Jan 19
13
The apostles and early believers were despised by the religious Jews
because of the gospel which they preached. It was not because they were
covetous or proud men. They were persecuted because the gospel of God’s
grace, which they preached, was offensive to human’s pride.
They preached (as I trust we do, also) that salvation, even for the most
moral person on earth, is only possible because of the grace and mercy
of God, given to us in Christ Jesus. These people of God knew nothing of
free-will, decisionism, and giving God a chance. They knew only one way
of salvation, that of God’s being gracious and showing sovereign mercy
to sinners in Christ.
The gospel of grace and glory does not appear OCCASIONALY in their
preaching and writings, nor was it a deeper truth or doctrine which they
discussed PRIVATELY; it reigns, shines, and dominated all that they
said, wrote, and did.
It is the ONLY THING that they preached!
To them, any word of human worthiness, works, or rights was totally
wrong, and counted for nothing in the matter of acceptance before God.
They addressed all men (even themselves) as guilty, condemned, and
perishing justly unless God is pleased to come in mercy and lift the
beggar from his dunghill, sanctify and justify him through Christ Jesus,
and accept him in the Beloved. Henry Mahan
Expectation
Addictions are not so much enslaving because of the pleasure derived
from them, but rather from the expectation of a pleasure that never
comes. The flesh of man is addicted to this world. Never content, his
expectation for a better tomorrow drives his pursuit for happiness from
worldly things.
“But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing
into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out.” (I Tim.
6:6-7) Being content with Christ is a miracle of grace in the heart.
Content with Him as all our Righteousness before God. Content with Him
as our Redeemer, and His shed blood as our justification before God.
Oh, child of God, all the expectations of the flesh will leave you
wanting. But Christ will never disappoint. The expectation of faith will
never be able to imagine the fullness of the glory that shall be
revealed in us. “My soul, wait thou upon God; for my expectation is from
Him. He only is my rock and my salvation” (Ps.62:5-6) “According to my
earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed.”
(Phil.1:20) ~Greg
Perfect, complete, without blemish, holy, blameless, spotless; these are
just a few of the words the Scriptures uses to describe God’s saints. We
do not feel that we are any of these things in ourselves, but this is
what God says about us. Do we believe what we see in ourselves or what
God says about us? God describes us with these glorious words because of
what our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished for us by His holy sinless life
and His sacrificial death for us on the cross. God’s Word describes us
as what we are in Christ. “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.”
~Donnie Bell
DIVINE HEALING
Tommy Robbins
“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who
forgiveth all thine iniquities; Who healeth all thy diseases.” Ps 103:2
This would be a perfect man … One that has no sin and no disease. I can
think of only One that fits this description … The Lord Jesus Christ …
The Godman. The Lord Jesus Christ became so much one with His people –
He was made our sin and we are made His righteousness – that we are
perfect in Him! Iniquities and disease are one and the same in this
context. The “healers” of our day like to apply this to themselves and
physical healing. But this is not the case. Granted, if we are healed
physically it is the Lords doing. However, the healing spoken of and
portrayed in the scriptures is the redeeming work of the great physician
in the putting away of our sin and the imputation of His righteousness
to us. Do I believe in Divine healing? Emphatically YES! I believe
Christ heals His people eternally! “Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is
pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her
sins” Isa 40:2.
Those with need of healing
And the people followed Him; and He received them, and spake unto them
of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing. ~ Luke 9:11
The Lord Jesus Christ went about healing everyone that had need of
healing. He was and is Jehovah Rapha: the Lord that healeth thee. He
healed all manner of diseases. He came to save and He came to heal. And
He sent out His disciples with the same mission, saying: “Go, preach,
saying, The kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the
lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils” (Matt.10:7-8). What a word this
is to every preacher of the gospel.
In every congregation we face there is someone who ‘has need of
healing.’ In every service there is someone who is sick and dying with
the leprosy of sin; someone who is blind, halt, and lame; someone who is
vexed with a devil; someone who is dead in trespasses and sins. While we
cannot literally heal the sick, we do have a gospel that will heal the
spiritually sick.
While we are told to reprove, rebuke, correct, and warn, we need to take
care that we always try to comfort His people and heal them that have
need of healing. May we always lift up Christ and Him crucified, as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, that every sin-sick soul
may look and be healed. With every message we need to tell of Him Who
will . . . remove the burden of the laboring and heavy laden; Who will
lift the fallen, cheer the faint; Who will receive the prodigal; Who
will forgive the forlorn; Who will comfort the sorrowing; Who will heal
all that have need of healing.
Paul Mahan
Saved By Faith
Luke 7:50 And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.
There are many who fancy themselves more theologically sound than Christ
Himself, who cringe at the teaching of saving faith. They say things
like, “faith doesn’t save, grace does,” or perhaps some even more crafty
wording, fashioned to make the clear teaching of Christ better fit their
preconceived doctrinal “position.” If you ever find yourself needing to
qualify or alter what Christ plainly said, for fear of compromising your
doctrinal position, then you need a new position. Or better yet, cease
to take positions at all, and simply believe what God said. Since Christ
said to a sinner, “thy faith hath saved thee,” I would be afraid NOT to
say it, and teach it.
Only faith, saving faith, the faith of God’s elect, God-given faith
exalts the grace of God and the God of grace. And only this faith makes
salvation sure to all of God’s elect. Rom 4:16 Therefore [it is] of
faith, that [it might be] by grace; to the end the promise might be sure
to all the seed . . . Why should we be hesitant to say the rain makes
the flowers grow? We know Who made the rain, and Who sends it and causes
it to fall when and where He pleases. You could argue that it is not the
rain, but the clouds that give life, because without the clouds there
would be no rain. Or you could just thank God for the clouds and rain,
and rejoice that He would delight to make it fall on such a worm as I. –
Chris Cunningham
The Revelation of Faith
“But as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for
them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit;
for the spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God (I
Corinthians 2:9-10)”
By the sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth the believer
is given spiritual eyes. Spiritual eyes are eyes that see what others
cannot and will not see. The apostle Paul describes this vision in II
Corinthians 4: 18 saying —“We look not at things which are seen, but
at the things which are not seen: For the things which are seen are
temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal..” The faith of
God’s elect is the gift of God that enables the believer to see through
the eyes of God. John said of Christ, “What he hath seen and heard, that
he testifieth; and no man receiveth his testimony. He that hath received
his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. (John 3: 32-33)”
The eyes of faith see through God’s eyes. They see God as he is, man as
he is, and Christ reconciling the two. They see the eternal, immutable
purpose of God in redemption, the everlasting covenant of grace and the
one mediator between God and men accomplishing the will of God
concerning these things. The eye of faith sees a bleeding substitute
satisfying the justice of God concerning their sins and his righteous
obedience as their own righteousness making them “holy, unblameable and
unreproveable in his sight (Colossians 1:22).”
Seeing through his eyes we see the perfection of God in all he has done
and found as God did when he looked upon his work, that it is good and
complete and sufficient to cease from our labors and enter into his rest.
Darvin Pruitt
“Believe ye that I am able to do this?” (Matthew 9:28).
This was a question the Lord asked two blind men regarding His ability
to give them sight. Their answer was, “Yea, Lord.” Here we are given an
illustration of what faith really is.
Faith is not believing you are saved, or believing that God loves you
and Christ died for you, or believing all of your sins are forgiven, or
believing you are perfect in God’s sight. These things belong to the
realm of assurance. Faith is neither more nor less than believing that
He is able to save you. Paul said in II Timothy 1:12, “I am persuaded
that He is able….” Assurance that you are saved and all of your sins are
forgiven will come out of that, but the actual act of faith is believing
He is able. If you lack assurance, perhaps you have never really
believed that “He is able.” Believing He is able will lead to the
assurance of these things, because you are relying upon His ability, and
not your own.
Todd Nibert