Call to Worship January 11, 2015
Pastor Silas Mercer wrote on behalf of the Phillips Mill Church in Wilkes county Georgia, in 1787, “We are fully convinced that Salvation is all of grace, or all of works; for they cannot be mixed in this business; and if it be by grace, then the doctrine of the Election, or God’s love to his people, is the very foundation of our salvation; and is that foundation of God which standeth sure…”[1] In addition, the Georgia Association confessed in the Abstract & Decorum of 1790, “We believe in the everlasting love of God to His people, and the eternal election of a definite number of the human race, to grace and glory: And that there was a covenant of grace…made between the Father and the Son, before the world began, in which their salvation is secure, and that they in particular are redeemed.”[2] These statements reveal many important doctrinal formulations, but notice how both statements inextricably link God’s love to the doctrine of election. We worship the God who is love and He has shown His covenant love in that He first chose us, in Christ, before the foundation of the world. Those He chose are not frozen, but walk in the light and heat of the Holy Spirit who brought them from life to death. So, let us worship our God who is love and displays His love consistently in constancy without fluctuation or vibration. He elected in His unfailing love and He keeps us with the same love. Soli Deo Gloria!
[1] Jesse Mercer, A History of the Georgia Baptist Association (1838; repr., Washington, Georgia: Georgia Baptist Association, 1980), 140-141. This is a paragraph from a letter written by the Phillips Mill Church to the Georgia Baptist Association in 1787.
[2] Abraham Marshall, Silas Mercer, John Newton, Charles Bussey and Sanders (Saunders) Walker, Minutes of the Georgia Baptist Association: Abstracts of Decorum, (Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Tarver Library Special Collections 1790) np.