SEPTEMBER 30
SUGGESTED READING: MARK 7:24–30
Jesus answered, and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again (John 4:13).
In the days of His flesh, our Lord worked nearly exclusively with Jews. But occasionally a Gentile burst through the crowd; and when that happened, Jesus Christ dealt with that person in a totally different manner. In every case of our Lord’s dealings with a religious Jew, there is a sort of serious solemnity about the Jew and about our Lord. But when He came in contact with a Greek, He seems to embrace the sharp wit of the Greek and deals with that person accordingly.
The account of the Syrophoenician woman in Matthew 15 is a good example. As the incident begins, the Lord wanted to be alone. He had a lot of publicity, and He was trying to get His disciples away when this Gentile woman burst through the crowd with a request. Jesus paid no attention to her. The reason was quite obvious—He wanted to be quiet.
Watch how our Lord dealt with her. He gave her a proverb and she gave Him a proverb back: “It is not meet to fling the meat to very little dogs.” The woman replied, “But it is quite legitimate for the dogs to catch the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.”
We Christian workers wonder how we are to get these irreligious, yet healthy-minded people to the place where they will want Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Many people seem to be happy without Him. They are moral and upright. But our Lord describes them as lost.
PRAYER THOUGHT: O God, help me to help patiently those who say they are “happy and content without Jesus.”
SUGGESTED READING: ROMANS 3:24–31
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 3:24).
Just as the Syrophoenician came to our Lord at the end of a busy day, you will find that “healthy-minded” folks often come to you when you are fagged out. They will want to ask you all kinds of questions.
They did of the apostle Paul. They asked, “What will this babbler say? What is he talking about? He is evidently talking about some new religion.” Paul preached to them Jesus Christ and His marvelous resurrection from the dead. But some of them ridiculed him. When Paul wrote his Epistle to the Corinthians, he said, “We preach Christ crucified, … to the Greeks foolishness” (1 Cor. 1:23).
Every worker for God has surely come across the type of person who makes him feel foolish. Such a person’s external life is quite upright and sterling, and he puts questions to you that bring you to a complete standstill. You cannot answer them, and thus he succeeds in making you feel amazingly foolish.
For instance, you preach that Jesus Christ lived and died and rose again to save us from our sins and put us right with God. But some people will tell you quite honestly that they have no sin of which they are conscious. And you cannot point to a spot in their whole lives. So they say, “What is the good in Jesus Christ dying for me? I am all right; I do exactly what I ought to do. I am not a thief. I am not a sinner. Why did Jesus Christ want to die for me?”
That line of reasoning, when you are not used to it, produces a sense of unutterable foolishness on your part. But you must continue to tell those people the truth.
PRAYER THOUGHT: I confess, Lord, that all of us are sinners. Only through grace and mercy do we have hope of redemption.
SUGGESTED READING: 1 CORINTHIANS 1:17–31
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me (John 12:32).
Gallio was an ordinary pagan—upright, sterling, and just—and when they brought Paul before him he did not care for any of these things the apostle was saying. Gallio did not care for the apostle Paul either. He said, in effect, “If it is a question of justice or injustice, I am here to decide it. But do not come here with your religious quarrels; I have nothing whatever to do with them.”
We shall have opponents who ignore us. When they do, we should examine the kind of Lord Jesus we are erecting for them to observe. If we are teaching before the kind of pagan I have described—a person upright, righteous, and just, but without a spark of religion—and if we are only teaching that Jesus Christ can save sinners, that is not the Jesus Christ that person needs. We have to preach every aspect of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, revealed in God’s Word.
We must not teach only one phase of Christ’s work. Have I a pet doctrine I am working? Then those “healthy-minded folks” will simply heap ridicule on me. But when I share the whole gospel of Christ, something else happens. The Spirit of God begins to work where I cannot touch.
We must offer Christ as our hearers need Him. We must present Jesus Christ to their need!
PRAYER THOUGHT: O Lord, help me to present Your truth in all its glory.
SUGGESTED READING: ACTS 19:1–12
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8).
Paul was able to withstand the cultured ridicule of wicked philosophers. He still declared Jesus to them as the greatest, grandest, and most worthy Being who had ever come on this earth.
The Lord Jesus Christ must be presented to sinners. The Spirit of God will guide you, as you rely on Him, to the presentation of Him that is required for each sinner. But if you attempt to enclose Jesus Christ into neat little doctrinal packets, one marked “salvation,” another marked “sanctification,” another marked “the baptism in the Holy Ghost,” you will fail to convince sinners that they need Him.
In every case, we need to rely on the Holy Spirit. Often we pray, “Lord, I cannot deal with that man; his life is healthy, his sense of justice is clear, his record clean, and he cares for none of these things.” But we must present Jesus Christ in all His power, and rely on the Holy Spirit to deal with each sinner.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Spirit of God, deal with sinners. Guide my thoughts and words when I converse with them.
SUGGESTED READING: MATTHEW 5:23–26
At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes (Matt. 11:25).
Jesus Christ is not interested in simply hearing us testify that we are pure in heart, or full of love for God and our fellowman. He wants us to prove it in our attitudes and actions. He looks at our minds, not at the mannerisms of our speech. We may say wonderfully truthful things, but what we think is the thing that counts with Him.
Our Lord makes us real, not just sincere. Are you truly honest with God—enough to allow Him to rule in your heart, mind, and life? That is the way to full victory in Christ.
PRAYER THOUGHT: O God, create in me the right attitudes, pleasing to You and helpful to others.
SUGGESTED READING: PROVERBS 28:13–28
Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief (Prov. 28:14).
If God has ever pointed out to you the one thing that is wrong in your life—as He did with that vigorous pagan called Herod—you are to blame if you did not listen. Too many of us once listened gladly to the things God said, but have now grown “dull of hearing.”
There is coming a time when God will not speak to you, if you insist in your disobedience. Truth will become a farce and all of the truth of God will become a farce likewise. God forbid that any man or woman who reads this should ever stand face to face with the son of perdition! Yet that is the fate of anyone who turns away from God’s voice.
When a person has this immoral fixity of character, his waywardness will be arrested by God, not by the Devil. This is an awful and terrible truth, one to which many people will not readily listen.
PRAYER THOUGHT: May I never cease to obey You, O God.
SUGGESTED READING: MARK 15:1–15
And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified (Mark 15:15).
Pilate always sought his own interests. That type of person is known to us even today. People belong to certain churches because it is better for their business. This sort of unsaved person acts from this point of view: “If it is Jesus Christ’s gospel that is in the ascendant, then I will use it to serve my own needs.” But bring that person face to face with Christ, and he will be unable to ignore the fact that Christ would make certain claims upon his life.
False teachers of religion are deceiving thousands of people by bending the gospel to suit their own purposes. And in this regard, the human mind is ready to be deceived. If you can teach someone how to ignore sin, he will listen to you. If you can tell him how to ignore the possibility of judgment for his wrongdoing, he will listen to you. This is why the cults of deception are so popular—not because they are true, but because they alter the truth to suit the carnal desires of mankind.
May God have mercy on the deceived and on the deceivers!
PRAYER THOUGHT: Enable me, Lord; to bring others face to face with the realities of Your gospel.
SUGGESTED READING: PROVERBS 24:1–16
Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the LORD, and he shall save thee (Prov. 20:22).
If you can show someone how to be delivered from the torture of sin, or healed of a pain-stricken body, or loosened from a terrible past, then you have that person as your friend. Yet the “prince of this world” would convince us that we can have these benefits of the gospel without having to surrender ourselves to the Lord Jesus.
Watch how people will take all His blessings, but will not get rightly related to Him. Our challenge is to present them with Christ apart from what Christ can do.
Perhaps you have lately been brought face to face with someone who was experiencing much anxiety, and you said, “This person is under conviction of sin.” But you learned that was not so. You tried every scriptural teaching you knew, applied in big and little measure, and yet had no result. You tried to preach temperament, explaining that the person felt anxious by nature. You tried to advocate this and that and the other spiritual discipline. Still there have been no results. You have been humiliated to the dust before God.
You have been trying to find out what is wrong. And that is where you are mistaken. God will never show you what is wrong with someone else; that is not your business. He wants you to bring the case to Him.
God grant that you may get so centered in Him that He can use you in that wonderful way!
PRAYER THOUGHT: Let me never forget the primary importance of bringing others to You, Lord.
SUGGESTED READING: JOHN 12:20–36
If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour (John 12:26).
The Syrophoenician woman wanted Jesus Christ. She did not care one iota about the disciples or any of their teaching; she wanted the Lord Jesus Christ.
In John 12, we read that certain Greeks came and said to the disciples, “We want to see Jesus.” What did those disciples do? They went to Jesus and told Him so. When anyone says, “We wish to see Jesus,” what do you do about their request? Try and persuade them to accept certain teachings first? You never will. Remember what Philip and Andrew did; they went and told Jesus.
Whenever people ask you to help them find Jesus, do not begin with “firstly, secondly, and thirdly.” Go to Jesus and say, “Lord, these people want to see you.” Rely on the Holy Spirit to help you. Live among the facts of God’s Word, and among human facts, so that people will recognize Jesus Christ through you. Remember that the only One who will touch sinners is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself!
Christians say that it is so hard to present Jesus Christ to sinners today. Of course it is! So hard that it is impossible, except by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
PRAYER THOUGHT: I desire that others will see Christ through my attitudes and actions.
Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! (Ps. 107:31).
Psalm 107 contains an account of people who would not come to God until they got to their wit’s end. Then they cried to God and He heard them. But people who are filled with the Holy Spirit are ready to give praise to God at all times; praise flows naturally from their hearts. Our Lord said that the Holy Spirit would not do anything but the following:
1. He will glorify Me.
2. He will bring to your remembrance what I have said and lead you into all truth about that.
3. He will not speak of Himself.
In analyzing God’s marvelous work of entire sanctification, we find a natural fascination with the purifying and cleansing side of sanctification; indeed, the Bible refers often to this aspect of the Spirit’s work (John 17:17; Heb. 13:12; Acts 15:9). Yet there is more. The Holy Spirit is the presence of God in the heart of man. The Holy Spirit is the gift of Jesus Christ to mankind. And when He dwells within us, we want only to praise our God.
PRAYER THOUGHT: I praise Your name, O God, for Your goodness and wonderful works in my behalf!
SUGGESTED READING: 1 CORINTHIANS 1:1–9
God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Cor. 1:9).
Oh, unspeakably blessed is the believer’s fellowship with God! “In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore” (Ps. 16:11).
This fellowship is ours by the sheer might of the atonement of Jesus, who gave Himself for us. The Christian soul, incandescent with the Holy Spirit, walks and talks with God as friend with friend, and lets God do as He will with him.
My goal is God Himself, not joy, nor peace,
Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God;
’Tis His to lead me there, not mine, but His —
“At any cost, dear Lord, by any road.”
PRAYER THOUGHT: Father, I am grateful for the privilege of living for You.
SUGGESTED READING: 1 CORINTHIANS 9:16–22
To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some (1 Cor. 9:22).
Paul did not say, “I became all things to all men that I might show what a wonderful being I am.” That is the modern interpretation of it. I hear people say that Paul showed his wonderful breadth of mind, his wonderful culture and generosity, his gentleness and patience by becoming all things to all men. He did nothing of the sort. He said he became all things to all men for one purpose only—that he might save some. There was no thought about himself in the whole matter.
This attitude of Paul sheds light on the phrase, “passion for souls.” A passion for souls may either be a diseased lust or a divine love. Let me give you a specimen of it as a diseased lust: “Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves” (Matt. 23:15). Proselyte is a technical word for “convert.” By saying this, our Lord showed that the Pharisees’ great passion for souls bore the stamp of the Devil. If you read Acts 13:43–50, you will find that the proselytes became exactly what Jesus Christ said they would be: twofold more the children of hell than the Jews. They became superstitious and even more fanatical.
I wonder whether we understand what a “passion for souls” really is.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Lord, increase my vision and passion for lost souls. Help me to love as You love!
SUGGESTED READING: 1 CORINTHIANS 9:23–27
Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain (1 Cor. 9:24).
A passion for souls will compress all the energy of a Christian’s heart and brain and body into one consuming drive, night and day. It is a fiery, burning passion, as was characteristic of our Lord’s life, lives of the disciples, and the apostle Paul’s life.
“Ye are our reward,” Paul told the new converts. In that matchless apostle’s life, the consuming passion was for the converts, not the crowd! All the desire of Paul’s life was that Jesus Christ might have His way through them.
Discipling converts for Jesus Christ is the chief characteristic of a mature Christian!
PRAYER THOUGHT: O God, teach me how to be a “fisher of men,” not for vainglory, but for Your glory and their spiritual good.
SUGGESTED READING: LUKE 5:1–11
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise (Prov. 11:30).
Do you know what it is like to fish all night? I do. About three or four in the morning, before the early dawn, you feel so cold that you do not care about anything.
There is an exact counterpart in the work for God. Do you have a passionate devotion to Jesus Christ, so powerful that you stand steady and faithful through every cold night, watching and waiting to win men and women for God? Those cold nights of waiting, fishing, praying, and preaching are the test of your commitment.
Unless we have a divine passion for souls burning in us, we will quit the work of God. Soul winning requires patience, gentleness, and endurance. Nothing else will do it! A sense that people are perishing won’t do it; a sense that they are going down to hell won’t do it. Only one thing will do it—a blazing, passionate devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ, an all-consuming passion!
PRAYER THOUGHT: Oh, for a consuming devotion to Jesus Christ!
SUGGESTED READING: JOHN 4:31–38
Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest (Luke 10:2).
Beware of people who tell you how to fish! I know a good many people who have tried to learn how to fish from books; but they never did learn. The only way to learn how to fish is to fish!
An old captain, whom I know very well, has been a fisherman all his days. He told me about a man who published a book on How To Catch Fish. The captain took him out in his boat; but, by the time he got four miles out to sea, the captain saw him looking like a corpse. They stayed out for hours, and he didn’t have enough strength to put his line over the side of the boat. He was too seasick. So much for the instructor of how to catch fish!
Beware of any book that tells you how to catch men for Christ. Go to Calvary and let God deal with you until you understand the meaning of the tremendous cost to Jesus Christ, and then begin fishing for souls.
God grant that we may get out from under the instructors of how to catch fish and get into the fishing business!
PRAYER THOUGHT: Grant me, O Lord, the wisdom to be a true fisherman of souls!
SUGGESTED READING: JOHN 21:15–19
So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs (John 21:15).
I thank God that in my boyhood and early manhood I had to work hard at so many things. I did not like it at the time, but I am very thankful I had to do some shepherding in the highlands of Scotland. When you have to carry across your shoulders a dirty old wether and bring it down the mountainside, you will know whether shepherding is poetry or not. You will know that it is the most taxing, the most exhausting, and the most exasperating thing you can do.
Jesus Christ uses shepherding to illustrate our passion for souls. A quiet, judicious knowing how to do it won’t do it. Only an indefatigible passion will do it.
To whom did Jesus say, “Feed My lambs”? To Peter. Who was Peter? A very wayward sheep. Peter had not only forsaken Jesus Christ; he denied he ever knew Him, with oaths and curses. Do you think, after he received the Spirit of God and was personally, passionately devoted to Jesus Christ, that anybody would have such patience with young converts as Peter? Who else could have written, “Feed the flock …, taking the oversight, … not for filthy lucre”? (1 Pet. 5:2). Peter had learned through his own experience how to be patient, how to be tender, and how to be full of grateful watchfulness over all the Lord’s sheep.
PRAYER THOUGHT: With joy and delight I will “feed your lambs,” Lord Jesus, and do so out of real love for them.
SUGGESTED READING: JOHN 21:20–25
Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me (John 21:22).
You cannot nourish the sheep of God unless you are rightly related to the Shepherd. You may be a mouthpiece for God’s truth; but you cannot nourish the sheep of God unless you are willing to let God use you as broken bread and poured-out wine to feed His sheep.
Sunday school teacher, perhaps Jesus Christ is teaching you how He is going to make you broken bread and poured-out wine. Christian worker, maybe you are not understanding what God is putting you through; but perhaps He is teaching you how to feed God’s sheep and tend the flock of God.
Take some time to see what God has to say about shepherds. This feeding and tending of sheep is an arduous job, and affection for the sheep will not do it. You must have a deeper love than that. You must have a consuming love for the Great Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Love for men, as men, will never stand the strain of Christian work. In order to catch men for the Lord Jesus Christ, you must love Jesus Christ beyond all others. Have a consuming passion for Him, and then He will flow through you in a yearning to draw men to Himself.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Fill me, O Lord, with Your passion for the souls of men.
SUGGESTED READING: MATTHEW 28:16–20
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost (Matt. 28:19).
What does the Bible mean when it says to be an example to the flock of God? You must be a walking example of what you believe, in every moment of your life, known and unknown. You must bear the scrutiny of God until you prove that you are indeed a specimen of what He can do. Then He will send you out to disciple all nations.
When souls are born again into the kingdom of God, the church of Christ makes a tremendous rejoicing, as it ought to make. But then what does it do? When God brings souls to you, what have you to do? Disciple them. And the only way you can disciple them is, not by making them proselytes of your views, but by teaching them to do what Jesus commanded you.
Do you say, “Do as I say, but not as I do”? To disciple people for God, we must become what other people should be.
PRAYER THOUGHT: I resolve to be a true example of the transforming grace of God.
SUGGESTED READING: COLOSSIANS 2:20–23
Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances? (Col. 2:20).
Everyone attempts to communicate directly with God. This is why mysticism is a natural ingredient in everybody’s make-up, whether he calls himself “atheist,” “agnostic,” or “Christian.”
Jesus Christ reveals that we come into communion with God only through Him. If we refuse Him, we probably will be deluded by supernatural forces stronger than we are. We are deluded into thinking that we can have communion with God through self-denial or, as the apostle Paul puts it, “will-worship and neglecting of bodies.” People can be so wonderfully devout in their mistaken ways of dealing with God!
But when Jesus Christ brings us into communion with God, He does not give us a set of rules and prohibitions. He does not call us to make ourselves nothing. Rather, He transforms our bodies, our relationships, our possessions, and every aspect of our lives as He reconciles us to God.
PRAYER THOUGHT: I praise Your name, O Jesus, for redeeming me from a life of confusion.
The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow (Ps. 116:3).
God will put you through many trials to make you “good bread” for the little ones to eat. He wants to bake you well enough to be His standard bread; then He can break you for the little ones, for the feeble amongst the flock.
The apostle Paul said, “I am willing to be accursed from God if Israel my kinsmen could be saved that way. I am willing to spend and be spent, though the more I love, the less I be loved” (2 Cor. 12:15). What was the ruling passion in that man’s life? His devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Have you lost that consuming passion? Remember the Lord Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, and ask the Spirit of God to give you a full insight into that. Ask Him that you may understand it again, and understand it in a new way. Then go forth and “measure your life by loss, not by gain; by the wine poured forth, not by the wine drunk.”
PRAYER THOUGHT: O God, make me a blessing to others.
SUGGESTED READING: MATTHEW 5:17–20
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled (Matt. 5:18).
The Bible is a universe of revelation facts, not known to unregenerated common sense, and the only exegete of these words is the Holy Spirit. Understanding comes only to the degree of the individual’s reception, recognition, and reliance on the Holy Spirit. Just as facts in the natural world have to be accepted, so facts in the biblical world of God’s will have to be accepted. Our explanation of the facts may be more or less open to dispute. But we can never alter the facts.
The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself in the interest of grace. Only as we are the recipients of the grace of God will the Bible be opened for us. This Bible is not a book containing communications about God; it is God’s giving of himself, in the limitation of words, in the interests of grace.
The Bible is not a fairy tale to beguile us for a few moments from the sordid realities of life in the natural world. It is the divine complement of the laws of nature, conscience, and humanity.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Lord Jesus, Your Word is “a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
SUGGESTED READING: DEUTERONOMY 11:16–23
Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes (Deut. 11:18).
In dealing with biblical facts, our aim is not just to produce “specialists,” but to make healthy, practical workers in the work of our Lord. Bible specialists have their counterpart in the natural world in scientists such as astronomers, biologists, geologists, and others. The research systems of these specialists are of the very greatest value to us. We will consult them from time to time; yet their findings have value only as they aid our daily experience. The same is true of the findings of our Bible specialists.
I believe it to be essential to be born of the Spirit of God before we can enter into Bible study. I believe that the only meaningful method of Bible study is to “prove all things” (1 Thess. 5:21), not by brain only, but by personal experience. That is the only way to understand spiritual matters.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Reading Your Word, O God, is a blessing.
SUGGESTED READING: 2 PETER 1:16–21
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost (2 Pet. 1:20–21).
The Bible, it will be found, not only explains the greatest number of facts; it is the only ground for explaining all the facts.
The Bible contains the regions for the loftiest exercise of our regenerated intelligence. It puts in the hands of the Spirit-born the key to the explanation of all mysteries. The Bible does not contradict reason; it introduces a new universe of facts to reason, which demands its loftiest exercise.
The falling of rain from heaven after a time of drought would defy any poet to describe its beauties. Likewise, no tongue can tell the refreshing insight of the Word of God, coming to a soul after a time of difficulty and perplexity.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Your Word, Lord, helps life to make sense and gives me hope for the future—the hope of eternal life in heaven!
SUGGESTED READING: MATTHEW 7:15–23
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves (Matt. 7:15).
“Two-faced” is a figure of speech used to describe someone’s double dealing and falsehood. Probably the hardest and most cruel class of people are those who come under that heading.
When we study the life of King David, we are appalled to learn that for a time he was a double-dealing, two-faced fellow. This mighty man of God committed the most wicked sin possible. I do not refer to adultery or murder, but to something infinitely worse—a deep, subtle, inward hypocrisy, tremendous and profound. David lived a two-faced life for a year. He administered justice to others, while he was a whited sepulcher underneath.
If you want to know how it is possible for a man like David to have done this, you must allow God to reveal the possibilities of your own nature.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Lord, forgive me when I am tempted to be two-faced.
SUGGESTED READING: 2 SAMUEL 12:1–14
And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul (2 Sam. 12:7).
For subtlety, for amazing insight, and for sublime courage, Nathan is unequaled. What a soul for God to have in His list! Would to God there were more preachers and Christian workers like Nathan!
King David did not even begin to realize, after a year of the grossest and most dastardly hypocrisy, that Nathan was brandishing the sword straight into his conscience. But after David gave his answer, Nathan thrust straight home, “Thou art the man!” David replied, “I have sinned against the Lord!” There was no bungling about Nathan’s work.
How do you suppose Nathan prepared himself for this moment of confrontation?
PRAYER THOUGHT: Search me, O God, and reveal any spiritual weakness that would make me vulnerable in the hour of trial.
SUGGESTED READING: 2 SAMUEL 12:7–23
And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy son; thou shalt not die (2 Sam. 12:13).
Any worker who has stood before God’s all-searching eye for five minutes is not surprised by David’s fall. Any sin which is recorded in God’s Word is possible for any human heart.
If you and I are to press for the salvation of souls, we must allow God to reveal the possibilities of our own nature. That is why God will take you through disciplines and experiences that are not meant for your particular case; they are meant to make you capable of being sent, as God sent Nathan. Only then can you be as “wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”
After one solid year of hypocrisy in King David’s life, he was suddenly faced by Nathan. Notice how Nathan dealt with it. He used a parable with God-given insight. Because David was blind to its meaning, the sword went straight into David’s conscience. I believe Nathan confronted David with such compassion only because he was aware of his own vulnerability to sin.
Before you go among the infirm, the sick, the subtle, and the hypocritical, let God deal with you.
PRAYER THOUGHT: O God, make me aware of my own human weakness, so that I might deal lovingly with the weakness of others.
SUGGESTED READING: GALATIANS 2:1–9
And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage (Gal. 2:4).
What are we to do with false accusers? The Bible comments, “Let brotherly love continue” (Heb. 13:1). There is a time to smite and a time to smile. There is a time to slay and thrust straight home to the heart of the wrongdoers, “to whom we gave place, no, not for an hour.” Why? That our views might be expounded? No. That they might be detected as hypocrites? No. So that the true gospel might continue within us!
Do you remember what the apostle Paul said to the Ephesians, when he mentioned their godly “conversation”? “See that it is good building-up stuff” is the literal translation of what he said (Eph. 4:29). Not sanctimonious talk, but solid truth makes people stronger—stronger in the Word of God, stronger in character, and stronger in practical life. Yet even the truth should be spoken in love.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Lord, give me grace to show love toward nitpickers and false accusers.
SUGGESTED READING: LUKE 19:1–5
And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house (Luke 19:5).
Earlier I said that the Christian worker has to live in the facts of the Bible and the facts of human life. What are the facts of human life, as God reveals them? God’s Word says that the majority of the human race is abnormal. Jesus Christ sees that all men are lost; and the Christian worker must get the same outlook if he is going to work for the cure for souls.
Notice a very important distinction between the lost and the doomed: Jesus Christ is seeking the lost. The doomed are those who rebel against the seeking Savior.
Many Christian workers today are not taking the standpoint of the Lord Jesus Christ; they do not understand why some souls fail to respond to their message. We need to view people as Christ sees them. We must love people as God does. Otherwise we will become loveless, passionless, and totally ineffective as a worker of God.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Help me, O Lord of mercy, to talk to people as precious souls destined for eternity.
SUGGESTED READING: LUKE 19:6–9
… They all murmured, saying, That he has gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner (Luke 19:7).
Zacchaeus was rich and a chief publican. He must have possessed many ill-gotten gains if he was a publican (tax collector) in the Lord Jesus Christ’s day. Yet, through most of his career, he was not troubled in the tiniest degree. His whole nature toward God was frozen. There was not any sign of life in his relation to God.
In the far North, the thermometer freezes and can record nothing. It will remain frozen until the temperature alters. Immediately when the temperature alters, the thermometer works. Likewise, this man Zacchaeus was frozen toward God; and he was lost, his conscience did not bother him. He was quite contented and quite happy. He was also quite curious about Jesus. Whenever Jesus Christ came that way, the “freezing” left his nature, and something began to work at once.
Zacchaeus represents the type of person whose conscience toward God is frozen. He was a man in a wealthy position—a dishonorable man, but perfectly contented with his dishonor. You will meet persons similar to Zacchaeus as you labor for the Lord.
PRAYER THOUGHT: When I encounter individuals who are cold and indifferent, may Your love work through me, Lord, to warm their hearts and melt their spiritual stubbornness.
SUGGESTED READING: LUKE 19:10–17
For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10).
The first thing the Christian worker has to learn is how to bring the Lord Jesus Christ in contact with those whose souls are perfectly dead toward God, whose consciences are not the slightest bit disturbed. How are we to bring the Lord Jesus Christ to lives that are dead in trespasses and sins and do not know it? By the Holy Spirit and personal experience alone.
By personal experience I mean that I must know what God has done in my soul through Jesus Christ. I must know Jesus Christ personally before I can help someone else to know Him. Furthermore, I must learn to rely on the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit makes the Lord present to all kinds of people.
Whenever Jesus Christ encountered sinners in His day, they either rebelled or followed Him. They either “went away exceedingly sorrowful,” or they turned with their whole nature toward Him. We can expect the same thing to happen today.
PRAYER THOUGHT: O Lord, help me bring some lost wanderer into contact with You today.