May 25
8
1Tim. 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.
1Tim. 6:13 I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth (gives life to) all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession;
1Tim. 6:14 That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ:
1Tim. 6:15 Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate (‘dynasty’ Great Authority, Mighty in Power), the King of kings , and Lord of lords;
1Tim. 6:16 Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.
Eight Stubborn Statements
Isaiah 8:20
Here are eight, stubborn, irrefutable statements. They go right to the heart of true Christianity. You will either accept or reject these eight statements. There is no middle ground; and you will find it impossible to be indifferent regarding them. There is no room for compromise on any of these eight points.
1. Either the Bible is in its entirety the holy, inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God, or it is in its entirety a lie by which the souls of men are eternally deceived and damned. If the Bible not the Word of God, throw it away. But if it is, as it claims to be, God’s Holy Word, we better pay attention to it. It claims, as such, a total sway over our lives. It must be our only rule of faith and practice.
2. Either God almighty is absolutely sovereign, in total control of all things, at all times, or there is no God. Again, there is no middle ground between these two poles, between God’s absolute, total sovereignty and absolute, total atheism. To speak of a god who is not totally sovereign is utter nonsense. Atheism is far more sensible than Arminianism. If God is, he is sovereign!
3. Either man is totally depraved, utterly dead in trespasses and in sins, or there is nothing wrong with him and he needs no Savior. There is no such thing as partial depravity or partial goodness before God. Either we are totally sinful and depraved, or we are totally righteous and good. There is no middle ground.
4. Either God chose to save some of Adam’s fallen race to salvation and eternal life in Christ before the world began, as the Bible says he did, or no salvation is possible for any man. Salvation is God’s prerogative, not man’s. Grace is God’s gift, not man’s choice. If God does not choose to save and choose whom he will save, no sinner can ever be saved.
5. Either the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is altogether and alone the effectual Redeemer and Savior of his people, or he is a fraud and a failure. Again, there is no middle ground, no room for compromise. Either Christ did what he came to do, or he is a failure. If he is a failure, he is not God, and we have no Savior.
6. Either we are regenerated and called to life and faith in Christ by the irresistible power and grace of God the Holy Spirit, or there is no such thing as salvation. The only hope for a dead sinner is free and sovereign grace, grace that asks for nothing and gives everything, grace that waits for nothing and does everything.
7. Either God’s people are entirely free from the law, as the Scriptures declare us to be, or we are yet under the bondage of the law and entirely obligated to keep it perfectly. There is no such thing as being partially under the law and partially free from it, not in biblical terms. The only way the sinner can satisfy, fulfill, and establish the law is by faith in Christ (Rom. 3:31).
8. Either every saved sinner shall persevere to the end, being preserved and kept by God’s infallible, immutable grace, or none shall. The perseverance of the saints is demanded by the purpose of God, the purchase of Christ, and the power of the Spirit.
Don Fortner
“In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus
concerning you.” 1 Thess. 5:18
What an all-inclusive word of instruction this is to the child of
God. Everything that the Lord has eternally ordained and providentially
brought about in this world is working together for His glory and the
good of His people. For His merciful kindness, be thankful that He has
not have left us to die in our sins with nothing more than a spirit of
rebellion and ingratitude.
Marvin Stalnaker
“Christ Sent Me To Preach The Gospel”
1 Corinthians 1:17
I have absolutely no interest in debating points of theology with men, defending a creed, a denomination, or a position. The Spirit of God tells us plainly that debate is nothing but the lust of the flesh venting itself in pride to the hurt of another (Rom. 1:29). All my personal experience in the practice has painfully verified the Spirit’s testimony. It is the business of gospel preachers to preach the gospel, to preach the gospel exclusively, earnestly, and incessantly. That is what it is to preach the Word of God (1 Pet. 1:23-25).
It is the gospel of Christ which is the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:115-17). It is the gospel of Christ which is the standard of godliness (John 13:15; 1 Pet. 2:21-24). It is the gospel of Christ which is the motive for and basis of all consecration, devotion, self-denial, sacrifice, and service (Rom. 12:1-3; 1 Cor. 6:9-20; 2 Cor. 8:8-9).
God never sent a man to preach politics, liberal, conservative, or otherwise. He never called a man to preach psychology, marriage counselling, family values, or social reform. All these things will certainly be dealt with and affected by the faithful preaching of the gospel; but God never called any man to devote himself to the preaching of such drivel.
Those men who are called and gifted of God to preach, are called and gifted to preach the gospel. It matters not where or to whom God sends his servants, they are all sent with the same task and sent with the same message. Every servant of God attests, “Christ sent me to preach the gospel.”
Such men, being gifted and called of God, are undaunted by charges of extremism, dogmatism, and a lack of balance. Let the servants of men grovel before their masters about such matters. God’s servants are totally unconcerned about the approval or disapproval of men. Being sent of God to preach the gospel, “we preach Christ.” Our doctrine, our only doctrine, is what John calls “the doctrine of Christ.”
The gospel of Christ is the message of Holy Scripture. All the law and all the prophets, all the psalms and all the proverbs, all the gospels and all the epistles, all the history of the Old and New Testament, the whole Book of God was written to point us to and show us the Lord Jesus Christ.
Substitution is the message of the gospel. Substitution is not one doctrine among many. Substitution is the gospel. All true doctrine arises from and is based upon the gospel doctrine of substitution. It is impossible to understand election, redemption, justification, sanctification, baptism, the Lord’s supper, preservation, the great white throne judgment, or eternal glory until you understand these things in the light of substitution.
The gospel of Christ, this message of substitution is the message God sends his servants to preach to all who will hear them. Our message never varies. We preach Christ to draw lost sinners to him, and to draw believing sinners to him. We preach Christ to convict, convert, and correct, and to comfort, console, and consecrate. Our message is Christ.
Don Fortner
“Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.” 1 Corinthians 3:21-23
J.C.Philpot
Whatever there be in heaven, whatever there be in earth, that can be for your spiritual good, all is yours so far as you are an heir of God and a joint-heir with Christ. The silver and the gold and the cattle upon a thousand hills are all Christ’s because all power is given to him in heaven and in earth. Whatever your temporal needs may be, he can supply them, because he is king on earth as well as in heaven. Whatever enemies you may have, he is able to defeat them; whatever evils may press upon you, he is able to subdue them; whatever sorrows surround you, he is able to console you under them. Everything in time, everything in eternity, in this world and in the world to come, are all on your side, that are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.
“He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.” John 3:33
J.C.Philpot
We can only set to our seal that God is true in any one point of doctrine, experience, or precept when we feel an inward witness that God indeed has declared it. Thus, upon every manifestation of God’s goodness to the soul, every application of Christ’s blood to the conscience, and every revelation of God’s distinguishing grace, it is only as we receive Christ’s testimony, experience the inward approbation of it, and feel its sweetness and blessedness that we can set to our seal that God is true. This, we may be well assured, is the only way to know the power and reality of true religion, to understand the Scriptures, and enjoy a convincing testimony that God is our God, Christ our Saviour, the Holy Spirit our Teacher, heaven our eternal home, and that our soul is saved in the Lord Jesus Christ with an everlasting salvation.
And with what divine certainty can such a soul sometimes speak. Sometimes, indeed, we cannot believe anything; it seems as if there were nothing in God’s word that we could set our seal to. All seems a mass of confusion, and our ignorance appears so great that we cannot set our seal to any vital truth. But when the blessed Spirit is pleased to testify of the things of God, and we, receiving the testimony of Jesus Christ, walk in the light of that testimony, then there is a holy certainty of and heavenly acquiescence with God’s truth. This divine faith will bring us through all our trials and sorrows, and though we may be dragged through a very hell of temptation, yet shall we know God is true. Here, then, is the grand trial of faith; first to receive Christ’s testimony, and then to hang upon that testimony, in spite of all opposition from within and without, from feeling its weight, power, and sweetness.
He hath done all
things well!
By Octavius Winslow
“He hath done all things well!” Mark 7:37
Yes, from first to last, from our cradle to our grave, from the earliest pang
of sin’s conviction, to the last thrill of sin’s forgiveness, from earth to
heaven — this will be our testimony in all the way the Lord our God has led us
in the wilderness: “He hath done all things well!”
In providence and in grace,
in every truth of His Word,
in every lesson of His love,
in every stroke of His rod,
in every sunbeam that has shone,
in every cloud that has shaded,
in every element that has sweetened,
in every ingredient that has embittered,
in all that has been mysterious, inscrutable, painful, and humiliating,
in all that He gave,
in all that He took away,
this testimony is His just due, and this our grateful acknowledgment through
time and through eternity: “He hath done all things well!”
Has He converted us through grace by a way we had thought the most improbable?
Has He torn up all our earthly hopes by the roots?
Has He thwarted our schemes, frustrated our plans, disappointed our
expectations?
Has He taught us in schools most trying, by a discipline most severe, and
lessons most humbling to our nature?
Has He withered our strength by sickness, reduced us to poverty by loss,
crushed our heart by bereavement?
And have we been tempted to exclaim, “All these things are against
me!”
Ah! no! faith will yet obtain the ascendancy, and sweetly sing:
“I know in all things that befell,
My Jesus hath done all things well!”
Beloved, it must be so, for Jesus can do nothing wrong!
Study the way of His providence and grace with
the microscopic eye of faith — view them in every light,
examine them in their minutest detail, as you would the petal of a flower, or
the wing of an insect; and, oh, what wonders, what beauty, what marvellous
adaptation would you observe in all the varied dealings with you, of your
glorious Lord!
Thus He will make the
soul enamoured with Jesus!
(Letters of William Romaine,
1714-1795)
“When the Comforter is come . . . He shall testify of Me.”
John 15:26
He shall testify to My person as
self-existentJehovah.
He shall bear witness to My work as the perfect sin-atoner.
He shall testify of My grace, how free it is, how full it is.
He shall enable the sinner, any poor wretch, however vile in his own eyes-to
trust his soul into the hands of Jesus. And having enabled the sinner to do
this, then He will testify of Jesus, that He has received him, that he is safe
in the arms and may be happy in the enjoyment of Jesus’ love.
Thus He will make the soul enamoured with Jesus! There will appear
such consummate beauty, such infinite loveliness in His precious person, as
will eclipse the glory of all other lovers. There will appear such true
happiness in fellowship with Him, as will quite dethrone all former idols.
And when the foolish heart would depart, the Comforter will not let
it. Then will He testify of Jesus, “To whom would you go? Who has eternal
life to give, but Him? Turn, turn again to your rest, oh my soul.”
If the soul is mourning; He will testify of the joy that is in Jesus.
If the soul is burdened; “Cast the burden,” He says, “on your
Lord Jesus.”
If the soul has lost any creature comfort; “Let it go,” He says,
“Jesus is still your salvation and your great reward.”
If the soul is grieved with indwelling sin; “It is pardoned,” He
says, “you are free from the curse of sin.”
Whatever the needs of the believer are, the Spirit’s office is to testify of
Jesus: “Jesus is what you need-and you have Him freely.”
The Comforter will keep you by His almighty power, until He brings
you to the Heaven of heavens-the sight and enjoyment of dear Jesus, eternally
dear and lovely Jesus!