Instruments To Deal With Corruption

Take Nehemiah. Nehemiah seems to have had a great deal of his time occupied with dealing with the other false and foreign elements seeking to insinuate themselves into the recovery of this testimony, as represented by the wall: 

The clear line of demarcation between what is of God and what is not of God. 

He found these things had got right into the House of God itself and had established themselves there. 

And he Rooted and Routed them out, but he was constantly being drawn out to deal with these encroachments and these intrusions. 

On the Sabbath day the traders came round the gates of Jerusalem trying to get in, and if they could not get in on the Sabbath day they waited there to get in immediately the doors were opened. 

Nehemiah saw that this was a corrupting thing, it had gained the upper hand and would pollute what he was doing, and he recorded it of himself: "I testified against them". 

Here is a man who is Alive to the Danger of these Foreign elements coming in,...

And he is all the time dealing with that which he knows if once it gets in, will Undo all that he is doing, which will Destroy the testimony.

So it was with Ezra. 

And what business these two men had in the matter of the foreign wives even of the priests! 

These Foreign relationships had to be Disentangled and Cut Off...

And there had to be a breaking in between what was of God and what was not of God in order to establish the testimony in life. 

It had to be done.

In many other illustrations and instances in the Old Testament we have this same thing, that whenever a testimony has to be brought back into fullness of life, Everything that is of darkness, that is Foreign to light, that is Not of God, has got to be Put Out. 

Otherwise our labor is in vain and the Testimony will be Nullified. 

The enemy's persistent activity is to get something in that is Not God. 

If He gets in, it can carry that to the final issue.

That is why the Lord Jesus Himself, as the personification of the testimony of God, said: "for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me."

The enemy had tried all through His life to Get Something In. 

In the wilderness, in the temptations, the enemy tried to get something in that was of himself and insinuate himself in some way. 

All along he was trying to do that. 

The enemy knew quite well that if he could get a lodgement for something of his own kingdom that was not of the Father, of God, he was sure of triumph in the long run. 

The testimony of life triumphing over death would be nullified. 

So the enemy Concentrated Upon the chief and the inclusive vessel of that testimony...

But the Lord was able to say at length, when the enemy had tried all his resources: "the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me". 

That is the secret of The Lord's power and His victory; the full triumph of God over death in Him.

This is something which may not be new to us, but to have our attention drawn afresh to it is very important if we really are to be vessels of the testimony of God concerning His Son. 

This applies to us as individuals, as individual believers, as children of God, but oh, how it applies to us and concerns us if we are responsible in any larger way than that of personal Christian life. 

How important it is for us to be alive to this fact, and to always bear it in mind, that as believers and as servants of God the maintenance of the testimony in life with all that that means of the impact of an indestructible all-conquering power over Satan, has to be upheld and maintained.

We Must have a Very Clear Perception as to Corrupting Elements, Defiling Elements and Mixture. 

Mixture is One Of the devil's Master Strokes to Nullify what is of God. 

This letter of John touches upon quite a number of things by which the enemy pursues this course of nullifying of the testimony.

In the first place it speaks of Inconsistency and Contradiction in the life of the believer. 

Take note of one little clause only which is very revealing in that matter: 1Jn 1:6  If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 

1Jn 1:8  If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

1Jn 1:10  If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

1Jn 2:9  He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.

Here are contradictions in believers saying one thing, but in the background contradicting the thing we say. 

We need not dwell with that very much. 

It is perfectly clear that here you have two things at work, contradicting one another. 

That is the devil's work.

~T. Austin Sparks

I AM Come To Send Fire On The Earth!

Luke 12:49  I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?

Fire always finds things out. 

As it creeps and encroaches and overtakes, it makes one Discrimination between things that it can devour and things over which it has No power. 

It puts them into those categories; the finding out, the classifying, the deciding. 

Look at the context, Luke 12:51 – “Think ye that I am come to give peace in the earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division.” 

He goes on – “There shall be from henceforth five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. 

They shall be divided, father against son, and son against father; mother against daughter, and daughter against her mother; mother in law against her daughter in law, and daughter in law against her mother in law...”

Discriminating, setting things in the category to which they belong.

Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: 

Luke 12:52  For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. 

Luke 12:53  The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

One category is that which can go on and abide and endure because it is of God. 

The other will be licked up by the fire, and simply pass out of existence. 

1Co 3:13  Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. 

The fire of unavoidable and unerring discrimination. 

That has ever been the effect of a work of the Holy Spirit; to put us into the place to which we belong. 

It is a kind of dividing thing all the time. 

Are you for, or are you against? 

Are you with, or are you not with the Lord? 

Are you going on with the Lord, or are you not going on with the Lord? 

The Holy Spirit is pursuing that course all the time to find us out and to just classify us like this, so that when the Holy Spirit has worked we are in definite categories. 

Division has come, and it is unavoidable.

~T. Austin Sparks

There Is A Limit To Affliction

Nahum 1:12  Thus saith the LORD; Though they be quiet, and likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut down, when he shall pass through. Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more.

There is a limit to affliction. 

God sends it, and removes it. 

Do you sigh and say, "When will the end be?" 

Let us quietly wait and patiently endure the will of the Lord till He cometh. 

Our Father takes away the rod when His design in using it is fully served.

If the affliction is sent for testing us, that our graces may glorify God, it will end when the Lord has made us bear witness to His praise.

We would not wish the affliction to depart until God has gotten out of us all the honor which we can possibly yield Him. 

There may be today " a great calm." 

Who knows how soon those raging billows will give place to a sea of glass and the sea birds sit on the gentle waves?

After long tribulation, the flail is hung up, and the wheat rests in the garner. 

We may, before many hours are past, be just as happy as now we are sorrowful.

It is not hard for the Lord to turn night into day. 

He that sends the clouds can as easily clear the skies. 

Let us be of good cheer. It is better farther on. 

Let us sing Hallelujah by anticipation.

~C.H. Spurgeon

The great Husbandman is not always threshing. 

Trial is only for a season. 

The showers soon pass. 

Weeping may tarry only for the few hours of the short summer night; it must be gone at day break. 

Our light affliction is but for a moment. Trial is for a purpose, "If needs be."

The very fact of trial proves that there is something in us very precious to our Lord; else He would not spend so much pains and time on us. 

Christ would not test us if He did not see the precious ore of faith mingled in the rocky matrix of our nature...

And it is to bring this out into purity and beauty that He forces us through the fiery ordeal.

Be patient, O sufferer!  

The result will more than compensate for all our trials, when we see how they wrought out the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 

To have one word of God's commendation; to be honored before the holy angels; to be glorified in Christ, so as to be better able to flash His glory on Himself-ah! that will more than repay for all.

~Tried by Fire

As the weights of the clock, or the ballast in the vessel, are necessary for their right orderings, so is trouble in the soul-life.

The sweetest scents are only obtained by tremendous pressure...

The fairest flowers grow amid Alpine snow-solitudes...

The fairest gems have suffered longest from the lapidary's wheel...

The noblest statues have borne most blows of the chisel.

All, however, are under law. 

Nothing happens that has not been appointed with consummate care and foresight.

~Daily Devotional Commentary-

Sapping Of Vitality

I have not the slightest shadow of a doubt but that the issue of our day, of this hour in the Church's history is...

More than ever, the issue of life and death in a spiritual sense. 

Are you not more and more experiencing that awful sapping of your very vitality?

That draining of your life, that exhausting of your energy, perhaps especially in relation to prayer? 

Is it not true that it often requires a supreme effort to pray, and to get through when you have started to pray? 

You need energizing from a source other than that of your own natural energies in this matter, and that increasingly so. 

There is a strange, deep, terrible sapping of vitality, mental and physical vitality as well as spiritual. 

Spiritual people, at least, know something of that. 

And lying at the back of it is the final conflict of this age. 

It is the spiritual issue of life and death.

The Lord would say to us something about that at this time...

And we have to direct our eyes in the the way of the Lord's thought to the great issue which is at stake for His people. 

I trust that we shall know that He is not only making us aware of it...

And not only warning us about the perils of it...

But that He comes mightily to our aid and shows us what is on our side in the battle.

~T. Austin Sparks~

We Stand On The Verge Of The Unknown

Deu 11:11  But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven:

Deu 11:12  A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.

Today, dear friends, we stand upon the verge of the unknown.

There lies before us the new year and we are going forth to possess it.

Who can tell what we shall find?

What new experiences, what changes shall come, what new needs shall arise?

But here is the cheering, comforting, gladdening message from our Heavenly Father, "The Lord thy God careth for it."

All our supply is to come from the Lord.

Here are springs that shall never dry; here are fountains and streams that shall never be cut off. 

Here anxious one, is the gracious pledge of the Heavenly Father.

If He be the Source of our mercies they can never fail us.

No heat, no drought can parch that river, "the streams whereof make glad the city of God."

The land is a land of hills and valleys.

It is not all smooth nor all down hill.

If life were all one dead level the dull sameness would oppress us; we want the hills and the valleys.

The hills collect the rain for a hundred fruitful valleys.

Ah, so it is grace and brings down the shower of blessing...

The hills, the bleak hills of life that we wonder at and perhaps grumble at, bring down showers.

How many have perished in the wilderness, buried under its golden sands, who would have lived and thrived in the hill-country...

How many would have been killed by the frost, blighted with winds, swept desolate of tree and fruit but for the hill- stern, hard, rugged, so steep to climb. 

God's hills are a gracious protection for His people against their foes!

We cannot tell what loss and sorrow and trial are doing. 

Trust only. 

The Father comes near to take our hand and lead us on our way today.

It shall be a good, a Blessed New Year!

He leads us on by paths we did not know; Upward He leads us, though our steps be slow...

Though oft we faint and falter on the way, Though storms and darkness oft obscure the day...

Yet when the clouds are gone, We know He leads us on.

He leads us on through all the unquiet years; Past all our dreamland hopes, and doubts and fears...

He guides our steps, through all the tangled maze Of losses, sorrows, and o’er clouded days...

We know His will is done; And still He leads us on. 

~Nicholaus Ludwig Zinzendorf

Stand Still

                                                
Exo 14:13  And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.

These words contain God's command to the believer when he is reduced to great straits and brought into extraordinary difficulties. 

He cannot retreat; he cannot go forward; he is shut upon the right hand and on the left. 

What is he now to do?

The Master's word to him is "stand still." 

It will be well for him if, at such times, he listens only to his Master's word, for other and evil advisers come with their suggestions. 

Despair whispers, "Lie down and die; give it all up." 

But God would have us put on a cheerful courage, and even in our worst times, rejoice in His love and faithfulness.

Cowardice says, "Retreat; go back to the worldling's way of action; you cannot play the Christian's part; it is too difficult. Relinquish your principles."

But, however much Satan may urge this course upon you, you cannot follow it, if you are a child of God. 

His Divine command has bid thee go from strength to strength, and so thou shalt, and neither death nor hell shall turn thee from thy course. 

What if for a while thou art called to stand still; yet this is but to renew thy strength for some greater advance in due time.

Haste cries, "Do something; stir yourself; to stand still and wait is sheer idleness." 

We must be doing something at once--we must do it, so we think-instead of looking to the Lord, who will not only do something, but will do everything.

Presumption boasts, "If the sea be before you, march into it, and expect a miracle." 

But faith listens neither to Presumption, nor to Despair, nor to Cowardice, nor to Haste, but it hears God say, "Stand still," and immovable as a rock it stands.

"Stand still"-keep the posture of an upright man, ready for action, expecting further orders, cheerfully and patiently awaiting the directing voice...

And it will not be long ere God shall say to you, as distinctly as Moses said it to the people of Israel, "Go forward."

"Be quiet! why this anxious heed About thy tangled ways?

God knows them all. 

He giveth speed And He allows delays.

Tis good for thee to walk by faith And not by sight.

Take it on trust a little while.

Soon shalt thou read the mystery aright In the full sunshine of His smile.

In times of uncertainty, wait. 

Always, if you have any doubt, wait. 

Do not force yourself to any action. 

If you have a restraint in your spirit, wait until all is clear, and do not go against it.

GOD Has Closed The Door To The "Old Creation"!

                                                                            

---

Heb 3:13  But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

We talk about our motives, and we say, "Our motive was right!" 

We talk about our conscientiousness, we talk about our intentions...

But you and I do not know what lies behind what we call our good motives. 

There is a deceitfulness about this human heart that defies our greatest attempt at tracking it down, and we shall never do it.... 

Here is where the church has become such a confused thing, and such a tragedy...

For the Prevailing Idea is that if you give yourself over to God He will take you up and use you...

Bring over your humanity and consecrate it to the Lord...

Consecrate your old man to the Lord, and go out and serve the Lord, with a consecrated old man...

It is Utterly Contrary to the Teaching of God’s Word!

The result is that in the work of God all the world over you have people serving the Lord in the energy of the flesh...

In the reasoning of the flesh...

In the emotions of the flesh...

Meet them, counter them, frustrate them, and you meet something evil...

You meet with a fight, a division, a schism, a scattering, and wholesale resignations.

Do you see what a havoc the enemy can make in that which is called the church?...

Because people with best intentions and purest motives have come to serve the Lord with all their own intelligence, their own strength, and their own emotion...

They have not seen that God has closed the door to the old creation...

And that God’s attitude is this: "The only thing that can satisfy Me, that can serve Me is My Son...

And if you are going to come into My service, He has to be the energy of everything, the Life of everything, the Wisdom of everything!

He has to be the governing, ruling reality in everything. 

It is not to be a matter of your impulses, but of His urgings and leadings by the Holy Spirit...

Not your sitting down to reason out what it would be good to do for the Lord...

What ought to be done...

What needs to be done...

But what He shows you, nothing more.... 

You and I must not bring over our old creation and give it to God, expecting God to use it. 

God begins with birth. 

The church of the firstborn is something quite new, and it comes out of a death. 

That death is the death of an old creation... 

And the resurrection is of something that is not the resuscitation of an old creation...

But the resurrection of something wholly of God.

~T. Austin Sparks