September 1928
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
538
MOSES stood in the gap at a time when God’s wrath was kindled against Israel because of their idolatry, and again when they murmured against God’s servants. As a result “ the Lord repented of the evil which He thought to do unto the people,” and again the Lord said, “ I have pardoned according to thy word.” SAMUEL stood in the gap many years when the peo ple lost the ark of Jehovah and afterwards turned away from God and desired a king like the nations round about them; and again.when King Saul disobeyed God, and spared Agag and the best of the sheep. It was then that Samuel “ cried unto the Lord all night.” ELIJAH stood in the gap caused by the worship of Baal on the part o f King Ahab, his wife and the people. For three and a half years Elijah stood alone in the breach until God answered by fire and His enemies were de stroyed. Then His people fell on their faces, crying out: “ The Lord, He is. God; the Lord, He is God.” JOB stood in the gap for his whole family when they spent their time feasting. He rose up early in the morning and offered burnt-offerings unto the Lord according to the number of them all; for Job said, “ It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.” Where is an Abraham, or a Moses, a Samuel, or an Elijah, or a Job who will stand in the gap today? “ The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in the behalf o f them whose heart is1perfect toward him.” In Ezekiel’s day, God said of His foolish prophets:— “ Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day o f the Lord” . (F.zek. 13:5). Shall He say the same to day ? The battle is onH-the battle between truth and error, between the right and the wrong, between God and Satan. Who among us will stand against the wiles of the devil and withstand in this evil day? God is taking out a peo ple for His name (Acts 1^:14), and therefore is looking for those who will firmly stand with Christ by faith in the midst o f Jordan (the victory of Calvary) until all the people are passed over (Joshua 3:1-1 7)A^From The Great Commission Prayer League. “ Forgive Us Our Debts” True prayer has in it the penitent spirit ^ -“ Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” These words have been changed by somebody to “ Forgive us our tres passes, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” “ There is no authority in the Bible for this change,” said the late Dr. A. C. Dixon, ’“ and the petition has been greatly weakened. ‘Trespass’ is a light word compared with ‘debtor.’ Sin is a great debt to God. It must be paid, and only Christ can pay it. None but Christians should use this prayer. W e come to God for salvation on the ground of grace and nothing else. W e are not for given on the ground that we forgive others. Every one is saved gratis. A fter we have become children of God, H e .deals with us in chastening love, and if we do not forgive others, we may not expect God to forgive us, but rather to chasten us. The Golden Rule, which requires that ‘we do unto others as we would have them do unto us,’ is a high type o f altruism, but this is a moral altruism even higher than that. God declares that He will treat us, His children, just as we treat others. If we judge others, He will judge us; if we curse others, we may expect His curse in some form o f chastisement.”
that incorrigible and irredeemable horde of organized rebels against the authority o f heaven, whose rebellion began before the beginning o f time and whose doom is for ever sealed. The moment Judas closed the bargain for the betrayal o f his Lord, that moment he delivered himself over to the possession and authority of the Satanic power whose doom became the doom of Judas. In his crime and the spirit o f which it was begotten, he had swung beyond the orbit of divine mercy, and had been caught in the grip o f that downward moral gravitation the end of which is eternal banishment from the presence of God. There is a depth of moral depravity out of which there is no ascent, and into this Judas had plunged. This he discovered when too late. His was not true repentance. It was remorse without contrition, and that is despair. He was forever crushed under the load o f his guilt. C old -B looded D eliberation Behold, then, the difference, wide as infinity, between Peter and Judas. In Peter’s case there was no such cold blooded deliberation, no such selling of self to the powers o f evil, hence no such destruction of moral capacity. His sin sprang from the common weakness o f our Mature, in obedience to impulses purely natural. Behind the impul sive act was a substance o f love and loyalty and devotion that, when released from the pressure of circumstances, asserted itself in a repentance that, though bitter, found hope in the consciousness o f that deathless love, that un broken loyalty, and in a faith that ;the Master knew all and was merciful to forgive,— as He ever does and is. In other words, Judas’ sin was Judas; Peter’s sin was not Peter. In the mechanical world a chain is no stronger than its weakest link; in the moral world a chain is as strong as its strongest link. The Lord estimates us, not by what is worst in us, but by what is besni|J We believe that Jesus chose a morally and intellectually normal man; that this man was impelled by no resistless supernatural or Satanic constraint; that he was as free as you or I to choose and direct, by the ever-present grace of God, his manner of life ; that the beginnings of sin were in him just what they are in us all; that he had in him qualities that recommended him to the Master for the work he was called to d o ; that his life might have been such a divine asset as that of Peter or John and an honor to the Lord who had honored him ; and that his name, in stead o f being covered with eternal infamy, might have been enrolled among the heroes o f heaven. He was lost as any are lost, by dallying with temptation till it became the master of his soul. His moral destruction was no more necessary than our moral destruction. It was wrought in him, as it is wrought in us, by traitorous commerce with the enemies o f our Lord. It is a lesson and a warning that no matter how great our religious privileges or how exalted our official position, there is imminent danger for us in any but the fixed habit o f uncompromising separation from sin and absolute abandonment to the directing will and the keeping power of God. Who Will Stand in the Gap? (Ezek. 22:23-30) A BRAHAM stood in the gap when God revealed His purpose to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because their sin was very grievous. Every prayer was answered. When Abraham stopped praying, the judgment o f God fell upon the city. Even then God remembered Abraham and delivered Lot. In judgment God remembers mercy because His children pray.
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