Aug 11
26
Come unto Me!
“Come unto Me!” Matthew 11:28
The cry of the Christian Religion is the gentle word, “Come.” The Jewish LAW harshly said, “Go, take heed unto your steps as to the path in which you shall walk. Break the commandments, and you shall perish; keep them, and you shall live.”
The LAW was a dispensation of terror, which drove men before it as with a scourge; the GOSPEL draws with bands of love. Jesus is the good Shepherd going before His sheep, bidding them follow Him, and ever leading them onwards with the sweet word, “Come.”
The LAW repels—the GOSPEL attracts. The LAW shows the distance which there is between God and man; the GOSPEL bridges that awful chasm, and brings the sinner across it. From the first moment of your spiritual life, until you are ushered into glory—the language of Christ to you will be, “Come, come unto Me!”
As a mother puts out her finger to her little child and woos it to walk by saying, “Come,” even so does Jesus. He will always be ahead of you, bidding you follow Him as the soldier follows his captain. He will always go before you to pave your way, and clear your path, and you shall hear His animating voice calling you after Him all through life. In the solemn hour of death, His sweet words with which He shall usher you into the Heavenly world shall be, “Come, you who are blessed of My Father!”
Nay, further, this is not only Christ’s cry to you—but, if you be a believer, this is your cry to Christ, “Come! Come!” You will be longing for His second advent; you will be saying, “Come quickly—even so come Lord Jesus!” You will be panting for nearer and closer communion with Him. As His voice to you is “Come,” your response to Him will be, “Come, Lord, and abide with me! Come, and occupy alone the throne of my heart! Reign there without a rival, and consecrate me entirely to Your service!” Charles Spurgeon
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Christ is the way
Isaiah 35: 8: And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it;
Earthly Zion was where the city of Jerusalem was. It was the place where the one altar and the one mercy-seat were. That was the one place where the Lord in manifest glory communed with His covenant people. Therefore, access to earthly Zion was the most important part of the believers life.
Eventually, Judah was carried away captive by Babylon. The true believers longed to be redeemed from captivity and for a highway by which they could return to Zion, to the tabernacle of the Lord, to return into the presence of God. In due time the LORD raised up a king who set the captives free; and as promised, the LORD gave them a highway and the remnant returned to Zion with songs of rejoicing.
The good news of the gospel is far greater than a highway to some earthly place here below. When sin entered the world and death by sin, all mankind was taken into captivity in sin and separation from God. But God had a remnant chosen in Christ. In the fullness of time, Christ the King was raised up. He built the King’s Highway. And he is the Way. By the Holy Spirit of God, every chosen child shall be newly born and called into Christ the Way, kept in him. Every believer shall make our pilgrimage in the Way from the sinful wilderness of Babylon to heavenly Zion. Clay Curtis.
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| TEN PROMISES FROM GOD TO HIS TROUBLED SAINTS
Isaiah 43:1-7 Child of God, your afflictions in this world may be many, heavy, and long, but they will never destroy, or even harm you. Therefore the Lord your God says, “Fear Not.” Then He gives you these ten, blessed promises to silence your fears. “I have redeemed thee!” Christ has redeemed you by the price of His blood and the power of His Grace. If He has redeemed you, nothing and no one can harm you. 2. “I have called thee by thy name!” All whom He has redeemed are called, called with an effectual, irresistible, personal call. This is efficacious Grace! 3. “Thou art mine!” What a blessed word of Grace! You belong to God as His peculiar possession, His new creation. That means you are under His protection and provision. 4. “I will be with thee!” Wherever God by His providence puts you, He will be with you in sympathy and in power to take care of you. 5. “I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel!” The Almighty God, the Holy One, who is always faithful and true, is as much your property as you are His property, because He has given Himself to you. 6. “I am thy Saviour!” When He says, “I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee,” our Lord is saying, I have bought you at such a price that I cannot afford to lose you.” 7. “Thou art Precious in my sight!” You are God’s treasure, His jewel. Though despised by men, if you are a believer, you are precious to God! 8. “Thou hast been honorable?” You are not honorable by nature, nor by any of your deeds, but God by His Grace has made you honorable. He has washed away your sin by the blood of Christ and robed you with His perfect righteousness. 9. “I have loved thee!” Let men talk all they please about a useless, universal love, this is special love! God so loves His own elect that He will sacrifice men and nations for them! 10. “I have created (you) for my Glory!” The very Glory of the triune God is wrapped up in the Salvation of His people. He will either save everyone of the chosen seed, all who are called by His name, and save them from all evil, or He will lose His Glory; and that cannot be! Don Fortner — |
THE Promise of God
Maurice Montgomery
The promises of God, “said one man, “are like the clothes we wear; if there is life in the body, they warm us, but not otherwise. Where there is living faith, God’s promises afford warm comfort.” Thus we can say with Luther, “Although I am a sinner, yet I despair not; for Christ, who is my Redeemer and righteousness, liveth. In Him I have no sin, no fear, no sting of conscience, and no fear of judgment. In Christ there is no condemnation. I am indeed a sinner as touching this present life, but I have a righteousness of God which is above this life, who is Christ my Lord. In Him I rejoice.”
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The cross of Christ
From Octavius Winslow’s “The Believer Crucified”
Jesus could accomplish man’s redemption
in no other way than by crucifixion. He must
die, and die the death of the cross.
“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, through which the world has been
crucified to me, and I to the world.” Galatians 6:14
What light and glory beam around the cross!
Of what prodigies of grace is it the instrument,
of what glorious truths is it the symbol, of what
mighty, magic power is it the source!
Around it gathers all the light of the Old Testament
economy. It explains every symbol, it substantiates
every shadow, it solves every mystery, it fulfills every
type, it confirms every prophecy of that dispensation
which had eternally remained unmeaning and inexplicable
but for the death of the Son of God upon the cross.
Not the past only, but all future splendor, gathers
around the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. It assures
us of the ultimate reign of the Savior, tells of the
reward which shall spring from His sufferings; and
while its one arm points to the divine counsels of
eternity past, with the other it points to the future
triumph and glory of Christ’s kingdom in the eternity
to come. Such is the lowly yet sublime, the weak yet
mighty instrument by which the sinner is saved and
God eternally glorified.
The cross of Christ was in Paul’s view
the grand consummation of all preceding
dispensations of God to men.
The cross of Christ was the meritorious
procuring cause of all spiritual blessings
to our fallen race.
The cross of Christ was the scene of Christ’s
splendid victories over all His enemies and ours.
The cross of Christ was the most powerful
incentive to all evangelical holiness.
The cross of Christ was the instrument which was
to subjugate the world to the supremacy of Jesus.
The cross of Christ was the source
of all true peace, joy, and hope.
The cross of Christ is the tree beneath
whose shadow all sin expired, all grace lived.
The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ! What a
holy thrill these words produce in the heart
of those who love the Savior! How significant
their meaning, how precious their influence!
Marvelous and irresistible is the power of the cross!
The cross of Christ has subdued many a rebellious will.
The cross of Christ has broken many a marble heart.
The cross of Christ has laid low many a vaunting foe.
The cross of Christ has overcome and triumphed
when all other instruments have failed.
The cross of Christ has transformed the lion like
heart of man, into the lamb like heart of Christ.
And when lifted up in its own naked simplicity and
inimitable grandeur, the cross of Christ has won and
attracted millions to its faith, admiration, and love!
What a marvelous power does this cross of Jesus
possess! It changes the Christian’s entire judgment
of the world. Looking at the world through the cross,
his opinion is totally revolutionized. He sees it as it
really is; a sinful, empty, vain thing.
He learns its iniquity, in that it crucified the Lord of life and glory.
His expectations from the world, his love to the
world, are changed. He has found another object
of love, the Savior whom the world cast out and
slew. And his love to the world is destroyed by
that power which alone could destroy it, the
crucifying power of the cross.
It is the cross which eclipses, in the view of the true
believer, the glory and attraction of every other object.
What is the weapon by which faith combats with and
overcomes the world? What but the cross of Jesus?
Just as the natural eye, gazing for a while upon the sun,
is blinded for the moment, by its overpowering effulgence,
to all other objects; so to the believer, wont to concentrate
his mind upon the glory of the crucified Savior, studying
closely the wonders of grace and love and truth meeting
in the cross, the world with all its attraction fades into
the full darkness of an eclipse.
Are not Christ and His cross infinitely
better than the world and its love?
“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, through which the world has been
crucified to me, and I to the world.” Galatians 6:14