SAFE IN CHRIST MY LORD TUNE: “MY FAITH HAS FOUND” CM/DOUBLE WORDS BY JIM BYRD
Where shall my sinful, wretched soul, A beauty ever find? The Lord commands that I must have, One of a perfect kind. No work could take away my sin, No tear could wash my shame; No earthly pow’r could cleanse my guilt, Or take away my blame.
The righteousness of Christ alone, Must clothe my guilty soul; His blood which washes sin away, Must cleanse and make me whole. So to the Savior I will flee, No merits will I bring; I trust His blood and righteousness, And of His glories sing.
Robed in the Savior’s purity, His blood, my only plea; Clothed in His perfect righteousness, I am as pure as He! Dressed in His holy comeliness, From sin and guilt set free; My soul is safe, secure in Him, Now and eternally. ________________________________________________________________________
“ Ascribe ye strength unto God: His excellency is over Israel, and His strength is in the clouds. O God, Thou art terrible out of Thy holy places: the God of Israel is He that giveth strength and power unto His people. Blessed be God” (Psalm 68:34-35). ________________________________________________________________________
ALL CHRIST, OR NO CHRIST AT ALL!
Do you think that you are to get onto the scale, with your beautiful righteousness, and that you are to be accounted somebody of great importance, and that Christ is to do the little that you cannot do; that it is to be “Christ and company,” or rather, “Self and Company,” and that you are to be the head of the firm, and Christ to be a kind of sleeping partner? He will not do it; it would be a disgrace to Christ to yoke you with Him in such a fashion. You might as soon yoke a gnat with an archangel as think of your going in to help Christ to save you. To join a filthy rag from off a dunghill with the golden garments of the King cannot be permitted. Christ will be everything, or else He will be nothing; you must be saved wholly by mercy, or else not at all. There must not be even a trace of the fingers of self-righteousness upon the acts and documents of divine grace. It must be all of grace; “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work” (Romans 11:6). There can be no more mingling of the two together as the ground of hope than oil will mix with water, or fire will burn beneath the sea. You cannot be saved by your own merits. –C. H. Spurgeon ________________________________________________________________________
THE FOUR STRENGTHS OF HUMAN NATURE
The gospel of God’s redeeming grace to unworthy sinners through the person and work of Christ is the most glorious message that was ever proclaimed. Think of it: salvation accomplished by Christ and His “obedience unto death, even the death of the cross.” Yet, because God saves sinners solely on the basis of grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, the gospel is offensive to the natural man. There are four strengths of our sinful nature which cause rebellion against the message of sovereign grace.
1. IGNORANCE. Mankind is ignorant of that righteousness which God demands and ignorant of the true source of righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ. Like the Jews of Paul’s day, all men go about to establish a righteousness of their own and refuse to submit to the righteousness of Christ Jesus (read Romans 10:1-4).
2. PRIDE. Every sinner thinks more highly of himself than he ought to think and believes he must make some contribution to his own salvation. Human nature will not bow to the plain declaration of God’s Word which declares universal guilt and salvation by grace alone. Man is too proud to acknowledge “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6).
3. UNCONCERN. Hear the vital questions of Job 25:4. “How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?” Sadly, none by nature are asking those questions or seeking to find the answers. Men and women are unconcerned about the just requirements of God. No one stops [until God stops them] to think about how the thrice holy God could accept a fallen sinner without compromising His holy character? None pause to seriously consider that Christ died in order that God be “a just God and a Savior.”
4. UNBELIEF. “And ye will not come to me that ye might have life” (John 5:40). Everlasting salvation is only to be found in the blessed Savior and yet such is the depravity of man that, apart from the effectual work of the Holy Spirit, men will refuse to believe upon the only One who saves sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ First Baptist Church
881 Van Dyke Road, P.O. Box 155, Almont, Michigan 48003
810-798-8888
Jim Byrd, Pastor Sunday Schedule:
8:30 a.m. Television Broadcast over Cable Channel 97
in Almont, Imlay City and Dryden
9:45 a.m. Bible Classes
10:30 a.m. WORSHIP SERVICE
Wednesday: 7 p.m. Bible Study and Youth Groups
Pastor Byrd’s messages are accessible on www.freegraceradio.com,
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