Month: June 2023

JESUS! In Word and Song

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WEEK 32

THE CROSS STILL STANDS

“Responsive readings can be beneficial because they invoke the congregation in voicing the sacred text.”1

These paragraphs are to be recited before the start of each verse:

VERSE 1:

“God sent His only begotten, dearly loved Son into this world in order that He might go to the cross. It was God who sent Him. It was God who smote Him and struck Him and gave Him the punishment that we deserved.”2

“Why did God bruise his Son? He did it to resolve the dissonance between his love for his glory and his love for sinners.”3 “The cross of Christ justifies God; he remains holy because He has punished sin in the death, the shed blood, of His Son.”4

VERSE 2:

“In the Old Testament the Israelites transferred their guilt to a lamb, and then the lamb was killed.”9

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life” (Lev 17:11 ESV).

“God has provided His own sacrifice; it is His own Son.”10

“[Jesus] carried up to the Cross our sins in His body and offered himself there as on an altar (1 Peter 2:24).”11

VERSE 3:

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10 ESV).

“The cross tells me that I am a complete failure, and that I am such a failure that He had to come from heaven not merely to teach and preach in this world, but to die on that cross. Nothing else could save us.”14

“It is the cross alone that saves any one of us from the destruction that is coming to the world.”15

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ENDNOTES

(32) I Will Praise the Cross

            1. 1 ESV Study Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001, ESV Text Edition: 2011) 2575.

2. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Walking With God Day by Day (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2003) April 23rd.

            3. John Piper, The Pleasures of GOD (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, Inc., 1991, 2000) 161.

            4. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Life in Christ, Studies in 1 John (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2002) 134.

5. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Walking With God Day by Day (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2003) April 23rd.

            6. Lloyd-Jones, April 23rd.

            7. Lloyd-Jones.

            8. Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1911) 333.

            9. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Walking With God Day by Day (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2003) April 3rd.

            10. Lloyd-Jones, April 3rd.

            11. Kenneth S. Wuest, The New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1961) 554.

            12. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life” (Leviticus 17:11 ESV).

            13. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Walking With God Day by Day (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2003) April 3rd.

            14. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, April 14

            15. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, April 11th.

            16. Lloyd-Jones.

JESUS! In Word and Song

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WEEK 31

GOD’S MASTER PLAN

[H]ere are you and I, miserable worms in this world, miserable worms with our arrogance and our pride and our appalling ignorance. We deserve nothing but to be blotted off the face of the earth. But what has happened is that before the foundation of the world this blessed God considered us, considered our condition, considered what would happen to us and planned a way whereby we might be forgiven and redeemed.1

“God’s act of choosing His people in Christ was without the consideration of the fall, nor was it upon the foresight and footing of works, but was wholly of grace, and all to the praise and glory of it.”2

“[I]n love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,” (Eph 1:4-5 ESV). “God predestined his elect to redemption and holiness in Christ according to the free council of his will.”3

“God has imputed the believer’s sin to Christ and God imputes Christ’s righteousness to the believer.”4 “[We] are pardoned because [our] sin is punished in Christ. And [we] are restored because his righteousness becomes [ours].”5

“Christianity rest on an unveiling of the hidden Creator Himself.”6 “[B]eing creatures, we cannot know God unless He acts to make Himself known to us. Even Adam in Eden needed direct divine speech to make known to him all God’s will.”7 “God created man in his own image. And God blessed them. And God said to them . . . And God said . . . ”(Gen 1:27-29 ESV).

“Revelation does not mean man finding God, but God finding man, God sharing His secrets with us, God showing us Himself.”8

It always bothers me when we gather for worship and people say things like, ‘Lord, we invite you into our presence.’ When we should be humbly thanking him for allowing us into his presence. You see, proper worship begins with a proper perspective of who we are and who God is. When we gather to worship, it’s good for us to remember that God is not in our presence, we are in his.9

“He is a friend to us, and we to Him, He finding His joy in giving us gifts and we finding ours in giving Him thanks.”10

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ENDNOTES

(31) GOD’s Love Self-generated

            1. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “God’s Great Plan of Redemption,” Free Grace Broadcaster 236 (summer 2016) : 4.

            2. A.W. Pink, “The Mediator Chosen,” Free Grace Broadcaster 236 (summer 2016) : 25.

            3. ESV Study Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001, ESV Text Edition: 2011) 2260.

            4. ESV Study Bible, 2231.

            5. G. I. Williamson, The Westminster Confession of Faith for Study Classes (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing Company, 1964, 2004) 105.

            6. J.I. Packer, God Has Spoken (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1979) 45.

            7. Packer, 53-55.

8. Packer, 46.

            9. Denny Johnson, “The Intimacy of God’s Sovereignty,” NHC sermon notes, 7 February 2021: 4.

            10. Packer, 50.

            11. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Life in Christ, Studies in 1 John (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2002) 550-551.

            12. Horatius Bonar, Words Old and New (Carlisle, PA: THE BANNER OF TRUTH TRUST, 1866, 1994) 126-127.

            13. “ . . . Jesus Christ—Loyal Witness, Firstborn from the dead, Ruler of all earthly kings” (Rev 1:4-7 MSG).

            14. Isaac Watts, “Jesus Shall Reign,” 1719, Hymnary, 19 February 2021 https://hymnary.org/text/jesus_shall_reign_whereer_the_sun.

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WEEK 30

GOD BEFORE THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE WORLD

[L]ong ere the day-star knew its place, before God had spoken existence out of nothing, before angel’s wing had stirred the unnavigated ether, before a solitary song had disturbed the solemnity of the silence in which God reigned supreme, He had entered into solemn council with Himself, His Son, and His Spirit and had in that council decreed, determined, proposed, and predestinated the salvation of His people.1

“God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun” (Rom 8:29-30 MSG).

“God chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world according to the purpose of his will” (Eph 1:3-5 ESV).

“God’s great love has been manifested in what He has done for us in and through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”2 “God created the world so we could share in the joy of knowing him.”3

“It is a superlative honor that Christ is the channel through which all the grace and glory we have, or shall have, flows to us, and was set up as such from the beginning.”4

“[T]he mystery hidden for ages and generations [is] now revealed to his saints. [T]his mystery is Christ in you”(Col 1:26-27 ESV).

To make sure that the FATHER had a people to shower His love on, He selected His elect before He created them, cementing all His purposes in stone before He set up the world—making sure the ones He purchased would not (could not) fall away from Him.  Through His Son’s work and drawing His people to accept His plan in faith, He will always have a people to love. 

God is able to work out his sovereign will within the distinctive characteristics of what he has created. He moves a rock as a rock, and moves a human heart as a human heart. He does not turn a person into a thing when he brings about his sovereign intentions in a person’s life. Paul describes sanctification as the result of both human effort and ultimate divine enabling. He sees no conflict between divine and human activity. Rather, God is uniquely able to bring about his purposes within human beings so that they are fully engaged as persons and responsible for their own decisions, attitudes, and actions.5

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ENDNOTES

(30) To GOD Be Glory Forevermore

            1. Charles Spurgeon, “God’s Covenant in Eternity,” Free Grace Broadcaster 236 (summer 2016) : 5.

            2. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Life in Christ, Studies in 1 John (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2002) 517.

            3. Bob Kauflin, Worship Matters (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2008) 176.

            4. A.W. Pink, “The Mediator Chosen,” Free Grace Broadcaster 236 (summer 2016) : 27.

            5. ESV Study Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001, ESV Text Edition: 2011) 2529.

            6. Charles Spurgeon, “God’s Covenant in Eternity,” Free Grace Broadcaster 236 (summer 2016) : 5.

            7. ESV Study Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001, ESV Text Edition: 2011) 2529.

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WEEK 29

BETWEEN RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION

“Christ had finished the work that was given Him to do. He had gathered out those who were to continue His work among men.”1

They were to work as He had worked, depending on Him for strength. Though their way would be obstructed by apparent impossibilities, yet by His grace they were to go forward, despairing of nothing and hoping for everything. 2

GOD, the FATHER, provided a transition for the confused followers of CHRIST between His resurrection and ascension—“[T]he 40-day period when Jesus prepared the disciples for their witness.”3 “He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God”(Acts 1:3 ESV).

This good news about the Kingdom of GOD is called the gospel. “It perceives this as saving acts of God due to the work of Jesus on the cross and Jesus’ resurrection from the dead which bring reconciliation between people and God.”4

[T]he gospel in Acts represents the beginning of the fulfillment of God’s kingdom promises. The “kingdom of God” means the present spiritually directed reign of God, gradually transforming individual lives and entire cultures through the power of the Holy Spirit.5

[W]hen Christ’s work on earth was accomplished, Christ was exalted to the second highest position of authority in the universe, namely, at the right hand of God, with ruling power delegated to him by God the Father. Then Christ received authority from the Father to send the Holy Spirit. Jesus himself poured out the Holy Spirit on the disciples in a new and more powerful way.6

“And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh” (Acts 2:17 ESV).

[T]his powerful new work of the Holy Spirit after Pentecost brought several beneficial results: more effectiveness in witness and ministry, effective proclamation of the gospel, power for victory over sin, power for victory over Satan and demonic forces, and a wide distribution of gifts for ministry.7

After the descent of the Holy Spirit, the disciples were so filled with love for [Christ] and for those for whom He died, that hearts were melted by the words they spoke and the prayers they offered. They spoke in the power of the Spirit; and under the influence of that power, thousands were converted. 8

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ENDNOTES

(29) Far Above What I Could Ever Think

            1. Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1911) 24.

            2. White, 23.

3. ESV Study Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001, ESV Text Edition: 2011) 2080.

            4. “Gospel,” Wikipedia, Wikipedia, 18 February 2021 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_gospel.

            5. ESV Study Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001, ESV Text Edition: 2011) 2080.

            6. ESV Study Bible, 2085.

            7. ESV Study Bible, 2081.

            8. Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1911) 22, brackets mine.

            9. “Rejoice in the Lord Always Again I Say Rejoice,” Hymnary, 18 February 2021 https://hymnary.org/text/rejoice_in_the_lord_always_and_again_i_s.

            10. “Rejoice in the Lord Always Again I Say Rejoice.”