Apr 24
8
John 14:18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
John 14:19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
John 14:20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
By God’s sov’reign grace united
To His Son eternally,
I can never be divided
From my cov’nant Surety.
God’s free love, from everlasting,
Made me one with His dear Son.
Blessed union, strong, unchanging,
I am with my Savior one!
Once in Christ, in Christ forever.
Thus His promise ever stands.
Life and death and hell together
Cannot tear me from His hands!
Oft I fall, but God unchanging,
Faithful to His cov’nant stands.
He will never charge with sinning
Those for whom His Son was slain.
One with Jesus, one with Jesus,
By eternal union one!
One with Jesus, one with Jesus,
O what wonders grace has done!
One with Christ from everlasting!
One with Him upon the tree!
One with Him on high ascending!
One with Him eternally!
In the New Testament the nature of the union between Christ and his church is set before us everywhere. It is so constantly and so clearly set forth that it cannot be missed, except by those who choose not to see it. Every act of Christ on earth is set forth in the Scriptures of truth as being, in some way, connected with his union with the us and our union with him.
· Was he circumcised? — We are circumcised in him (Colossians 2:11).
· Was he crucified? — We were crucified with him (Galatians 2:20).
· Did he die? — We died with him (Romans 6:8).
· Was buried in the tomb? — We are buried with him (Romans 6:4).
· Was raised up from the dead? — We risen together with him (Colossians 2:12).
· Did he ascend on high and sit down in glory? — God has made us sit together in heavenly places in him (Ephesians 2:6).
· Does he live? — He lives in me (Galatians 2:20).
In the Book of God this union of Christ and his members is traced out in everything our Lord did, in every act of obedience, and in everything he suffered during his transitory abode upon earth, and in everything he has received in his glory because of his obedience to the Father as our Surety and Substitute. The Scriptures show us, in the clearest and most prominent light, that there is an eternal union between Christ and his beloved people.
“It is time to seek the Lord.” (Hosea 10:12).
This month of April is said to derive its name from the Latin verb aperio, which signifies to open, because all the buds and blossoms are now opening, and we have arrived at the gates of the flowery year. Reader, if you are yet unsaved, may your heart, in accord with the universal awakening of nature, be opened to receive the Lord. Every blossoming flower warns you that it is time to seek the Lord; be not out of tune with nature, but let your heart bud and bloom with holy desires. Do you tell me that the warm blood of youth leaps in your veins? Then, I entreat you; give your vigour to the Lord.
It was my unspeakable happiness to be called in early youth, and I could fain praise the Lord every day for it. Salvation is priceless, let it come when it may, but oh! An early salvation has a double value in it. Young men and maidens, since you may perish ere you reach your prime, “It is time to seek the Lord.” Ye who feel the first signs of decay, quicken your pace: that hollow cough, that hectic flush, are warnings which you must not trifle with; with you it is indeed time to seek the Lord. Did I observe a little grey mingled with your once luxurious tresses? Years are stealing on apace, and death is drawing nearer by hasty marches, let each return of spring arouse you to set your house in order.
Dear reader, if you are now advanced in life, let me entreat and implore you to delay no longer. There is a day of grace for you now — be thankful for that, but it is a limited season and grows shorter every time that clock ticks. Here in this silent chamber, on this first night of another month, I speak to you as best I can by paper and ink, and from my inmost soul, as God’s servant, I lay before you this warning, “It is time to seek the Lord.” Slight not that work, it may be your last call from destruction, the final syllable from the lip of grace. C.H. Spurgeon
Assurance
At one time or another, every believer struggles with assurance. Assurance of our salvation can never be found by looking at ourselves. Nothing about us can give any assurance of salvation. Nothing we do, or do not do, can give any assurance of salvation. Assurance can only be had by looking to Christ who is our salvation. Charles Spurgeon once said, “I looked to Christ and the dove of peace flew into my heart. I looked into my heart and the dove flew away.” Assurance is had through faith in Christ. Through faith in Christ a believer is given FULL assurance. “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:22). My conscience cannot destroy my assurance if I know that Christ shed His blood to pay for my sin. Faith in Christ also gives us the knowledge that Christ is our righteousness. A believer has complete assurance knowing that Christ is our righteousness. “And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever” (Isaiah 32:17). Every child of God is assured of eternal life because Christ, who is our righteousness, died, was buried, and rose again for us. What sweet assurance!
~Frank Tate
LOOK TO CHRIST
“Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth:
for I am God, and there is none else.” Isaiah 45:22
I constantly tell sinners to look to Christ. Don’t look to your works.
Look to Christ to be everything God requires of you. Don’t look at
your sins. Look to Christ and His redeeming blood. Don’t look to your
failure. Look to Christ the successful Savior. Don’t look at your
weakness. Look to Christ and His strength.
Frank Tate
Promise and Call
“The PROMISE is unto you and to your children, and to all that are a far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall CALL.” Acts 2:39.
Both the promises of God and the call of God are necessary for his glory and for our salvation. The promises of God, without the call of God, would make God a liar and it would make us disinterested. The call of God, without the promises of God, would make God mutable and it would give us nothing in which to place our hope. Oh Lord, call us by the gracious Spirit and enable us to place our hope in thy precious promises which are all yea and amen in Christ. ~Greg Elmquist
God has revealed to me what I am. I now see that the only way He could love me, would be to do so freely. ~David Eddmenson
ARE YOU A BEGGAR?
“He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill . . . “ 1 Samuel 2:8
Begging is something that is repulsive to the proud nature of man. When a person is reduced to begging physically, we don’t even like to look at them. There is a shamefulness associated with it that we dread and avoid. My flesh fears this condition even worse than death. Being unable to work, having nothing, and being dependent upon the mercy of others is unthinkable.
Spiritual begging is something to which sinful man is even more opposed. Inability, bankruptcy, and utter dependence upon another, spiritually speaking is absolutely unthinkable, especially to religious people. When our father Adam rebelled against God, he gained an insidiously evil attribute that we are all born with: PRIDE! In this spiritual pride, we fear and despise worse than anything, the idea of being unable to please God and utterly dependent upon His mercy. Pride deludes us and tells us that we are quite capable of taking care of ourselves, thank you very much! Me and “the man upstairs” have an understanding. Sure, I’ve sinned like everybody else, but I’m doing the best I can. I’m not a religious fanatic or anything you know, but I blah, blah, blah, . . .
However much we deny and avoid the fact, our true position before God is that we are dirty, shameful, worthless, miserable BEGGARS! Like the bum on the street, we are unable to work. Whatever we do to earn favour with God only puts us deeper in debt. We also have nothing to our account. Some who are unable to work physically, yet have personal worth due to an inheritance or previous labours, but not us! We inherited nothing but debt and have never been able to do anything of any merit. We are utterly dependent upon MERCY!
I have heard this objection to this truth: You don’t have to beg God to save you, He is ready to pardon. I agree that God is willing, ready and delights to show mercy, but He has never done so to anyone but a beggar. God is not so anxious to clothe sinners that He will not first strip them of their self-righteous rags. He is not so ready to lift up that He will not first bring low. No sinner has ever been shown his condition that has not flown to the Mercy Seat, the Lord Jesus Christ, and pleaded for forgiveness and favour. No true beggar has ever come to Christ in vain.
There’s mercy for beggars. Are You a beggar? ~Chris Cunningham
There is a beautiful order in the covenant of grace, and the economy of redemption. For, as the whole Three persons of the GODHEAD all concurred in the vast design, and all guaranteed to each other concerning the several offices in the departments of grace, so it became essential, that in the carrying on and completing the work, each almighty person should be engaged in it in his own specific office and character.
The Father gave the church; the Son redeemed the church; and God the Holy Ghost sanctifies the church.
God the Father appears in the Old, Testament dispensation, holding forth the promised Saviour with all his blessings, as coming for salvation; God the Son takes up the wonderful subject under the New Testament dispensation, as thus coming and finishing all that was promised in the Old; and now that the Son of God hath finished transgression, made an end of sin, and is returned unto glory, God the Holy Ghost is come down, agreeably to Jesus’s and his Father’s most sure promise, to render effectual the whole purpose of redemption, by his divine offices in the hearts of the redeemed. And thus the church is taught to give equal and undivided praise and glory to the united source of all her mercies, in the Father’s love, the Son’s grace, and the Spirit’s fellowship.
MYSTICAL UNION
John 14:18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
John 14:19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
John 14:20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
The believer’s vital union with Christ the Mediator is an everlasting union of grace. This union between Christ and our souls is, as Spurgeon put it, “the nearest, dearest, closest, most intense and most enduring relationship that can be imagined.” We live because Christ lives, and our lives are hid with Christ in God. This is a relationship that is closer than that of a husband and wife, or children and their parents.
MYSTICAL UNION
This union of Christ and his people is one of the greatest mysteries revealed in the Book of God. — “We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones” (Ephesians 5:30). It is a mystical union of grace. We are members of Christ. We form his mystical body. This is the closest relationship imaginable. It is such a close relationship, such a close union, that the Lord Jesus Christ would be as incomplete without us as we would be without him (Ephesians 1:23; Colossians 2:9-10). We are identified with him; and he is identified with us. He has made us essential to himself, just as he has made himself essential to us! He is the head of the body and we are the members of that body. That is a truly vital union! — “We are members of his body.”
PARTAKERS OF CHRIST
As Eve derived her life from the Adam (Genesis 2:18-25), so we derive our life from Christ. As Eve was made partaker of Adam’s nature, so we are made partakers of Christ’s nature. As Eve’s life was but an extension of Adam’s life, so our life is but an extension of Christ’s life. He is eternal life; and we have eternal life by the gift of God. That eternal life is “Christ in you” (Colossians 1:27). We are partakers his life. Our spiritual life proceeds from and is sustained by Christ. It is the source of our present spiritual life, and of our eternal life in glory with Christ.
Let us never diminish one aspect of our Savior’s work to make another appear more glorious. All that Christ is made to us and all that he does for us is vital. We cannot be saved without his work for us; and we cannot be saved without his work in us. Both are vital.
Don Fortner