Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it. (Numbers 23:20)

When Satan comes before God to-day with the remembrance of your sins, and he desires that he may curse Israel, but he has found a hundred times that there is no enchantment against Jacob nor divination against Israel. He took David into the sin of lust, and he found that God would not curse him there, but bless him with a sorrowful chastisement and with a deep repentance. He took Peter into the sin of denying his Master, and he denied him with oaths and curses. But the Lord would not curse him even there, but turned and looked on Peter, not with a lightning glance that might have shivered him, but with a look of love that made him weep bitterly. He had taken you and me at divers times into positions of unbelief, and we have doubted God. Satan said — “Surely, surely God will curse him there,” but never once has he done it. He has smitten, but the blow was full of love. He has chastised, but the chastisement was fraught with mercy. He has not cursed us, nor will he. Thou canst not turn God’s mind, then, fiend of hell, thine enchantments cannot prosper, and thine accusations shall not prevail. “He is in one mind, who can turn him?”

And brethren, you know when men are turned, they are sometimes turned by advice. Now, who can advise with God? Who shall counsel the Most High to cast off the darlings of his bosom, or persuade the Saviour to reject his spouse? Such counsel offered were blasphemy, and it would be not pugnant to his soul. But God is of one mind, and no revengeful prayer should change the purpose of his love. God’s only begotten Son is as much concerned in our salvation as his Father, and instead of interposing to change, he would — if such a thing were needed — still continue to plead that the love and mercy of God might never be withdrawn. Oh, let us rejoice in this, —

“Midst all our sin, and care, and woe, His Spirit will not let us go.”

The Lord will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake; because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people. “He is in one mind, and who can turn him?”

-C.H Spurgeon

“Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer.” Isaiah 53:10

Not all the vials of judgment that have or shall be poured out upon the wicked world, nor the flaming furnace of a sinner’s conscience, nor the irreversible sentence pronounced against the rebellious demons, nor the groans of the damned creatures—give such a demonstration of God’s hatred of sin—as the wrath of God let loose upon His Son! Never did divine holiness appear more beautiful and lovely than at the time our Savior’s countenance was most marred in the midst of His dying groans—when God had turned His smiling face from Him, and thrust His sharp knife into His heart, which forced that terrible cry from Him, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me!’

-Stephen Charnock

Where is our love and compassion for the lost sinners in our generation? The apostle said, “I could wish myself accursed from Christ for my brethren in the flesh.” Moses said, ” Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written” (Exodus 32:32).

I find too much difficulty in these passages to explain them. What I do find in them is very clear, and that is the love of these men for the lost of their generation. We who believe on Christ have been chosen of God based on His sovereign love (Deut. 7:7-8; Eph. 1:3-6). We are sinners, having no merit of God’s grace, yet we have been made righteous, reconciled, and redeemed by the faith and blood of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:19-21; Heb.9:12). We were dead in sins could not and would not come to Christ, but by grace we have been called, quickened, and kept by the Holy Ghost (Eph. 2:1; 1 Peter 1:3-5). So how can we who are sinners saved by the free grace and free love of God ever fail to show compassion for those of our fallen race?

May God the Holy Ghost move our hearts to show mercy towards them who are merciless to us. Let us show love where hatred abounds. True love and mercy are not just providing physical needs, but it is manifest by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ without compromise.

Yes, give to the needs of their bodies. Provide what they have need of and seek to imitate the compassion of Christ. But it is only by the means of preaching the gospel that sinners are saved. Nobody will be saved by our acts of kindness, but only by the preaching of the gospel (1 Cor.1:17-21: Rom.10:13-17).

Remember, believer, that our Lord has sheep that He must call. And all of these sheep will come and believe on Him (John 10:16). But how will our Lord accomplish His Sovereign decree? Only by the love of faithful preachers declaring the truth of the sovereign grace of God in Jesus Christ. Therefore, in love let us obey our Lord’s command; “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12).

-Fred Evans

Those who believe the doctrines of sovereign grace often act inconsistently with their own principles–when they are angry at the defects of others.

A company of travelers fall into a pit; one of them gets a passerby to draw him out. Now he should not be angry with the rest for falling in; nor because they are not yet out, as he is. He did not pull himself out. Instead, therefore, of reproaching them–he should show them pity.

In the same way, a truly saved man will no more despise others–than blind Bartimaeus, after his own eyes were opened, would take a stick and beat every blind man he met!

“For who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it” (I Corinthians 4:7)?

“By the grace of God I am what I am” (I Corinthians 15:10).

-John Newton

Men talk bravely of believing, while whole and sound; but few know it. Christ is the mystery of the Scripture; grace the mystery of Christ. Believing is the most wonderful thing in the world. Put any thing of your own to it, and you spoil it. Christ will not so much as look at it for believing. When you believe and come to Christ, you must leave behind you your own righteousness, and bring nothing but your sin: (Oh, that is hard!) leave behind all your holiness, sanctification, duties, humblings, and so on; and bring nothing but your needs and miseries, or else Christ is not fit for you, nor you for Christ. Christ will be a pure Redeemer and Mediator, and you must be an undone sinner, or Christ and you will never agree. It is the hardest thing in the world to take Christ alone for righteousness: that is to acknowledge Him Christ. Join any thing to Him of your own, and [Christ shall profit you nothing (Galatians 5:2-4)] .

Thomas Wilcox (1621-1687)

Remember, sinner, it is not YOUR HOLD of Christ that saves you; it is Christ! It is not YOUR JOY that saves you; it is Christ!

It is not your profession of faith nor YOUR FAITH in Christ that saves; it is Christ’s blood and merit!

Therefore, look not to your hope, but to Christ, the source of your hope. Look not to your faith, but to Christ, the author and finisher of your faith. And if you can do that, no power can throw you down.

-Charles Spurgeon

Those who declare that God loves all people alike, the saved as well as the damned, greatly tarnish the love of God, reducing it to a fickle, helpless, frustrated passion. But that cannot be. The love of God is like himself, from everlasting to everlasting, immutable and sure. Nothing is more absurd than to imagine that anyone beloved of God can eternally perish.

-A. W. Pink

Have I then no work to work in this great matter of my pardon? None! What work can you work? What work of yours can buy Divine forgiveness—or make you fit for the Divine favor? What work has God bidden you work in order to obtain salvation? None. His Word is very plain and easy to be understood, “To him who works not—but believes in Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Romans 4:5). There is but one work by which a man can be saved. That work is not yours—but the work of the Son of God. That work is finished.

-Horatius Bonar

“Lord, You will ordain peace for us: for You also have wrought all our works in us.” Isaiah 26:12

How humbling is this to the pride of man! It makes everything of God—and nothing of the creature! The tendency of human nature the world over, is to be self-sufficient and self-satisfied; to say with the Laodiceans, “I am rich, and increased with goods—and have need of nothing” (Rev 3:17). But here is something to humble us—and empty us of pride. Since God has wrought all our works in us, then we have no ground for boasting. “For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” (1 Cor 4:7).And who are the ones in whom God thus works? From the divine side—His favored, chosen, redeemed people. From the human side—those who, in themselves have no claim whatever on His notice; who are destitute of any merit; who have everything in them to provoke His holy wrath; those who are miserable failures in their lives, and utterly depraved and corrupt in their persons. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound—and did for them and in them what they would not and could not do for themselves!

– A.W Pink

Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. (John 15:16)

If ever a sinner has any desire, longing or love for God, it does not originate in the sinner but comes from the power and love of God to the sinner.  The believer’s desire for God comes only as a result of God the Father’s electing love, Christ’s redemption for us upon the cross, and the Holy Spirit’s quickening power to shed abroad the love of God in our hearts.

Therefore, believer, let us long, desire and love the Lord our God. Let us ever live by looking only to Christ and setting all our affection on him as all our salvation.

And though we love our God and trust in Christ our Savior with all our hearts, yet we freely confess: We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:10;19)!

-Fred Evans