Thoughts on Biblical Manhood

More From Richard Steele

2009-08-15T11:59:00.001-05:00

“Oh what a golden age would return to us if men were but plain in their dealing and punctual in their performances? It is unworthy for a man, a Christian man, to be so vile that nobody can believe him or trust him. How will Atilius Regulus rise up in judgment and condemn this generation who – being prisoner at Carthage, and assured of his own death if he failed his negotiation – was set at liberty to effect a peace at Rome upon the single security of his own word to return if he failed to procure it. But such was his public spirit that he effectually dissuaded his countrymen from a peace, assuring them of certain conquest; and such was the integrity of his spirit that, after this, he fairly returned and accepted a cruel death rather than infringe his word. Ten thousand pities that such heroic acts should be lost for want of a right principle; and ten thousand shames that Christians should break their word for a coin while pagans will not do it for their lives.” A Plea For Personal Integrity, pp. 38-39.

A Young Man In The Middle East

2009-05-22T08:10:00.001-05:00

This letter is from one of the young men in a sister church. For security reasons, I left out his name. REB

Greetings from Air Force Central Command (CENTAF) for Southwest Asia.

Despite the 110 degrees outside and the ravaging sandstorms, we run the show for the whole Middle East and the rest of the region.
I just wanted to send a quick update on what’s going on: I got in last week and the work started almost immediately. We had briefings and simulation exercises to get up to speed, and we had to relieve the Squadron from Italy so they could all go home. The rooms here are small but the base has a lot of resources; the commander has really transformed this base from an expeditionary/temporary base, to a fully functional/permanent air base.

The shift is very long, 13 hours, from 6AM to 7PM every day; everyone is always wiped out by the evening. Nevertheless, the day goes by quickly; there has been a lot to do and there will continue to be an abundance of tasks, initiatives, and tactical changes to many of our systems.

For those of you who don’t know, I’m working in a Surveillance/Command and Control position, which is like Air Traffic Control on steroids. Air traffic control deals with take-offs and landings, we deal with the tactical control of fighters, bombers, tankers, choppers, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and countless other weapons systems. Our mission is summed up in a local saying: “We put warheads on foreheads.”

This mission is critical; this mission is dangerous. For those of you who have read the news, you know that Iran just launched a Sajjil-2 ballistic missile. All media reports about the missile are true.

Without getting into too much detail, I can tell you that I was
actually on scope when the missile was fired. I cannot disclose any more information than that. We work side by side with the Army’s Patriot Missile system guys to defend against ballistic missile attacks on Middle East assets. The Iranian capabilities are there, and they have shown both the intent and the capability to attack Israel and Coalition assets overseas.

This is no joke; this is no vacation; this really is a war. It may not touch close to home, but just know that what happens here is real stuff. We receive Intel about troops in contact every day. The proximity to danger does not make one mission more important than another; my position be far from combat, but has no bearing on the importance, impact, and tactical necessity of this mission.

There are men under fire at all hours of the day, and my job
is to ensure that those men have the support they need form the air. If I don’t do my job, men die. It’s as simple as that. This war is more real than I could have imagined. Your prayers would
be greatly appreciated. I will try to send an update every month or so. I have to run. Take care, I love you all.

What And How of Christian Worldview

2009-05-21T14:34:00.001-05:00

Government Fiscal Immorality

2009-02-06T12:19:00.001-06:00

Spirit of Titanic Still Alive on Flight 1549

2009-01-16T19:39:00.003-06:00

According to The New York Times:

"On board, the pilot, Chesley B. Sullenberger III, 57, unable to get back to La Guardia, had made a command decision to avoid densely populated areas and try for the Hudson, and had warned the 150 passengers to brace for a hard landing. Most had their heads down as the jetliner slammed into the water, nose slightly up, just three minutes after takeoff on what was to be a flight to Charlotte, N.C."

The New York Times continued: “When all were out, the pilot walked up and down the aisle twice to make sure the plane was empty, officials said.”

Jeff Kolodajy, a passenger from Connecticut, stated: “Everyone’s fine. There was a lady with her baby and she was trying to crawl over the seats. And I said, women and children first. She got off.”

Call To Christians to Leave State Schools

2008-12-30T09:22:00.001-06:00

Love this book; Love this review (I didn't write it, I just wish I had)

2008-12-09T12:22:00.002-06:00

"The church of the first century was a magnet to males. Jesus' strong leadership, blunt honesty, and bold action mesmerized men."

"But today's churches appeal more to women and folks over 50."

Males in church are perceived, right or wrong, as passive, bookish, soft, nice, well-behaved, neutered wimps.

David Murrow has written an absolute must-read book for all churches interested in bringing men back, restoring a proper balance of the masculine and feminine spirits within the local church, creating an environment in which men will lovingly take charge, thrive, grow and be soldiers again in the Lord's army.

I don't consider myself a type-A personality. I'm pretty laid-back, studious and love going to church. I've love fellowshipping with God's people. I'm not a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal that gets distracted after 10 minutes of a sermon. I don't need the constant stimulus of entertainment to hold my interest, but I found myself burning with a `holy anger' reading this book, mostly at myself for how `feminine' I've allowed myself to become over the years. And please, no more `Jesus is my boyfriend' songs !!

Two other men I know have been deeply affected to the positive by this book and are absolutely fired up about restoring the masculine spirit in their lives as well as their local church. One of them told me recently "I'm hanging up my skirt - not going to wear it anymore."

David is not advocating a bombastic, abusive male domination of our churches. Don't panic ladies, but let men be men. We were created to lead and contribute. "Most men will not invest themselves in anything that does not offer a shot at greatness. Boys do not dream of sitting in a cubicle; they dream of slaying the dragon, rescuing the princess, and absconding with the treasure." The church thermostat, to attract men, must be set on Challenge, not Comfort, Ceremony, Control, Conformity or Confrontation.

It's going to take courage to change the way we do church, if we want to reach unchurched men. Some won't for fear of change that will upset the status quo. Others will find that they will have to leave their churches rather than settle for living lives of quiet desperation. "Men need vision, not just relationships, to stay motivated in church."

One of the most stunning but encouraging statistics was that between 1994-2004, men's church attendance was flat, but men's participation in small, spiritual groups doubled. 9 million additional men joined a small group Bible study. Some folks are finding the traditional church model is not cutting it and have opted instead for a more informal but intense, iron sharpening iron, discipleship format.

Biblical references aside, wolves have a noble bearing, look intelligent, focused, and yes, even a bit 'dangerous'. Labrador retrievers, on the other hand, tend to be gentle, passive, friendly and harmless. And then you have the 'foo-foo' dogs that women dress up in pink sweaters and skirts... 'nough said.

I can't recommend this book enough.

____________________

Oh yeah, the name of the book: Why Men Hate Going To Church, by David Murrow [Nelson, 2005]

Discipling A Son

2008-12-03T14:20:00.001-06:00

So Far Just Literature

2008-07-19T11:51:00.001-05:00

Members of Burma’s battered and disparate opposition are growing disillusioned with the old methods of the pro-democracy movement and are seeking ways to escalate their armed struggle.

“There is a very real debate among us about how to begin a more sustained armed struggle,” an organizer of last September’s failed uprising told the Guardian. “We are ready for that kind of action, if we can get the supplies and training that we need.”

Speaking from exile in Thailand, Soe Aung, the chief spokesman for the National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB), an umbrella group representing nearly all facets of Burma’s disparate opposition, said he was witnessing a significant shift in the public attitude across Burma.

“After the September uprising and then the terrible cyclone response, the anger is surging. Some are considering violent means … the Burmese people are not that kind of people, there has been a real change.”

Soe Aung spoke openly of how covert Western support, primarily from the US state department-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and its subsidiary the International Republican Institute (IRI), had been fundamental to the success of the uprising.

“The US is certainly doing the most for the opposition. There has been real success in training and forming an underground movement through religious organizations and monastic organizations. These provide the best cover inside Burma. The monks can spread their training very effectively.”

The NED describes itself as a private organization but was created by, and remains accountable to, the US Congress. Set up under the Reagan administration in 1983, it has since played a leading role in influencing civil society and electoral processes in countries around the world unfriendly to US interests.

According to Brian Joseph, the man in charge of the group’s Burma project, the NED gave $3million to Burma in 2007. “We would send more, but there is a limit to what you can do in Burma,” said Joseph.

Opposition activists both inside and outside Burma largely describe the improvements in political awareness and spread of information as a result of NED-funded projects, but also attribute them to the introduction of the internet to Burma in 2003.

“We could see in September how the advances were utilized. It wasn’t just the monks but a massive increase of awareness among Burmese of all types. This was thanks largely due to media organs, the Democratic Voice of Burma, satellite TV, and, of course, the internet,” said Soe Aung.

REB

Divine Healing: James 5:14-16

2008-07-18T09:19:00.001-05:00

This post concludes a series in which I have basically copied and pasted A. W. Pink's short book, Divine Healing: Is It Scriptural? to the blog.

Now, as then, many Christians have questions about this subject. After all, it is evident from the gospels that healing formed a large part of the ministry of Christ and the apostles. Further, there are in the NT what appear to be promises of an ongoing miraculous ministry of this kind. Yet, we all have been in a situation in which there was not a miraculous answer to prayers for healing. What is wrong, then?

These short chapters, which I have treated as posts, have attempted to answer from a biblical viewpoint what is wrong with the modern "healing" movement and to take an honest look at what Scripture says about this phenomenon. Like most pastors, I have received many inquiries about this over the years.

In this particular installment, I think Mr. Pink's opinion is far too modest. For my part, I think the effectual fervent prayer refers first to Elijah, of course. But then it also refers to the man who has been so affected by his affliction that he cries out to God in genuine repentance and confession of sin. Apart from the confession of sin, I think the oil would be better used for a salad. -- REB

"A number of friends who appreciated our recent articles on this subject have written to us expressing the desire for a few words on James 5:14–16. We respond to their wish with a certain amount of diffidence, for we are not sure in our own mind either as to its interpretation or application. This is a passage which has long been an occasion of controversy and debate, and those who took part therein found—as is often the case—that it was easier to refute the arguments of their opponents than to establish their own position. When we are uncertain about the meaning of Scripture we usually remain silent thereon, but in this instance we will give the leading views which have been expressed, and state how we feel toward them.

"First, Romanists insist that this “anointing with oil” is a standing ordinance in the church and James 5:14, 15 is the principal passage appealed to by them in support of their dogma and practice of “extreme unction.” But here as everywhere the papists go contrary to the Scriptures, for instead of anointing the sick as a healing ordinance, they only administer it to those at the point of death. We have no hesitation in denouncing their perversion as a mere hypocritical pageantry. The “unction” they use must be olive oil mixed with balsam, consecrated by a bishop, who must nine times bow the knee, saying thrice “Ave sanctum oleum” (Hail, holy oil), and thrice “Ave Sanctum chrisma” (Hail, holy chrism), and thrice more, “Ave, sanctum Balsamum” (Hail, holy balsam). The members anointed are the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and for the extremities, the reins and feet: in women, the navel. The design thereof is, the expulsion of the relics of sin and to equip the soul for its conflicts with the powers of evil in the moment of death. One has but to mention these things to reveal their absurdity.

"Second, the position generally taken by the Reformers and Puritans, was, that this anointing the sick with oil was not designed as a sacrament, they being but two in number: baptism and the Lord’s supper. They pointed out that so far from this being a standing rite, the apostles themselves seldom used oil in the healing of the sick: they wrought cures by a touch (Acts 3:7), by their shadow (Acts 5:15), by handkerchiefs (Acts 19:12), by laying on of hands (Acts 28:8), by word of mouth (Acts 9:34). Nor does it appear that they were permitted to employ this gift indiscriminately, no not even among brethren in Christ dear to them, or why should Paul leave Trophimus at Miletum sick (2 Tim. 4:20) or sorrow so much over the illness of Epaphroditus (Phil. 2:27)? In this too God exercised His sovereignty. But what is more to the point, this supernatural endowment was only of brief duration: “But that grace of healing has disappeared, like all other miraculous powers, which the Lord was pleased to exhibit for a time, that He might render the power of the Gospel, which was then new, the object of admiration forever” (Calvin).

"A list of the “charismata” or supernatural gifts which obtained during the apostolic period is found in 1 Corinthians 12: “to another faith, by the same Spirit; to another the gift of healing, by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another divers kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues” (vv. 9, 10.).They were designed chiefly for the authenticating of Christianity and to confirm it in heathen countries. Their purpose, then, was only a temporary one, and as soon as the canon of Scripture was closed they were withdrawn. As 1 Corinthians 13 plainly intimates “whether there be prophecies (inspired messages from God) they shall fail (to be given any more); whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be (supernatural) knowledge, it shall vanish away” (v. 8). It was the view of Matthew Henry, Thomas Manton, John Owen, and in fact nearly all of the Puritan divines, that James 5:14, 15 refers to the exercise of one of those supernatural gifts which the church enjoyed only in the first century.

"Among the leading arguments advanced in support of this contention are the following. First, the “anointing with oil” clearly appears to look back to Mark 6:13 where we are told of the twelve, they “anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them.” Second, the positive promise of healing, verse 15, seems to be an unconditional and general one, as though no exceptions, no cases of failure, were to be looked for. Third, “healing” was certainly one of the miraculous gifts specified in 1 Corinthians 12. Moreover, it hardly seems likely that the “faith” here mentioned is an ordinary one: though whether it differed in kind or only in degree is not easy to determine. There was the “faith of miracles”—either to work them or the expectation of them on the part of those who were the beneficiaries, as is clear from Matthew 21:24; Mark 11:24; 1 Corinthians 13:2. The “anointing with oil” after the praying over the sick is regarded as a seal or pledge of the certainty of healing or recovery.

"On the other side, we find such a deeply-taught man and so able an expositor as Thomas Goodwin (1600-1680) insisting on the contrary. He pointed out, first, that James 5:14 is quite different from Mark 6:13, for here the anointing with oil is joined with prayer, whereas prayer is not mentioned there, but only the miraculous gift. Second, the ones to be sent for were not specified as men endowed with the gift of healing, but the “elders,” and there is nothing to show that all of them possessed that gift. The “elders” were standing officers who were to continue. Third, the ones to be healed are the “sick” or infirm, but extraordinary healing would have extended further—to the blind, the deaf and dumb, and would have reached to unbelievers instead of being restricted to church members: cf. 1 Corinthians 14:22. Fourth, the means commanded: oil and prayer on all such occasions, whereas the extraordinary gift of healing was not so confined, but was frequently effected without any means at all, by mere word of mouth.

"Third, rather more than a century ago, a certain Edward Irving, founder of the “Catholic Apostolic Church,” propounded the theory that the supernatural gifts which existed in the early Church had been lost through the unbelief and carnality of its members, and that if there was a return to primitive order and purity, they would again be available. Accordingly he appointed “apostles,” and “prophets” and “evangelists.” They claimed to speak in tongues, prophesy, interpret and work miracles. There is little doubt in our mind that this movement was inspired by Satan, and probably a certain amount of abnormal phenomena attended it, though much of it was explainable as issuing from a state of high nervous tension and hysteria. Irving’s theory, with some modifications and some additions has been popularized and promulgated by the more recent so-called “Pentecostal movement,” where a species of unintelligible jabbering and auto-suggestion cum mesmerism is styled “speaking in tongues,” and “faith healing.” Many of their devotees and dupes attempt to carry out James 5:14, 15, but with very meager and unsatisfactory results.

"Fourth, there is the grotesque idea of the Dispensationalists. These is a class of men who pose as being exceptionally enlightened, and under the guise of “rightly dividing the Word of Truth” arbitrarily partition the Scriptures, affirming “this is not for us,” “that does not pertain to this present era of Grace,” “that relates to the Tribulation period,” “this will be fulfilled in the Millennium.” Because the opening verse of James reads, “To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greetings,” these robbers of God’s children declare this epistle is “entirely Jewish;” as well might they reason that the first epistle of Paul is designed only for Papists because it is addressed “To all that be in Rome” (Rom. 1:1). The epistle of James belongs to all the “beloved brethren,” to all born-again souls (1:16, 18). It is surely striking that the very passage we are here considering (5:14–16) comes right between a reference to Job (a Gentile) who endured patiently his affliction and found the Lord to be “pitiful and of tender mercy” (v. 11) and to Elijah who is described as “a man subject to like passions as we are” yet mighty in prayer (v. 17)—as though the Spirit was anticipating and refuting this mad notion.

"Now where such widely-different interpretations are given of a passage, it usually follows that the true one lies somewhere between two extremes, and such we believe is the case here. We are very loathe to regard our passage as being an obsolete one, that it refers to something which pertained only to the apostolic age and relates not at all to us. When referring to the Papish travesty of this “anointing with oil” Thomas Goodwin said, “The Reformed churches seeing that such a sacrament could not be and this must needs be a perversion of it, did justly reject it, only in rejecting it (as in some other things) they went too far, even denying it to have that use of restoring the sick as a seal of the promise, and an indefinite means to convey that blessing which God in mercy hath appointed it to be.” We are strongly inclined to agree with this eminent Puritan that the churches which grew out of the Reformation went too far when they set aside this passage as containing Divine directions to be followed by Gospel churches throughout this Christian era. Such a sweeping conclusion needs qualifying.

"The knotty point to be settled is, how far and at which points is this qualification to be made? Personally we believe the general principle and promise of the passage holds good for all generations—seasons of great spiritual declension and deadness only excepted. In normal times it is the privilege of the saint—when seriously ill, or suffering great pain, and not on every light occasion—to send for the “elders” (pastors, ministers) of the local Gospel church to which he belongs, for they who preach God’s Word to him should surely be the fittest to spread his case before Him: cf. Job 42:8. They are to pray over him, commending him to the mercy of God and seeking recovery for him if that be according to the Divine will: whether or not the “anointing with oil” should accompany the praying is a detail on which we are not prepared to dogmatize; but where the sick one desires it, his request should be complied with. The kind of oil is not specified, though most likely olive oil was used in the first century.

"It should be pointed out that those promises of God which relate to temporal and eternal mercies are quite different from those pertaining to spiritual and eternal things, the former being general and indefinite and not unconditional and absolute as are many of the latter, and therefore as God reserves to Himself the freedom to make them good when, as, and to whom He pleases, we must ask in full submission to His sovereign pleasure. To illustrate: if I am starting out on a journey I ask God to preserve me from all harm and danger if that be His holy will (Rom. 1:10), but I make no such proviso when I request Him to deliver me from those who assault my soul (2 Tim. 4:18). Thus “the prayer of faith” here is not a definite expectation that God will heal, but a peaceful assurance that He will do that which is most for His glory and the sick one good. That the promise of James 5:15 is an indefinite and not an absolute one is clear from this consideration: if it were not so, he could continually claim the promise and so never die— the “and IF he have committed sins” further confirms the indefiniteness of what is here in view.

"Some are likely to object against what has been pointed out in the last paragraph and say, But faith must have a foundation to rest upon, and it has none other than the Word of God: if then there be here no definite promise to lay hold of and plead before God, the “prayer of faith” is impossible, for there is no assurance the sick one will be healed. That may sound very plausible and pious, yet it is wrong. There is a faith of reliance and submission as well as a faith of expectation. There is no higher, no stronger, no grander faith than one which has such confidence in the wisdom and goodness of God as leads me to present my case to Him and say “Do as seemeth Thee good.” It is always a help when we can plead a promise, but God is greater than all His promises and where some specific need or emergency be not covered by some express promise, faith may count upon the mercy and power of God Himself— this is what Abraham did: Hebrews 11:19!

"Personally we greatly fear that there are very few “elders” now left on earth whom it would be any good to send for in an emergency: only those living close to God and blessed with strong faith would be of any use. This is a day of “small things,” nevertheless the Lord remains unchanged and ready to show Himself strong on behalf of those who walk uprightly. Though there be no spiritual elders available, yet God is accessible; seek unto Him, and if He grants you the “prayer of faith” then healing is certain either by natural means or by supernatural intervention. “The Lord is undoubtedly present with His people to assist them in all ages, and when necessary He heals their diseases as much as He did in ancient times; but He does not display those miraculous powers or dispense miracles by the hands of apostles, because that gift was only of temporary duration” (Calvin)

“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed” (v. 16). Here the scope of our passage is widened: in verse 13 the afflicted or tried one is to pray for himself, in verse 14 the ministers are to pray for the one seriously sick, now fellow-Christians are to pray for each other. But first they are bidden to confess their faults one to another, which does not mean revealing the secrets of their hearts or acquainting their brethren with that which is suited only for the ear of God: but cases where they have tempted or injured one another or consented to the same evil act—tattling, for example. A mutual acknowledgement of those faults which cause coldness and estrangement, exciting one another to repentance for the same, promotes the spirit of prayer and fellowship, The “healing” here is also wider, referring primarily to that of the soul (Ps. 41:4) and breaches (Heb. 12:13), being the term used in 1 Peter 2:24, yet also includes removal of physical chastisements.

Observations in Conclusion

"A few brief observations on our passage in conclusion.

"1. Personal prayer (v. 13) is enjoined before ministerial (v. 14) and social (v. 16): individual responsibility cannot be shelved.

"2. God is not indifferent to the sickness of His people (v. 14), but cares for their bodies as well as their souls.

"3. Are not ministers too free in visiting the sick and praying over them, instead of waiting until they are sent for (v. 14)?

"4. If none but “elders” (ministers) were to anoint with oil, surely they alone are eligible to administer baptism and the Lord’s supper!

"5. All sickness is not occasioned by sin or the “if” of verse 15 would be meaningless.

"6. Yet God does sometimes visit with physical chastisements as the “if” denotes.

"7. The mutual confession of verse 16 refutes the Papish error of “auricular confession,” for the priest does not confess his sins to those revealing to him the secrets of their souls!"

Divine Healing: Matthew 9:29

2008-07-18T09:07:00.001-05:00

“According to your faith be it unto you” (Matt. 9:29) is most pertinent unto our present inquiry. God is pledged to honor faith wherever He finds it: never does He fail those who trust Him fully; no, not when they count upon Him working a miracle, as many can testify. But what is the “faith” here spoken of? It is one which rests upon the sure Word of God. It is one which is made up of two chief elements: expectation and submission. There are some who suppose those two things are subversive of each other, that the attitude of not my will but Thine be done makes real expectation impossible. But that is wrong, through a mistaken conception of what spiritual expectation consists of. Let it first be said that where there is not first genuine resignation there can be no true expectation. Spiritual submission is spreading my case before the Lord and asking Him to deal with it as He sees best, and if I count upon His wisdom and goodness, that is the exercise of faith; and if I have confidence that He will do so, that is the expectation of faith—the expectation not that He will grant what my carnal nature desires, but that He will give what is most for His glory and my highest good; anything other than that is not faith but presumption.

"Some bodily infirmities are produced by the devil, probably more than are commonly suspected. Job’s boils were caused by him, and we read of a daughter of Abraham “whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years” (Luke 13:16). Certainly it is neither an honor to the Lord nor a credit to His child for one of them to be overcome by the Enemy. Nor need he be, for it is written “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7), to which should be added “whom resist steadfastly in the faith” (1 Pet. 5:9). Many years ago it was arranged that we should speak in a certain city church, and a few hours before the service we were suddenly attacked by a heavy cold and developed a high temperature. The friends with whom we were staying urged us to cancel the engagement and phone another preacher to deputize, for it was pouring with rain and a long walk was before us. But we realized that Satan was hindering and committed ourselves into the hands of our Master, counting upon Him to protect us from any harm. He did so, and the next morning we were quite normal. On another occasion we lost our voice and could speak in only a hoarse whisper, but we trusted the Lord to undertake, and preached for an hour and a half without any inconvenience and could easily be heard in the remotest corners of the large building; yet as soon as we left the pulpit we could not speak at all. No, He never fails those who trust HIM.

"The subject is many-sided and much has to be left unsaid. It is clear to us that many Christians are living below their privileges in this matter. “Jehovah-Rophi” (“The Lord that healeth thee”: Ex. 15:26) is as truly one of His titles as “Wnqed]xi hw:hy“”^*(“The Lord our righteousness”: Jer. 23:5), yet how few count upon Him as such, having more confidence in human physicians and their medicines. Fewer still seem to know anything about trusting the Lord for the body (1 Cor. 6:13). It is written “the prayer of faith shall save the sick” (James 5:15), yet the exercise of faith is not subject to a mere effort of the will. It is our duty to pray “Lord, increase our faith,” yet that prayer will not be answered unless we use what we already have (Luke 8:18). Broadly speaking, when sickness prevents the discharge of duty, it is our privilege to count upon the Lord to remove the hindrance.

"Here let it be said, we are far from affirming that all who resort to material remedies are missing the Lord’s best, though in many instances that is probably the case; nor that God is always ready to heal if we trust Him. Rather is it His will that some should glorify Him “in the fires” (Isa. 24:15). God sent an angel to deliver Peter from prison, but suffered Stephen to be stoned to death. Some plants thrive best in burning heat, whereas ferns flourish in the shade. Certain graces, like zeal and intrepidity, are exercised on the battlefield, whereas meekness and patience are developed under suffering. God does not intend that many should do such a work as Geo. Muller did and therefore He gives not faith for it, and those who imitate him fail. The privilege and duty of each Christian is defined in “Commit thy way unto the Lord: trust also in Him, and He shall bring to pass” (Isa. 37:5). Bring what to pass? His way, the best way, though it may be the very opposite of what you wish. Commit thy case unto Him, trustfully, and leave Him to decide what will be most for His glory. If sickness persists, beg God to sanctify it to you."

^*יְהוָה צִדְקֵנוּ

Divine Healing: 2 Chronicles 7:14

2008-07-18T09:04:00.001-05:00

“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” (2 Chron. 7:14). This passage bears directly on our present subject and contains important and definite instruction for us. First, it shows that God sends physical judgments upon His people because of their transgressions. Second, it makes known what they are to do when the Divine rod falls upon them. Third, it contains a pertinent and precious promise for faith to lay hold of. Against this it may be objected that such a passage is not applicable to us; that God’s dealings with His people in this Christian era are on very different principles than those which actuated Him under the Mosaic economy; that He dealt with them according to the Law, whereas He deals with us according to the riches of His grace. Such a contention is entirely unscriptural. God’s governmental dealings are the same in all dispensations: maintaining the requirements of holiness and exercising mercy toward the penitent have ever characterized God’s “ways.” Had the O.T. regime been one of stern and unrelieved justice, there had been no “healing” promised upon repentance, for Law as such knows no pity and shows no mercy.

"Let it be carefully noted that the teaching of the New Testament is precisely the same on this subject as in the Old Testament. “For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation (judgment) to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep” (1 Cor. 11:29, 30). The Corinthians had been guilty of profaning the Lord’s table, turning the holy Supper into a carnal feast. God would not tolerate such irreverence and impiety in this dispensation any more than He would under the Mosaic, and evidenced His sore displeasure by visiting them with a temporal judgment, smiting them in their bodies. Thus this passage is strictly analogous to that in 2 Chronicles 7. But more, as there so here, the remedy is also graciously made known: “For if we would judge ourselves we should not be judged” (v. 31). If the Corinthians would unsparingly condemn themselves for their unseemly conduct and mourn over it before God, His judgment would be removed and the many weak and sickly ones recovered and not be made to “sleep” (die). If we sit in judgment on ourselves we shall not be judged by the Lord. “But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world” (v. 31): God chastening us here that we may escape eternal woe hereafter.

"Let us return then to 2 Chronicles 7:14. There we find the Lord’s people being dealt with for their sins. A temporal judgment bears heavily upon them: how is deliverance therefrom to be obtained? First, they must “humble themselves.” And what is meant by that? The same as in 1 Corinthians 11:31, “judge ourselves.” A word in Leviticus 26:41 will supply the needed help: “if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity, then will I remember My covenant.” To “humble” ourselves beneath the rod of God is to cease asking, What have I done to deserve this? to stop resisting the rod, and meekly bowing thereto, acknowledging that my wicked conduct deserves it. David “humbled” himself when he owned “I know, O Lord, that Thy judgments are right, and that Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me” (Ps. 119:75). To “judge ourselves” is to take sides with God against ourselves: not until we do so does the rod begin to obtain its designed effect. The “peaceable fruit of righteousness” is only obtained under Divine chastisement “unto them which are exercised thereby” (Heb. 12:11 )—exercised in their conscience. We must “hear the rod” (Micah 6:9) if we are to profit therefrom, and when we have heard its rebuking message, endorse the righteousness of it.

“If My people which are called by My name shall humble themselves”: that is the first thing, and it is vain to proceed further until it be properly attended to, for pride is more hateful to God than anything else. “And pray” is the next thing. Until we have truly humbled ourselves before God there can be no real prayer, but having taken our place in the dust and condemned ourselves, then we may make known our requests unto Him. And what is it, under such circumstances, that we most need to pray or? Surely for a deeper sense of His holiness and of our vileness, for a contrite and broken heart for faith in His mercy, for cleansing and restoration to fellowship. Such requests issue not from the Pharisee, but they are the breathings of humility. “And seek my face”: is that but a repetition of the previous clause? No, it goes further: it expresses increased definiteness, diligence and fervor. The omniscient One cannot be imposed upon by mere lip service: He requires the heart. There has to be more than a bare asking, namely, a “seeking,” and such a “seeking” that we actually “draw near” and have a face-to-face meeting with Him we have displeased. God will not gloss over our sins, neither must we.

“And turn from their wicked ways.” It was their departure from the paths of righteousness and entering into forbidden territory which brought down upon them the displeasure and rod of the Holy One, and therefore if they are to be delivered from His judgment they must of necessity forsake their sins. “Turn from their wicked ways” with loathing and abhorrence, with no secret reserve but with firm purpose of heart to abandon them and go back to them no more (Ps. 85:8). Repentance is something more than sorrowing over the past: it includes the resolution there shall be no repetition in the future. Idols must be destroyed and not put away in a cupboard from which they may be taken out again. “Then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” Here is the gracious promise. But mark well its opening “Then”: only when its preceding conditions have been fully met: we have no warrant to look for its fulfillment until its qualifying terms are observed by us. Note too its scope: hearing from God is granted, forgiveness is assured, and healing is available for faith to claim.

“Then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chron. 7:14). We have no time to waste on any who would raise the quibble that this verse refers to the healing of “land” and not of our bodies. But some who perceive that the principles of this verse are pertinent to cases of personal affliction will ask, Are we then to understand that where God has visited His people with temporal judgment and they have complied with the conditions He has here specified, He will in every instance remove that judgment; that He will bestow immediate and complete healing? Ah! the terms of that question go beyond the terms of that promise: 2 Chronicles 7:14 neither says that He would heal their land “immediately” nor “completely.” Nor must we when pondering the subject of Divine healing confine ourselves to this particular verse. For instance, we read that the men of Jericho sought unto Elisha on behalf of their ground, saying “the water is naught and the ground barren.” And we are told the prophet said “Bring me a new cruse and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. And he went forth unto the springs of the waters and cast the salt in them and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from hence any more death or barren land” (2 Kings 2:21).

"God could have healed those waters without any salt, as He could have made sweet the bitter waters at Marah without bidding Moses to cast a certain tree into them (Ex. 15:23–25). Sometimes the Lord is pleased to use means, and at other times to dispense with them: for He exercises His sovereignty here as elsewhere. Perhaps some will say, this makes the subject more complex and hence more perplexing. Doubtless, and God may have so designed it. The natural man wants everything to be made smooth and easy for him. But God’s way is to stain human pride, to make us feel our insufficiency, to drive us to our knees. God would have our hearts to be exercised before Him, and instead of assuming we must now act in the same way as we did before in a similar situation, look to Him for instruction and directions. “My soul wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from Him” (Ps. 62:5).

"God is sovereign and does not act uniformly, and we are both responsible agents and utterly dependent upon Him, and therefore must act neither irrationally nor presumptuously. God is sovereign: He did not always afflict Israel’s land with drought or pestilence when they displeased Him, nor does He afflict the Christian’s body each time he backslides or forsakes the highway of holiness. And when God did cause His judgment to fall upon Israel’s land, He did not always remove His stroke as soon as confession of sin was made and reformation of conduct was affected; nor will He in every instance removed sickness when the afflicted one acknowledges his fault and does his “first works.” And, as already pointed out, when God was pleased to heal Israel’s land sometimes it was by blessing the means of His own appointing, and at other times it was without the use of any means at all. Thus it is when He heals our bodies. To one blind man Christ gave sight instantly, but to another He put His hands on his eyes a second time before he was fully restored (Mark 8:22–25).

"Does some one say, All of this seems very confusing and gets me nowhere. No doubt it is so to the carnal mind. It is for the tried child of God we write and not for those who wish to be spared all exercise of heart, like patients going to a doctor for a prescription so that nothing is required of them but to hand it to the chemist for him to make up. As intimated at the beginning of the preceding paper, the first duty of the ailing Christian is to inquire into the occasion or cause of his sickness: whether it be due to imprudence or intemperance, whether God be chastening him for some breach of His Law, or whether there be some other reason for it, for afflictions are sometimes sent upon the saints for their refining and pruning rather than for correction, that they may yield some of the choicest of all the spiritual fruits. Thus the believer who desires light on his situation must wait upon the Lord and say “show me wherefore Thou contendest with me” (Job 10:2).

"If the Lord has shown that the sickness is a mark of His displeasure because we have followed some wicked way, then our course is clear, namely, to conduct ourselves according to the requirements of 2 Chronicles 7:14. Having done so, then what? Appropriate its promise, yet meekly and not presumptuously. Having righted the wrong before God, having obtained His ear, now plead His Word. Say, Lord, I have sought to humble myself, pray, and seek Thy face, and renounce my wicked ways, and Thou assurest me Thou wilt forgive and heal me: do as Thou hast said. But Lord, I am a poor ignorant creature and knowest not Thy mind: what wouldest Thou have me to do? Is it Thy pleasure to lay Thy restoring hand upon me this very moment? If so, enable me to trust in Thee with all my heart; or wouldest Thou have me to use some means? if so, graciously direct my mind and hand to them and cause me to count upon Thy making them efficacious unto me, so that I may trust Thee and not them, that the glory may be all Thine own."

Divine Healing: Duties & Privileges In Illness

2008-07-18T09:02:00.001-05:00

"What are the duties and privileges of the Christian when he falls ill? First, endeavor to ascertain the occasion and cause of his sickness. As intimated in the previous chapters, many physical ailments are due to inattention unto the most simple and obvious rules of hygiene. Much illness is brought about by our own carelessness and folly. Those guilty of gluttony are inviting trouble. But there are various forms of gluttony as well as degrees thereof. There is an intemperance of quality as well as of quantity. They who disdain plain and wholesome food, and who concentrate principally on fancy things and a rich diet must not be surprised if their systems become upset; in such cases a two or three days’ complete fast, followed by a return to a simpler and saner mode of living, is the best remedy. Those with weak chests should not needlessly expose themselves to the night air. Wet shoes are to be removed as soon as possible if colds are to be avoided. If we ignore the dictates common prudence then we may easily discover what has injured and how to correct it.

"But suppose upon careful reflection we are unable to trace our present ill health to any physical neglect or folly, then what are we to do? Seek to ascertain the moral cause thereof. “Let us search and try our ways” (Lam. 3:40), making an honest endeavor to find out what it is which has grieved the Spirit. If conscience be allowed to do her work the probability is we shall soon be made aware that there is an Achan in our camp, an Achan which must be dealt with unsparingly if we are to enjoy the smile of the Lord again. If we have set up some idol it must be thrown down; if we have indulged some lust it must be mortified: if we have entered a forbidden path it must be forsaken: if we have willfully departed from some path of duty it must be returned unto, otherwise “some worse thing” is likely to come upon us. All known sins must be judged, mourned over, confessed in detail unto God: “I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin” (Ps. 32:5).

"But suppose after an honest and careful review of my ways conscience does not convict me of any particular sin, then what must I do? Prayerfully seek the help of the Holy Spirit. Get down before the Lord and cry “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps. 139:23, 24). Though there may be nothing in my outward conduct for which the Lord is chastising me, yet it is likely there is something within against which He is intimating His displeasure and for which He requires me to humble myself. A spirit of selfishness, the allowing of pride, the workings of self-will, the stirrings of rebellion when Divine Providence crosses me, the exercise of self-righteousness, may be the plague-spot of my soul which needs purging. In the rush and pressure of every-day life the “little foxes which spoil the vines” (Song of Sol. 2:15) are apt to be neglected, and if we are careless then we must not be surprised if we are placed on our backs for a season, that there may be time for reflection and opportunity for closer dealings between the soul and God, that the hidden things of darkness may be brought out into the light and faithfully dealt with."

Divine Healing: The Question of Health

2008-07-18T09:00:00.001-05:00

"Now it seems to us that we should begin with the subject of health, for prevention is better than cure. O what a priceless boon is a sound body and good health: a boon which is denied to some from birth, and which few really appreciate till it be taken from them. It has long impressed the writer what a remarkable thing it is that any of us enjoy any health at all, seeing that we have six thousand years of sinful heredity behind us! It is due alone to the goodness and kindness of God that the great majority enter this world with more or less sound bodies and reach youth in the bloom of health. But sin and folly then take heavy toll and the constitutions of millions are wrecked before middle life is reached. Nor is it always brought about by wicked intemperance and dissipation. Often it is the outcome of ignorance, through failure to heed some of the most elementary laws of hygiene. Alas the majority of people will learn in no other school than that of hard and bitter experience and consequently most of them only discover how to live when the time comes for them to die. True we cannot put old heads on young shoulders, yet if the inexperienced are too proud to heed the counsels of the mature then they must reap the consequences.

"Now surely, other things being equal, the Christian ought to enjoy better health than the non-Christian. Why so? Why, because if his walk be regulated by God’s Word he will at least be preserved from those diseases which are the fruit of certain transgressions. The English word “holiness” means wholeness, soundness. The more we are kept from sinning the more shall we escape its consequences. “Godliness is profitable unto all things (the body as well as the soul), having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come” (1 Tim. 4:8). One of the basic laws of health is the Sabbatic statute. “The Sabbath was made for man” (Mark 2:27), for his good, because he needed it. It was made for man that he might be a man, something more than a beast of burden or a human treadmill. His body needs it as truly as does his soul. This has been unmistakably demonstrated in this country. When France collapsed and the British Isles faced the most desperate crisis of their long history, the government foolishly ordered that those in the coal mines and munitions factories must work seven days a week, but they soon learned that the workmen produced less than they did in six days—they could not stand up to the additional strain.

"By resting from manual toil on the Sabbath man is enabled to recuperate his strength for the labors of the week lying ahead, yet that cannot be accomplished by attending one meeting after another on that day, nor by exhausting one’s strength through lengthy walks to and from the services—moving the tent nearer the altar is the remedy—still less by profaning the Sabbath in carnal “recreation.” Another Divine precept which promotes health is, “he that believeth shall not make haste” (Isa. 28:16). Side by side with the speeding tempo of modern life we behold the multiplying nervous disorders, and those who are murdered or maimed on the highway. For many years we have avoided motor cars, buses and trains whenever the distance to be covered was not too great to walk, not using them more than two or three times in a twelve-month. Rushing around, hurrying and scurrying hither and thither, is not only injurious but a violation of the Divine rule: “He that hasteth with his feet sinneth” (Prov. 19:2)—which means exactly what it says.

“Take therefore no anxious thought for the morrow” (Matt. 6:34). How good health is promoted by obedience to this precept scarcely needs pointing out. It is carking care and worry which disturbs the mind, affects circulation, impairs digestion, and prevents restful sleep. If the Christian would cast all his care on the Lord (1 Pet. 5:7) what freedom from anxiety would be his. “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh. 8:10)—physically as well as spiritually. What a tome to a wearied body and tired mind it is to delight ourselves in the Lord: “a merry heart doeth good like a medicine” (Prov. 17: 22). “My son, attend to My words…for they are life unto those that find them and health to all his flesh” (Prov. 4:20, 22): do we really believe this? “Fear the Lord and depart from evil: it shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones” (Prov. 3:7, 8).

"Godly living is conducive to healthiness of mind and body, and other things being equal that will be one of its bi-products. By “other things being equal” we mean: as in the case of one who is not suffering for the sins of his father; who did not ruin his constitution by debauchery before conversion; and who exercises ordinary common sense in attending to the elementary rules of hygiene. One who is “temperate in all things” (1 Cor. 9:25) will escape many or all of those ills which is the price which has to be paid for intemperance. Scripture does not require us to be either Spartans or Epicureans but to “let our moderation be known unto all” (Phil. 4:5). God “giveth richly all things to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17), yet not to abuse. “Every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused” (1 Tim. 4:4) providing it is used aright, but His choicest creatures prove harmful if used to excess. God has provided great variety in nature, and each one has to learn for himself what best suits him and deny himself of that which disagrees."

Divine Healing Continued: A Positive Note

2008-07-18T08:58:00.001-05:00

"Having exposed the cardinal errors promulgated by the “Divine healing” cults, we turn now to the positive side of the subject. And there is pressing need to do so, for the pulpit has failed grievously here as in so many other directions. Of old God complained, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hos. 4:6), and history has repeated itself. It was prophesied, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord” (Amos 8:11), and that fearful prediction is now in course of fulfillment. In the vast majority of places rank error rather than the Truth is being given out, and even in the few remaining centers of orthodoxy the preacher confines himself to such a narrow compass that his people are scarcely any better indoctrinated at the end of the year than they were at the beginning: there is no longer a bringing forth of “things new” as well as “things old” (Matt. 13:52). How many of our readers, we wonder, ever heard a sermon on their duties and privileges in connection with sickness! Very, very few we fear. Little wonder that so many ill-informed members of “evangelical churches” fall such easy victims to modern religious fads.

"It is no sufficient reply for preachers to say, We have far weightier and more essential themes to expound. True, the salvation of the soul is immeasurably greater than the healing of the body, nevertheless the Scriptures have much to say concerning the body, and it is to our very great loss if we ignore or remain ignorant about the same. Is it of no moment at all whether the Christian be healthy or sickly? Has our loving heavenly Father left His children without any instruction concerning the laws of health? And when they fall ill is their situation no better than that of the unbelieving world? Must they too lean upon the arm of flesh when sickness overtakes them, and seek the help of a doctor—often an infidel? The Lord is “a very present help in trouble” (Ps. 46:1): does that mean nothing more than that the saint must, in every instance, seek grace from Him to patiently endure his afflictions? God has promised to supply “all the need” of His people (Phil. 4:19): does that include nothing better than drugs and medicines, such as the Christ-rejector has access to, when I am ill? These are not questions to be lightly dismissed, but prayerfully pondered in the light of Holy Writ.

"If the Divine healing cults have gone to one extreme, that of unbalanced fanaticism, have not most of the Lord’s people in this matter gone to the opposite extreme—that of unbelieving stoicism or fatalistic inertia? Is not the attitude of only too many something like this? O well, man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward, so as I cannot expect immunity from physical sufferings, hence I must take what remedies I can for relief, and then make the best of a bad job; or, since this be my appointed lot, I must endeavor to bear it as patiently as I can. Of course when pain is acute they cry unto the Lord and beg Him to ease their anguish, just as Pharaoh did when God’s sore plagues were upon his land. And when Christians pray for recovery, how many of them really do so with the expectation of its being granted? how many know where to turn for a pertinent promise and then plead the same prevailingly? Yet some of them feel they are living beneath their privileges as sons and daughters of the Almighty, and when they hear or read what is advanced by the “faith healing” people wonder how much of it is true and how much false."

Divine Healing

2008-07-18T08:55:00.001-05:00

The next several installments of this blog will be from A. W. Pink's excellent little book, Divine Healing: Is It Scriptural? [Baptist Trumpeter Publications; 1834 Boot Hill Road; Granbury, TX 76049]http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Healing/healing.htm

"Every once in a while we receive an inquiry or a request for help on this subject, usually from one who has come into contact with some belonging to a cult which gives prominence to “Divine healing,” to the removal of physical ills without the aid of a doctor and medicine, in response to faith and prayer. Such inquiring friends are generally more or less perplexed. They have heard nothing on the subject in their own churches and feel they are more or less in the dark on the matter. Those who press this “Divine healing” teaching upon them appear to be ill-balanced people and not at all orthodox in doctrine. If they are induced to attend their meetings they are not favorably impressed, and sense that something is wrong. The absence of reverence, the allowing of women to take part in the services before a mixed congregation, the prominence of the spectacular element, and the general spirit of excitement which prevails, makes the normal child of God feel quite out of place in such a gathering. The zeal displayed does not appear to be according to knowledge and the fervid emotionalism strikes him as being “strange fire” (Lev. 10:1)—not kindled at the Divine altar.

"But what of their teaching on “Divine healing?” Is it scriptural or unscriptural? This is a question which it is not easy to answer in a single sentence. Many passages on healing may be cited from God’s Word, but that raises the question of their interpretation—in accord with the context and also in harmony with the general Analogy of Faith: as it also calls for a careful examination of all inferences drawn from and conclusions based upon those passages. Moreover, these modern cults who stress “Divine healing” are by no means uniform in their teaching thereon, some being more radical and extreme than others, so that the refutation of one erroneous presentation of this subject would not hold good of a similar error in an entirely different dress. Though familiar with all the principal varieties of them, we do not propose to waste the reader’s time by taking them up seriatim but rather deal with the broad principles which apply to them all.

"First it must be said that much of the teaching which has been given out on this subject is decidedly unscriptural. For example, the majority of those who emphasize “Divine healing” insist that it was “in the Atonement,” that on the Cross Christ was as truly our sickness-bearer as our sin-bearer, that He purchased healing for the body as well as salvation for the soul, and that therefore every Christian has the same right to appropriate by faith the cure of bodily disorders as he has forgiveness for his transgressions. In support of this contention appeal is made to Christ who “healed all that were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet: Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses” (Matt. 8:16, 17). Here is where the expositor is needed if the unlettered and unstable are to be preserved from jumping to an erroneous conclusion, where the mere sound of the words is likely to convey a wrong impression unless their sense be carefully ascertained—just as, “the dead know not anything” (Eccl. 9:5) is not to be understood absolutely, as though they who have departed this life are in a state of utter unconsciousness.

"Had those words “Christ bare our sicknesses” occurred in some passage in the Acts or Epistles where one of the apostles was explaining the purpose and character of Christ’s death, then we should have been obliged to regard them as meaning that the Lord Jesus vicariously endured the sicknesses of His people while on the Cross, though this would present a very great difficulty, for there is no hint anywhere in the Word that the Redeemer experienced any illness at that time. But instead, Matthew 8:16, 17 has reference to what transpired during the days of His public ministry, the meaning of which we take to be as follows. Christ employed not the virtue that was in Him to cure infirmity and sickness as a matter of mere power, but in deep pity and tenderness He entered into the condition of the sufferer. The great Physician was no unfeeling stoic, but took upon His own spirit the sorrows and pains of those to whom He ministered. His miracles of healing cost Him much in the way of sympathy and endurance. Thus He “sighed” (Mark 7:34) when He loosed the tongue of the dumb, “wept” by the grave of Lazarus, and was conscious of virtue going out of Him (Mark 5:30) as He cured another. By a compassion, such as we are strangers to, He was afflicted by their afflictions.

"That the interpretation we have given above (briefly suggested by the Puritan, Thomas Goodwin) is the correct meaning of “Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses” appears from several considerations. If those words signified what the “Divine healing” cults say they do, then they mean that in His act of healing the sick Christ was then making atonement, which is absurd on the face of it. Again, if the healing of the body were a redemptive right which faith may humbly but boldly claim, then it necessarily follows that the believer should never die, for every time he fell ill he could plead before God the sacrifice of His Son and claim healing. In such a case, why did not Paul exhort Timothy to exercise faith in the Atonement rather than bid him “use a little wine for his stomach’s sake” (1 Tim. 5:23), and why did he leave Trophimus at “Miletum sick” (2 Tim. 4:20)? A glorified body, as well as soul, is the fruit of Christ’s atonement, but for that the believer has to wait God’s appointed time.

"One error leads to another: most of those who teach that Divine healing is in the Atonement argue that therefore it must constitute an essential element in and part of the Gospel, and thus their favorite slogan is: “Christ our Saviour, Christ our Sanctifier, Christ our Healer, Christ our Coming King,” and hence “the Fourfold Gospel” is the leading caption of most of them. But such a contention will not bear the light of Holy Writ. In the book of Acts we find the apostles preaching the Gospel of God both to Jews and Gentiles, yet, though in the course of their ministry miracles of healing were performed by them (to authenticate their mission, for none of the N. T. had then been written), yet nowhere did the removal of physical maladies form part of their message. In 1 Corinthians 15:1–3 a brief summary of the Gospel is given, namely, that “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day”—mark the omission of His dying for our sicknesses! In Romans we are furnished with a systematic and full unfolding of “the Gospel of God” (see 1:1), yet “healing” of bodily ills is never referred to.

"If it were true that Christ made atonement for our sicknesses as well as our sins, then it would follow that all bodily disorders are the immediate consequence of some iniquity. We say, “immediate consequence,” for of course it is readily granted that all the ills which man is heir to are so many effects and results of the great transgression of our first parents. It is only reasonable to conclude that had sin never entered this world suffering in any form had been unknown here, for we know that in Heaven the absence of the former ensures the absence of the latter. Thus there is a vital difference between saying that a physical disorder which occasions great discomfort and pain finds its remote cause in the tragedy of Eden, and affirming that it is the direct result of the person’s own wrong doing, as most of the “Divine healing” cults insist. Our Lord’s reply to His disciples in John 9:2, 3 expressly forbids any such sweeping conclusion. There is much suffering, especially among children, which is due to ignorant and innocent breaking of natural laws rather than to violation of the Moral Law. Moreover, if this contention of “Divine healing” were valid, we should be obliged to conclude that every sickness severed the soul from communion with God, which is falsified by the experiences of many of the saintliest persons who ever trod this earth.

"Those who hold that Christ made atonement for our sicknesses as well as for our sins are quite consistent in maintaining that deliverance from the former must be obtained in precisely the same way as salvation from the latter: that the sole means must be the exercise of faith, without the introduction or addition of any works or doings of our own. Thus the “Divine healing” cults teach that the service of a physician or the aid of drugs is as much a setting aside of the finished work of Christ as reliance upon baptism or deeds of charity for the securing of pardon would be. The untenability of this logical inference will at once show that while in some cases God was pleased to cure the sick without means, yet in other instances He both appointed and blessed the use of means. For the healing of the bitter waters of Marah, Moses was instructed to cast into them a tree which “the Lord showed him” (Ex. 15:25). When God promised to heal Hezekiah who was sick unto death, Isaiah bade the king “take a lump of figs” and we are told “they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered” (2 Kings 20:7). So with Timothy in 1 Timothy 5:23.

"We are certainly not prepared to hold any brief in defence of the present-day medical fraternity as a whole. The greed for gold, the love of novelty (experimentation), the deterioration of moral character in all walks of life, fails to inspire confidence in any class or clique, and the writer for one would prefer to suffer pain than place himself at the mercy of the average surgeon. Yet this does not mean that we regard all medical practitioners as either charlatans or knaves, still less do we believe with “Faith-healing” fanatics that they are the special emissaries of Satan. The Holy Spirit would never have termed Luke “the beloved physician” (Col. 4:14) had he been employed in the service of the Devil.

[To Be Continued]

REB

Health Insurance and Universal Health Care

2008-07-14T11:24:00.001-05:00

As the 60 something pastor of a small church in what some have described as an "anti-denomination," group health insurance is pretty much out of the question for me and my wife. Not only is it out of reach for us financially, I'm increasingly convinced I would not buy any if it were nearly "free." I don't have it, I don't want it, and I refuse to buy it. So what is available to someone in my situation?

Not much, if one is looking for traditional health insurance; but then traditional health insurance is exactly what I'm not looking for. With a typical health insurance policy, one has no control over how the premiums are spent by the company that "insures" his health. They may be using it to treat STDs, fund abortions, teach "sex education," or any number of other problematic health issues that have definite ethical concerns.

At the outset, it is pretty important to recognize that health is not the same as disease treatment. Virtually all health insurance of which I'm aware concentrate their services in the area of disease treatment rather than health maintenance. That is probably not the best approach. So, the first counsel I give myself is to take charge of my own health. I shouldn't do things that have a statistical record of harming my health. So, I don't smoke; I don't take recreational drugs; and I avoid a lifestyle that is likely to end up giving me AIDS or some other disease.

Proactively, I attempt to exercise. Admittedly, that is not as easy for me as it was when I was in boot camp back in my teens; but I can still walk without my knees giving way (though they do complain from time to time). So I walk. I try to eat things that are healthy (yes, I like cake and pizza, but that is a smaller part of my diet now) and drink beverages that sustain my health rather than put it at risk.

And about two years ago we did something else. We joined something called "Samaritan Ministries" (SMI). We do not pay a health insurance premium, but we do send a check each month to somebody in the country who is having health issues. But we do far more than simply send a check to a family somewhere. We have a name of someone who needs our prayers and for whom we pray day by day during the month. SMI also also includes a monthly prayer list for people to whom we have not sent money, but who have asked for our prayers.

Important notice: SMI is not health insurance and I'm not a broker for them.

Here is what happened with them last month (July 2008). There were 12,248 member households as of June 30, and needs submitted of just under $3,000,000. A quick trip to the calculator indicates that the total family share for the published needs comes to just under $245 per family for last month. But more importantly, there were 12,000 households praying for those needs to be eliminated by the powerful hand of God.

How great is that? Instead of paying hundreds of dollars per month to support an insurance industry that has dividends in mind as much as the health of policy holders, here are over 12,000 families throughout the US that are actually helping one another and praying for one another. When was the last time your insurance agent promised that there would be people praying for you if you got sick?

There is another solution out there for God's people. We don't need overpriced "health insurance," and we certainly don't need universal health care (translation: socialized medicine). All we really have to have is the will to help a brother or sister in need and the humility to accept their help should we ever need it.

REB

ServiceMaster: Sounds Like An Oxymoron

2008-07-08T08:40:00.001-05:00

The following excerpt is taken from Rabbi Daniel Lapin's book, Thou Shall Prosper, preview available at Google.

"ServiceMaster Corporation in Illinois was founded by an evangelical Baptist, Marion E. Wade, in 1947. Its primary mission was always "to honor God in all we do." Wade asserted that running a profitable business was not inconsistent with serving the Lord. He spelled out his notion of using the Bible as a guide to business in a book that for decades was given to every new manager. Yet in spite of and many would say because of its linking of God and profits, ServiceMaster quickly grew into a $6 billion Fortune 500 company that did well by doing good on everything from Merry Maids house cleaning to Terminix pest control and TruGreen lawn care. Early in 2000, ServiceMaster opened its web site on which customers could select, purchase, and schedule any of ServiceMaster's services directly.

"During 2001, ServiceMaster brought in its first chief executive officer (CEO) from outside the evangelical fold. Nonetheless, new CEO Jonathan Ward was rightfully reluctant to modify the corporate culture that had worked so well for so long in this service-oriented company with its fleet of 23,000 vehicles. For instance, he retained the custom of calling corporate meetings to order by quoting from the biblical book of Isaiah. That may seem irrelevant to modern business, but this company schedules thousands of visits to customers' homes. If ever a company needed to radiate a message of true commitment to service, this is that company. Even the company's motto is "We Serve"; and this, coupled with its unabashed embrace of Christianity with its own tradition of service, has certainly played a role in its success. ServiceMaster's very name proclaims its eagerness to serve.

"In 1989, Fortune magazine listed ServiceMaster among the country's top companies, and in 1998, the Financial Times was quote in the New York Times as calling ServiceMaster one of the world's most respected companies. [David Barboza, "In This Company's Struggle, God Has Many Proxies," New York Times, November 21, 2001, C1] I hope it continues to prosper because it serves as a useful reminder that to truly excel at service, some form of inner belief is necessary. If you cannot wrap yourself around the notion that other humans are worthy of your committed service and that you are not diminished but are instead elevated by providing that service, you will never really excel at what you do."

Is this so different from what Jesus was teaching his disciples the very night he was betrayed and set about ransoming us from the penalty and power of sin? It was when Jesus knew that the Father had put all things into his hands that he then proceeded to give what may be the most excellent example of service in all the New Testament. "He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded." Why would Jesus do something like that? Maybe it was simply because his disciples' feet were dirty and needed to be washed? But how could he do such a thing? He could do it because he knew that the Father had put all things into his hands. He could do it because of the confidence that he had in God's ability to conquer the world through service to others. He could do it because he understood what he taught in Matthew 18, "whosoever shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

REB

Independence Day Webcast on July 6

2008-07-03T11:27:00.002-05:00

This coming Lord's Day, 6th July, 2008 will be a special webcast of FPCR's afternoon worship service along with the standard morning service of that day. The webcast will begin at 2:00 PM Central time and continue for approximately two hours.

Dr. Richard Bacon will preach from Luke 22:38 and other Scriptures on the topic "Thanksgiving For The God-Given Right To Bear Arms." This topic is in celebration both of the Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller and the fact that Friday is the 232nd anniversary of the Declaration of American Independence from Great Britain.

Find out why the 2nd amendment to the US Constitution is at least as important as the 1st amendment and how the 1st becomes meaningless without the 2nd.

REB

A Good Name: The Best Fruit

2008-06-26T13:10:00.001-05:00

The master, Jesus, said that a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit. So what is good fruit? A better question still might even be what is the best fruit? How do we measure success in life? Or can success in life even be measured? Are great riches and financial prosperity success? No, they are not success; but they are good success indicators. They indicate success, but may be had by means other than following God's commandments. Thus Ahab was able to get Naboth's vineyard (1 Kings 21:1-29). But the vineyard was not an indicator of success for Ahab (or rather it was the indicator of a short-lived success that would end in defeat). For Naboth the vineyard was an indicator of success, but for Ahab the same vineyard was an indicator of eventual defeat. Thus we must understand that an abundance of worldly goods is only an approximate indicator in this life.

The Bible sets forth one indicator of success that stands above all others: a good name. "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches; and favor rather than silver or gold" (Prov. 22:1). The supreme example of a good name is that of Jesus. His good name was given to him by God as a reward for successful service throughout his life and finally on the cross. "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name" (Philippians 2:9). Peter declared that it was not only by his name that men were healed, but also that it is the only name by which we must be saved (Acts 4:10-12).

Men know instinctively the value of a good name and will often attempt to get a good name even as covenant-breakers. So in Genesis 11:4 men said, "Go to, let us build a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." Men seek a legacy; a name that will be known and remembered. This striving after a name may be nothing more than pride; but it is important to remember that God regards a good name as more than simply fame and that seeking a good name is more than mere pride.

Qoheleth regarded being forgotten as a curse or vanity; an affliction to be avoided. "One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever" (Eccl. 1:4); "there is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after" (Eccl. 1:11); "for there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool. Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit" (Eccl. 2:16-17).

Genuine success in this life is the same as success in the next life: it consists in conforming our lives to God's law by the power of his grace. Money is not success, but it is an indicator of success. Fame is not success, but it too is an indicator of success. A good reputation is not success, but it may well be the best indicator we have of success. There are typically sanctions (positive for obedience and negative for disobedience) regarding how successful we are in conforming our lives to the law of God. The more successful we are at covenant-keeping, the more success indicators we will have in our lives. The less successful we are at covenant-keeping, the fewer success indicators we will have and will likely have failure indicators instead.

There is an excellent passage in Scripture that speaks to this very issue: Deuteronomy 28. The blessings that God speaks of in the passage are really nothing other than indicators of how successful we have been at keeping God's covenant.

"And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field," Deut. 28:1-3. The blessings are the indicators; the success lies in keeping God's covenant.

Biblically speaking, i.e. covenantally speaking, blessings are marks of success and curses are marks of failure. We must never confuse reward with duty. Covenant-keeping is the duty; one at which we are told to excel (Matthew 5:17-20). The blessings of this life and the next are the rewards of covenant-keeping.

So, what kind of a name do you have? That of a covenant-keeper or that of a covenant-breaker? What kind of name should you be seeking after?

REB

Men Also Play

2008-06-26T12:25:00.001-05:00

Here is one of my son's blogs. He is building a small trebuchet.

trebuchet

■ n. a machine used in medieval siege warfare for hurling large missiles.

– origin ME: from OFr., from trebucher ‘overthrow’.

Trebuchet Part 10

REB

Watson On Affliction

2008-06-25T11:14:00.000-05:00

Puritan gems; or, Wise and holy sayings of ... Thomas Watson By Thomas Watson: "Christians mistake in supposing that when God afflicts he ceases to love. Affliction is his pruning knife; he would rather have the branches of his vine bleed than be unfruitful. He prunes us that we may bring forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness"

Paul Washer

2008-06-25T08:44:00.001-05:00

Steele In Our Spines: Description of Uprightness

2008-06-20T17:31:00.001-05:00

The meditations under this listing [Steele In Our Spines] are from Richard Steele's The Properties And Privileges Of An Upright Man, first published in 1670.

The nature or being of uprightness of life shines in simplicity. Proverbs 28:6, "better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich." And Proverbs 28:18, "whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved, but he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once." The word for "ways" in both places is dual, and intimates two ways. A hypocrite is a man with two ways. One he goes in; the other he seems to go in. The poor, upright man has but one way, and that's better than them both. 2 Corinthians 1:12, "for our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world." When this apostle was traduced by men, yet this afforded him not only content[ment], but joy, to wit, the testimony of his conscience.

A hypocrite may have quiet in his conscience, but an upright man has a testimony in his conscience. He carries everywhere testimonial letters in his bosom. And why all this joy? "That we have had our conversation in simplicity. As our ends have been single in preaching the gospel, so our lives have not been double. The drift of our preaching and lives has been the same." Happy is the preacher who can here subscribe his hand.

The simplicity of an upright man sometimes makes him the subject of loss and sometimes the object of scorn. Job 12:4, "The just, upright man is laughed to scorn." Many times he is called a simpleton, yet he goes on and carries it to the end. His great consideration is, "What is my duty?" Proverbs 4:25, "Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee." That is, without squinting at events, or how it will please, or whom it will lose; he is resolved to live and die in his duty. Do not misunderstand me. I am not saying that prudence and integrity cannot dwell together; certainly they may and ought to. His simplicity only excludes the subtlety of the fox, which stands in being cunning to do mischief, not the wisdom of the serpent, which stands in carefully avoiding it.

Uprightness of life also stands in purity. Proverbs 16:17, "The highway of the upright is to depart from evil." His usual road is as far from the broad way as he can have it be; and his care herein sometimes carries him rather too far, upon which account his conscience breeds more scruples than other men's, who can swallow anything that comes to pass. But his integrity in other things apologizes for him to all wise men, and at least brings him off with peace and comfort. And this very thing has brought upon very many of these upright men the badge of a "Puritan," which is by too many applied to subvert sincere holiness and to cast an odium on downright Christianity, and the practice of that we all profess.

I am sure that the Scripture opens heaven's gates to none but those whose lives are pure and holy. Psalm 24:3-4, "who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart." Hence the upright man dares not mingle with those vain fooleries, vicious excesses, or suspicious recreations that men of devastated consciences are drowned in; nor can all the good nature that's in him, nor importunity of neighbors or kindred, draw him to such company or courses that would sting his conscience when he should sleep -- unless God leaves him to himself sometimes to humble him.

This uprightness of life shines in the perfection of his life. I mean here a perfection of parts, in that each part of him is sincere. See Isaiah 33:14, "fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrite. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" That is, who shall stand before the holy, just, and upright Jehovah? Who can approach him when he executes judgments here or passes final sentence hereafter? When all hypocrites shall be in a fright, when their cobweb coverings shall fall off and they must stand naked (like so many cheats on a pillory) before God, angels, and men, who then shall stand with comfort and confidence?

Mark [Isaiah 33] verse 15, "he that walketh righteously [his feet walk uprightly] and speaketh uprightly [carries an upright tongue], he that despiseth the gain of oppressions [keeps an upright heart in him], that shaketh his hands from holding bribes [both his hands are upright too], that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood [his ears are tipped with integrity], and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil [he looks with an upright eye]."

Thus you see he is upright all over. Let him deal with friends or enemies, with godly or ungodly, with wise or foolish; you may trust him, for he stands in awe of his God and of himself. He does not have one heart for his religion and another for his bargains and calling, but he studies the Scripture and drives his life into it as near as he can. This is to obey God's voice indeed. And from this perfection flows an excellent evenness of conversation, so that Queen Elizabeth's motto well becomes his life, "Always the same."

This uprightness shines in the plainness of his life. There are few criticisms in the life of an upright man. He's plain, and that's his prayer. Psalm 27:11, "Lord, lead me in a plain path" -- that's my desire. He has no quirks, tricks, or legerdemain. If he cannot stand by plain dealing, he'll fall by it; when he trades and bargains, though he is discreet and careful, yet he is plain. When he reproves a fault or advises, he is sober, wise, and affectionate -- but still he is plain. His discourse and sermons, though elaborate, yet still are plain. Among his very enemies, though he is cautious and considerate, yet there he is plain also. "Lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies." He is like him who wished his body were made of crystal so that his sincerity might be transparent.

Such was that martyr whom the persecutors required to reveal his companion whom they were prosecuting, promising to him his own life for the discovery; and so either by denying his knowledge of the place of his friends abode, or by betraying it, he might have saved his own life. After a little pause, he broke out into these words, "I cannot lie, and I will not betray him." So he laid down his life to save one of his brethren. Here was an upright man that would not tell a lie to save a life, who would rather die than lie. He will be plain, though he suffers for it. But how generally is this plainness banished out of this world? Most men walk in a vain show, disguising their intentions, looking one way and rowing another. The tropics are not more distant from England than most men's intentions are from their actions.

REB

Steele In Our Spines: An Upright Life

2008-06-19T11:20:00.001-05:00

The meditations under this listing [Steele In Our Spines] are from Richard Steele's The Properties And Privileges Of An Upright Man, first published in 1670.

Uprightness of life must accompany regeneration, or else it is but like a candle in a dark lantern which burns away to no purpose. This is the very sinew of human society and makes men happy in one another. It is such an excellent thing that they who never practice it yet always pretend to it. The knaves abhor to be so called, and would be reputed and called honest and upright men. And that must be amiable which all men commend, and must be necessary which no society can subsist without. So that there abides a crown of honor for a downright heathen as well as a crown of glory for an upright Christian; and there will be an easier punishment for those "christian pagans" than for the abundance of our pagan Christians.

This uprightness of life is not sufficient without regeneration. It is good, but it is not good enough. To be a fast friend to men and a broken bow to God will yield you little comfort. Yet how many sit down here and think themselves well? They would not steal a shoe latchet from their neighbor for all the world, and yet they make no conscience of stealing from God his honor and his day. They would not wrong their brethren's name by any reproach for all the world, and yet they make no bones of wronging the name of the great God, and take it in vain day by day. The squareness of your actions may crown you with reputation; but the rottenness of your hearts will leave you in condemnation by that God who tries the hearts and reins. As in the law, without blood there is no remission of sin, so in the gospel, without oil there is no admission into the kingdom of heaven. Civility and sanctity are two separate things.

This uprightness of life cannot be without that uprightness of heart. It loses in truth its name and nature for want of a principle. For that which is truly good must have all its causes, which this lacks. It is a common experiment that water will not ascend above its spring without a violence upon nature; and it is as true that no man's actions can carry to a higher level than the fountain of them. So to make the life upright, you must begin at the heart; first make the tree good, and then the fruit will be good also.

Now this uprightness of life is the exact agreement of a man's words and actions with an honest and upright heart. Uprightness is when the life is the picture of the heart, and there is a blessed harmony between the frame of the soul within and the course of the life without; when a man does not frame his life to gratify the company or serve the times he lives in, or the corrupt humors of others, or any carnal ends of his own -- but his heart is sincere, and so are his words and deeds. Not that we expect an absolute exactness here; the most upright man on earth has enough to humble and afflict him. But for the most part, there is no known ordinary and willing swerving of his course from his frame within, or of that from the holy will of God.

REB

Steele In Our Spines: Necessity of Regeneration

2008-06-18T09:16:00.001-05:00

The meditations under this listing [Steele In Our Spines] are from Richard Steele's The Properties And Privileges Of An Upright Man, first published in 1670.

And thus I have opened in some poor measure an upright heart. By all this, dearly beloved, you may see the absolute necessity of regeneration, I mean, the thorough change of heart from the state of nature to the state of grace. For certainly man's heart by nature is false, and is far from this uprightness described. How can the soul receive Christ Jesus as he is offered in the gospel, or resign itself to him, without regeneration? How can the heart of a sinful child of Adam be either single, sound, pure, perfect, or plain without regeneration?

What man will study or practice inward, universal, and constant religion till he is regenerated? Who will walk before God, with God, after God, and like God before his heart is changed? Alas these things are neither conceived by the mind nor received by the will of a natural man. He is ignorant in them and an enemy to them. Oh, you must be new creatures or else all our entreaties stand for nothing. We must still begin here, and can parley no further with you unless you yield in this.

Will you be renewed in the spirit of your mind? Would you give all the world for a new heart? Till then you are but rotten at the heart; you walk in a vain show. For all your talk against hypocrites, you are errand [errant?] hypocrites, and shall be condemned as such when those you have so reproached shall be your judges, and shall be openly honored before angels and men. Those poor Mordecais shall be royally arrayed, and you, like proud Haman, shall see it to the breaking of your hearts.

To prevent this, learn this one lesson, sound conversion, which is but restoring the image that you lost in Adam. Your bones were all put out of joint by the fall; this is the painful pluck that puts them in joint again. Would not any man abide a painful pluck to set one bone in joint? Oh, abide one pluck to bring all your soul into frame again. You must be new men or else you cannot be upright men; you must be in Christ before you can walk like him. Your religion is but skin deep till the Holy Ghost has made a holy change.

And therefore, for the Lord's sake, and for your soul's sake, study this point into practice. Give no sound sleep to your eyes while you are such near neighbors to hell; your temperate, just, and honest behavior may make you fall the softer, but without holiness you can never see the Lord -- and a carnal heart can never be holy and upright without regeneration.

REB

Steele In Our Spines: Constant Religion

2008-06-18T09:03:00.001-05:00

The meditations under this listing [Steele In Our Spines] are from Richard Steele's The Properties And Privileges Of An Upright Man, first published in 1670.

His sanctity is a second nature in him, and that which is natural is constant. There is a great difference between the natural heat of a healthy man and the preternatural heat of a fever; such is the difference between the true saint and the hypocrite. A hypocrite may have some fits of piety, but they are accidental; they flow from some outward cause, and accordingly they last but for a while. And when that cause ceases (suppose some sharp judgment feared or felt, some qualm of conscience or shallow sermon-sickness), then a cold fit follows as bad or worse than before. Alas, it is preternatural; it was no habit. But the upright man has a constant heat; he fears always and maintains constant duty, though he cannot keep equal heat therein.

And here's the difference between the inconstancy of an upright man and of a hypocrite: the inconstancy of the hypocrite is in the substance of the duty itself; one while he prays, another while he restrains prayer; one while he is strict and cautious, and another shortly loose and careless. Whereas the upright man keeps on in the course of his duty, though he cannot do it always alike. He prays, and would not be taken from it, though the thread of his prayers is uneven. There may be remissness in it, but not an intermission of it; there's constant religion, though not equal religion.

The hypocrite makes a cloak of his religion, which he puts on and off as it serves his purpose; the upright man wears it as his everyday clothes, and does not put off his integrity till he dies. There may be some parentheses in his holy course wherein vanity and sin may be written (too many of these, God knows, in the best man's heart and life), but still the sentence runs current; the sense and scope of his heart runs heavenward. On the contrary, the full sense of a hypocrite's heart is to please or promote himself. Though there may be some parentheses of religion, they are no part of the scope of his soul.

You have their character in Psalm 78:36-37, "nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues. For their heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant." There is no greater sign of a rotten heart than a fundamental unsteadfastness in the covenant of God. When a man is ruled by times and companies to show good or evil, this man's heart is not right with God.

It's true, a tempest may bend the boughs of a living tree, or perhaps the tree itself if the storm is great, but they eventually return to their full uprightness. But the rotten sticks and branches are broken and overturned. Just so, some strong temptation may drive an upright man out of his honest way, but he soon returns and, by mending his pace, makes amends for his stumbling. Three Scriptures give the upright man his character concerning this matter.

Proverbs 28:14, happy is the man that feareth always. To be always afraid looks like a miserable life among men, but to have a waking eye and careful heart for fear of sin is no more a misery than to walk or ride with a vigilant regard to prevent a fall. This fear is not troublesome or vexatious at all; he is a happy man who uses it, and no wise man will account the other happy for going, running, riding without fear or wit in danger every moment to break his bones.

Hosea 12:6, keep mercy and judgment, and wait on God continually. The whole life of a sincere saint is a continual waiting upon God; whatever his work is, whoever his company might be, wherever he goes, whenever he eats or drinks, yet in all these he waits upon his God and serves the will of his heavenly father.

Proverbs 23:17, Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. This is most emphatic for both the duty commanded and for the term of the duty; both are most appropriate to set out an upright man. The fear of the Lord is universal religion, so be in this. This is more than if he had said, "let the fear of the Lord be in the; be surrounded with it and swallowed up in it." And be in this all the day long, not only a fit of religion at your prayers in the morning and another at night, but work and walk, eat and drink in it all the day long, yea, all your life long, which is but a long day.

The religion of a hypocrite is like a tiring horse, which may go apace in the morning and show much mettle for a while; but the upright man, though more soberly, yet goes more constantly. And in this sense Proverbs 10:9 is most true, "he that walketh uprightly walketh surely." You shall find this man with savory thoughts in his heart at noon and with ejaculations to God at his work; there is a coherence between his duties and his life. In a word, the upright man has four "walks" towards God which will set him fort to the life.

The upright man walks before God. Genesis 17:1, "walk before me, and be thou perfect," or upright. That is whereby the upright man habitually, always, and actually, as much as in him lies, sets the Lord always before him. The upright man thinks, speaks, and acts as if God looked on, weighing not only the matter, but the manner and the motives of his ways, acquitting himself still to his God. 2 Corinthians 2:17, "as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ." Happy forever is that minister who can call God to record on his soul, that as no errors corrupt his doctrine so no base ends corrupt his heart; but that he preaches Christ's will sincerely, as if the Lord himself looked on.

The upright man walks with God, as did Enoch. Genesis 5:22, "and Enoch walked with God." That is so to live as if the Holy God were in person walking with you on earth, or as if you were walking with him in heaven. If God should visibly walk with you on earth, as he was a while with Abraham, oh, with what humility, sanctity, watchfulness, love, and fear would you continually live? What a humble and serious regard would you have towards him? Much more if you were to walk a while with him in heaven, what a frame would you be in? This sense of walking with God no man has skill in save the upright man; he is constantly religious.

The upright man walks after God. Deuteronomy 13:4, "ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice." Where he can see his God walk before him, like a dutiful child, he will walk after him as fast as he can. The praise of Caleb in Numbers 14:24 was that he followed God fully. That simple declaration, "I am the Lord thy God," makes every "thou shalt" of his, and every "thou shalt not," acceptable to an upright man. "Come," says God, "here is a work I must have done. Here you must give, and here you must forgive; here is a saint who must be loved for his own sake, and here is a sinner you must pity for my sake." And the upright man says, "Lord, by thy grace and it shall be done." This is to follow God fully; and this is to walk after God.

The upright man walks like God. 1 John 2:6, "he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." Now how did our Lord Jesus walk when he was upon earth? Why, he was a mirror and pattern of humility, justice, charity, meekness, and self-denial. Think often when you are eating, "how did Christ order his meals? Do I give thanks like him, discourse at the table like him?"

Think often when you are hearing and praying, "Did he hear and pray in such a manner as I do? How would he carry himself among his neighbors? How would he instruct and guide this family? How would he bear and improve these reproaches, wants, and troubles? How would he appear for God in such company? How would he sanctify the Sabbath? How would he deal with parents, such children, if he were in my place? How quiet would he be when provoked? How chaste would he be in when tempted? How just and true would he be in his dealings, how cautious of others' names, and how content with his own estate?" Put him often into your case and remember that, if ever you will live with him, you must live like him. By this fruitful and good life you show that God is upright and that there is no unrighteousness in him.

REB

Steele In Our Spines: Universal Religion

2008-06-13T09:36:00.001-05:00

The meditations under this listing [Steele In Our Spines] are from Richard Steele's The Properties And Privileges Of An Upright Man, first published in 1670.

The will of God is in an upright man's heart, and he agrees with Scriptures in everything.

1. He hates all sin with a hatred of abomination, of aversion, and of opposition. Dress it with what disguises you will, and press it with what motives, ends or advantages you can, the upright man hates it in his heart. Psalm 119:1, 3, "blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. They also [for their part] do no iniquity; they walk in his way." There is a part of him that would tamper with sin, but he does not like it. "Oh," saith God, "do not this abominable thing that I hate" (Jeremiah 44:4). "No, Lord," he says, "for I hate it as well as thou dost." His heart is on God's side against sin, and particularly against his own iniquity. Psalm 18:23, "I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity."

Every man has some sin of his own to which he is most inclined, least able to resist, and most loathe to leave. Thus he drags each prayer before God and cries, "Lord, if thou lovest me, strike here!" This sin he prosecutes with prayers and tears, and all good means beside, ambushes it in cold blood, and continual, preventing contrivances disappoints, crosses, intercepts, and by degrees starves it to death.

And as no sin is so dear as to ingratiate with him, so no sin is so small but his stomach rises at it; and hence it is that the upright man does not have so wide an inclination as other men of large and strained consciences, and so meets with many a hypocrite in his dish, because he hates the appearance of evil as he hates the appearance of the devil. But still he hates his own sins more than others, and those as much as any which nobody sees but himself.

2. He loves all his duty; he is neither afraid to know nor ashamed to to own all his duty. By this the Lord measures integrity. 1 Kings 9:4, "And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee." Here's the just standard of sincerity. For can the holy, wise, and just God appoint anything unreasonable or uncomfortable for his own creature, his dear child to perform? Alas! All his ways are mercy and truth, and all his laws tend to his servants' good.

What harsher law in appearance can there be than that found in Matthew 5:29-30, "If thy right eye, if thy right hand offend thee, pluck it out, cut it off." And yet if any of you had an eye that was always leading you into pits and precipices, to drown and destroy you, would not you have it out? If you had a hand that was always running into fire, and you could not keep it out, would you not hack it off? Why, it is no other eye or hand the gospel has a quarrel with but those that would lead you into ruin or run you into hell -- and how reasonable and necessary is it to be rid of such?

The upright man is convinced of this, and so he knows nothing in religion but what he likes. Some things may grate upon his carnal appetite, yet he loves them dearly. Now a hypocrite is quite another man; like a poor scholar reading a hard chapter, he skips over the hard words and makes nothing of them; whereas the well-taught scholar will tarry and labor at them and rather venture a whipping than skip over them. So is it between the hypocrite and the upright man in the duties of Christianity.

A hypocrite runs smoothly on in diverse religious exercises till he meets with some costly, hard, or hidden duties, and there he stands stock-still; he considers that there is no credit or profit, but only pains or peril to be had, and so skips over these hard words and neither loves nor obeys. But the upright man finds his duty, abides by it, dwells upon it, and will deny himself before he will deny his duty. "If God will have me love my enemies, I will love them. If he will have me forsake this company or course that I am taken with, I will freely leave them. IF he will have me pray, yea, and fast too, no duty shall be so hard but I will do it, no sin so sweet but I will leave it with my whole heart, and my whole soul.

We see both of these in Psalm 119:128, "Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right, and I hate every false way." Each word is a sacred touchstone.

"Therefore." It is said in verse 126 that [wicked men] "make void the law." That's so far from carrying the upright man down the stream that therefore he loves it the more; he knows he cannot but be excellent that such men hate. Is the Sabbath generally broken? He is stricter in observing it then. Are oaths more frequent? He abhors them all the more. Is true piety hated and hissed out of the world? Then his heart and his house shall more thoroughly embrace it.

"I esteem." I cannot observe thy precepts as I would, but I do dearly value them. The least of thy laws is more unto me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

"I esteem thy precepts." I not only esteem the truths of the Bible, the histories in the Bible, and the promises of the Bible, but I esteem thy precepts, those that cut out my work as well as those that hold out my reward.

"And all these." This includes those that are against my nature and [seeming] interest and custom as well as those that are agreeable to my nature and custom, and subservient to my interest. They are all wise, holy, and good. "Thy word is very pure; therefore thy servant loves it. And I esteem all they precepts [concerning all things to be right]." Those precepts that give rules for my bargains as well as for my hearing, that control me at my table as well as those that direct me in my prayers--they are all right and good.

"And I hate every false way." I do not say that I escape and miss them all (happy I would be if I could); but I hate them, and he who hates sin, will avoid it as much as he can. And I hate every false way. I see that they are false ways, neither directed by my God nor leading to him, and therefore I hate them all. This is an upright man: he is universally religious.

REB

Steele In Our Spines: Invisible Religion

2008-06-10T08:37:00.000-05:00

The meditations under this listing [Steele In Our Spines] are from Richard Steele's The Properties And Privileges Of An Upright Man, first published in 1670.

The great business of the upright heart is inward religion, universal religion, and constant religion.

He is a student and practitioner of inward religion. He is diligent in the outward acts of it also (that he has in common with the hypocrite), but his greatest study is to be good within. Romans 2:28-29, "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly [that is, he is no Jew as to the esteem and acceptance of God, or as to the spiritual covenant], neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh [to wit, that is not the circumcision which God chiefly looks at and which a man is chiefly advantaged by]; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly [that is, a saint in soul], and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter."

It is not water on the face, but blood on the heart which makes a saveable Christian. O sirs, what change has there been on your spirits? What fear, love, and sanctity is there in your hearts? Look to this, or else you will break your bubbles. And then it follows, "who praise is not of men, but of God," that is, whose aim and honor is not to be praised by men, but by God. The upright man trades in invisible things.

The upright man studies to obtain invisible graces. Psalm 45:13, "the king's daughter is glorious within." In the hidden man of the heart lies the beauty of an upright man: to be dressed with the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, with a composed and serious spirit, with a penitent and believing spirit. Ah, beloved, how like many of us are to the river which Athenaeus mentions, whose upper waters are sweet, but brackish at the bottom; like fine clothes, silk without and canvas within; a smooth carriage and an unpolished, uncircumcised heart.

But the upright man would not be so. He does not look at things that are seen, but at things that are not seen. Grace and glory are the study and ambition of the inward Christian. The hypocrite may be forward for unsanctified gifts. Simon Magus would give money for such. Oh, the time, cost and strength that many men spend to attain the gifts of knowledge, prudence, language, elocution, memory, and such like, who never spend a serious thought, to attain the graces of repentance, faith, self-denial, sincere love to God, and godliness! But this is the great design in the upright heart: "Oh, that I may be stored with the saving knowledge of my God and of myself! Here's an ordinance. Oh, that I may have my faith increased, my love enflamed, and the back of my patience strengthened by this holy duty!" These are the pearls our merchant seeks.

The upright man studies to perform invisible duties. There is an outside and an inside part to religion. The bended knee is the outside part in prayer; the broken heart is the inside. To read two or three chapters in the Bible each day is the outside part; to feel the efficacy of it is the inside. To reprove another man is the outside part; but to watch over your own heart is the inside. To draw out your purse to a poor man is the outside part; but to draw out your heart in pity to him is the inside part of the duty.

The hypocrite may, and often does, excel in the former, but the upright man is diligent and careful in the latter. He can pray in secret, and is no stranger to self-examination, meditation, ejaculatory prayers, and soliloquies, those retired acts of religion; nay in these is his excellence. He is a saint in secret, the holiest when alone, a busy man in an ordinance. He wrestles as well as makes supplication, and sweats at that which others sleep at.

The Pharisee in Luke 18 had the larger oration, but the publican had the more penitent heart. The scribe might have more dealing with the Law, but the apostle delighted in it in the inward man (Romans 7:22), and so does every upright man. His best wares are within, out of sight. It is the tradesman's custom to have all his wares for sale, but in his warehouse and closet are his choicest things. Even so the upright man will be exact and diligent in all his ordinary and visible duties, but his masterpieces are within. He performs invisible duties.

The upright man studies to conquer invisible sins. These are the sins that he might go to his grave with, and nobody was ever aware of them; yet these he labors to rout. A hypocrite, on the contrary, prunes off the sins that will shame him, but nourishes the sins that will damn him. Open drunkenness, uncleanness, oppression, and profaneness a hypocrite disdains; but meanwhile he lives perhaps in some of these secretly, or at least takes no pains to subdue proud, wanton, envious, and other inward motions that do as much war against the soul as other sins. The hypocrite shaves the hair, but the upright man plucks it up by the roots.

2 Corinthians 7:1, "let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit." There is a filthiness of the spirit which he who would perfect holiness will be cleansing himself from, such as the habits of unbelief, impenitence, hardness of heart, pride of spirit, dullness in God's service, and such sins as atheistic, loose, impertinent thoughts, wandering thoughts in the worship of God, envy at his neighbor's riches or reputation, and carnal contrivances to satisfy the lusts of the flesh. These break his sleep and fill his prayers, which never cost the hypocrite one penitent thought. The upright man knows that as the filthiness of the flesh will make him a beast, so the filthiness of the spirit will make him a devil; and therefore he assaults his invisible sins.

REB

Steele In Our Spines: Nature Of Uprightness

2008-06-10T08:22:00.001-05:00

The meditations under this listing [Steele In Our Spines] are from Richard Steele's The Properties And Privileges Of An Upright Man, first published in 1670.

The nature of this uprightness of heart is best discerned by those expressions used by the Holy Ghost concerning it, which have been partly observed already, and shall be reduced to these following. Uprightness of heart is:

Single without division
Sound without rottenness
Pure without mixture
Perfect without reservation
Plain without guile

An upright heart is single without division. To a hypocrite, there are many gods and many lords, and he must have a heart for each. But to the upright there is but one God the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ, and one heart will serve them both. He who fixes his heart upon the creature, for every creature he must have a heart, and the dividing of his heart destroys him (Hosea 10:2).

Worldly profits knock at the door, and he must have a heart for them; carnal pleasures present themselves, and he must have a heart for them also; sinful preferments appear, and they must have a heart too. Of necessary objects, the number is few; of needless vanities, the number is endless. The upright man made choice of God and has enough.

A single Christ is enough for a single heart; hence holy David prayed in Psalm 86:11, "Unite my heart to fear thy name." That is, "let me have but one heart and mind, and let that be thine."

As there are thousands of beams and rays, yet they all meet and center in the sun. So an upright man, though he has a thousand thoughts, yet they all (by his good will) meet in God. He has many subordinate ends--to procure a livelihood, to preserve his credit, to provide for his children--but he has no supreme end but God alone. Hence he has that steadiness in his resolutions, that undistractedness in his holy duties, that consistency in his actions, and that evenness in the frame of his heart, which miserable hypocrites cannot attain.

An upright heart is sound without rottenness. Psalm 119:80, "let my heart be sound in thy statutes, that I may not be ashamed." The more sincerity, the less shame. Integrity is the great author of confidence. Every frost shakes an unsound body, and every trial shakes an unsound soul. An upright man does not always have so pure a color as a hypocrite may have, but his color is natural: it is his own; it is not painted; his constitution is firm. The hypocrite's beauty is borrowed; the fire of trial will melt it off.

An upright man has his infirmities, his diseases, but his new nature works them out for he is sound within. A leprosy overspreads the hypocrite, but he hides it. Psalm 36:2, "he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful." He endeavors to hide himself from God, more from men, but most from himself. He would fain be in with himself howsoever, and this trade he drives, "till his iniquity be found to be hateful." But an upright man is always sifting and trying himself: "Am I sound? Am I right? Are my services rightly done? Are my infirmities consistent with integrity?" An upright saint is like an apple with rotten specks, but a hypocrite is like the apple with a rotten core.

The sincere Christian has a speck of passion here, there one of worldliness, and there one of pride. But cut him up and anatomize him, and he is sound at heart; there Christ and Christianity live and reign. A hypocrite is like an apple that is smooth and lovely on the outside, but rotten within. His words may be exact, his duties devout, and his life blameless; but look within, and his heart is the sty of sin, the den of Satan.

An upright heart is pure without mixture. It is not absolutely pure, for that happy condition is reserved for heaven, but it is compared with the pollution and base mixture that constitutes a hypocrite. Though his hand cannot do all that God bids, yet his heart is sincere in all he does. His soul is bent for perfect purity, and so he has his name from that. Matthew 5:8, "Blessed are the pure in heart." In his words he sometimes fails, and also in his thoughts and deeds; but open his heart and thee is a love, a desire, a design and an endeavor after real and absolute purity.

He is not legally pure, that is, free from all sin, but he is evangelically pure, free from the reign of sin, especially of hypocrisy, which is so flatly contrary to the covenant of grace. And in this sense the upright man is the Scripture Puritan, and so is further from hypocrisy than any other man. He is really glad that God is the searcher of hearts, for then he knows that he will find his name and nature in his own.

And yet the most upright man in the world has some hypocrisy in him. Proverbs 20:9, "who can say, 'I have made my heart clean. I am pure from my sin'?" But he detects, resists, and hates this hypocrisy; and so it cannot dominate him as a hypocrite in this world, nor damn him as one in another. His ends are generally purely for the glory of God; his frame of heart and thoughts are pure, and generally better than his outside; the farther you trace him, the better he is. He is pure from dishonesty in his dealings, purer still in his closet, and most pure in his heart. Though there is sin there, yet there is also there an antipathy against it, so that it does not mingle with it.

The hypocrite chooses sin; the upright man would have no sin if he could choose. The traveler meets with dirt on his way, but he keeps it off as well as he can and does not mingle with it. And if he gets soiled, he rubs it off as soon as may be. But the swine delights in it and cannot be well without it. It is just so between the upright man and the hypocrite. The most upright saint on earth is mired with sin sometimes, but he did not design it in the morning, nor does he sleep with it at night. But a hypocrite designs it and delights in it; he is never so well contented as in sin. In a word, the hypocrite may avoid sin, but no man can abhor sin save the upright man.

An upright man is perfect and entire without reservation. Psalm 37:37, "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright." You may see them both at once. His heart is entirely devoted to the will and ways of God. The hypocrite ever has some exceptions and reservations. "Such a sin I must not leave; such a grace I cannot love; such a duty I will not practice. Thus far will I yield but no farther; thus far will I go. It is consistent with my carnal ends, but all the world shall not persuade me farther." The judgment of the hypocrite will drive beyond his will, his conscience beyond his affections; he is not entire, his heart is parted, and so he is off and on.

The upright man has but one happiness, and that is the enjoyment of God; he has but one rule, and that is his holy will; he has but one work, and that is to please his maker.Thereupon he is entire and certain in his choices, in his desires, in his ways and contrivances. And though there may be some demurs in his prosecution of his main business, yet there is no hesitancy and wavering between two objects; for he is entirely fixed and resolved therein, and so may be said to be "perfect and entire, wanting nothing."

There is in every hypocrite some one fort or stronghold that has never yielded to the sovereignty and empire of God's will. Some lust fortifies itself in the will; but where integrity enters, it brings every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. "Lord," he says, "I am wholly thine; do what thou wilt with me; say what thou wilt to me; write what thou wilt upon me. 'Other lords besides thee have had dominion over us, but by thee only we will make mention of thy name'" (Isaiah 26:13). Here is the upright man.

An upright heart is plain without guile. Psalm 32:2, "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile." Here is a blessed word indeed. Alas! We have great and many iniquities; would it not be happy for us to be as if we had never sinned? Why, non-imputation will be as well for us as if there had been no transgression; sins remitted are as if they had not been committed; the debt-book crossed as good as if no entries had ever been made.

But who is this blessed man? "In whose spirit there is no guile," that is, no fundamental guile. He is the man who has not deceitfully covenanted with his God. He has no approved guile, to approve and yield to any way of wickedness; he does not juggle with God or men or with his own conscience; he does not hide his idols under him when God is searching his tent. Rather, as it follows in verse 5, he acknowledges, hates, and leaves his sin.

When the upright man confesses his sin, his heart aches and he is deeply troubled for it; he does not dissemble. The hypocrite proclaims open war, but maintains secret intelligence with his lusts. When the upright man prays for any grace, he earnestly desires it, and he takes pains to compass it too; for he is in good earnest and does not dissemble. The hypocrite is afraid in his prayers to be taken at his word, for he does not love the image or grace of God at all. And so in everything else, there is nothing but guile in him.

He who will dissemble with God will dissemble with any man in the world. See the wide difference between Saul and David. Saul is charged with a fault in 1 Samuel 15:14. He denies it, and the charge is renewed in verse 17. Still he minces the matter and looks for fig-leaves to cover all. But plain-hearted David is another man; he is charged and he yields; one prick opens a vein of sorrow in his heart. He tells all, he makes a psalm of it, and therein concludes this is Psalm 51:6, "behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts." The plain-hearted man says, "as for me, with the upright man I will show myself upright."

REB

Steele In Our Spines: Ground of Uprightness

2008-06-09T11:34:00.001-05:00

The meditations under this listing [Steele In Our Spines] are from Richard Steele's The Properties And Privileges Of An Upright Man, first published in 1670.

This uprightness respects God and respects man. The former may be called "uprightness of heart," the latter "uprightness of life." And both of these must be explained [the first will be explained in this and the subsequent five entries]; and, where they meet, there we find an upright man.

Concerning uprightness of heart, we must assert that it is not so much a distinct grace, a grace by itself, as it is all grace. It is that which stamps a reality on every other grace. Without it, we cannot believe our faith, nor love our love, nor hope well of our hope itself.

Uprightness and watchfulness are universal graces; they are of a general necessity. Uprightness is necessary to the being and truth of grace, and watchfulness is necessary to the preservation and exercise of grace. And on that account, sincerity is called a girdle in Ephesians 6:14, "having your loins girded about truth." Religion is to many as a cloak (though it will prove the dearest cloak that ever was worn) which they can put on when it serves their purposes, and put off when it troubles them in their lust. But sincerity is like a girdle that ties it close to us. This makes all our garments fit close to us, and to be ungirt here is to be unblessed.

Uprightness of heart is that grace or gracious temper whereby the soul is unreservedly resigned to God, and heartily bent to walk with him without guile. In short, it is when one is a man after God's own heart; for truth is nothing but an agreement of things with their first principles, so that the heart that agrees plainly with the heart and will of God is an upright heart.

The same thing is meant by an honest heart in Luke 8:15. That is a heart resolved to carry squarely towards God. Such a heart, in the hearing of God's word, is clearly carried with the stream of God's will, without exception or dissimulation. As an honest man is ruled and swayed by reason and equity in a business, without squinting at his own opinions and ends, even so an upright heart yields honestly his reason and and will captive to the will of God, though it crosses his own conceits and ends. And thus he is a man after God's own heart, is as like (human frailty considered) as ever he can be.

This blessed uprightness may be considered in its grounds, in its nature, and in its object.

The ground and root of uprightness of heart stands in the total receiving of Christ by the heart, and total resignation of the heart to him. When this is done, a good foundation is laid for sincerity of soul.

First, there must be a total receiving of Jesus Christ as offered in the gospel; this is when you take hold of the Lord Jesus and cleave to him with purpose of heart. Barnabas pressed them at Antioch to this in Acts 11:23. Many have a month's mind of Christ, some wishes and wounds, but will you have him and cleave to him, and that with purpose of heart?

Sincerity is to receive a whole Christ with a whole heart. It is not to receive Christ the savior or refuge only, or most would be willing, but Christ the prince and portion also in the land of the living. So David could say in Psalm 142:5, "O Lord, thou art my refuge, and my portion in the land of the living." But how many would have the Lord Jesus Christ for the refuge when conscience pinches, affliction presses, or death stares them in the face; and how few will choose him for their portion and happiness in the midst of their outward comforts? The hypocrite dares not die without him, and the upright saint cannot live without him. Song of Solomon 1:4, "The upright love thee," and love cannot live contentedly without fruition.

To be content with Christ because of some present need of him is one thing, but it is nothing if that is all. But to choose him as the fairest of ten thousand, and that with an entire heart; to have mind, will, conscience, and affection all of one mind, and this mind to be set on Christ's yoke as well as his crown, his spirit as well as his merit, his rule as well as his righteousness -- there is the upright heart.

A hypocrite has some fancy for Jesus Christ, but will not have all of him. This part pleases him, but this part does not; and so he dodges endlessly and parleys with him through the window, but bolts the door and keeps him out forever. Oh, that ever a holy, just, and offended God should follow such miserable sinners with a bleeding Christ in his arms and that ever such wretches should refuse him!

Second, there must be a total resignation of the heart unto the Lord Jesus Christ, wherein you cordially, deliberately, and freely give up your souls and bodies to him and his service, which is called "engaging the heart to approach to the Lord." Jeremiah 30:21, "who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me, Saith the Lord." And thereupon that happy covenant is drawn in the next verse, "Ye shall be my people, and I will be your God."

"Who is this?" God asks. "Who in the world? Who in this congregation? Who in this family? Who in this seat? Where is the man, the woman, the child?"

Oh, let each answer quickly, "It is I." But you must engage, not only hanker, incline, desire, purpose, but engage. It is not bidding, but buying, that will make this pearl your own. Alas, it is the ordinary guise of people to stand off and look only. But, sirs, will you engage? It is a bargain; and will you stick to it, get or lose by it? Will you have Christ? Then there must be the engagement of the heart. You subscribed your hands in baptism; this very covenant was sealed in your name and on your behalf when you were little children, and your not revoking it asserts it.

But now we come for your hearts' engagement thereunto. Where is the mind, the conscience, the will? Oh, where is the will that submits, resolves, and engages to be the Lord's? Happy this day, happy you will be, if hereupon you shall say, "I am the Lord's"; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob, and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name Israel (Isaiah 44:5). You are the Lord's by your Christian names already. Oh, when will you be his by your surname also?

This is the gospel's great design; this is our errand here; we come for you and loathe to go without you. We beseech you by the mercies of God to present yourselves as a living sacrifice to God. Poor sinners are like besieged rebels whom Christ Jesus will either win or starve. His ordinance is mounted and it batters. A breach is made in the judgment, but the sinner will not yield; another in the conscience, yet is he loathe to yield. The white flag of mercy is set up, but for a long time the sturdy sinner will not look at it. The red flag is hung out, divine wrath is on the march, and a storm is preparing. The ordinance of God is planted again; and now if it hits right, and a breach is made upon the will, then Christ is victorious, the city is won, and the sinner yields. And then his note is changed. Psalm 116:16, "O Lord, truly I am thy servant, I am thy servant." Mark how the Psalmist doubles it, as if to say, "I am, I am, truly I am." Doubled refusals call for doubled submissions.

The sinner must say, "I will neither be my own master nor my own servant. I here make a deed of gift of my whole self to thee without reservation, and without power of revocation." It is not enough to say this in a pang of kindness, or in a compliment, as we do to men. What is more common with us than to say, "I am your servant, sir?" But it is a servant without service, and God has a great many such servants. They are his servants, but their own masters. But holy David was not such a man. "I am thy servant, truly I am thy servant. I am resigned to thee, I am resolved for thee. Thou hast bored my ears (Psalm 40:6) and obliged me to thee forever. I will be thine totally and finally."

When you give yourselves to the Lord in this way (2 Corinthians 8:5), this is the ground and root of uprightness.

REB

Steele In Our Spines: The Doctrine Stated

2008-06-07T11:02:00.001-05:00

The meditations under this listing [Steele In Our Spines] are from Richard Steele's The Properties And Privileges Of An Upright Man, first published in 1670.

And now it is time to be gathering something for our instruction, and let this be the lesson hence to be learned.

DOCTRINE: Where God finds an upright man, he shows himself to be an upright God.

True, he finds none but whom he makes. He finds them of his own making; but wherever such a man is found, on the throne, in a prison, or on a dunghill, he shall find a God of his own who will deal uprightly with him. He is an upright God; let men be what they will; whatever contrary motions the lower spheres have, yet the primum mobile keeps its even and constant motion and is never diverted out of its course at all.

So it is with our God: let vain hypocrites walk never so crookedly, yet the holy God will be justified when he speaks and clear when he judges. He will be upright with you in executing his threatenings if you hinder the current of his uprightness in performing promises. The filthy dunghill cannot infect the glorious sun that shines all day upon it, nor can any man's evil cause him to cease from being good. But the meaning of the point is, to the upright man he shows himself to be a graciously upright God. A true-hearted man on earth shall find a true-hearted God in heaven.

The most proper and profitable way I can think of to handle this doctrine within the intended limits is, first, by showing wherein the uprightness of a man stands; second, by declaring how God shows himself to be an upright God; and, third, by drawing out some inferences and uses thereof.

REB

Steele In Our Spines: Words Used In Scripture

2008-06-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

The meditations under this listing [Steele In Our Spines] are from Richard Steele's The Properties And Privileges Of An Upright Man, first published in 1670.

There are four words especially whereby uprightness is expressed in Scripture which, being considered, will give us some view of this orient jewel.

It is called "truth." 1 Samuel 12:24, "serve him in truth." Moral truth is the conformity of the mind and heart to things said and done; when therefore the heart prays with the tongue, when the heart obeys with the hand, when we do the things of God heartily as to the Lord, this is to serve him in truth and uprightly.

This is surely the sense of Hebrews 10:22, "let us draw near with a true heart." It is our sin and folly to keep at distance from God, both in and out of his service, afraid or loathe to come near. It is God's will that we should draw near, and nearer yet, and that with a true heart. A true-hearted man at prayer does the work when many great appearances are but beating the air.

So it is when we come to men. 1 John 3:18, "let us not love in word neither in tongue [only], but it deed and in truth," having a principle of unfeigned love in our hearts to everybody, and thence producing words and deeds of charity. This is an upright man, whose heart within does not give the lie to his word and actions.

Survey his duties to God and men, they are pious, just, and charitable; open his heart, and piety, righteousness, and love are written there. One man professed that if he might have had the opportunity to make himself, light would have been his body and truth would have been his soul.

Another word for this is "sincerity," a word taken from pure honey. The Latin is sine cera, without wax or unmingled. The equivalent for us would be when the new man has as little as may be of the old man mingled with him.

This word is used in Philippians 1:10, "that ye may be sincere." The Greek word there signifies that which is sunproof (such as wares that can abide betried between you and the sun). Such is an upright man: bring him to the Scriptures and he is sound; bring him to any solid marks and he can stand before them; put him on the scales and he is the right weight.

He is pure gold, though he may lack some grains of allowance. He is of a right breed; though perhaps young or weak; yet he can look at the sun and not be daunted. A hypocrite can look men in the face, but an upright man can look God in the face. "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness." This none but a righteous upright man can do.

There is another word of this import, and that is "singleness of heart." Acts 2:46, "they did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart," that is, with a cordial cheerfulness and bounty. To this Luke 11:34 refers, "when thine eye is single [when your heart is singly bent to honor and serve God, then the whole life will relish of that principle], thy whole body also is full of light.

But if the heart doubles with God, the life will in no way be uniform with men. And this is taken to be the meaning of the oneness of heart promised in Ezekiel 11:19. The hypocrite has a heart, a heart, a heart, and a heart, for every lust a heart; a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. He is unresolved in the end he drives at, and so unfixed in his desires and actions that tend thereunto.

Now the upright man's heart is one: he goes all the way; he is what he seems; he has one intention, one delight, one face, and one tongue. In a word, he is a united man. Psalm 103:1, "bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name."

And to this purpose is the fourth word that signifies uprightness, and that is "integrity." 1 Kings 9:4, "and if thou wilt walk before me, as David, thy father, walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness." That is, when all the soul in every faculty is resolved and bent for God and his glory.

In a hypocrite, the judgment is against the will, the conscience against the affection, and the reason against the appetite. But in the upright, all the faculties agree and combine within themselves, and the opposition is only outward, against a common enemy. He is a whole man and is for the whole will of God.

So, you see that an upright man is a true-hearted, a sincere-hearted, a single-hearted, and a whole-hearted man.

REB

Steele In Our Spines: The Text Opened

2008-06-06T12:08:00.001-05:00

The meditations under this listing [Steele In Our Spines] are from Richard Steele's The Properties And Privileges Of An Upright Man, first published in 1670.

So we arrive at the text itself, which is an entire proposition concerning a subject (an upright man), a predicate or what is spoken of him, to, or with him (God will show himself upright), and an explication (with, before, or unto him).

"Upright." The same word is often translated "perfect." An upright man is good throughout, though not thoroughly good; he is not one who personifies religion, but one who is a religious person. He is perfect because he wishes to be so. So Noah is termed in Genesis 6:9, "Noah was a just man, and perfect (i.e. upright) in his generations, and Noah walked with God."

He was a good man in a bad age. He was like a glowing spark of fire in a sea of water, which is perfect goodness; and therefore the Holy Ghost so hangs upon his name as if he could not stop saying it. Verse 10, "And Noah begat three sons." It is as if God were saying, "Noah, Noah, Noah. I love the sound of your name." And so all our names are precious to God, though hated by men, if the name of God is dear and sweet to us.

The word is also sometimes translated "plain." In Genesis 25:27, Jacob was a plain man, that is, an upright man, dwelling in tents. Esau was a cunning hunter, but Jacob was a plain man. You might know his heart by his tongue, save once when Rebekah put a cunning trick into his head; otherwise he was a most upright, downright man. And the plain meaning of it is a simple, cordial, unfeigned, and exact man -- this is the man we are looking for.

"Man." This substantive in the Hebrew is a choice word, signifying a strong and valiant man. The same word is used in Psalm 45:3, "O mighty [man]!" It is meant of the Lord Christ, who was a most strong and valiant man, who could meet the wrath of God, the malice of the devil, and the sin of man in the face and still come off with the triumph. The Dutch translate the parallel clause in 2 Samuel 22:26 this way, "With the right, valiant person, thou behavest thyself upright."

"Thou wilt shew thyself upright." or, "Thou wilt be upright with him." One word in the Hebrew makes all these six English words. "Thou wilt upright it with him." If men deal plainly with God, he will deal plainly with them. He who is upright in performing his duty shall find God upright in performing his promises.

It is God's way to carry with men as they carry with him. If you have a design to please him, he will have a design to please you; if you will echo to him when he calls, then he will echo to you when you call. On the other hand, if a man will wrestle with God, he will wrestle with him; if you will be fast and loose with him and walk frowardly towards him, you shall have it as good as you bring it. If you provoke him with never-ending sins, he will pursue you with never-ending torments. If you will sin for eternity, you must suffer for eternity. Every man shall find like for like.

REB

Steele In Our Spines: The Upright Man

2008-06-06T11:20:00.001-05:00

The meditations under this listing [Steele In Our Spines] are from Richard Steele's The Properties And Privileges Of An Upright Man, first published in 1670.

Considering the context of Psalm 18:25, Steele wrote, It is as if each of you who have grown into years should write a review of your lives and observe the wonderful goodness and providence of God toward you; and then sit down and write a modest memorial of his most remarkable mercies to comfort yourselves and your posterity, which would be an excellent practice.

What a comfort it would be for you to read how good your God was to your father or grandfather, who are now dead and gone! So would your children rejoice in the Lord upon reading of his goodness to you. And you cannot have a better pattern for this than holy David, who wrote this Psalm when he was sixty-seven years old. When he had outlived most of his troubles and was almost ready for his journey to his father in heaven, he resolved to leave this good report of him on earth.

Mark how he began: he does not set up trophies to himself, but triumphs in his God. "I will love thee, o Lord, my strength." As the love of God is the beginning of all our mercies, so love for God should be the end and effect of them all. As the stream leads us to the spring, so all the gifts of God must lead us to the giver of them.

"Lord thou hast saved me from sickness, so I will love thee; from death and hell, so I will love thee. On me thou hast bestowed grace and comfort, so I will love thee, O Lord my strength." And later he heaped on God all the sweet names he could devise (verse 2). A true saint thinks he can never speak too well of God or too ill of himself. And then he begins his narrative.

Of his dangers (vv. 4-5): snares of death, floods of ungodly men, and sorrows of hell. Hell and earth are combined against each holy man, and will trouble him sufficiently in this world if they cannot keep him out of a better one.
Of his retreat, and his earnest prayer to God (v. 6): "I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God." When our prayers are ardent and importunate, then they speed. "My cry came before him, even unto his ears." The mother trifles while the child whimpers, but when he raises his note, strains every nerve, and tries every vein, then she throws aside all and gives him his desire. While our prayers are only whispers, our God can take his rest; but when we fall to crying, "Now will I arise," says the Lord.
Of his rescue (vv. 7-20): by the powerful and terrible arm of the Lord, who is in a lofty strain, brought in to his servants help, as if he would mingle heaven and earth together rather than leave his child in the lion's paws.
Of the reason for this gracious dealing of God with him (vv 20ff.): he was a righteous person, and he had a righteous cause. And thereupon he turned to God, saying, "thou hast dealt with me just as thou art wont to do; for with the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; and with the upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright."

REB

What Do You Mean By Love, Part One

2008-06-04T10:16:00.001-05:00

The word "love" is used in so many ways, that it is difficult to come up with a single definition that does all of them justice. Of course a good part of the problem is either caused by or aggravated by the fact that people use the term incorrectly.

But I think I shall try to formulate a definition that works.

"Love is that loyalty that arises out of a social affection that sets itself upon another human being and unites with that being in a regulated social context." Many things that are actually quite selfish in nature may claim to be love, but it properly belongs to love to be both unselfish and happy while seeking the welfare of another.

There are many degrees of love, of course. So, also, there may be different phases and kinds in a relationship that is loving from beginning to end.

There is such a thing as philanthropy (love of mankind) that animates a good man to labor for the good of others. Thus we have our example in Jesus Christ, whose love for mankind led him to lay down his life. But there seems also to be a warmer love than this for those who are closer. Love for neighbors, friends, near kindred, husband or wife, and children all seem to come in some way or another properly under this idea of loyalty and unselfish concern

Spurious Love

Selfishness, as opposed to love, has its eye on the object of its affection in much the same way that a bird of prey may have an eye on its victim. When we proclaim our love for a beautiful spring day or for bratwurst, we speak of the approval we have of the day or the meat as a way of pleasing ourselves.

Dressed in the clothing of "true love," this selfishness may even seek out its object and practice some degree of benevolence toward the object of its affection. However, after winning the heart of another, this person will soon show by selfish exaction and unjust jealousies that it was not love at all that made him desire the company of another.

The same can be said of the recipient of such attention. If the recipient lacks the wisdom necessary to see that selfishness can wrapped in the name of love, perhaps she too longs more for attention than for returning the love of another. Gratified vanity may be another response that the responder wrongly thinks to be responsive love.

REB

Asking The Right Questions

2008-05-21T12:32:00.001-05:00

Probably the biggest hindrance to men making the right biblical decisions in their lives, right after not having a sufficient knowledge of Scripture, is that they too often ask the wrong question. As a result they end up with answers that fit the question they are asking rather than answers that fit the question that they should be asking.

An example of a wrong question might be, "How do I get a newer (or faster or prettier or flashier or more economical) car?" The right question is "What does God want me to do and how will he help me get where I need to be to do it?"

Much of the difficulty we face in life is the result of making decisions based on answers to the wrong question. Typically we frame a question so that regardless of the answer we get all or some part of what we want. We must learn to ask questions that center on what God wants. These questions generally result in tougher decisions, but also more God-glorifying ones.

A leader's agenda will be shaped by the answers to the questions he asks. We must learn to ask the right questions, even if those questions lead us to tough answers and tough decisions.

We know that growth involves change. But change itself involves either real loss or at least a sense of loss. This means if we are going to lead people in the direction of growth, they will inevitably have a sense of loss. They will be outside their "comfort zone." Our questions, then, must deal not simply with the necessity for change, but also with how to cope with the sense of loss that we know will be taking place in people's minds.

Leaders must understand that people are not resistant to growth; they are resistant to change. The question then becomes not "How can I convince people they need to grow," but "How can I help people deal with the sense of loss they will experience as they grow?"

REB

Faith or Fear

2008-05-19T15:53:00.001-05:00

“Moses had buried his zeal and confidence long ago in the blistering sands of Midian, far from the princely pomp of Egypt. When he looked in the mirror now, all he saw as an eighty-year-old waste of time…and wait a minute!…some kind of bush on fire or something.

“Settledness is the enemy of service. When we get comfortable spending our nights watching TV documentaries or ingesting more news than we could use in ten lifetimes, God’s gentle nudging for us to–let’s say, call someone on our church’s prayer list–is easy to shoot down. We fear those awkward pauses in conversation. We worry we might catch someone at a bad time. We might not know them well enough and come off sounding nosy. Fear comes in all kinds of excuses–and leaves us settling for much less than God’s best.” — Lawrence Kimbrough

Complacence among Christians may be the devil’s best ally. All it takes to make the world our friend is to forget it is our enemy; and all it takes to make God our enemy is to make the world our friend. James 4:4

REB

William K. Harrison

2008-05-17T14:17:00.000-05:00

Consider the example of Lt. Gen. William K. Harrison who was the most decorated soldier in the 30th infantry division, rated by Gen. Eisenhower as the number one infantry division in the second world war. Gen. Harrison was the first American to enter Belgium during that war, which he did at the head of Allied forces. He received every decoration for valor except the Congressional Medal of Honor -- including the DSC, the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the Purple Heart. He was one of the few generals wounded in combat during world war 2.

When the Korean conflict began, Harrison served as Chief of Staff in the UN Command and because of his character and calm self-control was ultimately Eisenhower's choice to head the negotiations that led to the end of the war.

Gen. Harrison was a soldier's soldier. He led a busy life but he was also an amazing man of the Word of God. When he was a twenty year old cadet at West Point he began reading the Old Testament through once and the New Testament through four times annually. He kept this pace up even in the midst of war, and maintained his commitment by catching up during the two or three day respites for replacement and refitting that came after major battles. When the war ended, he was right on schedule.

When he lost use his eyesight at the age of ninety to the point he could no longer read, he had read the Old Testament seventy times and the New Testament 280 times. No wonder his godliness and wisdom were legendary. In fact, for eighteen years he led the Officers Christian Fellowship (OCF).

Harrison's story demonstrates that it is possible, even for the busiest men, to train ourselves systematically in God's Word. His life also is a demonstration of the benefits of a godly mind in the body of a godly man. Those who knew him best claimed that every area of his life (including the domestic, spiritual, professional, etc.) and every problem he faced was approached from the standpoint of what Scripture teaches about it.

The call to disciplined manhood for the purpose of godliness is not a call to legalism. It is a call to train ourselves in God's Word -- by listening to its preaching, taking notes, checking cross references, reading the Bible regularly, engaging in study systematically and accountably, memorizing the Word, and so on.