Mar 22
14
𝗚𝗢𝗗 𝗠𝗔𝗗𝗘 𝗛𝗜𝗠 𝗧𝗢 𝗕𝗘 𝗦𝗜𝗡
Our Saviour had no sin of his own.
He was born without original sin, being even from birth “that Holy One” (Luke 1:35).
Throughout his life he “knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21), “did no sin” (1 Peter 2:22), “and in him is no sin” (1 John 3:5).
But on Calvary the holy Lord God “made him sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Just as in the incarnation “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14), in substitution the Word who was made flesh “was made sin for us.”
I do not know how God could be made flesh and never cease to be God; but he was. I do not know how the eternal God could die and yet never die; but he did (Acts 20:28). I do not know how all the fullness of the infinite, incomprehensible God can dwell in Christ bodily; but it does (Colossians 2:9). And I do not know how Christ who knew no sin could be made sin and yet never have sinned; but he was.
These things are mysteries beyond the reach of human comprehension. But they are facts of divine revelation to which we bow with adoration. Hard as it is for many to realise, our God is “slightly” bigger than our puny brains.
– Don Fortner
Salvation as God Describes it
Ephesians 2:8-9
With all the babble, confusion, and religious nonsense there is in this world, in this age when the house of God seems to lie in a heap of ruins, in this day of obvious divine judgment, in this day in which we and our fathers have been kindling the wrath of God for generations, burning incense to other gods, I wonder if it might not be wise for us to go through all the ruins of God’s house, like Hilkiah, the high priest during the days of Josiah, and search for the Book of God. Like that faithful man, pick it up, dust it off, and read it. Then, after reading it, like that godly young king, we would be wise to inquire of the Lord concerning the words of his Book.
We would be wise to lay aside our church creeds, catechisms, and confessions of faith, all of them! Lay aside our theology books, religious papers, religious traditions, customs, and even the opinions of great men of the past. How I wish we could do that! How I wish I could get men and women to simply hear what God says in his Word about his salvation!
I wish we could forget about Calvinism and Arminianism, Catholicism and Protestantism, Pietists and Puritans, Liberals and Fundamentalists, and simply seek to find out from God’s own Word what God himself has to say about his salvation. If we could do that, we might find out what salvation is. We might even come to possess it!
Can we do that? Can you lay aside everything you have ever thought, heard, and learned about salvation from all other sources, and look into the Word of God to see what God has to say about this thing called salvation?
Everywhere salvation is spoken of in Holy Scripture, everywhere it is illustrated, everywhere it is explained it is presented to us just as it is right here in Ephesians 2:8-9. — “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
Here God the Holy Spirit tells us five things about God’s salvation. These five things are always characteristic of God’s saving operations. Wherever salvation is found, wherever salvation is experienced, these five things are both obvious and gladly acknowledged.
1. Salvation is by grace alone.
2. Salvation is through faith alone.
3. Salvation is in Christ alone.
4. Salvation, in its entirety, (even the faith by which it is experienced) is the gift of God.
5. This salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone is accomplished entirely without works of any kind on the part of the one who is saved.
Be sure you hear what God says. We are saved without works. Our relationship with God certainly determines what we do; but what we do, either good or bad, has absolutely nothing to do with our relationship with God.
“Boasting excluded, pride I abase, I’m only a sinner saved by grace!”
Pastor Don Fortner.
Love to Christ
J.C.Philpot
Love to Christ can only spring from the teachings and operations of God upon the heart. Our carnal mind is enmity against God—nothing but implacable, irreconcilable enmity. But when the Lord is pleased to make Himself, in some measure, known to the soul—when He is pleased, in some degree, to unveil His lovely face, and to give a discovery of His grace and glory—immediately divine love springs up! He is so lovely an Object! As the Bride says, “He is altogether lovely.” His beauty is so surpassing—His grace so rich—His mercy so free—all that He is and has is so unspeakably glorious—that no sooner does He unveil His lovely face, than He—wins over all the love of the heart—takes possession of the bosom—and draws every affection of the soul to centre wholly and solely in Himself!
THE DISTINGUISHING GRACE OF GOD
by Don Fortner
1Cor. 4:7 For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?
The only difference there is between the believer and the unbeliever,
between the righteous and the wicked, between the seed of Christ
and the seed of the serpent, is the difference which grace has made.
This we must acknowledge- “By the grace of God I am what I am!”
God’s grace is always particular, distinctive, and distinguishing.
Those who are saved by the free grace of God in Christ have been
and forever are distinguished from those who are lost by these
five distinct acts of grace–
The first distinguishing act of God’s grace is his ETERNAL ELECTION.
If you can, with the eye of faith, trace every spiritual blessing that
you now enjoy, and those which you hope to enjoy, back to the place
of their original source, the place of their origin would be spelled
“E L E C T I O N” (Eph. 1:3-4; 2 Thess. 2:13; Jer. 1:4; 31:3).
The second act of grace by which God has distinguished his elect
from the rest of mankind is EFFECTUAL REDEMPTION.
By his precious blood, poured out unto death upon the cross, the Lord
Jesus Christ has effectually ransomed and redeemed God’s elect from
the hands of divine justice, by satisfying the claims of justice against us
(Isa. 53:8-11; Gal. 3:13; Heb. 9:12).
The third act of grace by which the Lord has distinguished us from
the rest of the world is his ADORABLE PROVIDENCE.
Our God governs all the affairs of this world. And he has governed
all the affairs and circumstances of our lives to bring us to the place
where we now are, and to eternal glory in Christ and with Christ in
heaven (Matt. 10:29-31; Rom. 8:28).
The fourth act of grace by which we are distinguished from all other
men is GOD’S SOVEREIGN WORK OF REGENERATION.
The only thing that makes you different from any other being on this
planet, if you are born again, is the fact that God has saved you.
He gave you life and faith in Christ by the irresistible power and
grace of his Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:1-10).
The fifth act of grace by which God distinguishes his elect from
the unbelieving is his MERCIFUL PRESERVATION.
The only thing that keeps us in grace is grace itself. The only thing
that holds us to Christ is Christ himself (Jer. 32:38-40). The Lord
Jesus says, with regard to all his people, “I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall never perish.” The salvation he gives is eternal salvation.
The life he gives is eternal life. That means that all who are saved by
him are saved forever!
A divine power in my soul?
J.C.Philpot
Has the Holy Spirit wrought anything with a divine power in my soul? The faith I profess—is it of God? The hope I enjoy—do I believe it came from the Lord Himself to support my soul in the trying storm? My repentance—is it genuine? My profession—is it sincere? My walk—is it consistent? My conscience—is it tender? My desires—are they spiritual? My prayers—are they fervent? My heart—is it honest? My soul—is it right before God? Do I hang all my hopes upon Christ as the Rock? Do I hang all my religion upon the work of the Holy Spirit in my heart?
Seeing The Saviour
“This is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life…” John 6:40
True faith is a spiritual act of the soul represented in various ways in the Bible. One act of faith is seeing the Saviour. This is not a physical or visionary sight of Christ. It is a spiritual sight of the glory and excellence of his person, the fullness of his grace and righteousness, and the completeness and suitableness of his salvation; It is looking to Jesus as the author and finisher of faith. It is seeing him as altogether lovely, the chiefest among ten thousand.
Faith is accomplished by the enlightening of the sinner’s darkened heart. Though, at first, it may be only a glimmering light, man is made to see himself a sinner, miserable, helpless, and undone. Christ is held forth in the gospel, crucified, slain, risen, and exalted to save sinners. Like the brazen serpent set upon a pole, for the bitten Israelites to look at and live, Christ is set forth in the gospel as the hope of perishing sinners. When we see him, we have life!
It is the preacher’s task to uphold Christ before men, and say, “Behold the Lamb of God”. Thereby, we show men the way of salvation. It is looking to and believing on Christ. Our Lord himself calls poor sinners to look and believe. “Behold me! Behold me!… Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” When God thus speaks to our hearts, we see the Saviour.
This sight of Christ fills our hearts with desires after him, and interest in him. It gives us a hungering and thirsting for his righteousness. It causes us to pant after his salvation. We see Christ, not merely as the Saviour of others, but as a Saviour and Redeemer suitable for ourselves. When a man sees the altogether Lovely One, his soul is filled with love for him. May God give you eyes to see the Saviour.
Don Fortner
Sought Out!
(Charles Spurgeon)
“And they shall call them The Holy People, The Redeemed of the LORD; and thou shalt be called Sought Out!” Isaiah 62:12
The surpassing grace of God is seen very clearly in seeking out His elect people. We were mingled with the mire—we were as when some precious jewel falls into the sewer, and men gather out and carefully inspect a mass of abominable filth, and continue to stir and rake and search among the heap until the treasure is found.
Or, to use another figure, we were lost in a labyrinth and we wandered hither and thither. When sovereign mercy came after us with the gospel, it did not find us at the first coming—it had to search for us and seek us out. For we as lost sheep were so desperately lost, and had wandered into such a strange country, that it did not seem possible that even the Good Shepherd could track our devious roamings.
Glory be to unconquerable grace—we were sought out! No gloom could hide us, no filthiness could conceal us—we were found and brought home! Glory be to infinite love—God the Holy Spirit sought us and saved us!
The lives of some of God’s people, if they could be written—would fill us with holy astonishment. Strange and marvellous are the ways which God used in their case, to find His own. Blessed be His name—He never relinquishes the search, until the chosen are sought out effectually.
They are not a people sought today and cast away tomorrow. Almightiness and wisdom combined, will make no failures—they shall be called, “Sought out!”
That any should be sought out is matchless grace, but that we should be sought out is grace beyond degree! We can find no reason for it—but God’s own sovereign love! We can only lift up our heart in amazement, and praise the Lord that we wear the name of “Sought Out!”
The time of love?
There is a day appointed by God for the salvation of his elect,
a day fixed from eternity when grace will come to the chosen
sinner, an hour determined before the world began when the
Good Shepherd will seek out and find his lost sheep.
There is a time fixed before time began, called “the time of love,” Ezekiel 16:8
when the predestined child, the elect sinner, redeemed by the
blood of Christ, must be saved. At that hour, salvation must
and shall come to the soul loved of God with an everlasting love.
Only one thing is really important in this matter, only one
question must be answered, only one issue must be settled.
“Do you believe on the Son of God?”
You will know that God has saved you, that you are chosen,
redeemed, and called by grace, when you find yourself believing
the gospel. Do you believe? If you do, the Lord has sought you
out and found you by his grace.
-Don Fortner
“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.” –Isaiah 35:5
J.C.Philpot
That these miracles are effected by the power of the gospel is plain from the words that immediately precede, “Behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you” (Isa. 35:4). And how does God come and save but in the gospel, and by making it his own power unto salvation? If you look back at your experience you will see that one of the first effects of the power of the gospel upon your heart, was to open your ears to receive it as a message from God. When, for instance, you were first brought under its sound, and began to understand and feel what you heard, was there not given you, as it were, new ears to hear it, and a new heart to receive it? Were not those with you memorable days when you first heard the joyful sound of salvation by free grace; when it first dropped that blessed news into your soul which made your very heart thrill with unspeakable joy? God was then circumcising your ear, unstopping it, and conveying the gospel into your heart through it. “For faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17).
“As soon as they hear of me,” says the Lord in prophecy, “they shall obey me–the strangers shall submit themselves unto me” (Psalm 18:44). That gospel which was death to others was life to you; and that message at which others perhaps gnashed their teeth, came into your heart with an indescribable sweetness as the very voice of God to your soul.