Pepper and Salt 4
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Important messages
Many will find the simple writing of Vance Havner barely intelligible. Many modern Christians know nothing of the principles that he lays before us. They seem to be from another world. Let me assure you that the reason is not because we know better today, but that we are more familiar with the ways of men and are alienated from those of God. Havner walked under the sun of heaven and we seldom get out from under the synthetic light invented by men. There is another school of Christianity that has been forgotten, set aside and is collecting dust. Our only hope is to get back and reopen its doors. Read, then, and learn!
Doesn’t he
look nice?
A mortician can make a dead man look better than he
ever did when he was alive. So churches like Sardis may appear very much alive
when they are dead in the sight of the Lord. There are experts who are very
clever at this business of making church corpses appear very healthy so that
they have an image for robust vitality in their own sight, among other
churches, and up at headquarters… but God knows the difference.
Defeat turns
to victory
A Frenchman became a naturalized British citizen. “Yesterday,”
he remarked, “Waterloo was a defeat but today it is a victory.” When one
becomes a Christian, defeat changes to victory.
Discernment or
deception!
A sinister breeze blows across the world today. It is
deceptive and demonic; many well-meaning souls are lulled to sleep thereby.
What some call the birth pangs of a new era are but the dying gasps of this
age. Strange new currents are moving everywhere, even in evangelical
Christianity. It will take a double portion of wisdom from above to distinguish
the true from the false, the sheep from the wolves. It is no time for us to be
fitted with rose-colored glasses. We need a second touch from the Master, like
the blind man of old, lest we see men as trees walking.
Whose voice do
you fear?
Saul said to Samuel, “I feared the people, and obeyed
their voice.” Samuel said to Saul, “Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt
offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?” The issue
nowadays is vox populi or vox dei, the voice of the people or the
voice of God.
Heavenly
breakthrough
We talk of major ‘breakthroughs’ in science, in space
exploration. We hope for a breakthrough in the conquest of cancer. The greatest
of all major breakthroughs was stated by Isaiah: “Oh that thou wouldest rend
the heavens, that thou wouldest come down…” That is a breakthrough in reverse…
God visiting us. He has done it in His Son, in His Spirit’s coming at
Pentecost, in great revivals, in answers to prayer. He will break through when
our Lord returns. We need a major breakthrough now in a fresh visitation. Lord,
do it again!
Who are you
with? Doing what?
Obadiah was a contemporary of Elijah and Ahab. He was
a good man but he was out looking for grass with Ahab when he should have been
praying for rain with Elijah. While he was out on grass-hunting expeditions to
relieve the drought, Elijah the solitary man of God was ready to call Israel to
a confrontation, to the showdown that always must precede the showers of
blessing. We waste our time working with the powers that be, trying to improve
conditions today, when the only answer lies in squarely facing the issue of
Baal or Jehovah.
Communication
or true fellowship?
Christian fellowship has almost become a lost art. I
recall how, as a boy, I sat before the open fire on a Saturday night while
father and the visiting minister talked long and late about the things of God.
I remember John Brown, deacon in my first country charge, who used to visit my
room and talk until midnight. There was time in those days, but who can take
time off today to mediate at the Master’s feet, like Mary of old, or to share
His fellowship with other Christians? Fellowship has come to mean a noisy
after-session at church with coffee and cookies and a lot of idle chatter about
everything on earth but spiritual things. How many Christian homes know how to
converse about Jesus Christ? Bunyan was helped by overhearing two godly women talk
about the things of God. Would anybody listening in on your conversation be
helped in his soul? And there is the Great Eavesdropper (Malachi 3:16) who
overheard the faithful remnant amidst the “wherein-ners” of that sad day.
Discipline for
sinners
Joshua and the elders of Israel lay on their faces
and prayed after the defeat at Ai, but it did no good. There was sin in the
camp and Achan had to be dealt with. The church at Corinth prided itself in its
tolerance of immorality, but Paul demanded that the offender be put out and
delivered to Satan. There is sin in the churches today and neither pious prayer
meetings nor amiable tolerance will take care of the situation. We are afraid to
touch Achan and the fornicators with a forty- foot pole. There is no church
discipline now, for who would discipline whom? Ananias and Sapphira are more
likely to be on the official board.
Speeches
without meditation
It is doubtful whether the Declaration of
Independence or the Constitution of the United States could have been written
under the glare of modern publicity. Those men had time to reflect, to think.
In the phantom era of ghostwriters, no wonder the speeches have no body to
them! Gadgets and gimmicks abound, but nothing born of meditation. How many
speeches out of Washington, how much of the torrent of drivel on television,
how much of modern music, and, alas! How many sermons bear the marks of quiet
thought?
The faithful
remnant
The Faithful Remnant of Malachi’s day had four
characteristics (3:16) that mark God’s Minority today. Their Hearts Were Moved
By The Fear of God: “They that feared the Lord…” Their Minds Were Filled With
Thoughts Of God: “…that thought upon his name.” Their Tongues Were Busy With The
Things of God: “… spake often one to another.” Their Names Were Written In The
Book Of God: “… the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was
written…”
Counterfeit
money can do good
A ten-dollar bill got into circulation and did a lot
of good. It helped buy coal for a needy old woman, helped buy medicine for a
sick child, and showed up in the collection plate at church one Sunday. Then it
fell into the hands of a bank teller who spotted it as a counterfeit. The test
is not how many good deeds you claim to your credit, but rather, can you pass
inspection in the sight of God!
God’s way
Wouldn’t you think that Jesus, with only three years
to go, would have visited Rome and Athens, would have sought all available
publicity, would have called celebrities and appeared at forums and symposiums,
would have rushed from dawn to midnight, making every moment count, would have
help public debates and put on healing exhibitions? Instead, He stayed in an
obscure little Roman province, talked with a few individuals, mingled with
ordinary people, exasperated His brothers by not performing in Jerusalem. It is
all so foreign to our American way of doing things. Maybe we had better learn
the gait of Galilee!
The violent
language of Acts
Have you considered the almost violent language of
the Book of Acts? “The place was shaken”; “Ananias fell down and gave up the
ghost”; “they were cut to the heart”; “they gnashed on him with their teeth…
and stoned him”; Herold “killed James with the sword”; “O full of all subtilty
and all mischief, thou child of the devil”; “having stoned Paul they drew him
out of the city, supposing he had been dead”; “And when they had laid many
stripes upon them, they cast them into prison”… so it goes. This was no sham
battle.
Who knows God’s
secrets?
At the Cana wedding feast it was not the governor of
the feast who was in on the secret of the water made wine, “… but the servants
which drew the water knew…” (John 2:9). How often are God’s secrets hidden from
the wise and prudent and revealed unto babes!
Sheep or
giraffes
I want my message to be intelligible to the ordinary
man. I’m feeding sheep, not ministering to a few intellectual giraffes.
Get well, grow
up and learn!
It is sometimes argued that hospitals minister to
sick people and schools to ignorant people and the church to sinful people;
therefore we should not set too high a standard for our church members. But
sick people are expected to get well, and ignorant people are supposed to
learn, and Christians should grow and become better. There is no excuse for us
to stay babes on milk when we should mature and feed on meat.
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