Psalm 27:13-14

Be Content and Be Confident

Someone wrote that Martin Luther’s strength and confidence lay in the fact that he believed so strongly that the ministry in which he was engaged was not his own but the Lord’s. He often prayed, “Lord, this is your cause, not mine.”

What would this persuasion do for you and me? Is not most of our depression and unhappiness caused by the desire to SEE more than we are seeing, DO more than we are doing, HAVE more than we have, and to BE what we are not?

If this is THE LORD’S CAUSE AND NOT MINE, then I ought to be content to serve diligently where He has placed me, with the gifts He has given me, doing all that I find to do, and rejoicing in His love. “Where two or three are met in my name.” Enoch walked with God in a day few did. Paul rejoiced in the Lord when all had forsaken him except Luke.

Pastor Henry T. Mahan (bulletin 1985)

YE ARE COMPLETE IN HIM

“YE ARE COMPLETE IN HIM…” (COLOSSIANS 2:10)

The believers standing in Christ does not fluctuate with his feelings, not even the increase or decrease of his faith or understanding or anything else. He stands complete in Christ. God would never trust any of His children to stand before Him at any time in their own selves; that is, in their merits or certain good frames of mind. He knows our frame. He remembers that we are yet dust. Therefore, He has on purpose provided for them this perfect standing in Christ Jesus. “Ye are complete in Him,” the Holy Ghost said. He says in another place, “Ye are perfect in Christ Jesus,” (Col. 1:28.)

The very nature of our God requires us to be perfect and complete before Him at all times. He, out of necessity, therefore provided all this for His children; a perfection, a completeness, which can never be diminished. It is as unchanging as God himself, (Hebrews 6:17; 13:8). Every true believer may walk through this world in perfect liberty, free from anything and everything – yes, even his sin, fear of condemnation, and all else that would cause him to doubt of his completeness. He may freely come to God, worship Him, call Him “Father,” and this he may do at all times with the utmost confidence and thankfulness, because in Christ he stands, first and foremost and always, complete before God. O thanks be to God for Jesus Christ.

Pastor Bruce Crabtree

HOLY SOVEREIGNTY

We find great comfort in the fact that God is sovereign. But the comfort in God’s sovereignty is in God being holy. If the devil had absolute sovereign power it would not be his sovereignty alone that would cause us fear. If he were holy we would have no cause to fear. It is the fact that he is sinful and hates righteousness therefore he would use that power for evil purposes. The thing that comforts us about God’s sovereignty is that he is holy so that he only uses his power to do what is right. This is how, “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Rom 8: 28.) Pastor Clay Curtis

Purged and Seated!

Hebrews 1:3 and 10:12

Our Lord’s work of redemption is done. His atonement is complete. The sins, which he bore in his body on the tree have been fully purged away, completely atoned for, and entirely removed. All that Christ came to do he has completely done. The priests of Israel could never sit down, because their work was never done, their sacrifices could never take away sin. “But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God.”

Here is proof positive that the work of redemption is done, completely and perfectly done: Christ is sitting at the Father’s right hand. Sitting down is a posture of rest. A man does not rest until his work is finished. Christ came to do his Father’s will, “by the which will we are sanctified.” He would not and could not rest until he had completely and perfectly done his Father’s will. Christ’s sitting in heaven is our assurance that everything required for the salvation of all his people is done (John 16:10; Romans 8:33-34). Righteousness has been established. Atonement has been made. Sin has been put away. God’s elect have been perfected (Hebrews 10:10, 14).

Christ’s sitting at God’s right hand also implies that he enjoys great pleasure. The Psalmist, when he spoke of Christ’s exaltation, wrote, “Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Psalm 16:11).

The highest joy and pleasure of our Savior is the salvation of his people. Our salvation was the joy set before him, for which he endured the cross, despising the shame (Hebrews 12:2).

How could he enjoy pleasure if his people were in jeopardy? How could he have any joy if he had not secured the salvation of every lamb of his flock? If he had not rendered the eternal salvation of every blood-bought soul as secure as his own throne, he would have no pleasure. There is a smile of pleasure upon our Redeemer’s face as he sits in glory, because all his ransomed ones are perfectly safe. Because he is seated on the right hand of God forever, we cannot question this fact — Redemption is done!