Nov 19
27
If anyone reading this is working in order to be saved be sure to understand, God will take account of all your works. That is right. In the great day of judgment, God will take account of all your works, whether good or evil, as sin. God will account all man’s works for salvation as coming “short of the glory of God.” There is one whose works God is well-pleased with, Christ Jesus his Son. Sinners are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Who God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.” (Rom 3: 22-25) All who are attempting to work for salvation are attempting to justify themselves from their sins by the law of Moses. Please listen to God! “By [Christ] all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” (Acts 13: 39) Salvation is believing Christ! May God give you grace to do so today. Right now you’re conscience is guilty at the thought of having not done enough. Then you will have the sweet rest and peace of conscience that only Christ can give knowing “there is no more offering for sin.”
Chris Cunningham
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If we deny- Charles
Pennington.
If we deny that man is dead in sin; that he is nothing,
has nothing and can do nothing to merit salvation then we make ‘man true and
God a liar’!
If we deny God’s eternal and unconditional election of a people unto salvation; make salvation to be by man’s choice and will, instead of God’s choice, will and purpose; then we exalt man’s will above God’s, dethrone the Almighty and set man up in His place!
If we deny the particular and effectual redemption of the elect by the blood of Christ; then we have no gospel to preach, only an atonement that does not atone, a redemption that does not redeem, and a saviour that cannot save; we make a mockery of the suffering and death of the Son of God and count the blood of the covenant an unholy (common) thing!
If we deny the invincible and essential work of God the Holy Spirit; in regeneration and the new birth then we must deny that ‘that which is born of the flesh is flesh,‘ and say, ‘that which is born of the flesh is spirit’! Then we make Him to be less than man and emphatically deny that salvation is of the Lord, Who only can give life to the dead!
If we deny the preservation and perseverance of the saints; then we openly declare that there is a power greater than God, one who can frustrate His purpose and pluck the sheep out of the Father’s hand, contrary to the words of the Lord Jesus.
If we deny Him, He also will deny us. (2 Tim. 2:12).
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GOOD NEWS FOR SINNERS I John 1: 8-10 I have in my shed an electric generator. It’s only function is to generate electricity. It does not drill holes, fasten lumber, or mow grass. It just generates power. Man, because of his fallen nature, is a sin generator. Everything he does is tainted by his nature. Sin is what he is, what he does, how he thinks, and how he lives. He lives out his days in the lusts of his flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and mind; and is, by nature, a child of wrath as are all men. (Ephesians 2: 3) The good news of the Gospel is if we confess our sins, He (Christ) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Darvin Pruitt
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“Come, buy wine and milk, without money, and without price.” Isa. lv. 1.
Surely, no man can plead poverty as an excuse for not buying, when the things sold are not only without money, but without even the proposals for money; not only without ready money, but without any money. Here is not even a price given. My soul, remember this. The poorer the wretch, the more welcome to this market. But what are the things sold? Both wine and milk. A blessed variety in the gospel feast wine to cheer, and milk to nourish. Yes, blessed Jesus, thy love is better than wine, and thy salvation more healing than milk: Besides, it comes free, it comes pure, it comes in plenty. And it far, very far, exceeds the strongest wine, and the richest milk. For though wine may remove a temporary heaviness, yet was it never known to raise the dead; but thy love, blessed Jesus, hath raised, and will keep alive for ever, sinners dead in trespasses and sins, and preserve the languishing graces of thy saints.
Come then, my soul, obey the gospel invitation of this day, and every day; come, buy these precious things without money, and without price. Come, ye poor, needy, perishing, sinners; come, every one of you, and buy, there is enough in Jesus for us all; and depend upon it, not one of you will be sent empty away, if you come empty to be filled, and hungry to be satisfied. This is the only mark and evidence of every real purchaser. If Jesus, with all his blessings, be welcome to your heart, you are welcome to take of his free salvation. Lord, I am come this day, and every day. Now let me hear thy voice; “Eat, O friends; yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.”
From THE POOR MAN’S MORNING AND EVENING Robert Hawker
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He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: He that keepeth thee will not slumber…
(Psalms 121:3)
Your warfare, it seems, still continues; and it will continue while you remain here. But He is faithful that promised to make us more than conquerors in the last conflict, then we shall hear the voice of war no more for ever. Whatever we suffer by the way, the end will make amends for all. The repeated experience we have of the deceitfulness of our own hearts, is a means which the Lord employes to make us willing debtors to his free grace, and teach us to live more entirely upon Jesus. He us our peace, our strength, our righteousness, our all in all. And we learn from day to day, that, though diligence and watchfulness in the use of appointed means is our part, yet we are preserved in life. not by our care, but His. We have a watchful Shepherd, who neither slumbers nor sleeps; his eyes are always upon his people; his arm underneath them; this is the reason that their enemies cannot prevail against them. We are conscious to ourselves of many unguarded moments, in which we might be surprised and ruined if we were left without his almighty defence. Yea, we often suffer loss by our folly; but he restores us when wandering; revivies us when fainting; heals us when wounded; and having obtained help of him, we continue to this hour; and he will be our Guard and Guide even unto death. The law of sin in my members distresses me; but the gospel yields relief. It is given me to rest in the finished salvation, and to rejoice in Christ Jesus as my all in all. My soul is athirst for nearer and fuller communion with him. Yet he is pleased to keep me short of those sweet consolations in my retired hours which I could desire. However, I cannot doubt but he is with me, and is pleased to keep up in my heart some sense of the evil of sin, the beauty of holiness, my own weakness and his glorious all sufficiency. His I am, and him I desire to serve. I am , indeed , a poor servant; but he is a gracious Master. Oh! Who is a God like unto him, that forgiveth iniquity, and casted the sins of his people into the depths of the sea? John Newton
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A Father’s hand!
(Octavius Winslow)
“My times are in Your hand!” Psalm 31:15
Our times of adversity are also in God’s hand. As every sunbeam that
brightens, so every cloud that darkens, comes from God. We are subject
to great and sudden reverses in our earthly condition. Joy is often
followed by grief; prosperity is often followed by adversity. We are on
the pinnacle today; tomorrow at its bottom. Oh! What a change may one
event and one moment create! But, beloved, ALL is from the Lord!
Afflictions do not spring from the soil, nor do troubles sprout from the
ground. Sorrow cannot come until God bids it. Until God in His
sovereignty permits —
health cannot fade,
wealth cannot vanish,
comfort cannot decay,
friendship cannot chill, and
loved ones cannot die.
Your time of sorrow — is His appointment. The bitter cup which it may
please the Lord that you shall drink this year, will not be mixed by
human hands. In the hand of the Lord, is that cup!
Some treasure you are now pressing to your heart — He may ask you to
resign.
Some blessing you now possess — He may bid you to relinquish.
Some fond expectation you now cherish — He may will that you should forego.
Some lonely path — He may design that you should tread.
Yes, He may even bereave you of all — and yet all, ALL is in His hand!
His hand! A Father’s hand, moving in thick darkness, is shaping every
event, and arranging every detail in your life!
Has sickness laid you on a bed of suffering?
Has bereavement darkened your home?
Has adversity impoverished your resources?
Has change lessened your comforts?
Has sorrow in one of its many forms crushed your spirit to the earth?
The Lord has done it!
In all that has been sent,
in all that has be recalled, and
in all that has been withheld —
His hand, noiseless and unseen, has brought it about!
Ah! yes, that hand of changeless love . . .
blends a sweet with every bitter;
pencils a bright rainbow in each dark cloud;
upholds each faltering step;
shelters within its hollow — and guides with unerring skill, His chosen
people safe to eternal glory!
Dear child of God, your afflictions, your trials, your crosses, your
losses, your sorrows — all, ALL are in your heavenly Father’s hand, and
they cannot come until sent by Him!
Bow that stricken heart! Yield that tempest-tossed soul to His sovereign
disposal, to His calm, righteous sway, in the submissive spirit and
language of your suffering Savior, “May Your will, O my Father! not
mine, be done. My times of sadness and of grief are in Your hand.”
Beloved, all is in your Father’s hand! Be those times what they may:
times of trial,
times of temptation,
times of suffering,
times of peril,
times of sunshine or of gloom,
or times of life or death,
they are in your Father’s hand!
Has the Lord seen fit . . .
to recall some fond blessing,
to deny some earnest request, or
painfully to discipline your heart?
All this springs from a Father’s love — as fully as though He had
unlocked His treasury and poured its costliest gifts at your feet!
All of our times are in our Redeemer’s hands! That same Redeemer who
carried our sorrows in His heart, our curse and sins on His soul, our
cross on His shoulder; who died, who rose again, and who lives and
intercedes for us, and who will gather all His ransomed around Him in
glory — is your Guardian and your Guide! Your times are in the hands of
Him who still bears the print of the nails!