Updates Proverbs

Meekness is needed when men speak ill of you; lowliness is needed when men speak well of you.

Elijah was sustained by a widow (see 1 Kings 17: 7-16)—a person least likely to have resources. God’s ways are not our ways.

Those who reject the Gospel not only sin against God’s holiness but despise His mercy.

Resting on feelings is to put my anchor within; trusting in faith is to put my anchor without.

When Christ’s work breaks down (and it never will), then your salvation will break down with it. When your walk breaks down (and it may do if you are not watchful), then your enjoyment of your salvation will break down too.

It is the outside look that brings the inside peace. When a man turns his face towards the sun, his own shadow is behind him.

It is a very different thing to have the conflict between the flesh and the Spirit going on in me in the conscious certainty that God is for me (because under grace) than having it in the fear that He is against me (because under law). When I see evil in myself, and if I think that God will be against me because of it, then I shall have no strength for conflict and be utterly cast down and worried as to my acceptance. But if I am certain that God is for me, then the consciousness of this will give me courage, and I will ask Him to search out all my evil and lead me in the way everlasting (see Ps. 139: 23, 24). The true Christian position is that God is for me, against my own evil.

When man was at enmity against God, God was love towards man—our enmity was met by His love. The triumph of grace is that when man’s enmity had cast the Lord out from the earth, God’s love brought in salvation by that very act. In the fullest development of man’s sin, faith sees the greatest manifestation of God’s grace. And that grace is so abounding that it has given the believer the same portion that the Lord Jesus has, for we are “heirs of God, and Christ’s joint heirs” (Rom. 8: 17). It is not only that grace has visited us—found us where we are in our sins—but that it has also set us where Christ is, and that we are identified with Him in all but His essential glory as God. We have been blessed “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ” (Eph. 1: 3, my emphasis).

Now I have got away from grace if I have the slightest doubt or hesitation about God being for me. I shall then be saying, ‘I am unhappy because I am not what I should like to be’. But that is not the question. The question is whether God is what we should like Him to be—whether the Lord Jesus is all we could wish. Certainly, it is a good thing to come to it that “in me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell” (Rom. 7: 18)—and that realisation ought to humble me—but Christianity is not introspection but occupation with Christ. What I find in myself is repulsive, but if that is all I can think about then I will make no progress. If I understand that God is for me, then the immediate effect of the consciousness of sin should make our hearts reach out to God and His grace as abounding over it all, resulting in an increased adoration of God. Law brings despair, grace brings victory. Let us therefore be always taking up those words of faith that, “If God [be] for us, who against us? He who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all …?” (Rom. 8: 31, 32)! Remember, God is for us, not against us.

How pertinent is Ps. 83 today in relation to God’s earthly people: “They take crafty counsel against thy people, and consult against thy hidden ones: They say, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, and let the name of Israel be mentioned no more. For they have consulted together with one heart: they have made an alliance together against thee. The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagarites; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia, with the inhabitants of Tyre; Asshur also is joined with them: they are an arm to the sons of Lot. Selah” (vs. 3–8).

In our day, antisemitism has bubbled to the surface again (it was always there) and governments strive to contain the evil. They will not be able contain it, because its source lies in Satan, the “great red dragon” (Rev. 12: 3). Indeed, since “the whole world lies in the wicked [one]” (1 John 5: 19), governments are hopelessly compromised—along with every aspect of the world’s society. As Christians, we should be acutely aware that where Jews or Israel are concerned, the fingerprints of the devil himself may be on what we see and hear in the media of this world. We are to be wise, not naïve.

In Greek, the words holy (agioV) saint (agioV), hallowed (agiazw), and sanctify (agiazw) all have the same root.

To be sanctified is to be set apart for holy purposes—that is, for God. Thus the seventh day was hallowed (see Gen. 2: 3), the tabernacle and its contents were sanctified (see Exod. 40: 9), and the Lord Jesus was “sanctified and sent into the world” (John 10: 36). This aspect of sanctification is a matter of position in relation to God. What is profane is what is far away; what is holy is what is near.

As believers, we are “elect” (chosen) … “by sanctification of [the] Spirit” (1 Pet. 1: 2), and as those who have responded to the Gospel, we can be said to “have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ” (Heb. 10: 10).

However, if we have been set apart to God, it follows that since “he who has called you is holy” we must be too, hence: “be ye also holy” (1 Pet. 1: 15). This aspect of sanctification is a matter of practice—how we behave. God has called us to a holy place of nearness to Himself, and we are to live up to our calling.

God’s will for the believer is “your sanctification” and so we are to “abstain from fornication” and each is to “know how to possess his own vessel” (his body) “in sanctification and honour” (1 Thess. 4: 3, 4). We are not left to do this by ourselves. We are given the Holy Spirit in order to live lives that are practically set apart to God, and He does this by occupying us with Christ through the Scriptures. The Lord Jesus prayed to His Father, “sanctify them by the truth: thy word is truth” (John 17: 17) and Christ is sanctifying the Assembly, “purifying [it] by the washing of the water by [the] word” (Eph. 5: 26). We become practically holy as we “sanctify [the] Lord the Christ in your hearts” (1 Pet. 3: 15)—give Him the position of honour and devotion there. May it truly be the case with each one of us!