Today’s Speaker: Brother Randy Wages will conduct the 11:00 am service today. Pray for him as he delivers God’s word.
Bible Classes: Adult and Children 10 am.
Morning Worship: 11 am.
Television Broadcast: Our Reign of Grace Television program is being broadcast on WFXL Fox 31, Channel 4. The program will air every Sunday morning at 11 AM.
Radio Broadcast: Sunday morning at 9:30am on 98.7 FM –WISK. To hear sermons click here
Web Sites: Visit our newly designed web site at: www.rofgrace.com
Free-will doctrine teaches that the success of God’s eternal purpose of salvation, the triumph of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the effectual work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration are all dependent upon the will of the sinner. To those who have been given an understanding of the gospel of free grace, the teachings of free-willism are repulsive because they are so contrary to the Scriptures which declare, "Salvation is of the LORD" (Jonah 2:9). The eternal purpose of the Father to save a chosen multitude cannot be frustrated. The redemptive work of Jesus Christ by which He satisfied divine justice, finished transgression, put away the sins of His people, made reconciliation for iniquity and brought in everlasting righteousness shall never be a failure. The regenerating power of the Holy Spirit cannot be resisted. He will quicken dead sinners and grant them repentance from dead works and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Make no mistake about it, any message associated with free-willism is a false gospel; it is set in opposition to the truth of God and the glory of God. Free-willism makes man his own savior. It takes the honor of salvation away from the Lord and gives it to the sinner. It makes salvation to be dependent upon, not the sovereign will of God, but the will of the creature. Free-willism is nothing more than idolatry; it is the worship of man’s will and the exaltation of the sinner over the Lord.
--- Pastor Jim Byrd
The longer I live, the more I feel that if there were one thing left undone, if the devil were not conquered, sin not expiated, justice not satisfied, the law not honored and magnified, death not overcome, and every burden not carried, I should not have a ray of hope. I used to think I saw this as clear as the noon day, thirty or forty years ago; but I saw it very differently then to what I see now; for I see and feel now that if one hair-breadth is left for me to do to merit heaven, or bring as a plea before God, I am undone for ever and ever. But on the Mount of Calvary, the Lord Jesus Christ undertook the cause of His people; and there is not a jot nor a tittle that He left undone, but "by one offering He perfected for ever them that are sanctified," and "there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Here is complete perfection. "Saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation."
--- John Warburton (1853)
NO SORROW LIKE CHRIST'S
Christ the Messiah, using the prophet Jeremiah, calls upon men to look at Him as He suffers on the cross. "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger." (Lamentations 1:12) He cries "see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow." As we try to think about or especially to speak about the sorrow and sufferings of Christ on the cross, we are very handicapped. We are those who have never known anything but sin talking about One who "knew no sin." We can only enter into the sufferings of Christ by faith in that which God reveals to us in His word. Thank God we do not have to fully explain them to be the beneficiaries of them! He suffered at the hand of God's justice, suffered the Just for the unjust, and brought His people to God. When we seek to describe the suffering Savior, many try to use graphic language to describe His bodily sufferings and agony. They were real and not to be diminished but His greatest suffering was that suffering of soul which He endured to save us from our sins. "Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand." (Isaiah 53:10) Christ suffered as God in flesh. He suffered as the One "holy, harmless and undefiled." In my mind I cannot even begin to enter into that. He suffered in His entire humanity! He suffered agony of heart, being forsaken of God and facing the afflicting hand of God's fierce anger which was due those He suffered for! His sufferings were His alone, unimaginable, unbearable by such sinners as we are, but oh so successful, so victorious, that by them He brought all His elect to God! To God's justice satisfied. To God's holiness as sinless. To God the Just and Justifier as righteous. To God's home personally. To glory in Him and with Him! "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?" (Luke 24:26) Yes, and ought not all those He suffered for also? Yes! Though there is much about His sufferings I cannot imagine or explain, I'm sure of one thing: they were absolutely successful in glorifying God and saving His people from their sins and they "shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away!"
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