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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
In II Timothy 1:6-14 the Apostle Paul reminds
Timothy of the great purpose of God. This great purpose "was given us in
Christ Jesus before the world began" (vs. 9). This is a great comfort to the
child of God. It tells us that there is a purpose to life, a purpose to the
entire world in which we live, and that God is behind it all. What a blessing
it is to know that before God ever made the world He had a great purpose of
redemption. It reminds us that we must not get so excited about our little day
and our little problems. We are to look to God and to His purpose, a purpose
which especially concerns His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. That purpose was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but it was a purpose made
plain by the appearing of our Saviour in time.
Beloved, the point I am concerned to underscore here is that our salvation is
based upon the facts of history. This is of fundamental importance, and yet it
is here that so many go astray. We are so accustomed to philosophical thoughts
and ideas. We want some saving idea or thought on which we can pin our hopes,
but that is not Christianity. Christianity is God putting His purpose into
operation. Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, put it this way: "God
hath visited and redeemed his people." The Bible is the record of God's acts,
and our salvation depends, not upon ideas or notions, but upon the actions
which God has brought into being in this world of time. This is why we can be
so sure of it.
You see, ideas come and go. They are found to be wrong and are soon replaced
by new ones. But the Bible gives us historic events. It tells us how God made
the world, and God's interventions in the world. It tells us of man's sin and
depravity and of his alienation from God. It tells us of what God has done to
aright this situation, of how in the fullness of time He sent forth His Son,
made of a woman, made under the law. It tells us of Christ's perfect life, His
sacrificial death, His resurrection, and His ascension to glory. These are all
facts. They are not ideas. To these facts we may add all that the Bible tells
us about the pouring out of the Holy Spirit beginning at Pentecost, and how
the Spirit empowers men to preach the gospel, and to repent and believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, all of this brings me to ask the question, "Is your life determined and
controlled by the fact that you believe in the purpose of God? Most people in
this world cannot answer that question in the affirmative because God does not
enter at all into any of their calculations. They begin with man and they end
with man. They begin with this world and they end with this world. They live
as if there were no God, no purpose, nothing beyond man. And the result of all
of this is that they are ignorant and quite thoughtless. They are worried
about their finances, about their health, about the environment, and about
death. But all of these things are only temporary. They never think about such
profound questions as: What is going to happen to me when I die? Where am I
going after death? Why am I here in this world at the present time?
Beloved, this is why men and women believe that they are the victims of
circumstance and chance (i.e. the state of the stock-market, the weather,
etc.). These are the things that they believe determine and control their
lives. They have no idea of eternity or of an ultimate destiny. This is why to
speak of such is foolishness to most people. It is only the child of God,
whose hopes are pinned upon the facts of the Bible, who can live confidently
and expectantly in this world. He knows that nothing will ever make God forego
the purpose He planned in Christ before the foundation of the world, the
purpose of His grace and salvation.
I ask you, are your hopes pinned upon thoughts and ideas, or are they fixed
upon the facts of history, the facts of Scripture?
Rev. Claude D. DePrine, III
To contact the pastor by e-mail go to Pastor@providenceopc.org
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