Jul 13
13
‘The Justice of God in the damnation of sinners’ (extract from Jonathon Edwards)
It would have been most Just with God for ever to have cast you off;
But He has had Mercy upon you;
He hath made His Glorious Grace appear in your “EVERLASTING SALVATION”
You had no love to God;
But yet He has exercised unspeakable love to you;
You have contemned God, and set light by him:
But so great a value had Gods Grace set on you and your eternity
that you have been redeemed at the price of the blood of His own Son.
You chose, to be with Satan in his service;
But yet God hath made you a joint heir with Christ of His Glory.
You were ungrateful for past mercies;
Yet God not only continued those mercies, but bestowed unspeakably greater mercies upon you.
You refused to hear when God called,
Yet God heard you when you called.
You abused the infiniteness of Gods mercy to encourage yourself in sin against him;
Yet God has manifested the infiniteness of that mercy, in the exercises of it towards you.
You have rejected Christ, and set Him at nought;
And yet He is become your saviour.
You have neglected you own salvation;
but God has not neglected it.
You have destroyed yourself;
But yet in God has been your help.
God has magnified His free grace towards you,
And not to others,
Because He has chosen you,
And it hath pleased Him to set His love upon you.
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How vast, how numerous, how complicated are the various events and circumstances which attend the Church of God here below, as she travels onward to her heavenly home! But if all things as well as all persons are put under Jesus’ feet, there cannot be a single circumstance over which he has not supreme control. Everything in providence and everything in grace are alike subject to his disposal. There is not a trial or temptation, an affliction of body or soul, a loss, a cross, a painful bereavement, a vexation, grief or disappointment, a case, state or condition, which is not put under Jesus’ feet. He has sovereign, supreme disposal over all events and circumstances. As possessed of infinite knowledge he sees them, as possessed of infinite wisdom he can manage them, and as possessed of infinite power he can dispose and direct them for our good and his own glory. How much trouble and anxiety should we save ourselves, could we firmly believe, realize, and act on this! If we could see by the eye of faith that every foe and every fear, every difficulty and perplexity, every trying or painful circumstance, every looked-for or unlooked-for event, every source of care, whether at present or in prospect, are all, as put under his feet, at his sovereign disposal, what a load of anxiety and care would be often taken off our shoulders! JC Philpot
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BECAUSE GOD KNEW
In eternity, God chose whom he would save and by whom he would save. (Eph 1: 3-4; Is 42: 1-4) The gospel is God declaring that he has accomplished the salvation of his people by his Son just as he said he would from eternity. (v3; Galatians 4: 3-5; Acts 20: 28; Heb 9: 12; Gal 3: 13-14) God reveals these hidden mysteries in the heart of his elect child. (vv6, 7) Why did God chose to save his people this way? God says, “Because I knew…”
God Knew our Obstinacy
God says, “Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass.” God foreknew our sin. (Ro 5: 12) As unregenerate sinners we heard God speak in the gospel preached, in the light of creation, in providence, in the holy scriptures, through godly brethren and parents, even in his own conscious. Yet, we went on being obstinate, our neck an iron sinew, our brow brass. And brethren, how sad this also describes the old man of flesh in us now! God’s word is right and for our good, yet, when his word goes against us, so often we act as if we are the wise one. We see the obstinacy in our children toward our authority but at the very same time before our heavenly Father we so often stiffen our neck. (Rom 2: 1) May God teach us not to speak down to our children or to our fellow believers but to take our low seat as the chief of sinners. (1 Tim 1: 15; Ps 130: 3; 39: 5) Someone may say, “Not me. I am faithful to God.” Yes, we are self-justifiers, too! How thankful we should be that God chose to save his elect by his sovereign free grace in Christ because God knew our obstinacy.
God Knew We would Praise Our Idol
God says, “I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them.” (v5) God did not choose his people because he foreknew that we would repent and believe him or because of any foreseen merit whatsoever. Election could not have been based upon foreknown goodness we would do because there is no goodness in fallen man for God to have foreknown! (Mk 10: 18) God foreknew that we would try to ascribe salvation to our idol called self. Therefore God determined from the beginning to save by his sovereign electing grace, his triumphant redeeming grace and his irresistible regenerating grace. (Ps 14: 2-3; Rom. 9:11-16)
God Knew We would Praise our Knowledge
God says, “They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.” (v7) The gospel is the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory. (1 Cor 2: 7) In wisdom, God foreordained that the world by its wisdom would not know him and that God would save through the preaching of the gospel. (1 Cor 1: 20-21; 2: 8-10, 14) The works were finished from the foundation of the world in the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, long before we heard. Christ came and finished the work of redemption, long before we heard. God, in wisdom, opens our understanding and teaches us little by little to make his child ever dependent upon the gospel so that we will glory only in God, lest we should say, I knew. (Eph 2: 1-5)
God Knew We Would Deal Treacherously
God says, “Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.” There is nothing unknown to God. God is Deity. All our sin was known to God beforehand. Yet, he chose his elect foreknowing the transgressors we would be. This is the gospel of grace which makes us adore our God and melts our heart of stone. Grace is the power that makes our iron neck submissive. It is the fervent heat of unchanging love that melts the brass brow. Nothing makes a child of God more thankful and desirous to honor our Savior than when we behold his grace in light of our sinfulness. (1 Jn 2: 1) God knowing our treachery, you would think we would have been vile in his sight. Yet he says “Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life?” (Is 43: 4; Eph 1: 5-6; Gal 4: 6) It is because God our Father saw his elect only in his Son. Everything necessary for God to receive us to himself Christ is for us and we are in Christ. What is your problem? Christ is the answer. What is your disease? Christ is the cure. What is your sin? Christ is the cleansing fountain. God foreknew all but God provided all in Christ. God foreknew all our necessities, in Christ God provided full supply. He promises, “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.” (Deut 33: 15) “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” (1 Jn 3: 1)
Clay Curtis.