November 9, 2014
Hymn of the Day
The Death of a Saint
Precious is the saint in God's sight;
This one for whom Christ died.
This one lived in sin's darkest night;
Now in God's Light abides.
The saint believes Almighty God
Is merciful and true:
That only through Christ's precious blood
Sin's debt was paid its due.
Jesus Christ prayed for this dear one.
He will not lose His own!
To see the glory of the Son,
This saint is carried home.
Saints glorify the Lord in death.
They are His work of grace.
Blest is the one whom God chooseth
In Christ to see His face.
Amazing Grace, #236
Gary Spreacker
THEY FEAR BECAUSE GOD IS IN US
Psalm 14: 5: There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous.
Have you noticed the closer this world comes to the Day of Judgment the more fearful the unregenerate world becomes? They are fearful we will run out of water, fearful of climate change, fearful of guns, fearful of terrorists. Their fear is of things. One of the false doctrines of our day is separatism—the teaching that good and evil is in things rather than in the sinner’s own heart. So with all man’s might he is trying to avoid some things and save other things. He is full of fear. But most of all, God says they are “in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous.”
God is in his people. He has made us righteous. Through the Holy Spirit, Christ our God abides within each believer and Christ is in his church. (Jn 6:56; 17:23; Gal 2:20; Rev 1:13; Phil 1:6; 2:13) Therefore our fear is of God himself. Believers are not fearful of things, nor of things the unregenerate are fearful of, not even of the ungodly themselves. By this the reprobate is reminded he is an enemy of God, “which is to them, an evident token of perdition.” (Phil 1:28) The Holy Spirit exhorts us “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.” (1 Pet 4: 14) We have no reason to even fear their anger toward us. When they feared in Moses day it was for this reason, “Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O LORD, till the people pass over, which thou hast purchased.” (Ex 15: 16) Everything—good and evil—God is working together “for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8: 28) “What can we say to these things? If God be for us who can be against us?” (Rom 8: 29-31) - Copied
ABSOLUTELY AND SOLELY OF GRACE
By this is meant that God is free, in consistency with the infinite perfections of his nature, to save none, few, many, or all, according to the sovereign good pleasure of His will. It also follows that salvation is not based on any merits in the creature, and that it depends on God, and not on men, who are, and who are not, to be made partakers of eternal life. God acts as a sovereign in saving some and passing by others who are left to the just recompense of their sins. Sinners are compared to dead men, or even to dry bones in their entire helplessness. In this they are all alike. The choice of some to eternal life is as sovereign as if Christ were to pass through a graveyard and bid one here and another there to come forth, the reason for restoring one to life and leaving another in his grave could be found only in His good pleasure, and not in the dead themselves. Hence the statement that we are foreordained according to the good pleasure of His will, and not after the good inclinations of our own; and in order that we might be holy, not because we were holy (Eph. 1:4-5). ‘Since all men alike deserved only God’s wrath and curse, the gift of His only begotten Son to die in the stead of malefactors, as the only possible method of expiating their guilt, is the most stupendous exhibition of underserved favor and personal love that the universe has ever witnessed. - Copied
~~~ O ~~~
What made the difference?
Man's entire apostasy and death in sin, so that he cannot save himself, and God's entire supremacy, so that He saves whom He will, are doctrines exceedingly distasteful to human pride. But they are Scriptural. Why was one thief saved and the other lost? "Even so Father for so it seemed good in Thy sight." (MT.11:25-27). God was not bound to save the one and He had power enough to have saved the other, and neither could save himself. What made the difference? The Sovereign Grace of God! - Horatius Bonar |
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