May 21
23
“Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” –John 1:17
J.C.Philpot
The way to learn truth is to be much in prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ; as you lie upon your bed, as engaged in your daily occupation, to be from time to time looking up to the Lord himself as he sits upon his throne of grace, and be begging of him to teach you himself, for he is the best teacher. The words which he speaks, they “are spirit and life.” What he writes upon our hearts is written in characters which will “stand every storm and live at last.”
We forget what we learn from man, but we never forget what we learn from Jesus. Men may deceive—Christ cannot. You can trust no minister really and fully. Though you may receive truth from his lips, it is always mixed with human infirmity. But what you get from the lips of Jesus, you get in all its purity and power. It comes warm from Him; it comes cold from us. It drops like the rain and distills like the dew from his mouth; it comes only second-hand from ours. If I preach to you the truth, I preach indeed as the Lord enables me to speak. But it is he who must speak with power to your souls to do you any real good. Look then away from me; look beyond me, to him who alone can teach us both. By looking to Jesus in the inmost feelings of your soul, you will draw living truth from out of his bosom into your own, from his heart into your heart, and thus will come feelingly and experimentally to know the blessedness of his own declaration—”I am the truth.”
ALL-SUFFICIENT GRACE
(John MacDuff, “The Faithful Promiser”)
“God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all things — may abound to every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:8
All-sufficiency in all things! Believer! Surely you are “thoroughly equipped for every good work!”
Grace is no scanty thing, doled out in pittances!
It is a glorious treasury, which the key of prayer can always unlock — but can never empty!
It is a fountain — full, flowing, ever flowing, over flowing!
Mark these three ALL’S in this precious promise. It is a three-fold link in a golden chain, let down from the throne of grace, by the God of grace. “All grace!” “all-sufficiency!” in “all things!” and these to “abound.”
Oh! precious thought! My need cannot impoverish that inexhaustible treasury of grace! Myriads are hourly hanging on it, drawing from it — and yet there is no diminution. Out of that fullness we, too, may all receive, “grace upon grace!”
My soul, do you not love to dwell on that all-abounding grace! Your own insufficiency in everything, met with a divine “all-sufficiency in all things!”
Grace in all circumstances and situations!
Grace in all vicissitudes and changes!
Grace in all the varied phases of the Christian’s being!
Grace in sunshine — and in storm!
Grace in health — and in sickness!
Grace in life — and in death!
Grace for the old believer — and the young believer.
Grace for the tried believer, and the weak believer, and the tempted believer.
Grace for duty — and grace in duty.
Grace to carry the joyous cup with a steady hand — and grace to drink the bitter cup with an unmurmuring spirit!
Grace to have prosperity sanctified — and grace to say through tears, “May Your will be done!”
“God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all things — may abound to every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:8
How Do We Fulfill The Law By Faith In Christ?
Rom. 8:4
Paul declares that we fulfill the law’s righteousness, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. He is not saying that the Holy Spirit of God enables the believer to personally fulfill the law. To suggest such a thing is to suggest that believers are enabled by the Spirit to attain sinless perfection in this world, for nothing short of perfection can fulfill the law of God. Paul is simply declaring that we do not nullify,or make void,the law through faith in Christ. Rather, “we establish the law”(Rom. 3:31). How?
1. THE LAW REQUIRES COMPLETE SATISFACTION FOR SIN. “The soul that sinneth it shall die.” We fulfill this requirement of satisfaction by offering to God the precious blood of Christ’s atonement. He is the propitiation, the satisfaction, for our sins. When the law looks upon the blood of Christ, it is silent. It cannot require more. That blood is our death insofar as God’s law is concerned. Because we died in Christ, we are dead to the law (Rom.7:4).
2. THE LAW REQUIRES COMPLETE LOVE TO GOD. It requires the total consecration of our lives and hearts to the will, worship, and glory of God. We fulfill this requirement by offering the consecrated love of Christ to God in his life upon the earth as our Representative. And with that, only with that, God is well pleased (Matt. 17:5).
3. THE LAW DEMANDS PERFECT LOVE AND DEVOTION TO OUR NEIGHBOR. And we fulfill this requirement by offering to God the perfect love and devotion of Christ to his people, even unto death.
As our sins became his, Christ’s righteousness is ours by imputation. His death is our death. His obedience is our obedience. And his life is our life (Rom. 5:19). By trusting Christ, offering him back to God as our only grounds of hope and life, we fulfill the law and do all that God requires of us. In Christ we pay what we owe, restore what we took away, and perfectly obey God (Read Ezek. 33:14-15). None of our sins which we have committed shall be mentioned to us. We have done that which is lawful and right. We shall surely live (Read Ezek. 33:16).
Don Fortner
The chief among ten thousand,
the altogether lovely One!
(by Octavius Winslow)
With what pen, dipped though it were in heaven’sThe Authority & Power of the Word upon the Heart
excerpt by J. C. Philpot
God is essentially invisible. “He dwells in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man has seen, nor can see.” (1 Tim. 6:16.) When, therefore, he would make himself known to the sons of men, it must be by his works or by his words. The first way of making his power and glory known is beautifully unfolded in Psalm 19—”The heavens tell of the glory of God. The skies display his marvelous craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or a word; their voice is silent in the skies; yet their message has gone out to all the earth, and their words to all the world.” This is the testimony which God gave of himself to the Gentile world, but which, through the depravity of man’s heart, has been universally misunderstood, perverted and abused, as the Apostle speaks—”since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Rom. 1:19-21.)
The secret spring whence this flows, and the eternal foundation on which this rests, is the incarnation of God’s dear Son. He is “the Word”—the Word emphatically, originally, essentially; and so called not only because he is the express image of the Father, as the word is the image of the thought, but because he has declared or made him known, as our uttered word makes our thoughts known. John therefore bare witness of him—”No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” Had there, then, been no incarnate Word, there would have been no revealed word; and had there been no revealed word, there would have been no written word; for all that was revealed was not necessarily written, as John was bidden to seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. (Rev. 10:4.) And as without the incarnate Word there would have been no revealed or written word—so the power of the written word is derived from the power of the incarnate Word.
brightest hues, can we portray the image of Jesus?
The perfection of our Lord was the perfection of
holiness. His Deity, essential holiness; His humanity
without sin, the impersonation of holiness. All that
He was, said, and did, was as flashes of holiness
emanating from the fountain of essential purity,
and kindling their dazzling and undying radiance
around each step He trod. How lowly, too, His
character! How holy the thoughts He breathed,
how pure the words He spoke, how humble the
spirit He exemplified, how tender and sympathizing
the outgoings of His compassion and love to man.
He is “the chief among ten thousand, the
altogether lovely one!”
ALL-SUFFICIENT GRACE
(John MacDuff, “The Faithful Promiser”)
“God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all things — may abound to every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:8
All-sufficiency in all things! Believer! Surely you are “thoroughly equipped for every good work!”
Grace is no scanty thing, doled out in pittances!
It is a glorious treasury, which the key of prayer can always unlock — but can never empty!
It is a fountain — full, flowing, ever flowing, over flowing!
Mark these three ALL’S in this precious promise. It is a three-fold link in a golden chain, let down from the throne of grace, by the God of grace. “All grace!” “all-sufficiency!” in “all things!” and these to “abound.”
Oh! precious thought! My need cannot impoverish that inexhaustible treasury of grace! Myriads are hourly hanging on it, drawing from it — and yet there is no diminution. Out of that fullness we, too, may all receive, “grace upon grace!”
My soul, do you not love to dwell on that all-abounding grace! Your own insufficiency in everything, met with a divine “all-sufficiency in all things!”
Grace in all circumstances and situations!
Grace in all vicissitudes and changes!
Grace in all the varied phases of the Christian’s being!
Grace in sunshine — and in storm!
Grace in health — and in sickness!
Grace in life — and in death!
Grace for the old believer — and the young believer.
Grace for the tried believer, and the weak believer, and the tempted believer.
Grace for duty — and grace in duty.
Grace to carry the joyous cup with a steady hand — and grace to drink the bitter cup with an unmurmuring spirit!
Grace to have prosperity sanctified — and grace to say through tears, “May Your will be done!”
“God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all things — may abound to every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:8
“Grace for Grace” — John 1:16
In Christ we have received, from his boundless fulness, grace because of grace. —
We have received redeeming grace because of electing grace, —
regenerating grace because of redeeming grace, —
sanctifying grace because of regenerating grace, —
believing grace because of sanctifying grace, —
persevering grace because of preserving grace, —
grace in time because of grace in eternity, —
experimental grace because of covenant grace, —
pardoning grace because of promised grace, —
imparted grace because of imputed grace, —
everlasting grace because of everlasting grace, —
the fulness of grace because of the freeness of grace, — heaps of grace upon heaps of grace (1 Cor. 1:30; Gal. 3:13-14; Eph. 1:3-2-10).
Don Fortner