Trials Draw Us Closer To GOD

2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
  
God allowed the crisis to close around Jacob on the night when he bowed at Peniel in supplication to bring him to the place where he could take hold of God as he never would have done; and from that narrow pass of peril Jacob came enlarged in his faith and knowledge of God, and in the power of a new and victorious life.

He had to compel David, by a long and painful discipline of years, to learn the almighty power and faithfulness of his God, and to grow up into the established principles of faith and godliness, which were indispensable for his subsequent and glorious career as the king of Israel.
     
Nothing but the extremities in which Paul was constantly placed could ever have taught him, and taught the church through him, the full meaning of the great promise he so learned to claim, "My grace is sufficient for thee."

And nothing but our trials and perils would ever have led some of us to know Him as we do, to trust Him as we have, and to draw from Him the measures of grace which our very extremities made indispensable.

~A. B. Simpson~

Maintain The Difference

Pharaoh has a people, and the LORD has a people. 

These may dwell together and seem to fare alike, but there is a division between them, and the LORD will make it apparent. 

Not forever shall one event happen alike to all, but there shall be great difference between the men of the world and the people of Jehovah's choice. 

This may happen in the time of judgments, when the LORD becomes the sanctuary of His saints. 

It is very conspicuous in the conversion of believers when their sin is put away, while unbelievers remain under condemnation. 

From that moment they become a distinct race, come under a new discipline, and enjoy new blessings. 

Their homes, henceforth, are free from the grievous swarms of evils which defile and torment the Egyptians.

They are kept from the pollution of lust, the bite of care, the corruption of falsehood, and the cruel torment of hatred, which devour many families.

Rest assured, tried believer, that though you have your troubles you are saved from swarms of worse ones, which infest the homes and hearts of the servants of the world's prince.  

The LORD has put a division; see to it that you keep up the division in Spirit, aim, character, and company.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Nothing Escapes The Eye Of A Just And Holy GOD

Job 34:21  For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings.
     
The Christian has to prove that nothing escapes the eye of a just and holy God; that he lays bare every secret thought, searches every hidden purpose, and scrutinizes every desire and every movement of the mind.

He thus discovers and brings to light all the secret sins of the heart. 

Men in general take no notice of heart sins; if they can keep from sins in life, from open acts of immorality, they are satisfied. 

What passes in the chambers of imagery they neither see nor feel. 

Not so with the child of grace; he knows the experience described in Psalm 139.

He carries about with him the secret conviction that the eye of God reads every thought.

Every inward movement of pride and self-righteousness, rebellion, discontent, peevishness, fretfulness, lust, and wantonness, he inwardly feels that the eye of God reads all, marks all, condemns by his righteous law all, and because he is so intrinsically pure, hates and abhors all sin. 

Thus he proves, amongst the "all things" which are weighed up and measured in the inward court of conscience by the unerring standard of the word of truth, the light of the Spirit's teaching, and the workings of godly fear, that he is a sinner before God, and that of a deeper dye and more crimson hue than any other transgressor, for he sees and knows his own heart, which nobody else can see or know. 

He is indeed aware that many may have sinned more deeply and grossly as regards outward acts; but he feels that no one can have sinned inwardly more foully and continually than he; and this makes him say with Job, Job 42:5  I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Job 42:6  Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

J. C. Philpot

Indecision And Indefiniteness

One of Satan's tactics against God's full purpose is to press or ensnare God's people into indecision and indefiniteness.

And strangely enough, this is a peculiar peril of those who could not very easily be brought to turn right round on God in repudiation of Him. 

Those who really do mean to go on with God, those who in their hearts want God's best

Whom Satan would find very difficult subjects to get to forswear everything and say, I have done with it all! 

I have washed my hands of God and everything connected with Him, I am finished!

Those whom Satan would find very difficult subjects to get to take this line, he does with them what he did through Balaam. 

He could not bring the direct result. So he got round the back door and secured the same effect by paralyzing them.

What I mean is this, that if Satan cannot get God's people to positively and definitely repudiate Him, go back on everything, he will make those people the very objects of his continuous activity to get them into a state of indecision or indefiniteness, a sort of in between the two positions.

It is the peculiar peril of a certain type of believer, and the enemy works hard with them, and strangely enough, it is the very dealings of God with us which Satan takes hold of to use to his end, to this end.

God is dealing with us. God is removing our own natural strength, forcefulness and determination, that which in us naturally would cause us to be very positive in a natural way. 

God is undercutting that and leaving us without that natural strength and Satan takes hold of that very work of God to bring us into a state of paralysis through indefiniteness. 

Now it is such a situation that we have got to look at because it is very true. 

We began by seeing the terrible peril of indecision, how indecision is just as capable of robbing us of God's full purpose as an entire repudiation.

That is what comes out in the Word. 

If God spews any people out of His mouth, you may take it for granted that they have missed God's end.

If, for this indecision and indefiniteness, God has to say, "I cannot go on with you in My purposes!"

Well then, the end is just as certainly secured by the enemy in defeating God's purpose in us of fulness as though we would have nothing whatever to do with it.

We are staying to think of the extra values to Satan of having children of God always in indefiniteness.

There are special values to him in that, but here is this tremendous peril of indecision, of an undecided position, something in between the two. 

There is this fact, that Satan works hard to get us there, to destroy everything by getting us in this neither-one-thing-nor-the-other position, always with one big question, that question hanging over us all the time never finally settled, never decided once and for all, in a state of a question mark, a note of interrogation. 

That is a condition of things which Satan is always trying to create and, when he has once created it, it is no easy thing to get out of it. He will hold us there as long as possible.

But then we must look at this matter. Do you notice that Hebrews 4:12 is connected with Israel in the wilderness? 

When you ask what is the meaning of this, you can go back and you get the answer in a Psalm. 

If you look at Psalm 78, you have got the explanation of Hebrews 4:12. 

Psalm 78:8 reads like this:-

And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God."

A generation whose spirit was not steadfast with God. This is referred to as Israel in the wilderness. 

Now in Hebrews 4 we have - "Let us fear, let us take heed, let us give diligence, that none of us fall into the same disobedience, fail to enter into the rest, His rest." That is Israel in the wilderness. 

Then this immediately follows - "For (what a significant 'for' that is) the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit".

"Whose spirit was steadfast with God".

"Dividing of soul and spirit".

~T. Austin Sparks~

Denying Ungodliness

Tit 2:12  Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

Let us say, "No," to the flesh, the world and the love of self, and learn that holy self-denial in which consists so much of the life of obedience. 

Make no provision for the flesh; give no recognition to your lower life.

Say "No" to everything earthly and selfish. 

How very much of the life of faith consists in simply denying ourselves.

We begin with one great "Yes," to God, and then we conclude with an eternal "No," to ourselves, the world, the flesh and the devil.

If you look at the ten commandments of the Decalogue, you will find that nearly every one of them is a "Thou shalt not." 

If you read the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, with its beautiful picture of love, you will find that most of the characteristics of love are in the negative, what love "does not, thinks not, says not, is not." 

And so you will find that the largest part of the life of consecration is really saying, "No."

I am not my own, I belong to Him.
      
I am His alone, I belong to Him.

~A. B. Simpson~

True Faith

Heb 11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

True faith drops its letter in the post-office box, and lets it go.

Distrust holds on to a corner of it, and wonders that the answer never comes.
     
I have some letters in my desk that have been written for weeks, but there was some slight uncertainty about the address or the contents, so they are yet unmailed.

They have not done either me or anybody else any good yet.

They will never accomplish anything until I let them go out of my hands and trust them to the postman and the mail.
     
This is the case with true faith. It hands its case over to God, and then He works.
     
That is a fine verse in the thirty-seventh Psalm: "Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He worketh."
 
But He never worketh until we commit.
     
Faith is a receiving, or still better, a taking of God's proffered gifts.

We may believe, and come, and commit, and rest, but we will not fully realize all our blessing until we begin to receive and come into the attitude of abiding and taking.

~A. B. Simpson~

"GODLY Sorrow Worketh Repentance'

2Co 7:10  For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. 

Genuine, spiritual mourning for sin is the work of the Spirit of God. 

Repentance is too choice a flower to grow in nature’s garden. Pearls grow naturally in oysters, but penitence never shows itself in sinners except divine grace works it in them. 

If thou hast one particle of real hatred for sin, God must have given it thee, for human nature’s thorns never produced a single fig. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.”
 
True repentance has a distinct reference to the Saviour. 

When we repent of sin, we must have one eye upon sin and another upon the cross, or it will be better still if we fix both our eyes upon Christ and see our transgressions only, in the light of his love.
 
True sorrow for sin is eminently practical. No man may say he hates sin, if he lives in it. 

Repentance makes us see the evil of sin, not merely as a theory, but experimentally—as a burnt child dreads fire. 

We shall be as much afraid of it, as a man who has lately been
stopped and robbed is afraid of the thief upon the highway; and we shall shun it-shun it in everything-not in great things only, but in little things, as men shun little vipers as well as great snakes. 

True mourning for sin will make us very jealous over our tongue, lest it should say a wrong word; we shall be very watchful over our daily actions, lest in anything we offend, and each night we shall close the day with painful confessions of shortcoming, and each morning awaken with anxious prayers, that this day God would hold us up that we may not sin against him.
 
Sincere repentance is continual. Believers repent until their dying day. 

This dropping well is not intermittent. Every other sorrow yields to time, but this dear sorrow grows with our growth, and it is so sweet a bitter, that we thank God we are permitted to enjoy and to suffer it until we enter our eternal rest.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Open Door Of Communion

Rev 3:8  I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.   

Saints who remain faithful to the truth of God have an open door before them.  

My soul, thou hast resolved to live and die by that which the LORD has revealed in His Word, and therefore before thee stands this open door.

I will enter in by the open door of communion with God. Who shall say me nay? 

Jesus has removed my sin and given me His righteousness; therefore I may freely enter. 

LORD, I do so by Thy grace. 

I have also before me an open door into the mysteries of the Word. I may enter into the deep things of God. 

Election, union to Christ, the Second advent-all these are before me, and I may enjoy them. 

No promise and no doctrine are now locked up against me. 

An open door of access is before me in private and an open door of usefulness in public. 

God will hear me; God will use me. 

A door is opened for my onward march to the church above, and for my daily fellowship with saints below. 

Some may try to shut me up or shut me out, but all in vain.  

Soon shall I see an open door into heaven: the pearl gate will be my way of entrance, and then I shall go in unto my LORD and King and be with God eternally shut in.

~Charles Spurgeon~

The Ground Of Satan's Power~The World

You see it is a matter, in the first place, of the ground which is taken and occupied by the one concerned.

When Peter took heavenly ground-"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God" he was in a very strong position. 

The keys of the kingdom of heaven, binding on earth and binding in heaven, were his. 

He was weak, and in a very weak position, when he took earthly ground, the ground of men, the ground of his own judgment and of his own selfhood. 

The ground taken decided whether he was spiritually strong or weak, and whether Satan had power over him or not.

It would seem that, when the Lord was speaking to them about what was going to take place in Jerusalem as to His death, Simon just took Him apart quietly, and in a very kindly and consolatory way, and yet with a certain amount of patronage, one would feel, told the Lord that He must not be so depressed and gloomy, that He must take a brighter view of things, and that this sort of thing would certainly not happen to Him. 

But in Peter's attitude, on Peter's ground, the Lord saw quite distinctly a recurrence of what He had met so terribly in the wilderness in His temptation, when Satan had offered Him the kingdoms of this world without the Cross - had sought, that is to say, to divert Him from the way to which He had committed Himself.

Peter became but the voice and instrument of that same arch-enemy to turn the Lord away from the Cross.

Hence the word following about saving the life. 

But taking this ground of having the Kingdom and the Throne on any other line but God's ordained line, which is the way of the Cross, is alliance with Satan, and will put anyone in that alliance into the power of Satan and destroy them spiritually.
 
Firstly, then, it is very evident that any ground of the world, which in its nature is a kingdom without suffering, without the Cross, without the setting aside of natural life, is the realm of Satan's power and authority. 

It is perfectly clear that, in the case of the Church, speaking fairly generally, and in the case of countless individual Christians, the weakness, defeat and dishonor which characterize them, and which became so manifest in Peter's case, are due to occupying the ground of Satan's strength. 

That ground may be said to be compromise with the world in its principle.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Tempted Without Sinning

Heb 2:18  For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

It is a common-place thought, and yet it tastes like nectar to the weary heart...Jesus was tempted as I am. 

You have heard that truth many times: have you grasped it?

He was tempted to the very same sins into which we fall. 

Do not dissociate Jesus from our common manhood. It is a dark room which you are going through, but Jesus went through it before.
 
It is a sharp fight which you are waging, but Jesus has stood foot to foot with the same enemy.
 
Let us be of good cheer, Christ has borne the load before us, and the blood-stained footsteps of the King of glory may be seen along the road which we traverse at this hour.

There is something sweeter yet...Jesus was tempted, but Jesus never sinned. 

Then, my soul, it is not needful for thee to sin, for Jesus was a man, and if one man endured these temptations and sinned not, then in his power his members may also cease from sin.

Some beginners in the divine life think that they cannot be tempted without sinning, but they mistake; there is no sin in being tempted, but there is sin in yielding to temptation.

Herein is comfort for the sorely tempted ones. 

There is still more to encourage them if they reflect that the Lord Jesus, though tempted, gloriously triumphed, and as he overcame, so surely shall his followers also, for Jesus is the representative man for his people.

The Head has triumphed, and the members share in the victory. 

Fears are needless, for Christ is with us, armed for our defense.
 
Our place of safety is the bosom of the Saviour. 

Perhaps we are tempted just now, in order to drive us nearer to him.

Blessed be any wind that blows us into the port of our Saviour’s
love!

Happy wounds, which make us seek the beloved Physician. 

Ye tempted ones, come to your tempted Saviour, for he can be touched with a feeling of your infirmities, and will succor every tried and tempted one.
 
~Charles Spurgeon~