Here is a subject which
bears much earnest consideration. The Lord Jesus on a very suitable occasion
cautioned his disciples, “Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation” (Mark
14:38). The danger of entering into that which is not pleasing to God is so
great that watching alone is not enough. The heart must be instructed through
prayer to be able to discern the devices of the wicked one. Scripture says,
“But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you
be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (Heb. 3:13)

    In this verse we have two
things about sin. One, that it is deceitful; and two, that it hardens. As a
usual thing when we speak of sin, thoughts come to mind of that which in its
very appearance is evil, such as robbery, murder, or the like. But is this all
that God counts sin? No, for in the very beginning of the Bible we find that
disobedience brought sin into the world. “For as by one man’s disobedience many
were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous”
(Rom. 5:19).

    When the keeping of Eden was committed into the hands of Adam, one command was given unto him, with the death
penalty for disobedience (Gen. 2:17). Once it was given, the enemy of God and
man started to work. How could he thwart the purposes of heaven and earth’s
Creator, and rob Him of the praises of His creatures? Deceit was the approach,
and a successful one it was, for “when the woman saw that the tree was good for
food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make
one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat” (Gen. 3:6).

    So we read, “Adam was not
deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression” (1 Tim. 2:14).
This was but the beginning of Satan’s deception of man. Since then he has tried
every means to turn the heart of man from God. And how easy it is for him to
succeed, for Scripture plainly tells us that, “the heart is deceitful above all
things, and desperately wicked:who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9). Having that
within us which is susceptible to that which is wrong, Satan finds us a ready
prey.

    Though the devil, under
one guise or another, drew the hearts of men from God while under the law, yet
now in this present age under grace he seems all the more vigilant to keep
people from receiving Jesus as their Saviour, and yielding themselves unto Him
as their Lord. How shameful it is that, under the pretense of following just
some simple thing at first, we are drawn away from that blessed One of whom it
is written, “Neither was any deceit in his mouth” (Isa. 53:9). The arch enemy
of all that is called truth would try and cause even those who are sheltered
under the precious blood of the cross to dishonor that One who could say, “I am
the way, the truth, and the life”(John 14:6).

    The Scripture gives the
character of this present time when it says, “But evil men and seducers shall
wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:13). If we will
but take the time to look around us we will see how true it is that deceit is
so often practiced. Pick up almost any magazine or paper with advertisements in
it and you will find in large type merits of that particular product, intended
to make you believe by catchy wording that it will do much more than it really
can. Then in very small type the limitations of that particular item might be
listed.

    One thing in connection
with the deceitfulness of sin is the way in which it impoverishes our spiritual
growth. Perhaps the Lord has seen fit to take us through some particular trial,
and when we consider the circumstances, even as Peter did on the water, we get
our eyes off the Lord and look at what we are going through. We may be led to
complain, at least to ourselves, and wish that our lot was different. It may
seem as though circumstances require us to take matters into our own hands to
better them, and all the while we are forgetting that the Lord is over
everything, and even the smallest detail in our lives is governed by Himself.
Is it not a dishonor to Him and a victory for the enemy when we are in such a
state of soul? I am sure that it displeases our Lord greatly to have even the
youngest of us, His own, complain about our lot, for He is only allowing things
to happen that will be for our good. But as we go on complaining, criticizing,
belittling others, or grasping after things for ourselves, our spiritual senses
will be deadened, and eventually reach the state of being hardened, all because
we allowed ourselves, perhaps without thinking, to be dissatisfied.

    But the apostle Paul
says, “We are not ignorant of his devices” (2 Cor. 2:11). Young people, how are
we to know what his devices are but by the same Word of God that was given unto
Paul. Has anyone ever asked you the question, “What do you get out of life,
seeing you don’t smoke, drink, dance, go to shows, etc.?” To many, when
comparing spiritual things with the things of this world, a loss is suffered
when they give up the things which they would like to have and enjoy down here.
That is the way with Satan; he would make us believe that the treasure which could
be laid up in heaven is not to be compared with the enjoyments of this earth.
Many are deceived by this, not realizing that, “Whatsoever a man sows, that
shall he also reap” (Gal. 6:7).

    Though it is right and
proper to provide a living for yourself and family, it is a common thing for
persons to be so engrossed with work that the Word has little effect in their
lives. “He also who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the Word;
and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the Word,
and he becomes unfruitful” (Matt. 13:22).

    Many feel if they sit
through a sermon or perhaps read their Bible regularly, that this is enough,
and well pleasing to God. It is true that to hear the Word is good, and it is
in this way that God speaks to us, but it is not enough. “Be doers of the Word,
and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (Jas. 1:22). Let us practice
the truth that the Word gives to each one of us.

    Finally, if the enemy
cannot weigh us down under sin, he will seek to make us think that we are
beyond sinning. But Scripture tells us otherwise:“If we say that we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).

      One thing that always
marks ministry in the Spirit is the prompting of personal affection for Christ.
“Do you love Me?” was the thrice repeated question to Peter, connected with the
injunction to feed Christ’s flock (John 21:16). “For the love of Christ
constrains us” (2 Cor. 5:14), Paul says. How different is this from the many
motives that might influence us naturally. How important that we should be able
each time we minister to say with a good conscience, “My motive for speaking
was not a love of prominence, or force of habit, or a restless desire to break
the period of silence, but love to Christ and to His flock.”

      Further, ministry and
worship in the Spirit is always marked by a deep sense of responsibility to
Christ. Suppose we were questioned after the close of a meeting, “Why did you
give out such a hymn, or read such a chapter, or offer such a prayer, or speak
such a word?” Could we with a clear, good conscience reply, “My only reason for
doing so was the solemn conviction that it was my Master’s will”? My brethren,
is there not often the taking this part or that without any sense of
responsibility to Christ?

      “If any man speak, let
him speak as the oracles of God” (1 Pet. 4:11). This is not an exhortation for
one to speak according to the Scriptures, though all should, of course, do
this. It says rather that they who speak are to speak as God’s mouthpiece. If I
cannot say in speaking, “This is what I believe I have been taught of God, and
what God has given me to speak at this time,” I ought to be silent. Of course a
man may be mistaken in saying this; but nothing less ought to induce anyone to
take part in the meetings than the solemn conviction before God that God has
given him something to say. If our consciences were exercised to act under such
responsibility as this, it would doubtless prevent a great deal which does take
place; but at the same time it would make way for God to manifest His presence
as we are not accustomed to witness it.

      (From Five Letters
on Worship and Ministry in the Spirit.)

    Why did the Lord Jesus in
the garden of Gethsemane ask for the cup to be removed? It was not fear of the
pain of crucifixion or the desertion of His friends or the derision of the
crowds. If these had been the only aspects of suffering involved, He would not
have asked to be released from the responsibility. It was the thought of being
made sin, of having sin imputed to Him, of being forsaken by God and being the
recipient of His wrath which filled our Lord with horror and agony.

    The death of Christ shows
us the horribleness of sin because of what He suffered when He bore the
judgment for it. How can any of us make light of sin or enjoy it when we see
what it cost Christ for our sins to be imputed to Him and for Him to be judged
for them?

* * *

     A single sin is more
horrible to God than all the sins in the world are to us.                                          J.N.
Darby

      “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.)

    “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.

    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

    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.)

     “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

     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

  Before the Lord Jesus
presented Himself to Israel as the promised King He had to pass through a
period of testing, which He did for 40 days. He met Satan, the strong man
armed, and bound him before He began His public ministry and went forth to
spoil Satan’s goods.

  Why was Jesus tempted? And,
being tempted, was there a possibility that He might have sinned, and so
jeopardized or annulled the whole plan of redemption? These are questions asked
often, and it behooves us to be able to give Scriptural answers concerning
them.

  If we would be clear in our
thinking as to this, we must remember that while our Lord was, and is, both
human and divine, He is not two persons, but one. Personally He is God the
Eternal Son who took humanity into union with His deity in order to redeem
sinful men. Perfectly human, yet absolutely divine, He remains just one Person.
Therefore as Man here on earth He could not act apart from His deity. Those who
maintain that He might have sinned may well ask themselves, “What then would
have been the result?” To say that as Man He might have failed in His mission
is to admit the amazing and blasphemous suggestion that His holy divine nature
could become separated from a defiled human nature and so the incarnation prove
a farce and a mockery. But if we realize that He who was both God and Man in
one Person was tempted, not to see if He would (or could) sin, but to prove
that He was the sinless One, all is clear. The temptation was real, but it was
all from without, as Adam’s was in the beginning. But Adam was only an innocent
man; whereas Jesus, the last Adam, was the Lord from heaven who had become Man
without ceasing to be God in order that He might be our Kinsman-Redeemer (Lev.
25:48). The temptation and His attitude toward it proved that He was not a
sinful Man, either in nature or in act, and He could therefore take our penalty
upon Himself and bear the curse of the broken law for others, because He was
not under that curse Himself. Scripture tells us definitely that He “knew no
sin” (2 Cor. 5:21); He “did no sin” (1 Pet. 2:22); “in Him is no sin” (1 John
3:5). He could say, “The prince of this world comes, and has nothing in Me”
(John 14:30). There was no lurking traitor within to answer to the voice of the
enemy without. He was tempted as we are, sin apart (Heb. 4:15), that is, there
was no sin within to tempt Him. From the moment of His birth He was holy, not
merely innocent (Luke 1:35).

  “Then was Jesus led up of
the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil” (Matt. 4:1). As the
perfect Man, Jesus was ever subject to the Spirit’s control. Mark tells us that
the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness (Mark 1:12). He was impelled to go for
it was imperative that His holiness be demonstrated from the very beginning of
His ministry. Temptation is really testing. He was tested by Satan, that evil
personality who is the foe of God and man. It was he who tested Adam and found
him wanting. Now he must be overcome by the last Adam, the Second Man (1 Cor.
15:45,47).

  “And when He had fasted 40
days and 40 nights, He was afterward an hungered” (Matt. 4:2). Jesus fasted for
the full period of testing—40 days. It was not until all this was over that He
is said to have become hungry. Then, in the hour of nature’s weakness, the
tempter came, endeavoring to overcome Him. The tests were threefold—the appeal
to the body, the soul, and the spirit—involving the desires of the flesh, the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The first appeal was to appetite, the
desire of the flesh, physical; the next to the esthetic nature, the desire of
the eyes, the soul; and the last to the spiritual nature, the pride of life, or
the vainglory of living. The Lord Jesus was impervious to every suggestion of
evil. These are the same temptations in character which the serpent brought to
bear upon Eve in Eden. She saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food
(the lust of the flesh), pleasant to the eyes (the lust of the eyes), and to be
desired to make one wise (the pride of life). She succumbed on every point, and
when Adam collaborated with her in disobedience to God the old creation fell.
They were tested in a garden of delight, a most beautiful environment. Jesus
was tempted in a dry, thirsty wilderness among the wild beasts, but stood firm
as a rock against all Satan’s wiles and blandishments; thus He manifested
Himself as King of righteousness, and so the suited One to be crowned King of
peace (Heb. 7:1,2). He who triumphed over the enemy after being tested in all
points like as we, apart from sin, is now our great High Priest, and is
appearing in heaven on our behalf, ready to assist us in every hour of weakness
and temptation.

  “And when the tempter came
to Him, he said, If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made
bread.” Every test was a direct assault upon the truth of His divine-human
personality. There might seem to be nothing inherently wrong for Jesus to
satisfy His hunger by making bread from stones, but He had taken the place, as
Man, of dependence on the living Father (John 6:57). As such, He acted only in
obedience to the Father’s will, and He could not entertain any suggestion
coming from another and an opposing source. He would not act, even to relieve
His hunger, upon the enemy’s advice.

  “But He answered and said,
It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Jesus met each temptation with a definite
word from God—a quotation from the Holy Scriptures. In this instance He quoted
Deut. 8:3 where Moses reminded Israel that of far more importance than material
food was the spiritual nourishment that is found in the Word of God. When God
provides food for His children He does not give them stones for bread, nor make
bread out of stones; but when we get out of the place of dependence upon the
Father we are very likely to break our teeth upon hard stone bread which we
thought would be better than that which comes from God.

  “Then the devil took Him up
into the holy city, and set Him on a pinnacle of the temple.” Whether the devil
actually did this or it was only in vision we are not told, nor is it important
that we should know. The point is that even the sanctuary may be a place of
temptation, for pride of grace is one of the greatest snares to which we are
exposed. From that elevated place Jesus saw the throngs gathered in the courts
below. Satan was about to use this as a reason why He should display His power.

  “And [he] said unto Him, If
Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down; for it is written, He shall give His
angels charge concerning Thee; and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest
at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.” Satan quoted only a part of Psalm
91:11,12. He omitted the most pertinent portion:“To keep Thee in all Thy
ways.” It was no part of the holy ways of the Son of God to leap spectacularly
from the temple heights in order to astonish the worshiping multitudes below as
they beheld Him suspended in the air above them, sustained by angel hands. This
would have been a presumptuous use of the promise. When Satan quotes Scripture,
look closely at the text and be sure nothing vital is omitted, for it is
possible to back up the gravest error with a text from the Bible used out of
its connection or only partly expressed.

  “Jesus said unto him, It is
written again, You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” Where God commands,
faith can act upon His words, knowing—as Augustine said—“God’s commands are God’s
enablings.” But to expose oneself to danger needlessly is to tempt God, and
this is contrary to the principle of faith.

  “Again, the devil took Him
up into an exceeding high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the
world, and the glory of them.” These things belonged to Christ, the Heir of all
things; but Satan has usurped the inheritance. He attempted to present to Jesus
what might be called a “shortcut” to world dominion.

  “And [he] said unto Him,
All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me.”
Actually, they were his to give only by God’s permissive will, for “the most
High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever He will” (Dan.
4:25). Satan had robbed Adam of the authority given him and reigned as usurper
in the hearts of wicked men; but he had no undisputed title to the kingdoms of
the world which he offered to give to Jesus if He would worship him, that thus
He might obtain the kingdom without the cross.

  “Then said Jesus unto him,
Get thee hence, Satan; for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God,
and Him only shall you serve.” By another “saying” of God the foe was
vanquished. Jesus did not dispute Satan’s word as to his sovereignty of the
kingdoms of the world. It is not by debate the victory is won, but by the Word
itself.

  “Then the devil left Him,
and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him.” What a glorious consummation
to the temptation! The defeated, foul fiend fled away; and holy messengers from
the court of heaven came with gladness to minister to their Creator, who in
grace had taken the creature’s place. When we think of angels ministering to
Jesus, as they did in the wilderness and in Gethsemane, we realize how truly
human He had become in that He, who had created those glorious beings, should
now be served by them.

  God’s King must reign in
righteousness. The sinner’s Substitute must be as an unblemished lamb—with no
defect outwardly or inwardly. Therefore the Lord as a Man must be subjected to
the most searching tests to demonstrate His fitness for the great work He came
to do. Had the temptation brought to light any evidence of inbred sin or moral
corruption of any kind, it would have been the proof that Jesus was not the
Holy One of God, destined to bring in everlasting righteousness and to make
propitiation for iniquity. But nowhere was the perfection of Jesus demonstrated
more clearly than when Satan made every effort to find some defect in His
character, some form of self-seeking in His heart. The King was tested and proved
to be all that God the Father had declared at His baptism—the One in whom He
had found all His delight.

  (From Expository Notes
on the Gospel of Matthew.)

  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

    Why are we having an
issue on sowing seed, gardening, and fruit-bearing in January, of all months,
and on the heels of a horticultural issue in 2001 about pruning branches and
the like?

    1. January is when
serious gardeners in northern climates begin receiving seed catalogs in the
mail.

    2. Our readers who live
in southern climates and south of the equator may already be gardening when
they receive this issue.

    3. Those of us who are
kept indoors by the snow and cold of winter may enjoy more quiet time during
this season to cultivate our spiritual lives as gardens of the Lord.

     4. In the March-April
2001 issue of Words of Truth the emphasis was on God’s chastening of
believers (corresponding to pruning branches of a vine or fruit tree) to help
increase our fruitfulness. In the present issue the focus is more on what we as
believers are and should be to the Lord as His garden, for His joy and
pleasure.                   The Editor

    Leaving home for a few
days’ absence, we lowered the window shades and closed the doors. But we had
left behind us in that dark house a beautiful little plant. Upon our return we
soon discovered that a great change had taken place in it. Its freshness and
beauty had passed away and the flower had greatly wilted. We lost no time in
letting in both sunshine and fresh air; then we poured water upon and around
the plant.

    Lacking those three
things essential to plant life—sunlight, fresh air, and water—it had suffered
and withered. With the loving care that ministered these things to it again,
its freshness, color, and bloom began to reappear, and it made us rejoice. It
seemed to smile in our faces and be grateful for the care bestowed. At the same
time we had learned a valuable spiritual lesson:

    The Plant spoke to
us of each plant of our heavenly Father’s planting—those who form part of His
garden (Matt. 15:13; Cant. 4:12-16).

    Sunlight, so
necessary for the health and beauty of the plant, speaks of communion of heart
with our Lord now in the heavens. He is the true “Sun of righteousness” (Mal.
4:2).

    Water that
ministers to the life of the plant is a symbol of the precious ministry of the
Holy Spirit by means of the Word of God. Ministry like this, day by day, is the
sustaining power of the Christian’s life. It puts freshness and beauty upon it.

    Fresh Air, so
imperative for a healthy condition, speaks of the moral and spiritual
atmosphere in which we live and move day by day, including the people with whom
we enjoy heart-to-heart communion, and the things with which we are occupied.

    We might pause for a
little and take warning concerning these three essentials to all life:

    Sunlight. How
diligently we need to guard ourselves lest there be any neglect of communion of
heart and feeling with our Lord and Saviour. The least neglect in this respect
will show itself soon. It was communion with Him that made the faces of Moses
and Stephen to shine (Exod. 34:35; Acts 6:15). Neglecting this, the lovely
graces and the spirituality of the Christian life will disappear (2 Cor. 3:18;
Eph. 5:8-14).

    Water. There will
be no lack of the enjoyment of the Spirit’s ministry if communion of heart with
Christ is sought and enjoyed. It is the Spirit’s ministry, through the medium
of the Holy Scripture, that puts us in touch with Christ where He now is in the
heavenly glory. This precious ministry to God’s people is as the water to
nourish and sustain the life—to impart bloom, freshness, and beauty, and fill
the life with such fragrance as we should look for from plants in the King’s
garden.

    Fresh Air. No
plant of God’s planting can thrive except in the atmosphere of the new
creation. Where can the devoted child of God find such an atmosphere? How
important the question and what exercise and searching of heart the subject
requires:“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of
the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1
John 2:16). Well might we search ourselves and ask, “What is the fellowship
that I seek? Is it that of the Father and the Son, or that of the world?”

    How we are drawn to the
little plant to learn from it the serious lessons from the school of God’s creation! Properly learned they will lead the soul away from the
world-bordering spirit of the times in which we live, when the theater, the
opera, the novel, the loose literature, and the card games [and their
modern-day correlates] are often found with the profession of Christianity. As
impure air robs the plant of its freshness, this spirit robs the Christian life
of all spirituality! (Rom. 12:1,2; 2 Cor. 6:14-18; 2 Tim. 2:19-22).

    May we, in view of all
this, seek the bright sunlight, the good water, and the pure atmosphere
of communion with the Father and the Son. Then growth, freshness, and
fruitfulness will result, gladdening both God and His people.

* * * * *

     One great thing we have
to seek is that communion with Christ be as strong as all the doctrines we hold
or teach. Without that, the doctrines themselves will have no force.                      J.N.
Darby

  Though linked with
gentleness, meekness is not simply a person’s outward behavior towards his
fellow-man. It is rather “an inwrought grace of the soul, and the exercises of
it are first and chiefly towards God” (Trench). Whatever the circumstances may
be, all is accepted as from Him without questioning or resisting in any way His
hand. The heart is at rest in Him, entirely submissive to Him. Even the insults
and injuries of evil men, or of brethren, are received as disciplinary measures
of God for the purifying of the soul and the cultivating of this Christian
grace. Meekness is the opposite of self-interest and self-assertiveness. As
another puts it:“It is equanimity of spirit that is neither elated nor cast
down, simply because it is not occupied with self at all” (Vine).

  Now meekness is not
weakness, though at times it may appear to be so. Rather is it the fruit of
power, and that the power of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:23). The Lord Jesus could
not be charged with weakness of character, yet He is the perfect Example of
meekness. He could say as none other, “I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matt.
11:29), when He sets Himself forth as the Rest for the weary and as the Teacher
of the soul. Also, it is as King that He rides into Jerusalem, “meek, and
sitting upon an ass” (Matt. 21:5). The apostle Paul links this meekness of
Christ with might and power in 2 Corinthians 10. It was by this “meekness and
gentleness of Christ” (v. 1) that he besought the saints, yet bearing at the
same time a testimony to them that was “weighty and powerful” (v. 10).

  The proper Christian
adornment, according to Peter, is a “meek and quiet spirit.” It springs from
the hidden man of the heart, is incorruptible and in the sight of God of great
price (1 Pet. 3:4). It is contrasted with what is merely external and
corruptible, and is linked with a trust in God which adorned women of old time
who were subject to their husbands. Likewise, the apostle Paul includes “meekness”
in the list of graces that become the elect of God in Col. 3:12, and these he
exhorts them to put on.

  The place which meekness
should have in our lives is clearly outlined in various Scriptures. We shall
briefly mention a few references for meditation.

  The “spirit of meekness” is
to characterize the one who seeks to restore the erring brother (Gal. 6:1).

  The “man of God” is to
“follow after … meekness” (1 Tim. 6:11); he is to show “all meekness to all
men” (Tit. 3:2); he is to exhibit the same when seeking to instruct those who
oppose (2 Tim. 2:25).

  In endeavoring to keep the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, it should be with “meekness” (Eph.
4:2). As to the reception of the Word of God, it should likewise be with
“meekness” (Jas. 1:21). Then, too, when giving an answer to those who ask us of
the reason of our hope, “meekness” is enjoined upon us (1 Pet. 3:15).

  The blessings promised to
the meek are surely an incentive to the believer. The Psalmist promises, “The
meek will He guide in judgment; and the meek will He teach His way” (25:9), and
declares with certainty, “The meek shall eat and be satisfied” (22:26).

  Oh, to have the mind of
Christ in all our attitudes and ways! May the Lord lead us on to follow Him in
a walk in the Spirit, that we may know more the blessedness of meekness, for
His Name’s sake.

            “And the LORD God
said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet
for him” (Gen. 2:18).  The expression, “a help meet for him,” means a helper
corresponding to him or suitable to him.

            In what sense was
the woman (Eve) whom God provided for the man (Adam) a helper corresponding to
him? This provision occurred before the need to wash dishes, launder clothes,
or take care of the children. The LORD God had given Adam the tasks of caring
for the garden and making up names for all of the great variety of living
creatures (Gen. 2:15,19). There were animals that were helps to Adam as beasts
of burden and as a means of entertainment. But there was something missing.
Adam had no one to talk to.

            The “help meet”
for Adam served as one with whom Adam could communicate, one with whom he could
be intimate, not just physically, but also intellectually, emotionally, and
spiritually. If there is any truth to the expression, “A dog is man’s best
friend,” it is only because of failure in human relationships. For those of us
who are married, our wife or husband should be our best friend on earth.

Examples of Helpmates

            The following are
examples in the Bible of some women who were helpers meet for their husbands,
along with a couple of examples of women who failed to carry out this God-given
role.

            Michal.
“Michal Saul’s daughter loved David…. Saul also sent messengers unto David’s
house to watch him and to slay him in the morning; and Michal David’s wife told
him, saying, If you save not your life tonight, tomorrow you shall be slain. So
Michal let David down through a window:and he went, and fled, and escaped” (1
Sam. 18:20; 19:11,12).

            Abigail.
When David was about to kill Nabal and all the men with him, Nabal’s wife
Abigail boldly came to David with a gift of food and appealed to him not to
shed blood without just cause. “And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD
God of Israel who sent you this day to meet me; and blessed be your advice, and
blessed be you who has kept me this day from coming to shed blood and from
avenging myself with my own hand” (1 Sam. 25:18-34). Even though Nabal was a “churlish
[or stingy] and evil” man (1 Sam. 25:3), Abigail did all she could to help him
get out of the messes he got himself into. She was truly “a help meet for him,”
even though he did not appreciate it. But David appreciated what he saw in
Abigail, and when the LORD saw fit to smite “Nabal that he died,” David took
Abigail to be his wife (verses 38-42).

            This example
shows how different temperaments between husband and wife can complement each
other. But for it to work, we need to respect each other’s temperament, help
each other to develop the beneficial and positive aspects of it, and to judge
the negative parts of it. The husband and wife need to help each other to grow
in the Word and likeness to Christ, which will result in a greater likeness to
and kinship with each other.

            The Virtuous
Woman of Proverbs 31. Here is Biblical testimony to “a virtuous woman”:
“The heart of her husband safely trusts in her…. She will do him good and not
evil all the days of her life…. Her husband is known in the gates when he
sits among the elders of the land…. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and in
her tongue is the law of kindness. She looks well to the ways of her household,
and eats not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her” (Prov. 31:10-31).

            Priscilla.
“And [Apollos] began to speak boldly in the synagogue, whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of
God more perfectly” (Acts 18:26). Aquila is never mentioned in the Bible apart
from his wife Priscilla (Acts 18:2,18; Rom. 16:3; 1 Cor. 16:19; 2 Tim. 4:19).
Obviously they worked together as a team in ministering “the way of God” to
Apollos and, no doubt, in all of their ministries.

            Our next door
neighbor came over and asked a theological question. I gave him an answer, and
then my wife offered a supporting answer from a slightly different perspective.
Her comment, in turn, reminded me of yet another way of addressing my
neighbor’s question. We worked together; she was a help to me. I wonder if
every Christian husband realizes the spiritual treasure he has in his Christian
wife. I perceive that in some Christian homes the wife is not at liberty to
discuss her thoughts on Scriptural and spiritual matters with her husband. What
a loss! This is taking the man’s headship and the woman’s submission to an
unwarranted extreme. Notice that the Lord Jesus was willing to discuss (that
is, listen as well as talk) spiritual and doctrinal matters with women (John
4:9-26; 11:21-27).

            Eve. Being
a God-given helpmate to one’s husband is a very responsible position. The first
helpmate, Eve, in fact, failed miserably in her responsibility. She certainly
was not a help to Adam when she ate of the fruit and offered him some as well.
The LORD God had told Adam one thing (not to eat of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil upon pain of death; Gen. 2:17), Adam had passed this
information on to Eve (Gen. 3:3), and the serpent told Eve just the opposite:
“You shall not surely die” (Gen. 3:4). Whom should Eve believe—her husband or
this serpent? Would it not have been wise for Eve to ask her husband, who had
received the instruction directly from God, about this discrepancy? Think of
the far-reaching consequences upon the whole human race of her failing to do
so!

            It works the
other way as well. It is often wise for a husband to ask his wife what she
thinks of his plans concerning an activity, a change in employment, a purchase,
an investment of money or time, etc. We all have blind spots, hidden lusts,
desires, pride, envy, or distrust, and we often allow our feelings rather than
wise judgment to rule us. Our spouses, if given the opportunity, can help
reveal to us our blind spots.

            Sapphira.
Loyalty to one’s spouse is a wonderful trait, but even this can be carried too
far. Sapphira was loyal to her husband Ananias, but failed terribly in being a
help to him. Ananias had lied to the apostles about how much he had gotten in
the sale of a piece of land. He pretended that he was giving the entire amount
of the sale to the apostles to be distributed to the poor. His wife knew what
he had done, and when asked about it, she told the same lie. The consequence?
Both fell down dead for agreeing together “to tempt the Spirit of the Lord”
(Acts 5:1-10). Why didn’t Sapphira warn her husband that he was doing wrong in
lying about it? My wife certainly would have and so would most of the wives
reading this. But there are some Christian wives who are afraid of their
husbands (even if the husband is a Christian) and would not dare correct or
contradict their husbands about anything. Again, what a loss! what a tragedy
for the whole family! How vital it is for all of us honestly to own and
acknowledge before the Lord and each other our own weaknesses and ask our
spouse (or another family member or close friend if unmarried) to alert us when
they see us getting off track.

Communication

            One of the most
important jobs of the husband’s helpmate is that of facilitating communication.
We husbands are notoriously poor at this and should try to cooperate when our
wives attempt to draw us out. In Scripture we read, “Rejoice with those who
rejoice, and weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15). But to do this there must
be the communication to one another of our joys and successes, as well as our
depressions, anxieties, and failures.

            Often it may be
particularly difficult for the husband to share with his wife his feelings of
depression or fear or failure. He rather prefers to regard himself as
emotionally independent and able to work out his own problems by himself.
However, an understanding wife can be an immense help to the husband in such
matters. At the very least they can pray together and unitedly seek the Lord’s
help in the matter. And the sharing in this way will have the effect of drawing
the two closer together emotionally and spiritually. Real communication in
marriage is the ability to share one’s innermost thoughts and feelings with
one’s partner. For this to be effective there must be a foundation of mutual
love, trust, patience, forgiveness, and understanding.

            It is well for a
young husband and father to consider that often while he is at work associating
with other adults all day long, his wife may be spending most of her days with
only her small children for company. So the husband—weary as he may be—should
try to put his wife’s need for adult-level communication above his natural and
selfish desire to relax in his favorite easy chair with the newspaper or
television when he gets home from work. In this way he can be “a help meet for”
his wife.

            A particularly
difficult area of communication involves things that the husband and wife find
in each other that they do not like. Marriage involves a very major adjustment
in the lives of two persons who often have quite different personalities, likes
and dislikes, collections of friends and relatives, etc. To take an oft-used
example, a matter so trivial as how one squeezes the tube of toothpaste can be
a source of friction in a marriage. Or it may be certain words or expressions
one uses, stories or jokes one tells, or other habits or manners that may
irritate the spouse. If there is no sin or compromise of Christian testimony
involved, the spouse may choose to adapt himself/herself to the other’s behavior
and, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, accept and overlook it (see Prov. 19:11).
But if the disagreeable behavior continually produces irritation, or if it is
sinful, then one should seek lovingly, patiently, and meekly (Gal. 6:1) to
express to the other the nature of the concern. Here there is a great need to
speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15) and to have the love of God shed abroad in
our hearts (Rom. 5:5). The one with the disagreeable habit correspondingly
should learn to accept the criticism without anger, irritation, defensiveness,
or retaliation. It is best if the two can pray together about the matter.

______________________________________________________________________________

            The Greek word
for thanksgiving (eucharistia) is related to the words for grace (charis)
and joy (chara). Grace is God’s Riches at Christ’s
Expense, or favor shown to those who deserve the opposite. “By grace are
you saved” (Eph. 2:8). A deep sense of God’s grace and favor toward us will
bring joy to our hearts, and that joy, in turn, will overflow from our hearts
in outward expressions of thanksgiving.                                                                       P.L.C.

    “When you shall besiege a
city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy
the trees thereof by forcing an ax against them; for you may eat of them, and
you shall not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man’s life) to employ
them in the siege; only the trees which you know that they be not trees for
meat, you shall destroy and cut them down; and you shall build bulwarks against
the city that makes war with you, until it be subdued” (Deut. 20:19,20).

    Many are the beneficial
lessons that the Holy Spirit has put before us by means of the instruction
given to Israel. We are familiar with the fact that the things that happened
unto them were our types, and written for our learning. And such is the passage
quoted above. Just as, when God com­manded Israel saying, “You shall not muzzle
the ox that treads out the corn,” He had His own servants in mind (as so
clearly shown us by the apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 9:9-14), so here may we not see
pictured by the “trees good for food,” these same servants in another aspect,
and made the objects of the Lord’s particular care?

    The children of Israel were admonished against all reck­lessness and waste in felling standing timber when
they besieged the cities of the land. They were carefully to ascer­tain the
character of each particular tree before venturing to lift an ax against it.
All fruit trees were to be spared because they were part of God’s gracious
provision for min­istering food to His people.

    May we not say that God
would have us make the same distinction today? There are trees to the very
roots of which the ax must be laid; trees that are either mere cumberers of the
ground, or producing only that which is noxious and poisonous. Such are the
present day advocates of human righteousness as a basis of acceptance with God,
or the propagators of wicked teachings that deny the very founda­tions of the
faith. Soldiers of the Lord of Hosts may be assured of His approval when they
use the ax against these—exposing their fallacies. “Every plant,” said the Lord
Jesus, “that My heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up.” To oppose
fearlessly such evil teachers and denounce their doctrines and practices is in
accord with both the Spirit of the Lord Jesus and His apostles. None reproved
hypocritical pretensions more scathingly than Christ Him­self. No modern
controversialist, with any claim to piety, would be likely to use stronger
words than those of John the Baptist when he sternly arraigned the “generation
of vipers” of his day. Tremendously telling are the denunciations of the
apostle Paul when necessity compelled him to meet the errors of false teachers
troubling the early Church. John, Peter, and Jude did not hesitate to decry the
antichrists, the purveyors of damnable heresies, and the ungodly men “turning
the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and deny­ing the only Lord God and
our Lord Jesus Christ,” who were creeping in among the saints and seeking to
overthrow their most holy faith.

    But, be it noted, those
so solemnly accused and vigor­ously combated were not erring saints or brethren
with mistaken views, but they were relentless “enemies of the cross of Christ,
whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, who mind earthly things.”
And wherever such are found today, and are manifestly proven to be such, they
should be dealt with in the same way.

    But there is grave danger
lest the ax be lifted up against another class altogether—the fruit-bearing trees—whom
the Lord has forbidden our judging or condemning. Every fruit tree is the
object of His tender solicitude. Such are truly born of the Spirit, and genuine
lovers of our Lord Jesus Christ. They may at times, in their zeal for God, or
their earnest passion for the souls of lost men, overstep bounds and use
methods of which their more conservative or better instructed brethren disapprove,
but they are the Lord’s ser­vants and He has said, “Who are you who judges
another man’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls.”

    The spirit of criticism
may lead to very unhappy results, and often one is in danger of finding himself
arrayed against people and movements which God is owning and blessing. The
utmost care is required to distinguish things that differ—that what is of God
and what is of Satan may not come into the same sweeping condemnation. And our
Lord Him­self has given us the rule whereby we may make this dis­tinction. He
has said, “By their fruits you shall know them.” A corrupt tree produces
corrupt fruit, whereas a good tree brings forth good fruit. In either case, the
fruit may not always be the same in quantity or quality, but it will be either
deleterious or “good for food.” Because healthful fruit is sometimes small, or
not up to the standard, one does not necessarily chop down the tree, but
rather, wisely uses the pruning knife and purges it that it may bring forth
more and better fruit.

    This pruning process is
one that all God’s fruit trees have at times to undergo. Often He uses one
servant to correct and help another; but this is accomplished far better by a
kindly personal admonition, or a brotherly effort to instruct, than by unkind
criticism and a hard judging spirit. A beautiful example of this gracious care
for one of God’s fruit trees is given us in the Book of Acts, in the case of
Apollos whose earnestness and love for the Scriptures ap­pealed to the hearts
of Priscilla and Aquila, though he was not at all up to the standard of New
Testament truth. He had not gotten beyond the baptism of John. But this godly
couple, instead of exposing his ignorance to others, or round­ly denouncing him
as a legalist without true gospel light, took him into their home, and there in
true Christian love expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. What
precious and abiding fruit was the result!

    It is to be regretted
that the same gracious spirit does not always characterize us when we meet
with, or hear of, those who are manifesting similar devotedness, while igno­rant
of much that we may value. How senseless the folly that leads us often to array
ourselves against such servants of Christ, in place of manifesting a godly
concern for them. We thoughtlessly lift our axes against God’s fruit trees and
would destroy where we might save. Many a one who is ignorant of such precious
truth is nevertheless bearing fruit in the salvation of souls and the refreshment
of the spirits of believers; while, on the other hand, one may have a very
clear intellectual grasp of divine principles and understand much that is
called high truth, who produces very little of this same blessed fruit.

    Oh, beloved brethren, let
us keep our axes sharp for the deadly trees of sin and fundamental error that
abound on every side; but shall we not seek grace from God that we may have
spiritual discernment to refrain from damaging in any way trees that are good
for food?

    Satan and his emissaries
can be depended upon to be­stow enough abuse on real Christians and true
servants of the Lord Jesus without their fellow servants joining in the same
unworthy business. Let us not forget the words already quoted:“Who are you who
judges another man’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls.” And the
Holy Spirit goes on to say, “Yes, he shall be upheld; for God is able to make
him stand” (Rom. 14:4).

    (From Help and Food, Vol.34.)

  When the disciples asked
the Lord, “Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” (Matt. 18:1) it is
evident that they were not expecting an answer such as the Lord gave them. They
needed to be instructed in the “kingdom of heaven,” and the Lord, after His own
perfect manner, teaches them His thoughts of what true greatness is.

  “And Jesus called a little
child unto Him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say
unto you, Except you be converted and become as little children, you
shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (18:2,3).

  These are stirring and
soul-searching words! What a rebuke to the pride and haughtiness so native to
our hearts! God has decreed that “no flesh [shall] glory in His presence” (1
Cor. 1:29). “Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

  How rare a thing it is, in
these days of “great men” and “great things,” to find those whose character
answers to that of a “little child,” even though quite as intelligent as any.
Yet the Lord assures us with His own “verily” that none other shall be found in
His kingdom.

  Man’s way ever since the
fall has been to “get to the top of the heap,” “to be first,” to “look out for
number one.” It was this wretched principle which the arch-usurper suggested to
man in the garden when he said, “You shall be as God” (Gen. 3:5). Man, alas,
acquiesced in it, and has faithfully followed it until this day.

  Self-sufficiency!
Self-importance! What hateful things to behold in others, and how often
manifest unconsciously in oneself! What was it that led Cain to slay his
brother Abel? He was enraged when God gave Abel the place of favor. And why did
God favor Abel? Because he humbled himself before God, taking a position before
Him of one who was unworthy, and seeking His face through the merits of a
Substitute. Cain, on the other hand, expected God to recognize him and his
gifts by virtue of merits in himself, and when God refused to allow Cain
thus to glory in His presence, he wreaked his vengeance on his meek and lowly
brother.

  Thus early in man’s history
did God permit the fruit of this principle to manifest itself. And yet men
applaud each other when they outdo their fellows in reaching up to
positions of prominence and superiority. But, thanks be to God, there will be
nothing of this kind of “greatness” in that kingdom over which the Son
of Man shall sway the scepter. There, all the subjects will be in character
like Him who will rule over them. All in that kingdom will be found conformed
to the image of the Son, “that He might be the Firstborn among many brethren”
(Rom. 8:29). There all will be as “little children,” “for of such is the
kingdom of heaven.” This divine saying is not to be stripped of its spiritual
meaning, however true it may be literally. “Whosoever therefore shall
humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom
of heaven” (Matt. 18:4). The very form of this expression shows that there will
be nothing like competition found in Christ’s kingdom. All who thus
humble themselves are equally great. There is no rivalry there.

  We do not find in God’s
history of His people any who were “giants.” There were some of these abnormal
persons both before and after the flood; but they were always found to be
enemies of God and of His people, and their destruction under God’s hand is a
rebuke to man’s greatness and pride. Neither were the children of Israel renowned for their physical, intellectual, commercial, or military greatness. Indeed
they were in many respects the weakest nation on the earth; but this very fact
made their dependence upon God the more evident, and He delighted to be known
as the “God of Israel,” yes, even as the “God of Jacob.”

  The very “Lord of Glory”
has linked Himself with those who have abased themselves in His presence.
“Whoso shall receive one such little child in My name receives Me”
(Matt. 18:5). The Lord is evidently referring in this saying to those who go
forth with His testimony, having no human credentials, nothing but His name to
show to men as their authority for going forth. To go forth in one’s own name,
one must be somewhat “great” in men’s eyes, but this greatness is not of Him
who says, “I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matt. 11:29)and “I am among you as He
that serves” (Luke 22:27). It savors rather of him who will “come in his own
name,” claiming the honors that belong to the Lord Jesus Christ.

  What an honor to be sent
forth by the Lord Himself, the Sovereign of the universe! See to it, beloved
servants of the Lord Jesus, that His own lowly character be found in you in all
your ways with men, in all your appeals to the world for His sake, in all your
ministry of love among His sheep. Oh to faithfully represent Him who humbled
Himself even to the death of the cross, that He might exalt those who, counting
themselves nothing, put all their trust in Him!

  Beware lest you cause one
of the least of His own to stumble. Oh how watchful we need to be, lest in any
way we exalt self and set a false standard for Christ’s “little ones.” A child
readily imitates a parent or an older brother or sister, and the people of God
are unconsciously molded, to a large extent, by those who are their spiritual
guides. What a responsibility therefore rests upon those who are the pastors
and teachers of Christ’s flock, and what care is needed lest they should cause
“one of these little ones to stumble.”

  On the other hand, what a
blessed place to be in as one of the Lord’s “little ones!” To have the
assurance of His care, His protection, His grace and His love. The Lord here
warns any against despising those who thus look up to Him in true dependence.
He says, “Take heed that you despise not one of these little ones” (a thing we
are apt to do if puffed up with a feeling of our own importance), “for I say
unto you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of My Father who
is in heaven” (Matt. 18:10).

  A comparison of this
Scripture with Numbers 12 will probably make clear what is in the Lord’s mind.
Aaron and Miriam had despised and spoken against Moses on account of his
marrying an Ethiopian. Moses meekly bears their cruel words in the true spirit
of one of the Lord’s “little ones”; but the Lord answers for him, and shows
them that Moses has an intimacy with Himself to which they were
strangers. Why then did they not fear to speak against one whom the Lord so
honored? It seems to be a parallel here. Those whom men despise for their
lowliness and self-abasement have an intimacy with the Father to which the
world’s “great” ones are utter strangers.

  The Lord now speaks of
these “little ones” as those who have acknowledged themselves to have “gone
astray” like lost sheep. It has given Him more joy to recover one of
them than for ninety-nine who, in their own estimation, went not astray (Matt.
18:12,13). If God could rejoice in Adam unfallen, how much more over those whom
He has redeemed to Himself from the distance and condition they were in by the
fall. Has He not as the Good Shepherd come to seek and save the lost? Those who
have owned themselves lost, and trusted as their Saviour Him who went to the
cross for them, are the “little ones” over whom He rejoices. They have given
Him more joy than all the so-called righteous who went not astray, and it is
not the Father’s will that any one of these “little ones” should perish (Matt.
18:14). The self-righteous will perish, for they have no Saviour. They are
sufficient to themselves.

  In closing, what we have
said here in no sense denies that the Lord included the little children in the
literal sense of the word. But He so speaks as to take in all who humble
themselves in His sight and put their trust in Him.

  (From Help and Food,
Vol. 31.)

    One of the secrets of
good gardening is to be an indefatigable enemy of weeds. Preventing their
growth necessitates the stirring of the soil; and the more the soil is stirred,
the better the crop grows and the greater the yield. So with the Christian:the
more sincerely and earnestly he takes sides with God against himself, the more
he will grow; the weeds of his evil nature will not be able to develop, and
this will cause the new nature to have deeper roots, greater growth, richer and
more abun­dant fruit.

    This means, of course,
that such a gardener must be industrious, early and late, against the enemy,
because of his love for the goodly plants that grow in his garden.

    And what is the finest
garden of earth compared with the garden of heaven in the believer’s soul? An
earthly garden may be worth having much care and labor bestowed upon it; it may
be worth rising up early and staying up late to tend it; and all this toil, all
this enriching and watering, after all, is but for a short season. What, then, of
this wonderful garden of the soul, whose fragrance and fruit are to abide forever?
Is it not worth-while to cultivate it? Shall we be industrious for what passes
away, and careless and idle for what does not pass away?

    Most earthly gardeners enjoy
their labor. They are happy in their toil, even before fruit-time comes.
Just so, is there not holy joy in all our Christian labor and exercises of
soul? Can we fall on our knees in supplication about this or that temptation,
fear, need, or service without rising up again comforted and blessed? Does not
every victory over ourselves and our circumstances make us sing and praise the
grace of our great High Priest, and increase our acquaintance with God? And is
not this, of itself, true bliss?

    May the Lord break up all
our slothfulness of heart, all our apathy concerning sin—not sin in our
brother, but sin in ourself! We can easily be fierce against the mote in
our brother’s eye while blind to the beam in our own.

    May He also break up all
self-complacency, for there is no weed more destructive in the garden of the
soul. We are so proper, so faultless, so free from what would mar the lofty
opinion which our fellows have of us, that we can scarcely realize our
incessant dependence on Him who is at the right hand of God, making
intercession for us.

    Let all weeds be rooted
out, that Christ, Christ alone, Christ our righteousness, our sanctification,
our redemption, may stand before the soul as our all. Thus will our individual
souls flourish, and practical unity will be with love, holiness, and power.

    (From Help and Food,
Vol. 45.)

  Have you ever played King
of the Hill—especially you who once were boys? Those who live in northern
climates play it on snowbanks, while others may play on mounds of dirt at
excavation sites. The object of the game is to be first to get to the top of
the hill, and then to keep from being dragged down by others who want to be
“King of the Hill.”

  Doesn’t that sound like
fun—being at the top? But wait a minute. Is being at the top a safe place to
be? Do the other players respect the one who is at the top? “Wherefore let him
who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12).

  When we play a game, which
do we prefer—to win, to lose, or does it not make any difference whether we win
or lose? Why is it that most of us prefer to win? be “King of the Hill? be #1
in our class or department or on our team? Is it not the pride of our heart? “I
say … to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly
than he ought to think” (Rom. 12:3).

  Do people like you better,
do you get more respect, if you win the tennis match or the Scrabble game?
Sometimes the losers say you cheated, or were just lucky and got all the good
breaks. They let you know that it certainly was not your superior skill or
intelligence that beat them. Or, turning it around, do you always have high
respect for those who just defeated you or your team? Do you “rejoice with
those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15)?

  The King of the Hill game
has been around for a long time. It is described a couple of times in the
Bible:“How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!… For
you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God…. I will be like the most High” (Isa. 14:12-14). “God
knows that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you
shall be as God, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree
was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be
desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave
also unto her husband with her; and he did eat” (Gen. 3:5,6).

  God is the highest of all,
#1, the Creator, all-powerful, all-knowing. Is God respected and liked by all
His created beings because He is #1? No! Both Satan and Eve wanted the place
that God Himself occupied.

  Have you ever played
King of the Hill with God, like Satan and Eve? The following verses may help
you to answer this question:“Every man did that which was right in his own
eyes” (Judg. 21:25). “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every
one to his own way” (Isa. 53:6). “But his citizens hated Him, and sent a
message after Him, saying, We will not have this Man to reign over us” (Luke
19:14,27). “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).
In a sense, we throw God off His throne whenever we sin and do our will
in opposition or without regard to His perfect will. We were all at one
time the enemies of God (Rom. 5:10; Col. 1:21).

  People say, “I have never
hurt anyone.” But you hurt God every time you challenge His authority. Have you
sought to do all things to glorify God throughout your lifetime? Or have you
ever turned to your own way? done your own thing? said “No!” to your parents
when you were a child? whined “Why can’t I?” or just did what you wanted to do
anyway when you were a teenager? Sadly, if we are truly honest with ourselves,
we all will have to confess that we have pushed God off His throne and sat on
it ourselves—many times!

  Now here is the situation:
God, the true King of the Hill, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe (Gen.
1; Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3), the Creator of mankind (Gen. 1:26,27), found Himself
disrespected, despised (Mal. 1:2,6), and reproached (Psa. 69:9) by man whom He
created. What should He do? God decided to do something so awesome, so
stupendous, so amazing, so wonderful, that people would want to respect
Him, obey Him, serve Him, worship Him. What did He do? Did He send a ball of
fire to kill a third of people of the world? No. In fact, the Bible says that
God will do just that during the Great Tribulation, and even then, “the
rest of the [people] who were not killed by these plagues yet repented not”
(Rev. 9:18-20).

  What did God do? He sent
His Son. And His Son humbled Himself, allowed wicked men to take Him, mock
taunt, beat, strip, falsely accuse Him, and nail Him to the cross. Notice that
not once did He say to His enemies, “You can’t get away with this! I’m King of
the Hill!” (see 1 Pet. 2:23). Rather he prayed for them, “Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

  Yes, Christ was—and is—the
King of the Hill. But He willingly, voluntarily, came down from His throne in
heaven—for your sake and mine! “I am counted with those who go down into the
pit; I am as a man who has no strength…. Thou hast laid Me in the lowest pit,
in darkness, in the deeps” (Psa. 88:4,6). “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you
through His poverty might be rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). “Let this mind be in you,
which was also in Christ Jesus:Who, being in the form of God, thought it not
robbery to be equal with God:but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon
Him the form of a Servant, and was made in the likeness of men … and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:5-8). “We see Jesus
who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death” (Heb.
2:9).

  What is so special about
God’s Son going to the cross?

  1. He was the co-eternal,
co-equal Son of God (John 1:1; 10:30).

  2. He had the power to
escape—but didn’t (Matt. 26:53).

  3. His sufferings were so
great and terrible (Psa. 22; 40; 69; 88; Isa. 52:13-53:12; Matt. 26:57-27:50).

  4. His sufferings and death
were for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3; Eph. 5:2; 1 Pet. 2:24).

  How does this affect you?
Does it make you weep “with joy and sorrow mingling”? Or do you shrug your
shoulders and say, “Duh, whatever.”

  When we realize that we are
sinners, rebels, enemies of God, deserving eternal separation from Him in the
lake of fire—and when we learn that the Lord Jesus Christ bore God’s holy anger
and punishment for our sins—doesn’t this give us a great deal of respect for
Him? Don’t we want to honor Him, please, obey, serve, and worship Him? We
surely do! Every morning when we awaken, and every night before going to bed,
and in between as well, we should remember that all our blessings and hopes and
assurance of eternal life are a result of the sufferings, death, and
resurrection of Christ.

  Whom do you want to be
like? Do you want to be like Satan who wanted to be King of the Hill, to exalt
his “throne above the stars of God” and “be like the Most High”? Or do you want
to be like Christ who “made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the
form of a servant … in the likeness of men … obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross”?

  What happened to Satan when
he wanted to be King of the Hill? God said, “You shall be brought down to hell,
to the sides of the pit” (Isa. 14:15; Rev. 20:10). What were the consequences
of Eve wanting to be King of the Hill? “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and
your conception; in sorrow you shall bring forth children…. Cursed is the
ground for your sake…. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to
you…. In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread” (Gen. 3:16-18).

  On the other hand, what
happened to Christ when He humbled Himself? “God also has highly exalted Him,
and given Him a name that is above every name” (Phil. 2:9). “Exalt” means to
lift up very high. “Highly” is added to that.

  What will happen to those
who follow Satan? “Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast
into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:15). What will happen to those who follow
Christ? They “shall not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). “The
Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout … and the dead in Christ
shall rise first; then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together
with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be
with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:15-17).

  Finally, for those who
desire to be the King of the Hill:“The day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon
every one who is proud and lofty, and upon every one who is lifted up; and he
shall be brought low…. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the
haughtiness of men shall be made low:and the LORD alone shall be exalted in
that day” (Isa. 2:12,17; also 40:4; Ezek. 17:24).

  For those who humble
themselves and allow God to remain on His throne—to be King of the Hill:
“Though the LORD be high, yet has He respect unto the lowly” (Psa. 138:6).
“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt
you in due time” (1 Pet. 5:6).

A garden contemplation suits,

    And may instruction
yield,

Sweeter than all the flowers
and fruits

    With which the spot is
filled.

Eden was Adam’s dwelling place,

    While blessed with
innocence;

But sin o’erwhelmed him with
disgrace,

    And drove the rebel
thence.

Oft as the garden-walk we
tread,

    We should bemoan his
fall;

The trespass of our legal
head

    In ruin plunged us all.

The garden of Gethsemane

    The second Adam saw,

Oppressed with woe, to set us
free

    From the avenging law.

How stupid we, who can
forget,

    With gardens in our
sight,

His agonies and bloody sweat,

    In that tremendous night!

His Church as a fair garden
stands,

    Which walls of love enclose;

Each tree is planted by His
hands,

    And by His blessing
grows.

Believing hearts are gardens
too,

    For grace has sown its
seeds,

Where once, by nature,
nothing grew,

    But thorns and worthless
weeds.

Such themes to those who
Jesus love,

    May constant joys afford,

And make a barren desert
prove

    The garden of the Lord.

    (From Olney Hymns.)

There was a night, in ages
past,

  When angels swept through
Eastern skies:

Their presence thrilled the
shepherds’ hearts

  And filled their souls with
glad surprise;

     For angel tongues made
known to them

     That Christ was born in Bethlehem.

The magi saw His glorious
star

  Above the lowly manger-bed,

And by its silvery beams of
light

  Were to that ancient stable
led.

     There they beheld that
peerless One—

     The Son of Man, and God
the Son!

They bowed their knees before
His shrine,

  And worshiped in that
humble spot;

They lavished on Him costly
gifts

  Which they in love from far
had brought.

     Thus they adored the One
from heaven—

     They honored Him whom
God had given.

But men despised His righteous
claims—

  Despised His holy person
too;

They hailed Him not as Lord
and King,

  But on dark Calvary pierced Him through!

     “Away with Him” in rage
they cried—

     Earth’s Sovereign thus
was crucified.

No room for Him in inn was
found,

  And human breasts were
locked and barred;

But when He comes to earth
again

  No power His kingdom can
retard.

     No foe shall then
dispute His throne,

     All must His claims with
honor own-

His day of glory hastens on—

  That day when all mankind
shall bow,

He’ll be enthroned as King of
kings,

  Then many crowns shall deck
His brow.

     The entire world shall
own His sway

     Throughout that bright
millennial day.

O Lord, the whole creation
groans

  For that bright
sin-dispelling day,

When Thou shalt reign on Zion’s hill,

  And purge the ills of earth
away.

     Faith longs to see Thee
on Thy throne

     To reign supreme o’er
every zone.

     (From Help and Food,
Vol. 39.)

    “A garden inclosed is My
sister, My spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Your plants are an
orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire with spikenard,
spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense,
myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices:a fountain of gardens, a well of
living waters, and streams from Lebanon. Awake, O north wind; and come, you
south; blow upon My garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my
Beloved come into His garden, and eat His pleasant fruits. I am come into My
garden, My sister, My spouse:I have gathered My myrrh with my spice; I have
eaten My honeycomb with My honey; I have drunk My wine with My milk:eat, O
friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved” (Cant. 4:12-5:1).

    With these choice words
from the Song of Solomon, the Bridegroom likens His bride to a garden of
delights. Probably, all believers, with hearts opened to understand the
Scriptures, would agree that in the Bridegroom, or the “Beloved,” of the Song
of Solomon we have a beautiful figure of Christ. Most would also concede that
in the interpretation of the Song, the bride sets forth Christ’s earthly
people.

    However, while the strict
interpretation of the bride has Christ’s earthly people in view, we are surely
warranted in making an application to the Church, the heavenly bride of Christ.
Furthermore, if we may discover in this garden the excellencies that Christ
would find in His heavenly bride, do we not at the same time learn what the
love of Christ is looking for in the hearts of those who compose the bride? May
we then, for a little, meditate upon this garden, with its spring, its fruit,
its spices, and its living waters, as describing what the Lord would have our
hearts to be for Himself.

    First, we notice that the
Bridegroom always speaks of the garden as “My garden,” while the bride delights
to own it as “His garden.” “Awake O north wind … blow upon My garden,”
says the Bridegroom. The bride replies, “Let My beloved come into His garden.”
The application is plain:the Lord claims our hearts for Himself. “My son, give
Me your heart,” says the Preacher (Prov. 23:26). “Sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts,” is the exhortation of an apostle (1 Pet. 3:15). Another apostle can
pray that “Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith” (Eph. 3:17).

    It is not simply our time,
our means, our brains, and our busy service that the Lord desires, but first,
and above all, He claims our affections. We may give all our goods to the poor,
and our bodies to be burned, but without love it will profit nothing. The Lord
is still saying to us, “Give Me your heart.”

    “You have left your first
love” was a solemn word indicating that whatever excellencies belonged to the
believers thus addressed, their hearts had ceased to be a garden for the Lord.
As one has said, “A wife may take care of the house and fulfill all her duties
so as to leave nothing undone for which her husband could find fault; but if
her love for him has diminished, will all her service satisfy him if his love
to her remains the same as at first?” (J.N. Darby).

    Above all, then, the Lord
claims the undivided affection of our hearts. The garden must be His garden.
Moreover, if the Lord claims our hearts to be a garden for His delight, they
must have the marks of the garden that is according to His mind.

    As we read this beautiful
description of the garden of the Lord, we note five outstanding features that
set forth in figure what the Lord would have our hearts to be for Himself.
First, the garden of the Lord is an enclosed garden. Secondly, it is a watered
garden, with its spring shut up and its fountain sealed. Thirdly, it is a fruitful
garden—a paradise of pomegranates with precious fruits. Fourthly, it is a fragrant
garden, with trees of frankincense and all the chief spices. Lastly, it is a refreshing
garden from whence “the living waters” flow, and the fragrance of its spices is
carried to the world around.

     A Garden Enclosed.
If the heart is to be kept as a garden for the pleasure of the Lord, it must be
as “a garden enclosed.” This speaks of a heart separate from the world,
preserved from evil and set apart for the Lord.

    May we not say that in
the Lord’s last prayer we learn the desire of His heart that His people should
be as “a garden enclosed”? We hear Him tell the Father that His own are a separate
people, for He can say, “They are not of this world, even as I am not of the
world.” Again, He desires that they may be a preserved people, for He prays,
“Keep them from the evil.” Above all, He prays that they may be a sanctified
people, for He says, “Sanctify them through thy truth” (John 17:14-17).

    Does not the Preacher
exhort us to keep our hearts as “a garden enclosed” when he says, “Keep your
heart more than anything that is guarded” (Prov. 4:23 JND)? Again we do well to
heed the Lord’s own words, “Let your loins be girded about” (Luke 12:35).
Unless the girdle of truth holds in our affections and thoughts, how quickly
our minds will be drawn away by the things of this world, and the heart cease
to be “a garden enclosed.”

    Again, the apostle James
desires that our hearts may be preserved from evil when he warns us, “If you
have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not
against the truth … for where envying and strife is, there is confusion and
every evil work” (Jas. 3:14-16). Never has there been a scene of confusion and
strife among the people of God that has not had its hidden root—of envy and
strife—in the heart. We may be sure that the heart that entertains bitterness,
envying, and strife will be no garden for the Lord.

    How necessary, then, to
have our hearts kept in separation from the world and preserved from evil.
Nevertheless, the refusal of the world and the flesh will not be enough to
constitute our hearts “a garden enclosed.” The Lord desires that our hearts may
be sanctified, or set apart for His pleasure, by being occupied with the truth
and all that is according to Christ. Does not the apostle Paul set before the
Philippians “a garden enclosed”—a heart sanctified for the Lord—when he says,
“Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest [or noble],
whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report:if there be any virtue and if
there be any praise, think on these things” (Phil. 4:8)?

    If the heart is full of
cares, fretting over wrongs, and full of bitterness towards those who may have
acted badly towards us, if we are entertaining evil imaginations, malicious
thoughts, and vengeful feelings towards a brother, it is very certain our
hearts will be no garden for the Lord.

    If then we would have our
hearts freed from things that defile and turn the heart into a barren waste,
choking the garden with weeds, let us follow the instruction of the apostle
Paul when he tells us, “Be careful [or anxious] for nothing; but in everything
by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known
unto God” (Phil. 4:6). Having, like Hannah of old, poured out our hearts before
the Lord and unburdened our minds of all the cares, sorrows, and trials that were
pressing upon our spirits, we shall find that “the peace of God, that passes
all understanding, shall keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (verse
7). Thus set free from all that might come in between the soul and God, our
hearts will be at liberty to enjoy the things of Christ, and our minds free to
“think on these things”—these holy and pure things that should mark one whose
heart is “a garden enclosed.”

    A Watered Garden.
The heart that is set apart for the Lord will have its hidden source of
refreshment and joy. It will be a garden with “a spring shut up [and] a
fountain sealed” (Cant. 4:12). A spring is an unfailing supply; a fountain
rises up to its source. The prophet could say of one who walks according to the
mind of the LORD that his soul shall be “like a watered garden, and like a
spring of water, whose waters fail not” (Isa. 58:11). To the woman of Sychar
the Lord spoke of giving “a fountain of water springing up into everlasting
life,” to be “in” the believer. The world is entirely dependent upon surrounding
circumstances for its passing joy; the believer has a spring of joy within—the
hidden life lived in the power of the Holy Spirit.

    As the spring of life,
the Holy Spirit meets all our spiritual needs by guiding us into “all truth”;
as the fountain of life, He engages our hearts with Christ above. The Lord can
say, “The Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He shall testify of Me”
(John 15:26)—Christ in His new place in the glory. Thus as the Spring, He
refreshes our souls with the truth; as the Fountain springing up to its source,
He engages our hearts with Christ.

    Let us, however, remember
that the spring, which is the source of blessing, is “a spring shut up”
and the fountain is “a fountain sealed.” Does this not remind us that
the source of blessing in the believer is sealed to this world, and wholly
apart from the flesh? The Lord speaks of the Comforter as One whom “the world
cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him; but you know Him
for He dwells with you and shall be in you” (John 14:17). Again we read, “The
flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are
contrary the one to the other” (Gal. 5:17).

    Alas! we may mind the
things of the flesh and turn aside to the world, only to find we grieve the
Spirit so that our hearts, instead of being as a watered garden, become but a
dry and barren waste.

    A Fruitful Garden.
The “spring” and the “fountain” will turn the garden of the Lord into a
fruitful garden—“an orchard of pomegranates with precious fruits” (Cant. 4:13).
The ungrieved Spirit will produce in our hearts “the fruit of the Spirit”
which, the apostle tells us, “is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance [or self-control]” (Gal. 5:22,23). What,
indeed, are these precious fruits of the Spirit but the reproduction of the
character of Christ in the believer? The fountain, rising up to its source,
occupies with Christ and His excellencies; thus, beholding “the glory of the
Lord, [we] are changed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3:18).
Thus the heart becomes a garden of the Lord bearing precious fruit for the
delight of His heart.

    A Fragrant Garden.
Not only is the garden of the Lord a garden of precious fruits, but a garden of
spices from which sweet odors arise. In Scripture, fruit speaks of the excellencies
of Christ, but the spices, with their fragrance, speak of worship that has
Christ for its object. In worship there is no thought of receiving blessing
from Christ, but of bringing the homage of our hearts to Christ. When the wise
men from the East found themselves in the presence of “the young Child,” they
fell down and “worshiped Him,” and “presented unto Him gifts:gold and
frankincense and myrrh” (Matt. 2:11). When Mary anointed the feet of Jesus with
“a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly” (John 12:3), she was not, as on
other occasions, at His feet as a receiver to get instruction, or to find
sympathy in her sorrow; she was there as a giver to render the worship
of a heart filled with the sense of His blessedness. It was good to be at His
feet to hear His word, and, again, to be at His feet to receive comfort in
sorrow; but in neither case do we read of the ointment with its odor. But when
she was at His feet as a worshiper, with her precious ointment, we read, “The
whole house was filled with the odor of the ointment” (John 12:1-3).

    The Philippian saints in
their financial gift to the apostle may indeed have shown forth some of the
excellencies of Christ—His comfort of love and compassions—thus bringing forth
fruit that would abound to their account. In addition, there was in their gift
the spirit of sacrifice and worship which was as “an odor of a sweet smell, a
sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God” (Phil. 2:1; 4:17,18).

    In our day, if our hearts
are to be a garden of the Lord, let us not forget that the Lord not only looks
for the precious fruit of the Spirit, reproducing in us something of His lovely
traits, but also the spirit of worship that rises up to Him as a sweet odor.

    A Refreshing Garden.
Lastly, the Lord would have His garden to be a source of refreshment to the
world around—a garden from whence flow the “living waters.” Thus the Lord can
speak of the believer, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, as being a source of
blessing to a needy world, as He says, “Out of his belly shall flow rivers of
living water” (John 7:38,39).

    Thus we learn from the
Song of Solomon that the Lord would gladly possess our hearts as a garden of
delights for Himself. He stands at the door of our hearts and knocks, for He
desires to come in and dwell within our hearts. If we are slow to let Him in,
He may say, as the Bridegroom in the Song, “Awake, O north wind; and come you
south; blow upon My garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.” He may allow
adverse circumstances, trials and sorrows, in order to drive us to Himself, so
that we may say like the bride, “Let my Beloved come into His garden” (Cant.
4:16).

    If we open to Him we
shall experience the truth of His own words, “If any man hear My voice and open
the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Rev.
3:20). In like spirit, when the bride says, “Let my Beloved come into his
garden,” the Bridegroom at once responds, “I am come into My garden, My sister,
My spouse:I have gathered My myrrh with My spice; I have eaten My honeycomb
with My honey” (Cant. 5:1).

    Here is a summary of what
we have learned from this passage in the Song of Solomon:

    1. If the heart of the
believer is kept separate from the world, preserved from evil, and set apart
for the Lord, it will become like “a garden enclosed.”

    2. In that garden will be
found a spring of secret joy and refreshment that, like a fountain, rises to
its source.

    3. The fountain,
springing up to its source, will bring forth precious fruit, the excellencies
of Christ.

    4. The fruit that speaks
of the moral traits of Christ in the heart of the believer, will lead to
worship that rises up as a sweet odor to the heart of Christ.

    5. The heart that goes
out in worship to Christ will become a source of blessing to the world around.

    In the light of these
Scriptures we may well pray the prayer of the apostle Paul when he bows his
knees to the Father and asks “that He would grant you, according to the riches
of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man;
that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith” (Eph. 3:14-17).

  A correspondent, calling
attention to recent statements to the effect that the kingdom of God is wholly
future, and that there is no such thing as a kingdom of God on earth today,
that in fact it does not exist, asks how we are to understand the following
texts:

  “Philip preaching the things
concerning the kingdom of God” (Acts 8:12).

  “Paul … preaching the
kingdom of God, and teaching,” etc. (Acts 28:30,31).

  “Delivered us from the
power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son”
(Col. 1:13).

  “I, John … in the kingdom
and patience of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 1:9).

  “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost”
(Rom. 14:17).

  In the view of the kingdom
above mentioned this last verse is considered to have a future, not present,
application, and so indeed with all references to the kingdom. That also would
mean, I suppose, that even John 3 in which seeing and entering the kingdom are
spoken of must be of future application if there is no kingdom of God on earth today.

  This view evidently swings
to the opposite extreme from that which denies dispensational distinctions and
refuses to admit Israel’s future place and glory as God’s nation on earth in
the coming time of the kingdom during the Millennial age. This latter teaching
cannot be too firmly resisted, but we must guard against the other extreme
also, for this too will involve us in confusion and contradiction.

  If we think of the kingdom
of God in the future, as far as this world is concerned we think of the
manifestation of the power and glory of Christ as King, reigning over the
earth, Israel being restored, saved, and made first of the nations, as prophecy
abundantly declares. Then, too, there will be no other kingdom as there is now,
for Satan will be imprisoned, he and his hosts being cast out of the
heavenlies, so that there is an end to the rule and influence of those
“principalities,” “rulers of the darkness of this world,” and “spiritual
wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12). Against these we now struggle. Only at
the end of the Millennium Satan will be loosed for a brief final act of
rebellion.

  It is certain that the kingdom of God does not now exist on earth after this manner. Scripture leads us to
believe that two kingdoms exist today. The one that will not exist in that
future age is present in power today, and so also is the kingdom of God in a present form suited to the time. Both are of moral and spiritual character—that of
Satan is darkness, that of God, now and ever, light, for God is
light. Now men are passing from the former into the latter by the work of the
Holy Spirit through the Word. Thus are blind eyes opened to “see,” and those
who see “enter” the kingdom of God. They are turned “from darkness to light,
and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of
sins, and inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith that is in Me”
(Acts 26:18). Thus delivered from “the power [or authority] of darkness,” they
are “translated into the kingdom of His dear Son in whom we have redemption
through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins,” for in this way the Father
makes “us meet [or fit] to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in
light” (Col. 1:12-14). Such were once darkness, but thus they become light in
the Lord (Eph. 5:8). Those made fit by the Father to be partakers of the
inheritance of saints in light are already saints as sanctified in Christ
Jesus, and begin now to participate in their inheritance as a result of present
divine operation. They thus have a present as well as future “inheritance in
the kingdom of Christ and of God” (Eph. 5:5).

  Peter assures a richly
furnished entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, if there is diligence in doing the things spoken of (2 Pet. 1:4-11).
This has its bearing for the present and the future. For all such there is that
in the future as to the kingdom which they do not now possess except in hope,
but there is that which they have of that kingdom in the present which proves
its present existence. This is found in the things, in the first fruits, of the
Spirit, and it is summarized for us in Rom. 14:17.

  Paul’s words to the elders
of Ephesus are significant. He testified of repentance toward God and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ, and speaks of the ministry received of the Lord
Jesus to testify the glad tidings of the grace of God. He could affirm that he
had not failed to announce all the counsel of God. But in all this he had gone
about preaching the kingdom of God (Acts 20:21-27). These things then pertained
to it, and gave to those accepting such a ministry of grace present participation
in what that kingdom really meant, while as to outward conditions on the earth
they might be accounted sheep for the slaughter and endure present suffering
for the sake of the kingdom, since in the present we are found brethren and
fellow-partakers in the tribulation and kingdom and patience in Jesus (Rev. 1:9
JND).

  When Paul disputed and
persuaded as to the things concerning the kingdom of God (Acts 19:8), it could
hardly be exclusively what was future, and then as now non-existent, for it is
immediately mentioned that some did not believe and spoke evil of “that
way”—surely that way of present faith in Christ and the attendant blessings.

  In another place the
apostle speaks of those who were his fellow-workers for the kingdom of God (Col. 4:11).

  Again, Paul enumerates the
works of those who “shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:19-21). They
have no fitness to be partakers of the inheritance of saints in light. And then
he immediately says:“But the fruit of the Spirit,” etc. There are those in
whom that fruit is now produced. Thus they in the present inherit that kingdom,
for such live by the Spirit and walk in the Spirit. This cannot be apart from
righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit—the kingdom of God. This will still be true when the kingdom is manifested in glory on the earth; but
believers who have not the glory as yet produce the Spirit’s fruit, enjoy His
first fruits, and are partakers in those moral and spiritual features which
belong to God’s kingdom both now and forever, in present tribulation as in
future glory. Both aspects of truth have their place, neither can be set aside
without spiritual loss.

  Since mention is made in
the article, “Complaining,” of the expression, “What would Jesus do (WWJD)?”
and since a series of articles on “The Mind of Jesus” begins in this issue, I
would like to make some comments on WWJD. The WWJD question was popularized in
1896 by Charles Sheldon in his book, In His Steps. Both the slogan and
the book experienced a revival around the time of their 100th anniversary. WWJD
is an appealing slogan for true, born again Christians, provided that we obtain
our insights from the Scriptures. We are indeed instructed to “let this mind be
in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5).

  As a cautionary note,
however, it must be stated that Sheldon’s book itself is faulty in that the
slogan is presented to all people, without discriminating between true
believers and unbelievers or nominal Christians. Thus it easily lends itself to
a doctrine of salvation by works (in this case, by following the example of
Christ). The book nowhere states the Biblical truth that every man, woman, and
child is “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1) and needs to place their full
faith and trust in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross where He paid the
tremendous penalty for our sins. Only then can we have the power and true
motivation to follow in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus.

  I suggest that we be alert
to people sporting WWJD book bags, pens, camera straps, key chains, etc., and
seek to engage them in conversation about what the Lord Jesus means to them and
what is the basis for their hope of salvation. Alternatively, we should be
prepared to hand them a gospel tract, such as “The Matchless Pearl,” that
clearly contrasts the Biblical gospel of grace with man’s gospel of works. This
tract can be obtained from the editor or publisher of Words of Truth
(see addresses below). Another relevant gospel tract entitled “WWJD?” can be
obtained from the editor or from the American Tract Society.

    The love of Christ is a
deep that knows no fathoming. It passes knowledge, and telling too; but, thank
God, we can know it, and speak of it too, according to our capacity.

    But let it be understood
that we could never have merited this love. There was nothing in us but
defilement and alienation from God. Therefore, if we are the objects of such
love, it is wholly because it was in Him to love us. If we do love Him, it is
because we have known His love and have been begotten of God who has given us a
life and nature to love.

    There are three aspects
of the love of Christ according to Eph. 5:25-33. Let us ponder them for a
little. First, “Christ … loved the Church, and gave Himself for it.” At this
time the Church was all in the future, and its members were sunk in sin and
distance from God. Yet He loved the Church, and gave Himself for it.

    Looking through the glass
of God’s purpose, He saw where the Church was, and would possess Himself of
that Church, and would lift it up into union with Himself. But that was a
stupendous work which involved all the horrors of Calvary’s cross, of which the
sorrows of Gethsemane were but the dark foreshadowing.

    In Gethsemane He was in
communion with His Father; but on the cross, during those dreadful hours of
darkness, He was having to do with God about sin, and hence the bitter cry, “My
God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46).

    Did He love the Church?
would He redeem it? would He possess it for Himself? would He bring it into
eternal union with Himself? would He share His glory and kingdom with His
Church? Then all this must be endured. There was no other way. The deep waters
of the death of the cross must be passed through before all this could be brought
about. Who can tell the greatness and the eternal consequences of that work?
who can fathom the love expressed in it?

    Let it be written in gold
across the sky of eternity, “Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it”!

    But He is risen. The
glory of the Father claimed Him from the tomb. The One “crucified through
weakness … lives by the power of God” (2 Cor. 13:4), and as Victor has
ascended and set Himself down “on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb.
1:3). But has He forgotten His Church in all her toils, and needs, and
defilements, as she sojourns here in this land of her pilgrimage? Ah, no; that
could not be. What He endured for her on the cross forbids the thought that He
could ever forget her, or the least one that forms a part of her.

    Hence we have the second
aspect of the love of Christ to the Church:“That He might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the Word.” This is His present ministry of love
for His Church—He “nourishes and cherishes it.” His great work now is to
sanctify the Church which He has redeemed for Himself by His precious blood.
Down here she is in the midst of evil; contamination abounds on every hand. She
is in danger of association with the world, of allowing the flesh to act, of
Satan’s wiles, of doctrinal evils; thus there is need of His present ministry
as High Priest and Advocate. His great work is to sanctify the Church, to keep
it morally clean, to purify it from every pollution, so that it might enjoy its
privileges of communion and worship (Heb. 10:19-22) and fulfill its
responsibilities as His representative and witness in this world.

    This ministry of love
will go on all the while the Church is here. And what a ministry it is! It is
not a hard, righteous ministry, but what is set forth in John 13. Having loved
His own, He loves them unto the end. During supper He lays aside His garments
and takes a towel and girds Himself. He then pours water into a basin and
proceeds to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith
He was girded. How beautiful! Grace shines in every act of the blessed Lord in
this remarkable scene. It all speaks of what He is doing on high for His
wayworn and often defiled saints as they wend their way through a scene
altogether hostile to them. They are not of the world, therefore the world
hates them. Satan’s great object is to break up and blur every bit of testimony
for Christ. Hence his craft and subtlety to lead the people of God into unholy
associations, to allow the flesh, or tolerate evil doctrine—anything that will
bring in the sense of distance between their souls and God, that will becloud
their communion and darken their testimony. Alas, how often he succeeds!

    But the present ministry
of Christ’s love is to purify, to sanctify, to remove all such work of Satan by
the wholesome exercise and self-judgment of the saints, and the application of
the water of the Word. As in Peter’s case, so in the case of each one.
Restoration to God from failure is no parrot work; it goes down deep into the
depths of one’s moral being, as the sin is seen in the light of God’s holiness,
and especially in the light of that love that led the Saviour to that cross of
shame to put it away.

    But soon all this will be
changed, and the day will come of which it is written, “That He might present
it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such
thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Eph.5:27). This is the
third aspect of the love of Christ to the Church in this passage. As freed from
all the imperfections that characterize her now, how glorious the Church will
be in that day! There will be no sign of defilement or old age, but, holy and
without blemish, she will be suited to the eye and heart of her beloved Lord
and Saviour. Exceeding joy will fill His heart as she is presented before the
presence of His glory; and chastened joy will fill her heart as she finds
herself presented to Him who loved her even unto death. What thoughts of
gratitude and praise will fill her heart as she remembers what she once was,
what she is then, and all the fruit of His own love to her told out in such a
remarkable way!

    If the Lord’s present
ministry of love is to nourish and cherish the Church, what an example for us
in our dealings one with another! But, alas, how little we know how to lay
aside our garments, and in the instinct of holy love get down to wash one
another’s feet! The desire would fill our heart—if in communion with our
Lord—to remove from each other all that which clouds communion with God, brings
in the sense of distance, and hinders our fellowship with each other.

    If one of the members of
our own physical body gets hurt in any way, every other member in our body
seeks to nourish and cherish that member, and they rest not until it is restored
to health. So should it be with the members of the Church of God. To revive, to recover, to restore, to strengthen, should be the object before the mind,
and not to crush, and bruise, and dishearten. The look of love the Lord gave to
Peter, after he denied Him, broke his heart, and sent him out to weep bitterly.
It was a look of love.

    Oh for the ministry of
love among the saints of God! holy love surely, but love that seeks the
good and not the hurt, the uplifting and not the crushing of the fallen one;
that nourishes and cherishes according to the example of our blessed Lord.

    It is well to remember
that while everything else may fail, “Love never fails” (1 Cor. 13:8).

    (From Help and Food, Vol.
27.)

_________________________________________________________________

(FRAGMENT)

    Let us listen in on our
Lord’s high-priestly prayer where we are permitted to hear Him presenting us to
the Father, that in His absence from us we might be kept and sanctified:“And
now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee.
Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom Thou hast given me, that
they may be one, as We are…. Sanctify them through thy truth:thy Word is
truth” (John 17:11-17).

    Then He identifies us
with Himself before the Father, and we hear these wondrous words from the
Bridegroom of our hearts:“[THOU] HAST LOVED THEM, AS THOU HAST LOVED ME”
(verse 23).

    Oh, fellow-Christian! do
we truly believe this? Is it taking possession of our hearts? We sing, and
sometimes say to ourselves and to Him, “Wonder of wonders, Jesus loved me!” but
here our Bridegroom presents us before the Father in the same nearness of love
as He Himself enjoys with the Father. May it sanctify us to Himself to be as “a
chaste virgin” espoused to a loving, precious, glorious Bridegroom.

     (From Help and Food,
Vol. 40.)

A Healthy Tongue

  A word fitly spoken is like
apples of gold in pictures of silver (Prov. 25:11).

  The tongue of the wise is
health (Prov. 12:18).

  Pleasant words are as an
honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones (Prov. 16:24).

  A wholesome tongue is a
tree of life (Prov. 15:4).

A Wise Tongue

  The tongue of the wise uses
knowledge aright (Prov. 15:2).

  The lips of the wise
disperse knowledge (Prov. 15:7).

  A word spoken in due
season, how good is it! (Prov. 15:23).

  A soft answer turns away
wrath; but grievous words stir up anger (Prov. 15:1).

  If any man offend not in
word, the same is a perfect man (Jas. 3:2).

A Tongue of Few Words

  Let every man be swift to
hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath (Jas. 1:19).

  Whoso keeps his mouth and
his tongue keeps his soul from troubles (Prov. 21:23).

  He who keeps his mouth
keeps his life (Prov. 13:3).

  He who has knowledge spares
his words…. Even a fool, when he holds his peace, is counted wise; and he who
shuts his lips is esteemed a man of understanding (Prov. 17:27,28).

  If you have thought evil,
lay your hand upon your mouth (Prov. 30;32).

  God is in heaven, and you
upon earth; therefore let your words be few (Eccl. 5:2).

A Tongue of Many Words

  In the multitude of words
there wants not sin (Prov. 10:19).

  A fool also is full of
words (Eccl. 10:14).

  When you pray, use not vain
repetitions, as the heathen do; for they think that they shall be heard for
their much speaking (Matt. 6:7).

A Flattering Tongue

  Understanding shall keep
you … to deliver you from the … stranger who flatters with her words (Prov.
2:11,16).

  A flattering mouth works
ruin (Prov. 26:28).

  Meddle not with him who
flatters with his lips (Prov. 20:19).

  A man who flatters his
neighbor spreads a net for his feet (Prov. 29:5).

  The words of his mouth were
smoother than butter, but war was in his heart (Psa. 55:21).

  This people draws nigh unto
Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips; but their heart is far from
Me (Matt. 15:8).

  My little children, let us
not love in word … but in deed and in truth (1 John 3:18).

A Foolish Tongue

  A fool’s lips enter into
contention … his lips are the snare of his soul (Prov. 18:6,7).

  The lips of a fool will
swallow up himself (Eccl. 10:12).

  A fool utters all his mind;
but a wise man keeps it in till afterwards (Prov. 29:11).

A Lying Tongue

  The LORD hates … a lying
tongue,… a false witness that speaks lies (Prov. 6:16-19).

  The lip of truth shall be
established for ever; but a lying tongue is but for a moment (Prov. 12:19).

  A false witness shall not
be unpunished, and he who speaks lies shall perish (Prov. 19:9).

A Tongue of False Doctrine

  For there are many unruly
and vain talkers and deceivers (Tit. 1:10).

  By good works and fair
speeches [they] deceive he hearts of the simple (Rom. 16:18).

  Through covetousness shall
they with feigned words make merchandise of you (2 Pet. 2:3).

A Dangerous Tongue

  Death and life are in the
power of the tongue (Prov. 18:21).

  An ungodly man digs up
evil; and in his lips there is as a burning fire (Prov. 16:27).

  The tongue is a little
member, and boasts great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire
kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity:so is the tongue among
our members, that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of
nature; and it is set on fire of hell…. The tongue can no man tame; it is an
unruly evil, full of deadly poison (Jas. 3:5-8).

Warnings and Exhortations

  Every idle word that men
shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment (Matt.
12:36).

  If you bite and devour one
another, take heed that you be not consumed (Gal. 5:15).

  Let all bitterness, and
wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you (Eph.
4:31).

  Let your speech be alway
with grace, seasoned with salt (Col. 4:6).

  Put off all these:anger,
wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth (Col. 3:8).

  Speak not evil one of
another, brethren (Jas. 4:11).

  Speaking the truth in love,
[we] may grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ (Eph.
4:15).

Proper Uses of the Tongue

  My mouth shall praise Thee
with joyful lips (Psa. 63:5).

  It is a good thing to give
thanks unto the LORD (Psa. 92:1).

  With my mouth will I make
known Thy faithfulness to all generations (Psa. 89;1).

  I have not spoken of Myself
(John 12:49).

  If you shall confess with
your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God hats raised
Him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto
righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Rom. 10:9,10).

  Be ready always to give an
answer to every man who asks you a reason of the hope that is in your with
meekness and fear (1 Pet. 3:15).

    There is a principle that
crowns and governs and gives character to all others:it is love. This, in its
root, is the nature of God Himself, the source and perfection of every other
quality that adorns Christian life.

    The distinction between
love and brotherly love is of deep importance; the former is indeed, as we have
just said, the source whence the latter flows; but as this brotherly love
exists in mortal men, it may be mingled in its exercise with sentiments that
are merely human, with individual affection, with the effect of personal
attractions, or that of habit, or suitability in natural character. Nothing is
sweeter than brotherly affections; their maintenance is of the highest
importance in the assembly, but they may degenerate, as they may grow cool; and
if love, if God, does not hold the chief place, they may displace Him, set Him
aside, shut Him out.

    Divine love, which is the
very nature of God, directs, rules, and gives character to brotherly love;
otherwise it is that which pleases us—that is, our own heart—that governs us.
If divine love governs me, I love all my brethren; I love them because they
belong to Christ; there is no partiality. I shall have greater enjoyment in a
spiritual brother; but I shall occupy myself about my weak brother with a love
that rises above his weakness and has tender consideration for it. I shall
concern myself with my brother’s sin, from love to God, in order to restore my
brother, rebuking him if needful; nor, if divine love be in exercise, can
brotherly love, or its name, be associated with disobedience. In a word, God
will have His place in all my relationships. To exact brotherly love in such a
manner as to shut out the requirements of that which God is, and of His claims
upon us, is to shut out God in the most plausible way, in order to gratify our
hearts. Divine love, then, which acts according to the nature, character, and
will of God, is that which ought to direct and characterize our whole Christian
walk, and have authority over every movement of our hearts. Without this, all
that brotherly love can do is to substitute man for God. Divine love is the bond
of perfectness, for it is God, who is love, working in us and making Himself
the governing object of all that passes in the heart.

    “Wherefore I also, after
I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease
not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers” (Eph.
1:15,16). This is a very important word in judging of our love. We are all apt
to form a circle, even among the saints of God, to have those whom we prefer,
those who suit us best, whose thoughts, feelings, habits, are more or less the
same as our own, or, at least, are no great trial to us. But this is not love
to the saints. There is more love to ourselves in it than love to them.

    The flesh likes what is
agreeable to us, what does not cause us pain, what is, perhaps, a gratification
to the amiabilities of nature. All that may exist where there is really no
exercise of the new nature, no mighty power of the Spirit of God working in our
hearts. We have always to test our souls and ask how we stand in this. Is the
prominent motive and object of our hearts the Lord Jesus? Is it with Him and
for Him that we think of and feel toward all the saints?

    I fully admit that love
toward the saints cannot, and ought not, to take the same shape toward all. It
must be in the energy and intelligence of the Spirit, varied according to the
call upon love. While one ought to love even a person who is under discipline,
it would be a very great mistake to suppose that your love must be shown in the
same way as if he were not. You do not cease to love him; indeed you never are
in a position and spirit to exercise discipline with the Lord where there is
not love. There may be righteous hatred of the sin, but real love to the
person. It would be better to wait upon God if it be not so in our hearts, till
we can take it up in the spirit of divine grace. There must be, of course, a
dealing in righteousness; but even in dealing with one’s child there ought not
to be such a thing as chastening it in a passion. Anything that merely arises out
of a sudden impulse is not a feeling that glorifies God about evil. Therefore,
in cases of discipline there ought to be self-judgment, and great patience too,
unless it be something so flagrant that to hesitate about it would be culpable
weakness, or want of decision and jealousy for God; for there are some sins so
offensive to God and to man that they ought, if we are sensitive to His
holiness, to be met with grave energy on the very spot. God would have the
arena of the sin to be the scene of its judgment according to His will.

    But in ordinary cases the
same love would wait, and let time be given for the fault to be owned and
repented of. In nine cases out of ten, mistakes arise from precipitancy,
because we are apt to be jealous for our own reputation. O how little have we
realized that we are crucified and dead with Christ! If love unto all the
saints were working in our hearts, there would be less haste.

    (From Lectures on
Ephesians.)