Aug 24
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When God intends to fill a soul, he first makes it empty. When He intends to enrich a soul, He first makes it poor. When He intends to exalt a soul, He first makes it sensible to its own miseries, wants, and nothingness.
~John Flavel
Our Lord came on purpose to save a particular people and He accomplished what He came to do! If you are one of those particular people and He accomplished salvation for you, then He will notify you of it through the preaching of His word. In His notification, He will convince you of the fact that you are a sinner, the worst sinner you have never known! That is the very reason why He had to die. It was to save you from your sins. His death was God the Father’s free gift to you, and in His free gift, You are completely redeemed! It was all appointed by the Father and obtained by the Son. To Him be glory forever.
Gabe Stalnaker
Unity
Let us not set ourselves up as critics and judges of the conduct and lives of other believers. Let us not spend our time finding fault with one another, picking out weaknesses and exaggerating differences of opinion and practice. Rather, let us spend our time endeavoring to help one another and to avoid doing and saying things that may cause others to stumble.
We can do this by making our fellowship to be in Christ (not in form and traditions), by loving one another in spite of differences, and by avoiding collisions on the points wherein we differ. I am not suggesting for a moment that we compromise the gospel or the fundamentals of our faith; but, as there are no two snowflakes exactly alike, there are no two people exactly alike; therefore, the foundation of our fellowship is OUR LOVE FOR CHRIST and OUR LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER, not perfect agreement on every point.
The fact of the matter is that I do not agree or approve of all that I do, think, and say! “Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.” By God’s grace, I intend to love and encourage every believer in Christ, our sovereign Lord. I shall endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit of God in the bond of peace for the glory of our Lord, the well-being of His church, and the witness of the gospel.
Henry Mahan
Monstrous Implications
Let me say at the outset, the Bible does not teach or imply that Christ died for all men without exception. He died for the elect, His sheep, His church. Yet most of what goes on under the name of Christianity teaches He died for all men without exception. There are even men who say they believe in election who still believe His blood was shed for all men without exception. Such teaching and preaching has these six monstrous implications….
1. If Christ died for all men without exception and all men without exception are not saved, then He failed in His intentions.
2. If He died for all men without exception and some that He died for are not saved, His death does not save.
3. If He died for the sins of all men without exception and some of those men are still punished for their sins God is not just. He punishes the same sin twice!
4. If Christ died for men that God loved and they are not saved, God’s love is meaningless. He can love you and you can still be damned.
5. If God loves all men and Christ died for all, God is not immutable. He changes in His disposition toward the men that are under His wrath.
6. If Christ died for all men without exception and all without exception are not saved, salvation is by works. Christ’s death did not make the difference, but what the sinner does or fails to do.
Universal redemption is more than a mistake in theology. It is a denial of the Gospel and a message of salvation by works. The implications of such teaching are truly monstrous.
Todd Nibert
“Sensible Sinners”
Zechariah 9:12
Zechariah describes God’s elect as “prisoners of hope.” Such “prisoners of hope” will soon be set free. The old writers used to speak of “sensible sinners,” or “awakened sinners,” and “seeking sinners.” Bro. L. R. Shelton, SR used to talk about “lost sinners.” I realise that we can make too much of this; but there is a difference between sinners and sinners. Joseph Hart put it like this…
“To understand these things aright, this grand distinction should be known:
Though all are sinners in God’s sight, there are but few so in their own.
To such as these our Lord was sent; they’re only sinners who repent.
What comfort can a Saviour bring to those who never felt their woe?
A sinner is a sacred thing; the Holy Ghost hath made him so.
New life from Him we must receive, before for sin we rightly grieve.”
Experiences Differ
We must never imagine that all who are born of God experience grace in the same way. They do not. In many, many ways the experience of grace is the same; but in many ways it is different. Some experience God’s saving grace like the Gadarene demoniac, out of whom the powers of hell are cast instantaneously. Others are like the pitiful soul who, coming to Jesus, was thrown and torn violently. Sometimes the Lord Jesus gives full sight to his blind ones all at once. Sometimes he causes his blind ones to see just a little at a time. They are like that one who said, “I see men as trees, walking” (Mark 8:24).
The promise and assurance of salvation and eternal life in Christ is given only to faith in Christ. — “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” — “He that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life.” But they are greatly mistaken who imagine that faith in Christ is, in any way, the cause of the new birth.
Faith in Christ is the fruit of the new birth, not the cause.
Hope before Faith
In the experience of grace there is a hope that is the forerunner of faith. I would not suggest that it is hope without faith. That is not the case. But it is hope that is accompanied with faith not yet revealed and made known in the soul, hope that precedes a confident, lively faith.
In my opinion John Gill was exactly right when he wrote, “All men are concluded in sin, shut up under the law, and led captive by Satan; but some are not sensible of their imprisoned state, nor desirous of being out of it, nor have any hope concerning it. Others groan under their bondage, long for deliverance, and are hoping for it.” They hope that Christ will receive them and save them. They hope that he will pardon their sins. They hope that the Spirit of God has begun a good work in them, and will perform it. They hope for salvation and eternal life in Christ.
I know that we live in a day of cock sure, “know so” religion; but the Word of God speaks of sinners hoping for God’s salvation.
“The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.For the Lord will not cast off for ever:But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies” (Lamentations 3:25-32).
In Matthew 5 our Lord Jesus speaks of these who are awakened to know their need of him as mourners who shall be comforted, hungry souls that shall be filled, thirsty souls that shall be satisfied, and meek ones who shall inherit the bounty of his grace. Such are the broken-hearted, contrite sinners with whom God is pleased to dwell. They are sin-sick souls who have need of healing.
A Felt Need
When the old writers used the terms, “sensible sinners,” or “awakened sinners,” and “seeking sinners,” they were not suggesting that some dead sinners have spiritual sense, or that sinners must meet certain conditions before they can trust Christ. They were simply using those terms with reference to Christ’s “prisoners of hope,” sinners who sense imprisonment in their very souls, sinners who have a felt need for Christ. They are in distress. They know there is comfort for sinners in Christ; but they find no comfort. There is “a good hope through grace” given to God’s elect; but they remain hopeless. While those who walk in the “full assurance of faith” sing of life and liberty in Christ, they feel death and bondage deep in their souls. The more they hear about blessed liberty in Christ, the more they sense their bondage. The more they hear about being free from condemnation, the more condemned they feel. The more aggravating and hateful their sins become, the more strongly they hold them.
Turn You
I will not presume to speak for anyone else; but I have just described my own experience of God’s grace. Have I described you? Because you have rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the most High, he has brought down your heart with labor, and there is none to help. Oh, how sad your condition is! I know. I’ve been there. But sad as your condition is, though you think yourself hopeless, now that you find there is none to help, the Lord Jesus stands before you and says, “Turn you to the Stronghold, ye prisoners of hope!” — “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.” — “I have trodden the winepress alone…I looked, and there was none to help. Therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me!” — “I am thy Salvation!”
“Let not conscience make you linger, nor of fitness fondly dream;
All the fitness He requireth is to feel your need of Him;
This He gives you, this He gives you; ‘tis the Spirit’s rising beam.”
Don Fortner
“He that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about.” Psalm 32:10.
O FAIR reward of trust! My Lord, grant it me to the full! The truster above all men feels himself to be a sinner; and lo, mercy is prepared for him: he knows himself to have no deservings, but mercy comes in, and keeps house for him on a liberal scale. O Lord, give me this mercy, even as I trust in you!
Observe, my soul, what a body-guard you have! As a prince is compassed about with soldiery, so are you compassed about with mercy. Before and behind, and on all sides, ride these mounted guards of grace. We dwell in the center of the system of mercy, for we dwell in Christ Jesus.
O my soul, what an atmosphere do you breathe! As the air surrounds you, even so does the mercy of your Lord. To the wicked there are many sorrows, but to you there are so many mercies that your sorrows are not worth mentioning. David says, “Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, you righteous; and shout for joy, all you that are upright in heart.” In obedience to this precept my heart shall triumph in God, and I will tell out my gladness. As you have compassed me with mercy, I will also compass your altars, O my God, with songs of thanksgiving!
C.H.Spurgeon
The cross has not become obsolete!
(Horatius Bonar, “The Surety’s Cross”)
“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish
foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of
God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18The whole world looked with contempt-indignant at the audacity of a few
humble Christians, thus . . .
affronting and defying the “public opinion” of nations and
ages;
assailing the religions of earth with the cross as their only sword;
striking down their idols with this as their only hammer; and
with this, as their one lever, proposing to turn the world upside down!
>From that day the cross became “a power” in the earth; a power
which went forth, like the light-noiselessly yet irresistibly-smiting down all
religions alike, all shrines alike, all altars alike-sparing no superstition
nor philosophy.
This power remains-in its mystery, its silence, its influence, it
remains. The cross has not become obsolete! The preaching of
the cross has not ceased to be powerful and effectual!
There are those who would persuade us that, in this modern age-the cross is out
of date and out of fashion, time-worn. But this does not shake us. It only
leads us to clasp the cross more fervently, and to study it more profoundly, as
embodying in itself that gospel which is at once the wisdom and the power of
God.
Yet the cross is not without its mysteries:
It illuminates-yet it darkens.
It is life-yet it is death.
It is honour-yet it is shame.
It is wisdom-but also foolishness.
The cross is . . .
both pardon, and condemnation;
both strength, and weakness;
both joy, and sorrow;
both love, and hatred;
both medicine, and poison;
both hope, and despair.
The cross is Christ’s humiliation-yet it is His exaltation!
The cross is Satan’s victory-yet it is Satan’s defeat!
The cross is the gate of Heaven-and the gate of Hell!
The cross is the key . . .
to God’s character,
to God’s Word,
to God’s ways,
to God’s purposes.
The cross is the summary of all the Bible-the epitome of Scripture Revelation!