SPY MAGAZINE
Would you stand in the
rain to listen to a very long sermon?
What God's Word can do
for you
Hello everyone
from the Editor
In 1 Samuel 16:23, we read of David playing
the harp to soothe King Saul. What a great change had just taken place in
David's life. He had been caring for his
father's sheep, where he probably played and sang while the sheep grazed.
Then one day, unexpectedly, the prophet
Samuel visited David's family. He was on
a secret mission – anoint a future king. David's brothers were rejected and
David was anointed. Then two remarkable
things happened: The Spirit of God came
upon David and dwelt with him, and the Spirit of God left King Saul and an evil
spirit troubled him.
Saul now became agitated, violent, moody,
and changeable. He could be friendly one minute then try to kill a person
without any provocation.
Thankfully some wise servant recognised
what had happened to Saul and suggested that a good musician be called to play
to him when he was aggravated – someone suggested David. What a dramatic change in David's – the
teenager's life, from the sheep, to Saul's house.
When Saul was full of rage and violence,
David played to him and his mind was soothed and quietened. This teaches us that music can have a healing
effect upon some people. This has often
been noticed.
However harsh music may have a bad effect
upon us. People are often agitated and
stirred in a bad way by music. It may make people aggressive; it may stir up
anger and violence, and to do things that they would not normally do.
Music is not neutral, it does affect us,
good or bad. The effect of David's
playing only gave Saul a temporary relief. He became quiet and reasonable for a
time, but it was a good effect. Harsh
and violent music may influence people to act in ways that are evil and
foolish.
Are we helped or hindered
in our hearts and minds by the music that we listen to?
Would you stand in the rain to listen to a
very long sermon?
John Livingstone was born in
In 1630 he visited a number of churches
where they held services for the Lord's Supper.
In those days these Communion Services began on Thursday evening and
continued until Monday morning. People came from many other districts and
stayed in the area for the whole weekend; so this was a time of Church
fellowship and preaching.
One of these places where a communion was held, was in the small town of
A group of the people, who included some
highly respected women, held a prayer meeting for the whole Sunday night, to
pray that God would richly bless the final meeting.
John Livingstone felt that he was unworthy
to preach on this occasion and that there were better men than himself present. He
was so fearful that he tried to sneak away when the time drew near, but
suddenly a text came to him from Jeremiah 2:31, where God said, “Have I been a wilderness unto
The texts he took for his sermon were
Ezekiel 36:25-26, “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be
clean, from all your filthiness, and from your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you and a new
spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stoney
heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart
of flesh.”
His sermon was preached to a vast
congregation of about 6oo, who gathered in the churchyard and lasted for an
hour and a half while the people stood in steady rain. The presence of God was so near and real; the
people stood in complete silence.
The Lord wonderfully worked in the hearts
of many. It is said that some 500 people
were wonderfully blessed, some claimed that they were
saved during the sermon and others that they were strengthened in their faith
and love to the Lord.
This was the greatest sermon the John
Livingstone preached. He was a faithful
servant of the Lord for the rest of his life, but he never knew the Lord's
presence again as he did on this one day at the
This shows us that God is able to use a
young man in a wonderful way, even though he was fearful. This sermon was
preceded by much prayer. We should call
on the Lord to visit us in mercy and bless His word to our hearts.
What God's Word can
do for you
Is the Bible the Word of God? Then be sure that you never read it without
praying for the help of the Holy Spirit.
Many people do not ask God for wisdom and instruction from the Bible,
and so they do not profit by it. You
should pray for the Holy Spirit to lead you into all truth, and ask the Lord
Jesus to “open your understanding” as He did to the disciples.
The Lord who inspired the Bible, keeps the
keys of that book, and alone can enable you to understand it profitably. Nine times in Psalm 119 does David pray,
“teach me' and five times says, “Give me understanding.”
John Owen says, “There is a sacred light in
God's Word; but there is a covering and veil on the eyes of men, so that they
cannot see it aright. Now, the removal
of this veil is the special work of the Holy Spirit.” Humble prayer to the Lord will often give us
more light than reading the best commentaries that
have ever been written.
The Bible is a large book or a small book,
a dark book or a light one, according to the spirit in which we read it. The human intellect alone will not understand
it. Intellectual men will not understand
it unless their hearts are right as well as their heads. The greatest human knowledge will find it a
closed book without the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Its contents are often, “hid from the wise
and prudent and revealed unto babes.”
Remembers this, and pray when you open your Bible, “O God, for Christ's
sake, teach me Thy word by the Holy Spirit.” - J. C. Ryle.
Many people have wrong ideas about faith in
Christ. They agree that the Bible is
God's word, that we need to become God's children, that Jesus came into this
world to provide salvation for us, but they have many difficulties about simply
trusting in the Lord Jesus to be saved.
These people often say, “I am trying to
believe and to do the right thing and to walk in God's ways, but I never really
know that I belong to the Lord and my sins are forgiven and I am right with
God.
Well, let us think about what the Bible says
about simple faith, a saving faith that leads to sure salvation. There are many
examples in God's word, but the one we shall think about is the Philippian
Jailor in Acts 16:30-31. He asked Paul
and Silas a most important question, “Sirs, What must I do to be saved?” He
wanted a clear and straight-forward answer.
They replied, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved.”
Notice that true faith is placed in Jesus
Christ Himself, not believing about Him.
The Lord Jesus is a person, the Son of God, our only Saviour. We must
place our trust, hope, confidence in Him alone. “and
thou shalt be saved”, sure and certain.
What does this faith involve? It means to personally receive Him by faith.
We come to Him in simple faith placing our hope and trust in Him and looking to
Him to save us. We see Christ as the only Saviour and that he has died on the
cross to save sinners and we place our whole trust in Him.
This faith is not some outward and bodily
action, or any observance. “With the heart man believes unto righteousness.”
Roman 10:10. Nor can anyone else do this
for us; it is between us and the Lord.
We realize that we need His salvation, and we place all our trust in
Him.
“But,” one may object, “my
faith is not strong enough to be saved.”
It is not great faith that saves us, but a great Saviour. Those who trusted the Lord for salvation
during His life often had very little faith, but the Lord mercifully saved them
by His grace.
Another may say, “But I am not worthy, I do
not deserve to be saved.”
No one deserves to be saved. We are all
sinners and deserve eternal punishment. The Lord said, “I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Matthew 9:12-13.) Romans
5:6 tells us that, “Christ died for the ungodly.” not for those who
think they are righteous. Salvation is by grace – grace is something that we
can never deserve or pay for, it is absolutely free.
What if Christ was not willing to save
me? The Lord Jesus promised, “Him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” John 6:37. All who seek Him in true faith will be
welcomed, received and saved by Him.
Doesn't simple faith make salvation too
easy? This is what Naaman thought when
Elisha told him to dip seven times in the river
The Philippian Jailor, who was a rough
soldier, did just as Paul had said, he believed, and was saved. He was wonderfully
changed and rejoiced in the Lord with all his heart. Then his heart was filled
with joy and praise to God. Do we have a simple, personal faith in the Lord Jesus.
Many years ago a missionary was travelling
through North-West
The missionary stayed with them for the
Lord's Day. A large number of them
gathered near the river bank to listen to the sermon. The missionary explained
that God had commanded us many things in His word, the Bible, and they should
all listen to what God has said..
In his sermon he explained that the Great
Spirit (God) had appointed one day in seven for quiet rest and to worship Him.
He explained that God required them to keep this day holy and not to spend the
day hunting and fishing as they did on other days. If they would not listen to God's words and
disobeyed His commands, He would punish them for their sins.
Suddenly an old Chief sprang to his feet
and said angrily, “I don't believe it. I
am not afraid to hunt or fish on this day.
I will do as I do every day.” He
grabbed his gun and jumped into his canoe and quickly paddled away, shouting
words of defiance against the missionary.
The missionary ignored the disturbance and
continued his sermon. Soon after a shot was heard in the distance. Then after a while the Chief was seen coming
back in his canoe; but he was moving very slowly and only using one paddle.
When he came to the shore, some friends
went to him, realizing that he was in trouble. The Chief said little until he
came to the company of people where the missionary was speaking. Then he lifted one of his arms, to show that
his hand had nearly been shot off. He said with a loud voice: “It would have been good for me if I had
stayed here and listened to the words of the missionary, instead of rushing off
to hunt today.” 'See here', he shook his
shattered arm, around which he had tied a sash to stop the bleeding, “See how I
am punished for my sin! Now I believe
there is a God who is angry with and can punish those who do not keep His day.”
The people were very impressed by what they heard and saw.
The missionary could only stay for a few
days at that time. The Indians were not
visited again for several years, but when a missionary did visit, the old Chief
with one hand warmly welcomed them. He
earnestly listened to the word of God, and sought to find out all the
information he could about the Lord, and sought to live as a Christian should.
After a few years he was absent when the
missionary visited - the chief had died.
During his last illness his great desire was that he might live until
the missionary came and talked to him about the Lord Jesus and prayed with him.
Most of us have seen some cans of food with
the name 'Heinz' on them. The person who
started the food company of 'H.J. Heinz and Company Limited' was Henry
Heinz. He was born in
Henry began working in the garden as a very
young boy and by the time he was ten years old he would go round his village
every day, except Sunday, selling vegetables from his wheelbarrow.
Later Henry started his own food
business. When it prospered and grew
larger, Mr. Heinz decided to go to
Throughout his life, Mr. Heinz ran a Sunday
School programme for children, and also went with 29
pastors and businessmen to seventy cities in
By the time of his death in 1919, Mr.
Heinz's business had 26 factories, 6,523 workers and 100,000 acres of farm
land. The most important things in his
life were the church and his Christian faith, generously giving to others, and
lastly his food business.
Big Kate, as she was known, because she was
a large, ugly woman, lived in a village called Lochcarron, in
The minister of the area was Mr Lacklan
McKenzie. He spoke to Kate on many
occasions and sought to urge her to attend the Church, but she would not. He not only prayed for her, but tried to
think of some way that she might hear the gospel. At last he thought of a plan.
At that time the people in the village used
to meet in various homes and sing Gaelic songs.
They also did needle work and craft while they sang. Kate loved to attend these meetings.
Mr. Lacklan planned to write a song in
which the sins of Kate were mentioned and condemned. He set this song to music, then taught it to
a number of those who attended and asked them to sing it when Kate was present.
When Kate heard this song, she was deeply
convicted of her sins. She was deeply
troubled in her heart. She wandered
around the village groaning and weeping over her sinful past. This went on, not only for weeks, but months
and years. She wept so much that she
actually became blind. On one occasion when she went to talk to the minister,
she heard some ducks quacking; not knowing that anyone else was present she
said. “You poor creatures are happy. You have not crucified the Saviour like
me; It would be well for Big Kate to be
a duck like you, for then she would have no sin to answer for – no sin, no
sin!”
After she had been troubled for nearly
three years, Mr. McKenzie conducted the Lord's Supper in his Church and he was
anxious for Kate to partake of the communion, seeing she had repented of her
sins. But Kate refused saying, “My
presence would profane that blessed ordinance, and would be enough to pollute
the whole congregation.”
At the service, the communion was served to
the Christians and then the bread and wine were removed, and the minister was
speaking to the people, when a loud cry of despair arose. Everyone turned to see who it was. It was Kate!
Mr. McKenzie went and kindly took her be the hand and led her to the
communion table. The bread and wine were brought again and Kate partook of them
to remember that the Lord Jesus had died to take away our sins.
Kate had now confessed her faith in Christ
as her saviour. She was now a changed
woman. She lived for about three years
after this. Just as she had a deep sense and sorrow for sin, now she had a deep
knowledge of Christ and that He was her 'all in all'.
When Kate came to die she said, “Tell, tell others that I have found Him
(Christ). Tell them that the worst of sinners – the drunkard, the profligate,
the Sabbath breaker, the thief, the blasphemer, the liar, scoffer, the infidel
– tell them that I was a person guilty of every sin. Even I, have found a Saviour, even I have
known a Saviour's love.”
Cesar Malan was born in
For the first four years of his ministry he
taught the people that they could be saved by their own works and
goodness. He did not know that salvation
is by God's grace alone and that we have no goodness of our own before
God. One day another Pastor said to
Malan after hearing him preach, “Sir, it appears that you do not know that to
convert others, you yourself must be converted.”
One evening Malan was deeply impressed as
he read Romans chapter 5, and the next morning he read from Ephesians 2:8 “for
by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift
of God.” Malan felt that he had been
awakened out of sleep. He now saw the
way of salvation, and trusted in Christ himself.
Immediately he destroyed all his old
sermons and a number of books that had led him astray. He then preached a special service at
Soon the Church leaders made all young
pastors agree to never preach such doctrines again, and so Malan had to leave
that Church.
He then became an evangelist and travelled
from place to place. In 1822 he visited
But when she was thirty, she became very
sick and was bed-ridden for the rest of her life. She became very troubled about her soul. When Malan visited her home,
Voltaire or the Bible?
Voltaire (1694-1778) was the French
atheist, who attacked the Bible and tried to prove that it was not true. Voltaire believed that he greatly proved that
the Bible was false, and so his work would eventually destroy Christianity.
At the end of his life, Voltaire had a
young disciple, named La Harpe, who was to be his successor. He was very clever and an excellent
writer. Voltaire expected that La Harpe
would complete his work in destroying the Bible and Christianity.
In 1789 a civil war broke out in
No literature was available in the prison
for the prisoners to read. But one old
man had a book that he read every day, and seemed to take great delight in it –
it was a Bible. La Harpe begged a loan
of the Bible (he had never read the Bible which he had attacked). He was amazed at what he read. He said, “Here is everything to excite
curiosity; and here is everything to satisfy it.” La Harpe was saved by the Lord's grace and
later he was released from prison. He
was now a different person, instead of trying to attack and destroy the Bible,
he spent his life seeking to proclaim and defend the word of God. The Lord had turned the enemy of His word
into a defender of it.
Missed out: Three friends were so involved in a conversation that
they did not hear the train arrive at the station. “ALL ABOARD” shouted the
Porter. Two of the men jumped on to the
train. The third man was madly trying to gather his cases when the train pulled
out. “Oh my friends!” cried the man.
“Well I suppose that two out of three catching the train is not too bad.”
replied the Porter. “But they were my
friends who came to say goodbye to
Sharp test: A knife juggler was pulled up by the
police. What are you doing with all
those knives in your car?” demanded the police.
“I'm a knife juggler.” he replied. “I am very doubtful; let me see you
do it.” said the policeman. The man got out and
juggled his knives. Another driver saw him and remarked to his friend, “See
what tests they are giving drivers now suspected of drink driving!”
Rare bird: What do you get when you cross a pigeon with a
woodpecker? A bird that not only
delivers messages, but knocks on the door when it gets there.
Mini puzzles: What goes up and down but never moves? Stairs.
What always walks with its head down? A nail in your shoe.
What is always coming but never
arrives? Tomorrow.
Brain teaser: The names of ten Bible books are hidden in
the words below. Can you find them? One is underlined for you – happy hunting.
“Joshua fell into the rut heavily. It was a big job trying to get him out. Soon
he was put on the mat. The way home was long and Joeline repeated facts and
made remarks. At home, Tom said, Pass the jam, Esther, while he brews the tea.”