Grace from Beginning to End

 "It is grace at the beginning, and grace at the end. So that when you and I come to lie upon our death beds, the one thing that should comfort and help and strengthen us there is the thing that helped us in the beginning. Not what we have been, not what we have done, but the Grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. The Christian life starts with grace, it must continue with grace, it ends with grace. Grace wondrous grace. By the grace of God I am what I am. Yet not I, but the Grace of God which was with me."

- Martyn Lloyd-Jones 

Disciplines for our Good, not our Bondage

 Spiritual disciplines are provided for our good, not for our bondage. They are privileges to be used, not duties to be performed. To take off on a familiar quotation from Jesus, “Spiritual disciplines were made for man, not man for spiritual disciplines” (see Mark 2:27).

~ Jerry Bridges, "Transforming Grace"

SHUT YOUR EYES

 

GREAT MEME BY BOSTON

 

KICK US AGAIN

 When we are injured, we are bound as Christians to bear it without malice; but we are not to pretend that we do not feel it, for this will but encourage our enemies to kick us again. He who is cheated twice by the same man is half as bad as the rogue; and it is very much so in other injuries. Unless we claim our rights, we are ourselves to blame if we do not get them. Paul was willing to bear stripes for his Master's sake, but he did not forget to tell the magistrates that he was a Roman; and when those gentlemen wished to put him out of prison privately, he said, "Nay, verily, let them come themselves and fetch us out". --CHS.

HOW DO I KNOW THE LOVE OF GOD

 How do I know about the love of God? I look at Christ.

That is the way to know the love of God. You do not wait for a feeling, or try to conjure up a feeling. You go to the cross and look, & survey it, consider it, meditate upon it and all that was involved. —D. M. Lloyd-Jones

Preservation is a Trinitarian Work

 

I cannot keep myself saved

 I CANNOT KEEP MYSELF SAVED!

C.H. Spurgeon

Salvation is the work of God. It is HE ALONE who quickens the soul “dead in trespasses and sins,” and it is He also who MAINTAINS THE SOUL in its spiritual life. He is both “Alpha and Omega.” “Salvation is OF THE LORD.” If I am prayerful, GOD makes me prayerful; if I have graces, they are God’s gifts to me; if I hold on in a consistent life, it is because HE upholds me with His hand.

I DO NOTHING WHATEVER TOWARDS MY OWN PRESERVATION, EXCEPT WHAT GOD HIMSELF FIRST DOES IN ME.

WHATEVER I have, all my goodness is of the Lord alone. Wherein I sin, THAT IS MY OWN; but wherein I act rightly, THAT is of God, wholly and completely. If I have repulsed a spiritual enemy, the Lord’s strength nerved my arm. Do I live before men a consecrated life? It is not I, but CHRIST who liveth in me.

Am I sanctified? I did not cleanse myself: God’s Holy Spirit sanctifies me. Am I weaned from the world? I am weaned by God’s chastisements sanctified to my good. Do I grow in knowledge? The great Instructor teaches me. All my jewels were fashioned by heavenly art. I find in God all that I want; but I FIND IN MYSELF NOTHING BUT SIN AND MISERY. “He only is my rock and my salvation.”

Do I feed on the Word? That Word would be no food for me unless the Lord made it food for my soul, and helped me to feed upon it. Do I live on the manna which comes down from heaven? What is that manna but Jesus Christ himself incarnate, whose body and whose blood I eat and drink? Am I continually receiving fresh increase of strength? Where do I gather my might? My help cometh from heaven’s hills: WITHOUT JESUS I CAN DO NOTHING.

As a branch cannot bring forth fruit except it abide in the vine, no more can I, except I abide in Him. What Jonah learned in the great deep, let me learn this morning in my closet:

“Salvation is of the Lord!”

"Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe: and I will have respect unto Thy statutes continually." [Psalm 119:117]

A little faith gives a whole Christ.

 

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