The Christian Excavator

“Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:” Galatians 1:3-4

We live in a very evil world full of very evil people. Christ gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil world. A quick look at today’s headlines shows that the world is indeed an “evil world”.  I am very glad this world is not my home…I truly am just passing through. I have noticed the rich are as corrupt as the poor and maybe more so. The Apostle Paul did tell Timothy, “But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.”

Everyone outside of Jesus Christ is walking “according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience… fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind” and are by nature the “children of wrath”. Ephesians 2:2-3

There are only two ways, the broad way and the narrow way. There is no middle ground. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a ravening wolf in sheep’s clothing. {Matthew 7:13-15} You are either a child of disobedience and wrath or a child of God. “In this the children of God are manifest, {are made known} and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.” I John3:10

Salvation is deliverance. He “gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world”. Why then do people reject deliverance? Jesus said, “Men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” People love their sin, their idolatry, their booze, their pornography, their dope, their greed, their fornication…they love darkness because their deeds are evil.

There is only one way to be delivered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” {Acts 16:31}

The question of all questions is this, Have you been delivered?

Which road are you on?

Which course are you taking?

Are you a Child of God or a child of wrath?

Do you love this world or do you love Him?

He is a life and eternity changing Saviour.

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” Romans 5:8-10

This life is very short and I am glad that He has delivered me and given me a hope of eternal life.

How about you? Please do not go out into eternity without being reconciled to God. And do not put it off until tomorrow.

Brother Shawn

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! Romans 11:33

Whenever I hear or see something in the Bible that goes against what I have been taught or goes against my preconceived notions I try to study it out. But I have found there are many things in the Bible that I have not been able to explain or explain away. Spurgeon said of one “doctor”; “I was reading just now the exposition of a very able doctor who explains the text so as to explain it away; he applies grammatical gunpowder to it, and explodes it by way of expounding it.”

In my lifetime I too have heard my fair share of “grammatical gunpowder”. I have heard men read a text and say “now that’s not what that really means”. I’ve noticed these kinds of shenanigans are particularly useful to prophecy “experts” and those who hate anything to do with the words “election” or “predestination”

Some people boast in the fact that they do not use commentaries or read the old writers but not me. Whenever I find something novel or hear some new {to me} idea I look to Christians from the past to get their views on the subject. I think it was Tozer who said something like “If it’s new it’s probably not true”. He was probably more right than wrong about that. One of the things I have always appreciated about Matthew Henry’s commentary is that when commenting on a difficult passage he will sometimes give two or three differing opinions from men he admired. I think he was admitting there are some things in the scriptures that are “past finding out”. But from my fundamentalist Baptist background everything must be explained or explained away. To admit that you do not understand something may get you kicked out of the “club”…or maybe just kicked and clubbed.

Here are a few quotes from Spurgeon that I have found helpful. Some of these quotations can be found in the book Spurgeon vs. Hyper-Calvinism by Iain H. Murray, a book I have read more than once and highly recommend.

Brother Shawn

“My love of consistency with my own doctrinal views is not great enough to allow me knowingly to alter a single text of Scripture. I have great respect for orthodoxy, but my reverence for inspiration is far greater. I would sooner a hundred times over appear to be inconsistent with myself than be inconsistent with the word of God. I never thought it to be any very great crime to seem to be inconsistent with myself; for who am I that I should everlastingly be consistent? But I do think it a great crime to be so inconsistent with the word of God that I should want to lop away a bough or even a twig from so much as a single tree of the forest of Scripture.”

“I thank God for a thousand things I cannot understand. When I cannot get to know the reason why, I say to myself, “Why should I know the reason why? Who am I, and what am I, that I should demand explanations of my God?” I am a most unreasonable being when I am most reasonable, and when my judgment is most accurate I dare not trust it. I had rather trust my God. I am a poor silly child at my very best: my Father must know better than I.”

From the sermon Salvation by Knowing the Truth by C. H. Spurgeon

“There are some who can map out unfulfilled prophecy with great distinctness, but I confess my inability to do so. They get a shilling box of mathematical instruments. They stick down one leg of the compasses and describe a circle here and a circle there—and they draw two or three lines—and there it is! Can you not see it, as plain as a pikestaff? I am sick of diagrams! I have seen enough of them to make another volume of Euclid. My impression is that very little is to be learned from the major part of these interpretations or speculations. I do not think that anybody can map out the future so as to be absolutely sure of anything definite except certain great clearly-stated facts.” from the sermon, Christ Work No Failure 

“Men who are morbidly anxious to possess a self-consistent creed, a creed which will put together and form a square like a Chinese puzzle,–are very apt to narrow their souls. Those who will only believe what they can reconcile will necessarily disbelieve much of divine revelation. Those who receive by faith anything which they find in the Bible will receive two things, twenty things, ay, or twenty thousand things, though they cannot construct a theory which harmonises them all”  from the Volume An All-Round Ministry

“That God predestines, and yet that man is responsible, are two facts that few can see clearly. They are believed to be inconsistent and contradictory to each other. If, then, I find taught in one part of the Bible that everything is fore-ordained, that is true; and if I find, in another Scripture, that man is responsible for all his actions,that is true; and it is only my folly that leads me to imagine that these two truths can ever contradict each other. I do not believe they can ever be welded into one upon any earthly anvil, but they certainly shall be one in eternity. They are two lines that are so nearly parallel, that the human mind which pursues them farthest will never discover that they converge, but they do converge, and they will meet somewhere in eternity, close to the throne of God, whence all truth doth spring.” from A Defense of Calvinism

“Oh that I knew where I might find him!” Job 23:3a

Sometimes in our Christian walk God seems so close that we can feel His presence, at other times He seems a million miles away. This is Jobs complaint during an inconceivable time of testing in his life. He goes on to say; “Behold, I go forward, but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him: On the left hand, where He doth work, but I cannot behold Him: He hideth Himself on the right hand, that I cannot see Him…”

Why does God do that? Why does He seem to “hide” Himself at times from His children? Why does He let us go through very sore trials and heartache in this life? Why does it seem at times that He is nowhere to be found when we need Him most?

I do not pretend to know the answers to these questions. But I do know that He always does what is best for His children. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” {Romans 8:28}  “…He has an uncontrollable power. None can stay His hand. Whatever the Lord pleased that did He {Psalm 135:6}, and always will, for it is always best.”- Matthew Henry

When my children were toddlers they often thought that they were big enough to wander around by themselves at the store or the mall. Sometimes I would let them do just that {though I was always watching them just out of sight}. After a minute or two they would look around and realize that I was no longer in sight and they would begin to cry out. I would step out from behind a shelf or display and they would run back to my side or climb into my arms. Again I do not claim to know the mind of God or His purposes. But maybe He hides Himself at times so that we might come to the realization that we need to stay close to His side and that we need Him every minute of every day?

I profited from the following comments from Matthew Henry concerning this passage:

“Those that keep the way of the Lord may comfort themselves, when they are in affliction, with these three things:

I. That they are but tried. It is not intended for their hurt, but for their honour and benefit; it is the trial of their faith, 1 Pt. 1:7.

II. That, when they are sufficiently tried, they shall come forth out of the furnace, and not be left to consume in it as dross or reprobate silver. The trial will have an end. God will not contend for ever.

III. That they shall come forth as gold, pure in itself and precious to the refiner. They shall come forth as gold approved and improved, found to be good and made to be better. Afflictions are to us as we are; those that go gold into the furnace will come out no worse.”

“Are we sick or sore, impoverished and stripped? Are our children removed by death or our friends unkind? This is what God has appointed for us, and many such things are with Him.”

I am also reminded what the poet said;

“Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,–
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.”

The Present Crisis, James Russell Lowell

I am sure that He is closer than we sometimes think.

Brother Shawn

“That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD: Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon: Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.” Isaiah 30:9-13

“The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so” Jeremiah 5:31a

What would you think of a doctor who knew you were quite ill yet continued to give you a good prognosis? What if you had a deadly but curable disease and your physician would pat you on your shoulder and say; “You’re in fine shape, don’t worry about a thing.” That would be criminal. He would be a liar of the worst sort.

Well not really. There is a liar that is worse than a lying physician. It is a lying preacher. Preachers who pat people on the back and tell them they are okay while they are in reality standing on the precipice of Hell.

Physicians often must tell people things they would rather not hear. But that is what a good doctor must do.

Depraved human nature demands preachers who will prophecy “smooth things”. Lie to us please.  God said, “The prophets prophesy falsely… and my people love to have it so”

Please consider the following quotes from A.W. Tozer and C. H. Spurgeon:

“Could it be that too many of God’s true children, and especially the preachers, are sinning against God by guilty silence?…I for one am waiting to hear the loud voices of the prophets and reformers sounding once more over a sluggish and drowsy church. They’ll pay a price for their boldness, but the results will be worth it.

To be right with God has often meant to be in trouble with men. This is such a common truth that one hesitates to mention it, yet it appears to have been overlooked by the majority of Christians today.”

“Apart from God nothing matters. We think that health matters, that freedom matters, or knowledge or art or civilization. And but for one insistent word they would matter indeed. That word is eternity.” A. W. Tozer

“Now for these last few solemn words. I will not be guilty this morning, of speaking any smooth falsehoods to you, I would be faithful with each man, as I believe I shall have to face you all at God’s great day, even though you heard me but once in your lives. Well, then, let me tell you that if you have a peace to-day which enables you to be at peace with your sins as well as with God, that peace is a false peace. Unless you hate sin of every sort, with all your heart, you are not a child of God, you are not reconciled to God by the death of his Son. You will not be perfect; I cannot expect you will live without sin, but if you are a Christian you will hate the very sin into which you have been betrayed, and hate yourself because you should have grieved your Savior thus. But if you love sin, the love of the Father is not in you. Be you who you may, or what you may,—minister, deacon, elder, professor, or non-professor—the love of sin is utterly inconsistent with the love of Christ. Take that home, and remember it.”

C. H. Spurgeon from the sermon, A Blast of the Trumpet Against False Peace

God help us to deal honestly with people.

Brother Shawn

“For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence.” 1 Corinthians 1:26-29

“Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.” Psalm 138:6

Many in this world feel they are too wise to need God.

Many believe they are too dignified.

Many think they are too strong.

Many think they are too respectable.

But the Bible tells us that for the most part God hath chosen the foolish and the weak and the base of this world. When you look around at those He has called you will not find many wise men {after the flesh}. You will not find many mighty or many noble.

Many are proud of their worldly wisdom yet “Knowledge puffeth up”

Leonard Ravenhill said of modern-day preaching “we have men with degrees but no heat”

Education {religious or secular}can become a curse if it fills a person with pride.

Many are proud of their good looks or their physical strength.

But good looks and physical strength are vanity.

From what I’ve seen {if we live long enough} we will go out of this world just about like we came into it.

Many are proud of their family name or their wealth or their standing in the community. But the Bible says, “Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate” {Romans 12:16}

When Jesus walked on this earth “the common people heard him gladly.”

We have nothing to boast about…nothing to be proud of.

To be proud is madness.

“…verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.”

If we are saved, we each one must confess, “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.” {Psalm 40:2}

He has done it this way so that “no flesh should glory in His presence.”

Bother Shawn

“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.” Luke 6:45

I am going to give you my opinion. My opinion and a couple of bucks will get you a small cup of coffee. My opinion is based on my experience and the Word of God. When God saved me, He really changed my life. Old things did pass away, and all things really did become new. {2 Corinthians 5:17} The things I once loved I found myself hating and the things I once hated, I found myself loving.

He gave me a new nature with new appetites. He made me a new creature. When God saved me, He cleaned my mouth up. I stopped cussing. I stopped telling dirty jokes. I stopped making little off-color remarks. And since that time foul language grieves me. I don’t like to hear people cussing.  I cringe when somebody takes the Lord’s name in vain. I didn’t change on my own, He did it. When I was saved God moved into my body.

Were you aware that God dwells in His people? “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” {1 Corinthians 3:16} What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? {1 Corinthians 6:19} “… ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”  {2 Corinthians 6:16} Does God the Holy Ghost live in you?

Jesus said out of “the abundance of the heart” a person speaks. Whatever your heart is full of will come out. If you have a foul mouth, it is because you have a foul heart. If you have a dirty mouth, it’s because you have a dirty heart. If your mouth is always saying little off-color sexual remarks, it is because you have an abundance of off-color sexual remarks in your heart. {Titus 1:15}

I have given you the Word of God and my own personal experience. Now I’m going to give you my opinion. I do not believe in cussing Christians. I do not believe that a person can be truly born again and God does not clean up their mouth. I do not believe that God the Holy Spirit can move inside of a person and not convict them over their foul mouth.  My opinion {based on the Word of God and my own experience} is that if you have a foul and dirty mouth you probably have a foul and dirty heart and you need to be born from above. In other words, I believe if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it is probably a duck.  That’s just my opinion. Get you a hot cup of coffee and read it over again.

“…an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil” – Jesus

Matthew Henry said concerning our language {Commentary Matthew 12:22-37};

“The heart is the root, the language is the fruit”

“The heart is the fountain, the words are the streams”

“The heart is the treasury, the words are the things brought out of that treasury; and from hence men’s characters may be drawn, and may be judged of.”

“It is the character of an evil man, that he has an evil treasure in his heart, and out of it bringeth forth evil things. Lusts and corruptions dwelling and reigning in the heart are an evil treasure, out of which the sinner brings forth bad words and actions, to the dishonour of God, and the hurt of others.”

Has God changed your heart and mouth?

Brother Shawn

Recommended reading,

Biblical Salvation, James A. Stewart

No Holiness, No Heaven, Richard Alderson

J.C Ryle  {1816-1900} is one of my favorite authors. Here is a few quotes from his message entitled The Cost

 Conviction is not conversion…

“Does anyone ask what the practice of the eminent and best preachers of the gospel has been in days gone by? I am bold to say that they have all with one mouth borne testimony to the wisdom of our Lord’s dealing with the multitudes to which I have just referred. Luther and Latimer and Baxter and Wesley and Whitefield, and Berridge and Rowland Hill were all keenly alive to the deceitfulness of man’s heart. They knew full well that all is not gold that glitters, that conviction is not conversion, that feeling is not faith, that sentiment is not grace, that all blossoms do not come to fruit. “Be not deceived,” was their constant cry. “Consider well what you do. Do not run before you are called. Count the cost.”

Do Not Tell Half-truths Like an Army Recruiter…

“If we desire to do good, let us never be ashamed of walking in the steps of our Lord Jesus Christ. Work hard if you will, and have the opportunity, for the souls of others. Press them to consider their ways. Compel them with holy violence to come in, to lay down their arms and to yield themselves to God. Offer them salvation, ready, free, full, immediate salvation. Press Christ and all His benefits on their acceptance. But in all your work tell the truth, and the whole truth. Be ashamed to use the vulgar arts of a recruiting sergeant. Do not speak only of the uniform, the pay and the glory; speak also of the enemies, the battle, the armor, the watching, the marching and the drill. Do not present only one side of Christianity. Do not keep back the cross of self–denial that must be carried, when you speak of the cross on which Christ died for our redemption. Explain fully what Christianity entails. Entreat men to repent and come to Christ; but bid them at the same time to count the cost.”

Come Out From the World and Serve Christ

“Let no one mistake my meaning. I thoroughly approve of offering men a full, free, present, immediate salvation in Christ Jesus. I thoroughly approve of urging on man the possibility and the duty of immediate instantaneous conversion. In these matters I give place to no one. But I do say that these truths ought not to be set before men nakedly, singly and alone. They ought to be told honestly what it is they are taking up if they profess a desire to come out from the world and serve Christ. They ought not to be pressed into the ranks of Christ’s army without being told what the warfare entails. In a word, they should be told honestly to count the cost.”

Brother Shawn

“The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” Psalm 90:10

The Bible tells us that “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment”. I was talking to my neighbor yesterday, she is ninety-four. She has passed threescore and ten by twenty-four years. Yet some die very young, many among us do not live to half of that time. We have no guarantees. I could die while typing this article.

Death is a very gloomy subject to some people. But the apostle Paul didn’t seem to think that way. Consider some of his statements concerning death.

“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21

“We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” II Corinthians 5:8

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”I Thessalonians 4:13-14

Paul said to live was Christ but to die was gain. He said he was willing to be absent from this body and to be present with his Lord. Paul had hope. The songwriter Edward Mote said,

“My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.”

and

“When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.”

Do you have a hope?

When family and friends gather around your casket one day will they sorrow as those “who have no hope”?

Not everyone has a hope. Many people will not be “present with the Lord”. Many will not inherit the kingdom of God.

The Bible tells us, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”  I Corinthians 6:9-10

Only those who know Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour have a hope.

“He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” Mark 16:16

Are you in Christ? Are you dressed in His righteousness alone?

Are you afraid to die?

Brother Shawn

When I was a kid we listened to record albums called 45’s. Both sides contained a song and after hearing one side you could turn it over and hear the “flip side”. In the last two articles I have  tried to rebuke sin. Sins are what separate man from his Creator. “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” {Isaiah 59:2} Sin is why Christ died. The Bible says “…Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” {I Corinthians 15:3b} If you die in your sins you will spend eternity in Hell. Just how bad is Hell? Jesus said, “And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched” {Mark 9:43}

The last two articles were side one, this article is side two,the flip side.

I was reared in an almost “Leave it to Beaver/Father Knows Best” type of environment. A working dad, a stay at home mom, dinner on the table at five o’clock every evening. Ideally I think that’s the way every home ought to be. I’m funny that way. I will be the first to admit that I am an old fogy. But I know what the Bible says concerning good and evil and right and wrong. I have in the last two articles described a very gloomy picture of our nation. A nation saturated with sin…a nation ‘awash in evil’.

But there is  good news; Jesus came to save the very people who I described in my last two articles. “And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” {Mark 2:16-17}

The Bible tells us, “…the common people heard him gladly.” {Mark 12:37b} The religious crowd was too good to associate with “sinners” But that was {and is} exactly who Jesus was trying to reach “…I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

As a matter of fact Jesus told the religious crowd in His day, …Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.” {Matthew 21:31b}

Financially and morally America has seen better days. The nation is indeed ripe, ripe for judgment or ripe for revival.  “…Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” {John 4:35}

Here is the gist of what I’m trying to say…the Lord Jesus came to save tattooed mamaws!

He came to save sinners! Sinners of every stripe. Sinners like you and me.

It is only by the grace of God that I’m not strung out on drugs tonight.

It is only by the grace of God that I’m not divorced and shacking up with some woman.

It is only by the grace of God that I’m not a tattooed boozed up mess.

God saved me when I was 25 years old. He saved me from a life of destruction and from an eternal Hell.

He changed my life.

I want other people’s lives to be changed.

Consider the following statement from the late missionary C. T. Studd {1860-1931} “Some wish to live within the sound of Church or Chapel bell; I want to run a Rescue Shop within a yard of hell.”

My prayer is that our churches become “rescue shops” and may those of us who have experienced the new birth become rescue workers!

Brother Shawn