One of the most comforting passages of Scripture in the Word of God is, \u201cOf Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption\u201d (I cor. 1:30). This does not comfort every son of Adam. But I will tell you who it does comfort \u2013 those who see themselves to be foolish, unrighteous, unholy, and in bondage to sin. Only these people can find this to be good news! To the foolish, God has made Him to be wisdom. To the unrighteous, God has made Him to be righteousness. To the unholy, God has made Him to be sanctification. To those in bondage, God has made Him to be redemption. The Gospel is an objective message that becomes subjective when it is received as good news!\u2028\u2028\u2028\u2028HOW TO NOT BE JUDGED\u2028Paul had been warning of taking the Lord\u2019s Table in an unworthy manner. He also warned about the chastening that would occur as a consequence. In the midst of that he said, \u201cFor if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged\u201d (I Cor. 11:31). Conversely, if we fail to judge ourselves, we will be judged. When I judge myself I take sides with God against myself. I do not vindicate myself, but agree with Him\u2026guilty as charged. In doing that I once again look to Christ only, and in doing that I am not judged. Judging others is wrong on every level, but there is one person I should judge \u2013 Myself! Whatever we cover will be uncovered. Whatever we uncover will be covered.\u2028\u2028\u2028\u2028\u2028Modern day evangelism (so-called) says to any and all it approaches, \u201cGod loves you and Christ died for you.\u201d But none of the prophets nor any of the apostles addressed people in this way. The starting point of true evangelism is to acquaint men with the holy and sovereign character of God. This is the \u201cBeginning of wisdom\u201d, which is able to make a man wise unto salvation: for THE FEAR OF THE LORD brings men to true repentance and faith.<\/p>\n
Henry Mahan<\/p>\n
THE BELIEVER\u2019S RULE OF LIFE\u2028I left the pulpit one night and a fellow asked me, \u201cDo you believe the law to be a believer\u2019s rule of life?\u201d He seemed surprised when I told him I did not. His very next question was, \u201cHow do you know how to live?\u201d I told him immediately that I lived just as the Apostle Paul, \u201cThe life that I now life, I live by the faith of the Son of God\u201d (Gal. 2:20). This was the rule of life for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Abel, and all others who have nothing but Jesus Christ to live upon. Someone would say, \u201cYou mean you live as you want to?\u201d I wish I could: I\u2019d be filled with the Spirit, I would never sin again, all my motives would be pure, I would be delivered from this body of death. Oh, I wish I could live just like I want to. The closest thing I have found to living just like I\u2019d like to is living by faith upon Jesus Christ the Dear and Blessed Son of God.<\/p>\n
Bruce Crabtree<\/p>\n
LOOK TO CHRIST\u2028Believer, you will never find any comfort looking within. All you will find there is wanderings, wavering, and rebellion because of the presence of sin. The Lord has revealed what we are as fallen creatures in Adam\u2026wretched sinners! But bless His Holy Name, it was just for such creatures that Christ came into this world\u2026 \u201cTo seek and to save that which was lost\u201d (Luke 19:10). Look to the only source of life and peace\u2026 \u201cLook unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else\u201d (Isaiah 45:22).<\/p>\n
Marvin Stalnaker<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd delivered just Lot, vexed with filthy conversation of the wicked.\u201d
\nII Peter 2:7<\/p>\n
Considering the life of Lot, \u201cA righteous man\u201d seems an inappropriate title to pin on him. Fleshly, money-hungry, compromising, drunk, and incestuous all seem fitting, but not \u201crighteous\u201d. Yet, \u201crighteous\u201d is exactly the adjective the Holy Spirit inspired Peter to use in order to describe Lot. What are we to make of this? It is obvious from Lot\u2019s story that the righteousness by which a child of God is justified comes from some source other than himself. If Lot is righteous, then his righteousness was not of his own making; it came from somewhere else. This is true of everyone the Scriptures justify, from faithful Abraham to despicable Lot. Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God\u2019s people, so they are all equally righteous in the sight of God regardless how they lived. Moreover, pinning the title \u201cRighteous\u201d on Lot serves to put the focus on God\u2019s grace in salvation. The Holy Spirit did not call Lot righteous in order to minimize Lot\u2019s great wickedness, but that He might magnify God\u2019s great grace! What glory to God that His salvation can bestow the title of \u201cRighteous\u201d on such a ne\u2019er-do-well as Lot! Lot is not God\u2019s example of how we should live: He is God\u2019s example of how gracious He is to even the chiefs of sinners.<\/p>\n
Joe Terrell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the most comforting passages of Scripture in the Word of God is, \u201cOf Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption\u201d (I cor. 1:30). This does not comfort every son of Adam. But I will tell you who it does comfort […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulletin-editions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3521"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3523,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3521\/revisions\/3523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}