LOOK ONLY TO CHRIST

Salvation is found in a look: a look of faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2). “And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life” (John 6:40).

Don’t look to your repentance of sin for evidence of salvation. Look to Christ who forgives sin! Don’t look to your faith. Look to Christ the only object of faith! Don’t look to your love for Christ. Look to Christ who loves His people enough to die for them! Don’t look to the preacher. Look to Christ whom He declares! Don’t look to signs and miracles and wonders! Look to Christ alone! If you believe that Christ is all it takes to save you, then you will look to Him and never look away.

Pastor Frank Tate

This is no Sham Salvation

The notion of the world is that salvation in Christ is an emotional dream; a lot of sentiment and feeling. But there is nothing dreamy about it. It is not fiction but fact upon fact. The Lord Jesus does not gloss over nor conceal the condition of those whom He came to save. He finds us guilty, condemned in the worst sense; and as our substitute, He endures the penalty for our sins and dies in our stead. He takes us as we are and deals with us as we are.

The Lord Jesus meets the law of God as it is; holy, unchangeable, and exact. He does not alter the law nor brand it as being too stern, too exacting, nor too holy. He is made under the law as it is and, in the flesh, He honored and obeyed the law in every jot and tittle.

Christ deals with us as we are, He deals with us as the law is, and He deals with us as God is; on the principles of pure righteousness and justice. If there is anything questionable or uncertain in the work that Christ has done to redeem us (either in honoring the law or satisfying God’s justice), it may fail us at last. But our foundation is SURE.

Christ is our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. He has taken away all sham, sentiment, and idle claims. We are absolutely complete in Him. A God who could save without righteousness may condemn without reason. A God who could waive His justice may waive His mercy.

Pastor Henry T. Mahan (bulletin 1985)

Satan is not God’s rival but his servant. He is God’s devil, bound by the long, strong chain of divine omnipotence, under the absolute dominion and control of our all-glorious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Pastor Don Fortner

Any belief we have that is not founded on “It is written” will prove to be error. Any position we hold that is not held up by a “Thus saith the Lord” is a wrong position. Any doctrine we promote that does not arise from “What saith the Scripture” is false. God has given us the written revelation of Himself, the Bible! Can I prove the Bible is God’s inspired Word? No. But it claims to be and I know it is. The Truth commends itself as the Truth. Only that which is less than the Truth needs proofs to hold it up. Pastor Todd Nibert

LIVES THAT BECOME THE GOSPEL

In Philippians 1:27, we are told to: “Only let our conversation (our daily walk of life) be as it becometh the gospel of Christ.” The gospel of Christ is a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything God has purposed to bestow on guilty sinners comes to them by way of Christ. All His covenant blessings, His affections, His determinant counsel, and all His power to redeem, justify, and sanctify believers is in the person of Christ. The only way to have the blessings and benefits of the gospel is to have the Son. To have the Son is to receive God’s testimony and witness of who He is. To receive that testimony required a work of regeneration in which faith and repentance is established in the heart. There are no such things as knowing grace apart from the experience of it. You cannot know grace and not be gracious. You cannot know love and be void of it. You cannot know mercy and not be merciful. It is to this experience of grace, in the heart, that Paul exhorts us to cultivate.

Adorn this gospel with exercises of the heart. Love one another, be kind, be generous, and look for opportunity to help. Paul told the Corinthians church that they were his letters of recommendation written on his heart and known and read by all men. A man’s attitude and spirit have as much to say about what he believes as his doctrine.

If this church is an open letter of what and who we preach, be careful how we write it. Our lives are testimonies of what we believe; therefore, it is of great consequence how we behave. While the natural man has no ability to discern spiritual matters he can understand generosity, kindness, humility, and a forgiving spirit.