Jun 26
22
The real problem with any message of salvation that depends in any way on the will, works, or wisdom of man, is its low view of God. It changes the glory of the incorruptable God into an image made like unto corruptible man. It sets man on the throne of God and makes The Almighty God, who has never been in need of anything, dependent on man. It is blasphemy, plain and simple. Greg Elmquist
We know that a man is saved through faith and that without faith it is impossible to please God. We also know that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and that there is no fear of God before the eyes of the wicked. Much can be said from scripture to define and illustrate saving faith and Godly fear. Yet, definitions and examples only take us so far. True saving faith and true Godly fear must be experienced before it can be understood. That knowledge comes to the heart when God is pleased to reveal Himself in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord enable us to lift up Christ. Only then will we understand by experience our need for childlike, God given faith. Only then will we know something about reverential fear.
Greg Elmquist
The glorious thing about the Gospel is this. If I can do nothing to merit, earn, or deserve my salvation, then I can certainly do nothing to lose it. Our righteousness before God is determined only by the finished work of Christ that God accepted as perfect. So with Paul we simply “declare at this time, His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” (Romans 3:26) My righteousness condemns me and His righteousness saves me. If God looks only at Christ’s righteousness to save me, then He cannot and will not ever look to my righteousness to keep me. In Christ I am forever saved. ~David E
Eddmenson
When Solomon commanded the living child to be cut in half to settle the dispute over whose mother the child was; each mother would receive one half of the child. One of the two women agreed that that would be the fair and equitable thing to do. The other one said, “No, give her the child.” That is how Solomon discerned whose mother the child was. The Truth is a living whole. Those who love the Truth would not allow it to be divided. Those who have no love for the Truth will allow it to be divided. The Truth of the Gospel is made of many truths the sum of which is the Truth. Leave out any one aspect of the Gospel and you no longer have the Truth. It is no longer living when it is not whole and no longer begets spiritual life. Only living things beget life! A divided Gospel is a lifeless gospel. Spiritual life only comes from a whole Gospel! It is only those who have no love for the Truth that will allow it to be divided.
Todd Nibert
Pride
Pride is a groundless thing. We have reasons for almost everything, but we have no reason to be proud. Pride should be unnatural to us, for we have nothing to be proud of. Our CREATION ought to humble us, for we are frail creatures who are here today and gone tomorrow. Our IGNORANCE should be sufficient to lay us low. We spend a lifetime trying to learn a few things in part; then, in old age, we can’t remember where we left our glasses. Our SINS should lay us in the dust, for it would be embarrassing for the most trusted friend to view our hearts. Our BLESSINGS ought to humble us; for the more we have, the more we are in debt to God who makes us to differ. A great debtor has no cause for pride. Certainly a believer has no cause for pride, for our SALVATION is all by grace! Mephibosheth accurately summed up our confession, “What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?” Let us pray to be delivered from pride, for it is such a subtle enemy that only the Lord can deliver us; but we MUST be delivered, for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble.
~Henry Mahan
“The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger; but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.”—Psalm 34:10.
RIGHT truly did Paul say, “Whereby he has given unto us exceeding great and precious promises;” for surely this promise is exceeding great indeed. In the entire compass of God’s holy word, there is not to be found a precious declaration which can excel this in sweetness; for how could God promise to use more than all things? how could even his infinite benevolence stretch the line of his grace farther than it has gone in this verse of the psalm?-“They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.” There is here no reserve; nothing is kept back; there is no solitary word of exception. There is no codicil in this will striking off the smallest portion of the estate; there is no caveat put in to warn us that there are domains upon which we must not intrude; a large field is laid before the children of God; a wide door is open, and no man can shut it. “They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.”
C.H.Spurgeon
“Follow after righteousness.” –1 Timothy 6:11
We may understand two things by this expression. First, the discovery to the conscience of Christ’s imputed righteousness, in the way of justification; and secondly, the communication to the soul of a divine or righteous nature, whereby it brings forth the fruits of sincerity and uprightness before God. Both are to be followed after. But it may be asked, Why the first, if a man has a knowledge of his justification, and a sense of his acceptance with God? But may not a sense of interest in Jesus’ glorious righteousness, and the inward testimony of the Spirit be lost in the enjoyment of them, or at least considerably diminished, for a time? We read (Luke 15:8) of the woman who lost a piece of silver. Was there not a lighting of the candle, a sweeping of the house, and a diligent search into every corner until it was found again? The woman’s piece of money was not really lost; it was still in the house; but as to her feelings, it was as much lost as though she were never to receive it again into her possession.
Just so, a sense of acceptance and justification by Christ’s righteousness, this precious coin from heaven’s mint may be lost for a time in feeling, though not really lost out of the heart. And what will the soul do that has lost it but diligently search the house in every corner, by the candle of the Spirit, until it finds the piece of money again?
J.C.Philpot
“The just shall live by faith.” –Romans 1:17
A life of faith in Christ is as necessary to our present and experimental salvation, as his death upon the cross was to our past and actual salvation. If you are alive to what you are as a poor fallen sinner, you see yourself surrounded by enemies, temptations, sins, and snares; and you feel yourself utterly defenceless, as weak as water, without any strength to stand against them. Pressed down by the weight of unbelief, you see a mountain of difficulty before your eyes, sometimes in providence and sometimes in grace. You find, also, that your heart is a cage of unclean birds, and that in you, that is, in your flesh, there dwells no good thing; neither will nor power have you in yourself to fight or flee.
How then shall this mountain become a plain? How shall you escape the snares and temptations spread in your path? How shall you get the better of all your enemies, external, internal, infernal, and reach heaven’s gate safe at last? If you say, “By the salvation already accomplished,” are you sure that that salvation belongs to you? Where is the evidence of it, if you have no present faith in Christ? How can that past salvation profit you for present troubles unless there be an application of it? It is this application and manifestation of salvation which is being saved by his life (Rom. 5:10).
See how it works; and what a suitability is in it. You are all weakness, and he is and has all strength, which he makes perfect in your weakness. You are all helplessness against sin, temptation, and a thousand foes. But help is laid upon Christ as one that is mighty; he therefore sends you help from the sanctuary and strengthens you out of Zion (Psalm 20:2), that these sins and enemies may not get the better of you.
J.C.Philpot
“They are of those that rebel against the light.” Job 24:13
So far from cooperating with the Spirit in the new creation, the natural man presents every resistance and opposition to it. There is not only a passive aversion to, but there is an active resistance of, the work. The stream of man’s natural inclinations runs counter to all holiness. A strong and steady current has set in against God and all that God loves. The pride of reason, the perverseness of the will, the enmity of the mind, the heart’s love of sin, all are up in arms against the entrance of the Holy Spirit. Satan, the great enemy of God and man, has been too long in quiet and undisturbed possession of the soul, to resign his dominion without a strong and a fearful struggle to maintain it. When the Spirit of God knocks at the door of the heart, every ally is summoned by the “strong man armed” to “quench the Spirit,” and bar and bolt each avenue to his entrance. All is alarm, agitation, and commotion within. There is a danger of being dispossessed, and every argument, persuasion, and contrivance must be resorted to, in order to retain the long-undisputed throne. The world is summoned to throw out its most enticing bait—ambition, wealth, literary and political distinction, pleasure in her thousand forms of fascination and power—all are made to pass, as in review, before the mind. The flesh, exerts its influence—the love of sin is appealed to, affection for some long-cherished lust, some long-indulged habit, some “fond amusement,” some darling taste—these, inspired with new vigour, are summoned to the rescue. Thus Satan, the world, and the flesh are opposed to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, in the great work of spiritual regeneration. Oh let no individual be so deceived as to believe, that when God the Eternal Spirit enters the soul, He finds the temple swept, and garnished, and prepared for His reception—that without the exercise of His own omnipotent and irresistible power, the heart bounds to welcome Him, the reason bows submissively to His government, and the will yields an instant and humble compliance. Oh no! if He that is in the regenerate were not greater and more powerful than he that is in the world, such is the enmity of the heart to God, such the supreme control which Satan exerts over the whole empire of man, God would be forever shut out, and the soul forever lost. See how clearly regeneration is proved to be the work of the Spirit. God has written it as with a sunbeam, “that we are His workmanship,” and that the Eternal Spirit is the mighty agent.
Octavius Winslow
Four Imperatives
John 3:3-7
During the course of our Lord’s earthly ministry he declared that four things are absolutely necessary for the salvation of our souls. Those who do not experience these four things cannot inherit the kingdom of God. No matter what our doctrine is, no matter what we profess, no matter what else we experience, we cannot be saved apart from these four things. What are they?
1. THE NEW BIRTH – John 3:3
In order for anyone to see, understand, enter into and inherit the kingdom of God, he must be born again. It is not enough to be religious, moral, well instructed and respectable. You must have a new nature, a new will, a new heart, which only God can give you. You must be born again, or you cannot be saved.
2. REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD – Luke 13:3
Repentance is a change of mind, a change of motives, and a change of masters. It is turning from sin to the Saviour, from the world to God, from self to Christ. It is a heart work. And it is a life long work. To repent is to seek the Lord, seek him with all your heart, seek him all your life, seek him until you find him.
3. CONVERSION OF HEART – Matthew 18:3
To be converted is to be humbled before God, to be brought down from your proud, lofty, haughty opinion of yourself. It is to be child-like before God: humble, inoffensive, obedient, trusting, kind and teachable.
4. PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS – Matthew 5:20
We must have a righteousness to offer God which no mere man can produce. And that righteousness must be our own. We must have the righteousness of Christ imputed to us. But we must have more. We must have the righteousness of Christ imparted to us. We must be given, by the power and grace of God the Holy Spirit, the very nature of Christ, a nature that is inclined toward and does that which is righteous. This imparted righteousness is Christ in us, the hope of glory.
Don Fortner