Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast. How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.
Psalm 36:5-7
"GRACE and TRUTH came by Jesus Christ."
John 1:17
These two are inseparably joined together. We cannot have grace without truth nor THE TRUTH without grace. "Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom.5:21). The grace which saves sinners is not moral weakness nor a sentimental gesture, but the grace which saves sinners is grace which is (in Christ) established on the principle of AN HONORED LAW AND SATISFIED JUSTICE! (Rom. 3:23-26.)
Grace does not ignore the truth of God's law and justice, nor does grace set aside their demands. Grace establishes the law and glorifies God's justice. The law manifests what is in us--sin! Grace and truth manifest what is in God--love! The law demands righteousness from us. Grace and truth bring righteousness to us. The law sentences us to death. Grace and truth bring life to dead men. The law speaks of what we must do. Grace and truth tell what Christ has done.
Pastor Henry T. Mahan (bulletin 1994)
True Faith Never Quits! Job 17:9
The Word of God clearly teaches the perseverance of the saints. “The righteous also shall hold on his way!” Those who are born of God must and shall persevere. They will continue in the faith of Christ. We both believe and keep on believing. The true believer begins in faith, lives in faith, and dies in faith. True faith never quits (John 8:31; Colossians 1:23; Hebrews 3:6).
The Word of God is very clear in this matter. Only those who continue in the faith shall enter into glory. This is the doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints. Those who forsake Christ never knew Christ. Those who depart from the gospel never knew the gospel. Those who fall from the doctrine of grace never had a true experience of grace. Those who fall away were never truly in the Way. All true believers shall persevere in grace to the end.
Perseverance requires diligence and effort on our part. But the cause of our perseverance is God’s grace. It is the grace of God working in us which causes us to persevere with diligence. We must hold on to Christ. But it is Christ’s holding us that causes us to hold him, not the other way around.
Pastor Don Fortner
CHRIST IS ALL AND IN ALL
Colossians 3:11
There is only one thing that matters in our temporal life on this earth, and that one thing is a Person - Christ Jesus our Lord. In the end, everything that we have accomplished will turn out to be emptiness, and everything that we have accumulated will vanish away. But to leave this world holding on to Christ Himself, is to leave this world holding on to the fullness of eternity. In that day, everything will be nothing, and Christ will be ALL! Lord, teach us to cling to the one thing needful.
Pastor Gabe Stalnaker
THE GOODNESS AND SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD Exodus 33:18-19
Moses, the servant of God, made a very bold request before Almighty God, "I beseech thee, shew me thy glory." God, in granting this request makes this amazing and glorious statement, "I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy." Many people in our day only talk about the goodness of God, but never make mention that God is sovereign. Many others only talk of His sovereignty and fail to mention that God delights to show mercy (Psa. 130:7).
Our real aim is to show how God can be just and justify the guilty in Christ Jesus (Rom. 3:26), how God can be a just God and Saviour (Isa.45.21). God is not revealed only by one attribute, but by all His attributes (Psalm 85: 10). Notice, in this text you have the GOODNESS and the SOVEREIGNTY of our God declared, when you put the two together you see the glory of God. God is good and that same God is sovereign. God is not gracious alone, He is sovereignly gracious. He is not sovereign alone, but He is graciously sovereign.
Therefore, let us not be timid in declaring all that the scriptures declare about our Lord (Acts 20:27). We see his GOODNESS AND SOVEREIGNTY declared in creation (Col. 1: 16); in providence (Rom. 8: 28), and most certainly in salvation (John 17:2). Where better do we see the GOODNESS AND SOVEREIGNTY displayed but in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. God so loved that He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16), that's His goodness. He loved us, not because of something loveable in us, but because of something loving about Him (Hosea 14:4). While God's goodness is His glory, the very glory of His goodness is His sovereignty. "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor.4: 6). May our sovereign King be pleased to grant this request unto us. Oh, for a glimpse of His glory as it brilliantly shines in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, put us in the cleft of the smitten Rock that we may see and rejoice in your glory and not be consumed (Exodus 33:20-23).
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