by HARVEYOPP | Apr 22, 2014 | Scott Henry
“Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins…” (Galatians 1:3)
Grace sums up everything that makes it possible to be in a covenant of peace with God (Isa. 54:10). And true grace and peace can only come from God since grace implies that all men are dead in trespasses and sins, and nothing can possibly make us acceptable to a holy God except His mercy, which comes by way of His grace through the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross of Christ is the fountain from which the grace of God flows to unworthy sinners. God’s grace is the only reason sinners are saved from the guilt, penalty and consequences of their sin. Because God is gracious, loving, merciful and just, Jesus Christ came into this world and took upon Himself the nature of man and “gave himself for our sins.” He was pleased to lay down His life in order to redeem a multitude of sinners and deliver them from the wrath of God.
Oh, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! God’s grace moves the sinner out of the sphere of darkness, death, rebellion and judgment, and into the realm of light, life, righteousness and blessing. Grace imputes the righteous merits of Jesus Christ to the sinner’s account so that he may be declared holy and righteous by God. God’s grace elects unworthy sinners to redemption in Christ; grace regenerates the sinner’s soul making the sinner a saint; grace creates faith in the sinner’s heart; grace rescues the sinner from the realm of damnation and brings him into the realm of salvation; grace adopts the sinner as a child of God; grace brings us into union with Christ; grace washes away the sinner’s sin in Christ’s blood and makes him white as snow; grace grants the redeemed sinner to share in Christ’s inheritance; grace brings us into peace with God; grace sustains, preserves, protects, and defends the redeemed sinner; grace conforms redeemed sinners into Christ’s image; grace justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies redeemed sinners; grace makes unworthy sinners the sheep of Christ’s pasture, the people of His hand; grace removes our condemnation and promises no separation from God’s love … Yes, Christ is God’s grace to unworthy sinners like you and me …
“Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt, Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured, There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt … Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that will pardon and cleanse within … Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that is greater than all our sin!”
Have you received the grace of God? Has Christ translated you out of the realm of darkness into the realm of His marvelous light making you the object of God’s love and favor? If so, there’s only one appropriate response … PRAISE! God saves us, beloved, “to the praise of the glory of His grace” (Eph. 1:6). Bend the knee and let your thanksgiving arise to the throne of God’s grace … this day and always!
by HARVEYOPP | Apr 18, 2014 | Scott Henry
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46).
Good Friday is a day when believers remember the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s a day we remember how Christ became a curse on the cross for all those given to Him by the Father in order that through His sin-atoning work they might receive the blessing of God. On Good Friday we remember how Jesus suffered during His whole life on earth, and how He endured the reproach of sinful men and suffered the physical torture of being beaten and nailed to the cross. But the greatest of His suffering was when Jesus was forsaken by His Father! On the cross, Jesus Christ experienced the inexpressible anguish, pains, and terror of eternal death in order that those who would believe in Him might receive everlasting life. That’s the truth behind Christ’s cry on the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46). It was at this time that Christ became a curse for sinners (Galatians 3:13) and was cast out by the Father for every sinful thought, word and deed of all He came to redeem. 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
The Day of Atonement described in the Old Testament foreshadows, in great detail, the substitutionary work of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the 16th chapter of the book of Leviticus, Aaron the High Priest was commanded by God to bring two goats before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Aaron then cast lots for the goats: one for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat. The goat on which the Lord’s lot fell was presented before the Lord as a sin offering and its blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat as a symbol of cleansing from sins. But the other goat was presented alive before the Lord to make atonement upon it. Aaron would place his hands upon the head of the goat and confess all the sins of Israel upon its head, symbolically imputing the sins of Israel to the scapegoat. The scapegoat was then sent into an uninhabited land symbolically bearing the sins of Israel upon it. The significance of the ceremony was twofold: the first goat signified the cleansing of all the sins of God’s people, and the second goat, the scapegoat, signified the truth that all the sins of the people were cast away from them and would never return. The truth behind this Old Testament ceremony is that it foreshadowed the work of Jesus Christ on behalf of His people. Jesus was both the sin offering who cleansed His people with His blood, and the scapegoat upon whom the sins of His people were imputed.
On the cross, Jesus was the One banished far into the uninhabited wilderness in order to redeem His people from their sins. That’s why Jesus is called the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), and it’s also for this reason that believers can have the blessed assurance that their sins are cast as far as the east is from the west, never to be remembered against them again (Psalm 103:12). Why? Because on a Friday afternoon, over 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ became our sin offering and our scapegoat in order that God’s wrath might be turned away from us and we become favorable in God’s sight. That’s the truth we embrace as we remember the work of our Savior, Jesus Christ, on Good Friday. Is your trust in Jesus as the only One who could ever wash away your sins by His atoning work? Scripture is very clear; “there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).
by HARVEYOPP | Apr 17, 2014 | Scott Henry
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46).
Our Lord Jesus was forsaken by God in the utter darkness of eternal Hell in our place. It was necessary in order that we might be adopted as the children of God, and be privileged to call God, “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15). On the cross, Christ was disinherited so that believers might become heirs of God (Romans 8:17) and citizens of His Kingdom. Christ passed through eternal Hell on the cross, suffered the infinite wrath of God against sin, and emerged from the darkness of death in order that sinners might be saved from the guilt and penalty of their sins by trusting in Jesus. The Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 17, tells us that “By the power of His Godhead He might bear in His manhood the burden of God’s wrath, and so obtain for and restore to us righteousness and life.”
Christ entered completely into the wages of our sins and suffered what every chosen sinner deserved. Jesus suffered the second death, which is eternal damnation, yet He ever lives to make intercession for the saints (Heb. 7:25). He suffered all of this so that His sheep would never be made to suffer eternal death … so that they would never be made to shout the cry of eternal death, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me!” What manner of love is this, dear Christian, that Christ would drink the cup of God’s eternal wrath to the bitter dregs, in our place, so that we might be called the children of the living God? (1 John 3:1)
The Great Shepherd, Jesus Christ, laid down His life for us, His sheep (John 10), so that we might dwell safely with Him for eternity. Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a multitude of wretched sinners from every tribe, tongue and nation of this world! Have you praised your Savior Jesus today for redeeming you from eternal damnation and destruction?
“Let us love and sing and wonder, let us praise the Savior’s name; He has hushed the law’s loud thunder, He has quenched Mount Sinai’s flame! He has washed us with His blood, He has brought us nigh to God.” (John Newton)
by HARVEYOPP | Apr 11, 2014 | Scott Henry
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46).
Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” so that we would never have to utter that phrase. Jesus willingly suffered being forsaken by God so that we would never be forsaken by God. Jesus allowed the darkness of Hell to enclose Him because He refused to allow that darkness to enclose all who were given to Him by the Father. What manner of love is this, beloved, that Christ would drink the cup of God’s infinite, eternal, inexpressible wrath in our place so that we might be called the children of the living God?! No price was too high for Him in order to save us from our sins. The Good Shepherd laid down his life for His sheep.
Do you see what utter blasphemy it is to say that God has abandoned someone who is trusting in Christ? Sometimes believers “feel” that God has forsaken them … what Martin Luther called the dark night of the soul … but God will never forsake His children because Christ was forsaken in their place. The Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 3:13: “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”). And again in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Let us always remember what Christ suffered in our place so that we might be restored into union and fellowship with God, so that we would never be made to cry out “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Why has God accepted sinners such as you and me? Scripture gives only one reason … God has accepted us because one Friday afternoon, over 2000 years ago, He forsook His Son, our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ, in our place!! Our response to Christ’s work on our behalf is nicely summed up in the words of John Newton:
Let us love and sing and wonder, Let us praise the Savior’s Name!
He has hushed the law’s loud thunder, He has quenched Mount Sinai’s flame.
He has washed us with His blood, He has brought us nigh to God.
by HARVEYOPP | Apr 1, 2014 | Scott Henry
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2).
Conformity to the world is the sin of many professing Christians. Many think they’ve found a way to serve both God and mammon. But Scripture calls the redeemed of Christ to resist conformity to the spirit of this age. As the Apostle John wrote, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; is not of the Father but is of the world” (1 John 2:15-16). And James tells us, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
As believers, we are strangers and pilgrims on the earth (Heb. 11:13). Heaven is our country (Phil. 3:20) and the Lord Jesus is our King (Rev. 15:3). What does a believer have to do with people, places, and things that promote a spirit of unrighteousness and irreverence towards our holy God? (2 Cor. 6:14-18) What conformity does a believer have to a place where things are purposely designed to indulge sinful passions and eliminate all thoughts of God? The redeemed are those who have been translated from the realm of darkness and death into the realm of light and life in Jesus Christ. And so the Apostle Paul declares to every believer, “…for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light…” (Ephesians 5:8).
Therefore, we are commanded not to adopt the sinful customs, desires, ideologies, attitudes, actions, or thoughts of the rebellious people in the land where we sojourn. It’s the duty of every believer to redeem the time, to walk with God, and to do all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and for His glory! (1 Cor. 10:31) In this way we are truly living as salt and light in the midst of a dark world.
by HARVEYOPP | Mar 29, 2014 | Scott Henry
“An ungodly man digs up evil, and it is on his lips like a burning fire. A perverse man sows strife, and a whisperer separates the best of friends” (Proverbs 16:27-28).
The words that flow out of our mouth are not neutral … they either edify or tear down others. Many of us grew up as children hearing or saying these words, “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” But if you have been on the receiving end of a sharp tongue you know that words do indeed hurt.
Words often bring heartache that’s harder to heal than a broken bone or a pulled muscle. If you were given ten cents for every kind word you spoke, and paid five cents for every unkind word spoken, would you be rich or poor? Our words are not neutral … they either encourage or discourage others. “Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad” (Proverbs 12:25).
A story is told of a church member who slandered another member of the same congregation. Upon discovering what he said was untrue he went to his pastor for help. The pastor told him to take a bag of feathers and place one feather on each doorstep of the community, and this he did. He then returned to the pastor announcing that he had completed the task. But the pastor sternly ordered him to take his bag and go pick up every one of those feathers he had dropped. But the man replied, “By this time the wind has blown those feathers away and they are irrecoverable.” And then the pastor reminded him that words are like feathers; once they’re dropped, and that easily, it is impossible to get them back.
Words are like a two-edged sword; they can be used for good or evil. You decide how your words are used. Remember this thought … there is no such thing as a meaningless word. Every word you speak has the power to help or hinder another person who has been created as the image of God. Don’t allow your words to become a stumbling block to others. Use your words to edify and uplift because it brings glory to God and encouragement to others! “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver” (Proverbs 25:11). “The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, but the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness” (Proverbs 15:2). “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one” (Col. 4:6).
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