WORSHIP WITHOUT LIMITS

J  C Ryle "Which of you, intending to build a house, does not sit down first and count the cost?" Luke 14:28 The text which heads this page is one of great importance. Few are the people who are not often obliged to ask themselves, "What does it cost?" There is one subject on which it is especially important to count the cost. That subject is the salvation of our souls. What does it cost to be a true Christian? Let there be no mistake about my meaning. I am not examining what it costs to save a Christian's soul. I know well that it costs nothing less than the blood of the Son of God to provide an atonement and to redeem man from hell. We "are bought with a price." The point I want to consider is another one altogether. It is what a man must be ready to give up if he wishes to be saved. It is the amount of sacrifice a man must submit to if he intends to serve Christ. I grant freely that it costs little to be a mere outward Christi

A spiritual leader will take time to listen to God, every day. A phrase that occurs frequently in the very first chapter of the Bible is this: "Then God said". God said something on every one of those first six days, when He remade the chaotic earth. And each time God spoke, the earth became a better place. So, right there on the very first page of the Bible we learn one very important truth - that we must hear what God has to say every day. And if we submit to what God tells us every day, we will be transformed into better and more useful Christians. There’s a lot of difference between hearing what God has to say to us and just reading the Bible. Remember, it was people who studied their Bibles daily who crucified the Lord. They studied their Bibles but they never heard God speaking to their hearts (See Acts 13:27). That’s the danger we face too. And then, we can be as blind as they were. Genesis 1 also teaches us that God wants to speak to us every day.

Rom 9:27 Isaiah also cries concerning Israel, “though the numbers of the sons of Israel is as the sands of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.’ I want to articulate a doctrine in the Bible that is very troubling and alarming. I am very much afraid that the Bible is a more alarming book than we know .Before I explain what I mean, I would like to read the words of a hymn. I love this hymn from Edwin Hodder (1837-1904) about the Word. The Word is like a garden , Lord With flowers bright and fair; And everyone who seeks may pluck A lovely cluster there. Thy Word is like a deep, deep mine; And jewels rich and rare Are hidden in its mighty depths For every searcher there. Thy Word is like a starry host; A thousand rays of light Are seen to guide the traveler And make his pathway bright. Thy Word is like an armory Where soldiers may repair. And find, for life’s long battle day All needful weapons there. All of that is true. I enjoy hearing that song and I enjoy sing

It is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself who has given us these words in one of His parables. He says: "After a long time the Lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them." (Matthew 25 verse 19.) This, while in one place He speaks of the "little while." in another He speaks of "the long time." Little, yet great; short, yet long; both are true; and it is this double expression that makes up the full character of man's condition here, as preparing for the great day of the Lord. From the day when the Master left the earth and went up to the Father, to the day when He shall come again in His glory to sit on the awful throne before which all nations shall be gathered, is, in one sense, a long time, as men reckon years and ages. But in another sense, it is but a little while, if we reckon time as God reckons it, and compare it with the vast eternity in which it is to be swallowed up. Life is a vapour, and that is little; life is