DO YOU AGREE?
You cannot be saved until you agree with what the Bible says about you.
By way of summary, the Bible says of all humans:
"They are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
"Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
"Their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes.
"All the world (is) guilty before God.
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."
Romans 3:9-19,23.
You may be thinking, "I might be bad, but I'm not THAT bad!" If that is what you think, you cannot be saved.
* * *
You cannot be saved until you agree with what the Bible says about Jesus Christ.
By way of summary, the Bible says of Him:
"Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
Philippians 2:6-11.
"The righteousness of God is manifested which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation (sacrifice) through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins; that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."
Romans 3:22-26.
You may be thinking, "He might be great, but certainly not THAT great!" If that is what you think, you cannot be saved.
--- Editor
**********
"Search the scriptures . . . they are they which testify of me"
-- Jesus
**********
"SAFE IN THE ARMS OF JESUS"
By Leland W. Potter, Berwick, Nova Scoria
A tragedy on August 21, 1961, at Augustine Cove, Prince Edward Island, resulted in the death of 25 year old Melvin Thompson.
In the absence of his parents, the young man was about to prepare his dinner. When using kerosene to start up the fire, the can exploded with a blast that shattered the kitchen windows. His oil-drenched clothing was soon consumed from his body, leaving him burned beyond recognition. In spite of extreme suffering, he was able to give instructions as to how he could be lifted to an ambulance.
Those who accompanied the dying man to the hospital were amazed to hear the voice, soon to be stilled on earth, raised in prayer and song. As a youth he had trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour and his life proved the reality of his conversion. Realizing that death was at hand and that he would soon be "With Christ," he testified that all was well with his soul for eternity. One of the hymns he sang was, "Safe In The Arms Of Jesus," a verse of which is:
"Jesus, my heart's dear refuge,
Jesus has died for me.
Firm on the Rock of ages
Ever my trust shall be.
Here let me wait with patience,
Wait till the night is o'er,
Wait till I see the morning
Break on that golden shore."
Here was one who, facing a terrible death at an early age, was experiencing the blessedness of the 23rd Psalm--"The Lord is my shepherd . . . Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil" for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me . . . and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
Late that afternoon he lost consciousness. Just when a new day was dawning over the "Garden of the Gulf," Melvin Thompson was to "see the morning break on that golden shore," "absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8).
If death should come naturally or tragically, slowly or suddenly, in agony or as a sleep, how would it find each of us? Balaam, as he beheld the people of God, exclaimed, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his" (Numbers 23:10). Yet he perished amongst their enemies. Isaiah asked, "Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" Then of the godly he said, "Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off" (Isaiah 33:14,17).
"As it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many . . . " (Hebrews 9:27,28).
"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36).
"Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord . . . " (Revelation 14:13).
**********
GOD'S FINAL GOOD
By Geoffrey T. Bull
There is no possibility of bliss or good, whether it be for the individual or for society as a whole, in any thought or action independent of the living God. God's final good is in the right assignment of the Son. All that God is was manifested through Him. All God's delight is centered in Him. All God's purposes are accomplished by Him. There is nothing beyond Him. The Father has absolutely nothing external or additional to the Son. In all the infinite capacity of His ageless being, He is everlastingly content in Jesus. When He sent Him, He sent everything. Christ was the Word. He had nothing else that He could say. Thus His acceptance in our hearts is life eternal and the lasting salvation of our God. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." Thus to reject Him, whether it be personally, socially, or nationally, leads only to disaster. In so doing we place ourselves at last beyond the love of God, for all God's love is given in His own dear Son.
**********
**********
GOD'S PICTURE ALBUM
By the late M. R. De Haan, M. D.
Do you remember the old family album of years ago -- that ornate, bulky book full of snapshots and photos of the family, the uncles and aunts, together with notations of special events? In the front of the book was the family record of births and marriages, and tear-stained records of deaths. But the pictures were the things that intrigued us most. Those old tintypes of father and mother in their old fashioned clothes, grandfather with his long beard, and then the picture of one's self as a baby with a little embroidered jacket and the long, long dress. The pictures were a continued story -- the history of the family.
Now the Bible is such a picture book. It is a collection of portraits of one supreme Person who overshadows all the rest of the pictures. The central object of this Bible Album is Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of man. He is the central figure on every page, and the other pictures grouped about Him are needed only to bring into bolder relief the loveliness, the superlative beauty, the infinite perfection, of the Man of the Book, the Lord Jesus.
ON EVERY PAGE
The face of Jesus Christ is on every page of Scripture. Every single incident recorded in the Word, in some way, directly or indirectly, has some connection with God's revelation concerning Him. This our Lord Jesus Himself taught when He spoke to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus on that first resurrection day. These disciples were returning from Jerusalem, sad and depressed because their Lord had been crucified. Jesus joins them and inquires into the cause of their sadness, and then astonishes them with the statement that all this had been foretold in the Bible. If they had only known the Scriptures they would not have been sad but rejoicing. Listen to His words of loving rebuke:
" . . . O fools, and slow of heart to believe ALL that the prophets have spoken:
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?" (Luke 24:25,26).
And then after this rebuke for their tragic neglect to believe ALL the Scriptures, we read the amazing statement:
"And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27).
Jesus says that ALL the Scriptures speak of Him. Now the Scriptures to which Jesus referred were the Old Testament. Not a single line of the New Testament had as yet been written. It is of the Old Testament Jesus declares that they ALL speak of Him. The Old Testament, therefore, is not primarily an account of creation, the history of the Hebrew nation, or a collection of moral, religious and ethical instructions, but it is a REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST.
TRANSFORMS THE BIBLE
Once we realize that the Old Testament is a revelation of the Lord Jesus, and we must find Him somewhere on every page, the study of the Old Testament will be transformed from a dull and weary task, to a thrilling, exciting exercise as we look for HIS FACE, hidden among the incidents recorded in the Book. This is what Jesus meant when He said,
"Search the scriptures . . . they are they which testify of me" (John 5:39).
PICTURES OF THE CHRIST
We shall seek to point out a few of the innumerable portraits of the Lord Jesus in the Old Testament, with the fervent prayer that it may stimulate you to find for yourself new and precious visions of His glory. Our Lord said to the disciples on the road to Emmaus that All the Scriptures, beginning with Moses, spake of Him. So we turn to the first few "pages" of Moses. The reference is to the first five books of the Bible written by Moses, which are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The picture album of the Old Testament has 39 pages, and on every page we may find portraits, pen sketches, profiles, full length portraits, and candid camera shots of this Altogether Lovely One.
PAGE NUMBER ONE
Page number one in our album is the book of Genesis. Most people associate Genesis with the record of creation and the early history of the human race. But this is only a secondary thing. The primary purpose of Genesis is to introduce to us the Lord Jesus. Before we take up a few of these portraits, let me say that without the New Testament, it would be impossible to see these wonderful revelations of Christ. They are in miniature, and with the naked eye we can behold only the dimmest outlines. But now comes the New Testament and illumines and magnifies these portraits until all is clear. You remember the hours we spent as children looking through a stereopticon at slides of some of the wonders of the world. We called it a magic lantern because when we mounted two pictures and looked at them through the binoculars, the two pictures blended into one, bringing out all the details in bold and clear relief. Today we, of course, have greatly improved upon this by small colored slides and a projector which greatly magnifies the otherwise dim and undistinguishable outlines and throws them clearly on the screen.
Such is the relationship of the Old and the New Testament. The Old Testament is an album of slides, painted by the Holy Spirit, but they can only be fully understood and appreciated as we view them in the light of the New Testament which is the magic lantern through which we see the infinite beauties of the Lord Jesus in the Old Testament.
MANY PICTURES
The very first sentence in the Bible is a picture of Jesus Christ. The opening verse is:
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Genesis 1:1).
This is a picture of the Lord Jesus, but we could never recognize it as such until we look at it through the magic lantern of the New Testament. And when we do that, we see Him, for John says:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:1-3).
The picture is clear. The first portrait on page one of God's Album is a picture of Christ the Creator of all things. And now we go on to the next photo. It is a picture of darkness and gloom, destruction and chaos. It is an earth without form and void, upon which the Spirit of God began to move in preparation for the next act in creation.
"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light" (Genesis 1:3).
That is the picture, and as we set it in the frame and look through it in the light of God's full revelation, we see Jesus. He is the Light of the world. John says:
"In him (Jesus) was life; and the life was the light of men" (John 1:4).
And Jesus Himself declares, at the healing of the blind man,
" . . . I am the light of the world" (John 9:5).
" . . . I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12).
"I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness (John 12:46).
The rest of the record of the seven days of creation is but an expansion of the work of the Lord Jesus. We can find Christ in every other day of creation, until it consummates in the creation of man in the image of God. Adam is a picture of Christ who is called in the Bible the "Second Man" (I Corinthians 15:47), and the "last Adam" (I Corinthians 15:45). Many men in the Scriptures are types of the Lord Jesus, such as Abel, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, and many others, but seldom do we think of Adam as a type and portrait of the Lord Jesus. Let me call your attention to one superlatively beautiful picture. It is the creation of Eve as the wife of Adam. God "caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he (God) took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof" (Genesis 2:21).
While Adam slept, God created from his wounded side a wife, who was part of himself, and he paid for her by the shedding of blood. And after Adam awoke he said:
" . . . This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh" (Genesis 2:23,24).
THE DIM PICTURE
There is the slide, but we would never know its meaning until we behold it through the binoculars of the New Testament. Then we stand breathless with wonder, awe, and adoration at its beauty, and prostrate ourselves in adoration before HIM, the LAST MAN, the MAN OF THE GLORY. Let the Apostle Paul turn on the magic lantern for us. He snaps it on in Ephesians 5, among many other places. Speaking of the union of believers in Christ he says:
"For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones" (Ephesians 5:30).
This is a direct reference to the words of Adam when he said, "she is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh."
And then Paul quotes Adam, and says:
"For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church" (Ephesians 5:31,32).
Now all is clear. Adam is a picture of the Lord Jesus, who left His Father's house to gain His bride at the price of His own life. Jesus, the last Adam, like the first must be put to sleep to purchase His bride, the Church, and Jesus died on the Cross and slept in the tomb for three days and three nights. His side too was opened after He had fallen asleep, and from that wounded side redemption flowed. I believe that in the creation of Eve, Adam gave his literal blood. God opened his side and this implies a wound and bloodshedding. Here then at the very dawn of creation, even before man had fallen, we have an implied reference to a new creature taken from the side of a man and becoming a part of him, even of his flesh, and of his bones.
FULFILLED IN CHRIST
The Church which is His body was also purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ. It meant His death, asleep for three days and three nights. His side too was opened, and the cleansing water and His justifying blood flowed forth. The Church, like Eve, was a new creation, not by a natural birth, but a supernatural operation of God, and this "rib" was builded into a woman who was to become the helpmeet and Bride of the Husband. How long a time elapsed between the "operation" on Adam's side, and the completion of the task of building the rib into a wife we are not told, but it is implied that there was a period of time between the removal of the rib, and the completion of Eve and her presentation to Adam. There are two steps clearly indicated:
1. The operation -- God "took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof."
2. God brought her unto the man.
Between these two steps is the record, "And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman." And when the building of the woman was complete He brought the man and the "rib" back together. The word translated "made" in our Scripture in the original is "bannah", and occurs scores of times in the rest of the Bible, but only in this passage and in Ezekiel 27:5 is it translated "made." In all the other places it is translated "build." So the verse should read, "And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man BUILDED he into a woman." How long it took to build the woman we do not know, but God separated the rib from the man until the building was done and then He "brought her unto the man."
This is the picture of our great Redeemer as seen on page one of God's picture album. Jesus died on the cross, His side was opened, and by the Holy Spirit today a Bride is being prepared, and when the last member has been added He will bring her unto the man Christ Jesus. God has been "building" this precious Bride, purchased by His blood, for the past nineteen hundred years, and soon she will be presented to her Lord. That will be the consummation. Paul says that,
" . . . Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Ephesians 5:25-27).
"This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ, and the church" (Ephesians 5:32).
In "Portraits of Christ in Genesis," booklet number 1. Used by special permission of the Radio Bible Class, Grand Rapids, MI.
**********
EMPHASIS: JESUS CHRIST
"Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him" (2 Thessalonians 2:1).
I like these words much better than "rapture." I believe they portray the truth of our meeting our Lord Jesus Christ in a much better way.
These words put the emphasis on Jesus Christ, His coming, and our meeting HIM. Rapture puts the emphasis on the church and her removal from the earth.
More and more I see the need to keep Jesus Christ uppermost in our thinking and testimony.
Chris Zook, Asst. Editor, "The Lighthouse."
**********
Supplicants, with Christ in their arms, take heaven by storm. But prayer unmixed with Christ, is a smoke vanishing into air.
-- Things Concerning Himself
**********
OCCUPATION WITH CHRIST
By C. H. Spurgeon
Some persons say they cannot bear to be an hour in solitude; they have nothing to do, nothing to think about. Surely, no Christian will ever talk so, for in the one word, "Christ," he will discover enough beauties to occupy his thoughts to all eternity.
There is one great event, which every day attracts more admiration than do the sun, and moon and stars when they march in their courses. That event is the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. To it the eyes of all the saints who lived before the Christian era were always directed; and backwards, through the centuries of history, the eyes of all present saints are looking. Upon Christ, the angels in heaven perpetually gaze. Upon Christ, the myriad eyes of the redeemed are perpetually fixed; and thousands of pilgrims, through this world of tears, have no higher object for their faith, and no better desire for their vision, than to see Christ as He is in heaven, and in communion to behold His Person. Beloved, we shall also have many with us whilst we turn our face to the Mount of Calvary. We shall not be solitary spectators of the fearful tragedy of our Saviour's death as we turn our eyes to that place which is the focus of heaven's joy and delight -- the cross of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
O my heart, I bid thee now put thy treasure where thou can'st never lose it. Center it in Christ; place all thy affections upon His Person, all thy boast in His triumphs, all thy trust in His efficacious blood, all thy joy in His presence, and then thou wilt have put thyself and put thine all where thou canst never lose anything, because it is secure. Remember, O my heart, that the time is coming when all things must fade, and when thou must part with all. Death's gloomy night must soon put out thy sunshine; the dark flood must soon roll between thee and all thou hast below. Then put thine heart with Him who will never leave thee; trust thyself with Him who will go with thee through the black and surging current of death's stream, and who will walk with you up the steep hills of heaven and make thee sit together with Him in heavenly places forever. Go, tell thy secrets to that Friend that sticketh closer than a brother. My heart, I charge thee, trust all thy concerns with Him who never can be taken from thee, who will never leave thee, and who will never let thee leave Him, even "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and for ever."
The best way to get your faith strengthened is to have communion with Christ. If you commune with Christ, you cannot be unbelieving. When His left hand is under my head, and His right hand doth embrace me, I cannot doubt. When my Beloved sits at His table and He brings me into His banqueting house, and His banner over me is His love, then, indeed, I must believe. When I feast with Him, my unbelief is abashed, and hides its head. Speak, ye that have been made to lie down by the still waters; ye who have seen His rod and His staff, and hope to see them even when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death; speak, ye that have sat at His feet with Mary, or laid your head upon His bosom with the well-beloved John; have you not found, when you have been near to Christ, that your faith has grown strong, and when you have been far away, then your faith has become weak? It is impossible to look Christ in the face and then distrust Him. When you cannot see Him, then you doubt Him; but if you live in fellowship with Him, you are like the ewe lamb of Nathan's parable, for you lie in His bosom, and eat from His table, and drink from His cup. You just believe when your Beloved speaks unto you, and says, "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away." There is no hesitation then; you must arise from the lowlands of your doubt up to the hills of assurance.
**********
