May 16
7
“WHERE THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS, THERE IS LIBERTY”
Of all bondage and slavery in the world, there is none more horrible than the bondage of sin. Tell me of Israel in Egypt preparing their tale of bricks unsuppled with straw; tell me of the slave beneath the lash of his cruel task-master, and I confess it is a bondage fearful to be borne; but there is one far worse — the bondage of a convinced sinner when he is brought to feel the burden of his guilt; the bondage of a man when once his sins are baying him, like hounds about a weary stag; the bondage of a man when the burden of his sin is on his shoulder — a burden too heavy for his soul to bear — a burden which will sink him forever in the depths of everlasting torment, unless he doth escape from it.
Methinks I see such a person. He hath ne’er a smile upon his face; dark clouds hath gathered on his brow; his songs are groans; his smiles are tears; and when he seems most happy, hot drops of grief roll in burning shower, scalding furrows on his cheek. Ask him what he is, and he tells you he is “a wretch undone.” Ask him how he is, and he confesses that he is “misery incarnate.” Ask him what he shall be, and he says, “he shall be lost in flames forever, and there is no hope.” Behold him alone in his retirement: when he lays his head on his pillow, up he starts again: at night he dreams of torment, and by day he almost feels that of which he dreamed. Such is the poor convinced sinner under bondage. I speak to those who understand it. You have passed through that gloomy Slough of Despond; you have gone through that dark vale of penitence: you have been made to drink the bitter cup of repentance: and I know you will say, “Amen” when I declare that of all bondage this is the most painful — the bondage of the law, the bondage of corruption. “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me” from it? But the Christain is free; he can smile now, though he wept before; he can rejoice now, whereas he lamented. “There is,” he says “no sin upon my conscience now; there is no crime upon my breast; I need not walk through the earth fearful of every shadow, and afraid of every man I meet, for sin is washed away; my spirit is no more guilty; it is pure, it is holy; there no longer resteth the frown of God upon me; but my Father smiles: I see his eyes — they are glancing love: I hear his voice — it is full of sweetness. I am forgiven, I am forgiven, I am forgiven! All hail, thou breaker of fetters! Glorious Jesus! … “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is libery” from the bondage of sin. Charles H. Spurgeon
JUSTIFIED IN CHRIST
We should be in a bad condition indeed, if our salvation was suspended on conditions of our own performing. God’s everlasting love, His decree of election, and the eternal covenant of redemption, are the three hinges on which the door of man’s salvation turns. When man fell from God, infinite justice put a lock upon the door – a lock which nothing but the golden key of Christ’s blood and righteousness can open. The Holy Ghost is, as it were, the omniscient keeper of the door; and He lets no souls in but such as He Himself has washed and justified and sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus, and by His own efficacious grace. I should as soon expect to be saved by my sins as to be saved by my good works. Augustus Toplady
THE ATTITUDE OF THE SAINTS
When the children of God see, hear, and are confronted with the “damnable heresies” of false prophets (2 Peter 2), they should have thoughts of pity and compassion, both for the deceivers and the deceived. And when these pitiful, perishing religionists will not receive us, nor our doctrine, nor our sovereign and gracious Lord, it is not ours to seek their personal destruction, to call down fire upon their heads. That is not the spirit and attitude of the saints (Luke 9:51-56).
If we be stoned like Stephen, that is alright; but we shall die with no stones in our hands. We shall leave these “Sauls of Tarsus” to the pleasure of our sovereign Lord. He just might make a “Paul” out of some of them. However, like Stephen, we shall, as God grants grace and the opportunity, speak plainly and boldly, both of them and to them, of their “stiff-necked” resistance and opposition to the truth, exposing, as best we can, their “damnable heresies” which destroy men’s souls. And, we will not assist them (silence does assist them!), wish them well, or even permit them into our homes, if they come bringing and spreading their false religion (2 John 10-11).
We dare not help a man purchase a shotgun to blow our neighbor’s head off, nor do we assist in doing that which is infinitely worse — murder and destroy the immortal souls of men and women and boys and girls with lies and deception! Why is it that men find this so hard to understand? Why are they horrified and repulsed by physical murder, while showing total indifference to the spiritual slaughter of men’s precious souls? Must it not be because they do not really believe? Is it not because spiritual and eternal things to them are merely dead doctrines, rather than living realities?
Pastor Maurice Montgomery
Deliverance For the Wretched
Chris Cunningham
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 7:24-25)
Paul answers his own question, and what a question! One all believers have asked themselves time and again. This is precisely the mourning our Lord spoke of when He said in Matthew 5:4. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Paul is mourning his own wretchedness, and he is comforted in the realization that through Jesus Christ our Lord, he is and shall be delivered.
This is what David prophesied of in Psalm 102:19 For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth; 20 To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death. Paul is the groaning prisoner here, bound and held captive by his sinful flesh, appointed to the body of this death, and the Lord Jesus hears such from on high and has compassion. He provides Paul with the answer to his groan, which answer, He Himself is.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the answer to every question worth asking. Philosophers and so-called wise men have always asked questions like the following:
What is the origin of man? The answer? The Lord Jesus Christ. John 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
What is the end of man? The answer? The Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 2:9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
What is the purpose of man? The answer? The Lord Jesus Christ. Revelation 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
What is the hope of man? This is essentially what Paul asked in our text. The answer? The Lord Jesus Christ. Paul thanks God that through our Lord Jesus Christ, there is deliverance from the body of this death, deliverance for the soul.
God cannot (will not) save a sinner except through Christ. There is no righteousness for the sinner apart from Christ. There is no payment for sin, no sin-offering God will accept but Christ. Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. There is no other hope of deliverance, but thank God, we need no other. “It is enough that Jesus died, and that He died for me.”
“Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.”
John 6:68
Men and women attend churches for many reasons. To some, the local church is nothing more than a social club, where its members are kept busy with activities that make them feel as though they are doing something profitable for God. To others the local assembly is a place where they can offer their sacrifice of time and money, which they feel to be a fulfillment of their religious responsibility and reasonable service. However to those whom God has done a work of sovereign grace and mercy in their heart, it is the place where they come to hear the words of eternal life. Where else, why else and to whom else would they go? – David Eddmenson
OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS
There is but one human righteousness, and it is Christ, His Person and
work. When we speak of “our Righteousness,” we are speaking of Him, for
He is eternally, the Lord our righteousness (Jer 23:6). In this regard,
as in all others, nothing can be added to, nor taken away from Him. Our
gracious, loving Father has brought us the Best Robe, one woven
throughout, without seam. Nothing we do can mar it, no matter how
hideous our sin, and no imagined goodness that we perform can add a
stitch unto it.
Do not presume that works of faith wrought in and through us by God, Who
worketh in us both to will and do of His good pleasure (Php 2:13), are
meritorious in any way or considered as supplemental to His. If we are
considered in ourselves at all, even based on our best work, we are
undone. And do not despair, though your sin become exceeding sinful to
you. Of God are we in Christ Jesus, Who is made unto us Righteousness
(1Cor 1:30). We have no other, and need no other.
Chris Cunningham