OUR HOLINESS IS HIS WORK

"Our Holiness is His Work"...

... Ichabod Smith Spencer shares how he dealt with a man inquiring about God’s election while refusing to come to Christ in repentance and faith.... Spencer gives three purposes why the Bible presents the doctrine of predestination. The first purpose is to teach men the character of God; the second is to repress the audacity of the wicked; and the third is to comfort God’s people.

Spencer’s words about such a comfort is quite powerful, and thought the quote is a bit lengthy, let me encourage you to read it all. It is a good word we all need to hear.

The third main purpose of this doctrine [of predestination] is, as I suppose, to comfort God’s people. The grand trial of a life of religion is a trial of the heart. We have sins, we have weaknesses and temptations, which tend to a dreadful discouragement. Sin easily besets us. We easily wander from God. Holiness is an up-hill work. Our feet often stagger in the path of our pilgrimage, and tears of bitterness gush from our eyes, lest such weak, and tempted, and erring creatures should never reach heaven. Devils tempt us. The world presents its deceitful allurements, and more deceitful and dangerous claims. What shall cheer us when our heart sinks within us? Whither shall we fly for comfort, when our hearts are bleeding, when our sins are so many, when our gain in holiness is so little, when our light goes out, and the gloom of an impenetrable midnight settles down upon our poor and helpless soul? We cannot, indeed, mount up to the inner sanctuary of God, open the seven-sealed book, and read our names recorded in it by the pen of the Eternal. But we can know that such a book is there; and that the pen of our Father has filled it with his eternal decrees, not one of which shall fail of accomplishment, as surely as his own throne shall stand. And when we find in ourselves, amid our tearful struggles, even the feeble beginnings of holiness, we know that God has commenced his work for us,–a work which he planned before the world was; and that he who has ‘begun a good in work in us, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ,’ carrying into effect his eternal plan. Just as well as we know our likeness to God, we know our election to God. We know that our holiness is his work, a work which he purposed from the beginning. If he had purposed it but just when he began it,–if it were a work undertaken from some recent impulse, then we should have good reason to fear that some other impulse would drive him to abandon it. But when we know it from a part of his eternal counsels, and is no sidework, no episode, no interlude, or sudden interposition not before provided for—then we are assured that God is not going to forsake us; and deep as is our home-bred depravity, and many and malignant as are our foes, we are cheered with the assurance, that God will bring us off victorious, and ‘the purpose according to election shall stand.’ We love to see our salvation embraced in the eternal plan of God; and we know it is embraced there, if we are his children by faith in Christ Jesus. We cannot read his secret counsels; but we can read his spiritual workings in us. We know the counsels by the evidence of the workings; and then we are cheered and encouraged amid our trials, by the idea that God will no more abandon us than he will abandon the eternal plan which his wisdom formed before the foundation of the world. ‘Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?’ He had their names in his book before they had shed a tear, before a devil existed to tempt them.

- Ichabod Smith Spencer, A Pastor’s Sketches: Conversations with Anxious Souls Concerning the Way of Salvation vol. 1 (Vestavia Hills, AL: Solid Ground Books), 237-39.

THE FATHER IS SATISFIED

If evangelism is focused on seeing sinners saved, then we are likely to miss the glory of God in it all; however if evangelism is focused on the glory of God in it all, then our joy will be an eternal constant no matter what we "see". Too much today is focused on "seeing" the response of sinners, when rather we should be savoring the Father's satisfaction in the Son as we proclaim.

TWO BY SPURGEON

“Solid arguments are lost on shallow minds. Yet what else are we to use? We are bound to give them reasons; but we are not called upon to give them understanding." ~Charles Spurgeon

"Remember that the man who truly repents is never satisfied with his own repentance." - C.H. Spurgeon;

 

IN CHRIST ALONE

No one is loved by God but in Christ alone.
No one is chosen by God but in Christ alone.
No one is accepted by God but in Christ alone.
No one is redeemed by God but in Christ alone.
No one is pardoned by God but in Christ alone.
No one is justified by God but in Christ alone.
No one is made righteous by God but in Christ alone.
No one is regenerated by God but in Christ alone.
No one is sanctified by God but in Christ alone.
No one is preserved by God but in Christ alone.
No one is glorified by God but in Christ alone.
No one is saved by God but in Christ alone... 

[source: Robert B.]

Stumbling Block

The Sovereignty of God is the stumbling block on which thousands fall and perish; and if we go contending with God about His sovereignty it will be our eternal ruin. It is absolutely necessary that we should submit to God as an absolute sovereign, and the sovereign of our souls; as one who may have mercy on whom He will have mercy and harden whom He will" 

(Jonathan Edwards)

Brevity of Life

Below is a list of 60 famous people who died before the age of 40. 


Taken from:  http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/va-news-articles_2011-11-30?vaid=f222704b9650980c81ea4491dbac158e


The world was shocked and saddened when Princess Diana died in 1997 at the age of 36.



1. Jessica Dubroff (7)
Pilot -- Plane crash -- 1996

2. Heather O'Rourke (12)
Child actor -- Bowel obstruction -- 1988

3. Anne Frank (15)
Dutch-Jewish author -- Typhus in concentration camp -- 1945

4. Ritchie Valens (17)
Rock 'n' roll singer -- Plane crash -- 1959

5. Eddie Cochran (21)
Rockabilly musician -- Auto accident -- 1960

6. Aaliyah (22)
R&B singer -- Plane crash -- 2001

7. Buddy Holly (22)
Rock 'n' roll singer -- Plane crash -- 1959

8. Freddie Prinze (22)
Comedian/actor -- Suicide -- 1977

9. River Phoenix (23)
Actor -- Drug overdose -- 1993

10. Selena (23)
Mexican-American singer -- Homicide -- 1995

11. James Dean (24)
Actor -- Auto accident -- 1955

12. Otis Redding (26)
Soul singer -- Plane crash -- 1967

....Randy Rhoads (26)  (December 6, 1956 – March 19, 1982) (26)
Guitarist for Ozzy.--1982.

13. Brian Jones (27)
British rock guitarist -- Drug-related drowning, possibly homicide -- 1969

14. Janis Joplin (27)
Rock/soul singer -- Heroin overdose -- 1970

15. Jim Morrison (27)
Rock singer -- Heart attack, possibly due to drug overdose -- 1971

16. Jimi Hendrix (27)
Rock guitarist/singer -- Asphyxiation from sleeping pill overdose -- 1970

17. Kurt Cobain (27)
Grunge rock singer/guitarist -- Gunshot and lethal dose of heroin, presumed suicide -- 1994

18. Reggie Lewis (27)
Basketball player -- Heart attack -- 1993

19. Brandon Lee (28)
Actor -- Accidental shooting on the set of The Crow -- 1993

20. Shannon Hoon (28)
Rock singer -- Drug overdose -- 1995

21. Hank Williams (29)
Country musician -- Heart attack, possibly due to an accidental overdose of morphine and alcohol -- 1953

22. Andy Gibb (30)
Singer -- Heart failure due to cocaine abuse -- 1988

23. Jim Croce (30)
Singer/songwriter -- Plane crash -- 1973

24. Patsy Cline (30)
Country music singer -- Plane crash -- 1963

25. Sylvia Plath (30)
Poet and author -- Suicide -- 1963

Alexander the Great
  (32) died in   
323 BCE aged 32 from Malaria, Possibly Poisoned

26. Brian Epstein (32)
Beatles manager -- Drug overdose -- 1967

27. Bruce Lee (32)
Martial arts actor -- Possible allergic reaction -- 1973

28. Cass Elliot (32)
Singer -- Heart attack brought on by obesity -- 1974

29. Karen Carpenter (32)
Singer and musician -- Cardiac arrest from anorexia nervosa -- 1983

30. Keith Moon (32)
Rock drummer -- Overdose of medication -- 1978

Bon Scott   died in   
1980 aged 33 from Suffocation on His Own Vomit After Drinking Binge

hard-rock singer (AC/DC) Australian

31. Carole Lombard (33)
Actor -- Plane crash -- 1942

32. Chris Farley (33)
Comedian/actor -- Overdose of cocaine and heroin -- 1997

33. Darryl Kile (33)
Major League Baseball pitcher -- Coronary heart disease -- 2002

34. Jesus Christ (33)
Founder of Christianity -- Crucifixion -- A.D. 30

35. John Belushi (33)
Comedian/actor -- Overdose of cocaine and heroin -- 1982

36. Sam Cooke (33)
Soul musician -- Homicide -- 1964

37. Charlie Parker (34)
Jazz saxophonist -- Pneumonia and ulcer, brought on by drug abuse -- 1955

38. Dana Plato (34)
Actor -- Prescription drug overdose -- 1999

39. Jayne Mansfield (34)
Actor -- Auto accident -- 1967

40. Andy Kaufman (35)
Comedian/actor -- Lung cancer -- 1984

41. Josh Gibson (35)
Negro League baseball player -- Stroke -- 1947

42. Stevie Ray Vaughan (35)
Blues guitarist -- Helicopter crash -- 1990

43. Bob Marley (36)
Reggae musician -- Melanoma that metastasized into lung and brain cancer -- 1981

44. Diana, Princess of Wales (36)
British royal -- Auto accident -- 1997

45. Marilyn Monroe (36)
Actor -- Barbiturate overdose -- 1962

46. Bobby Darin (37)
Singer/actor -- Complications during heart surgery -- 1973

47. Lou Gehrig (37)
Major League Baseball player -- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) -- 1941

48. Michael Hutchence (37)
Rock singer -- Hanged, possibly suicide -- 1997

49. Sal Mineo (37)
Actor -- Homicide -- 1976

Felix Mendelssohn died in 1847 aged 38 from a Stroke composer German 50. Florence Griffith Joyner (38)
Olympian/sprinter -- Possible asphyxiation during epileptic seizure -- 1998

51. George Gershwin (38)
Composer -- Brain tumor -- 1937

52. Harry Chapin (38)
Singer/songwriter -- Auto accident -- 1981

53. John F. Kennedy, Jr. (38)
Journalist/publisher -- Plane crash -- 1999

54. Roberto Clemente (38)
Major League Baseball player -- Plane crash -- 1972

55. Sam Kinison (38)
Comedian -- Auto accident caused by drunk driver -- 1992

56. Anna Nicole Smith (39)
Model/actor -- Accidental prescription drug overdose -- 2007

57. Dennis Wilson (39)
Rock 'n' roll drummer -- Drowning due to intoxication -- 1983

58. Malcolm X (39)
Militant civil rights leader -- Assassination -- 1965

59. Martin Luther King, Jr. (39)
Civil rights activist/minister -- Assassination -- 1968

THE BEST WORKS

“Even the best works of men, antecedently unto the purging of their consciences by the blood of Christ, are but dead works.” - John Owen