Oct 16
30
I have heard someone say that the age of the local church is past and
that there is no longer any use for God-ordained Pastors. It is easy for
a weed to speak this way, because it can thrive upon that which is
natural, without any tending, but the flower of God’s planting is not
so. It is what it is because of the continual attention and masterful
touch of the Husbandman.
The Master Gardener takes great care to continually water, prune,
protect, defend from parasites and walk among His garden. He uses the
same means He always has in order to accomplish this: Ephesians 4:11 And
he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and
some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the
work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13 Till we
all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of
God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness
of Christ.
Since God gave gifts unto men, and men as gifts in order to accomplish
these spiritual things, are we expected to believe that He no longer
desires to bring His people to maturity, unity and greater knowledge in
Christ, or that He has found a better way to do it that He has not
revealed in His Book? The language of the goat is absurd to the sheep.
The goat may wander and scrounge and eat whatever scrap lay in their
path, but the great Shepherd tenderly loves His sheep, and so He still
says to His men, in the timeless language of His glorious word, “If you
love Me, feed my sheep.” Chris Cunningham.
Doing And Teaching
Matthew 5: 19:…But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be
called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Only the believer understands how holy, just and good the law of God is;
only the believer establishes the law through faith in Christ; only the
believer has a God-wrought desire to honor the law in all areas of his
life. God’s true ambassadors are the only ones who truly teach others
the necessity of perfect obedience which no sinner can do which required
God’s Son living and dying as the Representative and Substitute of those
given him before the foundation of the world.
When God gave the law to Moses, God knew when he said “this do and live”
that not a sinner in time would ever do his law. But God was not unjust
in saying it. The weakness was in us, not in the law. So it is in this
verse when our Lord says, “whosoever shall do and teach shall be called
great in the kingdom of heaven.” It is not that there is a sinner, who
himself, can do the law. But we “do the law” by trusting Christ who did
it for us. We teach by declaring to others the demands of holy law, that
others might trust Christ as well. When the Spirit of God makes a sinner
to behold the spirituality of the law, that it condemns even the
thoughts and intents of the heart, that it must be upheld in absolute
perfection, then the sinner is brought to cast all their care on Christ.
This is what we do and what we teach.
We teach that by faith in Christ the believer is dead to the law and
married to Christ. The believer walks in newness of life under the law
of, the rule of, Christ, not the oldness of the letter of the law of
Moses. The law is not dead our old carnal man is dead. In our new
resurrected nature we are married–ONE–with Christ. Therefore the fruit
we bring forth is of Christ’s production. Through the Spirit of God in
us, through the doing and dying of our Savior, the righteousness of the
law is fulfilled in us and all our works are accepted of God.
Therefore, believers no longer use the law of Moses to bind, drive or
motivate but now use the law for the purpose in which Christ gave it, to
give the knowledge of sin to those who think they have acceptance with
God by their works of law-obedience
Clay Curtis.
When He is Nothing
For if any man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he
deceiveth himself- Galatians 6:3
If we can learn that we are NOTHING, then we have learned something. But
if we think we are something, then we have learned nothing. Scripture
says so. Scripture says if we think ourselves to be something when (we)
are nothing we are deceived. In other words, we are not special, unique,
invaluable nor irreplaceable (in spite of what our mothers may think.)
Each of us is just one sinful human being among billions of others just
like us. We are born sinful, rebellious, ignorant and totally dependent
upon the grace and mercy of God to teach us, change us, and give us any
value or worth in this life. Apart from God’s revealing, teaching grace
we know nothing. Apart from God’s constraining grace we can do nothing.
Apart from God’s keeping grace we will amount to nothing.
Matthew Henry once said, “Since God made everything out of nothing, if
he is going to use us, we are going to have to be nothing. God made
everything from nothing, that way he gets all the glory. There were no
natural materials to work with, no means to use which could share in His
creative glory. He simply spoke everything into existence. So it is in
salvation. God finds nothing in the sinner to work with. No faith, no
knowledge, no mind or heart to seek Him, so He simply must speak (by His
Word) our salvation into existence. He must simply (yet powerfully)
command us to hear, see, repent, come, LIVE! God gets all the glory!
There was nothing to work with and no one helped Him in the work of our
salvation. If any think they made a decision, let God into their heart,
made Jesus lord, accepted him as savior, that person DECEIVETH HIMSELF.
One more time, For by GRACE ARE YE SAVED through faith; and that NOT OF
YOURSELVES: IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD. (Ephesians 2:8)
Paul Mahan.
When Paul sent a rod to the church at Corinth, it was not in a
self-exulting, self-righteous spirit, but “out of much affliction and
anguish of heart, with many tears,” and when his reproofs were blessed
to their repentance, he was “filled with comfort, and was exceeding
joyful in all his tribulation.” (2 Cor. 2:4; 7:4.) What an example of
the highest faithfulness blended with the tenderest affection! He is
slow to wound and swift to heal; last with the rod and first with the
kiss; angry with the sin, but tender over the sinner– jealous for the
Lord’s glory, but mindful of his grace; careful for the purity and
profit of the flock, but yearning to bring back the wandering sheep.
Were pastors Pauls, and churches epistles of Christ, there would be
fewer divisions, and those sooner healed. But when an unyielding,
unforgiving spirit is manifested on either side, when churches cannot
bear with the infirmities of their minister, and ministers will not give
way where they are evidently in fault, a smoldering volcano lies under
pulpit and pew which will one day burst forth into unquenchable flame,
in this life. “If you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be
not consumed one of another.”
We may be certain that the precepts of the New Testament for mutual love
and forgiveness cannot be slighted and neglected with impunity. Our
stubborn temper and unforgiving spirit may refuse to listen to the word
of God, but we cannot, except to our own cost, set aside Scripture
precepts and Scripture practice because our corrupt nature withstands
them. God’s ways may not please our carnal mind, but he will not alter
them for that reason. If we walk contrary to him he will walk contrary
to us, and if we are disobedient we shall reap its bitter fruits. If sin
be at one end of the chain, sorrow will surely be at the other. If we
sow to the flesh, we shall most certainly of the flesh reap corruption;
but if we sow to the Spirit, we shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
But what we chiefly need, and that to which our prayers and desires
should be directed, is the pouring out of the Spirit upon pastors and
churches, and the whole church of God. No other means will avail. For
lack of this we are continually in extremes. We see this in the ministry
of the present day, for the ministry is but a reflection of the times.
Some are all for doctrine. Doctrine, doctrine, doctrine, and all in the
hardest, driest form, is their unvaried staple. Most sweet and precious
are the doctrines of the gospel when distilled into the soul by the Holy
Spirit; but delivered in a cold systematic way as a mere creed, they are
made a substitute for vital godliness, and thus become a curse instead
of a blessing. Others, seeing the neglect in our day of practical
religion, urge the precept continually, but in a spirit so legal, and
with a temper so harsh, that grace seems almost thrust out of sight, and
the poor hearers are ever filled with bondage and slavish fear. And
others, who preach experience, dwell so much on the workings of sin as
almost to omit the workings of grace, and, pointing out the malady,
almost forget to dwell on the remedy.
But all these, and innumerable other evils under which Zion now labors,
can only be remedied by the pouring out of the Spirit from on high. From
Him alone comes a true sight of sin, repentance for it, confession of
it, and turning from it. Then will Zion repent and abhor herself in dust
and ashes; then will confession flow forth to God and the brethren; then
will love and union be revived between ministers and churches; and then
will the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep their hearts
and minds through Christ Jesus. Until that happy time arrive, our wisdom
and mercy will be to avoid strife and contention.
A sight and sense of the evils in ourselves and others should teach us
mutual forbearance. We are all in the hospital, and shall we quarrel
with our fellow-patients? Should we not rather sympathize with each
other’s complaints, and be looking out for the arrival of the Physician
who alone can cure each and all? On this common ground, even in the
present dark and gloomy day, all the living family may meet. But if we
cannot keep out of contention, and desire a matter of strife with the
brethren, let this be our ground of dispute. Who is the greater sinner;
who owes most to the Savior; who shall live most to his glory.
J.C.Philpot (1853).