The Oldest Trick in the Book

“Ye shall be as gods.” Here we see from the very beginning, Satan’s subtle way of getting man’s undivided attention. Dirt becoming Divine was very persuasive then, and still is today. The rallying cry of all those who fall for, and swallow, this ancient trick is, “Glory to man in the highest.”

But this godless humanism has now evolved from “Ye shall be as gods,” to “Ye are gods.” It is now taught by these sons of Satan that all are born with a spark of deity in them. The Biblical teaching that every man and woman is birthed totally depraved is loathsome and unacceptable to their degenerate way of thinking.

This New Age teaching is not new at all; it is as old as the Bible itself. You might say, “It’s the oldest trick in the Book.” And as P.T. Barnum said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

Barefoot at the Bush

"Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, [even] to Horeb. And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush [was] not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here [am] I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest [is] holy ground. Ex.3:1-5

Moses’ bush still burns, but it’s only to be found in the lonely, barren, wilderness. Scrub bushes do not generally grow in the environment many of us are accustomed to. Like most valued things in life, you can’t find the right thing in the wrong place. The mass of today’s professing Christians will never have a bush experience, for one of two reasons. First, they detest spending time in the desert; they don’t like the heat. And secondly, if by some strange circumstance they are dragged to a wasteland, they have little or no interest in a common scrub bush, even one with an eternal flame.

Moses had something that has been lost in this present generation: a holy curiosity. Anyone who will take the time to “turn aside to see,” will find God still speaks. The little three lettered word “awe” is found three times in the Bible. All in the book of Psalms. We are no longer awed by a sense God; we use the term flippantly about everything and everyone that is of little or no value. It is difficult to find intelligent inquirers who want to discuss “the bush that burneth with fire.” Second hand religion is in vogue among God’s people. We’re like those of Moses’ day, who said, “Speak thou with us …but let not God speak with us.

Moses never got over his bush experience. Years later, when speaking to Israel, he mentions “Him that dwelt in the bush.” Our God is a “consuming fire.” Get close enough to allow yourself to be turned to ashes. If you will, then He will “give unto [you] beauty for ashes.”

The Truth About Ourselves

Having pastored twenty, out of a fifty-five year ministry, I found many who came to me for advice actually were seeking agreement. It is difficult to tell someone what they need to know, when they want to know something else. It’s tragic but true, the people of Isaiah’s time still exist, “Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits.”

In the movie “A Few Good Men,” Jack Nicholson, playing a Marine officer, says to the character played by Tom Cruise’s, “You can’t handle the truth.” I wonder if this could not be said of many of us. The acid test in knowing the truth about oneself is not when we say it of ourselves, but when others say it to us. That sick felling we get inside, and the justifying spirit that so quickly rises up to defend, proves we can’t handle the truth.

At times God chooses “Dumb Donkeys” to speak to us. Some of us, like Baalim, can’t handle it when He does.

Pygmy's and High-Jumping

In the high-jump contest, the horizontal bar the jumper is to clear is generally known as the "high bar." In my opinion, contemporary Christianity has set the high bar so low that a pygmy could step over it with no effort at all. When I started out on my pilgrim journey with Christ over fifty-five years ago, the reason sinners gave for not becoming a Christian was, "I can't live it." Meaning, they believed God had high standards for low-living people.

Today, we no longer hear old-time sermons on subjects such as, "The High Cost of Low Living." The reason to any thinking person is obvious. When something becomes the norm, society and professing Christendom are apt to accept it as the rule; even if the results are ruin. There is a grace that is a disgrace, a love that is lascivious, and those who preach and practice such heresies are 'professors' of the Christian faith, not 'possessors' of the "Pearl of Great Price."

I am appalled at seasoned saints who are taken-in by these 'cotton-candy' Christians. They are elated whenever one of the pseudo-believers, who is usually a loved one or close friend, mentions the name Jesus, Church, Bible, or God; but who continue in their wicked life-style. Without repentance or acknowledgement of their sinfulness, they are accepted back into full fellowship in families and churches by simply, "...sewing a piece of new cloth on an old garment." Which Jesus said makes it worse!

"My backslidden members thirty-years ago would be considered my best, by today's standards." 

(quote by my late pastor friend, Jim Barnes)

Old School Christianity

I had a dear evangelist friend, now with the Lord, who depicted today's Christians as people who think they should always have the "warm fuzzies." Christianity to many today is made up of fun and games, its always, party time with them. To strip these happy-go-lucky campers of their outward glittering lights and tinsel would be unbearable. To have a religion that must be lived a great part of the time in the raw, that is, with no trappings, is unthinkable.

But authentic Christianity is just that, according to the New Testament. I like the way George MacDonald describes a real-honest-to-goodness saint. "That man is perfect in faith who can come to God in the utter dearth of his feelings and desires, without a glow or aspiration, with the weight of low thoughts, failures, neglects, and wandering forgetfulness, and say to Him, "Thou art my refuge." 

In my humble opinion we need to throw out this contemporary "giddy" Christianity for some old school, "gutsy" Christianity!   

Christ Without Clutter

I like to refer to the book of Hebrews as, “The Him Book.” Those early Jewish believers had turned their backs on the Temple, with all its relics and trappings, for Christ and Christ alone. In place of Temple worship, small groups met in homes. This went on for centuries. One of the main things they left behind when leaving the Temple was their religious ritualism.

This simple type of Christianity is always a threat to Micah’s Clan (Judges 18), as well as those who emulate his religion. Some years ago one of “Micah’s ministers” put out a pamphlet against us “Plain Protestants”. It reads;

A religion which has:
No priest, no Holy Mass, or Communion,
No Jesus in the Tabernacle, no Crucifix,
No blessed Virgin, no Mother, no Rosary,
No Saints and no statues of them,
No baptism for your babies,
No visible forgiveness for sinners,
No last Sacraments for the dying,
No prayers for the beloved dead,
No purgatory to ready for heaven,
No blessing in life or in death,
Not a candle, flower, or bell,
No head, no rule, no catechism—­­
But only preaching and singing—only a Bible and a song book.
Such a religion is not, cannot be, the religion of Christ.

What a blessed condemnation! My Primitive Baptist granny, who chewed twist tobacco and smoked a corn-cob pipe, used to go to church carrying only her song book, with her Bible on top of it. As the song goes, “It was good for my Granny, and it’s good enough for me.” That is, the Bible and song book. (smiling)

The Widow and the Rich Man

"A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked."

We are told by Jesus the poor widow woman who gave into the treasury, "...threw in two mites, which make a farthing," (the Greek mite was 1/2 cent; the Roman farthing 1 cent; she put in a penny). Hence our Lord tells us, "...she of her penury (poverty) hath cast in all the living that she had." According to the wise man in our text (and the Rich Fool in Luke), her little penny was better than the rich man's plenty. She put in, we would say today, "Her last cent." 

Jesus doesn't look at what we give, but rather what we have left. The Pharisees gave out of their abundance, but had much left; the Poor Widow gave out of her poverty and had nothing left. The greatest day in a child of God's life is when he or she can come to God and say, "Lord, I truly do not know of anything in my life I have not given you, and humbly say with Christ, 'All mine is Thine.'"

Paul tells the early believers, and us, it is alright to have as long as we're not possessive. He instructs them, " they that buy, [be] as though they possessed not." That is, they could have things as long as the things didn't have them. In our relationship to God, I have found it wise to keep, what I like to refer to as, an "open-handed" relationship. Or as the little saying goes, "LET GO AND LET GOD!"

"You can't lose what you've given to God!"

Looking Past the Cross

"Looking unto Jesus...who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him..."

It is true Jesus never lost sight of the Cross, but just as true is the fact that from our text, He endured it, He didn't endear it. It is dear to us but was distasteful to Him. It was a cup, humanly speaking, He asked the Father to remove from Him. But, thank God, the great word, "nevertheless," was always a part of His prayer vocabulary. 

The Cross was something in God's Will for Him on earth as He journeyed Home. It was one of the unpleasantries of life we all, in a lesser form or fashion, must face as we travel life's pathway on the way to our everlasting abode. The Cross was not His final destination, nor is it ours, but the Father's House!

If we 'consider' Him when faced with our own miniature Gethsemane and Calvary, we'll look past the gruesomeness before us to the glory that awaits us. Remember always those most encouraging words of one who was very much acquainted with suffering, "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are
eternal." 

Paul pitted twenty years of suffering against eternal bliss and came to the conclusion the former was, "but for a moment."  

In-Step or Out-of-Step?

A Christian should always be out-of-step with the world, and in-step with God. But sad to say, from my observation, most of God's people today keep in perfect step marching to the world's cadence. Rather than, like Enoch of old, walking with God, they walk, as Paul puts it, "according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air "Amos, the prophet, tells us we will never be in-step with the Lord until we are in agreement with Him. "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?"

We are told one of the twelve tribes of Israel, "Of Zebulun, such as went forth to battle, expert in war, with all instruments of war, fifty-thousand, which could keep rank: they were not of double heart." The rank and file of Jehovah's warriors march to a different drumbeat than that of the Philistines. If you can stay in step with the enemies of Christ, you're in the wrong army! As the saying goes, "A man, or woman, is known by the company they keep."

I joined the Air Force at seventeen, at the outbreak of the Korean war. During marching times, I was consistently out of step with the rest. When their left foot came down, my right one did. The drill instructor said, "You need to learn the difference between your left and right foot." So he put a two pound rock in my left hand till I knew the difference. Many who are keeping in tempo with this godless world need to pickup a two-pound rock and carry it around until you know better.

Five Keys to Opening the Holy Scriptures

The Fourth Key...The Scriptures Must Be Obeyed

Thus saith the LORD God...Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant"

It is a serious thing indeed to take lightly the obeying of the scriptures. Saul lost a kingdom, the power of the Holy Spirit, and even his life, because he did not take them to heart. All his "spiritual" excuses for not adhering to God's Word did not hold up under Samuel's, "To obey is better." There is no better thing in this world than for a man or woman to obey their Creator and God! In the Bible, we find all of creation obeys God, from the sun and moon to a dumb ass; with one sad exception, mankind. 

The little book of James was written for the purpose of challenging the people of God to be, "Doers of the Word, and not hearers only." He explicitly tells us, it is only the "doers," who are blessed of God. God's promise to obedient doers of His Word is, "Obey my voice (Words), and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God." Accordingly, it would seem, there is no legitimate reason to believe one belongs to the people of God, or that God is their God, who does not obey His revealed Word.

A little boy applying for an adult position in a country store was asked by the proprietor, "And just what can you do son? His answer, "I can do what I'm told, Sir."  

Five Keys to Opening the Holy Scriptures

The Third Key...The Scriptures Must be Opened

"Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures."

  

It is not difficult to know when Christ is opening the scriptures to us. Our testimony will be like that of the disciples, "And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us...while he opened to us the scriptures?" Holy Ann, an old Irish scrub woman, could miraculously read the Bible, but nothing else. Her employer teasingly showed her a newspaper in which the word "Lord," referring to a politician, was found. When shown, she recognized the word, but said, "This 'tis not speakin' of me Lord, for me heart does not burn within me when me reads it." 

Great Bible saints, both in Old and New Testament, were fully aware of this. David, a man after God's own heart, penned, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." And Paul prayed for his converts that God would open the eyes of their understanding. We need to pray the Holy Spirit that he would apply the eyesalve spoken of in Revelation, to our eyes, when reading the scriptures, that we might see. May our request be always that of the blind man, when Jesus asked, "What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight." 

Open my eyes that I may see

Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me;

Place in my hands the wonderful key

That shall unclasp and set me free.

Silently now I wait for Thee,

Ready, my God, Thy will to see;

Open my eyes, illumine me,

    Spirit Divine!

  

Five Keys to Opening the Holy Scriptures

The Second Key...The Scriptures Must be Believed

"...when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe."

Just as a stick of dynamite, the Bible lies dormant until the fuse of belief is lit. It is the power of God to everyone that believeth. The preserved Word of God, the A.V. 1611 KJV, consists of 3,566,480 letters. But all of these remain in the 'dead letter' bin until given life by the spirit of belief. It is at this time the explosion occurs: walls fall down flat; lions' mouths are closed; mountains are moved out of their place; violent storms are calmed; fiery trials are quenched; bitter waters are turned into sweet, etc.

But if God is to blow the hinges off the prison gates that hold us captive, there must first be belief in His Word! The writer of Hebrews tells us, speaking of our forefathers, "but the word...did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it." Satan's purpose from the beginning was to destroy all belief in the Word of God. The Psalmist plainly tells us we can "limit the Holy One of Israel," by unbelief. We are told of Jesus' ministry, "He could there do no mighty works because of their unbelief." 

My favorite New Testament story is found in John's gospel, chapter four. It illustrates what I've been attempting to get across. 

"There was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death.Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die. Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth. Then enquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house."

"Act as though it were, and you'll experience it as it is." - rds

   

Five Keys to Opening the Holy Scriptures

The First Key...The Scriptures Must Be Read

"And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written..."

Familiarity with a subject precedes understanding your subject. It is no wonder then that Jesus challenged the people of His day to follow His example: "Have ye not read what David did; have ye not read in the law; Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning; have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God; And have ye not read this scripture; have ye not read in the book of Moses; Have ye not read so much as this..." 

Jesus was literally saturated with the scriptures, so much so that He is refereed to as, "The Word of God." My wife can attest to the fact that my constant prayer is, "Lord, I want to be 'soaked' in the scriptures." Paul admonishes us to, "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly." I fear many, if not most, professing Christians are paupers when it comes to storing up God's treasure in their "earthen vessels." A sad testimony is this: "I have nothing to set before them."

I'd like to give you, my readers, the same good advice Isaiah gave the people of his day, "Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read." I doubt seriously anyone can be in the Will of God without making much of the Word of God! I want to encourage any and all who have grown weary of the Word, to read David's one-hundredth and nineteenth Psalm. I guarantee, if you're a sincere believer, you will say with darling David when finished, "O, how love I thy law! 

Jesus, Lover of My Soul

In H.A. Ironside's little book on Song of Solomon, he presents a most blessed and precious devotional teaching to this misunderstood book. He shows that the bride's shepherd lover is secretly her king, in disguise. When brought into the royal banqueting hall to be married to the king, with amazement, she finds her lover was her king all the time; they were one in the same. For the Spiritually minded I need not expound or apply this truth any further. Your heart is already leaping, I'm sure.

In my devotional time, when possible, I like to go through a book at one sitting. That way I get a hold on the book's overall teaching; but whats even more important, it gets a hold of me. Recently, as I was listening to this book being read by the golden-voiced Alexander Scourby, I was impressed with one great truth. No matter one's interpretation, there is one overriding fact, above all else. These two lovers could talk of nothing else other than each other; they were hopelessly and helplessly in love. Whenever a friend or acquaintance of one met the other for the first time, I'm sure they said, "So glad to meet you, I've heard so much about you!" 

In Job chapter twenty-six, he describes some of the mighty workings of God and ends by saying, "but how little a portion is heard of him? Some years ago a young church pianist asked what my favorite gospel song was, that he might play it that night during our revival meeting. My answer was, "Jesus, Lover of My Soul." His answer, "O, I don't think I've ever heard that one." Enough said.  

The Prison Break

“Bring my soul out of prison.” There were stocks, chains, iron bars and gates, along with the guards. But God delivered His saints from their prisons. To name just a few: Joseph, Jeremiah, Peter, and Paul. But there is something worse than being held physically in prison, and that is for the soul to be imprisoned.

Thank God, David tells us the Lord can deliver us spiritually as well as physically. Many of us are held in the prison house of despair. We are confined to a cell that is dark and suffocating. There is no morning light or fresh air. There are no windows or doors for any hope of escape. It holds us with its icy embrace. It’s a castle of gloom—a castle of captivity.

But there is, “good tidings.” We are told Jesus came, “to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” Dear ones, He can open the door of the cage that has held us for so long in captivity. Let us take the wings of faith and fly into the Heavenlies!

Fear not: the key He holds can open any door; it’s the Master Key.