If we would gain benefit by the word, we must make our PROFITING the specific object of hearing it preached. By profiting I mean our growth in religious knowledge, affection, and practice; in other words, the increase of our holiness, spirituality, and heavenly-mindedness. In nothing, I believe, are professing Christians more deficient, than in their manner of, and motives for attending the public means of grace. It is painful and humiliating to think how extensively the gratifications of taste, and the pleasure produced by eloquence and oratory, are substituted for the cultivation of the mind in scriptural truth, and the improvement of the heart in Christian excellence. To be pleased—and not to be profited—is the object of the multitude. Hence the question, so often asked of those who have been listening to the solemn truths of salvation and eternity, “Well, how have you been pleased today?” And hence also, the common answer to such an inquiry, “O greatly delighted. It was a most eloquent sermon.” Pleased we may and ought to seek to be, but only as we are profited. Eloquence we may covet and admire; but then it should be the eloquence of truth, and not of mere rhetoric; the eloquence which makes us hate sin, love God, and mortify our corruptions; the eloquence which leaves us neither time nor disposition to praise, or scarcely think of the preacher, but absorbs us in the subject; the eloquence which burns into the very heart and consumes our lusts, and stimulates and strengthens our virtues; the eloquence of the Bible, and not of the schoolbook.
Each time I read the words of John the Baptist it makes me want to repent in dust and ashes for my prideful, self-seeking heart. He has a way of getting directly to the heart of things. Even though we only have record of a few sentences, they pack a powerful punch.
A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. John 3:27
He must increase, but I must decrease. John 3:30
He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. Matthew 3:11
I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water. John 1:31
This is a far cry from so much of what I see in “ministry” today. Driving down the interstate there are billboards advertising local churches displaying huge pictures of the pastor and his wife. Not just one. Many. The phrase that comes to mind each time I see them is “what were they thinking????”
“Therefore I came”, John said. Why? That Christ should be revealed.
Not that I should become well known. Not that I should build a thriving church. But that Christ should be revealed.
There is a trap set for us, and it is ministry. Oh it looks so beautiful and desirable, and it seems so good. But ministry becomes idolatry when the purpose is anything other than revealing Christ.
In these days of Christian celebrities, may God guard our hearts from being caught up in such folly.
“Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up to Mount Hor; and strip Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son; for Aaron shall be gathered to his people and die there.” Numbers 20:26
Several years ago I discovered the writings of Art Katz, which have been transformational for me. I had never been a great fan of Leviticus, dreading only the genealogies more. But Art Katz brought out some wonderful nuances of this book. In particular, the consecration of Aaron and his sons for the priesthood was a striking passage. (Leviticus 8). As part of the ceremony, Moses took them to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, gathered all the congregation around, and then stripped and washed them before putting the priestly garments on them. Although the priesthood was the highest calling, it involved the most humiliating initiation.
I have seen artists’ renditions of the high priestly garments and they are beautifully ornate. Of a certainty, they drew attention. It must have been quite an experience to wear those robes, that breastplate, the holy crown.
However, as the time drew near for Aaron’s death, Moses took Aaron up the mountain and he left the priesthood the same way he entered it – stripped before the watching world.
Just like Aaron, none of us enter into this priesthood of believers without being stripped of our own righteousness and broken over our sin. It is a humiliating experience to have your utter sinfulness revealed and all pretense of our own goodness stripped away. Oh, the tears and groanings and soul wrenching pain of repentance. But after the humiliation, we are washed with His Word and clothed with His righteousness. And although we entered this world through birth, it is only through this second birth that we truly begin to live.
But there will come a day, the day appointed for our departing from this world, when death will have its moment. Taken by strangers, we will be prepared for death as our lifeless bodies will be stripped and washed and put into the ground.
Humiliation and nakedness – in the beginning and the end. But what about the stuff between? That time between entrance into the priesthood and exiting this world….
For somewhere around 40 years Aaron was high priest. And while it wasn’t always pleasant, his position did give him a unique position in relation to God and the people. 40 years to be faithful or unfaithful. 40 years to be a blessing or a hindrance. 40 years to more fully learn the ways and nature of this God or to become insulated from him by religion.
What are we doing with these few years between life and death? This is the question we must ask ourselves. When that second stripping comes, will we be able to face it with joy, knowing that we have run this race well?
It is my prayer that we will. May God help us to be faithful to do all and be all to the glory of His name.
Give us men who will speak Your truth no matter the consequences.
Give us men who prefer to speak the truth of Your word to a few rather than to speak the fluff of this world to a multitude. Men who have no agenda other than Christ and no need for celebrity status.
Lord give us men who cry out to You in prayer before they ever step into the pulpit.
Lord give us men whose voices thunder with a word from heaven; whose souls are aflame with a heavenly vision of a glorious Saviour.
Oh give us men who will not water down Your truth because it seems too hard, too difficult for us to accept and obey, but who will tell us with all the unction that Your spirit presses upon them what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
Give us men who will fly in the face of societal norms without fear when the faithful preaching of the gospel requires it.
Lord, we do not need 10 steps to improve ourselves. We need to know how to die that Christ might be formed in us. Give us preachers who not only teach this truth, but live it before us.
Teach us, O man of God, the whole counsel of God. The things that bring us comfort and those things that wring our souls with conviction and require something of us.
Jesus Christ has true excellency, and so great an excellency,
that when you come to truly see him, you look no further,
but your mind rests there.
There is a transcendent glory and an
ineffable sweetness in Christ.
You see that you had been pursuing shadows,
but now you have found the substance.
You realize that you had been seeking happiness in the stream,
but now you have found the ocean.
The excellency of Christ is an object adequate to the natural
cravings of the soul, and is sufficient to fill its capacity.
Christ has an infinite excellency, such as the mind desires,
in which it can find no bounds; and the more the mind
contemplates Him, the more excellent does He appear.
Each new discovery of Christ makes His beauty appear more
ravishing, and the mind can see no end to His excellency.
There is room enough for the mind to go deeper and deeper,
and never come to the bottom.
Christ’s excellency is always fresh and new, and will as much
delight us, after we have beheld Him a thousand, or ten thousand
years, as when we have seen him the first moment.
The soul is exceedingly ravished when
it first looks on the beauty of Christ.
It is never weary of Him.
“And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly” – Luke 22:44
I love how in every aspect of the life of Jesus, we see a model of how to do things right. As Jesus faces the ultimate conclusion of His time here on earth, He retreats into the garden of Gethsemane for some time in prayer. How can we even imagine the intensity of what He felt in those moments? And as the intensity of His agony increased, so did the intensity of His prayer.
I face some intense moments. We all do. Although they pale in comparison to what Jesus faced, they are still difficult. Agony comes in a variety of flavors.
If I were to rewrite this verse to refer to myself, it would read something like this:
“and being in great agony, she raised her voice and complained.”
“and being in great agony, she became frustrated and hopeless.”
“and being in great agony, she felt distant from God and didn’t pray.”
“and being in great agony, she felt exceedingly sorry for herself.”
“and being in great agony, she pouted and felt that life had treated her very unfairly.”
I know that in my most difficult moments that I should run to God immediately, but often I don’t do that.
A few moments to wallow in self-pity, a few moments to garner the sympathy of others, a few moments to determine how I’m going to fix things. And the agony only increases and I am no closer to God.
How true are the words of this famous hymn:
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
all because we do not carry
everything to God in prayer
Lord, in the various agonies of life, help me to immediately draw near to You.
“All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, from seed to skin.” Numbers 6:4
Under the old covenant, a person could take the vow of a Nazarite and separate themselves to God for a period of time. There were some people that were Nazirites from birth. Samson and John the Baptist are examples. But it seems for the most part to be a vow that was taken voluntarily.
Numbers 6:2 gives us the purpose for this vow – “to separate themselves unto the Lord.”
Separation – this is a word that fascinates me. My attention has been intensely riveted on this concept for many months. It is clearly a Biblical concept, demonstrated in the Old Testament by God choosing Israel as His own people from among the nations and then in the New Testament by Christ calling His own people from out of the world. In neither case was there a physical separation from the world, but there was a clear expectation that there would be such a profound difference in the manner of life, that a distinction would be noticeable.
This separation of belonging to Christ is to be radical and all encompassing. Just as the Nazarite ate no part of the grape, from seed to skin, we are to be radically separated from the world. Our interests, our priorities, our conversations – these should not follow the pattern of those who do not name Christ. From the innermost hidden recesses of our hearts to the outer person we present to the world, we should be different. From seed to skin.
But God forbid that we should merely take on the external forms of religion. How does God receive any glory from one who separates himself only to becomes a Pharisee, glorying in his separation, too holy to associate with “lesser beings”?? We do not turn away from the pleasures this world has to offer to follow a system of rules. But we have discovered what Thomas Chalmers calls “the expulsive power of a new affection”. We are not only separated from, but we are separated to. Separated to this Christ, this Saviour who has so mercifully redeemed us. All else pales in comparison and the world’s entertainments and amusements seem dull and lifeless after a glimpse of the glory of the eternal Lord.
I will close with these words from Mr. Chalmers
The love of the world cannot be expunged by a mere demonstration of the world’s worthlessness. But may it not be supplanted by the love of that which is more worthy than itself? The heart cannot be prevailed upon to part with the world, by a simple act of resignation. But may not the heart be prevailed upon to admit into its preference another, who shall subordinate the world, and bring it down from its wonted ascendancy? If the throne which is placed there must have an occupier, and the tyrant that now reigns has occupied it wrongfully, he may not leave a bosom which would rather detain him than be left in desolation. But may he not give way to the lawful sovereign, appearing with every charm that can secure His willing admittance, and taking unto himself His great power to subdue the moral nature of man, and to reign over it? In a word, if the way to disengage the heart from the positive love of one great and ascendant object, is to fasten it in positive love to another, then it is not by exposing the worthlessness of the former, but by addressing to the mental eye the worth and excellence of the latter, that all old things are to be done away and all things are to become new.
“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” John 17:3
It’s amazing how indestructible we can feel. 70, 80, 90 years does seem like an awfully long time to a finite mind. But the Bible says it is a vapor. A puff of smoke that you see for a moment and then it disappears. As we get older, I think some of this reality begins to dawn on us. So, as we become more settled in life, successful in career, we realize that now is the time to go for the gusto, grab life by the horns, eat, drink and be merry. At some point even 90 years doesn’t seem so terribly long and we begin trying to pack as much life into those few years as possible.
I know people who seem to live to accumulate more and better stuff. To them, that is life.
I know people who seem to live to stay intoxicated in some form as often as possible. To them, that is life.
I know some people who seem to live for that next relationship. To them, that is life.
I know people who seem to live to succeed in business. To them, that is life.
For those who don’t know Jesus, these drives are understandable. I am sad for them and long for them to know Jesus. But I understand why they chase after these other things. But oh how my heart breaks when those who name the name of Christ pursue these things.
In Christ, we have all things that pertain to life and godliness. These other things can NEVER give life, and certainly not abundant, eternal life. How sad to see those to whom grace has been extended, choose earthly delights instead of delighting in Christ.
Life is too short to almost live.
“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” John 17:3
“So Moses took the carts and the oxen and gave them to the Levites………..But to the sons of Kohath he gave none, because theirs was the service of the holy things, which they carried on their shoulders.” Numbers 7:6,9
The people of Israel were a mobile people during this period of their history. They moved frequently from one place to the next as God directed. This must have become tiresome, as they were continuously taking apart, packing up, carrying, unpacking and setting back up. Over and over and over.
In addition to their own households, the Levites also had the responsibility of moving the tabernacle. The three divisions, Gershon, Merari and Kohath, were each assigned specific areas of the tabernacle that they were responsible for. Kohath was responsible for the contents – the holy items. Nobody else was allowed to draw so near to the furniture and utensils of the tabernacle. And not even the Kohathites could come near until these things were covered with a blue cloth and a covering of badger skins. But once the coverings were in place, the Kohathites handled the holy things until they reached the next destination. I wonder if there was a sense of awe accompanying this charge.
The tabernacle furnishings had been fashioned with rings on the corners so that pole could be inserted. This allowed for the furnishings to be carried on the shoulders of the Levites as the Israelites travelled.
When the leaders of Israel felt moved to make an offering to the Lord of carts and oxen, the Lord instructed Moses to give these to the Levites. The sons of Gershon were given carts and oxen, and the sons of Merari were given carts and oxen. But the sons of Kohath were not given carts or oxen. Reason would tell us that since theirs was the most important part of the tabernacle that they should have been the first to receive carts and oxen. Why did they receive nothing?
I wonder if the Lord wanted them to continually be reminded of the weighty responsibility of handling the holy things, lest they should become careless or thoughtless in the handling of them.
We are entrusted with holy things as well. God has given us His Word and His Spirit. How are we handling these? Have we just tossed them into a cart to be hauled around, requiring nothing from us? Oh, but God has desired us to feel the weightiness. It is a weightiness that is not wearisome, but serves as a reminder of how very holy these holy things are.
I enjoy waking up early when everything is quiet. The chaos of life hasn’t had an opportunity to interject itself into my thoughts yet and my mind seems like still waters. No ripples of worry, no fretting over tasks to be accomplished. Just a blank slate waiting to be written upon.
One of my first activities of the morning is to spend some time reading the Bible. Once I begin preparing for work, I find that my mind continues to ponder the morning’s reading.
Recently, my morning’s reading included this phrase – “love your enemies”. I found that phrase rolling around in my thoughts that morning. It was quickly followed by 1 Corinthians 13.
“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (v. 4-7)
As I thought on these two passages I realized how radical this was, and how far short I had fallen in living this. I had considered that if I tolerated those who were unkind to me, which sometimes amounted to nothing more than ignoring them, that I had fulfilled the command to love my enemies. But this type of treatment would not even reach the standard of what in previous generations had been considered mere common civility.
I have turned the command of the Lord, which is a command of action, into a passive command. Matthew 5:44 gives these instructions:
Love your enemies
Bless those who curse you
Do good to those who hate you
Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.
So it seems to me that this passage, along with 1 Corinthians 13, gives us a comprehensive love plan. Matthew 5 tells us what our outward, active response should be, and 1 Corinthians 13 instructs us as to a proper attitude of the heart.
The Lord, as usual, has covered all the bases. Now all that remains is for me to obey.
He is my Delight 