A Catechism for Girls and Boys

Part III: Questions about Salvation

94. Q. Can anyone be saved by his own righteousness?
       A. No. No one is good enough for God.

(Click through to read scriptural proof.)

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Sunday's Hymn: O Could I Speak the Matchless Worth

O could I speak the matchless worth,
O could I sound the glories forth which in my Savior shine!
I’d sing His glorious righteousness, and magnify the wondrous grace
Which made salvation mine, which made salvation mine.

I’d sing the precious blood He spilt,
My ransom from the dreadful guilt of sin, and wrath divine;
I’d sing His glorious righteousness, in which all perfect, heavenly dress
My soul shall ever shine, my soul shall ever shine.

I’d sing the characters He bears,
And all the forms of love He wears, exalted on His throne;
In loftiest songs of sweetest praise, I would to everlasting days
Make all His glories known, make all His glories known.

Soon, the delightful day will come
When my dear Lord will bring me home, and I shall see His face;
Then with my Savior, Brother, Friend, a blessèd eternity I’ll spend,
Triumphant in His grace, triumphant in His grace.

—Samuel Medley

Other hymns, worship songs, sermons etc. posted today:

• I Sing the Mighty Power of God at Field Stone Cottage
• O How I Love Jesus at Rosemary at Home
• The Struggle and more at Gospel Grace
• Day by Day at The Happy Wonderer
• Have Thine Own Way at By Grace Alone
• Lord’s Day 39 at Tried With Fire 
• Lord’s Day 39, 2012 at The Thirsty Theologian
• Faith Alone - September 23, 2012 at The Upward Call
• Your Weekly Dose of Spurgeon at Pyromaniacs: Our Unhurried God
• A Sunday Psalm: The Treasury of David - Psalm 9:7-8 at Theology for Girls
• Psalm 20 at Daily On My Way to Heaven

Have you posted a hymn (or sermon, sermon notes, prayer, etc.) today and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by contacting me using the contact form linked above, and I’ll add your post to the list.

Reading Classics Together: The Discipline of Grace, Chapter 7

Obeying the Great Commandment

This week’s reading for Tim Challies Reading Classics Together program was the seventh chapter of Jerry Bridges’ book The Discipline of Grace. This chapter is about the great commandment, the command to love God with heart, soul and mind, and how to keep it. How is it that we can genuinely love God?

I’m going to focus on one point in this week’s reading: the place of the gospel in obeying this commandment to love God. Bridges writes,

Scripture … says, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Our love to God can only be a response to His love for us. If I do not believe God loves me, I cannot love Him.

One of the things that can keep us from loving God is a guilty conscience. A tender conscience is a good thing when it makes us aware of our sins, but it can also

load us down with guilt, and when we are under that burden and sense of condemnation, it is difficult to love God or believe that He loves us.

This is where the gospel comes in.

[W]e must continually take those sins that our consciences accuse us of to the Cross and plead the cleansing blood of Jesus. It is only the blood of Christ that cleanses our consciences so that we may no longer feel guilty….

It’s only when we are free of the sense of guilt that we can love God with heart, soul, and mind. It’s then that

we are motivatied in a positive sense to love Him in this wholehearted way. Our love will be spontaneous in an ourpouring of gratitude to Him and fervent desire to obey Him.

It’s the gospel that provides us with the motive (the “only enduring motive”) to love God.

Next week’s reading is chapter 8, Dependent Discipline.