BE READY!
We get ready for everything else, why not for eternity? We get ready for old age well in advance, for retirement, even for our next vacation. We get ready for our immediate future, why not for our protracted future?
The Scriptural admonition is: "Be ye also ready" (Matthew24:44). Jesus is speaking to His disciples, and through His disciples to us. This is God's will for us, and His Word. Not to obey is to invite eternal condemnation. When God speaks it behooves us to listen. God has spoken. BE READY!
Why? "For in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh" (Matthew 24:44b).
The message that Jesus has for the world is that He is coming back again. We must be ready for we know not when it shall be. All we know is that it SHALL come to pass. This is His promise. He shall come back just as He left. He ascended bodily in full view of His disciples into the heavens. He shall so come in like manner. Then shall commence what is known as the end times or the day of the Lord.
This will be a day of judgment for the non-Christian, and a day of reward for the Christian. The child of God will be rewarded for faithful service to the Lord, his greatest reward being to see his Lord and Saviour face to face. The child of perdition will be judged because he would not have this Man to reign over him.
In light, then, of His coming, which He testifies elsewhere shall be soon, and in light of its eternal results, it is most important that the believer be ready by being faithful to the task assigned him in the Lord's work. It is important that the unbeliever see the folly of his way and turn in repentance and faith to the Lord and be saved, for this is the accepted time, the day of salvation.
Are you a Christian? "Be not weary in well doing, for you shall reap if you faint not." Are you a non-Christian and thus not saved? "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."
Be ye also ready, that that day may not overtake you unawares.
-- Editor
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"He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus."
Revelation 22:20
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Fourth in a Series
HIS INCARNATION
Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, emptied Himself of His pre-existent glory, and clothed Himself in human flesh and servant form. But why did our Lord do this? Among other things --
God became incarnate in order that He might share with men His own eternal life.
At first thought it might seem a very simple thing for God to share His life with men Modernistic thinkers of our day are inclined to take this view of the matter. Is not God a God of love? Is He not the great Giver? Is He not sovereign in His ways? Why then must His bestowal of spiritual life wait for such a metaphysical mystery as an Incarnation by Virgin Birth?
The answer is clearly indicated in Scripture. From John's Gospel we choose two verses, both from the lips of our Lord Himself.
The first is John 10:10 -- "I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly." Perhaps we have read this blessed Scripture many times, but how many of us have ever noticed the close connection with the verse that follows? Let us look at them together.
"I came that they may have life," says our Lord. But how is this life of God accessible to sinners? Here is the answer: "I am the good shepherd," He continues, "the good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep" (v.11).
The divine Shepherd must first give His life FOR the sheep, in order that He may give His life TO the sheep. The way of life for US, was the way of death for HIM. Now we are able to trace the connection between the Incarnation of God, and abundant life for sinners: No Incarnation, no death upon the cross; no death, no atonement, no abundant life for sinners.
The second passage of Scripture even more clearly declares this connection. John 6:51 -- "I am the living bread which came down out of heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever."
Our Lord said that. Have you ever noticed that God the Father is never called the Bread of Life? Nor is the Holy Spirit. Only the second Person of the Godhead is named the Bread of Life. And even He is named thus only AFTER He enters the world by Virgin Birth. Why is this?
Let us read on for the answer. "Yea and the bread which I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world." Here is the reason our Lord points to Himself alone as the Bread of life: only an incarnate God could give His FLESH in atoning death for the world. No Incarnation, no death; no death, no atonement; no atonement, no Bread of life for dying men.
Without a God made flesh, no eternal life for sinners.
But the good news for you and me is that He did come, He came down out of heaven, He came that we might have life and have it abundantly, He layed down His life that if anyone appropriate by faith this life-giving Bread he shall live forever.
Have you this eternal life? If not, why not?
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JESUS ONLY
And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only" (Matthew 17:8).
Jesus is unique in His person and position and work. He is unique in all the universe. In many things He is the ONLY one of His kind. For instance:
Jesus is the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, God's only begotten Son. He alone is called the Son of God and Son of Man. He alone came from heaven to earth and back to heaven again. He alone was born of a virgin. He alone was sinless. He alone pleased the Father in everything, doing the will of God perfectly. He alone died for the sins of the world.
Jesus is our only Saviour. He is the one Mediator between God and man. He is the only Intercessor in heaven. He alone has been made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. He is our only hope for the future; our only help for here and now.
Jesus is our only Shepherd: the good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep, the great Shepherd who cares for the sheep, and the chief Shepherd who returns for the sheep. He is the only door to heaven; the only way to the Father. His is the only name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. He alone is the light of the world. He is the bread from heaven which if a man eat thereof he shall live forever.
Jesus is the only Potentate of heaven and earth, the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is our Lord and our God, the only true and living God, co-equal with the Father and Holy Spirit, clothed in human flesh and glorified, waiting till all enemies be put under His feet, when He alone shall be worshipped and confessed as Lord to the glory of God the Father.
We must train our eyes (or permit them to be trained) to look past all other forms to the one and only Saviour, Jesus Christ our Lord. For herein is salvation, and herein is transformation. "Look unto me, and be ye saved," is the Lord's invitation and promise. "We all . . . beholding . . . the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image . . . by the Spirit."
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NEVER WILL I THIRST
By Carl Graden
I'm just six months younger than the century, because I was born on June 15, 1900, in Rockford, IL. My mother was a sweet, gentle Christian woman named Ida, and my father was a hard-drinking, stubborn Swede. His stubbornness is best illustrated by what went on in our home about Christmastime.
I remember, for instance, when I was eight, Dad didn't stop until he got me to take a pint-sized drink and finally a big, man-sized drink right out of his glass. He boasted to Mother, who pled with him against it, that "no son of mine is going to grow up without being able to hold his liquor like a man!" After that scene, he gave me his Christmas present: a little bottle all my own!
Two things Dad wanted: one was for me to hold my liquor; the other was for me to be confirmed at church in Swedish -- not English. I learned to hold my liquor, but I never got around to learning Swedish -- and Dad finally allowed me to be confirmed -- in English. Sick from his years of drinking, he was afraid he'd die before I made the grade in Swedish. I was 15 then, but for four years I had been stealing liquor from my own father. So, confirmation had little effect on my way of living.
I kept stealing Dad's liquor until the year 1924, when the poor fellow died a horrible, violent death from alcoholic poisoning. I remember the minister came by one day and said:
"Carl, my boy, I trust you will profit by the tragedy which has struck your family." Inwardly, I sneered, but listened as he explained that no man ever starts out to become an alcoholic. His comments had no effect on me, but I did remember a story he told me about a drunk who walked into the Pacific Garden Mission, with an envelope to be opened if anyone inquired for him later on. A short while afterward, the minister related, someone did inquire for the man, and in the sealed envelope was a note saying he was on his way to Lake Michigan to end it all -- because he was a hopeless drunkard.
I never forgot that story.
After Dad's death, I really hit the bottle hard. It broke my heart to see what it was doing to Mom, but because it broke my heart, I just drank all the more. Then, in 1927, three years after Dad died, I fell in the front door, blind drunk and found Mom standing in front of our fireplace, alone, sobbing like a little girl!
"Ma, what's a matter?"
"Carl?" She looked up hopefully, then burst out: "Oh, Carl -- you're drunk again! For 25 years your father -- now you!" Then she went into wracking sobs.
Six months later, after a complete nervous breakdown, Mom was dead, too. So, by the time I was 27, my Mother and Father were dead -- both as a direct result of alcohol. Yet I was chained so securely to the bottle that I couldn't go more than a week without really hanging on an unmerciful drunk.
During these days I contributed to our church, and went regularly to the Sunday worship services -- that is, when I wasn't too hungover to go. Seems I would have gone to our minister for help -- but I figured he didn't know what I was going through. He'd just tell me to pray and trust God.
Soon after that I hit Chicago. I won't go into the gruesome details . . . the drunken bouts, the lying in the gutters, the sleeping on park benches, . . . no point in mentioning the names of well-known hospitals where I went to be "cured" of my addiction to alcohol. There's no point in listing the dozens of good and bad jobs I lost. But just note this: by the time I was 43, I was sick, scared, alone -- except for the eternal bottle.
This was the time I heard a Christmas carol coming over the loud-speaker in front of a Skid Row mission. My hope raised its eyes up -- just for a split second, because the next minute I was growling because I didn't have anything to sing about. However, I remember a nice looking young man came up to me and invited me in. "The Pacific Garden Mission -- why don't you come on into the service?"
For a moment I didn't answer him, for my mind had suddenly flown back over the years -- to the story of the hopeless drunk who had left the sealed envelope at the Pacific Garden Mission, before he jumped into Lake Michigan.
"The Pacific Garden Mission -- no, not quite ready to jump in the lake -- when I am, I'll come back." I mumbled like that, and shuffled on up the street.
I stumbled on into that cold December night . . . on and on I went . . . one drink after another . . . until everything went black. Then I heard hazy, mixed up voices . . . people trying to get me to wake up. I was lying in a dirty snow bank.
Finally, on the night of January 11, 1944, not long after I had blacked out in the snow, I walked into the Pacific Garden Mission -- to get some help. I didn't have faith in anything until then, except the bottle, and I hated it. But the old catechism I had learned when I was confirmed began to take on meaning as a man began to introduce me to Jesus. I don't remember his exact words, but it was something like this:
"Carl, when you forsake your own way and turn in utter repentance to Him, and receive Him as your own personal Saviour, then that miracle of redemption takes place inside -- and through Him, you are given the Power to become a son of God. Jesus Christ breaks the fetters and chains that shackled you once you come to Him."
The man told me more, but to make a long story short, I turned over the reins of the wreck of my life to the Son of God. And things began to happen. The old ways vanished, and a year later I left Chicago, got a good job and married Ruth.
It's been a long time since I've known the desperation of thirst. That's because I came when our wonderful Lord Jesus said, "If any man thirst, let come unto Me and drink!"
(Editor's Note -- for 20 years Carl Graden walked with Jesus Christ, completely free from his old life. For many of those years he lived in Seattle, WA, and worked as a barber in Edmonds, WA. In 1963 he was injured when a dump truck hit his car from behind as he was stopped waiting for another car to make a left turn. For 16 months he suffered pain resulting from spinal injuries and a bruised stomach. God took Carl home to be with Himself on December 29, 1964. He left his widow, Ruth, and an adopted son, David. Sung at his funeral were two of Carl's favorite songs, "From Sinking Sand" and "What a Friend We Have in Jesus.")
(Reprinted by permission from the Pacific Garden Mission News, September 1966.)
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A WHITE ROBE
FOR A BLACK CASSOCK
"In 1954 I was appointed parish-priest in Beirut. Contact with my flock was to open my eyes. More and more I became conscious that I was exactly like everyone else, maybe even worse, certainly not better . . . "
The one who thus recounts his life story is named Toufic Khoury. He was born in Lebanon to a Catholic family, began his ecclesiastical training at the age of 13 and was solemnly ordained priest 13 years later.
"The prayer I offered on the day of my ordination often came to my mind: 'Lord, if in your infinite knowledge you forsee that one day I will soil these priestly garments, do not allow me to reach that day, may I rather die'." Toufic Khoury continues: "I had not yet come to understand that all the works of man, good or bad, are as 'filthy rags' in the eyes of the Lord . . . "
A profound conviction of sin had taken hold of him who bore the cassock of a priest: confessions, prayers, mortifications, none of the means advocated by his church was able to comfort him. The situation became even more intolerable when, during 5 years as a seminary professor, he needed to be an example of piety and holy living to the young seminary students.
"I struggled with my own nature, with my weaknesses and continual failings. More and more I had the desire to be freed from my burden. My church was able, of course, to relieve me of my priestly office, but I had come to see that it was incapable of liberating me from the weight of my sin . . ."
During this period while he sought without hope to know peace of heart he was struck by the words of the Lord: "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." "I was so utterly tormented that my every thought was dominated by but one thing: to know where the truth lay in order to accept and follow it. Because of this, one day I summoned my courage and entered a Protestant (heretical for me) book store where, needless to say, I was told that Jesus Himself is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that I must address myself to Him. Much later, after much searching, I took the Lord at His word. Like a child I confidently abandoned myself to Him and He gave me new life and the peace of heart that I had sought for so long. It is Christ Himself who took away my black cassock -- symbol so deceitful of death to the world -- and clothed me in a robe that is white and without spot, the robe of those who have 'washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb'."
Today Toufic Khoury is married and father of a family. His testimony demonstrates once again what the grace of God can accomplish in the heart of a man. Called by Christ from the darkness of religious ritual to His incomparable light, Toufic Khoury has consecrated his life henceforth to the proclamation of the Good News of salvation to his Arab brothers. Since June ('66), he has been handling the Arabic correspondence of the Radio School of the Bible in Marseille, France, and the radio broadcasts in literary Arabic. He is well suited for this ministry as he was previously a professor of Arabic and Semitic languages.
(Prayer letter for September, 1966, from the Radio School of the Bible, Marseille. Used with permission.)
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AS WE THINK OF CHRIST
By Alexander Whyte
Now, in this congregation as in every congregation, there must be various ranks and classes of people who divide themselves out before God just according as they think of Christ. For, "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Our Lord once said of Himself that His coming among men had brought not peace, but the sword -- and not a sword only, but a broad and a deep dividing line also: many dividing lines indeed, many clefts indeed, and chasms even, many all-but-impassable gulfs, already open between man and man among us, according as we think of Christ.
One sad, and not small class among us, is composed of those men and women who simply never think of Christ at all. They are exactly like John Bunyan before his conversion: they never think, in church or market, whether there is a Christ or no.
But happily, there is another class of men and women among us who are the exact opposite of that. They are but a small class, it is to be feared, in any congregation, and yet -- who can tell? -- they may be more in number than any one would believe. Few or many, this noble class is composed of those men and women among us who in their heart of hearts are continually thinking of Christ.
Yes, we will believe it: there are truly Christian men and women among us, and more that you would easily believe, who say to Christ with all their heart every returning morning: "When I awake I am still with Thee."
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