\u201cThe sinner will never hunger nor\nthirst after righteousness till the sentence of death gives him an\nappetite.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
William Huntington<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It matters what a man believes\nabout Christ: Who He is, what He has done, and where He is now is absolutely\nnecessary to a man’s hope. If Christ is not God, then He is less than God;\nanything less than God is not holy. Anything that is not holy,God is not\npleased and anything God is not pleased with is under His condemnation. If\nChrist has not satisfied completely my case before God almighty (placing me in\nperfect standing with a God who is so holy that He would turn His back on His\nvery Son because my guilty was laid to His account), then I am helpless lost.\nIf He is not at this very moment interceding for me, pleading His own\naccomplishment in my behalf, then I have no peace with God. If the Son of Man\nhas made you free, you are free -free from the wrath of divine justice, free\nfrom the law of God that did reveal my sinful state, and free from strivings of\nbondage by yokes placed on me that no one has ever been able to bear, Free, oh\nthe glorious sound of One Who has freed me, washed me, clothed me, feeds me,\nand keeps me because He has always loved Me. That is the God I serve, and His\nlove constrains me and gives me a longing to do more than I am willing or\ncapable of doing all for His glory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marvin Stalnaker<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sanctified,\nPreserved and Called<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jude 1 Jude, the\nservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by\nGod the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and<\/em> called:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sanctified<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\nwe are told that God\u2019s people were sanctified by God the Father before the\nworld began. He writes \u201cto them that are sanctified by God the Father.<\/em>\u201d\nPaul tells us that God the Father chose us in electing love in Christ before\nthe foundation of the world, that we should be \u201choly and without blame\nbefore him,<\/em>\u201d and \u201cin love<\/em>\u201d predestinated us to that glorious end(Eph.\n1:4-5).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nThe word \u201csanctified<\/em>,\u201d as Jude uses it, does not refer to the internal\nwork of God the Holy Spirit in regeneration, but to the eternal work of God the\nFather in election. It is a word that may be properly translated, \u201cmade holy,\u201d\n\u201cconsecrated,\u201d \u201cpurified,\u201d or \u201challowed.\u201d If we read it that way, the meaning\nis that God the Father, looking on his elect in Christ, being one with Christ,\nmade us holy, righteous, and accepted in Christ, \u201cthe Lamb slain from the\nfoundation of the world<\/em>,\u201d which is plainly stated in Romans 8:29-30 and\nEphesians 1:6. But as it is used in Jude 1, the word, \u201csanctified,<\/em>\u201d\nrefers to the electing love of God the Father (Jer. 31:3). Jude is telling us\nthat God the Father, loving us with an everlasting love, set us apart to\nhimself as the objects of his love, approval, and delight from eternity. The\nLord Jesus used this word in exactly that way with reference to himself as our\nMediator in John 10:36.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nNo word in the Bible is more delightful, precious, and honouring than this word\n\u201celect<\/em>.\u201d Nothing more sweetly endears our God to us than his electing\nlove. Our Saviour himself wears the title God gives to all who trust him. He is\nthe Elect One of God (Isa. 42:1), and we are the elect ones of God. Let us ever\nrejoice in God\u2019s electing love, that love by which we were sanctified, set\napart from all other creatures and consecrated to our God in his eternal\npurpose of grace, for the praise of his glory (1 Pet. 2:9; Ex. 19:5). It is\nfrom hence that we date all our mercies. It is to this source, the election of\ngrace, and our being given to Christ, and chosen in Christ, that we are\u201ckept\nby the power of God, through faith, unto salvation ready to be revealed in the\nlast time<\/em>\u201d (1 Pet. 1:5; 2 Thess. 2:13-14).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Preserved<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Next,\nJude tells us that, as the objects of God\u2019s everlasting love, being sanctified\nby him in eternal election, we are, always have been, and always shall be\u201cpreserved\nin Jesus Christ.<\/em>\u201d Who can imagine what blessed things are included in those\nwords? I am sure that we will be discovering their fulness throughout eternity!\n\u2014 \u201cPreserved in Jesus Christ<\/em>!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 11<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nWe were \u201cpreserved in Jesus Christ<\/em>\u201d before we were called and after\nbeing called. We were \u201cpreserved in Jesus Christ<\/em>\u201d in eternity, when he\nbetrothed us to himself, when he received us as the gift of his Father, before\nthe foundation of the world. God\u2019s elect are in a blessed, eternal union of\ngrace with Christ, by which we were secretly preserved in him and beheld as one\nwith him, before we had any being in our father Adam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nOur preservation in Christ did not keep us from falling with the whole human\nrace in Adam, because it was not so intended. Yet, it kept us from eternal ruin\nthrough the fall. Indeed, our fall in Adam, according to the purpose of God,\nwas one of the many means by which our heavenly Father ordained that all the\nblessings and benefits of redemption by Christ would come to us. Though we fell\nin our father Adam, we were \u201cpreserved in Jesus Christ<\/em>\u201d when we fell.\nThough we came forth from our mother\u2019s wombs speaking lies, we were \u201cpreserved\nin Jesus Christ<\/em>\u201d throughout the days of our rebellion. Though we all \u201chad\nour conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, and were by nature\nchildren of wrath, even as others<\/em>,\u201d we were \u201cpreserved in Jesus Christ<\/em>\u201d\nthroughout the days of our rebellion. Even after being called from death to\nlife by the power of his omnipotent grace, we are still \u201cpreserved in Jesus\nChrist.<\/em>\u201d Every day we live, we are more and more debtors to God our Saviour\nfor his infinite grace!<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nWho can calculate the wonders of this preserving grace? We were preserved in\nJesus Christ before we were called to Jesus Christ, preserved in all the stages\nof life, when called by grace, until grace is finished in glory. Let us daily\nmeditate upon, rejoice in, and be humbled by this unceasing, wonder of God\u2019s\ninfinite grace. Though it is constantly experienced by us, yet little of it is\nknown to us in the experience of it! We must enter eternity and look back over\nthe everlasting hills, through all the path the Lord has brought us, before\nthat we shall have any real sense of and appreciation for the unspeakable\nblessings contained in these four words, \u201cpreserved in Jesus Christ.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Called<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Take\nin one more great, soul-refreshing drink from this well of salvation. \u2014 \u201cAnd\ncalled!\u201d <\/em>Here Jude is referring to the great, irresistible work of God\nthe Holy Spirit in omnipotent mercy calling us from darkness to light, from\nbondage to liberty, from death to life to be the sons and daughters of the\nliving God by faith in Christ. The same Almighty Spirit, who in the old\ncreation of nature moved upon the face of the deep, and said, \u201cLet there be\nlight<\/em>,\u201d is he, who in the new creation of grace, commands the light to\nshine out of darkness in the hearts of chosen, redeemed sinners to give the\nlight of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (Gen.\n1:3; 2 Cor. 4:6).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nThere is a beautiful order in all this. So infinitely blessed and important is\nthis great grace of God the Holy Spirit that until it is performed no child of\nGod can have any apprehension, either of the Father\u2019s electing love in\nelection, or the Son\u2019s accomplished redemption. It is by the work of God the\nHoly Spirit that we are made \u201cpartakers of the divine nature, having escaped\nthe corruption that is in the world, through lust!\u2019<\/em> (2 Pet. 1:4-5).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\nFortner<\/p>\n\n\n\n An\nounce of heart-knowledge, is worth a ton of head-learning!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n (Charles\nSpurgeon)<\/p>\n\n\n\n “<\/strong> <\/sup><\/strong>Yea\ndoubtless, and I count all things but<\/em> loss for the excellency\nof the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord:<\/strong>”\nPhilippians 3:8<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Saving\nknowledge of Christ will be a personal knowledge. I must know Him\nexperimentally in my own soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saving\nknowledge of Christ will be an intelligent knowledge. I must know Him, not as I\nimagine Him to be, but as the Word reveals Him to be. I must know His natures,\ndivine and human. I must know His offices, His attributes and His works. I must\nmeditate upon Him until I am “able to comprehend how wide, how long, how\nhigh, and how deep His love is.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saving\nknowledge of Christ will be an affectionate knowledge of Him. Indeed, if I know\nHim at all, I must love Him. An ounce of heart-knowledge, is worth a ton of\nhead-learning!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saving\nknowledge of Christ will be a satisfying knowledge. When I know my Savior, my\nmind and heart will be full to the brim-I shall feel that I have that which my\nspirit pants after. “No one who comes to Me will ever be hungry, and no\none who believes in Me will ever be thirsty again!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saving\nknowledge of Christ will be an ever-expanding knowledge. The more I know of my\nBeloved, the more I shall want to know. The higher I climb, the loftier will be\nthe summits which invite my eager footsteps. As I get the more, I shall want\nthe more. Like the miser’s treasure, my gold will make me covet more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To\nconclude, saving knowledge of Christ Jesus will be the most blessed knowledge.\nIn fact, it will be so elevating, that sometimes it will completely bear me up\nabove all trials, and doubts and sorrows! And it will, while I enjoy it, lift\nme above troubles-for it will fling about me the blessedness of the ever-living\nSaviour, and gird me with the golden belt of His eternal joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Come,\nmy soul, sit at Jesus’ feet and learn of Him all this day!<\/p>\n\n\n\n “<\/strong>that the God of our Lord\nJesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and\nrevelation in the knowledge of him: <\/strong>18 <\/sup><\/strong>the\neyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope\nof his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the\nsaints, <\/strong>19 <\/sup><\/strong>and\nwhat is<\/em> the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who\nbelieve, according to the working of his mighty power<\/strong>!” Ephesians 1:17-19<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n These\ntwo convictions stand as marvellous evidences of saving grace:<\/p>\n\n\n\n an\nawareness of our heart’s depravity, and<\/p>\n\n\n\n an\nawareness of our Physician’s infallibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nsum of my complaints amounts to this\u2014that I am a sick sinner, diseased in every\npart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But\nif He who is the Infallible Physician has undertaken my case\u2014then I shall not\ndie but live, and declare the works of the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n John\nNewton<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nonly real knowledge<\/strong> which we can possess of the truth of God, or of any one\nbranch of that truth, is from a vital, experimental, heartfelt\nacquaintance with it through the teaching of the Holy Spirit!<\/strong> Men,\nlearned or unlearned, priest or people, may theorise and speculate, may think\nthey see and understand, may reason and argue, preach and prate, talk and\nwrite, wisely and well upon this and that point of doctrine, or upon this or\nthat portion of scripture; but unless the sacred truth of God is made known to\nour hearts by a divine power, and laid hold of by a living faith, we have no\ntrue knowledge of, as we have no saving interest in it. How true are those\nwords of the apostle\u2014”And if any man think\nthat he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.”\n(1 Cor. 8:2.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n J.C.Philpot<\/p>\n\n\n\n The truth shall make\nyou free!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n “Ye shall know\nthe truth, and the truth shall make you free<\/strong>.” <\/em>John\n8:32<\/p>\n\n\n\n J.C.Philpot<\/p>\n\n\n\n To a spiritual mind, sweet\nand self-rewarding is the task, if task it can be called, of searching\nthe Word as for hidden treasure.<\/em> No sweeter, no better employment can\nengage heart and hands than, in the spirit of prayer and meditation\u2014of\nseparation from the world\u2014of holy fear\u2014of a desire to know the will of God and\ndo it\u2014of humility, simplicity, and godly sincerity\u2014to seek to enter into those\nheavenly mysteries which are stored up in the Scriptures\u2014and this,not\nto furnish the head with notions, but to feed the soul with the bread of life.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Truth\u2014received in the love\nand power of it, informs and establishes the judgment, softens and melts the\nheart, warms and draws upward the affections, makes and keeps the conscience\nalive and tender\u2014is the food of faith\u2014is the strength of hope\u2014is the main-spring\nof love. To know the truth is to be made blessedly free\u2014free from error\u2014free\nfrom the vile heresies which everywhere abound\u2014free from presumption\u2014free from\nself-righteousness\u2014free from the curse and bondage of the law\u2014free from the\ncondemnation of a guilty conscience\u2014free from a slavish fear of the opinion of\nmen\u2014free from the contempt of the world\u2014free from the scorn of worldly\nprofessors\u2014free from following a multitude to do evil\u2014free from companionship\nwith those who have a name to live, but are dead. You shall know the truth,\nand the truth shall make you free!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cThe sinner will never hunger nor thirst after righteousness till the sentence of death gives him an appetite.\u201d William Huntington It matters what a man believes about Christ: Who He is, what He has done, and where He is now is absolutely necessary to a man’s hope. If Christ is not God, then He is less […]<\/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-6961","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\/6961","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=6961"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6962,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6961\/revisions\/6962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}