1. Praise the blessed Name of Jesus, Prophet, Priest and reigning King; Bow before the mighty Sovereign, Unto Him our praises bring. Hallelujah, He’s our Savior, Let our thanks to Him ascend; Trust Him only for salvation, Jesus Christ the sinner’s Friend.
2. Praise the blessed Name of Jesus, Who upon Mount Calvary; Shed His blood to save His people, Died to set the captives free. Let the ransomed sing His praises, Till we see Him face to face; Then throughout the endless ages, Praise Him for His love and grace.
Today’s Speaker: Brother Randy Wages will conduct the 11:00 am service today. Pray for him as he delivers God’s word.
Lords Table: We will serve the Lord’s Table next Sunday, Dec. 29th.
Television Broadcast: Our Reign of Grace Television program is being broadcast every Sunday morning on WALB-TV @ 9 AM.
Radio Broadcast: Sunday morning at 10:30 am on Mix 107.7 FM
“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ” (Galatians 1:6-7). Those who want to know the difference between the true gospel and “another gospel,” that is, a false gospel, need only ask, upon whom does salvation depend? A false gospel always makes salvation dependent upon the sinner’s will or work. There may be talk about the love, kindness and grace of the Father, the life, death and resurrection of the Son and the conviction, call and work of the Spirit, but when acceptance before God is in any way conditioned upon something a sinner must do or contribute, that is a false gospel. A false gospel essentially makes man his own savior for it declares that salvation hinges upon the decision of the sinner.
The true gospel says salvation rests entirely upon the Lord. This is the glad tidings of God’s purpose of grace, the good news of what God in Christ has already accomplished for the people He sovereignly gave to the Son in eternal, covenant love. It declares their ransom price has been paid, justice has been satisfied, their transgressions have been finished, their sins have been put away, reconciliation has been made and everlasting righteousness has been brought in. The Father chose a multitude unto salvation before the world was made. Though they fell in Adam’s transgression, the Son reconciled the elect to the Father by His work of redemption. At some point, the Holy Spirit will confront these chosen, redeemed sinners with the true gospel. They will be born from above, granted repentance from dead works and idols and given faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They will grow in grace, in the knowledge of Christ and be preserved in faith until the day of their death when their souls shall exit this world to be with the Lord forever. Someday their bodies will be raised to immortality and incorruption. “Salvation is of the LORD” (Jonah 2:9).
--- Pastor Jim Byrd
excerpts from “To My Friends – Strait Talk about Eternity”
(The Sin that Deceives Us)
To be clear, this sin that deceives all by nature is the sin of self-righteousness. It is the sin of thinking that anything other than or in addition to the perfect righteousness rendered by Christ will merit any part of my salvation. To be delivered from this deception is to be convinced of sin, righteousness, and judgment. This sin is deceptive in that it lulls us into thinking we’re okay – that our eternal future is secure while, in fact, we are banking on something which falls disastrously short of meeting God’s requirement. The discovery of this certainly turned my world upside down. The very things that I naturally concluded would please God, gain His favor, and remove His wrath – I now know to be the height of evil and an assault on the honor of God. The medicine I erroneously thought constituted a cure for my condition actually was symptomatic evidence of the disease itself. As the Scriptures set forth, that which seems good, which the majority of the religious world highly esteems, is actually evil, an abomination before God when held up to the light of His standard of righteousness.
Until this sin was exposed, it was evidence that the Spirit of God had not yet done a work of grace in my heart. Consider that I was oblivious to how I might be saved based solely upon the righteousness of Christ. By default, if one does not plead and possess a righteousness that they had no part in producing, then they are depending upon something that proceeds from them personally, at least to some degree. Under these circumstances, they are deceived into thinking that they are qualified and entitled for salvation based upon something that falls woefully short of God’s standard of perfect righteousness. Although I failed to recognize it as such for many years, I now see that I was blind (like most of my friends) to this deceptive sin – the sin of trying to establish a righteousness of my own – self-righteousness! Before you exclude yourself from this number, hear the good news: God saves self-righteous, otherwise hell deserving sinners, such as you and me.
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