The house of the wicked shall be overthrown: but the tabernacle of the upright shall flourish. There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Proverbs 14:11-12

Missionary and Pastor Cody Groover will be with us next Sunday. Cody has served for many years in the mission field of Yucatan in Mexico and serves as the pastor of the church in Merida, Yucatan. You can find his website at: mensaje-de-gracia.com, also on Sermon Audio.

A WORD ABOUT AFFLICTIONS

David’s pen never wrote more sweetly than when it was dipped in the ink of affliction. Afflictions are as needful for our souls as food is for our bodies. All the afflictions that a saint is exercised with are neither too numerous nor too sharp. A great deal of rust requires a rough file. The trees of the wilderness may grow without care, but the fruit trees in the garden must be pruned. The fields may remain fallow and untouched, but those that bear the corn must be broken up, crushed and laid off in rows. So, my dearly beloved, count it not strange when fiery trials come upon you. God may cast you down, but He will never cast you off. No affliction would trouble a child of God if he knew God’s reason for sending it. Therefore, seeing we do not know the reason, let our comfort rest on the fact that He does have a reason. “If ye be without chastening, ye are not sons.”

Pastor Henry Mahan (written 1956)

This Is Always True

A naked sinner can be clothed, but a sinner covered with his own righteousness must be stripped. This is always true. We must be stripped of all that has to do with self or we cannot be clothed with that which pertains to God. We are called to live by faith; we can see nothing with the eye of sense. The Lord Jesus has gone up on high, and we are told to wait patiently for His appearing. God's Word carried home to the heart in the power of the Holy Spirit is the basis of confidence in all things: temporal and spiritual, present and future. He tells us of Christ's completed sacrifice. We by grace believe and commit our souls to the efficacy thereof, and we know we shall never be disappointed.

Pastor Scott Richardson

ALL OF GRACE

In heaven’s glory we shall forever adore and praise our great God for the wondrous mystery of His grace, by which we are saved. Everything in the great work of salvation sets forth the splendor of the grace of the Most High God. What do we see in election, predestination, redemption, regeneration and preservation, but His grace? The whole work of salvation displays God’s rich, free, almighty, irresistible, sovereign, saving grace in Christ. In salvation, as well as in creation, all things are of God, all things are by God, and all things are for God. He works all our works in us, and in Him alone all praise must be forever!

Pastor Maurice Montgomery

SOUND DOCTRINE
2 Timothy 4:3

There are but two schemes of religion in this world. One is true the other is false. One is saving the other is damning. These two schemes of religion are free grace and free will. Free grace declares that salvation is the work of God alone (Jonah 2:9). Free will declares that salvation is, at least in part, the work of man. Free grace declares that salvation is conditioned upon the obedience of Christ alone as the sinner's Substitute (2Cor.5:21). Free will declares that salvation is ultimately and finally conditioned upon the obedience of the sinner himself. Any doctrine that makes salvation, eternal life, acceptance with God, and the reward of the heavenly inheritance to be dependent upon, or determined by you, at any point or in any measure, is contrary to sound doctrine and must be rejected. To receive, believe, or embrace such doctrine will be damning to your soul (1John 5:10-12).

Here are five points of Divine truth revealed in Holy Scripture. Anything that is contrary to, or in any measure diminishes these five points of sound doctrine must be rejected as heresy (Gal. 1:6-9).

1. TOTAL DEPRAVITY - All men by nature are both totally sinful and completely helpless, because all are spiritually dead in sin; in Adam all died (Matt. 15:19; Rom. 5:12; Eph. 2:1-4).

2. UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION – God, from eternity, chose a people in Christ whom He determined to save, without consideration of anything in them or anything that might be done by them (2Thes.2:13; Eph.1:3-6).

3. LIMITED ATONEMENT – Christ died for and redeemed His elect only. The benefits of Christ's death are limited to the elect. And His death effectually secures and accomlished their salvation (Isa. 53:8-11; John 10:11, 15; Heb. 9:12).

4. IRRESISTIBLE GRACE – God the Holy Spirit calls sinners from spiritual death to spiritual life in Christ by the power of His grace which cannot be successfully resisted (Psa. 65:4; 110:3; John 6:63; Eph. 2:8-9).

5. PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS – Every sinner chosen by God in election, redeemed by Christ at Calvary, and called by the Spirit in grace shall persevere in grace unto eternal glory, because they are all preserved and kept by grace (John 10:27-30; Jer. 32:38-40; 1Peter 1:5).