Job 4:16 It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: an image was before mine eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying, A score of years ago, a friend placed in my hand a book called True Peace.
It was an old medieval message, and it had but one thought...
That God
was waiting in the depths of my being to talk to me if I would only get
still enough to hear His voice. I thought this would be a very easy matter, and so began to get still.
But I had no sooner commenced than a perfect pandemonium of voices
reached my ears...
A thousand clamoring notes from without and within,
until I could hear nothing but their noise and din.
Some were my own
voices, my own questions, some my very prayers.
Others were suggestions
of the tempter and the voices from the world's turmoil.
In every direction I was pulled and pushed and greeted with noisy
acclamations and unspeakable unrest.
It seemed necessary for me to
listen to some of them and to answer some of them; but God said, "Be
still, and know that I am God."
Then came the conflict of thoughts for
tomorrow, and its duties and cares; but God said, "Be still."
And as I listened, and slowly learned to obey, and shut my ears to
every sound, I found after a while that when the other voices ceased, or
I ceased to hear them, there was a still small voice in the depths of
my being that began to speak with an inexpressible tenderness, power and
comfort.
As I listened, it became to me the voice of prayer, the voice of
wisdom, the voice of duty, and I did not need to think so hard, or pray
so hard, or trust so hard...
But that "still small voice" of the Holy Spirit
in my heart was God's prayer in my secret soul...
Was God's answer to all
my questions...
Was God's life and strength for soul and body...
And became
the substance of all knowledge, and all prayer and all blessing:
For it
was the living GOD Himself as my life, my all. It is thus that our spirit drinks in the life of our risen Lord...
And we
go forth to life's conflicts and duties like a flower that has drunk
in, through the shades of night, the cool and crystal drops of dew.
But
as dew never falls on a stormy night, go the dews of His grace never come to the restless soul. ~A. B. Simpson
Gen 8:9 "But the dove found no rest for the sole
of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were
on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took
her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark."
Reader, can you find rest apart from the ark, Christ Jesus? Then be assured that your religion is vain.
Are you satisfied with anything short of a conscious knowledge of your union and interest in Christ? Then woe unto you.
If you profess to be a Christian, yet find full satisfaction in worldly pleasures and pursuits, your profession is false.
If your soul can stretch herself at rest, and find the bed long enough,
and the coverlet broad enough to cover her in the chambers of sin, then
you are a hypocrite, and far enough from any right thoughts of Christ
or perception of his preciousness.
But
if, on the other hand, you feel that if you could indulge in sin
without punishment, yet it would be a punishment of itself... And that if
you could have the whole world, and abide in it forever, it would be
quite enough misery not to be parted from it... For your God - your God - is
what your soul craves after; then be of good courage, thou art a child
of God.
With all thy sins and
imperfections, take this to thy comfort: if thy soul has no rest in sin,
thou are not as the sinner is! If thou art still crying after and
craving after something better, Christ has not forgotten thee, for thou
hast not quite forgotten him.
The believer cannot do without his Lord; words are inadequate to express his thoughts of him.
We
cannot live on the sands of the wilderness, we want the manna which
drops from on high... Our skin bottles of creature confidence cannot yield
us a drop of moisture, but we drink of the rock which we follow, and
that rock is Christ.
When you feed on Him your soul can sing, “He hath satisfied my mouth with good things, so
that my youth is renewed like the eagle's,”... But if you have him not,
your bursting wine vat and wellfilled barn can give you no sort of
satisfaction: Rather lament over them in the words of wisdom, “Vanity of
vanities, all is vanity!”
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.
I am cheered to know so many of you are with me on this.
We are going to
go to the New Testament and be Bible Christians.
We are going to sell
out to God and not the devil.
We are going to pray more, read our Bible
more and attend prayer meeting more.
We are going to give more and break
bad habits by the power of God.
We are going to become Christians after
God's heart.
We are going to be protesters in an hour when the smooth,
sickly, slippery, rotten, backslidden, degenerate, apostate Christianity
is accepted.
We are going to stand for God, to act like simple
Protestant Christians, to act like our Presbyterian Scottish forebears,
to act like our English Methodist forebears, to act like the dear old
Baptist who broke the ice in the creek and baptized people in the
freezing water.
They had a saying in those days, "Nobody ever caught a
cold getting baptized in the ice."
God Almighty saw to it that nobody
ever died of pneumonia.
Those Protestant forebears made these two
nations, the United States and Canada.
They made this continent.
Are we
going to be descendants of which they should be ashamed?
Or are we going
to say, "Lead on, we are following. You followed Jesus Christ, and we
are following you."
John Thomas was a dear old Welsh preacher I used to
hear.
While he preached he would raise his hands and say, "You supply
the grit and God will supply the grace."
He was right.
You've got the
grit; God has the grace.
~A.W. Tozer Through the centuries God's people have experienced His grace.
He
doesn't give it to us in large cartons to be stored somewhere until we
think we need it.
He gives grace day by day, moment by moment, just
enough as we in our weakness look to Him.
Lord, I feel so inferior to
those giants of faith who have gone on before.
But You remind me that
out of their weakness they, too, trusted You step by step.
Num
31:8 And they slew the kings of Midian, beside the rest of them that
were slain; namely, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five
kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword. Balaam had taken the field against Israel-against a people whom he had
pronounced blessed-whom he had pronounced invincible both by earth and
hell. Yes; Balaam "the son of Beor," he, and not another of the name-he
rushes on the bosses of the Almighty's buckler; he defies Israel and
Israel's God! But he fails. He would sincerely have cursed Israel; but he
could not. He counseled Moab to seduce Israel by temptation, and his device
succeeded too well. He now fetches his last stroke. In vain He perishes
ignobly. He is slain with the sword which he had defied. Such is the end of
the backslider; of one who knew the truth but did it not; who once said,
"Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." It
was certainly not the end he prayed for; yet it was the end to which his
whole life had been tending. He reaped what he sowed, and in him "God was
not mocked." He died as he lived, in fellowship with Moab, yet in heart
persuaded that Israel was the beloved of the Lord, and that Jehovah was God. His life had been with Midian, and so was his death. His grave is with the
unclean. He passes from earth with none to soothe his death-bed and close
his eyes; none to lament for him or to build his monument.
Sad end of a life of halting and indecision, and resistance of the Spirit,
and braving of conscience, and rejection of light, and wretched
covetousness. He loved the wages of unrighteousness, and verily he had his
reward. Let us see what he wanted and how he failed; how ambitious he was,
yet what a life of utter failure and disappointment was his. He would
sincerely have risen, but he sunk. He would sincerely have been rich, but he
lost everything. What a wasted life! Yet the life of one who knew better
things but did them not; who knew that the world was vanity, yet followed
it; Who knew that Israel's portion was the best, yet chose that of Moab; who
knew the true God and the true Messiah, but preferred the idolatries of
Israel's enemies. He saw Him from the top of the rocks, but that was all. He
got a passing glimpse of the cross, but no more. It was all he saw of the
way of life, before he plunged into death and woe.
I. He wanted to serve two masters. These were the same as the Lord in after
days designated God and mammon. He wanted not to offend either; to please
both. He was like Issachar crouching between two burdens. But it would not
do. He failed. Such is the certain failure of all who make the like attempt.
"You cannot serve God and mammon." He loved the one master, mammon; and he
dreaded the other; but would sincerely do the will of both. He could not
afford to lose the favor of either. Miserable life! More miserable death! The life and death of one whose whole career was one long attempt to do the
bidding both of God and the devil.
II. He wanted to earn two kinds of wages. The wages of righteousness and the
wages of unrighteousness were both in his eyes; he would
sincerely have the pay both of God and of the devil. 2Pe
2:15 Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following
the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of
unrighteousness; He was unwilling to do
or say anything which would deprive him of either. He was as cautious and cunning
as he was covetous. He would not work without wages; and he would work for a
hundred masters if they would only pay him well. How like many so-called
"religious" men among ourselves.
III. He wanted to do two opposite things at the same time. He wished both to
bless and to curse. He was willing to do either according as it might serve
his interests. The only question with him was, "Would it pay?" If the
blessing would pay, he would take it; if the curse would pay, he would take
it. If both would pay, he would take them both. Blessing and cursing were
both alike to him, confessing and denying the true God, worshiping Baal or
Jehovah, it mattered not, if by "this craft he could have his wealth." So
with many among us. If Sabbath-keeping will pay, they will keep the Sabbath;
if Sabbath-breaking will pay, they will break the Sabbath. True Balaams–
without principle, without faith, and without fear!
IV. He wanted two kinds of friendship. He would sincerely be friends with
everybody. Perhaps he was timid; of those whom Scripture calls "fearful" Rev
21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and
murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all
liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and
brimstone: which is the second death. Perhaps, also, he was ambitious, and sought great things
for himself wherever these could be obtained... Jer
45:5 And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not: for,
behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the LORD: but thy life
will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest. Certainly he
had before him "the fear of man which brings a snare," and the love of man's
approbation which brings no less a snare; He dreaded Israel's God, of whom
he knew much, but he dreaded also Moab's gods, though whether he really
believed in them we know not. Made up of these contradictions, and acting
not by faith but unbelief, he tried to secure the friendship of all whom he
counted great, whether in heaven or in earth. He shut his eyes not only to
the sin but to the impossibility of such a course; He saw not that the
friendship of the world is the enemy of God, and that whoever will be the
friend of the world must be the enemy of God.
V. He wanted to have two religions. He saw religion to be a paying concern,
a profitable trade, and he was willing to accept it from anybody or
everybody, to adopt it from any quarter if it would but raise him in the
world, and make his fortune. Perhaps he thought all religions equally right
or equally wrong, equally true or equally false. He would rather not offend
any god if lie could help it. He would make concessions to "religious
prejudices" of any kind if the prejudiced people will only help him on. He
was like Erasmus of old, whom a German writer thus describes– "Erasmus
belongs to that species of writers who have all the desire to build God a
magnificent church; at the same time, however, not giving the devil any offense... To whom, accordingly, they set up a neat little chapel close by,
where you can offer him some touch of sacrifice at a time, and practice a
quiet household devotion for him without disturbance."
Such was Balaam; two gods and two religions he wanted to have. But this
double service, and double friendship, and double religion would not do. He
could make nothing by them. They profited him nothing either in this life or
that to come. His end was with the ungodly, his portion with the enemies of
Israel. And his soul, where could it be? Not with Israel's God, or Israel's
Christ, or in Israel's heaven. He reaped what he sowed. He was a good
specimen of multitudes in these last days. An educated and intelligent man,
shrewd and quick-seeing, of respectable character, high in favor with the
rich and great, a religious man, too, after a fashion, not unsound in creed
so far, for he acknowledges Jehovah as the true God.
But he is fond of the world, fond of money, fond of preferment; one that
would not let his religion stand in the way of his advancement; who could
pocket all scruples if he could pocket a little gold along with them; Hollow
of heart, but with a fair outside; just an Erasmus; no Luther, no Calvin, no
Knox, no confessor, no martyr. His worldly interests are the main thing to
him. He would rather not risk offending God, but yet he would not like to
lose Balak's rewards and honors.
He would rather not take up his cross, nor deny himself, nor forsake all for
his God. Religion with him is not just a thing to be suffered for-at least
if he can help it. So is it with multitudes among us. They want as much
religion as will save them from hell; not an atom more. The world is their
real God; gold is their idol; it is in mammon's temple that they worship. Love God with all their heart! They don't so much as understand the meaning
of such a thing. Sacrifice riches, place, honor, friends to Christ! They
scoff at the thing as madness. Oh, be on the side of God, out and out. Don't
trifle with religion.
Don't mock God and Christ. Love not the world. Be religious in your inmost
soul. Don't mistake sentimentalism for religion, or a good character for the
new birth. You may go very far and yet not be a Christian. You may follow
Christ in some things; but if not in all, what is your following worth? This
world or the world to come, that is the alternative; not this world and the
world to come. Christ all or nothing. The soul more precious than worlds, or
utterly worthless. No middle ground; no half-discipleship; no compromise. No. The friendship of the world is enmity with God. Come out and be
separate. The new birth, or no religion at all.
Look to your latter end! What is it to be? Where is it to be? With whom is
it to be? Anticipate your eternity. Is it to be darkness or light, shame or
glory? Oh make sure, make sure! Do not sear your conscience by praying
Balaam's prayer, "Let me die the death of the righteous." What will that
avail you? It is the life of the righteous that God is calling you to lead
and he will take care of your death. Decide, halt not; else surely yours
will be a wretched life and a still more wretched death. What will gold, or
purple, or honor do for you when you lie down to die, or rise up to be
judged? ~Horatius Bonar~
Another cause of heart wanderings
is self-management and attempting to take our affairs in our own
hands...
Trying to help the Lord in His providences of our case in times
of trouble and distress.
We must be led
through many a soul crisis.
These crises will come to us in social
life, in business, in church relations, in health, in lines of duty.
Many
of them cannot be avoided.
They are in the very nature of things in
this world, and when they come, our human spirits are so eager for the
speedy and premature result that they accept of an unlawful
deliverance.
And we are so tempted to think that God had forgotten us...
Or that He is too slow, that we take affairs into our own hands.
This
was the case of Rebekah and Jacob, who thought that they surely must
manufacture a lie and deceive Isaac with the goatskin, in order to
secure the fulfillment of an infallible promise from God...
But their
self-management brought sad separation and years of sorrow.
This
was the case with King Saul, who thought that Samuel was so long
reaching his appointment that he must play the part of the priest and
offer sacrifice...
And from that hour he began wandering from God.
This
was the case with Uzza, who thought, when the oxen stumbled, he must
surely put forth his hand and assist the Lord in caring for the ark.
Meddlesomeness has led many a soul into spiritual bondage.
It is so easy even for
spiritual men to get the impression that they must manage the work of
God...
That they are responsible in great revivals for keeping their
little fingers on the safety-valves, and curbing divine fire within the
limit of their prudence.
Spiritual power is lost in the attempt to manage the kingdom.
Self-management, in some form or other, is the starting point of many a decline in grace.
