Today’s Speaker: Brother Randy Wages will conduct the 11:00 am service today. Pray for him as he delivers God’s word.
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.
The seventeenth chapter of the gospel of John is saturated with giving. The Father has given the Son "power over all flesh." That ability and authority is His to "give eternal life." Eternal life is made sure because Christ "finished the work that thou gavest me to do." Then Christ says, "I have given them thy word." It is a word of giving, the Word of the grace of God. All things given by God in Christ. Then He says, "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them." "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou has given me: for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world."
But in verse six is the highlight of God's amazing grace. "I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: think they were, and THOU GAVEST THEM ME: and they have kept thy word." God has given to His Son a people out of every nation, kindred, tribe and tongue. But He has also given Christ TO that people. This is the thought in the Song of Solomon where we read, "I am my beloved's AND HE IS MINE." Can this be? Christ, the well-beloved Son in whom are all things given to one such as me? The gift of gifts to the undeserving, ill deserving? That is grace! Christ given to us by being given FOR us! Given as a Representative, a Substitute, a Redeemer. Christ was given to establish all righteousness for us. He is the Lord our Righteousness. He was given to remove our guilt and debt by the sacrifice of His body and blood. He is our justification. All for whom He lives, dies and intercedes must go free because they have Him. Having Christ, they possess all that God requires and desires. As believers we cannot fathom the riches of God's infinite grace; but we can rejoice in Christ. Why would God give His Son to us? The reason of it is to be found only in Himself; but the declaration and truth of it is to be found in His Word! He did! Christ being life...He gave them life; being hope...He gave them hope; being peace...He gave them peace; being joy...He gave them joy. But this is the glory of it, Christ being "ALL," He gave us all! All spiritual blessings are in Him. This is the Gift of gifts. "THINE THEY WERE, AND THOU GAVEST THEM ME."
--- Gary Shepard
A RANSOM WAS FOUND
"Then He is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom" (Job 33:24). The law of God demands perfection and the slightest violation is punishable by death. "The soul that sinneth shall die" (Ezekiel 18:20). Divine justice held God’s people ransom, but our Lord, in His infinite wisdom, devised the way whereby the guilty would go free and the integrity of His law would be maintained; there would be no lessening of His demands and grace would reign through righteousness unto eternal life. Christ’s death was the ransom price for the redemption of the Lord’s people. The Good Shepherd came into the world as the Substitute for His sheep and rendered to justice the only ransom that would free His loved ones from law and justice, sin and death. "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28). "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor 15:3). By His sacrifice, He magnified the law, put away the sins of all those in whose stead He died, brought in everlasting righteousness, crushed the head of the serpent and paid the price of our redemption. All of the elect of God were "delivered from going down to the pit," when Christ laid down His life in our stead. Since God dealt in strictest justice with our Substitute for sins imputed to Him, His chosen people are therefore rescued from perishing in the pit. Redemption has been obtained; the triumphant Savior cried out, "It is finished" (John 19:30). "Twice payment God cannot demand, first at my bleeding Surety’s hand, and then again at mine."
--- Pastor Jim Byrd
IF WE HAVE CHRIST...
If we have Christ, we have His blood for pardon, His righteousness for justification, His fulness to supply all our needs, His promises to cheer us, His strength to support us, His wisdom to guide us in all our ways. We have Him in all the offices He sustains, –as Prophet to teach and instruct us, as Priest to atone and plead for us, and as King to rule over us and in us. We have Him in all the blessed characters He bears, –as our Shepherd, our Captain, our Bread of Life, Water of Life and the Wine of God to cheer us. We have Him in the endearing relationship He sustains as our Elder Brother. And...we have Him as our Husband; and He does not take His bride as we are in the habit of taking ours, "for better or for worse." O no! He knew she would have no " better" about her; it would be all "worse;" therefore, He took her with all her sin and guilt, and stood answerable for all her debts.
--- From a sermon by William Gadsby, preached 4/13/1843
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