God's Election is by foreknowledge.

God's Election and our free will are both here.

"All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me" 

This states an absolute truth, and that is election. 

But wait a minute! 

"And him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out"

This is also absolutely true.

"  ...  him that cometh to Me" is free will. 

No one knows how to reconcile them, 

but they are both entirely true.

The Father gives people to the Lord Jesus, but people have to come to Him. 

And those who come, are the ones whom the Father gives to Christ. 

God has given to us a free will and we have to exercise it, we exercise it by trusting Christ, by believing Him, by taking Him at His Word.

He has said that of every person who comes to Him not one will be rejected. 

Christ will accept every person that will come to Him, that will answer His call, when He softly and tenderly calls them for He is good and gracious and kind and He waits patiently for us. Actually He longs for us to come to Him and to receive His gift of salvation  -   Christ  -   who is Eternal Life.

All who come to God, answer His call. For faith in Christ comes to us by us hearing what He did for us on the cross and then  believing it  -  claiming it.

Everything is really wrapped up in the word believe. When we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ we are saved, why because we know we are a sinner and that we need to be washed in His precious shed blood upon the tree of Calvary. The Word believe means action. When we believe that the world is on fire, we get out of it. Now before we get out of it we will believe that it is indeed on fire. When we truly trust Christ, believe in Him there is no turning back ever again for we belong to Him who has called us and we are called to holiness, to live on a higher plane of living and He has enabled us to do so by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  

Christ when He chooses us by His election process separates us unto Himself - we are identified with Him. 

Now if we are identified with Him how can we continue to practice or live in sin, telling lies about others and deceiving others by our baring false witness and not being obedient to the Word of God? 

When we take responsibility for our sin  before God, and acknowledge it, we will turn from it.

How can we claim to love Christ and continue on in sin?

How can we practice sin and claim to be in Christ?

The eagle wings of God’s grace have taken those who have trusted Christ and lifted them out of sin. But that does not end it. The same grace of God is 

"Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present age" (Titus 2:12). 

And apostle Paul wrote this, not in the language of Sinai, but in the language of love, the language of a mother eagle urging her young to come up higher: 

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service" (Romans 12:1).

And again to the Ephesians he said, 

"I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forebearing one another in love" (Ephesians 4:1, 2).

It is a high calling, but it demands walking in lowliness and meekness down here.

Christ is our righteousness for His righteousness is  imputed to us when we are born-again and His 

righteousness causes us to live right, walk in Him - He lives His life in us and through us as we abide in Him.

"Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16).

God's elect are born of the Spirit of God, born-from-above, they receive the Father's nature when they receive Christ for they are accepted in the Beloved.

There are many people today who claim to be saved, the church is full of such people. They go to church on Sundays and at Easter and at Christmas and like to make a show of certain festivals like the harvest festival and it always amuses me because they bring store bought vegetables and make a show  - not that which they have harvested themselves  -  growing good vegetables takes hard work. 

God's elect love Christ, He is their life 24/7, They hear His voice and He leads them out day by day and moment by moment. He leads them besides still waters and He feeds them in green pastures. When they are fed they lie down and rest in Him for He is their rest. They abide in Him from Monday to Sunday and for them EVERY SINGLE SUNDAY is Easter Sunday. 

We are told in Scripture that we are to remember Christs death and resurrection every Sunday  -  not only on good Friday -   His death and resurrection go together and we are to celebrate His victory over sin and death every Sunday.

The Christian life is a love affair, we love Him because He first loved us. 

How can we continue practicing sin in our lives when we believe what Christ has done for us on the cross? 

Our Lord Jesus Christ said, 

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5).

"Born of water and of the Spirit" means that a person must be born-again by the Holy Spirit using the Scripture. No one can be born-again without the Word of God. One today is born-from-above by the use of water, which is the Word of God, and the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, making it real to the heart.

Water is symbolic of the Word of God. Our Lord Jesus said, "Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth" (John 17:17). There is a cleansing, sanctifying power in the Word of God. In John 15:3 Our Lord Jesus says, "Now ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you." The Word of God is likened unto water again and again.

God', elect are "Born of water and of the Spirit."

"But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin;  but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Romans 8:9-14).

Gods elect are led by the Spirit of God and the Spirit of God will not lead any child of God to live in sin.

"... How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" 

If we say God has declared us to be righteous and He has removed the guilt of our sin, then, dear reader, can we continue to  practice sin? The answer is, "God forbid!" (See Rom. 6:2).

We are witnesses of God's grace in the world.

It is by God's grace that we are saved and it is by his grace that we live for Christ.

"But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life (Jude 20-21).

This is what keeps God's elect busy in this world.

Christ has won the victory over Satan for us and our deliverance is in Him. He is our new life.

Christ liveth in me.

Once far from God and dead in sin,

No light my heart could see,

BUT IN GOD'S WORD

THE LIGHT I FOUND  - 

Now Christ liveth in me.

Christ liveth in me,

Christ liveth in me,

O what a salvation this  -

That Christ  liveth in me.

As lives the flower  within the seed,

As in the cone the tree,

SO,  PRAISE THE GOD

OF TRUTH AND GRACE,

His Spirit dwelleth in me.

With longing all my heart is filled,

That like Him I may be,

AS ON THE WONDROUS 

THOUGHT I DWELL,

That Christ liveth in me.

Words: Daniel W. Whittle,  1840 1901.

Amen!

Christ Jesus is Eternal Life.

Now all those who are elected to salvation, the ones whom He knows by foreknowledge, are going to believe in Christ and they will ask Him to be their personal Saviour.

God knows each one of His sheep by name because He created every single sheep and He knows every heart of every single sheep and therefore He knows by His knowing before hand which sheep will accept Christ as Saviour and trust Him for their salvation from their sin. 

It begins with predestination  -  now  nowhere in the Word of God is predestination ever used in connection with the lost  -   Nowhere!  Predestination means whom He predestines, He calls, whom He calls, He justifies, and whom He justifies, He shall one day glorify. It means that when God starts out with a sinner, any sinner who will come to Him, whom He saves, He is going to take that person all the way home to glory. That is all in the word predestination. In other words, God gives Eternal life to all whom He predestinates, they will live for ever and ever.

Let’s put it like this: God predestines one hundred sheep. How many sheep does He call? One hundred. How many sheep does He justify? One hundred. 

Our Lord Jesus gave a parable,  

A shepherd had one hundred sheep, and one of the little sheep got lost. Now when He starts out with one hundred sinners, He will not lose one single sheep. 

But  one of His little sheep got lost. Don’t miss that  -  he got lost. 

There were ninety and nine that safely lay
In the shelter of the fold;
But one was out on the hills away,
Far off from the gates of gold,
Away on the mountains wild and bare,
Away from the tender Shepherd's care,
Away from the tender Shepherd's care.

"Lord, Thou hast here Thy ninety and nine,
Are they not enough for Thee?"
But the Shepherd made answer:
"This of Mine Has wandered away from Me;
And although the road be rough and steep,
I go to the desert to find My sheep,
I go to the desert to find My sheep."

But none of the ransomed ever knew
How deep were the waters crossed;
Nor how dark was the night the Lord passed through
Ere He found His sheep that was lost:
Out in the desert He heard its cry,
Sick and helpless and ready to die,
Sick and helpless and ready to die.

"Lord, whence are those blood-drops all the way,
That mark out the mountain's track?"
"They were shed for one who had gone astray
Ere the Shepherd could bring him back."
"Lord, whence are Thy hands so rent and torn?"
"They are pierced tonight by many a thorn,
They are pierced tonight by many a thorn."

But all thro' the mountains thunder-riv'n
And up from the rocky steep,
There arose a cry to the gates of heav'n:
"Rejoice! I have found My sheep!"
And the angels echoed around the throne,
"Rejoice! for the Lord brings back His own!
Rejoice! for the Lord brings back His own!"

One little sheep did not make it. 

What did the Shepherd do? 

He went out and looked for that sheep until He found it, then He put it on His shoulder, the place of strength, and He brought it back to the fold. 

And when He brought it into the fold, He had one hundred sheep. He started out with one hundred and  He got home with one hundred sheep.

All predestination means is that God is able to get every one of His own sheep, His own dear children through to glory. And He has been in the business now for over two thousand years, calling out His own sheep.

Isaiah 53:6   "All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."

Remember that the Shepherd calls. 

Those who hear His voice. His call through hearing His Word and come to Him are His elect. 

Do you remember when you were called, when you heard the gospel and believed it? 

What did God do? 

He justified you and when He justified you He sealed you with His Holy Spirit and the Spirit within you is the guarantee that He will bring you home to glory that where He is there you shall be also.

When a single sheep gets lost God will go out and look for that lost sheep until He safely brings it back into the fold.  Oh what a Great Shepherd He truly is.

He carries that lost sheep on His very own shoulders 

and may I say to be on His shoulders is the finest place to be and if that is where you are dear reader then rest in Him, just enjoy Him every moment for it is so precious and your memories of Him when you could not walk will sustain you for years to come. That,  is what our Lord did for me dear reader 

Oh He is just everything you will ever need in this life.

We can place all our confidence in Him. There is no praise for the sheep, but all the praise 

and all the glory is about the Most Wonderful Shepherd who is the Chief Shepherd of the sheep.

We are identified with Christ and the world sees as as His followers. They look to see if we are obedient to His Word. That is the thing they look for. When we truly believe what someone tells us to do, we do it. Belief means taking action. We believe we are sinners, we accept Christ as our personal Saviour, and when we turn to Him, we turn from our sin because the Holy Spirit begins the work of salvation in our lives and we work out that salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in us, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. We begin to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit brings godly sorrow to our hearts which enables us to acknowledge our sin, face up to the truth  and put right that which we have done wrong and gradually one by one the Lord Jesus gets rid of all the old skeletons in our cupboards, things we have forgotten about that are still causing pain in this world today and He leads us to true repentance. When we repent with godly sorrow, wrought only by the Spirit of God working within us, the wounds of sin are healed for He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed (see Isaiah 53:5). It is by His stripes that we are healed of our sin and it is by His stripes that those we have wounded  by our willful sin are healed also.

" ...  who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed" (1 Peter 2:24). 

We need to confess our sin because God is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (see 1John 1:9). He alone makes right the wrong we have done and He alone restores our fellowship. 

When we come before Him in truth and we can only come in truth for God works only through Christ Jesus who is the truth. Every single matter past, present and future is settled in truth and it will either be settled this side or in eternity but we will each one give an account of our lives to Him. Obedience to Christ is of utmost importance.

"And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great" (Luke 6:46-49).

Our Lord Jesus says that if we love Him we are to obey His commands.

Love is the only way we can please God and it is the only way in which we may bring glory to His Name. We love Christ and obey Him because He first loved us and gave Himself for us. We can only please God when we love the Lord Jesus Christ for we are chosen in Him.

"According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love"  (Ephesians 1:4). 

Although these statements are clear, the truth they contain is hard to receive. These verses are like a walnut  -  hard to crack but with a lot of goodies on the inside.

"According as" is a connective which modifies the preceding statement in verse three.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ."

The spiritual blessings which we are given are in accord with His Divine Will.  Everything is done in perfect unison with God's His Purpose. This world and this universe will operate according to the plan and purpose of Almighty God.

 "According as" looks back to the three-in-one blessing in this verse. There are actually three ins in this verse. 

1) "in all spiritual blessings," which are then wrapped 

2) "In the heavenlies," and finally put in the larger package of

3) "in Christ." 

The whole thought is that we are to open our gift and see what God has done for us. Then we are to move out in faith and lay hold of it and live on the high plane to which God has brought us. He has made us a son and He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings.

We need to live like that in the world today.

Now all this was according to His plan. God the Father planned the church, God the Son paid for the church, and God the Holy Spirit protects the church. The source of all our blessings is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He carries our mind back to eternity past to make us realize that salvation is altogether of God and not at all of ourselves.

In tenderness He sought me,
Weary and sick with sin,
And on His shoulders brought me
Back to His fold again.
While angels in His presence sang
Until the courts of heaven rang.

Refrain:
Oh, the love that sought me!
Oh, the blood that bought me!
Oh, the grace that brought me to the fold,
Wondrous grace that brought me to the fold!

He washed the bleeding sin-wounds,
And poured in oil and wine;
He whispered to assure me,
"I've found thee; thou art Mine";
I never heard a sweeter voice;
It made my aching heart rejoice!

He pointed to the nailprints;
For me His blood was shed;
A mocking crown so thorny
Was placed upon His head:
I wondered what He saw in me
To suffer such deep agony.

I'm sitting in His presence,
The sunshine of His face,
While with adoring wonder
His blessings I retrace.
It seems as if eternal days
Are far too short to sound His praise.

So, while the hours are passing,
All now is perfect rest;
I'm waiting for the morning,
The brightest and the best,
When He will call us to His side,
To be with Him, His spotless bride.

Thanks: SermonAudio.com

Amen!

"According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world."

 God planned our salvation way back yonder in eternity before you and I were even in this world at all. The Lord Jesus Christ is the One who came down in time, and He wrought out our salvation upon the cross when the fullness of time had come. God the Holy Spirit is the One who convicts us today. 

He brings us to the place of faith in Christ and to a saving knowledge of the grace of God that is revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The late Dr. Harry A. Ironside told this story. 

A little boy was asked, "Have you found Jesus?" The little fellow answered, 

"Sir, I didn’t know He was lost. But I was lost and He found me."

Dear reader we do not find Jesus. He finds us. 

He is the One who went out after the lost sheep, and He is the One who found that sheep.

God chose believers in Christ before the foundation of the world, way back in eternity past. That means that you and I didn’t do the choosing. He did not choose us because we were good or because we would do some good, but He did choose us so that we could do some good. The entire choice is thrown back upon the sovereignty of the wisdom and goodness of God alone.

It was Charles Hadad Spurgeon who once said,

"God chose me before I came into the world, because if He’d waited until I got here, He never would have chosen me."

It is God who has chosen us  -  

we have not chosen Him.

The Lord Jesus said to His own in the Upper Room,

"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you …" (John 15:16). 

Dr. G. Campbell Morgan commented, 

"That puts all the responsibility on Him. If He did the choosing, then He is responsible." 

That makes it quite wonderful!

Israel furnishes us an example of this divine choosing.

"Hear this Word that the Lord hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities" (Amos 3:1–2). 

God chose Israel in time;

He chose the church in eternity. 

Since God made the choice in eternity, there has not arisen anything unforeseen that has caused Him to change His mind or His program. 

He knew the end from the beginning. 

Acts 15:18   "Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world."

God did all this for a purpose:

"that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love."

 God chose us in order to sanctify us.

He saves us and sanctifies us that we might be holy. 

That is the positive side of His purpose. 

It has to do with the inner life of the believer.

A holy life is demanded by God’s election. 

Now do not tell me that you can say, 

"Well, I’m one of the elected. I have been saved by grace, and now I can do as I please." 

Apostle Paul answered that kind of reasoning. 

"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" (Rom. 6:1–2). 

We cannot ever  use God's grace as a license to sin.

If we go on living in sin, it is because we are a sinner who has not been saved. 

A sinner who has been saved will show a change in their way of living.

Not only did God elect us in order that we should be holy but also that we should be "without blame."

This is the negative side. 

The believer in Christ is seen before God as without blame. Again we see an example of this in Israel. God would not permit Balaam to curse Israel or to find fault with His people. 

"He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them" (Num. 23:21). 

God is the only One who will judge His own in this world.

He is in the process of sanctifying and purifying His own in this world.

God has chosen you in order that He might make you holy and in order that He might make you without blame. It means that your life has been changed. If there is no evidence of change, then you are not one of the elect. God wants His children to live lives which are not marked or spotted with sin. He has made every provision to absolve them from all blame. 

1 John 2:1–2   "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." 

That answers once and for all the question of a limited atonement, that is, that Christ died only for the elect. This verse in 1 John makes it clear that the Lord Jesus Christ died for the world. It does not matter who we are or how bad or good we are we all need a Saviour and there is today right now sent out to each reader of this page from God the Father a legitimate offer of salvation and that the Lord Jesus died for you. You can receive Him right now just ask Him to save you now.  No one can say they are not one of the elect. We are of the elect if we hear His voice. We also have a free will not to hear His voice. It is a glorious and wonderful thing that the God of heaven would elect some of us to be saved. 

I do not  ever propose to understand all that  -  I just believe it.

Our Lord Jesus gave us a picture of a wide highway and off that highway is a narrow entrance. 

Over the entrance it says, 

"… I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me" (John 14:6), and "I am the door …" (John 10:9).

Now the interesting thing is that the broad highway on which most of the people are traveling leads down and gets narrower and narrower until finally it leads to destruction. We can keep on that highway if we wish, 

but we can also turn off if we want to. We can turn off at the invitation, 

"… him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37). 

We can enter in at the narrow way, and the interesting thing is that though the entrance is narrow, the road widens out as we trod along.

"… I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). 

The broad way comes after we get through the narrow gate. But we have to decide that we want to turn off the broad road and go through the narrow entrance

Whosoever will may come - It is a genuine invitation.

D. L. Moody put it in his quaint way. He said, 

"The whosoeverwills are the elect and the whosoeverwon’ts are the nonelect." 

It is up to you my dear reader and I plead with you for Lord Jesus sake because I love Him so much that you will accept Him as your Saviour. Just ask Him right now to come into your being because you have a longing in your heart to be a genuine child of God the Father and trust Him to save you.  

If you will open your heart, you can come. That is all you have to do. I don’t believe in the idea today that one has "mental reservations." The problem is that it is the sin in our lives that keeps us from coming to Christ and the Bible condemns sin. If we come to Christ, it means we will have to turn from that sin, and some of us are too proud to acknowledge our sin and we cannot hide sin in our hearts when we trust Christ. The Holy Spirit convicts us, we confess that sin and God is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and He restores us back to our rightful place. 

"Chosen us in Him."

Again and again the Word of God emphasizes God’s sovereign choice.

Apostle Paul states,

"But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: Whereunto He called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thess. 2:13–14). 

Apostle Peter writes in

1 Peter 1:2   "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.…"

It is interesting that election and sanctification go together and they are both in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

If God has saved you, He has not saved you because you are good because you are not good. 

Apostle Paul puts it in such a marvelous way: 

"What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy" (Romans 9:14–16). 

Moses went to God in prayer and God answered Moses but He told Moses at that time 

"Moses, I am going to hear and answer your prayer, but it is not because you are Moses and the deliverer. It is because I will show mercy on whom I will and I’ll show compassion on whom I will. It is not to him that wills nor to him that works but it is I who shows compassion." 

Do you my dear reader want to experience the compassion of God? Then will you turn to Him, now?

I think the best illustration of this is in Acts 27.

Remember that Apostle Paul was in a ship and there was a terrific storm so that the ship was listing and about ready to go down. They had already cast some of the cargo overboard to lighten the ship. 

Then Paul went to the captain and said, 

"And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee" (Acts 27:22–24).

Now that was God’s foreknowledge. 

That is election. 

God had elected that nobody on that ship would be lost.

Just a little later, apostle Paul found a group of the sailors about to let down a lifeboat into the sea. They intended to go overboard, hoping to get to land in that way.

Then Paul said to the captain, 

"… Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved" (Acts 27:31). 

The captain could have said, "Wait a minute. You already told me that none would perish,"

And he would have been right.

That is what Paul had said.

That was God’s side of it  -  none would perish.

But the condition was, 

"Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved." 

That was man’s side of it  -  they had to stay in the ship.

God knows who the elect are. 

We do not know!

God has not given to anyone of us the roll call of the elect. He has told us to preach the gospel to the whole world, it is the "whosoever will" gospel. That is what we are to do.

Someone else has put it like this.

On the door to heaven, from our side, it says, "Whosoever will may enter. I am the door: by Me if any man.…" Any man  -  that means you. You can come in and find pasture and find life. When you get on the other side of the door someday in heaven, you are going to look back, and on that door you will find written, "Chosen in Him before the foundation of the world." I haven’t seen that side of the door yet; therefore, I give God (since He is God) the right to plan His church.

God has planned the church. 

This is His universe, and His church. 

The church is not any denomination. Denominations have substituted the Name of the the Lord Jesus Christ for their particular denomination. His ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper have been perverted by human tradition, His Spirit fettered, and ministry limited to one paid official and there is no distinction made between the saved and the unsaved when the fellowship of which the blood of the the Lamb is the ground and all of this is systematized that to alter it is an impossibility and no resource is left for faith and obedience but separation from it.

This is a quote from Wholesome Word in a 1978 issue.

How very relevant it is today in 2010.

What is God's plan?

"According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love."

Gods called out body of believers walk before Him in love and their obedience to Him is evidence of their love.

We ought to be a good fruit inspector and we should be able to find a little fruit on our fellow believers. In 1 John 3:10 apostle John gives us two clear marks of identification of a true child of God.

"Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God."

It does not matter how active we may be - we could be a deacon or a choir member, busy as a termite  - 

But apostle John says that the important mark of identification is:

"whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God."

That is a strong statement, but apostle John said it, and the Spirit of God said it through him.

"Neither he that loveth not his brother."

Here we have the second mark of identification.

If you are a child of God, you will love other believers in Christ Jesus for we are made one in Him.

This love is a concerned love, a love that acts, a love that does something beneficial concerning the soul.

"But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the Presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." (Jude 20-234).

"Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will" (Ephesians 1:5).

Dear reader, I am going to be in heaven someday, and I’m not going to be there because I am a nice little lady. I will be in heaven because of the mercy of God.

 Somebody has stated it like this:

Until we are willing to come to God as a nobody and then let Him make us a somebody, we will never be saved.

Your best resolutions must totally be waived,

Your highest ambitions be crossed.

You need never think that you will ever be saved,

Until first you have learned that you’re lost."

It is to the lost sinner that God is prepared to extend His mercy.

I was sinking deep in sin,
Far from the peaceful shore,
Very deeply stained within,
Sinking to rise no more;
But the Master of the sea
Heard my despairing cry,
From the waters lifted me,
Now safe am I.

Refrain:
Love lifted me! Love lifted me!
When nothing else could help,
Love lifted me; Love lifted me.
When nothing else could help,
Love lifted me.

All my heart to Him I give,
Ever to Him I'll cling,
In His blessed Presence live,
Ever His praises sing.
Love so mighty and so true
Merits my soul's best songs;
Faithful, loving service, too,
To Him belongs.

Souls in danger, look above,
Jesus completely saves;
He will lift you by His love
Out of the angry waves.
He's the Master of the sea,
Billows His will obey;
He your Saviour wants to be—
Be saved today

Thanks: SermonAudio.com

Amen!

THIS PAGE UPDATED: 18-4-2010