Daily Readings - November 2-8 Sunday - John 1-3 Monday - John 4-5 Tuesday - John 6-8 Wednesday- John 9-10 Thursday - John 11-12 Friday - John 13-16 Saturday - John 17-18
***** “BUT WE SEE JESUS” (HEBREWS 2:9) How do we “see Jesus?” Not by means of mysterious dreams or ecstatic visions, not by the exercise of our imagination, nor by the process of visualization; but by FAITH. Just as Christ declared in John 8:56, “Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he SAW it, and was glad.” Faith is the eye of the spirit, which views and enjoys what the Word of God presents to its vision. In the Gospels, the Acts, Epistles and Revelation, God has told us about the exaltation of His Son; those who receive by faith what He has declared, “SEE Jesus crowned with glory and honor,” as truly and vividly as His enemies once saw Him here on earth “crowned with thorns.”
It is this which distinguishes the true people of God from mere professors. Every real Christian has reason to say with Job, “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye SEETH Thee” (Job 42:5). He has SEEN Him leaving heaven and coming to earth in order to “seek and to save that which was lost.” He has SEEN Him as a sacrificial Substitute on the cross, there bearing “our sins in His own body on the tree.” He has SEEN Him rising again in triumph over the grave, so that because He lives, we live also. He has SEEN Him highly exalted, “crowned with glory and honor.” He has SEEN Him thus presented to the eye of faith in the sure Word of God. To him the testimony of Holy Scripture is infinitely more reliable and valuable than the testimony of his senses. --A. W. Pink
***** SUBSTITUTION AND SATISFACTION Isaiah 53:5, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:11, “He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities.” We need to enter into the rest of Christ and repose in what He has done for us. We look outside of ourselves and look to Christ Who has paid all that God has demanded for our sins. He fulfilled the law which we never could and satisfied the justice of God in our room and stead. Three words can sum this up. “It is finished!” Substitution and Satisfaction - Christ is the sinner’s substitute and God is satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ! “What a wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord, What a wonderful Savior is He!” –Pastor Wayne Boyd
***** A faithful minister of Jesus Christ is one that sincerely designs his Master’s honor, not his own; delivers the whole counsel of God, not his own fancies and conceits; follows Christ’s institutions and adheres to them; regards the lowest, reproves the greatest, and doth not respect persons. --Matthew Henry
***** The divinity of Christ finds its surest proof in His resurrection (Romans 1:4). Christ’s sovereignty also depends on His resurrection (Romans 14:9). Again, our justification hangs on Christ’s resurrection (Romans 4:25). Our very regeneration depends on His resurrection (1 Peter 1:3). And most certainly our ultimate resurrection rests here (Romans 8:11). The silver thread of resurrection runs through all the blessings, from regeneration onward to our eternal glory, and binds them together. --Charles Spurgeon
***** A DESCRIPTION OF A CHRISTIAN 1. A Christian is a sinner who was chosen in sovereign love before the world began. He is loved of God with a love that is like the Lord - changeless! Of himself, the Christian is defiled, depraved and dead in sins, but God loved him in Christ with an everlasting love. That affection was not in word only, but also in deed. God’s love was active, not passive; unconditional, not conditional. This love was and is free, unmeasured, boundless and everlasting. 2. A Christian is one who has been bought with the blood of Christ. All of the sins of every Christian were heaped upon the blessed Savior when He hung on the tree. All of the wrath and hell that would have fallen upon them fell instead upon the Savior. A Christian is one who was redeemed and reconciled by the substitutionary death of Christ and justified by His resurrection. 3. A Christian is one who has been regenerated by the Spirit of God. Like all other sons and daughters of Adam, the Christian was spiritually dead and the heart was enmity against God. But, the Holy Spirit, using the Word of Truth, created life where there was only death. The Christian has been translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. 4. A Christian is one who, upon being regenerated, turns in simple, child-like faith to Christ the Lord. In humble submission he prostrates himself before Christ and says, “I trust Your blood and righteousness for my salvation. I bow to your Lordship and honor Your blessed Name.” 5. A Christian is a loving person. He loves the gospel of Christ, and he loves every servant of God because they proclaim that glorious gospel. He loves the Word of God, the people of God, the worship of God, the service of God and the house of God. 6. A Christian is a forgiving person because he has been forgiven. God has, for Christ’s sake, blotted out all his iniquities, transgressions and sins. He, therefore, forgives all who wrong him. 7. A Christian is one who will persevere to the end, for he is kept by the power of God through, and not apart from, faith in Christ. Since he is chosen unto salvation by the Father, redeemed by the blood of the Son and quickened by the Holy Spirit, a Christian will not and cannot fail to reach the final glory to which he was appointed in old eternity!–Pastor Jim Byrd
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