Mar 13
9
I am sure you have seen the popular religious slogan used by so-called churches today: “The Church Where Everybody Is Somebody”. Fact is, the church is a place where everybody is a nobody. The Church is made of unworthy sinners. All members know that. Ask them. Ask Jacob, he will tell you: “I am not worthy of the least of [God’s] mercies.” Ask Abraham: “I am but dust and ashes.” Ask Job: “I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.” Ask David: “Who am I, O Lord God? and what is my house, that Thou hast brought me hitherto?” Ask Mephibosheth: “What is thy servant that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?” Ask John: “I must decrease.” Ask Paul: “I am less than the least of all the saints.” Ask any of the saints of God and they will all tell you that they are nothing. “You see your calling don’t you brethren? how God hath chosen … things which are not” (I Cor. 1:26-28). As Matthew Henry once said: “Since God made everything from nothing, if He is going to make anything out of us, we have to be a nothing.” Scripture says, “If any man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself” (Gal. 6:3).
Do you know yourself to be a worthless, helpless, useless, sinful nobody? … that God doesn’t need you and that the Kingdom of God doesn’t need you? If so … welcome to the family of God! For the church is a place where everybody is a nobody and Jesus Christ is Somebody … the only One Who is of real value and worth, yea the altogether lovely One, the Holy One of God. As the people said of David, so say the saints of the Son of David: “Thou art worth ten thousand of us!” The saints in Heaven are singing to the Lord Jesus Christ right now, “Thou art worthy.”
But wait! God says of the saints on earth, “Ye are the salt of the earth … of whom the world is not worthy.” This is a wonderful paradox, that all who see themselves unworthy, He calls worthy. All who call themselves unclean, God pronounces clean. All who feel they are nothing, God says they are His jewels, His peculiar treasure! Why? Because Christ hath made them righteous, holy, worthy. Because He died for them, and because of the invaluable price He paid, they are now of infinite worth to Him and the Father. Because Christ is formed in them, they are now fruitful, faithful, obedient and full of goodness. That is what God says of them. Isn’t that what you think of them? All the saints are told to esteem others better than themselves. We feel that we are nothing, less than the least, not fit to be called a disciple, but highly esteem our brethren. That’s as it should be. We think ourselves to be nothing while esteeming our brethren very highly. A wonderful thing isn’t it? That though we are nothing in ourselves, yet, in Christ, we are called sons of the God!
–Paul Mahan
The whole apparatus of religion
(J. C. Philpot, “Reviews”)
“I see that you are very religious in every way.”
Acts 17:22
Religion, in some shape or other, is indispensable
to the very existence of civilized society. There is
a natural religion–as well as a spiritual religion.
Natural conscience is the seat of the former;
a spiritual conscience the seat of the latter.
One is of the flesh–the other of the Spirit.
One for time–the other for eternity.
One for the world–the other for the elect.
One to animate and bind men together as
component members of society–the other to
animate and bind the children of God together
as component members of the mystical body
of Christ.
True religion is what the world does not want
–nor does true religion want the world.
The two are as separate as Christ and Belial.
But some religion the world must have!
And as it will not have, and cannot have
the true–it will and must have the false.
True religion is . . .
spiritual and experimental,
heavenly and divine,
the gift and work of God,
the birthright and privilege of the elect,
the peculiar possession of the heirs of God.
This the world has not, for it is God’s enemy–not
His friend–walking in the broad way which leads
to perdition–not in the narrow way which leads
to eternal life.
Worldly religion cannot exist without an order of
men to teach it and practice its ceremonies. Hence
come clergy, forming a recognized priestly caste.
And as these must, to avoid confusion, be governed,
all large corporate bodies requiring a controlling power,
thence come bishops and archbishops, ecclesiastical
courts, archdeacons–and the whole apparatus of
clerical government.
The ceremonies and ordinances cannot be carried on
without buildings set apart for the purpose–thence
churches and cathedrals.
As prayer is a part of all religious worship, and carnal
men cannot, for lack of the Spirit, pray spiritually–they
must have forms of devotion made ready to their hand,
thence come prayer-books and liturgies.
As there must be mutual points of agreement to hold
men together, there must be written formulas of doctrine
–thence come articles, creeds, and confessions of faith.
And finally, as there are children to be instructed, and
this cannot be safely left to oral teaching, for fear of
ignorance in some and error in others, the very form
of instruction must be drawn up in so many words–
thence come catechisms.
People are puzzled sometimes to know why there is
this and that thing in an established religion–why we
have churches and clergy, tithes and prayer-books,
universities and catechisms–and the whole apparatus
of religion. They do not see that all these things have
sprung, as it were, out of a moral necessity, and are
based upon the very constitution of man–that this
great and widespread tree of a human religion has
its deep roots in the natural conscience; and that all
these branches necessarily and naturally grow out of
the broad and lofty stem.
The attachment, then, of worldly people to a worldly
religion is no great mystery. It is no riddle for a Samson
to put forth–or requiring a Solomon to solve.
Christian Racism
My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons (James 2:1)
My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. (NKJV)
The Spirit of God reminds us, as brethren, against elevating one person while neglecting another. Sinful men glorify or reject one another based on race, gender, class, religious-practice and other things. Fact is, in ourselves and apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, we are all one, putrid, mass of filth before the thrice-holy God. By God’s grace, we believe that God did not choose any of his elect based on anything in us, good or bad. Why then would we show favor to one and reject another based on anything produced by men? God would have his one race glory in no other but the Lord of glory, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why then would we glory in man by choosing one above another? The glory of the Lord so far excels all, that when we behold him by faith, every imaginary difference between Jew and Gentile, male and female, rich and poor, the one who thinks he keeps the law and the one who knows nothing of God’s law vanishes. Believers are complete in him, no sin, no schisms, and no differences.
The only true distinguishing characteristic that exists between sinners in this world is that some refuse to bow to the Lord Jesus Christ while others have been irresistibly made to glory only in the one who has made them the very righteousness of God. Knowing therefore, who it is that makes one sinner to differ from another, let us glorify him, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. –Clay Curtis.
Unbelieving Christians?
Tommy Robbins
“But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” 2Th 2:13
There is no such animal as a Bible believing Christian that doesn’t know and believe the gospel of God’s redeeming grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. However, there are those who perpetually promote themselves by trying to bridge the gulf between free-will, Armenian, works religion and the Gospel of The Free Grace of God. There is absolutely no agreement between the two.
Gospel preachers and Christians don’t have a need to return to the gospel, they already have (by the grace of God) come to Christ and they do believe and preach the gospel. Those who don’t believe it and preach it have not yet been regenerated and called. Regeneration by God the Spirit and belief of the gospel is the distinguishing difference.
The preaching of the gospel is the means whereby God, in sovereign grace and mercy, calls His elect to faith in Christ Jesus. “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” 1Co 1:21. There is not one whom God has called by His Spirit, and revealed the Lord Jesus Christ to, that continues to follow false preachers and a false gospel. “When He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him: for they know His voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers” John 10:4-5.
The revelation of Christ to a dead sinner is salvation and is the revelation of the truth. “In Whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in Whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise” Eph 1:13.
Are there those who are saved (Christians) who do not believe and love the gospel? Emphatically NO! “But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you” John 10:26.
Contending for the Truth
Contending for the truth against the errors of modern religion is the duty of God’s servants. I hope our spirit is one of genuine love to all the chosen of God; but today’s rule of charity which requires us to keep silent on certain points in order to avoid controversy, I utterly despise. It is treason to the Lord Jesus to be silent on any point where He has spoken and the honor of His gospel is concerned. It is easy on the flesh to deal in generalities, to denounce hyper-this or hyper-that, and to claim to be a friend to all; but it is required of the loyal servant of King Jesus to maintain His crown-rights and to stand up for His gospel of glory and grace. Tom Harding.
Hold Fast To Christ the Truth
Clay Curtis
The apostle Paul went to Jerusalem in order to preserve the true gospel for the Galatian churches and for all the churches of the Gentiles. When Paul would not subject himself to the false brethren who insisted that in addition to faith in Christ, the believer must also be circumcised; the lover’s of works did what the proponents of falsehood always do. When they could not avail against the Lord and his gospel, they then attempted to slander God’s messenger personally in any and every way they could.
Just as their false gospel began and ended with man so their scheme to discredit Paul began and ended with man. They pointed their hearers to men, to the fact that the other apostles, namely, James, Peter, and John had lived with Christ for three years; they heard the Lord’s sermons; they witnessed Christ perform miracles; they themselves preached and performed miracles while Christ was on earth. But what of this Paul? They pointed out that he never saw Jesus in the flesh. Their argument being, “So then whom ought you to believe: Paul, who stands alone, a mere disciple of the apostles, one of the last and least; or will you believe those grand apostles who were sent and confirmed by Christ Himself long before Paul?”
As the proponents of gospel truth always do, Paul’s rebuttal did not begin with man nor end with man, but was the word of God. He said, “whatsoever [the apostles] were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man’s person (Lev. 19:15.) Paul said, “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1: 8.)
Instead, of entangling himself in the trap of self-defense as his enemies hoped he would, Paul kept the issue of Christ’s person and finished work as the focus of everything that he said. For the issue was not the honor of the apostles, or of Paul’s honor, the issue was the truth of the gospel of Christ.
Paul asserts that the apostles added nothing to him. That is, when Paul communicated to the apostles that he preached salvation by faith in Christ apart from the works of the law, they found no fault with his gospel. Neither did the apostles correct him in any point or make any addition to the gospel Paul preached. His message of free grace was so complete and perfect, containing the whole counsel of God, that they had nothing to add unto it. This showed that by the Spirit of Christ who revealed the truth in Paul, as well as his brethren the apostles, he was not behind them in knowledge and gifts in the least degree.
So the very argument that his accusers used to slander his name backfired. Paul says, on the contrary, instead of rejecting him, the very apostles which these false brethren pretentiously highly esteemed not only agreed with him in every point but also confirmed their agreement by giving Paul and Barnabas the rights hands of fellowship.
Brethren, learn from the apostle Paul. When the enemies of God’s free grace in Christ attempt to slander you or lead you on a rabbit trail always bring them back to the feet of Christ Jesus the Lord. Any other response will only turn your eyes, and all those involved, from your Redeemer to man. That is the chief endeavor of the enemies of Christ. As we see here, every argument waged against us will turn out to be an argument against the accusers themselves if we but hold fast to Christ Jesus the Way, the Truth and the Life.