Salvation\nis of the LORD. Jonah 2:9<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Where Does Grace Lead?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people would have us\nbelieve that if we preach pure grace it will lead people to licentious living.\nThey say if we remove the law as a guide or motivation for Christian living,\npeople will have nothing to keep them holy. They say to tell a person to just\nfollow Christ doesn\u2019t provide enough structure and will lead people to careless\nliving. Is that where the gospel of God\u2019s free and sovereign grace in Christ\nJesus leads? Grace preachers have always been, and always will be, falsely\naccused of this devilish lie. The apostle Paul spent most of his time defending\nthe gospel of grace against this lawmongers view of self- righteousness. \u201cWhat\nthen? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God\nforbid.\u201d Rom 6:15 No, grace does not lead to sin, grace leads to\nChrist. <\/strong>Truth is; \u201cThe strength of sin is the law.\u201d 1\nCor.15:56. Show me a man preaching the law, and I\u2019ll show you a people with no\nhope for their sin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Greg Elmquist<\/p>\n\n\n\n HIS GOOD PLEASURE Everything\nconcerning a sinner\u2019s\nsalvation is of God. Nothing is of us. We don\u2019t begin\nthe work of salvation, He does (Phil. 1:6). We don\u2019t perform\nthe work of salvation, He does (Phil. 1:6). We don\u2019t finish\nthe work of salvation, He does (John 19:30, Heb. 1:3). We don\u2019t call on Him, He calls us (Luke 5:32). We don\u2019t seek Him, He seeks us (Luke 19:10). We don\u2019t find Him, He finds us (Luke 15:3-6). We don\u2019t accept Him, He accepts us (Eph. 1:6). We don\u2019t produce our own faith to believe on Him, He puts His own faith\nin us and causes us to believe on Him (Eph. 2:8). We don\u2019t earn any perfection of our own, He earned it for us (Titus\n3:5). It\u2019s not that we loved Him,\nbut that He loved us (1 John 4;10). We don\u2019t keep\nourselves in His love, He keeps us there (1 Peter 1:3-5). Salvation is totally\nof the Lord (Jonah 2:9). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Gabe Stalnaker<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n It is the eternal,\nsovereign, unconditional, and immutable decree of God, whereby according to the\nwise counsel of His own will and for His own glory, He has selected for Himself\nsome individual sinners from all mankind and of every nation to be redeemed and\neverlastingly saved by the Lord Jesus\nChrist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Willy Mapote Malawi, Africa<\/p>\n\n\n\n Complicated or\nContrary<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The\ngospel is not COMPLICATED. It is a simple message declaring that, \u201cSalvation is\nof the Lord\u201d Jonah 2:9. It declares all the sons of Adam as sinful, unable and\nunwilling to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It declares Jesus Christ as the\nSovereign, successful Savior of His elect people. The gospel is wholly of God\u2019s\nfree and sovereign grace. It does not require a superior intellect, or even a\ngood knowledge of the Bible to understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So,\nwhy is it so hard for men to hear? The Lord said, \u201cLight has come into the\nworld and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil\u201d\nJohn 3:19. The gospel is CONTRARY to everything men by nature believe to be\ntrue. Rather than forsaking all his ways, he is desperately trying to reconcile\nwhat he is hearing to what he has already decided is true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One\ncannot have faith (believe) without repentance (changed mind). Both are a work\nof grace without which the natural man will continue to complicate the\nsimplicity of the gospel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Greg Elmquist<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of Grace<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In heaven\u2019s glory we shall\nforever adore and praise our great God for the wondrous mystery of his grace,\nby which we are saved. Everything in the great work of salvation sets forth the\nsplendor of the grace of the Most High God. What do we see in election,\npredestination, redemption, regeneration and preservation, but His grace? The\nwhole work of salvation displays God\u2019s rich, free, almighty, irresistible,\nsovereign, saving grace in Christ. In salvation, as well as in creation, all\nthings are of God, all things are by God, and all things are for God. He works\nall our works in us, and in Him alone all praise must be forever!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Gospel of God<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Three times in I Thes. 2,\nPaul speaks of the gospel as the \u201cGospel of God\u201d. It is God the Father\u2019s gospel\nin election. It is God the Son\u2019s gospel in redemption. It is God the Holy\nSpirit\u2019s gospel in revelation and regeneration. Oh, what good news. In perfect\nunity, the Triune Godhead cannot fail in making The Gospel of God, our\ngospel. \n \n Greg\nElmquist<\/p>\n\n\n\n You have lately been in the furnace!<\/p>\n\n\n\n “In the world ye shall have tribulation:” John\n16:33 John Newton<\/p>\n\n\n\n We should be in a bad condition\nindeed, if our salvation was suspended on conditions of our own performing.\nGod’s everlasting love, His decree of election, and the eternal covenant of\nredemption, are the three hinges on which the door of man’s salvation turns.\nWhen man fell from God, infinite justice put a lock upon the door – a lock\nwhich nothing but the golden key of Christ’s blood and righteousness can open.\nThe Holy Ghost is, as it were, the omniscient keeper of the door; and He lets\nno souls in but such as He Himself has washed and justified and sanctified in\nthe name of our Lord Jesus, and by His own efficacious grace. I should as soon\nexpect to be saved by my sins as to be saved by my good works. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Augustus Toplady<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n From eternity God already\npurposed and predestinated what God will do for each of his children. \nWhatever God works for us is no new thing with God. God declared the end\nfrom the beginning. But God will have his people enquire of him to work that\nwhich God wills. Prayer is God bringing us to ask our Sovereign to do for\nus what God already purposed and promised. Prayer keeps his saints\nacknowledging that we depend upon God for every gift of grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The furnace!<\/p>\n\n\n\n (adapted from Winslow’s, “The Sanctification of the\nSpirit”)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Are you a child of affliction?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ah! how many whose eye falls on this question This is the path along which all the Lord’s people God’s people are, “chosen in the furnace<\/strong> of\naffliction.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The furnace<\/strong> is needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The furnace<\/strong> is needed to consume the dross and
\n<\/strong>
\n\u201cFor it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good\npleasure.\u201d – Philippians 2:13<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\nDear friend,
\nYou have lately been in the furnace<\/strong>\u2014and are now brought safely out. I\nhope you have much to say of the grace, care, and skill of the great\nRefiner<\/em>, who watched over you; and that you have lost nothing but dross<\/em>.\nLet this experience be treasured up in your hearts for the use of future times.\nOther trials will come\u2014but you have found the Lord faithful to His promise, and\nhave good encouragement to trust Him again.
\n
\nI doubt not, but you will have your share of trials; but when the love of God\nis shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit, it sweetens what bitter <\/em>things\nthe Lord puts into our cup, and enables us to say, “None of these things\nmove me!”
\n
\nYes, the life of faith is a happy life, and
\n if attended with conflicts<\/em>\u2014there is an assurance of victory;
\n if we sometimes get a wound<\/em>\u2014there is healing balm near at\nhand;
\n if we seem to fall<\/em>\u2014we are raised again; and
\n if tribulations <\/em>abound\u2014consolations shall abound\nlikewise.
\n
\nIs it not happiness\u2014to have an infallible Guide, an invincible Guard, an\nalmighty Friend! To be able to say of the Maker of heaven and earth, “He\nis my Beloved, my Shepherd, my Saviour, and my Husband!”<\/em>
\n
\nOh the peace that flows from believing . . .
\n that all events in which we are concerned, are under His immediate\ndisposal;
\n that the hairs of our head are all numbered;
\n that He delights in our prosperity;
\n that there is a need-be, if we are in heaviness, and
\n that all things shall surely work for our good!
\n
\nHow happy to have such views of God’s sovereignty, wisdom, love, and\nfaithfulness\u2014as will enable us to meet every painful dispensation with\nsubmission, and to look through the changes<\/em> of the present\nlife\u2014to that unchangeable inheritance<\/em> to which the Lord is\nleading us, when all evil shall cease, and where joy shall be perfect and\neternal!
\n
\n“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no\nmore death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain:\nfor the former things have passed away!” Revelation 21:4<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nshall say, “I am the man that has seen affliction!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nare led, and in this path, thorny though it be, they
\npluck some of their choicest flowers, and find some
\nof their sweetest fruits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nthe tin which adhere so closely to the precious ore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n