Aug 22
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“IN CHRIST we have no curse from the law.
IN CHRIST we have no covenant with the law.
IN CHRIST we have no constraint by the law.
IN CHRIST we have no commitment to the law.
We are saved by grace.
We are justified by grace.
We are sanctified by grace.
We are kept and preserved by grace.
We are motivated by grace.
We are governed by grace.
We shall be glorified by grace.
There is no room in the household of grace for the whip of the law.”
–Don Fortner
Having religion is one thing, but knowing and waking with Christ is different! Having religion – the world understands and tolerates. But free grace – the world neither understand nor tolerates! Any two religious errors can walk together and permit them both to exist! But the Truth of God’s grace cannot exist with error – for one always must go! – Henry Mahan (1926-2019)
What Does God Expect from Me?
I have been asked by those who heard the Gospel of free and sovereign Grace in Christ for the first time – “what does God expect from you?”. The answer is short and simple, yet it takes the power of God to grasp.
God demands (expects) His Son in us!! He demands a new heart. He demands we have an incorruptible seed that is holy and cannot sin. He demands we believe His Son, love Him, and love those He dwells in. He demands Christ receives all the Glory! With that said, how can a person possess these things?
He gave His Son (Gen 22:8,1 John 4:10).
He gives the new heart (Eze 36:26).
His Word gives the incorruptible seed (1 Peter 1:23,1 John 3:9). We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).
Therefore, we love those Christ abides in (1 John 3:14).
And we give Him all the glory (Jude 25).
What God expects from a sinner is nothing more than what He has already preformed and the instinct of His workmanship, not instruction to a dead soul. What God expects, He provides!
~Kevin Thacker
THE FIVE ALONES
Scripture Alone, Christ alone, Grace alone, Faith alone, and the Glory of God alone have been called the watchwords of the Protestant Reformation. To call them that is to diminish what they are. It is from the Scriptures alone that we see Christ alone, Grace alone, Faith alone, and the Glory of God alone. “The Scripture preached before the Gospel to Abraham” (Gal. 3:8). Before they were written they spoke. It was 400 years before the Scriptures were written that the Scriptures preached to Abraham. The Scriptures, like their Author, are eternal. So Christ alone, Grace alone, Faith alone, and the Glory of God alone is the eternal Truth. The five alones were not developed during the Protestant Reformation, they are the eternal Truth of God and they are one! Where you have one, you necessarily have all five. Take away the alone, and they are all meaningless!
Todd Nibert
The Absurdities of Free-Will
Free-will brings with it so many absurdities that it cannot be received.
(a) It makes man the cause of his own salvation.
(b) It puts grace into man’s power, not man’s will under the power of grace.
(c) It robs God of the honour of making one to differ from another, and ascribes it to man.
(d) It allows man a liberty of boasting to God, saying, “God, I thank Thee that Thou gavest me power to will (yet Thou gavest that to Judas as well as me), but I thank myself for the act of willingness, since I receive from Thee no more than Judas did.”
(e) It exempts the creature from the power of God, as if man, spider-like, could spin a thread out of his own bowels whereon to climb to Heaven.
(f) It maketh man the cause why God willeth this or that; so God must attend on the will of man, and not be infallible in His (cont.) decrees, nor working all things according to the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11, Ps 115:3).
(g) Then the apostle James lied in saying “every good gift” is from God (Jas 1:17); and Paul also was mistaken in Romans 9:11. He should have said, “It is of man that willeth and runneth,” and not, “Of God that showeth mercy.” ~John Gill
“The day-spring from on high.” Luke i. 78.
Truly it was so when Jesus came; for a long night of Jewish darkness and ignorance had covered the earth, and gross darkness the people. Look, my soul, at Jesus under this blessed similitude. Though it be evening with’ thee, this day-spring will give light, and the promise will be fulfilled, “at even-time it shall be light.” Jesus was the day-spring in the everlasting council and purpose of Jehovah, when he stood up the light of his people from all eternity. And when, in the fulness of time, he came, it was to fulfil all the shadows of ordinances concerning him. And what is it now, in every individual instance of his visiting his people, but as “the day-spring” on their souls? When first, from a state of nature, he calls them to a state of grace, is it not “the day-spring from on high?” And in all the after-stages, during a life of grace leading, to glory, is not every renewed manifestation of his love as the day-spring from on high?” And what will it be after the night of death, when Jesus shall come “to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all that believe,” but the same? Jesus will then be “the day-spring,” and “the morning-star” of that everlasting day, whose sun shall go down no more. Precious day-spring of my God! arise daily on my poor soul, and fill my heart with light and glory.
Robert Hawker
“Through the tender mercies of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us.” Luke 1:78
J.C.Philpot
By “day-spring” is meant the day-dawn, the herald of the rising sun, the change from darkness to light, the first approach of morn, in a word, the spring of the day. But what is this “day-spring” spiritually? It is the intimation of the rising of the Sun of righteousness. It is not the same thing as the Sun of righteousness; but it is the herald of his approach; the beams which the rising sun casts upon the benighted world, announcing the coming of Jesus, “the King in his beauty.”
This expression was singularly applicable in the mouth of Zacharias. The Lord of life and glory had not then appeared; he was still in the womb of the Virgin Mary. But his forerunner, John, had appeared as the precursor, the herald of his approach, and was sent to announce that the Sun of righteousness was about to arise. “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light” (John 1:6-8). All nations at that time lay in darkness. “Darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people.” But when the Lord of life and glory was about to appear upon earth, when he had already taken the body which was prepared for him, the very flesh and blood of the children, which he was to offer as a propitiation for sin, “the dayspring from on high” had begun to dawn. God’s mercy, in the face of his dear Son, was just visiting the benighted world.
But there is another, an experimental meaning, connected with these words. “The day-spring from on high” is not to be confined to the approach of the Son of God in the flesh; but it may be extended to signify the appearance of the Son of God in the heart. I cannot be benefited by the appearing of Jesus in the flesh eighteen hundred years ago, unless he comes and dwells in my soul. “The day-spring from on high” which visited the benighted Jewish church will not profit us except that same day-spring visits our benighted heart. “The day-spring from on high” is the manifestation of God’s mercy in the face of the Savior. And when this “day-spring from on high” visits the soul, it is the first intimation, the dawning rays of the Sun of righteousness in the heart.
“To give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death; to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Luke 1:79
J.C.Philpot
What was it that moved the divine Father to send his own Son into the world? Was it not the free mercy of God flowing forth from his bosom to his family? Then, what merit, what claim can his family ever have? Their misery is their claim. Their worthlessness, their sunken state, the depth of their fall–these things call forth God’s compassion. It is not what I have done for the glory of God; not what I am doing, or trying to do; not my wisdom, my strength, my resolutions, my piety, my holiness. No! my misery, my helplessness, my worthlessness, my deeply sunken state, my fallen condition; which I feel only because of a saving interest in the blood and love of the Lamb–this it is that makes me need God’s mercy; and this it is that qualifies me to go to God through Jesus to receive mercy–for “he is able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by him.”
Are you sitting in darkness and the shadow of death–far from the way of peace, troubled, perplexed, exercised, confused? You are the very characters for whom Jesus came. Are not unutterable mercies locked up in the bosom of God for you? What is to exclude you? Your sins? No! God has pardoned them. Your worthlessness? No! there is a robe of righteousness prepared for you. Your demerits? No! the merits of Jesus are upon your side. Your unholiness? No! “He is made to you sanctification.” Your ignorance? No! “He is made to you wisdom.” These are no barriers. I will tell you what is a barrier–self-righteousness, self-esteem, self-exaltation, pride, hypocrisy, presumption; a name to live, a form of godliness, being settled upon your lees, and at ease in Zion–these are barriers.
But helplessness, hopelessness, worthlessness, misery–these are not barriers; they are qualifications; they show, when felt, that your name is in the book of life, that the Lord of life and glory appeared in this world for you; and sooner or later, you will have the sweet enjoyment of it in your heart; and then be enabled to adore him for his grace, and admire and bless his name for glorifying his love and mercy in your free and full salvation.
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Sound Theology? Spurgeon, “Plain Words with the Careless” A man may know a great deal about true religion, and yet be a total stranger to it. He may know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and yet he may be possessed by a devil; no, he may be a den for a whole legion of devils. Mere knowledge does nothing for us but puff us up. We may know, and know, and know, and so increase our responsibility, without bringing us at all into a state of salvation. Beware of resting in head-knowledge! Beware of relying upon mere orthodoxy, for without love to Jesus, with all your correctness of doctrine, you will be a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. It is well to be sound in the faith, but the soundness must be in the heart as well as in the head. There is as ready a way to destruction by the road of orthodoxy as by the paths of heterodoxy. Hell has thousands in it who were never heretics. Remember that the devils “believe and tremble.” There are no sounder theological believers than devils, and yet their conduct is not affected by what they believe, and consequently they still remain at enmity to the Most High God. A mere head-believer is on a par therefore with fallen angels, and he will have his portion with them forever unless grace shall change his heart. |
A real influence!
(Letters of John Newton)
“Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2
Corinthians 5:17
The saving grace of God has a
real influence upon the whole man. It . . .
enlightens the understanding,
directs the will,
purifies the affections,
regulates the passions, and
corrects the different excesses to which different people
are by constitution or habit inclined. It does not impart any new natural
powers, though it teaches the use and improvement of those we have received.
That soul never perished, that
felt itself to be vile, and Jesus to be precious!
(Octavius Winslow)
What are YOU to yourself? Worthless? Vile? Empty?
What is JESUS to you? Precious? Lovely? All your salvation? All
your desire?
What is SIN to you? The most hateful thing in the world?
What is HOLINESS to you? Most desired? Most longed for?
What is the THRONE OF GRACE to you? The most attractive spot?
What is the CROSS to you? The sweetest resting place in the
universe?
What is GOD to you? Your God? Your Father? The spring of all
your joys? The fountainhead of all your bliss? The center where your affections
meet?
Is it so? Then you are a child of God! Those low views of
yourself—that brokenness, that inward mourning, that secret confession; that
longing for more spirituality, more grace, more devotedness, more love—does but
prove the existence, reality, and growth of
God’s work within you.
Cheer up, precious soul! That
soul never perished, that felt itself to be vile, and Jesus to be precious!
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Experimental knowledge (J. C. Philpot, “Letters & Memoirs” 1840) “And this is life eternal: that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou have sent.” John 17:3 An experimental knowledge of Christ in the soul, is the only relief for sin’s . . . poverty, guilt, leprosy, bankruptcy, and damnation. This is the true way of preaching Christ crucified; not the mere doctrine of the Cross, but a crucified Jesus experimentally known to the soul. I am deeply conscious of my own . . . baseness, ignorance, blindness and folly. But my malady is too deeply rooted to be healed by dry doctrines and speculative theological opinions. The blood of the Lamb, spiritually and supernaturally sprinkled and applied, is the only healing balm for a sin-sick soul. |
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His name! Winslow, “The Fragrance of Christ’s Name” There is everything we need in Jesus to endear His name to our hearts. He is our Prophet, teaching us the will of the Father. He is our Priest, offering up Himself as our atoning Victim. He is our King, erecting His throne in our hearts, and subduing us to Himself as His loving and obedient subjects. He is our Friend, loving us at all times. He is our Brother, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, born for our adversity. He is our Great High Priest, touched with the feeling of our infirmities, tempted in all points as we are and in our sorrows, griefs, and trials encircling us with the many folded robe of His tender, loving sympathy. O to know Jesus, that most excellent and superlative knowledge! With Paul we may well count all things but loss for its possession. To know Him as the Savior, to know Him as our Friend, to know Him as our Brother, to know Him as our Advocate, to know Him as our Portion, is endless life and glory! |