DISCIPLE

commenting on Romans 2:17-29, and 3:1-8 William Newell wrote:    ...So much for the Jew who was the "religious" man, when Paul wrote Romans. But the "religious" man today is the "professing Christian," and "church-membership" as they call it, has taken the place, in the thought of Christendom, of the Jew's consciousness of belonging to the favored Israelitish race.      If we should thus apply this passage (17-29), must it not read something like this?      "If thou bearest the name of a Christian, and restest on having the gospel, and gloriest in God, and knowest His will, and approvest the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the gospel; and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, having in the gospel the form of knowledge and of the truth" – Then would follow the searching questions of verses 21 and 22; for do we not know teachers that teach others, but refuse to follow their own teac...

Having spoken of the spiritual inheritance which was his and ours, he then declared his indifference to material possessions (Eph. 6:32-33). "I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel". When a man is satisfied with what he has in Christ, the comforts and luxuries and extravagancies of this world lose their charm. The antidote to covetousness and the stimulus to contentment is this; "he hat said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Heb. 13:5). Apparently, the sentiments of this hymn are based on reality; In the heart of London city, 'Mid the dwellings of the poor, These bright golden words were uttered, I have Christ! What want I more? Spoken by a lonely woman, Dying on a garret floor, Having not one earthly comfort: I have Christ! What want I more! Silver and gold and apparel were what ensnared Achan; coveting them cost him his life (Josh. 7:21). Perhaps Gehazi thought that he was being reasonable when he request...

by Vance Havner Some time ago a friend of mine took me to a restaurant where they must love darkness rather than light. I stumbled into the dimly-lit cavern, fumbled for a chair, and mumbled that I needed a flashlight to read the menu. When the food came I ate it by faith and not by sight. Gradually, however, I began to make out objects a little more clearly. My host said, "Funny, isn't it, how we get used to the dark?"      We are living in the dark. The closing chapter of this age is dominated by the prince and powers of darkness. Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. The night is far spent; the blackness is more extensive and more excessive as it deepens just before the dawn.      However, early Christians set the world aglow because absolute Light was pitched against absolute darkness. The early Christians believed that the gospel was the only hope of the world, that without it all men were lost and all...

by R. E. Harlow It is commonly believed that the Arab peoples are descendants of Ishmael, about whom Abraham prayed, "Oh, that Ishmael might live before thee."   If so, it is a monumental example of the far-reaching consequences of one little slip on the part of a believer, in this case the father of the faithful.     Not all Arabs are devotees of the prophet Muhammad, but the vast majority are, and enthusiastically so. They are taught that their prophet is the answer to the promise of the Lord Jesus to send another Comforter. The word another (Gr. allos ) implies one like Jesus, but dissimilarities between Muhammad and Jesus are enormous.     Neither the Koran nor any other book contains multiple prophecies about the coming of Muhammad, while the Old Testament foretells minute details about Christ. Muhammad supposedly had a great revelation and found out that he was supposed to be a prophet.  The Lord Jesus knew He was the eternal Son of ...

Text: Hebrews 11:24-27     Moses renounced his association with Pharaoh and the Egyptian government. I wonder if any of us fully realize how much that decision cost him? He gave up more than most political and social hopefuls among Evangelicals have ever dreamed of. Yet, according to the logic of many professing Christians in our times, he should have stayed. After all, didn’t they need believers in politics and government? ·   He could have used his position to fight for a better life for the      Lord’s people. ·   He could have been a friend in high places. ·   He could have impeded corruption and godlessness in the      Egyptian government. ·  He could have gotten a movement started, rallying people to      clean up government.        But Moses, having thought it over, chose to suffer with the people of God. It was, accord...

Philippians 4:6-7  Be careful [anxious] for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.  1 Peter 5:7   Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

by J. Boyd Nicholson Sr. The mind, that citadel of the personality, is under attack! While governments encourage the building of shelters to preserve a percentage of the population from the devastation of atomic warfare; the great enemy of mankind, the devil is already in the process of using a more subtle and terrifying form of destruction. It is slow. It is sinister, and in so many cases, tragically effective. It is for the control of the MIND.     There was a time when it was the body he attacked. The lions, the rack, the stake and the sword all took their toll of faithful saints. Yet the voice of the martyrs’ blood called saints to greater godliness and ready sacrifice.     Now, it’s different. The enemy knows that if he can embattle the mind ‘til it wearies in the fray, he will have reduced a saint to a place of uselessness and discouragement. Doubts and fears will pervade the personality and the impact of a life for God will be well nigh lost....

     Scripture declares that "the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts" (1 Chron. 28:9). Is it any wonder that He declared that the thoughts of man are "evil" (Gen. 6:5), "vanity" (Psa. 94:11), "an abomination" (Prov. 15:26), "of iniquity" (Is. 59:7), "sin" (Prov. 24:9)? God declares that He is not to be found in any of the thoughts of the wicked (Psa. 10:4), that their thoughts are against Him for evil (Psa. 56:5). God says that His thoughts are higher than human thoughts even as the heavens are high above the earth (Is. 55:9), and that the unrighteous man is to forsake his thoughts (Is. 55:7). The Lord Jesus declared that the evil thoughts of men proceed out of their own hearts (Mark 7:21). The Holy Spirit declared that the Bible is the critic, the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Heb. 4:13).      Therefore, when there arises a question ...

Utter uncompromising, abandonment of hope in man is the first preliminary to understanding or preaching the gospel. Man says, "I am not so bad; I can make amends"; "There are many people worse than I am"; "I might be better, but I might be worse."  But God's indictment is sweeping: it reaches all. "None righteous; all have sinned; there is no distinction."  And the first step of wisdom is to listen to the worst God says about us, for He (wonderful to say!) is the Lover of man, sinner though man be. You and I were born in this lost race, with all these evil things innate in, and, apart from the grace of God, possible to us. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and is desperately wicked." Only redemption by the blood of Christ, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit, can afford hope. William R. Newell, Romans Verse by Verse, Moody Press, 1938, pages 27-28

Satan still tempts offering the kingdoms and glory of this world: Matthew 4:8-9  "the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world,  and the glory of them; and saith unto him,  All these things will I give thee..." But the believer disdains all that, as did his Lord, and confesses that he is a pilgrim and stranger in the world (Hebrews 11:13; 1 Peter 2:11), and is content to have Christ, desires to know Him better, and waits for his heavenly inheritance (1 Peter 1:4).   Philippians 3:8 "I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ."   I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold; I'd rather be His than have riches untold; I'd rather have Jesus than houses or lands. I'd rather be led by His nail pierced hand. Chorus: Th...