THE ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

#103                                                        THE ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE                                                                               

Scripture              Jeremiah 2:5-13 NIV                                                                                        Orig. 11/22/64 (11/78)

                                Deuteronomy 1:10-11, 21 NIV                                                                                    Rewr. 11/22/86 

Passage:

Jeremiah 2:5-13

⁵ This is what the Lord says:

“What fault did your ancestors find in me,
    that they strayed so far from me?
They followed worthless idols
    and became worthless themselves.
⁶ They did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord,
    who brought us up out of Egypt
and led us through the barren wilderness,
    through a land of deserts and ravines,
a land of drought and utter darkness,
    a land where no one travels and no one lives?’
⁷ I brought you into a fertile land
    to eat its fruit and rich produce.
But you came and defiled my land
    and made my inheritance detestable.
⁸ The priests did not ask,
    ‘Where is the Lord?’
Those who deal with the law did not know me;
    the leaders rebelled against me.
The prophets prophesied by Baal,
    following worthless idols.

⁹ “Therefore I bring charges against you again,”
declares the Lord.
    “And I will bring charges against your children’s children.
¹⁰ Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look,
    send to Kedar^[a] and observe closely;
    see if there has ever been anything like this:
¹¹ Has a nation ever changed its gods?
    (Yet they are not gods at all.)
But my people have exchanged their glorious God
    for worthless idols.
¹² Be appalled at this, you heavens,
    and shudder with great horror,”
declares the Lord.
¹³ “My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
    the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
    broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

Deuteronomy 1:10-11, 21

¹⁰ The Lord your God has increased your numbers so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky. ¹¹ May the Lord, the God of your ancestors, increase you a thousand times and bless you as he has promised! 

 ²¹ See, the Lord your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, told you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.

Purpose:  To call my people to remembrance of blessings of God to His people and that their spiritual prosperity was linked to their obedience

Keywords:          God’s Blessing                   Promises             Hebrew History                 Promises            

                                Thanksgiving                      Thankfulness

Introduction

                The attitude of gratitude is not borne easily.  Not only is its existence a troubled one, bearing it can sometimes be a struggle to those near at hand.

                Anonymity claims the  pen which wrote the verse:

                “Be thankful every day for bread;

                                For clothes and shelter, clean and warm;

                And God’s protection in life’s storm;

                For life and health, and those who care;

                                For peace and quiet, and love and prayer.”

                But in its lines is “the attitude of gratitude.” Without such, there is little to life’s meaning.  There is no maturity, no personhood; certainly, no discipleship.

                Bishop William Quayle, upon hearing of the death of his friend, the naturalist John Burroughs, reflected aloud, “Poor John, he loved the garden, but he never met the gardener.”

                Joyce Kilmer, on the other hand, was unapologetically a believer.  Before he died on a battlefield in France at the age of 32, he wrote,

                “Thank God for the bitter and ceaseless strife

                                And the sting of His chastening rod.

                Thank God for the stress and pains of life

                                And, Oh, thank God for God.”

                The Hebrew people to whom Jeremiah spoke, and around whom Deuteronomy was written, shared a heritage of blessing in the promises of God.  A part of that observance was the Feast of Tabernacles. They knew this celebration as “Sukkot,” and shared together in this feast at the end of the harvest season.  The purpose was to give thankfulness to God for the fulfillment of all His promised blessings to them.  But their history, like ours today, is checkered with those occasions of great blessing, with little or no response from those to whom the blessings are given.

I.             The Attitude of Gratitude Examines the Record from the Past.  Jeremiah 2:7, “I brought you into a plentiful country to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof.”  So the Lord is the key to time and circumstance.  Dr. Sidlow Baxter teaches an important lesson in the lives of the seven great men of Genesis.  Abel was 1^st, not a man reaching in toward himself as was Cain, but reaching out to the unknown: to God. 2^nd was Enoch, immortalized forever as the man who walked with God.  3^rd was Noah, forever the man of spiritual renewal; he followed his God over the cold water to a new day of hope.  4^th was Abraham; he was a man who walked by faith, was “accounted as righteous” and called “the friend of God.” 5^th, a little later, came Isaac; from him we get our first taste of  sonship; he was of special promise, of special birth, almost a sacrifice for sin. Then, 6^th, came Jacob; in him was the life of service—busy, untiring, blessing, a prince at prayer. Finally, 7^th, came Joseph, a life thrown away, but picked up again, blessed and used. 

                It is not such men that we need today, but people with such a grasp of God, committed to pray, promise, and perform. 

                It was in some similar way that God moved to bring America to the forefront of nations.  The year was not 1492, by the way, nor was the man Columbus.  The year was 1455, and the man was Gutenberg.  If you do not recognize the name, he was a printer.  Printing came alive, the equivalent of the computer.  The Bible, and its vision of men and women in freedom, was only a step away. 

                It was not long before doctrinal integrity replaced Ecclesiastical hierarchy (1517) in Luther’s 95 Theses at Wittenberg.  During that same period. The persecution of Separatists, your spiritual forebears, pointed believers toward a distant wilderness and freedom’s dream.

                God’s concern in America today is not in a land, but in a vision; not in a political entity, but a people.  Isaiah 1:18 “Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall become as wool.”  Colossians 2:2, “God’s secret . . . is Christ himself.  He is the key that opens all the hidden  treasures of God’s wisdom and knowledge.

II.            The Attitude of Gratitude Considers Performance of God’s Dealings with His People.  Deuteronomy 1:10 “The Lord your God hath multiplied  you and behold, you are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude.”   The good gifts of God to Israel were a stewardship trust. 

They were gifts clearly from God.  The Ark of the Covenant symbolized God’s presence. 2 Chronicles 7:14: "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."  We abuse holy things.

                They were gifts centered for service.  Deuteronomy 26:5, “My father was a homeless Aramean who went down into Egypt with a small company, and lived there until they became a great nation.”  It was clearly their responsibility to use those gifts to the glory of God.  To examine Israel during those years of glory is to be aware of the awe in which others held them.  In the world of nations between 10^th-8^th Centuries BC, they were the rich kid on the block.  Others were jealous, but could do nothing.  Then it was discovered that the mansion of Israel         had roaches and termites just like the shacks by the river.  They had been given a chance to help others.  Their greatest failing was that they did not.  What will our greatest failing be?

                You see, the truth of moral and spiritual responsibility is eternal.  To know God is to be morally and materially responsible for sharing that knowledge persuasively.  Isaiah 62:6 “I have set watchmen upon the walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace, day or night . . . .  Give Him no rest till He establishes, till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”

                Not to share that responsibility is soul damning.  Philippians 2:13, “For it is God which worketh in you, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.”

                “O Zion haste, thy mission high fulfilling, to tell to all the world that God is light,

                That He who made all nations is not willing one soul  should perish, lost in shades of night.

                Proclaim to every people, tongue, and nation that God in whom they live and move is love.

                Tell how He stooped to save His lost creation, and died on earth that man might live above.”

III.           The Attitude of Gratitude Speaks Also of Promises in Prospect.  Deuteronomy 1:11 “[May] the Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as you are, and bless you, as He has promised you.”   

                Let us remember that God is righteous, and our sin is a burden to Him. The world was created and ordered under His perfect hand.  It awaits people of faith and dedication to open the chalices of promise.

                About ¾ century ago Albert Einstein stood before colleagues and wrote an equation that has literally changed the world.  E = MC².  Energy is proportional to mass.  And the atomic age came into being.  Will it always bode evil and war?  Can it not also bring good?

                The fulfilled promise is one in which sin is brought to light in Christ.

                It is the eternal link of blood.  Leviticus 17:11 “For it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”  Hebrews 9:22 “Without the shedding of blood is no remission.”

                It is the building blocks to the universe.  Isaiah 28:16 “Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion, for a foundation, a stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation.”

                God’s promise is first an invitation.  Matthew 11:28, “Come unto me, all ye who labor.”  I Peter 2:9, ‘Ye are a chosen generation called . . . out of darkness into His marvelous light.”  Revelations 22:17 “Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.”

Conclusion

                The early charters of the colonies that became the United States were treatises dedicated to God through His Son.  Plymouth, Delaware, Massachusetts Bay, Maryland, Rhode Island had the stated purpose, “to advance the enlargement of the Christian religion, to the glory of God almighty.”

                The closing words of the Declaration of Independence confessed the nation’s dependence.  Congress appointed a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer in 1776, that the colonies, “through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, obtain His pardon and forgiveness.”  Congress ordered the first Thanksgiving in 1777 asking “the penitent confession of their manifold sins . . . and their  humble earnest supplication, that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to blot out our sins of remembrance.”

Abbreviated version of #103

                When you hear today of someone with “an attitude,” it usually has a negative connotation.  However, if I understand the word aright, it can be used positively as well.  Just as we are able to express strong negative emotions, we are also able to express powerful positive emotions.  It is in that sense that I speak to you this morning on “The Attitude of Gratitude.”

                Anonymity claims the pen which wrote the verse:

                “Be thankful every day for bread,

                                For clothes and shelter, clean and warm;

                And God’s protection in life’s storm.

                                For life and health, and those  who care,

                For peace and quiet, and love and prayer.”

                Such lines as these contain that “attitude of gratitude.”  Without such, life’s meaning is extremely the more complicated.  Bishop William Quayle,  upon hearing of the death of his friend, the world-renowned naturalist, John Burroughs, reflected aloud, “Poor John, he loved the garden but never knew the gardener.”

                Joyce Kilmer, on the other hand, was unapologetically a believer.  Before dying on a battlefield in France at the age of 32, he wrote:

                “Thank God for the bitter and ceaseless strife

                                And the sting of His chastening rod.

                Thank God for the stress and pains of life

                                And, Oh, thank God for God.”    

                The Hebrew people, who were Jeremiah’s audience, and the subject about which Deuteronomy was written, shared a heritage not unlike our Thanksgiving heritage.  It was a celebration called ‘Sukkot.”  It came at the end of the harvest season, and was intended as an expression of thankfulness.  But their history, like ours today, is checkered with manifold evidence of blessing, and little more than token response from those to whom the blessings are given.  The “attitude of gratitude” must examine Past Perceptions, Present Performances, and Promises in Prospect.

                The early charters of the colonies that became the United States were treatises dedicated to God through His Son.  Plymouth, Delaware, Massachusetts Bay, Maryland, Rhode Island had the stated purpose, “to advance the enlargement of the Christian religion, to the glory of God almighty.”

                The closing words of the Declaration of Independence confessed the nation’s dependence.  Congress appointed a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer in 1776, that the colonies, “through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, obtain His pardon and forgiveness.”  Congress ordered the first Thanksgiving in 1777 asking “the penitent confession of their manifold sins . . . and their  humble earnest supplication, that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to blot out our sins of remembrance.”

A MISSIONS MANDATE

#098                                                               A MISSIONS MANDATE                                                                                      

Scripture  Psalm 96:1-13 NIV                                                                                                                            Orig. 12-3-61

                                                                                                                                                                                Rewr. 11-28-79 

Passage:  ¹ Sing to the Lord a new song;
    sing to the Lord, all the earth.
² Sing to the Lord, praise his name;
    proclaim his salvation day after day.
³ Declare his glory among the nations,
    his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

⁴ For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
    he is to be feared above all gods.
⁵ For all the gods of the nations are idols,
    but the Lord made the heavens.
⁶ Splendor and majesty are before him;
    strength and glory are in his sanctuary.

⁷ Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations,
    ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
⁸ Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
    bring an offering and come into his courts.
⁹ Worship the Lord in the splendor of his^[a] holiness;
    tremble before him, all the earth.
¹⁰ Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.”
    The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved;
    he will judge the peoples with equity.

¹¹ Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
    let the sea resound, and all that is in it.
¹² Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them;
    let all the trees of the forest sing for joy.
¹³ Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes,
    he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
    and the peoples in his faithfulness

Purpose: To call my people to the high goal of response to the nobility of the task found in missions, and doing all that we can to further His cause.

Keywords:          Missions              God’s Word        Jesus the King

Timeline/Series:               Lottie Moon

Introduction

                A pastor friend here in the city share a counseling burden through which he had recently gone.  It had to do with a 22-year-old mother of two children, whose husband had tired of the boredom of relationship and went off looking for his thing.  Her inability to cope with this situation, the responsibility, the loneliness, the inequity, brought her finally to her pastor’s study.

                Before the hour had passed, He knew that she was facing far more than just this debilitating circumstance.  He recognized that this young woman’s life was in jeopardy.  Somebody was going to have to do something, and soon.  Discovering that there was no one else who would help, my pastor friend went to the Orleans Parish coroner’s office.  There he was advised to secure the services of a lawyer who could appeal to the courts for this woman’s admission into a mental health unit.  This in turn would enable the Court to order the appropriate agencies to take action on behalf of this young woman.

                Before this process could be secured, my friend’s counselee took her own life.  I do not know what happened to the young husband, and I must honestly say I do not care.  I do not know what happened to the two small children, bereft first of their father, who did not love them, and then of their mother, who most assuredly did.  But for them I do care.  Our responsibility in missions is facing up to the fact that we are living in a world fraught with the burdens of broken relationships; destitute with the inequities with which some people brutalize other people. We are living in a world where we Christians are the only ones who have the answer.  Our responsibility is to heed “A Missions Mandate” for the world’s sake.  The world, like this desperate young woman, cannot long cope with what is happening to it.  We American Christians are spending our time trying to find a negotiated answer, which will permit someone else to do the dirty work, when the only answer is in the giving of ourselves.

I.             A Missions Mandate Declares the Purpose of Missions.  V3 Declare His glory among the heathen, His wonders among all people.  The principal purpose is to reveal God’s love.  This aspect of God’s character has taken a beating.  Only its truth has enabled this love to break through the barriers of human pretense. 

                I surely do not need to do more than remind you of the injustices carried out in the name of Jesus.  The Arab, Khomeini, is not the first of his kind to preach his gospel of hate, and murder, in the name of God.   God will deal with him and his kind appropriately, but we best be ready to stand by our guns.  This present crisis may yet involve us all.  Perhaps it is an appropriate time to remind you that Muslim faith was under the gun of its founder, Mohammed, who conceived it as a mixture of Jewish, Christian, Greek, and Roman influences.  Of all of the great prophets, he passed himself off as the greatest, even the Holy Spirit promised by Christ.

                How many people do you know about whose lives would be very, very different if there were just one person to show them love?  In that purpose inspired by love is the offer of salvation.  It is an offer made unconditionally.  It is an offer made irrevocably.  My insurance company sold me a policy to protect my car. They didn’t tell me at the time, but part of that policy was conditional and revocable.  The coverage on breakage becomes deductible after I file a couple of claims.

                It is an offer made through Jesus because only in Him is God’s love fully measured.

                Involved with that purpose is the understanding that we who follow Him must declare His glory before all people.  Nothing else portrays His love as Jesus does.  The Jews had failed as a people to respond to this love.  Amos 3:2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.

II.            A Missions Mandate Proclaims the Message of Missions. V10 Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved.  Our principal message is to tell the world that the Lord reigns.  No greater service can you render your king than to let him reign in your heart.   No greater gift can be given from the human heart than to announce yourself subject unto your Lord.

                Years ago, an English king went to hear a little-known minister.  As the scripture was being read, the King whispered something to his consort.  The minister turned from the scripture and declared: When the lion roars, the other beasts are silent; when the kings of the earth speak, then all others become quiet; but when the King of Glory speaks, even the kings of the earth shall keep silent and listen.

                To say that our Lord reigns is to acknowledge that He has the temper of human history under His hand.  In 1812, Adoniram Judson went to Burma, paid for, by the way, by the offerings of other people.  He labored there for six years before he had his first convert.  He spent untold numbers of hours translating the Bible into the Burmese tongue.  In all of his ministry there, part of which was spent in jail, he witnessed only a few hundred conversions.  How many of us, knowing such rigors, would have advised him that it wasn’t worth it to spend his life that way.  Yet, because they have the message, because one man’s life stood under the Lordship of Christ, there are hundreds of thousands of believers in that place today.  Can you think of one place where, because you lived there, there is one person who has become a believer?

                Can you think of one place where, because you lived there, one person became a believer who otherwise would not?  We are bearers of a seed that will propagate itself.  We are to see that it gets to some.  They then must see that it is taken to others.  

                Those through whom you heard and believed were faithful.  Will those who wait for you be so fortunate?  In the library at the Prague, there is displayed a triad of medallions dated 1572.  On the first. Wycliffe, the Bible translator, can be seen striking sparks from a stone.  On the second, the great martyr Hus is seen kindling a flame from the sparks.  The last contains the image of Martin Luther holding high a flaming torch. They were an Englishman, a Bohemian, and a German, united in faithfulness.

III.           A Missions Mandate Elicits a Picture of Our Victory Through Missions.  V12f Let the field be joyful and all that is therein; then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord: for He cometh, He cometh to judge the earth; He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth.    

                Make no mistake about it, God’s offer of salvation is offered to all mankind.  Are you inclined to doubt your ability and capability?  So am I!  It was for this very reason that the disciples heard their Lord, and they looked at the multitudes around them, and observed the handful of loaves and fishes.  John 6:9 “What are these among so many?” 

                The same One who strengthened the faith of those first disciples offers us His strength today.  There is that most-quoted of verses  Philippians 2:10f  That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, . . . And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

                It is unquestionably the destiny of the people of God.  Habakkuk viewed this destiny when he declared, “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”   Isaiah proclaimed it when he wrote  “The wolf will dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together; and the little child shall lead them.”  Micah believed it. “And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.  Nation shall not rise up against nation, neither shall they study war anymore.”   And John in Revelation gave a final testimonial.  “After this I looked, and beheld a great multitude, which no man could number, from every nation and from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb.’”           

                Isn’t it time for you to give your life to Jesus?  Isn’t it time to stop playing religious games when so much is at stake?

CROWDS ABOUT THE CROSS

#096                                                          CROWDS ABOUT THE CROSS                                                                                 

Scripture  Luke 23:26-43 NIV                                                                                                                              Orig. 5-6-62

                                                                                                                                                                       Rewr. (8-76)  3-5-89 

Passage:  ²⁶ As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. ²⁷ A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. ²⁸ Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. ²⁹ For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ ³⁰ Then

“‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”’^{[a] 31} For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” ³² Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. ³³ When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. ³⁴ Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”^[b] And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.  ³⁵ The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

³⁶ The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar ³⁷ and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”  ³⁸ There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the jews. ³⁹ One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”  ⁴⁰ But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? ⁴¹ We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”  ⁴² Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.^[c]”  ⁴³ Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Purpose:  Approaching Easter, to speak to my people of variant attitudes about Jesus’ death, and the determination that He died in our place.

Keywords:          Christ as Saviour                               Faith                      Special Day, Easter          Crucifixion           Man/Sin

Timeline/Series: Prior to Easter 

Introduction

                It is not necessary for us to travel very far to encounter crowds.  They are everywhere we go, and their reasons for being where they are, are as numerous as the people themselves.

                We find these crowds at our malls, our cotillions of commerce.  They are there to shop, some even to spend money.  But many others are there for the purpose of seeing and being seen.

                Again, we may find the crowds at ball games, at religious conventions, at historic sites, at school convocations, at pageants and festivals, or speeding down the already unsafe highways.

                They gather in the mountains, at the beach, at parades commemorating such themes as Mardi Gras, freedom, homecoming, etc.  You see them riding horses, wearing clown costumes, playing band instruments. Some would not be anywhere else in all the world.  Others would rather be anywhere than where they are.

                The paper told of a gathering crowd.  A distraught woman was threatening to take her own life.  The curious came out of the woodwork.  With hoots and jeers some of them urged her on.  Some there surely cared, but they were intimidated by those who did not.  The police arrived, but even they had difficulty from the vented anger of the crowd becoming a mob that wanted to see some blood-letting.  In their attempt to break through to the poor woman she had become so disturbed by these savage tactics that she drove the knife several times into her own body.  Crowds, how easy to deplore what they become once we are free of their dastardly influence.  How would you have acted at the cross?

I.             On the Faces of That Crowd I See Contempt.  V35 “And the rulers also with them derided Him saying, He saved others; Let Him save Himself, if He be the Christ, the chosen of God.”  The Greek word for ‘passion’ is ‘pathos.’  We have a number of words that are derivatives: Sympathy—to feel for; Empathy—to feel with; Apathy—a lack of feeling; Antipathy—spite, feeling against.

                This last is what we find among Jesus’ enemies here at the cross.  What, exactly, were they feeling?  They were not bored with Jesus.  They weren’t looking for a more dynamic Messiah.  They hated, with passion, all that Jesus stood for.

                Matthew and Mark incriminate chief priests and scribes with “rulers” here mentioned.  Theirs is a contempt for the unproven.  His teaching was in conflict with theirs.  The scribe was patting himself on the back:  “The people need the law, I can give it to them.”  The rulers were concluding that the people were not smart enough to interpret their religion.  They could.

                Does it surprise us to learn that there are still those disposed to contempt for Jesus?  Some modernist religious leaders say that Jesus really didn’t have to die.  They discount Paul’s “Unto us which are saved, it is the power of God,” I Corinthians 1:18.  They ignore John’s terse “Whosoever denieth the son, the same hath not the Father,” I John 2:23.

                There are others who simply hate that for which Jesus stands.  I shared recently the testimony of a rock musician who played Jesus in Jesus Christ, Superstar.  Jeff Fenholt said the “Cast were atheists who were trying to mock Jesus.”  The recent uproar over The Last Temptation of Christ is also evidence. 

                I challenge you to send for the AFA Journal.  Read some of the dialogue being perpetrated on a naïve public.  I read Don Wildmon’s editorial (4-88) proudly accepting contempt and scorn of the ACLU and Playboy for having led the fight against smut.

II.            On Faces in That Crowd I Also See Consent.  V35 “And the people stood beholding.”  V36 “And the soldiers also mocked Him.” 

                Those looking on so candidly were agreeing to this carnage.  Those “beholding” are observing with interest, and their interest is not faith in Christ.  The word “mocked” spoken of the soldiers means ‘sport,’ ‘jest,’ ‘childlike.’  It seems as if there were ambulance chasers then also.  (“Let’s go see how long it takes the crucified to die.”)

                The passion expressed here is apathy.  The contemptuous deserve none of our pity.  These even less.  The soldiers go so far as to gamble over the garment of Jesus as a trivia item to talk about later. 

                I have seen the cards come out at one-sided ballgames.  The 1989 Nevada crusade team had to be challenged not to play slots; we may look back to Las Vegas in June.

                Yes, we can turn up a reason for consent.  Valid questions were being raised by people all over Judea.  Some of those questions were raised by people after hearing Jesus.  Others just didn’t like those kinds of questions.  So, this way they can get Jesus out of the way, and can even say, “Tsk! Tsk! What a shame.”

                Our church roles have many “consenters” on them.  If you didn’t listen carefully, you may have thought I said “sinners.”

III.           Yet Other Faces Stand Out in That Crowd, and On Them I See Confusion. V 40 “Dost not thou fear God seeing thou art in the same condemnation?”  There may have been, and credit must be given to, those “beholding” who were concerned about what all this meant.  Some had heard prophecies of Messiah.  A few might have understood that He was to suffer, die. 

                They had heard Jesus’ reference to himself as “Son of Man.”  Outside of Revelation, the title occurs more than 80 times, all but one in the gospels, and all but one of these used by Jesus Himself.  The exception (John 12:34) is interesting; it is the crowd in confusion asking, “We have heard from the law that Christ remains forever.  How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is the Son of Man?”  The passage, Acts 7:56, is the other exception: Stephen, nearing the end of his life, cried out “Look, I see . . . the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

IV.          But There Were Believers in the Crowd for on Some Faces I See Compassion Concern, Concession.  V26 “Upon . . . Simon, a Cyrenian, . . . they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus.”  V27 “And there followed Him a great company of people, . . . which also bewailed and lamented Him.”

                They’re the ones who perceived in Jesus the answer to long-standing questions.  “Where is God?”  “Why was I born?”  “What happens when I die?”

                Believers were there who saw the world potentially as a better place, not yet ready for His departure, not believing that the tide had turned.  Peter (Matthew 16:22) “began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: This shall not be unto thee.”

                Perhaps there were those who had measured the required commitment needed by those who remain.  Down the ages the crucifixion must be repeated over and over again.   What face do you reveal to the Christ who dies there? The face of contempt? That of Consent? One of Confusion? Or the face He wishes to see, of compassion, concern, concession?

Conclusion

                We are part of the crowd.  We can’t change that.  But we do control the kind of face He sees.  In the angry crowd every trusting face He sees causes the nails to be less painful, the crown of thorns less burdensome, the hour of death less agonizing.  Look up!  Look up to Jesus!

BEHOLDERS OF CHRIST

#093                                                               BEHOLDERS OF CHRIST                                                                                      

Scripture  Mark 16:12-13 NIV                                                                                                                          Orig. 3-29-64

                                                                                                                                                                       Rewr. 1-78, 10-2-87 

Passage:  ¹² Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. ¹³ These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either.

Purpose:   To provide occasion for my people to examine their own lives as beholders of Christ

Keywords:          Christ the Lord                   Hope                     Renewal              Resurrection

Introduction

                All that is established by this brief text is that then as now, there are variances in the ways that we respond to Jesus.  Then as now, we observe some who were believers, some who weren’t.

                Luke gives a larger treatment to this event.  In his concluding chapter, he tells the story of the two Emmaus-bound disciples.  Recall, please, that the hour was late, they were on their way to their home from Jerusalem.  They were joined by a man not known to them.  They were so impressed by what he said, when arriving in Emmaus, they invited him to spend the night.  He then took bread, blessed and broke it, and in his praying they suddenly realized who it was.  Instantly, he was, as it were, spirited away.  It was a deeply moving moment for them.  They would discuss it together, then immediately return to Jerusalem to tell the disciples what had happened.  That’s the way it is in the discovery of Jesus alive.

                Perhaps that’s the problem when our spirit sags.  We’ve left Jesus on the cross, or in a tomb.  And if that’s where we’ve left him, we’re looking in vain for his help.  What kind of “beholder” of Christ are you this morning?

                My wife and I wished two weeks ago that we had you all sitting around our table.  The Mesias had gone to our home after the evening service.  She began to tell of her conversion.  Her English failed, and her husband began to translate for the two of us.  Oh, how we felt the presence of the Lord as she testified of Jesus coming alive in her life.  She “beheld” Him, and that made all the difference. 

I.             There Are Beholders Who Cannot See Past His Humanity.  V 12 “He appeared in another form unto two of them.”  I’ve never known anyone incapable of recognizing Jesus’ admirable character.  The world still finds “no fault” with him. In Luke 23:4 Pilate says “I find no fault.”  Most of the fault found early was with those around Jesus.  Mark 7:2 “And when they saw . . . disciples eat bread with . . . unwashed hands, they found fault.” 

                It is still that way.  Those who would rebuke Him, are really rebuking us.  Gandhi for example—those who knew him said that his appreciation for Jesus was so great, if it only weren’t for His followers.

                We note here that some were incapable of grasping this reality of Jesus.  Luke 24:16 (disciples) “. . . their eyes were holden that they should not know him.”  But wait, it was not some blinding spiritual power keeping them in the dark.  The Greek is “khateo”—used by those who were bound by what they learned in error.  They had only known the flesh and blood Jesus.  They did not recognize Him as He now appeared as crucified, risen Lord.  How do WE “behold” Him?  Paul plants the seed in I Corinthians 15.

                We must also attempt to understand their mental state.  They had talked freely of the day’s events, that Jesus was dead, perhaps even because of sin—theirs or others.  Maybe they were even asking what it all meant.  Luke 24:21 “. . . we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel.”  They were writing the New Testament, but they had it not for counsel. 

                II Corinthians 5:21 “He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”  They SAW Him, but they did not “behold” Him.

                Don’t let your humanity, or His humanity, limit your vision of Him.  If for all His worth, He was defeated by those who killed Him, then why should I try to change them?  If Jesus’ life, and death, has no relation to my sin, then I can do as I please, as others are doing.  But these two postulates fail miserably before a Jesus “beheld” as Saviour and Lord. 

                In the “holden” state, remember their hopelessness and remorse.  Ephesians 2:12 “At that time you were without Christ, . . . having no hope.”  To “behold” Him is to face Him in personal accountability for our sin, but discovering that He died for us.  Hebrews 2:3 “. . . How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?”

                Now don’t forget that a strong case can be made that these two were, in fact, Jesus’ own aunt and uncle, Mary’s sister and her husband, Cleopas.  (See Luke 24:18 and John 19:25.)  They did not recognize their own nephew.  As long as sin is allowed to restrict our view, we will see only what we want to see.  And we want to see ourselves as alright in God’s eyes.  He sees us as absolved of sin, only in Jesus.

II.            We Must, Then, Become People of Faith, Beholding Jesus as Lord.  V12f “. . . He appeared . . . unto them.  And they went and told it unto the [others]: neither believed they them.”  The two experienced the happy miracle of recognition.  Note that it did not happen as they listened to the wise assertions of a stranger.  It happened when they in grief and consternation invited the Son of God to share in their meager lives.  Perhaps that’s it.  We are embarrassed to invite Jesus to share our bounty.  Their eyes were opened, while their eyes were closed.  They discover Him willing to respond to whatever they offer.

                It is important to see what this recognition accomplishes.  V13 “. . . they went and told it to the other(s).”  It worked a work of transformation for them.  Grief, doubt, dread, anguish are quickly vanquished.  Sharing what they have experienced becomes the first order of business.  It has nothing to do with some kind of super faith.  Not even a fulfilled belief.  It is a joy that becomes something less, unless shared. 

                But most of all, obedience is suddenly involved.  They had seen a stranger Jesus.  As they spoke with this stranger, they spoke of a man Jesus.  Returning as they did to the disciples, they spoke of Him as Lord.  Luke 24:33f “The same hour they returned to Jerusalem and found the eleven. . . .  The Lord is risen indeed . . . .  V35 and they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.”

III.           We Must Not Be Slow to Behold Him.  V12 “. . . He appeared in another form unto . . . them.”  He comes in our quiet times, or in the noise of our desperation.  He stays, unless we drive Him away by our faithlessness, even then staying within range of our repentance, within reach of our cry of faith.  To respond in faith is to discover who He really is.  He comes not because of who, or what, we are. He comes, not even because of what we are capable of becoming.  He comes, because of what He is, because of His all-sufficiency. 

                He comes, and we must behold who He is.

Conclusion

                The poet, John Masefield, wrote winsomely of matters that should be close to the heart of every believer in Christ, every beholder of Him.  In one such poem, he tells of the conversion of a mean and wicked man by the name of Saul Kane.  The name itself speak volumes.  There was a saintly Miss Bourne, whose goal in life was in helping the families of men like Saul Kane.  Saul sees her and drives her away. But she responds as leaving:

“Saul Kane,” she said, “When next you drink,

        Do me the gentleness to think

That every drop of drink accurst

        Makes Christ within you die of thirst,

That every dirty word you say

        Is one more flint upon His way,

Another thorn about His head,

        Another mock by where He tread,

Another nail, another cross.

        All that you are is that Christ’s loss.”

                As she leaves, the words begin to have an effect upon him.  Masefield next pictures him standing at the window, looking at the rainstorm he has driven Miss Bourne out into.  He speaks:

“The wet was pelting on the pane

        And something broke inside my brain.”

                He also leaves the warmth of the room and goes into the rain.  And he continues to speak:

“I did not think, I did not strive.

        The deep peace burned my me alive.

The bolted door had broken in.

        I knew that I had done with sin.

I knew that Christ had given me birth

        To brother all the souls on earth.

O glory of the lighted mind.

        How dead I’d been, how dumb, how blind.

The station brook to my new eyes

        Was babbling out of paradise.

The waters rushing from the rain

        Were singing, Christ has risen again.”

GOD’S ROAD TO REDEMPTION

#089                                                        GOD’S ROAD TO REDEMPTION                                                                               

Scripture  II Peter 2:4-9 NIV                                                                                                                            Orig. 12-16-62

                                                                                                                                                                                     Rewr. 8-3-77 

Passage:  4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell,[a] putting them in chains of darkness[b] to be held for judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; 6 if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless 8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— 9 if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

Purpose: To remind men that God’s Word establishes the reality of His judgment, but that out of that judgment are the first rays of hope and salvation.

Keywords:          Salvation              Judgment

Introduction

                Most of us who have spent any time at all singing in Baptist churches are familiar with the music of John Newton.  We have enjoyed such favorites as “How Tedious and Tasteless the Hours” and “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken.”  We may know very little, however, about his own Christian experience.

                When he was still only a boy, he left his native England to go to sea.  The day he left home, his mother hold him that she would pray every day that he would become a Christian.  (Has it ever occurred to you what might happen in the lives of your children if they knew your spiritual concern for them?)  Many years passed, and that prayer went unanswered.  As if to aggravate the sorrow that his mother knew, the life of John Newton turned to depravity and decay.  He became, eventually, a slave trader, plying the waters between West Africa and the American South.  He had come finally to moral and spiritual ruin.

                It was in that depravity, however, that God convicted him of his sin.  After his experience of repentance, at which time he turned to Christ in faith to save him, John Newton wrote, as an expression of his own life and transformation, a song that became one of the best-loved songs in Christendom, “Amazing Grace.”

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now am found,

Was blind, but now I see.

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear

And grace my fears relieved;

How precious did that grace appear

The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares,

I have already come,

‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,

And grace will lead me home.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,

Bright shining as the sun,

We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise

Than when we first begun.

I.             The Condemnation.  V9 “The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and . . . to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.” 

                CONDEMNATION IS DESERVED.  The examples of our text show that the angels were not spared, but were cast into mystical “Tartarus,” a holding area awaiting judgment: not gehenna (hell), mentioned at least 11 times by Jesus; not sheol (Old Testament), a region of departed spirits. Revelation 6:8 “. . . a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.”

                There was a prior world judgment by flood upon the ungodly. Deliverance was through the preaching of righteousness. 

                There was a judgment of limited scope upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  It was to serve as a warning to others.  As the judgment was limited, even so there would be the righteous “living among them” who would be delivered.

                There is also the evident displeasure of God with contemporary humanity.  Our age is an age of indulgence. Judges 17:6 “In those days . . . every man did what was right in his own eyes.”  Did you catch the article in the paper this week?  A St. Bernard parish political figure reminded a reporter that questionable funds were not a kick-back, but a campaign contribution.

                Paul found it necessary to remind believers in Ephesians 5:18 “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be ye filled with the spirit.”  Proverbs 14:9 “Fools make a mock at sin.”  Luke 18:11 “I thank Thee, that I am not as other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers.”

                God’s truth concerning condemnation covers all the ages of man.  Genesis 3:17 “cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow thou shalt eat of it all the days of the life.”  I Kings 21:21, Elijah said to Ahab “I have found thee because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord.”

                I looked with dismay at a Times Picayune article, June 7, 1977, about a 13-year-old and a 16-year-old facing indictment on 4 counts of murder. One said, “I’d rather be sailing.”  Those two boys lived in somebody’s community with the gospel. Are there any like them in our community? What to do? As a member of Riverside Baptist Church, what do you do? Leave it to the staff!  As a Christian, a Baptist, live in indifference? It’s just temporary.

II.            The Judge.  V4 “For if God spared not the angels that sinned . . . , to be reserved unto judgment.”

                He is the judge who cannot be mocked.  Have you ever thought to consider what you taught your small children about Santa Claus, and later about God? 

                                You’d better not pout, you’d better not cry

                                You’d better be good I’m telling you why…

                You used a fairy tale to bargain your child into better behavior, getting them committed to a myth.  That is not wrong in itself, but when you fail to teach them the true meaning of Christmas and their ultimate responsibility to God, then you are mocking God.

                To live in atheistic disbelief is not to mock God.  Martin Luther tells of the time when “I hated God and was angry with him.”  But by his own reckoning that state of mind and heart spoke badly for himself and not of God.

                Even Madalyn Murray O’Hair claims to believe in a god of nature.  But, you see, she wants a quiet god who makes no claims or demands.  One who sits around like the three monkeys with eyes, ears, and mouth covered.

                Galatians 6:7 “Be not deceived.  God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

                He is the judge who cannot be other than just.  He will not turn his back to ignore sin.  Psalm 90:8 “Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of the count.”  Jeremiah 32:19 “. . . Thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”

                In the Orleans Parish Criminal Court record of one Richard Norman Glover, self-accused rapist and murderer of 17-year-old Cynthia LeBoeuf, confessed in June 1972. In October 1972 he was ruled insane and unable to stand trial.  He was committed to East Louisiana State Hospital.  In March 1975 he was ruled synthetically sane, and able to stand trial.  In February 1976 his admission of guilt was allowed (5 to 2) by State Superior Court.  Eleven months later they reversed themselves and Glover was free.

III.           The Promise.  V9 “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation.”  

                It is a promise which cannot be earned.  Romans 3:24 “Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ.”  Understand, please, that we may stand convicted of sin, and sincerely want to change our ways.  But the power for justification is not in ourselves, but in Christ.  Satan’s last foothold occurs when God convicts us of sin and he, Satan, tries to make us think that we can change ourselves.

                It is a promise which can only be believed and received.  It is more than a mere fresh veneer.  Matthew 23:27 “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like unto whited sepulchres, which appear beautiful outwardly, but within are full of dead men’s bones.”

                It is the new birth, an inner change, wrought by God alone.  Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

NOTE by Rev. Skinner: Verse 4 contains a reference to God in judgment.  Verse 9 completes this in reference to the Lord in that through Him there is the promise of deliverance.

***THE CONCLUSION OF THIS SERMON HAS BEEN LOST***

THUMPS IN THE NIGHT

#088                                                               THUMPS IN THE NIGHT                                                                                      

Scripture  Ezekiel 1:26-2:5 NIV                                                                                                                        Orig. 6/14/64

                                                                                                                                                                      Rewr. 8/78, 8/24/87 

Passage:  1 ²⁶ Above the vault over their heads was what looked like a throne^(A) of lapis lazuli,^(B) and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man.^{(C) 27} I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him.^{(D) 28} Like the appearance of a rainbow^(E) in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him.^(F)

This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory^(G) of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell facedown,^(H) and I heard the voice of one speaking.  2 ¹ He said to me, “Son of man,^[a](I) stand^(J) up on your feet and I will speak to you.^(K)” ² As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me^(L) to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.

³ He said: “Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have been in revolt against me to this very day.^{(M) 4} The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn.^(N) Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says.’^{(O) 5} And whether they listen or fail to listen^(P)—for they are a rebellious people^(Q)—they will know that a prophet has been among them.^(R)

Purpose: Calling attention to the integrity of God’s word to call His people to our higher goals of faith.

Keywords:          Compassion                       Person of God                   Word of God                      Sin

Introduction

                Have you ever been called upon to chase down some uncertain noise that has gone “thump” in the night?  You went to bed after a hard, long day, expecting to get a full night’s sleep.  You had even spent some quality time with your family, and so had gone happily to bed and to sleep. In the quietness, and with contentment you had dropped quickly off to that place somewhere between wakefulness and sleep.  Then your wife sits bolt upright in bed and asks, “What was that?”

                “What was what?” you groggily reply.

                “That noise!” she says.

                “What noise?” you ask, sensing some urgency.

                “That thump!” she insists.

                By now, you are ready to suggest that she’s watching too much TV, or that she should not have eaten so much pizza, either of which would not have been a smart thing to say.  Before you can blurt it out, one of the children pads into the room in the dark, and you hear a sleepy voice say, “Daddy, I heard a funny noise!”

                “Well, if it was funny, why are we not all laughing?” is all that you can think to say.

                But now, you, the brave, strong daddy must get up and face the unknown, and you didn’t even hear it go thump.  After a few minutes you come back to bed assuring them that all is secure.  All you did was get a glass of water, but they don’t know that.  You have to reply when they ask what went thump.  Daddies just know that there are things that go thump in the night.

                But what if the “thump” is a word from God, and we are not tuned in?  What if an event, or a spoken word, is a love note from God to you, and you are involved elsewhere?

                The boy Samuel heard a thump in the night (I Samuel 3:4) and it was God.  “Where are you, Samuel?”  Where are we when these experiences come?

I.             The First Thump Involves Seemingly Religious People.  Ezekiel 2:3 “And He said to me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me.”

                A nation having every spiritual advantage becomes indifferent to these very values.  Their history records God’s blessing.  Their prophets called them again and again to their destiny.  The promise to them was of a Saviour/Messiah who would usher in the kingdom age.

                We also should feel this sin burden upon the world.  There are too many indications of faithlessness.  A Babel ethic has appeared on the contemporary scene.  The morality of Sodom visits our people.  Political chaos is born of expediency.  Sexual permissiveness leans upon the icy wings of liberation, freedom, sensualness.  Godlessness stalks the streets as a plague. 

                Too near at hand are the cold stares of people turned from religion who never gave it a chance. 

                James 1:27 reads “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep themselves unspotted from the world.” I pastored a church once that was in a region of ideal, rustic simplicity and contentment, and its members reached out to several people in the community who were HIV positive, in love and caring.

                What if, as some suppose, that this present stage is beyond redemption.  Be reminded that God is the Judge; that decision is His.  Revelation 6:17 “The great day of His wrath has come, and who shall be able to stand.”  Hosea 6:5 “Thy judgments are as light.”

                As God has vindicated His faithful people in the past, He will do so again.  Ezekiel here comes to a rebellious people.  His own Son invaded a world of spiritual procrastination of people saying one thing and doing another.

                What is expected of us is a willingness to be his vessels unto righteousness, not as doers of wrong only, but as proclaimers of right.

II.            The Second Thump in the Night is Disbelief.  V4 “. . . you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ . . . whether they hear or whether they refuse, they will know.’”

                God’s concern for His people is seen in every valid experience.  On an early earth day when a man looked lustily from a piece of fruit to her who was the true object of his lust, he and she could think only of deliverance from God’s oppressive PRESENCE.  Yet it was He who took the step in their behalf.  “Adam, where art thou?”

                On the hinder end of forty long wilderness years came a limping population.  Their struggling so vaingloriously was over a span of forty years, a highway that could have been trod triumphantly over a few short weeks.  To these Hebrews, forty years late, bedraggled, beaten, not yet ready to attest that God keeps His promise, God came to explain His choice.  Deuteronomy 7:7 “The Lord did not set His love on you and choose you because you are more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of people: But because the Lord loved you.”

                It should not be difficult for us to grasp such a concept today.  Don’t wait to see ourselves as lovable, see God’s innate affection for His people.  My wife and I had gone to retrieve one of our daughters from some summer activity.  We were in an art gallery passing time.  There before us was a picture of Christ holding a Saturday Night Special.  The picture attested to nothing about Christ.  It boldly asserted the artist’s view of faith, and of sin. 

                God’s commitment, as His promise, is to these human needs.  Jeremiah 31:3 “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn you.”  Malachi 1:2 “’I have loved you,’ saith the Lord, yet you say, ‘In what way have you loved us?’”  Instead of declaring God’s love as we have experienced it.  We raise other questions of validity of His love.  “What have You done for us lately?”

III.           The Final Thump Is the Reminder That This Is Our Message Also. V1 “And He said unto me Son of man, stand upon thy feet and I will speak to thee.”  He continues to desire to speak to the lowly son, or daughter, of man.  He spoke to Jesus constantly, because Jesus was constantly available.  He speaks to Ezekiel as one presently available.  He spoke to Moses with the fear of Egypt upon him and sent him as deliverer.  He spoke to Amos, the herdsman, and sent him to Israel with a message of hope.

                How many others are there to whom He is yet able to speak?  To one eating the dust of some godless employer. To one struggling under the ingrained and irrelevant habits learned in childhood.  And to the one whose life is marked as available to God. 

                He speaks and calls us to the intention to obey.  We can’t serve God while thrashing aimlessly in the mire of shame over past sin.  In the admission of sin, there is always the offer of forgiveness with acceptance.  I Samuel 15:22 “To obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken, than the fat of rams.”  To this end came the Spirit to Ezekiel, set him on his feet in a position of obedience, spoke to him of God’s expectation.  Recall Luke 11:1-4 “teach us to pray” and the parable in vv. 5-13: “How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

Conclusion

                I experienced a thump this week.  JH Harris stopped by.  It was his third time.  The first time, he came seeking help.  The second, he just wanted to say thank you.  His 12-year-old son was with him.  He stopped again last week.  He was running from trouble, going back to South Louisiana.  He wanted me to know that the boy is dead. He had heart disease, it hadn’t been detected soon enough, and he wanted me to pray with him.  It is too easy to overlook the people around us who most need what we have to share.  Listen to the thumps in the night.  They are all around us.

WATCHING JESUS CLOSELY

#476LS                                                       WATCHING JESUS CLOSELY                                                                                  

Scripture  Luke 14:1-14, NIV                                                                                                                            Orig. 3/13/68

                                                                                                                                                                                  Rewr. 1/30/85 

Passage:  One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. ² There in front of him was a man suffering from abnormal swelling of his body. ³ Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” ⁴ But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him on his way.  ⁵ Then he asked them, “If one of you has a child^[a] or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull it out?” ⁶ And they had nothing to say.  ⁷ When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: ⁸ “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. ⁹ If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. ¹⁰ But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. ¹¹ For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”  ¹² Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. ¹³ But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴ and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Purpose: Using the occasion of the Lord’s Supper for a brief message relative to the interrelationships of Jesus at a supper.

Timeline/Series:  LORD’S SUPPER             

Introduction

                Take note please that on a Sabbath, the Holy Day to a Jew, Jesus went into the home of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to share in a festive meal.  It is said that the Jews normally ate two meals a day; but on the Sabbath a festive meal was added to the middle of the day.  It is a joyful occasion.

                Some people have a forlorn and complex view of Jesus as a man who never was other than serious.  John Wesley founded a school near Bristol, England, where no games were allowed because “He who plays when he is a child will play when he is a man.”

                William Barclay (G30p201) gives us some examples of this short-sighted view of the happy Christ.  He quotes Swinburne, “Thou has conquered, O pale Galilean. The world has grown gray at the breath.”  Julian spoke of “pale-faced, flat-breasted Christians for whom the sun shone and they never saw it.”  And it was A.B. Bruce who said one “could not conceive of the child Jesus playing games when he was a boy, or smiling when he was a man.”

                There were those present who were “watching Jesus closely.”  Let’s join them and see what we can learn of our Lord’s disposition.

                Observe Jesus’ Presence at the Supper.  Jesus never refused any man’s hospitality.  V1 “He went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath.”  Jesus went in response to a supposed kindness.  It was a large gathering including lawyers and Pharisees.  It included also an infirm man, either a plant or someone who happened in off the street.  Jesus was not ill-at-ease in the surroundings.  V1: “They watched Him closely.”  Paratereo means “to watch with sinister intent.”

                Note, please, that at such a supper given in His honor, Jesus is present.

                Observe Jesus’ Activity at the Supper.  He was there as a Pharisee’s guest.  The lack of sincerity on the part of some would not change Him.  He was there as a guest.  However, one was present for whom something must be done.  V4: “And He took him and healed him and let him go.” 

                Attention is called to the Pharisees’ lack of value judgment.  It was the Sabbath.  That was their excuse to do nothing.  Jesus not only does what is right, he rebukes their do-nothing attitude. 

                At this supper given in honor of our Lord is the appropriate time to check our own values.

                Observe Jesus’ Teaching about a Supper.  V7: “So He told a parable” about being invited . . . to a wedding feast.”  There is always relevancy in Jesus’ teaching.  They were at a supper as guests.  Some were not acting accordingly. 

                V7 “He noted how they chose the best places.”  Thus, His teaching to them was a lesson in humility.  V10 “When you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place.”

                Note that it is a rare thing for us to think of ourselves as humble.  What place would you want at the table where Jesus sat?

                Observe Jesus’ Advice to His Host.  He encourages him to examine his motives.  Why do we do the things we do?  Duty? Self-interest? To befriend?  He had invited Jesus and perhaps the infirm man.  Fearing what his friends would say, he invited them.

                Do the right thing and let God provide the blessing.  What better advice or higher goal could we accord than this?  I will do the right thing, and I will wait for God to bless as he will.

***THE REMAINDER OF THIS SERMON HAS BEEN LOST***

BE STILL AND KNOW (Psalms series)

#048a(s)                                                           BE STILL AND KNOW

Scripture  Psalm 46:1-11 NIV                                                                                                                            Orig. 10-9-83                                                                                                                                                                                    (Psalms series)

Passage:  God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.
² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
³ though its waters roar and foam
    and the mountains quake with their surging.^[c]

⁴ There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy place where the Most High dwells.
⁵ God is within her, she will not fall;
    God will help her at break of day.
⁶ Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
    he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

⁷ The Lord Almighty is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

⁸ Come and see what the Lord has done,
    the desolations he has brought on the earth.
⁹ He makes wars cease
    to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
    he burns the shields^[d] with fire.
¹⁰ He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth.”

¹¹ The Lord Almighty is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Timeline/Series:               Psalms 

Introduction

                In North Carolina  once, we were hiking and became confused about our location.  It was noon, with no help from the sun. Planes were flying and making a lot of noise.  Not only were we lost.  But I became aware that we were walking in a circle.

                As we took a rest to try to figure out the best course of action to follow, the planes suddenly flew off to some other place.  After a moment, the sound  of trucks on the highway some miles off were heard, and we had our bearings.

I.             Consider the Pace.  V2 “Though the earth be removed.”

                What terrible things we do to ourselves when we continue without recourse in the never-ending cataclysm of activity.  The Psalmist moves from dismay to disillusion, through despair to discovery.  As the Psalmist views his troubled mountain, we need to view our troubled world.

II.            Consider the Pause.  V10 “Be still and know.”  The word “be still” means “to relax.”  It is not surrender, giving up.  It reminds us of the sabbath rest.  Worship is the best place and sphere for this to take place.  Vance Havner, preacher from the Blue Ridge Mountains, wrote that “the trouble with the church today is that we have too much ‘supper room’ and not enough ‘upper room.’”

III.           Consider the Peace.  V11 “The Lord God of Hosts is with us.” 

1. Mark 4:36, still of storm, “Peach be still. . . .  Have ye not yet faith?”
2. Isaiah 54:17, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.  This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.”
3. Luke 19:37f Dialogue between Jesus and the Pharisees.  They wanted Him to rebuke the disciples for believing that peace followed Jesus.
4. Paul “I have learned in whatever state I am therein to be content.”

IV.          Concluding Thought.     

1. Verses 1-3 Picture God holding the reigns in a struggle through creation’s cataclysm.  Selah
2. Verses 4-7 Picture man struggling in social relationship, and vainly, apart from God, living happily.  Selah
3. Verses 8-11 Picture the perfect peace to come that clearly is the accomplishment of God alone, for His people alone.

Closing

                St. Francis of Assisi,  “Christ and the City,” p 104.

Lord, make  me an instrument of Thy peace;

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

Where there is sadness, joy.

O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled, as to console;

To be understood, as to understand;

To be loved, as to love.

For it is in the giving that we receive,

It is in the pardoning that we are pardoned,

It is in the dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

Ephesians 6:20, ”[The gospel], for which I am an ambassador in chains; that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.”

LIFE BEGINS WITH DEATH

#049a                                                          LIFE BEGINS WITH DEATH                                                                                    

Scripture  Romans 6:17-23, NIV                                                                                                          Orig. Date  5/20/62

                                                                                                                                                         Rewr. Dates  2/1/85 (6-77) 

Passage:  ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. ¹⁸ You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

¹⁹ I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. ²⁰ When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. ²¹ What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! ²² But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in^[a] Christ Jesus our Lord.

Purpose:   To call attention to the new “life” that is in Christ which begins with the believer’s “death.”

Keywords:          Christ the Saviour                             New Birth                            Revival                  Salvation

Introduction

                “Life after death” is enjoying some popularity these days.  Walk in any supermarket and look for the sensationalist newspapers and you will see what I mean.  Most of the time there will be some outlandish article such as one I saw recently, “Five Psychics Tell Why They Believe in Life After Death.”  You will even hear some of the people on talk shows discuss it usually in some metaphysical way.

                I heard Paul Harvey quote Elisabeth Kübler-Ross  a while back.  She is a social scientist, and probably the world’s leading authority from a scientific standpoint of the death experience.  “Although I do not consider myself a particularly religious woman, I find no conflict between the Christian concept of an afterlife, and my own careful studies on death.”

                Perhaps, since we have access to the sensation mongers, over-zealous superstars, and sectarian scientists, we ought to see what insights God’s Word can give us.  But if you really want to know about death and its implications, the only safe place to go is to God’s Word.

I.             The Death that We Best Understand is the “Wages of Sin.”  Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death.”  There is, of course, the death of body function.  Karen Ann Quinlan is the sad textbook example of a serious problem: When is a person biologically dead?  After ten years, she is still alive.

                Let me remind you that God didn’t will death.  Its source, as this verse attests, is in man’s will to sin.  Sin and its punishment are the result of man’s free will.  Ecclesiastes 7:29, “God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions.”  I Corinthians 2:14, “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto Him.”

                The text speaks of moral and spiritual death as well as physical.  Who would choose life without regard to circumstances?  Why are there thousands of suicides?  Who would choose Ethiopia?

                Someone reports an on-the-spot interview by a war correspondent with a crusty Marine sergeant.  He was eating cold beans from a can with his bayonet.  “If I could grant  one request for you right now, what would it be?”  Without hesitation, the sergeant said, “Give me tomorrow!” 

                There’s a joke going around about a guy who asked a genie to make him owner of a new-car franchise in a major metropolitan area and wound up a Chrysler dealer in Tokyo right before an earthquake hit.

                There is more to life than just living.  There is a lot of difference between driving a truck, and trucking.

                Thus, we are reminded that life is to sin as death is to righteousness.  The human life is marked by sin.  Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned.”  Believers sin repeatedly.  There are sins of circumstance and diversion, and there are sins of will and purpose.  Romans 6:1, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue to sin, that grace may abound?”  Romans 6:15, “What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace?  God forbid.”

                We won’t lose salvation, but can lose direction, joy, and perspective, and can find shame.  The unbeliever is dead before God.  Ecclesiastes 3:19, “That which befalleth the sons of man befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them:  As the one dieth, so dieth the other.”

II.            The Corollary to This Death Is Life that Is a Free Gift from God.  Clearly, there is more to death than the cessation of life.  Even so, there is more to quality life than breath, blood flow, and brain function. The January 1977 National Geographic contains an article, “Planet Mars,” to show the possibility of life; Dr. Michael McElroy writes: “The elements of the chemistry set are there.  We have carbon. . . , nitrogen. . . , sunshine.  The only real thing remaining is whether the Great Chemist was there putting the elements together in the right way.”

                The life in particular here, beyond physical, is the life of faith.  The scripture declares man’s uniqueness is his relationship with God.  Man is unique  in creation.  Genesis 2:7, “. . . and God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.”  Evolution would discount man’s fall, therefore there is his need of Christ.

                There is uniqueness in  his destiny.  Romans 6:6f, “. . . our old man was crucified with Him that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.  Now if we die with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him."

                We know of what this life consists.  It is, first, purposeful living.  Romans 6:4 “. . . even so, we also should walk in newness of life.”  John 10:10, “I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it abundantly.”

                Secondly, it is life after death.  It is not sensationalism.  It is not metaphysical gibberish.  It is not science by default.  It is God’s promise to believers.  Aionios is the Greek word meaning “endlessness.” It appears that way in 67 of 70 usages.  II Corinthians 4:18, “For the things which are seen are temporary; things not seen are permanent.”

III.           This Life that Comes Through Death Is by Jesus Christ.  Romans 6:23, “. . . The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  There are those who claim that being sincere is religion enough.  Judas probably thought he was right when he betrayed Jesus.  The Jews surely thought they were doing God a favor when Jesus was crucified.  Millions of Germans were sincere when they stood by as 6 million Jews went to gas chambers.

                There are some who suggest that this life depends on church relationship.  There is Baptist truth, then there is Catholic truth.  While pastoring in Oakdale, I had a 15-minute radio program.  Prior was West Baptist Church; after was First Presbyterian Church; then West Baptist Church to counter any opposite points.

                But the scripture points us to Jesus only as the instrument of salvation.  The Bible message is still John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

                It is clearly this message that Jesus taught,  “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No man cometh unto the Father but by Me” (John 14:6).  This is what every born-again believer stakes his or her life on.  II Timothy 1:12, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.”

Conclusion

                Elton Trueblood wrote in “New Life in the Church”: “There are two insights which can illumine our understanding of the Christian case.  The first is the conversion which is important is  not conversion from sheer paganism to  nominal  Christianity; not conversion from cold to warm, but from lukewarm to hot, from a mild religion to one in which a person’s whole life is taken up and filled and compelled.  The second is that the most common situation in which this kind of conversion can occur is the situation of middle age.”

PUMPING IN PERFECTION

#053b                                                          PUMPING IN PERFECTION                                                                                   

Scripture  II Timothy 3:12-17                                                                                                               Orig. Date 10-22-61

                                                                                                                                                                      Rewr. Dates 4-19-75 

Passage:  ¹² In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, ¹³ while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. ¹⁴ But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, ¹⁵ and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷ so that the servant of God^[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Purpose:  To speak to my people early in the year encouraging them to give stronger consideration to the need to study God’s Word with a renewed intensity.

Keywords:          Bible                      Christian Responsibility                 Baptist Belief

Introduction

                I stood there that day talking with a lady about a need for a music worker.  She shared some reluctance, but I felt that she was almost convinced.  I moved in like a fisherman at his favorite fishing hole.  I reminded her that we simply wanted to see her talent invested in this important “kingdom” cause.  Her response was sincere.  “Brother Skinner, I love to sing, but there’s a lot I don’t know about music.”  I felt like a chess payer moving in to checkmate.  Said I, “I love to preach, but there’s a lot I don’t know about preaching and sermons.”  I was just getting ready to pat myself on the back when she took the wind out of my sails.  She responded, “Yeah, but YOU can fool people, and you can’t when you don’t know music.”

                People as a rule have capabilities to master just about anything.  There are musicians who have dedicated their lives to mastering music.  There are theologians and preachers who have mastered the art of sermon and rhetoric.

                As difficult as it is to believe, there are people who understand, and who have mastered, American foreign policy.  To most of us it is beyond the scope of comprehension.  One of the nemeses of the school years is always testing time.  It’s bad enough to spend hours preparing for the subject, and then leave the classroom wondering if we even passed.  Then we look at the posted grades and see the names of those who  not only  passed, they had perfect scores.

                One of the most significant doctrinal emphases of Baptists over the centuries has been our regard for the Bible.  I do not know of anyone who has claimed to master this book.  None of us will ever be able to exceed in understanding what the Word of God proclaims in revelation.  But, oh how we need to set ourselves to the task. 

                We will never know all that we would like to know about our chosen vocations, but we work at improvement.  Knowledge abounds in the avocational areas of sports, arts and crafts, travel, history, and a thousand other subjects.  That we can not know everything does not hinder our determination.

                “Pumping in Perfection” is an apt title because the only way that we will ever get close to what we ought to be is by the embrace of the assimilation of God’s Word creatively applied.

I.             We Discover that This Book was Written By Men Inspired.  II Peter 1:21 “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

                There are a lot of different reasons that people write: Some to share knowledge; some to entertain; some to express their prurient thoughts. Others write simply because it is easier than working.  The Bible was written as a storehouse of redemptive knowledge.  Its purpose was not science, not astronomy, not even history. God is at work redemptively.  

                Psalm 110:105 “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”  Jeremiah 23:29 “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?”  Luke 24:32 “Did not our hearts burn within us as he opened to us the Scriptures?”  Romans 15:4 “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”

                Patrick Henry referred to the Bible as “a book worth all other books which were ever printed.”

II.            Written By Inspired Men, It Had God for Its Author, Salvation for Its End.    Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.”  God is then  eternally responsible for His Word.  In man’s beginning, he struggled to communicate with other men, and language was born, a language capable of expressing the deepest of thoughts.  In man’s entrapment in the nuclear age, communication has been replaced by détente.  God’s Word is now more than ever man’s only surviving means of brotherhood.

                God’s purpose according to His Word will not and cannot be averted.  The writing of the Bible as we know it today covers about 1600 years of man’s history.  The Old Testament was born and woven in three fragments—Law, Prophets, and Writings.  By 150 A.D. a complete New Testament canon was in circulation.  Many translations preceded the ones we know: Jerome, mid 4^th century; Wycliffe 1380; Tyndale 1611; King James  1611.  The TEXTUS RECEPTUS was the basic King James text.  Though some 5,000 manuscripts have been found since, there is a total alteration of less than one percent.

III.           God’s Word has Truth without Any Mixture of Error for its Matter.  Proverbs 30:5-6 “Every work of God is pure. Add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee and thou be found a liar.”  There is not to be found any book with the integrity, credibility, and authenticity of the Bible.  Why do people waste time on the trashy books that offer only a fleshy sensation at best?  They may do worse.  This is the  real evil of pornography: What it does to us, and what it keeps from us.

                The truth of man’s gravest need is found and continued in the book we know as the Bible.  We were concerned with Watergate.   We are concerned with Southeast Asia.  We wonder about ecology and energy supplies.  There is an answer to “Why am I here?” and “Where is it all going?”

                Psalm 43:3 “Send out Thy light and Thy truth; let them lead me.”  John 8:32 “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  II Corinthians 13:8 “We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.”

IV.          The Bible Goes on to Reveal the Principles by Which God Will Judge Us.  Romans 2:12 “As many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law."  John 12:47-48 “If any man hear my words. . . . the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.”

                The most significant aspect of that judgment is faith in Jesus.  Whatever good there is, or merit, in any human life comes about as a result of faith.

                Aristotle said of his own writings that they “were given for action and not for discussion.”  Even so, with the Bible, it is easier to get people to talk about the Bible, even to study, than to get us to do what it says.  We marvel that Codex Sinaiticus sold for ½ million dollars.  Vaticanus was so closely guarded that it was  not known until Napoleon conquered Rome.

V.            The Bible Is and Will Remain to the End of the World the True Center of Christian Union.  Philippians 3:16 “Let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.”  We have learned some things worthy of keeping:  We are judged by the same standards. We are forgiven alike through Jesus. We are saved for equal purposes. 

                It will do us well to remember that the totalitarian state is enemy to the purpose of sharing this Word from God.  One is reminded of a Hitler quote to youth-oriented groups, “Whether it is the Old Testament or the New Testament, or the sayings of Jesus, it is all the same old swindle. . . .  One is either a German or a Christian. You can not be both.”  A Hitler mouthpiece was head of the German people’s church.  National socialism must not be judged from a biblical or ecclesiastical standpoint.

VI.          The Bible is the Supreme Standard by Which All Human Conduct, Creeds, and Opinions Should be Tried.  I John 4:1 “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out  into the world.”

CLOSING

Last eve I passed beside a blacksmith’s door,

and heard the anvil ring the vesper chime.

Then looking in I saw upon the floor

old hammers worn with beating years of time.

“How MANY anvils have you had,” said I,

“to wear and batter all these hammers so?”

“Just one,” said he, and then with twinkling eye,

“The anvil wears the hammers out you know!”

And so, thought I, the anvil of God’s Word,

for ages skeptic blows have beat upon;

Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,

the anvil is unharmed—the hammers gone.

Attributed to John Clifford

                Don’t you think it’s time for a little of God’s perfection to be pumped?