It's Still Grace!

I just returned home from a weekend of meetings in Winston-Salem NC. It was a blessed time, as we gathered at Sovereign Grace Chapel for their 13th Annual Sovereign Grace Conference. The theme of the conference was the Sovereignty of God in Salvation. It was a familiar theme, and we looked at familiar passages of Scripture. Yet, I was reminded that one can never grow too familiar with God's sovereign grace. I have found that the more intently you peer into the glories that are God's in the redemption of the elect, the more humbled you become and more fit for worship you are. Unfortunately, it is popular among the neo-reformed to downplay what they would refer to as the obvious doctrines of reformed theology, and seek to up-play progressiveness and postmodern theological ingenuity. Now anyone who really knows me knows that I am all for progression and ingenuity, but my hope remains built upon the doctrines of God's sovereign grace. I fear that we too often make light of these truths as if they belonged to the elementary elements of the faith. On the contrary, I am convinced, both by biblical precepts and experiential practice, that these doctrines are the foundations of our faith and provide, more than anything else, the summation of the glories of God in salvation and my hope of eternity. Still some will say, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've heard all that before." To you I say, "Apparently, you need to hear it again. And again. And again." I have found that the depth of my sinfulness needs to hear and know the Doctrines of Grace continually. I am confident that if you really wanted to know the depth of your sinfulness, you would say the same thing. Friends, let us never move too far from the Doctrines of Grace. Let us never get too sophisticated for the simple pronouncements of the Doctrines of Grace. Let us never grow too familiar so as to believe that we have or are anything apart from the Doctrines of Grace. Friends, no matter what the latest doctrinal wave has washed upon the shores of the church, the greatest of these is still GRACE.