Jul 19
15
The
Truth of Thy Salvation
We come into the presence of God only according
to the, “Truth of Thy
Salvation” Ps. 69:13. So, what is the truth of
God’s salvation? Perhaps
the alliteration will give us some hooks on
which to hang our thoughts.
1. God is SOVEREIGN in Salvation. I will have
mercy on whom I will have
mercy…Rom 9:15-16.
2. Christ is SUCCESSFUL in God’s Salvation. You
shall call His name
Jesus: for He shall save His people from their
sins. Matt. 1:21. It is
finished. Jn. 19:30.
3. Christ is SUFFICIENT in God’s Salvation. He
only is my Rock and my
salvation; He is my defense… Ps. 62:2.
4. Christ is the SUBJECT of God’s Salvation.
…the gospel of
God…concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rom. 1:1-3.
5. Christ is the SUBSTITUTE of God’s Salvation.
God will provide Himself
a Lamb. Gen. 22:8
6. Christ is God’s SATISFACTION in Salvation. He
shall see the travail
of His soul, and shall be satisfied. Is. 53:11a.
7. Christ is the SHINNING of God’s Salvation.
For God who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in
our hearts, to give the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ.
II Cor. 4:6.
We bear these truths to be clearly set forth in
the Word of God. Any
attempt to approach God on a message of
salvation contrary to these will
surely fail. ~Greg
Galatians 1:11-12 But I certify you, brethren,
that the gospel which was
preached of me is not after man. For I neither
received it of man,
neither was I taught it, but by the revelation
of Jesus Christ.
No one has ever found the true interpretation of
any passage of
scripture until they have found in it somewhere
a revelation of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ is the message and the
subject of all the
scriptures. That is why we preach, ”Christ and
Him crucified.” The
Bible, God’s inspired Word is truly a
“revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Pastor David Eddmenson
OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, MIGHTY TO SAVE.
The Dying Thief – Luke.23:39-43
How near a person may be to hell and yet be
saved! That thief was, as it
were upon the very brink of hell. He had one
foot in the pit. Hell was
in his heart. Hell had been his life. Soon, hell
must be his portion
forever! He had done nothing but evil
continually all the days of his
life. In the very last hour of his life, he is
heard blaspheming and
railing against the Lord Jesus. Yet, he was
plucked from the fire by
omnipotent mercy! – Saved by the Son of God! He
was just about to step
into everlasting damnation when the omnipotent
hand of the Son of God
seized him and lifted him up to Paradise! Oh,
what grace is here! What
boundless love! What power to save! Who after
this need despair? Truly
our Lord Jesus Christ is mighty to save!
Pastor Don Fortner
Faith . . . is not life giving, but proof of
life. Faith is not a work
for salvation, but a work of salvation. Faith is
not what saves us, but
is certain proof God has saved us. Faith is not
a condition we meet, but
the condition God’s Spirit puts in us to “make
us meet” (Col.1:12). Is
all this important? Do we split theological
hairs here? NO! NO! For the
Glory of God is at stake! That other (false)
gospel says faith is man’s
work, man’s will. But no, faith is “not of
yourselves, but the gift of
God” (Eph.2:8). Faith is “according to the
working of His mighty power”
(Eph.1:19). Therefore, it is “to the praise of
the glory of His grace”
(Eph.1:6) . . . and not rather “to the praise of
our faith.”
Pastor Paul Mahan
NOAH FOUND GRACE IN THE EYES OF THE LORD
Genesis 6:8
Noah had many brothers and sisters, however, it
is written, “Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord.” God saves whom
he will and passes by
whom He will and is just in doing so. Salvation
is not by family
inheritance but by grace. There was nothing
about Noah that was more
commendable than the rest of his brothers and
sisters; Noah’s salvation
was all of grace. Noah was chosen by grace,
called by grace, justified
by grace, made righteous by grace, and kept by
the grace of God through
faith; by grace Noah believed God. Everything
concerning Noah was owed
to the grace of God. The same is said of all
whom God saves in Christ.
“O to grace how great a debtor I am daily
constrained to be!”
Pastor John Chapman
What Wonderful News!
I was reading through the works of Thomas Brooks
the other day when I
came across a short paragraph that thrilled my
soul. My heart said,
“This is my gospel! This is my hope! This is the
ONLY gospel (good news)
for a sinner like me!”
Mr. Brooks said, “In this charter—the covenant
of grace—the Lord
declares that he will require no more than he
gives, that he will give
what he requires, and that he will accept what
he gives; and what can
God say more? And what can a gracious soul
desire more?”
The Lord Jesus Christ is God’s appointed Federal
Head, Representative,
Substitute and Surety for His people, and He
died and suffered for them
all that the Holy God required of them. “For
Christ also hath once
suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that
he might bring us to
God, being put to death in the flesh, but
quickened by the Spirit” (I
Peter 3:18). “Salvation is of the Lord” (Jonah
2:9). ~Maurice Montgomery
Who Gets All The Glory?
What men call worship in modern day
“christianity” reminds me of the
celebration a winning team has at the end of a
sporting event. The star
player is lifted up on the shoulders of his team
members to receive the
glory for the win. Then, when the media
interviews that player he
rightly deflect the glory to his team, knowing
that there was no way he
could have done it without them. It is an
accurate illustration of the
false gospel. Men hold up their jesus as the
star player, but everybody
knows he could not have gotten the victory all
by himself. He needed the
cooperative effort of his team.
This is not our Victor. Oh no; “Who being the
brightness of his glory
and the express image of his person, and
upholdeth all things by the
word of his power, when he had by himself purged
our sins, sat down on
the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Heb.1:3.
“Thanks be to God which
GIVETH us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ”. 1 Cor.15:57. In a
sporting event even the spectators take some
glory for having cheered
their team on to victory. We, on the other hand,
“look upon him whom we
have pierced”. Our voices are heard in the
crowd; “crucify him”. The
salvation of sinners is not a team sport. Our
Lord gets ALL the glory.
~Greg
The only thing that makes you differ
(Octavius Winslow, “Jesus, Full of
Grace”)
“But by the grace of God I am what I
am.”
1 Cor. 15:10
Christian! the only thing that makes you differ
from the vilest being that pollutes the earth,
or
from the darkest fiend that gnaws his chains in
hell, is the free grace of God!
Oh to grace how great a debtor!
(Letters of John Newton)
“By the grace of God — I am what I
am!” 1 Corinthians 15:10
It is a part of my daily habit to look back to
my slavery in Africa, and
to retrace the path by which the Lord has led
me, for about forty-seven
years, since He called me from infidelity and
madness!
My astonishing unsought deliverance from the
hopeless wickedness and
misery into which I had plunged myself, taken in
connection with what He
has done for me since — make me say, with
peculiar emphasis, “Oh to
grace how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained
to be!”
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see!
Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come!
‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home!
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who called me here below,
Will be forever mine!
A meaningless gospel, a meaningless god, and a
meaningless savior!
(Don Fortner)
“You shall call His name Jesus, for He will
save His people from their
sins!” Matthew 1:21
The angel’s message to Joseph was a message of
grace, redemption, and
salvation to sinners. By God’s command, He was
named, “JESUS,” Savior,
because He was sent by God to save His people
from their sins. What He
is called, that He is — Jesus, our Savior.
The Lord Jesus came into the world to save
“His people” from their sins.
Those He came to save were His people before He
came to save them, His
by eternal election. There are some people in
this world, an elect
multitude, chosen in Him before the world began,
who are peculiarly and
distinctively His people, the objects of His
everlasting love, chosen in
Him unto salvation (Ephesians 1:2-6; 2
Thessalonians 2:13).
The Lord Jesus Christ is an almighty, effectual
Savior! He saves His
people from . . .
the penalty of their sins — by His blood
atonement,
the dominion of their sins — by His regenerating
Spirit,
the being of their sins — when He takes them out
of this world,
all the evil consequences of their sins — in
resurrection glory!
Universal love, universal grace, and universal
redemption — is
meaningless love, meaningless grace, and
meaningless redemption. To
preach such, is to preach a meaningless gospel,
a meaningless god, and a
meaningless savior!
“You shall call His name Jesus, for He will
save His people from their
sins!”
The cross has not become obsolete!
(Horatius Bonar, “The Surety’s Cross”)
“For the message of the cross is
foolishness to those who are perishing;
but to us who are being saved it is the power of
God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18
The whole world looked with contempt—indignant
at the audacity of a few
humble Christians, thus . . .
affronting and defying the “public
opinion” of nations and ages;
assailing the religions of earth with the cross
as their only sword;
striking down their idols with this as their
only hammer; and
with this, as their one lever, proposing to turn
the world upside down!
From that day the cross became “a
power” in the earth; a power which
went forth, like the light—noiselessly yet
irresistibly—smiting down all
religions alike, all shrines alike, all altars
alike—sparing no
superstition nor philosophy.
This power remains—in its mystery, its silence,
its influence, it
remains. The cross has not become obsolete! The
preaching of the cross
has not ceased to be powerful and effectual!
There are those who would persuade us that, in
this modern age—the cross
is out of date and out of fashion, time-worn.
But this does not shake
us. It only leads us to clasp the cross more
fervently, and to study it
more profoundly, as embodying in itself that
gospel which is at once the
wisdom and the power of God.
Yet the cross is not without its mysteries:
It illuminates—yet it darkens.
It is life—yet it is death.
It is honor—yet it is shame.
It is wisdom—but also foolishness.
The cross is . . .
both pardon, and condemnation;
both strength, and weakness;
both joy, and sorrow;
both love, and hatred;
both medicine, and poison;
both hope, and despair.
The cross is Christ’s humiliation—yet it is His
exaltation!
The cross is Satan’s victory—yet it is Satan’s
defeat!
The cross is the gate of Heaven—and the gate of Hell!
The cross is the key . . .
to God’s character,
to God’s Word,
to God’s ways,
to God’s purposes.
The cross is the summary of all the Bible—the
epitome of Scripture
Revelation!
Holy and humble Christian love
Jonathan Edwards, “Charity and its Fruit”
Holy and humble Christian love, is a principle
of wonderful power to give ineffable quietness
and tranquility to the soul. It banishes all
disturbance, and sweetly composes and brings
rest to the spirit, and makes all divinely calm
and sweet and happy. In that soul where divine
love reigns and is in lively exercise, nothing
can
cause a storm, or even gather threatening
clouds.