Dec 25
15
Walking
with God…
by Don Fortner
“Enoch WALKED with God….” Genesis 5:24
My heart is motivated, driven and governed by FOUR GREAT
CONCERNS. Here are four things I want more than anything
in this world.
I am not an ambitious man. But I am ambitious for these four
things. For the attainment of these four things I am prepared, by
the grace of God, to sacrifice everything else. I count all other
things to be but rubbish by comparison.
1. I want to know Christ (Phil. 3:10).
Yes, I believe that in measure I do know him. God has revealed
his grace and glory to me in the Person of his dear Son. Still, I
want a growing, spiritual, experimental knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I want to know all that he has done for me. I want
to know him. I want to know him fully.
2. I want to be totally committed to Christ.
I want to totally lose my life to Christ and in Christ, so that I can
truthfully say with the Apostle Paul, “For me to live is Christ.” I
want to be committed to Christ as he was to the Father, so that
my heart says to him in all things, “Not my will, thy will be done”
It is my continual prayer that God will give me a heart–
committed to the Lord Jesus Christ,
committed to his will,
committed to his gospel,
committed to his people,
committed to the cause of his glory in this world.
3. I want to be like Christ.
My heart longs to be like him, conformed to him, made into his
likeness. I want to be like him love, tenderness, and
thoughtfulness, in zeal, dedication, and devotion, purity, holiness,
and righteousness.
4. I want to live in communion with Christ.
Like Enoch of old, I want to walk with God.
I know these goals are not attainable in this life. Yet, they are the
things for which my soul hungers and my heart thirsts. I cannot
be satisfied with less. “I count not myself to have apprehended:
but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind,
and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus” (Phil. 3:13-14). “I shall be satisfied when I awake with
Christ’s likeness” (Psa. 17:15), but not until then.
“Enoch WALKED with God….”
“I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.” –Psalm 116:9
There is a distinction between walking before God and walking with God. To walk before God is to walk with an abiding sense of God’s eye being upon us; to walk with a desire to do those things which are pleasing in his sight; to walk in his ordinances blameless; to walk before his people with our garments unspotted by the world; in a word, to walk before him in private as in public, alone and in company, before the Church and the world, by day and by night, as we should walk if we had a personal view of his glorious majesty in heaven before our eyes.
Now if you carried about with you a deep and daily sense that God saw every thought, marked every movement, heard every word, and observed every action, this sense of his presence would put a restraint upon your light, trifling, and foolish spirit. You would watch your thoughts, your words, your actions, as living under a sense of God’s heart-searching eye. This is to walk before God.
But we read of Enoch that he “walked with God.” This is a more advanced stage of the divine life. To walk with God is to walk with him in sweet familiarity, in holy confidence, in a blessed sense of a saving interest in his love and grace, and thus to walk with him and talk with him as a man walks and talks with his friend. There are some who walk before God, but how few walk with God! Many live under a more or less deep and daily sense of God’s heart-searching presence, who are not admitted into this sweet familiarity, nor enjoy the blessedness of this heavenly communion.
J.C.Philpot
The doctrine of creature merit
(Octavius Winslow, “The
God of Grace”)
“Salvation is of the Lord!” Jonah 2:9
Salvation is but the unfolding of the boundless grace of God—to
lost, vile, and Hell-deserving sinners.
All the religions of men; and their name is
“legion”; are based upon the principle
of human merit.
All are founded upon some ‘imagined good and power’ in the
creature, the effect of which is totally to set aside the Atonement of Christ
and the work of the Holy Spirit in the soul.
In fact, the
doctrine of creature merit is
the fatal element ofman’s religion—the
moral poison of his soul; the remedy for which, is only found in a believing
reception and heart-felt experience of the free grace salvation of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
The whole plan of salvation is based upon free grace—or, in other words, God’s
unpurchased favour to sinners.
This idea, of course, repudiates and ignores all worth and
worthinesswhatever on the part of the creature, man.
Human merit, therefore, is entirely
excluded as an element entering into our salvation; the whole scheme, from
first to last, being by grace!
“And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise
grace is no more grace.” Romans 11:6
Christ died, not for saints—but for sinners.
He receives, not the worthy—but the unworthy.
He came to heal, not the whole—but the sick.
He came to call, not the righteous—but sinners, to
repentance!
Salvation, from first to last, is of free grace!
“Enoch Walked With God”
Genesis 5:24
This is an astounding statement: “Enoch,” a sinful man like you and me, “walked with God!” And “he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” In his daily life Enoch walked in company with the living God, living in God’s presence as his constant Friend, IN WHOM HE CONFIDED AND BY WHOM HE WAS LOVED. What kind of man was Enoch? What kind of life did he live? The answer is clear: Enoch was a man of faith; and he lived a life of faith. He was not a sinless man. He did not live a higher life, a deeper life, or a holier life than anyone else who lives by faith. IT WAS NOT ENOCH’S CONDUCT, HIS PERSONALITY, OR HIS DISPOSITION THAT PLEASED GOD, BUT HIS FAITH IN CHRIST (Heb. 11:5-6).
There was nothing at all remarkable about the character or works of this man, Enoch, by nature, which caused God to look upon him with pleasure. Enoch did not win God’s favour by something he did. GOD WAS PLEASED WITH ENOCH BECAUSE ENOCH BELIEVED GOD. He believed that which God has spoken. Enoch’s faith was the same as Abel’s before him and Noah’s after him. The faith by which Enoch walked with God and pleased God was the same faith that the dying thief possessed. And it is the faith of God’s elect today. My friend, WALKING WITH GOD IS NEITHER MORE NOR LESS THAN BELIEVING GOD. The only way anyone can walk with God and please God is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. NO MAN PLEASES GOD, BUT HIS SON. NO MAN WALKS WITH GOD, BUT HIS SON. THE ONLY WAY ANY FALLEN CHILD OF ADAM CAN PLEASE GOD AND WALK WITH GOD IS BY FAITH IN HIS SON, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.
Our sanctification, like our justification, is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We grow in grace as we grow in faith. Having begun in the Spirit, we are not now made perfect by the flesh. We do not begin and go a certain distance by faith in Christ, and then finish our course by the works of the law. TO WALK WITH GOD IS TO CONTINUE AS WE BEGAN. BY FAITH IN CHRIST. “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith.” Col 2:6
Don Fortner
On our learning this lesson, depends our comforting walk heavenward
(Letters of William
Romaine, 1714-1795)
When the Holy Spirit takes of the things of Christ and preaches
them to the heart—oh, what a sweet peace follows! The believer then finds
himself saved from all the miseries of sin, and entitled to all the blessings
of eternal glory.
Being thus persuaded of his safety by believing in the
sin-atoning death of our Great High Priest, the Holy Spirit then teaches
him how to live upon Christ, and how to make use of Christ’s
fullness. On our learning this lesson,
depends our comforting walk heavenward. For Christ does not
give us a stock of grace and expect us to improve it by being faithful to grace
given. No, no, that is not His way. Our souls must depend upon Him, just as our
bodies do upon the elements of this world. We must
live by faith in Jesus, and be every moment receiving grace upon grace out of
His fullness.
And this is our happiness—to have all in Christ!
A beggar in myself, but rich with unsearchable eternal riches in
Him.
Ignorant still in myself, but led and taught by His unerring
wisdom.
A sinner still, but saved by His blood and righteousness.
Weak and helpless still, but kept by His Almighty love.
Nothing but sorrow in myself, nothing but joy in Him.
Oh, this is a blessed life!
No tongue can tell what a Heaven it is, thus to live by
faith in the Son of God. Thanks be to Him, that I do know a little of
it. Surely I could not have thought, some years ago, that there was such
a Heaven upon earth as I now find.
“I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and
gave Himself for me!” Galatians 2:20
FIVE REASONS NOT TO FEAR
“Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold
thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” (Isaiah 41:10).
1. “Fear thou not; for I am with thee.” Most fear is caused by being alone. The child of God should not fear because they are never alone. Our Lord said, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” (Hebrews 13:5) “Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the earth.” (Matthew 28:20)
2. “Fear thou not, for I am thy God.” The child of God does not rest in human strength, but in divine mercy. The believer is saved and kept by the power of God in the Lord Jesus Christ.
3. “I will strengthen thee.” We are weak but He is strong. His grace is sufficient, and His strength is made perfect in our weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9) Jesus Christ is our strength.
4. “I will help thee.” Moses didn’t go to Pharaoh alone. David didn’t face Goliath alone. Joshua didn’t fight the battle of Jericho alone. Samson didn’t defeat the Philistines all by himself. God doesn’t just help us; He does for us that which we cannot do for ourselves.
5. “I will hold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” The keeping of ourselves is not done by us. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Zechariah 4:6) How does God uphold us? How does God keep the believer? They are kept by the power of God. (1 Peter 1:5) They are kept with the right hand of God’s righteousness. They know WHO that is. It is the Lord Jesus Christ our Righteousness.
David Eddmenson
What About You?
“I am not satisfied with my faith,” says one. No, of course you are not nor will you ever be; at least I hope not! The Bible does not say, “Therefore being satisfied with our faith we have peace with God.” It says, “Being justified by faith we have peace with God.”
“I am not satisfied with my repentance.” That is wonderful! What would you do with your repentance if you were satisfied with it? Would you find peace in repentance? Oh, what pride and self-righteousness must be in any person who is satisfied with his repentance and faith! That person could never find true peace, for such a refuge of lies must fall.
“I am not satisfied with my love.” What? Did you expect on this earth, to be satisfied with any grace found in you? Was it your love for Christ or His love for you that gave you peace at first?
Now then, there is but one thing with which Almighty God is satisfied – and that is the Person and work of His Son. It is with Christ that we must be satisfied, not with ourselves, nor anything about us! When we cease from ALL our labours, and ALL our righteousness, and ENTER INTO HIS REST, pardon and peace will come without delay.
Horatius Bonar
“Armageddon”
Revelation 16:16
What is Armageddon? The whole world is convinced that it is some kind of nuclear holocaust that will take place in the middle east just before the second coming of Christ. Hundreds of books have been written on the subject. Movies have been made about it. But I have seen, heard and read very little about Armageddon that makes sense, has any biblical foundation, or contains any spiritual message for my heart.
If we want to understand what Armageddon is, we must begin by reading Judges 5. The Canaanite king, Jabin, oppressed and persecuted the children of Israel, ravaging their fields and plundering their crops. The Jews were terrified and went into hiding. At last they came to Deborah. She told them, “The Lord God of Israel will deliver Jabin and Sisera into your hand.” And the princes of Isachar, with Deborah and Barak defeated Jabin, Sisera and the Canaanites in the Valley of Megiddo (v. 19). “They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.” The Lord God of heaven fought for and delivered his people from the hands of their enemies at Megiddo. That is the lesson taught in Judges 5.
Armageddon is not some future military conflict between earthly nations. It is not a military invasion of Israel by Russia. It is not a nuclear war, though all those things appear to be inevitable. Armageddon is a spiritual conflict. It is represented in every battle throughout history between Christ and Satan, the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness, the church and the world, righteousness and evil, truth and error, the worshippers of God and false religion. Whenever the saints of God are oppressed and persecuted, the Lord reveals his power and defeats our enemies.That is Armageddon. It is a battle which began in the garden of Eden, has continued throughout the ages, and shall be consummated at the glorious second advent of Christ (Rev. 19:11-21).
When Christ comes to judge and make war Satan’s opposition to him and his church shall cease forever. Satan’s power will be completely destroyed. His power to hurt God’s creation shall be forever ended. Every influence of the evil one shall be cast with him into hell! Armageddon will be the triumph and glory of Christ and his church!
Don Fortner