July 15, 2018

HYMN OF THE DAY
Those Nail-pierced Hands

By faith I see those nailed-pierced hands: a special gift of love.
My Savior is God's perfect Lamb. 'Twas determined above.
Those hands that created the world were sacrificed for me.
I'm graven in His nail-pierced hands. I'm in Him in glory.

Now In heaven His own shall see this Lamb as it were slain:
Our Savior in all His glory, with hands that are blood stained.
Those gracious hands that bled for me reached way down from His throne.
The Lamb was nailed upon the tree; my sins He did atone.

I am held by those mighty hands; ne'er to be forsaken.
By His hand He doth crown His own, conforming them to Him.
I praise Him for those nail-pierced hands: for His amazing grace.
My Lord, Who saved a wretch like me, in heav'n prepared my place.

Tune: My Faith Has Found a Resting Place, #228
By: Gary Spreacker

Isaiah 45:22
Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.

“Sin shall not have dominion over you” (Romans 6:14)

Sin has dominion over God’s people in a state of unregeneracy: and after conversion it is still in them, and has great power oftentimes to hinder that which is good, and to effect that which is evil; it entices and ensnares, and brings into captivity, and seems as though it would regain its dominion, and reign again, but it shall not. This is not a precept, exhortation, or admonition, as before, though some read it as such, “Let not sin have dominion over you”; nor does it express merely what ought not to be, but what cannot, and shall not be; it is an absolute promise, that sin shall not have the dominion over believers; and respects not acts of sin, but the principle of sin; and means not it’s damning power, though that is took away, but its tyrannical, governing power: “it shall not lord it over you”, as the words may be rendered; for in regeneration, sin is dethroned; Christ enters as Lord, and continues to be so; saints are in another kingdom, the kingdom of Christ and grace; could sin reign again over them, they might be lost and perish, which they never can: now this is a noble argument why saints should use their members as weapons of righteousness for God and against sin; since they are sure of being conquerors, and are secure from the tyrannical government of sin over them. – John Gill

GRACE

Grace has been defined as “unmerited favor”. Certainly, grace is by its very nature unmerited. Oh, but it’s so much more.

Suppose you rolled down your car window at an intersection and gave a dollar to a beggar. That would be unmerited favor. Now, suppose that same beggar had murdered your only child. Suppose you opened your door and brought him into your car. Suppose you drove him to your house, gave him his own bed, fed him and put him in new clothes. Suppose you took him to your bank and gave him unfettered access to all your assets. Suppose you drove him to the courthouse and signed all the legal documents to adopt him into your family.

That would be much more than “unmerited favor”, don’t you think? Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me… Oh, the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He has made us accepted in the Beloved. – Greg Elmquist

“The servants (slaves) of sin” (Ro. 6:17).

“The servants (slaves) of righteousness” (Ro. 6:18).

One Greek scholar defined what it means to be a slave:

“A slave was more than an employee. He was one who is:

1) Born into a condition of slavery

2) One whose will is swallowed up in the will of another.

3) One who is bound to the master with bounds that only death can break.

4) One who serves his master to the disregard of his own interest.

The following was once true in regard to our slavery to sin:

1) We were born as slaves to sin.

2) Our will was swallowed up and captive to the will of sin within us.

3) Our bondage to sin was so strong that only death –spiritually dying with Jesus on the cross – could break the bondage.

4) We were so enslaved to sin that we served it to the disregard of our own interest, even when sin destroyed us.

Now the following is true in regard to our slavery to righteousness:

1) We are born again, now as slaves to righteousness.

2) Our will is now swallowed up in the will of God. It is His will that matters to us, not our own.

3) We are bound to Christ with bonds that only death can break; but since He has triumphed over death and given us eternal life, those bonds will never be broken.