January 27, 2013
We will be partaking of the Lord's Supper this evening. If someone isn't fit to take the Lord's Supper they are not fit to die. Christ is the one who makes us fit. "All the fitness He requireth is to feel your need of Him".
From God's Point of View
I hear my Savior say,
"What's wrong with these, My sheep?
They're Mine eternally;
No sin for me to see."
They're hid in Jesus Christ;
Washed in His precious blood,
In God's Lamb before time,
The objects of His love.
The Glory of the Lord
Doth shine in them complete.
The Gospel of the Lord
Calls them with Him to meet.
They see themselves in sin;
Those, too, around them see.
Christ took their place for sin;
Made them righteous as He.
By Gary Spreacker
(Tune: “Jesus Paid It All”, using its chorus after each stanza)
Are You A Christian?
The majority of people, when first seeing this question immediately answer yes. Here is another question; "what does a Christian believe"? They all believe the same fundamental truths don't they? "They shall all be taught of God." (John 6:44-45)? There is one book (the Bible), One God, One Savior, One Way, One Faith, so Christians agree on ALL these blessed truths.
The Scriptures are the inerrant, infallible, verbally inspired word of God. Not only are they words about God, they are the very words of God. They are His means of revealing Himself and His will to mankind (II Tim. 3:16).
God is absolutely Sovereign! He works all things after the counsel of His own will. He actually rules over this world and the affairs of those in it. He does exactly as He pleases and when He pleases. (Eph. 1:11, Dan. 4:35)
Man is dead in trespasses and sins. He is spiritually dead towards God and his carnal mind is enmity against God. Man, in his dead state, has neither the power nor the will to come to God. He loves darkness rather than light. He must be born again and that by a sovereign, supernatural work of God (Eph. 2:11, Rom. 8:7-8).
God the Father chose a people in Christ, before the foundation of the world. He chose them not because of any worth or merit in them, or because of any foreseen act they would or would not commit. He elected them to salvation by grace through faith in Christ just because it pleased Him (Eph. 1:4-5, Rom. 8:29-30).
Jesus Christ, who was God manifested in the flesh, came into this world to save His people from their sin. Our Lord's life and death was for a particular people. All for whom He died shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of His hands (Matt. 1:21, John 10:15-29).
The Holy Spirit will effectually call to repentance and faith all for whom Christ died. In the day of His power His people shall be made willing. The Holy Spirit will reveal Christ to all of God's elect, by the gospel, and they will all in time believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (John 16:13-15, Ps. 110:3, I Thess. 1:5). Christians Do Not Believe they are saved because of any act of their freewill or decision they made but rather an act Of God's Freewill! The first principles taught us when God begins with us, that we have neither will nor power, but that he gives both; that he is "Alpha and Omega" in the salvation of men."
All who are God's elect, all for whom Christ died, all whom the Holy Spirit brings to repentance and faith, shall persevere in that faith unto death and will inherit an eternal enjoyment of the blessed Godhead (Heb. 10:39, I Pet. 1:5).
This is what Christians believe. This is what distinguishes us from all false gods and false hopes.
- Pastor
CHRIST THE OBJECT OF FAITH
“We do not find rest, hope, nor comfort in our faith but in Christ.” If you will give careful thought to that statement, it will be of great help to you. Faith is not a foundation, a refuge, nor a source of help. Faith is a means, a look, an empty hand. It is Christ Who is our refuge, Who protects from every storm. He is our rock on which we build. He is our source of every mercy and our only plea. My faith may be weak or weaker, but He cannot fail. If all my debts have been paid by my Surety, I don’t have to be ashamed to come before God. The praise and credit goes not to my boldness and faith but to my gracious Benefactor! I am not debt-free because I believe (though I do, and that faith united me to Him) but because He set me free and paid my debt. Christ is our confidence and our assurance. The moment I seek a reason for hope in anything I do, even in the blessed grace of faith, I forfeit any possibility of peace. “Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust” (Psalm 40:4). “When Isaiah saw His glory, he spake of Him” (John 12:41). When any man truly sees the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, then Christ becomes the message and object of faith. - Henry T. Mahan
The Law Brings to Christ; Christ Liberates from the Law
A certain teacher of the Law of Moses, taking offense at what I recently have taught you regarding it, has written: “The law sends us to Christ for justification; Christ sends us to the law for regulation.”
The first part of his statement is Scripturally true, but the second part of his statement is patently false. This we know because Paul the apostle has written: “the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor” (Galatians 3:24f). If the law has indeed served as a tutor to bring you to Christ, rejoice that you have graduated from the tutor to Christ, and that Christ has liberated you from the law, and that Christ will never send you away from Himself, and that you have no need to depart from Christ and return to your former master.
– Pastor Daniel E. Parks