The Pillar and Ground of the Truth<\/p>\n
The church of the living God as she is seen in her local assemblies is<\/p>\n
the pillar and ground of the truth. Though these assemblies are few and<\/p>\n
far between they alone have the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
They stand wherever God has gathered them as a light in a world filled<\/p>\n
with darkness and ignorance. We are not here to reform the world, take<\/p>\n
up its issues, or influence its politics. We are here to preach the<\/p>\n
gospel of God\u2019s sovereign grace in Christ to as many as will give us a<\/p>\n
hearing. There are four things concerning the church of which I am being<\/p>\n
made more aware of every day.<\/p>\n
The gospel is the only thing left in this world that can do sinners any<\/p>\n
good at all. To change or reform the habits and practices of men by laws<\/p>\n
and punishments only leaves men in self righteousness and false hope.<\/p>\n
The gospel of Christ regenerates, creates anew, and is sufficient in the<\/p>\n
power of Gods\u2019 Holy Spirit to do what all else is doomed to fail.<\/p>\n
In order for man to benefit of this gospel it must be received. It must<\/p>\n
be published in such a way that he can be confronted with it. What a<\/p>\n
blessed thing it is for God to make his gospel accessible to a man! What<\/p>\n
a glorious work it is that God was manifest in the flesh, justified in<\/p>\n
the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in<\/p>\n
the world, and received up into glory. (I Timothy 3: 16) It is a divine<\/p>\n
work of grace that enables a person to receive and embrace the Lord<\/p>\n
Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
It is plainly declared in the word of God that faith cometh by hearing.<\/p>\n
Any hope of salvation, regeneration, conversion, or faith apart from<\/p>\n
hearing is an empty and baseless hope. \u201cHow shall they believe in him of<\/p>\n
whom they have not heard?\u201d (Romans 10: 14) Paul presses this issue to<\/p>\n
the conscience of the church at Galatia, \u201cThis only would I learn of<\/p>\n
you, received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing<\/p>\n
of faith? (Galatians 3:2)<\/p>\n
Hearing comes by way of preaching. (I Corinthians 1: 21) Nothing<\/p>\n
demonstrates the sovereignty of God in the salvation of a sinner more<\/p>\n
than this, \u201cHow shall ye hear without a preacher and how shall they<\/p>\n
preach except they be sent?\u201d<\/p>\n
God give us the grace and determination of heart to be faithful to this<\/p>\n
stewardship he has trusted to us. Amen<\/p>\n
Darvin Pruitt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Pillar and Ground of the Truth The church of the living God as she is seen in her local assemblies is the pillar and ground of the truth. Though these assemblies are few and far between they alone have the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They stand wherever God has gathered them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,44,67,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-darvin-pruitt","category-gospel-preaching","category-taught-of-god","category-false-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4226","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=4226"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4227,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4226\/revisions\/4227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}