1 Peter 1:18-19

¹⁸Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; ¹⁹But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

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.

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

Birthdays: Jim Casey - Oct. 27^th.

Richman "Brooks" Margeson - Nov. 1^st.

MY ONLY HOPE

It came to my mind again recently that I can find no hope or consolation of any kind in anything that I have done or am. There is not a single thing about me that would commend me to God or warrant His blessing me in the least way. But then I also had this thought, I can find no hope or consolation in the fact that I see this is my case or feel it to be true! There is no hope to be found in my knowing this, acknowledging it to be true or in any feeling it might generate in me. I am nothing and this gives me no hope. I feel it to be true and any and all feeling it to be so gives me no hope. I must confess as the hymn-writer, "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness." Honestly! The only hope for a sinner like me is a believing look at the Lord Jesus Christ! Our only hope is in the grace of God, in His covenant mercies and in His unchanging love. My hope is not even in my believing on Him but in HIM! I can only lay down my head and rest on the promises of God in Christ crucified. No one, not even myself, can lay anything to my charge if "It is Christ that died." When I am under the weight of my sinful self, I thank God He gives me grace and faith so that, even then, I cannot but hope in Him who came into the world to save sinners, even me the chief of sinners!

GS

Excerpts from: IMMUTABILITY

"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." Hebrews 18:8

We observe again, that sometimes there are many changes in our own minds. We are the subjects of change and mutability. What is more fickle than we are? Sometimes we are on the mount of enjoyment: "Bless the Lord, O my soul;" sometimes we are in unbelief and temptation: "Is his mercy clean gone for ever?" Jesus lives, whatever be the state of our minds. Sometimes we are walking in darkness, under the hidings of our heavenly Father's face; sometimes we have the liftings up of the light of His countenance; but Jesus lives when we are in the dark as well as when we are in the light. There is no alienation nor the least shadow of a turn with our blessed Jesus.

John Kershaw, May 26, 1853

NO SALVATION WITHOUT THE GREAT WORK OF CHRIST

The reasons why we could not be saved without the great work of Christ, are, because God is just and holy, evermore: for if He were not just and holy He must be unjust and unholy, and then He would cease to be God, as He would then be under the dominion of injustice and corruption. Then as God is just and holy, His people could not be saved without Christ dying for them, and for the same reason, namely, that He is just and holy, not one of those whose names are not in the Book of Life can be saved. They are without hope and God in the world. Now, as it is impossible for those to be saved for whom Christ did not die, so it is impossible for those to be lost for whom He did die; and as it is impossible to be saved without the death of Christ, so it is impossible to go to perdition with the vicarious sacrifice of Christ. Because the Lord is just and holy, His people could not be taken to heaven without the blood and righteousness of Christ. Justice and holiness stood against them in their fallen state in the first Adam, but in Christ, not justice and holiness only, but mercy, grace, goodness, yea ALL the perfections of God are on their side, so that they have boldness to call God their Father, that is, when the Holy Spirit is pleased to enable them to do so.

James Wells - (1839)

CHRISTIAN LIVING

Christian living is not an activity of obedience engaged in so as to obtain an eternal reward and inheritance. It is the activity of obedience engaged in because Christ has already obtained our eternal reward and inheritance. It is not activity aimed at making ourselves righteous and holy before God. It is the obedient activity of one who has been made so by the grace of God in Christ. The fact is that we, even as Christians, cannot earn our reward or inheritance because even though we are sinners saved by the grace of God, we are still sinners. We are righteous in Christ but not yet in ourselves. Therefore Christian living is living in and by the TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL; living in the GRACE OF GOD; living in the LOVE OF GOD; and LIVING BY FAITH IN CHRIST. The life within us by the power of the Holy Spirit is not evidenced by perfection of deeds, but by deeds that accompany our testimony of grace, holiness, and righteousness in and by the Lord Jesus Christ.