Today's Speaker: Brother Jim Casey will conduct the 11:00 am service today. Pray for him as he delivers God's word.
Birthdays: Javon Jones - Jan. 18th., Richman Margeson - Jan. 20th. Bill Sparks - Jan. 22nd.
WHY DID CHRIST DIE?
According to some people, Christ died to give all a chance of being saved! I do not know that I hate anything more in my soul than to hear that. It makes Jesus Christ so little-that He should do so much, and after all only to get us a chance of being saved. Why, if a man is set up in business, you see how often it happens that he fails in it; and if man cannot manage the paltry things of time and sense without being insolvent, what will he do with eternal realities? And if you come a little closer, when God "made man upright" and he had no sinful nature, what did he do with his innocence? He lost it all! And yet poor presumptuous man has the vanity to think you and I could manage the chance of being saved. What an insult it is to the Lord Jesus Christ to fix the eternal honour of God upon chance, and that chance to be managed by a poor sinful creature who is tumbling into half a dozen holes every hour of his life! NO, NO. Thanks be to God for immortal realities and certainties. WHAT IS SAID CONCERNING WHAT CHRIST HAS DONE? He has "put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself;" He has "finished transgression and made an end of sin;" He has "redeemed us from all iniquity;" He has "redeemed us from the curse of the law," from destruction and from the power of the devil; He has "obtained eternal redemption for us;" He has "redeemed us to God." To the honour of the Eternal Trinity it is said, not that the redeemed shall have a chance, but that the redeemed shall "come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." The Lord Jesus Christ has done this "great" work; and He has gone to heaven shouting "Victory," for "God is gone up with a shout; the Lord with the sound of a trumpet." He rose from the grave as a demonstrative proof that sin was destroyed, law satisfied, God honoured, His people eternally and everlastingly saved. And the immortal honours of God unite in their salvation; therefore, He ever lives at the right hand of the Father to make intercession.
William Gadsby - 1773-1844
Substitution
Now, for a moment, observe, that this precious Christ of ours--as dear old Hawker says, "even our Christ, even our Jesus"--was as perfect and sinless in His manhood as He was in His Godhead. I suppose no one will impute sinfulness, or a capability of sinning, to His Godhead; and it was only imputed to His manhood. "That holy thing," it was declared to the Virgin, "that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God;" (Luke 1:35) and He would have never borne that appellation in His human nature, if His humanity had not been as perfect and as sinless as His Godhead. All glory to His name, that He was without blemish, like the types and shadows that preceded Him and pointed to Him. This is stated in the most positive terms in New Testament language, and all worlds, are bound to give testimony to it. The Father declared, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." The angels came down to minister to Him, and were glad indeed of the office; the Pharisees could not answer the challenge, "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" (John 8:46) The devil himself could find nothing in Him--"The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." (John 14:30) He was born sinless--He lived sinless--He died sinless; He "knew no sin" in His own person; all the sins of His church were laid upon Him, but none were found in Him. There lies the grand distinction
-- JOSEPH IRONS, Oct. 5th. 1851
Substitution
If Christ is not the Substitute, He is nothing to the sinner. If He did not die as the Sin-bearer, He has died in vain. Let us not be deceived on this point nor mislead by those who, when they announce Christ as the Deliverer, think they have preached the gospel. If I throw a rope to a drowning man, I am a deliverer. But is Christ no more than that? If I cast myself into the sea and risk myself to save another, I am a deliverer. But is Christ no more? Did He risk His life? The very essence of Christ's deliverance is THE SUBSTITUTION OF HIMSELF FOR US--HIS LIFE FOR OURS! He did not come to risk His life; He came to die! He did not redeem us by a little loss, a little sacrifice, a little labor, a little suffering; "He redeemed us to God by His blood" (I Peter 1:18,19). He gave all He had, even His life, for us. This is the kind of deliverance that awakens the happy song, "To Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood" (Rev. l:5).
---Horatius Bonar, Scots Minister of Edinburgh, 1808 - 1889
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