Jun 18
16
There is no fear of God before their eyes (Romans 3:18)
Commenting upon this verse J.C. Philpot said,
Those who have every reason to fear as to their eternal state before
God, have for the most part, no fear at all. They are secure, and free
from doubt and fear.
The depths of human hypocrisy, the dreadful lengths to which profession
may go, the deceit of the carnal heart, the snares spread for the unwary
feet, the fearful danger of being deceived at the last; these traps and
pitfalls are not objects of anxiety to those dead in sin.
As long as they can pacify natural conscience, and do something to
soothe any transient conviction—they are glad to be deceived!
God does not see fit to disturb their quiet. He has no purpose of mercy
towards them; they are not subjects of His kingdom; they are not objects
of His love.
He therefore leaves them carnally secure, as in a dream—from which they
will not awake until the day of judgment.
Friend, is not this a terrible condition; to be left alone by God with
no thought of eternal destiny, no concern for your never-dying soul? How
many slip into eternity with no substantial hope in this world and none
for the world to come? Such is the spiritual ignorance of natural man,
the blindness of the flesh.
How blessed we are if the Lord is merciful to stir up our spirit, shake
our ignorant peace, arouse lethargic carelessness, pierce our heart with
well-aimed arrows and convict us of our sin. Blessed, I say, even if we
fail at first to recognise His grace, even when the flesh resists and
recoils against it, as it surely will.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom says the Psalmist. Holy
Father, send thy convicting Spirit. Rouse the sleeper! Show me my need
for Christ! Then show me my Saviour, and the glorious accomplishments of
His perfect love.
Peter Meney, “New Focus http://go-newfocus.co.uk”
Salvation; A Heart-Work
“And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they
shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto
me with their whole heart” Jer 24:7.
No one by natural birth has a heart for the true and living God. One may
be religious and even come into agreement, superficially, with Biblical
doctrine, yet never embrace and love Christ and his gospel. Those that
have no heart for Christ take great comfort and assurance in WHAT they
know – “He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of
you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their
lips, but their heart is far from me” Mark 7:6, while those that love
Christ find their only comfort and hope in HIM who has given them a
heart to know him – “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that
he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that
day” 2 Timothy 1:12.
In order for any one, with love and desire, to embrace and commit
themselves, and be committed to Christ and his gospel, God, in sovereign
grace and mercy must give them a new heart. Sound doctrine is vital ,
yet, the true doctrine of God will never be known and embraced apart
from a living, vital union with Christ. The natural heart is so full of
self and so deceitful that it will continue to go on in unbelief even in
the face of Truth unless halted by Omnipotence – “The heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it ?” Jer 17:9.
Being unable to have sufficient desire to have a desire to be faithful
and committed to Christ and his gospel is reason to be alarmed. When the
cares of this life begin to hinder, and the comforts and pleasures of
this life bring more satisfaction than the beauty and joy of the worship
of Christ in the gospel we are in trouble. Salvation is a heart work of
God, and a work in the heart wrought by God. May God give us a heart to
love Him!
“When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, thy face,
LORD, will I seek” Psalms 27:8
Tommy Robbins
Calling the Dead to Live
If you’re going to command a lame man to take the first step . . . If
you’re going to call upon dead sinners to live . . . If you’re going to
insist that a maniac make a right decision . . . you’d better have a
Gospel that is the power of God unto salvation, or else you mock the
souls of men. You’d better be speaking for the One, of the One, and with
the power and blessing of the One Who is able to save to the uttermost
those who come unto God by him. Salvation is not in the ability of the
preacher, nor is it contingent upon what men will do, but it is sure to
all of God’s elect, because of Christ and what He did do. Christ does
not taunt the lame with the bargain that if they will only take a step,
He will save them. He saves them, by the preaching of the gospel, and
then they leap and shout and praise God.
Chris Cunningham
“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” John 17:17
When the gospel comes “not in word only, but also in power,” it comes
“in the Holy Ghost,” that is, in and with the teaching and testimony of
the Holy Ghost. It is this coming “in the Holy Ghost” which gives truth
in its power such a sanctifying influence on the heart.
But you will ask, perhaps, What is a sanctifying influence? It is the
communication of holy feelings, heavenly desires, and gracious
affections; in a word, it is the breathing into the soul of that sweet
spirituality of mind which is life and peace. If we are among the people
of God, he chose us in Christ “before the foundation of the world, that
we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” If he chasten
us in this time-state, it is “for our profit, that we might be partakers
of his holiness” (Heb. 12:10). It is this holiness of heart, this
heavenly-mindedness which I mean when I speak of the sanctifying
influence of truth in its power.
Now did truth ever come into your soul with any measure of this
sanctifying influence? Did you ever long to get away from the chapel, go
home to your room, fall upon your knees, and have blessed fellowship
with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ? And were you ever so favoured
when you did get home? Or sometimes when alone, in reading, or
meditation, or secret prayer, did the word of God ever come into your
soul with that sweet unction, savour, and dew that it seemed to make the
very room in which you were holy ground?
I remember when God was pleased to reveal his dear Son to my soul in my
sick room many years ago, I was afraid almost to go out of my room lest
I should lose the sweet, holy feelings and blessed spirituality of mind
which I then and there enjoyed. Depend upon it, there is a holiness of
heart and affection, an inward holiness, without which no man shall see
the Lord; and depend upon it, whenever truth comes into a believer’s
soul, it comes with that sanctifying influence, which not only gives him
a meetness for, but is a blessed foretaste of the inheritance of the
saints in light.
JC Philpot
AS WE HAVE RECEIVED MERCY
(2 Corinthians 4: 1-7.)
God makes his preachers able to minister only the message of Christ by
making them experience that Christ is the Power and Wisdom of God
through the ministry of the message of Christ. Through this ministration
of righteousness the Holy Spirit overwhelms God’s ministers with the
gift of spiritual life which no hidden, dishonest, crafty, deceitful
ministries were ever able to accomplish in them. Therefore, having
received this ministry from Christ, in the very same plain speech with
which they received this mercy so they minister to others. They do not
grow weary of manifesting the single message that Christ is the
Righteousness, the Power and the Wisdom of God unto salvation. Being
persuaded so fully that God saves through this open, honest, single
message of their Reigning King they know with all confidence that if
their gospel remains hid from some, it is hidden to them that are lost.
The god of this world blinds the lost man so that he does not realize
that he rejoices not in the unhidden gospel but loves the hidden things
of dishonesty. Still, for the sake of Jesus Christ their Lord, God’s
messengers do not faint from preaching Christ crucified, rather than
themselves. They know the only hope of the lost is that God will shine
the light of the gospel of Christ into their heart causing them to
behold the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. God has given his
ministers this treasure in powerless flesh so that the Power which
excels unto salvation may be of God and not of them.
Clay Curtis.