God will lift up Himself at the right season.

Now will I rise, saith the Lord; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself. (Isaiah 33:10)

 

When the spoilers had made the land as waste as if devoured by locusts, and the warriors who had defended the country sat down and wept like women, then the Lord came to the rescue. When travelers ceased from the roads to Zion, and Bashan and Carmel were as vineyards from which the fruit has failed, then the Lord arose. God is exalted in the midst of an afflicted people, for they seek His face and trust Him. He is still more exalted when in answer to their cries He lifts up Himself to deliver them and overthrow their enemies.

 

Is it a day of sorrow with us? Let us expect to see the Lord glorified in our deliverance. Are we drawn out in fervent prayer? Do we cry day and night unto Him? Then the set time for His grace is near. God will lift up Himself at the right season. He will arise when it will be most for the display of His glory. We wish for His glory more than we long for our own deliverance. Let the Lord be exalted, and our chief desire is obtained.

 

Lord, help us in such a way that we may see that Thou Thyself art working. May we magnify Thee in our inmost souls. Make all around us to see how good and great a God Thou art.

 

Now will I rise, saith the Lord; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself. (Isaiah 33:10)

Now will I rise, saith the Lord; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself. (Isaiah 33:10)

When the spoilers had made the land as waste as if devoured by locusts, and the warriors who had defended the country sat down and wept like women, then the Lord came to the rescue. When travelers ceased from the roads to Zion, and Bashan and Carmel were as vineyards from which the fruit has failed, then the Lord arose. God is exalted in the midst of an afflicted people, for they seek His face and trust Him. He is still more exalted when in answer to their cries He lifts up Himself to deliver them and overthrow their enemies.

Is it a day of sorrow with us? Let us expect to see the Lord glorified in our deliverance. Are we drawn out in fervent prayer? Do we cry day and night unto Him? Then the set time for His grace is near. God will lift up Himself at the right season. He will arise when it will be most for the display of His glory. We wish for His glory more than we long for our own deliverance. Let the Lord be exalted, and our chief desire is obtained.

Lord, help us in such a way that we may see that Thou Thyself art working. May we magnify Thee in our inmost souls. Make all around us to see how good and great a God Thou art.

For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake

For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake; because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people. (1 Samuel 12:22)

God's choice of His people is the reason for His abiding by them and not forsaking them. He chose them for His love, and He loves them for His choice. His own good pleasure is the source of their election, and His election is the reason for the continuance of His pleasure in them. It would dishonor His great name for Him to forsake them, since it would either show that He made an error in His choice or that He was fickle in His love. God's love has this glory, that it never changes, and this glory He will never tarnish.

By all the memories of the Lord's former lovingkindnesses let us rest assured that He will not forsake us. He who has gone so far as to make us His people will not undo the creation of His grace. He has not wrought such wonders for us that He might leave us after all. His Son Jesus has died for us, and we may be sure that He has not died in vain. Can He forsake those for whom He shed His blood? Because He has hitherto taken pleasure in choosing and in saving us, it will be His pleasure still to bless us. Our Lord Jesus is no changeable lover. Having loved His own, He loves them to the end.

A worldly Christian is spiritually diseased

Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew. (Deuteronomy 33:28)

The more we dwell alone, the more safe shall we be. God would have His people separate from sinners, His call to them is, "Come ye out from among them."...A worldly Christian is spiritually diseased. Those who compromise with Christ's enemies may be reckoned with them.

Our safety lies, not in making terms with the enemy, but in dwelling alone with our Best Friend. If we do this, we shall dwell in safety despite the sarcasms, the slanders, and the sneers of the world. We shall be safe from the baleful influence of its unbelief, its pride, its vanity, its filthiness.

God also will make us dwell in safety alone in that day when sin shall be visited on the nations by wars and famines. The Lord brought Abram from Ur of the Chaldees, but Abram stopped halfway. He had no blessing till, having set out to go to the land of Canaan, to the land of Canaan he came. He was safe alone even in the midst of foes. Lot was not safe in Sodom though in a circle of friends. Our safety is in dwelling apart with God.

What the Bible teaches about "justification"

What the Bible teaches about "justification" is clear as sunlight, but "the little horn" of Daniel's prophecies has sought to confuse this truth. It had been God's intention that "the faith of Jesus" should lighten the earth with glory. But the great "falling away" (apostasy) that Paul predicted in 2 Thessalonians 2 (based on Daniel!) was the work of "the man of sin" (vss. 3-7). He has stirred up debate and confusion about "justification." These have darkened this glorious truth for many sincere people. (Maybe you, too!)

The New English Bible aptly defines that big word "justification" as simply God's "verdict of acquittal" (Rom. 5:16). Our enemy, Satan, condemns us in God's law court; he himself is shut out of heaven, and charges that we should be, too. But God steps in and vindicates, "acquits" us, as though we had never sinned. Now He can send His rain and sunshine on all alike as though we were innocent. He gives "all men" this "free gift ... unto justification of life" (vs. 18, KJV; Matt. 5:45). But how can the Father pronounce this "acquittal" that Satan hates? Is it fair? Muslims say, "No!" But what's the Bible answer?

The Son of God has become "the second Adam," the new corporate Head of our human race, has taken all our guilt in upon Himself ("the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all," Isa. 53:6), accepted our condemnation, died our second death both "for us" and "as us," and thus has "acquitted" us. We are "justified by His blood," says Paul (Rom. 5:9), which was shed at the cross of Jesus. Six times Paul says the "acquittal" is a "gift" given to "all men." "Many" reject the "gift," throw it away, "sell the birthright." But if you clasp it to your heart, cherish it, keep it, appreciate it, that is, "believe"--you cannot be lost

The Lord Himself is being merciful to you

A new day is before you. You are tired of being selfish, world-loving, absorbed in your own pleasure. Night after night you go to bed feeling vaguely condemned for not having accomplished anything that God can be pleased about. You hate yourself for wasting precious time on TV, or reading novels, or wandering aimlessly in the mall. What's happening to you?

The Lord Himself is being merciful to you for He is giving you your own personal taste of what Isaiah had in his chapter 6 epiphany. You are realizing, "Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a [person] of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips" (vs. 5). This vague feeling of unease is not without meaning. The Holy Spirit of God is interacting with you. Heaven has come down to you; you are important in God's sight. He actually loves you as an individual so much that He will not permit you to be content in alienation from Him, and in alienation from your fellow human beings.

What's happening to you is the direct fulfillment of what Jesus promised: He would pray to the Father for you, and the Father is answering His prayer by sending you "another Helper, ... even the [Holy] Spirit of truth" (John 14:16, 17). You have first-hand evidence of His personal interest in you; Heaven has stopped to look at you, to notice you! He is fulfilling His first work: "And when He is come, He will convict the world of sin ... : of sin, because they do not believe in Me" (16:8, 9). To be worldly, to live for self, is sin!

You are worried because you do not see "fruit" in your life; there are no "works" that prove that you are useful in God's "economy."

Turn to Isaiah 50:4, 5. And when you read the personal pronoun "Me," believe that it is YOU whom the Lord "awakens ... morning by morning, .. to hear as the learned." "... that [YOU] should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary." You have no idea who that "weary one" is whom you will meet somewhere today. Suddenly, life has become interesting, challenging, thrilling, yes, you are on an adventure with the Holy Spirit. Knowing full well that you are "undone," that you don't know how to speak that "word in season" to anyone, you simply cast yourself on the mercy of the Lord. And you go forth.

Then tonight, kneel by your bedside and ask Him how the day went. I think you will be praising Him.

What does it mean to be a true Christian today?

A terrific battle is being fought behind the scenes for the very soul of Christ's church. What does it mean to be a true Christian today? How can we honor Him in this period of world history? The answer is in the Bible teaching of the cosmic Day of Atonement, the "cleansing of the sanctuary" typified by the ancient Hebrew Yom Kippur. That was the only day in the year when God's people were required to fast. Why? Was God angry with them? No! It was the day for a final reconciliation with Him (the word "atonement" means at one with), the day when the last vestige of buried, unrealized alienation from God was to be healed.

That alienation is the result of sin: "The carnal mind is enmity against God" (Rom. 8:7). We don't realize the depth of that "enmity" ("thou knowest not that thou are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked," Rev. 3:17). The ancient Levitical day of atonement was only a kindergarten lesson: "on that day shall the [high] priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord" (Lev. 16:30).

The real Day of Atonement is now, accomplishing a work of atonement never before fully achieved for the body of God's people. As most of an iceberg is hidden beneath the sea, so most of our sin is hidden from our consciousness, buried, so that we invariably are self-deceived about our real character before God, not ready for the final issues in "the great controversy between Christ and Satan." Hence God has provided a special opportunity of preparation known as the Day of Atonement, the real thing, not the kindergarten edition of long ago. It's the time Jesus spoke of: "Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day [of final judgment] come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore ... [prepare] to stand before the Son of man" (Luke 21:34-36).

That final atonement, final reconciliation with Christ, is a time for closer sympathy with Him; impossible unless there is also a closer sympathy with humanity that Christ took upon Himself. (There is an ecological dimension.) One thoughtful writer has said, "Live simply so that others may simply live."

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus ..." (Phil. 2:5).

But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue

But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. (Exodus 11:7)

What! Has God power over the tongues of dogs! Can he keep ours from barking? Yes, it is even so. He can prevent an Egyptian dog from worrying one of the lambs of Israel's flock. Doth God silence dogs, and doggish ones among men, and the great dog at hell's gate? Then let us move on our way without fear.

If He lets dogs move their tongues, yet He can stop their teeth. They may make a dreadful noise and still do us no real harm. Yet, how sweet is quiet! How delightful to move about among enemies and perceive that God maketh them to be at peace with us! Like Daniel in the den of lions we are unhurt amid destroyers.

Oh, that today this word of the Lord to Israel might be true to me! Does the dog worry me? I will tell my Lord about him. Lord, he does not care for my pleadings; do Thou speak the word of power, and he must lie down. Give me peace, O my God, and let me see Thy hand so distinctly in it that I may most clearly perceive the difference which Thy grace has made between me and the ungodly!

Pause, my soul, and ask thyself: If Jesus were to listen to thy talk would He be pleased with it?

They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; (Malachi 3:17)

A day is coming in which the crown jewels of our great King shall be counted, that it may be seen whether they answer to the inventory which His Father gave Him. My soul, wilt thou be among the precious things of Jesus? Thou art precious to Him if He is precious to thee, and thou shalt be His "in that day," if He is thine in this day.

In the days of Malachi, the chosen of the Lord were accustomed so to converse with each other that their God Himself listened to their talk. He liked it so well that He took notes of it; yes, and made a book of it, which He lodged in His record office. Pleased with their conversation, He was also pleased with them. Pause, my soul, and ask thyself: If Jesus were to listen to thy talk would He be pleased with it? Is it to His glory and to the edification of the brotherhood? Say, my soul, and be sure thou sayest the truth.

But what will the honor be for us poor creatures to be reckoned by the Lord to be His crown jewels! This honor have all the saints. Jesus not only says, "They are mine," but, "They shall be mine." He bought us, sought us, brought us in, and has so far wrought us to His image that we shall be fought for by Him with all His might.

Probably you've spent years walking in the shadows of doubt.

Ask anyone and they'll tell you they'd rather live under the New Covenant than under the Old. But what does that mean? What practical, day-by-day benefit or difference can it be?

The New Covenant impinges on you directly, personally, individually. It's the promises that the Lord God made to Abraham and his children to give them everything--the sky if you please: the whole earth for "an everlasting possession," plus the everlasting life to go along with it, plus the righteousness necessary to inhabit the new earth (2 Peter 3:13). And on top of it all, meanwhile, the happiest life possible here and now while you await the coming of Christ and His new earth.

All seven of God's promises to Abraham are yours (Gen. 12:2, 3). And best of them all, the promise to make you to be a blessing to other people as long as you live and wherever you go ("thou shalt be a blessing, ... and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed"). Yes, that's promised to you.

It's the full spectrum of the 23rd Psalm placed as a gift directly at your feet, as though it was written especially for you. Henceforth you "shall not want." "No good thing will [the Lord] withhold from [you]." Beyond your wildest dreams, "the Lord will give grace and glory" (Psalm 84:11; read the entire psalm, it's "amiable" news).

You were born with a natural proclivity to dis-believe all this Good News (I assume you were born on planet Earth). At best, you were born a descendant of Abraham and Sarah, both of whom spent the greater part of their lives in disbelief of the New Covenant and in submission to the Old Covenant (Abraham took Hagar, and Sarah was bitter all those years until she finally repented and became pregnant with Isaac).

Probably you've spent years walking in the shadows of doubt. And now it's the hardest thing you've ever done to believe all those promises wholeheartedly. (That's the only hard thing about being saved eternally--learning to believe like Abraham did.) But thank God you have a new day; you can choose to believe, and pray with the distraught father of Mark 9, "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief" (vs. 24). God will never despise that prayer!

The difference between the New Covenant and the Old

The difference between the New Covenant and the Old is simply the difference between salvation by faith and salvation by works. When God makes a promise, there is life in the promise itself. This is astounding news to many: believing a promise of God changes your heart?! The Bible answer is YES! There "have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust" (2 Peter 1:4).

There are the glorious fruits of salvation in that one statement. (1) "Through" the promises themselves we become converted. (2) Through the promises we "escape corruption"--isn't that our practical problem of daily living? Yes, by believing these "great and precious promises" we prepare for translation at the second coming of Christ.

It's not by works. But that doesn't mean that the good works are not there--they are there as the result of believing those "promises"! The Bible speaks of "receiving the promises" (Heb. 11:13, 17). That is the same as believing them. Such "receiving" God's promises delivers men and women and youth from addictions and other worldly allurements, for we read, "Having these promises [receiving them], beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Cor. 7:1).

Thus the New Covenant is the message of the latter rain and the Loud Cry that lightens the earth with glory.