No Man Can Serve Two Masters.

Mat 6:24  No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Mark Anthony yoked two lions to his chariot; but there are two lions no man has ever yoked together...the lion of the tribe of Judah, and the lion of the pit.

 

These can never go together.

Two opinions you may hold in politics, perhaps, but then you will be despised by everyone, unless you are of one opinion or the other, and act as an independent man.

But two opinions in the matter of soul-religion you cannot hold. 

If God be God, serve him, and do it thoroughly; but if this world is God, serve it, and make no profession of religion.

If you are a worldling, and think the things of the world are the best, serve them; devote yourself to them, do not be kept back by conscience; ignore your conscience, and run into sin.

But remember, if the Lord is your God, you cannot have Baal too; you must have one thing or the other.

No man can serve two masters.

If God is served, he will be a master; and if the devil be served, he will not be long before he will be a master;

And "you cannot serve two masters."

Oh! Be wise, and do not think that the two can be mingled together.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Wait The Appointed Time

Hab 2:3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
                                                                                

Turning To God From Idols

Ye turned unto God from idols, to serve a living and true God. 

That is the first stage of the Christian life. Now, although they were pagans formerly, in a pagan world with all its system of idol worship, and you might think that it is not quite right and hardly fair to compare people of a ‘Christian’ country with those pagans and to class them all together...

I want to point out that in principle and in fact the classing of all unsaved people with those pagans is quite right. 

Ye turned unto God from idols to serve or “to worship”, (for that is what the word here means) “a living and true God”.

Now, the principle here, a principle which has many forms in many different times and ages and parts of the world, is just the same.

These people had been giving the “worthship”, (for that is the meaning of worship), of their lives to other objects than God. 

Who is getting the worth-ship of your life...God, or...whatever else it might be?

If you are not giving it to God, then you are giving it somewhere else, to something else, and that is idolatry. 

So the first stage of a true Christian life is this: the realization and recognition that God is worth your giving everything to Him.

He is worthy of having the worth-ship of your life, of having laid at His feet all that you have and are.
Now, when Paul and his companions (you notice he speaks in the plural, “we give thanks”) came to these people, he set forth in the first place the worthiness of God to have their lives, and to have them and their all; 

And as he set forth the true and living God, they perhaps suddenly came to realize...“Oh, how different from what we have been doing!

How unworthy has been the way that we have been going in comparison with this!

It is the seeing of the worthiness of God in Christ.

We sometimes sing, as we seek to emphasize and reiterate the all-captivating worthiness of the Lord Jesus –“Marvel not that Christ in glory All my inmost heart hath won.”
That is where it begins.

Anything less than that, anything other than that as a beginning will find us out sooner or later.

Here is One who, by reason of His self-manifestation and of the great work that He has done for our redemption and salvation, is worthy to have everything that we count worthwhile in life. 

That is very fundamental.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Leave It To GOD

Psalm 37:6  And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.

Whatever it is that presses thee, go tell the Father; put the whole matter over into His hand, and so shalt thou be freed from that dividing, perplexing care that the world is full of.

When thou art either to do or suffer anything, when thou art about any purpose or business, go tell God of it, and acquaint Him with it;

Yes, burden Him with it, and thou hast done for matter of caring; no more care, but quiet, sweet, diligence in thy duty, and dependence on Him for the carriage of thy matters.

Roll thy cares, and thyself with them, as one burden, all on thy God.

~R. Leighton~

Build a little fence of trust Around today; Fill the space with loving work And therein stay. 

Look not through the sheltering bars Upon tomorrow; God will help thee bear what comes Of joy or sorrow.

~Mary Butts~

We shall find it impossible to commit our way unto the Lord, unless it be a way that He approves.

It is only by faith that a man can commit his way unto the Lord;

If there be the slightest doubt in the heart that "our way" is not a good one, faith will refuse to have anything to do with it.

This committing of our way must be a continuous, not a single act.

However extraordinary and unexpected may seem to be His guidance, however near the precipice He may take you, you are not to snatch the guiding reins out of His hands.

Are we willing to have all our ways submitted to God, for Him to pronounce judgment on them? 

There is nothing a Christian needs to be more scrutinizing about than about his confirmed habits and views.

He is too apt to take for granted the Divine approbation of them.

Why are some Christians so anxious, so fearful?

Evidently because they have not left their way with the Lord. They took it to Him, but brought it away with them again.

~Selected~

Our Words And Deeds Are Irrevocable

We cannot recall any word we have spoken. It may be a false word or an unkind word-a word which will blast and burn!

Instantly after it has been spoken-we may wish it back and may rush after it and try to stop it-but there is no power in the world that can unsay the hurtful word or blot it out of our life!
 
It is just so with our acts.

A moment after we have done a wicked thing, we may bitterly repent it.

We may be willing to give all we have in the world to undo it, to make it as though it never had been.

But in vain. A deed done takes its place in the universe as a fact-and never can be recalled.

We should be sure before we speak a word or do an act-that it is right, that we shall never desire to have it recalled...for when once we have opened our lips, or lifted our hand-there will be no unsaying or undoing possible. 

Our words and deeds are irrevocable.

We cannot recall anything we have done, neither can we change it.

But by other words and deeds, we may in some measure modify the effect of that which we cannot blot out.

Paul could not undo his persecutions of Christians-but by a life to devotion to Christ's cause-he could in a sense make reparation for the terrible harm he had done.

Just so, we cannot undo the wrong things we have done...but we should strive to set in motion other influences which may at least compensate in some sense for the harm they have wrought.

We cannot unsay the sharp word which wounds our friend's heart-but we can by kindness and loyal devotion-yet bring good and blessing to his life.

~J. R. Miller~

The Hill Of The LORD

Here, then, is “the hill of the Lord”. We have to identify that hill, first literally and then spiritually.

It does not take very long to do that because the Psalms almost opens with the identity of the hill of the Lord. “Yet I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion” (Ps. 2:6). 

My holy hill of Zion is, historically and literally, the hill of the Lord.

What, then, is Zion spiritually? 

Do you remember that that second Psalm was quoted right at the beginning of the church’s history?

When the earthly forces set themselves in array against the Lord and against His anointed ones, the latter met in prayer and quoted that Psalm, and the place where they were assembled was shaken (Acts 4).

The very shaking of heaven came into that place. What did it say? You have touched the holy hill of Zion! 

Where is that?

The Lord Jesus is ascended to the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens.

It is the place of absolute ascendency, victory, power.

Who is Lord now? “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed…Yet I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion”. 

Zion, then, is not a place on the earth: Zion has now resolved itself into the absolute lordship of Jesus Christ at God’s right hand.

Thus the apostle writes, “Ye are come unto mount Zion…the heavenly Jerusalem…the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven” (Heb. 12:22-23).

It is no longer a place, it is a spiritual position. That is Zion, and we have identified the holy hill.

Who shall ascend? Who shall stand? You see, this is a present question.

While the consummation of this lies at the end of the way, it is something which has a present bearing upon the life of the Lord’s people.

Let me say in fuller definition that Zion, or the holy hill of the Lord, spiritually embodies all that divine thought which the people of God will express when He has them, as He will have them, wholly according to His will.

In other words when God gets a people where He has ever determined to have them, He will have them in what is the spiritual counterpart of Zion absolute ascendancy over all other powers.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Put Forth

John 10:4  And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.

Oh, this is bitter work for Him and us-bitter for us to go, but equally bitter for Him to cause us pain; yet it must be done.

It would not be conducive to our true welfare to stay always in one happy and comfortable lot. He therefore puts us forth.

The fold is deserted, that the sheep may wander over the bracing mountain slope. The laborers must be thrust out into the harvest, else the golden grain would spoil.

Take heart! it could not be better to stay when He determines otherwise; and if the loving hand of our Lord puts us forth, it must be well. 

On, in His name, to green pastures and still waters and mountain heights! He goeth before thee. 

Whatever awaits us is encountered first by Him. Faith's eye can always discern His majestic presence in front; and when that cannot be seen, it is dangerous to move forward.

Bind this comfort to your heart, that the Savior has tried for Himself all the experiences through which He asks you to pass; and He would not ask you to pass through them unless He was sure that they were not too difficult for your feet, or too trying for your strength.

This is the Blessed Life-not anxious to see far in front, nor careful about the next step, not eager to choose the path, nor weighted with the heavy responsibilities of the future, but quietly following behind the Shepherd, one step at a time.

Dark is the sky! and veiled the unknown morrow Dark is life's way, for night is not yet o'er;

The longed-for glimpse I may not meanwhile borrow;  But, this I know, HE GOETH ON BEFORE.

Dangers are nigh! and fears my mind are shaking; Heart seems to dread what life may hold in store; But I am His-He knows the way I'm taking, More blessed still-HE GOETH ON BEFORE.

Doubts cast their weird, unwelcome shadows o'er me, Doubts that life's best-life's choicest things are o'er; What but His Word can strengthen, can restore me, And this blest fact; that still HE GOES BEFORE.

HE GOES BEFORE! Be this my consolation! He goes before! On this my heart would dwell!

He goes before! This guarantees salvation! HE GOES BEFORE! And therefore all is well.

~J. D. Smith~

The Oriental shepherd was always ahead of his sheep. He was down in front. Any attack upon them had to take him into account.

Now God is down in front. He is in the tomorrows. It is tomorrow that fills men with dread. God is there already.

All the tomorrows of our life have to pass Him before they can get to us.

~F. B. M.~

God is in every tomorrow, Therefore I live for today,  Certain of finding at sunrise, Guidance and strength for the way;

Power for each moment of weakness, Hope for each moment of pain, Comfort for every sorrow, Sunshine and joy after rain."

Mixture Of Truth And Error

It does not require a great deal of intelligence in order to recognize that, throughout the history of God's work, the master-stroke of the great perverter has been confusion.

God is not the God of confusion, but of order.

Satan is the god of confusion.

To get order out of chaos, God said: "Let there be light".

To get chaos out of order, Satan says 'Let there be confusion'.

His it is to confuse issues and elements.

To do this, he must - as the word suggests - fuse (or try to fuse) elements which are constitutionally different and do not belong to each other.

Thus there is a constitutional contradiction and inconsistency.

It is only when his master-method runs amok that we have utter and unmitigated wickedness.

His main work is deception by mixture.

It is just here that the place, meaning, and sovereignty of the Holy Spirit in the life of the child of God has its meaning and importance.

He is 'The Spirit of Truth'.

He alone knows where truth ends and falsehood begins.

Only as we truly "walk in the Spirit" shall we know the truth and be made free from error.

A walk in the Spirit demands a 'circumcised heart', a heart in which the severance has been made between flesh and spirit, Christ and self.

There has never been a heresy that has not had in it sufficient truth to deceive very good people.

Likewise, there has never been anything wholly of God but the strategy of the Evil One has been to fasten on to it some implication, insinuation, interpretation, or suggestion, that would make it questionable or 'dangerous'.

He even did this with the Lord Jesus Himself.

He did it with Paul all through his life. Let a demon-possessed girl in Philippi sponsor the preaching of Paul and Silas, and it is damned and discredited.

So, we come to this. A good thing can be made its own enemy, by being either confused, or taken out of its true meaning.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Humility Is Needed to be His Dwelling Place

The whole thought and intention of the incarnation is: “God with us”, “God manifest in the flesh”, and dwelling in man.

That is bound up with Christ, and that was in the eternal counsels of God.

If God were going to dwell in man, and at some dateless point pride was found in the heart of Lucifer, and he reached out to occupy the place which God had appointed for Christ, that he should dwell in man as God, you have two lines at once starting off:

The line of God indwelling man; and the whole course of demon possession – Satan seeking to gain entrance into human life and make it his tabernacle, his dwelling.

Those are two courses of history. It is Christ and Antichrist.
 
What is Antichrist? In the full development of Antichrist it is Satan incarnate as God dwelling in man, being worshipped (mark you) as God in man.

What is it that moves toward that? It is this evil thing of which we have been speaking: pride.

What is pride? Pride is the elevation of man – Antichrist is the elevation of man to the place of God.

All the things that are said about pride, independence, relate to that.

Independence is man assuming personal rights, prerogatives, acknowledging no greater authority than himself, bowing to no one, a law unto himself, drawing things to himself in possessiveness, having them under his control, in his own hand, all things centered in himself and working toward self-exaltation.

Pride in its simplest forms has all those elements, and it has only to grow.

That is the soul of man by nature. That soul has only to exert itself or assert itself and you get a development of Antichrist, or the spirit of Antichrist.
 
What is it that marks the Christ? Is it this assertiveness, this personal drive? No. Christ is the Lamb, as it had been newly slain, and it is the Lamb Who shall overcome.

What is a lamb? A lamb is dependent, in itself nothing. The Lord will deal with us in this way.

If the Lord is going to constitute us His temple, if we are really going to be a dwelling place of God; that is, not to be brought to ruin, but to be established, to become a part of that tabernacle of God coming down from God out of heaven, God dwelling with man, what will the Lord do with us?

He will destroy our independence, empty us of our self-sufficiency, bring us to the place where we have nothing in ourselves and our all in Himself.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Having What Your Father Wants You To Have

Pride is shown in possession or possessiveness; that is, taking hold of things to govern them ourselves, to be in possession of them.

There is nothing like that about the LORD Jesus. 

Listen to some of the sublime things that He said: “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me…”. “All that the Father giveth me shall come…” That is not mere passivity, but faith in the Father.

It is our inborn desire to have a sphere of power, of influence, of domination, of government, that causes us to try to get something, to get hold of something, to possess something, to see something, to have something, to see the work grow, to see a success.

It is a mark of the house of GOD that there is no strain to possess for the sake of possession, to have power, to have mastery, to hold something...That is mine! Do not touch this - it is mine!

The LORD Jesus had nothing in Himself, and wanted nothing for Himself, but He had everything in the Father.

His attitude was, Father, if You want Me to have that, You will give it to me.

I am not going to strive, and worry, and manipulate, and work, and plan, and scheme, and be all the time anxious to have it.

If You want Me to have that, I trust You to give it to Me, and what You do not want Me to have I do not want!

That is the attitude of Christ, and that is how the LORD builds His church.

We must be very careful that this natural possessiveness does not come up in the things of the LORD.

It works up unconsciously, even in our desire for spiritual blessing.

It is to possess something in order that, having it, we may have greater influence, we may be something more, that we may become a dominating factor, that we may be recognized.

Even a desire for holiness may have a subtle snare in it, that if we are holy it will be noted that we are holy, said that we are holy.

~T. Austin Sparks~

The Peril Of Looking Backward

There is the one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back, and is therefore not fit for the kingdom.

Luk 9:62  And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

That is the backward look.

It is the look which Israel took in the wilderness. Psa 78:41  Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

They looked back and spoiled their furrow, they spoiled their whole course.

They failed to enter in simply because they looked in the wrong direction, that is, they looked back.

You know that that was one of the troubles in New Testament times.

The letter to the Galatians was written because of that peril. 

They were beginning to look back.

There was a voice from behind; the voice of the Judaizers was calling them from behind: ‘Come back’ not to the world, not to ungodliness, not to forsake Christ; but to come back to a religious life which was less than that fullness of Christ to which they had been called; to a religious life which was not a spiritual life.

They were in danger of looking back.

They had indeed already half looked back and had come to a standstill.

They had been going on, but now they had stopped going on, and the question was would they continue to go on or would they go back?

That letter was written to induce a going on. This letter to the Hebrews was written for the same purpose. 

The peril of a backward look is always there, in some way or another.

And then we are told of some people who looked around when they were commanded not to look around.

I think that is what Peter did.

When he was beginning to walk on the water he took his eyes off the Lord and looked around and he went down (Matthew 14:28-31).

His eyes changed their direction and he began to look around “WHEN HE SAW the wind” (verse 30).

That is what Israel did when the spies went out and came back with their wrong report.

They looked around walled cities, giants, all kinds of difficulties.

They looked around, they got their eyes off the LORD.

Only two of them kept their eyes in the right direction and they went through eventually to the end. “Look not around”.

That is, do not allow circumstances so to lay hold of your vision and to fasten upon your outlook that they control your movement.  

Let thine eyes look right on – not around.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Our Field Of Battle

Deut. 20:4  For the LORD your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.

We have no enemies but the enemies of GOD. Our fights are not against men but against Spiritual Wickednesses.

We war with the devil and the blasphemy and error and despair which he brings into the field of battle.

We fight with all the armies of sin--impurity, drunkenness, oppression, infidelity, and ungodliness. 

With these we contend earnestly, but not with sword or spear; the weapons of our warfare are not carnal.

Jehovah, our GOD, abhors everything which is evil, and, therefore, He goeth with us to fight for us in this crusade.

He will save us, and He will give us grace to war a good warfare and win the victory.

We may depend upon it that if we are on GOD'S side GOD is on our side.

With such an august ally the conflict is never in the least degree doubtful.

It is not that truth is mighty and must prevail but that might lies with the Father who is almighty, with Jesus who has all power in heaven and in earth, and with the Holy Spirit who worketh His will among men.

Soldiers of Christ, gird on your armor.

Strike home in the name of the GOD of holiness, and by faith grasp His salvation.

Let not this day pass without striking a blow for Jesus and holiness.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Weighed In The Balances And Found Wanting?

Dan 5:27  TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.

It is well frequently to weigh ourselves in the scale of God’s Word. 

You will find it a holy exercise to read some psalm of David, and, as you meditate upon each verse, to ask yourself, “Can I say this?

Have I felt as David felt? Has my heart ever been broken on account of sin, as his was when he penned his penitential psalms?

Has my soul been full of true confidence in the hour of difficulty as his was when he sang of God’s mercies in the cave of Adullam, or in the holds of Engedi?

Do I take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord?

Then turn to the life of Christ, and as you read, ask yourselves how far you are conformed to his likeness.

Endeavor to discover whether you have the meekness, the humility, the lovely spirit which he constantly inculcated and displayed.

Take, then, the epistles, and see whether you can go with the apostle in what he said of his experience.

Have you ever cried out as he did...“O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

Have you ever felt his self-abasement?

Have you seemed to yourself the chief of sinners, and less than the least of all saints?

Have you known anything of his devotion?

Could you join with him and say, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain”?

If we thus read God’s Word as a test of our spiritual condition, we shall have good reason to stop many a time and say, “Lord, I feel I have never yet been here, O bring me here!

Give me true penitence, such as this I read of.

Give me real faith; give me warmer zeal; inflame me with more fervent love; grant me the grace of meekness; make me more like Jesus.

Let me no longer be ‘found wanting,’ when weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, lest I be found wanting in the scales of judgment.”

 Judge yourselves that ye be not judged.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Dwelling Safely Apart

Deut. 33:28  Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew. 

The more we dwell alone, the more safe shall we be.

GOD would have His people separate from sinners, His call to them is, "Come ye out from among them."

A worldly Christian is spiritually diseased.

Those who compromise with Christ's enemies may be reckoned with them.

Our safety lies, not in making terms with the enemy, but in dwelling alone with our Best Friend.

If we do this, we shall dwell in safety despite the sarcasms, the slanders, and the sneers of the world. 

We shall be safe from the baleful influence of its unbelief, its pride, its vanity, its filthiness. 

GOD also will make us dwell in safety alone in that day when sin shall be visited on the nations by wars and famines.

The LORD brought Abram from Ur of the Chaldees, but Abram stopped halfway.

He had no blessing till, having set out to go to the land of Canaan, to the land of Canaan he came, He was safe alone even in the midst of foes.

Lot was not safe in Sodom though in a circle of friends.

Our safety is in dwelling apart with GOD.

~Charles Spurgeon~