Apr 18
30
“Believe in the Lord your God and so shall ye be established.”
2 Chron. 20:20
Lord we lie before Thy feet;
Look on all our deep distress:
Thy rich mercy may we meet;
Clothe us with Thy righteousness;
Stretch forth Thy almighty hand;
Hold us up, and we shall stand.
Shame, and fear, and pain, we feel,
Viewing our unstable hearts;
How we wander, waver, reel!
Only wise by fits and starts;
Thou art truth: but what are we?
Fickle fools, and false to Thee.
Oh, that closer we would cleave,
To Thy bleeding dying breast!
Give us firmly to believe,
And to enter into rest;
Lord increase, increase our faith;
Make us faithful unto death.
Make Thy mighty wonders known;
Let us see Thy sufferings plain;
Let us hear Thee sigh and groan,
Till we sigh and groan again;
Rend, oh rend the veil between;
Open wide the bloody scene.
Let us with a steadfast faith,
View our dear incarnate God,
Shuddering in the arms of death,
Bowed beneath our natures load;
Make our union with Thee clear;
Perfect love, and cast out fear!
Let us trust Thee evermore;
Every moment on Thee call
For new life, new will, new power;
Let us trust Thee, Lord, for all;
May we nothing know beside
Jesus and Him crucified.
Joseph Hart Hymn 74
As I reflect upon some things that God Almighty has graciously taught me, I am convinced that God’s sheep will vigorously maintain until their departure from this life these firm convictions:
1) They will proclaim their own self-righteousness to be totally insufficient to merit a right and honourable standing and acceptance with God.
2) They will confess with much remorse, that they are totally incapable of being sufficiently sorrowful for their disobedience toward the Lord Who is infinitely worthy of their obedience.
3) They will admit as they behold by faith, Christ’s imputed righteousness to them and His shed blood for them to be their total sufficiency for justification before God.
4) They are confident they shall soon stand before the Lord and hear their Saviour say…“Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34).
MS
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Abstain from all appearance of evil.” I Thess. 5:22
I know that many interpret this as suggesting that we avoid any conduct, behavior, and actions that, while they may not be wrong for us, yet they give the appearance of wrong doing. This is good advice, but not what the apostle is talking about. He is speaking, as in the preceding verse, of doctrinal evil! For example, when there is preaching, teaching, and interpretation of Scripture which, when tried by the Word, does not appear to be false or wrong, but there is an unhappy suspicion in the mind, a doubt or fear entertained, a concern that there is poison somewhere, then avoid it! The truth of God is clear and gives glory to His name! Pastor Henry Mahan
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Any sermon that does not have Christ in the beginning, the middle, and the end is a mistake in conception and a crime in execution. And I heartily say, “Amen!” The apostle Paul never said, “Woe is unto me if I preach not”, but “Woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel.” And he told the Corinthians, “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Any man who stands before men and women in the name of God and does not plainly, clearly, and consistently preach the Gospel of God’s glory and grace in Christ Jesus is the worst sort of a criminal! He is a deceiver and murderer of the souls of men and women! Pastor Scott Richardson
LEARNING CHRIST
In the few years I have been preaching there is one thing I have learned, it is this, we can never say enough, preach enough, think enough, exalt enough, Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our Master told us to “take my yoke upon you and learn of me.” Beloved what a glorious task, Our Lord Jesus gave us. There is so much to learn about His person.
How much do we know about His person as The Eternal God? Oh, the glory of His Godhead. How could he be both God the Son and be God the everlasting Father?
How could He remain God, control all things, uphold all things by the word of His power and yet at one and the same time come into this world He created, and come into the womb of a virgin, and become something He never was before, Man?
But Oh WHAT A MAN! Sinless in His thoughts, sinless in His words, sinless in His deeds, without sin before the Holiness of God Almighty. So Glorious in His sinless life, that the heavens opened one day and God Himself spoke and said; “This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” I say Speak Lord, by your grace I will listen.
God helping us let us begin again to “learn of him, take His yoke upon ourselves, learn of his meekness, his lowliness, there is rest for our souls in learning of him”.
The man who knows the most about Christ knows so little, the man who sees Christ the best will say “I see through a glass darkly”. Just because I know so little, doesn’t mean I’m going to stop learning, because I don’t see all I want too doesn’t mean I’m going to quit looking. Someday in the near future, you and I will see clearly what we now see so dimly. “We shall see Him as He is, and we shall be like him”. But our seeing and our knowing starts here. Do you know Him? Have you COME to Him? Are you learning of Him? Pastor Donnie Bell
Before the throne of God above
I have a strong, a perfect plea
A great High Priest, whose name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands
My name is written on His heart
I know that while in heav’n He stands
No tongue can bid me to depart.
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free
For God, the Just, is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.
One with Himself, I cannot die
My soul is purchased with His blood
My life is hid with Christ on high
With Christ, my Savior and my God.
Salvation is of the LORD. Jonah 2:9
When is a Sinner Saved?
Men have debated this questions for millenniums. Most of the controversy stems from man’s effort to reconcile the temporal to the eternal. Living in a world of time and space, he tries to define the when in this question as a single event! Scripture settles all controversies. So, what sayeth the scriptures?
1. God’s elect were saved in the covenant of grace established by God in eternity past. II Timothy 1:9; Is. 45:17; II Thes. 2:13.
2. God’s elect were saved when Christ bore their sins on Calvary’s Cross 2000 years ago. Rom 5:9-10; Jer. 23:6.
3. God’s elect are saved when they hear the gospel as the gospel and are made willing to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Titus 3:5; Eph 2:8; Rom. 10:9-13.
4. God’s elect are continuing to be saved as they are kept by the power of God to keep coming in faith to Christ. Is. 64:5; I Peter 2:4.
5. God’s elect will be saved when they are taken to glory to see their Savior face to face and be made like Him (sinless). Rev.12:10; II Peter 3:12-15; I Peter 1:9.
All five of these glorious truths (Election, Redemption, Regeneration, Sanctification and Glorification) are necessary for a sinner’s salvation. Let others speak of when they “got saved”. We don’t hang the hopes of our salvation on one subjective experience in time. Our faith is in Him who does all the saving. We have been saved; we are being saved; and we shall be saved. “And being made perfect He became the author of ETERNAL SALVATION unto all them that obey Him.” Heb 5:9. -Greg