Tuesday, June 24, 2014

GOD'S ANATHEMA



                                  GOD’S ANATHEMA

“Though we or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8).

Oh, what solemn words to speak! “Removed to another gospel and under the Divine curse.” It is the revelation again of the law of the curse, and the only hope of escape at Calvary. If he will not have Christ as the curse for him, then he comes under the curse for himself. In truth the curse is already upon him, and it is only awaiting the working out of its blighting results. Think of the man who preaches something other than the Gospel of the Cross of Calvary! It is blight in itself to blight other people’s lives with falsehood, which ends them in a hopeless eternity. It is a blight to have professing Christians in other lands turning aside from the atoning work of Jesus Christ, because men in England preach “another gospel” than the Gospel of Calvary. It is an awful thing for preachers and ministers to deepen the curse on men by failure to preach the one Divine Gospel of the Cross. “Let him be accursed!” Let the curse he will not see upon the Lamb of God come to its fruition in himself! Oh, how solemn! God’s Word has declared it, and shows us that these things are working today, whether we see them or not.
 -Adapted from J. Penn-Lewis, in James A. Stewart’s daily devotional guide Drops from the Honeycombs, reading for Feb. 7th.
                                                          
                             WASTED YEARS -CHARLES H. SPURGEON
Yes those wasted years over which we sigh shall be restored to us. God can give us such plentiful grace that we shall crowd into the remainder of our days as much of service as will be some recompense for those years of unregeneracy over which we mourn in humble penitence.
The locusts of backsliding, worldliness, lukewarmness, are now viewed by us as a terrible plague. Oh that they had never come near us! The Lord in mercy has now taken them away, and we are full of zeal to serve Him. Blessed be His name, we can raise such harvests of spiritual graces as shall make our former barrenness to disappear. Through rich grace we can turn to account our bitter experience, and use it to warn others. We can become the more rooted in humility, childlike dependence, and penitent spirituality, by reason of our former shortcomings. If we are the more watchful, zealous, and tender, we shall gain by our lamentable losses. The wasted years, by a miracle of love, can be restored. Does it seem too great a boon?
Let us believe for it, and live for it, and we may yet realize it, even as Peter became all the more useful a man after his presumption was cured by his discovered weakness. “Lord, aid us by thy grace” (Faith’s Checkbook)
                                  
                                  SOMETHING TO REMEMBER
Remember the German pastor and theologian Martin Niemoller. As a staunch anti-Communist concerned about the spread of Bolshevism, he initially supported Adolf Hitler. But when Hitler insisted on the supremacy of the state over religion, Niemoller became the leader of a group of clergymen opposed to Hitler and his increasingly alarming policies. Hitler detested Niemoller and had him arrested and sent to a concentration camp. Along with hundreds of others, he was liberated from Dachau in 1945 by the Allies.
His sobering words regarding apathy need to be heard and heeded by Christians everywhere today:
“In Germany, they came first for the Communists,
And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists,
And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews,
And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . .
And by that time there was no one left to speak up.”
-Quoted by Hank Hanegraaff, Christian Research Institute (Thanks to Wylie Fulton)
                                
                                     MAN TOTALLY INCAPABLE
"Man is totally incapable, he is without any strength at all in the matter of his salvation... Man as he is born into this world is totally unable to please God. His righteousness is but as filthy rags. Man does not like to be told that, and he does not believe it."- Martyn Lloyd-Jones via Monergism Books
                                 
                                     TIDBITS ABOUT THE BIBLE
"The Christian is bred by the Word, and he must be fed by it." - William Gurnall
"The Scripture is the library of the Holy Ghost; it is a pandect of divine knowledge, an exact model and platform of religion. The Scripture contains in it the 'credenda' (the things which we are to believe) and the 'agenda' (the things which we are to practice)." - Thomas Watson

"Our object should not be to have scripture on our side but to be on the side of scripture; and however dear any sentiment may have become by being long entertained, so soon as it is seen to be contrary to the Bible, we must be prepared to abandon it without hesitation." William Symington.

“Since most things mankind learns is from books, why would men say that God's book is untrue? The burden of proof is on them, for they are saying some other writings by Bible denying atheists are more true than the Bible. They are actually saying in effect that other books are greater, more accurate, more infalliable than the Bible. The Bible claims to be the word of God; accurate; infalliable. Put it to the test!” -Charles Woodruff

 “If we compare the present state of the New Testament text with that of any other ancient writing, we must... declare it to be marvelously correct. Such has been the care with which the New Testament has been copied - a care which has doubtless grown out of true reverence for its holy words.... The New Testament is unrivaled among ancient writings in the purity of its test as actually transmitted and kept in use.” Benjamin Warfield

 "Compare Scripture with Scripture. False doctrines, like false witnesses, agree not among     themselves."- William Gurnall
    Published by Charles Woodruff- email: oursong2000@yahoo.com