Aug 23
27
The pulpit’s real issue is this: Christ, and Him crucified. Men, whose eyes are fixed on Christ, do not argue. They do not love controversy whose hearts are touched with Him. They do not look for issues and sticky theological problems who are busy knowing and showing Christ. Those whose interest is singularly Christ have little difficulty settling all matters and quickly in His Word. The problem they see is sinners, lost and hell-bound; and the only answer they see is Christ. Pastor Henry Mahan
Fear Him!
“Who would not fear Thee, O King of nations?” Jeremiah
10:7
How reasonable it is that this glorious Being whose greatness is unsearchable,
should be regarded with feelings of the profoundest reverence. It is indeed,
His due—and as such He claims it from all His creatures.
“Concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before
his eyes!” Psalm 36:1. To have no fear of God before our eyes, is at once
the greatest injustice, and the most unutterable folly! All
who have the impudence to lift up their puny arms in rebellion against Him—are
engaged in a conflict, which, if persisted in, is sure to terminate in their
utter destruction!
Reader, think of His incomprehensible greatness and majesty.
Think of Him as the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity. . .
the heavens His throne,
the earth His footstool,
the light His garment,
the clouds His chariot,
the thunder His voice!
Viewing Him thus—it will be impossible for you to treat Him with indifference,
far less with scornful disdain. If you are only brought in some measure to
realize the fact of God’s greatness and majesty—you cannot fail to acknowledge
that He is greatly to be feared, and to be held in reverence by all His
creatures.
Just so, with all the other attributes of His nature.
Who can think of His power so mighty, so irresistible—a power
that is able to crush us into atoms with infinitely greater ease than we can
tread the crawling worm beneath our feet—and not fear Him?
Who can think of His knowledge, nothing being hidden from His
omniscient glance, the darkness of midnight and the splendour of noon, being
altogether alike to Him—and not fear Him?
Who can think of the terrors of His avenging justice—and not fear
Him? Especially as when He proclaims from His exalted throne,
“There is no God other than Me.
I am the one who kills and gives life.
I am the one who wounds and heals.
No one delivers from My power.
As surely as I live, when I sharpen my flashing sword and begin to carry
out justice, I will bring vengeance on My enemies and repay those who hate
Me!” Deuteronomy 32:39-41
Our God is truly a consuming fire! It is most befitting for us, to regard Him
with a reverence and godly fear.
It is not those who can deprive us of our present life, whom we should so much
dread. Limited and of brief duration, is the power of all mortal foes
at best.
“Be not afraid of them who kill the body, and after that have no more that
they can do. But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear: Fear Him,
which after He hath killed, hath power to cast into Hell; Yea, I say unto
you, fear Him!” Luke 12:4-5
GOD’S WORD
(The following is by Spurgeon)
“He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth:
His word runeth very swiftly” (Psalm 147:15).
No language ever stirs the deeps of my nature like the Word of
God, and none produces such a profound calm within my spirit.
As no other voice can,
it melts me to tears,
it humbles me in the dust,
it fires me with enthusiasm,
it fills me with pleasure,
it elevates me to holiness.
Every faculty of my being owns the power of the sacred Word.
It sweetens my memory,
it brightens my hope,
it stimulates my imagination,
it directs my judgment,
it commands my will, and
it cheers my heart.
The word of man charms me for the time,
but I outlive and outgrow its power.
It is altogether the reverse with the Word of the King of kings;
it rules me more sovereignly, more practically, more habitually,
more completely every day. Its power is for all seasons–for
sickness and for health, for solitude and for company, for
personal emergencies and for public assemblies.
I had sooner have the Word of God at my back than all the
armies and navies of all the great powers, aye, than all the
forces of nature; for the Word of the Lord is the source of
all the power in the universe, and within it there is an infinite
supply in reserve.
Three Witnesses to the Accomplishment Of
Redemption by Christ
1 John 5:7
“There are three that bear record in heaven.” — Bear record of what? That Jesus is the Son of God? No. Heaven needs no evidence of that! These three bear record in heaven that God has given us eternal life, in strict accordance with his just and righteous law, by the merits of Christ’s obedience and death as our Substitute. The three Persons of the Holy Trinity bear record in heaven that Christ has accomplished redemption for God’s elect by his blood atonement. “There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one.”
1. God the Father bears record that redemption is accomplished by his acceptance of Christ as our Representative and Surety (Hebrews 1:1-9; 6:19-20; 10:11-14).
When the Father raised Christ from the dead and received him back into heaven as our Mediator, he accepted all his elect in Christ and bare record that redemption’s work was done (Ephesians 1:6; John 17:1-5).
2. God the Son, the living, eternal Word of God, the second Person of the blessed Trinity, bears record of his people’s right to eternal life by his perpetual advocacy and intercession at the Father’s right hand (Romans 8:34; 1 John 2:1-2; Hebrews 7:24-25; Hebrews 6:20).
The record he bears, which secures the eternalsalvation of God’s elect, by which we merit heaven and eternal life, is twofold: — His righteousness as our Representative, and his satisfaction as our Substitute.
3. God the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Holy Trinity, bears record of the accomplishment of redemption by effectually applying the blood of Christ to the hearts of God’s elect in effectual calling (John 16:14; Hebrews 9:13-14).
The Spirit of God takes the merit of Christ’s blood and righteousness and reveals to God’s elect their acceptance with God by the gospel. In effectual calling, chosen, redeemed sinners hear the gospel. But they hear more than the bare word of the gospel. They hear the Spirit of God speak in their hearts! Each one hears God speak pardon to his own soul by the gospel of his salvation. — “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:13).
“And these three are one.” The three Divine Persons are one God. But more, the record of the Father, the record of the Son, and the record of the Spirit are one. What is that record? — Redemption is accomplished by Christ alone!
Don Fortner
“For we which have believed do enter into rest.” –Hebrews 4:3
J.C.Philpot
We enter into rest by ceasing from our own works, and resting on Christ’s; according to the words, “For he who has entered into his rest, has also has ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” Now when you can fully rest upon the finished work of the Son of God, and believe by a living faith that your sins were laid upon his head; that he bore them in his body on the tree; that he has washed you in his precious blood, clothed you with his righteousness, and is sanctifying you by his Spirit and grace, then you can rest. There is something here firm and solid for the conscience to rest on.
While the law thunders, while Satan accuses, while conscience condemns there is no rest. But you can rest where God rests. God rests in his love; in the finished work of his dear Son; in the perfection of Christ’s humanity; in his fulfilment of all his covenant engagements; in the glorification of his holy law; in the satisfaction rendered to his justice; in the harmonising of all his attributes; in the revelation of his grace and his glory to the children of men; for he is his beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased.
The tabernacle in the wilderness, and afterwards the temple on Mount Zion, was a type of the pure and sacred humanity of the Lord Jesus. There God rested in a visible manner by a cloud upon the mercy seat, called by the Jewish writers the Shekinah. This, therefore, was the place of his rest, as he speaks, “For the Lord has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his habitation. This is my rest forever–here will I dwell; for I have desired it” (Psalm 132:13, 14).
“Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion.” –Jeremiah 31:12
J.C.Philpot
Until the redeemed know something of the efficacy of atoning blood and have their consciences purged from guilt and filth by its application, they cannot come and sing in the height of Zion. But when they are redeemed from the hand of him who is stronger than they; when atoning blood is applied to their consciences to purge away guilt and filth; when Christ is revealed and made experimentally known; when his gospel in the hands of the Spirit becomes a word of power, and a view of the King in his beauty is granted to the believing heart, then, drawn by the cords of love and the bands of a man, they come to Zion, where the King sits enthroned in glory. It is called “the height of Zion,” not only because Zion was high literally, but because the Lord of life and glory is exalted to the highest place of dignity and power. God’s ancient promise was, “Behold, my servant shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high” (Isaiah 52:13); and the Apostle says, “therefore God also has highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name” (Phil. 2:9); and again, “Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come” (Eph. 1:21).
But why do they come? It is to commune with him, to worship him in the beauty of holiness, to get words from his lips, smiles from his face, touches from his hand, and whispers from his lips. And when he is graciously pleased to speak a word to them as Prince of peace, to reveal himself to their souls in the glory of his divine Person as God-man, and to shed abroad his love in their hearts, then they can sing, and in them is the promise fulfilled, “They shall come and sing in the height of Zion.”
“Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” –John 20:17
J.C.Philpot
Why your Father? Because my Father. Why your God? Because my God. As his only-begotten Son from all eternity, God was the God of our Lord Jesus Christ; as the Father’s messenger and servant, doing his will upon earth, even in his lowest humiliation, God was his God; and now that he has risen from the dead and gone up on high to be the great High Priest over the house of God, now that he is entered into his glory and ever lives to make intercession for us, God is still his God. This view of Jesus is most strengthening and encouraging to faith.
The great and glorious God, the great self-existent I AM, the God in whom we live and move and have our being, the God before whom we stand with all we are and have, the God against and before whom we have so deeply and dreadfully sinned–this great and glorious God is “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We may, therefore, draw near unto him with all holy boldness, present our supplications before him, call upon his holy name, and worship him with all reverence and godly fear as the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our God in him. A believing view of God, as revealing himself in the person of his dear Son, as reconciling us to himself by his precious blood, as accepting us in the Beloved, and not imputing our trespasses unto us, disarms God of all his terrors, removes the bondage of the law out of our hearts and the guilt of sin from our consciences, enlarges, comforts, and solaces the soul, soothes the troubled spirit, and casts out that fear which has torment.