Lord willing, we will be having our annual Bible conference this July 26th, 27th and 28th.
We would welcome all who are able to attend to join us in worship of Jesus Christ and in fellowship of the gospel of His Grace.
Click here for more details https://redeemersgrace.com/?page_id=2127
“After two days was the feast of the Passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death. But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people (Mark 14:1-2).
In these two verses of Inspiration, the Holy Spirit shows us that the Lord our God is the God who can be trusted. Here is a glaring contrast between the God of the Bible and the gods of men. The gods of religion want to do things, desire to do things, and try to do things, but are unable to accomplish them because of the works of the devil and the wills of men. The God of the Bible, the only true God, our God and heavenly Father, never wants what to do, desires to do, or tries to do anything except what he does. He is a God in whom we can be confident, a God who can be trusted implicitly, because he always has his way and does as he will.
Here in Mark 14, we have a very clear example of God’s sovereignty and omnipotent power to accomplish his will. Here we see our great God disappointing the plans and designs of wicked men, overruling their wills and decisions, to accomplish his own eternal purpose of grace in predestination Notice the words of our text, “The chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death.” But that was not what God had purposed. Therefore, in his wise and adorable providence, he simply overruled their schemes. God defeated their counsel and performed his own.
Our God is in control of this world, absolutely in control of it (Psalm 76:10). That God, and that God alone, who is in absolute, total control of the entire universe, we can and should trust with implicit confidence in all things and with all things. If the god you trust can be controlled, hindered, or even influenced by you, by Satan, or by all the powers of earth and hell, then the god you trust is not God at all. Our God is not a spectator or even a competitor in this world. He is the Ruler of it. Salvation is knowing him, the only true and living God as he is revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ his Son, the God-man, our Savior (John 17:3). He who is our God is the God, the only God you can trust.
Don Fortner
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. Mark 16:15-16
For whatever reason men deny, discount, or make light of the immersion of believers as the public profession of salvation, I challenge them to do so using the Scriptures rather than their denominational fathers and their own human logic. The Scriptures require that every person who claims Christ as Lord and Savior should be immersed (Mark 16:16; Matt. 28:19; Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16; Acts 9:18). Read the accounts of conversion in the New Testament and you’ll find that all of them publicly professed their faith in Christ by following the Lord Jesus in baptism. You may sprinkle your infants and say that this ritual takes the place of circumcision. Paul was circumcised as an infant but when he became a believer in Christ he was baptized! Why be immersed when, like some of you, he had fulfilled the covenant ceremony? He was immersed to fulfill all righteousness, to be identified with Christ in his death, burial and resurrection, and to publicly confess his faith in the Lord Jesus! And, I might add, to obey the command of his Lord!
While I know that baptism has been misused, misplaced, and misapplied, it is still the Scriptural way to confess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Henry Mahan
I was thinking this week how impossible it would be for a true, God-called preacher, to preach anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. How could I, a desperately wicked sinner, stand week after week, and service after service and tell men how to live, when I struggle and fail daily myself? How could I, the wretched and depraved man that I am, tell others how to become better spouses, parents, children, friends, employers and employees, when I have failed and continue to fail miserably at these things myself? What hypocrisy and vanity that would be! It is not my place to try to straighten people out. A wise and older friend of mine told me not long ago, concerning preaching, to always remember that a man could shear a sheep many times, but he could only slay a sheep once. Friends, it is the preaching of Jesus Christ only that causes us to decrease (sheared). My responsibility is not to tell people how to live, but proclaim to them how our Savior lived, died and resurrected, doing everything perfectly for and in the place of hell-deserving sinners. If God is pleased to save a man or woman, that person will want to hear only one message and one message only: — That Christ came into the world to save sinners, and that sinners come to Christ by free and sovereign grace alone for eternal life.
A beautiful message from our brother David Eddmenson, pastor of Bible Baptist Church in Madisonville, KY
“And Jesus said unto [the crucified thief], Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23.43)
Every life that ends in Christ is a good life. Sometimes God will allow one of his elect to live an entire life of sin, rebellion and violence, then, at the very end of it, call that person to Himself, just as he did with the thief on the cross. Others of His elect He might call early in their lives but leave them encompassed with infirmities such that they never seem of much use to anyone else; He may leave them to struggle with such illness that they cannot leave their homes; He might let them suffer unending pain and know little happiness, He might impoverish them so that they cannot see where the next meal will come from; they may suffer untold grief in the loss of their dearest loved ones and die alone so far as earthly family is concerned; they may die a miserable, slow, painful death; they may see their children rebel against God; they may work hard and gain much only to have it all taken from them, their life’s work crumble right before their eyes; yes, they may experience any of the sorrows and difficulties and outright tragedies that the children of wrath suffer. Yet, their life ends in Christ, so it is a good life.
Someone once said, “If we had God’s power, we would change everything; if we had God’s wisdom, we would change nothing.” Do not despair of your life if you find it a troublesome thing: many a winding, treacherous road leads to a safe haven. Many there are who float through life serenely, and men will praise them at their departure and count them among the blessed of God, yet their life ends outside of Christ, and their life is proven a waste, indeed. And many, like this thief on Calvary, will die cursed of men, considered to be a waste of human flesh, yet will be blessed of God, having had a good life.
So, do not despair of your life or the lives of your loved ones. Have you much suffering now? If your life ends in Christ, you are having a good life. Do you see your children and other loved ones living a godless life? Do not despair: they may be on the road to Christ.
Pastor Joe Terrell
Some happy truth from our late brother Joe Terrell, former pastor of Grace Community Church in Iowa.
It is good to live near the grave for it is in the light of the grave that we see this life as it really is – vanity. No matter the kind of life a person lives, it comes to the grave. The grave also teaches us that our hope must lie beyond what is found in this world: If everything here is vanity, then things of value and substance must be found elsewhere. The grave also teaches us how to live this present life: We must live our lives in the pursuit of Christ and the things concerning Him. Even as we enjoy the transient things of this life, let our eyes be fixed on things above, where Christ is. For the one whose heart is in this world, the grave puts an end to all he hoped for. But for the one whose heart is set on the world beyond the grave, the grave is merely the portal to the realization of all he has hoped for.
Please consider this wisdom from our brother Larry Criss, pastor of Fairmont Grace Church, Sylacauga Alabama
“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; …” – Matthew 7:21
I suppose I think about this passage of Scripture as much as I do any other. The LORD Jesus Christ Himself tells us “in that day,” that day when all hearts will be exposed, when the true sheep of God will be eternally separated from the many mere professors, when every false hope will be proven false, and every fig leave of self-righteousness has been stripped away by the hand of that Just and Holy GOD, in that day when multitudes stand before God with only their own works as their hope of entering heaven. I cannot imagine the utter horror that will overwhelm such people when they hear Jesus Christ say to them: “I never knew you: depart from me.”
I shudder to think that among that many, I see the faces of friends I have known over the years, I also see the faces of many dear family members, and I see the faces of many to whom I have preached the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. I see their fig leaves ripped away and now they stand before God, the righteous Judge of all the earth, without a mediator! Because Jesus Christ, the only mediator between God and men, has already told them: “I never knew you: depart from me!” In the closing of this chapter in Matthew 7, the LORD tells us how such a horrible thing takes place – These many started wrong. They never had laid their hope on Jesus Christ, the Rock on which the church of God is built. They had done everything but that, made decisions, were baptized, joined up, without ever truly believing on the Lord Jesus Christ to the saving of their souls. May God not allow us to build our hope on the sands of our own works, because if He doesn’t, that’s exactly what we’ll do. God, please reveal your Son to us, whom to know is life eternal. Amen
While I draw this fleeting breath,
When my eyelids close in death,
When I soar to worlds unknown,
See Thee on Thy judgment throne;
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. (Ephesians 3:17-19)
And what was the great subject of his prayer. It was short, but comprehensive. It all centered in Christ. All Paul prayed for himself; and all he asked for the Church, was Christ. Christ and his fullness, Christ and his all-sufficiency. That Christ (said he) may dwell in your hearts by faith. Reader! do not overlook the fullness and comprehensiveness of Paul’s prayer. Christ cannot dwell in the heart of the unregenerate. Christ cannot dwell in the heart of any whom the Father hath not given to his dear Son. So, that in every heart where Christ dwells, there the Lord hath given testimony, that that precious soul is a child of God, given by the Father, redeemed by the Son, and regenerated by the Holy Ghost. Reader! is it not your prayer, as it is mine, that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith?
And where Christ dwells in the heart by faith, there all the other blessings follow. Rooted in Christ, we are one with Christ. Grounded in love, we feel all the sweet influences of love. And, though the love of Christ is unsearchable, and past finding out, yet we can in some measure comprehend, that it reacheth from one eternity to, another; and though its dimensions are infinite, in breadth and length, and depth, and height, and it is a love which passeth knowledge, yet is it a special, peculiar, free, and gracious love, and runs through all time, and to all eternity, to his people. Oh! the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge! Reader! what are your apprehensions of this love ? Hath Paul’s prayer been heard for you? Hath God granted you a token of this love ?
-Robert Hawker
For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. (1Corinthians 2:2)
The tendency of men, if left alone, is to drift father from God; and preachers are no exception. If left alone, they depart from preaching the true gospel of Jesus Christ and begin to major on other things. It was true in the early days of the church. For the first few years after our Lord ascended, Christ was preached; but, gradually preachers and churches began to preach works, ceremony, law, and tradition.
Read the epistles of Corinthians and Galatians. It is no different today. Where can you go and hear Christ preached? Men preach about the gospel and doctrines about Christ, but John called our gospel “the doctrine of Christ,” not the doctrine about Christ. It would be easy to give the sum and substance of Paul’s message; it was Jesus Christ and him crucified! If you had asked Paul his creed, he would have said, “My creed is Christ.” If you had inquired as to his body of divinity, he would have replied, “There is but one body of divinity”—“In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” To these apostles Christ was not a historical character, a creed, nor a plan of salvation; he was their Lord, real to their minds, the first love of their hearts, who was, is, and is to come—my Lord and my God.
-Henry Mahan
When God was about to destroy the whole human race (except for eight chosen souls), he provided an ark for the saving of his chosen. What a blessed picture of Christ our Savior and of our salvation in him! It was an ark of God’s providing. God called Noah and his family into the ark, an ark built specifically for him. God shut them in! Then God poured out the fury of his wrath upon all the earth. All the wrath of the Almighty fell upon the ark. Yet, not one drop of the water of God’s terror fell upon Noah, his wife, his sons, or their wives. The ark absorbed it all. That is what Christ, the Ark of our salvation, did for us. The holy Lord God prepared him and sent him specifically for the saving of his people (Matthew 1:21, Hebrews 10:10-14). He put us in Christ in electing grace before the world began (Ephesians 1:3-6). At Calvary the holy Lord God poured out all the fury of his wrath and justice upon all his chosen, to the full satisfaction of his justice, when he sacrificed his darling Son for us. But Christ bore all the hell of God’s wrath alone. Not so much as an angry look falls upon us, his redeemed.
When Noah came out of the ark, God put a rainbow in the clouds of the sky and promised never to destroy the earth by water again. God told Noah the bow would be a token of his covenant and promised to remember his “everlasting covenant.” As it was God’s covenant with Noah that preserved the world from another flood, so it is God’s everlasting covenant (the bow encircling his throne — Revelation 4) that preserves the world for the salvation of his elect, because he is not willing that any chosen sinner for whom Christ died perish (2 Peter 3:9).
How we ought to rejoice in covenant love! Let us ever give thanks to our great God for his purpose of grace, his performance of grace and his perseverance in grace toward his covenant people! Here is our comfort, encouragement, joy and confidence in this world. God says, “I will remember my covenant.” Noah’s drunkenness would not make him forget his covenant. Ham’s exposure of his father’s sin would not alter God’s purpose of grace toward that man who “found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”
-Don Fortner