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If the Lord does us good, we must expect Satan to do us evil.
Posted : 1 May, 2013 02:23 AM
Psalm 119:69 The proud have forged a lie against me; but I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart.
If the Lord does us good, we must expect Satan to do us evil.
Acting in his own character, as a "liar and the father of it," he
readily puts it into the hearts of his children to forge lies
against the children of God! But all is overruled by the ever watchful care and providence of God, for the eventual good of
His church. The cross frightens the insincere, and removes
them out of the way; while the steadfastness of His own
people marvelously displays to the world the power and
triumph of faith. A most delightful source of encouragement in
this fiery trial is, to take off the eye from the objects of sense,
and to fix it upon Jesus as our pattern, no less than our life.
For every trial, in which we are conformed to His suffering
image, supplies to us equal direction and support. Do "the
proud forge lies against us?" So did they against Him. "The
disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his
lord. It is enough for the disciple, that he be as his master, and
the servant as his lord. If they have called the Master of the
house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?" "Consider Him, therefore, that endured such
contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest you be wearied
and faint in your minds."
But is it always lies that are forged against us? Is there no
worldliness, or pride, or inconsistency in temper and walk, that
opens the mouths of the enemies of the gospel, and causes
"the way of truth to be evil spoken of?" Do they not sometimes
"say all manner of evil" against some of us, for Christ's sake;
yet alas! not altogether "falsely?" "Woe unto the world,
because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come;
but woe to that man, by whom the offence comes!" If,
however, the reproach of the world be "the reproach of
Christ," "let us hold fast the profession of our faith without
wavering; for He is faithful that promised." Insincerity of heart
can never support us to a consistent and persevering
endurance of the cross. A heart divided between God and the
world will ever be found faulty and backsliding. Wholeness of
heart in the precepts of God adorns the Christian profession,
awes the ungodly world, realizes the full extent of the Divine
promises, and pours into the soul such a spring-tide of
enjoyment, as more than counterbalances all the reproach,
contempt, and falsehood, which the forge of the great enemy
is employing against us with unceasing activity, and relentless
hatred. Yet do not forget, believer, that these proofs of the
malicious enmity of the proud must often be received as the
gentle stroke of your Father's chastisement. Let the fruits of it,
then, be daily visible in the work of mortification-in the
exercise of the suffering graces of the gospel-in your growing
conformity to His image-and in a progressive fitness for the
world of eternal uninterrupted love.
by
Charles Bridges
http://grace-ebooks.com/
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