Bible Study 10 AM. "The Lord is our King" 1 Samuel 16

Today's Speaker: Brother Winston Pannell 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: Susan Wages - June 17^th., Jennifer Moore - June 20^th.

There is no way a justified sinner can be overzealous in worship, prayer, good works, and attempts to improve his character and conduct. In fact, every believer should be zealous, diligent, and fervent in these areas. These are things included in our "reasonable service" (Rom. 12:1), the appropriate responses of gratitude to the God who saved us and entitled us to all of heaven based on the righteousness of His Son. But, believer, aren't you happy that you can be zealous, diligent, and fervent, in these endeavors without any legal thoughts defiling them? How is this done? It is done by realizing that we are already complete in Christ, already entitled to all of salvation before we make the first attempt in any of these areas, all based on the righteousness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. When legal thoughts creep into our minds, this specific truth is the weapon we must use to fight them.

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WHO IS CHRIST? He is the eternal Son of God who became incarnate, who took into union with His divine nature a perfect sinless human nature (body and soul). He is both God and man in one Person. He is the one Mediator between God and men. It is His Person that qualified Him and enabled Him to do the work He was sent of the Father to do. Any doctrine, any notion or thought, any belief that does not identify Christ as both God and man in one Person is false. People who hold to such false doctrine concerning Christ do not know the true Christ. They trust and serve a counterfeit.

WHAT DID HE ACCOMPLISH? God the Son incarnate, as the Substitute and Surety of His people, obeyed the law of God perfectly for them and satisfied the justice of God for their sins. He paid their debt to law and justice IN FULL and established a righteousness that enables God to justify them, the ungodly, and which entitles them to the whole inheritance of eternal life and final glory. His righteousness alone makes the difference between saved and lost, between heaven and hell. Any doctrine, any notion or thought, any belief that does not clearly show that Christ's righteousness alone entitles sinners to all of salvation, including the work of the Holy Spirit in us, is false. People who hold to such false doctrine concerning the work of Christ do know the true Christ. They trust and serve a counterfeit. God commands such people to turn from that counterfeit and trust the true Christ.

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"The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." Isaiah 2:11

How does the Lord humble? By discovering to man what he is; by opening up the depth of his fall; by making him feel what a vile and guilty wretch he is before the footstool of mercy; by breaking him to pieces; by slaughtering and laying him low; by making him abhor himself in dust and ashes. Was not that the way the Lord took with the saints of old? How did he humble Isaiah? Was it not by some discovery of his divine Majesty, to make him cry, "I am a man of unclean lips!" How did he humble Daniel? Was it not by manifesting himself in his almighty purity, and turning Daniel's loveliness into corruption? How did he humble Hezekiah? By laying him upon a sick-bed, and laying his sins and iniquities with weight and power upon his conscience. None of these men produced humility in themselves. How did the Lord humble Job? By sifting him in Satan's sieve, and discovering as that riddle moved to and fro in Satan's hands the pride, peevishness, and self-righteousness of his carnal mind.

There are many who cannot bear to hear the malady touched upon. They cannot bear to hear the corruptions of the heart even hinted at. But what real humility can a man have except through a knowledge of himself? How can I be humbled except I feel that in myself which covers me with shame and confusion of face, and makes me loathe and abhor myself before the eyes of a heart-searching God? Therefore the more the glorious majesty of heaven is pleased to unfold itself in all its divine purity in my conscience, and the deeper discovery I have of what I am as a fallen wretch, a guilty sinner, the more will my heart be humbled, the more shall I be lowly and abased, the more shall I loathe myself in dust and ashes.