‘A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the LORD upholdeth the righteous. The LORD knoweth the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be for ever. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time: and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied’ (Psalm 37: 16-19).
GOD’S PROVISION
‘A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked’ (v. 16). In every age people are divided into ‘rich’ and ‘poor’. Of course, especially today, recession or not, wealth and poverty can be relative. A ‘poor’ person in the ‘First World’ could be quite ‘rich’ by the standards of ‘Third World’. Yet there’s always a divide between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’.
The Flood and the destruction of Sodom in the Bible are warnings that
the mercy of a loving God has limits. The spiritual state of the culture
in those days shows what moved Him to wrath.
In Noah’s time wickedness was so flagrant the majority could not even think a pure thought. Violence was so rampant that the earth was filled with it (See Genesis 6:5-7).
The sordid memory of Sodom lives on in our word sodomy. People flaunted their perversion as brazenly as do their modern counterparts. When God sent two angels in human form to deliver Lot, the men of Sodom tried to gang-rape them. The Lord could tolerate such conditions no longer and destroyed the city with fire and brimstone (Genesis19:1-25).
Those civilisations represent what a society can become when God is banished, when there is no restraint on man’s sinful nature, and when the number of believers declines so drastically they become a weak minority.
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth”. (John 1:14)
The passage of Scripture now before us is very short, if we measure it by words. But it is very long, if we measure it by the nature of its contents. The substance of it is so immensely important that we shall do well to give it separate and distinct consideration. This single verse contains more than enough matter for a whole exposition.
A Public Meeting of Christian Watch took place as planned on Friday, 30th October, 2015 in the coastal resort of Brighton. This was our first visit to Brighton and it was encouraging to see so many young people in attendance.
The subject of the meeting was “The Spiritual State of the Nation – is there a Remedy?” and the Vice-Chairman, Ian Henderson, in leading the meeting outlined the reasons why Christian Watch was originally formed some 15 years ago – formed for the sole purpose of informing Bible-believing Protestants of the danger of remaining silent whilst the devil – in a variety of guises – made inroads into our Protestant country and Constitution.
Referring to the continuing desecration of the Lord’s Day; ecumenism – with all its links with a range of false religions; the growth and general acceptance of gay rights with its ensuing depravity and the introduction of women Bishops into the Established Churches and the current threat to introduce Constitutional changes, Mr. Henderson gave three possible options:-
“These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
John16:33
Our tender, loving, and gracious Lord well knew what feeble ones He had to deal with. He knew from painful experience what tribulation was, for He was a “Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief,” reproached and despised by the very rabble, set at nought by the rulers, and put to the most shameful and painful death that malice then knew. He, therefore, tells His disciples, in the most gentle manner, what they must expect. But He prefaces it with consolation – “In Me ye might have peace.”
By our fall in Adam we not only lost the favour of God but also the purity of our nature and therefore we need to be both reconciled to God and renewed in our inner man, for without personal holiness “no man shall see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). “As He which hath called you is holy; so be ye holy in all manner of conversation (behaviour); because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:15,16). God’s nature is such that unless we be sanctified there can be no intercourse between Him and us. But can persons be sinful and holy at one and the same time? Genuine Christians discover so much carnality, filth, and vileness in themselves that they find it almost impossible to be assured they are holy. Nor is this difficulty solved, as in justification, by recognising that though completely unholy in ourselves we are holy in Christ, for Scripture teaches that those who are sanctified by God are holy in themselves, though the evil nature has not been removed from them.
The annual CRE exhibition found Christian Watch at a new venue this year. Previously located at Sandown Park, we were now at the ExCel Exhibition Centre in London Docklands.
We will quickly pass over the new logistical problems in setting up our stand in ExCel, but suffice it to say, while we could leisurely unload from our vehicles at Sandown close to the Stand area, in this new location in London we were given just 15 minutes to unload and transport all our materials across the Exhibition – quite some way from the parking area – with the threat of financial penalties if we overstayed. The same conditions applied at the end of the show.
However, on a somewhat more positive note; once ensconced on our Stand, we were blessed with many opportunities to speak to visitors – although sadly not quite so many as is usual at Sandown.
with Introduction and End Notes by Shaun Willcock, Bible Based Ministries
[Introduction by Shaun Willcock, Bible Based Ministries:
This article was written by J.C. Philpot in 1857 in response to the request of a reader of the magazine he edited – decades before the ‘Revised Version’, the first major new Bible version in English, based upon a very corrupt Greek New Testament text, was produced in 1881. Prior to that date, virtually all English-speaking Christians the world over used only one version of the Scriptures: that known as the Authorised, or King James Version. But from 1881 until today, the English-speaking world has been flooded with modern versions, each one worse than the one before, so that the very situation which Philpot dreaded has indeed come to pass. The reasons, then, that Philpot gave for rejecting a revision of the Authorised version are even more applicable today than they were then. The King James Version is an utterly faithful and accurate version of the Holy Scriptures in English and there is no need to desire another. No version produced since 1611 has ever equalled it, and we firmly believe that none ever will, in the time left before the Lord’s second coming.]
THE SINNER DIRECTED TO THE SAVIOUR An Extract from John Flavel
“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
John 1:29
These are the words of John the Baptist; and they were spoken in consequence of the question which was asked of him by the Jews, “Who art thou?” The humble prophet confessed, “I am not the Christ;” and on the next day, seeing Jesus coming to him, he exclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
If I can but get the ear of the King, I am fully assured “all is well”. No matter what the difficulty, trial, care or perplexity, the true breathing God-ward of prayer in the heart is sure evidence of success in the court of heaven. We can set our seal that the testimony given by the Apostle John is true: “If weknow that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petition that we desire ofHim”.
