{"id":6852,"date":"2025-06-03T09:37:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T09:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=6852"},"modified":"2025-06-03T09:37:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T09:37:21","slug":"bulletin-edition-june-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=6852","title":{"rendered":"Bulletin Edition June 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Infinite, boundless,\nfathomless, endless love!<\/strong>
\n>From Spurgeon’s, “CONSTRAINING LOVE”<\/em>
\n
\nWe sometimes guess at Christ’s love to us, but, ah, it is
\nso far beyond our thoughts, our reasonings, our praises,
\nand our apprehension too, in the sweetest moments of
\nour most spiritual ecstasy– who can tell it?
\n
\nThere was nothing in you to make him love you,
\nbut he left heaven’s throne for you!
\n
\nAs he came down the celestial hills, methinks the angels said,
\n“Oh, how he loved them.” When he lay in the manger an infant,
\nthey gathered round and said, “Oh how he loves.” But when
\nthey saw him sweating in the garden, when he was put into the
\ncrucible, and began to be melted in the furnace, then indeed,
\nthe spirits above began to know how much he loved us.
\n
\nOh Jesus! when I see you mocked and spit upon– when I see your
\ndear cheeks become a reservoir for all the filth and spittle
\nof unholy mouths– when I see your back rent with knotted
\nwhips– when I behold your honour and your life both trailing
\nin the dust– when I behold your hands and your feet pierced,
\nyour body stripped naked and exposed– when I see you hanging
\non the cross between earth and heaven, in torments dire and
\nexcruciating– when I hear you cry “I thirst,” and see the
\nvinegar thrust to your lips– when I hear your direful cry,
\n“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,”
\nmy spirit is compelled to say, “Oh how he loves!”
\n
\nHe could die, but he could not cease to love.
\nHe could be torn in pieces, but he could not
\nbe torn away from his people.
\n
\nHe bled for you.
\nHe gave his whole self for you.
\nThere was not a single nerve in his body
\nwhich did not thrill with love to you.
\nThere was not a drop his of blood which
\nhad not in its red fluid your name.
\n
\nOh how he loved you, when he received you all
\nblack and filthy to his bosom, gave you the kiss of
\nhis lips, and welcomed you as his own fair spouse.
\n
\nMay we have a consciousness of his infinite,
\nboundless, fathomless, endless love to us.<\/strong>
\n
\n“Oh love the Lord all ye his saints.” -Psalm 31:23.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He shall be\ncalled a Nazarene”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew 2:23<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When God gave his law to\nIsrael by the hand of Moses, one of the most thoroughly expanded laws given was\n“the law of the Nazarite” in Numbers 6. There are many things in the\nlaw of the Nazarite that cannot be applied to our Saviour. He both touched dead\nbodies and drank wine, though he was never made unclean by doing so. Yet,\nstrictly speaking, as that one who was wholly devoted and separated to the Lord\nGod, our Saviour is the Nazarene typically referred to in this Old Testament\nlaw. He is the one and the only one man who perfectly fulfilled it. This is\nevident from the fact that the law is never mentioned again until we see it\nmentioned in connection with Samson (another type of our Redeemer) in Judges\n13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Lord Jesus Christ was\nset apart and sanctified to the Father to do his will from eternity. “And\nfor their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through\nthe truth” (John 17:19<\/a>). Our Saviour fulfils the type gloriously.\nThe church is described as having hair like a flock of goats (Song of\nSolomon 4:1<\/a>). Like the hairs of his head, a vast multitude\ngrow up in Christ and upon him. No razor shall ever separate us from our Lord.\nLike the hair on our heads, we live upon Christ, depend on him, and draw life\nand strength from him, because we are a part of him and can never be separated\nfrom him. As Samson’s strength and glory was his hair, so we are Christ’s\nglory. But our mighty Samson shall never lose his glory. The hair is the last\npart of the body to die; and we shall never perish, because Christ our Saviour\nlives forever! Therefore it may be said of every member of Christ’s Church, as\nwe read in Lamentations 4:7<\/a>, “Her Nazarites were purer than\nsnow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies,\ntheir polishing was of sapphire”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We must not overlook the\nfact that in all these offerings for sin shadowed forth the one great,\nall-sufficient sacrifice of Christ, our great Nazarite, by which our sins were\nput away. Waving the offering before the Lord was both an acknowledgment of sin\nbefore the holy Lord God and a celebration of sin’s pardon and removal by the\nblood of Christ. In Mark 14:24<\/a>, 25<\/a> our\nSaviour spoke of his work as the Nazarene being fulfilled when he said,\n“This is the blood of the new testament, which is shed for many. Truly I\nsay unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day\nthat I drink it new in the kingdom of God”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have the clearest\npossible evidence that all that is seen in this Nazarite law refers to Christ\nand his great work of redemption in the last verses of Numbers 6. In verses\n22-27, upon the basis of the Nazarite’s obedience and sacrifice, God commands his\nblessing upon his people. Then Nazarite is mentioned is in Judges 13:5<\/a>.\nHere it is used to describe Samson as a Nazarite (Judges 13:5<\/a>),\nanother great type of our Saviour in his consecration to God from his mother’s\nwomb. Isaiah also used this very word when he prophesied of Christ coming to\nsave us by the sacrifice of himself. “And there shall come forth a rod out\nof the stem of Jesse, and a Branch (netzar-Nazarite) shall grow out of his\nroots” (Isaiah 11:1<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that our Saviour\nwas born at Bethlehem in fulfilment of Micah 5:2<\/a> tells\nus that he was, at the time of his conception in the virgin’s womb, “a\nNazarene” (Luke 1:26-33<\/a>). “That Holy thing”, Christ our\nMediator, was the Nazarite from the womb, brought forth in the city of Nazareth\nby the power of the Holy Spirit, just as Isaiah told us he would be (Isaiah 7:14<\/a>; 9:6<\/a>).\nIn all these things, we see that Christ the Nazarene is “the end of the\nlaw for righteousness to every one that believes”, having fulfilled it\nentirely as our Substitute and Saviour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don Fortner<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excerpt\nfrom The Surety’s Thirst<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\nHoratius Bonar, 1867<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\n“I thirst.” <\/em>John 19:28<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a true <\/em>thirst,\nand as deep and sore as it was true. It was a thirst corresponding with the\ncharacter of him who felt it. He was human, and He was divine. It was, of\ncourse, humanity which thirsted; but it was humanity in union with divinity,\nand therefore made more susceptible of suffering, more capable of enduring what\nalone it would not have been capable of undergoing. Christ’s humanity was\nperfect; but that only made it more sensitive, more acutely alive to suffering,\nso that his hunger, his thirst, his weariness, instead of being mitigated or\nmade unreal\u2014became more real and intense, more unmodified and harder to bear,\nthan they are or can be in our imperfect humanity. The perfection of humanity\nimplies the perfection of suffering, whenever that perfect humanity comes into\ncontact with suffering at all. Pre-eminence in sorrow, and pre-eminence in joy,\nmust be the portion and prerogative of such exalted perfection. It is only\nperfection such as this, which can sound the depths of creature-sadness, or\nreach the heights of human joy. Had there been one taint of imperfection, about\neither the body or the soul of Jesus, he could not have tasted the whole\nbitterness of our anguish; he could not have drained our cup; he could not have\npaid our penalty; he could not have felt that extremity of thirst, regarding\nwhich he uttered the bitter outcry in the hour of his conflict with death, and\nwith the powers of darkness, upon the cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAID IN FULL!
\n<\/strong>
\nfrom Spurgeon, “IT IS FINISHED!” (No. 421)
\n<\/em>
\nThe satisfaction which Jesus rendered
\nto the JUSTICE OF GOD was finished!
\n
\nThe debt was now, to the last farthing, all discharged.
\n
\nThe atonement and propitiation were made once for all, and
\nforever, by the one offering made in Jesus’ body on the tree.
\n
\nThere was the cup, hell was in it, the Saviour drank it — not a
\nsip and then a pause; not a draught and then a ceasing, but he
\ndrained it till there is not a dreg left for any of his people.
\n
\nThe great ten-thonged whip of the law was worn
\nout upon his back, there is no lash left with
\nwhich to smite one for whom Jesus died.
\n
\nThe great cannonade of God’s justice has exhausted
\nall its ammunition, there is nothing left to be
\nhurled against a child of God.
\n
\nSheathed is your sword, O Justice!
\nSilenced is your thunder, O Law!
\n
\nThere remains nothing now of all the griefs, and
\npains, and agonies which chosen sinners ought to have
\nsuffered for their sins, for Christ has endured all
\nfor his own beloved, and “it is finished.”
\n
\nChrist has done what all the flames of the pit could
\nnot do in all eternity– Christ has paid the debt which
\nall the torments of eternity could not have paid!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\nis Finished!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

John\n19:30<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nSon of God has taken upon himself human flesh. He has lived a life\nof perfect righteousness as the Representative of his covenant people. He\nhas been all his life long despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and\nacquainted with grief. His enemies have been many. His friends have been few,\nand those few faithless. At last he is delivered over into the hands of them\nthat hate him. He is cruelly arrested in the garden and arraigned before the\ncourts of law. They robe him in mockery, strip him in shame, and hold him up as\na spectacle of ridicule and scorn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is declared to be perfectly innocent. Yet, the cowardly judge\ndelivers him into the hands of his persecutors. It is written, \u201cPilate\ndelivered Jesus to their will!<\/em>\u201d He is dragged through the streets\nof Jerusalem. Those who had killed the prophets would now bring upon\nthemselves the blood of the prophets\u2019 Master.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The God-man is brought to the hill called Calvary and\nbrutally nailed to the cross. The sun burns upon him. His wounds infect his\nbody with scorching fever. God, his Father, whose will he came to perform,\nwhose purpose he now fulfils, whose people he came to redeem, whose glory he\ncame to uphold, his God and Father forsakes him. Suffering all the concentrated\nanguish of hell, he cries out, \u201cMy God, my God, why hast thou forsaken\nme?\u201d <\/em>While he hangs there upon the cursed tree, in mortal conflict\nwith sin and Satan, his heart is broken. His limbs are dislocated. His Father\nforsakes him. The heavens forsake him. The earth forsakes him. His disciples\nall forsake him and flee from him. He looks everywhere, but there is none to\nhelp. His eye looks all around, but there are none to share his toil. He treads\nthe wine press of the fierceness of the wrath of God alone; and of the people\nthere are none with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, on he goes, steadily determined to drink the last bitter\ndregs of that cup which could not pass from his lips if his Father\u2019s will is to\nbe done. He says, \u201cThe Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not\nrebellious, neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters, and my\ncheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and\nspitting. For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded:\ntherefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be\nashamed<\/em>\u201d (Isaiah 50:5-7). For the glory of God, for the honour of his holy\nlaw, for the redemption of his people, and in order to complete the work for\nwhich he came into the world, the Lord Jesus Christ perseveres in his agony,\nuntil at last he cries, \u201cIt is finished!\u201d <\/em>Then he gives up the\nghost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you hear this mighty shout of triumph? It is the word of the\nconquering King. It rings today with all the freshness and force with which it\nrang two thousand years ago! \u2014 \u201cIt is finished!\u201d <\/em>Hear it from\nthe sacred Word. Hear from the Saviour\u2019s lips. I pray that you will hear these\nthree words, by the power of God the Holy Spirit, ringing in your very soul.\n\u2014 \u201cIt is finished!\u201d <\/em>Oh, may these blessed words ring out in\nyour heart today. I pray that you may be enabled to enter into the experience\nof this blessed conquest. As he looks up to God his Father, as he looks around\nto the wondering angels of light, as he looks down upon Satan and the demons of\nhell, and as he looks out over the perishing multitudes of men, the Lamb of God\ndeclares, \u201cIt Is Finished,\u201d <\/em>testifying to heaven and earth and\nhell that redemption\u2019s work is done!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don Fortner<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ah, here it is that I am\nmost at fault!<\/strong>
\n
\n(“Every Day!” Author unknown, 1872)
\n
\n“What do you think of Christ?”<\/em> Matthew 22:42
\n
\nI am ashamed of my thoughts of Him – they are so poor, and so unworthy of Him.\nHe is so great<\/em>, and so glorious<\/em>, and so good<\/em>,\nand so gracious<\/em> – that I cannot think of Him as I desire to.
\n
\nDo you inquire what I think of His person?<\/strong> He is the chief\namong ten thousand, and the altogether lovely One! He unites in Himself, Deity\nand Manhood –
\n“All human <\/em>beauties – all Divine<\/em>,
\n In my Beloved meet and shine!”
\n
\nDo you ask what I think of His work? <\/strong>It is perfect! His\nobedience is spotless! His atonement is complete! His work of redemption is\naccomplished, “It is Finished!”
\n
\nDo you ask what I think of His love? Ah, here it is that I am most\nat fault<\/strong> – and no wonder, for His love surpasses knowledge! Its height\nand depth, its length and its breadth – are immeasurable! His love is free,\nunchanging, and eternal. It is unparalleled – it is Dying <\/em>love!\nHe loved me – and gave Himself for me! Greater love has no man than this, that\na man lay down his life for his friends – but Jesus laid down His life for His\nenemies! “Christ died for the ungodly!”<\/em> Romans 5:6
\n
\nMay you \u201cknow the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge!” Ephesians 3:19<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Utter beggary and\ncomplete bankruptcy<\/strong>
\n
\n(Joseph Philpot)
\n
\n“O visit me with Thy salvation.” Psalm 106:4
\n
\nSalvation only suits the condemned, the lost.
\nA man must be lost; utterly lost; before he
\ncan prize God’s salvation.
\n
\nAnd how is he lost?<\/strong>  By . . .<\/strong>
\n  losing all his religion,
\n  losing all his righteousness,
\n  losing all his strength,
\n  losing all his confidence,
\n  losing all his hopes,
\n  losing all that is of the flesh;
\nlosing it by its being taken from him,
\nand stripped away by the hand of God.
\n
\nA man who is brought into this state of
\nutter beggary and complete bankruptcy<\/strong> . . .
\n  to be nothing,
\n  to have nothing,
\n  to know nothing;
\nhe is the man, who is . . .
\n  crying,
\n  groaning,
\n  begging,
\n  suing,
\n  seeking,
\n  and praying<\/strong>
\nfor God’s salvation to his soul.
\n
\n“O visit me with Thy salvation.” Psalm 106:4<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Infinite, boundless, fathomless, endless love! >From Spurgeon’s, “CONSTRAINING LOVE” We sometimes guess at Christ’s love to us, but, ah, it is so far beyond our thoughts, our reasonings, our praises, and our apprehension too, in the sweetest moments of our most spiritual ecstasy– who can tell it? There was nothing in you to make him […]<\/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-6852","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\/6852","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=6852"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6853,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6852\/revisions\/6853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}