Jul 25
26
The Plan Today
“These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.” Psalm 50:21.
The plan today is to make sure the church is as much like the world as possible, so that unregenerate people will not feel uncomfortable and will be attracted to its ministry! Turn the church into a theater; worship into a musical display; ministers into actors and clowns to amuse and entertain; sermons into political, patriotic or philosophical essays; and the living God into a good buddy whose attributes are adjustable to any culture or creed. This will attract the flesh and successfully quench the Spirit.
~Scott Richardson
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Are we trying to win the favour of man or of God? Do we seek to be men-pleasers? If we are seeking the favour and approval of men, we are not the bond-servants of Jesus Christ. Our aim is to be true to the Word of God, and in doing so we will be true to our hearers. This gospel of the free grace of God is glorifying to God and honouring to all of His excellent attributes; His love and mercy, His infinite wisdom, His righteous justice, and His immutable holiness. This gospel of the free grace of God in Christ is the only hope that sinful, corrupt men have; for if righteousness comes by any obedience to the law at all, not only did Christ die in vain, but no son of Adam has any hope of being saved.
Henry Mahan
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The Gospel of God or Another Gospel?
We read numerous times in Scripture of “The Gospel of God.” Is my gospel the Gospel of God? The Gospel of God is the Gospel that lines up with the Old Testament Scriptures, gives God all the glory in salvation, gives the pre-eminence to Jesus Christ in all things, does not violate or contradict any of the attributes of God, actually honors the law’s demand for perfect obedience and punishment for disobedience, meets the sinner where he is…dead in sins…and gives him life, saves the very chief of sinners, provides all God requires, keeps a man saved, enables a man to face death and judgment with perfect peace, conforms a sinner to perfect likeness to Christ, and enables him to rest in Christ’s finished work. If it fails to do any of those things, it is not the Gospel of God, but another gospel that will not save! ~Todd Nibert
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The Power of God
The power of God is that ability and strength whereby He can bring to pass whatsoever He pleases, whatsoever His infinite wisdom may direct, and whatsoever the infinite purity of His will may resolve…as holiness is the beauty of all God’s attributes, so power is that which gives life and action to all the perfections of the Divine nature. How vain would be the eternal counsels if power did not step in to execute them. Without power, His mercy would be but feeble pity, His promise an empty sound, His threatening’s a mere scarecrow. God’s power is like Himself – infinite, eternal, incomprehensible; it can neither be checked, restrained, nor frustrated by the creature. ~Steven Charnock
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Respecter of Persons
All the attributes of God are most clearly seen at the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nowhere, in all God’s doings, are His Divine glories illuminated with the spotlight of truth more brightly. His love, righteousness, mercy, justice, immutability, and holiness, to name a few, are most glorified at Calvary’s Cross. So it is with our God being, not a “respecter of persons”. Acts 10:34, Eph. 6:9, Rom 2:11. God’s justice is equal to all. It is without prejudice toward any, and always in strict compliance with His Holy law. If God spared not His own Son when He found sin on Him; if it pleased the Lord to bruise Him, how could He overlook one sin in you or me? He will by no means clear the guilty. Does the cross not prove that? He (the Father) shall see the travail of His (Son) soul, and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall my righteous Servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities. Is. 53:11. ~GE
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When Moses asked the Lord to show him His glory, what attribute did the Lord give him first? “I will make all My goodness to pass before thee.” God is good all the time. He is essentially good, absolutely good, and all He does is good! All of His attributes are holy and all of His attributes are good. His way of salvation by the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is a declaration of His goodness! Paul said in Romans 2:4, “It is the goodness of God that leadeth thee to repentance.” If you and I ever repent, it is an act of God’s goodness toward us, and not our goodness. Only God is good. “There is none that doeth good, no not one.” I hope we never think, speak, or act in a way that clouds His goodness. I repeat, God is good all the time. All He does is good because He is good. He is a good God! That is why He has mercy and grace. His goodness is seen in His giving and His forgiving. HE IS GOOD!
Established Hearts
“Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein” (Hebrews 13:9).
Multitudes are “carried about with divers and strange doctrines,” the many different doctrines of men that are strange, totally foreign to the Scriptures and contrary to the gospel of Christ, the character of God, and the person, work and offices of Christ as our Mediator. The doctrine of Christ is one. Truly, it is a good thing to have our hearts established with grace.
It is written, “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness” (Romans 10:10). The Lord God requires, “Keep thy heart with all diligence” (Proverbs 4:23). “My son, give me thine heart” (Proverbs 23:26). Faith is a heart work. Repentance is a heart work. The confession of sin is a heart work. Prayer is a heart work. Worship is a heart work. Our Lord declares in Matthew 5:8 that the pure in heart shall see God, and no one else. In all things spiritual, the heart is the principle thing.
The grace of God establishes the hearts of men. It does not leave us floundering in religious mysticism, religious intellectualism, and philosophical speculation. Believing hearts are convinced, persuaded, and settled regarding the righteousness of God and the way to God. Being built upon that foundation God himself has laid, Christ Jesus, we are established in the love of God, convinced of acceptance with God, the complete expiation of our sins, and our righteousness before God in and by Christ. Trusting Christ, we are no longer looking for the way to God and eternal life, but are established in the way. We no longer grope about in the blindness and darkness of religious confusion, but walk in the light of revealed truth, firmly looking for and expecting eternal happiness by, with, and in Christ, rejoicing in hope of the glory of God.
Our hearts are established with the gospel of the grace of God, the doctrine of the grace of God, the truth of the grace of God, and by the work of the grace of God. We understand that salvation, justification, and eternal life are the result of God’s grace to us in Christ Jesus, not by deeds of the law or works of the flesh (2 Timothy 1:8-11; Titus 3:5-7). Let us never be unsettled, tossed about, and carried away from the gospel of God’s free and sovereign grace in Christ by the many winds of strange doctrine, which come our way from the lips of men.
Work-mongers and religious legalists are occupied with outward, carnal things: eating and not eating certain meats, the keeping of sabbath days, and the observance of religious ceremonies. Such carnal practices gratify the flesh, but do not profit their souls. These things cannot justify, sanctify, establish the heart, or give peace to the soul (Romans 14:17; Colossians 2:16-23). It is Christ alone who is all our acceptance with God. “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30). Don Fortner
The great storehouse of all heavenly treasures
(John 1:14), “We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
(John 1:16), “From the fullness of His grace, we have all received one blessing after another.”
There is in Jesus, not only a sufficiency of grace, but an all-sufficiency. He has enough to supply all our needs; and not only enough for us–but for all the saints who have ever lived or shall live!
Jesus is a fountain of mercy and grace. From His fullness, as from an overflowing fountain, streams every spiritual blessing. He fills our empty vessels again and again, and still the fountain overflows.
The more grace we draw from Jesus, the more is still in Him. The sun is nevertheless bright, after all the light we receive from it. In the same way, Jesus is nevertheless full, after all the grace we receive from Him. Grace from the heart of Jesus, is ever flowing out to His people:
grace upon grace,
blessing upon blessing,
mercy upon mercy.
There is in the crucified Jesus, grace sufficient to all the difficulties, necessities, and desires of His poor people. Jesus is . . .
a garment to cover and adorn them,
a counselor to advise them,
a captain to defend them,
a prince to rule them,
a prophet to teach them,
a priest to make atonement for them,
a husband to protect them,
a father to provide for them,
a brother to relieve them,
a foundation to support them,
a head to guide them,
and a treasure to enrich them!
Jesus is the great storehouse of all heavenly treasures. In Him, are laid up all the riches of divine grace. From Him, all believers receive grace, not only at their first conversion, but all along their pilgrim way. His blessings do not come occasionally, but one after another: ceaseless, boundless, sufficient for every step of the Christian life.
Jesus is all-sufficient for a believer. He is . . .
the bread to nourish him,
the physician to heal him,
the rock to support him,
the ark to shelter him,
the sun to enlighten him,
and the fountain to cleanse him!
What more can any Christian desire to save and satisfy him; and to make him holy and happy, in time and in eternity?
Jesus is a treasury of all spiritual blessings, and these are all for His redeemed people! If there is anything lacking in us, it is not because there is any lack in Jesus. The fountain is full, but the hand of faith must be stretched out to receive.
Thomas Brooks