****STANDING ON THE PROMISES

In high school, I became aware of a couple whose daughter was terminally ill.  When her death was imminent, they began to pray, fervently, to God; “You have promised to heal all our diseases!  You have said, ‘Whatever we ask in faith, believing, you will do it!”  And then it got really scary; their prayers became angry and demanding.  They commanded God to keep her alive.

Their prayers must have worked because God granted their petitions; the girl lived for several more years, but she never recovered from her illness.  She remained bedridden and required constant care and she was often comatose. 

  

There are at least two lessons to learn from that incident:

1. Don’t make demands or attempt to manipulate God.  Contrary to the errant lyrics of another song about God’s promises, Every Promise In The Book Is NOT Mine.  God has made many promises that were specific and unique to certain people at certain times and we are not to presume that, just because those are recorded, He must grant us the same promises.                                                                                                        
2. Standing on God’s promises is not a physical thing.  It’s not about a comfortable best life now.  It is a peaceful assurance that comes when we rest in the finished work of Christ on the cross.  And it is a determined act of trusting the certain and immutable truths and principles of God’s Word. 

God saved Russell Carter in a prayer meeting at a military academy he attended in the late 1800s.  He was a star athlete and a top student.

After graduating, he returned to become an instructor and athletics coach in the academy.

He joined a Methodist church and later became an ordained minister.

He spent the last years of his professional life as a medical doctor. 

And through all those diverse occupations, he had time to become a musician and a songwriter.  

In 1886, he produced a hymnbook in which he published his hymn, STANDING ON THE PROMISES.

Russell Carter was just 30 years old when he was diagnosed with a critical heart condition and faced imminent death.  That condition humbled him; “He made a promise (to God) that, healing or no, his life was finally and forever, consecrated to the service of his Lord.

From that time on, he learned to lean on the promises he found in God’s Word.  He committed himself to trust his Savior whether or not he was healed.  In the end, he concluded that his life or death was God’s prerogative.

 

As it turned out, God granted Carter another 49 years.   His hymn was a personal testimony to his faith. 

The biblical inspiration, for the song, might have been Peter’s opening salutation in his second epistle – he wrote specifically,

“To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, ...His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises...”

The hymn is simple yet profound.  After an opening stanza of praise to God, verse two reminds us that His promises cannot fail and that those, whose trust is in the Living Word (Jesus), will prevail.

Verse three assures us that we can overcome our spiritual battles every day because the Spirit of God indwells us and has provided us with the sword of protection which is the Word of God.

The last verse encourages us to be constantly listening to the Spirit of God as He applies the written Word of God to our hearts.

 

And that is how we can Stand firmly on the Promises of God.  

****FAITH OF OUR FATHERS

“…the church has always been beset by heretics and false teachings, and church history is full of the evidence of this.

“Obviously, then, we who love the Truth cannot automatically shy away from every fight over doctrine, especially in an era like ours when virtually every doctrine is deemed ‘up for grabs’. Christians need to be willing and prepared to contend earnestly for the faith.

“Clearly, there are two extremes to be avoided. One is the danger of being so narrow and intolerant that you create unnecessary divisions in the body of Christ. The other is the problem of being too broad-minded that you settle for a shallow false unity with people whom we are commanded to avoid or whose error we are morally obligated to refute.”

(Phil Johnson, Executive director Grace to You)

Throughout church history, there have always been open doors to false teachings and practices in the Church.  One of those doors has been the pragmatic approach to evangelism. 

But another common breach is in worship music.  Music has a powerful effect;  it tends to lull people of different faiths, doctrines, and practices into a false unity. 

Christians are often too quick to accept or are easily influenced by religious ideas without first examining the doctrines and origins of the music we use in our worship services.  Such was the case with a Roman Catholic song that has been accepted and sung by millions of Protestants unaware of its history and true meaning.

Frederick William Faber was raised in a reformed protestant family. His father was an English minister of Huguenot ancestry (The Huguenots were reformed French Christians who were persecuted by the Church of England.).  Faber was opposed to the doctrinal tenets of the Roman Church but, as a young man, he came under the teachings of John Henry Newman, the most prominent English Roman Catholic scholar of the 19th century. 

Faber was lured toward Roman Catholic beliefs and practices and was influenced by a “works righteousness” movement that stressed that the only way to a true religious experience was through liturgical and ceremonial church practices. Eventually, he rejected the reformed doctrines of grace.  He resigned his parish, converted to the Roman Catholic Church, and became known as Father Wilfrid.

Having experienced the way religious hymns influenced the life and outreach of the Protestant churches, Faber was determined to compose hymns that supported the Roman Catholic doctrines and practices. He wrote about 150 of them. 

With his hymn, FAITH OF OUR FATHERS, Faber’s original intent was to remind Catholic parishioners of the suffering and martyrdom their forefathers endured during the reign of King Henry VIII and the Protestant Queen Elizabeth.  And in one verse (printed below), the hymn expressed the hope that someday, by the effectual prayers of Mary, the Church of England would be won back to the Roman Catholic faith.

(original text of the problem stanza)

Faith of our Fathers! Mary's prayers

Shall win our country back to thee:

And through the truth that comes from God

England shall then indeed be free.

The origin of this hymn obviously had to do with Christian martyrs — and we are always inspired by those kinds of stories. In his epistle, Jude exhorts us to “Contend (or fight) for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.” (Jude 3) 

So, after many years and several attempts to correct and revise it, the hymn we sing today stands as an appropriate reminder of those who, in every age, have remained faithful to God and His Gospel even in the face of great persecution and death.

****TAKE THE WORLD BUT GIVE ME JESUS

She was a popular, in demand, speaker, with a great sense of humor. 

She was a concert singer, and an accomplished organist and harpist. 

She was the first woman ever, to speak before the Senate, and she was a personal friend to several presidents.

She spent several days a week in Christian mission work in New York’s Bowery district.

Yet, in spite of all the notoriety, Fanny Crosby lived a very difficult life in a New York City tenement building. 

When she was six weeks old, she was completely blinded for life, by a quack doctor.  Her father died when she was a toddler and her mother was left to find meager work as a maid, to provide for their basic needs.  So, she was raised by her grandmother.

Although she didn’t start writing until she was in her mid-40s, she wrote nearly 9000 hymns; approximately one every other day until she died at age 95.

One day when Fanny Crosby was talking to one of her neighbors, he began complaining about his poverty.  “If I had wealth I would be able to do just what I wish to do, and I would be able to make an (impact) in the world.”

(Take a moment to think about that.  That would be like complaining about the inconvenience of a hangnail to a quadruple amputee.)  It probably wasn’t a good idea for him to whine like that to Fanny Crosby.  She replied, “Well, YOU can TAKE THE WORLD, BUT GIVE ME JESUS.” 

That conversation inspired her and, within a few hours, she had written the song. 

Every stanza starts with that same phrase.  It reminds us of Paul’s words, “…I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” (Phil. 3:8)

In the last verse, she employed a signature theme that appears in many of her hymns, “… in His cross my trust shall be, till with clearer, brighter vision, face to face my Lord I see!”

Fanny once told her mother, "if I had a choice, I would choose to remain blind ... for when I die; the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my blessed Saviour."

****TRUST AND OBEY

In my commentary last week, about the hymn, TRUSTING JESUS, I pointed out the necessity of trusting completely in Jesus Christ alone for our salvation.  There is nothing we can do to earn or merit God’s grace.   Jesus paid it all.  Ours is to repent and believe.

Throughout Church history, there have been many who have distorted that Doctrine of salvation by Grace Alone, in ways that are destructive and heretical.  The official word for the heresy is antinomianism which is literally translated, “against law.”  That is the teaching that says, “We are now in an age of grace and are no longer under the law.”

You might recognize some other names for the heresy such as ”Easy Believism,” or  “Free Grace.”  It’s the practice of encouraging people to repeat a simple, anemic, unrepentant prayer to ask Jesus into their lives and then convince them that they are saved and safe and eternally secure when there has been no real new birth.   

It is offensive to the Gospel and destructive to people when we allow them to believe that they can be positionally right with God while continuing in their sins without consequence; that Jesus paid the penalty for all their sins without telling them that God expects them to stop sinning.

I’m sure you have heard many variations of that, especially today, when so many churches, in the name of political correctness or tolerance, are welcoming and celebrating all kinds of gross unrepentant immorality into their memberships because, “after all, that’s the way God created them and who are we to judge?”

One man, I know, after leaving his wife and shacking up with another woman, said to me, “I don’t care, I accepted Jesus into my heart when I prayed that prayer and I know I’m going to heaven anyway so it doesn’t matter what I do.”

So I need to make a statement, here, which may seem like a paradox.   "While it is true that no one will ever get to heaven by their good works, it is also true that no one will get to heaven without them."

One night at a D. L. Moody evangelistic meeting a young man stood up to testify about the uncertainty of his salvation.  He said, “I am not quite sure, but I’m going to trust, and I’m going to obey.”

That statement was the inspiration for the hymn, TRUST AND OBEY.  It emphasizes two aspects of our salvation—first, our faith and then, our willingness to subject ourselves to God’s Word in obedience. 

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”  Eph 2:10

That’s what we were redeemed for; to walk in good works.   Salvation is just the beginning.  When God saves us, He begins the process of cleansing us and making us fit to live with Him forever.  With the Word of God and the indwelling Spirit of God to convict us, we begin to see ourselves as God sees us.  If our sins don’t bother us; if we are not changed, and if we are not turned from our old ways to walk in obedience to Him, then there is a good reason to question the reality of our salvation.

“TRUST AND OBEY, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, But to TRUST AND OBEY.”

****TRUSTING JESUS

There’s an old story about a tightrope walker who walked a line across Niagara Falls.  When he reached the other side, he turned around and pushed a wheelbarrow back across.  The crowd cheered and marveled at his ability.  Then he turned to the crowd and asked, “Who believes I can push this across with someone sitting in the wheelbarrow?” 

They all raised their hands.  Then he asked, “Who believes enough to get in the wheelbarrow and go with me?"

All the hands went down and no one would volunteer.

In 1989, for our 20th anniversary, our daughter, Dawn, gave us a gift that we have never forgotten.  She arranged for us to experience the exhilarating thrill of bungee jumping.

When our friends heard about it, some of them thought we were careless, irresponsible, and foolish.  We've all heard stories of fatal accidents.  Shortly after our jumps, a veteran bungee jumper fell several hundred feet to his death when he jumped from a hot air balloon.   He had fastened his own ankle straps and checked his own equipment and when he was confident in all his preparations, he jumped.  He no doubt had great faith but his faith was in his own works; no one had checked to ensure that the other end of his cord was secured to the gondola.

For Kathy and me, jumping from that cage was an act of faith that required a complete commitment but we weren’t afraid.  We had seen others go before us and we had heard their own accounts of their experiences.  Before we entered the cage, the attendants worked, systematically, through a written checklist of procedures to ensure that everything was right.  They selected the properly sized cords that were calculated for our weights.  Then they fastened them to our ankles with primary attachments and secondary attachments as a failsafe.  They passed every inch of the cords through their hands as they visually examined them for flaws, cuts, or breeches.  When they reached the end of the cords, they attached them to the cage with a primary attachment and a secondary backup.  They explained each step of what they were doing as they worked through their checklist.  And every detail of the preparation was carefully executed and double-checked by the attendant’s supervisor.

So, the faith we placed in the equipment was not a foolish, ignorant kind of “hope so” faith.   Based on the experiences and testimonies of others, the integrity of the equipment, and the qualifications of the operators, we had substantial assurance for our faith.   

For Christians, saving faith is not a matter of how much or how great our faith is.  People with great faith make deadly commitments all the time.  My own grandmother was one.  She was a practitioner, with great faith in a false religion that is not anchored in Truth.   When she became very ill, she exercised her faith by rejecting needed and available medical attention.  Not only did she die physically, but she also died in her sins and is condemned to eternal judgment.  

Our salvation is not based on the quantity or greatness of our faith nor is it earned by anything we have done. A Christian's faith is a complete trust in Jesus Christ only.  Saving faith is a “know so” faith because He is reliable, trustworthy, and all-powerful.  

TRUSTING JESUS was written by Edgar Stites put to music by Ira D. Sankey. In the first stanza is this phrase that particularly caught my attention:  "Even when my faith is small, Trusting Jesus, that is all."

He can be trusted in all things.

Jesus said, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given Me, but raise it up on the last day.  For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” Jn. 6:37-40

Our Savior is able and reliable and His resurrection is proof of His power over sin and death.  If you want to get to the other side, you must “get in the wheelbarrow,” and Trust only Jesus for your salvation.

****I CANNOT TELL (revised)

Londonderry Air is the name of the musical composition that is the melody for an old Irish hymn of the same name.  There’s not much redeeming value in the lyrics of the hymn but musically, it is an excellent composition that most people would recognize as the melody of the famous Irish song, Danny Boy.

A variation of that tune is used in the popular, contemporary secular song, You Raise Me Up.

There are at least 11 Christian songs that have been written for that melody including, He Looked Beyond My Fault and Saw My Need, by Dottie Rambo; What Grace Is Mine, by Kristyn Getty; and Lord Of The Church, We Pray For Our Renewing, by Timothy Dudley-Smith.  

One artist has skillfully adapted the text of the 23^rd Psalm to the melody and another singer used it in a public performance of the hymn, Amazing Grace.

One of the better songs set to Londonderry Air is I CANNOT TELL, written by an Irishman, William Young Fullerton.  As a young man, William heard the Gospel preaching of Charles Spurgeon and he was saved.  Spurgeon became his close friend and mentor. 

William Fullerton was a Baptist preacher, administrator, and writer.  He served as President of the Baptist Union and as Home Secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society.  He was a frequent speaker at Keswick Conventions. His published works include biographies of John Bunyan, Charles Spurgeon, James William Condell Fegan, and Frederick Brotherton Meyer; and other missionary histories and devotional writings.  He also compiled several hymnals.

In 1966, Ken Bible made some careful alterations to the hymn while respecting William Fullerton's original work.  The result was this amazing song as it is written in many of our hymnbooks.  Although it has become a popular and appropriate song for the Christmas season, it is a great hymn of affirmation about the saving work of our Savior.

Philippians 2:7-8 may have provided some inspiration for this hymn;  “He (Christ Jesus) made Himself of no reputation taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men…… He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death even death on the Cross.”

The songwriter posed a number of unanswerable questions; Why would He do that for us?  What would compel Him to leave His Father, lay aside His splendor, and be born in a dirty feeding trough?  Why would He choose to suffer the humiliation and the agony of the cross?

There is so much we cannot know and may never fully understand about our Great God and Savior. But, there is plenty that we can know from His revealed Word. So, after the questions, come these great declarations of our faith;  BUT THIS, I KNOW, that Christ, the Lord is risen, and because He lives I’ll rise to life eternal. He took my guilty heart and I’m forever free.  The Savior of the World is Lord and King!

I CANNOT TELL

I cannot tell why He, the King of Heaven,

Should leave the peace of all eternity,

Why God, Himself, should lay aside His splendor,

To leave the Father's side and come to me.

But this I know:  Our silence filled with singing,

And all our darkness fled from heaven's light,

When Christ the Lord, so human, yet so holy,

In love was born a child for me that holy night.

I cannot tell why He, the Joy of Heaven,

Should give Himself to suffer for my sin,

Why Holy God should love me in my shamefulness,

Why He should die to draw my soul to Him.

But this I know:  That Christ the Lord is risen,

And praise His Name, He's risen now in me!

Because He lives, I'll rise to life eternal!

He took my guilty heart, and I'm forever free!

I cannot tell when He will rule the nations,

How He will claim His loved ones as His own;

And who can tell the holy jubilation,

When all His children gather round His throne?

But this I know:  All flesh will see His glory,

And skies will burst as all creation sings.

The Son will rise on one eternal morning,

When Christ, the Savior of the world, is Lord and King!

****SAVED BY GRACE

 

Saved By Grace

 

When she was six weeks old Fanny Crosby developed an infection in her eyes. Her doctor treated them with a mustard paste. Fanny screamed with pain and her parents begged the doctor to remove the ointment. But he insisted that it be left on her eyes for a full day to kill the infection. When it was finally removed, the damage was done. Her corneas were severely burned, and Fanny spent her entire life in total blindness.

About a year later her father died and her 21-year-old mother took a job as a maid to provide for herself and her daughter. So, Fanny was left in the care of her grandmother, Eunice, who devoted her life to raising and educating her granddaughter.  Eunice spent many hours reading the Bible to Fanny. She taught her the importance of prayer and a close relationship with God. 

Fanny had an amazing capacity for memorizing large passages of Scripture. She could quote the entire Pentateuch, the Gospels, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, and many of the Psalms. 

She considered her blindness a blessing from God. She wrote, "It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank Him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow, I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things around me."

That attitude was evident early in her life. When she was just eight years old, she wrote this poem: "Oh, what a happy soul am I!  Although I cannot see, I am resolved that in this world, Contented, I will be. How many blessings I enjoy, That other people don’t? To weep and sigh because I'm blind, I cannot, and I won't."

Those words remind us of Paul’s admonition to the church in Philippi. “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content:  I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ, Who strengthens me.”

Fanny Crosby was the most prolific gospel songwriter in American History. She wrote nearly 9000 hymns. Her eyes were blind, but her spiritual sight was razor sharp. Many of her songs contain allusions to the day when she would finally see her Savior. Here are some examples that you might recognize:

In BLESSED ASSURANCE, she wrote, “Visions of rapture now burst on my sight.”

Or "HE HIDETH MY SOUL in the cleft of the rock, where rivers of pleasure I see."

In  ALL THE WAY MY SAVIOR LEADS ME, are the words, “Lo! A spring of joy I see.”

And in, TO GOD BE THE GLORY, “But purer and higher and greater will be, Our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see.”

Or in, TELL ME THE STORY OF JESUS; "a story of love so tender, clearer than ever I see.”

“NEAR THE CROSS! O Lamb of God, bring its scenes before me;”

REDEEMED has this phrase, “I know I shall see in His beauty, the King in whose law I delight;”

And in GIVE ME JESUS, are these words; “let me view His constant smile.”

Fanny once told her mother, "if I had a choice, I would choose to remain blind ... for when I die; the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my blessed Saviour."

That remark may have been her inspiration for at least a couple songs; MY SAVIOR FIRST OF ALL has these great lyrics; “When my lifework is ended and I cross the swelling tide, when the bright and glorious morning I shall see; I shall know my Redeemer when I reach the other side, and His smile will be the first to welcome me.”

In this great hymn of faith that I am featuring today, notice that she repeated this same line at the end of each stanza, “And I shall see Him Face to Face and Tell the Story, SAVED BY GRACE.”

Here are the lyrics:

1.  Someday the silver cord will break, And I no more as now shall sing; But, oh, the joy when I shall wake Within the palace of the King! And I shall see Him face to face And tell the story—Saved by grace.

2.  Someday my earthly house will fall; I cannot tell how soon ’twill be; But this I know—my All in All Has now a place in heav’n for me. And I shall see Him face to face And tell the story—Saved by grace.

3.  Someday, when fades the golden sun Beneath the rosy tinted west, My blessed Lord will say, “Well done!” And I shall enter into rest. And I shall see Him face to face And tell the story—Saved by grace.

4.  Someday, till then I’ll watch and wait, My lamp all trimmed and burning bright, That when my Savior ope's the gate, My soul to Him may take its flight. And I shall see Him face to face And tell the story—Saved by grace.

 

(Comments are welcomed, you may contact me at ralphmpetersen@gmail.com or by phone at (951) 321 9235.)

   

***HE LIVES

The popular song, HE LIVES, may not be listed among the greatest hymns ever written but it probably qualifies to be among the most loved, especially in American congregations during the mid 20^th century.  And I understand the sentimental popularity; it is a lively and joyful declaration of the resurrection of Jesus and it is fun to sing with its antiphonal response phrases in the chorus.

 

Nevertheless, I have been reluctant to use it because of one glaring weakness that permeates the text.  I am not implying that there is any false doctrine in it; there isn’t. 

So, what is the problem?  I am troubled by the weak subjectivity of the dominant theme that moves us, three times, to the question in the chorus, “You ask me how I know He lives?” and the subsequent response, “He lives within my heart.”

I understand that each of us has unique experiences where we have felt or sensed God’s nearness, protection, and love in our lives.  For those who are redeemed, we see His hand everywhere and in everything just as the writer has said, “In all the world around me, I see His loving care.”  

Our subjective testimonies may be true, but they’re not compelling proofs. They are secondary to objective truth.   Our confidence (and especially our testimonies to unbelievers) must rest on solid evidence and we have plenty of it.  

So when the song asks the question, “You ask me how I know He lives?”  I think the author could have written an objective response something like, “I’M GLAD YOU ASKED.  THERE IS EVIDENCE BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT.”  But, unfortunately, that doesn’t fit in the musical meter.

So what evidence is there for the resurrection of Jesus from the dead?  

We have the eye-witness testimonies of the apostles and others who met the risen Christ; those who physically “walked and talked with Him” in the flesh. 

We have the account of a doctor, Luke, who recorded the words the angel spoke to the women who were looking for Christ’s body at the tomb; “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen.”  And later, he recorded that Jesus “presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs.”

We have the testimony of Peter who declared, “This Jesus, God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.”

Even though he often gets a bad rap, I am really glad that Jesus used Thomas to validate His resurrection.  Thomas heard the testimonies of others but he demanded more than just hearsay; he wanted real, tangible evidence; “Unless I see, in His hands, the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them.  Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!”  Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side.  Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”  And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus was seen by over five hundred people, during the forty days between His resurrection and His ascension, many of whom were still alive at the time these accounts were recorded in scripture.

We have the accounts from Paul who, as a skeptical unbeliever and a violent persecutor of Christians, met the risen, glorified Christ on the road to Damascus.

And we have the inspired Word of the living God.  In the words of R. C. Sproul, “We have to determine our theology from the Word of God, not from what we feel.”

This song is most often used in Resurrection Day celebrations because of its exuberant assurance of great things to come. Jesus said, “I Am the Living One; I was dead and behold I Am alive for ever and ever!”   

We really do serve a risen Savior so we can joyfully and confidently sing,

Rejoice! Rejoice, O Christian, 

Lift up your voice and sing,

Eternal hallelujahs 

To Jesus Christ, the King!

The Hope of all who seek Him, 

The Help of all who find,

None other is so loving, 

So good and kind.

HE LIVES!

****HOW FIRM A FOUNDATION (2)

If you were to Google Search for lists of the greatest Hymns of the Christian faith, HOW FIRM A FOUNDATION, would be on almost all of them.  The title of this song is also its theme- We have a Rock Solid Faith that is built on a Firm Foundation which is God’s Word.  

Some other hymns with similar themes, come to mind like Christ Is Made The Sure Foundation, or how about, “On Christ The Solid Rock I Stand; all other ground is sinking sand.”  

This is the kind of stuff that builds confidence.  Authentic Biblical Faith isn’t fuzzy; it’s not iffy; it’s not uncertain.   When someone asks, “Are you sure you’re going to be with the Lord when you die?” we don’t have to offer meek, squishy-sounding, answers like, “I think so," or "I hope so.”   We can respond with absolute assurance, “I Know That My Redeemer Lives, and because He lives, I too shall live.”   Those of us whom God has redeemed can rest assured that our salvation is solid and unshakeable. 

Some people would say (and there are whole denominations that say), that kind of attitude is proud, or arrogant, or boastful; that we can’t possibly know for sure.  And they would be right if our confidence was in ourselves.  

But our confidence is not in anything we do; it’s not in our self-righteousness, our works, or our religious devices.  In fact, this might come as a surprise to you, –-  If you’re saved, it’s not because your walked down an aisle or repeated a prayer.   Salvation is of the Lord. You are saved if you are trusting, totally, in the finished work of Jesus Christ alone.   

Every line, of these lyrics, has a sense of power and authority as though God, Himself, is actually speaking.  And that's because almost all of these lyrics are paraphrases of, allusions to, or quote from some text from God’s immutable Word. 

 

And so, in verse one, we see that the foundation for our faith is laid in the excellence of His unchanging Word.  The Apostle Paul tells us that we are “members of the household of God, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets;” that foundation being the very Words of God.  And then he anchors that figurative building on the Living Word, Jesus Christ, Himself, being the chief cornerstone.   What more can He say?  We don’t need any new revelation from God.  He has spoken!

The second verse, then, assures us that we have no need to fear anything.  It’s almost an exact quote from Isaiah 41:10: “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”

Aren’t you glad that your salvation is not dependent on your own works of righteousness?    The God who saves us is always with us.  The Spirit of God indwells us.  He helps us; He strengthens us, and He hold us up with His own all-powerful hand.

The third verse contains God’s promise that His grace is completely sufficient for every need.  Even when He takes us through extreme trials and persecutions, He does it to refine us and to purify us for our good and His glory.    

We are weak but God is Strong.  Sometimes we might wonder and question, but we can be confident that the foundation of our faith is Sure.  It cannot fail because Jesus never fails.  And God’s Word is on the record.  “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread…, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you.   He will not leave you or forsake you.”

 

So the song ends with one of the most powerful promises of assurance ever put to music;  

          The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,

                    I will not, I will not desert to its foes;

          That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,

                   I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.

5/29/2016

****AT CALVARY

The story behind this hymn was told by Dr. Torrey, who was the President of Moody Bible Institute in the mid-1800s.  He told how he had received a letter from a pastor with a troublesome and rebellious son.  The father hoped that attendance at Moody would help. 

Dr. Torrey advised him that, even though he sympathized with him, his responsibility was to run a Bible school and not a reform school, and so he had to deny the father’s request. 

After many letters of relentless pleading, Dr. Torrey finally gave in with the stipulations that the son must meet with him every day and must abide by the rules and requirements of the Institute.

After months of private counseling, the father’s prayers were answered.  The boy, William Newell, was saved.  He eventually became a minister and later returned to Moody Bible Institute as a teacher.

It was a fascinating story but I want to focus on the text of the hymn.  It makes an excellent presentation of the gospel of grace which he originally wrote as a chronological account of his personal testimony in the form of a poem.

Verse 1 starts with his wasted past.  Note the first phrase, “Years I spent in vanity and pride.”  He was self-absorbed, self-sufficient, arrogant, and, even though he was a preacher’s kid, he was unconcerned about God and unreceptive to the message of the Gospel.

 

And that is the sinful condition of every man.  We are all born with depraved natures, incapable of doing good and bound for judgment and the eternal wrath of a holy God.  BUT GOD sent His Son to die for our sins AT CALVARY.

In verse 2, are the words, “At last, Then, and Until.”  They follow all those “years in the author’s “past.”

  

Then there came a turning point in William’s life and it wasn’t of his own efforts or good works.  In the words of his poem, it happened when, “By God’s Word, at last, my sin I learned.” That’s when the Spirit of God opened his ears to hear, and the Word of God penetrated his heart.

It’s through the preaching of the Gospel that men are saved.  We aren’t saved simply by warm fuzzy messages about how much God loves us.  A true Gospel message must bring us to a clear understanding that the law, God’s moral standard, has been broken and we are guilty and deserve judgment.

“Then, he said, I trembled at the Law I’d spurned.” Once William Newell realized his guilt, the Spirit of God convicted him and made him aware of his need for a Savior.  And the result of that was his turning to the Only remedy; the Only way to salvation; the Cross of Jesus Christ AT CALVARY

In verse three William describes the result of his new faith in Jesus Christ.   He expressed it this way, “Now I’ve given to Jesus, everything, Now I gladly own Him as my King.”

When God saves a man, there will be evidence of a changed life that surrenders to His Lordship and a heart that is naturally filled with His praises.

  

William Newell finished his poem with a great song of praise:

“Oh, the love that drew salvation’s plan!

Oh, the grace that brought it down to man!

Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span AT CALVARY!”

5/8/16