MADE WILLING
The Lord Jesus Christ is both able and willing to save every sinner who comes to Him in faith. The problem is that by nature no man, woman, boy, or girl is willing to come to Christ for salvation. “Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” (John 5:40) The only way that sinners will be saved is through the miraculous, saving power of God making them willing to come to Christ and be saved on God’s terms. (Psalm 110:3) Men are dead so they don’t feel any need of Christ. We need God to give us life by His power. Men are blind so they don’t see their need of Christ. We need God to give us eyes to see Christ. Men have minds that are enmity against God. We need God, in His power, to give us a new mind that knows God and a new heart that loves God. Men by nature stubbornly refuse to come to Christ begging for mercy. We need God to draw us to Christ by His irresistible power. Unless God moves in His power we will perish in the weakness and sinfulness of the flesh.
Pastor
Election having once pitched upon a man, it will find him out and call him home, wherever he be. It called Zacchaeus out of accursed Jericho; Abraham out of idolatrous Ur of the Chaldees; Nicodemus and Paul, from the College of the Pharisees, Christ’s sworn enemies, Dionysius and Damaris, out of superstitious Athens. In whatsoever dunghills God’s elect are hid, election will find them out and bring them home.
John Arrowsmith
ARE YOU HOPELESS?
“That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.” Ephesians 2:12
What a tragic thing it is to be “hopeless!” To be in a “hopeless” financial situation, to have a “hopeless health condition, is more than most can bear. However, few ever give thought to the fact that by nature, every man and women born of Adam is HOPELESS in the matter of redemption.
To be “hopeless,” means to have no expectation of success. It means to be “incapable” of accomplishment. It means to be “WITHOUT HOPE.” It means to have “NO HOPE.” The apostle Paul tells us very simply and directly that to be “without Christ,” is to be both “without hope” and “without God,” in this world. To be without the Lord Jesus, Who is God, is to be an “ALIEN” from the citizenship of God’s kingdom of spiritual Israel. To be without Jesus Christ is to be a “STRANGER” from the covenants of God’s promises that are found only in Him. Knowing these things, why would anyone desire to be “WITHOUT” Jesus Christ?
Jesus Christ is my only hope! Paul gives the believer great hope in what he writes next. “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:13) Christ is the only hope of us ever being reconciled to God. In Him we go from being an alien to a heavenly citizen. In Him we go from being a stranger to being a son and/or a daughter. (Colossians 1:27) Dear sinner, know for certain that Jesus Christ in you is the “hope of glory.”
Pastor David Eddmenson
Perfect, complete, without blemish, holy, blameless, spotless; these are just a few of the words the Scriptures use to describe Gods saints. We do not feel that we are any of these things in ourselves, but this is what God says about us. Do we believe what we see in ourselves or what God says about us? God describes us with these glorious words because of what our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished for us by His holy sinless life and His sacrificial death for us on the cross. God’s word describes us as what we are in Christ. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.
Pastor Don Bell