Oct 23
22
True faith holds every revealed truth of the Bible but opposes none. If you live by faith, Christ, the bread of heaven, will be the food of thy faith. If you walk by faith, Christ, the living way, will be the path of faith. If you stand fast by faith, Christ will be faith’s foundation; faith will stand no where, but on Christ; and Christ will always bear every weight that faith lays on Him. Christ will never suffer faith to fail, nor will faith ever suffer Christ to have a co-partner; Christ will never suffer faith to be confounded; nor will faith ever suffer Christ to be dishonoured.
William Huntington
The believer’s eternal confession!
“By the grace of God—I am what I am!” 1
Corinthians 15:10
This is the believer’s eternal confession!
Grace found him a rebel against God—it leaves
him a son of God!
Grace found him wandering at the gates of Hell—it leaves him at the
gates of Heaven!
Grace devised the scheme of Redemption.
Justice never would; reason never could.
And it is grace which carries out that scheme.
No sinner would ever have sought God—but “by grace.” The thickets of
Eden would have proved Adam’s grave—had not grace called him
out! Saul would have lived and died the haughty self-righteous
persecutor—had not grace laid him low! The thief on the cross would
have continued breathing out his blasphemies—had not grace arrested his tongue
and tuned it for glory!
“Out of the knottiest timber,” says Rutherford, “God
can make vessels of mercy for service in the high palace of
glory!”
“I came, I saw, I conquered!” may be inscribed by the Savior on
every monument of His grace. “I came to the
sinner; I looked upon him; and with a look of omnipotent
love—I conquered him!”
Believer, you would have been this day a wandering star, to whom is
reserved the blackness of darkness forever! You would have been Christless,
hopeless, and portionless; had not grace constrained you! And
it is grace which, at this moment, “keeps” you.
You have often been a Peter—forsaking your Lord—but brought back to
Him again. Why have you not been a Demas or a Judas? “I
have prayed for you—that your faith fail not!” Is not this your own
comment and reflection on life’s retrospect: “Yet not I—but the
grace of God which was with me!”
Seek to realise your dependence on this grace every moment.
“More grace! more grace!” needs to be your continual cry.
His infinite supply—is commensurate with your infinite need.
The treasury of grace, though always emptying—is always full.
The key of prayer which opens it—is always at hand!
And the Almighty Bestower of the blessings of grace—is always
“waiting to be gracious.”
The recorded promise can never be cancelled or reversed:
“My grace is sufficient for you.”
The grace of God is the source of lesser temporal blessings—as
well as of higher spiritual blessings. Grace accounts for the crumb
of daily bread—as well as for the crown of eternal glory!
But even in regard to earthly mercies, never forget the CHANNEL of grace: “through
Christ Jesus!” It is sweet thus to connect every blessing, even
the smallest and humblest token of providential bounty—with Calvary’s cross—to
have the common blessings of life stamped with “the print
of the nails!” It makes them doubly precious to think, “All
this flows from Jesus!”
“By the grace of God—I am what I am!”
Reader! seek to dwell much on this inexhaustible theme!
John MacDuff
“… be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.” 1 Pet. 5:5b.
What a beautiful garment is humility. It is a simple garment. It’s not flashy. It does not draw attention to itself. It has no colour or design that would appeal to fleshly eyes. It is a plain white robe. It covers the nakedness of the flesh with dignity and honour. It exalts not the glory of its wearer, but the glory of its giver. Oh, Lord, clothe us with humility.
Greg Elmquist
Lord, save us and we will be saved. Call us and we will come. Speak to us and we will listen. Feed us and we will be fed. You have started the work; You must finish it. We are completely at Your mercy. We are the work of Your hands.
Gabe Stalnaker
You say, “My soul is mine, and I will do with it what I please.” I beg your pardon. Your soul is not yours nor is it in your power to dispose of it. “God is the Father of all spirits” (Heb 12; 9). “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Eze. 18; 4). We have our souls by right of stewardship, not ownership. God has the ownership and the disposal. “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord”(Prov. 16; 33).
Scott Richardson
Saving Faith
Saving faith is not based upon one’s feelings but upon God’s faithfulness. It embraces and rejoices in the promises of God. It needs no evidence or proof, only a word from the living God of the Bible; being “fully persuaded that what God has promised, he is able also to perform” (Romans 4:21); and realising that the only difference between God’s faithful promise and its perfect fulfilment is just a little time…His appointed time!
Maurice Montgomery
Who Gets the Glory?
If you wish to know if the gospel you are hearing preached is the gospel of God, ask yourself this question, “Who gets the glory?” If you wish to know whether your religious experience is of the flesh or of the Lord, ask yourself the same thing, “Who gets the glory?” Also, examine all your gifts, works, and missionary efforts by the same rule, “Who gets the glory?” God will not share His glory! That which is of God, from God, and for God’s glory will be blessed with His presence and power “that no flesh should glory in His presence. … that, according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:29, 31).
Henry Mahan
The Symbolical Confession Of Baptism
Romans. 6:4-5
Notice the connecting word, “Therefore.” It refers to verse 3. Because baptism looks to Christ and his death upon the cross, this is how and why it must be performed.
Baptism is a burial. “We are buried with him by baptism.” It is a picture of death. What do you do with a dead corpse? Sprinkle sand in its face? Pour dirt on its head? Of course not! You bury it. And when a person is baptised, he is buried in water. Immersion is not a mode of baptism. It is baptism. Without immersion, baptism cannot be performed.
Baptism is unto death. It is the believer’s confession of faith in the merit, efficacy and sufficiency of Christ’s death for his eternal salvation. Baptism says to all the world, “I trust Christ for all my salvation. Looking to him, his bloody death upon the cursed tree, trusting him alone, I am justified before God.”
In baptism we confess our commitment to Christ. Rising up out of the watery grave, we confess to all the world that as Christ arose from the dead by the glorious power of God the Father, “even so we also should walk in newness of life.” We have been raised from spiritual death to spiritual life by the glorious power of God’s almighty grace. Henceforth, we declare in baptism, we are determined, by the grace of God, to walk in newness of life. We renounce our former life, ways, hopes, and beliefs. Christ is our Life, our Way, our Hope and our Truth. We are no longer our own. We belong to Christ. We will no longer live under the rule of sin, self and satan. We give ourselves to the rule and dominion of Christ our Lord, to walk with him in newness of life (I Cor. 6:19-20; II Cor. 5:17).
And the believer confesses his hope of resurrection glory with Christ in the ordinance of baptism (v. 5). As baptism looks back to the cross in faith trusting Christ’s finished work of redemption, it looks forward to the second coming in hope of the resurrection, trusting the power of the risen Christ to bring us safe and complete into his heavenly kingdom. This blessed ordinance is our symbolic confession of faith in Christ, redemption by his blood, regeneration by his Spirit and resurrection by his power.
Don Fortner
If you are at home in the world
(J. C. Philpot,
“Daily Portions”)
“For we are strangers
before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days
on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none
abiding.” 1 Chron. 29:15
If you possess the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and,
Jacob, you, like them, confess that you are a
stranger; and your confession springs out of a
believing heart and a sincere experience.
You feel yourself a stranger in this ungodly world.
It is not your element.
It is not your home.
You are in it during God’s appointed time, but
you wander up and down this world . . .
a stranger to its company,
a stranger to its maxims,
a stranger to its fashions,
a stranger to its principles,
a stranger to its motives,
a stranger to its lusts,
a stranger to its inclinations, and all in which
this world moves as in its native element.
Grace has separated you by God’s sovereign power,
that though you are in the world, you are not of it.
I can tell you plainly–if you are at home in the
world; if the things of time and sense are your
element; if you feel one with . . .
the company of the world,
the maxims of the world,
the fashions of the world, and
the principles of the world
–grace has not reached your heart, the faith
of God’s elect does not dwell in your bosom.
The first effect of grace is to separate.
It was so in the case of Abraham. He was called
by grace to leave the land of his fathers, and go
out into a land that God would show him. And so
God’s own word to His people is now, “Come out
from among them, and be separate, says the Lord,
and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive
you, and will be a Father unto you, and you shall
be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
Separation, separation, separation from the world
is the grand distinguishing mark of vital godliness.
There may be indeed separation of body where there
is no separation of heart. But what I mean is . . .
separation of heart,
separation of principle,
separation of affection,
separation of spirit.
And if grace has touched your heart, and you are
a partaker of the faith of God’s elect, you are a
stranger in the world, and will make it manifest
by your life and conduct that you are such.
“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:7
Octavius Winslow
The trial of faith is a test of its character; it is the furnace that tries the ore of what kind it is- it may be brass, or iron, or clay, or perhaps precious gold; but the crucible will test it. There is much that passes for real faith, which is no faith; there is much spurious, counterfeit metal; it is the trial that brings out its real character. The true character of Judas was not known until his covetousness was tempted; Simon Magus was not discovered to possess a spurious faith, until he thought to purchase the gift of God with money; Demas did not forsake the apostle, until the world drew him away. But true faith stands the trial; where there is a real work of grace in the heart, no tribulation, or persecution, or power of this world, will ever be able to expel it thence; but if all is chaff, the wind will scatter it; if all is but dross and tinsel, the fire will consume it. Let the humble and tried believer, then, thank God for every test that brings out the real character of his faith, and proves it to be “the faith of God’s elect.” God will test His own work in the gracious soul; every grace of His own Spirit he will at one time or another place in the crucible; but never will He remove His eye from off it; He will ‘sit as a refiner,’ and watch that not a grain of the precious metal is consumed; He will be with His child in all and every affliction; not for one moment will He leave him. Let gratitude rather than murmuring, joy rather than sorrow, attend every test which a loving and faithful Father brings to His own gracious work, “that the trial of your faith might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”