CALL TO WORSHIP
(Tune – Majestic Sweetness – p. 52)

My Shepherd will supply my need,
Jehovah is His name;
In Pastures fresh He makes me feed,
Beside the living stream. (Repeat)

He brings my wand’ring spirit back,
When I forsake His ways;
And leads me for His mercy’s sake,
In paths of truth and grace. (Repeat)

When I walk through the shades of death,
Thy presence is my stay;
A word of Thy supporting breath,
Drives all my fears away. (Repeat)

The sure provisions of my Lord,
Attend me all my days;
His heav’nly house is my abode,
And all my work His praise! (Repeat)

TODAY’S SERVICES – Messages by Pastor Bill Parker
BIBLE CLASS – 10:00 a.m. –
A River and a Tree of Life – Revelation 22:1-5

MORNING WORSHIP – 11:00 a.m –

• OPENING – Psalm 4:6-8

• CALL TO WORSHIP (above)

• HYMN – Hail, Thou Once-Despised Jesus – p. 145

• READING – Genesis 6:9—7:1

• MESSAGE – Noah’s Ark – A Picture of Christ – Gen. 6 – 7

• CLOSING HYMN – I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord – p. 188

MID-WEEK BIBLE STUDY – WEDNESDAY – 6:30 P.M.

Preaching Christ in the End Times

Birthdays: Mills Fuller – Mar. 31^st

Give unto the LORD the glory due unto His name: bring an offering, and come into His courts. O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before Him, all the earth. (Psalm 96:8-9)

“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5).

Meekness is not weakness. In the Bible, a meek person is one who is courageous and strong in the faith, trusting God and His Word of truth. Meekness, in essence, is a God-given submission to the word and will of God. It describes a justified sinner, because the first act of obedience of a redeemed and regenerated sinner is to submit to God's Word in the Gospel, which is a submission to Christ and His righteousness as the only ground of salvation. It is a sinner saved by grace being brought to submit to God’s judgments in all things, especially in matters of salvation. When God the Holy Spirit brings a person to faith in Christ, He also brings that person to repent of dead works and idolatry. Both faith and repentance are known by God’s judgment concerning both the saved and the lost. It brings us to bow to God’s Word which says that Christ is the only way of salvation, and all other supposed ways are evil and damning to the souls of men. Meekness also brings a believer to seek to obey God but not in legalism or as a mercenary. It motivates by grace, love, and gratitude to God for giving us all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus, none of which we can deserve or earn.

God’s promise to the meek is that “they shall inherit the earth.” This is a certain promise of God to every sinner who seeks and expects salvation and final glory based on the righteousness of Christ. The word "inherit" shows that all blessings are certain because they are all of grace, conditioned on Christ who obtained the inheritance by His obedience unto death as Surety and Substitute of His people. All who are truly meek, all who believe God's promise of salvation in Christ, can say without reservation that we are as sure for heaven (the new earth) as if we were already there. This is not a vain presumption, because it is neither based nor conditioned on our works, righteousness, nor our perseverance. It is all conditioned on Christ our Surety by whose righteousness imputed and received by God-given faith we are the recipients of all God’s promises

(2 Cor. 1:20). –Pastor Bill Parker

A BEAUTIFUL REMINDER

“And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh” (Genesis 9:12-15)

The rainbow is a continual reminder to all people of the covenant God made with Noah not to destroy the earth ever again with a flood. The rainbow then is a continual reminder of God’s longsuffering and mercy. But it is also a continual reminder of God’s justice against all sin. Remember, before there was a rainbow, there was a flood. And so we are reminded by the rainbow that God’s mercy is established upon God’s justice satisfied in His wrath against sin. The rainbow therefore points us to the Lord Jesus Christ who took the full measure of God’s wrath in Himself against all the sins of God’s chosen people imputed to Him. It is from Him and based on His death under the flood of God’s wrath that mercy comes to sinners. As the sins of God’s elect imputed to Christ was the ground of all judgment against Him as their Surety and Substitute, Christ’s righteousness imputed is the ground of all mercy from God to them. There is no other way – God must be just when He shows mercy. He must be both a just God AND a Savior. He cannot show mercy without justice satisfied. He cannot be gracious and loving apart from righteousness established. His mercy is as multifaceted as the rainbow is in its various colors, but all facets of God’s mercy to His people flow from the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The beauty of the rainbow is the beauty of Christ and His righteousness that enables God to justify and show mercy to ungodly sinners. It is true that God will never again destroy this sinful world with a flood, be assured that this world will be destroyed by the flood of God’s wrath (2 Pet. 3:11-12). The only hope for sinners is to be found like Noah and his family on the ark, and THAT ARK IS CHRIST, the seat of all justice and mercy from God for His people.