Adoption, Irresistible Grace, and Unconditional Election: An Anecdote

Adoption, Irresistible Grace, and Unconditional Election: An Anecdote

Adoption, Irresistible Grace, and Unconditional Election: An Anecdote

Adoption, Irresistible Grace, and Unconditional Election: An Anecdote

A YOUNG MAN'S WAY

''WHEREWITHAL SHALL A YOUNG MAN CLEANSE HIS WAY/ BY TAKING HEED THERETO ACCORDING TO THY WORD''PSALM 119;9 The psalmist's question about the way of a young man may be likened unto a manufacturer's attempt to display the utmost effectiveness of his product. The power of a soap to cleanse a stain is not seen until the stain be very deep, and thus it is declared from the opening chapters of Genesis, ''for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth'' [8;21], proving that a very great power is required to cleanse it. Youth is often a time when lust cries for gratification, and passions are most unruly, and when indulged these will quickly begin to form beaten paths for sin in a young man's life which he may never depart from all his days. The greatest danger of the way of self-gratification in youth is that it seems pleasurable, even right, to the youthful mind which is not farsighted enough to reckon with the day of accounting that is coming, as the Preacher in Ecclesiastes warned; ''Rejoice O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment'' [11;9]. Hence the question ''wherewithal'' or by what means is the unwary youth to cleanse himself from the evil within his own heart, and keep himself from the defiling temptations all about him/ A straightforward, emphatic answer follows, ''by taking heed thereto according to thy word.'' In order to do this, it must first be accepted that everything the Bible says is God's inspired Word, that it is the end of all controversy, that the thoughts of one's heart, if contrary to it are wrong, and the Bible is right. God's testimony that man's heart is ''deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked'' [Jer. 17;9] muist not only be agreed to as true of all mankind in general, but also by the Holy Spirit's convicting work must come a feeling sense of one's personal unbelief, rebellion, and disobedience. With the conviction of sin, comes also an understanding that the blood and righteousness of the now risen Saviour is required for God to ever pardon and justify a sinner, and that to continue to follow Satan, the god of this world, will emd in eternal Hell [Jn.16;8-11].

Letter to Awakened Sinners

Dear awakened sinner, I have prayed for you and longed for you, that you by the grace of God, would trust or lean upon, or give yourself completely to the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. Remember--anything this side of Hell is mercy. Remember--you deserve to go to Hell. Remember--God has only one way to save any sinner, and that is, by Christ as your Substitute. Then it is come to Christ or be lost forever. Do you feel your need of Christ/ Do you see your need of Christ/ Have you come to the end of your way where you must look to Christ and Him alone as your Substitute, as the One who died in your place/ Have you signed your death warrant meaning you have acknowledged in your heart that you deserve to go to Hell, you ought to go to Hell, and if God sends you to Hell, you will get your just dues/ It is then, and only then, that you look to Christ, because He is the only One left to whom you can turn. Have you come to see and to know and to acknowledge that you are utterly lost, and that you are at your wit's end [Ps. 107;27], and have been made to cry out of the depths of your heart, from your distressed soul, ''Lord, save me, or I perish... Lord, be merciful to me the sinner''/ If you have, then you are pardoned. As some old divine has said, based upon God's Word, ''Salvation is knowing yourself, and knowing Christ.'' No one will flee to Christ until he has first come to know himself. There are 2 prayers that every awakened sinner can pray; first, ''Lord, show me myself,'' second, ''Lord, show me Christ.'' I must be frank with you, it will cost you everything in the world that you have, or ever hope to have to get to Christ, because ''believing on Christ'' means surrendering everything, giving up everything. If you are not willing to surrender everything, according to Luke 14;33, if you are not willing for Christ to be Lord of your heart and life, then forget about ever being saved. Just make up your mind that you are goung to Hell, and stop trying to make God come to your terms. I leave these pungent words with you, and may the Holy Spirit take them to your heart. If He does, you will soon be writing me, ''Thank you, Brother Foltz, for being true to me. I am now rejoicing in Christ, as my Lord and Saviour.'' Ever Your Friend, Paul W. Foltz DD

THE GRACE OF GOD

The general meaning of grace is a favorable disposition or kindness. In the Bible it is the eternal and absolute free favor of God shown to guilty sinners. Grace has been defined by means of an acrostic; God's Riches At Christ's Expense. To elaborate on that definition,grace is divinely appointed, eternal precious blessings which comes to the undeserving, having been purposed by the Father, purchased by the Son, and applied by the Holy Spirit.

No, I haven't died. I haven't become a Catholic and joined a monastery. I am not sequestered somewhere writing a book. I haven't been kidnapped by aliens for X-File type experiments. No, I have been 1. somewhat busy and 2. procrastinating. I am really good at the second one. But I am around and things are getting back on track. So those of you who take the time to read this blog will be seeing some new material soon.

The Doctrines of Grace

The doctrines of grace far from being secondary, form the very heart of the gospel. As the marrow is to the bone un, so these doctrines are essential to rightly understanding the body of God's revealed truth. The 5 doctrines--TOTAL DEPRAVITY, UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION, PARTICULAR REDEMPTION, IRRESISTIBLE GRACE, AND PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS IN HOLINESS AS PROOF OF THEIR SALVATION, must be accepted by faith before one can understand God's eternal purpose in saving some of mankind. These doctines are the pith and marrow of all sweetness. They tell us how God has graciously condescended to save rebels. Praise His name. He chose me..... WELL, GLORY......

GOD'S PROMISES

All the promises of God found in His Word, the Bible, are made to special individuals-that is, every promise in God's Word is made to HIS people, to the saints of God, or, the born again ones, or called-out ones. they are not made to the world, neither does Christ pray for the world [John 17;9]. Let me repeat it; the promises of God's Word were given to His people [John 17;8], because every promise grows out of the covenant of grace between God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for His people. ''For all the promises of God in him, are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us'' [II Corinthians 1;20].

2 Peter 3;1-9 EXPLAINED

1. Some scoffers had raised the question of the delay of the Second Coming. Did the fact of that delay mean that God was slack in some way regarding the fulfillment of His promise, maybe even incapable of bringing it to pass/ Why the delay in His coming/ 2. Peter answers that there is a group that is the object of God's foebearance, and that God is not willing that these certain ones should perish, but that all of these should come to repentance. 3. Therefore the Second Coming is not delayed, but it is right on schedule, according to God's plan and purpose in saving a people. Christ will come, when this people is complete, and in the interval till then He will work bringing these to salvation. 4. Therefore the passage is not teaching that God is holding up the Second Coming in the hope a few more will be saved. Rather, the Second Coming will happen according to God's purpose and will, which includes the calling out of a people prior to that hour. 5. This interpretation not only is true to the text and context, but it is also true to the Biblical concept of God, Who is in full control, and works all things after the counsel of His own will.

TWIN GRACES

When the Holy Spirit regenerates the sinner, whom God the Father gave to Christ [JOHN 17], He implants the graces of faith and repentance which lead to the initial conversion experience [EPH. 2;8-9; ACTS 5;39]. This must be so because the sinner is DEAD spiritually, unable to believe or repent on his own.

A SAD DAY

When the Holy Spirit awakened me to my lost condition, it was a gracious day. But soon after I experienced a sad day, when the Spirit led me to see that I had sinned against Him, Who had died for me. Then I learned we have two natures warring in us. The one we feed and yield to, is the one which gets the upper hand. But through the filling of the Spirit, we have the victory of the sin nature. We must confess our known sins and yield ourselves to The Holy Spirit. It must be done repeatedly; everytime we sin.

FINDING GOD'S WILL IN 2010

1. Seek to get your heart into a state, where it has no will of its own in a given matter. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when the heart is ready to do the Lord's work, whatever it may be. 2. Don't leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If you do, you will open yourself up to delusion. 3. Seek God's will through, or in the Word of God. The Holy Spirit guides according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them. 4. TAKE INTO ACCOUNT PROVIDENTIAL CIRCUMSTANCES. They often plainly indicate Gos's Will in connection with His Word and Spirit. 5. Ask God to reveal His Will to you. 6. Thus, through prayer, study of the Word and reflection, you will come to find God's Will.

Thankstgiving

This Thanksgiving we should be grateful that we are still a relatively free nation, in spite of the Liberal administration and its efforts to destroy our great land. Freedom is a gift of God. WE ARE FREE BECAUSE GOD DESIGNED US TO BE THAT WAY.

Southern Grits & Sovereign Grace: To the IMB --- It's Personal!

Southern Grits & Sovereign Grace: To the IMB --- It's Personal!

Southern Grits & Sovereign Grace: To the IMB --- It's Personal!

Southern Grits & Sovereign Grace: To the IMB --- It's Personal!

CHRIST REVEALED AS SAVIOUR

Every individual out of Christ who has heard the Gospel preached, realizes that Christ died for sinners. This great truth becomes a historical fact to the sinner. Then the sinner sees the suffering Saviour as He is lifted up in the preaching of the Gospel, because by the foolishness of preaching He has ordained to save them which believe. As the Lord Jesus Christ is lifted up in faithful preaching under the power of God's Holy Spirit, the sinner looks upon this pierced Saviour lifted up in such preaching and comes to believe Him to be the world's Divine Saviour. As the sinner sees the Saviour lifted up in the Gospel, he looks upon Him and is broken down in utter repentance, and is made to mourn over his sins, over his sin nature that crucified his Lord. As he sees his guiltiness before God, he goes to praying. he gives up all pretension to self-righteousness, and comes to see that all of his religious exercises and works are but filthy rags. It is then that he begins to call upon the name of the Lord and ask that His propriation be applied to him, and that Christ become his own Saviour. As he continues to call upon the name of the Lord, God continues to strip him until he comes to see his utter vileness, until he abhors himself. He comes to see his great distance from God, that he is utterly separated from God. As he continues to call upon the name of the Lord, he sees his utter helplessness to do one thing about his salvation, and that his salvation rests wholly and completely in the hands of a sovereign God. He continues to call upon the Lord, and he finds all his strength gone and he is utterly helpless. His hopes flee away, and he sees that if he is ever saved GOD will have to do it. Then it is is cries, ''God, be merciful to me the sinner, or I PERISH.'' And then comes the personal application of the blood to his own heart by the Holy Spirit; there comes the revelation of CHRIST AS HIS ABSOLUTE LORD AND HIS OWN PERSONAL SAVIOUR, as the Oe who died for him, who bore his sins in hIS OWN BODY ON THE TREE. It is then that God gives him faith to receive Christ, and to trust his soul to Him for ever and ever. Christ and the sinner then become one, eternally united.

WORLDLINESS

Many, today are puzzled or ignorant of what worldlinness is. From Romans 12;;2 we see that it is a primarily, a mental attitude that issue forth in activity, without any regard gor God or, His law. What one thinks he is-''As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.'' When you act or think without regarding God or His law, you are worldly. Satan could not drive the church out of the world;so he put it into the local church. Only when we are regulated by God's WORD CAN WE BOT BE WORLDLY.

THE ENTRANCE OF GOD'S WORDS

The Holy Spirit, at times gives testimony concerning Jesus, to open up a passage of Scripture, speaking of Jesus, to cast a divine light before astonished eyes, and to throw some beams of gospel truth into our souls, whereby we see Jesus. At times we are brought to say,from an apprehension of His beauty and loveliness,''We would see Jesus.'' We want to feel His love, to have our eyes anointed to behold His glory, to look upon Him as crucified for us and bearing our sins in His own body on the tree, that we have a sweet, blessed fellowship with Him as our Surety. Wherever there is a work of grace upon the soul, there will be this pining after Christ. The soul that is really taught of God can never rest satisfied short of Jesus.

GOD'S UNDERTAKINGS IN SALVATION

The divine undertakings in the salvation of sinners fall into these two categories; 1.Acts of Divine Justice 2.Acts of the super-abounding grace of God. Those acts dealing with human unworthiness and acts of sin are acts of justice. AMONG THESE WE FIND FORGIVENESS, JUSTIFICATION, DEATH TO THE LAW, FREEDOM FROM THE LAW, AND THE NEW CREATION.ALL THIS COMES BY THE CROSS. Those aspects of salvation where God bestows or imparts His benefits are immediate acts of grace. These include; gift of eternal life, imputed righteousness of god, and every spiritual blessing.

A LONG AWAITED BLESSING

The SBC WAS BLESSED TODAY WHEN FORMER US PRESIDENT LEFT THE SBC CHURCH. HE HELD TO NEIGHBOR'S THEOLOGY AND WAS A LIBERAL, MODERNIST IN HIS THEOLOGY. MAYBE OUR LORD WILL BLESS THE SBC WITH THE EXIT OF THOSE WHO HOLD TO FREE WILL, LEAVING ONLY THOSE ADHERING TO FREE GRACE.