Birthdays: Mike Lee – Oct. 24th | Jim Casey – Oct. 27th
Hymns for service: I Love To Tell the Story – p. 431 Take the Name of Jesus With You – p. 63
We welcome Connie Qualls into the fellowship of our church as she professes believer's baptism today. Join us next Sunday (October 30, 2016) as we serve THE LORD’S SUPPER and have a covered-dish dinner after the worship services.
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand.” (John 10:27-29)
A UNION WHICH WILL LAST FOREVER!
Christian, rejoice in your union with Jesus! The changes of time cannot touch it! The storms of life cannot injure it! The sword of persecution cannot sever it! The damps of death cannot affect it! The malice of hell cannot move it! It is a union which will last forever! It follows, therefore, that you, if a partaker of it — will be rich forever, safe forever, dignified forever, and blessed forever! -- John MacDuff
OH, TO BE RECONCILED!
“Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20). The Gospel ministry is the one and only “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:18) as it proclaims how a holy and just God is reconciled (at peace with) to His chosen based on the great exchange – the debt of the sins of His elect imputed to Christ and Christ’s righteousness imputed to His elect – “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). But as God is reconciled to His people in Christ, His people are born spiritually dead in trespasses and sins and, in their natural minds and hearts, unreconciled enemies of God by their wicked works, including their religious efforts. All to whom God has been reconciled must (and will be) reconciled unto Him as God brings them to Himself upon the same ground – the imputed righteousness of Christ. As the Gospel is made by the Holy Spirit to be “the power of God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16) for them, they are reconciled to God by new birth whereupon they receive Christ by faith and repent of their dead works. The command of the Gospel then is “be ye reconciled to God,” not by your works but by Jesus Christ and the work He alone accomplished for His people. –Pastor Bill Parker
THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD
Paul wrote in Romans 1:16-17 – “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: ... For therein is the righteousness of God revealed ...” It must be then that where there is no preaching of the righteousness of God, there is neither preaching of the Gospel of Christ or believing it. What does Paul mean by “the righteousness of God”? Since the Gospel is the Gospel of salvation, it declares the God who saves! He is “the righteous God.” That is, a “just God and a Savior.” Righteousness has to do with what God does just as holiness has to do with how He is. “Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins.” ( Psalm 7:9) God must do right; He must do justly in all His salvation. God must do right as Abraham said in Genesis 18:25 – “That be far from Thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from Thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Thus God delivered “righteous Lot.” But how was Lot righteous? Being righteous, God must also require righteousness, but among Adam’s fallen children there are “none righteous, no, not one.” Therefore, for any such as Lot to be righteous, they must be “made” righteous, and that righteousness must come from God and must be a gift! Thus, Paul again in Romans 5:17 – “For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)” God gives righteousness as a gift of His grace in His Son, and God imputes that righteousness to them, making His people “the righteousness of God IN HIM! Christ is their only righteousness (and all their righteousness) being “the Lord our righteousness.” He is of God made unto us “wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.” There is no preaching of Christ without the preaching of this righteousness that God gives to His elect freely in Christ Jesus. There is no magnifying God, no preaching of salvation, except there be a preaching of how God is just (righteous) as a “just God and a Savior” to do so. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Christ’s throne and kingdom. It is ever true, “blessed is the man to whom God imputes righteousness without works.” No wonder old Bunyan wrote of “the glory of an imputed righteousness.” –Pastor Gary Shepard
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