Sep 20
6
THE GREAT THINGS THE LORD HATH DONE
Henry Mahan (reprinted TRGC ,KY bulletin 12.23.2018)
“Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord has done for thee.” – Mark 5:19
These were the words of the Lord to the man who had been processed by a legion of demons. The Lord had cast them out, and now the man wanted to go with the Lord as He was leaving. But the Lord told him to go back to his friends and give them the Gospel message: The great things He has done. Most of what goes under the name of preaching is the great things He will do if……. That does my soul no good because I know where that will go. In reality, that is a message of salvation by works. Christ will do this if you do something that will obligate Him to respond. The message of the Gospel is what He has done! He did not say, “It will be finished if….” but “It is finished!” No if’s, nothing I need to do to complete it. Every aspect of salvation, from pre-destination to glorification has been done (Romans 8:31-35). A sinner can rest in what the Lord has done!
Spurgeon once said, “I don’t know which renders the greater service – the man who preaches or the man who prays, but I know this, we can do better without the voice than without the heart of prayer!”
Blessed and happy is that assembly of redeemed people, brought together and baptized into one body by His Spirit, whose love for the Lord Jesus and for one another enables them to sing with one voice, pray with one heart, walk in one direction, and worship with one Spirit! Where each member realizes the importance of his presence, his prayers, his support, and his co-operation. Where Christ is Lord and all others are servants! Where the will of Christ is preeminent and all other wills and desires are in subjection! Where there are no young and old, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, but only Christ, who is All and in All.
“Who is among you that fears the Lord, that obeys the voice of his servant, that walks in darkness, and has no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.” Isaiah 50:10
Octavius Winslow
HOW prone is the believer to attach an undue importance to the mere article of comfort! to give place to the feeling that when comfort vanishes, all other good vanishes with it—thus, in fact, making the real standing of the soul to depend upon an ever-fluctuating emotion. But let it be remembered that the comfort of grace may be suspended, and yet the existence of grace may remain; that the glory of faith may be beclouded, and yet the principle of faith continue. Contemplate, as affording an illustrious example of this, our adorable Lord upon the cross. Was there ever sorrow like His sorrow? Was there ever desertion like His desertion? Every spring of consolation was dried up. Every beam of light was beclouded. All sensible joy was withdrawn. His human soul was now passing through its strange, its total eclipse. And still His faith hung upon God. Hear Him exclaim, “My God! my God!” My strong One! my strong One! His soul was in the storm—and oh, what a storm was that!—but it was securely anchored upon His Father. There was in His case the absence of all consolation, the suspension of every stream of comfort; and yet in this, the darkest cloud that ever enshrouded the soul, and the deepest sorrow that ever broke the heart, He stayed His soul upon God.
And why should the believer, the follower of Christ, when sensible comfort is withdrawn, “cast away his confidence, which has great recompense of reward”? Of what use is the anchor but to keep the vessel in the tempest? What folly were it in the mariner to weigh his anchor, or to slip his cable, when the clouds gather blackness and the waves swell high! Then it is he most needs them both. It is true he has cast his anchor into the deep, and the depth hides it from his view; but though he cannot discern it through the foaming waves, still he knows that it is firmly fastened, and will keep his storm-tossed vessel from stranding upon a lee shore. And why should the believer, when “trouble is near,” and sensible comfort is withdrawn, resign his heart a prey to unbelieving fears, and cherish in his bosom the dark suspicion of God? Were not this to part with the anchor of his hope at the very moment that he the most needed it? I may not be able to pierce the clouds and look within the veil with an eye beaming with an undimmed and assured joy, but I know that the Forerunner is there; that the Priest is upon His throne; that Jesus is alive, and is at the right hand of God—then all is safe: faith demands, hope expects, and love desires no more.
“Therefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.” Hebrews 2:17
J.C.Philpot
God gave the persons of the elect into the hands of his dear Son, as Jacob committed Benjamin into the hands of Judah; and as Judah accepted Benjamin, so Christ accepted the Church and undertook to bring it unto God, or he himself would bear the blame forever. But how this faithfulness was tried! Men tried it; devils tried it; God tried it; but it came gloriously through all. Yet what loads were laid upon it! How the very knees of Jesus, so to speak, staggered beneath it! How, as Deer says, he had– “Strength enough, and none to spare!”
How he had to sustain the curse of the law and the load of imputed sin! How he had to drink up a very hell of inward torment! How he had to be agonized in body, and more than agonized in soul! What bloody sweat in the garden, what tears, what sore amazement, what heaviness of spirit, what sorrowfulness even unto death; what pangs of body upon the cross, what grief of mind, what distress of soul, did the Holy Lamb endure in being faithful unto God! How he might have prayed, and his Father would have sent him twelve legions of angels! He had but to speak, and he might have soared to heaven and left the cross and all its shame and suffering behind.
But he was faithful to God and to the work which he had undertaken. Six weary hours he hung upon the cross. Six weary hours he endured the wrath of God, and that most cutting stroke of all, reserved to the last as the bitterest drop in the whole cup, the hiding of his Father’s countenance, which wrung from his bosom that cry, such as neither earth nor heaven had heard before–“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And yet not until he had finished the work did he give up his spirit. So he was faithful “in all things pertaining to God.”
And he is faithful, also, in all things pertaining to man. He could say to the Father, “Of all whom you have given me”– except the son of perdition, Judas; he had no charge to save him from death and hell; but of all the others whom he had received as his Father’s gift, he could say, “I have lost none.” Thus he was faithful while he was on earth. And how faithful he is now! The high priest under the law had two offices to execute; he had to OFFER SACRIFICE for the people, and to offer prayer and INTERCESSION for them. Upon earth Jesus fulfilled the first; in heaven he fulfils the second, as there making by virtue of his presence continual intercession for us.
The grand object of the eye of faith!
(Charles Spurgeon)
“We fix our eyes not on what is seen—but on what is unseen.
For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal!”
2 Corinthians 4:18
In our Christian pilgrimage it is well for the most part to be looking forward. Forward lies the crown—and onward is the goal. Whether it is for hope, for joy, for consolation, or for the inspiring of our love—the future must, after all, be the grand object of the eye of faith!
Looking into the future—the Christian sees sin cast out, the body of sin and death destroyed, the soul made perfect, and fit to be a partaker of eternal glory. Looking further yet, the believer’s enlightened eye can see death’s river passed. He sees himself . . .
enter within the pearly gates,
hailed as more than conqueror,
crowned by the hand of Christ,
embraced in the arms of Jesus,
glorified with Him, and
made to sit together with Him on His throne!
Contemplation of my glorious future may well relieve,
the darkness of the past, and
the gloom of the present!
The joys of Heaven will surely compensate for the sorrows of earth!
Hush, hush, my fears!
Death is but a narrow stream—and you shall soon have forded it!
Death—how brief!
Immortality—how endless!
Time—how short!
Eternity—how long!
The road is so, so short! I shall soon be there!
“In the future, there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day; and not only to me—but to all those who have loved His appearing!” 2 Timothy 4:8
“Our citizenship is in Heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who . . . will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body!” Philippians 3:20-21
THE LORD FAITHFUL, AND HIS WORD TRUE TO THE LAST
Octavius winslow
“Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.” Joshua 23:14
There is no testimony to the faithfulness of God in His Word so convincing and touching as that of the dying believer. If ever a man is sincere, it is then. If ever the veil is laid aside and the soul appears real and undisguised, be it a saint or a sinner, it is at that solemn moment. No motive now exists for the false, and no cloud can conceal the true; the coin that has passed current with many for genuine is now found to be counterfeit, and that which many regarded as counterfeit–even the possessor himself–proves to be genuine! Nature now appears to be but nature; and grace, vindicating its true character, proves itself grace. The specious hope dies, and the true hope gathers life; the false faith sinks, and the real rises; and the timid believer, who went doubting and trembling all the way to Jordan’s brink, plunges boldly into the river, and passes over to the other side, with the paean of triumph breathing sweetly from his lips, “O Death, where is your sting? O Grave, where is your victory?”
Such is the picture which the position of Joshua now presents to our view. He is standing upon the sunny slope, and before the soles of his feet smite the cold waters, he casts a back glance upon all the way the Lord his God had brought him; and in words the most emphatic and impressive, testifies to the divine faithfulness and unchanging love of his covenant God in making good all His great and precious promises He had so graciously given, “Not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord, your God, spoke unto you; all are come to pass.”
Such is the divine assurance with which we conclude our daily thoughts. What more precious truth, blended with sweeter melody, could linger upon the ear as we close the volume than this–God’s faithfulness in the fulfillment of His Word? Let us look at this truth as confirmed by the experience, first, of the living, and then of the dying believer, for both are God’s witnesses.
What is the life of the child of God but a continuous experience of the truth of His Word, and the veracity of His promises? You have, perhaps, been placed in trying circumstances; resources have lessened and demands have increased; your faith has been sharply tried; your spirits depressed; the sky has lowered and the waters have risen; but lo! the Spirit, the Comforter, has guided you to some precious promise which has just met your case. It has touched your heart, moistened your eye, uplifted the pressure, and your whole soul has been, as it were, absorbed in God. And now the harp that hung sad and mute upon the willow is taken down, and thrills with a new song of praise and thanksgiving to the faithfulness of God in the fulfillment of His Word.
Yes, my soul, you can testify to the truth that every sweet invitation and precious promise and loving word of Jesus, upon which He causes your soul to rest in its grief and desolation, has come to pass–not one word has failed. This is a clear proof of God’s veracity in the making good His every word of promise. Has He not promised to provide for you? then trust Him. Has He not pledged Himself to guide you? then commit your way to Him. Has He not undertaken to save you? then believe His Word and pray–“Say unto my soul, I am your salvation.”
Soon the living witness to the faithfulness of the Lord in His Word will become the dying one. When heart and flesh are failing–when the solemn curtain of eternity is rising–when the eye is darkening, and the pulse is sinking, and earth is receding, and eternity is nearing, and, heaven is opening, oh, then, like Joshua, you shall testify to the unchanging love and faithful word and precious comforts and secure supports of your covenant God and redeeming Savior, as He gently leads you down the valley, radiant with His presence, resounding with your song–up the delectable mountains, home to your Father’s House–“Forever with the Lord!”