"He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered." (Proverbs 28:26) *************************************************************************** CHRIST SUFFERED AT THE FATHER’S HAND Tune to "FROM EVERY STORMY WIND" LM Words by JIM BYRD
1. Behold the Lamb of Calvary, Laid down His life by God’s decree; His death upon the cruel cross, Has saved my soul from endless loss.
2. He suffered in His people’s stead, For His own church the Savior bled; "‘Tis finished," Christ the Victor cried, And all the law was satisfied.
3. What more can justice e’er demand, Christ suffered at the Father’s hand; He was the perfect sacrifice, Who paid for us the ransom price.
4. Jesus my Lord has died for me, From sin the Savior set me free; I need no sacrifice beside, I am forever justified. *************************************************************************** CONGREGATIONAL SCRIPTURE READINGS TODAY: MORNING: REVELATION 10 EVENING: LUKE 16:13-31
*************************************************************************** I realize that faith is evidenced by works, but even if we could perform miracles like the prophets and apostles, yet we must not trust our labors but be content to be accepted, saved, and justified solely upon the basis of the sin-cleansing blood and imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. –Pastor Jim Byrd ***************************************************************************
SUFFICIENT GRACE
"My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). In the case of a tried believer, the rest that Jesus gives does not always imply the removal of the burden from whence this sense of weariness proceeds. The burden is permitted to remain, and yet rest is experienced. Yea, it would appear from His procedure that the very existence of the burden is essential to the experience of the rest. He withdraws not the trouble from us, nor us from the trouble; and still the repose we sighed for is given. Wonderful indeed! But how is it explained? That burden takes us to Jesus. It is but the cause of our simply going to Him. But for that sorrow, calamity, sickness, or bereavement, we should have stayed away. The pressure compelled us to go. And how does He meet us? Does He open a way of escape from our difficulty, or does He immediately unbind our burden and set us free? Nay; better than this, He pours strength into our souls, life into our spirits, and love into our hearts, and so we find rest. Thus are fulfilled in our experience the precious promises, "As thy day, so shall thy strength be" (Deuteronomy 33:25). "My grace is sufficient for thee" (2 Corinthians 12:9).
The timing of the Lord’s promised grace is no small unfolding of His love, nor less an evidence of His complex person as God-Man. How could He so time His supply of strength as to meet the dilemma at its very crisis? Did not His Deity make Him cognizant of the critical juncture in which His people were placed? And let it be mentioned that this operation is going on in every place and at every moment. And how could He meet that dilemma and speak a word in season to the weary unless His humanity was touched with the feeling of the infirmity? It is by this process of experience that we are brought into close views of the glory of our incarnate God. When He speaks through the ministry of the Word, or by the Word itself, to the believer who is wearied with conflict and with trial, it has been just at the moment that its sustaining and consoling power was most needed. The eye that slumbers not nor sleeps was upon you. He knew in what furnace you were placed, and was there to temper the flame when it seemed the severest. He saw your frail bark (vessel) struggling through the tempest, and He came to your rescue at the height of the storm. How has He proved this in seasons of difficulty and doubt! How often at a crisis or the most critical of your history has the Lord appeared for you! Your want has been supplied, your doubt has been solved, and your perplexity has been guided; He has delivered your soul from death, your eyes from tears, and your feet from falling. A word by Jesus, spoken in due season – how good it is! –Octavius Winslow
"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14). Though the gospel answers the question, "how can God be just and justify the ungodly," yet the mere verbal declaration of the gospel to an unregenerated sinner will not produce a saving effect. The message must be accompanied by the Holy Spirit in life-giving power. No wonder the Savior declared, "Except a man be born again (from above) he cannot (has no power or ability) see (perceive, understand or discern) the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). –Pastor Jim Byrd
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