Birthdays: Kelsey Jones – June 10th | Smith Flynn – June 11th Wilma McLarry – June 12th
O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms. (Psalm 95:1-2)
“One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in His temple.” (Psalm 27:4)
It is impossible to worship God in spirit and in truth when the truth of God in Christ is not preached, believed, and promoted. God’s glory in Christ is the goal of true worship, and His glory in Christ is revealed in His Word of truth. It involves mainly the truth of the glorious Person of Christ Who is God manifests in the flesh, and the truth of His powerful redemptive work to establish righteousness for His people whereby He secured their whole salvation unto final glory. The basis upon sinners saved by grace approach God in worship, praise, and prayer, is the same as the basis of their whole salvation and acceptance with God. It is the merits of the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ Who is the great high priest of His people. It is the blood of the Lamb of God in Whom all the sheep are called and secured into the sheepfold. It is the righteousness of God in Christ imputed to His people by which they stand justified and certain to be glorified. Herein God’s people worship Him in beholding the beauty of the Lord in the face of Jesus Christ. —Pastor Bill Parker
The Apostle Paul knew well the suffering that comes with the ministry of the Gospel, the reproach of Christ. He was mocked, beaten, arrested, misrepresented, and reviled by those who hated him and the Gospel he preached. We know full well why natural man hates the Gospel and will not receive it. It is because the preaching of the Person of Christ and the work of Christ to establish the only ground of salvation for sinners in the merits of His obedience unto death proves them to be lost and exposes their best deeds aimed at salvation to be no more than evil deeds and fruit unto death (John 3:19-20). But some who even claimed to believe the Gospel that Paul preached spoke harshly of him. Because of jealousy, pride, and arrogance, they sought to discredit him. However, by the Spirit of God Paul wrote that the proper way to handle accusations and persecutions is not to return evil for evil. He wrote that we “labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it:” (1 Cor. 4:12). Let our enemies rail on. We have a great and noble commission from our Lord and Savior to preach the Gospel to every creature. Let us set our minds to doing our Father’s business, and let our enemies strive unto nothing. Our desire and our prayer to God is that God will be gracious to save them. —Copied
Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: even to Him shall men come; and all that are incensed against Him shall be ashamed. In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory. (Isaiah 45:24-25)
The pardon which God gives is neither a smothering-up of sins, nor a blinding of justice. God is as just in His pardons as in His punishments. It shall be seen at the last, when believers enter into their glory, that they rise there by law, just as surely as the lost sink down to hell by law. That is to say that the Lord Jesus has rendered to the law such recompense by His perfect obedience, and His matchless atonement, that it shall be as just on God's part to save His elect as to condemn the unbelieving world —Copied
In these days of boasted liberality, it may appear critical and contentious to oppose with zeal the errors of men who have acquired a name in the Christian world. The mantle of charity, it will be said, ought to be thrown over mistakes that have resulted from a free and impartial investigation of truth, and if not wholly overlooked, they should be noticed only with a slight expression of disapproval. Such, however, was not the conduct of the Apostle Paul. He spared neither churches nor individuals, when the doctrines they maintained tended to the subversion of the Gospel; and the zeal with which he resisted their errors was not inferior to that with which he encountered the open enemies of Christianity. He affirms that the doctrine introduced into the Galatian churches was "another gospel," and twice pronounced a curse against all by whom it was preached. Instead of complimenting the authors of this corruption of the Gospel as only abusing in a slight degree the liberty of free examination, he decides that they should be cut off as troublers of the churches. Let not believers be more courteous in expressing their views of the guilt and danger of corrupting the Gospel, than faithful and compassionate to the people of Christ who may be injured by false doctrine. It is highly sinful to exchange compliments at the expense of truth. The awful responsibility of being accessory to the promotion of error is strongly expressed by the Apostle John also. "If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God-speed; for he that biddeth him God-speed is partaker of his evil deeds" (2 John 10-11). —Robert Haldane
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