Mar 25
9
CHRIST THE JUDGE
Though today God is long-suffering with men and is giving the fallen sons of Adam space for repentance THERE IS A DAY OF JUDGMENT AND RIGHTEOUS RETRIBUTION COMING (Rev. 20:11-14). God does not delay his judgment because he lacks the will or the power to judge men, but because he has an elect people whom he has determined to save. As soon as he has saved the last of his elect, judgment will come (II Pet. 3:8-15).
According to the revelation of Holy Scripture, THE JUDGE OF ALL MEN IN THAT GREAT DAY WILL BE THE MAN, CHRIST JESUS (Matt. 13:41-43; 25:31-32; John 5:22-29: Acts 10:42; 17:30-31; Rom. 14:9-12; II Cor. 5: 10)· The judge of the world in that last great day shall be the Son of Man who is the Son of God. This judgment of men by Christ will be both righteous and impartial. All men will receive the exact penalty or reward of strict justice. The wicked shall be judged in strict righteousness according to their works, and receive in a body the just reward of their evil deeds. There will be degrees of punishment in hell, because there are degrees of wickedness. Those who sin against greater light shall receive greater condemnation (Matt. 11:20-24). The righteous shall also be judged in strict righteousness according to their works, and receive in a body the just reward of their righteous deeds. There will be no degrees of reward for the righteous, because there are no degrees of righteousness. All righteous men are perfect men. These are God’s elect, redeemed, justified, and sanctified by Christ. There is no evil recorded against them, because the righteous obedience of Christ to the law is imputed to them (Rom. 5:19). That same law and justice that demands the eternal punishment of every unbeliever, also demands the eternal bliss and glory of every believer, whose names are written in the book of life, because IN CHRIST, BY HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS AND SHED BLOOD, EVERY BELIEVER IS WORTHY OF HEAVEN’S ETERNAL INHERITANCE.
Don Fortner
FREE WILL: SALVATION BY WORKS
To the great majority of people free will is a given. Your destiny is determined by the choice you make. If that is true than man’s free will is sovereign over God’s will, man is not dead in sins, and salvation is by works. After all, the will is the first step in what you do or stop doing in order to be saved. Free will is a denial of salvation by grace! Free will is nonexistent! The will is controlled by the nature. God’s will is controlled by His nature. He is not free to sin or to act contrary to any of His attributes! Man’s will is controlled by his sinful nature. Free will is the lie of the devil that he used to tempt Adam and Eve. He was saying that if they would eat the fruit they would know good and evil, choose the good over the evil, and that would make them like God. Salvation comes either as an act of man’s free will or God’s free grace. These two views oppose one another. It cannot be both! To hold to one is to deny the other. There is no middle ground.
Todd Nibert
Vital Christianity
Colossians 1:27
Vital christianity, all true religion, all true spiritual life is set before us by the Holy Spirit in these seven words: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Vital christianity is real christianity. Anything less than this is a satanic, religious delusion. Here vital christianity is presented in three ways:
THE ESSENCE OF IT – “Christ.” In christianity “Christ is all.” He is the mystery of the gospel (I Tim. 3:16), the riches of the gospel (Eph. 1:3; 3:8), and the glory of the gospel (John 1:14). The essence of godliness, the essence of the gospel, the essence of vital christianity is not a doctrinal creed, a code of conduct, a denominational name, or an emotional experience, but a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Son of God came into this world, assuming our nature, that he might save his people from their sins. Only the incarnate God could do the work. And he has finished it completely (Dan.9:24; Rom.8:34; Heb.10:10-14). This name, or title, by which our Saviour is commonly known, “Christ,” includes all his covenant offices. He is our Prophet, Priest, and King. He is our Saviour, Surety, and Prince. Christ is our Head, Representative, and Substitute, our Daysman, Mediator, and Saviour. In all things and at all times I lean the weight of my immortal soul upon him. Christ is my all! He was my all in the covenant of blessing (Eph. 1:3), his life of obedience (Rom. 5:19), his death at Calvary (Gal. 3:13), and his resurrection glory (Eph. 2:6). Christ is my all as my Advocate in heaven (I John 2:1-2). And he shall be my all in the day of judgment (Rev. 21:27; 22:11). Child of God, whatever Christ did, we have done in him. Whatever Christ is, we are in him. Whatever he has, we must have. Wherever he is, we must be! Be sure you understand this – Christ himself is the essence of christianity and salvation (Lk. 2:30; I Cor. 1:30). Christ alone could satisfy the justice of God. He alone can quieten your conscience, inspire and govern your life, make your soul content, and sustain your heart in the hour of death.
THE EXPERIENCE OF IT – “Christ in you.” Christ in heaven is wonderful. Christ in the gospel is beautiful. Christ in others is hopeful. But Christ in you is salvation! If Christ is in you, he came to be in you by God’s almighty, irresistible, sovereign grace (Eph. 2:1-4). “Christ in you” is Christ born in you (II Pet. 1:4), received by you (John 1:12-13), and possessed by you. When something is in you, it is your property and can never be taken from you (John 6:54-56). Christ in you is Christ reigning your life from within, transforming you into his likeness, and radiating from you (II Cor. 5:17; Gal. 2:20; Acts 4:13).
THE EXPECTATION OF IT – “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Christ is our hope (Lam. 3:24-26). And he is a good hope (II Thess. 2:16). Therefore, we have every reason to expect glory. The Lord God, who brought us grace will bring us to glory (Psa. 84:11). The covenant of grace, the intercession of Christ, and the seal of the Holy Spirit assure every believer of glory in all its fullness!
Don Fortner
The person who says, “I am saved by grace alone and it does not matter how I talk, walk, or conduct my life,” is a fool and neither understands nor loves the grace of God. Our union with the Lord Jesus not only justifies and sanctifies us before the law of God and the court of heaven, but that same regenerating union implants within and imparts unto us A NEW NATURE which delights in the principles and actions of holiness. One cannot separate the blessings of Christ from the indwelling presence of Christ. “He that LOVETH not KNOWETH not!” Learning the doctrine will not produce a new creature, but “learning Christ” will.
Henry Mahan
The false doctrine of universal redemption!
C.H.Spurgeon
“I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the
sheep!” John 10:11
I would like to die talking of this blessed doctrine of substitutionary
atonement and I intend, by divine grace, to live proclaiming it, for
it is the keystone of the Gospel! Jesus Christ literally took upon Himself the
transgression and iniquity of His people, and was made a curse for
them, seeing that they had fallen under the wrath of God! For them, He has
taken away the penalty and the curse due to sin.
The false doctrine of universal redemption–that Christ died for the
damned in Hell and suffered the torment of those who afterwards are tormented
forever–seems to me to be detestable, subversive of the whole Gospel, and
destructive of the only pillar upon which our hopes can be built!
Christ stood in the place of His elect–for them He made a full
atonement–for them He so suffered that not a sin of theirs shall ever be laid
at their door. As the Father’s love embraced them–so the death of His Son
reconciled them.
We hold most firmly the doctrine of particular redemption–that
Christ loved His Church, and gave Himself for it.
The only limit of the atonement is in its design–and that
design was that Christ should give eternal life to as many as the Father has
given Him.
“Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for
it!” Ephesians 5:25
Where is Christ in your
theological system?
C.H.Spurgeon
“And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what
was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself.” Luke 24:27
“These are the Scriptures that testify about Me!” John
5:39
Take this Book and distill it into one word-and that one word will be JESUS!
The Bible itself, is but the body of Christ, and we may look upon all its pages
as the swaddling bands of the infant Saviour – for if we unroll the Scripture,
we come upon Jesus Christ Himself.
Where is Christ in your theological system? He Himself is . . .
the Doctor and Doctrine,
the Revealer and Revelation,
the Illuminator and the Light of men.
He is exalted in every word of truth, because He is its sum and substance.
He sits above the gospel, like a prince on His own throne.
Doctrine is most precious, when we see it distilling from His lips and embodied
in His person.
Sermons are only valuable, in proportion as they speak of Him and point to Him!
That is what some of
you were!
J.C.Philpot
The Holy Spirit undertakes to sanctify the objects
of the Father’s eternal choice, and of the Son’s
redeeming death.
Sanctification is as needful, as indispensable
for the Church’s salvation, as redemption!
For O! how low was the Church sunk in the Adam fall! The
image of God, in which she was created–how defaced and
as if blotted out! Death spreading itself with fatal effect
over her every mental and bodily faculty! Sin, like a hideous
leprosy, infecting her to the very heart’s core! A thousand
base lusts plunging her deeper and deeper into a sea of
guilt and crime! Enmity against God boiling up in waves
of ceaseless rebellion! Satan tyrannising over her with
cruel sway, sometimes drawing and sometimes driving,
but by one or the other dragging her without hope or
help towards the brink of the bottomless pit!
Hear that bold blasphemer!
See that drunken, raving prostitute!
Look at that murderer with his blood-red hand
stealing off from his mangled victim!
Or, if you shrink from such sounds and such sights, picture
to your imagination the vilest wretch who ever disgraced
human nature–and you see in that portrait the features of
the Church as implicated in the Adam fall–and sunk into
original and actual transgression!
What a work, then, was undertaken by that most gracious
and condescending Spirit, who solemnly pledged Himself,
in the eternal covenant, to sanctify such wretches, and
to fit and frame them to be partakers of holiness, and
live forever in God’s spotless presence!
It were easier for the wolf to dwell with the lamb, and
the leopard to lie down with the sheep–than for ungodly
sinners, unwashed, unregenerated, unsanctified, to dwell
forever before the throne of God and of the Lamb!
But O, the wonders of wisdom, grace, and love!
Sinners, the vilest sinners,
the worst of wretches, the
basest of mortals–can and will enter through the gates
into the holy city!
Paul, having enumerated some of the vilest crimes which
stain human nature and sink it below the beasts that perish,
says, And that is what some of you were! “But ye are
washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in
the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
1 Corinthians 6:11
To be washed and sanctified is as needful, as indispensable
as to be justified.
At the cross alone
(J.C.Philpot,
“Meditations on the Blessed Redeemer”)
“But of him are ye in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and
sanctification, and redemption:” 1 Corinthians
1:30
“But God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is
crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”
Galatians 6:14
An experimental knowledge of crucifixion with his
crucified Lord, made Paul preach the cross–not only
in its power to save, but in its power to sanctify.
The cross is not only the meritorious cause of all
salvation–but is the instrumental cause of all
sanctification. As there is no other way of salvation
than by the blood of the cross–sothere is no other
way of holiness than by the power of the cross.
Through the cross, that is, through union and
communion with Him who suffered upon it, not
only is there a fountain opened for all sin–but
for all uncleanness!
All our . . .
pardon and peace,
acceptance and justification,
happiness and holiness,
wisdom and strength,
victory over the world,
mortification of the body of sin and death,
hope and confidence,
prayer and praise,
gracious feelings,
spiritual desires,
warm supplications,
honest confessions,
godly sorrows for sin,
spring from the cross!
At the cross alone can we . . .
be made wise unto salvation,
become righteous by a free justification,
receive of His Spirit to make us holy, and
be redeemed and delivered from . . .
sin, Satan, death and hell.
To the cross we are to bring . . .
our sorrows,
our trials,
our temptations,
our sufferings,
to get life from His death,
pardon and peace from His atoning blood,
justification from His divine obedience, and
resignation to the will of God from His holy example.
At the cross alone is . . .
the world crucified to us, and we to the world;
sin mortified, and its reigning power dethroned;
the old man crucified and put off, and the new man put on.
For the most part, it is only through a long series of . . .
afflictions,
bereavements,
disappointments,
vexations,
illnesses,
pains of body and mind,
hot furnaces, and
deep waters,
as sanctified to his soul’s profit by the Holy Spirit,
that the child of God comes to the cross.