Clay Curtis, Pastor 7 Birch Street Pennington, New Jersey, 08534 Phone: 615-513-4464 Email: clay@sovereign-grace.us
Oh for that child-like faith in the Redeemer Drew Dietz is pastor of Sovereign Grace Church in Jackson, Missouri. In Mark and the 9th chapter our Lord teaches his disciples by putting a child in His arms, perhaps because they were ‘disputing who should be the greatest'. What a tender way to instruct, what a marvelous method to bring all honor and glory to the Father (and this is what we must, nay desire to do ourselves), so what do children, young children teach us concerning the way of Grace.
They live in the present, day by day.
Only need simple pleasures to be happy.
Look forward in hope (they just want to be grown-up)
Not to pretentious
Faithful and obedient
Their affections are real and genuine
Not yet prejudiced by fear, hate or learning
Not ambitious to vain glory
Mostly quiet and of a peaceable disposition
Not envious of others success
Very easily reclaimed after a rebuke or correction.
Lord teach me as your child and let me continue to learn the way of Grace and Mercy which is found only in your Son and enabled by your Holy Spirit.
GOD STARTED IT, GOD WILL FINISH IT Philippians 1: 6: Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
This good work is twofold. It is in each believer individually and in us each collectively as the body of Christ.
First, the good work which God begins in every believer, individually, is regeneration, conversion, the forming of Christ in you. Through this work, God gives sinners our first apprehension of God's everlasting love for us. God makes known to us that he began this work when he blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Did God carry forth in time what he began in eternity? In the person and finished work of Christ we have redemption through his blood, [we have] the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. Yet, we had no idea that Christ had fully accomplished our redemption and put away our sins. Therefore what God started he carried on by making known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself. (Ephesians 1:3-9.) By this good work God the Father has made us fit to partake of the inheritance with the saints in light right now. (Col 1: 12.)Since, it pleased God that in Christ all fullness should dwell, when Christ is formed in us God makes known to us the riches of this glorious mystery called salvation and Christ in us becomes all our hope because we know we are born of his Spirit (Col 1:27; 1 Cor 2: 12.)The Lord says, "because I live, ye shall live also" (Jn 14:19.)
Secondly, this work which God has begun in us individually is the way in which Christ brings each believer together collectively into his body and uses us to bear witness of him as he calls out others whom he has redeemed (Eph 4: 4-16.) Therefore Paul assures us that whether we are in bonds or free, whether we are defending the gospel before those who hate Christ or confirming the gospel to our brethren, it is God who began this good work in you. He did it by the free and sovereign grace which you and I both are partakers of. Therefore he shall continue it by the same grace.That is what Paul says in verse 7: Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace. God will do this work in us through much tribulation so that by experience he grows us, Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1: 6.)