Sep 24
8
This most precious and
suitable Savior!
(Letters of J. C. Philpot)
“For we have not an high priest which can not be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities.” Hebrews 4:15
What a mercy it is to have a faithful and gracious
compassionate High Priest who can sympathise with
His poor, tried, tempted family–so that however
low they may sink . . .
His pitiful eye can see them in their low estate,
His gracious ear hear their cries,
His loving heart melt over them, and
His strong arm pluck them from their
destructions!
Oh what would we do without such a gracious and
most suitable Saviour as the blessed Jesus! How He
seems to rise more and more . . .
in our estimation,
in our thoughts,
in our desires,
in our affections,
as we see and feel what a wreck and ruin we are,
what dreadful havoc sin has made with both body
and soul, what miserable outcasts we are by nature.
But oh how needful it is, dear friend, to be brought
down in our soul to be the chief of sinners, viler than
the vilest, and worse than the worst–that we may
really and truly believe in, and cleave unto, this
most precious and suitable Saviour!
The believer is perfect in Christ, but in himself is a poor feeble creature, ever liable to fall. Oh, the blessedness of having One who can manage all his affairs for him at the right hand of the Majesty in the Heavens: One who upholds him continually by the right hand of His righteousness: One who will never let him go: One who is able to save to the uttermost: One who is the same yesterday, today, and forever: One who will bear him triumphantly through all the difficulties and dangers that surround him and finally, present him faultless before the presence of His Glory with exceeding joy. Blessed forever be the grace that has made such ample provision for all our sins in the Blood of a spotless victim and the intercession of a Divine High Priest.
~Scott Richardson
NO DEALINGS
“Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, how is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.” Jn 4:9.
The woman of Samaria told the Lord Jesus that the religious Jews, out of their self-righteous pride would have no dealings with the Samaritans, people who the Jews considered to be too sinful for salvation. But thank God, the Lord Jesus Christ came to save and to have dealings with sinners. He is the friend of sinners (Matt. 11:19). Christ did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance (Matt. 9:12:13). The Lord Jesus Christ came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). Now the question for us to consider, are we sinners? Yes! Do we need the salvation from the hand of the Lord?
Yes! This is a faithful saying, Christ came to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15).
By preacher, Tom Harding
“That they all may be one: as Thou, Father, are in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us” (John 17:21).
I know that there is a oneness between the Father and the Son in nature, essence, power, and purpose which transcends any kind of union among men. But our Lord prays that “all believers may be one; as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee.” So here on this earth, WE ARE ONE IN FAITH. We all believe Christ, receive Christ, and agree in the main point of the gospel–salvation only in, by, and through our Lord Jesus. WE ARE ONE IN AFFECTION. He is our first love; but, by His grace, we do love one another and are forever knit together in that love. WE HAVE ONE COMMON GOAL–the glory of our blessed Lord. In works of faith and labors of love, in trials or in prosperity, in giving or receiving our song is the same, “To God be the glory.” WE HAVE THE SAME CARE ONE FOR ANOTHER (I Cor. 12:26), “and when one member of His body suffers, all the members of the body suffer with it; or if one member of His body be honored (fulfilled and happy), all the members rejoice with it.” AND BY THIS SHALL ALL MEN KNOW THAT YOU ARE MY DISCIPLES!
~Henry Mahan
He will carry the lambs
in His bosom!
(Charles Spurgeon)
“He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall
gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his
bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” Isaiah
40:11
Who is He of whom such gracious words are spoken?
He is the Good Shepherd.
Why does He carry the lambs in His bosom?
Because He has a tender heart, and any weakness in His people at once melts His
heart. The sighs, the ignorance, the feebleness of the little ones of His
flock-draw forth His compassion. It is His office as a faithful High Priest, to
consider the weak. Besides, He purchased them with blood, they are
His property-He must and will care for that which cost Him so dear!
He is also responsible for each lamb, bound by covenant engagements not to lose
one. Moreover, they are all a part of His glory and reward.
But how may we understand the expression, “He will carry them”?
Sometimes He carries them by not permitting them to endure much trial.
Providence deals tenderly with them.
Often they are “carried” by being filled with an unusual degree of
love-so that they bear up and stand fast. Though their knowledge may not be
deep-they have great sweetness in what they do know.
Frequently He “carries” them by giving them a very simple faith-which
takes the promise just as it stands, and believingly runs with every trouble
straight to Jesus. The simplicity of their faith gives them an unusual degree
of confidence, which carries them above the world.
“He will carry the lambs in His bosom.”
1. Here is boundless affection. Would He put them in His
bosom-if He did not love them so much?
2. Here is tender nearness-so near are they, that they could
not possibly be nearer.
3. Here is hallowed familiarity-there are precious
love-passages between Christ and His weak ones.
4. Here is perfect safety-in His bosom, who can hurt them?
They must hurt the Shepherd first.
5. Here is perfect rest and sweetest comfort.
Surely we are not sufficiently sensible of the infinite tenderness of Jesus!
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they
follow me: 28 and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”
John 10:27-28
All kinds of trials…
-Spurgeon, “The Christian’s Heaviness and Rejoicing”
Ah! even when the Christian is most “in heaviness through
all kinds of trials,” what a mercy it is that he can know that
he is still elect of God!
Any man who is assured that God has “chosen him from
before the foundation of the world,” may well say, “In this we
greatly rejoice.”
Let me be lying upon a bed of sickness, and just revel in this
one thought– Before God made the heavens and the earth,
and laid the pillars of the firmament in their golden sockets, he
set his love upon me; upon the breast of the great high priest
he wrote my name, and in his everlasting book it stands,
never to be erased- “elect according to the foreknowledge
of God.”
“In this we greatly rejoice.”
Come, Christian! you are depressed and cast down.
Think for a moment.
You are chosen of God and precious to him!
Let the bell of election ring in your ear,
and let your name be heard in its notes.
On our learning this lesson, depends our comforting walk heavenward
(Letters of William Romaine,
1714-1795)
When the Holy Spirit takes of the things of Christ and preaches them to the
heart-oh, what a sweet peace follows! The believer then finds himself saved
from all the miseries of sin, and entitled to all the blessings of eternal
glory.
Being thus persuaded of his safety by believing in the sin-atoning death of our
Great High Priest, the Holy Spirit then teaches him how to live upon
Christ, and how to make use of Christ’s fullness. On our learning
this lesson, depends our comforting walk heavenward. For Christ does not
give us a stock of grace and expect us to improve it by being faithful to grace
given. No, no, that is not His way. Our souls must depend upon Him, just as our
bodies do upon the elements of this world. We must
live by faith in Jesus, and be every moment receiving grace upon grace out of
His fullness.
And this is our happiness-to have all in Christ!
A beggar in myself, but rich with unsearchable eternal riches in Him.
Ignorant still in myself, but led and taught by His unerring wisdom.
A sinner still, but saved by His blood and righteousness.
Weak and helpless still, but kept by His Almighty love.
Nothing but sorrow in myself, nothing but joy in Him.
Oh, this is a blessed life!
No tongue can tell what a Heaven it is, thus to live by faith in the
Son of God. Thanks be to Him, that I do know a little of it. Surely I
could not have thought, some years ago, that there was such a Heaven
upon earth as I now find.
“I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for
me!” Galatians 2:20
John Newton’s Letters
Union with Christ
Dear Sir,
The union of a believer with Christ is so intimate, so unalterable, so rich in
privilege, so powerful in influence, that it cannot be fully represented by any
description or similitude taken from earthly things. The mind, like the sight,
is incapable of apprehending a great object, without viewing it on different
sides. To help our weakness, the nature of this union is illustrated, in the
Scripture, by four comparisons, each throwing additional light on the subject,
yet all falling short of the thing signified.
In our natural state, we are driven and tossed about, by the changing winds of opinion, and the waves of trouble, which hourly disturb and threaten us upon the uncertain sea of human life. But faith, uniting us to Christ, fixes us upon a sure foundation, the Rock of Ages, where we stand immovable, though storms and floods unite their force against us.
By nature we are separated from the divine life, as branches broken off, withered and fruitless. But grace, through faith, unites us to Christ the living Vine, from whom, as the root of all fullness, a constant supply of sap and influence is derived into each of his mystical branches, enabling them to bring forth fruit unto God, and to persevere and abound therein.
By nature we are hateful and abominable in the sight of a holy God, and full of enmity and hatred towards each other. By faith, uniting us to Christ, we have fellowship with the Father and the Son, and joint communion among ourselves; even as the members of the same body have each of them union, communion, and sympathy, with the head, and with their fellow-members.
In our natural estate, we were cast out naked and destitute, without pity, and without help, Ezek. 16:1-63; but faith, uniting us to Christ, interests us in his righteousness, his riches, and his honours. Our Redeemer is our husband; our debts are paid, our settlements secured, and our names changed.
Thus the Lord Jesus, in declaring himself the foundation, root, head, and husband, of his people, takes in all the ideas we can frame of an intimate, vital, and inseparable union. Yet all these fall short of truth; and he has given us one further similitude, of which we can by no means form a just conception until we shall be brought to see him as he is in his kingdom. John 17:21: “That they all may be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you; that they also may be one in us.”
Well may we say, What has God wrought! How inviolable is the security, how inestimable the privilege, how inexpressible the happiness, of a believer! How greatly is he indebted to grace! He was once afar off, but he is brought near to God by the blood of Christ: he was once a child of wrath, but is now an heir of everlasting life. How strong then are his obligations to walk worthy of God, who has called him to his kingdom and glory!
Who Must We Know?
John 17:3
In recent weeks and months I have read numerous articles and heard several sermons on the general subject, “How Much Must You Know Before You Can Be Saved?” In essence the men were attempting to prove that Arminians, free-willers and legalists are saved people and are to be embraced as brethren. Upon the surface that seems to be a charitable thing. And I am sure it is the intention of those men to be charitable. But I fear their charity is a delusion. I know it is contrary to both the spirit and letter of Holy Scripture (Rom. 11:6; Gal. 1:6-9; Phil. 3:18; Col. 2:23; Gal. 5:1-4). Anyone who believes that salvation is determined by his free will rather than God’s sovereign will is lost. Anyone who believes that salvation is dependent upon his works to any degree rather than upon Christ’s finished work alone is lost. To tell them that they are saved is not charity, but cruelty! Would you think a doctor charitable who saw a man dying with cancer, if he told the man he was in good health, because he did not want to hurt his feelings? Of course not! Only in the name of religion can a man be applauded for such senseless cruelty.
The issue of a man’s salvation has nothing to do with how much he must know. The issue is who we must know! No man can be saved who does not know the one true and living God as he is revealed in Christ by the gospel. And the Arminian, free-will, works religionist does not know the living God, his Christ, or his gospel. GOD IS SOVEREIGN. If the god you worship can be resisted, defeated, or controlled, you worship a false god, an idolatrous figment of your own imagination. THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS GOD ALMIGHTY. If the Christ you trust is a failure, he is not God, he is a false Christ. If he lived and died to redeem and save a multitude of sinners whom he fails to save, he is a failure. And a failure cannot be God!
The gospel of the grace of God is the revelation of God in Christ. It is a declaration of Christ’s finished work of redemption for sinners. The gospel does not present the possibility of salvation upon some condition to be met by the sinner. It declares the accomplishment of salvation by Christ for every sinner who trusts him. Salvation is not in how much you know, but in who you know. Do you know the Christ of God?
Don Fortner