Peet van der Merwe

“God my Maker Who gives songs in the night” - Job 35: 10

Any man can sing in the day. When the cup is full, man draws inspiration from it. When wealth rolls in abundance around him, any man can praise the God Who gives a plenteous harvest or sends home a
see more loaded argosy. It is easy enough for an Aeolian harp to whisper music when the winds blow; the difficulty is for music to swell forth when no wi
nd is stirring. It is easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight; but he is skillful who sings when there is not a ray of light to read by; who sings from his heart. No man can make a song in the night of himself; he mat attempt it, but he will find that a song in the night must be divinely inspired. Let all things go well, I can weave songs, fashioning them wherever I go out of the flowers that grow upon my path; but put me in a desert, where no green thing grows, and wherewith shall I frame a hymn of praise to God? How shall a mortal man make a crown for the Lord where no jewels are? Let but his voice be clear, and this body full of health, and I can sing God's praise: Silence my tongue, lay me upon the bed of languishing, and how shall I then chant God's high praises, unless He Himself give me the song?
No, it is not in man's power to sing when all is adverse, unless an altar-coal shall touch his lip. It was a divine song, which Habakkuk sang, when in the night he said, “Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no food; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” Then, since our Maker gives songs in the night, let us wait upon Him for the music. Oh You chief musician, let us not remain without song because affliction is upon us, but tune our lips to the melody of thanksgiving.

Charles H. Spurgeon

GROWTH IN GRACE AND THE COW’S TAIL

“When a minister asked a simple countryside woman what was her concept of "growing in grace," she replied, "A Christian’s growth in grace is like the growth of a cow’s tail." Puzzled at
see more her reply, he asked for an explanation. Whereupon she said, "The more a cow’s tail grows, the nearer it comes to the ground; and the more a Christian grows in grace, the more does he take his place in the dust before God." Ah, she had been taught from above something with which many an eminent theologian and commentator is unacquainted.

Growth in grace is a GROWTH DOWNWARD: it is the forming of a lower estimate of ourselves; it is a DEEPENING REALIZATION OF OUR NOTHINGNESS; it is a heartfelt recognition that we are NOT WORTHY of the least of God’s mercies”. [A.W. Pink]

“I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I ABHOR MYSELF, and repent in dust and ashes”! [Job 42:5,6]

“The more true light a man hath, the more cause of self-abasement will he find in himself”. (Thomas Manton)

Consider the Apostle Paul’s progress in humility – Christ increasing and self decreasing.

Writing to the Corinthians in 55AD he said – “For I AM THE LEAST OF THE APOSTLES, who am NOT FIT TO BE CALLED AN APOSTLE, because I persecuted the church of God”. [1Cor 15:9]

Writing to the Ephesians in 61AD he wrote – “Unto me, who am LESS THAN THE LEAST OF ALL SAINTS, is this grace given . .” [Eph 3:8]

And toward the end of his life in 66AD, writing to Timothy he said – “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I AM (not was) CHIEF”! [1Tim 1:15]

As you consider the above, you see that we come face to face with the phenomenon which is frequently seen in the great leaders and saints of the past. It is that the older they grow, the more acute is their own sense of sin and of weakness in themselves. Or as Spurgeon put it "He whose garments are the whitest will best perceive the spots upon them!" They see that what they once thought to be natural strengths are really weaknesses that emanate from the unredeemed (and unredeemable) fallen flesh.

So if this (an increasing sense of the corruption of your old flesh nature) is beginning to happen to you, you are growing as a Christian. It has been well said that "He who knows himself best esteems himself least."

Thomas Guthrie perfectly pictured Paul's progression when he wrote...

The Christian is like the ripening corn; the riper he grows, the more lowly bends his head.

"The secret of praying is praying in secret." - Leonard Ravenhill
"..go into your room & shut the door & pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." Matt 6:6

Why are there so many false teachers and preachers today? Well there are several reasons. You say well it’s a work of the devil. Yes! But I want to show you how it is uniquely a work of God’s providence. These false teachers and preachers by enlarge what are they prospering? What are they proclaiming? They are men whose god is their belly. They
see more prove it by the way they live. Their god is their belly. They are sensual, carnal men, they are materialistic and that’s all they think about. Now, those who go out to them, those who follow them, those who leave a local church, those who leave maybe a church where the Gospel is been preached. And leave that church and go out to these men. Why do they go out to them? Are they deceived? Well some of them could be. But why are they being drawn out? They are being drawn out by carnal, materialistic sensual promises. And the fact that they are following after those promises prove that they have the same heart. These carnal wicked men gather around them carnal wicked people whose God is their belly. They want prosperity more than Christ. They want healing more than Christ. They want Mercedes Benz-es more than Christ. They want success, security, jobs, and positions more than Christ. They want all these things. They want the American dream in Jesus Name. Now imagine this if all those people were left in a true body a true local church. Do you realize what a corrupting influence they would have had, and so God raises up false prophets in order to draw this poison out of His church and away from His people and gather it all in one spot. Before there was medicine if there was an infection on an arm they would put a balm, they would put a mask of something, whether it be figs or some sort of cloth over the top of it in hope of drawing the poison out of the body. These false prophets they have that purpose. Those who would identify themselves with Christ but are carnal and fleshly people, if they remain in the church they would destroy it, they would infect it. But now they are drawn out by these heretics.
Rom 16:17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
Rom 16:18 For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
1Co 11:19 For there must be also factions among you, that they that are approved may be made manifest among you.
Php 3:17 Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample.
Php 3:18 (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
Php 3:19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)

Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is knowing the difference between right and almost right. ~ Charles Spurgeon ~

The Prosperity Gospel is no gospel because what it does is offer to people what they want as natural people. You don’t have to be born again to want to be wealthy and therefore you don’t have to be converted to be saved by the prosperity gospel. When you appeal to people to come to Christ on the basis of what they already want, 1
see more Corinthians 2:14 makes no sense. The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit they are foolishness to him. Therefore if you offer to people what they do not consider foolishness in the natural man you are not preaching the gospel and the prosperity gospel offers to people what they desperately want as fallen people, gives it to them and grows huge churches. ~ John Piper ~

Here is an excellent and most insightful sermon and a sure must watch.

Here is an excellent and most insightful sermon in Video, audio or pdf and a sure must watch, listen or read. http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=1020091814513

The hour may come when friends can do us no more good, when faithful servants can no longer minister to our wants, when all that love, and kindness, and affection can do to alleviate pain, and make the last journey as easy as possible, can no longer render any service to us. But then the thought that Christ lives—Christ interceding, Christ
see more caring for us, Christ at the right hand of God for us—ought to cheer us. The sting of death will be taken away from the man who leans upon a dying and also a living Saviour. Christ never dies. Through faith in that living Saviour we shall have a complete victory. We have an ever-living, ever-interceding Priest. Christ is not dead but alive. ~ JC Ryle ~

There can be no communion with the Lord Jesus without union first; but unhappily there may be union with the Lord Jesus, and afterwards little or no communion at all. The difference between the two things is not the difference between two distinct steps, but the difference between the higher and lower ends of an inclined plane. Union is the
see more common privilege of all who feel their sins, and truly repent, and come to Christ by faith, and are accepted, forgiven, and justified in Him. Too many believers, it may be feared, never get beyond this stage! Partly from ignorance, partly from laziness, partly from fear of man, partly from secret love of the world, partly from some unmortified besetting sin, they are content with a little faith, and a little hope, and a little peace, and a little measure of holiness. And they live on all their lives in this condition—doubting, weak, halting, and bearing fruit only “thirty-fold” to the very end of their days! ~ JC Ryle ~

God does not display the manifestation of His wisdom that we should pass it by. He displays it in order that the end of it may be that we say in word and deed, "Glory be to God." Christ Himself is the manifestation of God's wisdom. He is the wisdom of God. Christ in His incarnation, in His work, in His suffering and death, in
see more His resurrection, in His ascension, in His exaltation- this Christ, the historical Christ Who came into the center of things in the years one to thirty-three, is the reason why things are not vain and why they have purpose. Jesus does not only remove sin, for then the question remains, “Why was sin ever there?” But sin must serve God's purpose. Death, corruption, war, and destruction must serve God's purpose. Things have purpose, but then you must have Christ in the center. With Christ in the center, all things have a purpose. In Christ we behold the wisdom of God in all things.

Herman Hoeksema, 'Righteous By Faith Alone', p. 690

"Your greatest desire should be the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, otherwise you're not running the race." - Brian Long

And now, dear readers of every class to whom I have spoken, I heartily pray God to bless these pages to your souls. Whether you are one of those for whom I fear—whether you are one of those about whom I d doubt—whether you are one of those whom I look at with hope—my heart's desire and prayer is, that you may lay down this book a
see more wiser and better man than when you took it up.
We live in strange times. The world seems getting old and shaking. The shadows are long drawn. The evening appears to be coming on. The night will soon be upon us, when no man can work. Oh, that every reader of these pages would turn in upon himself while it is called today, and consider his own ways. Oh, that each would ask himself the questions—Where am I? What am I? Where am I going? What will be the end of my present course? What is the hope of my soul?
Reader, once more I ask you not to despise my question. Think of it—consider it—pray over it. Oh, that it may take firm hold of your heart, and never leave you! Oh, that it may be to your soul as life from the dead! Time is fast ebbing away! Life is a vast uncertainty! Death is drawing nearer and nearer! Judgment is sure to come! Reader, where are you? Where are you in the sight of God?
I remain, your affectionate friend,
J. C. Ryle

This is the way to be happy Christians. Happiness is the gift of G God—but that there is the closest connection between full following of God and full happiness, let no man for an instant doubt. A hopeful growing believer has the witness within himself. He walks in the full light of the sun, and therefore he generally feels bright and warm. He
see more does not quench the Spirit by continual inconsistencies, and so the fire within him seldom burns low. He has great peace, because he really loves God's law, and all who see him are obliged to allow that it is a privilege—and not a bondage—to be a Christian. Oh the comfort of a tender conscience, a godly jealousy, a close walk with God—a heavenly frame of mind! The Lord make us all of such a spirit.

This is the way to be useful Christians. The world knows little of Christ, beyond what it sees of Him in His people. Oh, what plain clearly written epistles they ought to be! A holy believer is a walking sermon. He preaches far more than a minister does, for he preaches all the week round, shaming the unconverted, sharpening the
see more converted, showing to all what grace can do. Such an one does good indeed by his life, and after death what great broad evidences he leaves behind him! We carry him to the grave without one unpleasant doubt! Oh, the value and the power of a growing Christian! The Lord make you and me such!