A REFUGE FOR SINNERS

(Tune: "How Firm A Foundation")

A refuge for sinners the Gospel makes known,

‘Tis found in the merits of Jesus alone;

The weary, the tempted, the burdened of sin

Are never excluded from entering in.

This refuge for sinners God's love did ordain

In Jesus, the Lamb, from eternity slain;

In Christ the Redeemer Who lived and Who died,

God's law and His justice are now satisfied.

Should conscience accuse us, as often it may,

The blood of our Saviour has put sin away;

In Jesus, our Surety, the sinner can view

A city of refuge and righteousness too.

MORNING WORSHIP:

TODAY'S SPEAKER: Eager Avenue Grace Church extends a warm welcome to Pastor Bill Parker and his wife Debbie. Bill is pastor of 13^th. Street Baptist Church, Ashland, Ky. and once again we welcome him as our guest speaker. Bill will conduct both the 10:00 am and 11:00 am services today. Pray for him as he delivers God's Word.

Baptism: Brother Jerry Wages and his wife Sister Becky Wages will profess their faith in the Lord in believer's baptism following the morning message. A dinner will follow. All are invited.

Radio Broadcast: Sunday morning at 9:30am on 98.7 FM -WISK

You can also hear the sermons on your computer. Just click on

http://www.americusradio.com/

Birthdays: Banks Margeson - Sept. 6^th. , Patrick Flynn - Sept. 7^th.

The Cause of Christ's Death

"Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put <him> to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin."

The first and ultimate cause of His death is God the Father. Christ was set up from eternity by Divine decree to be the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Al­though wicked men prompted by the evil of their own hearts inflicted the suffering, they acted according to the Divine purpose of God (Acts 2:23; 4:26-28). This is no excuse for the wickedness of man in hating and crucifying the Son of God. We are held accountable because we must operate by God's revealed will by way of commandment. But we see according to God's secret will, He overrules the wickedness of men to carry forth His glori­ous purposes. Wicked men meant it for evil; God meant it for good.

The pleasure that God the Father took in the death of His Son was not any enjoyment over suffering. It was the satisfac­tion He took in that every attribute of His holy character was revealed, honored, and magnified in the salvation of sinners based on the righteousness Christ brought forth by His obedience unto death. God chose a people, a multitude of sinners, before the foundation of the world, and He purposed to save them and have eternal fellowship with them. But this salvation and fellowship was impossible except God's holy law and justice be satisfied. Holiness and sin can have no fellowship. Therefore, it was necessary that the Father condition all of their salvation on Christ and send Him into the world to fulfill those condi­tions. To have fellowship with God we must be perfectly holy and righteousness, and the only way is through Christ.

Bill Parker - Pastor of 13^th. Street Baptist Church Ashland, Ky.

Isaiah 32:17-18

"And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places."

INIQUITY LAID ON HIM
by John Gill

"...and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all" Isaiah 53:6- that is, God the Father, against whom we have sinned, from whom we have turned, and whose justice must be satisfied; he has laid on Christ, his own Son, the sins of all his elect ones; which are as it were collected together, and made one bundle and burden of, and therefore expressed in the singular number, "iniquity", and laid on Christ, and were born by him, even all the sins of all God's elect; a heavy burden this! which none but the mighty God could bear; This was typified by laying of hands, and laying of sins upon the sacrifice, and putting the iniquities of Israel upon the head of the scapegoat, by whom they were born, and carried away.

The words may be rendered, "he made to meet upon him the iniquity of us all." The elect of God, as they live in every part of the world, their sins are represented as coming from all quarters, east, west, north, and south; and as meeting in Christ, as they did, when he suffered as their representative on the cross. Or "he made to rush, or fall upon him the iniquity of us all." Our sins, like a large and mighty army, beset him around, and fell upon him in a hostile manner, and were the cause of his death, by which means the law and justice of God had full satisfaction, and our recovery from ruin and destruction is procured, which must have been the consequence of turning to our own ways.

No Half-Savior

How dangerous it is to join anything of our own to the righteousness of Christ in pursuit of justification before God! Jesus Christ will never endure this; it reflects upon His work dishonorably. He will be all, or none, in our justification. If He has finished the work, what need is there of our additions? And if not, to what purpose are they? Can we finish that which Christ Himself could not complete? Did He finish the work, and will He ever divide the glory and praise of it with us? No, no; Christ is no half-Savior. It is a hard thing to bring proud hearts to rest upon Christ for righteousness. God humbles the proud by calling sinners wholly from their own righteousness to Christ for their justification.