Central Grace Church
3596 Franklin Street Rocky Mount, Virginia
Website: www.centralgracechurch.com Email: [email protected]
May 14th 2023
9:30 am -------------------------------------------Hear or Be Hardened – Exodus 7
10:00 am ---------------------------------------------------The Lord’s Prayer – John 17
Wednesday: 7:00 pm ………….………………………………………………………………………..…John Sheesley II
No Condemnation -- "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Romans 8:1
. . . “ NO CONDEMNATION to those who are in Christ Jesus." This is the blessed condition we are now more fully to describe. The freedom of the believer is just what it is declared to be—entire exemption from condemnation. From all which the word condemnation implies, the believer is, by his relation to Christ, delivered. Sin does not condemn him, the law does not condemn him, the curse does not condemn him, hell does not condemn him, God does not condemn him. He is under no power from these, beneath whose accumulated and tremendous woe all others wither. A brief and simple argument will, perhaps, be sufficient to establish this fact. The pardon of sin necessarily includes the negation of its condemnatory power. There being no sin legally alleged, there can be no condemnation justly pronounced. Now, by the sacrifice of Christ all the sins of the Church are entirely put away. He, the sinless Lamb of God, took their sins and bore them away into a land of oblivion, where even the Divine mind fails to recall them. "How forcible are right words!" Listen to those which declare this wondrous fact: "I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins". . "Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back.". . . "Having forgiven you all trespasses". . . "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." The revoking of the sentence of the law must equally annihilate its condemnatory force. The obedience and death of Christ met the claims of that law, both in its preceptive and punitive character. A single declaration of God's Word throws a flood of light upon this truth—"Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." The sentence of the law thus falling upon the Surety, who was "made under the law, that he might redeem those who were under the law," there can be no condemnation from the law to those who have taken shelter in Him.
It is the simple belief of this truth that brings instant peace to the bosom. A present discharge from condemnation must produce a present joy. Christian! there is NOW no condemnation for you! Be yours, then, a present and a full joy. Christ has made atonement, and with it God is satisfied; and if so, well may you be satisfied—delighting yourselves greatly in the abundance of peace. -- Octavius Winslow, England, 1808-1878
Put on the New Man . . . “Seeing ye have put off the old man with his deeds: and have put on the new man” – Col.3:9-10
To “put on the new man” is not to make ourselves new creatures in Christ, for this is God’s work and not man’s. It is God who regenerates and creates a new man in true righteousness and holiness. But to “put on the new man” is to walk daily according to the Biblical principles of grace and holiness formed in us. Walk in the Spirit of Christ and avoid not only the works of evil but the very appearance of evil (1 Thess. 5:22). – Henry Mahan
The Great Physician
The Lord Jesus Christ is everything that fallen, perishing creatures need; and He stands in the same relation to them as a Physician to His patients . “ I AM the LORD that healeth thee,” is a proclamation that well becomes His lips. Job disclaimed his friends as “physicians of no value.” But this can never be applied to the Lord Jesus. In all things in this office, He has the pre-eminence. Yea, He not only stands without comparison, but alone—there is salvation in none other. But He heals every sickness. No case, however difficult, baffles His skill. No case, however desperate, resists the power of His applications. He is always at home. Always accessible. Always delighted to attend. He only requires our submission to his management. He cures without money and without price.
The Faith OF Christ . . . “the righteousness of God which is by faith OF Jesus Christ.” – Romans 3:22
Some would think this a grammatical error and should read ‘faith IN Christ.’ But no, it is written this way several times. The Lord Jesus Christ had to ‘live by faith’ as a man, and in doing so, His life of faith (fulness) was imputed to all His people. Our faith is but faith in His faith.