Sep 25
14
Omniscience cannot be deceived. Omnipresence cannot be eluded. Omnipotence cannot be overpowered. Augustus Toplady
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Omniscience
When David spoke of God’s omniscience in Psalm 139, he concluded with; “such a knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.”
Compare that to the explanation men give for Divine omniscience. They say he looks down through the portal of time and sees who will choose him. That is not our God. That is nothing more than a Seer looking into a crystal ball. No, our God created time. He exists completely within Himself, outside of time. He has ordained everything in time to accomplish his sovereign purpose. “I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him. That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.”
Eccl. 3:14-15. ~GE
His Glory is Our Salvation
“My glory will I not give to another” Is 42:8. Yes, our Lord is jealous for His glory. But let us not think that His jealousy is anything like ours. He is not in the least threatened by the vast majority of men who do rob him of his glory. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Ps 2:4. It is the Lords mercy that He strips His people of their glory Job 19:9 and makes Himself their ONLY glory. 1 Cor. 1:31 The Lord loves His children too much to allow them to rob themselves of Him, by robbing Him of His glory. Truly He has set His glory among the heathen Ez. 39:21, by putting Christ in us, our only hope of glory. Col. 1:27. ~GE
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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
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Even though I am the worst of sinners, there is a good hope that my sins will be forgiven because there is forgiveness with God. I know that there is forgiveness with God because God has promised to forgive sin. “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jer. 31:34)
I know that God will not withhold mercy from sinners because “he delighteth in mercy” (Micah 7:18).
I know that God will be merciful to His people because God found a way to show mercy to sinners in justice. God forgives the sin of His people because the Lord Jesus Christ suffered and died for their sin. God’s justice demands death for sin. Since Christ has already died for the sin of His people, they can never die. Now God’s justice demands that His elect be forgiven of all of their sin and be given eternal life. Then mercy is sure because the very character of God demands it. “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Eph. 1:7). Frank Tate
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Blood Before the Lord
Note in scripture how many times the blood is said to be “before the Lord.” Whether any man saw it or not was of small account, for it was offered for sin “before the Lord.” When the Passover lamb was slain in Egypt, where was the blood placed? It was on the OUTSIDE of the door “before the Lord.” He said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.”
The suffering and death of Christ on behalf of His people was “BEFORE the Lord,” UNTO the Lord, to declare the Lord’s righteousness, to satisfy the Lord’s justice, to fulfill the Lord’s purpose, to glorify the Lord’s character, to enable the Lord to be both just and justifier!
The atonement does not change the NATURE and character of God, but rather the atonement HONORS and MAGNIFIES the character of God. The death of Christ is NOT the cause of God’s love, but the result of it. God is not merciful because Christ died; Christ died because God is merciful. In order that every attribute might be expressed, glorified, and honored, God gave His Son to be the Saviour of the chosen people! Thank God we have an atonement, “before the Lord.” ~Henry T. Mahan
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Every True Conversion
Paul’s conversion was an instance of divine power, and of that alone, and so is every true conversion. If your conversion is an instance of the preacher’s power, you need to be converted again; if your salvation is the result of your own power, it is a miserable deception, from which you may be delivered. Every man who is saved must be operated upon by the mighty God the Holy Spirit. Every jot and title of true conversion is the Spirit’s work. As for our strength, it warreth against salvation rather than for it. Blessed is that promise, ‘Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power.’ Conversion is as much a work of God’s omnipotence as the resurrection; and as the dead do not raise themselves, so neither do men convert themselves. ~C. H. Spurgeon
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The fairest and best of men MUST retire into the shade when tested by the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. The light of his moral glory makes known the flaws, defects, and blemishes of even the most perfect of the Sons of Adam. “In all things he must have the preeminence.” The spotless Lord of glory passed through deeper sorrows and in greater number than all his people put together. But, not one complaining word ever fell from his lips. He patiently submitted to all and met the darkest hour with words such as these: “The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it.” Blessed Lord Jesus, Son of the Father, we adore thee. We bow down at Thy feet lost in wonder, love, and praise and own thee Lord of All—”The fairest among ten thousand and altogether lovely.” Scott Richardson
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Salvation is of The Lord
Jonah 2:9
The Lord gets all the glory for every part of our salvation. He left no part of it up to us. He did it all. Salvation is of the Lord:
1. In Conception the Father chose a people, the Son became their eternal Surety, and the Holy Spirit agreed to make them willing in the new birth.
2. In Execution the Son of God was made flesh, fulfilled all righteousness and put away all the sin of all His people by the sacrifice of Himself on Calvary’s Tree.
3. In Application the Lord does it all. a) In Regeneration He births us into the Kingdom of Heaven. b) In Revelation He opens the eyes of our understanding to the glorious gospel of His free and sovereign grace. c) in Sanctification He grows us in His grace and in the knowledge of Christ.
4. In Culmination He keeps us from falling away and presents us faultless before the presence of His Glory with exceeding joy.
Thank God, Salvation is of the Lord! ~GE
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He said this to prove him: for He Himself
knew what He would do. Jn 6:6.
The Lord always knows what He is going to do. We decide what to do in response to our circumstances. The Lord purposes all circumstances to fulfill his predetermined response. Beginning with the fall, this has always been true in everything. Before Adam sinned, the Lord knew what He would do. The gospel was not God‘s response to the fall. The fall was God’s purpose in fulfilling the gospel. He Himself already knew what he would do. Before there was sin, there was a Savior. Before all our preparations and plans, He Himself knows what he will do. Pr. 16:9. What hope, what comfort, what peace, we have in our Sovereign, Omnipotent and Omniscient God. ~GE
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Christ Our Gospel
The doctrines we preach and love are not mere teachings of some particular method or plan, but the doctrines of Christ, who IS our Gospel; Christ who is sovereign over all flesh; Christ, whose grace is both sovereign and free. Not to preach a sovereign Christ, is to preach another Christ. To preach another Christ is to preach another gospel (which is not another, Galatians 1:6-9). It is just that simple. Mark it down, you cannot separate Christ from the Gospel or the Gospel from Christ, for they are one and the same. Christ is sovereign over all things and over all flesh, giving life freely to whom He will. The message of life for poor guilty sinners is the message of the Christ of God, who saves sovereignly and freely, even the chief of sinners!
Maurice Montgomery
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“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!” (Isaiah 52:7)
Oh, how God’s people rest in His absolute sovereignty over all things
concerning them. That is their good news. That is their peace. That is
their hope of salvation. No matter how much their sin has abounded, it will
never be able to reign over His mercy and grace that He has mightily supplied
in the death of His Son! Every soul that the Father sovereignly chose, the Son
sovereignly redeemed, and the Spirit has sovereignly called will through the
ages of eternity cry, “Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!”
Pastor
Gabe Stalnaker
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OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, MIGHTY TO SAVE.
The Dying Thief – Luke.23:39-43
How near a person may be to hell and yet be saved! That thief was, as it were upon the very brink of hell. He had one foot in the pit. Hell was in his heart. Hell had been his life. Soon, hell must be his portion forever! He had done nothing but evil continually all the days of his life. In the very last hour of his life, he is heard blaspheming and railing against the Lord Jesus. Yet, he was plucked from the fire by omnipotent mercy! – Saved by the Son of God! He was just about to step into everlasting damnation when the omnipotent hand of the Son of God seized him and lifted him up to Paradise! Oh, what grace is here! What boundless love! What power to save! Who after this need despair? Truly our Lord Jesus Christ is mighty to save! Pastor Don Fortner