CALL TO WORSHIP

(Tune – I Love Thy Kingdom – p. 188)

(Words written by Pastor Gary Shepard)

O Christ be all our hope,

The good hope of God’s grace.

The hope of mercy now our own,

The Gift we now embrace.

O Christ be all our hope.

The hope of righteousness.

The hope of life eternal now,

The hope by faith possessed.

O Christ be all our hope.

The hope the gospel shows,

The hope of glory soon revealed,

That blessed hope exposed.

O Christ be all our hope,

His blood for us to plead,

The word of truth, the gospel hope,

Is all the hope we need.

TODAY’S SERVICES – Messages by Pastor Bill Parker

BIBLE CLASS – 10:00 a.m. –

No Condemnation in Christ – Romans 8:1-4

MORNING WORSHIP – 11:00 a.m –

• OPENING – Psalm 119:9-11

• CALL TO WORSHIP (above)

• HYMN – My Faith Looks Up to Thee – p. 359

• READING – Psalm 119:97-112

• MESSAGE – The Tragedy of Unbelief – Hebrews 3:7-19

• CLOSING HYMN – Praise the Savior – p. 51

Birthdays: Walter Ross – Apr. 15^th

“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6)

GOD’S ATTRIBUTES SEEN IN THE CROSS OF CHRIST

Nothing is so well-fitted to put the fear of God, which will preserve men from offending Him, into the heart, as an enlightened view of the cross of Christ. There shines spotless holiness, inflexible justice, incomprehensible wisdom, omnipotent power, holy love. None of these excellencies darken or eclipse the other, but every one of them rather gives a luster to the rest. They mingle their beams and shine with united eternal splendor; the just Judge, the merciful Father, the wise Governor. Nowhere does justice appear so awful, mercy so amiable, or wisdom so profound. —copied

“Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest, and causest to approach unto Thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house, even of Thy holy temple.” (Psalm 65:4)

If we read and study the Holy Scriptures, if God reveals the truth to us as it is in Christ, is there any doubt that salvation with all its blessings and benefits is totally of the Lord and not of man? They answer would have to be “NO.” Salvation is all attributed to the choice, power, and goodness of God as it is all conditioned on the Lord Jesus Christ. God chose His people in Christ before the foundation of the world and made Christ to be their Surety. Christ came into the world as God the eternal Son and joined Himself to a sinless human body. As the Surety, Substitute, and Redeemer of those whom God had given Him before the world began, He obeyed the law unto death and purged their sins away. He worked out a perfect righteousness whereby God could justify them without dishonoring Himself. By His righteousness God justified them, gives them spiritual life, and causes them to approach unto Him that they may dwell in His courts forever and ever. When God brings them to do so, knowing that they have no goodness of their own, they are fully satisfied with the goodness of God’s house and holy temple. All of this great and glorious salvation is of the Lord and assured unto God’s people in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. —Pastor Bill Parker

THE SALVATION OF THE TRIUNE GOD

Each glorious person in the Godhead has a glorious part in our salvation. GOD THE FATHER chose, sanctified, and set us apart in Christ before the world was. GOD THE SON took our humanity into union to His personal Godhead, was made flesh, lived a perfect life, suffered and died a solemn death, rose again from the dead, and is now exalted at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession for us. GOD THE SPIRIT awakened the dead and "called us with a holy calling." This call is the solemn, soul-quickening, heart-rending call of the Holy God from death to life, from darkness to light, from the power of sin and Satan to the kingdom of the Son of His love. So that, BEFORE THE WORLD WAS, the church was saved purposely by God the Father; IN TIME meritoriously by the God-man, Christ Jesus, Who now lives above, their mediator, High Priest, and advocate; and IN THE DAY OF GOD'S POWER they are saved manifestly and vitally by the "washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Spirit"(Titus 3:4-7). —William Gadsby

Consider these verses and the article that follows –

“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” (Romans 4:5)

“For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.” (Romans 4:13)

“For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:10)