Sep 20
27
Faith
Faith is not believing you are saved. Faith is believing that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, the sovereign, successful, savior of sinners, and that your only hope of acceptance before a Holy God is to be found in Him, not having your own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ. Phil. 3:9. Assurance of salvation is relative. Faith on the other hand, is always fully persuaded that what God promised, he was able also to perform. Rom. 4:21 ~GE
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The Dinner Bell
I once went to an auction where they had a triangular dinner bell for sale. The auctioneer began to ring it again and again. After a few seconds, I must confess that it got a little irritating and monotonous to me as it rang the same note over and over. Not several notes, not two notes, but the same note again and again. However, as it stopped and the auction proceeded, I begin to realize, that is exactly what God’s preachers do week after week. They sound clearly the one note of the Gospel, which is Jesus Christ and Him Crucified. Has that one note become irritating and monotonous to you like the dinner bell did to me? I am convinced that dinner bell was a sweet sound to those who were hungry and called to dine by the sound of it. Sinner, you are bid to come to Christ and partake of Him, our Heavenly Manna, at the call of the gospel’s one note that we ring over and over again.
~David Eddmenson
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“That Is The Problem”
A believer related a story to me about a discussion he had with another man (a very religious man) concerning the doctrine of election. When the man disagreed with the doctrine of election, the believer told him to search the scriptures of which the man replied, “I don’t need to search the scriptures.” I replied, “That is his problem.” People believe what they want to believe regardless of what the word of God teaches. Most try to make the word of God fit what they believe instead of believing what it says. The only warrant and foundation for all that we believe is the word of God. ~John Chapman
Will you also go away? – John 6.67
Our Lord had just finished a powerful and weighty lesson in truth which, in essence, focused all of salvation on Him. This was just too much for some of His disciples. No doubt some of His previous teachings had not set perfectly in their minds, but they had found a way to tolerate them so as to gain what they believed He was promising. But He had gone a step too far for them; they left and no longer followed Him. So, the Lord turned to the remaining disciples and asked them whether they were also going to leave. Peter answered for them and every other of the Lord’s disciples, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
It is safe to say that if a person has someone or something else to which they can go, they will eventually go. So long as Christ is one among several, a person will eventually choose someone else. The only ones who stay with Christ are those who have nowhere else to go. On this point every professing believer will be tried.
~Joe Terrell
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Repentance and Faith Are Not Isolated Acts
My friend, repentance is not an isolated act. If any man ever repented, he continues to repent. If he ever quits repenting, he never did repent.
Faith is not an isolated act. Faith is a state of being. Faith is a condition. Faith is a product of a life principle which God puts in a sinner in regeneration. If a man ever believes in Christ, he keeps on believing in Christ. If he ever stops believing in Christ, he never did believe in Christ. ~Henry Mahan
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“Preach the word” 2 Tim. 4:2
We assemble ourselves together today not for any vain reason of custom or conscience, but in obedience to Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. It is through the Gospel, the message of Christ and Him crucified that sinners are effectually drawn unto Him, the only hope of their salvation. The promise and faithfulness of God Almighty to bless His word is the reason that all carnal methods of false worship are shunned. May He be honored today and the people of God be blessed through the preaching of the cross. ~Marvin Stalnaker
September 13, 2020
Ask the Right Questions
Someone contacted me recently and wanted suggestions of some questions they could ask to stimulate a discussion in their marriage counseling group. I was happy to respond and sent them these three questions. 1) Who is Christ? 2) What did He accomplish? 3) What is the gospel? I do not think this is what they were looking for, but I know it is what they need. The full answer to these questions, answers all other questions. The answers to these questions are not short. It takes all of scripture to answer these three simple questions. When the answers to these questions are believed, they settle all controversies and move the heart in love, and grace, and forgiveness, and hope and joy. For what more could a married couple ask? ~GE
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The Gospel’s best defense is itself. Let us simply and boldly proclaim the Gospel of God’s free and sovereign grace in Christ. The naked, unadorned Gospel of Christ is “the power of God unto salvation.” Everything else is a hindrance. ~Don Fortner
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The power of God in us is always experienced within the context of our own weakness. The one who operates under the power of God does not feel powerful. Rather, he is filled with a sense of his own inabilities such that he knows that if he must rely on his own power, nothing at all will be accomplished.
God’s power in us does not make us feel strong; God’s power in us works mighty things despite our evident weakness. We can be certain that if we desire to serve the Lord in this world, we must do so by His power, and that if we are ever to be gifted with the power of God to do good for His people, we will be first be stripped of our own power and made to know our weakness for, when we are weak, then and only then are we strong. ~Joe Terrell
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We hold that a man is never so near grace as when he feels that he can do nothing at all but cry for mercy. But, when he says, “I can pray, I can believe, I can do this or that,” the marks of self-sufficiency are still on his brow. ~Henry Mahan
No Love in Law
“For what the law could not do….” – Romans 8:3
There are many things the law cannot do. It cannot save you. It cannot give you a new heart. God’s law has never made one son of Adam love God. Even before the fall, Adam and Eve were never have said to love God. I believe they loved Him with a human love, but not with the love a believer has. In the midst of the garden was law, the true knowledge of good and evil. That was a continual reminder that if the law was broken, they would no longer have God’s favor. And we know what happened. Law has never produced love, but it was never intended to! It is the grace of God that produces love to God. When we see that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, and we are perfectly righteous in His eyes, there is only one response…love. “He that has been forgiven much loveth much.” ~Todd Nibert
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A Perfect Sacrifice
God cannot have a blemished priest at His altar or a blemished sacrifice thereon. Both the priest and the sacrifice must be perfect (Lev. 21-22). Now we have both the perfect Priest and the perfect sacrifice in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, He having offered Himself without spot to God. In Him we have all that God requires, whether as the victim or the Priest. We have all that God could require, and all that a man could need. ~Scott Richardson
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Regeneration makes no alteration on the flesh, but on the spirit. There is nothing in the flesh made holy. And there is nothing in the spirit left unholy. ~Robert Hawker
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“Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? Do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men? Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth. The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.” Psalm 58:1-3
Blaming God
Just because our God brings good out of evil, does not mean that evil is good. The responsibility for sin always lies squarely on the shoulders of the sinner. Nowhere in scripture does God relieve us of our guilt by saying; “It’s OK, I ordained it.” Neither does He say; “you are just a sinner, you can’t help yourself.“ Nor does He allow us to justify the means by the end. Yes, our omnipotent, sovereign God brings good out of evil for his people. That is seen most clearly at Calvary. Yet that never makes evil good. Nor does it justify disobedience. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren. James 1:13-16
If we “confess” (say the same thing) our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I Jn 1:9. Take sides with God against yourself, and rest in Christ for all your justification and righteousness. ~GE
False Accusations
When the religious accuse us of being lawless, what they are really saying is; “If I believed what you believe, I would be lawless.” They would have nothing to restrain their sin. Being under the law, they know nothing of the constraining love of Christ. 2 Cor. 5:14. Being in the flesh, they know nothing of the power of the Spirit of God. Rom. 8:12-14. Being under the judgment of the law, they know nothing of the law of liberty. James 2:10-12. Their accusations are not based on what they see in the believer’s life, but rather on what they fear in their own lives. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. 1 Pet. 3:15-16 ~GE