Divine Love!!

The greatest treasure of all of God's unsearchable riches, was His only begotten Son. God took Jesus from His bosom, where He had forever dwelt serenely; and sent Him to earth, that He might live and die to save rebellious sinners.

The death of Jesus manifests the solemnity of God's dealings with sin and is fitted to bow the soul in lowliest humility before Him. If the evil of sin is seen in the tremendous price required to atone for it, then sin must be evil beyond thought for nothing less than the bloody death of the Son of God could remedy it.

In the presence of the sin-atoning sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary, sin must be an evil so great that it is not possible to exaggerate its horrors. Oh, sinful men, your transgressions are horrendous indeed, since they can only be expiated by such a sacrifice! Oh, reprehensible creatures, you required a dying God to save you!

The sin-atoning death of Jesus displayed the supreme love of God to heinous men. He gave up the darling of His heart, to save wicked sinners. God has manifested His love in the death of His beloved Son, in a way which must have astonished every inhabitant of Heaven; and it ought to ravish every man of this lower globe.

Truly, the blood of Jesus is the ruby gem of the ring of divine love! Brethren, we have but a faint idea of how much the Lord our God loves us. "God commends His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

There was nothing lovable in us; we were enemies to God, polluted and polluting. There was everything in us that was obnoxious to the holy mind of God. And yet, because of the riches of His grace and the supremacy of His mercy. He loved us to the uttermost.

Lament that you should be guilty of such a horrible thing, that even God's own spotless Son must suffer, bleed, and die; before our sin, with all its scarlet dye, could be washed out.

[Charles H. Spurgeon]

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1 Peter 1:18-19 ...  Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

Hebrews 9:22 ...  And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. ❤

Paul's Hobby-Horse!

The world is full of distractions, and even within the church, countless voices clamor for attention.  But Paul, that faithful minister of the gospel, had one great theme that eclipsed all others: Jesus Christ and Him crucified!  This was not a passing interest or occasional emphasis it was his constant, unwavering focus. If Paul had a "hobbyhorse," it was Christ crucified.  He rode it in every letter, proclaimed it in every sermon, and treasured it at all times. Paul had deep theological knowledge, an unmatched intellect, and a rich grasp of Old Testament Scriptures.  Yet when he came to Corinth a city dazzled by eloquence and puffed up with human wisdom, he deliberately laid aside every other topic.  He determined; he resolved to make the cross of Christ his singular subject. Why? Because the cross reveals both the vileness of human sin, and the marvelous grace of God in salvation. 

The cross manifests the sinfulness of man, exalts the glory of God, and unveils the only way of redemption.  To preach "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" is to proclaim the eternal plan of God, the willing sacrifice of the Son, and the effectual power of the Spirit in saving those for whom Jesus died.  It is to declare that totally depraved and spiritually dead sinners, can be reconciled to the holy and righteous God, only through the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus.  No philosophy or moral reform can accomplish this.  Only the blood of the Lamb can cleanse and justify ungodly sinners! 

In a world of theological fads and spiritual shallowness, we need more men like Paul men who will refuse to drift from the centrality of the cross. The cross must not be reduced to a mere entry point of the Christian life. It is the very heart of the gospel, the foundation of all doctrine, and the fuel for sanctification. As believers, we never outgrow our need to hear again and again, of our Savior who loved us and gave Himself for us! Let Paul's holy obsession be ours. Let Christ crucified be our boast, our theme, our delight, and our message! May we, too, resolve to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 

[Charles H. Spurgeon]

1 Corinthians 2:2 .... For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

Galatians 6:14 .... But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. ❤

"Marvelous Mercy!"

An excerpt from the diary of James Smith

December 31, 1855. 

The last day of the year 1855-a year characterized by many severe trials, many sore temptations, and innumerable mercies. In some things, it closes differently to what I expected but how differently it may have closed! I might have been in Hell! 

O terrible thought! I might have been on a sick bed, tormented with excruciating pain, or reduced to a state of infantile weakness. I might have been in great and sore troubles, tossed with tempests, and not comforted. I might have been without a pastorate and without a loving people. 

Or I might have been guilty of some heinous sin, lost my character, and been a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth! Blessed forever blessed be the Lord-that such is not my case! My health is good, my hope in Christ is steady, my congregation good, and I trust the Lord will yet work a great work by me. 

And now, Lord, I desire to confess before you the sins of this past year: I have sinned with my tongue-and with my temper. I have sinned in my heart-and in my life. I have omitted duties. I have committed sins. My motives have often been impure. My aims have not been sufficiently high and holy. I have been impatient, fretful, irritable, rash, jealous, envious, discontented and ungrateful. 

O may the blood of Jesus wash out every stain! I renounce all hope-but what centers in Jesus! I have no refuge, no hiding-place, no strong tower, no place of safety-but Jesus. Christ in His person, Christ in His finished work, Christ in His glorious intercession- is all my hope, all my confidence, all my joy! I am His servant-and wish to serve Him alone. I am His subject-and wish to be ruled by Him alone. I am His purchased property-and wish to be consecrated entirely, eternally, and altogether to Him! 

[James Smith]

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Under The Blood!

You may be under an attack but remember you are also under His Blood!

Isaiah 54:17 ... No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.

Luke 10:19 ... Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Revelation 12:11 ... And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

Psalm 27:1-3 ... The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.

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Black as Night, and As Hideous as Hell!

Oh, that blessed word all. It includes willful sins and unintentional sins, sins against gospel light, sins against the love of God, sins wantonly perpetrated, sins against man and against God, sins of body and of soul, sins of thought and word and deed, sins of every rank and character, sins as immense as the sea all, all are removed, no matter how many, or how vile they are! 

What comfort there is here for every believer! However heinous your sins may be, there is a sin-offering which cleanses away every sin. However, you may have defiled yourselves, though you are as black as night, and as hideous as Hell yet there is power in the sin-atoning blood of the incarnate God to make you as white as newly fallen snow! 

What a joy it is to think, not only has Christ put away my sin; but now for me, He is a sweet savor to God, and I am for His sake accepted; for His sake beloved; for His sake delighted in; for His sake precious unto God. The immaculate Christ has died, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. Washed once in the fountain opened for sin and for impurity there shall remain upon you no trace of guilt! 

[Charles H. Spurgeon]

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1 John 1:7 ... But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

Colossians 1:13-14 ... Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

Romans 4:7-8 ... Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.❤

Adulterers, Thieves, Harlots, Murderers!

These white-robed inhabitants of Heaven were once sinners, for they all needed to wash their robes. Had their robes been perfectly white, then there would have been no necessity to cleanse them certainly not to cleanse them in the blood of Jesus!  Yes, those glorious ones were once sinners like us! Look up at them now! Observe their ravishing beauty! See how faultless they ARE! And then, remember what they once WERE. 

Oh, trembling sinners, whose bruised hearts dare not indulge a hope of salvation those spotless ones in Heaven, were once like you! And you are today, what they once were! They were all sinful at birth, and children of wrath just as you were. They were all placed in circumstances which allured them to sin; they had their temptations, and they lived in the midst of a wicked and depraved generation even as you now do. What is more, they all sinned, for mere temptation would not have soiled their robes, but actual sin defiled them. There were thoughts of sin, there were words of sin, there were acts of sin in all of them! 

You will say, perhaps, that none of those saints had committed sins like yours, but there I must flatly contradict you. Among that illustrious company, there are those who were once sinners of the deepest dye adulterers, thieves, harlots, murderers! They have all been forgiven, sanctified, and at length glorified! 

[Charles H. Spurgeon]

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Revelation 7:13-14 ... And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 

1 Corinthians 15:10 ... But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. 

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ... Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. ❤

The Blood of Christ!!

The blood of Jesus will wash away your sin and give you eternal life!

 Be thankful for the blood of Christ!

1 John 1:7 ... But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

Jeremiah 17:14 ... Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.

Romans 6:23 ... For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. ❤

The Nearness of God

More saints than Luther have felt a personal interest in the forty-sixth Psalm "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble;" thus drinking with him of the "river the streams whereof make glad the city of God." (Psalm 46:1,4) 

My soul, are you not one of them? Has not your praiseful exclamation often been, "You are NEAR, O Lord!" God is everywhere, but it is only His own children who forcibly feel, and gratefully acknowledge, and holily exhibit, not His omniscience only, but his especial and personal presence. Look at this precious truth, my soul, in connection with two or three features of your varied experience. He is a God at hand in the person of Christ. The Lord Jesus brings God very near to us. He is not only the revealed One of God, but He is in His own person really and absolutely God "He who has seen Me, has seen the Father." (John 14:9)

Could a mere creature, a man only, say this? Impossible, with any truth, and without blasphemy. Oh, how near to us has Jesus brought the Father! Come to Jesus, look at Jesus, listen to Jesus, and realize that in so doing you approach to, gaze upon, and hear the voice of, God your Father in heaven. God is near in the work of Jesus. The blood brings us sinners near to God, as it brings a sin-pardoning God near to us. "You that were afar off are made near by the blood of Christ." (Ephesians 2:13)

See then your true and present standing, O my soul! Nothing comes between you and God but the atoning blood of Jesus. His blood annihilates all your sin and guilt. Robed in His imputed righteousness, you are to God nearer than the highest angel in heaven and nearer you cannot be, and God draws near to you and speaks "A God at hand, says the Lord." (Mark 1:15)

God is near at hand when you do approach Him in prayer. Oh, comforting truth! A God at hand to hear the softest breath of prayer to listen to every confession of sin to every cry of need to every utterance of sorrow to every wail of woe to every appeal for counsel, strength, and support. 

Arise, O my soul! and give yourself to prayer; for God is near at hand to hear and answer you. Listen to His word, "Who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto Me? says the Lord." "You meet him that rejoices and works righteousness, those who remember You in Your ways."  A God at hand is He in every time of trouble. "A very present help." Not far have you to travel for the guidance and deliverance you need. If forsaking the Lord your God you go down into 'Egypt' for help, and trust in the chariots and horses thereof, then will you be ashamed of your confidence. But why fly to creature help, when the Lord your God is near unto you in all that you call upon Him for? 

Cease from man; for God in Christ is very near, and one step of believing prayer will bring you to His feet. Oh, live as in His presence! Be your life a life of communion, doing and enduring, toiling and suffering, as beholding Him who is invisible. In a little while we shall pass from our partial and imperfect realizations of His presence when on earth, to enjoy His full, unclouded, and eternal presence in heaven! Then shall our eyes see the King in His full unveiled beauty, not as now, through a glass darkly, but then face to face. And, oh transporting thought! we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Guard vigilantly and strive prayerfully against that which creates a conscious distance between God and your soul. Is it the world? come out of it. Is it the creature? relinquish it. Is it the flesh? mortify it. Is it sin? forsake it. Is it unbelief? nail it to the cross. 

Oh, let nothing separate you from Christ no earthly good or carnal delight cause a distance, or coldness, or shyness between God and your soul. Give Jesus your undivided heart, and let God be your all in all. Then shall your happy experience be "You are NEAR, O Lord." 

[Octavius Winslow] 

Jeremiah 23:23 ... Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off?

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God Bought You With a Very High Price!

Refresh in your souls a sense of the fact that "God bought you with a very high price!" There in the midnight hour, amid the olives of Gethsemane, kneels Immanuel the Son of God. He groans, He pleads in prayer, He wrestles. See the beady drops stand on His brow drops of sweat, but not of such sweat as pours from men when they earn the bread of life, but the sweat of Him who is procuring eternal life itself for us. It is blood! It is crimson blood! Great gouts of it are falling to the ground! 

O soul, your Savior speaks to you from Gethsemane at this hour, and He says: "Here and thus I bought you with a price!" Come, stand and view Him in the agony of the olive garden, and understand at what a cost He procured your deliverance! Track Him in all His path of shame and sorrow until you see Him at Gabbatha. Mark how they bind His hands and fasten Him to the whipping-post. See, they bring the scourges and the cruel Roman whips; they tear His flesh; the ploughers make deep furrows on His blessed body, and the blood gushes forth in streams; while rivulets from His temples where the crown of thorns has pierced them, join to swell the purple stream. 

From beneath the scourges, He speaks to you with accents soft and low, and says, "My child, it is here and thus I bought you with a very high price!" But see Him on the cross itself when the consummation of all has come. His hands and feet are fountains of blood, His soul is full of anguish even to heartbreak; and there, before the soldier pierces His side with a spear, bowing down He whispers to you and to me, "It was here and thus, I bought you with a very high price!" 

O by Gethsemane, by Gabbatha, by Golgotha, by every sacred name collected with the passion of our Lord; by sponge and vinegar, and nail and spear, and everything that enlarged the pain and increased the anguish of His death I implore you, my beloved brethren, to remember that you were "bought with a very high price," and that "you are not your own." 

[Charles H. Spurgeon] 

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1 Peter 1:18-19 ...  Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

1 Corinthians 6:20 ... For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

Acts 20:28 ... Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

Titus 2:14 ... Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. ❤

The More Bloody --- The More Lovely!

Lost men cannot see the stupendous beauty of Christ. All sparkling beauties are found in Him—but they lack eyes! He is infinitely and superlatively lovely! All that we could ever say about Jesus falls infinitely short of His matchless worth. He is pure, unspotted beauty! There is an infinite resplendency, a sparkling luster to His beauty! Jesus is most lovely in His sufferings, when He made an atonement for our sins. What, lovely in His sufferings? Lovely when He was buffeted, spit upon, and besmeared with blood? Oh yes, He was most lovely upon the cross, when He showed most love to us!  He bled love at every vein! Those drops were love drops! The more blood the more lovely! 

Oh, how lovely ought a bleeding Savior be to our eyes! Let us wear this blessed crucifix always in our heart! The cross of Christ is the key that opens paradise to us! How beautiful is Christ on the cross! The ruddiness of His blood took away the redness of our guilt! Christ's crucifixion is our coronation! He left His Father's bosom, that hive of sweetness to come and live in this poor world. Truly, He exchanged the palace for the dunghill! "The unsearchable riches of Christ!" (Ephesians 3:8)

Not even the angels can dig to the bottom of this mine! They adore Christ, being ravished with His amazing beauties! Jesus is the very extract and quintessence of beauty. He is a whole paradise of delights! 

[Thomas Watson]

Song of Solomon 5:16 ...  His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. ❤

'Clods of Earth' into 'Stars of Glory'

Christ is that golden pipe, through which the golden oil of salvation is transmitted to us. Nothing could fasten Jesus to the cross, but the golden link of love! "Because of His great love that He had for us" (Ephesians 2:4) The emperor Trajan tore off a piece of his own robe to bind up one of his soldier's wounds. But Christ tore off His own flesh for us! "He gave Himself for us to redeem us." (Titus 2:14) Christ gave Himself for us what more could He give? If He had anything to part with of more worth, He would have bestowed it upon us! What astonishing love, that Christ should die for such as we are. What are we? Not only vanity but enmity! 

When we were rebelling, He was dying! When we had weapons in our hands, then He had the spear in His side! This is the very quintessence of love! "God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us!" (Romans 5:8)   When we were engulfed in misery and had lost our beauty, then Christ died for us. 

O amazing love, which should swallow up all our thoughts! What astonishing love, that Christ should die for us, rather than for the fallen angels. They were creatures of a more noble extraction and, in all probability, might have brought greater revenues of glory to God. Yet, that Christ should pass by those golden vessels, and make us 'clods of earth' into 'stars of glory' O the hyperbole of Christ's love! What a stupendous love is this! 

Who can meditate upon His love, and not be in ecstasy! We may behold the odiousness of sin, in the red-looking glass of Christ's sufferings. Sin is to be abominated, since it turned Adam out of paradise and threw the angels down to Hell. Sin is the birthplace of our sorrows, and the grave of our comforts. But that which may most of all disfigure the face of sin and make it appear abominable is this: It crucified our Lord Jesus! 

O let us look upon sin with indignation! When a temptation to sin comes, let us say, "Is not this the sin which poured out Christ's blood?" Let our hearts be enraged against sin! When the senators of Rome showed the people Caesar's bloody robe, they were incensed against those who slew him. Sin has rent the white robe of Christ's flesh and dyed it a crimson color! Let us, then, seek to be avenged of our sins! Under the Law, if an ox gored a man so that he died the ox was to be killed. (Exodus 21:28) Likewise sin has gored and pierced our Savior! Let it die! Let us be deeply affected with the great love of Christ for us. 

Who can tread upon these hot coals, and his heart not burn? Cry out with Ignatius, "Christ, my love, is crucified!" If a friend would die for us, would not our hearts be much affected with his kindness? That the God of Heaven would die for us--how should this stupendous mercy have a melting influence upon us! The body of Christ broken, is enough to break the flintiest heart! At our Savior's passion, "the rocks split apart!" He who is not affected with Christ's love, has a heart harder than the rocks! How should we be affected with Christ's kindness, who, to spare our life, lost His own! Let us pray that, as Christ was fastened to the cross so He may be fastened to our hearts! 

[Thomas Watson] 

Ephesians 3:19 ... And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

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Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Jesus sought me when a stranger, 

Wandering from the fold of God; 

He, to rescue me from danger, 

Interposed His precious blood! 

 O to grace how great a debtor, 

Daily I'm constrained to be! 

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, 

Bind my wandering heart to Thee! 

 Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, 

Prone to leave the God I love; 

Here's my heart, O take and seal it, 

Seal it for Thy courts above! 

 O that day when freed from sinning, 

I shall see Thy lovely face; 

Clothed then in blood-washed linen 

How I'll sing Thy sovereign grace! 

 [Robert Robinson]

Isaiah 53:6 ...  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. ❤

Jesus Blood Applied By The Holy Spirit

There is a perpetual proneness to seek our fruitfulness from anything but a close, spiritual, and constant dealing with the cross of Jesus. But as well might we expect the earth to clothe itself with verdure, or the tree to blossom, and the blossom ripen into fruit, without the sun's genial warmth as to look for fruitfulness in a regenerate soul, without a constant dealing with the Lord Jesus Christ.  For just what the sun is to the kingdom of nature, Jesus the Sun of righteousness is to the kingdom of grace the blessed source of all its verdure, fragrance, and fruitfulness. 

Then, let all your expectations be centered here. No real good can come to you, no healing to your spirit, no fruitfulness to your soul, from a perpetual living upon convictions of sin, legal fears, or transient joys the Divine life can derive no nourishment from these. But live upon the atoning blood of Jesus here is the fatness of your soul found. This is that which heals the wound, wins the heart, and hushes to repose every fear of condemnation. This is that which enables a poor sinner to look fully at God feeling that justice, holiness, truth, and every Divine perfection are on his side. 

It is the blood of Jesus, applied by the Spirit which moistens each fiber of the root of holiness in the soul, and is productive of its fruitfulness. This is that which sends the warm current of life through every part of the regenerate man, quickening the pulse of love, and imparting a healthy and vigorous power to every act of obedience. And when the spiritual seasons change for it is not always spring-time with the soul of a child of God; when the summer's sun withers, or the autumnal blast scatters the leaves, and winter's fiercer storm beats upon the smitten bough then the blood and righteousness of Christ, lived upon, loved, and cherished will yet sustain the Divine life in the soul, and in due season the spring blossom and the summer fruit shall again appear, proving that the Divine life of a believer is "hid with Christ in God." (Colossians 3:3)

 

Then shall be said of you, as was said of the church by her Beloved: "Look, the winter is past, and the rains are over and gone. The flowers are springing up, the season of singing birds has come, and the cooing of turtledoves fills the air. The fig trees are forming young fruit, and the fragrant grapevines are blossoming. Rise up, My darling! Come away with Me, My fair one!" (Song of Solomon 2:10)

Then let your heart respond, "Awake, north wind! Rise up, south wind! Blow on my garden and spread its fragrance all around. Come into Your garden, my Beloved taste its finest fruits!" 

[Octavius Winslow]

Hebrews 9:14 ... How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?  ❤

Poverty?

Poverty is a curse. The lack of money is not a blessing, and just getting by from paycheck to paycheck isn’t part of God’s plan for you. It’s in the cross. Plead your rights under the blood and through your faith in Christ. 

Poor, broke, and busted is not God’s way. 

[Christopher Gregory]

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Psalm 23:1 ... The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Proverbs 31:9 ...  Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.

John 10:10 ... The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. ❤

O The Love of His Royal Heart!

O for the pen of a ready writer, to set forth the matchless glory and unparalleled excellence of the King, the King of kings, the King of saints, even King Jesus! We were once stout-hearted rebels against His crown and government! But O the love of His royal heart! Instead of executing fierce vengeance upon us, for our sins lo, He came from heaven to earth, with a flame of love in His heart, and matchless grace on His lips, on purpose, to die for us, to wash us from our sins in His own blood, to conquer the rebellion of our hearts against Him, and to win our affections to Him! 

Has He saved us by His precious blood? Has He made us His willing, loving disciples, by His powerful grace? Surely then, we should live in the sweet enjoyment of all the rich blessings of his kingdom, and be holy and happy every day, yes, every hour IN HIM. This is His loving will, concerning us. 

O for a single eye to look unto Jesus, a humble heart to sit at His feet, and a simple soul to hear and believe every word from His gracious lips, that we may know the love of Christ constantly know it by a heartfelt sense of it. This, this is the one thing needful to make poor sinners rich, and miserable sinners happy in time, and joyful to all eternity! 

Remember your chief employment. It is not merely to make a profession, and to keep up a form of godliness; but to maintain and keep up a warm, lively, comfortable sense of the love of Christ in your hearts, from day to day, yes, from hour to hour! 

[William Mason]

 

Colossians 3:11 ... Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. ❤

The Brain and Spinal Cord of Christianity!

What could be better than the divine plan of substitutionary atonement? God must punish sin; He could not be God unless He did. It is a necessity of His nature, that He should hate sin with an infinite hatred, and He must punish it! Yet, as He had loved His people with an everlasting love, how could He better show His love to them, and His hatred of sin than by giving up His well-beloved Son to die in place of them! 

This seems to me to be the most beautiful thing I ever heard of, and it delights my soul to preach it! The false doctrine of universal redemption that Christ died for the damned in Hell, and that He suffered the torment of those who afterwards are tormented forever seems to me to be detestable, subversive of the whole Gospel, and destructive of the only pillar upon which our hopes can be built! 

Christ stood in the place of His elect; for them He made a full Atonement; for them He so suffered, that not a sin of theirs shall ever be laid at their door. As the Father's love embraced them so the death of His Son reconciled them. Christ's atonement gives such an exhibition of the guilt of sin, as is not to be seen anywhere else no, not even in the flames of Hell! 

The heart of the gospel is redemption, and the essence of redemption is the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ. Those who preach this truth preach the gospel. But those who do not preach the atonement, whatever else they declare have missed the soul and substance of the divine message. To deny the great doctrine of substitutionary atonement by the blood of Jesus Christ is to hamstring the gospel, and to cut the throat of Christianity! 

What the sun is to the heavens that the doctrine of a vicarious satisfaction is to theology. Substitutionary atonement is the brain and spinal cord of Christianity! Take away the cleansing blood, and what hope is left for the guilty? Deny the substitutionary work of Jesus and you have denied all that is precious in the New Testament! 

He who understands the mystery of Christ's substitutionary atonement for His people, is a master in Scriptural theology! 

[Charles H. Spurgeon]

2 Corinthians 5:21 ...  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Galatians 3:13 ... Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:

1 Corinthians 4:20 ... For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. ❤

The Puddle of Their Own Merit!

Many have passed the rocks of gross sins, who have suffered shipwreck upon the sands of self-righteousness. It was the saying of one, that he "would swim through a sea of brimstone, if he might but arrive safely at Heaven.  Ah, how would natural men soar to Heaven, upon the pinions of their own merit!  The sunbeams of Divine justice will soon melt such weak and wax wings! 

He who has no better righteousness than what is of his own providing, shall meet with no higher happiness than what is of his own deserving. "They disregarded the righteousness from God and attempted to establish their own righteousness." (Romans 10:3) They are determined to sail in their own ship, though they sink in the ocean! 

We are so far from paying the utmost farthing, that at our utmost, we have not even a farthing to pay! That man will be a miserable spectacle of vanity, who stands upon the lame feet of his own ability! Duties are but dry pits, though ever so meticulously wrought, until Christ fills them. 

Reader, I would neither have you be idle in duties, nor make an idol of duties. What are duties without Christ, but like a fine cabinet without a jewel, or a golden cup without a cordial? The most diligent saint, has been the most self-distrusting saint: "that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith." (Philippians 3:9)

If you are found in your own righteousness, you will be lost by your own righteousness. That garment, which was worn to shreds on Adam's back, will never make a complete covering for you. Duties may be good crutches to go upon, but they are bad Christs to lean upon. It is the greatest disparagement that professors can offer to Christ, to put their services in the scale with His sufferings. The beggarly rags of the first Adam must never be put on with the princely robe of the second Adam! 

Man is a creature too much inclined to warm himself by the sparks of his own fire, though he lies down in eternal flames for kindling them! Though Noah's dove made use of her wings, yet she found no rest but in the ark. Duties can never have too much of our diligence, or too little of our confidence. A believer does not perform good works to live, but he lives to perform good works. He shall have Hell as his debt, who will not take Heaven as a gift. "We boast in Christ Jesus, and do not put confidence in the flesh." (Philippians 3:3)

A true Christian stand at as great distance from trusting in the best of his services, as in the worst of his sins! He knows that the greatest part of his holiness, will not make the least part of his justifying righteousness. He has unreservedly subscribed to that sentiment, "that when we have done all, we are only unprofitable servants." (Luke 17:10) When we have kept all the commandments, there is one commandment above all to be kept; that is, "all our righteous acts are like filthy rags!" (Isaiah 64:6)

In most of our works, we are abominable sinners; and in the best of our works, we are unprofitable servants. "O Sovereign Lord, I will proclaim Your righteousness, Yours alone!" You see, beloved, the righteousness of Christ is to be magnified, when the righteousness of a Christian is not to be mentioned. It is hard for us to be "nothing in ourselves" amidst all our works; and to be "all things in Christ," amidst all our weakness. To undertake every duty, and yet to overlook every duty, is a lesson which none can learn, but Christ's scholars. 

Our obedience, at best, is like good wine, which relishes of a bad cask. The 'Law of God' will not accept ninety-nine for a hundred. It will not accept the coin of our obedience, either short in quantity, or base in quality. The duty it exacts, is as impossible to be performed in this our fallen state; as the penalty it inflicts, is intolerable to be endured in our eternal state! We do not sail to glory in the salt sea of our own tears, but in the red sea of the Redeemer's blood! 

The Cross of Christ is the only key of paradise! We owe the life of our souls, to the death of our Savior. It was His going into the fiery furnace, which keeps us from going into the devouring flames! Man lives, by death: his natural life is preserved by the death of the creature; and his spiritual life is gained by the death of the Redeemer. Those who carry their vessel of hope to the puddle of their own merit, will never draw the water of comfort, from the fountain of God's mercy! 

 [William Secker]

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The Blood.

I had this question posed to me recently that I thought I would share, as well as my answer. "Why is there so much sickness, disease, and violence today?" 

The reason is simple, it is a direct result of two things, the result of Satan being allowed to rule over the earth, its kingdoms, and the nations. The second is a direct result of original sin. Man was born into sin due to the actions (sin/rebellion) of Adam, we have inherited this same spiritual sickness. This is why we battle sickness and disease, poverty, violence, hatred against another, perversion, and abuse. It is a result of our fallen nature as human beings. 

The solution? The cross. Christ resolved this debt so that we can live without condemnation. His atonement paid the debt of sin and suffering. What can wash away our sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. 

[Christopher Gregory]

1 John 1:7 ... But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

John 16:33 ... These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

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The Precious Blood

Only one thing can wash away sin. Only one thing can make someone whole again. Only one thing can cover you, restore you, heal you, and cause you to stand in righteousness, victory, and freedom. Nothing else. Nothing but the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 1:7 ...  In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

Colossians 1:14 ... In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

Romans 3:25 ... Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

1 John 1:7 ... But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. ❤

Cleansed.

Too many think lightly of sin, and therefore think lightly of the Savior. He who has stood before God, convicted and condemned, with the rope about his neck is the man to weep for joy when he is pardoned, to hate the evil which has been forgiven him, and to live to the honor of the Redeemer by whose blood he has been cleansed. 

[Charles H. Spurgeon]

Ephesians 2:13 ... But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.❤