Feb 26
15
HIS BLOOD ALONE!
The vital thing to understand about the blood of Christ is this: IT IS ENOUGH! Nothing else is needed to accomplish the salvation of all for whom His blood was shed. Not His blood plus my works; not His blood plus my “decision” not His blood plus the ordinances; not His blood plus church membership; not even His blood plus my faith- His blood purchased my faith. HIS BLOOD ALONE paid the price required by His justice, and His blood alone can make a sinner clean. “By His own blood He entered in once into the Holy place, having OBTAINED (not made possible) eternal redemption for us” (Heb 9:12). Donnie Bell
The Importance Of The Lord’s Table
“As oft as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till he come.” I Corinthians 11:26
This evening, we will enjoy the greatest privilege known to the people of God upon the earth. We will observe the Lord’s Supper. It causes me great concern that so many of God’s children absent themselves from this ordinance. Therefore, I thought it might be beneficial for us all to be reminded of the importance of the Lord’s table.
The Purpose For Observing The Lord’s Supper Is That We Might Show The Lord’s Death. Our Saviour instituted the ordinance of Communion Just before his death. It is a symbolic representation of the sufferings and death of our Redeemer in our place. By breaking the bread and drinking the wine, we are reminded of our need of a Substitute, by reason of sin. We are reminded of God’s great love to us in sacrificing his Son in our stead. And we testify of our faith in that One, whose body was wounded, bruised, and broken, and whose blood was shed for our eternal salvation.
The Lord’s Supper Is A Meal which Every True Believer Should Observe. Regrettably, many of God’s children have been taught to fear coming to the Lord’s table. If you are a true believer, having confessed faith in Christ, you not only can, you should commemorate the Saviour’s death. You do not show your reverence for the Lord’s Supper by refusing to take it! Our worthiness to take the Supper is not in ourselves, but in Christ. We come, not with perfection, but with faith. By eating and drinking, we show our confidence in the Saviour’s finished work to make us accepted in the sight of God. There is no time when a believer is more fully made aware of his sin and his utter dependence upon the redeeming work of Christ than at the Lord’s table. No unbeliever, who fails to discern the value of the Lord’s incarnation and death, should come to the Lord’s table; but every true believer should.
The Lord’s Supper Is To Be Observed Often. We need to be frequently reminded of our Saviour’s loving sacrifice for such wretched sinners as we are. Let us eat the bread and drink the wine in anticipation of our Lord’s return.
Don Fortner
“MANY FALSE PROPHETS ARE GONE OUT INTO THE WORLD”
I John 4:1
The scriptures abound with warnings to God’s elect about false prophets. Satan would rather make you a religious moralist than make you a pimp or a prostitute, for it is far more difficult to persuade one who thinks he is saved that he needs a Saviour than it is to persuade one who knows he is an abominable wretch. Therefore the Word of God gives plain and repeated warnings to us about false religion and false prophets. Here are four marks by which you can always identify a false prophet.
1. A FALSE PROPHET WILL ALWAYS DENY GOD’S ABSOLUTE SOVEREIGNTY IN SALVATION. He may allow that God is sovereign in creation. He may even allow that God is sovereign over the elements of the world in providence. But he will not acknowledge God’s sovereignty in salvation, though it is most plainly affirmed in the Word of God (Matt. 11:20-26; Rom. 9:8-26).
2. A FALSE PROPHET WILL ALWAYS DENY THE EFFICACY OF CHRIST’S BLOOD. He does not deny that Christ died for sinners; but he denies that the blood of Christ actually atoned for and put away the sins of those people for whom he died, and that his blood guarantees the salvation of all for whom it was shed. Yet, this too the Word of God teaches in unmistakable terms (Isa. 42:4; 53:8-11; Heb. 9:12, 26; 10:10-14).
3. A FALSE PROPHET WILL ALWAYS DENY THE SUFFICIENCY OF GOD’S GRACE ALONE TO SAVE SINNERS. He would never openly make such a denial. But he asserts that God deals with all men alike in grace, though some perish and some are saved. In other words, it is not God’s grace alone that determines salvation, but God’s grace and man’s will or man’s works. This also is in direct opposition to Holy Scripture (Rom. 9:16; Eph. 2:8-9; II Tim. 1:9).
4. A FALSE PROPHET WILL ALWAYS GIVE YOU SOMETHING TO DO TO MERIT GOD’S FAVOUR. He will have you to understand that your works, to one-degree or another do merit something from God, either in justification, or in sanctification, or in your heavenly reward. Yet, the Word of God everywhere denounces man’s works as useless and abominable (Isa. 64:6; Rom. 11:6).
Don Fortner
Your eyes will see the King in His beauty!
“Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty!”
Isaiah 33:17
Where in heaven or on earth can there be found such
a lovely Object as the Son of God? If you have never
seen any beauty in Jesus . . .
you have never seen Jesus,
He has never revealed Himself to you,
you never had a glimpse of His lovely face,
nor a sense of His presence,
nor a word from His lips,
nor a touch from His hand.
But if you have seen Him by the eye of faith—and
He has revealed Himself to you even in a small
measure—you have seen a beauty in Him beyond
all other beauties, for it is . . .
a holy beauty,
a divine beauty,
the beauty of His heavenly grace,
the beauty of His uncreated and eternal glory.
How beautiful and glorious does He show Himself to be
in His atoning blood and dying love. Even as sweating
great drops of blood in Gethsemane’s gloomy garden,
and as hanging in torture and agony upon Calvary’s
cross—faith can see a beauty in the glorious Redeemer,
even in the lowest depths of ignominy and shame!
” What is thy
beloved more than another beloved,
O thou fairest among women?
what is thy beloved more than another beloved,
that thou dost so charge us?
10 My
beloved is white and ruddy,
the chiefest among ten thousand.!”
Song 5:9-10
J.C.Philpot
The
religion of a dead professor . . .
How different the religion of a child of God
is, from the religion of a dead professor!
The religion of a dead professor . . .
begins in self, and ends in self;
begins in his own wisdom, and ends in his own folly;
begins in his own strength, and ends in his own
weakness;
begins in his own righteousness, and ends in his own
damnation!
There is in him never any going out of soul
after God, no secret dealings with the Lord.
But the child of God, though he is often faint, weary,
and exhausted with many difficulties, burdens and
sorrows—yet he never can be satisfied except in living
union and communion with the Lord of life and glory.
Everything short of that leaves him empty.
All the things of time and sense leave a child of God
unsatisfied. Nothing but vital union and communion
with the Lord of life, to . . .
feel His presence,
taste His love,
enjoy His favour,
see His glory;
nothing but this will ever satisfy the desires
of ransomed and regenerated souls. This the
Lord indulges His people with.
J.C.Philpot
At the cross
(J. C. Philpot, “Contemplations and Reflections”)
Standing at the
cross of our adorable Lord, we see . . .
the law thoroughly fulfilled,
its curse fully endured,
its penalties wholly removed,
sin eternally put away,
the justice of God amply satisfied,
all His perfections gloriously harmonised,
His holy will perfectly obeyed,
reconciliation completely effected,
redemption graciously accomplished,
and the church everlastingly saved!
At the cross we see . . .
sin in its blackest colours, and
holiness in its fairest beauties.
At the cross we see . . .
the love of God in its tenderest form,
and
the anger of God in its deepest
expression.
At the cross we see the blessed
Redeemer lifted up,
as it were between heaven and earth, to show to
angels and to men the spectacle of redeeming love,
and to declare at one and the same moment, and by
one and the same act of the suffering obedience and
bleeding sacrifice of the Son of God—the eternal and
unalterable displeasure of the Almighty against sin,
and the rigid demands of His inflexible justice, and
yet the tender compassion and boundless love of His
heart to the elect.
At the cross, and here alone, are obtained
pardon
and peace.
At the cross, and here alone, penitential
grief
and godly sorrow flow from heart and eyes.
At the cross, and here alone, is . . .
sin subdued and mortified,
holiness communicated,
death vanquished,
Satan put to flight, and
happiness and heaven begun in the soul.
O what heavenly blessings, what present grace, as
well as what future glory, flow through the cross!
What a holy meeting-place for repenting sinners
and
a sin-pardoning God! What a healing-place for
guilty,
yet repenting and returning backsliders! What a door
of hope in the valley of Achor for the self-condemned
and self-abhorred! What a blessed resting-place for
the
whole family of God in this valley of grief and sorrow!
The Beatific Vision
John MacDuff
“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see
God.” Matthew 5:8
Here is Heaven! This promise of Jesus represents the future
state of the glorified to consist not in locality, but in character; the
essence of its bliss is the full vision and fruition of God. Our attention
is called away from all vague and indefinite theories about the circumstantials
of future happiness. The one grand object of contemplation-the “glory
which excels,” is the sight of God Himself! The one grand practical lesson
enforced on His people is the cultivation of that purity of heart without which
none could see, or (even could we suppose it possible to be
admitted to see Him) none could enjoy God!
What will Heaven be, but the entire surrender of the soul to
Him, without any bias to evil, without the fear of corruption within echoing to
temptation without; every thought brought into captivity to the obedience of
Christ; no contrariety to His mind; all in blessed unison with His will; and
the whole being impregnated with holiness:
the intellect purified and ennobled,
consecrating all its powers to His service;
the memory, a holy repository of pure and
hallowed recollections;
the affections, without one competing rival,
purged from all the dross of earthliness;
the love of God, the one supreme animating
passion;
the glory of God, the motive principle
interfused through every thought, and feeling, and action of the life immortal.
In one word, the heart a clear fountain-no sediment to dim its purity. Yes,
this is Heaven-purity of heart and “God all in all!”
Much, doubtless, there may and will be of a subordinate kind, to
intensify the bliss of the redeemed: communion with saints and angels;
re-admission into the society of death-divided friends. But all these will fade
before the great central glory, “God Himself shall be with them, and be
their God; they shall see His face!”
Believers have been aptly called ‘sunflowers’-turning their
faces as the sunflower towards the Sun of Righteousness, and hanging their leaves
in sadness and sorrow when that Sun is away. It will be in Heaven that the
emblem is complete. There, every flower in the heavenly garden will be turned
Godwards, bathing its tints of loveliness in the all-excelling glory of God!
Reader, may it be yours to know all the marvels contained in these few glowing
words, “We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is!”
“I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Your
likeness.” Psalm 17:15
“And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth
himself, even as He is pure.” 1 John 3:3
John Newton’s Letters
Union with Christ
Dear Sir,
The union of a believer with Christ is so intimate, so
unalterable, so rich in privilege, so powerful in influence, that it cannot be
fully represented by any description or similitude taken from earthly things.
The mind, like the sight, is incapable of apprehending a great object, without
viewing it on different sides. To help our weakness, the nature of this union
is illustrated, in the Scripture, by four comparisons, each throwing additional
light on the subject, yet all falling short of the thing signified.
In our natural state, we are driven and tossed about, by the changing winds of opinion, and the waves of trouble, which hourly disturb and threaten us upon the uncertain sea of human life. But faith, uniting us to Christ, fixes us upon a sure foundation, the Rock of Ages, where we stand immovable, though storms and floods unite their force against us.
By nature we are separated from the divine life, as branches broken off, withered and fruitless. But grace, through faith, unites us to Christ the living Vine, from whom, as the root of all fullness, a constant supply of sap and influence is derived into each of his mystical branches, enabling them to bring forth fruit unto God, and to persevere and abound therein.
By nature we are hateful and abominable in the sight of a holy God, and full of enmity and hatred towards each other. By faith, uniting us to Christ, we have fellowship with the Father and the Son, and joint communion among ourselves; even as the members of the same body have each of them union, communion, and sympathy, with the head, and with their fellow-members.
In our natural estate, we were cast out naked and destitute, without pity, and without help, Ezek. 16:1-63; but faith, uniting us to Christ, interests us in his righteousness, his riches, and his honours. Our Redeemer is our husband; our debts are paid, our settlements secured, and our names changed.
Thus the Lord Jesus, in declaring himself the foundation, root, head, and husband, of his people, takes in all the ideas we can frame of an intimate, vital, and inseparable union. Yet all these fall short of truth; and he has given us one further similitude, of which we can by no means form a just conception until we shall be brought to see him as he is in his kingdom. John 17:21: “that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us:“
Well may we say, What has God wrought! How inviolable is the security, how inestimable the privilege, how inexpressible the happiness, of a believer! How greatly is he indebted to grace! He was once afar off, but he is brought near to God by the blood of Christ: he was once a child of wrath, but is now an heir of everlasting life. How strong then are his obligations to walk worthy of God, who has called him to his kingdom and glory!