The Need For Brokenness

2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.                                  

All God’s purpose, all that God means for us on that other side of the Cross in union with Christ risen and exalted absolutely demands brokenness, complete brokenness, in all those concerned.

Not just the brokenness of their pictures and outward hopes, but an inward brokenness.

2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. 

The self-hood broken, broken vessels for heavenly eternal fullness.

The Cross is necessary for our breaking. 

It is not a pleasant note, I know, but in all faithfulness it must be said. 

This is the Lord’s word to you: that if you are not broken by the Cross, if you have not gone through an experience of real brokenness under the hand of God, all that the Lord means in you and through you will still be suspended, it will be impossible. 

If the Cross means one thing, it does mean that the Cross is the way to the glory and to heavenly fullness. 

It is the way of an inward breaking. 

Let me be very precise, because I know of different kinds of brokenness. 

I know the brokenness of disappointments, of disappointed hopes and expectations, but the kind of brokenness I am talking about is the brokenness of the self-hood, the strength of Self that holds its position and holds its ground and that will not let go. 

That is the kind of brokenness. 

This self-strength, whether it be intellectual and mental or whether it be emotional or whether it be in the will, that strength of the natural life has got to be broken as truly as the sinew of Jacob’s thigh had to be touched and withered. 

Something like that has to happen in us that we carry through the rest of our days. 

God has done something in the realm of our self-hood and we are broken men and women so far as self-sufficiency, self-assertiveness, self-confidence and every other form of Self is concerned. It must be.

~T. Austin Sparks

FAITH That OVERCOMES!!!

1Jn 5:4  For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

It is easy to love Him when the blue is in the sky...

When summer winds are blowing, and we smell the roses nigh...
 
There is little effort needed to obey His precious will...
 
When it leads through flower-decked valley, or over sun-kissed hill. 

It is when the rain is falling, or the mist hangs in the air...
 
When the road is dark and rugged, and the wind no longer fair...
 
When the rosy dawn has settled in a shadowland of gray...
 
That we find it hard to trust Him, and are slower to obey.

It is easy to trust Him when the singing birds have come...
 
And their canticles are echoed in our heart and in our home...
 
But 'tis when we miss the music, and the days are dull and drear...
 
That we need a faith triumphant over every doubt and fear.

And our blessed Lord will give it; what we lack He will supply...
 
Let us ask in faith believing-on His promises rely...
 
He will ever be our Leader, whether smooth or rough the way...
 
And will prove Himself sufficient for the needs of every day.

To trust in spite of the look of being forsaken...

To keep crying out into the vast, whence comes no returning voice, and where seems no hearing;...

To see the machinery of the world pauselessly grinding on as if self-moved, caring for no life, nor shifting a hair-breadth for all entreaty...

And yet believe that God is awake and utterly loving...

To desire nothing but what comes meant for us from His hand...

To wait patiently, ready to die of hunger, fearing only lest faith should fail...

Such is the victory that overcometh the world, such is faith indeed. 

~George MacDonald

Observe What A Dangerous And Soul-Ruining Sin Is The Sin Of Selfishness.

You have the rich man in the parable, in a hopeless state. 

If there was no other picture of a lost soul in Hell in all the Bible - you have it here. 

You meet him in the beginning - clothed in purple and fine linen...

You part with him at the last - tormented in the everlasting fire!

And yet there is nothing to show that this man was a murderer, or a thief, or an adulterer, or a liar. 

There is no reason to say that he was an atheist, or an infidel, or a blasphemer. 

For anything we know - he faithfully attended to all the ordinances of the Jewish religion. 

But we do know that he was lost forever.

There is something to my mind very solemn in this thought.

Here is a man whose outward life in all probability was correct at all events, we know nothing against him.

He dresses richly but then he had money to spend on his apparel.

He gives splendid feasts and entertainments but then he was wealthy, and could well afford it.

We read nothing recorded against him that might not be recorded of hundreds and thousands in the present day who are counted respectable and good sort of people.

And yet the end of this man, is that he goes to Hell.

Surely this deserves serious attention!

I believe it is meant to teach us to beware of living only for ourselves. 

It is not enough that we are able to say, "I live correctly."

I pay every one his due.

I discharge all the relations of life with propriety.

I attend to all the outward requirements of Christianity.

There remains behind another question, to which the Bible requires an answer...

To whom do you live...to yourself or to Christ?

What is the great end, aim, object, and ruling motive in your life?

Let men call the question extreme if they please.

For myself, I can find nothing short of this in Paul's words... 

And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. (2Co 5:15)

And I draw the conclusion that if, like the rich man, we live only to ourselves...we shall ruin our souls forever!

I believe further that this passage is meant to teach us the damnable nature of sins of omission.

It does not seem that it was so much the things the rich man did...but the things he left undone, which made him miss Heaven.

Lazarus was at his gate and he merely let him alone.

But is not this exactly in keeping with the history of the judgment in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew?

Nothing is said there of the sins of commission of which the lost are guilty.

How does the charge run?...

For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat:

I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

I was a stranger, and ye took me not in:

I was naked, and ye clothed me not:

I was sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
(Matthew 25:42-43)

The charge against them is simply that they did not do certain things.

On this their sentence turns.

And I draw the conclusion again, that except we take heed, sins of omission may ruin our souls!

Truly it was a solemn saying of good old Usher, on his death-bed: "Lord, forgive me all my sins...but specially my sins of omission."

I believe further, that the passage is meant to teach us that riches bring special danger with them.

Yes! riches, which the vast majority of men are always seeking after...

Riches for which they spend their lives, and of which they make an idol...

Riches entail on their possessor immense spiritual peril!

The possession of them has a very hardening effect on the soul...

They chill; they freeze; they petrify the inward man!

They close the eye to the things of faith.

They insensibly produce a tendency to forget God.

And does not this stand in perfect harmony with all the language of Scripture on the same subject?

What does our Lord say?...

Mar 10:23  And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!

Mar 10:24  And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!

Mar 10:25  It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

What does Paul say?

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. (1 Tim. 6:10)

What can be more striking than the fact that the Bible has frequently spoken of money as a most fruitful cause of sin and evil?

For money, Achan brought defeat on the armies of Israel, and death on himself.

For money, Balaam sinned against light, and tried to curse God's people.

For money, Delilah betrayed Samson to the Philistines.

For money, Gehazi lied to Naaman and Elisha, and became a leper.

For money, Ananias and Sapphira became the first hypocrites in the early Church, and lost their lives.

For money, Judas Iscariot sold Christ, and was ruined eternally.
 
Surely these facts speak loudly! 

Money, in truth is one of the most unsatisfying of possessions.

It takes away some cares, no doubt - but it brings with it quite as many cares as it takes away!

There is trouble in the getting of it...

There is anxiety in the keeping of it...

There are temptations in the use of it...

There is guilt in the abuse of it...

There is sorrow in the losing of it...

There is perplexity in the disposing of it.

Two-thirds of all the strifes, quarrels, and lawsuits in the world, arise from one simple cause...money!

Money most certainly is one of the most heart-ensnaring of possessions.

It seems desirable at a distance - yet it often proves a poison when in our hand!

No man can possibly tell the effect of money on his soul, if it suddenly falls to his lot to possess it.

Many a one did run well as a poor man...who forgets God when he becomes rich.

Reader, I draw the conclusion that those who have money, like the rich man in the parable, ought to take double pains about their souls.

They live in a most unhealthy atmosphere...

They have double need to be on their guard!

I believe, not least, that the passage is meant to stir up special carefulness about selfishness in these last days.

You have a special warning in 2 Timothy 3:1-2...

2Ti 3:1  This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

2Ti 3:2  For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

I believe we have come to the last days, and that we ought to beware of the sins here mentioned, if we love our souls.

Perhaps we are poor judges of our own times...

We are apt to exaggerate and magnify their evils, just because we see and feel them...

But after every allowance, I doubt whether there ever was more need of warnings against selfishness than in the present day.

I am sure there never was a time when all classes in England had so many comforts and so many temporal good things...

And yet I believe there is an utter disproportion between men's expenditure on themselves and their outlay on works of charity and works of mercy.

I see this in the miserable donations to which many rich men confine their charity.

I see it in the languishing condition of many of our best Christian societies, and the painfully slow growth of their annual incomes.

I see it in the small number of names which appear in the list of contributions to any good work.

There are, I believe, thousands of rich people in this country, who literally give away nothing at all.

I see it in the notorious fact that few, even of those who give - give anything proportioned to their means.

I see all this, and mourn over it!

I regard it as the selfishness and covetousness predicted as likely to arise in the last days.

Readers, I know that this is a painful and delicate subject.

But it must not on that account, be avoided by the minister of Christ.

It is a subject for the times, and it needs pressing home.

I desire to speak to myself, and to all who make any profession of religion.

Of course I cannot expect worldly and utterly ungodly people to view this subject in Bible light...

To them the Bible is no rule of faith and practice; to quote texts to them would be of little use.

But I do ask all professing Christians to consider well what Scripture says against covetousness and selfishness, and on behalf of liberality in giving money.

Is it for nothing that the Lord Jesus spoke the parable of the Rich Fool, and blamed him because he was not "rich towards God?" (Luke 12:21).

Luk 12:20  But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

Luk 12:21  So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

Is it for nothing that in the parable of the Sower, He mentions the deceitfulness of riches as one reason why the seed of the Word bears no fruit?

Mat 13:22  He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

Is it for nothing that He says...

Luke 16:9  And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. 

Is it for nothing that He says...

Luk 14:12  Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee.

Luk 14:13  But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:

Luk 14:14  And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.

Is it for nothing that He says...

Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. (Luke 12:33.)

Is it for nothing that He says...

Act 20:35  I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Is it for nothing...

That He warns us against the example of the priest and Levite...

Who saw the wounded traveler - but passed by on the other side?

Is it for nothing...

That He praises the good Samaritan, who denied himself to show kindness to a stranger?

Luk 10:33  But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,
 
Luk 10:34  And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

Is it for nothing...

That Paul classes covetousness with sins of the grossest description, and denounces it as idolatry?

Col 3:5  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

And is there not a striking and painful difference between this language and the habits and feeling of society about money? 

I appeal to any one who knows the world. 

Let him judge what I say.

Reader, I only ask you to consider calmly the passages of Scripture to which I have referred. 

I cannot think they were meant to teach nothing at all. 

That the habits of the East and our own are different, I freely allow; that some of the expressions I have quoted are figurative I freely admit; but still, after all, a principle lies at the bottom of all these expressions.  

Let us take heed that this principle is not neglected. 

I wish that many a professing Christian in this day, who perhaps dislikes what I am saying, would try to write a commentary on these expressions, and try to explain to himself what they mean!

To know that alms-giving cannot atone for sin, is well. 

To know that our good works cannot justify us, is excellent. 

To know that we may give all our goods to feed the poor, and build hospitals and cathedrals, without any real charity, is most important. 

But let us beware lest we go into the other extreme, and because our money cannot save us - give away no money at all.

Has anyone who reads these pages money? 

Then take heed and beware of covetousness! 

Remember you carry weight in the race towards Heaven. 

All men are naturally in danger of being lost forever; but you are doubly so, because of your possessions. 

Nothing is said to put out fire so soon as earth thrown upon it...

And nothing, I am sure, has such a tendency to quench the fire of religion as the possession of money. 

It was a solemn message which Buchanan, on his death-bed, sent to his old pupil: "He was going to a place where few kings and great men would come."

It is possible, no doubt, for you to be saved as well as others. 

With God, nothing is impossible. 

Abraham, Job, and David were all rich and yet saved. 

But oh, take heed to yourself! 

Money is a good servant but a bad master. 

Let that saying of our Lord's sink down into your heart: "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven!"

Well said an old divine: "The surface above gold mines is generally very barren." 

Well might old Latimer begin one of his sermons before Edward VI by quoting three times over our Lord's words: "Take heed and beware of covetousness!" 

And then saying, "What if I should say nothing else these three or four hours?" 

There are few prayers more wise and more necessary than that petition: "In all time of our wealth, good Lord deliver us!"

Has anyone who reads these pages little or no money? 

Then do not envy those who are richer than yourself? 

Pray for them.  

Pity them. 

Be charitable to their faults. 

Remember that high places are giddy places, and be not too hasty in your condemnation of their conduct. 

Perhaps if you had their difficulties you would do no better yourself. 

Beware of the love of money! 

A man may love money overmuch, without having any at all. 

Beware of the love of self ...it may be found in a poor cottage as well as in a palace. 

And beware of thinking that poverty alone will save you! 

If you would sit with Lazarus in glory you must not only have fellowship with him in suffering but in grace.

Does any reader desire to know the remedy against that love of self, which ruined the rich man's soul, and cleaves to us all by nature, like our skin!

I tell him plainly there is only one remedy, and I ask him to mark well what that remedy is. 

It is not the fear of Hell. 

It is not the hope of Heaven. 

It is not any sense of duty. 

Oh, no! 

The disease of selfishness is far too deeply rooted to yield to such secondary motives as these. 

Nothing will ever cure it, but an experimental knowledge of Christ's redeeming love! 

You must know the misery and guilt of your own estate by nature...

You must experience the power of Christ's atoning blood sprinkled upon your conscience, and making you whole...

You must taste the sweetness of peace with God through the mediation of Jesus, and feel the love of a reconciled Father shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit.

Then, and not until then, the mainspring of selfishness will be broken! 

Then, knowing the immensity of your debt to Christ, you will feel that nothing is too great and too costly to give to Him. 

Feeling that you have been loved much, when you deserved nothing...

You will heartily love in return, and cry, "What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits?" 

Feeling that you have freely received countless mercies, you will think it a privilege to do anything to please Him to Whom you owe all. 

Feeling that you have been bought with a price, and are no longer your own - you will labor to glorify God with body and spirit, which are His.

Yes, reader, I repeat it this day! 

I know no effectual remedy for the love of self  but a believing apprehension of the love of Christ. 

Other remedies may palliate the disease. - this alone will heal it. 

Other antidotes may hide its deformity - this alone will work a perfect cure.

An easy, good-natured temper may cover over selfishness in one man...

A love of praise may conceal it in a second...

A self-righteous discipline and an affected spirit of self-denial, may keep it out of sight in a third...

But nothing will ever cut up selfishness by the roots but the love of Christ revealed in the mind by the Holy Spirit, and felt in the heart by simple faith. 

Once let a man see the full meaning of the words, "Christ loved me and gave Himself for me!" and then he will delight to give himself to Christ, and all that he has to His service. 

He will live to Him, not in order that he may be saved...but because he is saved already. 

He will work for Him, not that he may have life and peace...but because life and peace are his already.

Go to the cross of Christ...all you who want to be delivered from the power of selfishness. 

Go and see what a price was paid there to provide a ransom for your soul. 

Go and see what an astounding sacrifice was there made that a door to eternal life might be provided for poor sinners like you. 

Go and see how the Son of God gave Himself for you...and learn to think it a small thing to give yourself to Him.

Reader, the disease which ruined the rich man in the parable, may be cured. 

But oh, remember, there is only one real remedy! 

If you would not live to yourself...you must live to Christ. 

See to it that this remedy is not only known - but applied...

Not only heard of - but used.

~J. R. Miller
 

Get Still Enough To Hear GOD'S Voice

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

NO Rest Apart From The Ark

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!”

~Charles Spurgeon~

Our Grit And God's Grace

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.

The Doom Of The Double-Hearted

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~

Causes Of Heart Wanderings~Self Management

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.

~G. D. Watson~