EDITORIAL
MAN'S GREATEST NEED
WHAT IS MAN'S greatest need? What is your greatest need?
If you should go about asking people their greatest need, you would receive all kinds of answers. Some would say they need more money, or a new car, or clothing, or some household appliance. Maybe you thought something like this was your greatest need.
No, man's greatest need is GOD. Your greatest need is for GOD.
God has created a void in each life which can be filled and satisfied by nothing other than God Himself. All of us in our life-time have tried to fill this void with other "things." We thought to satisfy it with pleasure. And sometimes -- at the time -- it seemed we had succeeded. But after the excitement and noise had subsided and we were once again surrounded by the intense silence of our own room, we discovered the void still there unsatisfied.
We tried to fill the void with other loves, supposing wife or children or some other relationship might do it. But still the void was there, pining to be filled.
We tried to satisfy this hungry void through work, position, prestige, and a hundred and one other ways. But it was not to be filled with these, and it was not to be denied.
Then one day some of us realized we had left God out of the picture. We had placed Him to one side in our quest for soul satisfaction. But we discovered He was not to be placed aside forever. He would sooner or later demand our attention.
Then one glorious day we turned from seeking on the natural and temporal level to the spiritual and eternal. We turned our mind and soul heavenward and to GOD. God came in and filled the void in our heart. Our soul was truly satisfied for the first time in our life. We found too, that He satisfies not just at the initial, momentary encounter but continually from that moment on, and that He promises to do so forever.
You need GOD!
He is within your reach!
He is only a whispered-prayer away!
He is as near as you want Him to be!
That hunger in your soul is not for "things" but for GOD. "As the hart (deer) panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God . . . " (Psalm 42:1,2).
You must come to Him by faith. He has already approached you by grace. We read in His Word: "Without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is (or, that he exists), and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Hebrews 11:6).
Jesus promises: "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door (of his heart), I will come in to him, and will sup (dine) with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20).
By simple, child-like faith throw open your soul to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let Him in to fill the void in your life. Know what it is to be really satisfied for the first time. Nothing else will do. GOD is the answer to your greatest need.
Your Editor,
Art Gordon
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Dear Shut-In
MUCH FRUIT
By Henry G. Bosch
Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit;
so shall ye be my disciples -- John 15:8
Many people are just interested in being saved so that they can avoid Hell and eventually reach Heaven. God, however, has a higher purpose for those He rescues from the miry clay of sin. the Lord Jesus is not so much interested in our "leaves" of profession; He wants us to go on to discipleship, to service, to "much fruit" bearing! The abundant yield is His desire and joy. The godly Samuel Rutherford aptly declared "God is no idle Husbandman. He purposeth a crop!" It is an inspirational thought that thus we can enhance the glory of our Father in Heaven!
In New York State they raised thousands of bushels of apples each year. I am told that occasionally there is a tree which seems to give all of its energy to producing wood and leaves, consequently bearing little or no fruit. When such a tree is noted, the owner takes an ax and makes a deep groove in its trunk close to the ground. almost always that gash produces a change. The next year the tree presents the husbandman with an abundant and excellent yield. It is the fruit of suffering. Oftentimes God's "trees" (Psalm 1:3) are like that. Therefore He puts to us the ax of trial, and the pruning knife of suffering and ill health, that we may die to self and this world, and invest the sap of our spiritual energy in fruitbearing.
Christians who are true disciples are never satisfied with a meager yield. They pack their lives with praise, good deeds, and spiritual endeavor that they may bring forth "much fruit." What a joy it will be at harvest time for each to be able to testify, "Father, I have glorified Thee on the earth!"
(From "Our Daily Bread," copyright 1961 by The Radio Bible Class, Grand Rapids, MI.)
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MY SHEPHERD
Lonely I trod the moor;
Black was the sky;
There was no man nor beast,
No creature nigh.
Only Grief dogged my steps,
Grief and Despair;
Fled I to north or south,
Still they were there.
Darkness had compassed me,
Gone was my sight;
Well-nigh my feet had slipped . . .
Then shone a light.
Then spoke a Voice to me,
Gentle and sweet:
"O thy pour bleeding heart,
O thy torn feet!
"I am thy Shepherd kind;
Thou art My sheep;
Safely within My arms
Rest now, and sleep."
Then slunk those wolves away --
Grief and Despair --
Suddenly morning broke,
Rosy and fair!
-- Martha Snell Nicholson
(From "Heart Held High" by Martha Snell Nicholson; used by permission of
Moody Press, Moody Bible Institute, Chicago IL)
TIPTOE
My spirit is standing on tiptoe now,
Longing to be set free;
The flesh grows weak, but the straining soul
Is strong with expectancy.
The winds stand harnessed, with beating wings,
Ready to bear me far;
And my eager eyes trace the shining path
I shall travel from star to star;
Up high on the heavenly parapets
Is One whom I love and know;
And His voice rings down through a million miles:
"Loose her, and let her go!"
-- Martha Snell Nicholson
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THE SHUT-IN MIGHTIES
By Louis Paul Lehman
The first of a series on THE SHUT-INS OF THE BIBLE
THE SHADOW OF the sword became the sharp edge of bereavement that night in Egypt when the death-angel pilgrimaged through the land and left after him the convulsive weeping of a broken people. The homes of the Israelites, protected by the divine provision of the blood -- "When I see the blood I will pass over you" (Exodus 12:13), -- were like a well-tuned instrument of joy, but the homes of the Egyptians were as violins that have lost their music, for the first-born lay dead.
"Go!" said Pharoah to General Moses and Aaron, "Take yourselves and your people and your cattle and your sheep, but go! Get out of Egypt!"
It was exactly as God had said.
The last tie that bound Israel to Egypt lay broken by the official edict of Pharoah. Yet the Israelites left the country not as fugitives without time to gather their possessions, but as people with favor in the eyes of their enemies. They even took with them jewels, gold, silver, and raiment of the Egyptians, capturing spoil without a battle and carrying provisions without purchase. (See Exodus 3:21 and 22; 12:35 and 36).
There were murmurings of excitement that night. The children were herded into place with their parents. Fathers cared for families and sheep and oxen. The animals mingled their lowing and bawling with the shouts of children, the intense voices of men and women, and the creaking of the wagons.
Every person was weighted with all he could carry. They took the load nobly, both the young and the old, along with those in the prime of life. God worked several miracles that night, but not least among them was that no extra responsibility was added to the ordinary ones by necessity to care for the sick or the feeble. Everyone was in good health that night, for "there was not one feeble person among their tribes," when God brought them forth "with silver and gold" (Psalm 105:37).
"Move forward!" The cry ran along the line of the thousands. Through the night they took exodus from Egypt into a land God would show them. The pillar of cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night, gave assurance of God's presence and guidance.
By ordinary reckoning it seemed certain they would perish in that wilderness: they will be hemmed in by the flying needles of hunger and thirst! It will be a pattern of despair and death! The barren land will become a prison! The multitude will be lost in the aimless wanderings of slaves who have been freed from their bondage to entomb themselves in a cemetery of desolation! That is what Pharoah thought: "Pharoah will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in (Exodus 14:2).
By human reason and apparent circumstances the people of God have been often judged to be "shut in" and thus helpless. The closed door and the wilderness do not constitute helplessness. The brilliant Pharoah was calculating the amount of clothing and food necessary for such a people, and he knew the wilderness could not provide it. He reckoned without God: their clothes did not wax old and their shoes did not wear out. They ate food from heaven, using neither bread nor wine. (Deuteronomy 29:5 and 6).
When the prodigal son was in the far country his clothes waxed old, and when bread and wine gave out he yearned for "the husks that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him." It is better to be in a wilderness with a Divine Provider than in a land of plenty with a destitute prodigal.
How "shut in" were they? True, the land itself furnished little comfort. There were mighty men of God in that company, however, and no wilderness could entangle them. Joshua and Caleb were in there, and in God's appointed time they would bring Israel to the conquest of Jericho, the overthrow of kings, and the division of the land of promise. Aaron was there to institute ceremonies in a tabernacle planned by the Infinite so that the finite might see in a shadow the way of Salvation through the blood of the Crucified.
And there was Moses! Ha, what land could shut him in? Sinai would be encircled with thunders and glory, slanting down with the shadow of the Law over every courtroom of decent civilization. The "shut-in" still is speaking of the actions of God in the first five books of the Bible. Scholars and scientists bring their elaborate theories to the feet of Moses and admit that that "shut-in" spoke with trumpets and they are playing tin horns.
Has the Lord shut you in with circumstances or sickness or a lack of so-called talent? Does your life appear to be narrowed down to small dimensions? Behold, the mystery of the Lord and the power of His might. There is no wilderness in which He cannot sustain a multitude, no closed door that can silence the voice of a Moses "slow of speech."
The secret is not in the shut-in -- the secret is in the Lord! If you are in a "far country" and away from the Father, not even your loudest cries are heard until you start home on the road of repentance and willingness to come to God, but if you are in a wilderness by the will and guidance of the Almighty Companion, He will make even the mountains of desolation to become singing hills of joy, and the "shut doors" to become open windows of ministry.
(From "The 'Shut-Ins' Of The Bible," copyright 1961 by the Author,
published by BIT OF HEAVEN MINISTRY, Grand Rapids, MI)
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LOOK UP
By Violet Cheverton
ALMOST EVERY DAY we are asked the question, "Are you looking up?"
Certainly in this age of distress, turmoil and uncertainty we need to look up beyond the cares of this life and look unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith.
In speaking to a girl recently I was reminded that it is sometimes difficult to look up. David the Psalmist mentioned a time when he could not look up, "Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up."
Surely, the tempter would rejoice if the Christian did not look up and he would instill in our minds doubts and fears that would keep us from looking up.
Yet we are admonished often in the Scripture to look up, or we are reminded of some who have looked up:
"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help."
"In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up."
"Look up, and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh."
Since I have polio and a respiratory condition, I must use a rocking bed to help me breathe. As the bed goes up and down, I have no alternative but to look up. One evening my nephew came in with a rather sheepish grin, I didn't know why he stood next to my bed so long nor what he wanted. a few minutes later, however, I realized that he came to show me his new pajamas, but I hadn't even noticed them! All I could see from the rocking position were his little head and arms.
So it is when we look up, the things of earth grow strangely dim, and we see not the things of the world but we are looking at the things that are above.
In looking up to Jesus, there is renewed strength for the weary soul, new courage for the discouraged, and hope for the hopeless.
In directing our prayer unto God and looking up, we find power for the faint and rest for the weary.
Look up, troubled soul, your redemption draweth nigh.
Just a little while longer and He shall come and we shall reign with Him on high.
(From "The Christian League Bulletin,")
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GOD'S DETERGENT
IT MAKES CLOTHES whiter, dishes brighter, is easy on the hands, costs less, comes in a convenient container. You recognize this immediately as an ad that would fit any one of a number of detergents or soaps on the market today. But there is one thing the most power-packed detergent or soap will not clean.
"For though thou wash thee with lye, and take thee much soap, yet thine INIQUITY is marked before me, saith the Lord Jehovah" (Jeremiah 2:22).
It is told that in one fruit-processing plant lye was used to remove the skin from the fruit. But the fruit peeling wasn't all that was removed by the strong alkaline solution. The girls who handled the fruit found their hands peeling for weeks afterward. Lye is a powerful cleansing agent, but even this cannot cleanse the stain of sin from the heart. Nor can any soap ever remove it, no matter how much or how vigorously applied. God must still say, "Yet thine iniquity is marked before me."
It is with God we eventually have to do. It is before Him we must all appear to give account. He has said that no unclean thing may ever enter His holy presence. Our question, then, is: Is there no agent which can wipe out our sins? Are we doomed to abide apart from our God forever?
Indeed there is no man-made product that can cleanse our sins. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?" Neither can sinful man rid himself of sin's stain. But God has provided a way --
" . . . the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." Christ "loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood." " . . . without shedding of blood is no remission."
We may try other means to get rid of the crimson mark or we may just ignore it, we may say it's not there or that it's not as bad as it seems, but the fact of its presence remains and nothing we do can remove it. God knew our plight, He wanted us back in fellowship with Himself, so He sent His Son into our world to die, and said that His precious blood would be the means of our cleansing. " . . . ye were not redeemed with corruptible things . . . but with the precious blood of Christ."
But how may we apply this cleansing to our own sins? Jesus said, "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day . . . He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him."
What was He saying, that we should actually, literally eat His flesh and drink His blood? No! He explains, "It is the spirit that quickeneth (makes alive); the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."
It is not the literal eating and drinking that profits to our salvation, but the spiritual assimilation of Christ. Christ was speaking of faith -- our believing in Him. "For by grace are ye saved through faith ..."
"But there are some of you that believe not," said Jesus. And there are many to this very hour that believe not. I trust that you who read this have believed on Christ to the cleansing and saving of your eternal soul. May God help you to do so.
-- A. E. G.
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BURDEN BEARER
I sat amid the gathering shadows,
Weary with the long day's care,
Weary with the many burdens
Which my shoulders had to bear;
Worrying about the morrow
And about the morrow's load,
Tired already from it's burdens . . .
Then my heart remembered God;
Thought of His strong arms and tender,
Thought about His gentle breast,
Heard Him call me, "Heavy laden,
Oh, come unto Me and rest!"
-- Martha Snell Nicholson
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SERMON SERIES
THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER
No. 30
THE BEST DRESSED CHRISTIAN
I Peter 5:5-7
Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
THE WORLD BOASTS of its best dressed men and women. God, too, has His best dressed men and women.
Our text sets forth the clothing which makes for the best dressed Christian. Of course the outward appearance is not in view, but the clothing for the inner man, the personality, the "I" inside each of us. It should be our desire as God's children to be thusly dressed.
SUBMIT
"Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder" (5a).
The words "younger" and "elder" refer not to office but to age. The younger men in the church are to "submit" unto the older men of the church.
This is the same thing that is asked and expected of Christian citizens toward the laws and rulers of the country (I Peter 2:13); the same that is asked and expected of Christian servants toward their masters (2:18); the same that is asked and expected of Christian wives and husbands toward each other (3:1,7).
Of course it is presupposed that the "elder" Christians in the assembly are living examples of what Christians ought to be. Paul sets up the standard when he says -- "That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity (love), in patience." Young Christians can profit much from submission to such men.
But the exhortation doesn't end there.
"Yea, all of you . . . "
Not just the citizens and servants and wives and husbands and younger, but "all of you." "Yea, all of you be subject one to another."
This word "submit" is made up of two words in the Greek. The first is "hupo" which means "under." The second is "tasso" which means "to assign a place." Together they mean "to assign a place under." So we have the exhortation: "yea, all of you assign yourself a place under one another."
Now, this is a prerequisite to having a harmonious and fruitful church. Where this is lacking you can have nothing but discord and certainly no eternal fruit. Christ cannot be exalted, nor God glorified. Christians cannot be edified, nor sinners converted. The great commission cannot be carried out. The Holy Spirit is quenched. Everything that is worthwhile and good is negated and everything base and detestable is brought to the fore. All this in a church where Christians have not learned to "submit . . . one to another." God help us to learn it!
But how to put this virtue into practice is another thing. We know we should. The Bible says we should. We know it's God's will. But too often we find not the wherewithal to do it. We have the desire but not the power to put it into practice. If our text ended here, we would indeed be left in a quandary. But it doesn't end here.
BE CLOTHED
We read on -- "And be clothed with humility" (5b).
It is impossible to "submit . . . one to another," unless we "be clothed with humility."
Here we have the Christian's finest suit. It is a servant's garment. This may seem strange, but that's what it is. The verb "be clothed" comes from a word which has reference to the white scarf or apron of slaves, which was fastened to the girdle of the vest, and distinguished slaves from freemen. Possibly Peter had in mind the evening in the upper room when the Lord "riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself" to wash the disciples' feet.
Peter was some time learning this lesson of humility, but now as he pens this epistle he knows it and exhorts us to learn it. He would have us, too, be outfitted with this humble but noble servile garment.
But why? you may ask. "For God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble" (5c).
Certainly our humility will be a blessing to the assembly where we worship, not to mention the blessing to ourselves, but primarily the reason we should be thus clothed is for God's sake. All of our life should be lived as unto Him. Our very first encounter with God was on this basis. Without humility we could never have come to Him in the first place.
"The Pharisee stood praying . . . God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are . . . " But "the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner." Which of these do you suppose God heard and answered?
"I tell you," said Jesus, "this man (the publican) went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."
"God resisteth the proud." This has military implications. God sets Himself against the proud and arrogant man as an army arranges itself in battle against its foe. No quarter is given, no mercy extended, only fearful consequences. On the other hand God "giveth grace to the humble." He extends to the humble man His unmerited favor. Why then "be clothed with humility?" Because God is pleased with such attire. So should we be.
But here again we run into a brick wall. We fully recognize that we should have this finest dress of the Christian, but how do we get it? Surely we should "be clothed with humility," but how?
Let us go on.
BE HUMBLED
"Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time" (6).
Here is the secret of being clothed with humility and of being subject to our brethren.
The Greek verb is not in the middle voice as the rendering in the A.V. would indicate, but in the passive and should be rendered "be ye humbled." We cannot humble ourselves. Everything in us cries out against this virtue. Our nature is just the opposite. We are proud creatures, irrevocably proud.
So God exhorts us, "be ye humbled." That is, suffer yourself to be humbled. Submit to a humbling that has its source outside yourself. This is why we have failed so miserably in the past in our attempts to be submissive and clothed with humility. We have tried in our own strength to put it on. And it was just that, "put-on." It was just a pretense, only to be exposed when some brother rubbed us the wrong way. We had thought to make ourselves humble, when in reality we were too weak to do so.
This Christian clothing comes only in one way. "Be ye humbled . . . under the mighty hand of God." It is of God. He outfits us with it. He gives it to us. Our part is to submit to His humbling. It is under His "mighty hand" that we are to bow.
This same mighty hand delivered Israel long ago out of Egyptian bondage. Moses and the people sang a song of praise immediately after their deliverance. Part of the lyrics was: "Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy."
Sometimes His hand may seem terribly heavy. It seemed so to the young Christians to whom Peter wrote. They were beginning to chafe under God's chastening. It seemed so to Paul on one occasion. He testifies: "There was given to me a thorn in the flesh . . . For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me." But then he realized it was given "lest I should be exalted above measure." This physical affliction was given to Paul as a means of humbling. He submitted joyfully to it. For he knew that when we are weak, then are we really strong in the Lord. And His grace is sufficient.
Allow yourself therefore to be humbled by God. Your exaltation will come "in due time." God will see to that.
But humbling by God sometimes brings about an adverse reaction in us who are being humbled. It did with the early readers of this epistle. Sometimes we are prone to become anxious about our situation. This is what we call "worry."
God uses various means to bring about humility in His children. In the case of those to whom Peter first wrote, He used their own godless countrymen to humble them by persecution. In the case of Paul, God used physical weakness. In Job's case it was both, along with bereavement.
Such extremes tend to bring discouragement, anxiety, worry. What shall we do with this by-product of the humbling process? The answer follows.
CASTING
"Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you" (7).
The word for "casting" is used only one other time in the New Testament. Speaking of the colt upon which Jesus would make His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the Gospel writer, Luke, says, "And they brought him to Jesus: and they CAST their garments upon the colt."
Here we have the disciples casting or throwing their outer garments upon the colt. We are to do the same with our anxieties. We are to throw them upon God. The disciples had worn these garments to this present hour, now they take them off and throw them upon another. You may have worn this disheveled and irritating garment of worry upon your person until this very hour, it has caused you nothing but grief and misery; it is time to get rid of it forever, take it off and cast it upon the gracious and almighty Lord. He asks you to do it.
You cannot wear the good suit of humility and the tattered suit of anxiety at the same time. Anxiety is a self-contradiction to true humility. Unbelief is, in a sense, an exalting of self against God in that you are depending upon self and failing to trust God. Worry is a mark of unbelief. So it is time to throw off the tattered suit, and to allow God to outfit you with the good suit.
By faith throw the whole load of your worry -- the cause, effect, and the consequences -- upon God. Not just one particular worry, but the whole process, the principle of worry. Give it over to Him, so that when this thing would plague you in the future, you can meet it with the knowledge that He has it and will tend to it. Make it a once-for-all transaction. Do it now. Leave the future to God.
"For he careth for you. These may very well be the most precious words in all the Word of God for the Christian. "He careth for you." Literally and chronologically it reads: "Because to him it matters concerning you." You may by faith, once-and-for-all, with perfect confidence throw upon Him all your anxiety, "because to him it matters concerning you." You are His concern. He is concerned, infinitely concerned, with your welfare. If this is true, then how foolish it is to worry.
When we read this, we feel like saying, "Lord, is this really true, do you really care for little me?" We have His word for it. It is really true. He does care for me; and for you. May we then with full trust submit to His humbling and throw upon Him any resulting care.
There only remains one question. Are you one of God's best dressed Christians?
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