Hymns for service: “Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus” – p. 257 “Blessed Assurance” – p. 255
WHY DOES GOD TEST US?
One of the principal designs of our gracious heavenly Father in the ordering of our path, in the appointing of our testings and trials, in the discipline of His love, is to bring us to the end of ourselves, to show us our own powerlessness, to teach us to have no confidence in the flesh, that His strength may be made perfect in our conscious and realized weakness. – A. W. Pink
GLORYING IN THE CROSS
“But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Galatians 6:14). For his own part, the apostle was determined to glory in nothing save the cross of Christ. He had gone out to Him without the camp, bearing His reproach, and like Moses, he counted the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. The cross is put here for the atoning sacrifice of the Son of God upon the cross. This is the foundation which God hath laid in Sion for the hope of the guilty. His own self bare the sins of His people in His own body on the tree; they are justified by His blood, redeemed from the curse; and upon this, and this alone, believers rest their hope. They do not glory in any real or fancied superiority over others. They behold the glory of the Lord shining in the face of Jesus Christ. Through the rent vail of the Redeemer’s flesh, they draw near to their covenant God, seated on a throne of grace; and, beholding the perfection of the sacrifice offered on Calvary, and arrayed in their Redeemer’s everlasting righteousness, they challenge the universe to lay anything to their charge. --James Haldane
The word “Bible” signifies Book; and when we call it the Bible, we mean that it is the Book of books — the best Book, the wisest Book, the Book that will do us the most good of any in the world! Why? Because it is the Book of Jesus Christ and salvation found only in and by Him. If all the other books in the world were destroyed, however great and irreparable the loss — if men still had the Bible, they would be far better off than if this were destroyed and all other books remained. – Copied
“Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end” (John 1:13). The Lord loved His sheep so much that He gave Himself unto death a ransom for all their sins. Nothing short of a divine love could or would have borne their sins and the punishment of their sins. The weight of the one, and the terribleness of the other would have crushed and annihilated a mere created affection. There existed no love but the love of Jesus, which was equal to the work of salvation. – Copied
2 Corinthians 5:21 states, “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” This is the imputation of the sin of God’s elect to the Lord Jesus Christ and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to them. Imputation means the demerit and debt of sin charged (accounted, reckoned) to Christ and the merit and payment of that debt (righteousness) charged to all for whom Christ stood as Surety and Substitute in His obedience unto death. Those who believe Christ was “made sin” or that His people were “made the righteousness of God in Him” in any other way than by imputation do not understand the reality and biblical truth of imputation. One man who objected to this truth argued with me that Christ’s death was “more than imputation.” Of course His death was more than imputation. Because of sin imputed to Him Christ actually came under the curse of the law and became guilty (Gal. 3:13). He was rejected by His Father (Matt. 27:46). He suffered, not only physically but in His very soul unto death (1 Pet. 3:18). His death was of such magnitude that we cannot imagine the pain and suffering He endured as the one sacrifice for sin. He actually died. It was not a fake suffering or death. It was all too real. But it was all based on the sins of His people imputed to Him. In this way alone could God the Father be just to punish His holy and sinless Son. And in this way alone is God the Father just to save sinners like us. This truth is the glorious heart of the Gospel. This truth is the summation of Christ crucified and risen from the dead. This truth is uniquely Christian and sets Christianity apart from all false religions of man. To deny, confuse, or ignore this truth is to deny the Gospel of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. – Pastor Bill Parker
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