No evil could exist in God’s universe were it not his determination to use the evil to accomplish some greater good than could be accomplished without the evil.
Your Darling Son We Crucified — Don Fortner (Tune: #118 — When I Survey — LM)
1. O God, our God, we here confess Our guilt, and sin, and wretchedness: Your darling Son we crucified, Nailed to the tree and pierced His side!
2. Oh, make the blood our hands have spilt Now purge our consciences from guilt! Spirit of God, sprinkle each heart, And life, eternal life impart!
3. Forever more we’ll give all praise To God, the triune God of grace! We’ll tell to sinners near and far How great Your love and mercy are!
Infinite Satisfaction
Sin requires an atonement of infinite worth because sin is an infinitely evil thing. It is committed against God, the infinite good. It offends infinite majesty. It is the contempt of infinite justice. It is a reproach of infinite glory. And it is the enemy of infinite holiness. Every sin properly demands infinite satisfaction. That satisfaction can be found only in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s own dear Son. Hell is and must be a place of everlasting torment, because should all the world suffer the wrath of God in hell, satisfaction could not be made for one sin. But our all-glorious Christ has by his one sacrifice for sin put away all the sins of those for whom he died upon the cursed tree!
What do you believe?
“We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak.” (2 Corinthians 4:13)
Like you, I am often asked “What do you believe?” While I subscribe to no creed written by men, I am not personally (and we are not as a local Church) bashful about declaring publicly and dogmatically that which I believe.
The Word of God — I believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the inspired, infallible and inerrant Word of God. As such, the Bible alone is the believer’s rule of faith and practice (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
The Trinity — I believe the Triune God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) to be the one living and true God, sovereign in his purpose, in creation, in providence, in redemption and in grace (1 John 5:7; Romans 11:33-36).
The Lord Jesus Christ — I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ: his eternal sonship, absolute and eternal Deity, and true and sinless humanity, his virgin birth, substitutionary death, burial and resurrection, his ascension into heaven and his second coming in power and glory as the one Mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2:5; 1 John 5:1-14).
The Holy Spirit — I believe in God the Holy Spirit, by whom chosen, redeemed sinners are born again, given faith in Christ and preserved in grace (John 6:63).
The Fall of Man — I believe that all mankind fell in Adam’s transgression and are totally depraved, spiritually dead, and thus without ability of any kind to help themselves toward God (Romans 5:12).
Unconditional Election — I believe in the personal and unconditional election in Christ of a multitude, which no man can number, unto everlasting salvation, an election of pure, free grace and love, without any foresight of faith or good works in men, an election made before the foundation of the world, by which all the blessings of grace and salvation were bestowed upon and made sure to all the chosen for the glory of God (Ephesians 1:3-5).
Particular Redemption — I believe in limited atonement; that is to say, the personal, particular and eternal redemption of God’s elect from all sin by the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the Son of God actually put away the sins of his people by the sacrifice of himself and effectually obtained their eternal redemption with his own blood (2 Corinthians 5:20-21; Galatians 3:13-14).
Effectual Calling — I believe that every sinner chosen from eternity by God the Father and redeemed at Calvary by God the Son shall be effectually called to life and faith in Christ by the irresistible grace and omnipotent mercy of God the Holy Spirit (John 6:37-40; Acts 2:39).
Final Perseverance — I believe that every sinner saved by grace shall persevere in the state of grace and shall never perish, being kept and preserved by the God of all grace (Ecclesiastes 3:14).
“I only am escaped alone to tell thee.”
(Job 1:19)
There are many ways in which my own experience of God’s grace and his good providence compel me to adopt the language used by Job’s messenger as my own.
Looking back to the day of my birth, had not the Lord God preserved me from my mother’s womb, I would have surely perished. Many did in those days. But he who formed me in the belly loved me. Before I came forth from my mother’s womb, he sanctified me and ordained me as his messenger to you (Jeremiah 1:5). — “And I only am escaped alone to tell thee.”
My childhood, like yours, was filled with perils and dangers, in which multitudes dropped all around me. Many with whom I attended school are in hell today, others are in prison; and I would certainly have been in one or the other, had it not been for the fact that God spared me. He preserved me by his boundless, free grace and distinguishing mercy. — “And I only am escaped alone to tell thee.”
When, as a youth I lived at the edge of hell, playing with death, with my fists clinched, shaking them in my ever-gracious God’s face, courting his wrath every day, flirting with hell every night, the only reason I did not perish in the way I chose is the fact that I was “preserved for Jesus Christ” from eternity (Jude 1). Nothing else can satisfactorily explain why my actions did not result in my death. — “And I only am escaped alone to tell thee.”
Oh the wonders of God’s distinguishing love toward me as the highly favored object of his mercy, by which he hedged me about and kept me (Hosea 1:6), when I had no awareness of his love for me, when I was utterly unconscious of the fact that he was watching over me and performing all things for me (Psalm 57:2), preserving me unto the day that he would call me by his grace! Hawker asked with astonishment, “Who shall count the sum of distinguishing mercy, in preserving and upholding providences, during the whole of an unconverted state?”— “And I only am escaped alone to tell thee.”
Then, after he called me by his grace, giving me life and faith, salvation and forgiveness in Christ, how magnificently he has continued to uphold and preserve me from all evil, sparing my life in the midst of one sickness and then another! Why has he spared me? Why do I still reside in this tabernacle? I am convinced that there is no other reason but this: — “And I only am escaped alone to tell thee.”
All around me I see multitudes dying and dead in trespasses and sins, unawakened, unconcerned, unregenerated. I understand, (O Spirit of God remind me constantly!), that I have been spared, that I live to “declare the works of the Lord” (Psalm 118:17). — “And I only am escaped alone to tell thee.” God give me grace to proclaim with earnestness the glorious gospel of his dear Son. To tell all who can be reached by my voice, and pen, and influence of the wonders of redeeming love. — “Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul” (Psalms 66:16). — “And I only am escaped alone to tell thee.”
29th Annual Sovereign Grace Bible Conference
Dear Friends,
The Lord willing, Grace Baptist Church of Danville, Danville, Kentucky will host our 29th Annual Sovereign Grace Bible Conference on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, August 29 - 31, 2008. We want you to attend.
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