THE SHEPHERD AND HIS SHEEP Tune to "This Is My Father’s World" SM/DOUBLE Words by Jim Byrd
1. I was a poor, lost sheep, I wandered from the fold; A rebel to the Lord of hosts, My heart was hard and cold. But God in cov’nant love, Before time had begun; Ordained that I would be His child, And chose me in His Son.
2. The Father sent my Lord, To save this wayward lamb; In love He came to rescue me, Saved by His death I am. Behold God’s Sacrifice; He gave His life for me; His blood poured out for all my sin, Saves for eternity.
3. The time of love arrived, The Shepherd sought His sheep; He brought me to believe His Name, And o’er my sin to weep. This sheep no longer roams, By Christ I have been found; And now the gospel of His grace, Is such a precious sound.
Today’s Speaker: Brother Jim Casey will conduct the 11:00 am service today. Pray for him as he delivers God’s word.
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
Salvation in Christ: The Word of God doth nowhere teach us that we are accepted or saved for our sincerity or anything that is within our power to do; yet we acknowledge that sincerity is found in all believers, and that it is an evidence of their interest in the Covenant of Grace, but not the condition thereof. As I said before, so I say now again, that heaven did never intend upon any consideration whatsoever to confer everlasting salvation upon sinners for their performances, since all that our God and Father gives is purely upon the Redeemer’s account; so that, now in this way all boasting is excluded, for the Law of faith admits of none, {Rom.3:27,} unless it be in the Lord Jesus Christ; because everyone that glories must glory in the Lord; {I Cor.1:31;} and truly gracious souls can make their boast in the Lord, as the psalmist saith, “My soul shall make her boast in the LORD; the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.” {Ps.34:2} - Thus, the believer sees, that his whole salvation lies entirely in Christ Jesus, and that all the blessings thereof are handed forth, without money and without price. This indeed is wonderfully sweet unto him, because he seeth that he hath nothing to buy with, and that grace is free to the worst and vilest of sinners; and, though once he came to Christ with his duties, prayers, and tears, expecting to have an interest in his Righteousness for them, he now breaks out in language quite different from his former apprehensions.
--- Samuel Stockell {Redeemer’s Glory Unveiled, 1733}
Righteousness of Christ: The Righteousness of Christ is the only dress of a sinner, who is made to see his nakedness, and that he hath not so much as a rag to wrap around his naked soul. This is the man that knows how to prize the Redeemer and value his Righteousness; because, being clothed with it, he shines with a spotless beauty before the eyes of infinite Justice and Holiness. Now, if our own righteousness was a sufficient covering, and could shelter us from the wrath of God, then, it will follow, that Christ came into our world upon a very trifling and insignificant errand; which is such a reflection upon the Wisdom and Power of God, that it can never be admitted as a truth. Nay, to no purpose did Christ work out this glorious Robe, if our own covering will hide our nakedness. If life may be had, in whole, or in part, by the Law, it follows, that Christ died in vain; and to all those who seek happiness by their own legality, Christ is become of no effect; {Gal.5:4;} for, living and dying in such a condition, they might as well have been born Turks, and brought up Pagans, in the height of enmity against the Lord Jesus Christ, because they should then have had as much benefit by the Redeemer, as, whilst they retain their legal principles.
--- Samuel Stockell {Redeemer’s Glory Unveiled, 1733}
THE DOCTRINE OF PREDETERMINATION
When I consider the absolute independency of God, and the necessary total dependence of all created things on Him, their first cause, I cannot help standing astonished at the pride of impotent, degenerate man, who is so prone to consider himself as a being possessed of sovereign freedom, and invested with a power of self-salvation, able, he imagines, to counteract the designs even of infinite wisdom, and to defeat the agency of Omnipotence itself. "Ye shall be as gods," said the tempter to Eve in paradise; and "ye are as gods" says the same tempter to her apostate sons. One would be apt to think that a suggestion so demonstrably false and flattering, a suggestion the very reverse of what we feel to be our state, a suggestion alike contrary to Scripture and reason, to fact and experience, could never meet with the smallest degree of credit. And yet, because it so exactly coincides with the natural haughtiness of the human heart, men not only admit, but even relish the deception, and fondly incline to believe that the father of lies does, in this instance at least, speak truth. The Scripture doctrine of predetermination lays the axe to the very root of this potent delusion. It assures us that all things are of God; that all our times and all events are in His hand.
--- Augustus Toplady - (1740-1778)
GOD’S HUMBLING GRACE IN CHRIST
For any who are under the false illusion that they are somehow growing in perfection and holiness, consider carefully the following excerpt taken from a letter by John Newton (preacher and author of the hymn, “Amazing Grace”) to a friend, written on Nov. 23, 1774. “I have no idea of any permanent state in this life, that shall make my experience cease to be a state of warfare and humiliation. At my first setting out, indeed, I thought to be better, and to feel myself better, from year to year. I expected, by degrees, to attain everything that I then comprised in my idea of a saint. I thought my grain of grace, by much diligence and careful improvement, would, in time, amount to a pound. That pound, in a farther space of time, to a talent, and then I hoped to increase from one talent to many, so that supposing the Lord should spare me a competent number of years, I pleased myself with the thoughts of dying rich. But, alas! These golden expectations have been like South Sea dreams. I have lived hitherto a poor sinner, and I believe I shall die one. Have I then gained nothing by waiting upon the Lord? Yes, I have gained that which proofs of the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of my heart, as I hope, by the Lord’s blessing, have, in some measure, taught me to know what I mean, when I say, ‘Behold, I am vile!’ In connection with this, I have gained such experience of the wisdom, power, and compassion of my Redeemer, the need, the worth of His blood, righteousness, ascension, and intercession, the glory that He displays in pardoning iniquity and sin, and passing by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage, that my soul cannot but cry out, “Who is a God like unto Thee?’”
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