JESUS! In Word and Song

WEEK 52

JOYFUL SINGING

“His joy is my joy. My experience of joy must be emanating from His experience of joy.”¹

Before the foundation of the world, our names were engraved on the Savior’s hands. In Christ, we have always been redeemed by His precious blood, always been preserved by the power of God, always been secure of the heritage given; therefore, let us always be grateful. If we are not always singing with our lips, let us always be singing with our hearts.²

Singing will often make the heart rise. The song, though at first it may appear to drag, will soon be fitted with wings that lift the spirit. Sing more and you will sing more still, for the more you sing, the more you will be able to sing the praises of God.³

The good tidings of great joy have reached us; as we, by His grace, have believed them, He has saved us from sin and death and hell. He has not simply promised to do it someday, but He has already done it. Sing to Him with a grateful heart, saying, ‘My soul doth magnify the Lord.’⁴

‘Delight thyself also in the LORD’ (Psalm 37:4). This is His command, and is it not a lovely one? So greatly does God desire us to rejoice in Him that to the command is added a promise: ‘and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.’ [D]elight becomes a duty, to be happy is to be obedient to a command!⁵

“The engagement of the heart in worship is the coming alive of the feelings and emotions and affections of the heart.”⁶ John Piper

“[Y]ou always sing best when you are most spiritually focused. If you cannot sing artistically, never mind, you will be right enough if you sing from the heart and pay attention to it.”⁷

“It glorifies God when we delight in him, expressing the joy of knowing him and being known by him. [E]xpressions of delight point to God’s worth.”⁸ “The joy is ours. The glory is his.”⁹

“Only Jesus himself can bring us into God’s presence, and he has done it through a single sacrifice that will never be repeated—only joyfully recounted and trusted in.”¹⁰

ENDNOTES

(52) Joyful Singing

1. Doug Newton, Fresh Eyes on Famous Bible Sayings (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2018) 94-95.

2. Charles Spurgeon, The Power of Praising God (New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 1998) 12.

3. Spurgeon, 24.

4. Charles Spurgeon, The Fullness of Joy (New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 1997) 136-137.

5. Spurgeon, 136.

6. Bob Kauflin, Worship Matters (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2008) 65.

7. Charles Spurgeon, The Fullness of Joy (New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 1997) 52.

8. Bob Kauflin, Worship Matters (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2008) 66.

9. Kauflin, 150.

10. Kauflin, 74.

11. Andrew Murray, Abide in Christ (Springdale, PA: Whitaker House, 1979) 159.

12. Bob Kauflin, Worship Matters (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2008) 161.

13. Andrew Murray, Abide in Christ (Springdale, PA: Whitaker House, 1979) 161.

14. “But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall” (Malachi 4:2 ESV).

15. Andrew Murray, Abide in Christ (Springdale, PA: Whitaker House, 1979) 160.

JESUS! In Word and Song

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WEEK 34

THE MEDIATOR

“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” (1 Tim 2:5 ESV).

The Father gave a people to the Son, and the Son voluntarily made Himself responsible to God for them. God the Father said He would grant forgiveness, reconciliation, restoration, new life, and a new nature to all who belonged to His Son. The condition was that the Son should come into the world and take human nature and the sin of mankind upon Himself to bear its punishment, stand for them, represent them, and suffer for them.¹

Because we were alienated from God by sin, we needed someone to come between God and ourselves and bring us back to him. We needed a mediator who could represent us to God and who could represent God to us. There is only one person who has ever fulfilled that requirement: ‘There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus’ (1 Tim 2:5). In order to fulfill this role of mediator, Jesus had to be fully man as well as fully God.²

“The grand end of Christ’s mediation is the appeasing of God’s anger and the securing of His favor. He is the Advocate with the Father on behalf of His sinning people, pleading His righteousness and blood for them.”³

“The Lord Jesus is the anointed Mediator.”⁴ “Christ presents His people before God as those who are inestimably dear unto Him. He not only died for them, but lives for them (Rom 5:10). He died to render satisfaction to God on their behalf; He lives to keep them secure.”⁵

Christ sits at God’s right hand as no silent and inactive Spectator, but as an industrious and mighty Intercessor: to prevent the sins of His people making any breach, to preserve a perpetual amity between God and them. Thus we have ‘a Friend at court’ who spreads before the Father the odours of His merits as the all-sufficient answer to every indictment which Satan prefers against us. He requests not the Father to show mercy at the expense of justice. There is no compromise of holiness in God’s pardoning His children, for Christ made full atonement for all their sins.⁶

[Christ’s] mediation on the throne is as real and indispensable as on the cross. [I]t engages all His time and powers [and] is His unceasing occupation at the right hand of the Father. And we participate not only in the benefits of this His work, but in the work itself.⁷

ENDNOTES

(34) I See a Man at GOD’s Right Hand

1. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “God’s Great Plan of Redemption,” Free Grace Broadcaster 236 (summer 2016) : 3.

2. Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994) 541.

3. A.W. Pink, 1 John, Part One 1:1-2:11 (Pensacola, FL: Chapel Library, 2005) 123.

4. Charles Spurgeon, “God’s Purpose Consummated,” Free Grace Broadcaster 236 (summer 2016) : 27.

5. A.W. Pink, 1 John, Part One 1:1-2:11 (Pensacola, FL: Chapel Library, 2005) 120.

6. Pink, 120-122.

7. Andrew Murray, “With Christ in the School of Prayer,” PC Study Bible by Biblesoft, Inc, 2003, twenty-sixth lesson.

8. Horatius Bonar, “I See A Man at God’s Right Hand,” 1872 Hymnary, 20 February 2021 https://hymnary.org/text/i_see_a_man_at_gods_right_hand.

9. “Oh the Valley,” music and melody, author unknown.

JESUS! In Word and Song

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WEEK 11

JESUS GREW IN WISDOM

“And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom” (Isa 11:2 ESV).“And Jesus increased in wisdom”(Luke 2:52 ESV). “And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him”(Luke 2:40 ESV).

“The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught” (Isa 50:4 ESV).

“Christ was filled with the Spirit from the womb and received his gifts and graces from [God] without measure.”¹

“From birth to baptism the Spirit directed His mental and moral development, and strengthened and kept Him through all the years of preparation and toil. He was in the Carpenter as truly as in the Messiah, and the work at the bench was as perfect as the sacrifice on the Cross” (S. Chadwick).²

As CHRIST was able to perform the will of His FATHER by relying on the HOLY SPIRIT, so I, too, can perform the will of my FATHER. All I have to do is ask.

“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (Luke 11:13 ESV)!

“As Jesus was entirely dependent on the Father for all His words and all His works, so the believer can do nothing of himself. He must cease entirely from his own doing, and wait for the working of God in him”³

Octavius Winslow, in his comments below speaks of the HOLY SPIRIT and how He works in man. It is by the same process and progression He worked in JESUS, as the Son of Man.

It is a work of time. The soul is placed in the school of deep experience and is led step by step, stage by stage. The knowledge of self and of Christ increases, deeper views of indwelling sin are discovered, the heart’s treachery is more acutely felt, the devices of Satan are better known, the mystery of God’s gracious and providential dealings are more clearly unfolded and better understood.⁴

ENDNOTES

(11) STOP. ASK. For the SPIRIT

1. John Gill, “Commentary of Isaiah 11:2,” 1999, The New John Gill Exposition of the Whole Bible, 29 January 2021 https://www.studylight.org/commentaires/eng/geb/isaiah-11.html.

2. A. W. Pink, The Holy Spirit (Pensacola, FL: Mt. Zion Publications), http://www.mountzion.org, 32.

3. Andrew Murray, Abide in Christ (Springdale, PA: Whitaker House, 1979) 118.

4. Octavius Winslow, Evening Thoughts (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2005) 188.

5. Robert Hawker, “Commentary of Isaiah 11:2,” 1828, Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary, 30 January 2021, https://www.studylight.org/commentary/isaiah/11-2.html#verse-pmc.

6. Albert Barnes, “Commentary on Isaiah 11:2,” 1870, Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Whole Bible, 30 January 2021 https://www.studylight.org/commentary/isaiah/11-2.html#verse-bnb.

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SUFFERING FROM HATEFUL MEN

“[We are] hated by the world so long as the race of Cains and the race of Abels continue on the earth” Charles Ross (ref#241, p137).

“I call persecution for righteousness’ sake not only when we suffer in defense of the gospel, but also when we are opposed in upholding any just cause. When we defend the truth of God over against the falsehoods, of Satan, or protect good and innocent people against injustice and injury, it may be necessary for us to incur the hatred and indignation of the world, so that our lives, our possessions, or our reputation may be endangered” John Calvin (ref#313, p56).

“John Bunyan said that believers ‘are like bells; the harder they are hit, the better they sound’” John Calvin (ref#164, Aug 20^th).

“When our Lord was on earth what was the treatment He received? Were His claims acknowledged, His instruction followed, and His perfections worshipped by those whom He came to bless? Crossbearing was His occupation. They did not prize the polished gem, so why would they value the jewel in the rough” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Nov 10^thPM)?

“We learn to glory in infirmities, to take pleasure in necessities and distresses for Christ’s sake; for ‘when I am weak, then I am strong.’ He rises above the ordinary tone in which so many Christians speak of their weakness, while they are content to abide there, because he had learnt from Christ that in the life of divine love the emptying of self and the sacrifice of our will is the surest way to have all we can wish or will. Dependence, subjection, self-sacrifice, are for the Christian as for Christ the blessed path of life. Like as Christ lived through and in the Father, even so the believer lives through and in Christ” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p149).

“[I]f God be at peace with you, it matters not who is at war with you. If Jehovah absolves, your name may be cast out as evil, you may be ranked among the vilest of the vile, your name may be a byword and a proverb, only fit to be wrought up into the drunkard’s song—but who is he that can be against you? What are all these things, if put into the balance, but lighter than vanity, if Jehovah Himself hath justified you” Charles H. Spurgeon (ref#238, p47)?

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the LORD delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken. Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The LORD redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned” (Ps 34:19-22 ESV).

“Show me a sign of your favor, that those who hate me may see and be put to shame because you, O LORD, have helped me and comforted me” (Ps 86:17 ESV).

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CHRIST TEACHES SUFFERING

“For us all—for you, tempted to interpret your afflictions as signals of wrath and your sins as seals of condemnation, your poverty as the mark of neglect, your seasons of darkness as token of desertion, and your doubts and fears as evidences of a false hope and of self-deception. For you, dear saint of God, Jesus was delivered up” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Dec 14^th).

“[L]et no Christian call into question God’s love when he is brought under painful afflictions and trials. God did not enrich Christ on earth with temporal prosperity. But He [gave] Him the Spirit without measure (Jon 3:34). Learn that spiritual blessings are the principal gifts of divine love” Arthur W. Pink (ref#253, p10).

“Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God” (1 Pet 4:1 ESV).

“Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps. 1 Peter 2:21 “Christ teaches us how to live, and He also teaches us how to suffer. Because we live in a world of suffering and we need to be taught how to suffer, He teaches us how to suffer. The cross teaches us how to suffer—not only how to live morally and ethically, but how to suffer. ‘The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’ come to us all: people misunderstanding us, injustices done to us, the failure of trusted friends, people letting us down, disappointments, loneliness, physical pain” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#189, April 30^th).

“He that abides in Christ the Crucified One, learns to know what it is to be crucified with Him, and in Him to be indeed dead unto sin” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p199).

“He suffered for us; he calls us to be conformed to him in sufferings. He conquered in his own person, and he will make each of his members more than conquerors in due season” John Newton (ref#322, p182).

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ABIDE IN CHRIST

“It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn [God’s] statutes” (Ps 119:71 ESV).

“When things are going ‘bad’ that does not mean God has stopped doing good. It means he is shifting things around to get them in place for more good, if you will go on loving him” John Piper (ref#220, p181).

“[B]eliever, most specially in times of trial, abide in Christ. Abide in Christ! This is indeed the Father’s object in sending the trial” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p124).

“[O]ne of the purposes of trials—to revive in us the spirit of devotion and communion with God. And when mercy comes on the back of great trouble, it leads us sweetly to prayer” Charles Spurgeon (ref#310, p165).

“You and I place much more importance on things than they truly possess, and when we do so, these things begin to claim our heart allegiance. So God ordains for us to experience that physical things get old and break. The people in our lives fail us. Relationships sour and become painful. Our physical bodies weaken. Flowers die and food spoils. All of this is meant to teach us that these things are beautiful and enjoyable, but they cannot give us what we all long for—life” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, March 29^th).

“In this world that is groaning, God is protecting our hearts. He is protecting us from us. Our hearts can be so fickle. We can worship God one day, only to turn and give the worship of our hearts to something else the next. So, in love, God lets pieces of the creation die in our hands so that increasingly we are freed from asking earth to give us what only he can give.” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, March 29^th).

“The furnace works wonders for a believer. He should never wish to be exempt from it! [R]eal grace is inseparable from a state of trial. Where there is real faith, the Lord will try it. Real grace, then, is tried grace. The hour of affliction is the hour of softening. The hardness of the heart yields, the callousness of the spirit gives way, the affections become tender, and conscience is more susceptible. It is the season of holy abstraction, meditation, and prayer, of withdrawal from the world and from creature delights, while the soul is more closely shut in with God. Emptied, humbled, and softened, the heart is prepared for the seal of the Spirit” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, May 8^th).

“Your Lord knows that even as his child your heart is still prone to wander, so in tender, patient grace he keeps you in a world that teaches you that he alone is worthy of the deepest, most worshipful allegiance of your heart” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, March 29^th).

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KILLING PRIDE

“[T]he most heavily laden branches bow the lowest down” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p132).

GOD has to continue afflicting us because every minute we are un-afflicted we head toward pride, forgetting who rules the world. When un-afflicted we revel in our accomplishments.

“When you discipline us for our sins, you consume like a moth what is precious to us” (Ps 39:11 NLT)!

“This vanity [God] cannot better repress than by proving to us from experience not only our folly, but also our extreme frailty. Therefore he afflicts us with humiliation, or poverty, or loss of relatives, or disease, or other calamities” John Calvin (ref#313, p47).

“[T]he Lord himself, as he deems fit, uses the cross to oppose, restrain, and subdue the arrogance of our flesh” John Calvin (ref#313, p53).

“[T]he Lord, by pain, sickness, and disappointments weakens our attachment to this world, and makes the thought of quitting it more familiar and more desirable” John Newton (ref#322, p173).

“Take up your own daily cross. It is the burden best suited for your shoulder, and will prove most effective in making you perfect. Down meddlesome self and proud impatience! It is not for you, but only for the Lord of Love, to choose!

Trials must and will befall—

But with humble faith to see

Love inscribed upon them all;

This is happiness to me” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Nov 11^th PM).

TRUE CHRISTIAN OR FAUX?

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HYPOCRITES_3

“Many in these days of easy profession are likely to prove to be tares, and not wheat; hypocrites with fair masks on their faces, but not the true-born children of the living God” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, April 26^th PM).

Initial or preparative grace may fail: “’…those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,’ may fall away; such as illumination, external reformation, temporary faith, some good beginnings. Some die in the pangs of the new birth and are stillborn. Plenty of blossoms do not always foretell a store of fruit” Thomas Manton (ref#225, Sept 28^th).

“…enter into the spiritual state…know that there is such a spiritual life to be lived…the first thing…to do is to study and to believe God’s Word until in faith our hearts are filled with the assurance that there is such a life possible….the second step: A man must see the shame and guilt of his not having lived such a life….A man does not get converted without having conviction of sin….a man…must be convicted of his particular sin….Until this conviction of the wrongness of our carnal state as believers comes to each one of us; until we are willing to get this conviction from God, to take time before God to be humbled and convicted, we never can become spiritual men” Andrew Murray (ref#272, p16-20).

We become a brand new person inside. Our new life has begun (2 Cor 5:17)—a life fashioned after CHRIST, renewed from the inside and able to work itself into our conduct as He accurately reproduces His character in us (Eph 4:24). This metamorphosis is called, “sanctification” and we will keep changing for the better until the day we die (Phil 2:12).

A characteristic of a Christian is: “He may have fears and doubts. He may sometimes tell you that he feels as if he had no faith at all. But ask him if he is willing to trust in anything instead of Christ, and see what he will say. Ask him if he will rest his hope of eternal life on his own goodness, his own works, his prayers, his minister, or his church” J.C. Ryle (ref#222).

FATHER, all that I pray for I pray they are not refusing Your diagnosis of their need and Your offer of forgiveness (ref#56, p1828, [1 John 1:10]). I pray they are not chronically disobedient to Your commands (ref#125, p2437, [1 John 5:16]). For continuing in such a state leads to permanent death.

TRUE CHRISTIAN OR FAUX?

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HYPOCRITES_2

“The highest principle with the hypocrite is fear of punishment, and hope of reward (Hos 10:11), their highest end is themselves (Hos 10:1)” Thomas Boston (ref#267).

“To ‘live after the flesh’ is to be in love with sin, to serve it contentedly, to make self-gratification the trade and business of life. It is by no means limited to the grosser forms of wickedness and crime, but includes as well the refinement, morality, and religiousness of the best of men, who yet give God no real place in their hearts and lives” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p111).

“You know the way of salvation. You read it in the Bible, you hear it from the pulpit, and it is explained to you by friends; yet you neglect it and therefore, are not saved….Times of refreshing have come from the divine presence, yet you are without Christ….Affliction and prosperity have both failed to impress you. Tears and prayers and sermons have been wasted on your barren heart” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Dec 31^st AM).

“Are you ignorant of the Holy Spirit – unacquainted with his life-giving power?…You are still of the world, and what you need is to have your false peace disturbed, and to be converted to God” Charles Ross (ref#241, p93).

A characteristic of a Christian: “A person who has been born again, or regenerated, does not habitually commit sin. He no longer sins with his heart and will and whole inclination. There was probably a time when he did not think about whether his actions were sinful or not, and he did not always feel grieved after doing evil. There was no quarrel between him and sin; they were friends. But the true Christian hates sin, flees from it, fights against it, considers it his greatest plague, resents the burden of its presence, mourns when he falls under its influence, and longs to be completely delivered from it” J.C. Ryle (ref#222).

“What brought deliverance to that poor condemned sinner…in his unconverted state? He felt he could do nothing good of himself….He saw set before him the almighty Saviour and he cast himself into His arms; he trusted himself to that omnipotent love and cried, ‘Lord, have mercy upon me.’ That was salvation” Andrew Murray (ref#272, p22-23).

TRUE CHRISTIAN OR FAUX?

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NOT REAL

“There are many today who are sincere, but they are not real; they are not hypocrites, but perfectly honest and earnest and desirous of fulfilling what Jesus wants of them, but they really cannot do it because they have not received the Holy Spirit who will make them real” Oswald Chambers (ref#83, p85).

“It is the Holy Spirit alone who by His indwelling can make a spiritual man” Andrew Murray (ref#272, p25).

“…I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge” (Rom 10:2 ESV). “…they trusted…and argued that because they were zealous they were therefore of necessity right….they rejected the knowledge the Gospel was offering them because of that very ardor. The conflict in their case was between zeal and knowledge, between sincerity and truth” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#189, May 27^th).

“There can be no doubt at all but that these qualities—zeal and sincerity—are being exalted in our day precisely as they were by the Jews of old. Knowledge is being depreciated, almost despised. Clear, logical thinking and exact definitions are discounted. Doctrine and dogma are taboo and regarded as being almost the enemies of truth, and even good deeds are not given the prominence they had a few years ago” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#189, May 27^th).

“…knowledge…draws us to the kingdom of heaven or takes our affections from the world, and leads us to Jesus Christ…when we do not know what the salvation means that was purchased by our Lord Jesus Christ, we belong to the world and are profane” John Calvin (ref#164, Nov 9^th).

A characteristic of a Christian is: “A man who is born again…believes that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour who can pardon his soul, that He is the divine person appointed by God the Father for this very purpose, and beside Him there is no Saviour at all….trusting in Him, he believes that his sins are all forgiven. He believes that, for the sake of Christ’s finished work and death on the Cross, he is reckoned righteous in God’s sight. (Rom 4:20-5:1, 8:1)” J.C. Ryle (ref#222).

Bonnie's Prayer Affair

Keeping myself in CHRIST

Andrew Murray

JESUS! In Word and Song

JESUS! In Word and Song

JESUS! In Word and Song

TRUE CHRISTIAN OR FAUX?

HYPOCRITES_3

TRUE CHRISTIAN OR FAUX?

HYPOCRITES_2

TRUE CHRISTIAN OR FAUX?

NOT REAL