The Broken Heart of Man and More Love to Jesus

     Everyday has proved us guilty in God's presence and sight.  And prayers and praises have been uttered from a prayerless and praiseless heart and soul, but also are best service is fifthly rages before Him.  We find rest in the wounds of Jesus Christ our Lord and Redeemer.  Our sins rise to heaven but the merits of Jesus soar above them, because His righteousness exalts us to heaven while unrighteousness weighs us down to hell.  All in us call for our rejection before God, but all things in the Savior plead our acceptance.  We ought to appeal before the throne of perfect justice to His boundless grace.  We need His voice assuring us in the beloved.  We are healed by His stripes; He was bruised for our iniquities; He was made sin for us; we are righteous only in Him and through Him; we are forgiven of grievous, manifold sins that are buried in the ocean of His concealing blood.  We are guilty but pardoned; lost but found; wandering but saved; sinning yet cleansed.  We need perpetual broken-heartedness; we need to be clinging to the Cross; we must be flooded every moment with descending grace; we must be open to the springs of divine knowledge.  It sparkles like crystal that flows clear and unsullied by the wilderness of life.  Amen.  (The Valley of Vision, pg. 150-151).

More love to thee, O Christ, More love to thee

Hear thou the prayer I make on bended knee;

This is my earnest plea, more love, O Christ, to thee,

More love to thee, More love to thee! (Trinity Hymnal, 548).

The Day of Rest

     The day of rest and gladness is the Christian Sabbath; that is, it is a day of joy and light.  Sometimes we go through care and sadness.  The day of rest is most beautiful and most bright.  God is the high and we are the lowly though ages joined in tune.  We sing Holy, Holy, Holy to the great God Triune.  At creation light first had its birth, but on the Lord Christ He rose from the depths of the earth.  .We ought to acknowledge our Lord victorious and the Spirit was sent from heaven.  The Lord is most glorious and a triple light was given.  We are protected though storms around us rise, but there is a garden intersected with streams of paradise.  The Lord is a cooling fountain in life's dry, and deary sand.  Yet, we view the promised Land.  The heavenly manna falls on weary nations.  This is by the silver trumpet in holy convocations.  This is where Gospel light is growing with pure and radiant beams.  Christ is the living water flowing with soul refreshing streams.  New graces are gaining and this our day of rest.  We reach the rest remaining to spirits of the blest.  To the Father, Son and Spirit be praises forevermore, and the church lifts up her raises to the blessed Three in One.  (Trinity Hymnal, 321).  Amen.

Devotion To God

     God is a God of our end; that is, we will see Him in eternity at our day of death.  It should be our greatest and noblest pleasure to be acquainted with our Lord and Savior.  We do this with our rational and immortal souls.  It is always sweet and entertaining to look into ourselves to be engaged into pursuing God.  Our souls should long for a passionate breathing after the conformity of Christ in ourselves.  No time passes by with so much pleasure as to be engaged in the pursuit of God.  We ought to spend time in communion with Him in prayer with our whole hearts united to Him.   It is greatly desirable and profitable to the Christian life.  We ought to come to Him with a spirit of holy watchfulness, and godly jealousy over myself.  Our souls should be focused upon grieving and offending the Lord.  Ask yourself if you have grieved or offended God.  We ought to be afraid of nothing except grieving and offending of most precious Lord.  The Lord is our friend and Father whom we love and long to please rather then be happy in ourselves.   It is worthy of the highest ambition. We ought to seek holiness before God and this our chief desire.  Our joy should come from glorifying the Lord and honoring Him.  We ought to find delight in the Lord.  We ought to fill all our time for Him.  We could be at home or in the way of doing something else.  We ought to place all our concerns in His hands.  We ought to be entirely at His disposal having no will or interest of our own.  We ought to call upon our Lord for help to live for Him forever.  He is our last and holy end.  The pursuit of God is to love Him and no more our sinful selves.  Amen.  (The Valley of Vision, pg. 236-237).

Redeem The Time

Here are some questions to search your heart about redeeming the time:

1.)  Do you have a renewed spirit in the things of God in Christ Jesus?

2.)  Do you redeem the time and change old habits?

3.)  Do you stand for Jesus when you did not before?

4.)  Do you have a new revived spirit in the things of God in doing His will?

5.)  Do you love the things of God as if it was fresh to you?

6.)  Do you use your time for the things of God?

7.)  Do you take the Bible's teachings with you when you work?

8.)  Does Christ permeate your life, thoughts and deeds?

9.)  Do you have Christ in what you say to people?

10.)  Do you have a renewed spirit in spreading the Gospel living of the divine Word?

11.)  Do you engage in good works you have never engaged in before?

12.)  Do you repent of your sins and bring forth deeds of repentance?

13.)  Do you have set times of devotions in the Word before God and His presence?

Here are some questions that may help you use your time for the things of God in redeeming the time.  Amen.

Noah, Daniel, and Job

Ezekiel 14:14
Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord GOD.

Ezekiel 14:20
Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.

     


     Rome says there is merit from the saints, but the Bible speaks of a different picture.  There is no merit except the merit of Christ alone; that is, Noah, Daniel and Job could not deliver any by their righteousness and this refutes the treasury of merit in Romanism.  But only the merit of Christ delivers.  Why settle for anything less?  The best of the best is in the best of the work of Christ alone that delivers everyone of the believing ones unto eternal redemption.  Amen.
     Noah, Daniel and Job were godly men and great men of old; that is, how can these men fail the test of Rome when other lesser men are accepted in their beloved to gain merit or satisfaction for sin?  I submit that only Christ has the merit we must have to stand before God in and through Christ.   We can't add merit to Christ because we are all no good (Romans 3).  How can merit come from a person in whom no good thing dwells?  We recognize that Christian people ought to do good works; that is, the issue is not the demonstration of good deeds but if its a merit that merits us heaven in some way with faith.  Who would dare pass up the imputed righteousness for the alleged merit of the saints?  If Noah, Daniel and Job could not deliver any by their righteousness, how are the "saints" of Rome going to deliver themselves or others?  Think long on Jesus and His blood and righteousness.  The eternal destiny of the soul is at stake; that is, do you realize the preciousness of Christ and His reckoned righteousness?  May we think seriously upon what is being said this day.  Amen. 

The Essence of the Freedom of the Gospel and God

     The essence of the freedom of God is seen in the Gospel; however, most people are concerned about free will that is connected to man.  But what if God has free will?  The essence of the Gospel is the freedom of God, because the Gospel is free.  He comes with the treasure of heaven to poor sinners; that is, His grace is irresistible and He saves us who are totally and radically corrupt.  The Lord is free to save whom He pleases, but we know by Divine Scripture that He saves the many.  Not everyone is included into His kingdom, but everyone of His people; that is, all the elect will come to Him in this life.  God's free will is to keep us from sinning against Him or He may deliver a people over to their sins.  He is free but He does not sin.  The Gospel is free because God is free; that is, the Gospel is about God's work of redemption in and through our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ.  Let us not focus on man-made religion but upon the awesome subject of the freedom of God.  God's freedom is holy, matchless, sinless, and sovereign.  When God's freedom runs into our freedom, we lose.  God's freedom is ultimate and true.  Amen.

Holiness, Judgment, Omnipresence and Sin

   We ought to live holy lives honoring God's moral law.  We do not honor God's moral law to earn heaven, but we honor His moral law to follow Him and to imitate Jesus Christ.  No one can follow Christ without the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.  We ought to think long upon the omnipresence of God, because it will teach us about holiness and judgment.  No sinner who is "in" Christ will be judged in the ultimate sense; however, there is a discipline that God brings upon His children to correct them.  Blessed is he who the Lord Most High corrects and teaches within his heart and soul.  Judgment in this case is meant in the sense of correction; however, Christ paid for our sin at the Cross where He was ultimately judged for every sin we have committed or will commit.  We ought to think long and hard on the omnipresence of God because it ought to bring to our minds the royal presence of God.  With the doctrine of omnipresence of God, we can think of the truth of Scripture to keep ourselves in the pathway of holiness.  If we fail, we know we have His forgiveness through His loving-kindnesses; however, it is not through presumption that we confess sin, but through contrition (that is, that we have offended Him in His holiness).  The sinner without Christ is a sinner who is under judgment.  Fatherly correction comes upon those "in" Christ when we sin but only passing through the hands of Jesus.  The difference between a sinner "in" Christ and a sinner without Christ is faithful repentance.  God's omnipresence should motivate us to godly living because His eye is always upon us.  Let us pray that we live right in His presence and seek to live undefiled lives before Him.  Amen.