Adam, The First and The Second

We fell in the first Adam through no fault of our own, we rise in the second Adam through no merit of our own, so we rise in the same manner as we fell, only in a different person. It is the Free Grace of God that we are taken back into His favor.

I wish we could understand that just as we were condemned in Adam and came under the just sentence of death, if we believe in the Lord Jesus, we shall be cleansed from our many offenses, and God will look on us as perfectly just in Christ Jesus. We shall by faith have peace with God and there shall be good reason for peace, for everything which made God angry with us shall have been put away, and we will be able with confidence to say, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”

Even if the devil was base enough to fabricate a charge against the believer, yet we could say, “It is God that justifieth who is He that condemneth?” Since Christ has died and risen again, and now sits at the right hand of God and makes intercession for us, what judgment have we to fear? Glory to God for that free gift (Romans 8)!

Pastor Scott Richardson

Denying Self

What is the first lesson our Lord teaches His disciples? It is this; “If any man will be my disciple, let him DENY HIMSELF”;that is, he will renounce his own wisdom, his own righteousness, his own plans and ambitions! He will be content, not only to lie down at the feet of Christ as a “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked sinner” to receive all mercy through free grace, but he will also count all personal, material, and fleshly ambitions as loss for Christ.

Sometimes the latter is harder to part with than the first! WHICH IS EASIER TO GIVE UP, my rags of righteousness for His robe of spiritual holiness or to give up my comfortable home and living and live by the gospel as a missionary or a preacher? WHICH IS EASIER TO PART WITH, my trust in works and law to save or to give up some of my money, lands, and treasures to help send the gospel to others and relieve the needs of God’s people?

TO DENY MYSELF goes much deeper than just idle doctrine; it reaches to those things which I treasure and trust to make me happy and comfortable in this world.

Pastor Henry T. Mahan (bulletin 1991)

SALVATION IS OF THE LORD

Growing up I heard preacher’s talk about “the Plan of Salvation” then they would commence to tell sinners how to “get saved.” Salvation is not a “how to plan.” Salvation is of the LORD. It is not how to get saved, but Who saves, the LORD. The LORD purposed to save a people, Jesus Christ, God incarnate, died for those people and the Holy Spirit calls them by the gospel and regenerates them. It is all of the LORD from alpha to omega. If we are to build a house, let’s talk about the ‘how to plan’, if we are talking about salvation, let’s talk about the doing and dying and rising again of the Lord Jesus Christ. Pastor John Chapman

CHRIST SHALL NOT FAIL
"He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law" (Isaiah 42:4).

To you who believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, this is one of the most precious promises in all scripture (2 Peter 1:4). The Lord Jesus Christ has been appointed by Almighty God and sent in the fullness of time (Gal.4:4) to accomplish all our salvation (John 17:4). The success of His work is guaranteed by the decree of God (Acts 2:23; Isa. 46:9-12).

It is sad but true, every sinner has miserably failed to honor God and produce a righteousness that would satisfy Him, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). However, this gives us all the more reason to rejoice and trust our Great Saviour, Surety that cannot fail (Heb.7:25). Although He met with fierce opposition (John 19:15) and had great difficulties to overcome (Heb. 4:15), He always went about doing the will and work of God with perfection and without fail (John 4:34; 5:36; 9:4).

This leads us to consider what work did He undertake as the Saviour and Surety of His covenant people, in which He did not fail? Think about these glorious things!

1). He did not fail; to fulfill every type, picture, prophecy and promise recorded in the Old Testament scriptures. "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me" (John 5:39; Luke 24: 25-27, 44-46). What God promised in the covenant of grace our Lord Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled (Rom.4:21; Heb. 13:20).

2). He did not fail; to honor, magnify and exalt the holy law of God for His covenant people, (Isa. 42:21). "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil" (Matt. 5:17). He established a perfect righteousness for His people and sovereignly and freely imputes it unto them (Rom. 4: 4-8; Isa.61:10).

3). He did not fail; to make complete and eternal atonement for the sin of His covenant people, "but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Heb. 2:17; 9:26). The Good Shepherd gave His life as the sacrifice for the sin of His sheep (John. 10:15; 1 Peter 3:18).

4). He shall not fail; to justify, redeem, sanctify, call and glorify all His covenant people. "Whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified" (Rom. 8:30).