“Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.” Psalm 55:22 NASB. Who are the righteous? Those that cast there burdens upon the LORD. What burdens? All of their burdens, all their sins, worries and guilt. Yes, Jesus says, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28 NASB. Just accept the yoke of His love, and let Him take the weight of all of your sins and burdens! For His yoke is easy and His burden is light! No need to carry the weight of any of your sins or worries anymore; worries that you are not good enough to be saved and that you are a failure. Cast on Him all of your burdens of whether your children and loved ones will be saved.
We will continue at this time the study of Christian experience and how it is obtained. "Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him." 2 Cor. 5:21. R. V. "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption; that we might become the righteousness of God in him." 1 Cor. 1:30. R. V. "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifest, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God (and that is what we are made in him that we might become the righteousness of God in him), which is by faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference." Rom. 3:20-22. Now the righteousness of God is witnessed by the law and the prophets, and it is acceptable because Jesus Christ is made that to us, that we might become that in him, and the righteousness of God will meet the requirements of Christian experience.
Do you have faith? Do you lack the faith to believe that God can save you, bad as you are? Do you have faith to claim God’s rich promises for you in the Bible and become an overcomer? Do you have faith that can move mountains, mountains of doubt? Have no fear! If you have many doubts and struggles and do not yet have the assurance of your own salvation, you may yet gain this assurance. If you will just listen to God’s word in the Holy Bible and cooperate with Him, humbling your heart before Him, you will gain all the faith you need to believe His word, and claim His rich promises for you. This is God’s promise to you, as we will see in this mini study.
I want to share a few thoughts on the wonderful things God has done for me! My Testimony: When I had the most wonderful experience of my life, where God showed me how much He loved me, and I gave my heart to Him with no reservations. In the days that followed I had great joy, but I also had a great struggle at the same time. But God sustained me and helped me through the struggle that my lower nature and the enemy of our souls was trying to overcome me with. I can only claim God’s love for me and help - that helped me make it through this struggle to yield fully to Him, and put down the doubts and opposition. But what a sweet release from the sore trials, what a sweet refrain from the struggle of self. I found that for the first time I had power, not my power but God’s Power to overcome. Why should I not love and trust Him? He filled my heart with His wonderful love, and then I felt that I could do anything He asked me to do!
THE one object in all our Bible study should be, not to establish theories, but to feed upon the living word. And it seems especially desirable to call attention to this principle when a large number of us who are accustomed to teaching the word come together to make a special study of it. Hence the principle should not be to learn some theory which we can tell to others, but to obtain a life which may be lived before others; and this will be the purpose in our study of the word, - simply to feed upon the word which is Spirit and which is life. And this will be the case, no matter what special phase of truth we may study. Our whole purpose will be to break the bread of life so that we may together feed upon it. The subject which we will consider together, for a time at least, during this Institute may perhaps be designated as the Divine-Human Family.
I DO not ask this evening that you should comprehend the lesson of this hour, but I do ask that whatever the Word says may be received and believed; because […]
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Therefore the word of God is the only means of faith. Therefore, where there is no word of God there cannot be any faith. And where the word of God is, faith is entire dependence upon that word for the accomplishment of what that word says. From all this, which is the truth, it is perfectly plain that in order for anyone to ask in faith, he must first of all be sure that he has the word of God for what he asks.
Jesus said, “For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:20 KJV. What is Jesus saying here? There can be no doubt that the scribes and Pharisees were zealous to keep God’s Law, the 10 Commandments. Jesus plainly declared here that our righteousness must exceed theirs! This statement by Jesus clearly shows the idea that the commandments mentioned in Matthew 5:17-20 are the 10 Commandments. How do we know this? Because the scribes and Pharisees believed that you should keep the Law and they endeavored to keep it. Did Jesus say that the scribes or Pharisees were wrong in trying to keep God’s Law or 10 Commandments? No. Why did Jesus say that our righteousness MUST exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees in order to be able to enter the kingdom of Heaven? Because it is true. Jesus said this because the scribes and Pharisees were trying to keep the 10 Commandments in their own strength, which is impossible. The scribes and Pharisees made a pretense of keeping the 10 Commandments, but were unable to do so since they did not have a vital connection with God (even though they probably thought they were keeping His commandments)
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33 KJV. What did Jesus really mean when He said this? There is more to this text than is commonly understood. We want to go deeper into this statement by Jesus and give our own personal testimony regarding it, to help increase your faith in God!
