CALL TO WORSHIP

(Tune – Brethren, We Have Met to Worship – p. 15)

Let us sing the King Messiah,

King of righteousness and peace;

Hail Him, all ye ransomed people,

Never let His praises cease.

How transcendent are Thy glories,

Fairer than the sons of men;

While Thy bless’ed intercession

Brings us back to God again.

Majesty combined with meekness,

Righteousness and peace unite;

Look, my soul, be still and wonder;

Grant us, Lord, Thy glorious light.

Blest are all who touch Thy sceptre,

Blest are all that know Thy name;

Grace hath put us in the number

Of the Saviour’s family.

TODAY’S SERVICES – Messages by Pastor Bill Parker

BIBLE CLASS – 10:00 a.m. –

Justified Freely by His Grace – Romans 3:24-26

MORNING WORSHIP – 11:00 a.m –

• OPENING – Hebrews 3:12-14

• CALL TO WORSHIP (above)

• HYMN – Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us – p. 294

• READING – Colossians 2:9-23

• MESSAGE – Holding On to Christ – Colossians 2:18-23

• CLOSING HYMN – Near the Cross – p. 351

Birthdays: Leigh Ann Flynn – July 27^th | Jackie Renfroe – July 28^th

WE WILL SERVE THE LORD’S SUPPER NEXT SUNDAY, JULY 29. We will have We will serve lunch here following the worship services.

TRUE RELIGION

True religion arises out of a true knowledge of God as He is revealed in the Scriptures. True religion arises out of a true knowledge of man as he is described in the Scriptures. True religion arises out of a sense and understanding of the great things God has done for sinners in the Lord Jesus Christ. True religion produces a well-grounded hope in the soul, based upon the word of God. True religion produces a spirit of love and surrender of one’s self to Jesus Christ as Lord. True religion will make the goodness and grace of God to me to be the principle and model of my conduct to others. True religion presses upon men three goals not attainable in the flesh, but the seed of which is planted here and begins to grow: (1) Total commitment to Jesus Christ; (2) Total communion with Jesus Christ; and (3) Total conformity to Jesus Christ. —John Newton

LOOK ONLY TO CHRIST

Remember, sinner, it is not YOUR HOLD of Christ that saves you; IT IS CHRIST! It is not YOUR JOY IN THE LORD THAT SAVES YOU; it is Christ. It is not even FAITH in Christ, though that is the instrument; IT IS CHRIST’S blood and merit which saves! Therefore, look not to your hope, but to Christ, the source of hope; look not to faith, but to Christ, the author and finisher and object of faith. There is one thing which we all of us too much becloud in our preaching, though we do it unintentionally – namely, the great truth that it is not prayer, it is not faith, it is not our doings, it is not our feelings upon which we rest, but upon the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone.

Some are apt to think that they are not in a right state, or that they do not feel enough instead of remembering that OUR BUSINESS IS NOT WITH SELF, BUT WITH CHRIST! Let me beseech you – look only to the Redeemer; never expect deliverance from self, from ministers, nor from any means of any kind apart from the Lord Jesus. Keep your eye on Christ. Let His death, His sufferings, His merit, His glories, His intercession be fresh upon your mind when you wake in the morning and when you lie down at night. —Copied

Everything that we are as true children of God, and everything that we do that is pleasing to Him has this great and glorious truth as its foundation and its goal – It is all “to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:6).

ACCEPTED WITH GOD BY JESUS CHRIST

I read an article the other day where the writer stated that it is the holy motives of true believers that make their works acceptable to God. Brethren, we need to be clear on this issue and recognize that such human reasoning is against God’s revealed Word. It is heresy. Now it is very true that when God the Holy Spirit imparts spiritual life from Christ in the new birth to His people that He establishes within their new hearts the holy motives of grace, love, and gratitude from which they are to obey Christ and follow Him. He gives them the spirit of repentance by which they are humbled before God and recognize their whole access to God is by His grace and mercy in Christ Jesus and based on His righteousness alone. This is the work of God, and God does look upon this work with favor – “The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD. All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits” (Prov. 16:1-2). “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 51:17).

These motives are holy, not because we as believers exercise them with sinless perfection. We still have the corruption and contamination of the flesh that keeps us from perfection even in our motivations to obey God. They are holy because they are given to us by God in Christ, and they are truly separate from the sinful, legal, and mercenary motives of the natural man that inspire him in false religion. But do not be confused about this – It is not the motives of grace, love, and gratitude that make our works acceptable with God. IT IS THE BLOOD OF CHRIST ALONE WHEREBY WE OURSELVES (as sinners saved by grace – Eph. 2:8-10) AND OUR WORKS (which are the works of Christ Himself through us – Gal. 2:19-21; Php. 2:12-13) ARE ACCEPTED WITH GOD – “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, ACCEPTABLE TO GOD BY JESUS CHRIST” (1 Peter 2:5).

Our righteousness before God, by which we are justified and accepted with Him, is not in any merit or perfection of our motives. It is all Christ’s righteousness freely imputed to us by God’s grace, and this glorious truth establishes our God-given motives of grace, love, and gratitude (Heb. 13:9). Our continual prayer is that in any of our efforts to obey God, let it all be for His glory in Christ Jesus and for the good of others.