My Grace is Sufficient For Thee (2 Cor. 12:7-10)

GRACE IS WHAT I NEED – God’s free, abundant, satisfying, sanctifying grace! I need grace to believe God and to continue in that faith. I need grace to give and forgive, grace to love and be loved, grace to live and grace to die.

If I have little grace, the fault is mine; for His grace is called, “abundant grace.” The Lord may not give gold, but He will give grace. He may not give ease in life, but He will give grace in proportion to my need. He will certainly send me trials, but never without the grace to overcome. I may ask God for something which is not for my good and therefore He is not pleased to give it, but I may ask for as much grace as I will, and it will never be refused; for His throne is literally a throne a of grace!

“Lord, fill me with Thy grace, make me an object of Thy grace, let my lips speak of Thy grace, and let my life be lived as a trophy of Thy grace!” Pastor Henry T. Mahan (Bulletin 1986)

Great Things The Lord Hath Done

When the Lord calls one of His own out of the darkness of sin and unbelief, that regenerated sinner learns something. He’s taught, through the preaching of the Gospel, that the Lord has done some great things for him. He learns that God has everlastingly loved, chosen and accepted him in Christ. He’s taught that Christ is, of God, made unto him wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. He’s taught that the Lord has given him eternal life and that he shall never perish and that soon Christ is coming back to receive him unto Himself that where Christ is, there the object of His mercy may be also. And with the knowledge of these great things, the vessel of God’s mercy has this desire…to tell all who will listen of the great things that the Lord has done for him.

Pastor Marvin Stalnaker

Understanding All Things Vital

Believers understand that the origin of all things is God. We understand that the end of all things is the salvation of God's elect and the glory of his great name. God's people understand that the nature of all things here is temporal. Everything here in this sin-cursed earth is temporal and vanishing. Every relationship in this world is just temporal. Most importantly, those who are taught of God understand all things spiritual. This is what the Apostle John tells us. "But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things" (1 John 2:20). All who are born of God and taught of God have the mind of Christ and understand all things vital and necessary to the saving of their souls.

Pastor Don Fortner (1950-2020)

Someone asked me what I thought was going on with all this rebellion we see right now? I replied, it is just men being men. Every now and then God lets this world have a taste of itself. Nothing tastes fouler than human nature.

Pastor John Chapman

Decrees Ordained Of God To Keep

“And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem” (Acts 16:4).

As Paul and Silas returned to the missionary field they were not only recommended by the grace of God (Acts 15:40-41) but also they went being sent of God with the message of the gospel of God concerning the Lord Jesus Christ; delivering the decrees of God that were ordained from eternity (Rom. 1:1-4).

When we preach the gospel of Christ today we strive to do the same thing, preaching Christ and Him crucified as all the counsel of God in the salvation of sinners; declaring His decrees (Acts 20:27-28). Someone has rightly and truly said, “Preaching is repeating what God has already said.” We don’t add to His words or explain His word we simply and plainly declare the word of God (2 Cor. 3:12).

That is our charge today the same as it was when Paul charged young Timothy, “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word; (the decrees ordained of God)be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (2 Tim. 4:1-2).

I think of the message of the Reformation back in the 1500’s by Luther and Calvin and many others who also plainly declared the decrees that were ordained of God. Their message was summed by declaring the Scriptures alone (2 Tim. 3:16). Salvation received by faith alone (Acts 13:38-39). Salvation by the grace of God alone (Acts 15:11). Salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ alone (Acts 4:12). All true preaching of the gospel is to the glory of God alone (1 Cor. 1:30-31).