COMPASSION FOR MANKIND
GARY HEATH
<The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.> Psalm 145:8
Matthew 14:14 <And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.>
Mark 6:34 <And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things.>
I John 3:17-18 <But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.>
May the Lord add a blessing to the reading of His Word. I want to entitle this little short message, “Compassion for Mankind.” Hearing Brother Bruce touch on this the other day, I was going to preach something else and I just felt to go this way.
Knowing from the Scriptures that the Lord was full of compassion. Because of that compassion, He devised a plan that He could be born—God himself could be born in a man by the name of Jesus and come upon the earth. That man, (who was God incarnated in flesh, hiding right there in Jesus), was going to show forth that compassion that God had. As we were reading here, Jesus, with the love of God in his heart, was God.
Brother Mike was talking of faith; and love and faith go together. When a person really has the love of God in their heart, that love through compassion reaches out. It is something—a yearning and a calling and a reaching out to help God’s people. We know the golden Scripture, how “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.” Why? That God through this love could show forth this compassion towards His people. What would it be for God to be full of love and compassion and He can’t demonstrate it? So He sent His son, Jesus, upon the earth that He too could show the love of the Father and give that love out, (not hold it back) but give that love out to His disciples that they too could spread the love of God and compassion.
It is a great story. Saints and the Brothers and Sisters here, if you have the love of God in your heart, (whatever measure), it is going to produce compassion for those who do not have Christ and know Christ. It has to do it. But as we read in the Scripture here, John talking, said not to suppress or to hold back that compassion. Why would he say that? Because certain things in life can happen to cause a person to restrain or become numb. I want to go along that line, nothing great.
I was sitting there while I was studying and I was thinking of when we had this terrible tsunami, this flood and I was saying, “Lord, all those people!” I was trying to feel the feeling of the people and I am trying to pray. I was concerned, but when I was at the dentist office, and I opened up a magazine and there they were, the pictures! It is so different when you see with your own eyes the suffering and the agony that people go through. Then compassion in your heart, if you have God down there, something has to reach out.
Many times when I think of myself and you, yourselves, when I see the place where God took us from, it is so frightening to me when I think of, “What if I never heard of the truth? What if I never came to the truth, and one day I died and I opened my eyes in hell?” Something on the inside moves and I am thinking, “Lord, how many people are there just in this town alone, that are in that situation—they don’t know God. Maybe they belong to some organized religion, full of heresies, full of lies.”
The organized religion today, worldwide, is trying to put on a great something of compassion. They want to feed the hungry. They want to give out medicine. They want to give out clothes but in their so-called, (I would call it), perverted compassion they also give out heresy. Medicines are good; clothing is good; to give someone food when they need it, to show a natural compassion is good; but what about the compassion from God’s people that they would stand upon the Word of God and deliver the Truth to the people, that they too could experience this same God in their hearts. It is such a sad picture.
I was thinking, “I wonder how many people in this city
of
Romans 9:14-16 <¶ What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.>
We all know the stories of Brother Branham with that love, how he ran himself until he almost had a nervous breakdown, in love to try to help God’s people, in his early years through prayer and fasting. My mind went back to Brother Bob, and the love that that man had for mankind; that he would weep for hours sometimes until he said his sides hurt. A love that God would send the light, the blessed Gospel light. Then I was looking in the Scripture and reading,
I John 3:17-18 <But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up… (That means closes, restrains or restricts.) …shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
SHEEP HAVING NO SHEPHERD
Brothers and Sisters, when Jesus, came with that compassion, He looked and He saw the sheep as though they had no shepherd; I was thinking upon that. Here was the Lord, Himself, on the earth and He was preparing a people that God was going to use to go out. God was going to have some shepherds, some true shepherds. God was going to have a five-fold ministry to go out and deliver these people. But that compassion in Christ, not only did it heal the sick, raise the dead and open the blinded eyes, but also when He came in contact with the Pharisees and the Sadducees and so forth, that love made Him tell them the truth. Even if it hurt, He told them the truth because they were going to follow that deception.
JOHN 8:42-47 <Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.
Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?
He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.>
John 3:19-21 <And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.>
I think of the love of God today, in our hour, right now, Brothers and Sisters. I see God using these heresy books as God’s love and God’s compassion because today God would be seeing the same thing. He would look upon the fields that are white unto harvest; but where are all the shepherds? Where are all the true shepherds today around the message of the hour? Many are giving out heresies. Now if they had the love of God and the compassion of Christ then they would be pointing back to the Promise that Brother Branham was pointing to. They would be saying, “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever. Because of the cross two thousand years ago, you can be healed today;” and that “there is another return of Pentecost coming.”
Now that would be God’s compassion to turn the people back to the Word of God and the Promise of God but the devil has anointed them with unbelief, as Brother Mike said. How can you have compassion for the lost and the dying? How many people are tormented in their minds? If you have a strong mind you will never know the torment, the agony, “Where is the help?”
I was reading about Legion. No hope, no help;
but then Jesus came. Brothers and Sisters, how many people around the
world consider themselves in a hopeless situation? But God has a little
people on the backside of the desert that He is training right now. We
have just a little love. Can’t you feel that love reaching out, or are
you so concerned in your own little circle, your own little life. You see, the spirit of this world is, “Me, me,
me,” but the Spirit of Christ is for others. We have all the compassion
for our own problems, but I believe that because of this world, especially here
in
BOWELS OF COMPASSION
You say, “Does that really happen?” Look at David in the Bible. When David was young and tender, the man was full of compassion, but yet we see later on in life when he became the king, and he had this and he had that, what kind of compassion did he show for Uriah? His own desires, his own selfishness, his own little circle. And we can get that way too. I am speaking to myself; I am speaking to you. You know yourself, as an individual, but we are quick to pray when we have a need, but what about our brother or our sister or another person or you see somebody lurching along down the street. Does it bother your heart? Do you want to see that man receive help too?
What do the Scriptures say about those bowels of compassion? “See that you don’t restrain them.” If you get too self-centered, if you get too selfish, “Well, this is mine and that is yours.” Why, in the early church there, they had everything common. Not that we have to give away everything, but what I am saying is, you know this world; that is the way this world is. Sometimes when we live in this world we begin to take on some of their forms and things, which should not be, but I believe that if we could get the love of God more in us and look to more of the needs of others, then our compassion will reach out and we will say “Lord, what about…” Maybe you cannot do anything physically, but you can say, “Lord, what if that was my…” You try to enter into compassion. “What if that was my family? What if that was my health condition? What if that was my financial problem?” And begin to ask God. A lot of times there are things we can do. Sometimes we have to give our stuff away. What would the Lord do? What would Brother Branham do? What would Brother Bob do?
I am not really rebuking, but yet I am. I am rebuking myself. We are needy here, Brothers and Sisters. I believe that we could show more love. That is something we can pray for. You and I can ask God, “God, give us more love. Give us more compassion for the lost and dying. Help us to see beyond our own feet. Help us to look around into the needs of others.” There are a lot of needy people.
I am so thankful for these books that the Lord just worked it out and put upon Brother Bruce’s heart. That is God’s compassion for those people—sheep without a shepherd. God has a ministry here upon the earth and that is the compassion of Christ to reach out and to begin to set those people free because He is getting ready to have a many-membered body. Those are God’s people just as much as we are God’s people. He wants to reach out to them but He has a plan and a program.
God is waiting on you and me to get ready that He can do this great thing. Surely, the fields are white unto harvest but the laborers are few. God have mercy upon us, Brothers and Sisters. May this little message stimulate you to ask God to help you to reach out for the needs of others. Even as our Lord was moved with compassion, so must our hearts be moved with the same compassion when we look at the condition of the people of the world today. They are scattered as sheep without a shepherd.
The Lord’s compassion was sent out on the day of Pentecost and there were 3,000 souls harvested that came in on one day; and then another 5,000 souls were harvested and added to the Church on another day. He continually added such as would be saved. God’s compassion had been passed on to the disciples of the Lord and the godly compassion they received was to do the will of the Father. The Lord told us to pray that He would send forth laborers into the harvest because the fields are white unto harvest. But Jesus’ day was not the end of the world, we are now living at the end of the world where the Lord has promised a reaping of the harvest.
Matthew 13:38-39 <The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.>
Matthew 9:35-38 <¶ And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.
Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.
Our prayer should be, “Lord, send forth laborers into the harvest that we may do the will of the Lord.” Godly compassion is to do the will of the Father.
THE WILL OF GOD IS COMPASSION
Quote: E-36 “Then, when he was found in the temple
rejoicing, the Jews questioned him. Now, this is
“People don't know what compassion is. Compassion and love is the will of God. And you can only exercise that as God gives it, not human, emotional passion, not emotional love, but Divine Love, which can only be rendered and given by God.” (Looking For Jesus 54-0228E)
Quote: E-33 “And Jesus walked right around them blind, deaf, lame, halt, withered; never said a thing, till He come to a man laying on a pallet.
“How many of you Californians know what a pallet is?
Well, what part of
“Laying on a pallet... He might've had a prostate trouble. He might've had--he might've had TB; whatever it was, he'd had it thirty-eight years. It was retarded. It wasn't going to kill him. He could walk. And Jesus knowing... Watch, Jesus knowing that he'd been in this condition all this time, He said, "Wilt thou be made whole?" Why not the blind man? Why not the crippled man? But see He was directed.
“Now, watch his answer. And he said, "I have no one to put me in the water. While I'm coming, somebody's in better shape than me outruns me and gets in there (See?), gets in ahead of me." He could walk. He could go, but there's some there couldn't walk. See? And we'd say He had compassion? Human sympathy is not compassion. Know the will of God is compassion. That's right.
“So He said, "Wilt thou be made whole?"
“He said, "I have no one to put me in the water; when I'm coming. Someone steps ahead of me."
“He said, "Take up thy bed and go into thy house."
“He never questioned one more thing. For Jesus knowed he wouldn't question. Picked it up and put it on his back and went on. Jesus was questioned about it. Let Him do the same thing today, and He will be questioned about it.” (Be Not Afraid 61-0224)
Quote: E-67 “And the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin court (the church), questioned Him. "What about all the rest of these?"
“He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you: "I can... The Son does nothing in Himself; but what He sees the Father doing, that doeth the Son likewise." That's compassion. Compassion is follow the will of God, not human sympathy, but compassion. Oh, it's two different words altogether: sympathy, and compassion. See? If it wasn't, Jesus sure made a rude mistake when He did that. See?” (Be Not Afraid It Is I 61-0414)
Quote: “Now, in John 5:18, Jesus said, John 5:19, I believe it is, Jesus said, when He passed through the Bethesda pool there, and He saw, He know a man had an infirmity for thirty-eight years. Look, about two thousand people standing there, waterhead babies, lame, blind, halt, withered, twisted up. Jesus passed through the pool, looked all around, full of love, full of compassion. See, we don't know what love means. We take it on a human side. Full of compassion, sure, you're talking human compassions. Real compassions is do the will of God. See? There it is.” (Perseverance V-10 N-3 62-0218)
God’s will today is to pour out His Spirit, just like the day of Pentecost, and send forth His laborers into the Harvest to reap one last time before the judgments of God begin to fall on this nation and the rest of the world. I don’t know how to express it more but we get numbed, we get dulled by the things of this life (everything to eat; everything to wear; all the cars, all this, all that; Run, run, run) and we forget about those that are crying day and night.
How many of those in other countries don’t even hardly have food to eat? They want the Gospel of Christ, they want to see deliverance; and we are a little numb. God help us. We cannot manufacture it ourselves, but we can ask God and He is more then willing.
What do they say about that song about the love of God that reaches to the highs and the lows and there is not measurement of it. God wants to have one more great show of the love of Christ upon this earth. And to think, you and I are in the running to be a part of that. Isn’t that a great thing! God has been good to us.
I am speaking to myself; I feel ashamed a lot of times. I believe that we need more of a hunger to see Christ in others. They are certainly not going to get it from this religious world and the followers of the message steeped into heresies, but thank God, we have the Truth and we know there is going to be another Sound like a rushing mighty wind. God is going to fill all the house.
Even Brother Branham with that great filling that he had, got a complex one time and he began to get a little self centered.
You say, “Brother Branham?” Yes, he got to thinking that, “Well, if the people don’t want to hear me…” Well then, he thought he would maybe just go up in the woods and do a little hunting and fishing. He said he “had lost the feeling for the people.” The Lord got a hold of him and set him straight.
PROPHET’S CONFESSION
Quote: 53 “Now, now, to us, to get close now to what I want to say. Could we stand... (Now, I'm preaching to myself in this.) Could we stand and see a human being that's blind, physically blind, and know that he's walking over a cliff... Could we in our--our sta--state of mind, that we're in this morning, could we stand and see a blind man walk over a cliff, blind, and not try to warn him? It would be... There would be so cruel. We would be so indifferent in our heart. Could you imagine, a person getting so indifferent that he could almost laugh and see a blind man (that cannot see and can't help hisself) deliberately walk over a cliff? That would be a--a bad thing... do nothing about it...
“Well, to my brethren, world over, I want to make this confession. I--I humbly say it, that that's just about what I was doing or fixing to do. I had been preaching for years, and I--I had become an old man and an old veteran preacher. I had a lot of hard battles and I'm... May... I'm scarred, all cut up on the inside from fights. Because my lot, that the Lord gave me, was not back to kiss the babies, and--and to marry the young, and bury the old. But it was to hold a two-handed Sword at the battle front against the wiles of--of paganism, and demonology, and--and the powers of darkness, and fight it with the Word of God till I seen the enemy defeated. I've been cut deep many times.” (Standing In The Gap V-6 N-7 63-0623M)
Because of all the battles that Brother Branham had fought, and because he felt his message was not received as it should have been, then he started to lose the feeling for the people. He had decided to move to British Columbia and become a guide to hunt, fish, and trap, but the Lord turned him around to do the will of God, and not his own will.
Quote:
“Now, I met a man was a Christian, and he's got a great country right under
“I said the people... I've never regarded myself... Anybody knowing this... But people have said, "Brother Branham, the Lord called you to be His prophet." Well, I--I've never regarded myself as that, but I begin to get to the time that I was about ready to do it: to think, "Well, maybe I am. If I am, I'll live back in the wilderness. And if I live back in the wilderness, then I'll--I'll--I'll be His prophet." See? And then if He wants to send me somewhere... And while He's not using me, then I'll sure to catch some fine fish and--and do some things." 'Course that was kind of a selfish attitude (See?), because I wanted to do that. Now, it isn't just exactly the thing that--to do. And now, I had that made up in my mind to do that.” (Standing In The Gap V-6 N-7 63-0623M)
Quote:
158 “But, you see, even the great
“…But the call of God must come, ‘Whoever wants to march towards the promised land, let him march.’ We're on our road to the promised land. Amen...?... Let them come, march. We're on our road to meet Christ at the end time. And I wanted to bring this to you so that you would see, and show you that the mistakes that a man can make, yet being sincere.
“Moses lost the feeling of his people because they wouldn't listen to him. And, Brother Roy, you see your dream? And now, I cannot go with a ministry like that, until I feel different in my heart about it, no matter if God did tell me. But that is what change that, Brother Roy, that's coming. Something's got to change me, because I, in my heart, if I go out there feeling the way I do now... I still feel that they ought to have heared that message, they ought to done... And I don't have the feeling for the people that I should have. And till I can get that feeling, there's no need in me going because I'd be a hypocrite.” (Standing In The Gap V-6 N-7 63-0623M)
If Brother Branham could lose the feeling of the people, how about you and I? I guess there is room for improvement, wouldn’t you say?
May the Lord bless you.
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