Galatians 3:28-29

No one can come to Jesus unless it is granted by the Father

“What a fool I am, to pray in a rush to the One who made time”

once again for the dummies...

We weren’t born neutral toward God. We were rebels. We were sinners. We were hostile toward Him and opposed to His authority. Every last one of us was an enemy of God. I lived 25 years in rebellion, shaking my fist at the God of the universe and living as though I was my own king. And yet… He loved me. He didn’t wait for me to become worthy of His love. He didn’t wait for me to clean myself up. He didn’t wait for me to stop rebelling. Christ died for me while I was His enemy. Romans 5:8 says: “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” And just a couple verses later (v.10): “While we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.” So when Jesus tells us to love our enemies, is He really asking too much? He loved His enemies. He died for His enemies. He reconciled His enemies. He saved His enemies. And if Christ has shown that kind of mercy toward us, how can we refuse to show mercy toward others? We don’t love our enemies because they deserve our love. We love them because Christ loved us when we didn’t deserve His.

“The Man on the middle cross said I could come." -Alistair Begg

🔥🔥🔥 This excellency of the subject notwithstanding ought not to dull the edge of our most diligent search into it, but sharpen it rather, to endeavour so to define justification, that we may justify our definition. Which we cannot do, without distinguishing of a three-fold righteousness: first, a perfect righteousness, but not inherent; of which, 2 Cor. 5.21. secondly, inherent, but not perfect; of which, Luke 1.75. and Apoc. 22.11. thirdly, perfect and inherent, of which, Heb. 12.23. The first, is the righteousness by which we are justified; the second, by which we are sanctified; and the third, by which we are glorified. The first consisteth as well of Christ’s active as his passive obedience, and in the imputation thereof by faith consisteth the essence of our justification, which may be thus defined: an act of God, whereby he acquitteth every penitent and believing sinner, by not imputing to him his sins, and imputing to him the perfect satisfaction and righteousness of Christ. Every part of this definition may be proved by clear testimonies of Scripture; and besides, it hath that … certain mark or touch-stone of a true definition, that it meeteth with all doubts, and confronteth all errors broached against the nature of justification: first, the error of the Libertines, by that clause, every penitent: secondly, of the Antinomians, in the clause, not imputing their sin: thirdly, the Socinians, in the clause, perfect satisfaction: and lastly, the Arminians and Papists, in the last clause, imputing Christ’s righteousness, no habit or act of ours, no, not the act of faith. —Daniel Featley, Sacra nemesis, The Levite’s scourge, or, Mercurius disciplined.

You ever pray for your enemies? Like actually pray for God to bless them or change their heart? Maybe one of the hardest things Jesus asks us to do is pray for people who hate you. But that prayer will start to change you. Do you realize how it is to remain consumed with hatred toward someone you’re faithfully praying for? You can be angry with someone and pray for them. But the longer you pray: “God, save them.” “God, convict them.” “God, give them repentance.” “God, change their heart.” the harder it becomes to simultaneously say: “God, destroy them.” Prayer begins changing the person praying.

that is because salvation belongs to the Lord and not to man who has to be born again by God to even see the kingdom of God let alone choose that which he can not see without God's grace found in Christ alone.

“God is never obligated to be merciful to a rebellious creature.” -R.C. Sproul

Salvation begins with admitting you cannot save yourself.

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they know God exists but suppress this because their conscience confirms that they know He hates the evil they love and enjoy. There are no atheists because they needs infinite knowledge to prove their claim that He does not exist.

Atheism has nothing to do with the existence of God, and everything to do with love for sin.

Pope Leo: “If you’re pro-life, you can’t be for the death penalty.” The Bible: “Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death.” -Exodus 21:12 The problem is that this statement treats abortion and the death penalty as though they are morally equivalent simply because both involve the taking of human life. They aren’t. Abortion is the intentional killing of an innocent human being. The death penalty is the punishment of a guilty human being for a grave crime. And Scripture makes that distinction. After the flood, God told Noah: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” -Genesis 9:6 Notice the reasoning: human life is valuable because man is made in God’s image. That is precisely why murder deserves severe judgment. Then you get to the New Testament, and Paul says in Romans 13 that governing authorities are ordained by God and that the ruler “does not bear the sword in vain.” He calls that ruler “an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.” (Bible Gateway) The Bible doesn’t say government may never take a human life. It gives civil government authority to punish evil. Now, Christians can debate how that authority should be applied in a particular modern legal system. We can debate due process, wrongful convictions, proportionality, and whether a particular government is administering justice properly. But that’s a different question from whether capital punishment is inherently unbiblical. It isn’t. You can believe abortion is the murder of an innocent child and believe that the state has a God-given authority to execute a guilty murderer. That’s not a contradiction. The Bible distinguishes between the innocent being murdered and the guilty being judged. And that’s the distinction I think we need to preserve.

Accurate... but never forget glorification!