February 18^th 2024

9:30 am ----------------------------------------The Ten Commandments – Exodus 20:1-23

10:00 am -----------The Sweet Smelling Savour of the Gospel – Ephesians 5:2/Genesis 27

Confessing Christ – “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men,

him will I also confess before my Father, which is in heaven.” – Matthew 10:32

Are men correct in thinking that because they made a profession of faith some years back, were baptized, joined a local church and adopted a sound system of theology, they are confessing Christ before men? We are going to find out someday, to our eternal woe, that confessing Christ before men involves a great deal more than an isolated decision. Confessing Christ before men is a constant identification with Christ in a world that does not know or love Christ. To be identified with Christ is to be so closely associated with him that his interests are your interests; his friends are your friends; his enemies are your enemies; his glory is your glory; his will is your will; and his Word is your rule of life. "Where I am, there ye may be also" John 14:3. Where is Christ? Those confessing him and identified with him will be there also! We are crucified with Christ, buried with him in baptism, walking with him in the light of the Scripture, righteousness and truth, at his feet in humility, assembled with his people in worship and praise, bearing his reproach, forgiving as he forgave, loving as he loved, and waiting for his return. In other words confessing Christ before men is to be so closely associated with Christ that one is called in truth by others—A Christian! – Henry Mahan

Put Not Your Trust in Man

“Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.” Psa.146:3

Put not your trust in princes. If David be the author this warning comes from a prince. In any case it comes from the Spirit of the living God. Men are always far too apt to depend upon the great ones of earth, and forget the Great One above; and this habit is the fruitful source of disappointment. Princes are only men, and men with greater needs than others; why, then, should we look to them for aid? They are in greater danger, are burdened with greater cares, and are more likely to be misled than other men; therefore, it is folly to select them for our confidence. Probably no order of men have been so false to their promises and treaties as men of royal blood. So live as to deserve their trust, but do not burden them with your trust.

Nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. Though you should select one son of man out of the many, and should imagine that he differs from the rest and may be safely depended on, you will be mistaken. There is none to be trusted, no, not one. Adam fell; therefore lean not on his sons. Man is a helpless creature without God; therefore, look not for help in that direction. All men are like the few men who are made into princes, they are more in appearance than in reality, more in promising than in performing, more apt to help themselves than to help others. How many have turned away heartsick from men on whom they once relied! Never was this the case with a believer in the Lord. He is a very present help in time of trouble. In man there is no help in times of mental depression, in the day of sore bereavement, in the night of conviction of sin, or in the hour of death. What a horror when most in need of help to read those black words, NO HELP!

I am not what I ought to be, ah, how imperfect and deficient. I am not what I wish to be; I abhor what is evil, and I would cleave to what is good. I am not what I hope to be; soon I shall put off, with mortality, all sin and imperfection. Though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be, I can truly say that I am not what I once was, a slave to sin and Satan. And I can heartily join with the apostle and acknowledge that by the grace of God I am what I am. -- John Newton

How To Treat Your Dearest Treasures-- I Corinthians 7:29-31