The Narrow Way
“Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with Thee, which frameth mischief by a law?” (Psalm 94:20)
When the people of God fall into temptation, beware how you touch them; for God who hears their mournful cries will raise them up. The psalmist says “Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of Thy law.” We cannot know the love of God but by means of these chastenings; therefore beware not to let that which is lame be turned out of the way, but cherish the convictions of the Spirit; for if you do not, a terrible day of reckoning will come. A general profession will not serve. You must have the witness of God’s Holy Spirit, which far exceeds all fleshly testimony to our state. What love do false professors feel, what a show of humility and godly fear, and all feigned! and by these things they cast down the poor afflicted people of God. The LORD will have nothing to do with this worship; as we see in Jeroboam, who established a feast “in the month which he had devised if his own heart” (1st Kings 12:33). God says, “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me?… Your hands are full of blood” — enmity, prejudice (Isaiah 1:11-15). We hear of a throne of grace, and a throne denotes power; “that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:21). Therefore all that will worship and fleshly religion of praying, and feeling, “I have left it with the Lord,” shall have no fellowship with Him. There is a consistency and uniformity with the people of God: it is not all love today, and the next all gone. We shall escape innumerable evils if we would hearken to the voice of God on our hearts, and judge ourselves; for He will deliver His people, through with the rod. But how should we escape them? If that which is lame be healed, and not turned out of the way, as He tells us in Hebrews 12:12-14: “Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.” But if God’s people put far off the evil day, they will be among the first to go into captivity (Amos 5:27; Amos 6:3).
James Bourne
Jesus is LORD! 
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