________________<BrethrenVoice>________________ [which seeks to be guided solely by the NT Biblical pattern, facilitates free flow of Christian info. To God be the glory!] [eMail Moderator: brethrenvoice-owner@...] [<GLEANINGS-FOR-THE-DAY> Archives/Read online: http://associate.com/digests/brethrenvoice/ezmlm.cgi] <GLEANINGS-FOR-THE-DAY> <27 September 2002> Contents: ----------- (1) <Devotional> "Distance through admiration" - Ravi Zacharias (2) <Devotional> "Joseph, beloved of the father" (Pt-6) - C.E.Wigg (3) <Prophetical> "The Redeemer's Return" (Pt-38)- A.W.Pink (4) <Food-for-thought> "Tree to hang troubles!" - Author unknown (1) <DEVOTIONAL> <SLICE-OF-INFINITY> DISTANCE THROUGH ADMIRATION Ravi Zacharias Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard made some insightful statements regarding the danger of admiration—something that at first glance seems quite harmless. He said that artists, poets, scientists and such may rightfully be admired, since they excel in the realm of creative imagination. Essentially, he thought that their artistic skill set them apart from that which is universally human. In other words, we admire them for what we cannot do ourselves. However, he cautioned that this admiration of aesthetically elegant minds should not be extended in the same way to those who are morally heroic. Why? Because the ethical relates to each and every human being. There is no distinction between those who can and those who cannot. All can behave with moral dignity. Kierkegaard said, quote: As soon as people are permitted to admire an ethical man they elevate him into a genius, [that is,] put him on a different plane, and, ethically, that very thing constitutes the most horrible fallacy, for the ethical shall and must be universally human. An ethical man must constantly maintain. . . that every human being is as capable [of the same moral actions]. There is a reason we like to admire the virtuous person, says Kierkegaard. Our response is dismissive: “Well, it’s easy for him; he’s a genius.” Such rationale justifies our idleness through our admiration, as though respecting someone somehow gets us off the moral hook of following his or her example. Finally, Kierkegaard reasons that the moral person’s life pricks others’ consciences. This is precisely what Kierkegaard says, “calls forth hatred and makes people wish to have him at a distance.” “They wanted to admire him in order to be rid of him,” he writes. You know friends, there is one who lived a perfect life, who tells us that He can so change our hearts that we, too, can live a life that is worthy of being called good. That is the transforming work of Jesus Christ who makes us good, not because we seek goodness, but because we seek God and none is as good as Him. His work is the ultimate work of a changed life. Bring him your heart today for the greatest understanding of what it means to be good. That work of grace is available to all of us. You see, God doesn’t just call us to goodness, He calls us to eternal life. That is the root. Goodness is the fruit of a life given to God. That transcends merely being ethical. --- Copyright (p)(c) 2001 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. A Slice of Infinity is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. _______________________________________________________________________ (2) <DEVOTIONAL> JOSEPH, BELOVED OF THE FATHER (PART-6) Charles E. Wigg ... However once he was restored to the service of his sovereign, and began to enjoy the blessings that had been brought to him through Joseph, yet he forgot the one who suffered so much, so that he might be the bringer of salvation to him. However he was rudely awakened one morning when as he served Pharaoh; he saw a cloud on the countenance of his master. It brought to his mind the sad and terrible events of the past, when he had incurred the wrath of his king. It made him remember his past offences. When he discovered the cause of Pharaoh's sadness, he then remembered the one who had taken his sorrows, and brought light and salvation to him in his misery. We hear him say, "I do remember my faults this day." It was then that he remembered the one to whom he now attributed his salvation from judgement, and restoration to the service of the master that he had offended. It is very sad that often the same is true of us today. We tend to accept and enjoy the blessing, but to forget the One through whom the blessing came. It behoves us also to remember all that we have been forgiven, all that we have been delivered from, and to remember, our Lord Jesus Christ, each first day of the week with real affection. Joseph was hastily summoned from the prison. He stood before the great monarch, listened to his problem, and advanced the answer. He solved the mystery, and put forward his plan of salvation from impending disaster. As a consequence he was immediately elevated to become Pharaoh's Prime Minister. He was invested with the robes of splendour, the gold chain of office, and the gold ring of authority. In addition he was given a new name. "The Saviour of the World", or the "Revealer of Secrets". Before him as he rode in the second chariot of Pharaoh, they cried, "Bow the knee"! Saviour of the World: All this reminds us of our Lord Jesus Christ. The One of whom it is said, "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Phil. 2:9-11.) John tells us of that new name, "the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the World". (1John, 4:14.) How we do rejoice that God has highly exalted Him. We rejoice in the place and the honour given to Him, the one that humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. All glory be to His Holy Name! We have received His wonderful salvation, and been made to taste even now, the spirit and power of the world to come. [To be concluded] --- [Reproduced with permission] _______________________________________________________________________ (3) <PROPHETICAL> "THE REDEEMER'S RETURN" (PART-38) THE TIME OF THE REDEEMER'S RETURN Arthur W. Pink .... 2. The Teaching of Matthew 13 proves that no era of Millennial blessing precedes Christ's Second Advent (1/2) In Matt. 13 we have the record of seven parables--the number of completeness--which our Lord uttered consecutively. These parables are prophetic in their significance and scope. They deal with conditions which are to obtain here during the time of our Lord's absence. They are concerned with the visible profession of Christianity and they look forward to the closing scenes of the present dispensation. As there is much in them upon which we cannot now comment at length we shall content ourselves with singling out only that which bears upon our present inquiry. The chapter opens with the well-known Parable of the Sower who went forth to sow. It pictures the broad-cast sowing of the good Seed by the Saviour Himself, and in His interpretation of the parable we learn that the "Seed" is the Word of God. The parable sets before us the beginning of the Christian dispensation and makes known to us the manner and extent of the reception of the Redeemer's mission and message. It gives us the ratio of the Gospel's success and forewarns us that all men are not going to receive God's Word, that the majority will not, that only a fractional minority will. It shows us that the proclamation of the Word is to encounter Satanic opposition, yea, that the world, the flesh, and the Devil, will combine in their efforts to prevent it bringing forth fruit. The result of the sowing is plainly stated. Three castings out of four were fruitless! Most of the seed fell upon barren ground. The greater part of the field which, in our Lord's interpretation, we learn is "the world," completely failed to bring forth any increase. Some of the seed fell by the wayside and the fowls of the air picked it up; some fell upon the rocks and the sun burnt it up; some fell among thorns and it was choked. Only one fourth of it fell upon "good ground" and even there the fruitage varied and decreased in its yield from a hundred-fold to thirty-fold (see vs. 23). In His interpretation, the Lord tells us that the different kinds of ground on which the Seed fell represent various classes of people who hear the Word. Now what light does the above parable throw upon our present inquiry? I throws a clear light and in its light we discover the fallacy of the post-millennial position. There is no hint whatever in this parable that a time was to come when the whole of the field would be covered with waving wheat, instead, the only possible inference which can be drawn from it flatly repudiates such a conception. Who would dare to suggest that the Divine Sower Himself, the "Lord of the harvest" would be followed by other sowers who should prove more successful than He? The results of our Lord's own sowing were prophetic of the history of the entire Christian dispensation. In no period of this Age has the whole field--the world--been receptive to the Seed, in no period have more than a fractional minority received the Word and brought forth fruit unto perfection. In every generation, from the time when our Lord walked the earth in the days of His flesh until now, the emissaries of Satan and the cares and riches of the world have combined to choke and make unfruitful the Word of God. From this parable then it is impossible to deduce any promise of a world ultimately converted by the Gospel. The second of the parables found in Matt. 13--that of the Wheat and the Tares--brings out even more forcibly than the previous one the fact that there can be no Millennium of earth-wide blessedness before our Lord's return. The Parable of the Tares is also prophetic in its bearing. It makes known to us that which succeeded our Lord's own ministry. Immediately following the Divine Sower's scattering of the good Seed, an Enemy was "the Wicked One" and it is to be particularly noted that he sowed neither thorns nor thistles but "tares"--a bastard wheat--which so closely resembles the genuine article that the one cannot be distinguished from the other until the time of harvest. Here then is seen the efforts of the Evil One to neutralize the gracious work of the Son of God. The interpretation of this parable was supplied by the Lord Himself: just as the wheat represents the "children of the Kingdom," so the tares symbolize the "children of the Wicked One." Let it be noted, however, that the "tares" do not represent wicked men as such, but "the ministers of Satan," "false apostles, deceitful workers" (2 Cor. 11:13) who were secretly introduced by the Enemy amongst God's people just as the tares were sown among the wheat. Part of this parable began to be fulfilled in the days when the New Testament was written. In the false teachers who harassed the early disciples we may see the mingling of the tares with the wheat. The "children of the Wicked One" were the Judaizers who entered in among the churches of Galatia and who taught that salvation could not be secured by faith alone, that Circumcision was also necessary. The "tares" may be seen in Hymeneus and Philetus of whom we read, "who concerning the Truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some" (2 Tim. 2:17, 18). The apostle Peter referred to the same class when he wrote, "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily ("secretly") shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction" (2 Pet. 2:1). Jude, likewise, had reference to such when he declared, "For there are certain men crept in unawares(as the "tares" were sown secretly among the wheat), who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ" (Jude 4). Thus we see that at a very early date the tares were mingled with the wheat. Again we ask, What light does this parable throw upon the point now under discussion? And once more the answer is, much every way. In our Lord's declaration that the tares should grow together with the wheat until the time of harvest, which He expressly declares is the end of the age, we discover how preposterous, erroneous, and unscriptural is the teaching that the Gospel will yet win the world to Christ. At the time of harvest the world is still a mixed field, and this fact cuts away all ground for supposing that before our Lord returns the tares will be all rooted up or changed into wheat. Instead of the tares being transformed into wheat before the Millennium is ushered in, we are told that at the time of harvest the tares are bound into bunches and afterward cast into the fire--a very different picture that from the children of the Wicked One being reconciled to God! In the words "Let both grow together till the harvest" two solemn facts are revealed--first, Satan shall continue to hinder the success of the Gospel without interruption till the end of the age; and second, the Christian profession once corrupted shall continue thus to the close of the dispensation. And thus it has proven. Finally, be it observed, that in the casting of the tares--the children of the Wicked One--into the furnace of fire, we learn once more that the Age closes not with the universal reception of the Gospel but with Divine judgment upon the wicked! The third parable of Matt. 13--that of the Mustard-seed--differs from the former ones in that it was not interpreted by our Lord. Post-millennialists have taken advantage of this fact and have made it teach that which gives countenance to their own pre-conceived theories. In this parable they see the promise of a world conquered by the Gospel. Now, whatever this parable may or may not signify, it certainly must not be made to contradict the teaching of the two which have gone before it. As already stated, the seven parables recorded in Matt. 13 form part of one connected discourse by our Lord and are so many prophetic representations of the development of the Christian profession during the time of His absence. This third parable then cannot set forth the universal diffusion of the Truth because the previous ones show that this is prevented by the opposition of Satan, which opposition is to continue until the end of the age. What then does this third parable teach? The position which this parable occupies in the series is one of the keys to its interpretation. The first parable is concerned with the beginning of this dispensation, the time when our Lord was here upon the earth. The second deals, prophetically, with conditions that obtained in the lifetime of the apostles, showing us the false teachers--the children of the Wicked One--who crept in among God's people in their day. This third parable then looks forward to a later period and presents a prophetic picture which saw its materialization in the fourth century of our era. The growth of the little mustard-seed into a great tree represents the development of the Christian profession from an insignificant commencement into a system of imposing proportions. In the fourth century A. D., Christianity was popularized by Constantine who adopted it as the State religion and compelled more than a million of his subjects to be baptized at the point of the sword. The parable of the Tares shows us Christianity corrupted by the insidious introduction of the children of the Wicked One among the children of God: the parable of the mustard-seed forecasted the growth and spread of a corrupted Christianity. This assertion of ours may easily be verified by the details of the parable itself. [To be concluded] _______________________________________________________________________ (4) <FOOD-FOR-THOUGHT> TREE TO HANG TROUBLES! Author unknown I hired a plumber to help me restore an old farmhouse, and after he had just finished a rough first day on the job: a flat tire made him lose an hour of work, his electric drill quit and his ancient one-ton-truck refused to start. While I drove him home, he sat in stony silence. On arriving, he invited me in to meet his family. As we walked toward the front door, he paused briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of the branches with both hands. When opening the door he underwent an amazing transformation. His tanned face was wreathed in smiles and he hugged his two small children and gave his wife a kiss. Afterward he walked me to the car. We passed the tree and my curiosity got the better of me. I asked him about what I had seen him do earlier. "Oh, that's my trouble tree," he replied. "I know I can't help having troubles on the job, but one thing's for sure, those troubles don't belong in the house with my wife and the children. So I just hang them up on the tree every night when I come home and ask God to take care of them." "Then in the morning I pick them up again. Funny thing is...," he smiled and continued, "when I come out in the morning to pick 'em up, there aren't nearly as many as I remember hanging up the night before." _____________________<BrethrenVoice>_____________________ Subscribe, eMail:<brethrenvoice-subscribe@...> Unsubscribe, eMail:<brethrenvoice-unsubscribe@...> FAQs/Faith Statement, eMail: <brethrenvoice-faq@...> <BrethrenVoice> Home: http://associate.com/digests/brethrenvoice/ <eFellowship> Home: http://groups.msn.com/BrethrenChristiansForum/ "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith." 2 Cor 13:5 "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Jn 8:32 _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com