Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom. Prov. 13:10
Hymn For The Day
"Tis not that I did choose Thee, For, Lord, that could not be; This heart would still refuse Thee, But Thou hast chosen me. Thou from the sin that stained me Washed me and set me free, And to this end ordained me, That I should live for Thee.
"Twas sovereign mercy called me And taught my op'ning mind; The world had else enthralled me, To heav'nly glories blind My heart owns none above Thee; For Thy rich grace I thirst; This knowing, if I love Thee, Thou must have loved me first.
(Tune: "The Church's One Foundation," p. 186)
WITHOUT ME... John.15:5
There can be no building without a foundation, there can be no branch without a vine, there can be no body without the head. Our Lord Jesus is all these things to His People. Without Him we have no spiritual existence. No one would think of erecting a building without a foundation, yet people build their hopes for eternity without Christ. They build on their so called good works, or their repentance, or some strange experience they had years ago.
Everyone knows that a branch cannot exist a part from the vine, that it derives its life from the root, yet how many are not joined to Christ the vine and yet think they have life. They believe because they joined a church, or was baptized they have life.
It is impossible for a body to have life, without a head, it is dead! So it is without Christ being the head of his people.
Thank God, there is "no other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. (1 Cor.3:11) A house does not build itself, we are built upon Christ Himself, our spiritual foundation is built on His Person as God-Man, upon His work on behalf of His elect, upon the Righteousness He established, imputed to those for whom he died.
Our Master said; "I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for WITHOUT ME YE CAN DO NOTHING" (Jn.15:5). It is by a vital living union with Christ that we have our spiritual life, where there is life there is fruit, there is spiritual hunger, thirst, faith, repentance, there is evidence of life.
Christ is the, " head over all things to the church, which is His body, that filleth all in all" (Eph.1:22-23). He is the One from whom the body is joined together, the body gets it spiritual sense, its guidance, the body gets its spiritual wisdom. As the head of His body the church He is the one who fills us with these things, the one from whom we get spiritual understanding. He is the One who makes us function as a body, and not as individuals pulling in different directions.
"When Christ, who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. (Col.3:4) - Pastor
THE DOCTRINES OF GOD'S GRACE
You cannot vanquish a sovereign grace believer. You may think you can, but you cannot. The stones of the great doctrines of grace so fit into each other that the more pressure there is applied to remove them, the more strenuously do they adhere! And mark, my friend, that you cannot receive ONE of the doctrines of God's grace without believing ALL OF THEM! If you hold that man is utterly depraved, you must draw the conclusion that life and salvation must come from God alone and that our God has the right to give or withhold His mercy as He wills. And if no man will come to Christ unless God chooses and calls him, then you are forced to believe that God elects His people in Christ, the Lord Jesus justifies them by His blood, and through the sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth all of His elect will receive Christ, believe and love Him until God calls them to His glory. CHARLES SPURGEON once wrote, "Regarding the words of Romans 8:29-30, a man must receive the whole or reject the whole! It puts a strain on judgment and discernment to think that one may believe two or three of these points and not the rest. The doctrines of the fall, election, particular redemption, effectual call, and perseverance stand like soldiers in a square, presenting on every side a line of defense which is hazardous to attack and easy to maintain." "For whom He did predestinate, them He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified" (Rom. 8:30).
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WORDS OF WISDOM
Beware of people who curse and swear! Keep clear of those who do not value their own character. A person who will blaspheme the name of the Lord of glory will make no bones of lying to you nor stealing from you.
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