CALL TO WORSHIP

(Tune: My Faith Has Found a Resting Place)

How vast the benefits divine which we in Christ possess!

We are redeemed from guilt and shame and called to holiness.

But not for works which we have done, or shall hereafter do,

Hath God decreed on sinful men salvation to bestow.

The glory, Lord, from first to last, is due to Thee alone;

Aught to ourselves we dare not take, or rob Thee of Thy crown.

Our glorious Surety undertook to satisfy for man,

And grace was given us in Him before the world began.

This is Thy will, that in Thy love we ever should abide;

That earth and hell should not prevail to turn Thy Word aside.

Not one of all the chosen race but shall to heav'n attain,

Partake on earth the purposed grace and then with Jesus reign.

"I will make Thy name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the people praise Thee for ever and ever." (Psalm 45:17)

Bible Study 10 AM. Video sermon

Today's Speaker: Brother Randy Wages will conduct the 11:00 am service today. Pray for him as he delivers God's word.

Birthdays: Rose Jones - Feb. 4^th.

The Lost Sheep Restored

But our first view of this peculiar people shall be in the place where God finds them. "My people," He says, "have been lost sheep." They do not become sheep by being found, nor do they cease to be sheep by being lost. They were sheep eternally in the mind of God; and their becoming lost did not alter nor destroy their character of being sheep any more than the wandering of a sheep literally and naturally from the fold turns it into a goat. It may be lame, sick, or diseased; it may stray away miles from the fold; its fleece may be torn with briars or soiled with mud, and its whole appearance so altered that the shepherd can scarcely recognize it; but it is a sheep still, and ever will be a sheep while it continues to exist. And thus the elect being sheep eternally in the mind of God, and as such possessing an eternal union with the Son of God, could not cease to be sheep by falling in Adam, nor do their personal, individual falls, slips, and transgressions destroy their original, unalterable character.

J.C. PHILPOT -

God's Highest Glory

A preacher may have some understanding of certain aspects of God's character, and he may even preach the truth about these particular attributes of God. However, until he understands and preaches the particulars revealing how God justifies the ungodly based on the blood and righteousness of Christ he cannot and has not properly identified the God of salvation, a just God and a Savior. In salvation by His grace through the Lord Jesus Christ, God reveals how every attribute of His holy character is honored and magnified. This can only be in the salvation of sinners conditioned on Christ alone. This is God's redemptive character and redemptive glory. It is God's highest glory, the greatest revelation of Himself, and it can only be found in Christ crucified and risen again for His people.

-Pastor Bill Parker

BELIEVING ON CHRIST

Christ is the mystery of the scripture; grace is the mystery of Christ. Believing is the most wonderful thing in the world. Put anything of your own to it, and you spoil it. Christ will not so much as look at it for believing. When you believe and come to Christ, you must leave behind you your own righteousness and bring nothing but your sin (Oh, that is hard!). Leave behind all your holiness, sanctification, duties, humblings, etc., and bring nothing but your wants and miseries, else Christ is not fit for you nor you for Christ. Christ will be a pure Redeemer and Mediator, and you must be an undue sinner, or Christ and you will never agree. It is the hardest thing in the world to take Christ alone for righteousness; that is, to acknowledge Him Christ. Join any thing to Him of your own, and you un-Christ Him.

Whatever comes in when you go to God for acceptance besides Christ, call it anti-Christ. Bid it be gone! Make ONLY Christ's righteousness triumphant. All besides this is Babylon, which must fall if Christ stand, and you shall rejoice in the day of the fall thereof (Isa. 14:4). Christ ALONE did tread the winepress, and there was none with Him (Isa. 63:3). If you join any thing to Christ, Christ will trample upon it in fury and anger and stain His raiment with the blood of it.

-Thomas Willcox (1621-1687)

Secure in Christ

An old preacher stated that salvation was like Noah in his day pointing an unbeliever to place his trust in God's Word and come into the ark. Some view salvation like Noah offering to put a peg on the outside of the ark and saying, "If you just hang on through the storm, you'll be saved." Salvation is not dependent on our holding on to God, but on our being securely held by and in Christ.