Thy Mercy, My God-a Hymn

Thy Mercy, My God
by John Stocker

Thy mercy, my God, is the theme of my song,
The joy of my heart and the boast of my tongue;
Thy free grace alone, from the first to the last,
Hath won my affections, and bound my soul fast.

Without Thy sweet mercy I could not live here;
Sin would reduce me to utter despair;
But, through Thy free goodness, my spirits revive,
And He that first made me still keeps me alive.

Whene'er I mistake, Thy kind mercy begins
To melt me, and then I can mourn for my sins;
And, led by Thy Spirit to Jesus' blood,
My sorrows are dired and my strength is renew'd.

Thy mercy is more than a match for my heart,
Which wonders to feel its own hardness depart;
Dissolved by Thy goodness, I fall to the ground,
And weep to the praise of the mercy I've found.

Thy mercy is endless, most tender and free;
No sinner need doubt, since 'tis given to me;
No merit will buy it, nor sin stop its course;
Good works are the fruits of its freeness and force.

The doors of Thy mercy are open all day
To the poor and the needy who knock by the way;
But those that bring cash in the mouth of their sack;
The rich and the proud, shall be empty sent back.

Dear Father, Thy merciful word I my all;
Thy promise supports me when ready to fall;
When enemies crowd, to cause doubt and despair,
I conquer them all by the spirit of prayer.

Thy mercy, in Jesus, exempts me from hell;
Of Thy mercy I'll sing, of Thy mercy I'll tell;
'Twas Jesus, my Friend, when He hung on the tree,
That open'd the channel of mercy for me.

Great Father of mercies, Thy goodness I own,
And the covenant love of Thy crucified Son;
All praise to the Spirit, Whose whisper divine
Seals mercy, and pardon, and righteousness mine.

All praise to the Spirit, Whose whisper divine
Seals mercy, and pardon, and righteousness mine!

Love Constrained to Obedience

This is a wonderful hymn by William Cowper (1731-1800). Great hymns are written from solid theology...and this one is excellent.
"Love Constrained to Obedience"

No strength of nature can suffice
To serve the Lord aright;
And what she has she misapplies,
For want of clearer light.

How long beneath the law I lay
In bondage and distress;
I toiled the precept to obey,
But toiled without success.

Then to abstain from outward sin
Was more than I could do;
Now, if I feel its power within,
I feel I hate it too.

Then all my servile works were done,
A righteousness to raise;
Now, freely chosen in the Son,
I freely choose his ways.

"What shall I do," was then the word,
"That I may worthier grow?"
"What shall I render to the Lord?"
Is my inquiry now.

To see the law by Christ fulfilled,
And hear his pardoning voice,
Changes a slave into a child,
And duty into choice.

On The Steps Of The Lincoln Memorial

This is a great video, illustrating both the effectiveness of using Gospel tracts, and the love which a Christian should have for the lost. Thank you, Tony for sharing this with us!

The Great Dethroning of Reigning Sin – Part 1

Romans 6:10-14, preached Sunday, June 21, 2009, Grace Family Church of Americus

Here is an excerpt:

*****

There is a battlefield around us that many know nothing about. It is a battle that all must fight, and win, else it cost you your life. The reality of the battle against the dominion of sin is a real one…and he who denies the reality of the battle is a fool. From John Owen's "Mortification of Sin":

"…sin is always acting, always conceiving, always seducing and tempting….If, then, sin will be always acting, if we be not always mortifying, we are lost creatures. He that stands still and [allows] his enemies to double blows upon him without resistance, will undoubtedly be conquered in the [battle]. If sin be subtle, watchful, strong, and always at work in the business of killing our souls, and we be slothful, negligent, foolish, in proceeding to the ruin thereof, can we expect a comfortable [outcome]?

That is not a very popular teaching in evangelicalism today. The teaching that we are to be actively engaged in the battle of killing sin in our lives. It is not a popular thing, to say that those who live sinful lives…those who are ruled and live under the power and reign of sin…even those who are good people in the eyes of the world, but live a life that is oblivious to the battle against indwelling sin that goes on all around us….shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.

This is a huge teaching! And many have taken on the Christianity of culture, which says that there is no standard, postmodernism is the rule, if it feels good do it, let us sin so that grace may abound, I'm covered in the blood, therefore my sin is no big deal, don't waste my time talking to me about sin and death and hell….the Christianity of culture says, "I want to have life improvement, I want stuff, and food, and wealth, and sex, and my own morals that are not dictated to me by anyone else, I want to please myself and my desires"…those who speak thus therefore are dead to what I am saying here today. There is no emotion connected to it, no desire to hear the Word speak to it, to fight sin and pursue holiness…only deadness and lifelessness and numbness to this, one of the greatest teachings in all of the Christian faith – that as Christ has died to sin to live to God, so all who are His, are dead to the reign of sin, and live in the reign and power of God.

O, Father, create life, where there is only death! Create in those who are deaf to your words, hearing, and to those who are totally blind to your truth, give sight! Where there is hardness, create tenderness and emotion! There is a battle, and we are on the battlefield! Let us hear Your Word, and be triumphant in the power of the Spirit of God who raised Christ from the dead!

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Click here to download the audio and listen now!

You can download the complete sermon manuscript by clicking here.

Community Evangelism ala Whitefield

A few months ago, I read a biography of George Whitefield, the 18th century evangelist from England, who came to the US, landing at Savannah, Georgia. His ministry set America on fire for God. I believe there was a reason that this happened. And it had nothing to do with Whitefield, but was sucessful because Whitefield followed a Scriptural precedent, of open-air preaching to people who come, of their own accord, to hear the preaching of the Gospel.

A few years before landing in America, George Whitefield was in England. He had ministered in the churches, but had begun to encounter resistance, and eventually was not allowed to preach in the churches of his denomination, nor was he allowed to preach in any of these church's areas of influence. So Whitefield, after a time of humbly and earnestly trying to stay within the rules of the Church of England, decided to hit the streets. He once said, "If the chuches be closed to me, bless God, the fields are open!"

Whitefield went to the places where the churches didn't. One such place was called "Kingswood". Here was a group of people to whom the Church did not minister. They were poor. They worked the undesirable job of coal mining, which meant that they were dirty. They had been known to be dangerous, and to cause uprisings in society. Yet Whitefield's desire to reach God's people was not diminished by these things. He realized, as did the Apostle Paul, that God had "many people in this city" (Acts 18:10) . In fact, the condition of the people there at Kingswood soon became a great encouragement to him, as he ministered among them, to see visible evidence of their conversions. For Whitefield reported of the effect of the preaching of the Gospel to them in the fields,

"Having no righteousness of their own to renounce, they were glad to hear of a Jesus who was a friend of publicans, and came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. The first discovery of their being affected was to see the white gutters made by their tears which plentifully fell down their black cheeks, as they came out of their coal pits. Hundreds and hundreds of them were brought under deep convictions, which, as the event proved, happily ended in a sound and thorough conversion. The change was visible to all, though numbers chose to impute it to anything rather than the finger of God."

One such man that God is teaching me much about this type of evangelism is James Ross. He has been kind to introduce me to the community in which he ministers. Last week, he took me to preach in a place where I would have never gone alone. We preached beside a crack house, under a tree where many were drinking, playing cards, and looking for their next high. But when Brother James shows up, these people put away their alcohol and cards, and listen to him teach. It was truly a blessing to minister with him here, in the

highways and hedges which God has called us all to go into.

We then proceeded to go into a local trailer park, which is known for violence and drug activity. Nearly every week, there is a news report of a crime that takes place here. But what is scorn in the eyes of the world, is often the very place where the Gospel is needed most. So for three nights, we preached in this Church-forsaken place, to the glory of God.

Each night, the crowds increased. As many as 30 people gathered under a tree, sitting in lawn chairs to hear the preaching. Brother James preached the first two nights, and allowed me to preach the third night. As I was preaching, I felt something of what Mr. Whitefield must have felt when preaching to the colliers in Kingswood. For the faces that came in were not the faces that I saw as the Gospel was presented to them. Many were holding back tears. Others had eyes filled with hope. There was in this place a power of God that I had almost forgotten...this power of which Paul so truly speaks of in Romans 1, of the Gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation.

None of these people would have ever showed up at my church. Or your church. Or anyone's church, for that matter. They are outcasts. They are numerous. And they are as sheep having no shepherd. But as I am convinced of the truth of the Gospel, I am convinced of the truth that God has many people in this city....and the vast majority of them are not in our churches.

My readers, be encouraged by this. Many of us who love the minsitry of open-air preaching often lament of the lack of ability to do this in small towns. This is simply not true. Open-air preaching is absolutely necessary, and that in every town, both small and great. It can, and must be done. And it is most effective, I truly believe, when done in the way that we saw the great Whitefield did it.....in the towns and communities where the people live....when the people come out to hear the preaching of the Gospel of their own accord, as they are drawn by the Spirit of our God.

You may download the audio of the preaching of the Gospel in the open air at Week's Trailer Park here. And may you be encouraged, motivated, and empowered to go out and reach God's people where they are.

Pastors, Love Your Wives!

It just occurred to me, as I am considering how to minister to a fellow pastor whose wife says she is leaving him, because she no longer wants to be in ministry, the following thought: It is written of husbands, that we are to love our wives as Christ loves the church (Ephesians 5:25-33). This is infinitely more important for ministers. I have personally, in times past, fallen into this ditch, to learn the hard way. Here's what I learned:

Though it is written that our love for our wives should be as the love that Jesus Christ has for the Church....nowhere is it written that we are to love the Church as much as Jesus Christ loves our wives.

Please pray for this minister, that God would grant him wisdom, and that this wisdom would include much humility, and great sacrifice, including leaving ministry if necessary, in order to save his marriage. And pray for your own pastors, for the enemy loves to use our misplaced zeal to destroy Christian homes.

How Great is the Ransom of Christ!

From Charles Spurgeon's sermon, "Particular Redemption"

"O ye stars of Heaven! the astronomers may measure your distance and tell your height, but O ye sins of mankind! ye surpass all thought. O ye lofty mountains! the home of the tempest, the birthplace of the storm! man may climb your summits and stand wonderingly upon your snows; but ye hills of sin! ye tower higher than our thoughts; ye chasms of transgressions! ye are deeper than our imagination dares to dive. Do you accuse me of slandering human nature? It is because you know it not. If God had once manifested your heart to yourself, you would bear me witness, that so far from exaggerating, my poor words fail to describe the desperateness of our evil. Oh! if we could each of us look into our hearts today—if our eyes could be turned within, so as to see the iniquity that is graven as with the point of the diamond upon our stony hearts, we should then say to the minister, that however he may depict the desperateness of guilt, yet can he not by any means surpass it. How great then, beloved, must be the ransom of Christ, when He saved us from all these sins!"

Newness of Life – Part 1

Romans 6:1-7, preached Sunday, May 31, 2009, Grace Family Church of Americus

Here is an excerpt:

*****

What did the death of Christ accomplish? It crushed the head of Satan. The death of the Son of God thwarted Satan's rule over God's people. It is exactly contextually complete with what has been said already. In Adam, we died. Satan wielded the power that God gave him, and used it to inflict a mortal wound. But God made a promise, directly concerning this…that the seed of the woman would come. Perfect, sinless Man; infinite, holy God in human flesh would live and die and be raised again conquering death. That the death of Christ, being just a bruise on His heel, would crush the head of Satan. Satan, who tempted and drew mankind into sin, who rules and reigns as the god of this world, has been dealt a fatal blow to the head, in that he cannot rule and reign over those who are in Christ. His throne has been debunked.

Now again, I do not wish to make this statement sound incredulous, or otherwise hard to believe, but I do want it to be said in the sense and in the power of argument in which the Apostle makes it. In the same way that the free gift of grace sounds too good to be true to the unbeliever, so as much that it sounds scandalous, we find here the same sort of scandalous teaching of Paul….in that sin can no longer rule over believers! Now let me say this about this statement, which has been said of the statement in verse 1…. "....If your preaching of salvation has not been misunderstood in this way, then you had better examine your sermons again, and you had better make sure that you are really preaching the salvation that is offered in the New Testament"

Folks, it is wrong to use the pulpit as a place of condolence to shallowness. No, it is a place to say the incredible things that the Bible says, and to let them rest on your minds and hearts as incredible. I won't say what is too often said, "…Well, we are all sinners, so we can't help what we do." God forbid! We who are in Christ are not sinners, in the sense that sin is the controlling influence on us! I shall by no means shallow-up these deep waters so to make you think you can wade in them. Because if you come in expecting to wade, you will drown. Brothers and sisters, I shall not do any such thing, but I desire to show you how deep the water is, and then teach you how to swim in it, adoring its depth!

******

Click here to download the audio and listen now!

You can download the complete sermon manuscript by clicking here.

Two Lists

Consider this quote from my friend Tony Miano:

"Take two pieces of notebook paper and a pen. Find a quiet place. Title the first piece of paper: 'People With Whom I Won't Share The Gospel.' List all of the people who fall under that category. Title the second piece of paper: 'People I Want To Go To Hell.' List all of the people who fall under that category. You should find that the lists are identical."

May we daily understand our task of evangelism in this light! And may our lists be emptied....

Praying With Your Mouth Full

From C. H. Spurgeon's sermon #3484, "Daniel, a Pattern for Pleaders"

 “O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.” — Daniel 9:19.

I think I may notice this first as to the antecedents of the prayer. This prayer of Daniel was not offered without consideration. He did not come to pray as some people do, as though it were a thing that required no forethought whatever. We are constantly told we ought to prepare or sermons, and I surely think that if a man does not prepare his sermons he is very blameworthy. But are we never to prepare when we speak to God, and only when we speak to man? Is there to be no preparation of the heart of man from God when we open our mouth before the Lord? Do not you think we often do, both in private and public, begin to pray without any kind of consideration, and the words come, and then we try to quicken the words rather than the desires coming, and the words coming like garments to clothe them withal?

But Daniel’s considerations lay in this first, he studied the books. He had with him an old manuscript of the prophet Jeremiah. He read that through. Perceiving such and such things spoken of, he prayed for them. Perceiving such and such a time given, and knowing that that time was almost come, he prayed the more earnestly. Oh! that you studied your Bibles more! Oh! that we all did! How we could plead the promises! How often we should prevail with God when we could hold him to his word, and say, “Fulfil this word unto thy servant, whereon thou hast caused me to hope.” Oh! it is grand praying when our mouth is full of God’s word, for there is no word that can prevail with him like his own. You tell a man, when you ask him for such and such a thing, “You yourself said you would do so and so.” You have him then. And so when you can lay hold on the covenant angel with this consecrated grip, “Thou hast said! thou hast said!” then have you every opportunity of prevailing with him. May our prayers then spring out of our scriptural studies; may our acquaintance with the Word be such that we shall be qualified to pray a Daniel prayer.