The Evangelism Team

Liberty does not mean doing as you like, it means liking as you ought, and doing that. He only is free who submits to God in Christ, and thereby overcomes himself and the world and all antagonism, and is able to do that which it is his life to do. A prison out of which we do not desire to go is no restraint, and the will which coincides with law is the only will that is truly free. You talk about the bondage of obedience. Ah! ‘the weight of too much liberty’ is a far sorer bondage. They are the slaves who say, ‘Let us break His bonds asunder, and cast away His cords from us’; and they are the free men who say, ‘Lord, put Thy blessed shackles on my arms, and impose Thy will upon my will, and fill my heart with Thy love; and then will and hands will move freely and delightedly.’ ‘If the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed.’
. – Alexander Maclaren

‘Knowledge without repentance will be but a torch to light men to hell’ (Thomas Watson, The Doctrine of Repentance (Edinburgh: Banner, 1987), p. 77).

I once was lost in darkest night
Yet thought I knew the way.
The sin that promised joy and life
Had led me to the grave.
I had no hope that You would own
A rebel to Your will.
And if You had not loved me first
I would refuse You still.

But as I ran my hell-bound race
Indifferent to the cost
You looked upon my helpless state
And led me to the cross.
And I beheld God’s love displayed
You suffered in my place
You bore the wrath reserved for me
Now all I know is grace.

Hallelujah! All I have is Christ
Hallelujah! Jesus is my life

Now, Lord, I would be Yours alone
And live so all might see
The strength to follow Your commands
Could never come from me.
Oh Father, use my ransomed life
In any way You choose.
And let my song forever be
My only boast is You.

© 2008 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI), by Jordan Kauflin

In preperation for a study I will be doing this summer on grace I stumbled on this hymn that I had not heard or seen before. It is truly amazing isn’t it.

O how the grace of God
Amazes me!
It loosed me from my bonds
And set me free!
What made it happen so?
’Twas His will, this much I know,
Set me, as now I show,
At liberty.

2 My God has chosen me,
Though one of nought,
To sit beside my King
In heaven’s court.
Hear what my Lord has done
O, the love that made Him run
To meet His erring son!
This has God wrought.

3 Not for my righteousness,
For I have none,
But for His mercy’s sake,
Jesus, God’s Son,
Suffered on Calvary’s tree -
Crucified with thieves was He -
Great was His grace to me,
His wayward one.

4 And when I think of how,
At Calvary,
He bore sin’s penalty
Instead of me.
Amazed, I wonder why
He, the sinless One, should die
For one so vile as I;
My Saviour He!

5 Now all my heart’s desire
Is to abide
In Him, my Saviour dear,
In Him to hide.
My shield and buckler He,
Covering and protecting me:
From Satan’s darts I’ll be
Safe at His side.

6 Lord Jesus, hear my prayer,
Your grace impart;
When evil thoughts arise
Through Satan’s art,
O, drive them all away
And do You, from day to day,
Keep me beneath Your sway,
King of my heart.

7 Come now, the whole of me
Eyes, ears and voice,
Join me, creation all,
With joyful noise:
Praise Him who broke the chain
Holding me in sin’s domain,
And set me free again!
Sing and rejoice!

Emmanuel Sibomana, b.1915