TWO QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

“For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth” (Heb. 12:6).

I asked these questions in the sermon last Sunday. I repeat them here for your consideration.

1. Does your love, care, and devotion for your children depend upon their perfect obedience to your laws and their never offending you? No! Our love for them and care of them is because of a RELATION­SHIP; they ARE OUR CHILDREN AND ALWAYS WILL BE!

2. Do you discipline and correct your children because you wish to hurt them? or deprive them? or punish them? No! Your purpose in discipline, re­striction, and correction is to teach them, to help them mature, and to make of them what they ought to be.

Let's apply these thoughts to ourselves the next time our heavenly Father deals with us as sons and daughters in manifold trials.

Pastor Henry T. Mahan (bulletin 1994)

MEETING TO WORSHIP

Never forget, we do not meet together to hear the preacher, but to hear from the Lord. It is of no consequence who is preaching or how they preach. What is important is the message, not the messenger.

We meet together to worship Christ; and hear Him exalted. That is our goal. I would rather have good tasting food served on a paper plate than bad food served on the most expensive china.

Spurgeon tells the story of a woman who heard a visiting preacher.

She was so blessed by the man's sermon she determined to travel a great distance the following week to hear him at his home church. She was miserably disappointed! After the service the woman rather rudely told him so. "I was so blessed last week, but this week I got absolutely nothing!" The preacher wisely asked her this question, "Last week, why did you come to the service?" "To worship Christ," she replied. "Why did you come this week?" he asked. "To hear you," she answered. To that he replied, "You got what you came for then."

Pastor Todd Nibert

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27).

The Lord Jesus Christ has an eternally possessed people (sheep) given to Him in electing grace. He lovingly knows these objects of mercy and speaks to them in the Gospel. They actually hear His voice with a spiritual ear (Prov. 20:12) and obediently follow where He leads. Now to the world, this sounds unbelievable, but the believer believes the Shepherd, longs to hear His voice, and cries from the heart, “Speak Lord, for Thy servant heareth.”

Pastor Marvin Stalnaker

WE HAVE OBTAINED AN INHERITANCE

“In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Ephesians 1:11).

In Christ, every believer has obtained an inheritance. We obtained it because God predestinated us to obtain it. God predestinated us according to his purpose. Nothing shall frustrate God’s purpose because God works all things after the counsel of his own will. God purposed to create all things. Therefore God worked it after the counsel of his own will. God purposed to create man after his own image. Therefore God worked it after the counsel of his own will. God purposed to be gracious and save whom he would. Therefore God worked it after the counsel of his own will. God purposed to give his elect an inheritance. He said, “I have purposed it, I will also do it.” (Is 46: 11) Therefore for those God has quickened and called to faith in Christ, this word is in the present tense because it is sure.

Pastor Clay Curtis

All Flesh Is Grass

“For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away” (1Peter 1:24-25).

This body of sinful flesh we live in is predestinated to go back to the dust. The Lord God made man out of the dust and He said it is going back to the dust (Gen. 3:19; Eccl. 12:7). We can do all good things for this flesh; pump it up, paint it up, pamper it and promote it; but it is still dying, decaying and sinful flesh. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3:6). The only hope any sinner has is only through our Lord Jesus Christ; He bare our sins in His own body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24). Because He put away our sin by the sacrifice of Himself (Heb. 9:26) the Lord Jesus Christ redeemed us to God; body, soul and spirit (1Thes. 5:23). We are now predestinated to be like Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:29-30). In regeneration He makes us new creatures (2 Cor. 5:17) and in the resurrection He is going to make us just like the Lord Jesus Christ in body, soul and spirit (Rev. 7:10-17). He is going to change our vile body that it may be fashioned unto His glorious body (Phil. 3:21).