CALL TO WORSHIP

(Tune: "How Firm A Foundation")

A refuge for sinners the Gospel makes known,

‘Tis found in the merits of Jesus alone;

The weary, the tempted, the burdened of sin

Are never excluded from entering in.

This refuge for sinners God's love did ordain

In Jesus, the Lamb, from eternity slain;

In Christ the Redeemer Who lived and Who died,

God's law and His justice are now satisfied.

Should conscience accuse us, as often it may,

The blood of our Saviour has put sin away;

In Jesus, our Surety, the sinner can view

A city of refuge and righteousness too.

Job 29:14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.

MORNING WORSHIP:

10:00 Bible Study: Video sermon by Bill Parker

11:00 Service: Brother Randy Wages will conduct the 11:00 am service

today. Pray for him as he delivers God's word.

Radio Broadcast: Sunday morning at 9:30am on 98.7 FM -WISK

You can also hear the sermons on your computer. Just click on

http://www.americusradio.com/

Birthdays: Nicki Jones - May 18^th. , Melissa Riggins - May 22^nd.

The Purity of Christ as Mediator and Sacrifice

Here is the Lord Jesus Christ I know, and am convinced Scripture testifies to. He died a completely obedient man in Himself. He was holy, innocent, undefiled, separate from sinners, and remained obedient all the way to His death, even the death of the cross [Phil 2:8 -- not toward His death but all the way up to and including death. He was obedient all the way to His death, not a rebel in His death]. He never at any time began to hate His Father. He suffered FOR sins, the Just One FOR the unjust, not AS sin but FOR sin. At no time was He ever tainted with our sin. But as our Great Mediator, perfect and innocent in Himself, He willingly accepted all our sins that were imputed to His account and offered His perfect self as an offering for our sins. He CALLED those sins His own. He willingly owned them all, took full responsibility for them and bore them upon Himself and carried them away making an end of sin for all His people. Only the God-man could accomplish this. Sin could not be infused with His divine nature, else He ceased to be God on the cross. In the light of all other Scripture, the only possible view of 2 Cor 5:21 is a strictly judicial transfer of sin to Christ. This is what Paul meant when he said He was made sin FOR us, who KNEW NO SIN. Would to God that men would interpret Scripture with Scripture.

David Simpson - Powell, Tn.

Justification By Christ Alone Is A Doctrine of Grace
You know this Doctrine I contend for is the Doctrine of Grace. In the knowledge whereof you find sweetness, because the work of your salvation is finished by Christ, Whose works are all perfect. This glads your hearts and keeps your souls from fainting,. This removes all objections that otherwise would discourage us. This is the fountain that cannot be drawn dry that ever flows with sweet and strong consolation and is full of Spirit and life where our souls may drink freely at all times and be refreshed with this marrow and fatness that all is finished.

Samuel Richardson

PURE RELIGION

"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." James 1:27

Those of us who have been taught the free grace of God in Christ tend to think of the term ‘religion' in a negative sense, i.e. works salvation. Perhaps it is because, the majority of religion today teaches the necessity of works as a condition either to gain or maintain salvation, which is completely contrary to the religion, or body of truth pertaining to the worship of God, as taught in His inspired word.

‘Pure religion (acts of worship) and undefiled before God,' is only possible by the grace of God. It is only by His electing grace that any may be called the children of God. It is only because of His redeeming grace, by the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus, that any are declared holy before God. It is by His regenerating grace that a sinner is made alive and brought to the Lord Jesus in faith, and caused to live out that grace in love for Christ and His glory, I Peter 1:2. Therefore, it is not that the grace of God is opposed to works as an evidence of that grace, but grace stands opposed to works as a condition, criteria, or obligation in order to earn that grace. The grace of God cannot be earned or bought. It is the gift of God in, by, and through the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work at Calvary alone, Romans 11:5, 6.

Why then does the apostle James single out visiting the fatherless and widows and keeping oneself unspotted from the world? Is it not possible for someone to do these things from a motive of pure works and not grace? Absolutely! However, the point is, while someone may, through a motive of wanting to earn salvation, give himself to a life of helping the helpless, and living by self imposed rules of morality in the world, and still be lost, yet, one cannot, as the subject of God's free grace, be unmoved by that grace to help the fatherless and widows, nor continue to follow after the course of this lost world. We care for the fatherless and the widows because we know what God the Father has done for us through His Son, as Boaz did for Naomi and Ruth, as their Kinsman-Redeemer. We keep ourselves unspotted from the world, because Christ has delivered us from this world's curse of sin, by His shed blood and imputed righteousness. Why then would we subject ourselves again to its rules, principles, and system of beliefs, having been called out by His Spirit to Christ? Why would we ever desire to be servants of sin, and this fallen world system, or false worship again, having been made once for all by Christ, servants of HIS imputed righteousness? Rom. 6: 10-14.