When God sends leanness - and a warning

sermonindex Nov 13, 2013

"And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul." Psalm 106.15

I have wondered at times how many Pharisees were praying that the LORD would remove John the Baptist and bring peace and quiet again to the land. If any were praying for his removal you can imagine how his death must have seemed a dramatic and timely answer to their prayers.

But did they gain by it? Certainly, they had no idea what a blessing John the Baptist was to God's people.

It is almost ironic how the Pharisees could admire the old-timer prophets from a distance as they looked back in time at the sayings of men like Elijah, Elisha and Jeremiah (as if they, the Pharisees, had anything in common with them!)

It was an altogether different story when God sent them their very own Elijah (in the man John the Baptist) to rebuke them for sins that were particular to their age and generation.

I wonder how we would get on here at sermonindex if God should send us our very own Elijah. We certainly admire the old-timer prophets from a distance as we look back in time at some of things they said. How we admire them for the way in which they fearlessly confronted sin in their day...

I wonder, though, how they would fare in in our forum. Would we chase them off for not promoting the peace, for raising thorny issues, for rebuking us for sins that are particular to our age and generation?

I believe some of you even now are praying for things that God is going to give you, but with it He will send leanness into your soul. They say we need to be careful what we wish for. The same could be said of prayer.

How we need wisdom to know how to ask and what to ask! So, let us go on praying for wisdom, but let us not ask as double-minded men (James 1.8). Wisdom is practical. Wisdom is unto godliness. There is no sense in asking if we have no intention of going where God leads us. "For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord."

Have you ever considered how many in the Church today refuse even to consider (!) Paul's directions in 1 Corinthians 11 because they have no intention of changing their conduct no matter what they find? I use that example because its an issue I am not yet entirely resolved on and because it is notoriously avoided. For that reason I think it is a good illustration of a tendency in our generation to avoid certain subjects because our minds are already made up.

Years ago (back when I joined SI in 2005) I hated the doctrines of grace which go by the nickname 'Calvinism'. Back then I had no time for Sabbatarians (certainly far less time and far less grace than Paul and Dave have shown me). But I couldn't get around the fact the most of the men I looked up to as godly men and prophetic men were Calvinist and even more (almost all of them!) were Sabbatarian (ie. Sunday Sabbath).

So I surrendered the matter to God. I still hated Calvinism and resisted (like crazy) the notion of keeping a Sabbath on Sundays, but I resolved to believe it if I could be convinced it was sound and biblical truth... [edit: deleted]

And then [edit: deleted] I studied only on the Sabbath... and conluded God wants me to love Him and worship Him every day and every moment, but that He still wants one day in 7 as particularly and peculiarly His.

Does this make me more godly? NO. Does this make me right? NO.

But I would commend the same to you. Surrender your heart and your mind to God. Determine to believe and act however God leads you, pray unceasingly and then remember that every 'leading' must be tested by God's Word.

Were some of those old-timer prophets to visit us today, were they to join us here at this forum I believe they would rebuke us. Perhaps they would commend us for what is done well, but they would not hesitate to show us where we have gone astray.

I do not raise this to start a debate, and I don't feel any sense of urgency to convince my non-Calvinist brothers of Calvinism (nor will I try on this forum), but how I grieve that we (especially here at a site dedicated to revival!) have ignored the testimony of generations of godly men on the Sabbath.

Go back before 1900 and almost to a man you will find all the prophets, all those godly voices testifying with urgency and with the severest of warnings that the Sunday Sabbath is to be observed (as a day to put aside work and recreation)...

and testifying too that where it is desecrated God will withhold his blessings and God's people will find themselves in a kind of spiritual captivity...

Enter the 20th century and find D.L. Moody, Lloyd-Jones, Ian Paisley, Duncan Campbell, Leonard Ravenhill testifying the same... but now they were the minority report.

How sad that the standards of a spiritually complacent and immoral generation have become our own. How sad that the prophecies of Spurgeon and M'Cheyne and Wesley and so many (!) have all come true, but we haven't the eyes to see it!

How quick we are to give our answers foolishly thinking that ours is the first generation to propose such answers (ie. every day can be a Sabbath), not realizing that even men like Moody had thought through them, rejected them and testified against them.

Dear brothers and sisters, you love these men but do you love what they preached? You love their fearless confrontation of sin but will you hear someone confront yours?

Let us hear a prophet (Leonard RAVENHILL) rebuke us for our sin:

///"You don't need to ask God if you need to keep the Ten Commandments. You better keep them or you will be in trouble. I chased some of you who don't keep the Sabbath.

Don't you pray for a loved or someone else if you are fooling around on Sundays and won't keep the sabbath! Some of you go to movies (you told me you went to movies) on Sunday night.

You, keep the sabbath day holy! Some of you who used to come here a lot said: "I don't think I need to keep the Sabbath Days. It's Old Testament." Your neighbor thinks they don't have to keep the other Ten Commandments like "Thou shalt not commit adultery". You break one commandment, he breaks the other. If you break one, you are guilty of all.

God hangs revival on the keeping of the sabbath!! Read Isaiah 58.

"Take your foot from my sabbath". That's when football is you see.

"Take your foot from doing your pleasure on my holy day".

The sabbath (not half of it) is God's tithe on your time. It's His for twenty-four hours. It's not giving God the Sunday morning service and next a buck in the offering and then dashing off to Campden Fair amongst all the junk.

Now, I talk straight... you notice that."///

Edit: I want to assure the moderators that I will not make this thread a debate about the Sabbath or Calvinism. I leave this for your and others consideration and prayer.

MaryJane Nov 13, 2013

Greetings Stephen2
I read what you shared and prayed over much of it as I have done before. I felt led to share this here with you. As you said I have no interest in debating with you just wanted to pass this along for you to consider.

God bless
maryjane

_____________________________________

The Christians’ Holy Day: Today!

What, then, of special days? Did the early church choose a certain day of the week as sacred? Did they set aside certain seasons or "holy-days” as being particularly important? Did Jesus’ ekklesia adopt an "ecclesiastical calendar”?

Again, the answer is a clear no.

Jesus, remember, had taught His followers many things, but observance of special days was not on the list. Instead, He had emphasized the holiness of today. This day””whatever it was called on the calendar””was the day to offer yourself to God in trusting, peaceful dependence (Matthew 6:11, 25, 33-34; Luke 3:23-24).

When Jesus left our planet to return to the Father, He urged His followers to teach every new convert to obey His instructions as well. That’s exactly what they did in this matter of special days.

It was difficult for the new Christians, no doubt””especially for those coming from a background steeped in religious traditions. The apostles were patient with them. When someone regarded one day as more sacred than the rest, Paul recognized it as a symptom of "weak” faith, yet refused to cast judgment on him or her (see Romans 14). But when anyone tried to graft the observance of special days onto Christianity as a religion, Paul’s tolerance came to an abrupt end. He wrote the Galatian ekklesias:

Now that you know God””or rather are known by God””how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you. (Galatians 4:9-11)

Yes, you heard Paul right! He called observing special religious days a "weak and miserable” principle for getting to know God. The fact that the Galatians were doing so made Paul wonder whether his years of blood, sweat, and tears on their behalf had done them any good at all.

Paul was not alone in this stance. It is fascinating that in the first six decades of Christianity, as recorded in Acts and the apostolic letters, there are only three apparent references to the first day of the week, Sunday. Only one of those describes anything resembling a gathering of Christians. And that one was highly unusual: it began one day, kept going all night, continued the next morning, and featured Paul raising a young man from the dead! One day of this two-day gathering did happen to be a Sunday””since Paul was leaving town, never to return, on Monday.

In sixty years, that’s it.

Those same books of the New Testament are completely silent about "Christian holidays.” The date of Jesus’ birth is not even recorded, and there is certainly no mention of the early Christians observing it for centuries afterwards. Similarly, the New Testament record is silent about the early Christians celebrating the day of Jesus’ resurrection or ascension or any such occasion.

When they spoke of the old Jewish holy days and feasts at all, it was to point out that their meanings had been fulfilled in higher and better ways in Jesus. It was never to exhort others to observe those days.

The Passover? In the "perfect religion” God had given the Jews, it involved a feast with a sacrificial lamb and unleavened bread. But now? Paul said that Jesus was the believers’ "Passover lamb.” The ekklesia itself was the "unleavened bread,” as long as they were filled with sincerity and truth rather than the "leaven” of malice and wickedness (1 Corinthians 5:6-8).

And the Sabbath? In the "perfect religion,” it had commemorated the seventh day of the week, when God had rested from His work of creation. But now? The apostolic writings again give no hint that the Sabbath was to be transferred to a different day of the week. The writer of Hebrews states that a "Sabbath rest” does remain for the people of God, but it is not entered into by observing a day of the week. Rather, believers enter that rest by ceasing from a reliance on keeping religious laws and instead believing in Jesus (Hebrews 4:1-11)!

Like their Pioneer, the early disciples did single out a day to be holy””today. For example:

See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness (Hebrews 3:7-13).

The most important day in the "Christian religion” is always today, no matter what the calendar says. One essential way to observe the "holiness” of today is by getting outside ourselves and finding a way to encourage, admonish, and inspire a brother or sister.

Daily encouragement was the watchword of the early believers throughout the first century. Of the Jerusalem church, we read:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47)

Years later, Paul could still say to the Ephesian ekklesia, "Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears” (Acts 20:31).

Jesus had taught that each day was to be infused with the simple religion of selfless consecration to and trust in a loving Father. That’s how the early Christians lived with one another. In the end, picking out other "special days” was an expedient they just didn’t need or desire.

sermonindex Nov 14, 2013

Thanks MaryJane, and I will keep my word. I will read what you have written and consider it even as you have consider my post. May the Lord bless you.

sermonindex Nov 14, 2013

Stephen,

We appreciate your testimony and also your convictions. You made it very clear in the last thread on Sabbath keeping that you believe its importance. I personally feel there is importance to times of gathering of believers as well as keeping everyday as a Sabbath unto the Lord for everyday is unto Christ. We do all in Him, through Him and for Him.

To me it is not about keeping one day Holy (many people have different ways to do this in their mind). But what the underlying problem is that the Fear of God has been lost so men do not reverence the Lord in the gathering of believers whatever day that would be and also saints do not give specific times apart for the Lord Himself to honour Him.

You have in your last thread repeated the Ravenhill quote as also in your signature on every post you are promoting this. I want you to consider that yes some commands of the Lord are important and also are obeyed in a different way in the New Covenant. But more importantly we must always make much more of Christ Himself and not laws of God. That is what I would like you to consider. Also towards the community rules on the website it is stated:

3. HAVING A PERSONAL AGENDA - We look down on people who come with personal agenda's or are trying to justify themselves on a particular doctrine or emphasis. We believe it is not healthy to try and impose a truth that you have on many other brothers or sisters. This type of believer feels that a truth they have is more important then the rest and feels a godliness for holding to that truth. Such a godliness is false and will not bring about the fruits of the Spirit in the life of that believer (Galatians 5:22-23).
from: https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=44556&forum=13

In that vein the other Sabbath thread can continue for a season if it can be discussed properly. But if you continue to bring out the sabbath arguments and topic of sabbath in other threads that will be going against the forum rules and not appropriate.

We trust you understand. This thread is being locked.