Tell me where you lost the company of Christ, and I will tell you the most likely place to find Him. Have you lost Christ in the closet by restraining prayer? Then it is there you must seek and find Him. Did you lose Christ by sin? You will find Christ in no other way but by the giving up of the sin, and seeking by the Holy Spirit to mortify the member in which the lust doth dwell. Did you lose Christ by neglecting the Scriptures? You must find Christ in the Scriptures. It is a true proverb, “Look for a thing where you dropped it, it is there.” So look for Christ where you lost Him, for He has not gone away. But it is hard work to go back for Christ. Bunyan tells us, the pilgrim found the piece of the road back to the Arbour of Ease, where he lost his roll, the hardest he had ever travelled. Twenty miles onward is easier than to go one mile back for the lost evidence.
The blessed Spirit is pleased sometimes to give some testimony concerning Jesus; to open up some passage of Scripture which speaks of Jesus; to cast a divine light before the astonished eyes; and to throw some of the blessed beams of gospel truth into our souls; whereby we see Jesus. We are brought sometimes in soul feeling to the desires of those Greeks who came up to worship at the feast, and went to Philip, saying, “Sir, we would see Jesus,” and from some apprehension of His beauty and loveliness, we pour out our soul before God, and say, “We would see Jesus.” We want to feel his love; to have our eyes anointed to behold His glory; to look upon Him as crucified for us and bearing our sins in His own body on the tree; that we may have a sweet and blessed fellowship with Him as our suffering Surety, and thus, by faith, enter into the length and breadth and depth and height of that love of His “that passeth knowledge.” Wherever there is a work of grace upon the soul, there will be this pining after Christ.
“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” (Romans 10:4).
The obedience required by the Law, He has given; the satisfaction for sin, which it demanded, He has presented on behalf of His Church and people. Each one is brought by the Holy Ghost to confess: “In the Lord have I righteousness and strength,”Isaiah 45:24.
The Word declares, for the comfort of all who hunger and thirst after righteousness, “In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory,” Isaiah 45:25.
The Annual General Meeting of Christian Watch was held this year on Friday, 3rd October, 2014 at Tamworth Road Baptist Church, Croydon at 7.30 p.m. This was the first time that the meeting had been held in the Croydon area and it was good to share fellowship with both old friends and new and to meet with the Lord’s people who attend the Church week by week.
The meeting opened with prayer and an introduction to Christian Watch by the Vice-Chairman, Ian Henderson, who outlined the reason for the existence of Christian Watch and the need to stand four-square for the truths of the Gospel. With the continuing decline in so many Churches, he emphasised the need to ‘stand in the breach’ and keep faithful to the old-fashioned Gospel message of repentance and salvation.
Outlining some of the major developments in our society today, Mr. Henderson referred to the promotion of same-sex ‘marriage’; 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 and the depravity that can be witnessed in all our major cities as a result of the Gay Pride parades; the introduction of women clergy and women Bishops and the constant threat to introduce Constitutional changes in our land. But, in spite of all these things, the Christian’s rest and trust is in a Sovereign God – and His Word has not changed one iota. God is still on the throne – and He maintains the same attributes today as He ever has – attributes of holiness, righteousness, justice and sin-hating.
This is a great thing to say, my soul: on what foundation dost thou rest this knowledge? If the Lord Jesus hath opened thine eyes, then indeed thou canst not but discover thy former blindness; for during that state of nature thou literally couldst discern nothing. And if thy former blindness be discovered, then thy present sight hath brought thee acquainted with new objects. Pause over the review of both this morning. The blindness of nature to spiritual things is marked in Scripture in strong characters. A poor blind sinner sees nothing of the light of life. The Sun of Righteousness is not risen upon him. He discerns nothing of the love of God in Christ. If he reads the Scripture, the vail is upon his heart. If he hears of Jesus, he sees no beauty in Him. Nothing is nearer to him than the Lord, and nothing further from his thoughts.
“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10
It is strange what unusual places Christ finds some of his people in! I knew one of Christ’s sheep who was found out by his Master while committing robbery. I knew another who was found out by Christ, while he was spiting his old mother by reading the Sunday newspaper and making fun of her. Many have been found by Jesus Christ, even in the midst of sin and vanity. I knew a preacher of the gospel who was converted in a theatre. He was listening to a play, an old-fashioned piece which ended with a sailor drinking a glass of gin before he was hung, and he said, “Here’s to the prosperity of the British nation and the salvation of my immortal soul;” and down went the curtain; and down went my friend too, for he ran home with all his might.
It is greatly to be feared that there are multitudes in Christendom who verily imagine and sincerely believe that they are among the saved, yet who are total strangers to a work of Divine grace in their hearts.
It is one thing to have clear intellectual conceptions of God’s truth; it is quite another matter to have a personal, real heart acquaintance with it.
Wherever the grace of God is, it constrains its partaker to desire to live to His honour and glory. But he soon finds the difficulty of so doing. Such is the weakness of the flesh, the power of sin, the subtlety of Satan, the strength of temptation, and the snares spread on every side for our feet, that we can neither do what we would, or be what we would. Before we are well aware, we get entangled with some idol, or drawn aside into some indulgence of the flesh, which brings darkness into the mind, and may cut us out some bitter work for the rest of our days.
But we thus learn not only the weakness of the flesh, but where and in whom all our strength lies. And as the grace of the Lord Jesus, in its suitability, in its sufficiency and its superaboundings, becomes manifested in and by the weakness of the flesh, a sense of His wondrous love and care in so bearing with us, in so pitying our case, and manifesting mercy where we might justly expect wrath, constrains us with a holy obligation to walk in His fear and to live to His praise.
“Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, we will not hearken.” Jeremiah 6:16-17.
Jeremiah the prophet, by the Holy Ghost, exhorted the professing people of God in his day, who hoped to arrive in Heaven at the end of their earthly lives, to consider the way in which they were travelling. “Stand ye in the ways, and see”; look to the signpost at the crossroads. Find out if you really are in the good way to Heaven, lest you be found at the end in Hell!
When we travel on a journey, we consider it sensible to look for signposts or ask directions. The allegory here shows that our spiritual journey is much the same as an earthly physical one; except that a mistake here is eternally fatal – unless repentance is sought.
Happily, all the directions we need are to be found in the pages of the Bible, the Book of God, which will never lead us astray as we ask the Great Interpreter of it, the Holy Spirit of truth, to lead and guide us.
Question: What’s your response to the two different commandments given to Moses to get water from the rock? (Ex 17:5-6 and Num 20:8). In the first instance, Moses was told to take the rod and the elders and strike the rock. In the second, Moses was told to take the rod and Aaron and speak to the rock. Were these two incidences analogous to Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection? Was Moses punished because either he did not follow God’s command exactly or he messed up the analogy or both? Thanks! I have not read all the articles on your website, but the ones I have read, I have enjoyed and appreciated.
