Study!!!!

God Knows.

1. He knows “Our Secrets.”
Psm
44:21 Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the
heart.

2. He Knows “Our Ways”
Psm
1:6 For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of
the ungodly shall perish.

3. He knows “Our Frame”
Psm:
103:14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

4. He knows “Our Helplessness”
2.Pet: 2:9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations,
and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished

5. He knows ‘ Our needs’
Matthew: 6:8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what
things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

6. He knows “Our faithfulness”
Nahum: 1:7 The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he
knoweth them that trust in him.

7. He knows “Our sorrows”
Exo: 3:7 And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people
which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their
taskmasters; for I know their sorrows.

Give Thanks To The Lord Jesus Christ.



 

THE SEVEN "BLESSEDS"​
There are seven benedictions in the book of Revelation, which will repay every Christian's closest study. The first occurs in the opening lines of John's Apocalypse: "Blessed is he who reads, and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein." Just at the close of the Apocalypse, is another similar passage: "Blessed is he who keeps the sayings of the prophecy of this book." These two verses are like the golden clasps, one on each lid, which hold together a dear old family Bible. The divine commendation is here pronounced on the Bible-reader and the Bible-keeper. God's Word always honors itself. No man is fit to preach it—who ever skims over the truthfulness and authority of its every page.
The next benediction is pronounced upon the gospel-guests: "Blessed are they who are called unto the marriage-supper of the Lamb." This is what our sound old fathers style "effectual calling." Those who are drawn by the attraction of the cross—are renewed by the Holy Spirit. Theirs is a place at the celestial banquet. Upon them is put the clean and white linen, which is the righteousness of Christ. How careful should every disciple be—to walk unspotted from the world, for every stain looks ugly upon a white ground. Why should we wait until our arrival in heaven—to look clean!
There is a hint as to the method of keeping pure, clearly given in the third benediction: "Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walks naked and they see his shame." No believer can preserve the purity of his character, without prayerful vigilance. "Watch!" And one reason for this watchfulness, is that Christ's coming is to be as unannounced as the midnight robbery of a burglar. The thief never sends us word that he is coming to steal our clothes. It will be a terrible thing to lose our wedding-garment.
Upon the gospel-doers, rests the sweet approval of the fourth benediction. It is the blessing upon those "that keep His commandments." The evidence and the joy of discipleship, both lie in obedience to Christ. This is what the world has a right to demand from us—a religion of fruits. Away with the wretched delusion that "good works" have no place in the Christian's salvation! Faith without works—is dead. He, and he alone, who is born of Christ will be able to pass this searching ordeal. Christ's approval at the last great day will be, "You did it unto me."
The next blessing in John's wonderful Revelation, is that angelic voice which floats over the resting-place of the pious dead. "Blessed are the dead—who die in the Lord." To them the perils of the voyage are over. They have cast anchor in the haven. They are safe. Peter shall never deny again, and Paul will no more be obliged to battle with an unruly "body." Calvin and Wesley can clasp hands over the glorious fact that neither one of them shall ever fall from grace. That is a joyful anthem which sings itself so sweetly over a believer's dust, "Blessed is he—for he died in the Lord."
About the last one of the benedictions in this sublime book, there has been no little controversy: "Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection." Our Millenarian brethren make much of this passage; but none of their ingenious speculations seem to clarify the mystery which hangs over that word "first." It is enough for me that if I fall to sleep in Jesus—I shall awake with him. Little does the date trouble me, or the question of precedence. There is not an unmarked grave in all Christ's household of the slumberers. He will call them up at the last day. "We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him!"
When we all reach that celestial home, we shall see these seven "blesseds" shining like the seven candlesticks before the throne!

by Theodore Cuyler, 1883​
 
Seven Great Possessions belong to The Risen Lord.

Rev 5:11 And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the
throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was
ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;
5:12 Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to
receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor,
and glory, and blessing.

I Chronicles 29:10 Wherefore David blessed the LORD before all the congregation:
and David said, Blessed be thou, LORD God of Israel our father,
for ever and ever.
29:11 Thine, O LORD is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and
the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the
earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted
as head above all.
29:12 Both riches and honor come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and
in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make
great, and to give strength unto all.


1. Christ, The Power.

I Cor 1:24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the
power of God, and the wisdom of God.


2. Christ, The Rich.

II Cor 8:9 For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he
was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his
poverty might be rich.


3. Christ, The Wisdom.

I Cor 1:24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the
power of God, and the wisdom of God.


4. Christ, The Strength,

Phil 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.


5. Christ , The Honour.

Phil 2:11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God the Father.

6. Christ, The Glory.

John 1:14 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.


7. Christ, The Blessing.

Rev 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power:
for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and
were created.

7:12 Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving,
and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and
ever. Amen.

 
The Cedar Christian
Strolling one bright summer morning over the velvet carpet of Chatsworth Park, we came suddenly upon a cedar of Lebanon. It was the first and only one we ever saw—this lone representative of the most regal family of trees upon the globe. Every bough was laden with glorious association to us. Broad, gnarled, rough old tree as it was—yet it blossomed with poetry and hung golden with heavenly teachings. As we gazed through our tears at the exiled sovereign, the voice of the psalmist was in our ears, "The righteous shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon."
With that hardy veteran of Chatsworth in our mind's eye, let us say a word about the kind of cedar Christians that we need in our day. Of pliant, willow church-members; of brash and brittle basswood professors; of pretentious, fashion-following, bay-tree Christians—we have quite too many. Give us more cedars for the pulpit and for the pews!
1. The first quality of the cedar, is that it GROWS. It is a live tree. Where there is hearty life—there must be growth. And it is the lamentable lack of inward godliness, which makes the stunted professor. There is not vitalizing sap enough in his heart-roots to reach up into the boughs of his outward conduct. There is not vigor enough in the trunk of his character, to stand erect. No answering showers brought down by fervent prayer, cleanse the dust of worldliness from his yellow, sicklied leaves.
There he is—just as he set out in the church a score of years ago; no larger, no broader, no brighter in graces than he was then! The caterpillars of lust have spun their unsightly webs all over his branches. He has not grown an inch—in any one Bible trait. He has not yielded one single fruit of the Spirit. He is a cumberer of the ground—fit only to be cut down. He is all the while drinking up God's pure air and water—and yet fulfilling Satan's purpose! Not of such a prayer-neglecting professor, not of such a time-serving, money-loving, fashion-worshiping professor, could we honestly say, "He grows like a cedar in Lebanon."
2. But the cedar not only grows; it has a peculiar style of growth which God's people may well imitate. It grows through all weathers. It is a hardy tree, or else it could not live a month in the arctic climate of Lebanon's sky-piercing summits. Delicate plants might thrive on the warm lap of southern exposures—but not up among the rifts of whirling snows, or where the steel-like air gleams under the silent moon. Sudden hurricanes may twist off the gorgeous magnolias of the valley, or crack the brittle bay-tree—but let the gale rage ever so fiercely on Lebanon's blustering heights, let the snow-squadrons join battle—the cedar tosses the tempest from its elastic boughs, and stands firm like the everlasting mountain under it.
In God's Church there are to be found just such hearty characters, storm-proof, money-proof, temptation-proof. What a plantation of such cedars were the early apostles! What a coronet of stalwart storm -defiers graced the summit of God's Zion in Reformation days! John Knox, who never feared the face of man; burly Latimer, who marched singing to Smithfield's kindled stake; John Huss, gazing up into the open heavens from the suffocating smoke and flame which are wrapping his tortured limbs—all these were cedars through whose branches the very gales of persecution made glorious music.
Here and there—is such a cedar Christian discoverable in our century. They never bend. They never break. They never compromise. To such Christians, worldliness comes, and smooth-tongued expediency comes, and sensual pleasure comes—but "finds nothing in them." Hurricanes come down amain upon them—but the cedar of principle proves an overmatch for the blast of selfishness, worldliness, or power. Persecution only makes the roots of resolution strike the deeper, and the trunk of testimony stand the firmer.
3. The greatest peril to such Christians as read these lines, will not come in the form of persecution—but rather from those secret influences which are the most fatal in the every-day life of the professor. There is a whole colony of busy insects which will test the quality of a believer's timber.
Insidious worms gnaw out the very heart of the pretended piety of the false professor. When the community is shocked by the scandalous sin of some prominent man in the church—it is only the crack of a beam which was worm-eaten by secret sin long before!
He alone is a cedar of Christ's training and polishing—who is sound to the very core! For the cedar was famous for its solidity of wood. It knew no decay. It afforded no asylum to any stealthy insect—which turned its aromatic wood into dust and ashes. Therefore did Israel's royal temple-builder select it for the most conspicuous and important portions of the edifice on Mount Moriah. With its fine grain, its high polish, and delightful fragrance, every lintel and every door-post was at once a strength and an ornament to the temple of the living God. So stand the faithful, fearless minister of Christ, the incorruptible Christian layman, the unflinching testimony-bearer for the truth as it is in Jesus. They bid defiance to the worm of sin while they live, and to the worm of calumny when they are dead. Centuries hence their memory will be as sound and as fragrant as the chests of sandal-wood in which the Oriental kings were accustomed to conceal their treasures.
4. The last noticeable thing with the cedar is its breadth of limb. The verdant veteran of Chatsworth had a diameter of branches, greater than his height. Elliot informs us that he saw cedars on the top of Lebanon that were thirty feet in circumference of trunk! Their limbs were so wide-spreading that the diameter of the branches from the extreme of one side of the tree to the opposite extreme was one hundred feet! Under that majestic canopy a whole regiment might find shelter. Now, we need not go far to find just such a broad-armed Christian. Broad in his sympathy with all the "faithful in Christ Jesus" of every sect; broad in his love of man, irrespective of climate, color, or condition; broad in his financial benevolence, is our cedar brother. Hundreds of happy beneficiaries lie down under the shadow of his liberality. The poor scholar whom he helps with books, the poor orphan whom he helps to a home, the poor harlot and the drunkard for whom he builds the asylum, the poor sin-struck heathen man of far-away India to whom he sends the "good tidings," are, each and all, the richer for his broad-limbed beneficence.
There is room for regiments of sufferers to encamp under such a man. It will make a sore and sorrowful void—when that imperial cedar is transplanted to the banks of the crystal river in the Paradise of God!
Theodore Cuyler, 1896​
 
THE SALT OF THE EARTH
"You are the salt of the earth." Matt 5:13
The people of God are in the world, not only for its instruction, but for its preservation also. This is the great purpose of salt in the natural world, to withstand corruption in the earth. This is also the aspect of Christian usefulness, which it is employed to describe. The people of God are here to resist and counteract the power of human sin; to preserve men from ruin under the burden of their iniquities. To rescue the wretched, and save the lost, and restore the decaying, is their great responsibility and office in the world. Thus they are divinely employed, and for this they are divinely blessed. They are thus the salt of the earth. It is a most important title. I would faithfully realize its meaning and its purpose in myself, and in my own relationships to the world around me. If I am to be the salt of the earth,
1. Then I ought to exercise a positive influence in the world.This is the purpose and property of salt. It is intended in all things to exercise its own power to influence and change; and such is the grace of God in the heart and life of man; and such must be the actions of the man thus changed, in his communion with others. My influence must all be active. To restrain evil; to overcome hostility; to increase happiness; to diminish sorrow among men--to the utmost extent of my power. My personal influence may be more or less in amount. This is not under my own control. God assigns me my place and my station. But whatever its amount, its character must always be the same. It must be manifest and active. I cannot yield to the sinful influence of others. I am to counteract and overcome it. For this I am in the world. Not to seek my own pleasure, but to promote and testify the truth. For this I must exert myself continually. It will not do for me to go through the world in a mere negative character. I must ask, Whom have I blessed? To whom have I been a savor of life? Salt that has lost its savor is profitable for nothing. A Christian without active religious usefulness is no better. Let me solemnly look to this.
2. Then I ought to cultivate the active power of grace in my own heart.Grace is to influence my own character, before I can be the instrument of grace to others. The attributes of my nature are all to be subdued and sanctified by a Divine power. My mind, my judgment, my heart, my will, must all receive and manifest the influence of this heavenly salt. It will sanctify my conversation. It will govern and direct my actions. It will adorn the whole current and course of my life. Thus it will become active in blessing and saving others; but it will not without my constant cultivation of its growth and power within myself. It must, therefore, be a constant subject of effort and watchfulness with me. To be useful to others, I must be alive in myself. If religion is really living in my heart, it will become natural and easy for me to do good. This ought to be my state. I will endeavor that it may be. I am not straitened in God. I will strive to improve the abundant privileges he bestows. I can do no good unless I have a clear consciousness of my own sincerity in the service of Christ, and of my real fellowship with him.
3. Then I ought to be constantly watchful over my daily walk among men.Influence is always active. I cannot refuse to exercise it. It is not under my control in its existence and operation. In its character it may be. Oh that my influence might be always for good! Wherever I am, something may be done or left undone, something may be said or withheld, which must exercise an influence, and may be made to produce a good influence upon others. How many secret thoughts come from what we see and hear, even when they are not addressed to us; no, even when we hear by mere accident! I cannot tell what thoughts I may be the means of exciting; or what direction, even permanent direction, I may thus give to the character and mind of some other person. Oh let them not testify against me! Let me labor ever for good! I ought never to be unguarded. How much evil to myself, and to others, may come from one unguarded or hasty act or moment! Let me ever walk circumspectly, and be salt indeed, in the associations in which the will of God has placed me.
4. Then I must be careful not to lose the gifts of grace myself.Salt that has lost its savor is good for nothing. It cannot be used, like many other substances, in its decomposition and decay. It is cast out; trodden under foot. Oh could there be another such illustration of a useless and unprofitable professing Christian? Of what worth can he be? Fit for nothing. If a minister of the gospel becomes corrupt, he is odious. Desirable for no position. Trusted in none. If a Christian be light, or vain, or worldly, he is a great evil. Far greater than if he had never professed to be the servant of Christ. How great is the danger of this to me! How terrific will be the responsibility for it! Shall I ever become an apostate? Shall I ever be a mere monument of human deceitfulness and crime in the church of Christ? Oh let me watch and pray, and strive against this tremendous evil! God only can keep me from it. But if I seek him and trust him, he will keep me.
5. Such are the properties of salt--as illustrating Christian character. Active influence upon others; dependent upon the living power within; to be maintained in unceasing operation; worthless if this be lost. Oh let me be the salt of the earth, and learn and try to do the will of God from my heart. Let my influence, conversation; example, and habits of life all be made subservient to my Master's will, and promotive of my Master's glory.
Oh may I never silence break,
Unless I with your guidance speak;
Then sanctify my every word,
That I may honor you, my Lord.
by Stephen Tyng
 
JESUS AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
1. What the First Commandment says: "Do not worship any other gods."-Exodus 20:3
What Jesus said: "You must worship the Lord your God; serve only him."-Matthew 4:10

2. What the Second Commandment says: "Do not make idols of any kind."-Exodus 20:4
What Jesus said: "No one can serve two masters."-Luke 16:13

3. What the Third Commandment says: "Do not misuse the name of the LORD."-Exodus 20:7
What Jesus said: "Don't make any vows! If you say, ‘By heaven!' it is a sacred vow because heaven is God's throne."-Matthew 5:34

4. What the Fourth Commandment says: "Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy."-Exodus 20:8-10
What Jesus said: "The Sabbath was made to benefit people, and not people to benefit the Sabbath. And I, the Son of Man, am master even of the Sabbath!"-Mark 2:27-28

5. What the Fifth Commandment says: "Honor your father and mother."-Exodus 20:12
What Jesus said: "If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine."-Matthew 10:37

6. What the Sixth Commandment says: "Do not murder."-Exodus 20:13
What Jesus said: "If you are angry with someone, you are subject to judgment!"-Matthew 5:22

7. What the Seventh Commandment says: "Do not commit adultery."-Exodus 20:14
What Jesus said: "Anyone who even looks at a woman with lust in his eye has already committed adultery with her in his heart."-Matthew 5:28

8. What the Eighth Commandment says: "Do not steal."-Exodus 20:15
What Jesus said: "If . . . your shirt is taken from you, give your coat too."-Matthew 5:40

9. What the Ninth Commandment says: "Do not testify falsely against your neighbor."-Exodus 20:16
What Jesus said: "You must give an account on judgment day of every idle word you speak."-Matthew 12:36

10. What the Tenth Commandment says: "Do not covet."-Exodus 20:17
What Jesus said: "Beware! Don't be greedy for what you don't have."-Luke 12:15
 
Holy war!
(Winslow, "The Cross of Christ, the Christian's Weapon")

"They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb."

The weapon that is to conquer the world for Christ,
is to conquer the world of evil in our hearts; and,
wielded by the arm of faith, is to vanquish and
overcome all the spiritual opposition by which our
path to heaven is intercepted.

We are to overcome, as these martyrs
overcame, by the blood of the Lamb.

Heavenly and invincible is this weapon.

No foe can cope with it.

No opposition can resist it.

No confederacy overcome it.

Feeble though the arm may be that wields
it, the blood of Jesus, as both an offensive
and defensive weapon, is all powerful and
irresistible in our holy war.

Whatever may be the foe with whom you wage
this holy war, whatever the obstacle to your
advance in the divine life; faith, looking to the
blood of Jesus, wielding the cross of Christ,
drawing its supplies from the resources of Christ,
will enroll you among those who overcome by
the blood of the Lamb!

 
Back
Top