“IN CHRIST we have no curse from the law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
IN CHRIST we have no covenant with the law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
IN CHRIST we have no constraint by the law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
IN CHRIST we have no commitment to the law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are saved by grace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are justified by grace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are sanctified by grace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are kept and preserved by grace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are motivated by grace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are governed by grace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We shall be glorified by grace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is no room in the household of grace for the whip of the law.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
–Don Fortner<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having religion is one thing, but knowing and waking with Christ\nis different! Having religion \u2013 the world understands and\ntolerates. But free grace \u2013 the world neither understand nor\ntolerates! Any two religious errors can walk together and permit them\nboth to exist! But the Truth of God\u2019s grace cannot exist with error \u2013 for\none always must go! \n \n – Henry Mahan\n(1926-2019)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What Does God Expect from Me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have been asked by those who heard the Gospel of free and\nsovereign Grace in Christ for the first time \u2013 \u201cwhat does God expect from\nyou?\u201d. The answer is short and simple, yet it takes the power of God to grasp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God demands (expects) His Son in us!! He demands a new heart. He\ndemands we have an incorruptible seed that is holy and cannot sin. He demands\nwe believe His Son, love Him, and love those He dwells in. He demands Christ\nreceives all the Glory! With that said, how can a person possess these things?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He gave His Son (Gen 22:8,1 John 4:10).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He gives the new heart (Eze 36:26).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His Word gives the incorruptible seed (1 Peter 1:23,1 John 3:9).\nWe love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Therefore, we love those Christ abides in (1 John 3:14). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And we give Him all the glory (Jude 25).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What God expects from a sinner is nothing more than what He has\nalready preformed and the instinct of His workmanship, not instruction to a\ndead soul. What God expects, He provides!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
~Kevin Thacker<\/p>\n\n\n\n
THE FIVE ALONES<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scripture Alone,\nChrist alone, Grace alone, Faith alone, and the Glory of God alone have been\ncalled the watchwords of the Protestant Reformation. To call them that is\nto diminish what they are. It is from the Scriptures alone that we see\nChrist alone, Grace alone, Faith alone, and the Glory of God alone. \u201cThe\nScripture preached before the Gospel to Abraham\u201d (Gal. 3:8). Before they\nwere written they spoke. It was 400 years before the Scriptures were written\nthat the Scriptures preached to Abraham. The Scriptures, like their\nAuthor, are eternal. So Christ alone, Grace alone, Faith alone, and the\nGlory of God alone is the eternal Truth. The five alones were not\ndeveloped during the Protestant Reformation, they are the eternal Truth of God\nand they are one! Where you have one, you necessarily have all\nfive. Take away the alone, and they are all meaningless! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Todd Nibert<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Absurdities of Free-Will<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Free-will brings with it so many absurdities that it\ncannot be received.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(a) It makes man the cause of his own salvation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(b) It puts grace into man’s power, not man’s will under the\npower of grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(c) It robs God of the honour of making one to differ from\nanother, and ascribes it to man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(d) It allows man a liberty of boasting to God, saying,\n“God, I thank Thee that Thou gavest me power to will (yet Thou gavest that\nto Judas as well as me), but I thank myself for the act of willingness, since I\nreceive from Thee no more than Judas did.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(e) It exempts the creature from the power of God, as if man,\nspider-like, could spin a thread out of his own bowels whereon to climb to\nHeaven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(f) It maketh man the cause why God willeth this or that; so God\nmust attend on the will of man, and not be infallible in His (cont.) decrees,\nnor working all things according to the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11, Ps\n115:3).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(g) Then the apostle James lied in saying “every good\ngift” is from God (Jas 1:17); and Paul also was mistaken in Romans 9:11.\nHe should have said, “It is of man that willeth and runneth,” and\nnot, “Of God that showeth mercy.” \n \n ~John Gill<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The day-spring from on high.” <\/em>Luke i. 78. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Truly it was so when Jesus came; for a long night of Jewish\ndarkness and ignorance had covered the earth, and gross darkness the people.\nLook, my soul, at Jesus under this blessed similitude. Though it be evening\nwith’ thee, this day-spring will give light, and the promise will be fulfilled,\n“at even-time it shall be light.” Jesus was the day-spring in the\neverlasting council and purpose of Jehovah, when he stood up the light of his\npeople from all eternity. And when, in the fulness of time, he came, it was to\nfulfil all the shadows of ordinances concerning him. And what is it now, in\nevery individual instance of his visiting his people, but as “the\nday-spring” on their souls? When first, from a state of nature, he calls\nthem to a state of grace, is it not “the day-spring from on high?”\nAnd in all the after-stages, during a life of grace leading, to glory, is not\nevery renewed manifestation of his love as the day-spring from on high?”\nAnd what will it be after the night of death, when Jesus shall come “to be\nglorified in his saints, and admired in all that believe,” but the same?\nJesus will then be “the day-spring,” and “the morning-star”\nof that everlasting day, whose sun shall go down no more. Precious day-spring\nof my God! arise daily on my poor soul, and fill my heart with light and glory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Robert Hawker<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Through the tender mercies of our God; whereby the\ndayspring from on high hath visited us.”<\/em> Luke\n1:78<\/p>\n\n\n\n J.C.Philpot<\/p>\n\n\n\n By “day-spring” is meant the day-dawn, the herald of\nthe rising sun, the change from darkness to light, the first approach of morn,\nin a word, the spring of the day<\/em>. But what is this\n“day-spring” spiritually? It is the intimation of the rising of the\nSun of righteousness. It is not the same thing as the Sun of righteousness; but\nit is the herald of his approach; the beams which the rising sun casts upon the\nbenighted world, announcing the coming of Jesus, “the King in his\nbeauty.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n This expression was singularly applicable in the mouth of\nZacharias. The Lord of life and glory had not then appeared; he was still in\nthe womb of the Virgin Mary. But his forerunner, John, had appeared as the\nprecursor, the herald of his approach, and was sent to announce that the Sun of\nrighteousness was about to arise. “There was a man sent from God, whose\nname was John. He came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all\nmen through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear\nwitness of that Light” (John 1:6-8). All nations at that time lay in\ndarkness. “Darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the\npeople.” But when the Lord of life and glory was about to appear upon earth,\nwhen he had already taken the body which was prepared for him, the very flesh\nand blood of the children, which he was to offer as a propitiation for sin,\n“the dayspring from on high” had begun to dawn. God’s mercy, in the\nface of his dear Son, was just visiting the benighted world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But there is another, an experimental meaning, connected with\nthese words. “The day-spring from on high” is not to be confined to\nthe approach of the Son of God in the flesh; but it may be extended to\nsignify the appearance of the Son of God in the heart. <\/strong>I\ncannot be benefited by the appearing of Jesus in the flesh eighteen hundred\nyears ago, unless he comes and dwells in my soul. “The day-spring from on\nhigh” which visited the benighted Jewish church will not profit us except\nthat same day-spring visits our benighted heart. “The day-spring from on\nhigh” is the manifestation of God’s mercy in the face of the Savior. And\nwhen this “day-spring from on high” visits the soul, it is the first\nintimation, the dawning rays of the Sun of righteousness in the heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “To give light to those who sit in darkness and in the\nshadow of death; to guide our feet into the way of peace.”<\/em> Luke 1:79<\/p>\n\n\n\n J.C.Philpot<\/p>\n\n\n\n What was it that moved the divine Father to send his own Son\ninto the world? Was it not the free mercy of God flowing forth from his bosom\nto his family? Then, what merit, what claim can his family ever have? Their\nmisery is their claim. Their worthlessness, their sunken state, the depth of\ntheir fall–these things call forth God’s compassion. It is not what I have\ndone for the glory of God; not what I am doing, or trying to do; not my wisdom,\nmy strength, my resolutions, my piety, my holiness. No! my misery, my\nhelplessness, my worthlessness, my deeply sunken state, my fallen condition;\nwhich I feel only because of a saving interest in the blood and love of the\nLamb–this it is that makes me need God’s mercy; and this it is that qualifies\nme to go to God through Jesus to receive mercy–for “he is able to save\nunto the uttermost all that come unto God by him.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Are you sitting in darkness and the shadow of death–far from\nthe way of peace, troubled, perplexed, exercised, confused? You are the very\ncharacters for whom Jesus came. Are not unutterable mercies locked up in the\nbosom of God for you? What is to exclude you? Your sins? No! God has pardoned\nthem. Your worthlessness? No! there is a robe of righteousness prepared for\nyou. Your demerits? No! the merits of Jesus are upon your side. Your\nunholiness? No! “He is made to you sanctification.” Your ignorance?\nNo! “He is made to you wisdom.” These are no barriers. I will tell\nyou what is a barrier–self-righteousness, self-esteem, self-exaltation, pride,\nhypocrisy, presumption; a name to live, a form of godliness, being settled upon\nyour lees, and at ease in Zion–these are barriers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But helplessness, hopelessness, worthlessness, misery–these are\nnot barriers; they are qualifications; they show, when felt, that your name is\nin the book of life, that the Lord of life and glory appeared in this world for\nyou; and sooner or later, you will have the sweet enjoyment of it in your\nheart; and then be enabled to adore him for his grace, and admire and bless his\nname for glorifying his love and mercy in your free and full salvation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n