HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU ARE ONE OF GOD’S ELECT?

September 28, 2020 / mikejeshurun / Leave a comment

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU ARE ONE OF GOD’S ELECT?

Michael Jeshurun

This is a question that I have asked myself and have been asked by others. How do I know that I am one of the elect? The truth is, no one can know that they are amongst the elect until they are born again. The ‘elect’ are not born with any visible marks on their body, or in their character. Neither can one assume that because a man is very poor or severely afflicted that he could be one of God’s chosen, and that in spite of the fact that Scripture tells us that for the most part God hath chosen the poor of this world rich in faith to be heirs of the kingdom [James 2:5] . Again Scripture affirms that not many wise, mighty, or noble men are called but God has chosen the foolish, the weak, the base and the things which are despised. [1Cor 1:26-28] But this is not to say that all who are such are His elect.

Both history and everyday life show us that there are many foolish, poor and others who have literally reached the ‘end of their ropes’ in every way but have no desire to call upon God or any interest in the true gospel.

Writing to the Thessalonians, the Apostle wrote – “Knowing brethren, beloved, your election of God.” [1Thes 1:4]

How did the apostle know their election of God? Let it be most particularly observed that this assurance of his was obtained not by any immediate revelation from Heaven, not by a supernatural vision or angelic message, nor by the Lord Himself, directly informing him to that effect. No; rather was it by what he had witnessed in and from them. It was by the visible fruits of their election that he perceived them to be “brethren beloved.” In other words, he traced back those effects of grace which had been wrought in them at their conversion, to the source thereof in God’s eternal purpose of mercy.

Those tiny rivulets of grace in their hearts the apostle traced back to the ocean of God’s everlasting love from which they proceeded. Therein, he indicted to us the course which we must follow, the method we are to pursue in order to ascertain our predestination to glory. [A.W. Pink]

What was the change that occurred in me when God saved me?

There are three. And I shall briefly state them and later expound on them.

1. There was a time I hated the Lord and His commandments. But now I love Him with all my heart, mind and soul and am willing to die for Him!

2. There was a time I hated true Christians and couldn’t stand them. Now I long for their company and feel like a ‘fish out of water’ in the company of unbelievers!
3. There was a time when the little Bible that I knew was a DEAD BOOK! But NOW when I read it God speaks to me through it personally and comforts, edifies and challenges me!

1. I got involved in the occult at a very young age and by the time I went to college, I was a practicing Satanist. As an occultist I quite naturally hated the name of the Lord Jesus and did not want anything to do with Him. But when the Lord in His mercy saved me by His free mercy and love, something happened. There arose an unexplainable love for the Lord and a perfect hatred for the devil.

Now you might say, “I have never been an occultist and I have never hated the Lord. In fact I have always loved God”. But is this God whom you have all along loved the God of the Bible? Is He the Sovereign discriminating God whom the Bible speaks of?!

A Sovereign who is answerable to none but Himself. A God who doeth according to HIS WILL in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou? [Dan 4:35]A Sovereign who hath mercy on whom He will and hardens whom He will! [Rom 9:18] A Sovereign who knows the end from the beginning, and calleth those things that are not as though they were and makes His people willing in the day of His power! A Sovereign who hath created ALL THINGS for Himself, yea even the wicked for the day of evil, and causes the wrath of man to praise Him!

Few who claim to be Christians know THIS God! The God THEY believe in is a frustrated idol who keeps hoping and wishing and wringing his hands helplessly as man and devil rule by their ‘free will’.

But not so my God! Of my God it is written -“Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not EVIL AND GOOD”?[Lam 3:37,38]

My God “is in one mind, and who can turn HIM? And what His soul desireth, even that He doeth. For He performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with Him. Therefore am I troubled at His presence: when I consider, I am afraid of Him”! [Job 23:13-15]

This God cannot be known by ‘walking an aisle’, ‘saying a little prayer’, signing a ‘decision card’ or getting baptized when you are old enough, but only by REVELATION!

“I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast HID THESE THINGS from the wise and prudent, and hast REVEALED THEM unto babes”. [Matt 11:25]

Again – “Unto YOU (His elect) it is GIVEN to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: [why?] That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them”. [Mark 4:11,12]

Now THIS is the God I came to know shortly after my salvation. THIS is the God of the Scriptures! To the unbelieving heart and even the nominal religious Christian THIS God described above is nothing short of a monster!

A.W.Pink once wrote to a brother he was ministering to – “Preach Election, and you will know who the sheep and the goats are!” I would say a hearty “Amen!” to that, for I am convinced that the doctrine of divine predestination is not some high doctrine only to be understood by ‘older divines’ and ‘Fathers’ in the lord, but a truth that can be grasped even by a babe in the Lord.

I have personally labored much to present the truth of divine Predestination in many a pulpit in our land as the Lord gave me the opportunity. But I was to them as one who spoke in a strange tongue. And the reason for this is that very few in Christendom today are regenerated Christians who know the Lord or rather are ‘known of Him’. A great majority (99%) of those who warm the pews are ‘natural men’ who worship a God of their own making. Only a babe in Christ will desire the ‘sincere milk of the Word’. And believe me, what is preached in the existing ‘pulpits’ of our day is not even ‘milk’ let alone ‘meat’. It’s just plain hogwash!

The Christ of nominal Christendom is not the Sovereign, All-powerful, discriminating God of the Bible!

In one of his letters to Erasmus, Luther said, “Your thoughts of God are too human.” Probably that renowned scholar resented such a rebuke, the more so, since it proceeded from a miner’s son. Nevertheless, it was thoroughly deserved. I, too, pose the same charge against the vast majority of the preachers of our day, and against those who, instead of searching the Scriptures for themselves, lazily accept the teachings of their Seminaries. The most dishonoring conceptions of the rule and reign of the Almighty are now held almost everywhere. To countless thousands, even professing Christians, the God of Scripture is quite unknown.

Of old, God complained to an apostate Israel,

“Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself” (Psalm 50:21).

Such must now be His indictment against apostate Christendom. Men imagine the Most High is moved by sentiment, rather than by principle. They suppose His omnipotency is such an idle fiction that Satan can thwart His designs on every side. They think that if He has formed any plan or purpose at all, then it must be like theirs, constantly subject to change. They openly declare that whatever power He possesses must be restricted, lest He invade the citadel of man’s free will and reduce him to a machine. They lower the all-efficacious atonement, which redeems everyone for whom it was made, to a mere remedy, which sin-sick souls may use if they feel so disposed. They lessen the strength of the invincible work of the Holy Spirit to an offer of the Gospel which sinners may accept or reject as they please.

All that to say, whether it is our salvation, our knowledge of God and His ways or our works for Him, in every thing all the glory is due to Him and Him alone. This is one reason why I am convinced that I am one of His elect. For His Spirit has in His grace and mercy revealed to me WHO HE IS!

And the doctrine which he has taught me gives God all the glory and puts man where he belongs ….in the dust!

This is how I know that I am one of His elect! And this is how I recognize others who are elected with me. They have come to believe the God of the Scriptures as he is revealed in the Scriptures!

2. Another mark that I am one of God’s elect is that I love the brethren. Scripture says – “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death”. [1John 3:14]

The word ‘brethren’ here must be defined. Does this mean all who call themselves Christians are my brothers and sisters in the Lord? No! the Bible speaks of some who are ‘false brethren’ [2Cor 11:26; Gal 2:4]

They are not all ‘brethren’ who claim to believe in Jesus. The Apostle said – “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment”. [1Cor 1:10] Another apostle warned – “If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds”. [2John 1:10,11]

It does not help to say that one’s creed is just ‘Jesus Christ’. For there are many Christ’s! We have the Romish Christ, the Mormon Christ and every other cult which defends its authority by Scripture claims to believe in ‘Jesus Christ’.

So it behooves us to define the Christ we believe in by Creed and doctrine!

There are those who complain, “Oh but doctrine divides”! Oh yes it divides! It divides between the sheep and the goats and those who are elect and those who are not!

Is the Jesus I believe in the third person of the Godhead?! Is He very God of very God and one substance with the Father!? Is He the absolute sovereign who hath mercy on whom He will and hardens whom He will!? Is he the frustrated saviour who desires the salvation of all men hoping that they will choose him of their own ‘free will’ or is He the Omnipotent Lord who makes His people willing in the Day of His power!?

The right answer to just the above questions will eliminate and expose the myriads of false Christ’s that pervade the land!

The Master told His disciples whom he had chosen –“If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you”. [John 15:19]

Do you know how I am convinced that I am one of God’s elect? Because the world hates me! What world? Which “world” is specifically in view here? Let the previous verse answer: “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.”

What “world” hated Christ and hounded Him to death? The religious world, those who pretended to be most zealous for God’s glory. So it is now. Let the elect child of God turn his back upon a Christ—dishonoring Christendom, and his fiercest foes and most relentless and unscrupulous enemies will be those who claim to be Christians themselves!

“Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you… for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad” (Matthew 5:11,12).

Ah, my brother, it is a healthy sign, a sure mark that you are one of God’s elect, when the religious world hates you. But if, on the other hand, you still have a “good standing” in the “churches” or “assemblies” there is grave reason to fear that you are not one of His chosen! [Paraphrased from A.W. Pink]

3. Another clear sign that I am one of God’s elect is that the Bible which was once a dead book is now a living one. I was so thrilled when God saved me to know that He was now speaking to me through His Word! This was the first time I truly heard His voice. It wasn’t an audible voice (NEVER HAS BEEN). But I KNOW His voice! All the Elect know it. It couldn’t have been clearer if the Lord stood next to me and said it audibly!

The Master said – “Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice”. [John 18:37]

It’s the still small voice of His glorious word full of majesty and power. It blows your mind (pardon the phrase). When you hear something like this no one can convince you that He didn’t speak to you! “Blessed is the people that know the JOYFUL SOUND: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of Thy countenance.” [Psa 89:15]. There is such a thing as the ‘voice of His Word’ [see Psa 103:20].

I know I am one of His elect because I do not read His Word as a religious duty or to gather information to debate, but because it is my necessary food! [see Job 23:12]. Only an elect child of God understands the meaning of the word – “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God”. [Mat 4:4] I could say with the Psalmist – “O how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day” [Psa 119:97]

An elect man or woman is one who is blessed. “Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest, and causest to approach unto Thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts”! [Psa 65:4]

Concerning this blessed person it is written –

“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper”. [Psa 1:1-3]

The elect did not deserve it [Titus 3:5]. Neither did they ask for it [Rom 10:20]. But God gave it to them freely, and all the glory to God alone!

SHEEP AND THE GOATS

July 18, 2020 / mikejeshurun / Leave a comment

SHEEP AND THE GOATS

Michael Jeshurun

Arminian ‘soul-winners’ always ask us, “If you believe in Election and Predestination etc, HOW can you preach to all men and win ‘the lost’?

We answer, the Master said go ye and preach to ‘every creature’! So we do! Whether that creature is a sheep or a goat or in some cases a wolf or a pig, we know not!

But this we are convinced of, that His Sheep WILL hear His voice through our preaching and follow! [John 10:27]

A sheep CANNOT become a goat and neither can a goat become a sheep!

THEY’RE BORN THAT WAY!

He that hath ears to ear let hear!

NO MAN will thirst for Christ unless he is one of God’s sheep! Jesus said unto the unbelieving Jews – “Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life”. And He tells them why – “But ye believe not, BECAUSE YE ARE NOT OF MY SHEEP”! [John 5:40 & 10:26]

“The Lord did not say “Ye are not of My sheep because ye believe not,” but, “Ye believe not, because ye are not of My sheep.” Man always turns the things of God upside down. When he comes to something in the Word which is peculiarly distasteful, instead of meekly submitting to it and receiving it in simple faith because God says it, he resorts to every imaginable device to make it mean something else.

Here Christ is not only charging these Jews with unbelief, but He also explains WHY faith had not been granted to them — they were not “of His sheep”: they were not among the favored number of God’s elect.

So when WE go forth and preach, we preach not with a confidence in either our eloquence or convincing skills, but in the Word of the Lord Jesus who said – “Everyone that is OF THE TRUTH heareth My voice”! [John 18:37] i.e. EVERYONE who BELONGS TO THE TRUTH, who are the sheep!

These ‘sheep’ and only these will hear, understand, repent and believe!

The rest can only hear, despise, wonder and perish! [Acts 13:41] For they are goats to whom it is not divinely and sovereignly ‘given’ to believe! [Mark 4:11,12]

These sheep are the same ones spoken of in Acts 13:48. There we read – “As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed”!

Every artifice of human ingenuity has been employed to blunt the sharp edge of this Scripture and to explain away the obvious meaning of these words, but it has been employed in vain, though nothing will ever be able to reconcile this and similar passages to the mind of the natural man. “As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed.”

Here we learn four things:

First, that believing is the consequence AND NOT THE CAUSE of God’s decree.

Second, that a LIMITED NUMBER only are “ordained to eternal life,” for if all men without exception were thus ordained by God, then the words “as many as are a meaningless qualification.

Third, that this “ordination” of God is not to mere external privileges but to “eternal life,” not to service but to SALVATION ITSELF.

Fourth, that ALL—”as many as,” NOT ONE LESS—who are thus ordained by God to eternal life WILL most certainly believe.

The comments of the beloved Spurgeon on the above passage are well worthy of our notice. Said he –

“Attempts have been made to prove that these words do not teach predestination, but these attempts so clearly do violence to language that I shall not waste time in answering them. I read: ‘As many as were ordained to eternal life believed’, and I shall not twist the text but shall glorify the grace of God by ascribing to that grace the faith of every man.

Is it not God who gives the disposition to believe? If men are disposed to have eternal life, does not He—in every case—dispose them? Is it wrong for God to give grace? If it be right for Him to give it, is it wrong for Him to PURPOSE to give it? Would you have Him give it by accident? If it is right for Him to purpose to give grace today, it was right for Him to purpose it before today—and, since He changes not—from eternity.”

EVERY THING ORDAINED IN THE LIFE OF GOD’S CHILD

July 9, 2020 / mikejeshurun / Leave a comment

EVERY THING ORDAINED IN THE LIFE OF GOD’S CHILD

“Things that accompany Salvation.” [Hebrews 6:9]

C.H. Spurgeon

IN THE MARCHES OF TROOPS AND ARMIES, THERE ARE SOME THAT ARE OUTRIDERS, AND GO FAR AHEAD OF THE OTHER TROOPS. So in the march of Salvation, which have far preceded it to clear the way. I will tell you the names of these stupendous Titans who have gone before. The first is ELECTION, the second is PREDESTINATION, the third is REDEMPTION and the COVENANT is the captain of them all. Before Salvation came into this world, Election marched in the very forefront, and it had for its work the billeting of Salvation. Election went through the world and marked the houses to which Salvation should come and the hearts in which the treasure should be deposited. Election looked through all the race of man, from Adam down to the last, and marked with sacred stamp those for whom Salvation was designed. “He must needs go through Samaria,” said Election; and Salvation must go there.

Then came Predestination. Predestination did not merely mark the house, but it mapped the road in which Salvation should travel to that house, Predestination ordained every step of the great army of Salvation, it ordained the time when the sinner should be brought to Christ, the manner how he should be saved, the means that should be employed; it marked the exact hour and moment, when God the Spirit should quicken the dead in sin, and when peace and pardon should be spoken through the blood of Jesus. Predestination marked the way so completely, that Salvation doth never overstep the bounds, and it is never at a loss for the road. In the everlasting decree of the Sovereign God, the footsteps of Mercy were every one of them ordained. As nothing in this world revolves by chance—as even the foreknown station of a rush by the river is as fixed as the station of a king—it was not meet that Salvation should be left to chance; and therefore God has mapped the place where it should pitch its tent, the manner of its footsteps to that tent, and the time when it should arrive there.

Then came Redemption. The way was rough; and though Election had marked the house, and Predestination had mapped the road, the way was so impeded that Salvation could not travel it until it had been cleared. Forth came Redemption, it had but one weapon; that weapon was the all-victorious cross of Christ. There stood the mountains of our sins; Redemption smote them, and they split in halves and left a valley for the Lord’s redeemed to march through. There was the great gulf of God’s offended wrath; Redemption bridged it with the cross, and so left an everlasting passage by which the armies of the Lord may cross. Redemption has tunnelled every mountain; it has dried up every sea, cut down every forest; it has levelled every high hill, and filled up the valleys, so that the road of Salvation is now plain and simple. God can be just, and yet the justifier of the ungodly.

Now, this sacred advance-guard carry for their banner the Eternal Covenant. Election, Predestination, and Redemption—the things that have gone before, beyond the sight, are all rallied to the battle by this standard—the Covenant, the Everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things and sure. We know and believe that before the morning star startled the shades of darkness, God had covenanted with his Son that he should die and pay a ransom price, and that, on God the Father’s part, he would give to Jesus “a number whom no man could number,” who should be purchased by his blood, and through that blood should be most securely saved. Now, when Election marches forward, it carries the Covenant. These are chosen in the Covenant of grace. When Predestination marcheth, and when it marketh out the way of Salvation, it proclaims the Covenant. “He marked out the places of the people according to the tribes of Israel.” And Redemption also, pointing to the precious blood of Christ, claims Salvation for the blood-bought ones, because the Covenant hath decreed it to be theirs.

Now, my dear hearers, this advance-guard is so far ahead that you and I cannot see them. These are true doctrines, but very mysterious; they are beyond our sight, and if we wish to see Salvation, we must not stop until we see the van-guard, because they are so far off that only the eye of faith can reach them. We must have that sacred glass, that divine telescope of faith, or else we shall never have the evidence of things not seen. Let us rest certain, however, that if we have Salvation we have Election. He that believeth is elected and whoever casts himself on Christ as a guilty sinner, is certainly God’s chosen child. As sure as ever you believe on the Saviour, and go to him, you were predestinated to do so from all eternity, and your faith is the great mark and evidence that you are chosen of God, and precious in his esteem.

Dost thou believe? Then Election is thine. Dost thou believe? Then Predestination is as surely thine as thou art alive. Dost thou trust alone in Jesus? Then fear not, Redemption was meant for thee. So then, we will not be struck with terror at that grand advance-guard that hath already gained the celestial hill, and have prepared the place where the elect shall for ever repose upon the bosom of their God.

But mark, we are about to review THE ARMY THAT IMMEDIATELY PRECEDES SALVATION; and first, in the forefront of these, there marches one whose name we must pronounce with sacred awe. It is God, the Holy Spirit. Before anything can be done in our salvation, there must come that Third Person of the Sacred Trinity. Without him, faith, repentance, humility, love, are things quite impossible. Even the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ cannot save until it has been applied to the heart by God the Holy Spirit. Before we notice the grand army, then, that immediately precedes Salvation, let us be cautious that we do not forget Him who is the leader of them all. The great King, Immortal, invisible, the Divine person, called the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit: it is he that quickens the soul, or else it would lie dead for ever; it is he that makes it tender, or else it would never feel, it is he that imparts efficacy to the Word preached, or else it could never reach further than the ear; it is he who breaks the heart, it is he who makes it whole: he, from first to last, is the great worker of Salvation in us just as Jesus Christ was the author of Salvation for us.

O soul, by this mayest thou know whether Salvation has come to thine house—art thou a partaker of the Holy Spirit? Come now, answer thou this question—hath he ever breathed on thee? Hath he ever breathed into thee? Canst thou say that thou hast been the subject of his supernatural influence? For, if not, remember except a man be born of the Spirit from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; only that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Thy best exertions will be all unavailing unless the Holy Ghost shall work in thee, to will and to do of God’s good pleasure.

The highest efforts of the flesh can never reach higher than the flesh, just as water of itself will never run higher than its source. You may be moral, you may be strictly upright, you may be much that is commendable, but unless you be partakers of the Holy Spirit, salvation is as impossible to you as it is even to the lost. We must be born again, and born again by that divine influence, or else it is all in vain. Remember, then, that the Spirit of God always accompanies Salvation.

THE LORD DOES NOT SEEK FOR GOATS TO TURN THEM INTO SHEEP!

January 3, 2020 / mikejeshurun / 1 Comment

THE LORD DOES NOT SEEK FOR GOATS TO TURN THEM INTO SHEEP!

Michael Jeshurun

One of the important facts which many miss out when studying the parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Lost Son is that in all three cases the ‘seekers’ sought for that which was ALREADY THEIRS! [Luke 15:4-32]

The Shepherd HAD a hundred sheep, and the woman HAD ten coins and the father was looking out and patiently waiting, not for a stranger but for HIS OWN SON!

God’s elect do not start out as goats and later become sheep by accepting Jesus! The sheep are sheep from ETERNITY! They are KNOWN and loved by the Father from BEFORE TIME BEGAN!

“Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, WHICH WAS GIVEN US IN CHRIST JESUS BEFORE THE WORLD BEGAN!” [2Tim 1:9]

God does not say I will search for GOATS and make them My sheep, but rather I will search for MY SHEEP!

“For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both SEARCH MY SHEEP, and seek them out.

As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I SEEK OUT MY SHEEP, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day!” [Ezk 34;11,12]

In the mind of God, the elect are viewed as His children from ETERNITY. “No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost”! [1Cor 12:3] And God sends the Holy Spirit into the hearts of His Elect BECAUSE he views them as His children.

“And BECAUSE YE ARE SONS, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father”. [Gal 4:6]

The Elect are said to be the object of the Father’s love! As to WHEN this love ‘originated’ in the heart of God, the Scripture leaves us with no doubts when it declares – “Yea, I have loved thee with AN EVERLASTING LOVE: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee”. [Jer 31:3]. This love had no beginning and is eternal as Jehovah Himself! One of the greatest comforts for the tried child of God!

The Master declared that the elect BELONGED TO THE FATHER long before they came to the Son! “Thine they WERE, and Thou gavest them Me”! [John 17:6] This should be said of all the elect, not just the Apostles.

Notice, “And other sheep I HAVE, which are not of this fold: THEM ALSO I must bring, and they SHALL hear My voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd!” [John 10:16]

“Other sheep, I HAVE” not “WILL HAVE . . . if they accept me!” Note the definitive grammar – “they SHALL hear My voice” not “they may or may not hear” but “SHALL HEAR!”

In fact the prophecy concerning the Atonement was – “For the transgression of MY PEOPLE was He stricken”! [Isaiah 53:8] And in fact this alone should settle once and for all whether Christ died for the whole world or only for the Elect! . . . “I lay down My life FOR THE SHEEP”! [John 10:15]

Christ shed His blood and laid down His life for HIS SHEEP who were lost in Adam through the fall!

“This said Caiaphas not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation;

And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one THE CHILDREN OF GOD THAT WERE SCATTERED ABROAD!” [John 11:51,52]

The ‘Children of God scattered abroad’ are NOT GOATS who transform into sheep by accepting Christ, but SHEEP who hear HIS voice and follow! [John 10:27] Though at that time they were “scattered abroad,” nevertheless, they Spirit denominates them as “the children of God”!

Those who cannot hear Christ’s voice speaking through the gospel are NOT HIS SHEEP, BUT GOATS!

Christ’s sheep hear His voice because they ‘BELONG TO THE TRUTH’!!

Please read once again and ponder the Master’s words to Pilate . . . “Every one that is OF THE TRUTH heareth My voice”! [John 18:37]

i.e. Everyone who ‘BELONGS TO THE TRUTH’!

Those who are ‘OF GOD’, ‘BELONG TO GOD’ or are ‘GOD’S SHEEP’ hear our words and believe them no matter how harsh or ‘unacceptable’ it may be!

“He that is OF GOD heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, BECAUSE ye are not of God!” [John 8:47]

When the Master preached some harsh truths, ALL the GOATS LEFT HIM AND WALKED WITH HIM NO MORE!

But the sheep stayed back saying – “To whom shall WE go? THOU hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God!” [John 6:68,69]

Oh what an unspeakable blessing to be one of His sheep whom He came to save. And because we are His sheep we can confidently affirm – “The LORD is my Shepherd, I shall not want”! And because we are one of His sheep, ‘goodness and mercy shall follow us ALL the days of our life and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever’! [Psalm 23]

Thank you Jesus! Praise the Lord!

DID GOD FORESEE YOU WOULD BELIEVE AND THEREFORE ELECT YOU?

November 30, 2019 / mikejeshurun / Leave a comment

DID GOD FORESEE YOU WOULD BELIEVE AND THEREFORE ELECT YOU?

Michael Jeshurun

“Elect, according to the foreknowledge of God. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son”. [1Peter 1:2; Romans 8:29]

Did God elect men because He foresaw they would repent and believe? The question itself appears dumb or stupid to all those who have truly come to believe in the doctrines of ‘Sovereign Grace’ and an ‘Unconditional Election’, and yet THAT is exactly what MANY who claim to hold the doctrines of election believe!

They cannot out-rightly DENY the doctrine of Election for the Bible is full of it! But they have a totally wrong concept of what this doctrine actually teaches!

There are many who have a totally wrong concept of the term ‘Election’! According to them, God elects only those whom He looked into the future and foresaw would believe of their own ‘free will’!

So ‘election’ according to these Arminians is not ‘UNCONDITIONAL’ as the scripture clearly affirms, but is CONDITIONAL on the merits of the individual elected!

Yes, God foresees ALL THINGS! “Known unto God are ALL His works from the beginning of the world”! [Acts 15:18] And if there was anything God ‘foresaw’ concerning His elect or chosen ones, it is THIS – that if left to themselves they would NEVER EVER ‘choose Him’ but freely choose everything that is contrary to Him and wind up in Hell!

THIS is why in the ‘fullness of time’ or in ‘Day of His power’ He sends forth His Spirit and sovereignly regenerates them and draws them to Himself! “Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power”! [Psalm 110:3]

Foreseen faith and good works, then, are never to be looked upon as the CAUSE of the Divine election. They are rather its fruits and proof. They show that the person has been chosen and regenerated. To make them the BASIS of election involves us again in a covenant of WORKS, and places God’s purposes in TIME rather than in ETERNITY. This would not be PRE-destination but POST-destination, an inversion of the Scripture account which makes faith and holiness to be the CONSEQUENTS, and not the ANTECEDENTS, of election (Eph. 1:4; John 15:16; Titus 3:5).

Here are some comments from divines of the past as to what THEY thought of this warped view of predestination –

A.W. PINK (1886-1952): Was it because God foresaw they would believe? No; for how can those who are “dead in trespasses and sins” believe in Christ? How could God foreknow some men as believers when belief was impossible to them? Scripture declares that we “BELIEVED THROUGH GRACE,” Acts 18:27. Faith is God’s gift, and apart from this gift none would believe. The cause of His choice, then, lies within Himself, and not in the objects of His choice. He chose the ones He did, simply because He chose to choose them.

C.H. SPURGEON: Now, God gives faith, therefore He could not have elected them on account of their faith, which He foresaw. There shall be twenty beggars in the street, and I determine to give one of them a shilling; but will any one say that I determined to give that one a shilling—that I ELECTED him to have the shilling—because I foresaw that he would have it? That would be talking nonsense. In like manner, to say that God elected men because He foresaw they would have faith would be too absurd for us to listen to for a moment. Faith is the gift the God. Every virtue come from Him. Therefore it cannot have CAUSED him to elect men, because it is His gift.

THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): It is absurd to think that anything in us could have the least influence upon our election. Some say that God did foresee that such persons would believe, and therefore did choose them; so they would make the business of salvation to depend upon something in us. Whereas God does not choose us FOR faith, but TO faith. “HE HATH CHOSEN US, THAT WE SHOULD BE HOLY,” Ephesians 1:4―not because we would be holy, but that we might be holy. We are elected TO holiness, not FOR it.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Mark―not because He foresaw that they would be of themselves holy, but that they should be holy―this was that God resolved He would make them to be.

AUGUSTINE (354-430): The grace of God does not find men fit to be elected, but makes them so. Here undoubtably falls to the ground the vain reasoning of those who defend the foreknowledge of God in opposition to His grace, and affirm that we were elected before the foundation of the world, because God fore-knew that we would be good, not that He Himself would make us good. This is not the language of Him who says, YE HAVE NOT CHOSEN ME, BUT I HAVE CHOSEN YOU, John 15:16.

JOHN KNOX (1514-1572): Let the whole Scripture be read and diligently marked, and no sentence, rightly understood, shall be found that affirms God to have chosen us in respect of our works, or because He foresaw that we should be faithful, holy and just. But to the contrary, many places shall we find―yea, even so many as treat of the matter―that plainly affirm we are freely chosen, according to the purpose of His good will, and that in Christ Jesus.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD: For my own part, I know of no other doctrine that can truly humble man; either God must choose us, or we must choose God; either God must be the first mover, or man must be the first mover; either God must choose them on account of some goodness, on account of some purity, or acts of piety, or God must choose them merely of His grace, for His own name’s sake, and to let us know that we have not chosen Him, but that He has chosen us.

Whatever men’s reasoning may suggest, if the children of God fairly examine their own experiences—if they do God justice—they must acknowledge that they did not choose God, but that God chose them. And if He chose them at all, it must be from eternity, and that too without anything foreseen in them.

C.H. SPURGEON: I believe the doctrine of election, because I am quite sure that if God had not chosen me I should never have chosen Him; and I am sure He chose me before I was born, or else He never would have chosen me afterwards; and He must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why He should have looked upon me with special love. So I am forced to accept that doctrine. I am bound to the doctrine of the depravity of the human heart, because I find myself depraved in heart, and have daily proofs that there dwelleth in my flesh no good thing.

A. W. PINK: “In LOVE having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will.” It was “in love” that God the Father predestined His chosen ones unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according—ACCORDING to what? According to some excellency He discovered in them? No. What then? According to what He foresaw they would become? No; mark carefully the inspired answer—According to THE GOOD PLEASURE OF HIS WILL.

NOTHING HAPPENS BY CHANCE IN THE LIFE OF GOD’S ELECT

January 19, 2019 / mikejeshurun / Leave a comment

NOTHING HAPPENS BY CHANCE IN THE LIFE OF GOD’S ELECT

“Things that accompany Salvation.” [Hebrews 6:9]

C.H. Spurgeon

IN THE MARCHES OF TROOPS AND ARMIES, THERE ARE SOME THAT ARE OUTRIDERS, AND GO FAR AHEAD OF THE OTHER TROOPS. So in the march of Salvation, which have far preceded it to clear the way. I will tell you the names of these stupendous Titans who have gone before. The first is ELECTION, the second is PREDESTINATION, the third is REDEMPTION and the COVENANT is the captain of them all. Before Salvation came into this world, Election marched in the very forefront, and it had for its work the billeting of Salvation. Election went through the world and marked the houses to which Salvation should come and the hearts in which the treasure should be deposited. Election looked through all the race of man, from Adam down to the last, and marked with sacred stamp those for whom Salvation was designed. “He must needs go through Samaria,” said Election; and Salvation must go there.

But mark, we are about to review THE ARMY THAT IMMEDIATELY PRECEDES SALVATION; and first, in the forefront of these, there marches one whose name we must pronounce with sacred awe. It is God, the Holy Spirit. Before anything can be done in our salvation, there must come that Third Person of the Sacred Trinity. Without him, faith, repentance, humility, love, are things quite impossible. Even the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ cannot save until it has been applied to the heart by God the Holy Spirit. Before we notice the grand army, then, that immediately precedes Salvation, let us be cautious that we do not forget Him who is the leader of them all. The great King, Immortal, invisible, the Divine person, called the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit: it is he that quickens the soul, or else it would lie dead for ever; it is he that makes it tender, or else it would never feel, it is he that imparts efficacy to the Word preached, or else it could never reach further than the ear; it is he who breaks the heart, it is he who makes it whole: he, from first to last, is the great worker of Salvation in us just as Jesus Christ was the author of Salvation for us.

THE REASON I AM SAVED

September 19, 2018 / mikejeshurun / 4 Comments

THE REASON I AM SAVED

By C.H. SPURGEON

“Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.” [John 15:16]

Sometimes, when I see some of the worst characters in the street, I feel as if my heart must burst forth in tears of gratitude that God has never let me act as they have done! I have thought, if God had left me alone, and had not touched me by His grace, what a great sinner I should have been! I should have run to the utmost lengths of sin, dived into the very depths of evil, nor should I have stopped at any vice or folly, if God had not restrained me. I feel that I should have been a very king of sinners, if God had let me alone.

I cannot understand the reason why I am saved, except upon the ground that God would have it so. I cannot, if I look ever so earnestly, discover any kind of reason in myself why I should be a partaker of Divine grace. If I am not at this moment without Christ, it is only because Christ Jesus would have His will with me, and that will was that I should be with Him where He is, and should share His glory. I can put the crown nowhere but upon the head of Him whose mighty grace has saved me from going down into the pit.

Looking back on my past life, I can see that the dawning of it all was of God; of God effectively. I took no torch with which to light the sun, but the sun enlightened me. I did not commence my spiritual life—no, I rather kicked, and struggled against the things of the Spirit: when He drew me, for a time I did not run after Him: there was a natural hatred in my soul of everything holy and good. Wooings were lost upon me—warnings were cast to the wind—thunders were despised; and as for the whispers of His love, they were rejected as being less than nothing and vanity. But, sure I am, I can say now, speaking on behalf of myself, “He only is my salvation.” It was He who turned my heart, and brought me down on my knees before Him. I can in very deed, say with Doddridge and Toplady—
“Grace taught my soul to pray,
And made my eyes o’erflow;”

and coming to this moment, I can add—
“‘Tis grace has kept me to this day,
And will not let me go.”

Well can I remember the manner in which I learned the doctrines of grace in a single instant. Born, as all of us are by nature, an Arminian, I still believed the old things I had heard continually from the pulpit, and did not see the grace of God. When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me.

I do not think the young convert is at first aware of this. I can recall the very day and hour when first I received those truths in my own soul—when they were, as John Bunyan says, burnt into my heart as with a hot iron, and I can recollect how I felt that I had grown on a sudden from a babe into a man—that I had made progress in Scriptural knowledge, through having found, once for all, the clue to the truth of God. One week-night, when I was sitting in the house of God, I was not thinking much about the preacher’s sermon, for I did not believe it. The thought struck me, HOW DID YOU COME TO BE A CHRISTIAN? I sought the Lord. BUT HOW DID YOU COME TO SEEK THE LORD? The truth flashed across my mind in a moment—I should not have sought Him unless there had been some previous influence in my mind to MAKE ME seek Him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, HOW CAME I TO PRAY? I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. HOW CAME I TO READ THE SCRIPTURES? I did read them, but what led me to do so?

Then, in a moment, I saw that GOD WAS AT THE BOTTOM OF IT ALL, and that HE was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, “I ascribe my change wholly to God.”

The FIRST CAUSE of your union with Christ lies in the PURPOSE OF GOD who gave you grace in Christ Jesus from before the foundation of the world. And as to the purpose, so to the power of God is your union with Christ to be attributed. HE brought you into Christ; you were a stranger, HE brought you near; you were an enemy, He reconciled you.

You had never come to Christ to seek for mercy if first of all the Spirit of God had not appeared to you to SHOW YOU your need, and to LEAD YOU to cry for the mercy that you needed. Through God’s operation as well as through God’s decree you are this day in Christ Jesus. It will do your souls good, my brethren, to think of this very common-place truth. Many days have passed since your conversion, it may be, but do not forget what a high day the day of your new birth was; and do not cease to give glory to that mighty power which brought you out of darkness into marvellous light.

YOU DID NOT CONVERT YOURSELF; IF YOU DID, YOU STILL HAVE NEED TO BE CONVERTED AGAIN!

Your regeneration was not of the will of man, nor of blood, nor of birth; if it were so, let me tell you the sooner you are rid of it the better. THE ONLY TRUE REGENERATION IS OF THE WILL OF GOD AND BY THE OPERATION OF THE HOLY GHOST. “By the grace of God I am what I am.” He “has begotten us again unto a lively hope.” “He that hath wrought us to the selfsame thing is God.” “OF HIM are ye in Christ Jesus.” Through the operation and will and purpose of God are you this day a member of Christ’s body and one with Jesus.

Give all the glory, then, to the Lord alone!

Jonah’s Doctrate earned in a strange College

June 5, 2018 / mikejeshurun / Leave a comment

Jonah’s Doctrate earned in a strange College

C.H. SPURGEON

[A must read sermon for all of God’s Elect – M.J.]

Jonah learned this sentence of good theology in a strange college. He learned it in the whale’s belly, at the bottom of the mountains, with the weeds wrapped about his head, when he supposed that the earth with her bars was about him forever.

Most of the grand truths of God have to be learned by trouble; they must be burned into us with the hot iron of affliction, otherwise we shall not truly receive them. No man is competent to judge in matters of the kingdom, until first he has been tried; since there are many things to be learned in the depths which we can never know in the heights. We discover many secrets in the caverns of the ocean, which, though we had soared to heaven, we never could have known.

He shall best meet the wants of God’s people as a preacher who has had those wants himself; he shall best comfort God’s Israel who has needed comfort; and he shall best preach salvation who has felt his own need of it. Jonah, when he was delivered from his great danger, when, by the command of God the fish had obediently left its great deeps and delivered its cargo upon dry land, was then capable of judging; and this was the result of his experience under his trouble—”Salvation is of the Lord.”

By salvation here we do not merely understand the special salvation which Jonah received from death; for according to Dr. Gill, there is something so special in the original, in the word salvation having one more letter than it usually has, when it only refers to some temporary deliverance, that we can only understand it here as relating to the great work of the salvation of the soul which endureth for ever. That “salvation is of the Lord,”

First, then, to begin by explanation, let us EXPOUND THIS DOCTRINE—the doctrine that salvation is of the Lord, or of Jehovah. We are to understand by this, that the whole of the work whereby men are saved from their natural estate of sin and ruin, and are translated into the kingdom of God and made heirs of eternal happiness, is of God, and of him only. “Salvation is of the Lord.”

To begin, then, at the beginning, THE PLAN OF SALVATION IS ENTIRELY OF GOD. No human intellect and no created intelligence assisted God in the planning of salvation; he contrived the way, even as he himself carried it out. The plan of salvation was devised before the existence of angels. Before the day-star flung its ray across the darkness, when as yet the unnavigated ether had not been fanned by the wing of seraph, and when the solemnity of silence had never been disturbed by the song of angel, God had devised a way whereby he might save man, whom he foresaw would fall. He did not create angels to consult with them; no, of himself he did it. We might truly ask the question, “With whom took he counsel? Who instructed him, when be planned the great architecture of the temple of mercy? With whom took he counsel when he digged the deeps of love, that out of them there might well up springs of salvation? Who aided him?” None.

He himself, alone, did it. In fact, if angels had then been in existence, they could not have assisted God; for I can well suppose that if a solemn conclave of those spirits had been held, if God had put to them this question, “Man will rebel; I declare I will punish; my justice, inflexible and severe, demands that I should do so; but yet I intend to have mercy;” if he had put the question to the celestial squadrons of mighty ones, “How can those things be? How can justice have its demands fulfilled, and how can mercy reign?” the angels would have sat in silence until now; they could not have dictated the plan; it would have surpassed angelic intellect to have conceived the way whereby righteousness and peace should meet together, and judgment and mercy should kiss each other. God devised it, because without God it could not have been devised. It is a plan too splendid to have been the product of any mind except of that mind which afterward carried it out. “Salvation” is older than creation; it is “of the Lord.”

And as it was of the Lord in planning so IT WAS OF THE LORD IN EXECUTION. No one has helped to provide salvation; God has done it all himself. The banquet of mercy is served up by one host; that host is he to whom the cattle on a thousand hills belong. But none have contributed any dainties to that royal banquet; he hath done it all himself. The royal bath of mercy, wherein black souls are washed, was filled from the veins of Jesus; not a drop was contributed by any other being. He died upon the cross, and as an expiator he died alone. No blood of martyrs mingled with that stream; no blood of noble confessors and of heroes of the cross entered into the river of atonement; that is filled from the veins of Christ, and from nowhere else beside. He hath done it wholly!

Atonement is the unaided work of Jesus. On yonder cross I see the man who “trod the winepress alone;” in yonder garden I see the solitary conqueror, who came to the fight single-handed, whose own arm brought salvation, and whose omnipotence sustained him. “Salvation is of the Lord,” as to its provisions; Jehovah—Father, Son, and Spirit—hath provided everything.

So far we are all agreed: but now we shall have to separate a bit. “Salvation is of the Lord” IN THE APPLICATION OF IT. “No,” says the ARMINIAN, “it is not; salvation is of the Lord, inasmuch as he does all for man that he can do; but there is something that man must do, which if he does not do, he must perish.” That is the ARMINIAN way of salvation.

Now last week I thought of this very theory of salvation, when I stood by the side of that window of Carisbrooke castle, out of which King Charles of unhappy and unrighteous memory, attempted to escape. I read in the guide book that everything was provided for his escape; his followers had means at the bottom of the wall to enable him to fly across the country, and on the coast they had their boats lying ready to take him to another land; in fact everything was ready for his escape. But here was the important circumstance: his friends had done all they could; he was to do the rest; but that doing the rest was just the point and brunt of the battle. It was to get out of the window, out of which he was not able to escape by any means, so that all his friends did for him went for nothing, so far as he was concerned. SO WITH THE SINNER.

If God had provided every means of escape, and only required him to get out of his dungeon, he would have remained there to all eternity. Why, is not the sinner by nature dead in sin? And if God requires him to make himself alive, and then afterward he will do the rest for him, then verily, my friends, we are not so much obliged to God as we had thought for; for if he require so much as that of us, and we can do it, we can do the rest without his assistance.

The Romanists have an extraordinary miracle of their own about St. Dennis, of whom they tell the lying legend that after his head was off be took it up in his hands and walked with it two thousand miles; whereupon, said a wit, “So far as the two thousand miles go, it is nothing at all; it is only the first step in which there is any difficulty.” So I believe, if that is taken, all the rest can be easily accomplished. And if God does require of the sinner—dead in sin—that he should take the first step, then he requireth just that which renders salvation as impossible under the gospel as ever it was under the law, seeing man is as unable to believe as he is to obey, and is just as much without power to come to Christ as he is without power to go to heaven without Christ. The power must be given to him of the Spirit. He lieth dead in sin; the Spirit must quicken him. He is bound hand and foot and fettered by transgression; the Spirit must cut his bonds, and then he will leap to liberty. God must come and dash the iron bars out of their sockets, and then he can escape from the window, and make good his escape afterward; but unless the first thing be done for him, he must perish as surely under the gospel as he would have done under the law.

I would cease to preach, if I believed that God, in the matter of salvation, required anything whatever of man which he himself had not also engaged to furnish. For how many have I frequently hanging upon my lips of the worst of characters—men whose lives have become so horribly bad, that the lip of morality would refuse to give a description of their character? When I enter my pulpit am I to believe that these men are to do something before God’s Spirit will operate upon them? If so, I should go there with a faint heart, feeling that I never could induce them to do the first part.

But now I come to my pulpit with a sure confidence—God the Holy Spirit will meet with these men this morning. They are as bad as they can be; he will put a new thought into their hearts; he will give them new wishes; he will give them new wills, and those who hated Christ will desire to love him; those who once loved sin will, by God’s divine Spirit, be made to hate it; and here is my confidence, that what they cannot do, in that they are weak through the flesh, God sending his Spirit into their hearts will do for them, and in them, and so they shall be saved.

Well then, says one, that will make people sit still and fold their arms. Sir, it shall not. But if men did so I could not help it; my business, as I have often said in this place before, is not to prove to you the reasonableness of any truth, nor to defend any truth from its consequences; all I do here, and I mean to keep to it, is just to assert the truth, because it is in the Bible; then, if you do not like it, you must settle the quarrel with my Master, and if you think it unreasonable, you must quarrel with the Bible. Let others defend Scripture and prove it to be true; they can do their work better than I could; mine is just the mere work of proclaiming.

I am the messenger; I tell the Master’s message; if you do not like the message, quarrel with the Bible, not with me; so long as I have Scripture on my side I will dare and defy you to do anything against me. “Salvation is of the Lord.” The Lord has to apply it, to make the unwilling willing, to make the ungodly godly, and bring the vile rebel to the feet of Jesus, or else salvation will never be accomplished. Leave that one thing undone, and you have broken the link of the chain, the very link which was just necessary to its integrity. Take away the fact that God begins the good work, and that he sends us what the old divines call preventing grace—take that away, and you have spoilt the whole of salvation; you have just taken the key-stone out of the arch, and down it tumbles. There is nothing left then.

And now on the next point we shall a little disagree again, “Salvation is of the Lord,” AS TO THE SUSTAINING OF THE WORK IN ANY MAN’S HEART. When a man is made a child of God he does not have a stock of grace given to him with which to go on forever, but he has grace for that day; and he must have grace for the next day, and grace for the next, and grace for the next, until days shall end, or else the beginning shall be of no avail. As a man does not make himself spiritually alive, so neither can he keep himself so. He can feed on spiritual food, and so preserve his spiritual strength; he can walk in the commandments of the Lord, and so enjoy rest and peace, but still the inner life is dependent upon the Spirit as much for its after existence as for its first begetting.

I do verily believe that if it should ever be my lot to put my foot upon the golden threshold of Paradise, and put this thumb upon the pearly latch, I should never cross the threshold unless I had grace given me to take that last step whereby I might enter heaven. No man of himself, even when converted, hath any power, except as that power is daily, constantly, and perpetually infused into him by the Spirit. But Christians often set up for independent gentlemen; they get a little stock of grace in hand, and they say, “My mountain standeth firm, I shall never be moved.” But ah! it is not long before the manna begins to be putrid. It was only meant to be the manna for the day, and we have kept it for the morrow, and therefore it fails us. We must have fresh grace.

“For day by day the manna fell;
O to learn that lesson well.”

So look day by day for fresh grace. Frequently too the Christian wants to have grace enough for a month vouchsafed to him in one moment. “O!” he says, “what a host of troubles I have coming—how shall I meet them all? O! that I had grace enough to bear me through them all! “My dear friends, you will have grace enough for your troubles, as they come one by one. “As thy days, so shall thy strength be;” but thy strength shall never be as thy months, or as thy weeks. Thou shalt have thy strength as thou hast thy bread. “Give us this day our daily bread.” Give us this day our daily grace. But why is it you will be troubling yourself about the things of tomorrow?

But, lastly, upon this point. THE ULTIMATE PERFECTION OF SALVATION IS OF THE LORD. Soon, soon, the saints of earth shall be saints in light; their hairs of snowy age shall be crowned with perpetual joy and everlasting youth; their eyes suffused with tears shall be made bright as stars, never to be clouded again by sorrow; their hearts that tremble now are to be made joyous and fast, and set for ever like pillars in the temple of God. Their follies, their burdens, their griefs, their woes, are soon to be over; sin is to be slain, corruption is to be removed, and a heaven of spotless purity and of unmingled peace is to be theirs forever. But it must still be by grace. As was the foundation such must the top-stone be; that which laid on earth the first beginning must lay in heaven the top-most stone. As they were redeemed from their filthy conversation by grace, so they must be redeemed from death and the grave by grace too, and they must enter heaven singing

“Salvation of the Lord alone;
Grace is a shoreless sea.”

THERE MAY BE ARMINIANS HERE, BUT THEY WILL NOT BE ARMINIANS THERE; they may here say, “It is of the will of the flesh,” but in heaven they shall not think so. Here they may ascribe some little to the creature; but there they shall cast their crowns at the Redeemer’s feet, and acknowledge that he did it all. Here they may sometimes look a little at themselves, and boast somewhat of their own strength; but there, “Not unto us, not unto us,” shall be sung with deeper sincerity and with more profound emphasis than they have even sung it here below.

In heaven, when grace shall have done its work, this truth shall stand out in blazing letters of gold, “Salvation is of the Lord.”

Read the full sermon – http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0131.htm

ALL THINGS ORDAINED FOR THE SALVATION OF GOD’S ELECT

May 9, 2018 / mikejeshurun / Leave a comment

ALL THINGS ORDAINED FOR THE SALVATION OF GOD’S ELECT

“Things that accompany Salvation.” [Hebrews 6:9]

C.H. Spurgeon

THE SUM AND SUBSTANCE OF ALL THEOLOGY (2018)

January 12, 2018 / mikejeshurun / Leave a comment

THE SUM AND SUBSTANCE OF ALL THEOLOGY (2018)

by C.H. SPURGEON

All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.”—John 6:37.

Look at the text before us. Here we have, in two small sentences, the sum and substance of all theology. The great questions which have divided the Church in all ages, the apparently contradictory doctrines which have set one minister of Christ against his fellow, are here revealed so simply and plainly, “that he may run that readeth it” (Habakkuk 2:2).

Even a child may understand the Words of Christ, though perhaps the loftiest human intellect cannot fathom the mystery hidden therein.

Take the first sentence of my text: “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me.” What a weighty sentence! Here we have taught us what is called, in the present day, “High Calvinistic doctrine”—the purpose of God; the certainty that God’s purpose will stand; the invincibility of God’s will; and the absolute assurance that Christ “shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied.”

Look at the second sentence of my text: “And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” Here we have the richness, the fullness, the unlimited extent of the power of Christ to save those who put their trust in Him. Here is a text upon which one might preach a thousand sermons. We might take these two sentences as a life-long text, and never exhaust the theme.

It rests, you perceive, not on something which man does, but on something which God the Father does. The Father gives certain persons to His Son, and the Son says, “All that the Father giveth Me Shall come to Me.” I take it that the meaning of the text is this,—that, if any do come to Jesus Christ, it is those whom the Father gave to Christ. And the reason why they come,—if we search to the very bottom of things,—is, that the Father puts it into their hearts to come.

The reason why one man is saved, and another man is lost, is to be found in God; not in anything which the saved man did, or did not do; not in anything which he felt, or did not feel; but in something altogether irrespective of himself, even in the sovereign grace of God. In the day of God’s power, the saved are made willing to give their souls to Jesus.

Miss Much-afraid, and Mrs. Despondency, and Mr. Feeble-mind, shall as certainly come to the arms of Christ, as Mr. Great-heart, and Mr. Faithful, and Mr. Valiant-for-Truth. If one jewel were lost from Christ’s crown, then Christ’s crown would not be all-glorious. If one member of the body of Christ were to perish, Christ’s body would not be complete. If one of those who are one with Christ should miss his way to eternal life, Christ would not be a perfect Christ.

OBJECTION:

But suppose it should be one of those who are living in the interior of Africa, and he does not hear the gospel; what then?” He shall hear the gospel; either he shall come to the gospel, or the gospel shall go to him. Even if no minister should go to such a chosen one, he would have the gospel specially revealed to him rather than that the promise of the Almighty God should be broken.

“But suppose there should be one of God’s chosen who has become so bad that there is no hope for him? He never attends a place of worship; never listens to the gospel; the voice of the preacher never reaches him; he has grown hardened in his sin, like steel that has been seven times annealed in the fire; what then?” That man shall be arrested by God’s grace, and that obdurate, hard-hearted one shall be made to see the mercy of God; the tears shall stream down his cheeks, and he shall be made willing to receive Jesus as Saviour. I think that, as God could bend my will, and bring me to Christ, He can bring anybody.

Why was I made to hear His voice,

And enter while there’s room;

When thousands make a wretched choice,

And rather starve than come?

‘Twas the same love that spread the feast,

That sweetly forced me in;

Else I had still refused to taste,

And perished in my sin.”