Nov 19
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A sense of God in the heart will burst out in life. Where there is no reverence of God in the life, it is easily concluded that there is less in the heart (Titus 1:16). Pastor Scott Richardson
The Scripture declares, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and He delighted in his way” Ps. 37:23. Knowing that the course of a believer’s life is graciously ordered by the Lord according to the counsel of His own will, God’s people, those who possess a heart of obedience to Him, willingly bow to the admonition of the Holy Spirit who commands, “Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass” Ps 37:5. Child of God, wait on the Lord, believe and trust Him, “casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you” 1 Pet. 5:7.
MS
The Miracle of Hearing
God-called gospel preachers spend a lot of time in prayer and preparation of the Word. They are deeply concerned with being clear and faithful to preach Christ and Him crucified. “How shall they hear without a preacher” Rom. 10:14. Paul asked rhetorically, “who is sufficient for these things”? I Cor. 2:16. All that being so, the real miracle in preaching is in the hearing. The most well prepared and well delivered sermon can have no effect on the hearts of men, while a message labored through can be used of God to the glory of Christ and to saving of mens’ souls. It is not the voice of a man that speaks to the heart. It is the voice of God. The real miracle in preaching is in the hearing. Let him who has ears to hear, hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. ~GE
“He shall not Fail” Isaiah 42:4
We trust an undefeated and undefeatable Savior; “He shall not fail!” The Son of God can never be frustrated in his purpose, defeated in his design, or hindered in his work. Christ was not conquered at Calvary. He conquered. He did not die as the helpless victim of circumstances. He died as the Lord of all things, the one who rules all circumstances. And he will not be defeated in the end; “He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied!” The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ shall never be discovered a miscarriage. The Lion of the tribe of Judah must prevail. The Word of God universally proclaims the infallible efficacy of Christ’s atonement. That which the Son of God accomplished at Calvary was an effectual atonement for all the sins of God’s elect. The gospel of God is the revelation of the glorious, absolute, saving efficacy of Christ’s atonement. All for whom the Son of God suffered the wrath of God shall be made the righteousness of God in him! ~Don Fortner
MONSTROUS IMPLICATIONS
Let me say at the outset, the Bible does not teach or imply that Christ died
for all men without exception. He died for the elect, His sheep, His
church. Yet most of what goes on under the name of Christianity teaches
He died for all men without exception. There are even men who say
they believe in election who still believe His blood was shed for all men
without exception. Such teaching and preaching has these six
monstrous implications….
1. If Christ died for all men without exception and all men without exception
are not saved, then He failed in His intentions. 2. If He died for
all men without exception and some that He died for are not saved, His death
does not saved. 3. If He died for the sins of all men without
exception and some of those men are still punished for their sins God is not
just. He punishes the same sin twice! 4. If Christ died for man that
God loved and they are not saved, God’s love is meaningless. He can
love you and you can still be damned. 5. If God loves all
men and Christ died for all, God is not immutable. He changes in His
disposition toward the men that are under His wrath. 6. If Christ
died for all men without exception and all without exception are not saved,
salvation is by works. Christ’s death did not make the difference,
but what the sinner does or fails to do.
Universal redemption is more than a mistake in theology. It is a
denial of the Gospel and a message of salvation by works. The implications of
such teaching are truly monstrous.
LUKE 15:1-2
(1) Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. (2) And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.
The imagination can hardly form to itself a more striking portrait than what those verses represent. Figure to yourself, Reader, a company of poor, despised outcasts of society, in a
body, of publicans and sinners, drawing nigh, with looks of hope and desire to CHRIST, as if to say, Can there be mercy for us? And on the other side of the representation, look at
the proud, disdainful, self-righteous Pharisees and Scribes withdrawing from the LORD, with countenances of the most sovereign contempt, as if JESUS and his company should pollute their holiness. This man (say they) receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. Precious JESUS! Well is it for me that thou dost; for what must have become of me had this not been the case? How truly lovely doth the SON of God appear
by such marvellous condescension! And what can more endear CHRIST to his people?
The sovereignty of God is the stumbling block on which thousands fall and
perish; and if we go contending with God about His sovereignty it will be our
eternal ruin. It is absolutely necessary that we should submit to God as an
absolute sovereign, and the sovereign of our souls; as One who may have mercy
on whom He will have mercy and harden whom He will.
– Jonathan Edwards
Faith is not understanding God or figuring Him out
intellectually. Faith is simply believing with our hearts and minds
that everything God has recorded and promised in His Word is true even if we do
not understand it.
– David Eddmenson
All of the adjectives we use for grace like sovereign, free, and saving are
inherent in the word. When we speak of the Biblical word grace, it
is always the grace of God that loves, elects, predestinates, justifies,
redeems, calls, regenerates, preserves, and glorifies. Any use of
the word grace that does not comprehend all of those things is not the grace of
God. It is the word grace without the meaning of grace.
The sovereignty of God is the stumbling block on which thousands fall and
perish; and if we go contending with God about His sovereignty it will be our
eternal ruin. It is absolutely necessary that we should submit to God as an
absolute sovereign, and the sovereign of our souls; as One who may have mercy
on whom He will have mercy and harden whom He will.
– Jonathan Edwards
Faith is not understanding God or figuring Him out
intellectually. Faith is simply believing with our hearts and minds
that everything God has recorded and promised in His Word is true even if we do
not understand it.
– David Eddmenson
So great is the depravity of unregenerate man that, although there is nothing
that he needs more than the Gospel, there is nothing that he desires less.
– Copied
The doctrines of the Gospel, commonly known as the
doctrines of grace, are distinguished for this peculiarity above every other,
namely, that they sink the creature very low, and present the Lord Jehovah
before us as sitting on a Throne, high and lifted up. So true is
this, that the most uneducated Christian may, even if he is incapable of
refuting an erroneous discourse, always be able to discover the untruthfulness
if it glorifies man at the expense of God. The merest babe of grace
may carry this test with him. In the midst of the diversity of
opinion which he is surrounded, he may always judge, and judge infallibly too,
of the truth or falsehood of a doctrine by testing it thus – DOES IT GLOIFY
GOD? If it be so it is true. Does this exalt man? Then
it must be false. On the other hand, does it lay man very low, and
speak of him in terms which tend to make him feel his guilt? Then
doubtless, it is full of truth. And does it put the crown upon the head of God,
and not upon the head of man’s free will, or free agency, or good
works? Then assuredly it is a doctrine according to godliness, for it is
the very truth of the Lord our
God. –
Charles Spurgeon
The
most humbling and challenging thing that I face…the great concern of my
heart….is that my generation experience a return to the preaching of the Gospel
of God’s grace. This generation is plagued with a gospel of works
and are strangers to the Gospel of redemption. I want a return to
the message that takes away all of the glory and dignity of the flesh and
proclaims the redemptive glory of Christ. The results of this
message will be a sense of the awesome holiness of God, the inability and
sinfulness of the flesh, and the total sufficiency of the Person and work of
Christ. Perhaps once again we will hear men and women cry….
“Depths of mercy can there be, mercy still reserved for me? Can my God His
wrath forbear, and me, the chief of sinners,
spare?” –
Henry Mahan