Jeremiah 51:10

Friend of Sinners
Words by Jim Byrd

Tune to Come Thou Fount (N. Johnson)

1. How can God so just and holy,
Save my wretched, guilty soul?
I am vile and so unworthy,
Can this sinner be made whole?
How unrighteous and polluted,
How ungodly and undone!
None can help me, but the Savior,
Jesus Christ the Father's Son.

2. Jesus is the Friend of sinners,
I will praise His holy Name;
By His sacrifice I'm righteous,
Freed from every guilt and stain.
Though my sins be all as scarlet,
They are now as white as snow;
For the Savior paid my sin-debt,
By His bloody, crimson flow.

3. Sacrifice of God's appointing,
He for me the ransom paid;
Now there is no condemnation,
Satisfaction Jesus made.
Resting only in His merits,
Safe in Him my Lord and Friend;
Soon I shall depart to see Him,
And to praise Him without end.

The Eternity of God!
Try, for a moment, to conceive of a Being without a beginning - a Being who does not become older as ages roll away. Fly back in imagination, millions of millions of millions of years, until reason is confounded and imagination is wearied in the flight. God then existed, and, what may at first appear paradoxical, He had then existed as long as He has now; you would then be no nearer the beginning of His existence than you are now, for it has no beginning, and you cannot approach to that which does not exist. Nor will His being ever come to an end.
Add together ages of ages; multiply them by the leaves on the trees, the sand on the sea-shore, and the dust of the earth - still you will be no nearer the termination of Jehovah's existence, than when you first began your calculation. --Edward Payson

What Debtors We Are to Grace!
It is a very narrow way to heaven, and none can be rightly in the path except by God's grace. Nor can they keep there, except by grace. What debtors we are to grace!
God has been a kind and good God to me, in various ways, for more than sixty-one years. How little gratitude for such great blessings in upholding, keeping and preserving us to the present moment!
If we know that it is a mercy to be out of hell, we have no room for boasting. What a precious Savior Christ is to those who really need Him! --William Tiptaft

The Real Issue
The pulpit's real issue is this: Christ, and Him crucified. Men, whose eyes are fixed on Christ, do not argue. They do not love controversy whose hearts are touched with Him. They do not look for issues and sticky theological problems who are busy knowing and showing Christ. Those whose interest is singularly Christ have little difficulty settling all matters and quickly in His Word. The problem they see is sinners, lost and hell-bound; and the only answer they see is Christ. --Henry Mahan

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Faith a Work of God
My faith is not a part of the righteousness in which I am justified any more than my mouth is a part of the food which sustains my body. Faith is God's gift (Eph. 2:8). It is the fruit of the Spirit in me, whereby I see, feed upon, and glory in Christ as He is revealed to me and in me. Faith is not a work performed by us in order to be justified; but it is a work of God in us by which we apprehend and glory in our justification. --Thomas Bradbury