“But He knows the way that I take; when He has tried me, I shall come out as gold.”
Job 23:10
In this chapter I would like to share with my readers some bits of gold that others have shared with me over the years. I have read these and mulled them over time and again, so much so I cannot remember the count. Some of these were shown to me through other men’s preaching, some through reading and some through brothers whom I have been privileged to know and call dear brothers in the faith. And although there are so many thousands more I could have added here, these stand out in my mind and are often with me during my day. I hope and pray they may take root in your soul and lead you into a closer walk with God, a more devoted life to Christ Jesus and in obedience, and power of the blessed Holy Spirit. Amen.
Only expected person
“In all the history of the world Jesus emerges as the only ‘expected’ person. No one was looking for such a person as Julius Caesar, or Napoleon, or Washington, or Lincoln to appear at the time and place that they did appear. No other person has had his course foretold or his work laid out for him centuries before he was born. But the coming of the Messiah had been predicted for centuries. In fact, the first promise of his coming was given to Adam and Eve soon after their fall into sin. As time went on various details concerning his person and work were revealed through the prophets; and at the time Jesus was born there was a general expectation throughout the Jewish world that the Messiah was soon to appear, even the manner of His birth and the town in which it would occur having both clearly indicated.”327
The Father’s bargain with Christ for you
In the later 1600's John Flavel wrote this picture of God the Father talking with His dear Son regarding the hopeless and sinless state.
“Here you may suppose the Father to say, when driving his bargain with Christ for you.
“Father—‘My son, here is a company of poor miserable souls, that have utterly undone themselves, and now lie open to my justice! Justice demands satisfaction for them, or will satisfy itself in the eternal ruin of them: What shall be done for these souls?’ And thus Christ returns.
“Son—‘O my Father, such is my love to, and pity for them, that rather than they shall perish eternally, I will be responsible for them as their Surety; bring in all thy bills, that I may see what they owe thee; Lord, bring them all in, that there may be no after-reckonings with
them; at my hand shalt thou require it. I will rather choose to suffer thy wrath than they should suffer it: upon me, my Father, upon me be all their debt.’
“Father—‘But, my Son, if thou undertake for them, thou must reckon to pay the last mite, expect no abatements; if I spare them, I will not spare thee.’
“Son—‘Content, Father, let it be so; charge it all upon me, I am able to discharge it: and though it prove a kind of undoing to me, though it impoverish all my riches, empty all my treasures, (for so indeed it did, 2 Cor. 8: 9. “Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor”) yet I am content to undertake it.’
“Blush, ungrateful believers, O let shame cover your faces; judge in yourselves now, has Christ deserved that you should stand with him for trifles, that you should shrink at a few petty difficulties, and complain, this is hard, and that is harsh? O if you knew the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in this his wonderful condescension for you, you could not do it.”328
All the keys?
“Sixteen years ago I was a minister in a Midland town in England, not at all happy, doing my work for the pay I got, but holding a good position amongst my fellows. Hudson Taylor (famous missionary to China) and two young students came into my life. I watched them. They had something I had not. Those young men stood there in all their strength and joy.
I said to Charles Studd (another well-known missionary):
“What is the difference between you and me? You seem so happy, and I somehow am in the trough of the wave.”
He replied:
“There is nothing that I have got which you may not have, Mr. Meyer.”
But I asked:
“How am I to get it?”
“Well,” he said,
“Have you given yourself right up to God?”
I winced. I knew that if it came to that, there was a point where I had been fighting my deepest convictions for months. I had lived away from it, but when I came to the Lord’s table and handed out the bread and wine, then it met me; or when I came to a convention or meeting of holy people, something stopped me as I remembered this. It was the one point where my will was entrenched. I thought I would do something with Christ that night which would settle it one way or the other, and I met Christ.
I knelt in my room and gave Christ the ring of my will with the keys on it, but kept one little key back, the key of a closet in my heart, in one back story in my heart.
He said to me:
“Are they all here?”
And I said:
“All but one.”
“What is that?” said He.
“It is the key of a little cupboard,” said I, “in which I have got something which Thou needest not interfere with, but it is mine.”
Then, as He put the keys back into my hand, and seemed to be gliding away to the door, He said:
“My child, if you cannot trust Me with all, you do not trust Me at all.”
I cried:
“Stop!”
…and He seemed to come back; and holding the little key in my hand, in thought I said:
“I cannot give it, but if Thou wilt take it Thou shalt have it.”
He took it, and within a month from that time He had cleared out that little cupboard of things which had been there for months. I knew He would. May I add one word more? Three years ago I met the thing I gave up that night, and as I met it I could not imagine myself being such a fool as nearly to have sold my birthright for that mess of pottage.
I looked up into the face of Christ and said:
“Now I am thine.”
For if we desire to have that which we know we do not have, we can have it, but we must ask and we must surrender all. And if we will surrender all, then we too will have the peace, love, and joy of Christ. Just think how many people could be affected by the outcome.”329
Velvet mouthed preacher
“I’ll tell you a story. The Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 1675 was acquainted with Mr. Butterton the actor. One day the Archbishop . . . said to Butterton . . . ‘pray inform me Mr. Butterton, what is the reason you actors on stage can affect your congregations with speaking of things imaginary, as if they were real, while we in church speak of things real, which our congregations only receive as if they were imaginary?’ ‘Why my Lord,’ says Butterton, ‘the reason is very plain. We actors on stage speak of things imaginary, as if they were real and you in the pulpit speak of things real as if they were imaginary.’”
“Therefore,” says Whitefield, “I will bawl, I will not be a velvet-mouthed preacher.”330
Concerning tears and humility
“My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite, until the LORD from heaven looks down and sees; my eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the daughters of my city.”331
Leonard Ravenhill used to often say regarding preaching hard and with strong zeal, “Weep before You whip.”
Ravi Zacharias used to often tell his young colleagues and preachers, “Humble in heart; wise in response.”
My dear friend and brother in Christ told me when he was pastoring a small church he had to go and confront a man in the church who was in grievous sin against God and his family. He took with him a brother, and long-time missionary to some of the darkest and deadliest places on the earth, to be witness and aid in this man’s repentance. My friend told me that he confronted him and talked much with the man, yet the man remained stone cold. It was when the missionary started to weep over the man’s condition, praying and pleading with man, that this man broke down, genuinely repented, seeing his great sin and need for God’s grace. My friend told me, “I brought with me the truth of the Scriptures, but Kevin brought with it tears.” I shall never forget this lesson.332
“In my twenties, during a period of pastoring, I loved to go past the Salvation Army building, which was the largest one outside of London. There’s a huge block of stone at the front. Chiseled in one stone it says, ‘William Booth of the Salvation Army opened this corps’, and then it gives the date of 1910. In a second stone it says, ‘Kate and Mary Jackson, officers in this corp.’
“It was in this poor city, where they spin and weave cotton into cloth and the whole town was on the poverty level, that Kate and Mary Jackson labored for a couple of years and nothing happened. Those girls worked diligently and went to bed exhausted at night.
“So they wrote William Booth: ‘Would you kindly move us to another station? We’re so tired and disheartened. We’ve tried everything that we’ve been taught to do. Please move us to another location.’
“Booth sent a telegram back with two words – ‘Try tears.’ They did and they saw real revival come. Those girls went to travailing prayer – not just prayer, but travailing prayer, prayer with anguish in it. The road to revival is often paved with tears and brokenness.”333