Art Gordon - Polio Pastor: TRIUMPH -- 1968

DO YOU NEED A FRIEND?

Everyone needs at least one good friend. One with whom you can share your burdens as well as your joys. One with whom you can talk freely without fear of being misunderstood or misquoted. One with whom you have something in common. A true friend is sympathetic, kind, considerate, and honest. One to whom you can pour out your heart when trouble comes your way.

The Bible tells us that "there is a friend who sticketh closer than a brother" (Proverbs 18:24b). The New Testament identifies Him for us. He was the One accused of being a friend of publicans and sinners. Jesus Christ is His name.

The reason Jesus befriended the thieving tax collectors and the low cast sinners of His day was that they listened to Him gladly and many of them followed Him, forsaking their sin and acknowledging Him as their Lord and their God, something the respectable religious people would not do. Jesus came not to call the (self-) righteous but sinners to repentance. He told them: "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatever I command you."

Jesus Christ will be to us the friend who sticks closer than a brother if we want Him. The writer of Proverbs says, "A man who hath friends must show himself friendly" (18:24a). If you want Christ to be your friend, you must show yourself friendly to Him.

First, you must receive Him as your Saviour. That's why He came: to save you. That's why He died on the cross of Calvary: to wash you from your sins in His own blood. He receives you when you receive Him. From that point forward He becomes your best friend.

You can talk to Him about anything that is on your heart. You may be assured that He listens with a sympathetic ear. And being God He is able to help you in all your troubles. Like the true friend that He is, He invites you to cast "all your care upon Him; for He careth for you." We speak to Him in prayer; He speaks to us through His Word the Holy Scriptures. We may enjoy the closest communion.

Are you in need of a friend? A close friend? A true friend? Jesus Christ is such a friend to hundreds of thousands of people. He wants to be your friend. He will stick by you forever -- He says, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you" -- and will at last share with you His eternal glory.

-- Editor

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"Now once in the end of the world hath Christ appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."

Hebrews 9:26

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THE DEATH OF CHRIST

( ITS FINALITY )

First of all, the cross was final for Christ Himself. His death was something He accomplished once for all. There will be no repetition of the cross. The Bible says that "Christ suffered for sins once." "This he did once for all," it says in another place. Not like the sacrifices in the Old Testament economy, which were offered by the priests repeatedly and year by year, "now once at the end of the ages hath He been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Hebrews 9:26).

Of the Old Testament priests it is said, "And every priest indeed standeth day by day ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, the which can never take away sins" (Hebrews 10:11). Note that it says the priest "standeth." This indicates their ministry was never complete, always more sacrifices to be offered. "But HE, when HE had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God" (Hebrews 10:12). Christ, after His sacrifice for sins, "sat down," showing that it was final and complete and all-sufficient.

Secondly, not only was the cross final for Christ Himself, but also final for those who are saved. His death will stand forever as a finished and complete redemption. Nothing can ever be added to the work of the cross. He "through his own blood obtained eternal redemption" (Hebrews 9:12). This is not to say that God has done all He will do for us, for we are told elsewhere in the Scriptures that He will in the ages to come continue to unfold for us "the exceeding riches of his grace." But this does mean that all God has ever done, or is doing, or will do, flows from the cross of Christ.

Hebrews 10:10 points out that "we have been sanctified (i.e. set apart unto God) through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." Verse 14 concludes: "By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." In this life we may be very far from perfect, but in the estimation and reckoning of God, we are eternally "set apart unto God," and "perfected for ever," by the death of Christ on the cross.

Finally, the cross was not only final for Christ Himself and for those who are saved, but also for a lost world. Christ's death is the final act of redeeming love for a lost world. Beyond the cross there is nothing for sinners but wrath and judgment. The world is doomed.

When Christ "sat down on the right hand of God," He sat down in expectation -- "henceforth expecting . . . " Expecting what? Was He expecting to die again? Was He expecting to do something more or better to save sinners? No. He sat down "henceforth expecting till his enemies be made the footstool of his feet" (Hebrews 10:12,13). The next event of God's calendar for the sinner is the terrible time when he will be placed under the crushing heel of the Son of man whose feet are "like unto burnished brass, as if they had been refined in a furnace."

There is nothing more Christ can do for those who refuse Him and continue on in their sin, "for if we sin willfully (or, go on sinning willfully) after that we have received the knowledge of the truth. there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries" (Hebrews 10:26,27).

What is this "willful sin" for which there is no more a sacrifice but only judgment and fire? it is the sin which the Holy Spirit came to convict the world of: the sin of unbelief -- "because they believe not on me," said Jesus. Compared to the sin of setting at naught the law of Moses, which brought physical death to the offending Israelite, "of how much soever punishment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the (new) covenant . . . an unholy thing?" (Hebrews 10:29). This is the broad road "that leadeth to destruction, and (sad to say) many there be who go in that way." The narrow way "which leadeth unto life" is the way of the cross, "and few there be that find it." May you, my reader, be one of the few.

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There are many sensitive fibres in the soul that the best and tenderest human sympathy cannot touch. But the Prince of sufferers, He who led the way in the path of sorrow, "knoweth our frame." When the dearest earthly friend cannot enter into the peculiarities of our grief, Jesus can, Jesus does! -- John MacDuff

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The present circumstance, which presses so hard against you, (if surrendered to Christ) is the best shaped tool in the Father's hand to chisel you for eternity. Trust Him, then. Do not push away the instrument lest you lose its work.

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Cast all your cares on God; that anchor holds. -- Alfred Tennyson.

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A SECRET OF PREVAILING PRAYER

By Andrew Murray, D.D.

In prayer there are two parties: God and man. God in His inconceivable holiness and glory and love; man in his littleness, his sinfulness, his impotence.

Our thought of what prayer is, will depend on the point of view. If, as is mostly done, we just think of our own needs and desires, or our own efforts to pray, and our own faith as to the certainty of an answer, we shall soon find that there is no real power in our prayer.

It is only when we regard prayer in the light of God, the deep interest He takes in us, the wonderful love with which He waits to answer prayer, the Almighty power which is the pledge of what He can and will do; and above all, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit by which He Himself will strengthen us for the faith and perseverance that are in prayer, that we shall begin to see what an infinite difference it makes whether we look at prayer in the light of earth, or of heaven, in the light of man's littleness, or in the infinite Glory of the living God.

When once a Christian sees the difference, he may be in danger of at once striving to pray a little more and a little better than he has hitherto done, and yet finds how his efforts end in failure.

He needs to realize that there are two ways set before him. The one, prayer as a means by which man can get from Heaven what he needs. The other--prayer as an infinite grace of God, lifting us up into His fellowship and love, and then when He has thus brought us to Himself, bestowing upon us the blessings we need.

In the former case, the gifts that I can receive through prayer are the chief things. In the latter, God and His love, and intercourse with Him, and the surrender of the suppliant to His glory and His will, will be supreme.

When once the child of God understands this, he sees that there is the great alternative set before him: shall it be the Human aspect of prayer, or the Divine, that is to rule my life? Shall it be man, or God, that is to be first in every prayer?

He will feel the need of coming to a definite decision as to which of these two paths he is to walk in.

He will feel that it is no light matter to change from the one to the other. It is only possible by the intervention of God's mighty power, and by a surrender on his part in the faith of what God will do, to walk with God as he has never yet done.

Nothing but the firm resolve to part with the self-life in prayer and to yield himself wholly to the life and leading of the Spirit, will enable him truly to become a man of prayer such as God and Christ would have him.

God must be first. To this end there must be secret prayer, where God and you alone can meet.

The first thing must be to bow in lowly reverence before God in His glory, the Father whose name is to be hallowed, and so offer Him your adoration and worship.

When you have secured some sense of His presence, you may utter your petitions in the hope, in the assurance, that He hears and accepts them, and in due time will send you His answer.

Above all: Take time! Give God time to reveal Himself to you. Give yourself time to be silent and quiet before Him, waiting to receive through the Spirit the assurance of His presence with you, of His power working in you.

Take time to read His Word, as in His presence, that from it you may know what He asks of you and what He promises you.

Let the Word create around you, create within you, a holy atmosphere, a holy heavenly light in which your soul will be refreshed and strengthened for the work of daily life.

Yes, take time that God may let His Holy Presence enter into your heart, and in due time, your whole being may to some extent be permeated with the life and the love of Heaven.

I feel deeply the need of Christians being trained to pray, if their intercession is to be effectual and much availing.

They only need to learn how to live their life with God aright in the daily exercise of fellowship with Him through the prayer of faith. They will then find, that the path of prayer in which it always is GOD FIRST is not only the path of great peace and joy, but of true power for intercession on behalf of those who have yet to be won for Him.

It is my humble prayer that God may graciously bless this message to many of His children.

From a tract published by The Bible House of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA.

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DR. JAMES GRAY'S CONVERSION

When I knew the Creed, the Lord's prayer, and the Ten Commandments, at fourteen years of age, I was confirmed in the most holy faith by a bishop of my church, and was taught in the catechism that I had become "a child of God, a member of Christ, and an inheritor of the Kingdom."

But I believed none of that since I was converted.

That happy event took place about eight years after my confirmation.

I had already turned my face towards the Christian ministry, not as a Divine calling, but a human profession, before I was really saved.

My conversion was like this: I was reading a book by Rev. William Arnot, and the title was, "Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth," a series of homilies on the Proverbs, addressed to young men. The book attracted me, though I did not care for my Bible in the quiet of my room.

One night, after an evening of excitement among worldly people, my eye fell on this sentence: "Every soul not already won to Jesus is already lost."

It was an arrow of conviction to my soul.

An overwhelming sense of my lost and hopeless condition fell upon me, and my soul was hanging over the abyss.

I had absolutely no plea but for mercy.

Daily I had said my prayers since childhood, but that night, like Saul of Tarsus, I really prayed.

The blessed Saviour placed upon my lips: "God be merciful to me a sinner!"

In my agony I uttered it with my face upon the floor, And God heard it.

That night He lifted me up out of the miry clay and planted me upon a rock--the Rock, Christ Jesus.

He put a new song in my mouth which I have been singing ever since, even salvation unto my God.

(Late dean of The Moody Bible Institute.)

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MAN OF SORROWS

The Highest stooped, the Greatest took His place amongst the least. Strange, and needing all our faith to grasp it, yet it is true that He who sat upon the well at Sychar, and said: "Give me to drink," was none other than He who digged the channels of the ocean, and poured into them the floods. Son of Mary, Thou art also Son of God! Man of substance of Thy mother, Thou art also essential Deity; we worship Thee this day in spirit and in truth!

He is a man with hands full of blessing, eyes wet with tears of pity, lips overflowing with love, and a heart melting with tenderness. See ye not the gash in His side? -- through that wound there is a highway to His heart, and he who needs His compassion may soon excite it. O sinners! the way to the Saviour's heart is open, and penitent seekers shall never be denied.

And so, in devout meditation upon the humility of our Lord, you may find the door of life, the portal of peace, the gate of heaven.

"A man of sorrows." The expression is intended to be very emphatic, it is not "a sorrowful man," but "a man of sorrows," as if He were made up of sorrows. He and sorrow might have changed names.

Tears were His insignia, and the cross His escutcheon. He was the lord of grief, the prince of pain, the emperor of anguish a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

The sorrows of the lofty He knew, for He was the King of Israel; the sorrows of the poor He knew, for "He had not where to lay His head. Sorrows relative, and sorrows personal, sorrows mental, and sorrows spiritual; sorrows of all kinds and degrees assailed Him. Affliction emptied his quiver upon Him, making His heart the target for all conceivable woes.

-- C. H. Spurgeon

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"Man of Sorrows!" what a name

For the Son of God who came

Ruined sinners to reclaim!