I would like to thank you all for all of your hard work in hosting our conference last weekend. Your service provided people with the opportunity to worship our Lord in hearing six outstanding messages.

A new book of Henry Mahan’s bulletin articles from 1979-1987 is now available. “Precept Upon Precept Volume 1” is available from Lulu.com. Copies are available in paperback, hardback, and electronic versions.

GRIEVE NOT THE HOLY SPIRIT – Eph. 4:30

The role of the Holy Spirit in salvation is not to make a show of Himself by making people speak in tongues and act strangely. The role of the Holy Spirit is to show God’s elect the things of Christ and to give faith to believe Christ by making them be born again.

We grieve the Holy Spirit by a stubborn refusal to believe on Christ as all of our salvation. We grieve the Holy Spirit when our thoughts about ourselves are too high and our thoughts about Christ are too low. We grieve the Holy Spirit by living contrary to God’s sovereign grace, freely given to us in Christ.

Pastor

BE KIND

“And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.” (Ephesians. 4:32)

I used to work with a lady who would always remind people to be sweet. That was good advice. Seek every opportunity to have the attitude of Christ our Savior in all things. The world is full of enough mean spirited people. Be kind to others, considering how kind God has been to you in Christ. The world is full of enough hard hearted, uncaring people. Be tenderhearted, considering how compassionate God has been with you. The world is already full of enough unforgiving people who put up walls and divide people. Be forgiving, considering the miracle of God’s grace: God has forgiven His people through the sacrifice and death of His Son as their Substitute. Nothing can be a greater motivation to be kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving than looking to Christ our Savior!

Pastor

Holier than thou’ or ‘Chief of sinners’?

The Lord judges the self-righteousness in Isaiah 65 for believing themselves to be “Holier than thou”. In contrast, the Apostle Paul confesses himself to be the “chief of sinners”. The truth is that all men believe themselves to be one or the other. Which one we believe ourselves to be… depends on the standard by which we judge.

Those who compare themselves to other men can always find someone they are ‘holier’ than. Those, who by God’s grace have seen Christ, are brought to cry, “woe is me”. The Pharisee in Luke 18 was proud of how he measured up to ‘other men’. The Publican could only cry, ‘be merciful to me the sinner’! The Lord was very clear on which one went down to his house justified.

Now, here is the hope of this truth. How God sees men is just the opposite of how they see themselves. God says to the ‘holier than thou’ group: ‘you are a smoke in my nose’. And to sinners He says: “whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” I Jn. 3:9. All the righteous believe themselves to be unrighteous, and all the unrighteous believe themselves to be righteous.