“Too many Christians are guilty of either thinking without doing or doing without thinking.”

~Vance Havner

In This Edition:

“Squenching” the Spirit

Power To Overcome

No Outside Hell

A Guilty Conscience

If He Be Able

Some are preaching Christ from envy and strife…

Beyond the Call of Duty

“We are told that since we face so many foes without, all church people should close ranks and forget about “secondary differences.” But a traitor in the camp is more dangerous that the enemy we face. The Israelites were defeated not so much by the Canaanites as by Achan.”

~Vance Havner

“When I started out preaching, it made me nervous when a “big preacher” showed up in the congregation. I have learned since that a really big preacher is the easiest of all men to preach to. If he just thinks he is a big preacher, he needs preaching to!”

~Vance Havner

“Squenching” the Spirit

By Vance Havner

Quench not the Spirit.
I Thessalonians 5:19

A Negro friend used to say to me, “Don’t ‘squench’ the Spirit.” He coined his own word, but “squench,” being a combination of “squelch” and “quench,” really should be in the dictionary.

We quench the Spirit in more ways than we suspect. When we stifle the inner impression to speak or act for the Lord we do it. And we can quench the Spirit in others when we criticize or discourage or by any attitude “throw cold water” on their fire. The brother in prayer meeting who mixed his metaphors and said, “Lord, if there should be a spark of fire in this meeting, please water that spark,” unwittingly suggested another way to smother the Spirit’s freedom. How we do conspire to limit God in our meetings! We have an Honored Guest in every Christian gathering, and He can be grieved very easily. A frivolous spirit, a critical or rebellious frame of mind, a fed-up complacency – that will do it. The very way we arrange physical details, the way we scatter all over the church, two to a pew; the way we hear and hear not – surely “squench” says it, for we squelch and quench the Spirit.

Power To Overcome

by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

Every true Christian knows by experience that the Holy Spirit does not, upon saving us, take possession of us and thenceforth supernaturally cause us to live lives pleasing to God. Rather, as with salvation, so with the Christian life, He operates in the believer “by grace through faith”.

Powerful assistance to overcome sin is freely provided by grace, but this help must be appropriated by faith in each individual case. There is no blanket provision for continuous victory throughout our whole life. We must look to Him in faith for the help we need in each separate battle.

Thus the Scripture teaching with regard to victory over sin is not that it is not possible for the believer to sin, but rather that in any given case it is possible for him not to sin. Thus too, the question in times of temptation is generally whether we truly desire to overcome, for deliverance is freely provided by grace if we will but appropriate it by faith.

But just how is deliverance provided? The answer is: BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. No longer need the believer remain enslaved to sin; for the Holy Spirit within, who imparted spiritual life to begin with, will also impart strength to overcome temptation. When tried and unable even to pray as we ought, “the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities” and “maketh intercession for us” (Romans 8:26). When weak and ill, we may be “strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man” (Ephesians 3:16). Indeed, the Spirit even strengthens God’s people physically to overcome sin, for we read:

“But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken [strengthen] your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Romans 8:11).

And the following verse goes on to say:

“Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh” (Romans 8:12)

The thought is that, since believers have the Holy Spirit to help them overcome sin, they are debtors — and not to the flesh, but to God, to live pleasing to Him.

“An evangelist friend of mine was converted in a rescue mission. The superintendent of that mission kept him as an assistant for a year before he let him go out preaching. He explained, “I wanted him to get established and I didn’t want him to know too many Christians!” Gandhi is reported to have said that he might have become a believer if it hadn’t been for Christians!”

~Vance Havner

Mahatma Gandhi was lost and preaching an errant faith in his devotion to Hinduism — yet he exhibited more Christian teachings in his quote above than most professed Christians exhibit in their prayer life; asking, always asking and demanding of God. Not bowing, not humbling themselves before God and giving thanks unto the Lord for His mercy, grace, coming to earth in the form of God-man; Jesus Christ the Lord, Saviour, and Messiah to live and die and rise from the dead providing the way to our faith and salvation through Him.

May we cease in our always asking and be a light unto the world, and the salt of the earth, and not pray amiss — may we give thanks in prayer, listen in prayer, humble ourselves in prayer, and permit the Holy Spirit to petition the Lord knowing better and more of what we truly need than we do ourselves – Ken Pullen, administrator of A Crooked Path.

No Outside Hell

By Vance Havner

For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way: because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good to them that seek him; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him. So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was intreated of us.
Ezra 8:22, 23

Ezra had made great claims for his God and now he was ashamed to ask assistance from the king. And well we may be, but some of us are not. We recite: “Some trust in chariots and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God”; we boast that our God is able to deliver us; but in an emergency we go to Egypt for help or borrow the militia of Artaxerxes. King Asa, after God’s mighty deliverance from the Ethiopians, made a league with Syria when Baasha threatened him. Hanani, the seer, said, “Herein hast thou done foolishly.” And we always do foolishly when we sing and preach about a God who supplies all our need and then beg help from the ungodly.

It ought to embarrass us to ask help from this world. We do not need its assistance. Let us beseech our God, and He will be entreated of us.

A Guilty Conscience

by Pastor Paul M. Sadler

God has put a conscience, inside every human being, which warns us when we’re about to do something wrong. At his second appearance before the Diet of Worms, Martin Luther stated about his stand, “To go against conscience is neither right nor safe.”

“For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses” (Romans 5:13,14).

The term impute in this passage is an accounting term; it simply means “to put to one’s account.” While men sinned during the period between Adam and Moses, they were not held accountable for those sins because God had not yet given the commandments that prohibited them. This does not mean that they were any less guilty of sin or any less deserving of eternal judgment. It is important to remember that, during this period, men were living under the dispensation of conscience; therefore, they were without excuse. This is what Paul means in Romans 2:

“For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another” (Romans 2:14,15).

Conscience means “to know” or “with knowledge.” Under that dispensation, conscience was to govern mankind. It required men to do all known good, and abstain from all known evil.

After Adam and Eve had sinned, “they knew that they were naked” and consequently, they sewed figs leaves together to cover themselves (Genesis 3:7). In other words, their consciences were activated to know the difference between good and evil, and right and wrong. They knew they had sinned against God and felt guilty as a result of it.

Cain knew that God required a blood sacrifice, but he did evil in the sight of the Lord and brought an offering from the fruit of the ground. He sinned and had to deal with the guilt of his decision (Genesis 4:5). God would not receive Cain’s offering because it came from the earth, which had been cursed. Abel, on the other hand, responded to God in faith and brought what God required of him.

God is teaching us that, even though there was no Law between Adam and Moses, we are to understand that conscience was their guide, for they were “a law unto themselves.” As a result, they were without excuse. You see, God is demonstrating that, no matter what dispensation He has placed man under—Conscience, Law, Grace—all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

With this in mind, Paul adds, “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses.” Even though the Law of Moses hadn’t been implemented at that time, death still reigned supreme in that, eventually the people died. But that raises this question: if the sins of men were not charged to their account, why did death still have mastery over them? Simple: they had sinned in Adam, which is true of the entire human race. Since we are Adam’s posterity, we are all born in him. He is our federal head. What was true of him is true of us as well.

God, in His infinite knowledge, sees what we are unable to see. When Adam reached for that forbidden fruit, we were in him; consequently, we are identified with his sin. Another example of this principle is found in Hebrews 7:9,10. So then, the trio of death— physical, spiritual and the possibility of eternal death—reigned because we have all sinned in Adam. This also explains how a newborn, who has never committed one sinful act, sometimes dies due to complications. They sinned in Adam! Personally, I believe God has made a very special provision for these little ones (II Samuel 12:22,23).

“Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound” (Romans 5:20). The Law magnified sin! It shined a spotlight on it to show man how exceedingly sinful he really is. When the Law says, “Thou shalt not steal,” man’s natural response is to question the law rebelliously and disobey it. When you tell a toddler that he is not allowed to open the basement door and then move out of their range of sight, he will put his hand on the door knob and look to see if you’re watching. You see, it shows us that there is a natural tendency to do wrong. God magnified that a hundredfold when He gave the Law. Once again, it was to demonstrate that all are sinners in word, thought, and deed.

From the beginning, conscience has been woven through all the ages and dispensations. It is what’s known as a trans-dispensational truth. But we find it interesting that there is very little emphasis placed on conscience under the Mosaic system, which shouldn’t surprise us (Hebrews 9:9). The commandments served as the conscience of the people of God in time past: “Thou shalt not…,” “This do and thou shalt live…,” “If you hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep His commandments and His statutes….” There was a law or statute to govern every step of their lives.

When we turn to the Gentile epistles, Paul makes frequent references to the conscience under grace. Today we have liberty in Christ, but we are never to use that liberty for an occasion to the flesh, whether it’s to entertain impure thoughts or commit an immoral act. Grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust. The Law demands; grace beseeches! As God implores us to walk worthy of our calling, He uses His Word, the Spirit, and our consciences as an early warning system, to assist us in living a life that is well pleasing to Him. Remember and remember well: it’s a dangerous thing to disobey your conscience.

If He Be Able

by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

“Either his uncle… or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him, or, if he be able, he may redeem himself” (Leviticus 25:49).

Under Old Testament law one who had failed in business could sell himself, or be sold, into slavery, his master paying off his debts in lieu of salary. The slave could be redeemed, however, by his uncle or any near relative who could afford to pay off his debts, or, says our passage: “if he be able, he may redeem himself.”

“If he be able”! Significant qualification, for what bankrupt slave was ever able to redeem himself!

In this way God would teach us an important lesson about salvation from sin. All of us have failed in business, as it were. We have amassed a huge debt of sin against God and our fellowmen, and have become morally and spiritually bankrupt.

We have many who are “nigh of kin” to us, but they are unable to redeem us because they themselves are bankrupt sinners. There is One, however, who has an infinite store of righteousness with which to pay our debt and redeem us. Indeed, He did pay the penalty for all our sins when He, the Holy One, died in shame and disgrace as a sinner on Calvary’s cross.

He, the Lord Jesus Christ, is our blessed Kinsman Redeemer, for as Adam’s children “are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same” (Hebrews 2:14) that He might redeem Jew and Gentile; “made [for] a little [while] lower than the angels for the suffering of death …that He by the grace of God, should taste death for every man” (Hebrews 2:9).

There are many, alas, who will not face up to their condition. They somehow think that they can still redeem themselves. To them God says: “Do it, if you are able!” To the rich young ruler who asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life,” the Lord said “You know the law… this do, and you will live.”

But who of us has perfectly kept the law of God? Who of us is not a repeated law-breaker in the sight of God? Who is able to redeem himself? Why not then turn from self to Christ, our rich Kinsman Redeemer, “In whom we have redemption, through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7).

Some are preaching Christ from envy and strife…

By Elizabeth Haworth

Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will:

Philippians 1:15 — King James Version

Paul had been called as Christ’s apostle to the gentiles and appointed by the Father to be entrusted with the hidden mysteries of the Church and much church-age doctrine, which is so vital for our spiritual growth today.

Paul was wonderfully used of the Lord to write a significant portion of the New Testament scriptures and yet throughout his ministry we discover many individual critics of Paul, and various groups who were openly opposed his position and authority.

Some were jealous of him and envious of his apostolic appointment.. openly opposing him by preaching the gospel of Christ out of envy and strife and in so doing.. seeking to intensify the bitter pain of Paul’s imprisonment in a Roman jail. But despite their opposition and ungodly intention, Paul rejoiced knowing that the gospel of Christ was being spread abroad.

Paul was certainly filled with joy knowing that there were many who were continuing his work and preaching Christ from a sincere love of the Lord and a desire to tell forth the glorious message of Salvation by grace through faith in Him – but he also rejoiced over the ministry of those whose motive in preaching was rooted in envy and strife.

There is much ‘religious politics’ in the church today and although it is important that false doctrine is exposed.. the attitude that Paul displayed towards these fleshly motivated preachers whose preaching.. through doctrinally sound,  stemmed from envy, strife and a desire to cause him pain.. is a beautiful lesson in humble discipleship and godly submission to the Holy Spirit.

May we like Paul never be downcast by the wrong motives, fleshly manipulations, cruel comments or foolish jealousies of brothers of sisters in Christ whose preaching is rooted in envy or strife.. and may we never allow wrong motives or fleshly attitudes to influence the calling that God has laid on each one of our lives – rather let us rejoice that the good news of God is being proclaimed to lost souls who need to hear the glorious gospel of Salvation – by grace through faith in Christ.

My Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank You for the work that You have called me to do in this corner of Your vineyard. May I rejoice to see the message of Salvation being spread to lost souls and not be downcast by those whose motive may be rooted in envy or bitterness. Rather I pray that I may be flooded with Your joy that the gospel is being proclaimed.. and encourage others to rejoice in the Lord always.. at the wonderful way that so many are hearing the good news of the gospel of Salvation – this I ask in Jesus name, AMEN

Beyond the Call of Duty

By Vance Havner

We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.
Luke 17:10

Heroes are often decorated for going “above and beyond the call of duty” to perform some feat not required in the ordinary normal course of their obligations. It might shock some church members who pride themselves on doing their duty to be told that they are unprofitable servants, but such we are if we merely do what is normally required of us. Now, it is a good thing to do our duty, and most of us do not even get that far. But we can get that far and merit no better word than “unprofitable.” Alas, some of our best church workers and busiest religious folk never get beyond this category.

God’s awards are for the Saints of the Second Mile who go above and beyond the call of duty. It is not whipping ourselves up to increased quantity production that is in mind here. It is the spontaneous and overflowing ministry that does far more for Jesus than it has to just because we love Him so.

We are glad to do far more than our duty for those we love on earth. Shall we do less for the Lover of our souls?