I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord; No tender voice like Thine can peace afford. Refrain I need Thee, O I need Thee; Every hour I need Thee; O bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour, stay Thou nearby; Temptations lose their power when Thou art nigh. Refrain I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain; Come quickly and abide, […]
"The law was given to men through Moses, but it did not originate with Moses. It had existed in the heart of God from before the foundation of the world. On Mount Sinai it became the legal code for the nation of Israel; but the moral principles it embodies are eternal. The spring of Christian morality is the love of Christ, not the law of Moses; […]
"Antinomians acquire their distaste for the law in a number of ways. Some believe that they no longer are obligated to keep the moral law of God because Jesus has freed them from it. They insist that grace not only frees us from the curse of God’s law but delivers us from any obligation to obey God’s law. Grace then becomes a license for dis […]
Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee; Let the water and the blood, From Thy wounded side which flowed, Be of sin the double cure; Save from wrath and make me pure. Not the labor of my hands Can fulfill Thy law’s demands; Could my zeal no respite know, Could my tears forever flow, All for sin could not atone; Thou must save, and Thou alone. […]
’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, And to take Him at His Word; Just to rest upon His promise, And to know, “Thus says the Lord!” Refrain Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him! How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus! O for grace to trust Him more! O how sweet to trust in Jesus, Just to trust His cleansing blood; And in simple faith to plunge […]
In Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones' "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount", he commented that misunderstanding will arise when preaching with a "mighty emphasis upon grace". An erroneous and dangerous misunderstanding led some to think and believe wrongly that the perfect moral Law of God, Decalogue or Ten Commandments, has no place in the […]
All men and women are either slaves of Satan or slaves of Jesus Christ, there is no in between.The following is an excerpt from John Macarthur’s revised 2008 20th anniversary edition of The Gospel According to Jesus -Zondervan, 2008.“Understood correctly, the gospel is an invitation to slavery. When we call people to faith in Christ, we need to str […]
Lyrics: Irish hymn, c. 8th century Music: Irish melody - Slane Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart; Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art. Thou my best Thought, by day or by night, Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light. Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word; I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord; Thou my great Father, I Thy true son; Thou […]
The Lord's PrayerOur Father, who art in heaven,hallowed be thy name.Thy Kingdom come,thy will be done,on earth as it is in heavenGive us this day our daily bread.And forgive us our trespasses,as we forgive those who trespass against us.And lead us not into temptation,but deliver us from evil.For thine is the kingdom,the power and the glory,for eve […]
"There is so much confusion on this outside the church that's explicable. But there seems to be about equal confusion inside the church. In fact, there is a new kind of evangelicalism that labels itself, tolerant, loving, non-judgmental, that is affirming those who carry about and legitimize these kind of lusts and behaviors and t […]
In life, all Christians will go through suffering and pain in varying degrees. As Christians we are urged to be steadfast under trials, tribulations and sufferings and to consider those examples in scriptures like Job, who remained steadfast in faith and triumphed.In this second sermon from the Book of Job, John Piper urged us to study the Word of God […]
Watch Pastor John Piper in this excellent sermon from the Book of Job on the Sovereignty of God in the sufferings and pains of God's children. In the lives and affairs of God's children, while Satan intends to do evil through sufferings and destroy faith, God intends for the same sufferings to do good and build faith in His Children and for […]
"In Christianity the Lord Jesus Christ is all and in all. " "THE catacombs are full of Christ. It was to Him that the Christians of the age of persecution ever turned: it was on Him they rested - in gladness and in sorrow; in sickness and in health; in the days of danger - and these were sadly numerous in the first two centuries and a ha […]
"Three Churches in Manila - the Episcopal, the United Evangelical and the Christian Assembly Churches - united in extending an invitation to Dr Sung to conduct meetings from June 6th to 14th. he traveled to Manila after another great campaign in Peking in April.Crowds gathered from all over Luzon and from other islands to attend the meetings. About 800 […]
In the New Jerusalem, a hymn penned by the late Reverend (Dr) Timothy Tow Siang Hui ( 1920-2009) . The accompanying melody for In the New Jerusalem is from Bethel Hymns ( John Sung ). This hymn In the New Jerusalem is one of my favorite because of its joyous melody and the heavenly truth declaring the blessed Hope all believers, washed […]
When Trials ComeWhen trials come no longer fearFor in the pain our God draws nearTo fire a faith worth more than goldAnd there His faithfulness is toldAnd there His faithfulness is told Within the night I know Your peaceThe breath of God brings strength to meAnd new each morning mercy flowsAs treasures of the darkness growAs treasures of the darkness […]
After graduation from school, Eliza began teaching. However, her career was cut short by a serious spinal problem. She partially recovered, but was an invalid most of her life. She then turned to hymn writing, which ran in the family—her cousin was hymnist Edgar Stites. Lyrics: Eliza E. Hewitt Music: John R. Sweney More about Jesus would I [...]
This hymn was written in 1876. That year, Frances Havergal was on vacation in the south of Wales where she caught a severe cold and inflammation of the lungs. She was told that she might die and her amazing response was “If I am really going, it is too good to be true.” She however survived [...]
This is a Scandinavian hymn written by Karolina W. Sandell-Berg who was the daughter of Jonas Sandell, pastor of the village’s Lutheran church. She had a frail body but a strong spirit. She face tragedy at the age of 26 when her father was drowned during a boat trip on the east coast of Sweden near [...]
The text was written and the tune (Lead Me) was composed both by Frank M. Davis, who was born on Jan. 23, 1839, near Marcellus in Onondaga County, NY. During his life, he traveled extensively, living at different times in Marcellus, NY; Vicksburg, MS; Baltimore, MD; Cincinnati, OH; and Burr Oak and Findley, MI. A [...]
Here’s a piano and flute version using a regular concert flute. I believe it takes years of practice to be able to play the flute well. Piano only version: http://www.hymnpod.com/2009/03/10/blessed-assurance/
Here’s another track with Michael playing an Irish flute together with me on the piano. Irish flutes do not have key pads on them and are harder to play than normal concert flutes. Do you think the flute brings out the melody better in this hymn? Piano only version: http://www.hymnpod.com/2009/05/27/come-thou-fount/
Take a listen to this hymn played with piano and flutes. The flutes are played by my colleague Michael Spicer who is a very talented flute player. Piano alone version: http://www.hymnpod.com/2009/04/16/nothing-but-the-blood/
This hymn is one of the best known of Robert Lowry. It is often used at baptism, though it actually speaks of heaven. There is an account of how this hymn came to be written: One afternoon in July, 1864, when I was pastor at Hanson Place Baptist Church, Brooklyn, the weather was oppressively hot, and [...]
I cannot find much information regarding the history of this hymn apart from the fact that it was written in 1941 and is an old American hymn. It speaks of the second coming of the Lord Jesus. Lyrics and Music: Esther Kerr Rusthoi Oft times the day seems long, our trials hard to bear, We’re tempted to complain, [...]
This hymn was written in 1917 by a German-born Christian named Frederick M. Lehman. He was working in a packing factory for lemons and oranges. During breaks, he sat down on empty lemon crates and jotted down the words of this hymn with a stubby pencil. The third stanza comes from the pen of an [...]
Lyrics: John H. Sammis Music: Daniel B. Towner This hymn was written in 1887 by John H. Sammis. He wrote a poem based on the phrase “Trust and Obey” and sent it to Towner who wrote the music for it. This phrase “Trust and Obey” is based on a testimony heard by D. L. Moody during a [...]
This beloved hymn was written in 1860 by Anna Bartlett Warner. She wrote this text in collaboration with her sister Susan as part of a novel entitled Say and Seal. It is a simple poem spoken by one of the characters, Mr. Linden, as he comforts Johnny Fax, a dying child. Bradbury composed the music in [...]
This hymn was written in 1872 by James Nicholson, who lived in Washington D. C. He was a dedicated Christian and was active in the Wharton Street Methodist Episcopal Church as a Sunday school and evangelistic worker. The tune was written by Philadelphia musician named William Gustavus Fischer who was a popular song leader for revival [...]
Not much is known about the history of this hymn apart from the fact that it was written in the 19th century. This hymn encourages us to look upward to the Lord Jesus when we are down and discouraged. It is a beautiful hymn! Lyrics: Edna H. Worrell Music: Clarence B. Strouse A friend I have called Jesus, [...]
This excellent hymn was written by Haldor Lillenas. He was pastor of the First Church of the Nazarene. In 1919, he published his first book, and three years later, he organized his own publishing house. For the next 10 years, he travelled, preached, wrote hymns and published song books. Incidentally, this hymn was sold off for [...]
This hymn was written in 1890 and found in Precious Times of Refreshing and Revival. After emigrating to America, Bottome be came a Methodist Episcopal minister in 1850. Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, awarded him an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in 1872. Lyrics: Francis Bottome Music: William J. Kirkpatrick O spread the tidings ’roun […]
This hymn was composed by Robert Robinson. His father died when he was young and his mother could not control him. He was wild as a youth and was into drinking and gang-life. One day, he attend a service with George Whitefield preaching. He later sobered up and three years later on Dec 10, 1755, he [...]
This lovely hymn reminds us the omnipresence of the Lord Jesus. It was written by Major Daniel Whittle who remarked that, “I do not like the hymn I Need Thee Every Hour very well, because I need him every moment of the day.” His daughter, May Whittle wrote the music, and she later became the wife of [...]
Henry Francis Lyte was born in Scotland, 1793. His father abandoned his mother and him and later, he was orphaned at 9 years old with no support. He was invited by Rev. Robert Burrows into his home, accepted as part of his family, and had his education paid for. Henry studied at Divinity school, was [...]
This hymn was composed in the 8th century by an unknown poet. In 1905, Mary Elizabeth Bryne, a scholar in Dublin, Ireland, translated this ancient Irish poem into English. Later, another scholar, Eleanor Hull of Manchester, English, took Bryne’s translation and created verses with rhyme and meter. It was then set to this traditional Irish [...]
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Romans 6:1-2
Martin Luther, 1483-1546
‘In [Romans] chapter 6, St. Paul takes up the special work of faith, the struggle which the spirit wages against the flesh to kill off those sins and desires that remain after a person has been made just. He teaches us that faith doesn’t so free us from sin that we can be idle, lazy and self-assured, as though there were no more sin in us. Sin is there, but, because of faith that struggles against it, God does not reckon sin as deserving damnation.Therefore we have in our own selves a lifetime of work cut out for us; we have to tame our body, kill its lusts, force its members to obey the spirit and not the lusts. We must do this so that we may conform to the death and resurrection of Christ and complete our Baptism, which signifies a death to sin and a new life of grace. Our aim is to be completely clean from sin and then to rise bodily with Christ and live forever.
St. Paul says that we can accomplish all this because we are in grace and not in the law. He explains that to be “outside the law” is not the same as having no law and being able to do what you please. No, being “under the law” means living without grace, surrounded by the works of the law. Then surely sin reigns by means of the law, since no one is naturally well-disposed toward the law. That very condition, however, is the greatest sin. But grace makes the law lovable to us, so there is then no sin any more, and the law is no longer against us but one with us.
This is true freedom from sin and from the law; St. Paul writes about this for the rest of the chapter. He says it is a freedom only to do good with eagerness and to live a good life without the coercion of the law. This freedom is, therefore, a spiritual freedom which does not suspend the law but which supplies what the law demands, namely eagerness and love. These silence the law so that it has no further cause to drive people on and make demands of them. It’s as though you owed something to a moneylender and couldn’t pay him. You could be rid of him in one of two ways: either he would take nothing from you and would tear up his account book, ora pious man would pay for you and give you what you needed to satisfy your debt.That’s exactly how Christ freed us from the law.Therefore our freedom is not a wild, fleshy freedom that has no obligation to do anything. On the contrary, it is a freedom that does a great deal, indeed everything, yet is free of the law’s demands and debts.’ Preface to the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans by Martin Luther, 1483-1546 Translated by Bro. Andrew Thornton, OSB
'to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect' Romans 12:1-2
‘Worship is not an addendum to life, it is at life’s core. You see, the people who worship God acceptably enter into eternal life, but the people who do not worship God acceptably enter into eternal death. Worship, then, becomes the core. Time and eternity are determined by the nature of a person’s worship.
Now, there are only two kinds of worship that can be offered-acceptable or unacceptable worship. The majority of the world offers unacceptable worship, and God will not accept it. The Bible is explicit on this. There are people today who say that ultimately everybody is going to be saved, but that is not true. The Bible does not say that. But it does say that there are only two kinds of worship – acceptable or unacceptable worship.‘ True Worship by John MacArthur, Jr.
In this embedded sermon, Pastor John Macarthur explained what is unacceptable worship:
The worship of false gods of any kind
The worship of the true God in a wrong form
The worship of the true God in a self-styled way
The worship of the true God in a wrong attitude or heart
True worship that is acceptable to God must not be conformed to this world. It is a form of worship from a worshiper that is reflective of the heart of a believer that has been transformed by God’s power and from a mind that has been renewed.
‘I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.’ Rom 12:1-12
There is a right way to worship God, it is the only kind of acceptable worship that God desires.
‘Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and doesnot swear deceitfully.’ Psalms 24:3-4
There is a place for corporate worship in the lives of believers. Believers to be found gathering to worship by honoring and praising God through Jesus Christ.
‘Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.’ Hebrews 13:15-16
the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased." Mark 1:10-11
The Trinity being of the One and only living God is something a finite creature, which man is, cannot fully grasped or explained. It is the very being of the One everlasting and ever existing God, who is The Creator. How can we fully grasp or explain it ? However, the scriptures are abundantly clear that God has revealed Himself as such. To worship God in spirit and truth, in exercising our biblical faith, we need to know God as fully as He has chosen to reveal Himself, our reliance must be based on His written Word.
What do we mean when we say the Bible declare that God is incomprehensible? When the Bible states that God is incomprehensible, we mean God through scripture is saying that there is much about Him that is still mysterious. God is simply beyond our understanding and comprehension. Augustine of Hippo was trying and struggling hard to understand the Trinity nature of God without success until he recognized the humbling fact that as a finite creature he was merely trying “to cram the ocean of God’s truth about Himself into his little box of brains”.
“There is nothing that the Father is that the Son is not, except that the Son is not the Father.” * Quote from Notes on Hebrews 1:1-4 by David Linden
There is nothing that the Father is and the Son is that the Holy Spirit is not, except that the Holy Spirit is not the Father and the Holy Spirit is not the Son.
And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Mat 3:16-17
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. 2 Cor 13:14
In the unity of the Godhead there be three Persons of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son. (Of God, and of the Holy Trinity. Chapter 2 – III. THE WESTMINSTER CONFESSION OF FAITH -1646)
Here is a sermon by Pastor Alistair Begg expounding the Trinity truth based on the teachings as revealed in the bible.
Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long. Psalms 25:4-5
Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long. Psalms 25:4-5
Speak, O Lord
Speak, O Lord, as we come to You
To receive the food of Your Holy Word.
Take Your truth, plant it deep in us;
Shape and fashion us in Your likeness,
That the light of Christ might be seen today
In our acts of love and our deeds of faith.
Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us
All Your purposes for Your glory.
Teach us, Lord, full obedience,
Holy reverence, true humility;
Test our thoughts and our attitudes
In the radiance of Your purity.
Cause our faith to rise; cause our eyes to see
Your majestic love and authority.
Words of pow’r that can never fail—
Let their truth prevail over unbelief.
Speak, O Lord, and renew our minds;
Help us grasp the heights of Your plans for us—
Truths unchanged from the dawn of time
That will echo down through eternity.
And by grace we’ll stand on Your promises,
And by faith we’ll walk as You walk with us.
Speak, O Lord, till Your church is built
And the earth is filled with Your glory.
Whoever says "I know him" but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. 1 John 2:4-6
Charles H. Spurgeon in a sermon preached on March 16, 1856, he said:
‘I am rather fond of being called an Antinomian, for this reason, that the term is generally applied to those who hold truth very firmly and will not let it go. But I should not be fond of being an Antinomian.We are not against the law of God.We believe it is no longer binding on us as the covenant of salvation; but we have nothing to say against the law of God. “The law is holy; We ate carnal, sold under sin.” None shall charge us truthfully with being Antinomians. We do quarrel with Antinomians; but as for some poor souls who are so inconsistent as to say the law is not binding, and yet try to keep it with all their might, we do not quarrel with them. They will never do much mischief. But we think they might learn to distinguish between the law as a covenant of life and a direction after we have obtained life.‘ (New Park Street Pulpit, Vol. II (1856), p.132).
Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. Psalms 119:18
Pastor Aiden Wilson Tozer
“The law was given to men through Moses, but it did not originate with Moses. It had existed in the heart of God from before the foundation of the world. On Mount Sinai it became the legal code for the nation of Israel; but the moral principles it embodies are eternal. The spring of Christian morality is the love of Christ, not the law of Moses; nevertheless there has been no abrogation of the principles of morality contained in the law. No privileged class exists exempt from that righteousness which the law enjoins.” A.W. Tozer
“Mercy is an attribute of God, an infinite and inexhaustible energy within the divine nature which disposes God to be actively compassionate. Both the Old and the New Testaments proclaim the mercy of God. We should banish from our minds forever the common but erroneous notion that justice and judgment characterize the God of Israel, while mercy and grace belong to the Lord of the Church.Actually there is in principle no difference between the Old Testament and the New.”
“In God mercy and grace are one; but as they reach us they are seen as two, related but not identical. As mercy is God’s goodness confronting human misery and guilt, so grace is His goodness directed toward human debt and demerit. It is by His grace that God imputes merit where none previously existed and declares no debt to be where one had been before. Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines Him to bestow benefits upon the undeserving. It is a self-existent principle inherent in the divine nature and appears to us as a self-caused propensity to pity the wretched, spare the guilty, welcome the outcast, and bring into favor those who were before under just disapprobation. Its use to us sinful men is to save us and make us sit together in heavenly places to demonstrate to the ages the exceeding riches of God’s kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
“We benefit eternally by God’s being just what He is. Because He is what He is, He lifts up our heads out of the prison house, changes our prison garments for royal robes, and makes us to eat bread continually before Him all the days of our lives. Grace takes its rise far back in the heart of God, in the awful and incomprehensible abyss of His holy being; but the channel through which it flows out to men is Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. The apostle Paul, who beyond all others is the exponent of grace in redemption, never disassociates God’s grace from God’s crucified Son. Always in his teachings the two are found together, organically one and inseparable. (Ephesians 1:5-7)”
“John also in the Gospel that bears his name identifies Christ as the medium through which grace reaches mankind: “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” But right here it is easy to miss the path and go far astray from the truth; and some have done this. They have compelled this verse to stand by itself, unrelated to other Scriptures bearing on the doctrine of grace, and have made it teach that Moses knew only law and Christ knows only grace. So the Old Testament is made to be a book of law and the New Testament a book of grace. The truth is quite otherwise.
The law was given to men through Moses, but it did not originate with Moses. It had existed in the heart of God from before the foundation of the world. On Mount Sinai it became the legal code for the nation of Israel; but the moral principles it embodies are eternal. The spring of Christian morality is the love of Christ, not the law of Moses; nevertheless there has been no abrogation of the principles of morality contained in the law. No privileged class exists exempt from that righteousness which the law enjoins.
The Old Testament is indeed a book of law, but not of law only. Before the great flood Noah “found grace in the eyes of the Lord,” and after the law was given God said to Moses, “Thou hast found grace in my sight.” No one was ever saved other than by grace, from Abel to the present moment. Grace indeed came by Jesus Christ, but it did not wait for His birth in the manger or His death on the cross before it became operative. Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The first man in human history to be reinstated in the fellowship of God came through faith in Christ. In olden times men looked forward to Christ’s redeeming work; in later times they gaze back upon it, but always they came and they come by grace, through faith.
We must keep in mind also that the grace of God is infinite and eternal. Instead of straining to comprehend this as a theological truth, it would be better and simpler to compare God’s grace with our need. We can never know the enormity of our sin. What we can know is that “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” Who shall define the limitless grace of God? Its “much more” plunges our thoughts into infinitude and confounds them there. All thanks be to God for grace abounding!”
A W Tozer – The Mercy and the Grace of God (selective quotes, emphasis in bold are mine)
The heart of joyful worship is what God want from His people. Worship is what believers will do and perform before a Holy God throughout eternity. God, the LORD, is good. God alone is worthy of worship. True and joyful worship can only come about from knowing God and what He delights in (Jeremiah 9:23-34). When the Gospel blessings and grace, from our Lord Jesus Christ, are poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, we love to come to worship the God of the Bible. In Dr Art (Arturo) Azurdia ’s sermon, he recounted a wisdom learned from someone he spoke with within an African American church:
We sing when we are happy.
We sing when we are not happy.
And when we are not happy, we sing until we get happy.
Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth! Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. Psalms 100:1-5
‘I am rather fond of being called an Antinomian, for this reason, that the term is generally applied to those who hold truth very firmly and will not let it go. But I should not be fond of being an Antinomian. We are not against the law of God. We believe it is no longer binding on us as the covenant of salvation; but we have nothing to say against the law of God. “The law is holy; We ate carnal, sold under sin.” None shall charge us truthfully with being Antinomians. We do quarrel with Antinomians; but as for some poor souls who are so inconsistent as to say the law is not binding, and yet try to keep it with all their might, we do not quarrel with them. They will never do much mischief. But we think they might learn to distinguish between the law as a covenant of life and a direction after we have obtained life.‘ (New Park Street Pulpit, Vol. II (1856), p.132).
