Central Grace Church
3596 Franklin Street Rocky Mount, Virginia
Website: www.centralgracechurch.com Email: pedm55@gmail.com
February 26th 2023
9:30 am -------------------------------------------------Who Hath Believed? – John 12:37-50
10:00 am-- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ---- I AM THAT I AM – Exodus 3:7-15
Behold the Lamb of God
The Jews were looking for Messiah to come as a great prophet or a great king. They understood nothing of a “Saviour-Priest,” or a “Lamb of God.” You would think that these priests and Levites who ministered about the temple and the sacrifices would have inquired about the sacrifice; but they apparently had no sense of sin—they were Abraham’s seed. They would have welcomed Messiah on the throne, but not on the altar.
1. In Genesis 4:4, we have the Lamb typified.
2. In Genesis 22:8, we have the Lamb promised.
3. In Exodus 12:5-7, we have the Lamb slain and the blood applied.
4. In Isaiah 53:1-7, we have the Lamb personified—a man!
5. In John 1:29, we have the Lamb identified.
6. In Revelation 5:6 & 13, we have the Lamb magnified and glorified. – H.T.M.
One Answer to Ten Thousand How’s
Faith brings God into the scene. Therefore, it knows absolutely nothing of difficulty; it laughs at impossibilities. In the judgment of faith, God is the answer to every question; He is the salvation to every difficulty…Unbelief says, how can such things be? Unbelief is full of flaws; but faith has one great answer to ten thousand hows, and that answer is God Almighty.
- Scott Richardson
Often when men become bored, dissatisfied, and offended with the simplicity and singularity of the message of Christ and Him crucified, and don’t receive the attention they feel they deserve, they begin to find fault with everything and every one else, not willing to admit what their problem really is because it would make them look bad. Eventually they will manufacture a vehicle big enough to ride out of town on. Most often they will relocate where their flesh can be fed and nourished, no matter what is preached. As for the child of God, if Christ is preached, he is happy just to be there and worship with sinners just like himself. -- Greg Elmquist
The Effects of Trials
Have you ever noticed how believers who have been severely tried under the hand of God become more cautious and humble? They do not speak quite so fast as they used to speak; they do not have a ready solution for every problem; they do not boast of what they have done, will do, or would do under certain circumstances; they are not quite so critical of others who fail; they have little to say about their own doings and much to say about the wonderful grace of our Lord. Afflictions and trials have a way of mellowing believers and creating a certain character which cannot be mistaken or imitated. David wrote in Psalm 119:71, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn…” – Henry Mahan
One Look From The Lord -- “And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny Me thrice. And Peter went out, and wept bitterly.”
-- Luke 22:61-62
The truth of Peter’s denial of the Lord is recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. But in Luke’s account, there’s
something concerning the Lord’s reaction toward Peter, and Peter’s immediate response, after his denial, that especially grips
my heart. The word declares, ”And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter; And Peter remembered the word of the Lord.”
Here we’re taught that the Lord beholds and knows us, His people...”He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are
dust.” But how painful it is when we’re allowed to behold that truth within ourselves. One look from the Lord he denied three
times, broke Peter’s heart; for that look was not a look of condemnation, which surely would be deserved, but rather was a
look of mercy and compassion from Him who came into this world to save His people from their sins...and with that look,
“Peter went out, and wept bitterly.” -- Marvin Stalnaker