Birthdays: Lisa McMillan – May 14th – Mason Flynn – May 16th
To enter the kingdom of God without a right would make us stand before Him as presumptuous intruders, called by Christ "thieves and robbers, who had climbed up some other way." To enter it with a title less perfect than the law requires would be exalting mercy at the expense of justice, and relaxing all the bonds of God's moral government. To enter it with a title based upon our own merits would be a public and bold denial of our guilt and ruin. But here is Jehovah's way. "The grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, has abounded unto many.""Those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." "By the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." "By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." "Our righteousness," says Calvin, "is not in ourselves but in Christ." -- William S. Plumer (1853)
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“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” (I Timothy 1:15)
This verse says that Christ came into the world to save sinners. He is not in this world now but is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Heb. 1:3). The salvation of sinners then must be in something He did while He was here! Something He did all by Himself! This is what He came to do and this is what He did. This is also why He is exalted to the throne and this is all my hope. This is the Savior and the salvation that is in Him.
– Pastor Gary Shepard
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The man or woman who is not content to be saved and go to heaven solely upon the basis of the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ gives full evidence of their utter depravity. This is the only way of salvation that is thoroughly God honoring, Christ exalting and man debasing. Surely he is the vilest of the vile who would dare to set forth and trust any other means of acceptance before a just and holy God than this, Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
– Pastor Jim Byrd
“BUT WHAT ARE WE TO DO?”
When the true Gospel of God’s free and sovereign grace in Christ Jesus, without the works of men and in light of man’s total depravity and inability, is preached, people will often ask, “But what are we to do?” First understand that whatever sinners saved by grace do to the glory of God, they do so not of their own power, goodness, or will; for by nature we have none of these (Rom. 3:10-20), but we do it only by the grace of God in Christ as every blessing and benefit of salvation comes to sinners as a free gift of God (Eph. 1:3; 2:8-10). It is God by His Spirit Who makes us willing in the day of His power. Secondly, understand that whatever we do as saved persons can only be accepted with God through the intercession of Christ our Advocate and based on His blood in cleansing even our best efforts to obey God. With this in mind, what are we to do? The answer is two-fold:
(1) We are to do absolutely nothing in order attain, maintain our salvation. It is all of God’s sovereign grace by Jesus Christ Who alone earned all grace here and all glory hereafter for His people. We are to do nothing as far as establishing our own righteousness before God. Christ’s righteousness imputed alone is the ground of salvation and the righteousness in which all His people stand justified before God.
(2) We are to believe God and rest in Christ for all salvation, including the forgiveness of all our sins by His blood alone, the justification of our persons by His righteousness alone, spiritual life from Christ irresistibly applied in the new birth by the Holy Spirit alone, and preservation unto glory by His grace alone. Faith is the gift of God which He freely gives to all whom Christ redeemed on the cross (John 12:32). We are to be engaged in the warfare of the flesh and the Spirit promoting Godly sorrow and continual repentance of sin (Gal. 5:16-17). We are to be diligent, obedient, willing and loving bondservants of Christ, serving Him as motivated by grace, love, and gratitude. We are to pray to God continually through Christ our High Priest, expressing our godly desires unto the Lord, and submit to His sovereign, unchangeable will to do that which is for His glory and our good (Php. 4:6; 1 Thess. 5:17). We are publicly and privately to worship God in spirit and truth as we feed upon His Word (John 4:23-24; Php. 3:3). And all of this is to be done by us NOT to be saved or made righteous before God, but because we are truly saved and completely righteous by His grace as we stand in Christ our Surety, our Substitute, our Mediator, and our sovereign Lord.
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