December 4, 2016

We will have only one service on Sunday morning, December 25^th.

HYMN OF THE DAY
God's Peculiar People

God's peculiar people we,

Sanctified and called to be

Temples of God's Be-loved Son,

Not our own, but His alone,

Purchased by the blood of Christ,

Precious to the Lord of Life.

God has chosen whom He will;

His purpose He doth fulfill,

Made them willing in His day.

All their sin debt Christ did pay.

For His praise, for His glory,

For His pleasure, He chose me.

Let not pride within me say

That I am better than they.

In need of mercy I am;

A dog, a worm, a vile man.

But God in His Sov-reign love

Chose this sinner from above.

Tune: Rock of Ages #126
By Gary Spreacker

TRULY THE SON OF GOD

We have the testimony of the Holy Ghost that it was for the JOY set before Him that enabled our Lord to endure the cross, and to despise the shame. And then, when his dark­ness was at its very darkest, His last words out of the thick darkness were these: ‘Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.’ If the centurion had known all that we know, with how much more wonder would he have said, ‘Certainly this was a righteous man! Truly this man was the Son of God!’ Our Redeemer died, having been made a curse for sin; but all the time He died without a shadow of doubt in His soul that both He Himself, and all for whom He so died, would be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment. Truly the centurion would have said, had he known all, This is the author and finisher of faith! Now, my brethren, after all that is said-and the half has not been said of our Lord’s life and death of faith. It is true, He believed and rested His soul on His Father’s word of grace and truth to Him, even when He was laden with sin to a bloody sweat and to the darkness of death and hell. Our worst sins, and all our sins, were imputed to him and were actually laid upon him, and He took them up to make atonement for them as if they had been his own. - A. Whyte

THE BODY OF CHRIST

The church is called "the body of Christ" several times in the New Testament, and individual Christians are referred to as "members," different parts of the body of Christ. There are several things we learn from this beautiful description of Christ and his church.

(1) How precious every individual believer is to Christ himself...a member of his body:

(2) The way you treat a fellow Christian is how Christ considers that you treat him. How you treat a part of my body is how you treat me. In Christ's description of judgment day in Matthew 25, the ones who had heaven prepared for them from the foundation of the world were the ones who treated the least of Christ's people well. He said, "inasmuch as ye have done it to the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Those who were sentenced to "everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels, were those who did not treat the least of Christ's children well. "Inasmuch as ye did it not unto the least of these my brethren, ye did it not unto me." Your own, personal commitment to Christ can be seen and proved genuine only by your commitment to "the least of these (his) brethren."