A solid Rock on which the True church he would build
Each stone was chosen by him and by him carefully laid
Builded upon our Savior, Jesus himself the Head.
It's door is always open to sinners who will come
Seeking there a refuge in Jesus Christ the Son
Where righteousness imputed absolves them of all sin
Who through this door find pasture, go out and enter in
For no other foundation can any builder lay
Expecting it to stand the fire of judgment day
Their refuge will expose them as haters of the Light
Cast into outer darkness and everlasting night.
But standing on a hillside, without the city walled,
A number without number whom God the Father called
Are gathered round his altar to worship and adore
The keeper and his building now and forevermore.
Today’s Speaker: Brother Jim Casey will conduct the 11:00 am service today. Pray for him as he delivers God’s word.
Baptism: We thank God for Kathryn Cox who expressed her faith in Christ in believers’ baptism. We welcome her into our church family.
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.
Web Sites: Visit our web sites at: Reign of Grace: www.rofgrace.com
Man cannot finally hinder his conversion; for whom God will save, no power of man can destroy. Man in his first conversion is wholly passive, we cannot work it in ourselves, nor hinder God’s working of it, because we are dead in sins. “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. {Eph.2:1} “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.” {Col.2:13} “Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” {Eph.5:14} We are spiritually blind. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” {Luke 4:19,20} Our hearts stony and destitute of goodness. “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh; and I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” {Ez.36:26-27} God’s work in converting us is a raising from the dead. “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ.” {Eph.2:5} A restoring the sight to the blind. {Luke.4:18} A new birth. {John 3:3} Another creation of him. {II Cor.5:17} The giving of a new heart. {Ezek.11:19} So that man cannot prepare himself to conversion. God regenerates man that he may believe. The tree must first be good, before it can bring forth good fruit. How can they that are evil speak good things? {Mat.12:34} It's an error therefore to think that man’s conversion to God begins in some act man performs, and not in a work first wrought in us by God.
--- Samuel Richardson {Saint’s Desire, 1647}
Union with Christ
“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, &c.” {Is.61:1-3} The Saints, though they were in the state of election in the purpose of God, yet for the present being fallen under sin, were in a condition of darkness and death, and were in slavery to sin and Satan; and being no way able to free or deliver themselves, therefore was Christ God’s elect, or his Righteous Servant, that he by undertaking for them in the flesh, and by raising and quickening them in the spirit, {I Jn.3:8,} might bring them out of prison and captivity, make them free men, and present them to the Father in Himself, without rebuke. And so also means the Apostle, when he tells the Ephesians, that now it is God’s design, in the dispensation of the fullness of times; to gather into one sweet agreement, or holy fellowship, all the saints that are elected in Christ, {Eph.1:10,} or which are in Christ in his purpose, which is all one, which are in heaven, and in earth; whether they be Jews, or Gentiles; circumcised or uncircumcised, bond or free; even in Him, as the saints are in Christ by virtue of God’s election; so God will gather them together, and so raise them by Christ, that they shall now know, and believe their union with God in Christ, and their union one with another, even in Him. And to this end, all things were made by Him, and for his glory, and still consist, to help forward his great design; for in him dwells the fullness of the Godhead, and the Saints are complete in him. {Col.1:16,17, 2:9}
--- William Mason {A Little Star – Giving Some Light into the Counsels and Purposes of God Revealed in the Scriptures, 1653}
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