From the high places that surround us come every foe and bandit, seeking to destroy us and make of nothing our faith. How can we stand against such villainy? Where are we to turn for aid in the spiritual war in which all the children of God are engaged? Turn to the Lord. He is your help. The creator of heaven and earth who holds power over every living thing will protect His child from every spiritual harm. Take comfort and love Christ. (BLB)
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"'With his stripes we are healed.' Will you notice that fact? The healing of a sinner does not lie in himself, nor in what he is, nor in what he feels, nor in what he does, nor in what he vows, nor in what he promises. It is not in himself at all; but there, at Gabbatha, where the pavement is stained with the blood of the Son of God, and there, at Golgotha, where the place of a skull beholds the agonies of Christ. It is in his stripes that the healing lies. I beseech thee, do not scourge thyself: 'With his stripes we are healed.'" (Spurgeon)
InHebrews 11 we are given a list of men and women of faith. Their exploits resulted in a variety of outcomes. From "Whose weakness was turned into strength, and became powerful in battle" in
vs. 34 to "They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they were put to death by the sword." vs. 37. These were not perfect men and women; after all, Noah, Abraham and Moses take up a large portion of that chapter! Perfection of character wasn't the trait that linked these folks. What did link them was absolute unshakeable faith that what God had said he MEANT... literally. Such raw faith is an absolute necessity for our graduates if they are to come close to making Christ known among the peoples they seek to reach. The complexity of the task ahead is daunting. Folks needing quick and easy satisfaction usually don't apply as students, or they develop a capacity to think, and live, LONG TERM while here. That the God of all Creation would allow the writer of Hebrews to say these words " ...the world was not worthy of them" (Heb. 11:38) about ANY man or woman who has ever lived is truly amazing! Yet He DOES say that about some! For those who, like Noah and Abraham, risked everything because God had spoken, and they stayed the course with that faith, there will be great reward. That was one of the challenges put before our students. We'll all know better 30 or 40 years down the road how this all worked out in each of these students. As the writer of Hebrews says a bit further on... "Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." --Brad Buser (veteran missionary and missionary trainer) But he that shall endure to the end
In the profession of faith in Christ, notwithstanding the violent persecutions of wicked men; and in the pure and incorrupt doctrines of the Gospel, whilst many are deceived by the false teachers that shall arise; and in holiness of life and conversation, amidst all the impurities of the age; and shall patiently bear all afflictions, to the end of his life, or to the end of sorrows, of which the above mentioned were the beginning: the same shall be saved; with a temporal salvation, when Jerusalem, and the unbelieving inhabitants of it shall be destroyed: for those that believed in Christ, many of them, through persecution, were obliged to remove from thence; and others, by a voice from heaven, were bid to go out of it, as they did; and removed to Pella, a village a little beyond Jordan F21, and so were preserved from the general calamity; and also with an everlasting salvation, which is the case of all that persevere to the end, as all true believers in Christ will. (Commentary John Gill) Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
—Romans 5:1-2 "I am delighted to find that sin stings you, and that you hate it. The more hatred of sin the better. A sin-hating soul is a God-loving soul. If sin never distresses you, then God has never favored you." "The former rebels are not merely forgiven by having their due punishment remitted; they are brought into a place of high favour with God - this grace in which we stand." The Proper Attitude of Man under Grace - To believe, and consent to be loved while unworthy, is the great secret - To refuse to make "resolutions" and "vows"; for that is to trust in the flesh - To expect to be blessed, though realizing more and more lack of worth - To testify of God's goodness, at all times - To be certain of God's future favor; yet to be ever more tender in conscience toward Him - To rely on God's chastening hand as a mark of His kindness - A man under grace, if like Paul, has no burdens regarding himself; but many about others (Quotes by Spurgeon, Bruce, and Newell) Jesus was not a sinner, even on the cross. But on the cross, the Father treated Him as if He were a sinner. Yet all the while, sin was "outside" of Jesus, not "inside" Him, and a part of His nature (as it is with us). "Christ was not guilty, and could not be made guilty; but he was treated as if he were guilty, because he willed to stand in the place of the guilty. Yea, he was not only treated as a sinner, but he was treated as if he had been sin itself in the abstract. This is an amazing utterance. The sinless one was made to be sin." "I do not say that our substitute endured a hell, that were unwarrantable. I will not say that he endured either the exact punishment for sin, or an equivalent for it; but I do say that what he endured rendered to the justice of God a vindication of his law more clear and more effectual than would have been rendered to it by the damnation of sinners for whom he died." "We obviously stand at the brink of a great mystery and our understanding of it can only be minimal." Note well that He made Him. This is the work of God Himself! The Father and the Son (and the Spirit as well) were in perfect cooperation in the work on the cross. This means that the work of atonement on the cross was the work of God. "If God did it, it is well done. I am not careful to defend an act of God: let the man who dares accuse his Maker think what he is at. If God himself provided the sacrifice, be you sure that he has accepted it." (Spurgeon and Kruse commentary included) "These twin guardian angels will always be with me at my back and my beck. Just as when great princes go abroad they must not go unattended, so it is with the believer." (Spurgeon)
It is now time for us to take courage in the LORD and not fear nor be dismayed. God will not abandon His people.
Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
--Psalm 100:3 Believe in the Messiah, and in his Gospel; embrace him, and walk on in him, and worthy of him and of his Gospel, as children of the light.
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