The Iron Pen #96

"...graven with an iron pen and lead..." Job 19:24
Pastor David L. Brown, Ph.D.

My friend, Pastor Paul W. Gustine, sent me some gleanings from his reading. I thought this one was particularly appropriate in light of the battle across our land to remove the 10 Commandments from government owned property considering the fact that they were originally at the foundation of our legal system. – "I have read that one can find the Ten Commandments exhibited or depicted in three places at the Supreme Court of the United States in Washington, D.C. The building was completed in 1935. Neither the Supreme Court nor the Congress, which funded its construction, considered this an establishment of religion. There is a marble bas-relief over the East Portico entitled, Justice the Guardian of Liberty. It has Moses with the Ten Commandments at its center. One enters the courtroom where the Justices sit in session through a beautiful oak doorway. The lower panels of the two doors have the Ten Commandments carved upon them. There are four marble panels on the walls of the courtroom. The panel directly above the justices at the bench portrays "The Power of Government" and "The Majesty of the Law" with the Ten Commandments between them. The figure representing "The Power of Government" is leaning upon the Ten Commandments."(Rev. Paul W. Gustine is the pastor of Bible Baptist Church of Northampton, Florence, MA)

J.C. Ryle

"But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Galatians 6:14

BEWARE of self-righteousness! Open sin kills its thousands of souls. Self-righteousness kills its tens of thousands. Think, you who take comfort in some fancied ideas of your own goodness, -- think, you who wrap up yourselves in the notion, "all must be right, if I keep to my Church," – think for a moment what a sandy foundation you are building upon! Think how miserably defective your hopes and pleas will look in the hour of death, and in the Day of Judgment! Whatever merit they may see in their own works here in this world, they will discover none in them when they stand before the bar of Christ. The light of that great day of assize [judgment] will make a wonderful difference in the appearance of all their doings. It will strip off the tinsel, shrivel up the complexion, expose the rottenness of many a deed that is now called good. Their wheat will prove nothing but chaff: their gold will be found nothing but dross. Millions of so-called Christian actions will turn out to have been utterly defective and graceless. They will be found to have been like whitened sepulchers of old, fair and beautiful without, but full of corruption within.

Go and study humility with the great apostle of the Gentiles. Go and sit with Paul at the foot of the cross. Give up your secret pride. Cast away your vain ideas of your own goodness. Be thankful if you have grace, but never glory in it for a moment. Work for God and Christ, with heart and soul and mind and strength, but never dream of a second of placing confidence in any work of your own. Once more I say, let us beware of self-righteousness in every possible shape and form. Some people get as much harm from their fancied virtues as others do from their sins. Rest not, rest not till your heart beats in tune with Saint Paul’s. Rest not till you can say with him, "GOD FORBID THAT I SHOULD GLORY SAVE IN THE CROSS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST."