OUR RULE OF LIFE

Many religious people claim to believe a sinner is saved by grace but then they also claim that the believer must still strive to keep the law. They say, “How else will you control people?” One big concern is giving. False religion keeps people under the law of the tithe because they know stingy, selfish people will never give 10% unless they are forced to by the law.

The answer is very simple. What saith the scripture? “Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.” (I Tim. 1:9-10) The law is given for the lawless and the disobedient not a believer. The law threatens the disobedient but does not make them obedient. The gospel is given to the believer who has been made a new creature in Christ. A believer is not controlled or motivated by the law. A believer is controlled by love for Christ. A believer will be faithful in worship, loving in attitude, and generous in giving out of a thankful spirit because God has been merciful.

Pastor

I believe many things recorded in Scripture not because I can explain their rationale, but because I know that God cannot lie.

Arthur Pink

Jesus Christ and Him Crucified

“For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (1 Cor. 2:2)

There is only one message to preach and to hear because there is only one message in all of the scripture - “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” Every page, every story, every commandment, every word speaks of “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” What is the only remedy for sin? “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” What is the only hope of standing before the throne of God justified and accepted? “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” What is the only message of comfort and rest? “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” What message breaks a hard heart? And what message binds the broken heart again? “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” What message instructs, and motivates the heart of a sinner to obedience? “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” What message produces true love, unity, and forgiveness among brethren? “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” Just preach “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” and husbands will love their wives “as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it” (Eph. 5:25); wives will submit to the leadership and direction of their “loving” husbands; and children will “obey (their) parents in the Lord”, as Christ submitted and obeyed to the loving will of His Father. Everything that a child of God needs for growth in grace, and growth into the image of his Lord is produced through the preaching of “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” Christ is ALL! All we preach, all we hear, all we believe, all we have! By God’s grace, all of His people say with Paul: “We are determined to know nothing among us, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”

Pastor Gabe Stalnaker

Our sorrow over sin and our grief over spiritual defilement will not spare us from judgment. When God draws His sword in vengeance there is only one thing that will stop Him from wielding it - the sight of shed blood. One cannot kill a person who is already dead, and the blood of Christ, our substitute testifies that we are dead with Him.

The tearful eye and the sobbing heart cannot turn back a vengeful God. It is not the shedding of tears that brings forgiveness, but the shedding of blood. He will not spare us even though, like Esau, we wail with desperate sorrow over our foolishness. God will kill without compassion or pity all who are not under the blood of Christ.