Oct 17
9
GOD’S UNSTOPPABLE GOSPEL
Acts 4: 1-4
Let the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing, hold forth the gospel of Christ Jesus alone and declare boldly that all flesh is grass. Carnal men have never once succeeded in their God-hating endeavors. Even at Calvary, they did what God had before determined to be done. Through the blood of Christ the elect of God are forever accepted in Christ. God will quicken each one through this gospel. So proclaim Christ with boldness!
Clay Curtis.
Just The Plain Truth
Paul Mahan
God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged (Rom. 3:4).
Quite often the charge is leveled at us that we think we are right and everyone else is wrong. No, not at all; but we do think that God is right and everyone else is wrong! The scripture says, “Let God be true and every man a liar” (Rom. 3:4). It is not that we think that we are better than anyone else nor smarter than anyone else, but we adamantly and dogmatically declare that our CHRIST is better than the one that is being preached in most places today. We boldly say with the Apostle Paul that there is “another Jesus” being preached (II Cor. 11:40), that “another gospel” is being preached (Gal. 1:6); and we emphatically denounce all of it as blasphemy and heresy!
Any preaching that has God TRYING to do things is a lie! Scripture says that “God will work and who shall let it” (Isa. 43:13). Any so-called gospel that has a Jesus dying for all men without exception, yet His death did not really save them (but their decision and faith ultimately saves them) is “another gospel” and “another Jesus” and is a lie that will damn the souls of all who believe it. We insist that there is only ONE GOSPEL, only one Truth, only one Way, only “one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph. 4:4-5); and all others are lies. But some may say, “That is your interpretation of the Bible.”
I don’t know of one true preacher of the Word who ever interprets the Bible. All true gospel preachers are PROCLAIMING the Word of God, not interpreting it. The Word of God is to be DECLARED, not interpreted. The Word of God is to be BELIEVED, not argued and debated. The sad fact of the matter is that if a man dares to boldly and dogmatically preach the Word of God in its entirety and authenticity, he is called bigoted, prejudiced, and biased. Well, so be it! Every true preacher is preaching for God’s glory anyway and is, indeed, very prejudiced toward God’s word and very strongly biased for God’s truth. One more time, “Let God be true and every man a liar.”
Why would a man be troubled at hearing Christ the King is come? Men, dead in sins, desire to be the king themselves, even as Herod was fearful of losing his throne to Christ. Therefore, they are troubled when they hear Christ is King. Would-be kings do as Herod and all Jerusalem did, they seek to take Christ off his throne! Is that not what is going on in our day? Why do men usurp God from the pulpit? Why do lawmakers usurp God’s law in the legislature making sin legal in the land? Why do men hold their word to be true and God’s word to be a lie? It is because every natural born sinner is a would-be king! “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. (Ps 2: 1-6) “These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.” (Rev 17: 14)
All his enemies shall be made the footstool of Christ our King. Many a would-be king—enemies in their minds by wicked works—shall be made his footstool by his omnipotent grace! But make no mistake, all would-be kings who pass from this life raging in enmity against Christ shall also bow. (Phil 2: 9-11) Here is his word to all would-be kings. “Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.” (Ps 2: 10-12)
Be as these wise men who came naturally from the east but let us come spiritually, leaving our sins east of Eden. These were guided by the sight of a star so let us be guided by faith in Christ the DayStar from on high. These came to worship him that was born King of the Jews. Oh, delay not, for this day of grace is not yet over, Christ still cries, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Clay Curtis.
Unlearned, ignorant but with Jesus
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13)
Unlearned: Perhaps. Ignorant: Maybe. Being with Jesus: Absolutely, and all that matters.
Who cares what the world, especially this religious world, says about the Lord’s servants. We may not be “lettered” in the things concerning their ideology or their theology, and even be called “ignorant” in the ways of the contemporary doctors of divinities. I would rather be recognized for the fact and life-altering experience of “being with Jesus” than schooled in religion without grace in the heart. It seems to me that pouring forth from this text of “being with Jesus” is joy, happiness, worship, reverence for God in the substitute, peace and boldness in His gospel. And “being without Jesus” shows forth cruelty, pride, error, judgment, and total confusion in the ways of mercy and grace. So, as I mentioned before: who cares what this world says about this book, this Redeemer, and this gospel.
Drew Dietz.
Do We ‘Accept’ or ‘Receive’ Jesus Christ?
Preachers of Freewillism constantly exhort their hearers to “accept Jesus Christ.” This phrase is never found in Scriptures. Rather, Scriptures emphasize receiving Christ, not accepting Christ. For example, “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:11f).
There is an important difference between receiving and accepting. To receive means “to take in: act as a receptacle or container for” (Webster). To accept means “to receive with consent” (ibid.). When we say we have received Christ, we emphasize the sovereign bestowal of Him by God. “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven” (John 3:27). But when we say we have accepted Christ, we emphasize the power of our own will to either receive or refuse Him. We cannot accept Christ of our own will (John 6:44, 65), unless we have been made willing by God to do so (vv.37, 45).
Therefore, in order to be consistent with the Scriptures, we preach that God in His sovereign predestination accepts whom He will (Ephesians 1:3-6) and then graciously makes them willing to receive Christ.
Daniel Parks
They Came To Jesus And Found The Man
“Then they went out to see what was done; and came to Jesus, and found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.” Luke 8:35
The focus of those who fed the swine and those who came from the city was to see the one out of whom the devils were cast. But where would they find the man? Where will the one be found in whom God has wrought a work of grace (of which this miracle is a beautiful illustration)? Where will this one desire to be? Where will the ONE that wrought the miracle of grace be found? We find the answer to these questions in both the Spiritual and literal context of our passage of scripture – THEY CAME TO JESUS AND FOUND THE MAN.
Our Lord is always with His people because He has joined Himself to us and therefore we are one with Him – “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me” John 17:21, &, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” 2Co 6:16. Paul’s desire was that he would “be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” Php 3:9.
Not only is the believer found in and with Christ before God, but being one with Christ in regeneration we will be found worshipping Him in His Word as He reveals Himself to us in the preaching and hearing of His gospel – “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” Mt 18:20. Where will the child of grace be found when the preaching of Christ is accessible? He will be found sitting at the feet of His Redeemer, desiring to hear a word from Him … just happy to be there – “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD” Ps 122:1. Where will others be found? Doing what they esteem to be more important, enjoyable and entertaining.
Tommy Robbins