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Jan 15th, 2023
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The righteousness of Christ
chestnutmare
Wed Sep 11, 2024 12:20 PM
We do affirm that Christ fulfilled the law for us submitting to the obedience of it, and performing all that righteousness which of us it requires, that we might have a complete righteousness wherewith to appear before God. And this is that which
is intended by the active and passive righteousness of Christ.
~John Owen | “Vindiciae Evangelicae” (1655), The Works of John Owen, 12:77
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Brotherly Love.
chestnutmare
Tue Sep 03, 2024 12:12 PM
Neither the reality nor the depth of Christian love is to be measured by honeyed words or endearing expressions. Actions speak louder than words. Gushy people are proverbially superficial and fickle. Those less demonstrative are more stable. Still waters run deep. Spiritual love always aims at the good of its object. It is exercised in edifying conversation, in seeking to strengthen and confirm faith, exalt God’s Word, and promote piety. The more another magnifies Christ the more should he be endeared to us. We do not mean mere glib talk about Christ, but that overflowing of the heart toward Him which compels the mouth to speak of Him. We should love the saints for the truth’s sake, for being unashamed to avow their faith in such a day as this. Those who reflect most of the image of Christ and carry about with them most of His fragrance should be the ones we love most.
Love for the brethren is ever proportioned to our love for the Lord Himself, which at once explains why the former is at such a low ebb. The sectarian bigotry and the bitterness growing all around us are not hard to explain. Love to God has waned! “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,... soul and... strength” comes before “thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” But the love of material things and the cares of this world have chilled the souls of many toward God. Our affections must be set steadfastly upon the Head of the Church before they will wax warm to its members. When the Lord is given His rightful place in our hearts, His redeemed will also be given theirs. Then love will not be confined to that narrow ecclesiastical circle in which our lot is cast; it will embrace the entire household of faith. Then we shall have “love unto all the saints” ( Ephesians 1:15), and that will be evidenced by “supplication for all saints” ( Ephesians 6:18) — those in the four corners of the earth whom we have never seen. “Salute every saint” ( Philippians 4:21) — poor as well as rich, weak as well as strong.
~ A. W. Pink.
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Laboring in Prayer
chestnutmare
Thu Aug 22, 2024 11:34 PM
Prayer is an awful thing. God is very great. Between us at our best, and God there is a great gulf. It will ever be a wonderful thing that we are allowed to pray at all. So the word before us tells us that to the solemn exercise of prayer we ought to bring a mind, humble, penitent, clear, sound. It is not without meaning that prayer is connected in Scripture with fasting. It is to remind us of the reverence, and the self-abasement which becomes us when we come into the presence of the Holy God. “Be sober when you pray.”
~ G. H. C. Macgregor
extract from https://www.the-highway.com/prayer_Macgregor.html
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God's election is eternal.
chestnutmare
Sun Aug 18, 2024 9:51 PM
It yields very great consolation to us to learn that the whole world is governed by God for our salvation. All things are directed to this object, that those whom He has elected may be saved. And may not be overwhelmed by any changes. However numerous, that shall befall them.
God's election is eternal. He does not choose us as if this had never before come into his mind; and as we were chosen before the foundation of the world, (Ephesians 1:4,) so he never repents of his choice. (Romans 11:29.) But when the Lord chastises his people, this has the appearance of rejecting them; as we learn from the frequent complaints of the saints, Lord, why hast thou cast us off? (Psalm 74:1.) We look at God's rejection or election according to our weakness, and judge of his feelings toward us by the outward action. (I speak of the knowledge which is derived from experience, and which is corrected by the light of faith.) Accordingly, when the Lord calls us, that is, confirms his election, he is said to choose us; and when he gives evidence that he is displeased, he is said to reject us. The meaning, therefore, is, "Though the Lord has treated his people so severely, as if he had rejected them; yet by the actual event he will at length show and prove that he has adopted them, by giving abundant evidence of his election, and by having compassion on them for ever."
We now may readily conclude what we have already said, namely, that the chastisements which the godly endure are widely different from that deadly stroke, however light it may be, which is inflicted on the ungodly. The godly are immediately led to consider their election, the confident belief of which cheers their hearts; but the ungodly see nothing but darkness, bottomless pits, and frightful desolation on all sides. Whenever, therefore, the Lord chastises us, we ought immediately to call to remembrance this distinction, that we may strengthen our hearts by the hope of a happier condition.
~John Calvin — Commentary Isaiah 14
For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. (Isa 14:1)
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Do not cast me away when I am old
chestnutmare
Sun Apr 21, 2024 10:40 AM
Do not cast me away when I am old; do not forsake me when my strength is gone. Psalm 71:9
“I am drawing nearer and nearer to the season which the Psalmist either expected or felt. Many reasons teach the aged believer the need of this prayer. As his graces are still imperfect — so his powers are feelingly upon the decline. It was but little he could do at his best — and now less and less!
He feels other props and comforts dropping off apace. When he was young, he had warm spirits and pleasing prospects; but now, what a change of the friends in which he once delighted! In some he has found inconstancy — they have forsaken and forgotten him; and others have been successively taken away by death. They have fallen like the leaves in autumn — and now he stands almost a naked trunk. If any yet remain, he is expecting to lose them likewise — unless he is first taken from them.
Old age abates, and gradually destroys the relish of such earthly comforts as might be otherwise enjoyed. Pains, infirmities, loss of sleep, the failure of sight and hearing, and all the senses — are harbingers, like Job's messengers arriving in close succession, to tell him that death is upon his progress, and is not far away!
If youth has no security against death — then old age has no possibility of escaping the grim monster. But though friends fail, cisterns burst, gourds wither, strength declines, and death advances — if God does not forsake me — then all is well.
"Even to your old age and gray hairs — I am He who will
sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will
sustain you and I will rescue you!" Isaiah 46:4
From Letters of John Newton
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