Covenanter Witness Vol. 53 - Rparchives.org

evermore"mother."WhoseGod means placing religious"experience,"or the religious "consciousness," on apar with God's self-revelation in Scripture. To exalt religious experience abovethe Word of God in this way is a form ofidolatry. It is a deification of the creature. True religious experience, that is,salvation, makes man a new creature inChrist, and thus exalts and glorifies God.True spiritual experience issues in praise,such as we find in these Psalms: "I willpraise thee, O Lord my God, with allmy heart: and I will glorify thy name for(Psalm 86:12).It is to be feared that some professingChristians and church members have hadno real spiritual experience. Some havebeen affected bya superficial emotionalexperience that led them to make a"decision" Christ,"or to "accept but fewhave felt lost and helpless in the depthsof sin and transgression. Some have hadthe "experience" of "goingforward" at aConsecration service, but how many ofthese have felt miserable about their sinful nature and their manifold transgressions, and because of their guilt havewept bitterly before God in secret? Howmany of us who have sung these experiential Psalms have experienced therealities of God's grace expressed by thePsalmist?In Psalm 130 the psalmist has a profound consciousness of sin. Unless a person has a deep consciousness of personalsin, there is no possibility of his experiencingsalvation. His personal sense ofsin must not be: "All men are sinners,sinner."so I am a Instead it must be:"God be merciful to me asinner."Aperson who is not conscious of the depthof his own sinfulness can never reach theheight of spiritual experience necessary tosalvation. Mountains do not exist without valleys; and the mountain-top experience of redemption presupposes thevalley of the shadow of death. If we aresaved from the perils of sin, there oughtto be fervent joy in our hearts. Our experience of personal redemption shouldsing in a melody that stirs the deepestfeelings of our being.That praise is one kind of testimonyto the saving power and grace of God. Itshould aim at leadingothers to the Godof mercy. "Let Israel hope in the Lord:for with the Lord there is mercy, and withhim is130:7.)plenteousQuestions tor discussion:redemption"(Psalm1. Does true spiritual experience consist of a pious feeling of religious wellbeing?2. Why is a feeling of dejection anddespair sometimes a wholesome kind ofreligiousexperience? (Because it drivesus to seek God's grace.)3. Is true religious experience possible316apart from the shed blood of the Redeemer? Why not?4. Which is the real source of ourknowledge of Godor Scripture?religious experience5. Does religious experience consist inthe soul's seeking God, or in God's seeking man? What is the difference?6. What are the specific petitions of thePsalmist's prayer in Psalm 86:1-5? Onwhat different ground does he voice eachpetition?7. How can we become more sensitiveto the realities of our own experience ofredemption so that we will have joy inour relation to the Saviour?7. What should our spiritual experiences do for us?9. What should our spiritual experiences move us to do for Christ?10. Why is our forgiveness necessary toall other spiritual experience?PRAYER MEETING TOPICfor December 8, 1954Comments by M. S. McMillan, D.D.A DOUBLE CHECK ON THE STATEOF ONE'S SOUL, 1 John 3:14, 15Psalms4:5-8, page 662:4-6, 10, page 15216:7-10, page 2749:9-13, page 126Scripture References: Assurance of salvation: 1 Thess. 1:5; 2 Tim. 1:12; 4:6-8; Heb. 10:22; 1 John 2:3; 3:2, 3;John 6:51, 54; 10:9, 27, 28.Evidence that one is not saved: Matt.5:20; John 3:36; 8:24; 10:26; Heb. 6:4-6.1 John 3:14, 15 should be interpreted inthe light of Ver. 13, "Marvel not, myyou."brethren, if the world hate Ver. 14"We know that we have passed fromdeath unto life, because we love thebrethren.""We"is emphatic: howeverthe world may hate us our own love forthe brethren is evidence that we havepassed from death in trespasses and sinsto a new life in Christ Jesus.A lawyer once said to Jesus, "But whoneighbor?"is myA question we had better settle before going any further intothis discussion is : Who are our brethren?I. Who Are One's Brethren?In the context the apostle John uses thecase of "Cain . . . that wicked one, whoslew his brother . . . because his ownworks were evil, and his brother's righteous. Cain being evil was only Abel'sflesh and blood brother. That was thebeginning of the hatred and murder whichsprings from controversy over acceptableand unacceptable religious service and itseems to have set the all time pattern ofit being one who is offeringthe unacceptable religious service who is angryand who does the killing,and the one whois offering the acceptable religious service who does the dying. Christ, the lightof the world, was crucified by those wholoved darkness rather than light becausetheir deeds were evil. The martyrs ofboth Old Testament and New Testamenttimes were slain for turning the lightof God's Word on the wickedness of theworld. Loving the brethren is such achange from the usual order of life thatit is called a passinglife.""from death untoThe child of God is not conformedunto this world but is transformed bythe renewing of his mind. Regeneration isa work of the Holy Spirit; and the fruitof the Spirit first named is love."Marvel not, my brethren, if the worldhate you. The real occasion for surprisewould be if the world loved born-againChristians. But who are one's brethren?Once when Jesus was told that Hismother and His brethren were without,desiring to speak with Him, Jesus said,"Who is my mother? and who are mybrethren?"And extending His handtoward His disciples He said, "Behold mymother and my brethren; whosoever shalldo the will of my Father which is inheaven, the same is my brother, andIf one is a child ofsister, andGod all the children of God are his brethren. In Ver. 15 John at once passes fromloving to hating, implying that one eitherloves his brother or hates him. Jesussaid of Himself, he that is not for Meis against Me.II. Two Kinds of BrotherhoodSeeming enigmas may be avoided byremembering that there are both physicaland spiritual brethren. By physical birthJesus was a Jew; "For it is evident thatour Lord sprang out of Judah" (Heb. 7:14) ; "Who are Israelites .... arethe fathers, and of whom as concerningthe flesh, Christ came, who is over all,God blessed forever" (Rom. 9:4, 5); "ToAbraham and to his seed was the promise made. He saith not, and to seedsas of many but as of one, and to thyseed, which is Christ" (Gal. 3:16). Paulwrote to the Galatian gentiles, "And if yebe Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed,and heirs according to thepromise"(Gal.3:29). "Know ye therefore that theywhich are of faith, the same are children of Abraham" (Gal. 3:7). Jesus saidto the Jews, I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word has no place in you . . .If ye were Abraham's children, ye woulddo the works of Abraham ... ye do thedeeds of your father ... ye are of yourfather the devil, and the lusts of yourfather ye willdo."Though both Jesusand those Jews were the physical descendants of Abraham yet in charactertheywere no more kin to each other thanCOVENANTER WITNESS