Proverbs 16:33: The lot is cast into the lap; but the
whole disposing thereof is of the LORD.
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SEEING THE SON
“He that SEETH the Son and believes on Him hath everlasting life; and I
will raise him up again at the last day” (John 6:30).
SEEING THE SON in the
covenant of mercy, incarnate, on the cross, risen and exalted at the right hand
of God, and believing Him is the whole of saving faith. Paul said in Heb.12:2,
it is “looking unto Jesus, the author and
finisher of our faith.” You may read a dozen books on faith, hear a hundred
sermons on faith, and memorize all of the definitions of faith, and it will all
come down to THIS ONE THING, “He that
SEETH THE SON and believes on Him, hath everlasting life!” Look to Christ,
not to your faith; look to Christ, not to your works, either good or bad; look
to Christ, not to your feelings and experiences; look to Christ, not to your
brethren, either the best of them or the worst of them. Look to Christ NOW,
look to Christ ANEW, look to Christ ALONE, and look to Christ ALWAYS.
–Henry Mahan
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When our Lord was upon earth,
and conversed with His disciples, their eyes and hearts were fixed upon Him. In
danger, He was their defender; their guide, when in perplexity; and to Him they
looked for the solution of all their doubts and the supply of all their wants.
He is, now, withdrawn from our eyes, but faith sets Him, still, before us for
the same purposes and, according to its degree, with the same effects, as if we
actually saw Him. His spiritual presence, apprehended by faith, is a restraint
from evil, an encouragement to every service, and affords a present refuge and
help in every time of trouble.
–John Newton
GOD ALONE!
God
alone! Oh! that is a word to be learned,
to be learned by experience, and most assuredly none will ever know it unless
they are taught by the Holy Ghost. I do not think we often learn it till we
hear it in the thunder of divine power, when the deep-throated tempest within
the soul mutters- “God alone! God alone!” In fair weather we are for mixing our
trust, but when the whirlwind is abroad none but God will serve our turn. O my
brother man, if thou wilt set one foot upon the rock of divine faithfulness,
and the other foot upon the sand of human confidence, thou wilt go down with a
great fall. Both feet on the Rock! Mind that. Your whole confidence must be
fixed upon your Lord. Hang only upon that sure nail upon which hangs the whole
universe and hang nowhere else. What says David? “My soul, wait thou only
upon God, for my expectation is from him.” Beware of setting up a rival in
the temple of thy trust. Who is it that thou wouldst yoke with God? What helper
is there that thou wouldst put side by side with him? If thou couldst depend
upon an angel—does it not make thee smile at thy folly to think of saying, “I
trust in God and an angel?” Why there is no pairing such disparities. The
infinite Creator of all is not to be yoked even with the most glorious of his
creatures, and yet thou wouldst put thy fellowman into the yoke with God, and
trust in these two. Go, yoke an angel with an emmet if thou wilt, but never
think of joining God with man, and making the two thy confidence, when God is
all in all. Oh to be cut clear of all visible supports, and props, and
holdfasts! You have seen a balloon well filled, struggling to rise: what kept
it down? It longed to mount above the clouds into the calm serene, and yet it
lingered. What hindered it? The ropes which bound it to earth. Cut clear the
ropes, and then see how it mounts! With a spring it leaps upward while we are
gazing into the open sky. O for such a clearance and such a mounting for our
spirits! Alas, we are hindered and hampered! What are the bonds which detain
us? Are they not our visible supports and reliance’s? O my soul, thy human
confidences have been to thee like the iron chain which binds the captive eagle
to the rock; but if that confidence of thine were gone—if that chain on which
thou dost doat so much were broken, even though it were with a rough
blacksmith’s hammer—then thou couldst stretch thy wings, and be a child of the
sun, and dwell aloft amid the eternal light. Oftentimes the thing which we most
dread proves to be our grand necessity: by being deprived of earthly comforts
we are cut clear of everything except our God. The Lord bring us into this
state of high spiritual emancipation.
–Charles
Spurgeon
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SELF OR CHRIST: The religious
world and the world have very much in common; SELF. They glory in self and
their accomplishments. They proclaim themselves and the power of their will.
Self is promoted –bragged on and they are absorbed with self. It is always
saying “look at me.” Self can be described as self-indulgent, self-interested
and self-exalted. Then of course there is self-analysis. These who know and
trust the Lord Jesus, glory in Him and His accomplishment! They proclaim Him
and the power of His will. They promote Christ, the gospel and cry out to souls
to look to Christ alone. The believer abhors SELF and says as Paul, “O
wretched man that I am”. I am the least of all the saints, though I be
nothing.
–Donnie Bell
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DEMONSTRATION OF THE SPIRIT AND OF POWER
1 Corinthians 2:1: And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with
excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. 2:
For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him
crucified. 3: And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much
trembling. 4: And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words
of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 5: That your
faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
In order for a man to preach or even read a passage of
scripture in demonstration of the Spirit and of power two things must be done
in the man by God. 1) The Spirit must
first make the man see himself as the chief of sinners laid utterly in the dust
by the very word he intends to deliver.
Of all flesh that God declares worthless grass, the very word he intends
to deliver must first make him know that in his flesh he is the worst of the
worthless grass. 2) The Spirit must make
the man know that Christ alone is his righteousness concerning every word he
intends to speak. The passage must
resonate in his spirit revealing to him that every word has its light from
Christ and redounds to Christ’s glory so that Christ is his only perfection and
acceptance in every word, and that, only by the free gift of God’s grace.
This causes in him weakness, fear and much
trembling. Anything less will leave him
speaking down to his hearers in a demonstration of vanity.