Grace Gems for April 2000
Darkness of ignorance, dungeons of falsehood,
and chains of superstition!
The following is from Spurgeon’s sermon,
"WHAT GOD CANNOT DO!"
Truth once reigned supreme upon our globe, and
then earth was Paradise. Man knew no sorrow
while he was ignorant of falsehood.
The Father of Lies invaded the garden of bliss,
and with one foul lie he blighted Eden into a
wilderness, and made man a traitor to his God.
Cunningly he handled the glittering falsehood
and made it dazzle in the woman's eyes- “God
knows that in the day you eat thereof, then your
eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods,
knowing good and evil.”
Proud ambition rode upon that lie as a conqueror
in his chariot, and the city of Mansoul opened its
gates to welcome the fascinating enemy.
As it was a lie which first subjugated the world to Satan's
influences, so it is by lies that he secures his throne.
Among the heathen his kingdom is quiet and secure,
because the minds of the people are deluded with a
false mythology. The domains of Mohammed and the
Pope are equally the kingdom of Satan, and his reign
is undisturbed, for human merit, priestly efficacy,
and a thousand other deceptions buttress his throne.
The darkness of ignorance, the dungeons of falsehood,
and the chains of superstition, are the main reliance of that
monster who oppresses all the nations with his infernal tyranny!
Biblical knowledge
"Reader, remember this: if your biblical knowledge
does not now affect your heart, it will at last, with
a witness, afflict your heart.
If it does not now endear Christ to you, it will at
last provoke Christ the more against you.
If it does not make all the things of Christ to be
very precious in your eyes, it will at last make
you the more vile in Christ's eyes."
-Thomas Brooks
WE NEED REVIVAL
. . . when we do not love Him as we once did.
. . . when earthly interests and occupations are
more important to us than eternal ones.
. . . when we would rather watch TV and read secular
books and magazines than read the Bible and pray.
. . . when church dinners are better attended than prayer meetings.
. . . when concerts draw bigger crowds than prayer meetings.
. . . when we have little or no desire for prayer.
. . . when we would rather make money than give money.
. . . when we put people into leadership positions in our
churches who do not meet scriptural qualifications.
. . . when our Christianity is joyless and passionless.
. . . when we know truth in our heads that we are not
practicing in our lives.
. . . when we make little effort to witness to the lost.
. . . when we have time for sports, recreation, and
entertainment, but not for Bible study and prayer.
. . . when we do not tremble at the Word of God.
. . . when preaching lacks conviction, confrontation,
and divine fire and anointing.
. . . when we seldom think thoughts of eternity.
. . . when God’s people are more concerned about their
jobs and their careers, than about the Kingdom
of Christ and the salvation of the lost.
. . . when God’s people get together with other believers
and the conversation is primarily about the
news, weather, and sports, rather than the Lord.
. . . when church services are predictable and "business as usual."
. . . when believers can be at odds with each other and
not feel compelled to pursue reconciliation.
. . . when Christian husbands and wives are not praying together.
. . . when our marriages are co-existing rather than
full of the love of Christ.
. . . when our children are growing up to adopt worldly
values, secular philosophies, and ungodly lifestyles.
. . . when we are more concerned about our children’s
education and their athletic activities than about
the condition of their souls.
. . . when sin in the church is pushed under the carpet.
. . . when known sin is not dealt with through the biblical
process of discipline and restoration.
. . . when we tolerate "little" sins of gossip,
a critical spirit, and lack of love.
. . . when we will watch things on television and movies that are not holy.
. . . when our singing is half-hearted and our worship lifeless.
. . . when our prayers are empty words designed to impress others.
. . . when our prayers lack fervency.
. . . when our hearts are cold and our eyes are dry.
. . . when we aren’t seeing regular evidence of
the supernatural power of God.
. . . when we have ceased to weep and mourn and
grieve over our own sin and the sin of others.
. . . when we are content to live with explainable,
ordinary Christianity and church services.
. . . when we are bored with worship.
. . . when people have to be entertained to be drawn to church.
. . . when our music and dress become patterned after the world.
. . . when we start fitting into and adapting to the world,
rather than calling the world to adapt to God’s
standards of holiness.
. . . when we don’t long for the company and fellowship of God’s people.
. . . when people have to be begged to give and to serve in the church.
. . . when our giving is measured and calculated,
rather than extravagant and sacrificial.
. . . when we aren’t seeing lost people drawn to Jesus on a regular basis.
. . . when we aren’t exercising faith and believing God for the impossible.
. . . when we are more concerned about what others
think about us than what God thinks about us.
. . . when we are unmoved by the fact that 2.5 billion people
in this world have never heard the name of Jesus.
. . . when we are unmoved by the thought of neighbors,
business associates, and acquaintances who are
lost and without Christ.
. . . when the lost world around us doesn’t know or care that we exist.
. . . when we are making little or no difference in the secular world around us.
. . . when the fire has gone out in our hearts, our marriages, and the church.
. . . when we are blind to the extent of our need and don’t think we need revival.
The above article was by N. L. DeMoss
"Spiritual Leadership is not won by
promotion, but by prayers and tears.
It is attained by much heart-searching
and humbling before God; by
self-surrender, a courageous sacrifice
of every idol, a bold uncompromising,
and uncomplaining embracing of the
cross, and by an eternal, unfaltering
looking unto Jesus crucified.
This is a great price, but it must be
unflinchingly paid by him who would
be a real spiritual leader of men, a
leader whose power is recognized
and felt in heaven, on earth and in
hell." -Samuel Brengle
Comfort in all your trouble
The following is from Spurgeon's sermon,
"THE BARLEY-FIELD ON FIRE"
We seldom learn much except as it is beaten into us by
the rod, in Christ's school-house, under Madam Trouble.
You, believer, have very special comfort in all your trouble.
You have this sweet reflection- that there is no curse in your cross.
The cross may be very heavy, especially while it is green, and
our shoulders unused to carrying it; but remember, though there
may be a ton-weight of sorrow in it, there is not a single ounce
of the curse in it.
God does never punish his children in the sense of avenging justice.
He chastens as a father does his child, but he does never punish his
redeemed ones as a judge does a criminal.
It would be unjust to exact punishment from redeemed souls since
Christ has been punished in their place and stead. How shall the
Lord punish twice for one offense? If Christ took my sins and
stood as my substitute, then there is no wrath of God for me; and
though my cup may be bitter, yet there cannot be a single drop
of the wormwood of Almighty wrath in it.
I may have to smart, but it will never be beneath the lictor's
rods of justice, but under the Parent's rod of wisdom.
O Christian, how sweet this ought to be to you!
A God of love inflicts our sorrows!
He is as good when he chastens as when he caresses!
There is no more wrath in his afflicting providences than
in his deeds of bounty. God may seem unkind to unbelief,
but faith can always see love in his heart.
Strike, Lord, if you will, now that you have heard the
Savior's plea and justified our souls.
Consider everything that you have to suffer as the
appointment of wisdom, ruled by love, and you will
rejoice in all your tribulation, knowing that it shall
reveal to you the loving-kindness and wisdom of your God.
You have this comfort, that your trials work your lasting
good by bringing you nearer and nearer to your God.
Some Christians have their trials in the shape of sickness.
They drag about with them a diseased body all their lives;
or they are suddenly cast upon the bed of sickness, and
they toss to and fro by night and by day in pain and weariness.
This is God's medicine; and when God's children have it,
let them not think it is sent to kill them, but to heal them.
"Eternity to the godly is a day that has no sunset;
eternity to the wicked is a night that has no sunrise."
"If a wicked man seems to have peace at death,
it is not from the knowledge of his happiness,
but from the ignorance of his danger."
-Thomas Watson
SEVEN LESSONS LEARNED TOO LATE
By Don Fortner Luke 16:19-31
Here is the story of the rich man and Lazarus.
Lazarus died, and was carried up to heaven.
Chosen, redeemed and born of God, he entered into glory.
But "the rich man also died!" What became of him?
"In hell he lift up his eyes, being in torment!"
Our Lord allows us to look beyond the grave.
He allows us to look into hell itself. He shows us
the pains, feelings and desires of a damned sinner,
one who is forever shut up in hell.
Here are seven things that old Dives learned.
But he learned them too late.
He learned them in hell!
I pray that you will not learn them too late.
1. DEATH DOES NOT END ALL.
"If a man die, shall he live again?" Indeed, we shall.
We all have an immortal soul that will live on forever,
after our bodies are in the grave. Will you spend
eternity in the bliss and glory of heaven or in the
torments of the damned in hell?
2. THERE IS A REAL PLACE CALLED "HELL".
Hell is real. The same Inspired Book that tells us about heaven
and the eternal bliss of the redeemed tells us about hell and the
eternal misery of the damned. I do not know where it is, and I
cannot imagine what it is, but hell is a real place.
The rich man found out too late that hell is not a myth.
3. A HOLY GOD MUST AND WILL PUNISH SIN.
God is so inflexibly just and holy that when he found sin upon
his own dear Son he poured out his infinite wrath upon him.
And he who punished his Son for sin will certainly punish you
for sin, if your sin is not removed by his Son.
4. HELL IS A PLACE OF ENDLESS TORMENT.
Dives cried, "I am tormented in this flame!" Hell is a place of lust
and desire unfulfilled, a place of mental, moral and physical agony.
5. CHRIST IS THE ONLY WAY OF SALVATION.
The rich man's riches, religion and works were of no
value to him in hell. Missing Christ, he lost all!
6. EXCEPT A MAN REPENT HE WILL SURELY PERISH.
In hell this man realized that without repentance there is no salvation (v. 30).
7. NO ONE CAN EVER BE SAVED WITHOUT
HEARING AND BELIEVING THE GOSPEL (vv. 28-31).
Be wise now, and believe the gospel. Trust Christ,
lest you also perish forever under the wrath of God.
Divine Predestination
The following is by Don Fortner,
“Them he also did predestinate." -- Romans 8:29
Do not be afraid of predestination. And do not be ashamed
of it. We are predestinarians, because we believe the Bible;
and predestination is a Bible doctrine, full of comfort and
joy for God's saints.
Predestination is God's infallible purpose of grace
regarding his elect whom he foreknew. It simply means
that our eternal destiny was settled by God, and
infallibly secured by him before the world began.
In sovereign predestination, God eternally and immutably
determined WHO he would save, HOW he would save them,
WHEN he would save them, and WHERE he would save them.
Then he sovereignly arranged everything necessary, both
to accomplish their salvation and to bring them to glory
at last, perfectly conformed to the image of his dear Son.
Predestination marked the house into which grace would come,
paved the road by which grace would travel to that house,
set the time when grace would enter, and guaranteed that
grace actually would come and enter in at the appointed time!
Nothing was left to chance, blind fate,
luck, or man's imaginary free will!
Predestination is no more and no less than God Almighty having
arranged from eternity everything necessary to bring his elect
children into heaven in the perfection of everlasting life.
Why Christ offends men
The following is from Spurgeon’s sermon,
"Unbelievers stumbling; Believers rejoicing"
There are some who stumble at Christ because of his holiness.
He is too strict for them; they would like to be Christians,
but they cannot renounce their sensual pleasures; they
would like to be washed in his blood, but they desire still
to roll in the mire of sin.
Willing enough the mass of men would be to receive Christ,
if, after receiving him, they might continue in their drunkenness,
their wantonness, and self-indulgence. But Christ lays the axe
at the root of the tree; he tells them that these things must be
given up, for “because of these things the wrath of God comes
upon the children of disobedience,” and “without holiness no
man can see the Lord.”
Human nature kicks at this.
“What! May I not enjoy one darling lust? May I not indulge
myself at least now and then in these things? Must I altogether
forsake my old habits and my old ways? Must I be made a
new creature in Christ Jesus?”
These are terms too hard, conditions too severe, and so the
human heart goes back to the flesh pots of Egypt, and clings
to the garlic and the onions of the old estate of bondage, and
will not be set free even though a greater than Moses lifts up
the rod to part the sea, and promises to give to them a Canaan
flowing with milk and honey.
Christ offends men because his gospel is intolerant of sin.
The Mystery of His Love!
The following is by Augustus Toplady--
If anything can awake astonishment, and inflame our
gratitude, it must be that mystery of love- God manifested
in our nature, and made man, to bleed and die for our salvation.
That He should condescend to be sold for thirty shekels of
silver, to be apprehended and condemned as a malefactor;
to be crowned with piercing thorns; to be scourged at the
bloody pillar; to bear His cross; to be numbered with
transgressors; to be reviled by rufianly soldiers, and a merciless
populace; to be torn with tormenting nails; and pierced with a
hostile spear; and suspended on the ignominious tree, between
heaven and earth, as unworthy of either, though He was the
maker and preserver of both.
What thought can reach, what tongue can tell, the infinite riches
of His love to man, that induced Him freely to undergo all this,
only to make man happy!
Nay, He not only freely underwent it, but even
longed for the time of His crucifixion to come-
"I have a baptism of sufferings to be baptized with; and
how am I straitened till it be accomplished?" (Luke 12:50)
Everything to charm and rejoice and satisfy the heart!
"He who delights himself in the love of Christ
will tell you that he finds everything to
charm and rejoice and satisfy the heart."
-from Spurgeon's sermon, "Better Than Wine"
Grasp the thought!
The following is from Spurgeon’s sermon,
“A Promise for Us and for Our Children”
O beloved, did you ever did try to grasp the thought that
God loves you? Whenever I try at it, it brings the tears
into my eyes and I can go no farther.
That the eternal God should pity me I can understand;
that he should regard my misery and deliver me, I can
comprehend; that he should look upon me with eyes of
benevolence seems reasonable enough; but that he
should love me, love me too with a love infinitely
stronger than any love I have to my own children,
or to my own spouse; that he should so love me that
his own darling son, the only begotten, was not better
loved than I have been, this is a wonder of wonders!
I must not say that Jesus was not so well loved by God
as poor sinful men were, but I will say when the question
came to this- whether those poor sinful but beloved ones
should die or Christ should die, he spared not his own
Son, but freely delivered him up for us all!
Oh! what mysterious love, that Christ should suffer that
we may go free! That the Father’s darling should hang
upon the accursed tree and bleed away his life that we
might be received into the eternal bosom of Jehovah,
and might be for ever accepted as the favored ones of
his electing love!
He loves you!
Oh! there is nothing can melt the heart like this-
God loves you!
And while it melts it strengthens. While God loves me,
whom shall I fear? If Jehovah has chosen me, if he
has set his heart upon me, of whom shall I be afraid?
Verily with this I may walk through the valley of the
shadow of death and fear no evil; with this in the
midst of war I may have confidence; upon this in
famine I shall be fed; and in affliction I shall not
be afraid.
Oh! the joy which dwells in the thought that
God loves his people.
Jesus loved me, and gave himself for me!
Can you say this, my hearer? If you can, you can
say more than Demosthenes or Cicero were ever
able to say with all their eloquence.
I Must Know Him!
The following is from Spurgeon’s sermon,
“Do You Know Him?”
Imagine for a moment that you are living in the age of
the Roman emperors. You have been captured by Roman
soldiers and dragged from your native country; you have
been sold as a slave, stripped, whipped, branded, imprisoned,
and treated with shameful cruelty.
At last you are appointed to die in the amphitheater, to make
holiday for the tyrant. The populace assemble with delight.
There they are, tens of thousands of them, gazing down
from the living sides of the capacious Coliseum.
You stand alone, and naked, armed only with a single dagger
-a poor defense against gigantic beasts. A ponderous door is
drawn up and forth there rushes the monarch of the forest
-a huge lion; you must slay him or be torn to pieces!
You are absolutely certain that the conflict is too stern for you,
and that the sure result must and will be that those terrible
teeth will grind your bones and drip with your blood.
You tremble; your joints are loosed; you are paralyzed with fear,
like the timid deer when the lion has dashed it to the ground.
But what is this? O wonder of mercy! A deliverer appears!
A great unknown leaps from among the gazing multitude,
and confronts the savage monster. He shrinks not at the
roaring of the devourer, but dashes upon him with terrible
fury, until, like a whipped cur, the lion slinks towards his
den, dragging himself along in pain and fear.
The hero lifts you up, smiles into your bloodless face, whispers
comfort in your ear, and bids you be of good courage, for you are
free! Do you not think that there would arise at once in your heart
a desire to know your deliverer? As the guards conducted you
into the open street, and you breathed the cool, fresh air, would
not the first question be, “Who was my deliverer, that I may fall
at his feet and thank him?”
You are not, however, informed, but instead you are gently
led away to a noble mansion house, where your many wounds
are washed and healed with salve of rarest power. You are
clothed in sumptuous apparel; you are made to sit down at a
feast; you eat and are satisfied; you rest upon the softest down.
The next morning you are attended by servants who guard you
from evil and minister to your good. Day after day, week after
week, your needs are supplied. You live like a king. There is
nothing that you can ask which you do not receive.
I am sure that your curiosity would grow more and more intense
until it would ripen into an insatiable craving. You would scarcely
neglect an opportunity of asking the servants, “Tell me, who does
all this, who is my noble benefactor, for I must know him?”
“Well, but” they would say, “is it not enough for you that you are
delivered from the lion?” “No,” say you, “it is for that very
reason that I pant to know him.”
“Your needs are richly supplied- why are you vexed by curiosity
as to the hand which reaches you the boon? If your garment is
worn out, there is another. Long before hunger oppresses you,
the table is well loaded. What more do you want?”
But your reply is, “It is because I have no wants, that,
therefore, my soul longs and yearns even to hungering and
to thirsting, that I may know my generous loving friend.”
Suppose that as you wake up one morning, you find lying up on
your pillow a precious love-token from your unknown friend, a
ring sparkling with jewels and engraved with a tender inscription,
and a bouquet of flowers bound about with a love-motto!
Your curiosity now knows no bounds. But you are informed that
this wondrous being has not only done for you what you have seen,
but a thousand deeds of love which you did not see, which were
higher and greater still as proofs of his affection!
You are told that he was wounded, and imprisoned, and scourged
for your sake, for he had a love to you so great, that death itself
could not overcome it: you are informed that he is every moment
occupied in your interests, because he has sworn by himself that
where he is there you shall be; his honors you shall share, and of
his happiness you shall be the crown.
Why, methinks you would say, “Tell me, men and women, any of
you who know him, tell me who he is and what he is!” and if they said,
“But it is enough for you to know that he loves you, and to have daily
proofs of his goodness,” you would say, “No, these love-tokens
increase my thirst. If you see him, tell him I am sick with love. The
flagons which he sends me, and the love-tokens which he gives me,
they keep me for awhile with the assurance of his affection but they
only impel me onward with the more unconquerable desire that I
may know him. I must know him; I cannot live without knowing him!
His goodness makes me thirst, and pant, and faint, and even die,
that I may know him.”
Methinks what I have now pictured before you will wake the
echoes in your breasts, and you will say, “Ah, it is even so!
It is because Christ loved me and gave himself for me that
I want to know him; it is because he has shed his blood for
me and has chosen me that I may be one with him forever,
that my soul desires a fuller acquaintance with him."
Never enough!
"No lover of the Lord Jesus has ever said that he has
had enough of Christ's love. Never did he who drinks
of the wine of Christ's love become satiated or even
content with it; he ever desires more and yet more of it."
-from Spurgeon's sermon, "Better Than Wine"
One inconceivable beauty!
There is nothing in the Lord Jesus Christ that we could
wish to have taken away from him; there is nothing in
his love that is impure, nothing that is unsatisfactory.
Our precious Lord is comparable to the most fine gold;
there is no alloy in him; no, there is nothing that can
be compared with him, for "He is altogether lovely,"
all perfections melted into one perfection, and all
beauties combined into one inconceivable beauty.
-from Spurgeon's sermon, "Better Than Wine"
Better than any earthly pleasure!
The following is from Spurgeon's sermon,
A REFRESHING CANTICLE
The impression which the love of Christ makes
on the true believer is far greater and deeper than
the impression which is made by anything earthly.
Mere mortal joys write their record on the sand,
and their memory is soon effaced; but Christ's
love is like an inscription cut deeply into marble,
the remembrance of it is deeply engraven in our hearts.
The joy of the creature is something like a lithograph
cut lightly on the stone; when the stone is cleaned, the
picture is gone; but the love of Christ is like the steel
engraving, it is deeply cut, and cannot be easily erased.
Earthly joys tread with light feet, and leave but a faint
impression; but the love of Christ treads into the very
core of our soul at every footstep, and therefore it is
that we remember it better than we remember any
earthly pleasure.
The best way to spend your leisure time
The following is from Spurgeon’s sermon,
"Paul — His Cloak and His Books"
“Give yourself unto reading.”
The man who never reads will never be read;
he who never quotes will never be quoted.
He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s
brains, proves that he has no brains of his own.
You need to read.
We are quite persuaded that the very best way
for you to be spending your leisure time,
is to be either reading or praying.
You may get much instruction from books which
afterwards you may use as a true weapon in your
Lord and Master’s service.
Paul cries, “Bring the books” — join in the cry.
The following quotes are taken from
"Honey Out of the Rock" by Thomas Wilcox
"A Christless, formal religion, will be the
blackest sight next to hell that can be."
"See the vanity of the world,
and the doom of all earthly things;
and love nothing but Christ."
"To see grace and salvation in Christ,
is the greatest sight in the world!"
"Believer, Christ drank up all the Father’s wrath at
one draught; and nothing but salvation is left for you."
"Search the Scriptures daily as mines of gold
in which the heart of Christ is laid open. "
The two books!
The following is from Spurgeon’s sermon,
“Where to Find Fruit”
There are two books I have tried to read,
but I have not got through the first page yet.
The first is the book of my own ignorance, and emptiness,
and nothingness- what a great book is that! It will take us
all our lives to read it, and I question whether Methuselah
ever got to the last page.
There is another book I must read, or else the first volume
will drive me mad- it is the book of God’s all-sufficiency.
I have not got through the first word of that, much less the
first page, but reading the two together, I would spend
all my days. This is heaven's own literature, the wisdom
which comes from above.
Cultivate a spirit of deep humiliation before the Most
High; seek to know more your nothingness, and to
prove more the omnipotence of the eternal God.
Less than nothing I can boast, and yet “I can do
all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
"Having nothing yet possessing all things.”
Black as the tents of Kedar, yet fair as the curtains of Solomon;
dark as hell's profoundest night, and yet “Fair as the moon, clear
as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners.”
A very little sin!
Repentance is as much a mark of a Christian, as faith is.
A very little sin, as the world calls it, is a very great sin to
a true Christian.
-Spurgeon
Prayer teaches us our unworthiness, which is no
small blessing to such proud beings as we are.
True prayer is-
an inventory of needs,
a catalogue of necessities,
an exposure of secret wounds,
a revelation of hidden poverty.
While prayer is an application to divine wealth,
it is a confession of human emptiness.
I believe that the most healthy state of a Christian
is to be always empty, and always depending upon
the Lord for supplies; to be always poor in self and
rich in Jesus; weak as water personally, but mighty
through God to do great exploits; and hence the use
of prayer, because while it adores God, it lays the
creature where he should be, in the very dust.
Prayer....
clothes the believer with the attributes of Deity,
girds human weakness with divine strength,
turns human folly into heavenly wisdom, and gives
to troubled mortals the serenity of the immortal God.
I know not what prayer cannot do!
I thank you, great God, for the mercy-seat, a
choice gift of your marvellous loving-kindness.
Help us to use it aright!
-Spurgeon
The gate of heaven!
The best and sweetest flowers of Paradise God gives
to his people when they are upon their knees.
Prayer is the gate of heaven, a key to let us into Paradise.
-Thomas Brooks
This Mother of Harlots and Abominations!
The following is from Spurgeon's sermon,
"A JEALOUS GOD"
With what indignation must the Lord look down upon that
apostate harlot, called the Romish Church, when, in all her
sanctuaries, there are pictures and images, relics and statues,
and poor beguiled beings are even taught to bow before
a piece of bread.
I have seen thousands adore the wafer, hundreds bow
before the image of the Virgin, scores at prayer before
a crucifix, and companies of men and women adoring a
rotten bone or a rusty nail, because said to be the relic
of a saint.
Let us, above all, never have any complicity with this
communion of devils, this gathering together of the sons
of Belial: and since our God is a jealous God, let us not
provoke him by any affinity, gentleness, fellowship, or unity
with this Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the earth.
Renounce, my brethren, every ceremony which has not
Scripture for its warrant, and every doctrine which is not
established by the plain testimony of the Word of God.
THE DISTINGUISHING GRACE OF GOD
by Don Fortner
“For who makes you different from anyone else?
What do you have that you did not receive?
And if you did receive it, why do you boast
as though you did not?” 1 Cor. 4:7
The only difference there is between the believer and the unbeliever,
between the righteous and the wicked, between the seed of Christ
and the seed of the serpent, is the difference which grace has made.
This we must acknowledge- "By the grace of God I am what I am!"
God's grace is always particular, distinctive, and distinguishing.
Those who are saved by the free grace of God in Christ have been
and forever are distinguished from those who are lost by these
five distinct acts of grace--
The first distinguishing act of God's grace is his ETERNAL ELECTION.
If you can, with the eye of faith, trace every spiritual blessing that
you now enjoy, and those which you hope to enjoy, back to the place
of their original source, the place of their origin would be spelled
"E L E C T I O N" (Eph. 1:3-4; 2 Thess. 2:13; Jer. 1:4; 31:3).
The second act of grace by which God has distinguished his elect
from the rest of mankind is EFFECTUAL REDEMPTION.
By his precious blood, poured out unto death upon the cross, the Lord
Jesus Christ has effectually ransomed and redeemed God's elect from
the hands of divine justice, by satisfying the claims of justice against us
(Isa. 53:8-11; Gal. 3:13; Heb. 9:12).
The third act of grace by which the Lord has distinguished us from
the rest of the world is his ADORABLE PROVIDENCE.
Our God governs all the affairs of this world. And he has governed
all the affairs and circumstances of our lives to bring us to the place
where we now are, and to eternal glory in Christ and with Christ in
heaven (Matt. 10:29-31; Rom. 8:28).
The fourth act of grace by which we are distinguished from all other
men is GOD'S SOVEREIGN WORK OF REGENERATION.
The only thing that makes you different from any other being on this
planet, if you are born again, is the fact that God has saved you.
He gave you life and faith in Christ by the irresistible power and
grace of his Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:1-10).
The fifth act of grace by which God distinguishes his elect from
the unbelieving is his MERCIFUL PRESERVATION.
The only thing that keeps us in grace is grace itself. The only thing
that holds us to Christ is Christ himself (Jer. 32:38-40). The Lord
Jesus says, with regard to all his people, “I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall never perish.” The salvation he gives is eternal salvation.
The life he gives is eternal life. That means that all who are saved by
him are saved forever!
All of Grace
The following is by Don Fortner
The glory, bliss, and perfection of heaven, whatever
it is and all that it includes, is but the consummation
of salvation; and it is, in its totality, the gift and work
of God’s free and sovereign grace in Christ.
In heaven's glory we shall forever adore and praise
our great God for the wondrous mystery of his grace,
by which we are saved.
Everything in the great work of salvation sets forth
the splendor of the grace of the Most High God.
What do we see in election, predestination, redemption,
regeneration, and preservation, but his grace?
The whole work of salvation displays God’s rich, free,
almighty, irresistible, sovereign, saving grace in Christ!
In, salvation as well as in creation, all things are of
God, all things are by God, and all things are for God.
Unto him alone all praise must be forever!
God Rules!
The following is from Spurgeon’s sermon,
“Election No Discouragement to Seeking Souls”
"I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I will have
compassion." Exodus 33:19
Because God is the maker, and creator, and sustainer of
all things, he has a right to do as he wills with all his works.
“Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it,
Why have you made me thus? Has not the potter
power over the clay of the same lump to make one
vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?”
God’s absolute supremacy and unlimited sovereignty
naturally flow from his omnipotence, and from the fact
that he is the source and support of all things.
Moreover, if it were not so, the superlative excellence of
the divine character would entitle him to absolute dominion.
He should be chief who is best. He who cannot err, being
perfect in wisdom; he who will not err, being as perfect in
holiness; he who can do no wrong, being supremely just;
he who must act in accordance with the principles of kindness,
seeing he is essentially love, is the most fitting person to rule.
Tell me not of the creatures ruling themselves: what a chaos
would this be! Talk not of a supposed republic of all created
existences, controlling and guiding themselves. All the creatures
put together, with their combined wisdom and goodness- if, indeed,
it were not combined folly and wickedness -all these, I say, with
all the excellencies of knowledge, judgment, and love, which the
most fervid imagination can suppose them to possess, could not
make the equal of that great God whose name is holiness, whose
essence is love, to whom all power belongs, and to whom alone
wisdom is to be ascribed.
Let him reign supreme, for he is infinitely superior to all other existences.
Free Will or Free Grace?
The following is from Spurgeon’s sermon,
“A Promise for Us and for Our Children”
How did you become believers in Christ?
By any internal energy of your own?
Speak, believer, was it your free will that brought
you to the Savior’s feet, or was it God’s free grace?
Men may hold free-will doctrine as a matter of theory, but
you never find a believer hold it as a matter of experience.
We can all say-
“Oh! to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be.”
“It was all of your grace that I was brought to obey, while
others were allowed to go the downward road to destruction.”
About this you can have no difficulty, for your own
experience tells you that you were dead in trespasses
and sins, and it must have been something beyond any
power of yours that quickened you into spiritual life.
Men might as well claim the honors of creation or resurrection
as boast of commencing their own spiritual life.
The Lord alone shall have the glory of that opening hour of love!
Since that happy day what has sustained you?
Has your fire of piety been fed by internal, self-produced fuel?
Have you kept yourselves from the power of Satan?
My brethren, have you kept yourselves in communion with God?
You know that you have not.
You are debtors for your soul's daily bread to your Father who
is in heaven. Every good thing which you have, you have
received from him, the great Father of lights, with whom is no
variableness or shadow of turning. He has given you every
good and perfect gift which you have received.
You have profited in nothing by the flesh, but
in all things by the Spirit of the living God.
Taking you from your first conviction and tracking you to the
present moment, it has been all of God’s creating and forming.
In the womb of conviction he fashioned you,
and he has nurtured you until now.
The grace of God
The following is from Spurgeon’s sermon,
“A Promise for Us and for Our Children”
The grace of God is peculiar, discriminating, and distinguishing.
God calls us, “My chosen.” We did not chose him first, but
he has chosen us. If we are now God’s servants, we were not
always so-- to sovereign grace the change must be ascribed!
We might have been left, like other men, to continue in sin,
and to be rebels against the king of heaven, but the eye of
sovereignty singled us out from among others not more
unworthy than we were, and it was the voice of love which
said, "I have loved you with an everlasting love."
Long before those stars were kindled into flames- long
before the sun begun his mighty course- long before the
mountains lifted their hoary heads, or the sea clapped
its hands in the tumultuous joy of tempest- long before
time began, or space was created, God had written upon
his heart the names of his elect people.
He had selected them, never to change his choice!
He had united them unto the person of his Son Jesus
Christ by a divine decree never to be revoked.
He had predestinated them to he conformed unto
the image of his Son, and had made them the heirs
of all the fullness of his love, his grace, and his glory!
It may be that we wear today the common well-worn
garb of labor; our names never glitter in the rolls of
earth’s mighties. But if the life of God be in our soul,
we are allied unto the King of kings! We are of the
royal family, we are princes of the blood imperial!
We shall take our seats among those lordly spirits who
for ever dwell before the majesty of the Most High!
Drive the nail of the cross!
The greatest instrument of sanctification is the love of Jesus.
Oh, that He would drive the nail of the cross right through
your hearts, that it might be forever fastened there!
-Spurgeon
Beware! lest you fall into the fire!
The following is from Spurgeon’s sermon,
"NOTHING BUT LEAVES"
“He found nothing but leaves.” — Mark 11:13.
Thousands go to Church or chapel, and they think
that the mere going into the place, and sitting a
certain time, and coming out again, is an acceptable
act to God.
Mere formality, you see, is mistaken for spiritual
worship! They offer him their ignorant will-worship
either in obedience to custom, or in the superstition
of ignorance. What the ritual is, or why it is, they
do not inquire, but go through a performance as
certain parrots say their prayers.
They know nothing about the inward and spiritual grace.
They have a name to live and are dead.
Their religion is a mere show--
a signboard without an inn;
a well-set table without food;
a pretty pageant where nothing is gold, but everything gilt;
nothing real, but all pasteboard, paint, plaster, and pretense.
Multitudes live and die satisfied with the outward trappings
of religion, and are utter strangers to internal vital godliness.
There is nothing to be done with such trees which bring
forth only leaves, but in due time to use the axe upon
them, and to cast them into the fire: and this must be
your doom, fruitless professor.
As sure as you live under the sound of the gospel, and
yet are not converted by it, so surely will you be cast
into outer darkness. Jesus Christ will certainly send
his angels to gather the dead branches together, and
you among them, to cast them into the fire.
Beware! beware! you fruitless tree!
You shall not stand for ever!
Mercy waters you with her tears now; God’s
patience digs about you still; still the husbandman
comes, seeking fruit upon you year after year.
Beware! the edge of the axe is sharp, and the
arm which wields it is nothing less than almighty.
Beware! lest you fall into the fire!
The black horse of affliction
"The Lord's mercy often rides to the door of
our heart upon the black horse of affliction."
-Spurgeon
"Afflictions add to the saints' glory. The more the
diamond is cut, the more it sparkles; the heavier the
saints' cross is, the heavier will be their crown."
-Thomas Watson
Comfort in all your trouble
The following is from Spurgeon's sermon,
"THE BARLEY-FIELD ON FIRE"
We seldom learn much except as it is beaten into us by
the rod, in Christ's school-house, under Madam Trouble.
You, believer, have very special comfort in all your trouble.
You have this sweet reflection- that there is no curse in your cross.
The cross may be very heavy, especially while it is green, and
our shoulders unused to carrying it; but remember, though there
may be a ton-weight of sorrow in it, there is not a single ounce
of the curse in it.
God does never punish his children in the sense of avenging justice.
He chastens as a father does his child, but he does never punish his
redeemed ones as a judge does a criminal.
It would be unjust to exact punishment from redeemed souls since
Christ has been punished in their place and stead. How shall the
Lord punish twice for one offense? If Christ took my sins and
stood as my substitute, then there is no wrath of God for me; and
though my cup may be bitter, yet there cannot be a single drop
of the wormwood of Almighty wrath in it.
I may have to smart, but it will never be beneath the lictor's
rods of justice, but under the Parent's rod of wisdom.
O Christian, how sweet this ought to be to you!
A God of love inflicts our sorrows!
He is as good when he chastens as when he caresses!
There is no more wrath in his afflicting providences than
in his deeds of bounty. God may seem unkind to unbelief,
but faith can always see love in his heart.
Strike, Lord, if you will, now that you have heard the
Savior's plea and justified our souls.
Consider everything that you have to suffer as the
appointment of wisdom, ruled by love, and you will
rejoice in all your tribulation, knowing that it shall
reveal to you the loving-kindness and wisdom of your God.
You have this comfort, that your trials work your lasting
good by bringing you nearer and nearer to your God.
Some Christians have their trials in the shape of sickness.
They drag about with them a diseased body all their lives;
or they are suddenly cast upon the bed of sickness, and
they toss to and fro by night and by day in pain and weariness.
This is God's medicine; and when God's children have it,
let them not think it is sent to kill them, but to heal them!