Kingdom of Renewed Men

By A.W. Tozer

Those present-day teachers who place the Sermon on the Mount in some other dispensation than this and so release the Church from its teachings, little realize the evil they do. For the Sermon on the Mount gives in brief the characteristics of the Kingdom of renewed men. 

The blessed poor who mourn for their sins and thirst after righteousness are true sons of the Kingdom. In meekness they show mercy to their enemies; with guileless candor they gaze upon God; surrounded by persecutors they bless and curse not. In modesty they hide their good deeds. They go out of their way to agree with their adversaries and forgive those who sin against them. They serve God in secret in the depth of their hearts and wait with patience for His open reward. They freely surrender their earthly goods rather than use violence to protect them. They lay up their treasures in heaven. They avoid praise and wait for the day of final reckoning to learn who is greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.

If this is a fairly accurate view of things, what can we say then when Christian men vie with one another for place and position? What can we answer when we see them hungrily seeking for praise and honor? 

How can we excuse that passion for publicity that is so glaringly evident among Christian leaders? What about political ambition in Church circles? What about the fevered palm that is stretched out for more and bigger "love offerings"? What about the shameless egotism among Christians? How can we explain the gross man-worship that habitually blows up one and another popular leader to the size of a colossus? What about the obsequious hand kissing of moneyed men by those purporting to be sound preachers of the gospel?

There is only one answer to these questions; it is simply that in these manifestations we see the world and nothing but the world. No passionate profession of love for "souls" can change evil into good. These are the very sins that crucified Jesus.

Prayer
Take away our love of the world, Kind Father, and replace it with a love for You and Your Kingdom.

Scripture
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
—Matthew 5:3

Thought
If the Sermon on the Mount is a fairly accurate view of things, what can we say then when Christian men vie with one another for place and position?

http://www.cmalliance.org/devotions/tozer/tozer.jsp

They lick the dust!

(Thomas Watson)


"For where your treasure is--there your heart
will be also." Matthew 6:21


Covetous people make the world their treasure.
Their treasure does most command their hearts.
They can no more live above the world--than a
fish can live out of the water. They have the
serpent's curse upon them--they lick the dust!
"Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the
wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you
will eat dust all the days of your life!" Genesis 3:14


Without God--O how empty and insignificant
are all worldly things! They are . . .
earthly in their matter,
painful in their procuring,
glutting in their fruition,
fleeting in their duration,
damning in their conclusion!


"But godliness with contentment is a great gain!"
1 Timothy 6:6

IS GOD'S WILL MY WILL?

By Oswald Chambers


"This is the will of God, even your sanctification." 1 Thessalonians 4:3

It is not a question of whether God is willing to sanctify me; is it my will? Am I willing to let God do in me all that has been made possible by the Atonement? Am I willing to let Jesus be made sanctification to me, and to let the life of Jesus be manifested in my mortal flesh? Beware of saying - Oh, I am longing to be sanctified. You are not, stop longing and make it a matter of transaction - "Nothing in my hands I bring." Receive Jesus Christ to be made sanctification to you in implicit faith, and the great marvel of the Atonement of Jesus will be made real in you.

All that Jesus made possible is made mine by the free loving gift of God on the ground of what He performed, my attitude as a saved and sanctified soul is that of profound humble holiness (there is no such thing as proud holiness), a holiness based on agonizing repentance and a sense of unspeakable shame and degradation; and also on the amazing realization that the love of God commended itself to me in that while I cared nothing about Him, He completed everything for my salvation and sanctification (see Rom. 5:8. R.V.). No wonder Paul says nothing is "able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Sanctification makes me one with Jesus Christ, and in Him one with God, and it is done only through the superb Atonement of Christ. Never put the effect as the cause. The effect in me is obedience and service and prayer, and is the out come of speechless thanks and adoration for the marvellous sanctification wrought out in me because of the Atonement.

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God's house?

By J.C. Philpot

In the New Testament Scriptures, we find mention
made in several places of "the house of the God."
The New Testament never, in any one instance,
means, by "the house of God," any material building.

It has come to pass, through the traditions
received from the fathers, that . . .
buildings erected by man,
collections of bricks and mortar,
piles of squared and cemented stones,
are often called "the house of God."

In ancient Popish times they invested a consecrated
building with the title of "God's house", thus endeavoring
to make it appear as though it were a holy place in which
God specially dwelt. They thus drew off the minds of the
people from any internal communion with God, and
possessed them with the idea that He was only to be
found in some holy spot, consecrated and sanctified
by rites and ceremonies.

The same leaven of the Pharisees has infected the
Church of England; and thus she calls her consecrated
buildings, her piles of stone and cement, "churches,"
and "houses of God."

And even those who profess a purer faith, who dissent
from her unscriptural forms, have learned to adopt the
same carnal language, and even they, through a
misunderstanding of what "the house of God" really
is, will call such a building as we are assembled in
this morning, "the house of God."

How frequently does the expression drop from the
pulpit, and how continually is it heard at the prayer
meeting, "coming up to the house of God," as though
any building now erected by human hands could be
called the house of the living God.

It arises from a misunderstanding of the Scriptures,
and is much fostered by that priestcraft which is in
the human heart, inciting us to believe that God is
to be found only in certain buildings set apart for
His service.

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Accidents, Not Punishments

by C. H. Spurgeon, September 8, 1861

There were some present at that very time who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And He answered them, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."—Luke 13:1-5

The year 1861 will have a notoriety among its fellows as the year of calamities. Just at that season when man goes forth to reap the fruit of his labors, when the harvest of the earth is ripe, and the barns are beginning to burst with the new wheat, Death too, the mighty reaper, has come forth to out down his harvest; full sheaves have been gathered into his garner—the tomb, and terrible have been the wailings which compose the harvest hymn of death. In reading the newspapers during the last two weeks, even the most stolid must have been the subject of very painful feelings. Not only have there been catastrophes so alarming that the blood chills at their remembrance, but column after column of the paper has been devoted to calamities of a minor degree of horror, but which, when added together, are enough to astound the mind with the fearful amount of sudden death which has of late fallen on the sons of men. We have had not only one incident for every day in the week, but two or three; we have not simply been stunned with the alarming noise of one terrific clash, but another, and another, and another, have followed upon each other's heels, like Job's messengers, until we have needed Job's patience and resignation to hear the dreadful tale of woes.

Now, men and brethren, such things as these have always happened in all ages of the world. Do not think that this is a new thing; do not dream, as some do, that this is the produce of an overwrought civilization, or of that modern and most wonderful discovery of steam. If the steam engine had never been known, and if the railway had never been constructed, there would have been sudden deaths and terrible accidents, not withstanding. In taking up the old records in which our ancestors wrote down their accidents and calamities, we find that the old stage coach yielded quite as heavy a booty to death as does the swiftly-rushing train; there were gates to Hades then as many as there are now, and roads to death quite as steep and precipitous, and traveled by quite as vast a multitude as in our present time. Do you doubt that? Permit me to refer you to the chapter before you. Remember those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell. What if no collision crushed them; what if they were not destroyed by the ungovernable iron horse dragging them down from an embankment; yet some badly-built tower, or some wall beaten by the tempest could fall upon eighteen at a time, and they might perish. Or worse than that, a despotic ruler, having the lives of men at his belt, like the keys of his palace, might fall upon worshipers in the temple itself, and mix their blood with the blood of the bullocks which they were just then sacrificing to the God of heaven. Do not think, then, that this is an age in which God is dealing more hardly with us than of old. Do not think that God's providence has become more lax than it was, there always were sudden deaths, and there always will be. There always were seasons when death's wolves hunted in hungry packs, and, probably, until the end of this dispensation, the last enemy will hold his periodic festivals, and glut the worms with the flesh of men. Be not, therefore, cast down with any sudden fear, neither be you troubled by these calamities. Go about your business, and if your avocations should call you to cross the field of death itself, do it, and do it bravely. God has not thrown up the thoughts of the world, he has not taken off his hand from the helm of the great ship, still

"He everywhere has sway,
And all things serve his might;
His every act pure blessing is,
His path unsullied light."

Only learn to trust him, and you shall not be afraid of sudden fear; "your soul shall dwell at ease, and your seed shall inherit the earth."

The Nature of Death

By Robert Haldane

      "And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness" (Rom. 8:10).


      The nature, then, of death, is changed to believers by Jesus Christ, so that 'the day of their death is better than the day of their birth.' Death to them is no more a curse, but a blessing, which puts an end to their sins and troubles, causing them to pass to perfect holiness and happiness, and from being absent from the Lord to carry them into His presence in paradise. From being strangers on the earth, it introduces them into their heavenly inheritance. From their wanderings and agitations here below, it brings them into the haven of everlasting rest. 


If the children of Israel, when they arrived at the river Jordan, were dismayed at the overflowings of its waters, had they not reason to rejoice when they beheld on the other side that fertile land which God had promised them, and into which they were about to enter to enjoy its fruits? But, above all, had they not cause of encouragement when they saw that the ark of the covenant was in the midst of Jordan? Death is the passage of Jordan by which believers enter the heavenly Canaan. 


In order that its waves may not overwhelm them in passing, Jesus Christ arrests them, since He is in His people, and consequently with them. This was David's support, 'Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me. 'When the devouring lion roars around His people, ready to destroy them, Jesus Himself is still nearer to defend them; and He commands His angels to encamp about them, who have in charge to bear their spirits to the paradise of God.


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Beware of self-righteousness!

(J. C. Ryle)

"We have all become like one who is unclean, and all
 our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
 We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the
 wind, take us away." Isaiah 64:6

Beware of self-righteousness in every possible 
shape and form. Some people get as much harm 
from their 'virtues' as others do from their sins.

Oh, let us beware of self-righteousness! Open sin 
kills its thousands of souls. Self-righteousness
kills its tens of thousands!

"There is none righteous, no, not one." Romans 3:10


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