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THE BENHAR BANNER

18^th Edition

‘Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it

may be displayed because of the truth. Selah.’

(Psalm 60:4)

~

25^th July 2020

Previous Banners are available here

~

SERMON FOR SUNDAY

The following is chapter twenty-nine and thirty, the final two chapters, of the Rev. William S. Plumer’s book, ‘The Christian.’

XXIX. WHAT CAN I DO?

"What can I do?" asked one, "I am a poor, feeble, erring creature. I know nothing aright until I am taught of God. I find my strength to be perfect weakness. My wisdom is folly. I make many mistakes. When I would do good, evil is present with me."

Now, dear sir, let me say a few plain things for your guidance and encouragement. It is true that, if you are left to yourself, you are as weak as water. Think as little of yourself as the truth will allow, and yet say, "Surely, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength." Look away from yourself. You have, no doubt, often trusted in yourself in a foolish and sinful way, forgetting that ‘Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.’[1] We cannot be too much emptied of self; we cannot too confidingly trust in the Lord.

A just sense of your weakness, therefore, so far from being a disqualification for usefulness, is really a preparation for it. ‘…when I am weak, then am I strong…’[2], is true of the people of God in all their ways and duties. Let me advise you never to put yourself in a state either of indifference or of hostility to any good work or plan. It is impossible for every man to give effective aid in every enterprise. But let him not discourage or hinder others who can push it forward.

Be careful, too, lest while you are doing nothing good, you are doing something wrong. Some professing people do a world of mischief. They display such carnal affections, are so much like men of the world, practice so little prudence, so often allow their ‘…good (to) be evil spoken of’[3], and manifest such lack of tenderness of conscience that they give great occasion to the enemy to speak reproachfully.

If you would be useful on a large scale, take these hints:

1. ‘Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might…’[4]. Pursue no good thing with languor. Feeble exertions court opposition and create embarrassments.

2. Believe assuredly that God can and will bestow a blessing on right plans rightly conducted. ‘…be not faithless…’[5]. Take God at His word. It is never relied on in vain.

3. Be patient and not fretful and restless. The farmer has great patience and waits for the precious fruits of the earth. Many a scheme cannot be executed in a day or a month. If a man would raise a forest of oaks, he must not expect to see his desires fully accomplished in even one long lifetime. Let us sow seed. Let us plant acorns.

4. Do not try to control Providence but find out and conform yourself to its plans. Men may sometimes dream of making water run up stream. But they never really succeed. ‘Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate…’[6].

5. Be not easily discouraged. Hope on. Hope ever. A very experienced labourer says that he has frequently seen the happiest results flowing from labours performed under the greatest discouragements. Many have said as much. Look not much at discouragements.

6. Pray much. "To pray frequently is to pray fervently." Pitch your tent close by the mercy-seat. ‘Pray without ceasing.’[7] Never be at ease in Zion.[8] "The voice that rolls the stars along spoke all the promises." Plead them before God. Adopt the language of one of old: ‘…I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.’[9]

7. Enlist, so far as you can, the prayers and cooperation of others, especially of humble godly people. Waiting on the great for help and patronage is very tedious and discouraging. Hardly anything is more so. People of good sense and ardent piety, in the middle walks of life, are commonly, the best helpers.

8. Having done your best, cast yourself and your endeavours wholly on God's great mercy in Christ Jesus. Seek to have yourself and your labours washed in atoning blood. Freely admit that you are nothing, that you deserve nothing, and that all you dare to hope to be and to obtain is wholly through God's sovereign grace. Be humble.

XXX. POSTHUMOUS USEFULNESS

Dr. Doddridge has a chapter showing that we ought to glorify God in our death. And reason would show that we should try so to live as to be useful even after death. The Scriptures say of Abel: ‘…he being dead yet speaketh.’[10] This was said of a man nearly four thousand years after his time. This should encourage us to zeal in our Master's service. Such cases are not rare, nor are they confined to olden times.

God shall never cease to own His people and their pious labours. Their prayers, examples, sayings, and writings exert an influence long after they bid farewell to Earth. However long ago genuine supplications and intercessions for the cause of Christ may have been offered, they are still sweet odours before God. Many have suggested that Saul of Tarsus was probably converted and saved in answer to the last prayer of the first martyr, Stephen. There is as sweet a savour in the prayer of the psalmist, ‘O send out thy light and thy truth…’[11], as in the day it was first offered. And a good life, how does God delight in it. He never forgets it. In His book of remembrance, it is all delineated, even down to the giving of a cup of cold water.[12] So, a good song, or saying, or book may be blessed long after its pious author has slept the sleep of death. Their virtue ever depended on the truth they taught, and the spirit they breathed, and not at all on the natural life of him who wrote them. Blessed be God for all the bright hopes which His people are warranted to cherish for usefulness in this world after death, as well as for the glory, honour and immortality in the world that is to come.[13]

A HYMN OF HOPE - tune

‘Tis not that I did choose Thee,
For, Lord, that could not be;
This heart would still refuse Thee,
But Thou hast chosen me;
Thou from the sin that stained me,
Hast cleansed and set me free,
Of old Thou hast ordained me,
That I should live to Thee.

‘Twas sovereign mercy called me,
And taught my opening mind;
The world had else enthralled me,
To heav'nly glories blind;
My heart owns none before Thee,
For Thy rich grace I thirst;
This knowing, if I love Thee,
Thou must have loved me first.[14]

A CALL TO PRAYER

Continue to pray for the revival of the Church, the awakening of the lost, and a merciful deliverance from the Coronavirus Pandemic at 3 pm, in your own homes, on the Lord’s Day.

 

POINTS FOR PRAYER

Pray for our Queen, our governments, our National Health Service, our key workers, our country, our community, our church, and our families.

Pray for churches, missions, missionary organisations, and the persecuted church.

MEMORY VERSE

‘Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.’ (Matthew 5:11).

SPURGEON’S CATECHISM

18. What is the misery of that state whereinto man fell?

All mankind, by their fall, lost communion with God (Genesis 3:8, 24), are under His wrath and curse (Ephesians 2:3; Galatians 3:10), and so made liable to all the miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of Hell for ever (Romans 6:23; Matthew 25:41).

PLAIN REASONS FOR KEEPING TO THE AUTHORISED VERSION

FOUR, THE AUTHORISED (KING JAMES) VERSION BEARS A STRONGER TESTIMONY TO THE GODHEAD OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST THAN WE FIND IN MANY MODERN VERSIONS

Some of the old manuscripts favoured by modern scholars leave out or alter some of the most important passages which declare that our Redeemer is equal and co-eternal with God, and that He is Himself ‘…God…manifest in the flesh…’. This great testimony in 1^st Timothy 3:16 is weakened or lost in nearly every modern version. In many also the testimony of Mark 1:1 is lost, where in the Authorised Version we read ‘The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God’. The modern versions tend to omit or question the statement that He is ‘…the Son of God’ (see also John 6:69 and 9:35). In Hebrews 1:8, God the Father addresses the Son as God: ‘…unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever…’. In many modern versions this testimony is weakened or lost.

In the Old Testament the Authorised Version says in Isaiah 9:6 that the coming Saviour’s Name ‘…shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.’ Many modern versions change this passage so that the Messiah is not called ‘…The mighty God…’. Moffatt calls Him no more than ‘a Divine hero’. In Romans 9:5 the Authorised Version says that Christ is ‘…over all, God blessed for ever…’, while modern versions tend to change this so completely that only God is said to be ‘…over all…’ and ‘…blessed for ever…’, and Christ is not said to be God.

Other altered passages concerning the Person of Christ are found in Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:23, where modern versions sometimes put ‘young woman’ instead of ‘…virgin…’, thus obscuring the doctrine that Christ was born of a virgin. Many versions also omit the word ‘…firstborn…’ in Matthew 1:25, where the Authorised Version bears a clear testimony that Jesus was Mary’s firstborn Son. The virgin birth is further called into question at Luke 2:33, where modern versions refer to Joseph as the ‘father’ of Jesus. In the book of Micah (5:2), the prophet speaks of the coming birth of a Ruler at Bethlehem, ‘…whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting’, clearly referring to the eternal nature of the Son of God. In the New International Version this becomes: ‘…whose origins are from of old, from ancient times’, which could easily give a reader the impression that Christ was a created being. The same error occurs in the Revised Standard Version and other modern versions.

FIVE, THE AUTHORISED (KING JAMES) VERSION HAS SERVED AS A STANDARD ENGLISH TRANSLATION RECOGNISED THROUGHOUT THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD AS THE SOURCE AND FOUNDATION OF EFFECTIVE GOSPEL PREACHING, AND AS THE HIGHEST AUTHORITY IN ALL MATTERS OF CONTROVERSY

No other version has taken its place in this respect. The greatest evangelists and expositors of the last 350 years have used this version for their ministries, and by means of it, God has blessed millions of people with the light and truth of the Gospel of Christ.

There are hundreds of thousands of Christian people in Africa, India, the Far East, and the West Indies, who use this version and want no other. During recent years, the Trinitarian Bible Society has sent hundreds of thousands of copies of the Authorised Version into Africa, where it is read by Africans whose language is English. It is the Bible they know and love, and from which the Gospel is preached to them. In their resistance to less reliable modern versions these people show more discernment than many in our own country, who have too readily adopted one or other of the modern versions far inferior to the Authorised Version.

There are more than a hundred modern English versions. No doubt in every one of them some passages may be found well translated and perhaps some difficult passages are made clear, but any such advantage gained is far outweighed by the shortcomings and losses which have been mentioned. It is right to keep to the Authorised Version, not because it is older, but because it is better than the versions offered in its place. This Bible is a precious gift of God for which we should be thankful. Its excellence, its faithfulness, its power, and fruitfulness, have been well tried in the experience of millions. It must not be surrendered in exchange for an inferior version.[15]

PRIVATE DEVOTIONS

‘And from thence they went to Beer: that is the well whereof the LORD spake unto Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them water. Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well…’. (Numbers 21:16-17).

So, tonight, or some other evening, you are retired for your private devotions; you have opened the Bible; you begin to read. Now, do not be satisfied with merely reading through a chapter. Some good people read through two or three chapters – stupid people, as stupid as they are good, for doing such a thing! It is always better to read a little and digest it, than it is to read much and then think you have done a good thing by merely reading the letter of the word. For profit you might as well read the A B C backwards and forwards, as read a chapter of Scripture, unless you meditate upon it, and seek to comprehend its meaning. Words are nothing: ‘…the letter killeth…’[16]. The business of the believer with his Bible open is to pray, “Here is the well: spring up O well; Lord, give me the meaning and spirit of Thy Word, while it lies open before me; apply Thy Word with power to my soul, threatening or promise, doctrine or precept, whatever it may be; lead me into the soul and marrow of Thy Word.” The Rabbis say that whole worlds of meaning hang upon every word of Scripture, but only he will find out the meaning who waits upon God with the prayer, “Spring up, O well.” Or perhaps you are about to kneel down to pray. I beseech you, do not be satisfied with getting through fifty or a hundred choice sentences which look as if they were devout. That prayer has not benefited you which is not the prayer of the soul. You have need to say, “Spring up, O well; Lord, give me the spirit of prayer; now help me to feel my need deeply, to perceive thy promise clearly, to exercise faith upon that promise, and then, by wrestling importunity to hold thee fast, and say, ‘…I will not let thee go except thou bless me.’[17]” It is not the form of prayer; it is the spirit of prayer that shall truly benefit your souls.’[18]

BIBLE QUIZ

QUESTIONS FROM THE BOOK OF SECOND SAMUEL (PART ONE)

1.   How long did Ish-bosheth reign over Israel?

2.   Who murdered Abner?

3.   What were names of the two brothers who were

executed for the murder Ish-bosheth?

4.   Where was David anointed king over Israel?

5.   What was the name of Saul’s grandson who David

received kindness from David?

6.   What was the name of Bathsheba’s first husband?

7.   What were the two names of Bathsheba’s second

8.   child with David?

ANSWERS FOR LAST WEEK’S QUIZ

1. Seven (1^st Samuel 16:10-13)
2. Five (1^st Samuel 17:40)
3. Merab (1^st Samuel 18:17)
4. Ahimelech (1^st Samuel 21:8-9)
5. He cut off part of Saul’s robe (1^st Samuel 24:3-4)
6. He spared his life (1^st Samuel 26:12)
7. He asked him to take his life (1^st Samuel 31:4)

Rev. Ian S.D. Loughrin
The Evangelical Manse, 59 Baillie Avenue, Harthill, North Lanarkshire, ML7 5SY
benharpastor@live.co.uk
01501751887

• Benhar Evangelical Church
• Covenanter Road
• Eastfield, Harthill
• North Lanarkshire
• ML7 5PB

01501751887
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