Feb 22
28
TRUST IN THE NAME OF THE LORD
“Let him trust in the name of the LORD” (Isaiah 50:10)
The scripture says trust in the name of the Lord because the name of the Lord tells us who the Lord is. If you would be saved trust all of your salvation to the Lord Jesus Christ as He is revealed in the scriptures. The scriptures give us seven names or characteristics of the Lord in whom we can trust.
Trust in Jehovah-jireh: The Lord will provide. Trust in Christ to provide everything that God requires of you.
Trust in Jehovah-rapha: The Lord that healeth. Trust in Christ to heal all of your spiritual sin sickness by His precious blood.
Trust in Jehovah-nissi: The Lord our banner. Trust in the Lord, look to Him, run to where He is and where He is preached and hide in Him.
Trust in Jehovah-shalom: The Lord our peace. Trust in Christ to make peace with God for you by the blood of His cross.
Trust in Jehovah-ra-ah: The Lord my shepherd. Trust in Christ to lead you, protect you, and to provide for you.
Trust in Jehovah-tsidkenu: The Lord our righteousness. Trust in Christ to be all of your righteousness without any help from you.
Trust in Jehovah-shammah: The Lord is present. Trust Christ the Savior to never leave you nor forsake you so that you will never stand alone before God.
Pastor Frank Tate
When the Holy Spirit preaches the gospel
J.C.Philpot
We often know the theory of the gospel,
before we know the experience of the gospel.
We often receive the doctrines of grace into
our judgment, before we receive the grace of
the doctrines into our soul.
We therefore need to be . . .
brought down,
humbled,
tried,
stripped of every prop;
that the gospel may be to us . . .
more than a sound,
more than a name,
more than a theory,
more than a doctrine,
more than a system,
more than a creed;
that it may be . . .
soul enjoyment,
soul blessing,
and soul salvation.
When the Holy Spirit preaches the gospel
to the poor in spirit, the humbled, stripped,
and tried–it is a gospel of glad tidings indeed
to the sinner’s broken heart.
Universal Redemption
(The following is by Don Fortner)
When the Lord Jesus Christ poured out his life’s
blood at Calvary, he did not make salvation a
possibility, but a reality. He obtained eternal
redemption for God’s elect.
Any doctrine which says that Christ wants to save
those who perish, tries to save those who perish,
and provides salvation for those who perish is
nonsense, theological rubbish, and blasphemy.
Jesus Christ is God almighty!
He is not a whining wimp. What he wants to do he
does (Isa. 46:10). He never tries to do anything.
He simply does what he will. His grace, his power,
and even his will are irresistible.
(Ps. 135:6; Dan. 4:34-35).
If he wanted to save everybody in the world, where
is the force that could stop him from doing so?
Any man who worships a god who wants to do what
he cannot do, or tries to do what he fails to accomplish,
is a fool. Such a god, if he existed, would be as useless
as a lantern without oil, or a bucket without a bottom.
Failure is an embarrassment to man. How much more so
it would be to the eternal God.
The doctrine of universal redemption- that doctrine which
says that Christ wants to save everybody, tries to save
everybody, and provides salvation for everybody, tramples
the blood of Christ under foot, despises the work of Christ,
robs the Son of God of all glory in salvation, and puts him
to an open shame.
Those who say, “Jesus loves everybody and died for
everybody,” proclaim a love and a death which are
totally useless for anything more than sentimentalism.
They preach a redemption by which no one was redeemed.
Universal redemption is no redemption at all.
Redemption was effectually accomplished by Christ on
the cross (John 19:30; Heb. 9:12). And redemption is
effectually applied by Christ on the throne (John 17:2).
It never was our Lord’s intention,
desire, or purpose to save all men.
Cain, Esau, Saul, Ahab, Judas
J.C.Philpot
“Godly sorrow worth repentance to salvation not to be repented of,
but the sorrow of the world worth death.”
2 Cor. 7:10
These two kinds of repentance are to be carefully
distinguished from each other; though they are often
sadly confounded. Cain, Esau, Saul, Ahab, Judas, all
repented. But their repentance was the remorse of
natural conscience, not the godly sorrow of a broken
heart and a contrite spirit. They trembled before God
as an angry Judge, but were not melted into contrition
before Him as a forgiving Father.
They neither hated their sins nor forsook them.
They neither loved holiness nor sought it.
Cain went out from the presence of the Lord.
Esau plotted Jacob’s death.
Saul consulted the witch of Endor.
Ahab put honest Micaiah into prison.
Judas hanged himself.
How different from this forced and false repentance
of a reprobate, is the repentance of a child of God;
that true repentance for sin, that godly sorrow, that
holy mourning which flows from the Spirit’s gracious
operations!
Godly sorrow does not spring from a sense of the
wrath of God in a broken law, but from His mercy
in a blessed gospel; from a view by faith of the
sufferings of Christ in the garden and on the cross;
from a manifestation of pardoning love; and is always
attended with self-loathing and self-abhorrence; with
deep and unreserved confession of sin and forsaking
it; with most hearty, sincere and earnest petitions to
be kept from all evil; and a holy longing to live to the
praise and glory of God.
“The judgment seat of Christ’
Don Fortner
Read 2 Corinthians 5:1 -11
Though today God is longsuffering with men and is giving the fallen sons of Adam space for repentance, there is a Day of Judgment and righteous retribution coming (Rev. 20:11-14). God does not delay his judgment because he lacks the will or the power to judge men, but because he has an elect people whom he has determined to save. As soon as he has saved the last of his elect, judgment will come (2 Peter 3:8-15).
According to the revelation of Holy Scripture, the judge of all men in that great day will be the man, Christ Jesus (Matt. 13:41-43; 25:31-32; John 5:22-29; Acts 10:42; 17:30-31; Rom. 14:9-12; 2 Cor. 5: 10). The Judge of the world in that last great day will be the Son of man who is the Son of God. This judgment of men by Christ will be both righteous and impartial. All men will receive the exact penalty or reward of strict justice. The wicked will be judged in strict righteousness according to their works and receive in a body the just reward of their evil deeds. There will be degrees of punishment in hell, because there are degrees of wickedness. Those who sin against greater light will receive greater condemnation (Matt. 11:20-24). The righteous will also be judged in strict righteousness according to their works and receive in body the just reward of their righteous deeds. There will be no degrees of reward for the righteous, because there are no degrees of righteousness. All righteous men are perfect men. These are God’s elect, redeemed, justified and sanctified by Christ. There is no evil recorded against them because the righteous obedience of Christ to the law is imputed to them (Rom. 5:19). That same law and justice that demand the eternal punishment of every unbeliever also demand the eternal bliss and glory of every believer, whose names are written in the book of life, because in Christ, by his righteousness and shed blood, every believer is worthy of heaven’s eternal inheritance.
The consequences of death
J.C.Philpot
“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” Hebrews 9:27
Gloom must dwell in “the valley of the shadow of death.” When we consider what death really is—not merely as putting a final close, and that, perhaps, with a pang of mortal agony, to all that nature loves, but an opening gate into endless woe—our wonder is rather that men meet it with such stoical insensibility, instead of being more alarmed and terrified at its approach.
But what is death? Is it merely what we see with our bodily eyes when we view the corpse stretched upon the bed—or as we represent it to our imagination when we follow the coffin to the cemetery? Does death merely mean that pale corpse, that funeral hearse, those weeping mourners, those gasping sobs of wife or husband, with all the sights and sounds of woe as the heavy clods, amid the still silence, fall on the coffin? To most this is all they see or know of death. But death, in a scriptural sense, has a far wider and more extensive meaning than these mere outward trappings of sorrow.
It is not then so much death as the consequences of death, that makes it—to be so truly dreadful—to be the king of terrors—and invests it with that terrible visage which strikes gloom—to be cast into the lake of fire—to be forever under the dreadful wrath of God—to be eternally wallowing in the billows of sulphurous flame—to be shut up in that dreadful pit into which hope never penetrates.
Why should death be an object of fear? Because after death comes the judgment! And why should judgment be an object of terror? Because judgment implies condemnation, and condemnation implies an eternity of woe!
The scale!
J.C.Philpot
“For what is a man profited, if shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:26
Put your soul in one side of the scale—and put all that the world calls good and great in the other side. Think of everything that the heart of man can desire—riches, honour, pleasure, power. Heap it up well! Fill one side of the scale until there is no room for more. Put in—all the gold of Australia—all the diamonds of India—all the delights of youthful love—all the pleasures of wife and home—of children and friends, of health and strength, of name and fame. Put in all that the natural mind of man deems the height of happiness, and everything that may weigh this side of the scale down.
Now, when you have filled this side of the scale, put your soul into the other side—the state of your soul for all eternity. Represent to yourself your deathbed—hold the scale with dying hands as lying just at the brink of eternity. See how the scale now hangs! What if you had the whole world that you have put into the scale, and could call it all your own—but at that solemn hour felt that your soul was forever lost—that you were dying under the wrath of God—and there was nothing before you but an eternity of misery! At such a moment as this, what could you put in the scale equal to the weight of your immortal soul?
Take the scale again. Put into one side, every affliction, trial, sorrow, and distress that imagination can conceive, or tongue express. Let them all be yours—distress of mind—pain of body—poverty of circumstances—contempt from man—assaults from Satan—Job’s afflictions—Jacob’s bereavements—David’s persecutions—Jeremiah’s prison—Hezekiah’s sickness. Put into this side of the scale everything that makes life naturally miserable—and then put into the other side, a saved soul.
Surely, as in the case of worldly honours, and riches, and happiness—a lost soul must weigh them all down! So in the case of afflictions and sorrows and troubles—a saved soul must weigh them all down too!
The free grace of God!
(Letters of John Newton)
“By the grace of God I am what I am!”
1 Corinthians 15:10
The true Christian is sensible and mindful of
indwelling sin. He confesses that in everything
he comes exceedingly short, and that his best
services are not only defective—but defiled. He
accounts himself as an unprofitable servant—and
is abased in his own eyes. He knows that all that
distinguishes him from the vilest of men—is the
free grace of God!
He derives all his hope and comfort, as well as his
strength—from Jesus, whom he has known, received
and loved, and to whom he has committed his soul.
He renounces all confidence in the flesh, and esteems
all things as loss—compared to the surpassing greatness
of knowing Jesus Christ his Lord, for whose sake he has
lost all things—considering them rubbish, that he may
gain Christ!
Subdued by sovereign love!
(The following is by Spurgeon)
“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.”
– John 6:37
This declaration involves the doctrine of election–
there are some whom the Father gave to Christ.
It involves the doctrine of effectual calling–
these who are given must and shall come; however
stoutly they may set themselves against it, yet they
shall be brought out of darkness into God’s marvellous light.
It teaches us the indispensable necessity of faith–
for even those who are given to Christ are not saved
except they come to Jesus.
Even they must come, for there is no other way to heaven
but by the door, Christ Jesus. All that the Father gives to
our Redeemer must come to him, therefore none can come
to heaven except they come to Christ.
Oh! the power and majesty which rest in the words
“shall come.” He does not say they have power to come,
nor they may come if they will, but they “shall come.”
The Lord Jesus does by his messengers, his word, and
his Spirit, sweetly and graciously compel men to come
in that they may eat of his marriage supper. And this he
does, not by any violation of the free agency of man,
but by the power of his grace.
Jehovah Jesus knows how, by irresistible arguments
addressed to the understanding, by mighty reasons
appealing to the affections, and by the mysterious
influence of his Holy Spirit operating upon all the
powers and passions of the soul, so to subdue the
whole man, that whereas he was once rebellious,
he yields cheerfully to his government, subdued
by sovereign love!
But how shall those be known whom God has chosen?
By this result– that they do willingly and joyfully accept
Christ, and come to him with simple and sincere faith,
resting upon him as all their salvation and all their desire.
Reader, have you thus come to Jesus?