Wicked men sometimes elude the justice of men. The terrorist may be released from custody to again prey upon society. The thief may "serve time" but be able to keep what he stole. But God is sovereign, and it is only by His pleasure that wicked men are kept out of Hell at any moment. It is only by His mercy they are not consumed. As Sovereign, He is in no : He can reach His enemies where He pleases, when He and how He pleases.
God is able to punish the wicked for unlike wicked men. God is eternal. There was never a time when He was not, and there will never be a time when He is not. Men wax old like a garment, but the Lord shall "fold them up." He changes not, and His years, they fail not. Wicked men cannot live long enough to escape the justice of God.
God is almighty. All power is given unto Him in Heaven and in earth. None can stay His hand or say unto Him, "What doest Thou?" The wicked are tracked relentlessly by the "Hound of Heaven."
God can summon a battle by which to end a sinner’s wild career. He can raise up one king and put down another. He can withhold the rain and bring about a famine. He can command disease to do His will. The wicked cannot escape the justice of God. The Lord who does according to His will among the inhabitants of earth is all-wise: He knows how to reach wicked men. Therefore, "safety is of the Lord."
When is the proper time for wicked men to flee from God? If he says, "Surely the darkness shall cover me," the darkness and the light are both alike to Him. "The day is Thine, the night also is Thine." "Thou hast made summer and winter."
Where can the wicked flee?
"Sinner man, where you going to run to?"
Where can the wicked flee to elude God and His justice? Does not God fill Heaven and earth? The Lord created the North and the South. "The sea is His and His hands formed the dry land."
"And everywhere that man can be,
Thou, God, art present there."
God is ever-present. He is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: "the Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm."
Thomas Watson declared, "All God’s creatures are at His check and beck." God prepared a fish to swallow Jonah. He sent a lion to kill the disobedient prophet from Bethlehem-Judah. It was God who sent poisonous snakes to punish Israel. They bit "much people", and many died.
By the breath of His nostrils, the wicked perish. "He taketh away their breath, and they die." The soul of every living thing is in His hands.
There is nothing that keeps wicked people out of Hell at any moment but the mere pleasure of God. He is His enemies’ unacknowledged Lord; nevertheless He can reach them where He when He pleases and how He pleases.
The Pilgrim’s Bible Church: We have heard no further word concerning our building. Please pray the Lord may cause the owners to be kindly affectionate toward our church and to sell to us the facilities here.
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The First Baptist Church in Millen, Georgia, was struck by lightning, and burned to the ground.
The Church is pastored by the capable Edward Coy who serves as Dean of the Augusta extension of the American Baptist Theological Seminary --the "Pastors Class."
Only a week before the church burned, Bro. Coy related to me how an usher had approached him and had confessed he was living in sin --that he had been doing so for 15 years and that he had no intention of repenting.
Like a faithful under-shepherd. Pastor Coy dismissed him and said he could hold no office in the church while living such a life. He then proceeded to chide the deacons and church members who knowingly permitted such to continue in their midst, and for not informing him.
Various members of the church stiffened and reminded the pastor "Conference Day is coming", and that they intended to bring the issue to the floor. In short, Pastor Coy related that certain members intended "to raise Hell" at Conference. He told the church that if they did not stand behind him in this issue, he would resign the church. He said he had no intention of pastoring a church that did not intend to live according to the principles of God’s Word. Our hats are off to Pastor Coy.
On Wednesday, September 11th, the First Baptist Church in Millen, Georgia was struck by lightning. According to eyewitnesses, no rain fell, and only one clap of thunder was heard. The flames were so intense, firefighters were unable to approach the building, but had to return with asbestos suits. Yet, everything did not burn --Like a specter, standing amid the rubble to remind the members of the church, was the Pastor’s study!
What happens when a person compromises the dictates of his conscience? What happens when a person is convinced a thing is true and then slowly surrenders his conviction? Luther said, "To go against conscience is neither right nor safe."
Conscience --What is it? What is its function? And, what necessitates its conversion?
Conscience: What Is It? Scripture describes the conscience as the "heart" --not the palpitating organ in the chest, hut the memory, the understanding. "Thy Word have I hid in mine heart (memory) that I might not sin against Thee." (Psalm 119:11) "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God." (I John 5:21) The conscience is the "heart" of the person: it is the real "you."
The Apostle Paul speaks of people who "when they knew God they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart (conscience) was darkened." (Romans 1:21) It is little wonder, therefore, Luther said "To go against conscience is neither right nor safe."
Conscience: What Is Its Function? The conscience testifies to the Moral Law of God. (Romans 2:14,15) According to this text, the "Moral Law" or
"Natural Law" is inscribed on the "heart" and is the "light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world."
CONSCIENCE
Our conscience judges our actions. (II Corinthians 4:1;2;5:11) God therefore judges sinners by their conscience because "to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin." (James 4:17) While it is a work of the Holy Spirit "to convict of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (John 16: 8) yet He convicts men by the conscience. (John 8:8,9)
The writer of Hebrews speaks of an "evil conscience" from which the saints of God have had their hearts sprinkled by the blood of Christ. (Hebrews 10:22) And, the Apostle Paul speaks of it as a "defiled conscience" saying "Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled." (Titus 1:15,16) There is no "spark of divinity" in their heart --only complete depravity.
Many of God’s people, however, are troubled by a "weak conscience." It was not always weak, but when truths that have once been espoused have been by degrees surrendered, conscience becomes defiled. Such people no longer voice their convictions, because by their life style they have continued to muffle the voice of conscience. By their permissiveness, they have put a stumbling block in the way of the Christian brother which hinders his progress in the way to Heaven. People now possessed with a "weak conscience" are in such a condition because when they doubt the righteousness of things they do them anyway; and "to go against conscience is neither right nor safe." (I Corinthians 8:7-13)
In II Timothy 4:1,2, Paul speaks of apostates whose consciences are "seared with a hot iron." Such people have rationalized truth so long they have become insensible to truth. When God’s Word has been faithfully presented, they turn aside to avoid it in order to continue their own way. They have done this so long they are no longer capable of grasping truth. Consequently, they believe lies and follow false doctrine.
Then there is the "good conscience." To have a "good conscience" is to have a faith --a conscience that is not hypocritical. To thrust such away is to make "shipwreck" of the faith. (I Timothy 1:19) A good conscience is described by the apostle as a "pure conscience" (I Timothy 5:9), and a "blameless conscience," giving no offence to God or man. (Acts 24:16)
Conscience: What Necessitates Its Being Converted? Conscience is corrupt by nature. Paul described it not only as a "dead conscience" (Titus 1:15), but also as a "vain conscience" (Ephesians 4:17), an "ignorant conscience" (Ephesians 4:18), and on account of the convictions that have been suppressed, it is a "darkened conscience." (Ephesians 4:18) By nature it is thoroughly corrupted (I Timothy 6:5), "depraved" (II Timothy 5:8), and "reprobate" (Romans 1:28). It is suitable only to be discarded. Yet, for all this, it is "puffed up" and argumentative according to the vanity of the fleshly mind. (Colossians 2:18)
"So deep is the stain, so radicated the habits of sinning, so strong the propensity to do what is evil, that it is nothing less than the power by which the (conscience) was created that can conquer these habits, eradicate these vices and cause such a leper to change his spots.
"He whose power caused Sarah to conceive and bear a son in her old age can cause the conversion of the sinful soul and cause it to bear the image of the Heavenly as it has borne the image of the earthly." Such were the words of Adam Clarke. May they speak as much to you as they have to me.
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The Angelus: Last March, we were offered a North Star Horizon computer that sold for $2500. It needs a database 2 and a CPM to make it functional for our needs. These two systems will cost us about $500. In other words, we have a $5000 computer for $500.
Mr. Bob Stockmeier, Jr. of East Point, Georgia has offered to pre-program it for us and to come to Augusta and help us set it up for our mailing list!
Each month, the computer would save us a minimum of 16 hours filing and sorting for the post office. Its potential for improving and expanding this ministry are very great, while easing our workload.
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"If there is a place under high Heaven more holy than another, it is the pulpit whence the Gospel is preached. This is the Thermopylae of Christendom: here must the great battle be fought between Christ’s church and the invading hosts of a wicked world. This is the last vestige of anything that is sacred left to us. We have no altars now; Christ is our altar: but we have a pulpit still left, a place, which when a man entereth, he might well put off his shoes from his feet, for the place whereon he standeth is holy." --Charles Spurgeon
We live in a day when there is little regard for the "cause of God and truth." We have outlived our love for the God of our fathers. Present-day Christians are more concerned that a church has a program that is exciting and entertaining, that there, are crafts for the children, and contemporary activities for the young people. "Thus saith the Lord" is rarely to be heard above the din, and the contemporary church loves to have it so.
Such attitudes provoked these strains: "Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out My hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all My counsel and would none of My reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh."
(Proverbs 1:24-26)
God commanded Jonah "preach ...the preaching that I bid thee." (Jonah 5:2) To Jeremiah, He said, "Whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak." (Jeremiah 1:7) To Ezekiel God said, "Hear the word at My mouth and give them warning from Me!" (Ezekiel 5:17) Over 3800 times the Old Testament affirms "Thus saith the Lord!"
But Israel hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of His counsels: they despised all His reproof. Therefore they ate the fruit of their own way. Can it be any different with the church of today? We have been lulled into a spirit of indifference by the constant preaching of the rapture of the church, but if the present church is delivered from all the trouble about to engulf the world, God will have to compromise His righteousness and apologize to every carnal people He has judged.
Matthew Simpson said of the minister of the Gospel,
"His throne is the pulpit, he stands in Christ’s stead; his message is the Word of God; around him are immortal souls; the Saviour unseen is beside him; the Holy Spirit broods over the congregation; angels gaze upon the scene; Heaven and Hell await the issue. What associations, and what vast responsibility!"
The Minister IS To Be Heard. The minister of the Gospel is a man of like passions and infirmities as other men. Notwithstanding, he is to be heard. He is to be heard whether or not his pulpit manner is pleasing. His speech may I not be articulate. He may have the voice of Chanticleer; his scholarship may be outrageous, and his dress outlandish, but he is peculiarly positioned by God: he is called by the Lord to speak His Word and give men warning from Him.
He may not be entertaining, but he is not called to entertain.
His voice may he monotone, his eye contact may be atrocious, but he is to be heard. Where did we ever get the notion that the minister of the Gospel is to perform, or that his style must be pleasing? Where did we get the notion that if he is not enthusiastic and humorous we have a right to ignore his message?
The Manner By Which We are to Hear: Jesus warned, "Take heed how ye hear."
The people of God ought to prepare themselves for hearing God’s Word. They ought to pray for him who is to deliver the Word of God and come to preaching with a heart made tender by the Spirit of God.
The people of God ought to "hang on the lips of the Gospel."
They should receive the Word with the affection and wisdom suitable for receiving and retaining eternal things. Such things should be reverently and obediently heard. After all, it is the Word of God. It deserves full attention, Let nothing escape you. Listen for your life. Do not allow extraneous thoughts or drowsiness to cause you to neglect so great salvation.
Bring an appetite to the preaching of God’s Word. Do not come to be entertained. Bring a tender heart --a heart willing to submit to the truth of God. Receive with meekness the engrafted Word.
Apply the Word personally, and labor to remember it for why should Satan steal out of your heart the seed sown? Therefore practice it. Beg God to bless His Word in your heart.
Study God’s Word intensely. It is the treasure hid in the field. Search it thoroughly, curiously. Mix it with faith for the Word preached will not profit if not mixed with faith.
Delight yourself in hearing God’s Word. Teach your children how to listen that they too might come to enjoy hearing God’s Word. After all, it is the Word of God!