You are all invited to attend the wedding of Wendy Rodriguez and Matt Lemmings here at the church on Saturday, April 23^rd at 5 p.m. There will be a reception at the church following the ceremony. An RSVP sheet is in the vestibule.

Unearned Favor

I recently heard of someone who claimed to believe the grace of God in salvation, yet they were having trouble with the doctrine of election. The problem they are really having is with true grace. You see, grace in the true meaning of the word can only mean one thing ... UNEARNED FAVOR!

Most people think God looked down through time to see who would believe on Him and elected them accordingly. But that means that person earned salvation by believing, and God had to choose that person because of what they did. But NO! GRACE IS UNEARNED FAVOR, and since no one has earned, or merited God’s salvation and favor, then it stands to reason that God must choose, or elect, whomever He decides.

Pastor Paul Mahan

SOVEREIGNTY AND RESPONSIBILITY

God is sovereign and man is responsible – both are true. God is sovereign in salvation. God sovereignly chose a people to save. Christ sovereignly died for His elect and only for His elect. The Holy Spirit sovereignly gives life to those elect. All of those elect will be irresistibly drawn to Christ by the Spirit: “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). Those who the Father chose, the Son died for, and the Spirit gives life in the new birth, shall appear with Christ in glory. The truth is if anyone goes to heaven it will be entirely the doing of God alone.

This is also just as true: man is responsible to come to Christ for salvation so if we wind up in hell it will be our own fault since we didn’t come to the Savior. Sinners have every right to come to Christ for salvation because our Lord commands sinners to come to Him. He said, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink” (John 7:37). Yet the nature of man is so sinful that no one left to their sinful will can or will come to Christ for salvation unless God draws them to Christ. Again the Savior said, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him” (John 6:44).

The question is always asked, “How do you reconcile God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility?” To which I reply, “You don’t have to reconcile truth. Truth is just true”. Henry Mahan once said, “I didn’t know they (God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility) were enemies. You don’t have to reconcile friends. God is sovereign. If He wasn’t men wouldn’t have anyone to be responsible to.”

The thing I become more convinced of with time, experience, and hopefully by grace is my inability and His ability, my weakness and His strength, my powerlessness and His power. Truer words have never been spoken, “Without Me, ye can do nothing.” But these words are equally true, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”