July 28^th 2024

10:00 am ---------------------------------------The Prodigal – Luke 15:11-32

Wednesday: 7:00 pm ---------------------------- The House on Top of the Mountains – Isaiah 2:1-5

The Joyful Sound

“Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of Thy countenance.

In Thy Name shall they rejoice all the day: and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted.” – Psalm 89:15-16

The Gospel brings a sound of liberty to the captives, of pardon to condemned criminals, of peace to rebels, a sound of life to the dead, and salvation to them that lie at the brink of hell and condemnation. -- Ebenezer Erskine, Scotland, 1680-1756

Election – By John Bradford, 1555, preacher, burned at the stake by Roman Catholic Queen (bloody) Mary, for preaching the Truth

The word of God plainly sets forth unto us, that God has of his own mercy and good will, and to the praise of his grace and glory in Christ, elected some and not all, whom he has predestinated unto everlasting life in the same Christ; and in his time calls them, justifies them and glorifies them, so that they shall never perish and err to damnation finally.

In the first chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, the apostle says thus: "Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which has blessed us with all manner of blessings in heavenly things by Christ; according as he has elected or chosen us in him before the foundation of the world was laid, that we should be holy and without blame before him through love; and has predestinated us (or ordained us) through Jesus Christ, to be heirs unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherewith he has made us accepted in the Beloved.”

Election is so certain, that the elect and predestinated to eternal life shall never finally perish or err to damnation. In saying, that they are predestinated to the praise of God's grace . . . he says not, to the praise of his justice, to the praise of his wisdom, to the praise of his power, although he might most truly say so; but he says, 'to the praise of His grace,' which were not grace, if there were any respect at all of works on our behalf; for then were grace not grace.

A Mystery to Yourself

"I find then, the law that, to me, while I desire to do good, evil is present." -- Romans 7:21

Child of God, are you not often a mystery to yourself? Warm one moment— cold the next! Abasing yourself one hour—exalting yourself the following! Loving the world, full of it, steeped up to your head in it today—crying, groaning, and sighing for a sweet manifestation of the love of God tomorrow! Brought down to nothingness, covered with shame and confusion, on your knees before you leave your room—filled with pride and self-importance before you have got down stairs! Despising the world, and willing to give it all up for one taste of the love of Christ when in solitude—trying to grasp it with both hands when in business! What a mystery are you! Touched by love—and stung with hatred! Possessing a little wisdom—and a great deal of folly! Earthlyminded—and yet having the affections in heaven! Pressing forward—and lagging behind! Full of sloth—and yet taking the kingdom with violence! And thus the Spirit, by a process which we may feel but cannot adequately describe—leads us into the mystery of the two natures perpetually struggling and striving against each other in the same bosom—so that one man cannot more differ from another, than the same man differs from himself. But the mystery of the kingdom of heaven is this—that our carnal mind undergoes no alteration, but maintains a perpetual war with grace. And thus, the deeper we sink in self-abasement under a sense of our vileness, the higher we rise in a knowledge of Christ, and the blacker we are in our own view—the more lovely does Jesus Christ appear. – J.C. Philpot

“He That Believeth On The Son HATH EVERLASTING LIFE” – John 3:36