All Things Work Together For Good...

 1891 GC Sermon #13 E.J. Waggoner

Now we come to the most blessed and the most glorious part of this most glorious chapter. One word forms the keynote of the eighth chapter of Romans: "Glory."

'And to know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified.'  Ro.8:29-30

The twenty-eighth verse is quoted wrong very often and applied wrong, very much more often, just by the changing of tense. People read it, "We know that all things will work together for good to them that love God." But that is not what Paul says. He says that all things work together for good, at the present time, for those who love God. But says one, I don't know that they do. Well, just take hold of this Scripture, and believe it and then you will know it. The only way that we can know is by believing the word of God. We shall then find that all things do work together for good to them that love God. This is the joy of the Christian--that there cannot anything bad happen to him.

Some say, there is a special class to whom this is so. Yes, that is true, there is a special class, and that special class is composed of them that love God. 

We know whether we love God or not, therefore we know whether we can appropriate this promise or not.

Is there not reason enough to love God? Some say, I want to love God more. I know that I do not love Him enough. How absurd this is--just as if the love of God was a duty that we could drive ourselves to perform. Love cannot be forced; the very act of forcing a person to love another would show that there was not any love at all. How do we love any object for which we do have affection? Simply because it is lovable in our eyes, and the more we know of that thing we love, the more we love it. Then the more we know of God, the more we shall love Him. 

As we come to His word, from which we must get our knowledge of Him, we see the wideness of the mercy of God, and we cannot help loving Him. Why cannot we help loving Him? Because He first loved us. Then if we would love God more, study His love more as it is revealed in His word.

Now how about this class--"To them who are called according to his purpose"? Here we have the matter of "calling," and that causes some to be discouraged sometimes. A brother will say, "Perhaps I am not called, I am not at all sure that I am; and therefore it don't work good for me." That matter of "calling" can be settled very easily. Who has God called? "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Revelation 22:17.

Now the call is to every man and woman and child on earth. Those that hear it are to take it up and pass it along. The kindness of God is wide enough to take in every individual, "for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Those two texts are sufficient to scatter to the four winds all the theological trash that has been written to prove that God has some set few that He has called and no others. Let no soul stay away because he thinks he is not called. The call is to all. All do not come; all do not take the advice of Peter and make their calling and election sure, but that is not the fault of God's provision.

Ask For the Holy Spirit.

 

Rom 8:27  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. 

(Excerpt)

'I am persuaded that a great many of us make a great mistake in this matter of searching the hearts. We hear brethren saying that they "are going to search their hearts and put away all the evil things that they can find to be in them."

Says Jeremiah, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings." Jeremiah 17:9, 10. 

We are here on earth and in a sinful condition. We admit that we are not in that spiritual condition that we ought to be and so we will search our hearts and put away all the wickedness that we can find in them. 

We cannot do it, for the heart will deceive us every time.

Yet God can search the heart and He does, and if we will take the result of His searching, great will be our joy. For it is the Comforter that brings these sins to our hearts, that the Lord hath searched out; and this very act of bringing our sins before our eyes is a part of the comfort of God. Yes, by the very work of making known our sins to us, God gives us comfort.

Some people say that the Lord makes known their sins to them as they can bear them. When the Lord made known my sins to me, I could not bear them. I thought that the very life was being crushed out of me, and I knew I could not bear them. There was where the comfort came in--I could not bear them, so I was willing to let the Saviour bear them for me. So the Lord searches the hearts of men and the only thing that we have to do is to accept the pardon that He has for us, when He has searched them out and held them up before our eyes.'

1891 GC Sermon #13 E.J. Waggoner

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Joh 14:26  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. 

Joh 14:16  And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever

Luk 11:13  If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? 

Tit 3:5  Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost

Please, Lord, please Father, please give me the Holy Spirit. Thank you, Lord, thank you! 

Let Your will be done, Lord, Your will. Forgive me, heal me, guide me, save me, let me by wholly Yours, please let the Holy Spirit live in me, work in me, guide me in the way everlasting. All by Your grace! Such amazing, wondrous grace!

The Holy Spirit Prays For Us.

 

The Holy Spirit prays for us!

(Excerpt)  1891 GC Sermon #13 E.J. Waggoner

'Now we have received the firstfruits of the Spirit. That does not mean that we are now to receive only a little of the Spirit, but that we get the Spirit as the firstfruits or the advance money--the earnest--of our inheritance.

Paul proves this in Ephesians 1:13, 14: "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of His glory." 

Then having the Spirit of God and being the sons of God, is entering upon the riches of our inheritance now.

We begin to share the riches of that inheritance now, and if we continue to be the sons of God, we continue in our inheritance right along through eternity, the only difference being that when the Son of God comes, we shall have the full inheritance and glory of it.

By looking at these promises this way, we can see how it is that heaven begins right here on earth. If we really take hold of these things by faith, we can carry the Spirit of God with us, and we shall know the peace and joy of heaven.

"For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered." Ro. 8:24-26

Brethren, there is a whole world of encouragement in these verses. I have thought so much sometimes when I have been at our meetings, and have heard one after another arise and bear testimony and close with the words, "pray for me," that Christ Himself prayed for us, and that the Holy Spirit itself is making intercession for us, with groanings that cannot be uttered. 

Brethren, while we can ask for others to pray for us, cannot we take hold by faith and appropriate the prayers that are being continually offered for us in heaven above? Even if the brethren do not pray for us, we have the joy and comfort of knowing that Christ and the Spirit are praying for us.

For myself, I can understand these things and draw encouragement out of them just this way: I go to God and lay my soul open before Him and ask Him to give me--what shall I ask for? Sometimes the words are gone, and I can think of nothing, only an inexpressible desire for something more than I have; but the Holy Spirit knows what I need and knows the mind of God. It knows just what God has to give me, and so it makes intercession for me, and God gives exceeding abundantly above all I can ask or think. The Spirit of God takes those thoughts that we cannot put into words and can scarcely think, and it transmutes them into words and petitions before the throne of God and He that searcheth the hearts of men knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit.'

Heaven's Offer.

 

Heaven's Offer…

The chance to be what we were intended to be and no longer be what we are- extremely flawed. Wanting to do good and doing it not, over and over again. 

I present to you a wondrous creature alight in the glorious brilliance of its Creator. A creature beautiful, perfect, and unique. A creature created to exist with a forever bond to its Creator- receiving only love from the Creator. A creature - not forced into bondage with its Creator. A creature not worked as a puppet. A creature allowed to choose to love and in that love remain connected to the source of love. A creature told of dire results should the Creator/creature connection be severed.  A creature unable to justify its decision by claiming ignorance. Forewarned in a way no doubt was left to the consequence of breaking the bond, they still made the decision to cut themselves off from their Creator. 

We are the descendants of the dire results. We live the lives of those severed from the Creator. We live the lives of creatures with broken bodies and minds from the moment we are born. We live with all the confusion, heartaches, pains, agonies of life because of the severed bond. 

Wonders of all inexplicable wonders- the Creator gives us a chance to be reconnected to Him! 

We are given hope!

We are given assurance right now!

We can be bonded with the Creator right now!

We can live bonded with the Creator right now!

Once reconnected we are promised an eventual ending to all the many millions of tragedies this current existence has for us.  

The future inheritance is promised right now!

One day all the creatures who decide to remain unbonded will be gone, while those who have chosen to re-bond will be given all that the very first creatures were given - the perfect existence - the perfect connection with our Creator. 

As re-bonded creatures we continue to live in a world spoiled by the severed relationship of Creator-creature, but we live now with a promised inheritance- something we cannot have without a bond with our Creator. We bond now, right now! We let our Creator know that we desire to be reconnected with Him, as one of His creatures. We tell Him we know that His plan for our reconnection was given in such a way that no one in existence can dispute the justice of salvation.

Our Creator sent the Co-Creator, the declared only begotten Son of the Creator, to live among us as one of us in a body (not mind) totally severed from any connection to Him. In that weak body the Son of the Creator lived a life filled with temptation to choose to act without love. The Son of the Creator faced every single temptation with the love of the Creator, letting the power of that love defeat all the Creator-severing acts ever possible. Living this powerful life, the Son of the Creator now had the right to redeem us, to take our loveless, Creator-severing acts upon Himself and destroy them on the cross.  We are told we need to accept the Son of the Creator's self-less act of redemption, we need to choose to love in spite of our tendencies to act in loveless ways. We need to give our lives to the Son of the Creator and repent of our loveless lives. We need to believe that He will and has forgiven us and renewed the bond between us and our Creator once more. We need to live every day with this choice acknowledged and renewed. We have a SAVIOR! We have a promise of once more being the creatures we were created to be! We have hope! 

Praise God!

Praise Jesus!

Praise the Holy Spirit!

I'm A Child of God.

 

"And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." Ro.8:17  

Brethren, it means something to be a child of God. 

“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." 1 Jn 3:1 

BEHOLD IT. 

We are called the sons of God! It is too wonderful for the human mind to fully grasp. Poor, unworthy, miserable creatures, worthy of nothing, yet God has had such an infinite love for us, that he has made us worthy to be his sons; and he gives us everything that he gives to Christ.

In John 17:3 the Saviour prays to the Father, "That the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me." 

Brethren, the Father loves us, just as much as He loves His only begotten Son. 

How do we know? 

The assurance of that is given not only in this text but in the fact that He let His only begotten Son die to save us from death. 

We share with Christ all the love that the Father has for Him.

"We are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ." 

That means that since we are joint-heirs with Christ, that Christ cannot enter into His inheritance without us. For if you and I are joint-heirs to an estate, we must have it together. You cannot enter on your inheritance before I enter and enjoy it with you. Then whatever Christ is sharing now at the right hand of Father is for us. He is at the right hand of God in the heavenly places and so we are quickened with Him and raised up and made to sit together in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. Eph. 2:6

(Excerpt)  1891 GC Sermon #12 E.J. Waggoner

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Truly this is beyond our ability to completely grasp, it just isn't possible. 

Joint heirs with Christ! 

Brothers and sisters of Christ!

Sons and daughters of God!

All our righteousness are as filthy rags, we have no righteousness of our own. Christ's righteousness will cover us. Our filth is removed by the blood of our Savior, and He gives us HIS righteousness. This is salvation! This is being saved by grace! This is our Hope! This is love! 

I'm a sister of Christ's. I'm a daughter of God.  IN TRUTH! I am saved by the love of my Brother! I am saved by the will of my Father!  They love me!  They have love for all, 

This verse also comes to mind-

Heb 11:39  And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 

Heb 11:40  God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. 

Through FAITH all can obtain a good report… just as all from the past who have had faith… together we will receive the promise! Together those from days long past all the way until the day Christ returns will obtain the promised salvation, the promised life eternal, the promised immortality, the promised change, the promised reunion with our Savior, with our Heavenly Father all through the Holy Spirit! 

We will have an inheritance with Christ, it will be realized!  

All through the love of our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!  Now and forever!

MIni-Miracle: Butter and A Receipt.

 

Today something amazing happened to me. I told two different people about it and they were both unimpressed. I refused to let them take away the amazement I felt. I'm going to share what happened here and take it for what you will, my heart knows the truth of the mini-miracle (as if any miracle is truly mini.)  Maybe in the grand scheme of things this isn't important, but the Spirit has impressed upon me that this small (mini) miracle was allowed for a much bigger lesson, by the Grace of God it will be one I can learn.

I went grocery shopping yesterday. I had my little paper list (I've tried lists on my tablet etc, but paper just seem more convenient somehow lol). So I gathered all my groceries going through the list and yes, everything was found and added to my cart.

Only one thing wasn't what I really wanted- butter. I wanted the store brand butter- you know the four 1/4 lb sticks in the 1 lb of butter box, cheaper version. They were sold out, on sale, so I'm not surprised. Needing butter I opted for a brand I hadn't tried before Cabot. I'm telling you all this to impress upon you that I KNOW without a doubt I put the butter in my cart to buy.

So jumping forward, I'm at the check-out and as I try to do all the time I made sure I had all my grocery bags when it's time to go, the check-out woman also looked with me, spinning the little turnabout around. I had all my bags and that was that. 

I go home and put all my groceries away- some in the cupboards, some on the cupboard, some in the pantry, a few in the fridge- you know how it goes. Then I go about my day.

A bit later it's time to make dinner and I begin to gather various ingredients I need and lo and behold…  you already guessed it, NO butter! I hadn't even noticed when I was putting groceries away- it wasn't until I needed it that I noted its absence. Well anyone who has ever done this knows what I did next… I hurried out to the car to see if I'd left it in there, you know, fallen out of the bag or some such. No. No butter in the car. Alright time to check all the places I put the groceries away- I am getting on in years so my putting it somewhere it doesn't belong wouldn't be beyond me. **G** 

You probably guessed again that I didn't find it anywhere. Now it's time to call the store just to see if perhaps I'd left it there and the cashier set it aside (something they've done before in my experience).  No. No butter had been turned in as being forgotten. 

My dismay is deepening. I wanted that butter. The person on the phone when I called the store told me that maybe if I had my receipt they could replace it (I thought it an odd thing to offer, but nice) so I went to get my receipt. I remembered putting it in one of the bags in my cart as I left the store.  Off I went and started to go through all the bags and … no receipt!

I'm thinking maybe, just maybe I threw it in the trash. Sooooooo… yes, you know what I did. I went through the trash (there wasn't too much in it, having just taken it out the day before). No, not in the trash. Alright, time to do some serious searching for the receipt and the butter. You know, serious search means SEARCH everywhere you've already searched and then some.  So off I go…searching, searching… and…then I had to stop searching and just get other things done.

I don't know why, but I couldn't get the missing butter and receipt off my mind, it was tasking me.  Sure, maybe if I had the receipt losing the butter wouldn't be so bad, but losing both the butter and the receipt it was just completely irritating me and not leaving my thoughts.  All night long as I went about my normal routine (which doesn't include searching for anything) it was in the back of my mind.  I told myself I'm going to clean out the whole pantry tomorrow etc.etc.

Well, I found my grocery list - yes, I'd been looking for that too- and I went through it trying to figure out if maybe I was missing anything else. You know what I mean, it's typical when you lose a bag of groceries you are missing more than one item.  I had everything on the list but the butter and that was a little bit of relief. Now I just wanted the receipt to make sure I'd bought the butter. Things happen, groceries get shifted about etc on the conveyor belt, maybe my butter took a little trip over the dividing bar into the next person's groceries, who knew, I sure didn't.

I know this is long but you need to comprehend how much this was bothering me and how intensely I was looking for the receipt I know I had but didn't know where. The butter was questionable, but the receipt I KNOW I HAD THE RECEIPT! 

First thing the next morning I cleaned out the entire pantry-- NO BUTTER, NO RECEIPT.  I went through everything again (except the kitchen garbage which had become much more full since I'd gone through it two times already).  I'm talking every empty walmart bag, every cupboard, fridge, freezer, recycle bin, hubby's garbage can, bathroom garbage cans… all the drawers in the various furniture about the house…outside caterpillar garbage can… yes, I was desperate! You say crazy, I say desperate but sane. LOL 

Well, about this time hubby needed his water bottle refilled and so I took it and went to the water cooler. By the water cooler is a small desk. I thought I might as well go through the drawers in that too…though I KNOW I didn't put that receipt in those drawers.  I start pulling out a few receipts (one dated for March LOL) and none were the receipt I wanted. I closed the drawers and started to pray.  I know it's so silly, praying about a lost receipt for something as small as missing butter, but it was more than that. I was obsessing over this thing and I knew it had to stop. I prayed, I said, "Lord, please help me get over losing the butter and receipt, just take this burden from me. I know that if it was Your will You could produce that receipt, You have that power. Thank you, Lord."    There, I'd given it to God, now I had to just get on with things.  I took the water to hubby and then went to the kitchen and my jaw just dropped in disbelief!  

THERE, right there on the kitchen floor in front of the refrigerator was a piece of paper that looked like a receipt. I picked it up and it was a receipt. Quickly I checked the date on the receipt… it WAS THE MISSING RECEIPT!!!!!!!!!!  IT WAS! RIGHT THERE ON THE FLOOR! I'd been looking so intensely and for so long, and then it was JUST THERE OUT OF NO WHERE!  I'd been in that kitchen A LOT the day before dinner etc..etc. etc and that morning getting hubby's breakfast etc..etc.. And that receipt HAD NOT BEEN ON THE FLOOR in plain sight!  But there is was! 

Now it that isn't a miracle I don't know what is! I know- in the grand scheme of things as already mentioned it's a mini-miracle- "only a receipt" as one member of my family put it, but it was a miracle!

God was teaching me a huge lesson…. The big, the small, the important, the seemingly unimportant… HE IS IN IT ALL and my faith in HIM for ALL THINGS is most important. Not only did He ease my mind, He did it by giving me the receipt.  I was and am just floored by it all.

On a side note-   there was NO butter listed on the receipt, everything else, but no butter. So what happened to the butter that I KNOW I put in the cart and on the conveyor belt, I haven't a clue and will never know. I didn't pay for it, I didn't lose it… it sent me on a quest for a missing receipt and ended up giving me a MIRACLE.  Praise God for His amazing work, His amazing love!  :)  May, by His grace, I learn the lessons He has for me, now and always!  In the love of Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior, now and always!

'I Thank God for the Witness of His Word.'

 "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." Ro. 8:12-15

Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear! O remember that.

He gives us His Spirit now, and shall we be afraid? Isaiah says, "I will trust and not be afraid." (Isa. 12:2)  No, we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, for perfect love casteth out fear. (1 Jn. 4:18) Think of Abraham, and what was written of him for our benefit. We need not consider the frailties of our bodies, but be strong in faith, giving glory to God, knowing that what He has promised, He is able to perform. (Ro. 4:21) Yes, we will "consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself." (Heb. 12:3)

"Abba, Father," that means, Father, Father. First of all realize that He is in heaven and that He is God. He is infinite in power and so great that He can take up the isles as a very little thing. To Him the nations are as a drop in the bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance. Great and awful being that He is, we can come to Him and call Him "our Father. He has the tenderness of a parent, backed by the power of infinite divinity.

"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God." In Ephesians 1:13 we are told that [the] Spirit is the "earnest of our inheritance. Some do not seem to be able to understand this witness of the Spirit. They say if they only had it they would rejoice. What is the witness of the Spirit? "Why," says one, "it is a sort of feeling, and when I have it I will know that God has accepted me." But brethren, it rests on something more substantial than a feeling. I am glad that God has not left the witness of His Spirit to be dependent on my feeling.

Sometimes I feel so tired and exhausted that I have hardly any power to feel any way. And that is the very time when I want to know more than at any other time that I am a child of God. Sometimes disease takes hold of us and saps all our strength, and we have no power of mind or body. We are just alive, conscious, but with no emotion. That is the time we want the witness of the Spirit. Can we have it then? Yes, "The Spirit beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God." 

How does it witness? "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which He hath testified of His Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself." 1 John 5:9, 10.

Now what does a witness do? Bears testimony, does he not? I am brought up as a witness in a court. How do I bear witness in that case? By telling what I know. That is all. I give my word and perhaps I back it by my oath. Then if the Spirit witnesses, it must say something, must it not? Yes. Then how do we recognize the witness of the Spirit? How does the Spirit speak?

Mark this point:

God spake by the mouth of His holy prophets since the world began. The Holy Spirit spake by the prophet Jeremiah. David, the sweet psalmist, says, "The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His word was in my tongue." It spoke by the apostle Paul. Whose word is this? [Holding up the Bible.] It is the word of God. What speaks in this word? The Spirit of God. Then what is the witness of the Spirit? It is the word of God.

Well, but how about this witness in myself? Remember the words of Paul in Romans 10:6-8. "Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend unto heaven? (that is, to bring Christ from above) or, who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead). But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith which we preach." what word? The word of Christ, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth and believe with thy heart, that God raised Christ from the dead, "ye shall be saved."

The Word of God is the voice of the Spirit of God. Then we have the witness in ourselves, when we have His word in our hearts by faith. We eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ, by feeding upon His word, and so we have the witness, within ourselves.

This witness has been sworn to. God has put His testimony on record and He swore to that testimony. When God has put Himself on record, what can you bring to corroborate that word? When God has spoken, will you bring up the testimony of a man to sustain it? No. It is the word of God--that is our sheet anchor. It is our only hope, and it is the anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast. It enters in within the veil, whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus.

Our Christian life, from the very beginning, must be based on the word of God.

That is why I want you to take the word of God and believe it. 

When you go to your homes--to your closets--recognize the voice of God speaking to you; for His Spirit witnesses with our spirit, that we are the children of God. I thank God for the witness of His word.'

(Excerpt)  1891 GC Sermon #12 E.J. Waggoner