"Your heavenly Father."-Matthew 6:26

"Your heavenly Father."-Matthew 6:26

God's people are doubly His children, they are His offspring by creation, and they are His sons by adoption in Christ. Hence they are privileged to call Him, "Our Father which art in heaven." Father! Oh, what precious word is that. Here is authority: "If I be a Father, where is mine honour?" If ye be sons, where is your obedience? Here is affection mingled with authority; an authority which does not provoke rebellion; an obedience demanded which is most cheerfully rendered-which would not be withheld even if it might. The obedience which God's children yield to Him must be loving obedience. Do not go about the service of God as slaves to their taskmaster's toil, but run in the way of His commands because it is your Father's way. Yield your bodies as instruments of righteousness, because righteousness is your Father's will, and His will should be the will of His child. Father!-Here is a kingly attribute so sweetly veiled in love, that the King's crown is forgotten in the King 's face, and His sceptre becomes, not a rod of iron, but a silver sceptre of mercy-the sceptre indeed seems to be forgotten in the tender hand of Him who wields it. Father!-Here is honour and love. How great is a Father's love to his children! That which friendship cannot do, and mere benevolence will not attempt, a father's heart and hand must do for his sons. They are his offspring, he must bless them; they are his children, he must show himself strong in their defence. If an earthly father watches over his children with unceasing love and care, how much more does our heavenly Father? Abba, Father! He who can say this, hath uttered better music than cherubim or seraphim can reach. There is heaven in the depth of that word-Father! There is all I can ask; all my necessities can demand; all my wishes can desire. I have all in all to all eternity when I can say, "Father."

He will keep the feet of his saints. (1 Samuel 2:9)

He will keep the feet of his saints. (1 Samuel 2:9)

The way is slippery and our feet are feeble, but the Lord will keep our feet. If we give ourselves up by obedient faith to be His holy ones, He will Himself be our guardian. Not only will He charge His angels to keep us, but He Himself will preserve our goings.

He will keep our feet from falling so that we do not defile our garments, wound our souls, and cause the enemy to blaspheme.

He will keep our feet from wandering so that we do not go into paths of error, or ways of folly, or courses of the world's custom.

He will keep our feet from swelling through weariness, or blistering because of the roughness and length of the way.

He will keep our feet from wounding: our shoes shall be iron and brass so that even though we tread on the edge of the sword, or on deadly serpents, we shall not bleed or be poisoned.

He will also pluck our feet out of the net. We shall not be entangled by the deceit of our malicious and crafty foes.

With such a promise as this, let us run without weariness and walk without fear. He who keeps our feet will do it effectually.

Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. (Psalm 41:1)

Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. (Psalm 41:1)

 

To think about the poor and let them lie on our hearts is a Christian man's duty; for Jesus put them with us and near us when He said, "The poor ye have always with you."

 

Many give their money to the poor in a hurry, without thought; and many more give nothing at all. This precious promise belongs to those who "consider" the poor, look into their case, devise plans for their benefit, and considerately carry them out. We can do more by care than by cash, and most with two together. To those who consider the poor, the Lord promises His own consideration in times of distress. He will bring us out of trouble if we help others when they are in trouble. We shall receive very singular providential help if the Lord sees that we try to provide for others. We shall have a time of trouble, however generous we may be; but if we are charitable, we may put in a claim for peculiar deliverance, and the Lord will not deny His own word and bond. Miserly curmudgeons may help themselves, but considerate and generous believers the Lord will help. As you have done unto others, so will the Lord do unto you. Empty your pockets.

Everybody knows the little song, "Jesus Loves Me, This I Know."

Everybody knows the little song, "Jesus Loves Me, This I Know." But does the Father love us? And did He love us before Jesus died for us? Yes! "God [the Father] so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16).

If He so loved us before Jesus died for us, then was He reconciled to us before Jesus died? Yes! He was already in a state of being reconciled to us, not that any change in Him was at any time necessary. This reconciliation of the Father to us was not accomplished by the sacrifice of Jesus. The correct word to say is that the sacrifice of Jesus demonstrated the fact of His already being reconciled to us (Rom. 5:6-11, 15-21). So let us delete the word "accomplished" by the cross and substitute the right word, "demonstrated."

But what does this actually mean to us? And what does it mean to the souls for whom we pray and to whom we want to witness? It means that the Father has no chip on His shoulder against anyone personally; He loves "all men," even "the world," sinful as it is. It follows therefore that God treats every person as though we were righteous, even though we are not.

God loves the person, but He hates the sin. The sinner (that's everybody) must learn to believe that the Father loves him just as much as the Son loves him, so much that He wants to separate him from sin.

But the problem is that the sinner (everybody) loves sin, so how can we be separated from that which we have been born and bred to love? The answer is the cross--where the Son of God built that bridge across the dark chasm of our alienation from God. He also suffered alienation from His Father when He cried out on His cross, "My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matt. 27:46). No sinner has ever felt such horror of separation from God as did Jesus in that hour!

He was "made to be sin for us" (2 Cor. 5:21). Now the message of the cross says to us, "You be reconciled to God!" (5:20). The Father has proven His reconciliation to us; now let the truth melt our stony hearts.

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shalt be delivered. (Joel 12:32)

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shalt be delivered. (Joel 12:32)

Why do I not call on His name? Why do I run to this neighbor and that when God is so near and will hear my faintest call? Why do I sit down and devise schemes and invent plans! Why not at once roll my self and my burden upon the Lord? Straightforward is the best runner--why do I not run at once to the living God? In vain shall I look for deliverance anywhere else; but with God I shall find it; for here I have His royal "shall" to make it sure.

I need not ask whether I may call on Him or not, for that word whosoever is a very wide and comprehensive one. Whosoever means me, for it means anybody and everybody who calls upon God. I will therefore follow the leading of the text and at once call upon the glorious Lord who had made so large a promise.

My case is urgent, and I do not see how I am to be delivered; but this is no business of mine. He who makes the promise will find out ways and means of keeping it. It is mine to obey His commands; it is not mine to direct His counsels. I am His servant, not His solicitor. I call upon Him, and He will deliver me.

Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (John 6:37)

Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (John 6:37)

Is there any instance of our Lord's casting out a coming one? If there be so, we would like to know of it; but there has been none, and there never will be. Among the lost souls that will be in hell there  will  not be one that can say, "I went to Jesus, and He refused me." It is not possible that you or I should be the first to whom Jesus shall break His word. Let us not entertain so dark a suspicion.

Suppose we go to Jesus now about the evils of today. Oh, this we may be sure--He will not refuse us audience or cast us out. Those of us who have often been and those who have never gone before--let us go together, and we shall see that He will not shut the door of His grace in the face of any one of us.

"This man receiveth sinners," but He repulses none. We come to Him in weakness and sin, with trembling faith, and small knowledge, and slender hope; but He does not cast us out. We come by prayer, and that prayer broken; with confession, and that confession faulty; with praise, and that praise far short of His merits; but yet He receives us. We come diseased, polluted, worn out, and worthless; but He doth in no wise cast us out. Let us come again today to Him who never casts us out.

But don't we have to do something?

Everyone at some time has dreams, bad dreams, nightmares. But it seems that one always wakes up just before the final tragedy. According to the Bible, since the world began no human being has ever experienced the second death, that is, hell itself, with one Grand Exception--Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the second or "last Adam" of the human race.

As the Head of the human race, He "tasted death for every man" (Heb 2:9), not the first death which the Bible calls a "sleep," but the real thing, the utter God-forsakenness which is "the wages of sin" (Rom. 6:23; Rev. 2:11; 20:14). He died your second death; there is no need for you to endure it! Christ hasdone something for every human being, accomplished it, and given him the benefit.

"The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isa. 53:6). Christ is "the Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1:9). Not only is He "the propitiation for our sins," but also "for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2). A wise writer has written, "He restored the whole race of men to favor with God. ... No sin can be committed by man for which satisfaction has not been met on Calvary, ... a thorough expiation."

You and I live today because of that "satisfaction." He has lifted the heart-burden of "condemnation" which sinful Adam passed on to us and has pronounced on "all men" that "verdict of acquittal" that Paul describes in Romans 5:15-18 (Revised English Bible). That does not mean that everyone is automatically going to heaven; no, because many "receive ... the grace of God in vain" (2 Cor. 6:1), and reject what Christ has already won for them. But "for every man" there is deliverance already achieved for those "who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb. 2:14, 15).

But don't we have to do something? Of course; let your proud, sinful heart be melted; "humble yourselves ... under the mighty hand of God" (1 Peter 5:6); let the "constraint" of that love motivate you to live "henceforth ... unto Him which died for [you]" and not unto yourself (see 2 Cor. 5:14, 15). Say "Thank You!" with your life.

And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud. (Genesis 9:14)

And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud. (Genesis 9:14)

Just now clouds are plentiful enough, but we are not afraid that the world will be destroyed by a deluge. We see the rainbow often enough to prevent our having any such fears. The covenant which the Lord made with Noah stands fast, and we have no doubts about it. Why, then, should we think that the clouds of trouble, which now darken our sky, will end in our destruction? Let us dismiss such groundless and dishonoring fears.

Faith always sees the bow of covenant promise whenever sense sees the cloud of affliction. God has a bow with which He might shoot out His arrows of destruction. But see, it is turned upward! It is a bow without an arrow or a string; it is a bow hung out for show, no longer used for war. It is a bow of many colors, expressing joy and delight, and not a bow blood-red with slaughter or black with anger. Let us be of good courage. Never does God so darken our sky as to leave His covenant without a witness, and even if He did, we would trust Him since He cannot change or lie or in any other way fail to keep His covenant of peace. Until the waters go over the earth again, we shall have no reason for doubting our God.

Thou shalt see greater than these. (John 1:50)

Thou shalt see greater than these. (John 1:50)

This is spoken to a childlike believer, who was ready to accept Jesus as the Son of God, the King of Israel, upon one convincing piece of argument. Those who are willing to see shall see; it is because we shut our eyes that we become so sadly blind.

We have seen much already. Great things and unsearchable has the Lord showed unto us, for which we praise His name; but there are greater truths in His Word, greater depths of experience, greater heights of fellowship, greater works of usefulness, greater discoveries of power, and love, and wisdom. These we are yet to see if we are willing to believe our Lord. The faculty of inventing false doctrine is ruinous, but power to see the truth is a blessing. Heaven shall be opened to us, the way thither shall be made clear to us in the Son of Man, and the angelic commerce which goes on between the upper and the lower kingdoms shall be made more manifest to us. Let us keep our eyes open toward spiritual objects and expect to see more and more. Let us believe that our lives will not drivel down into nothing but that we shall be always on the growing hand, seeing greater and still greater things, till we behold the great God Himself and never again lose the sight of Him.

It's time to seek some "eyesalve" that can impart discernment (see Rev. 3:18).

It crops up all the time--from church-goers who say they have gone to church for decades and heard legalism preached. But now they rejoice that the gospel of "righteousness by faith" is proclaimed. Thank God for any true change for the better!
But are there different kinds of "righteousness by faith"? Revelation 14 presents an "everlasting gospel" that validates itself by raising up people who truly "keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." They prepare for the literal second coming of Christ.
The author of the Book of Revelation also writes a series of warnings against false claims of "righteousness by faith" in which "we lie, and do not the truth;" "we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us;" "we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us." "He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (1 John 1:6, 8, 10; 2:4, etc.).
Apparently the apostle John wants us to discern any "gospel" that does not produce obedience to all the commandments of God (all ten!). A preacher who says he is proclaiming the "gospel" but himself continues to "break one of these least commandments, and ... teach[es] men so," says Jesus, could be a highly sophisticated deception, yet not realize who he is (see Matt. 5:19). The true "everlasting gospel" must produce obedience to all those commandments in the one himself who preaches it.
Is this concern a reversal again to "legalism"? "The everlasting gospel" of Revelation 14 is not legalism; it is a clearer understanding of the cross of Christ than has ever "lightened the earth with glory" (see its full development in Rev. 18:1-4).
In the final crisis the opposite view of "righteousness by faith" will spin the Emperor's New Clothes, with multitudes "covered" by what they assume is a spiritual insurance policy. They will go for "the mark of the beast," which will be the most sophisticated counterfeit of "the everlasting gospel" the world has ever seen.
It's time to seek some "eyesalve" that can impart discernment (see Rev. 3:18).