The Grace of Loving Jesus Christ as our Lord and Redeemer

We should live lives of holy love to Jesus Christ and to our neighbor.   Love is not perverse; love is not evil; love is not cruel; love is not wicked; love is not envious; love is not bitter; love is not sinful.  His love of His unified righteousness is our covering to us.  He is the sweetest and dearest and better then the best.  Jesus is more precious to us then ten times ten thousand souls.

Love must be sincere as the New Testament says.  Sincere love is hard to find because we live in a corrupt world full of wickedness, evil and cruelty.  We ought not to love when it is convenient and easy.  We ought to love in the hard ways of life as well.   We ought to love when things are not easy.  We ought to love our neighbor as ourselves.  We should place others before ourselves.  We should have a balance of love toward our fellow man and sacrifice.  The Bible tells us about love,   "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth" (1 John 3:16-18).

We owe love to all people not just our family.  We owe love to all people not just to our friends.  We may feel that some people do not deserve our love.  Love is from divine grace.  It is not earned but it is free.  Jesus' love is a free gift of love for His people.  Love is not homosexual and we are not talking about sexual love.  But we are talking about the love that Jesus gave to give us Himself to save us from our sins.   In Matthew 5:44; 46-47 we are told to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.  We are to extend ourselves in loving our neighbor because it is what Jesus did when He said at death in the agony of His Cross, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."  He had love when there was only hatred for Him.  He had love when all kinds of people nailed Him to the Cross.  His prayer became effectual after Peter gave his sermon because people became to repent to save themselves from their wicked generation. 

Do you have the love of repentance?  Do you share in this divine love of Christ?  We also ought to love faith, hope and love but the greater is love.  Loving Jesus means we stand in Christ to God's glory.  Do you have ant affection for Jesus?  Do you have any love for Him?  We ought to love others because by loving we love God in His service.  You may think you are devoid of God's love.  Remember there is no sinner so far apart from Christ and His love.  You have the Spirit with the Word of God that changes hearts.   Listen to the Word of God and hear the Word preached.  Surrender your love to Jesus.  May God grant all kinds of people to love Him and love others.  Amen. 

The Grace of Courage in Jesus Christ

We ought to have great courage because of the great leaders of past Old and New Testament times.  We can learn from Abraham, Issac and Jacob.  We can learn from Moses and Josiah.  They had uncompromising conviction that Christ was their Savior and Redeemer.  They had uncompromising trust that God's promises were true and stood strong before the Lord of glory.  We ought to stand strong before the Lord of glory as well.  We are called this day to love God and our neighbor.  We may falter at times but are to trust Him as best as we can.  With all that we know how may we trust the Lord and love Him unconditionally.  Love never grows old; love never gets old; love never fades away; and love is there by His Spirit and instruction through His Word that we grow in Christ our Lord and Redeemer.  May we never fail to love and grow in our love for Jesus.   Let us have courage to forgive our enemies and love them.  When we accept Jesus as Savior and Lord, we are saying we have the courage to know we are forgiven and that we forgive as He has forgiven us.  "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."  Amen.  God help us find us praising Him because we dare to believe that He has called us with a holy calling unto Him that should render great praises to Him alone.

The Grace of Confidence in Jesus Christ our Lord and Shepherd

The confidence we have is based on God's Word, assurance, trust, and Christ's promise.  We can trust God's Word because it is reliable and trustworthy.  We gain assurance of salvation by the Word and Spirit.  We are able to trust God because of His promises.  We should never trust God based on presumption or pride.  We have a sure grounds to trust God based upon His Word.  This world likes to bring us down and harm us repeatedly.  We conquer the world, the flesh and the devil because of His Word and Spirit.  We have the promises in Him that keep us going.  We ought to never distrust His promises but always trust them as we grow in faith, grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Confidence is the believer's source of prayer, testimony, helping others, God's will and must be held with steady confidence in Him.  We ought to grow in confidence but we ought to repent if we lack confidence in Christ to save us.  Let us rejoice and praise the Lord Jesus for His goodness and grace to us this day!  Amen. 

The Grace of Hoping in our Lord Jesus Christ

Hope is the expectation of future good.  We have hope because of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The hope we have is described as a living, blessed, good, better, sure and steadfast and one of the great virtues.  Hope is for the impossible.  We have hope that gives us spiritual assurance.  Hope is productive of purity, patience, courage, joy, spiritual salvation, assurance and stability.  The ground of our hope is the written Word of God and the Spirit of God in His promises to us.  We hope in God, Christ and the Spirit.  We hope in spiritual redemption, spiritual salvation, the future resurrection of the quick and the dead, glory and Christ’s Second Coming. 

Hopelessness is the condition of the wicked.  It is unchangeable unless God sets them free through the living Gospel of God.  We are born in original sin.  The nature of man is totally depraved.  Hopelessness comes natural to us.  It is apart of our spiritual condition.  But God the Father takes the initiative to draw His people to Christ by His Spirit.  Hope is grounded in the Word of God.  Apart from the written Word of God there is no hope.  Apart from the Triune God there is no hope.  

Do you have hope in God?  Do you set your hopes on the written Word of God?  If you have hopelessness, have you repented?  There is a great more then hope in the scheme of redemption presented to us by the Word of God.  The Bible teaches us that there is hope in Christ because of His resurrection.  There is great hope because we serve a great God.  We do not have to worry about the creditability of our hope because it is secure in God.  We have full confidence that God through His Son raised Jesus from the dead.  No theory will do to explain away the bodily resurrection of Christ.  We have assured hope because of His resurrection.  There is no greater certainty than Jesus’ resurrection.  We have historical evidence of an internal and external nature.  We have secular historians that speak of the risen Christ.  We have argumentation that sets forth the divine truth of Jesus’ bodily resurrection.  We do not rely on the mere empty tomb but we rely on the cosmic victory of Jesus’ resurrection over spiritual darkness that brought fear to His enemies.  We do indeed have an empty tomb but His empty tomb means that God raised Jesus from the dead.  No one can undo that in cosmic history.  We have a cosmic victory in Jesus.

We may have feared because we may worries that are sins are forgiven.  We can surely hope in Christ that He has delivered us from the world, the flesh and the devil.  We have a guaranteed hope that secures for us the spiritual focus and trust we need to love God.  Let us hope with a great certainty that He has delivered us from our sins, transgressions and iniquities.  We do not have the same hope as false religion.  We do not have the same hope as Roman Catholicism.  We have a hope that is everlasting.  God’s spiritual kingdom is unseen but He has given us an undying hope.  We do not hope in the Virgin Mary.  We hope in Christ:  He is our hope and strength and high tower.  (Psalm 33:22, “Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee”).

The Grace of Loving One’s Enemies

We are called to love our enemies.  The Bible says we ought to bless and not curse.  We should never curse our abusers.  We should never hate our enemies by God’s help.  Love is the key.  We are to love our neighbors as ourselves.  We should never hate.  We should only hate sin and wrongdoing.  Wrongdoing may plague our lives.  Evil may assault us on every side.  However, we have something the world does not have.  We have Jesus our great Savior and Lord.  In His example, we find a rich treasure of compassion, mercy and love.  We know that God took the initiative to save us while were still rebellious sinners.  We ought to forgive the vilest offenses against us.  We have a light in us that is incomprehensible to the world. We have holy, righteous and just grace while the world has sin, misery and destruction. 

We proclaim the Gospel of Glad Tidings to the most undeserving people.  To love is not an invitation to commit more wrongdoing.  However, there is a cost to love the most wretched.  We do this to magnify Christ.  Surely if we love our enemies our names are written in heaven.  We ought to honor Him in His command to make disciples in the Great Commission.  If we forgive our worst enemies, it may be a way God works to save them.  If we forgive, it may give them a taste of God’s forgiveness.  It is never to late to come to Christ as we breath the air He has given us.  The love of Christ is through the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit regenerates us.  He comes with the Gospel to apply Christ to us.  He gives use a new heart.  When we first come to Him we come to Him as criminals and fugitives.  We have offended His law.  We have broken His heart.  There was no good reason why we failed to keep His law.  We have sinned against the light of His Word. 

We ought to look at our neighbor with spiritual concern.  Do they know Christ?  Have they put their trust in Him?  We ought to present the Gospel to the greatest sinners.  No one is beyond the Gospel.  No one is out of reach.  The Gospel is the power of God.  It is meant for that sinner who feels they are beyond the grace of God and one reach away from the gates of hell.  It is a lie to say that the worst offenders should hear the Gospel.  I am sure our enemies are on the road to hell.  A Christian is not our enemy, because he or she knows Christ.  Everyone who knows Christ is apart of the family of God.  But have we shared the Gospel of Grace by word and by how we live out our lives?   We ought not to cast a stone because Jesus is.  However, righteous indignation is not casting a stone.  We are to speak to our enemies with gentleness and reverence.  Let us love because we are loved.  Let us forgive because we are forgiven.  Let us approach our neighbor with unconditional love.  

There is a great deal in the Gospel for sinners; however God has gotten a foul deal because we nailed His Son to a Cross.   God accepts His children only by virtue of His Son.  God has gotten a raw deal from us.  In a similar way, we have to pay the cost to forgiving our enemies seven times seventy.  We come to Him with cosmic offenses against His own dear heart when God has never wronged anyone!  He gave us His own dear Son but does praise come from our ungrateful hearts?  We ought to praise Him for who He is because He is holy.  We are not holy.   We sin against each other.  The Spirit of God makes us holy in sanctification.  The greatest pursuit of the Christian is holiness.  Do you present this to our enemies?  It does not matter if they reject the Gospel again and again because we are called to love them.  We should continue to present the Gospel to them no matter what.  We can ask ourselves, do we seek their greatest good?  I leave these questions to your own heart.  May God shine His light upon you this day!  Amen.

If your enemy denies the deity of Christ or justification by faith alone, do you have the love to share the truth of the Gospel with him or her?  Many people deny the deity of Christ and justification by Christ alone.  We ought to know the enemies of Christ.  It may even put us in danger.  There is a cost!  There are many kinds of enemies.  We ought to know compassion on them and have the lovingkindnesses of Christ to a dying soul.  Nothing is more precious then the love of Christ from the heart of a believer.  If you have the love of Christ in your heart, share the good news to a lost world.  We ought to especially share the Gospel with those who hate us.

If someone has wronged us, what is everyone’s response?  Do you respond with wrath?  Do you respond with hatred?   We cannot love our enemies with an unregenerate nature.  It is better to love then to hate.  It is better to pray then to harbor resentment toward our enemies.  We should not curse them.  Think of someone who has wronged you very badly and pray for an hour for their spiritual redemption.  God will surely shine His blessings upon you.  Amen. 

Justification and the Merit of Christ: The Stormcenter of Reformation

Justification is the very heart of the Gospel.  The Gospel shaped the devotion of the apostle Paul.  The Gospel is the righteousness of Christ.  No mere man can take us away from Christ alone in His life and death alone.  We must focus on Christ alone.  I remember in the greatest trail of my life before I came to Christ, God showed me His righteousness alone that it covers us.  When His righteousness alone covers us, God is pleased with us.  But when His righteousness is removed from us, He is displeased with us.  No one can take His righteousness alone from us.  It is His white robes of Christ alone because we trust in Him alone for spiritual salvation.  The only reason why we trust Him alone is because of the Spirit of God and the Word of God.  He quickens us.  He makes us alive in Christ. 

Justification is how we are right with God.  It is God’s pardoning act of sinners and accepting His people as righteous because of Christ alone.  God irrevocably puts us right with God because of our estranged relationship.  We are accepted because of Jesus’ sake.  The basis of justification is Christ alone.   Some would dare add the Virgin Mary as a co-redeemrix.  There is no doubt that the Virgin Mary suffered at the Cross, but this suffering was not meritorious or redemptive.  Mary does not intercede for us in heaven because the work of intercession is the mission work of Christ alone.  I am thankful that Mary bore Christ but our hope should be in Christ alone.  Mary did not say “listen to me” of herself but she said “do whatever He tells you.”  Christ alone acts in our behalf.  No one is worthy to act on our behalf save Christ alone.  Christ took the full punishment for our sins on the Cross because He became sin for us.  Christ’s righteousness alone is reckoned to our account.  Justice was applied to Christ on the Cross.  He paid for satisfaction for our sins in our behalf.  O may Jesus my Savior speak and pray in my behalf!  O may His pardoning grace immerse me! 

Christ’s righteousness will be accepted in our behalf at the Last Judgment.  It is a divine decision on our eternal destiny.   No repentance adds to the unified righteousness of Christ alone.  No repentance is meritorious.  Only Christ’s blood and righteousness is enough.  God will never turn back on His declaration.  Satan may appeal against us because he is the accuser of the brethren.  Justification means to be eternally secure in and through Christ alone. 

The necessary means of how we are right before God is personal faith in Christ crucified.  We ought to come to God with empty hands of faith, because Christ alone is our great meritorious work of God alone.  We ought to give ourselves to Christ by faith alone.  No one can take away our faith in Christ alone.  By faith, Jesus gives us His gift of His unified righteousness.  We received the heavenly pardon and divine acceptance.  Rome says justification is a process that includes sanctification.  We understand justification as a decisive act by God for us sinners.  We are not justified by baptism but by Christ alone.  We cannot achieve justification by our works.  Christ lived in our place.  He lived the perfect and pure righteous life we could not live.  We are people devoid of merit.  This underscores the essence of free grace.  His grace is incredible.  We need grace to be holy.  We have no merit in and of ourselves.  We need His merit alone.  Amen.

The Reformed Gospel in Reformed Evangelism, Part 2

We are called by divine Scripture to the necessity of evangelism.   If we are biblical we will be evangelistic.  The Gospel is the centrality of the Bible.  The Bible points to the Savior that was to come.   We can only be acceptable to God the Father through faith.  We can only know about Him unless someone tells us about Him.  We see in Romans 10:14 that we ought to share the Gospel with others.  The Bible requires evangelism.  We ought to preach Christ crucified.  The Bible in First Corinthians 1:17; 2:2 says that we ought to preach Christ crucified.  We ought to draw all men unto God.  We ought to not withhold God from others.  God desires that everyone everywhere to repent and believe the Gospel.  God has a plan of redemption.  God promised to bless Abraham’s descendants with a great nation.  The chosen people of God were the Israelites but He also Israel attracted to Himself non-Israelites.  The non-Israelites were Ruth the Moabite, Naaman the Syrian and the people of Nineveh.  God promised to send the Messiah to nations laying in darkness.  Jesus became the sacrifice for human sin.  It was meant that the spiritual redemption of God would be carried to all nations, peoples, tribes and tongues.  Prayer and worship was held in the temple as a house of worship to all nations. 

     The Bible in the Great Commission calls us to make disciples of all nations.  Extreme Calvinism in the five points of Tulip does not forbid evangelism.  We encourage evangelism in the sharing of the Glad Tidings of the Gospel.  In Acts 1, 2 17, and 21 we see Pentecost came to a different nations in one place by the Spirit in the thrust of the Good News.  We see in the Book of Revelation that all nations will be seen in the kingdom of heaven.  Christians have the responsibility to share the Good News to everyone in every place.  We know that evangelism means missions. 

     We have the responsibility to share the Good News with everyone from every believer.  We ought to confess Christ in word and deed.  We ought to confess Christ in daily life.  The Spirit of God works with us in evangelism.  Evangelism should be a natural result of our conversion.  Our conversions are insufficient to bring people to Christ but we must share the love of Christ.  It is incomplete because it is expressed in words only but we ought to live the Christian life.  We must explain the Gospel of Glad Tidings to every lost soul.  We ought to share the unified imputed righteousness by faith alone in Christ alone.  God will draw all kinds of men to Himself in His sovereignty through evangelism.  Amen.