Position of an Asker

 

WE HAVE NOTHING ELSE TO GO WITH

 

The point is not that we go to Him condemned, though we were condemned before Christ came.  We go to Him because we are NOT condemned because Christ removed condemnation from us;  Yet we to Him knowing our old nature is nothing but a vile, evil, wicked, wretched sinner;  but that old nature which is still tied to us was crucified with Christ (my sins have already been punished in the body of Christ) and buried with Christ.   (unfinished article)...

Come Ye Sinners Poor and Needy

 Come, Ye Sinners, Poor And Needy

Joseph Hart

Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,

Weak and wounded, sick and sore!

Jesus ready stands to save you,

Full of pity, love and power.

He is able, He is able, He is able,

He is willing, doubt no more!

Let not conscience let you linger,

Nor of fitness fondly dream;

All the fitness He requireth

Is to feel your need of Him.

This He gives you, This He gives you, This He gives you:

'Tis the Spirit's glimmering beam.

Come ye weary, heavy laden,

Bruised and mangled by the fall;

If you tarry till you're better,

You will never come at all.

Not the righteous, Not the righteous, Not the righteous;

Sinners Jesus came to call.

Agonizing in the garden,

Lo! your Maker prostrate lies!

On the bloody tree behold Him:

Hear Him cry, before He dies:

“It is finished!” “It is finished!” “It is finished!”

Sinner, will this not suffice?

Lo! The incarnate God ascending,

Pleads the merit of His blood;

Venture on Him, venture freely;

Let no other trust intrude.

None but Jesus, None but Jesus, None but Jesus

Can do helpless sinners good.

Atheism Believes

 

We cannot be amazed

 

KNOW I AM ELECT

 How Do I Know I am Elect by A.W. Pink

"How may I know I'm elect? First, by the Word of God having come in divine power to the soul so that my self-complacency is shattered and my self-righteousness is renounced. Second, by the Holy Spirit convicting me of my woeful, guilty, and lost condition. Third, by having had revealed to me the suitability and sufficiency of Christ to meet my desperate case and by a divinely given faith causing me to lay hold of and rest upon Him as my only hope. Fourth, by the marks of the new nature within me - a love for God; an appetite for spiritual things; a longing for holiness; a seeking after conformity to Christ. Fifth, by the resistance which the new nature makes to the old, causing me to hate sin and loathe myself for it. Sixth, by avoiding everything which is condemned by God's Word and by sincerely repenting of and humbly confessing every transgression. Failure at this point will surely bring a dark cloud over our assurance causing the Spirit to withhold His witness. Seventh, by giving all diligence to cultivate the Christian graces and using all diligence to this end. Thus the knowledge of election is cumulative."

- A .W. Pink, The Doctrines of Election and Justification [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1974], pp. 140-41.

Water in a sieve

 He that will keep water in a sieve must use more than ordinary diligence. -- John Bunyan. The heart is an unreliable container of truth. (In other words, we need daily and constant reminders of God's Word.)

LOST AND UNDONE WITHOUT HIM

 Do not say, ‘I am not prepared for coming to Christ’; for I know of no preparation a sinner can make for Christ, but that of seeing himself lost and undone without Him.

—Ebenezer Erskine (1680-1754), The Beauties of Ebenezer Erskine, Pg. 115

The believer does not live upon his own feelings, or grace in him, but on 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵 the fountain of life. —Ebenezer Erskine (1680-1754), The Beauties of Ebenezer Erskine, Pg. 99

Know, for thy comfort, that the weakest believer is as nearly related to God as a Father, as the strongest believer is. —Ebenezer Erskine (1680-1754), The Beauties of Ebenezer Erskine, Pg. 80

I did not induce it. John Owen

 

My faith would utterly fail. Muller

 

Faith is not my Savior

“Faith is not our physician. It only brings us

to the Physician. It is not even our medicine; it only administers the medicine, divinely prepared by Him who ‘healeth all our diseases.’ In all our believing, let us remember God’s word to Israel: ‘I am Jehovah, that healeth thee’ (Exod. 14:26). Our faith is but our touching Jesus; and what is even this, in reality, but His touching us?

“Faith is not our saviour. It was not faith that
was born at Bethlehem and died on Golgotha for us. It was not faith that loved us, and gave itself for us; that bore our sins in its own body on the tree; that died and rose again for our sins. Faith is one thing, the Saviour is another. Faith is one thing, and the cross is another. Let us not confound them, nor ascribe to a poor, imperfect act of man, that which belongs exclusively to the Son of the Living God.

“Faith is not perfection. Yet only by perfection can we be saved; either our own or another’s.
That which is imperfect cannot justify, and an imperfect faith could not in any sense be a righteousness. 

If it is to justify, it must be perfect. It must be like ‘the Lamb, without blemish and without spot.’ An imperfect faith may connect us with the perfection of another; but it cannot of itself do aught for us, either in protecting us from wrath or securing the divine acquittal.

“All faith here is imperfect; and our security is this, that it matters not how poor or weak our faith may be: if it touches the perfect One, all is well. The touch draws out the virtue that is in Him, and we are saved.

“The slightest imperfection in our faith, if faith were our righteousness, would be fatal to every hope. But the imperfection of our faith, however great, if faith be but the approximation or contact between us and the fulness of the Substitute, is no hindrance to our participation of His righteousness. God has asked and provided a perfect righteousness; He nowhere asks nor expects a perfect faith. An earthenware pitcher can convey water to a traveller’s thirsty lips as well as one of gold; nay, a broken vessel, even if there be but ‘a sherd to take water from the pit’ (Isa 30:14), will suffice. So a feeble, very feeble faith, will connect us with the righteousness of the Son of God; the faith, perhaps, that can only cry, ‘Lord, I believe; help mine unbelief.’

“Faith is not satisfaction to God. In no sense and in no aspect can faith be said to satisfy God, or to satisfy the law. Yet if it is to be our righteousness, it must satisfy. Being imperfect, it cannot satisfy; being human, it cannot satisfy, even though it were perfect. That which satisfies must be capable of bearing our guilt; and that which bears our guilt must be not only perfect, but divine. It is a sin-bearer that we need, and our faith cannot be a sin-bearer. Faith can expiate no guilt; can accomplish no propitiation; can pay no penalty; can wash away no stain; can provide no righteousness. It brings us to the cross, where there is expiation, and propitiation, and payment, and cleansing, and righteousness; but in itself it has no merit and no virtue.

“Faith is not Christ, nor the cross of Christ. Faith is not the blood, nor the sacrifice; it is not the altar, nor the laver, nor the mercy-seat, nor the incense. It does not work, but accepts a work done ages ago; it does not wash, but leads us to the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness. It does not create; it merely links us to that new thing which was created when the ‘everlasting righteousness’ was brought in (Dan 9:24).

“And as faith goes on, so it continues; always the beggar’s outstretched hand, never the rich man’s gold; always the cable, never the anchor, the knocker, not the door, or the palace, or the table; the handmaid, not the mistress; the lattice which lets in the light, not the sun.”

— Horatius Bonar

Don Green on Prayer.

 Don Green Posted on Prayer:

Christian friends, what follows from Martin Luther is a critical principle to grasp for your spiritual growth.

The power of prayer is not found in your flawed devotion, effort, eloquence, or many words.

Christ alone is the basis upon which our prayers are heard.

That frees you to speak plainly and directly in the presence of God.

Better to pray five words humbly trusting in the name of Christ than to follow the human rules of 5000 prayer conferences.

And now from Luther. Long live biblical truth. Long live the

Reformation:

"Some fail disastrously in prayer. They nullify it, for they utter it merely with their lips and not with their hearts. They will not believe that they are heard until they imagine that they have prayed well and worthily. Thus they build on themselves.

"A prayer is not good because of its length, devoutness, sweetness, or its plea for temporal or eternal goods. Not your zeal, but [Christ and] God's Word render your prayer good.

"Only that prayer is acceptable which breathes a firm confidence and trust that it will be heard because of the reliable pledge and promise of God [found in Scripture alone]."~ Martin Luther

"And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:7-8).

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Comfort is not in our Sanctification

 Another cause of disquiet [in us] is, that men by a natural kind of popery seek for their comfort too much [in] sanctification, neglecting justification.

Paul was of another mind, accounting all but dung, compared to the righteousness of Christ. —Richard Sibbes, Works 1:138

I am Near as He.

 428: A MIND at perfect peace with God:

A MIND at perfect peace with God
Oh, what a word is this!
A sinner reconciled through blood:
This, this indeed is peace.

By nature and by practice far,
How very far from God!
Yet now by grace brought nigh to Him
Through faith in Jesus’ blood.

So nigh, so very nigh to God,
I cannot nearer be;
For in the person of His Son,
I am as near as He.

So dear, so very dear to God,
More dear I cannot be;
The love wherewith He loves the Son,
Such is His love to me.

Why should I ever anxious be
Since such a God is mine?
He watches o’er me night and day,
And tells me, “Thou art Mine”.

by Catesby Paget (19th Century)
sung to Evan
by W. H. Havergal (1793-1870)
(C.M.)

HOW QUICKLY YOU WILL BE FORGOTTEN

 

You are not the explanation of you

 "You are not the explanation of you" -- Pastor Adam Ashoff

Cannot purge the least of it

 

Sin is so Utterly devastating that even an eternity in hell cannot purge the least of it.

Without the Spirit, hearing is in vain.

 

God remembers His promises and forgets your sins.

You'll never be a mature Christian until you understand that God remembers his promises and forgets your sins. -- Kevin DeYoung.

 

Endeavor to Affect our Hearts with it.

 When by faith we have attained a view of the glory of Christ, in our contemplations on his person, we should not pass it over as a notion of truth which we assent unto, - namely, that he is thus glorious in himself, - but endeavor to affect our hearts with it. John Owen.