Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; and Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; Thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD, Thou preservest man and beast. -

Psalm 36:5-6Bible Study 10 AM. Video sermon by Bill Parker

Today's Speaker: Brother Randy Wages will conduct the 11:00 am service today. Pray for him as he delivers God's word.

A TRUE RIGHTEOUSNESS IN HEAVEN

One day, as I was passing into the field, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul: ‘Thy righteousness is in heaven.' And I thought that I could see Jesus Christ at God's right hand. Yes, there indeed was my righteousness, so that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say about me that I did not have righteousness, for it was standing there before Him. I also saw that it was not my good feelings that made my righteousness better, and that my bad feelings did not make my righteousness worse, for my righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself, ‘the same yesterday, and today, and forever,' Hebrews 13:8. Now, indeed, the chains fell off my legs, and I was loosened from my afflictions and irons. My temptations also fled away so that from that time forward those dreadful Scriptures terrified me no more. Now I went home rejoicing because of the grace and love of God, and went to my Bible to look up where the verse was found that said, ‘Thy righteousness is in heaven.' But I could not find it. And so my heart began to sink again, until suddenly, there came to my remembrance I Corinthians 1:30, ‘Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption.' From this, I saw that the other sentence was also true. - -- John Bunyan

ENCOURAGEMENT IN LOVE

When I examine myself and take inventory of my thoughts, motives, desires, and actions, I am continually disappointed in the sinfulness and weakness of my best efforts to love God and my brethren in Christ. As recorded in John 21, our Lord asked Peter three times, "Do you love me?" Peter's only reply could be, "Lord, you know all things. You know I love you." Peter knew his love was nothing to boast in, but he knew he loved the Lord. The Lord told Peter that the greatest expression of love to Him was love to the brethren - "Feed my lambs, my sheep." When I see how weak and pitiful I am in this matter of love, how can I be encouraged not to give up but to love more? It is not by considering the sinfulness and weakness of my own love. It is by considering the greatness and perfection of God's love to me -- "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another" (1 John 4:11). Think of the free, undeserved, unconditional love of God towards us (SINNERS) in sending His only-begotten Son to die for our sins and give us the bounty of His grace -- "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:9-10). The more we know of HIS love for us, the more we will be encouraged to love one another more.

Bill Parker

Christ the Ransom Found

God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself (2 Cor. 5:18, 19), drawing the scheme of their reconciliation, ransom, and redemption: this flows from his divine counsels, who does all things after the counsel of his will; as there was a consultation held about the formation of man, no doubt there was one about his ransom and recovery; and which, with great propriety, may be called the council of peace, that was held between the eternal three on this special affair: this is the fruit and effect of his infinite wisdom, which shines in all his works, but abounds in the ransom and redemption of men, and the contrivance of it; this is the manifold wisdom of God, the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, ordained before the world for our glory; this is the result of an eternal purpose he purposed in Christ, of a resolution and determination he came into to have mercy on his people, and save them by the Lord their God; whom he set forth in his decrees and purposes to be the propitiation for their sins, and fore-ordained before the foundation of the world to ransom them with his precious blood. This is owing to a covenant of grace, which he made with Christ, in which he called and appointed him to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the preferred of Israel: and in consideration of his making his soul an offering for sin, and giving himself a ransom for his chosen, he promised him a numerous feed, length of days for ever and ever, and the utmost prosperity and glory as man and mediator; to all which he agreed, and said, Lo I come to do thy will; (Isa. 49:5, 6; 53:10-12; Ps. 40:7); which was no other than to give his life a ransom for many. And now it was with the utmost pleasure, and to his great satisfaction, that he found such a ransom; and which seems to be expressed in the language of the text, I have found a ransom; Christ, as such, was the object of his delight and joy when he was let up as mediator by him from everlasting. But this must be understood of God the Father, not to the exclusion of the Son, since the council of peace was between them both; (Zech. 6:13) ; and Christ is, as the Septuagint version of Isaiah 9:6 calls him, the Angel of the great council; and he is the Wisdom of God, that dwells with prudence, and finds out the knowledge of witty inventions (Prov. 8:12); of which this of the ransom and redemption of men is not the least. And especially if the finding a ransom respects the impetration of redemption"; this peculiarly belongs to Christ; of him it is said, having obtained, or as it is in the original text, having found eternal redemption for us (Heb. 9:12); he is the ransomer, and the ransom-price; he is the man the peace, and who has made peace by the blood of his cross, and reconciled men to God by his sufferings and death, and is become the author of eternal salvation.