Daily Bread  -  August, 2008

by Robert J. Wieland

The heavenly Father cares about those “desires of thine heart” that are buried deep therein. He put them there. And He never instills such “desires” into “thine heart” without planning to “give” them to you as soon as you are ready to realize them without becoming proud (Psalm 37:4). The first step is for you to know Who put them there, and that He is the One who “satisfies” them (145:16).

King David cherished such “desires” from his boyhood. While he tended his sheep he dreamed of castles in the air, fantasies if you please. He hardly dared voice them in actual prayer—his supreme secret dream that he could someday fight the battles of the Lord (be king of Israel?). He couldn’t dare to mention them to his family, for his older brothers had an inkling and despised him just as Joseph’s ten brothers despised him for his “dreams” (see 1 Sam. 17:28; Gen. 37:8). David, unashamed to bare his soul in his psalms, wrote about those secret “desires of [his] heart.”

Have you dared to voice those “desires of thine heart” in actual prayer to your heavenly Father? Or are you ashamed to admit that you have them? Or do you think they are too trivial to bring to His attention? The Savior is sympathetic; you can voice “desires” to Him that you can’t admit to anyone else. He says, “Ask, and it shall be given you” (Matt. 7:7). That’s why He insists that true prayer must be a secret thing between you and your heavenly Father (6:6). Such a secret with God can begin in your childhood; tell Him those hidden “desires,” without shame. He won’t despise you if you voice them in actual words of prayer!

David, your prototype, had to wait and wait and wait “patiently” for the Lord to give him those “desires” (Psalm 40:1)—years and decades, in fact. He offered his “secret” prayers, and finally the “Father which seeth in secret [rewarded] him openly.” Finish reading that psalm! It will link you to the secret heart of Jesus Himself.

The current issue of the magazine Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR) has a fascinating article about good King Hezekiah and his tunnel he dug beneath Jerusalem in order to bring water to his people during siege; and also to deprive cruel Sennacherib and the Assyrians from having it for their invasion (see 2 Chron. 32; 2 Kings 18 and 19).

King Hezekiah had faith and he prayed that the Lord God would protect Jerusalem and his kingdom from these cruel, pagan invaders. But he did more than pray and trust the Lord; he went to work.

What the good king did is a lesson for us regarding faith and works, or better still, regarding faith which works; see Galatians 5:6, Greek.

King Hezekiah’s faith in the Lord energized him [that’s the right word to use—genuine faith “energizes” the believer to work, Gal. 5:6, Greek]. The so-called “faith” that does not “energize” the believer to obedience to all of God’s holy law, is a counterfeit.

What a massive undertaking Hezekiah’s was! To build a tunnel underneath the city; and the BAR article discusses how the two teams who were picking away with their pickaxes, from opposite sides, cutting through the rock, were able to meet successfully. The answer: acoustics. People up on top (if the rock was not more than 30 or 40 feet deep) could tap out messages that the diggers down below could hear.

The fascinating article re-directs our attention to this good king’s lesson for us: believe in the Lord with all your heart, trust Him; but also go to work!

What Solomon says sounds almost like a put-down for youth: “Rejoice, O young man [and of course, young woman], in the days of thy youth; and let thine heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will being thee into judgement” (Eccl. 11:9). In other words, enjoy yourself in your pride, but—judgment is coming. The GNB renders it, “enjoy your youth ... ; do what you want to do.”

Youth is when we make decisions that last for all our lives, even for eternity. There’s many an old man, feeble long before his age, in a nursing home, who was a great star in his “rejoicing” youth. He did what he “wanted to do.” The thought of judgment didn’t cross his mind.

And there are many old women in the same places, shriveled in body and in spirit (the last is what’s important!) who were beauty queens in their youth. They did what they “wanted to do.” They also never thought they would ever get old.

And we’re all the same: proud of what God gave us, which somebody else doesn’t have. We strut about, displaying ourselves. (“All” of course means both sexes, equally.) Is there a remedy?

Youth are just as ready to believe the only remedy, if only they can learn what it is. Isaac Watts summed it up nicely: “When I survey the wondrous cross / On which the Prince of glory died, / My richest gain I count but loss, / And pour contempt on all my pride.” Is it possible that YOUTH can do that?

God Himself would never humiliate anyone before others. Our natural human pride (which all of us inherit) has its own way of turning what we cherish into ashes. Blessed beyond measure is the youth, boy or girl, who has been privileged to SEE what happened on that cross.

Sometimes divorce occurs in our sin-cursed world, and somebody is hurt deeply. When one is disappointed thus in love, the wound is profound and lasting—sometimes for an entire life.

Does Jesus care? Does the Holy Spirit, who is infinite, notice the loss? He sees when a little bird falls to the forest floor and He cares (Matt. 10:29, 30).

Yes, the Lord cares about the pain that the denial of love can bring. The loss due to death is grievous, but the pain that comes when a loved one turns on you in bitterness and hatred is even more painful to endure.

But there is no earthly pain that the “much more abounding grace” of the Lord Jesus (see Romans 5:20) does not relieve with everlasting comfort.

The Lord has not promised us that we will never have such pain to endure, but He has promised that He will substitute for it the goodness of His personal presence, in deep soul comfort. And no earthly fellowship is so soul enriching; for the One who is both your Creator and your Redeemer knows every single and intensely personal aspect or your individual soul.

That is what Psalm 139 has been telling us all along:

“Thou understandest my thought afar off ... and art acquainted with all my ways. ... If I take the wings of the morning, ... even there shall Thy hand lead me. ... Even the night shall be light about me.”

Divine love like that (agape) you can’t run away from!

“How precious also are [His] thoughts unto [all of us], O God! ... When I awake, I am still with Thee. ... Search me, O God, ... try me, ... and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Amen and amen!

When the Lord had on earth a race of men in rebellion against Him, what did He do? Destroy them? Wipe them out?

No, He forgave them!

The great universe had never seen anything like it—God forgives His enemies!

A “committee” would have advised Him not to do it; and yes, the human race is still in rebellion against Him by and large, but not completely: for the sake of those few who have repented, God is happy that there are some who respond to His self-sacrificing love.

He does not want His everlasting kingdom to be founded on the principle of fear—that would be Old Covenant; the New Covenant is founded on the principle of agape. That’s the love that actually loves bad people; it is not dependent on their goodness, but agape creates goodness in the people whom it loves.

And therein is a message of powerful Good News: if you know that you are a sinner (and that’s what we all are!), stand in the light of that agape, let the sunshine of God’s strange kind of love bathe you and enfold you; let yourself be loved by the One who gave Himself for you and actually died for you your second death. That’s what John the Baptist meant when he cried out, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:30).

Kneel on your knees and let the blessed truth sink in: the Father in heaven loves me; He is so infinite that He sees when a little bird falls on the forest floor but more than that, He cares about it—and I know He sees me and He cares about me, every little thing in my life.

The Lord Jesus has given you the inexpressibly wonderful privilege of thinking of Him, and calling upon Him, as your heavenly Father. Thanks to Jesus Christ, you walk into His holy presence as His favorite child, past all the holy angels who stand back to let you pass.

The Bible does not say that agape is one aspect of the character of God: it says that “GOD IS AGAPE” (1 John 4:8).

How happy He is when He sees that agape becomes the character of His children on earth!

There are 144,000 of them scattered around the earth in every language and culture and nation—not a literal number (I hope!) but a symbolic number of people who have chosen to “follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth” (Rev. 14:1-5).

They listen for His “voice” to tell them what to do and where to go and what to say. That listening takes time, more than the minute or two that many of us spend “in prayer” after which we jump up and go forth to do our own bidding.

These people all around the world do more than tell the Lord “I love You!” They are inspired by His love, to love their neighbor as themselves, with agape. They keep themselves conscious of that agape of Christ:

When He died for us on His cross, it wasn’t a mere going to sleep for a weekend. (Any human who suffers the physical agony of crucifixion would love to go to sleep for a weekend! Doubtless that’s what the two thieves crucified with Him did.)

No, the divine Son of God suffered the hiding of His Father’s face so that He truly felt in His deepest soul that the Father had “forsaken” Him. There is no pain or horror in the universe as great as that!

Such love (agape) never goes without a response from the ones who are so loved; either (1) they despise it and thus crucify Christ “afresh,” or (2) they let that agape motivate them, propel them, move them, “constrain” them to live “henceforth” only unto Him who so died for them (2 Cor. 5:14, 15, KJV).

The Lord Jesus Christ is generous in His thanks and even generous in His praise to those who have wanted to serve Him, but have felt very unworthy.

To some He says with great enthusiasm, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

But they are surprised; they turn around to see if He is not talking past them to other people behind them; they themselves feel very unworthy of such genuine thanks and praise. He responds, No, it’s you I mean.

They remonstrate with Him, “When saw we Thee an hungered, and fed Thee? Or thirsty and gave Thee drink? When saw we Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? or naked, and clothed Thee? Or when saw we Thee sick or in prison, and visited Thee?” There must be some mistake here; we are not worthy!

Then they hear the sweetest words anyone can ever hear from the lips of the world’s Savior, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me” (Matt. 25:35-40).

The generosity of the Lord Jesus shines brightly through all eternity. He speaks to us a positive word through a double negative: “God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love (yes, the word is agape, not phileo), which ye have shewed toward His name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister” (Heb. 6:10).

He remembers every effort you have made to reflect His agape to others, weak and tremulous as it may be. That double negative is His assurance to you that He welcomes you as His co-laborer with Himself in His work for the world.

When we have done or said something bad, the Father doesn’t stop us on the sidewalk and berate us and beat us in punishment!

Because of what Jesus Christ accomplished for the world (not just offered us! but gave us!), the Father is free to treat “every man” as though he has not sinned! What a blessing!

Why is that?

In order to keep the universe free and balanced, every sin must be compensated for by punishment.   “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23).

But the Son of God chose to become one of us, to take upon Himself our fallen sinful nature, and to accept Himself the full punishment for every one of our sins.

The first Adam sinned in Eden and then passed on to all of us a sinful nature with a judicial sentence of punishment. Even the world’s oldest man, Habib Miyan, 138, who died in India a few days ago, could not escape the long reach of Adam’s judicial sentence of condemnation.

But note, that is only a “judicial sentence of condemnation”; if the actual condemnation itself were passed on to us, none of us could live even a day.

But what the Lord Jesus has given the world is another probation, another opportunity to listen and to repent.

If sometimes the Holy Spirit reminds you that your time of probation may be nearing its end, be thankful and listen. We hear often how sudden death has struck this one or that one; King Ahab is an example of what we can do:

The record says of his end: “The word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before Me? ... “ The wicked king received mercy from the Lord’s abundant supply of grace (read 1 Kings 21:28, 29).

Hebrews chapter one is devoted to honoring and praising Christ as the divine Son of God.

And not only because of His high position and His infinite power, but because of what and who He is: He IS agape, a new and different kind of love that the great unfallen universe had never before seen demonstrated.

The great rebel, Satan, had arisen with his new invention of sin; Satan challenged God for the right to rule the great universe. One third of all the holy angels chose to renounce their holiness and to join Lucifer, Satan, in his rebellion against God (Rev. 12:7-9).

The Father entrusted to His Son Jesus the task of conquering this great rebellion.

In order to win this gigantic battle, Jesus must humble Himself and become one of us, because this terrible thing called “sin” had taken up abode in human flesh—it was sin’s last lair—and that was where the Son of God must come to meet the problem and conquer sin (those who want to insist that Jesus took only sinless human nature in His incarnation have not considered this necessity).

The battle Jesus fought was gigantic; He must become one of us and crush and defeat sin in our sinful human flesh. Has Jesus saved the world? The Father sent Him down here to do just that and the Samaritans confessed that He is “the Savior of the world” (John 4:42). They were right; that’s what He is.

But most of the world do not yet recognize Him; the time may never come when “most” of the world do recognize Him, BUT there is something wonderful yet to come:

The light of that great “another angel” of Revelation 18:1-4 must lighten the earth with glory, when multitudes who now sit in darkness will awaken and “see a great light”(cf. Isa. 9:2). This will be New Covenant truth!

If there is anyone out there in the wide world who reads these little messages whose heart yearns for forgiveness, let Psalm 130 encourage you: “Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord. ... Let Thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.” This was written especially for you!

The Bible becomes a living Book when you take it as His personal message to you. Be simple-minded, be naive if you please, but do believe it! Contact with Him is a life-or-death issue; you MUST believe that He hears someone crying from the “depths.” YOU wrote this Psalm!

“If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord,” if You chalk them all up against us, “who shall stand?” Even David the king (to say nothing of Bathsheba) will lose his soul unless You forgive! “But there is forgiveness with Thee.” But you, little you, will never appreciate it unless you have cried from those “depths.” And if you never have been there, it’s sadly possible that you have never received forgiveness, much as the dear Lord has been waiting to give it. Every human being in the world for all time has been born with a sinful nature, and “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,” including all the saints in the Bible. That means—they have ALL “out of the depths” cried out for forgiveness. And received it—in humbled, melted, thankful hearts.

And that’s why God has freely given it to such, because verse 4 says that this “forgiveness” is “that Thou mayest be feared.” What is the purpose behind His “forgiveness”? That we may learn who He is, that we might learn (out of our spiritual arrogance, which is natural for us all) to reverence the One who has gone to hell, died our second death, in order to save us eternally. “Feared” doesn’t mean be scared of Him; it means your shriveled up selfish heart becomes “enlarged” to where you can appreciate “the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love (agape) of Christ” (Psalm 119:32; Eph. 3:18, 19).

Such forgiveness is no skin-deep rejoicing for a ticket fixed at God’s traffic court; true forgiveness is no light matter. It puts you side by side with the repentant thief who was crucified with Christ. You must get there before you hear those words, “Thou shalt be with Me in paradise.” It’s not a works trip; it’s a faith trip. You are forgiven not because you believed; you are forgiven so you can learn what it means to believe.

We are grateful that skilled scientific observation enables medical doctors to understand how certain medicines work to bring healing in the body. Now, does the Bible help us understand how certain truths can bring healing from sin? It’s not magic; truth in Christ itself saves.

For example, there is a little phrase in Paul’s Letter to the Galatians that opens a door into a room filled with light: “the hearing of faith” (3:2, 5). These people were worldly, hard to reach, materialistic, probably given to sensuality; they were Gentiles. But Paul’s ministry had captured their attention, and their conversion was phenomenal. They gladly suffered persecution for their faith; their heart gratitude to Paul was so great that he says they would gladly have torn out their eyes to give to him if they could (4:14, 15).

What sort of truth-presentation accomplished this wonder? In 3:1 Paul lets us catch a glimpse of it: the Holy Spirit enabled him to tell the story of the cross so vividly that the people forgot who they were or where they were—they saw Christ “set forth” so graphically that He was “crucified in their midst.”

It’s their response that is captured in that little-known phrase: the simple “hearing of faith.” Paul asks, Did you experience this by legalism (“works of law”), or by simple listening with heart-appreciation? (This is important for us to understand because the light that will “lighten the earth with glory” will be the same spiritual phenomenon.)

That word “hearing” is the simple Greek word from which we derive our word “acoustic.” When it is combined with the prefix “hupo” (which means “under”) we have “hupakoe,” which is the Greek word for “obey” or “obedience.” True obedience is not produced by any egocentric concern, whether fear of being lost or hope of reward!

And now we have the secret unraveled: this elusive “obedience” that we have spent decades, yes, more than a century, seeking, is produced by “listening” to the truth of what happened on the cross. But it must be graphically portrayed.

Preachers, if you find the people not listening, don’t necessarily blame them. Maybe you should repent of feeling “rich and increased with goods,” and humbly beg for some healthy “hunger and thirst after righteousness” (which of course is only “by faith”).

When the Father “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,” He gave Him to the world—not just to the good people that are in the world. When Jesus was with us on earth, He was famous for something special: “This Man receiveth sinners!” (Luke 15:2).

He still does. When the dear Holy Spirit (He loves you too, for He is a Person!) convicts you of sin, it is because He loves you and wants you to separate yourself from the sin, so you can be happy living forever in God’s eternal kingdom.

True Bible forgiveness is far more than a mere nod of the head, a superficial “pardon” so you can go and do it again and then come back again and be pardoned again, on and on ad infinitum; that’s the widely prevalent view of purgatory—a place where after you die you can be “purged” of your sins (that’s what the word means!).

The purging of sin cannot take place after death; it must be while we are still conscious and in charge of our soul’s destiny.

There is something precious that the Lord Jesus Christ has given (not merely offered!) every human soul on earth—the gift of the power of choice. This God has given to men “in Christ.”

You can say NO! to temptation—a big “NO!” in big black letters, the bigger and blacker the better, and the bigger the exclamation point the better. Your will power may be very weak; you may have abused it—but the power of choice the dear Lord has still given you.

And when your choice is in harmony with the choice of Jesus Christ for you, that is, the two of you are in agreement in that choice, all the devils in hell will be helpless to move you, to change you, to defeat you; your own personal will in harmony with the will of Christ—ah, there’s a powerful union that is utterly impregnable in this world and in the universe of God.

Forever.

It was the greatest miscarriage of justice in all our 6000+ years of history: the Son of God came to this earth to save us, He became one of us, He became the second Adam (the first had brought a judicial curse upon us), and Jesus as the second Adam brought a judicial blessing and judicial acquittal upon everybody instead.

And yet “we” corporately turned upon Him and hated Him and expelled Him from the world by killing Him.

It was the acting out of the truth in Romans 8:7 which says that “the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”

None of us can proudly say, “If I had been there, I would not have joined in doing that to Him!” Our “carnal mind” is our universal possession. We each one need a “new mind.”

Philippians 2 can enlighten us: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus”(vs. 5). We can have a new mind if we only consent for it to be given us! If we want it!

But we can’t pick and choose and end up saying we want only 10% of it (in order to impress people around us). We must take the entire gift:

“Took upon Him the form of a servant [slave]” (vs. 7). Not one of the twelve disciples humbled his soul enough to get down on his knees and wash the Savior’s feet (John 13). Some one might have been willing to do it if no one had seen him do it—but the humiliation before the crowd was too much for their proud hearts.

But “His mind” chose to wash the disciples’ feet.

Let’s keep asking Him over and over again to give us that “mind.” As surely as a new day has come today, we will be confronted with the practical choice in some way to “receive” that “mind” today. Let’s say “Yes!”

When my beloved Grace and I were young and carefree, we said our solemn marriage vows to be true to each other “until death do us part;” but neither of us in our naiveté had the slightest idea that death would really ever come.

But thanks to our fallen father Adam, it did. Now it leaves one of us left, alone.

But I thank God as never before for the institution of marriage, for the authority of “law” that underlay our 66 years together.

Were we a perfect couple? Neither of us was a perfect person (perfect people belong in heaven, not on this earth); emotions are a flimsy foundation on which to build a marriage. Had it not been for the blessed “law” that gripped us and bound us together “in Christ” and held us firmly, no one knows what might have blown us apart somewhere along our tumultuous, earth-quake -driven way; and then enormous happiness would have eluded us.

I say to young people, get married! Be careful of course, seek the Lord’s guidance; but let “law,” not emotions or fleeting passion, underlie your union. And as a solid gift worth more than silver or gold, let me “give” you Genesis 24—the seven-step story of how to build (or better, receive) happiness in marriage. Open your Bible to it and let it sink in:

(1) Vss. 3-6: Marry only a believer in the Lord. Vss. 7-8: The same angel will guide you! Ask the Lord for him! Vss. 10-14: Watch for evidence of kindness, grace, and generosity in the one you are thinking of. Rebekeh, in sheer kindness of hospitality, drew water for ten camels not knowing who this stranger was (that’s 30/40 gallons a camel).

(2) Vss. 11-14: Believe that the Lord God has “appointed” one to be yours for life. He will never force you to marry this one or that; but He will guide you to the one who will give you happiness forever.

(3) Vss. 15-20: Watch for those signs of unselfishness and human kindness.

(4) Vs. 21: “Hold your peace,” that is, go slow, don’t rush; take your time, let the Lord lead.

(5) Vss. 50, 51: The in-laws recognize the Lord’s leading, and happiness is the result.

(6) Vs. 58: The Lord Himself has given the woman the last word! Never, never, will He force one to marry whom she cannot love and trust.

(7) Vs. 67: Look and see: here is the happiest marriage recorded in the Bible—the marriage of Isaac and Rebekeh!

Blessed are you if you can let some of that happiness become yours!

During His life on earth, Jesus prayed—continually. And He prayed for people individually.

Consider Peter, for example: “Simon, ... I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not” (Luke 22:31, 32). And it is good that Jesus prayed for him, because Peter came within a millimeter of losing out completely when he denied three times that he even knew Jesus. He was so heartbroken at what he had done that he even wished he could die. Such terrible grief or self-reproach has caused some people to take their own life. When in his agony Peter remembered that Jesus had said, “I have prayed for you,” he had a slender thread of hope left, which in his repentance, he grasped.

But now a question: did Jesus pray the same prayer for Judas Iscariot? When Jesus prayed, the Father heard His prayers; and the angels were ready to do what Jesus asked. But I find nothing in the inspired record that says clearly that Jesus prayed that same prayer for Judas, that “[his] faith fail not” in the hour of trial. For one thing, at the time Jesus prayed for Peter, Judas had no faith to be prayed for! According to Romans 12:3, God had already given Judas (along with “every man”) a “measure of faith.”

But like Esau who had “despised” and “sold” the birthright which God had given him, Judas had by this time scorned all genuine faith that he once had had. He had resisted every effort of the Holy Spirit to bring him to repentance. He had refused to confess and forsake (and repay) his thieving from “the bag” which he carried as treasurer for Jesus and the disciples (see John12:6; he had probably often deprived Jesus of a meal when He was hungry!). He had refused that appeal of the Holy Spirit when Mary had washed Jesus’ feet with her tears, and that last one when Jesus washed his feet. He had allowed selfish pride to bind his heart to Satan. Thus there was no “faith” left that Jesus could have prayed for.

Jesus’ prayers to His Father were powerful, but there is one thing that the “Almighty” cannot do—He cannot force a single human heart. Jesus’ relation with each of us is as close and tender and intimate as His with Judas; let’s be very thankful today that He is still praying for us that “[our] faith fail not” when our final test comes.

Grab every slender thread of hope you have.

Someone has wisely observed that young David in relation to King Saul (who hated him and wanted to kill him) was loyal to the government of Israel, but that does not mean that the government of Israel needed a “king” other than the Lord Himself.

The prophet Samuel anointed Saul to be the king not because that was God’s will for Israel, but because the people wanted to be like the surrounding nations, and He let them have what they wanted.

The lesson we need to learn from this history is the importance of loyalty to the organized church that the Lord in His infinite wisdom has raised up.

The prophecy of Revelation 12:17 is clear: the Lord has a “remnant” church which He sustains in a world of apostasy and “Babylon” devotion. The witness is given.

And 18:1-4 tells of a message that will swell to a loud cry that will “lighten the earth with glory.” The call to “come out of Babylon” will sound so clearly and powerfully that multitudes who have been held back by family, friends, or even jobs, will respond:

“The message will be carried not so much by argument as by the deep conviction of the [Holy] Spirit of God. ... Many whose minds were impressed have been prevented from fully comprehending the truth or from yielding obedience. Now the rays of light penetrate everywhere, the truth is seen in its clearness, and the honest children of God sever the bands which have held them. Family connections, church relations, are powerless to stay them now. Truth is more precious than all besides. Notwithstanding the agencies combined against the truth, a large number take their stand upon the Lord’s side” (GC 612).

That time has not yet come; we are still living this side of it. The second coming of Jesus is the next great event for planet earth; but just before His return, this message must go to all the world for it would not be fair for Jesus to come in glory and power unless every soul on earth has been given the full opportunity to see the truth and to choose to be loyal to it.

Let’s not wait until then to take our stand! Let’s do so today!

The story of David and King Saul in the Bible is an encouragement to all who feel themselves unjustly opposed or even persecuted for their conscientious beliefs they hold in all honesty, but who find themselves opposed.

David was loyal to the principles of “church organization” in that he knew that Israel as a nation must have a government, and (in those days) a government must have a king.

David knew that the prophet Samuel had anointed Saul to be Israel’s king, apparently with the approval and guidance of the Lord. David humbled himself to believe this even though King Saul wanted to murder him! “Saul became David’s enemy continually” (1 Sam. 18:29).

It was a very severe test for young David who was either still in his teens or just out. But David humbled himself to what he knew was Reality. David is a perfect example for those who today feel persecuted by supposed “servants of God.”

On one occasion David as a fugitive happened to be hiding in a cave when who should come in to relieve himself as in a bathroom, but the great King Saul himself! David’s friends who were hiding with him back in the shadows urged him to seize this opportunity that God had apparently given him, and kill his enemy; but David refused to lift his hand against “the Lord’s anointed” (1 Sam 24:1-6). So loyal was David to the principles of “church organization”!

Those who face unjust opposition and even persecution in seeking to do what God says will not be forsaken by the Lord. He will permit them to be tried, even severely so, for the Lord permitted David to have every excuse to believe that the Lord would indeed forsake him (if David wanted to be unbelieving); but David held on to his faith in the Lord.

Here is the Lord’s solemn promise to those who serve Him faithfully today, even in the face of severe opposition and persecution: “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb. 13:5).

My dear Grace used to ask me about what Jesus said in Matthew 22:30, where we read that in the earth made new “in the resurrection, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” Will we not be together then? she would ask. (Can you imagine! She wanted to be with me forever! Oh joy!)

Well, for sure, I would tell her, we remember that “God IS love [agape]” (1 John 4:8). He cannot force two people who have no conjugal love for each other to have to endure each other forever! That’s one side of the story; but I would tell Grace that yes, the dear Lord will give us what we want, that’s the other side.

I would tell her that I cannot imagine that the Lord who IS agape would not let us be together if that’s what we both want! She was of humble birth and so was I; and both of us were just unworthy ones; but the Lord can give us a humble cabin somewhere in His glorious earth made new where we can be together as we want to be. (But frankly, I have wondered: when she is glorified, will she even look at me?) ...

Here’s what the word says:

“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things that God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (1 Cor. 2:9, 10).

There is a reward that will be given with Christ’s boundless grace to those who want it at last; but let us not fix our eyes on the reward to come, but may that love (agape) of Christ here and now always “constrain” us to live for Him, and not for self.

Those in our “Dial Daily Bread” family know that some short time ago I lost my beloved Grace, who had given me 66 years of happy married love.

The dear Lord was good to us both; her “father’s house” was “least in Israel,” and so was my “father’s house.” The Lord just brought the two of us lowly ones together; at the risk of being too personal, I will simply state the truth that when we came together in marriage, we were both “innocent” “babes in the wood.” We were both virgins (I am not suggesting that this gives us any merit whatever); we had no poisoned memories to intrude into our simple innocent happiness, neither of us was afraid to face any human being in the whole world anywhere. “Blessed is the man [or woman] unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity” (Psalm 32:2; the word “blessed” means “happy”).

We took each other as a gift from the Lord; and indeed, the book Ministry of Healing tells us that “Love is a precious gift which we receive from Jesus” (that’s conjugal love). It’s a gift from Him, and it is most impolite for anyone to seize from any giver (especially a Divine One) a gift he/she wanted to give but had not yet given; that’s what fornication is—it is seizing or grabbing something the Lord would like to give you as recognized as a gift from Him, but grabbing it out of His hand without His permission.

It is telling the Lord, “I don’t need You to guide me; let me alone to have my own way without You!”

The motivation to which I appeal in this brief message is not that of fear; that’s Old Covenant thinking. But the motivation to which I appeal is that of grateful love and thanks to “the Savior of the world” (John 4:42), whose suffering underlies all your joy and pleasure. That’s “New Covenant.”

Several have been interested in our recent mention of “the second death,” and have written with questions. It is indeed a topic of intense interest.

Maybe we can summarize what we find in the Bible about it:

(a) Whatever death that Jesus died on His cross, it was the death that He saved us from having to die. “Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor. 15:3). What kind of death did He die? That will answer our question.

(b) What kind of death is “the wages of sin” of Romans 6:23? That was the death that He died for us.

(c) That death He died on the cross could not have been the mere sleep for a weekend (He died about 3 p.m. Friday, then arose early Sunday morning). The death of the cross was terribly painful, and Jesus felt it all to the full; but that pain was not all that He suffered on that cross!

(d) What He felt to the full was “the curse of God” that Moses had said everyone will experience who dies on a tree (please read Deuteronomy 21:21-23). Moses said that only as a prophecy of Christ; ordinary people who died on a tree could of course repent if they chose.

(e) When Jesus on His cross cried out, screamed out, “My God! Why have You forsaken Me?” He was experiencing to the full that “forsakenness” curse of God that should have been ours. No other human in all history has ever died that kind of curse-laden death! Even the most terrible sinner has always had some light, some hope of forgiveness and salvation—like the repentant thief who asked Jesus “Remember me!”

(f) The “breadth, and length, and depth, and height [of the love] of Christ” is infinite in its dimensions (cf. Eph. 3:18, 19).

(g) Just so were the dimensions of the death that Jesus died on His cross.

(h) He “was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of ... that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man” (Heb. 2:9).

(i) “The death of every man” is not a quiet restful sleep for a weekend!

(j) Peter said that when Christ died on that cross, He went all the way to hell: speaking of Jesus, he said, “Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell” (Acts 2:26, 27). God couldn’t do that! Jesus was totally innocent of sin!

The Father gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask for Him and who will welcome Him when He comes.

But let us remember: His first work when He comes will be to “convict [us] of sin” (John 16:8).

Is that painful to us?

It may be, but if so, it is a salvation pain. The old Irish poet used to pray that God would enable Him to see himself “as ithirs see me.”

But the dear Lord in His great love for us goes a step further than Robert Burns was ready to go: He will show us ourselves as God and the heavenly unfallen host see us.

That is “salvation pain.”

Some day it will be reality for every human soul, even for those who at last choose to be lost:

In Revelation 20 we read of the great “second resurrection” when those who have chosen to be lost are resurrected to gather around the Great White Throne when “the books [are] opened]” (vss .11, 12).

That is symbolic but very real language to describe the moment of final self-judgment when every person will see himself not only as others have seen him, but as God sees him.

The lost will not be thrown into the “lake of fire” screaming in protest; a very wise writer declared that they will “welcome destruction” that they might be hidden from the face of the Saviour who died their second death for them.

Thank God for His great mercy in showing us now today what those “books of record” have to say; it’s not too late today for us to repent and rejoice forevermore in God’s forgiveness. That is glorious Good News!

You want to do what is right. You want to keep God’s commandments, and be worthy of everlasting life.

And all that is very good.

But what is your motivation? Why do you want to do everything right? Is it so you can have eternal life in God’s kingdom?

If so, that is of course a good motivation. But could there be just a smidgeon or a whiff of selfishness in it?

When I was in Africa, once I asked the young people, what would you do if some angel were to come and tell us that the New Jerusalem has been bombed, that there is no reward for following Jesus, would you give up and go to the world and follow worldly ways?

We may all be tested on that score some day; Satan may be able to make it appear that there is no reward for following Christ and for keeping His commandments.

There is a better motivation: a heart appreciation for His love that was demonstrated at the cross.

Paul understood: “The love of Christ constraineth us ... ” We talk about restrain, which means hold back; but “constrain” means push forward, maybe even against your will. The idea:  Jesus gave (did not lend) Himself for us; if He died for “all” (2 Cor. 5:14, 15), “we thus judge, that if One died for all, then all died,” or all would be dead if He hadn’t died for us. You live because One died in your place, love (agape) now motivates you; you don’t really belong to yourself; you cannot withhold anything you have from Him, because you would have nothing except a lonely, eternal grave if He had not taken that grave from you and given you His life instead! Therefore: it’s easy to be saved and hard to be lost if you understand and believe this truth!

It’s there in the Bible so clear and straightforward, but the story seems so fantastic; we must take another look at it:

It’s the almost unbelievable promises that the Lord makes to the lowly class of people in Israel that everybody despised: they were the “outcasts of Israel”— the eunuchs.

In those days, the only “future” you had was your future in your offspring; read Genesis through Deuteronomy—talk of a life beyond death was not prominent.

“Immortality” had to be “brought to light ... through the gospel” (2 Tim. 1:10).

And that’s where the poor, despised eunuchs come into the picture: they had no future for they could have no offspring. This life was it, for them.

But the dear Lord, the God of Israel, singled them out to be given the most glorious promises any group of people have ever been given; but there is a stipulation for the eunuch:

(a) The eunuch who believes the gospel and comes to the Lord must never run himself down: Isa. 56:3—“neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.” When you look at the peach and apple trees flourishing, don’t bewail your fruitless status.

(b) Why? The Lord gives the eunuchs the most wonderful promises ever —“Even unto them will I give in Mine house and within My walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off ... and make them joyful in My house of prayer” (vss. 5-7). You can’t imagine a “place” more glorious than “better-than-of-sons-and-daughters”!

If all you can see in your life is failure, don’t say it out loud to anybody except the Lord Himself, and that in private prayer in your “closet” after you have “shut thy door” (see Matt. 6:6)! Your job is not to be your own judge; He has better news for you than your own ideas.

She was just a homeless child of five when her path crossed mine briefly, only enough for her to call me “grandpa.” Then she was taken away, far from any contact with myself, beyond any reach.

But her calling me “grandpa” in that brief encounter enlisted my love for her as a helpless child, and I cannot forget her.

Will the gracious Lord hear my continued prayer in her behalf, although I have no contact? Where she will be and what she will become, I have no say; but there is an eternal contact through the complexities of the throne of God, and prayer from one of God’s faithful children cannot be neglected or forgotten at that throne.

Says James, “The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (5:16).

Not that the so-called “righteous man” has any merit, but what’s important is his labor “with Christ,” the living union with Him by faith, the identity in Him, the being “yoked” together with Him in love (agape; cf. Matt. 11:28-30).

We can have no power to help anybody, but the Lord in His great mercy and through His unbounded grace, condescends to recognize us as co-workers together with Him.

When we meet Him personally at last, think of His marvelous condescension: He says to us in His almost unbelievable grace, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” just as though we had done something worth while, when of course we haven’t—it was all of Him (see Matt. 25:21).

The dear Lord honors the prayer of His unworthy servants; He lodges it at His eternal throne and He pledges heaven and earth to its fulfillment.

My little friend who called me “grandpa!” may pass beyond me throughout life, but when we meet at last at the presence of our Savior she will thank me knowingly for my love and my prayer; and I shall be happy “in Christ.”

Can you imagine that there was a time when God’s true people had no clear idea of a life after death? What they thought was—you got your reward for right living here in this life; your children inherit whatever is your reward for obedience to God’s commandments. Like a better DNA? (Well, that’s a real hope that we still have today, isn’t it?)

Even the third commandment says it: “that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee” (Ex. 20:12). You may read into it the idea of life on the earth made new—after your resurrection; but that’s what you are doing.

Read Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy—the idea of a life after death is not a large hope being cherished, if at all.

There’s something beautiful in the full truth: your motive for living an upright life is not what you or your children can get out of it, but you choose to live in such a way that you bring a reward to Jesus our Saviour.

You are obsessed with the Reality of what He has done for you; uppermost in your mind is not what can you get out of this, but what can you do, how can you live, so as to bring a reward to the One who has done something really BIG for you?

But unless you have a clear idea of what was that “something really BIG” that One did for you, you’ll be paralyzed spiritually. And to be paralyzed spiritually is exactly what Revelation 3:14-21 is talking about: the Laodicean condition of heart which is known as “lukewarmness.”

In that message to the seventh church, the Lord Jesus (“the Faithful and True Witness”) is not bawling us out or condemning us—No! He is telling us that we are malnourished spiritually; we go to Sabbath School and church every week and never get the point:

To proclaim “Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:1, 2) is to make clear what He accomplished for us, to make clear what He went through when He was on His cross, to measure the “breadth, and length, and depth, and height” of the love (agape) that was portrayed there.

The two thieves crucified with Jesus doubtless slept the week-end away, because the Ladies Aid Society of Jerusalem in mercy gave crucified victims a drug to drink; but Jesus wouldn’t drink a drop; He must keep His mind and heart free to appreciate, to feel, to experience in His soul the hell that it is to feel that God has “forsaken” you. No man in world history had ever experienced it; there on that cross the Son of God “poured out His soul unto death”(Isa. 53:12), died the world’s second death.

And yours, too. There’s no reason under heaven why you should have to die that death!

The 1888 Message

And the Book of Galatians (Part 2)

August 23, 2008

Sabbath, 2:30 p.m. and Saturday Night

An 1888 message sermon will also be presented during the regular church service

Sabbath School: 9:30 a.m.  •  Worship Service: 11:00 a.m.

Cave Springs Home, Pegram, Tennessee

(Off Interstate 40 westbound from Nashville, exit 192-turn right, left on HWY 70,

1 mile to Cave Springs Road, two rights and follow the signs.)

Speaker & Bible Study Leader

Chaplain Craig Barnes

Meals will be served at Cave Springs Home on a donation basis.

Sabbath: Dinner and light Supper

Please E-mail or call to reserve a meal ticket

BOOK SALE (after sunset)

Phone: (615) 974-1184 (if no answer, please leave a message)

E-mail: cjmb@comcast.net

Lodging is available in the nearby town of Belleview

It’s true: temptation is not sin. Luther was wise when he said that you can’t keep birds from flying over your head, but you can stop them from making a nest in your hair.

A sinful, lustful thought may flit through your head—we live in a sinful world and evil is all around us. But it is sin to welcome that thought, to entertain it, mull over it, cherish it.

The evil act begins with the evil thought played out in the mind, tolerated, maybe enjoyed momentarily.

That is the time, the moment, to firmly say “No!” and expel it. Stamp your feet as you command it to depart!

A thought of envy or jealousy of someone else is poison to one’s own happiness and it also casts a blight on the other person, for it cannot be hidden.

The Lord has thought of all these temptations and He has provided for them all: for example, He says, “Rejoice with them that do rejoice” (Rom. 12:15). The simple fact that He has commanded us thus is evidence that He gives us the victory over the temptation to be jealous of someone else’s success that is not also our own.

Along with the joy we experience at the other person’s advancement or success is our humble prayer for that person that his/her success will not become a snare.

The dear Lord is working, through the Holy Spirit, night and day, 24/7, world wide, to teach and train His people to “bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2). This is the same as His work to call out and to discipline His “144,000” to “follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth” (Rev. 14:1-5). Thank the Lord that His command is a promise of victory over envy!

In ancient Israel, being a “eunuch” was considered as “bein’ nuthin’ goin’ nowhere.”

You had no progeny; therefore you were the same as dead. Hopeless. No eternal life possible. Down and out forever.

But the dear Lord had mercy and compassion on eunuchs. They were considered “driven out of Israel,” but the Lord said that He welcomed them back in and promised them wonderful futures such as “something better than sons and daughters, a memorial and a name in My own house and within My walls, ... everlasting renown, an imperishable name” (Isa. 56:5, NEB), language just glorious in describing the future of these despised people!

That illustrates how great is the love (agape) of our Lord! He searches to find someone maybe in the gutter, someone who feels hopeless about his wasted life, and He redeems that person with hope and assurance of a great future.

That of course is equivalent to the New Covenant promises He makes to those who ask for and cherish the faith of Abraham in Genesis 12:2, 3:

(a) “I will make of thee” a great person. (b) “I will bless thee” (make you happy). (c) I will make thy name great,” you will be somebody important throughout life. (d) “Thou shalt be a blessing” everywhere you go throughout the world! (e) “I will bless them that bless thee” (be good to everyone who is good to you!). (f) “Curse him that curseth thee” (sorry, but there it is!), and then (g) you can have the joy of sharing Jesus with the whole world (“in Thee shall all families of the earth be blessed”). You will hear Him say to you, “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matt. 25:21).

Oh, blessed eunuch! The Lord found you and redeemed you!

Who is Jesus? The Eleven disciples were still not too sure when the despised Samaritans were ahead of them in understanding: they confessed, triumphantly, “He is the Saviour of the world”! (John 4:42).

But how could they say that when it is so obvious that still even today 2000 years later, many on planet earth do not recognize Him as their Saviour?

How can He be the Saviour of the world when the majority of earth’s inhabitants do not recognize Him?

The answer is in Romans 5:15-18, the chapter that for a long time was over my head.

In a judicial, not literal sense, Christ saved “every man.”

By His sacrifice on the cross, Jesus made it possible for the Father to treat every man as though he had not sinned, to send His rain and His sun on both the righteous and the wicked, alike (Matt. 5:45). Christ bore in His own body, in His soul, the guilt of the whole world: “He hath poured out His soul unto death,” like you turn a bottle upside down to drain out every drop. That is why Paul says in Phil. 2:5-8 that He “emptied Himself” for us. He died our second death.

But this truth is not the heresy of Universalism; although Christ on His cross died for the sins of the whole world, in no way does that mean that He will force “every man” to enter into the New Jerusalem. Because God IS agape, He gives every man freedom to choose.

Fast forward to Revelation 20 to the story of the Great White Throne, vss. 12-14. As the books of record are opened, every one will see clearly what is the extent of his sin, how he has crucified “afresh” the Lord of glory and put Him to an open shame (cf. Heb. 6:6); each will see himself at last to be the “Esau” of the Old Testament, how he has sold his birthright, which he HAD, for a mess of pottage (cf. Gen. 25:34). Each will prefer the Lake of Fire to the pain of looking into the face of the Saviour.
 

A wise writer said that the books of heaven record the sins which we would commit if we had the opportunity.

Is there a man who does not tremble when he reads of young, handsome, virile, lonely Joseph, a slave in Egypt far from home and family’s eyes, when Potiphar’s alluring wife tempted him to commit adultery with her?

Joseph immediately thought, in spirit, of the cross of Jesus; he cried out, “How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Gen. 39:9).

Of course, Joseph did not know the historical details of the cross, which were to come millennia later; but his heart and soul were in tune with the eternal reality of the cross of Jesus.

By the commitment of his soul, young Joseph chose to be “crucified with Christ” (cf. Gal. 2:20). Joseph lived in wicked Egypt as one who saw not, and heard not, the wickedness all around him; he dwelt in the atmosphere of heaven.

So can we today; and more than that, so will we if we understand and believe how good is the Good News of the gospel of Jesus.

Joseph experienced first-hand that second conviction of the Holy Spirit: “The Comforter ... will convict the world of ... righteousness, because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more” (John 16:7-10). Joseph immediately knew what Jesus would do—run.

You “run,” not because of egocentric fear, but from a heart-appreciation of the price the Son of God paid for your soul: how can you not give Him your all, forever? He gave Himself, His all, forever!

“How can I do this great wickedness ... ?”

You can’t, unless you choose to crucify Him afresh ... and that you won’t do, ever, forever.

When you feel like the steamroller has flattened your soul, that’s the time to pray the prayer of Psalm 130:

“Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O LORD. ... If Thou ... shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?” (vss. 1-3; the “depths” are the lowest level of despair—well, not quite, because no one has ever been there except the Lord Jesus Christ. None of us has ever been deep down where He was when on His cross He screamed, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Matt. 27:46; no one has ever felt that but He).

The obvious answer to who shall “stand?”—no one, if the Lord is looking for a reason to condemn us.

But He is not on safari looking for a reason to keep us out of heaven, but for a way to get us in.

The Pharisees were unhappy with Him for one great reason: “This Man receiveth sinners”! (Luke 15:1, 2). He had one great thing to do, that for Him is purest fun: saving down-and-out people (a) from present unhappiness, and (b) from eternal ruin.

(a) There is the judicial condemnation Adam passed down to us, and (b) there is our own deliberate disobediences to the holy law of God. But for “every man” the Lord Jesus has reversed that judicial condemnation and has substituted a “judicial verdict of acquittal.” Every one judicially stands before God as though he were innocent (read Romans 5:12-18); thus the Father treats “every man” as though he had never sinned.

Jesus is the only one who has endured the real condemnation—and it crushed out His life and even His eternal hope: the death He died on His cross was the world’s “second death”(Heb. 2:9).

There’s only one decent thing you and I can do: give ourselves heart and soul to Him in heart-felt, thankful obedience, for eternity.