BIBLE CLASS – 10:00 a.m. – How Does Faith Come? Rom. 10:16-21 | Brother Jim Casey
MORNING WORSHIP – 11:00 a.m –
OPENING – Titus 3:4-6
CALL TO WORSHIP (above)
HYMN – Rock of Ages – p. 126
READING – John 3:1-15
MESSAGE – The Necessity of Life – John 3:1-8
Brother Mark Pannell
CLOSING HYMN – Jesus Paid it All – p. 125
Birthdays: Felton Riggins – Sept. 11th
9-11
Whenever we mention the date 9-11, it has special significance for most Americans. Like many dates in history, it will live on in infamy. But we as true children of God should never forget that our great God and Savior is the God of all times (Eccl. 3:1-8). He has always been (and will always be) in control. Unbelievers cannot grasp this. They want to attribute such times either to the devil, evil men, or fate (chance). They deny God’s sovereign justice, power, and goodness by questioning how God could allow such things to happen. On his own sinful man can only grope in the dark and come out on the other end of his search just as blind and ignorant as was when he began. But God answers all questions with a just a few words recorded in His Word. Two examples of God’s answer are –
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” (Eccl. 12:13-14)
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” (Rom. 8:28)
Those who“fear God and keep His commandments”and those who“love God”and are“called according to His purpose”are only those who, by the power and grace of God, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for ALL salvation, righteousness, forgiveness, blessing, and eternal life. They are sinners redeemed from their sins by God’s grace based on the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. They stand before God at this time and at all times IN CHRIST having His righteousness charged to their account. There are times here on earth that they can only stand and shake their heads, not knowing all the intricacies of day-to-day living and what it all means as pertaining to individuals and nations. But they know that their times are in God’s hand(Psalm 31:15). They live as sojourners who times on this earth are temporary. When their soul is broken, their desire is“unto(GOD’S)judgments [God’s Gospel and Word] at all times” (Psalm 119:19-20). – Pastor Bill Parker
CHRIST MUST BE ALL
We cannot keep our eye too exclusively or too intently fixed on Jesus. All salvation is in Him. All salvation proceeds from Him. All salvation leads to Him. And for the assurance and comfort of our salvation, we are to repose believingly and entirely on Him. Christ must be all! Christ is the beginning, the center, and Christ is the end.
Oh, sweet truth to you who are sensible of your poverty, vileness, and insufficiency, and of the ten thousand flaws and failures of which, perhaps, no one is cognizant but God and your own soul! Oh, to turn and rest in Christ, a full Christ, a loving Christ, a tender Christ, whose heart’s love never chills, from whose eyes darts no reproof, from whose lips breathes no sentence of condemnation! Christ must be all! –Octavius Winslow
Christ is all my hope.
Christ is all my righteousness.
Christ is all my wisdom.
Christ is all my redemption.
Christ is all my sanctification.
Christ is all my salvation.
SALVATION IS OF THE LORD
Those who make the salvation of sinners hinge upon the free will of man arethe greatest enemies of the gospel of God’s sovereign grace. They do not truly give God the glory for salvation because, in reality, they believe every man is his own Savior. They would make the success of the substitutionary, sacrificial death of Christ to be dependent upon the willingness of the sinner to “accept Jesus as their personal Savior.” Such people stand in opposition to the Word of God which declares salvation to be of the Lord; it is dependent upon the will of God and conditioned upon the shed blood and imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. I refuse to call that man “a brother in the Lord” who upholds the virtues of man’s will. The advocates of free will know nothing of the blessed transaction which took place at the cross when Christ died in the stead of His people, putting away their sins and satisfying divine justice. Salvation has never been and never will be conditioned upon the works, the will or the worth of man. “The salvation of the righteous is of the LORD: He is their strength in the time of trouble” (Psalm 37:39). –Pastor Jim Byrd