Tuesday, July 7, 2009

CHRIST FINISHED THE WORK - John 19:30

God’s Christ has finished transgression, and made a complete atonement for sin; such an atonement that, as the Holy Ghost solemnly declares, “the redeemed of the Lord shall come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

Now the Christ that you believe in and have felt in your soul, is it a Christ of this nature? Or is it a Christ that you say gives all men a chance of being saved, has done the best He can to save them, has made it possible to accomplish the conditions of salvation and so to save themselves? That is antichrist; as the living God is in heaven, that is not His Christ!

God’s Christ has so completed the work that all the perfections of the Eternal Jehovah harmonize in it, to the complete salvation of God’s people. A chance of being saved? Why, bless you, when I hear of men talking about a “chance” of being saved, I am led to reflect — Then the declarative glory of the Eternal Trinity hangs upon a chance; the honour and effect of the work of God the Son hangs upon a chance; the honour of God the Spirit in His quickening, enlightening, sanctifying work, hangs upon chance! And that chance, too, to be accomplished by man — a poor, dying, crawling reptile! — the Eternal Trinity having to wait in heaven to see if perchance we will let Him work! Talk of Christ! It is antichrist. It is an insulting of God’s Christ — a despising of the Christ God has revealed in His Word and makes known in the hearts and consciences of His people.

William Gadsby in a sermon, Scripture Rule for Trying the Spirits

An Old Editorial from TFT —

TIMELY WORDS ON
REPENTANCE

True it is, as stated by several men of recent years, Repentance is indeed the missing note in today’s ministry and so-called Christian life. Where there is no evidence of genuine, heart-felt, mourning repentance before God, there is no evidence of true saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ—and thus such impenitent “Christians” are no Christians at all! How can we be more charitable than our Lord? He says, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3, 5).

In contending for the basic principles of our most holy faith, we must preach deep experimental repentance. Such repentance, however, must be clearly shown to be a gift of God’s sovereign grace and not the work of the creature. Therefore in our explanations of repentance we will have to distinguish between that which is legal and that which is true or evangelical repentance. The latter is always bestowed by God’s grace upon elect and regenerate, convicted and seeking souls—but the former may be little else than a sorrow about getting caught. “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death” (2 Cor. 7:10).

We are gravely concerned when we see multitudes who have been wrought upon in various ways by religious hucksters, promising them an easy way of salvation if they would only “confess their sins and give their hearts to the Lord.” And while there may be much sincerity and honest sorrow over certain outward acts of sinfulness, these people yet remain total strangers to a genuine work of grace and to that “godly sorrow” of which the apostle writes: “For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge!” (2 Cor. 7:11). My beloved, to be a partaker of that true, saving, evangelical repentance—which is always God’s gift—means something! It is real, never-to-be-forgotten and lasting, while your flimsy, temporary, self-motivated “sorrow of the world” will soon pass away.

True repentance is David in the 51st Psalm: “I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight: that Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou judgest... Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part Thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to know joy and gladness; that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me... For Thou desirest not sacrifice: else would I give it: Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.”

Evangelical repentance is Ephraim in Jeremiah 31: “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus: Thou has chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn Thou me, and I shall be turned; for Thou art the Lord my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded” (vs. 18-19).

Repentance is Job at the end of his long trial: “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6). And, my friends, when Job was finally brought down to this point of thorough brokenness and repentance, God restored him.

The repentance of which we write is Jacob wrestling with the angel of Jehovah until he is touched in the hollow of his thigh and thoroughly broken, crying, “I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me” (Gen. 32:6). His name was changed to Israel; the promises of God were sealed to his heart and he received the desired blessing.

Repentance, this evangelical grace which is almost unknown in modern times—Repentance, this great need of our hearts—Repentance before God in sackcloth and ashes—is the one pressing need of hearts—of the hearts of this editor and his readers, especially. We cannot create it, cannot spin it forth of our own bowels, cannot produce it by the exercise of our free wills. It must be given. “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:30-31). “Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life” (Acts 11:18).

True repentance is a sinner not only believing but turning unto the Lord (Acts 11:21). It is the sinner not only seeking the Lord but seeking Him with all his heart (Jer. 29:13). And to such earnestly seeking souls, and to none others, we have the promise: “And I will be found of you, saith the Lord” (Jer. 29:14). Such repentant souls not only experience a mourning after Christ but a mourning apart (Zech. 12:10-14); and only to these is the fountain of the cleansing blood opened (Zech. 13:1). In this agony of repentance, the soul lies so low at the table of mercy and says, “Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table,” and ultimately receives the blessing, “Be it unto thee even as thou wilt” (Matthew 15:27-28). “When God’s grace touches the heart, men are in earnest to get to Christ by faith and to get to God by repentance” (Tom L. Daniel).

We have often opposed “free offer gospel,” “duty-faith,” and “duty-repentance”—and rightly so, for such repentance as we have outlined from the Word of God cannot be produced by man in response to a preacher’s exhortations. All that “duty” preaching will ever produce is a legal repentance, a mere work of the flesh and not the evangelical repentance herein described.
Oh, cry to God that your repentance be not mere natural remorse, a “repentance” not worthy of the name, for it gives God no glory (Rev. 16:9). When men are caught in iniquity, condemned for it and punished, they repent. When the errors of his life have been exposed, any criminal will feel sorrow and shame. But allow him to evade punishment and he returns to his old ways.
Today’s religious converts, in their temporary, trumpery zeal, may sing about forgiveness, love and mercy. But in their enthusiasm for Jesus and the “Way of the Cross,” never do they come to the words:

“Then I bid farewell to the way of the world,
To walk in it nevermore!”

That is repentance, in the light of our Lord’s cross. Only grace can bring us this far, and then all will be well with us. Please read carefully and search your heart honestly over this matter of repentance before God. Let us hear from you. My dear friends, God’s people need to stay in close fellowship with the Lord and with each other—in this day when Satan as an angel of light stands ready to oppose the truth and, through his false Christs and false prophets, to deceive the very elect, if it were possible (Matthew 24:24). — W. W. Fulton

Saturday, June 27, 2009

“It Will Take Your Breath Away!”

The average church and the average preacher of today are judged on the basis of how LARGE a group they can create. Is this God's way of measuring a true church? Read a brief article that will prove an eye-opener to some — click: “It Will Take Your Breath Away!" This is a former editorial of our old Truth for Today paper, and was reprinted in 2005 in The Banner of Truth of Scotland. May it prove a blessing.

In the Name of Him by whom I continue in the way of grace,

W. Fulton

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

GOD’S IRRESISTIBLE GRACE! Words of Truth from Elder Jimmy Barber

At this time we desire to point all concerned souls to a great teaching article by our dear friend Brother Jimmy Barber of Tennessee. The subject is “God’s Irresistible Grace” and it’s available for reading on his website for Covenant Primitive Baptist Church, Oak Ridge, TN. You will find other helpful writings while there.

To immediately open this article simply click the title above, or here: “God's Irresistible Grace.” STUDY this article—our brother is true to the Word on this matter, and I trust it will bless your heart as it has mine! May our Covenant God have all the praise.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

NOT IN WORD BUT IN POWER (1 Cor. 4:20).

A form of words, though e’er so sound,
Can never save a soul;
The Holy Ghost must give the wound,
And make the wounded whole.

Though God’s election is a truth,
Small comfort there I see,
Till I am told by God's own mouth,
That He has chosen me.

Sinners, I read, are justified,
By faith in Jesus’ blood;
But when to me that blood’s applied,
’Tis then it does me good.

To perseverance I agree;
The thing to me is clear;
Because the Lord has promised me
That I shall persevere.

Imputed righteousness I own
A doctrine most divine;
For Jesus to my heart makes known
That all His merit’s mine.

That Christ is God I can avouch,
And for His people cares,
Since I have prayed to Him as such,
And He has heard my prayers.

That sinners black as Hell by Christ
Are saved, I know full well;
For I His mercy have not missed,
And I am black as Hell.

Thus Christians glorify the Lord;
His Spirit joins with ours
In bearing witness to His Word,
With all its saving powers.
Joseph Hart (1712-1768)

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Ah,“not in word but in power!” That’s our great need in the churches of today — the mighty Power of God, manifested in awakening poor sinners to see themselves under Divine curse as fallen in Adam, and bringing them down in remorse and contrition, and to know the Lord Jesus Christ of Scripture in salvation! The “Jesus” they would then come to know would be the Christ of Scripture, not the Hollywood Christ of Mel Gibson. Of that you can be assured! Your encourager, Wylie Wayne Fulton, a lone pilgrim. [Sent out by e-mail first on 02-19-04]
BILLY GRAHAM & THE NEW BIRTH

Several years ago Billy Graham wrote a book titled How To Be Born Again. It has been observed that the esteemed Doctor got ahead of himself; for he should first have written a book telling us how to be born the first time. If he could have accomplished such a prodigious feat as that, then we might have been a great deal more inclined to heed his advice on how to be born again. But inasmuch as neither Mr. Graham nor any other man can tell us how to bring about our first birth, we are not in­clined to trust them to tell us how to bring about the second.

For information on such a subject as this we think it best to go to the Book God wrote. This Book of Books tells us the new birth is not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man (which quite well eliminates human instru­mentality), but of God (John 1:13). This Divinely inspired Book also tells us that “the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof: but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). It further tells us that “As the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will” (John 5:21).

For my part this makes it quite clear that the new birth is something we don’t have any more to do with than we had to do with our first birth, but that it is God who quickens His people, in His own time, by His own power and grace, while they are yet dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1, 4-5). I don’t believe Dr. Graham or any other man can figure out a better plan than that. Ralph Harris, in Advocate and Messenger, Jan. 1994

A vitally important issue — GRAVEN IMAGES

IS there really any harm in wearing a cross around your neck, or having a picture of Jesus on the wall? Is it wrong to use symbols of religion?

The second great law that God Almighty gave (which most people have posted on their walls) says, "THOU SHALT NOT MAKE UNTO THEE ANY GRAVEN IMAGE, OR ANY LIKENESS OF ANY THING THAT IS IN HEAVEN ABOVE, OR THAT IS IN THE EARTH BENEATH, OR THAT IS IN THE WATER UNDER THE EARTH" (Exodus 20:4). If someone says, “That means worshipping idols,” you are right! And if you don’t think people worship these symbols (crosses and pictures), just try and take one down from a steeple, throw one away, or write an article against them! If the express command of the Holy God is not clear enough for people, then I am sure that what I say will not help. But I cannot help but speak up in the midst of such blatant idolatry in our land.

The scriptures say that "God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him MUST worship Him in spirit (not hand but heart; not ceremony but sincerity) and in truth" (John 4:23). The wearing of a cross does not prove one is a Christian (rock singers wear them!), but only proves one’s fetish for wearing jewelry. If you are a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, you won't need a symbol because your life and speech will show forth your profession.

What about a picture on the wall which is supposed to be Jesus? Well, isn’t Christ in Heaven right now, and didn't God say no likenesses of anything in Heaven or earth? Besides, how does anyone know what Christ really looBoldked like while on this earth? Can you imagine anyone putting a picture on the wall of one who closely resembles his mother but is not really her? Absurd, isn’t it! Let someone try to paint a picture of the Jesus Christ Who is described in Revelation 1, whose "eyes were as a flame of fire, and his countenance as the SUN SHINETH in his strength." Now that’s the Jesus Christ of the Bible we must worship. Paul Mahan, Rocky Mt. VA