\n The most wonderful plan!<\/strong>
\n <\/strong>
\n <\/em>Spurgeon, “ANOTHER AND A NOBLER EXHIBITION”<\/em>
\n <\/em>
\n Through the great scheme of ‘salvation by the atonement’,
\n God is MORE glorified than he would have been if there had
\n been no fall, and consequently no room for a redemption.
\n
\n It was within the compass of the power of God to make
\n ‘infallible creatures’ that would love him– to make beings
\n that would be attached to him by the very closest ties.
\n
\n But I do not see how omnipotence itself, apart from ‘the fall
\n and the redemption’ by the sacrifice of Christ, when he gave
\n himself to die for us; could have made such creatures as the
\n redeemed will be in heaven.
\n
\n Brethren, if we had never fallen and never been redeemed,
\n we could never have sung of redeeming grace and dying love!
\n
\n We could not have known the heights and depths, and lengths
\n and breadths of the love of Christ which passes knowledge.
\n
\n Feasted with heavenly food, we might have admired his bounty,
\n but not as we now do when we eat the flesh of Christ, made to
\n drink the wine pressed from heaven’s own clusters.
\n
\n We might have blessed the giver of the feast, but not as we\n now
\n can do, when we drink the blood of Jesus as our sweet wine;
\n pure and holy. We could have praised him, and we should have
\n done so, but not as we now can, when we have “washed our
\n robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
\n
\n This seems to be the most wonderful, the most godlike,
\n the most divine plan– that a sinful creature shall discover
\n the justice of God through the punishment being laid upon
\n a substitute; and that he shall learn the love of God through
\n that substitute being God himself!
\n
\n In heaven this redeemed creature shall feel that it owes\n nothing
\n to itself, nothing to its own natural efforts, but all to him\n who
\n loved it and who bought it with his blood; and therefore this
\n grateful being shall praise God after the most superior sort–
\n “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive honor,
\n and blessing, and majesty, and power, and dominion
\n for ever and ever!”\n <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n
\nToys and playthings of the religious babyhouse
\n
\n“I<\/strong> will feed My flock.<\/strong>” Ezekiel\n34:15
\n
\nJ.C.Philpot<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe only real food of the soul must be of God’s
\nown appointing, preparing, and communicating.
\n
\nYou can never deceive a hungry child. You may
\ngive it a plaything to still its cries. It may serve
\nfor a few minutes; but the pains of hunger are
\nnot to be removed by a doll. A toy horse will not
\nallay the cravings after the mother’s breast.
\n
\nSo with babes in grace. A hungry soul
\ncannot feed upon playthings.
\n
\nAltars,
\nrobes,
\nceremonies,
\ncandlesticks,
\nbowings,
\nmutterings,
\npainted windows,
\nintoning priests, and
\nsinging men and women;
\nthese dolls and wooden horses; these<\/strong> toys<\/strong>
\nand playthings of the religious babyhouse<\/strong>,
\ncannot feed the soul that, like David, cries out
\nafter the living God. (Psalm 42:23)
\n
\nChrist, the bread of life, the manna that
\ncame down from heaven, is the only food
\nof the believing soul. (John 6:51)<\/p>\n\n\n\nWeaned from feeding on husks and ashes<\/strong>
\n
\nJ.C.Philpot<\/p>\n\n\n\n“I will satisfy her poor <\/strong>with bread<\/strong>.”\nPsalm 132:15
\n
\nThe Lord has given a special promise to Zion’s
\npoor\u2014”I will satisfy her poor with bread<\/strong>.”
\n
\n<\/strong>Nothing else? Bread? Is that all?<\/strong>
\n
\nYes! That is all God has promised\u2014bread,
\nthe staff of life.
\n
\nBut what does He mean by “bread”?
\n
\nThe Lord Himself explains what bread is. He says,
\n“I am the Bread of life.<\/strong> He who comes to Me\nwill
\nnever go hungry, and he who believes in Me will
\nnever be thirsty. I am the living Bread<\/strong> who\ncame
\ndown from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread,
\nhe will live forever.” John 6:35,51
\n
\nThe bread, then, that God gives to Zion’s poor is
\nHis own dear Son\u2014fed upon by living faith, under
\nthe special operations of the Holy Spirit in the heart.
\n
\n“I will satisfy her poor<\/strong> with bread.”\nPsalm 132:15
\n
\nBut must not we have an appetite <\/strong>before we can
\nfeed upon bread<\/strong>? The rich<\/strong> man who\nfeasts continually
\nupon juicy meat and savoury sauces, would not live upon
\nbread. To come down to live on such simple food as bread
\n\u2014why, one must be really hungry to be satisfied with that.
\n
\nSo it is spiritually. A man fed upon ‘mere notions’ and a
\nnumber of ‘speculative doctrines’ cannot descend to the
\nsimplicity of the gospel. To feed upon a crucified\nChrist,<\/strong>
\n<\/strong>a bleeding Jesus!<\/strong>\u2014he is not sufficiently\nbrought down to
\nthe starving point, to relish such spiritual food as this!
\n
\nBefore, then, he can feed upon this Bread of life he\nmust<\/strong>
\n<\/strong>be made spiritually poor. <\/strong>And\nwhen he is brought to be
\nnothing but a mass of wretchedness, filth, guilt, and misery
\n\u2014when he feels his soul sinking under the wrath of God,
\nand has scarcely a hope to buoy up his poor tottering heart
\n\u2014when he finds the world embittered to him, and he has no
\none object from which he can reap any abiding consolation
\n\u2014then the Lord is pleased to open up in his conscience,
\nand bring the sweet savor of the love of His dear Son
\ninto his heart\u2014and he begins to taste gospel bread.
\n
\nBeing weaned\nfrom feeding on husks and ashes<\/strong>, and
\nsick “of the vines of Sodom and the fields of\nGomorrah,”
\nand being brought to relish simple gospel food, he begins
\nto taste a sweetness in ‘Christ crucified’ which he never
\ncould know\u2014until he was made experimentally poor.
\n
\nThe Lord has promised to satisfy such.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSavoury food such as their soul loves<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nJ.C.Philpot<\/p>\n\n\n\n “For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink\nindeed.” <\/em>John 6:55<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis food is specially for the elect<\/em>\u2014blood\nshed for their sins, and for their sins only\u2014righteousness brought in for them,\nand for them only\u2014love bestowed upon them, and upon them only\u2014promises revealed\nfor their comfort, and for their comfort only\u2014an eternal inheritance reserved\nin heaven for them, and for them only. The elect are the only\npeople <\/em>who hunger after it\u2014who have an appetite for it\u2014who have a\nmouth to feed upon it\u2014who have a stomach to digest it. They are the only people\nwhose eyes are really open to see what “food” is. All others feed\nupon shadows\u2014they know nothing of the savory food of the gospel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n“I have food to eat that you don’t know about.” Jesus’\nfood was\u2014the hidden communications of God’s love\u2014the visitations of His\nFather’s presence\u2014the divine communion that He enjoyed with His Father. So, for\nthe children of God, there is food in Christ\u2014and this food the Lord gives\nthem a hunger after<\/em>. He not only sets before their eyes what the\nfood is, butHe kindles inexpressible longings in their\nsoul <\/em>to be fed with it. God’s people cannot <\/em>feed upon\nhusks\u2014nor upon ashes\u2014nor upon chaff\u2014nor upon the wind\u2014nor upon grapes of gall\nand the bitter clusters of Gomorrah. They must have real food<\/em>\u2014savory\nfood such as their soul loves<\/strong>\u2014that which God Himself communicates, and\nwhich His hand alone can bring down and give unto them\u2014so that they may receive\nit from Him as their soul-satisfying portion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“I will satisfy her poor <\/strong>with bread<\/strong>.”\nPsalm 132:15<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People of God. We can plan and arrange our worship services perfectly according to Scripture, sing just the right songs, pray fervently and Scripturally and even deliver a well studied, God honoring message from the Word of God, but we cannot worship unless the Lord Himself graces our presence with His, and blesses us to […]<\/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-6237","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\/6237","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=6237"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6238,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6237\/revisions\/6238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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