March 17^th 2024

9:30 am ----------------------------------------- Walk As Dear Children of God – Ephesians 5:1-17

10:00 am -----------------------------------------------------My People & My City – Revelation 3:12

"For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed." Romans 10:11

A child of God may be often deeply exercised whether he has any faith at all; for when he reads what faith has done and can do, and sees and feels how little it has done for him, he is seized with doubts and fears whether he has ever been blessed with the faith of God's elect. This makes him often say, "Oh, do I indeed possess one grain of saving faith?" But he does possess it: nay, it is his very faith which makes him so anxiously ask himself the question, as well as see and feel the nature and amount of his unbelief. It is the very light of God shining into his soul that shews him his sins, their nature and number; convinces him of their guilt and enormity; lays the burden of them upon his conscience; and discovers to him the workings of an unbelieving heart. But besides this, if he had no faith at all he could not hear the voice of God speaking in the gospel, nor receive it as a message of mercy; so that he has faith, though he has not its witnessing evidence, or its abounding comfort. This faith will save his soul; for "the gifts and calling of God are without repentance;" that is, God never repents of any gift that he bestows or of any calling which he has granted. If, then, he has ever blessed you with faith, however small that faith may be in itself or in your own view of it, he will never take it away out of your heart, but rather fan the smoking flax until it burst forth into a flame. He will never forsake the work of his own hands, for he which "hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." If ever, then, if but once in your life, you have felt the gospel to be the power of God unto salvation; if you have ever had one view of Christ by living faith; if but once only, under the influence of his blessed Spirit on your heart, you have laid hold of him and felt even for a few minutes that he was yours, your soul is as safe as though it were continually bathing in the river which maketh glad the city of God, continually drinking of the honey and milk of the, gospel, and walking all day long in the full light of his most gracious countenance. Not that a man should be satisfied with living at a poor, cold, dying rate; I mean not that, but merely to lay it down as a part of God's truth that as regards salvation, it is not the amount, but the reality of faith that saves the soul.

What Grace Teaches and Produces (Titus 2:11-12)– from a sermon by Henry Mahan

What does the grace of God teach us? What does the sovereignty of God, the free grace of God, the sovereign grace of God, election, and effectual call, and particular redemption, what do these truths teach us? It teaches us this, Titus 2:12, denying ungodliness, denying worldly lust, worldly riches, and entangled with those things, and worldly luxuries and all of these things that we just have to have. It teaches us to deny those things and live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world while we look for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.

This is what we believe. You know, some folks got the idea that you can't preach works if you preach grace. If you preach the true grace of God you have to preach works . . . not as the cause of his grace, but as a result of His grace. James says, if there are no works, there's no grace. That's right, if there are no works, if there's no obedience, if there's no godliness, there's no grace. If God has not changed my attitude, my walk, my talk, and my spirit, then I am not an object of his grace. Isn't that right? He gave himself, this is what we believe, that he might redeem us from iniquity, not in our iniquity, but from our iniquity, and purifying to himself a strange people, an unusual people, a separated people, a peculiar people, people who are zealous of good works. They're not running from them. They're not afraid of them. They're zealous of them. I often say, wherever I go, and I've experienced this right here in this church, the most godly, the most generous, the most gracious, the kindest, the lovingest, the forgivingest, the people I know are people who believe in the sovereign grace of God. The most blessed fellowship that I've found anywhere is not among religious people, or fundamentalism or freewillism, it's among those who know and believe and have received and experienced the free grace of God. They're merciful, they're kind, they're generous, they're gracious, they're forgiving. That's right. They know what mercy is because they've experienced it.

"These things speak” . . . Speak the things that become sound doctrine, the things that are characteristic of sound doctrine, the things that are produced by sound doctrine. Now you speak these things and exhort and rebuke with all authority and don't you let any man despise you. Don't you worry about people calling you a works preacher, or a legalist, or let them call you what they want to. Like Spurgeon said one time, "I don't mind being called an Antinomian. I don't want to be one." Let them call you what they want to. Let no man despise you. Speak these things. These are things that become sound doctrine.

“Grace turns lions into lambs, wolves into sheep, monsters into men and men into angels.” – Thomas Brooks