By John Pedersen
Good day, my friends!
Today I present a note from my brother, John, that Pastor Scott Price shared on a Facebook group "Sheep Without a Home" of which I am a member. The clear message really impressed upon me that this should be shared.
God works THROUGH knowledge in converting His Saints, not apart from it. This clear teaching elucidates this in contrast to pervasive mysticism within the visible church. May God give light.
Psalm 105 is a record of God's faithfulness to Israel, from His covenant-promise to Abraham to His provision in the wilderness.
Verse 41 reads:
"He opened the rock, and water gushed out; it ran in the dry places like a river."
God provides for His people when they are unable to provide for themselves. The Bible has this redundant theme: God gives life and help when all natural remedies are excluded.
In providing for His elect, God always does so in a manner whereby it apparent, nay certain, the help could have come from no other place but His power. God not only gives gifts; He does so that there can be no mistaking where the gift came from.
In I Corinthians 10:4, the Apostle refers to Christ as that Rock which "followed" His people in their wilderness sojourn. The Lord Jesus Christ is Himself the life and help of His people.
When God grants Christ's imputed righteousness and forgiveness, He does so only under conditions excluding the possibility His gift could come from anywhere, or anyone, but Him.
Some argue God can forgive a man and clothe him in the righteousness of Christ while at the same time allowing this same man to suppose, by some "immaturity" or "lack of consistency", he is the ultimate reason for his own forgiveness
Some claim God would provide for a man in such a manner this same man may conclude God "saw" in His foreknowledge that he would choose Him, and therefore bestowed salvation upon him, And God would allow this man to think himself the author of his own salvation.
It is impossible this could be so.
When God gives the grace He secures at Christ's sacrifice, He does not then leave the apprehension of this gift to the natural proclivities of our own flawed understanding. Were He to do so, He would deny Himself in the very thing He does! God cannot deny Himself (II Timothy 2:13).
God brings us water from the Rock, not in a place of abundant springs and rivers, but in a desert wilderness. He gives His people the gift of His salvation despite the fact they have absolutely no ability, no understanding, no capacity, no innate means of recognizing it.
Have you ever received a "mystery gift" at Christmas time? You don't know who to thank!
God does not give "mystery gifts".
When God gives His gift, He will allow no mistake as to where it came from. How? With His gift, He includes the means whereby it is apprehended. Apart from Him, we have no means to know His gift. We are spiritually dead and blind to His salvation and His truth. Apart from Him, we are totally depraved, and this means we are as able to understand gospel truth as a dry desert is able to produce water of itself.
As it says in I Corinthians 2:12: "Now we have received, not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God".
The fact I know something, the "only thing needful", by a means naturally impossible to me is abiding comfort and encouragement in this wilderness. It means I carry a treasure none of the circumstances of this world can tarnish or take away.
The knowledge of this salvation by Christ who loved me, died for me and loves me still, who sees me in the perfected glory of His own righteousness, is food and drink and life itself.
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