I am weak and ignorant, full of sin and
\ncompassed with infirmity. But I bless God
\nthat He has in some measure shown me
\nthe power of eternal things, and by free
\nand sovereign grace stopped me in that
\ncareer of vanity and sin in which, to all
\noutward appearance, I was fast hurrying
\ndown to the chambers of death.
\n(Joseph Philpot)
\n
\n
\n
\nTHE GOSPEL WE PREACH
\nHenry Mahan
\n
\n
\n
\nThe apostles and the early believers were despised by the religious Jews
\nbecause of the gospel which they preached. It was not because they lived
\nimmoral lives, failed to do good works, nor because they were covetous
\nor proud men. They were persecuted because the gospel of God’s grace,
\nwhich they preached, was offensive to human pride. They preached that
\nsalvation, even for the most moral person on earth, is only possible
\nbecause of the grace and mercy of God, given to us in Christ Jesus.
\nThese believers knew nothing of free-will, decisionism, and giving God a
\nchance. They knew only one way of salvation, that of God’s being
\ngracious and showing sovereign mercy to sinners in Christ. The gospel of
\ngrace and glory does not appear OCCASIONALLY in their preaching and
\nwritings, nor was it a deeper truth or doctrine which they discussed
\nPRIVATELY; it reigns, shines, and dominates all that they said, wrote,
\nand did. It is the ONLY THING that they preached! To them, any word of
\nhuman worthiness, works, or rights was totally wrong and counted for
\nnothing in the matter of acceptance before God. They addressed all men
\n(even themselves) as guilty, condemned, and perishing justly unless God
\nis pleased to come in mercy and lift the beggar from his dunghill
\ndwelling, sanctify and justify him through Christ Jesus, and accept him
\nin the Beloved.
\n
\n“God be merciful to us, and bless us; and cause Thy face to shine upon
\nus” (Psalm 67:1).
\n
\n
\n
\nThis is the doctrine that we preach!
\n
\n(Charles Spurgeon)
\n
\nThis is the doctrine that we preach:
\nIf a man is saved\u2014all the honor is to be given to Christ.
\nIf a man is lost\u2014all the blame is to be laid upon himself.
\n
\nYou will find all true theology summed up in these two short sentences:
\nSalvation is all of the grace of God!
\nDamnation is all of the will of man!
\n
\n“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith\u2014and this not from
\nyourselves, it is the gift of God\u2014not by works, so that no one can
\nboast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
\n
\n
\nThrow the creature down in the dust!
\n(by J. C. Philpot)
\nMan’s religion is to build up the creature.
\nGod’s religion is throw the creature down in
\nthe dust of self abasement, and to glorify Christ.
\n
\n
\nThe Gospel crucible!
\n
\n(John MacDuff, “Ripples in the Twilight” 1885)
\n
\n“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing,
\nbut to us who are being saved, it is the power of God!” 1 Corinthians 1:18
\n
\nIt will never cease to be one of the marvels of Christianity, that her
\nantidotes are the same in every climate, every age, and every bosom.
\nJust as the chemist can infallibly pronounce on the action of the
\nvarious elements he throws into his crucible \u2014 so in the Gospel
\ncrucible, cast the human heart in its every form and type, that of . . .
\nthe degraded African,
\nthe superstitious Hindu,
\nthe ferocious Arab,
\nthe reprobate European \u2014
\nthe Gospel of Christ, by a heavenly alchemy, melts that heart! It
\ndissolves . . .
\nthe pride of reason,
\nthe power of superstition,
\nthe curse and misery of vice!
\nIt is the only universal balm!
\n
\nIt was tried . . .
\non ignorant fishermen of Galilee,
\non poor wayside beggars of Judea,
\non hardened Roman soldiers and
\non crouching slaves of sin and Satan.
\nIt was tried on the great persecutor of the church \u2014 and by him on the
\ndisciples of Plato on Mars Hill. It was tried amid the tears of Bethany
\n\u2014 and amid the courtly splendor and uncongenial influences of Caesar’s
\nhousehold. And in not one of all these varied cases, has it failed!
\n
\nThe king clothed in ermine,
\nthe pauper clothed in rags,
\nthe statesman in his senate-house,
\nthe merchant at his desk,
\nthe artisan in his workshop,
\nthe cottager at her wheel \u2014
\nall feel the power of the same Gospel, all own the beauteous simplicity
\nof the same healing words, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ \u2014 and you
\nshall be saved!”
\n
\n
\nIf God had left me alone
\n
\n(by Charles Spurgeon)
\n
\nSometimes, when I see some of the worst characters
\nin the street, I feel as if my heart must burst forth in
\ntears of gratitude that God has never let me act as they
\nhave done! I have thought, “If God had left me alone,
\nand had not touched me by His grace, what a great sinner
\nI would have been! I would have run to the utmost lengths
\nof sin, dived into the very depths of evil. Nor would I have
\nstopped at any vice or folly, if God had not restrained me!”
\n
\nI feel that I would have been a very king of sinners, if God
\nhad left me alone. I cannot understand the reason why I
\nam saved, except upon the ground that God would have it
\nso. I cannot, if I look ever so earnestly, discover any kind of
\nreason in myself why I should be a partaker of Divine grace
\n
\n
\nA dead dog sinner!
\n
\n(David Eddmenson)
\n
\nUpon arriving to services one Wednesday evening to my surprise there was
\nan old, mangy, rejected, and forsaken dog sitting on the front porch of
\nthe church building. I was appalled and repulsed at the dog’s sad
\nappearance and horrible condition. This poor creature was in bad shape,
\nyet all I can remember thinking was, “I wish this dog would go away.”
\n
\nI am so grateful that when my merciful, gracious, and compassionate
\nSavior looked upon me, that His attitude was not like mine. “What is
\nYour servant, that You should look upon such a dead dog as I am?” In my
\nsight that poor dog was in bad shape \u2014 but how much worse do I, a dead
\ndog sinner appear in God’s sight?
\n
\n“Christ died for the ungodly!” Romans 5:6
\n
\n
\n
\nComing up from the wilderness
\n
\n(J. C. Philpot, “Coming up from the Wilderness” 1857)
\n
\n“Who is this coming up from the wilderness,
\nleaning upon her Beloved?” Song of Solomon 8:5
\n
\nTo come up from the wilderness, is to come up out
\nof OURSELVES; for we are ourselves the wilderness.
\nIt is our wilderness heart that makes the world
\nwhat it is to us . . .
\nour own barren frames;
\nour own bewildered minds;
\nour own worthlessness and inability;
\nour own lack of spiritual fruitfulness;
\nour own trials, temptations, and exercises;
\nour own hungering and thirsting after righteousness.
\n
\nIn a word, it is what passes in our own bosom
\nthat makes the world to us a dreary desert.
\n
\nCarnal people find the world no wilderness. It is an
\nEden to them! Or at least they try hard to make it so.
\nThey seek all their pleasure from, and build all their
\nhappiness upon it. Nor do they dream of any other
\nharvest of joy and delight, but what may be repaid
\nin this ‘happy valley’, where youth, health, and good
\nspirits are ever imagining new scenes of gratification.
\n
\nBut the child of grace, exercised with a thousand
\ndifficulties, passing through many temporal and
\nspiritual sorrows, and inwardly grieved with his own
\nlack of heavenly fruitfulness, finds the wilderness
\nwithin.
\n
\nBut he still comes up out of it, and this he does
\nby looking upward with believing eyes to Him who
\nalone can bring him out.
\n
\nHe comes up out of his own righteousness, and
\nshelters himself under Christ’s righteousness.
\n
\nHe comes up out of his own strength,
\nand trusts to Christ’s strength.
\n
\nHe comes up out of his own wisdom,
\nand hangs upon Jesus’ wisdom.
\n
\nHe comes up out of his own tempted, tried,
\nbewildered, and perplexed condition, to find rest
\nand peace in the finished work of the Son of God.
\n
\nAnd thus he comes up out of the wilderness of
\nself, not actually, but experimentally. Every desire
\nof his soul to be delivered from his ‘wilderness
\nsickening sight’ that he has of sin and of himself
\nas a sinner. Every aspiration after Jesus, every
\nlonging look, earnest sigh, piteous cry, or laboring
\ngroan, all are a coming up from the wilderness.
\n
\nHis turning his back upon an ungodly world; renouncing
\nits pleasures, its honors, its pride, and its ambition;
\nseeking communion with Jesus as his chief delight;
\nand accounting all things but loss and rubbish for
\nthe excellency of the knowledge of Jesus his Lord
\nas revealed to his soul by the power of God; this,
\nalso, is coming up from the wilderness.
\n
\n
\nNo sin can be little!
\n
\n(John Bunyan)
\n
\nNo sin can be little, because it is committed against the great God of
\nheaven and earth.
\n
\nTo commit little sins–the sinner must find a little god!
\n
\n“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins,
\nin accordance with the riches of God’s grace!” Ephesians 1:7
\n
\n“The blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7
\n
\n
\n
\n
\nSome beloved idol?
\nJ.C.Philpot
\n“Because the whole land is filled with idols, and the
\npeople are madly in love with them.” Jeremiah 50:38
\n
\nHave we not all in our various ways,
\nset up some beloved idol . . .
\nsomething which engaged our affections,
\nsomething which occupied our thoughts,
\nsomething to which we devoted all the energies of our minds,
\nsomething for which we were willing to labor night and day?
\n
\nBe it money,
\nbe it power,
\nbe it esteem of men,
\nbe it respectability,
\nbe it worldly comfort,
\nbe it literary knowledge,
\nthere was a secret setting up of SELF in one or
\nmore of its various forms, and a bowing down
\nto it as an idol.
\n
\nThe man of business makes money his god.
\n
\nThe man of pleasure makes the lust of the flesh his god.
\n
\nThe proud man makes his adored SELF his god.
\n
\nThe Pharisee makes self-righteousness his god.
\n
\nThe Arminian makes free-will his god.
\n
\nThe Calvinist makes dry doctrine his god.
\n
\nAll in one way or other, however they may differ
\nin the object of their idolatrous worship, agree in
\nthis: that they give a preference in their esteem
\nand affection to their peculiar idol, above the one
\ntrue God.
\n
\n“Idols will be utterly abolished and destroyed.”
\nIsaiah 2:18
\n
\nThere is, then, a time to break down these
\nidols which our fallen nature has set up.
\n
\nAnd have not we experienced some measure of
\nthis breaking down, both externally and internally?
\n
\nHave not our idols been in a measure smashed
\nbefore our eyes, our prospects in life cut up and
\ndestroyed, our airy visions of earthly happiness
\nand our romantic paradises dissolved into thin air,
\nour creature-hopes dashed, our youthful affections
\nblighted, and the objects from which we had fondly
\nhoped to reap an enduring harvest of delight
\nremoved from our eyes?
\n
\nAnd likewise, as to our religion . . .
\nour good opinion of ourselves,
\nour piety and holiness,
\nour wisdom and our knowledge,
\nour understanding and our abilities,
\nour consistency and uprightness;
\nhave they not all been broken down, and
\nmade a heap of ruins before our eyes?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am weak and ignorant, full of sin and compassed with infirmity. But I bless God that He has in some measure shown me the power of eternal things, and by free and sovereign grace stopped me in that career of vanity and sin in which, to all outward appearance, I was fast hurrying down […]<\/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-5383","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\/5383","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=5383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5384,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5383\/revisions\/5384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}