Apr 25
3
Two Great Questions
Genesis 3:13 and John 18:35
Here are two great questions I want you to consider. As you consider these two great questions found in the Word of God, I pray that God the Holy Spirit will cause you to know your sin and that he will reveal Christ to you, granting you faith in him.
God’s Question to a Sinner
Here is a question from the holy Lord God addressed to a sinner: — “What is this that thou hast done?” (Genesis 3:13). There was Eve after the fall. She had taken the fruit of the tree, which God had forbidden. She wilfully rebelled against God’s authority, being deceived by the serpent. And when she saw that she was naked before the Lord, she attempted to hide her sin and her nakedness from God by the works of her own hands.
That is exactly what we have done! Our sin, all our sin, is rebellion against God. It arises from a heart of rebellion. Like Eve, because you are a sinner, you are justly condemned by the law of God. Your sin must be punished. Your own conscience tells you that these things are so. But instead of seeking mercy, you have been trying to hide your sin by your own good works. Is that not true? Answer honestly.
You have been trying to make up for your sin by doing good. As God stripped Eve of her fig leaves, so you must be stripped of every confidence in yourself. As the Lord killed an innocent animal for Eve and made clothing for her, so you must have a sacrifice and a righteous clothing that only God can provide. That sacrifice and clothing is the Lord Jesus Christ.
A Sinner’s Question to God
Here is another question, a question from a sinner addressed to the Lord Jesus Christ: — “What hast thou done?” (John 18:35). Though our Lord refused to answer Pilate, he has answered this question for us in the gospel.
This is what Christ has done for sinners. — For the disobedient he rendered perfect obedience to the law of God, establishing perfect righteousness for all who trust him. — For the guilty he died, the Just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. — As the sinner’s Substitute, Christ died upon the cross, satisfying the law and justice of God for the sins of all who believe on him.
Today, the Son of God sits as King in heaven, Lord over all things. As the great High Priest over the house of God, this great Saviour sovereignly rules all things for the salvation of his people. Yonder in heaven, at the Father’s right hand, he makes intercession by the merits of his blood for the salvation of sinners.
Trust him, and in spite of what you have done, he will save you forever by what he has done. God help you to trust him.
Don Fortner
The Great Attraction!
The following is from Spurgeon’s sermon,
“The Great Attraction” No. 775. John 12:32.
Christ dying for sinners is the
great attraction of Christianity!
Since men will not come to him, the crucified
Saviour becomes himself the attraction to men.
He casts out from himself bands of love and
cords of gracious constraint, and binding these
around human hearts, he draws them to himself
by an invincible constraint of grace.
Sinners by nature will not come to Jesus, though
his charms might even attract the blind, and
arouse the dead. They will not melt, though
surely such beauties might dissolve the adamant,
and kindle affection in rock of ice.
But Jesus has a wondrous power about him
to woo and win the sons of men. Out of his
heart proceed chains of gold by which he binds
thousands of willing captives to himself.
Many a heart has been so charmed with his
love, that it has run to Christ, drawn by the
silken bonds of love.
Jesus is the universal attraction, the attraction
to which all hearts must yield when he draws
effectually by his grace.
The attraction of the Crucified One
has bound them to the cross forever!
The gracious Spirit has moved many tender
hearts first to pity, and afterwards to love
the bleeding Lamb.
What a melting power there is in Gethsemane!
Can you view the bloody sweat drops, as they
fall upon the frozen soil, and not feel that, in
some degree, invisible but irresistible cords
are drawing you to Jesus?
Can you see him flagellated in Pilate’s hall, every
thong of the scourge tearing the flesh from his
shoulders? Can you see him as they spit into his
lovely face, and mar his blessed visage, and not
feel as if you could fain fall down and kiss his feet,
and make yourself forever his servant?
And, lastly, can you behold him hanging upon the
hill of Golgotha to die- can you mark him as his
soul is there overwhelmed with the wrath of God,
with the bitterness of sin, and with a sense of
utter desertion- can you sit down and watch him
there and not be attracted to him?
The Cross—the Expression of Man’s Unbelief
By
Horatius Bonar, 1867
But they kept shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Luke 23:21
Crucifixion was the death of the outcast only, the Gentile outcast. Stoning was the Jewish death, crucifying the Gentile death, or rather the Roman death; the death devised and inflicted by the fourth great beast of Daniel, when exercising his power in trampling down the nation of God with his iron feet.
“Crucify him,” then, meant, Let him die the worst of deaths—the Gentile death, the death that is so specially connected with the curse; the death that proclaims Him to be not merely an outcast from Israel, an outcast from Jerusalem—but an outcast from the Gentile, an outcast from the race.
He to whom this cry is directed, is a Gentile ruler; and it is striking to observe the Jew handing over his fellow-Jew to the abhorred Gentile, the conqueror of his city and nation. With what a hatred must these crucifiers have hated their victim—when they give him over to the Gentile to have their utmost malice executed upon him!
He, against whom they thus furiously shout forth their bitterness, is the Son of God; not merely a holy man—but one in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells; one who has been sent of the Father to carry out his purpose of love. It is against “the Word made flesh,” the “only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth,” that the cry is raised, “Crucify him! crucify him! let him die the worst of deaths; not this man—but Barabbas!” It was not his human holiness merely, which excited the hatred and the outcry; it was his divine perfection. It was not merely man hating man because better than himself. Here is man hating God–man seeking to rid himself, and rid the world of God altogether. Here is man seizing the opportunity he now had, in having God in a human form within his power–of eliminating Jehovah–as the Being to whose absolute dominion he would not submit, and whose presence on the earth, in human form, was altogether intolerable!
This teaches us that . . .
For he shall grow up before him as a tender
plant,
and as a root out of a dry ground:
he hath no form nor comeliness;
and when we shall see him,
there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He is despised and
rejected of men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief:
and we hid as it were our faces from him;
he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Isaiah
53:2-3
It is astonishing that with such plain prophecies concerning the Messiah, the
Jews should have made such a fatal mistake in reference to Him. They looked for
a temporal conqueror who would come in splendour,
notwithstanding that this and many other Scriptures speak of His coming
in humiliation in express terms. Every unprejudiced person might have
seen from this passage, that the Messiah when He came, was not to be surrounded
with pomp—but would come as “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with
grief,” and be “despised and rejected by men.”
Though this truth was written as with a sunbeam, and the Jewish people were
acquainted with their own Scriptures—yet when the Messiah came unto them, they
did not received Him. Though favoured with the clearest prophecies concerning
Him, they rejected His claims and cried, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”
This teaches us that the plainest instruction, however earnestly
and forcibly delivered—cannot be rightly understood by the unregenerate
mind. The carnal mind cannot discern spiritual things—its eye is
darkened, and its ear is heavy. The inspired Word itself,
cannot put a spiritual truth so clearly that lost men will understand it—unless
their eyes are opened by the Holy Spirit. Vain is the best light to blind men.
How ardently we should adore the Holy Spirit, that He stoops to our spiritual
blindness—and is pleased to remove the scales, and pour light into our souls.
Whatever we have rightly discerned, has been revealed to us by His teaching,
for apart from His illumination, we would have been as obstinately unbelieving
as the Jews who crucified their King.
“Because the carnal mind is enmity against God;
for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
So then, they that are in the flesh cannot
please God.” Romans 8:7-87
“No man can come to Me, unless the Father which hath sent
Me draw him” John 6:44
“No man can come unto Me, except it were given unto him
of my Father” John 6:65
Oh, the enmity of the carnal mind!
(adapted from Octavius Winslow’s, “The Soul Before Conversion”)
“Because the
carnal mind is enmity against God…”
Romans 8:7
Enmity against God, O awful thought!
Enmity to the best of beings, the dearest of friends!
Enmity to Him whose nature and whose name is love!
Enmity to Him who is holy, yes, holiness itself!
Enmity to Him who is good, yes, goodness itself!
Enmity to Him who is true, yes, truth itself!
Enmity to
Him, outside of whom nothing
is good, nothing holy, nothing true!
Enmity to Him, who gave His Son to die for sinners!
Enmity to Him who died for His enemies!
Enmity to
Jesus who thus died; who ‘flew on wings
of love’ to the rescue and the redemption of fallen
man; who took the place, bore the sins, endured
the curse; who gave His life, His obedience, all He
could give: Himself! All this for the poor, the vile,
the worthless; He suffered, bled and died!
All this for sinners, for rebels, for enemies!
Was not this enough?
Could He have done more?
Son of God, is it for this they hate You, despise You, reject You?
Oh, the enmity of the carnal mind!
Hurl God from His
throne!
(Henry Law, “Forgiveness of Sins”
1875)
“The carnal mind is enmity against God!”
Romans 8:7
If the sinner’s power were equal to his will —
he would invade the heaven of heavens, and
hurl God from His throne! Man’s secret
chambers of imagination swarm with
thoughts tainted with dislike of . . .
God,
His name,
His nature,
His perfections,
His cause,
His people,
His Word,
His sceptre,
His kingdom,
His Christ.
Sin has strong inclinations, and they all
are arrayed against God’s righteous ways.
Sin has an ungodly bias towards the
abominable things which God hates!
“The carnal mind is enmity against God!”
What is man?
(by Don Fortner)
Hebrews 2:6, “What is man, that You are
mindful of him?”
What is man?
In the light of God’s greatness and glory, it is an astonishing thing that God
should be mindful of man-especially when we see the answer given in the Bible
to the question, “What is man?”
Man is set before us in the Word of God as the particular, distinct object of
God’s mercy, love, and grace. But what is man?
Anyone who knows and acknowledges the greatness of
God, will also freely acknowledge the utter
insignificance of man. As soon as David looked up to Heaven and spoke to
God of His greatness-his heart was humbled, his pride was withered, and he
cried, “What is man, that you are mindful of
him?”
It is impossible for anyone to have both great views of God-and
great views of man.
Those who imagine that man is great –
think that God is insignificant.
Those who know that God is great – know
that man is insignificant.
“What is man, that Youare mindful of him?” Here is:
greatness, and littleness;
grandeur, and nothingness;
excellence, and corruption;
majesty, and baseness;
God, and man!
What is man?
The Word of God tells us plainly:
Genesis 3:19, “You are dust, and you will return to
dust.”
Isaiah 40:6, “All men are like grass, and all their glory is
like the flowers of the field.”
Psalm 39:5, “Truly, every man at his best state is altogether
vanity!“
What is man?
Do not ask:
philosophers what they imagine,
educators what they teach,
scientists what they see under microscopes,
psychologists what they see in their clinics, or
sociologists what they learn from observation.
Ask God who made us! He declares in His Word that man is fallen,
depraved, sinful, cursed, condemned, helpless, dying flesh!
Men are grasshoppers before Him.
Men are the dust of the earth, nothing more.
Man is a lump of clay, a puff of smoke, a mist of vapour, the small dust of the
balance, a drop in a bucket.
All the nations of all men in all the world are less than nothing before the
great and infinite God!
Man is insignificant!
God, teach us to know our insignificance, that we may look to Christ for
everything!
There are many exhortations in the Bible with regard to our conduct and how we should live our lives. A man would be a fool to deny that. But, the Bible is not given to tell us how to live, but how to die! People already know how to live because the Law of God has been written on their heart, and they already know what is right and wrong! But, if a man knows how to die, which is looking only to Christ as All in salvation, I have no doubt he will know how to live!
Todd Nibert
“My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation” (James 3:1). Do not aspire to be a teacher! Do not seek to instruct others and straighten them out. Unfortunately, many feel themselves to be qualified for this. They do not realise that they are getting themselves in trouble and will receive greater condemnation! “For in many things we offend all” (James 3:2). When one feels a need to straighten others out, he exposes his own hypocrisy. Being one who offends in many things, he should feel himself to be utterly unqualified to be an instructor of other! “If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body” (James 3:2). When a man learns the art of keeping his mouth shut, he has reached the stage of maturity, and that maturity will be seen in many areas of his life!
Todd Nibert