MESSAGE – The Full Assurance of Faith – Heb. 10:19-25
CLOSING HYMN – Immortal, Invisible – p. 34
Birthdays: Timothy Pannell – Mar. 6th
Remember to set your clocks forward one hour this Saturday.
Remember our upcoming Bible Conference – March 20-22
Speakers will be pastors Gary Shepard and Richard Warmack
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THE REIGN OF GRACE
"That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 5:21). God's free love has found for itself a righteous channel along which it flows in all its fulness to the ungodly. For while all that the believing man receives, he receives from GRACE, yet it is no less true that all that he receives, he receives from RIGHTEOUSNESS, from the hand of a righteous God acting according to the claims of a righteousness which is absolutely and divinely perfect. Thus, (1) God is the Justifier, (2) Christ is the cause, and (3) righteousness is the instrument. —Horatius Bonar
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Only the true Gospel can expose this sin that causes us to seek to establish a righteousness of our own before God. The Bible clearly states that to be ignorant of the righteousness revealed in the Gospel means that, by default, we automatically are trying to establish a righteousness of our own (Rom. 10:1-3). Such attempts are the by-product of the view that salvation is conditioned (at least to some degree) on something that proceeds from the sinner. This is self-righteousness whether we recognize it or not. In salvation, the light of the Gospel exposes this sin to us so that we do recognize it and repent from it—from ever thinking that anything other than Christ’s righteousness imputed could remove God’s wrath or gain His favor. —Randy Wages
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“But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” (Romans 13:14)
To “put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ” is to believe and hold dogmatically that Christ and His righteousness imputed is the only ground of my whole salvation with no contribution from me as to gaining or maintaining any part of it. Compromising this principle is making provision for and fulfilling the lust of the flesh. If I think anything performed in or by my me adds to or detracts from my standing of perfection in Christ, I am fulfilling the natural desires of my flesh. —Winston Pannell
“WE HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST”
“But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:15-16).
How can it be said that we, sinners saved by grace, “have the mind of Christ”? When we read these words, it may at first astound us and may even bring us to despair if we do not understand what they mean. Does this mean that if I am saved that I no longer have sinful and impure thoughts like my sinless and perfect Savior? Does it mean that I no longer struggle with the sinful influences and contaminations of the flesh? If it does, then none of us are saved. If we are truly saved, we are saved totally and completely by God’s grace based solely upon the perfection of righteousness that can only be found in Christ. God has imputed His righteousness to us, and, while in this world, this is the only perfection we can claim before God and men.
What, then, does it mean that “we have the mind of Christ”? It means that “he that is spiritual” is a sinner saved by God’s grace in Christ and who has been born again by the Spirit. This means he has been given a new heart, new spiritual life and knowledge, and even a new mind that “judgeth all things.” Having been brought by the Spirit to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works, his standard of judgment in all things has been brought into conformity to Christ’s standard of judgment. He now sees and judges matters of salvation and a right relationship with God the way Christ Himself judges these things as revealed in His Word. His judgment now is by the Word of God and not by outward appearance (John 7:24; 16:8-11; 2 Cor. 5:14-17). He now sees that when it comes to the ground of salvation anything that falls short of the perfection of righteousness that can only be found in the glorious Person and finished work of Christ is sin. He now sees that Christ’s blood is his only assurance of forgiveness, that Christ’s righteousness imputed is his only assurance of justification before God. He now sees that he has nothing in which to glory “save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. 6:14). He now judges all things in salvation by this standard found in Christ. What he before called “good,” he now calls “evil” (Matt. 7:21-23; Luke 16:15). The things in which unregenerate people rejoice (1 Cor. 2:14), he has repented of and is now ashamed (Php. 3:7-9). And though, while in this world still having the presence of sinful flesh, he is now submitted to Christ and knows that Christ is His only righteousness before God (Rom. 10:4; Col. 3:11). —Pastor Bill Parker
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