“Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, Thou art very great; Thou art clothed with honor and majesty.” (Psalm 104:1) *****
GOD KNOWS HIS OWN The apostle Paul tells me something that makes my heart rejoice. He says, “The Lord knoweth them that are His...” (2 Timothy 2:19). He knows them in the sense that He LOVES them. He knows them in the sense that He CHOSE them. He knows them in the sense that He has SATISFIED HIMSELF on their behalf through the righteousness of His Son. He knows them in the sense that He REGENERATED them, CALLS them and REVEALS Christ in their hearts through the Gospel. They are BLOOD-BOUGHT. He has made the righteousness of Christ to be theirs by IMPUTATION. He ACCEPTS them totally “in the Beloved.” He knows them! –Pastor Gary Shepard ******
First, souls look to Christ, by faith, for pardon through His blood; and then they mourn for sins pardoned; and never do they mourn better and more kindly, or are more ashamed and confounded because of their sins, than when they are most satisfied that God is pacified towards them for all that they have done. --John Gill *****
CHRIST IS ALL Most of you have heard of the Bible commentator, Matthew Henry. His father was Philip Henry who was himself a preacher of the gospel and a competent writer. Philip Henry also had four daughters, and before he died he left them manuscripts of books he never published. Each was to select a book, as his will stated, “to be transcribed by them, in their own hand, if they had the time; however, the books were definitely to be transcribed into their hearts and lives.” One of his daughters (identified only by her married name, Mrs. Savage), selected her father’s notes which contained forty-one sermons entitled, “What Christ is made of God to true believers.” Each sermon was based upon Colossians 3:11, “Christ is all, and in all.” That manuscript was not published until many years later, in 1830, when it was added to some of the works of his famous son, Matthew. The book was entitled, Christ All in All. The following words from her diary were dated January 10, 1697 and I have slightly edited them. “Last night and today I have spent time reading my dear father’s sermons on Colossians 3:11, “Christ is all, and in all.” These were all of the sermons included in that series of messages which he was so long in preaching, namely, What Christ is to True Believers in Forty Particulars. He is their Foundation, Food, Root, Raiment, Head, Hope, Refuge, Righteousness, Light, Life, Peace, Passover, Portion, Propitiation, Freedom, Fountain, Wisdom, Way, Ensign, Example, Door, Dew, Sun, Shield, Strength, Song, Horn, Honor, Sanctification, Supply, Resurrection, Redemption, Lesson, Ladder, Truth, Treasure, Temple, Ark, Altar and All. What can be added? He is our all, our all in all, both in respect of the benefits we have by Him - election, creation, conversion, justification, consolation, teaching, redemption and strength - and the benefits we have in Him at death, at the judgment and throughout eternity. In all these Christ is all in all. Further, as to duty to be performed toward Him, He is all in all to be known, chosen, loved, desired, delighted in, trusted, thought of, followed and preached. He is all in all in the Scriptures, in baptism, in the Lord’s Supper and in prayer. Blessed be God for these sweet, wholesome truths which are food for my poor soul. My father ‘being dead, yet speaketh.’ And what does he say? Just the same message which his heart and his sermons were always full of: Christ – Christ – Christ!” –Pastor Jim Byrd
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