Young Christian: Volume 36, 1946
Table of Contents
Tom's Happy Day
Tom was a cheerful, and regarded, perhaps, by many as a Christian, for his was a Christian home; and then, of course, he was not that sort of boy who likes to swear, nor was Tom untruthful.
But, alas! Tom, in his secret heart, knew that he was not right with God! Tom was not satisfied.
How very true are the words of that hymn which commences,
“O Christ in Thee my soul hath found,” and goes on to tell how that none but Christ can satisfy.
One evening, however, an evangelist came to stay with Tom’s parents. As they were well-known as Christians to many, and as his sister was also one who loved the Lord Jesus, it was perhaps natural that the evangelist should ask Tom if he was saved, not long after his arrival in his home, and frankly Tom said,
“No.”
Being possessed of “the Wisdom which cometh from Above,” the evangelist did not say very much for a while, but no doubt he prayed for Tom.
Meetings were held every night near to where Tom’s home was, for about two weeks, and he attended regularly as well as the other members of the family. Then, one very important night, a wonderful thing happened, not long before the mission closed.
That night Tom seemed in real distress. He was not in the habit of shedding tears, being a brave boy naturally, but on this particular night he seemed not to care though others noticed them. Nobody made any remark, of course, but all seemed to be enjoying the usual Bible-reading before going off to bed, except Tom.
“What chapter, Tom, would you like us to read, tonight?” the evangelist had asked.
“Rom. 10,” was Tom’s answer, for he was acquainted with the Scriptures, of course. Rom. 10 was therefore the center of exposition and reading. Then the evangelist said,
“Now Tom, if someone tomorrow morning asks you how he can be saved, what will you say?”
“‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,’” said Tom.
And yet, Tom was not saved himself! Then this experienced soul-winner explained, by an illustration, the vast difference between “believing on” and “believing about.” Many, he also said, believed that Jesus Christ died on the Cross at Calvary; that was “believing about.” But that sort of believing was not enough for one’s own personal salvation, he said. Tom then heard that to “believe on” means to receive into the heart the Lord Jesus Christ, Who said,
“Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out.”
Now Romans ten having been read, the evangelist took advantage of this, and verse nine he selected and explained. Tom will not likely forget the words,
“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
Then all knelt down, as was usual after reading the Bible together, and there was prayer for a time. Then an interesting and unlooked-for thing occurred just the same moment as Tom’s father finished with “Amen”-Tom’s voice rang out immediately with a grand, triumphant ring in it, “I’m saved!”
Then followed a wonderful time of thanksgiving, and tears of overwhelming joy were seen running down the cheeks of more than Tom, whom no one present had ever seen to weep, since he was small, perhaps.
Someone then asked Tom which hymn he would like sung, as singing of hymns was going on alternatively with weeping for joy and gladness, in the room where the happy little company were gathered that night.
Decidedly Tom answered, “O! happy day that fixed my choice,” and it certainly was a very appropriate one indeed:
“O! happy day that fixed my choice
On Thee, my Savior and my God,
Well may this glowing heart rejoice,
And tell its raptures all abroad.
Happy day, happy day,
When Jesus washed my sins away.”
It was in the early morning hours of the following day that the little company of happy people parted, with hearts too joyful for sound sleep. It seemed too good to be true that Tom was saved; and, if on earth the rejoicing was great, we know that in heaven it was greater still (Luke 15:10). Tom shall never forget, nor regret that time!
Now, if such is only a foretaste of heaven, what shall heaven be when we all get there who are redeemed by the grace of God?
Yet, if we do not “believe on” the Lord Jesus Christ in life, an awful doom awaits us, too terrible to describe.
May all who read these lines make Him Who loves them best, their early, only Choice, and be satisfied!
“Be it known unto you, therefore... that through this Man (Jesus) is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified from all things.” Acts 13:28, 29.
Extract: A quote on thoughts and The Epistle to the Ephesians
We are flattered into good thoughts of people, and slighted into hard ones.
The Epistle to the Ephesians
Chapter 5, verses 25 to 33 (cont’d)
“Continuing W. Kelly’s sound exposition of this portion of the Epistle):
“Of course, the death of Christ was essential, in order that the gospel should now be preached to the world. This, too, is the ground on which the heavens and earth will be cleared of all that now pollutes and defiles. Everything for the justification of God in the past, and for the outflow of the love of God in the future, is founded upon the death of Christ. Hence the momentous value of His redemption, for earth and heaven, for Jew, Gentile and Church of God, for time and eternity. But, beside, there is great force in the word, ‘Christ has delivered Himself up for it’ (the Assembly). There was nothing in Christ that He did not give. It is not what He did, nor only what He suffered, but He gave Himself.
“Of course, it implies all that was in Him and of Him, but it goes a great deal farther, because it is absolute self-renunciation in love for the sake of the object that He loved; the perfect pattern of the very fullness of love, which it is quite beyond any human relationship to emulate. Justly does the Spirit, in addressing the Christian husband, show us that Christ in all things has the pre-eminence; ‘He delivered Himself up for us’. What is the consequence? The Church is without sin before God-sins are blotted out forever-redemption is effected-Satan is defeated-divine wrath and judgment borne-ordinances, which were against those that were under them, are nailed to the cross-the enmity is gone-the new man is formed; and all this, and much more than this, founded upon Christ’s surrender of Himself. The effect for us is that here we have, in unclouded light, without doubt or question, Himself in love, as the object of our souls to delight in and submit to and serve and worship evermore.
“I have no more right to believe that Christ gave Himself for me, than I have to believe that my iniquities are completely purged out by His precious blood. If I believe the one, I owe it to God to believe the other; and the ground of my faith is God’s testimony to the perfectness of what Christ has done according to the glory of His person. God sets such value upon His work of suffering on the cross that He can perfectly love me. We are free. We have redemption through His blood. But it is in Him, not only through His blood, but in Him; as it is said in chapter 1, ‘In Whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace’. So that it is of great importance that while we hold redemption, we should not hold it, if I may be allowed so to say, apart from but in Him. And what will enable me to estimate and hold fast the preciousness of this work is His person; we must remember not only what was done, but who He was that did it. If you in self-judgment cleave to Him and to these two blessed truths in Him, there never can be a cloud upon your soul as to your own perfect deliverance from all charge before God.
“But now comes another thought. If Christ has completed this, if it is a past thing, never requiring to be re-touched, we enter upon the second proof of His love, `in order that He might sanctify it, purifying it by the washing of water by the word’. I take it that the sanctifying the Church spoken of here, though connected closely with its being purified through the word, is a distinct thing. These are two operations, and there is an important difference between sanctifying the Church and cleansing it. This sanctifying does not merely refer to our growth in grace; it is connected with Christ.
“It is not the Spirit of God merely working in the believer. Men talk as if it were the business of the Son to justify, and of the Spirit to sanctify. But we are washed, we are sanctified, we are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:11). All that by virtue of which we are washed and sanctified and justified, is Christ; and it is by the Spirit of our God. The Spirit of God is the active agent in the justification, no less than in the sanctifying; but it is always by using Christ. Thence there is a great danger in disconnecting Christ from sanctification. Christ gave Himself for the Church that He might sanctify and cleanse it. His blood is involved in His giving Himself, though this is more than that.
“In fact, all that which flows into and from redemption, properly so called, is supposed in verse 25: ‘The Christ also loved the Assembly and has delivered Himself up for it.’ This is a past thing, followed by that which is going on all the time of the Church’s existence upon the earth. As the fruit of His love comes the death of Christ for us-His giving Himself for the Church. And now you have, founded upon the cross, the sanctifying and cleansing that goes on continually. But how is it wrought? In both cases it is by the washing of water by the word.
“This shows us the immense importance of the word of God. Of what moment it is for every child of God to value that word and to seek to grow in acquaintance with God through it-to increase in the knowledge of God! So far from our belonging to the Church, or rather to Christ, being the sum and substance of all we have to learn, it is only the foundation; and it is after we know this that there follows all the sanctifying and cleansing by the washing of water by the word.
“So that it is clear we have three fruits of the love of Christ that are very distinct indeed. The first is that He gave Himself (that is, unto death).
The second is, the present work of His life. Since the cross, He is occupying Himself in heaven about the Church; He is taking care of His members, working by the Holy Spirit, and applying the word of God. And all is connected with Himself, because the whole starting point is Christ’s love to the Church. He is sanctifying and cleansing now by the washing of water by the word; but we know that our sins were put away by His blood.
“Before we turn to the third effect of His love, allow me to say here that a fresh application of the blood of Christ is unknown to Christianity. There are Christians, no doubt, who tell you that you must have fresh recourse to the blood; but they have no Scripture for their thought. On the contrary, it weakens the fundamental truth of the efficacy of Christ’s own sacrifice, which it is intended, after a human fashion, to commend and exalt. Such is the effect of forming our own thoughts of the use that is to be made of any truth, instead of simply bowing to the word of God. The moment we take a truth out of His connection for us, it is like rooting up that which has its own due place in the garden of God, where it produces its proper abundant and precious fruit, but which becomes a withered thing when man takes it into his own hands. Repetition as to this would prove imperfectness.
“This foundation has been laid so completely in the Epistle to the Hebrews that it never requires to be laid again. There is no more the possibility of a fresh sprinkling of Christ’s blood than there is room left for His dying once more to shed His blood. When a soul has found Him and been washed from sin in His blood, there it abides forever. This is what makes the sin of a Christian to be so serious. If you could begin again, what is the effect? Not very different from that which his confession before a priest has upon the Romanist. People soon learn to trifle with sin and to get hardened by its deceitfulness. Although it is a different thing where Christ is looked to, still the moral effect is much the same, as far as the making light of sin is concerned. If a person can again and again start afresh, as if a trifle had happened, and begin over and over again for every new downfall, sin is never felt nearly so deeply. For on one side we are bound to bring no stain upon that which is washed in the blood of Christ, yet, on the other, we are conscious of constant failure.
“Is there then no resource? Is there no renewal of access to the cross? It would be a tremendous thing if there were no provision against our failings and falls, no means of dealing with these departures; but there is a resource, and we have it here-in order that He might sanctify it, purifying it by the washing of water by the word’. You have similar truth set forth in its individual application in John 13. There it was on the ground that the disciples were His own; that He loved them, and that whom He loved He loved unto the end; and then we find that, being exposed to defile themselves in the world, the Lord would guard them against two things: first, the anxiety lest He should cease to love them because they were unfaithful; secondly, the danger of their using His faithfulness as a reason for trifling with sin. Christ will never cease to love, nor will He trifle with sin or allow us to trifle with it. He keeps us always resting on His blood.
“But then, supposing one is guilty of sin after receiving remission of sins, what is to be done? Let us go and spread it out before God. The veil is not set up again because you have acted foolishly outside it. You are entitled to draw near and spread out your failure before God-to come to Him on the very ground that you are washed in the blood of Christ. What is the effect of this? and what is this the effect of? It is because Christ is sanctifying and cleansing, keeping up the washing of water by the word. There may be this corporate aspect of it, as well as the individual both are true. It is true for every soul and for the Church at large. Christ is always acting in the presence of God on behalf of the Church; and the consequence is the needed reproof and chastening. A man is brought to feel what he has done. Some word of God, either in his own meditation, or through others, flashes upon his soul. He is convinced of his folly; the will has ceased to act; the word of God is brought home with power by the Holy Spirit; the man bows under it to the Lord.”
(To be continued, D. V.)
Extract: In the Spirit of Service
(Luke 19:12-27). I am never really in the spirit of service, if I do not remember that Christ is an absent and rejected Lord. I am... a servant who has to recognize the sorrowful fact that his Master has been rejected and insulted here. Is it not a tender thought that the very sorrows and insults which have been heaped upon Him here, are so many fresh claims on one’s affections?
The High Calling
Psalms 45:9
Child of the Eternal Father,
Bride of the Eternal Son,
Dwelling-place of God the Spirit,
Thus with Christ made ever one.
Dowered with joy above the angels,
Nearest to His throne;
They, the ministers attending
His beloved One.
Granted all my heart’s desire,
All things made my own;
Feared by all the powers of evil,
Fearing God alone.
Walking with the Lord in glory
Through the courts divine,
Queen within the royal palace,
Christ forever mine;
Say, poor worldling, can it be,
That my heart should envy thee?
Prophetic Terms: Part 16
Part 16
The “SEVENTY WEEKS” of Dan. 9
The prophecy of the “SEVENTY WEEKS” is a most remarkable one, the proper understanding of which will enable the child of God to have a better grasp of His purposes concerning the earth and His earthly people Israel. While the present time in which God is gathering out of the earth a people for heaven is not mentioned in the prophecy, yet there is a break into which it fits.
It will be well to notice the state of Daniel’s soul and his deep exercises prior to the receiving of this wonderful prophecy. God chose the vessels to whom He would communicate His mind and He also prepared them beforehand to be suitable instruments for the reception and communication of His truth. A careless or indifferent person was incapable of knowing the mind of God. He carefully prepared those He would use. Neither is a careless or worldly-minded Christian now in a state to understand the things that are revealed to us by God, for they are revealed unto us “by His Spirit.” If a child of God is going on in a way that the Spirit of God is grieved with his walk, then the Spirit is not free to show him the “things that are freely given to us of God.” May we then, as we approach this prophecy, be before God to judge what is not of Him and seek from Him a “wise and understanding heart.”
Daniel had been born in a day when the “two tribes” were in a sad state. The kings and the people had alike departed from the Lord and He in His righteous government gave them into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who destroyed the temple and carried many captive to his land. Daniel was one of these captives when he was a very young man. But in spite of all the failure and the terrible darkness of the day, Daniel sought to honor God, and God honored him. The principle is ever true, “them that honor Me I will honor.” Daniel was a man who had a true and honest purpose to please God, and he did not plead any expediency for doing otherwise. Times had changed but he knew that God had not.
Although many direct prophecies were given to Daniel, he did not fail to read the Scripture for himself. He used the same means that are open to us he read the Word of God. From the book of Jeremiah (Jer. 29:10) he understood that the desolations of Jerusalem, which were then present, would only last seventy years from their beginning. He believed God and therefore he understood that the time was at hand for his people to return to Jerusalem. We have the same opportunity: “through faith we understand.” It was not by outward observation that Daniel perceived the time was nearing for their return. There may have been nothing on the horizon then to indicate it, but Daniel believed what God said. So we today should understand that “the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” We should be able to understand that by believing what God has said in His Word and not by observations, although we do see the storm clouds gathering which will break after the Lord has come for us. Our faith should be in God and His Word rather than in the darkening skies. So in this second verse of the ninth chapter we see Daniel not as the prophet but as the devout student of prophecy given through others.
The immediate result of his reading and understanding the time that had been reached, was to put Daniel on his face before God in the most earnest prayer and supplication. The fasting, sackcloth, and ashes bespoke the inward state of his soul that moral state which truly feels the condition of God’s people and identifies itself fully with it in any day of ruin.
Although Daniel was not much more than a boy when he was carried away captive, and although he had sought to live for God in that strange land, yet he confesses the sins of the people as his own. He does not say “they have sinned,” but “we have sinned.” He looked round about and saw the deplorable state they were in and saw it in God’s righteous dealings with them. As one of “Wisdom’s Children” he justified God in all his dealings with them and confessed their sin. He, feeling his own part in the failure and confessing it, was in a position to intercede with God on behalf of the people. He pleaded with God for them on the ground of His mercies. Such a spirit of pleading for the people of God is one that is according to His heart and mind. We see the same spirit in Moses, Samuel, David, and other true servants of God. While God may have to chastise His children according to His government, yet His heart is toward them, and we are never in the current of God’s thoughts if it is otherwise with us. Nor can we ever properly separate ourselves from the failure of the Church of God on earth. That which was blest beyond anything else on earth (the Church) has surely failed most grievously. Everything is now in ruins and each one of us who are saved are a part of that failure. if we had a deeper sense of the failure, and our part in it, there would be more intercession for the saints of God, and also a deeper entering into His thoughts about them.
Daniel was a man given to prayer. It was not just something that he did in days of special stress and trial. In the sixth chapter when storms were gathering around his head,
“He went into his house; and, his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.”
The man of God is sure to be a man of prayer.
Sometimes Daniel did not receive his answer at once; in the tenth chapter he was kept waiting “three full weeks” for the answer. But in the chapter we are considering the answer was immediate:
“And while I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; Yea, while I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me, about the time of the evening oblation. And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.” vv. 20-22.
So we may sometimes receive answers to our prayers at once or we may be kept waiting for a long time. A delay is not a reason for concluding that our prayer was not heard. God in His wisdom may withhold an answer to deepen our exercise of soul, or it may be for any one of a number of reasons; but we can rest assured that when God withholds or waits to answer our requests it is done in His perfect wisdom of what is best, and is withheld according to His true love which wants to do the very best for His own.
Daniel’s exercises of soul were concerning his people Israel and their getting back into their own land from Babylon at that time, but God was about to give him a deeper revelation than that which related to their soon-coming return to Jerusalem. God was going to unfold the whole future of Israel to Daniel, right down to the time when Israel would be blessed under their Messiah in a day that is yet future. What a signal favor to be thus let into God’s secrets and plans! And has not God opened up the future to us? Surely He has! And while all the prophetic unfoldings of His Word do not relate to us (the Church) they should interest us as being part of what God is going to do, and we should desire to know what He has been pleased to reveal to us. It is surely a mark of distinct favor to be told all in advance.
Now we should bear in mind when considering the “seventy weeks” that Daniel’s people Israel are in question. Much confusion has resulted from failure to remember this fact. To try to bring either Gentiles or Christians into the picture would only spoil what is clear and understandable. This is distinctly stated in the 24th verse where the prophecy proper begins:
“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city.” Nothing is vague or uncertain here; the special objects of this prophecy to Daniel are Daniel’s people (Israel) and Daniel’s holy city (Jerusalem). Christians are not called Daniel’s people, nor do Christians have a holy city on earth. Nevertheless, we as Christians should be interested in God’s earthly people and in the revelation He has been pleased to make to us. This prophecy is for “our learning” and will most certainly be profitable as we enter into God’s thoughts.
(The “Seventy Weeks” to be continued)
Extract: God, Not Circumstances
When the saint is in true dependence on God, he takes everything from God direct; it is not the circumstance that his heart dwells on, but God, who has permitted the circumstance. Nature puts the circumstances between the heart and God: faith puts God between circumstances and the heart-has God in between itself and everything that may come.
"O, That Thou Wouldst Come Today"
“If I go... I will come again and receive you unto Myself.” John 14:3.
How He wonders, often wonders
That we do not love-sick grow -
For His Home! Himself! He wonders
That our tears so seldom flow.
He would we’d watch! morn, noon, and night
For His return in love’s delight -
Does our heart to His heart say,
O! that Thou wouldst come today!
How He loved to be constrained
By those hearts so passing dear!
“Made as though He would go farther”
When He’d have them yet more near;
Yes! that sweet “abide with us”
Was music! and ‘tis ever thus!
Does our heart to His Heart say,
O! that Thou wouldst come today!
Yes, the word that thrills His Own heart
As He “waits” the Father’s time!
Is the yearning “Come, Lord Jesus”
Winged from earth a heavenly chime!
“Ways” as “Words” accord the saying -
“Come, Lord Jesus” ever praying
Do our hearts to His Heart say,
O! that Thou wouldst “come” today?
Are we strangers? Feel we lonely?
Is down here a foreign clime?
“Our affections” all deep centered
And around His things entwine.
Do our hearts to His Heart say,
O! that Thou wouldst “come” today!
“Quickly,” “Quickly,” we would cry!
Wait thy personal reply!
Only now a “little while”
Counting on Thy present smile
We who know the griefsome road,
Know the Christ of God, who trod
Earth’s dark way, to bring us Home,
Sin apart to have “His Own,”
Come, Lord Jesus, “Come”, we cry
Wait Thy Personal reply.
A Clear Confession
“Whose I am,” says Paul, right in the teeth of the heathen sailors, right in the teeth of the stoical, skeptical centurian, right in the teeth of all men — “I belong to God!” Paul takes pride in that.
You notice that the very first word in his Epistle to the Romans after his own name is “doulos” — “Paul, doulos,” (slave); he glories in it.
The Romans fastened a little slip of brass on the ankle of the slave, and on his wrist, and on the slip of brass on the wrist was the name of the owner, and the word “slave” with it; and in the forum or in the market place, the slave with the glitter of that slip of brass had to step aside, and the proud, haughty Roman drew in his toga as the slave went by:
“My slave, keep to thine own side of the pavement, please!”
Ah, but Paul took a pride in the glitter of that piece of brass; it was his cherished honor. Paul prided himself, boasted himself, in being the slave of the Master. Do you?
Some of you take down the sleeve of your coat like this, and you say,
“Now, thou little bracelet of slavery, I gave myself to the Lord last night; very well, but just be hidden for a little; for I cannot just show to all the fellows at present this little slip of brass; I know that I belong to the Lord, but I’ll just put my cuff over thee, please.”
Ah, that wretched cowardice! Why don’t you bare your arm and say right out,
“I belong to Christ; look at it-look at the slip of brass, dearer and better to me than a crown of diamonds or a scepter of gold.”
You belong to Christ, then glory in it.
“Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven.” Matt. 10:32-33.
Extract: Christ's Work and Your Business
Ah! it is hard to believe that God is doing your business in this world. It is much easier to us to do Christ’s work than to believe He has done ours.
Correspondence: Sacrifices in the Millenium; Unbelievers Post Rapture
Question: Will there be any sacrifices offered during the Millenium? When will be the destruction of Babylon (The Catholic Church?)
Answer: The latter chapters of Ezekiel plainly tell us sacrifices will be offered during the millennium.
The destruction of Eccles. Babylon will take place during the latter half of the 70th week of Daniel. All denominational divisions will be merged in the great Roman Catholic system when the Lord returns from heaven in judgment. There is not a vestige of apostate Christendom left. It is apostate Judaism He judges the vine of the earth.
Question: After the Lord removes the Church, what will become of those who now refuse the gospel? Will the Holy Spirit have to do with the earth after the Church is gone?
Answer: When the Lord has taken away His Church, those who have refused the truth will be given up to strong delusion, and there is no hope held out for their conversion (2 Thess. 2:10-12). The Holy Spirit is not then dwelling in the Church on earth, as He is no longer here. But the Holy Spirit will act on earth, as He did before He came to glorify Christ, and to form the Church. An elect number of Israel will be sealed, and a vast multitude of the Gentiles saved (Rev. 7), who have not heard the Gospel.
The Holy Spirit will no longer act, as now, in hindering lawlessness. It is terrible to think what will be the state of this world when all restraint on man’s lawless nature is removed for a short time, and Satan, the dragon, takes the place of God, and leads his dupe, the man of sin, to do the same visibly. Strange to say, the word by which Satan is leading men on towards this awful slavery is called liberty. But we wait for the Son of God from heaven.