The Power Of God # 1

 The Power Of God # 1

We cannot have a right conception of God unless we think of Him as all-powerful, as well as all-wise. He who cannot do what he will, and perform all his pleasure, cannot be God. As God has a will to resolve what he deems good, so has He power to execute His will.

"The power of God is that ability and strength whereby He can bring to pass whatever He pleases, whatever His infinite wisdom may direct, and whatever the infinite purity of His will may resolve - As holiness is the beauty of all God's attributes, so power is that which gives life and action to all the perfections of the divine nature. How vain would be the eternal counsels, if power did not step in to execute them. Without power - His mercy would be but feeble pity. His promises is like Himself - infinite, eternal, incomprehensible; it can neither be checked, restrained, nor frustrated by the creature!" (Stephen Charnock).

"God has spoken once; twice have I heard this, that power belongs unto God." (Psalm 62:11). "God has spoken once" - nothing more is necessary! "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but His Word abides forever."

"God has spoken once" - how befitting His divine majesty! We por mortals may speak often and yet fail to be heard. He speaks but once and the thunder of His power is heard on a thousand hills.

"The Lord thundered from Heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded amid the hail and burning coals. He shot His arrows and scattered His enemies; His lightning flashed, and they were greatly confused. Then at Your command, O Lord, at the blast of Your breath, the bottom of the sea could be seen, and the foundations of the earth were laid bare." (Psalm 18:13-15).

"God has spoken once" - behold His unchanging authority. "For who in the Heaven can be compared unto the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord?" (Psalm 89:6). "All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as He pleases with the powers of Heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back His hand or say to Him: What have You done?" (Daniel 4:35).

This was openly displayed when God became became incarnate and tabernacled among men. To the leper He said, Jesus reached out and touched him. "I am willing, be healed!" And instantly he was cured of his leprosy." (Matt. 8:3). To one who had lain in the grave four days He cried, "Lazarus, come forth" - and the dead came forth. The stormy wind and the angry waves were hushed at a single word from Him. A legion of demons could not resist His authoritative command.

"Power belongs unto God," and to Him alone. Not a creature in the entire universe has an atom of power, but what God delegates. But God's power is not acquired, nor does it depend upon any recognition by any other authority. It belongs to Him inherently.

"God's power is like Himself, self-existent, self-sustained. The mightiest of men cannot add so much as a shadow of increased power to the Omnipotent One. He sits on no buttressed throne and leans on no assisting arm. His court is not maintained by His courtiers, not does it borrow its splendor from His creatures. He is Himself the great central source and Originator of all power." (Charles Spurgeon).

Not only does all creation bear witness to the great power of God, but also to His entire independence of all created things. Listen to His own challenge: "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell Me if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone?" (Acts 38:4-6). How completely is the pride of man laid in the dust!

"Power is also used as a name of God, "the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power" (Mark 14:62), that is, at the right hand of God. God and power are so inseparable that they are reciprocated. As His essence is immense, not to be confined in place; as it is eternal, not to be measured in time; so it is almighty, not to be limited in regard of action." (Charnock).

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 2)

Saving Faith

Saving Faith

There is a dead faith, as well as a living one. There is a faith of devils, as well as a faith of God's elect. There is a faith which is vain and useless, as well as a faith which justifies and saves.

 How shall a man know whether he has true saving faith? The thing may be found out! The Ethiopian may be known by the color of his skin; and the leopard may be known by his spots. True faith may always be known by certain marks. These marks are laid down unmistakably in Scripture. Reader, let me endeavor to set these marks plainly before you. Look at them carefully - and test your own soul by what I am going to say.

1. He who truly believes in Christ - has a NEW HEART. It is written, "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature - old things are passed away; behold, all things have become new." (2 Cor. 5:17). A believer has no longer the same nature with which he was born. He is changed, renewed, and transformed after the image of His Lord and Saviour. He who minds first, the things of the flesh - has no saving faith. True faith, and spiritual regeneration, are inseparable companions. An unconverted person - is not a genuine believer!

2. He who truly believes in Christ - is a HOLY person in heart and life. It is written that God "purifies the heart by faith," and that Christians are "sanctified by faith." "Whoever has this hope in him, purifies himself." (Acts 15:9; 26:18; 1 John 3:3). A believer loves what God loves and hates what God hates. His heart's desire is to walk in the way of God's commandments, and to abstain from all manner of evil. His wish is to follow after the things which are just, and pure, and honest, and lovely - and to cleanse himself from all filthiness of flesh and spirit. He falls far short of his aim, in many things. He find daily life, a constant fight with indwelling corruption. But he fights on - and resolutely refuses to serve sin. Where there is no holiness, we may be sure there is no saving faith! An unholy man is not a genuine believer!

3. He who truly believes in Christ - works godly WORKS. It is written, that "faith works by love" (Gal. 5:6). True belief will never make a  man idle, or allow him to sit still, contented with his own religion. It will stir him to do acts of love, kindness, and charity, according as he sees opportunity. It will constrain him to walk in the steps of his Master, who 'went about doing good." In one way or another, it will make him work. Where there is no working love - there is no faith. A lazy, selfish professing Christian - has no right to regard himself as a genuine believer!

4. He who truly believes in Christ - overcomes the WORLD. It is written, that "whoever is born of God, overcomes the world - and this is the victory which overcomes the world - even our faith" (1 John 5:4). A true believer is not ruled by the world's standard of right or wrong, of truth or error. He is independent of the world's opinion. He cares little for the world's priase. He looks at things unseen - he sees an invisible Saviour, a coming judgement, and a crown of glory, which never fades away. There is no genuine faith with a man who is habitually conformed to the world - is not a genuine believer!

5. He who truly believes in Christ - has the witness of the Holy Spirit. He has internal evidences which the world cannot understand. Where there are no pious feelings - there is no faith. A man who knows nothing of an inward, spiritual experimental religion - is not a genuine believer!

6. He who truly believes in Christ - has a special regard to the person of CHRIST Himself. A true believer's religion does not consist in mere intellectual assent to a certain set of propositions and doctrines. It consists in union, communion, and fellowship with an actual living Person, even Jesus the Son of God. It is an actual living, personal faith in Jesus.

Where these marks of which I have been speaking, are utterly lacking, I dare not tell a man that he is a true believer. He may be called a Christian, and attend church, but if he knows nothing of these marks - I dare not pronounce him a believer. He is yet dead in trespasses and sins. He will perish everlastingly.

Show me a man who has these marks - and I feel a strong confidence about the state of his soul. He may be poor and needy in this world - but he is rich in the sight of God. He may be despised and sneered at by man - but he is honorable in the sight of the King of kings. He is traveling towards heaven! He has a mansion ready for him in the Father's house. He is cared for by Christ, while on earth. He will be owned by Christ before assembled worlds, in the life which is to  come!

~J. C. Ryle~

(The End)

The Bounties Of God

 The Bounties Of God

"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man - the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." (1 Corinthians 2:9).

How often this passage is quoted only that far; how rarely are the words added, "But God has revealed them unto us by His Spirit" (verse 10). Why is this? Is it because so few of God's people search out and enjoy what the Spirit has revealed in the Word about those things which God has prepared for those who love Him? If we were more occupied with God's riches, than with our poverty; Christ's fullness, than our emptiness; the divine bounties, than our leanness - on what a different level of experience we would live!

We are much impressed by noting some of "the riches of His grace" (Ephesians 1:7). It is striking to note that our Christian life starts at a marriage feast; just as Christ's first miracle was wrought at one. The word to us is, "Come, for all things are now ready"; "Behold I have prepared My dinner; My oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready; come unto the marriage feast. Observe the "I have prepared," agreeing with "the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." (1 Corinthians 2:9). Notice the "are ready," confirming "God has revealed them unto us" (1 Corinthians 2:10). The creature contributes nothing; all is provided for him. Finally, weigh the "come unto the marriage feast." The figure is very blessed; it speaks of joy, festivity, feasting.

He spread the banquet, make me eat, Bid all my fears remove; Yes, o'er my guilty, rebel head He placed His banner - LOVE.

A beautiful type of the lavish manner in which God bestows His bounties upon His people is found in Genesis 9:3, "Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things." 

These blessings are based upon God's estimate of the value of Christ's sacrifice of Himself. The abiding worth of that sacrifice is immeasurable and illimitable; as immeasurable as the personal excellency of the Son, as illimitable as the Father's delight in Him. The nature and extent of those blessings, which accrue to God's elect on the ground of Christ's finished work, are intimated by the substantives and adjectives employed by the Holy Spirit when He describes the profuseness of the divine bounties already bestowed upon us, and which we shall enjoy forever!

Take first God's grace. Not only are we told of the "riches of His grace", and of the exceeding riches of His grace:, but also we read that it has "abounded unto many," and that we receive "abundance of grace," yes, that grace has super-abounded - the limitless wealth of divine grace flowing forth and multiplying itself in its objects. The foundation or moving cause of this is found in John 1. When the only begotten Son became flesh and tabernacled here for a season, it was as One who was "full of grace and truth." Because we have been made joint heirs with Him it is written, "And of His fullness have all we received and grace upon grace." (John 1:16).

Take again God's love. There has been neither reserve nor restraint in the outflow of His love for His people with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3).

Our present theme is inexhaustible. Our Lord came here that His people "might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10).

Consider now His confidences. The Lord Jesus said to His disciples, "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knows not what his Lord does. But I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you" (John 15:15). 

In such lavish measure God has blessed His people. What shall our response be to such divine munifleence? Surely it is that "the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many rebound to the glory of God" (2 Corinthians 4:15). Surely it is that we should "abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Spirit" (Romans 15:13). 

If God speaks so uniformly of the varied character of our blessing - as being so abundant it must be because He wants to impress our hearts with the exuberance of the bounties He has bestowed on us. The practical effect of this on our souls should cause us to "rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:11), to draw out all that is within us in true worship, to fit us for a closer and deeper fellowship with Him. "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." (2 Corinthians 9:8).

~A. W. Pink~

(The End)

The Love Of God To Us # 2

 The Love Of God To Us # 2

Clearly that lays me under a thousand time greater obligation to love, serve, and glorify Him - than had He loved me for the first time when my heart was won. All of the acts of God to His people in time, are the expressions of the love He bore them from eternity. It is because God loves us in Christ, and has done so from everlasting, that the gifts of His love are irrevocable. They are the bestowed of "the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."

The love of God indeed makes a change in us when it is "shed abroad in our hearts," but it makes no change in Him. He sometimes varies the dispensations of His providence toward us, but that is not because His affection has altered. Even when He chastens us, it is in love (Hebrews 12:6), since He has our good in view.

Let us look more closely at some of the operations of God's love.

First, God's love manifested in election. "We are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit (His quickening) and belief of the truth" (2 Thessalonians 2:13).

There is an infallible connection between God's love, and His selection of those who were to be saved. That election is the consequence of His love, is clear again from Deuteronomy: "The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people" (7:7). So again: "In love, having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will" (Ephesians 1:4-5).

Second, God's love manifested in redeeming. As we have seen from 1 John 4:10, out of His sovereign love God made provision for Christ to rendeer satisfaction for their sins, though prior to their conversion He was angry with them in respect to His violated Law. And "how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32). This is another clear proof that His Son was not "delivered up" to the Cross for all mankind. For He gives them neither the Holy Spirit, a new nature, nor repentance and faith.

Third, God's love manifested in effectual calling. From the enthroned Saviour the Father sends forth the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:33). Having loved His elect with an everlasting love, with loving-kindness He draws them (Jeremiah 31:3), quickens into newness of life, calls them out of darkness into His marvelous light, and makes them His children. "Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God" (1 John 3:1). If filiation does not issue from God's love as a sure effect, to what purpose are those words?

Fourth, God's love manifested in healing of backslidings. "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely" (Hosea 14:4), without reluctance or hesitation. "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it" (Song 8:7).

Such is God's love to His people - invincible, unquenchable. Not only is there no possibility of its expiring, but also the black waters of backsliding cannot extinguish it, nor the floods of unbelief put it out.

Nothing is more irresistible in the natural world than death. In the realm of grace, nothing is so invincible as the love of God. Goodwin remarked: "What difficulties does the love of God overcome! For God to overcome His own heart! Do you think it was nothing for Him to put His Son to death? - When He came to call us, had He no difficulties which love overcame? We were dead in trespasses and sins - yet from the great love with which He loved us, He quickened us in the grave of our corruption, even then did God come and conquer us.

After our calling, how sadly do we provoke God! Such temptations that if it were possible the elect should be deceived. It is so with all Christians. No righteous man, but he is scarcely saved, and yet saved he is, because the love of God is invincible - it overcomes all difficulties."

An application is hardly necessary for such a theme. Let God's love daily engage your mind by devout mediations on it, so that the affections of your heart may be drawn out to Him. When cast down in spirit, or in sore straits, plead His love in prayer, assured that it cannot deny anything good for you. Make God's wondrous love to you the incentive of your obedience to Him - gratitude requires nothing less.

~A. W. Pink~

(The End)

The Love Of God To Us # 1

 The Love Of God To Us # 1

By "us" we mean His people. Although we read of the love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:39), Holy Writ knows nothing of a love of God outside of Christ. "The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works" (Psalm 145:9), so that He provides the ravens with food. "He is kind unto the unthankful and to the  evil" (Luke 6:35), and His providence ministers unto the just and the unjust" (Matthew 5:45).

But His love is reserved for His elect. That is unequivocally established by its characteristics, for the attributes of His love are identical with Himself. Necessarily so, for "God is love." In making that postulate it is but another way to say God's love is like Himself, from everlasting to everlasting - immutable.

Nothing is more absurd to imagine that anyone beloved of God can eternally perish or shall ever experience His everlasting vengeance. Since the love of God is "in Christ Jesus," it was attracted by nothing in its objects, nor can it be repelled by anything in, of, or by them. "Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them unto the end" (John 13:1). The "world" in John 3:16 is a general term used in contrast with the Jews, and the verse must be interpreted so as not to contradict Psalm 5:5, 6:7; John 3"36; or Romans 9:13).

The chief design of God is to commend the love of God in Christ, for Heis the sole channel through which it flows. The Son has not induced the Father to love His people, but rather was it His love for them which moved Him to give His Son for them.

Ralph Erskine said: "God has taken a marvelous way to manifest His love. When He would show His power, He makes a world. When He would display His wisdom, He puts it in a frame and form that reveals its vastness. When He would manifest the grandeur and glory of His name, He makes a Heaven, and puts angels and archangels, principalities and powers therein. And when He would manifest His love, what will He not do? God has taken a great and marvelous way of manifesting it in Christ; His person, His blood, His death, His righteousness."

"For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ" (2 Colossians 3:3) - so we are beloved in Him, "the love of God which is in Christ Jesus" - in Him as our Head and Husband, which is why nothing can separate us therefrom, for that union is indissoluble.

Nothing so warms the heart of the saint as a spiritual contemplation of God's love for him. As he is occupied with it, he is lifted outside of and above his wretched self. A believing apprehension fills the renewed soul with holy satisfaction, and makes him as happy as it is possible for one to be this side of Heaven. To know and believe the love which God has toward me, is both a pledge and a foretaste of Heaven itself.

Since God love His people in Christ, it is not for any amiableness in or attraction about them: "Jacob have I loved." Yes, the naturally unattractive, yes, despicable, Jacob, "worm Jacob." Since God loves His people in Christ, it is not regulated by their fruitfulness, but is the same at all times. Because He loves them in Christ, the Father loves them as Christ. The time will come when His prayer will be answered, "that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me" (John 17:23). Only faith can grasp those marvelous things, for neither reasoning nor feelings can do so. God loves us in Christ. What infinite delight the Father has as He beholds His people in His dear Son! All our blessings flow from that precious fountain.

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:10). It is clear from those words that God loved His people while they were in a state of nature, destitute of all grace, without a particle of love towards Him or faith in Him; yes, while they were His enemies (Romans 5:8-10).

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 2)

The Scriptures And Sin # 4

 The Scriptures And Sin # 4

This is what each of us is required to do: "Accept instruction from His mouth and lay up His Words in your heart." (Job 22:22). It is particularly the commandments, the warnings, the exhortations - which we need to make our own and to treasure. We need to make our own and to treasure. We need to memorize them, meditate upon them, pray over them, and put them into practice. The only effective way of keeping a plot of ground from being overgrown by weeds, is to sow good seed therein; "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:21). So the more Christ's Word dwells in us "richly" (Colossians 3:16), the less room will there be for the exercise of sin in our hearts and lives.

It is not sufficient merely to assent to the veracity of the Scriptures - they require to be received into the affections. It is unspeakably solemn to note that the Holy Spirit specifies as the ground of apostasy, "They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved." (2 Thess. 2:10). "If truth lies only in the tongue or in the mind, only to make it a matter of talk and speculation - it will soon be gone. The seed which lies on the surface, the birds in the air will pick up. Therefore hide it deeply; let it get rom the ear into the mind, from the mind into the heart;  let it soak in further and further. It is only when Scripture has a prevailing sovereignty in the heart, that we receive truth in the love of it - when it is dearer than our dearest lust, then it will stick to us." (Thomas Manton).

Nothing else will preserve from the infections of this world, deliver from the temptations of satan, and be so effective a preservative against sin - as the Word of God received into the affections, "The law of his God is in his heart - none of his steps shall slide." (Psalm 37:31). As long as the truth is active within us, stirring the conscience, and is really loved by us - we shall be kept from falling.

When Joseph was tempted by Potiphar's wife, he said, "How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" (Genesis 39:9). The Word was in his heart, and therefore had prevailing power over his lusts. Joseph loved the ineffable holiness, and the mighty powr of God, who is able both to save and to destroy.

None of us knows when he may be tempted, therefore it is necessary to be prepared against it. Yes, we are to anticipate the future and be fortified against it, by storing up the Word in our hearts for coming emergencies. "I have hidden Your Word in my heart, that I might not sin against You." (Psalm 119:11).

Here is another important rule by which we should frequently test ourselves. Are my thought being formed, my heart controlled, and my ways and works regulated by God's Word? This is what the Lord requires: "Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says!" (James 1:22). This is how gratitude to and affection for Christ are to be expressed: "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." (John 14:15).

For this, Divine assistance is needed. David prayed, "Make me to walk in the path of Your commandments" (Psalm 119:35). "We need not only ilight to know our way, but a heart to walk in it. Direction is necessary because of the blindness of our minds; and grace is necessary because of the weakness of our hearts. It will not answer our duty to have a mere notion of truths, unless we embrace and pursue them" (Manton). Note the path of Your commandments." Not a self-chosen course, but a definitely marked-out one. 

Has your study of the Bible made you more humble, or more proud? Has it raised you in the esteem of your fellow men, or has it led you to take a lower place before God? Has it produced in you a deeper abhorrence and loathing of self, or has it made you more complacent?

"Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all." (1 Timothy 4:15).

~A. W. Pink~

(The End)

The Supremacy Of God # 2

 The Supremacy Of God # 2

"Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns!" (Revelation 19:6). note, "reigns" now, not "will do so in the millennium." O Lord God of our fathers, are not You God in Heaven? and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Your hand, and no one (not even the devil himself) can stand against You!" (2 Chronicles 20:6). Before Him presidents and popes, kings and emperors, are less than grasshoppers.

But He stands alone, and who can oppose Him? He does whatever He pleases" (Job 23:13). Ah, my reader, the God of Scripture is no make-believe monarch, no mere imaginary sovereign, but King of kings, and Lord of lords! "I know that You can do anything and no plan of Yours can be thwarted." (Job 42:2): or, as another has translated it, "no purpose of Yours can be frustrated." All that He has designed He does. All that He has decreed He performs. "Our God is in Heaven; He does whatever He pleases." (Psalm 115:3). And why? Because "there is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord" (Proverbs 21:30).

God's supremacy over the works of His hands is vividly depicted in Scripture. Inanimate matter and irrational creatures, all perform their Maker's bidding. At His pleasure the Red Sea divided and its waters stood up as walls (Exodus 14); the earth opened her mouth, and guilty rebels went down alive into the pit. (Numbers 16). When He so ordered, the sun stood still (Joshua verse 10); and on another occasion the sun went backward ten degrees on the dial of Ahaz (Isaiah 38:8). God made ravens carry food to Elijah, iron to float on top of the waters, lions to be tame when Daniel was cast into their den, fire to burn not when the three Hebrews were flung into its flames. Thus "the Lord does whatever He pleases in Heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the depths." (Psalm 135:6).

But, it may be objected, do we not read again and again in Scripture how that men defied God, resisted His will, broke His commandments, disregarded His warnings, and turned a deaf ear to all His exhortations? Certainly we do. And does this nullify all that we have said above? If it does, then the Bible plainly contradicts itself. But that cannot be. What the objector refers to, is simply the wickedness of man against the external Word of God; whereas what we have mentioned above is what God has purposed in Himself. The rule of conduct He has given us to walk by, is perfectly fulfilled by none of us. His own eternal "counsels" are accomplished to their minutest details.

The absolute and universal supremacy of God is affirmed with equal plainness and positiveness in the New Testament. There we are told that God "works all things after the counsel of His own will" (Eph. 1:11) - the Greek for "works" means "to work effectually." For this reason we read, "For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things; to whom be glory forever: Amen" (Romans 11:36). Men may boast that they are free agents, with a will of their own, and are at liberty to do as they please, but Scripture says to those who boast, "Now listen, you who say, "today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will - we will live and do this or that." (James 4:13-15).

Here then is a sure resting-place for the heart. Our lives are neither the product of blind fate, nor the result of capricious chance. Every detail of them was ordained from all eternity, and is now ordered by the living and reigning God. Not a hair of our heads can be touched without His permission. "A man's heart devises his way - but the Lord directs his steps" (Proverbs 16:9). What assurance, what strength, what comfort this should give the real Christian! "My times are in Your hand" (Psalm 31:15). Then let me "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him" (Psalm 37:7).

~A. W. Pink~

(The End)