Lost Hymns

Salvation by Grace

LORD, we confess our numerous faults,
How great our guilt has been!
Foolish and vain were all our thoughts,
And all our lives were sin.

But, O my soul, for ever praise,
For ever love his name,
Who turns thy feet from dang'rous ways
Of folly, sin, and shame.

'Tis not by works of righteousness,
Which our own hands have done;
But we are sav'd by sov'reign grace
Abounding through his Son.

'Tis from the mercy of our God,
That all our hopes begin;
'Tis by the water and the blood,
Our souls are wash'd from sin.

'Tis through the purchase of His death,
Who hung upon the tree,
The Spirit is sent down to breathe,
On such dry bones as we.

Rais'd from the dead, we live anew:
And, justify'd by grace,
We shall appear in glory too,
And see our Father's face.

by Isaac Watts (1674 - 1748)

Quote of the Day

"If anybody comes along espousing some message and asking for tolerance, you can be sure it's error because error demands tolerance, whereas truth demands scrutiny." —John MacArthur

We Believe

The Seldom Glance

"I seldom get more than a glance at the true state of my soul in its naked self. But when I do, then I see that I am wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked (Rev. 3:17). I believe every member of our body has been a servant of sin (Rom. 3:13, 18)-throat, tongue, lips, mouth, feet, eyes. Every faculty of our mind is polluted (Gen. 6:5). Besides, you have long neglected the great salvation; you have been gainsaying and disobedient. Oh, that you were brought to pass sentence on yourself, guilty of all! Hear what a dear believer writes of himself. "My wickedness, as I am in myself, has long appeared to me perfectly ineffable, and swallowing up all thought and imagination, like an infinite deluge, or mountains over my head. I know how to express better what my sins appear to me to be, than by heaping infinite upon infinite, and multiplying infinite by infinite. When I look into my heart and take a view of my wickedness, it looks like an abyss infinitely deep, and yet it seems to me that my conviction of sin is exceeding small and faint."

Perhaps you will ask, Why do you wish me to have such a discovery of my lost condition? I answer, that you may be broken off from all schemes of self-righteousness; that you may never look into your poor guilty soul to recommend you to God; and that you may joyfully accept of the Lord Jesus Christ, who obeyed and died for sinners. Oh, that your heart may cleave to Christ! May you forsake all, and follow Jesus Christ. Count every thing loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. You never will stand righteous before God in yourself. You are welcome this day to stand righteous before God in Jesus." —Robert Murray M'Cheyne (1813-1843)

Certain Knowledge

"With a weak faith and a fearful heart, many a sinner stands before the Lord. It is not the strength of our faith, but the perfection of Christ's sacrifice that saves! No feebleness of faith, nor dimness of eye, no trembling of hand can change the efficacy of Christ's blood. The strength of our faith can add nothing to it, nor can the weakness of our faith take anything from Him. Faith (weak or strong) still reads the promise, "the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." If at times my eye is so dim that I cannot read these words, through blinding tears or bewildering trials, faith rests itself on the certain knowledge of the fact that THE PROMISE IS THERE, and the blood of Christ remains in all its power and suitableness upon the altar, unchanged and unaffected. God says that the believer is justified. What God bath joined together, let not man put asunder." —Horatius Bonar (1808-1889)

Renouncing Christianity

"Every professing Christian is the soldier of Christ. He is bound by his baptism to fight Christ's battle against sin, the world, and the devil. The man that does not do this, breaks his vow: he is a spiritual defaulter; he does not fulfil the engagement made for him. The man that does not do this, is practically renouncing his Christianity." —J. C. Ryle (1816-1900)

For Whom Did Christ Die?

With MacArthur's Archives now open I have found a sermon which I would like to recommend, it's titled "For Whom Did Christ Die?" and I believe this is a must listen sermon for anyone who recently attended the John 3:16 conference.

DIE!

Free Grace To You

I just had to post this, I couldn't help myself!

There's some great news concerning http://www.gty.org, at least some of us find this great news. It seems that the ministry of John MacArthur (GRACE TO YOU) is releasing their entire mp3 audio archives of pastor MacArthur for FREE starting next Wednesday, November 5 (the day after the election), Grace to You is to announce a new policy concerning their audio downloads. That's nearly 40 years of preaching and somewhere around 3500 sermons for free. Thank you John MacArthur and Grace To You!

I think I may need a bigger iPod?

(Hat Tip) Between Two Worlds

A Grain of Grace

"Hast thou, my brother, ever learned to distinguish between grace and gifts? For know that they are marvellously dissimilar. A man may be saved who has not a grain of gifts; but no man can be saved who hath no grace... for one grain of grace outweighs a pound of gifts;" —C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)

Quote of the Day

"To deny the sovereignty of God is to enter upon a path which, if followed to its logical terminus, is to arrive at blank atheism." —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)

Fully and Beautifully

"For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering." (Hebrews 2:10)

"The text fully and beautifully implies the absolute sovereignty of God. His name is not mentioned, but he is described as one for whom all things exist and by whom all things came into being. He is the origin and the end of all things. This thought is concentrated into the statement, that in accomplishing the salvation of sinners he is the supreme actor, and that the sovereign act of salvation is brought to its accomplishment by the provision of a perfect Saviour. Not the free will of man, not even the voluntary self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ, can conflict with, much less overthrow, the supreme fact that the salvation of men is a sovereign action of God." —E. C. Dargan (1852-1913)

Gifts Without Grace

"Spiritual gifts are for the confirmation of the gospel and the spiritual edification of the church. But gifts do not bring salvation and can be given to those who know nothing of grace in their hearts. So it is incumbent on all who have received spiritual gifts not to look to them as evidences of being truly regenerated, but to spiritual graces. Some have been deceived into thinking they have grace when they only have gifts. So the presence of spiritual gifts can mislead us into thinking that all is well when great apostasy is taking place.

Gifts, without grace, have no influence on the soul and they work only at special times and on special occasions. But grace affects the whole person at all times and in all duties. Grace works holy obedience in the soul. Gifts do not. Gifts are not, and can never be, the measure of our growth in grace..." —John Owen (1616-1683)

Quote taken from "Apostasy from the Gospel" by John Owen, The Banner of Truth Trust; 1992 p. 160

Unfair Grace?

"The overwhelming majority of professing Christians grants that God is sovereign over nature and that He is sovereign over human behavior. The affirmation of divine sovereignty starts to disappear, however, when Christians begin to struggle over the third area in which the Scriptures affirm God's sovereignty--His grace. Somehow the idea that God reserves to Himself eternally and absolutely the right to manifest His saving mercy on some individuals and to withhold it from others is an act we adjudge to be unfair. The apostle Paul anticipated this human reaction to divine sovereignty in salvation when he raised the rhetorical question, "Is there injustice on God's part?" (Rom. 9:14b). Such a question has never been raised about Arminian or semi-Pelagian schemes of salvation. The suggestion of unrighteousness in God comes only in response to the affirmation of the absolute sovereignty of God in His saving choice to elect some and not others."--R.C. Sproul

Are You Experienced?

Over at Extreme Theology Chris Rosebrough is live bloging the Reveal Conference at Willow Creek and has expressed his experience during day two of the worship time, boy this brings back Memories.

"I experienced ear splitting sissy girly oprahfied 7/11 songs and the complete anger that is stirred up whenever a pastor treats worship time as a group therapy session. I experienced the righteous anger that is kindled whenever I hear someone claim that God is speaking to them and they 'share' what God told them as if that is on par with the word of God.

I experienced the sheer frustration and the all engulfing feeling that I am going to crawl out of my skin if I have to listen to another minute of a pastor speaking in sappy therapeutic tones while the keyboardist plays softly in the background." (Read More+)