To the Poor & Needy ~ Great Hope Enclosed

 

Now may the Lord reveal His face

And teach our stammering tongues

To make His sovereign, reigning grace

The subject of our songs.


No sweeter subject can invite

A sinner’s heart to sing

Or more display the glorious right

Of our exalted King.


Grace reigns to pardon crimson sins

To melt the hardest hearts

And from the work it once begins 

It never once departs.


’Twas grace that called our souls at first

By grace thus far we’ve come

And grace will help us through the worst

And lead us safely  home. 

 


-Gospel hymn, “O God Our Help In Ages Past” 

 


*****  


“There is a way which seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”   -Proverbs 14:12 [KJV]

 

 

*****



THE DOCTRINE OF NEED

 

The doctrines of grace, or the five points of grace, or even more accurately the doctrine of grace or the doctrine of Christ: 

 

(1) As a result of Adam’s fall all men are totally depraved. 

 

(2) God, by His grace, elected a vast number of men before time began to be saved. 

 

(3) Christ accomplished the salvation of those men when He died. 

 

(4) The Holy Spirit invincibly and irresistibly gives them spiritual life in the New Birth. 

 

(5) They shall persevere all the way to the end. 

 

This doctrine is not something to argue over or even to convince men of its truthfulness. Believing myself to be totally depraved, this is the doctrine of NEED.  I need to be chosen by God or I will not be saved.  I need for Christ to make complete atonement for my sins or I will not be saved.  I need for the Holy Spirit to give me life or I will not be saved.  I need to be enabled to persevere or I will not be saved.  If I need this precious Truth of grace, it is certainly true that it is essential that I preach this.  The man  that does not preach this does not need the Truth it conveys!


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