"POWERFUL PREACHER"

Occasionally I hear the term "powerful preacher" used in speaking of a preacher of the gospel. I've often thought about that term. If there is only one gospel, only One who calls and equips a man to preach it and only One it glorifies, what is a powerful preacher? I am sure that various people mean various things when they use such terms but I'm afraid it most often means a preacher that is a gifted orator or very dogmatic or one who delights in controversy. May God save us from this idolatry and preacher worship! He may use us but He doesn't need us. The true gospel preacher is the first one to confess his weakness and to acknowledge that all power is of God. True gospel preachers have a treasure to open before men of the glories of Christ but they hold it in "earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power might be of God and not of us." (2 Cor. 4:7) I don't want to be a "powerful preacher" but I do pray to preach in the power of the Holy Spirit giving to Christ all the glory for that salvation which is of the Lord! Why? Because the weakest, least gifted or eloquent servant of God is what He uses to call out His sheep. As a matter of fact, that's the only ones He uses! (1 Cor. 1:25-29) GS

Once while in Scotland I passed a religious building with a sign out front. It invited everyone to come and guaranteed that they would be out in fifteen minutes. It is obvious that the Spirit of God is not in such things. He gives His preacher a message for a particular people in a particular place at a particular time, not a timetable. The preacher does not determine the length of it as he does not determine the content of it. God's preacher does not try to be long or short. He simply tries to deliver the message God has given him. In Acts 20:9 when Paul was "long preaching," a young man fell asleep and fell from a high place and was taken up as dead. Was he dead and did God enable Paul raise him back to life? I don't know. But he was dead spiritually and the only message God would use to bring him to spiritual life and save his soul was the one Paul preached. God won't fit into your schedule and all our preaching whether short or long is in vain if the Holy Spirit doesn't lead us and make it effectual. God's message might fit on your tape or not. His worship might not fit your schedule. One thing I know, He works all things after the counsel of His own will and according to His own purpose and grace. May we wait upon Him! Remember, we are talking about your soul and eternity you know! GS

But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19

The Son of God did not come here to save His people in their sin, but “from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). To be saved from sins, is to be saved from ignoring and despising the authority of God, it is to abandon the course of self-will and self-pleasing, it is to “forsake our way” (Isa. 55:7). It is to surrender to God’s authority, to yield to His dominion, to give ourselves over to be ruled by Him. The one who has never taken Christ’s “yoke” upon him, who is not truly and diligently seeking to please Him in all the details of life, and yet supposes that he is “resting on the Finished Work of Christ” is deluded by the Devil.

Arthur Pink

We are saved out and out at once and wholly by what the Lord Jesus Christ has done, without ourselves having a hand in it. Outside of us is the blood that cleanses from all sin. Outside of us is the obedience which fulfills the law, earns our salvation, and cries, "IT IS FINISHED." OUTSIDE! We have only to look on Christ to be saved.

George Bishop

THE HOLY SPIRIT

"He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you" (John 16:14). The Holy Spirit DOES NOT glorify Himself, nor magnify His gifts, nor inspire men to preach and talk continuously of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit DOES NOT teach men that being baptized with the Spirit, endowed with gifts, and attaining a higher life experience is BETTER THAN SALVATION and receiving Christ by faith, The Holy Spirit ALWAYS glorifies Christ, speaks of Christ, reveals Christ, and enables believers to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus! Who our Lord is, what He has done, is doing, and will do is the theme of the Holy Spirit's teaching.

Henry Mayan

No man has a true desire for the salvation of men's souls who does not first have a desire for God to be honored and glorified above all things. The individual who believes or preaches a gospel in which God is not glorified, one in which His justice is not fully satisfied as His grace is shown, not only doesn't truly desire to see men's souls saved but most likely is not saved himself. A salvation which does not begin with God, which is not provided for altogether by God, which does not save all whom He purposes to save and which does not keep all He saves...does not glorify God. The chief end of all things in salvation as well as in general is the glory of God.

GS

Job said (Job 23:8), "Behold, I go forward, but He is not there; I go backward, but I cannot perceive Him."

"I GO FORWARD." Frequently believers are overtaken with this fault; and in saying this, I speak for myself. We come to the conclusion that because God has given to us a sweet revelation of Himself and His word, therefore He is bound to reveal Himself, empower us, and crown our efforts with success at our will and our planning and our decisions! Is He? The scriptures teach that He has bound Himself by oath to perform His promise and purpose in HIS OWN WAY and at HIS OWN TIME! Oh, to learn to be still and WAIT on the Lord!

"I GO BACKWARD." Many times I retrace my steps to places of covenant favor enjoyed in the days that are past. Many times I dwell upon certain persons and places in pleasing remembrance. TO THESE I WOULD RETURN, but the places are changed and the people are gone and the pleasures are no more. I think of many a choice, green oasis in the wilderness to which I would return; but I find there is no oasis there TODAY. These were good and blessed IN HIS TIME and IN THE FULFILLMENT OF HIS PURPOSE! The strength given me today is for today, and I shall need renewed strength for tomorrow. "As thy days, so shall thy strength be" (Deut. 33:25). But I have to be still kept learning that- "Day by day the manna fell; Oh, to learn that lesson well."