Sunday, May 24, 2009

On Spiritual Discernment

"You may spoil the Gospel by substitution. You have only to withdraw from the eyes of the sinner the grand object with the Bible proposes to faith, -- Jesus Christ; and to substitute another object in His place . . . and the mischief is done. Substitute anything for Christ, and the Gospel is totally spoiled.
You may spoil the Gospel by addition. You have only to add to Christ, the grand object of faith, some other objects as equally worthy of honour, and the mischief is done. Add anything to Christ,and the Gospel ceases to be the pure Gospel!
You may spoil the Gospel by interposition. You have only to push something between Christ and the eye of the soul, to draw away the sinner's attention from the Saviour, and the mischief is done....
You may spoil the Gospel by disproportion. You have only to attach an exaggerated importance to the secondary things of Christianity, and a diminished importance to the first things, and the mischief is done. Once alter the proportion of the parts of truth, and truth soon becomes downright error!
You may completely spoil the Gospel by confused and contradictory directions. Complicated and obscure statements about faith, baptism, Church privileges, and the benefits of the Lord's Supper . . . are almost as bad as no statement at all!"
~ J.C. Ryle, Evangelical Religion
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Sunday School Highlights

This past Sunday we continued our journey through the book of Deuteronomy. We began to explore the first section of the book's summary statement 'God chooses His people, His people must choose Him.' Therefore, we studied the first aspect of how God chose the Israelites as His special people. It wasn't because of their righteousness but out of His love for them. Remember what kind of people they were? They were insignificant to the world, they were slaves turned vagabonds wondering in the desert. They were small and stiff-necked. All more the reason for God to turn from them, but no. He embraced them with love and showered them with grace. Just think of our own salvation. Each one of us has a past, has a history, has string of issues that follow us each day. That past tells us that we are like the Israelites, undeserving of the Lord's grace and love. Just take some time and meditate upon these verses, Eph. 1:3-4. What comes to your mind?