Mar 16
19
THE Promise of God
Maurice Montgomery
The promises of God, “said one man, “are like the clothes we wear; if there is life in the body, they warm us, but not otherwise. Where there is living faith, God’s promises afford warm comfort.” Thus we can say with Luther, “Although I am a sinner, yet I despair not; for Christ, who is my Redeemer and righteousness, liveth. In Him I have no sin, no fear, no sting of conscience, and no fear of judgment. In Christ there is no condemnation. I am indeed a sinner as touching this present life, but I have a righteousness of God which is above this life, who is Christ my Lord. In Him I rejoice.”
TRANSCENDENTLY ABLE
“This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose”—
“Unto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.” Ephesians 3:20
Could the Israelites at Elim fail to recall their immediately preceding wilderness experience? It was the depressing and discouraging one at Marah, where their longings and hopes were mocked with the bitter pool. But the God of the cloudy pillar made it the occasion of manifesting His wondrous power and boundless resources, showing that “with Him all things are possible.” A tree cast into the acrid waters transformed them into sweetness.
In all the difficulties, perplexities, and emergencies of the spiritual life, we may well rest with the consolatory question, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”—rejoicing in Him, who, as the true Healing Tree, changes—often reverses—the bitterest experiences. His hand is “never shortened that it cannot save.”
Wondrous and beautiful is the expression of the Great Apostle which heads this meditation—that verse with its grand repetition of words—its significant and touching repetition. See how the gradation rises. See how he mounts, as by a golden ladder, to his magnificent climax! Christ is “able to do,” Christ is “able to do abundantly,” Christ is “able to do abundantly above all that we ask or think.”—And then, as if he had not unburdened his soul of the full truth, the “goodly matter” his heart was composing, he adds another stone to the pyramid—”Exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.”
Let us rejoice in such a complete Savior as this, sufficient for all temporal and all spiritual necessities: who can bind up the broken body; who can bind up the broken soul; ease the aching head, and quiet the aching spirit; who can reclaim the wandering and save the lost. What earthly friend can help us so? Who else, but He, can fill with His presence and love the gap in the sorrow-stricken heart? But He can; He does! Lover and friend may be put far from us; what we once most cherished and doted on may be stricken with inevitable change; the roof where childhood reveled may be a heap of ruins, or inhabited by strangers; the parents’ arms that clasped us as we lisped our infant prayer, or which smoothed our pillows in sickness, may be decaying in the dust; voices that cheered us on the pilgrimage may be hushed in appalling silence.
But here is One who is Father, Brother, Physician, Friend, Home, ALL! His power intervenes and upholds where other resources fail or reveal their inadequacy. No storm can overturn that Home of unblighted love! No envious whisper can estrange that true Friend! No King of terrors can paralyze the Everlasting arms! “The Lord lives, and blessed be my Rock, and let the God of my salvation exalted.” Oh! blessed it is for the broken and downcast in the hour of crushing disappointment, or baffled plans, or defeated hope, or blighted affection: or, more than all, in that moment of greatest agony, when returning from the grave to the silent house of bereavement—entering the lessened fold, and marking the empty place in the flock—blessed it is to feel the Abiding Friend filling the empty place and the aching heart; challenging our trust and reliance in His ability thus to do for us “exceeding abundantly.” Life’s Elim-palms may be gone, but the Divine Pillar-cloud remains! “I will never leave you; I will (lit.) never, never, never forsake you.”
He gives too, not only above what we ask, but above what we think. Whatever our thoughts may be, His thoughts of love transcend them. Able to do for us, and willing to do for us, in a measure exceeding our highest conceptions. What a treasure-house of thoughts is every human bosom! What a strange history it would be (of hope, joy, fear, sadness, and brightness), were each heart unfolded! But it is, indeed, a precious assurance to every child of God, that for every thought of his (be they anxious, disquieting, misgiving), there is a counterpart comfort. For the multitude of thoughts there is a corresponding multitude of consolations! “Many, O Lord my God, are Your thoughts which are toward us. The things You planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare.” No, truly, God’s comforting thoughts outweigh and outbalance all our experiences of sadness and sorrow. “For a small moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercies will I gather you. In a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on you!”
“Great our need, but greater far
Is our Father’s loving power;
He upholds each mighty star,
He unfolds each tiny flower.
Ask not how, but trust Him still;
Ask not when, but wait His will;
Simply on His word rely,
God shall all your need supply.
“Can we count redemption’s treasure,
Scan the glory of God’s love?
Such shall be the boundless measure
Of His blessing from above.
All we ask, or think, and more,
He will give in bounteous store;
No good thing will He deny,
God shall all your need supply.”
“Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.”
John MacDuff.
PURE AND FREE GRACE
Everyone likes purity. They also like free things. If you are someone who enjoys pure and free things, listen carefully, and I will tell you of the purest, freest thing I know of.
The Grace of God, it is PURE and FREE! What do I mean? That God’s grace is born in the heart of God Himself, that it is given to sinners in Christ Jesus without condition. God’s Grace is like Himself – eternal. There is never any reason found in the recipient of it. It comes unasked, unsought, and undeserved. If it is ever deserved it is not grace. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).
To show us how pure and free the Grace of God is, the scriptures tell us it was given to God’s elect on purpose and before the world began. Listen, “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Timothy 1:9). How free, how pure is the Grace of God in Christ? “But when it pleased God who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace…” (Galatians 1:15).
What do I mean that Grace is Free? First, that there are no conditions required by God. If there were that, then it would not be grace. If you had to meet some condition before God would give you his grace it would be a debt he owed you for meeting the condition, and then it would cease to be grace.
I can hear the freewill work monger say, “You must repent and believe before you can be saved!” That is true – but what the scriptures teaches is that repentance and faith are the gifts of God’ grace. They are the results of the new birth; life must precede any spiritual acts. Christ has “ascended up on high, led captivity captive (all that held sinner’s captive, sin and death) and gave gifts unto men” (Ephesians 4:7-8).
God requires perfection and we, as sinners cannot give it. God is just – he cannot lower his requirements. How then can he give his grace and salvation to imperfect sinners? By Christ, who was “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” God’s justice demands death for sin, “He made Him to be sin for us” (God demands righteousness from sinners), “that we might be made the righteousness of God IN HIM” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Because of the doing and dying of Jesus Christ, God can justly give us repentance and faith through Him.
Christ as a sinless perfect man met all the conditions required by God. He gave us grace in Christ on purpose before the world began; it was not according to our works. If it was given us before the world began and on purpose, what did we have to do with it? “Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:9). If you boast of any work before God, you fly in the face of God, the work of Christ, and God’s holy word. If you are saved by anything YOU DO, then you “frustrate the grace of God, and Christ is dead in vain” (Galatians 2:21). Salvation is “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:4-6). Folks read your Bibles.
Donald Bell.
Whatsoever The Lord Pleased
Psalm 135:6
THERE are many precious truths taught throughout the Bible, but there is one that seems to gleam and radiate on every page of Holy Scripture, that of divine sovereignty, our God is God (Isa. 46:9-12). He is on a throne of absolute and universal dominion directing, controlling, ruling, regulating all things after His wise and eternal counsel (Eph. 1:11). “Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in Heaven above and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places (Psalm 135:6). What does the scriptures teach that it pleased the Lord to do? There are many things we could consider, but there are five that are plainly revealed in scripture.
1) It pleased the Lord to make you His people! (1 Sam. 12:22).
Israel of old provides us a good picture of God’s sovereign electing love. He passed by all the other nations and set his heart upon Israel. Did they merit His favor? certainly not; read the record, “Ah a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity.” He set His love on them because of a covenant made with Abraham. Likewise, we do not merit God’s electing love. He chose His spiritual Israel unconditionally, there was nothing in them to merit His love. He set His love on us because of the eternal covenant of grace made with our Surety, Jesus Christ (Heb. 7:22; 2 Thes. 2:13).
2) It pleased the Lord to bruise His Son! (Isa. 53:10).
Jesus Christ stood as the Mediator of the people that were given Him in eternity (John 6:37). In order to redeem them and save them He had to shoulder their sin debt, that’s what happened at Calvary, substitution and satisfaction (2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Jn. 3:5). He made an effectual atonement for the sin of His covenant people (Hebrews 2:17).
3) It pleased God by the preaching of the gospel to effectually call out His elect! (1 Cor. 1:17-24).
God in His perfect wisdom purposed to reveal the gospel through the very means this world calls foolishness (2 Cor. 4:5-7). His sheep are made to hear the effectual call of the gospel through the preaching of the Word and the revelation of the Holy Spirit (John 10:27-30; 1 Cor. 2:10-14).
4) It pleased God to save His people by His grace! (Gal. 1:15).
When will a man be saved? The only scriptural answer is when it pleases God in sovereign grace to do so (2 Tim. 1:9; Phil. 1:6). Salvation is always by the free grace of God (Rom. 3:24), not by the free will of a depraved sinner (Rom. 9:10-16).
5) It pleased God to put all spiritual blessings in Christ! (Col. 1:19).
Only in our Lord Jesus Christ is the fullness of redemption, righteousness, & reconciliation to be found (1 Cor. 1:30). The believer in Christ stands perfectly complete and accepted before an all demanding God (Eph. 1:3-6).
Pastor Thomas Harding