"Tis not that I did choose Thee, For, Lord, that could not be; This heart would still refuse Thee, But Thou hast chosen me. Thou from the sin that stained me Washed me and set me free, And to this end ordained me, That I should live for Thee.
"Twas sovereign mercy called me And taught my op'ning mind; The world had else enthralled me, To heav'nly glories blind My heart owns none above Thee; For Thy rich grace I thirst; This knowing, if I love Thee, Thou must have loved me first.
(Tune: "The Church's One Foundation," p. 186)
~~~ O ~~~
Thy mercy, my God, is the theme of my song, The joy of my heart, and the boast of my tongue; Thy free grace alone, from the first to the last, Has won my affections, and bound my soul fast.
Law or Christ?
Occasionally I hear from someone, who wants to know what relationship believers have to the law, my reply is always the same. Believers are not under the law in any way, shape, form, or fashion. God's people are free from the law's curse, because "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us" (Gal.3: 13)
The law was not given to give life, or sanctification, but to reveal how sinful we really are. Can that which pronounces death give life? Can that which demands perfection give a man the ability to perform perfectly? "Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law"? (Gal.4: 21) Do you not hear it say, "by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God", or "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse" have you not heard it say, "Moreover the law entered that the offence might abound"? Thank God that Christ came to fulfill the law, render to it absolute perfect, full and final obedience, and in doing so satisfied Gods infinite justice on behalf of those who was under its curse having bore its curse for them. It demanded perfection, he gave it, it demanded death if you didn't keep it, He died for those whom He represented, NOW, "FOR CHRIST IS THE END OF THE LAW FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS TO EVERYONE THAT BELIEVETH" (Rom.10: 4)
"Free from the law, oh happy condition! Jesus hath bled and there is remission; cursed by the law and bruised by the fall, Christ hath redeemed us once for all"
- Pastor
~~~ O ~~~
By the law of Israel the right of redemption belonged to him that was next of blood (Lev. 25:25, Ruth 2:20). It was being made like his brethren that Christ acquired the human and legal title to pay the ransom price for His church.
- A. W. Pink
THE DOCTRINES OF GOD'S GRACE
You cannot vanquish a sovereign grace believer. You may think you can, but you cannot. The stones of the great doctrines of grace so fit into each other that the more pressure there is applied to remove them, the more strenuously do they adhere! And mark, my friend, that you cannot receive ONE of the doctrines of God's grace without believing ALL OF THEM! If you hold that man is utterly depraved, you must draw the conclusion that life and salvation must come from God alone and that our God has the right to give or withhold His mercy as He wills. And if no man will come to Christ unless God chooses and calls him, then you are forced to believe that God elects His people in Christ, the Lord Jesus justifies them by His blood, and through the sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth all of His elect will receive Christ, believe and love Him until God calls them to His glory. CHARLES SPURGEON once wrote, "Regarding the words of Romans 8:29-30, a man must receive the whole or reject the whole! It puts a strain on judgment and discernment to think that one may believe two or three of these points and not the rest. The doctrines of the fall, election, particular redemption, effectual call, and perseverance stand like soldiers in a square, presenting on every side a line of defense which is hazardous to attack and easy to maintain." "For whom He did predestinate, them He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified" (Rom. 8:30). -Copied
~~~ O ~~~
Oh, better were it for you to die in a jail, in a ditch, in a dungeon, than to die in your sins. If death, as it will take away all your comforts, would take away all your sins too, it were some mitigation; but your sins will follow you when your friends leave you, and all your worldly enjoyments shake hands with you. Your sins will not die with you as a prisoner's other debts will; but they will got to judgment with you there to be your accusers; and they will go to hell with you there to be your tormentors. - Joseph Alleine
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