A LEAK IN THE CHARACTER

1 Kings 16:16

Morning Meditation 9/3/2015

Verse 16 says, "Zimri hath conspired, and hath also slain the king."

I am quoting from Joseph Parker's message on this incident: "There was once a king in Israel called Elah. He reigned over Israel in Tirzah two years. He had a servant called Zimri who was a captain of his chariots. Zimri was a born traitor. Treachery was in his very blood. In the case of Elah, Zimri had a marked advantage; for Elah was a drunken fool; he was in the habit of visiting the house of another of his servants, a steward called Arza, and there he had what drink he asked for; and he asked for a good deal, so much so that he was often drunk in his servant's house, and on one of these occasions, Zimri went in and killed him, and reigned in his stead. These are the facts which we have to deal with. Are they very ancient, or are they happening round about us every day ? Is Elah dead ? Is Zimri clean gone for ever ? And is the house of the servant Arza closed, so that the master can drink no more with the steward?"

"Elah lives in every man who has great chances or opportunities in life, but allows them to slip away though one leak in the character. Elah was a king and the son of a king, so his openings in life were wide and splendid; but he loved strong drink, and through that leak in his character all that might have made him a man oozed away, and left him a king in nothing but the barren name. Strong drink will ruin any man. It is the supreme curse of England."

" I will speak a word to the young. I care not, young man, how many and how brilliant in life your chances are, if you drink wine in the morning, as many young men in London do, you are as good as damned already. You think not, but that only shows the infinite deceitfulness of the enemy. He tells you, 'Nothing of the kind; this is parson's twaddle; take your wine when you want it, and let it alone when you don't care for it.' There is suppressed mockery in that high challenge. There is no soundness of health in it. Every drink leaves you weaker. Every emptied glass is another link added to the strong chain thrown upon your limbs. You take sherry in the morning, and it brightens and lightens you for the day, you think. Let me tell you what it does. It exhilarates you; it takes you out of yourself for a while; but it takes away the sources of your will, it throws a cloud over your brain, it blunts your moral criticism, it hastens you along a road that dips easily but surely into hell. The young man who drinks in the morning may be saved, for I dare not set limits to the mercy of God, but how he is to be saved it is impossible for me to say. The devil has hold of both his hands, his feet are upon a slippery incline, and how he is to get back again, I cannot tell. God help him! God save him!"

"What is true of this leak in a man's character is true of every other. Take indecision for example, or idleness, or love of company, or devotion to pleasure. Give me a young man with a king for a father, a throne for an inheritance, a kingdom for a field to cultivate, and let him be idle, or undecided, or pleasure-loving, and his doom is sealed. A great merchant once said to me of a certain man in his employment, 'I would tomorrow give that man a thousand a year to begin with, if he could do one thing, and that is, hold his tongue, but he would no sooner get the appointment than he would go into an ale-house, and tell the whole company everything I am doing.' There is the leak in the character, and it means ruin! It is astounding what one leak will do. I remember lowering a brass valve put into some water apparatus which had been fitted by one of the most skillful of plumbers; but when all was done, there was a faint thread of water running; the valve was taken to pieces, and refitted and still the thread of water was there; and at last it was found that in the very middle of the valve there was a sand hole, not larger than the point of a needle; but there it was, and no skill in mere plumbing could meet such a case; the valve must go back to the founder, be put through the fire once more, before it could be used. It is just the same with character. The leak is very small, but it is fatal. Night and day it runs. Sleeping and waking it runs. Summer and winter it runs. And no cistern, no reservoir can stand a perpetual leak."

"There is a leak somewhere in every persons character. I speak here of the natural man.. All of us have certain leaks. They are not removed when one is saved. This is where I fear many make a fatal error in their thinking. They think salvation does something to change the old sin nature. It does not (Rom. 7:18).. Then when they discover that it is not changed, they quit and simply say, "I have done all I know to do, and there is no way that I can be saved and have these thoughts, or experience these temptations." This is wrong thinking. Jesus said, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63). I spent years trying to change my flesh without success. I was continually self condemned. Had you seen me, you would have said, "He has real victory." I did not do the things that identify one as a worldly person. But within, I had struggles. I did not yield to them but I was continually exhausted and disappointed. It was a great day when I realized that Jesus did not come to save my flesh. He came to make me new within. Then I began to feed the new nature and rejoice that the old one was dead with Christ (Rom. 6:6) and I had the right to "count it to be true because it was true" (Rom.. 6:11), then I began to experience real freedom. That was not a freedom to begin to do those things that I had denied myself, it was freedom to enjoy a life of self denial knowing that my acceptance with Him was not based on self denial, but my relationship with Him. And that relationship is eternal and not subject to loss because I don't measure up. This is not license to sin. But it is freedom from condemnation (Rom. 8:1) because of the LEAKS and the freedom of forgiveness, so that once I make the wrong right through the cleansing of the blood of Christ (1 John 1:9), I can walk on unhindered by the LEAK."

May the Lord bless each of you.

In Christ

Bro. White