CALL TO WORSHIP

(Tune: "O God Our Help")

Christ bears the name of all His saints,

Deep on His heart engraved;

Attentive to the state and needs

Of all whom He has saved.

In Christ our Righteousness complete,

God's glory forth doth shine;

Where mercy, truth, and justice meet

Our Savior all Divine.

When justice smote our Surety's head,

Then satisfaction made;

The blood which our High Priest has shed,

A perfect ransom paid.

Bible Study: "The Suffering King of Israel" - II Samuel 15:1-23

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

Television Broadcast: Our Reign of Grace Television program is being broadcast on WFXL Fox 31, Channel 4. The program will air every Sunday morning at 11 AM. Pray that God will use it for His glory.

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: Kandice Drake - April 14^th.

A Right­eousness Ready Wrought

Every religion, except one, puts you upon doing something to recommend your­self to God. The gospel runs counter to the rest by af­firming that we are saved, and called with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to the Father's pur­pose and grace, which was (not sold to us on certain condi­tions, but was) given us in Christ before the world began. It was long ago remarked, "It is the business of all false reli­gions to patch up a right­eousness, in which the sinner is to stand before God." But it is the busi­ness of the gospel to bring near to us, by the hand of the Holy Spirit, a right­eousness ready wrought; a robe of per­fection ready made; wherein God's people, to all the pur­poses of justification and happi­ness, stand perfect and without fault before His throne!

- Augustus Top­lady

Fervent Prayers

As we all know, God who is absolutely sovereign in all things, who has declared the end from the beginning, and whose purposes and decretive will cannot be frustrated, has ordained all the means necessary to accomplish His will. One of the means God has ordained is the fervent prayers of His people. God purposes and promises to bless His people, but He also has ordained that they should make use of the blessed means and privilege of prayer. God blesses His people through prayer. God answers prayer. It may or may not be the answer we desire, and the blessing may or may not be what we expect, but it is a privilege and an act of faith and worship for believers to pray. The power, efficacy, and prevalence of prayer does not arise from any intrinsic worth and merit in the act of prayer, but from the grace of the Spirit who influences and directs to it, from the powerful mediation, precious blood, and efficacious sacrifice of Christ, and from the promise of God and Christ, who have engaged that whatever is asked according to the will of God and in the name of Christ shall be done.

- John Gill

The Rock of Salvation

"Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up to glory." ( I Tim. 3. 16.) There was absolute necessity for the Immortal Word to assume our nature without sin in the womb of the Virgin, that in that nature He might bear all our transgressions away, die for our iniquities, and shed His precious blood for the remission of our sins; that sin might be condemned in His flesh; that is, in the holy soul and body of the immaculate Jesus. Paul says, "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." (Rom. 8. 3.) "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures." (I Cor. 15. 3) The awful and solemn death of Jesus, His crucifixion and blood-shedding, is the pillar of the Christian religion, and the grand foundation of the church of God. The sinner who is awakened to see and feel his lost, ruined, and undone state; to behold the inflexible holiness and justice of God, and brought at the same time to feel himself sinking within under the terrors of God in a broken law - that poor guilty, sin-condemned wretch, has nowhere else to look for peace, comfort, or rest, but to the Lord Jesus Christ. He died for our sins. He "was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification."

Now this is the very gospel the apostle Paul preached; therefore he lays such emphasis upon it in that memorable chapter, I Cor. 15. Let me read a few verses of it. He says, "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand: by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures: and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures." (vv. 1-3) The solemn and awful death of Jesus, the incarnate God: His blood-shedding for the remission of our sins, and His resurrection from the dead, is the foundation upon which God's church is raised for eternity.