Jun 13
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CHRIST IS THE CHARIOT…
in which souls are drawn to heaven. The people of the Lord are on their way to heaven, they are carried in everlasting arms; and those arms are the arms of Christ. Christ is carrying them up to His own house, to His own throne; in time His prayer–“Father, I want those you have given Me to be with Me where I am” shall be completely fulfilled. And it is being fulfilled now, for He is like a strong charger drawing His children in the chariot of the covenant of grace unto Himself. Oh! blessed be God, the cross is the plank on which we swim to heaven; the CROSS is the great covenant transport which will weather out the storms, and reach its desired heaven. This is the chariot, the sides are made of gold, and the bottom of silver, it is lined with the purple of the atonement of our Lord
Jesus Christ. –Spurgeon
—ACCEPTED IN THE BELOVED “…He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.” Ephesians 1:6
For a sinful creature such as I am to be accepted by God is one of the most amazing declarations of the gospel of Christ. Often to be accepted by others we must meet certain criteria that is conformable to their standards and rules, which sometimes may be justified as far as their understanding and convictions are concerned. However our Lord declares that sinners are accepted by Him in Christ according to the riches of His grace. Every sinner that God saves He saves in Christ and we are all partakers of His grace and are one in Him. All are freely justified, forgiven, and members of His body. The “us” in the passage speaks of the “oneness” which every believer enjoys in Christ. We are accepted because God the Father forever loves His people as we are chosen in Christ, Redeemed by Christ, clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and therefore accepted in Christ. Being in agreement with God every believer accepts each other much the same way…as accepted in the Beloved. Sinners forgiven, sinners justified, sinners accepting each other because of the sovereign grace of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God which is Christ Jesus our Lord. And it is as equally true that nothing can sever the body of Christ and destroy the love we have for each other because it is born of God. It is true that while we are in this flesh we will have disagreements and misunderstandings. But these things should never cause us to separate ourselves and distance ourselves from the fellowship of other sinners whom God has accepted in Christ. True, there can be no fellowship in the gospel with those that do not believe and preach the true gospel of Christ. But those who love Christ, His gospel and one another should seek to be ready to forgive, restore and even give the brother the benefit of doubt. Dogmatism is a good thing if it is not used as a weapon in the hand of pride. Compromise should be unheard of if we are certain and understand all the facts. This I understand, all that are accepted in the Beloved are sinners saved by the grace of God. We are all just alike in the flesh -sinners, and we are all alike in Christ –accepted
Tommy Robbins
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The ocean of Divine love!
(by Octavius Winslow)
The love of God to His people was as eternal as the eternity of His being, as everlasting as His uncreated nature. “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” It panted, it yearned for an outlet. It sought and found it in Christ. Nowhere in the heavens above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth; no star, no flower, no creature, so reveals, expresses, and embodies the love of God as the gift of His dear Son to die for our sins! Oh, what love is this! “God so loved the world!” So loved, that He gave Jesus!
Jesus is the most precious exponent of God’s love: Jesus descends from the bosom of His love; Jesus draws aside the veil of His love; Jesus is God’s love expressed, God’s love incarnate, God’s love speaking, laboring, dying, redeeming! Beyond this it would seem impossible that love could go.
Jesus is the channel through which the ocean of Divine love washed the shores of this earth, its soul healing waves spreading like a sea of life over our sin tainted, curse blighted, sorrow stricken humanity.
Oh, let every affection of our heart, every faculty of our soul, every power of our mind, every action of our life, embody as its grateful response the words of the adoring apostle, “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift!”
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Paved with Love Song 3:9-10 King Solomon made for himself the carriage; he made it of cedar-wood from Lebanon. Its posts he made of silver, its base of gold. Its top was upholstered with purple, its interior being PAVED WITH LOVE, for the daughters of Jerusalem. I shall beg you to notice, first, this morning, THE GROWTH WHICH IS INDICATED HERE AS TO OUR VIEWS OF THE COVENANT OF GRACE.
The description advances step by step, each sentence mentioning an additional and far-enhanced preciousness. Thus do those who study the work of salvation prize it more and more. At the first glance the sweet singer who speaks in this song perceived that the chariot was made of cedar, a costly wood; a closer view revealed “the silver pillars, beauteous to behold”: further observation showed “the base all of burnished gold.” From cedar to silver, and from silver to gold, we have a clear advance as to precious material.
On looking again, the observer remarks “the top of princely purple,” which is yet more precious as the type of imperial dignity, and the token of that effectual atonement which was wrought out by the ensanguined stream of Calvary. The blood which dyed that purple canopy is much more precious than gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire. And then, though one would think there could be no advance beyond the precious blood, the song proceeds yet one step further, for we find that “the interior thereof was paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem.”
Beloved, the whole way of salvation was devised by the Lord Jesus Christ. It is all his own planning, and all his own carrying out. Hence the Song says, “King Solomon made for himself a chariot out of the wood of Lebanon.”
Jesus is the sole author and finisher of our faith; salvation is his from first to last; every part of the covenant reveals his master hand. This is the glory of the whole, and this the believing eye perceives at the very first glance, and is thereby made glad; but further knowledge reveals other bright and glorious facts, and as the matter is considered, wonder and gratitude increase. Let us, then, take a brief survey of this glorious gospel chariot, that wondrous thing, — Jehovah’s covenant of grace.When we look at the covenant of salvation, at the very first glimpse of it we see that there is none like it: many schemes have been imagined and preached up as ways of salvation, but not one of them can be likened to the method of atonement by blood, reconciliation through a substitutionary sacrifice, redemption by the incarnate God, salvation all of grace, from first to last . DWELL ON THAT LOVE itself just for a moment.
Remember it is SPECIAL love. It is not love for all men. There is some consolation in universal benevolence, but here we go deeper, and rejoice in love for “the daughters of Jerusalem”. There is an electing, discriminating, distinguishing love, which is settled upon a chosen people– a love which goes forth to none beside, but only to them; and it is this love which is the true resting-place of the saint.
It is love UNDESERVED, for what daughter of Jerusalem ever deserved that our glorious King should fall in love with her? It is a love, therefore, which is a theme for eternal wonder. Why did you love me, Redeemer? Why did you make a covenant of grace with me, and line that covenant with immutable love?
This love is EVERLASTING and ETERNAL. It never had a beginning, it never will have an end. Simply as I have stated the truth, it is a nut with heaven for its kernel. You were always loved, O believer, and you always shall be, come what may.
It is love UNRIVALLED, for never was there such affection as that which Christ has for his chosen; love UNEXAMPLED, to which none of us shall ever reach. There is no love like the love of God in Christ. It is love which to us has become this day our brightest thought, our truest comfort, and our most potent incentive. Law rules the slaves of this world, but love rules the freemen of the world to come. The ungodly, if they do right after a fashion, do it from fear of punishment or hope of reward; but the true-born children of God find in the love of Christ their sole motive: they are obedient not because they are afraid of being lost — they know they never shall be: not because they hope to get to heaven by their good works — they have heaven already by the works of another, guaranteed to them by the promise of God: but they serve God out of pure gratitude for what they have received, rejoicing as they work in the service of one they love so well.
Beloved, may the love of God be shed abroad in your hearts by the Holy Spirit this morning, and all the days of your lives, and O that many who have never tasted of that love may be made to long for it, that they may be made alive by it, and unto God shall be glory. Amen and Amen. Charles Spurgeon (extract from paved with Love,1973.)
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God’s redeeming love is Particular and Distinguishing. Those who declare that God loves all people alike, the saved as well as the damned, greatly tarnish the love of God, reducing it to a fickle, helpless, frustrated passion. But that cannot be. The love of God is like himself, from
everlasting to everlasting, immutable and sure. “Nothing is more absurd than to imagine that anyone beloved of God can eternally perish (A. W. Pink).
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Christ and his Bride
In eternity, the LORD God said of Christ what he said of Adam, “it is not good that he should be alone.” (Gen 2: 18.) Before the world was made God the Father gave to his Son a bride, his church, his children, the family of God. Think of that, you who have been called by the grace of God the Father have been children from eternity, the bride married to your Husband from everlasting (Isaiah 54: 5.) But when we were born in sin we were an adulteress, like Gomer who left Hosea for her lovers (Hosea 3). Yet the love of God is sovereign, unchangeable love. Therefore, Christ our Husband left his Father and cleaved unto his bride. Christ joined himself with our flesh. Christ laid down his life for his bride bearing her sin his own body on the tree, being made a curse for us, and has redeemed his bride from the slave-block of sin (Ho 3: 1; Ep 5: 25-27.) Through the good news of the gospel the Spirit of God washes us in regeneration, gives us faith to believe on Christ who has perfected us forever. Our Husband shall present his bride to himself a chaste virgin (Eph 5: 27.) Do you see how the Father loves his children? How Christ loves his bride? He loves his bride as his own flesh because we are his own body (Ep 5: 29-32.) Every child born anew by the Spirit of God is nourished and corrected of the Father away from ourselves to Christ in whom we have the blessed assurance. Our Husband has linked his destiny, his honor, his life, his happiness with his bride. Every member, every individual child of the Father shall be saved and not one shall be lost, and so the body of Christ shall be complete. Who shall separate us from the love of God in Christ?—Nothing! What God has joined together none shall put asunder. (Ro 8: 38-39; Ep 5: 30-32.) Clay Curtis
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Because He loved Her
Jesus sustains no association to His Church more expressive than that of the marriage relationship. From all eternity He forever betrothed her to Himself. He asked her at the hands of her Father—and the Father gave her to Him. He entered into a covenant that she would be His. The conditions of that covenant were great, but not too great for His love to undertake. They were, that He should assume her nature, discharge her legal obligations, endure her punishment, repair her ruin, and bring her to glory! He undertook all, and He accomplished all, because He loved her! The love of Jesus to His Church is the love of the most tender husband. It is single, constant, affectionate, matchless, wonderful. Jesus sympathizes with her, nourishes her, provides for her, clothes her, watches over, and indulges her with the most intimate and endearing tenderness. Octavius Winslow.