Deut 20:1-4, Overcoming Sin

“When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt” (Deut 20:1).

If we want to conquer sin, then we must believe the gospel of Christ. We can’t go in our own stregnth against sin and Satan. We believe that we’re reconciled, or we don’t have the power to do good, spiritual good.  We believe that Christ died for us, and all is well, even though we are sinners. We believe the blood removes all sins because God is gracious to give the Son for us to atone for what we’ve done.  We believe the Holy Spirit is our Helper BECAUSE OF reconciliation, that being justified by faith, we get the help of God, so that He will conquer our lusts. Without this confidence in God, we can’t continue, and we’ll quit the race. Sin will rule us, and we’ll be destroyed.

The Real Presence of Christ - William Binnie D.D.

“God is in the midst of her” (Ps 46:5). 

 It is the real presence of Christ, & the supernatural power of his Spirit, which makes the church mighty to the conquest of souls. The church spreads because her God is in the midst of her. When at any time she has forgotten her dependence on the invisible intercession of her Head, & the gracious energy of his Spirit, she has found herself shorn of the locks of her great strength, & has become the laughing stock of the Philistines. W Binnie, D.D. 

"I Will Love Them Freely" S Lewis Johnson

 Charles Haddon Spurgeon whom I often quote has a sentence with which he begins one of his studies on the 14^th chapter of Hosea that I’d like to use as a kind of theme text.  Mr. Spurgeon says, “This sentence, I will love them freely, is a body of divinity in miniature.  He who understands its meaning is a theologian, and he who can dive into its fullness is a true master in divinity.”  Now, after over 35 years of teaching in theological institutions, that text that Mr. Spurgeon has begun his study with, I can say is true to the facts of theological life.  This sentence is a body of divinity in miniature, and in fact, if you could come to an understanding of it, if you’re not already in understanding of it, you would have a body of theology in miniature.  If you would understand its meaning, you would be a theologian.  And if you could dive into its fullness, you would be worthy of a master of theology degree.

            The reason I say that is for 35 years I have taught literally hundreds of theological students, and have had them in my classroom for many hours, and many of them have left the institutions with degrees in theology who do not understand, “I will love them freely.”  How sad, but how true.  I have students today in the institution in which I teach, who will finish three years of study and be given a master of divinity degree, who are confused about “I will love them freely.”  And there are some who attend schools and attend for four or five or six years and get other degrees, and still do not understand, I will love them freely.  It is a body of divinity in miniature, and if you understand it, you are a theologian, and if you can really understand all of the implications of it, you should have master of theology degree.

            Now some of you may be sitting in this audience smugly and saying, Isn’t it nice to have that knowledge, because we’re in Believers Chapel?  Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in Ashkelon, lest the uncircumcised Philistines from other churches in the vicinity and elsewhere hear, but the vast majority of people who attend Believers Chapel do not have a sound knowledge of that simple sentence, “I will love them freely.”  I confess that very sadly.  It’s often been the subject of prayers on my part.

            But in the final analysis, truth is understood by divine illumination.  And we expound the truth, we seek to make it plain and clear, but there is a limit beyond with a man cannot go.  So, if by God’s grace you come to understand, “I will love them freely,” then you’re a theologian, proper theologian.

            And furthermore, Mr. Spurgeon could have added this.  If you come to understand this, your life will be transformed.  Cannot help but be.  So may God lead us into the truth of that simple line, “I will love them freely.”

From sermon, "God's Free Love"

http://www.sljinstitute.net/sermons/old_testament/the_prophets/pages/hosea16.html

God's House - Poem

The word of God stands supreme, 

In God's house all must bow.

Though men would rage to lift themselves, 

He humbles all who try.

The broken saint in sin defiled, 

Is given perfect freedom.

He learns to hope in Jesus fully, 

He tastes of God's deliv'rance.

He is redeemed his conscience knows, 

he's loosed by love God-given.

He comes to God and leaves so full, 

he loves by love experienced.

“It Is Impossible” (Heb 6:4-6) - Spurgeon

(Heb 6:4-6) “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit,  and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,  if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

Looking at the scope of the whole passage, it appears to us that the Apostle wished to push the disciples on. There is a tendency in the human mind to stop short of the heavenly mark. As soon as ever we have attained to the first principles of religion, have passed through baptism, and understand the resurrection of the dead, there is a tendency in us to sit still; to say, "I have passed from death unto life; here I may take my stand and rest;" whereas, the Christian life was intended not to be a sitting still, but a race, a perpetual motion. The Apostle, therefore endeavors to urge the disciples forward, and make them run with diligence the heavenly race, looking unto Jesus. He tells them that it is not enough to have on a certain day, passed through a glorious change-to have experienced at a certain time, a wonderful operation of the Spirit; but he teaches them it is absolutely necessary that they should have the Spirit all their lives-that they should, as long as they live, be progressing in the truth of God. In order to make them persevere, if possible, he shows them that if they do not, they must, most certainly be lost; for there is no other salvation but that which God has already bestowed on them, and if that does not keep them, carry them forward, and present them spotless before God, there cannot be any other. For it is impossible, he says, if ye be once enlightened, and then fall away, that ye should ever be renewed again unto repentance.

The Kind of Priest You Need (Stephen Cole)

This means that you cannot be reconciled to God until you see your great need as a sinner before His holy presence. It is that awareness of your true condition that causes you to cry out, with the publican in Jesus’ story, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner” (Luke 18:13). The gospel is not, “If you’ve got a few problems, try Jesus. He can help you.” The gospel has to do with our fundamental alienation from God because of our sins, and the gracious provision that God has made in His Son. (Hebrews 5:1-10 The Kind of Priest You Need) 

- taken from Precept Austin

Life's Miseries Are Upon Us (hymn)

Life's miseries are upon us, 
The burden of serving is too.

The war has many stumbles, 
Defeat comes 'cause of you.

The battle is sure to believers, 
Believe though cold with sin.

The devil seeks to deceive you, 
Receive more grace again.

His word shall prevail in the long term, 
The battle will turn your way.

The Savior who died will subdue them, 
The demons will all flee away.

Holy Fear: Faith and Good Works (Spurgeon and Luther)

"And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear" (1 Pet 1:17)

In holy fear, not in servile, slavish fear, but in a blessed state of sacred timidity and awe lest you should offend your God and Savior.  

- Charles Spurgeon

_____

Hence faith and good works are yoked together, so that the sum total of the whole Christian life consists in these two parts; not that good works contribute anything to our justification before God, but that faith without good works does not exist, or it is not true faith.

... not because of pain and punishment, as un-Christians and the devil fear, but that He forsakes you not and withdraws His hand; as a pious child fears lest he provokes his father and does something that may not be pleasing to him.  It is just such a fear that God wishes us to have, in order to keep ourselves from sin and serve our neighbor while we live here upon the earth.

- Martin Luther (Commentary on 1 Peter)

Election (poem)

He saved a people that He chose,

The cost was His own blood;

He gave to us, completely gross,

His Light, eternal love;

He came to us and made us new

By those He had renewed

He gave to us His wondrous song,

We now make Him known too.

It's great to know He loved us so,

To pluck and justly choose

He gave to us what none would take,

The gospel as good news.

“It Shall Be Well with the Righteous” (Is 3:10) - Scott Richardson

In spiritual things, all your temptations, all your darkness, all your wanderings, God will overrule. It shall be well with you.  There shall never be a night, but that morning shall come; there shall never be a day of trouble, but a day of prosperity shall follow; there shall never be an emptying, but there shall be a filling; there shall never be a bringing down, but that He shall raise you up again.  Let it be either darkness or night, sorrow or grief, night or day, life or death, time or eternity, “it shall be well with the righteous”.

A Happy Observation - Augustus Toplady

 It is a peculiar happiness to observe, that in matters of spiritual concern, the philosopher and plowman (if truly regenerate) have the same feelings, speak the same language; they all eat of the same spiritual meat, and drink of the same spiritual rock that follows them, and that rock is Christ. Hence that similitude of experience, or to speak figuratively, that strong and striking family likeness which obtains among the converted people of God, in every period of time, and in every nation under heaven. They all, without exception, feel themselves totally ruined by original sin; they, all without exception, take refuge in the righteousness and cross of Christ, and unite in ascribing the whole praise of their salvation to the alone free grace and sovereign mercy of Father, Son, and Spirit.

Notes from Rescue Baptist SovGrace Conference: Under the Gospel of God’s Grace!

As I listened to the preaching in Rescue, here are the thoughts that I wrote down, and I hope they are helpful to you.



Don’t be one-sided: preach all the word of God.

We cant agree with believers because all don’t believe as we ought, but love amidst weaknesses.

Be clear in the limited atonement and freely call all.

Love is the command.

Clarity is important; it is life-giving: people see.

Gentle meekness is wisdom profitable for teaching = not compromise but bedside manner: love.

The whole counsel of God leads to whole lives.

Show what the verse says.

Gentleness opens the heart and removes stumbling blocks from the way.

Humble yourself and be exalted.

Move on: advance thought in preaching

Preach.  Don’t hold back the gospel of Christ.

You’re gracious, so use your gifts, too.

God honors people who honor God.

Be yourself, and its sufficient.

Boldness is mandatory

Warn with clarity and power

Gentle and bold, both: love.

Pride and self-righteousness aren’t love.

Be clear so people can believe.

Realness is sincerity, not show.

Love people who're blind.

Illustrate to help people

Free grace moves believers: keep it before them continually.

Your soul demands the whole counsel, if you’ll be saved.

Examine yourself lest you perish.

Plead fervently in honesty.

Hymn - "The Call" (Rom 12:1)

CM 8.6.8.6

I call you by His wondrous love

To serve in power, blessed

I teach you how by His own love

To walk with Him in rest.

I call you by His love to you

To love Him in return

To live upon His good to you

And praise His love with love.

I call you now with fearful breadth

I bid you rise and run

I see beneath your awful head

A noose that He has wrung

Oh flee to Him the Lamb of God

Rejoice He loved you so!

He took the noose around His neck

And swung from hell’s gallow

He paid the debt you’ve been set free

Your ransom day is past

You have by faith a happy end

And show it with your love.

"No Difference" (Rom 10:12)

All men are the same, and there’s no difference between us. We EQUALLY need Christ, and He is EQUALLY given to all that call on Him.  Your mother, bloodline, and past do not matter. You could be Hitler or Mother Theresa, and He’d receive you both.  And, you may come confidently, KNOWING there is NO WAY that He’ll cast you out.  This strengthens me! - “For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him“ (vs12).

“Whom he did predestinate, them he also called” (Rom 8:30)

The word "called" (as HODGE and others truly observe) is never in the Epistles of the New Testament applied to those who have only the outward invitation of the Gospel (as in #Mt 20:16 22:14). It always means "internally, effectually, savingly called." It denotes the first great step in personal salvation and answers to "conversion." Only the word conversion expresses the change of character which then takes place, whereas this "calling" expresses the divine authorship of the change, and the sovereign power by which we are summoned, Matthew-like, Zaccheus-like, out of our old, wretched, perishing condition, into a new, safe, blessed life.  

(JFB Commentary)

The Elect Believe In Mercy (Rom 9:16)

No verse describes our predicament more clearly than the mercy of God  (Rom 9:16).  We can’t make it, do it, or achieve holiness suitable to please God.  We can’t even hold our way as Christians; it is the mercy of God that saves us, that makes us desire, rejoice, conquer, and without Him, we’d perish, slaves of sin.

The elect BELIEVE God is merciful to conquer sin and make you thankful to Christ, “So then it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy” (Rom 9:16).

“All That Comes Is Vanity” (Eccl 11:3-8)

“But if a man live many years, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness; for they shall be many. All that comes is vanity.” (vs8)

It’s not your home down here.  We are to work in the cause of Christ, not philosophizing time away, and we’re to REMEMBER that we’re dying men, in a sin cursed earth, and there is NO heaven down here.  Living better is better, and Christ’s fellowship is worth the effort, but don’t forget the world is CURSED, sinners are perishing, and you and I shall endure heaviness because we are vile, too.  Industry is good; be ZEALOUS.  But don’t forget your humanity, weakness, nothingness, and total blood stained acceptance in Christ.  Don’t philosophize, and don’t forget.

Sovereignty, Holiness, and Usefulness

The truth is, God never gave Jacob a chance to be saved either, He just saved him, though he deserved Hell just like Esau.  Salvation is not a chance event, it is by the eternal, deliberate purpose of God in love and grace toward His chosen.  If God gives us what is fair, that is, if He bases His decision upon us having done any good or evil, we all shall perish forever under His infinite wrath.  (Rom 9:11-24)

Chris Cunningham

_____

Free grace no more makes a person want to sin than health makes a person want to get sick again. The notion of sovereign grace giving people a license to sin is the foolish excuse of Pharisees who are not willing to give up their own righteousness. God forbid such talk!

Paul Mahan
_____

There are really only two kinds of preachers: those who use and those who are used. False prophets are preachers who use men for their own advantage. True prophets are preachers who are used of God for the benefit of his elect. — “And they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing every where” (Luke 9:6).

Don Fortner

Made to Be Sin (Spurgeon)

God looked on Christ as if Christ had been sin; not as if He had taken up the sins of His people, or as if they were laid on Him, though that were true, but as if He Himself had positively been that noxious- that God-hating-that soul damning thing, called sin.  When the judge of all the earth said, “Where is Sin?”  Christ presented himself. 

What a grim picture that is, to conceive of sin gathered up into one mass -murderer, lust and stealing, and adultery. And the Father looked on Christ as if He were that mass of sin.  He was not sin, but the Father looked upon Him as made sin for us. Christ stands in our place, assumes our guilt, takes on our iniquity and God treats Him as if He had been sin.  How can any punishment fall on that man who ceases to possess sin, because his sin was cast upon Christ and Christ has suffered in his place?  Oh, glorious triumph of faith to be able to say, whenever I feel the guilt of sin, whenever conscience pricks me, “Yes, it is true but my Lord is answerable for it all, for He has taken it all upon Himself and suffered in my place.”

“Cheerful Giver” (2 Cor 9:7)

“Every man according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loves a cheerful giver” (vs7).

This word “cheerful” is the Greek word “hilaros”, from whence we get “hilarious” or joyfulness to the extreme.  The root word for “hilaros”, however, comes from the Greek word “hileos”, meaning propitiation or appeasement, so that God is SATISFIED with Christ’s death for us, and being satisfied ourselves, or “cheerful”, we give.

Be sure your joy in God produces giving; we cannot have hilarious joy, if it doesn’t produce obedience. God cannot be worshiped in contradiction to His Person, so that JOY in God must be expressed in holy conduct, for REJOICING in God and sinning (murder, rape, thievery) are not the effects of the gospel. The gospel, when REALLY received, produces good works as assigned by God to PROVE the sincerity and reality of our love; where the works are absent, true godly joy is absent also (2 Cor 8:8). Joy and works ALWAYS are hand in hand, and yet we must be exhorted to obey in the gladness of Christ, so that REAL joy produces fruit.