Welcome, friends, to another
broadcast of Morsels for Zion's Poor. There is no dearth of preachers
who go about teaching men that the Bible is a mysterious book,
which must be interpreted by some code or insight which is
particularly given to them. There are numerous large gatherings
of folks who are convinced that this or that particular prophet
is the spokesman for God in the world, and if any would know
the truth it must come from his lips. Preacher worship is quite
common in all denominations. Miracle workers and producers
of various signs abound. The intricacies of prophecies
are explained by these wonder workers and mind readers with
whom many of those who seek out the knowledge of the mysteries
and dark sayings are satisfied. Some of them are able to deceive
multitudes by the light that they have. The witch of Endor
was no fake. There are indeed powers and principalities
which are beyond our present ability to see and interact with. Those who are seekers of religion
can easily be satisfied with a journey into this realm. Deception,
by its very definition, is often difficult to detect, especially
by those who are deceived. The scripture is abundantly clear
that the salvation of the Lord's elect is wrapped up in Jesus
Christ alone. If any man possesses the ability
to come into the presence of God, he has received such ability
by the gift of Him who has trod the winepress of God's wrath
without any assistance and who has purchased the redemption
of his own people by his own blood. When anybody's message
is Christ plus something, it is too much. Or if it's less
than Christ alone, then it is too little. The most common error
of the day is that men are taught that Christ has done all He could
do to redeem the whole world, but now it's up to men to allow
Him to save them by believing that He did it for them. This
is called accepting Christ. It is a universal error that
crosses many denominational lines. Most so-called believers are
taught that their sins are taken away at the moment they believe.
They are taught that man's belief in the gospel is the moving cause
of the imputation of his sin to Christ and the righteousness
of Christ to his account. The gospel does not confer life,
nor does a belief of the gospel cause a change in sin's imputation
in the courts of heaven. Before the world was created,
the salvation of God's elect was decreed. Nothing that God
determines to do can ever be thwarted, nor can His purpose
fail to be carried out. Only those who will not bow to
Him will protest against this truth. The salvation of God's
elect has been fully accomplished in the courts of heaven by the
perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, along with the sacrifice
of Himself for their sin. The elect who lived before the
coming of Christ into the world of necessity died with only the
prospect of redemption yet to be accomplished. However, those
who have been born since he shed his precious blood live in a
time after which the act of imputation has already occurred. He became
sin for his people and the chastisement of their peace was laid upon
him. He is both just and the justifier of his own people.
The sin-debt of his people is forever satisfied by this one
offering for sin which he has made. There remains nothing else
to be done. It is finished. He has forever
manifested his execution of the Father's purpose. The gospel
is the revelation of that which Christ has accomplished to those
who have been given eyes to see and ears to hear. Life and immortality
have been brought to light or out in the open. When an awakened
sinner hears the gospel and is given the gift of faith to believe
it, then life appears to him for the first time. He who believed
himself to be worthy of destruction and walking in the valley of
the shadow of death now finds sweet consolation in the message
of hope wrought by the redemption of Jesus Christ the righteous.
That man is then reconciled to God in his own mind and willingly
bows down and owns Christ as Lord. Gone is the fear of death
which gripped his soul in the terrors of his own sin's darkness.
Gone is that servile nature of religiosity, and in its place
is the desire to worship him in spirit and truth. Gone is
any expectation of righteousness in anything other than Christ.
There only remaineth the final manifestation of the righteousness
of the elect, which shall be seen by the world at the final
judgment. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but
the goats on the left. Then shall the king say unto
them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Do you rejoice in the finished work of Christ, or do you attempt
to finish his work fully? For a free CD containing 15 of
these radio broadcasts, send an email to forthepoor at windstream.net.