Jul 25
14
Luke 22:27b “but I am among you as he that serveth.”
I wonder how many of us are so caught up in what we must do to serve and honour the Lord in our lives that we forget that He is among His people as One Who serves “serveth” – continually serves. Who needs to be served? Those who are in need. It is not our giving which attracts the attention of our Saviour but our needs. He is able to succour them that are tempted.
Heb. 2:16 For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
Heb. 2:17 Wherefore in all things it behoved 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.
Heb. 2:18 For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.
To succour is to “run to the cry of” – sheep are needy animals. Thank God for the Good, Great, Chief Shepherd who comes to the cries of His lambs.
Psa. 40:17 But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.
There was a time when
I lived in the strong old
castle of my sins, and rested in my works.
There came a trumpeter to the door, and bade me open it.
I with anger chide him from the porch, and said he never
should enter.
Then there came a goodly personage, with loving
countenance; his hands were marked with scars, where
nails were driven, and his feet had nail-prints too.
He lifted up his cross, using it as a hammer–
at the first blow the gate of my prejudice shook;
at the second it trembled more;
at the third down it fell,
and in he came.
And he said, “Arise, and stand upon your feet,
for I have loved you with an everlasting love.”
“His free grace alone, from the first to the last,
Has won my affection, and held my soul fast.”
Spurgeon, from his sermon, “Christ Crucified”
Oh, how changed a man he is now!
(Octavius Winslow)
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old
things are passed away; behold, all things are become new!” 2 Corinthians
5:17
Originally shaped in iniquity, and conceived in sin–the love of sin and the
hatred of holiness are born with us.
But when by the Holy Spirit we are born again, this original and natural love
of sin and hatred of holiness are reversed! A new and heavenly principle is
implanted which leads the regenerate man to hate sin and love holiness.
Now, it is in this divine principle that the love of holiness in the believer
is implanted–and a power in antagonism to sin is implanted in his heart.
What a reverse now transpires!
The regenerate now love what they once hated–and hate what they once loved!
We lovedsin, livedin sin, in some of its many forms . . .
intellectual sin,
gross sin,
refined sin,
open sin,
secret sin,
the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eye,
the pride of life,
the power of mammon,
the fascination of the world,
the idolatry of the creature,
the love of SELF!
Some, or all these forms of sin maintained the supremacy, and held their
unbroken, undisputed rule.
Oh, how changed a man is he now!
The sins which he once committed,
the objects which he once loved,
the tastes which he once cultivated,
the sensualities in which he once indulged,
have lost their power . . .
to fascinate,
to please,
to enthrall.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old
things are passed away; behold, all things are become new!” 2 Corinthians
5:17
Effectual Calling
John Kent, 1766-1843
There is a period known to God
When all His sheep, redeemed by blood,
Shall leave the hateful ways of sin,
Turn to the fold, and enter in.
At peace with Hell, with God at war,
In sin’s dark maze, they wander far,
Indulge their lust, and still go on,
As far from God, as sheep can run.
But see how God’s indulgent care
Attends their wanderings, here and there;
Still tracking them, wherever they stray,
With piercing thorns, to hedge their way.
When wisdom calls, they stop their ear,
And headlong seek, their mad career;
Judgments and mercies, can never sway,
Their roving feet, to wisdom’s way.
Glory to God, they never shall rove,
Beyond the limits of His love;
Fenced with Jehovah’s shalls and wills,
Firm as the everlasting hills.
The appointed time, rolls on apace,
To call effectually, by His grace;
To change the heart, renew the will,
And turn the feet, to Zion’s hill.
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.
And I will raise him up on the last day.” John 6:44
“We know that God causes all things to work together for good:
to those who love God,
to those who are called according to
His purpose.
For those whom He foreknew, He also
predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be
the firstborn among many brethren;
and these whom He predestined, He also called;
and these whom He called, He also
justified;
and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
Romans 8:28-30
Powerful, supernatural,
irresistible,
mighty, overwhelming, constraining!
(The following is by Spurgeon)
We declare on scriptural authority that the human will
is so desperately set on mischief, so depraved, so
inclined to everything that is evil, and so disinclined
to everything that is good, that without the powerful,
supernatural, irresistible influence of the Holy Spirit,
no one will ever be constrained toward Christ.
A man is not saved against his will, but he is made
willing by the operation of the Holy Spirit. A mighty
grace which he does not wish to resist enters into the
man, disarms him, makes a new creature of him, and
he is saved.
If I did not believe that there was might going forth
with the word of Jesus which makes men willing, and
which turns them from the error of their ways by the
mighty, overwhelming, constraining force of divine
influence, I should cease to glory in the cross of Christ.
The omnipotent grace of
God
(MacDuff)
The omnipotent grace of God can change
and transform the worst and most hopeless;
quicken those who are dead; and animate
the grovelling spirit with . . .
new motives,
new principles,
new tastes,
new feelings,
new aspirations!
THEY SHALL BE MY
PEOPLE
by Don Fortner
“And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord:
and they shall be my people, and I will be their God:
for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.”
— Jeremiah 24:7
There are some men and women in this world whom
God has chosen to salvation from eternity, who must
and shall be saved (John 15:16; 2 Thess. 2:13).
There is a multitude, scattered among the fallen sons of
Adam, in every age, in every nation who must be saved.
The number of God’s elect is so great that no man can
calculate it, though it always appears as only a remnant
at any given time.
The number is unalterably fixed by God.
All the elect must be saved.
Nothing can prevent their salvation.
The Lord Jesus Christ has made atonement for the sins of
God’s elect and redeemed them from the curse of the law by
his own precious blood (Gal. 3:13). Contrary to popular
opinion, Christ did not die for all men. He refused to even
pray for all men (John 17:9, 20). All his work was and is for
his elect alone. To say otherwise is to declare that his work,
his atonement, his intercession, all his work as the sinner’s
Substitute was and is futile, meaningless, and vain.
The death of Christ was for his particular, chosen, elect people
(Isa. 53:8; John 10:11) for the satisfaction of justice on their behalf.
All God’s elect, having been redeemed by the blood of Christ, shall
be called from death to life by the irresistible power and almighty
grace of God the Holy Spirit (Gal. 3:13-14; Psa. 65:4; 110:3).
Repentance toward God, faith in Christ, and eternal life are the
results of the Spirit’s call. Theses are things effectually wrought
in God’s elect (not offered to them) by his almighty grace.
There is specific day appointed by God in which each of
his elect will be called to life and faith in Christ by the gospel
(Psa. 110:3; Ezek. 16:68). God will see to it that the sinner whom
he has chosen will be in the place he has ordained, with his heart
thoroughly prepared to receive the gospel, at the appointed time.
And he will send his Word to that sinner in the irresistible power
and grace of the Holy Spirit. In that day, God says, regarding
every chosen, redeemed sinner, “They shall be my people.”
When the Holy Spirit preaches the gospel
J.C.Philpot
We often know the theory of
the gospel,
before we know the experience of the gospel.
We often receive the doctrines of grace into
our judgment, before we receive the grace of
the doctrines into our soul.
We therefore need to be . . .
brought down,
humbled,
tried,
stripped of every prop;
that the gospel may be to us . . .
more than a sound,
more than a name,
more than a theory,
more than a doctrine,
more than a system,
more than a creed;
that it may be . . .
soul enjoyment,
soul blessing,
and soul salvation.
When the Holy Spirit preaches the gospel
to the poor in spirit, the humbled, stripped,
and tried–it is a gospel of glad tidings indeed
to the sinner’s broken heart.
It matters what a man believes about Christ: who He is, what He
has done, and where He is now is absolutely necessary to a man’s
hope. If Christ is not God, then He is less than God: anything less than
God is not holy. Anything that is not holy, God is not pleased with,
and anything that God is not pleased with is under His condemnation.
If Christ has not satisfied completely my case before God Almighty
(placing me in perfect standing with a God who is so holy that He
would turn His back on His very Son because my guilt was laid to His
account), then I am helplessly lost. If He is not at this very moment
interceding for me, pleading His own accomplishment in my behalf,
then I have no peace with God. If the Son of Man has made you free,
you are free — free from the wrath of divine justice, free from the law
of God that did reveal my sinful state, and free from the strivings of
bondage by yokes placed on me that no one has ever been able to bear.
Free, oh the glorious sound of One Who has freed me, washed me,
clothed me, feeds me, and keeps me because He has always loved me.
That is the God I serve, and His love constrains me and gives me a
longing to do more than I am willing or capable of doing and all for
His glory.
Marvin Stalnaker
How can a believer doubt when he knows that he is represented before
the throne of God by an advocate, even ― Jesus Christ the Righteous? It is
the privilege of the very feeblest believer to know that he was represented by
Christ on the cross, that all his sins were confessed, borne, judged, and
atoned for. This is a divine reality; and when laid hold of by faith, it must
give peace; but nothing short of it can ever give peace. There may be
earnest, anxious, and most sincere desires after God; there may be pious and
devout attendance upon all the laws, offices, and forms of religion; but there
is no possible way in which to get the sense of sin entirely removed from the
conscience but by seeing it judged in the person of Jesus Christ as a sin
offering on the cursed cross. If it were judged there once for all, it is now to
be regarded by the believer as a divinely, and therefore, eternally settled
question; and it was so judged, as proven by the resurrection of the Surety.
Scott Richardson
Noah went into the ark BEFORE ONE DROP OF WATER FELL!
If he had waited until the rain commenced, he would have been joined by
thousands of false converts. True faith believes the promises of God and the
warnings of God BEFORE they come to pass. A refuge built or entered
during the storm is usually forsaken when the sun shines. Be wary of those
who seek the Lord when their flesh is pained.
Henry Mahan