Authentic Talk: Saved By Grace, Created For Works

First talk delivered to Authentic, the students and twenties group at Kings Church Eastbourne.

Saved_By_Grace_Created_For_Works.pdf

Liberated by Death

"Death, though a curse in itself, was the only way out from under the Curse"

Heaven, Randy Alcorn, page 106

Spurgeon on Salvation, Sin, Satan and the Saved

Quotes from 'Christ's Glorious Achievements'

"For myself, I love to live near a sinner's Saviour. If my standing before the Lord depended upon what I am in myself and what good works and righteousness I could bring, surely I should have to condemn myself a thousand times a day."
p18

"To believe is, to trust, to confide, to depend upon, to rely upon, to rest in."
p18-19

"There is no difference between one believer and another as to justification. So long as there is a connection between you and Christ the righteousness of God is yours. The link may be very like a film, a mere spider's line of trembling faith, but, if it runs all the way from the heart to Christ divine grace can and will flow along the most slender thread"
p20

"Come, look up, ye believers who are burdened with a sense of sin. While you chasten yourselves and mourn your sins, do not doubt your Saviour, nor question His righteousness."
p21.

"... for only by regeneration can we know ourselves to be the true seed."
p34.

"You must not think the devil cares much about you : the battle is against Christ in you."
p41.

""If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." Read, and the reading will be accurate, "He is a new creation." This is a very sweeping statement. A man in Christ is not the old man purified, nor the old man improved, nor the old man in a better humour, nor the old man with additions and subtractions, nor the old man dressed in gorgeous robes. No, he is a new creature altogether."
p70.

What Is Sustaining Grace?

Here's a really excellent poem by John Piper titled "What Is Sustaining Grace?":

"Not grace to bar what is not bliss,
Nor flight from all distress, but this:
The grace that orders our trouble and pain,
And then, in the darkness, is there to sustain."

I think the hardest line in the poem is "The grace that orders our trouble and pain". It would be easy to think that God is the source of that pain and trouble. But if you read the manuscript for Piper's message (found here) he states that God is actually permitting and measuring out the pain in an exact amount, which is not beyond what we can cope with. He then sustains us through this dark period. His reason for doing so? He works all things for good (Romans 8:28) and we can trust He is working out a greater end and purpose than we can see.

Incredibly hard workers

One thing that's really come to mind from reading a number of biographies is that the people worth writing books about are always incredibly hard workers and very passionate people. None of them were slack. None of them were half-hearted. None of them started well, only to lose their way later on. They didn't backslide. They all persevered right the way through their lives to the very end.

A very interesting note I think. Although it's all about grace, to actually produce a life of meaning and substance requires hard work, diligence and real grasp of holiness. And these need to be sustained through all the years we live on earth.

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
Galatians 6:9

"Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord."
Romans 12:11

"Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."
1 Corinthians 15:58