I stand before you as your pastor desiring of God that He would grant to you what I pray for myself. Those three things that all who have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ and called effectually by His Spirit through the gospel of free grace desire. They have often been repeated but they are still the same. We long for: Total conformity to Christ…

Total communion with Christ… Total commitment to Christ.

May God in His grace and power bring us to experience in greater measure all of these things. May He cause us to grow in faith, in love, in humility, in grace, in knowledge, in temperance, in joy, in all of the fruit of His Spirit. I pray that God would rekindle our zeal and enthusiasm for His gospel, for His public worship and for the fellowship of His people. May He stir us to the sobering realization that our conduct before this world, while having no bearing on our justification before Him, is to adorn the gospel of grace and honor Christ. If men have ill to speak about us, let it be because of our gospel and not our character, because of our Christ and not our conduct. May He give us strength to "earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints." May we "speak the truth in love" and pray for those who are yet under the bondage and blindness of Satan. Let us ask ourselves often, "who maketh thee to differ?" and remember it is all of God's grace if we know the truth and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as He is revealed in the gospel. Divine providence has brought us back together as pastor and church and I pray God will unite our hearts in the worship, praise and proclamation of Christ for the rest of our appointed days. We must all sacrifice all that is necessary to promote the glory and gospel of Christ in this place and I would not ask you to do what I am not willing to do myself. We have been made "stewards" of the grace of God and it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. I say as Paul, "I thank my God for you all" and pray that He might reveal Christ in our hearts, the hearts of our children and each one that God has brought us to have contact with. Ours is a great opportunity with a great responsibility. Let us not faint or grow weary for we shall "reap in due time if we faint not." May God bless you every one.

Gary Shepard

DISTINCT DOCTRINAL THEOLOGY

Mark what I say. If you want to DO GOOD in these times, you must throw aside indecision, and take up a sharply-cut, doctrinal religion. If you believe little, those to whom you try to do good will believe nothing. The victories of Christianity, wherever they have been won, have been won by distinct theology; by telling men soundly of Christ's vicarious death and sacrifice; by showing them Christ's substitution on the cross, and His precious blood; by teaching them justification by faith, and bidding them believe on a crucified Savior; by preaching ruin by sin, redemption by Christ, regeneration by the Spirit; by lifting up the brazen serpent; by telling men to look and live--to believe, repent, and be converted. This...this is the only teaching which for eighteen centuries God has honored with success, and is honoring at the present day both at home and abroad. Let the clever advocates of a broad and undogmatic theology -the preachers of the gospel of earnestness and sincerity and cold morality - let them, I say, show us at this day any English village or parish, or city, or town, or district, which has been evangelized without "dogma," by their principles. They cannot do it, and they never will. Christianity without distinct doctrine is a powerless thing. It may be beautiful to some minds, but it is childless and barren. There is no getting over facts. The good that is done in the earth may be comparatively small. Evil may abound, and ignorant impatience may murmur and cry out that Christianity has failed. But depend on it, if we want to "do good" and shake the world, we must fight with the old apostolic weapons, and stick to "dogma." No dogma, no fruits! No positive Evangelical doctrine, no evangelization!

J.C. Ryle 1816-1900

The sooner we quit seeking our own glory, the sooner we shall see Christ’s glory. The sooner we quit looking at our righteousness, the sooner we shall see Christ’s righteousness. The sooner we cease from our labors to earn blessings from God, the sooner we can enter His rest.

Joe Terrell

PRAISE CHRIST OUR ALL

Oh Christ whose blood has washed away,

Our every sinful stain,

And made us by your sovereign grace,

Right in your sight again.

No room for boasting can we find,

In all that we have done,

Our souls must make our boast in God,

In Christ the Son alone.

Sweet peace we find in Jesus’ cross,

No other peace we know,

Our holy God with smiling face,

Rich blessing does bestow.

Cry out, you ransomed of the Lord,

Made righteous in the Lamb

In liberated song break forth,

To praise the great I AM!

(Tune: Doxology)

Gary Shepard

If we have fellowship with Christ we cannot have fellowship with the children of darkness! For this reason Paul says, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” (II Cor. 6:14) If God has delivered us from darkness to light, then “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (II Cor. 4:6) If we cannot distinguish the difference between gospel light and darkness and if we can yet have fellowship with darkness, we must be in the dark. “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matt. 6:23)