I have searched the Book of God from cover to
cover repeatedly, marking every place where God says something good about
humanity with a bold green marker. — There are no green marks in my Bible.
Daily
Sunday Judges 16-18 Thursday
1 Samuel 3-6
Monday Judges
19-20 Friday
1 Samuel 7-9
Tuesday Judges
21-Ruth 3 Saturday 1 Samuel 10-12
Wednesday Ruth
4-1 Samuel 2 Sunday 1 Samuel 13-14
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Bobbie Estes-24th
Bold Shall I Stand On Judgment Day — Don Fortner
(Tune: The
Doxology — LM)
1.
Bold
shall I stand on judgment day,
Though millions shall be cast away.
Since Jesus Christ my ransom paid,
No charge against me shall be made.
2.
While
through my Savior’s blood I am
Absolved from sin, and guilt, and blame,
I cannot be condemned to die,
For by free grace I’m justified.
3.
Robed
in my Savior’s righteousness,
My soul cannot be in distress,
For with His spotless garments on
I am as holy as God’s Son!
4.
While
unbelieving rebels die,
“Salvation to the Lord!”,
I’ll cry.
My worth and works I’ll still deny,
“Salvation to the Lord!” I’ll cry.
The only proper reason for the
existence of any local church in this world is the furtherance of the gospel. The
church exists on earth only for the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The
7
Mine Iniquities Have Taken Hold Upon
Me
Psalm
40:12
Christ’s
being
made sin and the transfer of our sins from us to Christ is clearly revealed in
the Psalms in unmistakably clear language. Here the Lord Jesus Christ calls our
sins his own, because “He hath made him sin for us.”
Psalm 40
In the fortieth Psalm the One speaking is, beyond all doubt, our Savior. We know that
because the Holy Spirit tells us that it is Christ who is speaking here (Heb.
10:5). He knew that being made sin for us, he would be brought into a horrible
pit and filled with distress. Yet, his love for us was and is so great that in
verse 7 he declares his readiness to assume a body, and to accomplish his
Father’s will in the salvation of his chosen, agreeably to the ancient
settlements written in the Volume of the Book, saying, — “Lo! I come, I delight to do thy will, O my God.” Then in
verses 11 and 12 he prays for deliverance from his deep distresses, saying…
“Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.”
This is exactly the same
thing we read in John 12:27-28.
Why was the Son of God brought to such sorrow and grief? Here
is the answer. — “He made him sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him!” Indeed, he could never have suffered
the painful, shameful, ignominious death of the cross as our Substitute had he
not been made sin for us. Justice would never have allowed it. The Lord God
declares, “He
that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are
abomination to the LORD.” (Pro. 17:15; Ex. 23:7).
Hear the Savior’s words in
Psalm 40:12, and worship him. — “For innumerable evils have compassed me
about.” He was beset on every side with evil. Countless woes compassed our
great Substitute and Sin-bearer. Spurgeon said, “Our sins were innumerable, and
so were his griefs.” From every quarter, all the accumulated sins of all his
people, for all time, in all parts of the world, were made to be his! The
Blessed One of God, who knew no sin and did no sin, was made sin! Read on. —
“Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up.” — He had no sin, but sins were laid on him, and he took them as his own. “He was made sin for us.” “The transfer of sin to the Savior was real,” Spurgeon wrote, “and produced in him as man the horror which forbade him to look into the face of God, bowing him down with crushing anguish and woe intolerable.”
8
What would our sins have done to us eternally if the Friend of sinners had not condescended to take them all upon himself? Oh, blessed Scripture! “He hath made him sin for us!” Oh, marvellous depth of love, that made the perfectly immaculate Lamb of God to stand in the sinner’s place, and bear the horror of great trembling, which sin must bring upon those who are forever keenly conscious of it in hell!
“They
are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.” — The
pains of God’s holy fury against sin, his unbending justice and unmitigated
wrath were beyond calculation, and the Savior’s soul was so crushed with them,
that he was sore amazed, and very heavy, even unto a sweat of blood. His
strength was gone, his spirit sank, he was in an
agony. He cried, “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of
joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My
strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and
thou hast brought me into the dust of death” (Ps.
It was the thought and anticipation of
being made sin for us, not of simply paying the debt due unto our sins, but of
being made sin, that caused his bloody sweat in
David understood what he wrote in this Psalm and was utterly overwhelmed by it. “Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered” (Ps. 40:5). O Spirit of God, let me never cease to be overwhelmed by the love of God in Christ, which constrained my all-glorious Redeemer to be made sin for me!
Psalm 69
In Psalm 69:1-5 we again
hear Immanuel calling our sins his own as he hangs upon the cursed tree,
suffering the wrath of God for us.
“Save me, O God; for the
waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there
is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait
for my God. They that hate me without a cause are
more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine
enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not
away. O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from
thee.”
How could they be “his” otherwise than by this act of
wondrous wisdom, justice, and grace. — “He hath
made him sin for us!” As debts are transferred to the surety, our sins were
transferred to our Savior. “Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ
to suffer” (Luke 24:46). Since he became voluntarily
responsible, “ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter
into his glory?” (Luke 24:26.)