The Grindstone

The Peril of Divided Loyalties

2006-05-19T10:06:00.000-07:00

by T. Austin-Sparks
Reading: 1 Sam. 31:1-13; 2 Sam. 1:17-27.

It is around Jonathan that our thoughts are gathered at this time. His is a strange and very pathetic story and raises a matter which is perhaps more difficult to resolve than most - the whole question of divided loyalties.

We take a cursory glance at Jonathan and his father Saul, and we see a good many variations in their histories; strange mixture, many conflicting and contradictory features. Sometimes both of them seem to be in the full flood of Divine blessing and help. At one time you find Saul moving out and subduing all his enemies round about, seeming to be in a tide of spiritual life and power and help from the Lord, and then at another time you see situations such as the one we have just read, with everything in reverse - defeat, failure, tragedy. So also with Jonathan. There was at least one outstanding occasion when with his armourbearer he went out and made that great assault upon the Philistines, issuing in the complete demoralization of the Philistines so that they fled before Israel. Clearly the Lord was with Jonathan on that day in great fulness and blessing. Then you come to the story we have just read - complete reverse. Taking such an inconsistent and contradictory history, you have to get down into it and behind it and ask some basic questions.

Divided Loyalties Issue in Disaster

Take Jonathan. Even he can be involved at last in the awful tragedy of compromise. It is one of the saddest stories. We all want to shed tears when we read David's lament over Jonathan. We remember the beginnings of the relationship between David and Jonathan, how their souls were knit together. Their story is always being taken as a kind of classic and model of friendship, and yet even there there were divided loyalties in the case of Jonathan - loyalty to the realm of nature, to his father after the flesh, straining against his loyalty to David, and causing him to be a divided personality. When he is with his father, his heart is with David. When he is with David, he feels the pull of duty to his father. He is a divided man. What a problem divided loyalties present!

Jonathan must have known all about that Amalek episode and what Samuel did; that in the Divine intent the kingdom was then taken from Saul and passed to David; that the Lord forsook Saul and was no longer with him. He may have known of the consultation with the witch, the touching of that realm forbidden so strongly by the Lord. And yet, on natural grounds of some kind, Jonathan did not break with that whole system of things. What a different story might have been told if he had taken sides wholly with David and been David's right hand man for the kingdom! But this divided loyalty involved him in the ultimate tragedy. And even good people who have been blessed of the Lord, to whom He has shown His favour and whom He has used very greatly, may in the end be involved in spiritual tragedy if for some reason compromise has entered in. It may have come in because of policy. What a snare policy is! We tell ourselves we must be very careful that we do not do this or that because it may have such and such a result. It is all policy and diplomacy. 'We must be careful to avoid...' - what? Just what we seek to avoid betrays the whole case. Are we afraid of losing prestige with men, support, friends, position, familial fondness and nostalgic loves, or opportunity? Do these things weigh with us as over against implicit obedience to the Lord? If so, there is divided loyalty; and if we allow it, we may at the end pass into terrible tragedy; the tragedy that always follows compromise.

Divine Fulness Reached By Subjection to Divine Principles

The whole question of spiritual fulness is at stake. I have spoken of what might have been in the case of Jonathan. David came to the kingdom in fulness, and Jonathan might have been there at his side, his strength and support in the kingdom. But no; instead of that, he passes out in this tragic way. In a sense, there is nothing wrong with Jonathan; but he has become involved in compromise with another one and another instrument and another order of things, because he did not make a clean cut. It is not for us to judge why, but it does seem that it must have been that he argued on the ground of natural reasoning about this thing. What does it all amount to? If spiritual fulness is to be reached, we have to be governed by Divine and heavenly principles, and not by human considerations. Divine principles; not, What will the consequences be? not, What shall we lose? not even, What will the Lord lose? - because that is a very subtle argument. The Lord does not ask us to reason this thing out on that level at all. He says, 'What is the Divine principle? Let that principle govern and guide.' You may not see at all how it is going to work out. If you are governed by Divine principles you may seem to lose a lot here; you may, for a time, have to go out with David and wait. But in the end the principles will be vindicated. You have to recognise that compromise on principle only brings disaster. You see it everywhere.

Former Blessing No Argument for Present Compromise

The need is to seek to know what the Divine principle is in any matter. Has God revealed His own thought and mind? Then I must not pursue some other way on the ground that the Lord has blessed and the Lord has used that other way. That was true of Saul; that was true of Jonathan. But there came a point at which an ultimate issue was raised on principle by the revealing of God's full mind. Now I cannot argue that because people have been blessed and used of the Lord though they have not at given times and in given ways stood for that full mind, therefore it is not necessary for me to be abandoned to God's full thought. That is human argument. We must not do it. The Lord blesses when the heart is wholly for Him, but that does not mean that everything is there that He wants. The very people whom He is using He will presently bring to see something more of His will and how much more deeply His thoughts go. Then it is no less an issue than Amalek. Human judgment must be utterly put away, in the light of the Divine mind then revealed.

I have no doubt you can see through what I am saying a great deal more. If you do not grasp the whole thing, just take this as a guiding lesson in life, that where Divine fulness is concerned, the fact that the Lord blesses does not warrant us in arguing that we can stay in a certain position, that there is nothing more required. The point is, has the Lord revealed something more than is actually represented in the sphere where we have known His blessing? If so, it is for us to go on in the light of all that the Lord has revealed, and take the consequences. In the end it will be seen whether the principle was vindicated by God.

This story of Jonathan is, I say, a terribly pathetic and tragic story. No doubt he had a good argument for what he did, but he certainly did not argue from the heavenly standpoint. He did not say, 'God has made it perfectly clear that it is through David that His full purpose is to be realized. I knew from the beginning that David was the anointed, and not my father; I have had it confirmed again and again; I told David that he was going to have the throne and the kingdom; my heart is with him; and yet he is out there in the wilderness and I am here with my father. What am I doing here?' He did not argue, 'That is the direction in which the Lord's full purpose lies; it is for me to be there.' He doubtless had his arguments and his reasons and could probably have been very plausible as to why he was still sticking to his father and to the kingdom from which God had departed. He was compromising. His loyalty was divided and he was involved in the tragedy.

It is a fresh call to us to act on principle with the Lord and not to argue from any other standpoint, on any other ground. We must say, 'What has the Lord revealed? It will mean this, it will cost that, it will involve me thus; but that is not the point. I am not going to be influenced or governed by consequences at all. Policy must have no place with me. What God has revealed - that is the only argument for me.'

So Amalek became the occasion for bringing up the whole question of obedience to the Lord, involving the necessity for the setting aside of a great deal of natural judgment. "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?" (1 Sam: 15:22). Beyond all outward observance and profession, the Lord looks for full and uncompromising obedience to His revealed will.

First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Nov-Dec 1949, Vol 27-6

Thought for the day....

2006-01-03T20:51:00.000-08:00

This first thought is devastatingly simple: What you find your life's pleasure in, what you need and want in order to be truly happy, the place where you find your comfort and strength... this is the place where you must also find the salvation for your soul. It is either Jesus, or it is an idol.

Frankly, most people either find their comfort, identity, and happiness in evil vices, their occupation, man-made religious activities, some sport or hobby, or in physical family ties. Some combination of these "drug addictions" allows the average unregenerate person to "be happy" and contentedly comatose in this fallen world. These are nothing but DRUGS, illegal substances that dull the senses to the REALITY that might be theirs in Jesus and His Kingdom. Yet most people, instead, harden themselves with the substitute "high" of these "drug addictions." Sports (as an escape or vice, or affection and conversation consumer), or job, or family...are for many no different than worshipping idols. Why? Because looking to these things for happiness, strength, peace, bonding, or identity... is to turn away from Jesus.

"No man can serve two masters." One can either be self-seeking or Jesus-seeking...but never both. Those that "love the world" (and the "things of the world") are "enemies of God." Those that "live for pleasure" are "dead even while they live." What DO we find our comfort, identity, and happiness in? And what DO our physical family members (adult "brothers" and "sisters," parents, cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents, etc.) REALLY live for?

(By way of definition, an "unregenerate" person is one not "born a second time" - not yet genetically altered in the Spiritual Realm. They have not abandoned their lives into the love of Jesus and are therefore not Christians and not going to heaven. "Attending services" and "being a good person" and believing the "right things" cannot and won't ever, in themselves, cut it with God. A person without a life given over to Jesus is "unsaved" and is called by the Bible a "child of the devil." Wow!! This may sound unkind, since they are all "wonderful people," but it is reality, nonetheless. And it can change, if they will choose to live for Jesus, rather than for their own lusts, desires and securities.

Let's focus on one particular area of this idolatry and "drug addiction" common to the species of the unsaved: "FAMILY" - as in "physical blood-line" bonding and affections. Let's start in the obvious place. What does the Messiah have to say about it? What does GOD think about this area of "family" that is so emotionally powerful and intoxicating?

Jesus CLEARLY re-defined "family" for those that have been reborn. Who is your REAL family, if you are truly a Christian (birthed now in the Spirit of God)?

(Mark 10:29-30) So Jesus answered and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel's, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time; houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life."

(Mark 3:33-35) But He answered them, saying, "Who is My mother, or My brothers?" And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, "Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother."

(Luke 11:27-28) And it happened, as He spoke these things, that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!" But He said, "On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"

(Luke 9:59-62) He said to another person, "Come, be my disciple." The man agreed, but he said, "Lord, first let me return home and bury my father." Jesus replied, "Let those who are spiritually dead care for their own dead. Your duty is to go and preach the coming of the Kingdom of God." Another said, "Yes, Lord, I will follow you, but first let me say good-bye to my family." But Jesus told him, "Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God."

(Mat 10:34-38) "Don't imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! No, I came to bring a sword. I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Your enemies will be right in your own household! If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine."

Jesus' view of who our REAL family must be, if we are HIS disciples, and therefore Christians, is pretty radical, isn't it? But who has the right to argue with Jesus and question His authority or wisdom on the matter? "You didn't REALLY mean that, did you Jesus?" Our flesh doesn't like these commands from Jesus very much. And if a regenerate person finds this challenging, what would we expect from a pagan?

What does an unbelieving physical relative generally want, as it relates to their fleshly family? Most all unregenerate "family" members DESPERATELY desire cutesy "family" get-togethers, cooing at "grandchildren" (along with the accordion wallet photos 6 feet long), giving/trading "gifts," eating large quantities of food, hollow laughter about carnal subjects, hugs, kisses, and warm fuzzies. They have little else of Real meaning in their lives, and so they must CRAVE physical realm "bonding" as a substitute. They may gossip about, or be angry with one another (other than at holidays), or see massive destructive sin in a "family" member, but it doesn't matter. The "drug" of "physical family" is so strong that they can still fool themselves into thinking they are "tight knit" - though they have nothing much deeper than shallow surface relationships.

Physical family relationship is far inferior to God's Way, and is simply a penumbra of God's original intent, not the real thing. Jesus said that only this is REALITY: real relationships with Father and with real Family. And this Family can consist only of those that are born a second time as radical, supernatural, undivided followers of Jesus! Openness, sincerity, integrity, self- sacrifice, love, generosity, forgiveness, loyalty, trust, mutual- dependency through thick and thin, the spark of delight and fun... all based in the Truths of Jesus lived out together daily, in His Spirit. This is His Plan. Don't mistake this for the very shallow "shadow" of family relationships, based on "we all have the same hairline and nose and last name," so we should be "close- knit." The "physical blood-line family gathered around your dinner table" as an entity complete in itself is not a concept you'll find in Jesus' Heart. This is not His Plan, based on His Teachings above, and many others.

(Rom 9:6-8) "It is not that God failed to keep his promises to them. But only some of the people of Israel are truly God’s people, and only some of Abraham’s descendants are true children of Abraham. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants."

This means that not all of Abraham’s descendants are God’s true children. Abraham’s true children are those who become God’s children because of the promise God made to Abraham.

From the beginning, God's intent has been to see "family" according to the Spirit, not the fleshly offspring. "God sets the lonely in families." The Real thing is seen through Spiritual eyes, shared in communion in the Spiritual realm with Jesus, and invested in by vulnerability of heart, love of the Light, and obedience to God. It has nothing to do with physical blood- line. Jesus surely made this point clear beyond debate. God's Plan has always been that the "shadow" would never be indulged in, but rather it would point us towards "the Reality, which is in Christ" alone.

If you coddle, and cooperate with, and are cozy with unbelieving "family" (whether they are religious, or not - but still part of the world system), without reservation, without qualification, without speaking to them about their souls regularly in spite of social protocol, you are deeply hurting them and yourself. If you "join in the reindeer games" and just blindly DO the "family" stuff, at holidays and other times, do the chatty phone calls, photographs of the children, and hang out with pagans - you are no better than a drug dealer. You are giving a drug fix to a junkie. If you allow them to continue to build their lives, like the animal kingdom does, around physical realm, flesh and blood things to get their "highs," you are defying the teachings of the Master, to your own detriment. Beyond that, you are contributing to your physical family's destruction by giving them the substitute for True Family, and True Life - JESUS and HIS FAMILY, the CHURCH. It is not "love" to overlook things that Jesus has called fatal. "Keeping peace" (which truthfully is more likely to be either cowardice, or lack of relationship with Jesus on your part) is not "loving them" when you are allowing them to die without a real, consecrated walk with Jesus. Those that love the world are always "enemies of God" - and you allowed it to go on!! Shame on you, if you have done this, in order to "avoid conflict" or to pad your own insecurities and fleshly desires for worldly affections.

Let me repeat a key point here. You must grasp this. Perhaps these "family members" are "churched," but not truly living for Jesus. By Jesus' Words, they cannot be saved unless they deny their very selves, take up their crosses daily, and radically follow after Him. Jesus was clear. They cannot be saved, unless they will do this, from the heart, and fall deeply in love with Him (instead of themselves, the world, and the things of this world, such as physical family, jobs, hobbies, etc.) Unless they ARE living for Jesus, heart-soul-mind-and-strength, they are NOT your family. That is IF you believe what Jesus articulated in the Scriptures written above. And if you don't believe Him and want to live this way, then you should go be with and enjoy the company of, and bond with your unregenerate "family members." Can you feel comfortable with them and depend on unbelievers? Do you have no deep groanings and difficulty laughing at their jokes? Can you hang out with them during endless carnal or shallow discussions, indulging shamelessly in their pagan feasts and gift giving and "family" bonding "drug" parties?? If you can do these things, then you should question your own intimacy with God.

(Amos 3:3) How can two walk together unless they are in agreement?

(2 Cor. 6:14-17) Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership has righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Come out from among them and be separate,” says the Lord.

(John 14:15) If you love Me, you will keep My commands.

(1 Cor. 15:33) Bad company corrupts good character.

Can you be good company to the unregenerate - with nothing at stake, nothing challenged, nothing changing...just partying with them on their level? (Maybe YOU don't curse or drink as they do, but you are clearly "one of them" by how you distribute your affections and allow your children to be handled and entrusted.) If you can be "chatty" with them in a relaxed and familiar or intimate way, you are in serious trouble. If you can live with them, visit with them, travel with them, eat with them, "party" with them socially in an unchecked, unhindered, relaxed way, there is a very serious problem. If you enjoy all of that and "bond" with them without deep grief in your heart, you are probably one of their species as well. Unsaved. And you are only more deeply sealing their destiny without Jesus by giving them the "drugs" of "fleshly family" that they crave which is dulling them to the only REAL source of Life: Jesus of Nazareth and HIS Family.

When Jesus reached out to the unsaved, such as Zacchaeus, they were comfortable with Jesus only if they desired to repent. Obviously, sin was not overlooked, and the conversation was not carnal and worldly.

(Luke 19:8) But Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "I will give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anyone, I will pay back four times more."

If you DO grieve deeply for your physical family, you cannot join in the pagan revelry and just be one of them. Of course you care about their well-being very much - primarily spiritually, and then otherwise, but you MUST NOT give them their demanded "drug fix." You must not just go along with all of the building and bonding they desire, around flesh and blood. You may only build around Spiritual things, if you are a son or daughter of God.

It is entirely possible to love pagan family, and reach out to them, and "honor father and mother" -WITHOUT giving them the "drugs" they crave. You'd be far better off visiting with them at times AWAY from "holidays" and times of the "drug fix." And watch that you don't bend to the emotional pleas or emotional blackmail. "If you REALLY love me then you will _______." "If you're REALLY a Christian, then you will 'honor your father and mother' and do what we want you to do!" This is terrorism and emotional blackmail, and you must not give in to it. Drug addicts will always make demands and threats and emotional pleas for their "fix" but you are NOT doing them a favor by giving it to them. You can "honor" them (without the sin of giving away affections that must belong ONLY to Jesus and HIS Family) by showing kindness in other ways and at other times. We can visit, perhaps, at times and in ways that can center around Jesus, rather than the intoxication of "holidays" that "must not be 'spoiled' by these religious conversations." Keeping Jesus always before them, rather than as a "side" topic that "we just don't talk about," is mandatory.

Does someone you know want "religion and politics" to be "private" matters?? Wrong. Jesus is everything, and must not EVER be relegated to a "side" topic. Only an unsaved church- goer would even be capable of leaving Jesus out of any relationship - whether co-workers or physical "family." If you can bond with, and give trust and affection to, and enjoy the company of ANY unregenerate person in an un-challenged, non- Jesus-centered way, you have severely impaired your ability to know and hear and experience the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This applies to physical family, co-workers, childhood friends, neighbors, people that like similar sports, or whatever! You are robbing them of perhaps their greatest chance to have Eternal Life, and you are robbing yourself of fellowship with Jesus by disobeying and wounding Him. I'm not kidding. This is very important stuff. And I know the world and the religious world have probably never told you this. But it's true! Jesus was serious about what He said.

SO, let's get our perspective in tune with Jesus' Teaching and Commands, and then we are free to really love people as He did and does - without mixing carnal sympathies, and worldly thinking into our relationships. We can "honor" them and love them in HIS way, and not from a place of sin on our parts. Please take this seriously, "to the praise of His Glory!"

Not This Christmas

2005-12-25T23:17:00.000-08:00

"We have no superstitious regard for times and seasons. Certainly, we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called "Christmas." We find no Scriptural warrant whatever for observing any day as the birthday of the Savior, and consequently, its observance is a superstition, because not of divine authority. Superstition has fixed most positively the day of our Savior's birth, although there is no possibility of discovering when it occurred... It was not 'till the middle of the third century that any part of the Church celebrated the nativity of our Lord; and it was not 'till very long after the Western Church had set the example, that the Eastern adopted it... Probably the fact is that the 'holy' days were arranged to fit in with the heathen festivals. We venture to assert, that if there be any day in the year, of which we may be pretty sure that it was *not* the day on which the Savior was born, it is the 25th of December. "How absurd to think we could do it (celebrate the birth of Christ) in the spirit of the world, with a Jack Frost clown, a deceptively worldly Santa Claus, and a mixed program of sacred truth with fun, deception, and fiction. If it be possible to honor Christ in the giving of gifts, I cannot see how while the gift, giver, and recipient are all in the spirit of the world. The Catholics and high Church Episcopalians may have their "Christmas" one day in 365, but we have a Christ gift the entire year."

--Charles H Spurgeon December 24, 1871

Why the World Cannot Receive (part 2)

2005-09-08T11:46:00.000-07:00

A. Tozer (1950):

The world’s spirit is strong, and it clings to us as close as the smell of smoke to our garments. It can change its face to suit any circumstance and so deceive many a simple Christian whose senses are not exercised to discern good and evil. It can play at religion with every appearance of sincerity. It can have fits of conscience (particularly during Lent) and even confess its evil ways in the public press. It will praise religion and fawn on the Church for its goals. It will contribute to charitable causes and promote campaigns to furnish clothing for the poor. Only let Christ keep His distance and never assert His Lordship over it. This it will positively not endure. And toward the true Spirit of Christ it will show only antagonism. The world’s press will seldom give a child of God a fair deal. If the facts compel a favorable report, the tone is apt to be condescending and ironic. The note of contempt sounds through. Both the sons of this world and the sons of God have been baptized into a spirit, but the spirit of the world and the Spirit, which swells in the hearts of twice-born men are as far apart as heaven and hell. Not only are they the complete opposite of each other, but they are sharply antagonistic to each other as well. To a son of earth, the things of the Spirit are either ridiculous, in which case he is amused, or they are meaningless, in which case he is bored.

“But the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor. 2:14)

In the first epistle of John, two worlds are used over and over, the words “they” and “ye,” and they designate two wholly different worlds. “They” refers to the men and women of Adam’s fallen world; “ye” refers to the chosen ones who have left all to follow Christ. The apostle does not pay homage to the little god ‘Tolerance’ (the worship of which has become in America a kind of secondary surface religion); he is bluntly intolerant. He knows that tolerance may be merely another name for indifference. It takes a vigorous faith to accept the teaching of the man John. It is so much easier to blur the lines of separation and so offend no one. Pious generalities and the use of “we” to mean both Christians and unbelievers are much safer. The fatherhood of God can be stretched to include everyone from Jack-the-Ripper to Daniel the Prophet. This no one is offended and everyone feels quite snug and ready for heaven. But the man who laid his ear on Jesus’ breast was not so easily deceived. He drew a line to divide the race of men into two camps, to separate the saved from the lost; those who shall rise to eternal reward, from them that shall sink to final despair. On one side are “they” that know not God; on the other “ye,” and between the two is a moral gulf too wide for any man to cross.

Here is the way John states it: “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. They are of the world; therefore they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. We are of God, he that knows God listens to us; he that is not of God does not listen to us. This is how we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.” (1 John 4:4-6)

Such language as this is too plain to confuse anyone who honestly wants to know the truth. Our problem is not one of understanding, I repeat, but of faith and obedience. The question is not a theological one, “What does this teach?” It is a moral one, “Am I willing to accept this and abide by its consequences?” Can I endure the cold stare? Have I the courage to stand up to the slashing attack of the “liberal”? Dare I invite the hate of men who will be affronted by my attitude? Have I independence of mind sufficient to challenge the opinions of popular religion and go along with an apostle? Or briefly, can I bring myself to take up the cross with its blood and its reproach?

The Christian is called to separation from the world, but we must be sure we know what we mean (or more important, what God means) by the world. We are likely to make it mean something external only and thus miss its real meaning. The theater, liquor, gambling—these are not the world; they are merely an external manifestation of the world. Our warfare is not against mere worldly ways, but against the spirit of the world. For man, whether he is saved or lost, is essentially spirit. The world, in the New Testament meaning of the word, is simply unregenerate human nature wherever it is found, whether in a tavern or in a church. Whatever springs out of, is built upon or receives support from fallen human nature is the world, whether it is morally wicked or morally respectable. The ancient Pharisees, in spite of their zealous devotion to religion, were of the very essence of the world. The spiritual principles upon which they built their system were drawn not from above but from below. They employed against Jesus the tactics of men. They bribed men to tell lies in defense of truth. To defend God, they acted like devils. To support the Bible, they defied the teachings of the Bible. They scuttled religion to save religion. They gave rein to blind hate in the name of the religion of love. There we see the world in all of its grim defiance of God. So fierce was this spirit that it never rested till it had put to death the Son of God Himself. The spirit of the Pharisees was actively and maliciously hostile to the Spirit of Jesus as each was a kind of distillation of the two worlds from whence they came.

Those present-day teachers who place the Sermon on the Mount in some other dispensation than this and so release the Church from its teachings little realize the evil they do. For the Sermon on the Mount gives in brief the characteristics of the kingdom of renewed men. The blessed poor who mourn for their sins and thirst after righteousness are true sons of the kingdom. In meekness they show mercy to their enemies; with guileless candor they gaze upon God; surrounded by persecutors they bless and curse not. In modesty they hide their good deeds. They go out of their way to agree with their adversaries and forgive those who sin against them. They serve God in secret in the depth of their hearts and wait with patience for His open reward. They freely surrender their earthly goods rather than use violence to protect them. They lay up treasures in heaven. They avoid praise and wait for the day of final reckoning to learn who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. If this is a fairly accurate view of things, what can we say then when Christian men vie with one another for place and position? What can we answer when we see them hungrily seeking for praise and honor? How can we excuse the passion of publicity, whish is so glaringly evident among Church leaders? What about political ambition in Church circles? What about the fevered palm that is stretched out for more and bigger “love offerings”? What about the shameless egotism among Christians. How can we explain the gross man worship that habitually blows up one another popular leader to the size of colossus? What about the obsequious hand kissing of moneyed men by those purporting to be sound preachers of the gospel?

There is only one answer to these questions; it is simply that in these manifestations we see the world and nothing but the world. No passionate profession of love for “souls” can change evil into good. These are the very sins that crucified Jesus. It is true also that the grosser manifestations of fallen human nature are part of the kingdom of this world. Organized amusements with their emphasis upon shallow pleasure, the great empires built upon vicious and unnatural habits, unrestrained abuse of normal appetites, the artificial world called “high society”—these are all of the world. They are part of that which is flesh, which builds upon flesh and must perish with the flesh. And from these things the Christian must flee. All these he must put behind him and in them he must have no part. Against them he must stand quietly but firmly without compromise and without fear. So whether the world presents itself in its uglier aspects or in its subtler and more refined forms, we must recognize it for what it is a repudiate it bluntly. We must do this if we would walk with God in our generation as Enoch did in his. A clean break with the world is imperative.

“You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know not that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? Whoever therefore, that is a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” (James 4:4)

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh,, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” (1 John 2:15-16)

These words of God are not before us for our consideration; they are there for our obedience and we have no right to claim the title of Christian unless we follow them.

For myself, I fear any kind of religious stir among Christians that does not lead to repentance and result in a sharp separation of the believer from the world. I am suspicious of any organized revival effort that is forced to play down the hard terms of the kingdom. No matter how attractive the movement may appear, if it is not founded in righteousness and nurtured in humility it is not of God. If it exploits the flesh, it is a religious fraud and should not have the support of any God-fearing Christian. Only that is of God, which honors the Spirit and prospers at the expense of the human ego. “That, according as it is written, He that glories, let him glory in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 1:31)

Why the World Cannot Receive (part 1)

2005-08-30T09:46:00.000-07:00

A. W. Tozer (1950):

The Christian faith, based upon the New Testament, teaches the complete antithesis between the Church and the world. The trouble with most of Christianity today is that we have tried to bridge the gulf between two opposites--the world and the Church--and have performed an illicit marriage for which there is no biblical authority. Actually, no real union between the world and the Church is possible. When the Church joins up with the world it is the true Church no longer but only a pitiful hybrid thing, an object of smiling contempt to the world and an abomination to the Lord. The mixture of darkness and light in which many (or should we say most?) believers walk today is not caused by any vagueness on the part of the Scriptures. Nothing could be plainer than the pronouncements of the Scriptures on the Christian’s relation to the world. The confusion results from the unwillingness of professing Christians to take the Word of the Lord seriously. Christianity is so entangled with the world that millions never guess how radically they have missed the New Testament pattern. Compromise is everywhere. The world is whitewashed just enough to pass inspections by blind men posing as believers, and those same believers are everlastingly seeking to gain acceptance with the world. By mutual concessions men who call themselves Christians manage to get along with men who have for the things of God nothing but quiet contempt.

The whole thing is spiritual in its essence. A Christian is what he is, not by theological ideology, but by the new birth. He is a Christian because of a Spirit which dwells in him. Only that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. The flesh can never be converted into spirit, no matter how many church dignitaries work on it. Confirmation, baptism, communion, confession of faith--none of these nor all of them together can turn flesh into spirit or make a son of Adam a son of God.

“Because you are sons,” wrote Paul to the Galatians, “God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father.” (Galatians 4:6)

And to the Romans “But you are not of the flesh, but of the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ” (Romans 8:9)

That terrible zone of confusion so evident in the whole life of the Christian community could be cleared up in one day if the followers of Christ would begin to follow Christ instead of each other. For our Lord was very plain in His teaching about the believer and the world. On one occasion, after receiving unsolicited and carnal advice from sincere but unenlightened brethren, our Lord replied:

“My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hates, because I testify that its deeds are evil.” (John 7: 6-7)

He identified His fleshly brethren with the world and said that they and He were of two different spirits. The world hated Him but could not hate them because it could not hate itself. A house divided against itself cannot stand. Adam’s house must remain loyal to itself or it will tear itself apart. Though the sons of the flesh may quarrel among themselves, they are at the bottom one with each other. It is when the Spirit of God comes in that an alien element has entered. The Lord said to His disciples:

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; yet because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (John 15: 18-19)

Paul explained to the Galatians the difference between the slave child and the free: “The child born after the flesh always persecutes the child born of the Spirit. It is the same now.” (Galatians 4:29)

So throughout the entire New Testament a sharp line is drawn between the Church and the world. There is no middle ground. The Lord recognizes no good-natured ‘agreeing to disagree’ so that the followers of the Lamb may adopt the world’s ways and travel along the world’s path. The gulf between the true Christian and the world is as great as that which separated the rich man and Lazarus. And furthermore, it is the same gulf, that is, it is the gulf that divides the world of ransomed from the world of fallen men. I well know and feel deeply, how offensive such teaching as this must be to the great flock of worldlings which mills around the traditional sheepfold. I cannot hope to escape the charge of bigotry and intolerance which will undoubtedly be brought against me by the confused religionists who seek to make themselves sheep by association. But we may as well face the hard truth that men do not become Christians by associating with church people, nor by religious contact, nor by religious education; they become Christians only by an invasion of their nature by the Spirit of God in the new birth. And when they do become Christians they are immediately members of a “new race, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people…which in times past were not a people, but are now the people of God.” (1Pet. 2:9-10)

In the verses quoted, there has been no wish to quote out of context nor to focus attention upon one side of truth to draw it away from another. The teaching of these passages is altogether one with all New Testament truth. It is as if we dipped a cup of water from the sea. What we took out would not be all the water in the ocean, but it would be a true sample and would perfectly agree with the rest. The difficulty we modern Christians face is not misunderstanding the Bible, but persuading our untamed hearts to accept its plain instructions. Our problem is to get the consent of our world-loving minds to make Jesus Lord in fact as well as in word. It is one thing to say “Lord, Lord,” and quite another thing to obey the Lord’s commandments. We may sing, “Crown Him Lord of All,” and rejoice in the tones of the loud-sounding organ and the deep melody of harmonious voices, but still we have done nothing until we have left the world and set our faces toward the city of God in hard practical reality. When faith becomes obedience, then it is true faith indeed.

Hunger for God

2005-08-10T12:02:00.000-07:00

A. Murray:

"Desires for other things..." (Mk 4:19) is an enemy. And the only weapon that will triumph is a deeper hunger for God. The weakness of our hunger for God is not because he is unsavory, but because we keep ourselves stuffed with "other things." What is at stake here is not just the good of our souls, but also the glory of God. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. The fight of faith is a fight to feast on all that God is for us in Christ. What we hunger for most, we worship.

Between the dangers of self-denial and self-indulgence there is a path of pleasant pain. It is not the pathological pleasure of a masochist, but the passion of a lover's quest: "I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ" (Phil. 3:8).

The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. For all the ill that Satan can do, when God describes what keeps us from the banquet table of his love, it is a piece of land, a yoke of oxen and a wife (Luke 14:18-20). The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable.

Some people hear the word of God, and a desire for God is awakened in their hearts. But then, " they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life" (Lk 8:14). In another place he said, "The desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful" (Mk 4:19). "The pleasures of this life" and "the desires for other things"-these are not evil in themselves. These are not vices. These are gifts of God. They are your basic meat and potatoes and coffee and gardening and reading and decorating and traveling and shopping and exercising and talking. And all of them can become deadly substitutes for God.

Our hunger for God should mean that we will do anything and go without anything if, by any means, we might protect ourselves from the deadening effects of innocent delights and preserve the sweet longing of our homesickness for God.

God wills to know the actual, lived-out reality of our preference for him over all things. And he wills that we have the testimony of our own authenticity through acts of actual preference for God over his gifts. A real lived-out human act of preference for God over his gifts is the actual lived-out glorification of God's excellence for which he created the world.

We easily deceive ourselves that we love God unless our love is frequently put to the test, and we must show our preferences not merely with the words but with sacrifice. Our preferring faculty is kept on alert and sharp. It does not let the issue rest. It forces us to ask repeatedly: Do I really hunger for God? Do I miss him? Do I long for him? Or have I begun to be content with his gifts?

The strongest, most mature Christians are the hungriest for God. It might seem that those who eat most would be least hungry. But that's not the way it works with an inexhaustible fountain, and infinite feast and a glorious Lord. When you take your stand on the finished work of God in Christ, and begin to drink at the River of Life and eat the Bread of Heaven, and know that you have found the end of all your longings, you only get hungrier for God.

If you don't feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things and there is no room for the great. God did not create you for this. There is an appetite for God. And it can be awakened. The true mortification of our carnal nature is not a simple matter of denial and discipline. It is an internal, spiritual matter of finding more contentment in Christ than in anything else.

"Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Thy law" (Psalm 119:18). And if we do not see him in his greatness, we will not desire him in his fullness."

Sharpening

2005-06-29T11:51:00.000-07:00

Encouraging other believers toward godly character and a deeper walk with the Lord.