Jul 24
10
We are engaged in a good cause,
we fight under a good Captain,
the victory is sure beforehand, and
the prize is a crown—a crown of eternal life.
John Newton
How much religion, tradition, and ceremony can a man know and observe and yet not know God? Well, the Jews observed thousands of Passovers yet never saw CHRIST, OUR PASSOVER. They slew thousands of lambs and never saw CHRIST, THE LAMB OF GOD. They kept thousands of Sabbaths and never knew the rest of CHRIST, OUR SABBATH. They ordained thousands of priests and never saw CHRIST, THE GREAT HIGH PRIEST. They actually carried the mercy seat on their shoulders yet never came to CHRIST, OUR MERCY SEAT. They ate the manna and drank from that Rock but never tasted the bread and water of life-CHRIST JESUS. Oh, Lord, open my eyes to see Him who is all and in all! Henry Mahan
God could have over-ruled every difficulty in your way, had He seen it to be best for you. He who has begun a good work in you, is able to carry it on—in defiance of all seeming hindrances, and make all things (even those which have the most unfavourable appearances) work together for your good!
John Newton
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Sovereign Grace Hated by
the Modern Religionist By C H Spurgeon If anything is hated bitterly, it is the out-and-out gospel of the grace of God, especially if that hateful word “sovereignty” is mentioned with it. Dare to say “He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and he will have compassion on whom he will have compassion” (Romans 9:15), and furious critics will revile you without stint. The modern religionist not only hates the doctrine of sovereign grace, but he raves and rages at the mention of it. He would sooner hear you blaspheme than preach election by the Father, atonement by the Son, or regeneration by the Spirit. If you want to see a man worked up till the Satanic is clearly uppermost, let some of the new divines hear you preach a free grace sermon. A gospel which is after men will be welcomed by men; but it needs divine operation upon the heart and mind to make a man willing to receive into his in most soul this distasteful gospel of the grace of God. My dear brethren, do not try to make it tasteful to carnal minds. Hide not the offense of the cross, lest you make it of none effect. The angles and corners of the gospel are its strength to pare them off is to deprive it of power. Toning down is not the increase of strength, but the death of it. Learn, then, that if you take Christ out of Christianity, Christianity is dead. If you remove grace out of the gospel, the gospel is gone. If the people do not like the doctrine of grace, give them all the more of it. I preach the doctrines of grace because I believe them to be true; because I see them in the Scriptures; because my experience endears them to me; and because I see the holy result of them in believers. The doctrine which I preach to you is that of the Puritans: it is the doctrine of Calvin, the doctrine of Augustine, the doctrine of Paul, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. The Author and Finisher of our faith himself taught the most blessed truth which well agreed with our text- “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” Eph 2:8 OUR MISSION IN THIS WORLD On one occasion the Lord Jesus Christ said to his disciples, “As my Father hath sent me into the world, even so send I you.” Christ was sent to preach the gospel; so are we. Christ was sent for the salvation of God’s elect; so are we. Christ was sent to glorify God the Father; so are we. Christ was sent to do his Father’s will; so are we. We must not allow anything, or anyone, to turn us aside from that mission for which we have been sent into this world. Let us serve the Lord, our God and Savior, on the tiptoe of expectation, anticipating his sudden return. Soon our day of labor will be over. Don Fortner THE BLESSED COMFORT OF THE GOSPEL We are slow to receive it, and preachers are often afraid to proclaim it, but there is blessed comfort for sinners in the gospel. God commands his servants twice to proclaim that comfort. He says, emphatically, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.” And he tells us plainly that THE ONLY SOURCE OF COMFORT FOR SINNERS IS THE GOSPEL OF EFFECTUALLY ACCOMPLISHED REDEMPTION. “Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem (The people whom he has chosen), and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins” (Isa. 40:1-2). If you trust Christ, if you cast all your hope upon his righteousness and shed blood, if you are a guilty, helpless sinner whose only hope is an all-sufficient Substitute, this gospel is for you. YOUR WARFARE IS ACCOMPLISHED. By the sacrifice of his own beloved Son, God has ended his controversy with you. God reconciled his people to himself, satisfying his law and justice in the life and death of Christ as the sinner’s Substitute (II Cor. 5:17-21). He sends his Spirit, applying the blood of Christ to the hearts of men by the gospel, creating faith and reconciling our hearts to him by irresistible grace and power (Col. 1:21). Peace was made by the blood of Christ. Peace is received and enjoyed by faith in that blood. YOUR INIQUITY IS PARDONED. God has fully put away the sins of all his people by the sacrifice of his Son (Heb. 9:12). God will never hold any believing sinner accountable for sin. He held his Son accountable for us, and punished our sins to the full satisfaction of his justice in his Son. YOU HAVE RECEIVED OF THE LORD’S HAND DOUBLE FOR ALL YOUR SINS. The Justice of God which demanded your eternal ruin has been satisfied by the blood of Christ; so that in Christ you are not only pardoned, but also made perfectly righteous by Divine imputation. Rather than bring an enemy of God, subject to and deserving his wrath, grace has made you an heir of God, fully deserving of all his benefits in Christ. Don Fortner |
THOSE WHO REJECT THE GOSPEL WILL BE REJECTED BY GOD
Anyone who hears the gospel of the grace of God and yet refuses to believe is courting Divine judgment. This fact is clearly set before us in the Parable Of The Marriage Feast (Matt. 22:1-14), and in the history of the nation of Israel. The gospel was first revealed to the Jews, the nation of Israel, under the types and shadows of the Mosaic economy. To Israel alone God gave the law, the priesthood, the tabernacle, and the prophets. And when Christ came he preached the gospel to none but the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But that nation, being blinded by their religious leaders, despised the opportunities of grace which God had given them, despised the gospel, and despised the Lord Jesus Christ. Though they had feverishly adhered to the rites and ceremonies of the law, they had long rejected the message of the prophets. When John the Baptist came preparing the way of the Lord, they ignored him. When God’s own Son came, they hung him up on a tree to die. And when God sent the apostles and disciples of Christ to proclaim the message of Christ, the ascended King, they rejected their message, imprisoned the messengers, beat them, and murdered them. Therefore, in 70 A.D. the Lord God sent the Roman army, under the command of Titus, and utterly destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the nation of Israel. At the end of Daniel’s 70th week, the house of Israel was left desolate. Their light was turned into darkness. Never again would Israel have a word from God. Never again would God deal with that nation. God said to his servants, “Israel will not hear; leave her alone. Go ye therefore into the highways and hedges of the world, and as many as you find, whether Jew or Gentile, bid them come. And whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
This parable of the marriage feast speaks of the Divine retribution which fell on Israel for her rejection of the gospel. Israel rejected God; therefore, God rejected Israel. Israel despised the light God gave her; therefore, God withdrew the light. Israel trifled with the gospel; therefore, God cast her off. God’s judgment upon Israel stands as a solemn warning to all men: GOD WILL NOT TRIFLE WITH THOSE WHO TRIFLE WITH THE GOSPEL OF HIS GRACE. TO REJECT THE GOSPEL IS TO COURT REPROBATION.
Don Fortner
The Works People Trust To Save Them
By pastor Scott Price
Eph. 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph. 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
Titus 3:6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
Titus 3:7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
The word of God is clear in many places that nobody is, or even can be, saved by works.
It is an impossibility.
But there is a wide array of opinions about what are unacceptable works for salvation. Once people enter into the conversation on this topic many inconsistencies follow. It seems there are many things that people count on and trust in to save them even without knowing that they are doing it. In a word this is called deception.
In defining a work we must mention that works are something that are CONDITIONS.
They are something that, when done, these works themselves are what makes the difference whether a person goes to heaven or hell.
Those totally ignorant of the Bible or unchurched might say a person gets to heaven by being good or by keeping the 10 commandments to get to heaven.
But then you spend a little time explaining what God’s word says about the Law and the conscience is then squeezed enough to readily admit they do not keep the Law.
At this point many would claim “sincerity” as a major contribution as getting to heaven.
Many religious people will tell you that ignorance of the truth and sincerity seems to excuse unbelief.
A man once told me that God will only expect anyone just to do the best they can.
The next logical question I asked this unbeliever was if he did the best he could.
Before he could answer I followed up with asking if he did the best he could all of the time.
Of course he failed his own test for entrance to heaven.
This is just one of the many inconsistencies I mentioned earlier.
All the levels of deception in counting on works for one’s salvation must be considered to be self righteousness. Because it sounds so bad hardly anyone will admit that they are self righteous or even ever have been.
Self righteousness is the most deceiving and evil of all sins. It is the root of unbelief. It is a tool Satan uses to make people think they will be accepted by God in doing some kind of work whether it be great or small.
The next level of deception and probably the most popular is making faith a work.
The act of believing, or at least what one considers believing, is most often considered a work.
The key to understanding this master deception is to realise WHERE faith is directed.
If faith is directed to itself, like in most cases, then it is an evil work that will be rejected at Judgment Day.
God-given faith, the kind the word of God speaks of, is directed toward the LORD Jesus Christ alone. Faith looks to Christ NOT as a condition for salvation, but rather to Christ who FULFILLED ALL the conditions Himself in salvation.
This faith is not an offer either as something to “accept or reject.”
Faith is commanded of God not offered by Him.
There are consequences attached to unbelief.
Most people think that faith is brought out from within themselves, something that they can be credited for. They describe this by saying it comes from what they call “freewill.”
Only people who are ignorant of the basic teaching of man’s sinful nature will use such language. Unbelief and self righteousness is the automatic response of man unless or until the LORD intervenes with grace to change the heart and mind of a sinner.
There are two works many people count on is even more subtle, which are related to the faith as an offer or “freewill” deception. They are the twin works of cooperation and enablement.
Some think that God tries to convince the sinner of salvation and the sinner cooperated with God to fulfil whatever conditions He requires.
The other related work is that God actually works in the sinner and gives the ability to them allowing them the divine energy to fulfil certain conditions demanded but in the end the sinner gets the credit for acting based on his doing or at least the will to do what they do.
Many of these things are based on a system of grace PLUS works. It is a deception that Satan uses that detracts and distracts from the grace of Christ.
Anyone whose faith is directed toward something else besides the finished work of Christ alone for salvation does not have salvation.
If they are trusting in a work of their own added to the work of Christ this only means Christ had an unfinished work waiting for the sinner to add a condition to complete it.
This is not the gospel of Christ but rather a deception.
The work is done and FINISHED.
Christ effectively completed ALL there is to do in securing the ground of salvation.
There are NO further works to be done because Christ did ALL that is required.
Can you believe that?
If not, I am afraid you are self righteous and still in your sin. The gospel of grace is a humbling to the pride of man who naturally wants to work and merit his way to heaven by something no matter what.
But when God saves a sinner He gives them repentance to reject all self righteous means of attaining salvation by doing any form of works. Have you been given such repentance and eyes to see through the false system of works plus grace?
Faith looks outside itself to Christ and His work ALONE.
Thank God for His free and full sovereign grace in salvation in, ACCOMPLISHED ENTIRELY by and through Christ The Lord our Righteousness