Oct 16
19
“I have been crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless I live.” Galatians 2:20
The crucifixion of self is indispensable to following Christ.
What is so dear to a man as himself?
Yet this beloved self is to be crucified.
Whether it be . . .
proud self,
or ambitious self,
or selfish self,
or covetous self,
or, what is harder still, religious self;
that dear, idolized creature, which has
been the subject of so much . . .
fondling,
petting,
pampering,
nursing–
this fondly loved self has to be taken out of
our bosom by the hand of God, and nailed to
Christ’s cross! The same grace which pardons
sin also subdues it!
To be crucified with Christ! To have everything
that the flesh loves and idolizes put to death!
How can a man survive such a process?
“Nevertheless I live!”
As the world, sin, and self are crucified, subdued,
and subjugated by the power of the cross, the life
of God springs up with new vigor in the soul.
Here, then, is the great secret of vital godliness:
that the more that sin and self, and the world are
mortified, the more do holiness and spirituality of
mind, heavenly affections and gracious desires
spring up and flourish in the soul.
O! blessed death! O! still more blessed life!
“I have been crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless I live.” Galatians 2:20
J.C.Philpot
“But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace” (Galatians 1:15).
Someone asked, “When is a man truly saved?” Well, my friend, to be saved is more than just believing in one God; the demons believe even that! It is more than just trembling under the preaching of the Word; Felix did that! It is more than holding an office in the church; Judas did that! It is more than submitting to the ordinance of baptism; Simon Magus did that! It is more than weeping over sin; Esau did that! It is more than just respecting the preacher; Herod did that! It is more than keeping company with outstanding believers; Demas did that!
To be saved is to know God and Jesus Christ, whom He hath sent. It is to be a new creature in Christ Jesus, regenerated and converted by the power of God. It is to believe on Christ with the heart and confess Christ with the mouth. It is a miracle of deliverance accomplished through the preaching of the gospel and the work of God’s Spirit.
So when will a man be saved?
1.) He will be saved when it pleases the Lord (Gal. 1:15).
2.) He will be saved when he bows to, and comes under the authority of, the Lord Jesus! (Rom. 10:9-10.)
3.) He will be saved when he sees the redemptive glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. (II Cor. 4:5-6).
4) He will be saved when he can see the guilt of his sins before God and the sufficiency there is in Christ’s life and death to provide him a perfect righteousness and a just atonement (II Cor. 5:21). Pastor Henry Mahan
FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT
Experiences are very well in their way; but they are never well, nor ever properly in the way, when we put them in Christ’s way, and in the place of Christ. And whoever sends men to form a judgment of their state as they stand before God by consulting what they call the gracious dispositions of their own hearts instead of sending them to the enjoyment of God’s perfect approbation of the Church in Christ is sending them to the shadow instead of the substance: so that, when at any time an intervention takes place to the substance, the shadow is instantly lost…The child of God who looks at those fruits, more than as fruits, and overlooks the cause in the effect, taking comfort from evidences, instead of Christ alone, is by so much going off the ground of real firmness in the faith. It is looking at Christ second-hand when we look at him through our evidences…In Christ’s Person may my whole confidence center. With the Person of Jesus, do thou, O Lord, cause my soul to be so enamored that I may behold in him a greater and more perfect righteousness to make me perfect before God than all the righteousness of the whole creation of God. Let this view of Jesus give firmness to my faith which nothing can shake. And, while the Lord, the Spirit, enables me to mortify the flesh with its affections and lusts let all the fruits of the Spirit testify whose I am, and to whom I belong, as sweet testimonies and effects, while Christ alone is the cause of all my salvation and all my desire.
Robert Hawker
The Implanting of the Enduring Word
1 Peter 1: 23-25; Isaiah 40: 6-8
According to Peter, although the flesh withers, and the flower thereof falls away, [because the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it] yet in the children of God there is an unwithering something of another kind. “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” “The Word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.” The Gospel is of use to us because it is not of human origin. If it were of the flesh, all it could do for us would not land us beyond the flesh; but the Gospel of Jesus Christ is superhuman, Divine, and spiritual. If you believe a Gospel which you have thought out for yourself, or a philosophical Gospel which comes from the brain of man, it is of the flesh, and will wither, and you will die, and be lost through trusting in it. The only word that can bless you and be a seed in your soul must be the living and incorruptible Word of the eternal Spirit. Do you receive it? Then the Holy Spirit implants it in your soul. And what is the result of it? There comes a new life as the result of the indwelling of the living Word, and our being born again by it. A new life it is; not the old nature putting out its better parts; not the old Adam refining and purifying itself, and rising to something better. Wherever this new life comes through the Word, it is incorruptible, it lives for ever.
C. H. Spurgeon
Religion can change HABITS; it takes the grace of God to create a NEW HEART.” Henry Mahan
CALLED AND SEPARATED
Romans 1: 1, 6-7
The saints of God in this world are described as “called and separated.” The apostle Paul describes himself and those saints at Rome as such. When we see how Paul was called separated we see how all God’s saints are called and separated.
Who Called and Separated Us
In the eternal purpose of God, by divine election all who shall be saved by God were chosen of God in Christ and shall be called through the gospel of Christ in time. (Gal 1: 15-16 ;Jer 1: 5) Just as the Father and Son called and separated Paul, so too, the Holy Ghost called and separated Paul to the work for which he had called him. (Acts 13: 1-4) Saints are called and separated by God the Father, by Jesus Christ the Son, and by the Holy Spirit. It is by divine election, by blood atonement and by the internal work which always gets the job done.
From What Are We Called and Separated
We are called and separated from our sin and vain righteousness. Paul had been a Pharisee, “a separate one.” He had separated himself by confidence in his flesh (Phil 3: 4-6), through much study (Acts 22: 3), and by his religious zeal in works religion. (Gal 1: 13-14) But Paul had not truly separated himself at all. (Isaiah 59: 2; Jude 19) Paul was like all of God’s elect before God saves us. We were lost in the darkness of our own depraved hearts, some in a form of religion we called the worship of Christ even as Paul thought he was worshipping God, but we were all ignorant of God, of his providence, of ourselves, our sin, of the scriptures, of the gospel, of Christ, of righteousness, of salvation and ignorant of our own ignorance. This is what Paul had to be called and separated from and all God’s elect are called and separated from our self-righteousnesses.
Unto What Are We Called and Separated
One, Paul was called and separated unto the gospel of God. Paul was separated to preach the gospel, but like Paul, God separates all his elect unto the message of the gospel, Christ himself (Ro 1: 2-4; Ro 1: 16-17) We are called to bear witness of Christ, that salvation is of the Lord. God chose whom he would, Christ redeemed us, and the Holy Spirit regenerates us and keeps us unto that day.
Two, Christ calls and separates his elect from darkness into Light. (1 Pet 2:9) Just as Christ our Light appeared in this earth, abolished death and brought immortality to light, in like manner, Christ appears in our hearts, makes us see our death and brings light and immortality to light within us through the gospel. (2 Ti 1:9-11; 2 Cor 4: 6; Pro 28:5; 1 Cor 2:15-16; 1 Jn 2:20; Jn 10: 4-5)
Also, God separates his elect out of bondage into liberty. (2 Cor 3: 17; Gal 5:13) We were by nature children of wrath, even as others. Now, in Christ, we are freed from the curse and condemnation of God’s holy law. We were slaves to sin. Now, in Christ, we are the servants of righteousness. We were under the bondage of the prince of the power of the air. Now we are Christ’s free men. We were driven by the law of works. Now we are led by the Spirit, walking in the law of faith which works by love. (Gal 5: 1)
Finally, God’s elect are separated out of this world unto the fellowship. (1 Cor 1:9) At no time has God ever called his people, told them to be joined with this world and the religion of this world. God seperates his children from falsehood, effectually commanding us to no longer join with it. (Deut 7: 2-6; 26; Rev 18:4) Paul was in works religion but he was not saved by it or left in it. God saved him by Christ himself calling him out of it and separating him to Jesus Christ in Mt Zion, heavenly Jerusalem. We now have access and communion with our triune God at his throne of grace! We have fellowship with His saints on earth and in heaven. (Heb 12:22-23; Eph 2: 19;2 Cor 6:14-17; 7: 1)
One last question, shall those he has called and separated ever be separated from him again? No way! (Ro 8: 35-39)
Clay Curtis.
This is taken from an article by Henry Mahan
1.A FORM of godliness says, “God wills to save all men;” denying His POWER adds, “but He cannot save unless men open their hearts to him.”
2.A FORM of godliness says, “God has a wonderful plan for men and women;” denying His POWER adds, “but you must allow Him to have His will and way.”
3.A FORM of godliness says, “Christ died on the cross for all the sins of all the sons of Adam that all might be saved;” denying the POWER of His blood adds, “but His blood has no power or efficacy to save anyone until man releases it to work.”
4.A FORM of godliness says, “The Holy Spirit knocks at everyone’s heart with a desire to enter and work repentance and faith;” denying the POWER adds, “but you must open the door.”
5.A FORM of godliness says, “Salvation is of the Lord;” denying the POWER adds, “but those whom He saves may fall away and perish.”
The more faithful the Lord is to bless; the more prone we are to take his favor for granted. I pray that He will not need to take away any of His mercies from us, in order to remind us from whence they come.
THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS . . . GOODNESS
Galatians 5:22
The Apostle Paul, as a believer, said I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing. Rom. 7:18 There could be no plainer statement regarding our ability (or lack thereof) to do good. If there is no goodness in us, then certainly no good can be performed by us. The Apostle James said, But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? James 2:20 These two paradoxical truths are needlessly confusing to some and have direct bearing upon our text.
What exactly is this goodness that the Spirit produces and how is it manifest? Let’s be clear about this. Is there ever a single act that I perform as a child of God that is in the absolute sense, good? That is, utterly pure in motive and intent and perfectly performed with all due earnestness and fervor and that could in and of itself be considered acceptable to God? ABSOLUTELY NOT! This being the case, as is clear from scripture and any honest account of our own experience, then what is this goodness? The nature of the Spirit in us is perfectly good, but in what sense is the fruit good if nothing is unaffected by my evil nature?
James’s discourse regarding works, which is often used contrarily, provides the key to the question. Works are never mentioned but as manifestations of faith. If faith without works is dead, then what are works without faith? A “good” work is a work of faith. Heb. 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him. It is by grace through faith that the merits of Christ are imputed to us, and in this same way our works are made acceptable through the imputation of His goodness. Christ is my Righteousness in every possible sense!
Faith is the God-given grace by which we lay hold of Christ’s Person and work and by which we do everything “good” that we ever do. The faith to lay hold of Christ and to do “works of faith” is the gift of God, wrought in us by the Spirit of God, thus, the fruit of the Spirit is goodness. Chris Cunningham.