Oct 15
6
The abundance of the heart
Out Of The Abundance Of The Heart The Mouth Speaketh – Matthew 12:34
Many times I have asked different folks what their hope of salvation is . . . if they hope to get to Heaven, Why?
Whatever a person truly believes in their heart is what will first come out of their mouth. I asked someone else the same question again the other day, and their reply was, “I’m a good person and have lived a good Christian life.” When I proceeded to tell them what scripture says, “Not by works of righteousness” . . . “not of works lest any man should boast”, that salvation is by the sovereign mercy of God, the righteous life of Christ and His blood shed for remission of our sins; they quickly add: “O, I believe in God, I believe in Jesus.” But that is not what came out of their mouth and so it must not be written on their heart.
If you ask a true child of God of their hope of eternal life, every single one will immediately say: “Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” True saving faith is looking to, trusting, and depending on the Lord Jesus Christ to save you. True saving faith is believing that Christ alone is your hope of eternal life. If God has truly put that faith in a person’s heart, it will not only be the first thing out of their mouth but the only thing.
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus Christ’s blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Lord Jesus’ Name.
Paul Mahan
Come here and hear
Joshua 3:9 And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, Come hither, and hear the words of the LORD your God.
The nation of Israel has been brought to the brink of Jordon by the purpose and providential care of God. Before they began to cross over, Joshua has some urgent, necessary and encouraging words. He tells them to “Come hither and hear the words of the LORD your God.”
Friends these are the words that our Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ, commands His people. Notice that Joshua did not say, come if you want to, come if you feel like it, but COME and HEAR the words of the Lord your God. If you look closely at the next verses Joshua’s command is for their good and God’s glory. In verse 10 of Joshua chapter 3, he encourages them with the words, “Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you.” Has God revealed to you that He is always among you?” He is among you to do you good! We have come nigh unto God. Ephesians 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. God is among you dear believer and that is not all! He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites. All our enemies will be driven out from BEFORE US! And that means all of our enemies. SIN, is removed and put away in Christ. CONDEMNATION, is no longer found on those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1) THE LAW, is fulfilled in Christ, and though it was once our schoolmaster, it has now brought us to Christ. (Gal 3:24) DEATH and the GRAVE, have no sting or victory. (1 Cor. 15:55) THE WORLD, though we are in it, we are not of it. We have also been delivered from our biggest enemy, OURSELVES. Romans 7:24-25 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Dear child of God, Come hither and hear the words of the Lord your God. –David Eddmenson
Who hath ears to hear
Matthew 13: 1-23
In this parable the Lord teaches his disciples the utmost importance of hearing his gospel preached (Luke 8: 11; 1 Peter 1: 23-25; 1 Corinthians 3: 6-7). Three out of the four hearers are not profited: the wayside hearer is not (Mt 13: 4, 19), the stoney ground hearer is not (Mt 13: 5-6, 20-21), the thorny ground hearer is not (Mt 13: 7, 22). But the good ground hearer hears, understands and bears fruit (Mt 13:23). Therefore, you who have been given ears to hear, take heed to give yourselves to the hearing of the gospel of Christ (Mt 13:9). The Lord gives three reasons why believers should never take for granted the hearing of the gospel preached.
1. God has graciously given to you to know his gospel, but not to others (Mt 13: 10).
2. The Lord says that those he has given spiritual ears and spiritual understanding, shall be given more in abundance as we attend to the hearing of his Gospel. Those who do not continue in his Light, prove they never truly had Light and the Lord promises to take away even the word of the gospel they had (Mt 13: 12). The multitude is the example. For years, God sent his prophets to these natural sons of Abraham but they deemed themselves too wise to need the means which it pleased God to provide. So now, here the Master himself stands sowing before them, but not to them; only to those he had blessed to truly see and hear (Mt 13: 13-16; Ro 10: 14-21). What a witness to his true disciples of the grace he has given (Ro 9: 22-24).
3. The Lord reminds us that we have been given a more full revelation of Christ than even his prophets and saints of old (Mt 13: 17).
So we see, brethren, this privilege is a rich blessing of grace we must never take for granted. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear! (Luke 8: 18). -Clay Curtis.
Perfect sinfulness
Our Lord saves only complete sinners.
No one can come to Christ with one little bit of his own supposed righteousness to claim. The plague of leprosy is a picture of the plague of sin which infests every fiber of fallen man both inwardly and outwardly – “From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment” Isaiah 1:6.
God our Savior reveals this truth to all His chosen in His call in electing grace. When He reveals Christ in His perfection in sovereign regeneration, God the Spirit reveals our complete sinfulness. We cry unto Him as the leper of old “unclean, unclean”! By virtue of our sinful nativity we are permeated with the plague of which we cannot rid ourselves. We are perfect (complete) sinners.
By virtue of Christ and His perfect (complete) sacrifice we are made perfectly righteous. A perfect salvation for perfect sinners! If our Priest pronounces us clean we are completely free of sin before God – “ …but now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” Hebrews 9:26 & “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses” Colossians 2:13. We may not be able to rest in the living experience of this wonderful and miraculous work of grace every moment of every day, however, this is the way God sees it and this is how it really is, and those whom He has cleansed and revealed it to believe it!
There are two things which every child of God will absolutely know; –
1. His own complete sinfulness and unworthiness, and
- Christ our Lord and His complete salvation. -Tommy Robbins
The revelation of faith
By the sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth the believer is given spiritual eyes. Spiritual eyes are eyes that see what others cannot and will not see. The apostle Paul describes this vision in II Corinthians 4: 18 saying —“We look not at things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal..” The faith of God’s elect is the gift of God that enables the believer to see through the eyes of God. John said of Christ, “What he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth; and no man receiveth his testimony. He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. (John 3: 32-33)” The eyes of faith see through God’s eyes. They see God as he is, man as he is, and Christ reconciling the two. They see the eternal, immutable purpose of God in redemption, the everlasting covenant of grace and the one mediator between God and men accomplishing the will of God concerning these things. The eye of faith sees a bleeding substitute satisfying the justice of God concerning their sins and his righteous obedience as their own righteousness making them “holy, unblameable and unreproveable in his sight (Colossians 1:22).”
Seeing through his eyes we see the perfection of God in all he has done and found as God did when he looked upon his work, that it is good and complete and sufficient to cease from our labors and enter into his rest.- Darvin Pruitt.
What does it mean to be “of the works of the law?”
Todd Nibert
So then, they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. (Galatians 3:9-10)
What does it mean to be “of the works of the law?” The word “of” refers to origin. If I am of the works of the law I trace the origin of my salvation to something I have done. Just what that something is varies according to who you are talking to. Some would say it is obedience to the law. Others would say it is your sincerity. Still, others would say it is your will that decides whether to accept or reject God’s offer of salvation. Whatever form it takes, it is still something you must do before you can be saved. Salvation is the end, the pay back, for the works that you perform. But those who are “of truth” (Gal 3:9), trace the origin of their salvation to God himself. What we do does not end in salvation. We begin in salvation. Our works find their origin in God himself (Eph. 2:8-10). All who are of the works of the law are under God’s curse! All who are “of faith” are “blessed with faithful Abraham.”