CALL TO WORSHIP (Tune – My Faith Has Found A Resting Place – p. 228)
Jesus, the Lord, my Saviour is, My Shepherd, and my God; My light, my strength, my joy, my bliss, I in His grace rejoice. What’er I need in Jesus dwells, And there it dwells for me; ‘Tis Christ my earthen vessel fills With treasures rich and free.
Mercy and truth and righteousness, And peace, most richly meet; In Jesus Christ, the King of grace, In whom I stand complete. “Worthy the Lamb” shall be my song, For He, for me was slain; And with me all the heavenly throng Shall join and say Amen!
TODAY’S SERVICES – Messages by Pastor Bill Parker
BIBLE CLASS – 10:00 a.m. –
Counted for Righteousness – Romans 4:1-3
MORNING WORSHIP – 11:00 a.m –
OPENING – Psalm 34:1-3
CALL TO WORSHIP (above)
HYMN – My Faith Looks Up to Thee – p. 359
READING – Romans 8:1-15
MESSAGE – Dealing with Sin (1) – Colossians 3:5-9
CLOSING HYMN – Have Thine Own Way, Lord – p. 388
Birthdays: Ashlyn Jones – Aug. 14th | Dennis Vanzandt – Aug. 17th
Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way. (1 Samuel 12:23)
UNITED TO CHRIST!
Know for your comfort that the weakest believer is as nearly related to God, as a Father, as the strongest believer is. Every branch of a tree is not alike strong nor big, and yet the tenderest twig is united to the root. The weakest believer is clothed with the white raiment of Christ’s righteousness and is as much sanctified and justified thereby as the strongest. There is no condemnation to all who are in Christ. The weakest believer shall endure to the end. They are all kept by the power of God through faith to salvation. It is not he that believes strongly who shall be saved, but he that believes! “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.” —Ebenezer Erskine
CLEAVING TO CHRIST!
“For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:10)
You who have believed with your hearts unto righteousness, give God the whole glory; and pray that you may continually have more enlivening views of that imputed righteousness on which He has caused you to trust. As, on the one hand, nothing can warrant and animate your joy; so, on the other (to quote a man, now with God), "Nothing can effectually kill sin but a clear beholding of Christ's righteousness." Cleave to this sure and steadfast anchor, and you will finally rise superior, both to the waves of affliction and to the mud of your own lusts and corruptions. —Augustus Toplady
To those who truly believe, those who have this precious faith, “HE IS PRECIOUS” (I Peter 2:7). This is one way I know that God has given me this faith. The faith which I have will not permit me to look to, trust in, rest upon, live upon, or have any hope in anyone but Christ, and Christ alone! Unto me “HE IS PRECIOUS!” —Copied
“Let all those that seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee: and let such as love Thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified. But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me, O God: Thou art my help and my deliverer; O LORD, make no tarrying.” (Psalm 70:4-5)
FAITH IN CHRIST
God’s Word sets forth many ways to describe true, God-given faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But all of these describe the same blessing of faith whereby a sinner believes and rests in the true Christ of the Bible for all salvation, forgiveness, righteousness, eternal life and glory. For example, believing in Christ is revealed as believing “unto righteousness” (Rom. 10:10) because true faith believes in Christ as the LORD our righteousness (Jer. 23:5-6). Believing in Christ is also having “faith in His blood” (Rom. 3:25) because it is by His blood (His death) that righteousness, forgiveness, and life come to a sinner. It is also called “faith unto salvation” (1 Pet. 1:5) because Christ is the believer’s whole salvation – “thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). Believing in Christ is also described as having “faith in God” (Mark 11:22) because Christ was sent from God to be the Savior of His people, and Christ is Himself “God with us” (Matt. 1:23), “God manifests in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16). In all of these terms and phrases used for faith in Christ, it is the same Christ in the glory of His Person, and the same powerful and effectual work of redemption to save His people from their sins. —Pastor Bill Parker
WHOLLY DEPENDING UPON GOD!
I depend wholly and alone upon the free, sovereign, eternal, unchangeable and everlasting love of God; the firm and everlasting covenant of grace, and my interest in the persons of the Trinity; for my whole salvation: and not upon any righteousness of my own, nor any thing in me, or done by me under the influences of the Holy Spirit; nor upon any services of mine, which I have been assisted to perform for the good of the church; but upon my interest in the persons of the Trinity, the person, blood and righteousness of Christ, the free grace of God, and the blessings of grace streaming to me through the blood and righteousness of Christ; as the ground of my hope. —John Gill
Grace will not allow the strong to boast, nor the weak to despair. Grace will not allow the mature to presume, nor the young to doubt God’s love. Grace will never catalogue sin – No sin is so small that it will go unpunished without His blood, and no sin too great that His blood won’t atone. Grace opens the door wide for all who believe on our Lord Jesus Christ and shuts the door of mercy to all who do not believe. —John Flavel