By: M.E. Golder
Last Sunday night, we beheld in this outstanding prophecy, the prediction of the “God of the Ages” becoming “a child born, a son given”. This is the Lord’s doings and it is marvelous in our eyes. Tonight, I want to look at another wonderful thing about the revelation here seen. “HIS NAME SHALL BE CALLED COUNSELLOR”.
Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary gives this definition for the word, counselor-“An adviser. One whose profession is to give advice in law, and manage causes of clients in court”.
It is a marvelous thing that God in his onmiscience saw the need of giving to mankind a counselor. The fact that God gives us a Mighty One to counsel and instruct us, states the opposite unwritten truth; that man
has been ill-advised in the things pertaining to life in the way of God.
All of man’s troubles, sorrows, heartaches, griefs have been caused by the wrong advice. From the very beginning, man has had an ear to hear counsel from the wrong source. It was Satan that advised man contrary to the way that his God had given him to follow. And from this bad piece of advice, sin entered the world, and death by sin. (Rom. 5:12) From that time until this very moment man has prided himself in his desire and limited ability and knowledge to give freely. With this limited ability and knowledge man is bound to be wrong in most of his deductions.
The Apostle Paul said to the Corinthian church in his thesis on “Divine Love”, for we know in part and we prophecy in part” (I Cor. 13). For at best, “we see through a glass darkly.”
It will be well to remember that very few, if any, of the philosophers saw eye to eye. The Milesian philosophy in its naturalism was in spirit diametrically opposed to that widespread habit of though current in the religion of the Greeks. Xenaphores, of the Milesian school, said “even if man should chance to say the complete truth, yet he himself knows not that it is so”. But all may have their fancy. Even this great thinker realized vain man cannot qualify as a “counselor” in this complex situation called life.
For such a life, with all of its perplexing problems, God has given us himself as a “Counselor”. He is at our disposal to advise us in the law of God with respect to our behavior here. Hear David cry “teach me, O
Lord, the way of thy commandments and I will keep them unto the end.” He realized he needed God as an adviser.
HIS NAME SHALL BE COUNSELLOR. Is it not a fact well known that the nations need counsel in the way to direct its affairs. Here in America, fifty-two nations represented at the U.N. Security council stand in need of the Counselor. Tempers flare up, passions run hot, meetings adjourn in pandemonium. Every device is used to secure preeminence; each nation vieing for supremacy; accusations hurled without regard. After months of meeting nothing of importance is accomplished. But HIS NAME SHALL BE
COUNSELLOR. The Counselor will never storm the door. He is standing waiting to be asked his advice. His word rings clear tonight-“CALL ON ME IN THE DAY OF TROUBLE AND I WILL DELIVER YOU”.
HIS NAME SHALL BE COUNSELLOR. And as long as men leave him out of their affairs we can expect a muddle of things. The wise man Solomon said “in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths”. Men ill-advised in the ways of right living wander in this dark, sin-cursed world tonight without a Savior, a God of hope. They stumble in their walk, they toddle like babes, and move as blind men seeking light. Such so-called religious philosophies as “do the best you can”, and “what is right for you is not necessarily right for me”, has ruined them. Men and women behind prison bars, upon hospital cots, in sanitariums because of the wrong advice. Young men and women on their way to an untimely death,
lost for eternity because the counsel they have received is damning in its effects. Men boast of their ability to lure young, virtuous girls astray; and they being ignorant of Satan’s craftiness fall victims to these wicked fiends.
But Jesus said, “and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free” and truth can only come from the mouth of Him whose name is COUNSELLOR. Listen to the gracious words falling from His lips through the words spoken by Isaiah; “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” (Isa. 55:6,7)
Let any man fight this that wills; the Counselor hath declared; “For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and returneth nor thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that
it may give seed to the sow, and bread to the eater; So shall my word be that goeth out of my mouth; it shall not return unto me void but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing
whereto I sent it. (Isa. 55:10,11)
The COUNSELLOR hath advised, “Righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people;” and again, “holiness becometh thy house, O Lord forever”. Men may argue and dispute the words of my COUNSELLOR, but the psalmist declared “The mighty God hath spoken.”
The COUNSELLOR has devised means by which his sinful clients might be cleared in the courts of heaven. Let the COUNSELLOR speak, let the COUNSELLOR advise, hear ye him. He is God’s advocate; He has taken up your case; it has been opened; judgement has been pronounced, and the sentence; the COUNSELLOR has sent us word “ALL MEN ARE GUILTY: all have fallen short of the glory of God. As guilty men without means to rescue ourselves, we can only throw ourselves upon the mercy of the court, and hear the COUNSELLOR as he advises -“REPENT (and that repentance must be in Jesus’ name, a repentance that turns a man’s heart from sin to salvation; a repentance makes him hate the sins that made him mourn) and be BAPTISED in the NAME of JESUS CHRIST: (for until a man has been baptized in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost; for Jesus is the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost), and you shall RECEIVE the gift of the HOLY GHOST.” This is a universal formula set down by heaven
for all men everywhere since Pentecost.
Listen to the concluding words; “for the promise is unto you, (Israelites present on Pentecost) and to your children (Israelites’ posterity) and to them that are afar off (Gentiles) and even as many as the Lord our God shall call”. (Acts 2:38,39)
These words can be argued, debated, discussed, maligned and hated, but they can never be changed; for Heaven’s council decided and settled them before sending them – and sent Jesus, the Great Counselor as Author and Finisher of our Faith.
O hear him tonight, friend. HIS NAME IS COUNSELLOR. And he longs to be your Friend, your Savior, and Guide. Accept Him and live, reject Him and suffer mentally, physically, eternally.
IS THERE ANYTHING TOO HARD FOR ME?
Jeremiah 32:26,27
Is anything too difficult for Him
Who fashioned Heaven and earth with but a word,
From towering mount to jeweled humming bird?
Is anything too difficult for Him Who crumpled mountain ranges with His hands. Who beat the rocky sea cliffs into sands?
Is anything beyond His matchless might Who guides a surging universe aright?
Is anything to Omniscience unknown, A sparrow’s fall, the drift of desert sand, Remorseless tides that wear away the land?
Is anything to Omniscience unknown, From dropping leaf to nestling lost and lone?
Is any man His tender love beyond, Though far adrift on Sin’s icy wave, Though unto Satan bound and chained, a slave?
Is any man His tender love beyond, Who still has life that can to Love respond?
Faith still looks up as ages come and go, And cries above Doubt’s snivelings a ringing “No”!
-Jean Phillips in Herald of Holiness
(The original publisher of the above material is unknown.)
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