Jun 12
9
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.” Titus 3:5, 6
The conversion of a sinner to God is a convincing and precious evidence that Jesus is alive. In the regeneration wrought in the soul by the Holy Spirit, the life of Jesus is imparted. He breathes into the soul morally dead the breath of life, and it becomes a living soul. Until, in the exercise of His distinct office, this Divine Person of the adorable Trinity convinces of sin, quickens and brings the soul to Christ for acceptance, risen with Christ though that soul mystically is, it yet remains totally dead to, and insensible of, its great privilege—an utter stranger to that new life which springs from oneness with the “second Adam.” The new nature which the Eternal Spirit now imparts is nothing less than the creation of the life of Christ in the soul; yes, even more than this, it is the bringing of Christ Himself into the soul to dwell there the “hope of glory” through time, and glory itself, through eternity.
Here, then, is an evidence that Jesus is alive, to a renewed mind the most convincing and precious. Thus quickened by the Eternal Spirit, believers become temples of Christ. Jesus lives in them. “I in them.” “Know you not that Christ is in you?” “Christ lives in me.” “Christ in you the hope of glory.” Thus every believer is a living witness that Jesus is alive, because he bears about with him the very life of Jesus. By the indwelling of the Spirit, and realized by faith, Christ abides in the believer, and the believer abides in Christ. “I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one; that they also may be one in us.”
We have already stated that this glorious entrance of Christ within the soul transpires at the period of the new birth. What, then, is every new conversion, every fresh trophy of redeeming grace, but a new manifestation to the universe of the life of Jesus? I see the sinner pursuing his mad career of folly, rebellion, and guilt. Suddenly he is arrested, I see him bowed to the earth, his heart broken with sorrow, his spirit crushed beneath the burden of sin. He smites upon his breast; acknowledges his transgression, confesses his iniquity, deplores it in the dust. Presently I see him lift his eye, and rest it upon a bleeding Savior; he gazes, wonders, believes, adores—is saved! By whom is this miracle of grace wrought?—The Spirit has descended to testify that Jesus is alive. That newly-converted soul, so lately dead in sins, but now quickened with Christ—that sinner but recently dwelling among the tombs, whom no human power could tame, now sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind—demonstrates that Christ is in heaven, and is alive, for evermore. Oh, it is the heaven-descending life of Jesus. Show me, then, a soul just passed from death unto life, and I will show you an evidence that Jesus is alive at the right hand of God. Octavius Winslow.
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God’s house?
(J. C. Philpot, “Servants and Sons” 1841)
In the New Testament Scriptures, we find mention made in several places of “the house of the God.” The New Testament never, in any one instance, means, by “the house of God,” any material building.
It has come to pass, through the traditions received from the fathers, that . . . buildings erected by man, collections of bricks and mortar, piles of squared and cemented stones, are often called “the house of God.” In ancient Popish times they invested a consecrated
building with the title of “God’s house”, thus endeavoring to make it appear as though it were a holy place in which God specially dwelt. They thus drew off the minds of the
people from any internal communion with God, and possessed them with the idea that He was only to be found in some holy spot, consecrated and sanctified by rites and ceremonies.
The same leaven of the Pharisees has infected the Church of England; and thus she calls her consecrated buildings, her piles of stone and cement, “churches,” and “houses of God.”
And even those who profess a purer faith, who dissent from her unscriptural forms, have learned to adopt the same carnal language, and even they, through a misunderstanding of what “the house of God” really is, will call such a building as we are assembled in
this morning, “the house of God.”
How frequently does the expression drop from the pulpit, and how continually is it heard at the prayer meeting, “coming up to the house of God,” as though any building now erected by human hands could be called the house of the living God.
It arises from a misunderstanding of the Scriptures, and is much fostered by that priestcraft which is in the human heart, inciting us to believe that God is to be found only in certain buildings set apart for His service.
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New Testament believers met in HOMES.
” . . . the church that meets in their home.” Romans 16
” . . . who gather in their home for church meetings.” 1 Cor. 16:19
” . . . the church in her house.” Col. 4:15
” . . . the church that meets in your house.” Philemon 1:2
“He shall build the temple of the Lord; and He shall bear the glory.” (Zechariah 6:13)
Not only does the Lord Jesus Christ actually and truly build this temple, but He will get all the glory in doing so. If we fail to get into heaven, it will be laid to His charge. If we are not made fit for the glory which shall be revealed in us, then He must have an excuse for the reason why. If we have one spot of sin upon us and thereby barred from the celestial gates, He will have the shame.
BUT perish the thought! As He is so are we in every respect of the terms and conditions which must satisfy God’s demands! It is His work, and therefore it is His glory! That removes all the pressure and stress or whatever you wish to call the issues which will come to mind when we stand before our God in that day of days. “He shall bear the glory,” and He will be praised to the glory of His marvelous grace in the saving and sealing of our souls. It can not be otherwise, and that has made me glad. Drew Dietz.
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Isaiah 33: 20: Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities:
(For a commentary on Isaiah 33-35 read Hebrews 12)
We behold that we are compassed about with a great cloud of witnesses, the spirits of just men made perfect. Not one has ever been plucked out of his hand. We behold the King in his beauty–Jesus the Author and Finisher of faith who despised the shame and is set down on the right hand of the throne of God–the Mediator of the everlasting covenant–whose blood demands our eternal salvation. We behold “the LORD our judge, the LORD our lawgiver, the LORD our king; he will save us.” Our Lord promises his lame children that we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Though our iniquities are many, our gracious Lord says in Christ, thy sins are forgiven!- Clay Curtis.
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He chose you to be trophies of His grace! (Charles Spurgeon)
“You yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 2:5
God builds a palace for Himself in heaven, made of ‘living stones’. Where did He get them? Has He brought forth the richest and the purest marble from the fine quarries of Paris? No! Christians, look to “the hole of the pit where you were dug out of, and to the rock where you were cut from!” You were full of sin. Far from being stones that were white with purity—you were black with defilement, seemingly utterly unfit to be stones in the spiritual temple, which would be the dwelling-place of the Most High God. And yet, He chose you to be trophies of His grace!
Goldsmiths make exquisite jewelry from precious materials; they fashion the bracelet and the ring from gold. But God makes His jewels out of base materials. From the black pebbles of the defiling brooks—He has taken up stones, which He has set in the golden ring of His immutable love, to make them gems to sparkle on His finger forever. He has not selected the best—but apparently the worst of men—to be the monuments of His grace!
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The vermilion cement!
by Spurgeon
The church is not a heap of stones thrown together; she is a BUILDING. Of old, her architect devised her. Methinks I see him, as I look back into old eternity making the first outline of his church. “Here” says he in his eternal wisdom, “shall be the corner stone, and there shall be the pinnacle.” I see him ordaining her length, and her breadth, appointing her gates and her doors with matchless skill, devising every part of her, and leaving no single portion of the structure unmapped. I see him, that mighty architect, also choosing to himself every stone of the building, ordaining its size and its shape; settling in his mighty plan the position each stone shall occupy, whether it shall glitter in front, or be hidden in the back, or buried in the very center of the wall. I see him marking not merely the bare outline, but all the fillings up–
all being ordained, decreed, and settled, in the eternal covenant, which was the divine plan of the mighty architect upon which the church is to be built. Looking on, I see the architect choosing a ‘corner stone’. He looks to heaven, and there are the angels, those glittering stones- he looks at each one of them from Gabriel down;
but, says he, “None of you will suffice. I must have a corner stone that will support all the weight of the building, for on that stone every other one must lean. Gabriel, you will not suffice! Raphael you must lay by- I cannot build with you.” Yet was it necessary that a stone should be found, and one too that should be taken out of the same quarry as the rest. Where was he to be discovered? Was there a man who
would suffice to be the corner stone of this mighty building? Ah no! neither apostles, prophets, nor teachers would. Put them altogether, and they would be as a foundation of quicksand, and the house would totter to its fall.
Mark how the divine mind solved the difficulty– “God shall become man, very man, and so he shall be of the same substance as the other stones of the temple, yet shall
he be God, and therefore strong enough to bear all the weight of this mighty structure, the top whereof shall reach to heaven.” I see that foundation stone laid. Is there singing at the laying of it? No. There is weeping there. The angels gathered
round at the laying of this first stone; sad look the men and wonder, the angels weep; the harps of heaven are clothed in sackcloth, and no song is heard. They sang together and shouted for joy when the world was made, why don’t they shout now? Look here and see the reason– that stone is imbedded in blood! That corner stone must lie nowhere else but in his own gore! The vermilion cement drawn from his own sacred veins must imbed it! And there he lies, the first stone of the divine edifice! Oh, begin your songs afresh, you angels, it is over now. The foundation stone is laid; the terrible ceremony is complete! And now, where shall we gather the stones to build this temple? The first is laid, where are the rest? Shall we go and
dig into the sides of Lebanon? Shall we find these precious stones in the marble quarries of kings? No. Where are you flying, you laborers of God? Where are you going? Where are the quarries? And they reply– “We go to dig in the quarries of Sodom and Gomorrah, in the depths of sinful Jerusalem, and in the midst of erring Samaria.” I see them clear away the rubbish. I mark them as they dig deep into
the earth, and at last they come to these stones. But how rough, how hard, how unhewn are these stones. Yes, but these are the stones ordained of old in the
decree, and these MUST be the stones, and not others. There must be a change effected. These must be brought in and shaped and cut and polished, and put into their places. I see the workmen at their labor. The great ‘saw’ of the law cut through the stone, and then comes the ‘polishing chisel’ of the gospel. I see the stones lying in their places, and the church is rising. The ministers, like wise master-builders,
are there running along the wall, putting each spiritual stone in its place; each stone is leaning on that massive corner stone, and every stone depending on the blood, and finding its security and its strength in Jesus Christ, the corner stone, elect, and precious. See the building rise as each one of God’s chosen is brought in, called by grace and quickened! Lo! the structure rises, and it is complete, and at last it is built.
And now open wide your eyes, and see what a glorious building this is– the church of God! Here is the house where God delights to dwell– built of living hearts, all beating with holy love– built of redeemed souls, chosen of the Father, bought with the blood of Christ. The top of it is in heaven. Part of them are above the clouds.
Many of the living stones are now in the pinnacle of paradise. We are here below- the building rises, the sacred masonry is heaving, and, as the corner stone rises, so all of us must rise until at last the entire structure from its foundation to its pinnacle shall be heaved up to heaven, and there shall it stand for ever– the new Jerusalem– the temple of the majesty of God!