11:00 Service: Speaker, Winston Pannell, Eager Avenue Grace Church

Announcement: Eager Ave. Grace Church now has an additional web page located on the Sermon Audio web site. The web page address is: www.sermonaudio.com\reignofgrace .

Birthdays: Nicki Jones – May 18^th.

TRUST IN THE LORD, AND DO GOOD

“Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.” (Psalm 37:1-3)

While we as believers reside here on this earth, we will always be plagued by the enemies of Christ and His truth. It is a most difficult situation, but we need not worry, fear, or be envious of the fleeting prosperity of the workers of iniquity. The warfare is not ours to win by our power and goodness. It is the Lord’s, and He is able to defeat all His (and our) enemies. He is able to save us completely. When He spoke to His disciples of the great work He Himself would accomplish in saving them, He said, “These things I have spoken unto you, that IN ME ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). There is no peace in this world for children of God, but there is eternal peace in Christ. He overcame our enemies when He died on the cross to justify us in the sight of God. He overcame our enemies when He arose from the dead. He overcame our enemies when He gave us spiritual life by His Spirit when we were born again. He continually overcomes our enemies as He ever lives to make intercession for us and keep us by His power and grace. He will ultimately overcome our enemies when He returns to this earth to gather His church unto Himself, glorify us, and judge this world. Let us keep our eyes upon Him. Let us trust Him, not ourselves, but Him alone. Let us seek to do good, not in our own strength and power, for we have none, but by faith in Him who saved us, sustains us, and gives us the victory now and forever, Jesus Christ and Him crucified, the risen Lord of glory.

— Bill Parker – Pastor of Thirteenth Street Baptist Church

There is a ransom for the people of God

“ 2 Kings 5 ”

As I mentioned previously, Na’a-man came prepared to buy his salvation. He was prepared to sacrifice whatever to be healed. But he soon learned that he could not buy his healing. In V-15, he offered a “blessing” to Elisha for his healing and it is refused. Elisha is obedient to the command Christ gives to all his servants in Matthew 10: 8; “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely you have received, freely give.” In V-16, he gives the reason for refusal. “As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand.” I stand in him justified, as do all his people. “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s Elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is it the condemeth? It is Christ that has died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is at the right hand of the Father, who also maketh intercession for us.” (Romans 8:34) How can I charge you for that which I freely received from the Lord myself?

Na’a-man’s salvation was not the result of something he was required to perform. It was dependent on what “thus saith the Lord.” In V-14, he obeyed the “saying of the man of God.” And the saying of every man of God from the first prophet of God to the last is that God has ransomed His people by a righteousness established and imputed at the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Every sinner who acts on this testimony and truth is justified before God and will be brought to see, as was Na’a-man that his peace was made with God by the blood of Christ’s cross. His obedience to dip seven times in the Jordan River was the evidence that his faith was in the only true object of faith, the Lord Jesus Christ. His obedience was the result of being quickened by the Spirit of God. His quickening was not the result of his obedience. He was “saved by grace, through faith,” (through the gospel) revealed to his mind and communicated to his heart. He was motivated to obedience by the truth that all his healing, both physical and spiritual was the result of Christ’s finished work on the cross. He was made to see that there is a ransom for the people of God.