GOOD NEWS!

Weekend Gospel message to follow for All Hands (26-28FEB21)

Heads-Up --- Please find enclosed encouragement in SO GREAT SALVATION by the perfect and finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ in saving poor, needy and wretched sinners by His sovereign free grace -God's unmerited favor- from their sins and from Hell:

TWO OPPOSING TESTIMONIES

The Pharisee in Luke 18:11-12 proudly stated, “God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.” The publican in Luke 18:13 cried, “God be merciful [propitious] to me a sinner.” One, the testimony of the Pharisee, was the rantings of a self-righteous unbeliever. The other, the testimony of the publican, was the testimony of a sinner saved by grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. The Pharisee sought and thought he had found righteousness by what he imagined God had enabled him to be and do. The publican sought and found righteousness in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. The Lord said, “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Luke 18:14). 

The testimony of the publican is, in essence, the testimony of all true believers. The apostle Paul who lived in the first century wrote in Galatians 6:14, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” And consider the testimony of Augustus Toplady who lived in the 1700’s. He is most famous for his well-known hymn, “Rock of Ages.” On December 31, 1767 A.D., he wrote in his private journal, “Upon a review of the past year, I desire to confess that my unfaithfulness has been exceeding great; my sins still greater; God’s mercies greater than both. My short-comings and my mis-doings, my unbelief and want of love, would sink me into the lowest hell, was not Jesus my Righteousness and my Redeemer.” This is the same as Paul’s testimony and is consistent with what God the Holy Spirit inspired him to write when he wrote, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief” (1 Tim. 1:15).

-preacher Bill Parker