FRIEND OF SINNERS Tune to: “COME THOU FOUNT” 8.7.8.7. DOUBLE Words by JIM BYRD
1. How can God so just and holy, Save my helpless guilty soul? I am vile and so unworthy, Can this sinner be made whole? How unrighteous and polluted, How ungodly and undone! None can help me, but the Savior, Jesus Christ the Father’s Son.
2. Jesus is the Friend of sinners, I will praise His holy Name; By His sacrifice I’m righteous, Freed from every guilt and stain. Though my sins were all as scarlet, They are now as white as snow; For the Savior paid my sin-debt, Washed them in the crimson flow.
3. Sacrifice of God’s appointing, He for me the ransom paid; Now there is no condemnation, Satisfaction Jesus made. Resting only in His merits, Safe in Him my Lord and Friend; Soon I shall depart to see Him, And to praise Him without end.
“O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.” (Romans 7:24-25)
SCRIPTURE READINGS TODAY: MORNING: PSALM 1 EVENING: JOHN 6:41-58
FULFILLED The Lord “worketh all things after the council of His own will” (Ephesians 1:11). Nowhere is that more clearly seen than in the substitutionary death, resurrection and exaltation of our blessed Savior. He finished to the Father’s full satisfaction the redemptive work He was sent to accomplish. “I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do” (John 17:4). “It is finished” (John 19:30). He saved His people from their sins, even as His name announced that He would do. “Thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). 1. When redemption was accomplished, the purpose of God was fulfilled. The death of our Savior, while carried out by men, had been determined by God before the world was made. “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain” (Acts 2:23). “For of a truth against Thy holy child Jesus, whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, For to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before to be done” (Acts 4:27-28). 2. When redemption was accomplished, the promise of God was fulfilled. The Old Testament scriptures are alive with divine promises concerning the coming Redeemer. “ Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jeremiah 23:5-6). “And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that He hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee” (Acts 13:32-33). 3. When redemption was accomplished, the prophecy of God was fulfilled. “But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all His prophets, that Christ should suffer, He hath so fulfilled” (Acts 3:18). “And He said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me” (Luke 24:44).–Pastor Jim Byrd
WHY CHRIST CAME Jesus Christ came into the world not only to reveal the Father, but to redeem the sinner. He came not as the president of our country would go into a disaster area to look upon the poor, helpless victims, but to redeem victims of depravity whom the Father gave Him in the covenant of redemption. Christ came not to redeem by appointed methods, but to redeem by Himself. He came not to stand by and prescribe, but to minister and provide the means of salvation. The Savior came not only to provide salvation, but to be that Salvation (1 Peter 1:18; Revelation 1:5).–Scott Richardson
THE RIGHT ATTITUDE IN PRAYER Prayer is not the requesting of God to alter His purpose or for Him to form a new one. Prayer is the taking of an attitude of dependency upon God, the spreading of our need before Him, the asking for those things which are in accordance with His will, and therefore, there is nothing whatsoever inconsistent between divine sovereignty and Christian prayer.–A. W. Pink
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