Short Thoughts

“Some men’s sins are open beforehand,
going before to judgment;
and some men they follow after.”
~ 1 Timothy 5:24

“Some men’s sins are open beforehand,” or, they are clearly seen and known. We witness the acts of some men and there is no question that they are sins. It follows then that by their open wickedness, we know the perpetrators to be wicked. Christ said, “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:20). I could name men such as Adolph Hitler or Charles Manson and immediately we know these to be profligate men. Their sins have been open beforehand.

It is also true that “some men they follow after,” referring to their sins. Some men are open and known sinners while others sin more secretly. Their sins “follow after,” or are not clearly seen and known, at least for now. They “devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds” (Micah 2:1). They appear to the world to be upright and possess a good heart. Sometimes these ravenous wolves in sheep’s clothing are exposed in this life, usually to the surprise of not a few that knew them. Sometimes, however, they are not exposed in this life, but, either way, they will not escape the judgment of God.

The central thought in this verse is that both classes are headed to judgment and neither shall escape punishment. It will not matter that mother and father were fooled, nor even husband, wife, pastor, congregation, or the grocer at the corner market. “Every man’s work shall be made manifest” (1 Corinthians 3:13) when they stand before the Righteous Judge of all the earth.

However, let us now leave the broad strokes and train our eyes to trace the fine lines of this passage. Let us set aside all prejudice and appropriate this verse to ourselves, having the courage to hide it in our heart that we might not sin against God.

Firstly, just as we may classify men as open sinners or deceptive hypocrites, we may assess our own sins the same way. Some sins and sinful tendencies are “open beforehand” and easily identified. In these things, it is not difficult to be very pious. It is a small matter to be faithful to the assembly, to tithe on the first day of the week, to dress modestly, to maintain clean speech, etc. It is usually not a hard thing to avoid the abuse of alcohol and social drinking, gambling, cussing, the company of openly profane persons, etc.

All of the above items are minimal and you may be very strict in them and have a good report of many. However, know this: The Faithful and True Witness says, “I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works” (Revelation 2:23). “And the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is” (1 Corinthians 3:13). If these works are merely a facade of piety with you, they will not be able to stand the trial of fire. You ask, “Should I not then be zealous in good works?” You should! You must! It is expected that the branch will bring forth fruit (John 15:8). However, our works must flow from a pure and humble heart with the glory of God as their designed end in order to be truly good works.

Secondly, there are personal sins that “follow after.” They are not clearly seen by others. They will escape our own eyes if our eyes are dim and drowsy. These are the sins we harbor in our hearts. They are awful, dreadful evils that we feed in secret. These are the sins that we must labor to root out of our heart and guard against their reentry. However, far too many who excel in outward piety are content to let them “follow after.”

It is high time for us to “awake to righteousness, and sin not” (1 Corinthians 15:34). We must be done with the easy generalities and begin to get precise and deal honestly, abruptly, and decidedly with sin. This is serious business. We are not just playing games here. Paul urged the Corinthians, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5).

Though you look well outwardly, do you have “eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin” (2 Peter 2:14)? Do you indulge in the graphic images of television and then seek after more explicit sights on the internet or elsewhere? Do you expect your wife and daughters to dress modestly and then crane your neck to look at every loose woman that comes by dressed provocatively?

Are you greedy of gain and stingy to give? Does it pain you to give to the church or a brother in need? Do you entertain thoughts of an adulterous rendezvous? Do you harbor a secret rebellion in your heart against your husband? Are you zealous in service in order to feed your pride? Do you wished to be noticed by men when you perform some work? There are untold evils that lurk in our hearts, but do not be deceived: “For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad” (Luke 8:17). It is no mystery why David exclaimed, “Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults” (Psalm 19:12).

These verses should move every child of God to a serious self-examination. We must lay our sinful selves bare before the thrice Holy God and plead with the Psalmist: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24). The Psalmist besought God to search and try his heart. He wanted God to define the wickedness found there. This is where we have failed. We have not sought righteous judgment; we have applied the wrong measurement. We are content to let our sins “follow after” because we are just as good as everyone else is. In this we are not wise (2 Corinthians 10:12).

Finally, our sins, open and secret, are just like the sinners in our text. They are both going to the judgment. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10). All things will be laid open and receive “a just recompence of reward” on that day (Hebrews 2:2). There will be no second chances only bitter regrets. May God give us grace to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us” (Hebrews 12:1). Amen.

“Bless the LORD, O my soul:
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name.”
~ Psalms 103:1

The one hundred and third Psalm is a blessed catalog of the mercies of God to His people. He “healeth all thy diseases” and “redeemeth thy life from destruction.” What wondrous mercy, that “He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities” (Psalm 103:10)! The Psalmist has ascended to the heights of praise in extolling the mercy of God that is “so great … toward them that fear Him.”

However, before he entered into the inner court of worship, David did some real heart work in order to stir himself up to bless God. That is what we have in our text, David stirring himself up and preparing his heart to worship God. Let us turn our thoughts to the beginning of this magnificent Psalm and learn from David’s example.

In the first place, David rouses his soul, saying, “Bless the LORD, O my soul.” It seems strange to hear one speaking of blessing God. We surely understand God blessing man but the converse is rarely heard. What does it mean to bless the Lord? The Hebrew word barak is here translated ‘bless.’ The word means literally to kneel. When God is the subject, it means to kneel to bless God as an act of adoration. To bless God is to worship Him and the Psalmist is preparing himself for that very purpose.

The very fact that David is endeavoring so to stir himself up to this blessed occupation teaches us that man is not naturally in the proper frame of mind and disposition of heart to worship God. Man cannot just enter casually and carelessly upon this business. It takes some real work to prepare oneself for worship. If this were more widely known and practiced, perhaps our worship services would not be so dull and drowsy.

Secondly, let us take notice of some of the particulars of the Psalmist’s work. David does not wish to worship God perfunctorily. He seeks to rouse his very soul. “Bless the LORD, O my soul,” yea, and more than that, he says, “And all that is within me, bless His Holy Name.” One as noble and august as God surely deserves the energies of the inmost soul. David is not content until he has marshaled all his faculties to concentrate on this one purpose.

It will not do for David to draw nigh merely with his lips. He seeks to worship God with all of his being. That was the problem with many in Christ’s day. Jesus said of them, “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me” (Matthew 15:8). Their religion appeared pious and their worship serious, but the Lord reproved them as token worshippers and not true worshippers. They were much like Israel in Hosea’s day, whom the prophet rebuked declaring, “Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty” (Hosea 10:2).

The problem with token worshippers is that they are not all in the business of worshipping God. Their hearts are divided, half with God and half with self, a part in the church and a part in the world. They spend more time fixing their hair than fixing their heart in preparation to meet God. They spend more time putting on their clothes than putting off the old man. Though I must confess, some need to spend more time putting their clothes on, for it seems that they are in such a hurry to get to church that they neglect to put on the rest of their clothes and come scantily clad. Others take great delight in putting on a new dress or new suit, or some other piece of the latest trendy garb, to come to church and be fashionable, when it were better that they would come to church to meet God and not Sis. Vanity-Fair who will complement them on their new clothes.

The Lord’s house is the place where His “honour dwelleth” (Psalm 26:8). The Lord is in the very midst of the assembly (Matthew 18:20). However, in this Laodicean age in the church, Christ seems to be the last thing on most people’s minds. They are there physically but their minds are on their business of the weekdays, out in their gardens, on the riverbank fishing, on the crock-pot at home, even at the ballgame, and endless other places. The lament of the prophet is applicable today. Isaiah said, “And there is none … that stirreth up himself to take hold of Thee” (Isaiah 64:7). How few today really seek to awaken themselves to the worship and service of God. O to God, that men would stir themselves up to take hold of God, that men would rouse themselves and shake off indifferent slumber to truly praise and worship God!

Finally, David said, “Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His Holy Name.” He knew that he needed to prepare himself for such a great work as praising God. He did not take it lightly. Christian, do you take lightly the worship of God? We need our hearts prepared (Job 11:13) and strengthened (Psalm 27:14) in order to worship Him acceptably. Let us think on these things, give ourselves wholly to them, and then let us stir ourselves up to praise and worship Him whose mercy “is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him” (Psalm 103:17).

“And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years,
which departed not from the temple,
but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.”
~ Luke 2:37

The birth of Christ was very humble, yet He was not without honor. He was greatly honored in the temple on this day; first by Simeon and then by Anna. Anna is one of the minor characters in the New Testament, yet she was highly favored by God in that she saw the Christ of God with her own eyes before her death. She like Simeon, was “waiting for the consolation of Israel;” which Simeon saw in Jesus and proclaimed, “Mine eyes have seen thy salvation.”

It is not clear from the text whether she was eighty-four years old at this time or if she had been a widow for eighty-four years. Either way, she had been a widow for a long time and she had been serving God devoutly for a long time. She “had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity.” She had had only one husband and after his death, she chose rather to devote her life to God than to remarry, for “she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband” (1 Corinthians 7:34). This is not a negative statement about the remarriage of one whose spouse has died, but it is commendable that she chose to remain single in order to serve God. “He that is able to receive it, let him receive it” (Matthew 19:12).

The verse tells us she “served God” and that is where I wish us to invest our attention now. Anna is called a prophetess in the thirty-sixth verse of this chapter. That may indicate no more than that she was a teacher of “the young women,” or she may have been a foreteller. You will recall that Jezebel called herself a prophetess and undertook to teach others (Revelation 2:20). It is not a great matter in what way she was a prophetess for that is not in consideration in our text. The fact that she was a prophetess is not included here in the testimony that she “served God.”

Anna here teaches us some things about the service of God. In the first place, it is not only the duty of the religious officers to serve God. It is certainly expected of such officers to be engaged in and devoted to the service of God. However, some seem to think that only those in official capacity are to be daily employed in God’s service. Additionally, there are those that think only the officers can serve God. In other words, unless we are acting in some great capacity or involved in a highly visible work, we cannot serve God. This widow woman proves this untrue as she “served God… night and day.”

In the second place, we notice of what her service consisted. It is first said of her that she “departed not from the temple.” She was faithful to attend the house of God. At this time, the church was not established, so there was no New Testament assembly as such. The temple was the place for the public corporate worship of God. However, after the establishment of the Lord’s ekklesia, the church is the place for the corporate public worship of God and public ministry of His Word. “Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father… But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him” (John 4:21, 23).

Our private home with our families is the proper setting for private and family devotions, but this will never fulfill our responsibility to the services of the church. We are commanded by the writer of Hebrews, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25). Therefore, faithful attendance to the Lord’s house was a part of her life to which the Holy Spirit testified, “She… served God.”

The second part of her service was that she “served God with fastings and prayers night and day.” What a testimony of personal holiness and godliness! It was not that she observed the “hour of prayer” (Acts 3:3), but rather she prayed “night and day.” She was always at the business of prayer. She must have relished communion with God to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Prayer was no drudgery or mere perfunctory service. She delighted in conversing with God and heaving praise upon Him that was her joy and strength. She must have exclaimed, “Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name” (Psalm 103:1).

Dear Christian, how is it with your testimony at this hour? Could it be said of you that you “served God with fastings and prayers night and day?” Let us daily be occupied in this blessed service to our faithful God. When the Lord was telling Ananias that Saul of Tarsus had been saved, He said, “Behold, he prayeth” (Acts 9:11). Prayer is a mark of the true child of God. Prayer is also the very beginning of service. We cannot do anything without prayer. We are instructed to do “everything by prayer and supplication” (Philippians 4:6). May we learn from this humble widow and be more frequent upon our knees doing serious business with God.