{"id":234,"date":"2010-10-27T02:02:17","date_gmt":"2010-10-27T02:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=234"},"modified":"2010-10-27T07:30:52","modified_gmt":"2010-10-27T07:30:52","slug":"bulletin-articles-issue-41-october-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=234","title":{"rendered":"Bulletin Articles Issue #41 October 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am not what I once was!<\/strong>
\nIn his old age, when he could no longer see to read, John
\nNewton heard someone recite this text, “By the grace of God\u2014I am
\nwhat I am.”
\nHe remained silent a short time and then, as if speaking to
\nhimself, he said: “I am not what I ought to be\u2014ah, how imperfect
\nand deficient! I am not what I wish to be\u2014I abhor that which is
\nevil, and I would cleave to that which is good. I am not what I
\nhope to be\u2014soon, soon I shall put off mortality, and with
\nmortality all sin and imperfection! Though I am not what I ought
\nto be, what I wish to be, and what I hope to be\u2014yet I can truly
\nsay, I am not what I once was\u2014a slave to sin and Satan! I can
\nheartily join with the apostle and acknowledge, “By the grace of
\nGod\u2014I am what I am!”<\/p>\n

“Look upon those who mourn in Zion–put their tears into your
\nbottle–listen to their sighs and groans.”
\nWilliam Tiptaft
\n“If I preach to please men, I am not the servant of Christ; and
\nwoe unto me, if I preach not the gospel!”
\nWilliam Tiptaft<\/p>\n

BECAUSE HE LOVED HER!<\/strong> Jesus sustains no association to
\nHis Church more expressive than that of the marriage relationship.
\nFrom all eternity He forever betrothed her to Himself. He asked her at
\nthe hands of her Father\u2014and the Father gave her to Him. He entered
\ninto a covenant that she would be His. The conditions of that covenant
\nwere great, but not too great for His love to undertake. They were, that
\nHe should assume her nature, discharge her legal obligations, endure
\nher punishment, repair her ruin, and bring her to glory! He undertook
\nall, and He accomplished all, because He loved her! The love of Jesus
\nto His Church is the love of the most tender husband. It is single,
\nconstant, affectionate, matchless, wonderful. Jesus sympathises with
\nher, nourishes her, provides for her, clothes her, watches over, and
\nindulges her with the most intimate and endearing tenderness.
\nOctavius Winslow<\/p>\n

Consider Jesus\u2013 as Receiving Sinners<\/strong>
\n“This man receives sinners!” \u2013Luke 15:2
\nNothing gave greater offence to the scribes and Pharisees than
\nthe divine mission of Jesus to save sinners. No greater and more
\nvirulent accusation could they allege against Him, than that, He
\nextended His compassionate regards to the vile and the
\nwretched, admitting the most flagrant offenders to His mercy,
\nand inviting the most notorious sinners to His fellowship. And
\nyet this, His greatest reproach, was His highest honour. Pluck
\nthis jewel from His mediatorial crown, and it has lost its costliest
\ngem. Extract this note from the “joyful sound,” and you have
\nhushed its sweetest melody. Remove this object of His mission
\nfrom His coming, and you have reduced His incarnation,
\nsufferings, and death to a gigantic waste.
\nOh, with what glory does the fact that, “This man receives sinners,”
\ninvest the Son of God! How should our hearts glow with
\ngratitude, praise, and love! If the individual who makes two
\nblades of grass to grow where only one grew before, is regarded
\nas a public benefactor; if we deck the person of him who, at the
\nrisk of his own, saves the life of another, what shall we feel
\ntowards the Son of God who, in the plenitude of His compassion
\nand love, bowed the heavens, and came down to save countless
\nmyriad’s of our race from the “bitter pains of eternal death”!
\nYes, “He receives sinners.” He receives them as sinners–lost,
\nundone, self-destroyed sinners–sinners too vile and too helpless
\nto save themselves–who, if He does not save them, never can be
\nsaved. He receives sinners of all conditions and of every hue, of
\nevery depth of guilt and character of crime. Oh, if there were a
\nsinner out-sinning all sinners–every sin tainting, every crime
\nattaching to him–an abandoned profligate, an unbelieving
\nscorner, a reviling blasphemer, a red-handed murderer, a profane
\ninfidel, a daring atheist, a moral parricide whose transgressions
\nhave broken a mother’s heart and bowed a father’s grey hairs in
\nsorrow to the grave–sins as scarlet and red as crimson–as a
\ncloud for darkness, and as the sands on the sea shore for multitude–if, I say, there be such a one whom He would not save,
\nand could not save, then would there be silence in heaven and
\nexultation in hell at the announcement that Jesus Christ had
\nceased to save to the uttermost bounds of sin and guilt all who, in
\npenitence and faith, came to God through Him.
\nIt follows, then, that, receiving them just as they are, He receives
\nthem freely, apart from all fitness or worthiness, of their own. “By
\ngrace are you saved.” “Being justified freely by His grace through the
\nredemption that is in Christ Jesus.” “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
\nyou shall be saved.” What a joyful sound! Come, then, O my soul,
\nto Jesus, without hesitation or delay.
\n“Just as I am I and waiting not
\nTo rid my soul of one dark blot;
\nTo Him whose blood can cleanse each spot,
\nO Lamb of God, I come.”
\nAssured of the fact that you yourself have come to Jesus and are saved,
\nbe it your aim to bring others to Him, that they may be saved too. Oh,
\nlive and labour, if need be, suffer and die for Him, whose greatest glory
\nis, that He receives and saves sinners, who has received and saved you<\/p>\n

You have all your hearts can wish!<\/strong>
\n“My God will supply all your needs according to His
\nriches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19
\nO say with a melting heart\u2014I have a full Christ,
\nand He is filled for me! I have . . .
\nHis pure and perfect righteousness to justify me,
\nHis holiness to sanctify me,
\nHis wisdom to guide me,
\nHis comforts to refresh me,
\nHis power to protect me,
\nHis all-sufficiency to supply me.<\/p>\n

O be cheerful, be thankful\u2014you have all your
\nhearts can wish! And yet be humble\u2014it is all
\nfrom free-grace to empty and unworthy creatures!<\/p>\n

The vital spark!<\/strong>
\nThe following is from Spurgeon\u2019s sermon,
\n“Light, Natural and Spiritual” No. 660.
\n“You must be born again.”
\nDo not think Christians are made by
\neducation; they are made by creation.
\nYou may wash a corpse as long as you please,
\nand that corpse could be clean, but you cannot
\nwash life into it!
\nYou may deck it in flowers, and robe it in scarlet
\nand fine linen, but you cannot make it live!
\nThe vital spark must come from above!
\nRegeneration is not of the will of man, nor of blood,
\nnor of the will of the flesh, but by the power and
\nenergy of the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God alone!
\nSee then, the ruin of nature and the freeness of grace!
\nVoid and dark, a chaos given up to be covered with
\nblackness and darkness forever, and, while as yet
\nit is un-seeking God, the light arises, and the promise
\nis fulfilled, “I am found of them that sought me not;
\nI said, behold me! behold me! to a people that were
\nnot a people.”
\nWhile we were lying in our blood, filthily polluted,
\ndefiled, he passed by, and he said in the sovereignty
\nof his love, “Live!” and we do live. The whole must be traced to sovereign grace!
\nFrom this sacred well of discriminating distinguishing
\ngrace we must draw water this morning, and we must
\npour it out, saying, “Oh Lord, I will praise your name,
\nfor the first origin of my light was your sovereign
\npurpose, and nothing in me.”<\/p>\n

How Could I?<\/strong> – Pastor David Eddmenson<\/strong>
\nI was thinking this week how impossible it would be for a
\ntrue, God-called preacher, to preach anything other than the
\nLord Jesus Christ and him crucified. How could I, a desperately
\nwicked sinner, stand week after week, and service after service
\nand tell men how to live, when I struggle and fail daily myself?
\nHow could I, the wretched and depraved man that I am, tell
\nothers how to become better spouses, parents, children, friends,
\nemployers and employees, when I have failed and continue to fail
\nmiserably at these things myself? What hypocrisy and vanity that
\nwould be! It is not my place to try to straighten people out. A
\nwise and older friend of mine told me not long ago, concerning
\npreaching, to always remember that a man could shear a sheep
\nmany times, but he could only slay a sheep once. Friends, it is the
\npreaching of Jesus Christ only that causes us to decrease
\n(sheared). My responsibility is not to tell people how to live, but
\nproclaim to them how our Savior lived, died and resurrected,
\ndoing everything perfectly for and in the place of helldeserving
\nsinners.
\nIf God is pleased to save a man or woman, that person will
\nwant to hear only one message and one message only: \u2014 That
\nChrist came into the world to save sinners, and that sinners come
\nto Christ by free and sovereign grace alone for eternal life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am not what I once was! In his old age, when he could no longer see to read, John Newton heard someone recite this text, “By the grace of God\u2014I am what I am.” He remained silent a short time and then, as if speaking to himself, he said: “I am not what I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulletin-editions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=234"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions\/243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}