July 29, 2007

MORNING WORSHIP:

10:00 Bible Study: Video sermon by Pastor Bill Parker

11:00 Service: Speaker, Randy Wages, Eager Avenue Grace Church

Birthdays: Jake Jones – July 30^th.

An extract from “Justification by Christ Alone”

Christ Alone Did All That Was Needed
Because Christ did all that was needful to be done to make us perfect, and present us holy. For what can be more required to the justification of a sinner before God than to be free from all sin? Is not he that is no sinner a righteous person? Must not he that is free from all sin, of necessity, appear just to Him that knows he is so as God does? It is all one to be free from sin and to be perfectly righteous. 1 Cor. 5:21; 1 John 1:7. There is no medium betwixt them: "By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many: for he shall bear their iniquities." So that His bearing their iniquity was that which did justify them; and by His knowledge He knew whose sins He bore, viz. whom He justified, Isa. 53:11.

Christ Did This Work Upon The Cross
Christ, upon the cross, did this work for us, because the Scripture says, "He hath washed away our sins in his own blood," Rev. 5:1. Therefore, they are done away. To say that they are not done away is to contradict God in His Word. It is very dishonorable to Jesus Christ that He should be "manifested to take away our sins," 1 John 3:5, that Christ should come "to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins," etc., Dan. 9:24; 2 Cor. 5:21, and yet this work is still to do. What is this but to say, Christ came not to do it, or if He came to do it, He did not do it. For He did it not, if it be still to do.

A Finished Work
Because Christ says this work is finished, therefore it is so. For He is the "faithful and true witness." Therefore, we may believe it and affirm it is done. "These words spake Jesus, I have glorified thee on earth: I have finished the work thou gavest me to do. Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished (that the Scripture might be fulfilled) saith, I thirst. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost," John 19:28, 30 and 17:1-5. The work God gave Christ to do was the work of our salvation, which consisted in taking and destroying our sins, and presenting us holy, without spot to God. This He did by being "made sin for us, this so we might be made (by his being made sin for us) the righteousness of God in him," 2 Cor. 5:21.

Samuel Richardson - 1647

“The Amazing Grace Of A Sovereign God”

It’s sad that so few actually see or understand the “amazing grace” of God which is so clearly revealed in the Gospel. While most talk about God’s grace, the grace they profess to believe and rest in as their hope of salvation is nothing more than Satan’s cleverly disguised system of works salvation. Their problem lies in the deceitfulness of the human heart-“The heart (mind, understanding, or will) is deceitful (in the original it means crooked or polluted) above all things, and desperately (incurably) wicked: who can know (understand) it?”(Jer.17:9) What a charge! God tells us through His prophet that the human will, mind, or understanding is polluted above “all things” and incapable of doing anything by way of obedience to rectify this hopeless condition. In spite of such clear testimony, man’s religion insists that every person has a spark of goodness and the ability to do something to recommend them to God. Because of this they insist that people must believe, repent, or reform in order to make the work of Christ effectual. But consider this carefully. If a sinner’s justification depends on the sinner in any way, to any degree, at anytime, IT IS NO LONGER GRACE.

Thank God, there are some sinners that God determined to save before the foundation of the world, whom He actually justified at Calvary through the perfect obedience unto death of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ-“Being (having been) justified (declared legally righteous by way of satisfaction to law and justice) freely (as a gift) by His grace (God giving us what we don’t deserve) through the redemption (liberation obtained by payment of the ransom price) that is in Christ Jesus.”(Rom.3:24) This “amazing grace” doesn’t rely upon our faith, repentance, reformation, or any other condition sinful man so readily insists upon. It is totally free and it was completely accomplished ONE TIME, in ONE PLACE, by ONE PERSON-“But this man (Christ, the elect’s substitute), after He had offered ONE sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God”; “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ ONCE.”; “For by ONE offering he hath perfected(made complete) for ever them that are sanctified(declared Holy by imputation).”(Heb.10:12, 10, 14) The Old Testament sacrifices and ceremonies, including the Day of Atonement were truly an ATONEMENT, i.e., they were a covering for sin, but they never could and never were intended to PUT AWAY THE SINS OF GOD’S PEOPLE-“For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.”(Heb.10:4) The Old Testament saints looked through a “glass darkly” to that One who would offer the PERFECT SACRIFICE for their sins and accomplish salvation for them. All God’s elect after the Cross are brought to see what was accomplished for them by that same work of reconciliation. Christ’s work wasn’t a covering for sins, but praise God it was a RECONCILIATION, a SATISFACTION to law and justice. What “AMAZING GRACE”!