November 30, 2004
God Must be Glorified by Doug Weaver
The Bible clearly teaches that salvation is not by works or human merit lest anyone should boast. We just do not have anything to boast about. We also see from the Bible that God has created the world for His own glory. God must be glorified because He is in character and essence a glorious being. Thus in the salvation of the redeemed the glorious aspects of God's mercy, His grace, His compassion, His long-suffering, His kindness, and His love are revealed and God is glorified. But in the just condemnation of the wicked, the glorious aspect of God's justice, holiness, and righteousness are also manifested and God is glorified. But from our perspective, we see all this from our depraved, sinful eyes which make it hard to understand except the Holy Spirit enlighten us. God is just, holy, and righteous and has a natural hatred towards sin because sin is evil. When these qualities are manifested in the just condemnation of sinners, God, in His justice, is glorified. Therefore, both in the electing of some and the passing by of others, God is glorified.
November 29, 2004
Encouragement In the Lord by Chris Cunningham
"And David was greatly distressed; for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and daughters but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God." I Sam. 30:6
David was reaping the harvest of his sinful relationship with Achish. God had just providentially spared him the horror of fighting against his own nation, Israel with these heathen Philistines (read chapter 29), but now it was time for a wake up call. It's sad that God must bring us to a place like this to cause us to turn to Him, but what grace it is that He does so. In our text, David and his men had returned to Ziklag only to find their homes burned and their loved ones taken captive. If this wasn't enough grief for David, the people, now blaming him, are talking of killng him.
I've had some bad days in my life, but I cannot even approach this! There are times in this life when there seems to be no hope and no way out. Believers do not float through life with their hands humbly folded and a religious smile on their faces. David was "greatly distressed" but still was enabled by his gracious God to encourage himself in the Sovereign One to Whom this trial was a trifle. God was simply using this to bring His precious child to His loving side. Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their enemies, who vexed them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven; Neh 9:27.
Even while David and the people "lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep" (vs.4), God had already purposed and was arranging the events necessary to restore unto them all their losses. When we are at our rope's end, if we are God's child, we are as much in His tender care as when we are on easy street. Our King has all things under His sovereign control, doeth all things well and loves us in Christ, as much as He loves Himself. No wonder David could say by real experience, "the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" Ps. 107:19
Does this encourage you?
David was reaping the harvest of his sinful relationship with Achish. God had just providentially spared him the horror of fighting against his own nation, Israel with these heathen Philistines (read chapter 29), but now it was time for a wake up call. It's sad that God must bring us to a place like this to cause us to turn to Him, but what grace it is that He does so. In our text, David and his men had returned to Ziklag only to find their homes burned and their loved ones taken captive. If this wasn't enough grief for David, the people, now blaming him, are talking of killng him.
I've had some bad days in my life, but I cannot even approach this! There are times in this life when there seems to be no hope and no way out. Believers do not float through life with their hands humbly folded and a religious smile on their faces. David was "greatly distressed" but still was enabled by his gracious God to encourage himself in the Sovereign One to Whom this trial was a trifle. God was simply using this to bring His precious child to His loving side. Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their enemies, who vexed them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven; Neh 9:27.
Even while David and the people "lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep" (vs.4), God had already purposed and was arranging the events necessary to restore unto them all their losses. When we are at our rope's end, if we are God's child, we are as much in His tender care as when we are on easy street. Our King has all things under His sovereign control, doeth all things well and loves us in Christ, as much as He loves Himself. No wonder David could say by real experience, "the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" Ps. 107:19
Does this encourage you?
November 24, 2004
Pardon by C.H. Spurgeon
Once upon a time, there came one to my house of a black and terrible aspect. He smote the door; I tried to bolt it- to hold it fast. He smote again and again, till at last he entered, and with a rough voice he summoned me before him; and he said, "I have a message from God for you-- you are condemned on account of your sins."
I looked at him with astonishment; I asked him his name.
He said, "My name is the Law." and I fell at his feet as one that was dead. "I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." As I lay there, he smote me. He smote me till every rib seemed as if it must break, and the bowels be poured forth. My heart was melted like wax within me; I seemed to be stretched upon a rack- to be pinched with hot irons- to be beaten with whips of burning wire. A misery extreme dwelt and reigned in my heart.
I dared not lift up mine eyes, but I thought within myself, "There may be hope, there may be mercy for me. Perhaps the God whom I have offended may accept my tears and my promises of amendment, and I may live." But when that thought crossed my mind, heavier were the blows and more poignant my sufferings than before, till hope entirely failed me, and I had nothing wherein to trust. Darkness black and dense gathered round me. I heard a voice as it were, of rushing to and fro, and of wailing and gnashing of teeth. I said within my soul, "I am cast out from his sight, I am utterly abhorred of God- he has trampled me in the mire of the streets in his anger."
And there came one by, of sorrowful but of loving aspect, and he stooped over me, and he said, "Awake you that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light." I arose in astonishment, and he took me, and he led me to a place where stood a cross, and he seemed to vanish from my sight. But he appeared again hanging there. I looked upon him as he bled upon that tree. His eyes darted a glance of love unutterable into my spirit, and in a moment, looking at him, the bruises that my soul had suffered were healed; the gaping wounds were cured; the broken bones rejoiced; the rags that had covered me were all removed; my spirit was white as the spotless snows of the far-off north; I had melody within my spirit, for I was saved, washed, cleansed, forgiven, through him that did hang upon the tree! Oh, how I wondered that I should be pardoned! It was not the pardon that I wondered at so much; the wonder was that it should come to ME. I wondered that he should be able to pardon such sins as mine; such crimes, so numerous and so black, and that after such an accusing conscience he should have power to still every wave within my spirit, and make my soul like the surface of a river, undisturbed, quiet, and at ease.
I looked at him with astonishment; I asked him his name.
He said, "My name is the Law." and I fell at his feet as one that was dead. "I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." As I lay there, he smote me. He smote me till every rib seemed as if it must break, and the bowels be poured forth. My heart was melted like wax within me; I seemed to be stretched upon a rack- to be pinched with hot irons- to be beaten with whips of burning wire. A misery extreme dwelt and reigned in my heart.
I dared not lift up mine eyes, but I thought within myself, "There may be hope, there may be mercy for me. Perhaps the God whom I have offended may accept my tears and my promises of amendment, and I may live." But when that thought crossed my mind, heavier were the blows and more poignant my sufferings than before, till hope entirely failed me, and I had nothing wherein to trust. Darkness black and dense gathered round me. I heard a voice as it were, of rushing to and fro, and of wailing and gnashing of teeth. I said within my soul, "I am cast out from his sight, I am utterly abhorred of God- he has trampled me in the mire of the streets in his anger."
And there came one by, of sorrowful but of loving aspect, and he stooped over me, and he said, "Awake you that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light." I arose in astonishment, and he took me, and he led me to a place where stood a cross, and he seemed to vanish from my sight. But he appeared again hanging there. I looked upon him as he bled upon that tree. His eyes darted a glance of love unutterable into my spirit, and in a moment, looking at him, the bruises that my soul had suffered were healed; the gaping wounds were cured; the broken bones rejoiced; the rags that had covered me were all removed; my spirit was white as the spotless snows of the far-off north; I had melody within my spirit, for I was saved, washed, cleansed, forgiven, through him that did hang upon the tree! Oh, how I wondered that I should be pardoned! It was not the pardon that I wondered at so much; the wonder was that it should come to ME. I wondered that he should be able to pardon such sins as mine; such crimes, so numerous and so black, and that after such an accusing conscience he should have power to still every wave within my spirit, and make my soul like the surface of a river, undisturbed, quiet, and at ease.
November 22, 2004
Some believed and some not why? by Don Fortner
The preacher was the apostle Paul. The message preached was the gospel of Christ. Paul expounded the Scriptures, testified of his own experience of the Christ. Yet, we read that "some believed... and some believed not." Why did Luke write that down? What does the Holy Spirit intend for us to learn from this fact?
Without question, the intention of the Holy Spirit is to teach us that THE SALVATION OF SINNERS IS NOT DETERMINED BY THE ABILITY OF THE PREACHER. I do not mean to suggest that a person can be saved apart from the preaching of the gospel (Rom. 10:17; James 1:18; I Pet. 1:23-25). And I do not suggest that it does not matter who you hear (I John 4:1-3; II John 10). If you feed upon the poison of a false religion, you will perish under the wrath of God. But the Holy Spirit does mean for us to understand that saving faith is in no way dependent upon or determined by the gifts, abilities, education, or spiritually of the man who preaches the gospel. No one excels Paul in these areas. Yet, some who heard him "believed not." He preached pure gospel truth. He preached the truth in love. His heart was in his message. He wanted those who heard him to know Christ. Yet, "some believed not."
WHY DID SOME BELIEVE WHILE OTHERS BELIEVED NOT? All heard the same preacher the same sermon under the same circumstances. Only one explanation can be given for the faith of those who believed. They believed because God chose them in eternity, Christ redeemed them at Calvary, and now the Holy Spirit called them and gave them faith by his irresistible power and grace (John 1:12-13; Rom. 9:16-18). Their salvation was entirely God's fault and the result of God's work.
WHY DID SOME NOT BELIEVE? Their unbelief was their own fault and the result of their own work. They did not believe because they would not believe (John 5:40). They would not believe because they had no need of Christ (Luke 9:11). ALL WHO ARE SAVED ARE SAVED AS A RESULT OF WHAT GOD DOES. ALL WHO ARE LOST ARE LOST AS A RESULT OF WHAT THEY DO.
Without question, the intention of the Holy Spirit is to teach us that THE SALVATION OF SINNERS IS NOT DETERMINED BY THE ABILITY OF THE PREACHER. I do not mean to suggest that a person can be saved apart from the preaching of the gospel (Rom. 10:17; James 1:18; I Pet. 1:23-25). And I do not suggest that it does not matter who you hear (I John 4:1-3; II John 10). If you feed upon the poison of a false religion, you will perish under the wrath of God. But the Holy Spirit does mean for us to understand that saving faith is in no way dependent upon or determined by the gifts, abilities, education, or spiritually of the man who preaches the gospel. No one excels Paul in these areas. Yet, some who heard him "believed not." He preached pure gospel truth. He preached the truth in love. His heart was in his message. He wanted those who heard him to know Christ. Yet, "some believed not."
WHY DID SOME BELIEVE WHILE OTHERS BELIEVED NOT? All heard the same preacher the same sermon under the same circumstances. Only one explanation can be given for the faith of those who believed. They believed because God chose them in eternity, Christ redeemed them at Calvary, and now the Holy Spirit called them and gave them faith by his irresistible power and grace (John 1:12-13; Rom. 9:16-18). Their salvation was entirely God's fault and the result of God's work.
WHY DID SOME NOT BELIEVE? Their unbelief was their own fault and the result of their own work. They did not believe because they would not believe (John 5:40). They would not believe because they had no need of Christ (Luke 9:11). ALL WHO ARE SAVED ARE SAVED AS A RESULT OF WHAT GOD DOES. ALL WHO ARE LOST ARE LOST AS A RESULT OF WHAT THEY DO.
November 18, 2004
CONTROVERSIAL by Tim James
Do you think it astounding that some men find it easy to hold Scripture up to the worth of their own opinion? Some men actually refuse to preach certain doctrines of Holy Writ because they deem them controversial. Shall a worm of the dust count itself as judge over the Word of God, to say this or that should not be preached because other worms do not find it palatable? Did God, as He inspired His Book, also inspire the writers to put an asterisk beside predestination or election in order that the preacher might be sure to avoid these subjects? Where does such presumption originate? Does the dunghill denizen believe that his wisdom is greater than God's? He must believe himself to be God, or else he would not take it upon himself to discount what God has said. Oh how marvelously the maggot monarch molds his message to misdirect his multitudes by mutilating the Gospel and removing its sting! It would seem that the serpent's lie has found it resting place in the pate of these pusillanimous pulpiteers. "ye shall be as god's", said the serpent, and the malevolent message took. Now the fallen man , believing himself to be deity does not bow to the Word of God but rather abbreviates it…does not preach it but rather pares it down. It is this wretched wrester of Scripture "WHO OPPOSETH AND EXALTETH HIMSELF ABOVE ALL THAT IS CALLED GOD, OR THAT IS WORSHIPPED; SO THAT HE AS GOD SITTETH IN THE TEMPLE OF GOD, SHEWING HIMSELF THAT HE IS GOD" .
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