to be free practically from sin’s power
and rule. We have a positional deliverance which entitles us to live in happy
subjection to grace, in the realization that sin’s rights over us have all been
annulled. We are freed completely from every claim of sin upon us, even from
its claim to the use of the old sinful body. What a perfect deliverance grace
has thus provided for us!

    Alas, how little it is understood!
How difficult it is to lay hold of the true conception of our deliverance, that
as subjects of grace and as those who are in Christ, we are dead to sin!

    Some, in their inability
to lay hold of the real import of the doctrine of being dead to sin, deny it
altogether. They insist that the fact of our having still the old sinful body
is the clearest proof that we are not yet dead to sin. Others, while they do
not deny that the doctrine is taught, and that there is a certain ideal sense
in which it is true, yet deny that it can be practically true. Others
still change the words of Scripture to say, “We ought to be dead to
sin,” and exhort Christians to strive to die to sin. How forcefully
sometimes we are exhorted to put the old man to death. But in all this teaching
the true conception of deliverance from sin is lacking.

    Clearly then is our
position demonstrated to be Christ’s position of being dead to sin. But this
implies and involves living with Him, and living with Him now, not
merely by and by. We shall surely live with Him when we get our redeemed
bodies, but we have title to live with Him now, while we are still in
the old body. He lives no more under sin’s dominion. He went under it once in
grace, but by dying and rising again He lives in eternal deliverance from sin’s
power. As subjects of grace—as being in Him—we are in the same sphere of life
in which He is, where sin cannot enter. It is not simply that we have life in
Him, but that we live with Him; and living with Him implies living in practical
deliverance from sin’s dominion.

    The very first step
toward practical deliverance from serving sin is to think rightly of ourselves.
The apostle tells us in verse 11 how we should think of ourselves. He says that
we should reckon ourselves as dead to sin and alive to God. We
are still in our earthly life, but as in Christ we are entitled to think of
ourselves as if we had died and were risen from the dead. It is this right
thought of our position that the apostle presses upon us here.

    Another thing necessarily
accompanies this right thinking of ourselves as if we were dead and risen.
Viewing ourselves as connected with Christ in His position of having died to
sin and living to God, we will consider that sin has no longer any title to the
use of the mortal body. We will not consent to its reigning there; we will not
allow its lusts to govern us. We will look upon the members of our body as
belonging to God, as if they were members of the new body which we are yet to
receive. We will hold them to be instruments of righteousness—not of sin.

    If now we take the
apostle’s standpoint of looking at ourselves as being in Christ, as if we were
thus dead and risen and living to God, we shall then regard sin’s title to our
body as annulled, and shall recognize the claims of our Saviour-God upon our
body—that its members should be instruments of righteousness. As under these
claims, there will be in us a purpose to have God’s title over us—His rights to
our body— realized in practical life.

    May the Lord use the
apostle’s exhortations in this chapter to establish in the souls of all the
subjects of His grace an insatiable desire to be practically delivered from
sin’s power in its use of the body for any sinful purpose.

 

     May I speak of a fact
too common, alas, to escape observation? We are living in times of superficial
conviction. Souls are not plowed up by the Spirit of God, as He would and as
they should be. Men say, “Peace, peace,” too easily. The sinner is not made to
realize the awfulness of his position—a guilty, lost and helpless soul
on the brink of eternity. I know this is not considered popular preaching, and
that it is hardly thought proper or wise to speak of the hell of eternity that
awaits Christ-rejecters. As a result, the work of conviction is very
superficial, and, even when real, of but shallow depth. But souls must be
convicted of sin if they are to receive the gospel. That gospel is not a mere
piece of logic to be reasoned about, such as, “All men are sinners; Christ died
for sinners; therefore He died for me.” Cold, lifeless acquiescence like this
is not faith, nor salvation. It is the awakened soul who realizes what it is to
be “lost” who can appreciate, as cold water to a thirsty man, the gospel of the
grace of God. Men trim down the solemn fact of man’s sin, and thus the Spirit’s
work of conviction is hindered. What wonder that the professing church is full
of unsaved souls!

     Let us take an example
of this convicting work of the Spirit. We find the three features of conviction
of sin, righteousness, and judgment (see John 16:8-11) in the first gospel
sermon after the descent of the Spirit at Pentecost, “preached … with the
Holy Ghost sent down from heaven” (1 Pet. 1:12).

     First, as to conviction
of sin, he brings home to them the fact of their rejection of Christ:“Him
being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have
taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain” (Acts 2:23). Here the Holy
Spirit brings home the fact of their sin. It was not now a question of this and
that transgression, but they had refused to believe on Christ—had rejected Him.

     Next, he convicts them
of righteousness, because Jesus had gone to the Father:“Whom God hath raised
up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He
should be holden of it…. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted,
and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He has shed forth
this which you now see and hear” (Acts 2:24,33). Clearly, God had manifested
His righteousness, and vindicated His beloved Son in thus raising and exalting
Him to the right hand of power.

     Finally, the Spirit of
God brings home to them the reality of impending judgment:“I will show wonders
in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire, and vapor of
smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before
that great and notable day of the Lord come” (Acts 2:19,20). All nature would
quake in the presence of its Judge, and this judgment was imminent.

     Thus we have a threefold
conviction of sin; and what was the result? “Now, when they heard this, they
were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the
apostles:Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37). Blessed work! Is
there not joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that
repents? and here were 3,000 crying under conviction by the mighty work of the
Spirit of God. Blessed and easy work now for Peter to set Christ before them,
and to assure them of free forgiveness in His name.

     (From Lectures on the
Holy Spirit.)

 

* * *

 

Jesus died to set me free,

Jesus died on Calvary;

Not a blessing that I know,

But to Jesus Christ I owe.

 

Through His blood I’m
reconciled,

Of a foe am made a child;

For His foes the Saviour
died,

Sinners now are justified.

 

Only sin to Him I brought,

Only love in Him I found,

Love that passes all my
thought,

Love that doth to me abound.

 

’Twas for sinners that He
died,

Title I have none beside;

Thus I know it was for me

Jesus died on Calvary.

                                                    F.W.
Grant