MY ONLY HOPE AND PLEA TUNE: SWEET HOUR OF PRAYER LM/DOUBLE Words by JIM BYRD
1. No work of mine could save my soul, Or make my sinful spirit whole; To Thee O Christ I lift my cry, Lord save this sinner else I die. Who but the Lord could meet my need, And for the guilty intercede? This is my only hope and plea, Christ took my place on Calvary.
2. O Spirit quicken now my heart, And life divine to me impart; ‘Tis by Thy call, to Christ I look, Who all my sins and sorrows took. To me the Spirit has made known, That none can save but Christ alone; His blood can make the foulest clean, Upon Christ Jesus I will lean.
3. Unto the Savior I will flee, To save me for eternity; Now with my soul I know ‘tis well, And soon I shall with Jesus dwell. The glory, Lord, belongs to Thee, For by the blood of Calvary, My soul is saved and justified, And soon I shall be glorified.
"The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." (Acts 5:30-31)
DIVINE GUIDANCE "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14:3). By His successful work of reconciliation and redemption, our Savior has taken occupancy of everlasting glory for all of His people. In addition, He who has prepared a place for us by His substitutionary death, has also prepared the route to the place. The pathway of every believer may appear to us to lack any definite purpose, yet we are assured, "the steps of a good man are ordered (fixed, appointed) of the LORD" (Psalm 37:23). He who chose us and redeemed us is directing our way through this world and guiding us safely to our eternal home on the course He predetermined. He will soon come again and receive us unto Himself and then we will be with Him forever. –Pastor Jim Byrd
GOD’S EVERLASTING LOVE Christ did not die for sinners so that God would be merciful and love us. Rather, it was because the Lord was merciful and because He loved us that Christ was sent to save us from our sins. "God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10). God’s love for His people did not commence with the death of Christ; the death of Christ is the result of God’s everlasting love for His chosen people. –Pastor Jim Byrd
CHRIST SETS THE CAPTIVES FREE A wealthy and philanthropic individual visits a prison and approaches the dungeon in which a wretched captive lies bound with chains and fetters, and strongly secured within walls, and doors, and bars. He proclaims loud to the captive that he has brought gold sufficient for a ransom on condition that the captive will liberate himself from his chains, burst open his prison doors, and come forth. "Alas," exclaims the wretched man, "your kindness does not reach my case. Unless your gold can effect my deliverance, it can be of no service to me. The offer of it on such terms can do me no good."
Now, although there is a great difference between physical and spiritual inability, yet one serves to illustrate the other. Man by nature is as spiritually unable to believe in Christ as the prisoner is physically unable to break his chains and open the prison doors; so that all this boasted sufficiency of the atonement is only an empty offer of salvation on certain terms and conditions; and such an atonement is much too weak to meet the desperate case of a lost sinner.
But, how different is the salvation of God! "By the blood of Thy covenant, I have sent forth Thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water" (Zechariah 9:11). Jesus, by His death, hath paid the ransom and made the captives His own. Therefore, He has a legal right to their persons and with His own power He brings them forth. It is glorifying to His grace to bring out the prisoners from the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. "I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house" (Isaiah 42:6-7). –William Rushton (edited)
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