1 How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
in a believer’s ear!
It soothes our sorrows, heals our wounds,
and drives away our fear.

2 It makes the wounded spirit whole
and calms the troubled breast;
’tis manna to the hungry soul,
and to the weary, rest.

3 O Jesus, shepherd, guardian, friend,
my Prophet, Priest, and King,
my Lord, my Life, my Way, my End,
accept the praise I bring.

4 How weak the effort of my heart,
how cold my warmest thought;
but when I see you as you are,
I’ll praise you as I ought.

5 Till then I would your love proclaim
with every fleeting breath;
and may the music of your name
refresh my soul in death.

Written by John Newton

Audio Source: Aileen Gilchrist (Sermon Index)

Written by: By Fanny J. Crosby and W. H. Doane

Pass me not, O gentle Savior,
Hear my humble cry;
While on others Thou art calling,
Do not pass me by.

Refrain:
Savior, Savior,
Hear my humble cry;
While on others Thou art calling,
Do not pass me by.

Let me at Thy throne of mercy
Find a sweet relief,
Kneeling there in deep contrition;
Help my unbelief.

Refrain

Trusting only in Thy merit,
Would I seek Thy face;
Heal my wounded, broken spirit,
Save me by Thy grace.

Refrain

Thou the Spring of all my comfort,
More than life to me,
Whom have I on earth beside Thee?
Whom in Heav’n but Thee?

Audio Source: Scripture Songs

¹⁴  I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.
¹⁵  As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
¹⁶  And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.
¹⁷  Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.
¹⁸  No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”
John 10:14-18 (NKJV)

When contemplating the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as is clearly being referred to in this text, it is sometimes easy to overlook or downplay a crucial point. That point being the perfect unity in love and purpose between God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, being manifest in this glorious redeeming work. At times we may have a picture in our mind of God the Father being so righteously angry against sin, that it takes the sacrificial death of His own Son in order for Him to love us. Or that Jesus Christ is a helpless victim in all that happened at the Cross of Calvary, being totally separated from God the Father. Or that the Holy Spirit wasn’t somehow present at His crucifixion, but returning only at His resurrection. If we are to truly find rest and assurance in the redeeming work of the Cross however, we need to be fully convinced the triune God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit were ALL willingly present, ALL of the time, ALL working in unity for the salvation of mankind.

First of all we must remember that God the Father does not love us because Jesus died, but rather Jesus was sent to die because of the Father’s love for us.

¹⁶  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
¹⁷  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
John 3:16-17 (NKJV)

Secondly we must be convinced that far from being a helpless victim, Jesus Christ did not have His life taken from Him by anyone, including God the Father. As the opening text says so clearly “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.  No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father”. It is crucial that we do not fall into the heresy of believing that Christ laid aside even the most minute part of His divinity at the Cross. He is now, then, and always has been fully God, and One with the Father (John 10:30). The Persons of the Godhead cannot, and never have been separated even for an instant.

As verse 16 of the opening text points out, the redeeming work of Christ includes “other sheep I have which are not of this fold”, namely the Gentiles. We clearly understand today that the Holy Spirit makes alive those who are saved by the gifts of faith and repentance, received through the preaching of the Gospel. By His power, we receive the words of Christ as the life giving food they are, and we are made alive in Him, recognising Jesus Christ as the Saviour He truly is. But although the Gospel message has predominantly been preached to the Gentiles after the death and resurrection of Christ, don’t be fooled into thinking the Gospel wasn’t preached to the Jews before and even during the crucifixion itself.

In the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, time and time again He openly fulfilled the clearest Messianic prophecies in the Scripture. Even in the opening passage above, Jesus was figuratively rebuking the pharisees as being thieves and robbers of His sheep. Following on from the account in the previous chapter when Jesus healed a man born blind, they knew only too well what the growing number of people were believing about Jesus on account of the miracles he was performing, and the way in which they were clear fulfilment of well known prophecies in the Scriptures they were well acquainted with. Yet the pharisees were doing all they could to prevent the sheep following the voice of the Good Shepherd.

¹⁹  And they asked them, saying, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?”
²⁰  His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind;
²¹  but by what means he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know. He is of age; ask him. He will speak for himself.”
²²  His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue.
John 9:19-22 (NKJV)

²⁹  We know that God spoke to Moses; as for this fellow, we do not know where He is from.”
³⁰  The man answered and said to them, “Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from; yet He has opened my eyes!
³¹  Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him.
³²  Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind.
³³  If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing.”
³⁴  They answered and said to him, “You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?” And they cast him out.
John 9:29-34 (NKJV)

These were not those who were acting wrongly but with the right motives of protecting God’s people. They knew precisely Who Jesus was being presented as, yet they were full of unbelief, openly suppressing the truth in their unrighteousness (Rom 1:18). As Paul points out in 1 Cor 15:1-11, everything about the person and work of Christ is testified to by the Scripture itself, and at that time He was speaking of the Old Testament Scriptures.

Finally I would just like to show how even on the Cross itself, the Godhead remained One, never separated, but acting together in complete harmony. For it was there that Jesus preached the Gospel to the Jews probably more loudly than any other time in history. When Jesus cried His famous words, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?“, was that really the cry of the Son being separated from the Father as some teach? Or was it something different?

As I’ve already pointed out, the Jews were well acquainted with the Scriptures because of them being regularly read aloud in the synagogues, and being forced to memorize them from a very early age. Unlike the passage being referenced by chapter and verse as they are now in the Bible, at that time they would have referenced passages from clearly identifiable markers in the text. Such as when the prophet Isaiah encountered such and such a person and said these words, or those words. The psalms especially they would have been very familar with because of the way they were so often sung and used in their worship. They would have been very familiar with the themes, story lines and quotes from the Scriptures, and many were there at the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Imagine for a moment how quickly the Jewish onlookers would have begun to recite to themselves the words of Psalm 22 when they heard those infamous words being cried out by Jesus:

¹  My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning?
Psalm 22:1 (NKJV)

How would they react hearing the words of those who despised Him:

⁴¹  Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said,
⁴²  “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him.
⁴³  He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.‘ ”
Matthew 27:41-43 (NKJV)

⁸  “He trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!”
Psalm 22:8 (NKJV)

Or watching what the Roman soldiers were doing at the foot of the Cross:

³⁵  Then they crucified Him, and divided His garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet: “They divided My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.”
Matthew 27:35 (NKJV)

¹⁸  They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.
Psalm 22:18 (NKJV)

Or when the soldiers decided not to break the legs of Christ as was the custom, but instead plunged a spear into His side.

³³  But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.
³⁴  But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.
³⁵  And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe.
³⁶  For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, “Not one of His bones shall be broken.”
³⁷  And again another Scripture says, “They shall look on Him whom they pierced.”
John 19:33-37 (NKJV)

As we can see now in hindsight, the whole scene of the crucifixion itself was divinely constructed by the hand of God. Perfectly united in love and purpose. Father, Son and Holy Spirit working harmoniously together to accomplish the divine purpose of God; to save sinners from perishing under the eternal wrath of Almighty God. Ironically using those who thought they had overcome Jesus Christ, using all their twisted, sinful, hatred to be the very things that would confirm Jesus Christ as the King of the Jews He claimed to be. How wonderful a sermon Jesus Christ preached of His Gospel, even from His dying body on the Cross. How racked with remorse would many Jews have felt on that day, watching His dead body hanging there, with those words of truth written in scorn by Pilate right above His blood stained head:

¹⁹  Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.
John 19:19 (NKJV)

Written by Archibald Alexander

Whence came the tree from which the cross was made? What has become of the particles of which it was composed? What hands were employed in preparing this instrument of a cruel death? To such questions no answer can be given–and none is needed. The cross was a common mode of punishment among several nations, and among the Romans was reserved for the punishment of slaves and the vilest malefactors. It was never made use of by the Jews. If they had had the power of execution in their hands when Christ suffered, the punishment for the offence alleged against him would have been stoning. But by the ordering of divine Providence, our Lord was put to death in that way which was accursed, according to the Jewish law; for it was written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.”

The death of Christ on the cross may well be reckoned mysterious, for it was at the same time a cursed and a blessed death. Christ was “made a curse for us,” that he might deliver us from the curse of the law. And yet Christ’s death on the cross is the most blessed event which ever occurred in the world; for on the cross the price of our redemption was paid. Christ “bore our sins in his own body on the tree.” He died, “the just for the unjust,” to bring us unto God. This led Paul to say, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The cross is a center in which many lines of truth meet. The cross is an incomprehensible mystery. That God should be manifest in the flesh, is the great “mystery of godliness.” That the Prince of life should be crucified, was an event which caused the angels to stoop from their celestial thrones, that they might gaze in amazement upon it. The prophets who predicted these events were perplexed at their own prophecies, “They inquired into what time or what circumstances the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating, when He testified in advance to the messianic sufferings and the glories that would follow.”

The truths which are exhibited in a clear and strong light by the crucifixion of Christ, are such as these:

1. The infinite evil of sin, which in order to its pardon required such a sacrifice.

2. The holiness and justice of God, which would not allow sin to pass without full evidence of the divine disapprobation, and his inflexible purpose to visit it with deserved punishment.

3. The wisdom of God, in contriving a method of salvation by which his own glory would be promoted in the eternal salvation of hell-deserving sinners. This wisdom is chiefly manifest in the incarnation of the Son of God, by which the divine and human natures are united in one person.

4. But the most wonderful exhibition of the cross is the mercy of God, the love of God to sinners—such love as never could have been conceived of, had it not been manifest by the gift of his own Son! “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Written by R.C. Sproul

I think the whole concept of faith is one of the most misunderstood ideas that we have, misunderstood not only by the world but by the church itself. The very basis for our redemption, the way in which we are justified by God, is through faith. The Bible is constantly talking to us about faith, and if we misunderstand that, we’re in deep trouble.

The great issue of the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century was, How is a person justified? Luther’s controversial position was that we are justified by faith alone. When he said that, many of the godly leaders in the Roman Catholic Church were very upset. They said, “Does that mean that a person can just believe in Jesus and then live any way they want to live?” In other words, the Roman Catholic Church reacted fiercely because they were afraid that Luther’s view would be understood as an easy-believism in which a person only had to believe and never had to be concerned about bringing forth the fruits of righteousness. It was crucial that those who were involved in the Protestant Reformation carefully define what they meant by saving faith. So they went back and did their studies in the New Testament, specifically on the Greek word pistein, which means “to believe,” and they were able to isolate three distinctive aspects of biblical faith.

The first is the Latin term notitia: “believing in the data” or the information. It’s an intellectual awareness. You can’t have faith in nothing; there has to be content to the faith. You have to believe something or trust someone. When we say that a person is saved by faith, some people say, “It doesn’t matter what you believe, just as long as you are sincere.” That’s not what the Bible teaches. It matters profoundly what you believe. What if I believed that the devil was God? That wouldn’t save me. I must believe the right information.

The second aspect of faith is what they call assensus, or intellectual assent. I must be persuaded of the truthfulness of the content. According to James, even if I am aware of the work of Jesus—convinced intellectually that Jesus is the Son of God, that he died on the cross for my sins, and that he rose from the dead—I would at that point qualify to be a demon. The demons recognize Jesus, and the devil himself knows the truth of Christ, but he doesn’t have saving faith.

The crucial, most vital element of saving faith in the biblical sense, is that of personal trust. The final term is fiducia, referring to a fiduciary commitment by which I put my life in the lap of Jesus. I trust him and him alone for my salvation. That is the crucial element, and it includes the intellectual and the mental. But it goes beyond it to the heart and to the will so that the whole person is caught up in this experience we call faith.

Original Source – Ligonier

A free ePub book written by R.C. Sproul on the subject of faith is available for free download at Ligonier Ministries.

Download free ePub book here.

This is an invitational service message preached by Pastor Mark Stocker at Spring Road Evangelical Church, Southampton. Text for sermon is: Matthew 5:1-12,7:21-23

My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

Refrain:
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand,
all other ground is sinking sand.

2 When darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
in every high and stormy gale,
my anchor holds within the veil. [Refrain]

3 His oath, his covenant, his blood
support me in the whelming flood;
when all around my soul gives way,
he then is all my hope and stay. [Refrain]

4 When he shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in him be found,
dressed in his righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne. [Refrain]

Author: Edward Mote (1834)

Original Source for Audio