EXTRACTS

Then on the other hand the friends of Jesus are much better than many sparrows. The friends and confessors of Jesus are not forgotten; the hairs of their head are numbered. The Lord is instructing us in the minuteness of the care and protection of God, so that while there is profound reverence in the sense of His authority, there is profound confidence in the sense of His care; the friends and confessors of Jesus are the objects of the greatest care and interest of God. Suppose one is in the presence of worldly people, and in the sense of great weakness one is just trying to stammer out the Name of Jesus. God thinks so much of it that He counts every hair of the head of such a person. He would not let the enemy pull out one of the hairs of his head unless it was going to further the testimony. If there is one hair less He knows it, and it is a question here of confessing. The extraordinary importance of confessing the Son of man is brought out here. One might be in a shop, or an office, or a school, and the temptation is not to confess the Son of man—not to confess Jesus. But then think of all that hangs upon it: there is a day coming when the Son of man is going to tell the heavenly hosts how you behaved. There is a young Christian, perhaps in an office or school, and the Son of man is going to tell all the heavenly hosts about your just confessing His Name.

All this gives us such a sense of the minuteness of God’s care. We do not think much of a sparrow, but the Lord tells us that not one is forgotten before God. He does not forget a sparrow, not for a moment! It is wonderful. So nothing in our lives is small. There is nothing small about the confessor of Jesus. Every time you mention His Name with reverence in the face of the world it is going to be told to the thousands and ten thousands. It is worth doing. I would say to young Christians. Mention His Name; it does not matter how you say it. Do not say, ‘I am not interested’, when asked to read a novel, or to go to the pictures; do not get out of it by a backdoor way; it is missing a privilege. Mention His Name and never mind how stumblingly and weakly you do it; you may shake like an aspen leaf but get His Name out.

Say why you do not go to the pictures. Mention His Name; you hoist the flag of the kingdom then, and all the power of the kingdom will support you.

C. A. Coates (‘Outline of Luke’s Gospel’, p.153)

I know that many of us have dropped, perhaps unconsciously, into the thought that “spiritual”

describes some wonderful attainment on the part of Christians, but it is not so. If you are a Christian you ought to be spiritual. To be spiritual is the normal condition of every Christian; one might say God has had it before Him in giving us the Spirit that we might be spiritual.

Has God given us the Spirit that we might grieve Him, and that we might allow the flesh—

indulge the flesh? No; He has given us the Spirit that we might be spiritual and not carnal.

For this there must be correspondence and fellowship with Christ’s death.

‘The Closing Ministry of J. Pellatt’ (Vol. 1, p.11)

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