Apr 26
14
How Is the Preaching of the Gospel Affecting Me?
When the Gospel is preached, there are two things always taking
place (even though most are unaware of it); some are being
prepared for glory, others are being hardened. Some are being
brought to the light; some are left sitting in darkness. Some see
Christ and His glory; others see no beauty about Him. Some who
hear the Gospel have their hearts made tender toward sin; others
have their hearts hardened in sin. No wonder we say, Who is
sufficient for these things? The question we should all be asking
is how is the preaching of the Gospel affecting me?
Donnie Bell
I pray that not one here today will leave unaffected by God’s Word.
May it pierce your heart and follow you home. May it wake you from
your sleep and keep you from sleeping until your only rest is in Christ.
Bruce Crabtree
Weakness, fear, and much trembling
Paul said to the church at Corinth is his initial visit with
them, “I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much
trembling” (I Cor. 2:3). Upon the surface, do we want someone
who speaks as the representative of God to speak with that kind
of demeanour? Would we not prefer someone speaking with the
demeanour of strength, courage, and confidence? Yes, on any
other subject, but not when the Gospel is preached! The only way
to preach the Gospel is being deeply conscious of personal
weakness, having a fear of misrepresenting God, and a
reverential awe that causes inward if not outward trembling! I
would much rather hear a man with weakness, fear, and
trembling than a man with self-confidence. There’s no room for
self confidence in a thing as awesome as the preaching of the
Gospel!
Todd Nibert
Those who weary of hearing the Gospel, who lose interest in
hearing the Gospel, and lose their need of hearing the Gospel of
Christ and His redeeming love and grace, have never REALLY
heard the Gospel at all. If one can leave Christ, he has never truly
met Him! (John 6:65-69).
Maurice Montgomery
The law was not given as a remedy for man’s problem, but as a
reminder that we have a problem and need a remedy. It points us
not to any prescribed performance on our part, but to a person,
the one and only remedy – Christ Jesus our Lord.
Carroll Poole
THE SHORT HISTORY OF HUMANITY
“The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden and there be put the man whom he had formed” Genesis 2:8
“Joseph died….and he was put in a coffin in Egypt” Genesis 5:26.
The book of Genesis gives us the glorious beginning and the sad ending of humanity. God made him holy and happy and put him in a beautiful garden. Man made himself a sinner, and sin put him in a coffin.
God formed man of the dust of the earth and breathed unto his nostrils the breath of life (Gen 2:7), sin took the breath away, and put back into the ground from whence he came – the wages of sin is death.
Man had paradise, the very presence of God. Of all the earth it was the choice place for man. A place near to God’s heart, a place of God’s own planting – A garden in Eden. ‘Sin entered and sent man into a foreign contrary – a strange country, away from God.
God made us good; sin made us sinners. We’re not what we once were friends of God, alive and lively, now strangers and foreigners. As dead spirituality as Joseph was physically.
But thank God, he has not left us to ourselves to decay without hope. God’s own dear Son left the true paradise, heaven itself, and came to this foreign world and paid the dreadful price for sin-laid in a tomb, but now is risen and ascended to paradise again. God puts us in him, the source of eternal life and everlasting righteousness-paradise restored!
Bruce Crabtree
A Real Antinomian
Rom. 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold (hold down, hold back, detain) the truth in unrighteousness;
A real Antinomian, in the sight of God, is one who “holds the truth in unrighteousness”;
who has gospel notions in his head, but no grace in his heart.
He is one that makes a profession of Christ Jesus, but was never purged by his blood, renewed by his Spirit, nor saved by his power.
With him:
carnal ease passes for gospel peace;
a natural assent of the mind for faith;
insensibility for liberty;
and daring presumption for the grace of assurance.
He is alive without the law, the sentence of the ‘moral law’ having never been sent home to him. The ‘law of faith’ was never sealed on him, the ‘law of truth’ was never received by him, nor the ‘law of liberty’ proclaimed to him. He was never arraigned at, nor taken from, the ‘throne of judgement’. He was never justified at the ‘throne of grace’, nor acquitted at the ‘bar of equity’. The tremendous attribute of righteousness was never seen or felt by him. The righteousness of the law was never fulfilled by him; the righteousness of faith was never imputed to him; nor the fruits of righteousness brought forth by him.
He is an enemy to the power of God, to the experience of the just, and to every minister of the Spirit; and is in union with none but hypocrites, whose uniting ties are ‘the gall of bitterness and the bonds of iniquity’. He is one that often changes his opinion, but was never changed in heart. He turns to many sects and parties, but never turns to God. In word he is false to Satan, in heart he is false to God; false to Satan by uttering truth, and false to God by a false profession.
He is a false reprover in the world, and in the household of faith a false brother. He is a child of Satan in the congregation of dissemblers, and a bastard in the congregation of the righteous.
By mouth he contends for a covenant that cannot save him, and in heart he hates the covenant that can. His head is at Mount Calvary, his heart and soul at Mount Sinai. He is a Pharisee at Horeb, and a hypocrite in Zion. He is a transgressor of the law of works, and a rebel to the law of faith; a sinner by the ministry of the letter, and an unbeliever by the ministry of the Spirit. As a wicked servant, he is cursed by the eternal law; and, as an infidel, he is damned by the
everlasting gospel. And this is a real Antinomian in the sight of God.
William Huntington SS (1745-1813)
Christ is the Sanctuary!
“”Send thee help from the sanctuary.” Psalm 20:2 The church goes on with her prayer, supplicating help from Him from whom alone help comes. But whence is this help to spring? “From the sanctuary.” That is the place whence the help must come. Not from the exertions of free-will; not from attempts to work out a righteousness with which God may be well pleased; not from making one’s self a Christian by taking up at random the opinions of others; not by plastering and white-washing ourselves over with “decided piety;” not by stealing an experience from others, and going about dressed up in borrowed plumes; not by resting upon doubts and fears, guilt and corruption, as evidences; not by pinning our eternal all-in-all upon the sleeve of some good man; not by creeping under the wing of a minister, and there getting warmth and shelter. All these delusions and devices of Satan and the flesh are swept away when God puts forth His hand upon a man’s conscience. It must then be “help from the sanctuary.”” – JC Philpot
WHY DO WE GATHER TOGETHER WITH THE SAINTS?
Multitudes attend (what men call) “church services” all over the world. Many go because it is a habit; others go believing it will save them. Many go because it makes them feel better about themselves, like the Pharisee who “thanked God he wasn’t as other men.” But why do we, you and I attend? What are our reasons? What is our motive?
- We gather together to hear the Gospel of the free grace of God in Christ, not just to hear preaching that has no substance to it.
- We come to worship God, to worship our Lord Jesus Christ. Unbelievers cannot worship, they don’t know Christ nor God. They can come and listen, but cannot worship.
- We attend because we have a need; we need Christ, to hear of Him. We have a hunger and a thirst and only the gospel of Christ can satisfy us.
- We also attend to support and be an encouragement to other believers, and we need the support and encouragement of our brethren.
May God make us as one who would not discourage or hinder anyone who comes to hear the gospel.
Don Bell
HOW CAN GOD BE APPROACHED?
It is common among men to believe that God can be approached and understood in many different ways. Some believe that a god of nature can be found in nature. It is true that God is Creator and sustainer of all creation, “The heavens declare his glory, the firmament shows His handiwork” (Ps. 19:1). But nature cannot nor does not reveal how sin can be put away, nor how God can be a Just God and a Saviour.
The Lord Jesus told Thomas, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me“, (Jn. 14:5-6). When He said no man, he included every member of the human race. There is no approaching the Father by your good works – for there is none righteous, no not one! There is no approaching Him in the wafer and the wine, ceremony or ritual. Our Lord is emphatic on how God the Father is approached, “By ME – I AM THE WAY!“.
God is love, there is no doubt, yet He is also Holy and Just. His Holy eye cannot endure sin. If a sinful, rebellious creature could come into the presence of God, He by the necessity of His very nature, must destroy that creature. That is why the Saviour said He was the Way to the Father. To say that there is some other way, that it makes no difference what you believe (as long as you are sincere) is to call Christ Himself a liar. To say there is “good people from all religions” and that “God accepts them on the basis of their goodness”, is to deny what Christ said. God doesn’t accept men or women for the good they have done, nor does He reject them for the bad they have done. He accepts men for Christ’s sake; for the sake of Christ’s obedient life, for the sake of His sacrificial, substitutionary death, and for the sake of Him who lives now and sits on the right hand of His throne, for His sake who is the only Mediator between God and man – the Man Christ Jesus.
I read a story recently about a Cardinal Wiseman, who died in the latter part of the 19th century, that shows us the tragedy of those who do not believe the words of Christ, “I am the Way.”
There was a notice in the church of St. John Lateran in Rome that there was to be a ‘mass for the repose of the soul’ of this eminent Cardinal. My first thought when I read this was that this man had died and apparently went somewhere where there was ‘no repose for his soul.’ Now, if the Cardinals and the Popes go where there is no repose of souls, where do the ordinary people go? Speaking for myself, I’m trusting Christ as my acceptance before God the Father, for He told me to. In doing that, I have repose for my soul now and shall enjoy eternal repose with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Is there One Way? Yes – Christ! To deny this is to deny Him and His Word.
Don bell
THE SAVOUR OF CHRIST
The apostle gave thanks unto God because as he preached Christ, God always made him to triumph and made manifest the savour (spread abroad the knowledge of Christ) as the savour of a sacrifice. This savour is unto God a sweet savour of Christ in them that are saved. The preaching of Christ is a savour of life and death, and as Christ is preached, he is life to them who believe, receive, bow to, and rejoice in Him as their only pleas and righteousness before God.
But even as Christ is preached, He is a savour unto death in them that perish – to them who won’t believe, won’t receive, won’t bow to, and don’t rejoice in Christ. They feel they don’t need the savour of a sacrifice before the holiness and justice of God. When the gospel is preached, there are two things always taking place (even though most are unaware of it); some are being prepared for glory, others are being hardened. Some are being brought to the light, some are left sitting in darkness. Some see Christ and His glory, others see no beauty about Him. Some who hear the gospel have their hearts made tender towards sin, others have their hearts hardened in sin. No wonder we say, “Who is sufficient for these things”? The question we should all be asking is, “How is the preaching of the gospel affecting me”?
Don Bell
CHRIST IS ALL
He is the first cause and the last end of all things; in election” salvation, redemption, calling, righteousness, regeneration, and glorification. He is all in the salvation of His people. Salvation is of the Lord. He is all in election; we are chosen in Him, He is the Elect (Isaiah 42:1). He is all in redemption; He obtained it with Hs own blood (Heb. 9:12). Christ is all in our calling; He called us with a holy calling (2 Tim. 2:9). Jesus Christ is all our righteousness: He worked it out for us as our advocate (1 John 2:1). He is all in our regeneration; He quickened us when we were dead in sin (Eph. 2:1). He is all in our final glorification; “He raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” (Eph. 2:6). All our spiritual blessings are in Him and from Him (1 Cor. 1:30)
Don Bell.