CALL TO WORSHIP
(Tune: Doxology)
(Words by Pastor Jim Byrd)

With grateful hearts for sovereign grace,
We meet together in this place;
So join your voices, let us sing
All glory unto Zion’s King.

Amazing, free and saving grace,
Was granted to a chosen race;
God gave us to His only Son,
Before creation was begun.

To save poor sinners Jesus came;
Who can refuse to praise His Name?
From heav’n He came our debt to pay;
And wash our sin and guilt away.

Adore God’s mighty drawing grace,
Now we, by faith, the Son embrace;
Within our hearts the seed was sown;
The Spirit made Christ Jesus known.

So let us sing of saving grace,
Of Jesus Christ our Hiding Place;
O what a sweet and precious theme,
Grace reigns through righteousness supreme.

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Today: Bible Classes – 10:00 a.m.; Morning Worship – 11:00 a.m.
Messages by Pastor Bill Parker

Television Broadcast: Reign of Grace Television
Sunday morning on WALB-TV @ 9 AM.

Live Streaming – 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. – Sermon Audio web site

Web Sites: Reign of Grace: www.rofgrace.com
Sermon Audio: www.Sermonaudio.com\reignofgrace

Hymns:“Immortal, Invisible” – p. 34 / “Like a River Glorious” – p. 287

FROM THE PASTOR

The Lord willing, next week (May 4-8) I will be preaching in a Gospel meeting at Grace Baptist Church in Ruston, LA, where Brother Richard Warmack is pastor. Please pray for me as I prepare to travel and to preach to our brethren in Ruston. Elder Jim Casey and Brother Jason Renfroe will be preaching here next Sunday, May 8. Please pray for these men as they prepare and preach the glorious Gospel of God’s grace in Christ to you next Sunday.

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THE NAKED WORD

Some seem to think that the Word of God needs embellishment. A verse of scripture is posted or printed in the various media with a beautiful picture or scene or as often is the case, a sensational picture or statement. But these things only appeal to the flesh. They might stir the emotions but they do not give light to the soul. They may attract our attention but they give us no real revelation of that written truth. The word of God needs nothing but its naked self in the hands of the Holy Spirit. If anything, these added attractions distract from the word of truth. The Spirit must bring us to read that word and enable us to believe it if we are to know its meaning. Means that do not glorify God will never be used by God. It will always be as it has been, “what thus saith the Lord.” The written word must not be written on a beautiful background, it must be written in the heart. Natural beauty cannot give or even help in that revelation that the mind and heart need of God and His Son. The true beauty of God is in the face of Jesus Christ. Men are blind to this beauty and only when God gives spiritual light as pictured in the natural creation and says, “let there be light,” do we see His glory in the Person and work of Jesus Christ as He is set forth in the Gospel. Man is a natural idolator and is prone to add idolatry to the truth of God. Men view natural beauty and remain lost. When God reveals the truth to them through His word, they see “the King in His beauty.” Give me what all true faith looks to, the naked word. “It is written...” -- Pastor Gary Shepard

SUCCESS IN EVANGELISM

One of the main reasons it is so common for men to seek their own devices in what they see as evangelism and worship is that men by nature do not trust in the Lord but in themselves and their abilities. This is why when the preaching of the truth offends people false preachers seek ways to change the message so that it is pleasant and agreeable to the natural man. This is also the reason man-made statements and formulas intended to get “professions of faith from people” are so popular. The apostle Paul wrote –

“And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:1-5).

God’s Word tells us, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). God also says, “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD” (Jeremiah 17:5). Our responsibility is simply to preach the Word of God as God reveals it and pray that God will use for His glory in Christ Jesus in fulfilling whatever purpose He intends. Success in preaching and in evangelism is never to be measured by the response of the hearers. It can only be measured as our message and our methods glorify God, exalt Christ, and put us as sinful human beings in our proper place as sinners in need of sovereign mercy and grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. Noah was a preacher of righteousness (the glorious Person and finished work of Christ) and by this “he condemned the world” (Heb. 11:7). However, Noah was not a failure as a preacher. He was a success because he preached the Gospel of the righteousness of God found only in the promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.