May 18
14
In John 14:6 Christ is said to be, the way, the truth and the life. In 1 Co 1:30 Christ is said to be made unto me, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. This covers all that I need to stand in God’s presence, only a fool would look for more. Pastor John Chapman
Prevenient Grace
What is Prevenient Grace? It is grace before grace, or that which is pre (before) convenient (purposed to an end)? In fact, it is everything, (yes, everything) a child of God experiences in life and thought prior to being effectually called to Christ by the Holy Spirit. Our Heavenly Father knows each one of His children perfectly. He has ordained a perfect set of circumstances for each one of them to be able to hear the gospel and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. In the hand of our merciful, loving Father, it really is… “All Good”.
Because the reprobate enjoys the benefits of living in a world where God is providing for His people, some speak of God’s “common” grace. There is nothing “common” about God’s grace, and there is no such thing as grace that is not saving grace. Only God’s elect receive God’s grace, and everything they receive is by God’s grace. “I know the thoughts I have for you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” Jer. 29:11. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to His purpose.” Rom. 8:28. –Greg Elmquist
1 Now from the garden to the cross,
Let us attend the Lamb of God.
Be all things else accounted dross,
Compared with sin atoning blood.
2 See, how the patient Jesus stands,
Insulted in his lowest case:
Sinners have bound the Almighty’s hands;
And spit in their Creator’s face.
3 With thorns his temples gored and gashed,
Send streams of blood from every part.
His back’s with knotted scourges lashed:
But sharper scourges tear his heart.
4 Nailed naked to the accursed wood;
Exposed to earth, and heaven above,
A spectacle of wounds and blood;
A prodigy of injured love!
5 Hear how his doleful cries affright
Affected angels, while they view.
His friends forsook him in the night;
And now his God forsakes him too.
6 O what a field of battle’s here!
Vengeance and love their powers oppose:
Never was such a mighty pair;
Never were two such desperate foes.
7 Behold that pale, that languid face,
That drooping head, those cold dead eyes!
Behold, in sorrow and disgrace,
Our conquering Hero hangs and dies!
8 Ye that assume his sacred name,
Now tell me, what can all this mean?
What was it bruised God’s harmless Lamb!
What was it pierced his soul, but sin?
9 Blush, Christian, blush; let shame abound,
If sin affects thee not with woe,
Whatever spirit’s in thee found,
Christ’s Spirit thou didst never know.
Joseph Hart “The Crucifixion”
CASTING DOWN THE WORKER OF INIQUITY
Psalm 36: 1: The transgression of the wicked, saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes. 2: For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful…. 5: Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. 6: Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast 7: How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings…9: For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light…12: There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise.
When my old man of sin begins to reign over me, the only way I am delivered is by the Spirit of Christ. He speaks into my new man making me see that my sinful flesh is “the wicked worker of iniquity.” When I think myself anything more, the Spirit reveals it is only my sinful flesh “flattering himself in his own eyes.” But the lust of my flesh can only flatter “until his iniquity be found to be hateful.” The Holy Spirit renews my new man, making the iniquity of my sinful flesh hateful to me. Then, beholding my own sinful flesh, “the transgression of the wicked, saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes.”
Then the Spirit magnifies God my Father and my Lord Jesus to me bringing me to praise him for his unchanging mercy, faithfulness, righteousness and lovingkindess by which he preserves me when I am more beast than man. Once again, he brings me to trust under the shadow of his wings.
Then I am brought to give God, through my Lord Jesus Christ, all the glory for once again delivering me from the body of this death. Lord, once again you have shown me that with thee is the fountain of life: in thy Light shall we see light. There, in Christ thy Light, is the worker of iniquity within me, once again, fallen: there, in Christ thy Light, is he cast down within me. And as long as you make me see light in thy Light, Lord, he shall not be able to rise.
A PICTURE OF FAITH
Exodus 12: 8: And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
We may have considered the application of the blood over the doorpost as a picture of faith. But the blood was applied by the elder who was head of his house. (Ex 12: 21-22) Christ is the Elder who is Head of his house. (Heb 3: 5-6) Through the Holy Spirit, Christ sprinkles the hearts of his people with his blood, making with us God’s everlasting covenant of grace. Moses also pictured Christ performing this work when Moses sprinkled the children of Israel with the blood of a lamb, enjoining the first covenant of works to them. (Heb 9: 14, 18-23) But in this eighth verse, we have an instructive picture of faith in Christ and repentance from dead works.
They shall eat the flesh in that night. In the same night the elder applied the blood to the doorpost of their house they ate the flesh of the paschal lamb. As soon as Christ applies his blood to our hearts, we are made willing to eat Christ’s body and drink his blood by believing on him. (Jn 6: 53-57)
Roast with fire. They did not make the lamb to be roasted with fire by eating it. They ate the lamb that, in type, had already borne the fire for them. Faith does not make Christ’s work to be effectual for me. Rather, faith believes on Christ who has already borne the fire of God’s justice on my behalf, confessing, “I AM crucified with Christ” (Gal 2: 20), “our old man IS crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” (Rom 6: 5)
And unleavened bread. Leaven typifies sin. Christ made us righteous by his work for us on the cross—“Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity.” Christ makes us holy by his work in us in regeneration—“And in whose spirit there is no guile.” (Ps 32: 2) Thereby, “Ye ARE unleavened.” Therefore, we keep the feast “not with the old leaven” adding our self-righteous works, “but with the unleavened bread of TRUTH” resting in Christ our Righteousness. “Neither with the leaven of MALICE and WICKEDNESS” adding our self-sanctifying works, “but with the unleavened bread of SINCERITY” worshipping with a holy heart by Christ our Sanctification. (1 Cor 5: 7-8) “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in SPIRIT and in TRUTH.” (Jn 4: 24)
And with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Accompanying God-given faith in Christ is God-given repentance from our sin. “I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in BITTERNESS for him, as one that is in BITTERNESS for his firstborn.” (Zech 12: 10)