{"id":5735,"date":"2020-06-13T10:51:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-13T10:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=5735"},"modified":"2020-06-13T10:51:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-13T10:51:00","slug":"bulletin-edition-june-2020-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=5735","title":{"rendered":"Bulletin Edition June 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ALL-SUFFICIENT GRACE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(John MacDuff, “The\nFaithful Promiser”)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“God is able to make\nall grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all\nthings \u2014 may abound to every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:8<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All-sufficiency in all\nthings! Believer! Surely you are “thoroughly equipped for every good\nwork!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace is no scanty thing,\ndoled out in pittances!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a glorious treasury,\nwhich the key of prayer can always unlock \u2014 but can never empty!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a fountain \u2014 full,\nflowing, ever flowing, over flowing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark these three ALL’S in\nthis precious promise. It is a three-fold link in a golden chain, let down from\nthe throne of grace, by the God of grace. “All grace!”\n“all-sufficiency!” in “all things!” and these to\n“abound.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh! precious thought! My\nneed cannot impoverish that inexhaustible treasury of grace! Myriads are hourly\nhanging on it, drawing from it \u2014 and yet there is no diminution. Out of that\nfullness we, too, may all receive, “grace upon grace!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My soul, do you not love to\ndwell on that all-abounding grace! Your own insufficiency in everything, met\nwith a divine “all-sufficiency in all things!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace in all circumstances\nand situations!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace in all vicissitudes\nand changes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace in all the varied\nphases of the Christian’s being!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace in sunshine \u2014 and in\nstorm!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace in health \u2014 and in\nsickness!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace in life \u2014 and in\ndeath!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace for the old believer \u2014\nand the young believer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace for the tried\nbeliever, and the weak believer, and the tempted believer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace for duty \u2014 and grace\nin duty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace to carry the joyous cup\nwith a steady hand \u2014 and grace to drink the bitter cup with an unmurmuring\nspirit!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace to have prosperity\nsanctified \u2014 and grace to say through tears, “May Your will be done!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“God is able to make\nall grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all\nthings \u2014 may abound to every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:8<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God’s love is revealed\nand made known by these six deeds of indescribable love!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Don Fortner)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Behold, what manner of\nlove the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of\nGod!” 1 John 3:1<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We rejoice to know that\n“God is love!” Love is an attribute of His holy Being, without which\nHe would not be God. We know that God is love, because His love is revealed and\nmade known by His deeds. Love is active. It is never dormant. Like fire, it\nmust break out. It cannot be contained. It is known only when it is experienced\n\u2014 not by words, but by deeds. We know the love of God is that love that\n“surpasses knowledge.” Yet, God’s love is revealed and made known by\nthese six deeds of indescribable love!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first act of God’s love\nwas our ELECTION in Christ (Deuteronomy 7:7-8). Election is not a hard\ndoctrine. It is a delightful doctrine. Were it not for God’s electing love\ntoward sinners, there would be no salvation (Ephesians 1:4; 2 Thessalonians\n2:13). We would never have come to know and love Christ \u2014 had He not first\nloved us (John 15:16; 1 John 4:19).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second act of God’s love\nwas our REDEMPTION by Christ (Romans 5:8; 1 John 3:16; 4:9-10). Because He\nloved us, the Son of God assumed our nature, assumed our sin, assumed our guilt\nand died under the wrath of God as our Substitute, to put away our sins.\n“The Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third act by which God\nreveals His love to sinners is His EFFECTUAL SAVING GRACE (Jeremiah 31:3).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those whom the triune God\nloved \u2014 the Father chose to save.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those whom the Father chose\nto save \u2014 the Son redeemed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And those whom the Son\nredeemed \u2014 the Holy Spirit will effectually call by His irresistible grace to\nlife and faith in Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The love of God is revealed\nfourthly in the absolute PRESERVATION of His elect in a state of grace (John\n10:28; Romans 8:39). Can you imagine one who is loved of God falling from a\nstate of grace, perishing and suffering the wrath of God forever in Hell? Such\na notion is worse than nonsense \u2014 it is utter blasphemy! The love of God is . .\n.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

without cause,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

without beginning,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

without condition,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

without change,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and without end!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is sovereign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is indestructible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is everlasting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fifthly, God’s love for His\nelect is seen in our Savior’s TENDER, PROVIDENTIAL CARE for us (John 11:35-36).\nOur Savior really is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. We really are\nthe apple of His eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there is one act of love\nthat goes beyond election, redemption, effectual calling, preservation, and\nprovidential care. As great and marvelous as those things are \u2014 there is one\nact of God that goes beyond them all. If the climax of God’s love is our\nredemption by Christ \u2014 then the apex of God’s love is our ADOPTION into the\nfamily of God! (1 John 3:1-3)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By birth, we are all fallen,\ndepraved and spiritually dead (Romans 5:12).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By our deeds, we show\nourselves to be children of the devil, sinful, deceitful, and wicked (John\n8:44).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By nature, we are all\nchildren of wrath (Ephesians 1:3), a people deserving the wrath of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But by grace, we who believe\nare the sons of God!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Election is the great\nfountain of grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Redemption is the greatest\nmystery of grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And adoption is the greatest\nprivilege of grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Behold, what manner of\nlove the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of\nGod!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GENTLENESS IN REBUKE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

John MacDuff<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Let this mind be in\nyou, which was also in Christ Jesus.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Simon son of John, do\nyou truly love me?”\u2014John 21:15<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No word here of the erring\ndisciple’s past faithlessness\u2014his guilty cowardice\u2014unmentioned;\u2014his base\ndenial\u2014his oaths and curses, and treacherous desertion\u2014all unmentioned! The\nmemory of a threefold denial is suggested, and no more, by the threefold\nquestion of unutterable tenderness, “Simon son of John, do you truly love\nme?”\u2014When Jesus finds His disciples sleeping at the gate of Gethsemane, He\nrebukes them; but how is the rebuke disarmed of its poignancy by the merciful\napology which is added\u2014”The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is\nweak!” How different from their unkind insinuation regarding Him, when, in\nthe vessel or Tiberias, “He was asleep”\u2014”Master, don’t you care\nthat we perish!”\u2014The woman of Samaria is full of earthliness, carnality,\nsectarianism, guilt. Yet how gently the Savior speaks to her\u2014how forbearingly,\nyet faithfully, He directs the arrow of conviction to that seared and hardened\nconscience, until He lays it bleeding at His feet! Truly, “He will not\nbreak the bruised reed\u2014He will not quench the smoking flax.” By “the\ngoodness of God,” He would lead to repentance. When others are speaking of\nmerciless violence, He can dismiss the most guilty of profligates with the\nwords “Neither do I condemn you; go, and sin no more.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How many have an unholy\npleasure in finding a brother in the wrong\u2014blazing abroad his failings;\nadministering rebuke, not in gentle forbearance and kindly admonition, but with\nharsh and impatient severity! How beautifully did Jesus unite intense\nsensibility to sin, along with tenderest compassion for the sinner, showing in\nthis that “He knows our frame!” Many a sinner needs gentleness in\nchastisement. The reverse would crush a sensitive spirit, or drive it to\ndespair. Jesus tenderly “considers” the case of those He disciplines,\n“tempering the wind to the shorn lamb.” In the picture of the good\nshepherd bearing home the wandering sheep, He illustrated by parable what He\nhad often and again taught by His own example. No word of needless harshness or\nupbraiding uttered to the erring wanderer! Ingratitude is too deeply felt to\nneed rebuke. In silent love, “He lays it on His shoulders rejoicing.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reader! seek to mingle\ngentleness in all your rebukes; bear with the infirmities of others; make allowance\nfor constitutional frailties; never say harsh things, if kind things will do as\nwell; do not unnecessarily lacerate with recalling former delinquencies. In\nreproving another, let us rather feel how much we need reproof ourselves.\n“Consider yourself,” is a searching Scripture motto for dealing with\nan erring brother. Remember your Lord’s method of silencing fierce\naccusation\u2014”Let him that is without sin cast the first stone.”\nMoreover, anger and severity are not the successful means of reclaiming the backslider,\nor of melting the obdurate. Like the smooth stones with which David smote\nGoliath, gentle rebukes are generally the most powerful. The old fable of the\ntraveler and his cloak has a moral here as in other things. The genial sunshine\nwill effect its removal sooner than the rough tempest. It was said of Leighton,\nthat “he rebuked faults so mildly, that they were never repeated, not\nbecause the admonished were afraid, but ashamed to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exercises of sin and\ngrace<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Letters of John Newton)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alas, how vain is man! What\na contradiction is a believer to himself!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I were to describe him\nfrom the Scriptural portrait\u2014I would say that he is one whose heart is athirst\nfor God, for His glory, and for His presence; that his affections are fixed\nupon an unseen Savior; that his treasures, and consequently his thoughts, are\non eternal realities, far beyond the bounds of sense. Having experienced much\nGod’s forgiveness, he is full of mercy and forgiveness to all around. Having\nbeen often deceived by his own heart, he dares trust it no more\u2014but lives by\nfaith in the Son of God\u2014for wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification, and\nderives from Him grace upon grace; sensible that without Him\u2014he has not\nsufficiency even to think a good thought! In short\u2014he is dead to the world, to\nsin, to self; but alive to God, and lively in His service. Prayer is his\nbreath, the Word of God is his food, and Christ is more precious to him than\nthe light of the sun. Such is a believer\u2014in his judgment and prevailing\ndesires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But was I to describe him\nfrom his actual experience, especially at some times\u2014how different would the\npicture be!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though he knows that\ncommunion with God is his highest privilege, he too seldom finds it so; on the\ncontrary, if duty, conscience, and necessity did not compel him\u2014he would leave\nthe throne of grace unvisited from day to day!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He takes up the Bible,\nconscious that it is the fountain of life and true comfort; yet perhaps, while\nhe is making the reflection, he feels a secret distaste, which prompts him to\nlay it down, and give his preference to a newspaper!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He needs not to be told of\nthe vanity and uncertainty of the world, and all beneath the sun; and yet he is\nalmost as much elated or cast down by a trifle\u2014as those who have their only\nportion in this world!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He believes that all things\nshall work together for his good, and that the most high God appoints, adjusts,\nand overrules all of his concerns; yet he feels the risings of fear, anxiety,\nand displeasure, as though the contrary was true!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He owns himself to be\nignorant, and liable to be deceived by a thousand fallacies; yet he is easily\nbetrayed into flattering views of himself, and self-conceit! He feels himself\nto be an unprofitable, unfaithful, unthankful servant\u2014and therefore blushes to\nharbor a thought of desiring the esteem and commendations of men\u2014yet he cannot\nsuppress it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By these exercises of sin\nand grace\u2014the Lord teaches us more truly to know and feel the utter depravity\nand corruption of our whole nature\u2014that we are indeed defiled in every part!\nHis method of salvation is hereby exceedingly endeared to us! We see that it is\nand must be of grace, wholly of grace; and that the Lord Jesus Christ, and His\nperfect righteousness, is and must be\u2014our all in all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God’s power likewise, in\nmaintaining His own work, notwithstanding our infirmities, temptations, and\nenemies\u2014is hereby displayed in the clearest light; His strength is manifested\nin our weakness!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Satan likewise, is more\nremarkably disappointed and put to shame\u2014when he finds bounds set to his rage\nand wiles, beyond which he cannot pass; and that those in whom he finds so much\nevil to work upon, and over whom he so often prevails for a season\u2014escape at\nlast out of his hands!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He casts them down\u2014but they\nare raised again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He wounds them\u2014but they are\nhealed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He obtains his desire to\nsift them as wheat\u2014but the prayer of their great Advocate prevails for the\nmaintenance of their faith!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further, by what believers\nfeel in themselves\u2014they learn by degrees how to warn, pity, and bear with\nothers. A soft, patient, and compassionate spirit, and a readiness and skill in\ncomforting those who are cast down\u2014is not perhaps attainable in any other way!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe that nothing more habitually reconciles a child of\nGod to the thought of death, than the wearisomeness of this warfare with sin\nand temptation. Death is unwelcome to human nature. But the Christian knows\nthat not until death\u2014will the conflict cease! Then we shall sin no more! The\nflesh, with all its attendant evils, will be laid in the grave. Then the soul,\nwhich has been partaker of a new and heavenly birth, shall be freed from every\nencumbrance, and stand perfect in the Redeemer’s righteousness before God in\neternal glory! When we see Jesus, we shall be transformed into His image\u2014and be\ndone with sin and sorrow forever! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ALL-SUFFICIENT GRACE (John MacDuff, “The Faithful Promiser”) “God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all things \u2014 may abound to every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:8 All-sufficiency in all things! Believer! Surely you are “thoroughly equipped for every good work!” Grace is no scanty thing, […]<\/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-5735","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\/5735","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=5735"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5736,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5735\/revisions\/5736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}